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The prevalence of asthma in women of childbearing age is increasing and asthma is the most common pre-existing medical disorder encountered in pregnancy. Management during pregnancy should include reassurance regarding the safety of medications used to control asthma. The biggest danger to the mother and her fetus comes from poorly controlled or under treated disease.
Changes in respiratory function during pregnancy
Normal pregnancy is associated with a 20% increase in oxygen consumption and a 15% increase in the maternal metabolic rate. This extra demand is achieved via a 40–50% increase in resting minute ventilation, resulting mainly from a rise in tidal volume rather than respiratory rate. This hyperventilation causes the arterial oxygen tension (Pao 2) to increase and arterial carbon dioxide tension (Paco 2) to fall, with a compensatory fall in serum bicarbonate to 18–22 mmol/l. A mild respiratory alkalosis is therefore normal in pregnancy (arterial pH 7.44).
Up to 75% of women experience a subjective feeling of breathlessness at some time during pregnancy, possibly due to an increased awareness of the physiological hyperventilation. This is most common in the third trimester and may lead to diagnostic confusion. In late pregnancy the diaphragmatic elevation caused by the enlarging uterus leads to a decrease in functional residual capacity, but diaphragm excursion is unaffected so vital capacity is unchanged. There is no change in peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) or forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) in pregnancy. However, the fall in functional residual capacity (FRC) may exacerbate hypoxaemia because of premature airway closure when acute asthma complicates pregnancy.1
Effect of pregnancy on asthma
Literature addressing the effect of pregnancy on asthma is conflicting, with no consistent trend to improvement or worsening of disease severity. Discrepant results between studies relate to methodology (such as whether studies are retrospective or prospective) and whether the outcome measure is objective or relies on patient recall or reporting of symptoms. Patient selection, effect of medications, and the control population also influence the results of such studies. Two of the largest prospective studies (totalling almost 600 women), using diaries2 or medication requirements3 to assess severity, found similar proportions of women deteriorated (35%, 42%), remained the same (33%, 40%), or improved (28%, 18%). Neither study had matched non-pregnant asthmatic controls.2 3
The course of asthma in pregnancy in an individual woman is largely unpredictable.4 Women with mild disease are unlikely to experience problems, whereas those with severe asthma are at greater risk of deterioration, particularly late in pregnancy.2 5Physiological changes during pregnancy that may improve asthma include progesterone mediated bronchodilation and increased serum free cortisol levels. Those that may explain deterioration include increased stress and increased gastro-oesophageal reflux. Many asthmatic patients experience worsening of their symptoms during pregnancy because they stop or reduce medication due to fears (either their own or those of their medical advisers) about its safety.
Effect of asthma on pregnancy
In most women asthma has no effect upon the outcome of pregnancy. However, severe, poorly controlled asthma may have an adverse effect on fetal outcome as a result of chronic or intermittent maternal hypoxaemia. Some studies have suggested an increase in the risk of premature labour6-10 or low birth weight,7 10-12 although two prospective case control studies have not confirmed these findings.3 13 Similarly, higher rates of pregnancy induced hypertension or pre-eclampsia3 10 14 and caesarean section3 9 10 15 have been reported in some studies, but this may be a consequence of increased surveillance of asthmatic pregnancies rather than a result of maternal asthma. Steroid use may act as a confounder.3 16 There have been reports of increased incidence of transient tachypnoea of the newborn,17 neonatal hypoglycaemia,3neonatal seizures,18 and admission to the neonatal intensive care unit9 in the babies of asthmatic women. The magnitude of any effect on adverse perinatal outcome is small and related to the degree of control of the asthma. One retrospective study reported a higher incidence of congenital abnormalities in the children of asthmatic women10 but this has not been shown to occur in two large prospective studies,3 13 nor in any of the other studies of asthma in pregnancy6 7 16 19 including a recent retrospective case control study of 101 pregnancies.19
It therefore seems that there may be a slight increased risk to the babies of asthmatic mothers, but this risk is small in actively managed patients and may be minimised by maintaining good control of asthma throughout pregnancy.20
Management of asthma in pregnancy
The successful management of asthma during pregnancy requires a cooperative approach between obstetricians and midwives, the physician, and nurse specialists managing the asthma, and the woman herself. The aims and principles of treatment are the same as in the non-pregnant patient,21 and asthma should be treated as aggressively in pregnant women as in non-pregnant women.22 Pregnancy, because of the increased contact with health care professionals, provides an ideal opportunity to optimise asthma management and, in many cases, to diagnose asthma for the first time.23 Home peak flow monitoring and personalised self-management plans are successful in the well motivated pregnant asthmatic patient. The avoidance of asthma triggers is as important as in the non-pregnant patient.
The drug treatment of asthma in pregnancy is similar to the treatment of asthma in non-pregnant women,21 with a short acting symptom reliever medication and long term daily medication to address the underlying inflammation.22 However, it must be remembered that strong and repeated reassurance regarding the importance and safety of regular medication is needed to ensure compliance. All the drugs commonly used to treat asthma, including short and long acting β2 agonists,24 25inhaled corticosteroids,26 27 and methyl xanthines28 are safe in pregnancy. Fluticasone may be used for those requiring high doses of inhaled steroids.20 Oral corticosteroids and leukotriene antagonists are considered in more detail below.
Because systemic corticosteroids have serious and well known side effects when given frequently or in high doses for prolonged periods, women and their doctors are reluctant to use steroids in pregnancy. Most of this concern is misplaced and steroids should be used to treat asthma in pregnancy in the same way and for the same reasons as outside pregnancy.
Prednisolone is metabolised by the placenta and very little (10%) active drug ever reaches the fetus. Several studies suggest no increased risk of abortion, stillbirth, congenital malformations, adverse fetal effects, or neonatal death attributable to treating the mother with steroids.6 7 16 29 There is a 46 year old report of an increased incidence of cleft palate in the offspring of rabbits treated with cortisone early in gestation,30 and one recent retrospective study of 1184 cases of cleft lip suggested a possible association with oral corticosteroid treatment.31Of the five affected pregnancies in the latter study, two were complicated by multiple congenital abnormalities and in another case the mother was taking only replacement steroids for Addison's disease. Thus, only two pregnancies (no more than control) were complicated by isolated cleft lip in women taking therapeutic doses of corticosteroids. A larger case-control study of 20 830 cases of congenital abnormality revealed no association between the rate of different congenital abnormalities and corticosteroid treatment in the second and third months of gestation.32 There have been more recent concerns regarding possible deleterious effects of steroids later in gestation on fetal growth and lung and neuronal development33 and on hypertension.34 In addition, as discussed above, the association between asthma and preterm labour may in part be due to corticosteroid therapy6 7 16 and this association is also described for other medical conditions treated with oral corticosteroids in pregnancy.35
The maternal adverse effects from steroid therapy in pregnancy include increased risk of infections and reduced glucose tolerance and increase in gestational diabetes. The blood glucose should be checked regularly and hyperglycaemia should be managed with insulin if necessary. The development of hyperglycaemia is not an indication to discontinue or decrease the dose of oral steroids, the requirement for which must be determined by the asthma. The rare but important psychiatric side effects of oral glucocorticoids should be remembered, and all women who have been started on steroids should be reviewed within 1 week.
An increased risk of pregnancy induced hypertension and pre-eclampsia has been reported in asthmatic women treated with oral corticosteroids.3 15 16 However, given the maternal and fetal consequences of severe asthma, the use of oral corticosteroids remains clinically indicated in pregnancy.
Thus, inhaled corticosteroids prevent exacerbations of asthma in pregnancy15 and are the prophylactic treatment of choice.20 The addition of systemic corticosteroids to control exacerbations of asthma is appropriate, and these must not be withheld if current medications are inadequate.20
At present there is insufficient information to establish whether leukotriene antagonists are safe in pregnancy. Animal studies and post-marketing surveillance by the manufacturer of zafirlukast are encouraging. Current recommendations are that montelukast or zafirlukast could be continued in a patient with resistant asthma who has previously responded well to these drugs.20
Management of acute severe asthma
Acute severe attacks of asthma are dangerous and should be vigorously managed in hospital. In the last confidential enquiry into maternal deaths in the UK36 there were three deaths from asthma from 1994 to 1996. Treatment is no different from the emergency management of acute severe asthma outside pregnancy. Oxygen, nebulised β2 agonists, nebulised ipratropium, oral or intravenous steroids and, in severe cases, intravenous aminophylline or intravenous β2 agonists should be used as indicated. Sadly, pregnant women receive appropriate treatment with corticosteroids less commonly than non-pregnant women.37 A recent US study compared the treatment and outcome of acute asthma in pregnant and non-pregnant women presenting to academic emergency departments. The 51 pregnant women did not differ from the 500 non-pregnant women with respect to duration or severity of asthma symptoms with about 75% of both groups assessed as having severe symptoms and only about 40% of both groups had been using inhaled corticosteroids during the previous month. Both groups received comparable amounts of nebulised β2 agonist treatment in the first hour, but the pregnant women were significantly less likely to be given systemic steroids (44% versus 66%). They were equally likely to be admitted (24% versus 21%), but were less likely to be prescribed steroids if sent home (38% versus 64%). At the 2 week follow up interview the pregnant women were three times more likely to report an ongoing exacerbation of their asthma.37
Provided abdominal shielding is used, chest radiography results in minimal exposure of the fetus to ionising radiation and, if clinically indicated, this investigation must never be withheld just because the patient is pregnant.
Management during labour and delivery
Acute attacks of asthma during labour and delivery are extremely rare and women should be reassured accordingly. Women may continue their regular inhalers throughout labour. Those on oral steroids (>7.5 mg prednisolone daily for more than 2 weeks) at the onset of labour or delivery should receive parenteral steroids (hydrocortisone 100 mg 6–8 hourly) during labour, and until they are able to restart their oral medication.38 Prostaglandin E2 used to induce labour, to ripen the cervix, or for early termination of pregnancy is a bronchodilator and is safe. Prostaglandin F2α, indicated for severe postpartum haemorrhage, should be used with caution as it may cause bronchospasm.23
Asthmatic women may safely use all forms of pain relief in labour, including epidural analgesia and Entonox. In the unlikely event of an acute asthmatic attack, opiates should be avoided. If anaesthesia is required, women should be encouraged to have epidural rather than general anaesthesia because of the increased risk of chest infection and associated atelectasis. Ergometrine has been reported to cause bronchospasm, particularly in association with general anaesthesia, but this does not seem to be a practical problem when syntometrine (oxytocin/ergometrine) is used to prevent postpartum haemorrhage. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are commonly used for pain relief following a caesarean section. Women with asthma should be asked about any known sensitivity to aspirin or NSAIDs before using these drugs.
Women with asthma should be encouraged to breast feed. The risk of atopic disease developing in the child of an asthmatic woman is about one in 10, or one in three if both parents are atopic. This risk may be reduced by breast feeding. All inhaled preparations, oral steroids, and methylxanthines are safe when breast feeding.
Management of asthma in pregnancy does not differ significantly from management outside pregnancy. The priority should be effective control of the disease process, with the aim being total freedom from symptoms both day and night. The medications used to treat asthma are safe in pregnancy, but concerns on the part of pregnant women and their carers may result in the reduction, cessation, or withholding of important treatments. Great attention must therefore be given to explanation and reassurance about the safety, in pregnancy and during lactation, of the drugs used to treat asthma. Asthma care and obstetric care should be carefully integrated.22 The small risk of harm to the fetus comes from poorly controlled severe disease rather than from the drugs used to prevent or treat asthma.
If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways. | <urn:uuid:5a4659aa-a152-4f7f-859e-5d96c9727879> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://thorax.bmj.com/content/56/4/325 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195526508.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20190720111631-20190720133631-00256.warc.gz | en | 0.938159 | 2,939 | 3.0625 | 3 |
On January 12, National Television (LTV1) morning news program “Rīta Panorāma” broadcasted a story about one of the most significant achievements in applied science in Latvia in 2021 “Development of Innovative, High-Speed Thermoelectric Radiation Sensor (TESS)” carried out by the ISSP UL’s researchers from the Laboratory of Organic Materials. The sensor can be used to measure the intensity of infrared radiation.
Leading researcher Mārtiņš Rutkis explains: “This is a high-speed sensor that is capable of recording very fast laser impulses that are normally used, for example, in laser surgery. There are lasers where the pulses cannot be measured separately. They are measured in an integrated long period and mean values are obtained. In principle, it works, but it is not particularly good, because the intensity of the laser varies from pulse to pulse.”
The sensor developed at the ISSP UL works a thousand times faster than those currently available on the market and allows it to work in real-time mode – measure the pulse at the same it is being emerged. Simply put, it is possible to control and provide accurate and consistent laser power - not burn what does not need to be burned. The sensor will make it possible to produce more accurate equipment for laser surgery, welding, and laser etching.
Leading researcher Kaspars Pudžs explains: “The principle of the sensor operation is based on the thermochromic effect that directly converts heat into electricity. The temperature difference generates the electrical voltage we need. Using this sensor would allow more accurate control of the lasers. If we look at etching, it will allow us to make the engraving process even more precise, because the stability of the laser, that is, its every pulse, can be controlled.”
The sensor is based on unique material properties derived from very thin films. The material came from another study that attempted to create a nanogenerator that would produce heat-generated current. The generator was not efficient enough, but what appeared to be a defect in one study became a benefit in another.
The new sensor created at the ISSP UL is patented and is also planned to be commercialized in the coming years. Mārtiņš Rutkis adds that the researchers have entered into a licensing agreement with a relatively large optical instrument component company.
ISSP UL estimates that the new sensor will be available to customers around the world by the end of 2022, while its use in laser surgery could begin in a year or two.
Video story in Latvian available here.
Article about the smart powder material in Latvian is available here. | <urn:uuid:0988bd0e-ddf2-4078-a14d-8c47ab0201d4> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://camart2.com/en/news/innovative-high-speed-thermoelectric-radiation-sensor-tess-created-at-issp-ul-works-a-thousand-times-faster-than-those-currently-on-the-market.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337680.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005234659-20221006024659-00577.warc.gz | en | 0.944966 | 565 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Introduction to Programming
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Genre: eLearning | Language: English
This Intro to programming course is for anyone who has ever thought of learning at least one programming language.
This course will teach you things that are common in most programming languages. After watching this course you will find it easier to pick up and learn any programming language.
Before you decide which programming language you want to learn, go through this introduction to programming course.
Your programming skills begin here, join this course and fast track your learning.
链接: http://pan.baidu.com/s/1dE0IZhZ 密码: b56m | <urn:uuid:52073596-2d12-438f-89b5-c495fac42e24> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://www.0daydown.com/09/622666.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549423222.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20170720141821-20170720161821-00393.warc.gz | en | 0.712154 | 170 | 3.0625 | 3 |
The 12MSP was a formal meeting of the 160 States which had, as of the time of the meeting, accepted the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction. It was held in accordance with Article 11 of the Convention and pursuant to the decisions of the 2009 Second Review Conference and the 2011 Eleventh Meeting of the States Parties (11MSP).
The 12MSP was important because it took place at the mid-way point between the 2009 Cartagena Summit on a Mine-Free World and the Convention’s Third Review Conference in 2014. It was a chance for the international community to conduct mid-term assessment of efforts to implement the Cartagena Action Plan 2010-2014. This assessment of challenges encountered and work that remained to be done was recorded in the 12MSP’s Geneva Progress Report.
The 12MSP was also an opportunity to draw a link between the Convention’s promise to landmine survivors and broader efforts to guarantee the rights of persons with disabilities. With the opening of the 12MSP coinciding with the International Day for Persons with Disabilities, this link was highlighted by the participation in the 12MSP by United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay.
The 12MSP was also significant because served as the culmination of a great deal of work mandated by the 11MSP, including work to develop a rational response to the matter of mined areas discovered after States Parties mine clearance deadlines had passed.
The 12MSP will took place at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. | <urn:uuid:38875bcf-b893-45ce-84e4-9215c43ebdac> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://old.apminebanconvention.org/assemblees-des-etats-parties/12msp/what-was-the-12msp/?L=1%2C%27%22QnoVale%2Ffileadmin%2FAPMBC%2Fclearing-mined-areas%2Fart5_extensions%2Fcountries%2FCambodia-ext-req-analysis-20Nov2009-en.pdf | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100583.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20231206031946-20231206061946-00850.warc.gz | en | 0.964548 | 335 | 2.515625 | 3 |
I once asked a Native American if he thought whether North America was in any way in a post-colonial period. His response was, “Have they left yet?” Of the New World republics that came about as a result of colonization, the United States is going to have the hardest time dealing with its past. Recently, we’ve see a lot of people willing to strut about with their guns and imagine themselves in some pre-pubescent fantasy of John Wayne’s “unbridled individualism.” Some become so deluded as to be willing to use these guns on perceived “enemies.” But this is symptomatic only; it is useful to remember how the actual land of North America came to be claimed by European and Euro-American colonists. More importantly, the causes of these neuroses can be better understood when one realizes what separating people from their resource base means.
For over ninety-nine percent of human history, the earth and its human offspring were united. Humans were unique in the degree to which we could fashion natural products into useful items. With our minds, hands, and intuition we made the stuff of the earth more useful to us. Nothing stood between us and our resources – we were immersed in our environment and what we did to improve our surroundings and make our lives better we ourselves enjoyed. As the Thoreau disciple and wilderness advocate Bradford Angier once pointed out, “The hardest part about roughing it is smoothing it.” We were pretty good at “smoothing it.” Even cave paintings, figurines, Petroglyphs and the like helped people to understand their relationship with the world into which they had emerged. Contrary to the assumptions of the old “Whig” histories, people were generally time-rich – indeed, they could easily make more than they needed. These surplus goods could be traded for others’ surplus goods and the fruits of individuals’ skills could be shared. At some point someone began to think about accumulating these surplus goods. How, the calculating mind asked, might I enjoy these manufactures and the potential wealth they represent without having to engage in this difficult work myself? Many methods were tried with varying degrees of success. But one that did work and continues to work was coercion – physical, political, legal, economic – forcing a wedge between people and their resource base (the land) and make their reunion with it conditional. The condition for this reunion with the “means of production” is a controlling cut of the wealth produced by the interaction of human and other-than-human nature.
This division between people and nature put us on a path many are beginning to question. Besides the sense of alienation being cut off from our natural relationships with the other-than-human world produces, we are separated from our own means of production. Now, instead of using our wits and our hands to mold the stuff of the earth into usefulness, we have to go to the bourgeois “owner” and ask him to buy our labor, since it is often all we have since being deprived of our access to resources. The bourgeoisie figured out that if you usurp the land and resources, you have control of interaction between human and other-than-human – also known as labor power, which is the only real power humans have.
This defense of the relationship between humans and their resources should in no way be construed as a defense of, say, corporate access to the minerals of the Grand Canyon or oil in the Arctic. That is a looting of both nature and labor that I have discussed elsewhere. No, we have come so far down the path of exploitation of both human and other-than-human nature that assumptions and myths regarding the righteousness of this path remain unquestioned from the halls of power to the public discourse.
The surplus of useful goods that was often so abundant in pre-modern communities – under the influence of market-obsession, has acquired an exchange-value separate from its use. The result is “capital,” or surplus-value flowing to the bourgeoisie but which they themselves did not produce. Capital bought and still buys power and influence to entrench this economic system and heavily skew it toward the bourgeoisie – a sort of modern feudalism. A wedge was driven between people and their resources. Having been deracinated – alienated from their resources, homes, families, and livelihood – people had nothing to sell but their labor, and oftentimes the going rate was at starvation levels. In some regions where this deracination is at full throttle, many have chosen suicide over this type of slavery.
In North America, this separation of the land from the indigenous peoples took on an unprecedented scope. While there was certainly plenty of room in North America in 1492, there were still no fewer than five to ten million people who, in most respects, lived off the fat of an abundant land. Then, Europeans and unwilling and unwitting Africans came to the New World. With varying degrees, separating indigenous people from the land became an institution and was developed to the point of becoming a national myth: of course the Indians must be removed in the face of “progress” – removed or exterminated. Cold hard fact that it is we have yet to internalize this as a society; denial or ignorance of this history remains rampant in the U.S.
The denial becomes increasingly difficult as the separation of people from property takes on new dimensions, (if nothing else, the bourgeois class is very creative about accumulating wealth and power). Now, newcomers as well as descendents of the original colonizers – who themselves usurped the land – have found themselves being separated from their resources by a rigged system in which they have no say. Some might call this karma and that may be true, but it is certainly a continuation.
Working people took a stand in the U.S. from the Industrial Revolution to the post-World War II era and created the wealthiest working class in history. It was so successful that this working class took to calling itself the “middle class,” a democratization of the original turf held by the bourgeoisie and characterized by untitled wealth. Many people once again had a say in their relationship between themselves and their tools and resources. They did not go to the so-called “owner” with hat in hand begging to sell their labor, they collectively bargained with him to get a reasonable share of the surplus value they were producing. Some would say these negotiations were a gift to the bourgeoisie from producers who cut them more slack than they deserved. The abandonment of the American working class by the bourgeoisie, by their politicians, and even by their unions, has been nothing short of a betrayal and indeed a form of robbery.
The wealth accumulated by hook or by crook and used to manipulate the economy and political power structure is turned against the people who produced it. The old tried and true strategy of divide and conquer – white and blue collar, black and white skin, English- and Spanish-speaking, male and female, etc., etc., ad nauseum – so far still works. The financialization of the economy has turned Wall Street into a giant Las Vegas, operating – at least in part – independently of actual wealth production – subsidized and insured by taxing those who actually do produce wealth. It must keep moving fast, though, because something is gaining on it. The separation of workers from the wealth they produce; of workers from their resources; of humans from nature, is a contrivance that cannot last.
People are looking for that part of themselves that is connected to everything else. There is a deep cognitive dissonance in the U.S. resulting from a simple historical truth: wealth enjoyed by many American citizens came from resources acquired through systematic conquest and pillage. It makes it particularly hard to defend your resources on moral grounds when they were stolen to begin with. Much easier to deny or invent an alternative narrative.
Parasites often kill their hosts. To the extent that humans have become parasites, of labor and/or the resource base, we act for our own destruction. The short-term thinking institutionalized in this system is an indulgence we can no longer afford. One alternative to the path of exploitation remains vaguely familiar to us: the path of husbandry and cooperation. But alternative paths require introspection, a difficult facing of fears and facts and, finally, understanding what the relationship between humans and the earth means. As people have known for over ninety-nine percent of our history, the earth is literally our mother – our source of life. It is human nature to interact with our environment and treat it with the respect it deserves – as a part of ourselves. We act self-destructively when we assume the exploitative attitude of parasites. As with most problems, the answers are in the mirror, which is why they don’t get solved.
© 2012 Douglas S. Harvey | <urn:uuid:4af5ed84-7345-4694-8e00-b0ebb4a5be0f> | CC-MAIN-2015-11 | http://www.commondreams.org/views/2012/01/29/parasites-lost | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-11/segments/1424936466999.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20150226074106-00040-ip-10-28-5-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975448 | 1,826 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Characteristics of the Sport of Swimming
Swimming requires a serious commitment to training. Typically, 6-12 sessions are undertaken each week, with the distance covered in each session ranging dramatically. Sprinters during a taper phase may only cover 1000-2000 metres compared to distance swimmers who can travel up to 10 kilometres per session. Elite swimmers typically train twice a day but during heavy training camps can train 3 sessions a day. This can mean time spent in the water can be more than 6 hours. In addition, swimmers usually complete 2-3 weight training sessions per week and may undertake some land-based aerobic training such as running or cycling. Training commitments of sub elite swimmers can still be large and it is not uncommon for swimmers in their early teens to be training 10 times per week.
Olympic swimming events last from 20 seconds to 15 minutes. Swimming is therefore a highly anaerobic sport, with aerobic metabolism becoming more important as the race distance increases. Although each event may be brief, swim meets are usually held over 3 to 7 days, with swimmers typically competing in heats in the mornings and semi finals and finals in the evening. In minor competitions, swimmers may enter a large number of events and be required to swim 2 or 3 times per session with 20 minutes to several hours between events.
Swimmers tend to be tall with pronounced upper body muscle development. Low body fat is an advantage, since swimmers need to move their body weight through water. However, some body fat in the right distribution may enhance flotation.
It is not uncommon for swimmers in their teens to have similar training commitments to elite swimmers. For male adolescence this is a period of heavy growth and muscular development, requiring high-energy support. The addition of an intense training program means male swimmers can have trouble eating enough kilojoules to meet energy needs. Adolescence for females brings hormonal changes, which promote an increase in body fat. Despite heavy training loads, many female swimmers can struggle to maintain low body fat levels. Long training hours restrict a swimmer's lifestyle. This can either reduce the opportunities to eat in a busy daily schedule or raise the importance of eating for comfort or entertainment. Access to food can also be an issue when at swimming carnivals, and for athletes travelling to compete.
Common Nutrition Issues
Strenuous daily training requires a high-energy, high-carbohydrate diet. Swimmers who fail to meet their carbohydrate requirement will fail to recover adequately between training sessions resulting in fatigue, loss of body weight and poor performance. Additional energy requirements for growth may compound the problem, especially during the teenage years when training and school commitments can make it hard to access suitable volumes of food. Swimmers with high-energy requirements need to increase the number of snacks during the day and make use of energy-dense foods. It is good to have nutritious carbohydrate-rich snacks on hand to eat straight after training to start the refueling process. This is especially important for swimmers who travel long distances from their pool to work or home and have to wait until the next meal can be consumed.
Fluid Needs in Training
High-intensity exercise in the steamy environment of a heated indoor pool, or outdoors in the sun, can lead to moderate sweat losses, which are not obvious when the swimmer is already wet. Smart swimmers bring drink bottles to the pool deck and drink during rest periods or between sets. Sports drinks provide an additional fuel supply for long training sessions. In a fluid balance study undertaken on the Australian Swimming Team in Atlanta in 1995, we measured average sweat losses of ~125 ml per kilometre in training or about 600 ml per workout. These swimmers were provided with both water and sports drink at the session and managed an average intake that perfectly matched their losses (125 ml per km). Of course, some swimmers were better at matching losses than others. And during anaerobic threshold sets, sweat losses increased to 170 ml/km.
An iron imbalance may occur in swimmers undertaking heavy training who fail to consume sufficient iron. Female swimmers on weight loss diets are particularly at risk. Iron levels should be checked regularly when in heavy training. Iron-rich foods such as lean red meat and breakfast cereals fortified with iron should be included regularly in the diet. Iron-rich plant foods such as wholegrain cereals, spinach and legumes should be combined with animal iron sources (e.g. wholegrain pasta with bolognese sauce) and vitamin C sources (e.g. glass of orange juice consumed with breakfast cereal) to improve iron absorption. A sports dietitian will be able to provide specific dietary help.
Swimmers often worry about getting sick during periods of heavy training. Many nutritional supplements and strategies have been suggested to keep the swimmer from catching coughs and colds. To date, the most important strategy emerging from immune studies of athletes is to keep well fuelled during training sessions. Sports drink during the workout and a recovery snack afterwards help to reduce the stress on the immune system.
Muscle glycogen stores can be filled by 24 hours of a high-carbohydrate diet and rest. Swimmers who are undertaking a long taper may need to reduce total energy intake to match their reduced workload; otherwise unwanted gains in body fat will occur. Fluid levels and carbohydrate stores need to be replenished between events and between heats and semi-finals/finals. Drink a carbohydrate-containing fluid such as sports drink, fruit juice or soft drink when there is only a short interval between races. Snacks such as yoghurt, fruit, cereal bars or sandwiches are suitable for longer gaps between races, or for recovery at the end of a session. Between day heats and evening final sessions, most swimmers eat a high-carbohydrate lunch and have a nap. On waking, a carbohydrate-rich snack is eaten before returning to the pool. | <urn:uuid:49d703e8-483d-4439-9bed-92d7babf1770> | CC-MAIN-2018-22 | http://www.nolaswimming.com/SubTabGeneric.jsp?team=lawave&_stabid_=48297 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-22/segments/1526794865456.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20180523063435-20180523083435-00367.warc.gz | en | 0.961583 | 1,208 | 3.6875 | 4 |
In the mid-20th century, one in every seven U.S. women owned a coat, a hat or a dress made in Kansas City. The garment industry was Kansas City’s second largest after meatpacking, and during its heyday between World War I and the Vietnam War, it employed 4,000 to 7,000 people, many of them recent immigrants to America. The Historic Garment District Museum, located in an old dry goods warehouse at 8th Street and Broadway Boulevard, tells the story of the neighborhood and its contribution to American culture.
At the end of the 19th century, the distribution of wholesale dry goods moved from the West Bottoms to the area now known as the Garment District, stretching from 6th to 10th Streets and Washington to Wyandotte Streets. By 1918, many of the warehouses had become factories, and the industry took off. Kansas City’s distribution area stretched from Missouri to the Pacific coast, stocking mom-and-pop clothing stores in towns and cities throughout the West.
The museum occupies the former office area of what used to be Poindexter Dry Goods, built in 1901. It wasn’t a factory itself, but it had the specifications to become one, with sloping floors that could be easily rinsed of lint with buckets of water, a legacy of New York’s deadly Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Come for the urban history, if you’re into that sort of thing, but stay for the vintage clothing collections on display.
A blue 1920s dress designed by Nelly Don hangs in a glass case, along with an original dress pattern. (Visitors can purchase pages from one of Nell Donnelly’s sketchbooks.) Old tools for cutting fabrics, making buttonholes and sewing seams are displayed, as is a salesman’s assortment of buttons—some ornate enough to be a brooch, others customizable to the fabric of your coat, buttons for kids in the shape of dinosaurs and flowers—that were found in a valise outside a factory going out of business. A rack holding hats from the 1920s through the ‘60s invites you to try them on in front of a full-length mirror.
The pièces de resistance, though, are the dresses and coats, which curator Ann Brownfield rotates seasonally. The summer collection features styles mostly from the ‘50s and ’60s, including a brown-and-plaid “Mad Men”-esque suit and a navy halter dress with a white bolero jacket (wear it with the jacket to teach school, and after work, exchange the jacket for a string of pearls and you’re ready for a cocktail party, said tour guide Robin Jaffe).
The industry declined in the 1970s and ‘80s, due to the closing of many small-town dress shops and the growing demand for casual styles and newer fabrics, which the Kansas City factories weren’t equipped to work with. The last garment factory closed in 1988. Thankfully, the historic character of the neighborhood has been preserved, and many of the buildings are now offices or lofts. Outside the museum, across Broadway, in a park that stands where the old trolley used to stop, a 20-foot sculpture of a needle and a button reminds visitors of Kansas City’s past as a fashion capital. | <urn:uuid:1f88cf25-4219-4e2b-9a05-1ab74d19af17> | CC-MAIN-2018-47 | http://www.squeezeboxcity.com/our-past-as-a-fashion-capital/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-47/segments/1542039744348.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20181118093845-20181118115845-00329.warc.gz | en | 0.963783 | 699 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Earlier this year, a comparison was done using the GISS global temperature observations dataset versus an earlier version of the NASA/GISS computer climate model output, as of 2015 year-end. That comparison can be viewed here.
It is now 4 months later with the current powerful El Niño producing some very high global temperature averages.
So, how does the GISS dataset, as of March 31, 2016, compare against a newer climate model, specifically, the IPCC's modern CMIP5 model using the supposed business-as-usual greenhouse gas scenario (RCP8.5)?
The adjacent chart tells the story, but we add some more content below:
- The current El Niño appears to have peaked (maybe not, though) with a strong and rapid rising of GISS global anomalies over the 6-month period ending in March
- The 6-month surge in anomalies placed the Feb. and Mar. observations above the model output
- Despite this huge 6-month surge, the GISS linear trend is still well below the model's simulated linear trend since 1988
- Despite this huge 6-month surge, the 3-year (36-month) simple GISS moving anomaly average remains well below what the CMIP5 climate model produces for the same 3-year period
- The sharp uptick of the blue GISS 3-year moving average, after 2012, reveals the power of this recent El Niño on global temperatures
- The 2013 to mid-2016 slow build-up of the current El Niño peak reveals its contribution to warming as the arithmetic mean of the anomalies stepped up considerably (see on the chart: the black dashed lines represent the anomaly arithmetic means for the periods 2000-2012 and 2013-2016/March - note the shift up)
- The stall (i.e. the 'Pause', the 'Hiatus') in significant global warming can be seen, both in the 3-year GISS moving average and in the underlying anomalies during the 2000s, prior to the 2013 uptick that leads into the powerful El Niño
- The December 2012 anomaly was only 0.05 degree higher than the December 1999 anomaly - that meager five one-hundredths increase is indicative of the lengthy 'Pause' that occurred
Speaking of the current El Niño (and prior El Niños and La Niñas): "What goes up up must.....?"
- The advanced climate model output clearly misses all the big extremes and wide variations of observed global temperatures, including this El Niño's recent incredible burst of warming
- Per the official NOAA definition of the Oceanic Niño Index (ONI), it has now been 48 periods (a period being 3 months) since the last La Niña ended in early 2012
- Since the beginning of 1988 (339 months thru March 2016), 23% of the 3-month periods have been a La Niña condition versus 24% for El Niño conditions
- At 13 periods in length, this El Niño is rather long-in-the-tooth compared to most since January 1988
- After a strong and long El Niño, it is common for the ONI Index to reverse directions, sometimes dramatically (i.e. a strong La Niña)
Whether its the old NASA computer model simulations or the newer variety of IPCC climate models, Hansen's 1988 prediction of rapidly accelerating and dangerous global warming from human CO2, and other greenhouse gases, has done poorly in comparison to actual observed temps.
Although the recent spike in global temperatures from the current El Niño may provide some AGW alarmist bragging rights ("see, that clock is accurate"), it is highly probable the recent 6-month surge is a very temporary spike, entirely due to the natural ENSO phenomenon that climate models are incapable of predicting.
In fact, when viewing the future projections from the CMIP5 model, one sees the exact same pattern as above - a monotonous upward saw-tooth pattern of small ups and downs, completely unlike the chaotic conditions of real-world climate that is produced by all the conflicting natural feedback forces.
And the reversal from the current temp spike could well lead to another 'Pause' in any significant warming. If that happens, it will build on the growing consensus that climate models can't accurately predict squat, and should not be relied upon by policymakers for any reason - good for research but really terrible for reality-based policy.
Note: James Hansen's 1988 testimony took place in June 1998; this comparison used January 1988 as the starting point. The RCP8.5 scenario is considered by the majority of scientists seeking global warming research grants as the business-as-usual scenario. The climate model anomaly output for the CMIP5 RCP8.5 was adjusted to match the January 1988 anomaly for the NASA/GISS global dataset. Both the RCP8.5 and GISS dataset anomalies used in above chart were calculated by KNMI using the 1981-2010 span as the baseline. Both the model and observed datasets were downloaded after the baseline was chosen. Excel was used to plot chart and calculate all figures, including the linear trends and 3-year moving averages. | <urn:uuid:068c7fc0-5b21-419d-8761-d75095390261> | CC-MAIN-2016-50 | http://www.c3headlines.com/climate-models/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-50/segments/1480698544672.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20161202170904-00104-ip-10-31-129-80.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926344 | 1,042 | 2.953125 | 3 |
SEE COVERAGE OF THIS ARTICLE WITHIN THE FOLLOWING:
The history of the identification tag has been little researched or logged, despite there being a lot to learn from these discs, now known as ‘dog tags’, because of the information they provide. Nothing could have hit home harder than when relatives received one of these discs - possibly even still blood stained. The first British disc was produced in 1907, the order stated that the discs should be made of 1/8th inch thick steel and should be stamped with the soldier’s number, rank, name, regiment and religious denomination, however the rank was later dropped. In 1914, when WW1 broke out it was quickly realised there would be production and cost problems due to the large volume required, and so a new disc made of red/brown vulcanised asbestos fibre was made. However stockpiles of the original aluminium discs continued to be issued, but these are rarely found today.
Dan Mackay, an avid relic hunter tells us about the amazing discovery of thousands of metal dog tags the team found in 2016…
I have recovered dog tags from both world wars and from various nations, going on a number of quests, including one to have a WW1 Canadian soldier’s name added to a war memorial after it was missed off, almost a 100 years ago. I have found dog tags for those who have been outcast by their own family and who would rather post me photographs and medals than have the dog tag returned to them. Here’s how myself and two fellow relic hunters, Alan and Jay made an incredible find, which has resulted in a task that we need help with today.
Before the team travel miles to a new site, usually someone goes out to have a quick look to see if it’s worth a really good search for relics. The site that my fellow hunter, Alan had discovered was a WW2 anti-aircraft battery, but once on site he found pretty much nothing of interest. The site seemed bare, but whilst having a look at the surrounding fields, he found a small copse of trees that contained red brick rubble and typical wartime rubbish. Then something caught his eye amongst the leaves. He picked it up and within seconds realised that he was holding what he thought was a post-war British dog tag. Every digger we have ever spoken to believed that all British dog tags made from metal are post-war, but more on this later. He turned his detector back on and with a wave of it he was receiving signals everywhere. When he put his spade into the ground it revealed not one or two, but what looked like hundreds of dog tags. In fact he found so many that he couldn't carry them all back. So, he back filled the hole, re-burying them, and left for home. In an excited phone call, Alan let Jay and I know of his discovery, he even jangled handfuls of tags down the phone! We agreed for all three of us to dig that site the following Saturday.
Morning came around and the excitement was almost unbearable, we quickly jumped into one car and drove to the site. I was very unsure of what I was about to see. A short walk into the woods, past some old building bases and rubble and I found my first dog tag of the day just on the surface. I was excited to find one, Alan said "just wait till you see this!" We walked a few more steps away from the rubble and he put a spade into the ground. He removed what he had put back over his previous hole, and it was as if someone had lifted the lid on a treasure chest full of silver coins. I was sure that Jay and I stood there open mouthed for several minutes, before simultaneously almost diving in head first. We had with us two large buckets which were quickly filled. Everywhere we dug in this area we found dog tags. In most places they were as lovely as the day they were thrown in, still glinting in the daylight and with one wipe they looked brand new. I started the day by wiping each one and then reading the names out loud, however this soon grew too time consuming, so we threw them all into the bucket, to be discovered later after cleaning. At the end of the first day the buckets looked rather full and extremely heavy! I rang my beloved and very understanding wife to see if it would be a problem for us to dig again tomorrow. She wasn't keen, but she understands my passion for what I do. Despite the barracking from Jay and Alan she said it was alright. So we lugged all of the dog tags back to the car, which was no small feat! Then back to Alan's to hose them off and divide them into three roughly equal piles. It’s amazing what you can do with bathroom scales.
Once back at Jay's I emptied my bucket of tags onto a sheet on the floor. There were so many tags that they flowed like water revealing names and numbers as they spilled out. I spotted Jays surname on one tag, and handed it to him. I had from the first moment that Alan had found this site said that all these names and numbers needed to be recorded, in the hope that we could return some of them to the families or better still to the veterans themselves, if they were still alive. So the laptop came out and I started right there, that night, logging the serial number, surname, initials, religion, quantity and other notes. I think I wrote about 500 before almost falling asleep with my head on the screen.
The next thing I knew, the alarm on my phone was going off. Surely it couldn’t be morning. Light rain, mist, darkness and cold almost sent us back to our beds, but we knew that it would be worth the trouble, and so we were soon out of the door and on our way to Alan's. Once we arrived, Alan called me over and handed me a single dog tag that we had lost when jet washing them clean in his drive the previous day. It was named MACKAY! It was clipped on my house keys and remains there now.
Once we arrived back at the site we started filling the same huge buckets all over again. The finding of the dog tags didn't seem to be slowing down at all. Thousands and thousands were being dug up and with no sign of stopping we soon realised that this site would keep us going for some time. Again we left the site and lugged everything back to the car before embarking on another jet washing session to clean them off and divide them up. At that point, I had been in the same clothes for two days of solid digging. I found myself standing in the car park of a bus station with a bag I could barely lift due to holding over six stone of dog tags. I waited for the bus and when it arrived I hauled my bag aboard, and the second I sat down I fell asleep and woke up just outside Bicester, phew, a close call I could have missed my stop. I struggled once again with my bag, which was completely soaked through.
For the following few days the list got longer and longer and I wondered how I could even start returning them. Generally, when finding one tag, the thing to do is either return it to the family if they want it, or find out as much as you can and hope you can get a photo of the original recipient. But I had thousands in front of me and no idea where to start, so I just kept writing my list which soon reached 1,500. Tobin, another friend of mine, who has contacts everywhere, suggested that he ask around to try and work out how all the dog tags were related to each other. Together we coined the name 'the forgotten army' for the dog tags; it stuck! Meanwhile I contacted the British Legion hoping that they may had details of ex-servicemen service numbers which meant it would be simple to return some. A few emails went back and forth but ended with them not really wanting to help. Meanwhile the list continued to grow reaching over 2,500 and with another batch of the worst dog tags cleaned up, I could see this topping well over 4,000. I started asking Jay and Alan how they were getting on documenting their share, to which they responded "I would rather go and re-bury them than have to do that". I really wanted the list to be completed as soon as possible so I offered to document their tags as well. The thought of going to dig up more, when we hadn’t even finished dealing with what we already had worried me that we would get totally overwhelmed.
But we finally finished compiling the list, and I wrote to all the national newspapers, then to all of the local towns that the three of us were from. Nobody was interested in helping to return any of these dog tags, but not being deterred and thinking that someone must want to help us, or be interested in this story I wrote to all of the TV archaeologists such as Tony Robinson, Dan Snow etc... I was mostly ignored, and Dan Snow was just too busy with other projects. Fine! I then wrote to every military magazine that I could think of, again nothing. I hit a wall. I took out a handful of random tags and started punching names and numbers into Google. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing... this continued for hours. I gave up. The tags then sat in organised boxes for over two years, until the last couple of months. I moved house and the tags sat behind me in the window of my new office, casting a shadow over me... literally! I plucked out a couple and a search brought up a website I had seen before - Forces War Records. I figured that if they had information I needed then I would subscribe. With the easy task done, I loaded up the information. What a great website! I then sat entering every name and serial number I had on the list. It was at this point that I was contacted by a gentleman who had heard about my dog tags, and one in particular. It was a dog tag of a soldier called V. Berrett, Service No: 556457. He informed me that it belonged to his friend’s father who fought with the Wiltshire Regiment. He had enlisted in 1936, fighting Rommel in Africa. I told him that I would return it to him as soon as I could. He asked if I could send a letter explaining all that I knew about the tag and in the letter I, of course, asked for as much information that he could tell me about his father’s war time experiences. I also asked if he had a photograph of his father in uniform. So the first tag made its way home. How many more, if any could I return?
Using Forces War Records I had a hit with the dog tag to A. H
The best result was yet to come. On 6th Feb, 2017 I handed a dog tag over in person to not only a family, but to the veteran himself. Fred Bills’s dog tag began like all the others, cleaned, input into my database, and then run through the Forces War Records website. A hit! I saw that he was wounded once in 1944. I clicked save, then this is where the magic happened. On the site, if someone else has saved a record, a message can be sent to them. I already had a prepared message for this scenario. It basically explains about the dog tags, and if family or friends get in touch I will do my utmost to return it to them. Sure enough the very next day I had an email from Fred’s son, John. John said he was a little sceptical, so I invited him to join my group on Facebook - Extreme Relic Hunters. He did, and from there he sent a few photographs and shared some small snippets of information. We exchanged messages and as I won his trust he invited me to his home when his father would be there and we all had a very pleasant time. Fred told us many stories from his time in the army, from his attempts to volunteer for the RAF, to being drafted into the army and then through Africa, Italy including Monte Cassino and into Austria and later Greece. Most of his stories would have me laughing and some, of course contained the far more serious aspects of war, although even some of those were amusing. Fred had no idea that I had his dog tag with me and was pleasantly surprised to see it, let alone be told he could keep it, as at first he tried to hand it back to me. So another is truly home. A very fantastic experience and one that will certainly spur me on to keep working on these thousands of dog tags.
The next tag that looks like as if it has an almost 100% chance of going home is one that was issued by the Royal Ulster Rifles. Although when I looked him up on the Forces War Records website, it showed that he was wounded serving with No.3 Commandos in NW Europe. I knew that as a specialist unit, they were bound to have an online forum. A quick search online saw me swiftly joining a forum and moments after I put up a post I was given the information and supporting documents to prove he was actually in No.3 Commando and more importantly that he had a daughter, although nobody knew where she was. I was however sent the address of who they believed may be his grandson, so I was able to send him a letter.
Now although I don't have leads on these next three interesting tags, they are certainly worthy of a mention.
Firstly, Harold Anthony Kilpatrick 4697547, a corporal who served with the Royal Armoured Corps out in Burma. He won the Military Medal and the original Gazette recommendation reads:
“During the operations on 4 May 1944 in the Kohima area, and in particular with reference to the position known as the D.C's Bungalow, Corporal Kilpatrick with his tank showed considerable initiative and extreme tenacity of purpose and bravery under heavy fire, sticking to his job of destroying bunkers which were holding up the infantry. He was in action for a considerable time and only withdrew when the flames of the burning building threatened to envelope his tank. I consider his action was an outstanding example of courage and devotion to duty and that by his efforts many casualties to the infantry were saved.”
Harold Anthony Kilpatrick was serving in 149th Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps, a component of 50th Indian Tank Brigade, at the time of the above cited deeds. The regiment was formed from the 7th Battalion (King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry), in November 1941, and originally went into action on the Manipur Road in April 1944.
The Deputy Commissioner's bungalow, famous for the battle on its tennis court and grounds in the desperate defence of Kohima ridge in April 1944, witnessed the demise of numerous British, Indian and Japanese troops in May, not least on the 4th, when Kilpatrick's tank had the dubious distinction of being the first one to reach the location. ‘Burma Victory’, by David Rooney, takes up the story:
“As usual, the Japanese had sited their bunkers cleverly and had dug them deeply enough to withstand any amount of artillery or mortar fire. Inside the bunkers, every man expected to fight to the death. Brave and vigorous attacks by infantry following closely behind a heavy bombardment were invariably met by withering automatic fire and showers of grenades - as every unit in this grim, prolonged and bloody battle found to their cost. The arrival in Kohima of the first tanks, up the road from Dimapur, was the one factor which slowly swung the battle against the Japanese. While 5 and 6 Brigades were fighting their battles, the Dorsets, deployed around the D.C's bungalow, now had the help of a tank on 4 May [Kilpatrick's tank]. It soon became clear that only a tank firing directly into a bunker could dislodge the Japanese. The slope up to the bungalow was so steep that the tank had the greatest difficulty in climbing the hill, but, inching forward, it succeeded, and was able to blast the Japanese out of a main bunker; the supporting Dorsets, however, were driven back by fire from supporting bunkers. Both they and the tank had to withdraw, but they felt they had made progress and that the next attack would succeed.”
Sadly his medals, like so many others have been sold off by the families over time and went up for auction in 2014 making £2300, £500 over their estimated value. As nice as those medals are, the dog tag I now hold in my hand was worn around his neck that very day.
Next is Trooper Stanley John Pickard, who served with the 22nd Dragoons part of the Royal Armoured Corps. On the 22nd of October 1944 he was awarded an unusual medal, the Belgium Croix de Guerre 2nd Class with palm. His recommendation papers state:
"On the 22nd 1944, Tpr, Pickard was co-driver in a tank which was ordered to attack a Farm and Wood near de OLSHENUVAL. Orders came through to help a Recce party which were pinned down by enemy fire. On returning to do this the Tp Ldrs tank became bogged down. The Tp Ldr ordered his last remaining tank to tow him out under intense fire from the enemy Tpr.PICKARD dismounted and attached the tow ropes. Alone he succeeded in doing this working in a prone position in mud and water and under intense small arms fire. After 45 minutes the tank was successfully extricated. Even then Tpr PICKARD did not return to his tank but collected wounded and placed them on the rear of his tank. His determination and utter disregard for his own safety was worth of the greatest praise. Tpr.PICKARD had performed a similar task on two previous occasions.”
The last tag, from ‘the forgotten army’ belonged to Quartermaster Sergeant Alan Brazendale who had reports of being wounded and then being awarded the Military Medal. Brazendale served with the 4th Country of London Yeomanry, a unit in the Royal Armoured Corps. The recommendation is rather bland and simply states that “in devotion to duty and disregard to safety he kept up the fighting strength of the unit.” I began to feel that maybe Pickard had been a little short changed with his Croix de Guerre, however, after doing a bit more research I then found a photograph of Brazendale being awarded the medal from General Montgomery!
You can see more information on our ‘the forgotten army’ on the FaceBook Page - Extreme Relic Hunters or please see the website: www.extremerelichunters.com, although it is still in the construction phase, the site is live. On a more important note - if anyone would like to help, either with particular units, awards, or with specific details about metal British dog tags from WW2 then please get in touch. At the moment it’s only Dan Mackay and 'Military Researcher/Archivist' Katey Mishler working on these dog tags and it’s quite a monumental task.
Dan MacKay and Kate Mishler encourages people with any information or suspected link to the dog tags to contact him through the Extreme Relic Hunters Facebook page or by visiting www.extremerelichunters.com/fadt.
Testimonies to Extremerelichunters work
"Keep up the good work, I am part of a WW1/2 committee for our town and we all think what you doing is fabulous" Lynne Beardmore
"I am not an emotional person, but I can't dry my eyes. My granddad was my hero, and unfortunately we lost him just a short while ago now. I can't thank you enough!"
"Many thanks for your reply, keep up the good work" Dave Speck
"Good Luck on your searches it all sounds fascinating bit like Sherlock Holmes" Beverley
"good luck with the job your doing I think its a great thing you and the team are trying to do" Chris Humble
"... there are still people out there to whom remembrance matters" Jenny Hardcastle
"Thank you for your time and all your hard work it is appreciated" Angelika Baddeley
Katey Mishler - Military Researcher/Archivist (regarding the Forgotten Army Dog-tag project)
“The shock, the unexpected gift, the realization that someone was going through rabbit holes seeking them out to offer them this free gift is incredibly moving. It's also a token of a bygone era, something that would have belonged to their loved ones. For people who are still grieving their loss (like the 87 year old widow who lost her husband 4 years ago and received a tag this week), the simple piece of metal with their loved one's initials and serial number attached is a treasure without measure."
Dan MacKay - I am a lifetime military history enthusiast and self-published author of two books, currently writing my third with more planned. With a couple of friends I formed a group called Extreme Relic Hunters for which I run facebook groups and a website.
My main interests are Canadian WW1, German WW2, US WW1, NAAFI items, Combat photography, Dog-tags and named items from both world wars. I aim to return named items and also collect my own family named medals. I metal detect, dump dig and trade items to specialise my collection which takes me around south-east England and part of Europe. | <urn:uuid:5daf74ee-aec7-4260-913b-c8c95a6d032b> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/blog/2017/03/21/readers-discovery-dog-tag-find-the-forgotten-army | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703496947.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20210115194851-20210115224851-00058.warc.gz | en | 0.985864 | 4,467 | 2.5625 | 3 |
JC Economics Essay Internal & External Sources of Economic Growth Model Answers
If the decoupling between the world’s two largest economies were to continue gradually, China may find herself needing to rely more on her internal sources of growth rather than external. In fact, it is almost as if China is decoupling herself from the rest of the world.
Will this be sustainable for the Chinese economy? This essay finds out.
According to macroeconomics, the sources of economic growth can be internal or external. For China, she will need to prepare for a future in which it relies more on the strength of growth at home rather than on the strength of growth in the rest of the world.
Discuss this assertion.
Internal & External Sources of Economic Growth for China
Economic growth: Potential growth, and Actual growth
→Measured by a rise in real GDP (per capita)
Percentage annual increase in the economy’s capacity to produce or the speed at which the economy can grow.
– caused by a rise in quantity &/or quality of resources
– outward shift of the AS curve (or outward shift of the PPC)
Percentage annual increase in national output as a result of using previously speed at which the economy could grow. unemployed resources; the rate of growth in actual output.
– caused by an Increase In AD in the economy in the short run, in a less than fully employed economy
(or a movement of a point inside PPC to a point closer to the PPC/to a point on the PPC)
What are the Internal sources of growth
Abundant natural resources
Inputs into production of goods and services
. E.g., huge land area, abundant mineral deposits
Abundant human resources of high quality
Utilise natural resources and turn them into products
Quantity → larger population size + longer work week = higher growth
Quality better education + health + mobility of workers higher growth
High rate of capital formation
Stock or inventories of equipment and structures that are used to produce goods and Services
Quantity more capital = more production = more growth
Depends on rate of savings which determines the rate of Investment
Given amount of resources to result in larger output E.g., new production techniques, improvement in performance of machines, better organisation and management, more efficient transport and communication systems, etc
Supply side factors alone is insufficient must have increase in AD to “absorb” the extra goods and services produced. Depends on changes in the components of C, I and G, which in turn may depend on many other factors, e.g. expectations, affluence, government policies, etc.
Other non-economic reasons
o Political stability
o Social harmony
What are the external sources of growth
Foreign talents abroad may move into the domestic country
Might be due to low wages in foreign countries (push-factor)
Augments(strengthen) the quality and quantity of labour
Possibly also reduces labour cost in the domestic country
FDI Inflow (Investment from overseas)
Might be due to political instability in home country (push-factor)
May bring in transfer of technological knowledge
Strong growth in the region or globally
Improves external demand for exports from domestic country (X-M) affected
Especially relevant for open economies
NOte; Government policies in domestic countries may Influence domestic sources of growth
– Due to relaxed domestic immigration laws →pull-factor for foreign talent. o Due to domestic tax incentives for MNCs pull-factor for FDI
– Due to domestic export subsidies that lower price of exports to foreigners → induces X
Discuss whether internal growth or external growth is more important for China
Thesis: Internal growth is more Important for China
China has a huge land size and abundant mineral resources
China has a huge population higher growth
Asian virtue of thrift →high savings rate high rate of investment
Growth in aggregate demand
Huge domestic market
Able to sustain growth to some extent just on domestic demand alone
– Other non-economic reasons
Nationalistic feelings support local brands
Antithesis: External growth is more important for China
Limitations of simply depending on growth at home
Exhaustion of natural resources →→stunts sustained growth
Educational and health facilities still need much improvement + “brain drain” due to lure of higher wages abroad reduces quality of labour → stunts sustained growth
China’s comparative advantage (at least in the short term) still seems to be in cheap labour technological advancement still lacking compared to large economies around the world →limited long-term growth
Domestic demand may switch to imported goods rather than home-grown products due to change in tastes and preferences with growing affluence
– Need to maintain external demand
Not just for China’s exports to stimulate growth, but also to tap on China’s relatively cheap labour resource in so doing, may bring In FDI and foreign talent sustained growth
(sketch the various AD-AS framework diagrams as an exercise.)
Make a stand and justify Ultimately, internal and external growth sources are complementary.
Eg; As long as China aims for sustainable growth, without damaging the environment, and exhausting FOP quickly, they may be able to decouple successful and rely on domestic engines of growth.
Note: This is one of the predictions for 2021 GCE A-Level H2 Economics exams.
(This is also the last essay sample for this series.)
All The best for your A Levels! | <urn:uuid:6b21baa0-8e9d-409e-928d-b3a877a8eed0> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://www.economicstuition.com/jc-economics-essay-internal-external-sources-of-economic-growth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662517245.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20220517095022-20220517125022-00483.warc.gz | en | 0.903757 | 1,211 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Belgium is rightly famous for it’s beer, but if you’ve ever been to Bruges, the charming, but very busy city and UNESCO World Heritage Site in West Flanders you’ll know that narrow medieval streets and beer tankers do not mix. So what’s the solution? A two–mile–long, underground beer pipeline of course.
It may sound like something dreamt up by Homer Simpson, but the beer pipeline, which opens in September and will pump 12,000 bottles worth of beer an hour from the city centre to a bottling plant on the outskirts, will help to preserve the authenticity and provenance of the city centre’s last remaining working brewery, De Halve Mann – a proposed move outside of the city would mean it could no longer claim its beer was brewed in Bruges. The brewing history of the De Halve Mann site stretches back to 1564.
De Halve Mann director Xavier Vanneste told The Guardian that the pipeline was a way to maintain a working Bruges city centre, while preserving the city’s narrow cobbled streets. “If we don’t make sure that people can work in the city centre, we will kill the city centre,” he said. “Bruges is full of tourist traps ... we want to brew every single litre here.”
Just under 10% of the €4m budget for the beer pipe was raised through crowdfunding, with a €7,500 gold membership promising a bottle of Bruges Zot (Bruges fool) beer every day for life – totally worth it, in our view. | <urn:uuid:23cb60ec-efe6-4858-895a-ea9e190e9f99> | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | https://www.finedininglovers.com/article/going-underground-belgian-city-install-beer-pipeline | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107898577.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20201028132718-20201028162718-00153.warc.gz | en | 0.935132 | 343 | 2.59375 | 3 |
New initiative at Saanich School District provides a potential model for other districts
By Cara McKenna
Factors such as stress, lack of sleep and improper nutrition can have a big impact on students’ ability to learn. That’s why numerous B.C. schools have enacted plans or policies to nurture the social, emotional and mental health of students. But just because one school sees results, doesn’t necessarily mean others will follow. A new project at Saanich School District aims to better spread promising new ideas from one school to another. It’s a prime example of what WellAhead, an initiative of the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, is hoping to see more of provincially and nationally.
WellAhead is a philanthropic initiative aimed at better integrating social and emotional wellbeing in K-12 education. Even though focusing on holistic wellbeing has been proven to improve academic performance and life outcomes, schools don’t consistently make wellness a priority, said Mali Bain, WellAhead’s B.C. lead.
“Schools are overwhelmed with programs, initiatives, great ideas, (and) when they’re seen as one-offs, that’s a big challenge,” said Bain. “If there’s someone who’s able to pull those pieces together at a school level, they can connect the dots and build momentum.”
Saanich School District’s assistant superintendent Scott Stinson has made similar observations. “We were seeing this disconnect between different initiatives that were happening in a variety of places,” Stinson said. “If there’s a good thing happening in one place, how do we make sure it’s spreading to another?”
Last May, the district began a process of seeking out “health champions” — finding an individual at each of its 19 schools already doing work of this kind who could become leaders in integrating wellbeing efforts into the school calendar. Those volunteers would then meet regularly to share their ideas and progress with each other.
Lynn Montgomery, a PE teacher at Stelly’s Secondary School in Saanichton, is one of the teachers in the district who have taken on the role of health champion. She put together a committee of people from the school interested in working on a wellbeing project that includes teachers, support staff and students.
“We were feeling that with the new curriculum and changes in staff, for some reason our school was feeling really down at the time,” she said. “We want people to feel happy and connected. We wanted to feel a little more energy and an upbeat atmosphere in school.”
Montgomery’s committee organizes events at the school that bring people together. “We started out small,” she said. “Some teachers weren’t comfortable taking time away from class. In high school, it’s hard to get people out of their comfort zone, to do things like this.”
For its first event, the committee at Stelly’s helped better connect Grade 9 to 12 students and teacher advisors who multiple times per year. The school hosted an event for them to participate in various 20-minute-long team building activities a few weeks before their formal meetings. Montgomery’s group suggested different games, including charades, which she said was silly enough that it helped everyone to let their guard down, have fun and feel more comfortable around each other.
“Kids said they had fun, that they never knew their teacher was like that, and they met a lot of people that they don’t normally speak to,” Montgomery said.
The result was a boost in morale that has triggered larger changes. Shortly after the team-building events, a leadership class started organizing its own morale-boosting events for students and staff. Montgomery said this has allowed her group’s efforts to evolve and look at tackling other wellness-related issues, such as student smoking, while they support the leadership class’s event planning. “(The group) is also just a place to come together, problem-solve, and assess what the needs of the school are,” she said.
The efforts at Stelly’s and other schools will grow as the school year goes on.
Bain, from WellAhead, said she hopes the Saanich School District’s model of connecting individual schools’ efforts to promote wellbeing can inspire others across B.C.
“We need to build on our learnings and offer these experiences more consistently to students across B.C.,” she said.
Cara McKenna is a freelance journalist of Alberta Métis descent. She is based in Vancouver. | <urn:uuid:95a9c8b1-ef51-4c3b-aa74-4d8f7938f35d> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | https://mcconnellfoundation.ca/how-school-health-champions-can-foster-student-wellness/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627999273.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20190620190041-20190620212041-00512.warc.gz | en | 0.974311 | 993 | 2.53125 | 3 |
- servant is part of the Basic English 850.
- A servant is someone who works for a person or for a family, doing things like cooking and washing. Often the servant lives in the house where they work. A servant works for the same family all day.
- This rich family has three servants working for them in their big house. | <urn:uuid:9a6a8773-bcc9-49ea-bf62-411dce218902> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | https://simple.wiktionary.org/wiki/servant | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320215.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20170624031945-20170624051945-00612.warc.gz | en | 0.966444 | 70 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Definitions for verticity, poles of
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word verticity, poles of
The Standard Electrical Dictionary
Verticity, Poles of
Points upon the earth's surface where the horizontal component of magnetic force disappears, leaving only the vertical component active. The term is derived from the verticity of the dipping needle when over either of them.
The numerical value of verticity, poles of in Chaldean Numerology is: 5
The numerical value of verticity, poles of in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3
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One of the school system's most vexing problems is what to do to improve schools that are not functioning. Over the past decade, a quarter of all public schools in New York City at one time or another have been officially declared to be failing. These are called SURR schools, or schools under registration review.
At one of these schools, I visited a small elementary school art class. The class was in total chaos, with children standing on desks and jumping off them, running around and screaming. The teacher was yelling too. The teacher told us she had "only" been with the class for three months and that, as a substitute, she did not know the children's names and had never been given a roster, despite having asked for it several times.
Unfortunately, educators know this kind of situation well.
WHY SCHOOLS FAIL
What makes a failing school? Many things, say state investigators, including:
- Ineffective instructional methods
- Inadequate planning
- Insufficient supplies and materials
- Uncertified and inexperienced teachers
- Inadequate instructional leadership
- Poor communication among administrators and teachers
- Low academic standards
- Curriculum deficiencies
- Insufficient parent involvement
- Lack of a consistent, uniformly applied student behavior policy
- Inadequate student supervision
- Inadequate teacher supervision
- Inadequate library resources
- Poor staff morale
- Excessive principal turnover
- Deficiencies in the English as a second language and bilingual programs
- Special education deficiencies
The Board of Education was slow to respond to these problems. There was little overall planning or accountability until former Chancellor Rudy Crew created the "Chancellor's District", also called District 85 which grouped the worst schools together to supervise their improvement. These schools roughly correspond to those on the SURR list.
TO SURR WITHOUT LOVE
In 1989, New York State devised the scheme for putting low performing schools under "registration review." The targeted schools, which get some extra funds and assistance in curriculum and planning, are those that are farthest from meeting the state's performance standards according to their students' standardized test scores, or have been identified as being "poor learning environments." If the schools do not improve, they are shut down.
Since 1989, roughly 250 New York City public schools have been placed on the SURR list. Currently, 114 schools, 98 of them in New York City, are under registration review.
Just how bad at least some of these schools must be becomes clear when one looks at school performance overall. Throughout New York State, only 60 percent of fourth graders in public schools meet state standards for both reading and math. In New York City's SURR schools, only 10 percent of the fourth graders meet the standards.
The SURR process was supposed to improve the poorly performing schools, not shut them down. Critics, though, say this is not happening.
A new study, "The Tip of the Iceberg" by Joseph Viteritti and Kevin Kosar of New York University, published by the Manhattan Institute, states that on average, schools that do not improve remain on the SURR list for nine years before finally being closed. During this time, of course, thousands of students remain enrolled in what the state itself calls a poor learning environment.
While schools that improved enough to be removed from the list continue to do better than SURR schools, the study found, the majority of students in those former SURR schools still perform well below acceptable academic levels. The report also questions whether the SURR system masks the "iceberg" of general low performance in all city schools. In sum, argues the report, 70 percent or more of the students read below state standards in over a third of city schools.
The state admits that there needs to be quicker, more accurate data collection and evaluation of schools. (The state's role in identifying and improving low-performing schools is the subject of pending litigation). But the State Education Department officially declares that "the registration review process works," according to its August 2000 "Registration Review Report. It noted that 96 schools have been removed from the list since 1990, and the removal rate is accelerating. Only 17 were taken off from 1990 to 1995, whereas 79 were removed over the next five years. In December, 2000, an additional 25 schools on the state list were removed, the most ever in a single year, because test scores had moved them above the SURR threshold.
Critics contend that the removal rate says little about the quality of the schools. A school's students can have very low scores and the school can still be above the threshold for SURR. Further, they argue, test scores are subject to fluctuation and a statistical upward "blip" is likely among schools at the very bottom. Therefore, schools might rotate off the list to be replaced by others more because of probability than progress.
While he was a state regent, Harold Levy took steps (that he has backed away from since becoming chancellor) that would require SURR schools to employ only certified teachers. (Ten percent of city teachers are not certified, and many more teach outside their area of expertise.) The school system also reached an agreement with the United Federation of Teachers that makes teachers in SURR schools eligible for extra pay. Experienced teachers, however, have been slow to respond to incentives, and so most of the certified teaches in SURR schools are new teachers, many of whom have only the minimal preparation offered under a new state program. Thus, students in failing schools still get the least experienced and least prepared teachers.
Different states have taken varying approaches to the problem of failing schools. For most of the 1990s, New York focused on painstaking school-by-school reform and generally avoided state takeovers of entire districts. Other states, such as New Jersey, took over districts, including Newark and Jersey City, but failed to significantly improve the schools.
The difficulty of finding sweeping solutions came sharply into focus early this year when Schools Chancellor Harold Levy tried to privatize five SURR schools under the auspices of the for-profit Edison Schools, Inc. Like most low performing schools, these schools had spent years on the list undergoing a long sequence of "corrective action," planning and reviews.
Acting under pressure from Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Levy declared Edison could do a better job. But for his plan to take effect under state rules, parents of at least 50 percent of the students at a given school had to approve the idea. After a heated campaign, parents at all five schools rejected Edison. Today, the schools remain on the SURR list and two of them, IS 320 and IS 111, are slated to close.
Today, some states and the federal government are coming up with other solutions.
Florida Governor Jeb Bush, for example, has called for giving vouchers to students in that state's failing schools that they could use to pay tuition at private schools. The plan resembles existing programs that cover tuition in private programs for students with disabilities who cannot receive an appropriate education in public school. A suit has been filed against the Florida plan.
In 1994 a New York State task force recommended a similar plan to help students who have been forced to attend failing schools. But vouchers have been a volatile issue throughout the country, particularly in New York. Advocates say that giving vouchers to students in bad schools would rescue students from educational neglect and provide public school systems with a clear financial incentive to improve failing schools. Opponents believe vouchers will only make a bad situation worse, taking money and talented students our of the public schools.
Earlier this year, Congress rejected giving private school vouchers to students, but other methods to deal with failing schools, including providing students with a choice of public schools and issuing vouchers for private tutoring, could be included in legislation later this year.
Though the Senate and House proposals differ, bills in both houses give schools between 10 and 12 years to meet state-designated goals for all students. Progress would be assessed yearly. If schools fail to meet the targets for any student after the agreed upon time period, they would be closed.
Both bills also require schools to report on students' performance targets and call for results to be broken out by income, race and ethnicity. Advocates for poor and minority students have called for this kind of reporting on the grounds that lumping all results together can disguise discrepancies in performance and inequities in the allocation of resources. For example, 73 percent of white state public school fourth graders meet the standards in math and reading, while only 39 percent of black and Hispanic students do.
As school systems rush to meet the new reporting and performance targets, some educators fear that states may set meaningless standards, thus ensuring that all schools can meet them. As one New York State Education Department official said, the overwhelming temptation will be to "game the system and drop the standards."
Another concern is that annual high-stakes tests could drive minority students in failing schools (and elsewhere) to repeat grades and eventually drop out. New York City has already seen a rise in its dropout rate, New York having one of the worst high-school graduation rates among major cities in the country, according to a recent report. Only 54 percent of city public school students graduated on time. Many attribute the high dropout rate to the state's new emphasis on tests for promotion and graduation.
POWER TO THE PRINCIPALS
These approaches all address the problem after it has occurred. It would clearly be better to prevent students and entire schools from falling below standards in the first place. To accomplish this, according to a range of studies, superintendents and principals must be alert to the needs of at risk students, so classes should be smaller in kindergarten through third grade. Schools should use proven instructional programs such as Reading Recovery to aid students who need extra help.
Because principals can lose their jobs if their schools consistently fail, studies suggest they should have greater discretion in hiring and firing teachers. Superintendents, too, should have greater discretion to move teachers in and out of schools, much as other government agencies can transfer staff.
As the only people in the system who can make the needed changes, principals need higher salaries, along with the ability to assemble a similarly well-compensated team. And they must be evaluated on how well their students learn, not on whether the youngsters simply mastered some short-term test-taking strategies.
The solution to the problem of low-performing schools has been summed up in three words by Adelaide Sanford, the vice chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents. There must be, she says, "outrage, resources, and action."
Several thoughtful reports, in addition to those cited in the text, offer solutions to the problem of low-performing schools.
- "Schools on Notice" (1998), an evaluation of the SURR process by 'New York University's Institute for Education and Social Policy'
- "Turning Around Low-Performing Schools: A Guide for State and Local Leaders" (May 1998) by the U.S. Department of Education
- "Getting Off the List: School Improvement in NYC" by the Educational Priorities Panel
- New York State Education Department, Office of New York City School and Community Services
- New York City Board of Education
- New York State Charter School Institute
- Educational Priorities Panel
- Institute for Education and Social Policy, New York University
- New York Urban League
David C. Bloomfield is an associate professor of educational administration at Brooklyn College, CUNY. He was a member of the New York State Regents Visiting and Advisory Committees on Low Performing Schools.
The comments section is provided as a free service to our readers. Gotham Gazette's editors reserve the right to delete any comments. Some reasons why comments might get deleted: inappropriate or offensive content, off-topic remarks or spam.
Last Updated (Mar 15, 2013) | <urn:uuid:34009fb0-4c77-403d-bb3d-87d63413398c> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/city/archives/1692-flunking-schools | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386164050279/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204133410-00026-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968549 | 2,434 | 2.75 | 3 |
United Nations Core Values: - Integrity - Professionalism - Respect for diversity
Vacancy notice number: ISDR/C/26/2010
The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) was created by the UN in 2000 with the specific mandate to raise awareness about the need to reduce the risk of disaster. The UNISDR aims to promote disaster risk reduction as an integral component of sustainable development, with the goal of reducing human, social, economic and environmental losses due to natural hazards and related technological and environmental disasters. It builds on partnerships within and outside the UN towards the goals of reducing the loss of lives, socio-economic setbacks and the environmental damages caused by natural hazards.
Governments around the world have committed to take action to reduce disaster risk, and have adopted a guideline to reduce vulnerabilities to natural hazards, the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015. Its thrusts are: to make disaster risk reduction (DRR) a priority; know the risks and take action; build understanding and awareness; reduce risk; and get prepared and ready to act.
The work of UNISDR supports those objectives, by helping obtain commitment from public authorities to implement disaster reduction policies and actions; stimulating partnerships across disciplines and sectors to expand risk reduction networks; advocate, support public education about risk and risk reduction and stimulate the increase of scientific knowledge about risk and disaster impacts.
The implementation of the ISDR is supported by a secretariat lead by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction. The secretariat main functions are policy coordination, advocacy and information management, at the international and regional levels, to ensure synergy between disaster reduction strategies and those in the socio-economic and
humanitarian fields. This assignment is funded by the World Bank Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery
(GFDRR) as a part of its cooperation with UNISDR to strengthen institutional and technical capacities of African Union Commission, Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and other regional and sub-regional organizations on disaster risk reduction in Africa.
To minimize negative impacts of natural hazards on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa, the African Union and RECs are emphasizing integration of disaster risk reduction and management into the sub-regional poverty reduction, security, and sustainable development agenda to help create safer and resilient communities in social, economic and environmental terms.
Consequently, to expand and strengthen actions at all levels to reduce disaster risks and build the resilience of nations and communities to disasters, the African Union and the Secretariat of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), with the support of UNISDR and in partnership with UNDP, UNEP and African Development Bank (AfDB), led a process of regional actions to strengthen national capacities for DRR in Africa, beginning with the development of the Africa Regional Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction.
The strategy aims to contribute to the attainment of sustainable development and poverty eradication by facilitating the integration of disaster risk reduction into development. The Programme of Action for the Implementation of the Africa Strategy 2006-2010 which was developed in compliance with a request by the 2004 African Union Summit, endorsed by the First African Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in 2005, and adopted by the Eight Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union in 2006, provides the operational framework for disaster risk reduction interventions in the region. In April 2010, extension of the Programme of Action until 2015 by incorporating emerging issues and new challenges and opportunities was adopted at the Second African Ministerial Conference on DRR held in Nairobi, Kenya.
Organizational setting and reporting relationships:
Under the overall guidance of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) and the Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture; the Consultant will be supervised by the Head of Division for Environment and Natural Resources in close coordination with the Head of UNISDR Regional Office for Africa.
The duties outlined below will be performed in line with the agreed work-plan for the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction of the World Bank for 2010 and the four strategic objectives of the UNISDR 2010-2011 work plan.
Duties and responsibilities:
1. Provide support to the AUC in implementing the Africa Regional Strategy and the Programme of Action for DRR in line with the HFA, and the recommendations of the Declaration of the Second African Ministerial Conference on DRR held in Nairobi in April 2010. Provide support to mainstreaming of DRR into relevant programmes and agendas of the AUC and Regional Economic Communities (RECs) with strong linkage with Climate Change Adaptation.
2. Provide substantive backstopping to, among others, negotiations, consultative and other meetings and conferences, in particular facilitate the Africa Working Group and Africa Advisory Group Consultations, Regional Platform Consultations as well as Ministerial Conferences on DRR.
3. Facilitate the country DRR initiatives and national programmes and strengthen national platforms as required in cooperation with relevant sub-regional organizations in coordination with the UNISDR Regional Office for Africa.
4. Facilitate compilation of DRR related activities, information sharing, exchange of experience and practices on DRR through establishment of regional knowledge networks with the Member States for exchange of good practices and experiences through Africa regional forums, platform and the Global Platform and information to promote knowledge exchange on DRR among the Member States of the African Union.
5. Assist in promoting economic indicators and cost benefits of disaster reduction both through UNISDR, the AUC, International Financial Institutions and other partner organizations to target audiences (e.g. governments and reinsurance industries)
6. Assist mapping, capacity assessment and publication of selected existing major training centres and regional and sub-regional specialized institutions working on DRR and climate change under the aegis of the AUC
7. Prepare project proposals for the implementation of priority objectives of the Africa Programme of Action for DRR including, as relevant, preparation of policy documents and proposals for ministerial consideration and fund raising with donors.
8. Strengthen or establish where necessary strong links with international, regional and subregional organizations and support inter-governmental and interagency processes to establish effective working relationships with international, regional and sub-regional organizations working in disaster preparedness, humanitarian and disaster relief.
9. Organize and prepare written reports and outputs, e.g. reports, analyzing and monitoring progress of the Africa Strategy and Programme of Action; draft background papers, analysis, sections of reports and studies, inputs to publications.
10. Perform any other tasks and missions proposed by the AUC and UNISDR Africa.
Key deliverables/expected results:
1. Report on the implementation of the Africa Regional Strategy and the Programme of Action for DRR in line with the HFA, and the recommendations of the Declaration of the Second African Ministerial Conference on DRR held in Nairobi in April 2010.
2. Reports on the substantive backstopping about negotiations, consultations and conferences, in particular regarding the Africa Working Group and Africa Advisory Group Consultations, Regional Platform Consultations as well as Ministerial Conferences on DRR.
3. Inclusion of DRR activities in the related 2010-2011 programmes and projects of AU and AUC with specific focus on linking climate change and DRR.
4. Compilation a report on the mapping of and capacity assessments of existing major training centres that can offer capacity-building programmes on DRR and climate change, as well as mapping and capacity assessment of specialized institutions in the Africa Region in consultation with Regional Economic Communities (RECs).
5. At least one project proposal prepared to enhance the implementation of the Africa Regional Strategy for DRR and the Programme of Action.
6. Substantive monthly progress report (A4, MS Word format in English by 20th of every month) to be submitted to the Head of UNISDR Africa Regional Office with a copy to the Head of Division for Environment and Natural Resources of the AUC describing specific achievements within this assignment.
Professionalism – Strong background, knowledge and understanding of the concepts, principles and approaches to disaster risk reduction; proven project management skills and ability to lead a project to completion.
Client orientation – Ability to identify and analyze clients’ needs and develop appropriate services to meet business requirements.
Communications – Speaks and writes clearly and effectively; listens to others, correctly interprets messages from others and responds appropriately.
Planning and organizing – Develops clear goals that are consistent with agreed strategies; identifies priority activities and assignments; adjusts priorities as required.
Teamwork – Strong interpersonal skills and ability to establish and maintain effective partnerships and working relations with people in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic environment.
Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in disaster risk management, development, public policy or a related field. A first-level university degree in combination with qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
A minimum of five years of progressively responsible experience in project or programme management, administration or related area.
Fluency in written and spoken English is required. Working knowledge of French is an added
Six months (possible extension upon availability of funds). Date of entry: 31 October 2010
Tag This Document | <urn:uuid:e91ac8db-e2d9-4da4-9c0b-83175225852f> | CC-MAIN-2015-48 | http://www.preventionweb.net/english/professional/jobs/v.php?id=15038 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-48/segments/1448398447881.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20151124205407-00339-ip-10-71-132-137.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909687 | 1,890 | 2.59375 | 3 |
50 CFR 21.3 - Definitions.
In addition to definitions contained in part 10 of this chapter, and unless the context requires otherwise, as used in this part:
Armed Forces means the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and the National Guard of any State.
Bred in captivity or captive-bred refers to raptors, including eggs, hatched in captivity from parents that mated or otherwise transferred gametes in captivity.
Captivity means that a live raptor is held in a controlled environment that is intensively manipulated by man for the purpose of producing raptors of selected species, and that has boundaries designed to prevent raptors, eggs or gametes of the selected species from entering or leaving the controlled environment. General characteristics of captivity may include, but are not limited to, artificial housing, waste removal, health care, protection from predators, and artificially supplied food.
Conservation measures, as used in § 21.15, means project design or mitigation activities that are reasonable from a scientific, technological, and economic standpoint, and are necessary to avoid, minimize, or mitigate the take of migratory birds or other adverse impacts. Conservation measures should be implemented in a reasonable period of time.
Falconry is caring for and training raptors for pursuit of wild game, and hunting wild game with raptors. Falconry includes the taking of raptors from the wild to use in the sport; and caring for, training, and transporting raptors held for falconry.
Hacking is the temporary release of a raptor held for falconry to the wild so that it must survive on its own.
Hybrid means any bird that results from a cross of genetic material between two separate taxa when one or both are listed at 50 CFR 10.13, and any progeny of those birds.
Imprint, for the purposes of falconry, means a bird that is hand-raised, from 2 weeks of age until it has fledged, and has identified itself with humans rather than its own species. An imprinted bird is considered to be so for its entire lifetime.
Livestock depredation area means a specific geographic location in which depredation by golden eagles has been recognized. The boundaries and duration of a livestock depredation area are declared by U.S.D.A. Wildlife Services or by a State governor.
Military readiness activity, as defined in Pub. L. 107-314, § 315(f), 116 Stat. 2458 (Dec. 2, 2002) [Pub. L. § 319 (c)(1)], includes all training and operations of the Armed Forces that relate to combat, and the adequate and realistic testing of military equipment, vehicles, weapons, and sensors for proper operation and suitability for combat use. It does not include (a) routine operation of installation operating support functions, such as: administrative offices; military exchanges; commissaries; water treatment facilities; storage facilities; schools; housing; motor pools; laundries; morale, welfare, and recreation activities; shops; and mess halls, (b) operation of industrial activities, or (c) construction or demolition of facilities listed above.
Population, as used in § 21.15, means a group of distinct, coexisting, conspecific individuals, whose breeding site fidelity, migration routes, and wintering areas are temporally and spatially stable, sufficiently distinct geographically (at some time of the year), and adequately described so that the population can be effectively monitored to discern changes in its status.
Raptor means a migratory bird of the Order Accipitriformes, the Order Falconiformes, or the Order Strigiformes listed in § 10.13 of this chapter, including the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos).
Resident Canada geese means Canada geese that nest within the lower 48 States and the District of Columbia in the months of March, April, May, or June, or reside within the lower 48 States and the District of Columbia in the months of April, May, June, July, or August.
Secretary of Defense means the Secretary of Defense or any other national defense official who has been nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
Service or we means the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior.
Significant adverse effect on a population, as used in § 21.15, means an effect that could, within a reasonable period of time, diminish the capacity of a population of migratory bird species to sustain itself at a biologically viable level. A population is “biologically viable” when its ability to maintain its genetic diversity, to reproduce, and to function effectively in its native ecosystem is not significantly harmed. This effect may be characterized by increased risk to the population from actions that cause direct mortality or a reduction in fecundity. Assessment of impacts should take into account yearly variations and migratory movements of the impacted species. Due to the significant variability in potential military readiness activities and the species that may be impacted, determinations of significant measurable decline will be made on a case-by-case basis. | <urn:uuid:b8e50484-a170-41bf-8de6-5416e5bb405a> | CC-MAIN-2016-18 | https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/50/21.3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-18/segments/1461860114649.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20160428161514-00039-ip-10-239-7-51.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945395 | 1,075 | 3.21875 | 3 |
(This book was selected as one of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of 2017. For the rest of the list, click here.)
By Ron Chernow
Illustrated. 1,074 pp. Penguin Press. $40.
This is a good time for Ron Chernow’s fine biography of Ulysses S. Grant to appear, as we live with the reality of Faulkner’s declaration, “The past is never dead, it’s not even past.” We are now several years into revisiting the issues that shaped Grant’s service in the Civil War and the White House, from the rise of white supremacy groups to successful attacks on the right of eligible citizens to vote to the economic inequalities of the Gilded Age. In so many ways “Grant” comes to us now as much a mirror as a history lesson.
As history, it is remarkable, full of fascinating details sure to make it interesting both to those with the most cursory knowledge of Grant’s life and to those who have read his memoirs or any of several previous biographies. It tells well the story of a country boy’s unlikely path to leadership, his peculiarities, strengths, blind spots and uncanny powers of concentration and courage during battle. It covers Grant’s amazing feats on horseback at West Point, where in jumping hurdles “he exceeded all rivals,” clearing the bar a foot higher than other cadets. His mediocre grades have long obscured his interests and abilities: He was president of the literary society, had a talent for drawing and was trusted by classmates to mediate disputes.
His service in the Mexican War is covered briefly, but it contributes to our understanding of his later military and political life. Grant’s often harrowing experiences and extreme efforts to care for the wounded still on the battlefield taught him both about the conduct of war and about war’s political implications. He believed that the victory over Mexico, with its huge territorial gains, intensified disputes over slavery and led directly to the Civil War.
The major encounters of the Civil War are deftly included, as are the business failures and bouts of drunkenness — never proved to have happened during major military campaigns, despite what his enemies often asserted. Chernow, the author of “Alexander Hamilton” and other biographies, judiciously quotes from Grant’s own memoirs, and he also shows how they were a miracle of sorts, produced by a dying man racked with pain from throat cancer, in a final effort to leave his family some amount of financial stability. “Somehow,” Chernow writes, “in agony, he had produced 336,000 splendid words in the span of a year.”
“The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant” ends shortly after the surrender at Appomattox Court House, and as Chernow states in his introduction, many biographies of Grant skip over his presidency as an “embarrassing coda” dominated by multiple scandals. As Chernow puts it, “It is sadly ironic that Grant’s presidency became synonymous with corruption, since he himself was impeccably honest.”
For all its scholarly and literary strengths, this book’s greatest service is to remind us of Grant’s significant achievements at the end of the war and after, which have too long been overlooked and are too important today to be left in the dark. Considered by many detractors to be, as a general, little more than a stoic butcher, Grant, in the written terms of surrender at Appomattox, showed the empathy he felt toward the defeated and downtrodden — conditions he knew from harsh personal experience. The terms presented to Robert E. Lee carried “no tinge of malice” and “breathed a spirit of charity reminiscent of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address.” He notably allowed the exhausted and starving Confederate regulars to keep their mules and horses, knowing from the rough experience of his failed Missouri farm (Grant presciently named its log cabin “Hardscrabble”) that only by putting in a crop as soon as they returned home would these destitute farmers — and their families — have a chance to survive the coming winter. Grant also knew that if the country had any chance of being brought back together, it needed something other than a harsh peace. In making national healing a priority, he — like Lincoln — took the long view.
Grant’s tendency toward empathy with the downtrodden and defeated would return again and again, and not always to his advantage or credit. He didn’t hesitate to appoint family and friends far above their abilities, and to remember even the smallest favor done on his behalf while he was a struggling civilian. There’s a wonderful exchange in the book when Grant as president offers a political appointment to a friend from his prewar days in St. Louis, when he was broke and dependent on his slave-owning (and openly contemptuous) father-in-law. Grant reminded the friend that “when I was standing on a street corner ... by a wagon loaded with wood, you approached and said: ‘Captain, haven’t you been able to sell your wood?’ I answered: ‘No.’ Then you said: ‘I’ll buy it; and whenever you haul a load of wood to the city and can’t sell it, just take it around to my residence ... and I’ll pay you for it.’ I haven’t forgotten it.”
After Appomattox, and the assassination of Lincoln, Grant moved to what he then called Washington City to lead the Army through the war’s aftermath. Chernow notes that, as a general, Grant had nearly always fought on unfamiliar ground, which required a kind of concentration that could support a state of continuous reassessment. Washington was also unfamiliar ground, and continuous reassessment was just as vital to political success as it had been to victory on the field. Grant proved a quick study, even after he had professed to be “no politician.”
For example, he saw early on that the new president, Andrew Johnson, who many feared would be much harsher on the South than Lincoln would have been, had begun to lean hard — and dangerously — in the opposite direction. “Mr. Johnson,” Grant writes in his memoirs, “after a complete revolution of sentiment, seemed to regard the South not only as an oppressed people, but as the people best entitled to consideration of any of our citizens.” Needless for Grant to say, this favor of Johnson’s fell to white Southerners only. He began to bring the weight of the presidency down on the side of those who championed what became the infamous Black Codes, designed to force freed slaves to continue to work on plantations in conditions much like those before emancipation.
As Grant’s and Johnson’s political differences grew wider, Grant, as General of the Army and immensely popular, began to suffer the ire of the increasingly besieged Johnson, who demanded fealty and, when frustrated and convinced of disloyalties real or imagined, tended to lash out. “It grated on Johnson that Grant,” Chernow says, “a mere subordinate, had been endowed with … godlike powers over Reconstruction.”
Contrary to Johnson’s claim, the power Grant had to oversee the fate of the postwar South was hardly godlike. A former social club named for the Greek word kuklos, or circle, the Ku Klux Klan had begun “to shade into a quasi-military organization, recruiting Nathan Bedford Forrest as a leader” — and vowing “to ‘support a white man’s government’ and carry weapons at all times.” By the time of Grant’s election as president in 1868, the Klan was targeting black voters and their supporters with “murders and mutilations in a grotesque spirit of sadistic mockery.” The Union that Grant had been instrumental in saving as a general was splintering anew even before he took his oath of office. As Chernow writes, “If there were many small things Grant didn’t know about the presidency, he knew one big thing: His main mission was to settle unfinished business from the war by preserving the Union and safeguarding the freed slaves.”
And there was a very real chance Grant, and with him the country, would fail.
For that new mission, Grant needed cabinet members, staff and advisers every bit as masterful as his wartime lieutenants. His choices were notably hit-and-miss, but his very first appointee from a Confederate state proved to be one of his best. Amos T. Akerman of Georgia, Grant’s second attorney general, was “honest and incorruptible” and “devoted to the rule of law.” When Congress created the Department of Justice the same week as his appointment, the attorney general became overnight the head of “an active department with a substantial array of new powers.” Those powers were sorely needed to fight the Klan and what Chernow appropriately calls “the worst outbreak of domestic terrorism in American history.”
Grant signed three bills, collectively known as the Enforcement Acts, to strengthen federal powers in combating Klan terrorism, which had already claimed thousands of lives, the vast majority of them black. After the laws were in force, “federal grand juries, many interracial, brought 3,384 indictments against the K.K.K., resulting in 1,143 convictions.” Almost as important as the convictions was the message they sent. As Akerman told his district attorneys, “If you cannot convict, you, at least, can expose, and ultimately such exposures will make the community ashamed of shielding the crime.”
By the end of his first term, scandals had begun to take their toll, but at the same time the Klan — at least in its original incarnation — had been essentially destroyed. “Peace has come to many places as never before,” declared Frederick Douglass, an ally and admirer of Grant’s. “The scourging and slaughter of our people have so far ceased.” However short-lived, it was an important victory not only for an enlightened version of Reconstruction but also for the beneficial use of the powers of the federal government to promote the general welfare and safety of all Americans, not just some.
As president, Grant appointed a record number of African-Americans to government positions all across the board, including the first black diplomat. Douglass once noted “in one department at Washington I found 249” black appointees, “and many more holding important positions in its service in different parts of the country.” Early in his presidency and at the height of his popularity, Grant had also been a booster of the 15th Amendment, giving former slaves the vote, and many believe his support was key to its ratification by the states, which was far from guaranteed. Grant himself minced no words in describing the magnitude of the amendment’s passage, saying in a message to Congress upon its ratification, “The adoption of the 15th Amendment ... constitutes the most important event that has occurred, since the nation came into life.” He knew the right to vote is the heart of democracy and did not hesitate to defend it, a legacy today’s Supreme Court and Republicans in Washington and across the country should embrace, not abandon.
Chernow shows a fine balance in exposing Grant’s flaws and missteps as president, and the ill-fated turn that Reconstruction took after a promising start, while making it clear that Grant’s contributions after Appomattox were as consequential to the survival of our democracy as any that came before. As Americans continue the struggle to defend justice and equality in our tumultuous and divisive era, we need to know what Grant did when our country’s very existence hung in the balance. If we still believe in forming a more perfect union, his steady and courageous example is more valuable than ever. | <urn:uuid:e1afee9f-c2a1-4de2-aa2d-e7639365caba> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/12/books/review/ron-chernow-ulysses-s-grant-biography-bill-clinton.html?partner=rss&emc=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027322160.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20190825000550-20190825022550-00282.warc.gz | en | 0.981923 | 2,552 | 2.640625 | 3 |
If you want to stop forced-fluoridation, ie the dumping of industrial fluoride pollution into public water supplies, here is a list of things which may help.
1. Support your local campaign, and if there isn’t one, start one.
If you don’t know if there is a local campaign where you live, you might be able to find one on social media or facebook. If you don’t think your local group is up to the job, start your own.
2. Support the Fluoride Action Network
I think there is overwhelming agreement among forced-fluoridation freedom fighters that FAN is a valuable non-profit organisation for the cause. Unfortunately it is financially outgunned by the forced-fluoridation lobby. The big spending by the latter didn’t help them in Portland, Oregon in 2013, though, with 61% of voters choosing freedom.
3. Educate yourself
The Fluoride Action Network website is a good place to start, and there are other good websites. This site is intended to complement those sites, not duplicate them. Many books/reports have been written on forced-fluoridation/fluoride toxicity, some of which are available for free online, as are various systematic reviews, the most comprehensive of which is the 2006 US National Research Council report Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA’s Standards. It is particularly helpful when people with a background in science, dentistry, or medicine educate themselves on the issue. It should be emphasised, however, that everyone who opposes forced-fluoridation has every right to defend themselves and/or others against it on human rights grounds, regardless of their qualifications or knowledge of the health effects.
4. Spread the word
Various means of communication can be used, from talking to someone face-to-face to using the mass media. It’s just as much about reaching the large numbers of people who are already sympathetic to the cause, but who have not yet done anything about it, as trying to convince people that forced-fluoridation should be opposed, in my opinion.
5. Take legal action
Forced-fluoridation is illegal on many counts, but the law is not being enforced. There is a first time for everything, though. If you or your children have dental fluorosis, another tack is to sue for damages, which is likely to be successful as I understand it.
6. Don’t give your money to fluoridationists
Dentists make a lot of money, and dentists in force-fluoridated areas make a lot of money from cosmetically treating dental fluorosis. They are literally profiting from poisoning children. Doctors, other health practitioners, and pharmaceutical companies are also profiting from skeletal fluorosis and other adverse health effects. You may be able to find dentists, doctors, and so on in your area who have stood up for your right not to be medicated without your informed consent via the Professionals Statement on the Fluoride Action Network website. Otherwise, a holistic dentist may be the next best option for your teeth. Whatever you do, don’t give your money to freaks who publicly support forced-fluoridation.
You can also boycott Colgate-Palmolive, which spends millions funding fluoridationist pseudoscience at The University of Adelaide and elsewhere, and which indoctrinates children in schools and kindergartens. Colgate-Palmolive has many different brands. In some cases, there may also be opportunities to boycott the companies which are making money from selling their industrial fluoride pollution to governments. For example, in Australia phosphate fertiliser manufacturer CSBP sells its hexafluorosilicic acid waste product as a force-fluoridation chemical. CSBP is owned by Wesfarmers, which also owns major retailing chains such as Coles, Bunnings, and Officeworks. Your tax money is already paying for force-fluoridation chemicals, equipment, and propaganda, whether you like it or not.
7. Don’t vote for fascist political parties or candidates
To my knowledge, Sinn Fein in Ireland is the only major political party in any of the countries where a majority of the population is directly subjected to forced-fluoridation which does not have a fascist policy on this issue.
8. Think about who your real friends are
If someone wants to deliberately ingest extra fluoride it’s up to them, and they can take it individually just as they would take any other pharmaceutical or dietary chemical individually. In contrast, forced-fluoridation is a blatant abuse of human rights, and anyone who supports it is not your friend. Morally, an unrepentant fluoridationist is no better than an unrepentant war criminal, paedophile, or other violent criminal. Ignorance of the consequences is not a valid excuse in my opinion. | <urn:uuid:2278e673-02ea-4c00-abe0-a2b7c9145c8a> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | https://forcedfluoridationfreedomfighters.com/forced-fluoridation-getting-rid-of-it/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463607846.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20170524131951-20170524151951-00582.warc.gz | en | 0.950533 | 1,018 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Biological evolution has been in operation for a long time, billions of years. Our genomes are chock full of hitch-hiking sequences of nucleic acids that we had always thought were just “junk DNA” or “dead DNA,” without a purpose. But we are learning that junk DNA can have a useful purpose, and dead DNA can be brought to life.
…only one-fiftieth of the vast stretches of DNA that constitute our chromosomes consists of protein-coding genes. The rest of it was long looked at as little more than a junkyard composed of vast expanses of genetic gibberish.
There’s been a sea-change in scientific perceptions of “junk DNA.” In recent years the applicable metaphor has been less a junkyard than a graveyard, littered with broken skeletons of, for example, viruses and other creepy-crawlies that had curled up in the genome and gone to sleep forever.
Scattered among that detritus are a large number of pseudogenes. These are DNA sequences that closely resemble genes but don’t code for proteins. There are more than 11,000 in the human genome – that’s about one for every two bona fide protein-coding genes. Scientists figure pseudogenes are extra copies of working genes that were accidentally inserted into the genome during divisions of our ancient ancestors’ germ cells. Redundant but harmless, these DNA doppelgangers were permitted by evolution to come along for the ride. Over the intervening eons, pseudogenes have gradually piled up, mutated and decayed to the point where, it’s thought, they no longer do anything at all.
It turns out that although they don’t generate proteins, pseudogenes can generate RNA, which intrigues Stanford molecular biologist Howard Chang, MD, PhD. RNA is best known as the intermediate material in classic protein production. Gene-reading machines in cells produce RNA copies, or “transcripts,” of protein-coding genes. These RNA transcripts leave the cell nucleus and head for the cytoplasm, where they transmit genes’ instructions to protein-making machines situated there. _Stanford
Stanford scientists have been scrutinising one particular “zombie gene,” Lethe, to determine what it might accomplish once it is brought back to life.
Lethe, which the investigators found is activated by NF-kappa-B, subdues the master regulator’s massive influence on the genome, curtailing the inflammatory response. MedXPress
Scientists hope to use this discovery to unlock more of the mysteries of NF kappa B, including its effect on cancer, ageing, and other maladies.
The function of Lethe is to stop inflammation before cellular damage occurs from inflammation.
Chronic inflammation plays a role in cancer and in autoimmune, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. The continued experience of inflammation produces cellular function breakdown and has been associated with aging.
The researchers hope to use the structure of the newly discovered gene to develop new drugs that mimic the action of Lethe in stopping inflammation without producing the side effects of anti-inflammatory steroid drugs. The discovery also explains how and why anti-inflammatory steroid drugs work. Examiner
More on zombie genes:
To see which lncRNAs were induced during inflammation, Chang and his colleagues exposed cultured fibroblasts from embryonic mice to TNF-alpha, an immune-signaling protein known to trigger NF-kappa-B. They found that levels of hundreds of lncRNAs inside the cells were driven either up or down by TNF-alpha stimulation.
Of those lncRNAs, a total of 54 were copied from so-called pseudogenes: DNA sequences that, while they closely resemble genes, don’t code for proteins. More than 11,000 pseudogenes—one for every two protein-coding genes—have been identified in the human genome. Scientists believe pseudogenes are copies of actual genes that, during the replication of some ancestral organism’s germ cell, were accidentally inserted into the genome and, redundant but harmless, came along for the evolutionary ride. Over the intervening eons, these genetic doppelgangers have roamed along the genome, mutated and decayed to the point where, it is believed, they no longer do anything at all.
“Pseudogenes have been considered to be completely silent, ignored by cells’ DNA-reading machinery,” Chang said. “But we got a real surprise. When a cell is subjected to an inflammatory stress signal, it’s like Night of the Living Dead.”
Equally surprising, Chang said, is that different signaling chemicals or microbial components (such as bits of bacterial cell walls or of viral DNA) wake up different groups of lncRNA-encoding DNA sequences, including pseudogenes. “They’re not really dead, after all. They just need very specific signals to set them in motion.”
Lethe was one such pseudogene tripped off by stimulation of NF-kappa-B. Lethe directly interfered with the complex’s ability to seat itself on appropriate DNA sequences, shutting down the pro-inflammatory genes the transcription factor ordinarily activates.
Several pseudogenes were activated in a selective manner. For example, TNF-alpha and another circulating signaling protein—but not microbial parts—activated Lethe. MXP
The detectable levels of these zombie-generated non-coding RNAs rise and fall in response to the triggers which activate the zombie genes. This suggests another level of sophistication in gene expression which had been unanticipated until recently.
Some scientists believe that they can trace the history of cellular and nuclear activity by the pattern of lncRNAs over time.
Even more interesting, it may be possible to “play” these pseudogenes like a symphony, using the proper sequence of trigger stimuli.
Can you imagine the potential that may possibly be tied up in your graveyard of zombie genes? Perhaps a means to limb regeneration, a cure for ageing or degenerative diseases, or a way to build a more powerful, productive, and happy brain — from the inside out.
We have just begun to sort the workings of only one of these genes, Lethe. But the door to the tomb has been breached, and there is no telling what may be uncovered. | <urn:uuid:59a8c05c-554a-4f06-bcd4-828428acc359> | CC-MAIN-2019-47 | https://alfinnextlevel.wordpress.com/2013/07/24/zombie-genes-arise/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-47/segments/1573496664469.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20191112001515-20191112025515-00455.warc.gz | en | 0.937698 | 1,336 | 3.359375 | 3 |
Japan marks a new period of its history in in four weeks and a day. That’s when a new emperor will take the throne and a period of time will get a name.
When Japan gets a new emperor, the country gets a new era. The name: a pair of Chinese characters — forever linked with that emperor.
Since the restoration of the Chrysanthemum Throne in the 1800’s, there have only been four.
First came Meiji, or “enlightened rule,” lasting from 1868 to 1912 — the end of the samurai, and the opening to the west.
Taisho, “great righteousness,” was a period of relatively liberal democracy — ending in 1926.
The era of Showa, or “enlightened harmony,” marked the reign of Hirohito, the Second World War, post-war poverty and then economic boom — lingering until 1989.
We’re now in Heisei, or “achieving peace,” ending on May first – the day after the current emperor abdicates.
The choice of a new name has been secretive – involving scholars, a novelist, even a Nobel Prize winning stem-cell scientist. The Prime Minister makes the decision.
The new period will be “Reiwa” — spelled in English with an “r,” although there’s not really a sound like that in Japanese. It’s pronounced somewhere between an r and an l.
“Reiwa” can be translated as “order and harmony” and it marks the first time the characters have come from a collection of Japanese poetry rather than a classic Chinese text. | <urn:uuid:0def065f-7e1b-403d-a35c-e7b3142dad74> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/post/asia-minute-japan-s-new-era | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578533774.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20190422015736-20190422041736-00178.warc.gz | en | 0.917844 | 358 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Dog bites can happen for a lot of reasons, from a puppy in the teething stage nipping you to an attack by a strange dog on the street.
When dealing with dog bites, there are certain steps to take, but what to do depends upon the circumstances and severity of the injury.
Here’s our Advice on Dealing with Dog Bites
If it’s a superficial scrape or gash, clean the wound with running water, and then hydrogen peroxide or isopropyl alcohol. Apply a topical antibiotic and cover with a bandage.
First of all, don’t be afraid to let the wound bleed. Unless you’ve lost a lot of blood or it is gushing out forcefully, or the wound is in your head or neck, (in which case call 911 immediately), wait five minutes. The flow of blood out of the wound will help to cleanse it.
After five minutes, see if you can stop the bleeding through direct pressure. Again, if it doesn’t stop, call for emergency help. If it does stop, cleanse the wound by rinsing under running water with mild soap for five minutes.
Do not use rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, iodine, or Mercurochrome for puncture wounds. These can slow healing. Puncture wounds do not normally need to be bandaged, but if you choose to, be sure to clean the wound thoroughly first. Luckily, dog bites do not normally leave debris or other objects in the wound which would need to be removed.
Disease and Rabies
If you are bitten by an unknown dog, the American Red Cross suggests that you do not try to stop, catch, or hold the animal. Contact animal control as soon as possible so they can try to capture the dog, and call 911 so you can begin rabies vaccinations right away.
If the animal that bit you seems to be partially paralyzed, acts aggressively, or behaves in a strange way, then it may be rabid.
For any bite, be sure to clean and disinfect the wound thoroughly, because all animal bites can transmit bacteria and cause infection.
What to Do if Your Puppy Bites You
At a certain stage, puppies bite. It’s what they do, first when they’re teething, and then later as they try to establish dominance. The important thing to remember is that a puppy doesn’t bite you because it hates you. It bites you because you’re there, it feels something soft, and it has teeth.
Sometimes, a puppy may even break the skin but, again, the important thing to remember is that this is just a stage of the puppy’s growth. In order to deal with it, remember two things. The first is to remain calm. A nip from a puppy may hurt, but the less you react to it, the less importance your puppy will attach to it.
Second, in order to break your puppy of this habit, you need to learn the signs of when she is about to nip, then correct her with a quick pinch on the scruff just before she decides to do it. This will redirect her from her instinct to bite, and eventually teach her not to do so.
If you do get nipped, most likely it’s a superficial scratch, so see the instructions under “Superficial Wounds,” above.
What to Do if Your Dog Bites You
Follow the general procedures, and then look at the causes of the bite. If it happened during a dog fight, then it was most likely accidental — your dog was in an aggressive zone and you were in the wrong place — so it was nothing personal, and you probably don’t have to worry about your dog suddenly biting you again.
Do not discipline your dog long after the fact. She won’t connect discipline now with what she did in the past, so it will just confuse her. If she does remember biting you, she may show signs of submission afterwards (ears, tail, and head down). Practice no talk, no touch, and no eye contact for a while and remain calm.
If your dog suddenly nips at you for no apparent reason, consult your veterinarian first. This may be a sign of pain or a hidden injury, which your vet can diagnose. If there are no obvious medical causes, then you have to look at what happened leading up to the bite. For example, did you suddenly sit too close to him on the couch, try to take away a favorite toy, or get too near the food bowl while he was eating?
In those cases, you need to work with your dog to eliminate budding aggression by establishing rules, boundaries, and limitations, consulting with a professional trainer if necessary.
What to Do if Someone Else’s Dog Bites You
If the dog’s owner is present, then share names and contact numbers so you can get proof of rabies vaccination from them. Treat the wound as noted above.
Afterward, check with the dog’s veterinarian to make sure the rabies vaccine is up to date. Animal control and the police should be notified of the incident so they ensure that the owner of the dog takes steps to prevent their dog from biting someone again.
Has a dog bitten you? How did it happen? Tell us all about it in the comments. | <urn:uuid:358e860c-6559-40b4-b817-7cda0c928315> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://www.cesarsway.com/what-to-do-if-youre-bitten-by-a-dog/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100327.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20231202042052-20231202072052-00683.warc.gz | en | 0.947136 | 1,117 | 3.109375 | 3 |
What is an IPO?
An initial public offering, or IPO, is the first sale of a corporation’s common shares to investors on a public stock exchange. The main purpose of an IPO is to raise capital for the corporation. While IPOs are effective at raising capital, being listed on a stock exchange comes with heavy regulatory compliance and reporting requirements.
The term IPO only refers to the first public issuance of a company’s shares. It assumes a company is big enough, successful enough, and has the required track record to raise capital in the public equity market. If a company later sells newly issued shares again to the market, it is called a seasoned equity offering. When a shareholder sells shares, it is called a secondary offering and the shareholder, not the company that originally issued the shares, retains the proceeds of the offering. These terms are often confused and only a company which issues shares can make a primary offering or IPO. Secondary offerings occur on the secondary market, where shareholders (not the issuing company) buy and sell shares from and to each other.
General Motors executives are playing up three bright spots in the company’s future as they try to persuade investors to buy GM stock: a better lineup of cars and trucks, potential for global growth and a new cost structure that enables the company to make money even when the economy dips.
GM emerged from a government-organized bankrupcty just 16 months ago, the re-organization has erased debt and lowered labor costs. The re-organization has left the old stockholders with nothing.
Today GM is owned by both the Canadian and US govenment, the total IPO being presently issued by GM is $10 billion, demand is so hight that brokers have taken orders for as much as $60 billion US worth of shares.
1. Do your own research on IPO’s, why is there such a demand?
2. Due to the hight demand, do you think GM will increase the IPO to $60 billion?
3. Why do you think the GM shares are in such high demand?
Find out More! | <urn:uuid:6ed71c3e-a784-4b5b-a87e-7cf12ebc0077> | CC-MAIN-2019-39 | https://wileyaccountingupdates.ca/2010/11/14/gm-ipo/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514573264.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20190918085827-20190918111827-00265.warc.gz | en | 0.968748 | 432 | 2.59375 | 3 |
The Raw Materials
Scotch Whisky is made from only three ingredients, BARLEY, WATER and YEAST. All of these ingredients are used in their purest, unadulterated, natural form. However, two of the most important flavouring influences are OAK CASKS that are used for maturation of the new spirit, and PEAT which is (traditionally) used to fire the kilns that dry the barley, where it also imparts distinctive flavours. We'll consider each of these materials below.
|Barley contributes more in way of flavour than any of the other cereals and the best flavoured grain spirits are those which use the highest percentage of barley in their mash.||Barley starting to germinate, now known as "green malt". The grain stores its energy as starch which it converts to sugar as it begins to grow.||The green malt must be turned regularly to keep it cool and prevent the rootlets from becoming matted. Very few distilleries today carry out this practice with most malting carried out in large automated factories.|
Barley is a cereal crop of the genus Horndeum, a grass-type crop which yields starchy seeds rich in carbohydrates and suitable for food. It is arguably, the easiest of all cereals to grow, hence its popularity from the earliest times and thankfully for the Scots, varieties which thrive in the cold and wet have been cultivated for thousands of years. Subsequent developments in farming have led to new varieties and strains of barley such as Puffin, Pipkin, Camargue, Prisma and Golden Promise, which give higher yields in the field, tougher and shorter straw for better harvesting, improved malting capabilities and subsequently higher yields in the distillery. More importantly, barley is the reason why malt whisky tends to taste 'better' than other kinds of whisky: quite simply, it contributes more flavour than other cereals. If you've ever tasted a grain whisky (made mainly from maize or some other grain like wheat), you'll have noticed they're much lighter flavours. As to whether the type of barley used effects whisky (as it does in beer production), there is little agreement within the whisky industry at present though Macallan, who almost exclusively use Golden Promise barley to make their single malts, have long believed it contributes to a superior product.
It's been said that while brewing beer requires around ten litres of water for every litre of ale, to get the same volume of whisky requires closer to 100 litres of water. Not surprisingly, distilleries usually have their own water supplies, often a loch or spring to which they own exclusive rights. The available water often dictates the siting of a distillery at the outset, and it's common for all distilleries to claim that their water is 'the best in the whole of Scotland'. It's certainly true that Highland water is very pure as there is no heavy industry or intensive farming to contaminate so it's usually used at the distillery untreated save for basic filtering to remove foreign matter. Water is involved in every stage of the production process: To steep the barley prior to malting and for mashing the grist in the mash tun; to cool the condensers (or worm tubs) and finally, if desired, to reduce the finished product to a standard alcohol strength prior to bottling.
Yeast is a fungus or mould, a single-cell organism containing enzymes, biochemical catalysts which cause certain chemical reactions to take place. The obvious reaction which interests brewers and distillers is that which converts sugars into alcohol. Yeast is usually inactive in its stored state. In distilling, it is activated by the temperature of the wort in the washback. The yeast multiplies at a phenomenal rate during the fermentation, feeding on the sugars in the wort, and it is eventually killed by the very alcohol it produces. Distillers commonly use two types of yeast, Brewer's Yeast which is produced as a by-product in the brewing industry with a comparatively short shelf-life and Cultured Yeast which is grown on suitable nutrients under laboratory conditions with a far higher viability. The second important requirement of yeast is its contribution to flavour which, as in wine production, tends to be strain dependent.
If you love peaty whiskies but don't quite understand why they taste like they do, it's because of peat, or more precisely, peat smoke, which when burnt releases chemicals called phenols. These phenols are absorbed by the malted barley during the drying process in a kiln. The level of phenols is measured in ''PPM' (parts per million) and controlled by the length of time that the barley is exposed to the smoke, the amount of smoke produced and the type of peat used.
Even if 'bogs' are not your thing, peat is actually far more fascinating than first impressions might suggest. It is a relic of the Carboniferous period some 300 million years ago when much of what is now Britain was swampland. As trees, roots, ferns, grasses, animals and even people died or fell into the swamps they were subsumed into the stagnant water and partially decomposed, but did not rot away entirely. Instead an organic fuel formed by their decomposition. Peat is black because of its rich carbon content (the CO2 is not released into the atmosphere as normally takes place in decomposition around oxygen). Yet compared to wood, peat is relatively inefficient to burn. Without a proper furnace, it tends to smoke rather than create much heat.
For a long time a lack of alternative fuel forced 'Highlanders' to burn peat. Coal was simply too expensive for most and there were few trees. The situation began to change around the turn of the 1960's, with the help of technological progress in large industrial scale maltings. It then became possible to produce vast quantities of malted barley without peat. Speyside and Lowland distilleries were amongst the first to change to coke (a high carbon form of coal) as a combustible, as new railway networks to transport the fuel encouraged the transition. Remoter regions like Islay persisted with peat.
Today, there's no question that peat-smoke derived flavours in whiskies are increasingly desirable. Consequently, peat is now used not only on Islay by the likes of Ardbeg, but also on Orkney, in the Highlands, Campbeltown, as well as in Speyside. Peat is usually extracted close to the distillers or maltsters. Distilleries prefer the top part of the bog, because the upper crust of peat found there tends to be 'richer', more rooty and generate more smoke and impart more flavour.
At some stage of his or her drinking career, every hairy chested peat freak has probably wondered "Why don't peaty whiskies all have the same kind of 'peatiness'." Instead, we find that peat comes in a remarkable array of sensory guises, and also contributes an almost oily mouth feel, as well as added depth, richness and sweetness. Its flavours are expressed differently in whiskies from different distilleries and range from notes reminiscent of lanolin, wet wool, iodine, seaweed, bacon, tobacco smoke, engine oil, tar, manure and wet earth.
As much of Scotland is (in parts) covered by a meter-thick layer of peat, it's been supposed that different types of organic matter in the different regions, have created different types of peat which impart, in turn, different flavours to the finished whisky. For example, historically there have been few trees on the Orkney islands so there are no tree roots in the peat, making it lighter and quicker to burn. Whiskies from this area, like Highland Park, tend to have a more lightly smoked flavour than Islay malts.
Is this an argument for 'peat' and 'terroir'?
Three examples of smokey style whiskies, made using varying degrees of peat.
Laphroaig often posseses a slight medicinal character. Ardbeg in the centre, also from the island of Islay is renowned for its full throttle peat experience that tends to polarise whisky lovers, while Ledaig is an unusual expression from the Isle of Mull, made at the Tobermory Distillery.
Patrick Brossard of http://www.whisky-news.com recently reported on a study that approaches this question. In 2009, B.M. Harrison and F.G. Priest published an article on the composition of peat in the production of Scotch Whisky and the influence of its geographical source, extraction depth and burning temperature: "Peat samples from four locations (Islay, Orkney, St. Fergus (Aberdenshire), and Tomintoul (Speyside) were analyzed using Curie point pyrolysis in combination with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry".
[As in the simpler process of distillation where small molecules fly out first, followed by the big ones (so alcohol is separated from water), with gas chromatography a sample is heated to evaporation in order to release volatile compounds. Since all the molecules of a given structure will behave more or less identically, they exit the machine collectively and at the same time. As each 'puff' of molecules is released, a computer generated graph peaks corresponding to the most abundant chemical compounds. The higher the peak, the greater the number of molecules of acertain type are present].
"In total, out of the 106 products identified, 92 compounds were having a significant effect on the separation of the four geographical locations. The compounds were broadly split into the following classes: phenolic compounds, carbohydrate derivatives (“sugars”), aromatic compounds, and nitrogen-containing compounds".
"The ratio of phenol derivatives (carbohydrate derivatives to guaiacols, syringols, and phenols) was the major discriminator between the samples of the different geographical regions, explaining more than 60% of the variance. St. Fergus and Islay samples were characterized by high percentages of guaiacols (aromas described as aromatic, phenolic, burnt, woody, bacon, savoury, smoky, and medicinal), syringols (aromas described as aromatic, phenolic, spicy, smoky, baconlike, sweet, medicinal, creamy, meaty, and vanilla), and phenols (aromas described as aromatic, phenolic, burnt, woody, bacon, savoury, smoky, and medicinal) in the pyrolysate [i.e. burnt peat]. Relatively high proportions of carbohydrate derivatives in the [burnt peat] characterized Tomintoul and Orkney samples."
"In the distillate (new make), the origin of the peat could be clearly identified by analytical methods. By sensory analysis (by “human nose”), the spirits using Tomintoul (Speyside) peat were more medicinal than the spirit using Hobbister (Orkney) peat. The level of peat aroma was low in the St-Fergus spirit (Aberdeenshire) despite a high abundance of aromatic peaty aromas, but the spirit was sweet, spicy and medicinal."
The upshot of the study indicates that the source of peat will have an impact on the flavour of the whisky. It's a conclusion which may reignite the debate over Scotch whisky 'terroir' beyond the simplistic Highlands / Islands / Lowlands trichotomy.
As a footnote, to this subject, it's also been suggested that peat flavours can be derived via the use of water which flows naturally over and/or through uncut peat beds. However, research indicates peat water contains only a few ppm (parts by million) of peat, which while enough to colour the water brown, contributes little or nothing to whisky flavour.
The chemical processes behind maturation of spirits in oak barrels are at least as complex as they are for wine, but even more fundamental to the end result. Phillip Hills comments "[Barrel] maturation is easily the most important part of the [Scotch] whisky production process as regards flavour. A malt whisky acquires more than half of its flavour during maturation; some would say as much as 80 per cent of the final flavour of the spirit comes from the cask."
Historically, a wide variety of casks were purchased for Scotch Whisky production including former Sauternes, Sherry, Madeira, Bordeaux, Port, Moscatel and Burgundy barrels. Nowadays, barrels which have previously contained Sherry or Bourbon are typically used, though Bourbon barrels are now more common: Firstly because they're cheaper, and secondly because x-Bourbon barrels have all of the harsh tannin removed, resulting in a smoother spirit. Glenmorangie's Dr. Bill Lumsden makes an interesting distinction: The first time such barrels are filled with Scotch whisky, they tend to impart toffee, caramel and creme brulee characteristics, whereas second fill casks are where floral and citrus flavours emerge. He also insists that by the time the second fill is matured, the barrel is no longer suitable for whisky production. By changing the ratio of first to second fill wood, a range of flavour profiles can be achieved. There are other variables: Low char new oak contributes 'sizzling' warmth & European oloroso sherry oak casks contribute buttery/vanilla notes. For some time now, Glenmorangie have been pioneering new research into the why and how of spirit maturation with huge dollars devoted to research and development to find the right wood source for casks. Other distilleries are now waking up to this and are becoming more conscientious about oak selection.
Three examples of Highland Single Malt Whisky, each bottled at a different age.
Many consider 12 - 18 years in barrel to be the optimum period before bottling Scotch, however the mysteries of oak maturation can yield stunning results well passed 20 years of age. They are probably more the exception than the rule.
The optimum period for the barrel maturation of spirits is to some extent a matter of taste and type, however, for Scotch whiskies, the consensus seems to be around 12 to 18 years. At greater ages many whiskies (and other spirits) fall out of balance and become unpleasantly woody, yet others can go on to reach fifty years or more and remain undiminished. Because some whiskies mature faster than others depending upon a host of variables, it is only sensible that distillers and blenders concern themselves more with balance and maturity than age for the sake of age.
The Pot Still process by which Malt Whisky is made may be divided into four main stages: Malting, Mashing, Fermentation and Distillation.
Harvested barley is first screened to remove any foreign matter and then soaked for two or three days in tanks of water known as steeps. It's then spread out on a concrete floor known as the malting floor and allowed to germinate. Germination may take from 8 to 12 days depending on the season of the year, the quality of the barley used and other factors. During germination, barley secretes the enzyme diastase which makes the starch in the barley soluble, thus preparing it for conversion into sugar. Throughout this period the barley must be turned at regular intervals to control the temperature and rate of germination.
At the appropriate moment germination is stopped, otherwise the seed would continue to grow until all the sugars where consumed. This is achieved by drying the malted barley or green malt in a malt kiln. More usually nowadays malting is carried out in Saladin boxes or in drum maltings, in both of which the process is controlled mechanically. Instead of germinating on the distillery floor, the grain is contained in large rectangular boxes (Saladin) or in large cylindrical drums. Temperature is controlled by blowing air at selected temperatures upwards through the germinating grain, which is turned mechanically. A recent development caused by the rapid expansion of the Scotch Whisky industry is for distilleries to obtain their malt from centralised maltings which supply a number of distilleries, thereby enabling the malting process to be carried out more economically. More traditional distilleries will still use a clean coke fire to dry the barley with the peat burnt on top of the coke to give whatever degree of 'smokiness' is desired. When peat is burnt, chemical compounds in it adhere to the malted barley and remain throughout the life of the whisky, diminished only by extended periods of oak maturation.
Dried malt from the kiln is crunchy and pleasantly sweet. In this state, it's easily ground in a mill with the resulting grist, as it's now called, then mixed with hot water in a large circular vessel called a mash tun, usually made out of cast iron or stainless steel. The soluble starch is thus converted into a sugary liquid known as wort. This is drawn off from the mash tun and the solids remaining are removed for use as cattle food. Importantly, the degree of filtration of the mash can effect the flavour of the whisky, and the presence of some solid material in the wort has been found to be beneficial.
After cooling, the wort is passed into large vessels known as 'washbacks', holding anything from 9,000 to 45,000 litres of liquid where it is fermented by the addition of yeast. The living yeast attacks the sugar in the wort and converts it into crude alcohol. Fermentation takes about 48 hours and produces a liquid known as wash, containing alcohol of low strength (essentially beer), some unfermentable matter and certain by-products of fermentation such as esters, fatty acids and aldehydes amongst many other compounds believed to be significant to a whisky's final flavour. Some distillers consider wooden washbacks to be superior to stainless steel (and vice versa) though both seem to result in good whisky.
Malt Whisky is distilled twice in large copper Pot Stills in which the liquid wash is heated to a point at which the alcohol becomes vapour. This rises up the still and is passed into the cooling plant where it is condensed into liquid state. The cooling plant frequently takes the form of a coiled copper tube or worm that is kept in continuously running cold water.
The first distillation takes place in large wash stills, and separates the 99% of the alcohol from the fermented liquid and eliminates the residue of the yeast and unfermentable matter. Now much reduced in volume, the resulting liquid, known as low wines (approx 21% Alc./Vol.), is ready to be passed into another still to be distilled a second time. The first runnings from this second distillation (known as 'foreshots' or 'heads') are not considered potable, and by experience a distiller learns to re-direct these back into the low wines receiver to be distilled again. It is the middle part of the distillation (often referred to as the heart) when the spirit reaches an acceptable standard that it's collected in the spirit receiver. Towards the end of the batch, again, the spirit begins to fall off in strength and quality. Known as the 'tail' or 'aftershots' It is no longer collected as spirit but drawn off and kept, together with the first running, for redistillation with the next low wines. Consequently, pot still distillation is a batch process. (Some distilleries re-heat the middle cut to further exclude all but the purest ethanol from the new middle cut - this is a triple distillation). The 'heart' of the distillation is destined to become whisky, but before extended maturation in oak, this 'new make spirit' is more like a high proof vodka or tequila - crystal clear, usually with subtle fruity, flowery aromas and a sweet, spicy flavour profile. Smelling or tasting fresh whisky distillate serves to illustrate the profound impact that wood maturation has on whisky flavour.
Making Grain Whisky
The chemical processes which take place during the manufacture of grain spirit are broadly similar to those which occur when malt whisky is made. Both the raw materials and the equipment are different, however. The mash from which grain whisky is made uses unmalted cereals - usually wheat or maize, it doesn't matter which, so distilleries can buy at the best price - together with a small amount of 'green'malt (barley which has germinated but not been kilned). Usually about 16% of malt is added: it has to be there to convert the starches in the other cereals into sugar, so it can be turned into alcohol by the yeast.
Mashing and Fermenting
The cereals are finely milled then cooked at high temperatures in a pressure cooker. The pressure is provided by the direct injection of steam, and the purpose of the cooking is to soften the husks of the grain and dissolve the starch into solution.The slurry thus created is cooled and transferred to the mash tun, where a measured amount of green malted barley is waiting, and the whole lot is mashed (i.e., converted into a sugar solution), as for malt whisky.
Oils in the maize
The wort, and any solids it contains, is drained off after an hour or so, cooled and pumped to a fermentation vessel, where yeast cream is added. Fermentation continues for forty-eight hours, during which time the sugar is converted into alcohol (at between 6% and 7%) and carbon dioxide.The wash for grain whisky does not bubble quite so vigorously, because of the oils in the maize. It is also lower in alcohol. | <urn:uuid:2aa90190-e13c-47d0-b39d-18159849b8e2> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | https://www.nicks.com.au/making-scotch-whisky-76.1068 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886126027.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20170824024147-20170824044147-00262.warc.gz | en | 0.954563 | 4,528 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Are you sick and tired of those spindly little tomato cages that fall over just about the time the fruit is ready to harvest? Fed up with bamboo canes that snap midseason? Maybe it's time for some heavy equipment. Cattle panels refuse to bow even to the most vigorous beefsteak.
About Cattle Panels
Cattle panels are a type of moveable fencing used to corral livestock. They are typically 4 feet high and 16 feet long and made of heavy-gauge wire. The wires are not woven but rather are welded where they touch to create 6-by-6-inch squares. Panels with smaller openings are also available for other livestock, such as sheep, goats and hogs. Because they are designed to keep cattle enclosed, cattle panels are very strong, which makes them a very useful for supporting tomatoes.
If you have only a few tomato plants, cattle panels might be overkill for your garden, but if you are going into major canning mode, they can be a real help. Cattle panels can be used as is or bent or cut into different shapes. If you grow your tomatoes in long rows, simply pound three or four T-posts into the ground down the center of the row. Attach the cattle panel to the T-posts using cable ties or wire. Plant the tomatoes about a foot apart from one another on both sides of the panel. Stagger the planting so that no two plants are directly opposite each other. As the tomatoes grow, tie the stems to the wires. By the time the tomatoes are ready to pick, you will have a wall of tomatoes.
If you have raised beds or smaller spaces, cut the cattle panels to fit inside your garden. Cattle panels can also be formed into a circle, with the tomatoes planted inside and outside of the support. Because the wires form 6-inch squares, there is plenty of room to reach in and pick the fruit when it ripens. Cattle panels allow you to grow tomatoes closer together, which helps to crowd out the weeds.
Things to Consider
Cattle panels are large, so you will need a truck to transport them. They are not usually available at garden centers, but they should be in stock at farm supply and feed stores. The panels are more costly than smaller tomato cages, but they are extremely durable, so you will only have to purchase them once. The panels are a bit unwieldy, so get some help when moving them. If you choose to cut them, a hacksaw with a metal cutting blade works well.
- Hemera Technologies/Photos.com/Getty Images | <urn:uuid:ea8391db-b35f-4824-a3a7-8dd5056187fb> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://homeguides.sfgate.com/ways-stake-tomatoes-cattle-panels-68942.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719437.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00471-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953058 | 537 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Traditions and Holidays
Taste the twelve Christmas Eve dishes, take part in the Epiphany procession, dye eggs for Easter, and douse people with water on Śmigus-dyngus day. Celebrate the Polish way.
Traditions and holidays
Learn about our traditions and holidays and you will never again wonder at soaking wet people on the streets during Easter time. You will know why we feel proud on the 3rd of May.
Day of the flag
Day of the Polish Armed Forces / Assumption of the Virgin Mary
All Saints Day
National Independence Day
New Year's Eve
Christmas is one of the most festive Catholic celebrations in Poland. It plays a major part in Polish culture and tradition.
Christmas wafer: a symbol of reconciliation
No Christmas Eve supper in Poland can pass without the Christmas wafer or opłatek, a thin slice of bread made of white flour.
Polish baubles have a soul
Poland is one of the most valued Christmas bauble manufacturers in the world. Hand-made baubles are little masterpieces.
New Year’s Eve
In Poland, you can spend this special night 250 metres below the ground, at an open-air concert, at the opera or in a monastery, amongst many other places.
Corpus Christi Traditions
The dance of sacred pictures in Kashubia, floral carpets in Spycimierz and colourful folk dress at a procession in Łowicz are among the sights and sounds to be admired during the holiday of Corpus Christi.
Corpus Christi celebrations in Łowicz: a step closer to the UNESCO list
The procession of Corpus Christi in Łowicz has a chance of becoming the first Polish tradition on UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage.
Miracle of the Vistula
The Assumption of the Virgin Mary is celebrated on 15 August. The same day also marks the Day of the Polish Armed Forces, which is linked to the anniversary of the Battle of Warsaw in 1920, also known as the ‘Miracle of the Vistula.’
St Andrew’s Eve fortune-telling traditions
A man whom a maid saw in her dreams on St Andrew’s Eve, that is on the night between 29 and 30 November, was destined to be her husband. Today, people who believe in such signs are few and far between, but St Andrew’s Eve still remains an occasion for fun, dances and social gatherings.
Poland’s Independence Day commemorates the country’s regained independence on 11th November 1918 after 123 years of partitions and rule by Russia, Prussia and Austria.
Krakow crèches go on show
The Holy Family in the company of the Wawel Dragon against the backdrop of St. Mary’s Church are permanent features of Krakow’s crèches.
Three Kings’ processions make their way across Poland
On 6 January, Three Kings’ processions featuring Caspars, Melchiors and Balthazars along with devils, angels and Herods make their way down the streets of numerous Polish cities.
It is the oldest and the most important Christian feast in Poland, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Not just painted eggs
Walking through the village with a crowing rooster or decorating floors with sand are just some of the regional Easter traditions which have survived in Poland.
Poles love to spend Labour Day together with their families and friends, enjoying the so-called majówka, the May holidays.
National 3rd of May Holiday
On May 3, 1791, the Constitution of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was adopted.
The exhibition “Holiday-Making Traditions in Poland and Europe” is brought to life by smells, which evoke the aura of Polish holidays.
Polish folk rituals at the click of a button
Śmiergust, the pilgrimage to the shrine of Warmia and beheading the kite are new entries in the Polish and English versions of Wikipedia. Explanations of the terms was written up by ethnologists of the National Museum of Ethnography together with the creators of the online encyclopaedia. | <urn:uuid:db6ef576-afff-4fac-83c7-2bdf539d94ee> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | https://poland.pl/tourism/traditions-and-holidays/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917123048.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031203-00060-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920859 | 884 | 2.703125 | 3 |
A painting of the Pink Terraces by Charles Blomfield.
The discovery of the remains of the famed Pink Terraces
at the bottom of Rotorua's Lake Rotomahana is "huge", a
The world-famous Pink and White Terraces were promoted as a
tourism wonder before vanishing during the 1886 eruption of
Mt Tarawera in the Bay of Plenty. They were thought to have
"I think it's huge," project leader Cornel de Ronde, of the
Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS), told
"The Pink and White Terraces were an integral part of New
Zealand folklore, they were iconic and certainly for local
iwi they are a big deal spiritually."
Scientists were overjoyed to find parts of the Pink Terraces:
"They thought they were exquisite and couldn't believe the
complexity of them," he said.
The terraces held cultural significance for the nation.
"It must be very strong in the psyche of what is a New
Zealander . . . I think a lot of people would be very pleased
to hear that they're still around," Dr de Ronde said.
The discovery was made this week during a joint New Zealand
and American project to map the lake floor and investigate
the geothermal system.
Two underwater vehicles collected side-scan sonar and
bathymetric data, which showed crescent-shaped terraced
structures in about 60m of water where the terraces were
prior to 1886.
Scientists recorded water temperature, acidity, electrical
conductivity, depth, and clarity, as well as mapping the
volcanic rocks beneath the lake floor and indicating the
types of rock.
GNS today revealed underwater photos showing terrace edges
and lake floor sediments.
The team found no sign of the larger White Terraces, after
scanning the entire lake, but Dr de Ronde did not rule out
the possibility they had also survived the eruption.
Lake Rotomahana is 115m deep at its deepest point, and the
mapping located hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the lake.
The pink terraces were originally on the west bank of the
lake and the white ones were on the north side, and
researchers said there was possibility parts survived the
eruption, particularly the white terraces which were
protected from the explosion by a ridge.
At the time, they were the largest silica terraces in the
world and represented an enormous flow of geothermal fluid
into the lake from vents on land. Now they are thought to be
covered by at least 50m of lake water plus an additional
sediment layer of unknown thickness.
The project is a collaboration involving GNS Science, the
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in the US, Waikato
University, and the Te Arawa Lakes Trust Board. | <urn:uuid:4af96f4a-ae85-46fa-8f0b-6ab824c03de4> | CC-MAIN-2014-35 | http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/146322/pink-terrace-find-huge-nz | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1409535922763.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20140909050914-00254-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973164 | 614 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease affecting the lungs that is spread through droplets in the air from sneezing, speaking, etc. TB is treatable but can lead to serious complications such as back pain, meningitis, and liver problems. TB has been a major issue plaguing Africa, especially South Africa, for years because of poor health services and the emergence of a multi-drug resistant strain of TB. Most people are not even aware they are infected because the symptoms can be very mild. The disease usually occurs in low to middle-income areas and usually affects the homeless, prisoners, and immigrants. Another issue with the TB epidemic is that most of the people being affected are already infected with HIV/AIDS, making TB easier to transmit to those who are already immunocompromised.
The WHO implemented a successful strategy, called DOTS, to help slow down the spread of TB in Africa. The main goal of DOTS is to prevent transmission, prevent illness, and cure active cases. Another organization that has aided in the fight against TB is The Union Against TB and Lung Disease. The Union has helped bring TB research, education, and preventative actions to low and middle-income populations around Africa.
Unfortunately, TB has not been given enough attention by anthropologists. Without knowing the care-seeking behaviors of individuals within a population, it is difficult to properly deliver treatment and education. What we do know is that most people in Africa delay receiving treatment for TB because they fear being infected with AIDS or they believe their illness was caused by witchcraft. Many of these people are not seeking a biological cause for their symptoms because they are under the false impression that their illness is the work of spirits. With additional social science research, we can get a better idea of how to administer and improve treatment for those suffering from TB in Africa.
Shrestha-Kuwahara et al. “Tuberculosis Research and Control.” CDC. Accessed June 29, 2015. https://findtbresources.cdc.gov/material/anthrop_contrib.pd
World Health Organization. “Tuberculosis.” Reviewed March 2015. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs104/en/ | <urn:uuid:53ede7ce-228d-4d94-9cd0-6a2b54ef7adb> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | http://anthropology.msu.edu/anp204-us15/2015/06/29/w6-activity-tuberculosis-in-africa-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439737039.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20200806210649-20200807000649-00541.warc.gz | en | 0.960489 | 464 | 3.375 | 3 |
A great number of children prefer to sleep in in the morning, and sometimes, accompanied with some severely bad mood. Parents are confused by such annoyed children got up on the wrong side of the bed. Some parents can’t hold their temper, therefore, they will yelling at them, hit them, or with horrible noise. Of course, your children has already got mad. They will wake up crying. So it is difficulty to be a gentle wakeup call.
Here are some tips to wake up your child effectively.
- With the slow music
When your toddler still lie in the bed, but it is time to go to school, you can attempt to choose the slow music, for instance, piano music. Slow music and the low voice can make him a harmonious environment. He has no excuse to lose his temper.
- With the delicious breakfast
Put the delicious breakfast beside his bed. The piggish one will wake up by himself for the air is full of smell sweet.
- With the gentle light
The gentle light can make his vision system wake up. So keep the curtain open is the best choice.
- Call his name or touch him gently
Touch his arms gently. When he gradually open his eyes, you can smile to him, and say good morning to him. The best beginning will make him have a good mood. | <urn:uuid:79be362d-6cf0-4785-b0f8-429f11f02953> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | http://mmebaby.com/child-like-to-sleep-in-be-a-wakeup-call-to-yelling-at-him/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934806309.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20171121002016-20171121022016-00408.warc.gz | en | 0.975919 | 277 | 2.53125 | 3 |
(1893-1970) – Writer and campaigner
Vera Brittain was born in Staffordshire. She won an exhibition to read English at Somerville. In 1915, after just one year, she left the college to work as a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD). Brittain’s fiancé, her brother and two close friends all died during the War. When she returned to Somerville, she changed her degree course to Modern History, hoping to understand the causes of the conflict.
Brittain became a committed pacifist and in a 1930 Armistice Day article in the Manchester Guardian she framed the challenge for her generation: ‘How to preserve the memory of our suffering in such a way that our successors may understand it and refrain from the temptations offered by glamour and glory – that is the problem which we, the war generation, still have to solve before the darkness covers it.’ Her elegiac memoir Testament of Youth is one of the greatest portraits of life in the First World War. When it was published in 1933 its first print-run sold out within a day.
Although Brittain’s pacifism fell out of favour with the onset of the Second World War, her reputation was restored when Testament of Youth was reprinted by Virago in 1978. In 2013, the Guardian described it ‘one of the most powerful and widely read war memoirs of all time’. Brittain’s daughter (and fellow Somervillian), the politician Shirley Williams, said her mother ‘had no idea that she was going to be a permanent figure in the literary canon’.
Did you know? Virginia Woolf stayed up all night so that she could finish reading Testament of Youth. She wrote to a friend saying that it was ‘A very good book of its sort. The new sort, the hard anguished sort, that the young write; that I could never write. Nor has anyone written that kind of book before.’ | <urn:uuid:d19f3e6a-f782-4259-aff9-71a2341ea024> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.some.ox.ac.uk/eminent/vera-brittain/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337415.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003101805-20221003131805-00003.warc.gz | en | 0.976197 | 415 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, looks more like Venus and Mars than astronomers ever suspected—at least when it comes to suffering a severe strike from the solar wind.
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft made a flyby of Titan in December 2013 that offered a unique opportunity for scientists, in newly reported observations. For the first time, scientists caught a close glimpse of the large moon when it was outside Saturn’s protective magnetic field.
The solar wind, basically fast-flowing charged particles, continually blasts out from the sun and past the entire solar system.
Earth’s magnetic field shields the atmosphere from being stripped away by the solar wind. By studying the solar wind’s impacts on worlds lacking a global magnetic field, like Venus, Mars, and now Titan, scientists learn about their atmospheres and how their chemistry changes under solar assault.
Titan spends about 95 percent of its time around Saturn, within the planet’s strong, protective magnetosphere. So Cassini mission planners were excited to observe the moon exposed and naked in the solar wind during the 2013 flyby. The visit allowed them to see the shock wave produced around Titan as the fast-flowing solar particles slammed directly into the moon’s unprotected atmosphere.
“We observed that Titan interacts with the solar wind very much like Mars, if you moved it to the distance of Saturn,” said Cesar Bertucci of the Institute of Astronomy and Space Physics in Buenos Aires, who led the research with colleagues from the Cassini mission.
Despite the complicated chemistry of thick methane-rich skies, Titan’s atmosphere seems to have responded to the solar wind in essentially the same way as the red planet, which has a much thinner atmosphere than Earth or Saturn's big moon.
“We thought Titan in this state would look different,” Bertucci said. “We certainly were surprised.”
Now researchers believe these new findings suggest that regardless of where unmagnetized planets lie in the solar system, they all interact with the solar wind in the same way.
See for Yourself
Backyard sky-watchers can glimpse both Saturn and Titan through even the smallest telescope. Look for the stately lord of the rings in the southern sky just before dawn.
Saturn is the yellow-tinged bright object standing above the orange-hued star Antares, which is the lead member of the constellation Scorpius, the Scorpion. At the tip of one of the claws of the mythical arachnid is Saturn.
While the ringed planet itself is easily viewed with unaided eyes, to resolve its majestic rings and its retinue of moons, a small telescope is needed.
Shining at ninth magnitude, Titan is the second largest moon in the entire solar system and the only one to possess a thick atmosphere. Not surprisingly, it is the brightest and easiest of the 62 moons, and counting, of Saturn to spot. | <urn:uuid:d3d55dad-c87c-417c-b8b8-12bd64a1ce20> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/01/150130-starstruck-titan-saturn-moon-planets-science/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084888302.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20180119224212-20180120004212-00533.warc.gz | en | 0.937488 | 608 | 4.0625 | 4 |
College vs Work
Choosing what to do after high school can lead to a consideration of a number of options: join the military, join the Peace Corps, go to college, get a job and enter the workforce. This article looks at the choice of college or work and discusses the pros and cons of college vs work.
The Figures Are In
College loans can be a reason why people opt for work over college. But the increased income college graduates earn when they enter the workforce can make up for this. For most people, the statistics show that college is a better choice economically in the long run.
In addition to the direct benefits of a liberal education, a study of workers aged 25 and up in 2006 showed that the median income of someone who had only completed high school was $27,380, while those with a bachelor’s degree had a median income of $46,440. Increased job flexibility, increased savings, and better consumer decision-making were other, ancillary benefits of a college degree as determined in a 1998 study by the Institute for Higher Education.
So Why Choose Work?
This does not necessarily, however, help the person who can’t afford college in the short-run. Some people choose to spend a few years working in order to afford college in the future. A situation in which there is family or personal debt may make paying back money owed more pressing than continuing one’s education.
There are also cases in which college does not serve a high school graduate’s dreams. For example, a person who has already worked in the job out of which he or she wants to make a career may do better working in that industry, possibly apprenticing him or herself to someone skilled in the field. There are a number of auto mechanics, for example, who have learned the business by working in a garage rather than by getting a degree and official job training.
There are also people who may be fully qualified in their field by the end of high school. Students who have taken the opportunity to do vocational training during their high school career. High school vocational education may have provided sufficient training - whether in culinary arts, landscaping, or some other field - that the graduate is prepared to work in his or her chosen field without further education. Artisans, such as weavers and other craftspeople, may also find themselves prepared to turn their attention fully to work after high school.
There are also people for whom “regular work” is just a way to earn a living, while the main focus of their efforts is elsewhere. This situation can arise for people in the performing arts - whether an aspiring rock band or an actor - who just needs to keep paying the rent and eat while pursuing a career in another field for which college is not necessary.
Not Everyone Fits the Mold
While it is true in general that lack of a college degree will diminish a person’s lifetime earnings and job flexibility, this is by no means always true. And the cases in which it is not true are often those of inventors and entrepreneurs: people who are doing and making something new that doesn’t fit the mold and the common path.
Soichiro Honda is one example. The only reason Honda even went to high school was to get information he needed to solve engineering problems he encountered in his out-of-school experiments. Grades and attendance weren’t important to him, and when the principal challenged him, he left willingly, and started his first company in his early twenties and Honda Motor Company in his early forties.
In our own time and country, Bill Gates and Paul Allen of Microsoft, Larry Ellison of Oracle, and Michael Dell of Dell, are all college dropouts. They began by following the conventional wisdom and enrolling, and ended up taking a different route because college didn’t serve their ends.
So in the end, the choice is something of a personal one. While, in general, choosing college after high school makes sense economically and in other ways, there are a number of situations in which choosing work can be the best choice for an individual.
US Department of Education: Digest of Education Statistics: “Table 372. Distribution of earnings and median earnings of persons 25 years old and over, by highest level of educational attainment and sex: 2006” - nces.ed.gov
Eric Digests - ericdigests.org | <urn:uuid:7ad3da85-f155-4e9a-bcc5-947a6c691f5a> | CC-MAIN-2014-23 | http://www.educationbug.org/a/college-vs-work.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1406510264575.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20140728011744-00358-ip-10-146-231-18.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977668 | 905 | 2.609375 | 3 |
From the 2003 South African Maths Olympiad:
The first four digits of a positive integer n are 1137. Prove that the digits of n can be shuffled in such a way that the new number is divisible by seven.
This seems hard to believe. Then again, it appeared in a competition, so it’s probably true.
Even if it is true, it does not look at all easy to prove…
Enough chit-chat. It must be the case that the digits 1137 themselves can be arranged to form a multiple of seven, otherwise the statement is false. So which arrangement works?
1137? No, that leaves remainder 3 when divided by seven.
1173? No, that leaves remainder 4.
1317? No, remainder 1.
1371? No, remainder 6.
This is going well…
1713? No, remainder 5.
1731? No, remainder 2.
That’s all the arrangements starting with a 1.
3117? No remainder 2.
3171? Yes! 3171 is a multiple of 7. Finally.
That took a while. Actually, we hit every possible remainder when dividing by 7: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
Hang on – we can get any remainder we like by picking a suitable arrangement of 1137.
I think we’re done. Whatever n looks like, we can move the 1137 from the start to the end, and then rearrange these four digits to obtain a multiple of seven, as desired.
To be clear, suppose n = 11379. Move the 1137 to the end: 91137. Now, 90000 leaves remainder 1 when divided by 7, and 1371 leaves remainder 6. So 91371 is a multiple of 7.
Another example. Suppose n = 1137420. Move the 1137 to the end: 4201137. Now, 4200000 is a multiple of 7, and 3171 is a multiple of 7. So 4203171 is also multiple of 7!
Incredible. By taking ages to find a multiple of 7 among the digits 1137, we’ve actually solved the problem. There is enough flexibility in those four digits to control divisibility by 7 for n itself.
What an interesting problem. At first, it seemed surprising, if not totally unbelievable. Then, it took quite a bit of time to find the multiple of 7 in the simplest case – just the digits 1137 on their own. But in the end that was almost all the work required for a complete solution. | <urn:uuid:89fcdac6-30ef-4bf6-bfe9-0b95cb692b1e> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | https://puzzlecritic.wordpress.com/2016/04/03/the-1137-shuffle/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320257.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20170624101204-20170624121204-00101.warc.gz | en | 0.923289 | 545 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Nov 24, 2014
Environmental “Tipping Points” Key to Predicting Extinctions
Depending on a population’s adaptive strategy, even tiny changes in climate variability can create a “tipping point” that sends the population into extinction.
Aug 28, 2014
Cities as a Glimpse of the Future
How researchers learned that cities may serve as a crystal ball for the impact of climate change on an important insect pest.
Aug 27, 2014
Museum Specimens, Modern Cities Show How an Insect Pest Will Respond to Climate Change
Researchers from North Carolina State University have found that century-old museum specimens hold clues to how global climate change will affect a common insect pest that can weaken and kill trees – and the news is not good.
Jul 30, 2014
Urbanization: Good for Pests, Bad for Trees
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Steve Frank, an assistant professor of entomology at NC State.The post first appeared on Frank’s blog, Insect Ecology and Integrated Pest Management. My wife is from a […]
May 8, 2014
Farmers Skeptical About Validity of Climate Change
The recently released National Climate Assessment, reported by a team of 300 experts, including a panel from the National Academy of Sciences, asserts that climate change is already impacting the United States, and that the […]
Feb 6, 2014
NC State Heads Climate Change Hub
The federal government has again selected NC State to take the reins of a collaborative research effort. Find out how the Southeast Regional Climate Hub will help ranchers, farmers and forest landowners cope with increasing risks such as fires, invasive pests, devastating floods and crippling droughts.
Jan 23, 2014
Officials Praise Climate Center at Opening
NC State celebrated the opening of the Southeast Climate Science Center this week at an event drawing an enthusiastic mix of university leaders, federal officials and students.
Sep 10, 2013
Think and Do
How does NC State solve global challenges? By merging bold thought with purposeful action. See how we're building stable food sources, a smarter energy grid and a smoother supply chain.
Apr 22, 2013
A Single Challenge, a Suite of Experts
Changing climates mean new stresses for plant life. With NSF support, NC State researchers in computer engineering, biological engineering and plant biology are studying how plants will respond to those stresses.
Oct 18, 2011
Winds of (Climate) Change
In a climate-change paradox, plants and animals are forced to make difficult choices. Changes in climate can force plants and animals out of their homes in protected areas – like state and national parks and […] | <urn:uuid:20be1165-5a8d-48a1-8c23-c49fe108b2be> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://news.ncsu.edu/tag/climate-change/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802766295.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075246-00108-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920514 | 547 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Do Unions Really Raise Wages?
It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth (Proverbs 20:14).
Once again, Hazlitt returned to the issue of government price fixing. In Chapters 13, 15, 16, and 18 price fixing was in the form of price floors. It is in this chapter, too.
This may not be seen initially as a case of government price-fixing. By the end of this chapter, I hope you will see that it is entirely a case of government price fixing. It is one more example of a price floor.
Another set of owners possess the ability to deliver labor services. These people are eligible to rent out these services.
A third set of owners will decide at some point whether to purchase goods and services that have been produced by a combination of business capital and labor services. They will determine retroactively which sellers prosper and which do not.
All participants possess the legal right to bid.
In this system, people who hire workers seek to locate people who rent out these services at some price. Economic exchange always depends on an agreed-upon price. Buyers compete against buyers. Sellers compete against sellers. Only in the final stage of the hiring process does face-to-face bargaining take place: would-be employer vs. would-be employee. The prospective employer does not know how little money the prospective employee will accept, and the prospective employee does not know how much money the prospective employer will pay. In this zone of ignorance, there may be negotiating. But probably not. Time is not a free resource. Employers usually make this offer: “Take it or leave it. I am too busy to negotiate.”
The employer acts as an economic agent of future customers. He will give them an opportunity to buy the output of his production process. The employer also acts as an economic agent of his employees. In order to earn money, employees must sell their services to customers. The employees do not know how to market their services directly to customers, but the employer believes that he does. So confident is the employer that he is willing to pay money to the employees to perform certain tasks, irrespective of the near-term decisions of customers. The business pays these employees until the lack of customers makes it evident to the employer that he has misjudged customer demand. Only then will he fire some or all of his employees.
The wage is a signal to other workers and other employers regarding the prevailing conditions of supply and demand. If this wage is a market-clearing wage, there will be no rival workers offering to work for a lower wage for the same job, and there will be no rival employers offering to pay more.
(For the rest of the chapter, click the link.) | <urn:uuid:485751fe-7114-401c-9b1c-69afddb82b2a> | CC-MAIN-2016-40 | http://teapartyeconomist.com/2015/08/08/christian-economics-in-one-lesson-ch-19/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-40/segments/1474738660602.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20160924173740-00133-ip-10-143-35-109.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969915 | 583 | 2.8125 | 3 |
When harvesting tomatoes from your organic garden, you do need to decide ripe tomatoes; nonetheless, you do not need your tomatoes to be too ripe. Sure tomatoes that are too ripe may be mealy. You need to aim to harvest tomatoes after they have their full color and are at their largest measurement. Take note of the temperatures in your garden. When it’s early, or late, in the season there is a chance that your vegetation may very well be exposed to frost. Freezing temperatures will trigger many plants to die, and some that dwell is not going to produce at the degree they might have otherwise.
Make certain that you have earthworms in your soil. Earthworms are vital to good organic gardening, as a result of they aerate the soil. Also, the by-products of earthworm digestion are literally nice plant food. Earthworms encourage soil bacteria that present needed vitamins to your crops while competing with dangerous insect pests, reducing the necessity for chemical pesticides and fertilizers.
A key component to having an amazing garden is to fertilize it. There are various several types of fertilizers accessible at most house stores, but what works for various kinds of gardens varies. Manure is a superb alternative, but it does odor. A commercially produced manure will have no pathogens to infect the greens in the garden. Some folks swear by chemical fertilizers, yet they are not an natural way to grow.
To be sure you’re capable of fully enjoy your backyard, maintain it easy. A big garden could sound nice, however the work involved could make it a serious source of stress. The bigger your garden is, the more time you’ll must spend weeding, watering your plants, and performing routine backyard maintenance. A small garden is easy to look after, providing you with extra time to understand your vegetation.
Decide your fruits and vegetables first thing in the morning.
Even a small funding of effort and time to gardening actions is sure to be tremendously rewarded. These rewards might are available in food to feed our families or in flowers and other decorative vegetation to beautify our environment. Everyone can reap these rewards. The tips which might be outlined above will get us started in that path. Roses could be difficult to grow in the most effective of circumstances. Increase your possibilities for achievement by selecting the best rose for your climate. If your space has harsh winter circumstances search for a rose with thicker petals. Mildew resistant varieties are ideal for humid areas and warmth tolerant roses will do greatest in arid areas.
Lots of people say that gardening is a troublesome factor to get began on, but that is only true if you do not know what you’re doing. The way in which to be successful with gardening is to teach yourself as a lot as you may in regards to the topic. While you try this and begin gardening you should be happy with the results. It’s best to manage your backyard and plan every part. Don’t purchase seeds when you do not know where you’ll plant them. It’s essential plan on the long term for certain vegetation, and on the very short time period for short-lived plants that can need to be changed very quickly.
Diversify the sorts of vegetation you grow in your garden. When you only develop one kind of plant in your garden and it gets infected with a illness, your entire garden might be worn out. Additionally, if you’re solely growing tomato plants, remember that just 14 tomato crops can yield a 12 months’s supply of tomatoes for two folks. You possibly can acquire time by renewing your beds with this methodology: slice below the turf and switch it over. Cover it with wood chips and wait a number of weeks. You may then use this mattress to plant your perennial crops. The bottom you have turned over ought to be made richer by the turf that’s underneath it.
It only requires some research, plenty of exterior work, and a considerable amount of patience. When you see the garden you’ve created, you will know all of your efforts were worthwhile. Be careful if you end up moving your plants from plastic containers to the soil. Plants typically will end up with sure roots after they have spent too much time in plastic. Flip the plastic container upside-down slowly and tap gently to remove plant. Keep away from damaging the plants delicate root system.
Use biennials and annuals so as to add shade to your flower beds. For one of the best results, don’t add any more supplies as soon as the composting process has begun. | <urn:uuid:d2dace63-7560-483b-bb27-ee08a1153391> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | http://www.homedesignomaha.tk/beautify-your-backyard-with-this-glorious-info.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376828507.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20181217113255-20181217135255-00497.warc.gz | en | 0.951278 | 937 | 2.546875 | 3 |
I am always looking for worksheets, books and supplemental materials to reinforce whatever the Frog Princess is learning and to expose her to new ideas.
When I found an email about Think Earth in my inbox, I did a little shoulder shimmy. I like to find new ways of explaining concepts. I am hoping it helps her with perspective and helps me with learning her learning style. We all have our own and I am making it my mission to get hers down so that I can support her as best I can.
The Think Earth Environmental Education Foundation is a leading non-profit provider of environmental education for primary and secondary schools, now publishing its award-winning curriculum online.
You can now access units (for K, 1st and 2nd grades) on natural resources, pollution and sustainability to name a few. FOR FREE. Check out the worksheets here.
Since summers are about exploring and Montessori has built a great foundation for science, this fits right in to our home activities. I find that it helps me provide her the practical lesson but also helps her continue to grow as a steward of this planet. The Frog Princess is more and more conscious of things like recycling, conserving energy and water and not littering.
Think Earth gives us a way to continue those lessons in a fun way. I’m looking forward to introducing my girl to Think Earth.
What fun things are you guys learning this summer? | <urn:uuid:fcaa43a5-6fe9-4672-bd28-9b1890b42e3f> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | http://mymamihood.com/summer-activities-for-kids-think-earth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948579567.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20171215211734-20171215233734-00583.warc.gz | en | 0.943774 | 294 | 2.875 | 3 |
Published: 2008-08-02 13:12:28
Updated: 2008-08-02 13:12:28
Posted August 2, 2008
By Sue Frohman
MIKE MOSS SAYS: Sue, Thanks for the kind words, and even thought you've been here for a while now, welcome to the state!
The list of tropical storm/hurricane names for the Atlantic Basin is maintained by a regional subcommittee of the World Meteorological Organization. That group has had a long-standing policy of establishing six lists of names that are used on a rotating basis, beginning each season with the "A" name. So, a storm name used in 2000 could be used again in 2006 and so on, as you noted from the examples in Dr Robinson's book. The exeption is for storms that cause an especially large amount of fatalities or destruction. They can be nominated for retirement from the list of names so that, for example, Fran, Floyd, Katrina and Rita will never be used again and have been replaced by new names starting with the same letter.
In any year, should the list of names be exhausted, any further storms will be names with the Greek alphabet. You can read a nice summary of the entire naming process, along with all currently assigned names and procedures for storm basins worldwide, along with links to a list of retired names, at | <urn:uuid:32d6f063-db26-4f34-bcbc-35180e941f97> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.wral.com/weather/blogpost/3320246/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283475.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00305-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934331 | 281 | 2.78125 | 3 |
About the Georgia Historic Preservation Division
The Historic Preservation Division (HPD) is Georgia’s state historic preservation office, or SHPO. Every state has a SHPO, as established by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, often referred to simply as the NHPA. HPD has several key functions as part of the national historic preservation program. First, through the Section 106 compliance program (named for the section of the federal implementing regulations of the NHPA), HPD functions as a watchdog over federal agencies doing business in the state, helping to insure that they respect our most important historic resources. Second, we administer various economic development programs that leverage private capital to encourage business growth, especially in our many smaller towns and communities. Finally, through programs like the National Register of Historic Places, Certified Local Governments, and others, we work with partners both inside and outside state government to encourage regional and local planning, neighborhood conservation, downtown revitalization, heritage tourism and archaeological site protection.
State Historic Preservation Offices receive financial assistance through the Historic Preservation Fund of the National Park Service, Department of the Interior, and provides matching state funds to carry out the national historic preservation program. The National Park Service establishes broad policies, programs and standards for state and local participation in the national program. Each state then tailors its own SHPO to address the special character and needs of their state and complement the national program. In Georgia, the General Assembly authorizes or mandates a number of specific preservation programs such as a state property tax freeze, state rehabilitation grants, archaeology protection and stewardship of state-owned buildings.
The Historic Preservation Division's mission is to promote the preservation and use of historic places for a better Georgia.
Georgians will value historic places for the important roles they play in our social and economic lives. Property owners, local communities, and state agencies will possess the knowledge and the legal and financial tools to preserve their historic properties. The Historic Preservation Division will play a critical role as the state historic preservation office in increasing citizen engagement with the historic places that make the state unique including local landmarks, state historic sites, and national historic landmarks and sites. Through its education and citizen engagement programs, the Historic Preservation Division will help the Department instill a conservation ethic among Georgia citizens.
- State Historic Preservation Office (New Georgia Encyclopedia)
- Georgia Historical Commission (New Georgia Encyclopedia)
- History of Historic Preservation (New Georgia Encyclopedia
- National Park Service activities in Georgia | <urn:uuid:81e6ca12-83a0-4079-97a7-40a785c030b7> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | https://georgiashpo.org/aboutHPD | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439739182.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20200814070558-20200814100558-00046.warc.gz | en | 0.914635 | 496 | 2.640625 | 3 |
With a name that comes from the Arabic for gardens, Jenin is renowned for its abundant fruits and vegetables. It's also famous for Marj Ibn Amer, a valley rich with plains of fertile soil.
Jenin Governorate | جنين محافظة
Jenin, the northernmost governorate in the West Bank, is home to some 300,000 people. The fertile lands of this region are dotted with the remains of ancient irrigation aqueducts. Jenin is also the name of the largest city in the governorate, and of its only refugee camp, which was subjected to considerable violence and disruption during the Second Intifada.
The city of Jenin, which has been a site of human settlement since the Neolithic period, lies along the ancient trade route from Nablus to Haifa. Today it is a scenic city on a hill, overlooking groves of olive, fig, and citrus trees.
The governorate is home to the Burqin Church, one of the oldest churches in the world, and the Fatima Khatoun Mosque in the old town of the city of Jenin, which dates from the 16th century. Along with Tulkarem, Jenin is regarded as the home of musakhan, often called the national dish of Palestine.
Unfortunately, like the rest of Palestine, Jenin suffers from Israeli-imposed mobility restrictions. The military checkpoints and separation wall have taken a toll on the economy. Jenin has also lost access to important water resources. Most farmers have been resorting to rain-fed agriculture, which has yielded limited profits with Jenin’s harsh summers. As a result, vast areas are left uncultivated, and many would-be breadwinners are tragically unemployed.
However, Jenin is home to a well-regarded Palestinian-American university that serves the entire population of the district, as well as countless schools that provide a good education for all its children.
Anera’s main goals in Jenin are to help farmers expand their skills and productivity, create safe spaces for schoolchildren and address various water issues. To address the latter, Anera has connected households to safe sources of water, put a stop to street flooding, and combated water scarcity on farms.
A New Era for Agriculture
Green Methods for Tackling Water Shortages | Agriculture has been a way of life for millennia in the Jenin area. Now farmers now have access to a new source of water for irrigating crops: treated wastewater. Anera’s programs help farmers and the Palestine environment by using recycled water from wastewater treatment plants to irrigate parks and fields of animal fodder and fruit trees.
Anera has addressed water scarcity in Jenin with a first-of-its-kind project that turns wastewater into a valuable irrigation resource. Completed in 2016, the project included installing a water distribution network, sub-surface irrigation system, pumps, filtration system, chlorination unit, and building a reservoir.
Our treated wastewater network in Jenin irrigates 700 acres of parched West Bank farmland, saving 16 million gallons of water from being thrown away annually. Anera established a water users’ cooperative to ensure that treated wastewater was equitably and efficiently shared among all of the member families. So far the project has helped 240 farming families cultivate their land, feed their livestock and produce more income.
Stemming from a belief in knowledge sharing and development, Anera has complemented its infrastructural work with a fundamental 17-day capacity-building training for farmers and board members. Study tours taught farmers about agricultural techniques and reclaimed water and were conducted in Jordan and the Galilee area.
The program also offered beneficiaries fodder crop seeds and fruit tree saplings. This helped farmers cultivate 58 acres of fodder crops and 14 acres of fruit trees. The first season produced a net profit that was 10 times that of rain-fed crops. The project has helped farmers to substantially increase their income.
In the fertile plains of Marj Ibn Amer Valley, Mahmoud had been struggling to grow crops and feed his livestock, given the scarce water resources he could access in the West Bank. Now, the recycled water from the wastewater reuse project allows him to grow crops like alfalfa and millet, feed his sheep, and make more money, helping to boost the Palestinian economy.
"Our only concern as farmers and herders is to provide food for our livestock. Before we provide for ourselves, we have to provide for the sheep. Because in the end, they feed us. But, the land is our most treasured possession."
— Mahmoud, a farmer in Marj Ibn Amer Valley
In the past, particularly in the 1980s, Anera contributed to the development of the agricultural sector in the area by providing tractors and other agricultural machinery to a cooperative in Barta'a. The project helped farmers reclaim their land by providing the needed machinery at affordable costs. With more crop yields and income, they were better able to provide for their families financially. The project also provided a bulldozer to the Jenin cooperative, benefiting its 550 farmers.
Similarly, the Jenin Agricultural Marketing Cooperative received mobile grading machinery for onion and potato crops. This introduced modern grading and sorting methods to the area and improved the marketability of products.
A $125,000 grant went towards establishing a well-equipped dairy factory in Jenin that provided new jobs and fresh dairy products for residents. The factory also helped control the outbreak of brucela disease among livestock. In addition, Anera provided assistance in purchasing five feeding bottles, six milking machines and two automatic wool scissors.
Anera's revolving credit program also served the Jenin area, benefiting agricultural co-ops across the West Bank. The co-ops acted as banks by lending to farmers, providing loans to help reclaim their land, and encouraging self-sufficiency and financial growth.
Water is a Necessity
In just the past decade, Anera has built, replaced and rehabilitated countless water distribution networks, pumps, rainfall drainage and collection systems, balance tanks, pipe extensions, and reservoirs for conserving potable water and cisterns.
As water is scarce and summers are harsh in Jenin, our water projects have reached underserved and impoverished areas in the periphery, connecting countless families with clean and affordable drinking water. The various projects have also put an end to water leakage and contamination in many areas around Jenin—conserving water, preventing disease and protecting the environment.
Running water is a daily struggle to many Palestinians in Jenin, where dilapidated water networks and pollution are prevalent. Even worse, in remote villages, running water is still a dream. Through infrastructural programs, Anera has been helping families access clean potable water to bathe their children, clean their homes and prepare meals without the drudgery and high cost of buying tankered water.
Through its various infrastructural development programs, Anera has enhanced water infrastructure and accessibility in the city of Jenin and surrounding localities like Ajjah, Arrabah, Arranah, Deir Ghazala, Jaba'a, Kafr Ra'i, Qabatiya, Raba, Ya'bad and Zababida.
In Qabatiya, for example, the 23,000 residents of Jenin's second city — famous for its stone quarries — had faced the same challenge for years: rainwater flooding. Flooding sometimes caused millions of dollars in losses from water damage to private and public property, and damaged hundreds of homes. The flooding impacted everyday life, preventing children from reaching schools and patients from reaching clinics and hospitals. Finally, in 2013, with funds from USAID, Anera’s Palestinian Community Infrastructure Development project extended the existing storm water drainage channel and diverted the storm water safely away.
Better Educational Environments
With only one secondary school, the village of Jalqamus was struggling to provide an education to local children, as well as students from neighboring villages who had no place else to turn. Anera's response was to expand the school by constructing an additional two-story building. The new building comprises six classrooms, a library, and science and computer labs.
The original building was not overlooked. Anera rehabilitated the old building, turning it into a healthy and stimulating environment for all students. Rehabilitation work also included the playground.
In Sir village, the only school could not accommodate high school students due to restricted space and resources. Since the co-ed school also serves students from the nearby village of Kfir, expanding the school was an urgent matter.
Anera's school expansion has relieved parents from the financial burden of sending their high school-aged children to schools in other villages. The renovation included science and computer labs, handicap-accessible bathrooms, and solar panels on the roof to make the school more energy efficient. Most importantly, the renovation and expansion contributes to lowering the dropout rate by providing a safe environment for students to grow and develop mentally and physically. We also constructed a small kindergarten for the area.
Older school projects have also made a lasting impact in the Jenin area. In 2010, Anera renovated the historical building of the Fatima Khatoun Girls’ School, which was originally built in 1882, not far from the famous Fatima Khatoun Mosque in the old city of Jenin. The building had served as a governor's headquarters before becoming a school. By the 21st century it was in desperate need of maintenance. Anera responded by delivering a holistic renovation for its facilities, playground and main entrance.
In Qabatiya, a boys' school needed additional classrooms to accommodate grades 11 and 12. Anera completed an unfinished floor, added four classrooms, a computer lab and a multipurpose hall. The original floor was also rehabilitated, along with its facilities.
Through building and renovating schools, Anera provides thousands of job opportunities to workers in and around targeted villages, indirectly helping to sustain countless Palestinian families.
Supporting the Health Sector
Investing in health has always been among Anera's top priorities. From delivering vital medicines to building clinics and rehabilitating hospitals, Anera supports charitable health institutions to better serve Palestinian families. In Jenin, we've renovated key facilities, helping families lead healthier and stronger lives.
Anera's 2008 rehabilitation of the Jenin Hospital comprised sewage and restroom work, plastering and painting, electrical work and various repairs throughout its three floors. “This is the biggest project carried out at the hospital since it was created in 1960,” said the hospital director. “It has really improved the hospital’s performance.”
“This is what I call a hospital. Now we have curtains that give privacy for each patient. People feel more comfortable and that has a positive influence on how they interact with us.” — Rabiha, Jenin Hospital head nurse
In 2010, Anera constructed additional rooms in the Ministry of Health's sole mammography clinic in Jenin. We also rehabilitated the toilet unit, repaired roof and wall insulation, and delivered general maintenance work on the building’s premises.
Anera distributes millions of dollars worth of medical aid for chronic conditions, hospital equipment, wheelchairs, over-the-counter drugs, and health care supplies that would not otherwise be available in the communities where they are needed the most. Our deliveries support hospitals, clinics, schools, and community centers struggling to meet the needs of underprivileged families.
Some 20 kilometers west of the city of Jenin lies the town of Ya'bad, which is famous for its abundant olive groves. People in this remote, disadvantaged area rely heavily on the Patient's Friends Society, the only charitable clinic. The Society has long been a recipient of Anera's donated medicine program.
Two of the patients at the clinic are siblings, Tamer and Lana. When they were diagnosed with a rare genetic disease, their devastated parents didn’t know how to find and afford the medication that they needed to survive. Because the medication is unavailable and expensive, Anera has been delivering it for free for more than a dozen years. Now Tamer and Lana can lead healthy lives.
Anera has also run programs to help medical professionals stay on top of the latest medical treatments to better serve their communities. In 2010, we offered telemedicine classes to physicians across the West Bank. Dr. Burhan Sammar traveled from his practice in Jenin twice a month to attend the class in Ramallah. Dr. Sammar is head of the Red Crescent Society in Yamun, a town west of the city of Jenin, as well as the Medical Development Society, which offers a daily mobile clinic service to impoverished and remote areas in Jenin.
Promoting Information Technology
Between 2004 and 2008, Anera built spaces dedicated to developing the IT sector and nurturing an entrepreneurial spirit in youth. We provided youth with business links, educational courses, incubation services and technical assistance. We built multi-million dollar facilities at four key universities in Palestine, helping students transcend the physical restrictions enforced by the occupation.
At the American Arab University in Jenin, the Hassib Sabbagh IT Center of Excellence offers online courses and nurtures innovation. Since opening its doors in 2005, the center has contributed in countless ways to the growth of the Palestinian economy. Thousands of students have learned invaluable I.T. skills and innovative businesses have been launched.
Mohammad Jaradat, a former student and coordinator at the center in Jenin says, "The center believed in me and gave me a great responsibility that made me a better student and a motivated employee." | <urn:uuid:e37db077-3ee7-4264-8e7b-55f55b2b4237> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://www.anera.org/stories/jenin-palestine-securing-productive-future/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233506028.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20230921141907-20230921171907-00771.warc.gz | en | 0.959598 | 2,845 | 2.703125 | 3 |
What are stress and anxiety?
Do you find yourself constantly concerned over many areas of your life, including feeling nervous about small things like being on time or worrying even when things are going well? Or do you often feel jumpy or become angry when anyone disturbs you? Maybe you can’t concentrate on things as well as you used to, or you break out in a sweat and your heart races for no obvious reason. If any of these symptoms sound familiar, they could be signs of stress and anxiety.
Stress and anxiety serve a purpose. They act as the body’s alarm system for dealing with threats or tense situations. The body and the mind prepare themselves physically and emotionally to deal with danger. But if the alarm never shuts off or if it goes off at high volume even for small concerns, stress and anxiety can become overwhelming and make it hard to carry out your daily routine.
“I thought I had put it all behind me so I didn’t know that my anxiety about going into certain situations was related to what I went through in the Persian Gulf.”
Some Veterans experience stress and anxiety because of past events — like combat or a traumatic military training experience — that are painful to remember or accept. Other Veterans are dealing with stress and anxiety because of other life experiences, like a job change or family conflicts.
Severe stress and anxiety sometimes cause physical symptoms, like trembling or shaking, or can lead to feelings of panic or unease. At high levels these conditions can also be associated with chronic disease. Over time, stress and anxiety can interfere with your work or daily activities and strain your relationships.
What can I do if I’m experiencing stress and anxiety?
- Try to get enough rest.
- Plan a schedule for your day to help manage the feeling of being out of control.
- Practice relaxation and mindfulness techniques, such as deep breathing, to help cope when things upset you or don’t go according to plan.
- Do something you enjoy several times a week, like seeing a movie or visiting friends.
“My counselors at VA showed me different techniques on how to deal with my anxiety attacks. They’ve given me a guide on how to live, because the anxiety stopped me from living because I shut myself off.”
It’s important to find ways to reduce stress and anxiety. Your close friends and family may notice the effects these conditions are having on your quality of life. Turn to them when you are ready to look for solutions. By sharing what you’re experiencing with them, they may be able to provide support.
Take the next step to connect with care.
Every day, Veterans from all military service branches and eras connect with proven resources and effective treatments. Here’s how to take the next step: the one that’s right for you.
Read VA's latest coronavirus information. If you have flu-like symptoms such as fever, cough, and shortness of breath, please call before you visit your local medical center or clinic. If you have an appointment, consider making it a telehealth appointment.
New to VA? Apply for health care benefits.
- Getting started is simple. Create a free account online to help ease your enrollment process. To prepare to apply for VA health care in person, by telephone, or by mail, explore VA’s “How to Apply” page.
- Not sure whether you are eligible for VA health care benefits? Read about eligibility for VA health care.
- Unsure of what kind of help you need? Call 1-877-222-VETS (1-877-222-8387) to find the right resources to meet your needs, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET. If you have hearing loss, call TTY: 1-800-877-8339.
- Veterans’ family members and caregivers can see whether they qualify for VA medical benefits as a spouse, surviving spouse, dependent child, or caregiver. Explore family and caregiver health benefits.
Already enrolled in VA and interested in mental health support? Schedule a mental health appointment.
- If you’re already enrolled and using VA health care, the fastest way to schedule VA appointments is to call the VA facility where you want to receive care.
- With VA Appointments tools, you can schedule some VA health care appointments online, view details about upcoming appointments, and organize your health care calendar.
- If you’re not using VA medical services, contact your nearest VA medical center or Vet Center to talk about your needs.
What about other options at VA? VA offers a variety of tools and resources.
- The Veteran Training online self-help portal for overcoming everyday challenges includes modules on managing anger, developing parenting and problem-solving skills, and more.
- Mental health apps for Veterans cover a variety of topics, ranging from PTSD to anger management to quitting smoking.
- VA TeleMental Health connects you with a VA mental health provider through a computer or mobile device in your home or at your nearest VA health facility. You can learn more about this option from your local VA medical center.
- Vet Centers are community-based counseling centers across the nation in all 50 states and US territories that provide a wide range of social and psychological services, including counseling to eligible Veterans, service members – including National Guard and Reserve components – and their families. Counselors and outreach specialists, many of whom are Veterans themselves, are experienced and prepared to discuss the tragedies of war, loss, grief, and transition after trauma. To learn more, find your nearest Vet Center. Teams are also available 24/7 by phone at 1-877-927-8387.
What about support beyond VA?
There’s a whole community of support ready to help with whatever you’re going through. Use this tool to find resources near you. | <urn:uuid:d9e566a3-55b6-4107-b508-899325d50606> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.maketheconnection.net/symptoms/stress-anxiety?utm_source=lnks.gd&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=vetresources&utm_content=symptom-stress-anxiety | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572127.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815024523-20220815054523-00497.warc.gz | en | 0.938769 | 1,227 | 2.828125 | 3 |
09.11.2012 · Education and information about counterfeit and substandard antimalarial drugs.
antimalarial drugsMalaria: Resistance to antimalarial drugs.
Counterfeit and Substandard Antimalarial. Antimalarials and Lupus
Cheap Antimalarial Drugs
Antimalarial medication - Wikipedia, the.
Antimalarial Drugs Definition. Antimalarial drugs are medicines that prevent or treat malaria. Purpose. Antimalarial drugs treat or prevent malaria, a disease that
ANTIMALARIAL DRUG COMBINATION THERAPY Report of a WHO Technical Consultation World Health Organization, Geneva WHO, 2001 2 ANTIMALARIAL DRUG COMBINATION THERAPY Antimalarial Drugs - definition of.
Antimalarial drug resistance hinders malaria control and is therefore a major public health problem. Tracking of evolving antimalarial drug efficacy patterns is
Malaria - Chapter 3 - 2012 Yellow Book.
antimalarial drugsCounterfeit and Substandard Antimalarial.
INFECTIOUS AGENT. Malaria in humans is caused by 1 of 4 protozoan species of the genus Plasmodium: Plasmodium falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, or P. malariae.
Coartem, a malaria drug whose potency is derived from a Chinese herb, may soon be approved for sale in the United States.
ANTIMALARIAL DRUG - libdoc.who.int - /
Antimalarial medications, also known as antimalarials, are designed to prevent or cure malaria. Such drugs may be used for some or all of the following: Treatment of | <urn:uuid:ad28fdff-0cc5-457d-bf0d-b21d1bf5f62c> | CC-MAIN-2018-17 | http://ankilsube.pl.tl/antimalarial-drugs.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125936981.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20180419150012-20180419170012-00132.warc.gz | en | 0.728785 | 353 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Pollution left behind from Scotland’s industrial past could be a major driver of the development of potentially deadly antibiotic-resistant superbugs, say scientists.
Researchers from the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) and University of Strathclyde is launching a study of one of the country’s busiest waterways to quantify the role discarded heavy metals and biological waste play in harbouring dangerous infections such as MRSA and C-Difficile.
Analysis will be carried out on sediment samples taken from the Clyde, a major artery for shipping and a focus of enterprise during Glasgow’s industrial heyday.
The team will look for evidence of heavy metals, plastics and fuel residue, left behind from the days when the city was a centre for ship-building, steelworks, coal mining and manufacturing.
Parasitologist Dr Fiona Henriquez, leader of the infection and microbiology research group at UWS’s Institute of Biomedical and Environmental Health Research, said: “Antimicrobial resistant bacteria don’t just develop as a result of prescribing antibiotics. There are a whole host of environmental factors that contribute.
“In our study we will focus on the Clyde estuary, which has been subject to a wide range of pollution discharges over time, taking samples to establish the biological conditions there and determine the extent of which the industrial history may lead to the development of these stubborn bacteria.”
Experts say failure to combat antimicrobial resistance could lead to ten million deaths a year by 2050, dragging modern medicine back to the Dark Ages.
Over-prescription of antibiotics has contributed towards the development of resistant strains of Salmonella and E-coli.Evidence shows bacteria from sewage released into the sea pose a risk to the health of humans, and possibly pets.
The 18-month long Clyde project is funded by the National Environmental Research Council.
Dr Henriquez and her colleagues, Dr Roderick Williams and Professor Andrew Hursthouse from UWS and Dr Charles Knapp from Strathclyde’s civil and environmental engineering department, hope to find micro-organisms that have adapted to overcome the superbugs. “We have to look at all the angles rather than just focus on the prescription of antibiotics,” she said.
“There is a long chain of events that need to be examined – from historic industrial pollution to measuring the full impact of washing waste into our waterways.
“It is vital we take a holistic view if we are to win the battle against the bugs.” | <urn:uuid:7421d289-43fa-4dc8-be53-cdd094620cd2> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | https://www.scotsman.com/news/environment/scotland-s-post-industrial-pollution-could-harbour-antibiotic-resistant-superbugs-1-4152275 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232255943.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20190520101929-20190520123929-00106.warc.gz | en | 0.929383 | 523 | 3.359375 | 3 |
Distortion, dislocation and minor fractures are some of the risks that can result from accidental falls and injuries. How can they be prevented?
What risks arise from falls due to distraction?
Excluding simple bruises, the consequences of accidental falls and traumas involve at least 10-15 days of immobility, including pain and limitations of activity. Especially in summer, when you are more likely to practice sports and outdoor activities, we expose feet, hands, shoulders and elbows to risks. The first advice is to wear suitable footwear, a recommendation that applies both at sea and, even more, at the mountains: whenever there is a distance to travel, you have to put your foot in a position to have the best grip on the ground, to reduce the possibility of falls.
Hands, what is the most common damage?
The most frequent risks for the hands are represented by the distortions to the fingers, especially the thumb, and the fifth metacarpal, that is the thin bone, which is the continuation of the little finger towards the wrist.
Side falls, what are the risks to the shoulder?
The shoulder has the greatest damage when the fall occurs with the arm away from the body or by directly hitting the shoulder. For a dislocation or distortion, you should rest at least 20 days, but once you have removed your guardian, a little assisted rehabilitation and muscle strengthening will be enough to return to normal.
Elbow, what risks arise from falls?
The elbow is a very delicate joint and a small fracture of the radial capital can easily be reported or, in the most serious cases, a fracture of the humerus that may require surgery. In the simplest cases 10-15 days of immobility are enough followed by an early immobilization of the elbow.
How about the painful “cask” on the fifth toe of the foot?
In most cases, it is sufficient to immobilize the toe with a plaster and ultimately use footwear with rigid soles such as clogs. | <urn:uuid:214fe521-14a9-4cd0-a371-b4ba5feb074e> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://www.humanitas.net/news/risks-falls-accidental-injuries/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578531984.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20190421140100-20190421162100-00276.warc.gz | en | 0.949836 | 413 | 2.609375 | 3 |
A myelography is a specialised test that is used to visualise the spinal bones and the space around the spinal cord called the subarachnoid space. It utilises x-rays (or a CT scan) and a contrast dye to view the structures, and is an excellent tool in diagnosing problems with the spinal cord and nerve roots.
A myelogram is performed to diagnose conditions such as spinal cord tumors, intervertebral disc herniation, bone spurs, brain tumors, disc degeneration due to arthritis and injury to the spinal nerves.
Prior to the procedure, patients may need to answer a few questions about their health to make sure that they have no problems with their health that would make performing the procedure risky. For example, the procedure cannot be performed in women of child bearing age who are pregnant due to the risk of exposure to radiation. Patients who have a known allergy to the contrast dye cannot undergo the test. Patients with problems with their kidney or underlying diabetes are at risk of side effect. Patients are requested to observe an overnight fast sometimes.
Once consent is obtained, the back is cleaned with antiseptic solution and is covered in sterile drapes. The patient is asked to lie on their stomach, and the skin where the procedure is performed is anaesthetised with local anaesthetic. A needle is gently inserted into the space between the vertebral spinous processes till it reaches the subarachnoid space - the space where the spinal fluid is located. This is called a lumbar puncture. A small amount of this fluid is removed for analysis, and this is followed by administration of contrast dye into the space.
The x-ray table is them moved in different directions so as to allow the contrast dye to move around the spine. Once sufficient dye has been injected, the needle is removed and an image of the spine is taken with an x-ray machine or CT scanner.
The procedure can take between 30 minutes to 1 hour to perform.
After the Procedure
The patient will be requested to lay flat in bed for a few hours, and keep well hydrated. This allows the puncture site to close and heal. After this, the patient can mobilise gently and is then discharged home.
A myelogram offers clear information about the state of the spinal cord, and helps delineate any problems there may be that require treatment.
The risks are a few but rare. Exposure to radiation needs to be borne in mind. Allergic reaction to contrast dye may occur. There is a small risk of seizures due to irritation of the brain by the contrast agent. Patients may experience a headache after the procedure due to the loss of a small amount of cerebrospinal fluid i.e. the fluid that surrounds the spinal cord. There is also a small risk of bleeding around the spinal cord; this settles fairly quickly. | <urn:uuid:74862816-5504-4446-b887-79fcb7022c9e> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://www.microspinemd.com/myelography/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323585209.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20211018190451-20211018220451-00535.warc.gz | en | 0.955095 | 588 | 3.375 | 3 |
Xolair, also known generically as omalizumab, is a medication used to treat allergic asthma and a condition called chronic idiopathic urticaria. It is made by Genentech, and was first approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2003 to treat asthma and not until 2014 to treat chronic idiopathic urticaria. Xolair is only for adults and children over the age of 12 and is reserved for treatment of conditions that are severe or that don’t respond to other medications.
This injectable asthma medication is a popular choice and is tolerated well by many patients, but there are also some serious possible side effects. Severe allergic reactions, which can be life threatening, and heart and brain problems are possible for people taking Xolair. Some people have accused Genentech of unethical practices in marketing Xolair, and with lawsuits pending the company may end up paying out fines and settlement compensation.
What is Xolair?
Xolair is a medication called omalizumab and it was first created and tested by Genentech in the late 1990s with approval from the FDA coming in 2003. The main and original use for Xolair, which is given as an injection, is to treat severe allergic asthma. Not all asthma is triggered by allergies, and not all allergic reactions trigger asthma, but when an inhaled allergen does cause the breathing problem, standard treatments don’t always work. Xolair is typically prescribed when corticosteroid treatment is not effective.
In 2014 the FDA approved Xolair for the treatment of another type of allergic condition called chronic idiopathic urticaria, or chronic hives. Usually hives, which is a type of skin reaction, is treated with an antihistamine like Benadryl, Zyrtec, or Claritin. When these don’t work, a doctor may prescribe Xolair. It is not used to treat other types of allergies or conditions and it is not used to treat a sudden asthma attack.
Xolair is administered as an injection, every two to four weeks for allergic asthma, and every four weeks for chronic hives. The positive benefits of the injection may not be seen right away. For this reason, doctors will tell their patients not to stop using other allergy medications until instructed to do so.
How it Works
Omalizumab is a monoclonal antibody, a type of protein made by immune system cells that binds to a specific substance. Antibodies bind to pathogens to help the immune system fight infections. In people with allergies, they attack what should be harmless substances, allergens like peanut protein or pollen.
One antibody implicated in most allergies is called immunoglobulin E, or IgE. Omalizumab binds to IgE, and the effect is that it prevents or stops the allergic reaction. For someone with allergic asthma, getting an injection of Xolair prevents allergens from triggering an asthma attack.
In patients using Xolair to treat allergic asthma, the most common side effects are joint pain, leg or arm pain, generalized pain, dizziness, fatigue, bone fractures, earaches, dermatitis, or inflamed skin, and itchy skin. For those being treated for chronic hives, the most common side effects of Xolair are the common cold, sinus infections, nausea, joint pain, headaches, upper respiratory infections, and a cough.
The most severe type of allergic reaction is called anaphylaxis. Some allergy sufferers only experience mild reactions, but some may experience anaphylaxis when exposed to an allergen. It is life-threatening and must be treated as a medical emergency. Signs of anaphylaxis include shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, a rash or itchy skin, and swelling in the face, mouth, and throat.
One to two out of every thousand patients using Xolair will have this extreme reaction to it. Anaphylaxis may occur any time within 24 hours of receiving an injection, so it is very important to watch for the signs during that time and to seek emergency treatment if necessary. Because of this possible risk and the serious nature of the consequences, the FDA requires that Xolair labels and prescribing information include a black box warning about anaphylaxis, the warning reserved for the most serious side effects of a drug. The FDA added this warning requirement in 2007, four years after the drug was on the market.
Heart Attack and Stroke
Another serious possible consequence of using Xolair was first announced by the FDA in 2009. The organization sent out a communication that there was a possibility of an increased risk of adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events in patients taking Xolair. This early communication warned that an ongoing study suggested the risk was there, but that further study was needed.
The study that found these results was conducted by Genentech and involved about 5,000 patients being treated with Xolair. The results showed that there was an increased incidence among these patients of blood clots, pulmonary hypertension, heart attack, arrhythmias, ischemic heart disease, cardiomyopathy, and strokes.
In 2014 the FDA followed up with approval for labeling changes to Xolair to inform patients of the slightly increased risk of the heart problems and stroke. The risk is not high enough for the FDA to have included it as a black box warning, as concluded after reviewing the completed five-year study and other clinical trials.
Other Serious Potential Side Effects
In addition to the possibility of heart attack, stroke, and anaphylaxis, the label for Xolair contains other troubling warnings. These include the fact that in clinical trials, a slightly increased risk for cancer seemed to have emerged. The label also warns that fever, a rash, and pain are possible and that stopping treatment with corticosteroids too soon could worsen allergic conditions.
Xolair has been a big seller for Genentech, which has been marketed by Novartis Pharmaceuticals. With the serious possible complications, though, not all of which were included in warnings when the drug came out, lawsuits may nag these companies for years to come. Litigation has been started, with the first cases beginning when the risk of anaphylaxis first came to light in 2009, and again in 2014 with the knowledge that Xolair could cause heart problems.
One lawsuit, unfortunately, has already been dropped. It began when a whistleblower claimed that Novartis and Genentech had marketed Xolair as safe when they knew it was not always safe, that they provided kickbacks for selling the drug, and that they committed fraud. A judge decided that fraud probably occurred, but that there was not enough evidence to be sure. | <urn:uuid:2e8a4297-443c-4aa2-bad9-c791f876aa7d> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://www.recallreport.org/dangerous-drugs-products/xolair/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370502513.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20200331150854-20200331180854-00041.warc.gz | en | 0.948083 | 1,408 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Encouraging Creativity. By having your children take part in coloring activities such as online coloring or printable coloring sheets you are encouraging their creativity. Helping a child develop their imagination and creativity will help them learn to express themselves. Some children may have a difficult time expressing themselves but as they continue to be creative they will often start to open up more readily. Neuropsychologist Dr. Stan Rodski and brain scientist Dr. Joel Pearson both agree. In an interview, Dr. Rodski shares his belief that coloring for adults can encourage a relaxed state as the coloring individual focuses their attention on the detail and intricacies of a particular image. Similarly, Dr. Pearson explains that the therapeutic effect can be further understood by considering that the image you are coloring replaces any negative ones you may be harboring. Kitty has not got older or grown-up in the many years since she first arrived, but her popularity has constantly increased. Many famous celebs have been seen carrying her merchandise, such as motorcycles, fax machines, bicycles, cellphone cases, alarm clocks, diapers and much, much more. So it is a happy, positive and popular Hello Kitty that your kids will enjoy seeing on their coloring pages. It is amazing to see that when your little ones know the character so well they can then try to use the correct colors to fill in the page. Your child will see benefits in many ways if using coloring pages. Let me tell you about a couple of these.
I grew up during the time of doodle art - remember those? You got a pack of felt markers and elaborate black line drawings on a number of themes. I would spend hours coloring these in! Little did I know then that coloring pages were a benefit to my well-being. You can even make greeting cards at Disney coloring pages. You can choose which character you would like, and even pick your own greeting from choices such as: Thank you, have a nice day, and congratulations. Another fun activity your child will enjoy is making their very own calendar. You can choose a character, and drag and drop stickers onto the calendar. After you print the calendar, your child can color and decorate it any way they want to. Disney coloring pages will keep your kids busy and happy for hours. To expand those intellectual capabilities and help the brain grow coloring pages are a very good form of intellectual exercise. Teachers and parents can find an abundance of reinforcement for things they are teaching in educational coloring pages. Children can be instructed in their colors, the alphabet, shapes, seasonal occasions, as well as spiritual education to be strengthened in church or at home.
The parents can inspire their children the love for books and discovering the beautiful stories that they include, starting from the simple coloring books. Mario coloring pages offer, beyond this, the chance to get into one of the most famous animated characters world discover all its adventures. Between trying to feed the children and provide them with sufficient entertainment, it is little wonder then that children birthday parties are given the same degree of consideration and precision as a military operation in order to ensure that they run smoothly and without too much difficulty. In order to win any battle and indeed war, the commander must be aware of the most effective and efficient methods by which they should deploy and utilise their resources. This approach has many benefits. First of all, kids enjoy coloring each of the alphabet letters, so they will learn without realizing it, because they are enjoying themselves. Digital coloring books allow you to print multiple copies of the same page. You only need to print the pages your child likes. This means less waste, and you are doing your bit for the environment. There is no need to worry about storing coloring books when kids are finished. Everything is in digital format and stored on your computer or storage device. Children are very curious so while coloring any picture they will ask many questions about the drawn subjects. And all the information kids get during this enjoyable activity they absorb as a sponge. | <urn:uuid:d385e4fd-83ce-4790-8508-fcb4a548fc8a> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://leydetransparenciaya.info/running-in-front-of-train-clipart/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875144165.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20200219153707-20200219183707-00172.warc.gz | en | 0.961832 | 799 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Discover the early life and legacy of groundbreaking American writer Toni Morrison in this beautifully illustrated and "awe-inspiring" (School Library Journal, starred review) nonfiction picture book biography. Born Chloe Ardelia Wofford in Ohio, Toni Morrison grew up listening to her family tell myths, legends, and stories from the Bible. She loved hearing the music and power of the words. Toni also heard new stories from the students from other countries who went to her school. After an early childhood of soaking up tales from those around her, it was no surprise Toni grew into a voracious reader.
She worked at her town library as a teenager and was an editor for a New York publisher as an adult. When it came time for her to write her own stories, she knew she wanted to write about her people—Black people. Early in the morning and late at night after her children were asleep, Toni began work on what would become an acclaimed and trailblazing body of work.
This luminous picture book has back matter with further reading on Toni Morrison's life and work. | <urn:uuid:ad49db6a-1d23-4e52-bed4-a0fa90586b7a> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://sfpl.overdrive.com/media/8783731 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233511220.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20231003192425-20231003222425-00471.warc.gz | en | 0.980039 | 227 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Cure for HIV could be on the horizon now. A human trial was conducted to test a new immune drug capable of protecting people against HIV infections. This trial has led to a 97 per cent success rate. Scientists at Scripps Research in San Diego, California confirm this.
Cure For HIV Under Development
The trial has been very promising. So much that vaccine giant Moderna has agreed to join the next stage of the development of the drug. It’s capable of stimulating a rare set of immune cells. These cells play a key role in fighting the fast-mutating human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
The drug sets off the production of some very specific immune cells. These cells are able to generate antibodies capable of resisting HIV. IAVI, a non-profit research organisation confirms this. IAVI is also involved in the financing and development of the Scripps Research trial. Apparently, 97 per cent of the 48 healthy adult volunteers who were given the vaccine produced the HIV-resistant cells.
So far, HIV has always managed to elude vaccines. That’s because it attacks the immune system directly. Additionally, it has proved to be extremely efficient in evading immune defenses throughout the entire body
However, the Scripps researchers stressed this trial demonstrates “proof of principle for a new vaccine concept for HIV. A concept that could be applied to other pathogens, as well”. According to William Schief, a professor and immunologist at Scripps Research and executive director of vaccine design at IAVI’s Neutralizing Antibody Centre–
“We showed that vaccines can be designed to stimulate rare immune cells with specific properties, and this targeted stimulation can be very efficient in humans.”
Ever since HIV first emerged as a pandemic in the early 1980s, scientists have been trying to outsmart the notorious virus. Even though nowadays the virus can be controlled through medication, a lasting and definite solution in the form of a vaccine has so far never been produced, particularly since it easily mutates into different strains.
As a result of the rapid mutation, HIV has millions of different strains. Therefore, antibodies against one strain are unlikely to neutralize any others. “So HIV is not really one virus,” Schief explained to Medical News Today yesterday. “It’s really like 50m different viruses around the world right now.”
However, results from the Scripss Research human trial showed the body is fact capable of producing cells that can not only halt and fend off HIV, but they can do so for a range of different variants.
Scripps Research said the next step would be an additional clinical trial, in partnership with Moderna, which has agreed to produce a so-called mRNA version of the vaccine, “a step that could lead to faster vaccine availability”, Scripps Research clarified in its statement. | <urn:uuid:00aabeb3-a02c-4617-9d35-924e4dd260d3> | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | https://www.blocktoro.com/p/cure-for-hiv-with-nearly-100-success-rate-a-vaccine-is-finally-being-produced-in-collaboration-with-moderna/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656104655865.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20220705235755-20220706025755-00293.warc.gz | en | 0.958681 | 606 | 2.796875 | 3 |
What You Should Know about Vaccines and their Impact on Your Health
One issue that challenges the success of vaccines today is people’s fears about vaccine safety. Because of these fears or mistrust of vaccines, some people are choosing not to vaccinate their children, a decision that ultimately puts the children at greater risk for infectious disease.
Following are a few points to consider about the safety of vaccination:
- The risks from a vaccine are less than the risks from the disease. All vaccines have risks and can cause side effects. However, in order for a vaccine to be licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the side effects must be far less severe than the effects of the disease, and the risk of having side effects must be much lower than the risk of getting the disease.
- Many diseases that are perceived as mere nuisances can actually have extremely serious complications. Measles, for example, which some people think of as a relatively harmless childhood disease, is the sixth most common killer of children worldwide. Measles infection can result in complications such as encephalitis (swelling of the brain) and pneumonia. According to the WHO, measles killed 114,900 people during 2014 alone, most of them children. This statistic is especially tragic when you consider that measles is a vaccine-preventable disease.
- Many people in rich nations have no firsthand knowledge of the full impacts of infectious disease. Most younger people who live in rich nations such as the United States or countries in Europe have grown up in a time when vaccinations were easily available. Few people who had polio are still alive in these countries, and hardly anyone remembers the days when people ended up in iron lungs because polio had paralyzed the muscles they needed to breathe. Because of a lack of knowledge, the fear of infectious diseases has declined in these countries, leading people to question the need for vaccinations.
- The internet spreads rumors like wildfire. The Internet brings a world of information right into your home. The problem with that information, however, is that it hasn’t all been checked for its accuracy. Books are checked by editors, and scientific and medical articles are carefully reviewed by groups of scientists and doctors before they’re published. All you need to put information on the Internet, however, is the cash for a domain name and host server. An official-looking website can fool people about the reliability of its information, so always check the source of your information. | <urn:uuid:7a329935-9f4f-4d9c-994b-24d5f771247a> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | http://www.dummies.com/education/science/biology/know-vaccines-impact-health/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818689471.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20170923033313-20170923053313-00715.warc.gz | en | 0.969767 | 500 | 3.546875 | 4 |
Activities Sports & Athletics Play Hockey: A Guide for Beginners Playing hockey is the greatest experience in sport. Welcome to the game! Share PINTEREST Email Print Hero Images / Getty Images Sports & Athletics Ice Hockey Basics Best of Ice Hockey Baseball Basketball Bicycling Billiards Bodybuilding Bowling Boxing Car Racing Cheerleading Cricket Extreme Sports Football Golf Gymnastics Martial Arts Professional Wrestling Skateboarding Skating Paintball Soccer Swimming & Diving Table Tennis Tennis Track & Field Volleyball Other Activities Learn More By Jamie Fitzpatrick Updated October 16, 2017 Whether you're strapping on the skates yourself or you're the parent of a new hockey player, here's a beginner's guide to getting started playing hockey. Playing Hockey Means Knowing the Game Hero Images/Hero Images/Getty Images Before stepping on the ice, a new hockey player should be familiar with the basics rules and structure of the game. Are Skating Lessons Required? Hero Images / Getty Images Children and adults who are new to ice skating should register with a certified Learn to Skate program before taking up ice hockey. If you’re determined to learn by yourself or teach your kids without help, try a step-by-step guide to ice skating for beginners. Know the Costs of Playing Hockey Hero Images / Getty Images The cost of playing hockey is one of the big issues in the sport, making it difficult for lower-income players to participate. It takes several hundred dollars to get started, once you account for the purchase of equipment, registration with an ice hockey program in your community, and incidental costs. Many leagues and associations offer programs to help curtail costs, such as equipment rental, second-hand equipment, and starter kits at a reduced price. Contact your local association or inquire with other players/parents. Registration fees vary widely depending on where you live. Expect to pay at least $300-$500 per player per season. Playing Hockey Is a Commitment Photodisc/Getty Images Playing hockey means busy weekends, early mornings, long drives, and cold rinks, particularly if you are registering a child to play the game. Remember also that being a member of a team is a commitment. Reliability and punctuality are essential. A typical minor hockey program will offer three to five hours per week, divided between games and practices. Before you register your child, ask what the schedule will be like and make sure it's realistic for your lifestyle. A useful rule of thumb: for every hour of ice time, allow at least another hour for preparation, travel, etc. Adjust that number according to how far you live from the rink. Know the Alternatives to Organized Ice Hockey sledge hockey. Marc Piscotty/Getty Images Inline hockey (also called roller hockey) is played using inline skates on pavement or an arena floor.Sledge hockey is one of the most popular sports at the Paralympic Games. Players sit in the sledge – a metal frame that rides on skate blades – and use sticks to pass and shoot the puck.Ball hockey (also known as street hockey, road hockey) has a long and rich history, played in parking lots, streets, gyms, and anywhere else players gather with hockey sticks and a ball.If organized ice hockey doesn’t appeal, many rinks offer shinny hockey (also known as pick-up hockey) for a few dollars per visit. Shinny is a casual and usually non-competitive version of the game, with no set teams, no rough play, and often no scorekeeping.If you live in a climate of freezing winters, you might find a pond hockey game nearby. Find Hockey in Your Community Ryan McVay/Digital Vision/Getty Images If you can’t find a game via word-of-mouth, the Yellow Pages, or the internet, the following organizations can help you track down the nearest hockey organization. Most minor hockey associations have programs for novices: Hockey CanadaHockey USA Find Hockey Equipment C. Borland/PhotoLink/Getty Images The hockey stick and hockey skates are the essentials of the game. Make sure the hockey stick is the correct height. With the stick held vertical and the tip of the blade touching the floor, the butt-end should come up to about eye level of a player standing in bare feet, and up to the chin of a player in skates. Ice hockey requires a safety-certified helmet. The helmet is one item that should probably be purchased new. A properly fitting helmet, certified by safety testing and fitted prior to purchase, could save your life. Minor hockey programs also require a face mask attached to the helmet. If you're an adult beginner, the mask might not be required. But it's a very smart idea to wear one. Other equipment needed for ice hockey: mouth guard, shoulder pads, elbow pads, jock strap (for boys) or jill strap (for girls), shin pads, hockey pants, hockey socks, jersey, and a hockey bag to carry it all. Fit is important. If you’re purchasing hockey equipment online, try to find the same make and model at a local store so you can be certain of which size to order. Hockey players also need a variety of incidental items, such as stick tape, shin pad tape, t-shirts, socks, and underwear, shower supplies, etc. Make Safety the First Priority Ron Levine/Photodisc/Getty Images Proper fitting equipment is absolutely essential and will greatly reduce the chance of injury. Don't cut corners to save a few bucks. Many minor hockey programs forbid body checking until kids reach a certain age. If you're checking out a program for a young boy or girl, ask what the policy is on body checking, and make sure you're comfortable with it. Good hockey coaches also teach safe hockey, discouraging dangerous offenses like checking from behind and hits to the head. Respect the Game and Everyone at the Rink RK Studio/Grant Harder/Getty Images A good hockey player shows respect for officials, coaches, and opponents, learns to accept frustration and defeat, and is gracious in victory. Teamwork, communication, support, and respect are just as important to playing hockey as skates and pucks. If you’re the parent of a hockey player, encourage all of the above, and practice what you preach. Stick With It: Be Patient and Ready to Learn Gregg Forwerck/Getty Images for NHL Nothing good comes easy. Hockey players need coaching, practice, patience, and determination. Enjoy the process and accept that there will be setbacks along the way. | <urn:uuid:ff35615a-2190-45fc-97f1-b55ff546e03b> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://www.liveabout.com/play-hockey-a-guide-for-beginners-2779274 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585371637684.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20200406133533-20200406164033-00088.warc.gz | en | 0.932759 | 1,335 | 2.609375 | 3 |
A story can be divided into two categories: backstory and front story. Front story covers the scenes on the page that are happening in the present and pressing forward. Backstory reflects the influences from the past.
Backstory has two main jobs to fulfill in your story: (1) to reveal important information about the main characters, and (2) to help depict a fully realized story world. A character’s backstory comprises all the data of his history, revealing how he became who he is, and why he acts as he does and thinks as he thinks. It also reveals influences of an era, family history, and world events (such as wars) that affect the story and its inhabitants. Backstory illuminates the origins of behaviors and motives, especially those tied into the main conflict.
Because fiction requires a mighty engine to thrust it ahead—and take the reader along for the ride—backstory, if used incorrectly, can stall a story. A novel with too little backstory can be thin and is likely to be confusing. By the same token, a novel with too much backstory can lack suspense.
So here’s the problem: A constant civil war wages within a fiction writer over the how, how much, and when of slipping in backstory. It must be cleverly inserted so that it’s unobtrusive and allows the front story to press ahead. Perhaps the biggest problem with weaving in backstory revolves around this simple fact: The reader doesn’t need to know as much as the writer does. If you’ve crafted biographies of your major players, outlined and perhaps sketched your fictional town, you’ll be itching to impart all this detail. Or, if you’ve crafted a complicated history for planet Xenus, complete with a thousand years of wars, interplanetary travel, and ruling dynasties, you’ll long to include it all. Or, if you’re writing a historical novel and have spent months researching Victorian England, you’ll want to pass on all your research notes.
Remember this: The fantasy world of your story will loom larger in your imagination than it will on the page. Some authors can get away with including exhaustive details (these authors are usually under contract with a publisher), but most writers make careful choices about what to reveal and what to leave out.
When deciding when and where to use backstory in your work, it can help to think about what you’re trying to accomplish within a given scene. To do this, however, you need to understand the many functions of backstory.
What Backstory Can Do for Your Story
A well-told story is substantive, the opposite of a PowerPoint presentation because it teems with the lives of the characters. Backstory is the means to fill in the gaps, supply a character’s motivation and depth, and clarify how a world works. Let’s take a closer look at four of the most crucial functions backstory can fulfill: (1) raising the stakes, (2) revealing motivations, (3) expressing innermost fears, and (4) revealing obstacles.
1. Raising the Stakes
Something is always at stake in fiction. Not only do readers come to care about the protagonist, they recognize that what’s at stake matters. Every story cannot be depicted as a life-or-death struggle, yet the outcome means happiness or misery, health or disease, peace or discord for the protagonist. And the stakes, which are tied to outcome, always pulse with the potential for disaster. This escalating possibility for doom is essential to create suspense and tension, and, in fact, the protagonist’s life should always be depicted as deliciously precarious. Finally, the outcome of a novel, whatever its genre or plot, must always matter desperately to the protagonist and usually to other characters, particularly the antagonist, as well.
In the film version of Thomas Harris’s The Silence of the Lambs, which follows the novel closely, we learn that Buffalo Bill has murdered and mutilated his previous victims. When Agent Starling first visits the investigation headquarters, Buffalo Bill’s victims are displayed in graphic crime scene photos so that the reader foresees the horrible fate of his next victim. Thus, when Catherine, the senator’s daughter, is captured, we’re aware of the gruesome torments that await her. Further, because backstory reveals that Buffalo Bill keeps his victims alive for a certain number of days, the stakes are increased because time is running out for Catherine.
The Dogs of Babel, by Carolyn Parkhurst, offers an illustration of how to personalize and increase the stakes in a novel. The protagonist, Paul Iverson, changes in a moment when his wife, Lexy, dies under odd circumstances. His grief turns into obsession as he puzzles out the facts of his wife’s death.
Paul’s sanity is what’s at stake in this story. In his own words, he has slipped “off the deep end” and is in danger of losing everything. It appears that Paul is forever marked by Lexy’s death, unable to recover and return to his former life or forge a new one.
Parkhurst uses backstory to contrast Paul’s loving marriage to Lexy with his failed marriage to Maura, his first wife:
… whose voice filled our house like a thick mortar, sealing every crack and corner. Maura, this first wife of mine, spoke so much while saying so little that I sometimes felt as if I were drowning in the heavy paste of her words.
Maura, an anxious, controlling woman, became increasingly hostile until the marriage ended. The introduction of this backstory increases our sympathy for Paul and sharply contrasts his first and second wives:
I met Lexy less than a year later, and I knew from our first conversation that when she talked it was an easy thing, plain and open, with none of the Byzantine turns and traps I found myself caught in when I talked to Maura.
More details told via backstory increase the reader’s empathy for Paul. After Paul meets Lexy at her garage sale, he drives away “with a feeling of laughter caught in my chest. I felt happier than I had felt in a long time.”
Contrasting the two women and marriages works in the story: In fact, whenever you can contrast people, events, or objects in fiction, do so. Maura is angry and obsessive; Lexy is funny, artistic, and whimsical. Anyone who has ever left a relationship with a difficult person and then found a new beloved will understand. But showing Lexy’s personality and her marriage with Paul also raises the stakes because the reader feels Paul’s loss and heartbreak, and is drawn into the mystery of Lexy’s death. This unanswered question looms over the story, causing suspense and worry.
In your own stories, contrast is a powerful tool, as when you describe a character before and after a trauma, or involved in a happy and unhappy relationship. As in Parkhurst’s story, when a stable character becomes unstable, readers worry. Backstory can also reveal that a character has a tendency toward self-destruction, depression, or rash actions, all of which raise the stakes.
2. Revealing Motivations
Motivation provides reasons why characters do the things they do. In fact, almost every action and choice a character makes stems from motivation. Since backstory reflects the influences of the past, it’s also the source for motivations. A protagonist is a person with a burning desire, and backstory reveals where this desire stems from.
One of the great difficulties in providing motivation is making it consistent with the character’s values and personality. Backstory provides a window into how a character came to be who he is. Let’s say you’re writing a story set during the Vietnam War, and your character, Randall, was raised in a small Oklahoma town and was the fourth generation of his family to join the army. He’s idolized his father, a retired army captain who was a tough but loving parent and passed on a code of conduct that stressed honor, loyalty, and serving your country.
Now twenty-two and a sergeant, Randall’s backstory motivates him to believe in his mission as he capably leads his men through the sultry Vietnamese jungle with his nerves straining at every sound. But meanwhile, his girlfriend, Kelly, has joined the anti-war movement and has been writing to him about her new antiwar views. After making love during Randall’s last leave in Hawaii, she suggests they don’t have a future together if he stays in the army.
Meanwhile, the senseless killing of the war, along with the uncertainty, drug use, and persistent heat and craziness is making Randall question everything he learned before he landed so far from home. He wants to be a good soldier like his father, he wants to marry Kelly, but mostly he just wants to get the heck out of Vietnam and put the stench of rotting bodies and napalm behind him. Randall’s dilemma would not be as dramatic if we didn’t know about his heritage and Kelly and if his past and the present weren’t on a collision course.
It can be helpful to keep a Post-It note near your computer that briefly states your protagonist’s desire, such as “Howard Perry wants to take over the family business,” “Genevieve Sanders wants to escape her painful past,” or, “Michele Bronson wants to have a family.” Use your character’s desire as your North Star, and then ask yourself how you’ve proven this desire through backstory.
3. Expressing Innermost Fears
Backstory also helps define your protagonist’s greatest fears, which naturally play a key role in the overall story. Use your protagonist’s fears as a shorthand method for shaping a story line, and then turn her fear into a looming reality. If Deborah, the protagonist in your suspense novel, is a young single mother whose adorable three-year-old daughter, Bethany, means everything to her, then Bethany’s safety will be jeopardized by a disease, an accident, a child molester, an unstable ex-husband, or a kidnapper.
The backstory reveals why Deborah is raising Bethany on her own (her ex-husband was a violent alcoholic), how tenuous her circumstances are (she works for low wages in a day care center but dreams of having her own day care business), information about the child’s father (he was once arrested for drunk driving with Bethany in her infant seat), and information about why Deborah’s family cannot help. By putting what Deborah loves most in jeopardy, fears are put into play. By validating those fears through backstory, you also raise the stakes.
In Michael Crichton’s Disclosure, for example, the protagonist fears losing his family, career, and security. The story is set in the computer industry in Seattle, where Tom Sanders and his family are living the good life. Tom, an executive at Digicom, is in the midst of a corporate merger and expecting a promotion and a raise. Then the rug is pulled out from under him when his ex-lover, Meredith Johnson, is hired as his boss. Worried about his standing in the company, he agrees to an after-hours meeting with Johnson. But instead of discussing work matters, she makes it clear that she expects to resume their sexual relationship, and threatens to ruin him if he doesn’t acquiesce.
In most stories, backstory explains the main conflict between the antagonist and protagonist, especially if they have met before. In Disclosure, the conflict between Sanders and Johnson would not have been plausible if they hadn’t been former lovers and if her fond memories of their lovemaking didn’t fuel her demands.
As you begin to express your protagonist’s fears through backstory, be sure you have a clear understanding of exactly what those fears are. It can be helpful to create another Post-It that articulates your protagonist’s fears, such as “Howard Perry fears that his younger brother Justin, his father’s favorite, will be awarded the CEO position of the family business although he hasn’t earned it.” Or, “Genevieve Sanders is afraid that her past will always haunt her, especially when her abusive ex-husband moves into town.” Or, “Michele Bronson, thirty-six, is afraid that time is running out on her chances for love and a family.”
4. Revealing Obstacles
In literary and genre fiction, all stories are built around conflict, the mighty engine that keeps the plot simmering. Conflict stems from the obstacles, large and small, placed in each scene, blocking or stalling the protagonist’s progress and desires. Placing obstacles that stem from your protagonist’s backstory ups the ante, because these obstacles will push the protagonist’s buttons.
For example, in a romance novel, readers need to know aspects from the hero’s and heroine’s pasts that will create barriers to love. If the heroine is a widow and her husband, a policeman, died on the job, she’ll vow never to be involved with a man in a dangerous profession again. This means that it’s likely that the hero will be a fireman or involved in some life-threatening profession.
Fiction is a constantly changing world of unease, much of it subtle. Conflict must permeate every aspect of the story, and large and small obstacles are ideal for doing this, with the most potent obstacles having dark tendrils creeping in from the past.
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Yesterday’s Newsletter is Today’s Podcast
When I was a kid we had a class newsletter and it was so much fun to write and put it together. It brought the class together and encouraged teamwork. We also learned skills that can be applied in other areas. Back then we had to type our mini article, cut it out and paste it on our final sheet and make copies of it so it looked like a newsletter. It was straight-up old fashioned desktop publishing at its minimum but I learned skills that would last a lifetime. Today, we have so many activities beyond a cut and paste newsletter that we can have our students work on. Activities that will help them meet common core standards and also help them develop transferable skills across disciplines and open them up to a world of possibilities. Today, kids can produce their very own podcast!
Today, I want to talk to you about starting a podcast in your classroom. A podcast is a downloadable audio file that can be listened to on or off line. The audience of this podcast will be your student’s parents. It provides your students a great way to share what they are learning in school and explain it to the real world. At the minimum, your students are strengthening their skills in research, writing, summarizing, speaking and collaborating. Students will also learn that they need to alter the way they speak depending on their audience, in this case parents. They will be amazed at how their speaking skills will improve with each podcast they produce!
You can make this a weekly, biweekly, or monthly event depending on your current schedule but do try to fit it in. All you need is a quiet place to record, a microphone, headphones, and a free software such as audacity (GarageBand for Mac) to help with recording and editing.
It is helpful for students to choose roles and these roles should be rotated after a couple podcasts so that students can get to experience the different skills needed to create a podcast. Roles can include project manager, advertising the podcast, tech support, production and editing. Each role has different responsibilities during pre-production, recording, post-production, and publishing. In addition to the role, each person creates a segment for the episode. A general rule to make sure everyone stays on the same page and works as a team is the podcast episode does not and will not get published if everyone hasn’t completed their part.
The first step is to decide who the podcast is for, title it, get a slogan going and decide on a publishing calendar. The second step, in starting a podcast is ensuring everyone has a role. Personally, instead of having the entire class work on one podcast, I would team the class up and each team would produce a different podcast and each team role could collaborate with other teams with the same role to bounce ideas off each other. After their podcast is finished, they switch roles and start the process of creating another podcast episode.
Your job as the teacher in the process is to help guide your students in what kind of podcast they will produce (who and how long), setting them up with the equipment, and helping them if they can’t get past a tech question, coach them on communication skills and voice (enunciation, speaking slower, etc) and finally to cheer them on. You can always get a tech savvy parent volunteer to jump right in and help! | <urn:uuid:29d9d96a-3d4c-449f-836a-f8147dae7f0c> | CC-MAIN-2019-47 | https://selmadawani.com/podcast-in-your-classroom/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-47/segments/1573496668716.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20191116005339-20191116033339-00483.warc.gz | en | 0.969556 | 691 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Optical filters are a relatively unfamiliar concept for many people. They seem to be a little far from our daily life, but they are not. Looking closely at the surroundings, we will find that many aspects of life are inseparable from optical filters: For example, there are anti-reflection filters on the myopia lens for correcting visual acuity and high-reflection filters on the automobile mirror. The core components of projector widely used in business office are a collection of various optical filters. The monochrome, one of the core components of biochemical detectors, which are used to check the body in hospitals, mostly uses narrow-band filters. Long-wave pass filter and short-wave pass filter are used in digital camera. Various optical instruments, liquid crystal display and banknote anti-counterfeiting technology, optical communication, laser technology and so on are closely related to the development of filter technology. It can be said that without the development of filter technology as the basis, many modern emerging technologies are difficult to achieve the current achievements.
Optical filters are coated with one or more dielectric or metal films on optical elements or independent substrates to change the characteristics of light wave transmission. In order to achieve the scientific and engineering application, we design and manufacture various filter products by utilizing the phenomena of light wave characteristics change in the transmission of these thin films, such as transmission, absorption, scattering, reflection, polarization, phase change and so on. Manufacturing filter technology is a complex engineering technology, involving many professional and technical fields, including vacuum acquisition technology, real dragon measurement technology, computer aided design technology, optical characteristics detection technology, electronic circuit technology, material characteristics detection and preparation technology. | <urn:uuid:e776134c-202e-4688-bed1-b05af1ea7498> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | http://www.hypoptics.com/about-us/resources/what-are-the-uses-of-optical-filters.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141188800.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20201126142720-20201126172720-00218.warc.gz | en | 0.920766 | 340 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Kester Clegg and Susan Stepney
Software configurable analogue arrays offer an intriguing platform for automated design by evolutionary algorithms. Like previous evolvable hardware experiments, these platforms are subject to noise during physical interaction with their environment. We report preliminary results of an evolutionary system that uses concepts from gene expression to both discover and decide when to deploy analogue circuits. The output of a circuit is used to trigger its reconfiguration to meet changing conditions. We examine the issues of noise during our evolutionary runs, show how this was overcome and illustrate our system with a simple proof-of-concept task that shows how the same mechanism of control works for progressive developmental stages (canalisation) or adaptable control (homoeostasis).
In Applications of Evolutionary Computing, EvoWorkshops 2008: EvoCOMNET, EvoFIN, EvoHOT, EvoIASP, EvoMUSART, EvoNUM, EvoSTOC, and EvoTransLog, Naples, Italy, March 26-28, 2008. Proceedings
|Series||Lecture Notes in Computer Science| | <urn:uuid:546f1b51-4850-4c30-8972-2b66813e2192> | CC-MAIN-2014-15 | http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=73170 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1397609537097.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20140416005217-00528-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.838253 | 224 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Boy with Inherited Blindness First to Receive FDA-Approved Gene Therapy at Bascom Palmer
Creed Pettit, a 9-year-old legally blind boy from Mount Dora, Florida, on March 22 became the first patient to undergo a landmark gene therapy surgery at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, part of UHealth — the University of Miami Health System and the Miller School of Medicine.
Creed was diagnosed at about age 2 with Leber congenital amaurosis, a blinding genetic disease caused by an RPE65 genetic mutation. His family, especially his mom Sarah St. Pierre Pettit, has been on a tireless journey to find a treatment for Creed’s condition, which impedes his vision in low light. While he’s able to draw, play the piano and enjoy other activities during daylight, at night, she said, Creed experiences complete darkness.
Most affected patients have decreased vision before the age of 10 from retinal degeneration. Luxterna, a product developed by Spark Therapeutics, is the first ocular gene therapy drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The drug, which was approved in December 2017, is a genetically altered viral vector that makes the photoreceptor cells on the retina produce a protein that people with the RPE65 genetic mutation lack.
Audina Berrocal, M.D., a pediatric retina surgeon and professor of clinical ophthalmology, performed the hour-long surgery on Creed’s right eye, using a hair-thin needle to inject the drug directly under his retina. Creed had the gene therapy surgery on his left eye on March 28 at Bascom Palmer.
“Gene therapy is the beginning of how we treat inherited eye disorders,” said Berrocal. “The treatment combines technology, subspecialty care and advanced science.”
Byron Lam, M.D., a Bascom Palmer neuro-ophthalmologist, vision scientist and gene therapy expert who diagnosed Creed at Bascom Palmer, said, “The FDA’s approval of the drug sets the precedent that gene therapy is a viable option to restore sight for people with inherited eye diseases.” Lam, a professor of ophthalmology, also noted the importance of genetic testing so that genetic eye disorders are “accurately categorized” in the event that a gene therapy is available.
Bascom Palmer has an extensive gene therapy program with ophthalmologists, surgeons, genetic counselors and research scientists studying various forms of inherited eye diseases. | <urn:uuid:c3a0258a-b9a4-46be-a839-4296d1d893bf> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | http://med.miami.edu/news/boy-with-inherited-blindness-first-to-receive-fda-approved-gene-therapy-at- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627999620.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20190624171058-20190624193058-00322.warc.gz | en | 0.951665 | 518 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Discover your community history by visiting a cemetery
Cemeteries are an opportunity to explore local history through community service.
Ghosts, goblins, pumpkins and spooky cemeteries, oh my! Discover your backyard history by connecting with your local historical association, preservation or genealogy group to tour a local cemetery. While it might sound creepy, it is just the opposite.
Visiting a cemetery is an opportunity to discover the history of an area. Cemeteries are a monument to a region or a community history. They are a forever memorial to patterns of immigration, religious rituals, diseases and disasters. Your adventures may take you from the smallest family plots and long forgotten church cemeteries on back roads to sprawling urban cemeteries.
When visiting a cemetery as a group, family or individual, take a moment to review cemetery etiquette, such as not walking on graves, respecting property and other visitors, and respectful noise levels. Connect with the cemetery caretaker, local township office or county courthouse to find out their policies. You can also request or pick up a map of the cemetery, or find a cemetery map online by doing a cemetery search. If you are visiting with a group, invite a community historian or genealogist who can personalize the tour and share stories, biographies and background information.
Cleaning and caring for a headstone is one way to make a difference in your community. Headstones can become covered with lichen, tipped over or moved, families relocate and through time, headstones might become overlooked or, sadly, a target for vandalism. Again, check with a cemetery curator or governance to align with regulations and policies. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration is an extensive resource for historic and current information for groups and families.
Some things to look for and document on headstones might include:
- Headstone symbols, such as weeping willows, flowers, hands, lambs, angels or masonic emblems.
- Shape of monuments, such as rectangular, obelisk, tree trunks or statuary-dominated.
- Markers made from various materials like bronze, granite, limestone or marble.
- Quotes and messages, such as, "Budded on this earth to flower in heaven."
- Number of children who died under 5 years.
- Earliest birth date in cemetery.
- Earliest death date in cemetery.
- Unusual names and which names were popular during what time period.
- Military markers for different military branches, wars and conflicts.
Catacombs, crypts and above-ground burial locations are a way to understand our history. So if you’re traveling with your family or friends, consider adding a cemetery visit to your itinerary. Some commonly known historic and reverent cemeteries include Arlington National Cemetery, Gettysburg National Military Park and New Orleans’ above-ground crypts.
Michigan State University Extension’s 4-H Folkpatterns curriculum includes activities on “Discovering Traditions in My Community and Beyond.” Additionally, Utah State University’s Discover 4-H series has a free 4-H Family History Curriculum for more information on exploring and documenting family history and ideas for youth groups on how to document. | <urn:uuid:fcf069d2-caad-47c2-842a-59b1e3954a4d> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/discover_your_community_history_by_visiting_a_cemetery | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764500357.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20230206181343-20230206211343-00150.warc.gz | en | 0.926826 | 676 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Flashcards in Risk Management Deck (17):
Define Market Risk
The risk that a sluggish economy will affect the value of a debt instrument
Define Sector Risk
The risk that an event in the investment's business sector will harm the investment
For example- the banking sector is sluggish- so even stocks of healthy banks suffer
Define Credit/Default Risk
The risk that a debtor will be unable to make loan payments or pay back the principal
Define Interest Rate Risk
The risk that a change in interest rates will adversely affect the value of the note
Example: Bond is for 10% but prevailing market rate is now 12%. If bondholder wants to sell it- they will have to sell it at a discount.
What does Standard Deviation measure?
It measures the volatility of an investment.
What is Systematic Risk?
Risk that impacts the entire market and can't be avoided or reduced through diversification
What is Unsystematic Risk?
Relates to a particular industry or company
Example: You own stocks in ethanol plants and an untimely freeze kills all of the corn in the Midwest
What does Beta measure?
Beta measures how volatile the investment is relative to the rest of the market.
In other words- how quickly (and in what amount) does the value of the stock change when the market sways?
What is Variance?
It compares volatility of an investment to the market average.
Factors include both Systematic and Unsystematic Risk.
What is a Derivative?
An asset whose value is DERIVED from the value of another asset.
Derivatives are measured at Fair Value.
How is an Option used?
Gives the buyer the option to buy or sell a financial derivative at a certain price
Traders use them to speculate where they think the price will be at a certain point and make a profit
Hedgers use them to offset risk
What is a Future?
A Forward Contract with a future value.
They are sold and traded on the futures market.
What is an Interest Rate Swap?
Forward Contract to swap payment agreements
They are highly liquid and often valued using the Zero-Coupon method.
Example: Steve pays Sally a fixed payment with a fixed interest rate. Sally pays Steve a variable payment tied to a benchmark such as LIBOR
What is Legal Risk?
Risk that a law or regulation will void the derivative
What is a Fair Value Hedge?
Hedge that protects against the value of an asset or liability changing.
Changes in value are reported in earnings.
What is a Cash Flow Hedge?
A hedge that protects against a set of future cash flows changing.
Changes in value are reported in OCI. | <urn:uuid:94a4eacc-5ea8-459b-8971-a2149f3a453c> | CC-MAIN-2018-17 | https://www.brainscape.com/flashcards/risk-management-3124057/packs/4942992 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125946256.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20180423223408-20180424003408-00282.warc.gz | en | 0.912412 | 570 | 2.71875 | 3 |
What is an advisory Board?
An Advisory Board is an informal panel of experienced professionals who give non-binding strategic and tactical recommendations for the founders, owners and leaders of a business or non profit organisation.
Advisory board drive value for organisation of any size, from start-up, mid-size businesses and large organisations.
It’s important to differentiate “Advisory Boards” with “Board of Directors”. Advisory Boards only offer advices and strategic recommendations. They do not have, in opposition to most board of directors, have legal authority to vote on corporate matters.They do not serve a governance function or represent shareholders or other stakeholders.
You have several types of Advisory Boards:
- General Business advisory boards: They cover all types of business initiatives and often bring together a wide range of advisors
- Specific business initiative / topic based advisory board
- Local Advisory boards: with country, state or region specific expertise
- Client advisory board composed of a representation of of the people you are serving
- Public Affairs advisory boards
- R&D Advisory board | <urn:uuid:787b5c0b-ad09-45a7-a8dc-2de6af600496> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.my-advisory-board.com/board-of-director-vs-advisory-board/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296945218.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20230323225049-20230324015049-00591.warc.gz | en | 0.949918 | 221 | 2.671875 | 3 |
In the 2015 film, ‘The Revenant’, Leonardo de Caprio played the role of Hugh Glass. The film was based on the true-life story of the life of Hugh Glass, adventurer, survivor and mountain man driven by revenge but swayed by mercy at the end.
The story started when General William Ashley wanted to enter politics in 1822. Lacking the money required to back his bid for election, he set out to earn the funds needed as quickly as possible. He turned his eye to trapping and recruited one hundred men with the aim of trapping beaver and other valuable pelts, all along the Missouri River. To this end, Ashley created the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and recruited his one hundred trappers, giving rise to the common name of the company; ‘Ashely’s Hundred’.
These men traded and trapped along the Green River through Wyoming and Utah, over 50 years before the famed expedition of John Wesley Powell. They accounted for massive numbers of beaver pelts, irrevocably altering the population of beaver in the region.
One of Ashley’s Hundred, was an adventurer Hugh Glass. Glass was born in 1783 in Pennsylvania to Scots-Irish parents. Little is known of his early life before he joined Ashley’s Hundred in 1822, in the watershed of the Missouri River, Dakota and the Platte River in Nebraska.
Glass was a skilled adventurer and mountain man. He had exemplary trapping skills and was partnered with John FitzGerald and Jim Bridger. On a scouting trip, he surprised a grizzly sow with two cubs, and she attacked him inflicting serious wounds; Glass had a broken leg and deep lacerations on his back and over his ribs. He fought off the bear, and when his partners found him, they helped kill the bear, and then sat on a death watch over Glass as they were convinced that he was dying.
His partners started digging his grave when they were chased off by a group of Arikara Indians. FitzGerald and Bridger fled, leaving Glass on his own. Glass was furious with his partners and vowed vengeance on them. His desire to see them pay for abandoning him was so great that it gave him the incentive to strike out for Fort Kiowa, 200 miles away.
The legend tells that Glass splinted his leg and started to hobble and crawl his way to Fort Kiowa. His wounds were poorly treated, and with the conditions he was living under, the lacerations became infected. To keep gangrene at bay, Glass lay over rotten logs to encourage maggots to clean off the dead flesh that was causing the infection. While the Arikara Indians were hostile, many friendlier tribes assisted Glass on his epic trek by providing assistance in the form of arms, food, and shelter. Six weeks later he staggered onto the banks of the Cheyenne River, where he built a raft and floated downriver to Fort Kiowa.
He arrived in Fort Kiowa, thirsting for revenge, but then the story takes a strange turn. Glass found Bridger but instead of slaughtering him as he had threatened, he forgave him as Bridger was only 19 at the time he abandoned Glass. He then traced FitzGerald to the US Army, but decided not to kill him as the penalty for killing a soldier was too great. Glass did recover his rifle from FitzGerald, however, and he continued trapping until he was killed, in 1833, by Arikara Indians in the Yellowstone Park area.
How much of this story is fact and how much has been embellished it is impossible to say as there is no written record from Glass himself. Records from Ashley’s Hundred reveal that Glass was a difficult man with whom to deal, but it is true that he was left for dead and did make it back to civilization, but beyond that, it’s difficult to tell.
The first time this story was written about was in the newspaper The Portfolio, a journal published in Philadelphia. It was then syndicated to numerous newspapers across the country. In 1915, John Neihardt wrote a poem, “The Song of Hugh Glass” which was based upon the original account, and Frederick Manfred wrote a book, Lord Grizzly, which was published in 1954. Neither the poem nor the book was based on any verifiable evidence, and it is certain that a great deal of this story has grown to legend status over the years.
This story was bound to come to the attention of the movie moguls in Hollywood, and in 1970 the first film was made, Man in the Wilderness, starring Richard Harris. More recently, Leonardo di Caprio starred in The Revenant, which was released in 2015.
No matter how much of the tale has become embellished over time, it is still a striking story of survival and an epic trek back to civilization.
If you have any comments then please drop us a message on our Outdoor Revival Facebook page
If you have a good story to tell or blog let us know about it on our FB page, we’re also happy for article or review submissions, we’d love to hear from you.
We live in a beautiful world, get out there and enjoy it.
Outdoor Revival – Reconnecting us all with the Outdoor | <urn:uuid:507a8c9c-af8c-42c9-ac35-0b1b2ed03146> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://m.outdoorrevival.com/old-ways/hugh-glass-the-ultimate-adventurer-renegade-survivor.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655882634.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20200703153451-20200703183451-00557.warc.gz | en | 0.984805 | 1,096 | 2.90625 | 3 |
More Than an Acronym: LLC vs. INC
Whether you are starting a business or reorganizing one, choosing the right incorporation is important to achieving your objectives. The North Carolina Secretary of State recognizes three incorporation methods: Business Corporations (Inc.); Limited Liability Companies (LLC), and Nonprofit Corporations. This article will help you better understand each method, and how it may affect your business.
CORPORATIONS & FOREIGN CORPORATIONS
A corporation is recognized in North Carolina as a separate legal entity from the individuals who form it and its owners, called the “shareholders.” The shareholders of a corporation are generally not personally liable for the debts of the business. A corporation is managed by its board of directors, which must approve major business decisions. Directors are elected by shareholders at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. Directors of a corporation owe a duty of loyalty and care to the corporation. Generally, this means the director must act in good faith, reasonably, and in the best interest of the company.
In North Carolina, a corporation is automatically classified as a C-Corporation unless otherwise indicated by its shareholders. C-Corporations are taxed as a separate business entity and are subject to their own tax forms and tax rates. A corporation may choose to retain its profit or may distribute earnings via dividends to the shareholders.
Forming a C-Corporation may result in higher taxes since shareholders are essentially taxed twice by the government, once at the corporate level and again at the personal level.
Forming an S-Corporation in North Carolina requires the consent of all shareholders, and provides special tax treatment (“pass-through taxation”) by the IRS. S-Corporations have between 1 and 100 shareholders and are generally not subject to corporate tax rates since the business’ profits are taxed at individual tax rates on each shareholder’s tax return.
A Foreign Corporation is an existing corporation that is registered to do business in another state other than North Carolina. A foreign corporation cannot do business in the State until it obtains a certificate of authority from the Secretary of State. One of the legal consequences of not registering for a certificate is that the business cannot file a civil suit in North Carolina as the plaintiff, but can still be sued in the State by another person or business.
A Nonprofit corporation is a special type of corporation that is organized to either benefit the public, a specific group of individuals, or the membership of the Nonprofit. The Nonprofit corporation is intended to have no income, meaning it does not provide distributions to its members, directors, or officers. Unlike the corporation, Nonprofit organizations are not organized to make a profit or financial gain for its owners. Nonprofits may be organized for charitable, civic, community welfare, religious and scientific purposes.
For federal tax purposes, not all Nonprofit corporations are tax exempt. Nonprofit corporations must apply to receive federal and state tax exempt status for all or some of its income.
LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY
A Limited Liability Company (“LLC”), like a corporation, is recognized as a legally separate entity from its owners, also called “members.” There are two basic LLC structures: member-managed and manager managed. In a member-managed LLC, all members participate in the decision-making process and daily management of the company. In a manager-managed LLC, members relinquish their authority to the manager (or managers), who act as agents of the company. The manager in this context can be a member, but this is not necessary. Members of an LLC are not personally liable for the actions of the business and enjoy pass-through taxation meaning profits are only taxed at the individual taxpayer level.
Choosing the right incorporation method and management structure can be critical to your financial stability and the success of your business. If you are starting a business in North Carolina, please visit www.craineylaw.com or contact the Law Office of Cedric Rainey, PLLC, to schedule an initial phone consultation.
[This blog does not offer legal advice. If you need legal advice, contact the Law Offices of Cedric Rainey to speak with a licensed attorney.] | <urn:uuid:c1485468-c9fc-403d-8682-2fe6ab12885f> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://www.craineylaw.com/single-post/2017/10/01/more-than-an-acronym-llc-vs-corporation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662521883.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20220518083841-20220518113841-00023.warc.gz | en | 0.951524 | 881 | 2.609375 | 3 |
* International Forestry Consultant, BLUE OX FORESTRY, 9770 SW Vista Place, Portland, OR 97225-4251, USA, Tel. 503-292-9311, Fax 775-514-1088, E-mail: email@example.com or firstname.lastname@example.org
In this paper, two apparently contradictory conclusions are drawn: First, that reduced impact logging (RIL) involves the application of technologies that have been known for many years and are utilized as a matter of common practice in many industrialized countries; and second, that RIL is something new, requiring both a new mindset and also a new approach to tropical forest management. It is hoped that the reader will be convinced that these assertions are true in spite of the apparent contradiction between them.
In forestry, a distinction is often made between timber harvesting and logging. Logging generally refers to the process of felling and extracting timber from forests, whereas timber harvesting includes pre-harvest planning, technical supervision and post-harvest assessments that reflect concern about non-timber resource values and about the future state of the forest. The term reduced impact logging however, has become essentially interchangeable in the vernacular with timber harvesting. Reduced impact logging technology is a collective term that refers to the use of scientific and engineering principles, in combination with education and training, to improve the application of labour, equipment and operating methods in the harvesting of industrial timber.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF RIL IN THE TROPICS
Until after World War II, logging operations in tropical forests were for the most part unmechanized, relying largely on human and animal power. As such, they involved only small areas of forest and had little impact on the resource. Even so, some of the best early work on management of tropical forests emphasized the importance of careful logging to protect future crop trees. An example of this is the management system for teak developed by Sir Dietrich Brandis in Burma during the second half of the nineteenth century (Dawkins and Philip, 1998).
Beginning in the 1950s, industrial logging of tropical forests became widespread as the worldwide demand for timber increased dramatically due to the rapid postwar economic expansion. Mechanized logging technologies developed in industrialized countries were introduced into the tropics quickly, and both the scale of operations and their intensity changed substantially. Tropical foresters began to recognize that many industrial logging operations were leaving forests in a seriously degraded condition (Dawkins, 1958; Nicholson, 1958; Redhead, 1960; Wyatt-Smith and Foenander, 1962; Fox, 1968). Some authors, most notably Dawkins (1958), went so far as to suggest that selective harvesting of moist tropical forest might be incompatible with the goal of sustained-yield management because of the excessive damage to residual vegetation that resulted from mechanized logging. At the same time, other tropical foresters (Bruenig, 1957) had begun to develop and test prescriptions for mechanized logging that would minimize damage to residual vegetation and soils and thus foster sustained-yield forest management. Even so, comparisons over time by authors such as Fox (1968), Nicholson (1979), Ewel and Conde (1980), Marn and Jonkers (1982), Estève (1983), DeBonis (1986), Jonkers (1987), Hendrison (1989), and Bruijnzeel and Critchley (1994) suggested that as increasingly powerful machinery was being introduced into tropical forests, the scale of damage to residual vegetation and to soils was rising proportionally.
By 1992, when the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development convened in Rio de Janeiro, it had become clear that at least in some instances the mechanization of logging operations in the tropics posed a serious threat to long-term sustainability of the resource, particularly if impacts on non-timber values were added to the equation (Dykstra and Heinrich, 1992).
Around the same time, the first publications were appearing, in which the term reduced impact logging was used (Putz and Pinard, 1993). Somehow this term and its acronym RIL proved more broadly acceptable than environmentally sound timber harvesting, an alternative that was being promoted by the FAO Forestry Department (Dykstra and Heinrich, 1992). The Tropical Forest Foundation (TFF) introduced the related term low-impact logging but this was not generally adopted by environmentalists who felt that low-impact and logging were mutually exclusive terms. The more neutral term reduced impact logging was picked up quickly and widely used, both in technical articles and in news releases. The concept of forest management technologies that reduced logging impacts resonated not only with foresters but also with the general public. Importantly, the concept also was supported by influential environmental organizations such as WWF and IUCN. As a consequence, RIL gained a legitimacy that foresters themselves could never have provided.
Also around this time, a concerted effort was underway on a variety of levels to assess the effectiveness of tropical forest management and to develop and implement guidelines to improve management practices. Influential publications stemming from this activity included Poore et al. (1989), ITTO (1990), Poore and Sayer (1990), FAO (1993a) and FSC (1994, revised 2000). Building on these efforts, a number of initiatives were undertaken to develop codes of practice for logging in tropical forests. Many of these codes of practice borrowed heavily from guidelines developed for Australian tropical forests during the 1970s and 1980s (Queensland Forest Service, undated; Ward and Kanowski, 1985). An early effort was the Fiji National Code of Logging Practice (Fiji Ministry of Forests, 1990), developed with assistance from the International Labour Office (ILO). By 1996, FAO had published a model code of forest harvesting practice (Dykstra and Heinrich, 1996), and this spurred a large number of tropical countries to develop their own codes of practice, often with assistance from FAO, the International Tropical Timber Orgainization (ITTO), the European Union, or bilateral development-assistance agencies such as GTZ (Germany), USAID (USA), AusAID (Australia), French Cooperation, DFID (UK), and others. FAOs Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific subsequently worked with member countries of the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission to develop the Code of Practice for Forest Harvesting in Asia-Pacific (FAO, 1999) and is also assisting with the development of national codes of practice as extensions to the regional code.
LOGGING IN TROPICAL VERSUS TEMPERATE FORESTS
In spite of very high biomass levels, tropical forests generally support much lower volumes of merchantable timber than temperate forests (Wadsworth, 1997). The volume of timber harvested from an average hectare of tropical forest worldwide is less than 30 m3 and usually involves 10 or fewer trees, each of which is a different species (FAO, 1993b). In Africa, some highly selective operations remove only one tree in 10 ha. By comparison, a typical operation in the coniferous forests of the Pacific Northwest of the USA extracts 500 m3/ha from 200-300 trees, most of which are a single species. As a consequence of the relatively low volume of merchantable timber harvested per hectare of tropical forest, the area disturbed by logging to obtain a given volume of industrial roundwood is substantially larger than in temperate forests. This means that logging operations in the tropics are spread over extensive areas, making them obvious to large numbers of people. Although spreading operations over large areas may reduce impacts on a per hectare basis, it can result in a greater total impact because of the many additional kilometers of skidtrails and roads that are required. One analysis comparing operations in West Africa with those in Europe found that the effective road density, measured in meters of road per cubic meter of roundwood extracted, was fifty times higher in the African operations than in the European operations (Dykstra and Heinrich, 1996). Perhaps more importantly, the many additional kilometers of road built into tropical forests to extract timber makes the forest more attractive for colonization.
An important demographic difference between temperate and tropical forests is that the latter are often populated, and the people who live in them depend upon the forest for their livelihoods. This was once true of temperate forests, but by the time mechanized logging was being applied in temperate forests, those forests had largely become unpopulated. It remains true in tropical forests, in spite of a worldwide trend toward increasing urbanization. Even remote areas like the forests of Borneo support relatively large populations of both indigenous people and migrants, and these people often make extensive use of non-timber forest products. For example, at CIFORs Bulungan Research Forest in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, a survey of several communities of Dayaks - forest-dwelling indigenous people who inhabit remote areas on the island of Borneo - indicates that of 383 plant taxa identified in the area, 236 (62 percent) are used in some way by the local people. Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are the single most important source of cash income for these people, accounting for as much as 80 percent of an average households annual cash income (Wollenberg, 1998). Furthermore, a comparison with town dwellers suggests that the forest dwellers total annual incomes, including imputed values for the NTFPs they use, average almost one-third more than the average incomes of town dwellers who do not have regular access to forests. This indicates the importance of considering local populations and the potential impacts of logging on non-timber forest resources when planning forestry operations in the tropics.
A recent study in Cameroon (Nef, 1997) demonstrated that by avoiding timber species from which local people harvest NTFPs, timber companies might be able to gain the support of local populations and thereby avoid chronic theft and operational disruptions. There may be significant costs associated with such a strategy, however; in Nefs study, 24 NTFPs used by local people were produced by tree species that were also used for commercial timber. Designating as off limits to logging the 10 tree species considered most valuable as sources of NTFPs would, according to Nefs analysis, reduce the companys aggregate timber stumpage value per hectare by about 20 percent.
WHAT IS NEW ABOUT RIL?
To a large extent, RIL technologies that are being promoted for adoption in tropical forests have been developed in temperate forests and are utilized as a matter of common practice there. In this sense, they represent nothing new. Because of the differences between tropical and temperate forests, however, many of these practices require significant adjustment in order to be economically and technically viable in the tropics. Also, protection of non-timber values in areas where local populations utilize NTFPs requires considerable evaluation and planning.
Although it varies somewhat with the local situation, RIL in tropical forests generally requires the following (see, for example, Sist et al., 1998):
Pre-harvest inventory and mapping of individual crop trees.
Pre-harvest planning of roads, skidtrails and landings to provide access to the harvest area and to the individual trees scheduled for harvest while minimizing soil disturbance and protecting streams and waterways with appropriate crossings.
Pre-harvest vine cutting in areas where vines bridge tree crowns.
The use of appropriate felling and bucking techniques, including directional felling, cutting stumps low to the ground to avoid waste, and optimal crosscutting of tree stems into logs in a way that will maximize the recovery of useful wood.
Construction of roads, landings and skidtrails so that they adhere to engineering and environmental design guidelines.
Winching logs to planned skidtrails and ensuring that skidding machines remain on the skidtrails at all times.
Where feasible, utilizing yarding systems that protect soils and residual vegetation by suspending logs above the ground.
Conducting post-harvest assessments in order to provide feedback to the concession holder and logging crews and to evaluate the degree to which RIL guidelines were applied successfully.
Nearly all of these practices are common in temperate forests. Two that are not are the requirement for mapping individual crop trees, and the need for preharvest vine cutting.
Numerous studies have shown that mapping of individual crop trees is essential in tropical forests where only a small number of trees per hectare can be harvested commercially. Information on locations of individual crop trees can be used to locate roads, landings and skidtrails so that the crop trees can be extracted without disturbing soils in areas where no trees are to be harvested. In spite of efforts to develop improved systems for mapping individual trees (Hendrison, 1989), this remains both a logistical headache and a cost that is not readily accepted by operators. Nevertheless, recent analyses such as Holmes et al. (2000) indicate that this additional cost is more than offset by the benefits provided through the effective planning that the individual tree maps provide. Still, research is needed to streamline this process and to make use of recent developments in remote sensing that might reduce the cost of pre-harvest mapping.
Beginning with a rather important and influential paper published by Fox (1968), it has been recognized for a long time that pre-harvest cutting of vines can significantly reduce damage associated with felling in areas where climbing vines are present. Historically, a common procedure has been to cut all vines within a harvest block, regardless of whether the vines are associated with crop trees. It now appears that this is both unnecessary and wasteful; instead, vine cutting should concentrate in the area around individual crop trees and their neighbours, and often the cost can be reduced by coordinating this activity with pre-harvest inventory and mapping. It is also important to recognize that some vines are used by local people, and that certain vine species, such as figs, are important sources of fruit for wildlife.
As mentioned earlier, most RIL technologies have been developed in temperate countries and are applied there widely. In this sense, RIL is not new - it is simply the transfer of well-established technologies from temperate forests to the tropics. Because of the important differences that exist between temperate and tropical forests, however, the correct application of RIL in the tropics involves several new steps. The section that follows argues that some of these differences require both a new mindset and also a new approach to tropical forest management.
ISSUES IN RIL
Philosophical acceptance by foresters. Many foresters, often including those responsible for the education of forestry students in universities and technical institutes, consider logging to be a subject that should not be discussed in polite society (Dykstra 1994). Although most foresters recognize that harvesting is essential if income is to be generated from forestry investments, there is a tendency to treat the logging operation in the way farmers treat the slaughterhouse - hide it away in the hope that it will not disturb the customers.
There are at least three consequences of this tendency. First, logging operations seldom get the professional attention required and therefore are often poorly planned, improperly executed, and inadequately supervised. Second, foresters and forestry technicians frequently have little appreciation for the positive benefits of timber harvesting and only a vague, uncomfortable sense of the very real environmental hazards that are associated with logging operations. Third, foresters often come to believe that environmentally sound harvesting is impossible at a level of cost that will permit an economically viable forest industry. They are thus often willing to accept poor logging practices because the alternative does not seem feasible. This is partly due to the fact that few logging operations in tropical forests can truly be described as environmentally sound, so there is little opportunity to see such practices being applied. In addition, conventional wisdom holds that environmental protection always costs more, so it is generally assumed that RIL must be more costly than conventional logging.
The cost of RIL. The opposite holds true. Studies by Marn and Jonkers (1982), Hendrison (1989), and most recently by Holmes et al. (2000) have demonstrated conclusively that properly planned and supervised harvesting operations not only meet conditions for sustainability but also reduce harvesting costs by a substantial margin as compared to conventional logging. The difficulty is that these cost savings are due to better planning, better supervisory control and better utilization of felled timber. To obtain these savings, therefore, it is necessary to have technically competent planners, loggers and supervisors.
Training. The most critical single requirement for the successful application of RIL on a wide scale in tropical forests is the availability of skilled logging personnel at all levels. The fact that almost no tropical countries presently offer such training effectively dooms their forests to poor logging practices. Unless these countries and the development-assistance agencies that work with them begin to recognize this constraint and work to overcome it, there is little hope that timber concession holders will be able to implement RIL effectively on a large scale, simply because they will be unable to find skilled personnel who understand both why and how to carry out RIL. Efforts by organizations such as TFF to train loggers, planners and supervisors in Brazil and more recently in Indonesia have shown the way forward to overcoming the training vacuum, but this is a problem of enormous proportions that will require intensive, coordinated efforts on the part of government agencies, development-assistance organizations, and non-governmental organizations like TFF.
Active supervision of loggers. Well-trained loggers need equally well-trained supervisors to ensure that their work is carried out properly and to provide feedback that will help them to improve their practices continually. It is important that supervisors understand not only what to do and how to do it, but also why, and they must be able to communicate this understanding in an effective way. Supervisors must be on the ground every day, not confined to an office where they can only supervise by remote control.
Aerial logging systems. By adhering to the above requirements for RIL practices, virtually any type of logging machinery can reduce impacts as long as the operation is properly controlled and supervised. But it must be recognized that there is an optimal logging system for any given situation, and that a low-impact system in one situation might become a high-impact system in another situation. Most logging in tropical forests relies on ground-based skidding machines. Such systems can achieve acceptably low impacts when operators are trained properly and slopes are of low to moderate steepness. Unfortunately, in many forests, especially in developing countries, ground skidding is used even when slopes are very steep. Under such conditions, the environmental impacts associated with ground skidding are often unacceptably high. Aerial logging alternatives such as cable systems and helicopters can reduce direct impacts associated with ground disturbance during logging substantially, and because of their extended yarding capabilities can also reduce the density of haul roads needed to support logging operations. As most soil erosion associated with logging operations can be traced directly to roads and skidtrails, reducing the density of this infrastructure will lessen stream sedimentation and all its related offsite impacts, such as the siltation of reservoirs and irrigation ponds, high treatment cost for drinking water, and reduced fishery values. Unfortunately, both cable systems and helicopters require highly skilled crews and specialized knowledge that is often in scarce supply in developing countries. This emphasizes the need, again, for effective and widely available logger training.
Some RIL technologies are indigenous to the tropics. Several types of RIL systems are unique to tropical forests. The kuda-kuda system still used in some swamp forests probably exists nowhere outside the tropics, although the concept of moving logs along a corduroy road of logs was often used in temperate forests until the middle of the last century. Although animal-powered skidding systems have been important historically in temperate forests, it is safe to say that logging with elephants and with water buffalo (carabao) has always been limited to the tropics!
Improving harvest recovery. Regardless of the type of logging equipment used, the amount of usable wood recovered from forest harvesting can be improved by reducing wood residues at all stages of production, from felling to skidding to transportation and final processing. In tropical forests particularly, improved utilization has tremendous potential for reducing the area of forest disturbed annually through timber harvesting. A study initiated by FAO (Dykstra and Heinrich, 1997) and continued by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the World Forestry Center (WFC) suggests that the volume of wood recovered from harvesting operations in managed tropical forests could be increased by perhaps 10-30 percent without a significant increase in harvesting cost. In fact, Dykstra and Heinrich (1997) argue that improved utilization in most situations should reduce harvesting cost (see also Holmes et al. 2000).
On the basis of the FAO-CIFOR-WFC study, Figure 1 shows how the area of tropical forest disturbed annually through harvesting operations might be reduced if utilization were improved. The scenarios assume that the demand for industrial roundwood is driven by population growth, and that a one percent increase in population results in a 0.75 percent increase in demand for industrial roundwood. Under this assumption, the expected world population of 8.9 billion in 2050 implies a level of demand for tropical industrial roundwood to the order of 453 million m3 per year.
Figure 1. Historical trend in the area of tropical forest disturbed annually through timber harvesting, with projections through 2050 under three different utilization scenarios. (Sources: FAO, 1998, 1999; FAOSTAT, 2000)
Scenario 1. Three projections are shown in the figure. The upper projection line assumes no change in utilization standards as compared to the period 1961-1990. Under this level of utilization, 16.6 million ha of tropical forest would need to be disturbed in 2050 in order to harvest 453 million m3 of industrial roundwood. Compared to 2000, when the harvest of tropical industrial roundwood is approximately 195 million m3, this represents an increase of more than 130 percent in the area of tropical forest disturbed annually by timber harvesting.
Scenario 2. The middle projection line assumes an improvement in utilization of one percent annually beginning in 2001. Even such a modest improvement would result in a significant reduction in the area disturbed. In 2050, the area of tropical forest disturbed annually in order to harvest 453 million m3 of industrial roundwood under this scenario would be 11.1 million ha. Compared to Scenario 1, this represents a reduction of one-third in the area of tropical forest that would be disturbed each year by timber harvesting. Perhaps more importantly, the one percent annual improvement in utilization would reduce the total area of tropical forest disturbed over the 50-year period from 2001-2050 by almost 150 million ha. This is a huge reduction, equivalent in area to more than one-tenth of all of the worlds protected areas combined.
Scenario 3. For comparison, Figure 1 also shows the area of tropical forests that would have been harvested annually between 1961 and 2050 if the tropical harvesting recovery rate were equal to the utilization rate reported for the USA around 1990. Although far better than current practice in tropical forests, this level of utilization is judged by FAO experts to be achievable over the long run with reasonable improvements in training and management of tropical forest operations. As the figure indicates, a one percent annual improvement in felling utilization beginning in 2001 would result in a utilization rate around 2050 that is very close to the 1990 USA rate.
A reduction in the annual area of tropical forest harvested in the order of magnitude suggested by this analysis would benefit both timber and non-timber forest resources substantially. In addition, the improved utilization of felled timber would reduce forest residues significantly, thus decreasing the risk of destructive fires of the type that occurred during 1997 and 1998 in Brazil and Indonesia. There is little doubt that the large volume of forest residues left behind by past logging operations contributed to the destructiveness of those fires and to the large amount of smoke and haze that drifted over neighbouring countries for several months.
This paper suggests that RIL is not a new concept because its technologies are generally well understood from many years of application in temperate forests. At the same time, it can be perceived as both new and different because of important dissimilarities between temperate and tropical forests that require a new mindset by logging operators and a new approach to tropical forest management. The new approach will have to recognize that tropical forests are places where people live, and will need to directly and specifically accommodate the many ways in which these people depend upon the forest for their livelihoods and their well-being. The new approach will also have to provide effective training for logging personnel and their supervisors if RIL is ever to become a widespread reality in tropical forests.
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Wyatt-Smith, J. & Foenander, E.C. 1962. Damage to regeneration as a result of logging. Malayan Forester 25(1): 40-44. | <urn:uuid:9290882c-2500-43ed-886b-b60d37308774> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/ac805e/ac805e04.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818687834.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20170921172227-20170921192227-00671.warc.gz | en | 0.933382 | 6,935 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson, founder of Bright Line Eating explains how we become addicted to sugar and flour.
If you’ve been writing your sugar cravings off as having a “sweet tooth” or referred to having a “sugar addiction” in jest, your relationship with sweets might actually be more complicated than you think.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson, New York Times best-selling author and founder of Bright Line Eating, says it’s entirely possible to become addicted to this refined substance. In fact, the way we become dependent on drugs is no different from the addiction we form with foods made from sugar and flour.
“What people need to understand is that sugar and flour are as addictive in the brain as heroin and cocaine,” Dr. Thompson explains. “If we look at brain scans, we see that sugar and flour impact the addictive centers of the brain just like drugs.”
How we become addicted
You may be familiar with how forming an addiction works—but probably never thought of your morning muffin as something you’d have trouble quitting. However, you may have noticed that over time, that muffin doesn’t have the same effect it used to on your overall mood.
“Sugar and flour activate dopamine, the feel-good hormone in our brain,” Dr. Thompson explains. “These powdery substances have all been refined and purified to hit the brain in a really powerful way.” Because that reaction is so intense, our brain tries to regulate the stimulation. “Those dopamine receptors downregulate and become less responsive to our sugar and flour intake. All of a sudden, you need more stimulation to get that effect. Over time, the user isn’t using to get high anymore. They’re using to get normal—just to get back to baseline.”
Why we become addicted
If sugar and flour are so addictive, why is it that some people are able to stop themselves after having just one cookie or piece of chocolate—without going overboard? “Not everyone is equally susceptible to addiction,” Dr. Thompson explains. “As a matter of fact, there’s a continuum.” To help people determine where they fall on the spectrum, Dr. Thompson created the Susceptibility Scale, which measures how addictable you are based on your relationship with food.
“If someone’s on the low end of the Susceptibility Scale, they’re not interested in food—they can take it or leave it,” Dr. Thompson explains. “They have to remind themselves to eat. In the mid-range are people who have some degree of addictive pull toward processed, refined foods. On the high end, people are going to experience feeling a lack of control over the foods they eat—promising themselves they’ll just have one and then having more.”
Based on research, Dr. Thompson says that the population is split into thirds, with 1/3 not susceptible, 1/3 moderately susceptible, and 1/3 profoundly susceptible to food addiction.
Who’s most at risk?
If your family members have a history of addictive behavior, Dr. Thompson says it’s more likely you too have the genetic trait that determines addiction. “Where you fall on the scale—whether you’re not addicted or profoundly addictable—has everything to do with your genetics,” she explains. “When we look at human beings we tend to see that addiction runs in families. Addictive parents tend to give birth to addictive kids.”
Another indicator that determines where you fall on the scale has to do with how you respond to food cues. “People who are more susceptible to addiction get more pulled in by the cues that predict the food reward,” Dr. Thompson explains. “Maybe they’re walking by the teacher’s lounge and catch the pink box out of the corner of their eye. They know there are doughnuts in there, so they swerve in. Whether it’s a sight, sound, or smell, these cues are going to pull them toward that food reward way more powerfully than someone who does not have an addicted brain.”
How to break free from food addiction
Just like quitting any drug, Dr. Thompson says the key to beating a sugar and flour addiction is to quit all together. “If you fall higher on the Susceptibility Scale, you need to understand that an approach of moderation isn’t going to work,” she explains. “People who aren’t susceptible to addiction can have one piece of pizza and stop at that. They can have a cookie and not two or three or four. But for those of us who have a brain that’s more addictable, that experiment never works. We promise ourselves we’re going to have one, and we end up having more.”
These findings are what led Dr. Thompson to create the Bright Line Eating Boot Camp, which sets dieters up for success by creating explicit boundaries. “A ‘Bright Line’ is a clear, unambiguous boundary that you just don’t cross,” Dr. Thompson explains. “Bright Line Eating is an approach that is tailor made for people who have brains that are more susceptible to food addiction. For us, not eating any of those addictive foods is far easier than trying to engage with them a little bit and think we’re going to be successful.”
Quitting anything cold turkey comes with its challenges—especially with flour and sugar tempting you at every office birthday party and drive-thru window. But the people who are doing the program are accomplishing what no other group has been scientifically documented to do: lose all their excess weight and keep it off long term. How? The Bright Line Eating program comes with a built-in support system to help dieters overcome these daily lures. “If you have a brain that’s more susceptible to food addiction, social support is key,” Dr. Thompson says. “In Bright Line Eating we have a buddy system, we have accountability calls—we have so many online and telephone support systems that help people stay connected with one another.”
In addition to tapping your support system, there are a few other tips for overcoming temptation in the moment. “Research shows that gratitude replenishes our willpower,” Dr. Thompson explains. “It can be as simple as excusing yourself to the bathroom to write a gratitude list on your phone or striking up a conversation about gratitude with people at the party.” If you know you’re entering a situation where there you’ll be tempted to eat off your plan, Dr. Thompson also recommends using a tool called “bookending.” “Let a buddy know that you’re going into a challenging experience, whether it’s a movie, grocery shopping, or a friend’s house,” she says. “Tell them you’ll update them on your success once you leave.”
Susan Peirce Thompson, Ph.D. is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester and author of the New York Times Best-Selling book, Bright Line Eating: The Science of Living Happy, Thin, and Free.
Members of the editorial and news staff of the USA Today Network were not involved in the creation of this content.
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Skip to 0 minutes and 5 secondsWhen we think about scaffolding, it's a way of supporting our students to be able to structure their thinking so that they are able to make meaning from the work they are engaging in. This will be more beneficial to students than just absorbing the content of the lesson. Using these scaffolds can help students make connections so that they can build their understanding and then demonstrate their learning. In this sense, we can think of our scaffolds as being floors that support and help students build their thinking, and not ceilings that can cap or limit their potential. Over time, we can help the students remove the scaffolds completely, so they are able to make meaning of ideas without them.
Skip to 0 minutes and 50 secondsThere are a number of different ways we can use scaffolds to help support this meaning-making process. We'll see our teachers using a number of these.
The importance of scaffolding - floors not ceilings
Chris highlights an underlying principle around the effective use of scaffolds; that they are employed to support students in structuring their thinking to make meaning, build understanding and demonstrate learning and not to cap or limit their potential.
During the video you will have seen a number of thinking organisers referenced. In the next step you will consider these and other thinking organisers in more detail and discuss how you could use them to support your students.
Later in the week you will see our teachers employing a range of thinking organisers.
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If you are unfortunate enough to be plagued with allergies, then you realize how bad they can get. Allergies can affect anyone of any age and cause a lot of pain and heartache to those who suffer from them. There are several options that can help someone with allergies.Read on to learn how to keep your allergy symptoms.
Many antihistamines can make you drowsy and inhibit their different reflexes. Even if the box doesn’t say it may cause drowsiness, take the initial dose whey you are in the comfort of your own home and do not need to operate a vehicle or anything else potentially hazardous if you become drowsy.
This could cause a flare-up with your home.Use a HEPA filter in your air conditioner to reduce indoor allergens.It might not be as fresh as fresh air, but you are going to be able to breathe much more easily.
Dust mites are unavoidable for allergy sufferers. Be sure to launder your bedding weekly in the hottest water to kill off dust mites are eradicated.
Skin tests can help you figure out what you are allergic to, but not so good for figuring out how allergic you are to a certain substance. A test may only show you could possibly be allergic to a specific spore. You could very well be experiencing mild allergic reaction and not really harm your body all that much though.
Think about removing carpet from your carpeting. If your home is carpeted throughout, you may wish to switch to laminate, laminate or wood floors instead of wall-to-wall carpeting. This will have a big difference when it comes to the allergy-causing substances that you could potentially breathe. If you cannot change your floor, be sure to vacuum daily.
Olive trees have begun gaining popularity in many western states. These particular trees produce a lot of pollen.Learning how to identify this type of tree can help you to protect yourself from allergies.Using a garden hose to saturate these trees for a tree can decrease the amount of pollen in the air.
There are plenty of treatments besides oral medications that can give you relief from your symptoms. For example, saline sprays, saline sprays for the nose, or nasal steroids prescribed by your doctor.
As you have learned, there is no need to suffer further. As far as allergies are concerned, it is possible to decrease the severity and frequency of your body’s reactions to different allergens. These tips and tricks in this article can help you start living a happier and healthier life without allergies.… | <urn:uuid:242eec3a-c62f-44b0-b864-79707004e917> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://joyblissraw.com/2021/11/26/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320304749.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20220125005757-20220125035757-00431.warc.gz | en | 0.940646 | 537 | 2.609375 | 3 |
The goal of the treatment is to lower the intensity of the symptoms and even make them disappear, reduce the risk of relapse and develop a care plan adapted to satisfy the psychological, personal, professional and medical objectives.
The main way to treat schizophrenia is through medicine. The treatments used are particularly effective for positive symptoms, whereas they don’t work that well with the negative ones. These drugs are not going to cure schizophrenia, and sometimes they might have some undesirable side effects, but they can allow a patient to live a more normal life.
The most commonly prescribed drugs are the antipsychotics, which are thought to control the symptoms by affecting the brain neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin. On the other hand, the conventional antipsychotics or typical ones can have significant neurological side effects that may or may not be reversible. Some of these drugs are Chlorpromazine, Fluphenazine, Haloperidol and Perphenazine.
There are many antipsychotics that work really well, but their efficiency always depends on the patient. That is why it is really important for patients to let their doctor know how they are feeling with the treatment, if there are any side effects or if it’s really working.
Nowadays, there is a newer second-generation medication called atypical antipsychotics. These are preferred because they pose a lower risk of serious side effects than conventional medications. Some of them are: Aripiprazole, Clozapine, Olanzapine, etc.
Other medications can also help, such as antidepressants or anti-anxiety medications. But that is always up to the psychiatrist and the patient on their effort to find the best combination.
In addition to medical treatment, different types of psychotherapy, social skills training or family therapy can be offered.
This medical care is supplemental when the goal of social reinsertion (school or professional life) is attained, this will allow the patient to maintain a level of socialization that will create a balance.
Monitoring schizophrenia in addition to the treatment
The monitoring of the patient has to be on a regular basis. The frequency of the visit to the psychiatrist depends on how the problems evolve, the treatment and the patient’s personal progress.
The purpose of follow-up is not only to assess the psychiatric state of the person that has schizophrenia, but also to verify the tolerance of the antipsychotics, particularly concerning the undesirable side effects. For this reason, blood tests can be done regularly in order to monitor and eventually treat the anomalies that may appear.
During crisis periods or times of severe symptoms, hospitalization may be necessary to ensure safety, proper nutrition, adequate sleep and basic hygiene.
Last updated: 7/29/19 | <urn:uuid:ee764768-2dc1-49e1-8328-b43da34142c0> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://www.carenity.us/condition-information/schizophrenia/treating-916 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046155458.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20210805063730-20210805093730-00659.warc.gz | en | 0.936642 | 559 | 2.71875 | 3 |
John 9 - Who is blind?
The ninth chapter follows the structure already familiar to us. John tells us a miracle story first, but unlike other Synoptics, he does not immediately continue with a report on the next event. Instead, he explains the spiritual meaning of the event. As the present miracle by Jesus is the healing of a blind man, the rest of the chapter deals with spiritual blindness.
Who is to be blamed? 9:1-7
The common Jewish idea was that the cause for sickness and misfortune was nearly always sin for which God punished the sinner. With this view in mind, those born blind formed an interesting theological dilemma: for whose sin did they have to suffer, for their own or for someone else’s? The rabbis explained that Esau sinned even in his mother’s womb and thus drew upon himself the wrath of God. On the other hand, if the parents worshipped false gods, the fetus took part in idolatry even in his mother’s womb.
What does Jesus say is the reason for suffering? At this point Jesus simply does not examine the question of sin and its punishment (see 5:14), and apparently this passage just cannot be used in solving that issue. What happened is a special case, in which God’s greatness was to be revealed. Next we are led to look at the words ‘darkness’ and ‘light’ (or ‘night’ and ‘day’) in connection with ‘seeing’ and ‘blindness’. Although knowing that he is risking his life (of course it was Sabbath again), Jesus starts to heal the blind man. The day is short and requires busy work. Yet another prophecy in Isaiah 35 is thus fulfilled as the blind man receives his sight.
The healing of the blind man really makes people wonder, and they try to get some insight into it. Even though the enquiries seem to centre around the man born blind, in reality they are focused on Jesus and his identity. First the neighbours and then the bystanders simply marvel at what happened, unable to grasp it. The teachers who were closest to the people were the Pharisees, to whom the people turned for an explanation. They called attention not to the miracle but to the fact that Jesus had performed a miracle on the Sabbath and thus, in their view, broken the Law of Moses. However, some wondered, astutely, how was it then that God heard Jesus, as it was a commonly believed that God did not hear the prayers of sinners. The healed man was certain that Jesus was a prophet.
The simplest solution would of course be to deny the miracle. That is why the man’s parents were called over and questioned whether he was actually born blind. Fearing the Jews, they settled for the minimum, saying that yes, it was their son, born blind, but they were not willing to talk about anything else. There was a possibility that they were to be put out of the synagogue for a week, a month, or even for life. At thirteen, a Jewish boy was deemed capable of acting on his own behalf. Referring to this, the parents relieved themselves from responsibility. So the man once blind has to step forward again. ”Give glory to God” is a solemn demand that it is no use lying and thus protecting a sinner. Nonetheless, the man asks the most vexing questions possible: if Jesus is a sinner, why does God listen to him? If God listens to him, why do the Pharisees know nothing about him? These issues are so difficult that the Pharisees close the debate by casting the man out.
A blind person sees, those who see are blind 9:35-41
Two discussions with Jesus conclude the section. One is with a person who sees and the other one is with those who are blind. Our attitude to Jesus defines whether we have spiritual vision or spiritual blindness.
Jesus actively sought out the man who had been cast out. In the Gospel of John, there are only a few confessions of faith without any reservations at all. One of them can now be heard from the man who once was blind. He believes Jesus Christ is the Son of Man, the coming judge, and worships him.
Some Pharisees are standing by, and Jesus’s tough words are directed to them. Spiritual blindness in itself is bad enough. If a person also firmly believes that they themselves are able to see, the situation is shocking. In other words, it is bad enough that they reject their only helper, but on top of that, it is most tragic if they really think they do not need any help at all. Spiritual pride is the worst form of "hardness of heart". People with that kind of heart will be shocked and surprised when the Son of Man comes as the judge of all the men on earth. | <urn:uuid:10b4cbf8-01fd-4246-baf5-49c3b0600cdf> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.bibletoolbox.net/en/bible/john-9 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474595.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20240225103506-20240225133506-00718.warc.gz | en | 0.983632 | 1,011 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Coriander (UK /ˌkɒrɪˈændər/; US /ˈkɔːriˌændər/ or /ˌkɔːriˈændər/; Coriandrum sativum), also known as cilantro (/sɪˈlɑːntroʊ/) or Chinese parsley, is an annual herb in the family Apiaceae. All parts of the plant are edible, but the fresh leaves and the dried seeds are the parts most traditionally used in cooking. Coriander is native to regions spanning from southern Europe and northern Africa to southwestern Asia. It is a soft plant growing to 50 cm (20 in) tall. The leaves are variable in shape, broadly lobed at the base of the plant, and slender and feathery higher on the flowering stems. | <urn:uuid:44cb7b30-f6e6-46ec-8072-6c3268baa964> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | http://outerseedshadow.org/ossmh/interviews/lucy-mercado/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578527720.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20190419121234-20190419142047-00080.warc.gz | en | 0.904485 | 187 | 3 | 3 |
Two Coradia iLint trains have begun running a line in northern Germany.
The world’s first (and second) hydrogen-powered trains have entered service in northern Germany, marking the start of a new era for sustainable travel. Two Coradia iLint trains, made by Alstom, have begun working the line between Cuxhaven and Buxtehude just west of Hamburg. Until now, the nearly 100km-long line has been serviced by diesel trains, but will now play host to near-silent engines.
We wrote the first iLint prototype at Alstom’s German facilities earlier this year, and found the experience not to dissimilar to that of a diesel train. That is, however, the point, Alstom has made the vehicles so that they operate in the same way as the existing fleet to avoid any culture shock for passengers and crew. Except that they need to refuel their 1,000km capacity tanks at a dedicated H2 fueling station located at Bremervorde.
Rather than a diesel tank powering an engine, the iLint trains are more like a Toyota Mirai in their construction. A hydrogen tank feeds a fuel cell that generates energy, which is then pushed to an electric drivetrain. A very small battery helps maintain power continuity, as well as storing energy saved from regenerative braking.
The fuel cell itself sits close to the middle of the train, where one unit joins onto the other, and should be almost totally silent. In the prototype we rode, the cell’s housing wasn’t insulated, and you could hear the slightly unsettling noises that the system made. Train nerds and horror fans might want to sit close to the middle and try and listen for the weird screeching noise, because it’s the only sound the vehicles make.
Railways need a clean energy revolution, but the obvious solutions may not work as well as you might expect. Electrification is the obvious choice, but the costs are prohibitive, especially on regional lines that may not have the passenger volumes. Batteries have their own issues, with their heavy weight and high cost making it difficult, right now, to make them cost effective. Not to mention that the heavier your train is, the more power you need to push it, which leads to a need for more batteries, and so on.
Hydrogen’s strong energy density and relative ease of generation and transportation makes it ideal for heavy loads. And while its currently not a clean material, the hope is that companies can push towards creating H2 with 100 percent renewables in the future. And demand will increase, as Alstom has pledged to deliver at least another 14 trains to the local German railway operator by 2021. | <urn:uuid:2585116f-7b94-44dc-9bfd-db7e347efc56> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | http://www.impactlab.net/2018/09/21/the-worlds-first-hydrogen-train-is-now-in-service/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578530505.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20190421080255-20190421102255-00464.warc.gz | en | 0.96627 | 564 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Parasites, bacteria and viruses are the main cause of infections in children and adults. They can be found wherever hygiene is lacking. That's why, as a parent, you should make cleanliness a watchword in your home. This is important for the health of your children and also for your own health. In this article, we offer you some tips on how to keep your home clean on a daily basis.
Equip yourself with the necessary
Do you want to keep your home hygienic? Then start by equipping yourself with everything you need. Buy cleaning supplies for the floor, shower and all other rooms. Get floor mats and paper towels for the furniture. Your mission will be to treat with great care every surface where dust and other dirt will land. Don't forget to buy some hand sanitizer. It will be useful every time you come back from work. Indeed, it is recommended to disinfect the hands of the return of work before touching your children especially if you have a baby.
Keep an eye on the kitchen
The kitchen is a special room in the house because it is where you make all your meals. It is also where you store all your food. So, it must be kept remarkably clean. Make sure you get rid of all the rotten food as quickly as it gets there. Clean your refrigerator regularly and empty the garbage can without waiting for it to be full first. Bacteria often cling to these items and grow very quickly. And it is important that the waste garbage can is washed every time you empty it. Good hygiene in the kitchen saves you from the invasion of cockroaches, flies and other pests that can carry germs.
Your shower and toilet room
After the kitchen, the bathroom is the second room in the house where you need to keep the house clean. Moisture attracts germs and helps them to multiply. That's why you should use a quality disinfectant for your bathroom. Spread it on the floor, clean the handles of the taps and the bathtub on a frequent basis. You can also use bleach for cleaning. Dry towels in the sun, and don't forget the shower mats. If you have the opportunity to change them regularly, do so to limit the risk of illness.
Put these tips into practice and you will exterminate germs from your home. However, keep in mind that maintaining hygiene is a daily duty. Make it part of your daily routine and make sure your children take it seriously from an early age. This way, you and your family will stay safe from many diseases. | <urn:uuid:1cc77659-98d1-4bea-9625-ff477145a4da> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://labelingenue.fr/en_ca/wellness/hygiene-at-home-what-precautions-to-take/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224648322.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20230602040003-20230602070003-00166.warc.gz | en | 0.963497 | 521 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Eise Eisinga Planetarium
Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
Province of Friesland
The Tentative Lists of States Parties are published by the World Heritage Centre at its website and/or in working documents in order to ensure transparency, access to information and to facilitate harmonization of Tentative Lists at regional and thematic levels.
The sole responsibility for the content of each Tentative List lies with the State Party concerned. The publication of the Tentative Lists does not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the World Heritage Committee or of the World Heritage Centre or of the Secretariat of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its boundaries.
Property names are listed in the language in which they have been submitted by the State Party
The Royal Eise Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker is the oldest working planetarium in the world. Its moving model of the solar system was constructed between 1774 and 1781 by Eise Eisinga, a Frisian wool-comber. It is still in its original state.
Eisinga built the planetarium in his own home. So that it would fit into his living-room, he used a scale of 1:1,000,000,000,000 (1 millimetre: 1 million kilometres).
Eisinga built the planetarium to disprove a contemporary prophecy that certain planets were on a collision course and that the end of the world was therefore imminent. He hoped his model would demonstrate that the planets were actually in conjunction. He was not a scientist in the formal sense but a creative genius who built the planetarium entirely on his own initiative.
The planetarium has always been accessible to interested members of the public. It has also received scientific recognition. All Eisinga's books and writings have been preserved and are accessible to the public.
Justification of Outstanding Universal Value
The Royal Eise Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker is the oldest working planetarium in the world. Eisinga was a self-taught amateur mathematician. He designed and built a model of the solar system using cog-wheels. It is still in excellent working order. The planetarium was designed to scientifically discredit contemporary prophecies that the world was about to end.
Criterion i: as early as 7 September 1783, Professor J.H. van Swinden reported to the curators of the then University of Franeker that this Planetarium is of itself unique and without equal, and there is no other known work of art in which the disposition, movements and appearance of the heavenly bodies are so numerous and so accurately rendered, as is evident from the acclaim it has received from leading scholars in other countries, and even from English journalists. The planetarium is still a unique and creative tool for demonstrating the orbits of the planets to the general public.
Criterion ii: The planetarium represents the values of the Enlightenment and of the long regional and cultural tradition of the 'lay scholar'. The trend had already been set by the mathematician Adriaan Metius (1572-1635), who taught not only in Latin, the customary language of learning, but also in Dutch. Many of his pupils went on to become scholars and engineers, but they also included a string of 'farmer-professors' as they were known. Eise Eisinga is the most famous of these lay scholars. He is also the only one to have left such a substantial technological legacy.
Criterion iv: The planetarium is an outstanding example of a technological ensemble illustrating the Enlightenment in the north of the Netherlands.
Statements of authenticity and/or integrity
The planetarium dates from 1781 and is authentic. It is in full working order and is completely intact, with regard to both form and materials. Maintenance is still carried out according to Eise Eisinga's own instructions.
The planetarium is located in Eise Eisinga's original living-room. Both the planetarium and its location are completely genuine, so the site meets the conditions of integrity and/or authenticity.
Comparison with other similar properties
The Eise Eisinga Planetarium is the world's oldest working planetarium. Eise Eisinga's original working drawings were used in its construction, as were his original Dutch spelling and typeface.
There are various planetariums in use all over the world. Originally, such constructions were purely mechanical. The first planetarium to operate with a projector dates from 1924. Most contemporary planetariums are of this kind. | <urn:uuid:6d4aae95-d160-45d9-a288-e1988ca21c40> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5629/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323588282.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20211028065732-20211028095732-00523.warc.gz | en | 0.965398 | 936 | 2.875 | 3 |
In a study published in the International Neurology Journal, researchers showed that cognitive deficits, such as memory problems, in a rat model of multiple sclerosis (MS) are mirrored by changes in synaptic transmission and plasticity in the hippocampus, a brain region crucial for memory processing. The findings advance the understanding of disease mechanisms affecting cognition in MS patients.
Cognitive deficits such as learning and memory dysfunction are common in MS, affecting 40 percent to 60 percent of patients. While earlier studies reported that brain inflammation might alter the generation of neuroplasticity, particularly at the synaptic level, not much is known about the mechanisms leading to such changes.
Studies also show that the hippocampus is affected by nerve cell death in MS patients. Using the well-characterized experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) animal model of MS, researchers at Arak University of Medical Sciences, Iran, used recordings of nerve cell activity in live rats to study the impact of disease on memory processes.
Using behavioral tests to study memory processes in EAE animals can be challenging, since these mice often have motor symptoms that might impact the outcome of such tests. Instead, information of how signals are transmitted at neuronal connections, synapses, as well as long-term potentiation — the mechanism underlying changes in synaptic strength, and hence neuronal plasticity — can be used to understand the mechanisms behind changes in memory function.
The study, “Changes in Synaptic Transmission and Long-term Potentiation Induction as a Possible Mechanism for Learning Disability in an Animal Model of Multiple Sclerosis,“ showed that the EAE mice had deficits in synaptic transmission and long-term potentiation in the hippocampus.
Further analysis, using a method called paired pulse inhibition, capable of detecting differences in effects of neurotransmitter release, showed that EAE changed the signaling by neurotransmitter GABA, the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain.
The team concluded that the GABA-B receptor, one of two main receptor types for the neurotransmitter, had increased efficacy in the hippocampal region of the rats, explaining why the synaptic transmission and long-term potentiation was lower in the EAE-affected animals. | <urn:uuid:e6647eb0-536e-4851-a3c7-165c1dcf1d2b> | CC-MAIN-2019-47 | https://multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com/news-posts/2016/04/28/ms-model-shows-deficits-in-nerve-transmission-explaining-memory-problems/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-47/segments/1573496670601.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20191120185646-20191120213646-00232.warc.gz | en | 0.928045 | 439 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Nursing home medication errors can occur at any time. A medication error is defined as any preventable, drug-related mistake occurring from the moment a prescription is written to when the patient ingests it. Medication errors can arise while prescribing, filling, recording, storing, and administering a medicine. Medication errors occur more often in nursing homes, because almost all patients in the facility receive some form of prescription medicine, and administering personnel are not always properly trained or qualified.
According to a recent article in ProPublica, in 2014, the Federal Department of Health and Human Services’ Inspector General reported that, during one surveyed month, slightly over 20 percent of residents in a ”Skilled Nursing Facility” (SNF) experienced at least “one adverse event” (medication error). Doctors who reviewed these patients’ records concluded that 59 percent of the errors and injuries were preventable. More than half of those harmed residents had to be readmitted to the hospital. The estimated cost was $208 million for the month studied by the IG, or about two percent of Medicare’s total inpatient spending for the surveyed month.
Drugs Often Associated with Nursing Home Medication Errors
Tens of thousands of prescription drugs are given to nursing home residents every day. However, elderly SNF patients take certain drugs more frequently than others. Some – not all – of the common prescription-error cases in elderly care facilities include:
• Anti-seizure drugs
• Cancer drugs
• Heart medications
There are also dozens of possible causes of medication errors. Some of the most common causes include:
• Incorrect prescription
• Incorrect transcription of prescription or dose
• Confusion when administering medication
• Understaffed facilities and/or neglect
• Unanticipated drug interactions with other prescriptions.
Effects of Nursing Home Medication Errors on Patients
Because of the wide range of drugs prescribed to senior care residents, the effects of medication errors vary greatly. So only a small percentage of these errors (10 percent) have an effect on the patient, and maybe one or two percent will have serious ramifications. The number of incidents which actually warrant a malpractice lawsuit is extremely small. This should by no means, however, trivialize the seriousness of all medication errors, regardless of whether or not the patient is seriously affected.
Adverse effects of medication errors include prescription overdose, wrongful death, paralysis, brain damage, heart attack, stroke, gastrointestinal issues (such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea), orthostatic hypotension, fluid imbalance, confusion, sedation, and allergic reactions (such as a rash, swelling, and respiratory issues). The anticoagulant drug Warfarin (or Coumadin) is one particular prescription drug that has numerous serious side-effects when misused.
There’s another dubious story on the nursing home medication front — possibly a more pernicious one.
A recent investigation by CNN uncovered covert and growing use of Nuedexta in a large number of nursing homes throughout the U.S.. Nuedexta is a new drug to treat the Pseudobulbar affect (PBA – also known as emotional incontinence). And though it is approved by the FDA for “anyone with PBA,” including those with a variety of neurological conditions such as dementia, Nuedexta’s manufacturer, Avanir Pharmaceuticals, admits it has not extensively tested the drug on elderly patients. Avinar’s confession has critics, and a growing number of government health officials, accusing the drugmaker of essentially conducting uncontrolled drug experiments on unsuspecting, non-consenting elderly patients.
If a family member has suffered from medication errors or improper prescriptions in a nursing home or some other senior care facility, the Johnson Law Firm understands your concern and can help if you contact us at 1-606-433-0682 or fill out this online form to arrange a confidential, and free consultation. | <urn:uuid:0260dc2a-590c-42f1-9833-dcd4cf625930> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | https://www.billyjohnsonlaw.com/given-inappropriate-drugs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570986676227.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20191017200101-20191017223601-00235.warc.gz | en | 0.924473 | 813 | 2.84375 | 3 |
The river birch is a fast-growing, water-loving, deciduous tree, native to much of the United States. Its scientific name is Betula nigra. Unlike other birches that have white barks, the river birch's bark is reddish brown and curls and peels naturally, adding visual interest to the plant. River birch is also more pest-resistant than other birches, making it a popular and relatively care-free choice for landscaping.
River birch are tall, graceful-looking trees. They have cinnamon-colored bark that peels from the trunk. The leaves are oval, around 1-1/2 to 3 inches long, and 1 to 2 inches wide with slightly serrated margins and are shiny and medium green in color. The tiny flowers are green or brown and are unimpressive and inconspicuous. The fruit forms as 3-inch long clusters of seeds called catkins.
This is a fast-growing and hardy tree, often putting on more than 2 feet of growth per year. They are at their best in hardiness zones 4 through 7, but will grow to zone 9, based on the United States Agricultural Department Hardiness Zone map. The plant is relatively short-lived, lasting only 30 to 40 years in urban environments. The tree thrives in moist conditions, hence the name river birch. The branches of the tree tend to droop. River birches often produce multiple leader trunks from the same plant.
River birch grow to between 40 and 70 feet tall, and typically spread to 40 to 60 feet wide. Though river birch grows quite tall, the trunk of the tree usually remains relatively thin. The canopy of the tree is somewhat oval shaped and fairly dense.
River birches grow well in full sun, however, they may tolerate partial shade. While they can handle some drought conditions, river birches prefer wetter soils and will grow better if irrigated regularly. The soil should not be too alkaline and can range from sandy loam to clay. Because of the vertical nature of this tree, it can be planted closer to houses than other trees. Young trees will require pruning of the lower branches to prevent them from drooping to the ground.
The river birch is a popular landscape tree and is often used as a centerpiece in the yard. Its distinctive bark and graceful appearance make it a desirable addition to the landscape. Because it is the most resistant of the birches to boring insects, particularly the bronze birch borer, it is often chosen over other birch species. As it appreciates wet conditions, it can also be used to control erosion along riverbanks.
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- Birch Tree Types | <urn:uuid:7aac2395-e6bd-419c-aa40-00603e00e4d6> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | https://www.gardenguides.com/91612-river-birch-tree-information.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027317274.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20190822151657-20190822173657-00151.warc.gz | en | 0.935135 | 638 | 3.859375 | 4 |
While the data indicates that nearly all teachers support use of state standards in instruction, only a little more than one-third of teachers support the use of current statewide tests to measure student mastery of those standards. The findings from this report have implications for how states and districts can support implementation of state standards and assessments to ensure that U.S. students have the knowledge and skillset for success in both school and life. Secondary teachers and those with more low-income students were more likely to support the state English language arts (ELA) and mathematics standards. Those from these subgroups who did not think their standards were Common Core — were also more supportive of using statewide assessments to measure mastery of standards. Teachers who did not support state tests were more likely to be wary of test difficulty and the accuracy of scores for students with special needs. Recommendations include state adjustments in making sure assessments are closely linked with standards, addressing test difficulty particularly with regard to students with special needs, and developing their own instructional materials to support teachers’ work to address standards.
Kaufman, J. H., Wang, E. L., Hamilton, L. S., Thompson, L.E., & Hunter, G. (2017, October
04). U.S. teachers’ support of their state standards and Assessments. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2136.html | <urn:uuid:4dfa7c06-f415-4a8d-91be-645da9617acf> | CC-MAIN-2019-04 | http://tlresearchupdate.csla.net/2017/11/rand-survey-assesses-teachers_5.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583667907.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20190119115530-20190119141530-00128.warc.gz | en | 0.974731 | 294 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Renewable energy is evermore on the forefront of the ongoing crisis to power our daily lives. Mankind’s dependence on fossil fuels as our primary source of power since the industrial revolution has created a society largely at the mercy of those who control these resources.
With technology developing at ever-faster speeds, new ideas and techniques are being employed to combat our dependence on these non-renewable sources of energy. One such company is SpaceWorks Commercial, a sub-division of SpaceWorks Engineering, Inc, based out of Atlanta, GA.
Presented by the president of the company, Mr. A. C. Charania, the panel progressed smoothly with a combination of a PowerPoint and video clips. Their plan of using space-based solar power has placed them amongst the forerunners of the renewable energy industry. Solar energy would be collected by arrays of solar panels, converted to microwaves, and then beamed to a collection grid on the surface of the Earth. The energy will then be converted into electrical power and distributed along the traditional energy grids to the end user.
Space solar power has been advocated for years by both the U.S. and international community as a potentially viable alternative energy option. However, the technical hurdles that have hindered progress in this area have been formidable. Ranging from financing to physical hardware limitations, research into solar power has been constantly hindered.
For SpaceWorks Commercial, the focus has been on creating a modular system which can be easily created, launched into orbit, and maintained with little or no human interaction. This would make it a far cheaper prospective than, as is currently the standard, to have astronauts place the solar collector into space and maintain it.
While there are still many hurdles to overcome, companies like SpaceWorks are the ones leading us ever closer to a severely pollution reduced, and less fossil fuel dependent, world. | <urn:uuid:5f1a4426-32aa-4ee1-b382-a5b6f69e258d> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://www.dragoncon.org/dailydragon/dc2008/space-based-solar-power/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593657167808.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20200715101742-20200715131742-00461.warc.gz | en | 0.951077 | 378 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Margaret A. Wissman, DVM
Can birds catch a cold from drafts?
If such a notion were true, every wild bird would succumb to a cold. Birds are remarkably resilient and adaptable creatures. They can withstand a wide range of temperatures and environmental conditions without becoming ill as a result. That doesn’t mean that a pet bird would not be stressed by having a draft blowing on it day in and day out. (Humans cannot catch a cold from becoming chilled or wet either; another common misconception.)
Pet birds cannot catch our colds, nor do they routinely suffer from any common viruses that are for "colds,” per se. There are viruses, such as avian influenza virus, that can cause respiratory and other organ system diseases in birds. But many respiratory infections in birds are caused by bacterial, fungal, mycoplasmal and chlamydial organisms, although some can also becaused by viruses.
Drafts can cause a bird stress and even possibly lower a bird’s resistance to disease, but there are many other factors that affect a bird’s immune system, which may allow it to develop respiratory disease, as well.
There are also other factors to consider when the temperature drops and your bird’s health might be at risk.
Humidity In The Home
Homes have lower humidity during the winter months, and heated air can dry out mucous membranes. Many rain forest birds suffer from sinusitis at this time. Amazons seem particularly prone to winter sinusitis. To keep the humidity up in your house, follow these tips.
- Use warm water during your bird's bath time, and maintain an adequate ambient room temperature afterward, during preening and drying-off time.
- Take your bird into the bathroom when you shower so it can inhale the steam.
- Keep bird-safe plants in the bird room for their good effects on the air.
Birds are susceptible to carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless and tasteless gas. Install a carbon monoxide detector in your home, and have your heating system inspected by a qualified contractor before turning on your furnace every fall.
Check your chimney and flue for any blockages. Keep your bird away from the fireplace.
Use non-electrical space heaters only in well-ventilated areas. Don’t use gas or diesel generators indoors, and don’t burn coal or charcoal in a closed space. Make sure vents of fuel-burning appliances are clear. | <urn:uuid:0c5bbc1e-f22b-47c8-af50-00d4d9640f98> | CC-MAIN-2014-41 | http://www.birdchannel.com/bird-magazines/bird-talk/2009-march/heating-your-home.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-41/segments/1410657132007.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20140914011212-00161-ip-10-196-40-205.us-west-1.compute.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938749 | 534 | 3.125 | 3 |
Portrait of The Royal Family Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their Five Children. Lithograph 1846
This lithograph is an exquisite exemplar of the reproduction of a portrait of the British imperial family. Franz Xavier Winterhalter, painter to the Royal Courts of Europe, completed this image in 1845. The Parisian lithographer, Alphonse Leon Noel, copied it on commission a year later.
Queen Victoria sits with the Royal Consort Prince Albert, surrounded by five of their nine children – on her right, Prince Alfred in white, and Edward the Prince of Wales in red, while daughters Princess Alice, and her first born, Victoria the Princess Royal, admire the infant Princess Helena. How did this remarkable picture find its way to Te Awamutu?
By 1849, the Waipā valley supported many flourishing flour mills, and vast acreages of grain. Early missionaries had introduced new horticultural practice and technology, in which the local iwi excelled. Their communities flourished, exporting produce to Auckland, and later Sydney and California. Three successful mills operated in Rangiaowhia, and entrepreneurial leaders included the chiefs Kingi (George) Te Waru of Ngāti Apakura and Hoani Papaiti (John Baptist) Kahawai of Ngāti Hinetu. When Governor Sir George Grey visited the Waipā district in 1849, these two chiefs urged him to present a gift of their finest flour, accompanied by a letter, to Queen Victoria. This missive declared –
“We, King George Te Waru, and John Baptist Kahawai, salute you; we return our thanks to you for your letter, in which you tell us that the land shall not be taken away; but that the Treaty of Waitangi shall be abided by. We are averse to fighting with white people, or amongst ourselves, but let the Queen always foster us; we approve of the custom of the white people, and the Governor loves us.”
As receipt of such gifts was not the Queen’s policy, the Secretary of State for the Colonies wrote from Downing Street, London on the 7th March 1850 acknowledging the above letter and the gift of flour to Her Majesty. Making an exception from her usual practice, the Secretary advised them that in this case she accepted both the flour and the letter –
“as an expression of their loyalty and attachment. As a mark of Her Majesty’s appreciation of the good conduct of these chiefs which you have reported to Her, the Queen has been pleased to order two pictures of Herself with His Royal Highness Prince Albert and the Royal children, to be transmitted to you for presentation to them”.
The two art works reached New Zealand in 1850. One was of the Royal Family; the other was described the Queen in ceremonial robes. They were exhibited initially in Auckland , as a “source of gratification to the native population generally”, and then conveyed by waka along the Mangapiko River, where they rested on the Sabbath, just below Ōtāwhao, now Te Awamutu. From there, they proceeded to Kahawai’s house, and then to the homestead of Te Waru.
At each place they were greeted with cheers and great excitement by both Europeans and Māori. In a letter dated December 12th 1850, the Reverend John Morgan noted that –
“the Queen arrived safely by waka at Rangiaohia on Monday the 9th, a little below the Rangiaohia mill”.
By referring to the paintings as a living person, the Queen Herself, Reverend Morgan reflects the Māori sensibility of the time. He eventually became the custodian of Te Waru’s gift, and his house was “frequently crowded with visitors looking at the picture for hours at a time…” Kahawai’s royal portrait was cared for by Father Garaval in the Roman Catholic Presbytery; Te Waru was a Protestant and Kahawai followed the Catholic faith.
In 1863, colonial forces invaded the Waikato. In February 1864, Randle Cotton Mainwaring, government agent, took possession of Morgan’s property which the Reverend had entrusted to Hohaia Ngahiwi, who was well aware of the importance of the painting. Mainwaring and his cohort occupied Ngahiwi’s house, and the mission, and then relocated Ngahiwi to Hopuhopu. He also took the painting to his own house at Whatawhata. From this point, conflict occurs. William Searancke, Resident Magistrate of Kirikiriroa (renamed Hamilton), acquired the artwork, insisting in private correspondence that “the picture was looted by the troops during the campaign and purchased by Mr Mainwaring from the soldiers. Hori Te Waru’s people then being in open rebellion.” Searancke thus acknowleged the image as a trophy of war, and effectively countered any further claims. The lithograph remained in his family for many decades.
Almost a century later, in 1958, Miss Phyllis von Sturmer donated the picture to the Te Awamutu Museum, “to be held in memory of my grandfather, Wm. Searancke.”
If you wish find out further information about the lithograph, contact our staff on 07 872 0085 or firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:a138266d-85bb-4911-8193-065d326451e6> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://tamuseum.org.nz/the-queen-victoria-lithograph/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046154214.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20210801154943-20210801184943-00058.warc.gz | en | 0.963509 | 1,139 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Titanium Dioxide Key to Producing Hydrogen Fuel from Sunlight
Published on August 26, 2004 at 11:46 PM
A team of Australian scientists predicts that a revolutionary new way to harness the power of the sun to extract clean and almost unlimited energy supplies from water will be a reality within seven years.
Using special titanium oxide ceramics that harvest sunlight and split water to produce hydrogen fuel, the researchers say it will then be a simple engineering exercise to make an energy-harvesting device with no moving parts and emitting no greenhouse gases or pollutants.
It would be the cheapest, cleanest and most abundant energy source ever developed: the main by-products would be oxygen and water. Rooftop panels placed on 1.6 million houses, for example, could supply Australia's entire energy needs.
"This is potentially huge, with a market the size of all the existing markets for coal, oil and gas combined," says Professor Janusz Nowotny, who with Professor Chris Sorrell is leading a solar hydrogen research project at the University of NSW Centre for Materials and Energy Conversion. The team is thought to be the most advanced in developing the cheap, light-sensitive materials that will be the basis of the technology.
"Based on our research results, we know we are on the right track and with the right support we now estimate that we can deliver a new material within seven years," says Nowotny.
Sorrell says Australia is ideally placed to take advantage of the enormous potential of this new technology: "We have abundant sunlight, huge reserves of titanium and we're close to the burgeoning energy markets of the Asia-Pacific region. But this technology could be used anywhere in the world. It's been the dream of many people for a long time to develop it and it's exciting to know that it is now within such close reach."
The results of the team's work will be presented this week at an international conference.
Eminent delegates from Japan, Germany, the United States and Australia will be in Sydney on August 27 for a one-day International Conference on Materials for Hydrogen Energy at UNSW.
Among them will be the inventors of the solar hydrogen process, Professors Akira Fujishima and Kenichi Honda. Both are frontrunners for the Nobel Prize in chemistry and are the laureates of the 2004 Japan Prize.
Since their 1971 discovery that allowed the splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen, researchers have made huge advances in achieving one of the ultimate goals of science and technology - the design of materials required to split water using solar light.
The UNSW team opted to use titania ceramic photoelectrodes because they have the right semiconducting properties and the highest resistance to water corrosion.
Professors Nowotny and Sorrell say that with appropriate government support and financial backing, their technology could help Australia become part an OPEC of the future.
"We have a solar energy empire in Australia and have a moral obligation to utilise this," says Nowotny. "The very same sentiments were shared by David Sukuzi when he visited Sydney recently. He said he hoped Australia would serve as an example to the rest of the world."
Solar hydrogen, Professor Sorrell argues, is not incompatible with coal. It can be used to produce solar methanol, which produces less carbon dioxide than conventional methods. "As a mid-term energy carrier it has a lot to say for it," he says.
At present, the UNSW work is backed by Rio Tinto, Sialon Ceramics and Austral Bricks A major producer of titania slag, Rio Tinto hopes that an early outcome will be a more environmentally friendly and economically attractive local source of fuel for its remote mining operations while Sialon Ceramics is interesting in production and marketing of a solar-hydrogen production device.
Isolation: titanium is readily available from commercial sources so preparation in the laboratory is not normally required. In industry, reduction of ores with carbon is not a useful option as intractable carbides are produced. The Kroll method is used on large scales and involves the action of chlorine and carbon upon ilmenite (TiFeO3) or rutile (TiO2). The resultant titanium tetrachloride, TiCl4, is separated from the iron trichloride, FeCl3, by fractional distillation. Finally TiCl4 is reduced to metallic titanium by reduction with magnesium, Mg. Air is excluded so as to prevent contamination of the product with oxygen or nitrogen.
Hydrogen production under sunlight with an electrochemical photocell
Fujishima, A.; Kohayakawa, K.; Honda, K.
Electrochemical Society, Journal, vol. 122, Nov. 1975, p. 1487-1489.
Three methods of forming oxide film on metal, electrochemical formation, thermal formation in an electric furnace, and thermal formation by simple heating, were studied as possible means of producing titanium dioxide electrodes. The maximum photocurrents produced by potentiostatically or galvanically formed oxide film electrodes under anodic polarization were 1/10 that of single crystal rutile electrodes, and similar results were obtained using electrodes formed in an electric furnace to which oxygen was supplied. Those produced in a reducing atmosphere produced slightly greater photocurrents. The oxide film layers formed by heating in a gas burner were thicker than those obtained by other methods, and produce anodic photocurrents comparable to those produced by a single crystal rutile electrode. A photocell containing titanium dioxide film anodes was developed on the basis of these results and collected hydrogen at the rate of 6.6l of H2/sq mm of titanium dioxide.
Keywords: ELECTROCHEMICAL OXIDATION, ELECTRODES, HYDROGEN, OXIDE FILMS, PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS, TITANIUM OXIDES, ANODIZING, CRYSTAL STRUCTURE, ELECTROCHEMICAL CELLS, FILM THICKNESS, FURNACES, HEAT OF COMBUSTION, HEAT TREATMENT, SUNLIGHT | <urn:uuid:6b1bb66d-ded4-4b60-be2a-c34d4c606187> | CC-MAIN-2018-22 | http://galliummetal.blogspot.com/2012/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-22/segments/1526794863811.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20180520224904-20180521004904-00053.warc.gz | en | 0.93402 | 1,268 | 3.328125 | 3 |
|Number of Pages
The Human Footprint is a global, thematic, and multi-disciplinary history of the planet, from its earliest origins to its current condition. Avoiding conventional narratives and using the latest research in a diverse range of fields, Penna brings harmony to human history and ecology and provides a fresh, much-needed narrative of world history.
Provides a comprehensive, global look at the history of the earth from the Paleolithic to the present era
Uses a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing on the most recent research in geology, climatology, evolutionary biology, archaeology, anthropology, history, demography and the social and physical sciences
Each chapter expands on a single theme, including human evolution, the invention of agriculture and its global impact, population growth, urbanization, manufacturing, consumption, industrialization, and energy use
About the Author
Anthony N. Penna has taught at Carnegie-Mellon University and Northeastern University, where he has been teaching North American and Global Environmental history courses since 1990. He is the author of Nature's Bounty: Historical and Modern Environmental Perspectives (1999), and he is co-editor of Remaking Boston: An Environmental History of the City and Its Surroundings (2009). | <urn:uuid:c8357a44-ecd8-4584-9e36-36c9892b4524> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://www.buybooksindia.com/the-human-footprint-9781405187718-222185.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218189802.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212949-00069-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.854814 | 255 | 3.046875 | 3 |
WORLD WAR II
On this page I want to tell about how it was on Leksa during World War 2.
This is based on story's from people that was living there then and now, and theirs experience under the World War II .
Under World War 2 it was about 300 German soldiers on Leksa, and also 60-70 Polish and Russian prisoners of war – they was here for about 2 years. It was build a fortification here on the west side of the island, in Gangstua – called Leksa Kystbatteri. Ruins of the fortification are still here today, and it is worth a visit.
You will find pictures from there under the link Picture Gallery in connection with the Liberation jubilee in 1995, did Lensvik school make a little book that's called “Five years”.
It was students at the school that interviewed people about their experience under the The War – from an acquaintance or relatives. Out of the stories they got, they made this little book. I have picked out one story from this book, where Tordis and Bjarne Leksen from North-Leksa tell their story.
© Copyright, all text and photo: Hilde B.L. Berg 2007 © | <urn:uuid:dc7c230a-7000-4be3-87dc-c7e0e083a5d1> | CC-MAIN-2019-47 | http://leksa.no/world_war_ii.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-47/segments/1573496665575.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20191112151954-20191112175954-00102.warc.gz | en | 0.980217 | 261 | 2.609375 | 3 |
HSV : Type1 and Type2 -
We’re gonna discuss regarding the varieties of herpes infection in this article. Well, there are two major types of herpes malady that may affect any person at any age. HSV (Herpes Simplex Virus) kind 1 is a kind of malady which commonly affects oral part such as lips, tongue & cheeks. Though the signs & symptoms commonly form on the lips & surrounding areas. The major reason of the development of HSV1 type is kissing. Applying contaminated lipstick, utensils, cleaning your face through contaminated towel and any varieties of contact to the herpes sickness can cause the emergence of herpes infection. The second variety of herpes is HSV2 type. HSV2 Type usually affects genital portion like anus, vagina, penis, buttock and urethra. These’re the extremely general area where genital herpes commonly produces indications and signs. Genital herpes can be also classified as sexually transmitted disease. Sexually transmitted disease generally emerges while having sex. Genital herpes is a hugely common viral skin malady as considering the actuality that in only America 776,000 persons get new cases of genital herpes sickness. This is also a truth that genital herpes mainly does not cause any kind of symptoms and indications though sometime it may produce numerous symptoms & indications.
Herpes Signs And Symptoms -
Experts have identified certain herpes signs and symptoms which a human being can get through herpes infection. It’s a reality about herpes sickness that numbers of people do not get herpes symptoms and indications. Though, this does not mean that if you’ve herpes sickness then you’ll not develop any sorts of symptoms & indications. Many people do receive severe indications that influence their day to day existence. The signs & indications can evolve any parts of your body though oral & genital portions are the extremely general body portions where the herpes signs commonly evolve. Most of the people usually evolve itching, burning and tingling sensation right before the occurrence of herpes outbreaks. After receiving outburst you will firstly evolve cold sore near the affected portion. Lips are the very general portion where the cold sore commonly develops. Painful blister, watery blister, muscle pain, fluid filled wounds & signs such as flu are the very general symptoms & signs of herpes sickness. Vaginal discharge, ache around the affected part, ulcer & scabs can be caused by the genital herpes. Some person may get symptoms and indications such as fever blister, fever, inflamed lymph nodes, nausea & painful urination. All the above mentioned signs can affect any person at any age.
Effects of Oral Herpes
Oral Herpes is an infection caused by the herpes simplex virus, is estimated to be present in 50 to 80 percent of the American adult population | <urn:uuid:7b660ebb-bcaa-451b-bf79-54053c752ca0> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | http://443277080573891549.weebly.com/blog/hsv-type1-and-type2-herpes-signs-and-symptoms | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178365454.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20210303042832-20210303072832-00356.warc.gz | en | 0.904359 | 567 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Cheap drones, like the DJI Phantom, are becoming a ubiquitous technology.
They can be cheaply used for surveillance (unmanned aerial surveillance), and in some cases they are being weaponized.
How can you perform counter-drone operations?
First of all – we’re assuming you are legally able to do this.
There are “no drone airspace” restrictions in place around many government facilities, including Air Force Bases.
Let’s look at the options.
Physical damage to the drone through gunfire is also an option.
But, firing off guns (especially up in the air) can lead to more trouble than it is worth.
Bullets fired on a high arc have to land somewhere – and that’s both a safety risk to people and it is highly likely to cause collateral damage.
Nets can be used to ensnare drones – but this is a relatively short range method.
As we’ll see, there are easier ways to counter drones.
Command and Control Disruption
Systems like the Dronebuster are capable of interfering with the drones radio command frequencies.
This effectively neutralizes the drone, and prevents it from being used for it’s intended purpose.
The DroneBuster shown above is capable of commanding the drone to descend – or to return “home” (from where it was launched).
It is a self-contained, hand-held unit – and weighs less than 5 lbs.
The DroneDefender is another technology that works by disrupting the remote control signals of the drone.
These solutions can also interfere with the GPS signals used by the drones to navigate.
Because these devices use disruption of radio frequencies (ISM and GPS); it is not legal for civilians to own or operate these devices in the United States.
(In general jamming or spoofing any radio frequencies is illegal as per the FCC.)
Types of Drones
Quadcopters (4 rotors) and Hexacopters (6 rotors) are popular designs for drones.
They are stable and easy to control thanks to their multiple rotor blades – and their digital flight computers.
The drone is normally able to “fly itself” given waypoints. It does this using GPS navigation.
What You Should Know as a Drone Operator
The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) provides information and regulations in regards to flying drones.
Counter Drone Methods – In Summary
Drones are an emerging threat.
But the industry is evolving ways to counter drones.
The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement. | <urn:uuid:2a97fc0a-19cf-4789-9b8f-7902132aedee> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://covertblueprint.com/methods-to-counter-drones/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250614086.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20200123221108-20200124010108-00258.warc.gz | en | 0.916826 | 550 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Malnutrition in South-Asia. Poverty, diet or lack of female empowerment?
Despite economic growth, and a reduction in poverty, malnutrition is still rampant in South-Asia. This indicates that non-economic factors are important, and we use a nation-wide survey from Nepal to identify factors that may explain why small children are stunted. In contrast to designated studies of child nutrition we do not have information on individual food intake, but we demonstrate that analysis of large sample surveys is a good supplement to designated studies, with the main benefit being that findings are nationally representative. We find that pulses are critical for child growth, and that boys are more often malnourished, maybe because they are expected to take other food than breast milk. Furthermore we find that girls are more likely malnourished if they have many older brothers, and we find that female empowerment improves child nutrition.
Interim Governance Arrangements in Post-Conflict and Fragile Settings
Incubating change-makers. Youth-driven innovative approaches to accountability in Nepal
Jenny Bentley, Saul Mullard
Social accountability and water integrity: Learning from experiences with participatory and transparent budgeting in Ethiopia and Nepal
Birke Otto, Floriane Clement, Binayak Das, Hari Dhungana, Lotte Feuerstein, Girma Senbeta, Jasmina Van Driel
Factors influencing the use of reproductive health care services among married adolescent girls in Dang District, Nepal: a qualitative study
Binita Maharjan, Poonam Rishal and Joar Svanemyr
BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
Examining poverty and food insecurity in the context of long-term social-ecological changes in Kabul, Afghanistan
Yograj Gautam, Anwesha Dutta, Patrick Jantz, Alark Saxena, Antonio De Lauri
Sand urbanism in Bangladesh transitions of sand extraction and trade in Dhaka-Narayanganj
Bert Suykens and Mohammad Atique Rahman
The Extractive Industries and Society
Moving Uganda’s national development planning to the grassroots: What’s in it for youth?
Gerald Karyeija, Ragnhild Muriaas | <urn:uuid:f73bf59a-7a54-4fdf-9459-36f278636129> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://www.cmi.no/publications/4406-malnutrition-in-south-asia-poverty | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510516.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20230929122500-20230929152500-00424.warc.gz | en | 0.889447 | 466 | 2.5625 | 3 |
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Table of Contents
Diversifying the Faculty
The diversity of college and university faculties has been a subject of discussion, debate, and priority for several decades—particularly since the 1960s, when equity in higher education became a national priority as a result of the civil rights movement. Despite these discussions and the subsequent launching of several local and national programs to advance faculty diversity, the national report card on accomplishments remains unacceptably poor.
Why care about faculty diversity? Some would answer this often- asked question with a pragmatic justification. Since women constitute almost 60 percent of U.S. college students, and because minorities will exceed 50 percent of the U.S. population before 2050, we must do a better job of preparing and hiring more persons from these groups for faculty positions in order to provide diverse role models for the nation’s changing demographics. More compelling, however, is the argument that all students are better educated and better prepared for leadership, citizenship, and professional competitiveness in multicultural America and the global community when they are exposed to diverse perspectives in their classrooms—a view that comprised a good portion of the social science foundation that undergirded the University of Michigan’s argument in support of affirmative action before the U.S. Supreme Court (Bollinger 2007).
Faculty diversity has been negatively influenced by the economic downturn (Gose 2009). In earlier days, many institutions addressed the issue of faculty diversity by throwing money at the problem (e.g., salary incentives for minority appointees, additional slots for minority hires, etc.). While these financial interventions had some degree of success, they probably have had mixed results over the long haul inasmuch as they are not always sustainable and they do not guarantee retention, promotion, or tenure.
National Data on Faculty Diversity
As mentioned in the previous article, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES 2008) reports that just under 20 percent of the nation’s professoriate consists of persons of color—blacks/African Americans (5.6 percent), Hispanic/Latinos (3.5 percent), Asian Americans (9.1 percent), and American Indians (1.4 percent). However, data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that minority groups constitute roughly one-third of the U.S. population (Census Bureau 2009). Even more disturbing, the presence of underrepresented minorities (URMs) is less than 10 percent in certain disciplines. Donna Nelson (2007) at the University of Oklahoma has surveyed the number of URMs (both men and women) in science and engineering faculties at the top research universities. These schools produce the lion’s share of the nation’s PhD graduates, many of whom join the nation’s professoriate. In many cases, an extremely low percentage of URMs populate the departmental faculties of the top fifty institutions. In some fields—mathematics, computer science, astronomy, and physics—URMs constitute a little above 2 percent of the professoriate in 2007. For certain disciplines (e.g., mathematics and electrical engineering), there has been a decline in URM representation on departmental faculties. Nelson’s data suggest that faculty diversity is not solely a “pipeline” problem. Instead, faculty hiring of URMs has not kept pace with their PhD attainment.
Similar data are reported for women in the professoriate. While women have made significant advances on college and university faculties in recent years, their faculty presence in many disciplines lags far behind that of men, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (with the exception of the biological sciences). In some disciplines (e.g., electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and physics) they constitute fewer than 10 percent of the professoriate in the top fifty research universities. Women of color fare even worse on college and university faculties. In the science and engineering fields that Nelson studied, only three hundred URM women populated the faculties of the top fifty research universities. When the biological, social, behavioral, and economic sciences were removed from the mix, fewer than one hundred women remained.
Examining Faculty Diversity at Five Institutions
For this paper, we performed an informal assessment at five different institutions (represented by the authors) to determine the current state of faculty diversity, strategies in place to enhance faculty diversity, and the challenges in accomplishing this goal. The campuses used in our survey are listed below and information on faculty diversity has been obtained from the Chronicle of Higher Education (2009). For the purpose of this survey, minority faculty include blacks/African Americans, Hispanic/Latinos, Asian Americans, and American Indians.
Howard University is a private, HBCU research university (high research activity) located in Washington, DC, with an approximate 90 percent enrollment of African American and black students from other parts of the African Diaspora. The Howard faculty is approximately 25 percent nonminority, with a large number of black/African American faculty members.
Saint Joseph’s College is a private undergraduate and master’s college rooted in the liberal arts. St. Joseph’s has campuses in Brooklyn, NY, and suburban Suffolk County, New York, the third most racially segregated county in the country. Historically a women’s college, it is now coed with about 5,000 students. The faculty at St. Joseph’s is 8 percent minority.
University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university (very high research activity) located in Charlottesville, VA, with a minority faculty of approximately 12 percent. The current student enrollment is 13,762 undergraduate, 4,904 graduate, and 1,725 post-baccalaureate professional (law and medicine). Thirty-seven percent of the undergraduate student population and 15 percent at the graduate and professional level are ethnic minorities.
Vanderbilt University is a private research university (very high research activity) located in Nashville, TN, with a minority faculty of approximately 15 percent. The university hosts 6,584 undergraduates and 4,735 graduate and professional students within its ten schools and various professional degree programs.
Westchester Community College is one of sixty-four institutions in the State University of New York system. It is a public, multiracial two-year college located in a wealthy suburb of New York City, with close to a 50 percent minority student enrollment and 13 percent minority faculty presence.
What are Campuses Doing Currently? Creating Administrative Structures and Positions to Advance Diversity
Some of the institutions in our analysis have established committees to tackle diversity issues. At Westchester, a campuswide Affirmative Action Committee was established in 1985. The college has a Presidential Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity that focuses its efforts on diversity issues, including diversifying its faculty. UVA created a President’s Commission on Diversity, which then instituted the position of vice president of diversity and chief diversity officer. The deans at UVA are also held accountable for enhancing a diverse faculty. To assist them in this goal, UVA created a vice provost for faculty development and a vice provost for faculty recruitment and retention.
St. Joseph’s has constituted a diversity committee made up of faculty, administrators, students, and community leaders that addresses issues of diversity and campus climate, and also makes personnel and program suggestions. St. Joseph’s diversity committee is led by the coordinator of diversity initiatives and the director of the office of multiculturalism. The president of St. Joseph’s is a member of the Board to Erase Racism, an effective community organization that has addressed education and housing issues in Nassau and Suffolk counties. There is also a Diversity Initiatives budget that supports diversity projects such as speakers, climate studies, and international projects in diverse countries.
At Vanderbilt, several positions have been created from the dean/vice chancellor’s budget, including an assistant dean for diversity, two associate deans for diversity (who are senior faculty), an associate dean for diversity in medical education, and an associate dean for diversity in graduate medical education and faculty affairs. There is also a strong commitment to faculty diversity by key department chairs, including chairs of medicine, surgery, and pediatrics. The climate for faculty diversity is enhanced by the institution’s emphasis on its legacy of diversity in the health sciences.
Focused Recruitment Strategies for Advancing Faculty Diversity
Each of the institutions surveyed uses its own measures to recruit and retain faculty of color, including offering financial incentives to departments and minority hires. Several make it a point to advertise faculty openings in publications targeted to the minority academic community—for example, Diverse Issues in Higher Education (formerly Black Issues) and Hispanic Outlook. Another strategy is to recruit at fairs and conferences where minority faculty candidates might be in attendance—for example, Compact for Faculty Diversity and the Leadership Alliance.
Westchester has a rigorous search and screening process for all full-time hires and a member from the affirmative action committee serves on each faculty search. In order to encourage a more diverse pool of applicants to join its faculty, Westchester also holds an Adjunct Job Fair.
Vanderbilt has taken a two-pronged approach to diversity. Vanderbilt officials assert that having a critical mass of students who feel supported will assist in the recruitment of minority faculty. Vanderbilt has developed an incentive plan with the dean, department chairs, and center directors geared toward increasing minority faculty (and students).
UVA uses extensive measures to recruit faculty of color. It has established associate or assistant deans for diversity within the college, professional schools, and graduate programs, who are charged with identifying and recruiting faculty and graduate students of color. Faculty search committees cannot go forward without diversity training from the office of Equal Opportunity Programs (EOP) and the vice president for faculty recruitment and retention, and these committees are required to focus on recruiting diverse faculty. In addition, a standing diversity committee on the Board of Visitors is charged with sustaining diversity as an institutional priority at the highest organizational level. Vice presidents and the provost report to the board on diversity initiatives and progress in faculty recruitment in addition to benchmarking demographic diversity change in comparison to schools within the Association of American Universities.
Howard publicizes the advantages of Washington, DC (a highly multicultural community with a large, highly educated African American population) as an attractive place for faculty to live and work. Howard also highlights its rich curriculum and research activity that focuses on African American and other underserved populations in health, education, economics, etc., as a method of encouraging a diverse applicant pool. The university sponsors an annual Preparing Future Faculty Institute for underrepresented minority doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows from across the country who wish to pursue careers in the professoriate.
St. Joseph’s belongs to the Northeast Higher Education Recruitment Consortium and uses its membership as a tool to reach potential minority faculty members. It also reaches out to local African American church groups and the NAACP. At St. Joseph’s, faculty of color tend to recruit each other; as a result, the college is able to retain its minority faculty once they join. St. Joseph’s is now reaching out to the Hispanic community in similar ways.
Mentoring New Faculty to Advance Retention, Promotion, and Tenure of Minority Faculty
Most institutions in our analysis utilize faculty mentoring programs and external alliances in order to retain their faculty of color. Minority faculty members at St. Joseph’s, for example, receive explicit mentoring support from the administration and other colleagues. Faculty members at UVA are mentored during the first three years of their appointments as a part of the university’s larger faculty development program. Vanderbilt has taken measures to support its female faculty by establishing a mentoring network for junior members. In addition, Vanderbilt has established a support system outside of the university through a collaboration with Meharry Medical College that offers joint research, training, and educational opportunities and experiences for faculty at both institutions.
Additionally, two of our institutions provide mentoring to those who have not yet stepped into a tenure-track role. At Westchester, the Dr. Julius Ford Fellowship Program provides mentoring to adjuncts of minority background in hopes that some of them may transition into full-time positions at the college or elsewhere. Academic departments also offer collegial mentoring to part-time instructors and new full-time faculty members of all ethnic backgrounds. As mentioned above, Howard takes an active role in helping minority doctoral students achieve success as faculty members through its Preparing Future Faculty program.
What Challenges Do Campuses Face?
Campuses face different challenges based largely upon such factors as their location, mission, history, legacy, demographics, traditions—and their financial resources.
At Howard, an HBCU with a large multiracial faculty, some individuals feel there is no need to take additional measures to promote diversity, believing that diversity within the global black community suffices for Howard to claim that it supports faculty diversity. On the other hand, some faculty believe that global diversity does not substitute for national diversity and that a predominately minority academic community benefits from diverse voices from other groups—both minority and majority. This internal debate begs for a clearer definition of how to define and measure faculty diversity.
Geographic location is a significant consideration for recruitment and retention of minority faculty. Westchester is situated in one of the wealthiest counties in the country; this fact, compounded by the extremely high cost of living in the New York City area, compromises faculty diversity efforts. Diversity efforts at UVA are hampered by its location in a small college town with little community diversity. Conversely, Vanderbilt benefits from its proximity to a large, highly successful African American community and its proximity to three well-known HBCUs: Fisk University, Meharry Medical College, and Tennessee State University. Howard, while benefitting from its large African American population and multicultural climate, is challenged by a high cost of living in Washington, DC, combined with relatively low faculty salaries.
Despite committed leadership from the top, only a few at St. Joseph’s have taken up the president’s offer to participate in the Erase Racism workshop. Also, programs that raise issues of diversity are not well attended. St. Joseph’s is located in an area with a very high cost of living, and although salaries are competitive for schools of similar size and classification, its real competitors for faculty hires are the city and state universities and community colleges. In addition, its branch campus is located in a community where faculty members are presently facing a powerful anti-immigrant movement, plus the fallout from a recent murder of a migrant worker and other acts of violence.
UVA’s decentralized system makes structural changes in regard to diversity very difficult to implement. Like other major research institutions, departmental cultures often foster a relative conservatism within disciplines in ways that make diversity projects difficult to facilitate. However, there have been gains in the overall total number of African American tenure hires since the creation of a Commission on Diversity.
Vanderbilt is also experiencing challenges, compounded by a lack of retention efforts that focus on new minority hires and an absence of minority department chairpersons. Like many institutions, Vanderbilt is also grappling with how to increase the number of tenured minority faculty and senior minority faculty, both through recruitment and by taking steps to ensure the success of its junior faculty. In a situation that is similar to UVA’s, the prestige of the institution fosters a culture in which change can be difficult to implement. The university asserts it has a commitment to diversity, but some charge that it must display this commitment through implementation and support for initiatives that bring about diversity.
As referenced above, the current economic downturn is affecting strides in achieving faculty diversity at many institutions. When colleges and universities reduce the number of non-tenure-track positions because of economic challenges, many fear this will negatively affect efforts to achieve and maintain faculty diversity. Since many minorities hold non-tenure-track positions on college and university campuses, cutting back on these positions would reduce the number of minority faculty instructors. Some institutions are using the economic downturn as a way to reassess the cost efficiency of their diversity programs. Many administrators question whether the effectiveness of these programs is proportional to the funding they are allotted. This has resulted in downgrading support for diversity efforts at several institutions.
Conclusions and Recommendations
In recent years, several strategies have been employed by colleges and universities to achieve greater faculty diversity. Most of these efforts have focused on increasing the “numbers” of persons from diverse groups on faculties—often by providing attractive financial incentives with mixed results over the long haul. Clearly, the acquisition of a critical mass of individuals from diverse groups is the important first step in achieving faculty diversity.
Of course, full faculty diversity requires far more than numbers. In order to achieve true faculty diversity, a climate for inclusion must permeate the entire institution. The “take aways” from our assessment of the current status of faculty diversity include:
- One size (strategy) doesn’t fit all institutions
- Institutions must match their rhetoric on faculty diversity with action
- Faculty diversity is enhanced by student diversity
- Faculty diversity is enhanced by having explicit policies, infrastructures and a reward system to support it
- Faculty diversity is enhanced by a diverse curriculum and support for research on diversity topics and issues
- While financial support is important, faculty diversity is enhanced by attention to faculty/staff diversity training and campus community preparation for diversity
- While recruitment of diverse faulty is important, mentoring and support leading to promotion and tenure of diverse faculty hires may be more important
- Campus, departmental, and community climate to support faculty diversity is essential for success
While considerable work is still needed to achieve the elusive goal of diversifying the American professoriate, this paper has summarized some of the major lessons that have been learned in pursuit of this goal at five different types of institutions. If other higher education institutions can profit from these lessons, there is potential for significantly increasing the results of our collective efforts in the months and years ahead.
The authors acknowledge the assistance of Evelyn Thomas, a doctoral student in mathematics at Howard University, for her assistance in preparing this article.
Orlando Taylor is currently the president of the DC campus of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology.
Bollinger, L. C. 2007. Why diversity matters. Chronicle of Higher Education 35 (39): B20.
Gose, B. 2009. Diversity takes a hit during tough times. Chronicle of Higher Education, Diversity in Academe. October 16.
National Center for Educational Statistics. 2008. Digest of educational statistics, table 253. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.
Nelson, D. J. 2007. A national analysis of minorities in science and engineering faculties at research universities. http://cheminfo.ou.edu/~djn//diversity/Faculty_Tables_FY07/07Report.pdf.
Race and Ethnicity of Faculty Members at 1,400 Colleges and Universities Database. 2009. Chronicle of Higher Education. http://chronicle.com/article/RaceEthnicity-of-Full-/48724/.
U.S. Census Bureau. 2008. An older and more diverse nation by midcentury. News release, August 14. www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/population/cb08-123.html.
Orlando Taylor is the graduate dean and a professor emeritus at Howard University, and a senior fellow at the Association of American Colleges and Universities; Cheryl Burgan Apprey is the director of graduate student diversity programs at the University of Virginia; George Hill is a professor in the department of microbiology and immunology, and the Levi Watkins, Jr. Professor and Associate Dean for Diversity in Medical Education at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine; Loretta McGrann is the provost of St. Joseph's College; Jianping Wang is the dean of arts and humanities at Westchester Community College. | <urn:uuid:b17abd27-edde-4636-a4c6-f21018defde9> | CC-MAIN-2019-39 | https://www.aacu.org/publications-research/periodicals/diversifying-faculty | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514574662.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20190921190812-20190921212812-00034.warc.gz | en | 0.952714 | 4,096 | 2.515625 | 3 |
This tutorial is the second part of Sensory Processing in which Amanda Martinage presents techniques to address sensory processing difficulties — with practical activity suggestions provided, promotion of independence, and a review of research related to sensory processing and sensory-based strategies.
Participants will earn 1.5 credit by viewing the video and taking an online quiz.
By registering for ACVREP, CTLE credits, or Continuing Education credits, you will be provided with a self-paced tutorial using video clips and other resources related to this topic, as well as an online test to assess your knowledge.
This is a web-based, self-guided professional development activity for TVIs, VRTs, O&Ms, Parents, Teachers of the Deafblind or Severely Impaired, and Rehabilitation Specialists.
All sales on self-paced courses are final! | <urn:uuid:21143c06-c87d-4294-9243-a7f2ba7fa804> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | https://www.perkinselearning.org/earn-credits/self-paced/sensory-processing-part-2-2-techniques-address-sensory-processing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560628000613.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20190627035307-20190627061307-00284.warc.gz | en | 0.924076 | 174 | 2.546875 | 3 |
This morning, I got an email from a BoingBoing reader, who is one of the many people worried about the damaged nuclear reactors at Fukushima, Japan. In one sentence, he managed to get right to heart of a big problem lurking behind the headlines today: "The extent of my knowledge on nuclear power plants is pretty much limited to what I've seen on The Simpsons".
For the vast majority of people, nuclear power is a black box technology. Radioactive stuff goes in. Electricity (and nuclear waste) comes out. Somewhere in there, we're aware that explosions and meltdowns can happen. Ninety-nine percent of the time, that set of information is enough to get by on. But, then, an emergency like this happens and, suddenly, keeping up-to-date on the news feels like you've walked in on the middle of a movie. Nobody pauses to catch you up on all the stuff you missed.
As I write this, it's still not clear how bad, or how big, the problems at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant will be. I don't know enough to speculate on that. I'm not sure anyone does. But I can give you a clearer picture of what's inside the black box. That way, whatever happens at Fukushima, you'll understand why it's happening, and what it means.
At a basic level, nuclear energy isn't all that different from fossil fuel energy. The process of generating electricity at a nuclear power plant is really all about making heat, just as it is at a coal-fired plant. Heat turns water to steam, steam moves turbines in the electric generator. The only difference is where the heat comes from--to get it, you can light coal on fire, or you can create a controlled nuclear fission reaction.
A fission reaction is a lot like a table filled with Jenga games, each stack of blocks standing close to another stack. Pull out the right block, and one Jenga stack will fall. As it does, it collapses into the surrounding stacks. As those stacks tumble, they crash into others. Nuclear fission works the same way--one unstable atom breaks apart, throwing off pieces of itself, which crash into nearby atoms and cause those to break apart, too.
Every time one of those atoms breaks apart, it releases a little heat. Multiply by millions of atoms, and you have enough heat to turn water into steam*.
In a Boiling Water Reactor, like the ones at Fukushima, water is pumped through the core—the central point where the actual fission reactions happen. Along the way, fission-produced heat boils the water, and the steam rises up and is captured to do the work of turning turbines.
In the Core
The core is the part that really matters today.
In the core of a nuclear reactor, you'll find fuel rods—tubes filled with elements whose atoms are unstable and prone to breaking apart and starting the Jenga-style chain reaction.
Usually, the elements used are Uranium-238 or Uranium-235. They're refined and processed into little black pellets, about the size of your thumbnail, which are poured by the thousands, into long metal tubes. Bunches of tubes--each taller than a basketball player--are grouped together into square frames. These tall, skinny columns are the fuel assemblies.
The fission reactions that happen are all about proximity. In a fuel rod, lots of uranium atoms can crash into each other as they break apart. Pack the fuel rod into an assembly, and lots more atoms can affect one another—which means the reactions can release more energy. Put several fuel assemblies into the core of a nuclear reactor, and the amount of energy released gets even higher.
Proximity is also what makes the difference between a nuclear bomb, and the controlled fission reaction in a power plant. In the bomb, the reactions happen—and the energy is released—very quickly. In the power plant, that process is slowed down by control rods. These work like putting a piece of cardboard between two Jenga towers. The first tower falls, but it hits a barrier instead of the next tower. Of all the atoms that could be split, only a few are allowed to actually do it. And, instead of an explosion, you end up with a manageable amount of heat energy, which can be used to boil water.
In Case of Emergency
Now that you understand what's going on inside a nuclear reactor, you get a good idea of what happened at Fukushima. Like the other nuclear power plants in Japan, Fukushima Daiichi got a message from the country's earthquake warning system, and shut down in advance of the quake. Basically, that means that control rods—"big metal gizmos", as Charles Forsberg, executive director of the MIT Nuclear Fuel Cycle Project, described them to me—were inserted into the fuel assemblies, cutting the fuel rods off from one another. But, because you aren't completely separating all the uranium atoms from one another, shutting down the core isn't the same thing as flipping an "off" switch.
When a reactor core is shut down, its energy output drops not to zero, but about 6% of its normal output, Forsberg told me. The reactions grind to a halt over the next few days, as the falling Jenga towers run out of other towers they can actually hit. In the meantime, atoms keep breaking apart, releasing both heat and fast-moving particles that can penetrate human skin and damage our cells. Because of this, every nuclear reactor has ways of getting rid of the heat, and blocking those fast-moving radioactive particles.
When the reactor at Fukushima shut down, it should have been kept cool by water pumped through the core. But, because the tsunami damaged the diesel-powered generators that pumped the water, the core kept heating up. If that sounds like a design flaw, you're right. The Fukushima reactors were built in the early 1970s. In modern nuclear reactor designs, pumps aren't necessary to move water through the core in an emergency shut down. Instead, the water moves via gravity.
But, in this case, no pumps meant no water movement. So the core got hotter, which boiled off some of the water. The boiling caused pressure in the core to increase. To protect the core, and prevent a bigger problem, authorities had to vent some of that steam into the atmosphere, which means venting some of the radioactive particles along with them.
This is also probably tied into the explosion that happened, according to MIT's Charles Forsberg.
"There's zirconium in the fuel rods. When you overheat the reactor core, the first thing that happens is that the zirconium begins to react with steam or water and forms zirconium oxide and hydrogen," he says. "You get a mixture of steam and hydrogen. When you release steam into a secondary building [to decrease pressure in the core], the steam condenses and leaves behind just the hydrogen. Then all you need is an ignition source and you can get a hydrogen burn. That's what happened at Three Mile Island. I don't know if that's what happened in Japan, but it's likely to be the source of that explosion."
The good news is that the explosion seems to have happened outside the core. In that case, it's completely reasonable that an explosion could happen without releasing lots of radioactive material. That's because nuclear power plants come in layers, like an onion.
The core is contained within a building that has solid concrete walls, 3-to-6 feet thick. It's meant to withstand collision with an airplane. It's also meant to withstand an explosion from inside. But that bunker sits inside something a lot flimsier—a building more akin to a metal shed. It's the shed that exploded today at Fukushima. Because radiation levels didn't rise after the explosion, we can be pretty certain that the bunker is still intact.
How To Win This
This is a serious emergency, but there are some good reasons to be hopeful. According to World Nuclear News and Reuters, there were seven reactors in Fukushima that were affected by the earthquake. Of those, four have access to outside power to run their water pumps and are stable. Three lost their power. Out of those three, one has steady levels of water. Only two have decreasing water levels. But, in recent hours, workers have started pumping in seawater to one of those. Hopefully, both can be stabilized. But it's hard to say right now.
And then what happens? Remember, this is really just an emergency shutdown gone awry. The control rods are still in place. The Jenga columns are still separated. So, over time, the fission reactions will still slow down and stop. As they do, heat levels will drop, and so will levels of radiation.
Really, what we have here is a waiting game. The goal is to keep the reactors stabilized long enough that the shutdown can completely shut down.
For more information—and details I might have missed—I recommend checking out a recent BBC article, and an interview Skepchick blogger Evelyn did with her father, a nuclear engineer.
*If you want to understand thy physics of nuclear energy in more detail, I'd recommend reading Marcus Chown's The Matchbox That Ate a 40 Ton Truck | <urn:uuid:7664bc83-db6d-4a75-b75f-6be18a08a7e0> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | https://boingboing.net/2011/03/12/nuclear-energy-insid.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+boingboing%2FiBag+%28Boing+Boing%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232256600.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20190522002845-20190522024845-00545.warc.gz | en | 0.960464 | 1,928 | 2.765625 | 3 |
While many schools provide full or part-time nurses as well as other health services, their efforts — and budgets — often can’t keep up with the need. Increasing numbers of children are growing up in disadvantaged circumstances, and as a result, more children have health problems that interfere with their ability to learn.
“Children who are poor have higher rates of hospital admissions, disability days, and death rates. They have inadequate access to preventive, curative, and emergency care and are affected more frequently by poor nutrition,” Dr. David Wood wrote in 2003 in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
City Connects helps by connecting more children to more of the health services that already exist in their communities. During the 2015-16 school year, students in City Connects’ public schools received 21,039 school-provided health services and 14,804 community-provided health services from 389 community partners. This includes eye exams and hearing screenings.
In response to requests from partner schools, City Connects has also designed a health curriculum that’s tailored to the needs of the communities we serve. The curriculum has four modules — nutrition, physical activity, bullying and emotions, and personal health and safety — and it aligns with state and national and standards.
As the title of an article in the Journal of School Health succinctly points out:
“Healthier Students are Better Learners.” | <urn:uuid:e562c017-ec06-41b0-b38d-2f71bf0e5d04> | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | https://cityconnectsblog.org/2016/12/08/the-power-of-communities-to-provide-health-care/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107894759.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20201027195832-20201027225832-00485.warc.gz | en | 0.97807 | 294 | 3.09375 | 3 |
1-2-3 Come Have Some Fun With Chrysanthemum And Me
I thought I had finished up designing some quick, easy and fun activities to go with the story "Chrysanthemum", 'til I had a request from Erin in Idaho.
Great idea Erin, and easy-peasy to do, as the theme of "Chrysanthemum" is all about being kind, and careful with the things you say. Thus "Bucket Filling With Chrysanthemum" was born.
I’ve also included color copies so you can do this as a whole group activity as well.
The packet also includes several posters: “We are a bucket-filling classroom”, “Easily Fill A Bucket By . . .” plus a “Please Don’t Be A Dipper”.
The “Chrysanthemum’s ABCs of Bucket Filling” worksheets help build vocabulary while practicing letter sounds.
These can be done individually, or use the colorful ones with a whole group.
I’ve included answer keys with lots of alliterative options: “Aa: aid, applaud, ask, award, advise, affirm, acknowledge…”
Finally, students can use the little Chrysanthemum "bucket cards" to encourage each other. There’s a set in color so that you can leave your students a compliment or note as well.
I was now in the Chrysanthemum mode again, so I also designed some Chrysanthemum-Themed Alphabet Number Puzzles.
Because the story is all about this little mouse’s name, I like to transition my kiddos to some name writing activity afterwards.
These puzzles provide a super-fun way to do that, plus children get in some uppercase alphabet practice too.
They're a real “sanity saver” as children are happily engaged coloring, cutting, then putting their puzzle together.
While they work independently you are freed up. Woo hoo!
The puzzles mix math with literacy, as they help practice sequencing numbers from 1-10, working on those toughie teen numbers, as well as skip counting by 10s.
Simply choose which number concept is most appropriate for your students.
For a fun back to school bulletin board, have children mount their puzzle to a sheet of construction paper leaving a little gap between each strip, which will create an interesting mosaic effect.
I’ve included 2 “ABC 1-2-3 Look Who’s In The Class With Me!” posters to use for the center of your display. (Plus preschool, kindergarten and 1st grade as well).
There’s also a colorful Chrysanthemum puzzle (1-10, 11-20, & counting by 10s) to use as an independent math center, plus an additional name writing worksheet where children finish drawing Chrysanthemum.
Finally, while I was putzing with this, another name activity popped in my head, so I created a quick, easy & fun "color, cut & glue" name craft, which provides wonderful fine motor practice, plus assists children in learning how to spell their name as they begin to recognize those letters.
Completed projects make a sweet back to school bulletin board too. Besides the name craft, the packet also includes:
* Separate upper & lowercase letter cards, as well as a set of cards with both the upper and lowercase letter on one card.
Use them for Memory Match and “I Have; Who Has?” games.
I’ve also included a 4-page tip list of other ideas for the cards, including the “Kaboom!” game as well as . . .
* A variety of letter worksheets plus…
* Some simple letter games like "What Letter Did Chrysanthemum Hide Today?" and "What's Missing?", as well as several dice worksheet games.
Today's featured FREEBIE is a set of 10 Classroom Management Posters. I hope you find them useful.
Well that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by. Time to move on to another theme.
Hmmm... shall I start working on "Chicka Boom" or "If You Take A Mouse To School" stuff? Stay tuned. I'll be doing both before August disappears.
Wishing you a carefree, happily lazy kind of relaxing day.
"Children must be taught how to think, not what to think."-Margaret Mead
Often teachers are so busy teaching, that sometimes they can miss important things that are happening in their students' lives. Putting up a tweet board on a door, wall or bulletin board, helps you stay informed and builds community. A more caring classroom will be created. This is a special FREEBIE in my TpT shop. Click on the link to grab your copy today:Sweet Tweets.
This "craftivity" packet is very versatile. I have templates that you can use at the end of the school year, where students write about the"souper" summer they are looking forward to, or the "souper" year they had, or they can make one for your next year's kiddos explaining why they are going to have a "souper" year in __________ grade.
Use this "craftivity" for the beginning of the school year and have students complete the summer writing prompt, or use it at the end of the year and have students make the "Taco" 'bout a great year ___________ (fill in grade) was excelente." template.
This "craftivity" is very versatile, as it includes templates for an end-of-the year memory book, with covers for preschool through 6th grade, plus a blank template. If you already have a memory book, have students write why they think this grade was terrific. You can also use this as a self-esteem builder (fill a bucket) activity (use the ______ is "T"-'rrific!" template) and have each classmate write a compliment in everyone's booklet; or fill in the blank with My Dad, or Grandparents and use for Father's or Grandparent's Day. It also works for back-to-school. Have students write about why their summer was terrific.
Help build your students' self-esteem, with this sweet end-of-the-year activity. Students color their cat, glue on the blank template(s) to include a space for X number of students to write a compliment on, and then accordion fold it. Includes bookmarks.
Define what an adjective is and have your students describe themselves at the beginning of the year. Collect and save 'til the last week of school and have them use adjectives to describe themselves now. Have they changed?
A "makes your think" poster that can be used as a writing prompt. "Is this advice true? Good? Why or why not? How can changing places with someone help you understand them better?" This is a great poster if you're doing the "Fill A Bucket" program.
8 pages. Motivate your students and build self-esteem, with these star certificates. Also includes a poster to hang to show who the star student of the day/week is. This packet works well with the "Fill a Bucket" program too. | <urn:uuid:15696361-07a3-451c-9150-b1945f5ad915> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://www.teachwithme.com/downloads/classroom-management/bucket-fillers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100227.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20231130130218-20231130160218-00014.warc.gz | en | 0.948436 | 1,549 | 2.640625 | 3 |
World Malaria Day is on April 25, and this year’s theme is ending malaria for good. This year, though, a new threat has emerged known as Zika virus, which is another mosquito-transmitted illness. In light of the rise of this virus, it’s important that we educate you on both malaria and Zika, and how either illness can affect conditions like metabolic syndrome and lupus. It’s important to note that individuals with certain health conditions may not benefit from antimalarial medications.
Here are Bel Marra Health’s stories on malaria, malaria vaccines, Zika virus, and other associated conditions.
Zika virus and malaria are both mosquito-borne illnesses, and since the rise of Zika first in Brazil and now overseas, many are questioning the similarities and differences between malaria and Zika virus.
Zika is becoming a growing problem, as it’s not only affecting the Brazil population, but sending worldwide researchers and scientists into frenzy to better understand the virus and develop proper treatments and potentially a cure.
Malaria, on the other hand, has been residing in Africa for decades, and there are effective treatment methods available to address the illness.
Although both Zika virus and malaria are transmitted through mosquitoes, the two illnesses still have their respective differences, which is important to understand. Here is a breakdown of the similarities and differences when it comes to Zika virus and malaria. Continue reading…
Metabolic syndrome in lupus affecting women can be prevented by antimalarial drug. A recent study uncovered that an antimalarial drug could be effective in preventing metabolic syndrome in women with lupus. Metabolic syndrome is classified by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute as, “a group of risk factors that raises your risk for heart disease and other health problems, such as diabetes and stroke.”
The study, led by Luciana F. Muniz, evaluated the frequency of metabolic syndrome and disease in relation to 103 premenopausal female lupus patients along with 35 healthy premenopausal control women.
Metabolic syndrome was higher among the women with lupus in comparison to the healthy women. The researchers also found that the use of chloroquine – an antimalarial drug – had protective effects against metabolic syndrome in lupus patients. Continue reading…
A drug currently being tested shows promise as a cure for malaria. Researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center and researchers in Australia are working together on this potential cure.
Malaria is spread by mosquitoes. It causes fevers, chills, flu-like symptoms, and – in severe cases – death. The mosquitoes spread a parasite that attacks red blood cells. It can also be transmitted through a compromised blood transfusion, though this is very rare. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, malaria killed about 500,000 people in 2013. Most of these deaths were children in Africa.
The CDC noted about 1,500 cases of malaria are reported in the U.S. every year. Patients are usually visitors or travelers from sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. The drug being tested DSM265 works by killing off the drug-resistant malaria parasites. The targeted parasite is Plasmodium, and so far the drug has been showing promise in preclinical trials.
A need for a new drug to combat malaria is high, as more cases of treatment-resistant malaria are reported.
“The problem is we’re starting to see more drug resistance, and this is what’s taken out every anti-malarial drug we’ve had,” said Dr. Margaret Phillips, professor of pharmacology at UT Southwestern. Continue reading…
A week ago (July 17, 2015) Bel Marra Health reported about a drug currently being developed by researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center and researchers in Australia, showing promise as a cure for malaria.
On the heels of that report comes a possible malaria vaccine.
The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), a division of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), worked closely with other experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) and regulatory authorities from relevant countries before adopting a positive scientific opinion for Mosquirix, a vaccine for Plasmodium falciparum and hepatitis B.
The recently developed vaccine is intended for the active immunization of children aged six weeks to 17 months against malaria in areas where malaria is regularly found, and also for immunization against hepatitis B.
The malaria vaccine Mosquirix was submitted to EMA to assess its quality, safety, and efficacy, as well as its benefit-risk balance for markets outside of the European Union. However, in its assessment, the CHMP applied the same rigorous standards used for vaccines to be marketed within the EU. In spite of decades of research into malaria vaccinations, Mosquirix is the first malaria vaccine to be assessed by a regulatory agency. Continue reading…
In the case of malarial research, ‘crime does pay.’ If everything goes according to the plan for researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the compound used at crime scenes to find trace amounts of blood may one day be used to kill the malaria parasite.
The new study falls perfectly in sync with WHO guidelines, which suggest that artemisinin — the most commonly used antimalarial drug — only be used in combination with other treatments because the parasite is becoming resistant to it.
The compound luminol glows blue when it reacts with hemoglobin in red blood cells. The researchers have shown that they can use this glow to trick malaria-infected red blood cells into building up a volatile chemical stockpile.
To achieve this, the researchers first gave the infected red blood cells an unusual amino acid and then used the blue glow to trigger the chemical. The strategy worked in killing the parasite.
According to senior author Daniel Goldberg, professor of medicine and molecular microbiology, the blue light that luminol emits is enhanced by the antimalarial drug artemisinin. The results show that we can combine these two agents to form an effective treatment against the malarial parasite.
The results of the study are available online in the journal eLife. Continue reading… | <urn:uuid:ced8dccf-3746-4fc7-8b41-3fb73cd3f858> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://www.belmarrahealth.com/world-malaria-day-zika-virus-vs-malaria-lupus-antimalarial-drug-malaria-vaccine/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218187227.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212947-00392-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945991 | 1,274 | 3.421875 | 3 |
Posted 19 December 2013
A postgraduate researcher at Harper Adams University has set up a long-term trial to investigate the effect of farm traffic and tillage on crop yields, soil structure and energy requirements of agricultural production systems.
Emily Smith, who is currently in the final year of her PhD ‘Investigating the interaction of traffic and tillage on soil, crop and energy parameters’, has been working within a team of researchers at the university near Newport, Shropshire, over the past two years to establish plot trials and gather data.
Agricultural machinery currently causes a lot of damage to soil, and this impacts on a farmer’s ability to produce crops.
The use of appropriate systems, both traffic and tillage, to reduce soil degradation and increase efficiency is essential in terms of future sustainability.
The trial set up by Emily is looking at three traffic systems – random traffic farming, low ground pressure and controlled traffic farming - and three tillage systems – deep tillage, shallow tillage and zero tillage.
Funded by the Douglas Bomford Trust and the university, the research is being supported by links with several industrial contacts including Michelin, AGCO Challenger and Vaderstad.
Since the start of the work Harper Adams has welcomed team members from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkey, Brazil and Greece.
25-year-old Emily, from near Pershore, Worcestershire, said: “In February 2013 several members of the Harper Adams team travelled to Australia to attend the first International Controlled Traffic Farming Conference in Queensland.
“This gave me the opportunity to present the work being done at Harper Adams on the international stage and create links with researchers and farmers around the world.
“The trip to Australia provided an opportunity not only to attend the conference but also to travel around several farms to see how they produce their crops, the machinery they use, the problems they encounter and solutions that they have come up with.
“It was a fantastic opportunity to experience farming in very different conditions to those that we experience here in the UK.”
Back at Harper Adams, the second year of the trial has just begun following a challenging 2011/2012 season due to the weather.
“We were in the same situation as the majority of UK farmers last year, the heavy rainfall made it extremely difficult to get the crop into the ground,” added Emily, who has a BSc (Hons) Geography and Environmental Management degree from the University of Exeter.
“A year on it was a lot easier. We had a very good harvest this year compared to last year and the next crop is in and growing well already.
“The aim of this work is to find the most suitable traffic and tillage system to improve agricultural production systems.
“At the moment we need funding to continue the trial as we want it to run for 10 years to further understand the difference in the tillage systems.
“If we get funding for a postdoctoral I will continue to be involved in the trial and will hopefully see it through to the end.
“The trial will enable us to gather data to back up educating farmers into how they can better manage their soils. With changing demands farmers need to rethink how they do this.” | <urn:uuid:9dc95fe6-9f9e-455b-a16c-f40083f912d1> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.harper-adams.ac.uk/news/202086/postgraduate-student-looks-at-the-science-of-soil-management | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141706569.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20201202083021-20201202113021-00399.warc.gz | en | 0.963577 | 678 | 2.578125 | 3 |
According to ISNA, one of the carbon-dioxide producing companies, which currently has 30 percent of the country’s CO2 market, is building units for receiving and collecting CO2 from the fuels, and purifies them 100% to be available for industrial sectors.
In addition to being consumed to produce carbonated beverages, it is also used as an industrial raw material. The production capacity of pure dioxide in this method is 800 kilograms per hour.
For each kilogram of pure CO2, this method consumes 3 kilograms of water. The cost of the final product in this method is also slightly less than the chemical method, but it is very important in terms of saving water resources and maintaining it.
In this method, gases are collected from industrial units like large petrochemical units and carbon dioxide gas refiners, and they are purified for future use. It is noteworthy that this technology is subject to sanctions and will never be given to Iran.
It should be noted that according to Kyoto Protocol, Iran has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by around 4% by 1409. It means that if 100 kilograms of carbon dioxide is generated, Iran needs to reduce it by 4 percent. This project is in line with this commitment. | <urn:uuid:ae056d64-9948-4d01-9389-d11a37185fa2> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://ifpnews.com/iranian-researchers-introduce-method-to-reduce-carbon-dioxide-emissions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338073.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007112411-20221007142411-00182.warc.gz | en | 0.960214 | 251 | 3.09375 | 3 |
People will be safer at work, and companies could have lower insurance premiums if employees know CPR & AED operation. Training is recommended for at least some workers, across all shifts and departments.
CPR, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, is performed on someone whose heart has stopped. 100 chest compressions per minute, about the tempo of the Bee Gees “Stayin’ Alive,” is recommended. Compressions should go two inches deep into the chest.
An AED, automated external defibrillator, shocks the heart to reset the beat. Trained users can easily attach the unit’s pads and electrodes which assess the victim and determine the need for shock. AED signage in the facility should be posted to improve visuality so workers can quickly find the unit.
The American Red Cross and others offer CPR & AED training, with certifications lasting one or two years.
intro music and effects
Dan Clark: Welcome to The Safety Brief. I’m Dan Clark and this is where we talk about health and safety hazards in today’s demanding industrial and construction worksites.
Cardiac arrest at work. That worker could be saved if coworkers have CPR & AED training. If it happened to you, I’m sure your family would appreciate someone stepping up and saving your life. Training employees in CPR and the use of an AED is essential. Some companies train everybody, some just a few. Just make sure you have enough to cover all shifts and vacations. Employees benefit, feeling safe and valued. The company benefits with potentially lower insurance premiums and less risk of lawsuits.
Training. It can be given in a number of ways:
1. Basic training DVDs can introduce workers to these topics.
2. Licensed trainers from the American Red Cross and other groups offer training classes all over the country. Since an emergency may call for both, CPR & AED classes are often combined. Certifications usually last for one year or two years.
CPR Basics. CPR is cardiopulmonary resuscitation. It keeps the blood moving through the body when the heart stops beating. Number one on the CPR list is chest compressions. Rescue breaths are less important. So, if there’s only one person to do CPR, they should focus on compressions.
The responder should do 100 compressions per minute. That’s about the tempo of the song “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees. Trainers across the United States have used that song as an example of how to time the beats when you’re doing compressions. Sing it to yourself as you push down on the chest. It often takes 5 to 15 compressions the start blood flow, so don’t let up, and the compressions should go down about 2 inches. Consequently, broken ribs can happen, especially with the elderly and be careful with children too. CPR is tiring work so having more than one person trained is very helpful.
AED Basics. An AED is used to shock the heart to restore a normal rhythm. Pads placed on the chest will analyze the person’s heartbeat to determine if a shock is really needed. The device is pretty smart and provides written and verbal instructions on whether you should shock the patient or not. Some even more high-tech machines will actually shock the patient on their own when a shock is needed.
Once people are trained and you have equipment in your facility, make sure that it’s clearly labeled so people can find it in emergency. Each minute of cardiac arrest leads to a 10% lower survival rate, so getting to an AED quickly is critical.
That is all for today’s episode. Come back for more tips and techniques on how to stay safety compliant in today’s ever-changing landscape of safety requirements. I’m Dan Clark of The Safety Brief, sponsored by Creative Safety Supply. See the website at creativesafetysupply.com
CPR Training from the American Red Cross
First Aid CPR/AED First Responder Testimonials from the American Red Cross | <urn:uuid:2da71fad-bbda-4f84-ac63-d4873dbc7bab> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://safetybrief.creativesafetysupply.com/cpr-aed-trained-workers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875146123.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20200225141345-20200225171345-00059.warc.gz | en | 0.933171 | 852 | 2.671875 | 3 |
This article is the third of three reflections on community health workers (CHWs). The first post is here, and it introduces the general concept of what health workers can do. The second is here, and discusses what community health workers could be doing in homeless populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. These posts have drawn on The WHO guideline on health policy and system support to optimize community health worker programs.
Those guidelines provide recommendations on selecting, managing and supervising, and assuring that CHWs fit well within the communities they serve and have the support they need to succeed.
To bring the rate of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 down requires essential changes to personal behavior, but also the ability to identify cases rapidly. The latter involves a process known as contact tracing. It has four elements:
- Identify cases and reach out to them to discuss their positive status.
- Encourage those cases to isolate themselves until their symptoms have passed.
- Patiently work with them to identify people with whom they had contact (which is carefully defined).
- Reach out to all contacts to ask them to quarantine for a specified period.
CHWs may or not play the role of contact tracers, but we can train them to perform essential functions in interacting with cases and their contacts.
Asking people to isolate or quarantine is straightforward. Helping them to maintain that isolation and quarantine for days is not. Depending on their circumstances, they may face one or more of the following challenges:
- Loss of income due to lack of vacation days.
- Inability to obtain basic needs due to lack of income or need to stay home.
- Lack of connection to health services if their condition worsens.
- Support for other needs, such as caring for relatives who do not live with them.
If we do not address these issues, recommendations to isolate or quarantine will go unheeded, and the risk of viral spread will increase.
If we can select CHWs who can listen and ask probing questions, if we can support them to problem-solve issues that arrive, and if we can make sure they have access to critical services to which they can connect people, then they can be paired with contact tracers to increase the odds of compliance.
Imagine a CHW connecting immediately with a case or a contact–on the same call during which they receive recommendations for isolation or quarantine. If a CHW could walk through a checklist of potential needs, probe deeper to understand individual fears and constraints, and offer precise support services, they would begin to build a relationship with the individual that will make a huge difference.
Community health workers would then build on that initial contact to do daily or twice per day check-ins with those in isolation or quarantine to ensure they continue to receive the help they need. They would also help do daily symptom assessments and connect their clients to services required in case of emerging or worsening illness.
The role that they play will free contact tracers to reach out to more cases in a shorter period–a critical need to reduce spread.
It is time to develop position descriptions, training materials, and recruitment guidelines to bring on CHWs to play this role. | <urn:uuid:ee7962ce-db29-436f-b446-e903c8a9fda4> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://robbdavis.blog/2020/08/06/community-health-workers-a-key-to-contact-tracing-for-covid-19/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046154304.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20210802043814-20210802073814-00096.warc.gz | en | 0.960144 | 650 | 2.515625 | 3 |
What’s it all about?
As much as this new law frustrates me, I will try to explain it in very simple terms.
Cookies are a type of file that is stored on internet devices (PC, tablet, phone) and used by almost every site. Ever wonder how a site remembers your login details, or how fields in a form are already completed when you started typing?
This is through Cookies. They are also used to track website visitors (Google Analytics), and remember which products you have added to your shopping basket. They are also used if you have social sharing tools on your site such as Twitter and Facebook. Many sites won’t work properly without them.
More advanced Cookies will remember which sites and products you have viewed, thus building your user profile. This information can then be used in re-targeting. Re-targeting works by remembering which products you have been looking to buy, and displays them on other non-related sites.
Why has this EU Cookie Law been introduced?
A very good question. There are some who feel that the web is very intrusive and by collecting all this data, sites hold too much information about a particular user, without them giving their consent. The new law aims to increase online security and data privacy by giving users more control over what data can be held about them.
This law actually came into effect in May last year, but everyone was given a 12-month grace period to get their house in order. By doing nothing, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), who has been tasked with policing it, has warned of heavy fines. So, do not ignore the new law. This applies to everyone who runs a website.
Firstly, I advise you to find out what Cookies are being used on your site. Then decide whether they are necessary for the site to run and if you need to ask permission to use them.
Let’s be honest, most internet users have no idea what a Cookie is, and if they are asked to agree to a site’s cookie regulations by ticking an “I agree” pop-up box, they are going to leave the site pretty quickly.
Some high profile sites have already introduced their policies with BT.com being one of the more prominent. The ICO (www.ico.gov.uk) is due to offer more guidance.
I think that this is a very tough law to comply with, especially to get it right and avoid driving away your site’s traffic. I believe a browser solution would work best, so let us hope that Internet Explorer, Firefox, and the rest release something very soon.
The advice in this article is my own. Visit the ICO site above for a definitive guide, and if necessary seek legal advice. | <urn:uuid:665868fd-9339-4069-9364-1ce818b5844f> | CC-MAIN-2014-41 | http://www.franchiseworld.co.uk/archives/4527 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-41/segments/1410657132007.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20140914011212-00325-ip-10-196-40-205.us-west-1.compute.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961504 | 571 | 3.046875 | 3 |
“It supports local businesses, it helps kids eat healthy food, it really connects our whole community.”
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Imagine children sitting in the school cafeteria and munching on fresh Arkansas-grown strawberries with their lunch.
Well, a new website is trying to make that imagination a reality.
The Arkansas Department of Agriculture has launched a multiplatform website aimed at connecting local farmers to schools.
At Forest Park Elementary Outdoor Learning Center, they teach children in recent years through hands-on, nutrition-based education.
Garden coordinator Kristin Taylor said they are now about to start breeding this using local Arkansas produce.
“I feel like this is another opportunity that we can just build on, increase, improve the experience that kids get,” she said.
Inside Forest Park Elementary’s Roots Garden, kids can get their hands dirty and try new things.
Learn in a way that can’t be found in the halls of school, Taylor said.
“If they’re not kids of the books, they’re not kind of kids sitting at a desk, it really gives them a place to thrive, a place to find their own kind of niche,” he said. she declared.
A niche that Taylor says can now be taken to a whole new level with a new cross-platform website from the Arkansas Department of Agriculture.
“Maybe it will allow us to put some of what we grow here and combine it with a local farm and give it to the kids,” she said.
Sarah Lane, farm-to-school and early childhood education programmer for the Department of Agriculture, said the website makes it easy for farmers to find contact details for schools that buy local food, while districts can do the same to find local farmers.
“The pandemic has really shown us how fragile our local food system can be, so this new website fills that gap,” she said.
According to Lane, the goal is to see more local food in schools, whether at the lunch table or in a garden.
“It supports local businesses, it helps kids eat healthy food, it really connects our whole community,” she said.
A bond that has never been so important.
“With everything that has happened over the past few years, we just think this website will be a way to better support our farmers and schools, who want to engage in farm-to-school activities.” , Lane said.
The website already has over 300 school gardens and over 800 listed farmers and distributors.
Farmers can easily find schools here and districts can easily find farmers here. | <urn:uuid:21d4afc1-5d81-492d-8c1d-c8f621f7acd7> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://eatdrinksleepmovabletype.com/new-website-helps-connect-arkansas-farms-to-schools/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662525507.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20220519042059-20220519072059-00699.warc.gz | en | 0.952721 | 553 | 2.546875 | 3 |
This lesson is designed to give students an opportunity to use perspective taking to write journal entries as an African American soldier who has returned to America after fighting in WWI and is experiencing all the racial unrest that occurred in the years afterwards. The lesson explores the Harlem Hellfighters, the Red Summer, W.E.B Dubois writings, the Memorandum for the Chief of Staff regarding Employment of Negro Man Power in War, and more.
This video lesson would be used in a US History class to introduce a lesson on race relations in the United States during WWI. I would have students watch this video and answer the questions as homework to be able to come into class ready to discuss what they learned from the video, and kick off a broader lesson on African Americans and other minorities and their involvement in WWI. This is just a short assignment to start the lesson, but I imagine the full lesson would be supported by other readings and activities regarding racism and the effect stories like this had on the civil rights movement in the coming years.
For my lesson, I would use the map of mob violence. Students would be instructed to go to the site and use it as a jumping point to research different acts of violence. Students would be separated into small groups, and they would work together to research the violence that occurred in different regions of America. Regions would be separated into the regions this map creates: “Left Coast”, “Far West”, “Yankee North”, “Spanish Heritage El Norte”, “The Midlands”, “Greater Appalachia” and “The Deep South”. Students would use this map as a jumping point to research the mob violence that has occurred in this region over the years, and how it changed over time. For example, the west coast had quite a few Native American victims of mob violence during the early years of this map and eventually has more Chinese victims. Each plot point can be clicked on and the story behind the violence can be expanded (see screenshots below). Many of the plot points link to sources, which would allow students to find more details on the killing, and be able to present a fuller story about why these incidents of mob violence occurred.
Students would research a few of the incidents to find greater detail, and present their findings to the class. We would use their findings to discuss the history of mob violence in our country, as well as draw parallels to issues we see today. This could be used in conjunction with a unit about progressive reforms, civil rights, or something along those lines.
For the last few class sessions, our classes were learning about the atrocities of the trenches of WWI. After someone asked the question, “Why would anyone choose to enter this war?” I used the post-it note discussion techniques and asked students to think of one or two reasons why a person would willfully enter into WWI, and then put it on the board. After the students had placed their answers on the board, I asked them to categorize them into over-arching categories and broke into a group discussion about if the reasons for entering WWI were similar to why people join the military or military conflicts today.
I learned that students are more likely to participate in a discussion if they can do so by writing something down, instead of talking out loud. Often these responses are a lot more complex than the answers I’ve heard in large-group discussions. Additionally, my students, even if they’ve already written their answer down, do not like saying it out loud or participating in a larger discussion. I’ve found that the best way to avoid this silence is to warn them that I will be randomly selecting them to participate by using the “popsicle stick” method. Using this method, I was able to get them to make more connections and think about the ways they chose to categorize the post-it notes more in-depth. I still need to figure out the best way to get the students to really talk to each other instead of just talking to me, but hopefully that will come as we continue to use more strategies for discussion. | <urn:uuid:610a74c5-947c-4073-bcdc-fa11a3e64b70> | CC-MAIN-2019-04 | https://edmethods.com/author/jana-peters/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583662863.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20190119074836-20190119100836-00624.warc.gz | en | 0.973337 | 851 | 3.71875 | 4 |
An Important Message About Gas Pipeline Safety
Pipeline Purpose and Reliability
The U. S. relies on natural gas for nearly one fourth of its energy. Natural gas is clean, convenient, and efficient, which makes it the country’s most popular home heating fuel. Each day, underground pipelines carry natural gas safely and efficiently to millions of homes and businesses across the U.S. Natural gas is used to heat homes, businesses, water, cook meals, for many industrial processes, and as fuels for vehicles and electric power generation. In our community, underground pipelines provide natural gas service to Watertown Municipal Utilities Department. Watertown Municipal Utilities Department operates a safe and efficient pipeline distribution network of mains, services, and meters. Natural gas is purchased from BP Canada Energy Marketing at the city’s gate station. It is then distributed through main and service lines to your gas meter and into your home or business.
The pipeline transportation system in the U.S. is one of the safest and most efficient means of transporting energy products. The National Transportation Safety board has found that pipelines provide the highest level of public safety as compared to other transportation modes. Pipelines have fewer accidents causing personal injury than any other form of transportation, such as trucks, railroads, ships, and airplanes. In addition, pipeline operators are extensively regulated by Federal and State regulations with regard to design, construction, operation, and maintenance.
Safety is the number-one priority of the natural gas industry. At Watertown Municipal Utilities Department our main goal is to deliver natural gas reliably and safely to you, our customer. In doing so, we want you to know what to do if you ever smell gas or if a natural gas pipeline emergency occurs where you live or work.
Right-Of-Way (ROW) Encroachment Prevention
Pipeline right-of-ways enable workers to gain access for inspection, maintenance, testing or emergencies. Pipeline right-of-ways must be kept free from structures and other obstructions. If a pipeline crosses your property, please do not plant trees or high shrubs on the ROW. Also, do not dig, store, or place anything on or near the ROW without first having Watertown Municipal Utilities Department personnel mark the pipeline, stake the ROW, and explain the utility construction guidelines to you.
Pipeline Location Information
Pipeline markers – natural gas pipelines will sometimes be marked with signs. Since pipelines are buried underground, the markers are used to indicate the pipeline’s approximate location. The signs generally will be located at major roadway and railroad crossings and at intervals along major roadways. Information on the sign includes the telephone number for reporting pipeline emergencies to the appropriate agency/company.
Are pipeline markers and signs always placed on top of the pipeline? Not always. Markers indicate the general location of the pipeline. They cannot be relied upon to indicate the exact location of the pipeline they mark, the depth of the pipeline, or the number of pipelines in the vicinity.
Customer Owned Piping
As a customer, the portion of buried piping that you own, in most cases, is that segment of the gas line on your side of the gas meter. Many customers do not own any buried gas piping. Some examples of customer owned gas piping are:
- Piping to a barbecue grill
- Piping to a gas yard light
- Piping to a garage
- Piping to a swimming pool heater
Watertown Municipal Utilities Department complies with the United States Department of Transportation order that requires us to notify customers who may own buried natural gas piping not maintained by Watertown Municipal Utilities Department. You, as customers, are responsible for maintaining that specific piping. “Maintain” means to monitor buried piping for corrosion and leakage. If corrosion or leaks are found, shut off the flow of gas.
Customers should have a qualified, professional plumber or heating contractor assist you with locating and inspecting your buried gas piping. Customer buried piping, not owned by Watertown Municipal Utilities Department, should be replaced if any leaks or unsafe conditions are discovered.
For further information:
Watertown Municipal Utilities Department
901 Fourth Avenue SW
Watertown, SD 57201 | <urn:uuid:1024d31d-e357-4a07-9eba-e98ce3607389> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://watertownmu.com/wmu/living-safely-with-natural-gas/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046154500.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20210804013942-20210804043942-00327.warc.gz | en | 0.924686 | 858 | 2.75 | 3 |
Special Collections at Brunel holds a range of material useful for studying the changing role of women in society, and for more general women’s history. One item giving a window onto women’s lives in a different time is this framed poster warning women to make sure they have respectable, safe, accommodation before travelling to a new town – advice still relevant for everyone today.
The Travellers’ Aid Society was set up in 1885 by the Young Women’s Christian Association in collaboration with organisations such as the Girls’ Friendly Society and the National Vigilance Association. The aim was to have accredited workers meet female passengers on arrival at stations, to help them travel safely and find safe accommodation and work. The Society could vet potential employers or accommodation providers on request. At this time there was a constant stream of young women travelling from rural locations to London to seek jobs in domestic service, many of them vulnerable to exploitation.
From 1939 the Society was run by the National Vigilance Association, and it was wound up in 1952.
For other records of the Travellers’ Aid Society and the National Vigilance Association, contact The Women’s Library which is based at the London School of Economics. | <urn:uuid:3cb4f4e5-acb4-49e6-97a5-db4f23229e38> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | https://brunelspecialcollections.wordpress.com/2016/10/28/50-objects-43-travellers-aid-society-poster/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934805708.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20171119172232-20171119192232-00230.warc.gz | en | 0.95454 | 246 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Christina Rossetti’s poem, “Goblin Market”, is a tale about two young girls that are faced by goblin merchant men that are trying
to persuade and tempt them into partaking of their enchanted orchard fruits. One sister grows curious of the goblin’s strange produce while the other stays weary upon the memory of a friend named Jeanie that had died after eating the fruits. While reading line by line, it is hard to miss the similarities between this work and the account of the fall of man in the bible. Rossetti takes the central themes of temptation, sin, and redemption from the bible and retells them in this complex twisted tale.
Laura and Lizzie, the main characters in the poem “Goblin Market”, can be seen being tempted many times throughout the work by the goblins. “Come buy our orchid fruits, come buy, come buy”(Rossetti 1496) they constantly called out, trying to persuade the girls. In Genesis 3, one can see the exact same scenario taking place. Here we have Eve and Adam in the Garden of Eden, much like the orchard were the goblin men’s fruit is from as Rossetti describes. Eve is being tempted by the serpent, the adversary, to eat of the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Laura is our Eve type figure in the poem. She is the one that hears the callings of the goblins and longs to taste their fruit. Both Eve and Laura give in to the temptations and do eat. This act of partaking in what was forbidden is their sin in both the account and the story.
In both cases of Genesis and “Goblin Market”, the women were told beforehand what was to happen if they sinned and ate what they were not supposed to. In Genesis 2:16-17 is says, “And Yahuah commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Likewise, Laura new and was told the same thing. Her sister says, “Do you not remember Jeanie, how she met them in the moonlight, took their gifts both choice and many,…[she] found them no more but dwindled and grew grey; then fell with the first snow, while to this day no grass will grow where she lies low”(Rossetti 1499). Both women were told that if they ate of the forbidden fruit that death was to come to them but neither of them listened. Laura’s ‘death’ was to be a physical death of the flesh while Eve’s ‘death’ was to be more of a spiritual one and the loss of innocence, for not only her, but for all of mankind afterward as well. On the bright side however, there is a way in both stories for them to be saved. For salvation to occur, there must be a redeemer and a redemption that takes places.
The redeemer of mankind in the bible is Yahusha the messiah (aka Jesus) and in “Goblin Market” it is Lizzie, Laura’s sister. Lizzie, whom was tempted but did not give in to the naggings of the goblins, sacrificed herself in a way to save her sister from death, much like the Messiah. We are told in the poem that after Lizzie encounters the goblins, despite their tempting, she stands strong and does not cave under the pressures asserted by them to eat. Angry, they attack her and though they “cuffed and caught her, coaxed and fought her, bullied and besought her…mauled and mocked her, Lizzie uttered not a word; would not open lip from lip” (Rossetti 1505). By doing this and barring it as her stake/cross, Lizzie paid the price and redeemed the mistake or sin of her sister. Lizzie tells Laura to “Make much of me: for your sake I have braved the glen and had to do with goblin merchant men” (Rossetti 1506). Yahusha likewise bore his stake/cross and in doing so, made a way for all of mankind to be saved from their spiritual deaths. There is also a hint to the crown of thorns that Yahusha was forced to wear in “Goblin Market. It says “One began to weave a crown of tendrils, leaves and rough nuts brown” (Rossetti 1498). If this is what Rossetti was alluding too, no one can know for sure.
Christina Rossetti’s poem “Goblin Market” is an outstanding merging of the central themes of temptation, sin, and redemption that are found throughout the midst of the bible. The way she created her poem as a retelling of the account of the fall of man and their redemption is applauding. Similarities between the works cannot be missed for they stand out like bright stars in a clear night sky. If one does not see it, then they must not be looking. | <urn:uuid:d61fa8d2-137c-40ee-9856-c8a2793c1a60> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://schoolworkhelper.net/goblin-market-and-religion-analysis/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195527089.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20190721164644-20190721190644-00373.warc.gz | en | 0.979723 | 1,093 | 3.125 | 3 |
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