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Globally and in the U.S., most countries and states have enacted laws that require the notification of individuals affected by a data breach and the implementation of certain standards for protecting personal information.
records reported breached in the U.S. since 2005
The price of data protection implementation compared to a data breach costs
percent of data-loss incidents involve Social Security numbers
What do I need to know? If you sustain a data breach involving the personal information of consumers, you very likely will have to report the incident to the affected individuals and/or government authorities.
The United States: In 2003, the first-ever law regulating the privacy of personal information took effect in California. Since then, 46 states, plus the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, have passed data breach notification laws. Only South Dakota, Kentucky, Alabama and New Mexico have not. Despite attempts by various lawmakers, Congress has never approved comprehensive federal data security or notification legislation in the United States.
Typically, entities are required to alert consumers, whose personal information was compromised, in an expeditious manner and without unreasonable delay. And even if the breach affects a third-party company that is maintaining the compromised information, the burden is on the company that owns the data to notify affected individuals.
One caveat to note: Many of the regulations in the U.S. include a “safe haven” provision, which eliminates the need for notification if the data that was lost, accessed or acquired was encrypted.
Meanwhile, a smaller number of states - including Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Oregon, Maryland, and Nevada - have ratified laws that require businesses to maintain specific data security standards, such as the use of encryption, to protect the personal information of residents.
Global: Across the world, many countries have approved laws governing data protection. Included among many of them are notification provisions, either mandatory or voluntary. Perhaps the strictest requirement exists in the form of a proposal in the European Union, which is made up of 28 member countries. The proposal, expected to take effect in 2016, would consolidate data protection into a single law across the EU and, among other provisions, require organizations to notify their local data protection authority within 24 hours after becoming aware of a breach.Data privacy and protection laws often differ in their wording, which sometimes complicates notification.
Generally, the laws define personal information as a person's name in combination with some other piece of sensitive data, such as their Social Security number, credit card number or driver's license number. In the U.S., several states have expanded the definition of personal information to include medical data.
Data breaches are expensive, so it's best to avoid them. According to studies, the cost per lost record is rising year over year, and notification costs make up a large percentage of that figure, often stretching into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. A less direct cost of breaches is that they result in customer distrust. The effects that a security incident can have on a company's reputation and brand image can be long-lasting and devastating, especially if the organization isn't open and honest about the breach with its client base. Customers can be won over, but typically are a less forgiving bunch if they believe a company was careless with protecting their information – i.e. they didn't use encryption.
Find more information on breach notification laws:
United States, courtesy of the National Conference of Legislatures
International, courtesy Information Shield, Inc.
Penalties vary from state to state in the U.S. and country to country throughout the world, with some laws not prescribing any sanctions. For those that do, the amounts often are based on either the number of people affected by the breach or on time delays in alerting victims. Penalties for violations typically range from a couple thousand dollars up to $750,000 per breach. For other data privacy laws, such as those that require companies to implement certain data protection standards, fines can reach as high as $50,000 per incident.
In the European Union, for example, the data protection proposal would include penalties of up to 2 percent of an organization’s yearly global turnover.
State attorneys generals increasingly have become active in data privacy enforcement, with a number of notable settlements that have occurred in the U.S. related to violations of state breach notification laws.
Trustwave products and services help you discover and protect the sensitive information you are collecting, transmitting and retaining so you can avoid a data breach in the first place. Our deep portfolio also enables you to reduce the time, cost and complexity of responding to the various state and international data privacy mandates.
Conducting a Risk Assessment is the first step to identifying and implementing safeguards necessary to meet compliance. Trustwave helps you find gaps that may exist between your current security posture and HIPAA requirements. The customizable assessments, scaled individually for covered entities and business associates, include identification of key assets and IT systems, assessment of controls and frameworks and a review of third-party providers and incident response programs.
Data privacy regulations require companies to deploy technical controls to protect customer records and information, whether they are being collected, stored or transmitted. Here are some of the ways we can help:
Allows you to discover and classify sensitive data and prevent it from leaving the network.
Helps you gain visibility through detection, containment, prioritization and mitigation of events and threats.
Instructs your employees and contractors to understand the threat of social engineering and follow best practices for security, including the safe use of web and social media tools and password management.
Identifies and manages potential vulnerabilities in your networks, applications or databases.
Protects sensitive data being transmitted across web-enabled applications.
TrustKeeper Compliance Manager helps you to centrally automate and manage controls, policies and procedures across multiple compliance frameworks, including HIPAA. Compliance Manager is delivered through our cloud-based management portal TrustKeeper, which provides a real-time view into the status of your compliance and security programs and offers access to all of your managed services. Through one easy-to-use dashboard, you can submit support requests, see event history, run reports and manage your account at any time.
2017 Trustwave Global Security Report | <urn:uuid:32dd0d07-3bda-4e48-93a1-37d18799efa7> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | https://www.trustwave.com/Solutions/By-Compliance-Mandate/Data-Privacy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187823478.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20171019212946-20171019232946-00136.warc.gz | en | 0.939874 | 1,306 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Taiwan¡¦s first scientific experimental satellite, ROCSAT-1, is scheduled to be launch in January 1999. It will carry three scientific payloads. One of them is an instrument named Ocean Color Imager (OCI) to monitor ocean colors. There are two major working groups for the scientific purpose of OCI, the Science Team (ST) and the Science Data Distribution Center (SDDC). The OCI-ST was formed for sensor calibration, atmospheric correction, algorithm development, and data validation. The OCI algorithms developed were tested by Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) data. The results show that the relative error of water-leaving radiance from OCI atmospheric correction algorithms is higher than that derived from SeaWiFS algorithms. However, the relative error of chlorophyll a concentration derived from OCI bio-optical algorithm using the water-leaving radiance derived from OCI atmospheric correction algorithms is smaller than that for SeaWiFS products. Data from OCI will be processed and then distributed by the OCI-SDDC. The OCI-SDDC is also a day-to-day operations center. Anyone who is interested in OCI products can request them via the OCI-SDDC web site at http://www.oci.ntou.edu.tw/. | <urn:uuid:393bcef4-cc69-4df9-88c3-884d59223f00> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | http://tao.cgu.org.tw/index.php/articles/archive/space-science/item/342 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221218122.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20180821112537-20180821132537-00571.warc.gz | en | 0.922711 | 278 | 3.078125 | 3 |
A fluid flowing past the surface of a body exerts a force on it. Lift is the component of this force that is perpendicular to the oncoming flow direction
Fluid mechanics is a branch of physics concerned with the mechanics of fluids (liquids, gases, and plasmas) and the forces on them. Fluid mechanics has
you may search these words to find your document
Warning!This site do not save any files on server.Our site provide pdf files online search and view,all document files from internel and google. | <urn:uuid:0bd5bee6-eb24-41b4-bba4-df04336e7532> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | http://www.aijiuyujia.com/fluid-pressure-and-force-calculus.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187824894.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20171021190701-20171021210701-00242.warc.gz | en | 0.862624 | 112 | 2.8125 | 3 |
British Kids Have The Best Teeth, New Study Shows
The Economist reports that Britain's children, along with the Germans, have the healthiest pearly whites of all, according to a new study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. In contrast, Poland came in last -- a 12-year-old in that country has nearly four teeth that are missing, decayed or have fillings.
Where do American kids fall on the dental-heath continuum? Each child has at least one decayed or missing tooth. Other countries that need to do better brushing include Hungary, South Korea and Greece. Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden can also claim toothy grinned bragging rights, according to the OECD, as kids there have fewer than one missing or decayed tooth.
Still looking for a great stocking stuffer? Consider a toothbrush.
Related: Best and Worst Cities for Dental Hygiene, DailyDish: Toothbrushing Tactics, Tips on Toothbrush Care
Ask Us Anything About Parenting
- The need for a military is consistant with the intellect on the land being able to convert metals into a computer example
- ATTORYNE'S ONLY (PARALEAGEL'S WELCOM) A phrase that indicates the permission given by a court to an indigent to initiate a legal action
- Copyright court case litigation? the words spoken by attorney at trial ? in defense of a product or person(or as plaintiff or defendant))
Start by teaching him that it is safe to do so. | <urn:uuid:1fb7ae00-4879-4376-ae04-c3e5ef947275> | CC-MAIN-2015-06 | http://www.parentdish.com/2009/12/15/british-kids-have-the-best-teeth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-06/segments/1422121540415.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20150124174540-00108-ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928998 | 312 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Support Vector Machines are machine learning models that are used to classify data. Let’s say you want to build a system that can automatically identify if the input image contains a given object. For ease of understanding, let’s limit the discussion to three different types of objects i.e. chair, laptop, and refrigerator. To build this, we need to collect images of chairs, laptops, and refrigerators so that our system can “learn” what these objects look like. Once it learns that, it can tell us whether an unknown image contains a chair or a laptop or a refrigerator. SVMs are great at this task! Even though it can predict the output, wouldn’t it be nice if we knew how confident it is about the prediction? This would really help us in designing a robust system. So how do we compute these confidence measures?
Where do we start?
This discussion is specifically related to scikit-learn. It is a famous Python library that’s used extensively to build machine learning systems. It offers a variety of algorithms and tools that are useful to develop these systems. Let’s quickly build an SVM to get started:
>>> import numpy as np >>> from sklearn.svm import SVC >>> X = np.array([[2, 1], [6, 2], [5, 3], [3, 0], [5, 4], [1, 1]]) >>> y = np.array([0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0]) >>> classifier = SVC(kernel='linear') # Initialize the SVM >>> classifier.fit(X, y) # Train the SVM
Let’s visualize the datapoints:
We can clearly see that the datapoints can be divided into two groups. Now, let’s say there is a new datapoint like [1, 3] and we want to predict which class it belongs to. We just need to run the following command:
>>> classifier.predict([1, 3]) array()
It says that this datapoint belongs to class 0. We can look at the graph and visually confirm that this is infact correct.
How far is it from the boundary?
Although we know which class it belongs to, we don’t know how far it is from the boundary. Let’s consider two points, say [4, 2] and [1, 0]. If you plot these points on the graph, we can confidently say that [1, 0] belongs to class 0. But [4, 2] lies right on the boundary and we are not so sure where it’s going to go. So we need a way to quantify this! To do that, we have a function called “decision_function” that computes the signed distance of a point from the boundary. A negative value would indicate class 0 and a positive value would indicate class 1. Also, a value close to 0 would indicate that the point is close to the boundary.
>>> classifier.decision_function([2, 1]) array([-1.00036982])
It is very confident that [2, 1] belongs to class 0. Let’s see what it says about [4, 2]:
>>> classifier.decision_function([4, 2]) array([ 0.20007396])
It says it belongs to class 1 but based on the output value, we can see that it’s close to the boundary.
Is this the same as confidence measure?
Not exactly! In the above example, “decision_function” computes the distance from the boundary but it’s not the same as computing the probability that a given datapoint belongs to a particular class. To do that, we need to use “predict_proba”. This method computes the probability that a given datapoint belongs to a particular class using Platt scaling. You can check out the original paper by Platt here. Basically, Platt scaling computes the probabilities using the following method:
P(class/input) = 1 / (1 + exp(A * f(input) + B))
Here, P(class/input) is the probability that “input” belongs to “class” and f(input) is the signed distance of the input datapoint from the boundary, which is basically the output of “decision_function”. We need to train the SVM as usual and then optimize the parameters A and B. The value of P(class/input) will always be between 0 and 1. Bear in mind that the training method would be slightly different if we want to use Platt scaling. We need to train a probability model on top of our SVM. Also, to avoid overfitting, it uses n-fold cross validation. So this is a lot more expensive than training a non-probabilistic SVM (like we did earlier). Let’s see how to do it:
>>> classifier_conf = SVC(kernel='linear', probability=True) >>> classifier_conf.fit(X, y) >>> classifier_conf.predict_proba([1, 3]) array([[ 0.67902586, 0.32097414]])
It is 67.9% sure that this point belongs to class 0 and 32.1% sure that it belongs to class 1. Let’s see what it says about [4, 2]:
>>> classifier_conf.predict_proba([4,2]) array([[ 0.43254616, 0.56745384]])
It is 43.25% sure that it belongs to class 0 and 56.74% sure that it belongs to class 1. As we can see, the decision is not very clear, which seems fair given the fact that this point is close to the boundary. Looks like we are all set! | <urn:uuid:b3712dbd-f4d9-45dd-84ba-e53ce72cff3e> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://prateekvjoshi.com/2015/12/15/how-to-compute-confidence-measure-for-svm-classifiers/?replytocom=16985 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662562106.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20220523224456-20220524014456-00663.warc.gz | en | 0.892853 | 1,278 | 3.625 | 4 |
Dentists are always reminding their patients to brush their teeth. This daily habit rids the teeth of plaque and plays a huge role in preventing cavities and gum disease. If you are a diligent brusher, you deserve a pat on the back! Unfortunately, however, some individuals go a little overboard with their toothbrush and actually end up hurting their oral health. How can you tell if you are overbrushing? How can you adjust your brushing technique to protect your teeth? Let’s discuss these important questions.
The Dangers of Overbrushing
Dental enamel is very hard, but it is vulnerable to toothbrush abrasion in Creve Coeur. If you apply too much pressure when you are cleaning your teeth, you can cause premature wear and tear, which can make the teeth extra sensitive. You could even end up damaging your gums and cause them to recede.
Are You Overbrushing?
The Wall Street Journal reported that dentists estimate that 10 – 20 percent of the population have accidentally damaged their teeth or gums via overbrushing. Are you among that number? Here are a few signs that indicate you might need to adjust your brushing technique:
- Your teeth are sensitive to hot and cold temperatures.
- Your teeth look longer than they used to. This is a sign of gum recession. Many people who overbrush only do so in part of their mouth, so the gum recession may be limited to just a few teeth.
- You have to replace your toothbrush more often than every three months because the bristles get worn out quickly.
Proper Brushing Technique
You can keep your teeth clean without accidentally damaging them if you:
- Be gentle when you are brushing. Plaque is soft, and it is easy to remove with light pressure.
- Use short, tooth-wide strokes when brushing. Avoid using a saw-like, back and forth type of motion.
- Use a soft-bristled toothbrush. Medium or hard bristles are much more likely to damage tooth enamel.
- Consider using an electric toothbrush. An electric toothbrush does most of the brushing work for you. You can simply guide it over your teeth while applying very little pressure.
- Ask your hygienist or dentist in Creve Coeur for help in mastering your brushing technique.
But what if you have been overbrushing for years and have already caused some damage to your teeth and gums? Schedule a checkup with your dentist and tell them about your concerns. If the damage is not too bad, you may not require any additional treatment. In severe cases, however, restorative procedures become necessary. For example, if the brushing has caused deep grooves in your teeth, your dentist might fill them in with a tooth-colored bonding material.
Brushing your teeth is vital if you want to maintain a healthy mouth, but you must take care that your daily oral hygiene routine isn’t endangering your smile’s well-being.
About Our Practice
Drs. James and Jenna Feigenbaum provide a range of general dentistry services to families in Creve Coeur and throughout the greater St. Louis area. If you would like their advice on how you can improve your oral hygiene routine, or you have other questions about your dental health, contact our office today at 314-567-1777. | <urn:uuid:e6f70d90-e49e-4201-9251-00914aaf04eb> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://www.feigenbaumdental.com/blog/2019/09/20/toothbrush-abrasion-creve-coeur-overbrushing-dangers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593657143365.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20200713100145-20200713130145-00023.warc.gz | en | 0.938214 | 697 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Spacecraft could fly to distant stars using sails with surfaces similar to those of CDs and DVDs to help them stay centered on laser beams, a new study finds.
Conventional rockets driven by chemical reactions are currently the dominant form of space propulsion. However, they are nowhere near efficient enough to reach another star within a human lifetime. For example, although Alpha Centauri is the nearest star system to Earth, it still lies about 4.37 light-years away, equal to more than 25.6 trillion miles (41.2 trillion kilometers), or more than 276,000 times the distance from Earth to the sun. It would take NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, which launched in 1977 and reached interstellar space in 2012, about 75,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri if the probe were headed in the right direction (which it's not).
The problem with all thrusters that current spacecraft use for propulsion is that the propellant they carry with them has mass. Long trips require a lot of propellant, which makes spacecraft heavy, which, in turn, requires more propellant, making them heavier, and so on. That problem gets exponentially worse the bigger a spacecraft gets.
Previous research has suggested that "light sailing" might be one of the only technically feasible ways to get a probe to another star within a human lifetime. Although light does not exert much pressure, scientists have long suggested that what little it does apply could have a major effect. Indeed, numerous experiments have shown that "solar sails" can rely on sunlight for propulsion, given a large enough mirror and a lightweight-enough spacecraft.
The $100 million Breakthrough Starshot initiative, which was announced in 2016, plans to launch swarms of microchip-size spacecraft to Alpha Centauri, each of them sporting extraordinarily thin, incredibly reflective sails propelled by the most powerful lasers ever built. The plan has them flying at up to 20% the speed of light, reaching Alpha Centauri in about 20 years.
One concern with using laser sails is that if they drift out of alignment with the propelling laser beams — which will be based here on Earth, at least initially, in Breakthrough Starshot's plan — they may veer wildly off course from their targets. Now scientists have designed and tested a new sail that could in principle automatically keep itself centered on a laser beam for the required few minutes, allowing a spacecraft to stay on course for interplanetary or even interstellar journeys.
The new sail relies on structures known as diffraction gratings, the most familiar versions of which are seen in CDs and DVDs. A diffraction grating is a surface covered with a series of regularly spaced microscopic ridges or slits that can scatter or diffract light, making different wavelengths or colors of light travel in different directions.
A recording on a CD or DVD is encoded in the form of microscopic pits of different lengths that are placed in rows of the same width and equal distances, and laser beams can scan these disks to read their data. These rows form a diffraction grating on the mirror surfaces of CDs and DVDs that can split white light into the many colors that make it up, resulting in the rainbow patterns that one can see on these disks.
"If you've ever examined the beautiful play of light from a compact disk, you will have seen the effects of diffraction," study senior author Grover Swartzlander, an optical physicist at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, told Space.com.
The researchers built a sail consisting of two diffractive gratings placed side by side. Each grating was made of aligned liquid crystals that were contained in a plastic sheet. Similar liquid crystals are often used in the electronic displays of video screens and digital watches.
Previous light sail designs act like mirrors that reflect beams of light back at their sources. In the new design, the liquid crystals in each diffraction grating deflect the light rays at an angle, generating forces that send the sail both backward and sideways.
The grating on the left side of the new sail deflects light to the right of the laser beam, whereas the grating on the right side deflects light to the left. If the sail drifts so the laser beam fall on either side of the sail, that pushes the sail back into position with the light falling on the center of the sail.
In tests of their experimental sail, the scientists had to detect the microscopic forces the sail generated in response to a laser while distinguishing those forces from disturbances such as building vibrations or air currents.
"We were frustrated to find that our measurements were not reliable if the floor sagged from the weight of a small person," Swartzlander said. "Eventually, we found adequate locations and methods of avoiding disturbances."
The researchers successfully detected the sail generating re-centering forces that pushed it back into alignment with a laser beam.
"It was very satisfying to find that the experimental results agreed with our theoretical predictions," Swartzlander said. "This agreement suggests that we can confidently design more complex diffractive structures for light sails driven by either sunlight or a laser beam."
The researchers are now experimenting with sails capable of centering themselves if they drift in any direction, not just left or right. "Interestingly, these may have optical properties very similar to the diffractive nature of compact disks," Swartzlander said.
In the future, the researchers suggested, their sails could be tested on the International Space Station or on a small satellite around Earth. They detailed their findings online Dec. 13 in the journal Physical Review Letters.
- Gallery: Visions of Interstellar Starship Travel
- Incredible Technology: Space Travel and Exploration
- 10 Exoplanets That Could Host Alien Life | <urn:uuid:d23ecbfc-6eaa-43c1-8bd7-b3004e40dcd7> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://www.space.com/laser-sail-centering-breakthrough-starshot.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178363072.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20210301212939-20210302002939-00195.warc.gz | en | 0.95498 | 1,155 | 4.09375 | 4 |
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Individuals around the entire globe celebrate a variety of holidays in accordance with religious, cultural, and seasonal traditions. The Polish people are no exception to this, and considering an overwhelming majority of around 87% of the population is Roman Catholic, the nation’s people have developed many specific traditions surrounding the well known and celebrated Catholic holidays over the centuries, perhaps most well-known: Christmas.
The Christmas season is typically begun early in the month of December in Poland, marked by the beginning of Advent: a religious season beginning 4 Sundays before Christmas day characterized by modest preparation for the birth of Christ. Homes are deep cleaned and prepared for Christmas day, including scrubbing carpets, cleaning windows, as well as decorating for the Holiday. Individuals also pay special attention to their ‘internal selves’ by attending church frequently, sometimes giving things up such as a favorite food. In school, Children participate in plays of the Nativity called Jasełka, which oftentimes are more secular than religious, and frequently take a modern twist on the traditional story.
All of this preparation comes to a pinnacle on Christmas Eve (Wigilia) -the night before Christmas- where more specific traditions come into play. Families prepare by wearing their best and most festive clothing in preparation for the main Christmas meal. Tradition dictates that no food is eaten until the first star is seen in the sky when it turns dark. Children will often wait and watch for the first star to show at night, which serves a double purpose in its reminder of the Wiseman who followed the star to find baby Jesus. Symbols used to remember the true meaning of the holiday are common: another popular tradition is to leave a small pile of straw on the floor in the home or under the table cloth of the Christmas meal as a reminder that Jesus was born in a stable.
Kolacja wigilijna or Christmas Eve Supper is centered around 12 specific dishes: 12 in order to symbolize Jesus’ 12 disciples. The dishes are also said to give the partakers good luck for 12 months. Since the day of Christmas Eve is considered a fasting day, and many individuals go the entire day without eating, the meal is large in order to accommodate the large appetite of those who are involved in the fasting ritual. It’s also traditionally meat free in order to symbolize/recognize the animals that watched over Jesus in the manger when he was born.
Before the meal begins, a large wafer-like biscuit called Oplatek (similar to the wafer used as Eucharist during Catholic Communion) with the image of Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus imprinted onto it, is passed around the table and each member of the family breaks off a piece of it and eats it, sharing exchanges of wishes for peace and prosperity. Sometimes a small piece may even be given to house pets or farm animals. Another tradition surrounding Kolacja wigilijna is to leave a place to eat for Niespodziewany Gość, an ‘unexpected guest.’ The belief goes, that no person should be alone or hungry, especially on Christmas Eve. Therefore if an unexpected guest knocks on the door, they are welcomed to the meal. Sometimes the extra spot at that table is set up for a relative who previously passed away, or a loved one who couldn’t make it to the meal.
1 of the 12 dishes enjoyed by participants in the meal might include Barszcz which is a beat soup that is viewed as quite obligatory to the feast, which may be enjoyed with uszka (dumplings with mushrooms) or krokiety (pancakes with mushrooms/cabbage in bread crumbs, fried in oil/butter). Carp is often frequently eaten as the main dish of the meal, and while some may simply buy a fillet of fish, others will buy the fish live a few days in advance to the meal and let it swim around in their bathtub. The Carp’s scales are said to bring good luck and in some cases are kept the length of the entire year. Herring is another popular fish dish, that each family has their own recipe for, passed down from generation to generation.
In terms of beverages, kompot z suszu is often enjoyed, which is made by boiling dried fruits and fresh apples. Popular desserts eaten with the meal often include makowiec (sweet yeast bread roll made with poppy seeds), kutia (dried fruit and nuts mixed with wheat seeds), piernik (moist cake made with honey), and gingerbread.
Gift opening occurs no sooner than the meal is finished (which is traditionally both started and finished by the adults of the household). In order to tease the children eagerly awaiting the gift opening process, sometimes the adults will sing Christmas carols to extend the wait after dinner before the process can continue. Many different carols have taken popularity in Poland, however each region has its own specific carols. Some popular carols include Wśród nocnej ciszy (Within Night’s Silence), Bóg się rodzi (God is Born), Lulajże Jezuniu (Sleep Baby Jesus), and Dzisiaj w Betlejem (Today In Bethlehem).
When it finally comes time to open gifts, they are brought to the children by Saint Nicholas (otherwise known as Santa Claus). However, in different parts of Poland, there are different gift bringers such as the Star Man, who might not always bring nice gifts for children who may have been naughty throughout the year.
Another tradition for Polish Christmas that’s different than the way it’s celebrated in modern day US culture, is that the Christmas tree is often brought in and decorated on Christmas Eve (typically not as common today). The star decorated on top is there to represent the Star of Bethlehem, and the tree is also decorated with items such as gingerbreads, lights, and sphere shaped ornaments called bombki. Some households might even practice the tradition of breaking an ornament on Christmas Eve in order to scare any evil spirits out of the house.
Christmas is celebrated by perhaps billions of individuals worldwide each year, whether the individuals are religious or not. The Polish traditions surrounding this special holiday are unique to their culture and history, as well as their religious origins. Whether celebrated in Poland or not, those with the heritage can be seen celebrating all or parts of these traditions to this very day. | <urn:uuid:496339bd-e338-42e2-aa7d-0126a2ce8b7b> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://www.trulypolish.com/blogs/polish/polish-christmas-traditions-explained | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320301488.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20220119185232-20220119215232-00549.warc.gz | en | 0.966649 | 1,346 | 3.03125 | 3 |
|Colours in a frozen lake seen by Andrew Kirk. Image ©Andrew Kirk, shown with permission.|
“The large oval structure is an air bubble, about one meter long. The bubble appears to be trapped between two layers of ice; the smaller bubbles (with their specular highlights) are casting shadows onto the lower ice layer. The iridescence was visible to the naked eye but really popped with a circular polarizer on the camera.”
The iridescent colours are produced by a structural colour effect, thin film interference, the same one that gives us the metallic hues of soap bubbles and of oil films on puddles.
Here the necessary thin film could be air narrowly trapped between two ice layers or an ice fissure. Light waves can be reflected upwards within the upper ice layer. Others leave the ice, traverse the thin air layer, reflect off the lower air/ice surface and enter the upper ice again.
If the air layer is thin enough the two wave paths combine. When the wave crests coincide there is light, when they are completely out of phase there is darkness. The light or darkness condition depends on the film thickness and, importantly, on wavelength. Thus, some colours are enhanced while others are darkened. The final ones we see are always complex mixtures – hence their non-spectral metallic hues.
Another possibility is that the thin film is water trapped in a fissure or between two ice layers. Any thin film of different refractive index to the material bounding it can produce interference colours. More ice colours come from weak birefringence, from classical refraction/reflection by air bubbles trapped within the icy mass and because ice is slightly blue by absorption ~ but you will need a crevasse or ice cave to see that. | <urn:uuid:89178f95-3d2c-4d06-91b7-84da4549a465> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | http://www.atoptics.co.uk/fz329.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084888041.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20180119144931-20180119164931-00309.warc.gz | en | 0.931101 | 370 | 3.375 | 3 |
By Kelly A. Reynolds, MSPH, PhD
A newly emerged group of chemicals is found to be common in municipal and private water supplies. While nearly everyone tests positive for exposure to these substances, health effects related to those exposure levels are unknown. Laboratory tests in animals suggest a probable cause for concern and consumers are seeking alternative options for cleaner drinking water sources.
What are PFOA and PFOS?
Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of chemicals used broadly is manufacturing and consumer products. PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) and PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate) are fluorinated organic chemicals within the group of PFAS used in common materials such as non-stick cookware, water- and stain-repellent clothing, food packaging and more. Drinking water is also a source of exposure in localized communities, in particular those associated with an industrial site where the chemicals were used on a larger scale.
Blood tests show that Americans have been universally exposed. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study found that out of 2,094 blood samples collected from volunteers over the age of 12, nearly all tested positive for PFOA.(1) Concentrations have been decreasing, however, since the early 2000s, as many major manufacturers voluntarily phased these chemicals out of production. At that time, 3M was the primary manufacturer. Eight more major manufacturers followed suit with phasing out their use by 2015. Data released in January from the US EPA indicated that out of over 36,000 samples, nearly 5,000 tested positive for PFOA and/or PFOS across a wide range of states. Only 379 and 292 samples, however, exceeded the minimum reporting level (MRL) for PFOA and PFOS, respectively and even fewer exceeded the health advisory limits (32 and 124 respectively).(2)
Some states have reported very high levels of contamination. In Vermont, tests from five private wells showed PFOA concentrations ranging from 40 to 2,880 ppt, orders of magnitude above the health advisory levels.(3) Other high-profile events identifying unacceptable levels of the contaminant in drinking water have occurred in New York. Minnesota, Michigan and Alabama issued advisories warning of the toxicants in fish harvested from contaminated waters.
Are PFOA and PFOS dangerous?
The question of whether or not PFOA and PFOS are dangerous is difficult to answer. Studies performed in the laboratory on rats and mice showed adverse effects in developing fetuses and breast-fed infants related to low birth weight, accelerated puberty and skeletal changes.(4) Other effects included testicular and kidney cancer, as well as liver damage, immune disorders and thyroid changes. Scientist are uncertain if the same health effects in rats and mice, exposed at high levels of the contaminants, are likely in humans exposed to much lower levels. Epidemiological studies in exposed human populations suggest increases in testicular, kidney and thyroid cancers but the risk increase was small and potentially due to chance. Still, the International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified PFOA as a possible carcinogen, acknowledging that there is limited evidence of adverse effects in humans.
Overall, scientists are calling for more information and research studies. PFAS are currently being reviewed among the top-priority group of chemicals for inclusion in US EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) database.(5) The IRIS database considers scientific evidence of chemical contaminants’ toxicology reports and dose-response relationships to characterize the risk of exposure and helps to set reference doses below which health effects are not likely to occur. Currently, PFOA’s potential carcinogenic effect has not been classified in the IRIS system.
US EPA is responsible for ensuring the safety of the US drinking water supply and implemented the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) in 1974 to set criteria for evaluating water quality and responding to supplies that do not meet the standard. More than 90 contaminants are regulated via the SDWA with legally enforceable limits. General criteria for regulating contaminants includes whether they are known to cause adverse health effects, have a high likelihood of being present in water and may result in significant health risk reductions if controlled. Contaminants of uncertain risks may be placed on a list of unregulated items, known as the Contaminant Candidate List (CCL). The CCL is extensively reviewed (which also includes a public comment period) to determine if the general criteria for regulation exists. Historically, few items on the CCL move into the regulatory realm. Often, regulatory determination is not made because more data is needed to establish if and when contaminants occur, what the exposure and health risks are and if regulation would reduce any health risks. More often, US EPA sets priorities for additional research on contaminants that might support regulatory determination in the future.
For waterborne contaminants of concern that do not meet the criteria for sufficient information toward regulatory determination, health advisories may be set. Health advisories are not legally enforceable standards but rather provide a guideline of levels at which health risks may occur. For PFOA and PFOS combined concentrations, US EPA established a health advisory level at 70 parts per trillion (ppt) in drinking water. This level represents a margin of protection from adverse health effects for consumers over a lifetime of exposure. The agency first published a provisional guideline in 2009 but revised it in 2016 based on new scientific evidence. Health levels were considered based on higher volume drinking water consumption rates in lactating women who could pass the chemicals on to nursing infants via breastmilk. In addition, the chemicals were placed on the Third Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR3) to drive testing of drinking water supplied by public water systems.
Consumers of municipal water sources can find out if PFOA or PFOS are present by reviewing the Consumer Confidence Report publically available from water utilities. Utilities that test positive above 70 ppt (0.07 µg/L) should provide public health officials and their consumers with information about the exceedances and potential risks to fetuses and nursing infants, along with personal options to consider for avoiding exposure (i.e., treated or bottled water and pre-canned infant formula). Private well owners should have their water tested periodically for specific contaminants of concern. Resources related to testing and treatment for private well owners can be found on the US EPA website.(6)
Municipalities can manage contaminant levels by not utilizing contaminated wells, blending water sources or by treating with activated carbon or reverse osmosis. A precedence has also been set in some communities for supply of bottled water until utility management of the problem is in place. POU treatment devices offer simple solutions for removing PFOA and PFOS from tap water supplies.
The American National Standards Institute and NSF International have established protocols to evaluate POU performance to meet required PFOA and PFOS reduction standards.(7) Home treatment systems that meet these minimum requirements are certified as effective for reducing PFOA and PFOS to acceptable levels. Given the lack of clear adverse health effects in humans, use of POU devices to reduce exposures to PFOA and PFOS is purely precautionary.
(1) CDC. National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals–NER at https://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/
(2) US EPA. Occurrence Data for the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule at https://www.epa.gov/dwucmr/occurrence-data-unregulated-contaminant-monitoring-rule
(3) Vermont Department of Health. PFOA in Drinking Water 2016 at http://healthvermont.gov/response/environmental/pfoa-drinking-water-2016
(4) US EPA. Supporting Documents for Drinking Water Health Advisories for PFOA and PFOS at https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/supporting-documents-drinking-water-health-advisories-pfoa-and-pfos
(5) US EPA. IRIS Agenda at https://www.epa.gov/iris/iris-agenda
(6) US EPA. Private Drinking Water Well Programs in Your State at https://www.epa.gov/privatewells/private-drinking-water-well-programs-your-state
(7) Andrew, R. PFOA and PFOS Reduction Testing–WCP online. Water Conditioning and Purification International, Vol. 58, No. 11 (Nov. 2016).
About the author
Dr. Kelly A. Reynolds is an Associate Professor at the University of Arizona College of Public Health. She holds a Master of Science Degree in public health (MSPH) from the University of South Florida and a doctorate in microbiology from the University of Arizona. Reynolds is WC&P’s Public Health Editor and a former member of the Technical Review Committee. She can be reached via email at firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:7e594320-48dd-48ab-a7a0-bf87967e1d5d> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | http://agualatinoamerica.com/2017/04/15/uncertain-effects-pfoa-pfos/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221214538.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20180819012213-20180819032213-00526.warc.gz | en | 0.937378 | 1,865 | 3.46875 | 3 |
Two American Civil War military engagements were fought at the Cabin Creek battlefield in the Cherokee Nation within Indian Territory.[a] The location was where the Texas Road[b] crossed Cabin Creek, near the present-day town of Big Cabin, Oklahoma. Both the First and Second Battles of Cabin Creek were launched by the Confederate Army to disrupt Union Army supply trains.
The first was a raid by a Confederate Army detachment on a Union Army supply train bound for Fort Gibson in July 1863. It failed to stop the Union detachment, which enabled the Union to succeed in winning the Battle of Honey Springs later that month. The second engagement, in September, 1864, again a Confederate raid on a Union supply train, resulted in the Confederates capturing over a million dollars worth of mules, wagons and supplies. However, this was too late to have a strategic impact on the outcome of the war. Confederate General Stand Watie led the attackers during both raids.
Preserving the battlefield
A young Cherokee named Joseph Martin acquired land on Cabin Creek in 1840. This would become his headquarters for a ranch named Pensacola that he developed over the next twenty years containing over 100,000 acres (400 km2). By 1860, he had also developed a station on his property along the Texas Road, where travelers to Texas could buy provisions and have their wagons repaired. A part of this land would become the Cabin Creek battleground.
There was little interest in preserving the site of these two battles until 1958. That was when the Vinita Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) decided to buy a 10 acres (4.0 ha) plot of ground that now considered the core of the battlefield. The group approached the landowner about the proposed purchase and agreed on a price of $300. The UDC chapter spent the next three years raising funds and finalized the purchase in 1961. They donated the land to the Oklahoma Historical Society later in the same year.
The same UDC chapter donated a monument to the Confederate victory of 1864 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the event. The OHS created a circle drive within the park and added some small monuments that commemorated the battle positions of the two forces. Interest in the park waned for a number of years and maintenance was neglected. Many monuments were vandalized.
In 1992, the OHS and the Grand Lake Chamber of Commerce jointly sponsored a reenactment of the battles. It was considered a success, drawing about 15,000 visitors, with reenactors coming from many parts of the United States. Encouraged by the public response, the OHS proposed to repeat the event every three years. A non-profit organization named "The Friends of Cabin Creek Battlefield, Inc." was formed to clean up the park, repair the damaged monuments, and add trash cans and park benches. A day-use only policy was put into effect, with the park gates unlocked in the morning and locked in the evenings 365 days a year.
The Civil War Trust (a division of the American Battlefield Trust) bought an additional 88 acres (36 ha) in 2011, so that the park now covers most of the original battlefield of the First Battle of Cabin Creek. A local newspaper reported that additional improvements were needed, such as interpretive trails and exhibits detailing the conflicts within the Native American tribes that exacerbated the effects of the war. The paper titled the article as "The Third Battle of Cabin Creek."
- "Cabin Creek, more than a battlefield." Grand Lake News. Barber, Janet. Retrieved September 5, 2014.
- Warren, Stephen L. (2012). The Second Battle of Cabin Creek: Brilliant Victory. The History Press. ISBN 9781609498320.
- American Battlefield Trust "Saved Land" webpage. Accessed May 24, 2018.
- "The Third Battle of Cabin Creek." Grand Lake Times. Retrieved September 7, 2014. | <urn:uuid:e85fe001-0233-467e-a1e5-8cd20158deb4> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | http://oksuvcw.org/?page_id=201&rdp_we_resource=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FCabin_Creek_battlefield | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780057303.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20210922011746-20210922041746-00404.warc.gz | en | 0.95734 | 797 | 3.59375 | 4 |
EFFECTS OF DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY
The need to maintain an even tenor of state relationship, the concept of diplomatic immunity has become one of the most widely accepted and uncotraversial topic of international law. However not all states adhere to the stipulations. As the International Court noted in the US Diplomatic and Consular Staff in Tehran case, the rules of diplomatic law, in short, constitute a self-contained regime, bestowing to the receiving state obligations to be accorded to diplomats including, privileges, immunities and facilities while observing any possible abuse and act on it in line with the means at their disposal.
Drafters of the Vienna Convetion spirited the undisturbed functioning of diplomats from the receiving states authorities observing public order and protect the representatives from any legal proceeding that would hampler their functioning. In The schooner Exchange v M’Faddon, Chief Justice Marshall observed that a diplomat would be unable to function as a representative of his sending state if he was subject to continued appearances in the receiving state’s courts. More recently, two federal district courts have gone so far as to hold that requiring a diplomat to answer to private suits is a form of coercion (Arcaya v Paez) and an unjustifiable interference with the performance of his functions (Bergman v De Sieyes). The challenge faced by the states is to clearly articulate the concept of “all Appropriate Measures” given the opposing factor of immunities.
Diplomats duly appointed are immune to local laws and hence the local authorities are rendered powerless to exercise any authority over them hence causing more social problems. The general understanding is that diplomatic status does not in any way give diplomatic agents permission to violate the laws and regulations of the receiving state and the overwhelming majority of diplomats are indeed law obedient. Occasionally, diplomats have abused their privileged in instances like delayed of unpaid wages for domestic workers, drunk-driving which might cause an accident tend to accumulate disproportional amount of publicity as opposed to other similar cases, where the person concerned is without such special status, and therefore serve to prejudice public attitude toward the practice of personal inviolability and diplomatic immunity. However, there is a tendency of states refraining from serious retaliatory actions as the procedure of appointment, approval, placement and adaption is cumbersome and can lead to distortion of the already established way of performance.
Cases of domestic workers have been considered as irrelevant, not given a serious attention. Mistreatment, underpayment and inhuman living conditions against a diplomat are perceived as a mockery to the unemployed and the police staff in general. The diplomats continue to get protection for the immunity they enjoy and the sending states failure to notice and respond seem to encourage the behavior.
As noted by the German Institute of Human rights, in practice, the diplomatic immunity while dealing with employment contract supersedes the human rights of the employee leading to a de facto-unaccountability and impunity encouraging exploitation.
However, where states feel that the diplomats are really violating their diplomatic privileges; receiving states have taken strict measures against nations of the said diplomats which have had a far reaching negative effect in the international arena.
Examples of the effects of strained diplomatic relations are as follows:-
4.1 It destabilizes the international relations.
As much as there is a need to hold officials accountable for international crimes, there is an equally valid need to preserve immunity ratione personae (functional immunity) accorded to sitting heads of state or government and accredited diplomats. For these reasons, a balance must be struck between the needs of international criminal law and the necessity for immunities. If Article 27 of the Rome statute is to be effective, this balance must be realized.
4.2 Trade sanctions will be imposed.
Trade sanctions have been shown over the years to be ineffective. It may sometimes be better to maintain a dialogue with states which abuse the norms of diplomatic behaviour than to sever all contracts. The number of states who have abused the convention is small and each case would always have to be carefully assessed by Governments directly affected or contemplating sympathetic action.
4.3 Countries which are notorious in the abuse of the Vienna convention will be isolated.
The United Kingdom consulted a number of friendly governments on the problem of diplomatic abuse of immunity prior to the Libyan incident. Those governments indicated that the international community should concentrate on isolating those states which abuse the system. After the Libyan incident, Britain consulted several additional countries in an effort to find sanctions against Libya short of amending the Vienna Convention. Because the British Government believed that the shootings were an isolated incident and that other countries would not support amending the Vienna Convention, Britain focused on isolating countries rather than on amending the Convention. The support of the international community is crucial, for the level of cooperation necessary to isolate a nation that abused the system is extremely high. Specifically, the British proposal called for all the key western states who found abuse of the system repugnant to agree on common action, whatever that might be. The suggested action was to refuse as a group any diplomatic relations with the offending state. This proposal does not adequately consider Europe’s and America’s need for relations with these troublesome nations. Political instability and a tendency towards terrorism do not in themselves always warrant relinquishment of the benefits of diplomatic relations.
EFFECTS OF DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY | <urn:uuid:9815617e-0c67-42b6-9f25-132b691ee558> | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | https://cheapjewelryus.com/effects-of-diplomatic-immunity-the-need-to-maintain-an-even-tenor-of-state-relationship/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107882581.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20201024110118-20201024140118-00056.warc.gz | en | 0.955505 | 1,097 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Today the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a ban for unapproved uses of cephalosporins in food animals. Cephalosporins, a class of critically important human antibiotics, are also widely used in livestock and poultry—in 2010 alone, nearly 54,094 lbs. were used in U.S. livestock operations, according to recent FDA data. While some cephalosporins are used in treating sick animals, many more have been routinely given for so-called extra-label use to prevent disease, such as by injecting the eggs meant to hatch chickens that would grow into broiler chickens. The FDA action comes in the face of abundant scientific evidence that extra-label uses have helped to create cephalosporin-resistant bacteria, in animals and also in the food products from them.
“While we welcome FDA’s belated action, the delay is shocking. Tens of thousands of people continued to become ill from cephalosporin-resistant Salmonella when there was clear evidence the extra-label use of these drugs contributes to the spread of these and other resistant superbugs,” IATP’s David Wallinga said in a press release issued today by the Keep Antibiotics Working (KAW) coalition, of which IATP is a member.
Unfortunately, widespread use of antibiotics in animal agriculture and the increasingly resistant superbugs it helps to breed are not new developments. While the FDA’s newest ban is indeed a step forward it comes years late, and certainly leaves a lot more work ahead.
How belated is FDA’s action? Well, back in 2008, IATP and KAW submitted comments to the FDA on this very issue, and today’s ban is only the second action the FDA has taken on the overuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture in nearly seven years (the first coming in 2005). IATP’s Healthy Food Action also led an action in July 2011, urging supporters to write FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to ban cephalosporins once and for all.
Let’s hope the momentum continues and other sources of antibiotic resistance, like antibiotics given to livestock via feed—over 70 percent of all antibiotics administered to livestock, in fact—are addressed before public health suffers even further. | <urn:uuid:fb186ca7-d8d8-4640-a3ee-d7070875bc16> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | https://www.iatp.org/blog/201201/fda-limits-antibiotics-in-livestock-better-late-than-never | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187821017.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20171017091309-20171017111309-00184.warc.gz | en | 0.938589 | 481 | 2.75 | 3 |
Meet the six-band armadillo
The six-banded armadillo, also known as gualacate or poyú, is a species of South American armadillo present in several countries in Latin America. Very little known, armadillos have characteristics that make them unique in the animal kingdom.
Meet the armadillos
Armadillos are mammals belonging to the family Dasypodidae , all characterized by having a carapace on plates and even, in some cases, by the ability to form a ball with your body. All armadillos are nocturnal animals and diggers , and they have teeth without enamel of continuous growth.
Armadillos are a group of ancient animals, most of them isolated in South America , although there are at least two species that arrive in the United States. This group of animals is reminiscent of the pangolin, an Asian species considered one of the animals endangered by oriental medicine.
Characteristics of the six-banded armadillo
Specifically, the armadillo of six bands or armadillo amarillo is a species of armadillo of about 50 centimeters in length , and that weighs between three and six kilograms.
Like other armadillos, it possesses a brown carapace covered by a thin layer of hair and has large claws.
It may seem small, because the truth is that armadillos do not have large dimensions. It is considered the third largest armadillo that exists after the long-nosed armadillo and the giant armadillo, an animal that can reach more than 50 kilograms.
Interestingly, the six-banded armadillo has odoriferous glands in the tail plates , something that is observed in very few armadillos and that intervenes in the communication between the animals of its species.
Armadillo behavior of six bands
As for his behavior, the six-banded armadillo is a solitary and nocturnal animal that has poor vision , so it delegates to the nose at the time to look for your food. And this animal has a very varied diet.
Although many people think that armadillos only eat vegetables, the truth is that they are animals that consume many insects and even they are carrion animals that feed on the corpses of other mammals, since they have a hard time hunting.
Like other members of this group, they are large excavators that make tunnels in a 'U' shape that act as shelters for these animals.
As for their reproduction, they have a gestation of two months after which a litter of up to three individuals of about 100 grams each is born. The weaning of these animals occurs a month, and they end up being adults at nine months, after which they can live almost two decades.
Habitat and threats of the six-band armadillo
The six-banded armadillo is a species that lives in primary and secondary forests, as well as Savanna ecosystems. This animal can live in agricultural areas and has a territory of more than 90 hectares.
Although the species is not considered endangered in terms of threats and conservation , the truth is that it is still hunted for false medicinal properties. Although, unlike other armadillos, its meat is hardly consumed thanks to the taboos that awaken its diet. | <urn:uuid:22673e09-16b6-4056-a3e1-3abdbe6e0ae0> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | http://www.sandhillnature.com/meet-the-six-band-armadillo | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627998440.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20190617063049-20190617085049-00114.warc.gz | en | 0.956882 | 693 | 3.3125 | 3 |
If you’ve spent any time out in nature in the last week you may have noticed a well-protected reddish fruit starting to ripen now. This week on Discover Nature, we search for wild raspberries.
Wild raspberries, also known as black raspberries, grow on thorny, purplish-white canes that often arch to the ground, re-root, and send up new canes.
White spring flowers yield small fruits – as they ripen, turning from green to white to red to a purple-black – roughly the same color as a black berry, but smaller. The prized berries make excellent jams, jellies, pies, and syrups. They taste great fresh off the vine, too – but if you wait too long, birds will beat you to the buffet.
When hunting for wild raspberries, check spots in the woods where dappled shade allows some sunlight to reach the ground layer. To avoid getting stuck in a patch of these brambles, consider wearing long-sleeves, pants and closed-toe shoes.
Discover Nature is sponsored by the Missouri Department of Conservation. | <urn:uuid:96d8fa14-f2e8-4e7a-9a0a-33307952fc1f> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://www.kbia.org/post/discover-nature-raspberries-are-ripening-now | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578533774.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20190422015736-20190422040742-00005.warc.gz | en | 0.937458 | 240 | 3.171875 | 3 |
The Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA) supports community groups around the world that work at the intersection of women’s rights and the environment. A project of the Berkeley, California-based David Brower Center, WEA partners with local women-led community groups engaged in finding solutions to vexing environmental problems. WEA helps women secure their rights and safety and remove barriers to full participation in society by supporting them in addressing the environmental issues impacting their lives. By bringing women’s leadership to these critical environmental issues, WEA helps bring vital voices, perspectives and participation to addressing the greatest and most basic challenges of our time.
The idea for WEA emerged from a 2006 meeting in Mexico City where 30 women leaders from 26 countries gathered to address how women can do more to address today’s environmental challenges. WEA offers training and resources around issues of water, land, food and climate change, operating on the guiding principle that “when women thrive, communities, the environment and future generations thrive.”
Of utmost importance to WEA is securing women’s access to basic resources (food, land and water) so they can enjoy economic, social and political security. Since women in many societies are responsible for the management of food and water, the group reports, they can “experience both the unequal burden of work to secure and prepare the family’s food and water as well as the vulnerability which results from traditional gender roles at home and gender discrimination in society.” Women also tend to be particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, says WEA: “Women in underserved communities find themselves on the front lines of climate impacts, often witnessing their water sources and traditional land bases shift or disappear because of a dangerous mix of changing temperatures and structural inequalities.”
Currently WEA focuses on three geographic areas: India, North America and Africa. Its India Program supports small and emerging women’s groups that are promoting food sovereignty, traditional knowledge and advocating for the rights of women farmers. The group’s trainings, advocacy and movement building have enabled thousands of poor Indian women to become environmental leaders in their communities.
In North America, WEA links pro bono legal, policy and business advocates across the continent with Indigenous women leading environmental campaigns. “Through rapid response advocacy, long-term policy working groups, trainings and delegations, WEA’s innovative advocacy partnerships protect sacred sites, promote energy justice, and ensure environmental health on Indigenous lands,” the group reports.
And in Africa, WEA partnered with Crabgrass, a California-based human rights group, to create the Global Women’s Water Initiative (GWWI) that provides training to help people implement water related strategies to improve their communities’ health, self reliance and resilience to climate change. With GWWI, WEA and Crabgrass are building a cadre of advanced female trainers skilled in applying holistic solutions with appropriate technology to environmental problems regarding water, sanitation and hygiene.
EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E – The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to: email@example.com. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe. Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.
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Join NJTODAY.NET's free Email List to receive occasional updates delivered right to your email address! | <urn:uuid:d57d4c95-1561-44f7-b1fb-161bd01f5bd7> | CC-MAIN-2016-40 | http://njtoday.net/2012/12/22/earthtalk-the-womens-earth-alliance/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-40/segments/1474738663142.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20160924173743-00013-ip-10-143-35-109.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939823 | 725 | 3.015625 | 3 |
04 February 2008
Bonsai are probably injured more often by improper watering than by any other single factor. No general schedule can be used for watering all plants. In the summer once or twice daily may be required. Size and type of plant, pot, soil mix, light, temperature, humidity and other conditions influence the speed with which the soil mass dries out. Soil kept either too wet or too dry causes plant roots to die, which leads to poor growth. Learn to gauge the moisture content of the soil by its color and feel. As the soil surface dries it becomes lighter. Under continued drying, the soil begins to crack and pull away from the sides of the pot. When severe drying occurs, some damage already will have been done to the roots. Soil kept too moist becomes sticky and slimy, thus inviting root rots and other disease problems. Whitish-colored deposits can form and are composed of salts built up from hard water and fertilizer. This is usually an indication of insufficient drainage, and not enough flow of water and air through the pot and soil. To avoid salt buildup, water your plants each time until liquid runs out of the bottom of the pot. This is also one reason that many people burn their plants with fertilizer - they leave behind salts that burn roots. Many homeowners soften their water by using a filtration system to exchange the calcium and magnesium in the water for sodium, creating a softer water that allows soap to function better. Plants use sodium only in very small amounts. Over time, sodium becomes toxic to plants. Plants may be watered from either the top or the bottom of the pot. If one prefers watering from the top, use a watering can with a small spout. Each time, wet the entire soil mass, not just the top inch. Add water until it comes through the drainage hole in the bottom of the pot. Discard water that remains beneath the pot one hour after watering. Periodically plants should be watered by soaking. This is done by immersing the plant into a bucket of water so several inches of water are above the soil line. Then allow it to drain. Potted plants should always have good drainage. Occasionally roots may clog the drainage hole. | <urn:uuid:210efe99-eb66-46f1-ab26-fd2a4ec0d8c2> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | http://bonsaibeginnings.blogspot.com/2008/02/water.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232258451.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20190525204936-20190525230936-00321.warc.gz | en | 0.954818 | 451 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Open circuit cooling towers
Cooling towers of the open circuit type allow to cool the water through direct contact with the ambient air. These towers are used where large water volumes are required to cool cooling machines or process cooling in general and/or where low cooling water temperatures are required.
Dirty water cooling towers
The open cooling towers of the RC and RH series were specifically designed to cool the dirtiest water flows. Where classic cooling towers fail in the short term due to blockage and pollution or contamination, Nordland guarantees constant, reliable operation until the next scheduled maintenance thanks to these cooling towers. These cooling towers are equipped with the patented cooling...
Closed circuit cooling towers
Closed circuit cooling towers are characterized by the fact that the cooling water circulates in a closed coil system or primary circuit. The secondary circuit - water present in the cooling tower basin is circulated via a pump to the water distribution and cools the primary circuit by evaporation.
Hybrid coolers with adiabatic operation
The adiabatic cooler Topaz Neo is a hybrid cooler that works dry almost all year round. At very high ambient temperatures, the cooling tower operates on the principle of adiabatic pre-cooling: this pre-cooling section lowers the air temperature by circulating water over the evaporation media specifically designed for this purpose. | <urn:uuid:836f8b8a-cb71-4ee9-abeb-17db5656d15a> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://www.nordland.be/en/oplossingen | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100448.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20231202172159-20231202202159-00404.warc.gz | en | 0.933598 | 274 | 2.96875 | 3 |
An icy moon of Jupiter has been caught spitting into space. For the first time, a towering plume of water vapour has been seen coming from Europa. The discovery strengthens the case that the moon has a liquid ocean beneath its icy crust, and may even offer a way to taste its seas and search for signs of life.
Images from the Galileo spacecraft, which orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003, revealed a cracked and chaotic surface dominated by dark ridges and faults. This hinted that Europa has a relatively thin crust in which fissures sometimes open up and let water escape from a subsurface ocean. Similar rifts on Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus shoot spectacular water geysers. But the Galileo probe did not spot any plumes in action on Europa, and later efforts also came up empty.
Now images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed a large cloud of hydrogen and oxygen – most likely in the form of water vapour – extending from the moon’s south pole. A model suggests that it is a plume 200 kilometres high that is spouting 3000 kilograms of water per second.
“This is a big discovery,” says Cynthia Phillips at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, who was not involved in the find but had looked for plumes with Galileo. “If there are plumes erupting, there’s got to be liquid water, and it’s got to be pretty close to the surface.”
Previous search efforts might have missed the plumes in part because they are intermittent, says Lorenz Roth of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. The gravitational pull of mighty Jupiter squashes and stretches the small moon, and it is possible that the cracks only open when Europa is furthest from the planet. Even then, the sizes of any plumes may vary drastically.
“If there had been a plume of this magnitude erupting during Galileo, we would have seen it,” says Phillips. “This points to serious variability.”
Another issue may be that previous scans were done in visible light, says Roth. “If the plumes only contain vapour, but not ice or dust grains that scatter sunlight, you can hardly detect them in normal, visible-light images,” he says.
Scoop of life?
Roth and his colleagues instead went looking in Hubble’s ultraviolet images, which can capture the light emitted when hydrogen and oxygen molecules collide with stray electrons. The team used UV images of Europa taken in November and December 2012, as well as images from 1999. The more recent December image showed the plume, which remained visible for all 7 hours of Hubble’s observations.
It’s possible that Europa’s ocean sustains life, making it a tempting target for future space missions. Two spacecraft currently en route to the Jupiter system – the European Space Agency’s JUICE mission and NASA’s Juno mission – may be able to observe the plumes at close range. And if NASA’s Europa Clipper probe concept gets off the ground, that craft could one day get even closer.
If a future orbiter could collect some material from a plume, that would allow us to sample the seas without the difficult task of landing and drilling into the ice, says Phillips: “If there are life forms, they would be in the liquid layer. If the liquid is being thrown out into orbit, maybe you could catch something. How cool would that be?”
Journal reference: Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1247051
More on these topics: | <urn:uuid:78fc92f7-809b-4827-b218-cf44c0b0e00b> | CC-MAIN-2018-13 | https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24743-first-water-plume-seen-firing-from-jupiter-moon-europa/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257647299.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20180320052712-20180320072712-00104.warc.gz | en | 0.947412 | 758 | 3.59375 | 4 |
Upper Floridan and Biscayne Aquifers
Photos of Karst Features
Karst produces distinctive topographic features that can be prominent and distinctive. There are photographs available of the following karst features in the Upper Floridan and Biscayne aquifers:
- In-Stream Sinkholes
- Cunningham, K.J., Wacker, M.A., Robinson, Edward, Dixon, J.F., and Wingard, G.L. (2006) A cyclostratigraphic and borehole-geophysical approach to development of a three-dimensional conceptual hydrogeologic model of the karstic Biscayne aquifer, southeastern Florida: USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2005-5235, 69 p.
- Florea, L.J., Cunningham, K.J., and Altobelli, S. (2009) NMR imaging of fluid exchange between macropores and matrix in eogenetic karst: Ground Water, vol. 47, iss. 3, p. 382-390.
- Renken, R.A., Cunningham, K.J., Shapiro, A.M., Harvey, R.W., Zygnerski, M.R., Metge, D.W., and Wacker, M.A. (2008) Pathogen and chemical transport in the karst limestone of the Biscayne aquifer--1. Revised conceptualization of groundwater flow: Water Resources Research, vol. 44, p. #W08429.
There are 2 USGS scientists you can contact for more information about this aquifer. | <urn:uuid:ec768101-33ff-45db-9ac8-915a87f3263c> | CC-MAIN-2016-07 | http://water.usgs.gov/ogw/karst/aquifers/floridan/index | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-07/segments/1454701148758.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160205193908-00075-ip-10-236-182-209.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.749031 | 330 | 2.75 | 3 |
How can a building stock be developed to satisfy future energy and climate requirements, without costing a fortune? Chalmers researchers will find the answer to this question using the entire campus area as its laboratory.
The building stock at Chalmers' Johanneberg campus is a fairly typical office area. There is a mixture of different buildings – most were built in the 1960s, long before the issue of climate became topical.
Reality today is different. The changeover to a sustainable society demands that existing building stocks also become energy efficient. To investigate how this can be done in a smart and cost-efficient manner, Chalmers is using one of its two campuses as a big laboratory in the Smart Building Complex research project.
By focusing on the energy balance in the entire area, it should be possible to save more energy than if each building were to be individually optimised. For example, the excess heat that is formed when a building is cooled can be used to heat up another building.
The first step involves mapping out energy utilisation in all of the buildings on the campus and creating an energy model of the area. The model can then be used to evaluate how the various technical solutions and other changes impact the area's energy usage.
"It is a matter of looking into the future and making intelligent assessments of what can be done now and in the future to gradually make the campus sustainable as it is developed," explains Ulf Östermark, who is the programme manager for Energy on Campus.
The time perspective is long, from 5 to 45 years. Buildings are long-lived, and the idea is to bring about a cost-efficient sustainability adaption. The rationale of the project is to ascertain which measures need to be implemented, and when, to reach the goal of energy efficiency and lower climate impact. Is it possible to raise the energy standard in a specific building at the same time it is to be renovated anyway, or does it need to be done earlier? The project aims to produce knowledge that can be applied to buildings in Sweden and internationally.
Modern technology and IT are enablers in the project. Many inexpensive sensors and meters will transmit information that is processed with smart and learning systems. More detailed understanding of the buildings and how they are used increases opportunities to make smart changes from the perspective of energy – to use less energy and still obtain the correct, or improved, function from the buildings.
Contact: Zack Norwood
and Holger Wallbaum | <urn:uuid:4e9ae7b2-609f-43bf-8052-4baa3dd9c5d5> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://www.chalmers.se/en/areas-of-advance/energy/joint_initiatives/Pages/Smart-Building-Complex.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400214347.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20200924065412-20200924095412-00371.warc.gz | en | 0.953478 | 498 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Coat of arms of Niger , is Lord JoJo
Contact CIA Agent Kale (AK)
Niger or the Niger (i/ˈnaɪdʒər/ or /niːˈʒɛər/; French: [niʒɛʁ]), officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. Niger is bordered by Libya to the northeast, Chad to the east, Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, and Algeria to the northwest. Niger covers a land area of almost 1,270,000 km2, making it the largest country in West Africa, with over 80 percent of its land area covered by the Sahara Desert. The country’s predominantly Islamic population of about 19 million is mostly clustered in the far south and west of the country. The capital city is Niamey, located in the far-southwest corner of Niger.
Niger is a developing country, and is consistently one of the lowest-ranked in the United Nations‘ Human Development Index (HDI); it was ranked last at 188th for 2014. Much of the non-desert portions of the country are threatened by periodic drought and desertification. The economy is concentrated around subsistence and some export agriculture clustered in the more fertile south, and the export of raw materials, especially uranium ore. Niger faces serious challenges to development due to its landlocked position, desert terrain, inefficient agriculture, high fertility rates and resulting overpopulation without birth control, poor education and poverty of its people, lack of infrastructure, poor health care, and environmental degradation.
Nigerien society reflects a diversity drawn from the long independent histories of its several ethnic groups and regions and their relatively short period living in a single state. Historically, what is now Niger has been on the fringes of several large states. Since independence, Nigeriens have lived under five constitutions and three periods of military rule. Following a military coup in 2010, Niger has become a democratic, multi-party state. A majority live in rural areas, and have little access to advanced education.
Early human settlement in Niger is evidenced by numerous archaeological remains. In prehistoric times, the climate of the Sahara (Tenere desert in Niger) was wet and provided favorable conditions for agriculture and livestock herding in a fertile grassland environment five thousand years ago.
In 2005–06, a graveyard in the Tenere desert was discovered by Paul Sereno, a paleontologist from the University of Chicago. His team discovered 5,000-year-old remains of a woman and two children in the Tenere Desert. The evidence along with remains of animals that do not typically live in desert are among the strongest evidence of the ‘green’ Sahara in Niger. It is believed that progressive desertification around 5000 BCE pushed sedentary populations to the south and south-east (Lake Chad).
Empires and kingdoms in pre-colonial Niger
By at least the 5th century BCE, Niger became an area of trans-Saharan trade, led by the Berber tribes from the north, using camels as an adapted mean of transportation through the desert. This trade has made Agadez a pivotal place of the trans-Saharan trade. This mobility, which would continue in waves for several centuries, was accompanied with further migration to the south and interbreeding between southern black and northern white populations. It was also aided by the introduction of Islam to the region at the end of the 7th century. Several empires and kingdoms also flourished during this era up to the beginning of colonization in Africa.
Songhai Empire (600–1591)
The Songhai Empire was an empire bearing the name of its main ethnic group, Songhai or Sonrai, and located in western Africa on the bend of the Niger River in present-day Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. In the 7th century, Songhai tribes settled down north of modern-day Niamey and founded the Songhai city-states of Koukia and Gao. By the 11th century, Gao had become the capital of the Songhai Empire.
From 1000 to 1325, The Songhai Empire prospered and managed to maintain peace with its neighboring empires including the Mali Empire. In 1325, the Songhai Empire was conquered by the Mali Empire, but was freed in 1335 by prince Ali Kolen and his brother, Songhai princes held captive by Moussa Kankan, the ruler of the Mali Empire. From the mid-15th to the late 16th century, Songhai was one of the largest Islamic empires in history.
Hausa kingdoms (mid-14th century – 1808)
Between the Niger River and the Lake Chad lay a fertile area and Hausa kingdoms. These kingdoms flourished from the mid-14th century up until the early 19th century when they were conquered by Usman dan Fodio, founder of the Sokoto Empire. The Hausa kingdoms were not a compact entity but several federations of kingdoms more or less independent of each other. Their organization was somewhat democratic: the Hausa kings were elected by the notables of the country and could be removed by the latter.
The Hausa Kingdoms began as seven states founded according to the Bayajidda legend by the six sons of Bawo. Bawo was the unique son of the hausa queen Daurama and Bayajidda or (Abu Yazid by certain Nigerien historians) who came from Baghdad. The seven original hausa states were: Daoura (state of queen Daurama), Kano, Rano, Zaria, Gobir, Katsena and Biram.
The Mali Empire was a Mandinka empire founded by Sundiata Keita circa 1230 that existed up to 1600. At its peak circa 1350, the empire extended as far west as Senegal and Guinee Conakry and as far east as western Niger.
The Kanem-Bornu Empire was an empire that existed in modern-day Chad, Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Libya. The empire first existed and prospered as the Kanem Empire as early as the 9th century and later as the kingdom of Bornu until 1900.
French Niger (1900–58)
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In the 19th century, contact with Europe began with the first European explorers—notably Monteil (French) and Barth (German)—to travel to Niger.
Following the 1885 Berlin conference during which colonial powers outlined the division of Africa into colonial spheres, French military efforts to conquer existing African states were intensified in all French colonies including Niger. This included several military expeditions including the Voulet Chanoine Mission, which became notorious for pillaging, looting, raping and killing many local civilians on its passage. On 8 May 1899, in retaliation for the resistance of queen Sarraounia, captain Voulet and his men murdered all the inhabitants of the village of Birni-N’Konni in what is regarded as one of the worst massacres in French colonial history. French military expeditions met great resistance from several ethnic groups, especially Hausa and Tuareg groups. The most notable Tuareg revolt was the Kaocen Revolt. The French authorities also abolished the widespread slavery among Tuareg communities.
By 1922, all resistance to colonial rule was eliminated and Niger became a French colony. Niger’s colonial history and development parallel that of other French West African territories. France administered her West African colonies through a governor general at Dakar, Senegal, and governors in the individual territories, including Niger. In addition to conferring a limited form of French citizenship on the inhabitants of the territories, the 1946 French constitution provided for decentralization of power and limited participation in political life for local advisory assemblies.
The end of the colonial era was characterized by a transformation of the political environment in French West Africa and Niger. The Nigerien Progressive Party, the Nigerien section of the African Democratic Rally Party, founded in May 1946, united various tendencies of Nigerien people in the movement for national independence. In alliance with progressive French elements and other independence African movements, the movements acquired the suppression of forced labor and arbitrary requisitions as well as legal equality between the African and the French citizens.
Following the Overseas Reform Act (Loi Cadre) of 23 July 1956 and the establishment of the Fifth French Republic on 4 December 1958, Niger became an autonomous state within the French Community. On 18 December 1958, the Republic of Niger was officially created with Hamani Diori as the head of the Counsel of Ministers of the Republic of Niger. On 11 July 1960, Niger decided to leave the French Community and acquired full independence on 3 August 1960 with Diori as its first president.
For its first fourteen years as an independent state, Niger was run by a single-party civilian regime under the presidency of Diori. In 1974, a combination of devastating drought and accusations of rampant corruption resulted in a coup d’état that overthrew the Diori regime.
First military regime: The Supreme Military Council and Second Republic 1974–1991
Col. Seyni Kountché and a small military group under the name of Supreme Military Council deposed Diori in April 1974, following a military coup, the first of many in the post-colonial history of Niger. President Kountché ruled the country until his death in 1987.
The first action of the Kountché military government was to address the food crisis which was one of the catalysts of the military coup. While political prisoners of the Diori regime were released after the coup and the country was stabilized, political and individual freedom deteriorated in general during this period. Political parties were banned. Several attempted coups (1975, 1976 and 1983) were thwarted and authors and associates were severely punished.
Despite the restriction in freedom, the country enjoyed improved economic development with the creation of new companies, the construction of major infrastructure (building and new roads, schools, health centers) and minimal corruption in government agencies, which Kountché did not hesitate to punish severely.
This economic development was helped by the uranium boom as well as optimal usage of public funds. Kountché was succeeded by his Chief of Staff, Col. Ali Saibou, who was confirmed as Chief of the Supreme Military Council on 14 November 1987, four days after Kountché’s death. He introduced political reforms and drafted a new constitution, with the creation of a single party. He went on to rule the country as the Chief of the Supreme Military Council.
The 1989 referendum led to the adoption a new constitution and the creation of the Second Republic of Niger. General Saibou became the first president of the Second Republic after winning the presidential election on 10 December 1989. His presidency started during the Second Republic largely following his efforts at the end of the previous military regime with attempts at normalizing the political situation in the country with the release of political prisoners, liberalization of laws and policies.
President Saibou’s efforts to control political reforms failed in the face of trade union and student demands to institute a multi-party democratic system. On 9 February 1990, a violently repressed student march led to the death of three students, which led to increased national and international pressure for a National Conference. The Saibou regime acquiesced to these demands by the end of 1990.
National Conference and Third Republic 1991–1997
The National Sovereign Conference of 1991 marked a turning point in the post-independence era of Niger and brought about multi-party democracy. From 29 July to 3 November, a national conference gathered all fringes of society to examine the political, economic and social situation of the country and make recommendations for the future direction of the country. The conference was presided over by Prof. André Salifou and developed a plan for a transitional government. This transitional government was installed in November 1991 to manage the affairs of state until the institutions of the Third Republic were put into place in April 1993.
While the economy deteriorated over the course of the transition, there were certain notable accomplishments, including the successful conduct of a constitutional referendum; the adoption of key legislation such as the electoral and rural codes; and the holding of several free, fair, and non-violent nationwide elections. Freedom of the press flourished, with the appearance of several new independent newspapers.
After the National Sovereign Conference, the transitional government drafted a new constitution that eliminated the previous single-party system of the 1989 Constitution and guaranteed more freedom. The new constitution was adopted by a referendum on 26 December 1992. Following this, presidential elections were held and Mahamane Ousmane became the first president of the Third Republic on 27 March 1993. The presidency of Mahamane Ousmane was characterized by political turbulence, with four government changes and early legislative elections called in 1995.
The parliamentary election forced cohabitation between a rival president and prime minister and ultimately led to governmental paralysis. As part of an initiative started under the National Sovereign Conference the government signed peace accords in April 1995 with Tuareg and Toubou groups that had been in rebellion since 1990. These groups claimed they lacked attention and resources from the central government. The government agreed to absorb some of the former rebels into the military and, with French assistance, to help others return to a productive civilian life.
Second military regime, Fourth Republic, third military regime 1997–1999
The government paralysis and the political tension was used as a motivation for a second military coup. On 27 January 1996, Col. Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara led a military coup that deposed President Ousmane and ended the Third Republic. Col. Maïnassara created the National Salvation Council composed of military officials, which he headed. The Council carried out a six-month transition period during which a new constitution was drafted and adopted on 12 May 1996.
Presidential campaigns were organized in the months that followed. General Maïnassara entered the campaign as an independent candidate and won the election on 8 July 1996. The elections were viewed nationally and internationally as irregular since the electoral commission was replaced during the campaign.
Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara became the first president of the Fourth Republic. His efforts to justify questionable elections failed to convince donors to restore multilateral and bilateral economic assistance; a desperate Maïnassara ignored an international embargo against Libya and sought Libyan funds to aid Niger’s economy. In repeated violations of basic civil liberties by the regime, opposition leaders were imprisoned and journalists often arrested, and deported by an unofficial militia composed of police and military.
On 9 April 1999, Maïnassara was assassinated during a military coup led by Maj. Daouda Malam Wanké, who established a transitional National Reconciliation Council to oversee the drafting of a constitution for the Fifth Republic with a French-style semi-presidential system. The new constitution was adopted on 9 August 1999 and was followed by presidential and legislative elections in October and November of the same year. The elections were generally found to be free and fair by international observers. Wanké withdrew himself from government affairs after the new and democratically elected president was sworn in office.
Fifth republic 1999–2009
After winning the election in November 1999, President Tandja Mamadou was sworn in office on 22 December 1999 as the first president of the Fifth Republic. The first mandate of Tandja Mamadou brought about many administrative and economic reforms that had been halted due to the military coups since the Third Republic. In August 2002, serious unrest within military camps occurred in Niamey, Diffa, and Nguigmi, but the government was able to restore order within several days. On 24 July 2004, the first municipal elections in the history of Niger were held to elect local representatives, previously appointed by the government. These elections were followed by presidential elections. President Tandja Mamadou was re-elected for a second term, thus becoming the first president of the republic to win consecutive elections without being deposed by military coups. The legislative and executive configuration remained quite similar to that of the first term of the President: Hama Amadou was reappointed as Prime Minister and Mahamane Ousmane, the head of the CDS party, was re-elected as the President of the National Assembly (parliament) by his peers.
By 2007, the relationship between President Tandja Mamadou and his prime minister had deteriorated, leading to the replacement of the latter in June 2007 by Seyni Oumarou following a successful vote of no confidence at the Assembly. From 2007 to 2008, the Second Tuareg Rebellion took place in northern Niger, worsening economic prospects at a time of political limited progress. The political environment worsened in the following year as President Tandja Mamadou sought out to extend his presidency by modifying the constitution which limited presidential terms in Niger. Proponents of the extended presidency, rallied behind the Tazartche movement, were countered by opponents (anti-Tazartche) composed of opposition party militants and civil society activists.
Sixth republic and fourth military regime 2009–2010
In 2009, President Tandja Mamadou decided to organize a constitutional referendum seeking to extend his presidency claiming to respond to the desire of the people of Niger. Despite opposition from opposition political parties and against the decision of the Constitutional Court which ruled earlier that the referendum would be unconstitutional, President Tandja Mamadou modified and adopted a new constitution by referendum. It was declared illegal by the Constitutional Court but the President dissolved the Court and assumed emergency powers. The opposition boycotted the referendum and the new constitution was adopted with 92.5% of voters and a 68% turnout, according to official results. The adoption of the new constitution created a Sixth Republic, with a presidential system, as well as the suspension of the 1999 Constitution and a three-year interim government with Tandja Mamadou as president. Political and social unrest spiraled before, during and after the referendum project and ultimately led to a military coup in 2010 that ended the brief existence of the 6th Republic.
In a February 2010 coup d’état, a military junta led by captain Salou Djibo was established in response to Tandja’s attempted extension of his political term by modifying the constitution. The Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy led by General Salou Djibo carried out a one-year transition plan, drafted a new constitution and held elections in 2011 that were judged internationally as free and fair.
Seventh republic 2010–present
Following the adoption of the newest constitution of 2010 and the presidential elections, Mahamadou Issoufou was elected as the first president of the Seventh Republic.
Geography, climate, and ecology
Niger is a landlocked nation in West Africa located along the border between the Sahara and Sub-Saharan regions. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east.
Niger lies between latitudes 11° and 24°N, and longitudes 0° and 16°E. Niger’s area is 1,267,000 square kilometres (489,191 sq mi) of which 300 square kilometres (116 sq mi) is water. This makes it slightly less than twice the size of France, and the world’s twenty-second largest country.
Niger borders seven countries and has a total perimeter of 5,697 kilometres (3,540 mi). The longest border is with Nigeria to the south (1,497 km or 930 mi). This is followed by Chad to the east, at 1,175 km (730 mi), Algeria to the north-northwest (956 km or 594 mi), and Mali at 821 km (510 mi). Niger also has small borders in its far southwest with Burkina Faso at 628 km (390 mi) and Benin at 266 km (165 mi) and to the north-northeast Libya at 354 km (220 mi).
Niger’s subtropical climate is mainly very hot and very dry, with much desert area. In the extreme south there is a tropical climate on the edges of the Niger River basin. The terrain is predominantly desert plains and sand dunes, with flat to rolling savanna in the south and hills in the north.
The north of Niger is covered by large deserts and semi deserts. The typical mammal fauna consists of Addax antelopes, Scimitar-horned oryx, gazelles and in mountains Barbary sheep. One of the largest reserves of the world, the Aïr and Ténéré National Nature Reserve, was founded in the northern parts of the Niger to protect these rare species.
The southern parts of Niger are naturally dominated savannahs. The W National Park, situated in the bordering area to Burkina Faso and Benin, belongs to one of the most important areas for wildlife in Western Africa, which is called the WAP (W–Arli–Pendjari) Complex. It has the most important population of the rare West African lion and one of the last populations of the Northwest African cheetah.
Other wildlife includes elephants, buffaloes, roan antelopes, kob antelopes and warthogs. The West African giraffe is currently not found in the W National Park, but further north in Niger, where it has its last relict population.
Environmental issues in Niger include destructive farming practices as a result of population pressure. Illegal hunting, bush fires in some areas and human encroachment upon the flood plains of the Niger River for paddy cultivation are environmental issues. Dams constructed on the Niger River in the neighboring countries of Mali and Guinea and also within Niger itself are also cited as a reason for a reduction of water flow in the Niger River—which has a direct effect upon the environment. A lack of adequate staff to guard wildlife in the parks and reserves is another factor cited for loss of wildlife.
Governance and politics
Niger’s new constitution was approved on 31 October 2010. It restored the semi-presidential system of government of the 1999 constitution (Fifth Republic) in which the president of the republic, elected by universal suffrage for a five-year term, and a prime minister named by the president share executive power.
As a reflection of Niger’s increasing population, the unicameral National Assembly was expanded in 2004 to 113 deputies elected for a five-year term under a majority system of representation. Political parties must attain at least 5 percent of the vote in order to gain a seat in the legislature.
The constitution also provides for the popular election of municipal and local officials, and the first-ever successful municipal elections took place on 24 July 2004. The National Assembly passed in June 2002 a series of decentralization bills. As a first step, administrative powers will be distributed among 265 communes (local councils); in later stages, regions and departments will be established as decentralized entities. A new electoral code was adopted to reflect the decentralization context. The country is currently divided into 8 regions, which are subdivided into 36 districts (departments). The chief administrator (Governor) in each department is appointed by the government and functions primarily as the local agent of the central authorities.
On 26 May 2009, President Tandja dissolved parliament after the country’s constitutional court ruled against plans to hold a referendum on whether to allow him a third term in office. According to the constitution, a new parliament was elected within three months. This began a political struggle between Tandja, trying to extend his term-limited authority beyond 2009 through the establishment of a Sixth Republic, and his opponents who demanded that he step down at the end of his second term in December 2009. See 2009 Nigerien constitutional crisis. The military took over the country and President Tandja was put in prison, charged with corruption.
The military kept their promise to return the country to democratic civilian rule. A constitutional referendum and national elections were held. A presidential election was held on 31 January 2011, but as no clear winner emerged, run-off elections were held on 12 March 2011. Mahamadou Issoufou of the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism was elected president. A parliamentary election was held at the same time.
Niger pursues a moderate foreign policy and maintains friendly relations with the West and the Islamic world as well as non-aligned countries. It belongs to the UN and its main specialized agencies and in 1980–81 served on the UN Security Council. Niger maintains a special relationship with former colonial power France and has close relations with its West African neighbors.
It is a charter member of the African Union and the West African Monetary Union and also belongs to the Niger Basin Authority and Lake Chad Basin Commission, the Economic Community of West African States, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA). The westernmost regions of Niger are joined with contiguous regions of Mali and Burkina Faso under the Liptako-Gourma Authority.
Government finance is derived revenue exports (Mining, oil and agricultural exports) as well as various forms of taxes collected by the government. In the past, foreign aid has contributed to large percentages of the budget. In 2013, Niger’s government has adopted a zero-deficit budget of 1.279 trillion CFA francs ($2.53 billion) which is claimed to balance revenues and expenditures by an 11% reduction in the budget from the previous year.
The 2014 budget was 1.867 trillion CFA which is distributed as follows according to: public debt (76,703,692,000 CFA), personnel expenditures (210,979,633,960 CFA), operating expenditures (128,988,777,711 CFA); subsidies and transfers: 308,379,641,366 CFA) and Investment (1,142,513,658,712 CFA).
The importance of external support for Niger’s development is demonstrated by the fact that about 45% of the government’s FY 2002 budget, including 80% of its capital budget, derives from donor resources. The most important donors in Niger are France, the European Union, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and various United Nations agencies (UNDP, UNICEF, FAO, World Food Program, and United Nations Population Fund).
Other principal donors include the United States, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and Saudi Arabia. While USAID does not have an office in Niger, the United States is a major donor, contributing nearly $10 million each year to Niger’s development. The U.S. also is a major partner in policy coordination in such areas as food security and HIV/AIDS.
The current Judiciary of Niger was established with the creation of the Fourth Republic in 1999. The constitution of December 1992 was revised by national referendum on 12 May 1996 and, again, by referendum, revised to the current version on 18 July 1999. It is based on the Code Napoleon “Inquisitorial system“, established in Niger during French colonial rule and the 1960 Constitution of Niger. The Court of Appeals reviews questions of fact and law, while the Supreme Court reviews application of the law and constitutional questions. The High Court of Justice (HCJ) deals with cases involving senior government officials. The justice system also includes civil criminal courts, customary courts, traditional mediation, and a military court. The military court provides the same rights as civil criminal courts; however, customary courts do not. The military court cannot try civilians.
Law enforcement in Niger is the responsibility of the Ministry of Defense through the National Gendarmerie and the Ministry of the Interior through the National Police and the National Guard. The National Police is primarily responsible for law enforcement in urban areas. Outside big cities and in rural areas, this responsibility falls on the National Gendarmerie and the National Guard.
The Niger Armed Forces (Forces armées nigériennes) are the military and paramilitary forces of Niger, under the president as supreme commander. They consist of the Niger Army (Armée de Terre), the Niger Air Force (Armée de l’Air) and the auxiliary paramilitary forces, such as the National Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie nationale) and the National Guard (Garde Nationale). Both paramilitary forces are trained in military fashion and have some military responsibilities in wartime. In peace time their duties are mostly policing duties.
The armed forces are composed of approximately 12,900 personnel, including 3,700 gendarmes, 3200 national guards, 300 air force personnel, and 6,000 army personnel. The armed forces of Niger have been involved several military coups over the years with the most recent in 2010. Niger’s armed forces have a long history of military cooperation with France and the United States. As of 2013[update], Niamey is home to a U.S. drone base.
Niger is divided into 7 Regions and one capital district. These Regions are subdivided into 36 departments. The 36 Departments are currently broken down into Communes of varying types. As of 2006[update] there were 265 communes, including communes urbaines (Urban Communes: as subdivisions of major cities), communes rurales (Rural Communes), in sparsely populated areas and postes administratifs (Administrative Posts) for largely uninhabited desert areas or military zones.
Rural communes may contain official villages and settlements, while Urban Communes are divided into quarters. Niger subvisions were renamed in 2002, in the implementation of a decentralisation project, first begun in 1998. Previously, Niger was divided into 7 Departments, 36 Arrondissements, and Communes. These subdivisions were administered by officials appointed by the national government. These offices will be replaced in the future by democratically elected councils at each level.
The pre-2002 departments (renamed as regions) and capital district are:
- Agadez Region
- Diffa Region
- Dosso Region
- Maradi Region
- Tahoua Region
- Tillabéri Region
- Zinder Region
- Niamey (capital district)
The economy of Niger centers on subsistence crops, livestock, and some of the world’s largest uranium deposits. Drought cycles, desertification, a 2.9% population growth rate, and the drop in world demand for uranium have undercut the economy.
Niger shares a common currency, the CFA franc, and a common central bank, the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), with seven other members of the West African Monetary Union. Niger is also a member of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA).
In December 2000, Niger qualified for enhanced debt relief under the International Monetary Fund program for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) and concluded an agreement with the Fund for Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF). Debt relief provided under the enhanced HIPC initiative significantly reduces Niger’s annual debt service obligations, freeing funds for expenditures on basic health care, primary education, HIV/AIDS prevention, rural infrastructure, and other programs geared at poverty reduction.
In December 2005, it was announced that Niger had received 100% multilateral debt relief from the IMF, which translates into the forgiveness of approximately $86 million USD in debts to the IMF, excluding the remaining assistance under HIPC. Nearly half of the government’s budget is derived from foreign donor resources. Future growth may be sustained by exploitation of oil, gold, coal, and other mineral resources. Uranium prices have recovered somewhat in the last few years. A drought and locust infestation in 2005 led to food shortages for as many as 2.5 million Nigeriens.
The agricultural economy is based largely upon internal markets, subsistence agriculture, and the export of raw commodities: foodstuffs and cattle to neighbors. Foreign exchange earnings from livestock, although difficult to quantify, are considered the second source of export revenue behind mining and oil exports. Actual exports far exceed official statistics, which often fail to detect large herds of animals informally crossing into Nigeria. Some hides and skins are exported, and some are transformed into handicrafts.
Niger’s agricultural and livestock sectors are the mainstay of all but 18% of the population. 14% of Niger’s GDP is generated by livestock production (camels, goats, sheep and cattle), said to support 29% of the population. Thus 53% of the population is actively involved in crop production. The 15% of Niger’s land that is arable is found mainly along its southern border with Nigeria.
In these areas, Pearl millet, sorghum, and cassava are the principal rain-fed subsistence crops. Irrigated rice for internal consumption is grown in parts of the Niger River valley in the west. While expensive, it has, since the devaluation of the CFA franc, sold for below the price of imported rice, encouraging additional production. Cowpeas and onions are grown for commercial export, as are small quantities of garlic, peppers, potatoes, and wheat. Oasis farming in small patches of the north of the country produces onions, dates, and some market vegetables for export.
But for the most part, rural residents engaged in crop tending are clustered in the south centre and south west of the nation, in those areas (the Sahel) which can expect to receive between 300 to 600 mm (12 to 24 in) of rainfall annually. A small area in the southern tip of the nation, surrounding Gaya can expect to receive 700 to 900 mm (28 to 35 in) or rainfall. Northern areas which support crops, such as the southern portions of the Aïr Massif and the Kaouar oasis, rely upon oases and a slight increase in rainfall due to mountain effects. Large portions of the northwest and far east of the nation, while within the Sahara desert, see just enough seasonal rainfall to support semi-nomadic animal husbandry. The populations of these areas, mostly Tuareg, Wodaabe – Fula, and Toubou, travel south (a process called transhumance) to pasture and sell animals in the dry season, north into the Sahara in the brief rainy season.
Rainfall varies and when it is insufficient, Niger has difficulty feeding its population and must rely on grain purchases and food aid to meet food requirements. Rains, as in much of the Sahel, have been marked by annual variability. This has been especially true in the 20th century, with the most severe drought on record beginning in the late 1960s and lasting, with one break, well into the 1980s. The long-term effect of this, especially to pastoralist populations, remains in the 21st century, with those communities which rely upon cattle, sheep, and camels husbandry losing entire herds more than once during this period. Recent rains remain variable. For instance, the rains in 2000 were not good, while those in 2001 were plentiful and well distributed.
Soils that have become degraded, for example by intensive cereal production, cover 50 per cent of Niger’s land. Laterite soils have a high clay content, which means they have higher Cation Exchange Capacity and water-holding capacity than sandy soils. If laterite soils become degraded, a hard crust can form on the surface, which hinders water infiltration and the emergence of seedlings. It is possible to rehabilitate such soils, using a system called the Bioreclamation of Degraded Lands.
This involves using indigenous water-harvesting methods (such as planting pits and trenches), applying animal and plant residues, and planting high-value fruit trees and indigenous vegetable crops that are tolerant of drought conditions. The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has employed this system to rehabilitate degraded laterite soils in Niger and increase smallholder farmers’ incomes. Trials have demonstrated that a 200 m2 (2,153 sq ft) plot can yield an income of around US$100, which is what men traditionally earn from millet production per hectare (10000m²). As women are often given degraded soils, using this practice has helped to improve livelihoods for women in Niger.
The Kandadji Dam on the Niger River, whose construction started in August 2008, is expected to improve agricultural production in the Tillaberi Department by providing water for the irrigation of 6,000 hectares initially and of 45,000 hectares by 2034.
Drought and food crisis
As one of the Sahelian nations in West Africa, Niger has faced several droughts which led to food shortages and, in some cases, famines since its independence in 1963. This includes a series of droughts in the 1970s and 1980s and more recently in 2005–2006 and again in 2010. The existence of widespread famine in 2005–2006 was debated by the government of Niger as well some local NGOs.
The Niger mining industry is the main source of national exports, of which uranium is the largest export. Niger has been a uranium exporter since the 1960s and has had substantial export earnings and rapid economic growth during the 1960s and 1970s. The persistent uranium price slump has brought lower revenues for Niger’s uranium sector, although it still provides 72% of national export proceeds. When the uranium-led boom ended in the early 1980s the economy stagnated, and new investment since then has been limited. Niger’s two uranium mines—SOMAIR‘s open pit mine and COMINAK‘s underground mine—are owned by a French-led consortium and operated by French company Areva.
As of 2007[update], many licences have been sold to other companies from countries such as India, China, Canada and Australia in order to exploit new deposits. In 2013, the government of Niger sought to increase its uranium revenue by subjecting the two mining companies to a 2006 Mining Law. The government argued that the application of the new law will balance an otherwise unfavorable partnership between the government and Areva. The company resisted the application of the new law that it feared would jeopardize the financial health of the companies, citing declining market uranium prices and unfavorable market conditions. In 2014, following nearly a year long negotiation with the government of Niger, Areva agreed to the application of 2006 Mining Law of Niger, which would increase the government’s uranium revenues from 5 to 12%.
In addition to uranium, exploitable deposits of gold are known to exist in Niger in the region between the Niger River and the border with Burkina Faso. In 2004, the first Nigerien gold ingot was produced from the Samira Hill Gold Mine, in Tera Department. The Samira Hill Gold Mine thus became the first commercial gold production in the country. The reserves at the location were estimated at 10,073,626 tons at an average grade of 2.21 grams (0.078 oz) per ton from which 19,200 kilograms (42,300 lb) will be recovered over a six-year mine life. Other gold deposits are believed to be in nearby areas known as the “Samira Horizon”, which is located between Gotheye and Ouallam.
SONICHAR (Société Nigerienne de Charbon) in Tchirozerine (north of Agadez) extracts coal from an open pit and fuels an electricity generating plant that supplies energy to the uranium mines. Based on 2012 reports by the government of Niger, 246016 tons of coal were extracted by SONICHAR in 2011. There are additional coal deposits to the south and west that are of a higher quality and may be exploitable. Substantial deposits of phosphates, coal, iron, limestone, and gypsum have also been found in Niger.
The history of oil prospecting and discovery goes back to the independence era with the first discovery of Tintouma oil field in Madama in 1975. It is the Agadem basin that has attracted much attention since 1970 with Texaco and then Esso prospecting in the basin until 1980. Exploration permits on the same basin were held successively by Elf aquitaine (1980–1985), Esso-Elf (1985–1998), Esso (1998–2002) and Esso-Petronas (2002–2006). While the reserves were estimated at 324 millions barrels for oil and 10 billion m3 for gas, Esso-Petronas relinquished the permit because it deemed the quantities too small for production.
With the sudden increase in oil price, this assessment was no longer true by 2008. the government transferred the Agadem block rights to CNPC. Niger announced that in exchange for the US$5 billion investment, the Chinese company would build wells, 11 of which would open by 2012, a 20,000-barrel-per-day (3,200 m3/d) refinery near Zinder and a pipeline out of the nation. The government estimates the area has reserves of 324 million barrels (51,500,000 m3), and is seeking further oil in the Tenere Desert and near Bilma. Niger began producing its first barrels of oil in 2011.
The economic competitiveness created by the January 1994 devaluation of the Communauté Financière Africaine (CFA) franc contributed to an annual average economic growth of 3.5% throughout the mid-1990s. But the economy stagnated due to the sharp reduction in foreign aid in 1999 (which gradually resumed in 2000) and poor rains in 2000. Reflecting the importance of the agricultural sector, the return of good rains was the primary factor underlying economic growth of 5.1% in 2000, 3.1% in 2001, 6.0% in 2002, and 3.0% in 2003.
In recent years, the Government of Niger drafted revisions to the investment code (1997 and 2000), petroleum code (1992), and mining code (1993), all with attractive terms for investors. The present government actively seeks foreign private investment and considers it key to restoring economic growth and development. With the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), it has undertaken a concerted effort to revitalize the private sector.
In January 2000, Niger’s newly elected government inherited serious financial and economic problems including a virtually empty treasury, past-due salaries (11 months of unpaid salaries) and scholarship payments, increased debt, reduced revenue performance, and lower public investment. In December 2000, Niger qualified for enhanced debt relief under the International Monetary Fund program for Highly Indebted Poor Countries and concluded an agreement with the Fund on a Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF).
In addition to changes in the budgetary process and public finances, the new government has pursued economic restructuring towards the IMF promoted privatization model. This has included the privatization of water distribution and telecommunications and the removal of price protections for petroleum products, allowing prices to be set by world market prices. Further privatizations of public enterprises are in the works.
In its effort to comply with the IMF’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility plan, the government is also taking action to reduce corruption and, as the result of a participatory process encompassing civil society, has devised a Poverty Reduction Strategy Plan that focuses on improving health, primary education, rural infrastructure, and judicial restructuring.
A long planned privatization of the Nigerien power company, NIGELEC, failed in 2001 and again in 2003 due to a lack of buyers. SONITEL, the nation’s telephone operator which was separated from the post office and privatised in 2001, was renationalised in 2009. Critics have argued that the obligations to creditor institutions and governments have locked Niger into a process of trade liberalization that is harmful for small farmers and in particular, rural women.
Transport is crucial to the economy and culture of this vast landlocked nation, with cities separated by huge uninhabited deserts, mountain ranges, and other natural features. Niger’s transport system was little developed during the colonial period (1899–1960), relying upon animal transport, human transport, and limited river transport in the far south west and south east. No railways were constructed in the colonial period. Construction of a network of paved roads linking major cities began after the independence reaching its heights during the uranium boom in the 1970s and 1980s. Primary or paved road systems are limited to bigger cities or connection between major cities. Road connections or networks in rural areas are mostly unpaved, all-weather laterite surfaces to grated dirt or sand plowed roads with various degrees of maintenance. In 2012, there was 19,675 kilometres (12,225 mi) of road network throughout Niger, of which 4,225 kilometres (2,625 mi) were paved.
The Niger River, which crosses the southwestern part of the country, is unsuitable for river transport of any large scale, as it lacks depth for most of the year, and is broken by rapids at many spots. Camel caravan transport was historically important in the Sahara desert and Sahel regions which cover most of the north.
Air transport is mainly concentrated in Niamey. Niger’s only international airport is Diori Hamani International Airport, is located in the capital, Niamey. Other airports in Niger include the Mano Dayak International Airport in Agadez city and Zinder Airport in Zinder city but as of January 2015, they were not regularly serviced by any carriers.
In 2014, construction for the railway extension connecting Niamey (Niger) to Cotonou via Parakou (Benin) began and is expected to be completed by 2016. It includes the construction of 574 kilometres (357 mi) new railway from Niamey to connect to the existing line in Parakou (Benin). Besides Niamey, the railway line will go through Dosso city and Gaya.
What would Lance May do?
Prayer to Lord JoJo In Niger. | <urn:uuid:6f82df04-7bba-47dc-af20-ca281b410eb2> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | https://liamllewellynbadgerwordpresscom.wordpress.com/2017/06/12/this-is-a-jojo-coat-of-arms-of-niger-king-douglas-lee-thompson-domain-intellectual-property-notice-hard-soft-options-public-notice-dated-12-june-2017-cia-public-notice/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084887077.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20180118071706-20180118091706-00070.warc.gz | en | 0.962745 | 9,560 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Grow in average, medium to wet, well-drained soils in full sun to part shade. Thrives in moist soils. Avoid dry soils. Prefers full sun. Prune as needed in late winter to early spring.
Salix alba, commonly called white willow, is native to Europe, central Asia and northern Africa. It was brought to the U.S. in the 1700s by European settlers and has since escaped and naturalized in many parts of North America. This is an upright, fast-growing, deciduous tree than grows to 50-80’ tall with erect branching that typically forms a broad, loose, open crown. Bark is yellowish-brown. The species is now rarely sold, but a number of cultivars are very popular, including plants noted for weeping form and for showy red or yellow winter twigs. This is a dioecious species, with flowering catkins appearing on separate male and female trees in May. Male catkins (to 2” long) are somewhat showy, having tiny flowers with yellowish anthers and two stamens. Female catkins are smaller and non-showy, with greenish flowers. Narrow, lanceolate, finely-toothed leaves (to 4” long) are gray-green above and white-silky beneath. Leaves gradually taper at the bases. Variable fall color is usually a pale yellow, but sometimes appears as a quality yellow.
Genus name from Latin means willow
Specific epithet means white.
‘Tristis’ is a popular cultivar that is commonly sold as golden weeping willow in recognition of its bright golden yellow twigs and weeping form. Although its nomenclature is confused, it is considered to be one of the best of the weeping willows. It typically grows to 50-75’ tall with erect branching, an open rounded crown and pendulous golden branchlets that gracefully dip toward the ground. Year old twigs are yellow and pendulous. ‘Tristis’ is dioecious, with non-showy catkins appearing in April-May. Nomenclature for this golden weeping tree is quite confusing. The Royal Horticultural Society currently lists both Salix alba ‘Tristis’ misapplied and Salix alba ‘Tristis’ ambig[uous] in recognition of the fact that a number of different weeping yellow forms have been given the ‘Tristis’ name or other names now considered synonymous with ‘Tristis’ over the years.
Susceptible to numerous disease problems including blights, powdery mildew, leaf spots and cankers. It also is visited by many insect pests including aphids, scale, borers, lacebugs and caterpillars. Wood is weak and tends to crack. Branches may be damaged by ice and snow. Litter from leaves, twigs and branches may be a problem. Shallow roots may clog sewers or drains and make gardening underneath trees difficult.
Although willows are generally not considered to be good residential landscape trees, it should be noted that golden weeping willow is one of the most popular of the weeping willows available in commerce today. It has good specimen value because of its golden weeping form. It may be used effectively in moist soils along streams, ponds or other water bodies. It also can be used in low spots in the landscape where other shrubs or small trees may falter, but can be high maintenance because of its susceptibility to breakage, potential insect/disease problems, spreading roots and litter potential. | <urn:uuid:3d1f341f-9a73-4cf7-9a8d-1d9baed903bc> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=c144 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501171932.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104611-00334-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950149 | 755 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Died February 21
By: Legacy Staff
9 months ago
Malcolm X was one of the most influential African-American leaders of the 20th century. Standing as a counterpoint to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s philosophy of nonviolent action toward civil rights, Malcolm X was known for urging his followers to fight for their humanity using "any means necessary." His stance frightened some, but many were inspired by his bold leadership and refusal to back down from authority, as well as by another phrase he popularized: "Black is beautiful." His legacy is one of unrelenting activism to raise the self-esteem of black people, urging them to demand full equality. We remember Malcolm X's life today as well as the lives of other notable people who died this day in history.
2015: Clark Terry, U.S. jazz trumpeter who played with Miles Davis and Quincy Jones, dies at 94.
"The world has lost one of the greatest trumpeters to ever grace the planet," Quincy Jones wrote on his Facebook page. "Clark Terry was my first trumpet teacher as a teen in Seattle, my idol, and my brother. When he left the Basie and Ellington bands, also two of my idols, to join mine, it was one of the most humbling moments in my life." Read more
2012: Barney Rosset, U.S. publisher who introduced readers to acclaimed authors such as Pablo Neruda and Harold Pinter, dies at 89.
As publisher of Grove Press, Rosset was a First Amendment crusader who helped overthrow 20th-century U.S. censorship laws and profoundly expanded the American reading experience. Rosset had an FBI file that lasted for decades, according to his obituary by The Associated Press, and he would seek out fellow rebels for much of his life. Between Grove and the magazine Evergreen Review, which lasted from 1957 to 1973, Rosset published Samuel Beckett, Malcolm X, Che Guevara, Jean-Paul Sartre, Allen Ginsberg, Henry Miller, D.H. Lawrence, and William Burroughs. He was equally daring as a film distributor; his credits included the groundbreaking erotic film, "I Am Curious (Yellow)," and art-house releases by Jean-Luc Godard, Marguerite Duras, and others. Read more
2008: Ben Chapman, U.S. actor remembered best for playing the Gill-Man in "The Creature From the Black Lagoon," dies at 82.
2008: Sunny Lowry, first British woman to swim the English Channel, in 1933, dies at 97.
2005: Ara Berberian, U.S. bass singer who enjoyed a long international career in opera, dies at 74.
1995: Robert Bolt, English playwright and screenwriter who wrote "Doctor Zhivago" and "Lawrence of Arabia," dies at 70.
1992: Jane Pickens Langley Hoving, U.S. singer who was a member of the Pickens Sisters and then had her own radio and television shows, dies at 83.
1992: Eva A. Jessye, U.S. singer who was the first African-American woman to achieve distinction as a professional choral conductor, dies at 97.
1991: Roger Swaybill, U.S. actor and screenwriter who co-wrote the movies "Porky's II: The Next Day" and "Breaking Point," dies at 47.
1991: Margot Fonteyn, English ballerina who was widely regarded as one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of all time, dies at 71.
1985: Louis Hayward, South African actor who appeared in Hollywood movies such as "The Man in the Iron Mask," dies at 75.
1985: Ina Claire, U.S. actress who made her film debut in the Cecil B. DeMille film "The Wild Goose Chase," dies at 91.
Integration wasn't the only way Murray the K was forward-thinking. As the times changed, so did the music – and Kaufman was on top of each new style. Starting as one of the first supporters of the Beatles (and often calling himself the Fifth Beatle), he moved on to champion folk rock and become one of the first FM DJs to play full-album versions of long songs by artists such as Bob Dylan – instead of the shortened singles common on AM radio. Read more
1974: Tim Horton, Canadian NHL Hall of Fame defenseman who also started the successful Tim Hortons restaurant chain, dies in a car accident at 44.
Both of Horton's careers focused on small round objects: one hard, flat and fast, the other soft, fried and sweet. Horton first made a name for himself playing hockey for 24 seasons in the NHL, most of them on the Toronto Maple Leafs. He also was the entrepreneur who co-founded Tim Hortons, a popular chain of coffee and doughnut shops. Read more
1965: Malcolm X, U.S. Muslim minister who was one of the best-known civil rights activists of his generation, is assassinated at 39.
1958: Duncan Edwards, English soccer player who was on England's national team, dies in the Munich airplane disaster at 21. | <urn:uuid:c995142d-42a5-475c-b8e2-6054bf0214ae> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | http://www.legacy.com/news/explore-history/died-today-in-history/article/died-february-21 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376827992.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20181216191351-20181216213351-00174.warc.gz | en | 0.979931 | 1,072 | 3.359375 | 3 |
Through taking up carbon dioxide and converting it to biomass which may be used as a fuel, plants and algae have been investigated as a source of carbon neutral energy for many years. Critcially, biofuels offer a short-to-medium term route to a road transport fuel which many other renewable energies can not provide without significant changes to existing transport infrastructure.
Biofuels covers a range of technologies, either where biological material is readily converted to an energy source, or living organisms produce a fuel source. Biofuels may be gaseous (biogas such as methane, or biohydrogen), liquid (bioethanol and biobutanol as petrol replacements; biodiesel and green diesel for diesel replacements), or even solid (fast growing and coppiced trees, algae biomass etc).
Biofuels present several challenges to society, for example: use of water supplies, displacement of food crop land, changes to traditional lifestyles, biodiversity loss, nutrient costs and provision. The acceptance of biofuel technologies has been directly influenced by societal perceptions, as well as policy direction.
Biofuels, Science and Society
The programme draws on the exceptional interdisciplinarity of Durham University, to bring together the various factions relevant to the biofuel debate, including policy advisers, economists, social scientists, psychologists, geographers, legal experts as well as biologists, engineers and chemists.
At Durham our research focusses on several key areas:
Microalgae Biofuels (Greenwell)
Microalgae are fast growing single celled organisms which produce a relatively high lipid yield suitable for conversion to biodiesel and green diesel. Research in our Biology Department focusses on modification of microalgae to produce i) higher lipid yields, ii) better processing routes for lipid extraction, iii) well defined lipid profiles. In the Chemistry Department, research is underway into the conversion of microalgae lipids into useful chemical compounds for fuels, lubricants and other uses.
Cellulosic Crops (Lindsey)
In the School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, the Centre for Crop Improvement Technology is applying basic techniques of plant molecular biology and biochemistry to develop new crops that have enhanced yields through improved biomass, starch and oil accumulation and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses.
We are currently investigating aspects of biofuel organism intellectual property (Adcock, Law Department) and social pressures on biofuel policy (Bell, Anthropology; Bulkeley, Geography; Stone, Business School; Greenwell, Chemistry).
There are a range of projects concerning the production, use and impacts of biofuels ongoing at Durham University:
- Macroalgae Biogas for the Isle of Man (2013 -) will assess growth of microalgae in four key sea zone areas around the IoM coastline and undertake technological feasibility studies to address public acceptability and stakeholder perceptions of using this to generate biogas for the local domestic gas market.
- BioAlgaeSorb (EU FP 7, 2011-2013) looks at waste stream remediation by microalgae and the processing of the biomass into useful chemicals and fuels. Dr Chris Greenwell's group is involved in the conversion of the biomass.
- Mineral catalysed deoxygenation reactions of biomass (KiOR Inc, 2008-2011) looked at the use of oxide catalysts to convert biooils through to fuel products (Dr Greenwell).
- Biofuels, Science & Society is a theme funded by the Institute of Advanced Studies and brings together Law, Psychology, Chemistry, Biology, Earth Sciences, Durham Business School, Anthropology and Geography to address wide ranging technical and social issues concerning biofuels. A summer internship is investigating attitudes to GM in the biofuels area (Dr Greenwell, Prof Lindsey).
- Biofuels as socio-technical systems (2010-2013). A Durham Energy Institute PhD studentship to investigate how and why some biofuels fail as technologies while others succeed.
- Biogas from wastes and fuel crops. Prof Mike Theodorou is an expert in anaerobic digestion technologies and is co-funded by Durham University and the Centre for Process Innovation.
- Sustaining the macroalgae supply chain (2010-2012). This project looked at methods for sustaining supplies of macroalgae for bioenergy and bioproducts (Dr Greenwell, Prof Theodorou).
- Microalgae as biomass source for fuels, chemicals and remediation (2011-2014). A PhD studentship starting in 2011 (Dr Greenwell, Prof Theodorou, Dr Dyer). | <urn:uuid:ffea5f5b-55de-476e-ba37-0393efd4d196> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dur.ac.uk/dei/biofuelsresearch/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700871976/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104111-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.898338 | 941 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Today, we hear constant talk about climate change, we even use it regularly in our daily conversations, for example when in Valencia it seems that the only season that exists is summer.
In order to situate ourselves, we begin with a definition of the principal international body on climate change, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: “climate change is a change of climate attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the Global atmosphere and adds to the natural climate variability observed over comparable periods. “
Some of the main drivers of climate change are logging, fossil fuel use, and certain industrial methods that contribute to the increase of greenhouse gases (GHG).
Climate change is undoubtedly one of the most worrisome phenomena on the face of the Earth in recent decades. While it is true that the phenomenon has caused an increase in the temperature of our planet, its consequences go beyond global warming, causing rise in sea level, melting of the poles and many other problems, environmental and socioeconomic.
5 ways in which climate change affects you
- Extreme natural phenomena: hurricanes, earthquakes and other similar phenomena will be more common in a few decades.
- Droughts and floods: there has been a radical turn in the pattern of rains, causing heavy floods in some regions and droughts, which become eternal in others, as is the case of our beloved Terreta.
- Increased forest fires: the increase in forest fires is due in part to the very dry forests due to the exaggerated increase in temperatures and the scarcity of rainfall.
- More allergies to pollen: increased carbon dioxide and high temperatures favor the growth of weeds producing allergic pollen.
- Increased food prices: climate change and, in particular, drought, cause damage to crops, affecting food production and agricultural supply globally.
The phenomenon of climate change is not only a meteorological issue, but constitutes a great barrier to the development and sustainability of both the developing and the most industrialized countries.
In a simple way, we try to arouse the interest of people who are not very familiar with this phenomenon and take a step towards awareness. If you want to delve into the matter, have a look at the COP21 Paris Agreement and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) website.
We have started the house by the roof, asking us how we are affected by climate change. But, in a flashback way, we can ask ourselves: how do our habits cause climate change ?, and what is more important, what are we going to do to mitigate their impact?
Resource main picture: Hernán Piñera | <urn:uuid:e0861035-3fe5-45c7-b8f0-b914018c28c5> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | http://www.vesos.es/en/como-me-afecta-el-cambio-climatico/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027315695.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20190821001802-20190821023802-00156.warc.gz | en | 0.930639 | 529 | 3.375 | 3 |
Fatigue can be defined as an ongoing and persistent feeling of weakness, tiredness, and lowered energy level even after an adequate amount of sleep. Fatigue can be caused by anything that leads to an imbalance in the body’s energy levels, which means it can have multiple causes. However, it is not an inevitable consequence of getting older, as is commonly believed. Some causes of fatigue include: physical or emotional stress, poor nutrition, depression, excessive caffeine, diabetes, infection, dehydration, heart disease, stress, anxiety, allergies, lack of exercise, some medications, anemia, metabolic abnormalities, many illnesses and hormone imbalance.
Because hormones control the release of energy at the cellular level, fatigue can be caused by a hormonal deficiency or imbalance. Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms of hormonal imbalance for both men and women. Thyroid and adrenal hormones, as well as melatonin all work at the cellular level to regulate energy levels, thus when these hormone levels naturally decrease during aging, so does energy. Poor diet and nutrition may cause or hasten hormonal imbalance with a resulting lack of energy. This is especially true of “yo-yo” and low-fat, high-carbohydrate dieting which can lead to insulin resistance with disruption in glucose and energy metabolism.
Adequate levels of progesterone regulate sleep and decreases anxiety and irritability. In contrast, declining progesterone levels can cause difficulty falling asleep, anxiety, and insomnia, all of which can lead to daytime fatigue. Hot flashes and night sweats caused by hormone imbalance can disrupt sleep lead to daytime fatigue. Also, heavy bleeding during perimenopause may contribute to anemia and tiredness. In addition, as testosterone declines, men and women lose muscle mass and energy, this can bring about fatigue.
Hormones also play a role in regulating the sleep cycle, disruptions of which cause fatigue. The human body has a daily rhythm that requires a certain amount of DHEA and cortisol to maintain energy and metabolism. Normally, the adrenal glands produce increased cortisol in response to stress. When the stress is relieved, cortisol levels return to normal. Severe or chronic stress can cause excessive cortisol secretion and eventually the adrenal glands become “burned out” and are unable to produce sufficient levels of cortisol to maintain body energy. This causes adrenal exhaustion which results in fatigue. In addition, insufficient amounts of cortisol produce a decrease in the production of several other hormones, particularly DHEA, progesterone and thyroid. During stressful times progesterone is converted to cortisol so the amount of progesterone available is diminished.
Decreased production of thyroid hormone affects metabolism and almost all body functions, causing a wide range of symptoms including mental and physical sluggishness.
Declining levels of testosterone is one of the most common causes of fatigue in men. During andropause, diminished testosterone levels can lead to insomnia and/or sleep apnea, both of which contribute to fatigue. Testosterone plays an important role in energy production. Therefore low testosterone can cause men to feel less energetic, sluggish, and run down. Inadequate testosterone levels can also cause depression which may lead to apathy and fatigue. With declining testosterone, physical activity requires more effort and recovery takes longer, therefore, men commonly tend to exercise less and feel more tired. Men can also suffer from night sweats just like women leading to poor sleep and daytime fatigue. | <urn:uuid:24b6d724-f4ab-4dbe-a1e3-67a95243d66c> | CC-MAIN-2016-18 | http://socalbhrt.com/fatigue/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-18/segments/1461860111374.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20160428161511-00027-ip-10-239-7-51.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927131 | 695 | 3.671875 | 4 |
Recent trends suggest that autism rates are rising across the U.S. That is alarming, in and of itself. But new statistics show that the disorder appears to be more prevalent in certain communities. A few studies out of California may shed some light on these baffling questions.
A recent study conducted at Columbia University identified an area including West Hollywood and Beverly Hills that accounts for 3 percent of the state's new cases of autism from 1993 to 2001, even though it accounts for only 1 percent of the population. A similar study, this one out of the University of California-Davis, also found high rates of autism in children born around Los Angeles, as well as nine other California locations.
Both of these California-based studies suggest that the location itself — whether it's because of environmental or sociological factors — is the cause of the high autism-diagnosis rates. California isn't the only state to see these unusual spikes. Metropolitan Phoenix, for example, has twice the prevalence of autism as northern Alabama. These latest findings support the notion that childhood vaccinations are not to blame for the condition. If they were, advocates say, these autism diagnoses would be more evenly dispersed around the state. | <urn:uuid:6211e7c1-a69c-4c48-bf87-ff70cba14b7d> | CC-MAIN-2016-18 | http://www.mnn.com/family/family-activities/blogs/california-seeks-reasons-for-autism-spikes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-18/segments/1461860124045.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160428161524-00181-ip-10-239-7-51.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956268 | 239 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Data reported by the weather station: 71430 (LFOR)
Latitude: 48.46 | Longitude: 1.51 | Altitude: 155
|Main||Year 1986 climate||Select a month|
To calculate annual averages, we analyzed data of 361 days (98.9% of year).
If in the average or annual total of some data is missing information of 10 or more days, this is not displayed.
The total rainfall value 0 (zero) may indicate that there has been no such measurement and / or the weather station does not broadcast.
|Annual average temperature:||9.6°C||361|
|Annual average maximum temperature:||14.0°C||361|
|Annual average minimum temperature:||5.5°C||361|
|Annual average humidity:||-||-|
|Annual total precipitation:||439.99 mm||361|
|Annual average visibility:||-||-|
|Annual average wind speed:||14.1 km/h||361|
Number of days with extraordinary phenomena.
|Total days with rain:||112|
|Total days with snow:||13|
|Total days with thunderstorm:||7|
|Total days with fog:||50|
|Total days with tornado or funnel cloud:||0|
|Total days with hail:||2|
Days of extreme historical values in 1986
The highest temperature recorded was 33.3°C on August 3.
The lowest temperature recorded was -11°C on February 10.
The maximum wind speed recorded was 90.7 km/h on December 19. | <urn:uuid:05cf3756-992d-426c-9470-7675a9c1ebda> | CC-MAIN-2014-35 | http://www.tutiempo.net/en/Climate/Chartres/1986/71430.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1408500824445.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20140820021344-00143-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.857302 | 349 | 2.734375 | 3 |
In the world of vegetables, green, leafy kale stands out as one with the greatest health benefits. It is a dieter’s dream—versatile, delicious and crammed with nutrients. Kale can be used in a salad, added to a main dish or used as a different side dish.
For a green vegetable, kale is exceptionally high in fiber—the main nutrient helping you feel fuller longer. With less than 40 calories per one cup serving, kale is easy to introduce to any diet plan.
Some of the other health benefits of kale:
• High in antioxidants — kale is loaded with antioxidants—as many as 45 distinct flavonoids. Many, such as beta-carotene, are famous in the fight against heart disease and cancers.
• Calcium — kale is loaded with easy-to-absorb calcium, essential in preventing osteoporosis.
• Vitamin C — ascorbic acid is linked to preventing colds, flu’s and many diseases.
• Manganese — is a nutrient that deserves particular recognition. Manganese is a significant player in the maintenance of the body’s immune system. Kale helps by protecting you from damage by free radicals.
• Carotenoids — Kale contains lutein, a recommended material for healthy eyesight, the prevention of cataracts and macular degeneration. High levels of carotenoids are necessary for proper eye health.
• Omega-3 — a one cup serving of kale gives you almost 10 percent of the recommended daily amount of Omega-3 fatty acid, which helps fight infection. Coupled with Vitamin A, Omega-3 also is effective against both arthritis and asthma.
• Sulfur — high amounts of dietary sulfur help detoxify the body.
- The Truth About Kale: Nutrition, Recipe Ideas, and More (webmd.com)
- Singing the praises of kale (rakhealthmatters.wordpress.com)
- 7 Reasons Why Kale is the New Beef (whsword.wordpress.com)
- Why You Should Eat Brightly Colored Fruits and Vegetables (marksdailyapple.com)
- Raw/Vegan Delights. (ediblehealth.wordpress.com)
- Raw Kale Salad Recipe (lindawagner.net)
- Healthy Eating Quote (betsywild.wordpress.com)
- Spinach or Kale? (sweetlyvegan.com)
- Fight Fatigue With This Little Seed (deardieter.wordpress.com)
- 6 Superfoods for 2012 (nourishednutrition.com) | <urn:uuid:91c269d1-3455-4c32-be77-f5699528ccf2> | CC-MAIN-2018-39 | https://philammann.com/2012/02/22/health-benefits-of-kale/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267161350.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20180925083639-20180925104039-00219.warc.gz | en | 0.877804 | 547 | 2.625 | 3 |
Structures and Forces
Over millennia, human-built structures have become bigger, more complex and quicker to build. A key to this has been understanding how forces behave. This clip looks at two types of opposing forces – tension and compression – defining them and presenting a range of real-world examples and how those forces impact on structural design. It is an ideal resource for secondary and vocational students of design and technology.
Production Year: 2019
Duration: 8 min
Series: Building by Design
Printable Resources: Yes
Want to learn more about ClickView?
We would be more than happy to come to your school and show you how your teachers and students can benefit from ClickView.Try ClickView for Free | <urn:uuid:6b5e21c9-be49-4dee-9095-f610b4ca2f4d> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | https://www.clickview.com.au/curriculum-libraries/video-details/?id=9795368&cat=3708531&library=secondary | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780057274.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20210921221605-20210922011605-00461.warc.gz | en | 0.940859 | 145 | 3.4375 | 3 |
The North Queensland Natural History Group conducts flora and fauna surveys of properties using the volunteer efforts of members. Here, we report on a survey of the western half of Wyndham Sandy Creek Nature Refuge near Mt Garnet over six days in November 2017, with motion-sensor cameras left in place until January 2018. The vegetation, reptiles and amphibians present in six 2-ha plots in granite landscapes were assessed, incidental observations noted, and ten motion-sensor cameras left in place for more than two months. We identified variation in vegetation on granite substrates associated with slope and rock cover, and recorded 90 species of woody plant, 48 birds, fourteen reptiles, six amphibians and seven mammals. Sixteen faunal species were detected in images from motion-sensor cameras including six not otherwise recorded. Four plant species recorded are strongly associated with an area of endemism centred on Irvinebank, two of them being listed as threatened. Prevalence of one of these, the leguminous shrub Largeflowered Lamprolobium (Lamprolobium grandiflorum) is particularly noteworthy as it has a highly restricted range and is listed by the IUCN as Endangered. Wyndham Sandy Creek is the first conservation reserve from which the species has been recorded. This survey demonstrates the value of even short-term surveys conducted and recorded within a systematic framework.
|Number of pages||13|
|Journal||North Queensland Naturalist|
|Publication status||Published - 2019| | <urn:uuid:c02bd20a-12b1-442f-8798-edcf3d3946ec> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://researchers.cdu.edu.au/en/publications/a-flora-and-fauna-survey-of-the-wyndham-sandy-creek-nature-refuge | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600402127075.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20200930141310-20200930171310-00126.warc.gz | en | 0.945133 | 310 | 2.671875 | 3 |
A new field guide for damselflies by University of Texas at Austin entomologist John Abbott is the most comprehensive guide for identifying the colorful insects that flit about streams and ponds around the state.
"Damselflies of Texas" covers the 77 species of damselflies in Texas. Because more than half of the 138 North American species of damselflies occur in the state, the guide can be considered very useful for the entire United States.
"Damselflies are the generally smaller and daintier counterparts to dragonflies with which most people will be more familiar," says Abbott, curator of entomology at the Texas Natural Science Center and the Brackenridge Field Lab. "Despite their smaller size, they are actually often easier to see and study because they are not as strong a flier as dragonflies. The two largest groups of damselflies in North America are very similar and field observers often get frustrated trying to identify them. This book provides ample illustrations and descriptions, along with comparative figures to help separate and identify these similar species."
The book was illustrated by Barrett Klein, a former graduate student in the ecology, evolution and behavior program at the university. Klein employed a unique technique that combines digital photographic scans and illustration to reveal the beauty and details of the insects.
Abbott, who has been studying Texas dragonflies and damselflies for 20 years, spent countless hours gathering information for the book, collecting specimens, taking photographs and documenting species distributions around the state.
The colorful and detailed book was published by the University of Texas Press. For more information or to order a copy, visit the University of Texas Press Web site. | <urn:uuid:7bcae38e-bd9d-40ff-9c49-fe4ebfe4a8c5> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://news.utexas.edu/2011/05/03/abbott_field_guide | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988718309.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183838-00366-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951284 | 335 | 3.359375 | 3 |
Behind the buzz and beyond the hype:
Our Nanowerk-exclusive feature articles
Posted: May 12, 2016
Direct writing with highly conductive graphene inks
(Nanowerk Spotlight) Numerous research efforts already have demonstrated the feasibility of fabricating graphene-based electronics through high-throughput ink printing strategies (see for instance: "Inkjet printing of graphene for flexible electronics"). However, the electrical conductivity of the printed ink patterns is far from satisfactory.
In inkjet printing of graphene, however, the diameter of the printing nozzle regularly defaults to be tens of micrometers; thus, increased graphene sheet sizes beyond the safe range of the nozzle could restrict the printing fluency and cause clogging.
"Generally, achieving satisfactory results it is a trade-off between the sizes of the graphene sheets and the chosen printing strategies," Yanlin Song, a professor at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Director of Key Laboratory of Green Printing, tells Nanowerk. "Direct ink writing offers an attractive way to break the routine and meet the printability with the demanding sheet sizes. The nozzles' diameters range from sub micrometer to millimeter scale to accommodate the inks. More importantly, the extrusion-based procedure plays a crucial role in directing the orientation of graphene sheets to pass through the nozzle during printing."
Direct writing with giant graphene oxide (GGO) inks. (a) AFM image of GGO deposited on mica. (b) SEM image of GGO deposited on silicon. (c) Schematic diagram illustrating the alignment of GGO during the printing process. (d) Optical image of the printing process and the modified ink with a concentration of 20 mg/mL in a 3 cm3 barrel (inset). (e and f) Viscosity and shear elastic modulus as a function of the shear rate for GGO inks of varying concentrations (10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 mg/mL). (Reprinted with permission by American Chemical Society) (click on image to enlarge)
The team fabricated graphene patterns with ordered micro-structure and excellent conductivity. To do this, they realized the assembly of giant graphene oxide (GGO) sheets during the printing process. The synergetic effect of printing-induced orientation and evaporation-induced interfacial assembly facilitated the formation of laminar-structured GGO patterns.
The resulting reduced graphene oxide (RGO) after chemical reduction showed remarkable electrical conductivity in printed graphene electronics (up to 4.51 × 104 S/m – which is among the highest reported in printed graphene electronics).
The researchers attribute the high conductivity to the introduction of GGO as the printing ink, as well as the ordered structure from the process of assembly.
Song points out that the size effect is also important for the enhancement of the conductivity. "A greater aspect ratio of the building blocks and their better alignment can give rise to a higher electrical conductivity of the printed patterns due to the closer stacking and lower intersheet contact resistance."
Direct-write printing assembly of GGO could be particularly attractive for the application in soft actuators, where higher electrical conductivity contributes the better sensitivity of the devices; consequently it enables actuation with lower driving voltage.
Because of their high conductivity, mechanical flexibility, and advantage in pattern design, printed graphene circuits/electrodes are promising for applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices; sensors and actuators; energy storage and electrochemical devices; and biological applications.
"Large-sized graphene sheets as building blocks exhibit outstanding behavior in vacuum-filtered graphene films and wet-spun graphene fibers, but rarely are they adopted in the printing process," notes Song. "Inspired by the high performance results from macroscopic assembled graphene, we anticipate the properties of printed graphene can be tremendously enhanced by combined this material with versatile assembling strategies."
The team also demonstrated the use of their flexible graphene electrodes toward the application in electrodriven actuators. The actuators could perform controllable shape change under electric signals.
"By tailoring the ink composition and printing parameters, we could easily control the width and thickness of the electrodes," says Song. "That allowed us to fabricate the actuators with arbitrary geometries, enabling them to achieve complex deformations for application in soft actuators, bionic robots, artificial muscles, smart sensors, etc."
Going forward, the scientists are planning to investigate the assembly of various forms and the resulting functionality of the printed graphene based materials. Direct ink writing is a versatile printing strategy to build up structures of both planar and three-dimensional shapes, as well to construct patterns for micro devices and large-area applications. | <urn:uuid:2f83d898-54ca-44b0-96f4-91a807fc594c> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=43385.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917121644.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031201-00571-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92442 | 973 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Today, in this particular entry in Gardenprue, we dedicate it to the soil. It is not for less since it is the means of sustenance of all the plants, without counting on those that are based on the pure hydroponic method .
We are going to comment on how doing some very simple tasks is capable of exponentially improving the quality of the soil. A tough and tedious job, but one that reports magnificent results.
THE BENEFITS OF THE PLOW
With the plow of the suel or seek one thing: to improve soil conditions. This means that if for example we have a flooded soil, try not to accumulate water on the surface.
On the contrary, if we have a very dry soil, with high water filtration, we want it to retain water a little better and be assimilable by plants.
If we divided into segments those elements that significantly influence a soil and that, of course, affect plants, we could mention humidity, aeration, structure and also temperature.
Knowing what changes appear with the plowing of the soil with respect to these variables is important to know a little more about the land we cultivate.
SOIL MOISTURE CONSERVATION
The humidity of a soil is influenced by its turning. It is something as we have told it before. If you have problems with water retention ( slow drainage ), it will allow the water to drain better. And in the opposite case the same will happen.
A soil located in a desert climate will conserve the water in the subsoil much better after turning the earth.
IMPROVED AERATION AND OXYGENATION
Although we have already mentioned it in other articles, turning the ground allows you to increase the number of macropores in the ground.
These are responsible for storing gases, (such as oxygen), that the roots of the plants need so that problems do not appear.
A soft soil will allow the entry of air from the outside, which is also an entry of atmospheric nitrogen (which can be fixed by climatic effects, such as rain).
PRESERVATION OF SOIL STRUCTURE
A soil can have different textures, and that is what causes it to be classified as sandy, silty or clayey. It is a bit more complex than these three definitions, since there are mixtures between them, but basically it is that.
Depending on the plowing system that we use, we will get the land to change the size of its aggregates, being able to increase or reduce them.
This greatly influences both plant growth and seed germination .
If very large aggregates are left, greater than 5 mm, there would be an excessively large proportion of macropores, there is no water retention and the plant finds it difficult to absorb it.
A soil with very small aggregates , around 1 mm, produces an imbalance between macropores and micropores.
Indeed, due to the absence of the former, the water is not retained efficiently and we will also have problems with the development of the plants.
What does temperature have to do with the tillage or softness of a soil? Well, although it may not seem like it, a lot.
The temperature of a soil is influenced by the environment and the climate where we are, as it seems logical.
However, turning it over can reduce the temperature difference between night and day. This is very important, because it allows a greater comfort of the roots and, of course, that is paid for with a greater development of the plant in general.
For this same reason it is advisable to leave the plow for another day if frosts are expected .
Air is a poor conductor so worse consequences are obtained if the air content is higher. A substitution of that air for water, a much better conductor, produces benefits and passively prevents frost damage.
OKAY, WHAT ABOUT MICROORGANISMS?
Imagine that you were a microorganism (well, one day you were) in which you are given two options:
- It grows in an environment without much oxygen, with little space, with unpleasant temperatures and possibly waterlogged or excessively dry.
- It grows in an environment with a balance between humidity and gases, with ease of movement, porous, without stagnations, with a comfortable temperature and a granulated soil structure.
What option do you prefer? No need to answer.
What we mean is that although a priori we think that tillage produces mechanical damage to the soil, it uncovers beneficial worms and insects from the depths that later form part of the feeding of birds and other animals, the balance is corrected in a short time and the density increases exponentially in a short time.
Yes and no, you have to qualify.
If your soil has a good structure , with good oxygen content, with normal drainage and in general, well, there is no need to till.
Because the microorganisms will take care of improving the soil even more and it would get worse with the plow.
You would modify the peaceful environment they have created and reduce the quality of it.
On the other hand, if your soil has poor drainage, is continually subjected to flooding and the soil structure is bad, the initial conditions for the development of microorganisms are bad or very bad.
Therefore, you have to act. Once they improve, you will not need to work frequently (in fact, not recommended).
ORGANIC MATTER IN A PLOWED SOIL
You have to think that with the turning, even if organic matter is not applied, its content also improves. How is this possible, if nothing has been contributed to the earth?
Because poor soil tends to create a surface layer of fertilizer compounds, including organic matter, at a depth where most herbaceous plants cannot access.
That is, the soil has a good percentage of organic matter , yes, but it is not balanced. You have a gold mine on the ground but you do not have the shovel and the pick to access it (well, today he gave us for the similes).
When we plow the soil, if it is deep , we are removing deep layers with the superficial ones, so that all the mixture is distributed evenly.
Now all the mineral and organic content of the soil will be available to plants.
Without contributing anything, we have greatly improved the fertility of the soil.
Not only that, since it is not about removing and disposing it to the crops. As we have a soft soil with greater aeration, all the nutrients and minerals that the organic matter houses are oxidized in greater volume and facilitate their absorption by the plants.
I WORK YES, BUT WITHOUT ABUSING
The balance of life allows us to use all the resources we want, up to a point. Any element considered as positive is so until it is abused, so that when it reaches the peak of profit, damages begin to appear due to its abuse.
In fact, the current trend is conservation tillage . That is, plow only when necessary, not always annually, since in the long run, all the physical benefits that we obtained with the soil are lost.
The best thing is that we dedicate a future post to it, since it is also a long and widespread topic. You already know that you have our social networks and the subscription so you don’t miss anything we post. | <urn:uuid:084eaf6d-c383-43ee-be56-8d22303f4c5a> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://gardenprue.com/importance-of-soil-plowing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323587963.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20211026231833-20211027021833-00445.warc.gz | en | 0.959209 | 1,523 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Construction safety begins with the most basic of the understanding of hazards and risks and covers up to the most advanced form of safety implementation at site as the hazards, risks and consequences (incidents/accidents) are measurable at the time of activity.
Construction safety is probably the most sought-after subject across the globe lead by OSHA standards of trainings, supervision and auditing.
The most important areas of focus during the training, policy formulation, auditing/risk assessment and supervision at site during construction are as follows:
Fall protection (scope, application, definitions)
Excavations (general requirements)
Excavations (requirements for protective systems)
Fall protection (training requirements)
Construction (general safety and health provisions)
Electrical (wiring methods, design and protection) | <urn:uuid:a067e53e-6e15-4bfc-b435-3d0180d10f69> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://www.wireconsultants.com/general-safety/construction-safety/?s= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662558030.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20220523132100-20220523162100-00416.warc.gz | en | 0.929646 | 177 | 2.890625 | 3 |
To maintain a healthy lifestyle, it is imperative to have a nutrient-dense diet. A diet rich in various vitamins and minerals can prove to be quite beneficial for our overall health. Apart from this, it can also help keep various diseases at bay. One such disease that is causing a toll on many people's health is Thalassemia. Thalassemia is a genetic disorder, which is characterised by abnormal formation of haemoglobin in the blood. This condition further causes improper transport of oxygen and destruction of red blood cells. People who have a low haemoglobin count tend to suffer from anaemia. Today marks World Thalassemia Day, which is celebrated every year on 8th May. It is of utmost importance to spread awareness about this disease and encourage its treatment. According to Consultant Nutritionist, Dr. Rupali Datta, "A person who is suffering from Thalassemia should have a balance diet, which should ideally include protein-rich foods. Other than this, foods rich in vitamin C can help in better absorption of iron."
Here is a list of five nutrient-dense foods that could prove to be beneficial for a person suffering from Thalassemia.
Eggs are an excellent source of protein and vitamins. They are a very healthy choice and have a good dose of folic acid. Intake of foods rich in folic acid may also help alleviate the signs of thalassemia.
Milk is power-packed with essential vitamins and minerals and is an excellent source of calcium. Consumption of milk everyday may help reduce symptoms of thalassemia.
3. Green Leafy Vegetables
Green leafy vegetables are a powerhouse of various nutrients. A balanced diet should include green leafy vegetables like spinach, lettuce etc.
Loaded with antioxidants, vitamin C, calcium and protein, broccoli can be termed as a super-veggie which can provide with a lot of health benefiting properties. Adding broccoli in your daily meals can help you maintain a balanced diet.
Papaya is a good source of vitamin C, which can be beneficial in absorbing iron at a faster rate. Consuming papaya in moderation could keep symptoms of thalassemia at bay. | <urn:uuid:484add64-f6df-428d-81c5-94af96ca82f7> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://www.ndtv.com/food/world-thalassemia-day-2018-top-5-nutrient-dense-foods-you-must-include-in-your-diet-1848914 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662644142.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20220529103854-20220529133854-00198.warc.gz | en | 0.946115 | 471 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Self-driving cars are no longer a futuristic idea. Companies like Mercedes, BMW, and Tesla have already released, or are soon to release, self-driving features that give the car some ability to drive itself.
Tech companies are also trying to pioneer the self-driving car. Recently, Google announced that it would be testing its prototype of a driverless car on roads this summer in California.
In an in-depth report from BI Intelligence, we analyze the self-driving car market by analyzing the current state of the self-driving car and provide an in-depth analysis for how we see the self-driving car progressing over the next five years. Our in-depth analysis describes the economic impact that self-driving cars can have and look at the current barriers preventing the self-driving car from coming to market.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:
- Self-driving cars are not some futuristic auto technology; in fact there are already cars with self-driving features on the road. We define the self-driving car as any car with features that allow it to accelerate, brake, and steer a car's course with limited or no driver interaction.
- We divide the self-driving car into two different types: semi-autonomous and fully autonomous. A fully autonomous vehicle can drive from point A to point B and encounter the entire range of on-road scenarios without needing any interaction from the driver. These will debut in 2019.
- By the end of the forecast period, we expect there will be nearly 10 million cars with one of our defined self-driving car features.
- Fully autonomous cars are further divided into user-operated and driverless vehicles. Because of regulatory and insurance questions, user-operated fully autonomous cars will come to market within the next five years, while driverless cars will remain a long ways off.
- The biggest benefits of self-driving cars are that they will help to make roads safer and people's lives easier. In the UK, KPMG estimates that self-driving cars will lead to 2,500 fewer deaths between 2014 and 2030.
- But the barriers to self-driving cars remain significant. Costs need to come down and regulations need to be clarified around certain self-driving car features before the vehicles fully take off among mainstream consumers.
In full, the report:
- Explains our definition of a self-driving car and breaks down the self-driving car into five levels of possible capabilities
- Sizes the current and expected self-driving car market, including shipment forecasts and expected installed base
- Analyzes how both car and tech companies are approaching the self-driving car
- Determines the benefits of the self-driving car
- Assesses the costs and regulations preventing the self-driving car from coming to market
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- Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> Purchase & Download Now | <urn:uuid:8a86a39e-bcaa-4fc6-8c2e-6cc4eb056d71> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://www.businessinsider.com/report-10-million-self-driving-cars-will-be-on-the-road-by-2020-2015-5-6 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463607636.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20170523122457-20170523142457-00046.warc.gz | en | 0.956961 | 670 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Chapter 1: Introduction
If you have not programmed in Python before, Chapter One provides background information about the language, variables, data types, functions, iteration, selection, and working with modules, and methodically walks through writing a few simple programs. Feel free to skip it if you are already comfortable with the Python programming language. After the first chapter, the following six chapters are fairly independent from one another; feel free to read them in whichever order you please, according to what strikes your curiosity.
Chapter 2: Penetration Testing with Python
Chapter Two introduces the idea of using the Python programming language to script attacks for penetration testing. The examples in the chapter include building a port scanner, constructing an SSH botnet, mass-compromising via FTP, replicating Conficker, and writing an exploit.
Chapter 3: Forensic Investigations with Python
Chapter Three utilizes Python for digital forensic investigations. This chapter provides examples for geo-locating individuals, recovering deleted items, extracting artifacts from the Windows registry, examining metadata in documents and images, and investigating application and mobile device artifacts.
Chapter 4: Network Traffic Analysis with Python
Chapter Four uses Python to analyze network traffic. The scripts in this chapter geo-locate IP addresses from packet captures, investigate popular DDoS toolkits, discover decoy scans, analyze botnet traffic, and foil intrusion detection systems.
Chapter 5: Wireless Mayhem with Python
Chapter Five creates mayhem for wireless and Bluetooth devices. The examples in this chapter show how to sniff and parse wireless traffic, build a wireless keylogger, identify hidden wireless networks, remotely command UAVs, identify malicious wireless toolkits in use, stalk Bluetooth radios, and exploit Bluetooth vulnerabilities.
Chapter 6: Web Recon With Python
Chapter Six examines using Python to scrape the web for information. The examples in this chapter include anonymously browsing the web via Python, working with developer APIs, scraping popular social media sites, and creating a spear-phishing email.
Chapter 7: Antivirus Evasion with Python
In the Final chapter, Chapter Seven, we build a piece of malware that evades antivirus systems. Additionally, we build a script for uploading our malware against an online antivirus scanner. | <urn:uuid:73cdcbb9-7bab-4a70-a541-2dafda63097d> | CC-MAIN-2014-15 | https://www.ethicalhacker.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9303.msg52948/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=9303&start=15 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1397609539337.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20140416005219-00479-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.839344 | 448 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Last month, a Japanese district court for the first time ruled that not allowing same-sex couples to marry is unconstitutional. The verdict by the Sapporo District Court was a result of simultaneous lawsuits against the nation demanding marriage equality as well as compensation for psychological damages. Although the court rejected demands for reparation of 1 million yen (US$9100), it was a symbolic triumph not only for the couples, but also for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Japan.
In principle, the right to marriage is guaranteed by Article 24 of the Japanese Constitution, which holds “marriage shall be based only on the mutual consent of both sexes and it shall be maintained through mutual cooperation with the equal rights of husband and wife as a basis”. The Japanese government has consistently denied the right of same-sex marriage based on the interpretation that Article 24 guarantees the right to heterosexual marriage. Moreover, the Civil Code and Family Register Act in Japan refer to conditions of marriage between a “husband and wife”, but do not mention any conditions for same-sex marriage.
LGBT partnerships have been gradually recognised in Japanese society.
During the Sapporo trial, lawyers for the plaintiffs pointed out that the purpose of Article 24 is to ensure equality of both sexes and prohibit forced marriages, and that it does not deny the right to same-sex marriage. Takebe Tomoko, as a presiding judge, ruled that not allowing same sex couples to enjoy legal benefits that heterosexual couples can receive should be regarded as a violation of Article 14 of the Japanese Constitution, which guarantees “all of the people are equal under the law”. Furthermore, the “right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” stipulated in Article 13 was raised by the lawyers for the plaintiffs as another legal basis, although this article is perhaps applicable by analogy rather than founded in legal principle.*
LGBT partnerships have been gradually recognised in Japanese society. At a local government level, an ordinance regarding recognition of same sex partnerships was introduced in Shibuya Ward of Tokyo in 2015, albeit this is not legally binding. Other local governments have taken similar measures to recognise same-sex unions. It is true that there are opposition and cautious attitudes towards the legalisation of same-sex marriage among the Japanese public, but surveys have also shown up to 80% support for the introduction of same-sex marriage.
Most legislators of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) appeared to be against the introduction of same-sex marriage during the Upper House election of 2016, but through thorough deliberations inside the party, the LDP finally approved an outline of a bill to promote understanding of LGBT in a special committee held at the headquarters in March 2019. In June that year, Otsuji Kanako, Japan’s first publicly lesbian lawmaker and a member of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, played a leading role in drafting a marriage equality bill. While the LDP-drafted bill is designed to propagate the understanding of LGBT couples, the bill drafted by opposition parties aims to legalise same-sex marriage.
An increasing number of LDP parliamentarians, such as Kono Taro (the minister in charge of the coronavirus vaccine rollout), Kawamura Takeo (former education minister) and Noda Seiko (former internal affairs and communications minister), have begun supporting marriage equality. Komeito, as the LDP’s coalition government partner, as well as opposition parties are also supportive of the right to same-sex marriage.
Hence, it would be possible for Japan’s parliamentarians to revise the existing laws and create the necessary legal framework to introduce a same-sex marriage system. Although constitutional revision would be ideal, it is the most difficult option and not a must either.
Globally speaking, since the Netherlands became the first country to introduce a same-sex marriage system in 2001, countries stretching from Argentina to the US, Denmark to South Africa and many others have recognised marriage equality with necessary legal action. Japan is the only country in the group of seven developed nations (G7) that does not fully recognise same-sex marriage.
Human Rights Watch submitted a petition of 106,250 signatories in support of an LGBT Equality Act to the LDP and other political parties last month, urging them to legalise same-sex marriage prior to the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics Games of July 2021. Indeed, the Olympics Charter prohibits “discrimination of any kind”. Now that the judiciary has made a historic judgement, politicians are responsible for taking the next step to legalise same-sex marriage in Japan.
* This sentence was updated following publication to reflect that the argument was raised by lawyers for the plaintiffs. | <urn:uuid:910b4b17-1013-4c63-86ef-a5cfb0d9d829> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/legalising-same-sex-marriage-japan | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320300722.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20220118032342-20220118062342-00244.warc.gz | en | 0.964176 | 962 | 3.171875 | 3 |
The number of representatives that a state sends to the U.S. House of Representatives depends on the size of the state's population. The total number of representatives remains fixed at 435, and states get more or fewer representatives as their population increases or decreases relative to other states.Continue Reading
At the time of the First Congress in 1789, there were only 13 states and a total of 65 representatives, each of whom represented 30,000 citizens. As the new country expanded, the number of representatives also expanded, and the size of their constituencies began to grow as well. By 1815, there were 83 representatives in Congress, and by 1911, there were 391. At this time, Congress passed the Apportionment Act of 1911. This act capped the size of the House of Representatives at 435 seats.
In 1929, the Congress passed the Reapportionment Act of 1929, which set the procedures for reapportionment. As a result of this law, the number of representatives per state fluctuates depending on its population in relation to that of other states as determined by the decennial U. S. Census. As of 2014, the state with the largest number of representatives is California, with 53, while Vermont, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota and Delaware, the smallest states, have one representative apiece. As of 2010, there were an average of 710,767 constituents in every House district, though in some states with small populations, the number is much lower. Wyoming, for example, has only 568,000 residents.Learn more about Politics | <urn:uuid:d5caa9e5-9ca5-4301-9df9-ca14ee3bf28b> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | https://www.reference.com/government-politics/many-representatives-state-2ec9fc0a7fbb447f | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221216718.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20180820160510-20180820180510-00652.warc.gz | en | 0.964239 | 316 | 4.3125 | 4 |
Gianforte lobbies Interior to delist Northern Continental Divide grizzlies
CHOTEAU — Grizzly bears are moving into parts of Montana that hadn’t seen the animals in more than a century, increasingly coming into conflict with people and livestock, and leading to calls for reduced protections and more aggressive management. On Saturday, at the Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Ranger District office in Choteau, Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt met with an invitation-only audience that was nearly unanimous in its assessment of the issue. The first half of the hour-long meeting was closed to media. The second half comprised the presentation of local concerns to Bernhardt and a brief Q&A with reporters.
The number of livestock killed by grizzly bears has skyrocketed in recent years, said John Steuber, state director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services in Montana.
Kristen Kipp, a member of the Blackfeet tribe, said ranchers on the Blackfeet reservation lose about 3 percent of their cattle to grizzly depredation, and that for some reservation ranchers the number is closer to 10 percent.
“As the grizzly bear population grows and expands, there’s going to be more livestock conflict,” Steuber said. “They’re now over 50 miles east of the mountains. They’re out in the wheat and barley country.”
Wildlife Services, which is tasked with resolving “wildlife conflicts to allow people and wildlife to coexist,” is managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and is one among a partnership of federal and state agencies that manage the bears.
The meeting was organized by Montana congressman Greg Gianforte to lobby Bernhardt to remove federal Endangered Species Act protections for grizzly bears. The event was attended by livestock producers; county, state, and federal government officials; representatives of hunting organizations; and members of a new grizzly bear council organized by Gov. Steve Bullock.
Public safety was a primary concern raised by attendees, who said bears are increasingly seen in town, on school playgrounds, and near homes. Ranchers also suggested that the federal government take a more active role in dealing with “problem bears,” and advocated increased funding for Wildlife Services.
GIANFORTE: DELIST GRIZZLIES
Grizzlies currently inhabit about 2 percent of their historical range, and are largely confined to two isolated populations. About 1,000 bears live in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, which includes Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness, and about 700 live in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which includes parts of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho.
The federal government has twice attempted to delist Greater Yellowstone grizzlies as a distinct population segment, but federal judges overturned both rulings — most recently in September 2018 — after challenges by wildlife advocates. The federal government and the state governments of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho are currently appealing that decision.
The government has said it is also considering delisting the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem grizzly population. But U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grizzly recovery coordinator Hilary Cooley said last year that decision will likely wait until the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem case is resolved.
At the media session following the meeting, MTFP asked Bernhardt about delisting grizzlies in the NCDE. He said that would require a regulatory process, and “We haven’t started that process publicly, so we’ll evaluate that.”
“We heard some powerful stories from folks that are living in an environment that’s different even than what they were accustomed to just a few years ago,” Bernhardt said. “In terms of my thinking as I walk out of here, I mean, it’s very simple. We need to make sure we’re properly allocating resources.”
Gianforte had a more succinct answer: “The bear has recovered, and they need to be delisted.”
Donors associated with the livestock industry contributed more than $275,000 to Gianforte’s 2018 re-election campaign, the most of any single industry, according to the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics’ campaign finance-tracking website OpenSecrets.org. Gianforte is now running for governor. If grizzly bears are delisted, the state will assume management of the bears and likely institute a hunt.
As Interior Secretary, Bernhardt oversees the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages species protected by the Endangered Species Act. Under Bernhardt, the department has implemented changes to ESA rules to assign dollar figures to the cost of protecting a species, lessen habitat protections, and make it less likely that a species can qualify for protection necessitated by habitat disruption caused by climate change.
Bernhardt, a former oil and gas lobbyist, has said those rules help modernize the act, while wildlife advocates say they weaken necessary protections. Gianforte has introduced legislation that would further modify the act.
USFWS has attempted to delist 36 species in the past 10 years, and federal courts have blocked 12 of those attempts, according to the Georgetown Environmental Law Review. Many of the attempts have focused on distinct population segments, but judges, including U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen in the Yellowstone grizzly case, have tended to rule against such “balkanizations” of populations, which don’t consider the impact on the species as a whole.
Over the past few decades, grizzlies in the NCDE have lived mostly in a “recovery zone” that is 85 percent public land and includes Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness. But that has changed in recent years.
The area occupied by grizzly bears in the NCDE has increased by 42 percent since 2004, and by 25 percent since 2010, according to the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
The increased dispersal shows that the grizzly population has recovered, said Tony Schoonen, chief of staff of the Boone and Crockett Club, the Missoula-based national hunting advocacy group that hosted a tour of the club-owned Rasmuson Wildlife Conservation Center in Dupuyer for Bernhardt and Gianforte Saturday morning before the meeting.
But leading grizzly researcher David Mattson said in an interview that it’s unlikely the population of one of the planet’s slowest-reproducing terrestrial mammals has increased by an equivalent percentage over the same time period. Mattson worked for two decades on the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team responsible for federal research on Yellowstone grizzlies, and his studies provided evidence used to block the delisting of Yellowstone grizzlies.
Rather, the bears are likely spreading out in search of food, Mattson said. Over the past three decades, whitebark pine, whose seeds are a staple in many grizzly diets, has been decimated by whitebark pine blister rust in the NCDE. Additionally, increased fires have led to fewer berries on the landscape. The bears are dispersing to look for food, and on the Rocky Mountain Front, that food is often livestock, Mattson said.
“The bears actually face a lot of uncertainty right now,” Mattson said.
In his ruling blocking the delisting of Greater Yellowstone bears, Judge Christensen found that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had not properly considered the impact delisting would have on the species as a whole. The judge also found that the service should not have ruled to delist because the GYE population likely does not contain enough genetic diversity to sustain its population in isolation.
That finding suggested that in order for the GYE population to qualify for delisting, the population needs to be linked with the NCDE population, from which it has been isolated for more than a century.
With bears in both ecosystems expanding their ranges, reconnection of the populations is drawing closer. FWP found that at their nearest approach, southwest of Butte, the distance between the two occupied ranges is just 45 miles. Still, barriers including private property and roads exist. No Yellowstone grizzly has been confirmed to cross Interstate 90, for example.
Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks Director Martha Williams said in an interview Saturday that the agency considers both populations to be recovered, and that habitat connectivity is not required for delisting.
Williams also said reports of increasing predation of livestock and public safety concerns at Saturday’s meeting were to be expected.
“I don’t think it’s any huge surprise when you have more bears moving into places where they haven’t always been,” Williams said. “It seems sometimes there are fewer conflicts where bears have been for a while, where people have figured out tools to help keep them out of trouble.”
‘TOO MANY BEARS’
Gianforte initially invited Bernhardt to Montana in September, but that meeting was canceled at the last minute. At the time, Dave McEwen, a past president of the Montana Wool Growers Association, said the organization had asked Gianforte to increase Wildlife Services funding to manage grizzly bears.
“We should be moving from recovery management to management, and we’re not doing that,” McEwen said at Saturday’s meeting. “I ask that Wildlife Services lead in that regard.”
“It’s crisis management at this point,” Gianforte added.
Kipp, a member of the governor’s grizzly bear advisory council, said that while her yard in Browning has electric fencing, and she has dogs trained to alert her family to bears, she often sees bears nearby when her children are outside playing.
As predation and intrusion into human environments has increased, so have grizzly mortalities. Both ecosystem populations had record mortality levels in 2018, with 51 bears killed in the NCDE, and 69 in the GYE. That amounts to about 10 percent of the estimated population in the GYE and 5 percent in the NCDE — numbers wildlife advocates say are unsustainable.
The leading cause of grizzly death is management removals by state wildlife agencies in response to cattle depredations and bears getting into human foods and attractants.
Wildlife Services investigates depredations of livestock by mountain lions, wolves, and grizzly bears, enabling ranchers to claim reimbursement of losses from the Montana Livestock Loss Board. Federal officials investigated at least 156 reported incidents of grizzly bear predation in fiscal year 2019, which ended Sept. 30, Steuber said. In fiscal year 2013, the division investigated just 25 incidents of predation. An incident may include more than one animal killed, he said.
Chris Servheen, who retired in 2016 after working as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s grizzly bear recovery coordinator for 35 years, said later in an interview that the NCDE population has met recovery goals. Even so, Servheen said, he doesn’t think Wildlife Services needs more funding to deal with the bears. He said the agency already promptly responds to reported depredations, and that it’s not clear what additional funding would accomplish.
So far this year, the board has awarded $168,996.01 in depredation reimbursements. Grizzlies accounted for fewer than half of the 251 losses attributed to predators.
Doreen Gillespie, a member of the Livestock Loss Board, said at the meeting that many depredations by large predators like bears can be difficult to prove, suggesting that actual grizzly depredation numbers are higher than reported.
“Those are just the losses that we know about,” she said.
Gillespie also said that livestock losses aren’t the only impact on Rocky Mountain Front residents, who have to make additional accommodations to the bears’ presence. For example, Gillespie said, she has to fence off her grain bins and keep her dog food indoors.
Her husband, Bruce “Butch” Gillespie, a state senator from Ethridge, described bears as an economic drain on the area and said state resources currently spent investigating and reimbursing livestock losses could be better applied to infrastructure, schools, and law enforcement.
“There’s way too many bears,” he said. “How do you manage bears out where there is private property? Sure, the Bob Marshall, you bet. We don’t want to get rid of all the bears, because we don’t want to go through this endangered species thing again, but there has to be this happy medium.”
The article was published at Gianforte lobbies Interior to delist Northern Continental Divide grizzlies | <urn:uuid:3f21e09d-c830-467b-9617-fa3de74c0622> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.midyearmediareview.com/gianforte-lobbies-interior-to-delist-northern-continental-divide-grizzlies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296943747.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20230321225117-20230322015117-00091.warc.gz | en | 0.958521 | 2,669 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Arrival of the Freed Slaves
The Need for Removing the Freed Slaves from the US
In the early 1800s, freed blacks in the US were a growing part of the population. A lot of these people had run away from their slave masters and others gained their freedoms upon the deaths of their masters. The promotion of equality of all men by the British and growth in this population created fear in the white population.
Removing the black race from America had been introduced a few decades earlier with many leaders of that era not wanting the mixture of the white and black races. This class had limited legal status in many states and there was concern that they would not integrate well with the majority white society. There was also fear that the black race was inferior to the whites and would not effectively compete with the white population but rather become a lasting underclass.
The idea of colonization was not new in 1820. Thomas Jefferson, for one, had broached it in his Notes on the State of Virginia, written just five years after the Declaration of Independence. “Among the Romans emancipation required but one effort,” Jefferson wrote. “The slave [usually of the same race], when made free, might mix with, without staining the blood of his master. But with us a second is necessary, unknown to history. When freed, he is to be removed beyond the reach of mixture.”
The American Colonization Society
The American Colonization Society (ACS) was established on December 28, 1816 by white Americans as a means of transporting freed black slaves from the Americas back to Africa. The organization was founded by a Presbyterian minister named Robert Finley and other influential Americans like Bushrod Washington (nephew of US President George Washington and the Society’s first president), Francis Scott Key and Henry Clay.
It was created with the intension to”…promote and execute a plan for colonizing the free people of colour, residing in the United States, in Africa, or such other place as Congress shall deem most expedient” (ACS, 1831). This was the means to rid America of the black population.
Another advocate for the ACS was the British Abolitionist Movement which was already in effect by the 1790’s. The ACS was supported by a small group of white men, local churches and auxiliary state organizations. Its preliminary evaluation of the West African Coast in order to find a suitable land for a settlement was charged to Samuel J. Mills and Ebenezer Burgess.
According to Bushrod Washington, these were “gentlemen possessing all the qualifications requisite for the important trust confided to them” (ACS, 1818). They visited the British colony at Shebro Island, and reported to the US government that the land was favorable for resettling the freed slaves.
Resettling the Freed Slaves
After about 6 months of recruiting, the Elizabeth (sometimes called the Mayflower of Liberia) left the port of New York on January 31, 1820 with 86 passengers. There were 28 men aboard and the rest were women and children. This first group under the leadership of former US Marine Captain Reverend Samuel Bacon, landed on Shebro Island, Sierra Leone in February 1820.
Although they were given mud shelters upon arrival, living conditions were not favorable for them. They were in unfamiliar territory, had no knowledge of living in the tropics and besides their distant African heritage, had nothing in common with the indigenous tribes.
Another problem was malaria and other diseases that were foreign to the settlers. Their only doctor, John Crozier, died a few weeks after arrival. In September, Agent Bacon travelled to Freetown to get some food and medicine for the settlers. He too fell ill and died at Cape Shilling. By this time, 49 of the company of 86 had died.
Daniel Coker succeeded Bacon and decided to take the rest of the people to Fourah Bay. The ACS headquarters heard the news and again solicited federal aid for the colony. More agents were sent along with 35 freed slaves who boarded the Nautilus at Hampton Roads, Virginia on January 21, 1821. This vessel arrived at Fourah Bay in March.
At this time, US President Monroe appointed US Navy surgeon Eli Ayres and Navy officer Robert Stockton as his personal envoy. They arrived at Fourah Bay via the Navy schooner Alligator to meet another wave of the African fever. They travelled southward in search for a better location for the colony. Upon reaching the St. Paul River, they tried to land near the mouth of the river but the natives would not permit them for fear that they were involved in some slavery venture.
Further south, they found the Cape Mesurado (so named by the Portuguese) area more suitable for their settlement. This land at the end of the Mesurado River was called “Ducuh” by the Dey or “Dugbuh” by the Bassa. The native kings would not sell under any circumstances as a land could be leased or lent out for temporary use by strangers, but could never be sold to outsiders. Stockton and Ayres would not take no for an answer and King Long Peter was forced to sell his land to the ACS when Stockton held a pistol to the king’s head. The agreement to take the land was made at gun point and the land was sold for guns and other goods worth US $300.00.
When the freed slaves arrived from Sierra Leone, the native warriors encamped on the beach and would not allow them to land on Cape Mesurado. They therefore landed on Dozoa Island (later named Perseverance Island and then renamed Providence Island) out of the reach of the natives and stayed there for 3 months. Eventually, they moved to the Cape and established the Colony at Cape Mesurado.
Cassell, Abayomi. Liberia: History of the First African Republic. New York. Fountainhead Publishers, 1970. Print.
Ciment, James. Another America : the Story of Liberia and the Former Slaves Who Ruled It. 1st ed. New York: Hill and Wang, 2013. Print.
First Annual Report of the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States. N.p., American Colonization Society, 01 Jan. 1818. Print.
Guannu, Joseph Saye. Liberian History Before 1857. Hicksville, New York. Exposition Press. 1977. Print.
Kapuściński, Ryszard. The Shadow of the Sun. 1st ed. New York: A.A. Knopf, 2001. Print.
Liebenow, J. Liberia : the Quest for Democracy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987. Print.
Ndulo, Muna. Security, Reconstruction, and Reconciliation : When the Wars End. London ;New York: University College London Press, 2007. Print.
Starr, Frederick. Liberia : Description, History, Problems. Chicago: s.n., 1913. Print.
Wilson, Charles Morrow. Liberia: Black Africa in Microcosm. [1st ed.]. Harper & Row, 1971. Print. | <urn:uuid:2f7c7ca9-767f-40c4-8eea-0d5a61a474a8> | CC-MAIN-2021-25 | https://liberiainfo.co/prd/historical-periods/arrival-of-the-freed-slaves/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-25/segments/1623487620971.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20210615084235-20210615114235-00086.warc.gz | en | 0.966009 | 1,496 | 3.84375 | 4 |
Determine unknown number if you know that difference between five times and triple of number is 42.
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In 3A class are 27 students. One-third got a B in math and the rest got A. How many students received a B in math? | <urn:uuid:0f6d0125-61a0-4594-828d-1347cc248972> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | https://www.hackmath.net/en/example/1423 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221211146.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20180816171947-20180816191947-00415.warc.gz | en | 0.969368 | 644 | 3.234375 | 3 |
Research & Commentary: National ‘Common Core’ Curriculum Standards
The Common Core State Standards Initiative, supported and created by the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers, sets grade-by-grade content requirements for K–12 in English language arts and math. The consortium is also developing science and history/social studies standards.
The Obama administration made adoption of the Common Core a criterion for winning part of $4.35 billion in federal Race to the Top grants in 2010, and states receiving Title I appropriations in the future may be required to adopt the standards. The administration and Common Core supporters say the standards will harmonize wide-ranging tests, curriculum, and teaching approaches and set a high bar for student achievement.
Forty-two states and the District of Columbia adopted the standards in 2009 and 2010 in hopes of winning Race to the Top money. In 2011, the Minnesota and South Carolina legislatures, which had previously adopted some of the Common Core, decided the standards represented too much federal control over education and began dismantling them.
In May 2011, more than 150 policymakers, researchers, educators, and citizens signed and released an "anti-manifesto" against adoption of Common Core, saying it will lead to a national curriculum and warning the Department of Education is already developing such a curriculum against explicit prohibitions in the department’s authorizing legislation and all federal law thereafter. Common Core critics also say national curriculum, criteria, and tests will squelch innovation and limit options for the nation’s widely different families and students.
The following documents offer additional information on Common Core national standards.
More than 150 education leaders signed this "anti-manifesto" against the federal government’s Common Core initiative and the Albert Shanker Institute’s manifesto, "A Call for Common Content." They decry the trend towards centralizing and federalizing education and remind the U.S. Department of Education that federal law prohibits it from creating or supervising curriculum in any way. A one-size-fits-all curriculum, they argue, will quash educational freedom, creativity, and innovation and undermine education in America.
This report from the journal of the American Educational Research Association says the Common Core standards represent a significant departure from states’ previous individual standards and international standards held by other countries. The alignment between states’ standards and the Common Core is generally a statistically low 0.2. The alignment is even lower when comparing states whose students do best on national standardized tests. In addition, the Common Core represents an "opportunity to create a national curriculum" because so many states have adopted them and the federal government has strongly and financially supported the standards and curriculum and test development based on them.
At the Chronicle of Higher Education, Peter Wood examines the Common Core standards in detail: their antecedents, advocates, detractors, and the controversy over their adoption. He lists the players involved and discusses their influence, calling the standards a "sweeping" change to American schools.
This New York Times article goes behind the scenes to track millions of dollars in Gates Foundation money spent to generate support for Common Core standards and develop the standards and curriculum attached to them. This included millions spent to get presidential candidates to focus on specific education issues in 2008, funding the groups creating and advocating the Common Core, and influencing requirements for Race to the Top.
Manhattan Institute fellow Jay Greene demonstrates that the Department of Education’s funding of curriculum development and use of federal money to incentivize states to do its bidding violates the 1979 law authorizing the department. That law specifically prohibits the department from exercising "any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum … or over the selection or content of library resources, textbooks, or other instructional materials."
When the federal government ties millions of dollars in school funding to adopting specific standards and curriculum, argues Jane Robbins of the American Principles Project, it essentially mandates them. Parents have no recourse to change the mandates when unelected officials at the Department of Education create them, she notes.
The Pioneer Institute’s Jamie Gass reports that Massachusetts’ standards and related reforms propelled the state to the top of the nation in student achievement. With the state having discarded its standards in favor of the weaker Common Core, he says, it has retreated from self-government and become subject to special-interest groups while lowering its standards to those of low-performing states like Mississippi and Alabama.
Nothing in this Research & Commentary is intended to influence the passage of legislation, and it does not necessarily represent the views of The Heartland Institute. For further information on this and other topics, visit the School Reform News Web site at http://www.schoolreform-news.org, The Heartland Institute’s Web site at http://www.heartland.org, and PolicyBot, Heartland’s free online research database, at www.policybot.org.
If you have any questions about this issue or The Heartland Institute, contact Research Fellow Joy Pullmann, at 312/377-4000 or email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:c02b448c-0f40-477a-b51f-2bea273cd23d> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://heartland.org/policy-documents/research-commentary-national-%E2%80%98common-core%E2%80%99-curriculum-standards | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386164567400/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204134247-00003-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920163 | 1,038 | 3.265625 | 3 |
You know that an air conditioner brings joy to your life during the hot summer months, but are you ever curious about how it works? An air conditioner essentially works by transferring heat and humidity found inside your home to the outside. In order to understand why an air conditioner would fail (covered in next month’s blog), you must first understand how it functions.
To break it down, there are 7 essential parts of an air conditioner.
The evaporator, comprised of cooling coils, removes heat from the air using a refrigerant. A refrigerant is a substance that changes states from a low-pressure gas to a high-pressure liquid as it absorbs heat. As a blower ‘blows’ air over the coils, this substance cools the air. At the exterior of the house, a condenser, made up of hot coils accumulates all of the hot air and releases it back into the outside world.
In order for the evaporator and condenser to work together in unison, a compressor, with the aid of a fan, exists to pump refrigerant between the two, chilling the air, dispersing and dissipating it as it travels. Within the air conditioning unit, there is also a filter whose job it is to remove particles, like dust and debris, from the air in your home. Lastly, a thermostat exists to regulate the level of cool air being distributed.
These 7 parts are essential for the lower temperature bliss you crave during the humid summer months. If you are in need of an air conditioner, contact us! Our knowledgeable technicians would be happy to help you find the right unit to fit your home! | <urn:uuid:1aaafa2f-05ed-49fc-8cc8-ce497158bff0> | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | https://afterglow.ca/blog/air-conditioner-deconstruction-functions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656103341778.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20220627195131-20220627225131-00502.warc.gz | en | 0.928882 | 352 | 2.984375 | 3 |
As per an investigation being taken out by food charity Sustain, it has been found that some of the items being served by popular eating joints like McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut, are better than the NHS when it comes to serving healthy food.
The revelation has led Sustain to ask the NHS to introduce such measures, which can make it compulsory for them to abide compulsory food standards. Such sort of compulsion is prevalent in schools and prisons in the UK.
The survey has found that some of the food items being served to patients in the NHS contain three quarter more salt than present in Big Mac, which is served by McDonald's. In addition, it has also been found that the NHS curry contain six times more fat than in a Zinger burger.
In order to reach at the above given result, the study researchers assessed the nutritional value of 25 meals. All the tested meals were part of the NHS supply meals, which means that the tested items were given at all the NHS hospitals across the country.
"Hospitals should provide tasty and healthy meals, rather than ones that could lead to more health problems", said Katharine Jenner, who is a researcher.
- Fire threatens entire city in Alberta
- Authorities order evacuation of entire city in Alberta due to wildfire
- Mitel Networks Corp of Canada to Buy Polycom Inc for Almost $2 Billion
- Reportedly Bombardier Inc. is Nearing a Deal with Delta for C Series Jetliners
- Review shows alcohol has no net health benefits | <urn:uuid:426dd9ab-fc6d-4e38-8cf9-1de6e8bce75d> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://topnews.us/content/248395-nhs-food-high-calories | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257825124.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071025-00042-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978492 | 308 | 2.59375 | 3 |
There are advantages and disadvantages to using stock indexes and the index funds that track them. An index is an imaginary portfolio of securities representing a particular portion of the broader market. The stock index can provide a statistical measurement of the stock prices in that portfolio. An index is typically constructed using the shares of leading companies in the economy or in a certain sector of the economy.
Indexes first became popular with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) created by Charles Dow in 1896. The DJIA was the second stock index, created after the Dow Jones Transportation Average. The DJIA became an important tool for tracking the strength of the larger economy. Since then, other stock indexes have become popular, including the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ Composite. There are also many indexes that track other sectors of the market such as bonds and commodities.
Many low-cost index funds track stock indexes. Some prominent investors such as Warren Buffett have championed the use of index funds for the average investor. However, there are significant negatives associated with the use of index funds.
Advantages of Indexes
Stock indexes provide an easy way to track the overall health of the economy. By looking at one statistical measurement, it is easy to gauge the current state of the economy. Further, the historical data of index movements and prices can provide some guidance to investors as to how the markets have reacted to certain situations in the past. This can allow for investors to make better decisions.
Advantages of Index Funds
There are also a number of advantages to index funds. The main advantage is, since they merely track stock indexes, they are passively managed. The fees on these index funds are low because there is no active management. This can save investors a lot of money over the course of their lives since less of their investment gains go toward fees and expenses.
Academic studies have shown index funds outperform active management funds over time. Even a manager who consistently beats the market can show diminishing performance. Thus, it often makes sense for many investors to include index funds as a portion of their portfolios.
Disadvantages of Indexes
There are issues with how stock indexes are calculated that can lead to disadvantages. For example, the DJIA is a price-weighted index. The index is calculated by taking the sum of the prices of all 30 stocks in the index. This sum is then divided by a divisor. The divisor is adjusted based on stock splits, spinoffs or other changes in the market.
Stocks with higher prices have a larger impact on movements in the index as compared to lower-priced stocks. As a price-weighted index, no consideration is given to the relative size of the industry sector of the stock or its market capitalization. Another criticism of the DJIA is it only represents a thin slice of the blue-chip universe since it only contains 30 stocks.
On the other hand, the S&P 500 is a market-cap-weighted index. It is calculated by taking the adjusted market capitalization of all the stocks in the index and then dividing it by a divisor. Similar to the DJIA, the divisor is adjusted for stock splits, spinoffs and other market changes. The drawback to the S&P 500 is the index is weighted toward companies with larger capitalizations. The stock prices for Apple and ExxonMobil have a much greater influence on the level of the index than a company with a smaller cap. The index does not provide enough exposure to smaller-cap companies.
5 Reasons To Avoid Index Funds
Disadvantages of Index Funds
There are also disadvantages to using index funds for investments. A major drawback is the lack of flexibility in an index fund. Stock indexes had a great deal of volatility in 2008 and 2009. The index fund merely followed the stock indexes to the downside. However, a good active manager may have been able to limit the impact of the downside volatility by hedging the portfolio or moving positions to cash. Further, index funds can only provide average results at best. There is no opportunity to outperform the market and make massive gains. There is an opportunity cost to using index funds. | <urn:uuid:f32a5234-b767-4da7-9433-3bb9321878a3> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/011316/pros-and-cons-indexes.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875145747.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20200223062700-20200223092700-00550.warc.gz | en | 0.951942 | 846 | 2.8125 | 3 |
€30.74 price incl. VAT and excl. KITLV discount
The Javanese realms of Surakarta and Yogyakarta in Central Java were of prime importance in the politics of the Netherlands Indies, located, as they were, at the heart of the Dutch colonial state. This book covers forty years of the history of the Javanese Principalities in the post-Java War period (1830-1870). The first part deals with the delicate political balance that was constructed between each Javanese Kraton and the Dutch colonial state, or ‘Kumpeni’ (Company), as it was still called by the Javanese. Attention is given not only to Dutch-Javanese relations, but also to the various interconnections between the Javanese princes themselves. The second part is devoted to an indepth analysis of the Javanese response to the new pressures imposed on them. Finally, this monograph offers a review of social and economic changes taking place in Central Java in the midnineteenth century, largely as a result of the rise of private plantation enterprise after 1830. Vincent J.H. Houben is currently a Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Berlin in Germany. | <urn:uuid:e503f547-ab85-46e3-8899-fb437b7393a7> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://www.kitlv.nl/nl/product/kraton-and-kumpeni/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510520.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20230929154432-20230929184432-00761.warc.gz | en | 0.957539 | 254 | 2.5625 | 3 |
At the beginning of the 19th century the effects of snake bites and poisoned arrows clearly indicated that drugs could be introduced into the body through a hole in the skin and have a systemic effect.
In the 1830s the first attempts to imitate snakes or South American Indians involved removing a patch of epidermis with a blistering agent and then painting a drug (usually opium) on the raw surface. In France this was known as “la méthode endermique” (Howard-Jones, 1947; Mogey, 1953). Less drastic and painful was to lace the tip of a vaccination lancet with opium paste and make multiple pricks along the course of a nerve – a method first described in France in 1836.
There is some dispute about whether an Irishman, a Frenchman or a Scot should be credited with the invention of subcutaneous injections. In 1844, Francis Rynd (1811–1861) of Dublin treated a woman with trigeminal neuralgia with morphine acetate which was introduced by punctures along the course of the supraorbital nerve. Rynd’s instrument, which he did not describe until 1861, was a trocar and cannula onto which he screwed a reservoir through which the morphine solution was introduced by gravity.
The Frenchman, Charles-Gabriel Pravaz (1791–1853), a vetinarian, made a metal syringe with a screw plunger and hollow needle which he used to inject iron perchloride into the arteries of horses and sheep so as to coagulate them. He suggested that this could be used in humans to treat aneurysms.
The first subcutaneous injection with what we would recognise as a syringe (as opposed to Rynd’s gravity fed apparatus) was made by Dr Alexander Wood (1817–1884) of Edinburgh. Wood used a syringe made by the London instrument maker Ferguson to inject morphine along the course of a nerve. Clearly, Wood was aiming for local anaesthesia although he did note that some of his patients became extremely sleepy, which implied that the morphine must have reached the brain. Wood’s original paper in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal in 1854 did not attract much attention, but after another in the British Medical Journal in 1858, he was deluged with letters from doctors asking where the equipment could be obtained (Wood, 1858). The syringe that Wood used, albeit much damaged and sans needle, is preserved in the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
A young London surgeon, Charles Hunter, pointed out that analgesic injections did not have to be given in the vicinity of nerves but worked equally well when injected into any area of the body. Hunter called his injections “hypodermic”, perhaps to distinguish them from those of Alexander Wood with whom he conducted a long correspondence in The Medical Times and Gazette about priority for recognising the remote effects following injection.
Opiates were freely available in Victorian Britain and it did not take long for opium eaters to become injectors. In 1870, George Eliot’s friend, the Leeds physician Clifford Albutt (1836–1925), warned that:
“We are now being consulted by patients who have been injecting themselves daily or more than daily during long periods of time for neuralgias which seem nevertheless as far from cure as they were at the outset.”
In short, many middle- and upper-class women had become addicted and often used injections of morphine to get to sleep. Popularisation of self-injection was helped by such devices as mini-syringes which one could attach to one’s key chain and “automatic injectors” (Anon, 1875).
The introduction of insulin in 1922–3 greatly increased the market for syringes. In spite of the fact that addicts gave themselves injections without problem, the idea that (lower class) people with diabetes should be allowed to, or would be able to, inject themselves seemed to many doctors outrageous, perhaps because it would transfer power to the patient, which, of course, it did.
The question of the practicability of self-injection of insulin was soon answered. In 1923, Joslin remarked that “intelligent patients can be taught the use of diet and insulin in a week” (Joslin, 1923), while for RD Lawrence, “one minute’s practical demonstration of an injection will teach a patient more than pages of writing [since] all doctors and, indeed, many patients are quite familiar with hypodermic injections” (Lawrence, 1925). Lawrence made his patients give their own injections to free them from dependence on a nurse or doctor and claimed that few, if any, had difficulties after the first week.
By the 1920s the metal syringes with leather plungers in use before World War I had been replaced by all-glass syringes originally made by the Parisian instrument maker H Wülfing Luer. People with diabetes were advised to boil them before each injection, a practice which led to many breakages and consequent expense. Needles had to be resharpened regularly with a stone. Proprietary metal or Bakelite cases in which to store the syringe in alcohol did not come until the 1930s.
Other innovations followed quickly as the demand for syringes grew. The Yale Luer-Lok was designed and patented by Becton Dickinson (BD) in 1925 and stopped the needle coming off or damaging the end of the syringe. Apart from breakage from boiling, other syringe problems were jamming of the plunger due to being gummed up by residue from the methylated spirits in which it was kept, and loosening of the plunger which led to inaccuracies in dosing.
In England, the first strength of insulin to be marketed was 20 U/mL (later called single strength) and syringes were made with 20 marks per mL. When 40 and 80 U/mL insulins (double and quadruple strength) were introduced the old syringe (British Standard 1619) was retained so that marks on the syringe and units no longer corresponded. This caused endless trouble because, depending on which strength of insulin was being used, a mark could be 1, 2 or 4 units. In the USA, and less commonly in Europe, syringes were made with dual scales, which caused halving or doubling of the dose if the patient inadvertently used the wrong one.
The confusion from different strengths of insulin was solved by the U 100 changeover in the early 1980s when a standard syringe was made in which units and marks again corresponded.
The first plastic syringe for venepuncture was produced by BD in 1961 and the first insulin syringe with a permanently attached needle in 1969. The debate in England as to whether plastic insulin syringes should be available on prescription was long and surreal. In the real world many, if not most, patients reused plastic syringes for a week or more, a practice which was shown to be safe. The Department of Health (DH), advised by the syringe manufacturers that reuse was hazardous, insisted that they could not go against the manufacturer’s advice. This made plastic syringes too expensive and the DH only relented in 1987 (Alexander and Tattersall, 1988). By this time the days of the syringe were numbered. In 1981 the Glasgow physician John Ireland (1933–1988) had invented the first insulin pen (Penject) and the idea was taken on board by Novo Nordisk, who in 1985 launched the NovoPen. Other companies followed suit so that today few use the old fashioned syringe.
Patient handbooks had always given complicated instructions for injecting insulin, including a map of “safe sites” and instructions about cleaning the skin and maintaining sterility. Until recently, most of these practices existed in an evidence-free zone. For example, Robin Lawrence and the TV doctor Charles Fletcher injected in their calves and through their clothes. The latter was not scrutinised scientifically until 1997 when it was found to be safe (Fleming et al, 1997)
While visiting Birmingham in 1976 I asked John Malins whether he thought it was necessary to sterilize the skin before an injection and he roared with laughter at the idea and told me that he had given it up even for lumbar punctures 30 years earlier. The number of organisms on the skin is far below that needed to cause infection after an injection with a 25–27 gauge needle (Koivisto and Felig, 1978).
Abscesses at insulin injection sites always seem to have been very rare and this is almost certainly because insulin preparations contain preservatives such as phenol, metacresol or methylparaben. They are so effective that if a culture of bacteria is injected into a bottle of insulin, it is sterile again within 24 hours (Border et al, 1984). | <urn:uuid:5462382d-0bb0-4727-9d9c-16c0479cbce0> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://diabetesonthenet.com/diabetes-digest/150-years-of-subcutaneous-injections/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510888.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20231001105617-20231001135617-00056.warc.gz | en | 0.971358 | 1,849 | 3.53125 | 4 |
John Watt's steam engine not only streamlined travel and manufacturing, but was also an impetus for the Industrial Revolution.
He’s not often credited as the father of the Industrial Revolution, but without Scottish engineer James Watt, the Revolution may not have been possible. His very name was honored as the unit for which we measure the strength of power worldwide: the watt. His contribution to science, most notably the Watt steam engine, brought the world from an agriculture-based society to one centered around technology and invention. Indeed, in many ways, James Watt is the creator of the modern world of manufacturing.
James Watt’s Inventions Take Root
James Watt was born on Jan. 19, 1736 in the Scottish seaport of Greenock. Both his parents were well-educated and went to great lengths to give a young Watt the same opportunity. Often sickly, Watt spent much of his time in the home studying.
He demonstrated a natural aptitude for engineering early on, and at 18, Watt left for London to study instrument making. His talents for nautical and mathematical engineering did not go unnoticed by his teachers, just as they hadn’t by his father and his father’s peers as a child at home.
But when he returned to Scotland a year later to set up shop in Glasgow, Watt’s application to join the Glasgow Guild of Hammermen was denied. Despite his great mind, he did not have the experience as he had not served the mandatory apprenticeship of seven years — and strict rules applied.
Despite this setback, Watt was soon hired to restore a consignment of astronomical instruments from Jamaica destined for the University of Glasgow. Impressed with his skill, the University let him start a workshop on their premises around 1757. Watt made important contacts in science this way, one of which introduced him to the power of steam — a fortuitous connection.
That connection was Professor John Robinson who explored the concept of a steam-driven car. Robinson would go on to discover the siren.
Contrary to a popular story believed to have been circulated by his son James Watt Jr., the inventor did not invent the steam engine after watching a kettle whistle on top of a stove. In fact, various iterations of the steam engine had long been around before Watt came onto the scene. But the only one that really worked was the atmospheric engine invented by English ironmonger Thomas Newcomen in 1712, and even that did not work very well.
So Watt attempted to develop his own prototype steam engine — though at first, to no avail. It was only when the University of Glasgow asked him to repair their model of Newcomen’s engine in 1763 that Watt would make a breakthrough.
The engine had not advanced much in the 50 years since its invention. Its sole purpose had always been to pump water from mines, but even in working order, it was far too weak to cope with ever-increasing amounts of water. As mines were dug deeper, they became more susceptible to flash floods, and thus were potential death traps for miners.
Apart from the Newcomen engine’s inadequacy in pumping water, it was also extremely expensive to run. Not only did Watt need to construct a more powerful steam engine, but he also needed one that used far less coal.
Struggles With The Watt Steam Engine
Watt married his cousin Margaret Miller in 1764 with whom he had six children. Watt’s financial commitments had increased, not to mention, he needed extra money to finance his steam engine experiments. He shortly finds himself in debt.
But Watt never lost his focus on the development of the steam engine. By 1765, Watt knew every aspect of Newcomen’s engine and discovered a basic design flaw which caused the machine to run slowly. The hot steam was cooled down in the piston cylinder and which caused the boiler to lose most of its thermal energy. This meant that the engine would slow to six to eight cycles per minute.
On a daily stroll, Watt had a stroke of genius: why not separate the condenser from the piston cylinder? Back in his workshop, Watt built a small model of his engine. The separate condenser — as it would later be called — worked. It increased the efficiency to twice the speed of Newcomen’s engine.
But his remarkable discovery was far from ready for the market. Deeply in debt, Watt became hampered by his need to find a blacksmith capable of forging the parts to scale up his engine from a small model to a full-scale engine. But he found no such blacksmith capable of the task as no engine of this scale had been made before.
Watt needed capital before he could do anything more with his invention. He took on a role as a surveyor on several canal building projects. But in 1768, bored with surveying and struggling to make ends meet, Watt was introduced to John Roebuck, a businessman who leased a mine that was having difficulty with flooding.
Roebuck agreed to take on the development costs of Watt’s engine and pay for the patent in return for two-thirds of the expected revenue. Watt accepted the offer and finally purchased a patent for his steam engine in London in 1769. The Watt steam engine was becoming a reality.
Now with a large family, Watt stopped work on the steam engine to make better money as a surveyor. But in 1773 tragedy struck when his wife died in childbirth. Adding further to his woes, his business partner, Roebuck went bankrupt.
Meeting Boulton And Finding Success
Roebuck was instrumental in Watt’s career, not the least of which because he introduced him to industrialist Matthew Boulton of Birmingham, England. The rich manufacturer was eight years Watt’s senior. Boulton heard about Watt’s invention through Roebuck and was intrigued.
Boulton had many influential friends, including John Wilkinson who was the king of ironmongers and had revolutionized cannon production. Through Wilkinson, Watt finally received the metal-working he required to properly create the Watt steam engine. Meanwhile, Watt remarried and had two more kids.
To demonstrate his steam engine’s efficiency, Watt invented a new unit of measurement called horsepower. He used the weight a group of ponies could lift as a comparison to the power of his steam engine. It was an effective description of his engine’s ability and Watt’s invention became wildly popular.
For eleven years Boulton’s factory produced and sold Watt’s steam engines to miners. One of their machines was even installed at Whitbread’s Brewery in London in 1775 to grind malt and raise the liquor. The steam engine replaced a six-horse-powered wheel.
Boulton then discovered that the Watt steam engine had applications beyond pumping water.
Until this time, machines were powered by water wheels. But they were inefficient for the needs of burgeoning industries like cotton which required a stronger power source to run looms and spinning machines. The Watt steam engine only pumped in a linear motion, and it was Boulton who recommended that the pair look into rotative, or circular, motion.
“The people in London, Manchester and Birmingham are steam mill mad.”
Boulton wrote to his partner, “I don’t mean to hurry you, but I think in the course of a month or two, we should determine to take out a patent for certain methods of producing rotative motion…There is no other Cornwall to be found, and the most likely line for the consumption of our engines is the application of them to mills which is certainly an extensive field.”
Watt subsequently developed the sun and planet gear. The ingenious device had a cogwheel on the end of a pumping rod which revolved around the rotating cog wheel on a drive shaft. The result was that Watt invented an efficient and powerful means of circular motion that could effectively power a wheel.
This invention became the basis for those larger-scale factories that defined the Industrial Revolution. Watt’s steam engines replace muscle power on an enormous scale. But like all advancements, an intermittent crisis loomed for the population as jobs became obsolete and thousands out of work due to Watt’s more efficient machines.
Progress And Legacy
Watt had other inventions, too. In 1780, he patented a copy machine.
Powered by steam engines, Boulton and Watt’s ironworks became the first machine-building factory in the world. By 1800, 84 British cotton mills used Boulton and Watt engines in addition to wool and flour mills. Boulton and Watt essentially held a monopoly over the steam-powered engine business by this point.
Steam-powered ships and steam locomotives connected the globe and cut travel time to a fraction. Steam-powered factories increased production exponentially. James Watt’s contribution most likely went far beyond anything he could have imagined.
By 1790, he and Boulton could retire their business to their sons as two wealthy, well-known men. Boulton died at age 80 in 1809 and Watt followed on Aug. 19, 1819, at the age of 83. The two pioneering partners were buried side-by-side.
For most, the name Watt is synonymous with the unit of electrical power that is named after him. Yet thanks to him steam power made a massive impact on modern life and remains an integral part of power generation to this day.
After this look at James Watt and the invention of the Watt steam engine, check out these famous inventors who don’t even deserve credit for their most famous inventions. Then read up on Fridtjof Nansen, the Nobel Prize-winning explorer who was the first to cross Greenland. | <urn:uuid:b856830f-bdfd-4514-8831-0a60d1fe5774> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://allthatsinteresting.com/james-watt-steam-engine | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585371618784.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20200406035448-20200406065948-00138.warc.gz | en | 0.983752 | 2,024 | 3.515625 | 4 |
Throughout much of the twentieth century, Mexican Americans experienced segregation in many areas of public life, but the structure of Mexican segregation differed from the strict racial divides of the Jim Crow South. Factors such as higher socioeconomic status, lighter skin color, and Anglo cultural fluency allowed some Mexican Americans to gain limited access to the Anglo power structure. Paradoxically, however, this partial assimilation made full desegregation more difficult for the rest of the Mexican American community, which continued to experience informal segregation long after federal and state laws officially ended the practice. In this historical ethnography, Jennifer R. Nájera offers a layered rendering and analysis of Mexican segregation in a South Texas community in the first half of the twentieth century. Using oral histories and local archives, she brings to life Mexican origin peoples' experiences with segregation. Through their stories and supporting documentary evidence, Nájera shows how the ambiguous racial status of Mexican origin people allowed some of them to be exceptions to the rule of Anglo racial dominance. She demonstrates that while such exceptionality might suggest the permeability of the color line, in fact the selective and limited incorporation of Mexicans into Anglo society actually reinforced segregation by creating an illusion that the community had been integrated and no further changes were needed. Nájera also reveals how the actions of everyday people ultimately challenged racial/racist ideologies and created meaningful spaces for Mexicans in spheres historically dominated by Anglos.
Subjects: Sociology, History
Table of Contents
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on JSTOR. Try logging in through your institution for access. | <urn:uuid:8ad0bfbe-65e9-42c1-83d8-fff0effb8fd2> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | http://slave2.omega.jstor.org/stable/10.7560/767553?turn_away=true&Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchUri=%2Ftopic%2Fhigh-school-students%2F&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_SYC-5187%2Ftest | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610704798089.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20210126042704-20210126072704-00050.warc.gz | en | 0.936389 | 324 | 3.796875 | 4 |
For environmental justice advocates like myself, hurricane season is always a nerve wracking time of year. Unless you have been on a media diet, you know that hurricanes devastated the United States, Puerto Rico and several other Caribbean islands this past month. The science tells us that warmer water due to climate change is making hurricanes more powerful and more frequent. Without addressing climate justice, there can be no environmental justice.
This means that unless we confront the causes of climate change, low income and communities of color will continue to be unfairly impacted by it.
In early September, Hurricane Harvey hit Southeast Texas killing 200 people. Then, Hurricane Irma in Florida and other areas of the Southeast killed at least seventy-five people across the state of Florida. Now, Hurricane Maria has impacted Puerto Rico, and the death toll is rising. While these numbers are lower than that of Hurricane Katrina’s, primarily due to emergency preparedness, recent hurricane survivors are faced with health issues in the aftermath. Environmental justice communities know these health impacts well – they are often the first and the worst hit by natural disasters. Several Environmental Justice Leadership Forum members were affected by hurricanes this month. Hilton Kelley from CIDA, Inc., evacuated his city of Port Arthur, Texas, with his family until recently because his house flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Juan Parras of T.E.J.A.S warned members of his Houston community about the pollutants released in the air. Unfortunately, these stories are not uncommon.
In Houston and other areas of Texas, there are high racial disparities in the exposure of environmental risks. Latinx and African American families are immensely concentrated near toxic sites including petrochemical facilities, superfund sites, garbage incinerators, and landfills. Moreover, stormwater infrastructure and flood management in these areas are in dire need of repair. Hurricane Harvey worsened these conditions for many communities. Among the environmental impacts of Hurricane Harvey, 46 industrial facilities released 4.6 million pounds of emissions into the air. This makes up one-fifth of the unapproved pollution from an oil or gas facility in 2016 in Texas as a result of a malfunction or maintenance issue. Floodwaters were contaminated with bacteria and toxins, including Escherichia coli, a form of fecal contamination, over four times the level that is considered safe by the EPA. The contaminants came from several waste treatment plants in the area. In addition, high levels of lead, arsenic and other metals were present in the water.
Vulnerable communities in the Southeast also experienced the unequal impacts of Hurricane Irma. In South Florida, eight elderly folks passed away due to the sweltering heat in their nursing home, as a result of a power outage that left up to 6.1 million customers without power. As temperatures rose to 90 degrees, residents did not have access to air conditioning. Moving to a cooler location was difficult due to the emergency situation. Those most affected by these types of events are typically low income and elderly populations. Incarcerated individuals, many black or brown, were left without evacuation plans, leaving them to deal with the hurricane and its effects.
Puerto Rico, an island already dealing with economic struggles, is in the midst of a devastating situation. Many are experiencing loss of power, water, and communication in the wake of Hurricane Maria. In addition, heavy rain damaged the Guajataca Dam, leading to its failure and the delivery of a flash flooding warning. A majority of the island is so severely damaged and in need of repair, it will take years to restore livable conditions. Governor Ricardo Rosseló of Puerto Rico has asked the federal government for more assistance in regards to law enforcement and transportation needs, describing that the disaster is “not unlike Katrina or Sandy.” President Donald Trump has spent more time condemning NFL players for protesting racial injustice in our country and criticizing San Juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz over Twitter than addressing the situation in Puerto Rico. In fact, he went on a golfing trip as residents struggled to get food and power in their homes. He did, however, temporarily waive the Jones Act which had prevented foreign ships from sending much needed goods to the Island. For years, the law had made the price of goods twice that of nearby islands. Puerto Rico has a higher cost of living than urban areas of the U.S. and a per capita income at almost half that of the poorest U.S. state. Prior to the hurricane, Puerto Rico already faced environmental justice concerns around coal ash, superfund sites, and sewage. These issues are expected to worsen due to the hurricane’s impact.
In just one month, climate change has shown the world the unequal impact of climate and environmental disaster on low income communities and communities of color nationwide.
We expect the effects to only grow worse unless we create policies that address the causes of climate change. The science is clear: human-caused climate change is real. NASA reports 16 of the 17 warmest years recorded were after 2000. This has caused weather patterns that create more powerful hurricanes, cause sea levels to rise (making flooding worse), and increases heavy precipitation. The impacts of climate change hurt the National Flood Insurance Program, which was already billions of dollars in debt before Hurricane Harvey, and is now expected to increase its debt dramatically with each new superstorm. Many families in the United States do not even own flood insurance, which means that they literally risk losing everything. With reports that Hurricane Harvey will possibly surpass Hurricane Katrina in cost, it is important that the United States takes action in addressing these concerns.
Puerto Ricans and the residents in vulnerable cities across the Southeast that were affected by the hurricanes this month had little to do with the causes of climate change, yet they felt the impacts the most. Elected officials in the United States need to do their part to address climate change. We need leaders in Congress to advance policies that address the impacts of climate change, and refuse to make cuts to an already understaffed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other related agencies. EPA leaders must address climate change directly on their website, meet with environmental groups and environmental justice groups and not be influenced by polluters. EPA must nominate science advisors who are unbiased and who use scientific evidence in their decisionmaking. We expect the President of the United States to protect and defend our country from issues as important as climate injustice, instead of pulling out of the Paris Agreement, or removing a federal advisory panel that works to address climate change. Climate change impacts communities of color and low income communities first and hardest. Elected officials should stand up for what is right and fight for these communities. | <urn:uuid:f4fff93a-c6ea-4473-8f9d-9d0179fa6714> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://www.weact.org/2017/10/communities-need-solutions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510575.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20230930014147-20230930044147-00537.warc.gz | en | 0.964384 | 1,343 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Osteoporosis is a very common condition in older women. However, many people do not realize the devastating consequences of untreated osteoporosis, falls, and broken bones. While certain risk factors for the condition are unavoidable for some women, there are actions that people can take to decrease their chances of developing the condition and its consequences. Read more to understand healthy aging amidst the risk for osteoporosis.
Causes of Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is a skeletal condition that is caused by bone loss and increased risk for fractures. Osteoporosis is especially linked to menopause. Estrogen is a sex hormone that is elevated in women of child-bearing age. Estrogen protects bone density by stimulating the cells that make bones and inhibiting the cells that degrade bones. Menopause causes a sharp decrease in estrogen, therefore decreasing the protection the bones used to enjoy. This causes bone resorption, decreased bone density, and ultimately increase fracture risk.
In some people, osteoporosis can be due to secondary causes such as medication side effects. Common medications that are associated with osteoporosis are anticonvulsants, L- thyroxine, glucocorticoids, anti-coagulants, and proton pump inhibitors for heartburn. Lastly, osteoporosis is often associated with late stage kidney disease due to the changes in calcium in the blood.
Osteoporosis is both due to genetic and environmental risk factors. For example, risk factors for this condition include cigarette smoking, family history of osteoporosis, malnutrition, and low body weight.
Osteoporosis is typically diagnosed with something called a DEXA scan. DEXA stands for Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry. The scan calculates the density of the bones. Bones that are less dense, or 1 to 2.5 standard deviations below the mean, are diagnosed with osteopenia. This means that their bones are less dense and they are at risk of developing the more serious condition, osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is diagnosed with a DEXA scan score of 2.5 or greater standard deviations below the mean. Generally, all women age 65 and older and men 70 or older should get a DEXA scan.
Treatment of Osteoporosis
Treatment first starts with life-style measures. First, people with osteoporosis should avoid alcohol and nicotine. They should also be sure to take in enough calcium and Vitamin D, either through diet or supplements. They should also avoid glucocorticoids, commonly referred to as steroids. Lastly, one often overlooked measure is physical activity. Physical activity, especially weight-bearing exercises, are a major way to prevent osteoporosis and reduce the likelihood of falls and poor outcomes. Weight-bearing and strengthening exercises help increase core strength to reduce the risk of falls.
There is also medical therapy to treat osteoporosis. If a person has a history of fractures due to bone fragility in addition to a DEXA scan of -2.5 or lower, a physician may consider starting them on medical therapy. Medical therapy includes bisphosphonates, a medication that inhibits bone resorption. The side effect of bisphosphonates is esophagitis, or inflammation of the esophagus. These pills should always be taken while the patient is upright
for at least 30 minutes, with plenty of water. Another medical option is a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) called raloxifene. Raloxifene is a great option for people who have a risk for breast cancer and have osteoporosis as it decreases the risk for both. However, it also increases the risk for blood clots. People who have blood clots should avoid Raloxifene.
Estrogens, often in combination with progestogen therapy, is another option that is often used in post-menopausal women. Since estrogen protects bones from resorption and encourages their density before menopause, it does the same after. Additionally, hormone therapy has the added benefit of helping menopausal women with their menopausal
symptoms. However, hormone therapy has side effects and should not be used in certain women. Specifically, it should not be used in people with a history of certain cancers, cardiovascular disease, or blood clots.
Consequences of Untreated Osteoporosis
The dreaded consequence of osteoporosis is falls with subsequent fracture. Medical literature shows that falls in the elderly lead to a variety of worse outcomes. For example, increased mortality, increased hospitalizations, immobility, respiratory infections, internal trauma, and brain bleeds are just some of the consequences. Physicians avoid falls in the elderly whenever possible.
Osteoporosis is a very common disease in older people, especially women. While many people have heard of it, they may be less familiar with the devastating outcomes of untreated osteoporosis. Thankfully, there are a variety of treatment options including pharmacological and lifestyle treatments. Contact us today at the Anti-Aging and Wellness Clinic to learn more about leading a healthy lifestyle and avoiding osteoporosis. | <urn:uuid:7b1a3e46-6f93-4bc4-bb49-e3f3226bf70f> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://antiagewellness.com/2020/05/osteoporosis-and-aging/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679099892.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20231128151412-20231128181412-00630.warc.gz | en | 0.947016 | 1,078 | 3.546875 | 4 |
New rabbit vaccine form Intervet means your rabbit will be fully protected against Myxomatosis and Viral Haemarrhagic Dosease (VHD) after one injection and the protection against both these diseases will last for one year! A single annual booster is all that is required to ensure protection remains against these nasty infections. In addition, the cost is more than a third less than the old regime of 3 visits per year - better for you and better for your rabbit!
Read more about these diseases here -
For many people who enjoy the countryside, the sight of dead and dying wild rabbits with the disease is a familiar sight particularly in the warmer weather of Summer and Autumn each year. Whilst most people associate the disease with wild rabbits, the large spillover of this horrific disease into domestic pet rabbits is a more hidden problem.
Introduced in the 1950s as a control method to help control spiraling wild rabbit numbers that had become a serious agricultural pest, this distressing and fatal infectious disease has plagued pet rabbits ever since. The disease in wild rabbits tend to be cyclical with very major outbreaks associated with ideal climatic conditions in some years.
Estimates of the number of cases of myxomatosis in pet rabbits being brought to veterinary clinics vary annually depending on the background prevalence but usually run into many thousands of cases in any year, making this the commonest preventable infectious killer disease of pet animals in the United Kingdom. Sadly the majority of pet rabbits that contract this disease do not survive and in most cases euthanasia is the only humane option to avoid suffering. Typical signs first appear within a fortnight of contracting the disease and include swelling of the skin and in particular of the face around the eyes, mouth and ears and genitals as well as a high fever, lethargy, progressing to anorexia. Commonly affected rabbits develop respiratory disease and discharges from the eyes and mouth. Without intervention and euthanasia affected rabbits typically suffer a slow and lingering death.
Fewer people are aware of another serious and more recent threat- that of rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD)- also known as viral haemorrhagic disease. Originally identified in rabbits from the far east and since the 1980s endemic in wild rabbits in the UK, it is less recognized than the more familiar myxomatosis but in fact even more deadly whenever outbreaks occur. This is a particular frightening viral disease with a short incubation period of 1-3 days and a very rapid disease course. In acute outbreaks unprotected rabbits typically being found dead without prior warning.
There is no specific treatment for either of these fatal infectious diseases so prevention is vital. So how can we protect pet rabbits against these diseases? Keeping your pet away from wild rabbits is important to reduce the chance of direct transfer but insect carriage is the most important route of transmission. Because both these viruses can be transported by insects its really important that pet rabbits are also protected. Flea treatment can be given and nets and repellants can be used outside the immediate environment, however vaccination is vital to consider for all pet rabbits. Vaccination used to be fiddly with 6 month protection being the best that could be managed against myxomatosis and separate vaccines being needed to cover both diseases. But now it is easier than ever before with a single dose annually being all that required to protect against both diseases.
Despite the frequency of fatal infectious disease in pet rabbits, it is estimated that as little as 15% of the 1.6 million pet rabbits in the UK are protected by vaccination. The Summer risk period is approaching rapidly and its now simpler than ever to ensure your pet rabbit is protected against these two hidden killers so ring us now to make an appointment if your rabbit hasn’t received a vaccine dose in the last 6 months. | <urn:uuid:446df8b6-97ee-43ee-9662-81e93300784a> | CC-MAIN-2014-23 | http://www.parksidevets.com/pets/pets-vaccinations/vaccinations-rabbits.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1405997862121.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20140722025742-00165-ip-10-33-131-23.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9523 | 772 | 3.171875 | 3 |
World AIDS Day is observed on December 1 every year. In 1995, the President of the United States of America issued an official proclamation on World AIDS Day. The custom has been carried out for the last 17 years, with several other nations also following suit.
AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is caused by a virus known as HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). This virus attacks the immune system of humans, thus magnifying the effects of even the slightest homeostatic imbalance many times over.
The virus is transmitted through direct contact with infected blood, semen, vaginal fluid or breast milk. Hence, transmission of virus can happen through unhygienic blood transfusion, shared hypodermic syringes, any form of unprotected sexual intercourse, or from mother to baby -- either during pregnancy or via breastfeeding.
The health reports of the year 2007 reveal approximately 34 million people are HIV+. AIDS has been declared as one of the most destructive epidemics after it claimed the lives of approximately 2 million people around the world in the year 2007.
There is currently no cure for AIDS. Treatment generally consists of antiretroviral medication. It inhibits the action of HIV, which is a type of retrovirus. However, even these can only prolong the life expectancy and not cure the disease itself.
The Early Steps
The concept of observing an AIDS Day was the brainchild of James W. Bunn and Thomas Netter, who sought and received the administrative support of Jonathan Mann, director of the World Health Organization's Global Program on AIDS.
In 1988, at the World Summit of Ministers of Health, the concept of an AIDS Day and programs for AIDS prevention were supported by all the participating nations. In October 1988, the United Nations General Assembly formally recognized this concept. World Health Organization declared December 1, 1988 as the first World AIDS Day.
In 1996, an organization known as Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (now called UNAIDS) was formed to plan and promote the awareness campaigns for AIDS Day all over the world. In 1997, UNAIDS strove to create awareness regarding the causes and lethal effects of AIDS by propagating year-round communications through a campaign known as World AIDS Campaign. In the same year, UNAIDS created a theme for this day focusing only on children. This theme helped alleviate the social stigma attached to this disease, although it is still seen as an 'embarrassment', particularly in developing countries.
In 2004, the World AIDS Campaign was recognized as an independent organization. The Campaign raised funds by conducting various charity shows. This organization educates the people about AIDS by conducting various workshops. These workshops are used to fight prejudice and also to remind people that AIDS is still a very dangerous disease and there remains much to be done yet.
Till 2004, UNAIDS, in consultation with other global health organizations -- such as the WHO -- had different annual themes for the World AIDS Day Campaign. In 2005, it was decided that the main theme would be changed only once in five years; however, there would be a different, related annual theme within the main theme for the ongoing five-year period.
World AIDS Day Themes
Here is the list of themes of the World AIDS Campaign.
|1990||Women and AIDS|
|1991||Sharing the Challenge|
|1994||AIDS and the Family|
|1995||Shared Rights, Shared Responsibilities|
|1996||One World. One Hope|
|1997||Children Living in a World with AIDS|
|1998||Force for Change: World AIDS Campaign With Young People|
|1999||Listen, Learn, Live: World AIDS Campaign with Children & Young People|
|2000||AIDS: Men Make a Difference|
|2001||I care. Do you?|
|2002||Stigma and Discrimination|
|2003||Stigma and Discrimination|
|2004||Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS|
|2005||Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise|
|2006||Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise - Accountability|
|2007||Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise - Leadership|
|2008||Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise - Lead - Empower - Deliver|
|2009||Universal Access and Human Rights|
|2010||Universal Access and Human Rights|
|2011-15||Getting to Zero|
These themes were created to inspire the political leaders of all the nations to keep their promises and commitment to prevent and treat AIDS, and to support the victims of AIDS. World AIDS Campaign uses this theme to highlight HIV awareness in all the major global summits including the G8 Summit. It also works towards educating the masses about AIDS, which remains one of the world's deadliest diseases and one of the toughest hurdles mankind has ever faced. | <urn:uuid:e6206fcc-4092-4c0b-8833-f90ca9a312bb> | CC-MAIN-2018-47 | https://opinionfront.com/history-of-world-aids-day | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-47/segments/1542039747665.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20181121092625-20181121114625-00457.warc.gz | en | 0.94445 | 983 | 3.84375 | 4 |
- Why did Callaghan lose the election?
- Who was in power in 1977?
- Who is the longest serving prime minister?
- Which political party started the NHS?
- Is Privatisation good for the economy?
- Was rail Privatisation a success?
- Why did Thatcher win the 1979 election?
- Is Margaret Thatcher Dead?
- What did Blair do for the NHS?
- What does Thatcher mean?
- What happened in the UK in 1979?
- Who was the worst prime minister?
- Why did Maggie Thatcher resign?
- Has Privatisation been successful in the UK?
- Is Margaret Thatcher popular?
- Who started PFI in the NHS?
- What industries did Thatcher Privatise?
- How many prime ministers has Queen Elizabeth had?
- Did Labour Privatise the NHS?
- Who came after Thatcher?
- Is Margaret Thatcher Dead Yet?
Why did Callaghan lose the election?
Callaghan was widely expected to call an election in September 1978 but decided against this, hoping he would fare better in a year’s time once the economy had improved.
However the winter saw a prolonged period of industrial unrest known as the Winter of Discontent which severely reduced Labour’s popularity..
Who was in power in 1977?
Callaghan’s time as Prime Minister was dominated by the troubles in running a Government with a minority in the House of Commons; by-election defeats had wiped out Labour’s three-seat majority by early 1977.
Who is the longest serving prime minister?
The Prime Minister with the longest single term was Sir Robert Walpole, lasting 20 years and 315 days from 3 April 1721 until 11 February 1742.
Which political party started the NHS?
The 1942 Beveridge cross party report established the principles of the NHS which was implemented by the Labour government in 1948.
Is Privatisation good for the economy?
Potential benefits of privatisation Since privatisation, companies such as BT, and British Airways have shown degrees of improved efficiency and higher profitability. It is argued governments make poor economic managers. … Therefore, state-owned enterprises often employ too many workers increasing inefficiency.
Was rail Privatisation a success?
In 2013 The Guardian wrote that “on balance, rail privatisation has been a huge success” in terms of passenger numbers, fares and public subsidy, as well as Britain having both the safest railways in Europe and “most frequent services among eight European nations tested by a consumer group”.
Why did Thatcher win the 1979 election?
However, on 28 March 1979, following the defeat of the Scottish devolution referendum, Thatcher tabled a motion of no confidence in Callaghan’s Labour government, which was passed by just one vote (311 to 310), triggering a general election five months before the end of the government’s term.
Is Margaret Thatcher Dead?
Deceased (1925–2013)Margaret Thatcher/Living or Deceased
What did Blair do for the NHS?
First he dismantled general practice fundholding and some aspects of the Tory internal market. He set up primary care groups, remade them into primary care trusts, and then merged them again into half the number.
What does Thatcher mean?
(θætʃər ) Word forms: thatchers. countable noun. A thatcher is a person whose job is making roofs from straw or reeds.
What happened in the UK in 1979?
1 May – The London Underground Jubilee line is inaugurated. 4 May – The Conservatives win the General Election by a 43-seat majority and Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe is the most notable MP to lose his seat in the election.
Who was the worst prime minister?
The worst prime minister in that survey was judged to be Anthony Eden.Winston Churchill (Con)David Lloyd George (Lib)Clement Attlee (Lab)H. H. Asquith (Lib)Margaret Thatcher (Con)Harold Macmillan (Con)Marquess of Salisbury (Con)Stanley Baldwin (Con)More items…
Why did Maggie Thatcher resign?
She resigned as prime minister and party leader in November 1990, after Michael Heseltine launched a challenge to her leadership. … Although a controversial figure in British political culture, Thatcher is nonetheless viewed favourably in historical rankings of British prime ministers.
Has Privatisation been successful in the UK?
In the U.K., privatization has accomplished wonders. By 1979, the borrowings and losses of state-owned industries were running at about £3 billion a year. But from 1989 to 1990, companies privatized by the Thatcher government fattened the government purse by some £2 billion.
Is Margaret Thatcher popular?
Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. Her portrayal in the arts and popular culture has been mixed. … Such opinion is divergent from mainstream opinion polling which tends to place her as the most popular British prime minister since Winston Churchill.
Who started PFI in the NHS?
In 1992 PFI was implemented for the first time in the UK by the Conservative Government led by John Major.
What industries did Thatcher Privatise?
Under the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher elected in 1979, various state-owned businesses were sold off, including various functions related to the railways – Sealink ferries and British Transport Hotels by 1984, Travellers Fare catering by 1988 and British Rail Engineering Limited (train building) by 1989 …
How many prime ministers has Queen Elizabeth had?
The Queen has had over 170 individuals serve as her realms’ prime ministers throughout her reign, the first new appointment being Dudley Senanayake as Prime Minister of Ceylon and the most recent being Kausea Natano as Prime Minister of Tuvalu; some of these individuals have served multiple non-consecutive terms in …
Did Labour Privatise the NHS?
Opposition to what was claimed to be a Conservative intention to privatise the NHS became a major feature of Labour’s election campaigns. Labour came to power in 1997 with the promise to remove the “internal market” and abolish fundholding. … There will be easier and swifter access to the NHS when you need it.
Who came after Thatcher?
List of Prime MinistersNameTime in officePolitical partyJohn Major1990 – 1997ConservativeMargaret Thatcher1979 – 1990ConservativeJames Callaghan1976 – 1979LabourHarold Wilson1974 – 1976Labour73 more rows
Is Margaret Thatcher Dead Yet?
On 8 April 2013, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died of a stroke in London at the age of 87. On 17 April, she was honoured with a ceremonial funeral. … Thatcher’s body was subsequently cremated at Mortlake Crematorium. | <urn:uuid:905a4085-2bc0-4b28-a524-a9a8a5fd94c5> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://foodandfury.com/qa/question-what-did-maggie-thatcher-sell-off.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703529179.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20210122082356-20210122112356-00540.warc.gz | en | 0.96299 | 1,429 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Ivy Carter and Jessica Patalino react to the labels on their foreheads at the recent "Be Cool, Not Cruel" event at the high school. They don’t know what their own labels say, but everyone else is treating them based on their labels.
continued They were able to guess pretty accurately what their labels said by the way that others treated them. They talked about how the labels made them feel.
New York State’s Dignity for All Students Act
New York State’s Dignity for All Students Act (The Dignity Act) seeks to provide the State’s public elementary and secondary school students with a safe and supportive environment free from discrimination, intimidation, taunting, harassment, and bullying on school property, a school bus and/or at a school function. The Dignity Act was signed into law on Sept. 13, 2010 and took effect on July 1, 2012.
The day ended with a pledge, signed by students in each group, vowing to “promote a positive school atmosphere where all students are respected.”
Lori Ruhlman is the Skaneateles CSD public information officer. | <urn:uuid:41de7dfe-9934-467e-acff-9e5489c4f186> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://www.eaglenewsonline.com/news/2012/dec/19/model-anti-bullying-program-has-proven-itself-effe/?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1393999638988/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305060718-00085-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977447 | 243 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Question #1: As a child, I remember being told that tashlich was our annual opportunity to throw away all our sins into the water. What is behind this custom?
Question #2: Someone once told me that tashlich alludes to the 13 middos of Hashem’s mercy. How do these middos correspond?
Both of these questions revolve around developing a deeper understanding of the custom of reciting tashlich on Rosh Hashanah. Let us research the sources and halachos of this minhag, and comprehend the lessons that we should learn while observing it.
The earliest mention of tashlich of which I am aware is in the writings of the Maharil, who lived in Germany during the late Fourteenth Century, and others of his generation (Minhagei Rosh Hashanah #9). He mentions the custom of going on Rosh Hashanah to the ocean or rivers that contain fish in order to “throw our sins into the depths of the sea,” vesashlich bimtzulos yam kol chatosom.
We should note that in the verse upon which this is based (Micha 7:19), it is not we, but Hashem , who is casting our iniquities into the sea. This is important, because tashlich does not mean that we have now successfully thrown away our sins. It is the realization that only by doing teshuvah will Hashem throw away our sins.
Others cite a different biblical source for tashlich, from the verse in Nechemiah (8:1): “On the first day of the seventh month [which is, of course, Rosh Hashanah], all the people gathered together, as one, to the street that was before the gate of the water” (Rav Reuven Margulies, cited in Piskei Teshuvos 583: footnote 48).
Tashlich is recorded by the Rama and the Arizal, and has, of course, become standard practice. It is interesting to note that the earliest sources for tashlich are all Ashkenazic authors, and later the custom spread to Sefardic communities. For example, Rav Chaim Vital (Sha’ar Hakavanos, quoted by Kaf Hachayim 583:30) writes, “The custom practiced by the Ashkenazim, which they call ‘tashlich,’ to go on the first day of Rosh Hashanah after Mincha, slightly before sunset, to the Mediterranean Sea or to a spring is a proper custom. It is preferable to do this outside the city, stand on the seashore or alongside the spring, and recite three times, ‘Mi Keil Kamocha…’ (Micha 7:18-20).”
Is it a Good Omen?
The Rama, both in Darkei Moshe and in his glosses to Shulchan Aruch, cites the custom of tashlich in what appears to be an unusual place. We would have expected that he mention tashlich as part of the discussion concerning what to do after Rosh Hashanah morning davening, which is found in Chapter 596 of Orach Chayim, or, alternatively, together with the laws of Rosh Hashanah Mincha, which are found in Chapter 598. Indeed, we find other authorities who discuss the rules of tashlich in both of these places. However, the Rama mentions the custom of tashlich earlier, in Chapter 583, where the Tur and Shulchan Aruch record the custom, mentioned in the Gemara, of eating special foods on the night of Rosh Hashanah as a good omen, a siman tov, for the coming year. Why did the Rama insert the practice of tashlich in a place that is out of chronological order?
It appears that the Rama includes tashlich in the chapter of good omens for the New Year because the main reason for the custom of tashlich is its powerful symbolism. One can certainly explain why, according to the Rama, there is a preference to recite tashlich near a river, ocean, or other source that contains fish, since they are a sign of prosperity without ayin hora.
A Different Reason
The Gra, in his notes to this Rama, presents a different reason for the custom, the reason to which the Maharil himself alluded. The Gra quotes the Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni #99):
If Avraham could see the place of the Akeidah, why did it take him three days to get there? The answer is that the Satan first attempted to dissuade Avraham from going. When the Satan realized that this plan would not be successful, the Satan tried a different tactic, and made himself into a large river that would be impossible to pass… Avraham continued on [accompanied by Yitzchak and the two lads] until the river was up to their necks. Avraham then lifted his eyes heavenward, saying, “Master of all worlds, you revealed yourself to me and said, ‘I am the only One, and you are the only one. Make the entire world know about My name and bring your son as an olah.’ I did not question your words, nor did I delay fulfilling them. Now we are drowning. If my son Yitzchak drowns, how will I guarantee that Your unity be known?” Immediately, Hashem scolded the Satan, who left.
According to this approach, tashlich is a reminder of the tremendous mesiras nefesh of Avraham Avinu. This should make us internalize the message repeated daily in Shema — to love Hashem with all our being, even to sacrifice our lives for Hashem because we love Him so. Developing this quality of Ahavas Hashem is certainly one of the main goals of Rosh Hashanah. Thus, according to the Gra, tashlich is primarily an educational lesson.
A Fishy Place
However, according to the Gra’s approach, there is no apparent reason for reciting tashlich near a water source containing fish, a preference mentioned in most early sources. We may also note that the first reason I mentioned, that we want Hashem to wash away our sins as we do teshuvah, should also not require that the water contain fish.
However, there are many other reasons for reciting tashlich at a water source that contains fish. For example, the Levush explains that we should see ourselves as fish caught in a net. This comparison should encourage us to do teshuvah and to take the Yomim Nora’im more seriously.
Here is another reason why tashlich should preferably be recited at a water source containing fish: Fish, living their lives concealed under water, are not exposed to ayin hora; we, also, hope not to be exposed to ayin hora (Elyah Zuta).
Must it be Fishy?
Notwithstanding the various reasons to explain saying tashlich at a place populated by fish, the Magen Avraham (583:5) emphasizes that whereas the Maharil wrote to say tashlich at a river with live fish, the Arizal implies that it is equally acceptable to say tashlich at a well, even one that contains no fish. I will explain more about this shortly.
Outside the City
The Arizal (quoted by Magen Avraham 583:5) emphasizes that it is preferable to go to a water source outside the city. Based on the Midrashic source cited above, we can understand that our traveling is an attempt to reenact, in our own small way, the tribulations that Avraham Avinu underwent on his way to performing the incredible mitzvah of the akeidah.
I quoted earlier Rav Chayim Vital, the main disciple of the Arizal, who writes that one should recite tashlich at the seashore or next to a spring. Going to the Mediterranean or some other sea is certainly hinted at in the verse asking Hashem to throw all one’s sins into the depths of the sea, implying that one is close enough to throw something into the water. However, not all gedolei Yisrael followed this practice of being next to the body of water when they recited tashlich; they were satisfied with having the water in sight. For example, it is recorded that the Chasam Sofer went to a high place from where he could see the Danube River running through his hometown of Pressburg (today known as Bratislava).
Anyone who has been in Yerushalayim for Rosh Hashanah has probably noted that because there is no flowing river near the city, tashlich is recited in interesting places, such as near mikvaos and alongside buckets of water. For some time, Yerushalayim has been without any natural source of water, something unusual for any old city. The custom of reciting tashlich alongside a mikvah or a water cistern in Yerushalayim is already mentioned by the Kaf Hachayim (583:30), who reports that it is acceptable to recite tashlich even next to an empty water cistern! He explains that tashlich is only an allusion, and the main “water” we mean to convey our message is the “yam ha’elyon.” Obviously, he is alluding to a kabbalistic reason for tashlich.
In contemporary Yerushalayim, where I live, the most common practice is to recite tashlich alongside small backyard fish ponds stocked with a few inexpensive fish from a pet store. I assume that in the time of the Kaf Hachayim, there were few pet stores in Yerushalayim, and the scarcity of both drinkable water and adequate living quarters did not allow for backyard fish ponds.
Feeding the Fish
The Maharil is emphatic that one should not take bread to tashlich on Rosh Hashanah to feed the fish. Apparently, this custom of feeding crumbs or bread to the fish was observed over six hundred years ago, despite the opposition of most halachic authorities.
What is wrong with feeding the fish?
It is forbidden to feed any animals, birds or fish on Yom Tov that are not dependent on you (see, for example, Rashi, Beitzah 23b).
Some authorities quote an additional reason for prohibiting putting bread into the river on Yom Tov. Carrying is permitted on Yom Tov only for items that fulfill some Yom Tov need. Since fish in the sea are not dependent on us for nourishment, carrying in a public domain to feed them desecrates Yom Tov (Mateh Efrayim 598:5).
Instead of Feeding the Fish
Some authorities describe a different practice that does not desecrate Yom Tov: while reciting the word “tashlich,” one should empty out the dirt that one finds in the hems of one’s garment into the water, hinting at casting away our sins. With this act, we should accept doing teshuvah wholeheartedly (Likkutei Mahariach; Kaf Hachayim; see Mateh Efrayim 598:4).
Some sources quote, in the name of the Arizal, that one should only shake out the dust on the tzitzis of one’s talis koton (Likkutei Mahariach, cited by Piskei Teshuvos 583:footnote 50). Obviously, according to this Arizal, women cannot fulfill this part of the custom.
Women and Tashlich
Many authorities are strongly opposed to women going to tashlich altogether (Elef Hamagein 598:7). On the holy day of Rosh Hashanah, there should be no intermingling of the genders, and better that the men not see women. If women want to go to tashlich, the best approach to avoid this problem is that introduced by my Rosh Yeshivah, Rav Ruderman, that women go to tashlich before Mincha, and men after.
The Structure of Tashlich
The main part of tashlich is to recite three verses from Micha that allude to the thirteen attributes of Hashem’s kindness. Thus, to understand tashlich well, we should understand the concept of the thirteen attributes.
After the Jewish People sinned when we worshipped the Eigel Hazahav, the Golden Calf, Hashem taught Moshe to use these thirteen attributes of His kindness to achieve absolution.
Rabbi Yochanan said: ‘Were it not for the fact that the Torah itself wrote this, it would be impossible to say it. The Torah teaches that Hashem wrapped Himself in a talis like a chazzan and demonstrated to Moshe the order of prayer. Hashem told Moshe: “Whenever the Jews sin, they should perform this order and I will forgive them“‘ (Rosh Hashanah 17b).
Rabbi Yochanan noted that the anthropomorphism of his own statement is rather shocking, and without scriptural proof, we would refrain from repeating it. Nevertheless, the Torah compelled us to say that Hashem revealed to Moshe a means for pardoning our iniquities. According to the Maharal, Moshe asked Hashem to elucidate, to the extent that a human can comprehend, how Hashem deals with the world in mercy. Hashem did, indeed, enlighten Moshe, enabling him to implore for forgiveness for the Jewish people, and teaching him how to lead the Jews in prayer (Chiddushei Aggados, Rosh Hashanah 17b s.v. Melameid).
A Word about Attributes
What exactly are the thirteen attributes? For that matter, can we attribute personality characteristics to Hashem?
To quote Rabbeinu Bachyei: Although we no longer know how to beseech, nor do we properly understand the power of the thirteen attributes and how they connect to Hashem’s mercy, we still know that the attributes of mercy plead on our behalf, since this is what Hashem promised. Today, when we are without a kohein gadol to atone for our sins and without a mizbei’ach on which to offer korbanos and no Beis Hamikdash in which to pray, we have left only our prayers and these thirteen attributes (Kad Hakemach, Kippurim 2).
Who Knows Thirteen?
The Torah says: Hashem, Hashem, is a merciful and gracious G-d, slow to anger, full of kindness and truth. He preserves kindness for thousands of generations by forgiving sins whether they are intentional, rebellious or negligent; and He forgives (Shemos 34:6-7).
There are many opinions among the halachic authorities exactly how to calculate the thirteen merciful attributes of Hashem. The most commonly quoted approach is that of Rabbeinu Tam, who counts each of the three mentions of Hashem’s name at the beginning of the passage, Hashem, Hashem, and Keil, as a separate attribute.
However, it is important to note that the Arizal counted the thirteen merciful attributes in a different way. Whereas Rabbeinu Tam counted Hashem, Hashem, Keil as three different attributes, the Arizal does not count the first two Names (Hashem, Hashem). Thus, the first attribute mentioned by the verse is Keil. To compensate for the loss of two attributes in the count of thirteen, the Arizal reaches thirteen by dividing each of the phrases erech apayim and notzeir chesed la’alafim into two different attributes, whereas, according to Rabbeinu Tam’s count, each of these phrases counts as only one attribute.
Micha’s Thirteen Attributes
The kabbalistic sources explain that the three verses of Micha that form the basic structure of tashlich also allude to the thirteen attributes of Hashem. For many years, I tried to figure out how the verses in Micha correspond to the thirteen attributes until I discovered that this allusion follows the Arizal’s approach to the thirteen attributes. Many machzorim have this method of counting the thirteen attributes noted by placing the word from Moshe’s original prayer above the corresponding attributes in the verse from Micha.
What do I do?
At this point, I want to return to the above-quoted Talmudic source that explains the power of the thirteen attributes and note a very important point:
Hashem told Moshe: “Whenever the Jews sin, they should perform this order and I will forgive them.” The Hebrew word that I have translated as “perform” is yaasu, which means that the Jews must do something, definitely more than just reading the words. If all that is required is to read these words, the Gemara should have said simply: They should read these words. Obviously, action, which always speaks louder than words, is required to fulfill these instructions and accomplish automatic atonement.
What does the Gemara mean?
The commandment to emulate Hashem may be the most important of the 613 mitzvos. To quote the Gemara: Just as Hashem is gracious and merciful, so should you become gracious and merciful (Shabbos 133b). Hashem told Moshe: Whenever the Jews perform this order, I will forgive them. He meant that when we act towards one another with the same qualities of rachamim as does Hashem, He forgives us. Reciting the thirteen attributes of Hashem’s mercy is the first step towards making ourselves merciful, emulating Hashem’s ways. Yaasu means that by emulating Hashem’s kindness and His tolerance, by accepting people who annoy and harm us, we become His G-dly People!
This sounds great in theory. What does it mean in practice?
Here are several examples, all taken from the sefer Tomer Devorah, to help us comprehend what our job is:
1. Whenever someone does something wrong, Hashem is at that very moment providing all the needs of the offender. This is a tremendous amount of forbearance that Hashem demonstrates. Our mitzvah is to train ourselves to be equally accepting of those who annoy and wrong us.
2. We should appreciate the extent to which Hashem considers the Jews to be His People, and identify with the needs of each Jew on a corresponding level.
3. Hashem waits with infinite patience for the sinner to do teshuvah, always confident in this person’s ability to repent and change. While Hashem is waiting, He continues to provide the sinner with all his needs. Similarly, we should not stand on ceremony, waiting for someone who wronged us to apologize.
4. When a person does teshuvah after sinning, Hashem loves him more than He loved him before he sinned. As the Gemara states: In a place where baalei teshuvah stand, complete tzadikim are unable to stand. Therefore if someone wronged me and now wants to makes amends, I must befriend him and accept him at a greater level than I had previously.
All of these ideas are included when we observe the mitzvah of tashlich. We should read the verses and think how we can emulate Hashem’s kindness, by demonstrating the same acts of kindness that He performs to His creations.
There are so many beautiful lessons to learn from observing this old minhag. We should be careful to observe this practice in the spirit of the day, and, by internalizing these lessons, may we and all klal Yisrael merit a kesivah vachasimah tovah. | <urn:uuid:f37173cb-e408-4d1f-9b2f-2ef6a5ebf79c> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | http://rabbikaganoff.com/appreciating-tashlich/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818687820.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20170921134614-20170921154614-00149.warc.gz | en | 0.948026 | 4,274 | 3.015625 | 3 |
(CNN Student News) -- Record the CNN Presents Classroom Edition: Sarah Palin Revealed when it airs commercial-free on October 13, 2008, from approximately 4:10-- 5:00 a.m. ET on CNN. (A short feature begins at 4:00 a.m. and precedes the program.)
Teachers: Please note that a Classroom Edition of the companion program, Joe Biden Revealed, is scheduled to air on October 20, 2008, from approximately 4:10-- 5:00 a.m. ET on CNN. Curriculum materials for Joe Biden Revealed are available at www.CNNStudentNews.com.
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the state's youngest and first female governor, has been a television sports reporter, a commercial fisherman, a city council member and a mayor. Now she is the Republican nominee for U.S. vice president. CNN correspondent Drew Griffin interviews Palin's family members, friends, colleagues and challengers to learn about the events that have shaped her life and career.
Grade Level: 6-12
Subject Areas: Civics, Forensics
Objectives: The CNN Presents Classroom Edition: Sarah Palin Revealed and its corresponding discussion questions and activity challenge students to:
Curriculum Standards for Social Studies
Standard II. Time, Continuity and Change: Students will learn about the ways human beings view themselves in and over time.
Standard V. Individuals, Groups and Institutions: Students will explore how groups are formed, what controls and influences them, how they control and influence individuals and culture and how institutions can be maintained or changed.
Standard VI. Power, Authority and Governance: Students will understand the historical development of structures of power, authority and governance and their evolving functions in contemporary U.S. society as well as other parts of the world.
Curriculum Standards for Civics and Government
Standard III. How Does the Government Established by the Constitution Embody the Purposes, Values, and Principles of American Democracy?
Post Viewing Discussion Questions
Teachers: Use these Discussion Questions after viewing both the Sarah Palin and Joe Biden Revealed programs.
Inform students that Founding Father John Adams served as America's first vice president from 1789 - 1797. Next, read the following statement by Mr. Adams to students and generate a discussion about its meaning: "I am vice president. In this I am nothing, but I may be everything." Then ask: In your opinion, should voters consider the vice presidential candidate when casting their ballots for the presidency? Have each student choose one of this year's vice presidential candidates and conduct research to learn more about his or her views and background. Direct each student to write a paper explaining why this individual should or should not be elected to the position that is "a heartbeat away" from the presidency.
vice president, U.S. Constitution, debate, Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. Joe Biden, election, fiscal conservative, Washington insider
|Most Viewed||Most Emailed||Top Searches| | <urn:uuid:1a51319b-512c-47aa-bf73-bfe7e30b9085> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/studentnews/10/09/cnnce.palin.revealed/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1393999677441/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305060757-00018-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915003 | 621 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Cotului caracteristică genunchiului
These tumors tend to be large, disfiguring masses — partly solid and partly fluid. Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia ( CIN) is a biological spectrum of disease that antedates invasive squamous cell carcinoma. Click for larger image.
They make it impossible for a newborn to breathe upon birth. Osteogenesis imperfecta ( OI) is a group of inherited diseases responsible for varying degrees of skeletal fragility. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. The osteoid osteoma is a rare bone tumor first described by Jaffe in 1935, featuring a bone- producing tumor, most frequently seen at lower ends of children or young adultsyears old) ( 1). But if the abnormal area is not treated, over time it may eventually develop into cancer of the cervix ( cervical cancer). The EXIT procedure allows time to perform procedures commonly used to treat babies born with giant neck masses, such as direct laryngoscopy, bronchoscopy, tracheostomy, surfactant administration, cyst decompression and. 1 ISSNPrint) ISSNOnline). The main features include the air- occupied intravertebral cleft visualized as a radiolucent shade of linear or semilunar X. Vertebral osteonecrosis is thought to be the consequence of insult at the anterior segment of the vertebral body, with possible mechanisms being either traumatic or.
The density of cells is increased and the normal cytoplasmic glycogen is diminished. 2 PREPARATION & INITIAL BONE REMOVAL Fig. International journal of Gynecological, Obstetrical, and Reproductive Medicine Research Vol. Start studying Ch. Endoscopic Foraminotomy is a minimally invasive spine surgery used to relieve pressure to spinal nerve roots, caused by compression from bone spurs, disc herniations, scar tissue, or excessive ligaments.
CIN does not cause any symptoms. CLASSIFICATION OF OVARIAN HYPERSTIMULATION SYNDROME Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome ( OHSS) is characterized by bilateral, multiple follicular and thecal lutein ovarian cysts ( Figure I. The differentiation of osteoid osteoma from osteoblastoma is made according to its size, with osteoid osteoma being smaller than 1. 3, 4 The histopathologic diagnosis requires the recognition of a disordered pattern of squamous cell maturation and nuclear atypia. Jan 01, · Vertebral osteonecrosis is an uncommon disease that occurs mostly in patients with a collapsed vertebral body. Advances in medical technology, early detection and careful.
Cervical intra- epithelial neoplasia ( CIN) is a term that describes abnormal changes of the cells that line the cervix. We have performed 11 EXIT- to- Airway procedures at the Cincinnati Fetal Center to treat patients with cervical teratomas. Giant neck masses are typically surgically removed after birth. Minimal trauma is sufficient to cause fractures and bone deformities.
Osteocondroza cervicală și simptomele și tratamentul hernieii. REMOVAL OF TRANSVERSE PROCESS The posterior elements in the resection can be removed with rongeurs or curettes. CIN is not cancer. 1) and an acute shift in body fluid distribution resulting in ascites ( Figure I. Vertebral osteonecrosis ( ON) is a rare, underdiagnosed disease, also called pseudarthrosis due to ischemia following a compression fracture ( CF). For more information or to request an appointment, contact the Cincinnati Fetal Center ator use our online form. 5 cm in diameter ( 2). The Orthofix PSO Instrument Set described by this surgical technique is designed to aid surgeons in these procedures.
We would like to show you a description here but the site won’ t allow us. What is a cervical teratoma? A cervical teratoma is a very rare congenital tumor in the neck. | <urn:uuid:84b12385-266d-4cf5-9130-714391e75a45> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | http://mofusyxenyne.tk/20eec4d31c.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579251783342.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20200128215526-20200129005526-00008.warc.gz | en | 0.880746 | 864 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Those who are living in a comparatively smaller area or apartments and wish to have a green space in your home, then you are looking in a wrong dimension. Yes, we have one more dimension which can be occupied for the purpose. The concept of vertical gardening is greatly helpful for such plant lovers.
Vertical gardens can also cover an unattractive wall. Vertical gardens also called as green walls. They are not just useful for small spaces but are highly appreciable for beautification of indoors. Having lush green walls with live growing beautiful plants are best home decor.
What are vertical gardens?
Structurally vertical garden is a series of containers arranged vertically to fill a vertical space. If you want to make it a low budget then you can use a variety of materials available easily in our households like, old plastic bottles, canvas shoe organizers, old pallets or clay pots make good containers You can also buy vertical garden kits from the market or improvise with just about anything. Now you need to decide the place vertical garden has to be installed. A strong support system is required to save the vertical garden from falling.
What Can You Grow In A Vertical Garden?
Surprisingly variety of plants can be grown in a vertical garden. The vertical gardening can be done for different kinds of Flowers, vegetables, herbs and ferns. Different variety of plants can be grown to make your vertical garden look more colorful.
Climbers are another good category can be used for vertical gardening or green walls. Climbers can be ideal for spaces where you want to create shade because your support can extent vertically and as a canopy above your head. One of the ways to have your support is buying a garden arch. You can also seek guidance from the nursery or the gardener to have a best type of support system. Some gardens grow best on a trellis whereas other gardens may need mesh, a chicken wire or a “ladder” to climb.
Growing an Indoor Vertical Garden
Before planning an indoor vertical garden your two major concerns are proper sunlight and drainage. Plants can be easily grown in artificial lights but that would need extra care as plants will require light up to 16 hours a day for growing.
A vertical garden should not always be against a wall. There should be a water-catchment area or some other source to have water. There are many ways of having vertical garden. A homeowner can have a garden on a coffee table. One can also apply the idea for having a separate personal area from living area. Vertical garden is a beautiful divider or privacy screen. Hanging terrariums are easily available at Nurseries and garden shops. These can be perfect for small plants. Or you can make or buy colorful macramé hangers for clay pots of various sizes.
A green wall or vertical garden with lush foliage can mesmerize anyone. But for proper growth and installation of such foliage you will have to buy a vertical garden kit especially designed for indoor use. These kits consist of a framework and containers. The kits are available in various sizes and styles you can choose as per your requirements. Homeowners can also create a good wall of plants or can make a vertical garden by building a crate “pyramid.”
Benefits of vertical gardens or green walls
Vertical gardens are just not beneficial but adding to all reimbursement which you get from plants many additional profits or bonus you get from vertical gardens like: firstly it is different from the regular style of growing plants. You are working in a new dimension of the available space.
Secondly ample amount of green area could be developed indoors even at places like apartments and small houses. It will freshen up the air around you and releases fresh air too.
They are the best home decor material; people always love to be surrounded by fresh green plants and colorful flowers. Plants give a fresh feel that to in indoors is an awesome experience for one coming home after a long working day.
Such benefits from vertical gardens are countless, but many other benefits which are unique of this style of gardening should also be noted like green walls are found most often in urban areas they are not just for beauty but logically they are placed there to reduce overall temperatures of the buildings. The plant surfaces however, due to the process of transpiration keep the temperature of the building low.
Living walls are particularly suitable for homes in cities, as they allow good use of available vertical surface areas. They are good in arid areas too, reason is water evaporation is lesser than the horizontal garden.
If you would think about vertical garden then you would realize that you can create your own ways for vertical gardens. | <urn:uuid:093f37d6-d00e-4e43-b4b2-60873726a157> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://www.alicewalkersblog.com/category/home-ideas/page/3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463607846.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20170524131951-20170524151951-00462.warc.gz | en | 0.948589 | 942 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Rare genetic condition sheds light on body's cancer defences
A rare inherited condition has brought scientists a step closer to understanding how cells safeguard themselves from becoming cancerous.
People with Bloom's syndrome - which is caused by inheriting faulty versions of a gene called BLM - are highly prone to developing cancer and must be monitored for the disease from a young age.
Although scientists knew the BLM gene played a role in stopping normal cells from becoming cancerous, it was not known how.
But in tomorrow's edition of Nature1, Cancer Research UK scientists report that BLM stops a DNA repair process in cells from introducing errors that could cause cancer.
Cells are equipped with a number of repair kits for their DNA when it gets damaged, to protect them from cancer. But the repair process isn't perfect and can lead to errors - some of which may lead to cancerous growth.
Researchers at the Cancer Research UK Oxford Cancer Centre found that the BLM gene is key to keeping one of these DNA repair processes under control. In people with Bloom's syndrome - who have no normal copy of BLM - errors creep into their DNA through this repair process, giving them their susceptibility to cancer.
Cancer Research UK's Professor Ian Hickson, who led the team of researchers, says: "Bloom's is a very rare condition that causes cancer to develop far earlier in life than normal. The disease has been of special interest to cancer scientists for many years for the insights it could yield into the biology of cancer.
"People with Bloom's syndrome have no working copy of the BLM gene. We have managed to unravel why that gene is so important to preventing cancer.
"It stops one of the cell's own DNA repair processes from causing potentially dangerous errors. Without BLM, the cell's repair machinery becomes its own worst enemy."
BLM works as part of a repair process called homologous recombination. Chromosomes wrap around each other in order to exchange lost information, and BLM helps them unwrap. When BLM does not function, the chromosomes do not unwrap properly and errors occur.
Professor Robert Souhami, Cancer Research UK's Director of Clinical and External Affairs, says: "Studies into rare inherited conditions such as Bloom's syndrome can give us unique insight into cancer in all its forms. This study offers us an intriguing understanding of one of the fundamental processes involved at the very beginning of a cancer's development.
"The more we understand about the steps leading to cancer, the closer we will be to modifying those processes to stop the disease in its early stages."
- Nature426 pp.870-874
Notes to Editor
Bloom's syndrome is a genetic disease caused by inheriting two faulty copies of the BLM gene.
Patients with Bloom's syndrome show a range of symptoms, including a small body size, sun-sensitive facial reddening, infertility, immunodeficiency and a strong predisposition to the full range of human cancers.
The mutation responsible for causing Bloom's syndrome is most common among Ashkenazi Jews. The syndrome appears in around 2 of every 100,000 newborn Ashkenazi Jews, and is much less common in other populations. | <urn:uuid:e8bb5d0b-5ec4-43bd-a049-7ba75b7e9dd3> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-us/cancer-news/press-release/2003-12-18-rare-genetic-condition-sheds-light-on-bodys-cancer-defences | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267860570.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20180618144750-20180618164750-00008.warc.gz | en | 0.957782 | 641 | 3.578125 | 4 |
Challenging thoughts of self-blame
Once you recognise self-blaming thoughts, you can challenge and change them. Try using the techniques suggested below.
Write a list of arguments that back up your self-blaming thought, then write a list of arguments against your thought. For example:
- For: 'I didn't say anything, so maybe he thought I was into it.'
- Against: 'He shouldn't assume. Being quiet can be a sign of being uncomfortable. If he wasn't sure what I wanted, he should've asked.'
Compare the two lists and see if they make you feel differently.
Think of yourself as a friend
Think to yourself, 'If a friend told me this story, would I blame them? Would I think they should have done anything differently?'
Often we can be kinder to our friends than to ourselves. Try telling yourself what you’d say to a friend in a similar situation.
Think of what a good friend would say to you
Think of someone you can always talk to. What would they say? If you feel up to it, you could call or arrange to meet them.
Tell your thoughts, 'You're wrong!'
Say, 'It was not/is not my fault'. Try saying this aloud while looking in the mirror.
This might be hard at first, so you could start by saying it in your head. Then practise every day until you can say it out loud, and eventually believe it. | <urn:uuid:b72c5d52-007a-4d59-ac85-660efc14e000> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://rapecrisis.org.uk/get-help/looking-for-tools-to-help-you-cope/blame-guilt/challenging-thoughts-of-self-blame/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141685797.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20201201231155-20201202021155-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.975404 | 308 | 3 | 3 |
Local authorities, cities and regions around Europe have become Common Good Municipalities. Among them are the cities of Salzburg, Stuttgart and Seville.
What these organisations have in common is a vision for their area which puts people and the environment first. There are five ways in which local authorities can engage with the Economy for the Common Good:
- Common Good Balance Sheet
Create a Common Good Balance Sheet for the whole administration or for certain departments and publish it
- Promote Common Good Companies
Invite all companies that are based and operating in the borough, city or region to create their own Common Good Balance Sheets. This will highlight the pioneers whose achievements could be promoted through annual awards for ECG companies
- Introduce a Local Common Good Index
Promote the creation of a local Common Good Index, a quality of life index, which looks at both the Common Good Product (national economy) and the Common Good Balance Sheet (companies). The index is made up of the 20 most important quality of life indicators, which would be identified by local people. The aim is to improve the quality of life for residents. The performance of policy measures would then be assessed according to this quality of life
- Establish a Local Economic Convention
A local economic convention is where local residents come together to determine the most important economic priorities at local level. They would meet regularly in order to understand the ECG model, identify the priority issues and feed back to the local authority. Decisions would be made by the Convention using the systemic consensus method of voting.
- Create a Common Good Region
Join together with neighbouring authorities to form a Common Good Region | <urn:uuid:fc866914-8a3a-4d78-ab21-9245f657574b> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.ecguk.org/local-authorities/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337889.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20221006222634-20221007012634-00113.warc.gz | en | 0.947328 | 338 | 3.0625 | 3 |
A designated or specific breeding season does not prevail in Javelina herds. Breeding occurs throughout the year but peaks during the winter months of November through March. The dominant boar does virtually all the breeding. Subordinate males do not have to leave the herd, but are not allowed to approach females in estrus. Boars and sows are capable of producing offspring at approximately 10 - 12 months of age. Wild sows, however, rarely become pregnant before 15 months. Birth occurs after an approximate 145 day gestation period. Weaning occurs at 2 to 3 months of age. An Arizona wildlife study recorded the oldest pregnant sow harvested at 12 years of age.
Numerous studies on captive and wild Javelina indicate litter size norms as single birth 41 percent, twin births 53 percent, and triplet birth a mere 6 percent. Births generally occur in bed grounds, and the piglets can travel with sow and herd a few hours after birth. Mortality rate studies indicate 25 percent at 4 months, 46 percent at 8 months, and 55 percent at 12 months-less than half make it to the first year.
Data on 1,403 hunter killed and sexed Javelina indicated a ratio of 51 percent female, 49 percent male.
At birth Javelina piglets weigh around one pound, about the size of a small cottontail rabbit. Noted Javelina expert Gerald I. Day, of the Arizona Game and Fish Department, research revealed they mature very rapidly, gaining approximately 2.8 pounds per month during the first year. At two months of age they weigh about six pounds, at four months 11 pounds, at nine months 26 pounds, and at the end of the first year, they generally weigh between 30 and 35 pounds. Their adult weight is 40 to 60 pounds. An Arizona hunter check station inspection of 168 field dressed Javelina showed the average field dressed weight as 34 pounds.
Captive Javelina enjoy a fairly long life span with the oldest recorded by the Arizona Game and Fish Department as a sow of 21 years! Texas Parks & Wildlife Department researchers recorded a wild sow at 15 years of age.
Ageing by Teeth Wear
Javelina have all their adult teeth by approximately 21 months of age. The following chart was adapted from information extracted from hunter check station data for adult Javelina (Sowls, L.K. 1961).
Young Javelina (above)
Old Javelina (7+Years)
Javelina lower jaw pictures courtesy of Amanda Moors - CouesWhitetail.com
Javelina lower jaws. Picture courtesy of Amanda Moors - CouesWhitetail.com
Note to readers. The Javelina University section was developed from information derived from over 20 different Javelina related informational sources. Please visit the References page.
JavelinaHunter.com and JavelinaHunter are registered trademarks. | <urn:uuid:14374f9f-61f7-48b6-a263-5c51b6217b39> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://www.javelinahunter.com/life_cycle.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802771384.149/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075251-00164-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926552 | 595 | 3.28125 | 3 |
There are formal definitions of the inequality relations > , < ,≥,≤ in terms of the familiar notion of equality. We say a is less than b , written a < b if and only if there is a positive number c such that a + c = b . Recall that zero is not a positive number, so this cannot hold if a = b . Similarly, we say a is greater than b and write a > b if b is less than a ; alternately, there exists a positive number c such that a = b + c .
Trichotomy Property: For any two real numbers a and b , exactly one of the following is true: a < b , a = b , a > b .
Transitive Properties of Inequality:
If a < b and b < c , then a < c .Note: These properties also apply to "less than or equal to" and "greater than or equal to":
If a > b and b > c , then a > c .
If a≤b and b≤c , then a≤c .
If a≥b and b≥c , then ageqc .
Property of Squares of Real Numbers:
a 2≥ 0 for all real numbers a .
Addition Properties of Inequality:
If a < b , then a + c < b + cSubtraction Properties of Inequality:
If a > b , then a + c > b + c
If a < b , then a - c < b - cThese properties also apply to ≤ and ≥ :
If a > b , then a - c > b - c
If a≤b , then a + c≤b + c
If a≥b , then a + c≥b + c
If a≤b , then a - c≤b - c
If a≥b , then a - c≥b - c
Before examining the multiplication and division properties of inequality, note the
Inequality Properties of Opposites
If a > 0 , then - a < 0For example, 4 > 0 and -4 < 0 . Similarly, -2 < 0 and 2 > 0 . Whenever we multiply an inequality by -1 , the inequality sign flips. This is also true when both numbers are non-zero: 4 > 2 and -4 < - 2 ; 6 < 7 and -6 > - 7 ; -2 < 5 and 2 > - 5 .
If a < 0 , then - a > 0 | <urn:uuid:5e78a2f3-e273-4834-a007-6db0fa0f0f98> | CC-MAIN-2016-40 | http://www.sparknotes.com/math/algebra1/inequalities/section2.rhtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-40/segments/1474738661779.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20160924173741-00267-ip-10-143-35-109.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.825597 | 532 | 4.5 | 4 |
A GLOBAL MAGNETIC ANOMALY: On June 23rd, Earth’s quiet magnetic field was unexpectedly disturbed by a wave of magnetism that rippled around much of the globe. There was no solar storm or geomagnetic storm to cause the disturbance. So, what was it? Lately, Earth’s magnetic field has been quiet. Very quiet. The sun is in the pits of what may turn out to be the deepest Solar Minimum in a century. Geomagnetic storms just aren’t happening.
“That’s why I was so surprised on June 23rd when my instruments picked up a magnetic anomaly,” reports Stuart Green, who operates a research-grade magnetometer in his backyard in Preston UK. “For more than 30 minutes, the local magnetic field oscillated like a sine wave.” This chart recording shows a magnetic wave rippling through Preston UK on June 23, 2020. Credit: Stuart Green. Green quickly checked solar wind data from NOAA’s DSCOVR satellite. “There was nothing – no uptick in the solar wind speed or other factors that might explain the disturbance,” he says.
He wasn’t the only one who noticed. In the Lofoten islands of Norway, Rob Stammes detected a similar anomaly on his magnetometer. “It was remarkable,” he says. “Our magnetic field swung back and forth by about 1/3rd of a degree. I also detected ground currents with the same 10 minute period.” What happened? Space physicists call this phenomenon a “pulsation continuous” or “PC” for short. Imagine blowing across a piece of paper, making it flutter with your breath. Solar wind can have a similar effect on magnetic fields. PC waves are essentially flutters propagating down the flanks of Earth’s magnetosphere excited by the breath of the sun. During more active phases of the solar cycle, these flutters are easily lost in the noise of rambunctious geomagnetic activity. But during the extreme quiet of Solar Minimum, such waves can make themselves “heard” like a pin dropping in a silent room.
Earth’s magnetic field was so quiet on June 23rd, the ripple was heard all around the world. INTERMAGNET‘s global network of magnetic observatories picked up wave activity at the same time from Hawaii to China to the Arctic Circle. There’s even a hint of it in Antarctica. PC waves are classified into 5 types depending on their period. The 10-minute wave on June 23rd falls into category Pc5. Slow Pc5 waves have been linked to a loss of particles from the van Allen radiation belts. Energetic electrons surf these waves down into Earth’s atmosphere, where they dissipate harmlessly. With Solar Minimum in full swing, there’s never been a better time to study these waves. Keep quiet … and stay tuned for more. –Zero Hedge | <urn:uuid:3d4f5c44-a910-4036-a0ba-216f5f49eb26> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2020/06/27/earths-magnetic-field-shaken-by-unusual-phenomenon-on-same-day-of-mexicos-7-4-mag-quake/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446711390.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20221209043931-20221209073931-00352.warc.gz | en | 0.95274 | 631 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Feeling Dizzy Inner Ear Infection
Vertigo, additionally known as lightheadedness, is a relative term to the much more familiar vertigo, also referred to as nausea. A feeling that your whole body is disoriented and moving in a strange method. The dizziness begins unexpectedly, without warning as well as is typically for short periods of time. Vertigo, like dizziness, is really frightening and is the main symptom of many different problems that impact the mind, from hypertension to fainting. Feeling Dizzy Inner Ear Infection
Benign positional vertigo (BPV) is most likely one of the most usual source of vertigo, the sensation that the interior of your head or that your whole body is revolving oddly. Normally this is accompanied by light-headedness, nausea or vomiting, throwing up, fainting, as well as a sensation of detachment from your surroundings. BPV usually triggers just brief episodes of lightheadedness, usually no greater than 10 minutes. It is typically triggered by muscle spasms or by an absence of blood circulation to the nerves in the internal ear. However, some people have no symptoms in any way. Feeling Dizzy Inner Ear Infection
Feeling Dizzy Inner Ear Infection
The majority of instances of lightheadedness are caused by several of the conditions that influence the brain as well as interfere with its ability to function appropriately. If you are experiencing signs that you think are vertigo, your physician will certainly more than likely advise antihistamines or tricyclic antidepressants as treatments for these conditions. Antihistamines decrease the task of the chemicals in the body that cause the response that causes vertigo. Tricyclic antidepressants are utilized to deal with allergic reactions, anxiety, and various other comparable conditions. Feeling Dizzy Inner Ear Infection
Specific medications may additionally cause vertigo. As an example, doxycycline can decrease the strength of your muscle mass that sustain your equilibrium. This lowers the amount of liquid in your brain that creates your lightheadedness. Various other drugs that might include doxycycline are Prednisone, Acetylcholine, Phenytoin, and NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications).
Vertigo that does not enhance with over-the-counter treatment can be treated by your medical professional. These treatments consist of prescription medications, surgery, and also antihistamines. If your wooziness is serious, your physician may advise you to have a devoted echocardiography system or VASER (vesicular stentibular shutoff stimulation) procedure. This procedure utilizes a laser to open the tightened blood vessels that trigger the dizziness. The laser may additionally decrease the amount of fluid buildup in your brain that triggers wooziness.
Some people have problems with dizziness without therapy. In these cases, it is necessary to establish why you experience the signs. Your doctor might require to do examinations such as an MRI or CT scan to identify the underlying trouble. He might also execute some straightforward lab examinations in order to eliminate or verify the medical diagnosis.
Some of the causes that may bring about lightheadedness consist of a condition called sensorineural hearing loss. This problem happens when there is damages to the internal ear. This can be brought on by an ear infection, an injury, or a side effect of specific medicines. Other causes can be high fevers, ear infection, meniere’s condition, Meniere’s disorder, or vestibular nerve cells.
If you are experiencing dizziness, you ought to make note of where your wooziness is affecting your balance. You should likewise recognize if the modifications in equilibrium are occurring for an extended period of time or if they are simply occurring in a brief amount of time. This will certainly aid your doctor to establish the reason for vertigo as well as also the correct treatment. If you assume that your wooziness is due to a lack of balance, you must consult your physician. Your health care professional will be able to give you with useful info about vertigo and just how you can regulate the symptoms.
In order to determine the precise source of vertigo, your health care specialist will certainly probably have you undergo a detailed exam to dismiss any underlying physical causes. Among one of the most usual root causes of wooziness is reduced blood pressure or high blood pressure. If you have been diagnosed with either of these conditions, you must follow your physician’s orders and stay with your regular drug. By decreasing your high blood pressure, your wooziness could be gotten rid of. Your condition might call for therapy to reduce your blood stress naturally.
Another usual reason for vertigo is experiencing hearing loss. As we age, our hearing becomes less reliable, which might result to vertigo. If you have been experiencing dizziness with no other signs, it may be hard to identify the issue. Nonetheless, as quickly as you begin experiencing any kind of type of sound or noise in your ear, you ought to right away contact your doctor.
Some signs that can suggest the presence of a vestibular migraine headache consist of: nausea or vomiting, throwing up, faintness, as well as fainting. Since these signs and symptoms can be integrated, your medical professional may do examinations to confirm the presence of vertigo. If your symptoms correspond, your medical professional might carry out additional examinations such as catheterizations, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and computerized tomography (CT) check. | <urn:uuid:64acdc0e-76da-492c-938a-c7a995624012> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.grupocpd.com/feeling-dizzy-inner-ear-infection/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224649302.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20230603165228-20230603195228-00219.warc.gz | en | 0.948196 | 1,120 | 2.625 | 3 |
When looking at the issue of violence, violence is a natural abnormality that should be rehabilitated; violence can also be a learned behavior that children of all ages should be informed to avoid. Before I continue to make assumptions about violence, violence should be viewed through, genetic makeup causing an individual(s) to behavior a certain way, how the environment would affect the behavior of an individual(s), and how both genetics and environmental factors merge together to create violent behaviors. Before there is an understanding of how serotonin effects violent outburst, we must first understand and breakdown the science of serotonin. Serotoni...
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...ber 12). Serotonin: 9 questions and answers. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/depression/features/serotonin
4. Davids, K., & Baker, J. (2007). Genes, environment and sport performance: why the nature-nurture dualism is no longer relevant. Sports Med, 37(11), 961-980.
5. Reif , A., Rosler, M., Freitage, C., Schneider, M., Eujen, A., Kissling, C., Wenzler, D., & Jacob, C. (2007). Nature and nurture predispose to violent behavior: Serotonergic genes and adverse childhood environment. Neuropsychopharmacology, 32(11), 2375-2838.
6. Sacerdote, B. (2000). The nature and nurture of economic outcomes. National Bureau of Economic Research, J0(12), 344-376.
7. Spinath, F., Spinath, B., & Plomin, R. (2008). The nature and nurture of intelligence and motivation in the origins of sex differences in elementary school achievement. European Journal of Personality, 22(3), 211-219
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610 words (1.7 pages) | <urn:uuid:6a942a90-5c52-420e-8700-f305508f5a1e> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | https://www.123helpme.com/human-behavior-nature-vs-nurture-preview.asp?id=260584 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570986653216.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20191014101303-20191014124303-00373.warc.gz | en | 0.925162 | 1,781 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Have a look at this old British crane with a variable position counterweight on rails, recently spotted by our team at Bibiani in Ghana! We believe this crane will have started life as a hand operated railway crane similar to the one in the image below and as it was made in Leeds, England we are speculating that it was probably built by Thomas Smith & Company.
What drew us to the crane was the moveable counterweight which is reminiscent of technology employed on modern crawler cranes built by Manitowoc. Hand cranes were in common use in the railway industry in the nineteenth century and as they predated the development of the modern slew bearing they needed a way to finely calibrate the balance between the load and the counterweight to avoid damaging the narrow kingpin that the superstructure rotated on.
The Variable Position Counterweight ™ employed by Manitowoc in their modern crawler crane range is designed to automatically position the counterweight to match the load eliminating the need for carbody counterweight. | <urn:uuid:f93765f5-d3d0-454c-8622-4f07a1caf735> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.patersonsimons.com/old-british-crane-spotted-at-bibiani-ghana/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224652207.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20230606013819-20230606043819-00079.warc.gz | en | 0.974349 | 204 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Domestic violence and abuse
Domestic violence is controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between people aged over 16. It doesn't matter what your gender or sexuality is.
- emotional abuse.
Anyone can experience domestic violence - it doesn't matter whether you're a man or woman.
Harassment, stalking, rape, sexual assault, female genital mutilation, forced marriage and honour-based abuse are also types of domestic violence and abuse. Trafficking is a abuse too - get help if you think you've been trafficked.
If you are the victim of an abusive relationship, you might want to:
- get help from a charity or another organisation
- report the violence to the police
- leave home temporarily or permanently
- stay in your home and get the person who is harming you to leave
- take legal action
Whatever you want to do, there are organisations that can give you advice and help.
Reporting the violence to the police
Many kinds of domestic abuse are criminal offences and the police can arrest, caution or charge the perpetrator.
Most police stations have Domestic Violence Units or Community Safety Units with specially trained officers to deal with domestic violence and abuse.
You should call 999 in an emergency or 101 in a non-emergency or you can attend a police station in person to report an incident. Find information on all the UK police websites through the UK Police Service Portal at www.police.uk.
If the police arrest and charge a perpetrator, they will decide whether to keep them in custody or release them on bail.
There will usually be conditions attached to their bail to protect you from further violence and abuse. Make sure you ask for your crime reference number which you may need if you contact other agencies for help.
The Crown Prosecution Service will make the final decision on whether a perpetrator is prosecuted. Find more informatin on the criminal prosecution service on the Women's Aid website at www.womensaid.org.
The police can also give you advice on crime prevention and getting something called a police marker on your address, so an officer can get to your home as quickly as possible.
Finding somewhere safe to stay
You may need somewhere safe to stay, either alone or with your children. You could:
- stay at home - if you think this is safe
- stay with relatives or friends
- stay in a refuge
- get emergency accommodation from the local authority under homeless persons law - this will usually mean a bed and breakfast hostel
- get privately rented accommodation.
Finding a refuge
Refuges provide somewhere safe for people and their children to stay and think about what to do next.
Staff at refuges are specialised in dealing with domestic violence, and so can give a lot of emotional and practical support, for example, advice on benefit claims, which solicitors to use and, if necessary, how to contact the police.
If you're a woman contact the National Domestic Violence Helpline, (see Domestic violence and abuse - organisations which give information and advicefor their contact details).
Helpline staff will do their best to find you somewhere safe to stay that night even if the local refuge is full. They are also happy to talk about any questions they have about refuges.
If you're a man, you can get help through a charity called Refuge.
Going to the local authority or Housing Executive
Local authorities have a legal duty to provide help to certain people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness. You will qualify for help if you are eligible for assistance, legally homeless or threatened with homelessness and not intentionally homeless. You must also be in priority need. The local authority may also investigate whether you have a local connection with the area.
You will normally be considered to be legally homeless if it is not reasonable for you to occupy your home because of the risk or fear of domestic violence.
Local authorities, or the Housing Executive in Northern Ireland, should deal sympathetically with applications from people who are in fear of violence. You can ask for a private interview, with someone of the same sex, and can take a friend with you for support.
The local authority (Housing Executive in Northern Ireland) may have a duty to provide emergency accommodation for you while it decides whether you are legally homeless.
If it is outside of normal office hours, you should telephone the local authority's emergency out-of-hours number for help with emergency housing.
Going to privately rented accommodation
If you decide to go into privately rented accommodation you will be unlikely to be able to arrange it quickly - but it could be an option if you have time to plan your departure.
Once you have found a safe place to stay short-term, you will need to think about what to do in the longer term. You will need to consider:
- whether you wish to permanently separate from your partner. You should seek legal advice, see under heading Getting help from a local domestic violence service or a solicitor
- whether you want to take action to keep the violent partner away from you. This could include getting an injunction to protect yourself from more violent behaviour (known as a non-molestation order), or a court order to sort out who can stay in the family home, for example if you want to stop your violent partner from returning home (known as an occupation order). You can find more information about injunctions on the Rights of Women website www.rightsofwomen.org.uk. If you're considering these options, it's best to seek legal advice, see under heading Getting help from a local domestic violence service or a solicitor
- housing. Your legal rights to the family home will depend upon the type of housing, the legal status of your relationship and whether or not you have children. You should get legal advice to ensure that you do everything possible to protect rights to the family home. You should seek advice about the family home even if you are leaving permanently because, if your partner sells the home, you may lose money and possessions. Find out more about what happens to your home when you separate.
- children. If you have children you will need to decide if you are taking the children with you. It may be unsafe to leave them behind. You may need to use the courts to resolve who the children should live with and with whom they should have contact. You should seek legal advice, see under heading Getting help from a local domestic violence service or a solicitor
- money. You will need to sort out your benefit entitlement and tax arrangements and whether or not to apply to court for maintenance for yourself. You may also want to apply to the Child Maintenance Service for them to arrange maintenance for your children. More about child maintenance
If you need further information and advice, you should consult an experienced adviser, for example, a solicitor, law centre or Citizens Advice. You can find your nearest Citizens Advice.
Domestic Violence Protection Notices and Orders
If you have suffered or been threatened with domestic abuse, the police can issue a Domestic Violence Protection Notice and then apply to the magistrates' court for a Domestic Violence Protection Order.
A Domestic Violence Protection Order can protect you from further abuse, and if you live with the perpetrator, ban them from returning to the home and contacting you. If the perpetrator does not keep to the Order, they can be arrested and brought before the court.
A Domestic Violence Protection Order lasts for up to 28 days and gives you time to explore your options and get further support.
The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme
Under the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, you can find out about a partner's history of domestic violence from the police. The police will give you information if it is necessary to protect you. The police can also warn you about an individual if they think you are at risk of domestic violence.
Getting help from a local domestic violence service or a solicitor
If you need further help, you should get advice from an independent domestic violence adviser or a solicitor who is experienced in family law.
A local advice agency, such as a law centre or Citizens Advice, should be able to help you find a local solicitor who is experienced in this area of the law. In England and Wales, you can also look on the Law Society website.
You may be able to get help with your legal costs - you can check if you qualify for legal aid.
Legal aid helps you with your legal costs including advice and help if you have to go to court.
You should make an appointment as soon as you feel ready, and could take someone with you for support the first time you go. The initial interview will probably last quite a long time, during which the adviser should discuss with you what courses of legal action are open to you.
There are also lots of charities that help both men and women get help with abuse.
There are ways for you to stay in the UK if your relationship has broken down because of domestic violence.
Get help from an immigration lawyer as soon as you can - they’ll be able to tell you what to do next. You may be entitled to legal aid (free legal advice).
A lawyer will help you decide whether to:
- apply for a 3-month extension to your current visa and access to public funds (benefits) - do this if you’re struggling with money (it’ll help you support yourself before you apply for indefinite leave to remain)
- apply for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) - this is more complicated but if you’re successful, will be worth the extra time and effort
- claim asylum in the UK - if you’re unable to go back to your home country because you fear persecution, and want to stay in the UK as a refugee
You must tell the Home Office as soon as you separate if you're a dependant on your partner's visa - explain your circumstances and that you've experienced domestic abuse. You’ll be in the UK illegally as soon as you separate - not once you’re divorced.
You can find information about the housing rights of women from abroad fleeing domestic violence on the Housing Rights Information website at www.housing-rights.info
Financial abuse happens where a perpetrator uses financial means to control you and may include any of the following:
- stopping the victim working
- controlling the household finances including wages, benefits and bank accounts
- forcing the victim to hand over wages and money
- persuading or forcing the victim to take out loans and credit in her/his name.
If you have been pressurised or bullied to take out loans or credit in your name, the debt may be unenforceable - you should get advice from your nearest Citizens Advice.
The domestic violence charity Refuge has produced a financial guide for women experiencing domestic violence at www.refuge.org.uk.
Your local Citizens Advice can give you advice about debt problems. To search for details of your nearest Citizens Advice, including those that can give advice by e-mail, click on nearest Citizens Advice
Honour-based abuse is defined as an incident or crime which has or may have been committed to protect or defend the honour of the family and or community. Honour-based abuse happens where a person is punished by their family or community for doing things that are not in keeping with the traditional beliefs of their culture. For example, you may suffer honour-based abuse because you:
- resist an arranged marriage
- resist a forced marriage
- have a partner from a different culture or religion
- live a westernised lifestyle
- want a divorce.
Honour-based abuse may include domestic abuse, sexual or psychological abuse, assault, forced marriage or sending someone back to their country of origin.
The Honour Network Helpline is a specialist organisation which advises victims and survivors of forced marriage and honour-based abuse.
A forced marriage is where you are pressurised into it against your will. You may be emotionally blackmailed or physically threatened usually by your family. It is not the same as an arranged marriage where both parties agree to get married.
In England and Wales, forced marriage is a criminal offence. If someone forces you into marriage, they could go to prison for up to seven years.
Harassment happens when you receive unwanted behaviour from another person which alarms or distresses you. Examples of harassment include malicious phone calls, threatening texts, threatening and insulting language and damage to property.
Stalking is a form of harassment and may include behaviour such as following, contacting or attempting to contact you, monitoring your email and internet, watching and spying on you and other similar behaviour.
It is a criminal and civil offence for another person to harass or stalk you. You can report the matter to the police. Many police forces have a specialist police officer who deals with harassment or stalking.
You may also be able to get an injunction in the civil courts to stop the harassment or stalking taking place and claim damages. If an harasser breaches an injunction, it is a criminal offence.
You can get further information and guidance on how to deal with harassment and stalking from the National Stalking Helpline. Go to www.stalkinghelpline.org.
There are many organisations that can give you confidential advice and support. | <urn:uuid:cc221b20-8b1b-42a8-80ad-61d6468c23df> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://epiuat-app.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/gender-violence/domestic-violence-and-abuse/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323585737.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20211023162040-20211023192040-00449.warc.gz | en | 0.950103 | 2,711 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Where is surface & nanoanalytics used?
Modern research and development is producing more and more high-performance components and materials with ever smaller structures with dimensions down to the nanometer range. Many properties of a material and consequently of a device developed from it are determined by its surface properties. The morphology or topography of the surface and its chemical composition play an essential role – the properties of the first nano- to micrometers of a sample as well as structures of the same size on it are of great importance. Surfaces are exposed to the environmental conditions surrounding them and interact with them chemically and physically: this is where the corrosion of a component comes into play, but also the possible emission of particles from the component to its environment, be it, for example, to drinking water, which is checked by sensors, to body fluids in the case of a medical product, or to the environment in the case of outdoor applications such as photovoltaic systems or car brake discs. If a material is under severe stress, cracks begin to form in the area near the surface and can lead to its destruction. Similarly, technologically and economically important processes such as electroplating, various layer depositions for optics or bonding processes in joining technology are largely determined by the surface properties of the material to be processed. If, for example, an applied coating does not adhere, this may be due to surface contamination. Doping or passivation of components also takes place in the area close to the surface. Thus, the surface is often the starting point for control and failure analyses.
In order to understand, control and optimize a developed material or component or the manufacturing process behind it, the use of nano and surface analytics is indispensable. Especially when questions of quality control, troubleshooting or environmental compatibility arise: Does the intended manufacturing process really lead to the desired result? What is actually on my component? How much of a specifically applied or implanted substance is on or in the component? How is it structured? How does it change through use? How does it interact with its environment?
With the help of various analytical techniques and our competent scientists, we can answer these and many other questions reliably and quickly, thus providing constructive support for your research and development tasks. The individual techniques available for investigations in the CAK laboratories provide different information about the surface. Some provide mainly physical information, others mainly chemical statements. Often, a combination of different analytical methods is helpful to sufficiently understand and evaluate the surface in order to comprehensively answer questions raised. | <urn:uuid:1e9140b6-f083-4f42-b537-3ee213e4dbea> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.cismst.de/en/competences/cak/?s= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334514.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925035541-20220925065541-00580.warc.gz | en | 0.94783 | 505 | 3.109375 | 3 |
How to Work Out the Inside of the Thigh
The inner thigh, or adductor, muscles draw the leg toward your body’s midline. If the muscles are weak due to poor conditioning, you might be more susceptible to inner-thigh strain, a painful condition that can relegate you to the sidelines. You can work out your inner-thigh muscles with a variety of strength-boosting exercises, many of which require only basic equipment. Choose the one exercise that works for you and perform it regularly, or alternate between exercises for variety. Always finish up your inner-thigh routine with a gentle but thorough stretch to minimize post-workout soreness and maintain or improve adductor flexibility.
Warm up with five to 10 minutes of general cardio activity and a set of dynamic inner-thigh stretches. Take a brisk walk, jog in place, bike around the block or jump rope until you break a light sweat. Perform 10 to 15 smooth, controlled side-to-side lunges to further warm up your adductors, preparing them for more intense, focused activity.
Anchor one end of a resistance band to a heavy, stationary object, such as the leg of a couch. Stand with your right side adjacent to the anchored end of the band and attach the free end of the band to your right ankle. Grasp a nearby surface for light support. Straighten your back, tighten your abdominals and press your shoulders down and back. Draw your right foot across the front of your body, pulling against the band’s resistance. Release the leg slowly and repeat the adduction 10 to 15 times. Complete up to three sets before switching to your left leg.
Lie on your back with your legs together and extended toward the ceiling. Place your arms along your sides, palms facing down. Flex your feet and rotate your legs outward at the hip socket. Keeping your heels together, bend your knees, drawing your feet toward your pelvis and angling your knees outward. Hold for two counts, then slowly straighten your legs, pressing your heels toward the ceiling and squeezing your inner thighs together. Complete one to three sets of 10 to 15 reps, working slowly and deliberately. Increase the intensity of the exercise by wearing ankle weights.
Lie on your back with the soles of your feet on the floor in front of you and your knees directed to the ceiling. Place a stability ball, basketball or rubber ball between your thighs and rest your arms on the floor along your sides. Press your inner thighs together, working against the ball’s resistance. Hold the contraction for two or three seconds. Give a quick little squeeze and then release and relax slightly. Complete one to three sets of 10 to 15 reps, resting briefly between sets.
Lengthen and release tension from the inner thighs with the butterfly stretch. Sit on the floor with the soles of your feet together and your knees open to the side. Straighten your back and position your head directly over your spine. Relax your face, jaw and chin. Grasp your insteps and gently press your knees toward the floor. When you feel tension along your inner thighs, hold the stretch for up to 30 seconds. If the tension subsides during that time, increase the stretch slightly by pulling your feet closer to your pelvis, hinging forward at your hips or pushing down gently on your knees with your elbows. Hold for up to 30 seconds and then increase the stretch once more. Hold and then release the stretch slowly.
- Always focus on maintaining proper form, even if it means performing fewer reps or sets.
- Check bands, balls and weights for defects before using.
- ExRx.net: Adductors (Hip)
- American Journal of Sports Medicine: The Effectiveness of a Preseason Exercise Program to Prevent Adductor Muscle Strains in Professional Ice Hockey Players
- American Council on Exercise: Flexible Benefits
- American Council on Exercise: Standing Hip Adduction
- Tina Juan Fitness: Zipper Kick
- University of Northern Colorado Campus Recreation Center: Stability Ball Inner Thigh Squeeze
- American Council on Exercise: Seated Butterfly Stretch
- Hemera Technologies/AbleStock.com/Getty Images | <urn:uuid:523d112b-4c36-4111-ae09-1fa4cad00d45> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | https://healthyliving.azcentral.com/work-out-inside-thigh-9478.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583509196.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20181015121848-20181015143348-00392.warc.gz | en | 0.922262 | 866 | 2.75 | 3 |
The cave houses known as “yaodong” have dotted the hillsides of China’s snowy Loess plateau since the second millennium B.C.E. This form of earth-sheltered architecture, which typically consists of a sunken central courtyard excavated into the hills with the facades all facing each other, makes use of the natural insulating properties of rock and soil to keep warm in the winter and cool down in the summer. As ancient as they may be, yaodong dwellings are still among the most popular in the area, home to an estimated 40 million people as of the last count in 2006.
Simply put, the style just works, which explains why hyperSity Architects stuck with it when completing a dramatic renovation for Chinese internet personality Ye Liangchen. At the start of the project, all the team had to work with were the crumbling remains of a yaodong home in Weinan. Outdated and on the verge of collapse, the 540-square-foot residence hearkened back to a time when a lack of indoor plumbing was the norm, and its interiors were dark and dank to say the least. Some of its excavated rooms were set 36 feet below the grassy surface of the hill. To make the home structurally sound again, they’d have to remove almost all of the original elements and replace them with modern equivalents that would still stand the test of time.
Their solution? Attractive and unusually durable rammed earth, which is just another way of defining the ancient practice of building structures out of raw materials like sand, clay, gravel, and lime. In China, it’s known as “hangtu,” and evidence of its use can be found everywhere from the Great Wall to the Neolithic archaeological sites along the Yellow River. Though older examples of rammed earth typically had a more brick-like appearance, modern rammed earth constructions are often characterized by long, thin layers of compacted materials tinted with natural pigments like iron oxide.
The architects took the identifying elements of yaodong and crafted them into a contemporary dwelling with stunning results. To honor tradition and avoid eclipsing the remains of the older yaodong houses nearby, the architects kept the same rough dimensions of the original home, using mixed clay and sand from the tops of surrounding mountains to create a highly specific shade of rammed earth that reflected local building traditions. These materials are environmentally friendly and low cost by nature.
In rebuilding the home, the architects also gave it a brand new layout, working in a dynamic series of courtyards to create an interplay of in and outdoor spaces within a walled envelope and quite literally bringing nature into the house.
“The architect intends to maximize the outdoor space visually and psychologically,” explains hyperSity. “Hence, five scattered courtyard landscapes are created within the compound and connected through a zigzag path similar to the Chinese garden to create a tranquil atmosphere and infinite spatial experience. These areas also enable fresh air and daylight to enter every single room.”
“The application of rammed earth not only reflects the local building traditions, but also brings in the strength and permanence of stone with the warmth and simplicity of wood…rural people deserve a modern life and ample modern facilities. However, rural areas should not be the lower versions of the city, and [they] should not be the followers of the city. Instead, it should maintain the intimated relations to the sky and the land.” | <urn:uuid:a1b25edf-165f-4253-9917-08398d934a1c> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | https://dornob.com/cave-house-a-modern-rammed-earth-construction-in-china/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221217951.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20180821034002-20180821054002-00527.warc.gz | en | 0.954515 | 724 | 3.28125 | 3 |
The Power of Everyday Politics
How Vietnamese Peasants Transformed National Policy
Ordinary people's everyday political behavior can have a huge impact on national policy: that is the central conclusion of this book on Vietnam. In telling the story of collectivized agriculture in that country, Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet uncovers a history of local resistance to national policy and gives a voice to the villagers who effected change. Not through open opposition but through their everyday political behavior, villagers individually and in small, unorganized groups undermined collective farming and frustrated authorities' efforts to correct the problems.
The Power of Everyday Politics is an authoritative account, based on extensive research in Vietnam's National Archives and in the Red River Delta countryside, of the formation of collective farms in northern Vietnam in the late 1950s, their enlargement during wartime in the 1960s and 1970s, and their collapse in the 1980s. As Kerkvliet shows, the Vietnamese government eventually terminated the system, but not for ideological reasons. Rather, collectivization had become hopelessly compromised and was ultimately destroyed largely by the activities of villagers. Decollectivization began locally among villagers themselves; national policy merely followed.
The power of everyday politics is not unique to Vietnam, Kerkvliet asserts. He advances a theory explaining how everyday activities that do not conform to the behavior required by authorities may carry considerable political weight. | <urn:uuid:fa9a3e8b-2565-4ac8-93d3-d5952abfb300> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100030380 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257825048.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071025-00080-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945983 | 284 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Tip No.4: How to Make a Steady Income From Snail Farming
Snail farming (also known as heliciculture) is another lucrative business that is steadily growing as the commodity is in high demand across the country and beyond all thanks to the nutritious value the gastropod carry.
Snail farming is not a new concept in the agribusiness. Humans consume snail meat mainly because of its nutritional values. Snail is rich in protein and iron, low in fat and cholesterol, contains almost all the amino acid needed for the human body including Omega 3, no wonder this meat is always prescribed by medical experts to patients with failing health conditions.
Starting a snail farm for commercial purpose does not require a vast space of land but your choice of location is pertinent. Snails are best kept in cool area with leafy vegetables free of insects and pests.
The soil structure should be light; this helps the snail in egg laying and easy movement. Proper drainage system is important to allow for easy flow of water after rain. This will help to avoid stagnant waters around the farm.
For maximum result, it is advised to breed snails of the same species. There are different species of snails, and not all are suitable for snail farming meaning that some are more economical than the other. Also, not all specie of snail is consumed as meat. To have an active farm that will give the farmer optimum profit, I recommended you farm the Archachatina Marginata (Giant West Africa Snail) and achatina achatina (Giant Africa Snail). They are edible land snails that grow big and fast if supplied with enough food and housed in a professionally constructed snailery. There slime or muccus is also used by the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. While the Achatina snails lay small eggs 4-10 mm in diameter, in batches of 20 – 400, the Archachatina snails lay larger eggs 12-20 mm in diameter, in batches of 6 – 20.
Snails are generally vegetarians and accept most food types like fruits, leaves, flowers, tubers and any high calcium foods. Snails eat solid food by rasping it away with their radula. Feeding activity depends on the weather, and snails may not necessarily feed every day.
Just make sure the environment is tidy. Chop and drop the food for the snails in small quantity or make sizable bits of food and drop in the snailery giving spaces to avoid the snails clogging. To give the snail water, you just need to dampen/sprinkle the snailery or food with rain water or any ordinary water that is not treated with chlorine.
Modern snail farmers provide their snail with nutrition rich foods that help to enhance the growth rate and size.
Getting buyers for your mature snails are never a problem; you just need to make the right contact while starting out. Depending on the scale you are operating, you just need to talk to few restaurants that specialize in snail meat, vendors that sell snails in the market, hotels and now most lucrative is selling to exporters. Some businesses might even order for snails even before maturity if you are good in growing snails to big sizes | <urn:uuid:93f7cf47-f543-432c-b41c-8e88c39de4aa> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://small-farm-permaculture-and-sustainable-living.com/how-to-make-a-steady-income-from-snail-farming/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510603.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20230930050118-20230930080118-00745.warc.gz | en | 0.96304 | 660 | 2.71875 | 3 |
by Edwin Berry, PhD, CCM
By private email, a good physicist commented on my preprint, “Why human CO2 does not change climate.” Even if you are not a scientist, I think you will understand my reply.
Thank you for your email.
First, to answer your questions. You asked,
- Do you consider the clearing of forests in Europe, North America, and the Amazon a natural and not a man-made phenomenon?
- Are you saying that the industrial revolution was just happened to coincide in time and magnitude to the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but there is some other, unidentified geochemical phenomenon that is responsible?
I use the same definitions as the IPCC. The IPCC defines the difference between natural and human emissions of carbon dioxide.
Yes, I consider the build-up of carbon dioxide to be coincidental with the industrial revolution. Proper science does not allow us to assume a seeming correlation proves a cause-effect relationship.
Unfortunately for the IPCC case, Munshi, whom I reference, has done a statistical analysis that proves the correlation between the annual increases in carbon dioxide and annual human emissions is zero. Therefore, the increase in human emissions during the industrial revolution cannot be the cause of the increase in carbon dioxide.
- I do not see that your preprint offers a convincing alternative explanation for the rapid build up to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since 1750.
The fact is, I do not need to provide a convincing alternative to prove the IPCC hypothesis is wrong. We can prove a theory wrong without providing an alternative explanation.
Separate from introducing my model, I prove the IPCC hypothesis is wrong by showing its physics is wrong and its predictions are wrong. Case closed. The only way to save the IPCC hypothesis, is to show my proof is wrong. No one has done this.
You suggest my hypothesis is wrong because I do not include a level for the oceans and the Revelle effect.
I claim you miss the point. For the Revelle effect to save the IPCC hypothesis, you must prove the Revelle effect treats human-produced carbon dioxide differently than it treats natural-produced carbon dioxide, in the manner claimed by the IPCC.
Do you wish to claim the Revell effect treats carbon dioxide from the two different sources differently?
I don’t think you do.
The Revelle effect must treat carbon dioxide from the two sources equally because it can’t tell the difference between carbon dioxide from either source.
The IPCC errors when it says nature treats carbon dioxide from the two sources differently. I have proved this IPCC claim is unphysical and impossible.
Further, both the IPCC model and my model include the Revelle effect.
You object to my use of partial pressure. However, no matter what numbers you may wish to insert for the Revelle effect, the flow to the oceans will continue to be proportional to the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The Revelle effect can modify the proportionality constant in net flow of carbon dioxide from atmosphere to oceans. However, that effect is included in the residence time.
Since my model and the IPCC agree the residence time is about 4 years, then I and the IPCC have treated the Revelle effect the same. So, the Revelle effect cannot be an issue with my hypothesis or model.
While I cannot prove my model is correct, because no one can prove any hypothesis is correct, no one yet has proved my model is wrong. But I have proved the IPCC hypothesis is wrong, and no one has shown my proof is wrong.
The IPCC claim, that nature treats human and natural carbon dioxide differently, is the basis of its climate models. Therefore, its models and its resulting climate claims are scientifically wrong.
Thank you for this interesting discussion. | <urn:uuid:7f387500-f42a-43cc-ad3a-eb9b71209f9b> | CC-MAIN-2018-30 | https://edberry.com/blog/climate-physics/agw-hypothesis/comment-human-co2-not-change-climate/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-30/segments/1531676589980.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20180718002426-20180718022426-00297.warc.gz | en | 0.946689 | 779 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Despite Democrats’ cataclysmal framing of every weather event, Americans are safer than ever.
They will never surrender the wealth and safety that technology has afforded and continues to afford them.
Climate isn’t the same as weather—unless, of course, weather happens to be politically useful. In that case, weather portends climate apocalypse.
So warns Elizabeth Warren as she surveyed Iowan rainstorms, which she claims, like tornadoes and floods, are more frequent and severe. “Different parts of the country deal with different climate issues,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–Malthusia) cautioned as she too warned of extreme tornadoes. “But ALL of these threats will be increasing in intensity as climate crisis grows and we fail to act appropriately.”
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D–Ore.) recently sent a fundraising email warning Democrats that climate change was causing “growing mega-fires, extremely destructive hurricanes, and horrific flooding” in which “American lives are at stake.”
Even if we pretend that passing a bazillion-dollar authoritarian Green New Deal would do anything to change the climate, there is no real-world evidence that today’s weather is increasingly threatening to human lives. By every quantifiable measure, in fact, we’re much safer despite the cataclysmal framing of every weather-related event.
How many of those taken in by alarmism realize that deaths from extreme weather have dropped somewhere around 99.9 percent since the 1920s? Heat and cold can still be killers, but thanks to increasingly reliable and affordable heating and cooling systems, and other luxuries of the age, the vast majority of Americans will never have to fear the climate in any genuine way.
Since 1980, death caused by all natural disasters and heat and cold is somewhere under 0.5 percent.
It’s true that 2019 has seen a spike in tornadoes, but mostly because 2018 was the first year recorded without a single violent tornado in the United States. Tornadoes killed 10 Americans in 2018, the fewest since we started keeping track of these things in 1875, only four years after the nefarious combustion engine was invented.
After a few devastating hurricanes around a decade ago, we were similarly warned that it was a prelude to endless storms and ecological disaster. This was followed by nine years without a single major hurricane in the United States. Or, in other words, six fewer hurricanes than we experienced in 1908 alone.
According to the U.S. Natural Hazard Statistics, in fact, 2018 saw below the 30-year average in deaths not only by tornadoes and hurricanes (way under average) but also from heat, flooding, and lighting. We did experience a slight rise in deaths due to cold.
Pointing out these sort of things usually elicits the same reaction: Why do you knuckle-dragging troglodytes hate science? Well, because science’s predictive abilities on most things, but especially climate, have been atrocious. But mostly because science is being used as a cudgel to push leftist policy prescriptions without considering economic tradeoffs, societal reality, or morality.
There are two things in this debate that we can predict with near certitude: First, that modern technology will continue to allow human beings to adapt to organic and anthropogenic changes in the environment. Second, that human beings will never surrender the wealth and safety that technology has afforded and continues to afford them.
see also Why Climate Alarm Is A Vote Loser
The post Will Climate Hysteria Cost US Democrats The Next Elections? appeared first on The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF).
via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)
May 31, 2019 at 05:31AM | <urn:uuid:3bb21e5a-f577-43b4-ab43-0ac411870a57> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://iowaclimate.org/2019/05/31/will-climate-hysteria-cost-us-democrats-the-next-elections/?like_comment=2561&_wpnonce=24da1372bd | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655890157.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20200706073443-20200706103443-00473.warc.gz | en | 0.961547 | 785 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Author: Buffy Andrews MSW, LCSW
Trauma is a tricky animal, and it rears its ugly head in many different ways. More often than not, individuals who’ve dealt with trauma in their past, commonly get misdiagnosed with other mental health disorders or illnesses. According to NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) about 8 million Americans are effected with trauma, and go on to develop PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder).
Children are often more commonly diagnosed with such disorders as: ADHD, oppositional Defiant disorder, or adjustment disorders. Common “broad category symptoms,” according to NAMI can include: re-experiencing type symptoms (intrusive thoughts, distressing memories, bad dreams or flashbacks), avoidance (staying away from people places or things that may remind someone of the traumatic incident), cognitive and mood symptoms (negative self talk, negative thoughts, feelings of numbness or guilt, anxiousness, or depressive symptoms), and arousal symptoms (extremely startled by something that represents trauma – can lead to anger or outbursts).
So you can start to see how some of the common threads between diagnoses often lead to a mis-diagnosis (often in order to appease the masses). Things like “not paying attention in class” could really mean that children are having intrusive thoughts about traumatic event (or big life stressors at home), or acts of defiance could be the result of something triggering the child or adult and reminding them of said traumatic event as well. “Clinical Depression” can also look a lot like not having dealt with the root issue at work in your life.
It can be really easy to place blame, or label, or diagnosis on someone simply because of a few “bad behaviors” or “depressive moods” rather than looking deeper into what may be causing all the heartache to begin with.
I pray that us as clinicians, or you as individuals, may be able to look at others through a lens of grace and compassion when we see that Trauma can take shape in many different forms throughout an individuals life. Let’s not chalk up our children’s “bad behavior” to “bad behavior” or “opposition” simply because they cannot verbalize the trauma they’ve experienced. Let us instead extend generosity of the spirit, kindness in our speech, and slowness in the way we handle people to better embrace one another and to aid in speeding up the healing process.
Would love to know any questions, thoughts, or concerns you may have on this topic (it’s a pretty broad one, and short blogs are not going to give all the details a 50 page thesis might, BUT I want to get the conversation going) – I would love to hear from you (910) 200-6825.
About the author: Buffy Andrews is a mental health counselor in Wilmington, NC who uses her 8 years of experience in the field to support people on their path to wellness. Her clinical specialties include Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral therapy and other modalities. She is also a registered yoga teacher (RYT200) which helps her incorporate mind/body techniques and promote mindfulness for people in all walks of life. You can reach out to Buffy via email at firstname.lastname@example.org or call/text her at 910-200-6825 | <urn:uuid:6f2d65a8-b945-42c8-bc78-72261c62e2f2> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | https://www.evolutionwellnessnc.com/misdiagnosed-trauma/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780057366.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20210922132653-20210922162653-00489.warc.gz | en | 0.950376 | 704 | 2.71875 | 3 |
As we noted last week, terrorism-derived fear increases prejudice toward perceived outsiders. Wouldn't it be nice if some simple action could produce the opposite result? New research from Switzerland suggests such an intervention actually exists—and may even have lasting results.
The new study finds when a member of a minority group makes a personal sacrifice in order to spare you from pain, your level of empathy increases—not only for that individual, but also for other members of that group.
"Our findings show that empathy with an out-group member can be learned, and generalizes to other out-group individuals," a research team led by Grit Hein of the University of Zurich writes in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Prejudice is not intractable; it can, in effect, be un-learned.
The researchers add that "surprisingly few" such experiences can produce this positive result.
The study was based on the concept of "negative reinforcement," which is defined as "learning that arises from the absence of an expected negative outcome." It featured 40 young men, whose brains were scanned as the experiment took place.
The participants, all Swiss, "were paired with individuals of Swiss descent (in-group members), and individuals of Balkan descent (out-group members)," the researchers write. "The latter form a large minority in Switzerland, whose presence is often portrayed as problematic."
During the first phase of the experiment, each participant and his two confederates were all subject to "painful stimulation," receiving a jolt of electricity to the back of the hand.
For the second phase, one of the two confederates was designated a "decision maker." The participant was told he was about to "receive a number of painful shocks," but the "decision maker" could prevent this "by giving up money he would otherwise earn."
"The name of the potential helper was revealed just before the intervention started, and was a typical Balkan name in the experimental group, and a typical Swiss name in the control group," the researchers write.
The session consisted of 20 trials, 15 "in which the participant received help from the other person, and five in which he did not receive help and was thus subjected to pain."
In the final phase, two new associates (again, one Swiss and one Balkan) were substituted for the first two, and the participant watched as one of them was subjected to the painful electrical pulses. A brain scanner measured the level of empathy he was feeling for the person experiencing pain.
The researchers report that getting help from a member of the out-group created an increase in empathy for another member of that group who was suffering.
"The generalization of the learning effect is important," they write, "because it shows the robustness of the learning intervention, and its potential relevance for society."
So when a member of a group you view with suspicion helps you out in a difficult situation, at a cost to him or herself, it changes the way your brain reacts to members of that group. These encouraging results suggest that prejudice is not intractable; it can, in effect, be un-learned.
Findings is a daily column by Pacific Standard staff writer Tom Jacobs, who scours the psychological-research journals to discover new insights into human behavior, ranging from the origins of our political beliefs to the cultivation of creativity. | <urn:uuid:75490560-532c-4411-8cb6-baf88e70822f> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://psmag.com/social-justice/empathy-for-outsiders-can-be-taught | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046153816.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20210729043158-20210729073158-00712.warc.gz | en | 0.978685 | 694 | 2.78125 | 3 |
What laws protect students with disabilities at colleges, universities, junior colleges, professional schools, and trade and technical schools?
There are five laws that prohibit disability discrimination at these higher education institutions. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination based on disability at all public and private schools, except for schools run by religious institutions. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 504) prohibits such discrimination at any school, including church-affiliated schools, that receives federal funds, such as student financial aid loan programs. These two laws provide similar protections to both students and applicants with disabilities.
In California, students with disabilities are also protected by the Unruh Civil Rights Act (Unruh Act) (private schools), California Government Code Section 11135 (Section 11135) (public schools), and California Civil Code Section 54 (Section 54) (both public and private schools). Generally, any violation of the ADA or Section 504 is also a violation of the Unruh Act, Section 11135, or Section 54, but these state laws may provide greater protections in some cases.
A person with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity is “disabled” under the ADA or Section 504. A person with a physical or mental impairment that limits a major life activity is “disabled” under the Unruh Act and other California state laws. It is helpful to break down this definition into its parts:
“Major life activities” include:
- Performing manual tasks
- Sexual relations
- Bodily functions
- Caring for oneself
- Interacting with others
An impairment limits a major life activity if it makes achieving the activity more difficult. An impairment may be substantially limiting if it restricts an individual’s ability to perform a major life activity compared to most people.
Under California law and the amended ADA, an employee’s disability is considered without regard to “mitigating measures” such as medication, prosthetics, assistive technology, or other devices or strategies used to mitigate the effects of the condition. This means that people with physical or mental conditions who are currently stable due to medications or treatment are still protected.
The ADA and Section 504 also protect people who are regarded or treated as having a disability, even if they do not. Also protected are persons with a record or history of a disability. In addition, the FEHA, Unruh Act, Section 11135, and Section 54 protect persons who are not currently disabled, but who may become disabled in the future.
Under federal and state law, schools cannot discriminate against qualified students and applicants with disabilities. This means that if you have a disability and meet academic or other standards for admission to or participation in school programs, you cannot be treated differently from other students—denied admission or enrollment, graded poorly, failed, suspended, expelled, or harassed—because of your disability. Qualified students with disabilities may also obtain reasonable accommodations so that they can participate in school programs.
Generally, schools are required to ensure that all of their programs, services, activities, and facilities are accessible to persons with disabilities. Further, you may not be retaliated against for asking for an accommodation or otherwise asserting your rights.
Reasonable accommodations are adjustments or modifications made to a school policy, or specific supports or services provided to a student with a disability, to enable the student to participate in school programs, including admissions, academics, vocational education, housing, physical education, athletics, recreation, extracurricular activities, transportation, counseling, health insurance (covering both physical and psychiatric disabilities), and financial aid.
Whether a particular accommodation request is reasonable depends upon the situation and the type of program. The accommodation, however, may not be unduly costly or disruptive for the school, or be for the student’s personal use only. A student has the right to refuse a particular accommodation.
Examples of modifications of school policies include:
- Not assessing penalties for spelling errors on papers or exams;
- Allowing substitutions for certain required or prerequisite courses;
- Allowing extra time on exams or to turn in papers;
- Providing exams in an alternate format;
- Allowing a reduced course load and extra time in which to earn a degree;
- Providing housing accommodations for a student’s attendant;
- Reassigning a classroom to an accessible location;
- Providing assistance in applying for financial aid.
Examples of supports or services that may be provided to a student include:
- Taped texts;
- Videotext displays;
- Talking calculators;
- Braille calculators, printers, or typewriters;
- Telephone handset amplifiers;
- Closed caption decoders;
- Open and closed caption TV;
- Voice synthesizers;
- Specialized gym equipment;
- Raised-line drawing kits;
- Assistive listening devices or systems;
- TTYs or TTDs;
- Reaching device for library use.
Students may not be charged for these supports and services, although the school may pay for them by helping a student obtain reimbursement from an outside organization, such as a state rehabilitation agency.
The process of obtaining supports or services in higher education settings may be different from that in elementary, middle, and high school. A student with a disability who has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) in grade school shares responsibility—and sometimes does not participate much at all—for identifying and obtaining supports with parents, school administrators, teachers, and specialists. In postsecondary schools, however, the student has the primary responsibility for identifying and documenting her disability and requesting specific supports, services, and other accommodations to meet her needs.
A school is only required to accommodate known disabilities. There is no one specific way for a student to notify a school about a disability, and the school’s knowledge of the disability may be implied. To guarantee the legal right to an accommodation, however, you should disclose your disability—before you receive a low grade because you did not have the accommodation you need.
Generally, postsecondary schools have Offices for Students with Disabilities which process requests for accommodations; in California, for example, all community colleges have Disabled Students Programs and Services (DSPS) offices that handle accommodations requests. Whether or not this is the case, a student with a disability can also speak with the school’s ADA or Section 504 Coordinator, the Dean of Student Affairs, an academic advisor, or a teacher to disclose a disability and ask for an accommodation.
You must provide the school with enough information to show the existence of an impairment, and its impact on a major life activity. To be safe, you should use words such as “disability,” “impairment,” “limiting,” “major life activities,” and “accommodation.” If your disability is of a personal nature, you do not necessarily need to tell the school all the details of the disability.
No. You can request an accommodation in writing, orally, through e-mail, or by any other form of communication. You may want to keep written records of your request, however, in case there is a dispute in the future over whether you made the request.
No. If your disability or your need for accommodation is not obvious, however, your school may ask for reasonable medical documentation. The documentation should be limited to a doctor’s note or other documents, such as test results or diagnostic reports from grade school, showing that you have a disability and need accommodation. You are not required to produce your entire medical or mental health history.
Once you request an accommodation, the school must make a reasonable effort to determine the appropriate accommodation. However, you must also be willing to participate in the process of developing and implementing the accommodation.
Students who do not fully participate in the process may lose their rights. This participation may require the student to submit requested medical documentation and to attend scheduled meetings. If the school or student rejects a suggested accommodation, the student must take steps to continue the process.
To protect your rights, take proactive steps, such as:
- Presenting accommodation requests to the school in writing;
- Suggesting alternative accommodations;
- Scheduling and attending meetings with school officials to discuss accommodations;
- Writing down the names of people you speak to about accommodations, and also the dates and times you talk to them;
- Keeping copies of all documents relating to your disability and education, including any letters you send to or receive from your school.
Sometimes professors don’t understand that accommodations are necessary so that students with disabilities can participate fully in class. Even if the professor is concerned about having her lecture taped, she may have to permit taping to allow a student with visual impairments to benefit from a course. Even if a professor is uncomfortable with permitting extra time for examinations, she may have to allow a student who needs extra time for processing information to have it. If your professor refuses to let you use the accommodation you need, or gives you “attitude” about using it, contact the Office for Students with Disabilities, the Dean of Student Affairs, or your faculty advisor to ask them to speak with the professor.
The school must modify admissions tests so that test results accurately reflect your aptitude, knowledge, or achievement level—not your disability. Under Section 504, however, the school cannot ask you if you have a disability and need an accommodation during the admissions process. If you need a reasonable accommodation to complete admissions forms, ask the school admissions office or Office for Students with Disabilities.
By law, all schools have to make all their programs, services, and activities accessible to students with disabilities, in the most integrated setting appropriate. Schools can do this by making all of their facilities accessible, or by reassigning students or programs to accessible facilities. Additionally, all new school buildings should be completely accessible. To make a facility or part of a facility accessible, schools should:
- Install ramps
- Make curb cuts in sidewalks and entrances
- Reposition shelves
- Rearrange tables, chairs, and vending machines
- Widen doorways
- Eliminate turnstiles
- Install designated accessible wheelchair seating in auditoriums
- Add Braille in elevators
- Install grab bars at toilets
- Rearrange toilet partitions to increase maneuvering space
- Insulate lavatory pipes
- Install a raised toilet seat
- Install a full-length bathroom mirror
- Create designated accessible parking spaces
- Maintain elevators
- Install automatic door openers
- Install visual alarms
- Provide TTYs and TTDs
- Ensure that school websites are accessible
If you think your classroom building, dormitory, library, student center, school website, or other school facilities are inaccessible, contact your Office for Students with Disabilities or Dean of Student Affairs.
What can I do if my college refuses to give me the accommodations I need, or discriminates against me because of my disability?
If your school refuses to provide you with the reasonable accommodation you need, fails to address access problems, or otherwise discriminates against you because of your disability, you can:
- File an internal grievance or complaint with the school.
- File a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Education.
- File a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
- Try to resolve things informally, by negotiating directly with the school or with a mediator.
- File a lawsuit: For violations of the ADA and Section 504 you can file a lawsuit in federal or state court. If you seek money damages only (under $5000), you can file a complaint in small claims court. You can file a lawsuit regardless of whether you have filed a complaint with the school, OCR, or DOJ.
For further information about your employment rights, contact the Workers’ Rights Clinic.
This Fact Sheet is intended to provide accurate, general information regarding legal rights relating to employment in California. Yet because laws and legal procedures are subject to frequent change and differing interpretations, the Legal Aid Society–Employment Law Center cannot ensure the information in this Fact Sheet is current nor be responsible for any use to which it is put. Do not rely on this information without consulting an attorney or the appropriate agency about your rights in your particular situation. | <urn:uuid:33e92b90-4143-41f4-aa28-1663245da52c> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://las-elc.org/fact-sheets/disabilities-in-higher-education | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802769685.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075249-00118-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943727 | 2,560 | 2.921875 | 3 |
- May 26, 2006
- Reaction score
Quite a unique craft was developed in the 60s by the Swiss engineer Weiland within his contract with the US company "West Coast". Weiland vehicles comprise a twin-hull structure with two large wings of aspect ratio 5 configured in a tandem. The "Small Weilandcraft" of 4.3 tons was to be followed by a 1000-ton "Large Weilandcraft" with length in excess of 200m and width of more than 150m. Sufficient attention was attached to providing efficient takeoff.
As an alternative to hydroskis, Weiland proposed power augmentation. He also introduced special inflatable shells on the bottoms of the hulls to reduce the impact of waves during takeoff. The "Small Weilandcraft" crashed during the tests supposedly due to lack of static stability.
Mark Nankivil said:Also has more than a familial resemblance to this:
Enjoy the Day! Mark | <urn:uuid:f9e8481f-6eb0-4b32-94ce-2944e7a9e7be> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/douglas-ground-effect-machines.2378/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323585441.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20211021195527-20211021225527-00199.warc.gz | en | 0.951855 | 195 | 2.671875 | 3 |
By Doc D’Errico
Data could well be described as the DNA of modern healthcare. Providers are collecting more data than ever before and using it more strategically to open up new fields of research, adopt new approaches to disease treatment and pursue new strategies for the overall improvement of public health.
Their biggest challenge? Once they capture this data, they need to store it and manage it in an economical way. The entities that do the best job of facing down storage challenges that are growing exponentially, year by year, will be best positioned to succeed in the future.
Data volumes are swelling as a result of several factors – everything from technology advances like 3D imaging (estimated 8.5 times the data storage requirement of 2D imaging) to genome sequencing for the masses.
Disease prevention models like precision medicine rely on data to move from generic treatments to more precise, population-focused diagnostics. Precision medicine factors in data from patients’ genes, environment, lifestyle factors and family history, into clinical decision-making for earlier, more accurate diagnoses, and more effective treatment and prevention.
As the Internet of Things (IoT) becomes pervasive, more and more data is “machine”-created, coming from billions of sensors and other automated data collection points. This is especially true in healthcare, which is trending toward patient wearables and mobile medicine. Taken as a whole, healthcare data growth predictions eclipse those of many other industries.
Storing and protecting this mountain of data is pushing information infrastructure and budgets well past their limits. Yet, in the fast-paced connected world, simply storing and protecting data is not enough. This data must also be analyzed, manipulated and made available to an increasing number of people and systems as quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively as possible.
This puts pressure on the IT departments in healthcare organizations. Leadership is challenging them to find tools that manage all of this data in new ways to allow better and easier collaboration, portability, better workflows, and faster, lower cost access to information at the point of engagement. However, IT is not a core competency of most healthcare providers. It requires a huge investment in people, processes, and facilities today, and even more so for the future to make use of the data that is coming.
To meet their storage needs of the future, healthcare IT departments will need to move beyond “accepted standards” and think more in terms of “what is possible?”
For example, healthcare organizations tend to adopt risk-averse strategies, refusing to allow storage platform densities to exceed 1 petabyte per failure domain. This has translated into high data costs per gigabyte for their companies in the form of acquisition and management costs for multiple “islands” of storage, rather than taking advantage of a single, more inherently efficient, multi-petabyte platform.
Many healthcare organizations also have defaulted to the use of All Flash Arrays (AFAs) – external storage arrays that use only flash media for persistent storage. When first introduced, AFAs provided a solution for a specific workload performance problem – namely small, random reads for databases. But these Solid State Drives are not the best media for large, sequential reads or especially writes. They solved an issue in the data center, but at the same time, increased the overall cost of storage.
New storage innovations are needed
Storing the data that will drive innovation in their industry’s future is shaping up as one of the biggest challenges healthcare providers will face. Here are a few storage innovations that are needed to meet this challenge:
- Scalability – As healthcare IoT generates more data from mobile devices and an assortment of wearables, storage solutions need to quickly and easily scale to meet this increased volume.
- Security – With security threats on the rise, organizations need efficient, reliable encryption of all data sets to meet regulatory requirements without huge capital expenditures.
- Reliability – It is critical that storage solutions have the highest reliability, lowest risk of failure and lowest risk of performance degradation – especially when they’re managing sensitive health data.
- Consistently high performance – Speed is critical. Every half-second spent waiting for a medical record to be retrieved from a rolling nurse’s kiosk makes a difference in the quality and timeliness of service that a patient receives. To help healthcare providers deliver faster and better service, they need solutions with the fastest possible response times so they can spend less time waiting for data to be retrieved.
- Flexibility – Healthcare data volumes will continue to grow, pushing organizations to create solutions that allow for flexible expansion in a cost-effective way.
- Integration – Since healthcare organizations generally have multiple different applications and solutions in place from various vendors, it’s important to have solutions that easily integrate with their existing infrastructure.
The pressure is on Healthcare IT providers to innovate new products and services to meet this challenge. Often, what has been understood to be the “accepted standard” influences the possible solutions to a problem – obfuscating innovation that might shorten the path to a solution and create new options that were not previously possible.
As an example, to address the needs previously outlined, Infinidat has focused not just on media evolution, but on software. As the result of over 140 patented innovations, the Infinidat Storage Platform leverages a “Neural Cache” that uses predictive analytics through AI and Machine Learning to serve I/O requests from a small amount of the fastest media in the industry, while at the same time maintaining data availability through innovations in distributed data layout across an active:active:active hardware architecture. The combinations of these innovations provides industry-leading ROI and performance metrics for real workloads while transforming how Infinidat Customers enable their own competitive advantage at multi-petabyte scale.
Like in any discipline, in IT it’s the innovators who turn the statement, “What is” into the question, “What is possible?” The fact is that the “What is” for data storage today is simply no longer sufficient to meet the rapidly changing requirements of Healthcare Information Management. Or, to put it more succinctly, lack of innovation in data storage is putting limits on Healthcare’s “What is possible.”
Storage Innovation in Genomics Research and Cancer Treatment
Doctors and scientists at one of the world’s leading medical research centers are engaged in state-of-the-art clinical and pre-clinical research that provides cancer patients with the most advanced diagnostic and treatment support. The team is running a combination of Intel- and Nvidia-powered servers with multiple InfiniBox systems from Infinidat to store and process petabytes of genomics data. Similar to other genomics research organizations, the center stores and processes enormous amounts of genomics data, supporting a mix of FASTQ, BAM and VCF files.
Installed in 2016, the high-performance, high-capacity Infinidat solution supports sequencing, analysis, and data archiving at a cost that is significantly below alternative solutions, with zero storage-related downtime in four years. Recently, when the storage administrator was looking for temporary capacity for VMware datastores, he was able to borrow space from the InfiniBox to run this workload, in addition to the ongoing genomics research, without researchers noticing any impact to performance.
Storage Innovation for Improving Patient Outcomes While Reducing Costs
One of the largest regional health insurance providers in the U.S. was experiencing a 30% annual increase in data consumption, brought about by electronic health records, large volumes of medical imaging files, and clinical reporting requirements. Five years ago, the IT team concluded that the data storage industry simply wasn’t keeping up with the realities that were transforming their business. Today, the IT team can rapidly respond to new provisioning requests and leverage data analytics to improve member services and patient outcomes while reducing costs.
High-performance storage infrastructure from Infinidat has enabled a transition from business intelligence (BI) to predictive analytics, powered by AI and deep learning. Analysts now have real-time access to data reports that once took hours to produce. By harvesting insights from phone calls and pharmacy records, the organization can proactively address issues and trends that affect the wellbeing of its members. Data-driven insights also enable incentives for healthcare providers to reduce infection and readmission rates.
Doc D’Errico is VP, Office of the CTO, at Infinidat, an enterprise data storage company. Prior to joining Infinidat, Doc spent 25 years at EMC Corporation where he led key technology innovation initiatives. He holds 14 storage-related patents, a Ph.D. in Computer Science, and undergraduate degrees in Electrical Engineering and Business. | <urn:uuid:591ec8bd-2977-44b4-866e-815ef116454f> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://www.healthcarebusinesstoday.com/how-storage-needs-will-impact-healthcares-future/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038069133.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20210412175257-20210412205257-00267.warc.gz | en | 0.93669 | 1,809 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Wind energy produces costly, intermittent, unpredictable electricity. But Government subsidies and mandates have encouraged a massive gamble on wind investments in Australia – over $7 billion has already been spent and another $30 billion is proposed. This expenditure is justified by the claim that by using wind energy there will be less carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere which will help to prevent dangerous global warming.
Incredibly, this claim is not supported by any credible cost-benefit analysis – a searching enquiry is well overdue. Here is a summary of things that should be included in the analysis.
Firstly, no one knows how much global warming is related to carbon dioxide and how much is due to natural variability. However, the historical record shows that carbon dioxide it is not the most important factor, and no one knows whether climate feedbacks are positive or negative. Also, in many ways, the biosphere and humanity would benefit from more warmth, carbon dioxide and moisture in the atmosphere.
However, let’s assume that reducing man’s production of carbon dioxide is a sensible goal and consider whether wind power is likely to achieve it. To do this we need to look at the whole life cycle of a wind tower.
Wind turbines are not just big simple windmills – they are massive complex machines whose manufacture and construction consume much energy and many expensive materials. These include steel for the tower, concrete for the footings, fibre glass for the nacelle, rare metals for the electro-magnets, steel and copper for the machinery, high quality lubricating oils for the gears, fibre glass or aluminium for the blades, titanium and other materials for weather-proof paints, copper, aluminium and steel for the transmission lines and support towers, and gravel for the access roads.
There is a long production chain for each of these materials. Mining and mineral extraction rely on diesel power for mobile equipment and electrical power for haulage, hoisting, crushing, grinding, milling, smelting, refining. These processes need 24/7 reliable electric power which, in Australia, is most likely to come from coal.
These raw materials then have to be transported to many specialised manufacturing plants, again using large quantities of energy, generating more carbon dioxide.
Then comes the construction phase, starting with building a network of access roads, clearance of transmission routes, and excavation of the massive footings for the towers. Almost all of this energy will come from diesel fuel, with increased production of carbon dioxide. Moreover, every bit of land cleared results in the production of carbon dioxide as the plant material dozed out of the way rots or is burnt, and the exposed soil loses its humus to oxidation.
Once the turbine starts operating, the many towers, transmission lines and access roads need more maintenance and repair than a traditional power plant that produces concentrated energy from one small plot of land using a small number of huge, well-tested, well protected machines. Turbines usually operate in windy, exposed, isolated locations. Blades need to be cleaned using large specialised cranes; towers and machinery need regular inspection and maintenance; and mobile equipment and manpower needs to be on standby for lightning strikes, fires or accidents. All of these activities require diesel powered equipment which produces more carbon dioxide.
Even when they do produce energy, wind towers often produce it at time when demand is low – at night for example. There is no benefit in this unwanted production, but it is usually counted as saving carbon fuels.
Every wind farm also needs backup power to cover the +65% of wind generating capacity that is lost because the wind is not blowing, or blowing such a gale that the turbines have to shut down.
In Australia, most backup is provided by coal or gas plants which are forced to operate intermittently to offset the erratic winds. Coal plants and many gas plants cannot switch on and off quickly but must maintain steam pressure and “spinning reserve” in order to swing in quickly when the fickle wind drops. This causes grid instability and increases the carbon dioxide produced per unit of electricity. This waste should be debited to the wind farm that caused it.
Wind turbines also consume energy from the grid when they are idle – for lubrication, heating, cooling, lights, metering, hydraulic brakes, energising the electro-magnets, even to keep the blades turning lazily (to prevent warping) and to maintain line voltage when there is no wind. A one-month study of the Wonthaggi wind farm in Australia found that the facility consumed more electricity than it produced for 16% of the period studied. A detailed study in USA showed that 8.3% of total wind energy produced was consumed by the towers themselves. This is not usually counted in the carbon equation.
The service life of wind towers is far shorter than traditional power plants. Already many European wind farms have reached the end of their life and contractors are now gearing up for a new boom in the wind farm demolition and scrap removal business. This phase is likely to pose dangers for the environment and require much diesel powered equipment producing yet more carbon dioxide.
Most estimates of carbon dioxide “saved” by using wind power look solely at the carbon dioxide that would be produced by a coal-fired station producing the rated capacity of the wind turbine. They generally ignore all the other ways in which wind power increases carbon energy usage, and they ignore the fact that wind farms seldom produce name-plate capacity.
When all the above factors are taken into account over the life of the wind turbine, only a very few turbines in good wind locations are likely to save any carbon dioxide. Most will be either break-even or carbon-negative – the massive investment in wind may achieve zero climate “benefits” at great cost.
Entrepreneurs or consumers who choose wind power should be free to do so but taxpayers and electricity consumers should not be forced to subsidise their choices for questionable reasons. People who claim climate sainthood for wind energy should be required to prove this by detailed life-of-project analysis before getting legislative support and subsidies.
Otherwise we are just blowing our dollars in the wind. | <urn:uuid:970648ae-a6d9-495f-85b9-e707869b7168> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://blog.heartland.org/2014/07/blowing-our-dollars-in-the-wind/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131298576.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172138-00064-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946528 | 1,254 | 3.375 | 3 |
The lub-dub of a healthy heart pg. 6
Barnett and colleagues continue to tease apart the complexities of TGF-beta receptor signaling. They recently discovered that the type III TGF-beta receptor also has a role in the development of coronary blood vessels.
“It’s a recurring theme in developmental biology that nature uses the same, or similar, molecules over and over again in slightly different contexts,” Barnett says.
Bit of serendipity
Baldwin traces his research path back to a lecture at a Society for Pediatric Research meeting that he attended during his residency. At the meeting, Merton Bernfield, M.D., a Harvard neonatologist and pioneer on studies of the extracellular matrix who died in 2002, talked about how organs take shape.
“I was mesmerized,” Baldwin recalls. “I had already committed to a cardiology fellowship, and I remember sitting there thinking ‘I want to know how the extracellular matrix influences heart development.’”
During his fellowship research at the University of Iowa, Baldwin published the first paper demonstrating that a component of the extracellular matrix, hyaluronic acid, is important for heart development. And he became intrigued with the question of what patterns the heart – how the single tube loops and twists into an organ with chambers and valves. He suspected that the endocardial lining was involved in laying down the template for the heart.
At the time though – the late ’80s – it wasn’t possibly to identify endocardial cells, or even their endothelial cell precursors, in the embryo, Baldwin notes. Undeterred, he joined a lab at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, where over the next several years he cloned a mouse gene that identified endothelial cells.
Then came a bit of serendipity. In the late 1990s, Harvard immunologist Laurie Glimcher, M.D., knocked out the gene for a transcription factor in mice to study its effect on immunity and found that the mouse embryos died in utero. She suspected a heart defect and asked Baldwin to take a look. It turned out that the mice didn’t form aortic or pulmonary valves.
Since that discovery, Baldwin and colleagues have found that the gene for this “nuclear factor of activated T cells” (NFATc1) is expressed not only in the subset of endothelium that will become endocardium, but also in the particular endocardial cells that will become the heart valve.
By fusing the gene for a fluorescent protein to the portion of the genome that regulates expression of the NFATc1 gene and then inserting this “marker” into mouse embryos, the investigators can now track – by their glow – cells that are destined to make up the heart valve, isolate them for in vitro studies, and even use the system to understand what factors are essential for heart valve formation.
“So we think we’ve got the building blocks; now we’ve got to figure out how to put them together and get them to do what they’re supposed to do,” Baldwin says. | <urn:uuid:35abee1f-5113-4aaa-b0c8-cd292bf4de26> | CC-MAIN-2015-22 | http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/lens/article/?id=195&pg=5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-22/segments/1432207924919.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20150521113204-00228-ip-10-180-206-219.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954654 | 665 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Asteroid Mappers launched with the goal of helping scientists develop a statistical foundation for understanding the age of planetary surfaces. Check out the Vesta Edition. Vesta is a unique body because of its size and history–the craters and surfaces aren’t very well behaved, so new challenges already exist. Asteroid Mappers will push the boundaries of existing citizen science to find out just how good the public can get at higher level mapping tasks.
Count craters, discover boulder fields, mark unique features. Finish analyzing an image and send your work off to contribute to NASA’s Dawn mission science. Register, take the online tutorial, and start mapping!
Since its launch in 1997, the Space Day educational initiative, which takes place on the first Friday of each May, has evolved into a massive grassroots effort dedicated to the extraordinary achievements, benefits and opportunities in the exploration and use of space. The ultimate goal is to promote math, science, technology and engineering education by nurturing young peoples’ enthusiasm for the wonders of the universe and inspiring them to continue the stellar work of today’s space explorers.
Celebrate Space Day and check out the events, games and resources online at the Space Day website.
The Space Telescope Science Institute presents live and on-demand webcasts related to science, technology, and business to the scientific community and the public at-large. Previous lectures from 2005 through 2013 are available online and cover a variety of cosmic topics. | <urn:uuid:e388bfab-1402-4e3b-a72c-be45b7496e89> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.lpi.usra.edu/library/whats_new/2013/05/page/3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131299360.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172139-00189-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900691 | 297 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Approximately 30 people attended the annual Planetary Mappers Meeting, locally hosted by Dr. Kevin Williams at the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies. The meeting room was in the National Air and Space Museum, providing an apt setting for our discussions of extraterrestrial geologic studies.
The progress of current Mars maps was presented on June 23. Mappers increasingly use data collected by the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS); daytime infrared (IR) and visible images are particularly useful for constraining and mapping geologic relations. J. Grant, K. Williams, and C. Fortezzo presented a series of 1:500K-scale maps in the Margaritifer Terra region, focusing on the spatial and temporal distribution of channeled and standing water in the region. Maps in this region range from those just proposed in 2005, to those recently submitted for review. Combined THEMIS (visible and daytime IR) and Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) data have proved to be a powerful combination in this area. K. Shockey and J. Zimbelman presented their progress in understanding the Medusae Fossae Formation; this led to a discussion about what limits the size of a mappable unit. In a first for the USGS Planetary Mapping program, P. Mouginis-Mark will be generating a geologic map based entirely on THEMIS visible images (~19 m/pixel) and Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) narrow-angle images (<6 m/pixel). The Olympus Mons caldera map will be generated at a scale of 1:200,000. K. Tanaka and K. Herkenhoff discussed their mapping of the polar regions of Mars. D. Crown, M. Farley and T. Gregg focused on their work around the Hellas region; D. Crown also discussed his investigations near the dichotomy boundary to understand the formation of debris aprons.
On June 24, we discussed the status of mapping on Io, Europa, Ganymede, the Moon, and Venus. D. Williams is leading a team to generate a global geologic map of Io; the changing nature of this planet requires that a single paper map will be published, with electronic layers in GIS format for individual, variable features. K. Tanaka described progress of the global geologic map of Europa, which is an effort led by R. Greeley. Ganymede is also the subject of a global geologic map; W. Patterson stated that the map was being generated in 60° x 60° quadrangles by separate co-investigators. L. Gaddis is PI on a pilot project for remapping the Moon. J. Skinner reported that they have begun mapping a 1:2,500,000-scale quadrangle centered on Copernicus and are using Clementine and Lunar Orbiter IV data as the base map. Results of recent Venus mapping were presented by J. Head, M. Ivanov, and V. Hansen.
During scheduled discussion, the mappers deliberated and reached consensus on the following diverse topics. First, the annual meeting in 2006 will be held on June 24 and 25. We tentatively chose that it will be held in Pocatello or Boise, Idaho in 2006 and at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona in 2007. Second, the Geologic Mapping Subcommittee (GEMS) panel will create and distribute a "New Mappers Handbook" to inform new and present mappers about where to find pertinent information online (and elsewhere) about the current mapping program. Third, the size of the "smallest mappable unit" in a map should be governed by the map resolution. The resolution of the map was initially chosen to maximize the scientific story within the map area; therefore, if a unit is too small to be clearly mapped at this scale, it should not be officially included. However, it is important to note that the use of figures in the map text is encouraged. In the event where a possible or likely unit is identified in the map area, but is too small to be clearly identified on the final printed map, the mapper is encouraged to include as many figures as necessary within the text to reveal the complexity in the region. We agreed that maps should continue to be science-driven. However, some concern was expressed regarding the funding of characterization products (e.g., a global Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) map of Mars). What program officially funds these, if any, and where should proposals to produce these be submitted? GEMS agreed to talk with program managers at NASA to determine the appropriate venue for these products. Finally, we noted that USGS should provide new Mars mapping projects with processed THEMIS images that mappers can mosaic themselves; Geographic Information Systems software provides excellent tools for generating dynamic image mosaics.
The meeting concluded with a behind-the-scenes tour of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum's meteorite collection, led by curator Tim McCoy. Mappers were treated to a wealth of meteorite samples, including some from Mars. We all thoroughly enjoyed seeing—and carefully holding with our latex-gloved hands—these beautiful pieces of geologic significance.
Download this report as a 50-page PDF document (4.3 MB)For questions about the content of this report, contact Jennifer S. Blue.
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John Sulston facts for kids
|Sir John Sulston|
|Born||27 March 1942
|Institutions||Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, University of Manchester|
|Known for||Caenorhabditis elegans, Apoptosis|
|Notable awards||Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2002|
He was the first Director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, and is now Chair of the Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation at the University of Manchester.
Sulston was one of 20 Nobel laureates who signed the "Stockholm memorandum" at the 3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability in Stockholm, Sweden on 18 May 2011.
He first studied at the University of Cambridge in Pembroke College, where he graduated in 1963. He then stayed on to do his PhD there. After working at the Salk Institute, La Jolla, California, for a while, he returned to Cambridge to work under Sydney Brenner at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology.
Sulston played a central role in both the Caenorhabditis elegans roundworm and human genome sequencing projects. He had argued successfully for the sequencing of C. elegans to show that large-scale genome sequencing projects could be done. As sequencing of the worm genome proceeded, the project to sequence the human genome began. At this point he was made director of the newly established Sanger Centre (named after Fred Sanger).
One of Sulston's most important contributions during his research years at the LMB was to find the precise order in which cells in C. elegans divide. In fact, he and his team succeeded in tracing the nematode's entire embryonic cell lineage. Sulston is now a leading campaigner against the patenting of human genetic information.
John Sulston Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia. | <urn:uuid:83f1240e-c6d3-4c1f-aa11-2f05c7bdde2f> | CC-MAIN-2019-39 | https://kids.kiddle.co/John_Sulston | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514570830.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20190915072355-20190915094355-00451.warc.gz | en | 0.93746 | 386 | 3.0625 | 3 |
M3 Assignment 1 Discussion
Submit your response to the question to the appropriate Discussion Area by the due date assigned. Through the end of the module, comment on the responses of others.
You will be attempting two discussion questions in this module worth 28 points each.
Discussion Question 1ImageryDescribe how you have used imagery as an athlete and/or for what purposes you have taught imagery as a coach to athletes. How are the ways you have used imagery similar or different to the ways athletes typically use imagery as presented in this module?
Based on your experiences, what do you believe is the most effective way to use imagery to enhance sport performance?Evaluation Criteria for Discussion Question Response:Described how you have used imagery as an athlete and/or coach.
Compared and contrasted the ways you have used imagery with the ways presented in the module.
Described the most effective way to use imagery substantiated with examples from personal/professional experience.
[8 points]Discussion Question 2Mental Rehearsal of Sports Skills
The research on imagery has shown that the mental rehearsal of sport skills has a small but significant effect on the actual performance of the skills. In other words, when research participants imagine performing a sport skill, they typically perform the skill better than those research participants that do not.
However, Moran (2004) pointed out that relatively few of these studies have used athletes as participants.
Most of the studies have been laboratory vs. field experiments or have used simple skills (such as dart throwing) vs. complex skills (such as golf swing), and the psychological mechanisms underlying the positive effects of imagery have not been adequately explained.
What conclusions do you draw about the effectiveness of imagery in improving the learning and performance of sport skills from comparing the literature findings with your experience?
What would you recommend to create a valid study about mental rehearsal?
Evaluation Criteria for Discussion Question Response:
Described conclusions. Discussed your conclusion about the effectiveness of imagery in improving the learning and performance of sports skills.
[8 points]Recommended how the effectiveness of mental rehearsal might be more effectively studied.
[8 points]All written assignments and responses should follow APA rules for attributing sources.
Assignment 1 Grading CriteriaMaximum PointsDiscussion Question Response:
Please see specific evaluation criteria listed below each discussion question.
16x2Discussion Participation: Participated in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with rationale, challenging a point of discussion, or making a relationship between one or more points of the discussion.
4x2While responding, justified ideas and responses by using appropriate examples and references from texts, Web sites, and other references or personal experience.
4x2Wrote in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrated ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources, displayed accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
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A lone figure stood looking out onto Chaleur Bay, searching for the U-boat that had been sent to pick him up. Four days earlier Wolfgang Heyda, a German POW, had made a daring escape via electric wires that ran above the barbed wire fenced that encircled the Bowmanville, Ontario POW camp.
After his escape, he calmly walked into the Bowmanville train station and ordered a ticket to Montreal. In Montreal, he then caught another train to Bathurst. At Grande-Anse, he was stopped and questioned by a Canadian Army cordon. His identity and transit papers were checked. His papers were in order, and an officer at the cordon told him not to walk on the beach late in the evening. Smiling, Heyda said goodbye to the patrol.
Heyda hid in a shed, a mere 200 meters from the Maisonnette Point Lighthouse. It became dusk, and, as soon as it was dark enough, Heyda twice gave the prearranged signal with the blue-light from his signal lamp. No U-boat appeared, and no signal from Chaleur Bay was seen. Heyda thought to himself, “Had not the U-boat been sent?”
A plan had been conceived for four submariners to be picked up by a U-boat on Maisonnette Point in New Brunswick on the Chaleur Bay. During submarine training, the officers had to memorize the Ireland Code. Thus buried in POW letters, a coded message was sent to Germany requesting that a U-boat be sent to Maisonnette Point in late September or early October of 1943. The escape plan became known as Operation Kiebitz.
Kapitänleutnant Rolf Schauenburg, commander of U-536, had orders to arrive in Chaleur Bay and pick up four escaped prisoners including the top U-boat ace of WWII, Otto Kretschmer. Schauenburg waited in the middle of the bay for two and a half days. Conveniently, the cone of light from the Maisonnette Point Lighthouse was quite visible. U-536 surfaced to ventilate the boat and cruised along the coast using its electric motors. It was a perfect night, with good visibility. The moon was very bright in the clear, starry sky. All seemed quiet, and Schauenburg did not suspect anything.
The Germans did not know that the Allied intelligence agency had broken the Ireland Code. The Allies had allowed a substantial amount of low-level intelligence to reach Germany in the hope that something big would eventually happen. It did and the welcoming party for U-536 was massive.
Lieutenant Commander Desmond Piers (Admiral retired) of the Canadian Navy who was in charge of the operation had arranged for a shore party to be waiting at Maisonnette Point to capture the escaped prisoner and for some “ships nearby around the corner and a few miles away.” The taskforce was massive. Ten warships sealed off the bay.
At the lighthouse, Piers received a phone call from sentries posted on the beach that they were detaining a man who claimed to be a tourist. Piers said, “Bring him to me and be sure to guard him well.”
Piers had been informed that one prisoner had escaped from Bowmanville. When Heyda arrived at the lighthouse, Piers patiently listened to Heyda’s story that he was a tourist whose vacation had been disrupted.
Heyda showed Piers a letter indicating that he had been discharged from the Canadian Army Corps of Engineers. Heyda also produced a letter from the chief of staff of the navy, Admiral Percy. Piers was familiar with Percy’s signature and noted that the Germans had not matched the admiral’s oversize signature.
Heyda said that they had taken him to the upper room of the lighthouse where a naval officer greeted him like a long lost friend. “There you are, Lieutenant Commander Heyda, welcome to Maisonnette Point... We even re-lighted this lighthouse as in good old peace time so that your comrade-commander would find his way.”
Jean Godin, the former lighthouse keeper, who was on active duty with the Le Régiment de la Chaudière, had been transferred to Maisonnette Point to run the lighthouse for the operation.
Schauenburg scanned the dark beach with his binoculars, looking for a signal light, and continued up the coast. He carefully avoided the beam of light that came from the Maisonnette Point Lighthouse. Suddenly, a radio signal was heard, and from below, “Captain, a call for us! A call!” A radio signal, “Komm, komm!” was picked up by U-536 but not repeated. Then a light from the beach signaled “Komm.”
Suddenly the northern lights lit up the night sky. “Alarm! Dive!” Just as the U-boat submerged the sound of depth charges were heard.
The task force hunted all night, but their attempts to locate the U-boat were unsuccessful. The next day at dawn, the bay was empty. No trace of the U-boat had been found.
U-536 evaded the depth charges and after two days managed to escape from the bay. Once safely at sea, Schauenburg sent the following message, “Kiebitz verpfiffen.” Six weeks later the Canadian corvettes HMCS Snowberry, HMCS Calgary, and the frigate HMS Nene sank U-536 with Schauenburg being among the survivors. Schauenburg was then sent to a POW camp in Canada.
This story appeared in the
April 2004 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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Airborne lasers locate city
WASHINGTON – New airborne laser scanning data has uncovered a network of roadways and canals, illustrating an entire bustling ancient city linking Cambodia’s famed Angkor Wat temples complex.
The discovery was announced late Monday in a peer-reviewed paper released early by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The laser scanning shows a previously undocumented formal urban planned landscape integrating the 1,200-year-old temples.
Study lead author Damien Evans of the University of Sydney tells the Age of Australia in a video that it was a Eureka moment when the lasers revealed the sudden and immediate picture of an entire city, with urban temples.
The airborne lasers also indicated that the civilization there eventually collapsed because of deforestation and broken reservoir systems.
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The spread of infectious diseases in wildlife populations is influenced by patterns of between-host contacts. Habitat “hotspots” - places attracting a large numbers of individuals or social groups - can significantly alter contact patterns and, hence, disease propagation. Research on the importance of habitat hotspots in wildlife epidemiology has primarily focused on how inter-individual contacts occurring at the hotspot itself increase disease transmission. However, in territorial animals, epidemiologically important contacts may primarily occur as animals cross through territories of conspecifics en route to habitat hotspots. So far, the phenomenon has received little attention. Here, we investigate the importance of these contacts in the case where infectious individuals keep visiting the hotspots and in the case where these individuals are not able to travel to the hotspot any more.
Methodology and Principal Findings
We developed a simulation epidemiological model to investigate both cases in a scenario when transmission at the hotspot does not occur. We find that (i) hotspots still exacerbate epidemics, (ii) when infectious individuals do not travel to the hotspot, the most vulnerable individuals are those residing at intermediate distances from the hotspot rather than nearby, and (iii) the epidemiological vulnerability of a population is the highest when the number of hotspots is intermediate.
Conclusions and Significance
By altering animal movements in their vicinity, habitat hotspots can thus strongly increase the spread of infectious diseases, even when disease transmission does not occur at the hotspot itself. Interestingly, when animals only visit the nearest hotspot, creating additional artificial hotspots, rather than reducing their number, may be an efficient disease control measure.
Citation: Benavides J, Walsh PD, Meyers LA, Raymond M, Caillaud D (2012) Transmission of Infectious Diseases En Route to Habitat Hotspots. PLoS ONE 7(2): e31290. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0031290
Editor: Wayne M. Getz, University of California, Berkeley, United States of America
Received: September 23, 2011; Accepted: January 5, 2012; Published: February 20, 2012
Copyright: © 2012 Benavides et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: This work received financial support from the Ministère Français de l'Enseignement supérieur, a CONICYT scholarship from the Chilean Government to JB and NSF Grant DEB-0749097 to LAM. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
The spread of infectious diseases strongly depends on how habitat characteristics shape patterns of between-host interactions , . In particular, habitat heterogeneity influences patterns of between-individual contacts and hence, disease dynamics , . For example, “habitat hotspots”, sites that attract individuals or social groups over long distances, can be visited by a large subset of a population. Around hotspots, between-individual contact rates often increase in frequency, which amplifies disease transmission. In humans, schools and working places are typical examples of hotspots and have been shown to accelerate the spread of measles, influenza and SARS , , . Thus, limiting transmission at hotspots has become a promising strategy for mitigating epidemics (e.g., influenza ) although the efficiency of such strategies also depends on the role hotspots plays relative to other sources of local transmission (e.g., influenza , )
In wild animal populations, high quality feeding spots (e.g., fruit trees), breeding sites, waterholes or sleeping sites can exacerbate direct physical contacts. Empirical and theoretical studies on the epidemiological importance of habitat hotspots have mainly focused on how the spatial aggregation of animals favors disease transmission at the hotspot itself , . For example, the aggregation of wild boar at watering sites significantly increases the transmission of tuberculosis-like lesions . However, inter-individual contacts may not always significantly increase at the hotspot itself. This is for example the case of habitat hotspots that some animal species only visited occasionally, such as some mineral licks , . Also, animals present at the same time at a particularly large hotspot may not be close enough to each other to transmit infectious diseases. This is the case of large forest clearings , or large waterholes. Finally, species such as primates and ungulates might avoid defecating in hotspots of high food resources, limiting the transmission of fecal-oral parasites at hotspots , .
When disease transmission does not occur at the hotspot, it can still occur at a certain distance from the hotspot. This phenomenon has received little attention so far. Specifically, infective contacts may be observed when infectious individuals travel to the hotspot and cross the territory of susceptible individuals and, reversely, when susceptible individuals cross the territory of infectious individuals. This second type of transmission may be prominent when the disease reduces the mobility of sick individuals (i.e., sickness behavior , , ). For example, in humans, sick individuals often stay home, which alters disease dynamics , . Sick wild animals also commonly reduce their rate of search for food or water . Such transmission may particularly apply to parasites that can survive in the environment (e.g., gastrointestinal parasites) for which the spatial overlap of the home ranges of sympatric hosts favors transmission .
To investigate these transmission mechanisms, we developed an agent-based model exploring patterns of disease spread in a large closed population composed of territorial social groups, in which one or more hotspots influence group movement patterns, but where direct disease transmission at the hotspot itself is negligible. Our hypothesis is that terrestrial animals necessarily cross conspecifics' home ranges on their way to a hotspot, which modifies the contact network of the population and may subsequently alter disease transmission. We assumed that between-group disease transmission can occur both between groups having neighbouring territories and between groups travelling to a hotspot and groups whose territories are crossed en route. We also assumed that only groups which territory lies within a certain distance from the hotspot (further referred as “radius of attraction”) can visit it, and that their visitation rate decreases as this distance increases.
The relationship between the radius of attraction and the disease dynamics was then investigated under two scenarios: i) when groups including sick individuals do not travel to the hotspot, and ii) when these groups still travel to the hotspot. The first scenario corresponds to the case of virulent parasites that can strongly decrease the mobility of infected individuals, such as Ebola virus in western lowland gorillas , whereas the second scenario applies to pathogens that do not strongly modify the behavior of their host, such as some gastro-intestinal macro-parasites and bacteria . Under both scenarios, we investigated the relationship between the disease attack rate and the hotspot radius of attraction, identified the groups in the population that have the highest risk of infection and explored the relationship between the number of hotspots and the magnitude of an epidemic.
The model has a 51×51 lattice structure, where each cell of the lattice corresponds to a group's territory. We assumed disease transmission can occur between each group and its eight neighbours (Fig. 1). We use Ni to denote the list of indices of the eight neighbours of group i. Initially, a single habitat hotspot is placed at the center of the lattice. All groups are assumed to include ten individuals. At each daily time step, each group either visits the hotspot or stays in its territory. The probability of a visit by group i is a decreasing function of the Euclidean distance, , between the group's territory and the hotspot. We assume that all groups gain the same benefit from visiting the hotspot and that the travel cost is proportional to , leading to:where Pmax is the probability of a visit for the eight groups directly neighbouring the hotspot, and R is the hotspot radius of attraction. Groups occupying cells that are farther from the hotspot than R never visit it.
The hotspot is located at the center of a 51×51 lattice. All other cells correspond to a group's territory. Groups with at least one infected individual are considered infected, indicated in dark grey. A 9×9 section of the lattice depicts the SIR transmission dynamics among individuals that are either in the same group or neighbouring groups (bottom). Groups follow Biased Random Walks (BRW) during their daylong trips to the hotspot (top right). Transmission is possible between a travelling group and the groups residing in cells traversed en route to the hotspot.
When a group visits the hotspot, it follows a Biased Random Walk from its home cell to the hotspot (BRW ) and returns to its home cell on the same day. The length of each step of the BRW (denoted S) is held constant and the direction of the step is consistently biased towards the hotspot during the approach to the hotspot and towards the group's home cell during the return from the hotspot. Each turning angle is randomly drawn from a normal distribution N (0, σ2), where σ is a standard deviation parameter. The list of groups residing in cells encountered along each BRW to the hotspot is recorded. Groups travel to the hotspot and come back within a single time step.
At each time step, each group interacts with (i) groups occupying neighbouring cells (neighbour-neighbour contact), and (ii) if the group travels to the hotspot, all of the groups it encounters along the BRW (traveler-resident contact).
We model infectious disease dynamics using a simple stochastic susceptible-infectious-removed (SIR) epidemic model, with one-day time steps. Each individual moves independently through the three states: Susceptible (at risk of contracting the disease), Infectious (capable of transmitting the disease), or Removed (recovered or dead). Susceptible individuals can be infected by infected individuals from either its own group or other groups. The latter can occur during neighbour-neighbour contacts or traveler-resident contacts.
The local transmission probability Pi is defined as the per-time-step probability that a susceptible individual in group i is infected by an infectious individual from its own group or a neighbouring group. Let Ii denote the number of infectious individuals in group i. The probability that the focal individual is infected by at least one of the infectious individuals in its own group is , where is the within-group transmission probability from an infected individual to a susceptible individual of the same group. Likewise, the probability of a susceptible individual being infected by an infectious individual from one of the eight neighbouring groups is , where PB is the between-group transmission probability from an infected individual to a susceptible individual of a neighbouring group. Combining these two sources of infection, the local transmission probability is given by
The per-time-step probability of becoming infected during transit to a hotspot depends on the number of infectious individuals Ic in each group c encountered en route and the PT “travelling” probability of transmission during one of these transient contacts between a resident and traveling group. Specifically, during a one-day trip to a hotspot, the probability that a susceptible individual in the group is infected along the way is given bywhere denotes the list of indices of the groups encountered by group i as it travels to and from the hotspot.
In a second version of the model, infected groups are assumed to travel to the hotspot. Transmission from infected travelers to susceptible residents encountered en route can then occur. In this case, the per day probability that a susceptible individual in group i is infected by a traveler depends on the numbers of infected individuals in each of the groups that travels through the territory of i en route to the hotspot, and is given bywhere denotes the set of groups passing through i's territory.
At the end of each time step, each infected individual is removed with probability γ. We assume that no transmission occurs between groups travelling to the hotspot simultaneously.
We explored two versions of the transmission model. In the “Sick-stay” model, groups that included at least one infected individual – infected groups – were assumed to stop travelling to the hotspot; in the “Sick-travel” model, infected groups continue to travel to the hotspot as if uninfected. In the Sick-stay model, disease transmission between travelers and residents can only occur from an infected resident to a susceptible traveler, while in the Sick-travel model, transmission can be bi-directional.
We also considered models with multiple hotspots. A specified number of hotspots are randomly placed on the lattice, and groups visit only their nearest hotspot (according to Pvisit, described above).
At the beginning of each simulation, all individuals were susceptible. Epidemics were started with a single infected individual. Unless stated otherwise, the first case was introduced into one of the eight groups adjacent to the hotspot. At each time step, the number of infected and removed individuals (and groups) was recorded until no individual in the population was infected, which indicated the end of the epidemic. For each parameter combination, we ran 1000 simulations.
For all simulations, the recovery rate γ was set to 0.1, the maximum probability of a visit to the hotspot, Pmax, was set to 0.1, and the BRW step length S was set to 0.25 (i.e., 1/4 of the distance between the center of neigbouring group's territories). We also assumed that the within-group transmission probability, Pw, was at least ten times higher than the between-group transmission probabilities (PB and PT).
Epidemiological impacts of transmission rates and location of first case
The attack rate (proportion of groups becoming infected following a single disease introduction) generally increases with the hotspot radius of attraction R, and the traveler-resident transmission probability PT (Fig. 2). This occurs whether or not infected groups are assumed to travel during infection (Fig. 2 and Fig. S1 in supplemental materials). As predicted by percolation theory , the attack rate also increases with both the within-group transmission parameter PW and the between-group transmission parameter PB. Interestingly, the highest impact of the hotspot radius of attraction on the attack rate was observed for intermediate values of PW and PB. For low values of PW and PB, inter-group disease transmission primarily occurred between travelling and resident groups and was often not sufficient to sustain an epidemic. For high values of PW and PB, the disease always percolated, even in the absence of the hotspot. For intermediate values of PW and PB, groups infected en route to the hotspot then stochastically triggered small outbreaks around their territories. The epidemiological impact of the hotspot was amplified by this interaction between traveler-resident transmission and neighbour-neighbour transmission.
The fraction of groups infected increases with the hotspot radius of attraction, but varies with the traveler-resident transmission probability PT (four lines in each graph), within-group transmission probability Pw (three different columns of graphs), and between-neighbour transmission probability PB (four different rows of graphs). Each value is based on 1000 simulations in which disease was introduced randomly in one of the eigth groups adjacent to the hotspot.
In both models, the attack rate decreased as the distance between the hotspot and the point of disease introduction increased (Fig. 3). The greater this distance, the lower the probability that a group visiting the hotspot encountered the group initially infected. The Sick-travel model yields higher attack rates than the Sick-stay model, particularly for groups ranging at intermediate distances between the location of the first disease case and the hotspot.
Sick-stay model (solid lines) and Sick-travel model (dashed lines) are compared for different values of the hotspot radius of attraction (R). Each graph presents a different value of the traveler-resident transmission rate (PT). Each value is averaged over 1000 stochastic simulations, assuming PB = 8e-04 and Pw = 0.06.
Group-specific epidemiological risk
In the Sick-travel model, groups ranging closer to the hotspot exhibited higher probabilities of infection (Fig. 4 and Fig. S2 in supplemental materials), since their territories are crossed by large numbers of infected groups travelling to the hotspot (Fig. S4a). The relationship is more complex in the Sick-stay model: groups ranging at intermediate distances from the hotspot experience the highest risks of infection (Fig. 4 and Fig. S3 in supplemental materials). In this case, hotspot-mediated infection occurs only from infected residents to susceptible travelers. Groups ranging close to the hotspot travelled more often, but encountered only a small number of potentially infected groups. Groups ranging far from the hotspot encountered larger numbers of groups when visiting the hotspot, but did so only rarely. Thus groups ranging at intermediate distances experienced the greatest number of potentially infective contacts with resident groups encountered en route to the hotspot (Fig. S4b). When epidemics occur, the difference in spatial pattern of disease spread observed between the models is insensitive to the parameter values (Fig. S2 and Fig. S3).
The relationship is presented for different values of the hotspot radius of attraction (R) in Sick-stay model (left) and Sick-travel model (right). Vertical lines compare the probability of infection when there is no hotspot (R = 0) to the probability of infection when there is a hotspot (R>0), for groups residing beyond the radius of attraction (distance to hotspot greater than R). This quantifies the indirect epidemiological impact of the hotpot on groups that never travel themselves or encounter travelers en route to the hotspot. Black arrows show the analytical prediction of the most vulnerable group to disease for R = 10, 20 and 30 respectively. Parameter values are PB = 8e-04, PT = 0.001 and Pw = 0.06. Each value is based on 1000 stochastic simulations in which disease was introduced randomly in one of the eight groups adjacent to the hotspot. Results for other parameter values are shown in Fig. S2 and S3.
The fact that groups ranging at an intermediate distance from the hotspot display a higher number of potentially infective contacts can easily be understood using a simple mathematical model. Indeed, the expected number of groups encountered by a group i visiting the hotspot, per time unit, can be assumed to be approximately proportional to Pvisit and to the territory-hotspot distance di:This approximation holds as long as di is large or the turning angle is low. The derivative of this second-order polynomial has a maximum in .
Second, we assessed the epidemiological impact of the hotspot on groups that never visit it because they range at a distance larger than R from the hotspot. For both models, when PB is high enough to allow some between-neighbour transmission, the attack rate for these groups was found to be larger than expected under a model with no hotspot (R = 0) (Fig. 4). Stochastic, local between-group transmission events allow the spread of the disease beyond the radius of attraction. Groups that never visit the hotspot are thus indirectly impacted by the hotspot.
Finally, outside of the radius of attraction, disease spreads as expected for a lattice model whereas inside the radius of attraction, disease spread rapidly among the groups, with no apparent spatial structure.
Number of hotspots
For both models, the relationship between the number of hotspots and the attack rate is bell-shaped (Fig. 5). For a low number of hotspots, adding new hotspots increases the fraction of the population ranging within the radius of attraction of these hotspots and, thereby, increases the overall attack rate. Beyond a certain number of hotspots, however, all groups are already attracted by at least one hotspot on the landscape. Under the assumption that these groups travel exclusively to the nearest hotspot, adding more hotspots decreases the distance travelled by the groups and the number of infective contacts they can have en route, and thereby lowers the attack rate.
Each line graphs the change in attack rate as a function of the number of hotspots, for a different value of PB (from 4e-04 to 16e-04). Results are presented for hotspots ranging from 1–100 (left) and 1–500 (right) in the Sick-stay model (top) and the Sick-travel model (bottom). Each value is averaged over 1000 stochastic simulations assuming R = 30, Pw = 0.06, PT = 4e-04. Each hotspot was located randomly in the population, and disease was introduced into the group ranging in the middle of the habitat.
Spatial features of the landscape such as habitat hotspots can profoundly influence the spread of infectious diseases , . Our model extends previous studies focusing on transmission at the hotspot, and reveals that hotspots can also strongly alter disease transmission by generating infective contacts between animals travelling towards or from the hotspot and animals whose territories are traversed. Our results show that even when sick groups stay in their territory, hotspots may increase the size of an epidemic. When infected animals cease to visit the hotspot, groups ranging at intermediate distances to the hotspot are the most vulnerable. We also found that the epidemiological impact of hotspots extends far beyond the subset of the population that visits it; even groups having no contact with those visiting the hotspot display elevated risks of infection. Finally, our model predicts that when groups visit their nearest hotspots, the epidemiological impact of hotspots is most severe when the number of hotspots is intermediate.
Hotspots impact disease transmission via a combination of both local between-neighbour and long-range traveler-resident transmissions, which is characteristic of a small-world network . Disease dynamics in our model resemble those in a classic small-world network in several aspects. First, the attack rate increases with long-distance interactions, determined by the hotspot radius of attraction (Fig. 2). Second, new foci of infection established by long-distance traveler-resident contacts only spread when the local transmission rate, between neighbours, is sufficiently high. This phenomenon extends the influence of the hotspot beyond the radius of attraction (Fig. 4). Finally, as in small-world networks , all groups within the hotspot radius of attraction were infected almost at the same time. Thus, habitat hotspots potentially play a significant role in fuelling disease outbreaks, much like other natural mechanisms that generate small-world networks, such as the movement of vectors between plants , .
We find that hotspots are expected to influence disease dynamics significantly, even when infected groups do not travel to the hotspot at all. However, in this case, the hotspot effect strongly decreases as the distance between disease introduction and the hotspot increases. The reduction of mobility in infected groups also generates an unexpected spatio-temporal pattern: groups ranging at intermediate distance from the hotspot have the highest risk of infection, even if the disease is introduced immediately next to the hotspot. This counterintuitive result highlights the importance of understanding the behavioral effects of disease in wild animal populations. For example, as in humans, predicting the impact of hotspots on disease dynamics will strongly depend on understanding whether infectious individuals still travel to hotspots because disease symptoms appear after an infectious state (e.g., influenza H1N1 , ), or whether infectious individuals do not visit hotspots because disease symptoms appear before the infectious state (e.g., SARS , ). Furthermore, our results suggest that when transmission does not directly occur at hotspots, disease control measures targeting groups residing around the hotspot might not necessarily be the most efficient ones. Further simulation work is needed to identify optimal disease control measures.
The habitat of wild animal populations often includes more than one hotspot. For example, the habitat of terrestrial mammals can include a small number of high-value hotspots attracting dozens of groups (e.g., salt licks or forest clearings) and more numerous low-value hotspots attracting only a few groups (e.g., fruiting trees). Our model reveals that, when groups are assumed to travel to their nearest hotspot, the impact of disease outbreaks is a bell-shaped function of the number of hotspots (Fig. 5). This result challenges the hypothesis that the number of hotspots and disease prevalence will correlate positively , and could be used to optimize strategies for controlling disease in wild animal populations. Thus, wildlife managers may consider increasing, rather than decreasing , the number of water holes in order to reduce the number of highly-connected individuals or social groups, and hence the impact of an outbreak. However, additional studies are needed to determine if our result still holds when each animal visits more than one hotspot.
The values of the parameters of our model can be estimated from empirical data. The relationship between the distance from a group's territory and the hotspot visitation rate can be estimated using capture-mark recapture and telemetric data, between-group contact rates can be estimated from direct observation or telemetric data, and plausible distributions of disease transmission rates can be found in the literature. The step length of the biased random walk is assumed to have a fixed value (here, 0.25 times the size of a territory). This parameter does not need to be estimated accurately since it is redundant with another parameter, the traveler-resident contact rate, which is allowed to vary. Thus, the model can be applied to a broad range of host-parasite systems, from primate groups travelling to waterholes on a daily basis , to large mammals visiting every few weeks mineral-rich areas , , . In our model, the impact of the hotspot is particularly sensitive to the ratio between the local and the traveler-resident between-group transmissions. When the local between-neighbour transmission is high compared to the traveler-resident transmission, the impact of the hotspot is minimal.
We considered two discrete transmission scenarios, the Sick-travel and the Sick-stay scenarios. However, intermediate scenarios are also possible. For example, infected groups may fission such that only healthy individuals travel to the hotspot. In this case, we expect that although the overall disease transmission will increase compared to the pure Sick-stay scenario, the spatial pattern of the disease impact will be qualitatively similar to that observed for the Sick-stay model.
In this study, we have shown how transmission occurring around habitat hotspots influences disease transmission patterns, while previous studies have focused on disease transmission occurring at the hotspot itself. In some ecological systems, both transmission modes may coexist. For example, some fecal-orally transmitted parasites can infect both the soil and waterholes, and spore-forming bacteria such as Bacillus anthracis can persist for extended periods of time in animal carcasses, water and soil . Additional works are needed to understand such epidemiological systems.
Influence of multiple model parameters on attack rate, when infected groups travel (Sick-travel model). The fraction of groups infected increases with the hotspot radius of attraction, but varies with the traveler-resident transmission probability PT (four lines in each graph), within-group transmission probability Pw (three different columns of graphs), and between-neighbour transmission probability PB (four different rows of graphs). Each value is based on 1000 simulations in which disease was introduced randomly in one of the eigth groups adjacent to the hotspot.
Group's probability of infection in relation to the distance to the hotspot, predicted by the Sick-travel model. The relationship is presented for different values of the hotspot radius of attraction (R). Each graph represents a combination of the between-neighbour (PB) and the traveler-resident (PT) transmission. The disease was introduced randomly in one of the eight groups adjacent to the hotspot. For all simulations, Pw = 0.06.
Group's probability of infection in relation to the distance to the hotspot, predicted by the Sick-stay model. The relationship is presented for different values of the hotspot radius of attraction (R). Each graph represents a combination of the between-neighbour (PB) and the traveler-resident (PT) transmission. The disease was introduced randomly in one of the eight groups adjacent to the hotspot. For all simulations, Pw = 0.06.
Traveler-resident contact patterns. Each graph shows the relationship between the distance of a group from the hotspot and (a) the number of other groups that travel through its territory when travelling to and from the hotspot, (b) the number of resident groups it encounters when travelling to and from the hotspot. Values are based on encounters occurring during 100 time steps, in the absence of disease transmission.
Model dynamics. The model shows one simulation run corresponding to the Sick-travel model. White, red and black squares represent susceptible, infected and removed groups, respectively. Blue squares represent groups travelling to the hotspot at each time step. The hotspot, in green, is in the middle of the lattice. The disease is introduced at the periphery.
This work was conducted as part of the “Efficient Wildlife Disease Control: From Social Network Self-Organization to Optimal Vaccination” Working Group supported by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California, Santa Barbara. We thank Gaston B., R. Bodenham, A. Courtiol, V. Durand and E. Huchard for their support. This is contribution ISEM 2012-009.
Conceived and designed the experiments: JB DC PW LM MR. Performed the experiments: JB. Analyzed the data: JB DC LM PW. Wrote the paper: JB DC PW LM.
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After cellular senescence was first described in 1965, there has been growing interest in the role of this non-proliferative cellular state in all aspects of human biology, from disease processes to aging.
In a Nature Medicine article published in 2018, Dr. James Kirkland and his team from the Mayo Clinic demonstrated the effectiveness of senolytic drugs (drugs that target senescent cells) in slowing physical dysfunction in mice.
“Current and future preclinical studies may show that senolytics could be used to enhance lifespan not only in older people, but also in cancer survivors treated with senescence-inducing radiation or chemotherapy and people with a range of senescence-associated chronic diseases,” said the researchers.
In collaboration with researchers from UT Health San Antonio and Wake Forest School of Medicine, Dr. Kirkland published new research in Ebiosciences: the first-in-human pilot study of senolytic drugs for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).
IPF is a complex degenerative disease characterized by progressive worsening of lung function and tissue scarring. Because IPF mostly affects the elderly and senescent cells accumulate with increasing age, it is possible that IPF can be treated with senolytic drugs.
“Cellular senescence is clearly emerging as a main player in aging,” said manuscript co-author Dr. Nicolas Musi, Professor of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio. “Previously, no published data existed to demonstrate that drugs targeting cellular senescence could be safely given to older patients, or that they might be used to treat diseases of aging such as IPF. The pilot research we’ve reported is preliminary but encouraging.”
In this new study, 14 participants over the age of 50 with mild-to-moderate IPF were given nine doses of Dasatnib and Quercetin (DQ), two senloytic drugs. Dasatnib has US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the treatment of leukemia and Quercetin is a plant pigment.
The researchers measured senescent biomarkers through assays, quality of life and presence of side effects through questionnaires and physical mobility through standard tests.
Despite having a very small sample size and no placebo-controlled group, the researchers found their preliminary results promising.
“No drug therapies, including the available anti-fibrotic drugs, have ever shown to stop the decline in, let alone improve, an IPF patient’s six-minute walk distance,” said Dr. Anoop Nambiar, manuscript co-first author. “But in this pilot study of DQ, participants’ six-minute walk distance improved an average of 21.5 meters.”
Although IPF is considerably rare in North America, there are few effective treatments available to slow disease progression. Pirfenidone and nintedanib are two drugs that have been approved for the treatment of IPF, but they are not effective for all patients.
“This was a short safety trial to determine if we should move ahead with actual large-scale human trials,” said Dr. Kirkland. “It’s important to emphasize that, while some measurable improvement was noted in all the participants, this is simply the start of human studies. We don’t know what lies ahead.”
Dr. Nambiar and his team are now enrolling patients at UT Health San Antonio and South Texas Veterans Health Care System for a more robust clinical trial.
For people with IPF, alternative treatment strategies are desperately needed. With growing evidence supporting the role of cellular senescence in age-related, degenerative diseases, there may be new hope for people with IPF. | <urn:uuid:e8ec92ac-dd88-4b07-b75a-ea5b4b66cd63> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://xtalks.com/first-in-human-trial-delivers-promising-preliminary-results-1721/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195526153.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20190719074137-20190719100137-00045.warc.gz | en | 0.937309 | 784 | 3.09375 | 3 |
We have learned emphatically in the past 25 years that morphology is not the best guide for phylogeny. Yet we currently have no options when it comes to long dead forms from the Mesozoic. In the least, we can comfort ourselves that at least broad lines of phylogeny can be still reliably established using morphology though highly derived forms will continue to defeat us. Thus, we can be fairly sure of the broad lines of archosaur phylogeny. The archosaurs are divided into two great lines, the Pan-Crocodylia, represented today by the crocodiles and the Pan-Aves represented, today by the birds. Pan-Aves appears first in the fossil record in the form footprints from the Early Triassic of Poland, a primitive quadrupedal form from around 249 Mya and a fully bipedal form from around 246 Mya. Both these sets of footprints have been attributed to dinosauromorpha suggesting within 3-6 million years of the catastrophic Permian-Triassic transition the Pan-Aves had already split into their two great clades, Pterosauromorpha represented by Scleromochlus and the pterosaurs on one side and Dinosauromorpha on the other. The Dinosauromorpha rapidly radiated first spawning the basal lineages like the Lagerptonids (Lagerpeton and Dromomeron) and a succession of clades closer to the crown dinosaurs, like Marasuchus, Saltopus and the widely distributed sillesaurids. While what appear to be the basal-most sillesaurids, like Lewisuchus are carnivorous, the crown sillesaurids are clearly herbivorous. The dinosaurs themselves can be divided unequivocally into two major lineages, the ornithischians and the saurischians. The saurischians in turn can be unambiguously divided into theropods and sauropodomorphs.
In this broad phylogenetic framework, which is likely to be correct, we can confidently state that the ancestral dinosauromorph was a carnivorous animal similar to the ancestral archosauriform that spawned the great radiation of archosauriformes almost immediately after the catastrophic Permian-Triassic extinction event. However, in the dinosauromorph lineage there were several independent acquisitions of the herbivory. As noted above the sillesaurids probably mark the the first such transition known to us and had already taken place before 242 Mya as indicated by Asilisaurus from the Manda beds of Tanzania. With the origin of dinosaurs there were more such transitions. Whereas the earliest sauropodomorphs like Eoraptor and Pangphagia were probably omnivores in the least, the complete transition to herbivory happened rapidly within sauropodmorpha. In the case of the ornithischians, we do not know of mode of nutrition of the basal-most form Pisanosaurus, but the heterodontosaurids had already transitioned at least partially to herbivory.
For long, the understanding had been that the transition to herbivory in theropods happened only within ornithomimosaurs, birds and perhaps oviraptorosaurs. There was one more enigmatic clade of theropods, the therizinosaurs, that looked like possible herbivores – they were so aberrant that early workers saw them as a distinct clade of dinosaurs or even a transitional group between basal sauropods and ornithischians in a clade termed phytodinosauria or a monophyletic group of herbivorous dinosaurs. However, more recent studies have firmly placed them inside coelurosauria, along with the other herbivore-containing clades like birds, ornithomimosaurs, and oviraptorosaurs. A recent analysis by Zanno and Makovicky confirmed the pervasive herbivory in these clades and also suggested that the troodontid Jinfengopteryx might be a herbivore. Based on their results, they suggested that the crown-ward coelurosaurians, after the separation of the tyrannosaurs and compsognathids were predominantly herbivorous with hyper-carnivory only secondarily evolving in the deinonychosaurs. While, the secondary evolution of hyper-carnivory of the deinonychosaurs may be questioned, it is clear that the crown-ward coelurosauria had a propensity for repeatedly evolving herbivory.
In contrast, the more basal theropods were, to date, considered to be largely hyper-carnivorous with very rare emergence of herbivory as seen in the case of the ceratosaur Limusaurus (and likely the related Elaphrosaurus). But a new twist to the story has emerged with the publication of a preliminary description of Chilesaurus from the Upper Jurassic Toqui Formation, Chile, of the Tithonian age. It occurs in a late Jurassic fauna along side basal crocodiles and sauropods of the diplodocid and titanosaurian clades as indicated by fragmentary remains. This is one of the most remarkable dinosaurs I have ever come across and displays a striking chimera of features described by Novas et al:
● A short deep premaxilla with a rugosity indicative of a covering by a keratinous beak over the upper jaw is vaguely reminiscent of an ornithischian rather than a theropod.
● A short deep dentary, with a down-turned symphyseal region, which is typical of herbivorous saurischians.
● The teeth are rod-like and blunt, typical of herbivores, and reminiscent of sauropodomorph teeth.
● The limb bones are stout, as in sauropodomorphs.
● The hands are like theropods with digits I and II being fully functional with terminal unguals. However, digit III is degenerate with only a slender metatarsal and a single minute phalanx. Thus, Chilesaurus appears to have been convergently two-fingered like Tyrannosaurus and its close relatives.
● The pubis is fully retroverted like in ornithischians, therizinosaurs and dromeosaurs.
● The trunk is long and reminiscent in a general way of the ceratosaurs Elaphrosaurus or Limusaurus.
● The tarsus resembles basal saurischians.
● The foot approaches the tetradactyl condition of early sauropodomorphs, ornithischians and derived therizinosaurs.
● The cervical and anterior dorsal vertebrae have pneumatic fossae suggesting that these vertebra were associated with diverticula of the cervical airsacs and the lungs, suggesting an airsac layout typical of saurischians.
Novas et al performed several phylogenetic analysis with different data matrices and all of them indicated that this bizarre dinosaur was nested inside Theropoda; their preferred position is that of Chilesaurus as a basal tetanuran. This suggests that right at the base of a clade considered to be primitively hyper-carnivorous we have a herbivorous form. The unusual morphology of Chilesaurus raises the question if this phylogenetic position might be right. Indeed, if it were not for an articulated skeleton the individual elements would have looked like coming from distantly related dinosaurs. The recovery of Chilesaurus inside Theropoda with different datasets generally suggests that the theropod position is likely, though within Neotheropoda there could still be room for some doubt. Interestingly, it appears to be convergent with respect to the therizinosaurs and a genuine close relationship to them appears to be very unlikely. Importantly, it brings back focus on the fragmentary Chinese form, Eshanosaurus, which the authors do not address. Eshanosaurus was reported to be an early Jurassic therizinosaur. While this affinity has been questioned, even the conservative and regressive English paleontologist, Barrett, who performed a very thorough analysis of Eshanosaurus, concluded that it might be a therizinosaur after all. Now with the discovery of forms like Chilesaurus with features generally reminiscent of therizinosaurs we know with certainty that there was an early clade of potential basal tetanurans that possessed therizinosaur-like features. Could Eshanosaurus be a member of this clade or yet another theropod converging on to such an anatomy? It does look rather plausible.
In ecological terms, Chilesaurus comes from a time when dinosaur faunas are considered to be rather uniform throughout the world, with the small to medium sized herbivore guilds dominated by ornithischians. However, in the South American Toqui Formation we see Chilesaurus to be the dominant herbivore in the lower size range as indicated by its relative abundance in the fossil record from this stratum. Thus, it brings home how little we really know of dinosaur evolution and biogeography. Importantly, it shows how much more frequent the switch to herbivory was in dinosauromorpha, including basal theropods. | <urn:uuid:41cbf2dd-f63c-41f3-9460-3bca76793914> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | https://manasataramgini.wordpress.com/2015/04/28/chilesaurus/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128323730.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20170628185804-20170628205804-00220.warc.gz | en | 0.937311 | 1,897 | 3.734375 | 4 |
As well as National Parks and AONBs, there are different kinds of protected areas across England, including Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Special Areas of Conservation, Special Protection Areas and Ramsar wetland sites.
There can be restrictions both on new buildings or changes of use and on activities that might harm the wildlife or geological interest of these sites. Restrictions can apply both to works within the areas themselves and to activities nearby that might affect them, for example by affecting drainage or increasing visitor numbers.
Contact your LPA to find out what restrictions apply for development in these areas. You might need to do certain things if you are proposing a development that may affect a protected area, such as:
- seek permission from Natural England as well as obtaining planning permission, if required
- carry out an ecological survey, for example of local wildlife, to find out if there are any protected species that might be affected when carrying out development, even if it does not require planning permission
- carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) | <urn:uuid:fc83b52e-e54a-4ee1-9bcd-98905cff76c7> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | https://planningaid.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203153752-Are-there-restrictions-in-these-protected-areas- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886109803.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20170822011838-20170822031838-00503.warc.gz | en | 0.922746 | 208 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Living into our values
What is education for?
The past 13 years have prepared us for this moment of uncertainty and possibility in education. Many in our community are facing significant hardships. As educators – in many forms – we have so many roles and respond to many different needs and challenges in our classes, our communities, our families, and beyond. We want to take time to appreciate just how complex the role of teacher is in our society, and say thank you to all of our member teachers (and all teachers!) for the many things, seen and unseen, that each of you – whether directly working with students, or in another role in education – are doing to provide the best possible response to the dramatic shift in how life has looked this year.
At this most pressing time, our Coalition is serious about asking ourselves the question of how to build and protect communities where all members feel a deep sense of belonging; where all members are loved and have ample opportunities to love others. We face an unusual moment in which all of us are asked to identify the values we want to prioritize, and to stand together behind the ones we hold dear. One way to do this is to create democratic spaces where we do things with each other, not to each other. We understand that our main task is to grow youth and adults who can create healthy, just, resilient, and thriving communities.
We believe that democracy is not a thing but a process. We believe that we are not isolated individuals but that we are inextricably interdependent. And that we must not only recognize this human interdependence that we have with each other, but understand it and act with all other living things on earth.
We believe that diversity is a strength, not a weakness. And that communities that are healthy and just are grounded in the strengths, passions, needs, and eccentricities of their members. We believe that we are all works in progress, and that the basis of all learning comes from our ability to give ourselves and each other space to make mistakes – then to reflect, recover, re-create and to learn together. We are all learners and we are all teachers.
In SEMIS we do things with students, not to them, and in this way students learn what it means to live in a democracy. We know that if we want a democracy in this country we have to practice democracy. And if we don’t practice it we will lose it.
When we align what is taught and learned in schools to the very real problems of our communities – to examine them, understand them, address them with each other, even with others who we may disagree with, there is no separation between academic and social emotional learning.
When we empower youth to ask questions, to negotiate disagreements, to examine complexity, to be flexible, make decisions, to empathize with others, including beings in the natural world, we know this the most powerful way to grow the ethical, civically engaged, curious, and deep thinkers we need more than ever.
We believe that if we are to thrive as a species and in our communities not only now but in our era going forward, these values must be at the center of our schools, Pre-school through university and beyond.
We’ve always known that the time is now to transform education into what it should be (can be!); into what we need it to be. Right now we are feeling two calls: the call to care for ourselves, our families, and our students in a way that is consistent with the values described here, and a call to lead.
We have a vision that is desperately needed right now. We have been setting a foundation for the kind of teaching and learning that puts individual and community wellbeing at the center of what we do in schools. When this chapter of the crisis is over, we do not want to go back to ‘normal’, because normal will not get us where we need to be now or in the future.
What values are you committing to living into, in this time, in this place? What values are we committing to as a community?
SEMIS Coalition Director | <urn:uuid:70df7d27-06f8-4d12-b230-5673e3fe0a2f> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://semiscoalition.org/what-is-education-for/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400206763.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20200922192512-20200922222512-00397.warc.gz | en | 0.964619 | 844 | 2.765625 | 3 |
By Geof Mortlock*
The Government is currently undertaking a review of the Reserve Bank. The review is not confined to monetary policy; it extends to all of the Reserve Bank’s functions, including financial regulation. It provides a well-overdue opportunity to fundamentally assess the performance of the Reserve Bank and make the changes that are needed to improve its effectiveness and accountability.
One of these areas is the Reserve Bank’s role as the regulator of banks, insurers and non-bank deposit takers (NBDTs).
Role of the Reserve Bank as financial regulator
The Reserve Bank is responsible for the prudential regulation and supervision of all banks and insurers in New Zealand. It also regulates, but does not supervise, NBDTs (such as building societies, credit unions and some finance companies). This is an important responsibility. Banks are central to the functioning of our economy. They provide the bulk of lending to the private sector and hold the lion’s share of deposits. They operate the payment system that handles all of our day-to-day transactions. Equally, insurers are of major importance to the economy. They protect businesses and households against major risks, including to property, life, earnings and health, and are big investors in the economy. Without healthy banks and insurers the economy would be imperilled and the living standards of all New Zealanders would be at severe risk.
The regulation of banks and insurers in most countries is intended to promote a healthy financial system and protect depositors, policyholders and other users of financial services. It seeks to promote the prudent management of risks in financial institutions and achieve a very low (but not necessarily zero) probability of bank and insurer failure.
In New Zealand, the objectives of financial regulation are similar. The Reserve Bank is charged by Parliament to supervise banks and insurers to promote a sound and efficient financial system and insurance sector. Notably, however, there is no explicit statutory objective to protect depositors or policyholders, unlike the case with most financial sector regulators globally. This is an omission that should be rectified in the Reserve Bank review.
How effective is the Reserve Bank as financial regulator?
Given the importance of the financial regulation role, it is important to ask the question – how effective is the Reserve Bank in its performance as financial regulator? The answer is mixed. In some respects, it has done a reasonably good job – such as establishing broadly sensible capital and liquidity requirements, and promoting financial disclosures by banks and insurers.
However, there are major inadequacies in the Reserve Bank’s approach to financial regulation which, if left unchecked, create significant risks for our financial system and economy, and for depositors and policyholders. There are also deficiencies in the way it behaves as a regulator, such as inadequate consultation over regulatory proposals and the poor standard of regulatory cost-benefit assessments.
Let’s take a closer look at these.
The ‘three pillars’ of regulation – a wobbly three-legged stool
The Reserve Bank has long maintained a so-called ‘three pillar’ approach to supervision. These pillars are:
- ‘market discipline’ - the influence of financial markets on banks and insurers;
- ‘self-discipline’ - bank and insurer corporate governance and risk management; and
- ‘regulatory discipline’ - regulation and supervision by the Reserve Bank.
The Reserve Bank makes much of market discipline and self-discipline. It places much less emphasis on regulatory discipline. The framework is unbalanced. It is a bit like a three-legged stool, but where each leg is of a different length. And one leg – the regulatory discipline leg – is weak. Some would say it is broken. The result is a stool that wobbles precariously and is not a safe place to sit. As a result, the stability of our financial system is seriously compromised.
The Wobbly Stool of the Reserve Bank’s three pillars: Not a good foundation for financial stability
A strengthening and rebalancing of the three legs of the stool need to be achieved to provide a robust foundation on which financial system stability can be achieved. I see a number of things that need attention.
Market discipline needs to be strengthened
The market discipline pillar needs to be strengthened. This can be done by modifying bank disclosure requirements to focus on more risk-based disclosures, reverting to quarterly disclosures and promoting disclosure of comparative data across banks. The Reserve Bank has made progress in some of this, such as through the disclosure ‘dashboard’ initiative. However, in other respects the Reserve Bank has reduced the effectiveness of bank disclosures – e.g. by abandoning quarterly disclosures in favour of six monthly and by dropping the Key Information Summaries that were intended to be accessible to the ordinary depositor. Moreover, the disclosure arrangements for insurers and NBDTs falls well behind that of banks and therefore reduce the effectiveness of market discipline.
Financial literacy needs to be improved. For financial disclosure to be effective, at least for households, the disclosure statements need to be understandable by ordinary depositors and policyholders. Currently, they are not. More emphasis needs to be placed on financial literacy to enable ordinary depositors and policyholders to understand key disclosures. This is a major gap at present. The Reserve Bank needs to lift its game in this area, as does the Financial Markets Authority, working collaboratively together with the Commission for Financial Capability and the Ministry of Education. Much more can and should be done to improve financial literacy so that depositors and policyholders are better placed to understand financial disclosures and make well-informed financial decisions.
The effectiveness of disclosure also depends, crucially, on the accuracy of the information being disclosed. The Reserve Bank is poorly placed to verify the accuracy of these disclosures, given that it does not seek to assess in any detail banks’ or insurers’ capital, asset quality, provisioning or other information that are key to the veracity of the disclosures. Instead, the Reserve Bank relies solely on director sign-offs and external audit. This leaves depositors and policyholders quite vulnerable.
Financial institution self-discipline needs to be strengthened
The Reserve Bank makes much of the self-discipline pillar yet does relatively little to support it. Its main effort in this regard is the director attestation requirement under which directors must sign public disclosure statements, including as to the accuracy of the disclosures and adequacy of the risk management arrangements of the financial institution. In itself, the director attestation is a very useful tool and helps to promote sound governance and risk management in banks and insurers. However, it is not supported by other relevant requirements. Regulators in other countries are much more effective in this space. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is a good example of this, with its comprehensive regulatory standards on, and supervisory assessments of, bank and insurer governance and risk management.
The self-discipline pillar should be strengthened by introducing more comprehensive corporate governance and risk management requirements for banks, insurers and NBDTs. These need not be overly intrusive in a regulatory sense; indeed, they should not be. But they should raise the bar on minimum requirements for governance and risk management systems and controls, together with strengthened audit of these matters.
The regulatory/supervisory pillar is the shortest and weakest leg in this wobbly stool
The Reserve Bank has long been a ‘light-handed’ supervisor. This reflects a long-standing Reserve Bank scepticism about the efficacy of prudential supervision; it has always been the ‘reluctant regulator’. Since it first acquired the supervisory role for banks – in 1986 – the culture of the Reserve Bank – from the Governor down – has been unsupportive of financial regulation. As a result, it has a poorly developed approach to prudential supervision, with too few staff for the job at hand, and a fundamental lack of the skills, knowledge and experience to be effective.
The Reserve Bank has not developed a supervisory framework that is world class; it falls well behind accepted international practice. For example, the Reserve Bank does not conduct in-depth assessments of banks’ and insurers’ business operations, governance or risk management, in contrast to the approach taken by most prudential regulators in the OECD. They do not have comprehensive requirements in place for governance or risk management, or the capacity to assess the adequacy of banks and insurers in these areas.
The Reserve Bank is also poorly placed to detect non-compliance with regulatory requirements, as was seen recently when a major bank (Westpac) apparently drew to the Reserve Bank’s attention its own non-compliance with regulatory rules. The Reserve Bank is also not well placed to proactively identify and resolve emerging problems before they become obvious or the financial institution is about to fail. The recent failure of CBL Insurance is an example of this. In earlier years, the Reserve Bank was slow to detect and respond to problems in DFC (which failed in 1989) and BNZ (which came close to failing in 1990).
The Reserve Bank lacks the ability to perform asset quality reviews and therefore to assess the accuracy of banks’ and insurers’ capital adequacy. This creates an unwarranted reliance on the market discipline and self-discipline legs of the stool, which are themselves already relatively weak.
In short, the current arrangement leaves the Reserve Bank ill-equipped to do the job Parliament has given it and creates a considerable risk that New Zealand could face serious bank and insurance distress and failure situations in the future. This risk would be much greater were it not for the fact that the bulk of our banking system, and a large part of our insurance sector, are operated by Australian financial institutions and are therefore supervised by APRA. In effect, APRA is doing much of the ‘heavy lifting’ for the Reserve Bank, even though APRA’s sole responsibility is to look after the Australian financial system, not the New Zealand financial system. And what of the banks and insurers that are domestically owned, where there is no parent supervisory authority overseeing them? Therein lies an even greater vulnerability.
These problems were pointed out by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its comprehensive assessment of the New Zealand financial system in 2017. For example, in its assessment of the Reserve Bank’s banking supervision arrangements, the IMF concluded that the Reserve Bank was ‘materially non-compliant’ with 13 of the 29 ‘Basel Core Principles’ – the international standard on banking supervision. This is a ‘fail’ by any standard. Notwithstanding what the Reserve Bank might argue, the failure of its banking supervision framework is not, in any material way, counter-balanced by the market discipline and self-discipline pillars. The stool is very wobbly indeed.
A major reform of the Reserve Bank’s approach to financial regulation is needed. I am not suggesting that the Reserve Bank become a ‘heavy-handed’ regulator and supervisor. However, I do see a need for a significant strengthening of the regulatory/supervisory pillar to better align it to international principles and practice, and a strengthening of the market and self-discipline pillars. This suggests the need for the Reserve Bank to buy in staff with greater expertise in banking and insurance risks, replacing staff who lack the skills and knowledge to do the job. It also suggests the need for an intelligently designed, risk-based approach to supervision that includes regular thematic and occasional deep-drill assessments of banks and insurers. The Reserve Bank also needs to strengthen its capacity to detect emerging stress at an early stage and to strengthen their prompt corrective action framework and introduce recovery planning requirements for banks. Closer collaboration with APRA is needed; the current level of collaboration is inadequate, especially in the approach to planning for bank distress or failure.
Reserve Bank policy formulation and consultation is deficient
The Reserve Bank’s approach to policy formulation and consultation on regulatory initiatives is deficient. Too often, the Bank has allowed far too short a period for affected parties to make submissions on regulatory proposals. All too often the Bank has often given the strong impression that it has little interest in the submissions it receives – i.e. that it is consulting for the sake of appearance and has no intention of modifying its approach in light of submissions. It generally provides inadequate responses to submissions and insufficient justifications for any decision to reject points raised in submissions. The argumentation for policy proposals is often poorly developed. Cost/benefit analysis is typically provided to justify the Reserve Bank’s preferred option, rather than being objectively and rigorously developed at an early stage in the policy formulation process. There is very little substantive independent assessment of the Reserve Bank’s cost/benefit analysis. In stark contrast, the Australian system provides for much more rigorous independent assessment of all regulatory proposals.
All of these deficiencies need to be rectified by imposing on the Reserve Bank much stricter requirements on consultation and cost/benefits analysis, and by bringing much stronger external scrutiny to the process. Similar arguments can be made for other regulatory agencies.
The Reserve Bank’s governance and accountability need to be improved
Underpinning all of this is the need for a major shake-up in the governance of the Reserve Bank, its organisational culture and its accountability. The Governor should no longer be the sole decision-maker; that should fall to a small decision-making committee, including external persons appointed by the Minister of Finance. The Reserve Bank Board should be required to do its job properly and provide close scrutiny of the Reserve Bank’s performance in all of its functions; it has failed miserably in this regard. The Minister of Finance should set a financial regulatory policy target (largely in the form of qualitative factors) for which the Reserve Bank should be held accountable. Performance metrics should be developed by Treasury to assess the Reserve Bank’s performance.
A fundamental review of the Reserve Bank’s approach to supervision is needed to strike the right balance and make the improvements needed. This review should be led by Treasury and involve external, independent experts. In my assessment, the best way to achieve the needed changes is to remove the financial regulation functions from the Reserve Bank and move them to a new, separate agency. I am sceptical of the willingness or ability of the Reserve Bank to change its cultural DNA. Moving financial regulation out of the central bank was done in Australia with great success. Likewise, this has been done in many other countries, such as Canada, Germany, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland. But that is a topic for another article.
Geof Mortlock is a former senior official from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and is now an international financial consultant based in Wellington. He undertakes regular consultancy assignments for the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Financial Stability Institute and KPMG internationally. See www.mortlock.co.nz | <urn:uuid:81f7c237-2c5b-4a44-951d-988bf2fbf0f1> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | https://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/92747/ex-rbnz-and-apra-official-geof-mortlock-argues-rbnzs-regulation-financial-sector-so | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232259177.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190526125236-20190526151236-00291.warc.gz | en | 0.952822 | 3,059 | 2.578125 | 3 |
These three authors all support the idea that the theory of Piaget will still apply in the 21st century. As discussed by Eggen and Kauchak (2010), there are still several critics of Piaget, and also neo-Piagetians who believe some of Piaget’s theories still apply, but use other theories to help explain learning and development.Given the increase in internet use in the home and the classroom, and the advent of online courses, Donatelli’s references to the online classroom certainly reflect a 21st century classroom that may be conducted online, through the use of discussion boards and online chat rooms, where socialisation of student’s is going to be in a vastly different context to those in a physical, ‘face to face’ classroom.Cantin’s visit to a school using current technologies to deliver lessons shows how schools can engage learners in an active process, when students may not engage with traditional teaching pedagogies such as lecturing, or front of class style delivery.McClure’s article, while somewhat dated, still rings true for today, in engaging students with real life examples in teaching, helping their cognitive development with meaningfulness (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010)
Kozulin (2004) ponders why Vygotsky’s theories have taken so long to become prevalent in the educational world. He finds that while Piaget and neo-Piagetian theories served well for some time, as American and European classrooms became multicultural, understanding of the importance of culture in education became prevalent. This meant Vygotsky’s “sociocultural approach” (Kozulin, 2004)According to Brunner (as cited in Gindis, 1999) Vygotsky’s theory has come to prominence due to a change in thinking away from a biologically based understanding of human behaviour, to the “social/cultural explanation of human activity.” (Gindis, 1999)Gindis also states that Vygotsky’s theory of the Zone of Proximal Development has a direct impact on teaching practise as it reveals the hidden potential of a student through scaffolding techniques (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010)Berk (n.d.) reflects that research inspired by Vygotsky’s theories has allowed us to better understand children become “enculturated into their communities” through an every day process. This has made researchers and teaching professionals rethink the broad stereotypes such as “socioeconomic status” and “ethnic minority” , and look deeper into these communities to see that each individual is just that – individual.These three articles all support that Vygotsky has a place in teaching theory for the 21st century.Both Kozulin (2004) and Gindis (1999) acknowledge that Vygotsky’s theories have only recently come into prominence, both stating that the reason is due to a change of understanding in the way that the student learns.Kozulin also highlighted the area of Vygotskys theory around the culture of the learner having an impact on todays teaching practitioner. Eggen and Kauchak (2010) describe using the individual’s culture in learning as the third key stage of Vygotsky’s theory on development. Using examples that are unique to the learner’s culture will help the learner in both communication and thinking.Berk (n.d.) also reflects on this stage of Vygotsky’s theory, and highlights how using the theory allows teaching professionals to break free from stereotypes to see each individual learner for their own character.
Pavlov’s theory originally emanated from work he was doing with dogs, and their behaviours when being fed. He noticed that the dogs began salivating when the research assistant would come to feed the dog. This he categorised as unconditioned response (the salivating), caused from an unconditioned stimulus (the food).Baldwin and Baldwin (as cited in Eggen & Kauchak, 2010) describe both the unconditioned response and stimulus as unlearned, or instinctive.The neutral stimulus is described as an object or event that does not initially alter behaviour.Conditioned stimulus is what was formerly a neutral stimulus, but then becomes attached to an unconditioned stimulus. Conditioned response is a learned behaviour from the unconditioned response.While it may not have always been called as such, Pavlov’s theory has been at work in the classroom for a long time, due to the very nature of the learner. As such, the theory is still relevant for the 21st century classroom.Teacher’s can manifest classical conditioning in many ways. The example provided by Eggen and Kauchak (2010) with Sharon Van Horn greeting her class in a cheerful manner every morning helped Carlos experience a pleasant feeling when entering the classroom is just a small sample of how teachers can use classical conditioning to make the learning experience more enjoyable.
Skinner discovered the theory of Operant Conditioning, which is described by Eggen and Kauchak (2010) as a situation where people “’operate’ on their environments by initiating behaviours.” In other words, as opposed to Pavlov’s classical conditioning that was largely instinctive. Skinner found behaviour can be manipulated.Van Tessell (n.d.) in his paper lends weight to the point that Skinner’s theories do not fit in the modern classroom. Glasser (as cited by Van Tessell, n.d.) states that “pushing a student into a corner until they conform with our expectations is not in accordance with a psychologically healthy adolescent. Van Tessell also stated that the Skinner theory is molding learners to conform by the use of standard punshishment and rewards and that behavioirism could be a system to make all students conform to the prescribed norms. He continues that this theory would take away the student autonomy.Shepard (2000) in her Figure 1. shows that behaviourism as a theory in the classroom is becoming outdated and replaced more by cognitive and constructivist theories around learning and development.It would appear from the research as mentioned in the above slide that Skinner’s theory on Operant Conditioning is not as widely received as it once was.Van Tessell (n.d.) uses the view of Glasser to support his position that Operant Conditioning is an effort to mold the student body into views and behaviours that have already been dictated they must adhere to. While it is true that certain behaviours, such as societal acceptable behaviours, must be imparted to children, Van Tessell (n.d.) does contend using Operant Conditioning in the classroom could remove student autonomy, which is not something to be desired.One word that was used extensively when researching Skinner was “utopian” to describe the classroom and the student he was trying to create from this theory.Shepard (2000) does interestingly make reference to continual use of positive reinforcement through praise when students master new skills or knowledge, yet she also clearly displays that behaviourism as a whole is a theory being replaced with newer, modern approaches, such as constructivism and congitive theories.The points raised above do suggest that there may only be limited room for Skinner in the classroom in the future, and even that time may be limited.
The previous slides show that there is definitely still room for Piaget’s and Vygotsky‘s theories in the classroom. This is interesting that researchers tend to show that both theories can work, yet they are quite opposed.There is still some room for Pavlov in the classroom of the 21st century, however as shown in the Skinner research, there is limited time and room for behaviourism as cognitive learning and constructivism emerge as new theories to be embraced.Due to these emerging theories, the time for Skinner’s theories in the classroom may be drawing to an end in the scale they are used now. Limited parts may be used in the future for “bigger picture” behavioural education.As with any theory, none of the theorists can accurately or adequately predict what is going to work in the individual classroom. Teachers need to adapt to their audience, and this adaptation will have to change not only year to year, but term to term and even week to week.Using different parts of different theories may be the best way to manage the classroom of the 21st century
Teachers have been an integral part of Australian education for over 200 years, (History of Australian Education, 2010). Although the role of the teacher has changed significantly over the 200 year history, along with the training and educating of the teaching profession, there are many things that to this day remain the same. The most common is the desire to impart knowledge to students to encourage learning for the future. As we as a society look towards the future it is apparent that there will be some changes needed to accommodate the ever changing society in which we live.History of Australian Education. (2010, March 19). Retrieved July 5th, 2010, from Aussie Educator: http://www.aussieeducator.org.au/education/other/history.html
Teaching will always need to be professional, even more so into the 21st Century. To enable teachers to demonstrate this they need to be ethical. Ethics or “the right thing to do” is based upon ensuring teachers have the knowledge and understandings of the law, policies rules and guidelines that govern teaching, (Whitton, Sinclair, Barker, Nanlohy, & Nosworthy, 2005). Coupled with the socially and culturally responsible understandings of key values, respect, dignity, caring, and integrity. Ensuring that open communication, with colleagues, parents and students is equal, regardless of race, gender, religion or disability, respect the privacy of individuals and ensure that guidelines and policies are followed, (Whitton, Sinclair, Barker, Nanlohy, & Nosworthy, 2005). The legal requirements of a teacher is best described as what a teacher need to do according to the law. To become a teacher in Australia you need to complete an undergraduate and/or post graduate course from a recognized institution as well as any mandatory training required. The Law Handbook states “The law imposes a legal duty on teachers and schools to take care of the safety and wellbeing of pupils in their care. This duty of care arises where a teacher-pupil relationship exists” (The law handbook, 2009). This duty of care is more than just the teacher acting as a parent while the child is at school as a higher standard of care is expected from a teacher than is expected from a good careful parent.
To demonstrate quality teaching teachers of today need to be many things, knowledgeable, and understanding of what is being taught, how to teach it and how learners learn it, (Quality Teaching, n.d.). They need to show enthusiasm about teaching as it is this enthusiasm that rubs off on to the students and creates a better more productive learning environment. Educators need to have confidence and commitment, not only about how they teach and what they teach but also their ability to help students learn. They need to be curious, question (McKenzie, 2004), and seek to gather more information, ask why does this happen, and how does this work therefore inspiring their students to learn and to become inquirers. An inventive organized and resourceful teachers will be willing use different ways and methods of teaching, and to look, for new ideas, using whatever is available to help teach and make lessons interesting and varied. This will accommodate the learners that come from different cultural and social backgrounds bringing with them different experiences and understandings. (Eggan & Kauchak, 2010) Teachers should also give students time to absorb and learn new concepts and tasks by being patient and persistent, whilst being optimistic, and believe that there is always a way for students to learn. Finally teachers need to change how they do things if it isn’t working, be willing to share and collaborate with colleagues, be ethical, understand the laws and policies that govern their position inside an outside school, and ensure that they behave professionally at all times.
It is important to ensure that the learning is delivered using a variety of teaching and instruction methods that relate to and is based upon what the student knows. (Reif & Heimburge 2006); (Brady & Kennedy 2007) argue that students learn best when they can make a connection between the curriculum, their interests and their life experiences and that they are less likely to disengage from learning if the curriculum is meaningful and relevant to their everyday lives. In other words, all learning is filtered through the learner’s current frame of reference (context) and as such all learning should be based upon what the learners already knows and understands.
For hundreds of years, education has been a fundamental part in society. As society developed teachers were forced to modify, or completely discard, their teaching processes and methods and adopt new methods which incorporate modern learning theories.. In the past, students have relied upon the teacher/instructor to provide them with correct, relevant and educational knowledge.Until the late 1980’s, teachers taught to students as a group and did not address an individual’s needs. This meant that an individual’s learning was dependant on their pre-existing knowledge. As the majority of students receiving an education pre-1900’s came from homes with a high socio-economic status, learning was focussed on academic development and social development. As society evolved and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds began to be granted the basic human rights, such as the ability to attend a school, the methods of teaching had to change to adapt to the widened range of students.Until the early 1900’s, computers did not exist. Even then, computers did not have the capability to store information. This was developed in the mid 20th century. Prior to this, students used tools like an abacus, or hand-written calculations to solve problems, and filing systems to store information. Technologies like the internet were not developed until approximately the 1950’s. Before this, students had to search archives and libraries to find information, and did not have the liberty of the internet.
These changes have had a large impact on modern education, in both a positive and negative way. Students are being forced to be Information and Technology literate, and students who are not as talented in this area are falling behind. This brings to surface many issues which were non-existent prior to technology being incorporated into learning. Possibly the most evident problem could be that not all students are able to gain access to this technology. Students from low socio-economic homes are possibly disadvantaged in that they may not have access to the same technology as their counter-parts, hence hindering their learning experience. Also, internet has a limited range and learners who are outside of this area are effectively being restricted in their learning. However, new technology has given students access to information which they could not attain otherwise. This allows them to expand their knowledge base to a far greater extent than in the past. They can now research ideas and theories which they are unsure of and read an explanation. Student’s are now able to hold their teachers accountable and double-check everything they are taught if they wish to do so, and also develop their own knowledge to a greater extent than previously possible.
In order to adapt to the changing environment, a student is required to make numerous changes to their existing knowledge and their learning methods (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010). These include but are not limited to; Learning to use a computer and navigate internet sites, adjusting their daily life to incorporate using modern technology, adjusting their learning practices (i.e. hand-writing assignments) in order to progress in their schooling, and learning to understand teaching which incorporates modern technology (i.e. Smart-boards, data-projectors, Laptop computers, Web pages etc) (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010).
The 21st century learner will have access to an unprecedented amount of information and connectivity than ever before. Social networking sites and Blog sites along with video sharing websites will ensure that information is available when you want it. However, let’s not mistake the provision of information as a learning experience. To incorporate technology into a rich learning experience, the 21st century teacher will have to remain abreast of current ICT trends and relate these to the day to day lives of students. Social networking can give insights into the different cultural contexts learners come from; Sociocultural theory (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010)or even create new cultures of its own e.g. SMS language. Social networking has also created a “community of learners” (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010, p. 228). Learning is supported by a group with a common interest and small group work conducted within the classroom can scaffold student understanding on a local level. Technology also serves in accommodating the Multiple Intelligences (Gardner, 1993) by being able to differentiate content delivery. The chronosystem is the final level in Bronfenbrenner’sBioecological model of human development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006) and refers to the changing influences found in human development over time such as the change in relationships with family members, meeting new people and experiencing different social institutions (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010). The role technology now plays in this can be seen quite clearly with what is on offer such as laptops, smart boards, PDA’s, social networking websites, blog sites, and video sharing websites
As an effective teacher in the 21st century, it will be vital to motivate students to become lifelong learners. This means helping students to see the value in an activity for the benefit of the student. Teachers will need to help the student to become intrinsically motivated. This will provide the teacher with many challenges as attempting to take the student from being extrinsically motivated to being intrinsically motivated means awakening within them, the desire to want to learn. The amount of care that teachers place into lesson planning is important. In providing exciting introductory activities for students, teachers will be able to shape motivation positively (Marsh, 2008). It is vital to obtain feedback through various forms of assessment from learners about the progress they are making in order to further motivate them. It is important that students see the value in what they are doing and also believe that they are capable of achieving the results required. There are a number of theories of motivation that can provide guidance with this.Behaviourist theories – Focus on changes in behaviour that result from experiences with the environment (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010). The use of praise, along with achieving good grades is a positive reinforcer and motivates the student.Cognitive and social cognitive theories – Examine people’s expectations and beliefs and their attempts to understand how the world works (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010). In an effort to understand why or how something works or behaves as it does, the student is motivated to find out.Sociocultural theories – Emphasize individuals’ participation in communities that value and support learning (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010). By participating in small group work, for example, students are motivated by the support and encouragement that they receive. Humanistic Theories – Emphasize people’s attempts to fulfil their total potential as human beings (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010). This relies on the belief that motivation is an attempt to become self-actualised in order to fulfil maximum potential.
One challenge that will be present in the classroom is learner diversity. Within this will be learners with exceptionalities such as learners with disabilities and learners with gifts and talents (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010). Learning disabilities such as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Intellectual, and disorders such as Behavioural, Autism spectrum, Communicative, and including visual and hearing disorders also present a challenge.By approaching instruction of these children with a good deal of compassion whilst maintaining high requirements and establishing predictable routines within the class, teachers will stand the best chance in helping their students succeed. Some students will come from backgrounds that will not be conducive to student motivation. By fostering a caring environment within the classroom, and provided students understand what is required of them, the teacher will create a sense of belonging and further promote motivation within the student. There will be other students from cultural minority groups.Teachers will have to employ culturally responsive classroom management techniques (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010)to promote cohesiveness amongst the students. As a teacher, it will be important to reflect upon whether there are any personally held thoughts that may prejudice a cultural group within the classroom. Diversity can be addressed with the use of technology in teaching to appeal to the multiple intelligences of learners. Students with exceptionalities will benefit from the use of technology as it removes traditional barriers and motivates students to further engage with learning. Gifted and talented students will need rich learning experiences to further their development (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010).Learners with exceptionalities – Students who need special help and resources to reach their full potential. (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010, p. 126)Culturally responsive classroom management – Classroom management that combines teachers’ awareness of possible personal biases with cultural knowledge (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010, p. 380).
Learners in the 21st Century will have to be equipped with problem solving skills to help make the most of 21stcentury life. Dealing with issues; either perceived or real, will ensure that learners will need to be able to discern via critical thinking, the best possible and most fair strategies for all concerned. Diversity will need to be embraced and the challenges that come with doing so will require classroom organisation that enhances the learning of problem solving skills. Vygotsky’ssociocultural theory of development (1978) refers to working within a child’s zone of proximal development. In this zone, students will employ problem solving techniques to construct answers to problems set before them by the teacher. To progress through the zone of proximal development requires assistance from the teacher or other students who are more capable (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010). Teachers who are offering assistance (scaffolding) to students who are in the zone of proximal development must be aware to not provide too much support. Social interaction plays a great role in constructivist learning theory. A learning environment in which learners collaborate and share ideas should become the norm in the 21st century. Creativity should be fostered within the learning environment and should ultimately be demonstrated by the teacher.Zone of proximal development – A range of tasks that an individual cannot yet do alone but can accomplish when assisted by the guidance of others (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010, p. 47). Scaffolding – Assistance that helps children complete tasks they cannot complete independently (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010, p. 47) Critical Thinking – “An individual’s ability and inclination to make and assess conclusions based on evidence” (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010, p. 271). In assessing a statement or claim being made, a critical thinker is able to filter such, in that there may or may not be the evidence to support the argument Divergent Thinking – “The ability to generate a variety of original answers to questions or problems” (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010, p. 264). Divergent thinking is another indicator of problem solving ability.
IdentityThe role that a caring, encouraging teacher will play in the lives of students cannot be underestimated. Potentially for some, the classroom may be the only stable, organised aspect of a student’s life that offers amongst other things, routine and affirmation. An authoritative teacher will understand the challenges presented in this regard and be motivated to oversee the personal, social and moral development of all students under their care.Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development (1968, 1980) explores the developmental changes or stages that take place over our lifespans and our responses to crisis’ as they occur. Erikson’s theory has its critics, however the theory helps us to understand such factors as student attribution (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010) and learned helplessness (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010). As a teacher, offering encouragement, reinforcing student initiative, providing age appropriate challenging experiences, and providing support and feedback, helps to develop within students a sense of competence (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010) which in turn increases motivation.The classroom provides many opportunities to teach into the social and emotional development of students. Equipping students to empathise with others and share in another’s perspective, can guide students to feel like they belong and experience a sense of connectedness. The teacher of the 21st century must focus not only on preparing students for academic achievement but also for personal mastery. Some of the greatest gifts a teacher can bestow upon a student are a sense of self belief and resilience.
Theories of learning into the 21st century: <br />Slides 4 to 9<br />Professionalism of teachers in to the 21st century:<br />Slides 10 to 14<br />Learners into the 21st century.<br />Slides 15 to 19<br />Factors impacting 21st century learning<br />Slides 20 to 25<br />Slides and content<br />
How will the theorists studied, fit in the 21st century classroom?<br />Theorists<br />Pavlov<br />Piaget<br />Skinner<br />Vygotsky<br />
Piaget in the 21st Century Classroom<br />Sensorimotor (0-2 years)<br />Pre Operational (2-7 years)<br />Piaget’s Stages<br />Concrete Operational (7-11 years)<br />Formal Operational (11+ years)<br />Donatelli (n.d.) suggests that Piaget’s theories will still apply, even if in revised and adapted forms as a teacher in an online classroom will still need to be able to display rules, communication, development of students and also socialisation of students. <br />Cantin (2010) states that when keeping in mind Piaget’s definition of learning of “an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts”, he points out that lecture style lesson does not fit in with this theory. He went on to explain a new technological classroom he has visited, using Technology Enabled Active Learning, that was not only modern but emphasised “hands-on, interactive, collaborative learning”.<br />McClure (1988) states that there are less traditional kinds of enquiry to help the student mature and become more capable to grow through Piaget’s stages of development. He includes examples of using ‘real world’ examples in teaching to be able give meaning to the lesson.<br />
<ul><li>Vygotsky’s theory has come to prominence due to a change in thinking away from a biologically based understanding of human behaviour, to the “social/cultural explanation of human activity.”
Vygotsky’s theory of the Zone of Proximal Development has a direct impact on teaching practise as it reveals the hidden potential of a student through scaffolding techniques.
Vygotsky’s theories have teaching professionals rethink the broad stereotypes such as “socioeconomic status” and “ethnic minority.
That each individual is just that – individual.</li></ul>Vygotsky in the 21st Century Classroom<br />
Pavlov in the 21st Century Classroom<br />Pavlov’s Theory<br />Unconditioned Stimulus<br />Pavlov was one of the first theorists to use behaviourism as a theory to explain learning and development.<br />His basis was around 5 key elements, being unconditioned stimuli, unconditioned response, neutral stimulus, conditioned stimulus and conditioned response (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010)<br />Pavlov’s work spurned further work by further theorists, mainly Skinner and Watson (Rockey, 2008).<br />Unconditioned Response<br />Neutral Stimulus<br />Conditioned Stimulus<br />Conditioned Response<br />
<ul><li>Skinner discovered the theory of Operant Conditioning.
Skinner’s theories do not fit in the modern classroom.
Making all students conform to the prescribed norms would take away the student autonomy.
Behaviourism as a theory in the classroom is becoming outdated and replaced more by cognitive and constructivist theories around learning and development.</li></ul>Skinner in the 21st Century Classroom<br />
Continued...............<br /><ul><li>There is still room for Piaget’s and Vygotsky‘s theories in the classroom.
There is still some room for Pavlov in the classroom however it is limited as new theories to be embraced.
Skinner’s theories in the classroom may be drawing to an end.
As with any theory, none of the theorists can accurately or adequately predict what is going to work in the individual classroom. Teachers need to adapt to their audience, and this adaptation will have to change not only year to year, but term to term and even week to week.
Using different parts of different theories may be the best way to manage the classroom of the 21st century.</li></li></ul><li>Teachers and Teaching <br />Teachers have been an integral part of Australian education for over 200 years,<br />(History of Australian Education, 2010).<br /><ul><li>The role of the teacher has changed over the Years.
The training of the teachers has also changed.
Some things remain the same, the desire to teach and impart knowledge to encourage learning for the future.
There will be some changes needed to accommodate the ever changing society in which we live.</li></li></ul><li>Professionalism and Ethics<br />Teachers will always need to be professional. Even more so into the 21st century, to demonstrate this they need to. <br /> Be ethical. <br />meet legal requirements to become a teacher.<br /> Understand and meet duty of care responsibilities.<br />Have good communication skills with students, parents and colleagues. <br />Demonstrate quality teaching.<br />
Quality Teaching<br />To demonstrate quality teaching teachers need to:<br /> be knowledgeable about all areas of teaching.<br />seek understanding of what is being taught, how to teach it, and how learners learn it.<br />be enthusiastic and show enthusiasm about teaching.<br />be confident and committed.<br />be curious and question.<br />be well organized, resourceful and inventive.<br />understand that all learners come from different walks of life. with different experiences and understandings.<br />be patient and persistent.<br />
Teaching Strategies for the 21st Century <br />Using a variety of teaching and learning strategies is vital to education.<br />Use the student’s interest’s, curiosity and enjoyment to motivate them. If the topic and activities are interesting and enjoyable the task its self becomes the reward (Marsh, 2008).<br />Setting of realistic goals for students is important as if the task is perceived as too hard some students “give up”.<br />Plan lessons that are interesting. Students will be motivated to learn if it is fun and interesting.<br />Maintain equity within the classroom. Students are the first to notice if any behaviour or action seems even the slightest bit inequitable.<br />Pace the work and ensure that all students understand what is expected of them both socially and educationally based.<br />Be aware of any emotional or social issues that could impede motivation.<br />Show interest in the students this will build and foster a good teacher student relationships (Eggan & Kauchak, 2010) .<br />
A teacher that uses a teaching model that understands how students learn, appreciates different learning styles, is inventive and resourceful, and uses technology to its full advantage, will always support and allow students to learn to the best of their ability whilst maintaining a common lesson theme throughout the class. <br />
A Student’s View On 21st Century Learning<br />Students in a Changing World <br />
<ul><li>Over the past few decades, technology has developed rapidly, with the upgrading of old technology and the invention of new technology. This has caused many changes to modern society.
The influence of these changes on the 21st Century learner often go unnoticed, however they are increasingly present.</li></ul>How The World is Changing<br />
<ul><li>In the past, students have relied upon the teacher/instructor to provide them with correct, relevant and educational knowledge.
Until the late 1980’s, teachers taught to students as a group and did not address an individual’s needs. This meant that an individual’s learning was dependant on their pre-existing knowledge.
Technology (Computers, Internet) had very little influence on the education process as they were limited in number and availability.</li></ul>Learning in the Past<br />
How These Changes Impact Learning<br />Negative <br /><ul><li>Students are being forced to be Information and Technology literate.
Students from low socio-economic homes may not have access to the same technology as their counter-parts. </li></ul>Positive <br /><ul><li>New technology has given students access to information which they could not attain otherwise.
Easier access to resources with which they can cross-check their learning.</li></li></ul><li><ul><li>Learning to use a computer.
Understand teaching which incorporates modern technology.</li></ul>How a Student Must Change<br />
Technology<br /><ul><li>The 21st century learner will have access to an unprecedented amount of information and connectivity than ever before
Social networking can give insights into the different cultural contexts learners come from.
Technology also serves in accommodating the Multiple Intelligences (Gardner, 1993) by being able to differentiate content delivery. </li></li></ul><li>Lifelong Learners<br /><ul><li>As an effective teacher in the 21st century, it will be vital to motivate students to become lifelong learners.
The amount of care that teachers place into lesson planning is important.
The use of praise, along with achieving good grades is a positive reinforcer and motivates the student.
By participating in small group work students are motivated by the support and encouragement that they receive. </li></li></ul><li>Learner Diversity<br /><ul><li>One challenge that will be present in the classroom is learner diversity.
Some students will come from backgrounds that will not be conducive to student motivation.
Diversity can be addressed with the use of technology in teaching to appeal to the multiple intelligences of learners. </li></li></ul><li>Problem solving<br /><ul><li>Learners in the 21st Century will have to be equipped with problem solving skills to help make the most of 21st century life.
Teachers who are offering assistance (scaffolding) to students who are in the zone of proximal development must be aware to not provide too much support.
Social interaction plays a great role in constructivist learning theory.</li></li></ul><li>Identity<br /> <br />The role that a caring, encouraging teacher will play in the lives of students cannot be underestimated. <br /><ul><li>Competence
Resilience </li></li></ul><li>Reference:<br />Brady & Kennedy (2007). Curriculum Construction. 3rd ed. Australia: Pearsons Education<br />Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. (2006). The bioecological model of human development. In R. Lerner (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1 Theoretical models of human development 6th ed. (pp. 793-828). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.<br />Cantin, R. (2010) Eye on IT : The 21st Century Classroom . Retrieved on 27/06/2010 from http://en.ntic.org/dossiers/21st-century-classroom/<br />Donatelli, J. (n.d.) Piagetian Theories in Online Discussion Forums. Retrieved on 27/06/2010 from https://sites.google.com/a/boisestate.edu/edtechtheories/donatelli<br />Eggen, P & Kauchak, D. (2010) Educational Psychology: Windows on classrooms. (8thed) (p.42). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.<br />Eggen, P & Kauchak, D. (2010) Educational Psychology: Windows on classrooms. (8thed)(p.203). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.<br />
Reference cont.........<br /> <br />Eggen, P. & Kauchak, D. (2010). Educational Psychology Windows on Classrooms (8th Ed).Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education International.<br />Erikson, E. (1980). Identity and the life cycle 2nd ed. New York: Norton.<br />Erikson, E. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton.<br />History of Australian Education. (2010, March 19). Retrieved July 5th, 2010, from Aussie Educator: http://www.aussieeducator.org.au/education/other/history.html<br />Gardner, H. (1993). Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice. New York: Basic Books.<br />Marsh, C. (2008). Becoming a Teacher (4th Ed).Frenchs Forest: Pearson Education Australia.<br />McClure, R. (1988) Schools for the 21st Century : Can we go from lethargy to zest for learning? Retrieved on 27/06/2010 from http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC18/McClure.htm<br />Rief, S. & Heimburge, J. (2006). How to reach and teach all children in the inclusive classroom (2nd Ed.). San Francisco: Wiley. <br />
Reference cont.........<br />Rockey, R. (2008) An observational study of pre-service teachers’ classroom management strategies. Retrieved on 1/7/2010 from http://dspace.lib.iup.edu:8080/dspace/bitstream/2069/86/1/Rebecca+Rockey.Revised+pdf.pdf<br />Shepard, L. (2010) The Role of Assessment in a Learning Centre. Educational Researcher (29) 7. pp.4-14. Retrieved on 1/7/2010 from http://www.ied.edu.hk/obl/files/The role of assessment in a learning culture.pdf<br />The law handbook (n.d.) children and young people, duty of care, retrieved from www.lawhandbook.org.au/handbook/ch06s03s02.php<br />Van Tessel, G. (n.d.) Classroom Management. Retrieved on 1/7/2010 from http://www.brains.org/classroom_management.htm<br />Whitton, D., Sinclair, C., Barker, K., Nanlohy, P., & Nosworthy, M. (2005). Learning for teaching: teaching for learning (1st Ed.). Australia: Cengage.<br />Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes (M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman, Eds. & Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.<br />
Reference cont.........<br />Songs used<br />Porcelain by Moby. (Moby). Taken from the album Play (1999). UK: V2/BMG Records, Mute<br />Right Here, Right Now by Fatboy Slim. (Norman Cook). Taken from the album You’ve Come a Long Way Baby (1998) UK: Skint <br />Terminal Frost by Pink Floyd. (Gilmour, N.). Taken from the album A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987). EMI Records.<br /> | <urn:uuid:7c348fee-4d18-4359-bfe8-ea1fb905cba4> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://www.slideshare.net/shoes1970/group-assignment-4822733 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501170434.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104610-00061-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939883 | 8,582 | 3.046875 | 3 |
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