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This article was first published in 2008.
Reductions in the amount of energy consumed by
vehicles will require that they become more aerodynamically slippery. It doesn’t
matter if the motive power is pure electric, an internal combustion engine
(either petrol or diesel) or a hybrid power source: aerodynamic drag reductions
are vital if efficiency gains are to be made.
But how can that these improvements take place? Or
to put it another way, what actually causes cars to experience drag and how can
these factors be reduced?
Aerodynamic drag on road vehicles can be split
into four different types. These are:
Separation pressure drag
Don’t panic – we’ll take a look at them in turn
and examine how they apply to real vehicles.
Separation Pressure Drag
In conventional road vehicles, separation pressure
drag is the biggy – accounting for between 50 and 90 percent of the total aero
drag. Separation pressure drag is also amongst the easiest of the drag
components to envisage.
Airflow over cars can be basically split into two
types: attached and non-attached. At the front of a modern car, the flow across
the surface of the bonnet will almost always be attached. This can be seen if
small lengths of wool are stuck on the body surface – the tufts all line up one
However the real action is at the back. On a
sedan, the airflow will generally be attached at the trailing edge of the roof -
but then it has to make the transition down onto the rear glass. If this
successfully occurs, and the flow remains attached right down the back window
and onto the boot, the car's doing very well. Why? Because when the air finally
leaves the trailing edge of the boot, the cross-sectional area of disturbed air
being pulled along behind (called the "wake") will be small.
You can see that the wakes behind a hatchback or
wagon (where the airflow separates at the end of the roof) will be much larger
than for a well designed 3-box sedan.
The cross-sectional area of the wake is
particularly important because the wake comprises a low pressure area – in other
words, one that is literally pulling the car backwards. The bigger the wake, the
greater the separation pressure drag.
Reducing the size of the wake is so important that
most cars are boat-tailed, ie the sides of the car get closer together over the
last metre or so of the body. If the flow remains attached down the sides of the
car, this reduces the area of the wake.
A small wake is the easiest way of recognising
which everyday cars are slippery and which are not.
In addition to the size of the wake, pressure drag
also makes itself felt in trailing vortices. Looking a bit like whirling ribbons
being pulled along by a running child, these spinning disturbances create drag.
They’re shed from rear edges, especially the
To understand Viscous Drag, two ideas need to be
The first is that air is a fluid, and like other
fluids, has viscosity. Viscosity is the ease with which particles of the fluid
move past one another. Honey is highly viscous – the particles don’t want to
slide past one another. Engine oil is less viscous, and air is much less viscous
again. However, air still has a degree of viscosity.
So why is the viscosity of air important? Because
when the air passes over a car’s body, it is being constantly sheared.
Let’s take a look at why this happens.
If you park a car on a dirt road, the car will
soon be covered with a fine layer of dust. When you drive off, watch the surface
of the bonnet. Despite it being covered in dust, the dust particles will largely
remain in place. But why doesn’t the dust get blown away by the airflow over the
car? The answer is that the air in contact with the body isn’t moving. That is,
the tiny molecules of air closest to the body are not sliding over the
As you get further away from the car body surface,
the airspeed gets greater and greater, until when you’re far enough away from
the body, the airspeed is the same as the car’s forward speed.
This diagram shows the effect. Here the length of
the arrows is proportional to the speed of air. You can see the red arrow, a
little above the surface of the car, is much shorter than the green arrow,
further from the car. Therefore, because the layers of air are travelling at
different speeds, they are sliding over one another – or to put it another way,
particles of the fluid are constantly moving past one another. This was our
definition of viscosity - the ease with which particles of the fluid move past
Now you can see why the viscosity of the air has
Incidentally, this area of low-speed flow attached
to the surface of the car is called the boundary layer.
about the two factors that we’ve discussed so far, you can see that the longer
that flow stays attached to the body, the smaller will be the likely size of the
wake, and so the lower the separation pressure drag. So that’s good!
the longer the flow stays attached to the body, the greater the amount of
viscous shearing that is occurring in the boundary layer around the body – and
overall, it is still much better to have as much attached flow as possible.
The boundary layer has another impact on drag. As
you move towards the rear of the car – even one with attached flow from nose to
tail – the boundary layer gets thicker. In other words, the number of air
molecules getting dragged along with the car become more numerous.
So? The reason it’s relevant relates to pressure
on the bodywork. We’ve already said that the wake behind the car is a region of
low pressure, pulling the car backwards. But what about the fact that the car is
running into air molecules at the front? Doesn’t that cause a pressure build-up?
It sure does.
Here the red area shows the region of highest air
pressure – at the stagnation point, where the air is literally stopped dead.
Clearly, if we could apply this same pressure at the back of the car, the two
pressures would cancel each other, reducing drag.
But, even on a car that is so streamlined it has
attached flow from nose to tail, the thicker the boundary layer, the harder it
is to get the air to apply this rearwards pressure. If the boundary layer didn’t
exist, it would be possible to get the air to apply the same pressure on the
back as on the front!
Induced drag is a by-product of lift or downforce.
Lift or downforce occur only because there is a
pressure differential. For example, a higher pressure on the underside of a car
than the top surfaces will cause lift. A wing with a higher pressure on the
upper surface than the lower surface will develop downforce.
Trouble is, these pressure differences always
result in vortices of airflow between the two surfaces. The energy needed to
create these vortices results in increased drag.
Interference drag is that that comes about because
vehicles are not single bodies without appendages. And unfortunately, when
different shapes are combined to form a practical vehicle, the total drag is
always greater than the sum of its parts.
For example, the drag of a wheel (even when
covered in a fairing) and that of the car body will be greater when they are
joined that when they are measured individually.
In effect , the flow over one surface interferes
with the flow over another surface.
Taking the above factors into account, it is an
inescapable conclusion that all road vehicles will have aero drag. As described
in the breakout box above, reducing separation pressure drag by keeping the flow
attached will result in a greater viscous drag. Interference drag will always
exist because it is impossible to produce a car shape that doesn’t have
appendages sticking out here and there.
However, by the same token, it is possible to make
vast aerodynamic drag improvements over current, conventional cars.
The leaders in the vehicular field are solar race
cars, machines that have to achieve low drag figures if they’re to be
competitive on such little total motor power. A conventional sedan (even a very
good one like the Toyota Prius) might have a drag coefficient (Cd) of 0.26, but
solar race cars have Cds of 0.1 or even lower.
Clearly the solar racing cars are an impractical
shape for normal use, but that’s primarily because we expect current cars to be
able to do everything, rather than specialise. (Consider what shape an electric,
single person dedicated commuter car could take.)
So in terms of the above drag contributors, how do
solar race cars compare with traditional passenger cars?
Separation Pressure Drag
Viscous & Boundary layer Drag
Medium – large percentage
Small – Large percentage
Solar Race Car
Small – Large percentage
Goro Tamai, in his book The Leading Edge
(from which the above table is taken), suggests that the priority order for
reducing drag should be as follows:
Reduce separation pressure drag (ie size of
Reduce Induced Drag (ie downforce/lift drag –
normally, it would be reducing lift)
Reduce Interference Drag (eg sealing holes,
contouring junctions, etc)
Reduce Viscous Drag
The major reduction in aero drag of road car
designs that occurred between the 1960s and the 1990s was through reduced
separation pressure drag. There is still plenty of aerodynamic advantage to be
gained by reducing this still further, but once that limit has been reached,
attention will need to turn to reducing induced, interference and (finally) | <urn:uuid:251386e1-f558-4fb1-9b92-2c0617e8b09e> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://www.autospeed.com/cms/article.html?A=113227 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218189472.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212949-00006-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923706 | 2,186 | 3.046875 | 3 |
When the Spanish first brought chocolate back to Europe, it was still being served as a beverage, but soon went through an important evolution: the chili pepper was replaced by sugar. The new, sweetened, chocolate beverage was a luxury few could afford, but by the 17th century the drink was common among European nobility. In England, which was somewhat more egalitarian than the rest of Europe, chocolate was more widely available. Those who could afford it could enjoy chocolate drinks in the new coffee and chocolate houses of London.
As other countries challenged Spain's monopoly on cacao, chocolate became more widely available. Soon the French, English, and Dutch were cultivating cacao in their colonies in the Caribbean, and later, elsewhere in the world. With more production came lower prices, and soon the masses in Europe and the Americas were enjoying chocolate. For many people, however, the expanded production of cacao in the New World (along with that of other agricultural products) meant slavery and privation. Cacao production relied heavily on the forced labor of Native Americans and imported African slaves.
In 1828, Dutch chocolate maker Conrad J. van Houten patented an inexpensive method for pressing the fat from roasted cacao beans. The center of the bean, known as the "nib," contains an average of 54 percent cocoa butter, which is a natural fat. Van Houten's machine -- a hydraulic press -- reduced the cocoa butter content by nearly half. This created a "cake" that could be pulverized into a fine powder known as "cocoa." Van Houten treated the powder with alkaline salts (potassium or sodium carbonates) so that the powder would mix more easily with water. Today, this process is known as "Dutching." The final product, Dutch chocolate, has a dark color and a mild taste.
The introduction of cocoa powder not only made creating chocolate drinks much easier, but also made it possible to combine chocolate with sugar and then remix it with cocoa butter to create a solid. Others began to build on Van Houten's success, experimenting to make new chocolate products. In 1849, English chocolate maker Joseph Storrs Fry produced what was arguably the world's first eating chocolate.
Today, the Swiss are famous for their chocolate, and rightly so. In the late 19th century, they developed a number of processes that contributed greatly to creating the solid chocolate candy that we all enjoy today. Two major developments occurred in 1879. First, Daniel Peter, a Swiss chocolate manufacturer, had the idea of using powdered milk (invented by Swiss Chemist Henri Nestle in 1867) to make a new kind of chocolate, milk chocolate. Second, Rudolphe Lindt invented a process called "conching," which greatly improved the quality of chocolate candy by making it more blendable. | <urn:uuid:65f3eb77-5067-435a-9793-140be6ceab6c> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://www.exploratorium.edu/exploring/exploring_chocolate/choc_4.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501171053.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104611-00632-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97475 | 577 | 3.640625 | 4 |
Built by Karasukojima Naval Armory as the 22nd Type A Midget Submarine completed. Delivered to the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN).
On December 7, 1942 Japanese submarine I-16 embarks HA-22 and departs Shortland bound for Guadalcanal.
On December 13, 1942 at 4:48am Japanese submarine I-16 launches HA-22 roughly 10 miles off Savo Island. Aboard is commander Lt(jg) Yoshimi Kado and crew member PO Toshio Yahagi. At dawn, HA-22 sights hospital ship USS Solace AH-5 off Lunga Point on Guadalcanal and fires both torpedoes at a destroyer in the same area but neither hits. Afterwards, this submarine reaches Cape Esperence on Guadalcanal and was scuttled by the crew.
Fates of the Crew
Both of the crew reach shore join Japanese forces. Their ultimate fate is unknown.
Possibly, this submarine might be Type A Midget Submarine (Cape Esperence 1945). On January 4, 1945 USCGC Ironwood (WLB-297) began salvaging this submarine from a depth of 30' off Cape Esperence on Guadalcanal.
Divers, working from a small boat, use a hose and crowbars to clear a space under the bow and stern of the submarine. On January 9, 1945 a chain sling is rigged around the bow for salvage. The identity of this 1945 salvaged midget submarine is unknown but possibly HA-8, HA-22 or HA-37.
Combined Fleet - Midget Submarines in the Solomon Islands 1942
Are you a relative or associated with any person mentioned?
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January 10, 2018 | <urn:uuid:0354160d-2d47-4f79-ad4a-9b1307d467b3> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | https://www.pacificwrecks.com/subs/HA-22.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084890187.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20180121040927-20180121060927-00456.warc.gz | en | 0.894725 | 369 | 2.765625 | 3 |
The order Cetacea (L. cetus, whale) includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. Cetus is Latin and is used in biological names to mean "whale"; its original meaning, "large sea animal", was more general. It comes from Ancient Greek κῆτος (kētos), meaning "whale" or "any huge fish or sea monster". In Greek mythology the monster Perseus defeated was called Ceto, which is depicted by the constellation of Cetus. Cetology is the branch of marine science associated with the study of cetaceans.
Cetaceans are the mammals most fully adapted to aquatic life. Their body is fusiform (spindle-shaped). The forelimbs are modified into flippers. The tiny hindlimbs are vestigial; they do not attach to the backbone and are hidden within the body. The tail has horizontal flukes. Cetaceans are nearly hairless, and are insulated by a thick layer of blubber. As a group, they are noted for their high intelligence.
The order Cetacea contains about ninety species, all marine except for four species of freshwater dolphins. The order is divided into two suborders, Mysticeti (baleen whales) and Odontoceti (toothed whales, which includes dolphins and porpoises). The species range in size from the Commerson's Dolphin and Tucuxi to the Blue Whale, the world's largest ever animal.
As mammals, cetaceans need to breathe air. Because of this, they need to come to the water's surface to exhale carbon dioxide and inhale a fresh supply of oxygen. During diving, a muscular action closes the blowholes (nostrils), which remain closed until the cetacean next breaks the surface; when it surfaces, the muscles open the blowholes and warm air is exhaled.
Cetaceans' blowholes have evolved to a position on top of the head, allowing more time to expel stale air and inhale fresh air. When the stale air, warmed from the lungs, is exhaled, it condenses as it meets the cold air outside. As with a terrestrial mammal breathing out on a cold day, a small cloud of 'steam' appears. This is called the 'blow' or 'spout' and is different in terms of shape, angle and height, for each cetacean species. Cetaceans can be identified at a distance, using this characteristic, by experienced whalers or whale-watchers.
Cetaceans can go underwater for much longer periods of time than other mammals. Their duration under water varies greatly between species due to large physiological differences between many members of this Order. There are two studied advantages of cetacean physiology that let this Order (and other marine mammals) forage underwater for extended periods of time without breathing at the water surface.
Myoglobin concentrations in skeletal muscle of mammals have much variation. A New Zealand white rabbit has 0.08+/-0.06 g (in a 100 g Wet muscle) of myoglobin, whereas a Northern Bottlenose Whale has 6.34 g (in a 100 g Wet muscle) of myoglobin. Myoglobin, by nature, has a higher affinity to oxygen than hemoglobin. That is, myoglobin retains oxygen molecules better than hemoglobin. Therefore, it is useful to have higher concentrations of myoglobin when needed and there is no oxygen available for re-uptake. The higher the myoglobin concentration in cetacean skeletal muscle, the longer they can stay underwater and forage.
Increased body size is another way of elongating dive duration of large cetaceans. This is true because of two considered aspects. An increase in body size means that there is increase in muscle mass, therefore, increase in muscle oxygen stores. Another aspect is the universal correlation of mass and metabolic rate (Kleiber's law). In layman’s terms, Kleiber’s law states that the metabolic rate of a large animal is slower than a small animal per unit mass. From this we can conclude that larger animals will use up less oxygen than smaller animals (per mass unit).
The cetacean's eyes are set well back and to either side of its huge head. This means that cetaceans with pointed 'beaks' (such as dolphins) have good binocular vision forward and downward but others, with blunt heads (such as the Sperm Whale), can see either side but not directly ahead or directly behind. Tear glands secrete greasy tears, which protect the eyes from the salt in the water. Cetaceans also have an almost spherical lens in their eyes, which is most efficient at focusing what little light there is in the deep waters. Cetaceans make up for their generally quite poor vision (with the exception of the dolphin) with excellent hearing.
As with the eyes, the cetacean's ears are also small. Life in the sea accounts for the cetacean's loss of its external ears, whose function is to collect airborne sound waves and focus them in order for them to become strong enough to hear well. However, water is a better conductor of sound than air, so the external ear was no longer needed: it is no more than a tiny hole in the skin, just behind the eye. The inner ear, however, has become so well developed that the cetacean can not only hear sounds dozens of miles away, but it can also discern from which direction the sound comes.
Some cetaceans are capable of echolocation. Many toothed whales emit clicks similar to those in echolocation, but it has not been demonstrated that they echolocate. Mysticeti have little need of echolocation, as they prey upon small fish that would be impractical to locate with echolocation. Some members of Odontoceti, such as dolphins and porpoises, do perform echolocation. These cetaceans use sound in the same way as bats—they emit a sound (called a click), which then bounces off an object and returns to them. From this, cetaceans can discern the size, shape, surface characteristics and movement of the object, as well as how far away it is. With this ability cetaceans can search for, chase and catch fast-swimming prey in total darkness. Echolocation is so advanced in most Odontoceti that they can distinguish between prey and non-prey (such as humans or boats); captive cetaceans can be trained to distinguish between, for example, balls of different sizes or shapes.
Cetaceans also use sound to communicate, whether it be groans, moans, whistles, clicks or the complex 'singing' of the Humpback Whale.
When it comes to food and feeding, cetaceans can be separated into two distinct groups. The toothed whales, Odontoceti like the Sperm Whale, Beluga, dolphins and porpoises, usually have lots of teeth that they use for catching fish, squid or other marine life. They do not chew their food, but swallow it whole. In the rare cases that they catch large prey, as when the Orca (Orcinus orca) catches a seal, they tear chunks off it that in turn are swallowed whole.
The baleen whales or Mysticeti do not have teeth. Instead they have plates made of keratin (the same substance as human fingernails) which hang down from the upper jaw. These plates act like a giant filter, straining small animals (such as krill and fish) from the seawater. Cetaceans included in this group include the Blue Whale, the Humpback Whale, the Bowhead Whale and the two minke whale species.
Not all Mysticeti feed on plankton: the larger whales tend to eat small shoaling fish, such as herrings and sardines, called micronecton. One species of Mysticeti, the Gray Whale (Eschrichtius robustus), is a benthic feeder, primarily eating sea floor crustaceans.
As mammals, cetaceans have characteristics that are common to all mammals: they are warm-blooded, breathe in air through their lungs, bear their young alive and suckle them on their own milk, and have hair, although very little of it.
Another way of discerning a cetacean from a fish is by the shape of the tail. The tail of a fish is vertical and moves from side to side when the fish swims. The tail of a cetacean—called a fluke—is horizontal and moves up and down, as cetaceans' spines bend in the same manner as a human spine.
The classification here closely follows Dale W. Rice, Marine Mammals of the World: Systematics and Distribution (1998), which has become the standard taxonomy reference in the field. There is very close agreement between this classification and that of Mammal Species of the World: 3rd Edition (Wilson and Reeder eds., 2005). Any differences are noted using the abbreviations "Rice and "MSW3" respectively. Further differences due to recent discoveries are also noted.
Discussion of synonyms and subspecies are relegated to the relevant genus and species articles. | <urn:uuid:ded4d945-c1bb-42d2-94e7-c8974b62ff55> | CC-MAIN-2015-06 | http://www.reference.com/browse/monodon+monoceros | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-06/segments/1422115863063.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20150124161103-00141-ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945224 | 1,966 | 3.828125 | 4 |
Fire Prevention Week October 7-13, 2018
Please remember to follow the steps below and everyone working together can save countless amounts of lives
Every year, thousands of people die in fires because they ignore safe practices.
Please remember, taking steps to prevent a fire saves a life. Life is precious and we only have one chance at it.
Below are a list of safety practices to help prevent a fire or if a fire is started, how to get to safety:
1. Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors
It is recommended to have smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors placed near all bedrooms, hallways, and each level of the house.
Smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors should be tested on a monthly basis. Battery powered detectors should have a battery replacement every 6 months.
We encourage people to change their batteries out with the change of clocks in October and April.
2. Escape Plan
Develop an escape plan and review with with everyone in your household or business. Practice the plan at least once a month and everyone should gather at the designated rendezvous or meeting spot.
During the practice, everyone should stay low as if there is smoke in the house. During a fire, there is a lot of smoke and smoke will rise to the ceiling.
Staying low will help you breathe easier until you reach outside.
In case of a real fire, once outside, NO ONE should got back into the house or business for any reason until the fire is completely extinguished and the officer in charge gives permission.
3. Fire Extinguishers
It is recommended to have multi-purpose fire extinguishers (Class ABC) should be available in the kitchen and each floor of the residence/business building.
Fire Extinguishers should be inspected by a qualified technician prior to expiration.
4. Candle Safety
Make sure any actively burning candles are kept away from children and pets.
If you have to travel, make sure to extinguished the candles before leaving the residence/business building.
Also, any wood log fire place or wood stove should be extinguished if no one is around to watch it.
A lot of building fires nationwide are due to candles and wood stoves left burning with no supervision.
5. Cook safely
Never leave cooking food unattended, whether if its in the oven or on the stove top.
Make sure all pan handles are turn inward so you do not bump into it or allowing kids to grab them.
Always educate your kids to stay away from the cooking area to prevent them getting hurt as well as starting a fire.
If a grease fire would start, never throw water onto it. Always place the lid over the pot/pan and if this is not feasible, use baking soda to extinguish it.
6. Electricity Safety Practice and Appliances
Never leave any appliances on unattended. They are machines and they can have defect that could potentially start a fire.
If there are any doubt that an appliance might have a defect that could possibly start a fire, is smoking, or has an unusual smell, then unplug the appliance then have a qualified service technician inspect and repair the appliance.
If you have more than two electrical items in an area and not enough receptacles, use an appropriate surge protector.
Fires from outlets usually start from people using multi-plugs in one outlet and overloads the circuit causing wires to melt and eventually ignite any combustible agent.
7. Matches and Lighters
Remember that matches and lighters are not toys. Please keep out the reach of children and educate your children that they are not to be played with at all.
Tell them if someone leaves a lighter or matches out, do not to touch them and tell an adult immediately. Instruct your children to get an adult if they see another child playing with matches or a lighter.
8. Burn treatment
There are 3 types of burns: 1ST degree (superficial) burn which consist of red skin to the area. Sunburn is a 1ST degree burn. Run cool water continuously over the burn for at least 15 minutes.
DO NOT USE BURN OINTMENT, BUTTER, OR OTHER CREAMS AND OINTMENTS because the oils will trap the heat in the skin making the burn worse. DO NOT USE ICE because it will not allow the heat to escape from the skin making the burn worse.
2ND degree (partial thickness) burn has a white, glossy look to the burn with blisters; could leak some drainage. Seek medical attention immediately.
3RD degree (full thickness) burn will have a "black" color characteristic to it. Seek medical attention immediately.
9. Stop, Drop, and Roll
If you would catch on fire, STOP what you are doing (if you run it will make the fire bigger), DROP to the ground and cover your face with your hand, and ROLL on the ground until the fire is out. | <urn:uuid:c4925a81-24fa-4ad7-be42-57eea4f5c2ab> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | http://smockvfd.org/custom.html?id=16401 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030336921.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001195125-20221001225125-00438.warc.gz | en | 0.942647 | 1,006 | 3.34375 | 3 |
As you mow your lawn, it's simple to see areas where the mower's blades can't reach, such as right along your fence lines. Clearing fence lines of weeds, grass and other plants requires using the correct tools for the job. Those tools depend on what grows beside the fence and how long it has been there. Using more than one tool may be necessary to finish the job properly.
Hand tools provide simple ways to do the work at a low cost when the fence lines are in small areas or only a few spots need clearing. Using a hoe, shovel or spade, for example, allows you to dig under grass and weeds that grow too close to fences; digging up those plants leads to clean lines along the fences. Depending on how badly the fence lines are overgrown, a shovel, in particular, can work well with small weeds as well as brushy and small saplings. A garden rake helps with removing the dug-up vegetation and creating convenient piles of it to transfer to your compost pile or dispose of in lawn bags.
Power tools make quick work of clearing overgrown grass and weeds. A weed trimmer creates even lines that can make it look as if you mowed right up to the fence lines. The downside, however, is that the weed trimmer's string or blades can hit the fencing, wearing out the string or blades, or breaking them often. Tilling the soil along fence lines breaks up vegetation growing there, often separating roots from the rest of the plants. Extreme overgrowth may require the use of a chainsaw to remove large plants and saplings; digging out the resulting stumps with a shovel creates a flat surface along the fence lines.
Chemical and organic herbicides will kill weeds, grass and other plants marring the appearance of fence lines. Non-selective herbicides such as those containing glyphosate work when sprayed directly onto plants intended to be killed. In order to kill weeds and grass naturally, pour a mixture of 2 cups of boiling water and 1 cup of table salt on them; however, the salt will change the soil's chemistry and prevent many plants from growing in the soil in the future. After the weeds and grass die, pull them by hand or dig them up to give your fence lines a clean look.
After you remove the unwanted plants, using a few tools can help you keep the fence lines clear. If necessary, dig out all remaining vegetation at least 6 inches from each side of the fence to expose the soil. Lining the soil with landscape fabric or black plastic secured with landscape staples helps to prevent weeds from growing. Covering the landscape fabric with mulch creates a finished look and adds a layer of protection against weeds.
- Vinyl Fence Co.: Four Tips for Safe Power Equipment Use in Your Back Yard
- This Old House: Taming a String-Eating Fence
- Today's Homeowner with Danny Lipford: How to Control Weeds in Your Lawn
- Pleasant Valley Conservancy: Weeds and Weed Control at Pleasant Valley Conservancy
- Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation: Brush Control Options in Fence Lines
- Reader's Digest, Extraordinary Uses for Ordinary Things: 11 Ways to Kill Garden Weeds
- Sunset: Use Landscape Fabric
- Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images | <urn:uuid:1353a98d-9f56-442b-9479-2c1392598fe5> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://homeguides.sfgate.com/tools-clearing-fence-lines-83623.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988718285.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183838-00276-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912542 | 672 | 2.921875 | 3 |
We all know the signs of aging – starting with a few wrinkles showing up at the corner of the eyes and a few grays hairs popping up here and there, followed by back arch and knee pain. Pretty soon, you find yourself searching for names when staring at a familiar face. Have you ever wondered how scientists measure aging?
One of the biological markers for aging is telomere, a short sequence of DNA capping the end of our DNA strands. Similar to the plastic tips of shoelaces, telomere protects chromosomes from deterioration. As a cell ages, its telomeres naturally shorten and fray. Shortened telomeres are associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes and major cancers. Scientists now know that telomere shortens naturally after each cell replication cycle. However, numerous researches have suggested that health and lifestyle factors, such as obesity and smoking, may accelerate that process.
In a study, publishing in the American Journal of Epidemiology, scientists from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine reported that elderly women with low physical activity and sedentary lifestyle have cells that are biologically older by eight years compared to women who are less sedentary. 1,500 women, ages 64 to 9, participated in the study. The women are part of the larger Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a national, longitudinal study investigating the determinants of chronic diseases in postmenopausal women. The participants completed questionnaires and wore an accelerometer on their right hip for seven consecutive days during waking and sleeping hours to track their movements.
The researchers found that elderly women with less than 40 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day and who remain sedentary for more than 10 hours per day have shorter telomeres. The researchers further found that women who sat longer did not have shorter telomere length if they exercised for at least 30 minutes a day, the national recommended guideline. The study concluded that cells age faster with a sedentary lifestyle and that chronological age doesn’t always match biological age.
So what’s the take home message? Next time when someone comments –“wow, you look younger than your age,” tell him “I worked for it!”
Thanks for reading!
Journal Reference: Aladdin H. Shadyab et al. Associations of Accelerometer-Measured and Self-Reported Sedentary Time With Leukocyte Telomere Length in Older Women. American Journal of Epidemiology, January 2017 DOI: 10.1093/aje/kww196
About SGC:SGC is an R&D focused developer of nutraceutical and pharmaceutical gummy products. The company specializes in formulating Functional Gummy® products combining the wealth of the in-house knowledge in pharmaceutics, chemistry, western medicine and herbal medicine. The company provides performance gummies® inspired by Traditional Chinese Medicine including MOCCA SHOTS™, ENERGON QUBE™, FUNTIONAL FRUIT®, and SEATTLE BEAUTY®. | <urn:uuid:b29f3c9f-1b3c-4c1f-a85e-1b1da11ad1df> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://seattlegummy.com/blog/exercise-and-get-young/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679101779.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20231210092457-20231210122457-00509.warc.gz | en | 0.927531 | 623 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Why Role-Playing is in our Core Curriculum We discussed the importance of role-playing and how that helps develop a child’s learning here. For those who did not have the chance to read through the post, I would encourage you to do that when you get a chance. If you prefer a short video to highlight […]
Posts tagged "Creative Thinking"
What’s Emphasised In School Many schools prioritise imparting knowledge and memorisation over critical and creative thinking. However, the need to think critically, to obtain, understand, analyze and share information is ever increasing today. What Most Schools Are Missing Out On Children need to be encouraged to express their curiosity from young. Successful “genius” asks creative questions […]Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, holistic education | <urn:uuid:4c3fddf5-abfb-4fd1-a746-fd490b4e1598> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | http://scholar-base.com/tag/creative-thinking/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334974.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927002241-20220927032241-00649.warc.gz | en | 0.942482 | 164 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Anyone needing an established definition for "cryptocurrency," "blockchain" or "ICO" now has a trusted resource: the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. On March 5, 2018, Merriam-Webster announced the addition of 850 new words, phrases and new meanings for existing words to merriam-webster.com and to the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary print edition.
We added 850 new words to the dictionary! https://t.co/eyYWKHKzk7
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) March 5, 2018
Interestingly for cryptocurrency enthusiasts, out of all 850 new words and phrases such as "dumpster fire," “glamping,” “welp,” and "life hack," the Bitcoin logo took center stage on both Merriam-Webster’s main tweet and its website announcement about the new dictionary entries. The website also features this statement just above the words "'Cryptocurrency' is now in the dictionary" and the Bitcoin logo:
The language doesn't take a vacation, and neither does the dictionary. The words we use are constantly changing in big ways and small, and we're here to record those changes. Each word has taken its own path in its own time to become part of our language — to be used frequently enough by some in order to be placed in a reference for all. If you're likely to encounter a word in the wild, whether in the news, a restaurant menu, a tech update or a Twitter meme, that word belongs in the dictionary.
Emily Brewster, associate editor at Merriam-Webster, stated, “In order for a word to be added to the dictionary it must have widespread, sustained and meaningful use. These new words have been added to the dictionary because they have become established members of the English language and are terms people are likely to encounter.” The addition to the Merriam-Webster dictionary of the words cryptocurrency, blockchain and ICO seem to fit those criteria well.
cryptocurrency noun cryp·to·cur·ren·cy ˌkrip-tō-ˈkər-ən(t)-sē , -ˈkə-rən(t)-sē : any form of currency that only exists digitally, that usually has no central issuing or regulating authority but instead uses a decentralized system to record transactions and manage the issuance of new units, and that relies on cryptography to prevent counterfeiting and fraudulent transactions. First Known Use: 1990
blockchain noun block·chain ˈbläk-ˌchān : a digital database containing information (such as records of financial transactions) that can be simultaneously used and shared within a large decentralized, publicly accessible network; also : the technology used to create such a database. First Known Use: 2011
ICO noun ˈī-ˈsē-ˈō : an initial offering of a cryptocurrency to the public : initial coin offering. First Known Use: 2014
Bitcoin was added to the dictionary in April of 2016.
The dictionary's editors added two other words that describe how money is organized and distributed: "microcredit" and "microfinance." Other new entries include previously existing words with additional new meanings, such as the venture capital term "unicorn" (noun used figuratively to mean a startup valued at $1+ billion); the psychophysical word "bandwidth" (noun used figuratively to mean "emotional or mental capacity"); and the web-centric words "case-sensitive" and "subtweet."
There were some tongue-in-cheek comments on the Twitter announcement, including "GenZ hijacking language and grammar, while the adults still think they are in control of the narrative;" "The damnable youths seek to corrupt the invaluable and inviolable institution of tongue to their own devices;" and "Didn't add covfefe?"
Merriam-Webster has not yet released a full list of the new words and phrases, though "HODL" is not included in the current update. | <urn:uuid:85d33773-fb12-4d47-bb94-092e76fbd209> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/cryptocurrency-blockchain-and-ico-make-their-merriam-webster-dictionary-debut | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323585121.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20211017052025-20211017082025-00175.warc.gz | en | 0.928718 | 862 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Although per capita consumption of fluid milk has been declining for more than 40 years, the use of dairy ingredients in all types of beverages continues to grow. This is in part due to dairy’s healthful halo, as many of the ingredients contribute protein and essential vitamins and minerals, most notably calcium.
Depending on the beverage and the production process, either fresh fluid dairy, such as milk and cream, or concentrated dry dairy ingredients may be used. The benefit to using the latter is the beverage may typically be produced in a non-Grade-A fluid dairy manufacturing plant. Such facilities are a requirement for the processing of raw fluid milk.
The Grade-A plants necessitate a license to process milk. They also must be compliant with the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (P.M.O.), which is published by the Food and Drug Administration. The P.M.O. provides minimum standards and requirements to ensure the quality and safety of all fluid milk products that are shipped interstate.
When dry dairy ingredients are used instead of raw fluid milk or cream, neither a license nor P.M.O. compliance is required. As with any rule, there are exceptions. If a beverage is formulated to contain more than 65% milk ingredients and 2% protein, then it is regulated under the P.M.O. There are some products excluded from the regulation, including infant formula, dietary products such as meal replacement shakes, and coffee and tea-based beverages.
Some marketers pride themselves on using fresh dairy in their beverages and will even tout inclusion with such packaging claims as “made with real milk.” Other marketers find dry dairy ingredients are easier to transport and store, as compared to fresh milk and cream. The dried forms provide year-round availability and consistency and are produced to specification. They are designed for easy hydration, with blenders usually willing to combine multiple dry beverage ingredients to simplify the manufacturing process and eliminate human error.
Understanding ingredient variations
Dry dairy ingredients vary in their protein (casein and whey), carbohydrate, fat and mineral composition, and this influences their functional and nutritional contribution to beverages. They may be divided into three groups: milk, casein and whey.
“Caseins and whey proteins have very different structures and physical properties,” said Kimberlee Burrington, dairy ingredient applications coordinator, Center for Dairy Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Processing techniques have been developed to modify the composition of milk according to the unique characteristics of its components. These processes have given the dairy industry the ability to make a wide variety of dairy ingredients manufactured from milk. Some of these processes involve the use of filtration methods that can separate milk according to the molecular weight of its components.”
Dry milk ingredients are made from fresh fluid milk. They contain casein and whey proteins in the same ratio as fluid milk, which is 80% casein and 20% whey proteins. What varies is the concentration of non-protein solids. The category includes nonfat dry milk, whole milk powder, dried cream, milk protein concentrates and milk protein isolates. With many of these dried ingredients, lactose-free versions are available.
Nonfat dry milk is the most basic dry milk ingredient available to formulators. As the name suggests, it is nonfat milk, also known as skim, which has been dried into a powder. Whole milk powder and dried cream contain milkfat and provide a richness that is not possible with nonfat dry milk.
Milk protein concentrates and milk protein isolates are both relatively new ingredients made possible through the use of ultrafiltration. The technology concentrates the protein, yielding ingredients with protein contents up to 90%
Casein vs. whey
The category of casein ingredients include caseinates, casein hydrolysates and micellar casein. Their primary use in beverages historically has been to assist with foaming and emulsification, as well as to add protein. Most casein-based ingredients cannot be used in acidic beverages because casein will precipitate at pH
4.5 to 5.5.
Whey ingredients include whey protein concentrates, whey protein isolates, whey powders and whey protein hydrolysates. Whey ingredients tend to be stable over a wide range of pH.
Unlike whey proteins, which are separated from milk during cheese manufacturing, and then made into ingredients, casein ingredients must be physically separated from milk. This may be an expensive process and for long, was not common in the United States. In fact, most casein ingredients historically have been imported into the states, rendering them cost prohibitive for applications other than those intended for the body builder market.
This has changed with the advent of microfiltration.
“Microfiltration enables the fractionation of caseins and whey proteins from milk,” Ms. Burrington said. “Caseins are larger in molecular weight than the majority of whey proteins. They are retained in the membrane and referred to as the ‘retentate.’ The smaller molecules that pass through the membrane become the ‘permeate.’”
The retentate fraction contains casein and commonly is referred to as micellar casein, while the permeate fraction contains whey proteins. To differentiate from whey obtained via cheesemaking, whey proteins obtained via microfiltration of milk are often referred to as native whey, serum proteins or milk-derived whey.
“Manufacture of micellar casein concentrates produces a range of compositions depending on the amount of milk-derived whey protein removed,” Ms. Burrington said. “Further concentration and diafiltration can increase the total protein and decrease the amount of lactose in the final ingredient. Micellar casein concentrates provide notable nutritional benefits and are an excellent source of all essential amino acids and calcium.”
They may also withstand the high temperatures encountered during retort beverage processing.
One of the most significant differences between milk-derived whey protein ingredients and those derived from cheese whey is the fat content.
“The microfiltration process retains milkfat in the retentate, yielding a whey ingredient that is essentially free of fat,” Ms. Burrington said.
Alternatively, cheese-whey-derived ingredients contain up to 7% fat. The lack of fat in milk-derived whey proteins impacts functionality, flavor and appearance, and all in a positive way in regards to use in beverages.
Because whey and casein have different but complementary effects on the body — both are excellent sources of the essential amino acids, but whey is a fast-digesting protein and casein is a slow-digesting protein — many formulators want to include both in functional beverages. Both micellular casein and milk-derived whey are rather new ingredients and have opened the door to innovative beverage applications.
Recent beverage innovations
Beverage manufacturers are embracing both fluid and dry dairy ingredients, sometimes in the same product.
For example, Starbucks Corp., Seattle, is growing its Doubleshot line with Coffee & Protein. Each 11-oz can provides 20 grams of protein that comes from reduced-fat milk, skim milk, milk protein concentrate and calcium caseinate. It comes in coffee, dark chocolate and vanilla bean varieties.
Some products are blending proteins. Starbucks’ Evolution Fresh line of cold-pressed juices includes Protein Power, a blend of orange juice, apple juice and mango puree with whey protein concentrate and soy protein isolate. Like all Evolution Fresh beverages, the variety is made using high-pressure processing instead of pasteurization, which helps preserve the flavor and nutrition of the fruit ingredients and ensure protein integrity.
Less than a year ago, Campbell Soup Co., Camden, N.J, entered the protein beverage category with V8 Protein Shakes. The iconic vegetable juice brand strayed from its vegan image by including milk protein concentrate in the protein blend, which also includes soy protein isolate, pea protein isolate, whole grain brown rice protein concentrate and quinoa flour.
Others prefer fresh milk ingredients. For example, WhiteWave Foods, Boulder, Colo., is introducing International Delight Chai Tea Latte. Available in caramel chai and vanilla chai varieties, the lattes start with a base of brewed black tea to which fluid skim milk and cream are added.
The Hain Celestial Group Inc., Lake Success, N.Y., also is entering the ready-to-drink chai latte category. The company just started rolling out four on-trend flavors of shelf-stable Celestial Lattes. Made with 2% milk, Celestial Lattes provide barista-quality beverages brimming with the healthfulness of brewed tea.
There are four varieties. Dirty chai is chai spiked with espresso. The Godfather builds on the formulation through the addition of a layer of cocoa flavor. Mountain chai is simply a traditional chai featuring the flavors of ginger, cardamom and cloves, while matcha green is a smooth blend of brewed green tea and traditional matcha.
Nestle USA Inc., Glendale, Calif., is all about the use of fluid milk in its Skinny Cow Creamy Iced Coffee Drink line. Described as “rich, expertly roasted coffee folded into creamy, velvety dairy heaven and then whipped, not once, not twice but three times to deliver a uniquely thick and indulgent smooth coffee beverage,” the new line comes in three flavors: creamy cappuccino, mocha latte and vanilla latte. Reduced-fat milk is the No. 1 ingredient in the shelf-stable beverage.
Dairy ingredients are even making their way into energy drinks. Rockstar Inc., Las Vegas, introduced a non-carbonated Rockstar Energy Horchata Dairy Beverage. Made with whole milk and nonfat milk, the drink gets energized from the brand’s proprietary energy blend of caffeine, ginseng, guarana, inositol,
L-carnitine and taurine.
As the dairy industry refines and identifies technologies to make more functional and nutritional dairy ingredients, it is likely that new beverage concepts will enter the marketplace.
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A thousand coffee table books and countless hours of popular history programs have described the Battle of Prokhorovka, part of the Third Reich’s 1943 Operation Citadel, as the largest tank battle in history. Near the city of Kursk on the Eastern Front, hundreds of Soviet tanks slammed into the 2nd SS Panzer Corps in an enormous conflagration of flesh and metal.
Prokhorovka was certainly an important clash and one of the largest tank battles ever, but it might be time to retire its description as the biggest — a claim which has been seriously questioned in recent years by historians with access to Soviet archives opened since the end of the Cold War.
In fact, there’s a strong case that history’s largest tank battle actually took place two years prior and is largely unknown.
Prokhorovka was the centerpiece of Citadel, the last German strategic offensive on the Eastern Front. On July 12, 1943, counter-attacking Soviet tanks charged across open terrain, taking heavy losses to German tank fire, including from heavily-armored Tiger Is with 88-millimeter guns.
This particular engagement was a tactical defeat for the Soviets, but the charge inflicted enough damage to help stall — and eventually halt — the German army’s Citadel offensive.
So, how many tanks were at Prokhorovka? To be sure, not the common popular figures which range as high as 1,500 tanks in total, according to the 2011 book Demolishing the Myth: The Tank Battle at Prokhorovka, Kursk, July 1943 by Valeriy Zamulin, a Russian military historian and former staff member at the Prokhorovka State Battlefield Museum.
The actual number was 978 tanks in total — 306 German and 672 Soviet, according to Zamulin. As many as 400 Soviet and 80 German tanks were destroyed.
Expanding the battle beyond Prokhorovka, the total number of tanks fielded by the 2nd SS Panzer Corps and the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army at and near the battle amounted to 1,299, according to a statistical analysis published in 2000 by Niklas Zetterling and Anders Frankson.
Expanding the number to encompass all of Operation Citadel would include many more tanks. But they were not concentrated and committed in the same numbers as at the Battle of Brody, which hardly anyone has written about.
That’s also according to Zamulin and David Glantz, a historian of the Eastern Front and Soviet military. “This, in fact, is the biggest tank battle in World War II,” Glantz said regarding the Battle of Brody during a 2007 lecture available via the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center.
Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. Beginning on June 23 between Dubno, Lutsk and Brody in far western Ukraine, six Soviet mechanized corps under Gen. Mikhail Kirponos launched a counter attack into the advancing 1st Panzer Group advancing toward Kiev.
The battle which developed and then concluded on June 30 was a confusing morass that swallowed 2,648 Soviet tanks out of a total force of 5,000 versus some 1,000 German tanks. It’s unclear how many tanks of the 1st Panzer Group were destroyed in the battle, but the force did lose 100 of its tanks during the first two weeks of the war.
Making sense of the chaotic battle on available maps is … difficult. The six Soviet corps were disorganized and lacked enough trucks and tractors to transport infantry, howitzers and supplies, and their attacks were uncoordinated. German warplanes bombed them incessantly, and fast-moving Panzer divisions with coordinated artillery support chopped them apart.
What’s all the more remarkable is that the Soviet corps had considerable numbers of heavier KV and T-34 tanks, tougher than the German army’s best tanks at the time.
The Soviet 10th Tank Division of the 15th Mechanized Corps alone had 63 KVs and 38 T-34s, according to Glantz’s book The Initial Period of War on the Eastern Front. However, lightly-armed BT and T-26 tanks comprised the bulk of the Soviet force.
By June 29, 1941, as the advancing German tanks encircled and annihilated the Soviet units, with others falling back, “the battles the Soviets were still waging elsewhere were now battles more for survival than anything else,” Glantz wrote, “because at this point the Soviets began running out of fuel and ammunition.”
There were some limited Soviet successes. When the 13th Panzer Division advanced on Rovno, Gen. Konstantin Rokossovsky of the 9th Mechanized Corps — who would become one of the USSR’s most famous commanders — bombarded it with artillery and inflicted a heavy loss of life. Rokossovsky had actually set up the ambush after ignoring an order to continue counter-attacking, deeming it pointless.
Glantz also noted in When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler that the battle contributed in a small way to Germany’s later defeat on the Eastern Front by drawing away German troops intended for the advance on Moscow.
The USSR went on to inflict a major defeat on Germany during the Moscow counter-offensive during the winter of 1941–1942, closing the door on the Germans ending the war on the terms Hitler set out. The later Battle of Stalingrad in 1942–1943 ended the possibility of German victory completely.
“The southwestern border battles also demonstrated that German armor was not invincible, and they gave future commanders such as Rokossovsky their first expensive but useful lessons in mechanized warfare,” Glantz wrote.
But it was at a terrible cost.
This first appeared in WarIsBoring here.
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History of the Republic of Venice in Greece
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Greece didn’t always look the way it does today, and in fact, has had a long road. In Ancient Greece, the Greek-speaking region was separated into a number of small city-states. After that, Greece was part of the Byzantine Empire, and sometime after that, parts of Greece were ruled by the Republic of Venice. Aside from the fact that there are Venetian fortresses located throughout Greece, it’s easy to forget that they had a part in Greece’s history. Here’s more information about the role the Republic of Venice played in the history of Greece:
All About the Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice, most commonly referred to as the Most Serene Republic of Venice, went on from 697 to 1797. It originated in the area where modern-day Venice is located today in the northeastern portion of Italy. The area around Venice is characterized by its many lagoons, and the city originally sprung up as these communities formed an alliance that would help strengthen them against foreign invaders, such as the Huns. Over time, they got stronger and expanded their borders considerably and owned territory all over the world, including Greece. They were also considered to be an economic powerhouse and were involved in trade.
Stato da Mar and Venice’s Presence in Greece
For the first few hundred years of its existence, the Republic of Venice really didn’t have any overseas holdings. In around 1000 A.D., however, they began to acquire different maritime and overseas holdings, which were referred to as Stato do Mar. These holdings included Istria, Dalmatia, Albania, Negroponte, the Kingdom of Morea, which is now called the Peloponnese in Greece, Duchy of the Archipelago, which is located in the Aegean Sea in Greece, and the Kingdom of Candia, which is the modern-day island of Crete, and of course, the area that is now the modern city of Venice. Many of these holdings came about during various stages of the Republic of Venice’s long history.
Evidence of the Republic of Venice Located Throughout Greece
Specifically in Greece, the Venetians at one time controlled various places in Greece including the Peloponnese, Crete, Corfu, Lefkas, Zakynthos, Cephalonia, Ithaca, Tinos, Mykonos, and several places in mainland Greece besides the Peloponnese, including Argos, Parga, and even Athens for a short time. When you visit any of these places, it is impossible not to find evidence of their existence. For instance, the Venetian Fortress at Spinalonga Island on Crete houses an immense castle. There is also a large Venetian castle looming over the seaside town of Parga, which is located in Northern Greece.
When thinking of Greek history, it’s important to remember that the Venetians had a presence here. The Republic of Venice enjoyed a long period of control from its inception in 697 A.D. up until it fell to Napolean Bonaparte in 1797. Venice itself in Italy is still a beautiful, thriving city and the many fortresses they built throughout the world, including in Greece, are still standing today.
Categorized in: Ancient Greek History
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You can find the course material for Calculus online. It would help you to read about it on the websites of the professors in your Calculus department. These are all part of preparing for your exam. Do some basic reading about this subject first. The more you know the better will be your chances of doing well on the exam.
There are many different kinds of exams that Calculus students have to pass. Some of these include the test for the Master’s degree in Calculus. This is the most common exam in Calculus.
If you have a grasp of the basic information about Calculus then you can already begin practicing your solution to problems. This may be a bit difficult at first since Calculus is an extremely complex subject. You need to practice on the problem solving method before you can actually try to use that on the Calculus exam.
There are many different calculators available today. You can get hold of a good graphing calculator if you want to. These can help you solve the different problems that are presented by your Calculus exams. Once you have used your calculator successfully, you should write down the result that you got.
You should also write down the different equations and their solutions in case you have a question. This way, you will know what you should do when you get stuck.
After the Calculus exam has been passed, you should try to understand the kind of questions that are asked on the exam. These are very specific. You need to really understand the questions so that you can give the right answer. This is the time where you will learn how to think properly and how to get the answers right. without being wrong.
There are also different calculators that you can use in order to make your math more convenient for you. These calculators are very useful in helping you to do the Calculus. problems at a faster rate. The calculators that have formulas will help you calculate the different functions and their derivatives at a much quicker rate.
The Calculus exam can be very tough if you are not very familiar with the different kinds of Calculus. You need to understand the different parts of Calculus before you take the exam because there are several parts to Calculus.
You will need to understand how to solve the problems with respect to different parts of Calculus in order to do well on the exam. If you have a strong grasp of the different parts then you will be able to solve problems much faster.
You should also prepare yourself mentally before taking the exam. The exam will take longer if you are tense and worried. It is much easier to fail the exam if you are anxious about it than if you are prepared for it.
If you are prepared for the difficult questions, then the exam will be easier. You will be prepared mentally and be able to solve the exam much more quickly. That is because you will be ready to handle all the difficulties that may come up during the exam.
If you study hard and practice with your calculator, then you can do very well on the Calculus exam. Remember that it is not the type of question that you answer that counts, but how you are able to solve the Calculus problems. | <urn:uuid:71cc9a35-20ae-4ce9-b5c0-e3ac3869544d> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://workmyexam.com/how-to-do-well-on-the-calculus-exams/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510888.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20231001105617-20231001135617-00530.warc.gz | en | 0.965207 | 649 | 2.75 | 3 |
Climate mitigation takes root
A guest blog by ‘Aulani Wilhelm of Conservation International
If there is a last line of defence against climate change, it may well lie in the mangrove trees that cling to coastlines throughout the tropics.
Locked in the mud of these unique tidal forests is thousands of years’ worth of accumulated carbon. Clear the mangroves — as humanity has been doing ever faster in recent years — and that carbon is slowly released into the atmosphere, where it accelerates global warming.
Fast-growing and incomparably capable of storing carbon in their soils, mangroves thrive in salty waters, where their hearty root systems form a barrier against erosion and provide a haven for wildlife. Communities that live among healthy mangroves benefit immeasurably from the upsides that mangroves provide — from acting as buffers against waves and storms to providing a nursery for fish, crab and clam species that are crucial parts of coastal diets and livelihoods.
Yet in the battle to prevent the worst effects of climate change, this last line of defence is thinning.
Barely half of the world’s original mangroves remain, most of them having been cleared in the past half-century for farms and other development. The short-term payoff of clearing a stretch of mangroves pales next to the impact on the climate: The carbon footprint of a steak and shrimp dinner — were it to come from shrimp farms and pasture formerly occupied by mangroves — is the same as driving a small car across the continental United States, a recent study found.
Luckily, local efforts to protect these habitats — and other marine and coastal wetlands including seagrasses and salt marshes, collectively known as “blue carbon” ecosystems — have taken root. In northern Brazil, for example, Conservation International is assisting a local community in protecting its mangrove forests through sustainable crab-fishing cooperatives, which have doubled workers’ income in just a year.
Unfortunately, local conservation efforts are on their own not enough to turn the tide. Until the global community understands the full value of mangroves to humanity, these trees will continue to be felled for short-term gain. We have to make it worth it to invest in protecting these areas.
Changing the business model
On the mangrove-rich Caribbean coast of Colombia, Conservation International is working to do just this. Later this year, a mangrove conservation project here will become the first-ever blue carbon initiative to be issued carbon offsets under the widely adopted Verified Carbon Standard.
What this means, simply put, is that commitments made to keep these mangrove forests intact can be purchased and traded on the global market to compensate for carbon emissions made elsewhere in the world. As public pressure grows on companies to account for their impacts on nature, carbon offsets — in short, nature itself — can become a larger part of the solution.
Up to now, mangroves have been underused in international carbon markets compared with terrestrial forests, despite the fact that they can store up to 10 times more carbon per hectare than terrestrial forest. Broadening these projects to include more mangroves provides a bigger climate mitigation impact, while offering more climate adaptation benefits through economic incentives that can be used to protect coastal communities who stand to lose the most due to sea-level rise.
The stability of our climate is being protected by a thin green line. We cannot afford to lose it.
Aulani Wilhelm is the Senior Vice President of Conservation International’s Center for Oceans, which aims to protect the marine resources that people rely on for food, livelihoods and culture. She helped lead the designation of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and World Heritage site, one of the largest protected areas on Earth and first of its kind to honor indigenous relationships to the sea and the importance of global ocean heritage.
She is Chair of the IUCN-WCPA Large-Scale Marine Protected Area Task Force and holds an MS from Stanford University and a BA from the University of Southern California. | <urn:uuid:e91abe1b-6be2-487f-ad7e-b61d633ebd0f> | CC-MAIN-2019-47 | https://www.woi.economist.com/climate-mitigation-takes-root/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-47/segments/1573496670135.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20191119093744-20191119121744-00119.warc.gz | en | 0.947861 | 844 | 3.453125 | 3 |
The PSAT stands for preliminary SAT. It is good practice for the SAT, which contains the same type of questions. The PSAT tests critical reading, math problem solving, and writing skills.
Your teenager should sit for the PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) exam in sophomore year of high school. The practice exam builds confidence, and gives feedback on areas of strength and weakness which helps when studying for the SAT exam. Scores from the PSAT exam taken in sophomore year do not count for the National Merit Scholarships. Only the scores from junior year count toward National Merit Scholarships. It is also the qualifying test for the National Scholarship Service and National Hispanic Recognition Program. The exam is given at your teen’s high school in October. Check with the high school for the exact date. When your teen fills out the test sheet, he/she should check the box that releases his/her name to colleges. The colleges will begin to send their brochures to your teen.
Why should your teen study for the exam? The better question is, why not? The PSAT exam is very similar to the SAT exam. Both test critical reading, math problem solving, and writing skills. By studying before the PSAT exam your teen has a better chance of scoring well which could lead to qualifying as a National Merit Scholar. A high score will gain the attention of competitive colleges and better the chances of qualifying for a merit scholarship. It also allows your teen an opportunity to determine if the SAT is the appropriate exam to take or whether he/she should concentrate on preparing for the ACT exam.
The best time to study for the exam is the summer between sophomore and junior year of high school. Your teen will have an opportunity to delve into the exam in-depth without the added pressure of school work. There are many different types of study programs available. You will find one-on-one coaches, group programs, and online programs. Additionally, you will find programs offered at colleges and universities as part of a summer scholar program. Prices and quality differ so be diligent when doing your research on the different type of prep programs available. Knowing how your teen studies is an important ingredient in determining which type of program is best suited for your teen. | <urn:uuid:fa1aac6c-dd68-4249-b0a6-7df002b555a8> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://prep4collegenow.com/psat-should-your-teen-study-for-the-exam/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662527626.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20220519105247-20220519135247-00042.warc.gz | en | 0.942036 | 468 | 3.015625 | 3 |
That's because global warming is happening so rapidly, John Holdren told The Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month.
The concept of using technology to purposely cool the climate is called geoengineering. One option raised by Holdren and proposed by a Nobel Prize-winning scientist includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays.
Using such an experimental measure is only being thought of as a last resort, Holdren said.
"It's got to be looked at," he said. "We don't have the luxury ... of ruling any approach off the table."
His concern is that the United States and other nations won't slow global warming fast enough and that several "tipping points" could be fast approaching. Once such milestones are reached, such as complete loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic, it increases chances of "really intolerable consequences," he said.
Twice in a half-hour interview, Holdren compared global warming to being "in a car with bad brakes driving toward a cliff in the fog."
He and many experts believe that warming of a few degrees more would lead to disastrous drought conditions and food shortages in some regions, rising seas and more powerful coastal storms in others.
At first, Holdren characterized the potential need to technologically tinker with the climate as just his personal view. However, he went on to say he has raised it in administration discussions.
"We're talking about all these issues in the White House," Holdren said. "There's a very vigorous process going on of discussing all the options for addressing the energy climate challenge."
Holdren said discussions include Cabinet officials and heads of sub-Cabinet level agencies, such as NASA and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The 65-year-old physicist is far from alone in taking geoengineering seriously. The National Academy of Sciences is making it the subject of the first workshop in its new climate challenges program for policymakers, scientists and the public. The British Parliament has also discussed the idea. At an international meeting of climate scientists last month in Copenhagen, 15 talks dealt with different aspects of geoengineering.
The American Meteorological Society is crafting a policy statement that says "it is prudent to consider geoengineering's potential, to understand its limits and to avoid rash deployment."
Last week, Princeton scientist Robert Socolow told the National Academy that geoengineering should be an available option in case climate worsens dramatically.
Holdren, a 1981 winner of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant, outlined these possible geoengineering options:
The first approach would "try to produce a cooling effect to offset the heating effect of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases," Holdren said.
But he said there could be grave side effects. Studies suggest that might include eating away a large chunk of the ozone layer above the poles and causing the Mediterranean and the Mideast to be much drier.
And those are just the predicted problems. Scientists say they worry about side effects that they don't anticipate.
While the idea could strike some people as too risky, the Obama administration could get unusual support on the idea from groups that have often denied the harm of global warming in the past.
The conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute has its own geoengineering project, saying it could be "feasible and cost-effective." And Cato Institute scholar Jerry Taylor said Wednesday: "Very few people would rule out geoengineering on its face."
Holdren didn't spell out under what circumstances such extreme measures might ever be called for. And he emphasized they are not something to rely on.
"It would be preferable by far," he said, "to solve this problem by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases."
Yet there is already significant opposition building to the House Democratic leaders' bill aimed at achieving President Barack Obama's goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.
Holdren said temperatures should be kept from rising more than 3.6 degrees. To get there, he said the U.S. and other industrial nations have to begin permanent dramatic cuts in carbon dioxide pollution by 2015, with developing countries following suit within a decade.
Those efforts are racing against three tipping points he cited: Earth could be as close as six years away from the loss of Arctic summer sea ice, he said, and that has the potential of altering the climate in unforeseen ways. Other elements that could dramatically speed up climate change include the release of frozen methane from thawing permafrost in Siberia, and more and bigger wildfires worldwide.
The trouble is that no one knows when these things are coming, he said.
Holdren also addressed other topics during the interview:
The administration will "rebalance NASA's programs so that we have in space exploration, a suitable mix of manned activities and robotic activities," Holdren said. Doing that "will only get under way in earnest when a new administrator is in place."
Holdren, who advises the president on such decisions, said he hopes Obama will pick a new NASA boss soon. | <urn:uuid:a3a1f612-e856-4823-a86c-d7517b602b30> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | https://www.cbsnews.com/news/geoengineering-to-fight-global-warming/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818689775.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20170923194310-20170923214310-00488.warc.gz | en | 0.965024 | 1,027 | 3.203125 | 3 |
What are the different stages of endometriosis?
Endometriosis can be classified into *four stages. The American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) bases these stages on the lesions themselves, particularly the number of endometrial implants and their depth. However, the ASRM revised their classification to include a point system. This point system allows for a way to numerically scale the disease and help determine classification. A score of 15 or less indicates minimal or mild disease. A score of 16 or higher may indicate moderate or severe disease. It is important to note that the stage of the disease does not necessarily reflect the level of pain or presence of symptoms.
The stages of endometriosis as classified by the ASRM are:
|Stage I (1-5 points)||
|Stage II (6-15 points)||
|Stage III (16-40 points)||
|Stage IV (>40 points)||
While these are the official numbered stages of endometriosis as identified by the ASRM, the Endometriosis Foundation of America has proposed using more descriptive categories. This is because every numbered stage has so many variations and does not give any insight into the patient’s pain or where lesions can be localized. Therefore, EndoFound classifies endometriosis by its anatomical location within the pelvic and abdominal cavity. They are:
Category I: Peritoneal endometriosis
The most minimal form of endometriosis in which the peritoneum, the membrane that lines the abdomen, is infiltrated with endometriosis tissue.
Category II: Ovarian Endometriomas (Chocolate Cysts):
Endometriosis that is already established within the ovaries. These forms of ovarian cysts are of particular concern due to their risk of breaking and spreading endometriosis within the pelvic cavity.
Category III: Deep Infiltrating Endometriosis I (DIE I)
The first form of deep infiltrating endometriosis involves organs within the pelvic cavity. This can include the ovaries, rectum, uterus, and can even lead to such drastic cases as “frozen pelvis.”
Category IV: Deep Infiltrating Endometriosis II (DIE II)
The other more extreme form of DIE involves organs both WITHIN and OUTSIDE the pelvic cavity. This can include the bowels, appendix, diaphragm, heart, lungs, and even the brain.
These categories are defined by the necessity and complexity of the organs they involve. In other words, due to the complex treatment, various anatomical involvement, and expertise and skill that is to be utilized by different surgeons, EndoFound prefers to use this descriptive classification system.
Patients with diffuse endometriosis, involvement in multiple locations or organs, and severe adhesions are often said to have stage 5 endometriosis. Stage 4 is a score of 40 or higher of the 150 total points in the revised American Society of Reproductive Medicine (rASRM) scoring system (1996). The rASRM has the same scores as its basis, the revised American Fertility Society (rAFS, 1985).
Although there is no official stage 5, Canis et al. (1992) suggested using a revised American Fertility Society (rAFS, 1985) score of >70 as a new stage 5 for endometriosis. This score also represents a severe degree of difficulty of surgery or a low chance of fertility. The rAFS (or rASRM) staging system is the one most used in surgical research. It is useful in comparing the gross appearance at the beginning of surgery and is somewhat predictive of surgical difficulty. But it is not predictive of fertility, pain, the depth of infiltration, or the volume of infiltrating endometriosis.
Adamson and Pasta’s Endometriosis Fertility Index (EFI) (2010) uses a similar rASRM score of ≥ 71 to represent a low chance of pregnancy without in vitro fertilization (IVF). The EFI is used to calculate pregnancy rates following endometriosis surgery. The score is based on the appearance at the end of surgery and is the only scoring system, not a staging system, that predicts fertility accurately. It has been confirmed in multiple publications. Scores of 71 and higher are generally seen only with severe adhesions and fertility generally requires IVF. Adhesions are a type of scar tissue that can block the pathway of the eggs from the ovary to the tube.
- Endometriosis – Morphology, Clinical Presentations and Molecular Pathology, Neha Agarwal, Arulselvi Subramanian
- Revised American Society for Reproductive Medicine classification of endometriosis: 1996, American Society for Reproductive Medicine
- What are the stages of endometriosis?, Tamer Seckin, MD
- Adamson GD & Pasta DJ. Endometriosis fertility index: the new, validated endometriosis staging system. Fertil Steril 2010;94(5):1609–15
- American Fertility Society. Revised American Fertility Society classification of endometriosis 1985. Fertil Steril 43(3):351-352, 1985
- American Society for Reproductive Medicine classification of endometriosis: 1996. Fertil Steril 67(5): 817-21, 1997
- Canis M, Pouly JL, Wattiez A, et al. Incidence of bilateral adnexal disease in severe endometriosis (revised American Fertility Society [AFS], stage IV): should a stage V be included in the AFS classification? Fertil Steril 1992;57:691–692. | <urn:uuid:55c84833-0d5b-4a6e-84cc-9d8d3da8f79a> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://www.endofound.org/stages-of-endometriosis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320303864.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20220122134127-20220122164127-00509.warc.gz | en | 0.901082 | 1,222 | 3.03125 | 3 |
As Germany’s biggest space player, Airbus people make up around half those working in the space industry in Germany – and we are committed to nurturing the wider space eco-system.
At Airbus, we are going to help put the next astronaut on the moon using a spaceship propelled by technology made in Germany. Our satellites monitor the world from above to support daily life on Earth and help protect our planet. Our engineers create and run research facilities in space with focus on the ISS.
Focus on Bremen
Bremen is the European centre of competence for human space flight and space robotics. As a trusted partner of the European Space Agency, our highly-skilled employees are contributing to NASA’s Artemis programme which will put the first woman and next man on the Moon. With Orion’s European Service Module, we are the first European company to build a mission-critical module for a U.S. human space flight mission.
Talking of international endeavours, it is our Bremen teams who make sure that when astronauts are working on European components of the International Space Station (ISS) like the Airbus-built Columbus laboratory, everything runs smoothly. Outside the ISS is also where Airbus’ Bartolomeo platform can be found: offering new opportunities for science and research in space.
Focus on Friedrichshafen
Knowing what’s happening with the weather matters to us all and it is Airbus expertise that helps make this possible. In Friedrichshafen, our engineers are currently developing the second generation of Europe’s MetOp weather satellites – following on from the first MetOps, made by Airbus, which have significantly improved the accuracy of 1 day forecasts.
As a key player in the European Union's Copernicus Earth observation programme, the multispectral satellites for the Sentinel-2 mission, the oceanographic satellites for Sentinel-6 and the radar instrument for Sentinel-1 were all crafted at our site on the banks of Lake Constance. While our lead on the joint European-Japanese BepiColombo mission, currently on its way to Mercury, puts the site at the leading edge of space exploration.
Sentinel - 6A
Recognised as a world leader in radar satellite technology, the TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X satellites made in Friedrichshafen can see through clouds and all-weathers to provide round-the-clock monitoring which are delivered as services to customers globally. And, their successors are in the making! The site is also the birthplace for many unique, zero-gravity research facilities used by astronauts on the ISS.
Satellite imagery and data can help to detect and monitor environmental changes such as floods, droughts or fires. Those satellite imagery and data provided by Airbus’ satellites are being processed, monitored and mapped at our sites in Friedrichshafen and Potsdam.
Focus on Ottobrunn/Taufkirchen
Our aerospace site in Ottobrunn/Taufkirchen, near Munich, has not only shaped the history of cutting-edge technology over the last 60 years, it is also actively shaping the future. Today, our solar array production for satellites marks our entry into the age of Industry 4.0, with the site now boasting the largest clean room for optical satellite integration in Germany.
Airbus’s centre of competence for solar arrays has been equipping spacecraft of every class – for weather observation, environmental monitoring, disaster management, navigation, telecommunications satellites - with these highly efficient ‘power plants’ and delivered more than 300 solar arrays worldwide. Some impressive facts: output from a few hundred watts up to 26 kilowatts, 20,000 solar cells per array, wingspan up to 40 meters, maximum weight 145 kilograms. We also supportcutting-edge research, especially on science satellites, such as the Jupiter mission (JUICE) or missions to the Sun (Solar Orbiter) and Mercury (BepiColombo).
Our Bavarian site is also home to theOptical Instruments clean room where the MERLIN emissions monitoring instrument is being built. This vital Franco-German satellite will measure the methane concentration in Earth’s atmosphere, helping to improve understanding of climate change.
We are also reaching from the stars with the Near Infrared Spectrograph NIRSpec, an instrument capable of detecting the faintest radiation from distant galaxies – made here for use on the U.S. Hubble follow-on, the James Webb Space Telescope.
The SpaceDataHighway provides high-volume data transfer via ultra-broadband laser communications. It enables transfer of time-critical and sensitive information as well as supporting faster and longer access to air and space assets.
Last but not least, site experts in satellite-based navigation help ensures you never get lost on Earth through their work on Galileo und EGNOS. | <urn:uuid:d0923645-723c-4ae4-be63-2ddf07dd48ff> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://www.airbus.com/space/germany.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703531335.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20210122175527-20210122205527-00110.warc.gz | en | 0.901186 | 996 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Sponsor and status
96th Congress (1979–1980)
Enacted — Signed by the President on Jul 17, 1979
This resolution was enacted after being signed by the President on July 17, 1979.
Representative for Florida's 2nd congressional district
Read Text »
Last Updated: Jul 17, 1979
230 Cosponsors (147 Democrats, 82 Republicans, 1 New Progressive)
Jun 5, 1979
Bills and resolutions are referred to committees which debate the bill before possibly sending it on to the whole chamber.
Jul 10, 1979
Passed House (Senate next)
The resolution was passed in a vote in the House. It goes to the Senate next.
Jul 12, 1979
The bill was passed by both chambers in identical form. It goes to the President next who may sign or veto the bill.
Jul 17, 1979
Enacted — Signed by the President
The President signed the bill and it became law.
H.J.Res. 353 (96th) was a joint resolution in the United States Congress.
A joint resolution is often used in the same manner as a bill. If passed by both the House and Senate in identical form and signed by the President, it becomes a law. Joint resolutions are also used to propose amendments to the Constitution.
Resolutions numbers restart every two years. That means there are other resolutions with the number H.J.Res. 353. This is the one from the 96th Congress.
This joint resolution was introduced in the 96th Congress, which met from Jan 15, 1979 to Dec 16, 1980. Legislation not passed by the end of a Congress is cleared from the books.
How to cite this information.
We recommend the following MLA-formatted citation when using the information you see here in academic work:
GovTrack.us. (2023). H.J.Res. 353 — 96th Congress: A joint resolution congratulating the men and women of the Apollo Program upon the tenth …. Retrieved from https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/96/hjres353
“H.J.Res. 353 — 96th Congress: A joint resolution congratulating the men and women of the Apollo Program upon the tenth ….” www.GovTrack.us. 1979. June 5, 2023 <https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/96/hjres353>
A joint resolution congratulating the men and women of the Apollo Program upon the tenth anniversary of the first manned landing on the Moon and requesting the President to proclaim the period of July 16 through 24, 1979, as “United States Space Observance”, Pub. L. No. 96-34, H.R.J. Res. 353, 96th Cong. (1979).
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Where is this information from?
GovTrack automatically collects legislative information from a variety of governmental and non-governmental sources. This page is sourced primarily from Congress.gov, the official portal of the United States Congress. Congress.gov is generally updated one day after events occur, and so legislative activity shown here may be one day behind. Data via the congress project. | <urn:uuid:6371f1e8-d6f3-479a-b6bd-9507718d10ab> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/96/hjres353 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224652161.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20230605185809-20230605215809-00178.warc.gz | en | 0.922561 | 840 | 2.53125 | 3 |
What happens when our recipes combine with our partner’s recipes?
What happens when our recipes combine with our partner’s recipes?
Well, each member of the couple, irrespectively of what their personal combination might be, will find that the other partner may express any of the previously mentioned combinations for any given recipe. Based on these recipes, at the time of fertilisation, the different combinations, giving the different probabilities of presenting some trait or hereditary disorder, will be appear.
As stated previously, in order for the number of chromosomes to remain constant and for germinal cells to be able to fertilise, a reductional division or meiosis has to occur. To explain the risk percentages in the different types of heredity, we will focus on the type of cells that are produced immediately after reductional division has taken place, as these are the only possible resulting combinations.
Under normal conditions in a woman, one of these cells is lost. Since we do not know which one of them will be lost, and one cell complements the other, both will be studied. These are the only two possible combinations and any of the two can occur.
From now on we will only refer to one single character encoded by the same chromosomal set, which will be represented as follows:
Given that each of us has two chromosomes from each set, our resulting gametes will be these.
And our partner’s gamete will be these.
We will always be talking about the same recipe within the same chromosomal set, for both members of the couple.
And now let me give you a graphic representation of the different combinations that can result in reproduction.
If we pay close attention we will see that we are all a mixture of all the characters that run in our family. Our hair can be the same colour as that of our maternal grandfather and our eyes can be the same colour as our paternal grandfather’s, the hands may resemble our maternal grandmother’s and the teeth can be exactly like our father’s.
For sure, you will ask yourselves: How is this mixture possible?
Well, it is extremely easy. Chromosomes of a same set exchange information between them before they undergo reductional division or meiosis. That is, recipe number 4 from chromosome number 1 is exchanged for recipe number 4 from the other chromosome number 1, and this same process is repeated in many other recipes.
In the end, the resulting chromosomes are a mixture of all the recipes or characters from our ancestors.
And it is thanks to this exchange that the variability of the species prevails, making each of us different from the other, unique and unrepeatable.
But, for every thing to come out right, each chromosome of the same set must contain the same recipes at the end of this process, irrespectively of whether they have been exchanged or not, so that each chromosome has all the recipes it needs, without a single one missing or in excess.
And, which different combinations can result when we reproduce?
You have different options:
Read through all the combinations, which will provide you with a global view. We recommend this option as it will enhance your overall understanding as to how we fight disorders today.
Read through only a few pages starting at the beginning, so that you become familiar with how these combinations give rise to disorders.
And if you are at specific risk, because you fall into any of the situations described, I suggest that you first read everything and then come back to the section that concerns your particular case.
As you can see, it is very easy.
Sex linked disorders (X-chromosomes disorders)
In this group, there can be two possible scenarios: that the pathological “X”-chromosome is carried by the female or the male, and that, in turn, this X-chromosome-linked character is expressed in a dominant or recessive way.
To identify the “X” -chromosomes that are contained in the incorrect recipe, this symbol will be used:
Please do not forget that we are always referring to the same character or allele located in the X -chromosome, both in the man and in the woman alike.
“That is, we are always referring to the same recipe in both genders”.
PLEASE REMEMBER that in this case, the X chromosome with the wrong recipe, in the presence of another X chromosome with the right recipe, will express because it is dominant, IN OTHER WORDS, IT DOMINATES THE SITUATION.
Healthy woman who reproduces with an affected male
The expected offspring will be as follows:
50% affected women
50% healthy men
In this case, all the male children will be healthy because they inherit the father’s Y – chromosome, while all the daughters will be affected because they receive the father’s X- chromosome, which in this case is pathological.
The fact that all the daughters of an affected male are affected and all the sons are healthy, allows us too distinguish between a family with an autosomal dominant disorder and another with a X-linked dominant disorder. In dominant autosomal disorders, the affected male transmits the pathological gene to both males and females, as it is not gender-dependent.
In synthesis, if we focus on males only, we can see that each male has a 50% chance of being healthy and a 50% chance of being affected. And the same thing happens if we focus on women only, each woman has a 50% chance of being healthy and a 50% chance of being affected.
REMEMBER that dominant characters, even if they are present in one single dose, are always expressed. Thus, in this particular case, and despite the fact that we are looking at sex chromosomes, if a woman has a X chromosome with the incorrect ” X ” recipe, and the other chromosome contains the correct recipe, she will express the disorder, given that the same concept as for autosomal dominant disorders applies because two X chromosomes are shared and one of them is incorrect.
As regards the male, it will depend on which of the two X chromosomes he has inherited, the “good one” or the “bad” one.
25% have one correct recipe and one incorrect recipe
25% in whom both recipes are incorrect
25% of healthy males
25% of affected males
That is, if we take males only, we can see that each male has a 50% chance of being healthy and a 50% chance of being affected, whereas if we take women only, they will always be affected because they inherited their father’s X-chromosome (and in this case, it is pathological).
Healthy female carrier who reproduces with a healthy male
If the female is the carrier, she does not express the disorder, but during meiosis or reductional division, two types of gametes will be produced, one that has a normal X chromosome and one that has a mutated X chromosome, therefore, according to the sex that this child has after the paternal contribution, the probabilities are as follows.
25% are healthy non carriers
25% are healthy but carriers
25% healthy males
25% affected males
Therefore, if we just focus on males only, each male has a 50% probability of being healthy and a 50% probability of being affected. Whereas if we focus on females only, they will always be healthy, although a 50% of them will be carriers.
25% affected females because both recipes are wrong
25% healthy males
25% affected males
Therefore, each male has a 50% probability of being healthy and 50% probability of being affected, whereas each female has a 50% probability of being healthy but a carrier and a 50% probability of being affected.
In this case all their children will be healthy because:
the males inherit the Y chromosome from their father, the females will all be healthy, but all of them carriers, because although they inherit the X chromosome from their father which is pathological, it is compensated by the X chromosome they inherit from their mother, which is normal.
Having seen how hereditary diseases are transmited, if you require specific information on a certain disease, the following links can help you.
And please, regardless of all the information you get on the subject of your interest, do not forget that it is only an information service, containing data that must be interpreted by a specialist, so please before you make any decision, have a consultation with a Genetics department, where your individual case will be accurately assessed and where all your questions will be answered.
Well, it is easy, when one of the progenitors is sick, or one or both of them are carriers of the same genetic disorder, they have a risk to produce affected children. The amount of risk and the sex of the affected individual is dependent on the type of inheritance.
For this reason, in case a malformation or a family disorder exists, the first thing to do is to study the family background and see which inheritance pattern runs in the family.
To this end, a genealogical tree is made using an international nomenclature in which all the individuals appear, identifying those who are affected and once these are identified, to determine the degree of severity, because we know that, in some cases, this can vary among the particular individuals.
¡Remember that the final flavour depends on all the ingredients mixed in the pie!
In this case, the degree of severity for each individual depends on how all the recipes are assembled.
In case that the disorder or malformation is not diagnosed, appropriate exams must be performed to try and obtain a diagnosis, and on the basis of this diagnosis, the risk of the particular individual to produce children with the same problem is calculated.
Some of these disorders are very severe, so at the time of deciding on their reproductive future, couple may encounter the following situations:
They ACCEPT the prenatal diagnosis, if available for this particular disorder, regardless of whether they decide to terminate or go ahead with the pregnancy.
Because people that are blood related are more likely to have the same mutations causing different diseases, thus contributing to the emergence of recessive diseases, whether autosomal or linked to sex chromosomes, sex chromosome X.
Because both SHARE THE SAME COMMON ANCESTOR, and if this ancestor had pathological genes, these could have been transmitted from generation to generation.
Because we know that the PROBABILITY of having inherited the same gene is directly proportional to the degree of kinship; in other words, the closer the kinship relationship, the greater the chance of having inherited the gene.
To take an example: let’s go check out the third option of autosomal recessive diseases described above, because it is the most common situation among relatives, reproduction between two healthy individuals who are both carriers of the same pathological hidden recessive gene.
“Healthy individual who is a carrier that reproduces with another healthy individual who also happens to be a carrier “.
We can see that merely because that both progenitors share the same ancestor they have much higher chances, compared to the general population, of both being carrier of the same pathological gene or genes. And this significantly increases the probabilities (by a 25%) that when reproducing, the offspring may inherit the affected gene and manifest the disease because he or she has inherited the same wrong recipe from each of the two progenitors. That is, a baby with both affected genes or wrong recipes (homozygous) for a particular gene.
In contrast, if reproduction takes place with an individual that does not belong to the same blood- related family, these possibilities go down to the risk of the general population; that is, the risk continuous to exist but it is much lower.
And, do you know why there is still a small risk?
Because it has been estimated that each person carries between one and five recessive lethal mutations that would be lethal if the children inherited them in the homozygous state. Therefore, all mankind carries pathological genes. We also know that there are pathological genes that are much more common in certain groups or human populations. Hence, if we belong to any of these population groups, we run a much higher risk to reproduce with a healthy carrier like us, which even if there is no family blood connection, will lead to a higher chance of having a child that has inherited the mutations.
Because both specialists will assess whether there is any risk factor to be correct, prevented, or taken into consideration before conception, and will implement the appropriate measures to ensure that everything goes well.
YES, and it is done by estimating the kinship coefficient.
To estimate the kinship coefficient, you need to have a consultation with a geneticist physician who will assess your familial history and draw your genealogical tree.
The geneticist, apart from assessing the mean genes that the couple may have in common (siblings born to the same parents share 1/2 of DNA sequences, uncles and nephews share ¼ of DNA sequences due to their common ancestors, cousins share 1/8, second cousins share 1/16 and third cousins share 1/32) will also assess the ethnic origin (due to the possibility that this population group may have high incidence specific diseases).
Taking into account all of the above, the geneticist should assess the possibility of requesting some sort of study to rule out if the future couple are or not carriers of any disease in particular, and based on the findings, if positive, decide whether or not it is advisable to do some sort of specific follow-up during the pregnancy to detect specific conditions. The geneticist will also assess the different reproductive options that assisted reproductiontechniques available (from preimplantational diagnosis to gamete donation: ovum or spermatozoon), or even look at the possibility of adoption, in case:
there is no prenatal diagnosis for a specific disease
or, if there is a prenatal diagnosis, the couple might not consider abortion, should the affected offspring have any specific disease.
REMBEMBER: the kinship coefficient must be calculated by a geneticist, specifically for each couple.
It is very important to take into account that many human groups have been isolated by barriers of different types, for instance, geographical barriers, language barriers, as well as social, religious, political barriers, etc. In all these populations there is an increased risk for non-related individuals to be carriers of the same pathology and to reproduce among themselves, thus causing the disease to manifest.
If you belong to this group, it is highly recommended before reproduction attend the consultation of a geneticist physician for assessment and genetic counseling custom , as the risk to have sick children can be as high as in the case of blood relatives.
"Genetics Made Easy" is a non-profit divulgative web site on human genetics, the objective of which is to bring the scientific community closer to the general community in order to disseminate the advances and knowledge that arise in this field and how the general population can benefit from this developments. The language used in the website is simple and the terminology easy to comprehend, with clear and straight forward explanations and user-friendly software. | <urn:uuid:3bd3d54c-2c8b-450f-a825-2467e1c2ea9b> | CC-MAIN-2021-25 | https://lagenetica.info/en/diseases/what-happens-when-our-recipes-combine-with-our-partners-recipes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-25/segments/1623487610196.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20210613161945-20210613191945-00123.warc.gz | en | 0.947636 | 3,145 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Goal 4 - Quality Education
Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning
Education is the key to sustainable development, improving overall quality of life and securing a successful future. In terms of access to education, great strides have been made, especially in regards to literacy.
Despite achieving goals of gender equality in primary education, many countries continue to struggle in implementing it at all levels of education. An estimated 57 million children don’t attend school, and more than half live in sub-Saharan Africa.
Worldwide, over 100 million youth lack basic literacy skills, and most of them are female.
To reduce these figures, SDG 4 aims for all boys and girls to have access to primary and secondary education by 2030, and for males and females to have equal access to early childhood development programs and affordable tertiary education.
This goal aims to facilitate literacy and numeracy among youth, and equal opportunities for all people, regardless of gender or disability.
An Introduction to Goal 4
Written and created by our team in Phang Nga, Thailand
Number of people taught through classes/workshops/training
Number of females receiving training or educational support
Amount of revenue spent on scholarships
Number of children under the age of 5 receiving support
Number of students supported in reaching age appropriate learning goals
Enrolment in primary education in developing countries
has reached 91 per cent but 57 million children remain out of school
More than half of children
that have not enrolled in school live in sub-Saharan Africa
An estimated 50 per cent
of out-of-school children of primary school age live in conflict-affected areas
103 million youth worldwide
lack basic literacy skills, and more than 60 per cent of them are women
Our Related UN Targets
By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and Goal-4 effective learning outcome.
By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and preprimary education so that they are ready for primary education
By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university
By 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, and children in vulnerable situations | <urn:uuid:e0f76945-342a-473f-8477-b747b3754b50> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://www.gvi.ie/goal-4-quality-education/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578689448.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20190425054210-20190425080210-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.940978 | 488 | 3.703125 | 4 |
The principle of creating source code generators is pretty simple (details here): a model, a template, and a driver. Given:
- HTML5 can access to local files as the data model
- AngularJS has its template language
The syntax highlighting is done by SHJS. | <urn:uuid:ced732a9-4e70-4827-bd1d-c512847d8774> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | https://techblog.shaneng.net/2015/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570986675598.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20191017172920-20191017200420-00003.warc.gz | en | 0.878852 | 57 | 2.96875 | 3 |
PARASHAT BEREISHEIT - BIRKAT HAHODESH
October 9, 2004 - 24 Tishrei 5765
Annual: Genesis 1:1 - 6:8 (Etz Hayim, p. 3; Hertz p. 2)
Triennial Cycle: Genesis 1:1 - 2:3 (Etz Hayim, p. 3; Hertz p. 2)
Haftarah: Isaiah: 42:5 - 43:10 (Etz Hayim, p. 36; Hertz p. 21)
Prepared by Rabbi Joseph H. Prouser
Little Neck Jewish Center, Little Neck, NY
Department of Congregational Services
Rabbi Martin J. Pasternak, Director
The Torah begins with God's work of creation. Chapter 1 describes a very orderly process. Cosmos, replete with earthly flora and fauna, replaces chaos in six days of divine effort. Humankind is the crowning achievement of God's creation, introduced on the sixth day. The goodness of the physical world is repeatedly asserted. This goodness seems to reach its peak only with the creation of humanity: "God saw all that He had made, and found it very good." The seventh day is blessed by God as a sacred time of rest.
Chapter 2 recasts the creation narrative with conflicting (or complementary) details: Man is created first, later made complete through the creation of woman - all after a far less orderly divine process of trial and error. The moral education of humanity begins in the paradisiacal setting of the Garden of Eden. At the infamous urging of the snake, "shrewdest of all the wild beasts," the first humans consume forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowing Good and Evil, and are banished from the Garden.
The second generation of humans, nevertheless, continues to interact with God: Cain and Abel each bring offerings as gestures of worship. Alas, they also introduce murder into human history, as Cain, whose offering is rejected, kills his brother Abel.
In the generations that follow, descendants of the Eden's inhabitants initiate various areas of industry and creativity: agriculture, construction, metallurgy, music. By the time of Noah, introduced in the closing verses of the Parshah, God seems to have despaired of his human creatures, and the moral corruption that has come in their wake.
Theme #1: "The Rest is Commentary"
The six days of Creation are famously followed by a day of rest: the first "Sabbath." The opening verses of Chapter 2 provide a literary and theological bridge between the physical world, described in considerable detail in Chapter 1, and the spiritual purposes for which that world was brought into being. These familiar verses ("Vayechulu") are chanted as an introduction to the Friday evening Kiddush, and are a central element of the liturgy on Shabbat eve.
"God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because on it God ceased from all the work of creation that He had done." (Genesis 2:3)
- "Blessing signifies the bestowing of some additional good. The additional good bestowed on Shabbat regards the soul, which enjoys respite on this day from affairs of the temporal world, and is able to attend to wisdom and God's Word." (Radak)
- "God's creative activity was followed by the Sabbath, when He deliberately ceased from His creative work". The stars and the planets, having once started on their eternal rounds, go on blindly, ceaselessly, driven by nature's law of cause and effect. Man, however, by an act of faith, can put a limit to his labor, so that it will not degenerate into purposeless drudgery. By keeping the Sabbath the Jew becomes, as our Sages say, domeh l'yotzero - 'like God Himself.' He is, like God, work's master, not its slave." (Pinchas Peli, Shabbat Shalom)
- "The world in itself is not holy. Nature is desacrilized in the Bible. Only God and humanity made in His image are able to make it holy". The human person is capable of transcending the material world, while being in it and with it. To prove this, there is a 'holy' (i.e., 'special') day, hallowed by God." (Isadore Grunfeld, The Sabbath)
Questions for Study:
- Shabbat presents a paradox. How does Shabbat insist that we emulate God, the Creator, while simultaneously reminding us of our humanity and creature-hood?
- Traditional Shabbat observance is often maligned as archaic. How has observance of the Sabbath - especially principled disengagement from technology - become increasingly relevant and urgent in the modern period?
- Why is Shabbat linked by the Torah to the primordial history of the universe, rather than to Israel's unique, national, historical experience?
- What did Rabbi Pinchas Peli mean by describing Shabbat as "all of Judaism in one word?" In what ways is this assertion reflected in Jewish tradition and communal norms?
- In what other ways does Jewish practice and Tradition invite us to "transcend the material world, while being in it?" Consider the realms of ritual, personal relationships, and public policy. In what ways does this distinguish Judaism from other religious disciplines?
Theme #2: "Because I am involved in Mankinde"*
(*This phrase is quoted, with original spelling, from John Donne's poem,"No Man is an Island")
In the first of many incidents of sibling rivalry which constitute a major motif in the Torah, Cain and Abel each bring a sacrificial offering to God. Cain, who was a farmer, brought an offering "from the fruit of the soil." Abel, a shepherd, made an offering described, significantly, as from "the choicest of the firstlings of his flock." Despite God's poetic admonition concerning man's ability to master his own urges and thus to avoid sin, a dejected and envious Cain murders his brother.
"The Lord said to Cain, 'Where is your brother Abel?' And he said, 'I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?'" (Genesis 4:9)
- "When the Holy One said, 'Where is your brother Abel,' Cain replied, 'I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper? You are the keeper of all creatures I killed him because You created the evil inclination in me. You are the keeper of all, yet you allowed me to kill him. It is You who killed him." (Tanchuma)
- "One more war. The last. They always say that. Let us fight so as to fightno more. Let us kill so as to conquer death. Who knows, perhaps Cain himself aspired to be not just the first murderer in history but the last as well." (Elie Weisel, A Beggar in Jerusalem)
- "The sevenfold stress in this chapter on the obvious fraternal relationship of Cain and Abel (the word 'ach' - brother - is used seven times) emphatically teaches that man is indeed his brother's keeper and that all homicide is fratricide." (Nahum Sarna, JPS Genesis)
- Cain's defiant response to God is among the Torah's best known and frequently quoted verses. His words, emblematic of the human moral load, have informed these studies and inspired their titles: "Am I My Brother's Keeper? The Ethical Frontiers of Biomedicine," by Arthur Caplan; "Am I My Brother's Keeper? The AIDS Crisis & the Church," by Michael Malloy; "The Ethics of Giving & Receiving: Am I My Foolish Brother's Keeper?" by William May; "Am I My Brother's Keeper? A Study of British Columbia's Labor and Oriental Problems," by Agnes Laut; and "I Am My Brother's Keeper: American Volunteers in Israel's War for Independence," by Craig Weiss. Note also Amitai Etzioni's "My Brother's Keeper: A Memoir and Message," envisioning a society which transcends selfish interests in favor of the common good.
Questions for Study:
- By killing his brother, Cain ignores the most fundamental moral obligations of one human being to another. In the aftermath, seeming to acknowledge his wrong-doing, Cain is also dishonest with God. How are these two crimes related?
- How is the "sevenfold stress" on brotherhood reinforced? What other sevens appear in Chapter 4?
- Notwithstanding Elie Weisel's generalized lament regarding killing, what factors and considerations determine if a war is just? Is the decision to avoid war invariably preferable? How do Weisel's other writings contribute to this discussion?
- "Where is your brother Abel?" Why must an omniscient God ask Cain about his brother's whereabouts. Compare to God's questions to Adam and Eve in the preceding chapter: "Where are You?… Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree from which I had forbidden you to eat?" What is this you have done?"
- In what ways can and should we be our brothers' keepers? In what situations have we missed the opportunity to "be involved in Mankinde" (as John Donne wrote)? How can a Congregation enhance the ability of its individual constituents to do so?
- Prior to the first recorded homicide, we read: "Cain said to his brother Abel"." His words are not recorded (although some ancient versions add, "Come, let us go out to the field.") How can this "gap" in the text be viewed as artistic and meaningful? How does it affect our understanding of the incident? What might Cain have said in this situation? How might Abel have responded?
Shabbat Parshat Bereisheet 5765 falls on October 9, 2004. This day is the 650th anniversary of the charter issued by Casimir the Great to the Jews of Poland on October 9, 1354. Like the creation described in Parshat Bereisheet, this marked a hopeful beginning that culminated in catastrophe. Poland saw a vibrant Jewish civilization grow and flourish for many centuries, until its murderous ruin in the Holocaust. | <urn:uuid:2cfd0d3b-12f9-4328-89b1-c0417abe4c43> | CC-MAIN-2014-23 | http://www.uscj.org/JewishLivingandLearning/WeeklyParashah/TorahSparks/Archive/_5765TorahSparks/Bereisheit5765.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1405997894250.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20140722025814-00029-ip-10-33-131-23.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960456 | 2,136 | 2.734375 | 3 |
|Name: _________________________||Period: ___________________|
This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. When the middle class man decided to suggest a relationship with the middle class woman, how did he proceed?
2. According to the author, about what do people in love think continually?
3. Of the author's five ways in which love can be acquired, which three produce the most worthy forms of love?
4. After the middle class woman's initial reaction in the conversation, how did the author instruct the middle class man to respond?
5. According to the author in the Preface, what was his reason for writing the book?
Short Essay Questions
1. Two of the five ways in which love can be obtained are beauty and good character. Which of these wins love with little effort and which is the characteristic that wise men choose?
2. In retaining love, give an example of how a man can keep a love from being publicly known.
3. How did the author explain the nature of peasants and their inclination to love?
4. In the instance of the older woman insisting to a man that she was too old for love, she expressed deep skepticism and lack interest. How did the man react?
5. How can issues of faith and religion destroy love?
6. Throughout the three dialogues in Book One, explain the main conversation tactic of middle class men, and the common reaction of woman of all social classes.
7. What did the author advise women to do if their men are unfaithful, and why?
8. What effects might love have upon the needs for food, drink and sleep?
9. Explain how the nobleman was advised to approach a noblewoman, and how he was to begin conversation with her.
10. What did the author describe as arising from the perception and focus on the beauty of another?
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
In the beginning of the book, the author expresses strong opinions on the subject of homosexuality. Explain his opinions and cite the reasoning behind them.
Essay Topic 2
Review the dialogues, paying careful attention to the romantic advances of the men involved in them. What similarities do you observe in all of the interactions on the part of the men as they interact with women of varying social rankings. What are the greatest differences? With which social rank of woman do you sense that the man was most respectful and "well behaved?" With which was he the worst?
Essay Topic 3
Explain the author's feelings about peasants and their inclinations to love. Under what circumstances did the author suggest that peasants can experience love? What did the author mean when he suggested that someone who falls in love with a peasant should praise her and then, in a convenient location, "embrace [her] by force?"
This section contains 848 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) | <urn:uuid:248be663-5d6f-44e9-a8cd-22e354909e20> | CC-MAIN-2016-18 | http://www.bookrags.com/lessonplan/the-art-of-courtly-love/test5.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-18/segments/1461860121618.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160428161521-00090-ip-10-239-7-51.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95722 | 630 | 2.59375 | 3 |
City dwellers today spend an average 90 per cent of their time indoors – but experts from the Royal Horticultural Society say that ‘bringing the outdoors inside’ can offer some of the benefits that are lost by retreating indoors.
Plants reduce stress levels, improve mood and filter polluted air, they say.
A review of the scientific evidence suggests that workers are more productive when their office is filled with greenery, and hospital patients even tolerate pain better if there is a plant on the ward.
Perhaps most importantly, plants also trap and filter pollutants that are linked to thousands of deaths a year.
Writing in the The Plantsman horticultural journal, the scientists said: ‘Indoor plants can also elicit a number of physical health benefits, including the removal of airborne pollutants, both particulate and gaseous, which lead to better indoor air quality and associated improvements in physical health.’
A major study published by the Royal College of Physicians this week estimated that indoor air pollution contributes to 99,000 deaths in Europe every year.
Everyday kitchen products, faulty boilers, fly spray, air fresheners, deodorants and cleaning products contribute to poor indoor air quality in almost every home.
This causes eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches, skin conditions and breathing problems.
A study by Nasa scientists found that plants absorb and break down the most harmful of these chemicals through their leaves, to create a healthy indoor eco-system.
The RHS scientists said that plants can also improve mental facilities – including reaction time and concentration.
They pointed to a Washington State University study which found that the presence of plants in the room increased speed of reaction in a computer task by 12 per cent.
And a Kansas State University in 2008 found that hospital patients treated with plants in the room required lower levels of painkillers. | <urn:uuid:480505d9-13ef-48d6-a1fc-e706e5914611> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://expressdigest.com/the-plants-that-nasa-says-you-need-in-your-bedroom/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100309.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20231202010506-20231202040506-00332.warc.gz | en | 0.948799 | 375 | 3.359375 | 3 |
Saint Martin (France)
Saint Martin (French: Saint-Martin), officially the Collectivity of Saint Martin (French: Collectivité de Saint-Martin), is a new overseas collectivity of France. It was created on 22 February 2007. It consists of the northern parts of the island of Saint Martin and neighboring small islands. The southern half of the island is a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Demographics[change | change source]
The French part of the island has a land area of 53.20 km² (20.5 sq mi). At the October 2004 supplementary French census, the population in the French part of the island was 33,102 (up from only 8,072 inhabitants at the 1982 census), which means a population density of 622 inhabitants per km² in 2004.
|Official figures from French censuses.|
Politics and Government[change | change source]
Saint Martin was for many years a French commune. It was part of Guadeloupe, which is an overseas région and overseas département of France. Because of this, it is in the European Union. In 2003 the population of the French part voted for a split from Guadeloupe. They wanted to make a separate overseas collectivity (COM) of France. On February 9, 2007, the French Parliament passed a bill granting COM status to both the French part of Saint Martin and neighbouring Saint-Barthélemy. The new took effect when the law was published in the Official Journal.
As a transitional measure, Saint Martin remains governed as it was when a commune within Guadeloupe—by a mayor and a municipal council elected by the European citizens living on the French side of the island. As is the case in metropolitan France since the promulgation of the Maastricht Treaty, nationals of any member state of the European Union are allowed to vote at the municipal elections. Nationals from countries not part of the European Union, which represent a large part of the population on the French side of the island, are not allowed to vote in the elections. A new governance structure befitting an overseas collectivity will take effect later in 2007.
References[change | change source]
- "French Caribbean voters reject change" (in English) (HTML). Caribbean Net News. 2003-12-09. http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/2003/12/09/voters.htm. Retrieved 2007-02-09. "However voters on the two tiny French dependencies of Saint-Barthelemy and Saint-Martin, which have been administratively attached to Guadeloupe, approved the referendum and are set to acquire the new status of "overseas collectivity"."
- "Saint-Barth To Become An Overseas Collectivity" (in English) (PDF). St. Barth Weekly. 2007-02-09. p. 2. http://www.st-barths.com/jsb/pdf_files/weekly107.pdf. Retrieved 2007-02-09. | <urn:uuid:c26814a2-02de-416b-adf9-532bd634f4b8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Martin_(France) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00135-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910859 | 632 | 2.875 | 3 |
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have released a report warning that flu season has come early-and it’s coming on strong. While in most years, incidence of flu picks up in January and peaks in February, the latest numbers from the last few weeks of November show that flu season has officially arrived.
The annual flu season hit about a month early this year, and illness is now widespread in 48 states. Many cases are caused by a flu strain that tends to make people sicker. Experts have already begun predicting that this could be the worst flu season in nearly a decade.
Traditional flu symptoms range from sniffles and chills to a high fever that keeps you home from work all week, or worse-flu lands 200,000 people in the hospital each year and kills more than 30 thousand in this country alone. There are antiviral drugs that can make you feel a little better and shorten the illness’s duration.
Here are five things doctors say to do to help keep yourself flu-free:
1. Get a flu shot. This one seems obvious, but it’s amazing how many people don’t get their flu shots. Only 37 percent of Americans got them last year, and it’s looking the same this year. There’s no guarantee that it will prevent your getting sick; the flu shot has been 60 to 70 percent effective in recent years. But it’s definitely worth a shot! Go to your doctor, a local clinic or one of many drug store chains that offer walk-in vaccination. It takes all of five minutes, kicks in after two weeks and will keep you flu-free through spring.
2. Wash your hands…and your keyboard. And your phone. And doorknobs, faucets, the door to the fridge-any surface you use a lot and share with others. If the people around you are carrying the virus, they can spread it easily by touching or breathing on the stuff you use every day. And they might not even realize what they’re doing: You can start spreading the flu a full day before you even get that I’m-coming-down-with-something feeling.
3. Move more. Regular exercise isn’t just great for the parts of your body you can see. It might also help keep your immune system in tip-top condition. There’s a clear connection between physical activity and immune function and researchers are trying to identify the specific effects. One early study found that women over 60 who kept active had more responsive immune reactions than their sedentary peers. Don’t let the cold weather keep you huddled on the sofa. Get your body in fighting shape-inside and out
4. Get more sleep. If you do come into contact with the dreaded flu virus, it’s important that your body is ready to put up its dukes to fight it off. Your immune system needs all the energy it can get to successfully battle viral invaders. The hours you spend sleeping are when your body can focus on rest and replenishment. Fewer hours in bed means less energy and a weakened immune state.
5. Supplement your diet. There are several foods you can eat or supplements you can take to give your immune system some added power. Vitamin D3 helps your immune system. It’s hard to get enough from the winter sun, so consider taking supplements. You can also try chicken soup, large doses of vitamin C (500 mg every 4 hours), zinc lozenges, or anti-viral elderberry extract, all of which have been shown in studies to shorten the duration of colds or flus by 50 percent.
For the complete article, click here. | <urn:uuid:178ddc03-87b5-46c4-bf94-02007e0a2171> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://dailyvitamina.com/181/how-to-avoid-the-flu-2013/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233511023.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20231002232712-20231003022712-00641.warc.gz | en | 0.961006 | 765 | 2.890625 | 3 |
The secret for designing the operational amplifier with high stability
During the process of designing the analog electronics, we will use the operational amplifier often, and we come across the degenerative feedback commonly: the degenerative feedback can restrain the instability of gain, reduce the nonlinear error introduced by the components, decrease the effects of driftage of temperature, impedance transformation and extended frequency band. However, even though the use of degenerative feedback will make the designed circuit become more stable at some extent, there will also be an unstable situation that makes the circuit change if the keys of design has been ignored.
Through listing the transfer function of operational amplifier
, we can acquire the poles and zeros which will have a great impact on keeping the stability of operational amplifier: the poles can not only decrease the amplitude (for stability), but also reduce the phase margin (for stability); the zeros increases the amplitude (not for stability), but increase the phase margin (for stability); the zeros in the right half plane of complex plane, which increase the amplitude will reduce the phase margin.
During designing the circuit in reality, if we can find the principal and auxiliary poles, we have done half of the work, and the rest part is to eliminate the corresponding zeros and poles by using different compensation methods for different models, which is for making the system more stable.
The common methods for stabilizing the operational amplifier:
1. The series resistance is added at the positive and negative input end of the input terminal to reduce the loop gain and achieve the stability of the system.
2. There will be noise gain of high DC sometimes on the input terminal of the operational amplifier, so when it occurs, the positive and negative input terminal series RC network is needed to stabilize the system.
3. To add a capacitance to the feedback loop to give rise to the effect of phase advance compensation to achieve stability. | <urn:uuid:ca0e39d1-bea8-42c2-bfc0-e06f3d5e1781> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | http://rc.utsource.net/the-secret-for-designing-the-operational-amplifier.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232259327.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20190526165427-20190526191427-00275.warc.gz | en | 0.899982 | 383 | 2.53125 | 3 |
In fertilization, the sperm binds to the egg, allowing their membranes to fuse and the sperm to transfer its nucleus into the egg.
- Describe the process of fertilization
- A mammalian egg is covered by a layer of glycoproteins called the zona pellucida, which the sperm must penetrate in order to fertilize the egg.
- Upon binding with the egg, the sperm initiates the acrosome reaction, in which it releases digestive enzymes that degrade the zona pellucida, allowing the plasma membrane of the sperm to fuse with that of the egg.
- Upon fusion of the two plasma membranes, the sperm’s nucleus enters the egg and fuses with the nucleus of the egg.
- Both the sperm and the egg each contain one half the normal number of chromosomes, so when they fuse the resulting zygote is a diploid organism with a complete set of chromosomes.
- When the egg is successfully fertilized, it releases proteins that prevent it from being fertilized by another sperm, a condition known as polyspermy.
- fertilization: the act of fecundating or impregnating animal or vegetable gametes
- zona pellucida: a glycoprotein membrane surrounding the plasma membrane of an oocyte
- acrosome: a structure forming the end of the head of a spermatozoon
- polyspermy: the penetration of an ovum by more than one sperm
Fertilization is the process in which gametes (an egg and sperm) fuse to form a zygote. The egg and sperm are haploid, which means they each contain one set of chromosomes; upon fertilization, they will combine their genetic material to form a zygote that is diploid, having two sets of chromosomes. A zygote that has more than two sets of chromosomes will not be viable; therefore, to ensure that the offspring has only two sets of chromosomes, only one sperm must fuse with one egg.
In mammals, the egg is protected by a layer of extracellular matrix consisting mainly of glycoproteins called the zona pellucida. When a sperm binds to the zona pellucida, a series of biochemical events, called the acrosomal reaction, take place. In placental mammals, the acrosome contains digestive enzymes that initiate the degradation of the glycoprotein matrix protecting the egg and allowing the sperm plasma membrane to fuse with the egg plasma membrane. The fusion of these two membranes creates an opening through which the sperm nucleus is transferred into the ovum. Fusion between the oocyte plasma membrane and sperm follows and allows the sperm nucleus, centriole, and flagellum, but not the mitochondria, to enter the oocyte. The nuclear membranes of the egg and sperm break down and the two haploid genomes condense to form a diploid genome. This process ultimately leads to the formation of a diploid cell called a zygote. The zygote divides to form a blastocyst and, upon entering the uterus, implants in the endometrium, beginning pregnancy.
Process of fertilization: (a) Fertilization is the process in which sperm and egg fuse to form a zygote. (b) Acrosomal reactions help the sperm degrade the glycoprotein matrix protecting the egg and allow the sperm to transfer its nucleus.
To ensure that no more than one sperm fertilizes the egg, once the acrosomal reactions take place at one location of the egg membrane, the egg releases proteins in other locations to prevent other sperm from fusing with the egg. If this mechanism fails, multiple sperm can fuse with the egg, resulting in polyspermy. The resulting embryo is not genetically viable and dies within a few days. | <urn:uuid:349a1a2b-3803-4ce1-a950-f352f385aeea> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Introductory_and_General_Biology/Book%3A_General_Biology_(Boundless)/43%3A_Animal_Reproduction_and_Development/43.05%3A_Fertilization_and_Early_Embryonic_Development/43.5A%3A__Fertilization | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817032054-20220817062054-00137.warc.gz | en | 0.910218 | 800 | 4.0625 | 4 |
On 2nd July 1621 Thomas Harriot died of cancer of the nose in London. As he had learnt to smoke from the Indians, in what would later become Virginia, he is possibly the first recorded death caused by smoking. This would naturally give him a small footnote in the history of science but he deserves much, much more than a footnote.
Readers of this blog should by now be well aware that I think that expressions such as ‘the greatest’ should be banned forever out of the history of science. If people, as they do, ponder who was the greatest scientist in the seventeenth century (ignoring the anachronistic use of the term scientist for the moment) they invariably discuss the respective merits of Kepler, Galileo, Descartes and Newton just possibly adding Huygens to the mix. I personally think that Thomas Harriot is a serious candidate for such a discussion. Now I can already hear one or the other of my readers thinking, if Harriot is so important for the history of seventeenth century science how come I’ve never even heard of him? The answer is quite simple; although the good Thomas made starting contributions to many branches of knowledge in the early years of the seventeenth century he published almost nothing, thus depriving himself of the fame and historical recognition that went to others. As the title of this post says, he didn’t publish and so he perished.
Little is known about Harriot’s origins other than the fact that he was born in Oxfordshire around 1560 and entered Oxford University in 1577; graduating in 1580 whence he is thought to have moved to London. In 1583 he entered the service of Sir Walter Raleigh, who had been his contemporary at Oxford. He seems to have been a promising mathematician at university as is confirmed by his friendship there with Thomas Allen (1542 – 1632) and Richard Hakluyt (c.1552 – 1616) both acknowledged as leading mathematical practitioners of the age. Harriot served as house mathematicus to Raleigh, teaching his master mariners the then comparatively new arts of mathematical navigation and cartography for their expeditions, as well as helping to design his ships and serving as his accountant. During his instruction Harriot wrote a manual on mathematical navigation, which included the correct mathematical method for the construction of the Mercator projection but this manual like nearly all of his scientific work was to remain unpublished. However Harriot’s work was not just theoretical he possibly sailed on Raleigh’s 1584 exploratory voyage to Roanoke Island fore the coast of North America and definitely took part in the 1585 – 1586 attempt to establish a colony on Roanoke. This second voyage gives Harriot the distinction of being the first natural philosopher/natural historian/mathematician of North America. During his time in the failed colony Harriot carried out cartographical surveys, studied the flora and fauna and made an anthropological study of the natives even starting to learn the Algonquian language; inventing a phonetic alphabet to record it and writing a grammar of the language.
The attempt to establish a colony ended in disaster and the colonists, including Harriot had to be rescued by Francis Drake, on his way back from harassing the Spanish in Middle America, Raleigh having sailed back to England to fetch more supplies and settlers. This adventure was to provide Harriot’s one and only publication during his lifetime entitled A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia; an advertising pamphlet published in 1588 designed to help Raleigh find new sponsors for a renewed attempt at establishing a colony. This pamphlet, the first English language publication on North America, was reprinted in Latin in a collection of literature about the America’s published in Frankfurt and became known throughout Europe.
Back in England Harriot became involved in another scheme of Raleigh’s to establish a colony in Ireland, serving for a number of years as his surveyor and general factotum. In the 1590s he left Raleigh’s service and became a pensioner of Henry Percy, Duke of Northumberland. Percy gave Harriot a very generous pension as well as title to some land in the North of England and a house on his estate of Syon House near London. It appears that Percy required nothing in return from Harriot and had given him what amounted to an extremely generous research grant for life, allowing him to become what we would now call a research scientist. Quite why Percy should choose to take this course of action with Harriot is not known, other than his own interest in the sciences. It was during his time in Percy’s service that Harriot did most of the scientific work that should by rights have made him famous.
Harriot was already, by necessity, a working astronomer during his time as Raleigh’s mathematicus but that his knowledge was wider and deeper than that required for cartography and navigation is obvious from a comment in one of his manuscripts. He complains about the inaccuracies of the Alfonsine Tables based on Ptolemaeus’ Syntaxis Mathematiké and then goes on to state that the Prutenic Tables based on Copernicus’ De revolutionibus are, in the specific case under consideration, even worse. However he’s sure the situation will improve in the future because of the work being carried out by Wilhelm IV and his astronomers in Kassel and Tycho Brahe in Hven. Harriot was obviously well connected and well informed as this before either group had published any of their results.
Now freed of obligations by Percy’s generosity Harriot took up serious astronomical research. In 1607 he and his pupil Sir William Lower (1570 – 1615) made accurate observations of Comet Halley. This led Lower to become the first to suggest in 1610 after they had both read Kepler’s Astronomia Nova that the paths of comets orbits, a hot topic of discussion in the astronomical community of the times, were Keplerian ellipses. Harriot and Lower are considered to be the earliest Keplerian astronomers, accepting Kepler’s theories almost immediately on publication. In 1609 Harriot became probably the first practicing astronomer to make systematic observations of the heavens with the new Dutch instrument invented in the previous year, the telescope. On 26 July 1609 he made a sketch of the moon using a telescope with a magnification of 6.
This was several weeks before Galileo first turned a telescope towards the heavens. It should in fairness be pointed out that, unlike Galileo, Harriot did not recognise the three dimensionality of the moons surface. However after seeing a copy of Sidereus Nuncius he drew maps of the moon that were much more complete and accurate than those of his Tuscan rival.
He also made the first systematic telescopic study of sunspots, which had he published would have spared Scheiner and Galileo their dispute over which of them had first observed sunspots. Harriot constructed very good telescopes and together with Lower, using one of Harriot’s instruments, continued a programme of observation. Harriot observing in London and Lower in Wales; the two of them comparing
there their results in a correspondence parts of which still exist. Harriot also observed the phases of Venus independently of Galileo. Had he published his astronomical work his impact would have been at least as great as that of the Tuscan mathematicus.
It should not be thought that being set up as he was by a rich benefactor that life was just plain sailing for Harriot. In 1603 Raleigh, with whom he was still in close contact, was imprisoned in the Tower of London for treason. He was tried, found guilty and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to imprisonment and he remained in the Tower until 1616. In 1605 he was joined in the Tower by Harriot’s new patron, Henry Percy, together with Harriot himself. Percy had been arrested on suspicion because his second cousin, Thomas Percy, who was also the manager of his Syon estate, was one of the principals in the Gunpowder Plot. Harriot it seems was arrested simply because of his connections to Henry Percy and was released without charge within a couple of months. Percy was also never charged, although he was fined a fortune for his cousin’s involvement and remained imprisoned in the Tower until 1621. Percy was an immensely rich man and rented Martin Tower where he set up home even installing a bowling alley. Over the years Harriot regularly visited his two patrons in their stately prison where the three of them discussed scientific problems even conducting some experiments. This was certainly one of the most peculiar scientific societies ever.
Like most astronomers of the time Harriot was also very interested in physical optics because of the role that atmospheric refraction plays in astronomical observations. Harriot discovered the sine law of refraction twenty years before Willebrord Snel after whom the law is usually named. Although Harriot corresponded with Kepler on this very subject, after he had discovered the law, he never revealed his discovery again missing the chance to enter the history of science hall of fame.
Like his contemporaries Galileo and Stevin Harriot was very interested in dynamics and although he failed to abandon the Aristotelian concept that heavier bodies fall faster than lighter ones, his analysis of projectiles in flight is more advanced than Galileo’s. Harriot separately analysed the vertical and horizontal components of the projectiles’ flight and came very close to inventing vector analysis. One historian of science places Harriot’s achievements in dynamics between those of Galileo and Newton but once again he failed to publish.
Harriot’s greatest achievement was probably his algebra book, which was without doubt the most advanced work on the subject produced in the first half of the sixteenth century. It was superior to Viète’s work on the subject although there are some questions as to how much exchange took place between the two men’s efforts, as Nathaniel Torporley an associate of Harriot’s who would become one of his mathematical executors had earlier been Viète’s amanuensis. Harriot gave a complete analysis of the solution of simple algebraic equations that was well in advance of anything previously published. His algebra book was the only one of his works other than his Virginia pamphlet that was actually published if only posthumously. Unfortunately his mathematical executors Torporley and Walter Warner did not understand his innovations and removed them before publication. Even in its castrated form the book was very impressive. The real nature of his work in algebra was obviously known to his near contemporaries leading to John Wallis accusing Descartes of having plagiarised Harriot in his Géométrie. An accusation that probably had more to do with Wallis’ dislike of the French than any real intellectual theft, although Harriot’s work is certainly on a level with the Frenchman’s.
Mathematician, cartographer, navigator, anthropologist, linguist, astronomer, optical physicist, natural philosopher Thomas Harriot was a polymath of astounding breadth and in almost all that he attempted of significant depth. However, for reasons that are still not clear today he chose to publish next to nothing of a life’s work devoted to science. Had he published he would without doubt now be considered a member of the pantheon of gods of the so-called scientific revolution but because he chose not to he suffered the fate of all academics who don’t publish, he perished. | <urn:uuid:12514a1e-0fbc-439a-b119-2c963ff554a3> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | https://thonyc.wordpress.com/2013/07/05/he-didnt-published-and-so-he-perished-historically/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550249595829.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190224044113-20190224070113-00266.warc.gz | en | 0.98393 | 2,358 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Making Sedimentary Rocks!
|Students make a model of sedimentary rock layers to understand how rocks form layers and represent ancient environments.||Materials:
For each group:
|Windows to the Universe staff member Lisa Gardiner based this activity on one by teacher/naturalist Edith Sisson (author of Nature with Children of All Ages).|
|50 minutes or several class periods|
Student Learning Outcomes:
|Hands on activity or demonstration with participation|
National Standards Addressed:
- Review what a sedimentary rock is. Review common types of sedimentary rocks (sandstone, conglomerate, shale and limestone).
- Have students stack papers on their desk. Ask them which paper got there first (A: the one on the bottom). Sedimentary rocks form in the same way, in layers, with the older ones at the bottom.
- Tell class that during this project they will simulate (or model) what happens over hundreds of thousands to millions of years as sedimentary rocks are formed in layers in different environments.
- Discuss what a model is. (Examples of models: model airplane, dolls, dinosaur model, video games)
- Divide students into groups of about 4.
- For each of the environments in the table below (river, beach, shallow and deep ocean):
- Have students describe from their experience what the environment is like. What sorts of things do they think they would see there?
- After describing an environment, have student groups choose which of the materials they would include in their milk carton to represent that environment (these items are listed in the second and third columns of the table).
- Have students fill one of their cups about 2/3 full of the appropriate sediment and associated fossils.
- Mix plaster with water according to manufacturers directions. Have each student group fill the remainder of their cup with plaster and stir. Explain that this is much faster than rocks are actually made. The plaster acts like the cement that holds real sedimentary rocks together.
- Have each group put sediment mixed with plaster into their milk carton and pat it down to form a flat layer.
- Start the next environment in the table by the same process. Make sure that student groups do not mix different layers or shake their milk carton. Mix plaster in small batches (one for each environment) to avoid it drying too quickly. For the limestone layer, mix plaster a little more watery than usual because chalk will absorb water. The plaster of the first layer does not need to be dry before adding the next. If it is really soupy, sprinkle a little dry plaster on the top before adding the next layer.
- After plaster has dried (about 20 minutes), take the layers of sedimentary rock out of the milk carton. (You may need to rip the milk carton off!)
- Have student groups rub it lightly with very fine sand paper and draw what the layers of "rock" look like in their notebook (noting colors, textures, and other features in the margins of their picture). Show them images of real rock layers from places like the Grand Canyon, southern Utah, or something closer to home.
- If your class has already covered types of sedimentary rocks, ask students to identify the types of sedimentary rocks present in their model, even though they are not real.
- Ask students to recall which types of environments each rock type represents. If the environment in this one spot changed over time from a river to a beach to a shallow ocean to a deep ocean what must have happened? Sea level rise!
- Extension: Have students be paleontologists and dig for fossils in the layers of rock. Where would you expect to find the most clamshell fossils? Fish fossils? Use picks, chisels and small hammers to find them.
EXTENSIONS:Have students be paleontologists and dig for fossils in the layers of rock. Where would you expect to find the most clamshell fossils? Fish fossils? Use picks, chisels and small hammers to find them.
Sea level changes can be caused when either the land level sinks (called subsidence) or when the water level rises, or when both processes are happening together. Water level can rise because glaciers melt, adding water to the oceans, or when plate tectonic movements shallow the ocean basins displacing water onto the edges of continents. It is a natural process that has gone on since there have been oceans on Earth!
This activity works best when students have already reviewed types of sedimentary rocks (conglomerate, sandstone, shale, and limestone). Note that the same rock types can form in several different environments. This is a good topic of discussion, especially if students recognize that the soil is potting soil found on land. Shale that forms in swampy floodplain areas can look very much like shale that is from the ocean floor or even shale from a lake bottom. Fossils are a good way to tell the difference. Similarly, sand dunes formed in the desert are made out of sandstone just like the beach sand (and not all beaches are made of sand). One must be a detective to figure out what past environments were like!
For a shorter demonstration version of this activity, omit the plaster and milk cartons and tell students the story of changing environments as you add layers of sediment and "fossils" to a rectangular fish tank (or any container that you can see through). They are able to see the layers right away, although the connection to sedimentary rocks might be more of a challenge.
|Environment||Type of Sediment||Biological remains you might find there||Rock type produced|
|Bottom of the shallow ocean||Silt/mud||shells fish||shale|
|Bottom of the deep ocean||Crushed white chalk||few shells, fish||limestone|
RELATED SECTIONS OF THE WINDOWS TO THE UNIVERSE WEBSITE: | <urn:uuid:aee42896-1ca9-4c66-9fec-978a82fcbbb1> | CC-MAIN-2015-11 | http://www.windows2universe.org/teacher_resources/teach_makerock.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-11/segments/1424936463458.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20150226074103-00084-ip-10-28-5-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925639 | 1,222 | 4.375 | 4 |
Photo © Craig Mackintosh
Marcin Gerwin: Permaculture is currently hardly known in Poland. Could you explain what it is?
Geoff Lawton: Permaculture is a design science. It’s a system that supplies all the needs of humanity — all the basic needs and all the intricate needs — in a way that also benefits the environment. It works from the intimate small space of human habitat right up to the broad, damaged ecosystems which can be repaired with the design science system.
To learn it you need to go through the training course so that you can understand all the disciplines and how they connect together, because it’s a holistic design science where multiple disciplines connect together — similar to an ecosystem. It’s like an ecosystem of knowledge where the connections are more important than the actual disciplines, so that you can understand how you can integrate not only living systems but also built infrastructure in a way that all elements within the matrix are benefited by overall design.
MG: Could it be useful in a city also?
GL: You especially need permaculture in a city. It’s even more beneficial in a city than it is in a rural landscape. You can design your city block to consume less energy and to consume less water. You can grow sprouts or mushrooms. If you have a balcony you can produce more per square meter on a balcony than you can on any land. We have people here in a city producing 70 kg of food on 20 square meters of balcony. That’s 3.5 kg per square meter and 35,000 kg on a hectare.
But permaculture is not about growing systems alone. It’s about how we deal with our waste, how we deal with our energy, how we deal with our built infrastructure and our housing, and how we trade and act in a way where we are socially responsible. So only a small part of it is about growing systems or animal systems. A lot of it comes down also to invisible structures of community. Permaculture is taught in schools, as a subject. It’s in community groups also — they use permaculture as a guideline to ethically interact so that their actions are beneficial to the environment and to each other. Surplus is returned to environmental care and people care. People are reducing their energy, water and waste, as they choose materials that have low embodied energy. People have their own small gardens, they take pride in streetscapes — there are permaculture streets, and there are the community gardens and parks which engage in permaculture design.
MG: Permaculture streets sound interesting.
GL: They are streets that have controlled runoff of water from the hard surfaces towards the growing systems. They have fruit trees, food plants, functional plants. They also have compost receptacles, they have waste systems set up so that people can recycle and reuse. There are interactions between gardens — gardens open up to other gardens. They share their landscape. There are also streets that harvest wind, because they have an orientation that creates a wind tunnel, or streets with solar aspect for solar electricity. Whatever way we can apply permaculture within a streetscape that already exists, then we’ll retrofit that street so that it becomes more functional. New streets are designed so that they are more environmentally friendly and people friendly.
MG: How can you apply permaculture in parks? Would it mean growing edible plants or just ornamental ones?
GL: All of that. You can have edible plants, edible trees, you can have a low-energy landscape — which means you don’t need much lawn-mowing, chemicals or fertilizers. They are also people friendly — people can enjoy the environment there — they can also have water systems or wildlife-friendly areas so that rare and endangered species can have a habitat. Water harvesting is often included — usually it would be water runoff from the surrounding streetscape. And they would have an educational element for children and visitors.
MG: In many cities in Poland there are problems with floods. Can you use permaculture to prevent flooding?
GL: Yes. It has actually been done in Europe over the centuries with willow and in warmer climates you would use large clumping bamboos. You take harmonic planting belts outwards from the river through the flood plain and water going through the willows slows down and drops its organic matter on the upstream side and deposits sand and silt on the lower side. So you create a harmonic deposition belt. The sand and silt is a perfect combination for a growing media. You raise the level of the land with natural deposition by planning in a harmonic pattern.
MG: Do you think that keeping lawns, which is popular in cities, is a good idea?
GL: If it’s just a statement of landscape fashion then it’s a rather foolish thing to do, because it consumes a lot of energy. Often more chemicals and water are used on lawns than on agriculture. Lawns are often even more damaging than conventional agriculture. Obviously, we need lawns for recreation and open space, but we could limit a lot of lawns and convert them to food production and back to natural habitat. We could graze lawns as well, to some degree. We don’t have to use machinery. We also don’t need to use chemical fertilizers as much as we do. The lawn has become a statement of arrogance and exploitation — “I can exploit the environment and make it look like I’m a wealthy person”. We could have small lawns so people can feel comfortable in an environment where they are close to wilderness, but we don’t need ridiculous amounts of them. And grazing animals can provide us with something that looks like a lawn.
MG: Grazing animals in a city could be rather controversial for some residents. Many people don’t see the potential of agriculture in the city.
GL: If you look at the city you have a lot of intricate, very high value and extremely diverse microspaces which you can use. Then there is a peri-urban agriculture which surrounds the city. In a well-designed city a lot of waste products, the storm water runoff, organic waste and sewage waste can be directed towards a peri-urban agriculture. But threaded through that are the grazing systems. They can actually thread right through the city if you like. Then you have the rangeland outside of that, and threaded through that is the farm forestry and large forestry systems extending out from there. So forestry and wilderness thread together on the outer edges and come in through the grazing land which can be corridors throughout the city. Then the city can have high-value urban agriculture integrated right through it. And that urban agriculture can have great functional benefits for the city in terms of microclimate.
This interview first appeared in Dziennik Opinii in Poland. | <urn:uuid:05ab88fb-281d-473b-b00f-89cc751e3f9e> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://www.resilience.org/stories/2014-02-19/permaculture-in-the-cities-an-interview-with-geoff-lawton/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710789.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20221201021257-20221201051257-00546.warc.gz | en | 0.962022 | 1,430 | 2.796875 | 3 |
No doubt you’ve heard of CoEnzyme Q10 (CoQ10). It’s been around for a long time and the continually growing body of research surrounding it often focuses on its cardiovascular benefits.
CoQ10 is made throughout the body and because of its ‘ubiquitous’ distribution, it’s also known as Ubiquinone. CoQ10 is found concentrated inside the mitochondria, or ‘powerhouses’ of the cells where it plays a vital role in the creation of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the body’s energy ‘currency’.
One area of intense research into CoQ10 is the heart – some of the most energy-dependent tissue in the body (the heart never gets a rest!), cardiac muscle cells contain some of the highest concentrations of Coq10 in the body. Several studies have shown benefit from the enzyme in cardiac-related disease, such as angina, hypertension, heart attacks, and most recently heart failure.
Cholesterol-lowering statin drugs are notorious for inhibiting the body’s creation of Coq10, and people taking statins are encouraged to supplement with Coq10.
Newer research looking at Coq10’s benefits for athletes also supports its role in this population. Back to the energy-producing benefits, Coq10 is being researched for its energy-restorative capabilities in endurance athletes.
A recent example of this showed that in trained athletes, supplementing with Coq10 led to a slight, yet statistically significant increase in power production compared to a placebo. You can learn more by reading Journal of the International Society of Sports Medicine.
Older athletes stand to gain the most from supplementing with Coq10, as aging reduces the numbers of mitochondria in the cells and in turn amounts of Coq10. Higher amounts of Coq10 in fewer mitochondria may compensate for their lower numbers.
An oft-repeated argument against taking supplements is; why I can’t I just eat more foods that contain this substance, rather than taking a pill?
And I’ll answer you by saying yes, you can. There are foods you can eat that contain CoQ10, however the amounts found in them are very small. A serving of animal products (fish, beef, chicken, etc.) contains just a few milligrams of CoQ10. It's also found in oils, nuts, seeds, fruits, and veggies in even smaller amounts.
While all of the above are healthful foods, the amount of CoQ10 found in them isn’t nearly enough to replicate the benefits of supplemental doses similar to those used in studies (which numbers in the 100’s of milligrams, several times daily). Studies have shown that higher amounts produce superior benefits.
There are two main forms of CoQ10 - ubiquinone and ubiquinol. Ubiquinol is often advertised as a better (and more expensive) form due to its supposed greater bioavailability (ability to be absorbed in the gut). It turns out however, that this isn’t entirely true, yet the consumer pays much more for this form. Stick with ubiquinone; it is just as effective without the added price.
So, if you’re looking for a safe way to increase your energy levels, you should consider supplementing with Coq10. Because I’m doing a lot of training this year, I’ll be taking a 120mg capsule, three times a day.
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In 2006, at the age of 36, Heather Von St. James gave birth to her daughter, Lily Rose. Just three months later, she was diagnosed with mesothelioma–startling news for someone so young. Heather had been exposed to asbestos second-hand as a child when her father would return home from work with his clothing covered in asbestos dust. Heather often wore his coat, and in the process she unwittingly breathed in the fibers. With strong faith, support from a host of family and friends, and a vibrant sense of humor, Heather emerged from a multi-month course of treatment healthy and cancer-free.
Mavis describes herself as an ordinary woman who married a shipwright. For 48 years, she washed her husband’s clothes when he came home from work, never knowing that the dust on his jacket was full of deadly asbestos. In June 2009, Mavis was diagnosed with mesothelioma and given only three months to live. Chemotherapy worked to extend her life for another year beyond that, but eventually the tumors started growing again. However, she was given a new lease on life through an immunotherapy trial, which has kept her cancer free much longer than expected.
Paul Cowley and his wife Claire could hardly believe it when they got the news that he had pleural mesothelioma. He was only 34, much younger than most people diagnosed with this rare and deadly form of cancer. Being so young, Paul was able to attempt an aggressive multimodal treatment regimen that included multiple avenues of attack against the cancer. Paul has beaten the odds by surviving beyond five years – a feat that only 9% of mesothelioma patients accomplish.
Paul Kraus has lived with peritoneal mesothelioma for nearly two decades. Born into a Nazi labor camp in Austria, he escaped as an infant with his mother and brother and soon emigrated with his family to Australia. Asbestos is prevalent in Australia, and as a result, the country suffers from some of the highest rates of mesothelioma in the world. Mr. Kraus was exposed as a youth on a summer job he took in 1962. The cancer was latent until 1997 at which time he was diagnosed and given just weeks to live.
Stephen Jay Gould
One of the most popular scientific authors of recent times, evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould, authored more than 20 books on a variety of scientific subjects, and published hundreds of essays in Natural History magazine. Gould lived for twenty years after being diagnosed with mesothelioma in 1982. After his diagnosis, he wrote an essay, The Median Isn’t the Message, about his reaction to the news and to the realization that half of all mesothelioma patients died within eight months of diagnosis. His essay has been cited as a source of comfort and hope by many cancer victims.
Asbestos Exposure and Cancer
Asbestos exposure is the primary cause of mesothelioma cancer. Inhaled or ingested asbestos fibers may cause an inflammation of internal tissue and disrupt organ function which leads to the development of mesothelioma. Asbestos products were used extensively in the 20th century throughout the United States, in a wide variety of applications.
Asbestos companies continued to produce these products even after they were known to be hazardous to workers. These products were responsible for asbestos exposure sustained by the individuals who manufactured them as well as those who used them. Renovation and construction both at home and in schools also poses high risk areas for exposure. People also may have been exposed to asbestos-contaminated talc in baby powder
Many workers were put at risk at commercial and industrial locations including refineries, power plants, steel mills, auto production facilities and large construction sites. Some of the occupations of workers at risk include electricians, plumbers, boilermakers, carpenters, mechanics, machinists and more. Additionally, if you lived with someone who was regularly exposed to asbestos and washed their clothes, you could be at risk for second hand asbestos exposure.
Have a Question about Mesothelioma? Ask Jennifer
Ask a question and Jennifer will respond to you promptly.
Meet Attorney Jennifer Lucarelli:
- Advocate for over 1,000 mesothelioma victims
- Knowledge of Navy shipyard asbestos exposure
- Well versed in the latest mesothelioma treatment options
- Experience with the VA disability claim filing process
Veterans and Mesothelioma
Although rare, mesothelioma affects veterans from all branches of service: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard. As mesothelioma has a long latency period and can remain dormant for several decades, veterans who served our country from 1930 through 1980 are just now being diagnosed with the disease.
Navy veterans who worked in navy shipyards and or served on our nation's aircraft carriers, battleships, destroyers, submarines and warship from WWII through the Vietnam War were exposed to high concentrations of deadly asbestos and are at a high risk for developing asbestos-related cancer. Boiler rooms, engine rooms, sleeping quarters, and other areas of naval vessels were the most common areas where asbestos was present.
Some prominent shipyards where asbestos was prevalent include Brooklyn Navy Yard, Norfolk Navy Shipyard, Long Beach Naval Shipyard and Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. Financial assistance and help with VA Benefits is available to veterans diagnosed with mesothelioma.
Mesothelioma Legal Help
Asbestos manufacturers and distributors made a concerted effort to hide the dangers of asbestos from the public, while at the same time profiting heavily from the sale and manufacture of harmful asbestos products. Those suffering from Mesothelioma can seek compensation from the manufacturers of asbestos and asbestos-containing products by hiring a competent mesothelioma lawyer.
When deciding whether or not you should pursue your legal rights, you should think about the following three things. First, asbestos manufacturers had knowledge of the dangers of asbestos and knowingly put hardworking men and women at risk. Second, treatment for mesothelioma can be very expensive. Third, by exercising your legal rights, you can protect your loved ones in the future.
Once you make the decision to pursue your rights, a competent asbestos attorney will maximize recovery from both viable and bankrupt asbestos defendants. Over 65 asbestos trusts have been established holding billions of dollars combined across them. These asbestos trust funds have been set aside to help compensate those workers who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma cancer or other asbestos-related diseases.
The legal process to compensate mesothelioma victims is not overly burdensome and should be strongly considered to help offset treatment costs and to provide financial security for loved ones. | <urn:uuid:5309ca32-7183-4d4d-8409-0ddd81d0fadd> | CC-MAIN-2018-17 | https://www.mesothelioma.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125936833.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20180419091546-20180419111546-00044.warc.gz | en | 0.96236 | 2,025 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Bagpipes use ferrules as metal caps or bands at various locations on the pipes that extend from the soft body of the instrument. They are made of various metals, depending on the decorative needs and budget of the player. Like other metal objects, ferrules require polishing to maintain a shiny, reflective, and uncorroded appearance. Polishing methods and supplies are dependent on the type of metal from which the ferrule is made.
Polishing Broze Ferrules
Bronze is an alloy made of copper and tin. It will oxidize when exposed to air, resulting in a green accumulation called a patina. Commercial bronze polishes are effective, but in their absence, homemade ones will work as well. Bronze polishes are usually pastes that you apply, let sit and then remove with a rubbing action. Follow the instructions on the container if using a commercial polish. Homemade cleaning pastes can sit for 20 to 30 minutes before removal. One homemade bronze cleaning paste consists of baking soda with lemon juice added until it reaches a toothpaste-like consistency. An alternative recipe mixes equal parts of flour and salt with vinegar added until it reaches paste consistency. Cleaning the bronze before polishing helps remove dirt. Drying the bronze after cleaning or polishing is essential to prevent quicker oxidizing. Bronze is a soft metal and therefore vulnerable to scratches or marks if over-polished
Polishing Aluminum Ferrules
To clean aluminum ferrules, begin with simple dish soap and water applied with a soft cloth to remove any dirt buildup. Dry promptly thereafter. Then apply a cleaning paste, either commercial or made of cream of tartar and water. Spread the paste on the aluminum with a soft cloth, using circular movements. For embossed or carved designs, use a soft toothbrush for detailed cleaning. Rinse and dry and then finish by applying an aluminum polish. Aluminum, like bronze, is a soft metal and vulnerable to scratches. To prevent streaks or discoloration, do not use baking soda or cleaners that are alkali-based.
Polishing Nickel Ferrules
Nickel-based ferrules respond well to a variety of cleaning substances. Commercial nickel polishes are always a safe bet. In their absence, solutions of one part vinegar to four parts water or 25 percent ammonia to 75 percent water are also effective. Individual substances such as cola or oven cleaner also yield positive results when applied and removed like a polish.
Polishing Silver Ferrules
Silver ferrules require special care when polishing or storing due to the delicate nature of silver and its reactivity to various substances. Commercial polishes or cleaners are the safest option. Follow the instructions on the container carefully, as over-exposure to certain cleaning substances can have extremely negative effects. Silver reacts to phosphates and sulfurs, including those found in plastics and rubbers.
- Hemera Technologies/PhotoObjects.net/Getty Images | <urn:uuid:988d38d8-c574-4509-919f-5cd015ff9f1f> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://entertainmentguide.local.com/polishing-ferrules-bagpipes-5511.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1414119646425.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20141024030046-00054-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920595 | 597 | 2.75 | 3 |
by Kathy Mastako, Member, Board of Directors, Point San Luis Lighthouse Keepers
When the fourth-order Fresnel lens purchased for Point San Luis was installed in 1890, it alternated between red and white flashes every half-minute. The color was produced by ruby glass screens attached to every other one of the lens’s ten flash panels.
The light had been a long time coming. As far back as 1880—perhaps even before—shipping companies had been clamoring for a light, either on Whaler’s Island or on the mainland. Agents for the Pacific Coast Steamship Company petitioned Congress in 1881, arguing that a light would not only benefit vessels entering San Luis Bay but also ships passing up and down the coast. The steamship company pointed to the unfortunate absence of any light between Piedras Blancas and Point Conception, “leaving a space of about forty miles which is not illuminated by the rays of either of these lights.” The company even went so far as to install its own private light and employ a man to tend it. How long this arrangement lasted is unknown.
At about the same time the steamship company was writing to Congress, the Queen of the Pacific was being built in Philadelphia:
“There is now on the stocks and nearly completed at the yard of Cramp and Sons…a splendid iron steamship for the Pacific Coast Steamship Company, for service on the [Pacific] coast…she will be the strongest and finest specimen of marine architecture under the American flag…”
—San Luis Obispo Tribune, November 12, 1881
In 1882, while waiting to see if Congress would appropriate funds for a navigation aid for San Luis Bay, the lighthouse board considered whether Whaler’s Island or the mainland would be a more suitable site. Discussion also started about what type of light would be best. An 1880 lighthouse board report had recommended a third-order lens with a fixed white flash. In 1884, however, the twelfth district lighthouse engineer had other thoughts and wrote to the board’s chairman:
As the steamers passing are always bound into the Port Harford roadstead, and as the coast both north and south is free from outlying dangers, the light does not need to be visible from any considerable distance, and I am now of the opinion that a fourth-order [lens] would suffice. As Piedras Blancas to the north is fixed white varied by white flashes, and Point Conception to the south is flashing white every thirty seconds, it would seem desirable to introduce red at San Luis as a better distinction.
The engineer noted that the lighthouse board’s supply depot on Yerba Buena Island, Ca. had a fourth-order revolving lens in stock:
…sent out here as a temporary substitute for Point Conception during the changes at that station. It is arranged for flashes at intervals of thirty seconds; by making each alternative one red, the requirement of the new station would seem to be fulfilled, and an important saving effected.
Absent any money to establish a light, the lighthouse board nevertheless continued to discuss its location, going back and forth about whether Whaler’s Island or “San Luis head” would be the better site and whether it would be better to put a fog signal on the island and a light on the mainland. The federal government, by executive action, had acquired Whaler’s Island and planned to purchase thirty acres on the mainland from John Harford.
In 1887, the matter was settled. The lighthouse board determined both a fog signal and a light should be placed on the mainland. Congress appropriated fifty thousand dollars for the project. The board agreed the light should flash red and white alternately at thirty-second intervals. The twelfth district lighthouse inspector told the board, once again, “a fourth-order lens and revolving apparatus flashing white every thirty seconds is now stored in the depot at Yerba Buena and could be inexpensively modified here to serve the purpose.”
However, before the lighthouse board decided to give the go-ahead to build a light station, a near-catastrophe occurred. On April 30, 1888, at 8 a.m., the Queen of the Pacific groped her way into Port Harford, having sprung a leak:
Before dawn, the steamer listed so badly that it was difficult to walk the decks, and when the port was reached, the railing on the upper deck was submerged, and when within about thirty yards of the wharf, the steamer settled to the bottom in about twenty feet of water. Some two hundred and forty passengers were aboard, and all reached shore in safety. During the voyage, the ocean was unusually smooth, which accounts for the happy termination of the affair. Had a rough sea prevailed, it is quite probable there would have been considerable loss of life.
—San Francisco Bulletin, April 30, 1888.
The sinking of the Queen seemed to fast-track, putting a fog signal and light at Point San Luis. The following month, the government acquired title to Harford’s thirty acres. The twelfth district engineer began drawing up plans. In 1899, the engineer solicited bids to build the light station and awarded the contract to George Kenney of Santa Barbara.
In November 1899, the lighthouse board asked the engineer in charge of the supply depot on Staten Island, N.Y., to fit up a fourth-order lens in its inventory with ruby glass panels to make it flash both red and white. Perhaps the lens once in stock at Yerba Buena Island had been deployed somewhere else. The lens at Staten Island was made by Sautter Lemonnier in France in 1878 and was numbered 325. Its various pieces—lens, clock, flash panels, pedestal, service table, lamps, and fitments—were contained in five cases, numbered 991 through 995. The cases were shipped from New York to San Francisco, then to Point San Luis.
On June 3, 1890, the lighthouse board issued a Notice to Mariners:
Notice is hereby given that, on or about June 30, 1890, a light of the fourth order, showing red and white flashes alternately, with intervals of thirty seconds between flashes, will be exhibited from the structure recently erected at San Luis Obispo.
Almost from the start, there was concern about how far out to sea the red flashes could be seen. The red glass was too dense and not the proper shade. The suggested remedy, to insert panels of clearer red glass like the panels in use at Point Sur, could not be achieved. Better quality red glass could not be found.
Finally, in 1912—twenty-two years after the light was first lit—the Bureau of Lighthouses approved changing the “characteristic,” or flash pattern, of the light by removing the red glass screens. About September 10, 1912, its characteristic was changed to flashing white only, every twenty seconds.
In November 1915, Point San Luis Keeper William Smith traveled to San Francisco to take charge of the lighthouse exhibit at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition for three weeks.
Keepers chosen to staff the lighthouse exhibit were selected by the Pacific Coast’s lighthouse district inspectors as a reward for faithful service. The keeper’s job was to care for and explain the equipment on display.
Smith returned to Point San Luis in early December. On December 2, 1915, the acting commissioner of lighthouses wrote to the third district inspector in charge of the Staten Island supply depot, suggesting the eighteenth (formerly twelfth) district inspector could use the modern fourth-order lens in the lighthouse exhibit if it was not intended for use after the Exposition ended. The eighteenth district inspector wanted it for Point San Luis “where a stronger light is required.”
Perhaps Smith had the ear of the eighteenth district inspector while he was tending the lighthouse exhibit and pressed his case for needing a better lens, suggesting that Point San Luis should be given the modern lens after the Exposition was over.
The third district inspector replied right away, stating that the new lens had been purchased specifically for the Exposition, and there was no requisition the supply depot had received that would require its use elsewhere. “If the Bureau does not desire to keep the exhibit intact, this office sees no objection to the lens, clock, and pedestal being used by the 18th inspector.”
The offer, however, was not without strings. The eighteenth district inspector could have the apparatus, but he would have to pay for it. This apparently was a deal-breaker. Point San Luis never got the Exposition lens; the original fourth-order lens, the one manufactured in France in 1878, remained in the lighthouse tower.
The lens flashed its welcoming beam from 1890 until 1974 when an automated beacon was installed on the lighthouse grounds. In 1976, the lens was moved for safekeeping to the museum in San Luis Obispo’s historic Carnegie library. In 1999, it was moved again, this time to the nearby San Luis Obispo city-county library. Finally, in 2010, it was returned to Point San Luis and installed in a special room inside the fog signal building, where docents explain its history and operation to guests taking lighthouse tours.
Those interested in viewing the lens can do so as part of a docent-led virtual tour. Public tours run Wednesdays at 2 p.m. (my805ix.com); private tours can be arranged (firstname.lastname@example.org). | <urn:uuid:7de1acbb-1abb-4c8c-a6a3-e4455402e519> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://avilabeachlifenews.com/news/local-news/the-beacon-on-the-bluff/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038476606.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20210418103545-20210418133545-00418.warc.gz | en | 0.967876 | 1,984 | 2.71875 | 3 |
A 6,000-year-old partial skull found in what is now Papua New Guinea represents one of the earliest examples of human remains from the Pacific Islands region, and now it has additional significance: New research shows the skull may represent the first known evidence of a tsunami victim.
For decades, scientists suspected that there was something unusual about the sedimentary deposits near the small town of Aitape (EYE’-tuh-PAY’) where the skull was discovered in 1929, and researchers recently revisited the site to dig a little deeper into the dirt where the skull had been buried.
They realized that certain patterns in the sediments displayed the trademark “fingerprints” of an ancient tsunami — an enormous and powerful wave that forms after massive disturbances in the ocean floor, such as earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, often devastating coastal regions. Thousands of years ago, a tsunami likely carried the skull to that spot, and it may have even claimed the person’s life, the scientists reported in a new study.
Tsunamis, which can crest at heights topping 1,700 feet (518 meters) above sea level, are among the deadliest natural disasters in the world. In 2004, an Indian Ocean tsunami followed hard on the heels of a magnitude-9.1 earthquake, inundating parts of South Asia and East Africa and killing 243,000 people. Geologic evidence shows that tsunamis have been occurring for thousands of years, and scientists are looking closely at the patterns these events left behind, to better understand the risks that we may face today, the study authors wrote.
When a tsunami sweeps over the coast, it carries mud, plants and sea life from ocean depths, leaving them behind when it recedes. To geologists, these particles stand out like beacons indicating a tsunami’s passage, study co-author John Terrell, a curator of Pacific anthropology at The Field Museum in Chicago, told Live Science.
Tsunamis also surge and ebb very quickly, which means that the layers of sediment they deposit demonstrate disturbance patterns that differ from other sedimentary layers that formed over a typical geologic timescale, Terrell explained. In the case of the Aitape skull — which was found about 8 miles (13 kilometers) inland from the coast — it was clear to the researchers that the landscape at the time had been scoured, and then something had been deposited.
“This coastline is a cliff with mountains behind it, so you’d expect to see muds gradually building up,” Terrell said. “And then you suddenly come across a layer like this, which is weird.”
Sifting the sands
Though the Aitape skull had been well-studied, less was known about its resting place. In 2014, the study authors collected dirt samples from the site. They examined the size and chemical composition of sediment grains and studied fossils of microscopic ocean organisms in greater detail than had been done previously, turning to radiocarbon dating to pinpoint the period when the sediment layer had appeared.
They concluded that the deposits not only bore the hallmarks of a tsunami, but also that the event corresponded with the age of the Aitape skull, suggesting that the individual could have been a victim of a powerful natural disaster.
“After considering a range of possible scenarios, we believe that, on the balance of the evidence, the individual was either killed directly in the tsunami, or was buried just before it hit and the remains were redeposited,” study lead author and paleo-tsunami expert James Goff, a professor at the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, said in a statement.
But there’s far more to this story than just an isolated incident of a deadly tsunami and its potential victim. During this period — roughly 3,000 to 7,000 years ago — Earth was undergoing very rapid environmental changes, with significant impacts on human societies and their adaptation to living in coastal areas, said study co-author Mark Golitko, an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame.
“Sea levels were stabilizing after the ice ages, the climate was beginning to stabilize and these coastal environments were first forming,” Golitko told Live Science.
In fact, what was formerly a steep cliff coastline in Papua New Guinea likely became accessible to people for the first time due to rising sea levels, Terrell said. Meanwhile, newly forming lagoons, river deltas and lakes transformed coastlines into places where people wanted to live, he said.
Hazards in paradise
But life on the coast came with hazards, too. Coastal communities were highly vulnerable to tsunamis and were also subjected to the cycle of droughts and drenching rains brought by climate patterns El Niño and La Niña, Terrell told Live Science.
“It looks like paradise,” he said. “But if we’re right about the frequency of tsunamis, and if we add in the periods of drought and periods of incredible rain associated with El Niño and La Niña, then it suddenly begins to look like you’re kind of trapped.”
Studying this region and its clues from the past could help researchers better understand the strategies used by people thousands of years ago to mitigate these environmental risks, and could hold important lessons for addressing similar risks faced by coastal communities today, Golitko added.
“This is a story that has thousands of years of history that we’re still seeing today,” Golitko said. “It’s a great place to live on one hand, and it’s a really bad place to live on another — and that’s something that has a resonant message for the modern age.”
The findings were published online today (Oct. 25) in the journal PLOS ONE.
Original article on Live Science. | <urn:uuid:9f5ed84e-8ab8-404c-a6cb-9ed12c3867a2> | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | https://originalpeople.org/this-6000-year-old-skull-may-be-from-earliest-known-tsunami-victim/?add-to-cart=35150 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107875980.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20201021035155-20201021065155-00697.warc.gz | en | 0.962543 | 1,240 | 4.125 | 4 |
By David Van Dyk
There are instances of failure and success throughout the history of United Nations peacekeeping operations. The instances of the UN Assistance Mission in Rwanda in 1994 and the UN Protection Force at Srebrenica in 1995 are difficult chapters in a complicated past. In contrast, the success of the UN in stabilizing East Timor in 1999 and early 2000 was realized by defeating pro-Indonesian militias and gaining the trust of the surrounding community fighting for independence. Additionally, the ongoing efforts of the United Nations in the Kashmir region (UNMOGIP) have been vital in keeping a volatile area from potentially exploding into nuclear war.
Another example of successful UN peacekeeping includes the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), forged from the fires of the 1978 war between Israel and PLO fighters operating from southern Lebanon. This UN mission was substantially enhanced in 2006 following a repeat of the conflict. It also included a historical development in UN peacekeeping, the establishment of the Maritime Task Force (MTF) attached to UNIFIL, the first such naval operation of its kind under the auspices of the United Nations.
Created in 2006, the MTF was designed to “support the Lebanese Navy in monitoring its territorial waters, secure the Lebanese coastline and prevent the unauthorized entry of arms or related materials by sea into Lebanon.”1 Additionally, the withdrawal of the Israeli blockade of Lebanon in September 2006 was brought about due to the existence of the MTF, assuaging Israeli fears of a rearmed Hezbollah due to unregulated sea traffic along the coast.2 The MTF gains its authority from UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1701 ending hostilities between the Israeli military and Hezbollah elements; yet the MTF found its true birth in a request of then-Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to the UN Secretariat for a naval force to help Lebanon patrol its coastline and train the country’s underdeveloped navy.3 This allowed not only for the eventual withdrawal of the Israeli blockade but also for the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) to try something new – deploying blue helmets on the high seas.
Officially, as noted above, the task of the MTF is to help Lebanon secure its coastline and sea traffic while helping train the Lebanese Navy. Unofficially, the MTF has provided an opportunity to a handful of nations in helping train their navies as well. Indeed, a Belgium commander of an MTF flagship, BNS Leopold I, noted in an interview in 2009, “The crew underwent an intensive training package covering the full range of warfare drills applicable for the envisaged mission and with emphasis on boarding operations as well as underway and alongside force protection.” No doubt the MTF has provided countries with a chance to showcase their abilities in a combined task force; when Belgium took over command of the MTF in April 2009, RADM Thierry Pynoo commented, “It is evident that we are willing to fulfill our international responsibilities towards securing stability in this region. It also shows that Belgium is highly regarded by the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, not in the least due to Belgium’s performances during former UN missions.”5
Yet the MTF is not all show and no action; far from it. Since operations began in 2006, the task force has hailed more than 90,000 ships and referred more than 12,000 to the Lebanese government for closer inspection.6 Additionally, the MTF as of 2018 conducted 713 training exercises with elements of the Lebanese Navy. These simulations cover a gamut of situations from boarding suspicious vessels to live-fire exercises. Furthermore, “these efforts are complemented with initiatives by other countries that provide capacity building and technical assistance, as well as radar and other naval materials on a bilateral basis.”7
Currently, a total of 15 countries have contributed resources to the MTF since 2006: Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey. The naval force is typically made up of 6-7 ships, with the flagship being Brazilian since 2011 when Brazil accepted command of the MTF from a rotating system of European countries. Brazil has been at the helm since, and has gained international attention for the country’s significant contributions and professional conduct in this operation.8
Since the decision to accept command of the MTF in 2011, Brazil has been recognized both by UNIFIL command and the international community. Major-General Michael Beary, having served from 2016 to 2018 as UNIFIL’s Head of Mission, commended the nation’s role in UNIFIL’s overall mission: “The sailors who patrol Lebanese waters under the flag of the UN are pathfinders [who have] developed a UN Doctrine on Maritime operations and proven to both the Security Council and the international community the benefits that the maritime domain can bring to peacekeeping operations. … I do not take this ongoing support for granted and I would like to thank both the Brazilian government and Navy for their continued commitment to UNIFIL.”9 Brazil has sought to position itself as a global player in international relations, emphasizing the rule of law and seeking diplomatic answers to international conflict. The foreign policy establishment in Brazil has pointed to the enduring interstate peace enjoyed in Latin America as proof of Brazil’s leadership in the region. Even with the escalating crisis in Venezuela, regional leaders have managed to hold at bay military interventions or saber-rattling, seeking humanitarian, diplomatic, or economic solutions.
In their leadership over the MTF, the Brazilian Navy has gained valuable training and insight from fellow countries, while sharing their own knowledge as well. This has contributed to a robust training program in Brazil, as crewmembers and ships rotate command on the MTF. As new crewmembers join the task force, the outgoing officers bring with them knowledge and abilities gained through their time on the MTF. These lessons are then implemented at Brazil’s dedicated program, the Brazilian Peacekeeping Operations Joint Center (CCOPAB). Even amid the relatively high costs and distant theatre of operations associated with UNIFIL MTF, scholar Adriana Erthal Abdenur, in International Peacekeeping, posited three main motivations for their continuing involvement: “projecting Brazil in international security; deepening bilateral relations with Lebanon; and naval capacity-building with a view to expanding Brazil’s role in the South Atlantic.”10 An early test for President Bolsanaro’s commitment to UN missions will center on his decision whether to continue his country’s leadership over the MTF.
With the documented successes of the UNIFIL MTF, the United Nations has been able to gain valuable insight into what it takes to operate and maintain a naval task force. Additionally, countries have shown a proven willingness to contribute to its budget and its fleet. While helping to secure peace on the Lebanese coastline, countries have been able to put navies to good use, gain international standing, and share best practices with partner alliances. While UNIFIL MTF will likely continue to operate well into the next few years, other maritime hotspots may also need to be addressed. A UN-led MTF becomes an attractive option when a targeted region is too tense for local actors or alliances to effectively manage certain security concerns.
As Jeremy Thompson points out in U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, the East China Sea has slowly but gradually deteriorated in stability; claims to the Senkaku Islands, currently administered by Japan, have been disputed by China and Taiwan.11 Maritime clashes involving fishing vessels and skirmishes between the three countries’ coast guards have been reported with increasing frequency.12 Diplomatic maneuvering over the islands has seen an uptick, especially with the outright purchase of the islands by the Japanese government in 2012. Oil exploration missions have often escalated to unhelpful saber-rattling, as seen in November 2004 when China sent a submarine near Japanese territory following a disagreement over an oil production platform operating in the East China Sea by Chinese oil companies. By January 2005, China had stationed two destroyers near the disputed area.13
China began its aggressive assertion over the islands when environmental reports conducted by the UN Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East in the late 1960s suggested a significant amount of oil, natural gas and mineral resources could be discovered and exploited in the region. Additionally, the waters around the islands are fertile fishing grounds, capable of providing a serious boost to the vibrant and competitive fishing industries already operating in the region. However, due to the political and military insecurity in the area, a truly stable environment has not been maintained to make the most of the fishery.
While there is not yet cause for alarmism, the potential for the East China Sea to devolve into inter-state warfare is present. Unlike the undeveloped state of the Lebanese Navy, the fleets of China, Taiwan and Japan are among the most advanced in the world. As such, the region needs to be addressed in a constructive and neutral manner by the United Nations Security Council, with an eye toward instituting a framework for a peaceful resolution of the dispute. The UN Secretariat should consider drafting an outline for establishing a maritime task force to operate in the East China Sea, and one that may be constituted of extra-regional naval forces.
The serious legwork has already been completed, thanks to the efforts of the UNIFIL MTF; as then-UNIFIL Head of Mission Beary noted, the UN has already developed a naval doctrine; now, the international community must give the doctrine a chance to branch out and improve on the accomplishments found in Lebanon.
David Van Dyk is an associate editor with the Center for International Maritime Security and a doctoral student at the Helms School of Government studying Public Policy with a focus in foreign policy. He has received a Master of Arts in Public Policy with a focus in international affairs. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org.
3. Lebanese Republic, ‘Letter of Prime Minister Siniora to Secretary-General Kofi Annan’, Beirut, 6 Sept. 2006
4. “Interview with Cdr Jean-Marc Claus, Commanding Officer Bns ‘Leopold I’, Flagship of Com Unifil Mtf 448.” Naval Forces 30, no. 2 (April 2009): 108.
5. “Scoop for the Belgian Navy.” Naval Forces 30, no. 2 (April 2009): 106.
7. “Rising Powers in Stormy Seas: Brazil and the UNIFIL Maritime Task Force.” International peacekeeping. 23, no. 3 (June 1, 2016): 389–415.
10. “Rising Powers in Stormy Seas: Brazil and the UNIFIL Maritime Task Force.” International peacekeeping. 23, no. 3 (June 1, 2016): 389–415.
11. Thompson, Jeremy. “Fly the U.N. Pennant Over East Asian Waters.” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 141, no. 9 (September 2015): 40–45.
Featured Image: UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander, Major General Michael Beary, addresses the audience at the event for International Day of Peace held at UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura, south Lebanon, Sept. 21, 2016. Photo by Pasqual Gorriz/UNIFIL | <urn:uuid:82f9c163-c5ed-4f8c-bc38-7977c6aa2d1e> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | http://cimsec.org/a-first-time-for-everything-the-united-nations-maritime-task-force-in-lebanon/39959 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703517966.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20210119042046-20210119072046-00604.warc.gz | en | 0.947257 | 2,369 | 2.6875 | 3 |
The global isocyanates market size is expected to witness potential gains in the future, and register a significant CAGR of 5.8% over the forecast period (2019 - 2027).
Organic compounds that contain an isocyanate group are referred to as isocyanates. Isocyanates are highly reactive and low molecular weight chemicals. An isocyanate that has two isocyanate groups is known as a diisocyanate. It is produced by reacting a primary aliphatic or aromatic amine dissolved in a solvent such as xylene or monochlorobenzene with phosgene dissolved in the same solution to produce polyurethane polymers. Isocyanate compounds are found in a diverse range of industries using chemicals such as two pack spray paints, lacquers, adhesives, certain coatings/ linings and in foam production such as insulation or fillers.
Significant growth of the paints and coatings industry is expected to boost growth of the global isocyanates market. Isocyanates are widely used in the manufacture of coatings such as paints and varnishes, and elastomers. In the automobile industry, paints usually contain hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) and/or isophorone diisocyanate. Therefore, increasing production of vehicles is also expected to contribute to the market growth. Isocyanates are also used as primers or adhesives and in the manufacture of flexible and rigid foams, fibers. The weather resistant properties of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) and toluene diisocyanate (TDI) promote their use as adhesives and sealants. Methyl isocyanate (MIC) is used in the manufacture of pesticides, which increases its application in the agricultural sector.
However, there are several potential health effects associated with exposure to isocyanates. The Bhopal disaster resulted in the death of nearly 4000 people due to the release of MIC, according to the government of India. Inhalation of isocyanates can cause respiratory irritation/sensitization in people or lead to occupational asthma. Dermatitis, irritation to the mucous membranes, eyes, nose and throat, and gastrointestinal irritation are some other complications caused due to isocyanates. Moreover, several regulatory authorities worldwide have imposed various restrictions on the use of isocyanates. These factors are expected to hinder the market growth.
Increasing use of polyurethane is expected to boost growth of the global market over the forecast period. Among regions, Asia Pacific is expected to hold dominant position in the market, with China and India being the major growth engines. This is attributed to growing end-use industries such as construction, electronics, and automotive in China and India. The market share of Europe is expected to be impacted by stringent EU regulations.
Major players operating in the global isocyanates market include, Bayer Material Science, The Dow Chemical Company, Yantai Sanjiang Chemical Industry Material Co., Ltd., Anderson Development Co., and Huntsman Corporation
Several key players are focused on developing organic and inorganic growth strategies such as capacity expansion, new product launch and partnership with other companies, in order to enhance their presence. For instance,
Joining thousands of companies around the world committed to making the Excellent Business Solutions. | <urn:uuid:d1a822ea-8d4b-43d6-992e-1df115c7014e> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/isocyanates-market-2888 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323585203.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20211018124412-20211018154412-00382.warc.gz | en | 0.941464 | 703 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Why do people even consider astronomy binoculars? When first getting interested in astronomy or searching for a gift for a young person, don't we usually ask "What kind of telescope shall I buy?" Of course, there are many different kinds of telescopes available from sources such as discount, hobby and department stores and usually each promises extraordinary celestial views.
We'll start out here with more basic considerations and move to more advanced material lower on the page. If you'd prefer to skip some portions of the page, you'll find the following sections available:
Observing total solar eclipse with 25X100 binocular.
Our first thoughts are that the interests of someone wanting to view the heavens, will likely be best served by starting out with a pair of binoculars. Why would this be true?
Binoculars are much easier to learn to use than a telescope. It's a little like comparing a point-and-shoot camera to the type used by professional photographers. You intuitively "point" the binoculars at what you wish to see and look through them. This intuitive "pointing" makes it significantly easier to find objects and subsequently move from one celestial object to the next. It's easier, using binoculars, to learn the locations of planets, constellations, galaxys, and clusters and observe their orderly movements — thus establishing the foundation for greater understanding.
Focusing a binocular, whether it's a model with a center-focus mechanism or the eyepieces focus individually, is also easier than a telescope. Even when using a tripod to support a larger, heavier binocular it will be easier and faster to set it up and start using it in the evening than the typical telescope.
Yet another reason binoculars are excellent for beginning astronomers is that using two eyes is quite simply better than using one. Not only does it help when finding objects, but using two eyes with Porro prism binoculars will provide a stunningly beautiful three-dimensional effect that is much more interesting and, yes, exciting than the flat, one-dimensional view typically seen through a telescope. Not only is the depth of the view noteworthy, but the width as well. You can find astronomy binoculars with 5-6° field of view while most telescopes are limited to a 1° view even at their lowest magnification.
If you think that you're more interested in optimizing your optical performance and not worrying about the view's beauty, consider that study after study has shown that using both eyes to view heavenly objects increases the image contrast, resolution, and our eyes' low-light sensitivity by as much as 40%.
Further, although it may be quite different from what you'll hear if you shop for a telescope at a camera or department store, a binocular's magnification level also reinforces the concept that sometimes an astronomer is best served with a very low magnification in a telescope.
Finally, what will you do with a telescope if you decide that astronomy is not as interesting as you initially imagined it would be? With good astronomy binoculars, you're not limited to using them just for astronomy and so you're off and using them for a multitude of non-astronomy purposes.
In light of the foregoing, is it any wonder that binoculars are well recommended for astronomy beginners?!? In typical conversation with astronomers, the term "astronomy binoculars" is applied to those binoculars with 60mm diameter or larger objective lenses. For convenience, however, we're going to use that term for any binoculars used for astronomy.
If you're brand new to optics in general, including astronomy optics, you'll also want to stop by our page about How to Buy Binoculars which walks a person through various criteria in choosing a binocular (this link takes you directly to the criteria). The various items, such as field of view, what kind of prism glass, the importance of coatings, objective sizes, how exit pupils and eye relief affect your experience, and so on there will be just as important to your enjoyment of the heavens as what you'll find here. Others have said they found the most benefit by using these two pages together.
Although perhaps not familiar with the Navy study behind it, many know about the 7X50 binocular configuration having been used by the military for low light conditions. What are the best astronomy binoculars? The best astronomy binoculars for beginners will doubtless be the general purpose 7X50 to 10X50 configurations. They're the most popular "small" astronomy binoculars and for a good reason! To start with, they're about the largest that can comfortably be held by hand for the extended periods often encountered by stargazers. They also provide an excellent field of view and will gather all the light you want for the size, since larger objective lenses make a binocular significantly heavier. If these are for a youthful face, you'll want to ensure that you choose an instrument that has an appropriate interpupillary distance. You'll also want to consider the binocular's weight and the strength of the person who will be using it. Star watchers usually hold binoculars up to their eyes for longer periods than bird watchers do!
Having said that, if you already have a good quality 8X25 binocular do you need to get an 8X50 right away? Not at all! Use your present binocular for several clear, dark nights to get a feel for the nighttime sky. You'll be amazed at the difference a clear, dark night makes in what you can see as opposed to a night when you have nearly enough moonlight to read a newspaper. Then see if you can find a friend with a 50mm binocular who will let you look through it. It won't surprise us at all if, after a trial run, you decide to go ahead and get a good binocular with 50mm objective lenses.
Different people have different experiences. Your stories about using astronomy binoculars can help, inspire, and sometimes amuse others! Click here to share your wisdom, tips, or advice.
Binoculars are tools and, just as you wouldn't get far using a Phillips screwdriver on a slotted screw, you'll want to match the binocular to its task. The astronomy binoculars with 60mm diameter objective lenses or larger will be appropriate to consider for your next astronomical binoculars. First, most star watchers want to have a basis for evaluating their binoculars so we'll stop long enough to consider how to do that.
While astronomy binoculars can be evaluated during the day, an even better test of quality optics comes after the sun goes down and you have an opportunity to view the nighttime sky. (We may as well be the ones to tell you if you didn't already know!)
If you're fortunate enough to live where there is a nominal amount of light pollution or less, first train your binoculars on the Moon so you see it in the center of your field of view and see what the edges of it look like. If you can't see the entire Moon within the center of your field of view, get its edge right in the middle since all optics tend to soften images at the periphery of their viewing area. Many binoculars, including some expensive ones, will show either a complete halo of one or more colors or color fringes on opposing sides. This is chromatic aberration. It usually evidences itself when viewing a bright object against a dark background or vice versa. What's desirable is to see only the object - without the extra, colored fringes.
The second thing you'll want to do is to focus on a bright star. Ideal astronomy binoculars will show it as a well-defined pinpoint of light with two or three concentric rings of light. In a binocular of average quality, it will not be sharply defined. To say it differently, it will be a bit fuzzy. A binocular of poor quality will show it as a fuzzy-edged pyramid or other odd shape. There are not many binoculars which achieve the ideal!
Have you just purchased a binocular and you're finding it has shortcomings you'd rather not live with? Hopefully you purchased from a retailer who offers a 30-day evaluation and return period. You'll find some of the online retailers offer a 30-day evaluation and return period which can make a difference in how satisfying you find your new purchase.
After you've had a chance to enjoy your beginning astronomy binoculars and decided you'd like to see even deeper into the nighttime heavens surrounding our globe, it's time to think about how your second binocular can best serve your interests. The next best binoculars for astronomy will be ones which will allow you to see objects further away from our planet.
Now's the time to seriously consider those "giant" astronomy binoculars you've been eyeing avariciously. They have the larger objective lenses to gather more light and make it possible for you to view objects that are much less bright than the ones you've been viewing so far. It's an exciting step!
Many find that they really like astronomy binoculars with 70 or 80mm or more diameter objectives. Choosing a magnification of 20X or more will allow you to see significantly more than you did with your initial, smaller astronomy binoculars. You'll find that using the two binoculars together will produce benefits in finding objects quickly with the smaller handheld binoculars and then using the tripod-mounted larger model for your studied review of the object. You will have already gotten locations of favorite views in mind and seeing them through the larger, more powerful instrument is a natural progression.
The most popular configurations for the giant astronomy binoculars use 80mm or 100mm objective lenses and range from 11X to 30X. Prices for these binoculars are typically more than the smaller binoculars, although good values can be obtained.
For careful budgeters, we recommend Oberwerk's 20X80 Deluxe II and 25X100 individual focus models which provide good values for their prices. If your budget is flexible, there are many fine, giant binoculars that will provide very good value for their purchase prices. We plan ongoing reviews of astronomy binoculars as OpticsReviewer.com grows, so please check back from time to time as your astronomy interests evolve!
Is there a best binocular for astronomy? We could point you to one of the best in the Fujinon 25X150 MT or it's sibling with 40X magnification. They both have terrific optics, but neither will do any good if it's not used. Your OpticsReviewer proposes that, aside from ensuring you have fundamentally good optics in good housings, the best astronomy binoculars are the ones that are used and help a person to learn more about the celestial bodies around this globe.
Along with the larger objective lens comes more weight and the need for support - usually a tripod as noted above. You may simply go with what is most convenient to purchase for your first tripod, but wooden ones are typically preferred because they help to dampen vibrations which would otherwise be transmitted to the instrument. Is the type of tripod of tremendous importance? It certainly isn't at first, at least to our way of thinking.
For most binoculars with 80mm or 100mm objective lenses, however, a tripod as typically used for light cameras for instance, will not be strong enough to hold a binocular weighing between 5 and 10 or more pounds (2.25 to 4.5+ kg). We're the kind of folks who figure we're likely to get an even heavier instrument later on, so we'll get a good, heavy-duty tripod to start with. That's just us, though, and you certainly don't NEED to get anything above and beyond what will serve your immediate needs! Just be sure the tripod you use for your giant astronomy binoculars won't collapse with resultant damage to your instrument!
One thing you'll need to think about is how to attach your big astronomy binoculars to your tripod. Most binoculars are fitted with a standard size threaded socket and are ready to accept a tripod adapter. After unscrewing the hinge cap on the end of the hinge nearest the objective lenses, screw the adapter into the hinge socket, tighten it, and mount the other end of the adapter on the tripod's pan head. When selecting a binocular tripod adapter, you'll want one whose screw's knob will work equally well with roof and Porro prism designs as well as the tight space on some larger binoculars. We like the knob design on the Vortex tripod adapter because its slender shape allows it to be used with nearly any binocular.
Let's take just a moment to consider getting astronomy binoculars with zoom optics at this point. You're probably normal and about now you're thinking that getting zoom optics would be especially intelligent when considering astronomy. Zoom binoculars can seem like an astute purchase due to a perceived greater utility. The popularity of zoom configurations is largely based on the range of magnifications available in on instrument. Unfortunately, the very aspect that makes it seemingly attractive can also work against it optically. You can learn more about the optical considerations in choosing zoom binoculars on the How to Buy Binoculars page (this link takes you directly to the section on zoom optics).
If you've looked through a hand-held high-magnification astronomy binocular (let's say 12X or above) and tried to read a sign on which the writing appears small in the distance, you'll know how difficult it is to hold the binocular steady. Even when you've braced your arms on a flat surface or against a tree, the simple act of breathing can make the image move enough to keep a person from reading easily!
Image stabilized binoculars are those with a compensating mechanism which adjusts many times per second, usually in conjunction with electronics, to eliminate most movements in the image you view. While the compensating mechanism may vary between brand names, the concept of stabilizing the view remains constant and amazes those who've not previously experienced it. Naturally, the compensating mechanism, electronics and batteries all add weight to the binocular. The benefits, however, outweigh the costs to the extent that these binoculars are rapidly gaining in popularity. It's up to you to decide whether these types of optics qualify as "best binoculars for astronomy." They're quite nice, but they're not essential to enjoying the celestial sites.
Let's have a brief word about why stabilization is of interest before discussing the differences in mechanics and their results. The stabilized image will allow you to actually see not only subtle differences in color hues, but also where they start and end. If your binocular's optics (without image stabilization) would otherwise allow you to see them, the tiny movements of your hands caused by things so innocuous as your heart's rhythmic beating or breathing will usually blur these fine details. Consequently, the detailed image afforded by stabilized binoculars is much better than that typically seen in non-stabilized instruments.
For the mechanics, Fujinon was the first company to have developed stabilization with high-speed gyroscopes and they brought this feature to market as the "Stabiscope" in 1980 with a 14X binocular. The design was improved and the Techno Stabi introduced in 1999 at price points that make it competitive with the Canon offerings. This stabilization approach works particularly well in adjusting for large movements, such as experienced with vessels on water, but also does admirably with smaller movements. Fujinon optics have earned their reputation for excellence and provide an above average crisp, clean, and bright viewing experience.
Perseid Meteors and the Milky Way
Zeiss brought a 20X binocular to market in 1990 which utilized an entirely mechanical "dampened stabilization mechanism." That is to say it has no electronic component to the stabilization and thus no batteries to replace. This approach, while doing wonderfully in its own right, doesn't seem to stabilize as thoroughly as the Techno Stabi, but is still quite good when considering that it has more dampening to accomplish at 20X than lower magnification powers. Some reviewers say that they consider the vibration in the stabilized Zeiss 20X60s is about what you'd expect from a 4X binocular or about half what you'd experience with a non-stabilized 7X50. Did we mention that there are no batteries to die just as you see a particularly astounding view?
Most believe that Canon was the first company to have image stabilized binoculars due to very good marketing and bringing the price down to within reach of the consuming public, even if it's a long reach! Their introduction in 1997 was based on the work they had done for years in stabilizing video camera images. It quickly caught on and image stabilized Canon binoculars have many devotees. While the Canon technology doesn't seem designed to stabilize the larger movements encountered on boats/ships, speeding cars/trucks, and airplanes/helicopters, it does well with hand movements such as those often associated with health and age. The engagement of the stabilization mechanism and electronics is said to often result in a somewhat softer image which lacks the crispness found in Fujinons. We anticipate publishing a review of the Canon image stabilized binoculars.
Nikon has also entered the market with its Stabil-Eyes image stabilized binocular. While the body of the instrument is similar to the Fujinon Techno Stabi, Nikon has indicated that there are differences in its stabilization technology. Although we've not had opportunity to use Stabil-Eyes binoculars, we understand they have settings for both "Land" and "Sea" (not offered with Techno Stabis) and have heard reports that they do well with hand movements and tremors. We look forward to reviewing the Stabil-Eyes.
Bushnell has introduced its StableView binocular for the image stabilizing binocular consumer to consider. Along with the other image stabilized instruments, we understand that it does a good job of making it possible to read and/or identify images at a distance that would otherwise be impossible. We look forward to reviewing the StableView.
Based on what we presently know and have heard from others, we'd prefer the Fujinon's quality for the amounts of money involved. Not only does Fujinon have high-grade optics, but the image stabilization seems to be excellent for this stage of this product's development.
As is the case with most electronics, image stabilized binoculars typically carry a manufacturer's warranty of a year. A small number of users say that the stabilization feature produces a feeling similar to motion sickness.
(You may have found this page by using a search engine to look for articles about "astrological binoculars" or "astronomical binoculars.")
What has experience taught you that could help, inspire, or amuse someone else? What binoculars have you used and recommend (or don't recommend) to others? What have you been able to see with the binoculars you recommend? For city dwellers, how do you find dark skies? Your wisdom, tips, or advice can help others enjoy the nighttime skies, too!
Click on links below to read about the experiences of other visitors to this page.
The marvels of binoculars, and why.
A young man when I first leaped into this delightful hobby, I began with the high-end Bausch&Lomb Zephyr 7x50s and in the inky skies of the high deserts …
Size Isn't Everything
I began my serious interest in Astronomy in the early 90's. I purchased a 6" reflector telescope, and, only as an afterthought, bought a used 7x50 Bushnell …
Smaller exit pupils better, but vibration counteracts it to an extent Not rated yet
Most people's eye lenses are distorted enough to produce spiky-looking stars if the binocular is something like a 7x50. Stars look more pleasing with … | <urn:uuid:0277eff0-52fb-46fe-85d5-9256435c567d> | CC-MAIN-2019-47 | https://www.opticsreviewer.com/astronomy-binoculars.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-47/segments/1573496669868.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20191118232526-20191119020526-00398.warc.gz | en | 0.958435 | 4,142 | 2.65625 | 3 |
While our eyes are naturally drawn to pages filled with color and gold, those without decoration can be equally appealing. Indeed, even damaged goods – mutilated bindings, torn pages, parchment with cuts and holes – can be highly attractive, as I hope to show in this post. The visual power of damage may be generated by close-up photography, with camera and book at just the right angle, catching just the right amount of light. The following images celebrate the beauty of the injured book, the art of devastation.
This is what I call a Frankenstein page. It is composite in that the top part is from a different sheet, perhaps even from a different animal, than the lower half. The sheet used by the scribe was short on one side, but he still wanted to use it. In came the patch that is now the top half of the page. Where the two pieces of skin meet the scribe-surgeon punched holes through which he pulled a thin cord, joining them together. The operation was successful, the insert was not rejected, and so the page could be filled with text. Miraculously, the low-quality book was never thrown out. Instead, it limped, for centuries, to the finish line of our present day – to the safety of the Leiden University Library.
2. Bad back
This poor-looking manuscript from the fifteenth century looks worn and beaten. It is so happy to be retired that you can almost hear a groan of disappointment when you take it out of its box. The manuscript is filled with school texts and it was heavily used over a long period of time. At some point the binding gave in and began to arch, like an old man with a painful back. It could do so because the book was fitted with a cheap, so-called “limp binding”. This type lacked the wooden boards of regular bindings – as well as the firm support these boards provided. Such bad backs are reflective of how popular the books once were.
This page needs a shave. From time to time you encounter a hole in the page, but this one is special. An important stage in the preparation of parchment was removing the hair from the skin. When the parchment-maker pushed too hard with his knife, a cut like this would appear. Not unlike a distracted hairdresser, the individual who prepared the parchment overlooked a few tiny – white – hairs, which still inhabit the hole. It makes for a pretty picture with the light from behind, which also highlights the text on the other side of the page.
4. Scar tissue
This parchment sheet came from an animal with skin problems. It appears that the cow had been in a fight and was kicked. As your butcher will tell you, such kicks result in scar tissue, which he will remove. Judging from how infrequent we encounter such patches in medieval books, we may assume that skin with such damage was not processed into parchment. However, this particular book was made from off-cuts: strips of bad parchment that were cut away and thrown out. Remarkably, someone fished them out of the bin and produced a book from it (more details can be found in this YouTube movie I made). Thus this “garbage manuscript” exposes an urge for cheap materials as well as a dispute between two medieval cows.
4. Touched by a human
Books are made for reading and thus for being handled by human hands. The margins facilitate an easy grip of the book without your fingers blocking the view on the text. However, if you hold a book with dirty hands, you may leave your mark behind as a reader. While such stains are often subtle, the person that handled this twelfth-century manuscript had inky fingers: he left a fingerprint behind. Judging from the colour – a shiny, deep kind of black – it concerns printing ink, which puts this manuscript in the hands of a printer. He did not bother to wash his hands. It was, after all, one of those old-fashioned handwritten manuscripts, which had been long overtaken by the modern and spiffy printed book.
5. Mouldy skin
And so it happened that a certain medieval reader did not pay attention and placed his book in a moist environment. And so it happened that he forgot all about the book. That is the story behind the mould on the pages of this eleventh-century Psalter. The fungi turned purple over time, producing a neat contrast between the high quality white parchment sheets and their damaged corners. It’s the beautiful despair of a book under duress.
All images were taken with a Canon Eos 600D camera and a Sigma DC 18-250 mm lens (at aperture value 6.3).
Note: This post was originally written for, and posted on, my project blog MedievalFragments. | <urn:uuid:979a9dbe-b54c-47a1-b787-285f0db24f68> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | https://medievalbooks.nl/tag/scribe/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187826642.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20171023202120-20171023222120-00436.warc.gz | en | 0.975253 | 989 | 2.625 | 3 |
Student guest post by Anne Dressler
Ninety percent of menstruating women experience some kind of premenstrual symptoms during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, with 20-30% experiencing moderate to severe symptoms. With an even more severe collection of symptoms, is premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). 3-8% of menstruating women report symptoms severe enough to be considered suffering from PMDD. Yet another designation, premenstrual magnification (PMM), is used to describe women who are symptomatic the entire cycle but have a premenstrual exacerbation of a diagnosed psychiatric, medical, or gynecological condition.
With a large number of wide-ranging symptoms and the difficulty involved in making a diagnosis, it is not surprising that the various theories advanced to explain premenstrual syndrome (PMS) have yet to been proven. One problem is that PMS is a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning there could be a variety of poorly understood conditions responsible for these symptoms. Several theories attribute PMS to fluctuations in sex hormones and neurotransmitters. The observation that symptoms disappear when a women has a menstrual cycle during which she does not ovulate and a corpus luteum is not formed, led to the theory that sex steroids, estrogen and progesterone, produced by the corpus luteum are responsible. In addition, the neurotransmitters serotonin and gamma amino butyric acid (GABA) have been implicated in various pathways. The list of other hormones and their modes of action that are suspected to be involved is long and confusing, making it no wonder that there is still no known etiology.
One distinctly different hypothesis is that PMS is due to a broad set of persistent infectious illnesses that are exacerbated by cyclic changes in immunosuppression due to the fluctuating levels of progesterone and estrogen. In general, there have been studies looking at two major categories of causation- genetic and environmental and have found moderate correlations at the best. Infectious causation has been overlooked for the most part, with almost no empirical support in published literature. I don’t think this means there is no value to the theory, simply that it is a very hard one to test. One very convincing article by Doyle et. al explains how this possibility of infectious causation is integrated with the cyclic changes in hormone levels that have been observed and are generally thought to be involved in PMS.
As the article explains, immune function varies across the menstrual cycle. During the luteal phase, cell-mediated immunity is suppressed and humoral immunity is amplified. This appears to be related to higher levels of progesterone that enhances humoral immunity by promoting the development of type 2 helper T cells. In addition, progesterone is involved in suppressing type 1 helper T cells, which is associated with inhibition of natural killer cells and phagocytosis. This leads to less effective control of various fungi, viruses, and intracellular bacteria. Estrogen also seems to suppress cell-mediated immunity. These hormone driven changes to the immune system provide the possibility that persistent infections may be less well controlled during the luteal phase, leading to the symptoms that make up PMS.
Supporting evidence for this theory is a long list of infections, compiled by Doyle et. al, that are normally controlled by cell-mediated immunity but are exacerbated premenstrually. These include, increased proliferation of Candida albicans, increased proliferation of cytomegalovirus in the cervix, increased number of lesions from human herpes simplex virus-1, and exacerbated peptic ulcers from Helicobacter pylori among others. There are also chronic diseases that have infectious causes or are suspected to have infectious causes that are exacerbated premenstrually. A few examples are, Crohn’s disease, lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, and chronic fatigue syndrome. The pathogens that are suspected causes for these diseases are also controlled by cellular immunity.
Finally, one group performed a double blind, randomized clinical trial to determine the effects of the antibiotic doxycycline on PMS. Compared to the placebo group, individuals taking the antibiotic had significantly decreased symptoms. Subsequently, the placebo group was also given the antibiotic and experienced similar symptom reduction. This reduction in symptoms was steady during a six-month follow-up period. The investigators also found a high percentage of endometrial biopsy cultures positive for Mycoplasma species, Chlamydia trachomatis, and anaerobic bacteria.
This theory seems to be strongly biologically plausible, but lacks any of the other criteria for causality due to the lack of published studies on the topic. It is not in disagreement with the currently accepted idea that sex hormones fluctuate during the menstrual cycle and are involved in symptom manifestation. However, Doyle et. al advance this idea by explaining how it is may not be the direct effects of the hormones, rather a hormone-driven suppression of cellular immunity that could lead to poor control of persistent infections causing symptoms. This is certainly an interesting theory, yet one that would be difficult to study. Practical applications of findings from studies on this subject could be to consider control of PMS symptoms with antibiotics.
Backstrom, T., et al. The Role of Hormones and Hormonal Treatments in Premenstrual Syndrome.” CNS drugs 17.5 (2003): 325-42.
Doyle, C., H. A. Ewald, and P. W. Ewald. “Premenstrual Syndrome: An Evolutionary Perspective on its Causes and Treatment.” Perspectives in biology and medicine 50.2 (2007): 181-202.
Korzekwa, M. I., and M. Steiner. “Premenstrual Syndromes.” Clinical obstetrics and gynecology 40.3 (1997): 564-76.
Pinkerton, J. V., C. J. Guico-Pabia, and H. S. Taylor. “Menstrual Cycle-Related Exacerbation of Disease.” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 202.3 (2010): 221-31.
Silberstein, S. D., and G. R. Merriam. “Physiology of the Menstrual Cycle.” Cephalalgia : an international journal of headache 20.3 (2000): 148-54.
Toth, A., et al. “Effect of Doxycycline on Pre-Menstrual Syndrome: A Double-Blind Randomized Clinical Trial.” The Journal of international medical research 16.4 (1988): 270-9. | <urn:uuid:d287f772-4cd5-423a-84cb-ffb41622ddc4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scienceblogs.com/aetiology/2010/04/26/the-uncertain-etiology-of-pms/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706298270/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121138-00080-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935608 | 1,379 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Need Inspiring Examples of Circular Economy? Here are 5!
To me, circular economy always sounds like an amazing concept, but I have a hard time coming up with ideas of how to contribute. That is why for this week, I have looked for inspiring circular economy examples and I want to share the ones I have found with you. After all, the World Bank predicts that between now and 2025, solid waste will double to 6.5 million tons of solid waste every day. In addition, the OECD estimates that there will be an extra two billion middle-class consumers before 2030. Circular economy needs to explode to the same extent!
First, I will explain how you can make your own business model more circular, so you know how to participate in circular economy yourself. Then, I will list five examples of companies that have embraced circular economy. However, the concept of circular economy does not need companies alone; it also needs the government facilitating these companies. That is why at the end of this blog, you will find ways of how cities have embraced circular economy as well.
Five ways to make your business model more circular (plus examples)
Lacy, Rosenberg, Drewell, and Rutqvist claim that since the Industrial Revolution, humanity’s use of natural resources has been basically the same: take, make, throw away. Indeed, we have become better at using virgin resources more efficiently while second-hand markets and recycling rates have improved but this has not altered the fundamentals. Many companies’ business models are not set up to do much else than earning money from volume but circular economy thinking — building an economy that does not create waste – can make business-sense.
Product vendors should think of the resources in their products as assets rather than inputs and their customers as users rather than buyers. There are two important challenges:
- how to maximize value along the chain
- how to enable the assets to be continually re-introduced to markets.
There are five fundamental considerations for nearly every sector when thinking about how to make your business model more circular:
- How can we design our products with asset recovery in mind?
- How can we develop product lines to meet demand without wasting assets?
- How can we source material in regenerative loops rather than linear flows?
- How can we develop a revenue model that protects value up and down the chain?
- How can we get our customers to cooperate with us?
Lacy, Rosenberg, Drewell, and Rutqvist have identified five business models that contribute to the concept of circular economy:
1. Products as services
In products as services, goods vendors embrace the idea of themselves as service providers: leasing access to and not selling ownership of a service. In some cases, this has led not only to an effective hedge against cost volatility but also to a stickier customer relationship and increased upsell.
Example: Vodafone’s Red Hot
You can rent the latest phone for a year and keep on exchanging it for a newer version. Assuming Vodafone is engaged in collecting the old phone, not only does this act as material collection and pooling but, from a business standpoint, it also creates deeper customer relationships.
2. Next life sales
Next life materials and products work when a company can efficiently recover and recondition its products after use and then put the same products into the market to earn a second or third income.
Example: Tata Motors Assured
It is more than a second-hand car dealership. Cars are handpicked and refurbished in Tata workshops and then undergo a certification process. Customers are even offered financing options and warranty.
3. Product transformation
Not all products can be reconditioned in their entirety but most products have certain components that carry a high value. Not just products but often materials have an embedded energy component that makes them even move valuable than their virgin source. With the right design and remanufacturing capabilities, they can be put together to form new products.
Example: BMW’s remanufactured parts
For BMW, product transformation can mean a 50% cost saving for customers buying remanufactured parts as compared to new ones. You get exactly the same quality specifications as a new BMW part subject to the same 24-month warranty.
4. Innovation in recycling
Innovation in recycling technology is rapidly evolving and enabling the production of high-quality products with fantastic sustainability performance.
Example: Starbucks’s recycling of waste coffee grounds
Starbuck aims to turn thousands of tons of its waste coffee grounds and food into everyday products by using bacteria to generate succinic acid, which can then be used in a range of products from detergents to bio-plastics and medicines.
5. Collaborative consumption
Lastly, social media exchange platforms are rapidly transforming industries by collaborative consumption.
Examples: Airbnb and ThredUP
Airbnb matches people seeking vacation rentals with hosts who have space and it now has over 200,000 listings in 26,000 cities. If you need new clothes for your kids, you can use ThredUP to browse like-new clothing at significant reductions from families whose children have outgrown their old clothes.
Five companies leading the circular economy transition
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation Corporate Citizenship Center has released a new case study report featuring examples of how companies are translating circular economy aspiration into action that drives greater resource productivity improvements, eliminates waste and inefficiency, and contributes to a stronger competitive economy. Jennifer Gerholdt has picked five leading examples:
1. Dow Chemical Company
Projections show that between rapid population growth and urbanization, it is expected 70% or about 2.5 billion more people will be living in cities by 2050. Having so many people in highly concentrated environments can cause the temperature of cities to rise, which is known as the “urban heat island effect.” This increases energy demand and cost, greenhouse gas emissions, and pollution.
The Dow Chemical Company is collaborating with governments, associations, and NGOs around a key solution: roof cooling. These are roofs with high solar reflectance. Existing roofs are retrofitted by utilizing a thick, white, monolithic solar reflective elastomeric coating that is applied over flat and slow slope roofs. Dow’s CENTURION™ roof binder helps improve the cool roof’s performance while extending the life of the roof and reducing energy use.
In the U.S., more than 4 billion pounds of carpet is landfilled every year, making it one of the most common products in landfills today. DSM-Niaga is a joint venture that is producing the world’s first and only fully recyclable carpet.
The Niaga® Technology for carpet production is based on using a simple set of clean processes, ingredients, and materials that make the product 100% recyclable. This includes not using latex as an adhesive in the manufacturing process.
After the carpet is used, it is sold back to the manufacturer and turned into new carpet. The name “Niaga” means “Again” spelled backward as in true circular fashion, it can be used again and again and again.
Cities and communities are already struggling with how to manage their waste. Enerkem uses municipal solid and non-recyclable waste as a feedstock to manufacture biofuels and renewable chemical products.
Enerkem’s facility in Edmonton, Alberta is the world’s first commercial biorefinery of its kind that will process 100,000 dry tons of sorted municipal solid waste annually to produce a synthetic gas and convert into a low-carbon transportation biofuel, enough for 400,000 cars on a 5% ethanol blend.
Enerkem will help the City of Edmonton increase its recycling diversion rate from around 50% to 90%.
4. Veolia North America
Water scarcity is an urgent, global issue. It affects every continent and more than 2.8 billion people at least one month out of the year. Globally, water demand is projected to exceed supply 40% by 2030.
In the United States, hundreds of communities and businesses are at risk of severe and sudden water shortages, due to lack of supply or contamination. The groundwater aquifer that supplies the Ramapo River Watershed in Rockland County New York is an important source of drinking water for more than 1 million regional residents and was becoming particularly dry during certain months of the year.
Veolia Water Technologies partnered with Rockland County to design, build, and operate the Western Ramapo Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility, a 1.5M gallon-per-day wastewater reclamation plant to help both replenish the aquifer and keep the Ramapo River and surrounding watershed clean.
Equipped with sequencing batch reactors, the plant extends the typical water aeration process and champions a unique type of microfiltration in which the effluent is treated and fed back into the aquifer, ensuring a healthy and sustainable supply.
Approximately 30-40% of food in the U.S., or 36 million tons worth $161 billion, goes to waste annually, much going to landfills with no beneficial resource recovered. Through Walmart’s food donation program, food banks pick up unsold food from Walmart stores, Sam’s Clubs and distribution centers, and provide that food to people who need it. Since 2005, Walmart, the company everybody loves to hate, has donated 3.3 billion pounds of food, including more than 600 million pounds in FY17.
Regarding inedible food, Walmart has launched an organics program in 2009, which is currently comprised of 78 haulers and 352 outlets to recycle food waste for animal feed, anaerobic digestion, and commercial composting. Since inception, the organics program has recycled the equivalent of more than 25,000 semi-truck loads of inedible food.
Cities promoting a circular economy
According to Eetu Helminen, cities around the world promoting a circular economy have three common goals: reduce waste, control climate change, and use resources more efficiently. Some cities also see circular economy as a way to improve residents’ quality of life and create new business opportunities. Key to cities contributing to circular economy is collaboration.
In Vancouver, recycling has been a part of everyday life since the 1970s. However, Vancouver has focused on circular economy just recently, aiming to be zero-waste by the end of 2040. In addition, the city approved the Greenest City 2020 Action Plan in 2010 with an objective to be the greenest city in the world by 2020. I have visited Vancouver in May and, being from The Netherlands, I saw such a big difference in how aware everybody is of the merits of recycling. I loved it!
“From the Vancouver perspective, the reasons for concentrating on circular economy are to reduce the cost of operations in waste management and to reduce the need to purchase more land and move garbage. There are clear savings to be achieved. Another reason is that we know that seven percent of our greenhouse gases come from solid waste. This is a great opportunity to reduce our emissions. These are also tremendous business opportunities,” says Bryan Buggey, who is responsible for economic and business development at the City of Vancouver’s Economic Commission.
The results are overwhelming. Vancouver, with only 7% of the Canadian population, hosts 30% of Canada’s cleantech sector. Furthermore, green jobs have been growing at a rate of 7.8% over the last 3 years. Today, there are more than 25,000 green & local food jobs within the city and even more at the metropolitan level. Meanwhile, over the past ten years, the local GDP has grown more than 26% while the greenhouse gases have fallen by more than 15%, proving that implementing environmental controls does not damage the local economy.
In addition to different programs, the city can improve residents’ quality of life and enable new business opportunities by regulation. “We started a mandatory organics ban from the landfill recently, which separates food from the garbage. After the mandatory regulation was passed and the program was implemented, 72 percent of the population adopted the practice within four weeks. We are very lucky to have such sustainability-minded citizens. They tell us we cannot be green enough,” Buggey says.
Helsinki sees its current historical urban generation as an excellent opportunity to promote the circular economy in its own operations. For example, due to better planning, the city has been able to save 1.4 million liters of fuel and reduce emissions by more than 3,500 carbon dioxide equivalents in management and utilization of excavated land.
Helsinki also enables, for example, the development of applications to reduce food waste. One of them enables restaurants to sell leftover lunches at reduced prices. Another new application tested in the Kalasatama district enables residents to sell leftover food or ingredients to their neighbors.
“The citizens of Helsinki do much by themselves. A good example of this is the Cleaning Day when the whole city turns to a giant flea market. The residents sell or donate the goods they have no use for any more to other residents. This is a circular economy at its best – and it is fun,” says Marja-Leena Rinkineva, who is the Director for Economic and Business Development in Helsinki.
Experiences in Helsinki prove the change is achieved through multi-party cooperation. Helsinki Metropolitan Smart & Clean Foundation is a five-year change project that was started by the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra in 2016. It includes cities from the Helsinki metropolitan area, Sitra, twelve leading corporations as well as universities and research institutes. All Smart & Clean partners have committed themselves to making Helsinki Metropolitan the world’s best testbed for smart and clean solutions.
I hope this has inspired you to establish a business model that contributes to circular economy. If you are still struggling with the concept, you can read my blogs ‘The basics of Circular Economy explained for entrepreneurs and CEOs’ and ‘The Difference between Circular Economy and Blue Economy’. Hope that helps!
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As parents, the best thing we can do is empowering children to think for themselves, instead of just to follow what others ask of them.
Someone had once asked me “Did you not always want to be a queen?” I replied “I did not even want to be class monitor.”
Being queen or any sort of authoritarian figure (politician, manager etc), is not my cup of tea. I am not comfortable with telling other people what to do. I believe in live and let live. I try to impose my self on other people as little as possible and expect the same courtesy from them.
But now I am raising two daughters. A mother too is an authoritarian figure. An infant comes in to the world completely helpless. So the live and let live policy can’t really work. To start with we have to do everything for them and while this is not most tactfully expressed, the truth is, that they are almost entirely under our control.
As they grow up, we as parents need to gradually relinquish control and empower them. But how do we do this?
In my opinion, what we teach our children, needs to be broad and applicable no matter what path they choose. It is not for us to choose the destination or the path, but only to equip them for the journey with tools that will serve them best.
Here are the things I believe we need to teach our children to empower them:
When I was pregnant with our first child my husband and I agreed that the really important thing was to teach her to think – Not what to think, but how to think.
Technology and society are evolving at a fast pace. technology that is cutting edge today will soon become obsolete and we have seen that some social practices that were considered honourable a few decades ago are considered silly and sometimes even cruel.
As parents in a rapidly changing world teaching our kids what to think is neither useful nor prudent. On the other hand,the world is full of people trying to convert individuals to their way of thinking. They use many tricks. we need to teach our kids critical thinking so they are not easily taken advantage of.
If our kids learn critical thinking, they can make their own decisions with confidence and they are less likely to be deceived. Then as parents we can give them the freedom to soar and trust them to make good choices.
Power and is often seen as the control one has over ones environment or other people. But these are just some signs of power, not the root.
Meaningful strength must come from within, from battling insecurities and conquering fears. Introspection, self evaluation and a constant struggle for self-improvement is the key to building strength. Introspection not only helps you know your strengths and weaknesses, but also helps you see the insecurities in those trying to shout you down, and you cease to fear them, or be affected by them.
And knowing what you enjoy and are good at, and pursuing it relentlessly is the path to satisfaction and confidence. This confidence becomes evident in your demeanour and interactions and gives you a sense of strength and power that comes from within. It stays with you even through failure, and helps you rebuild.
Teaching our kids introspection will help them build on their strengths, work on their weaknesses, learn from failure, instead of despairing in it, and empower them to face the world.
Finally, no matter what we undertake, even in pursuing our greatest passions, there will always be some aspects that are tedious. It is essential to have the grit and discipline to get through these aspects to achieve our goals. Discipline is best inculcated early in life so that it becomes a habit.
Teaching our kids discipline will help them get past the essential yet unpleasant parts of their journey to reach their dreams.
The holy trinity of critical thinking, introspection and discipline tempered with consideration and empathy should well equip our children to face most of life’s challenges.
Image source: shutterstock.
Kanika G, a physicist by training and a mother of 2 girls, started writing to
Very lucid post !! Excellent guidance to parents!! Unfortunately as middle class parents we sometimes become slaves to a chosen education system, even when it presents a path that seems to be at tangents with our critical thinking and introspection. Their methods of learning, exploring and understanding the world seems so skewed and incongruous, yet we tend to thrust it upon our kids. However, we must NOT fall into the trap of playing the blame game and instead take steps to rectify whatever we can. Often I think we do so get lost in the chaos of modern living, that we lose a sense of priority in specific areas of life. This post is really helpful I think to re-orient oneself as a parent on the better path…Thank you Kanika!
Thanks for the feedback Sonia and glad you found the article useful 🙂
I Learnt These 10 Essential Things From My Parents. What About You?
When My Child Was Bothered By What Others Thought Of Her…
More Musings From A Father
Dear Daughter: I Want You To Be Safe, Yet Empowered And Free At The Same Time
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both! | <urn:uuid:bc86b3d8-9389-477a-b3ab-b06e72362102> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | https://www.womensweb.in/2016/07/how-to-empowering-children/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439735823.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20200803170210-20200803200210-00341.warc.gz | en | 0.96371 | 1,098 | 2.515625 | 3 |
FIFA, the world governing body of association football, declared ‘The Future is Feminine’ in a 1995 press release. Since then, football has been claimed as the fastest growing participation sport for women globally. An estimated twenty million women play the game around the world, and that figure is on the rise. However, the history of women's participation goes back to at least 1895 and in our enthusiasm for the present, the memory of that longer history can be overlooked or forgotten. A Beautiful Game, supported by a two-year FIFA/ CIES Joao Havelange Research Scholarship, examines contemporary women’s football internationally, with case studies from England, the United States, China and Australia. In each case study, Jean Williams considers the evolution of the women’s game against a backdrop of issues, such as media representation, access to facilities, lack of resources, coaching, sponsorship, talent identification, training and professionalisation. T he author examines contentious questions, such as why women are absent from the highest levels of professional football, combining source material from archives, oral history and artefacts. A Beautiful Game analyses the status and image of the women’s game from the late nineteenth century to the shifting social values of the present. | <urn:uuid:79d6a1ae-5187-4acf-8451-8c4e268375b5> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://www.emka.si/beautigul-game-a/PR/42806 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501170823.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104610-00000-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93565 | 253 | 2.578125 | 3 |
We've blown through black holes and wormholes, but there's yet another possible means of time traveling via theoretic cosmic phenomena. For this scheme, we turn to physicist J. Richard Gott, who introduced the idea of cosmic string back in 1991. As the name suggests, these are stringlike objects that some scientists believe were formed in the early universe.
These strings may weave throughout the entire universe, thinner than an atom and under immense pressure. Naturally, this means they'd pack quite a gravitational pull on anything that passes near them, enabling objects attached to a cosmic string to travel at incredible speeds and benefit from time dilation. By pulling two cosmic strings close together or stretching one string close to a black hole, it might be possible to warp space-time enough to create what's called a closed timelike curve.
Using the gravity produced by the two cosmic strings (or the string and black hole), a spaceship theoretically could propel itself into the past. To do this, it would loop around the cosmic strings.
Quantum strings are highly speculative, however. Gott himself said that in order to travel back in time even one year, it would take a loop of string that contained half the mass-energy of an entire galaxy. In other words, you'd have to split half the atoms in the galaxy to power time machines. And, as with any time machine, you couldn't go back farther than the point at which the time machine was created.
Oh yes, and then there are the time paradoxes. | <urn:uuid:0db6f601-197e-4602-872d-bfb0c1d8c736> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/time-travel5.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224646937.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20230531150014-20230531180014-00246.warc.gz | en | 0.954992 | 314 | 3.5 | 4 |
Table of Contents
Abortion at afterwards phases in being pregnant is continue to lawful in most states across the U.S., but that’s expected to adjust if the Supreme Courtroom overturns Roe v. Wade.
The huge photograph: If Roe is struck down, states would be permitted to individually regulate abortion — or even ban it absolutely — in advance of viability, identified as the position when a fetus can survive exterior the womb.
- Underneath Roe, states have the authority to regulate abortion after viability, which is normally considered to be among 24 to 28 months following a patient’s past menstrual period of time.
Where by items stand right now
Even with Roe, some states have efficiently executed bans just before the 24-7 days mark largely based on the “unfounded assertion” that a fetus can come to feel agony at 22 months soon after the patient’s very last menstrual period (LMP), according to the Guttmacher Institute, a study corporation that supports abortion rights.
- 6 months LMP: Texas and Oklahoma are the only states that have guidelines in result banning abortions when cardiac exercise has been detected in an embryo, which is at all over 6 months.
- 20 months: Mississippi is the only condition that currently bans abortion at 20 months of pregnancy. The Supreme Court docket is now taking into consideration the state’s 15-7 days ban, which has been blocked by reduce courts considering that 2018. That circumstance could figure out the foreseeable future of Roe.
- 22 weeks: Fifteen states ban abortions at 22 weeks of being pregnant.
More than 50 percent of states have limitations in spot only at or soon after viability, or have no restrict at all.
- 24 weeks: 5 states ban abortions at 24 months of being pregnant.
- Viability: Twenty states ban abortions just after the fetus is regarded practical. Some regulations that you should not specify a limit say it can be up to the abortion provider’s “judgment” to figure out no matter if a fetus is feasible.
- Third trimester: Virginia is the only state that prohibits abortions in the pregnancy’s 3rd trimester, which starts at all around 25 weeks, for each Guttmacher.
- No limit: 6 states and Washington, D.C., do not impose any time period restrictions.
Of notice: Several states with constraints have exceptions, including to protect a expecting person’s life or wellbeing, while they are normally narrowly described.
When individuals commonly get abortions
About 93% of described abortions in 2019 ended up executed at or just before 13 weeks of being pregnant, 6% were being carried out in between 14 and 20 weeks and 1% had been executed at or right after 21 months, in accordance to the most recent data from the Facilities for Illness Control and Avoidance.
- Folks who are likely to have abortions afterwards in a pregnancy do so mainly because of “professional medical problems this kind of as fetal anomalies or maternal life endangerment, as well as obstacles to care that result in delays in acquiring an abortion,” per the Kaiser Household Basis.
Legislation vs. obtain
Abortion at any phase is continue to tough to entry for several persons.
- In 2017, Guttmacher documented that there are no abortion clinics in around 89% of counties throughout the U.S. There are even much less clinics that offer abortions past the 24th 7 days of pregnancy.
- Additionally, numerous states have prerequisites for individuals and companies that Planned Parenthood calls “unreasonable” and “medically needless.”
- Suppliers who accomplish abortions near a state’s time restrict encounter extra hurdles. They need to be “truly great at ultrasound” to ascertain the precise gestational age of the being pregnant to stay clear of violating the law, Hanna Peterson, an abortion service provider in Kentucky, instructed Axios.
States to enjoy
Arizona, Florida and Louisiana have enacted regulations that ban abortions at 15 months that have nonetheless to acquire influence. Mississippi and Kentucky attempted to enact very similar rules, but were being quickly blocked by the courts.
- Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina and Idaho’s six-week bans have been briefly blocked by federal judges. Missouri’s eight-week ban has also been blocked.
- 13 states have “bring about” legal guidelines in place that would prohibit abortion shortly after Roe is overturned.
- In the meantime, 16 states have codified abortion protections into their legislation. | <urn:uuid:e1aba6a5-22fb-49e0-8f25-3816abe7eab1> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://biondisantispa.com/how-late-in-pregnancy-every-single-point-out-lets-abortions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224652161.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20230605185809-20230605215809-00714.warc.gz | en | 0.950702 | 943 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Differential Operator in Matlab in 1 Dimension
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In common, the differential operation is defined as "dy/dx" which means differentiate y with respect to x and in matlab it's defined by "diff()". But how can we define "d/dx" which means differentiate with respect to x. Basically it shows an operation in 1 dimension rather 2. This definition is used in many fields such as Einstein theories and geometry. For example, If we have a scalar as [a1] in initial point and [a2] at the secondary position, d/dx denotes how much a2 changed with respect to a1. Does Matlab has a specific operator for this or any way that we can define it so that it can be used in higher order differential equations?
There was a post here:
But there was no correct answer.
I'd appreciate any opinions!
More Answers (1)
Chris on 12 Dec 2021
Edited: Chris on 12 Dec 2021
I'm not a math major so there's probably something technically wrong about this statement, but "d/dx" is essentially "dy/dx", replacing y with an arbitrary function of x. The only operators Matlab has by default are listed here. Most everything else is a function, which means the code it operates on likely needs to be enclosed in parentheses.
If you're using the symbolic toolbox, I believe the diff function should suffice for what you're asking. You could also define an inline function to describe exactly the derivative you want.
syms y(x,z) x z
y = x^2 + 5*z;
diff(y) % d/dx
diff(y,z) % d/dz
ddz = @(a) diff(a,z); % Inline d/dz
There is also the numerical (vs. symbolic) diff, which might work for the situation you describe:
h = 2; % Step size
aa = [5,10,14]; % Vector of values
ddx = diff(aa)/h | <urn:uuid:fc0b0d30-2e5e-4c3f-8961-23a71afa7045> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://it.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/1609500-differential-operator-in-matlab-in-1-dimension | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652663016949.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20220528154416-20220528184416-00525.warc.gz | en | 0.946581 | 447 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Skim Milk Does Not Prevent Obesity in Young Children
TUESDAY, March 19 (HealthDay News) -- For preschool children, consumption of 1 percent/skim milk is associated with overweight/obesity, according to a study published online March 18 in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Rebecca J. Scharf, M.D., M.P.H., from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville, and colleagues conducted a longitudinal study involving 10,700 U.S. children evaluated at age 2 and 4 years to examine the correlation between type of milk consumed and weight status.
The researchers found that most children drank 2 percent/whole milk at age 2 years (87 percent) and 4 years (79.3 percent). Compared with 2 percent/whole milk drinkers, those who drank 1 percent/skim milk had higher body mass index (BMI) z-scores across racial/ethnic and socioeconomic status subgroups. Increasing fat content in milk correlated inversely with BMI z-score in multivariate analysis. The odds of being overweight or obese were significantly increased for those drinking 1 percent/skim milk compared with those drinking 2 percent/whole milk (odds ratios at age 2, 1.64 and 1.57, respectively; at age 4, 1.63 and 1.64, respectively). Children drinking 1 percent/skim milk at ages 2 and 4 years were significantly more likely to become overweight or obese between the ages of 2 and 4 years, based on longitudinal analyses.
"In conclusion, we found that among preschoolers, consumption of 1 percent/skim milk was associated with overweight and obesity," the authors write. "Our data do not support 1 percent/skim milk consumption as the sole way to restrain gains in BMI among preschoolers."
Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)
Health News Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:1e92dcf7-b3be-47bc-a446-e496e04365ec> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.ecommunity.com/news/physicianstory.aspx?id=674515 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246658376.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045738-00013-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954046 | 394 | 2.953125 | 3 |
AIR CORE INDUCTOR
An inductor that uses air as the only care material.
(AC) current that periodically reverses direction as it flows.
The unit by which electrical current is measured. One ampere, or amp, is defined as the flow of 6.28 x 1018 electrons past a given point in one second.
Current flow through air, as can occur across an open switch.
Tiny units of matter that contain electrically charged particles.
The ability to store electrical energy.
A component used to control and/or increase the amount of capacitance in an electrical circuit.
A complete path for a current, including a voltage source and resistance.
A material that offers very little resistance to electron flow.
The movement, or flow, of electrons in a circuit.
Current that flows in only one direction.
Magnetism that is created by current flowing through a conductor.
A negatively charged subatomic particle.
The rubbing of one material against another.
A physical property of all conductors that tends to oppose a change in current flow.
The process that produces a voltage due to interaction of a conductor, a magnetic field, and relative motion between them.
A component specifically designed to increase the amount of inductance in a circuit.
A material that offers a great deal of resistance to electron flow.
The unit by which resistance is measured. One ohm is defined as the resistance that allows one amp of current to flow in a circuit when there is one volt pushing the current.
A statement of the relationship between current, voltage, and resistance in an electrical circuit: current equals voltage divided by resistance.
A circuit in which the resistance is so great that there is no current flow.
A circuit containing two or more parallel paths through which current can flow.
The rate at which work is done. Power is calculated by multiplying current times voltage.
A positively charged subatomic particle.
An electrical property that opposes the flow of current through a circuit.
A component that is put into a circuit to reduce current flow.
A type of induction that occurs within a single conductor; it occurs when a change in the electromagnetic field around a conductor induces a voltage in that conductor.
A circuit that contains a single path for current to follow. The component in a series circuit are connected end to end.
A circuit in which the resistance drops to almost zero and current reaches its maximum value.
A transformer that decreases voltage.
A transformer that increases voltage.
A component used to change AC voltage to meet specific requirements.
The unit by which voltage is measured. One volt is defined as the voltage necessary to drive a current of one ampere through a resistance of one ohm.
The driving force that makes electrons flow.
The amount of voltage across a resistor in an electrical circuit.
The unit by which electric power is measured. The amount of power produced when one volt causes one ampere of current to flow.
The basic unit used to measure electrical energy. Watt-hours are determined by multiplying power by time. One watt-hour is the amount of energy used when one watt of power is delivered to an electrical device for one hour. | <urn:uuid:26240669-47c2-49d4-8323-d793a75914ea> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | http://nycsta.com/electrical/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583512421.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20181019170918-20181019192418-00468.warc.gz | en | 0.912639 | 658 | 3.703125 | 4 |
The Internet of Things: 4 Ways to Stay Secure in an Interconnected World
From manufacturers to universities, everyone has their eye on the convenience and efficiency that The Internet of Things (IoT) can provide. While our personal and professional lives stand to benefit from connected technology, the trick becomes: how do we maintain our privacy and security when all of our data is connected by multiple, always-on devices?
IoT is an ecosystem of wirelessly connected devices that transmit and receive data. While this connectivity makes our everyday tasks easier, a larger web of wireless devices creates more vulnerabilities for hackers to exploit. For example, one might assume that connecting a CCTV video camera to their network would increase security. However, as we learned from the cyber attack on Dyn in October 2016, hackers can exploit default manufacturer settings and cause severe operational shutdown.
Thankfully, embracing IoT doesn’t mean instant malware or compromised data. With some basic security hygiene, organizations of all sizes can minimize the risks associated with the ever-evolving technology landscape.
1. Authentication: Ensure only authorized personnel can access your networks. Check the integrity of passwords or look into hardware-based (not human-based) identifiers, such as radio-frequency identification (RFID).
2. Encryption: Protect data while it is in transit and when it is stored. Implement encryption methods that compress data in real time, at the byte level, to minimize resource consumption.
3. Device Management: Create an archive or inventory of trusted devices, so you can isolate outside devices that have not been approved to connect to the network.
4. Network Segmentation: Partition IoT devices from your organization’s standard IT devices. In the event your security is compromised through an IoT device, your operational IT infrastructure will remain secure. | <urn:uuid:fd640e09-659d-4549-90ed-29945ce278da> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://securanceconsulting.com/the-internet-of-things-4-ways-to-stay-secure-in-an-interconnected-world/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233506646.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20230924123403-20230924153403-00856.warc.gz | en | 0.921234 | 366 | 2.828125 | 3 |
1: Sounds & Letters Alphabet Chart - Downloadable PDFs
Sounds & Letters Alphabet: Do you have a colorful, student-friendly, comprehensive system for sounds and letters? This engaging Sounds and Letters Alphabet Chart provides verbal and visual cues for students to learn to navigate and master one-on-one sound-spelling correspondences in the whole class setting,in small groupings, and directly at their independent work space. Use these tools to support explicit instruction, guided practice, and independent reading and writing. This invaluable set equips students with foundational skills for phonemes, phonics, and word recognition in order to demonstrate increasing awareness and competence. Bring sounds and letters to life in your classroom!
- Sounds & Letters Alphabet Chart (Color, 11" x 8.5")
Sounds & Letters Alphabet Action Guide: How can we bring the sounds and letters to life? Do you need a tool at your fingertips to keep sound and spelling kinesthetic cues consistent? This teacher-friendly reference provides movement descriptions to model, practice, and act out with students. This is a Teacher Demonstration must-have!
- Sounds & Letters Alphabet Action Guide (Color, 11" x 8.5") | <urn:uuid:e8880932-8157-44a2-ae16-11514a80695a> | CC-MAIN-2020-24 | https://learningheadquarters.com/products/1-sounds-letters-alphabet-chart-downloadable-pdfs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590348502097.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20200605143036-20200605173036-00500.warc.gz | en | 0.839137 | 242 | 4.15625 | 4 |
By Joseph Shulam
Shabbat before the Passover is called Shabbat HaGadol (The Great Sabbath). The source of this name for comes from the Haftarah the reading from the Prophet Malachi 3:23, on this Shabbat.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. (Malachi 3:23)
Malachi is speaking of the day of salvation. Which is the “great and terrible day of the Lord.” The Passover, which is the ultimate day of salvation and redemption is the hallmark and the pattern of the final salvation and redemption. It is the model of what the final redemption of the World will look like as it is described in the book of Revelation. It will be a swift move of God, the destruction of the enemy and the deliverance of God’s people from slavery into freedom and from darkness into light. This day of the Lord will not be easy nor will it be pleasant until the very end when history will end and Para-History will begin for all of humanity. The traditional Jewish view point is expressed in the Talmud by Rabbi Yehoshua who said: “In Nissan the world was created … the bondage of our ancestors ceased in Egypt; and in Nissan the world will be redeemed in time to come.” (Babylonian Talmud Tractate Rosh HaShanah 11a)
According to tradition, Elijah has a primary role in the Messianic age, for this reason just on the Sabbath before the deliverance from Egypt we call is: Shabbat HaGadol, the GREAST SABBATH remembering the text of Malachi and the promise of God for the ultimate salvation and redemption of the whole World.
It is tradition that the day that Israel left Egypt was on Thursay 15th day of Nissan. God commanded to kill the Passover Lamb on the 14th day of Nissan. It was on the 10th of Nissan that the Torah commands the Israelites to kill the Lamb.
Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, “In the tenth day of this month they shall take every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house.” (Exodus 12:3)
When the Israelite families each took a Lamb on the 10th day of the month it made the Egyptians very curious and they wanted to know what is going onThe Israelites pleaded with Pharaoh to release the Jews. When Pharaoh refused, Jewish tradition has it that the firstborn of Egypt rebelled and attacked their own parents. This is one of the consideration why this Sabbath is considered as the Great and terribl day of God. Therefore, the day is considered great, due to the miracle of God which was manifest and the subsequent unraveling of Egyptian society. By slaughtering the lamb which was an object of Egyptians worship, Israel gave the first event that demonstrated their liberation from Egyptian dominion and freedom from spiritual slavery.
When the LORD told Moses to slay the paschal lamb, according to Rabbinic tradition Moses answered: “If we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us?” (Exodus 8:22) Tradition says that God replied: “As you live, Israel will not depart from here before they slaughter the Egyptian gods before their very eyes, that I may teach them that their gods are really nothing at all.'” On that night God did slaughter the first born of Egypt and their gods at the same time. The Midrash says: “While the Egyptians were burying them that the Lord had smitten among them, even all their firstborn; upon their gods also the Lord executed judgment. (Midrash Rabbah – Exodus 16:3)
We find out that this act was not easy for the Israelites also, because they too worshiped the gods of Egypt as Joshua son of Nun said: “Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD!” (Joshua 24:14)
For this reason the Sabbath that precedes the 15th of Nissan that is the Passover is significant and is called Shabbat HaGadol – the Great Sabbath, and Malachi chapter 3:23 is read in all the Synagogues.
In order to understand the idea we must remember first that Shabbat is a celebration of creation. Shabbat is the queen of all the holidays, and it the regulating force of both nature and humanity. The other biblical holidays are commemoration of historical events and agricultural seasons. The Passover actually begins on the 14th day of the month of Nissan that is according to the Biblical calendar the first month and the 14th day is the day of the first full moon of the Hebrew year. In essens the Passover is a divine precept that starts the biblical calendar for the whole year. It is the beginning of the yearly system and it seems according to Malachi that the end of time will have some of the same elements like the beginning of the calendar. See the following text:
And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying: “This month shall be to you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘In the tenth day of this month they shall take every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house.'” (Exodus 12:1-3)
It looks like the sacrifice of the Lamb makes it a kind parallel for the Israelites like a sacrifice of of the symbol of time, or it could be said the sacrifice of the beginning of time that is also going to be the pattern of the end of time. The text of Malachi and Shabbat HaGadol before the Passover Holiday is a kind of RESET of time that counts the salvation and redemption from Egypt as a pre-curser of the salvation and redemption of the end of time. It gives time and our calendar a reminder that Time is controlled by God and it has a beginning and an end.
Pray with me for the poor population of Syria. Already half a million people have been killed in Syria by the Assad government and by the so-called opposition to Assad – the rabbles. The attack by Syrian airplanes against helpless civilian population with bombs containing Chemical weapons (deadly nerve gas). As disciples of Yeshua our Messiah we can’t remain unaffected by such acts of barbarism. The least we can do is pray for the following:
- We pray that the Lord will impress upon all sides in this horrid war in Syria and Iraq to end as soon as possible.
- We pray for the Lord to deliver the region from evil and cruel dictators like the Assad government that has ruled Syria with the support of Iran and Russia for more than 40 years with such cruelty as gas warfare. The father of Bashar Assad Hafez used Chemical weapons and killed tens of thousands of people and now his son Bashar is surpassing his father and killing hundreds of thousands of people.
- Pray that the countries of the world that have any kind of moral and sensible governments and the United Nations will put a stop to the killing and slaughter of innocent civilian population and of women and children.
- Pray that the world take an example from Israel. Even though Syria is an enemy country – our hospitals are giving medical help and treating more than 3000 victims of Assad’s cruelty. Israel is also taking orphaned children from Syria and giving them all the care that they need without consideration of their religious and ethnic identity.
- Pray that the United States of America will take the high road and not ignore the situation and do what was done in the last eight years. Pray that the new administration of the USA will take military action to stop the atrocities and cruelty of the Assad government.
- Pray that Vladimir Putin will be touched by the Spirit of God and if he has any Christian faith (Russian Orthodox) it will be awakened and his values and principles will bring him and Russia to help stop the war in Syria and Iraq and not encourage the Assad and Iran camp.
- Pray that God will bless and protect Israel during these days of the Passover and give good sense and wisdom to the Palestinians and to the Israelis and to Russia and the USA to have the wisdom to promote a true and bible based peace between all the children of Abraham in the flesh, both the sons of Abraham through Isaac and through Ishmael.
Pray for Netivyah and the young leadership. They are doing a wonderful job and bringing a renewal and zeal into the Netivyah ministry and in the congregation and they need your support in prayer and in finances.
Pray that the good work that Netivyah is doing in humanitarian provision of food for the poor of Jerusalem will be sustained and supported for a blessing to the poor of Jerusalem and the Holocaust survivors and new immigrants and for the Orthodox Jewish community and some Arab families that we provide food. Netivyah HaMotzi (food distribution – formally called the Soup Kitchen) has received the highest possible acclaim by the people who receive the food and by the Social Welfare department of the city of Jerusalem.
We also want to continue to bless the young generation of young disciples of Yeshua in this land, both Jews and Arab, with study scholarships. We are now providing scholarships for 19 Students in the institutions of higher learning (colleges and Universities in Israel) and several scholarships to Arab Christian Student. We want to increase these scholarships because they are an investment into the future of the Disciples of the Messiah in this land. Please pray for the scholarship fund.
We have for several years blessed the believing soldiers in the Israeli Defense Forces with special gifts that are useful to them during their service and after. This last March we have blessed them with a set of Leatherman tools (not something cheap) and we have received several wonderful responses of how important this is for the moral and spirit of these young servants of God and country. The project has been possible because of the support of one congregation in DFW. We want to do more and we want to expand this very encouraging and unifying and building the body of the Messiah in Israel action. Please pray for us and with us to make this project a more than once per year project and to also help some soldiers who come from very needy families with more than just a useful gift one or two times per year.
Please go to facebook.com and to the Netivyah page and see the videos that Yuda is doing.
Please go to www.netivyah.org web page and read and download the Teaching from Magazine and other teaching both written and audio. It is all free! We depend on the grace of God and on the generosity of our brothers and sisters in the Messiah.
Please pray for Marcia and me! We seem to be busier as we get older and the demand on our time is greater. We will be leading a group of members and guest from Netivyah and from the Roeh Israel Congregation through the SEVEN Churches of Revelation. They are all in Turkey and Turkey has had some challenging terrorist events. We need God’s protection and grace for this trip. Marcia is coming with me and so are a few other brothers and sisters who have some physical limitations. We need your prayer for protection and safety.
Last week I send to extra special requests for healing. This week I am including those special requests in this Jerusalem Prayer List:
Please continue to pray for Tineke. Tineke had breast cancer. Now the cancer has returned and she needs our prayers for healing. Please also pray for Ynon Ben David and Emily. The name Ynon is one of the names of the Messiah from the Psalms. He is a very young baby with a breathing problem. It is hard for Ynon and especially hard for his mother and family. We have strong faith that the Lord will speedily heal this baby and raise him up healthy and strong and give him long life to be able to see the return of the Messiah with his own eyes.
Pray for the following brothers and sisters from Israel and around the World: Yehuda H., Yael E., Keijo and Salme, Sister Airi, who is sick and she has just yesterday lost her husband Pekka, Leah K., David S., Sarit, Miriam, Hannah K., Ruby L., Greg, Benjamin Sol, Daniel P., Ahuva, Ilana, Joe M., Emmet M., Gloria D., Bobby M., Ruby, John M., Gary, Aharon H., Yuri M., Tim Tucker, Anna-Majia, Erki and Sirpa, Liz J., Horace and June S., Marcelo’s father and mother, Paulo, Naomi, Clara, Pra. Curita, Toru San, Yumi’s husband, Sadako San, Shoko San, Takeo Sensei and Tomoko San, Barry our son is doing so much better and we praise the Lord for His mercy and healing, Danah and especially for Noaam S.
I have other brothers and sisters that I pray for but don’t list in this list. I am sure that you too have people who need prayer for healing and success. I want to encourage you to make a prayer list and pray for these people seriously. There is a blessing from God for those who pray for others and mention the needs of brothers and sisters in their prayers.
I ask you to pray for some friends who have a need for God’s blessing on their work: Chung and Sister Lee. I have special concern for our dear brother Bro. Goh and his family, and for Sister Christy, Sister Laurel, and for Brother Michael Kenzevic, and Daniel L., and his company and his family. Pray for our dear brother David H., and his family in Finland. These are brothers who have needs in their work and God is gracious to bless and help those who have concern to bless others. Pray for Roger, a dear brother who has been standing with Netivyah and many others for many years and now he needs special grace and strength to walk in the goodness and grace of the LORD with joy and prosper his life and his work.
To all of you who are praying for this list! I can honestly say that we see the hand of God in healing and blessing for so many of the people for whom we are praying. May the Lord bless you and keep your prayer pure and honest and bring your prayers before the throne of mercy.
Pray for all of Israel and the Jewish community worldwide during the Pessach Feast. Ask for the revelation of the Lord in the Passover Seder.
Happy Passover to all!
God bless you all who pray for Israel and for the Peace of Jerusalem. May the good Lord keep all HIS blessings flowing to you and from you for the body of the Messiah worldwide.
Blessings to all of you, | <urn:uuid:ec04c5a4-7057-4fb7-8b66-d1a58af7a254> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | http://www.netivyah.org/jerusalem-prayer-list-april-7-2017/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886109470.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20170821172333-20170821192333-00149.warc.gz | en | 0.959899 | 3,142 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Soldier, Son and Service
This new education program offers students a hands-on, tactile exploration of a personal World War One story. Through a soldier’s suitcase and its contents, donated to the Museum by the family of Dalbert Hallenstein, students can start to put together the heartbreaking human story of war. Within the program students can explore replicas of trench maps, notebooks, letters from family and uniforms to learn about the courageous soldiers and nurses. This is social history at its best.
Created collaboratively by history teachers from Melbourne’s leading Jewish schools and Monash university lecturer, Rosalie Triolo, this program addresses the Australian Curriculum on the subject of WW1, taught in year 9 across secondary schools in Victoria. Themes include Australia as a nation, immigration, democracy and citizenship.
‘Soldier, son and service’ can be delivered in conjunction with a standard Museum visit, teaching students about the beliefs, traditions and migration history of Australia’s Jews, a group that is no larger than half a percent of the total population. | <urn:uuid:f3b3d4dd-48bf-4f92-a19a-69d86888832d> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | http://www.jewishmuseum.com.au/programs/soldier-son-and-service/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934803848.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20171117170336-20171117190336-00058.warc.gz | en | 0.918782 | 221 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Like most industries, the energy sector also has a category of stocks relating to both producing and supplying energy. This industry relates to various multinational and smaller companies that are involved in exploring and developing oil or gas reserves, drilling and refining. The sector also incorporates gas and electric utility providers such as those generating and supplying renewable energy such as solar and wind as well as traditional fossil fuels like coal and oil.
Business and domestic customers will be utilising power for their day to day running. The industry has had to adapt and embrace renewable energy for several reasons. First and foremost, burning fossil fuels has had a negative impact on carbon emissions and has contributed to global warming and pollution. Secondly, as non-renewable fuel sources such as coal and oil cannot be replenished once they are used, the costs of producing gas and electricity have soared over the past 20 years. This is why more and more companies are turning to renewable energy as a long-term solution.
Comparing and switching business energy has never been easier with straightforward and easy to use online comparison websites such as Utility Saving Expert. The process has been simplified and shouldn’t take most prospective customers more than 10 minutes to get a free no obligation quote. Furthermore, green energy has decreased in price dramatically and is now often more competitive than its fossil fuel counterparts. Businesses will save money and know that they are having a real impact on society by embracing this social responsibility.
Firms within the energy sector are typically involved in different forms of energy. Normally, energy companies will be placed into different categories, these will be defined by how they source and produce gas and electricity. The two main categories are as follows:
- Renewable, which includes the following energy sources: solar power, wind power, hydropower and biofuels.
- Non renewables, which includes the following energy sources: Natural gas, petroleum products and oil, gasoline, heating oil, diesel fuel and nuclear.
Secondary sources such as electricity are also included in the energy industry. Supply and demand across the world will primarily determine energy pricing and the earnings performance of those that generate energy.
As expected, those that produce oil and gas will benefit during periods of increased oil and gas prices. When the price of a commodity decreases, as a result, energy firms will earn less. Political events and profound changes across the world also play an important part in determining what the price of energy will be. This is highlighted when there are market fluctuations and volatility in the case of demand for oil.
Energy sector company types
Below we will outline the various types of companies in the energy sector, as well as providing a brief explanation of what they offer to businesses and consumers.
Oil and gas drilling and production
These are the companies that drill, pump, and produce oil and natural gas. Typically, production involves pulling oil out of the ground.
Pipeline and Refining
Oil and natural gas must be transported from a production site to a refinery. It will then undergo various processes to be refined into a final product such as gasoline. Companies within this area of the energy sector are referred to as mid-stream providers.
Coal producers can sometimes be classified as energy companies. This is because coal is used to power plants, this also includes nuclear energy options.
Cleaner energy generation has gained traction over the past two decades and attracted considerable investment. Analysts predict that this industry will likely continue to grow at an exponential rate in the future. The most common examples of renewable energy include solar, wind and tidal.
There are specific companies that are involved in refining oil and gas into specialty chemicals, although many larger oil producers are also integrated energy producers. This essentially means that they produce multiple types of energy and control the whole process.
Like any other industry, an investor will be able to decide how they choose to invest in the energy sector. Often money will be invested based on a person’s views about growth and earnings potential. Compared to the oil and gas market, the energy industry diversifies itself by encompassing many different stakeholders. Analysts across the world have communicated how renewable energy sources will become increasingly important in the future. This can easily be understood on a base level as the demand for electric vehicles (EVs) continues to grow and governments push legislation to reduce global carbon emissions.
In summary, the energy sector includes companies that are in the business of producing or distributing energy such as renewables and fossil fuels. Over the past century, industrial growth has increased the demand for gas and electricity. However, a large shift in how energy is sourced is already in motion. | <urn:uuid:dc42bee2-2b9f-4779-8f91-e78199088ce3> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://www.europeanfinancialreview.com/understanding-investments-in-the-energy-sector/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400206329.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20200922161302-20200922191302-00417.warc.gz | en | 0.967524 | 931 | 2.796875 | 3 |
In almost all applications, a Riemann theta function is associated with a compact Riemann surface. Although there are other ways to represent Riemann surfaces (see e.g. Belokolos et al. (1994, §2.1)), they are obtainable from plane algebraic curves (Springer (1957), or Riemann (1851)). Consider the set of points in that satisfy the equation
where is a polynomial in and that does not factor over . Equation (21.7.1) determines a plane algebraic curve in , which is made compact by adding its points at infinity. To accomplish this we write (21.7.1) in terms of homogeneous coordinates:
by setting , , and then clearing fractions. This compact curve may have singular points, that is, points at which the gradient of vanishes. Removing the singularities of this curve gives rise to a two-dimensional connected manifold with a complex-analytic structure, that is, a Riemann surface. All compact Riemann surfaces can be obtained this way.
Since a Riemann surface is a two-dimensional manifold that is orientable (owing to its analytic structure), its only topological invariant is its genus (the number of handles in the surface). On this surface, we choose cycles (that is, closed oriented curves, each with at most a finite number of singular points) , , , such that their intersection indices satisfy
For example, Figure 21.7.1 depicts a genus 2 surface.
On a Riemann surface of genus , there are linearly independent holomorphic differentials , . If a local coordinate is chosen on the Riemann surface, then the local coordinate representation of these holomorphic differentials is given by
where , are analytic functions. Thus the differentials , have no singularities on . Note that for the purposes of integrating these holomorphic differentials, all cycles on the surface are a linear combination of the cycles , , . The are normalized so that
Then the matrix defined by
is a Riemann matrix and it is used to define the corresponding Riemann theta function. In this way, we associate a Riemann theta function with every compact Riemann surface .
Riemann theta functions originating from Riemann surfaces are special in the sense that a general -dimensional Riemann theta function depends on complex parameters. In contrast, a -dimensional Riemann theta function arising from a compact Riemann surface of genus () depends on at most complex parameters (one complex parameter for the case ). These special Riemann theta functions satisfy many special identities, two of which appear in the following subsections. For more information, see Dubrovin (1981), Brieskorn and Knörrer (1986, §9.3), Belokolos et al. (1994, Chapter 2), and Mumford (1984, §2.2–2.3).
Let , be such that
Define the holomorphic differential
Then the prime form on the corresponding compact Riemann surface is defined by
where and are points on , , and the path of integration on from to is identical for all components. Here is such that , . Either branch of the square roots may be chosen, as long as the branch is consistent across . For all , and all , , , on , Fay’s identity is given by
Let be a hyperelliptic Riemann surface. These are Riemann surfaces that may be obtained from algebraic curves of the form
where is a polynomial in of odd degree . The genus of this surface is . The zeros , of specify the finite branch points , that is, points at which , on the Riemann surface. Denote the set of all branch points by . Consider a fixed subset of , such that the number of elements in the set is , and . Next, define an isomorphism which maps every subset of with an even number of elements to a -dimensional vector with elements either or . Define the operation
Also, , , and . Then the isomorphism is determined completely by:
Furthermore, let and . Then for all , , such that , and for all , , such that and , we have Frobenius’ identity: | <urn:uuid:5244e04d-f9a3-4113-9260-07b5f0a39cfd> | CC-MAIN-2018-30 | https://dlmf.nist.gov/21.7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-30/segments/1531676591543.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20180720061052-20180720081052-00318.warc.gz | en | 0.880846 | 893 | 2.8125 | 3 |
A study in Wales has concluded that banning alcohol sponsorship would have little effect on youth drinking patterns.
The study led by Cardiff Business School’s Dr Fiona Davies, published in the International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship, found there was no significant statistical correlation between sports sponsorship awareness and attitudes to alcohol use.
The research found that although boys with greater awareness of sports sponsorship were slightly more likely to drink alcohol, the extent of their involvement in sport was a much stronger factor in their intention to drink than sponsorship.
Dr Davies said: “Boys with sporting interests appear to be influenced towards drinking and drunkenness by the traditional macho sporting culture rather than the presence of alcohol sponsorship.
“Alcohol sponsorship does play a part in perpetuating and normalising this culture, and so has some additional influence.
“But the findings indicate that banning it would have little effect on the traditional male practices of drinking after playing sport, watching televised matches with a beer in hand.”
Involvement in sport had no impact on girls’ attitudes to drinking, the survey found.
“This may be because the sports which interest them are less associated with alcohol, or that they do not wish to subscribe to the traditional male sporting culture.”
The results of the study are based on questionnaires and focus groups conducted with 294 14 to 15-year-olds from five schools.
They suggest that banning alcohol sponsorship of sport would need to be part of a much wider campaign to break the long-standing links between sport and alcohol in British male culture.
Dr Davies said: “For example, most of the youngsters correctly picked Brains as the sponsor of the Welsh rugby and football teams. But that connection was not rela- ted to whether they drank or not.
“We found that seeing sports people drinking and participating in and spectating on sport influenced them to drink.”
“The lives of several sports people, including the late George Best and Tony Adams, have been affected by drink problems.
“But we don’t seem to see any positive role models in sport speaking out about the benefits of not drinking, which is a shame.”
Richard Davies, sales and marketing director at Cardiff brewer SA Brain, said the firm takes its responsibility as a retailer very seriously and adopts a socially-responsible approach to marketing.
“For example, we worked with the WRU to phase out branding on children’s replica kit ahead of a voluntary ban. In no way do we believe that alcohol sponsorship can be held accountable for underage drinking.
“We believe that the pub remains an important hub of our social fabric and a pint in the local is a great Welsh tradition.
“Brains pubs provide a regulated environment for people to enjoy alcohol socially and responsibly and we actively discourage reckless or excessive consumption of alcohol and adopt a strong stance on the issue of underage drinking.”
But Welsh Secretary of the British Medical Association, Dr Richard Lewis, said alcohol consumption in Wales and the UK has increased rapidly, with marketing and sponsorship a key factor behind consumers drinking more.
“The market for alcohol has grown substantially, driven by vast promotional and marketing campaigns, with the UK alcohol industry spending approximately £800m annually,” he said.
“Alcohol marketing communications have a powerful effect on young people.
“The fact that promotion is allowed communicates a legitimacy and status to alcohol that belies the harms associated with its use. It also severely limits the effectiveness of public health messages.
“The more common and acceptable young people think drinking is, both in society as a whole and among their peers, the more likely they are to be a drinker.” | <urn:uuid:926886b4-12eb-4054-bd24-849308869561> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://www.footballtradedirectory.com/news/2010/february/alcohol-sponsorship-has-little-effect.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549424960.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20170725022300-20170725042300-00323.warc.gz | en | 0.967593 | 767 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Moore’s Law could end as early as 2020, with economics, rather than physics, being the main reason for its demise, experts have predicted.
Moore’s Law, named for Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore, states that the number of transistors contained on integrated circuits is doubled roughly every two years. While the law is generally used to refer to chip performance, the evolution of other electronic components such as memory and processing speeds also tend to follow the trend.
As reported by The Register, Robert Colwell of DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office spoke on Monday at Stanford University’s Hot Chips conference.
“When Moore’s Law ends, it will be economics that stops it, not physics,” said Colwell, who previously worked as chief chip architect at Intel.
Although Colwell dismisses physics as a restriction on chip evolution, Intel Fellow Mark Bohr has previously stated that physical space began to cause issues for chip engineers in the early 2000s. “We just plain ran out of atoms,” said Bohr in 2011.
Instead, Colwell forecasts that economics would halt the rapid progression of technology, as more advanced chips become less likely to make profit.
“Chip companies don't make the bulk of their profits from the top-of-the-line chips, but instead from the huge numbers of run-of-the-mill follow-on chips that they peddle,” he said, explaining that chip companies such as Intel would lose interest in smaller and smaller chips if they failed to appeal to a consumer market.
“Follow the money,” he advised.
Microchip picture courtesy of Shutterstock.co.uk | <urn:uuid:593643e3-e90e-44e7-b669-ca9023c83dfc> | CC-MAIN-2018-47 | https://www.pcr-online.biz/retail/moores-law-about-to-end-because-of-economics-not-physics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-47/segments/1542039741569.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20181114000002-20181114022002-00056.warc.gz | en | 0.968071 | 353 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Ecodesign – the driving force towards circularity
The Ecodesign Directive sets sustainability requirements for specific product groups sold within the EU. How does it impact the used electronics industry?
People have many choices to choose what to purchase, from choosing which organic fruit or which sustainable clothing they want. Unfortunately, buying an eco-friendly electronic device is more challenging. Yet, that can change, if more companies embrace ecodesign.
- However, what is ecodesign, and why will this affect consumer behavior?
- How does the Ecodesign Directive impact the used electronics industry?
- Significantly, how does Foxway contribute to the new paradigm of environmentally conscious design?
Ecodesign towards sustainable electronics
Ecodesign for Sustainable Products is the European Commission’s approach to more environmentally sustainable and circular products. The proposal establishes a framework to set ecodesign requirements for specific product groups sold within the EU. The aim is to significantly improve their circularity, energy performance, and other sustainability aspects.
Ecodesign helps the EU’s goal to become climate-neutral by 2050.
The circular economy is evolving
The vision of a circular economy first evolved as a solution to society’s increase in waste. That is why policies and business practices have focused on e-waste and raw materials, thus, we are witnessing the increased implementation of circularity.
"Product design determines what kind of environmental effects devices have. Ecodesign practices are pivotal to accelerating the transition to a circular economy"
/ Agnes Makk, Head of Recommerce at Foxway
Nowadays, elongating product lifetime is more focal to the circular economy than recycling e-waste. Thus, the key driver of circularity is incorporating sustainability into the product design. Our transition to more sustainable products will mean positive changes throughout the product lifecycle and consumer behavior.
New research by the RSC states a growing demand for more sustainable technology. The RSC online survey revealed that 60% of consumers would likely switch their preferred tech brand if they knew the product was made sustainably. In addition, people expressed their frustration at the lack of information on how to manage their own e-waste.
The scope of ecodesign
Improved ecodesign of electronic devices makes our planet more sustainable. This framework will facilitate the setting of a wide range of requirements, including:
- product durability, reusability, upgradability, and reparability
- presence of substances that inhibit circularity
- energy and resource efficiency
- recycled content
- remanufacturing and recycling
- carbon and environmental footprints
- information requirements, including a Digital Product Passport
All the above lower energy consumption and increase device longevity for EU customers.
Sustainability in product design should be a global initiative.
Ecodesign already applies to some electronic devices
At the time of writing this article, the EU legislation on ecodesign applies to 31 product groups. Some categories fall under electronic devices refurbished and resold by Foxway.
For example, computers, some electronic displays, and data storage devices must follow ecodesign requirements. Usually, the requirements involve energy-efficient design and appropriate labeling. But, ecodesign also steps in to steer electronic device circularity. Some electronic device categories must follow disassembly and data deletion requirements. The latter is essential to device circularity, affecting reparability and secure data erasure.
Foxway is the leading sustainability enabler in the technology industry.
Foxway contributes to the ecodesign initiative
The bread and butter of companies like Foxway is enabling electronic device circularity. Initiatives like ecodesign and the Right to Repair ease the work of refurbishing electronic devices, thus increasing their circularity and generating a positive environmental impact.
Ecodesign measures significantly contribute to the circular economy. Together with the refurbishment industry association EUREFAS, Foxway is engaged in a dynamic dialogue with European institutions and the public to expand on sustainability initiatives. While this framework applies to goods sold on the EU market, competition for sustainable product design can bring sustainable global changes. | <urn:uuid:c3c34b06-0d8d-4bae-81d3-7d98da73946d> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | http://de.foxway.dk/uber-uns/ecodesign-the-driving-force-towards-circularity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510462.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20230928230810-20230929020810-00890.warc.gz | en | 0.924488 | 845 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Introduction[edit | edit source]
Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease in which the body is unable to appropriately regulate the level of sugar, specifically glucose, in the blood, either by poor sensitivity to the protein insulin, or due to inadequate production of insulin by the pancreas. It is characterised by hyperglcaemia following a disorder of insulin secretion, insulin action or both. A diagnosis of diabetes is made when Fasting Plasma Glucose (FPG) is ≥ 126 mg/dL (7.0 mmol/L) on two occasions of testing, with fasting referring to no caloric intake for at least 8 hours.
There are various forms of diabetes, with the most common being Type 2 Diabetes (T2D). Previously referred to as adult onset diabetes or non insulin dependent diabetes, risk factors for T2D may include:
- Family History
- Increasing Age
- History of Gestational Diabetes
- Race (more common with African American, American Indian, Hispanics and Asian American)
Classification of Diabetes[edit | edit source]
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) classifies diabetes into four categories namely:
- Type 1 Diabetes which is an absolute deficiency of insulin due to an autoimmune destruction of β cells in the pancreas. This also includes latent autoimmune diabetes of adulthood.
- Type 2 Diabetes occurs from insulin resistance and a progressive reduction in insulin secretion. T2D is largely attributed to physical inactivity and excess body weight .
- Gestational Diabetes, which is diabetes diagnosed in the second or third trimester of pregnancy and was not present prior to the pregnancy period.
- Specific type diabetes that are due to other causes such as monogenic diabetes syndromes, diseases of the exocrine pancreas, and drug or chemical induced.
Classification of the condition is important to aid appropriate management of the condition. According to the ADA, previous assumptions of Type 1 Diabetes occurring only in children and Type 2 Diabetes in adults is now outdated as the two conditions can be expressed both in adults and children alike.
Epidemiology[edit | edit source]
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there is an estimated 422 million people with diabetes worldwide and with most of these individuals living in low and middle-income countries. This is beside the estimated projection by the international diabetes federation that 1 in 10 persons worldwide will have T2D by 2035. It has also been reported by WHO that 1.6 million deaths can be directly linked to diabetes yearly. The aforementioned report went on to say that there is however a unified global target to prevent the rise in diabetes and obesity by 2025.
Complications of Diabetes[edit | edit source]
Over time, diabetes causes damage to various systems of the body including: cardiovascular, neurological, musculoskeletal and integumentary systems with increased risk of developing comorbidities. It is known to affect specific organs such as the eyes, kidneys, nerves and heart. These complications may be categorized as acute or chronic.
Acute complications of diabetes include:
- Diabetic ketoacidosis
- Hyperosmolar nonketotic coma
Chronic complications of diabetes relate to the long term effects of hyperglycaemia on the vasculature and can be divided into:
- Microvascular complications consisting:
- Neuropathy (including peripheral distal symmetric polyneuropathy, autonomic neuropathy, proximal painful motor neuropathy and cranial mononeuropathy)
- Macrovascular complications including:
Management of Diabetes[edit | edit source]
Management can either be pharmacological or non-pharmacological. To effectively tackle diabetes and its complications, lifestyle adjustments including diet and exercise are often recommended to ensure optimal health. Also patients are encouraged and educated on how to manage their conditions by themselves to achieve optimal results from the lifestyle modifications. Diabetes treatment is mainly aimed at glycaemic control, improving quality of life of patients, preventing complications and ultimately reducing mortality in this patient population.
- Insulin Therapy: This is an essential treatment in patients with type 1 diabetes as the condition is marked with a dysfunction in β cell function. To achieve best results and to prevent metabolic disturbances, the administration of insulin is recommended to be through injections given on a daily basis or via a continuous subcutaneous pump.
- Pramlintide is an adjuvant glucose lowering medication that acts based on the naturally occurring β-cell peptide, amylin and is recommended for use in patients with type 1 diabetes.
- Metformin is the preferred medication for the management of type 2 diabetes.
- Sulfonylureas can either be used instead of metformin if the patient is not overweight or unable to tolerate metformin and it can be administered with metformin if glycaemic control is inadequate.
Non-pharmacological Interventions[edit | edit source]
The non-pharmacological management of diabetes is basically centred on lifestyle changes with exercise and diet being the main stay of the programme. Lifestyle modification is recommended to avoid infusion with insulin.
Nutritional Intake[edit | edit source]
Integrating an individualised meal plan is essential to achieving positive outcomes with these patients. The portion and types of food eaten may affect the balance of insulin and consequently, levels of blood glucose. It has been reported that the quality of the dietary intake rather than the quantity is more important. As such, diets rich in whole grain, fruits, vegetable, nuts; lower in refined grains, red or processed meat and sugar-sweetened beverages; and moderate in alcohol are recommended as they help improve glycaemic control and lipids in patients with diabetes.
Physical activity (PA) is any form of movement that promotes the use of energy, while exercise is any planned and/or structured PA and are both beneficial for all patients with diabetes. Exercise programmes are geared towards improving quality of movement, participation in activities of daily living, managing pain if any, lowering blood sugar and ultimately slowing the progression of the condition and its multi systems complications.
A combination of aerobic and resistance training exercises has been recommended in planning exercise programmes for this population as it has been reported to produce positive effects on blood glucose levels. Flexibility and balance exercises are reported to be beneficial for older patients with diabetes as the former will help in improving range of motion at joints, while the latter can aid in reducing fall risks.
While exercise may be good, precautions should be taken to avoid exercise related complications in patients with diabetes for which the ADA recommends that:
- There should be appropriate progression of exercises to minimise risk of injury
- People, especially older ones, with diabetic complications such as autonomic neuropathy, cardiovascular or pulmonary disease should avoid exercising outdoors on very hot and humid days.
- Doses of medications with tendency to cause hypoglycaemia besides insulin should be adjusted based on exercise training.
- Exercise-induced hyperglycaemia, which is more common in patients with T1D, can be mitigated with either a lower intensity aerobic cooldown or insulin administration.
- Resistance exercise should be performed before aerobic exercise in the same session to prevent exercise-induced hypoglycaemia
Rehabilitation as an Intervention in the Management of Diabetes[edit | edit source]
The prevalence of diabetes is projected to be on the rise and as such, the increasing demand on rehabilitation services to curb the complications the condition presents with. Management of diabetes requires a lifelong multi-faceted treatment approach to achieve set goals. Major goals of diabetic rehabilitation are to: attain glycaemic control, improve quality of life, prevent or delay complications and empower patients with the knowledge of their condition.
Patient education is important to help people with diabetes enhance self care. It involves providing information on the need and importance of PA and exercise as well as encouraging active participation as they are pivotal in the rehabilitation of this population. As such, it is imperative to develop an individualised and structured PA/exercise plan for each patient, while still taking their pharmacological management and dietary change into consideration.
Physical activity is known to improve the uptake of glucose as an increased blood flow to muscles enhances glucose uptake in muscle cells; improve the sensitivity of insulin to excess blood glucose and reduce intra-abdominal fat - a known risk factor for insulin resistance; and prevent cardiovascular complications. In those with cardiovascular disease, it helps prolong survival and improve exercise capacity while it postpones the occurrence of diabetes and its complications in non-diabetic individuals. Also, the ADA recommends that people with pre-diabetes should be enrolled in diabetes prevention programmes to gain and sustain a 7% loss of previous body weight and increase moderate-intensity PA to about 150 minutes per week.
Tele-rehabilitation should also be considered when managing individuals with diabetes. In a recent study, tele-rehabilitation which consisted of breathing exercises and calisthenics, three times a week over a six-week period showed improvement in the psychosocial status and exercise capacity of individuals with diabetes. Rehabilitation of diabetes patients can take place in either an in-patient or out-patient setting.
Resources[edit | edit source]
- American Diabetes Association: Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes -2021
- American Diabetes Association: Physical Activity/Exercise and Diabetes: A Position Statement of the American Diabetes Association
References [edit | edit source]
- Alberti KG, Zimmet PZ. Definition, diagnosis and classification of diabetes mellitus and its complications. Part 1: diagnosis and classification of diabetes mellitus. Provisional report of a WHO consultation. Diabetic medicine. 1998 Jul;15(7):539-53.
- American Diabetes Association. Addendum. 2. Classification and Diagnosis of Diabetes: Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes-2021. Diabetes Care 2021; 44 (Suppl. 1): S15-S33. Diabetes care.:dc21ad09.
- World Health Organisation, Diabetes. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/diabetes (accessed 27 July, 2021).
- World Health Organisation, Diabetes. Available from: https://www.who.int/health-topics/diabetes#tab=tab_1 (accessed 27 July, 2021).
- Leon BM, Maddox TM. Diabetes and cardiovascular disease: Epidemiology, biological mechanisms, treatment recommendations and future research. World journal of diabetes. 2015 Oct 10;6(13):1246.
- Stanley F, Malamed DDS, Daniel L,
Diabetes Mellitus: Hyperglycaemia and Hypoglycaemia. In Stanley F, Malamed DDS, Daniel L (editors). Medical Emergencies in the Dental Office (seventh Edition). Mosby, 2015. Pg255 -280
- Papatheodorou K, Banach M, Bekiari E, Rizzo M, Edmonds M. Complications of diabetes 2017. J Diabetes Res. 2018; 2018: 3086167.
- Pontarolo R, Sanches ACC, Wiens A, Perlin CM et al. Pharmacological Treatments for Type 2 Diabetes. In: Croniger C (Editor). Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes. Online: IntechOpen, 2015 April1:147. Available from: https://www.intechopen.com/books/treatment-of-type-2-diabetes/pharmacological-treatments-for-type-2-diabetes-
- American Diabetes Association. 9. Pharmacologic approaches to glycemic treatment: Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes—2021. Diabetes Care. 2021 Jan 1;44(Supplement 1):S111-24.
- American Diabetes Association. 3. Prevention or delay of type 2 diabetes: standards of medical care in diabetes—2021. Diabetes Care. 2021 Jan 1;44(Supplement 1):S34-9.
- Packer ME, Crasto W. Type 2 diabetes: pharmacological management strategies. The Pharmaceutical Journal 2015 Available from: https://www.pharmaceutical-journal.com (accessed 17/02/2021)
- Ley SH, Hamdy O, Mohan V, Hu FB. Prevention and management of type 2 diabetes: dietary components and nutritional strategies. The Lancet. 2014 Jun 7;383(9933):1999-2007.
- Colberg SR, Sigal RJ, Yardley JE, Riddell MC, Dunstan DW, Dempsey PC, Horton ES, Castorino K, Tate DF. Physical activity/exercise and diabetes: a position statement of the American Diabetes Association. Diabetes care. 2016 Nov 1;39(11):2065-79.
- Schmidt C, Baumert J, Gabrys L, Ziese T. Diabetes Mellitus in the Medical Rehabilitation-Use of Rehabilitation Services During 2006-2013. Die Rehabilitation. 2018 Jul 26;58(4):253-9.
- Zdrenghea D, Pop DA, Penciu OA, Zdrenghea V, Zdrenghea M. Rehabilitation in diabetic patients. Rom J Intern Med. 2009 Jan 1;47(4):309-17.
- Sami W, Ansari T, Butt NS, Ab Hamid MR. Effect of diet on type 2 diabetes mellitus: A review. International journal of health sciences. 2017 Apr;11(2):65.
- Mekonne, HS. Rehabilitative care of adult with diabetes mellitus. Journal of Clinical Case Studies. 2018; 9(2).
- Duruturk N, Özköslü MA. Effect of tele-rehabilitation on glucose control, exercise capacity, physical fitness, muscle strength and psychosocial status in patients with type 2 diabetes: a double blind randomized controlled trial. Primary care diabetes. 2019 Dec 1;13(6):542-8. | <urn:uuid:4e95864c-e2fa-4a73-ba33-23d1330ad5f8> | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | https://www.physio-pedia.com/Diabetic_Rehabilitation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656103033925.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20220625004242-20220625034242-00254.warc.gz | en | 0.867937 | 2,952 | 3.671875 | 4 |
The GED Testing Service, http://www.gedtestingservice.com, launched a Spanish-language GED test on computer. The English test was already available online and will be the only option starting in 2014.
Why it matters: One in five U.S. residents has no high school diploma, but fewer than one in three U.S. Latinos have one, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Things to know about the GED:
Sections passed on the old paper and pencil tests will not count toward computer test versions, so those midway through the process need to finish up this year.
The computer price is $28 per subject, which adds up to $140 for the full GED. Charges for the paper and pencil test are approximately $150 statewide, but fees are established by each individual testing centers.
Through May 31, 2013, any adult who chooses to begin their GED test on computer will receive one free retake, visit GEDtestingservice.com/secondshot
Stanislaus County has only one GED testing center, administered by the Stanislaus County Office of Education. The Stanislaus Literacy Center offers test prep, but not the test itself.
Over the last year, the GED online test was taken by 40,000 adults, who had an 88 percent pass rate compared to 71 percent for those who tested on paper. Adults who tested on computer completed their exams in five and half hours compared to about eight hours on paper. Since 1942 more than 18 million adults have earned their GED® test credential. Nearly 800,000 GED® tests are taken each year, and in 2010, more than 470,000 individuals were awarded their high school credential through the GED® testing program. | <urn:uuid:e8676533-4a40-407f-8564-a8e330a764af> | CC-MAIN-2016-40 | http://www.modbee.com/news/local/education/article3150253.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-40/segments/1474738660992.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160924173740-00097-ip-10-143-35-109.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954932 | 365 | 2.53125 | 3 |
What are the biggest challenges facing the Internet of Things? Managing "Big Data", addressing a score of privacy concerns, scaling for the enterprise... and of course, explaining what the hell the Internet of Things is. We've got you covered. This is the Internet of Things 101. Here, we explain what the Internet of Things is in real people language and demystify some of the jargon.More of the slideshow type? Here you go:
More of the blog post type? Keep reading.
What is the Internet of Things?
The Internet of Things is a concept that means sensors placed on physical objects can connect those objects to the internet, enabling them to communicate with other physical objects and with people.
...So that's what "IoT" stands for?
What does "M2M mean? I heard that term once.
M2M stands for “Machine to Machine.” M2M originally came up when describing wireless carriers and devices. It's grown since then. Some people use the terms “Internet of Things” and “M2M” interchangeably, whereas others feel they have different meanings. M2M refers to the “plumbing” of the IoT - the connectivity that lets devices talk. The IoT is a broader concept that M2M exists under.
What is a "Thing?"
"Things” are objects (like air conditioners) or living beings like people or animals.
Are "things" the same as "objects" or "devices"?
What is a "connected device"? I heard that term once. It was the guy that said "M2M."
Connected devices are physical objects that are connected to the internet through sensors. Sometimes people call them “Smart devices.”
What about "Connected spaces"?
These are physical spaces that have sensors placed in them, allowing the space to react based on the data the sensor is tracking. Some people call them “Smart spaces.”
What is a sensor?
Sensors can be placed on physical objects or in physical spaces to connect them to the internet and to other objects. Sensors convert real world data (temperature, sound) into things software (and other devices) can use.
What does a sensor look like?
This is a sensor.
This is also a sensor.
This is not a sensor.
That is a baby fox.Sensors are usually small. Estimote’s Beacons fit in the palm of your hand. Some sensors can be as small as a grain of rice. Eventually, tech insiders believe sensors will be as small as an air molecule. That’s right: Smart dust, baby.
What can sensors do?
Sensors can track data about their environments - like location, temperature, sound, motion, light, and moisture. They process that data to trigger actions by the thing or space they are attached to. This action can be an alert, like a text message, or it can be an action related to the object itself (like lights turning on.) For example, motion-tracking sensors in a conference room can trigger the lights to go on when people walk in. Or, for security purposes, motion sensors can send a text message to security personnel letting them know someone is in the building at an off-hour.
How do they do that?
Well, think of it this way. Say there are five neighbors who all want to go to the mall. Right now with the current set-up of the IoT, those people would all have to drive in separate cars in order to get to the same place. But if they could all carpool, they could get to the mall much more efficiently. And then they could all talk to one another on the way to the mall and maybe do something cooler other than just arriving at the mall at the same time. They could make plans for lunch, or discuss and decide to go to a movie together that night.This is where we come in. Robin helps objects carpool.Sensors use a software backend Robin to connect the object they are placed on to the internet. But right now, each object has to go through a separate API in order to do that. This makes it clunky to develop for the IoT. It's a major barrier to progress in the space right now. With Robin, there's a common API that all the objects can use and communicate to each other on. It's like we're helping them carpool to the internet, and because of this we can support some much more useful and sophisticated applications of the IoT.
Ok. But should I care about the IoT?
Yes. When things can communicate digitally, they can be controlled from anywhere and they can communicate from anywhere. The IoT helps people look up and have more time and attention to give to real human interaction because of the efficiencies provided by these connections.
But I like my world the way it is. What if I don't want things to change?
When it comes to innovation, you have to conceive the answer to society's unspoken need. If Henry Ford had waited for someone to explicitly ask for a car, we'd still be riding horses. If Steve Jobs had waited for someone to put the iPhone into a theoretical "Apple Suggestion Box", we'd all still be rocking Pink Razrs.
Fair points. But I heard the IoT is just like, plants that can tweet at you when they need to be watered. What else can the IoT do?
Yeah, we know that home automation and tweeting plants are the most well-known examples of the IoT, but it can actually be much broader than that. For example, connected cargo can send information about moisture and temperature levels in a shipping truck to a control center or smartphone thousands of miles away. If a shipment was ruined because it got wet, that system could detect that and then also look up inventory for a replacement at the nearest warehouse. It could take care of the replacement automatically and alert the shipping manager where the cargo vehicle should stop in order for the switch to happen. Sound cool? Here are 25 examples of the IoT being used outside of the home, if you are interested in more of that stuff.
I want to get involved. What can I do?
Glad to hear it! There are four things you can do.1) If you want to keep learning about this space, definitely subscribe to the Robin blog. (Hit up that little form at the bottom of this post.) And don't be afraid to follow us on Twitter and shoot us over any questions you have.2) If you're interested in bringing the IoT to your home, definitely check out Smart Things or Nest to get started.3) If you're interested in bringing the IoT to your business, we can help with that. Email us at email@example.com - we'd love to brainstorm some use cases with you and help out.4) Developer? You probably knew a lot of the stuff in this post, but hopefully it gives you a nice way to describe it to your family and friends. We'd love to have you to sign up for our developer's beta. It's coming soon and we really think you'll love it. | <urn:uuid:cebd5028-e249-477b-a12a-5671e8977c1d> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://robinpowered.com/blog/the-beginners-guide-to-the-internet-of-things | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038101485.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20210417041730-20210417071730-00329.warc.gz | en | 0.954436 | 1,491 | 2.890625 | 3 |
VCU Researchers Develop a Hemostatic Bandage
Unique technology may one day help troops on the frontlines
Sathya Achia Abraham
University Public Affairs
What started as a nonwoven fiber mat composed of tiny fibers measuring just a few nanometers in diameter has been translated into a unique material that can stop massive bleeding in a short period of time – possibly one day saving the lives of severely wounded soldiers on the frontlines of combat.
By “spinning” the right mix of engineering, biology, medicine and life sciences together, Gary L. Bowlin, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Engineering and director of the Tissue Engineering Laboratory at VCU, and David G. Simpson, associate professor of anatomy in the VCU School of Medicine, created a hemostatic bandage – composed of resorbable materials that rapidly stop massive bleeding by the induction of a clot.
“Often in military situations, there is so much blood loss involved and anything used to try and stop the flow can get diluted and washed out quickly - never having the chance to form that necessary plug to stop the bleeding,” Bowlin said.
“We needed to concentrate on those critical factors for the bandage – it had to be placed locally and be effective. Most technologies that are used now must be cleaned out and removed because otherwise they cause a massive inflammatory response,” he said.
The material used to create the bandage, described by Simpson as being “like cotton candy with coagulation properties rolled into it,” grew out of their research on electrospinning – a process that comes from electrostatic spraying – which has been described in the scientific literature as far back as 100 years.
Bowlin and Simpson were first able to create nano- to micron-scale biomedical fibrous structures using the electrospinning process more than 10 years ago. Electrospinning involves a charged polymer solution being shot through a needle or pipette tip towards a grounded collecting plate. The solution evaporates during travel toward the collecting plate leaving a continuous polymer fiber that is collected as a non-woven fabric on the plate. Bowlin and Simpson adapted this technique for use in the fabrication of templates to promote normal tissue regeneration.
When Bowlin and Simpson started thinking about formulations and examining different variations of materials, one of the challenges they faced was to find materials that could be reabsorbed by the body. That’s when they decided to go back to basics and examine what the body naturally uses to clot and what would be absorbed by the body. To create the novel hemostatic bandage, they took a sugar that is synthesized from sucrose called dextran, and formed a cotton ball from it using electrospinning. The dextran cotton ball became the delivery vehicle because when put into water it disintegrates almost instantaneously. Next, Bowlin and Simpson loaded the structure with salmon fibrinogen and thrombin – naturally occurring proteins used in the clot formation.
The final formulation was sent to the Armed Forces Lab for testing, and in 2010, the invention was licensed through VCU Tech Transfer Office to a start-up medical device company called St. Teresa’s Medical Inc. of Bloomington, Minn. The company is doing further testing on a finalized first product specification and conducting pre-clinical trials. Once the trials have been completed, the bandage will be headed for Food and Drug Administration approval. The company plans to launch the bandage as WRAPCLOTTM and market it to military and civilian traumas.
Bowlin and Simpson have continued to collaborate on work related to tissue engineering and their next steps will focus on the development of muscle for cosmetic and preferably functional repair of ballistic injuries incurred on the battlefield. | <urn:uuid:fdf265da-766a-4881-bdc8-00251eb742f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news.vcu.edu/news/Vet1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705956263/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120556-00086-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953221 | 778 | 3.265625 | 3 |
This essay has been submitted by a law student this is not an example of the work written by our professional essay writers defining and analysing the concept of corporate governance. Code of ethics a code of ethics forms a part of formal statement showing the value of the organization on the ethical and social issues in other words, these act as general principles about the beliefs of organization related to the matters like employees, quality and the environment below are the codes of ethics of the publicly held companies. Business code of ethics is defined by businessdictionarycom as “written guidelines used by an organization to set the standards for employees and managements conduct and behavior” (“businessdictionarycom”, 2013)the purpose of this paper is to research a chosen companies code of ethics (in this case exxonmobil) and. A business with a code of ethics may also be viewed more favorably by members of the public, which means that a code of ethics is a sound business decision adherence to a code of ethics may also be required for continued employment an employee manual may include a clearly outlined code of ethics, for example, with a note that failure to follow.
Ethics have become an organizational priority in the 21st century, ethics is neither a luxury nor an option there is a growing impatience within society with selfish and irresponsible actions that impoverish some, while enriching the crafty. Fundamentals of good governance should remain the same at all levels and stages 14 most governance codes focus on delivering good governance practices at an. Malaysia launches a code of ethics on a more positive note, malaysia's ministry of domestic trade and consumer affairs recently released a book entitled code of ethics for malaysian business. Electronic business must set up ethics program that should be controlled by the host nation a business ethics program should therefore not set up either its workers or its enterprise for failure rather a business ethics program, strives to put the correct people in correct position is an e-business enterprise to foster and address stakeholders. The impact of religion on business ethics yuriy pertsev mariya shykhova scientific supervisor: shcherba av dnepropetrovsk national university we live in age of innovation, growth of free markets, and world economy new government authorities, world’s business leaders and up-to-date technologies being players on global scene form business. Codes of ethics of professional engineering abstract industrial engineering decisions may involve factors such as environmental pollution, product safety, and.
This essay has been submitted by a law student this is not an example of the work written by our professional essay writers sources of the malaysian legal system. Read this essay on ethics and leadership effectiveness come browse our large digital warehouse of free sample essays get the knowledge you need in order to pass your classes and more only at termpaperwarehousecom. The 10 benefits of business ethics the impact of business ethics on nestlé nestlé's view on business ethics 43 the implications of business ethics on stakeholders 5 conclusion introduction every business has the power through their ability to spend vast amounts of money they have.
Ethical issues in the construction industry: contractor's perspective uploaded by norizan ahmad available online at wwwsciencedirectcom procedia - social and. Business essays: code of ethics code of ethics this essay code of ethics and other 63,000+ term papers, college essay examples and free essays are available now on reviewessayscom autor: reviewessays • december 8, 2010 • essay • 417 words (2 pages) • 576 views.
In search for ethics in business 41 eat before you come 43 following the prophets 44 searching the soul of humanity, looking 46 for answers defining and identifying.
The malaysian business code of ethics (rukuniaga) introduction the malaysian business code of ethics is based on the religions, philosophical and cultural values of. The malaysian business code of ethics (rukuniaga) introduction the malaysian business code of ethics is based on the religions, philosophical and cultural values of malaysian it was undertaken by national consumer’s protection consultative council and ministry of domestic trade and consumer affairs to develop self regulation. Ethics & compliance the core of the ethics and compliance program at the coca-cola company is our code of business conduct the code guides our business conduct, requiring honesty and integrity in all matters all of our associates and directors are required to read and understand the code and follow its precepts in the workplace and. Ahammurabi’s code babet code 1further case studies abhopal bthree mile island cchernobyl 7 concluding remarks what is engineering ethics engineering ethics. | <urn:uuid:d6ae9458-3871-475d-9195-a94edacf80cd> | CC-MAIN-2018-30 | http://pnhomeworkybqn.quickrewards.info/the-malaysian-business-code-of-ethics-essay.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-30/segments/1531676589573.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20180717051134-20180717071134-00303.warc.gz | en | 0.928544 | 949 | 2.796875 | 3 |
When Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, little did he realise it was the beginning of a worldwide industry. Edison recorded the words ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ into a metal trumpet (forefather of the microphone), which scratched a sound track on a revolving cylinder. The first recordings were cylinders, so each song had to be individually recorded. To make a copy, the singer repeated the song on a new cylinder. Artists recorded many cylinders of each song. There was a consolation – they were paid a royalty for each copy. Australian singer Peter Dawson made a tidy sum this way.
The rapid development of radio introduced new microphones, electric turntables, electric pick-ups and amplifiers. A European invented the ten inch disc recording. This could be pressed out like biscuits, using a handful of shellac in an electronically heated record press. The master recording was recorded on a wax disc, and this was then treated in a chemical bath by electrolysis, thus making a metal stamper for the press.
The Columbia Recording Company began at Homebush, a Sydney suburb, having the rights to reproduce His Master’s Voice, Parlophone, Decca and an Australian label, Regal Zonophone. Most early Australian stars recorded on this label, eg Tex Morton, Buddy Williams, Smoky Dawson and Slim Dusty. Artists could also make custom recordings, several copies to give to local radio stations.
In the late 1940s, wire recorders came to light and city radio stations began to do outside recordings. The big problems were they required a power point, and the wire would snap. If the
wire core fell off its reel, you virtually had a bundle of steel wool.
Germany invented recording tape. Firstly, it was a paper tape coated with iron oxide, but when plastics developed, they soon improved and the tape could be spliced if it broke. Tapes could now be edited, a big step forward.
One of Melbourne’s earliest commercial labels was Planet, owned by King Crawford. He had a Bourke St recording studio in the old Eastern Market, later the site of the Southern Cross Hotel.
Judy Banks, who was just 19 years of age, and playing the female lead in the Australian production of ‘Salad Days’ at the Princess Theatre, recorded songs from the show, two of which were ‘Looking For a Piano’, and ‘We Sit in the Sun’.
A jazz craze swept Melbourne early in the 1950s. Bill Armstrong, who had just graduated as a sound engineer at Caulfield Tech, came to Darnum one weekend to record another keen jazz lover, Smacka Fitzgibbon. Smacka’s family was the licencee of the Commercial Hotel in Warragul. To gain experience, Smacka took a job as barman at the Darnum Pub. He also played the banjo and sang at local concerts. They recorded several tracks on a Sunday afternoon, including ‘Painting the Clouds With Sunshine’, and ‘Barefoot Days’. The backing band was actually Graeme Bell’s, on 78rpm discs, on his Paramount label. Several other jazz recordings were issued in Melbourne. Clements Music Store in Russell St sold their Jazz Art label and Graeme Bell released Swaggie Label records.
A Northcote photographer, Cyril Stevens, formed Spotlight Variety’s Record Company and issued three LPs of square dancing, featuring the Leggett’s Ballroom square dance caller Eddie Carroll. These sold well Australia wide. Square Dancing became a huge craze in the early fifties, with many top Melbourne venues running weekly dances. Spotlight later recorded and sold albums of organ music, recorded at the State Theatre in Flinders St (now The Forum, and the Rivoli Theatre, Camberwell Junction.
With the advent of 33 LPs came vinyl plastic, with discs more flexible and creating a smoother sound. Wilson and Gillespie manufactured plastic goods at their factory in Melbourne. They also
pressed vinyl LPs for other independent recording studios. Seeing there was a big market for albums they began to record and distribute their own, building a studio in A’Beckett St, East
Melbourne. Gaynor Bunning, a young TV singer, who also sang at the Heidelberg Town Hall dances, was their first artist. The Hawking Brothers came down from Mooroopna to record bush
ballads, and Melbourne Jazz Band Frank Traynor and his Jazz Preachers had a big hit with ‘Washington Square’. A young motor mechanic from Preston, who sang rock and roll songs, also
made his debut. His name? Johnny Chester. The City Slickers, led by Jack Varney, produced quite a few albums of ballroom dance music. Another Melbourne group, The Seekers, made their original recordings for W&G, later going to England and becoming a world-wide hit.
The Radio Australia series is being repeated in memory of Max Gibson. | <urn:uuid:94be6cbe-568b-4364-ade1-725003076825> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://3bbrfm.org.au/temp/2017/08/20/recording-history-in-australia-part-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195525483.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20190718022001-20190718044001-00476.warc.gz | en | 0.97424 | 1,036 | 3.125 | 3 |
Shipbuilding in Belfast
An overview of the historic shipbuilding industry in Belfast
Origins and Beginnings
The recorded history of shipbuilding in Belfast begins in 1636, when the vessel Eagle’s Wing was built by a number of clergymen. The boat unsuccessfully took a congregation to America, in an attempt to escape one of the many furious schisms that affected Belfast society at the time.
The industry received its first real impetus in 1791 when William Ritchie arrived from Saltcoats in Ayrshire, bringing with him ten men and enough materials to found the first boat yard in Belfast. The yard was situated roughly where Corporation Street is today.
The first boat built and launched was the Hibernia, a vessel of 200 tons that entered the water on July 7, 1792. This was the beginning of an industry that was to shape the destiny and culture of the city for the next 200 years.
The Golden Age of Shipbuilding
Between 1841 and 1846, Queen’s Island was built on land reclaimed from a major river straightening project. This site, on the Co Down bank of the River Lagan, was to become the home of Harland and Wolff and their first major rivals, McIlwaine and Coll.
Harland and Wolff was founded in 1853 by Robert Hickson, an ironmonger, and sold to his shipyard manager, Edward Harland, in 1855. Harland was financed by GC Schwabe of Liverpool, whose nephew Gustav Wolff joined the firm as Harland’s assistant.
The first ship to be launched from the shipyard was the Venetian, followed by innovatory transoceanic liners for the White Star Line such as the Oceanic, the Britannic, the Olympic, and of course the Titanic. Harland and Wolff quickly established a reputation as the world's leading liner constructor.
In 1880, the firm of Workman and Clark was established on the opposing bank of the River Lagan in Co Antrim. Known as the ‘wee yard’, they took over McIlwaine and Coll within three years and pioneered refrigerated shipping utilised by the booming transoceanic trade routes.
Boom and Bust
The outbreak of the first world war in 1916 generated a marked increase in production in the shipyards. However, the ensuing economic slump saw shipyard employment figures fall from a pre-war high of 25,000 to just 2750 in 1933. Workman and Clark were bought over by the Tyneside company Northumberland Shipping, but declared bankruptcy in 1928. A management buyout was arranged, but a combination of the Wall Street Crash and a serious fire on the dock bound liner Bermuda finished off Workman and Clark in 1935.
Harland and Wolff survived the slump by changing the type of boat the yard produced. The opulent heights of the Titanic degenerated into rudimentary hulls with engines attached. But fewer workers were required to build these vessels and unemployment continued to shadow the yards.
Harland and Wolff were by now the only the only shipbuilders on the Lagan, and survived to emerge as a key component in the war effort of 1939 to 1945. Employment in the shipyards returned to over 20,000 as the firm made boats, tanks and guns in the early rearmament drive.
However, half their yards were destroyed by the German blitz of April 1941 and, while they were able to rebuild quickly, Harland and Wolff also lost boats and men in one of the most devastating air raids of the war.
The Long Decline
Harland and Wolff did not suffer a post war slump due to shipping companies having to restock in the aftermath of world war two. The yard was still one of the world’s leaders when the Canberra was launched in 1960.
From this point on, however, shipbuilding slowly declined. A renaissance in shipbuilding has not materialised and on Friday, January 17, 2003, Anvil Point, the last boat to be fully built in Belfast, slipped into the sea. The owners of the yard have hopes to diversify, but with the closing of the shipyard, part of Belfast’s heritage and identity was lost to history.
Belfast: An Illustrated History (1983) by Johnathan Bardon; Shipbuilders to the World: 125 Years of Harland and Wolffe, Belfast, 1861-1947 (1986) by Michael Stanley Moss; Steel Ships and Iron Men: Shipbuilding in Belfast, 1894-1912 (1989) by Harland and Wolff; An Unlikely Success Story: the Belfast Shipbuilding Industry 1880-1935 (2001) by John Lynch. | <urn:uuid:ac88cb60-3cc5-426e-947c-8b39ed0650d6> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://www.culturenorthernireland.org/features/heritage/shipbuilding-belfast | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243991648.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20210514060536-20210514090536-00091.warc.gz | en | 0.970628 | 967 | 2.78125 | 3 |
239 G. Virginis is a blue main sequence dwarf star that can be located in the constellation of Virgo. The star can be seen with the naked eye, that is, you don't need a telescope/binoculars to see it.
HIP70022 is the reference name for the star in the Hipparcos Star Catalogue. The Id of the star in the Henry Draper catalogue is HD125489. The Id of the star in the Gould Star Catalogue is 239. Stars in the southern hemisphere are more likely to have a Gould Id than the northern hemisphere. For example, there are no Gould classified stars in Ursa Major.
The location of the star in the galaxy is determined by the Right Ascension (R.A.) and Declination (Dec.), these are equivalent to the Longitude and Latitude on the Earth. The Right Ascension is how far expressed in time (hh:mm:ss) the star is along the celestial equator. If the R.A. is positive then its eastwards. The Declination is how far north or south the star is compared to the celestial equator and is expressed in degrees. For 239 G. Virginis, the location is 14h 19m 40.97 and +00d23`03.7 .
All stars like planets orbit round a central spot, in the case of planets, its the central star such as the Sun. In the case of a star, its the galactic centre. The constellations that we see today will be different than they were 50,000 years ago or 50,000 years from now. Proper Motion details the movements of these stars and are measured in milliarcseconds. The star is moving -11.92 ± 0.22 miliarcseconds/year towards the north and -38.47 ± 0.40 miliarcseconds/year east if we saw them in the horizon.
Luminosity is the amount of energy that a star pumps out and its relative to the amount that our star, the Sun gives out. The figure of 9.0000000 that I have given is based on the Spectral Types page that I have found on the Internet. You might find a different figure, one that may have been calculated rather than generalised that I have done. The figure is always the amount times the luminosity of the Sun. It is an imprecise figure because of a number of factors including but not limited to whether the star is a variable star and distance.
239 G. Virginis has a spectral type of A7V. This means the star is a blue main sequence dwarf star. The star is 7366.00000000 Parsecs from the Galactic Centre or terms of Light Years is 24025.1919190400000000s. The star has a B-V Colour Index of 0.2 which means the star's temperature has been calculated using information from Morgans @ Uni.edu at being 7,767 Kelvin.
239 G. Virginis Radius has been calculated as being 2.09 times bigger than the Sun.The Sun's radius is 695,800km, therefore the star's radius is an estimated 1,454,996.60.km. However with the 2007 release of updated Hipparcos files, the radius is now calculated at being round 1.90. The figure is derived at by using the formula from SDSS and has been known to produce widely incorrect figures.
239 G. Virginis has an apparent magnitude of 6.18 which is how bright we see the star from Earth. Apparent Magnitude is also known as Visual Magnitude. If you used the 1997 Parallax value, you would get an absolute magnitude of 1.96 If you used the 2007 Parallax value, you would get an absolute magnitude of 2.17. Magnitude, whether it be apparent/visual or absolute magnitude is measured by a number, the smaller the number, the brighter the Star is. Our own Sun is the brightest star and therefore has the lowest of all magnitudes, -26.74. A faint star will have a high number.
Using the original Hipparcos data that was released in 1997, the parallax to the star was given as 14.29 which gave the calculated distance to 239 G. Virginis as 228.25 light years away from Earth or 69.98 parsecs. It would take a spaceship travelling at the speed of light, 228.25 years to get there. We don't have the technology or spaceship that can carry people over that distance yet.
In 2007, Hipparcos data was revised with a new parallax of 15.81 which put 239 G. Virginis at a distance of 206.30 light years or 63.25 parsecs. It should not be taken as though the star is moving closer or further away from us. It is purely that the distance was recalculated.
The star's Galacto-Centric Distance is 7,366.00 Parsecs or 24,025.19 Light Years. The Galacto-Centric Distance is the distance from the star to the Centre of the Galaxy which is Sagittarius A*.
The source of the information if it has a Hip I.D. is from Simbad, the Hipparcos data library based at the University at Strasbourg, France. Hipparcos was a E.S.A. satellite operation launched in 1989 for four years. The items in red are values that I've calculated so they could well be wrong. Information regarding Metallicity and/or Mass is from the E.U. Exoplanets. The information was obtained as of 12th Feb 2017.
|Traditional/Proper Name||239 G. Virginis|
|Hipparcos Library I.D.||70022|
|Bonner Durchmusterung||BDD+01 2913|
|Henry Draper Designation||125489|
|Star Type||main sequence dwarf star|
|Absolute Magnitude||1.96 / 2.17|
|Visual / Apparent Magnitude||6.18|
|Naked Eye Visible||Yes - Ref: Wiki|
|Right Ascension (R.A.)||14h 19m 40.97|
|Galactic Latitude||55.88 degrees|
|Galactic Longitude||344.97 degrees|
|1997 Distance from Earth||14.29 Parallax (milliarcseconds)|
|228.25 Light Years|
|2007 Revised Distance from Earth||15.81 Parallax (milliarcseconds)|
|206.30 Light Years|
|Galacto-Centric Distance||24,025.19 Light Years / 7,366.00 Parsecs|
|Proper Motion Dec.||-11.92 ± 0.22 milliarcseconds/year|
|Proper Motion RA.||-38.47 ± 0.40 milliarcseconds/year|
|Radial Velocity||-23.80 ± 3.30 km/s|
|Luminosity (x the Sun)||9.0000000|
|Calculated Effective Temperature||7,767 Kelvin| | <urn:uuid:75090fc0-66ef-4885-af6a-89e1fc2479c2> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | https://www.universeguide.com/star/239gvirginis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187822625.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20171017234801-20171018014801-00871.warc.gz | en | 0.91617 | 1,483 | 3.15625 | 3 |
De-worming alone versus de-worming plus iron supplementation: Effect on haemoglobin of primary school children in Aboh-Mbaise
Aim: To compare the effect of de-worming alone and de-worming plus iron supplementation on the haemoglobin (Hb) of primary school children. Materials and methods: An intervention study involving 502 primary school children aged 5-15 years was carried out between May to August, 2003. The study group comprised 253 children who were de-wormed using Levamisole hydrochloride as single dose and also given ferrous sulphate twice a week for 3 months. The control group was 249 children who were only de-wormed using Levamisole hydrochloride. Pre- and post-intervention Hb estimation of each child were obtained and results of study and control groups compared. Hb of less than 12g/dl was taken as anaemia. Results: There were no significant differences in the sex (P=0.65) and age (P=0.18) distributions of study and control groups. Pre-intervention, there was no significant difference in the level of anaemia among the school children (P=0.54). Post-intervention, the level of anaemia dropped more significantly in study than control group (P=0.00). Conclusion: Though de-worming will improve the Hb level better result will be achieved by including twice a week iron supplementation especially as a short term preventive/curative measure for mild to moderate anaemia in school children.
Keywords: Haemoglobin; anaemia; de-worming; iron supplementation; children
Journal of College of Medicine Vol. 12 (1) 2007: pp.25-29 | <urn:uuid:004037f4-bb4f-41ce-a9b9-d6d3ab9229fa> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://www.ajol.info/index.php/jcm/article/view/10557 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320301737.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20220120100127-20220120130127-00421.warc.gz | en | 0.952616 | 361 | 2.6875 | 3 |
FACTORS AFFECTING RATE OF REACTION. Name the limiting reagent. The equation is stated. Several factors are already known which increase (or decrease) the rate of reaction. 1.) If the concentration gets bigger, the proportion of acid gets bigger, which means there are more particles (molecule) that will bond with other particles (molecule). CaCO3 (s) + 2HCl (aq) → CaCl2 (s) + CO2 (g) + H2O (l) Write the reaction above in total ionic form and identify the spectator ion (s). Thus, the chance of a substrate molecule colliding with the active site of the enzyme is increased. Sugar dissolves better in water of higher temperatures as it takes less time for it to dissolve. When liquids are heated, the particles in them are given more kinetic energy. Enzyme activity therefore increases (Allott and Mindorff). Increasing reactant concentration results for reactant particles to become more crowded which generates a greater, The whole Dupont process requires excess of ammonia and the unreacted ammonia is recovered through condensation by operating the ammonia still at a pressure of around 13 atm and temperature of 1200C (393 K). The increase in concentration the more frequently substrate molecules will collide with the enzyme and allow the active site to bind to the substrate, thus increasing the creation of product (2). CaCO3(s) + 2HCl(aq) → CaCl 2(aq) + H2O(l) + CO2(g) How many moles of calcium carbonate will give 24 cm3 of carbon dioxide when reacted with an If the concentration of acid is stronger, then the film canister will pop (react) faster. Magnesium Metal (ribbon) reacts with hydrochloric acid to form Magnesium Chloride salt, and releases hydrogen gas. In liquids, particles move continuously. The reason for this has to do with increased the increased molecular motion that is. This gives us the equation CaCO3 + 2HCl H2O + CaCl2 + CO2 I will be combining calcium carbonate with hydrochloric acid as a case study to measure the rate of chemical reaction. The dissolved substances (designated by aq) are the only ones that completely dissolve and dissociate into ions. The standard deviation is low, thus demonstrating how reliable the data, I am doing this experiment to gain the knowledge of the effects of concentration levels on the rate of reaction. I. Understanding how Factors affect the Rate of Reactions between Hydrochloric Acid and Magnesium. Kinetic energy is energy that exists due to the movement of particles. According to Helmenstine (n.d.) in general such factors would increase the frequency of collisions amongst particles which will then increase the rate of reaction. Calculate the number of moles of CaCl2 formed in the reaction. For this experiment, the proportion to get a CO2 is 2HCl+Na2CO3 = CO2.., which is 2+ Na2CO3 : 1. 11th When the temperature of solution is increased, the average kinetic energy of the particles is increased (the particles have different energies). a. Ca2+ b. CO32- c. H+ d. Cl- e… If you are on a personal connection, like at home, you can run an anti-virus scan on your device to make sure it is not infected with malware. Similarly, such factors would decrease the frequency of collisions amongst particles which will then decrease the rate of reaction. The surface area’s chemical reaction can be raised by increasing the surface area of a solid reactant, like magnesium. As a result, both enzyme and substrate molecules move around faster at higher temperatures. Another way to prevent getting this page in the future is to use Privacy Pass. 16th September 2014 There are various factors that can affect the rate of the chemical reaction. Catalase saturated in response to the increasing concentration because there is a minimum time needed to review the molecule that is bound. If you are at an office or shared network, you can ask the network administrator to run a scan across the network looking for misconfigured or infected devices. Reactant concentration is the ratio of a dissolved reactant in a solution and the total solution. Compare And Contrast Calcium Carbonate With Hydrochloric Acid, Objective: Completing the CAPTCHA proves you are a human and gives you temporary access to the web property. You may need to download version 2.0 now from the Chrome Web Store. • The rate at which the molecules collide, has an overall impact on the reaction rate, which is how fast or how slowly a reaction takes to happen. Concentration of acid and reaction time Aim Another method is to increase the surface area of the solute. Hypothesis SCH4U An increase in concentration of the acid allows for a greater number of hydrochloric acid molecules colliding into those of calcium carbonate. Cloudflare Ray ID: 5f9a34c2093a1283 Your IP: 22.214.171.124 Because the concentration of Sodium carbonate is always same in my experiment, so the factor that changes the volume of carbon dioxide is concentration of Hydrochloric acid. Although not every single particle would result in a successful reaction, increasing the number of particles will increase the total number of reactions. Ammonia comes from the top of the still and the bottom of the still is sent to carbamate decomposers so as to separate ammonia and carbon dioxide from the aqueous urea. CaCO3 + 2HCl H2O + CaCl2 + CO2 In this experiment, I’m going to find out the relationship between concentration (mole) of acid and carbonate’s reaction. Introduction Calcium carbonate reacts with aqueous HCl to give CaCl2 and CO2 according to the reaction given below: CaCO3 (s) + 2HCl (aq) → CaCl2 (aq) + CO2 (g) + H2O (l) What mass of Cacl2 will be formed when 250 mL of 0.76 M HCl reacts with 1000 g of CaCO3 ? Performance & security by Cloudflare, Please complete the security check to access. We can observe the way temperature affects rates of reaction in the Maxwell-Boltzmann, put the calcium carbonate into the acid, through the hole simultaneously start the timer from the equation CaCO3 + 2HCl H2O + CaCl2 + CO2, we can see that the products will be water, calcium chloride (a salt), and carbon dioxide the carbon dioxide will rise out of the solution, and bump into the rubber stopper the gas will escape through the hole, and out of the cylinder, and into the environment when the reaction is finished (i.e. The standard deviation was calculated, resulting in the 5% concentration having a 0.097 standard deviation, 15% having a 0.046, and 25% having a 0.077. Ms. Kimberley Gagnon In order for a reaction to occur, it is necessary that the reactants such as atoms and molecules collide with each other. This can help me understand better what affects the rate of reaction and how changing concentration levels will help increase the rate of reaction. The rate of a chemical reaction can be increased by increasing the solid’s surface area, this is done by cutting the solid into smaller pieces. The Chromate Ion – Dichromate Ion Equilibrium. The final way is to increase the temperature of the solution. Copyright © 2020 IPL.org All rights reserved. As a result of the reaction, the equilibrium had shifted in the response to the addition of acid (H2SO4), toward the formation of orange dichromate ion. Sunway College • Balance the reaction of HCl + CaCO3 = CaCl2 + H2O + CO2 using this chemical equation balancer! Presumably, this shift was to the right due to the fact that when hydrogen ions were added to the reactant side of the reaction, the concentration of H+ ions in the reaction had increased, resulting in a shift to the right; hence, a larger production of dichromate ion found as a product (due to the visible color change found in table 1).
Is Southern Ag Liquid Copper Fungicide Organic, Dirty Bird Seasoning Ingredients, Sky-watcher 10" Flextube Synscan Goto Collapsible Dobsonian - S11810, Overcoming Crisis Sermon, Emotiva Xpa-1 Gen 2 For Sale, Masterbuilt Gravity Series 1050 Reviews, High Fluoride Mouthwash, Washburn Electric Guitar Reviews, Houses For Sale Cherry Burton, | <urn:uuid:3c4ec9d8-eacf-498b-a8d4-3e45b9251bfb> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.icaretreviso.net/6dn6e44/caco3-%2B-2hcl-gives-42f5d8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573029.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817153027-20220817183027-00033.warc.gz | en | 0.914478 | 1,800 | 3.359375 | 3 |
A simple chart that helps you make a quick check of the antecedents for the behavior of a child with autism
We always try to find out what is the antecedent or cause of a behavior. There are 4 main categories what triggers the behaviors of people with autism. The 4 main categories are as follow:
- Attention – They want your attention
- Escape – It is their way to try to get away from a situation
- Tangibles – There may be a certain tangible (eg. toy, sweet, etc) that they want
- Sensory – They need a sensory input
The picture is a Mind Map of the different reason why a child with autism may exhibit difficult behaviors and how do we deal with them. | <urn:uuid:4b90bb33-0906-4267-a0aa-3d9cb7d951ea> | CC-MAIN-2019-13 | https://www.autismstep.com/newsletter/mind-map-behaviors-management/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-13/segments/1552912201672.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20190318191656-20190318213656-00388.warc.gz | en | 0.944437 | 149 | 3.3125 | 3 |
to_date example is a to_date document that shows the process of designing to_date format. A well designed to_date example can help design to_date example with unified style and layout.
to_date example basics
When designing to_date document, it is important to use style settings and tools. Microsoft Office provide a powerful style tool to help you manage your to_date appearance and formatting. A style can apply a consistent look across the whole document instead of having to format each section individually, in the style setting, you can make arrangement for section headers, body text font, header section font, paragraph spacing, color scheme for SmartArt, charts, and shapes etc. a customized to_date styles may help you quickly set to_date titles, to_date subheadings, to_date section headings apart from one another by giving them unique fonts, font characteristics, and sizes. By grouping these characteristics into styles, you can create to_date documents that have a consistent look without having to manually format each section header. Instead you set the style and you can control every heading set as that style from central location. you also need to consider different variations: to_date example in oracle, to_date example in oracle word, oracle date functions example, oracle date functions example word, decode example, decode example word, nvl example, nvl example word
Microsoft Office also has many predefined styles you can use. you can apply Microsoft Word styles to any text in the to_date document by selecting the text or sections, clicking the Home tab, and choosing a style in the Styles Gallery. Hover your mouse over the style, and you can see what the text will look like before you apply the style to it. Using styles helps you streamline the creation and editing of to_date documents, You can also make the styles your own by changing how they look in Microsoft Word. During the process of to_date style design, it is important to consider different variations, for example, to_date error, to_date error word, to_number example, to_number example word, to_char example, to_char example word, to_date sql example, to_date sql example word.
oracle plsql to_date function the oracle plsql to date function converts a string to a date. the string that will be converted to a date. lets look at some oracle to date function examples and explore how to use the to date function in oracle plsql. to_date to date converts char of char , varchar , nchar , or nvarchar datatype to a value the following example converts a character string into a date sql to_date function sql gt sql string functions gt to date function. the to date function is used in oracle to convert a string to a date. accepts a digit input, and returns a digit year. to_date oracle sql todate syntax to date char ,format ,nls lang key char string expression that will be converted to examples to date oct , dd mon yy to date , the oracle to_date function the oracle to date function will convert either a character string or an expression into a date value. example syntax the. oracle to_date from mm dd yyyy to dd you dont need to muck about with extracting parts of the date. just cast it to a date using to date and the format in which its stored, then cast that date oracle dates and times for example, the following sql statement creates a relation with an attribute of string using to date according to the default date format dd mon yy . to_date if you specify no format, to date parses the date string using the default format. the supplied default format is dd mon yyyy. for example oracle to_date function sql syntax examples the oracle to date sql function is used to convert a text or ntext representation of a date into an oracle datetime value. below shows the to date to_char to timestamp and to date skip multiple blank spaces in the input string unless the fx option is used. for example, to timestamp jun, yyyy mon | <urn:uuid:42b0004c-ed3d-481d-ace1-a6fc7a5692bd> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://www.slipbay.com/to_date-example/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320049.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20170623100455-20170623120455-00282.warc.gz | en | 0.719413 | 864 | 2.59375 | 3 |
What it is:
Irish moss, or carrageen moss (Irish: carraigín, “little rock”), is a species of seaweed which grows abundantly along the rocky parts of the Atlantic coast of Europe and the Americas as well as parts in the Pacific. In its fresh condition the plant is soft and cartilaginous, varying in color from a greenish-yellow, through red, to a dark purple or purplish-brown. The principal constituent of Irish moss is a mucilaginous body, made of the polysaccharide Carragenan of which it contains about 55%; the plant also has nearly 10% of protein and about 15% minerals, specifically rich in iodine and sulfur. Because of the abundant cell wall polysaccharides it will form a jelly when boiled or processed with water expanding from 20 to 100 times of its weight.
Use in the food industry:
Irish moss is used in bulk by the food industry to make jellies or aspic and as a smooth binder. This can go from ice creams, deserts, drinks, savory foods and flans.
Emulsifier in skin creams, gels, shampoos, and as a skin softener. And it nourishes and protects your skin from environmental elements. It is an anti-tissuive, and effective against halitosis, the formation varicose veins.
Irish Moss , when mixed to body lotions, turns your dry, rough, patchy skin into smooth, silky, hydrated, glowing skin . It moisturizes and treats even the most unmanageable skin problems , including eczema, psoriasis, rashes and sunburns . It supports skin’s natural moisture barrier-keeps harmful, drying external elements out and beneficial moisture in. Helps support healthy skin appearance.
Irish Moss contains A,B,C,D vitamins that nourishes the skin In addition to its functional benefits. Raw Irish Moss is an excellent source of minerals. This almost-tasteless seaweed is loaded with life-enhancing nutrients such as sulphur compounds, protein, iodine, bromine, beta-carotene, calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, zinc, pectin, B-vitamins and vitamin C. Notably absent from a vegetarian diet, sulphur-containing amino acids, such as taurine, are abundant in Irish moss, more so than in any other type of seaweed!
it has been used to treat peptic and duodenal ulcers when used as a gelatinous substance and to inhibit arteriosclerosis. Irish moss is reported to be effective against, cancer and radiation poisoning (possibly because of the iodine content of Irish moss), it protects from obesity and cholesterol build up. Irish moss has a well documented anticoagulant effect on the blood, and clears up many bladder complaints. Irish Moss gives excellent sources of calcium, magnesium, sodium and iodine (essential to normal thyroid function).
It is used to increase the metabolic rate and give strengthen connective tissues, including the hair, skin and nails.
RAW FOOD PREPARATION:
HOW TO SOAK IRISH MOSS:
Place a handful or all of your Irish Moss into a tall container. Rinse well 3 or 4 times and let soak up to 6 hours in the fridge. Change the water at least twice a day. Check on hidden sand, small stones or other impurities. Don’t worry about the “fragrance” when the sea moss is ready to use, it is practically odorless and tasteless.
If you do not have enough time you may soak the Irish Moss in lukewarm water for a few hours only. However, it will lessen a little of its gelatinous effect and you should use a little more in your recipe. The moss is ready when it has a creamy white color and nearly double size and weight than its dry original state.
HOW TO USE IRISH MOSS:
According to your recipe blend the Irish Moss and water together until it is well broken down and very creamy. Before adding other ingredients make sure that you blend all chunks of the moss which might kept sticking on the lid and the walls of the blender. Irish Moss will make any liquid fluffy and is a substitute for gelatin and other thickeners such as agar agar, pectin, soy lecithin, tapioca or corn starch.
HOW TO STORE IRISH MOSS:
Dry Irish Moss can stay up to a year in a cool dry place as the salt will preserve it. If you have soaked more Irish Moss than you need you may keep it in the fridge and change the water every day and it will keep fresh up to 3 weeks. You may also blend the Moss with little water until you get a thick creamy consistency and store it in a closed glass jar in the fridge for up to 3 weeks, this is a nice idea when you frequently use Irish Moss, and you have the paste ready.
Please go to the recipe section, there are 2 yummy raw food preparation posted. | <urn:uuid:e69a9a4c-eb6a-440b-b97d-f6bd73c7a0c1> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | https://bestsuperfoods.wordpress.com/2008/08/14/irish-moss/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719027.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00348-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93015 | 1,065 | 2.59375 | 3 |
A "natural extract" is really a highly complex substrate, being the chemical imagine of the high number of chemical equilibria responsible for the life. It usually consists of hundreds (or more!) different
organic molecules and oligoelements. One of the major aims of the phytochemists of the last century was to individuate the natural substances exhibiting biological activity and to determine their structure.
The further step, based on the in-deep knowledge of organic chemistry, was the development of the chemical synthesis of such molecules and their derivatives, leading to their cheap production
(at costs lower than those due to extensive purification steps) and, presumably, to a higher stability of the pharmaceutical drug.
However it has been shown that the biological activity of a natural extract is often different than that of the bioactive components isolated or of synthetic origin. To explain this behavior, it was proposed a different hypothesis from that generally accepted, based on the presence of phenomena of biological synergism between different chemical entities present in the natural substrate. Alternatively to, or aside to, the synergic aspects, it must be considered that in natural extracts different "molecular interactions", arising from the high complexity of the natural matrix, can occur, with the formation of "molecular complexes" according to the rules of supramolecular chemistry. The formation of "molecular complexes" between the active compound and other molecules (or trace elements) present in the natural environment, influences molecular species conformations affecting the interactions with the receptor sites.
Science is historically based on the assumption that the information on the individual components of a system are sufficient to explain the whole. Over time, however, it has become increasingly clear that there are circumstances in which the "complex interactions" between the components produce a behavior that would not have predicted investigating the individual parts. This is also why in science, so even in the medical field, a long debate is ongoing increasingly deepened, as to which is the right approach to the study of phenomena involving Man and his health. Today, more and more, we need a comprehensive and integrated understanding of living systems, as the reductionist research strategies alone do not allow a full understanding of certain phenomena, especially those involved in pathological states. In this frame the activity of natural products with living bodies requires a further comment. The biological activity of a molecule is related to its effective interaction with the receptor. But how did the receptor site develop? It is reasonable to assume that it developed over millions of years, in response to the structural conformations of the molecular species in the natural environment encountered by living beings. According to evolutionary theory, a combination of mutation, selections and impulses led to the origin of phenotypes with well defined characteristics. Whatever the evolutionary paths that led to a given receptor structure, its present conformation is the result of multiform interactions with exogenous and endogenous ligands. The presence of a receptor in an organism is the final result of several orders of interactions of natural selection, and it seems reasonable to assert that its response is physiologically better adapted to structures found in nature.
Today there is a deep knowledge on the main components of a natural substrate, but what is generally lacking is the description of the whole "chemical panorama" of the natural extract. This is a problems also from a regulatory point of view and Aboca is developing a specific research program devoted to this aspect. Mass spectrometry has played and still plays a key role in this research. It is highly effective in the fingerprinting as well as in the identification, structural characterization and quantitation of various components, such as volatile molecules, polyphenols, terpenes, alkaloids, saponins, aminoacids, peptides, proteins, inorganic elements, organosulfur, vitamins, oligo- and polysaccharides, etc. Mass spectrometry may helps researcher daily work to describe "natural extract" and/or "natural product" in a comprehensive way by means of different, highly specific MS methods. In fact, the impressive technological and methodological improvements of mass spectrometry and its coupling with molecular separation processes yielded highly sensitive, specific, fast, robust and validated methods that are fundamental tools in the natural product sciences, pharma sciences and technology.
Loc. Aboca 20
52037 Sansepolcro (AR)
+39 0575 7461
+39 0575 749130 | <urn:uuid:f67fd4b1-956d-42bb-8c58-29da9114f3cb> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | http://natmed.aboca.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247493803.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20190219223509-20190220005509-00546.warc.gz | en | 0.949757 | 893 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Dr. Norman Borlaug, Outstanding U of M alum, has died
Nobel Prize-winning scientist Norman Borlaug, father of the 'green revolution,' dies at age 95
DALLAS - Agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug, the father of the "green revolution" who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in combating world hunger and saving hundreds of millions of lives, died Saturday in Texas, a Texas A&M University spokeswoman said. He was 95. The Nobel committee honored Borlaug in 1970 for his contributions to high-yield crop varieties and bringing other agricultural innovations to the developing world. Many experts credit the green revolution with averting global famine during the second half of the 20th century and saving perhaps 1 billion lives.
Equal parts scientist and humanitarian, the Iowa-born Borlaug realized improved crop varieties were just part of the answer, and pressed governments for farmer-friendly economic policies and improved infrastructure to make markets accessible. A 2006 book about Borlaug is titled "The Man Who Fed the World."
"More than any other single person of his age, he has helped to provide bread for a hungry world," Nobel Peace Prize committee chairman Aase Lionaes said in presenting the award to Borlaug. "We have made this choice in the hope that providing bread will also give the world peace."
Borlaug often said wheat was only a vehicle for his real interest, which was to improve people's lives.
"We must recognize the fact that adequate food is only the first requisite for life," he said in his Nobel acceptance speech. "For a decent and humane life we must also provide an opportunity for good education, remunerative employment, comfortable housing, good clothing and effective and compassionate medical care."
In Mexico, Borlaug was known both for his skill in breeding plants and for his eagerness to labor in the fields himself, rather than to let assistants do all the hard work.
He left home during the Great Depression to study forestry at the University of Minnesota. While there he earned himself a place in the university's wrestling hall of fame and met his future wife, whom he married in 1937. Margaret Borlaug died in 2007 at the age of 95.
After a brief stint with the U.S. Forest Service, Norman Borlaug returned to the University of Minnesota for a doctoral degree in plant pathology. He then worked as a microbiologist for DuPont, but soon left for a job with the Rockefeller Foundation. Between 1944 and 1960, Borlaug dedicated himself to increasing Mexico's wheat production.
In July 2007, Borlaug received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor given by Congress.
He is survived by daughter Jeanie Borlaug Laube and her husband Rex; son William Gibson Borlaug and his wife Barbie; five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
They asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to the Borlaug International Scholars Fund. It helps students from developing countries pursue graduate studies or short-term experiential learning activities at Texas A&M or other land grant universities in the U.S.
It should be noted that Dr. Borlaug initially started at the U of M in General College, because he was considered academically unqualified for regular admission... | <urn:uuid:ad4fc5ea-aff3-4a8b-a44f-2a8962edfbe5> | CC-MAIN-2015-06 | http://blog.lib.umn.edu/bgleason/pt/2009/09/dr_norman_borlaug_outstanding.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-06/segments/1422122222204.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20150124175702-00186-ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970724 | 677 | 2.609375 | 3 |
A study of the genus Padina in the Mediterranean Sea, based on detailed morphological and molecular analyses using chloroplast rbcL and mitochondrial cox3 gene sequences, as well as RuBisCO spacer and partial rbcS sequences, revealed the presence of two new species, P. ditristromatica Ni-Ni-Win & H. Kawai and P. pavonicoides Ni-Ni-Win & H. Kawai. They are two to three-layered and three-layered species, respectively. Padina ditristromatica is characterized by a thallus composed of two cell layers from the marginal portion to the inrolled margin and a mixture of two and three layers in the other portions; heavy calcification on both surfaces of the thallus except for the hair lines; alternating hair lines that are spaced at unequal distances between the upper and lower surfaces; and broad indusiate oogonial and tetrasporangial sori forming broken lines or patches arranged in a concentric row, which are distally close to the hair lines and half immersed in the epidermis layer only on the lower surface. Padina pavonicoides is characterized by a thallus composed of three cell layers from the base to the marginal portion and two layers at the inrolled margin; alternating hair lines that are spaced at equal distances between the upper and lower surfaces; and indusiate oogonial and tetrasporangial sori forming patches located distal to the hair lines only on the lower surface. All molecular phylogenetic analyses indicated that the new species are closely related to P. pavonica, a common species in the Mediterranean Sea. However, the cox3 region could not be amplified for P. ditristromatica. Therefore, the RuBisCO spacer and partial rbcS were analysed for the Mediterranean specimens in order to confirm their identity as well as their closest relationships. The combined rbcL, RuBisCO spacer and partial rbcS data also support their genetic separation and show that P. pavonica is more closely related to P. pavonicoides than P. ditristromatica, as in other molecular analyses.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Aquatic Science
- Plant Science | <urn:uuid:8b8fe1a2-9f83-4b50-9f30-41c144633feb> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://kyushu-u.elsevierpure.com/en/publications/padina-ditristromatica-sp-nov-and-padina-pavonicoides-sp-nov-dict | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100599.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20231206130723-20231206160723-00843.warc.gz | en | 0.930905 | 476 | 2.765625 | 3 |
You are here
The Big Shift
Motivate your school to travel more actively.
Years: 3, 4, 5, 6
Curriculum Objectives: 17
Subjects: D&T, Geography, Maths, PE, PSHE, Science
Motivate your school community to travel more actively, with this fantastic online challenge from Sustrans! The Big Shift will create targets for each school, based on how children currently travel each day. Open to all schools in the UK, this free challenge is a great way to make a small step, big stride or giant leap towards increasing active travel, and to receive recognition for your achievements! As well as whole schools, individual classes and year groups can also take part, so it could be a great introduction to any topics relating to sustainability or eco-friendly travel. So why not take The Big Shift challenge, and make your school happier and healthier?
Schools in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland can register to take part at this address:
If you're based in Wales, register here instead:
- Describe and understand key aspects of physical geography, including: climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle.
- Describe and understand key aspects of human geography, including: types of settlement and land use, economic activity including trade links, and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals and water.
- Use maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate countries and describe features studied.
- Use fieldwork to observe, measure, record and present the human and physical features in the local area using a range of methods, including sketch maps, plans and graphs, and digital technologies.
- Year 3 (Age 7-8)
- Estimate and read time with increasing accuracy to the nearest minute; record and compare time in terms of seconds, minutes and hours; use vocabulary such as o’clock, a.m./p.m., morning, afternoon, noon and midnight.
- Year 4 (Age 8-9)
- Interpret and present discrete and continuous data using appropriate graphical methods, including bar charts and time graphs.
- Measure and calculate the perimeter of a rectilinear figure (including squares) in centimetres and metres.
- Year 5 (Age 9-10)
- Measure and calculate the perimeter of composite rectilinear shapes in centimetres and metres.
- Solve problems involving converting between units of time.
- Take part in outdoor and adventurous activity challenges both individually and within a team.
- Year 3 (Age 7-8)
- Notice that light is reflected from surfaces.
- Recognise that they need light in order to see things and that dark is the absence of light. | <urn:uuid:161d6e8a-48ea-49d8-afa6-bacb2e903ba1> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://www.sustainablelearning.com/resource/big-shift | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579251799918.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20200129133601-20200129163601-00076.warc.gz | en | 0.910713 | 583 | 3.4375 | 3 |
The CIA will not use waterboarding to get information from a detainee anymore.
Waterboarding is a method that has been described as torture. It is used to force prisoners to give information.
Usually, the detainee is held down on a board, and water is poured on a cloth covering his face. It makes a person feel like they are drowning.
John Brennan, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, says the CIA would not use waterboarding even if a future president ordered the method to be used.
“Absolutely, I would not agree to having any CIA officer carrying out waterboarding again," he said in an interview with NBC News. Part of the interviewed aired Sunday.
Brennan said he would not use the tactics “because this institution (the CIA) needs to endure,” or last.
It was part of a program the CIA used after the 2001 terror attacks.
Waterboarding was done by CIA employees to get information from terror suspects. They hoped to force suspects to reveal information about possible future attacks against the U.S.
President Barack Obama banned the techniques in 2009, calling them torture.
The U.S. Senate released a report in December 2014 criticizing the CIA’s use of the harsh techniques. They include waterboarding; mock, or fake, executions; ice baths; sexual threats; and other methods used against captured al-Qaida members and other militants.
The Senate report said the interrogations using these methods did not produce any intelligence that saved lives.
But after the report’s release, Brennan said that the interrogations had produced intelligence that helped stop attack plans and capture terrorists.
There has been much criticism of waterboarding in the U.S. Critics say the so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” are torture.
Others defend the program, saying it was necessary for national security. Former Vice President Dick Cheney served under former President George W. Bush. Cheney said they kept the country safe from more attacks.
Jose Rodriguez ran the interrogation program for the CIA. He said information obtained through the interrogations helped capture Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Mohammed calls himself the architect of the September 11 attacks — the person who planned the attacks. He remains a detainee at the U.S. military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. President Obama had said he would close the prison during his presidency.
The U.S. government has tried to bring some detainees to trial. But legal analysts say that is made more difficult because some of the prisoners had been subjected to enhanced interrogations, including waterboarding.
Two U.S Air Force psychologists designed the CIA’s program. Now they are facing a lawsuit filed for three suspected terrorists who were detained, but never charged with crimes.
The ACLU, the American Civil Liberties Union, brought the suit last October, saying the psychologists took part in torture sessions that were “unlawful and its methods barbaric.” The case is moving through the courts.
The use of waterboarding is also talked about in the current presidential race.
Last month, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he would "use every legal power" to stop terrorists, but would not order the military or others to violate the law. Earlier, he supported going "tougher than waterboarding."
His closest challenger in the Republican race is Senator Ted Cruz. He said in February he would bring back "whatever enhanced interrogation methods" are necessary to keep the country safe.”
I’m Anne Ball.
This story first appeared on VOANews.com. Anne Ball adapted the story for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor.
What's your opinion on waterboarding and interrogation? Write to us in the Comments section and on our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________
Words in This Story
interrogation - v. to question someone to get information
reveal - v. to make something known
harsh - adj. tough or severe
technique -n. the way of doing something using special knowledge
tactic - n. a carefully planned action or policy
barbaric - adj. very cruel
interview - n. a meeting at which an individual provides information | <urn:uuid:388185f4-2fae-42be-b714-6ff7151f904a> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/cia-director-says-no-more-waterboarding/3280147.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703538431.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20210123191721-20210123221721-00021.warc.gz | en | 0.965127 | 858 | 2.515625 | 3 |
There are two commonly used elements, levers and pulleys, that are used to amplify forces or displacements. There is a direct proportionate tradeoff between increase in force and decrease in displacement (or vice-versa), but power is preserved (i.e., the power on the input side of one of these devices is equal to the power out). The behavior and modeling of these elements is the focus of this section.
Consider a massless lever as shown below.
L is the ratio of lever arms.
This states that the ratio of the displacement of x1 relative to x2 is simply the ratio, L, of the two lever arms ℓ1 and ℓ2.
We can find a relationship between forces and displacements by summing the torques around the fulcrum. We also make the small angle approximation so we can assume the force is perpendicular to the lever, and that the motion at the ends of the lever is purely translational in the "x" direction. (Without this approximation we must multiply the magnitude of the force by cos(θ) to get the force perpendicular to the lever.) To do this we add counterclockwise (ccw) torques and subtract clockwise (cw) torques and sum to zero.
This states that the ratio of the force f1 relative to f2 is simply the inverse of the ratio of the two lever arms ℓ1 and ℓ2.
Note that if we combine the force relationship with the velocity relationship, we get:
You will see on the next web page that the product of velocity and force is power. So the last equation simply states that power is preserved; it is the same on both sides of the lever. The lever allows one to trade force for velocity (i.e., if the lever arms are unequal, one side of the lever will experience higher force but lower velocity than the other side).
Develop a mathematical model for the system shown in terms of fa and x1.
We can draw a free-body diagram with horizontal forces and sum the torques (note: we don't care about the force from the fulcrum since its moment arm is zero because we are summing about the fulcrum):
We can rewrite the relationship from the previous example in terms of the position at ℓ1 (associated with displacement x1) at which the force acts. This requires some simple manipulations of the equation of motion from the example.
This means that we can create an equivalent system by moving the spring from the location at ℓ2 (associated with displacement x2) to the location at ℓ1 (associated with displacement x1) by multiplying the spring constant by N2 where N=ℓ2/ℓ1, (i.e, N is the ratio of the original moment arm to the moment arm at the new position) In other words, the two systems below are equivalent.
|Original System||Equivalent system|
Likewise, we could write the equations in terms of x2, and develop another equivalent system.
in terms of x2
|Original System||Equivalent System|
To generalize: a spring, mass or friction element can be translated along a lever from a position with a distance from the fulcrum of ℓ1 to a distance of ℓ2 by multiplying by N2, where N=ℓ1/ℓ2,. A force can be moved from a distance of ℓ1 to ℓ2 by multiplying by N. An example will clarify.
Develop an equivalent mechanical model at the position x2.
We can effectively move the spring from x3 to x2 by multiplying by (ℓ3/ℓ2)2. We can effectively move the force from x1 to x2 by multiplying by (ℓ1/ℓ2). This yields the equivalent system below (along with free body diagram and mathematical model).
|Equivalent System||Equations of Motion|
Check: As a quick check, let's make free body diagram of original system, sum torques, and simplify. The results must be the same as those above if this technique is correct.
|Free Body Diagram||Equations of Motion|
(note negative sign in
relationship between x2 and x3)
A spring, mass or friction element can be translated along a lever from a position with a distance from the fulcrum of ℓ1 to a distance of ℓ2 by multiplying by N2, where N=ℓ1/ℓ2,. A force can be moved from a distance of ℓ1 to ℓ2 by multiplying by N.
Massless pulleys act in very much the same way as the massless lever discussed previously. Consider the system shown below. The pulley has two radii, r1 and r2.
If the pulley moves through an angle θ the distance x1 is given by r1·θ, and the distance x2 is given by r2·θ. Note: The relationship(s) between position and angles are always necessary to solve these systems; if it looks like you don't have enough equations for a solution, make sure you are using those relationships.
Recall that the arc length along the circumference of a circle is equal to r·θ where r is the radius of the circle and theta is the angle around the circle. If a rope is wrapped around the circle and the circle rotates through an angle θ, the end of the rope will move by an amount r·θ. It is important to be careful about the sign of the relationship.
If the rope comes off the top, and the distance is defined as positive to the left, then x1=r·θ. If rope comes off the top and the distance is defined as positive to the right, then x2=r·θ. See below.
It now becomes apparent that a pulley behaves in the same manner as a lever because the relative displacements are determined by the ratio of the radii (for the lever it was the ratio of the lever arms). However, in this case there is no need to invoke the small angle argument since all motion is purely translational.
A spring, mass or friction element connected to a pulley through a radius r1 can be translated to the another pulley with radius r2 by multiplying by N2, where N=r1/r2. A force can be moved from r1 to r2 by multiplying by N.
Let's demonstrate these ideas with an example to be solved twice. The first solution will sum torques on the pulley, the second time will use effective elements.
Develop a mathematical model in terms of the position x2. Take the equilibrium position of x1 and x2 to be 0 when fa=0.
Since the equilibrium position is defined to be zero we need not consider gravity in our model (reference). Let's draw free body diagrams (one for x1, x2 and θ)
T1 is the tension in the
T2 is the tension in the
To solve the equations, we also need to use the relationships between x1, x2 and θ.
To solve we will use the torque relationship to solve for T1 in terms of T2, and use the geometric relationship to solve for x1 in terms of x2.
Now we can substitute these into the free body equation at x1, and solve for T2 in terms of x2
Substitute this in the free body equation at x2, and we are done
Repeat the previous example using effective elements.
We can translate the mass m1, friction b, and spring k from x1 to x2 by multiplying by N2, where N=r1/r2.
The two methods yield equivalent results.
Obviously the second method is computationally simpler; but conceptually more difficult. You should check your results by summing torques until you feel comfortable applying the concept of "effective" elements (either with either levers or pulleys). | <urn:uuid:b3c2f19c-f7b2-474f-8775-a8eadef44814> | CC-MAIN-2014-15 | http://lpsa.swarthmore.edu/Systems/MechTranslating/TransMechSysLeversPulleys.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1398223203841.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20140423032003-00042-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911286 | 1,695 | 4.28125 | 4 |
Back in the 1950’s, Naples Bay began its metamorphosis as it changed from being a natural, mangrove lined, shallow estuary to a dredged body of water. Instead of being filtered naturally, stormwater now enters the bay via canals, including the main Golden Gate canal which connects to the Gordon River. This canal alone spills an average of over 200 million gallons of water a day into the bay!~ This excess fresh water damages the bay’s natural balance of fresh and salt water and in doing so disrupts the delicate estuarine process.
There are three fairly easy methods available to all of us which can greatly improve the overall health of Naples Bay:
Landscape GuidelinesRiprap vs. SeawallsMangroves
Here are a few suggestions on how you can help:
Don’t fertilize close to waterbeds! It is suggested that you have a buffer of 10 to 20 feet along the shoreline consisting of plants that require less water and very little fertilizer or pesticides. This will minimize the amount of stormwater run-off that is potentially harmful. For additional information about landscape guidelines I invite you to log onto an interactive website at www.FloridaYards.org )
Riprap is a collection of loose rocks placed at an angle along a shoreline of a property. It provides an excellent habitat for oysters to thrive and plants to grow. Riprap is actually more effective than seawalls at dissipating wave energy. If you have an existing seawall, it is recommended that you place riprap in front of it; this will extend its life and assist in restoring the bay. If your seawall is in need of replacement, consider installing riprap if possible.
Mangroves form the base of the food chain in the Naples Bay estuarine ecosystem. Today, 70% of the mangrove fringe has been lost. If you have mangrove on your property please use care when trimming. The proper technique is called “windowing”. You can contact Natural Resources for a mangrove trimming guide, or log onto a website that I found interesting at www.mangrovetrim.com
There are some major issues facing Naples Bay which include: Habitat loss, Poor stormwater quality, Excess freshwater and Residential development. If we all work together, as part of the solution instead of the problem, we CAN restore Naples Bay!
*My partner Chip Harris was appointed by the mayor and currently serves on the East Naples Bay Advisory Committee. If you have any questions about the committee and what they are presently involved in, please feel free to call him at 239-370-0574. | <urn:uuid:27ead4f9-a372-4eec-bed2-36a89bc43dbc> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | https://www.naplesrealestate.com/restore-naples-bay/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247494424.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20190220024254-20190220050254-00088.warc.gz | en | 0.936395 | 554 | 3.234375 | 3 |
FKA Twigs by Dominic Sheldon
TODAY’S SPECIAL (2009)
First footage of The Legend of Korra Video game by Platinum games
oh my god
It looks pretty good tbh
In Aesop’s fable about the crow and the pitcher, a thirsty bird finds a vessel of water, but when he tries to drink from it, he finds that the water level is too low. Not strong enough to knock over the pitcher, the bird drops pebbles into it—one at a time—until the water level rises enough for him to drink his fill.
Highlighting the value of ingenuity, the fable demonstrates that cognitive ability can often be more effective than brute force. It also characterizes crows as pretty resourceful problem solvers.
New research conducted by University of California, Santa Barbara’s Corina Logan and collaborators proves the birds’ intellectual prowess may be more fact than fiction. The findings appear in PLOS ONE.
“We showed that crows can discriminate between different volumes of water and that they can pass a modified test that so far only 7- to 10-year-old children have been able to complete successfully,” says Logan, who is lead author of the paper.
“We provide the strongest evidence so far that the birds attend to cause-and-effect relationships by choosing options that displace more water.”
i wish i could be hot and mysterious but im actually just shy and ugly
Every part of the fandom will understand how comforting this short tune is.
niggas is hongry
yeah but consider this: actual stars instead of freckles | <urn:uuid:8212829d-d3bc-44af-9813-f128759d2ff8> | CC-MAIN-2014-23 | http://afrochan.tumblr.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1406510256737.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20140728011736-00420-ip-10-146-231-18.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93472 | 342 | 2.59375 | 3 |
by William Shakespeare
Saturday 17 to Saturday 24 March 2018
Mary Wallace Theatre
'Macbeth' is a play about fear. When first performed in 1606, belief in witches and supernatural intervention in the governance of the realm suggests that this play would have held a real sense of immediacy and danger for the audience. Today, it retains an aura of superstition, especially in theatrical circles. I hope to use theatrical techniques to allow the audience to share Macbeth's physical and metaphysical insecurity. On it simplest level, think 'The Woman in Black'. | <urn:uuid:cd6ad362-fc44-4a53-936b-6af6b4f4ba79> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://www.richmondshakespeare.org.uk/PastProductions/MACBETH | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250607314.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20200122161553-20200122190553-00151.warc.gz | en | 0.923758 | 113 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Images of the Crab Nebula are always a treat because it has such intriguing and varied structure. Also, just knowing that this stellar explosion was witnessed and recorded by people on Earth more than 900 years ago (with the supernova visible to the naked eye for about two years) gives this nebula added fascination.
A new image just might be the biggest Crab Nebula treat ever, as five different observatories combined forces to create an incredibly detailed view, with stunning details of the nebula’s interior region.
Data from the five telescopes span nearly the entire breadth of the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves seen by the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to the powerful X-ray glow as seen by the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory. And, in between that range of wavelengths, the Hubble Space Telescope’s crisp visible-light view, and the infrared perspective of the Spitzer Space Telescope.
The Crab is 6,500 light-years from Earth and spans about 10 light-years in diameter. The supernova that created it was first witnessed in 1054 A. D. At its center is a super-dense neutron star that is as massive as the Sun but with only the size of a small town. This pulsar rotates every 33 milliseconds, shooting out spinning lighthouse-like beams of radio waves and light. The pulsar can be seen as the bright dot at the center of the image.
Scientists say the nebula’s intricate shape is caused by a complex interplay of the pulsar, a fast-moving wind of particles coming from the pulsar, and material originally ejected by the supernova explosion and by the star itself before the explosion.
For this new image, the VLA, Hubble, and Chandra observations all were made at nearly the same time in November of 2012. A team of scientists led by Gloria Dubner of the Institute of Astronomy and Physics (IAFE), the National Council of Scientific Research (CONICET), and the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina then made a thorough analysis of the newly revealed details in a quest to gain new insights into the complex physics of the object. They are reporting their findings in the Astrophysical Journal (see the pre-print here).
About the central region, the team writes, “The new HST NIR [near infrared] image of the central region shows the well-known elliptical torus around the pulsar, composed of a series of concentric narrow features of variable intensity and width… The comparison of the radio and the X-ray emission distributions in the central region suggests the existence of a double-jet system from the pulsar, one detected in X-rays and the other in radio. None of them starts at the pulsar itself but in its environs.”
“Comparing these new images, made at different wavelengths, is providing us with a wealth of new detail about the Crab Nebula. Though the Crab has been studied extensively for years, we still have much to learn about it,” Dubner said. | <urn:uuid:6bcbb714-263a-48b6-8d11-d843da49c0d2> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | https://www.universetoday.com/135486/stunning-view-crab-nebula-just-got-five-times-better/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780057366.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20210922132653-20210922162653-00604.warc.gz | en | 0.946558 | 627 | 3.59375 | 4 |
Air Conditioner Spare Parts,Air Conditioner Parts can be categorized to five categories as following:Materials for air conditioner installation;parts and accessory for air conditioning assembling and repairing;Copper fitting and brass fitting used on air conditioner system;items for air conditioning system maintenance;and air conditioner energy saving solution.Air conditioning (we also name briefly with air conditioner,air conditioning,AC,aircon, ) is a process that changing characteristics of ambient air (mainly means temperature and humidity) to reach effect of more comfortable air conditions.Usually,when we say air conditioner,always refer to the form of technological refrigerating,heating,ventilation and other ways to change air condition state.
Air conditioner is already developed to be a major appliance in home.It already become a necessary system, or mechanism designed to change room`s or sapce`s air temperature and humidity within an area.It is always used to cool or heat an area depending on the air properties at a given time). Every air conditioner requires for a materials-refrigerant (coolant) which help to create cool air.Freon is a typical materials or medium inside of air conditioner as refrigerant,and a compressor is the best important part which can decide your air conditioner good or bad.The role of FreonThe cooling is just refrigeration cycle, sometimes evaporation will be taken, commonly for comfort cooling in buildings and motor vehicles.Maybe,sometimes, you might make yourself is replacing the insulation around the cooling lines. You can check out the refrigerant lines to see if they look a little worn. Most coolant copper pipes run from the fin condenser.Condenser locates outdoor unit while AC evaporator locates indoor unit inside room. The refrigerant pipes are usually coated with Anti ultraviolet radiation insulation. If the coat insulation is not anti ultraviolet radiation, the air conditioner system won`t work efficiently. Therefore,it is very important that the insulation on the linesmust be very good. Air conditioner take much electrical energy,though most AC labels tell you it is a green device and saving energy. Therefore,it is necssary for you to take some time and ways to save your air conditioner`s energy.Smartclima is in the field of Air Conditioner Spare Parts with more than 10 years,and it has a very deep understanding about A/C project and Air Conditioner Spare Parts.According to Smartclima`s experience,we divide this theme into 5 sub-categories,they are concerning for air conditioner installation,air conditioner connecting pipeline system,air conditioner assemble and repair,air conditioner maintenance and air conditioner energy saving. All products showed in this theme are being spread around above five sub-categories.Just because of our clear-location on air conditioner knowledge,we are easy to find best and latest Air Conditioner Spare Parts for AC project.
- Mini split air conditioner installation kits>>
- Central air conditioner installation parts>>
- Air Conditioner Bracket >>
- Vibration Damper >>
- Insulation Materials >>
- Air Conditioner Installation Tools >>
- Lineset Cover System >>
- Power Cable For Air Conditioner
- Condensate Removal System >>
- Pre-installed Plastic Box For Air Conditioner Sysytem >>
- More … …
- Copper Coupling Straight , Copper Coupling Reducing
- Copper Elbow
- Copper Straight Tee,Copper Reducing Tee ,Copper Y Tee
- Copper Fitting Cap
- Copper Tripod Fitting
- Copper Bridge Fitting
- Copper Brazing Rings , Brazing Rods
- Refrigeration Copper Pipe Insulated,Copper Pair Coil-With Insulation Coat,Copper Coil-Bare
- Copper Rods(solid), Copper Tube Straight Bar(Hollow)
- Copper Accumulator
- Copper Filter Dryer
- Copper Branching Joint(for different brand central air conditioner system)
- Air Conditioner Valve
- Brass Liquid Distributor,Brass Nut,Brass Tie-In
- More … …
- Universal Air Conditioner Control System
- Air Conditioner Fan Motor
- Fan Motor blades,grille and brackets
- Blower Wheel Motor
- Air Conditioner Capacitor
- Power Cable For Air Conditioner
- Refrigerating Compressor
- Air conditioner Condenser & Evaporator
- High/Low Pressure Valve
- Refrigeration Tools & Meter Instruments
- Refrigeration Copper Tube Tools
- Vacuum Pump
- More … …
- Air Duct Cleaning Equipments (For Centeral A/C Air Duct)
- Air Conditioner Indoor Unit Air Filter Anti-Bacteria
- Air Conditioner Indoor Unit Air Filter Cover Anti-Bacteria
- Fin Comb Slice For Air Conditioner Outdoor Unit
- Air Conditioner Dust Collector
- Air Conditioner Condensor Evaporator Fin Washing Device
- Air Conditioner Dust Cleaning Device
- Air Conditioner Indoor Unit Steam High Temperature Sterilization Device
- More … …
- Air Conditioner Energy Saver,A/C Power Saver
- Air Baffle For Air Conditioner
- Air Conditioner Clothes Dryer Rack
- Door Seals For Air Conditioner Room
- More … …
|Buying Guide to “Air Conditioner Spare Parts”
- The parts are available for retail and wholesale;
- The place of origin is in China,when you buy one or a small quantity,please consider international air freight as cost;
- Accept bulk order with Container delivery,permit multi-models to load in a container;
- More Air Conditioner Spare Parts are not displayed on the web.If you don`t find the item which you need,please contact us to email: firstname.lastname@example.org ,we will help you to find it.
|General Knowledge on “Air Conditioning”
Air conditioning can be divided into:
- Comfortable air conditioner.It requires suitable temperature, comfortable environment.It doesn`t have critical requirement on temperature and humidity regulation accuracy.Mainly work for housing, offices, theaters, shopping malls, stadiums, automobiles, ships, airplanes and so on.
- Processing Air Conditioning.It is used for having regulation accuracy requirement, in addition ,the cleanliness of the air also have higher requirements. Usually,they are used in workshop for electronics, precision instrument workshop, computer rooms, laboratories, and other creatures.
Depending on air handling, can be divided into:
- Centralized (central) air conditioning —Also named Duct air conditioner,which means the air moves in the duct.Air handling equipment on the central air-conditioning room, the treated air through the duct to the air conditioning system in each room. Suitable for large area, room set, each room heat and moisture load is relatively close to places to choose from, such as hotels, office buildings, ships, factories and so on. Easy maintenance management system, muffler vibration isolation device is relatively easy to solve.
- Semi-centralized air conditioning — both have central air conditioning system, air handling terminal device. This system is more complex, you can achieve high regulation accuracy. Suitable for air, such as high accuracy requirements workshops and laboratories.
- Local air-conditioning —Also named ductless air conditioner,which blows cold/warm air into room or space directly,no need duct.Usually,every room has its own air conditioning handling equipment. The air conditioner can be directly installed in the room or mounted in the neighboring room, in situ treatment of air. Suitable for small size space, the room dispersed, heat and moisture load difference big occasions, such as offices, rooms, and family. Its equipment can be a single vertical air-conditioning phase independence group, such as window type, split air conditioners. The system can be made to the hot and cold water pipes centralized air conditioner fan coil consisting of each room as needed to adjust the temperature of the room.
In accordance with the cooling capacity can be divided into:
- Large air conditioning units such as horizontal assembly watering style, table-cooled air conditioning units, used in large workshops, cinemas and so on.
- Medium type AC units — such as air conditioning units and chillers cabinet air conditioners, etc., used in small workshops, computer room, hall, restaurant and so on.
- Small air conditioning unit — such as window type, split air conditioners, for offices, homes, hostels, etc.
According to the number of fresh air to points:
- DC-type air conditioner treatment system — for fresh air, and sent into the heat of the room after all the emissions to the outside and moisture exchange, no return air duct. This system is good sanitary conditions, high energy consumption, the economy is poor, there are workshops for harmful gases produced. Laboratories.
- Closed system air conditioning system handles all recycled, not add new wind system. System energy consumption, poor sanitary conditions, the need for regeneration of carbon dioxide and oxygen suction device with air. Such as for underground construction and submarine air conditioning.
Hybrid systems — mixed air conditioner handled by the return air and fresh air together. It combines the advantages of direct current and closed, the application is relatively common, such as the air conditioning system hotels, theaters and other places.
By air velocity points: high-speed system — main duct wind speed 20-30m / s. Slow system — main duct wind speed 12m/s or less.
Air Conditioner choice
Air Conditioner units are mainly used for the treatment of indoor air and fresh air, generally have two working conditions:the air conditioning working conditions and new wind conditions .
Selecting air conditioning units are generally decided by three main parameters: the amount of wind, cooler exhaust pipe outside the machine number and the residual pressure. According to first determine the amount of wind system requires models of air handling units, and then to provide the cooling capacity required to determine the number of its row of tubes, so then OK. Determine the residual pressure and pressure requirements of the system according to need.
Air handling units generally have floor-to-ceiling-two. Floor-including vertical and horizontal. In addition the unit back
And there are many different ways the wind. Xu final determination of the case in accordance with the building owners and building requirements. To a small air conditioning refrigeration conditions (heat) when compared with the new wind conditions: attention.
Professional Air Conditioner Spare Parts/Air Conditioner Parts/HVAC Parts Supplier,Providing One-stop Solution Service For Your Air Condition Project
Air Conditioner Spare Parts covers the following firve categories: air conditioner installation materials(air conditioner bracket,vibration damperS,lineset cover system,condensor removal system,pre-installed plastic box,etc);refrigerant pipeline system(copper pipe,copper fittings and brass fittings);air conditioner assembling and repairing(air conditioner fan motor,air conditioner electric capacitor,etc);air conditioner maintenance materials;and air conditioner energy-saving device.You can find more air conditioner spare parts at Amazon.Smartclima is a compositive leading manufacturers and suppliers of Air Conditioner Spare Parts,especially to supply air conditioner installation materials and cleaning&energy saving materials for Air conditioner system,we export products to the world market. In a short 10 years,we have been developed to a leading supplier in the field of air conditioning spare parts. Whatever your requirement in the field, we can quickly source and supply it, our wide AC materials range features a product for every air handling purpose. Smartclima, your best assistant to supply Air Conditioner Spare Parts/ Air Conditioner Parts! | <urn:uuid:27a9e2ae-de9b-4295-80d1-5be7fc12dc53> | CC-MAIN-2018-39 | http://www.smartclima.com/air-conditioner-spare-parts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267158011.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20180922024918-20180922045318-00297.warc.gz | en | 0.857679 | 2,474 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Francesco Sforza, the son of Lodovico Moro, Duke of Milan, follows a stag in the chase and becomes separated from his companions. Then, having taken refuge in the hut of certain peasants, who take counsel together how they may kill him, he is delivered by a child, who has be come privy to the plot of the traitors, and the villains are afterwards quartered alive.
THE fable just narrated to us by Lionora opens out to me a wide field to tell you of a very piteous adventure, which, in truth, may be held to belong to history rather than to fiction, seeing that it happened to the son of a duke, who, after many tribulations, brought it to pass that his enemies were made to taste a bitter punishment for the offences they had wrought.
I will tell you then that, in these our times, there lived in Milan Signor Francesco Sforza, the son of Lodovico Moro, the ruler of the city, a youth who, both during the lifetime of his father, and after his death, suffered much from the bolts of envious fortune. In his early youth Signor Francesco was of graceful figure, of courtly manners, with a face which gave fair token of his righteous inclinations, and when he was come to that age which marks the full bloom of youth- his studies and all the other becoming exercises being finished-he gave him self up to the practice of arms, to throwing the lance and following the chase, gathering from this manner of life no little pleasure. Wherefore, on account of his converse and of his prowess in manly exercises, all the young men of the city held him in great affection, and he, on his part, was equally well disposed towards them. In sooth, there was no youth at all in the city who did not par take in a share of his bounty.
One morning the Signor Francesco gathered together for his pleasure a goodly company of young men, of whom not one had yet reached his twentieth year, and, having mounted his horse, rode away with them to follow the chase. And when they had come to a certain thicket, which was well known as the haunt of wild animals, they surrounded it on all sides, and soon it chanced that, on the side of the wood where Signor Francesco was keeping a vigilant watch, there broke forth a very fine stag, which, as soon as it beheld the hunters, fled away from them in terror. Francesco, who had the heart of a lion, and was likewise a perfect horseman, no sooner marked how rapid was the flight of the stag than he struck his spurs deep into his horse's sides and dashed away impetuously in pursuit, and so long and so far did he follow it that, having outridden all his companions, he found he had missed his way. Then, because he had lost sight of the stag, he gave up the pursuit, not knowing where he was or whither he should turn. Finding himself left alone and far away from the high road, and wotting nought as to how he should make his way back there to-seeing that the dark shadows of night were fast gathering around-he lost his wits somewhat, and was in no small fear lest there should happen to him some mischance which would not be to his taste. And so indeed it fell out.
Signor Francesco took his way onward and onward through the dubious paths, and finally came upon a small cottage with a roof of straw, and of very mean and ill aspect. Having ridden into the yard he got down from his horse, which he made fast to the fence which was built around, and straightway went into the cottage, where he found an old man, whose years must have numbered ninety at least, and by his side was a young peas ant woman, very fair to look upon, who held in her arms a five-year-old child, to whom she was giving nourishment. Signor Francesco, having made polite salutation to the old man and the young peasant woman, sat down with them and asked them whether of their kindness they would be willing to give him shelter and lodging for the night, not letting them know, however, who he was.
The old man and the young woman, who was his daughter-in-law, when they saw that the youth was of high station and of graceful seeming, willingly made him welcome, putting forth many excuses the while that they had no place for his accommodation at all worthy of his condition. Francesco, having thanked them heartily, went out of the cottage to have care for his horse, and after he had duly seen to its wants he entered once more. The child, who was very lovesome, ran up to the gentleman's side with all manner of affectionate greeting and covered him with caresses, and Francesco on his part kissed the little one with many soft words and blandishments. While Signor Francesco was standing talking in familiar wise with the greybeard and his daughter in-law, Malacarne, the son of the old man and the husband of the young woman, came home, and having entered the cottage, espied the gentleman who was chatting with the old man and caressing the child. He bade Signor Francesco good evening, getting a courteous return of his greeting, and gave orders to his wife that she should forthwith get ready the supper.
The master of the house then ad dressed Signor Francesco and begged to know what was the reason which had brought him into so savage and desert a place, and to this question the youth by way of explanation replied, 'Good brother, the reason why I have come to this place is simply because, finding my self alone upon my journey at the fall of the night, and not knowing whither to betake myself through being some what ill-informed as to the features of this country, I discovered by good luck this little cottage of yours, into which this good old father and your wife in their kindness bade me enter.' Malacarne, as he listened to the speech of the youth and marked how richly he was attired, and how he wore a fine chain of gold about his neck, of a sudden conceived a design against Francesco, and made up his mind, at all hazard, to first slay and then despoil him. Therefore, being firmly set upon carrying out this diabolical project of his, he called together his old father and his wife, and, having taken the child in his arms, went forth from the cottage. Then, when he had drawn them aside somewhat, he made with them a compact to slay the youth, and after they should have taken off from him his rich raiment to bury his body in the fields, persuading them selves that, when this should be done, no further report would ever be heard of him.
But God, who is altogether just, would not suffer these wicked schemings to come to the issue the miscreants desired, but brought all their secret design to light. As soon as the compact was finally made and their evil plans fully determined, it came into Malacarne's mind that he by himself alone would never be able to carry out the plan they had formed. And, besides this, his father was old and decayed, and his wife a woman of little courage, and the youth, as Malacarne had already remarked, seemed to be gifted with a stout heart, and one who would assuredly make a good fight for his life, and perhaps escape out of their hands. On this account he re solved to repair to a certain place, not far distant from his cottage, and to enlist the services of three other ruffians well known to him who dwelt there, and then, with their aid, fully carry out his design. As soon as these three worthies under stood what he would have them do, they at once consented to follow him, greedy of the gain he promised them, and having caught up their weapons, they all went to Malacarne's cottage.
There the child, having left the place where her mother and grandfather were together, returned to Francesco and gave him greetings and caresses more love- some even than before, whereupon the young man, observing the very loving ways the little one used towards him, took her in his arms and caressed her tenderly and kissed her again and again. The child, seeing the glitter of the chain of gold about his neck, and being greatly delighted therewith (as is the manner often with children) laid hands upon the chain and showed that she would fain have it round her own neck. Signor Francesco, when he saw what great de light the child took in the chain, said to her as he caressed her, 'See here, my little one, I will give you this for your own.' And with these words he put it about her neck. The child, who had by some means or other become privy to the business that was afoot, said to Francesco without further words, 'But it would have been mine all the same without your having given it to me, be cause my father and mother are going to kill you and to take away all you have.' Francesco, who was of a shrewd and wary temper, as soon as he realized from the words of the child the wicked designs which were being woven against him, did not let the warning pass unheeded, but prudently holding his peace he rose up from his seat, carrying the child in his arms, having the collar about her neck, and laid her down upon a little bed, whereupon she, because the hour was now late, forthwith fell asleep. Then Signor Francesco shut himself close in the cottage, and, having made secure the entrance by piling up against the door two large chests of wood, awaited courageously to see what the ruffians without might do next. Then he drew from his side a small firearm, having five barrels, which might be discharged all together or one by one, according to will.
As soon as the young gentlemen who had ridden a-hunting with Signor Francesco found that he had strayed away from their company without leaving any trace to tell them whither he might be gone, they began to give signal to him by sounding their horns and shouting, but no reply came back to them. And on this account they began to be greatly afeared lest the horse he rode might have fallen amongst the loose rocks, and that their lord might be lying dead or per haps eaten by wild beasts. While the young courtiers were thus standing all terror-stricken, and knowing not which way to turn, one of the company at last cried out, 'I marked Signor Francesco following a stag along this forest path, and taking his course towards that wide valley, but, seeing that the horse he rode was swifter in its pace by far than mine, I could not hold him in sight, nor could I tell whither he went.' As soon as the others heard and understood this speech, they at once set out on their quest, following the slot of the stag all through the night in the anticipation of finding Signor Francesco either dead or alive.
While the young men were thus riding through the woods, Malacarne, accompanied by the three villains his comrades, was making his way back towards his house. They deemed that they would be able to enter therein without hindrance, but on approaching the door they found it fast shut. Then Malacarne kicked at it with his foot and said, 'Open to me, good friend. Why is it you keep thus closed the door of my house?' Signor Francesco kept silence and gave not a word in reply; but, peeping through a crevice, he espied Malacarne, who carried an axe upon his shoulder, and the three other ruffians with him fully armed. He had already charged his firearm, and now, without further tarrying, he put it to the crevice of the door and let off one of the barrels, striking one of the three miscreants in the breast in such fashion that he fell dead to the ground forthwith, without finding time to confess his sins. Malacarne came, when he perceived what had happened, began to hack violently at the door with his axe in order to bring it down, but this intent he was unable to carry out, seeing that it was secured on the other side. Francesco again discharged his pistolet with such good for tune that he disabled another of the band by shooting him in the right arm. Whereupon those who were yet left alive were so hotly inflamed with anger that they worked with all their force to break open the door, making the while such a hideous rout that it seemed as if the world must be coming to an end. Francesco, who felt no small terror at the strait in which he was placed, set to work to strengthen yet further the door by piling up against it all the stools and benches he could find.
Now it is well known that, the brighter and finer the night, the more still and silent it is, and a single word, though it be spoken a long way off, may at such times be easily heard; wherefore on this account the hurlyburly made by these ruffians came to the ears of Francesco's companions. They at once closed their ranks, and, giving their horses free rein, quickly arrived at the spot from whence came the uproar, and saw the assassins labouring hard to break down the door. One of the company of young gentlemen at once questioned them what might be the meaning of all the turmoil and uproar they were making, and to this Malacarne made answer: 'Signori, I will tell you straightway. This evening, when I came back to my cottage weary with toil, I found there a young soldier, a lusty fellow full of life. And for the reason that he attempted to kill my old father, and to ravish my wife, and to carry off my child, and to despoil me of all my goods, T took to flight, as I was in no condition to defend myself. Then, seeing to what sore strait I was reduced, I betook myself to the dwellings of certain of my friends and kinsmen, and besought them to give me their aid; but, when we returned to my cottage, we found the door shut and so strongly barricaded within that there was no making entrance, unless we should first break down the door. And not satisfied with outraging my wife, he has also (as you may well see) slain with his firearm one of my friends and wounded another to death. Wherefore, finding it beyond my endurance to put up with such ill-handling as this, I have made up my mind to lay hands on him dead or alive.
The young men in attendance upon Signor Francesco perceiving what had happened, and believing Malacarne's tale to be true on account of the dead body lying on the ground before them and of the other man gravely wounded, were moved to pity, and having dismounted from their horses, cried out loud, 'Ah, traitor and enemy of God, open the door at once! What is it you are doing? In sooth you shall suffer the penalty due to your misdeeds.' To this Francesco answered nought, but care fully and dexterously went on strengthening the door on the inside, knowing not that his friends stood without. And while the young men went on with their battering without being able, in spite of all the force they used, to open the door, a certain one of them, having gone a little apart, espied in the yard a horse tied to the fence, and, as soon as he had drawn anigh thereto, he knew it to be the horse of Signor Francesco, so he cried out in a loud voice, 'Hold off, my comrades, and let go the work you are about, because our master is surely within there;' and with these words he pointed out to them the horse tied to the fence. The young men, as soon as they saw and recognized the horse, were at once convinced that Signor Francesco was shut up within the cottage, and straightway they called upon him by name, rejoicing greatly the while. Francesco, when he heard himself thus called, knew that his friends were at hand, and, being now freed from all dread of his life, he cleared away his defences from the door and opened it. And when they heard the reason why he had shut himself up so closely, they seized the two ruffians, and, having bound them securely, carried them back to Milan, where, after they had first been tormented with burning pincers, they were torn in quarters, while living, by four horses. The little child by whose agency the nefarious plot was found out was called Verginea, and her Signor Francesco gave in charge to the duchess, in order that she might be well and care fully brought up. And when she had come to an age ripe for marriage, as a reward for the great service she had rendered to Signor Francesco she was amply dowered and honourably given in marriage to a gentleman of noble descent. And after this they gave her in addition the castle of Binasio, situated between Milan and Pavia, which in this our day has been so sorely vexed by continual broils and attacks that of it there hardly remains one stone on another. And in this sad and terrible fashion the murderous thieves made a wretched end, while the damsel and her husband lived many years in great happiness.
All the listeners were quite as strongly affected by pity as by astonishment while they listened to this touching fable. But as soon as the happy issue thereof was declared, they all recovered their gladness, whereupon the Signora gave her command to Isabella that she should forthwith set before them her enigma, and she, with her eyes yet moist with tears, spake thus in modest manner:
Good sirs, amongst us here doth dwell
Isabella's learned and subtle enigma gave great pleasure to all the listeners, but there was not a single one gifted with understanding acute enough to disentangle its meaning; so Isabella in her modest way thus expounded it: "My enigma means the ever-varying thoughts of men's minds, which are invisible and run into every place, though at the same time they abide ever with the man in whose brain they are formed. Thought remains in one spot, it wanders around, and no one knows where; but, though it permeates every sphere of man's intellect, it still remains with him, and is the source from which infinite and varied phenomena take their rise." 'Weighty and subtle indeed was the solution of Isabella's enigma, and there was not one of the company who was not entirely satisfied therewith. Vicenza, who knew that it was now her turn to speak, waited for no further command from the Signora, but began her fable in the following words.
Straparola, Giovanni Francesco. The Facetious Nights by Straparola. W. G. Waters, translator. Jules Garnier and E. R. Hughes, illustrators. London: Privately Printed for Members of the Society of Bibliophiles, 1901. 4 volumes. | <urn:uuid:b9f3a1e7-7c86-4c58-9d0c-9b4e49cc9771> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/facetiousnights/night9_fable3.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247495001.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20190220125916-20190220151916-00040.warc.gz | en | 0.990659 | 4,053 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Arabian sailors called Sri Lanka Serendib, or “the country of fabled delights” and it is said to have been the playing field for Sinbad’s legendary adventures. It was also acclaimed by the Greek geographer Ptolemy, who drew its first map in the 2nd century AD, and Marco Polo who considered it "as the finest island of its size in the entire world."
Formerly known as Ceylon until 1972, this pear-shaped island lies 29 kilometers off the southeastern coast of India and offers a blend of tropical splendor and a rich cultural heritage. Buddhism was introduced in the 3rd century BC and is the official religion. Sadly, this paradise has been torn in a civil war between the Singhalese majority and the Tamil separatists since the mid-1980s. | <urn:uuid:ef5fca33-ab5c-496d-beca-b64d7160963d> | CC-MAIN-2014-41 | http://www.remibenali.com/travel_sri_lanka/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-41/segments/1410657125488.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20140914011205-00204-ip-10-196-40-205.us-west-1.compute.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976053 | 167 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Foxes were dog-like carnivores of woodland and farmland, distinctive for their red-orange coats and their eerie plaintive cries.
In the Second Age, in Númenor, there were foxes in a large number. Their main food were lopoldi, helping the Númenóreans to keep them in order. As they were seldom hunted or because they had enough food with the lopoldi, they never attacked the fowls of the Númenóreans.
In the Third Age, a fox became puzzled at finding Frodo, Sam, and Pippin asleep in a fir-wood on the first night of their journey from Hobbiton, thinking that there was “something mighty queer behind this”. Another fox was encountered by Strider and the hobbits as they hiked through the Chetwood after leaving Bree.
- J.R.R. Tolkien, Carl F. Hostetter (ed.), The Nature of Middle-earth, "Part Three. The World, its Lands, and its Inhabitants: XIII. Of the Land and Beasts of Númenor", pp. 334-335
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, "Three is Company"
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, "A Knife in the Dark"
- J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Peoples of Middle-earth, "XI. The Shibboleth of Fëanor", p. 353
- J.R.R. Tolkien, "Etymological Notes on the Ósanwe-kenta" (edited by Carl F. Hostetter), in Vinyar Tengwar, Number 41, July 2000, p. 10 | <urn:uuid:ac2f5659-4ca3-44e9-bafd-efb055498bbe> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Foxes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334332.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925004536-20220925034536-00706.warc.gz | en | 0.939912 | 405 | 2.765625 | 3 |
the hague convention is an important part of australia’s family law
It was on the news that four girls were sent back to Italy by the Family Court of Australia pursuant to the provisions of the Hague Convention. The number of cases involving international abduction of children from Australia is rising. Australia is one of the signatories to the Hague Convention and benefits from its provisions.
The Hague Convention is an important part of Australia’s Family Law in cases involving children being abducted to a foreign country. Being a signatory, Australian Government can ask assistance from a foreign country where the abducted child or children were brought and which is also a signatory to the convention in solving its abduction case.
So what is the Hague Convention?
The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abduction (1980) is an International Convention which aimed to protect the unlawful abduction of children overseas. And the Australian Government has pledged to support and uphold the Convention.
The signatories to the Convention agreed to:
- The interests of the children are of paramount importance in matters concerning their custody.
- To protect the children internationally from the harmful effects of their wrongful removal or retention
- To establish procedures to ensure their prompt return to the State of their habitual residence
- To secure their protection for rights of access
Under Article 3 of the Convention, there is wrongful removal or retention of children if 1) it is in breach of rights of custody attributed to a person, an institution, or any other body, either jointly or alone, under the law of the State in which the child was habitually resident immediately before the removal or retention; and 2) at the time of removal or retention those rights were actually exercised, either jointly or alone, or would have been so exercised but for the removal or retention.
The rights of custody in relation to 1) arises when there is a judicial or administrative decision granting custody to the holding parent, or by operation of law or by legally binding agreement recognized by the State.
If there is a court decision in that country granting custody to the alleged abducting parent, then it is illegal to remove the child from that country without said parent giving his or her permission.
It may be distressing to see the girls being returned to Italy but it is worthy to stress that Family Law Act was aimed to protect children from harm and applied for their best interest. The Court in applying the law was critical of the mother in engaging the media and for influencing the children against their father.
Disclaimer : This article provides basic information only and is not a substitute for a professional or legal advice. It is prudent to obtain legal advice from a family lawyer. | <urn:uuid:f0fa7370-1b08-4418-b962-deeda367d38f> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | https://www.aussiedivorce.com.au/familylawnews/due-to-hague-convention-4-children-return-to-italy.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376824180.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20181212225044-20181213010544-00303.warc.gz | en | 0.969188 | 539 | 3.125 | 3 |
The New Testament gives Christian adherents some extremely useful guidelines for individuals who wish to seek peace, both inner and external. Matthew’s Gospel states “blessed are the peace makers” , these words make allow Christians to believe that if they follow the word of God and live peaceful lives they will be blessed. Adherents are advised to pursue peace by not reacting badly to their enemies, by following authorities and by obeying God. Christian’s are taught that they will be able to attain inner peace if they faithfully dedicate themselves to God. Peace is mentioned over 90 times in the New Testament.
My view on this is that gratitude and humility are one of the core values on living the good life because we can use these talents to gain understanding of our own self and others around us. Like God, we can use our gifts to also gain companionship, which God believes to be in reaching a good
In other words, they think that being a good person is one who obey god by following his commandments. Religion helps people to judge whether a certain act is good or bad, which can be considered as the definition of morality. Most religions promote the same values which are: fairness, loyalty, honesty, trust, etc.... Similarly, McGinn lists the same qualities
A priest may lecture about Biblical stories and relate them to modern situations. For example, the story about the Good Samaritan is about a person helping out another person. The priest tells us to apply this story to our lifestyle in order to become a kind and respectful person. I learn valuable insights from these stories, which provide helpful knowledge in choosing to do good and making moral decisions in life. Second, an organized religion can give you structure in order to build up your spiritual faith.
To have a close relationship with Jesus and his teachings will enable the adherent to experience this peace. For Christians achieving inner peace is following the example and teachings of Jesus. Groups within Christianity will have methods to follow Jesus’ example. Most normally include the use of prayer, the reading of scripture, participation in the wider community, service to others and Sunday worship. Maintaining a steady balance between service and prayer is pivotal for Christians in finding inner peace.
On the positive side, when someone takes on the role of a leader and a positive influence, others follow that model. On a higher level, one’s attitude impacts their relationship with God, since attitude is very important to the Lord. He cares about the attitude of the heart and He is the only One Who knows a person’s true intents. In addition, the individual’s relationship with others is an overflow of their relationship with God. Peaceful relationships are usually a direct result of a good relationship with God, thus highlighting the importance of a Christ centered focus.
It also educates society and helps them understand the religion better and have a clear understanding of how peace is integrated in their religion. An understanding of the Christian belief of peace is gained through the importance of the life of Jesus Christ in the beliefs of adherents. Peace is believed to be at the heart of Jesus' life and ministry and accordingly it is a foundational element of the Christian communities that seek to follow him. In order for Christians to exper... ... middle of paper ... ...n, a personal fight against evil in order to achieve peace and Lesser Jihad refers to the outer-struggle against wrong and evil in encouraging others to strive for the same goal. It is therefore through the sacred texts that a comparison of the understandings of peace in Christianity and Islam can be achieved.
For example having religious teaching like Christians, Jewish, Muslims, and Judaism are all alternative schools could have to prevent confusion among parent and school (Etzioni 2008 page 67). In summary religion as a whole play important role in the life of the people: By providing moral lessons to the communities thus creating a good friendship between one another. Religion in another way helps to strengthen our communities by giving the people a common ground to think and stay together. Religion provides comfort and quells dissatisfaction, religion assures us of comic order, and it teaches us morals that help the people in the community to follow. Finally religion helps to managed conflict between people and between Nations.
Of course, it represents a strong passion toward another individual whether they share the same religion or not. In fact, it is compassionate sensation of putting faith into what a belief is supposed to represent. For instance, I am a Christian person and when I put my love for someone, I also put strong faith toward them as well. Meaning, that I carry my strong sense of hope and wishes that person good health in their life. With people expressing their love to a belief whether it’s being a Jewish, Catholic, Muslim and many others, the ideal of a belief is to express oneself faith towards other.
Faith is built on spirituality surrounding one’s cultural beliefs, behaviors, and ... ... middle of paper ... ... Our faith as Christians should be in the ability to hold firmly and trust in the revelation of God’s word. Revelation must not be ignored. The Faith “surrounds” our reason with three key elements in mind, which are focused on human life, and God’s mysterious existence and power. Faith is justified in our reason and not just a state of mind to fill the void of reasoned knowledge. I believe there is a special knowledge that is centered and leads us to truth---and reason toward our obligations, commitments and how dedicated we are in Christ. | <urn:uuid:cfb3c255-7918-4f9a-bbda-6b59996b26ba> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.123helpme.com/essay/Essay-On-Morality-And-Morality-759146 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334528.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925101046-20220925131046-00726.warc.gz | en | 0.95221 | 1,123 | 2.875 | 3 |
Study quantifies impact of unsafe water and poor sanitation on child and maternal mortality
The impact of unsafe water and sanitation on the death rates of children under five and mothers in the year after childbirth has been quantified for the first time by Canadian-based researchers.
In a paper published in the UK journal Environmental Health, researchers at the United Nations University and McMaster University analyzed data on access to safe water and adequate sanitation across 193 countries.
Using regression analysis techniques to factor out other variables like income and average children per mother, they compared safe water and sanitation rates with maternal and child deaths in those countries.
Dividing the 193 countries into four tiers ("quartiles"), they found that countries ranked in the bottom 25% in terms of safe water had about 4.7 more deaths per 1,000 children under five years old compared to countries in the top 25% tier.
The researchers estimate that, when related to safe water access, the difference in mortality between each 25% tier is 1.17 deaths per 1,000 children under five.
Similarly, when judged on access to adequate sanitation, countries ranked in the bottom 25% tier had about 6.6 more deaths per 1,000 children under five years old compared to countries in the top 25% tier.
Put another way, with respect to the availability of adequate sanitation, the difference in mortality between each of the four tiers of countries is estimated at 1.66 deaths per 1,000 children under five.
Relating safe water provision and maternal death rates (death within a year of childbirth), the paper says the odds of dying increase 42% from the top tier to each lower tier of countries; the corresponding odds with respect to inadequate sanitation: 48%.
"If the world is to seriously address the Millennium Development Goals of reducing child and maternal mortality, then improved water and sanitation accesses are key strategies," say Hamilton Canada-based authors June J. Cheng, Susan Watt and Bruce K. Newbold of McMaster University, Andrew Mente of the Population Heath Research Institute, and Corinne J. Schuster-Wallace of UNU's Institute for Water, Environment and Health, which initiated the study.
Worldwide, an estimated 1.4 million children die each year from preventable diarrheal diseases and some 88% of diarrhea cases are related to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation or inadequate hygiene.
Earlier World Health Organization (WHO) reports have stated that almost 10% of the global disease burden could be prevented by improving water supply, sanitation, hygiene and management of water resources. Another estimate reports that 4.0% of all deaths and 5.7% of total disability-adjusted life years can be attributed to water, sanitation and hygiene.
Despite progress, previous UN research has shown that, at the current pace, the world will miss the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for sanitation by 13%, with 2.7 billion people still lacking basic sanitation by 2015. Even if the target was met, 1.7 billion people would still lack access to improved sanitation.
More positively, the world will meet the water MDG target at the current rate. However, even if that forecast is realized by 2015, some 672 million people will still lack access to safe water. | <urn:uuid:3c100148-b3d5-42de-b590-792b845fb6d1> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-quantifies-impact-unsafe-poor-sanitation.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243989637.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20210518125638-20210518155638-00081.warc.gz | en | 0.930337 | 657 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Nemunėlio (Naujas) Radviliškis is a township ca. 23 km north of Biržai, on the border with Latvia. In World War One, it was entered by German 8. Kavallerie-Division on August 7, 1915.
During the German withdrawal from Russia at the end of 1918, formations of the Red Army appeared in the Biržai district in mid-January 1919 and, while frequently challenged by local anti-Bolshevik paramilitaries (Joniškėlio partizanai), held out until end of May 1919. In the second half of 1919, the area came under increasing control of Bermondt’s Westarmee. Nemunėlio Radviliškis was seized by “bermontininkai” on October 16, but was cleared of foreign troops a month later.
A mandate to set up a Lithuanian post office at “N. Radviliškis” was given to Petras Sturna, effective from October 5, 1919. The unsettled military and political situation may have prevented its timely opening and/or effective functioning. Postal use of a formal seal presumably belonging to a local committee (Valsčiaus Valdyba?) indicates that, as in some similar situations elsewhere, the postal facility had to rely on native self-administration even for basic tools.
The above-mentoned documented abbreviation “N. Radviliškis” reflects the fact that in 1919, as a result of various occupations, the township was also called “Naujas Radviliškis”. However, the older name “Nemunėlio Radviliškis” remained more popular.
To begin with, Nemunėlio Radviliškis was supplied with Fourth Berlin Issue, followed by the Sėjėjas Issue etc. In the absence of a standard postmarker, for cancelling the facility made use of the Shire Seal which on stamps has survived only in fragments. Legible segments show “…NEM-RADVILIŠKIO…”, the rest probably reading “Valsčiaus Valdyba” or the like.
Later, when N. Radviliškis was supplied with a standard box-type cachet for parcel cards and money orders, it too was put to use as canceller.
In late 1920 or 1921 the post office was supplied with a standard calendar-type postmarker inscribed “NAUJAS RADVILIŠKIS” but in the next postmarker the name was ambiguously altered to “N. RADVILIŠKIS”.
Known provisional markings:
Cancelling by seal-like cachet:
No date single, Berlin IV 30 [colln. Bubnys]
No date single, Berlin IV 15 [colln. ?]
Cancelling by box-type cachet:
no date single, Berlin IV 30 [colln. Jankauskas] | <urn:uuid:f0dd85c8-4548-4bb3-b37c-8f1e2c0fe7cd> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | http://lithuanianphilately.com/provisional-postmarks/nemunelio-radviliskis/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583514030.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20181021140037-20181021161537-00253.warc.gz | en | 0.908488 | 668 | 2.5625 | 3 |
|Product #: EMC0206021_TQ|
Creative Writing Ideas-Draw and Write (Resource Book Only) eBookGrade 2|Grade 3|Grade 4
Please Note: This ebook is a digital download, NOT a physical product. After purchase, you will be provided a one time link to download ebooks to your computer. Orders paid by PayPal require up to 8 business hours to verify payment and release electronic media. For immediate downloads, payment with credit card is required.
This creative writing unit provides four lessons in which students draw a whale, dog, dinosaur, or robot and answer questions about the drawing (that serve as the first step in writing a story). On a separate paper, encourage students to write short stories about their drawings. (Find more units with writing ideas by keying in 'creative writing ideas')
Submit a review | <urn:uuid:afe8aeea-19a9-4d79-9df6-14e4f64859ee> | CC-MAIN-2014-23 | http://www.schoodoodle.com/page_74653_4951/creative-writing-ideas-draw-and-write | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1406510280868.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20140728011800-00342-ip-10-146-231-18.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90316 | 175 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Discovering the Organ Mountains Hermit Cave
Roughly half a mile from La Cueva picnic area, you’ll find the Hermit Cave of the Organ Mountains. More formally known as La Cueva Rock Shelter, this cave has a rich and intriguing history. That history extends back to 5,000 BC when the cave was inhabited by ancient peoples. It remained a home and shelter to travelers and wanderers until long after the arrival of early Europeans in the land that is now called the Organ Mountains in New Mexico. Hundreds of thousands of artifacts have been found here to tell the unique stories of its inhabitants.
Who Lived in La Cueva Rock Shelter?
The majority of the artifacts found in the 1970’s reveal the lives of the Apache tribesmen who used the cave during their travels in the 18th and early 19th centuries. However, the evidence also revealed occupation of the cave from as far back as 5,000 BC. There are also artifacts from the cave’s most famous resident, the Hermit of La Cueva.
Who Was the Hermit of La Cueva?
The Hermit of La Cueva was a man by the name of Giovanni Maria Agostini. He was known as “El Ermitano” or “the Hermit,” which is how the cave came to be known as the Hermit Cave. Legend tells that El Ermitano was responsible for the death of a cousin in his youth and that he could never recover from the guilt that this caused him. It’s said that he killed him in an argument and then spent the rest of his life trying to atone for the sin.
The Hermit traveled far and wide, living in various caves and shelters in the wilderness, primarily in the mountains. He came to New Mexico in the early 1860’s, staying in a cave near Las Vegas, NM. In this area, he quickly developed a reputation as a holy man and healer. People came from miles around to seek the help of El Ermitano.
Was the Hermit Really Holy?
Although he served the poor, the sick, and the needy, Agostini’s ultimate goal was to attain the solitude that he desired more than anything else in life. This is what brought him to the mountain of El Cerro del Tecolote in the Organ Mountains. At the top of this mountain, he found a home in La Cueva. The mountain came to be known as Hermits Peak, and the cave became the Hermit Cave of the Organ Mountains.
This gave Agostini much needed privacy and peace in his elderly years. Still, he continued to receive visitors and help the needy. People were willing to climb up the steep face of the mountain just to see him and seek his blessing. Many called him a saint and asked him to heal themselves and their loved ones. These visitors helped to pay for his daily cornmeal by purchasing the crosses and trinkets that he carved by hand.
The best story about El Ermitano is one where he brought forth water from the dry ground. The villagers had come together to build a shelter for the Hermit because he was an old man, well respected and revered. They wished to do him this kindness in return for his holy works, and he allowed it, though it was to his strange specifications. It was a very small space with a low to the ground door with sharp spikes. During construction of this shelter, the villagers’ water ran out, so Agostini scratched the ground with his walking stick. The story is that this act called water to the surface and created a spring that still gurgles there today, the only water source in the area.
The Murder Mystery of El Ermitano
Perhaps the most intriguing part of Agostini’s story is the part where he was found murdered, without any obvious clues as to the killer. This is one of the oldest high profile murder mysteries in New Mexico. Who would wish death on such a well-respected man, considered holy by all who had heard of him? Villagers found his body in a cave in the Organ Mountains in the late 1860’s. The cause of death was stabbing.
Visit the Hermit Cave of the Organ Mountains
To visit the Hermit Cave, you’ll want to travel to the Dripping Springs Natural Area. There, you’ll find a visitor center, several picnic sites, restrooms, and running water. Then, traverse to the La Cueva picnic area. You’ll have to pay $3 for the day, and you can’t camp in the area. From the La Cueva picnic area, there’s a short hike to a challenging trail. This trail will take you up the steep incline to the cave of El Ermitano. Let us know what you find there! | <urn:uuid:c8800d81-099c-440a-8d87-5ba208c86229> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://newmexi.co/monuments/discovering-the-organ-mountains-hermit-cave/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=discovering-the-organ-mountains-hermit-cave | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400188049.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20200918155203-20200918185203-00337.warc.gz | en | 0.98086 | 1,003 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Fewer women have access to Internet in India and developing countries. Some find Internet inappropriate for women
On an average, across the developing world nearly 25 percent fewer women than men have access to the Internet, and the gender gap soars to nearly 45 percent in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa and 27 % in India. One in five women in India and Egypt believe that Internet is not “appropriate” for them, according to a new report.
The study, titled “Women and the web,” was commissioned by Intel and carried out with the US State Department’s Office of Global Women’s Issues, UN Women and World Pulse, a global network for women to understand the gender gap on the Internet.
India has the lowest penetration for women across the report’s focus countries. Only 8.4 % of the female population is online and it represents a weighted gender gap of more than 27 %. i.e. a woman in India is 27 % less likely to have Internet access than a man.
“There are nearly 600 million women online from developing countries today. The report is a call to action to double this number,” the report said. This goal, if realized, could potentially contribute an estimated US $13 billion to $18 billion to annual GDP across 144 developing countries.
The report’s findings are based on interviews and surveys of 2,200 women and girls living in urban and peri-urban areas of four focus countries: Egypt, India, Mexico and Uganda, as well as analyses of global databases.
Key highlights from the report
* Gender barriers are real. One in five women in India and Egypt believes the Internet is not “appropriate” for them. On average across the developing world, nearly 25 percent fewer women than men have access to the Internet, and the gender gap soars to nearly 45 percent in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa.
* Across the surveyed countries, nearly half of respondents used the Web to search for and apply for a job, and 30 percent had used the Internet to earn additional income.
* Increases women’s sense of empowerment. More than 70 percent of Internet users considered the Internet “liberating” and 85 percent said it “provides more freedom.”
* Enabling Internet access for more women and girls in developing countries promises immediate, and immense, benefits. Seeing another 600 million women online would mean that 40 percent of women and girls in developing countries.
Full report here. | <urn:uuid:7b119ed9-444d-43df-b447-318d60a1a374> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.nextbigwhat.com/gender-bias-online-297/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246648209.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045728-00033-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942915 | 517 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Lessons From Katrina: What A Major Disaster Can Teach Transportation Planners
The evacuation plan functioned relatively well for motorists, but failed to serve people who depend on public transit. Transport planners can help prevent future disasters by demanding that emergency response plans devote at least as much attention to the evacuation and care of non-drivers as they do to motorists.
Non-drivers include many people with various physical, economic and social problems. Planners need to anticipate these peoples needs. This may require special community outreach and communications activities to build understanding and trust among planners and the people they serve.
From a transport planning perspective, the greatest mistake in New Orleans was the lack of a detailed action plan to dispatch buses for evacuating transit-dependent residents. Such a plan would include an inventory of all available buses and essential staff, and pre-established procedures to deploy buses when an evacuation order is announced.
It is important to understand why many people ignored evacuation orders. Many faced logistical or financial barriers obtaining transport out of the city. Many had nowhere to go and were fearful of emergency shelter conditions. Some stayed to protect their property or pets, or out of bravado. Addressing these objections would increase evacuation order response.
A variety of planning policies and programs can help create a more resilient transport system. These increase system diversity and integration, improve user information, prioritize use of infrastructure, and provide special services during emergencies. These can benefit everybody in a community, even people who currently rely on automobile transportation.
[Editor's note: The link below is to a 150K PDF document.]
Thanks to Todd Alexander Litman | <urn:uuid:99010045-f562-498a-ade6-bf744298deaf> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | https://www.planetizen.com/node/17443 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886104204.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20170818005345-20170818025345-00515.warc.gz | en | 0.951606 | 324 | 2.90625 | 3 |
A pandemic is the worldwide spread of a new disease, such as a new form of influenza or coronavirus.
With increasing globalization and the ability for people to travel to any country in the world in the span of a single day, there is always the potential for a new infectious disease to be introduced to Hawaii.
Notable historical pandemics have included the 1918 Spanish flu and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, or the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic we are experiencing now. While natural barriers effectively prevent many diseases from reaching Hawaii, thousands of visitors arrive each day from all around the world, so continued vigilance is essential.
During public health emergencies, the Hawaii Department of Health (DOH)works with many partners at the federal, state, and local levels to protect the public’s health. In the event of a pandemic, the Medical Reserve Corps may be called upon to provide volunteers and assist with emergency operations. As DOH and the State of Hawaii have made preparing for an influenza pandemic a top priority, DOCD regularly updates Hawaii’s pandemic preparedness plans for when the next global epidemic occurs.
In recent years, DOH’s Office of Public Health Preparedness (OPHP) and Disease Outbreak Control Division (DOCD) have coordinated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in scaling up prevention efforts during the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic and by conducting educational efforts during the Ebola and Zika epidemics, which ended in 2016.
Why are health officials concerned about this?
Health officials are concerned because public health emergencies have happened before and will happen again. In an emergency many people could get sick and die and few people are prepared. According to a 2013 survey by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Ad Council, only 19 percent of Americans say they are well prepared for emergencies. Nearly two-thirds of American households do not have adequate plans and supplies for a disaster.
Many families mistakenly believe that policemen, firemen, hospitals, and doctors will be available at all times. But in a severe public health emergency, like a natural disaster or pandemic flu, those services may be limited or unavailable. Pandemic flu is not like any other kind of flu: no one has immunity and everyone is affected when large numbers of people get sick.
Health officials worldwide believe we may be due for a flu pandemic (a worldwide outbreak of a new influenza A virus). Although the United States may not be currently experiencing an influenza pandemic, concern is focused on avian (bird) flu viruses strain such as H5N1, H7N9, and H1N1 (the kind that created a pandemic in 2009).
Avian (or bird) flu viruses occur naturally in wild birds and can spread to domestic birds, such as poultry. Health officials are particularly watching for cases of the H5N1 bird flu. In rare cases it can be transmitted from birds to humans. There is no human immunity to this virus and no vaccine is available.
H5N1 and H7N9 are considered to be of particular concern. Almost all H5N1 cases occur in birds, but since 2003 more than 700 people have gotten the disease. Approximately 60 percent of the H5N1 cases have died, with mortality highest among people aged 10 to 19 and young adults. The fifth outbreak of H7N9 in China infected 764 people (as of September 2017), killing up to 40 percent. Officials believe close or direct exposure to infected birds caused most of the cases of both of these viruses. Some clusters of infection within families have been investigated, but there are no reports of sustained human-to-human transfer. However, both H5N1 and H7N9 could evolve to spread easily among people and cause a flu pandemic.
Although no one knows when the next flu pandemic will strike or whether H5N1, H7N9, or another influenza A virus will be the cause, the Hawaii State Department of Health is actively planning for a flu pandemic and so should you. For more information, visit www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources.
The State of Hawaii has been preparing for a possible influenza pandemic for some time now. While these preparations served us well during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic and we have a strong framework in place, we can always be more prepared. The Hawaii Pandemic Flu Preparedness & Response Plan is being updated and will be available for public comment soon.
DOH continues to lead efforts in Hawaii to educate the public about the differences between seasonal flu and pandemic flu, and to provide local governments and decision makers with tools and tips they can use to prepare for any future pandemic.
Pandemic flu: A flu pandemic is a global outbreak that occurs when a new influenza A virus causes serious human illness and spreads easily from person to person.
Avian flu: Avian, or bird, flu occurs naturally among birds. All bird flu subtypes are influenza type A. There are many strains of avian flu viruses, some are more common than others.
Seasonal flu: These are the influenza viruses that circulate and infect people throughout the year. In many people, its symptoms are mild and last no more than a week. However, about 36,000 Americans die of seasonal influenza each year.
Influenza A: Influenza A viruses are found is many different animals, including ducks, chickens, whales, horses, seals, and dogs. Influenza A is primarily a respiratory disease, causing cough, congestion, sore throat, muscle aches, fatigue, and fever in most species it infects.
Influenza B: This virus circulates widely only among humans. It generally does not make people as sick as influenza A does.
Last reviewed March 2020 | <urn:uuid:9a16226b-d755-4144-a94d-9919c56b522d> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://health.hawaii.gov/prepare/pandemics/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038916163.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20210419173508-20210419203508-00343.warc.gz | en | 0.952871 | 1,215 | 3.875 | 4 |
The goal of the book to is render the psychiatrist author’s career-long clinical experiences into a broad theory of human nature by linking Darwinian evolutionary theory to human emotions. Social structures are wholly comprised of interacting emotions and motivations, and social structures formed the critical meta-environment in human evolution to which our unique behaviors and cognitive capacities have adapted.
The Introduction explains that the key to understanding human nature from an evolutionary point of view is knowledge about how the mind of apes transformed into the mind of man. In becoming human, our six-million-year hominin phase was crucial. However, there is no observational science possible since all prior hominin species have gone extinct, and minds do not fossilize. In the construction of a causal human narrative, ways of knowing other than the classical scientific method of observation must be bought to bear. The method this book employs is the scrutiny of the subjective experience of each of the major mental illnesses through the lens of evolution in a search for “emotional fossils.”
In each illness, different segments, or functional “bundles” (similar to the concept of genes), of emotion are identified as being pathologically hyperactive. One such segment is interpersonal separation anxiety, which functions to keep families and friends together. In the most common form of depression, the sustained, pathologically hyperactive fear of interpersonal separation is the central symptom. Mental illnesses are windows that permit the examination of those emotions that play the key roles in our everyday lives; I propose that these bundles of emotion have remained essentially unchanged since their appearance in our evolutionary history and, therefore, shed light on our emotions’ evolutionary roles.
The author’s rich background in the study of schizophrenia forms a clinical “bridge” in the book from classical Darwinian thinking to a new paradigm. The essence of this most mysterious of all illnesses is the experience of receiving communications from an external intelligence in the realm of thought. Schizophrenia can be understood as the breakdown into pathological hyperactivity of the means by which group norms are constantly but unconsciously communicated to individuals, (e.g.: cable news). This function is a recent adaptation from the eons when small pre-Homo sapiens hominin groups communicated to their individual constituents by means of a precursor to modern language.
The author proposes that the principal adaptation of the earliest members of our hominin “tribe” occurred in the sphere of social behavior. It consisted of a major shift in the level at which natural selection operated, from that of the individual in ape hierarchies (dominance), to that of the associations between individuals in hominin groups (authority). In this paradigm, for all hominins, including modern humans, the “intentions” of authority emanate from a virtual space, which could be viewed as spiritual.
In the book’s two middle chapters, the ideas developed in the initial chapters are interpreted as evidence for a powerful new paradigm of human evolution that leads to an alternative narrative of our evolutionary history. The author proposes a mechanism whereby the mentalities of dominance and submission, characteristic of the social organization of apes, in hominins reconfigured to obedience to the authority evolved at the level of groups. A single, “punctuated” transformation parsimoniously unites an understanding of the following facts of hominin evolution: 1. Hominins blossomed into over a dozen species over 2 ½ million years while the number of ape species expanded by only one, the bonobo. 2. Upright posture is a requirement for a fossil to be designated a hominin. 3. Early hominins evolved very large molar teeth. 4. The early species of the genus Homo were the first to develop a widespread stone tool industry. 5. Early stone tools evolved into the hand ax which remained virtually unchanged for 1.5 million years. 6. Pre-modern human species of the genus Homo evolved enormous brains.
The final clinical chapter contains the second major insight of the book. The illness of mania is characterized by highly sexualized dramatic behavior in which the patient experiences his/her actions as if performed before a large adoring audience. All the human foibles are on display in mania: wild spending sprees, promiscuous sexuality, absurd grandiosity, and, ominously, intense “narcissistic” rage when inflated goals are frustrated. The fact that a central symptom of mania is hyperactivity of highly coherent and syntactically complex speech marks it as being of relatively recent, exclusively Homo sapiens origin, which leads to the two-mind hypothesis discussed in the following chapter.
The modern mind is made up of two nested minds that have evolved into a dynamic equilibrium with one another. The Old Mind is the ancient hominin collective and spiritual mind (cf. CG Jung) with a will for justice and the long-evolved capacity to coordinate productive behavior for-the-good-of-the-group. The New “ego” Mind motivates individuals to seek attention through producing “self-displays,” similar to sexual display in birdsongs and feathers, but more generally directed toward social groups. A grasp of the emotional interaction between an aversively-driven mind focused on the “do not” prohibition of the rules permitting social coordination on the one hand, and the goal-directed, quasi-sexual and creative mind on the other, offers new insight into the mysterious human capacities of self-awareness and complex linguistic syntax. Most significant to the author, the two-mind hypothesis offers a new way to understand the phenomenon of mental illness by which these conditions are humanized and thus destigmatized.
Mental illness occurs when the dynamic between our two minds becomes unbalanced, breaks down into unrestrained positive feedback, and one mind absorbs the other. In major depressions, the anxieties of the Old Mind (interpersonal separation, social entrapment, and banishment) cease being modulated by the esteem provided by the New Mind. In mania, the New ego-Mind absorbs the Old Mind and becomes inflated producing hyperactive “displays” of authority. In schizophrenia, the New Mind is overwhelmed by the hyperactivity of the thought-language of the Old Mind. Old Mind figures or social institutions (God, FBI) communicate directly to the sufferer.
The last chapter is an extended meditation on the secular and religious ramifications of a collective will, arising over six million years ago, wielding justice and progressively evolving the emotional and cognitive capacity of individuals to coordinate their behavior. This innate human quality—viewed as a mysterious spiritual power-alloyed-with-virtue—was naturally selected over eons on account of its ever greater productivity.
The book is not a backdoor for creationism/intelligent design, but rather a well thought out emancipation from the restrictions of the aging narrative that we are essentially apes that have finally become smart enough to devise social institutions that are capable of moderating our evil nature (e.g.: Steven Pinker’s Better Angels of Our Nature–2011 and Jared Diamond’s The World Until Yesterday–2012 both Penguin Books). This alternative view of human nature is a deeper, richer, and far more noble narrative of our exclusively human legacy: that of an indomitable spirit possessed of a will for justice and sustained through the millennia by the bounty that it fosters. Upon the stage of this foundation, our human vanity has resulted in a “fallen” species, but also has endowed us with a genius that places within our grasp the redemption of our ancient destiny to fulfill the Old Testament prophesy of peace on earth. | <urn:uuid:fdfd5bd7-9d52-4c0f-b552-f044cea6beed> | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | https://whywebecamehuman.com/our-two-minds-the-development-of-emotions-in-human-evolution-the-book/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107893402.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20201027052750-20201027082750-00633.warc.gz | en | 0.928787 | 1,574 | 2.640625 | 3 |
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If gravity cannot act like a force,
then what acts upon a brick thrown straight up into the air to cause the brick to change direction to fall back to earth?
a consequence of the curvature of spacetime
Newton's first law of motion is often stated as
An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
originally posted by: AntonGonist
a reply to: neutronflux
Im done with you. Why are you asking me to explain your model to you? It has no bearing on any claim I made. Bye. | <urn:uuid:9e5261a6-b16f-45b9-928f-d002004574f4> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread1241937/pg11 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875143635.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20200218055414-20200218085414-00379.warc.gz | en | 0.93728 | 189 | 2.765625 | 3 |
The article reproduced below was published by Civicus in the 2016 State of Civil Society report. This article can be downloaded in pdf format here. The entire report is available here.
By Ignacio Saiz and Luke Holland, Center for Economic and Social Rights
In the wake of the global economic downturn triggered by the financial crisis of 2008, austerity has become the new normal. Under pressure to reduce budget deficits, many governments have responded with a package of fiscal austerity measures, typically comprising severe cuts to social expenditure, regressive tax hikes, pension and other social welfare reforms, and the stripping away of labour rights protections.
The impact of these measures on inequality and human rights has been devastating. As the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) has documented over many years and in several different contexts, the austerity drive has mounted a widespread and systematic assault on economic and social rights, particularly the rights to decent work, an adequate standard of living, food, health, housing and social security. Cuts in public spending and clampdowns on anti-austerity protests have also threatened civil and political rights, such as the rights to freedom of expression and association. Austerity is a factor behind the increasing restrictions on civil society space in many countries, making it more difficult to mobilise for fairer alternatives and to access justice for those deprived of their rights.
While the nature and impact of the policies introduced vary from one context to another, one constant is that those facing poverty, marginalisation and discrimination are always hit hardest. In a study published by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, CESR highlighted the severe and disproportionate impact of Europe-wide austerity measures on women, migrants and asylum seekers, Roma people and other ethnic minorities, children, young people and older persons, people with disabilities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.1 In countries across the globe, economic inequality – the gap between rich and poor – has escalated since the onset of austerity, fuelling the worldwide trend of increasing income disparity and wealth concentration, which has now reached historic levels. As Oxfam recently reported, one per cent of the world’s population has now agglomerated more wealth than the rest of the world put together.2
Austerity: a worldwide trend
Austerity is a global phenomenon. After more than five years of draconian cuts to key social sectors and regressive tax, labour and social welfare reforms in countries across Europe, a stark pattern of growing inequality and deterioration in economic and social rights has emerged. Spain, for example, has experienced one of the largest increases in child poverty in the EU since the onset of the crisis, and has now become one of the most unequal countries in Europe. Social exclusion of immigrant households is now more pronounced, and undocumented migrants have been denied access to healthcare on grounds of health budget cuts.3 A similarly unsettling scenario of widening deprivation and increased disparities unfolded in Ireland as a series of austerity budgets prioritised social spending cuts over progressive tax reforms.4
But the pursuit of such austerity programmes, while still a central feature of the European economic landscape, is not limited to industrialised economies. Austerity packages are now being rolled out in Latin America as economic recession looms in the region, including in previously buoyant upper middle income countries. In Brazil, for example, the government responded to economic slowdown by announcing a fiscal adjustment of US$24 billion in 2015, with budget cuts falling principally in the areas of education, social protection, racial equality and human rights.5 In a region that remains the most unequal in the world, the implementation of austerity policies threatens to erode the significant advances made in poverty reduction and social protection in recent years, and to exacerbate economic and social disparities.6
Fiscal austerity measures have also been aggressively pursued in lower middle income countries undergoing political transition. In Egypt, for example, the government responded to its post 2011 economic crisis by drastically cutting food and fuel subsidies while also implementing a series of regressive tax reforms, including increasing sales tax on essential commodities.7 These measures, which directly contradicted the popular demands for social justice embodied in the uprisings commonly referred to as the Arab Spring, have exacerbated levels of poverty and already pervasive disparities in the country.8
Austerity programmes are not only spreading across the globe: they are also set to intensify over the coming years. The global economy, having already experienced a major contraction in 2010 and 2011, is now heading into another that is estimated to last until 2020.9 A recent analysis of spending projections in 187 countries shows that the gross domestic product (GDP) of some 132 countries will be impacted on by this adjustment shock, with 81 developing countries set to reduce public spending during the period up to 2020. The global south will be worst affected, with East Asia and Sub-Saharan African expected to be the worst hit regions.10 The same study found that more than 100 countries were planning to reduce subsidies, rationalise social safety nets, cut or cap public sector wages and introduce pension reforms, with scores of countries also planning health sector and labour market reforms in order to adjust to fiscal contraction. Meanwhile, on the revenue side, 138 countries were set to increase consumption taxes, something likely to adversely affect vulnerable populations, and a third of countries reviewed were considering privatising state assets and services.
The study also observed that such economic adjustment programs have been promoted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Bank of International Settlements and other international financial institutions in a majority of countries around the world since 2010. That austerity packages are being encouraged and expanded despite ample evidence of their harmful implications for human rights and inequality highlights the extent to which economic and fiscal governance at the national and global level remains a rights-free zone.
In search of fairer alternatives to fiscal austerity
The renewed austerity drive is all the more alarming in view of growing evidence that it has also failed in its principal objectives. Numerous studies have highlighted the “fiscal fallacies” behind the dogma of austerity:11 government deficits are portrayed as a result of profligate public spending, and proof that the social welfare state is an unaffordable impediment to growth and competitiveness. In reality, many countries’ budget deficits were the result of massive financial sector bailouts, decreased revenues due to economic downturn and the cost of necessary but short-lived post-crisis stimulus measures.12
The belief that fiscal adjustment and reduced public spending would lead to increased private sector confidence and investment has proved unfounded. Rather than staving off the worst impacts of the economic crisis, fiscal contraction brought many developed countries to the edge of a severe and lasting depression.13 Experience has shown that austerity generates higher unemployment, depresses incomes and decreases domestic demand.14 Even the IMF, which made fiscal consolidation a precondition for emergency loans in several crisis-hit countries, eventually admitted there was “little support for the expansionary austerity hypothesis”.15
The argument that, with government coffers all but exhausted, there is no alternative to austerity has also been widely discredited. A number of UN agencies and human rights experts have repeatedly recommended progressive taxation, countercyclical fiscal policies, investment in productive employment and social protection, and financial market regulation as alternative pathways to economic recovery.16 Extensive research by the International Labour Organization has demonstrated that, even in the poorest countries, sufficient fiscal space exists for social protection programmes to be reinforced rather than cut back. Putting in place more equitable forms of revenue generation through progressive tax reforms and confronting cross-border tax abuse is key to maintaining this fiscal space.17
CESR’s research on financing for international development has shown that a range of progressive tax reforms, coupled with a concerted international effort to confront tax abuse and avoidance, could generate over US$2 trillion dollars in public finance that governments can use to meet their human rights and sustainable development commitments.18 Research in countries that have experienced some of the most dramatic cutbacks to social spending has also shown that a concerted effort to address tax evasion would generate more than enough revenue to achieve deficit reduction targets without any need for spending cuts. Using estimates from the Spanish Union of Tax Inspectors, CESR calculated that a 10 per cent reduction in tax evasion by large corporations and wealthy individuals in Spain would have generated significantly more than the €27 billion (approximately US$30 billion) slashed from the national budget in 2011 to 2012.19 Similarly, the amount lost each year to the Egyptian public coffers through tax evasion and other illicit financial flows represents about a fifth of the country’s total fiscal deficit.20 As Brazil slashes spending on essential services, equality and human rights, little has been done to retrieve the 27 per cent of corporate income tax which is estimated to be lost to tax evasion, or to improve collection of more equitable personal income taxes.21 Tax policy must therefore be at the core of the search for human rights-centred alternatives to austerity.
Mobilising for accountability: challenges and opportunities
Regressive austerity measures have effectively burdened the poor and disadvantaged with the costs of the economic crisis, while safeguarding the wealth and privileges of the economic elites responsible for causing it. Outrage at this unfairness has at times boiled over into the streets, with mass mobilisations against austerity and inequality in many parts of the world. The demand for governments to respect basic social rights and tackle extreme inequality has been a unifying feature of these movements. Indeed, the commonality of the injustices experienced and demands made has helped foster transnational solidarity, empowering activists in each context, and in some cases helping secure significant victories.22 In some cases, they have spurred the emergence of new political forces in response to popular frustration with more established alternatives.
All too often, however, the austerity context has restricted the space for civil society organising and political participation, as the perceived need for extraordinary measures leads to political exclusion and retrenchment in democratic accountability. This can have especially pernicious and enduring ramifications, as legislation passed amidst the supposed exigencies of a crisis, when generally accepted legal processes are more easily subverted, can prove difficult to reverse further down the road.23
Spain’s controversial Decree Law 16/2012, which effectively excluded undocumented migrants from accessing universal healthcare following austerity cuts to the health budget, was passed as an emergency decree, bypassing the normal parliamentary approval process. This was followed by the Ley de Seguridad Ciudadana (Public Security Law), more commonly known as the ‘Ley Mordaza’ or ‘Gag Law’, which represented a dramatic crackdown on the wave of public protests against austerity measures. The law, which provoked an outcry from civil society organisations (CSOs) and human rights oversight bodies,24 threatened fines of up to €600,000 (approximately US$677,000) for participating in unauthorised protests near government buildings and public facilities, and €30,000 (approximately US$33,900) for filming the police during demonstrations, a response to widespread national and international concern at media images of the heavy-handed policing of anti-austerity demonstrations.25 The ‘Ley Mordaza’ also included provisions for the summary expulsion of migrants and refugees, overtly contravening international human rights law.
Just as CSOs in austerity-hit countries see the space for civic participation and dissent being stripped away, they are also facing capacity limitations as their funding dwindles. Spain cut its development assistance budget by 49.7 per cent in 2012,26 affecting the funding of many Spanish CSOs also addressing poverty and inequality at home, as well as shrinking funding to civil society groups in Latin America and other regions.
Austerity in the dock
With spaces for political participation and social mobilisation being shut down, social justice advocates in many countries have turned to legal or quasi-judicial processes to confront the human rights violations unfolding in their countries as a result of austerity measures. This has included litigation before national courts and recourse to regional and international human rights oversight bodies. The goal of such efforts has been to bring the principles and tools of human rights law to bear in challenging austerity policies and the spectrum of human rights deprivations they have entailed.
At the national level, there has been a proliferation of litigation initiatives aimed at challenging the legality, and remedying the impacts, of unjust austerity policies. In Spain, groups working on the right to health, as well as certain local government authorities, challenged discriminatory healthcare reforms that excluded undocumented migrants from universal primary care, leading to a partial policy reversal and a ruling by the Supreme Court that local governments could design their own law to extend coverage to the affected sector. Portugal’s Constitutional Court meanwhile struck down over €1 billion (approximately US$1.1 billion) of the €5 billion (approximately US$5.6 billion) in cuts that had been planned in the country’s 2013 budget, invoking constitutional human rights provisions.
Access to legal remedies has, however, been undermined in many countries by austerity cuts that target the budgets of judicial systems and reduce their capacity. Across Europe, for example, funding for legal aid was reduced as austerity programmes rolled out, thereby raising an additional impediment for marginalised groups affected by cuts.27
The limited potential for seeking domestic legal remedies in some contexts has led many civil society groups to seek accountability at the international and regional levels. For example, coordinated civil society engagement in shadow reporting led to the governments of Ireland and Spain being called to account for their austerity programmes before the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In both cases, the UN body issued strong recommendations concerning the human rights impacts of reforms, echoing civil society concerns. Following its 2012 review of Spain, the Committee was moved to issue guidance to all states clarifying their human rights obligations in the context of crisis and austerity.28 It warned that, in accordance with the principle of non-retrogression, which prohibits any backsliding in economic and social rights protection, any austerity measure that might reduce the enjoyment of these rights can only be justified after careful consideration of all alternatives, such as progressive tax reforms or reallocation of resources from other areas.
Civil society efforts have also found success in pushing regional accountability bodies such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to engage more proactively in confronting the human rights impacts of austerity and scrutinising states’ fiscal policies through the lens of human rights principles.29
These examples illustrate the scope for adjudication to confront the injustice of austerity. However, social mobilisation is fundamental for adjudication strategies to succeed and have a lasting impact on policy change. As well as the chilled climate for civil society, an additional obstacle for the human rights movement in challenging austerity is the need to adapt its methods of analysis, advocacy and mobilisation to address the complex realities of fiscal policy. There is nevertheless a growing convergence of activists across the human rights, tax justice and development communities committed to forging inter-disciplinary tools and strategies to hold governments and other powerful actors to account for the deprivation and disparity wrought by austerity policies across the globe, and to offer a rights-centred framework for the design and implementation of more equitable and sustainable solutions.30
As the austerity juggernaut continues to thunder forward civil society must open up new avenues for accountability to confront the injustice of austerity and inequality. While strategies to achieve this will of necessity by manifold, one clear opportunity for international civil society collaboration lies in the recently agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs contain commitments to policy reform over the next 15 years that, if implemented, would reverse many of the harmful trends and impacts witnessed in the era of austerity.
SDG10, for example, commits governments to reduce inequality within and among countries, including through fiscal, wage and social protection policies, along with improved regulation of the finance sector. The SDGs and the Financing for Development agreements also include commitments to tackle illicit financial flows and improve international cooperation in tax matters. Such commitments are timely. The Panama Papers scandal highlighted the nefarious impact of tax abuse by wealthy elites in depriving government coffers of the revenues needed to tackle inequality and fulfil human rights, just as the most disadvantaged sectors of the population see wages stagnate, social protection slashed and services they rely upon cut through austerity measures.
The SDG commitments will remain paper promises unless there is ceaseless vigilance and pressure from civil society for their implementation. They will also require meaningful accountability systems at national, regional and international levels to ensure that the targets set are reflected in all relevant policy programmes, and that governments and the private sector are held answerable. Whether the SDGs live up to their potential depends on how effectively civil society activists around the world can maintain the pressure for human rights to be at the core of the economic and development agenda, in order to bring about a transformational shift from austerity to accountability.
1. Council of Europe Issue Paper, “Safeguarding Human Rights in Times of Economic Crisis”, 2013. https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=2130915
2. Oxfam International, An Economy For the 1%: How privilege and power in the economy drive extreme inequality and how this can be stopped, 2016. See:
3. CESR, Factsheet Spain, 2015. /sites/default/files/downloads/FACTSHEET_Spain_2015_web.pdf
4. CESR, “Mauled by the Celtic Tiger: human rights in Ireland’s economic meltdown”, 2012. /sites/default/files/downloads/cesr.ireland.briefing.12.02.2012.pdf
5. See: Instituto de Estudos Socioeconômicos (INESC), “Arrocho fiscal detona direitos dos que mais precisam,” Brasilia, 26 May 2015: http://www.inesc.org.br/noticias/noticias-do-inesc/2015/maio/arrocho-fis...
6. Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean, Social Panorama of Latin America, (LC/G.2635-P), Santiago de Chile, 2014. See: http://www.cepal.org/en/publications/37626-social-panorama-latin-america...
7. CESR, Factsheet Egypt: Poverty and Austerity – UPR Briefing 2014. See: /sites/default/files/downloads/egypt-UPR2014-poverty-austerity.pdf
8. CESR, Egypt factsheet series for the Universal Periodic Review (2014). See: http://cesr.org/article.php?list=type&type=60
9. Ortiz, I., Cummins, M., Capaldo, J., Karunanethy, K., “The Decade of Adjustment: A Review of Austerity Trends 2010-2020 in 187 Countries”,SS Working Paper No. 53, International Labour Organisation, The South Centre, Initiative for Policy Dialogue - Columbia University, 2015.
11. CESR, Fiscal Fallacies: 8 Myths about the Age of Austerity. 2014, Available at: http://www.cesr.org/article.php?id=1331; See also: Ortiz, I. (et al), op cit fn 9.
12. Ortiz, I. (et al), op cit fn9.
13. See for example United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, “On the Brink: Fiscal Austerity Threatens a Global Recession”, Policy Brief No 24, December 2011; see also the reports on austerity by the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights and the UN Independent Expert on Foreign Debt and Human Rights.
14. Ortiz, I. (et al), op cit fn9.
15. IMF Working Paper Research Department “Expansionary Austerity: New International Evidence”, July 2011. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2011/wp11158.pdf
16. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Development-led globalization: Towards sustainable and inclusive development paths (Geneva, 2011).
17. For more on this see: ILO, “Fiscal Space for Social Protection: Options to Expand Social Investments in 187 Countries,” ESS Working Paper no. 48, 2015.
18. CESR, A Post-2015 Fiscal Revolution, Human Rights Policy Brief, May 2014.
19. Center for Economic and Social Rights, Spain Facsheet, 2011. See: http://www.cesr.org/article.php?id=1285.
20. Center for Economic and Social Rights, Egypt Facsheet, 2013. See: http://cesr.org/downloads/Egypt.Factsheet.web.pdf
21. CEPAL, “Fiscal Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean 2016, 2016. http://www.cepal.org/es/publicaciones/panorama-fiscal-america-latina-car..., OXFAM, “Time to Tax for Inclusive Growth”, March 2016. http://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/39950/S1600237_en.pd...
22. For example, civil society pressure forced the Irish government into a dramatic climbdown over its plans to introduce water charges in the country, and parties compaigning in the recent general election competed to outdo each other in distancing themselves from plan.
23. Posner, A., Vermeule, A., “Crisis Governance in the Administrative State: 9/11 and the Financial Meltdown of 2008", 24. University of Chicago law & Economics, Olin Working Paper No 442, University of Chicago Public Law Working Paper No 248, Harvard Public Law Working Paper no 08-50, Harvard Law School Programo n Risk Regulation Research paper No 09-04, available at SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1301164
24. Office of the High Commission for Human Rights, Press release: “Two legal reform projects undermine the rights of assembly and expression in Spain - UN experts”. http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15597&L...
25. The Council of Europe Commissioner on Human Rights, Report on Spain, CommDH(2013) 18. https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=2106465
26. OECD, “Aid to poor countries slips further as governments tighten budgets”, April 2013, http://www.oecd.org/dac/stats/aidtopoorcountriesslipsfurtherasgovernment...
27. CEPEJ, “Evaluation of European Judicial Systems 2012”, 2012; European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, “Annual report 2012”, 2012.
28. The letter issued by CESCR affirms that in order to be in compliance with the Covenant, any policy implemented to address economic crisis should be: temporary, covering only the period of the crisis; necessary and proportionate, in the sense that the adoption of any alternative policy, or a failure to act, would be more detrimental to economic, social and cultural rights; non-discriminatory and cognizant of all possible measures, including tax measures, to support social transfers and mitigate inequalities, and that it protect the minimum core content of economic, social and cultural rights.
29. See CESR et al, “Fiscal Policy and Human Rights in the Americas: mobilizing resources to realize rights”. At /sites/default/files/downloads/cidh_ddhh_fiscalidad_exec_summary_eng.pdf
30. For more on this, see: “Human Rights in Tax Policy”, http://cesr.org/article.php?id=1622; See also: “Lima Declaration on Tax Justice and Human Rights”, 2015, http://cesr.org/downloads/Lima_Declaration_Tax_Justice_Human_Rights.pdf. | <urn:uuid:211abbe4-a974-4bb6-b3a5-28170ea8b435> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | http://cesr.org/under-knife-human-rights-and-inequality-age-austerity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917122629.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031202-00558-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921964 | 4,990 | 2.921875 | 3 |
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Children's Health Protection
Background document supporting the workgroup's recommendations to CHPAC on children's health valuation issues
In April 1997 President Clinton signed Executive Order 13045 entitled "Protection of Children from Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks," the ultimate objective of which is to ensure that federal health and safety regulations recognize and explicitly account for risks to children. The Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC) was subsequently appointed by EPA Administrator Browner to help the agency determine how best to ensure that scientific knowledge is used effectively to reduce environmental risks to children. Because some EPA standards and regulations require benefit-cost analysis, or related economic assessments, EPA also asked the CHPAC for advice regarding how to ensure that effects on children are adequately represented in economic analyses. To develop this advice, the CHPAC formed the Economics and Assessment Work Group, comprised largely of economists with expertise in benefit estimation, but also including experts in public health and ethics.
Why do Congress and the Executive Branch require EPA to consider the benefits and costs of some proposed standards and regulations? The essential objective of benefit-cost analysis is to avoid doing less than could otherwise be done, to ensure that society's resources are used to produce the greatest net benefit. If we cannot do all good things, we can at least try to do the most that is possible given limited resources.
We need to decide which environmental protections are the most worthwhile, relative to their costs. We want a systematic way to compare alternatives to decide which merit the highest priority. Benefit-cost analysis provides a systematic way to organize complex information and assess trade-offs, thereby improving the policy process.
The economic value to society of each kind of benefit (fewer asthma attacks, for example) is ultimately based on some expression of individual willingness to pay (WTP) for an environmental improvement. How are individual values representative of social value? Other than restrictions, such as speed limits or laws governing criminal activities and some environmentally harmful actions, we assume that what people choose to do accurately represents what is (individually) best for them, and by reference, for society. Logically, the sum total of value to society is the aggregate of value to the individuals who make up that society.
The question of how to value effects on children within the context of environmental risk does not have transparent answers, and the issues are not solely technical. The underlying theory and methods in the environmental health and resource damages literatures are applicable, but the question of how society values effects that impact children (contrasted with how adults value effects that may impact themselves, or with how parents value the same effects on their own children) proves more complex.
The focus of both the specific recommendations and this background document is to assist EPA in addressing these issues and improving the analytical tools used to conduct mandated economic analyses so that impacts on children can be better represented, and their health, therefore, better protected.
This background document is intended to provide information supporting the recommendations made by the Economics and Assessment Work Group to the plenary of the Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee. Since the Spring of 1998, this Work Group has considered how EPA can better reflect the economic value of protecting children's health in economic assessments, mandated or otherwise, of certain proposed regulations and policies. The associated recommendations letter sets for recommendations of the Work Group, as accepted by the Committee, in an effort to improve the ways in which EPA performs economic assessments and thus assist the Agency in protecting children's health. These comments include support for some current Agency practices as well as specific substantive and research recommendations for their improvement. The process used to develop these recommendations is attached to this letter.
Our society's ideal is to protect all children from the array of environmental health threats. We recognize, however, that society's resources are limited, that priorities for actions to protect children's health must be set, and that evaluation of benefits plays a key role in that process.
In preparing its recommendations, the Economics and Assessment Work Group evaluated: a) specific analytical and methodological issues in the economic evaluation of children's health effects, b) practical approaches to valuing the benefits and costs of children's health effects, and c) data gaps and research needs as they pertain to current EPA practice and the state of the available valuation literature. In particular, the Work Group considered the following:
- A series of commissioned issues papers (list attached) and presentations addressing topics germane to valuing children's health;
- Additional background papers, literature reviews, and presentations by EPA staff and others;
- Papers and discussion from the March 24-25, 1999 workshop, "Valuing Health for Environmental Policy With Special Emphasis on Children's Health Issues," which was jointly sponsored by the EPA Offices of Policy, Children's Health Protection, and Research and Development,
- Draft excepts from the Children's Health Valuation Handbook; and
- A draft chapter of the Guidelines for Preparing Economic
Recognizing that there is a very limited literature on the value of reductions in environmental risks to children, the Economics and Assessment Work Group focused its attention on consideration of seven substantive questions that encompass the primary concerns of the Work Group members:
- Are existing economic methods adequate for valuing health effects, including indirect economic effects, as applied to children?
- What value estimates are already available for specific children's health effects?
- Should socioeconomic characteristics of children be considered explicitly?
- Is there sufficient coordination between economists and risk assessors in developing appropriate data for valuation?
- Should EPA adjust values from adult-oriented studies when applied to children's health effects and, if so, how? Is it appropriate to use the adult value of statistical life for valuing reduced risk of children's mortality? If not, what alternative would be better?
- Is EPA's approach to discounting appropriate for children?
- How should the differences between individual and societal values of children's health effects be considered?
The Work Group compiled a series of substantive and research recommendations to address these questions.
Recommendations to the CHPAC for Transmittal to EPA
The Work Group has compiled a series of substantive and research recommendations to address the primary concerns. A more detailed discussion, including background information and the thinking of the Work Group that led to the recommendations, is presented in the next section.
- Agency economic analyses must clearly document all of the assumptions, implicit and explicit, that can affect the estimates of economic values.
- At present, valuation of children's health benefits by EPA typically reflects only avoided cost-of-illness, and these economic analyses often fail to recognize additional non-monetary benefits. The Work Group recommends that, where monetized values are developed, estimates of monetized value for health/wellbeing benefits should be expressed in terms of willingness-to-pay, rather than solely as avoided cost-of-illness.
- The existing literature used in monetized benefit estimation often pertains specifically to adults, few valuation studies on environmental risks to children are available. While research to estimate monetized benefits of children's health should be a priority, in the interim it will be necessary to consider transferring estimates of adult benefits to children. Benefit transfer is appropriate when three conditions are met: (1) generally accepted willingness-to-pay (WTP) estimates exist for adults; (2) the risk situation for which they would be transferred is substantially similar to the risk situation from which they were derived; and (3) the consequences of risks to health and well-being are similar in adults and children. Such estimates must be derived from risk situations closely related to the effect being valued. When any of these conditions is not met, cost-of-illness estimates may be used on an interim basis to represent a plausible lower bound, with a narrative description of the non-monetary benefits explicitly included. The process should also document how that measure of value is likely to vary as the size or character of the risk or benefit in question changes.
- In principle, any established method of non-market valuation could be used in children's applications. However, because every situation is different, and experience is limited, it would not be appropriate to specify a particular method or group of methods for use in valuing children's health. The key requirements are (a) that what is measured be appropriate for what is to be valued and (b) that the analysis be consistent with economic understanding of consumer behavior and market mechanisms.
- The lack of directly applicable values for many impacts on children means that omitted benefits are likely to have a greater influence on the results of economic analyses than is the case for impacts on adults, especially if adverse effects are severe, widespread, and unvalued. It is therefore especially important that non-monetized measures of changes in children's health and well-being, such as changes in risk, incidence or prevalence, and the estimated changes in numbers of children affected and the ways in which they are affected, be quantified and reported. After accounting for all monetized effects, the analyst should determine the minimum and maximum values of non-monetized effects necessary to affect conclusions about the efficiency of a proposed regulation or policy.
- We recommend that analysts recognize the wide potential range of socioeconomic characteristics when estimating both (1) relevant dose-response functions and (2) household willingness-to-pay functions, with effort devoted to including available socioeconomic or demographic variables that are indicators for income, minority, or immigrant status. We further recommend that the Agency report the available demographic characteristics (income, ethnicity, immigrant status, family structure, and so on) for any cohorts at risk.
- The usual challenges of coordination between risk assessors and economists are amplified in the case of children's health effects because of the paucity of information specific to children. To address this problem, we recommend that EPA structure the tasks associated with measuring the impacts of environmental policies and regulations using a "team" approach in which risk assessors and economists work collaboratively rather than sequentially in order to clarify the impact of possible assumptions and to ensure that both risk and economic analyses are as comprehensive as feasible. We further recommend seeking input from public health professionals, child health experts, clinicians, industrial engineers, etc., as appropriate.
- We recommend that estimates of economic benefits of improved children's health be based primarily on the value parents place on the health of their own children, rather than seeking to directly measure children's own willingness to pay to reduce environmental risks. Children usually lack the experience to make the types of informed choices economic analysis assumes will underlie a WTP, while parents often are uniquely positioned to know and to care about their children's health and well-being. We recognize, however, that parental values may be only one component of the overall social benefits of children's health. (Other possible components, for example, might include the general social benefit derived from children growing up healthy and employed, or symbolic or religious value that society might place on children's health.) Until we obtain better indicators of whether and by how much social benefits exceed parental values, the WTP of parents is probably the most defensible indicator of economic benefits of children's health, although we realize that there are a number of reasons to believe that it may be a lower bound.
- When EPA uses discounting in its economic analyses, the Agency should explicitly explain what rate or rates it uses, the basis for choosing the specific range if rates used, and the implications of those choices.
- Where an analysis places a monetary value on reducing risk to life (as contrasted with health/wellbeing), we consider the value of statistical life years (VSLY) to be a potentially superior valuation approach compared to the value of a statistical life (VSL), and that VSL values for adults are likely to be inappropriate for children. We recommend that the Agency develop appropriate VSLYs for children as soon as possible where monetized values are to be used. However, until appropriate estimates can be developed for children, the adult VSL should be reported as a plausible approximation, with the strong caveats and conditions noted above.
Referring to the recommendations above, the Work Group requests an opportunity to review the draft Children's Health Valuation Handbook as well as any economic analysis undertaken for the four regulations that EPA has decided to reevaluate on the basis of children's health effects: chloralkali National Emission Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants; organophosphate pesticides tolerances for methyl parathion, chlorpyrifos, and dimethoate; atrazine tolerance and MCL; and Farm Worker Protection Standards.
- Research on the valuation (monetized or non-monetized) of children's health effects is underfunded. In FY'99, effectively $0 of the approximately $100,000,000 in research grants awarded by EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) were devoted directly to such research. Consequently, we recommend that ORD develop a detailed research agenda in this area and allocate significant resources to ensure that these research needs are met, to the extent feasible given competing priorities.
- In order to make better values for mortality and morbidity effect available to analysts, we recommend that research on parental willingness to pay to reduce risk to children receive priority attention. Since parental values may not completely reflect societal values, further research should also focus on societal willingness to pay and the magnitude and conditions under which divergence from parental values occurs.
- Because valuation methods based on wage-risk trade-off studies are unlikely to apply to children, we recommend that the EPA develop an accepted value for the loss of a statistical life year (VSLY) suitable for use in connection with children's health impacts, where monetized values are developed.
- We recommend that the Agency promote research to increase the body of knowledge about how willingness to pay for reducing specific environmental health risks in children varies with health status and with environmental and economic factors of the children and their families. In doing so, EPA should take note of the possible effect of income constraints, as note above, and the implications of reflecting such constraints in willingness-to-pay figures.
- We recommend that researchers in this area employ disaggregated household data, including detailed demographic variables, and attempt to control for the specific effects of the presence of children on household decision-making. It will be useful to other decision-makers involved in protecting children to understand how parents make economically relevant choices associated with their children, and what features of their children's well-being matter to parents and other adults in the household, even if these decisions are not directly associated with pollution or the environment.
- We recommend that the Agency promote research and public discussion on the appropriateness of discounting methods when undertaking economic valuations of children's environmental health benefits.
- To facilitate the implementation of these research recommendations, the Work Group recommends that they be integrated into the Economic Research Strategy. We also recommend that they be shared with other federal agencies, researchers, and institutions in the field.
Background Information - Questions Posed by the Work Group
Question 1. Are existing economic methods adequate for valuing health effects, including indirect economic effects, as applied to children?
Although it often may not seem so, economic valuation is something broader than looking up a price in the Wall Street Journal. It covers not only the valuation of market items, such as an automobile, a house, or a share of corporate stock, but also what is known as non-market valuation, such as placing a monetary value on a loss of beach recreation, an improvement in air quality, preserving a national monument, or on other items not directly traded in markets. Non-market valuation grew out of the conventional economic principles for valuing market items and extended the principles to other, non-market items. Many aspects of valuing children's health are examples of non-market valuation, and must draw on the techniques developed in that field over the last 40 years.
It is important to distinguish between the basic principles for non-market valuation, including the economic valuation of children's health, and the implementation of these principles to deal with specific undesirable health effects in children. The underlying principles are well defined and do not differ materially from those underlying any other type of non-market valuation. The implementation for specific health effects in children may sometimes be difficult or impossible due to the nature of the health effect, characteristics of children, or limitations of the available data.
Since the economic valuation of health, especially children's health, can sometimes be controversial, it may be useful to offer a brief description of the logic and purpose of this type of valuation. What is being measured here is the monetary equivalent of the loss of welfare associated with morbidity, risk of morbidity, or risk of mortality of children. Conceptually, there are two distinct components to the potential loss of welfare. One is various costs that illness imposes on the family and on society ? both monetary outlays for treatment-related expenses and, for parents if not for the children themselves, income or earnings foregone, at the time or subsequently, as a consequence of the illness. The second component of loss is the sheer disutility of the illness, due to factors such as pain, suffering, anxiety, or inconvenience. To the extent that they arise in any particular case, monetary valuation should cover both components of the loss of welfare. However, measuring the two components involves different considerations.
The market cost associated with an illness, whether income foregone or extra expenditures incurred, is usually fairly straightforward to measure ? it is simply the cost itself. This is known as the cost-of-illness (COI) measure. Since COI estimates medical and time costs of an illness and not the overall loss of utility, it is likely to underestimate the true welfare loss from illness.
The monetary measure of the disutility associated with illness is different because it involves an equivalence: one translates a loss of welfare (utility) into an equivalent loss of income. This relies on the economic concept of value in exchange. To say that, for some individual, X has a value of 50 in terms of Y means that the individual would be willing to exchange 50 units of Y for one unit of X. Here, X and Y are two different items, measured in two different units, with Y serving as the numeraire in terms of which X is valued. Y could in principle be anything, not just money. Monetary valuation, which arises when Y is money (income), is just one particular, but important, example of value in exchange. When one values the disutility of illness in monetary terms, therefore, this refers to the loss of money that an individual would consider equivalent to the illness, in the sense that this loss of money would reduce the individual's welfare by the same amount as the illness. Conceptually, there are two alternative ways to formalize this equivalence: (1) the maximum willingness-to-pay (WTP) measure of value ? 50 units of Y (e.g., $50) is the most that the individual would give up (pay) in order to avoid X (the illness); or (2) the minimum willingness-to-accept (WTA) measure of value ? 50 units of Y ($50) is the minimum compensation that the individual would be willing to accept in order to put up with X (the illness). All economic measures of value can, in fact, be reduced to an equivalence involving either a WTP or a WTA type of measure.
For the portion of welfare loss associated with an imposed cost or reduction in income, WTP and WTA are identical, both being measured by the cost or income reduction itself. Hence, COI measures both WTP and WTA for this component of the loss. But for the loss of welfare associated with the disutility of illness, as opposed to the imposed cost, WTP and WTA can differ. If they do differ, the typical pattern is for the WTA measure to be larger than the WTP measure. Which measure should be used depends on the initial conditions, whether the proposed change is a gain or a loss, and upon subjective judgments about the entitlement of the affected groups (historically, legally, or ethnically) to either the initial conditions or the conditions that would prevail after the change. For practical purposes, and to be conservative (in the sense of avoiding overstatement of benefits), most researchers tend to opt for the typically smaller WTP measure on the grounds that it is likely to be more defensible. However, the right policy decision requires that the appropriate valuation measure be used.
Economists employ several methods to estimate, either exactly or approximately, the WTP or WTA measures of disutility associated with illness. One approach is to elicit directly what people would be willing to pay (or to accept) through some form of survey or choice experiment; this is known as contingent valuation or, more generally, stated preference. Other approaches use more indirect evidence to estimate what people would be willing to pay (or accept) based on inferences from their observed behavior; this is known as revealed preference. An example of the latter is inferences based on defensive behaviors undertaken by people to avoid illness or mitigate its impacts, known as the averting behavior approach. Another example is an approach based on an analysis of differences in wages associated with riskier occupations, or differences in home prices associated with more polluted environments; this is known as the hedonic value approach.
These approaches to measurement share a basic similarity, in that they all involve identifying either explicit or implicit choices from which value in exchange can be inferred ? actual real-world choices with revealed preference, or choices made in an experimental or survey setting with stated preference methods. The challenge for a successful implementation, whether in a market or non-market context, is to find a choice that is both appropriate for what one wants to value and amenable to analysis, in that the requisite data are available or can be obtained. It is an empirical question whether this can be accomplished; there is no automatic guarantee of success for either type of valuation.
While the valuation of children's health is in principle no different than the valuation of adults' health, or any other non-market item, in practice there may be more empirical difficulties for at least two reasons. First, there are fewer existing applications of valuation specifically concerned with children's health, as opposed to the health of adults or the household as a whole. Because there is less experience, and perhaps less complete information, one might expect estimates of the value of children's health will be subject to more uncertainty than for adults or the household as a whole. Second, choices about children's health are almost never made solely by the children themselves; parents or other household members are almost always involved.
Resource scarcity is the fundamental justification for value in exchange: whenever a choice is being made to have more of something ? say, protecting children's health or improving their quality of life ? one must give up something else which could otherwise be chosen that also requires time, effort and resources. What is being given up is the cost of the item (whether direct cost or opportunity cost); this should be compared with the benefit from the item, measured in comparable units, in order to determine whether the choice is justified. There is a real trade-off, regardless of whether it is expressed in terms of people's time, money, or any other numeraire. This type of comparison of benefits and costs for policy alternatives related to children's health is inevitable, regardless of whether measures of the monetary value for health changes are used, simply because there will be a cost to any change. Making the change, by default, implies that it must be worth at least the cost to the decision-maker. Deciding not to make the change carries the implication that its value must be less than the cost.
Question 2. What value estimates are already available for specific children's health effects?
There is a very limited emerging valuation literature concerning environmental risks to children. Because adverse impacts on adults have been studied more extensively, and because adults can themselves express or reveal their WTP to reduce adverse effects, the existing literature that is generally accepted for use in benefit estimation reports values specific to adults. For mortality and for morbidity that affects children and adults similarly, careful transfer of adult benefit estimates to value impacts on children is preferable to omitting effects on children from economic analysis. In some cases, however, analysts may have to resort to using cost-of-illness estimates, or to presenting information on children's effects in non-monetized form.
EPA should give priority to research on parents' WTP to reduce risk to their own children and to contingent valuation studies that can help to determine whether parental values are good representations of social value (see also the discussion of Issue #7 below). In deciding how to structure this research, the health effects of greatest concern should first be identified. The attributes of children (as children and as future adults) that are altered by those effects should also be specified. Examples include intelligence, fertility, mobility, and life expectancy.
It may also prove fruitful to review existing and on-going research to determine where collection of additional data or further analysis of data already collected would provide information about WTP to reduce some effects.
Question 3. Should socioeconomic characteristics of children be considered explicitly?
There are at least two motives for considering socioeconomic characteristics including income, ethnicity and immigrant status in a benefit-cost analysis or other economic assessment of a proposed regulation. First, Executive Order 12898 directs the EPA to identify the costs and benefits to low-income and minority groups when regulations are changed. A recurrent observation in the context of environmental justice has been that the ability of a person to reduce exposure to environmental threats varies with socioeconomic status and political influence, and these factors in turn are related to income, ethnicity and immigrant status. Second, policy analysts within the EPA may find it helpful to know how income, ethnicity and immigrant status interact with environmental and other public policies (e.g., education, nutrition, income-support policies) to determine risk, exposure, health outcomes, and household WTP.
Socioeconomic heterogeneity should be recognized in the estimation of both dose-response functions and willingness-to-pay functions. Both dose-response relationships and willingness to pay may differ by age, gender, and ethnicity, as well as with the degree to which income, educational opportunities, and access to information constrain the choices that individual families are able to make. Keeping track of differences in dose-response functions and differences in WTP by socioeconomic groups also will allow policy makers to track the distributional consequences of policies or regulations.
For example, in estimating a dose-response function, a child's ethnicity may be correlated with baseline health status, nutritional status, housing type, or even variations in exposure levels. If ethnicity is included as an explanatory variable while housing type is not, the analyst risks attributing some of the effect of housing type to ethnicity. In the case of estimating household WTP for risk reduction, a household's ethnicity may also be correlated with parental comprehension of risks, age of parents, education, income, family structure, and other factors. Omitted variable bias in dose-response or WTP functions may be especially unfortunate if systematic differences are incorrectly attributed exclusively to ethnicity variables and therefore deemed to be beyond the reach of public policy influence. Ethnicity may capture differences due to other unmeasured influences, but it is obviously not a variable that can be manipulated by policy. In contrast, it may be possible for public policy to influence some of the other sociodemographic variables, such as nutritional status or parental access to information about and understanding of risks.
Researchers should also devote more attention to the differences between objectively measured risks and subjectively perceived risks. Parents may place unrealistically low values on measures to reduce risks to their children based upon the notion that they have control over these risks via averting behaviors. For example, everyone may feel that the risk facing their own child is lower than the "average" risk, because they will compensate by taking additional care.
More broadly, economists expect WTP to depend on many factors, including baseline health status and the initial level of risk, the availability, quality, and price of health care, household size and composition, and income. These and other determinants of WTP may vary markedly across population groups, potentially causing non-trivial differences in the economic benefits of environmental policies and regulations. Yet there currently is a limited body of quantitative evidence on how WTP for improved children's health varies with socioeconomic characteristics. Without detailed quantitative evidence on these issues, policy analysts can only guess about how benefits are distributed across population groups, or about whether benefits estimated for the general population of children accurately reflect benefits to specific groups.
Question 4. Is there sufficient coordination between economists and risk assessors in developing appropriate data for valuation?
Relatively few examples exist where risk assessors and economists have collaborated seamlessly in characterization and valuation of environmental risk. More typically, economic analysis follows risk assessment, but risk characterizations often do not provide information conducive to benefit estimation. As a result, benefit assessments cannot accurately or completely capture impacts on children, or the value of reducing risk. The limited collaboration between risk assessors and economists is not restricted to children's health, and often leads to three problems for economic assessments.
First, measures of risk conveyed by risk assessments often are not well suited for estimating individual benefits. Benefits arise from avoiding, or from reducing the probability or severity of, health effects that individuals recognize as adverse. Non-cancer risk assessments, however, generally characterize risks in terms of a Reference Dose (or the proposed Margin of Exposure). While threshold-type measures are important to establish health-based standards, they do not by themselves indicate how the probability or severity of illness varies with changes in exposure, and so provide a limited basis for benefit estimation. Risk assessments often measure subtle changes in physiological or neurological function, such as changes in lung function. But exposed individuals may not recognize a change in lung function as adverse without additional information about how lung function affects daily activities or long term health status. If people cannot understand how such an effect might impact them (or their children), they cannot make the informed choices that are associated with measures of their willingness to pay to reduce or avoid the effect. Economists are left to translate estimates provided by risk assessments into measures more suitable for estimating individual benefits, or else to omit known effects from the benefit analysis. Either way, there are increased prospects for significant errors.
A second difficulty arises when economists attempt to estimate aggregate benefits or to perform equity assessments. Aggregate benefits depend on the population distribution of risk. But risk assessments estimate individual risk, not a population distribution of risk accounting for differences in susceptibility and exposure (which may vary significantly among sub-populations of children). Similarly, equity assessments require identifying effects occurring in specific sub-populations, but this information often is not provided in a risk characterization.
Third, economic benefits and costs of regulations often depend on how people adjust their behavior in response to changes in their environment. For example, people may stay indoors more when ambient pollution is high, purchase organic produce to reduce pesticide exposure, or purchase water filters or bottled water to reduce risks from waterborne contaminants. These behavioral changes, which depend partly on economic factors like prices and incomes, influence exposure and risk. Risk assessments do not account for how behavioral adjustments to policy influence exposure and risk.
Greater communication, and especially collaborative team efforts, between risk assessors and economists would mitigate each of these three problems. Furthermore, input from public health professionals and clinicians, including experts on surveillance, would be helpful in alerting policy-makers to emerging threats to children's health, accounting for the full range of individual, family and community factors that affect child health, and identifying options for treatment. Industrial engineers, in turn, could provide useful information on options for prevention and mitigation of environmental threats to children's health. We recommend broadening the team of analysts charged with describing impacts of environmental policies and regulations to include these professionals as appropriate.
In view of effects that environmental policy may have on public health, coordination between EPA and the public health community would be useful in assessing, valuing and protecting children's health. Coordination of efforts across federal agencies should be promoted, perhaps through the Presidential Interagency Task Force on Environmental Health and Safety Risks to Children, as well as through other channels. Coordination with state and local public health systems should be undertaken to insure that the public health functions of epidemiology, community assurance and measures of population impacts are taken into account. The public health system is much broader than a community's public health department, and includes hospitals, clinics, laboratories, mental health facilities, epidemiology/toxicology departments, water and air regulatory agencies, and schools and social welfare agencies. Each of these agencies contributes to the health of a community and its children, and should be considered in assessing and valuing children's health.
Question 5. Should EPA adjust values from adult-oriented studies when applied to children's health effects and, if so, how? Is it appropriate to use the adult value of statistical life for valuing reduced risk of children's mortality? If not, what alternative would be better?
The existing literature that is generally accepted for use in benefits assessments often reports values specific to adults, while relatively few valuation studies on environmental risks to children are available. This situation creates a strong case for using benefits transfer ? that is, using information from existing studies on the value of adult health to estimate the value of children's health ? rather than omitting effects on children from the economic analysis. An obvious problem with benefits transfer is that values for children's health effects may differ from values for similar health effects in adults.
Children differ from adults in many ways, including, but not limited to, potential differences in the probability, severity or duration of a given adverse health effect, in life expectancy, and in economic status. This observation raises the question of whether, if values of adult health are to be transferred to children's health, some sort of adjustment should be made to account for relevant differences in exposure and consequences between adults and children.
Currently available evidence would not support the proposition that specific health effects would always have the same value for children as for adults, nor would it indicate how large any difference might be. The value of child health relative to adult health is likely to vary depending on the health effects considered, the populations affected, and other factors. Consequently, using benefits transfer to value children's health effects based on studies of adults' health may be quite unreliable. Furthermore, we cannot offer any general formula for adjusting values taken from adult-oriented studies before applying them to children's health.
While the current paucity of information on values associated with children's health effects makes benefits transfer more attractive, at the same time makes benefits transfer more speculative. The best way to derive a value for children's health is by measuring it directly using established techniques of non-market valuation. Funding for work in this area should be a top priority.
One area of benefits estimation where potential differences between adults and children are of particular concern is the valuation of reductions in premature mortality. Reduced mortality typically is monetized using the value of a statistical life (VSL). The VSL is based on estimates of the willingness to pay for small reductions in the risk of death (or on the willingness to accept compensation for small increases in the risk of death). For example, suppose the average person is willing to pay $58 per year to reduce his or her annual risk of death by 1/100,000. Imagine a group of 100,000 similar people each paying $58 to reduce risk by 1/100,000. As a group they would pay $5.8 million, and, statistically speaking, would experience one less fatality. The value of the statistical life saved in this example is $5.8 million. Estimates of the VSL are based primarily on studies that examine the higher compensation that workers accept for taking jobs with higher risks of death.
There are many potential problems with applying VSL estimates derived from the behavior of adult workers to value reduced mortality among children. There are no children in the samples of adults used to estimate the VSL, while available evidence indicates that the VSL varies among adults of different ages. The voluntary decision of an adult to accept a workplace risk in exchange for higher earnings seems far removed from the situation of a child who faces an increased risk of death from an environmental hazard. In addition, a child loses more years of life than does an adult when death comes prematurely.
One way to account for differences in life expectancy among persons affected by a risk-reducing regulation is to apply an estimate of the value of a statistical life year (VSLY). This measure makes distinctions between risk-reducing regulations based on their effects on longevity: if a regulation protected individuals whose average remaining life expectancy was 30 years, then a risk reduction of one fatality would be expressed as 30 life-years extended. If the average remaining life expectancy were 50 years, then one statistical fatality avoided would represent 50 statistical life-years extended. These life years extended would be valued using the estimated VSLY.
Typically the VSLY is estimated by annualizing an estimate of the VSL. In the undiscounted form, the $5.8 million VSL is divided by a life expectancy of 35 years. This is the average life expectancy of the subjects in the empirical studies used to establish the $5.8 million VSL estimate. This yields a VSLY of approximately $166,000. This VSLY is then multiplied by the average life expectancy in the subpopulation(s) affected by the proposed policy or regulation to produce an adjusted value of statistical life for that subpopulation.
Future life years can also be discounted before they are used with the $5.8 million associated with the value of a statistical life. Discounted remaining life years are given by (1/r)[1-exp(-rR)] where R is the study sample average life expectancy described above and r is the discount rate (Moore and Viscusi, 1988). For example, The Costs and Benefits of the Clean Air Act 1970 to 1990 (EPA, 1997) used a discount rate of 5% yielding a VSLY of approximately $354,000 (updated to 1997 dollars). Because of discussion surrounding the development of the Guidelines for Preparing Economic Analyses, the discount rate used in the future is likely to be 2% - 3%.
This strategy describes current practice, but the Work Group concedes that this approach is not yet entirely satisfactory. Further research to develop appropriate VSLYs for children in still necessary.
Question 6. Is EPA's approach to discounting appropriate for children?
One way to account for differences in life expectancy among persons affected by a risk-reducing regulation is to apply an estimate of the value of a statistical life year (VSLY). This measure makes distinctions between risk-reducing regulations based on their effects on longevity: if a regulation protected individuals whose average remaining life expectancy was 30 years, then a risk reduction of one fatality would be expressed as 30 life-years extended. If the average remaining life expectancy were 50 years, then one statistical fatality avoided would represent 50 statistical life-years extended. These life years extended would be valued using the estimated VSLY. Is EPA's approach to discounting appropriate for children?
The question of discounting arises whenever one faces outcomes ? whether costs or benefits ? that occur at different times. If a person is indifferent to the timing of outcomes and considers all time periods as equivalent, this corresponds to the use of a zero discount rate. By contrast, if a person weights current outcomes somewhat more heavily than future outcomes, this corresponds to the use of a positive discount rate. In the context of health valuation, the issue of discounting arises with greater force for children than for adults because the greater expected longevity can make effects with a longer interval between the exposure to an environmental hazard and any adverse health outcomes more important.
Discounting is sometimes used as a means of adjusting for other considerations unrelated to timing, some of which could also arise in connection with children's health. For example, there may be greater uncertainty about the health impacts on children than adults, and uncertainty is sometimes accounted for through the use of a higher discount rate. Alternatively, if there is a greater social concern for the vulnerability of children, this could be incorporated through the use of a lower discount rate for future adverse outcomes to children's health. We believe that it is preferable to deal with such considerations directly and explicitly in valuing the outcomes rather than through the surrogate of adjustments to the discount rate. We recommend that when discounting used, it be used purely and explicitly to account for differences in timing.
Discounting has been a source of controversy not only between economists and non-economists, but also among economists. This is because it involves reconciling two different aims. One is to strike a fair balance between the present and the future. The other is to use society's limited economic resources efficiently. Each has a different implication for whether one should discount, and how.
When focusing on the efficient use of limited resources, the consideration most relevant for discounting relates to the cost of capital. A positive discount rate is justified in order to account for the time value of money. The discount rate should reflect what capital costs, if one borrows, or what it earns, if one lends ? whether from an individual or societal perspective.
With regard to fairness in balancing between the present and the future, the relevant consideration is the rate of time preference of the decision maker ? whether an individual or society. The question of how one should weight the future in comparison to the present is a value judgment.
Which of the two aims is most relevant ? the efficient use of scarce economic resources versus striking a balance between the present and the future ? could vary with the circumstances. Geoffrey Heal, in his recent book, has suggested that considerations of the efficient use of scarce economic resources are more appropriate for conventional business and economic planning horizons, while considerations of inter-generational equity and the social rate of time preference are more appropriate for longer-run environmental problems with time scales of several generations or more. The valuation of children's health may involve intermediate time horizons between these two scales. Therefore, balancing the two alternative approaches to discount rate determination becomes more problematic.
The current EPA guidance on discounting recommends presenting both discounted and undiscounted benefits and costs. When discounting, EPA recommends the use of two alternative interest rates: an interest rate of 2 to 3 percent, to reflect the social rate of time preference, and an interest rate of 7 percent, which the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recommends as a measure of the cost of capital. Presenting undiscounted benefits and costs means showing the benefits and costs in each year of the time horizon. Given the uncertainties about discounting outlined above, we believe that these three alternatives span the range of reasonable approaches, considering the various possible perspectives on discounting. In any case, the results will sometimes be insensitive to the choice of the discount rate.
Question 7. How should the differences between individual and societal values of children's health effects be considered?
Benefit-cost analysis of policies affecting children's health typically should not rely primarily on children's own willingness to pay as a measure of benefits. Children, particularly young children, often lack the experience and resources ? including information, judgment and income ? to indicate a meaningful willingness to pay. The resources and preferences of some third party must therefore provide the basis for estimating benefits.
In many cases, parents are uniquely positioned to know and to care about their children's health and well-being. Most parents invest substantial, though not unlimited, amounts of money, time and effort providing for the support, schooling and health of their children. Parents, therefore, are accustomed to making decisions about investing resources in children, and in facing the accompanying economic tradeoffs. For these reasons, and for consistency with social norms leaving parents considerable authority to act on behalf of their children, parental willingness to pay provides a natural starting point for benefit estimation.
Parental WTP, however, may not always accurately reflect social benefits, for at least three reasons. First, children may develop, depending in part on their health status, into adults who provide benefits to, or who impose costs on, society at large not reflected their parents' willingness to pay. Second, people may care about the children of others, and, under certain conditions, altruism would cause parental WTP to understate social benefits. Third, individual parents face constraints that society as a whole does not. Inadequate information about some health risks, low income, and limited access to insurance and to health care may prevent parents from making economically efficient investments in children's health. Society then has an economic incentive to raise the investment in children's health above the level chosen by more resource-constrained parents. The social income constraint being different from the sum of parents' income constraints, society at large may be willing to pay more for children's health than the sum of parents' private willingness to pay. Although these considerations may not be unique to children, the dependency, ongoing development and unknown future potential of children heightens concern.
Whether parental and social willingness to pay in fact diverge, and the size of any divergence, are empirical questions on which little evidence presently exists. Answers to these questions are likely to differ according to the health effects considered and the demographic characteristics of affected families. Quantitatively adjusting parental WTP, in an attempt to better reflect social benefits, is not in general advisable given the present state of knowledge. Even qualitative judgments must be made carefully to avoid implicit double-counting, for example, from consideration of changes in transfer payments as a source of social benefits. For example, a child whose adult earning capacity is impaired by environmental exposures may contribute fewer tax dollars to social insurance and welfare programs than an unimpaired person. These losses are not borne by the child individually, but by society as a whole. Whether this loss of transfer payments, which is borne by society as a whole, should be added to a measure of the child's own economic loss depends on how the child's loss was computed. If those losses consist of earnings losses gross of taxes, they already account for changes in taxes and transfer payments.
When parental and social willingness to pay diverge, however, we believe that parental willingness to pay is more likely to understate than to overstate social benefits. Therefore we suspect that social benefits are likely to be at least as great as the sum of parents' private willingness to pay.
EPA should promote research to articulate clearly how children and adults differ from the perspective of divergences between private and social willingness to pay. Little is known concerning how household income, family composition, parental education, access to insurance and health care, and other factors affect parents' willingness to pay for the health of their children. Likewise, there is little evidence concerning whether children's health values differ between individuals with and without children. When investigating this question, it may be important to recognize that fertility is not purely exogenous but rather partly a choice. Some insight on these issues might be obtained by considering the extent of community support for health programs for children.
The foregoing has provided, from the perspective of the Economics and Assessment Work Group, greater detail and explanation of recommendations communicated to the Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee.
Commissioned Issues Papers Addressing
Topics Germane To Valuing Children's Health
Benefits transfer of children's health values, prepared by Marla Markowski, Industrial Economics, Incorporated. March 1999.
Contingent valuation and valuing children's health, prepared by George Tolley, University of Chicago and Robert Fabian, University of Illinois at Chicago. March 1999
Data requirements for valuation of children's health effects and alternatives to valuation, prepared by Kimberly M. Thompson, Center for Risk Analysis, Harvard School of Public Health. March 1999.
Existing literature and recommended strategies for valuation of children's health effects, prepared by James Neumann and Harriet Greenwood, Industrial Economics, Incorporated. January 1999.
On techniques to value the impact of environmental hazards on children's health, prepared by Mark D. Agee, Pennsylvania State University and Thomas D. Crocker, University of Wyoming. December 1998.
Valuing children's health and life: what does economic theory say about including parental and societal willingness to pay? Prepared by William T. Harbaugh, University of Oregon. March 1999.
Valuing indirect effects from environmental hazards on a child's life chances, prepared by Jason F. Shogren, University of Wyoming. February 1999. | <urn:uuid:cd5e588c-6486-414a-9c1a-75709f4edb77> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://yosemite.epa.gov/ochp/ochpweb.nsf/content/whatwe_recomm_bckgrnd.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1387345777160/warc/CC-MAIN-20131218054937-00015-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948832 | 9,938 | 2.921875 | 3 |
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