text stringlengths 222 548k | id stringlengths 47 47 | dump stringclasses 95 values | url stringlengths 14 1.08k | file_path stringlengths 110 155 | language stringclasses 1 value | language_score float64 0.65 1 | token_count int64 53 113k | score float64 2.52 5.03 | int_score int64 3 5 |
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These two group activities use mathematical reasoning - one is
numerical, one geometric.
An investigation involving adding and subtracting sets of consecutive numbers. Lots to find out, lots to explore.
EWWNP means Exploring Wild and Wonderful Number Patterns Created by Yourself! Investigate what happens if we create number patterns using some simple rules.
Place the digits 1 to 9 into the circles so that each side of
the triangle adds to the same total.
Can you find more than one solution? | <urn:uuid:894cd4ea-7149-4896-bd55-08b2f56e79dd> | CC-MAIN-2015-06 | http://nrich.maths.org/1983 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-06/segments/1422120928902.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20150124173528-00178-ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.850644 | 103 | 3.25 | 3 |
In a low-rise building overlooking a busy intersection in Beijing, Ji Rong Wen, a middle-aged scientist with thin-rimmed glasses and a mop of black hair, excitedly describes a project that could advance one of the hottest areas of artificial intelligence.
Wen leads a team at the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI), a government-sponsored research lab that’s testing a powerful new language algorithm—something similar to GPT-3, a program revealed in June by researchers at OpenAI that digests large amounts of text and can generate remarkably coherent, free-flowing language. “This is a big project,” Wen says with a big grin. “It takes a lot of computing infrastructure and money.”
Wen, a professor at Renmin University in Beijing recruited to work part-time at BAAI, hopes to create an algorithm that is even cleverer than GPT-3. He plans to combine machine learning with databases of facts, and to feed the algorithm images and video as well as text, in hope of creating a richer understanding of the physical world—that the words cat and fur don’t just often appear in the same sentence, but are associated with one another visually. Other top AI labs, including OpenAI, are doing similar work.
One thing that drew Wen to BAAI is its impressive computational resources. “The BAAI has received stellar support from the government and has strong data and computing power,” he says.
His language model is one of many BAAI projects aimed at fundamental advances in AI, reflecting a new era for Chinese technology. Despite considerable hype and hand-wringing over China’s technological ascent, the country has so far primarily excelled at taking innovations from elsewhere and deploying them in new ways. This is particularly evident in AI, an area Chinese leaders consider crucial to their aspirations of becoming a true superpower.
Some breakthroughs at BAAI could benefit the government directly. Wen says his language system could serve as an intelligent assistant to help citizens perform civic tasks online like obtaining a visa, a driver’s license, or a business permit. Instead of spending days filling out paperwork and waiting in line, as is the norm, a clever helper could guide citizens through the red tape. Zhanliang Liu, project lead for the effort and previously an engineer at Baidu, China’s top web search company, says his team has built a prototype for Beijing’s Department of Motor Vehicles. “It is a really tough challenge,” he says.
The government might, of course, benefit in other ways. More sophisticated AI language systems could prove useful for scanning social media for questionable comments or for scouring phone call transcripts. The Chinese state has embraced AI as a tool of governance, including for censorship and surveillance, particularly of Muslims in western Xinjiang province. There’s no evidence of BAAI’s work feeding into policing or intelligence, but it is being released openly for anyone to commercialize or apply.
At the same time, officials are wary about the potential for AI to erode the power of the state. Several projects at the institute aim to set guardrails for commercial use of AI, to head off ethical challenges and curb the power of big tech companies. | <urn:uuid:1119cc9d-8ff2-4b8c-a91d-7637a8cbb488> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.wired.com/story/chinese-lab-aiming-big-ai-breakthroughs/?itm_campaign=BottomRelatedStories_Sections_3&itm_content=footer-recirc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296948609.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20230327060940-20230327090940-00266.warc.gz | en | 0.956621 | 689 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Surprisingly, this thought-provoking study does not come from the usual environmental or civil society sector actors. Instead, the study is a product of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, which brought together 24 leaders from government, business, finance and economics in 19 countries. For twelve months, leading institutes from Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States contributed to analysis with advice provided by a world-class economist panel.
The new report arrives just a few days before New York welcomes governments, business and civil society for three separate climate events: the UN Climate Summit, Climate Week New York City 2014 and the New York City People’s Climate March.
The report’s central message is that over the next 15 years, about US $90 trillion will be invested world-wide in agriculture, cities and energy system infrastructure. This window of time represents an unprecedented opportunity to shift global investment toward low-carbon growth, increasing job creation, public health, business productivity and quality of life for millions. Continuing down a “business-as-usual”, high-carbon economic route will bring severe risks to long-term prosperity due to the increasing impacts of climate change.
The full report provides some key observations across a variety of sectors. Below are three highlighted findings that are critical from an urban perspective:
- Better Cities: Building better connected, more compact cities based on mass public transport can save over $3 trillion in investment over the next 15 years. These measures will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve economic performance and quality of life.
- Renewable Energy: As solar and wind energy prices fall dramatically, more than 50% of new electricity generation over the next 15 years is likely to be from renewable energy sources, reducing dependence on dirty fuels like coal.
- Phasing out subsidies: Fossil fuel subsidies currently amount to some $600 billion, compared to $100 billion for renewable energy. Removing climate-harmful subsidies will help to improve energy efficiency and make funds available for national priorities.
The report also highlights that the price of inconsistent policies will be uncertainty, lower investment and lower job creation.
In its conclusion, the report proposes a “Better Growth, Better Climate” framework, consisting of a 10-point action plan that if implemented could achieve up to 90% of the emissions reductions needed by 2030 to avoid dangerous climate change. From a focus on the economics of change, recommendations include:
- Developing comprehensive plans for phasing out existing fossil fuel subsidies: Enhanced transparency and communication and targeted support for poor people and affected workers. Developed countries could accelerate efforts to remove fossil fuel subsidies for exploration and production. Developing countries could explore innovative approaches with development banks on how to finance the up-front costs on low-income households.
- Implementing a predictable price escalator: For when political pressures for certain countries or sectors demand a lower price initially.
- Applying a clear and credible carbon price signal across the economy.
- Recycling revenues from carbon pricing for productive uses: Cutting distortionary regulations and poorly structured taxes. A share of carbon revenues should be prioritized to offset impacts on low-income households.
Some of these ideas are already gaining traction regionally. For example, Mexico approved a carbon tax, and Chile recently approved a set of ‘green’ taxes that will generate extra income that will fund education. These are innovative interventions that support a new climate economy – and improve the quality of growth.
The report’s organizing Commission will meet and discuss the study’s findings with economic decision-makers in several countries, and Nivela will track some of these developments across, e.g., Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
Now is the right time to be having these debates. By adding visibility to the costs of inaction and the benefits of integrating economic and business models, together we can help strengthen global climate action.
The full report is available at: www.NewClimateEconomy.report
Photo: Creative Commons André van Rooyen & TckTckTck
This article was originally published by Nivela. | <urn:uuid:487a5c3c-c8f6-487c-9a0a-8ec5fbd17391> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://intercambioclimatico.com/en/item/860-59the-new-climate-economy-report-challenges-conventional-thinking-on-growth-and-climate-action.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501170794.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104610-00245-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9066 | 851 | 2.9375 | 3 |
The cold sore virus – for a long time it was largely thought to simply result in an unsightly, albeit painful, inconvenience. But now the public are at last beginning to become better educated about the true extent and potential implications of the virus.
Now, and partly because of media coverage of tragic cases, people are beginning to understand that in young children, first-time sufferers and those with weakened immune systems something as commonplace as the herpes virus can result in serious consequences, even death. And the medical community has begun to wise-up too.
But that is not all, in a recent editorial in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 31 of the world’s most respected scientists and medical professionals claimed that for too long their peers have neglected to properly take account of the large body of evidence suggesting that the cold sore virus may be a significant cause of dementia.
“We can’t continue to ignore the evidence,” they said. However, it will take some time for the scientists to overturn the prevailing consensus that dementia is caused by accumulation of proteins in the brain.
However, it is hard to ignore their finding that microbes from the herpes virus are found in the brains of Alzheimer’s sufferers in much higher rates and quantities than in other members of the population. This finding would tally with previous studies which have found the cold sore virus to cause dementia-like cognitive symptoms in people infected with the virus.
And, according to the scientists, “These agents can undergo reactivation in the brain during ageing, as the immune system declines, and during different types of stress.”
Furthermore, says Professor Douglas Kell, one of those who lent his signature to the letter, “There is incontrovertible evidence that Alzheimer’s disease has a dormant microbial component.”
Advances in cold sore treatments
Humans have been infected with the cold sore virus for thousands of years. In fact, Roman Emperor Tiberius is reported to have introduced a moratorium on kissing because of concerns regarding cold sore contagion. The commonplace nature of the virus throughout history is further underlined by the fact that it is mentioned in Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet.
So we should pity all those who came before us, whether ancient Romans, Elizabethans or Jacobeans, because the reality is, they didn’t have what we have now: an effective cold sore remedies.
From Roman times so many things have been tried including chamomile (a particular favourite of the Romans), witch hazel, tea bag compresses, vodka baths, camphol, menthol, cabbages and more.
Really, this is good news for us twenty-first centurions: we don’t need to sneak into the office with a cabbage leaf or a tea bag fixed to our face or, worse, a suspicious whiff of vodka emanating from our mouths; instead we are in the privileged position of being able to review the important science – we know that propolis works in helping cold sores heal faster. We can go online and buy a tube of cold sore ointment; our long gone cold sore afflicted forbears cannot. | <urn:uuid:28aa4c20-df62-4da0-88e4-0c27e8cd5258> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.fitness-studion1.com/we-are-benefiting-from-a-richer-understanding-of-the-cold-sore-virus/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296944452.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20230322211955-20230323001955-00730.warc.gz | en | 0.951597 | 654 | 3.234375 | 3 |
The Alpha Level Up Set from Math-U-See will cover these major concepts and skills:
- Understanding place value
- Extending the counting sequence
- Fluently adding all single-digit numbers
- Solving for an unknown addend
- Understanding the relationship between addition and subtraction
- Fluently subtracting all single-digit number
This Set Includes:
- Instruction Manual, 198 pages, hardcover.
- Instructional DVD
- Student Workbook, 442 perforated, softcover. Non-reproducible; consumable workbook.
- Test Booklet, 80 perforated, softcover. Non-reproducible; consumable resource.
- Lifetime access to Alpha Digital Pack, which includes the Skip Count Songs MP3s and Songbook PDF.
Alpha Sample Lesson
DUE TO COVID 19---- WE ARE CURRENTLY OUT OF STOCK ON THESE PRODUCTS. WE DO APOLOGIZE.
Math-U-See offers a unique instructional approach that makes it easier for instructors (parents, teachers, and tutors) to help students progress in mastering fundamental math skills and concepts.
Math by Manipulatives
Math-U-See's simple but powerful set of colorful manipulatives allows abstract math concepts to be represented in clear, relatable ways. These manipulatives, combined with distinctive strategies presented through videos, textbooks, practice, systematic review, and assessments, guide students from concept to concept as they build a solid understanding of mathematics.
Mastery, Not Grade Level
Because the focus is on understanding math concepts, the curriculum is not organized traditionally by grades; rather, Math-U-See is a skills-based program that focuses on student mastery of a concept before progressing to the next concept. Please take the Readiness Assessment if you are unsure what course your student should take. | <urn:uuid:d3d9d861-978f-47d3-b798-350fc812b361> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://www.curriculumexpress.com/product/alpha-level-up-set-from-math-u-see/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400201601.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20200921081428-20200921111428-00141.warc.gz | en | 0.870222 | 383 | 3.265625 | 3 |
The need for improved water resource protection, beginning with grassroots action, is urgent. The water we use depends on networks of wetlands, streams, and watersheds. Land-use activities, however, are changing these natural systems. Often these changes result in ecological damage, flooding, water pollution, and reduced water supply. We need a healthy environment that sustains our personal and community health; we also need vibrant and sustainable economic development that does not destroy the benefits we derive from nature. Our ability to accomplish both depends on how well we can "connect the drops."In this book, Karen Schneller-McDonald presents the basics of water resource protection: ecology and watershed science; techniques for evaluating environmental impacts; obstacles to protection and how to overcome them; and tips for protection strategies that maximize chances for success. Schneller-McDonald makes clear the important connections among natural cycles, watersheds, and ecosystems; the benefits they provide; and how specific development activities affect water quality and supply.The methods described in Connecting the Drops have broad application in diverse geographic locations. The environmental details may differ, but the methods are the same. For water resource managers and concerned citizens alike, Connecting the Drops helps readers interpret scientific information and contextualize news media reports and industry adsultimately offering "how to" guidance for developing resource protection strategies. Visit the website for this book at http://thewetnet.net.
|Publisher:||Cornell University Press|
|Product dimensions:||6.00(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.80(d)|
|Age Range:||18 Years|
About the Author
Karen Schneller-McDonald is a wetland and water resources specialist. She is the president of Hickory Creek Consulting LLC.
Table of Contents
IntroductionPart I. Headwaters: Understanding Natural Water Systems1. Natural Water Systems and Their Benefits2. Picturing Environmental Features and SystemsPart II. Wading Deeper: Identifying and Describing Impacts3. How Land-Use Activities Affect Water4. Measuring the Impacts5. Energy Development and WaterPart III. Charting a Course: Working toward Protection6. Weighing Significant Impacts, True Costs, and Mitigation7. Overcoming Obstacles to Water Protection8. Strategies for ActionConclusion: Stars in the WaterAppendix: Stream and Wetland Checklists | <urn:uuid:f3840d03-552f-4a4b-87eb-2c9384d54a49> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/connecting-the-drops-karen-schneller-mcdonald/1121917664?ean=9781501700286 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627999218.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20190620125520-20190620151520-00115.warc.gz | en | 0.834912 | 484 | 3.171875 | 3 |
911 Dispatcher Training
A 911 dispatcher is the first contact for accident and crime victims. An emergency dispatcher must remain calm in stressful situations so he can gather accurate information. Then the dispatcher must send out the appropriate emergency personnel to handle the situation. Emergency dispatcher training teaches dispatchers how to handle a wide variety of calls -- and the stress that goes along with the job.
A high school diploma or GED may be all the formal education necessary to start a career in emergency telecommunications. Depending on the hiring agency, some college coursework may be a requirement for employment. It’s not unusual for emergency agencies to require applicants to have a two- or four-year degree in computer science, criminal justice or communications. Some vocational schools offer an emergency dispatcher certificate. Sample courses for this certificate include emergency medical dispatching, stress management, crisis intervention, call-taking techniques and communications.
Previous Experience and On-the-Job Training
Previous experience makes 911 dispatcher training easier. For example, work experience at a call center can provide a basic understanding of how to handle calls and how the calls are routed. Customer service jobs provide experience listening and responding to customers’ needs. A dispatcher needs to have good listening skills and be able to solve problems quickly. Once a new dispatcher is hired, he receives extensive training on the equipment used by the emergency service. This training includes classroom instruction as well as hands-on experience. During the training period, the new hire can expect close supervision to see how he reacts in a variety of situations.
Licensure and certification for 911 dispatchers varies by state. The National Academies of Emergency Dispatch, or NAED, offers certification courses that often satisfy any state licensure requirements. Certification is specific for emergency fire or medical dispatching or more generalized for emergency telecommunications. Once a dispatcher successfully passes the certification exam, he must renew the certification and take 24 to 30 hours of additional training every two years.
The job outlook for 911 dispatchers is predicted to grow at an average rate of 12 percent between 2010 and 2020 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. As the general population ages, the need for dispatchers is likely to increase. The average salary of dispatchers was $35,370 in 2010. One way to increase salary for a dispatcher is to take on a supervisory role within an emergency call center.
2016 Salary Information for Police, Fire, and Ambulance Dispatchers
Police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers earned a median annual salary of $38,870 in 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. On the low end, police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers earned a 25th percentile salary of $30,830, meaning 75 percent earned more than this amount. The 75th percentile salary is $49,570, meaning 25 percent earn more. In 2016, 98,600 people were employed in the U.S. as police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Police, Fire, and Ambulance Dispatchers
- Education-Portal.com: Emergency Dispatcher Training Programs and Education Requirements
- National Academies of Emergency Dispatch: Certification
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Outlook Handbook: Police, Fire, and Ambulance Dispatchers
- Career Trend: Police, Fire, and Ambulance Dispatchers
Denise Brown is an education professional who wanted to try something different. Two years and more than 500 articles later, she's enjoying her freelance writing experience for online resources such as Work.com and other online information sites. Brown holds a master's degree in history education from Truman State University. | <urn:uuid:a4b8dd94-b478-482a-bac7-aefa37399b11> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://work.chron.com/911-dispatcher-training-11730.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296943749.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20230322020215-20230322050215-00611.warc.gz | en | 0.924397 | 778 | 2.625 | 3 |
Archaeological findings throughout the area indicate that Senegal was
inhabited in prehistoric times. Islam established itself in the Senegal
River valley in the 11th century; 95% of Senegalese today are Muslims.
In the 13th and 14th centuries, the area came under the influence of the
Mandingo empires to the east; the Jolof Empire of Senegal also was founded
during this time.
In January 1959, Senegal and the French Soudan merged to form the Mali
Federation, which became fully independent on June 20, 1960, as a result
of the independence and the transfer of power agreement signed with France
on April 4, 1960. Due to internal political difficulties, the Federation
broke up on August 20, 1960. Senegal and Soudan (renamed the Republic of
Mali) proclaimed independence. Leopold Sedar Senghor, internationally known
poet, politician, and statesman, was elected Senegal's first President
in August 1960.
After the breakup of the Mali Federation, President Senghor and Prime
Minister Mamadou Dia governed together under a parliamentary system. In
December 1962, their political rivalry led to an attempted coup by Prime
Minister Dia. Although this was put down without bloodshed, Dia was arrested
and imprisoned, and Senegal adopted a new constitution that consolidated
the Presidents power. In 1980, President Senghor decided to retire from
politics, and he handed over power in 1981 to his handpicked successor,
Abdou Diouf. Abdou Diouf was President from 1981-2000. He encouraged broader
political participation, reduced government involvement in the economy,
and widened Senegal's diplomatic engagements, particularly with other developing
nations. Domestic politics on occasion spilled over into street violence,
border tensions, and a violent separatist movement in the southern region
of the Casamance. Nevertheless, Senegal's commitment to democracy and human
rights strengthened. Diouf served four terms as President. In the presidential
election of 2000, he was defeated, in a free and fair election, by opposition
leader Abdoulaye Wade. Senegal experienced its second peaceful transition
of power, and its first from one political party to another.
The Socialist Party dominated the National Assembly until April 2001,
when in free and fair legislative elections, President Wades coalition
won a majority (89 of 120 seats). The Cour de Cassation (Highest Appeals
Court, equivalent to the U.S. Supreme Court) and the Constitutional Council,
the justices of which are named by the president, are the nation's highest
tribunals. Senegal is divided into 11 administrative regions, each headed
by a governor appointed by and responsible to the president. The law on
decentralization, which came into effect in January 1997, distributed significant
central government authority to regional assemblies.
Senegals principal political party was for 40 years the Socialist Party
(PS). Its domination of political life came to an end in March 2000, when
Abdoulaye Wade, the leader of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) and
leader of the opposition for more than 25 years, won the presidency. Under
the terms of the 2001 constitution, future presidents will serve for 5
years and be limited to two terms. Wade was the last President to be elected
to a 7-year term.
President Wade has advanced a liberal agenda for Senegal, including
privatizations and other market-opening measures. He has a strong interest
in raising Senegals regional and international profile. The country, nevertheless,
has limited means with which to implement ambitious ideas. The liberalization
of the economy is proceeding, but at a slow pace. Senegal continues to
play a significant role in regional and international organizations. President
Wade has made excellent relations with the United States a high priority. | <urn:uuid:e3bbf764-df1c-4300-bd33-8df2d0f0924b> | CC-MAIN-2014-35 | http://www.historyofnations.net/africa/senegal.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1409535917663.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20140901014517-00266-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953556 | 802 | 3.859375 | 4 |
Researchers find that males spend less time in elaborate courtship displays such this peacock's feathers when males far out number females. Instead, they get sneaky to get a mate.
When a woman walks into a male-crowded bar she's unlikely to be showered with courtly attention — that is if findings about mating in the animal kingdom translate to the human realm.
"She might just be watching them fight it out and then have one particularly possessive one making sure others aren't getting access to her," Laura Weir, a postdoctoral fellow at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, told me today.
In other words, as the dudes duke it out with each other, one little weasel will sneak over and trap her in a corner and try to keep her all to himself?
"Exactly," she said, although she stressed her reluctance to take the analogy too far. The data, she noted, is compiled from the mating behaviors of the birds and bees … and alligators, fish, frogs, lizards and lobsters, too.
Operational sex ratio
Her research focuses on the influence of the so-called operational sex ratio on competition for mates. Operational sex ratio is the ratio of males and females ready to get it on at any one time and place.
In the animal kingdom, like at a bar, the ratio can often be heavily male biased. For example, in a lot of species, males are often first to arrive to the mating ground so they can establish territories.
The females will come afterward, and depending on the pace of female arrivals over time, "you can have very biased sex ratios during some times of the mating season," Weir said.
When the first female arrives, the general thought is the males will get aggressive toward each other, fighting with each other to take out the competition.
"We found that there is this increase in aggression to a point, but then they stop using aggression as a tactic to get females and they change to other tactics like sneaking in or scrambling around looking for females," Weir said.
All this aggression and sneaking around comes at the expense of courtship, which is a costly, time-consuming investment. Think birds such as peacocks with their fabulous displays of feathers or sparrows constantly updating their playlists.
Instead of investing in the displays and songs to attract the very best mate, the males put their energy into just trying to find a mate, any mate, which involves more covert sneaking around.
On the flip side, males in these situations tend to be more guarded of the mates they secure.
"If they've mated with her, they want to ensure they are the only one who's done it," Weir said. "And so, rather than go off and fight with other males or try to court another female, they'll just cling to the female that they've already mated with."
Overall, Weir and her colleagues note, the findings illustrate a considerable flexibility in the mating structure within species, which is likely related to the end goal of life: reproduction.
At least, that's the next question they hope to tackle in their research.
"If the goal of the biological world is to leave more offspring, are these changes in behavior beneficial to the males when they are actually competing for mates and competing to fertilize eggs?" asked Weir.
Weir is a lead author of a paper describing this research in the February issue of The American Naturalist.
More stories on the science of animal sex:
- Same sex behavior nearly universal in animals
- Hook-ups in the wild: Do animals enjoy sex?
- Urine spray signals sex, violence to crayfish
- New tunes, not oldies, lure the feathered ladies
- Of mice and men: Tens sex lessons from the wild
- Despite flash, males are simple creatures
- Polygamous mice are better breeders
John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by hitting the "like" button on the Cosmic Log Facebook page or following msnbc.com's science editor, Alan Boyle, on Twitter (@b0yle). | <urn:uuid:da9ee546-4b53-4ae1-8221-22a89f09c315> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/05/25/6716720-skewed-sex-ratio-curbs-courtship | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1414637900160.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20141030025820-00073-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955386 | 855 | 2.53125 | 3 |
There are five standard methods for the treatment of skin cancers. The two non-surgical treatments are cryotherapy (deep freezing) and radiation therapy. The three surgical methods include simple excision, physical destruction (curettage with eletrodesiccation) and Mohs Micrographic Surgery. Newer methods under investigation include photodynamic therapy and immunochemotherapy.
In 1935, Dr. Frederic Mohs developed a technique for cancer removal known as chemosurgery. Originally, chemicals were applied to the skin during the surgery. These chemicals are now rarely used, but the name Mohs chemosurgery continues to be associated with the procedure now correctly termed Mohs Micrographic Surgery.
After the removal of the visible portion of the tumor by excision or curettage (debulking), there are two basic steps to each Mohs Micrographic Surgery stage. First, a thin layer of tissue is surgically excised from the base of the site. This layer is generally only 1-2mm larger than the clinical tumor. Next, this tissue is mapped and processed in a unique manner and examined under the microscope. Our doctors examine the entire bottom surface and outside edges of the tissue on the microscopic slides. (This differs from the "frozen sections" prepared in a hospital setting which, in fact, represent only a tiny sampling of the tumor margins.) This tissue has been marked to orient top to bottom and left to right. If any tumor is seen during the microscopic examination, its location is established, and a thin layer of additional tissue is excised from the involved area. The microscopic examination is then repeated. The entire process is repeated until no tumor is found.
Mohs Microsurgery allows for the selective removal of the skin cancer with the preservation of as much of the surrounding normal tissue as is possible. Because of this complete systematic microscopic search for the "roots" of the skin cancer, Mohs Micrographic Surgery offers the highest chance for complete removal of the cancer while sparing the normal tissue. The cure rate for new basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas exceeds 98%. As a result, Mohs Micrographic Surgery is very useful for large tumors, tumors with indistinct borders, tumors near vital functional or cosmetic structures, and tumors for which other forms of therapy have failed. No surgeon or technique can guarantee 100% chance of cure.
An injection numbs the area. The visible portion of the tumor is debulked.
A thin layer of tissue is excised from the surrounding skin and base. The removal tissue is mapped and sectioned.
The deep and peripheral margins of each section are thinly sliced with a microtome and mounted on microscope slides for examination.
If additional tumor is found, it is located on the map, marked and removed. The examination/removal process continues until no tumor is found. | <urn:uuid:a0a5d3d5-070d-448f-b98b-1f42fcd602f1> | CC-MAIN-2021-49 | https://www.mohssurgerycenter.net/mohs-surgery | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-49/segments/1637964359976.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20211201083001-20211201113001-00351.warc.gz | en | 0.95124 | 584 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Think of the people who earn six times as much as the average worker. Are they six times smarter? Do they work six times harder? If the answer is no, then the question “What do they have that the average worker does not?” may occur to you…
Author David Schwartz suggests the main reason why this distinction occurs is because the people who earn six times as much think six times BIGGER. We are all, more than we realize, the product of the thinking which surrounds us. For a large majority of the population this thinking is too little, and not BIG enough.
The Magic of Thinking BIG builds an individual’s confidence, mentality, vision of life and ultimately their ability to think BIG introspectively and extrospectively.
Believe you can succeed and you will:
Cure yourself of the fear of failure
Think and dream creatively
Make your attitudes your allies
Learn how to think positively
Turn defeat into victory
Use goals to help you grow
Think like a leader
3 of the 13 BIG ideas portrayed in this book, as explored in the video below, advocate the following:
- Word Hard & Work Smart – Make it a habit to push yourself beyond your personal point of comfort, and work in such a way that maximizes your output while minimizing barriers to success.
- Value & Believe In Yourself – Think you deserve everything, and place a high price on your self-worth and on what you have to offer to the world.
- Don’t Make Excuses (Excusitis) – Avoid living under a ‘victim mindset’, and stop making excuse on-top of excuse. Take responsibility for your actions, assuring you do not place blame on others. | <urn:uuid:6be49c16-9293-44c1-8380-f42bf9f5f0ad> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | https://thedonsden.com/tag/thinkbig/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187823478.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20171019212946-20171019232820-00000.warc.gz | en | 0.94435 | 358 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Therapeutic Decisions Based on Response to Initial Fluid
The patients response to initial fluid resuscitation is the key to determine subsequent therapy. (See Table, Responses to Initial Fluid Resuscitation.) Having established a preliminary diagnosis and plan based on the initial evaluation of the patient, the physician can now modify management based on the patient’s response to the initial fluid resuscitation. Observing the response to the initial resuscitation identifies those patients whose blood loss was greater than estimated and those with ongoing bleeding. In addition, it limits the probability of over transfusion or unneeded transfusion of blood in those whose initial status was disproportionate to the amount of blood loss. It is particularly important to distinguish the patient who is “hemodynamically stable” from one who is “hemodynamically normal”.
A hemodyna-mically stable patient may be persistently tachycardic, tachypneic, and oliguric, clearly remaining underperfused and under-resuscitated. In contrast, the hemodynamically normal patient is one who exhibits no signs of inadequate tissue perfusion. The potential response patterns can be discussed in three groups.
A. Rapid Response to Initial Fluid Administration
A small group of patients respond rapidly to the initial fluid bolus and remain stable and hemodynamically normal when the initial fluid bolus has been completed and the fluids are slowed to maintenance rates. Such patients usually have lost minimal (less than 20%) blood volume. No further fluid bolus or immediate blood administration is indicated for this small group of patients. Type and crossmatched blood should be kept available. Surgical consultation and evaluation are necessary during initial assessment and treatment.
B.Transient Response to Initial Fluid Administration
The largest group of patients responds to the initial fluid bolus. However, in some patients, as the initial fluids are slowed, the circulatory perfusion indices may begin to show deterioration, indicating either an ongoing blood loss or inadequate resuscitation. Most of these patients initially have lost an estimated 20% to 40% of their blood volume. Continued fluid administration and initiation of blood administration are indicated. The response to blood administration should identify patients who are still bleeding and require rapid surgical intervention.
C.Minimal or No Response to Initial Fluid Administration
This response is seen in a small but significant percentage of injured patients. For most of these patients, failure to respond to adequate crystalloid and blood administration in the emergency department dictates the need for immediate surgical intervention to control exsanguinating hemorrhage. On very rare occasions, failure to respond may be due to pump failure as a result of myocardial contusion or cardiac tamponade. The possible diagnosis of nonhemorrhagic shock always should be entertained in this group of patients. Central venous pressure monitoring helps differentiate between the various shock etiologies.
Hemorrhagic Shock is a major killer and undiagnosed and untreated shock causes death for many young, active productive people. This is a diagnosis which cannot be missed and early attempts at resuscitation and appropriate management would yield significant results interms of saving lives and preventing disabilities.
The family practitioner would do well if he is able to suspect an impending or an ongoing hemorrhagic shock and initiate the management with oxygen therapy and appropriate I.V. lines give the bolus dose of I.V. fluids, obtain blood tests and keep blood available for transfusion and also promptly notify the specialists (OBGYN/Surgeon/ Ortho-pedician) to join his efforts.
The family practitioners have to look out for this dreadful disease in every age group with the presenting circumstantial history and findings. Shock is a clinical diagnosis. | <urn:uuid:32436039-2490-4f57-b3b7-c0bee7f2cdee> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | http://www.medindia.net/education/familymedicine/Cannot-Miss-Diagnosis-Clinical-Diagnosis2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934806447.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20171122012409-20171122032409-00750.warc.gz | en | 0.920964 | 758 | 2.65625 | 3 |
To school a horse, or schooling a horse is to practice whatever you are training it to do. Generally, English riders tend to use the word schooling more than western riders. This may be because the roots of the word in reference to horses comes from the military riding schools of Europe such as the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria, where the famous Lipizzaner dressage horses are trained. The term haute ecole, which refers to high level dressage movements, comes from the same background, ecole being the French word for school. A ring that is used for training may be called a schooling ring. This is especially common at horse shows, where the warm-up or schooling rings are available for getting a horse ready to compete, separate from the competition area.
Where Does Schooling Take Place?
The practice of schooling can be done wherever you need to practice with your horse. Typically it occurs in a ring but can also mean a trail if you're interested in trail riding. Schooling on the trail will probably mean you are paying more attention to your horse's behavior, teaching it how to carry you over the terrain and deal with the distractions that can happen when you’re riding out. This will make the horse safer and more fun when you just want to relax. Lunging or ground driving may also be a type of schooling. Or, it can be as simple as a trailer if you need to school your horse to calmly and safely step in and out of one.
Riders too can be schooled, put through exercises that make them more limber, balanced, and sensitive as they ride. This can be done with someone lunging the horse, or with the rider riding independently, usually with an instructor watching and offering guidance.
Schooling movements might include upward and downward transitions (from walk to trot and back or trot to canter), halts, circles, rein backs and other more advanced exercises such as leg yields, side passes, and turns on the forehand. A rider may practice trotting over cavalletti or jump patterns as exercises that prepare a horse for competition. These changes of direction and speed, striding, and lateral exercises help your horse learn to be more responsive and balanced.
Re-Schooling a Horse
Re-schooling a horse means training it in a way that will break unwanted behaviors. It can also be called re-training. Schooling can be done with a horse of any age and at any level of training. Many people never regard their horses as fully trained and there is always something new to learn or to refine. Perhaps riders should think the same way of themselves!
A schooling show is one where the competition is geared towards inexperienced riders and horses in preparation for more serious showing. Think of these competitions as training, or practice shows. The rules might be less strict and the dress code may be more casual. Jumps might be lower, dressage tests might be simpler, and riders may just attend for the experience and not the actual competition.
Schooling tack and clothing is more colorful and less traditional than show clothing. Bright colors and patterns can be worn for everyday schooling, rather than the more formal attire and tack worn at a horse show. Schooling helmets come in a variety of patterns and styles. Half-chaps and jodhpur boots may be worn rather than tall boots. | <urn:uuid:7859d215-fe97-4a42-b80a-d113f45f7f45> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://www.thesprucepets.com/the-definition-of-school-or-schooling-1886742 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320301730.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20220120065949-20220120095949-00092.warc.gz | en | 0.965182 | 691 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Isocyanates are found in a vast number of products (paints, insulating foam, glues, etc.) and are therefore widely used in many industries (automotive, construction, furniture manufacture, etc.). However, they can be harmful to respiratory and dermal health; in fact, isocyanate exposure is the leading cause of occupational asthma in Québec.
The aim of the Industrial Hygiene Guide for Safe Use of Isocyanates is to inform and support occupational health and safety actors (safety practitioners, hygienists, etc.) as well as employers and workers in their efforts to prevent the risks associated with isocyanate exposure.
This Guide is based on an industrial hygiene approach. It explains the chemical risks linked to isocyanates so that informed decisions can be made about the preventive measures to be implemented. It constitutes a unique source of information on environmental evaluation. In addition, it gives examples of work situations according to the process used (for example, spray application of a coating), which will make it easier to understand and manage exposure to this toxic substance.
This second edition is, without a doubt, the most complete and up-to-date work aimed at preventing the risks inherent in isocyanate use.
To consult the Guide for the Safe Use of Isocyanates
Updated: November 2013 | <urn:uuid:5201a18d-5190-4068-8116-650efad19dad> | CC-MAIN-2015-22 | http://www.irsst.qc.ca/en/-tool-guide-for-the-safe-use-of-isocyanates.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-22/segments/1432207927592.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20150521113207-00317-ip-10-180-206-219.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932575 | 275 | 2.6875 | 3 |
|Action||Reduce and Cap Carbon Dioxide from Fossil Fuel Fired Electric Power Generating Facilities (Rev. C17)|
|Comment Period||Ends 4/9/2018|
The cap should be even further reduced due to errors in modeling
First, I would like to say that, as a fellow Virginian, I am in favor of passing this regulation to cap CO2 emissions for Virginia. However, I wanted to point out some information that the DEQ failed to utilize in their models when coming up with a cap of 33-34 million tons. This information, if implemented, would further reduce the proposed cap below 33 million tons.
To start, the models did not accurately depict the amount of current solar power and amount of future solar power used in Virginia. The state already has more than 360 MW of solar power, even though the model used a current estimate of 274 MW. In additon, the model used to calculate a reasonable cap had an extremely slow growth rate for solar energy in Virginia; however, the amount of solar energy in queue for the next few years will increase the total output by at least 1000 MW, including a 500 MW plant that is being built in Spotsylvania.
In addition, DEQ assumes a growth rate in electricity demand of 1.9-3%, but the expected demand growth over the next 15 years is only roughly 1%. This is part to more energy-efficient appliances being used throughout the state. Also, the DEQ is using the information that power plant CO2 emissions have been overall increasing since 2012, but there are several complications that can disprove this assumption. As 2012 was an anomoly in terms of weather, the year included a relatively warm winter and cool summer, which means the overall enery consumption would be low compared to other years; therefore, the total power plant CO2 emissions would be lower relative to neighboring years. Virginia has also reduced the amount of electricity imports from other states by creating more power plants in the state; because of this, Virginia is now responsible for these emissions since the electricity was made in-state versuse out-of-state, which would result in skewed data and growth.
As a result of these inaccurate models, either new models should be created or the regulation should include an even lower cap than 33 million tons of CO2. | <urn:uuid:7a41b179-b913-4054-8d27-40206dbb6f32> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | https://townhall.virginia.gov/L/viewcomments.cfm?commentid=64378 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627999779.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20190624231501-20190625013501-00083.warc.gz | en | 0.965336 | 476 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Anyone currently following the World Cup, Wimbledon, or any of the many sporting events around the world will know the emotional highs and lows that they can produce. But these events wield even more power than we think. According to Andrew Healy from Loyola Marymount University, sports results can even swing the outcome of an election.
In the US, if a local college football team wins a match in the ten days before a Senate, gubernatiorial or even presidential election, the incumbent candidate tends to get a slightly higher proportion of the vote. This advantage is particularly potent if the team has a strong fan-base and if they were the underdogs. Healy’s study provides yet more evidence that voting decisions aren’t just based on objective and well-reasoned analysis, despite their importance in democratic societies. They can be influenced by completely irrelevant events, putting the fate of politicians into the hands (or feet) of sportsmen.
Healy says that a victory by a local team puts sports fans in a generally positive frame of mind. If they approach the ballot box in this way, they’re more likely to think well of the incumbent party, to interpret their past record more positively, and to be more content with the status quo. The same effect, where emotions cross the boundaries between different judgments, has been seen countless times before in laboratory studies.
When we’re in a good mood, we overestimate the frequency of happy events in our lives, we interpret things around us more favourably, and we spend more time thinking about the positive sides of the things we’re judging. These trends hold true even for things that have nothing to do with whatever made us happy. As an example, people think that their cars or televisions perform better if they received a free gift beforehand. And this applies to politicians too.
Healy looked at the results of local college football games between 1964 and 2008, for all counties with teams in the Bowl Championship Series. He compared these results to those of American presidential, gubernatorial and senate elections within the same counties. The numbers showed that if the local team won in the 10 days before the election, the incumbent’s share of the vote went up by 0.8 percentage points – a small but statistically significant change. This effect became even bigger after Healy adjusted the results for how strong and consistent the teams were, or the wealth, education and ethnic diversity of the counties.
If Healy’s explanation about positive moods is correct, you would expect football games to have a stronger influence in conditions where they engender stronger emotions. And that’s exactly what happens. If the local underdog team won against expectations (as measured by looking at the odds given by betting offices), the incumbent’s vote share went up by 1.61 percentage points. In counties where more people turn up to matches, or where the local team has a track record of championship wins, a local victory boosted the incumbent’s vote share by between 2.30 and 2.42 percentage points.
These stats support Healy’s idea that it’s all about emotions. The buzz of seeing the local team win can translate to a feel-good factor for the current government, particularly if the victory was unexpected or if you’re in an area that’s football-mad. And in all these cases, games played after Election Day had no bearing on the incumbent’s prospects.
Healy found the same effect in another sport and at an individual level, by showing that the performance of local teams in a basketball tournament affected people’s approval of President Obama.
During the 2009 NCAA men’s college basketball tournament, Healy asked over 3,000 people to name their favourite team and found that for every win the team achieved above the bookies’ predictions, their approval rating for Obama went up by 2.3 percentage points. Again, the effect was strongest among the biggest fans. Victories garnered an extra 5 percentage points of support for the President among people closely following the tournament, but just 1.1 points among more casual supporters.
And this time, Healy embedded an experiment in his study. After asking the volunteers to name their team, he told half of them about the scores in recent games in great detail. Doing so completely nullified the effect of these games on Obama’s approval ratings. That’s critically important for it suggests that the link between sporting success, mood and voting decisions is a unconscious one. It also tells us that moving these considerations to the front of our minds can strip them of any influence.
Healy’s work is just the latest of a long line of psychological studies that show us the irrational nature of voting. People make child-like judgments about a candidate’s competence based on second-long glances at their faces, and they can predict the winner of an election with reasonable accuracy based on such short looks. The subliminal sight of a national flag can shift people’s voting choices. And even undecided people have often secretly made their minds up, even if they have no clue that they’ve done so.
Now we see that events well beyond a politician’s control can also affect their fates. Sports are an ideal avenue for exploring this effect. You wouldn’t expect governments to respond to the outcomes of games, nor voters to hold governments responsible for such outcomes. And whether a school is privately or publicly funded had no bearing on the link between sporting and election results. And yet, sporting outcomes do seem to trigger small shifts at the ballots.
Imagine then the even greater influence of other events that could be reasonably tied to government performance, such as the health of the economy or the outcome of a natural disaster. As Healy says, “A voter who is presented with negative information about the local economy may perceive a separate news story about the president’s foreign policy in a less positive light.”
If that seems dangerous, the study also provides a silver lining – this effect is a fragile one. If you can make people aware of the reasons for their state of mind, the influence of irrelevant events becomes weaker – all the more reason to do research like this in the first place.
More on the psychology of voting and political attitudes:
- Undecided voters aren’t really undecided – the hidden side of decision-making
- Voters use child-like judgments when judging political candidates
- Subliminal flag shifts political views and voting choices
- How light or dark is Barack Obama’s skin? Depends on your political stance…
- Political attitudes linked to startle reflexes | <urn:uuid:6b935bde-ced4-40fc-8d9b-695f9737e0bc> | CC-MAIN-2015-32 | http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2010/07/06/sports-results-can-affect-election-results/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-32/segments/1438042990112.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20150728002310-00188-ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958829 | 1,373 | 2.765625 | 3 |
We’ve come a long way when it comes to the world of medicine. Once upon a time, not too long ago, the mention of anything in relation to mental well-being was either seen to be mythical or non-existent. Now, it’s safe to say that we understand the depth of the human mind and that an individual’s mental well-being is just as crucial and is also in direct correlation with their physical well-being as well.
We’ve come as far as understanding how to treat mental instability and illness, and one such method that has come a long way is psychotherapy. If you don’t know where to start, then it’s important to first discover if there are any therapy clinics in your area. In the US, for example, there isn’t a state that doesn’t have a clinic that gives access to treatment. Information found at the APA Center helps to give better insight. With a bit of research online, you’re bound to find a clinic near you that provides similar services and have you well on your way to recovery. But before doing that, it’s important that you understand what psychotherapy is all about.
What It Is?
To put it in the simplest of terms, psychotherapy is the process of creating a mental breakdown or illness using a number of methods that revolve around fostering a relationship with a trained and certified professional. The therapist will first and foremost prioritize sessions that involve conversation and allow you to express yourself. By doing so, the therapist will be able to understand and diagnose you, and you will be able to speak freely without having to worry about anyone not understanding or judging you.
There Are Different Kinds Of Psychotherapy
What is interesting to know, and what makes the practice so accessible, is that there are different approaches to psychotherapy. This all depends on a number of factors- what makes you comfortable, the kind of approach that your therapist specializes in or the one they suggest, and of course, what suits your conditions best. The kinds include:
- Cognitive Therapy: This approach mainly focuses on the thought process of the patient. This is because it is believed that perception- whether it be of the self or the surrounding factors- play a huge role in a person’s well-being. This approach focuses on working on bettering one’s thought process for a better life and more control.
- Behavioral Therapy: For people who suffer from more behavior-based mental issues, behavioral therapy is possibly the best approach to take. Even though it is not as widely used as it once was before, the fact that conditioning behavior is effective cannot be denied, especially in cases of self-destructive behavior and so on.
- Psychoanalytic Therapy: This is a practice that is widely used, as the information gathered is vital in treatment. It’s important to express yourself openly so that the therapist can better understand the underlying factors that may be contributing to your pain.
- Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Bringing together these two approaches is highly effective in mental illness that needs more work and is deep-seated. It combines the effect of working on altering the thought process while also getting a hold of certain behavior that may be causing the individual mental turmoil.
You Have Options
It can be very difficult to come to terms with and admit that you may just need help. This is why there are a variety of options when it comes to the nature of how the treatment takes place. There are group therapy sessions if you don’t feel comfortable or confident enough to take on a one-one session just yet. For those experiencing issues with their life partner, there is also the option of couples therapy, which works on sorting out any strain or stress between the two, together.
The same goes for if you’re having trouble with a family member or a number of family members, and of course, there is the option of taking an individual session. How long treatment takes really depends on what your case is, and how much needs to be exposed and controlled in order for you to be in a better place mentally. This all depends on you and your therapist.
Psychotherapy is important in this day and age, and there’s absolutely no shame in admitting that you or a loved one may need help in dealing with a mental issue or illness. Whether it be stress, anxiety, depression, or a life-long mental illness such as Schizophrenia and so on, there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. Now that you have a better understanding of what it is and how it works, you need to make sure that you take care of yourself and get the help you need. | <urn:uuid:923fe02b-bb06-4771-b871-6c6fb72b6219> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://mentalitch.com/heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-psychotherapy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243991288.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20210518160705-20210518190705-00071.warc.gz | en | 0.956714 | 975 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Life-skill lessons for the very young child. The topics are presented in six units, and young children associate these topics with their jellybean counterparts. Each unit contains short lessons followed by fun-to-do activity sheets. Children will delight as they meet and learn from: Angry Arlene, The Grumpy Jellybean (anger-management); Emotional Eugene, The Feeling Jellybean (emotions); Decision-Making Dean, The Problem-Solving Jellybean (problem-solving skills); Me, Maureen, The Self-Knowing Jellybean (self-confidence); Friendly Francine, The Neighborly Jellybean (friendship skills); Ornery Ordean, The Misbehaving Jellybean (misbehaviors-cheating, lying, stealing). Includes ASCA standards and color and black and white activity pages. | <urn:uuid:5bafedd0-5038-4839-83b9-fed4b73e15f4> | CC-MAIN-2018-22 | https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Jellybean-Jamboree-892424 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-22/segments/1526794867220.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20180525215613-20180525235613-00169.warc.gz | en | 0.859694 | 168 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Inscape (visual art)
||This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (June 2011)|
Inscape, in visual art, is a term especially associated with certain works of Chilean artist Roberto Matta, but it is also used in other senses within the visual arts. Though the term inscape has been applied to stylistically diverse artworks, it usually conveys some notion of representing the artist's psyche as a kind of interior landscape. The word inscape can therefore be read as a kind of portmanteau, combining interior (or inward) with landscape.
The psychological inscape: surrealist, abstract, and fantastic art
According to Professor Claude Cernuschi, writing in a catalogue for a Matta exhibition at Boston College (see external link below), Matta's use of the term inscape for a series of landscape-like abstract or surrealist paintings reflects "the psychoanalytic view of the mind as a three-dimensional space: the 'inscape'." The 'inscape' concept is particularly apt for Matta's works of the late 1930s. As Dawn Ades (p. 233) writes, "A series of brilliant oil paintings done during the years of his [Matta's] first association with the Surrealists explore visual metaphors for the mental landscape." And Valerie Fletcher, in Crosscurrents of Modernism (p. 241), writes that during this time Matta "created with startling mastery the paintings he called 'inscapes' or 'psychological morphologies.' " See also Miriam Basilio's essay, "Wifredo Lam's 'The Jungle' and Matta's 'Inscapes' ".
The term inscape was later taken up by the leading Australian surrealist James Gleeson, American abstract artists such as James Brooks, Jane Frank, and Mary Frank (no relation), and even a group of British fantasy artists founded by Brigid Marlin in 1961 and calling themselves the 'Inscape Group.' (The latter group may have had in mind another sense of the word 'inscape', associated with the British poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. See the article titled simply 'inscape' for more information on this.) More recently, in a 1998 review of a Mary Frank exhibition in New York (cited below), Carol Diehl writes, "Titled 'Inscapes', the paintings are landscapes of the soul...."
Also clearly referring to the psychoanalytical meaning of the word as described by Prof. Cernuschi and others above, the leading journal of art therapy was formerly called simply Inscape. The journal is now called International journal of art therapy : Inscape. (This is not to be confused with the Inscape magazine produced by Brigid Marlin's Society for Art of Imagination.)
Architectural interiors as 'inscapes'
The word "inscape" is sometimes used, perhaps with a bit of poetic license, to refer to the domain of interior design, suggesting that the interior of a house or building is a kind of interior (or indoor) landscape, a counterpart to the landscape surrounding the structure. This is the sense suggested by the name of the South African interior design school Inscape Design College, which see. It could be, however, that this use of the term is intended as a double-entendre, evoking those other meanings of "inscape".
- Roberto Matta
- James Gleeson
- James Brooks (painter)
- Jane Frank
- Mary Frank
- Landscape art
- Brigid Marlin
- The Society for Art of Imagination (includes information on the "Inscape Group")
- Fantasy art
- Fantastic art
- Inscape (poetic term associated with Gerard Manley Hopkins)
- Ades, Dawn. Art in Latin America (New Haven : Yale University Press, 1989) ISBN 0-300-04556-5, ISBN 978-0-300-04556-7 0300045611 9780300045611
- Basilio, Miriam; Museo del Barrio.; Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.). Latin American & Caribbean art : MoMA at El Museo (New York : El Museo del Barrio and the Museum of Modern Art : Distributed by Distributed Art Publishers, 2004) ISBN 0-87070-460-5, ISBN 978-0-87070-460-4 (see Miriam Basilio's essay, "Wifredo Lam's The Jungle and Matta's 'Inscapes' ")
- Casson Hugh. M. Inscape: The design of interiors Architectural Press. London. 1968, ISBN 0851393055 / ISBN 9780851393056
- Fletcher, Valerie J; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Crosscurrents of modernism : four Latin American pioneers : Diego Rivera, Joaquín Torres-García, Wifredo Lam, Matta = Intercambios del modernismo : cuatro precursores latinoamericanos : Diego Rivera, Joaquín Torres-García, Wifredo Lam, Matta (Washington, D.C. : Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in association with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992), ISBN 1-56098-205-5; ISBN 1-56098-206-3
- Sandler, Irving H. "James Brooks and the abstract inscape", ARTnews (New York : Art Foundation, 1963) OCLC: 54034429 | <urn:uuid:cc546be4-f9fe-4cc9-ae51-9935331020fc> | CC-MAIN-2014-23 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inscape_(art) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1406510274967.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20140728011754-00447-ip-10-146-231-18.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.848527 | 1,159 | 2.609375 | 3 |
« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »
The general rule therefore for multiplying any number of figures may be expressed thus, Maltiply each figure of the multiplicand by each figure of the multiplier separately, taking care when multiplying by units to make the first figure of the result stand in the
unit's place; and when multiplying by tens, to make the first figure stand in the tens' place; and when multiplying by hundreds, to make the first figure stand in the hundreds place, &c. and then add the several products together.
Note. It is generally the best way to set the first figure of each partial product directly under the figure by which you are multiplying.
Proof. The proper proof of multiplication is by division, consequently it cannot be explained here. There is also a method of proof by casting out the nines, as it is called. But the nature of this cannot be understood, until the pupil is acquainted with division. It will be explained in its proper place. The instructer, if he chooses, may explain the use of it here.
VIII. A man having ten dollars, paid away three of them; how many had he left ?
We have seen that all numbers are formed by the successive addition of units, and that they may also be formed by adding together two or more numbers smaller than themselves, but all together containing the same nuinber of units as the number to be formed. The number 10, for example, may be formed by adding 3 to 7,7 + 3 = 10. It is easy to see therefore that any number may be decomposed into two or more numbers, which taken together, shall be equal to that number. Since 7 + 3
10, it is evident that if 3 be taken from 10, there will remain 7.
The following examples, though apparently different, all require the same operation, as will be immediately perceived.
A man having 10 sheep sold 3 of them; how many had he left ? That is, if 3 be taken from 10, what number will remain ? A man gave 3 dollars to one son, and 10 to another
; how much more did he give to the one than to the other? That is, how much greater is the number 10 than the number :3 ?
A man owing 10 dollars, paid 3 dollars at one time, and the rest at another ; how much did he pay
the last time? That is, how much must be added to 3 to make 10?
From Boston to Dedham it is 10 miles, and from Boston to Roxbury it is only 3 miles ; what is the difference in the tuo distances from Boston ?
A boy divided 10 apples between two other boys ; to one he gave 3, how many did he give to the other? s'hat is, if io be divided into two parts so that one of the parts may be 3, what will the other part be?
It is evideot that the above five questions are all answered by taking 3 from 10, and finding the difference. This operation is called subtraction. It is the reverse of addition. Addition puts numbers together, subtraction separates a number into two parts. i
A man paid 29 dollars for a coat and 7 dollars for a hat, how much more did he pay for his coat than for his hat?
In this example we have to take the 7 from the 29; we know from addition, that 7 and 2 are 9, and consequently that 22 and 7 are 29; it is evident therefore that if 7 be taken from 29 the remainder will be 22.
A man bougkt an ox for 47 dollars ; to pay for it he gave a cow worth e3 dollars, and the rest in money; how much money
did he pay?
It will be best to perform this example by parts. It is plain that we must take the twenty from the forty, and the three from the seven; that is, the tens from the
tens, and the units from the units. I take twenty from forty and there remains twediy. I then take three from seven and there remains four, and the whole remainder is twenty four. Ans. 24 dollars.
It is generally most convenient to write the numbers under each other. The smaller number is usually written under the larger. Since units are to be taken from units, and tens from tens, it will be best to write units under units, tens under tens, &c. as in addition. It is also most convenient, and, in fact, frequently necessary, to begin with the units as in addition and multiplication.
Operation. Ox 47 dollars I say first, 3 from 7, and there Cow 23 dollars will remain 4. Then 2 (tens)
from 4 (tens) and there will re24 difference. main 2 (tens), and the whole
remainder is 24. A man having 62 sheep in his flock, sold 17 of them; how many
had he then ?
Operation. He had 62 sheep In this example a difficulty imSold 17 sheep mediately presents itself, if we at
tempt to perform the operation Had left 45 sheep as before; for we cannot take 7 from 2. We can, however, take 7 from 62, and there remains 55; and 10 from 55, and there remains 45, which is the answer.
The same operation may be performed in another way, which is generally more convenieni. I first observe, that 62 is the same as 50 and 12; and 17 is the same as 10 and 7. They may be written thus : 62
= 50 + 12 That is, I take one ten from the 17 = 10 + 7 six tens, and write it with the two
units. But the 17 I separate simply 45 = 40 + 5 into units and tens as they stand. Now I can take 7 from 12, and there remains 5. Then 10 from 50, and there remains 40, and these put together make 45.*
* Let the pupil perform a large number of examples by separating tbe:n this way, when he first commences subtractiun.
This separation may be made in the mind as well as to write it down. Operation.
62 Here I suppose 1 ten taken from the 6 tens, 17 and written with the 2, which makes 12. I
say 7 from 12, 5 remains, then setting down 45 the 5, I say, 1 ten from 5 tens, or simply 1 from 5, and there remains 4 (tens), which written down shows the remainder, 45.
The taking of the ten out of 6 tens and joining it with the 2 units, is called borrowing ten.
Sir Isaac Newton was born in the year 1612, and he died in 1727; how old was he at the time of his decease?
It is evident that the difference between these two numbers must give his age.
1600 + 40 + 2 = 1642
80 + 5 = 85 years old. In this example I take 2 from 7 and there remains 5, which I write down. But since I cannot take 4 (tens) from 2 (tens), 1 borrow 1 (hundred) or 10 teos from the 7 (hundreds), which joined with 2 (tens) makes 12 (tens), then 4 (tens) from 12_(tens) there remains 8 (tens), which I write down. Then 6 (hundreds) from Ô (hundreds) there remains nothing. Also I (thousand) from 1 (thousand) nothing remains. The answer
is 85 years.
A man bought a quantity of flour for 15,265 dollars, and sold it again for 23,007 dollars, how much did he gain by the bargain ? Operation.
23,007 Here I take 5 from 7 and there re15,265 mains 2 ; but it is impossible to take 6
(tens) from 0, and it does not immedia
2 ately appear where I shall borrow the 10 (tens), since there is nothing in the hundreds' place. This will be evident, however, if I decompose the num
bers into parts.
7,000 + 700 + 40 + 2 = 7,742 The 23,000 is equal to 10,000 and 13,000; tbis last is equal to 12,000 and 1,000; and 1,000 is equal to 900 and 100. Now I take 5 from 7, and there remains 2; 60 from 100, or 6 tens from 10 tens, and there remains 40, or 4 tens; 2 hundreds from 9 hundreds, and there remains 7 hundreds ; 5 thousands from 12 thousands, and there remains 7 thousands; and 1 ten-thousand from 1 ten-thousand, and nothing remains. The answer is 7,742 dollars.
This example may be performed in the same manner as the others, without separating it into parts except in the mind.
I say 5 from 7, there remains 2; then borrowing 10 (which must in fact come from the 3 (thousand) I say, 6 (tens) from 10 (tens) there remains 4 (tens); then I borrow ten again, but since I have already used one of these, I say, 2 (hundreds) from 9 (hundreds) there remains 7 (hundreds); then I borrow ten again, and having borrowed one out of the 3 (thousand), I say, 5 (thousand) from 12 (thousand) there remains 7 (thousand); then i (ten-thousand) from 1 (ten-thousand) nothing remains. The answer is 7,742 as before.
The general rule for subtraction may be expressed thus ; The less number is always to be subtracted from the larger. Begin at the right hand and take successively each figure of the lesser number from the corresponding figure of the larger number, that is, units from units, tens from tens, &c. If it happens that any figure of the lesser number cannot be taken from the corresponding figure of the larger, borrow ten and join it with the figure from which the subtraction is to be made and then subtract ; before the next figure is subtracted take care to diminish by one the figure from which the subtraction is to be made.
N. B. When two or more zeros intervene in the number from which the subtraction is to be made, all, except | <urn:uuid:8715a02d-9280-4aa0-af63-c0bde1555115> | CC-MAIN-2021-25 | https://books.google.gr/books?id=Fd8YAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA150&focus=viewport&vq=feet&dq=editions:HARVARD32044096994090&hl=el&output=html_text | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-25/segments/1623487586465.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20210612222407-20210613012407-00461.warc.gz | en | 0.962419 | 2,181 | 3.90625 | 4 |
The March on Washington was about a large rally of civil and economic rights for African Americans. This event took place in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his historic speech I Have a Dream advocating racial harmony at the Lincoln Memorial during the march. This march was helled by a group of civil rights, labor, and religious organizations, under the theme "jobs, and freedom."
The march had about 200,000 police to over 300,000 leaders of the march. It was about 75-80% of blacks and the rest was white marchers. The March on Washington helped pass the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965). The March name is called March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom or "The Great March on Washington".
One that day of the March like about more than 2,000 buses, 21 special trains, 10 chartered airplanes and uncountable cars meet on Washington. The March began at Washington Monument and ended at the Lincoln Memorial that had music and speakers. Some of the speakers were all six civil-rights leaders so called “Big Six”. Two of the leaders were labor leader Walter Reuther and the only female speaker was Josephine Baker.
This March were protesting about segregation and job discrimination against blacks in the nation. The significances of the march were to bring together blacks and whites in a peaceful protest of racial injustice. Bring attention to Mr. Kennedy’s civil rights bill. The places the civil rights agenda before the nation. The advances that cause of the civil rights in the country. | <urn:uuid:1e2da030-006d-4930-bf11-b9f9bcd20c26> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | http://www.antiessays.com/free-essays/March-On-Washington-1963-81214.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948618633.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20171218161254-20171218183254-00056.warc.gz | en | 0.9788 | 327 | 3.84375 | 4 |
News » Science & Technology
The Technion has developed a revolutionary technology for growing tissue for transplantation by printing it in a microgel bath as a support material.
In bioprinting, living cells are embedded in biological ink and printed layer by layer. The printed tissue then undergoes growth until it is ready.
The study, published in Advanced Science, was conducted by Prof. Shulamit Levenberg of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering and Prof. Havazelet Bianco-Peled of the Wolfson Department of Chemical Engineering.
“The growth phase of the tissue, that is, the period between printing and transplantation into the target organ, is equally important”, – says Professor Levenberg. “This is a complex period when printed cells divide, migrate and release their extracellular matrix and attach to each other to create tissue. One problem is that in this complex process, fabrics tend to warp and shrink in an uncontrolled manner.
Researchers have developed methods to prevent uneven shrinkage of printed fabric after printing. The solution was found by changing the environment in which the fabric is printed and grown.
The new concept is based on the use of CarGrow red algae microgel as a supporting material. The process ensures reliable and controlled production of functional fabric in the desired size and shape. Since this material is transparent, scientists can observe the development of the tissue.
Follow us on Telegram | <urn:uuid:21070192-f4b3-4d25-9608-54337bbe0aa2> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://qtelegram.com/new-technion-technology-print-and-grow-tissues-for-transplantation/39810/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710870.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20221201221914-20221202011914-00359.warc.gz | en | 0.950787 | 292 | 3.359375 | 3 |
Depending on the type of Health Insurance coverage, either the insured pays costs out of pocket and is then reimbursed, or the insurer makes payments directly to the provider.In countries without universal healthcare coverage, such as the United States, Health Insurance is commonly included in employer benefit packages. It is often seen as an employment perk.
In the U.S., the number of uninsured people has decreased from 44 million to less than 28 million, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The researchers put this down to recent changes in legislation.A Commonwealth Fund 2011 report informed that one-fourth of all U.S. citizens of working age experienced a gap in Health Insurance coverage. Many people in the survey lost their Health Insurance when they either became unemployed or changed jobs.The level of treatment in emergency departments varies significantly depending on what type of Health Insurance a person has.
Types of Health Insurance
There are two main types of Health Insurance:
- Private Health Insurance: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say that the U.S. healthcare system relies heavily on private Health Insurance. In the National Health Interview Survey, researchers found that 65 percent of people under the age of 65 years in the U.S. have a type of private Health Insurance coverage.
- Public or government Health Insurance: In this type of insurance, the state subsidizes healthcare in exchange for a premium. Medicare, Medicaid, the Veteran’s Health Administration, and the Indian Health Service are examples of public Health Insurance in the U.S.
Other Health Insurance types
Insurers can also be categorized by the way they administer their plans and connect with healthcare providers.
Managed care plans
In this type of plan, the insurer will have contracts with a network of healthcare providers to give lower-cost medical care to their policyholders.There will be penalties and additional costs added to out-of-network hospitals and clinics, but some treatment will be provided.The more expensive the policy,the more flexible it is likely to be with the network of hospitals.
Indemnity, or fee-for-service plans
A fee-for-service plan covers treatment equally among all healthcare providers, allowing the insured to choose their preferred place of treatment. The insurer will typically pay for at least 80 percent of costs on an indemnity plan, while the patient pays the remaining costs as a co-insurance.
Health maintenance organizations (HMOs)
These are organizations that provide medical care directly to the insured. A primary care physician will usually be linked to the policy, and they will coordinate all necessary care.HMOs will normally only fund treatment that is referred by this GP and will have negotiated fees for each medical service to minimize costs. This is usually the cheapest type of plan.
Preferred provider organizations (PPOs)
A PPO is similar to an indemnity plan, in that they allow the insured to visit any doctor they prefer.The PPO also has a network of approved providers with which they have negotiated costs.The insurer will pay less for treatment with out-of-network providers. However, people on a PPO plan can self-refer to specialists without having to visit a primary care physician.
Point-of-service (POS) plans
A POS plan functions as a mix of an HMO and PPO. The insured can choose between coordinating all treatment through a primary care physician, receiving treatment within the insurer’s provider network, or using non-network providers. The type of plan will dictate the progress of treatment.
Why is the type of Health Insurance plan important?
The type of plan dictates how an individual will approach getting the treatment they need and how much money they will need to pay on the day.In 2003, the U.S. Congress introduced a new option, the Health Savings Account (HSA). It is a combination of an HMO, PPO, indemnity plan, and savings account with tax benefits. However, it must be paired with an existing health plan that has a deductible of over $1,100 for individuals and $2,200 for families.
HSAs can top up coverage, extending existing plans to cover a wider range of treatments. If an HSA is paid for by an employer on behalf of their employees, the payments are tax-free. An individual can build up funds in the HSA while they are healthy and save for instances of poor health later in life.However, people with chronic conditions, such as diabetes, might not be able to save a large amount in their HSA as they regularly have to pay high medical costs for management of their health concern.
These plans often carry a very high deductible, meaning that although premiums can be lower, people often end up paying the full expenses of any required medical treatment.There is more overlap as plan types evolve. The distinctions between types of policy are becoming more and more blurred.The majority of indemnity plans use managed care techniques to control costs and ensure that there are enough resources to pay for appropriate care. Similarly, many managed care plans have adopted some characteristics of fee-for-service plans. | <urn:uuid:27bfb4d2-2b15-48d0-b828-5ae9358500da> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://www.dkinsurance.ca/what-is-health-insurance | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100286.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20231201084429-20231201114429-00050.warc.gz | en | 0.961803 | 1,042 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Moringa has been used for centuries due to its medicinal properties and health benefits and has antifungal, antiviral, antidepressant, and anti-inflammatory properties.
- The tree is native to India but also grows in Asia, Africa, and South America.
- Moringa contains a variety of proteins, vitamins, and minerals.
- Moringa oleifera has few known side effects.
- People taking medication should consult a doctor before taking moringa extract.
What is in Moringa?
Moringa has medicinal properties and contains many healthful compounds.
Moringa contains many healthful compounds such as:
- vitamin A
- vitamin B1 (thiamine)
- B2 (riboflavin)
- B3 (niacin), B-6
- folate and ascorbic acid (vitamin C)
It is also extremely low in fats and contains no harmful cholesterol.
What are the benefits?
Moringa is believed to have many benefits and its uses range from health and beauty to helping prevent and cure diseases. The benefits of moringa include:
1. Protecting and nourishing skin and hair
Moringa seed oil is beneficial for protecting hair against free radicals and keeps it clean and healthy. Moringa also contains protein, which means it is helpful in protecting skin cells from damage. It also contains hydrating and detoxifying elements, which also boost the skin and hair.
It can be successful in curing skin infections and sores.
2. Treating edema
Edema is a painful condition where fluid builds up in specific tissues in the body. The anti-inflammatory properties of moringa may be effective in preventing edema from developing.
3. Protecting the liver
Moringa appears to protect the liver against damage caused by anti-tubercular drugs and can quicken its repair process.
4. Preventing and treating cancer
Moringa extracts contain properties that might help prevent cancer developing. It also contains niazimicin, which is a compound that suppresses the development of cancer cells.
5. Treating stomach complaints
Moringa extracts might help treat some stomach disorders, such as constipation, gastritis, and ulcerative colitis. The antibiotic and antibacterial properties of moringa may help inhibit the growth of various pathogens, and its high vitamin B content helps with digestion.
6. Fighting against antibacterial diseases
Due to it’s antibacterial, antifungal, and antimicrobial properties, moringa extracts might combat infections caused by Salmonella, Rhizopus, and E. coli.
7. Making bones healthier
Moringa also contains calcium and phosphorous, which help keep bones healthy and strong. Along with its anti-inflammatory properties moringa extract might help to treat conditions such as arthritis and may also heal damaged bones.
8. Treating mood disorders
Moringa is thought to be helpful in treating depression, anxiety, and fatigue.
9. Protecting the cardiovascular system
The powerful antioxidants found in Moringa extract might help prevent cardiac damage and has also been shown to maintain a healthy heart.
10. Helping wounds to heal
Extract of moringa has been shown to help wounds close as well as reduce the appearance of scars.
11. Treating diabetes
Moringa helps to reduce the amount of glucose in the blood, as well as sugar and protein in the urine. This improved the hemoglobin levels and overall protein content in those tested.
12. Treating asthma
Moringa may help reduce the severity of some asthma attacks and protect against bronchial constrictions. It has also been shown to assist with better lung function and breathing overall.
13. Protecting against kidney disorders
People may be less likely to develop stones in the kidneys, bladder or uterus if they ingest moringa extract. Moringa contains high levels of antioxidants that might aid toxicity levels in the kidneys.
14. Reducing high blood pressure
Moringa contains isothiocyanate and niaziminin, compounds that help to stop arteries from thickening, which can cause blood pressure to rise.
15. Improving eye health
Moringa contains eyesight-improving properties thanks to its high antioxidant levels. Moringa may stop the dilation of retinal vessels, prevent the thickening of capillary membranes, and inhibit retinal dysfunction.
16. Treating anemia and sickle cell disease
Moringa might help a person’s body absorb more iron, therefore increasing their red blood cell count. It is thought the plant extract is very helpful in treating and preventing anemia and sickle cell disease.
Although Moringa may have very few reported side effects, a healthcare professional should be consulted before it is taken.
Anyone considering using moringa is advised to discuss it with a doctor first.
Moringa may possess anti-fertility qualities and is therefore not recommended for pregnant women.
There have been very few side effects reported.
People should always read the label on the extract and follow dosage instructions.
Risks with existing medications
Some of the medications to be particularly aware of are:
- Levothyroxine: Used to combat thyroid problems. Compounds in the moringa leaf may aid the thyroid function, but people should not take it in combination with other thyroid medication.
- Any medications that might be broken down by the liver: Moringa extract may decrease how quickly this happens, which could lead to various side effects or complications.
- Diabetes medications: Diabetes medications are used to lower blood sugar, which moringa also does effectively. It is vital to ensure blood sugar levels do not get too low.
- High blood pressure medication: Moringa has shown to be effective at lowering blood pressure. Taking moringa alongside other drugs that lower your blood pressure may result in it becoming too low.
Can it aid weight loss?
Evidence has shown that moringa extract can be effective in reducing and controlling weight gain in mice. Its high vitamin B content helps with smooth and efficient digestion and can assist the body when converting food into energy, as opposed to storing it as fat.
Moringa is thought of:
- reduce weight gain
- help to lower cholesterol and blood pressure
- prevent inflammation
- help the body convert fats into energy
- reduce fatigue and improve energy levels
What are the studies saying?
Like all supplements, the United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA) does not monitor moringa so there might be concerns about purity or quality. It is essential to understand the validity of the claims made by the manufacturers, whether it is safe to use, and what potential side effects there may be.
There is plenty of recent research to back up the benefits as stated above, though many of the studies are still in the preliminary stages or the tests have only taken place on animals as opposed to humans, so there is plenty more to be done. | <urn:uuid:2b8768e4-4f58-464d-a9a1-c7f37cade221> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | https://crookedbearcreekorganicherbs.com/tag/moringa/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934809392.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20171125032456-20171125052456-00185.warc.gz | en | 0.930042 | 1,465 | 2.9375 | 3 |
• Girl Scout Sign, Promise and Law
Main Activities – Nature
Craft: (prep – write names of girls on popsicle sticks)
Flower Mask (you will take hope their flower mask to distribute during Week 4)
• Hand out flower sheet.
• Have girls draw their face on the circle inside the flower.
• Have girls color the parts of the flower outside the circle only.
• Have girls cut out flower and glue popsicle stick to back of flower.
• Allow glue to dry. Homework: You will need to write name on back of flower in case popsicle stick separates.
Imitating Nature Charades (see page 60 of Leader Guide)
Have girls stand in a circle. Ask the girls to name some of the natural objects they saw when they were/go outdoors? (i.e. grass, rocks, trees) To help them out, ask questions such as, “How about grass? Is grass hard or soft? What color is grass?”
Tell the girls that you are going to name a natural object and they have to pretend to be that object.
Explain that they need to make their bodies look like that object and move like that object.
Name natural objects such as tree, rock, blade of grass, soft cloud, warm sun, a butterfly, an ant, a worm, a bird, etc.
What’s In the Bag - (see page 68 of Leader Guide)
• Tell the girls that we are going to have some fun with things that live in a garden.
• Use bag filled with rocks, stones, twigs, bark, pine cones, acorns, etc.
• Taking turns, blindfold girls and have them reach into the bag and take out one object.
• Ask girls to describe how the object feels, i.e. smooth, rough, spiky, fuzzy, etc.
• Let the girls guess what their object is and remove blindfold to see if she guessed correctly.
Me and My World (page 13 of Daisy Flower Garden book)
Have girls complete the Me and My World Sheet.
Girl look at their plants, see how much they have grown and water.
Closing - Friendship Circle
- Daisy Flower Garden Leader Guide
- Daisy Flower Garden book
- Dixie Cups
- Flower Mask
- Paper bag
- Things from nature – (i.e. rocks, stones, twigs, shells, pieces of bark, pine cones, acorns or other big seeds and seed pods)
- Me and My World Sheets | <urn:uuid:a8b8f183-302a-41d1-bf78-99721ff12238> | CC-MAIN-2014-49 | http://www.gskentucky.org/daisy-flower-garden-meeting-3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-49/segments/1416931007501.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20141125155647-00131-ip-10-235-23-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.896134 | 532 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Lemon trees are fairly easy to grow in climate zones where winter temperatures usually remain above 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Three types of diseases can attack the leaves of lemon trees: fungal diseases, bacterial infections and viruses. Symptoms of lemon diseases include visible lesions and spots on leaves, curled leaves, premature dropping of leaves, scabs and cankers on fruit and bark, and yellow, white or pale green stripes or patterns on the leaves.
Lemon leaves can curl when the fungal diseases called powdery mildew, greasy spot, anthracnose or scab attack your tree. Mildew is easy to spot because you’ll see a fuzzy white or gray coating on the leaves. Sulfur spray helps to control mildew. Greasy spot manifests itself through the formation of brown or yellow blisters on the underside of leaves, according to TreeHelp.com. Spray your tree with liquid copper fungicide if this disease occurs. Anthracnose occasionally attacks lemon trees, according to the University of California at Davis. It can cause premature dropping of leaves but usually does not present serious problems to lemon trees. A spray of zinc or copper sulfate can knock out anthracnose. Scab afflicts many types of fruit trees, including lemons. If you notice raised, rough areas on leaves and fruit, you could have scab, according to the OurBrisbane (Australia) Web site. The site advises treating scab with copper oxychloride.
You’ll know if your lemon tree has a bacterial disease such as citrus canker if you begin to see scabs or yellow lesions on the leaves, branches or fruit. Leaves will drop if your tree has a bacterial disease, and the entire tree will die back. The Online Service for Non-Chemical Pest Management in the Tropics, based in Germany, reports that citrus canker causes leaves and fruit to prematurely drop. Watch for white spongy spots on leaves that later turn into small craters. Unfortunately, you must remove and burn infected trees, but if you keep citrus leaf miners under control, you can help to prevent this disease.
If you notice aphids on your lemon tree and then see yellowing leaves, the cause might be the citrus tristeza virus. Controlling aphids is the first step in treating this virus: Spray your tree with insecticidal soap when you notice aphids. Also, control ants, which bring aphids to the tree for their sweet excretion. One way to prevent this disease is to grow a variety of lemon trees, such as the Improved Meyer, which is resistant to citrus tristeza. | <urn:uuid:9d902947-9578-4aab-8248-c2217a4b1d51> | CC-MAIN-2018-17 | https://www.gardenguides.com/106019-leaf-diseases-lemon-trees.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125947803.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20180425115743-20180425135743-00552.warc.gz | en | 0.920493 | 535 | 3.4375 | 3 |
WHILE calcium wars rage in pharmacies,health food stores and supermarkets throughout the country, research in osteoporosis is revealing that only a minority of cases of this bone-wasting disorder result from diets deficient in calcium.
Rather, recent studies have shown that dozens of factors - from natural hormones and therapeutic drugs to sedentary living and cigarette smoking - play critical roles in causing this hidden and rapidly growing epidemic, which results in more than a million fractures a year, mainly among elderly women.
As one expert told a two-day scientific workshop on osteoporosis at the National Institutes of Health here last week, low calcium intake per se is responsible for probably only about 13 percent of the hip fractures in this country. Nearly all of these fractures occur in the estimated 24 million Americans with osteoporosis.
According to Dr. Steven R. Cummings of the University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco, the severe decline in estrogens following menopause and a small, thin body build are much more important than calcium deficiency. He said an estimated 10 percent to 20 percent of hip fractures can be attributed to cigarette smoking, reflecting in part the relative deficiency of estrogen in women who smoke. Other contributing factors include heavy alcohol consumption, lack of physical activity and long-term treatment with corticosteroid drugs like prednisone, which suppress the body's immune system.
A recent study by Dr. Bruce Ettinger of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Francisco indicated that when calcium supplements are given along with half the usual postmenopausal dose of estrogen, postmenopausal bone loss is dramatically reduced and bone mass may even increase slightly. Yet, Dr. Peck noted, only about 10 percent of postmenopausal women are now receiving estrogen replacement therapy. An analysis of the various benefits and risks of postmenopausal estrogens by Dr. Brian Henderson of the University of Southern California indicated that, over all, their use can result in a 41 percent saving in lives.
But while estrogen treatment after menopause can slow the inexorable loss of bone with age, vigorous physical exercise is now the only nonpharmacological means of building up bone after normal bone growth is completed. Studies by Dr. Everett Smith of the University of Wisconsin, for example, have shown that even elderly women can gain bone mass if they start exercising. New bone is formed when bones are subjected to compression stresses during exercise.
Moreover, several participants noted that calcium supplements are of questionable benefit, except perhaps for the young and very old. For example, according to Dr. B. Lawrence Riggs of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., increased calcium intake during the adolescent growth spurt and the following 10 years results in a heavier and denser skeleton that is thought to be more resistant to fractures later in life.
In the decade or two after menopause, most studies have shown that increased calcium intake through diet or supplements may be of little or no help unless estrogen is taken as well. Before menopause but after the age of 30 when bone growth is usually completed, the possible usefulness of calcium supplements has not yet been adequately studied.
Nonetheless, Dr. Riggs, a co-chairman of the conference, said that everyone should consume at least 1,000 milligrams of calcium a day, preferably from foods, to help maintain the body's ''calcium balance.'' For those unable or unwilling to consume enough calcium-rich foods, he recommended taking a supplement, such as calcium carbonate, that is known to be well-absorbed. After menopause, he and others said calcium consumption should be increased to at least 1,500 milligrams a day, the amount in five eight-ounce glasses of skim milk (whole milk has less calcium and many more calories). Dr. Riggs added that a higher calcium intake might be especially important for the elderly, whose ability to absorb dietary calcium through the intestines is significantly diminished.
Dr. Riggs recommended calcium supplements for people who consume little calcium from foods and for others who face a higher than usual risk of developing osteoporosis: cigarette smokers, heavy alcohol consumers, people who are sedentary, users of drugs like cortisone, those with osteoporosis in the immediate family, women who have undergone premature menopause and white women who are small and thin.
On the other hand, Dr. Robert P. Heaney of Creighton University in Omaha said it is far better to get needed calcium from foods, such as dairy products, fish eaten with the bones and certain green vegetables, such as collard greens.
''Single-nutrient supplements can result in interactions with other nutrients like iron and actually induce dietary deficiencies,'' he said. Consuming calcium in meals and along with carbohydrates like starches and sugars improves absorption, he noted, but excessive intake of protein, caffeine and sodium increases the loss of calcium from the body.
However, he and other experts questioned the usefulness of the new wave of calcium-fortified foods, especially since few have been tested to determine whether the added calcium can be absorbed by the human body. Two Citrus Hill juices now being introduced, orange juice and grapefruit juice fortified with calcium citrate-malate are the only food products that have been rigorously tested and shown to contain highly absorbable calcium, Dr. Heaney said. Dr. Riggs, noting that many people are now taking forms of calcium that are poorly absorbed, urged the testing of all calcium supplements and fortified foods for ''bio-availability.''
But while calcium intake, estrogen deficiency and other risk factors captured the limelight among the more than 700 health professionals at the conference, Dr. Riggs and his co-chairman, Dr. William A. Peck of the Jewish Hospital at Washington University in St. Louis, said that far more exciting were reports of recently discovered bone proteins and other body substances that seem to regulate bone breakdown and buildup. In an interview, Dr. Peck said he anticipated the future use of such natural substances to detect, prevent and treat osteoporosis.
''If, for example, we could develop a way to treat osteoporosis using nature's own bone growth factors, we wouldn't have to rely on drugs, most of which have serious limitations,'' Dr. Peck said in an interview.
Participants at the conference said that testing results at osteoporosis screening clinics, now springing up in storefronts throughout the country, are spotty at best. They said few of these clinics use the best available techniques, such as dual photon absorptiometry, which cost hundreds of dollars and deliver significant radiation doses. Furthermore, most screening centers assess only one type of bone, such as in the wrist, which often does not reflect the health of bones elsewhere, such as in the spine or hip, where most serious fractures occur.
A main stumbling block to pursuing studies of bone proteins, Dr. Peck said, is the cost. Currently, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, a co-sponsor of the recent conference, only about $10 million in Federal money is devoted to research on osteoporosis, a disease that costs the nation an estimated $7 billion to $10 billion a year.
Dr. Peck noted that the study of bone has lagged behind that of other tissues, largely because ''it's so inaccessible.'' However, recent developments in cell biology have made it possible to grow human bone cells in the laboratory and to isolate dozens of special proteins that influence their growth. For example, Dr. John D. Termine of the National Institute of Dental Research has isolated, identified and cloned several bone proteins that act to synchronize bone breakdown and replacement.
Among natural coupling agents that might be useful as treatments to reverse osteoporosis are skeletal growth factors, prostaglandins and cytokines, Dr. Riggs said. Dr. Robert Neer of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston said preliminary studies indicated that parathyroid hormone given in conjunction with activated vitamin D can increase the formation of bone whose loss is involved in vertebral fractures and loss of height with age.
Contrary to the general view of bone as a static tissue, it is actually quite fluid, constantly being degraded and restored. At millions of remodeling sites throughout the skeleton, cells called osteoclasts continually etch away the bone and release calcium and bone proteins into the blood stream. This breakdown is chemically coupled to a rebuilding process in which cells called osteoblasts create new bone. The fluidity of bone enables it to quickly repair injuries and to maintain a life-sustaining steady level of calcium in blood when dietary intake or absorption are too low. Calcium is needed in the blood to aid in muscle contractions, maintaining cell membranes, blood clotting, absorption of vitamin B12 and activation of enzymes.
But bone can be lost when dietary calcium is chronically deficient and repeated withdrawals must be made from the bone bank or when the process of breakdown and buildup becomes uncoupled leading to loss without replacement, or when less bone can be replaced than is removed.
There are two types of bone, cortical and trabecular. Cortical bone is dense and hard and found primarily in the body's long bones and hip bones. Trabecular, or cancellous, bone is more sponge-like and is found in the vertebrae and at the ends of the long bones. Normally, the body reaches its peak mass of trabecular bone by the age of 25 or 30 and of cortical bone about 5 to 10 years later. From then on, in most people, bone mass is gradually lost as withdrawals exceed deposits.
The rate of loss in women, about 1 percent a year, is double that in men, even though, throughout life, estrogen levels are much lower in men than in women. In addition to losing bone faster, women's peak bone mass is lower and is reached at an earlier age, they consume less calcium-rich food (primarily milk) as adolescents and adults, they do less bone-building weight-bearing exercise, they lose bone at an accelerated rate after menopause when estrogen production fades and they live longer. Thus, as they age, women are far more susceptible to fractures than are men.
Among those who live to the age of 90, one-third of women and one-sixth of men will suffer a hip fracture, Dr. Jennifer Kelsey, an epidemiologist at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, told the conference. Only 25 percent of hip-fracture patients recover fully and 12 percent to 20 percent die within months of their injury, she said.
diagram; photo of Dr. William Peck (NYT/Ken Heinen) (page C5); photo of Dr. B. Lawrence Riggs (NYT/Ken Heinen) (page C5) | <urn:uuid:a9f02cc4-b324-4186-8876-174bc6b5f998> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/17/science/dozens-of-factors-critical-in-bone-loss-among-elderly.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1414119646518.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20141024030046-00305-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941603 | 2,220 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Human Rights in the Prison
In the United States, a person loses a majority of all civil liberties in prison, but that does not mean the loss of fundamental human rights.
Even the worst convicted offenders have basic rights protected by the U.S. Constitution. Prisoners retain some constitutional rights such as:
- The right to administrative appeals
- The right to due process
- The right to access the parole process
- The right to be free from intentional deprivation of property (personal items)
A person's rights during imprisonment may vary, depending on the following factors:
- The location of their incarceration
- The stage of the criminal process their case is currently in
Inmates who are in jail awaiting trial have the right to humane facilities. They cannot be "punished" or treated as guilty while awaiting trial.
Inmates Lose the Right to Privacy
While prisoners retain fundamental human rights and other protections, they lose their right to privacy. Inmates do not have protection from physical and cell searches without a warrant. Prison officials can conduct a person or cell search at any given time, without warning. Contraband is strictly prohibited and not considered personal property.
Moreover, prisoners that are part of a work-release program or other form of employment initiative are not always subject to employment laws such as criminal records check or minimum wage requirements.
Protections for Race, Sex, Creed, Speech, and Religion
Inmates do not lose the right to be free from discrimination while incarcerated. The Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause protects inmates from:
- Racial segregation
- Unequal treatment based on ethnicity
- Religion bias
- Age preferences
- Sexual orientation bias
The Uniform Law Commission of 1978 created the Model Sentencing and Corrections Act.
The Corrections Act also offers the same protections as the Fourteenth Amendment. The Act "protects a confined person's race, sex, national origin and religion from discrimination." The Act somewhat overlaps with the fundamental rights of the First Amendment afforded to prisoners. Inmates retain the rights to free speech and religion, but only to the extent that those rights do not interfere with their status as inmates.
A prisoner's First Amendment rights may be curtailed when it interferes with a prison's:
Correctional facilities must maintain their legitimate objectives or risk suffering a breakdown. Therefore, prison officials may screen outgoing calls, open incoming mail and read e-mails. These checks ensure that all modes of communication are safe from messages that could undermine the facility.
The Eighth Amendment Protects Against Cruel and Unusual Punishment
Inmates do not have full constitutional rights but receive protection from the Eighth Amendment.
The Eighth Amendment prohibits "cruel and unusual punishment" in the prison system. Unfortunately, the Eighth Amendment does not clarify what "cruel and unusual" punishment includes. The Supreme Court, however, has stated that such punishments would include:
- Burning Alive
- Drawing and Quartering
- Public Dissection
The Supreme Court has also held other types of inhumane punishment as illegal. Treatment that “violates a person's basic dignity” may fall under the purview of "cruel and unusual." However, the court reviews inhumane treatment cases on a case-to-case basis.
Prisoners are also given a "minimum standard of living" as required by this protection. State and federal laws govern the administration and establishment of prisons. Prison officials must follow the rules or be subject to prosecution.
The Right to Medical and Mental Care
State and federal law require that prisoners receive "adequate" medical and mental care. Facilities will try to teat any illness as reasonably as possible. Inmates with life-threatening diseases like cancer or diabetes often go on a treatment schedule. The treatment schedule does not extend an inmate's life but only makes things more comfortable.
Prisoner's with Disabilities
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, disabled inmates must have access to reasonable accommodations. This Act ensures that prisoners with disabilities get the same access to prison facilities as those who do not have a disability. However, the shelters do not have to be extravagant. Similar to the right to medical care, accommodations only need to be adequate.
Court Access and the Right to Complain about Prison Conditions
Prisoners have the right to complain about their current prison conditions. Inmates may voice their concerns to prison officials and the courts. Prisoners who have not received these rights have gotten a civil judgment from correctional facility officials after an incident. Incidents may include solitary confinement after complaining about conditions.
Sexual Harassment and Sex Crimes in Prison
Inmates have the fundamental right to be free from sexual harassment or sex crimes in prison. This covers harassment from other inmates or prison staff. Courts have already prosecuted prison administration, guards and some government officials for negligence in allowing sex crimes to proliferate and even instituting programs that systematically inflict sexual harassment on inmates.
These acts are serious and carry the weight of both civil penalties and criminal sanctions against any who perform them. | <urn:uuid:f893affb-d665-4c6c-b79c-a1f88eee2e57> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | https://recordsfinder.com/guides/human-rights-in-the-prison/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439738674.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20200810102345-20200810132345-00370.warc.gz | en | 0.938932 | 1,023 | 3.65625 | 4 |
Literacy is key to unlocking opportunities for all American children—diminishing the enormous disparities in educational equity and providing brighter futures, no matter where a child is born or what his or her economic status may be. Over a hundred years ago, Margaret Fuller wrote, “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” The Walmart Foundation echoed that sentiment when it provided $33M in funding to address middle school literacy.
Although funding for literacy intervention has traditionally targeted early learners, middle school is the time when students start to display a combination of risk factors that are highly predictive of dropping out: low attendance, poor performance in English language arts and math, and negative behaviors. Conversely, research has consistently shown that academic achievement measured as early as sixth grade can be a strong predictor of positive outcomes. If we can provide proven literacy interventions for the thousands of adolescent students who are lagging behind, we will increase their chances for success and expand their future opportunities.
With Walmart Foundation funding, extraordinary things have happened
The Walmart Foundation recognized the urgency of improving adolescent literacy skills and sought to fund organizations with demonstrated success. Essential to the funding were two criteria:
Evidence of a successful track record in directly improving literacy outcomes for the highest-need students.
Established and replicable models that would be scalable and sustainable over time.
The Foundation selected six grantees, and while they differ in their program delivery, all are committed to research-driven solutions for improving academic outcomes and providing materials or services for high quality, extended learning time (ELT) at disadvantaged schools.
BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life), City Year, Citizen Schools, Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP), National Summer Learning Association (NSLA), and WGBH all understand that middle school students exposed to a rich educational environment, with ample opportunity for extracurricular and out-of-school activity, are on the fast track toward academic success. Without this, they may instead become disengaged, detached from the promise of school, and at greater risk for dropping out during high school. Adolescent literacy is a significant part of the solution. Data shows that students who are reading at or near grade level when they enter high school have a greater than 80% chance of graduating on time. This alone is a compelling reason to continue focusing on middle school learners and the organizations that support them.
The Walmart Foundation recognizes that its philanthropy has made significant results possible, but needs remain. It is critical that high-quality programs such as these be leveraged and expanded across the country. It is imperative that corporate partnerships, foundations, and individuals as well as the government support these programs' dynamic work for the long run and not leave it to time-limited grants.
The stories described in this report, and the organizations they represent, are enormously encouraging. These six organizations have demonstrated that we can resolve the gap in literacy that remains a barrier for so many kids and that we know what works. With recognition and support, the exceptional outcomes profiled here can become the norm nationwide. When that happens, middle school students in every school and community across the country will be prepared to meet higher expectations, with the promise of an improved future all the more real. | <urn:uuid:2f69a39e-df1f-4718-9050-a721d6545fe2> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | http://middleschoolsuccess.net/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540519149.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20191209145254-20191209173254-00391.warc.gz | en | 0.957012 | 652 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Whether you are rafting a roaring river, fly-fishing on a crystal-clear lake, or turning on the kitchen tap, water connects all of us in the West. Climate change, decades-long drought, and population growth strain our water supplies and threaten our very way of life.
The best way to keep water in rivers is to use less, yet there has been little connection between water and land-use planning in the West as our communities have grown. For years, water managers have struggled to find new sources of water to meet growing demands, often at a huge cost to people and the environment. The region’s arid landscapes have become overwhelmed by bright-green turf grass as precious drops of runoff are lost in storm drains.
Through our research, WRA is creating a blueprint for sustainable water management, and more communities are fundamentally rethinking how they manage water.
Our efforts helped drive historic investments in water conservation in 2022. We received a grant to expand the Growing Water Smart program to Utah. Through a series of collaborative workshops and technical support, the program provides municipalities with the evidence-based building blocks they need to realize their water efficiency, smart growth, watershed health, and resiliency goals. The program incorporates WRA’s research and was first launched in Colorado by the Sonoran Institute and the Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy. Colorado municipalities have been quick to apply what they learned — less than a year after attending the workshop, the city and county of Broomfield partnered with WRA and WaterNow Alliance to develop a new waterwise landscaping ordinance.
Other Western communities need these same policy frameworks, and fast. We partnered with the Utah Division of Water Resources, the Babbitt Center, and the Center for Water-Efficient Landscaping at Utah State University to bring the Growing Water Smart program to Utah. After years of building statewide support, generating local interest, and enduring setbacks from the pandemic, WRA launched the first workshops in Utah in the fall of 2022. Participating communities created comprehensive 12-month action plans that laid the foundation for integrating water and land-use planning. Plans include developing waterwise landscaping ordinances, incorporating water conservation and efficiency into general plans, and revising fees to incentivize water conservation. To date, one-third of Utahns live in a community that has participated in Growing Water Smart. Our goal is for every municipality and county to participate in Growing Water Smart and implement programs to sustainably manage water.
Meanwhile, WRA’s advocacy at the Utah State Capitol helped advance three forward-thinking water conservation bills in 2022. Senate Bill 110 requires local governments to consider water supplies and water efficiency measures when preparing long-term plans for future development, something that had been previously overlooked in Utah.
WRA also laid the foundation for legislation to conserve outdoor water consumption. In Utah, 70% of municipal water is used outdoors. The state has some of the highest per-person water use in the U.S., partly because of the prevalence of unmetered secondary water systems, which supply untreated irrigation water for outdoor use. Users pay a flat fee regardless of how much water they consume, and were not tracking their water usage. WRA conducted research to find a solution. We spoke with water managers and convened practitioners in secondary water metering, finance, and communication. We found that simply installing a meter to help people monitor their water use can reduce consumption by approximately one-third. WRA advocated for House Bill 242, which puts this research into practice. This law requires most water suppliers in Utah to meter these secondary water connections and provides grants to help fund these services.
WRA also helped advance two of the first statewide turf-replacement programs in our region.
Colorado passed House Bill 1151, which created a two-year, $2 million fund to support local turf-replacement projects and directed the state to create a fund for Coloradans who do not have access to local programs. WRA was involved every step of the way — from conducting studies and piloting a municipal program with select communities to writing the bill language and finding legislators to sponsor it — and ensured it was signed into law. The legislation opened the door for communities to expand their turf replacement efforts. WRA built on this momentum by partnering with WaterNow Alliance to develop a guide to help communities finance large-scale turf replacement.
In Utah, House Bill 121 provided $5 million in incentives for people to replace their lawns with drought-tolerant landscaping. The program was so successful that the legislature has now committed another $3 million annually. This law also ensures that the state government walks the talk when it comes to water conservation by limiting how much turf grass may be on the grounds of new state facilities and setting goals for state agencies to reduce their water use by 25% by 2026.
Colorado also became one of the first states to adopt rules for direct potable reuse. Direct potable reuse regulations allow wastewater to be purified and safely recycled for drinking water and other uses. By leveraging advanced water-purification technologies, we can relieve the pressure on local water supplies. Over the last seven years, WRA has been assembling the tools to implement this cutting-edge solution in Colorado. We secured more than $525,000 in funding, engaged a panel of experts to develop guidelines, and managed an inclusive stakeholder engagement process that developed the policies that were ultimately adopted in Colorado. The new rule was approved unanimously in 2022, opening the door to a new sustainable water supply.
For nearly a century, the West’s rivers and water supply have suffered under the weight of drought, climate change, and population growth, but the tide is turning. WRA’s expertise has shaped programs and legislation to increase water security, build resilience to the climate crisis, and protect rivers. Our work is far from complete, and we will be closely monitoring the implementation of programs and legislation passed in 2022 as we build on our progress in the years ahead. | <urn:uuid:2de0ac3b-3739-40aa-83f4-c01e478ab552> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://westernresourceadvocates.org/annual-reports/building-a-blueprint-for-sustainable-water-policies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947476464.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20240304165127-20240304195127-00379.warc.gz | en | 0.957067 | 1,224 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Solutions together with Strategies of Music Teachers Utilizing Exceptional Scholars
Music lovers and enthusiasts have all the rights to learn their chosen musical instrument despite of their impairment, so long as such will not completely forbid them to play such. Various tips and instructional guides can be found on the net and some libraries that’ll give music teachers the resources to work in handling special learners.
Let’s say in the event of Andrea Boccelli, a great tenor and musician who was simply identified as having glaucoma and lost his sight at an early on age of fourteen; or even for his music teacher, we may not hear his tranquil and heart warming voice. Much more, he reached success in music because he had such self-motivation and certain love for music. And these had caused it to be all possible.
Generally speaking, special learners are regarded as those students, who either have cognitive, physical, mental or social abilities and disabilities a course in miracles music. These categories of special individuals are faced with various learning challenges. However, through the professional assistance of music teachers and enthusiasts in addition to effective and efficient music teachers’resources, they have the ability to comprehend, adopt and conform to such learning situations. Also, acquisition of skills and knowledge has been possible through these resources for music teachers.
Great types of music teachers’resources are those from the Internet such as for example tips and inputs from various music teacher sites, personal experiences of the music lovers and experts themselves, other extensive techniques and ways of music teachers, and some findings from different music researches. When music teachers are in need of such reliable and effective resources, they could adopt some of those mentioned sources and make each an integral part of their music teaching strategies.
Music teachers’resources truly come in variation. You might actually select from different available resources nowadays. However, you have to remember so it takes a lot of analysis and discernment to discover which those types of resources would be appropriate and effective for each special learner. Understand that as a music teacher, your role doesn’t end in only teaching music but most of all, in making them discover their talents and feel they are treated as typical and average students.
Though it could be quite difficult to cope with special learners, music teachers will feel and recognize that teaching them can be very rewarding. Your time, efforts and hard works will quickly pay off particularly if you have experienced your learners succeed and unleash their music talents and inclinations.
Furthermore, when these special learners often appreciate their music teachers, have made them their real mentors, and have considered them as their supply of motivation and inspiration, these music educators can proudly claim that being one has been a blessing, thus gives them such feelings of fulfillment and self-worth. | <urn:uuid:d5a47535-58b4-4edf-bffc-7fad1ada5867> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://yujeankangs.com/2020/09/16/solutions-together-with-strategies-of-music-teachers-utilizing-exceptional-scholars/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600401585213.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20200928041630-20200928071630-00553.warc.gz | en | 0.974591 | 565 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Pennsylvania Drug and Alcohol Addiction Statistics
Heroin and opiates are the primary drugs of concern in Pennsylvania, and are responsible for a large amount of the overdose deaths in the state. Most heroin in Pennsylvania comes from new York City, but a large portion is also imported from Latin America. Prescription drugs are diverted from pharmacies and often traded between friends and families to users. Many people who become addicted to prescription opiates will turn to heroin because it is significantly less expensive.
Crack cocaine and – to a lesser extent – powdered cocaine is present throughout the state in both rural and urban areas. Methamphetamine is not commonly used in Pennsylvania. Ecstasy is popular among “rave” scenes and college campuses.
Marijuana is common throughout the state. Most of the marijuana present is grown in the many rural areas of the state.
Around 57% of adult Pennsylvanians report drinking at least one alcoholic beverage in the past month, which matches the national average. About 17% of adult Pennsylvanians reported binge drinking (having five or more drinks on one occasion) in the past year, which puts them at eighth in the country for highest rates of binge drinking.
Underage drinking in Pennsylvania also mirrors US statistics. Approximately 38% of high school students reported having at least one alcoholic beverage in the past month, while 22% reported binge drinking in the past month. These rates have remained fairly consistent for the past several years.
Pennsylvania does not have rates of behavioral disorders that vary significantly from the national averages. | <urn:uuid:98047664-306f-4e43-a1ba-ae9950d23026> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | https://usrehabnetwork.com/pennsylvania/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583512693.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20181020101001-20181020122501-00527.warc.gz | en | 0.961643 | 310 | 2.578125 | 3 |
The Manhattan Company Building, built in 1929-30, was planned as the tallest building in the world. The 71-story, 927-foot-tall Manhattan Company Building was completed in a year, an unprecedented feat for such a project, and ready for occupancy in May 1930.
The picturesque skyscraper, with overall massing characteristic of Art Deco style skyscrapers in New York of the period, rises through a series of setbacks to a tower, clad in buff brick and ornamented with terra cotta, with continuous vertical piers and recessed spandrels, and is crowned by a pyramidal roof capped by a spire.
STATUS Designated Individual Landmark
“I don’t know what the City would be without HDC. [They] testified before LPC time after time and helped us focus on the right issues. We would not be an historic district without HDC! ”
Doreen Gallo: DUMBO Neighborhood Alliance
“Use HDC as a resource because they know what they are doing and can offer advice on how to go about creating a district from every front: architectural, political, LPC, and the media. I had floundered prior to my involvement with this invaluable organization.”
Fern Luskin: Lamartine Place Historic District; Friends of Lamartine Place & Gibbons Underground Railroad Site
“HDC provided guidance and shared information during that process—we knew which Council members were going one way or another and we changed a few minds. I don’t think NoHo would have had as cohesive a district had it not been for HDC’s aid.”
Zella Jones: NoHo Historic District; NoHo East; and NoHo Extension
“I remember Richard saying at a meeting, we have someone here from HDC, Nadezhda Williams, Director of Preservation and Research, to help us. She said to us, ‘You are not the only ones going through this.’ HDC included us in an enormous community”
Erika Petersen: West End Preservation Society | <urn:uuid:460261c0-8b5f-409a-959c-5dc392bf76f0> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | https://hdc.org/buildings/manhattan-company-building/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570986659097.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20191015131723-20191015155223-00316.warc.gz | en | 0.958979 | 442 | 2.65625 | 3 |
THE BALANCE OF POWER
THE breakdown of the strategical offensive of the Entente in the spring of 1917 was almost complete. Russia had gone her own way to military insignificance, France had failed in her far-reaching design of crushing the German front on the Aisne, Haig's victory at the battle of Arras secured merely a tactical advantage, the offensive from Salonika never started, and that from Egypt was held up at the gates of Palestine. In the absence of a combined General Staff for the Entente, it required months of individual thought and interchange of views to elaborate any alternative scheme and to readjust national forces for its execution; and the campaigning season would assuredly close before effect could be given to a fresh plan of campaign. The new Governments in England and France showed no greater foresight than the old, and had made no further progress towards a single strategical mind. Indeed, for the rest of 1917 divergence seemed to grow, and there was no such combined operation as the Somme campaign of 1916. Activity travelled away from the point of liaison, and each ally concentrated its attention more and more on its own particular front. Italy as usual had eyes only for Trieste and Albania, France turned from the Somme and the Oise to the Aisne and Verdun, and England's effort came north towards the Belgian coast. This divergence resulted from the changed view of the military situation imposed upon the Entente by Nivelle's failure. He had believed that the time had come for ambitious objectives; Haig had demurred and clung to the idea of operations limited in their scope like that of the Somme; and Pétain accepted that view when he succeeded Nivelle. There might, of course, have been limited offensives on the upper Somme and the Oise where the two armies joined; but it was here that the Siegfried line most firmly barred the way, and when towards the end of the year a new tactic had been evolved to surmount that barrier, it was applied prematurely and without French co-operation. The unity of the Entente did not extend to community of ideas or simultaneous experiment; and novelties which might have been overwhelming if tried in unison all along the line only achieved a partial success when adopted by one of the Allies on a limited front.
Given, however, the impossibility of another combined strategical plan for 1917, there were urgent motives and sound reasons for the extension of Haig's offensive northwards from Arras to the coast. If it were successful beyond expectation, it would achieve all that Nivelle had hoped to do by a frontal attack, and would compel a general German retreat by turning the enemy's flank as Joffre had tried to turn it in October 1914. But short of such extravagant anticipations it might materially help to win the war by defeating the real German offensive for 1917. That was not a campaign on land at all, but on sea by means of the submarine, and the chief basis of operations was the Belgian coast. Submarines emerged from other lairs, but the German command of the Belgian coast shortened their distance from their objectives by hundreds of miles and correspondingly lengthened their range of operations. Bruges was their headquarters; situated inland, but connected by canal with Zeebrugge and Ostend, it afforded a base immune from any attack save those of aircraft, and Bruges was the real objective of our Flanders campaign. Incidentally, too, the Belgian coast provided harbours whence light German surface craft made occasional raids on British coasts, commerce, and communications, and also for those aeroplane attacks which became a serious nuisance as the year wore on. Apart from these considerations the German hold on Flanders was the bastion of their whole position west of the Meuse; and, but for the natural feelings of Paris, a more strenuous attempt might well have been made earlier in the war to deprive the enemy of its advantages. Obviously in the summer of 1917, if the two Allies were to be left to their own devices, there was none which suited us better than the Flanders campaign, and the official American commentator opined that it held out more fruitful prospects than the battle of the Somme. The drawback was that campaigning in Flanders depended upon the weather: a rainy season turned its flats into seas of mud, and the third quarter of 1917 was one of the wettest on record.
A preliminary obstacle to be overcome was the Messines-Wytschaete Ridge which dominated Ypres and the whole of the line from which an offensive in Flanders could start. Preparations to deal with it had been in progress since early in the year, and heavy guns had also been mounted on our positions near Nieuport. The plan indeed had been in Haig's mind since November 1916, and even earlier than that Sir Herbert Plumer had been training the Second Army for its task; it had had no serious fighting since the second battle of Ypres in April 1916, the battle of the Somme having been fought by the Fourth and Fifth, and that of Arras by the First and Third. The victory, however, was to be largely a triumph of engineering science. For nearly a year and a half tunnelling had been in progress under the ridge, and at dawn on 7 June nineteen huge mines were exploded beneath the enemy's lines in the greatest artificial eruption that had ever shattered the earth's crust. Ten days' surface bombardment had already obliterated much of the German defences, and it says something for the German moral that any resistance was offered at all when our troops advanced over the ruins of the soil. Messines was cleared by New Zealanders by 7 a.m., Wytschaete fell by noon before Ulstermen and Irish Nationalists fighting side by side, and Welshmen captured Oosttaverne a few hours later. The battle could not have have been better staged to exhibit the co-operation of the British Empire and of mechanical science and human valour. A few days later Australians pushed on to Gapaard and La Potterie in the direction of Warneton, and the Germans withdrew from all their positions in the salient. The danger to Ypres which had threatened for over two years and a half and had cost so much in British blood, had at last been exorcised, and from being an almost forlorn hope of defence the Ypres salient became the base of a promising advance (see Map, p. 288).
Yet the operation hardly equalled in positive achievement its spectacular advertisement. Months, if not years, of meticulous preparation in a sector that had not been seriously disturbed by fighting since 1915 had produced an advance of from two to three miles on a front of less than ten. It was a tactical victory of the most limited character; and the strategical value of the ridge was greatly exaggerated. It had never enabled the Germans to master the Ypres salient, and as the autumn showed, its conquest made no serious gap in the strength of the German defences. Neither on the Belgian coast nor on the Lys which protected Lille did the German line budge one inch in three months' strenuous fighting; and the salient created by that campaign between the coast and the Lys melted like wax in the furnace of the German offensive ten months later. Plumer's success might, however, have led to better things but for the untoward circumstances which hampered the Flanders campaign from the start. One of these was its initial delay; seven weeks elapsed before the conquest of the ridge was followed up, and the causes are still obscure. Probably they were political. Belgium, notwithstanding her passion for liberation, cannot have desired the rest of her soil to be restored in the condition of the Wytschaete ridge--a horror of desolation unfit for man or even for nature's growths; and there seemed little prospect of driving the Germans out except by a succession of ruinous tactical victories. Germany, moreover, was playing up to the Stockholm Conference and suggesting restoration without the accompaniment of ruin; and it was clear that if the Entente was to liberate Belgium, it must be done by other methods and at a lesser cost than the total destruction of her soil.
Preparations for other than limited tactical gains were made during June and July. The Third Army under Byng, who had succeeded Allenby, was put in charge of the whole British line from Arras southwards, and Rawlinson's Fourth and Gough's Fifth Armies were brought up to the coast and Ypres respectively, while a French army under Anthoine was located between Gough's and the Belgians on the Yser. The Germans were alarmed by Rawlinson's appearance on the coast, and anticipated a possible attack in that sector by delivering a defensive blow on 10 July against the bridgehead we held north-east of the Yser between Nieuport and the coast. We were apparently not prepared: two battalions were wiped out, part of the bridgehead was lost, and Rawlinson's Fourth Army remained a more or less passive spectator of the subsequent campaign. Its own chance of making a thrust had gone, and it waited in vain for the thrust elsewhere to turn the gate the Germans had barred between the Yser floods and the sea.
This reverse did not tend to expedite the campaign, and when it was finally launched on 31 July the weather interposed a third and fatal impediment. The first attack was successful enough. The French under Anthoine took Het Saas, Steenstrat, and Bixschoote; on their right Gough's Fifth seized Pilckem, St. Julien, Frezenberg, Verlorenhoek, Westhoek, and Hooge, the banks of the Steenbeck and the woods on the Menin road; and below that blood-stained highway Plumer's Second took Klein Zillebeke, Hollebeke, and Basse Ville on the Lys. It was, however, Von Arnim's plan to hold his front lines lightly and rely upon counter-attacks, and before the end of the day we had lost St. Julien, the north-east bank of the Steenbeck, and Westhoek. The key of the German position on the Menin road also remained in Von Arnim's hands, and no means had been found of dealing with his new and effective "pill-boxes." These were concrete huts with walls three feet thick, so sunk in the ground that their existence, or at least their importance, had escaped observation. They were too solid for Tanks to charge or for field guns to batter, and too small for accurate shelling by heavy artillery. Yet, crammed with machine guns and skilfully écheloned in the fighting zone, they presented a fatal bar to the rapid advance on which the success of our plan of campaign depended. Even so, it was not Von Arnim's skill and resource that finally ruined our prospects. Before night fell on the 31st the rain descended in torrents. For four days it continued, and even when it ceased it was followed by darkness worthier of November than of August. The field of battle was turned into a maze of lakes and bogs with endless shell-holes filled and hidden by the muddy water. The bombardment had broken the banks and dammed the streams, and rivers, instead of flowing, overflowed. Tanks became useless, and for men and animals there was as much risk of being drowned as shot.
The Germans were not immune from the weather; their counter-attacks were impeded, and their low-lying pillboxes were often traps for death by drowning. But enforced stagnation inevitably helps the defence, especially when time is the essence of success for the attack. Troops were pouring back from the Russian front; winter was coming to postpone until the spring any hopes of a drier soil, and the land lay low in Belgium all the way beyond the puny ridge of Passchendaele. It would have been wiser to accept the facts of the situation; but bull-dog tenacity has its defects, and that national totem is more remarkable for its persistence than for its discernment. On 3 August we regained St. Julien, on the 10th Westhoek, and on the 16th resumed the general movement. It made little appreciable progress on the right or in the centre, but on the left the French advanced from the Yser canal towards the Martjevaart, and our men took Wijdendrift and Langemarck. For the rest of the month it rained, and it was not till 20 September that the conditions were considered good enough for an attempt on the limited objectives to which our ambition was now reduced. It achieved better success than on 16 August, and the advance made along both sides of the Menin road was through difficult woods; but it nowhere exceeded a mile, the fighting was fearfully costly, and Veldhoek and Zevencote were the only two hamlets gained. On the 26th Haig struck again with similar results: Zonnebeke was captured, the woods cleared up to the outskirts of Reutel, and another advance made on the Menin road.
Fierce German counter-attacks were repulsed during the next few days, and on 4 October our offensive was resumed. Once more the weather played us false, but without the usual effect, and substantial progress was made all along the front. Part of Poelcapelle was taken, Grafenstafel fell into our hands, at Broodeseinde the Australians got a footing on the Passchendaele ridge, Reutel was captured, and Polderhoek château, the hinge of the German position, was stormed--only to be lost and retaken more than once before it was finally left in German possession. The next attack was designed to broaden our salient to the north between the Yser and the Houthulst Forest. It was fixed for 9 October, and rain fell as usual on the 7th and 8th. But once more it failed to stop our advance. The French and the British left between them captured St. Janshoek, Mangelaare, Veldhoek, Koekuit, and the remains ol Poelcapelle, and the Canadians made a further advance on the Passchendaele ridge by way of Nieuemolen and Keerselaarhoek. Another attack on 12 October was countermanded because of the rain, but the painful progress was resumed on 22-26 October. On the 27th the Belgians and French pushed on as far as the Blankaart Lake and the Houthulst Forest, taking Luyghem, Merckem, Kippe, and Aschoop, and on the 30th the Canadians forced their way into the outskirts of Passchendaele. Its capture was completed on 6 November and supplemented in the following days by an advance a few hundred yards along the road towards Staden.
At last the agony came to an end. The campaign was a monument of endurance on the part of the troops engaged, and of obstinacy on the part of their commanders. The misrepresentation of the results achieved in the published communiqués provoked remonstrances from officers in the field, and apparent indifference to the losses involved roused the anger of the Australians--and other troops--against their generals. Among his own men Sir Hubert Gough lost more repute in the Flanders campaign than he did in his later retreat from St. Quentin. It was the costliest of all British advances, and cut the sorriest figure in respect of its strategical results. We had advanced somewhat less than five miles in over three months, and had gained a ridge about fifty feet higher than our original line at Ypres. The strategical gains were negligible, and as an incident in the war of attrition, the campaign cost us far more than it did the Germans. They could hardly have desired a better prelude to their coming offensive on the West than this wastage of first-class British troops. Aided by the weather, Von Arnim had succeeded in his design of yielding the minimum of ground for the maximum of British losses, and the Flanders campaign was to us what Verdun had been to the Germans.
There was a more satisfactory proportion of gains to losses in the more limited operations which characterized Pétain's substitution for Nivelle as French commander-in-chief. After Nivelle's comprehensive disappointment on the Chemin des Dames and Moronvillers heights in April, Pétain restricted the field of his attacks and took ample time to prepare them. It was not until August that the first was launched, and for a sphere of action Pétain reverted once more to Verdun. The victories of October and December 1916 were commonly represented as having recovered all that the Germans had won in the spring of that year; in fact they were confined to the right bank of the Meuse. No attempt had been made to wrest from the enemy his gains to the left of the river; and his line ran in August 1917 precisely where it had run twelve months before, a German gain at the Col de Pommerieux on 28 June having been recovered by the French on 17 July. Pétain was, however, a past-master in the art of limited offensives; his aims were less ambitious than those which Nivelle or even Haig had set before themselves, but he achieved them with scientific precision and without the devastating losses which had attended the larger and less successful projects. The terrain he selected was less affected by the vagaries of the weather, and either he was better served by his meteorological experts or was singularly favoured by fortune. His main object was not the tactical gains he secured, but the restoration of the confidence of French soldiers in their offensive capacity which had been severely shaken in April. During June and July they had been mainly engaged in repelling German attacks on the Chemin des Dames, though Gouraud, who succeeded Anthoine in the Champagne command, secured some valuable local gains on the Moronvillers heights.
The attack at Verdun was entrusted to Guillaumat, and his bombardment began on 17 August. The Germans anticipated an offensive on the left bank of the Meuse, but not the extension which Guillaumat had planned on the right bank as well. The weather was as fair at Verdun as it was foul in Flanders, and while Haig's men floundered in seas of mud, the worst against which Pétain's had to contend was clouds of dust. Their artillery had destroyed the German defences on Mort Homme, and when the infantry advanced on the 20th they carried it, the Avocourt wood, the Bois de Cumières, and the Bois des Corbeaux, in a few hours with little loss. Simultaneously on the right bank of the river they captured Talou Hill, Champneuville, Mormont farm, and part of the Bois des Fosses. On the following day the Cote de l'Oie and Regnéville fell on the left bank, and Samogneux on the right. On the 24th the French took Camard wood and Hill 304 and advanced to the south bank of the Forges brook, which remained their line until the American attack in October 1918, while further progress was made east of the Meuse on the 25th until the outskirts of Beaumont were reached. A fortnight later another slight advance was made between Beaumont and Ornes, and on both banks of the Meuse the line was at length restored to almost its position before the great German offensive of 21 February 1916. But Brabant-sur-Meuse, Haumont, Beaumont, and Ornes remained in German hands, and no attempt had been made to recover the line the French had then held on the road to Étain (see Map, p. 194). Verdun might now have been thought quite secure but for the fact that equal success on the Chemin des Dames in October did not save it from the Germans seven months later.
This second of Pétain's limited offensives was carried out by Maistre and led to a more extended German retirement. But the attack was only on a four miles' front eastward from Laffaux in the angle made by the German retreat in the spring between the Forest of St. Gobain and the Chemin des Dames (see Map, p. 67). It was preceded by a week's intense bombardment which, as at Verdun, destroyed the German defences; and although it was made in fog and rain the high ground did not suffer like Flanders from the effects, and the French attack was immediately and completely successful. Allemant, Vaudesson, Malmaison, and Chavignon, with 8000 prisoners, were taken on 23 October, and by the 27th the French had captured Pinon, Pargny, and Filain, and pressed through the Pinon forest to the banks of the Ailette and the Oise and Aisne canal. This advance turned the line which the Germans still held on the Chemin des Dames, and they found it untenable. On 2 November they withdrew down the slopes to the north bank of the Ailette, and the French occupied without resistance Courteçon, Cerny, Allies, and Chevreux, which they had vainly with thousands of casualties endeavoured to seize in April and May. The Chemin des Dames was now really won, and the contrast was pointed between the two methods and their success. Pétain's more limited offensive secured the greater strategical gains. But the French rather forgot the ease with which they finally won the Chemin des Dames in the losses their earlier efforts had cost them, and were to lose it once more because they thought it impregnable.
In spite of experience the Entente was slow in learning not to underestimate the military resourcefulness of the Germans, and Pétain's victories, coupled with the failure of the Germans to react, provoked a jubilation which was not justified. To the German Higher Command the loss of a few square miles at Verdun and the Chemin des Dames was a mere matter of detail compared with the ambitious strategy it now had in mind. Situated as the Germans were between two fronts, they were quicker to grasp the significance of events in the East than were Western Powers; and the collapse of Russia had already inspired Ludendorff with the idea and hopes of a final and victorious offensive on the West in the spring of 1918. It must come soon, or the advent of American armies would make it too late. Even the French and British forces were serious enough, and an obvious preliminary would be to weaken the enemy line in France by a diversion. The Germans knew enough about Italy to be confident that a staggering blow would not be difficult to deal, and that if it were dealt it would compel France and Great Britain to go to the rescue of their distressful ally. Italy had all along been inviting some such blow by her concentration on Trieste, a divergent quest after booty which led away from the enemy's vital parts; for the Adriatic was already closed to the Central Empires by the French and British fleets, and the fall of Trieste, however gratifying it might be to Irredentists--though Trieste had never belonged to Italy or Italian rulers--would have no appreciable effect upon the issue of the war. That quest, moreover, left the Italian flank, upon which its front entirely depended, exposed at Caporetto. It was not, indeed, probable that the Italians would have advanced very far had they set their faces towards Vienna; but if their front had faced in that direction, they would not have provoked the disastrous collapse of their whole campaign in the last week of October 1917. Hitherto Russia had prevented the Central Empires from seizing the opportunity which Italy offered; but the triumph of Bolshevism removed that protection and also supplied the Germans with political means for advancing their military ends. Not a few Italian troops had succumbed to propaganda, and when the crisis came they imitated Russian examples in a way which provoked Cadorna--in a censored message--to speak of their "naked treason."
The valour which other Italian troops had shown during the summer and their success on the Bainsizza plateau had not prepared Italy or her Allies for so great a reversal of fortune in the autumn. The attempt after the fall of Gorizia in August 1916 to force a way to Trieste had been checked by the formidable bastion of Mount Hermada, and in May 1917 Cadorna turned to the other great obstacle to his eastward advance, the Selva di Ternova with its peaks M. San Gabriele and M. San Daniele, which dominated the valley of the Vippacco and the railway to Trieste running along it. But these peaks could not be taken by a frontal attack, and an effort was made to outflank them from the north by seizing the Bainsizza plateau and the Chiapovano valley behind it. A week from 14 May was spent in the preliminary operation of extending the Italian hold over the east bank of the Isonzo above and below Plava, and in seizing the westerly edge of the Bainsizza plateau with its two peaks, M. Kuk and M. Vodice. This advance over difficult country required great endurance and valour, but it fell short of anticipations, and on the 23rd Cadorna struck another blow in the direction of the Hermada. Hudi Log, Jamiano, Flondar, and San Giovanni were captured, and for a moment a footing was gained in Kostanjevica and on the lower slopes of Hermada; but an Austrian counter-attack on 5 June recovered Flondar and drove the Italians off the Hermada.
It was clear that Italy unaided could not achieve even the limited objective of Trieste on which she had set her heart, and in July Cadorna appealed for help to Great Britain and France. The former sent and the latter promised some batteries of artillery, but no infantry could be spared in view of our commitment to the Flanders campaign and of French caution after the failure on the Chemin des Dames; and in August Cadorna resumed his attack alone. It was dictated by political rather than military motives; for there was discontent in Italy which the most rigorous censorship could not conceal, and the reference in the Pope's peace note of August to "useless slaughter" evoked serious echoes in a public mind which found inadequate compensation for the meagre and costly results of the Italian campaign in its splendid advertisement by the Italian Government. Italy needed a victory, and Cadorna achieved enough to keep up the illusion of triumphant progress. The bombardment began on 18 August and the infantry attack on the 19th over an extended front of thirty miles from Lom to the north of the Bainsizza plateau to the Hermada and the shores of the Adriatic. Most of the Bainsizza plateau was overrun, Monte Santo at its southern extremity was captured, and the Italians recovered a footing on the Hermada. A terrific and bloody battle was waged early in September for the key-position at M. San Gabriele, but heavy Austrian reinforcements from Russia prevented the Italians from mastering the crest. On the 5th they were again driven back from the Hermada and San Giovanni, while away in the north they failed to take the heights of Lom. This held up their further advance across the Bainsizza plateau, and its eastern half, containing peaks a thousand feet higher than any the Italians had conquered, remained in Austrian hands. No real progress had been made, the partial occupation of the Bainsizza plateau proved useless, the losses had been tremendous, and at the end of September Cadorna reported that his main operations were at an end. Eleven of the sixteen British batteries were recalled, the French were countermanded, and the ball was left at Ludendorff's feet.
He had begun his preparations in August when Otto von Buelow was transferred from the West to the Italian front and given an army composed of six German and seven Austrian divisions. The control of the campaign was taken over by the German Higher Command, and the troops had been trained in the new tactics which were tried by Von Hutier at Riga in the first week in September and were to be used to more serious purpose at Caporetto in October and on the Western front in 1918. Time was of the essence of Ludendorff's strategy; he could not afford, with the American peril in prospect, to prolong the war by fighting in trenches and merely defending the Hindenburg lines. Nor could he even afford that deliberate method of progress favoured by Haig and Pétain, which consisted in rapid advances on limited fronts to limited objectives, or in snail-like movements over wider areas. The strategy which by intense bombardment drove the enemy back a mile or two at the cost of so devastating the ground as to make one's own advance impossible for weeks, could not achieve a decision within the time at Ludendorff's disposal. Some means must be found of reviving the war of movement and repeating in a more decisive form the German march of August 1914. The bombardment of devastation must therefore be sacrificed in the interests of the pursuing troops, and its place be taken by gas shells; and the enemy line must be broken by the superiority of picked battalions and greater concentration of machine guns and other portable weapons. The line once broken, the advantage must be followed up by a series of fresh divisions passing through and beyond the others like successive waves, maintaining the continuity of the flowing tide. The Eastern front was used as a training ground for these new tactics, which served Ludendorff better than any advance into Russia could have done; and they came as a complete surprise at Caporetto.
That was not, indeed, particularly good terrain for the experiment, and in order to hoodwink the Italians more effectively Von Buelow did not select for his attack any sector indicated by the principal Austrian lines of communication. But these defects of Alpine country were counterbalanced by the weak moral of the troops opposed to him. One symptom of Italian instability had been outbreaks during the summer at Turin in which soldiers had fraternized with the rioters, and the mutinous regiments were sent as a penance to that sector of the front which Von Buelow was well-informed enough to select for his offensive. But the nervousness was general: Italians had never yet met German troops in battle, save perhaps in small encounters with diminutive units in Macedonia, and some consternation was created when, about the middle of October, it was ascertained that there were German divisions on the Italian front; and presently popular imagination magnified Von Buelow's thirteen divisions into the combined weight of the Central Empires, with Mackensen at its head as a bogey-man. That was at least a more acceptable explanation than the real one of the disaster which overtook the Italian Army. But it is impossible to gauge with any exactness the extent or effect of German intrigue and Bolshevist propaganda upon the Italian situation. Bolshevist envoys had been received with open arms at Turin, and Orlando, then Minister of the Interior, had refrained on principle from hampering their activities. More singular was the coincidence of Von Buelow's offensive with a Parliamentary crisis which precipitated the fall of the Boselli Ministry.
The German attack began on 24 October amid rain and snow, which never deterred the Germans, and on this occasion even assisted them by increasing the element of surprise. The infected front of the Second Army between Zaga and Auzza broke with such celerity that by dawn of the 25th Von Buelow's men had crossed the Isonzo, scaled Mount Matajur, 5000 feet high, and were pouring across the Italian frontier; and the gains of twenty-nine months were lost in as many hours. Elsewhere Italian troops fought with splendid determination, and the garrison of M. Nero held out for days and died to a man, while their comrades at Caporetto greeted the enemy with white flags, and reserves withheld their assistance. Gallantry to the left and right availed nothing against poltroonery in the centre: the Bainsizza plateau was lost, and the Third Army on the Carso was in dire peril of being cut off from its retreat. Nothing but retreat, and perhaps not even that, was open to the other armies, with the Second in the centre fleeing like a rabble and Von Buelow threatening the left and right in the rear. On the 27th Cividale, on the 28th Gorizia, and on the 29th Udine, twelve miles within the Italian frontier, fell, and Von Buelow had taken 100,000 prisoners and 700 guns. The Third Army escaped by the skin of its teeth, the excellence of its discipline, and the sacrifice of its rearguards and 500 guns at the crossing of the Tagliamento at Latisana on 1 November. Then the rain came down, and no believer in Jupiter Pluvius as a German god could maintain that that river had been turned into a roaring torrent in the interests of the German pursuit.
The Tagliamento could, however, be easily turned from the north, and the Italian retreat continued across the Livenza and the Piave where Cadorna stood on 10 November. The Adige farther south was considered by many to be Italy's real strategic frontier, but the abandonment of the Piave would surrender Venice to the enemy, and Venice was Italy's one naval base in the northern Adriatic. It must be retained, or the Italian Fleet would have to withdraw to Brindisi and leave the Adriatic and Italy's eastern coast open to incursion from Pola. But if the Piave was to be held, the German threat to turn it by a descent from the Alps down either side of the Brenta valley must be defeated; and it was here that the Caporetto campaign was fought to a standstill in November and December. Fortunately Ludendorff had not been prepared for the magnitude of his own success, and Von Buelow's thirteen divisions had not been cast for the part of destroying the Italian armies. Their object had been twofold, firstly to compel France and Great Britain to weaken their front by sending aid to Italy, and secondly, to secure plunder in the shape of guns, munitions, and corn-growing territory. The Kaiser boasted that his armies had been set up for some time by this Italian success, and Italy's two Allies had no choice but to send divisions to her assistance, the French under Fayolle and the British under Plumer. With that the Germans were content, and although the Austrians continued their efforts to force the Piave and turn its flank down the Brenta valley, Von Buelow's six German divisions took little part in the fighting and were soon with their general sent back to the Western front.
No light task remained for the shattered Italian armies, for the Austrians had been greatly reinvigorated by their success, and continual reinforcements were arriving from the Russian front. Italy had never been a match unaided for her hereditary foes, and the prospect of British and French assistance was needed to stem the torrent of invasion descending from the mountains. The Italians fought well, and politically the nation pulled itself together; but one by one the Austrians captured in November the heights between the Piave and the Brenta which protected the Venetian plain, and it was not until 4 December that the French and British were able to relieve the pressure by taking up their respective quarters on the two cardinal positions of M. Grappa and the Montello. Even so the Austrian advance continued, while a bridgehead was secured across the Piave at Zenson. After a four days' battle on 11-15 December the Austrians reached the limits of their invasion at M. Asolone and M. Tomba on the east, and M. Melago on the west, of the Brenta valley; and before the end of the year the Italians were recovering slopes on M. Asolone and the French those of M. Tomba, while the bridgehead at Zenson was destroyed. Fighting went on well into 1918 without much material change in the situation until Austria was called upon to take her part in the final enemy onslaught in June. Nevertheless the Central Empires had achieved the most brilliant of their strategical triumphs. At slight cost to themselves they had bitten deep into Italian territory, taken a quarter of a million prisoners, 1800 guns, and vast quantities of munitions and stores, and had imposed a greatly increased strain upon the Allies who alone stood between them and victory on that Western front which Ludendorff had selected for the final test of war. | <urn:uuid:af2824aa-fac3-4c43-81a0-9ea9abc1178c> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | http://www.worldwar1gallery.com/history/chapter16.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540525598.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20191209225803-20191210013803-00143.warc.gz | en | 0.984816 | 7,615 | 2.921875 | 3 |
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As mentioned earlier, compatibility of memory components with your computer system is arguably the most important factor to consider when upgrading memory. This section can get you started; it also makes frequent mention of the advantages of using a memory configurator.
WHAT KIND OF MEMORY IS COMPATIBLE WITH MY SYSTEM?The easiest way to determine what type of memory goes with your system is to consult with your system documentation. If you need further assistance, consult a memory configurator available from many sources, including Kingston. Kingston and other brand-name memory companies offer such a tool to help you find the right memory configuration for your system.
With Kingston's configurator, you can search by five different criteria:
To access Kingston's Memory Configurator, click here
- System manufacturer/model
- Computer model name
- Memory module part number (Kingston, distributor, manufacturer)
- Generic memory
WHAT IF I CAN'T FIND MY SYSTEM IN A MEMORY CONFIGURATOR?If you can't find your system in the memory configuration programs, you can still find out what kind of memory you need by consulting the manual that came with your system. In most cases, the manual will provide basic specifications such as the speed and technology of the memory you need. This information is usually enough to choose a module by specification. If you don't feel you have enough information, you can call your system manufacturer or Kingston's toll-free technical support number for assistance.
HOW MANY SOCKETS DO I HAVE OPEN?You may or may not have an idea what the inside of your computer looks like and how memory is configured. You may have opened up your computer when you bought it to see the configuration inside, or you may have looked at a configuration diagram in your user's manual. Even if you have no idea of the memory configuration of your system, you can use Kingston's memory configuration tools to find out. For each system, the configuration includes a diagram, called a bank schema, which indicates how the memory sockets are arranged in your system and what the basic configuration rules are. The simple tutorial on the next page outlines how to use a bank schema diagram to determine the number of sockets in your system and how to fill them. | <urn:uuid:05fedbd4-b04d-4203-afcd-a0069ff9e68b> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://technick.net/guides/hardware/umg/06_001/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224648911.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20230603000901-20230603030901-00497.warc.gz | en | 0.904181 | 477 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Purple can be made by combining the primary colors red and blue. It is known as a cool color and can represent many things when used in color theory.
Purple is most notable for its use in royalty. As such, it represents the notion of affluence and wealth. It can also be used to represent imagination and creativity. Purple is the most powerful wavelength on the visible light spectrum, being only one step away from the power of x-rays. Lighter shades of purple can represent light-hearted notions, such as romance, while darker shades tend more towards the representations of intelligence. Purple can also represent several negative traits, such as conceit and pomposity. | <urn:uuid:1e1f1a20-7a75-47f2-acd9-77d10947a184> | CC-MAIN-2019-13 | https://www.reference.com/science/colors-make-purple-9d95032e8d0f40df | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-13/segments/1552912204857.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20190326054828-20190326080828-00393.warc.gz | en | 0.959596 | 138 | 2.984375 | 3 |
The following information is NOT printed on this postcard:
Georgia O'Keeffe (1887 – 1986) was an American artist. Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe was a major figure in American art from the 1920s. She received widespread recognition for her technical contributions, as well as for challenging the boundaries of modern American artistic style. She is chiefly known for paintings of flowers, rocks, shells, animal bones, and landscapes in which she synthesized abstraction and representation. Her paintings present crisply contoured forms that are replete with subtle tonal transitions of varying colors. She often transformed her subject matter into powerful abstract images.
O'Keeffe played a central role in bringing an American art style to Europe at a time when the majority of influence flowed in the opposite direction. This feat enhanced her art-historical importance given that she was one of few women to have gained entry to this level of professional influence. She found artistic inspiration in the rural Southwest, particularly in New Mexico, where she settled late in life.
In 1962, O'Keeffe was elected to the fifty-member American Academy of Arts and Letters. In the fall of 1970, the Whitney Museum of American Art mounted the Georgia O'Keeffe Retrospective Exhibition, the first major showing of her work since 1946. This exhibit did much to revive her public career. It brought O'Keeffe to the attention of a new generation of women raised on the principles of feminism. | <urn:uuid:04c34b2b-b3aa-4044-bd93-aba7b404a874> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | https://www.changingworld.com/georgia-o-keefe-autumn-leaves-lake-george-new-york-1924-published-in-amsterdam.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187825147.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20171022060353-20171022080353-00094.warc.gz | en | 0.976415 | 305 | 2.859375 | 3 |
There is also a room of technical exhibits, chemicals and minerals used in the industrial arts, dyes, textiles.
All the industrial arts are antedated by the industries of animals.
The modern, or rather the current late-modern, state of the industrial arts does not tolerate it.
The industrial arts are pursued with some success by many black tribes.
We then visited the Exposition of industrial arts, which did not seem unlike an exposition at home in its general arrangements.
Its object is to supply a complete course of instruction in science as applicable to the industrial arts.
The fine and the industrial arts have been equally affected.
The basis for the industrial arts Index was 20 cents a title—40 cents for a weekly.
As a textbook, industrial arts Design is a practical guide for designing in wood, clay, and base and precious metals.
If the idea of a separate index is abandoned, he would almost certainly add some titles to the industrial arts Index. | <urn:uuid:87d7f744-e7dc-44ed-83e7-0431ca78458e> | CC-MAIN-2016-50 | http://www.dictionary.com/browse/industrial-arts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-50/segments/1480698541170.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20161202170901-00381-ip-10-31-129-80.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944811 | 201 | 2.875 | 3 |
Green Potato: are very dangerous for health, Strictly Avoid This!
Potatoes are uses as a primary ingredient in many dishes. Do you know about green potatoes? These green potatoes are green due to high amount of chlorophyll. But food lovers, that green potatoes are very dangerous for health.
The scientific researches are say that green potatoes have high amount of a poisonous chemical called solanine that can lead to nausea, headaches diarrhea, vomiting & many other ailments, if it is consumed by fault. The green colour of a potato is mainly due to high amount of chlorophyll, which is basically not harmful for health. But in fact it is a signal that the amount of solanine, which is manufactured at that time when the chlorophyll is also produced, has raised too.
A current report is presented by Alexander Pavlista, who is a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincon. In the report it was told that — a 100 pound man would have to consume nearly 16 ounces of a totally green potato to fell ill.
It was noticed that the green potatoes were never send to the market for sale. And to prevent the production of solanine, it is always suggested that potatoes should be stored in cool and dim light places, remove the green areas before its consumption.
If the taste of the green potato — is found to be bitter, than don’t consume it. This green diet would prove to be harmful so just avoid it.
The message states that green potatoes contain a poisonous chemical called Solanine and are very dangerous for health, warning people not to eat them. It is a fact. As potatoes turn green, the concentration of Solanine, a glycoalkaloid poison, increases, making them poisonous for human consumption.
What is Solanine
Solanine is a poisonous substance naturally occurring in potatoes and other members of the nightshade family, like tomatoes and eggplants. Solanine can be toxic even in small amounts, and in very large doses, it can also be fatal.
The Solanine poison is found throughout the potato plant, especially in green potatoes and the new sprouts. Potatoes produce small amounts of solanine as a natural defense against insects, disease and predators. But as the levels increase with prolonged exposure to light and warm or cold temperatures, it turns the potatoes green and makes them poisonous for consumption. This green color is actually the result of increased levels of chlorophyll, which by itself is harmless. But it is also a sign of increased solanine in the tuber, as it is produced at the same time as chlorophyll.
Symptoms of Potato Poisoning
Although potato poisoning is rare, it does happen from time to time. There are few reports of poisoning because of eating green potatoes or drinking potato leaf tea. Mentioned below are signs and symptoms of potato poisoning that can turn fatal in large doses:
- Delirium (sudden severe confusion and rapid changes in brain function).
- Dilated pupils
- Loss of sensation
- Lower than normal body temperature (hypothermia)
- Slow pulse
- Slowed breathing
- Stomach or abdominal pain
- Vision changes
How to Prevent Solanine Poisoning
Exposing the potatoes to light, especially the fluorescent light triggers the production of solanine. This can also happen in very cold or warm temperatures. So it is always best to store them in cool, dim, or dark place, preferably between 50°F and 65°F. If they must be stored in a lighted place, they can be kept in a brown paper bag which is loosely closed for air circulation.
- Not to eat potatoes that are spoiled or green below the skin.
- Potatoes that are not green and have had any sprouts removed are safe to eat.
- If the taste of a potato is found to be bitter, then it is better not to consume it.
Hoax or Fact: | <urn:uuid:d927db83-22c4-4f89-9c2c-3867cad2029a> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | http://www.hoaxorfact.com/Health/green-potatoes-are-poisonous-facts-analysis.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585371612531.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20200406004220-20200406034720-00324.warc.gz | en | 0.957021 | 821 | 2.796875 | 3 |
TUESDAY, July 21, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists report that a universal flu vaccine in mice protected the animals against eight different flu strains.
If the vaccine works in humans, scientists might not have to develop new flu vaccines every year, the researchers said.
The findings were reported July 21 in the journal mBio.
Currently, a vaccine is created each year to protect against the handful of flu strains that are predicted to be the most common during that flu season. And the vaccine makeup is determined months in advance so that manufacturers have time to make the millions of doses needed.
"The reason researchers change the vaccine every year is that they want to specifically match the vaccine to the particular viruses that are circulating, such as H1N1. If the vaccine is just a little bit different to the target virus, it is not expected to offer much protection," explained lead investigator Dr. Jeffery Taubenberger, chief of the viral pathogenesis and evolution section in the laboratory of infectious diseases at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
"What we have done is design a strategy where you don't have to think about matching the vaccine antigen to the virus at all," Taubenberger said in a news release from the American Society for Microbiology.
The NIAID scientists developed a vaccine meant to protect against a number of flu strains. The vaccine protected 95 percent of mice against eight different flu strains, compared with 5 percent of mice that received mock vaccinations.
The vaccine was effective for at least 6 months and worked well in older mice. The latter finding is especially important because elderly people are particularly susceptible to severe illness from the flu, and current vaccines are less effective in seniors than in younger people, the researchers said.
"These initial findings are very positive, and suggest a promising and practical strategy for developing a vaccine with amazing, broad protection," Taubenberger said.
However, results from animal studies frequently don't produce similar results in humans. The team said it will test ferrets next, and then begin early human trials.
During the 2014-2015 flu season, the chosen vaccine was a mismatch for the strains that were circulating. So, it was only 18.6 percent effective against the predominant strain, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. health officials have said they have ramped up next season's shots for broader protection.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about flu vaccination.
SOURCE: American Society for Microbiology, news release, July 21, 2015 | <urn:uuid:05d48415-f601-40a6-bc3b-a691d88cee3d> | CC-MAIN-2018-39 | https://www.pollen.com/allergy/news/701488 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267156252.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20180919141825-20180919161825-00412.warc.gz | en | 0.968301 | 534 | 3.453125 | 3 |
My children go to a bi-lingual school where from an early age they are immersed in the Welsh language and English is only introduced into their school life at age 6 when they start Class 2 (the least academic year of Key Stage 1). At home though, we read both Welsh and English books - fact and fiction!
I thought I'd share with you some of our tips to help you to help your child to read - the calm and relaxed way!
- When your child is reading to you, develop a 'secret code' for the times when they get stuck on a word. Not many children like to say that they don't know something and if you jump in with the correct word each time there's a pause your child will become frustrated that you are just reading the book for them, so when my son is stuck on a word, he does a little *cough* and I know that's the sign to help 'sound out' the word.
- When you are 'sounding out' a word or spelling something for them to write, use the phonetic alphabet rather than the 'traditional' alphabet sung in the song, 'A, B, C, D, E, F, G....' and join letters together that belong together, e.g. 'ph' 'tr' 'bl', etc.
- Talk about words in other places not just books. When out and about, read sign posts, names of houses, letters/numbers on car registration plates - you can even read the backs of food packets like cereal boxes at breakfast time!
- Play 'I Spy'! With younger children, it's easier to start with 'I spy with my little eye, something that is coloured red!' as this still develops their language skills, then move on to letters once they have got a grasp of the phonetic alphabet although you may have to be a bit lenient with words such as 'phone' and 'knife to start with!
- Let them choose the same old book time and time again; familiarity is good for your child as they will learn the story pattern and then match the words to the story as they become familiar and recognizable to them. 'Slinky Malinki Open the Door' is a firm favourite in our house, for both children! (Although I love 'Stick Man'!) | <urn:uuid:5ad66b3e-4739-43ff-886e-c712f5f8bcc6> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://katiecupcake-cymru.blogspot.com/2013/11/deciphering-code-helping-your-child-to.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1413507445190.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20141017005725-00089-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959859 | 477 | 3.125 | 3 |
Hello all, i wonder if you can help me with a problem im having.
I have a disc and three planes (representing a road, building and roof). For this problem, the disc can be considered a plane.
I know the orientation of each of the planes. The disc is orientated 45horizontal x 45vertical. I can caluate surface normals for each element. With these I can calculate the dihedral angle between the disc and the road, and also the disc and the building, but what im really looking to find is when looking directly at a vertical surface (middle image) what angle does the plane make on the vertical surface? Its approx 35^ in this case.
This is really bugging me, i'm sure theres an easy way of doing this.
Thanks in advance. | <urn:uuid:26c855b9-e004-4a0a-9aee-b94143dce885> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://mathhelpforum.com/geometry/168056-planar-intersections.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1414637898751.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20141030025818-00135-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922945 | 168 | 2.59375 | 3 |
The Myth of the Late Bloomer: The big mistake half of parents make when their children show signs of reading struggles
by Laura Gordon | 3 July 2019
And yet, when it comes to our children’s reading problems, we do just that – we wait. One study found that 44% of parents will wait for at least a year to get help for their struggling reader. That’s almost half of all parents!
Unfortunately, in the world of reading, waiting can come at a real cost to our child’s success. Without help, a child can fall farther behind their peers – and that can have consequences both for their grades and their self confidence.
So what’s going on? Why do we, as parents, so often wait to get help for our struggling readers?
The answer is complicated, but it has a lot to do with some of the outdated messages we hear about how children learn to read. When children struggle with reading, well-meaning friends and teachers brush it off. “She’s just a late bloomer.” Or, “just give him time, he’ll figure it out.”
The idea of the late bloomer is a powerful one, partly because it seems to make sense to us, and it tells us what we want to hear. But is it true?
When it comes to reading, is there really such a thing as a late bloomer?
When we call a child a “late bloomer,” we’re saying that the child just needs extra time to come into their own. The idea is that children are like flowers, and sometimes we have to wait longer for some to “bloom.” It fits nicely with the consistent worry people have that children are often being pushed too young.
But while the idea of the “late bloomer” has been around forever, it’s also been convincingly disproven in the world of reading. So what do we really know about “late bloomers?”
A deep body of research has shown that when it comes to reading, there are very few late bloomers. Most of the children who struggle early just keep struggling. One of the most persuasive studies on late bloomers came out back in 1999, when researcher and dyslexia expert Sally Shaywitz did a study of 445 Connecticut students who had been identified as poor readers in 1983. What she and her team found was incredibly disheartening. The poor readers in first grade continued to be poor readers in high school. Most of the supposed late bloomers never did bloom; they just got left behind.
Other studies have confirmed what Shaywitz found back in the nineties. Unless they get an intervention that addresses their specific needs, struggling students don’t catch up. Another long term study of 54 children in Texas found that when a child is a poor reader in first grade, there is a nearly 90 percent chance they will continue to be poor reader in third grade and eighth grade.
This finding – that poor readers remain poor readers – is not limited to English-speaking children, either. In a German-speaking school in Vienna, researchers saw nearly identical results. In a study of nearly 500 children, they found that poor reading ability was remarkably stable over time. The majority of children who struggled to read in second grade were still below average at the end of eighth grade.
Regardless of the language you speak then, the idea of the late bloomer remains just a myth. Without a targeted intervention, the poor reader will continue to be a poor reader.
What’s really going on when children struggle to read?
When you see your child is struggling to read in school, it’s not a sign to wait and give them more time. Instead, early reading struggles are usually an indication that a child is missing some of the specific skills that making reading possible, particularly decoding abilities. Usually, a specialist intervention or extra help is necessary so that these children can master some of the reading basics that their peers have already learned. Just doing more of the same, that has already failed, is a recipe for disaster.
Kindergarten and first grade are big years for learning to read, and when children lack the necessary skills, it’s easy for them to fall behind. If your child is showing early signs of reading struggles, don’t make the same mistake that half of all parents make. Don’t wait.
Fixing the problem early and fast
By getting help early, you can make a difference for your child’s reading success. There are almost no “later bloomers” when it comes to reading, but most children can benefit from extra help if it is the right sort. In general we see children developing a new confidence with their reading in just 60 short, daily lessons with our Easyread System approach, including children diagnosed as dyslexic. You can explore Easyread on our dm-ed.com website, or… | <urn:uuid:262be6a9-3ba7-4f94-b62e-ef117b282432> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | https://www.helpingchildrentoread.com/articles/myth-of-the-late-bloomer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540530857.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20191211103140-20191211131140-00161.warc.gz | en | 0.968875 | 1,035 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Essay writing is really a component that is key educational success at each degree. It really is, basically, the way people in the community that is academic with one another. Hence, you will find fundamental ways academics structure their work and formal methods for interacting whatever they need certainly to state. Composing essays just isn’t merely a hoop for students to jump through. Most trainers and teachers additionally compose essays at a level that is professional and so they usually do not ask of these pupils anything lower than the standard this is certainly expected of those.
Where students that are too many incorrect written down their essays is with in either failing to prepare ahead ( perhaps perhaps not offering adequate, care, thought, or time and energy to the method) or perhaps in perhaps not knowing the objectives of essay writing. Among these objectives, appropriate and effective essay structure is crucial. Pupils usually lose valuable markings by failing continually to build their essays demonstrably and concisely to help make the most useful of these tips.
How do you shape writing that is academic? What’s the most useful essay framework format?
First, considercarefully what an essay is. What exactly is it expected to do? An essay is simply an argument at its core. Now, by argument we don’t suggest a slanging match between two upset people. Instead, our company is dealing with a formal argument. A notion or even a claim, that will be supported by logic and/or proof.
Imagine the scenario that is following you’re feeling enough time has arrived to approach your boss about finding a raise at the job. Imagine your self walking into the supervisor’s office and requesting that raise. Nearly automatically, your brain formulates a rhetorical framework. You can find ineffective and effective methods for asking of earning this type of demand. The strategy that is effective have logic and a purchase. You will firstly declare that you deserve a raise. And you also will provide evidence to guide why you deserve that raise. For instance: you might be a difficult worker, you might be never ever later, you’ve got the admiration and respect of one’s peers, you’ve got been provided another place somewhere else and you also want the pay matched. And so forth. And you also may possibly summary an overview to your discussion of of why providing you with additional money is very important.
And that’s basically an essay. Every essay that is good three fundamental components: an introduction, a human body, and a summary.
This easy guide will demonstrate just how to perfect your essay framework by demonstrably launching and concluding your argument, and installation of your paragraphs coherently in between. Your essay writing are considerably improved instantly by simply utilizing the proper essay framework, as explained below.
Where in fact the essay starts
Whenever an essay is being written by you, every phrase and each paragraph is essential. But there is one thing additional essential about introductions. Exactly like heading out on a romantic date when it comes to very first time, you would like the introduction become perfectly, almost perfect. You need to place your self that is best forward and produce an excellent very first impression.
You ought to already fully know this, but the majority teachers and teachers will begin grading your projects within their mind the moment they start reading it. They shall be sorting your essay, perhaps not when it comes to a grade, but the majority surely in terms of strong/weak, interesting/dull, or effective/ineffective. & Most may have some idea of where your essay falls on that scale before they also complete the introduction. It will function as rarest of markers whom withholds judgement before the end. The introduction is one thing you positively must begin strong.
Constantly develop an introduction that obviously sets out of the aims of what you’re going to compose and, if applicable, means the topic under investigation. State just just what the essay will endeavour to produce and quickly mention a number of the details you will think about. The theory will be provide the marker a summary of the argument, to demonstrate that the way of thinking is rational and coherent and therefore you’ve got carefully thought the concern through. Don’t make an effort to get into all of your tips in level in your introduction – they are going to each be included in a paragraph that is full in. In the event that real question is an ‘either or’ or a ‘how far would you agree’ concern, it really is beneficial to set away both edges for the argument shortly when you look at the introduction when preparing for examining the two edges later on into the essay.
Think about your introduction being a thumbnail image of the entire essay. Anyone, but particularly the marker, ought to know the essay subject and exactly how you would like to show or disprove it, simply from having read simply the introduction.
Take the following instance:
You’ve got been given this project: the key intent behind Gothic fiction is always to break normal ethical and social codes. Discuss.
A introduction that is strong read something such as this:
That is definitely real that numerous works of Gothic fiction manifest the transgression of normal ethical and codes that are social their major theme. Their emphasis on feminine sexuality, their breaking associated with the boundaries between life and death and their shocking shows of immoral spiritual figures would all claim that that is certainly the outcome. But, additionally, it is crucial to think about other major facets of the genre that would be considered similarly essential in purpose, such as for instance the supernatural, its portrayal to its fascination of synthetic mankind and its particular satirical social assaults. This essay will explore these conflicting purposes with regards to many different Gothic texts to see just what may be most readily useful referred to as the ‘main’ reason for the genre.
Reread that paragraph. Does it let you know exactly just exactly what the topic of the essay is? Exactly exactly exactly What the point is? Just What the essay intends to do? Now, without reading think of simply the size of the paragraph. In case a marker had been to see an introduction that have been any lower than they would immediately even know, without reading a term, that this issue had not been likely to https://paytowritemyessay.com be well introduced. That’s not to recommend you just fill up the paragraph, but that a lot of information into the introduction is anticipated.
It really is well worth pointing away that in a much extended essay an introduction doesn’t have to be limited by a paragraph that is single. Generally, nonetheless, it shall be.
Your body of the essay
The part that is second of essay could be the human anatomy. This is actually the longest component regarding the essay. Generally speaking, an essay that is short have at the least three complete paragraphs; a lengthy essay somewhat more.
Each paragraph is a true point you want to help make that pertains to the subject. Therefore, returning to the ‘give me personally more cash’ example from earlier, each explanation you have got for deserving a raise must certanly be a paragraph that is separate and that paragraph is definitely an elaboration on that claim.
Paragraphs, just like the essay general, have an anticipated structure. You really need to begin a paragraph that is new each major brand brand brand new concept in your essay, to demonstrably show the examiner the dwelling of the argument. Each paragraph has to start having a signpost phrase that sets out of the point that is main are likely to explore for the reason that area. It really is often useful to refer back again to the name for the essay when you look at the signpost sentence, to remind the examiner regarding the relevance of the point. Essay writing becomes easier for your needs too in this manner, while you remind yourself precisely what you’re concentrating on each step associated with process associated with the method.
Here is a signpost phrase example: One crucial manner in which Gothic fiction transgresses normal ethical and social codes is in its portrayal associated with the feminine heroine.
Further sentences in this paragraph would then continue to expand and backup your point in increased detail in accordance with appropriate examples. The paragraph must not contain any sentences which are not straight pertaining to the presssing issue lay out when you look at the signpost phrase. So an essay is being written by you that obviously separates its some ideas into structured parts. Returning to the wage-raise instance: in the exact middle of dealing with just just exactly how punctual you might be, can you begin referring to the way you are really a colleague that is good then about this customer you impressed, and then speak about your punctuality once again? Needless to say perhaps perhaps maybe not. The exact same rules use: each paragraph relates to one concept, one topic. | <urn:uuid:5d652cc4-3db8-4f00-bffb-9aa923e0f23e> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | http://peymankhorram.com/simple-tips-to-format-an-essay-this-guide-is-for/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038067870.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20210412144351-20210412174351-00246.warc.gz | en | 0.961578 | 1,811 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Almost 50 years ago, a small team at the Italian company Olivetti managed to do what no one had done before them; they created a computer small enough to fit on a desk, and could be used by regular people. It was the Programma 101, what many consider to be the world’s first personal computer.
To understand just how revolutionary the Programma 101 was when it was unveiled back in 1965, you first have to know what computers looked like at the time. Remember, this was almost 50 years ago. It was the era of huge mainframes, big as fridges, sometimes filling up entire rooms. Only a small elite had access to them.
People were used to seeing this:
Above left you have the IBM System/360 Model 30, introduced in 1964, and to the right you have the IBM 1440 Data Processing System from 1962. These massive installations were what people associated with the word “computer”.
So imagine the impact when Olivetti presented this:
So how did that incredible paradigm shift happen?
1962, the idea of a personal computer is born
In the early 1960s, computers were not something you could have all to yourself, and most people didn’t even have access to them.
At the time, Olivetti was trying to compete with the American companies, making large mainframe computers. Being from Europe, they were a bit of an outsider, but they had some limited success.
But Roberto Olivetti, then-CEO of the company, wanted to try something truly revolutionary. He wanted Olivetti to make a small computer that was more affordable and could be used by regular people, something that you could place on a regular desk. He wanted to create a personal desktop computer.
He gave the project to Pier Giorgio Perotto, an engineer at Olivetti, who would work with a small team of just four people to try and get around all the technical hurdles and create this revolutionary device.
Above: Pier Giorgio Perotto (bottom left) and his small team (minus one).
The idea was insanely ambitious. Perotto’s team didn’t even know if it would be possible. The technology used in computers back then was way too bulky, so the team had to invent something new for almost every element of the new device, which was meant to be the size of a typewriter. The human-centric approach to designing a computer was also something completely new, and brought its own set of challenges as well.
The project started in 1962.
The challenge of making a PC in the 1960s
The first thing the team had to shrink was the memory. Memory modules in the early 1960s were huge. If Olivetti had used existing technology, the memory alone would have been as large as the entire computer they had envisioned.
So they had to create a memory module from scratch that was small enough for their purposes. Not an easy thing to do, but they came up with a kind of magnetostrictive delay line memory that was just a fraction of the size of other memory modules. It was roughly the size of a small motherboard in one of today’s PCs.
Next came storage. How would they store the programs? It had to be on something small and practical. The team came up with an ingenious solution, a card with two magnetic strips that could be inserted into the machine. Each card could hold one, sometimes two, programs that you could then start by pressing a button.
They had invented the programmable magnetic card. Thanks to this, anyone could enter a pre-made program into the device and run it in a few seconds. Its legacy lasted decades, including later evolutions of the idea such as the magnetic floppy disk.
Another challenge was ease of use. The way to program the computer had to be easy enough for a regular person, not a computer scientist, to learn and use.
The approach Perotto used was to create a simple programming language, something akin to a simplified assembler consisting of just a small set of instructions. The Programma 101 would later be shipped with a thin book that taught new users how to program the machine.
The actual physical design of the device was also a challenge. It was meant to be an elegant, human-centric and ergonomic device. Olivetti was famed for its attention to design (they made, for example, very beautiful typewriters), and the Programma 101 wouldn’t be an exception. The team involved Mario Bellini to style the device. It was a triumph of industrial design, very innovative for its time. Bellini would go on to become a world-renowned architecture and designer, so they really picked the right person for the job.
What they ended up with was a computer in a chassis that wasn’t much larger than a regular typewriter. It was easy to program, could store and run programs from a magnetic card and could be placed on a regular office desk. It weighed 35 kilograms, a featherweight at that point in time.
The Programma 101 was ready in April of 1964. The first personal computer had been built.
But there was a cloud at the horizon.
It almost didn’t happen
You’d think that the Programma 101 would have been a shoo-in, something Olivetti would have been eager to get behind. Not only that, it had the support of the CEO, Roberto Olivetti, who had spawned the initial idea.
However, in the spring of 1964 the company was in deep financial trouble. A crisis group was set in to restructure Olivetti, and part of their solution was to sell off the company’s electronics division. What did Europeans know about computers anyway? This was a disaster for the Programma 101 team, who were about to be thrown out of the company they loved.
Ultimately, General Electric rushed in and bought Olivetti’s electronics division early in 1965. Perotto’s team didn’t want their hard work to end up in American hands and maybe be cancelled forever, so they had a little trick up their collective sleave.
To avoid being swallowed up by GE, they changed the categorization of the project from “computer” to “calculator.” A tiny change, but it meant they were left under Olivetti’s umbrella. GE got the entire electronics division, minus the Programma 101 team.
Nevertheless, it was an awkward situation. Perotto’s team continued to work at the Italian facility, a building where GE now owned everything except their office. The team even painted the office windows so GE staff wouldn’t be able to see what they were working on.
Sadly, by now Roberto Olivetti had left his position as CEO, and the new management knew little about computers and clearly didn’t see the potential of this new invention. They were convinced there was no market for it.
If it weren’t for the New York World Fair in 1964-65, the Programma 101 would probably never have seen the light of day.
The 1964 New York World Fair
Like many other companies, Olivetti wanted to show off their newest products to the masses at the World Fair. The company was there to demonstrate their new mechanical calculator, the Logos 27. That was their focus.
The Programma 101, on the other hand, was hidden away in a small back room. The new management at Olivetti still didn’t believe in the project, and had it there as a prototype, an interesting oddity.
When the Programma 101 ultimately was unveiled to the masses at the world fair in October of 1965, it was the first time it was viewed by the general public. In an era when people largely regarded computers with suspicion, it had an impact few could have anticipated.
At the unveiling, the presenter from Olivetti explained to the audience that he would now calculate the orbit of a satellite, entered the card with the program, and ran it. It took a couple of seconds, then the computer started printing out the result. To us today this is hardly impressive, but 50 years ago it was en eye-opener.
The reception was overwhelming, the word spread, and soon it became clear that Olivetti had a huge hit on its hands. The Programma 101 was suddenly the front and center of attention at Olivetti’s booth. People were amazed at how something so small could be a fully working computer. Some even suspected it had cables connected to a larger computer hidden somewhere behind the scenes.
And the press loved it. You had articles in the Wall Street Journal and Business Week with titles like “’Desk-top’ Computer is Typewriter Size.”
It was too much for the reticent management at Olivetti to ignore. Mass production started soon after, and the Programma 101 went on sale just a couple of months after it had been unveiled at the world fair.
The price for a Programma 101 was around $3,200. Adjusted for inflation that is way north of $20,000 today.
That may sound like a lot, but if you compare it with what a mainframe computer cost in the 1960s, it was a bargain. Even just renting access to a mainframe for a month would set you back as much as it cost to own a Programma 101. And actually buying a mainframe, even the cheapest available option, would cost at least $100,000.
Olivetti had created a new market, and was richly rewarded for it, selling around 40,000 units.
Since it was relatively affordable and portable, the Programma 101 gained widespread use. Even though at that price it could hardly be called a computer for everyone, it was still an enormous step in the right direction.
A fun aside is that NASA bought at least 10 Programma 101s and used them for the calculations for the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing.
It wasn’t until HP launched its HP9100 series in 1968 that the Programma 101 got some real competition. Even then, it was a device heavily inspired by the Programma 101, and HP was ordered to pay Olivetti $900,000 in royalties for using such a similar architecture, and the famous magnetic card.
A few tech specs
By today’s standards, it’s not exactly a powerhouse, but remember this was 50 years ago, and the engineers were pushing the limits of what could be fit into such a small device.
- Weight: 35.5 kg (78 lbs)
- Power: 350 W
- Display: None. It used a small printer and a roll of paper 9 cm wide.
- Memory: Approximately 240 bytes.
- Storage: Magnetic cards. Programs could be split over multiple cards if they didn’t fit on one.
- CPU: None. This was before microprocessors, and integrated circuits had not really arrived on the scene yet. The logic was all made up of transistors, diodes, resistors and capacitors.
An amazing achievement
When you think about it, it’s simply amazing. A small team of just 4-5 people completely rethought the computing experience and ushered in the era of the personal computer.
We’ll leave you with a few snippets from the excellent documentary, Programma 101 – Memory of the Future:
To the Programma 101 team: We salute you!
Data sources: Primarily Wikipedia and the excellent documentary, “Programma 101, Memory of the Future.” There is also a bunch of interesting information at Francesco Bonomi’s Programma 101 site, if you want to really dive into the nitty-gritty of the device. Another great source was the site PierGiorgioPerotto.it, dedicated to the memory and achievements of this great engineer.
Image credits: Images courtesy of Francesco Bonomi (magnetic card and the sitting woman ad from his Programma 101 site); press clippings from the Pier Giorgio Perotto site (thanks to his son, Pierpaolo Perotto), StoriaOlivetti.com (Storia di un’impresa) for the device pics, ads and the photo of the P101 team; World Fair photo from PLCjr (via Wikipedia); IBM Archives for the mainframe pics; the UK P101 ad via Faktoider.nu. | <urn:uuid:489ab9f6-86e6-4632-b49b-1d3b840a834d> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | https://royal.pingdom.com/the-first-pc-from-1965/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027313803.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20190818104019-20190818130019-00275.warc.gz | en | 0.97884 | 2,574 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Indus valley civilization,
ancient civilization that arose about 3300 BC in the valley of the Indus River and its tributaries, in the northwestern portion of the Indian subcontinent, i.e., present-day Pakistan, and was at its height from about 2600 BC to about 1900 BC At its greatest extent, its geographical reach exceeded that of Egypt or Mesopotamia. Since 1921 this civilization has been revealed by spectacular finds at Mohenjo-Daro, an archaeological site in NW Sind, and at Harappa, in central Punjab near the Ravi River. These sites, each of which measures more than 3 mi (5 km) in circumference, were once great urban centers, the chief cities of the Indus civilization. They had large and complex hill citadels, housing palaces, granaries, and baths that were probably used for sacred ablutions; the great bath at Mohenjo-Daro was c.40 ft (12 m) long and 23 ft (7 m) wide. Beyond the citadels were well-planned towns, laid out in rectangular patterns. Houses, often two-storied and spacious, lined the town streets; they had drainage systems that led into brick-lined sewers. The economy of the Indus civilization was based on a highly organized agriculture, supplemented by an active commerce, probably connected to that of the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia. The arts flourished there, and many objects of copper, bronze, and pottery, including a large collection of terra-cotta toys, have been uncovered. Most notable, however, are the steatite seals, exquisitely engraved with animal figures and often bearing a line of pictographic script. On some seals are depicted a bo tree or, as some authorities hold, a Babylonian tree of life, and others have as their central figure the god Shiva, who later became preeminent in the Hindu pantheon. The writing, long a riddle to archaeologists, has yet to be satisfactorily deciphered; the language appears to be structurally related to the Dravidian languages. The origin, rise, and decline of the Indus valley civilization remain a mystery, but it seems most probable that the civilization fell (c.1500 BC) to invading Aryans
See Sir John Marshall, Mohenjo-Daro and the Indus Civilization (3 vol., 1931); E. J. H. MacKay, The Indus Civilization (1935, repr. 1983); S. Piggott, Prehistoric India (1950); Sir Mortimer Wheeler, The Indus Civilization (3d ed. 1968); J. H. Hawkes, The First Great Civilizations (1973); N. Lahiri, Finding Forgotten Cities: How the Indus Civilization was Discovered (2013).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: South Asian History | <urn:uuid:2dbe2e50-d442-4b4d-9913-cf484fda88b0> | CC-MAIN-2019-47 | https://www.factmonster.com/encyclopedia/history/asia-africa/south-asia/indus-valley-civilization | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-47/segments/1573496668534.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20191114182304-20191114210304-00321.warc.gz | en | 0.95435 | 605 | 4.0625 | 4 |
Twenty-one new genetic risk factors associated with Crohn's disease have been discovered, more than doubling the amount of genetic information about the disease. An international consortium of Crohn's disease researchers combined efforts, including major contributions from Canadian researchers Dr. John D. Rioux from Montreal Heart Institute and Université de Montréal and Drs. Mark Silverberg and Hillary Steinhart from Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto to publish this breakthrough study in Nature Genetics.
"This greatly increases our knowledge of the genetic architecture of Crohn's and gives us more detailed insight into the biological underpinnings of the disease," says Mark J. Daly, PhD, of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Human Genetic Research and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, the report's senior author.
In 2007, three studies compared the genomes of patients with Crohn's disease to those of healthy individuals a North American-based study, led by Dr. John D. Rioux PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) and the Université de Montréal and director of the Laboratory in Genetic and Genomic Medicine at the MHI, and input from colleagues at five other institutions, including contributions from Dr. Mark Silverberg, Staff Gastroenterologist, Mount Sinai Hospital and Assistant Professor of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Toronto, and Dr. Hillary Steinhart, Chief of Gastroenterology, Mount Sinai Hospital; a U.K. study supported by the Wellcome Trust; and a study by a group of French and Belgian investigators identified a total number of Crohn's-associated genes to 11. Those explained only a small proportion of the heritability of Crohn's, which affects over a half a million people in the U.S and Canada.
The three teams combined their data in the current study that involved more than 3,200 Crohn's patients with more than 4,800 controls. This study not only confirmed the 11 previously identified genetic risk factors, but it also identified 21 new ones. These new discoveries continue to build a picture of factors leading to the inappropriate immune-system activation that characterizes the disorder.
"Given the fact that prior to 2007 we only knew of three genetic risk factors for Crohn's disease truly represents tremendous progress in our ability to understand Crohn's disease. Specifically this study is indicating which biological pathways specifically lead to Crohn's disease as well as which of these pathways are in common with other immune mediated diseases such as autoimmune diabetes, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis," says Dr. Rioux, co-author of the current study.
"This is breakthrough research for patients with Crohn's disease and one of the most significant advances in our understanding of this disease, to date," says Dr. Silverberg, co-author of the study.
"Our research was successful because of the international collaborative approach."
Finally, Rioux stated that "the hope is that the identification of the biological paths that lead to Crohn's disease can be translated into useful clinical tools for improved diagnosis, classification and treatment of this chronic disease."
In total, the effort constituted a collaboration between clinical genetic researchers from 25 institutions across North America including Yale University, University of Pittsburgh, Université de Montréal, University of Toronto, Johns Hopkins University, and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles the United Kingdom, Belgium and France. The team is committed to further advancing these results in collaboration with investigators from additional countries. Support for the study came from several organizations, including the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, through the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Genetic Consortium. | <urn:uuid:525ecba2-01e8-4098-8a01-74bd435c950f> | CC-MAIN-2016-07 | http://www.sciencecodex.com/montreal_heart_institute_and_mount_sinai_hospital_researchers_contribute_to_crohns_disease_study | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-07/segments/1454701161946.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20160205193921-00154-ip-10-236-182-209.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937631 | 742 | 2.703125 | 3 |
It seems logical that gifted children should soar through their school years, loving every minute and gaining from each class. Unfortunately, that’s far from the case. Gifted students, or those who are intellectually beyond their peers in some way, often struggle in school—but not with academics. They struggle with boredom.
If your child seems bored in school, one way to keep him challenged is to push him ahead to the next grade. Keep in mind, though, that grade-skipping doesn’t always work out well. How can you decide if grade-skipping would help your child? Rita R. Culross, professor at Louisiana State University and author of Counseling the Gifted, says that these four steps can help you decide whether grade-skipping is right for your child.
Step 1: Evaluation
Before encouraging your child to skip a grade, it is important for her to undergo a comprehensive psychological evaluation that measures her intellectual functioning, academic skill levels and social-emotional adjustment. If your child falls short of any of the following criteria, you should seriously consider using a different method than grade-skipping to accelerate her learning:
- Your child should either have an IQ of 125 or higher, or her mental development should be higher than the average student in the grade that she would be joining.
- Your child should be capable of greater academic skills than the average student in the grade she would be joining. This should be true across the board, in all subjects. (If your child is hung up by only one school subject, you may want to consider a combination of grade-skipping and tutoring in that one subject.)
- Your child should not have any serious social or emotional problems. Culross says that gifted students are generally socially and emotionally mature for their age, but if your child is at all immature or has problems socially, you may want to consider alternatives to grade-skipping.
- Your child should be highly persistent and motivated to learn. (In some cases, however, students who are bored in their current classes may seem to have lost their intrinsic motivation. If this is the case, you can still consider grade-skipping for your child.)
- Your child should be physically healthy and as mature as her peers, or more so. In specific situations where competitive sports will be important to your child in later grades, you may want to consider grade-skipping only if your child is physically large and mature enough to compete with students a year older.
Step 2: Motivation
After you make sure that your child is a candidate for grade-skipping, it’s important to think about why you are considering it in the first place. Does your child actually feel motivated to skip a grade, and excited about the prospect? Or have you been putting pressure on her to consider it? If the motivation comes from your child, she’ll be much more likely to succeed. You can ask the psychologist who is performing the evaluation to judge whether your child is motivated enough to be successful.
Step 3: Timing
Generally, it’s considered best to switch your child from one grade to the other at the beginning of the school year. But switching in the middle of the school year may be more helpful if you’d like your child’s previous and future teacher to work together to support your child’s transition—a request that’s hard to fulfill when both teachers are on vacation.
Also, make sure you feel good about the teacher whose class your child would be switching into. Some teachers seem overly pessimistic about grade-skipping and think that the new student will not be mature. Teacher support is essential when a child is skipping a grade, especially in helping the child transition from one classroom and group of peers to another. If the teacher doesn’t seem receptive to the idea, you may want to consider pushing it off for another year.
Step 4: Trial Period
If your child’s situation meets all of the above criteria, set a trial period of six weeks to give your child time to adjust to her new class. Make sure that your child realizes that this is a trial period—that she can switch back if the changes don’t seem helpful, and doing so would not make her a failure. During this time, your child may find it helpful to talk to a school counselor to help smooth the transition.
But what if your child doesn’t fit these criteria, or if the trial period bombs? According to Culross, there are many more ways to “accelerate” students, and grade-skipping is only one of them. Talk with the administrators at your child’s school about other methods that might work. Choices include curriculum compacting, mentoring, online independent study classes, or subject-matter acceleration. Whatever your decision, your goal and the goal of the school administration should always be to find the best way to meet your child’s needs. | <urn:uuid:73947476-7533-45d3-b00c-15dac98dfd84> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | https://www.education.com/magazine/article/skipping-grades/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891816841.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20180225170106-20180225190106-00560.warc.gz | en | 0.964147 | 1,024 | 3.21875 | 3 |
by CommonLit Staff
We've identified these texts as great options for text pairings based on similar themes, literary devices, topic, or writing style. Supplement your lesson with one or more of these options and challenge students to compare and contrast the texts. To assign a paired text, click on the text to go to its page and click the "Assign Text" button there.
Can a Devastating Shark Attack Really Lead to a Better Life?
- Melanie Greenberg
In "Can a Devastating Shark Attack Lead to a Better Life?" a psychologist explores the ways the surfer Bethany Hamilton overcame the trauma of losing her left arm in a shark attack. This informational article outlines concepts like "posttraumatic growth" and "downward comparison."Pair “Coping Mechanisms” with “Can a Devastating Shark Attack Really Lead to a Better Life?” to discuss how adversity can have positive benefits. How can traumatic events lead to growth and increased resilience?
The Bright Side of Sadness
- Bruce Bower
In this article from Science News, author Bruce Bower explores the results of several recent studies suggesting that feelings of sadness can be beneficial in different aspects of everyday life.Pair “Coping Mechanisms” with “The Bright Side of Sadness” and have students discuss the positive benefits of negative emotions. In what situations can we transform negative moods and situations into positive actions and outcomes? What role do coping mechanisms have in this?
Depression, The Secret We Share
- Andrew Solomon
In the speech “Depression, The Secret We Share,” Andrew Solomon describes his experiences with depression and why some people are more resilient with the illness than others.Pair “Coping Mechanisms” with “Depression, The Secret We Share” and ask students to discuss how adaptive and maladaptive coping mechanisms are explored in Andrew Solomon’s speech. How do adaptive coping mechanisms contribute to the resilience that Solomon discusses? How do maladaptive coping mechanisms negatively contribute to a person’s depression? | <urn:uuid:62231595-0e4f-4d8e-93db-4c3fd3d47f5f> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/coping-mechanisms/paired-texts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524517.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716075153-20190716101153-00227.warc.gz | en | 0.889083 | 430 | 3.375 | 3 |
Over the last decade, significant changes in food consumption patterns have occurred in the traditional Inuit diet, especially since communication and transportation with southern regions were improved. Similar situations have been observed among other Aboriginal populations and it seems that Aboriginal people are vulnerable to nutritional inadequacy and are facing significant increases in nutrition-related health problems. Improving health outcomes for the Inuit population is a priority for public health and addressing this priority involves the surveillance of dietary intakes, nutritional status, dietary attitudes and behaviours, as well as food security. The Nunavik Inuit Health Survey conducted in 2004 allowed for the collection of reliable and up-to-date information about the Inuit diet and for the verification of changes in consumption patterns over the last decade.
In 1992, the Santé Québec health survey revealed that the contribution of country foods to energy intake reached 21% among Inuit adults. In 2004, this percentage was lower, amounting to 16% for the entire adult population. As observed in 1992, country foods contributed more to the Inuit diet among older Inuit than among young people, whereas store-bought foods contributed more to the diet of younger Inuit. The consumption frequency of country meats was also lower in 2004 than in 1992. During the year before the survey, fish and seafood was consumed nearly three times a week and caribou nearly two times per week. Wildfowl and marine mammal meat were consumed on average once a week. Nearly 88% of household respondents reported getting country foods from the community freezer; 75% did so occasionally and 13% did so often.
Results of the 2004 survey also revealed that nutrient intakes including protein, and most vitamins and minerals were acceptable for more than half of the Inuit adults on the day before the survey. Moreover, the consumption of marine country foods provided significant amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. However, intakes of some vitamins and minerals, such as vitamins A, C and D, calcium and dietary fibre, were particularly low among the Inuit adult population. These low nutrient intakes reflect the low consumption of milk products, fruits and vegetables and whole-grain cereal products in Nunavik. Consumption of these foods was not significantly improved as compared with 1992. At the same time, the consumption of sweet foods and drinks was higher in 2004 than in 1992. In particular, sweet beverages such as sodas and fruit drinks were the most significant sources of carbohydrates the day before the interview and the consumption of sweet beverages was much higher among young people. Finally, food insecurity appears to be a major problem for several Inuit households. In 2004, nearly one person in four declared having lacked food during the month before the survey.
In view of results observed in 2004 regarding the Inuit diet, the main recommendation to improve this diet is the preservation or increase in country food consumption. It provides the Inuit with several advantages, including societal well-being, cultural identity, economic value and health. In particular, Inuit are likely protected from cardiovascular diseases due to a high intake of omega-3 fatty acids, which are supplied by marine country foods (fish and seafood, marine mammals).
The Inuit should also increase their consumption of healthy store-bought foods such as fruits and vegetables, whole-grain cereal products and milk products which can reduce the risk of some chronic diseases. In contrast, the intake of sweet foods must be reduced since they increase the risk of obesity and diabetes. Finally, the Inuit should be educated about healthy store-bought food choices and store-bought food should be offered to the Inuit at low cost in order to reduce the food insecurity in Nunavik households. | <urn:uuid:a00a1933-5ada-45b4-810a-fa2dfabc9b0c> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://www.inspq.qc.ca/en/publications/762 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100724.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20231208045320-20231208075320-00458.warc.gz | en | 0.968746 | 735 | 3.75 | 4 |
Purpose– The Federal Government has begun distributing tablets to teachers in public schools in Brazil. However, no preparation was provided to guide professionals on how to use them for pedagogical purposes. As a result, teachers have been carrying tablets around or leaving them alone on their classroom tables. Considering this situation, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the possibility of adopting a ternary conception of formation processes – the self-hetero-eco formation process – to help teachers learn how to use tablets for educational purposes; and on the potential of such a process to congregated teachers in the joint creation and maintenance of a Didactic Digital Material/App Data Bank. Design/methodology/approach– Theoretically, this paper is grounded on complexity principles (Morin, 2008, 2010), and especially on the studies made by Moraes (2007), Freire (2009) and Freire and Leffa (2013). Findings– The movement of perceiving each teacher as responsible for his/her formation (personalization), interacting with others to expand possibilities, co-constructing knowledge to reach co-formation (socialization), and interacting with the environment with/from which s/he learns (ecoligization) will reveal the self-hetero-eco technological formation process which may help teachers create steady links amongst themselves at school and resolve many difficult situations such as the need to overcome the lack of technological skills to use tablets. Besides that, the idea of joining teachers together and jointly creating and maintaining a Didactic Digital Material/App Data Bank may not only impact on the use of the tablet itself but also on interpersonal relationships, intensifying respect, companionship and friendship, among other important ties that help bind people together. Originality/value– This paper presents an innovative formation concept which is not based on time development, but which is based on the agents involved in the process and in the environment where the formation takes place. This concept is based on complexity and seems to be more attuned to the features of the contemporary world.
The International Journal of Information and Learning Technology – Emerald Publishing
Published: Aug 3, 2015 | <urn:uuid:d51a4b9c-b0de-4c9d-b037-cc6b1893acca> | CC-MAIN-2021-49 | https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/emerald-publishing/the-tablet-is-on-the-table-the-need-for-a-teachers-self-hetero-eco-Z5dyvST8ji | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-49/segments/1637964363157.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20211205100135-20211205130135-00450.warc.gz | en | 0.949425 | 432 | 2.609375 | 3 |
One of the major nutrients needed for crop growth is sulfur (S). In the past nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium were considered the major nutrients. Sulfur emissions from coal fired power plants supplied more sulfur than needed for good crop growth. But in my business as an independent crop consultant we have been recommending sulfur for many years now. I started consulting in 2006, and in those days we seldom saw the characteristic yellow striping of sulfur deficiency in plant leaves. Over the years we have seen sulfur deficiency symptoms gradually increase to the point that sulfur deficiency is a great concern.
There are several ways to test for sulfur in the soil, but many universities have questioned the usefulness of a sulfur test. Brookside Laboratories uses a Mehlich 3 extraction to measure soluble sulfur in the soil. Ten to 20 ppm is considered an ideal level. Midwest Laboratories procedures are a little different, but they also say that ideal levels are 10 to 20 ppm. It appears to me that experience plays a role in interpreting sulfur tests. I have found that you are certain to have sulfur-related issues when test levels fall below 10 ppm unless sulfur fertilizer is used.
According to the Sulphur Institute
, “Sulphur is one of the 17 essential plant nutrients. It is essential for the growth and development of all crops, without exception. Like any essential nutrient, sulfur also has some key functions in plants:
- Formation of chlorophyll that permits photosynthesis through which plants produce starch, sugars, oils, fats, vitamins and other compounds.
- Protein production. Sulfur is a constituent of three S-containing amino acids (cysteine, cystine and methionine), which are the building blocks of protein. About 90% of plant S is present in these amino acids.
- Synthesis of oils. This is why adequate sulphur is so crucial for oilseeds.
- Activation of enzymes, which aid in biochemical reactions in the plant.
- Increases crop yields and improves produce quality, both of which determine the market price a farmer would get for his produce.
- With reference to crop quality, S improves protein and oil percentage in seeds, cereal quality for milling and baking, marketability of dry coconut kernel (copra), quality of tobacco, nutritive value of forages, etc.
- It is associated with special metabolisms in plant and the structural characteristics of protoplasm.”
Dr. Shaun Casteel of Purdue University has recently released his research
on sulfur use in soybeans. He got a good yield response using AMS (ammonium sulfate) at 100 pounds per acre. He is certain that it is not a nitrogen response, because the beans didn’t respond to urea applications.
Possible sulfur sources include:
- Ammonium Sulfate – AMS supplies 20 pounds of sulfur per hundred.
- Gypsum – Good Gypsum supplies 17 pounds of sulfur per hundred, but analysis can vary depend in on source.
- Ammonium thiosulfate supplies about 3 pounds per gallon. It may be the most expensive but combines well with other liquid fertilizers.
- Elemental sulfur supplies 90 or so pounds of sulfur per 100 pounds. Elemental sulfur is slow release, so if your soil test levels are low, you may not get good response the first year. It does persist a little better than other sources.
Remember that 60-bushel soybeans remove 21 pounds of sulfur per acre. While 80-bushel soybeans remove 28 pounds sulfur per acre. Sulfur is soluble so applying every year or every other year assures you have enough. | <urn:uuid:99fb5d3e-44d6-456e-8fef-4795ff430940> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.ilsoyadvisor.com/sulfur-needs-soybean-growth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474843.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20240229134901-20240229164901-00239.warc.gz | en | 0.931336 | 745 | 3.890625 | 4 |
What biological and cognitive forces have shaped humankind's musical behaviour and the rich global repertoire of musical structures? What is music for, and why does every human culture have it? What are the universal features of music and musical behaviour across cultures? In this book, musicologists, biologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, psychologists, neuroscientists, ethologists and linguists come together for the first time to examine these and related issues. The book can be viewed as representing the birth of evolutionary biomusicology -the study of which will contribute greatly to our understanding of the evolutionary precursors of human music, the evolution of the hominid vocal tract, localization of brain function, the structure of acoustic-communication signals, symbolic gesture, emotional manipulation through sound, self-expression, creativity, the human affinity for the spiritual, and the human attachment to music itself. The covers of this paperback are slightly bent and grubby. The pages are clean. | <urn:uuid:5d60212d-9220-4c6a-9474-18bf10a3f96f> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | https://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/books/history/the-origins-of-music-hd_101077795 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267860089.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20180618051104-20180618071104-00318.warc.gz | en | 0.930601 | 190 | 2.828125 | 3 |
What are lignans?
Plant lignans are natural; compounds found in the fibrous parts of linseed (flax). They are called phyto-oestrogens and are converted in the gut by good bacteria into mammalian lignans (which is the form the human body can make use of), including one called enterolactone. They are mildly oestrogenic and strongly antioxidant.
A natural part of our nutritional heritage
Lignans are a family of more than 20 compounds found in plants. Lignans come into our diet along with fibre so diets short of fibre are will contain little in the way of lignans. The diet we evolved to eat was richer in lignans as wild plants are more fibrous. Modern diets with softer more succulent plant foods are lower in lignans.
Linseed (flaxseed) lignans
The main lignans in linseed
|Linseed (flaxseed) lignans||µg / 100 g|
Linseed (flaxseed) is many times higher in most lignans than other foods. Linseed is approximately contains 10 times more of these lignans than sesame, and over a hundred times more than cruciferous veg and cereal grains.
Food sources of lignans
Lignans from foods made with Flax Farm linseed
- Ground linseed
- Whole linseed (needs to be ground for full benefit)
- Linseed porridge & muesli
- High lignan cold-pressed linseed oil
Lignans are found in fibre of linseeds. The best way to use linseed for lignans is to use either ground linseed or grind whole linseeds yourself. All Flax Farm porridges and muesli contain ground linseed and are a good way to get lignans into your diet.
High Lignan Linseed Oil
Linseed lignans are not oil soluble so ordinary liquid cold-pressed linseed oil and linseed oil capsules contains virtually no lignans. However cold-pressed High Lignan Linseed oil does contain lignans. The lignans-containing portion tends to be dark and settle out at the bottom of the bottle; it is essential therefore that the bottle is shaken well before use.
Lignans: how much linseed do you need?
There is no recommended daily amount for lignans.
Most studies into the benefits of ligans have come from consuming a helping of linseed of 2 heaped dessertspoons ground linseed or around 45g once or twice per day. See our recipes for some great ways to incorporate lignans into your diet.
Flax Farm ready to use foods good for lignans
An easy source of lignans are our ready to eat foods made from our gound linseed. A helping Flax Farm linseed porridge or muesli is a great way to add lignans to your diet and our Flaxjacks® are a tasty source too. | <urn:uuid:9cdf2214-d269-41ad-8d28-99315c3912da> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | https://www.flaxfarm.co.uk/lignans/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948579564.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20171215192327-20171215214327-00536.warc.gz | en | 0.905156 | 636 | 3.25 | 3 |
Not all snakes are at the top of the food chain. A surprisingly large number of animals, such as hawks, eagles and honey badgers, hunt snakes as their food source. Even some species of snake, such as California kingsnakes and king cobras, eat other snakes.
Some snakes camouflage themselves or scare predators away with bright colors. Others use warning signals, such as hissing, hooding, rattling, and striking. Some snakes will release a foul-smelling musk, or even play dead (such as garter snakes). Snakes, even if they have venom glands, will usually only bite as a last resort.
We’re going to look at which predators kill snakes and the various ways that snakes protect themselves against predation. We’ll look into techniques that snake use to hide from predators, and if that doesn’t work, how they scare predators off using time-tested intimidation tactics.
Table of Contents:
Which Predators Kill Snakes?
Several animals and birds hunt snakes as part of their diet. These include:
|Birds:||Hawks, falcons, eagles, secretary birds, and certain species of owls will hunt snakes as they form part of their diet.|
|Cats:||Certain species of cats, such as bobcats and even the domesticated house cat, catch and kill snakes sometimes.|
|Mongoose:||Although not their main sustenance, mongooses do kill them. They’re immune to some kinds of snake venom.|
|Honey badgers:||These are carnivorous mammals related to the weasel. Honey badgers regularly kill and eat snakes.|
|Alligators and caimans:||Both have been reported to kill snakes, although snakes don’t make up a part of their usual diet.|
|Humans:||People are the main predator of snakes. Many humans kill snakes on sight, primarily out of fear.|
How Do Snakes Hide from Predators?
Avoiding detection, if successful, is an effective way of avoiding harm. That’s why snakes have figured out ways to avoid predation.
One of the most basic, but effective, defense mechanisms that snakes employ is camouflage. Camouflage helps snakes to avoid being seen by enemies in the first place, so that they don’t have to defend themselves.
Many snakes have developed a certain coloration to enable them to blend in with their environment. That’s why brown, black, green, and tan are very common snake colors.
So, how do snakes camouflage? It depends on the species and the environment in which it lives. Here are some examples:
|Sidewinder rattlesnakes:||The horned rattlesnake, as they’re also known, is found in desert regions in Mexico and the southwestern U.S. It’s a creamy pale brown in color and blends in perfectly with the sand. These snakes also bury themselves in the desert sand when they want to remain hidden.|
|Rough green snakes:||They’re bright green, so they camouflage very well into the grass, which is their natural habitat. Rough green snakes also climb trees and hide well in piles of leaves.|
|Green tree pythons:||The green tree python is an arboreal snake that is perfectly camouflaged by the coloration of the tree.|
|Copperhead snakes:||With their tan, brown and coppery coloration, copperheads blend into wooded areas. They hide in plain sight on the forest floor, amongst wood, dirt, and fallen leaves. Here’s how to identify a copperhead snake.|
Some snakes can also burrow into the soil to escape predators. One of the most famous examples of this is the Hognose snake.
Both Western and Eastern varieties have upturned snouts, which they use for digging into the ground. Though they primarily use this ability to hunt for toads, they can also burrow away from danger if the need arises.
Most snakes don’t burrow, but can tunnel into the ground using burrows that have already been dug by rodents and other animals.
If camouflage doesn’t work, and the snake can’t hide, the next step is to flee. If far enough away and it believes it can get away safely, the snake will move away as quickly as it’s able to avoid danger.
Aposematism, or aposematic coloration, is the opposite of camouflage. Instead of blending in with their surroundings, aposematic animals are bright shades of red, yellow, and orange.
These bright colors are a warning. Venomous coral snakes, which are banded with red, black and yellow, are an example of aposematism.
Some non-venomous snakes have evolved to mimic venomous snakes very successfully. This discourages predators from attacking, under the impression that they’re dangerous snakes. Here are some examples:
|Kingsnakes:||Several different species of kingsnakes display red, yellow, and black bands to mimic the coral snake.|
|African egg-eating snakes:||These snakes are harmless, but closely resemble deadly saw-scaled vipers, which share their geographic area. They can even stridulate by rubbing their scales together to recreate the viper’s characteristic warning sound.|
|Smooth snakes:||Smooth snakes can flatten their heads when threatened, according to PLoS One. This causes their heads to appear triangular in shape, mimicking vipers such as rattlesnakes.|
|Rat snakes:||Rat snakes, among others, vibrate their tails in the grass to create a sound similar to that of a rattlesnake. It’s a common behavior in the colubrid family of snakes.|
6) Warning Signals
If a snake, despite its best efforts, is confronted by a predator, the next step is to ward them off. It’ll do this by giving off a warning signal, which could be a noise, a visual display, or releasing a scent.
|Hissing:||This is a sound that’s made by forcing air through the glottis, a hole in the snake’s mouth. Almost all snakes hiss as an indication that they’re angry and about to strike.|
|Rattling:||Rattlesnakes have keratin segments on the end of their tails, which they vibrate to make the characteristic rattling noise.|
|Look larger:||Some snakes, such as cobras and hognose snakes, stretch out the skin on their necks to form an intimidating “hood” when threatened. This makes the snake look bigger and more threatening to predators.|
|Musking or Feigning Death:||Some snakes can release a foul-smelling musk to deter predators. Hognose snakes go a step further and combine musking with playing dead. This can fool predators into thinking they are diseased and should be avoided.|
Flicker-fusion is a defense mechanism employed by snakes that are banded (horizontally-striped). Examples include the banded water snake, coral snake, and the banded krait.
According to Current Zoology, banded patterns confuse predators when the snake is moving quickly. It creates a kind of visual illusion called “motion blur”, which can cause the predator to lose track of the snake, or even believe that it’s moving in the opposite direction.
8) Pretending To Strike
If a predator gets too close, snakes will often strike out with their heads, as if they’re going to bite.
It’s used as a scare tactic more than an actual attack. Striking is often accompanied by hissing and other warning signals, such as hooding.
9) Spitting Venom
Venom-spitting is a defense mechanism unique to spitting cobras (Hemachatus haemachatus and some species in the genus Naja). They can actually shoot venom from their fangs at predators.
Though this won’t ‘always’ harm a predator, it is enough to deter them from attacking. And if it gets in the predator’s eyes, it can blind them.
If all of the above has failed to dissuade a predator from attacking, there’s only one option left: biting.
Now, you might think that in venomous species – such as cobras, rattlesnakes, mambas and the like – biting the predator would be an obvious choice. The king cobra produces enough venom to kill an elephant, after all.
However, even venomous snakes do not bite predators, unless they have no other option. They will try to avoid confrontation, and will only bite if they feel that their life is at risk.
Venom is a precious resource, and a snake doesn’t want to waste it. Even non-venomous snakes prefer not to bite as it puts them into direct confrontation with the predator, which can be dangerous. | <urn:uuid:f646fa23-d6ee-4e37-ac52-201e92637c3b> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://www.snakesforpets.com/how-snakes-protect-themselves/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655896932.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20200708093606-20200708123606-00167.warc.gz | en | 0.931838 | 1,921 | 3.421875 | 3 |
Canaan, CT – The stigma of addiction hurts some groups more than others. While problem drinking in America transcends racial and socioeconomic lines, communities of color increasingly struggle with alcoholism – and the sense of shame that often goes with it.
A 2017 study in the journal JAMA Psychiatry found that rates of high-risk drinking and alcohol use disorders have soared among racial and ethnic minorities. The survey found that between 2001 and 2013, high-risk drinking increased by 40 percent among Hispanics and Native Americans, about 57 percent for Asians and Pacific Islanders, and 62 percent for African Americans.
One of the consequences of high-risking drinking – defined by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans as four or more drinks a week for women and five or more drinks a week for men – is alcoholism. Indeed, the JAMA Psychiatry researchers reported that the prevalence of alcohol use disorders also rose among minorities during the study period. Notably, the incidence of alcoholism surged by approximately 52 percent for Hispanics, 78 percent for Asians and Pacific Islanders, and 93 percent for African Americans.
Data Source: National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC)
“Not every person who drinks excessively will develop alcoholism because addiction is influenced by multiple factors, including age, family history, mental health, and environment,” says Lukasz Junger, Psychiatric Advanced Practice Registered Nurse at Mountainside. “Alcoholism among minority populations is often further complicated by obstacles such as discrimination, a lack of health coverage or financial resources, and language or cultural barriers that can make treatment less accessible or straightforward.”
Researchers from the JAMA Psychiatry study speculate that people of color may have increasingly turned to alcohol after the 2008 recession as a means of coping with the widening wealth gap between them and white populations.
African Americans and Hispanics face a higher chance of developing alcohol-related liver diseases, according to a 2017 journal article from Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. People of color who struggle with alcoholism are also more likely to encounter stigma, which can discourage them from seeking the help they deserve.
“Anyone hoping to recover from alcoholism can benefit from being in a culturally sensitive treatment environment,” says Junger. “Confronting medical concerns early on, participating in psychotherapy, and joining peer support groups can encourage a sense of belonging and help people overcome hurdles to their recovery.”
Mountainside Treatment Center
Mountainside is nationally recognized for the effectiveness of its drug and alcohol addiction treatment programs. Our Integrative Care Model provides a comprehensive set of treatment and care offerings coordinated by a multidisciplinary treatment team to best fit the unique needs and interests of each client. We are lauded for our ability to partner with each client and the client’s family and healthcare professionals in developing and executing individualized treatment plans that promote long-term sobriety. Learn more about Mountainside at mountainside.com. | <urn:uuid:1164aaf4-0fb0-4f9c-968b-793d92e8ca36> | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | https://mountainside.com/about-us/press/releases/rising-alcoholism-rates-prove-no-group-is-immune-from-addiction | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107893845.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20201027082056-20201027112056-00227.warc.gz | en | 0.947468 | 589 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Bridge to Life's Greatest Hope
hilip never felt like he belonged. He was pleasant enough but he looked different and sometimes seemed a little unusual to his eight-year-old class mates. He was born with Down's Syndrome.
In his Sunday School class following one Easter, Philip's teacher, in keeping with the Easter theme, gave each member a plastic egg–the kind pantyhose come in—and instructed them to go outside and find a symbol for new life and put it in their egg. In class the eggs were opened one at a time with each child explaining the meaning of his symbol.
In the first egg was a pretty flower, in the next a beautiful butterfly. The children "oohed" and "aahed." In another there was a rock. The children laughed. In the last egg there was nothing. "That's stupid," one child said. "It's not fair," another remarked.
The teacher felt a tug on his shirt. It was Philip, who said, "It's mine. It's empty—the tomb was empty."
The class was visibly moved and from that day accepted Philip as part of the group.
Philip still had many physical problems and that summer he picked up an infection most children could have easily shaken off. But Philip's weak body couldn't. A few weeks later he died. At his funeral nine eight-year-old children with their teacher brought their symbol of remembrance and placed it on the altar. Their gift of love to Philip wasn't flowers. It was an empty egg—now their symbol of new life and hope.
Even the soldiers were terrified
when they saw what had happened.
It was Philip, the "different" child, who helped his friends see the exciting hope that Easter holds.
Most people accept that Jesus Christ died by crucifixion at Easter time two thousand years ago. But what about his rising from the dead—is that fact or fantasy?
If it's fantasy, Easter is an empty religious ritual and shatters man's hope of life beyond the grave. If it's fact, it is life's most wondrous story and proves beyond doubt that man can live again after his dies!
Dr. Simon Greenleaf, a professor at Harvard Law School, was challenged to evaluate the resurrection of Jesus Christ using well established legal principles. In his treatise, The Four Evangelists, he wrote, "According to the laws of legal evidence the resurrection of Jesus Christ is proven by more substantial evidence than any other event of ancient history." The following is some of that evidence.
Item one: The empty tomb. The religious leaders were so intensely jealous of Christ's popularity they used false testimony to have him crucified. Immediately following his burial these men went to Pilate, the Roman Governor and, reminding him that Jesus said he would rise three days after his death, persuaded Pilate to make Christ's tomb secure to ensure that his followers couldn't remove his body and claim that he had risen.
Neither Pilate nor the religious leaders could afford to take any chances. If Christ rose from the dead, it would cause such an uproar Pilate's political career would be in jeopardy, and the religious leaders' reputation would be destroyed.
5. All articles on the ACTS International website are by Richard (Dick) Innes unless otherwise noted.
All pages in this site © Copyright 1990-2019 by ACTS International
P.O. Box 73545, San Clemente, California U.S.A. 92673 | <urn:uuid:dacc8301-30a4-4deb-8da0-f4978cfad2df> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | http://actsweb.org/articles/printer.php?i=103&d=1&c=1&p=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247495001.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20190220125916-20190220151916-00363.warc.gz | en | 0.98841 | 721 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Crazy carbon nanofoam loves magnets
Tiny particles of carbon that look like sooty foam and attract magnets have been made by Australian scientists.
This new form of carbon nanoparticle, called nanofoam, surprised the researchers as it was the first type of carbon to have magnetic properties.
The researchers made this new form of carbon using a laser system that fired up to 76 million pulses a second at graphite in a chamber filled with argon gas.
At 10,000°C the graphite evaporated into single carbon atoms, which settled into clusters as the vapour cooled.
The clusters then combined to form the spongy nanofoam, a cross between diamond and graphite.
"It's not diamond and it's not graphite. It's something in between," Rode told ABC Science Online. "It looks like a soot and it's very light."
The researchers also found that the new substance was attracted to magnets, an unusual property for carbon.
"We discovered the nanofoam has very strange magnetic properties which we didn't expect at all," said Rode.
The researchers made the nanofoam accidentally, as a byproduct in experiments involving the production of other forms of carbon, namely carbon nanotubes and buckyballs or carbon atoms arranged in a sphere.
Rode said there were no immediate applications for the new magnetic nanofoam but it could be useful in medicine.
"We can dream about the possibility of injecting such carbon nanofoam into blood, for example," he said. "Its magnetic properties would increase significantly the resolution of magnetic resonance imaging."
He said nanofoam could also be attached to tumours and be exposed to high frequency electromagnetic fields that would produce tumour-killing heat.
"This is pure speculation at this time, it's just one of the possibilities."
Rode said he was unable to comment on concerns about possible health and environmental effects of tiny nanoparticles.
"I've heard about such concerns but to answer this question you need special research done by biologists, medical people and physicists at the same time," he said. | <urn:uuid:22dfe70e-9387-448b-8c0b-538e5bdf5e8b> | CC-MAIN-2016-07 | http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2004/03/25/1072968.htm?site=science&topic=latest | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-07/segments/1454701157443.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160205193917-00286-ip-10-236-182-209.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974655 | 444 | 2.875 | 3 |
Lighting only works if the camera can cope.
To retain all the detail in a picture, light levels must be within the capability of the image sensor. Eyes see detail in a wider range of light intensities. The camera is quite limited in its range.
If you want to be able to see, for example, detail under the trees in shadow, and detail in the cloud, you need to take two exposures. One for the sky and one for the shadow. Then you can combine them in post processing. This is because a bright sky and a dark shady area is too much of a range of contrasts for the sensor to cope.
The image sensor can see the detail in the shadows perfectly well. It can see the brightness in the sky perfectly well. If you expose your shot for either you will get a great shot. Expose for both and you will get either a blown out sky or a black shadow. The dynamic range is too large.
In the photograph above the artists dummy is unlit directly. The orbs it holds are self-lit. This was a difficult photo to take. The dummy was too dark and the lights too light. The light intensity between the two was too great for the sensor to cope with. Without independently lighting the dummy I had to rely on post processing to fill the light on the dummy without increasing the light in the orbs. Easy enough in PhotoShop. But how do you do it in camera?
If the contrast between the lightest part of your scene and the darkest part of your scene is too large you simply cannot take the shot and keep all the detail. You have to find a happy medium. The way to do that is use the blinkies!
Look up in your camera manual how to turn on the blinkies (often associated with the camera histogram). When you look at the back of the camera after a shot the blinkies will show. They blink-to-white if the detail is lost in very bright spots. They blink-to-black in the very dark spots. These are the areas of your shot that the detail is lost. They are also the most distracting part of the shot. If a shot has large areas of blown out white you will draw the eye away from your subject to the white spots. Your shot immediately loses impact.
The answer is ‘chimping’. Take the shot you want to take. Take a look at the shot (Chimping). If it has blinking areas you need to find another way of doing it. Try to find a way of taking the shot so there is no blinking (either black or white). What you are looking for is to reduce the contrast. Take the shot in a brighter place altogether, or take it in darker place. The aim is to reduce the contrast between bright and dark. Then the sensor can cope. | <urn:uuid:9b0a38a9-aa57-4525-aaf4-b06da3de7bd5> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://www.photokonnexion.com/is-your-shot-ruined-by-bright-white-spots/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662522741.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20220519010618-20220519040618-00319.warc.gz | en | 0.959471 | 580 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Language rules to improve your academic writing
Following the rules of grammar, punctuation, sentence structure and word choice can make your writing clearer, more fluent, and ultimately more convincing.
In every kind of writing, make sure to leave plenty of time for editing and proofreading. This article takes you through some common mistakes to look out for.
Punctuation marks signal the structure of a text, showing where each idea begins and ends and how they relate to one another. Some of the most common grammatical mistakes can be fixed by simply adding, removing, or moving a punctuation mark.
In academic writing, it’s important to avoid plagiarism, so make sure to use quotation marks every time you use someone else’s words. Check that you’ve used the right form of quotation marks, put other punctuation in the right place, and properly integrated the quote into your own text.
Make sure you correctly use apostrophes to form the possessive with singular and plural nouns.
Capitalization rules in English require you to understand the difference between common and proper nouns. In academic writing, some of the most frequent errors relate to capitalizing models, theories and disciplines.
You should also make sure you use a consistent style of capitalization for titles and headings.
Basic word order rules in English require a subject to be followed by a verb. Learn about how to avoid common sentence structure mistakes, such as fragments and run-ons. You should also try to write sentences of varying length and structure.
To ensure the different elements of your sentences are properly balanced, follow the rules of parallel structure.
Avoid confusingly structured sentences by learning how to fix dangling and misplaced modifiers.
Verbs are the action words that tell us what happens in a sentence. Subject-verb agreement is important to make it clear who or what is doing an action.
Verb tenses locate an action in time. Make sure you use tenses correctly and consistently. The appropriate tense depends on whether you’re stating facts, making generalizations, describing the content of a text, reporting completed actions, or discussing events with ongoing relevance.
Phrasal verbs combine two or more words to create an entirely new meaning. They can be tricky to use, and they’re sometimes too informal for academic writing, so consider replacing them with one-word alternatives.
There are some types of words that students often misuse or confuse.
The two types of articles in English are definite (the) and indefinite (a/an). It’s important to choose the right one to pair with a noun. The rules are different for single, plural and uncountable nouns.
Prepositions express relationships between different elements of a sentence (e.g. in, on, to, by, of, since). They can describe relationships of time, space, direction, and many types of abstract or logical connection.
There are many different prepositions in English, and they often have more than one meaning. The only way to learn them all is through reading and practice.
Pronouns are words that stand in for nouns (e.g. they, it, him, this). Make sure it’s always clear what noun you are referring back to.
Avoid second-person pronouns (you, yours) in academic writing. First-person pronouns (I, we) are sometimes acceptable depending on the discipline and type of document.
Conjunctions are words that connect different parts of a sentence. There are different types of conjunctions with different functions and rules.
Commonly confused words
Some words are commonly confused or misused, including this/that, which/that, who/whom, affect/effect, and different forms of the word research. Learn more about how to tell the difference between them. | <urn:uuid:f3516ae5-9d51-4e32-885a-406f49f0deb3> | CC-MAIN-2020-24 | https://www.scribbr.com/category/language-rules/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590347407001.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20200530005804-20200530035804-00540.warc.gz | en | 0.929902 | 790 | 3.875 | 4 |
Experiments, Demonstrations, Tests, and Background Information
For Science Fair Projects, Labs, Lesson Plans and Class Activities
For Elementary School, Middle School, High School and College Students and Teachers
Optical Illusion Experiments
An optical illusion is a misleading visual image or object stemming from a discrepancy between the visual information gathered by the eye, by means of light rays, and processed by the brain and the actual physical properties of the source object itself. | <urn:uuid:565cc320-cc6f-448f-afd9-5fd330d095a8> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://www.juliantrubin.com/encyclopedia/psychology/optical_illusion.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802770432.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075250-00091-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.896127 | 93 | 3.578125 | 4 |
Native Range: East Asia, China, Japan, Himalayas
Invasive Range: Woodlands Eastern USA from Maine to Virginia and west to Wisconsin
Autumn olive is a large deciduous shrub with multiple trunks and dense branching. It can grow to 15 feet tall and wide. You can easily identify autumn olive in spring because it leafs out before most native vegetation, and its new leaves are bright silver.
This plant was introduced into North America in the 1830s. It was used extensively to revegetate strip mines and to create shelterbelts because it thrives in poor soil. Because it fruits heavily, autumn olive was recommended for creating wildlife habitat. Unlike many
nonnative plants, native birds and animals do eat its ripe fruits. The sugary fruits are junk food for wildlife, especially for migrating birds. Birds need high-fat and high-protein foods, not sugary sweets, to fuel their flights. Poor nutrition slows migration and makes birds vulnerable to other risks.
As Autumn olive leafs out early and retains its leaves into late fall, it kills desirable plants with its shade. The shrub then gets a further competitive edge by adapting to a wide range of soil and light conditions, and its deep tap root makes it drought tolerant.
Any attempt at cutting down autumn olive without applying herbicide only increases the number of stems that sprout from its crown and roots.
Autumn Olive thrives in poor disturbed sites, and can quickly form a monoculture in sunny fields and roadsides. It can also spread into open forests from infested fields. It does well in nutrient-poor soils, sand or clay, moist or dry. In all of these sites, it displaces desirable plants and reduces species diversity. Because its roots can fix nitrogen, this fast-growing invasive shrub alters soil fertility and changes the habitat. It increases nitrate levels and thus pollutes streams and rivers. The increased soil nitrogen promotes the spread of weedy species in favor of the natives adapted to the site.
This shrub is a serious threat to fragile native plant communities such as rocky barrens and prairies. Autumn olive infests fields and woodlands in most of the eastern U.S., from Maine to Virginia and west to Wisconsin.
Autumn olive is a large shrub with multiple trunks and dense branching. It can grow to 15 feet tall and wide. You can easily identify autumn olive in spring because it leafs out before most native vegetation, and its new leaves are bright silver.
Fruit & Flowers
The small, fragrant, tubular-shaped flowers have four petals and are creamy to pale yellow. They bloom in profusion in spring, along with silvery new leaves. The oval-shaped, single-seeded fruits, (drupe) are 1/4 to 1/3 inch long and ripen in August and September. They are dull to bright red and are dotted with tiny silvery speckles. Inside is a single seed.
Mature plants can produce up to 30 pounds of fruit each autumn, which yields about 65,000 seeds. Because the seeds have extremely high germination rates, a population explosion then occurs. Since the fruits can linger on branches well into winter, they provide a food source when native fruits are scarce. This ensures seeds are carried far and wide.
New leaves are densely covered in silvery-white scales on both surfaces, the upper surface becoming bright to dull green and appearing dotted, the lower remaining silvery often with scattered brown scales mixed with the white. Leaves mature to olive-green with silvery undersides. (Other invasive shrubs such as bush honeysuckle, multiflora rose, and Chinese privet also leaf out early, but their leaves are bright green.)
Autumn olive’s leaves are alternate on the stems and vary from narrow to wide ovals – up to 1 inch wide. The leaf undersides are densely covered with silver scales, as may be the tops of immature leaves.
Stems / Bark
Young twig tips may be silvery and scaly. Older stems have brown to yellowish-brown, smooth bark, which becomes scaly with age. Small thorns often occur on the twigs. Stems are multiple from the base or sometimes a single, central trunk with gray bark that is split and furrowed. A mature shrub is heavily branched with ascending branches and is about as broad as tall.
This shrub will bear fruit in approx 3-6 years and it’s productive lifespan is 30-40 years. Cold stratification improves germination. The growth rate is approximately 1 ft per year.
Autumn olive threatens native ecosystems by out-competing and displacing native plant species, creating dense shade and interfering with natural plant succession and nutrient cycling.
Fruits not eaten drop to the ground, where the seeds plant themselves, germinate, and quickly grow into a thicket. The seed bank in the soil is quickly depleted. However, because autumn olive begins to heavily flower and fruit when only three to five years old, the seed bank is easily replenished. The growth of new plants gets out of hand so quickly that it is almost impossible to eradicate all the invading plants.
As the climate warms, resilient invasive species like Autumn olive can gain even more of a foothold over native plants.
How it Spreads
Fruits not eaten drop to the ground, where the seeds plant themselves and germinate. The seeds have over a 90% germination rate and are also spreads via birds and small mammals. There can be some vegetative propagation also occursUnfortunately, deer do not eat this plant.
An effective and sustainable strategy to manage autumn olive is to graze goats along with cattle on the affected pasture. Goats prefer brushes such as multiflora rose and autumn olive, especially when they are young, over other forage. They can defoliate areas infested with brushes that offer limited access to humans. They must be grazed for several years to kill the shrubs, but be aware that they browse indiscriminately. Such targeted grazing by goats contained using a solar-powered temporary step-in fence has proven to be effective, especially to control smaller brushes. Various types of fencing materials, such as poly-wire, electric-tape, and electric-netting, are available on the market. Once the brush is under control, create and maintain a dense canopy of forage and employ rotational grazing. These help the forage out-compete new autumn olive seedlings and prevent the shrub’s reestablishment.
Livestock tend to trample and forage on brushes when their grazing is confined to a tighter area.
Mechanical & Manual
Seedlings and young autumn olive shrubs can be hand-pulled or dug if the population is not extensive. Digging larger plants is problematic because they resprout from any roots left behind. Repeatedly cutting back established shrubs to ground level without applying herbicide will not control autumn olive, because stems regrow thicker and denser than before.
Tools such as the Weed Wrench® or Root Talon® offer more leverage than a shovel, allowing removal of plants with stems up to 3 inches across. In low-quality, heavily invaded fields, you can pull large autumn olive shrubs with a chain or a tractor bucket. Treat resprouts with herbicide. Regular repeat mowing can prevent seedlings from establishing.
Prescribed burning does not control established autumn olive because it does not kill the root system, which resprouts vigorously. Two to three additional burns with sufficient fuel may ignite the dead stems and kill the roots. Prescribed burning can kill autumn olive seedlings when adequate fuel is present. Burning can be combined effectively with foliar spraying. Burn to kill the tops of the plants, then use a recommended foliar herbicide on the resprouts.
If applying herbicides to treat autumn olive, always read the entire pesticide label carefully, follow all mixing and application instructions, and wear all recommended personal protective gear and clothing. The label is the law. Always ensure you apply the minimum amount of herbicide needed and only to the target plant. Take care to protect native plants.
Cut Stump – Autumn olive can be controlled at any time of year, except during spring growth, by cut-stumping. Cut or saw all stems to several inches from the ground and immediately spray cuts with a concentrated recommended herbicide or a ready-to-use stump killer. Watch for resprouts; cut and treat all new stems or apply a foliar herbicide spray to the new foliage.
Basal Bark – Concentrated herbicide applied to autumn olive stems of 6 inches or less in diameter is effective. Use a concentrated herbicide in a horticultural or vegetable oil. Spray or paint all stems from ground level up to about 10 inches. This is most effective in January and February or from May to October.
Foliar Spray – A higher concentration of foliar herbicide than is effective on most other plants is needed to control autumn olive. Be sure to add a surfactant if the product you use does not contain it. Treat any time after autumn olive leafs out until just before its leaves change color in fall. Because it greens up earlier and remains green later than many plants, early spring or late fall treatment reduces collateral damage. Use foliar sprays in summer only where there are few desirable plants nearby.
Two other species of Elaeagnus are also seriously invasive but are less common in the Blue Ridge. Russian olive (Elaeagnus
angustifolia) has invaded Warren County. It is a 30-foot-tall tree with one to several trunks. Its leaves are much narrower and are
very silvery on both sides; thorns are sometimes present. Silver scales coat the fruits.
Thorny olive (Elaeagnus pungens) has leathery, evergreen leaves that are egg-shaped with wavy margins. The leaf tops are shiny green without silvery scales, and the undersides are covered with dull white scales and light brown dots. Large thorns arm the branches.
Several species of bush honeysuckle (Lonicera sp.) are invasive in the Blue Ridge and might be mistaken for autumn olive because they have red berries. They are easily told apart. Bush honeysuckles have green, opposite leaves without any silvery scales. | <urn:uuid:fc73686b-9de7-4ef1-b07a-05ba17b7754f> | CC-MAIN-2021-25 | https://blueridgeprism.org/autumn-olive/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-25/segments/1623488552937.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20210624075940-20210624105940-00274.warc.gz | en | 0.941434 | 2,144 | 3.765625 | 4 |
More than 18,000 hospitalizations occurred in Florida in 2012 due to traumatic brain injury, according to Florida Health. Short-term and long-term symptoms can occur following traumatic brain injury (TBI). One symptom many brain injury victims suffer from is sensitivity to light, or photophobia. Sensitivity to sound, or hyperacusis, is also common.
Victims suffering from light sensitivity could become dizzy or experience vertigo. A general feeling of malaise is common. Some photophobia sufferers will become nauseated or will experience discomfort when visual stimuli move rapidly. Reading and looking at a computer can become difficult or impossible.
Hyperacusis is also very common, and victims who experience this oversensitivity to sound may have difficulty going to gathering places where there are lots of people and lots of noises. Even going to the grocery store, restaurants, or the office can become painful when you become hyper aware of environmental noises.
Work performance may be impacted for photophobia or hyperacusis sufferers, and some victims must wear sunglasses or ear filters. In severe cases, more aggressive treatments may be needed. Financial loss can occur due to costs of care; pain; and reduced income. If the TBI and resulting sensitivity to light or sound was caused by the negligence of another individual or company, TBI sufferers should consult with a brain injury lawyer for help making a claim to receive compensation for loss. | <urn:uuid:1eae77b6-891e-4167-8801-ee6c216f721f> | CC-MAIN-2020-24 | https://www.injurylawyers.com/glossary/brain-injury-sensitivity-sound-light/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590347396495.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20200528030851-20200528060851-00278.warc.gz | en | 0.950434 | 286 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Seasonal changes in maximal thermogenic capacity (Msum) in wild black-capped chickadees suggests that adjustments in metabolic performance are slow and begin to take place before winter peaks. However, when mean minimal ambient temperature (Ta) reaches −10°C, the chickadee phenotype appears to provide enough spare capacity to endure days with colder Ta, down to −20°C or below. This suggests that birds could also maintain a higher antioxidant capacity as part of their cold-acclimated phenotype to deal with sudden decreases in temperature. Here, we tested how environmental mismatch affected oxidative stress by comparing cold-acclimated (−5°C) and transition (20°C) phenotypes in chickadees exposed to an acute 15°C drop in temperature with that of control individuals. We measured superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase activities, as well as lipid peroxidation damage and antioxidant scavenging capacity in pectoralis muscle, brain, intestine and liver. We generally found differences between seasonal phenotypes and across tissues, but no differences with respect to an acute cold drop treatment. Our data suggest oxidative stress is closely matched to whole-animal physiology in cold-acclimated birds compared with transition birds, implying that changes to the oxidative stress system happen slowly.
Phenotypic flexibility allows animals to adjust to fluctuating abiotic conditions by reversibly altering their phenotype with respect to the prevailing demands (Piersma and Drent, 2003; Swanson, 2010; McWilliams and Karasov, 2014). In small-bodied temperate bird species, seasonally changing thermoregulatory demands are often dealt with by altering metabolic performance (McKechnie, 2008; McKechnie and Swanson, 2010; Swanson, 2010; Swanson and Vézina, 2015). For example, in winter some birds increase their summit metabolic rate (Msum) (Swanson, 2010) and citrate synthase (CS) activity in pectoralis muscle (Zheng et al., 2008; Liknes and Swanson, 2011), as a means to maintain homeostatic set points in the face of falling temperatures. This allows birds to match their physiological capacity with the requirements of their environment and survive the winter (Piersma and Drent, 2003; Petit et al., 2017; Latimer et al., 2018). However, with climate change posing increases in the frequency and duration of cold snaps (Jentsch et al., 2007), birds may also face prolonged and unexpected thermal challenges that may cause a mismatch between physiological capacity and demands (i.e. phenotypic mismatches). This can be buffered to a point as cold-acclimated phenotypes also seem to include spare capacity for sudden, unpredictable environmental changes (McWilliams and Karasov, 2014; Petit and Vézina, 2014b). However, the rate at which physiological changes occur during sudden environmental mismatch is only beginning to be elucidated.
There are physiological trade-offs of altering metabolic rate as a result of changing environmental conditions at the cell level, such as potentially altering the rate of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, thus creating changes to the oxidative stress system. Mitochondrial function is phenotypically flexible in birds across seasons (Liknes and Swanson, 2011) and ROS possess various metabolic functions playing crucial signaling roles (Sena and Chandel, 2012; Scialò et al., 2017). However, uncontrolled ROS production may lead to increases in superoxide anions, and other toxic molecules, which can cause tissue damage, if not balanced by enzymatic antioxidants such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx), or low molecular weight antioxidants such as vitamin E (Skrip and McWilliams, 2016). SOD, as a first line of defense, reacts with superoxide anions, often forming the relatively unreactive molecule H2O2 (Skrip and McWilliams, 2016). H2O2 can be further reduced to H2O by CAT and GPx; however, when not reduced, it can react with ferrous ions and form a highly reactive hydroxyl radical that plays a major role in the continuation of lipid peroxidation (LPO) (Cooper-Mullin and McWilliams, 2016). LPO is one of the most insidious types of oxidative damage. ROS molecules can damage lipids, especially polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), leading to the release of toxic derivatives such as malondialdehyde (MDA) (Hulbert et al., 2007). Although the relationship between whole-animal metabolism and ROS production is not linear (Stier et al., 2014), it is often thought that increasing metabolic rates during thermal challenges could also increase ROS production. At the whole-animal level, oxidative stress may also vary in diurnal cycles and increase during times of energetic stress, such as migration (Franson et al., 2002; Norte et al., 2009; Costantini et al., 2010; Costantini and Bonadonna, 2010). However, how oxidative stress and subsequent ROS production are altered across seasons and during thermal environmental mismatch remains to be tested in wild populations (Costantini, 2014).
Seasonal variation in maximal thermogenic capacity in wild black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) suggests that Msum adjustments are slow and begin to take place well before winter peaks (Petit and Vézina, 2014a,b). However, when mean minimal ambient temperature (Ta) reaches −10°C, their phenotype appears to provide enough spare capacity in cold endurance to buffer days with Ta of −20°C or below. As cold acclimation or acclimatization involve more than just heat production (Swanson, 2010), it is likely that whole-animal spare capacity should also be detectable in other systems. For example, wintering birds could maintain a higher antioxidant capacity as part of their cold-acclimated phenotype to buffer periods of cold spells where sudden elevation in metabolic rate should be required to compensate for heat loss (Petit and Vézina, 2014a,b). In contrast, birds facing temperature drops during the transition season (autumn) should not be as well prepared and may accrue more oxidative damage as a cost. However, the rate of change in these cell-level processes after a sudden environmental change has not been well documented. The black-capped chickadee is one of the smallest birds capable of overwintering at high latitudes, illustrating its ability to effectively thermoregulate (Hill et al., 1980; Cooper and Swanson, 1994; Sharbaugh, 2001). Here, black-capped chickadees were measured under two different phenotypes, the first in birds acclimated to a winter-like, cold temperature and the second in birds acclimated to a temperature typical of the transitional autumn period, when birds are adjusting their phenotype to the cold (Petit and Vézina, 2014b). We examined oxidative stress in black-capped chickadees by assessing the activity of CAT, SOD and GPx, total antioxidant capacity with respect to peroxyl and hydroxyl scavenging capacity, and LPO damage in muscle, brain, intestine and liver tissues. Because we chose four metabolically active organs, we were able to differentially test oxidative stress responses across different tissues, so as to gain a ‘global’ perspective on oxidative stress in the organism. We expected that only transition birds would increase the activity/concentration of their antioxidant system and/or show increases in oxidative damage during temperature drops.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Capture, maintenance and temperature protocol
Black-capped chickadees, Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus 1766), were captured near Rimouski, QC, Canada, in the Forêt d'Enseignment et de Recherche Macpès, using mist nets. All captured birds (N=38; N=20 transition group and N=18 cold; described below) were transported back to the Avian Research facility at the Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR). All birds were fitted with a unique color band, housed individually (41×42×32 cm cages) and randomly assigned to an experimental group (described below). Procedures were approved by the UQAR Animal Care Committee (CPA-69-17-191) and were conducted under scientific and banding permits from Environment and Climate Change Canada – Canadian Wildlife Service (10889).
We used a factorial design combining two temperature treatments and two phenotypes derived from the reaction norm for Msum reported by Petit and Vézina (2014a,b). Birds in the cold phenotype were held at −5°C for 21 days, and individuals in the transition phenotype were held at 20°C also for 21 days. Each of the two phenotypes was divided into two treatments: a control group (no temperature change) and a cold drop group, which were acutely exposed to a 15°C decrease over 3 h at a rate of −5°C h−1. Birds in the cold were under a 10 h 15 min light:13 h 45 min dark photoperiod (i.e. roughly mimicking an average February for this location) and transition birds were under a 13 h 23 min light:10 h 37 min dark cycle (i.e. roughly mimicking an average September for this location). All birds remained at their final room temperature for 3 h prior to sampling. We then alternated removing one bird from each room until each bird had been sampled, euthanized and dissected. Immediately after removal from their cage, we measured total body mass (±0.01 g). Birds were euthanized using CO2 asphyxiation and quickly (under 5 min) dissected for their brain, liver, intestine and pectoralis muscle. All samples were flash frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at −80°C until further analysis. For the transition birds, final sample sizes were based on N=20 individuals: N=10 control and N=10 cold drop. In the cold group, sample sizes varied between N=10 (N=5 control, N=5 cold drop) and N=17 (N=8 control, N=9 cold drop).
Homogenates for CAT, SOD and GPx activity and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay
To estimate CAT, SOD, GPx activity and total antioxidant capacity, we homogenized (Fisher Scientific Homogenizer Model 125) approximately 0.1 g of each tissue (1:9 mass:volume) in buffer solution containing 20 mmol l−1 Hepes, 1 mmol l−1 EGTA and 90 mmol l−1 mannitol. We then centrifuged homogenates for 20 min at 32,000 g using an Eppendorf centrifuge (5417C) at 4°C. The supernatant was extracted and stored at −80°C until further testing. All samples were run within 1 week of homogenizing. We used commercial kits (Cayman Chemical Company, Ann Arbor, MI, USA) to measure the activity of CAT (cat. no. 707002), SOD (cat. no. 706002) and GPx (cat. no. 703102), according to the manufacturer's instructions.
We estimated antioxidant capacity against peroxyl and hydroxyl radicals, two of the more damaging forms of ROS, by using a microplate-based version of the competitive ORAC assay (Cao and Prior, 1999; Prior and Cao, 1999). In this assay, when in vitro production of radicals exceeds the antioxidant capacity of the tissue, these ROS modify the algal pigment phycoerythrin (545 nm/575 nm) and decrease its fluorescence. The decrease in phycoerythrin was monitored using a temperature-controlled (30°C) microplate reader (Infinite M200 Pro, Tecan, Grödig, Austria). Peroxyl radicals were generated by 320 mmol l−1 2,2′-azobis (2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride, and hydroxyl radicals were generated in separate plates by adding 0.25 μl per well of 10 mmol l−1 CuSO4 and 0.667 mol l−1 ascorbate mixture. ORAC values for peroxyl and hydroxyl radicals were determined by integrating the area under the fluorescence decay curve. Tissue from each individual was measured in duplicate for both peroxyl and hydroxyl radical absorbance capacity; replicates were averaged prior to statistical analysis. This method has previously been used and validated for tissue homogenates (Cao and Prior, 1999; Prior and Cao, 1999).
LPO damage assay
We estimated LPO damage by using a microplate-based version of the ferrous oxidation of Xylenol Orange (FOX) assay (Gay and Gebicki, 2003; Hermes-Lima et al., 1995; Wolff, 1994). Tissues were weighed, and approximately 0.1 g of tissue was placed (1:9 mass:volume) in a solution of methanol containing 4 mmol l−1 2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-methylphenol (BHT). We homogenized each tissue (Fisher Scientific Homogenizer Model 125) and centrifuged homogenates at 2000 g in an Eppendorf centrifuge (5417C) at 4°C for 5 min. Supernatants were immediately incubated in a 90% methanol solution containing 36 mmol l−1 sulfuric acid, 0.25 mmol l−1 ammonium iron sulfate and 0.1 mmol l−1 Xylenol Orange for 30 min before plating in duplicate wells in a 96-well plate. Lipid hydroperoxide concentration was monitored using a microplate reader (Infinite M200 Pro, Tecan) at an absorbance of 595 nm. Standard curves were generated using cumene hydroperoxide as a positive control.
All statistical analyses were run using JMP (version 13.1.0). We used a 2-way ANOVA, with phenotype/treatment (a 4-level variable: cold/control, cold/cold drop, transition/control and transition/cold drop) and tissues as fixed factors and bird ID as a random variable. Non-significant interactions were removed from models. Tukey's HSD was used for post hoc analysis. LPO damage was not normally distributed even after log transformation. We thus used the Sheirer–Ray–Hare extension of the Kruskal–Wallis test for LPO damage data.
We found significant differences among phenotypes and tissues in the activity of all enzymes as well as in the tissue capacity for scavenging peroxyl and hydroxyl. We also found an effect of phenotype on lipid peroxidation damage. However, no significant difference in enzymatic activity or scavenging capacity was found within the cold and transition phenotypes when comparing control birds with those that had been exposed to the temperature drop. In other words, the sudden increase in thermoregulatory demand did not trigger a detectable response in the variables we measured, whether the birds were acclimated to cold or not. However, LPO damage was affected by phenotype (see below).
CAT activity did not differ among phenotype/treatments (P=0.43), but showed significant differences among tissues (F3=275.6, P≤0.0001; Fig. 1G; Fig. S1). Indeed, although CAT activity differed significantly in all tissues, it was much lower in the brain than in all other tissues, being 2.8 times lower than in muscles and 4 times lower than in the liver (Fig. 1G). We also found a significant tissue×phenotype/treatment interaction (F9=9.4, P≤0.0001). However, for each tissue, birds did not differ between treatments within phenotypes (Fig. S1). GPx activity differed between phenotypes (F3=4.1, P=0.013) and tissues (F3=19.4, P≤0.0001) with 43.1% higher activity in the transition phenotype than in the cold phenotype (Fig. 1A). Post-mitotic tissue (brain and muscle) did not differ significantly and had the highest GPx activity; on average 3 times higher than that in mitotic tissue (liver and intestine), which also did not differ (Fig. 1E). SOD activity was also significantly different across phenotypes (F3=8.1, P<0.0003) and tissues (F3=241.9, P≤0.0001). Its activity was 15% higher in the cold compared with the transition phenotype (Fig. 1B). The liver showed the highest SOD activity of all organs, followed by the intestine and muscle, and the lowest SOD activity was measured in the brain, being only 20.8% of that measured in the liver (Fig. 1F).
Hydroxyl scavenging capacity was significantly different across phenotypes (F3=7.7, P=0.0009) but not across tissues (P=0.082), with scavenging capacity being 19.7% higher in the transition phenotype compared with that in cold-acclimated birds (Fig. 1C). Peroxyl scavenging capacity differed across phenotypes (F3=4.7, P=0.012) but also tissues (F3=125.7, P≤0.0001). Cold-acclimated birds had a 15.8% higher scavenging capacity compared with birds in the transition phenotype (Fig. 1D), and scavenging capacity was higher in the intestine than in all other organs. The liver also showed better peroxyl scavenging capacity than the brain and muscle, which did not differ (Fig. 1H). LPO damage was significantly different across phenotypes (H3=10.8, P=0.013) but not across tissues (P=0.171; Fig. 2). LPO damage was 3.3 times higher in the transition phenotype compared with that in cold-acclimated birds.
Animals can maintain spare capacity as part of physiological acclimation/acclimatization. This spare capacity allows for rapid upregulation of physiological performance, up to a certain level, above routine when confronted with sudden changes in demand (McWilliams and Karasov, 2014). At the whole-organism level, forest-inhabiting birds such as dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis) and black-capped chickadees have been reported to adjust their basal metabolic rate (BMR) and Msum within 14–30 days following changes in Ta, whereas other species normally found in open, more thermally variable areas showed metabolic changes within 8 days (Dubois et al., 2016). Whole-animal changes, such as metabolic rate, also seem to happen more rapidly in cold than in warm temperatures (Barceló et al., 2009), and BMR was shown to respond to temperature at a faster rate than Msum or maximal metabolic rate (MMR) in experimental conditions (Dubois et al., 2016), although McKechnie (2008) pointed out that the time course of BMR adjustments in birds remains unknown. However, the rate at which physiological changes can happen at the cell level has been understudied. We hypothesized that birds in winter phenotype would have a better reserve capacity against cold spells than birds in a transition phenotype. By inference, then, we expected that only transition birds would increase the activity/concentration of their antioxidant system and/or show increases in oxidative damage during temperature drops but our data did not support this hypothesis. Instead our data only showed significant differences between tissues and phenotypes.
Because the antioxidant system responds to ROS production, and ROS production is not proportional to whole-animal metabolism (Stier et al., 2014), various aspects of the system may react differently across tissues (Cooper-Mullin and McWilliams, 2016). Tissues within animals are said to have differences with respect to their ability to accumulate oxidative damage based on whether they are mitotic or post-mitotic (Selman et al., 2000). Skeletal muscles may thus exhibit relatively low antioxidant enzyme activities, although they contain post-mitotic cells that accumulate ROS damage over time (Selman et al., 2000). In contrast, in Sprague–Dawley rats, oxidative damage to DNA in the form of 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OH-dG) increases with age in mitotic tissues such as liver, kidney and intestine, but not in the post-mitotic brain (Fraga et al., 1990), potentially indicating that post-mitotic tissue may accrue less DNA oxidative damage compared with mitotic tissues. Here, we sampled muscle and brain tissues as representatives of post-mitotic tissue, and liver and intestine as representatives of mitotic tissue. We did not find consistent patterns across mitotic and post-mitotic tissue; rather, each tissue seemed to follow a functional phenotype with regards to oxidative stress. For example, liver SOD activity was highest out of the tissues measured, potentially due to the liver's detoxifying functions for the organism. Brain tissue demonstrated the lowest levels of CAT and SOD activity and peroxyl scavenging capacity, and did not accumulate higher amounts of LPO damage. Although it may seem surprising that one of the body's most metabolically active tissues has low antioxidant capacity, high oxygen consumption is a general characteristic of this organ and not an acute response to increase temporary performance of the mitochondria, and thus it is not expected to have high rates of ROS production (Munro and Treberg, 2017). In contrast, CAT activity was highest in the liver to potentially deal with a higher concentration of H2O2 produced by SOD. Indeed, as the affinity of CAT for H2O2 is low, H2O2 must be present at high concentrations for this enzyme to be efficient (Hulbert et al., 2007). We also found that GPx activity across tissues showed a reversed pattern compared with CAT activity, suggesting that the oxidative stress system is conservative and not redundant in function. It should be mentioned here, however, that we did not measure activity through the thioredoxin (TRx) pathway, which has been demonstrated in rat and mouse skeletal muscle or brain to be more active than the GPx pathway (Drechsel and Patel, 2010; Rohrbach et al., 2006).
There were clear differences between phenotypes with, for instance, transition birds showing a lower SOD activity and lower peroxyl scavenging capacity than their cold counterparts. High peroxyl detoxification in the cold phenotype may decrease the need for controlling hydroxyl detoxification as hydroxyl ROS are generated via the Fenton reaction and will attack PUFAs, potentially causing LPOs (Speakman et al., 2015). Though more nuanced, CAT activity was significantly lower in muscle of cold-acclimated birds compared with transition birds and higher in liver (Fig. S1), an organ heavily solicited under cold conditions as a result of high food intake (Devost et al., 2014; Dubois et al., 2016; Barceló et al., 2017; Milbergue et al., 2018). This suggests that there are seasonal changes to antioxidant capacity in response to the generation of differing amounts of ROS, which is consistent with the theory of machinery matching, that organisms equipped to deal with a large seasonal range of temperatures adjust their molecular machinery accordingly in support of their metabolic demands (Hart, 1962; Cooper and Swanson, 1994; Vézina et al., 2006; Olson et al., 2010; Liknes and Swanson, 2011; Swanson and Vézina, 2015).
Similar to our results, GPx activity in blood of great tits (Parus major) was significantly lower in winter compared with autumn (Norte et al., 2009). However, CAT activity was increased in skeletal muscle, kidney and heart, and GPx activity was increased in heart of voles (Microtus agrestis) raised and chronically exposed to cold temperatures compared with voles kept at 22°C (Selman et al., 2000). In barn swallows (Hirundo rustica), liver oxidative stress values across the year showed that birds in winter phenotype had higher levels of lipid hydroperoxides, SOD, CAT and GPx activity than individuals measured in summer, although in this specific case winter oxidative stress might have been due to toxic compounds increasing biotransformation activity (Raja-Aho et al., 2012). We saw no effect of a drop in temperature in either phenotype, but did observe a pattern of lower LPO damage and higher lipid protection in the cold (see also Hart, 1962; Cooper and Swanson, 1994; Olson et al., 2010). While others have found that glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPx4) can directly reduce phospholipid hydroperoxides in mammalian cells (Imai and Nakagawa, 2003), we did not measure this specific enzyme. Our results, therefore, suggest that upregulated functions associated with cold acclimatization or acclimation may include some level of lipid membrane protection.
Subjecting birds to a cold drop did not induce changes in the oxidative stress variables in either phenotype or tissue, which suggests that the oxidative stress system might be slow to respond to sudden changes in the environment compared with whole-animal metabolism and/or that oxidative damage might require more time to accumulate to detectable levels than 3–6 h. Alternatively, this finding could also imply that spare capacity for defense against oxidative stress is sufficient to respond to a sudden upregulation of metabolism in these birds, even when maintaining a phenotype matching constant mild temperatures, thus requiring no immediate changes in the variables we measured. Either way, our findings contrast with previous studies on mammals and birds, though none reported data on short-term responses. For example, in chronically cold-stressed rats, a marker of lipid peroxidation damage (MDA content) was increased in the brain, heart, kidney, liver and small intestine, compared with rats kept at 25°C. In parallel, GPx activity was higher in the brain and small intestine and lower in the heart, kidney and liver (Kaushik and Kaur, 2003). In zebra finches, a temperature drop from 24°C to 12°C did not change total antioxidant capacity after 24 h at 12°C, though these birds did accrue significantly more DNA oxidative damage than controls (Stier et al., 2014). After 4 weeks of chronic exposure to 12°C, however, zebra finches showed a decrease in total antioxidant capacity in the blood (Stier et al., 2014). Contrasting with that study, house sparrows (Passer domesticus) in summer phenotype that were acutely exposed to cold (2–5°C for 12 h) showed an increase in whole-animal metabolism and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) compared with control birds; whereas gray catbirds (Dumetella carolinensis) similarly treated did not show any increase in TAC (Cohen et al., 2008). Therefore, taken together, our results and these studies suggest that the effect of cold exposure on the antioxidant system might be both tissue specific and dependent on the degree and extent of cold exposure encountered, implying that longer durations of cold might be needed to trigger an upregulation of this system (Selman et al., 2000), similar to the seasonal differences we found. They also suggest that upregulation patterns in the antioxidant system may be species specific.
We would like to thank Sadie Ray, Sydney Ziatek, Isabelle DiBiase, Abigail Fleming, Sarah Senécal and Justine Drolet for their help in catching and caring for birds and assisting in laboratory assays.
Conceptualization: A.G.J., F.V.; Methodology: A.G.J., E.C.R., K.J.T., K.N.A., A.L.P., L.R., F.V.; Validation: A.G.J., F.V.; Formal analysis: E.C.R., K.J.T., K.N.A., F.V.; Investigation: A.G.J., K.N.A.; Resources: A.G.J., A.L.P., L.R., F.V.; Data curation: K.J.T.; Writing - original draft: A.G.J.; Writing - review & editing: A.G.J., E.C.R., K.J.T., K.N.A., F.V.; Visualization: E.C.R., F.V.; Supervision: A.G.J.; Project administration: A.G.J., F.V.; Funding acquisition: A.G.J.
This work was supported by Colgate University’s startup funds for A.G.J., a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery grant and a Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) award to F.V., a Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Nature et Rechnologies (FRQNT) PBEEE fellowship to E.C.R. and summer undergraduate research at Colgate University grant to K.N.A. and K.J.T.
The authors declare no competing or financial interests. | <urn:uuid:5f026257-5cd3-4442-8d14-acd4d43d6ef7> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/223/8/jeb218826/223849/Consequences-of-being-phenotypically-mismatched | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710968.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20221204072040-20221204102040-00589.warc.gz | en | 0.931572 | 6,214 | 2.71875 | 3 |
One of the most obvious signs of infertility in women is not conceiving despite regular intercourse with your partner. If you have not conceived a baby within one year, a visit to the gynecologist may be in order. Contact your doctor earlier if you have any reason to be worried about your fertility or if you are over the age of 35. The earlier infertility is diagnosed; the better is the chance of finding a treatment that will work.
Even if you have some symptoms that could be sign of infertility, it does not mean that you are definitely infertile. If you have experienced any of these signs, have been trying for a baby for some time and are concerned about your fertility, you should contact your doctor. If you are young, the doctor might ask you to continue trying for some time or he might start a fertility investigation. Some early signs of infertility includes:
One of the main reasons behind infertility is often age. A study made by American Bureau of Health has shown that only two thirds of women can fall pregnant within one year after the age of 35. The chance of falling pregnant naturally decreases fast after this age and this is linked to the fact that the quality of eggs is reduced as a woman gets closer to menopause. The risk of miscarriages also increases with age.
Irregular or No Menstrual Period
An irregular period could be a sign of infertility. Women who have a period longer than 35 days or shorter than 24 days should seek medical advice before trying to conceive as an irregular period could be a sign of a problem with the ovulation. Irregular periods do not have to be a fertility problem, but it could indicate hormonal imbalances or Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS).
This could also be a sign of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). Common symptoms that occur together with heavy bleeding are irregular periods and acne. Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most common causes of infertility and affects around 70 percent of infertile women.
Being overweight reduces fertility and can affect ovulation. Being severely underweight can also result in infertility, as it could stop ovulation.
This could be a sign of endometriosis, which is a condition that could cause infertility. Small pieces of the womb lining are found outside the womb in places such as the fallopian tubes, ovaries, bladder, bowel, vagina or rectum. The most common symptoms of endometriosis also include heavy periods, pain in the lower tummy, pain during sexual intercourse and bleeding between periods.
A miscarriage is a pregnancy that ends spontaneously before the fetus can survive. Many women experience early miscarriages without even knowing that they were pregnant. A woman that has had three or more miscarriages will often be offered evaluation by their doctor to find out what is causing the miscarriages.
Sexual Transmitted Infections (STI)
There are several Sexual Transmitted Infections that can cause infertility. Chlamydia is one of the STIs that could cause infertility if left untreated. If you suspect that you might have a sexually transmitted infection it is important to contact your doctor as soon as possible.
NHS: Infertility – https://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Infertility
Medicinenet: Endometriosos – https://www.medicinenet.com/endometriosis/article.htm
Fertility Expert: Fertility Issues – https://www.fertilityexpert.co.uk/FemaleSymptomsOfFertilityIssues.html | <urn:uuid:e1285650-a823-4a9f-acf7-8ae3ab893523> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://www.healthguideinfo.com/infertility/p90809/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875146342.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20200226115522-20200226145522-00054.warc.gz | en | 0.955736 | 725 | 2.546875 | 3 |
The main aim of our study was to determine the effect of expanded and pelleted feeds, as well as the only pelleted feed based on wheat and corn, on the production of turkeys. In May 2006,, a fattening experiment on turkeys was started on the starter farm of Habar Ltd in Szarvas, owned by the Gallicoop Corporation. 17 day old male turkeys were involved in the fattening experiment. The experiment lasted 117 days. At that time, theanimals were 134 days old. After the experiment was completed, they were slaughtered. The following parameters were examined: growth, feed conversion ratio, carcass traits. Turkey feed were produced separately at different times. Similarly to the standard method of turkey fattening, 8 phases feeding was carried out. The fattening experiment was adjusted on male turkeys in 4×12×6 grouping (4 treatments: expanded and pelleted, and only pelleted corn and wheat feed; 12 repeats: number of pens/treatments; 6 birds/pen) 6-6 turkeys from 12 pens per each treatments were measured individually from the 17th day (starter) and at the time of each following feeding changes and mortality. The average of the group was calculated. The average daily weight gain, proportion of the given feed per pen, feeding changes and mortality were determined. The average daily feed intake and the feed conversion ratio were calculated. | <urn:uuid:fb6b8b52-0595-40bd-b3b6-62e01eca4cb9> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://ojs.lib.unideb.hu/actaagrar/article/view/3047 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400198287.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20200920161009-20200920191009-00796.warc.gz | en | 0.985643 | 292 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Time to Re-Mind the Brain
A radical rethink is needed to understand the brain, a neuroscientist complains. A radical rethink is needed to understand human exceptionalism, too.
Modularity is a mistake, says Henrik Jörntell on The Conversation. This senior lecturer on neuroscience from Lund University wants science to abandon the idea that the brain is composed of modules like engine parts, where each piece has its own function.
Understanding the human brain is arguably the greatest challenge of modern science. The leading approach for most of the past 200 years has been to link its functions to different brain regions or even individual neurons (brain cells). But recent research increasingly suggests that we may be taking completely the wrong path if we are to ever understand the human mind.
Appealing though it be, modularity oversimplifies the brain. Evidence has been growing that functions are distributed across the whole brain. He says we need a more holistic way of thinking about it. Experiments with electrodes that seem to support modularity, as well as functional-MRI scans, mislead scientists into a “perfect trap of the intellect,” Jörntell argues. Why would science try to subdivide the brain when the task of all science is to find correlations? That’s ironic. Instead of finding independent functional modules, scientists should look for “the underlying connectivity of brain regions as part of a complex network.”
The bottom-up approach of connecting modules into a brain has proven fruitless. “So far, there is no general solution to this problem – just hypotheses in specific cases, such as for recognising people,” he says. To get out of the blind alley, a “radical rethink is needed to understand” the brain. Some neuroscientists are showing a way forward:
Some researchers now believe the brain and its diseases in general can only be understood as an interplay between tremendous numbers of neurons distributed across the central nervous system. The function of any one neuron is dependent on the functions of all the thousands of neurons it is connected to. These, in turn, are dependent on those of others. The same region or the same neuron may be used across a huge number of contexts, but have different specific functions depending on the context.
A network-centric approach unites rather than subdivides. We shouldn’t think of speech, the sense of self, or diseases of the central nervous system as isolated to one brain region. The brain itself is not isolated to the skull. It is tied into all its sensory organs, interacting with muscles as well. “Without the full picture, we are not likely to be able to successfully cure these and many other conditions,” he says. Sadly, much of the pharmaceutical industry is tied to the modular picture.
In this way, neuroscience is gradually losing compass on its purported path towards understanding the brain. It’s absolutely crucial that we get it right. Not only could it be the key to understanding some of the biggest mysteries known to science – such as consciousness – it could also help treat a huge range of debilitating and costly health problems.
But does Jörntell’s approach lead down another blind alley? He appears to be a monist and materialist, viewing the mind as a consequence of the physical brain (see first quote above). And he thinks the brain evolved:
Connecting back to the physical reality is the only way to understand how information is represented in the brain. One of the reasons we have a nervous system in the first place is that the evolution of mobility required a controlling system. Cognitive, mental functions – and even thoughts – can be regarded as mechanisms that evolved in order to better plan for the consequences of movement and actions.
This view cannot be true, because it refutes itself. We would have to conclude that Jörntell’s own reasoning about the brain emerged from the bottom up, from blind actions of evolution that had no goal of rationality. As such, his irrational brain produced an irrational article. And if ‘understanding’ is what he wants, he needs to first understand the evolutionary theory upon which he depends. He misrepresents neo-Darwinism, thinking that requirements can produce solutions out of blind, impersonal processes. You can read requirements for avoiding avalanches to a snowbank all day, but it won’t come up with a controlling system to avoid hitting animals on the way down. In Darwinian theory, no “mechanism” evolves something “in order to better plan” for something else. Planning for consequences requires a mind with a goal. Regretfully, we must relegate Jörntell to the Blind Leaders of the Blind Society.
What Does It Mean to Be Human?
An article on Mosaic: The Science of Life discusses the work of Clive and Geraldine Finlayson, who have spent 25 years studying Neanderthal remains in caves on the Rock of Gibraltar. Gaia Vince joins them to search for the distinctive traits that identify humanity. Another radical re-think is needed here: the subtitle of the article states, “Gaia Vince discovers that analysing the genetics of ancient humans means changing ideas about our evolution.”
Vince notes how different her hosts, the husband-and-wife Finlayson team, appears: “How different we humans can look from each other.” Yet she commits historical racism in the next sentence by sending Neanderthals to the back of the bus: “And yet the people whose home I am about to visit truly were of a different race.” Then she relegates all the archaic humans to other races: Homo heidelbergensis and others, who as far back as 600,000 Darwin Years ago knew how to hunt and use fire and make stone tools. Her historical racism reaches a screechy fortissimo when she admits that Neanderthals, Denisovans and other bore children with modern humans but were somehow “other” than us. Consider: “This geographic separation enabled genetic differences to evolve, eventually resulting in different races, although they were still the same species and would prove able to have fertile offspring together.” Isn’t the essence of racism to de-humanize others, making them members of an outgroup? And yet a few sentences later, she admits that within Gorham Cave, “people not so different from myself once sat here.” Indeed, since her genome shows she is 1% Neanderthal, she feels “it is an extraordinary experience to be so close to the intelligent, resourceful people who bequeathed me some of their genes.”
So what does the Gibraltar evidence show Vince about what it means to be human? The Finlaysons have collected surprising evidence of culture in this place – once an idyllic habitat that Clive calls ‘Neanderthal City’. They have found evidence of fire, sleeping chambers, carvings (including a “hashtag” symbol that might be an attempt at symbolic writing), necklaces, stone tools, ornaments, and burial sites for the dead.
Other signs of symbolic or ritualistic behaviour, such as the indication that Neanderthals were making and wearing black feather capes or headdresses as well as warm clothes, all point to a social life not so different to the one our African ancestors were experiencing.
They seem pretty human. Vince speculates about this society’s demise, perhaps due to climate change rather than competition by modern humans. She thinks they might have been suffering genetic collapse. Does that make sense? They were around for hundreds of thousands of Darwin Years in the evolutionary tale, yet had children by modern humans. Then she makes this remarkable statement:
There is far less genetic difference between any two humans than there is between two chimpanzees, for example.
Given the wide disparity in features between living humans, which she admitted earlier, on what basis could she classify Neanderthals, Denisovans or the other populations non-human? Wouldn’t that be like chimpanzees committing racism with members of their own species?
Gaia Vince then moves to Siberia, where the twin brothers Eske and Rane Willerslev study human remains. Eske studies genetics; Rane studies humanities. Which is the wiser in interpreting evidence? “There exists an uneasy relationship between biology and culture,” Rane told Vince. “Natural scientists claim they can reveal what sort of people moved around, and they are not interested in having their models challenged. But this cannot tell you anything about what people thought or what their culture was.” And for his part, Eske recognizes that genes don’t tell the whole story, either. His own work has overturned hypotheses about the evolution of lactose intolerance and skin color.
Back in the Gibraltar museum, Gaia becomes a little unnerved at artist reconstructions of Neanderthals.
At the Gibraltar Museum, a pair of Dutch archaeology artists have created life-size replicas of a Neanderthal woman and her grandson, based on finds from nearby. They are naked but for a woven amulet and decorative feathers in their wild hair. The boy, aged about four, is embracing his grandmother, who stands confidently and at ease, smiling at the viewer. It’s an unnerving, extraordinarily powerful connection with someone whose genes I may well share, and I recall Clive’s words from when I asked him if modern humans had simply replaced Neanderthals because of our superior culture.
“That replacement theory is a kind of racism. It’s a very colonialist mentality,” he said. “You’re talking almost as if they were another species.”
She never did answer the question, “What does it mean to be human?”
What it means to be human: it means to be a creature fashioned in the image of God by an all-powerful, all-knowing, wise and good Creator. It means to be fully equipped with other physical creatures of the planet for survival, reproduction and adaptability—but not only for survival alone. To be human is to have unique gifts of intellect, emotions and will, a capacity for art and beauty, a conscience, an inquiring mind, an awareness of one’s createdness, and a longing for significance. It means to be an individual, aware of one’s self, one’s unique identity as a person. It means to be a sinner because of our ancestry in Adam and Eve—the federal representatives of the human race—when they disobeyed their Creator and took their lineage along with them into a broken relationship with God. It means to live in a cursed world, subject to fear, disease and death. It means to live somewhere forever beyond this life. To be fully human means to be reconciled to the Creator through the provision he made for sin—the substitutionary sacrifice of the incarnate God the Son, and thus restored, to enjoy God forever. During this life, it means to love the truth and to love others enough to woo them away from lies, such as materialism, evolutionism, racism and anything else that contradicts what the Creator has declared in his eternal word. | <urn:uuid:ae75ff52-ed9e-4560-8f86-f93edf3a608e> | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | https://crev.info/2017/03/time-to-re-mind-the-brain/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107905965.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20201029214439-20201030004439-00380.warc.gz | en | 0.954934 | 2,316 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Which part interprets program instructions and initiate control operations.
Correct Answer :
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Which of the following is valid statement?
Multi user systems provided cost savings for small business because they use a single processing unit…
Which of the following programming language started from second generation?
________ are used to identify a user who returns to a Website
Identify the correct statement
A dumb terminal has
A ________ is a microprocessor -based computing device.
Which of the following are the two main components of the CPU?
Storage capacity of magnetic disk depends on
A physical connection between the microprocessor memory and other parts of the microcomputer is known…
Where are data and programme stored when the processor uses them?
In what respect human beings are superior to computers?
In _____ mode, the communication channel is used in both directions at the same time?
The device used to carry digital data on analogue lines is called as
Which of the following is first generation computer?
The earliest calculating devices are
EBCDIC stands for
What do you call the translator which takes assembly language program as input & produce machine language…
A stand-alone system which produces one page of printed output at a time is
Which of the following term means to reckon?
Who invented vacuum tubes?
Computer is free from tiresome and boardoom. We call it
RAM is an example of
Which of the following memories has the shortest access times?
Which of the following is not a class of computers based on size?
The tracks on a disk which can be accessed without repositioning the R/W heads is
When did John Napier develop logarithm?
Microprocessors as switching devices are for which generation computers?
Which of the following memories allows simultaneous read and write operations?
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Myths about telegrams
Telegrams - and how they work - have often been the subject of urban legends.
Can you separate fact from fiction? Test your knowledge with these
commonly-heard myths about telegrams.
Myth: The “last telegram in the world” was sent in July, 2013 in India
The real story: In July 2013, the Christian Science Monitor ran a story that mistakenly concluded
that when India's state-run telegram service closed that summer, it meant the end of
telegrams not only in India, but everywhere. The fact is, telegram service is still
widely available in most countries on earth - even in India. The Christian Science
Monitor did publish a retraction
for the obvious mistake, but by then the bogus story had been picked up and re-published by
Fox News and USA Today, and eventually spread to several reputable news outlets -
even though a simple web search would have easily busted this myth.
To this day, some people still believe the urban legend that telegrams no longer exist.
Myth: Telegrams aren't popular anymore
The real story: World-wide, around 17 million telegrams are sent every year.
Text messages and e-mails might be fine for a quick ‘hello’, but when it comes to
urgent hand-delivered messages, the telegram is still the king of communication. Speaking
of kings, it's no surprise that lots of the telegrams we handle are from royalty
and government. And when someone receives a real telegram, they feel like royalty!
That's why telegrams are always in fashion at weddings, celebrations, and for
expressing gratitude, love or sympathy. Telegrams are also used for important legal
notifications. We retain copies of every telegram sent for seven years, so unlike
a letter or electronic message, the contents of a telegram can be legally verified - even
years after it was sent.
Myth: Morse invented the telegraph
The real story: In May 1844, Samuel F.B. Morse successfully designed an electrical
telegraph and used it to send the message
“WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT” between Baltimore, Maryland and Washington D.C., effectively
inaugurating telegram service in the United States. However, Morse had learned about
telegraphy in Britain, where William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone had already
developed a working electrical telegraph. Cooke and Wheatstone's five-needle telegraph circuit
was established between Paddington and West Drayton in England in 1838 - some six years
before Morse sent his famous message. Morse's design did prove to be a more elegant
solution, so while not the first, in time it became the most popular.
Myth: Morse code is dead
The real story: Speaking of Morse, the code that he developed with his associate
Alfred Vail is still very much in use - although not in commercial telegrams.
Even back in the 1930s, Morse telegram circuits were being replaced by
faster and more efficient technologies such as the teletypewriter. By the 1980s,
telex lines and packet-switched data networks had completely replaced the clack-clack of
the old telegraph sounder and key. Still, Morse code is far from dead.
Amateur radio hobbyists use Morse code to transmit messages on short-wave across the
globe because it requires much less transmission power than voice does. Air navigation beacons
and other radio systems use Morse code for station identifications. And people with a
variety of disabilities are making use of Morse code as an assistive technology to communicate.
Myth: Telegrams used STOP in place of punctuation because punctuation cost extra
The real story: Morse code originally had only capital letters and no punctuation.
This generally was not much of a problem, but during the first world war when telegrams
were widely used in the military, a misunderstood message could be disastrous.
The custom arose of using the word STOP between sentences in military telegrams so that
any ambiguous phrases would not be misinterpreted. The custom caught on with the public.
Even after punctuation was introduced, people continued fashionably using STOP between sentences in
telegrams even though they didn't have to.
Myth: Titanic survivors were charged $1 per word to send telegrams from their lifeboat.
One man used his last dollar to send the word ‘Safe’ to his mother.
Status: Mostly false
The real story: This often-repeated “fun fact” has a big problem.
The radiotelegraph on
the Titanic was a massive spark-gap generator. The equipment took up several rooms
and relied on four 400-foot long aerials. Obviously, it wouldn't fit on a lifeboat!
This myth can be traced back to an interview with Titanic survivor Miss Elizabeth Dowdell,
whose account was published in the
Observer (20th of April 1912). She tells of Titanic
survivors rescued by the passenger ship Carpathia. Some survivors sent radiograms
from on board the Carpathia, but these were very expensive ($3.12 minimum, in 1912 money).
Other survivors sent telegrams as soon as the Carpathia arrived in
New York on the 18th of April. Miss Dowdell recalled
“One man, a barber, had but $1.25 with him, and he handed over one dollar of this to
send the word ‘safe’ to his mother.” This was upon
arrival in New York when “[the] tug came alongside to take off any messages” from the
Carpathia. The messages were written down on Marconi Company paper forms, and shuttled to the Marconi
office in New York to be cabled. Neat story, but no one actually sent telegrams from the lifeboats!
Have you got any telegram myths that you've heard or
wondered about? Questions about telegrams or how they work?
We'd love to hear from you. Contact us! | <urn:uuid:1d2a18a7-112c-40ec-bde1-83fd71c1fc90> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | https://itelegram.com/telegram/Myths_About_Telegrams.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934808935.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20171124195442-20171124215442-00120.warc.gz | en | 0.945737 | 1,314 | 2.890625 | 3 |
An unmanned Minotaur 5 rocket blasted off on Friday to send a small NASA science satellite on its way to the moon.
The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) will look for dust rising from the moon’s surface.
Decades ago, Apollo crews reported seeing a strange glow on the horizon just before sunrise.
Scientists suspected that dust from the lunar surface was being electrically charged and somehow lofted off the ground.
Apollo astronauts have described the dust as “like talcum powder,” but strangely abrasive. It smelled “like spent gunpowder” and clung to their boots, gloves and equipment, they said.
More than 40 years after the last Apollo astronauts left the moon,LADEE will investigate one of their most bizarre discoveries.
In addition to studying the lunar dust, from an orbit as low as 50 kilometers above the lunar surface, LADEE will probe the tenuous envelope of gases that surrounds the moon, a veneer so thin it stretches the meaning of the word “atmosphere.”
Scientists refer to such environments as exospheres and hope that understanding the moon’s gaseous shell will shed light on similar pockets around Mercury, asteroids and other airless bodies.
The mission is expected to last about six months. | <urn:uuid:505dd139-8ac7-4534-abdc-3f8d9df39d11> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | https://ca.news.yahoo.com/video/nasa-probe-blasts-off-investigate-063512732.html?.tsrc=warhol | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934805914.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20171120052322-20171120072322-00431.warc.gz | en | 0.927691 | 273 | 3.53125 | 4 |
Structure of the cardiovascular System. What you do!. Copy the text with a white background. Those with a pink background are for information only, and notes on these will be found in your monograph. Components of the CVS.
Arteries (and arterioles) carry blood away from the heart. The largest arteries e.g. the Aorta, have thick elastic walls which can stretch to accommodate the surge of blood after each contraction of the heart. Arteries branch many times, forming smaller and smaller vessels, the smallest of which are arterioles.
Contraction of the smooth muscle lining the walls of the arterioles allows them to open or close to varying degrees to adjust blood flow to different parts of the body e.g. during vasodilation and vasoconstriction.
Veins (and venules) carry blood back to the heart. Blood flows out of the capillaries into the smallest of the veins – venules – which in turn reunite to form larger veins. The walls of veins are thinner than those of arteries as blood pressure is far lower as it travels through veins. Consequently, veins have valves to prevent the back flow of blood.
Oxygenated blood leaves the heart from the left ventricle via the aorta, moves through arteries to arterioles to capillaries to venules and returns to the right atrium by way of veins.
Capillaries are tiny vessels where the exchange of substances with the tissue occurs. They also connect the arterioles to the venules. Their walls are only one cell thick, allowing nutrients and waste to diffuse through with ease.
Capillaries form extensive branching networks (capillary beds) throughout the body tissues, but only certain beds are open at any one time. This allows the ‘shunting’ of the blood from one region to another.
This is understandable when we consider that that an individual could have between 25,000 to 60,000 miles of capillaries!
Cardiac Output the
At rest: the HR = 72bpm
SV = 70ml
i.e. CO = 72 x 70
= 5040 ml/min
= 5 litres/min
Cardiac Output varies between individuals and depends on their physical fitness and level of activity. For example, the heart of a highly trained athlete can pump 30-35 l/min while most non-athletes can only achieve a max of 20 litres.
As work load increases, HR increases to a maximal value of about 180 – 200 bpm (220 minus age), while SV increases proportionally less (70-150ml). The increase in cardiac output with exercise is achieved principally by increasing the heart rate.
The force exerted by the blood against the walls of the blood vessels is known as blood pressure
Both systolic and diastolic BP can be measured by an inflatible instrument called a sphygmomanometer which is wrapped around the upper arm. | <urn:uuid:e044e4cd-64c7-478f-904a-8fef8598a945> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | http://www.slideserve.com/iorwen/structure-of-the-cardiovascular-system | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818696677.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20170926175208-20170926195208-00640.warc.gz | en | 0.917717 | 613 | 4.03125 | 4 |
By Dr. Mercola
The featured Catalyst documentary, "Antibiotic Resistance," offers a 30-minute-long review of some of the many factors contributing to this man-made scourge.
Today, people are so used to the idea that an antibiotic can cure just about any infection; few can even consider the possibility that someday this remedy may no longer be an option.
Indeed, antibiotics have increased the human lifespan by about a decade, and certain conditions simply could not be treated without them. Take organ transplants for example. Without antibiotics, such procedures become tremendously risky, with a low rate of success.
According to Catalyst, about half of all emergency room admissions are also related to bacterial infections, and they too would have a poor rate of recovery without antibiotics.
Even minor surgeries become risky propositions without these infection-busting drugs. Ditto for everyday infections resulting from cuts, scrapes or bites.
In many ways, modern medicine as we know it is built around a foundation of antibiotics, and that foundation is now severely threatened by the emergence of microbes that are resistant to even our harshest, last-resort antibiotics.
Prior to antibiotics, half of the world's population died from infections, and many died during early childhood. This is the reality we now face yet again, unless we somehow manage to get antibiotic resistance under control.
Animals and Humans Are Part of a Bacterial Ecosystem
In recent years, researchers have discovered that bacteria and other microorganisms are far from mere adversaries to be carpet-bombed into oblivion. Instead, microorganisms are part and parcel of us — we exist as part of a bacterial ecosystem and, in fact, many of our biological processes rely on them.
Even pathogenic bacteria that can cause severe disease only really become a threat to health when they're allowed to crowd out other, more beneficial bacteria that naturally help keep the pathogens in check. Even certain viruses play an important and supportive role in human health.
Part of the drug resistance problem we're now facing as a result of decades' worth of antibiotic misuse is the fact that bacteria are incredibly adaptable. Unless they're completely wiped out, the surviving stragglers pass on their resistance to other bacteria.
Another piece of the puzzle is bacteria's ability to share genetic material outside of the procreative process. Scientists recently discovered a bacterial gene (called mcr-1) that can spread among different bacteria with remarkable ease, conferring resistance to the strongest antibiotics in our medical arsenal.
This is a scenario that many have feared might happen, and now there's no escaping its reality. Less than a year after the mcr-1 gene was first discovered in pigs and people in China,1,2,3 it has now been identified in the U.S., both in pork samples and a patient being treated for E.coli infection.4,5
How Bacteria Share Genetic Material
All that's required for bacteria to share genetic material, delivered in little packages called plasmids, is proximity. If they're close enough, the plasmid can rapidly transfer between the various bacteria bumping against each other.
As explained in the film, if humans had this kind of gene-sharing ability, you'd be able to change the color of your eyes from blue to brown simply by standing next to a brown-eyed person. For bacteria, this ability means they can spread drug resistance to other bacteria at "astonishing speeds."
Unfortunately, scientists drastically underestimated the speed at which resistance can spread, and now we're faced with a far shorter deadline, in terms of "the end of antibiotics" in medicine, than previously expected.
To give you an idea of just how quickly resistance is now spreading, consider this: a brand new antibiotic was introduced in 2010. The very next year, resistant bacteria were detected.
Antibiotics Are Overused in Human Medicine
Overuse of antibiotics in human medicine is one contributing factor to rising drug resistance among bacteria. In Australia, antibiotics are prescribed at a rate of more than one prescription for every man, woman and child each year. The situation is similar in many other developed nations.
According to Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, associate director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as much as half of all antibiotics used in American clinics and hospitals "are either unneeded or patients are getting the wrong drugs to treat their infections."6
Lack of education is part of the problem. More than 40 percent of Americans and an astonishing 65 percent of Australians still believe antibiotics can treat viral infections.7 Many patients also insist on taking an antibiotic "just in case" — a strategy that is highly inadvisable.
Antibiotics have both short- and long-term effects on the composition and health of the microbes in your gut, and your microbiome plays a crucial role in your overall immune function and general health. You really don't want to decimate your microbiome with an antibiotic unless absolutely necessary.
Children treated with antibiotics also raise their risk of developing health problems in adulthood, including making them more susceptible to infectious diseases, allergies, obesity and autoimmune disorders as they grow older.8,9
Doctors are not without blame though. Forty-five percent of British doctors admit prescribing antibiotics even when they know it won't do any good.10
Antibiotic Use in Food Production Must Be Curbed
According to the CDC,11 there are 12 antibiotic-resistant pathogens that pose a "serious" threat to public health, and one-third of them are found in food. The four drug-resistant pathogens in question are:
- E. coli
While livestock sometimes need antibiotics to cure an infection, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) routinely use antibiotics to speed up growth and counteract poor hygiene and crowded living conditions.
In the U.S., an estimated 80 percent of antibiotics sold end up in livestock. In Australia, approximately 70 percent of all antibiotics are used in agriculture.
As noted in the film, industrialized factory farming owes its success to the routine use of antibiotics. However, we're now paying an unexpectedly heavy price for this convenient way of raising cheap food, as agricultural use of antibiotics is feeding and speeding up the spread of drug-resistant bacteria that kill an estimated 23,000 Americans each year.
Antibiotic Resistance Spreads Via Multiple Routes
Drug-resistant bacteria also accumulate in CAFO manure that is then spread on fields and enters waterways, allowing the drug-resistant bacteria to spread far and wide and ultimately back up the food chain to your dinner plate. You can see how easily antibiotic resistance spreads, via the food you eat and community contact, in the CDC's infographic below.
Phage Therapy Explored as an Alternative to Antibiotics
A type of virus called a bacteriophage, or simply "phage," is a natural predator of bacteria, capable of killing bacteria that antibiotics cannot. In fact for every bacteria in your intestine there are about 10 phages. Wherever bacteria reside, you will also find phages, because phages depend on bacteria for their survival. Evidence suggests that phages partner with animals and humans to stave off bacterial infections and control the composition of friendly microbes in your body.
So-called phage therapy is now being explored as a potential alternative to conventional antibiotics. As noted in the film, if a patient can be safely infected with the right phage, it could be a therapy to beat antibiotic resistance.
Phages specialize in breaking open and killing certain kinds of bacteria, hijacking them in order to replicate. Most phages have hollow heads, which store their DNA and RNA, and tunnel tails designed for binding to the surface of their bacterial targets. Once a phage has attached itself to a bacterium, the viral DNA is injected through the tail into the host cell.
Progeny are rapidly produced inside the host, until these little phages burst from the host cell, killing it in the process. These phages then go on to infect and kill more target bacteria until all bacteria have been consumed. What makes phages unique is that they cannot affect any cell other than bacteria, so they offer great hope as a targeted therapy against bacterial infections.
Another experimental type of treatment involves removing the drug-resistant gene package (the plasmid) from the bacteria, using a genetically engineered bacterium. Animal studies show that mice infected with drug-resistant bacteria that are given this treatment end up responding to the conventional antibiotics again. Scientists believe this kind of tool may allow them to develop treatments against bacterial infections that won't promote resistance in the process.
How You Can Help Stop the Spread of Antibiotic-Resistant Disease
In light of the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant disease, it would be wise to employ techniques and strategies that will not only reduce your own risk of falling victim, but also help curtail the spread of antibiotic resistance in general. While the problem of antibiotic resistance really needs to be stemmed through public policy on a nationwide level, the more people who get involved on a personal level, the better. Such strategies include:
✓ Using antibiotics only when absolutely necessary
For example, antibiotics are typically unnecessary for most ear infections, and they do NOT work on viruses. They only work on bacterial infections, and even then, they're best reserved for more serious infections.
Taking an antibiotic unnecessarily will kill off your beneficial gut bacteria for no reason at all, which could actually make it more difficult for you to recover from your illness. If you do take a course of antibiotics, be sure to reseed your gut with healthy bacteria, either by eating fermented foods or taking a high-quality probiotic.
As an all-around preventive measure, make sure your vitamin D level is optimized year-round, especially during pregnancy, along with vitamin K2. A number of other natural compounds can also help boost your immune system function to help rid you of an infection, including vitamin C, oil of oregano, garlic, Echinacea and tea tree oil.
High-quality colloidal silver may be a valuable addition to your medicine cabinet to treat cuts and scrapes in lieu of antibacterial creams. Colloidal silver has been regarded as an effective natural antibiotic for centuries, and research shows it can even be helpful against some antibiotic-resistant pathogens.12,13,14
Manuka honey can also be used for topical applications. Clinical trials have found that Manuka honey can effectively eradicate more than 250 clinical strains of bacteria, including some resistant varieties, such as MRSA.
✓ Avoiding antibacterial household products
This includes items such as antibacterial soaps, hand sanitizers and wipes, as these too promote antibiotic resistance.
✓ Properly washing your hands with warm water and plain soap, to prevent the spreading of bacteria
Be particularly mindful of washing your hands and kitchen surfaces after handling raw meats, as about half of all meat sold in grocery stores around the U.S. is likely to be contaminated with potentially dangerous bacteria.
✓ Purchasing organic, antibiotic-free meats and other foods
Reducing the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a significant reason for making sure you're only eating grass-fed, organically raised meats and animal products. Besides growing and raising your own, buying your food from responsible, high-quality, and sustainable sources is your best bet, and I strongly encourage you to support the small family farms in your area. | <urn:uuid:b0090518-45a8-4f09-964d-04986b5bbe5f> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/07/09/amp/how-antibiotic-resistance-spreads.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320593.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20170625221343-20170626001343-00350.warc.gz | en | 0.949788 | 2,335 | 3.296875 | 3 |
The Misdiagnosis of ADHD in Adults
Christian Jonathan Haverkampf, M.D.
Adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults is a childhood-onset, persistent, neurobiological disorder associated with high levels of morbidity and dysfunction estimated to afflict up to 5% of adults worldwide. It includes a combination of persistent problems, such as difficulty paying attention, hyperactivity and impulsive behavior, which can lead to unstable relationships, poor work or school performance, low self-esteem, and other problems.
The diagnosis is important to design an effective treatment plan with the patient, which often includes medication and psychotherapy or counselling. There is a wide variety of approaches in the diagnosis of adult ADHD, and this article aims at giving an overview of some of the more common ones. However, there is a high risk of misdiagnosing this condition. The ability to concentrate, for example, can also be affected in depression, PTSD, anxiety, psychosis and other conditions, as can the capacity for organizing and seeing through tasks, various aspects of memory and information retrieval and irritability.
Awareness for the communication patterns in the interaction with the patient, and how the patient communicates internally, are important tools in the diagnostic process and in treatment, improving the individualization of treatment and building and maintaining compliance. While the actual interaction with the patient is of primary diagnostic importance, standardized questionnaires and neuropsychological testing batteries are important to support a diagnosis and to adjust treatment.
Keywords: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD, diagnosis, treatment, psychotherapy, psychiatry
Adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults is a childhood-onset, persistent, neurobiological disorder associated with high levels of morbidity and dysfunction estimated to afflict up to 5% of adults worldwide (Kessler et al., 2006). It includes a combination of persistent problems, such as difficulty paying attention, hyperactivity and impulsive behavior, which can lead to unstable relationships, poor work or school performance, low self-esteem, and other problems. Due concerns about overdiagnosis and overtreatment, many children and youth diagnosed with ADHD still receive no treatment or insufficient treatment (Giuliano & Geyer, 2017).
Using DSM-IV criteria, in a study by Wilens and colleagues, 93% of ADHD adults had either the predominately inattentive or combined subtypes-indicative of prominent behavioral symptoms of inattention in adults. (Wilens et al., 2009) ADHD often presents as an impairing lifelong condition in adults, yet it is currently underdiagnosed and treated in many European countries, leading to ineffective treatment and higher costs of illness. Instruments for screening and diagnosis of ADHD in adults are available and appropriate treatments exist, although more research is needed in this age group. (Kooij et al., 2010)
The diagnosis of ADHD in adults is a complex procedure which should refer to the diagnostic criteria of a diagnostic manual, such as the DSM or ICD. It normally includes the following information:
- retrospective assessment of childhood ADHD symptoms
- current adult ADHD psychopathology including symptom severity and pervasiveness,
- functional impairment
- quality of life
In order to obtain a systematic database for the diagnosis and evaluation of the course ADHD rating scales can be very useful. However, the interaction with the patient in the clinical interview should remain the central part of the diagnosis. (Haverkampf, 2017c, 2017a) Integrating elements of semi-structured questioning into the clinical interview can be helpful, while awareness for the communication patterns the patient uses is crucial. (Haverkampf, 2018c) Still, specific diagnostic criteria that are more sensitive and specific to adult functioning are needed. (Davidson, 2008)
When focusing on the diagnostic details, one may sometimes run the risk of losing sight of the bigger defining symptoms of ADHD. Attention deficit needs to be present for the diagnosis. Studies of adults with ADHD suggest that the most prominent symptoms of ADHD relate to inattention as opposed to hyperactivity and impulsivity. In a meta-analysis, Schoenlein and Engel integrated 24 empirical studies reporting results of at least one of 50 standard neuropsychological tests comparing adult ADHD patients with controls. Complex attention variables and verbal memory discriminated best between ADHD patients and controls. In contrast to results reported in children, executive functions were not generally reduced in adult ADHD patients. (Schoechlin & Engel, 2005)
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with deficits in executive functioning. ADHD in adults is also associated with impairments in major life activities, particularly occupational functioning. Executive functioning deficits contribute to the impairments in occupational functioning that occur in conjunction with adult ADHD. Barkley and Murphy concluded in their study that ratings of executive functioning in daily life contribute more to such impairments than do executive functioning tests. The investigators hypothesize that one reason could be that each assesses a different level in the hierarchical organization of EF as a meta-construct. (Barkley & Murphy, 2010)
The exchange of information, internally and externally, is the process that is generally affected and gives rise to several of the observed symptoms. ADHD interferes with effective and helpful communication internally and externally, which causes several of the observed symptoms. (Haverkampf, 2010b) Internal and external communication patterns should thus be observed in diagnosis and worked with as an important focus later in treatment.
Prevalence of ADHD in adults declines with age in the general population, although the unclear validity of DSM–IV diagnostic criteria for this condition may have led to reduced prevalence rates by underestimation of the prevalence of adult ADHD. (Kessler et al., 2006) Symptoms start in early childhood and continue into adulthood. In some cases, ADHD is not recognized or diagnosed until the person is an adult. Adult ADHD symptoms may not be as clear as ADHD symptoms in children. In adults, hyperactivity often decreases, but struggles with impulsiveness, restlessness and difficulty paying attention usually continue. It is mostly these latter symptoms which can interfere significantly with an individual’s daily life.
Hyperactive–impulsive symptoms seem to decline more with increasing age, whereas inattentive symptoms of ADHD tend to persist. In a study by Millstein and colleagues, inattentive symptoms were most frequently endorsed in over 90% of ADHD adults. An assessment of current ADHD symptoms showed that 56% of adults had the combined ADHD subtype, 37% the inattentive only subtype, and 2% the hyperactive/impulsive subtype. Whereas females had fewer childhood hyperactive-impulsive symptoms than males, there were no gender differences in their ADHD presentation as adults. This suggests that the vast majority of adults with ADHD present with prominent symptoms of inattention. (Millstein, Wilens, Biederman, & Spencer, 1997) Decision-making is another important cognitive process which seems impaired in adults with ADHD (Mäntylä, Still, Gullberg, & Del Missier, 2012), and which can lead to impairment in several domains in life.
The decrease in ADHD symptoms over time may indicate true remission of symptoms, but it may also indicate that the symptom criteria are less robust in older rage groups. Michielsen and colleagues, for example, concluded in their epidemiological study on ADHD in older persons in the Netherlands that ADHD does not fade or disappear in adulthood. (Michielsen et al., 2012)
Rising rates of ADHD have led to the concern that ADHD is often misdiagnosed. The ability to concentrate, for example, can also be affected in depression, PTSD, anxiety, psychosis and other conditions, as can the capacity for organizing and seeing through tasks, various aspects of memory and information retrieval and irritability. There is evidence of medically inappropriate ADHD diagnosis and treatment in school-age children and less so for adults. In a study by Evans and colleagues, for example, age relative to peers directly affected a child’s probability of being diagnosed with ADHD. The relative age effect was present for both ADHD diagnosis and treatment with stimulants (Evans, Morrill, & Parente, 2010).
Because of the high frequency of ADHD symptoms in autism, children with autism may initially be misdiagnosed with ADHD. The core symptoms of ADHD (attention deficit, impulsivity, and hyperactivity) are part of autism, and autism and ADHD have similar underlying neuropsychological deficits (Mayes, Calhoun, Mayes, & Molitoris, 2012). On the other hand, the rate for children with autism spectrum disorder to be also diagnosed with ADHD is as high as 60% (Stevens, Peng, & Barnard-Brak, 2016).
Trauma may also be misinterpreted as ADHD, particularly in children. Hyper-vigilance and dissociation, for example, could be mistaken for inattention. Impulsivity might be brought on by “a stress response in overdrive” (Ruiz, 2014). Cognitive and emotional disruptions that occur in response to trauma, such as difficulty concentrating, dysregulated affect, irritability, and hyperarousal, either overlap with ADHD symptomatology or exasperate it (Szymanski, Sapanski, & Conway, 2011).
Manifestations of OCD-related inattention may be misdiagnosed as ADHD symptoms, particularly again in children. In OCD only, current ADHD symptoms correlate with obsessive-compulsive symptoms There is a risk of misdiagnosis, especially in children when primarily relying on informants (Abramovitch, Dar, Mittelman, & Schweiger, 2013).
Bipolar disorder is also a neurodevelopmental disorder with onset in childhood and early adolescence and commonly persists into adulthood. Both disorders are often undiagnosed, misdiagnosed, and sometimes over diagnosed. The differentiation of these conditions is based on their clinical features, comorbidity, psychiatric family history, course of illness, and response to treatment (Marangoni, De Chiara, & Faedda, 2015). Children with bipolar disorder are more likely to present with
- aggression and lack of remorse, while in ADHD a destructiveness is more likely due to carelessness.
- severe temper tantrums, often of more than an hour in duration, which are less intense and shorter in ADHD
- intentional misbehavior, which is in ADHD more likely to be due to inattentiveness
- underestimating risk, while in ADHD there may be unawareness of risk
- anger for longer periods of time, holding a grudge and being unforgiving, while in ADHD calm is usually restored within half an hour or considerably more quickly and the reasons for the anger forgotten
- stimulation seeking due to boredom, while in ADHD the stimulation seeking is more general
- amnesia for anger outbursts
- flight of ideas (manic phase), while in ADHD the talkativeness is due to a lack of inhibition and can be influenced and redirected
- decreased need for sleep
- sleep inertia and slow awakening (unless in a manic phase)
- rapidly changing mood shifts
- suicidal ideation
- symptoms that routinely improve on lithium, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics
- symptoms that do not improve on stimulants
If both conditions are present, the mood disorder symptoms and the course of the bipolar condition are usually more severe, and the functional scores lower. Since the symptoms of a separate ADHD are often mistakenly assumed to be part of the bipolar conditions, patients with comorbid ADHD and BD are routinely underdiagnosed and undertreated (Klassen, Katzman, & Chokka, 2010).
Many people with ADHD have fewer symptoms as they age, but some adults continue to have major symptoms that interfere with daily functioning also in later stages of life. In adults, the main features of ADHD may include difficulty paying attention, impulsiveness and restlessness. This can make it more difficult to acquire new information, process it together with existing information and communicate with others.
Adults with ADHD may find it difficult to focus and prioritize, leading to missed deadlines and forgotten meetings or social plans. The inability to control impulses can range from impatience waiting in line or driving in traffic to mood swings and outbursts of anger. The difficulties in persisting with a task is probably a consequence of ineffective information transmission internally.
Adult ADHD symptoms may include:
- Disorganization and problems prioritizing
- Poor time management skills
- Problems focusing on a task
- Trouble multitasking
- Excessive activity or restlessness
- Poor planning
- Low frustration tolerance
- Frequent mood swings
- Problems following through and completing tasks
- Hot temper
- Trouble coping with stress
Extensive psychometric studies have provided empirical support for the symptom thresholds used to diagnose ADHD in children, and there is general agreement that ADHD can be reliably diagnosed in children using these formal diagnostic criteria. However, the reliability of the diagnosis of ADHD in adults is less clear. The task would become easier if there were a greater focus on operationalizing internal and external communication patterns, that can be observed, described by the patient or inferred from these observation and descriptions by an experienced therapist. These patterns have been described by the author in for ADHD (Haverkampf, 2017e, 2017a) as well as for several other mental health conditions (Haverkampf, 2010b, 2017d, 2018b). Diagnosis of adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) adults is difficult, as neither symptom report nor neuropsychological findings are specific to ADHD. However, the most information can still be gained in the clinical interview if the clinician is receptive to the various levels of information flows and integrates them into the overall assessment.
It is unclear whether the three subtypes recognized in the diagnostic manuals have a different underlying ethology or any other justification to separate them. However, they are frequently used in clinical practice and offer a rough symptom description which can also be useful for many non-medical questions, such as support in school or disability. The subtypes are:
- ADHD combined type (ADHD-C; both inattentive and hyperactive–impulsive symptoms)
- ADHD predominantly inattentive type (ADHD-I)
- ADHD predominantly hyperactive–impulsive type (ADHD-H)
The diagnosis of adult ADHD is a clinical decision-making process, where the emphasis lies on the clinical interview and anything that can support the information gained in it. There are no objective, laboratory-based tests that can establish this diagnosis. (Haavik, Halmøy, Lundervold, & Fasmer, 2010) Given the difficulties with the formal diagnostic criteria for ADHD, determining the diagnosis of ADHD in adults presents different challenges than determining the diagnosis in children (Riccio et al., 2005). There is no single neurobiological or neuropsychological test that can determine a diagnosis of ADHD on an individual basis (Rosler et al., 2006).
In most situations, an ADHD assessment should include a comprehensive clinical interview, as rating scales, an assessment of a broader spectrum of psychiatric and somatic conditions and information from third parties if available.
How patients exchange meaningful information with themselves and others to get their needs and aspirations met or in response to an interaction or a perception or sensation is of very high diagnostic values in most psychiatric conditions, including especially so also ADHD. Unfortunately, there is often a lack of focus on a patients’ internal and external communication, which could be diagnostically helpful in the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD. For example, the effectiveness of ADHD coaching in improving patients’ everyday life has been demonstrated. (Kubik, 2010) Since communication is the basic process by which individuals get their needs and aspirations met in everyday life, increasing their quality of life and integrating them into the community, which in itself can have a protective effect, exploring a patient’s communication patterns should be a primary goal of an assessment for the severity of ADHD. (Haverkampf, 2017f, 2017e, 2017b)
The clinical interview, and thus the interaction with the patient, is at the center of the diagnosis of ADHD. This may make the process more difficult to operationalize for randomized controlled studies if they fail to conceptualize information and communication in a clinical interview. A greater elucidation of communication processes has been described as beneficial by the author and several different techniques and approaches suggested. (Haverkampf, 2010a)
A comprehensive clinical interview is one of the most effective methods to make a diagnosis of ADHD (Adler, 2004; Jackson & Farrugia, 1997; Murphy & Adler, 2004; Wilens, Faraone, & Biederman, 2004). Open-ended questions about childhood and adult behaviors can be used to elicit information necessary to diagnose ADHD. Interviews also include questions regarding developmental and medical history, school and work history, psychiatric history, and family history of ADHD and other psychiatric disorders (Barkley, 2006).
The clinical interview also gives inside into the communication the patient uses, internally and externally, and how he or she attends to and processes meaningful information. (Haverkampf, 2010a, 2018a) This is important for the diagnosis and treatment of any mental health condition, but particularly also ADHD. (Haverkampf, 2017a)
Although many clinicians use unstructured interviews to assess adult ADHD, semistructured interviews do exist. One does not necessarily have to choose between either one, but it can be helpful to at least integrate semistructured elements into a clinical interview, which still offers the latitude to explore more freely, which can be important in assessing any comorbidities. Research suggests that semistructured clinical interviews can reliably and accurately be used for determining a diagnosis of ADHD in adults (Epstein & Kollins, 2006).
Comprehensive diagnostic interviews not only evaluate diagnostic criteria, but also assess different psychopathological syndrome scores, functional disability measures, indices of pervasiveness and information about comorbid disorders. Comprehensive procedures include the Brown ADD Diagnostic Form and the Adult Interview by Barkley and Murphy. The Wender Reimherr Interview which follows a diagnostic algorithm different from DSM-IV. The interview contains only items delineated from adult psychopathology and not derived from symptoms originally designed for use in children. (Rösler et al., 2006)
From a communication perspective, the etiology of ADHD consists generally of the same maladaptive communication and information handling patterns, whether in a child or an adult. However, given differences in developmental stages and environmental factors the symptoms and impairments can be different. Also, the chronicity and entrenchment of a particular patterns, in connection with developmental progress, can influence the phenomenology of the condition. To consider all these factors a certain flexibility and openness in the clinical interview is of paramount importance.
The Conners Adult ADHD Diagnostic Interview for DSM-IV (CAADID), for example, assesses for the presence of the ADHD symptoms listed in the DSM-IV and collects information related to history, developmental course, ADHD risk factors, and comorbid psychopathology. Epstein and Kollines examined the test-retest reliability and concurrent validity of the CAADID for DSM-IV in a sample of thirty patients referred to an outpatient clinic. Kappa statistics for individual symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity were in the fair to good range for current report and retrospective childhood report. Kappa values for overall diagnosis, which included all DSM-IV symptoms, were fair for both current (adult) ADHD diagnosis (kappa = .67) and childhood report (kappa = .69). Concurrent validity was demonstrated for adult hyperactive-impulsive symptoms and child inattentive symptoms. (Epstein & Kollins, 2006)
Another semi-structured interview is the Diagnostic Interview for ADHD in adults, which has gone through improvement updates. It has been compared to the CAADID and other ADHD severity scales, following the DSM-IV criteria. Ramos-Quiroga and colleagues carried out a transversal study on 40 out-patients with ADHD to check the criteria and concurrent validity of the DIVA 2.0 compared with the CAADID. The DIVA 2.0 interview showed a diagnostic accuracy of 100% when compared with the diagnoses obtained with the CAADID interview. The concurrent validity demonstrated good correlations with three self-reported rating scales: the Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS), the ADHD-Rating Scale, and Sheehan’s Dysfunction Inventory. (Ramos-Quiroga et al., 2016) One advantage of the DIVA is that it is free to use.
Supportive methods in diagnosing ADHD are being explored. Using computerized clinical decision support modules can in higher quality of care with respect to ADHD diagnosis including a prospect for higher quality of ADHD management in children. (Bergman et al., 2009) This is different from using computers for neuropsychological testing, where the patient interacts with the computer. Computer-assisted diagnosis tools could, for example, provide decision trees that are based on empirical insights. While this can be a valuable support for the clinician, it is important to keep in mind that the interactions with the patient is probably the most important instrument in the assessment of ADHD.
Questionnaires may be underutilized in clinical practice. They often are easy to administer, score and interpret, while their reliability and validity can be quite high.
- The Connors Adult ADHD Rating Scales (CAARS)
- the Current Symptoms Scales by Barkley and Murphy (CSS)
- the Adult Self Report Scale (ASRS) by Adler et al. and Kessler et al. and
- the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder—Self Report Scale (ADHD-SR by Rösler et al.)
are self-report rating scales focusing mainly on the DSM-IV criteria, although the CAARS and CSS also have other forms.
- The Wender-Utah Rating Scale (WURS) and
the Childhood Symptoms Scale by Barkley and Murphy aim at making a retrospective assessment of childhood ADHD symptoms.
- The Brown ADD Rating Scale (Brown ADD-RS) and
- the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder-Other Report Scale (ADHD-OR by Rösler et al.)
are instruments for use by clinicians or significant others.
Both self-rating scales and observer report scales quantify the ADHD symptoms by use of a Likert scale mostly ranging from 0 to 3, which makes comparison of follow-up tests easier.
Self-report checklists are commonly used in the assessment of ADHD. In addition to self-report rating scales, rating scales completed by an individual’s spouse or significant other can provide useful information in determining the individual’s overall life functioning. They are easy to administer, and a number of reliable and valid measures exist. Problems may be bias or malingering, which are difficult to control for. Distorted memories probably play a negligible role in rating scales that focus on current symptoms, but could become important in those screening for symptoms in childhood and adolescence.
Research has demonstrated that rating scales can accurately reflect the frequency and intensity of symptoms (Wadsworth & Harper, 2007) and, when used retrospectively, are valid indicators of symptomatology (Murphy & Schachar, 2000). Murphy and Schachar (2000) examined the validity of self-reported ratings of current and childhood ADHD symptoms by adults. In one study, participants’ ratings of their childhood ADHD symptoms were compared to their parents’ ratings of childhood symptoms. In a second study, participants’ ratings of their current ADHD symptoms were compared to a significant other’s rating of current symptoms. All correlations between self-ratings and parent ratings were significant for inattentive, hyperactive–impulsive, and total ADHD symptoms, as were correlations between self-ratings and significant other ratings.
Belendiuk and colleagues examined in 2007 the concordance of diagnostic measures for ADHD, including self-ratings and collateral versions of both rating scales and semistructured interviews. Results supported the findings of Murphy and Schachar, showing high correlations between self-reports and collateral reports of inattentive and hyperactive–impulsive symptoms. Results also demonstrated high correlations between self-report rating scales and diagnostic interviews. (Belendiuk, Clarke, Chronis, & Raggi, 2007)
The CAARS (Conners, Erhart, & Sparrow, 1999) assesses ADHD symptoms in adults and comprises short, long, and screening self-report and observer rating scale forms. The CAARS produces eight scales, including scales based on DSM-IV criteria and an overall ADHD index. Internal consistency is good, with Cronbach’s alpha across age, scales, and forms ranging from .49 to .92 (Conners et al., 1999; Erhardt, Epstein, Connors, Parker, & Sitarenios, 1999). Test–retest reliability (1 month) estimates are high, ranging from .85 to .95 (Conners et al., 1999; Erhardt et al., 1999). The ADHD index produces an overall correct classification rate of 85%, and the sensitivity of the ADHD index has been estimated at 71% and the specificity at 75% (Conners et al., 1999).
Adler and colleagues compared the reliability, validity, and utility in a sample of adults with ADHD and also as an index of clinical improvement during treatment of self- and investigator ratings of ADHD symptoms via the CAARS. They analyzed data from two double-blind, parallel-design studies of 536 adult ADHD patients, randomized to 10-week treatment with atomoxetine or placebo. The CAARS demonstrated good internal consistency and inter-rater reliability, as well as sensitivity to treatment outcome. (Adler et al., 2008)
Taylor and colleagues retrieved 35 validation studies of adult ADHD rating scales and identified 14 separate scales. The majority of studies were of poor quality and reported insufficient detail. Of the 14 scales, the Conners’ Adult ADHD Rating scale and the Wender Utah Rating Scale (short version) had more robust psychometric statistics and content validity. (Taylor, Deb, & Unwin, 2011)
The Current Symptoms Scale (Barkley & Murphy, 1998) is an 18-item selfreport scale with both a patient version and an informant version. It contains the 18 items from the diagnostic criteria in DSM-IV. Validity has been demonstrated through past findings of significant group differences between ADHD and control adults (Barkley, Murphy, DuPaul, & Bush, 2002). An earlier DSM-III version of the scale correlated significantly with the same scale completed by a parent (r = .75) and by a spouse or intimate partner of the ADHD adult (r = .65; Murphy & Barkley, 1996a).
The ASRS-v1.1 (Adler, Kessler, & Spencer, 2003) is an 18-item measure based on the DSM-IV-TR criteria for ADHD that produces three scale scores. Questions are designed to suit an adult rather than a child, and the language provides a context for symptoms that adults can relate to. Internal consistency estimates are high, and the ASRS-v1.1 has been shown to have high concurrent validity (Adler et al., 2006).
Adler et al conducted a study to validate the pilot Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (pilot ASRS) versus standard clinician ratings on the ADHD Rating Scale (ADHD RS). Sixty adult ADHD patients took the self-administered ADHD RS and then raters administered the standard ADHD RS. Internal consistency was high for both patient and rater-administered versions. The intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) between scales for total scores was also high, as were ICCs for subset symptom scores. There was acceptable agreement for individual items and significant kappa coefficients for all items. The pilot Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale symptom checklist was thus a reliable and valid scale for evaluating ADHD for adults and showed a high internal consistency and high concurrent validity with the rater-administered ADHD RS. (Adler et al., 2006)
Retrospective assessments collect information to help make a retroactive diagnosis of ADHD.
The WURS (Ward, Wender, & Reimherr, 1993) is based on items from the monograph Minimal Brain Dysfunction in Children (Wender, 1971), which is more detailed than the symptoms listed in the DSM or ICD-10. McCann and colleagues examined the factor structure and discriminant validity of the WURS in adults seeking evaluation for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Three factors (Dysthymia, Oppositional/Defiant Behavior, and School Problems) accounted for 59.4% of the variance. In a stepwise discriminant function analysis, age and childhood school problems emerged as significant variables. The classification procedure correctly classified 64.5% of patients. Among those who did not have ADHD, only 57.5% were correctly classified compared with 72.1% among those with ADHD. The WURS thus appears to be sensitive in detecting ADHD, but it misclassified approximately half of those who do not have ADHD. (McCann, Scheele, Ward, & Roy-Byrne, 2000)
The Brown ADD-RS (Brown, 1996; Brown & Gammon, 1991) assesses symptoms of ADHD in adults. It was developed before the DSM-IV concept of ADHD was published and focuses more on symptoms of inattention rather than hyperactivity and impulsivity. The scale shows high internal consistency (α = .96) and satisfactory validity (M. Weiss, Hechtman, & Weiss, 1999).
To measure treatment response, the Adult ADHD Investigator Symptom Rating Scale (AISRS) was developed to better capture symptoms of ADHD in adult patients. The AISRS uses a semistructured interview methodology with suggested prompts for each item to improve interrater reliability. (Spencer et al., 2010) The authors analyzed psychometric properties of the AISRS total and AISRS subscales and compared them to the investigator rated version of the CAARS and the Clinical Global Impression-ADHD-Severity Scale using data from a placebo-controlled 6-month clinical trial of once-daily atomoxetine. Results showed that the AISRS and its subscales were robust, valid efficacy measures of ADHD symptoms in adult patients. Its anchored items and semistructured interview are mentioned as advancements over existing scales. (Spencer et al., 2010)
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a behaviorally defined diagnosis. Despite the fact that neuropsychological tests have typically been used successfully to investigate the functional neuroanatomy of ADHD in neuroimaging research paradigms, these tests have been of surprisingly limited utility in the clinical diagnosis of the disorder. (Koziol & Stevens, 2012) Still, if used discriminatingly and with an understanding for their place in an assessment, neuropsychological testing can play a significant role in the assessment of ADHD. However, one needs to keep in mind that there is no single test or battery of tests that has adequate predictive validity or specificity to make a reliable diagnosis of ADHD. Although there seem to be differences between adults with ADHD and control participants on measures of cognitive functioning, these measures probably have limited predictive value in distinguishing ADHD from other psychiatric or neurological conditions that are associated with similar cognitive impairments (Wadsworth & Harper, 2007).
In adult ADHD, neuropsychological testing is most beneficial when the results are used to support conclusions based on history, rating scales, and analysis of current functioning. Cognitive assessments can be useful in that they can improve the validity of an ADHD assessment and be used in assessing the efficacy of pharmacological and/or psychological interventions (Epstein et al., 2003). Also, many researchers agree that a neuropsychological assessment will be most sensitive to ADHD when the assessment incorporates multiple, overlapping procedures measuring a broad array of attentional and executive functions (Alexander & Stuss, 2000; Cohen, Malloy, & Jenkins, 1998; Woods et al., 2002).
Important functional domains of neuropsychological tests are:
- verbal ability
- figural problem solving
- abstract problem solving
- executive function
- simple attention
- sustained attention
- focused attention
- verbal memory
- figural memory
Woods and his colleagues (2002) reviewed the role of neuropsychological evaluation in the diagnosis of adults with ADHD. In their review of 35 studies, the authors found that the majority of the studies demonstrated significant discrepancies between adults with ADHD and normal control participants on at least one measure of executive function (i.e., the ability to assess a task situation, plan a strategy to meet the needs of the situation, implement the plan, make adjustments, and successfully complete the task; Riccio et al., 2005) or attention. Moreover, Woods et al. found that the most prominent and reliable executive function and attention measures that differentiated adults with ADHD were Stroop tasks (Stroop, 1935) and continuous performance tests (CPTs). (The Stroop phenomenon demonstrates that it is difficult to name the ink color of a color word if there is a mismatch between ink color and word. For example, the word GREEN printed in red ink. The CPT measures a person’s sustained and selective attention.)
Neuropsychological tests generally have a poor ability to discriminate between patients diagnosed with ADHD and patients not diagnosed with ADHD. Pettersson and colleagues investigated in their study the discriminative validity of neuropsychological tests and diagnostic assessment instruments in diagnosing adult ADHD in a clinical psychiatric population of 108 patients, 60 were diagnosed with ADHD. The Diagnostic Interview for ADHD in adults (DIVA 2.0) and Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) v.1.1 together with eight neuropsychological tests were investigated. All instruments showed poor discriminative ability except for the DIVA, which showed a relatively good ability to discriminate between the groups (sensitivity = 90.0; specificity = 72.9). A logistic regression analysis model with the DIVA and measures of inattention, impulsivity, and activity from continuous performance tests (CPTs) showed a sensitivity of 90.0 and a specificity of 83.3. This means that while the ability to discriminate between patients with and without ADHD is poor, variables from CPT tests can contribute to increasing the specificity by 10% if used in combination with the DIVA. (Pettersson, Söderström, & Nilsson, 2018)
Schoechlin and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis integrating 24 empirical studies reporting results of at least one of 50 standard neuropsychological tests comparing adult ADHD patients with controls. The 50 tests were categorized into the following 10 functional domains: verbal ability, figural problem solving, abstract problem solving, executive function, fluency, simple attention, sustained attention, focused attention, verbal memory, figural memory. For each domain a pooled effect size d′ was calculated. Complex attention variables and verbal memory discriminated best between ADHD patients and controls. Effect sizes for these domains were homogeneous and of moderate size (d′ between 0.5 and 0.6). In contrast to results reported in children, executive functions were not generally reduced in adult ADHD patients. (Schoechlin & Engel, 2005) Woods et al. (2002), on the other hand, concluded that although a general profile of attentional and executive function impairment is evident in adults with ADHD, expansive impairments in these domains (i.e., impairments on all attention and executive function tasks) is not common. Their review demonstrated inconsistencies in specific instruments across studies, indicating that adults with ADHD may not perform poorly on all attentional measures all the time. This finding is not surprising given the fact that adults with ADHD often demonstrate sporadic or inconsistent attention, which can be difficult to identify given the structure provided by the one-on-one testing environment (Barkley, 1998).
One popular family of measures for the assessment of attention and executive control is the continuous performance test (CPT). A review of the available research on CPTs reveals that they are quite sensitive to CNS dysfunction. This is both a strength and a limitation of CPTs in that multiple disorders can result in impaired performance on a CPT. The high sensitivity of CPTs is further complicated by the multiple variations of CPTs available, some of which may be more sensitive or demonstrate better specificity to ADHD in adults than others. If CPTs are to be used clinically, further research will be needed to answer the questions raised by this review. (Riccio & Reynolds, 2006).
Several theoretical models suggest that the core deficit of ADHD is a deficiency in response inhibition. While neuropsychological deficits in response inhibition are well documented in ADHD children, research on these deficits in adult ADHD populations is minimal. In a study by Epstein and colleagues, twenty-five adult ADHD patients, 15 anxiety-disordered adult patients, and 30 normal adults completed three neuropsychological tests of response inhibition: the Continuous Performance Test, Posner Visual Orienting Test, and the Stop Signal Task. ADHD adults demonstrated response inhibition performance deficits when compared to both normal adults and anxiety disordered adults only on the Continuous Performance Test. A similar pattern of differences was not observed on the other two neuropsychological tests. Differing results between tasks may be due to differences in test reliability, task parameters, or the targeted area of brain functioning assessed by each test. (Epstein, Johnson, Varia, & Conners, 2001)
Abibullaev and colleagues proposed a decision support system in diagnosing ADHD through brain electroencephalographic signals. (Abibullaev & An, 2012) Lenartowicz and Loos concluded that while EEG cannot currently be used as a diagnostic tool, vast developments in analytical and technological tools in its domain anticipate future progress in its utility in the clinical setting. (Lenartowicz & Loo, 2014) However, the overall assessment still requires a clinical decision, which may depend on many factors, including the individual attitude towards the diagnosis held by the therapist.
Malingering is an important issue in ADHD diagnosis and is defined as the conscious fabrication or exaggeration of physical or psychological symptoms in the pursuit of a recognizable goal. A diagnosis of ADHD can provide an individual with several benefits, including stimulant medication, disability benefits, tax benefits, and academic accommodations, and such benefits may motivate adults undergoing diagnostic evaluations for ADHD to exaggerate symptomatology on self-report measures and tests of neurocognitive functioning. Musso and colleagues identified and summarize nineteen peer-reviewed, empirical studies published between 2002 and 2011 that investigated malingered ADHD in college students. Few of the measures examined proved useful for detecting malingered ADHD. Most self-report questionnaires were not sensitive to malingering. While there is some variability in the usefulness of neuropsychological test failure, profiles between malingerers and individuals with ADHD were too similar to confidently detect malingered ADHD. Failure of three or more symptom validity tests proved most useful at detecting malingered ADHD. The authors concluded that there is substantial need for measures designed specifically for detecting malingered ADHD simulators are able to produce plausible profiles on most tools used to diagnose ADHD. (Musso & Gouvier, 2014)
Detection of faking can prove difficult with adults in particular, as clinicians often do not have access to a parent or sibling who can attest to prior history of ADHD symptoms or the resources to follow up do not exist. Moreover, adults often lack developmental documentation such as report cards, teacher evaluations, or prior psychological testing reports.
Quinn (2003) examined the issue of malingering by comparing the susceptibility of a self-report ADHD rating scale and a CPT to faking in an undergraduate sample of individuals with and without a diagnosis of ADHD. Results indicated that the CPT showed greater sensitivity to malingering than did the self-report scale and that a CPT can successfully discriminate malingerers from those with a valid diagnosis of ADHD. Given the potential benefits associated with an ADHD diagnosis, clinicians should include a symptom validity measure in their assessment battery. At present, however, there is no demonstrated best practice for this.
Suhr and colleagues utilized archival data from young adults referred for concerns about ADHD, divided into three groups: (1) those who failed a measure of noncredible performance (the Word Memory Test; WMT), (2) those who met diagnostic criteria for ADHD, and (3) controls with psychological symptoms but no ADHD. Results showed a 31% failure rate on the WMT. Those who failed the WMT showed clinical levels of self-reported ADHD symptoms and impaired neuropsychological performance. Neither self-report measures nor neuropsychological tests could distinguish ADHD from psychological controls, with the exception of self-reported current hyperactive/impulsive symptoms and Stroop interference. (Suhr, Hammers, Dobbinsbuckland, Zimak, & Hughes, 2008) These results underscore the effect of noncredible performance on both self-report and cognitive measures in ADHD.
It is difficult to tell how much a greater focus on the communication dynamics in a clinical interview can improve the problems around malingering. However, communication in its diverse synchronous forms is probably much more difficult to consciously influence and ‘fake’ than a simple task. However, a greater focus on communication patterns and dynamics also requires the skills and experience in the clinician to work with them.
Diagnosing ADHD in adults requires careful consideration of differential diagnoses, as it can be difficult to differentiate ADHD from a number of other psychiatric conditions (Pary et al., 2002), including major depression, bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety, obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), substance abuse or dependence, personality disorders (borderline and antisocial), and learning disabilities (Searight, Burke, & Rottnek, 2000). For example, differential diagnosis of ADHD from mood and conduct disorders may be difficult because of common features such a mood swings, inability to concentrate, memory impairments, restlessness, and irritability (Adler, 2004). Differential diagnosis of learning disabilities can also prove difficult because of the interrelated functional aspects of the disorders that have the common outcome of poor academic functioning (Adler, 2004; Jackson & Farrugia, 1997).
High rates of comorbidities are also seen in adults with ADHD, with the majority having at least one additional psychiatric disorder. ADHD is associated with a high percentage of comorbid psychiatric disorders in every lifespan. In adulthood between 65–89% of all patients with ADHD suffer from one or more additional psychiatric disorders, above all mood and anxiety disorders, substance use disorders and personality disorders, which complicates the clinical picture in terms of diagnostics, treatment and outcome issues. (Sobanski, 2006) Outcome studies have demonstrated that individuals diagnosed with ADHD in childhood are at risk for developing comorbid conditions, some of which are likely secondary to ADHD-related frustration and failure.
The most frequent comorbid psychopathologies include mood and anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, and personality disorders. (Katzman, Bilkey, Chokka, Fallu, & Klassen, 2017) Biederman and colleagues (1993) found a relatively high incidence of lifetime diagnoses of anxiety disorders (43% to 52%), major depressive disorder (31%), ODD (29%), CD (20%), antisocial personality disorder (12%), and alcohol and drug dependencies (27% and 18%, respectively) in their sample of clinic-referred adults with ADHD. There are strong familial links and neurobiological similarities between ADHD and the various associated psychiatric comorbidities. Comparable rates of comorbidities have been found in men and women with ADHD, with the exception of men having higher rates of antisocial personality disorder. (Millstein et al., 1997)
With respect to ADHD subtypes in adults, Millstein and colleagues found higher rates of ODD, bipolar disorder, and substance use disorders in patients with the combined type of ADHD than in those with other subtypes and higher rates of ODD, OCD, and PTSD in patients with the hyperactive type than in those with the inattentive type. In their study, Sprafkin and colleagues found that all three subtypes reported more severe comorbid symptoms than did a control group, with the combined group obtaining the highest ratings of comorbid symptom severity. The authors found that the ADHD symptom subtypes in adults are associated with distinct clinical correlates and conclude that the diversity of self-reported psychopathology in adults who meet symptom criteria for ADHD highlights the importance of conducting broad-based evaluations. (Sprafkin, Gadow, Weiss, Schneider, & Nolan, 2007)
In addition to comorbid psychiatric disorders, adults with ADHD often complain of psychosocial difficulties, which can manifest in a significantly higher rate of separation and divorce and lower socioeconomic status, poorer past and current global functioning estimates, and higher occurrence of prior academic problems relative to the control group.
Murphy and Barkley (1996a) documented high rates of educational, employment, and marital problems in adults with ADHD. Multiple marriages were more common in the adult ADHD group, and significantly more adults with ADHD had performed poorly, quit, or been fired from a job and had a history of poorer educational performance and more frequent school disciplinary actions against them than did adults without ADHD. Low self-concept and low self-esteem are common secondary characteristics of adults with ADHD, often resulting from problematic educational experiences and interpersonal difficulties (Jackson & Farrugia, 1997). Adults with ADHD often have strong feelings of incompetence, insecurity, and ineffectiveness, and many of these individuals live with a chronic sense of underachievement and frustration (Murphy, 1995).
Variations in communication processes and patterns, both internally and externally, play an important role in the etiology and the symptomatology of ADHD. Unfortunately, there is not enough focus on them in diagnosis and treatment. The author has proposed a theoretical approach and several practical approaches elsewhere (Haverkampf, 2010b, 2017e, 2017d, 2018b) Since the symptoms of ADHD are consequences of maladaptive internal communication and processing mechanisms of meaningful information, while at the same time there are maladaptive external communication patterns with the world, which lead to the observed difficulties in the personal and professional life of the patient, a greater focus on communication is important.
The use of DSM-IV criteria for ADHD in adults has been criticized. Barkley (1998) suggests that applying current ADHD criteria to adults is not developmentally sensitive. The DSM-IV criteria for ADHD were designed for and selected based on studies with children (Riccio et al., 2005), and validation studies of ADHD criteria in adults have not been conducted (Belendiuk, Clarke, Chronis, & Raggi, 2007). It has thus been suggested that the symptom lists in DSM-IV may be inappropriately worded for adults and that diagnostic thresholds may be too stringent or restrictive when applied to adults (Heiligenstein, Conyers, Berns, & Smith, 1998). The level of impairment caused by ADHD symptoms may also be different between adults and children, and symptoms will likely affect more domains in adults. However, when looked at from a communication perspective, and when focusing on the basic of ADHD, such as the attention deficit, it seems possible to view ADHD as a condition where external and internal communication, including the receptiveness for and decoding of information, is altered in predictable patterns. (Haverkampf, 2017f)
Dr Jonathan Haverkampf, M.D. MLA (Harvard) LL.M. trained in medicine, psychiatry and psychotherapy and works in private practice for psychotherapy, counselling and psychiatric medication in Dublin, Ireland. He is the author of several books and over a hundred articles. Dr Haverkampf has developed Communication-Focused Therapy® and written extensively about it. He also has advanced degrees in management and law. The author can be reached by email at firstname.lastname@example.org or on the websites www.jonathanhaverkampf.ie and www.jonathanhaverkampf.com.
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This article is an expanded version of the article “The Diagnosis of ADHD in Adults” (2019) by the same author.
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EDITOR: Does the SAT accurately reflect a student's potential?
How much can be determined about a student's potential given that he or she has 20-25 minutes to answer 30 questions or more? How does a 25-minute essay establish a student's writing skills and critical thinking?
These are questions circling the pool of juniors and seniors pressured to take the SAT. As a junior myself, I often find myself pondering instances in my future when I will be given less than a minute to work out a math problem. And when would I have exactly 25 minutes to write a rushed and poorly put together essay (excluding the dreaded morning I take the SAT)? How does this prepare me for my future?
Along with many of my classmates, I struggle with test taking. Often teachers will tell me that I am a very intelligent and skilled student who shows a lot of potential — but my test scores don't reflect that. Yes, there are SAT prep classes out there. But when classes are designed to teach students shortcuts, tricks and methods for guessing — what does that say about the test? | <urn:uuid:df15b54f-a754-44ad-a121-7f462608381a> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | http://www.pressdemocrat.com/csp/mediapool/sites/PressDemocrat/News/story.csp?cid=1859391&fid=181 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948597295.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20171217171653-20171217193653-00505.warc.gz | en | 0.955131 | 221 | 2.71875 | 3 |
What are phobias and how can they be dealt with?
Sally has a phobia of bridges (gephyrophobia) which means she is unable to cross very high or long bridges. She is afraid the bridge will collapse and she will fall to her death while crossing. Her fear extends to walking, riding or even driving on a bridge. If she outright has to cross, she will be in a state of absolute terror and panic. She actively avoids crossing any bridge, even if it means missing out on certain social functions and events. Often, even the thought of crossing a bridge makes her anxious. She has had this fear for as long as she can remember and doesn't recall how it began.
Many people have fears; they are commonly induced in the face of danger or threat. Freezing in presence of a snake, feeling dizzy at extreme heights or feeling nervous before a flight, are all considered normal fear responses. However, when the fear or anxiety becomes so intense that its out of proportion to the actual threat and one actively avoids an object or situation, it may be a phobia. Phobias are common and diagnosable anxiety disorder described as an irrational fear of a situation or object. Phobias can be for just about anything and new phobias are constantly emerging in the changing world. So, how do we deal with phobias? There are a number of ways psychologists treat phobias and treatments will often depend on the type and severity. However, its also important to understand how phobias develop and are maintained in the first place (5thed.; DSM–5; American Psychiatric Association (APA), 2013).
Fear, anxiety, and phobia Edit
Both fear and anxiety play a significant part in phobias so it’s important to understand their role. Anxiety is apprehension in anticipation of a perceived threat, whereas fear is the direct emotional response to immediate danger (APA, 2013). The key distinguishing feature being ‘anticipated’ versessympathetic nervous system preparing the body for a ‘fight-flight’ reaction. Similarly, anxiety increases our awareness of potential threats and helps us avoid dangerous situations. However, with a phobia, the fear and anxiety is extreme, persistent, disproportionate to the threat, and can produce panic like symptoms (see Table 1). Furthermore, individuals may develop avoidance behaviours to minimise any potential contact with the stimulus, impacting on daily decisions (APA, 2013).‘immediate’ threats; thus a person worried about the possibility of being attacked on their walk home experiences anxiety, whereas someone held at gunpoint experiences fear. Both can be adaptive; fear triggers the
Symptoms associated with phobias
|Palpitations, accelerated heart-rate||Feeling out of touch with reality|
|Sweating, trembling, shaking||Feeling detached from your body|
|Dizzy, unsteady, light-headed, faint||Feeling an intense need to escape|
|Chest pain||Fear of losing control|
|Nausea, abdominal distress||Fear of fainting|
|Shortness of breath, choking feeling||Fear of dying|
Adapted from APA (2013).
Types of phobias Edit
Specific phobias Edit
A specific phobia is an intense fear in response to a specific situation or object. The list is extensive, but the DSM-5 has identified five categories:
- Animal e.g., dogs, spiders
- Natural environment e.g., heights, storms
- Blood /injection /injury e.g., needles, invasive medical procedures
- Situational e.g., airplanes, elevators
- Other e.g., situations that lead to vomiting, clowns
A recent cross-national epidemiological study revealed the lifetime prevalence of specific phobias as high as 12.5%, suggesting they are one of the most frequent mental disorders (Wardenaar et al., 2017). They are more common in females, and animal phobias (e.g., arachnophobia, see Figure 1) are the most prevalent subtype (Wardenaar et a., 2017). Additionally, many report having more than one phobia, however only a fraction of sufferers seek treatment (Wardenaar et al., 2017).
Social phobia Edit
Social phobias are an intense fear of social situations where one feels scrutinised by others. Now labelled social anxiety disorder in the DSM-5, it refers to one who is afraid others might think negatively, laugh or ridicule them. They experience anxiety and panic in social situations and often avoid going out altogether, missing school or other important events. Sometimes even anticipating social events will provoke a panic response (APA, 2013). Situations they often fear include meeting new people, attending parties or pubic speaking; the type and number of different situations varies among individuals (Rowa & Antony 2005). Epidemiological studies suggest the lifetime prevalence of social phobia are around 7%, and up-to 80% of individuals do not seek treatment (Grant et al., 2005).
Agoraphobia involves fearing and avoiding situations which one cannot escape or escape might be difficult and help unavailable in the event of a panic attack (APA, 2013). Although one may think agoraphobia happens only in closed spacers (e.g., cinemas), many experience symptoms in open spaces such as a parking lot, standing in crowds or even being outside their own home. The thought that escape might not be possible or help won’t reach them in the event of a panic like attack, causes immense fear and results in avoiding such situations all together. In its most severe forms, one might become completely homebound, never leaving their house and relying on others for assistance and services (see Figure 2).
How do they form? Edit
Children experience many fears throughout childhood (see Figure 3). For example, it’s not unusual to hear a child is afraid of the dark or heights. Although most fears disappear spontaneously, in a number of children, they persist (Muris & Merchelback, 1998). Why is it some childhood fears continue into adulthood? There are many factors that increase the risk of developing a phobia. This section will focus on those that have had major influences on treatment outcomes.
Learning theories Edit
From a learning perspective, phobias are a result of associative learning and involve one or more of the following pathways.
Classical conditioning Edit
The classic behavioural perspective is that phobias are acquired through classical conditioning. The basic premise is one may develop a conditioned fear response to a neutral stimulus when its paired with an aversive unconditioned stimulus. Watson and Raynor (1920) attempted to explain the development of phobias in their Little Albert study (see Figure 4). Albert, who was nine months old, was conditioned to fear a white rat which was paired with a loud noise that produced a fear response. Albert initially showed no fear to the white rat. After multiple pairings of the rat and the loud noise, Albert reacted with crying and avoidance behaviours on presentation of the rat alone (Watson & Raynor, 1920). Similar results have since been observed. For example, in a sample of 7-18 year old’s with a fear of needles, almost half recalled experiencing a very unpleasant painful injection (Duff & Brownlee, 1999). Although this theory may explain the fear response, it does not rationalise the avoidance behaviours phobics display. The two-factor learning theory of avoidance may explain this.
Two-factor theory of avoidance learning Edit
The two-factor model proposes fear is learned through classical conditioning and maintained by operant conditioning leading to avoidance behaviours. A key diagnostic criteria for phobias is that objects or situations are actively avoided or endured with intense anxiety (APA, 2013). When fear and anxiety is reduced by avoidance behaviours, the safety seeking act as a reward, reinforcing the behaviour and thus its repeated (Muris & Merchelback, 1998). For example, a child may have a cat phobia as a result of an early childhood cat bite (associating pain from the bite with cats). By avoiding cats, the child’s fear is reduced; the avoidant behaviour is reinforced by the reduction in fear. This theory has great implications for phobia treatment. In the above example, repeatedly exposing the child to cats that don’t bite may help extinguish this fear.
Vicarious learning Edit
Although direct conditioning explains the acquisition of some phobias, it is not without limitations. For example, many adults with phobias cannot recall an incident leading to their fear (Kendler, Myers, & Prescott 2002). Another pathway may be through vicarious learning. As opposed to directly experiencing conditioning, phobias may be acquired by observing fear responses of others (Coelho & Purkis, 2009). A study investigating vicarious learning and fear development in children, paired images of novel animals with scared, happy or neutral facial expressions (Askew & Field, 2007). Results showed children reported increased fear beliefs for animals paired with scared faces. These beliefs persisted for one week when measured explicitly and up to three months when measured indirectly.
Negative information transmission Edit
Negative information is believed to play a role in phobia development. For example, how does one who has never flown in an airplane develop a fear of flying? It's believed the transmission of threatening and negative information may be significant. In the above example, exposure to negative media coverage of flight accidents and incidents might reinforce the fears of those concerned, see Figure 5 (Schindler, Vriends, Margraf, & Stieglitz 2016).
Experimental studies have examined the role of negative information on fear development. Muris and collegues(2003) tested the impact of negative information on 285 children aged 4 to 12 years. The children received either positive or negative information about an unknown dog-like creature called 'the beast’. Results showed that negative information about the creature increased fear levels which remained after one week. Furthermore, those that feared 'the beast’ also became apprehensive of other dogs (Muris, Bodden, Ollendick, & King, 2003).
Cognitive theories Edit
From a cognitive perspective, the way one applies knowledge about a situation or processes information may lead to irrational fears. Negative beliefs, attention to threatening information, self-efficacy and perceptions of control are thought to be contributing factors not only to the development of phobias, but also its maintenance.
Self-efficacy theory Edit
People with low self-efficacy and perceived lack of control over their environment, may have a higher risk of developing anxiety disorders. Bandura’s self-efficacy theory suggests people may become fearful of aversive events if they feel incapable or inefficacious in dealing with potential threats; phobic behaviour may be caused and maintained by these beliefs (Bandura, 1983). If one feels they have control over an unpleasant event, even one that could lead to injury, they do not fear it (Bandura, 1983). Perceived control and self-efficacy have been vastly tested in relation to fear and phobia. Johnston and Page (2004) tested the impact of distraction on spider phobics undergoing in vivo exposure therapy. They found participants who were distracted had better outcomes than those who focused on the stimulus. Being distracted led to greater reductions in subjective fear, and increases in self-efficacy and perceived control. Furthermore, throughout the task, higher self-efficacy was predictive of superior performance on phobia related tasks (Johnston & Page, 2004).
Attention to threat Edit
People with phobias may have an increased focused on danger and threatening information in their environment. In general, attention biases can be adaptive and aid detection of threatening stimuli and danger. However, those with a phobia often focus on non-dangerous stimuli. To test attention bias, researchers developed measures like the Stroop test, in which participants are asked to quickly name the colour of words; delays indicating attention to the meaning of the word (Maidenberg, Chen, Craske, Bohn, & Bystritsky 1996). In a study testing attentional bias in social phobia, researchers found participants with social phobia took longer to respond to social-threat words, indicating attentional biases to socially applicable information (Maidenberg et al., 1996). Although, attentional biases may not explain the developmental origins of phobias, they do imply that once developed, phobics may focus on threatening information, maintaining and strengthening the phobia. Consequently, attentional focus training has been integrated into cognitive therapy treatments (Rowa, & Antony, 2005).
Neurobiological factors Edit
Fear circuits and mechanisms have been identified in both innate and conditioned fear responses; dysfunctions in these mechanism may result in the development of a phobia (Garcia, 2017). There is much research indicating the involvement of the amygdala in fear. Figure 6 shows the amygdala highlighted in red; it's a small almond shaped structure, believed to be involved in assigning emotional significance to an object. In response to fear, studies have shown increased activity in the amygdala; in phobic patients activation is significantly higher (Münsterkötter, 2015). Additionally, studies using electrophysiological recordings, support the role of the amygdala in fear associations (encoding and storing), indicating its crucial role in fear conditioning and learning (Maren, 2001).
The insula and hippocampus are believed to be involved in expectations of aversive stimuli. Simmons, Matthews, Stein and Paulus (2004) observed activation of these regions during anticipation of emotional aversive images (spiders and snakes). Research has also illustrated the function of the prefrontal cortex in emotional regulation, with evidence to suggest involvement in extinguishing fears (Maren, 2001). Additionally, abnormal functioning in neurotransmitter activity may contribute to the development of anxiety disorders such as phobias (Kaur & Sing, 2017). Table 3 presents a brief summary of some neurotransmitter functions, which have been employed in pharmacological strategies treating anxiety.
The role of neurotransmitters in anxiety
|- Inhibitory neurotransmitter
- Decreases depolarisation
- In anxiety, GABA levels decrease
|- Excitatory neurotransmitter
- Increased levels during anxiety
- Cell death leads to anxiety
|- Role in the development of anxiety disorders
- Role in anxiety has been supported by its
effect on the locus coeruleus
- Increase in levels, increases anxiety
Adapted from Kaur and Sing, (2017)
Treatment options Edit
In the treatment of phobias there are a number of options available. A meta-analysis investigating treatment efficacy for phobias, found those treated were 84% better off than untreated participants (Wolitzky-Taylor, Horowitz, Powers, & Telch, 2008). Despite availability of treatments, many suffering are hesitant to seek help.
Cognitive behavioural therapy Edit
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is commonly used to treat phobias. It integrates cognitive therapy (e.g., education about the nature and cause of symptoms or restructuring maladaptive cognitions) alongside behavioural techniques such as breathing training (see Figure 7). Clinicians often pair an exposure method with CBT so patients learn to apply the techniques through gradual exposure. CBT also involves a relapse prevention element, where patients are informed the likeliness of a relapse and to reapply behavioural coping skills (Wolitzky-Taylor et al., 2008). A meta-analysis involving over 30 randomised trials, reported CBT as the most effective psychological treatment for social phobia, offering better relapse protection than medication (Canton, Scott, & Glue, 2012).
Exposure based therapies Edit
Facing onesvirtual reality all outperformed over alternative psychotherapeutic approaches (Wolitzky-Taylor et al., 2008).fear, although a daunting thought for some, can be effective in treating phobias. Exposure therapies involve confronting the feared stimulus to re-condition and associate it with positive experiences (Muris & Merchelback, 1998). Used alongside modelling, positive information, and cognitive interventions, one can re-learn while simultaneously breaking avoidant behaviours. A meta-analysis of 33 clinical trials conducted over three decades on treatment approaches for specific phobias, found exposure therapies the most potent and durable. In vivo contact, imagined therapy and
Systematic desensitisation Edit
Systematic desensitisation involves deep muscle relaxation, development of a goal hierarchy and gradual exposure of the feared stimulus (Wolitzky-Taylor et al., 2008). Exposure begins with the lease anxiety provoking (e.g., hearing the word spider) and gradually progresses to the most fear provoking (e.g., having a spider in the room). As with most treatments, the number of session will usually depend on the type and severity of the phobia. Although it can be a successful method, evidence suggests exposure treatments still work without the addition of deep relaxation (Marks, Lovell, Noshirvani, Livanou, & Thrasher, 1998).
In vivo exposure Edit
In vivo exposure involves direct exposure to a feared stimulus and is commonly used to treat specific phobias (Muris & Merchelback, 1998). Its done in a gradual manner, starting from the lease to the most anxiety provoking exposure. This can take place over a number of sessions or one prolonged single session, and consent is given at each stage (Wolitzky-Taylor et al., 2008). Group exposure therapy can also be effective. Öst (1996) conducted a study comparing treatment outcomes of small and large groups of patients with spider phobia. Results revealed both groups significantly improved on all measures (behavioural, physiological and self-report) after just one three hour long session of exposure and modelling; these results were maintained or improved in the one year follow up (Öst, 1996). However, for some phobias direct contact may not be possible; advances in technology have provided a solution.
Virtual reality exposure Edit
Virtual reality (VR) involves exposing the patient to computer generated virtual environments containing the feared stimulus, as an alternative to taking them into real environments or directly exposing them to objects (see Figure 8). VR integrates visual displays, body tracking devices and real time computer graphics, immersing the patient into a virtual world controlled by the therapist. VR has been effective in treating specific phobias. Using relatively low-cost hardware and software, Emmelkamp, Bruynzeel, Drost, van Der Mast, and Emmelkamp (2001) found VR to be as effective as in vivo exposure in treating acrophobia (fear of heights). Improvements were seen across anxiety, avoidance, and attitudes. Furthermore, VR seems to be the favourable treatment option for patients when compared with in vivo, with fewer refusal rates (Garcia-Palacios, Botella, Hoffman & Fabregat, 2007).
Augmented reality Edit
A more recent adaption to exposure therapy is augmented reality (AR). It combines VR (computer graphics) with one’s own space in real time to form images that are a blend of the real world and virtual elements. A study investigating treatment outcomes for AR verses in vivo exposures, found AR to be as effective in the treatment of small animal phobias (Botella et al., 2016). Furthermore, participants considered the AR experience to be less aversive than direct exposure. For those fearful of facing their phobia, computer simulated realities may be a tolerable option.
The purpose of this chapter was to answer the question - What are phobias are and how can they be dealt with? To extend on this, how one may develop and maintain their phobia was provided, to give an understanding of the underlying mechanisms of psychological treatments. In summary, phobias are a common anxiety disorder marked by extreme fears and avoidance behaviours. They differ from a normal fear response as phobia fear is disproportionate, irrational, persistent, and one takes extreme measures to avoid the feared stimulus. Often, people suffering from a phobia will experience physical and psychological symptoms when faced with their fear. However, cognitive and behavioural measures have been developed to provide one with the information needed to understand and overcome these symptoms. The list of phobias is extensive and the DSM-5 has organised phobias into categories and subtypes to assist with diagnosis. Theories around learning and cognition attempt to explain how one might have developed and maintained their phobia. Accordingly, many treatments have been designed around these theories.
Although not everyone with a phobia will seek treatment, those suffering should be aware that there are multiple treatment options available and outcomes are promising. Many treatments include a form of exposure to the feared object or situation; understandably, this might be a frightening thought for some. However, the steps are gradual and alongside appropriate information about the object and ones symptoms, research has shown it to be a beneficial tool in dealing with phobias. Avoidance behaviours practiced by phobics seem to provide some relief from fear and anxiety, however, theories around learning explain that continuous avoidance may actually strengthen the phobia. Exposure therapy attempts to weaken this association and provide avenues for new learning about the object of onesfear. The hope is that one who reads this information, gains insight into phobias and how they can be treated.
See also Edit
- Agoraphobia (Wikipedia)
- Cognitive behavioural therapy (Wikipedia)
- Fear and coping (book chapter, 2014)
- Fear and learning (book chapter, 2014)
- Food and fear (book chapter, 2019)
- Relationship commitment phobia (book chapter, 2019)
- Specific phobia (Wikipedia)
- Social anxiety (book chapter, 2018)
- Social anxiety disorder (Wikipedia)
- Virtual reality (Wikipedia)
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- Augmented reality phobia treatment application (Youtube)
- Cognitive behaviour therapy for specific phobias (American Psychological Society)
- Phobias and irrational fears (Help Guide )
- The Sydney clinic treating phobias with virtual reality (Youtube) | <urn:uuid:bac39aa5-6ab6-4712-86c4-2008ee22ffac> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://en.m.wikiversity.org/wiki/Motivation_and_emotion/Book/2019/Phobias | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233511000.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20231002132844-20231002162844-00890.warc.gz | en | 0.879367 | 6,589 | 3.578125 | 4 |
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Mastering time management is a continuous journey that requires self-awareness, discipline, and consistent effort. By implementing these techniques and adopting a proactive mindset, you can take control of your time, boost productivity, and achieve greater balance in your personal and professional life. Remember, effective time management is not about doing more; it's about doing what truly matters. Start applying these strategies today, and reap the rewards of a well-managed and fulfilling life.
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"Discover the secrets to mastering time management and boosting productivity with this insightful article. Explore a range of effective techniques and strategies that will empower you to optimize your time, prioritize tasks, eliminate distractions, and achieve your goals efficiently. Whether you're a student, professional, or entrepreneur, this article provides practical tips to maximize productivity and make the most of every moment."
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John Quincy Adams was the only president to serve in Congress.
Martin Van Buren was the first president born in the new United States.
James Buchanan was the only bachelor president.
James Garfield was the first left-handed president.
William Taft was the largest president at 6 feet 2 inches tall and 326 pounds.
James Madison was the shortest president at 5 feet 4 inches.
Theodore Roosevlet was the youngest president at 42 years old.
Ronald Reagan was the oldest leaving office at 77 years old.
Herbert Hoover was the first president born west of the Mississippi.
John F. Kennedy was the first president born in the 20th century. (May 29, 1917)
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4th, 1826.
John Quincy Adams swam daily in the Potomac River.
John Taylor was the first to become president through death of the current president.
William Henry Harrison died one month after delivering the longest inaugural speech at 1 hour 45 minutes.
Abraham Lincoln was the first president to be assassinated.
Grover Cleveland was the only president to serve two nonconsecutive terms.
James Garfield could write Greek with one hand and Latin with the other simultaneously.
Benjamin Harrison was the only grandson of a president to become president.
The teddy bear was named for Theodore Roosevelt because he refused to shoot a bear cub while hunting.
Woodrow Wilson kept sheep to trim the White House lawn.
At 4 terms, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to more terms than any other president.
Richard Nixon was the only president to resign.
Gerald Ford was the only president not elected into office.
Jimmy Carter was the first president born in a hospital.
Most Wanted >> | <urn:uuid:9d589c66-45cd-43da-8cbe-e5ebce7054a3> | CC-MAIN-2015-48 | http://comicalworld.tripod.com/presidentfacts.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-48/segments/1448398455246.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20151124205415-00152-ip-10-71-132-137.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97458 | 361 | 3.1875 | 3 |
This is information by the CDC on their Get Smart about Antibiotics Week program, from their website:
Get Smart About Antibiotics Week is an annual one-week observance to raise awareness of antibiotic resistance and the importance of appropriate antibiotic prescribing and use.
Each year in the United States, at least 2 million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die as a direct result of these infections. Many more people die from other conditions that were complicated by an antibiotic-resistant infection.
On September 18, 2014, the White House announced an Executive Order stating that the Federal Government will work domestically and internationally to detect, prevent, and control illness and death related to antibiotic-resistant infections by implementing measures that reduce the emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and help ensure the continued availability of effective therapeutics for the treatment of bacterial infections.
The use of antibiotics is the single most important factor leading to antibiotic resistance around the world. Antibiotics are among the most commonly prescribed drugs used in human medicine. However, up to 50% of all the antibiotics prescribed for people are not needed or are not optimally effective as prescribed. Antibiotics are also commonly used for promoting growth in food animals, one type of use that is not necessary.
Get Smart About Antibiotics Week 2015
During November 16-22, 2015, the annual Get Smart About Antibiotics Week will be observed. The observance is a key component of CDC’s efforts to improve antibiotic stewardship in communities, in healthcare facilities, and on the farm in collaboration with state-based programs, nonprofit partners, and for-profit partners. The one-week observance raises awareness of the threat of antibiotic resistance and the importance of appropriate antibiotic prescribing and use.
The observance is an international collaboration, coinciding with:
- European Antibiotic Awareness Day
- Australia’s Antibiotic Awareness Week
- Canada’s Antibiotic Awareness Week
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2015). Get Smart about Antibiotics Week: -Overview. See: http://www.cdc.gov/getsmart/week/overview.html
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (16 September 2013). Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States, 2013.
© Copyright 2015 Joan Rothchild Hardin. All Rights Reserved.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing on this site or blog is intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. | <urn:uuid:b522ea34-acd6-4445-ad40-6d0f75a10338> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://allergiesandyourgut.com/2015/11/15/get-smart-about-antibiotics-week-november-16-22-2015/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370506477.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20200401223807-20200402013807-00354.warc.gz | en | 0.918637 | 511 | 3.578125 | 4 |
What is a Fluoride Treatment?
Fluoride is an essential mineral for the health of your teeth. If you do not keep good oral hygiene habits, plaque, an acid-producing bacteria, can build up and cause cavities and tooth decay. Fluoride is found in the toothpaste you use to brush your teeth, but only in small amounts. When you receive a fluoride treatment from your dentist, a more effective, higher concentration of fluoride is used than what is contained in a toothpaste.
Fluoride can help protect teeth from cavities as well as fix teeth that are in the very early stages of decay. Fluoride treatments are quick and completely painless.
The treatment goes as follows:
Step 1: Applying the Fluoride
Fluoride can be applied in a couple of different ways. These include gel, foam, varnish or a solution. If your dentist gives you fluoride in a varnish or solution form, this will be used as a rinse. Gel form fluoride is applied to the surface of your teeth and left on for a couple of minutes, and the other form, foam, is placed in a mouth guard that is left on your teeth.
Step 2: Removal of Fluoride
Once your dentist cleans up any excess fluoride still in your mouth, they will most likely advise you to not eat or drink anything for 30 minutes. The fluoride needs time to absorb into your teeth to fix and clean them.
Step 3: Additional Treatments
Depending on your situation, your dentist may recommend fluoride treatment every 3, 6, or 12 months. For individuals with a higher risk of tooth decay, there are fluoride products available by prescription that your dentist may suggest to you.
The easiest way to protect your teeth from plaque and the risk of tooth decay is through proper oral hygiene and regular dental visits. There are fluoride mouthwashes available at stores and we suggest checking the ADA database for products with the ADA Seal of Acceptance. These products are tested for safety and effectiveness, you can find their accepted fluoride mouthwash products here.
As the name would suggest, bite-wing X-rays are integral for determining a patient’s bite profile.
Before the image is taken, you may be asked to bite down on a small plate or sensor. Then, the radiologist will take a quick snapshot of your teeth.
The scope of these X-rays is more narrow than its counterparts, as each image only details about four teeth. With that said, they’re highly-detailed, capturing a dental profile down to the bone.
Aside from helping dentists learn more about enamel strength, it’s also a great way to discover overcrowding problems or crooked growth.
Where bite-wing images give a full-sized look at your, periapical imaging gives an in-depth look at about four to five teeth at most.
If you go to your dentist complaining of tooth pain, they’ll likely suggest undergoing a periapical X-ray.
If you’ve ever seen a massive machine in your dentist’s office, there’s a good chance it was a panoramic camera used for cephalometric imaging.
This is simply an image of your profile. Taken from the side, a cephalometric X-ray is helpful in determining an under or overbite in a patient. Furthermore, it can assist in locating the presence of harmful bacteria in oral tissue.
Often, this type of mouth X-ray is recommended for patients considering braces or corrective surgery.
Like the cephalometric X-ray, a panoramic image, unsurprisingly, requires the use of a specialized panoramic camera.
Like its counterpart, a panoramic image gives a full view of your mouth.
However, it’s less concerned with the jaw, instead focusing on the teeth. This is a great option for those who may have impacted teeth or believe they may have an oral tumor.
When a dental professional needs a close look at a hard-to-see area, such as under a patient’s gums, they’ll recommend a tomogram. This type of X-ray is as minute as it gets.
What’s more, dentists can use a computerized tomography to create a fully three-dimensional portrait of your teeth, allowing for an even better look at the smallest details of a tooth.
Most of the time, the reason for a dental visit is for your routine teeth cleaning.
Knowing what happens during this cleaning can help put you at ease and allow for a comfortable experience.
Step 1: Physical Exam
The hygienist, who will be the one to clean your teeth, will begin by examining your mouth with a small mirror. This is to check your teeth and gums for any signs of issues.
Step 2: Removal of Plaque and Tartar
Your hygienist will use a scaler to remove any plaque and tartar from around your gums and between your teeth.
Step 3: Brushing
Once the hygienist has removed the plaque from your teeth, they will use a high-powered brush to clean your teeth.
Step 4: Flossing
After your brushing, your hygienist will then floss your teeth. This flossing will help remove any remaining plaque and toothpaste.
Step 5: Fluoride
Fluoride will be applied to your teeth to help protect them from cavities. The fluoride helps keeps your teeth protected for months at a time.
Although brushing and flossing at home is important, scheduling routine visits to the dentist are one of the best ways to keep a healthy smile. If you’re due for a six-month cleaning, schedule your visit with a dentist near you.
To protect teeth from decay, dentists often recommend dental sealants.
Dental sealants are generally placed on children’s teeth, although adults can receive sealants as well. Dental sealants are usually placed on the permanent back teeth and cover the chewing area of a tooth. If your child is receiving a dental sealant, their pediatric dentist can place the sealant on the teeth.
Back teeth are more susceptible to decay because they are more difficult to clean. Dental sealants offer a good way to help your child protect their teeth. If you or your child are receiving sealants and would like to know what the procedure involves, here is what you can expect.
Step 1: Preparing the Tooth
The teeth that will be receiving the dental sealants will be cleaned and washed off. Next, an acidic solution is applied to the chewing surface of the tooth and rinsed off. The acidic solution will create a rougher area on the tooth that makes the sealant attach easier.
Step 2: Placing the Dental Sealant
The dental sealant is a liquid material that will be set on the tooth. This material will be dried using a special light, or the sealant may contain an ingredient that will automatically dry.
You should still continue practicing proper dental hygiene even on teeth with dental sealants. Sealants help protect the tooth from decay but it is not a substitute for cleaning.
Dental casts are recreations of your teeth that can be used in a number of cases.
Common reasons your dentist would need to use a dental cast include:
- Creating a dental crown, fixed bridge, and dentures
- Custom mouth guards
- Teeth whitening trays
A dentist may also need to use dental casts to study a patients teeth, gums and arches. Here is how a dentist creates these casts.
Step 1: Measurements
A dental assistant will need to measure the size of your mouth to determine what tray to use for your impressions.
Step 2: Molding Material
Once the correct tray is found, the material used to cast your teeth will be created and poured into the tray.
Step 3: Impressions
The tray is then placed in your mouth, creating an accurate impression of your teeth. This process will take a few minutes.
Step 4: Cleaning
The tray is removed and your teeth are cleaned of any excess material that is left on your teeth.
Receiving a dental cast is a pain-free experience and gives the dentist a lot of important information about the status of your mouth and its development. Be sure to stop by our blog to read more dental health tips! | <urn:uuid:9407c601-9ddf-4007-9f6b-4d3affff3720> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | https://www.dentistnearmereviews.com/dental-services/oral-wellness/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570986682037.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20191018104351-20191018131851-00190.warc.gz | en | 0.935104 | 1,761 | 3.15625 | 3 |
The study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, found that only 14 percent of men and 30 percent of women regularly use sunscreen both on their face and other exposed areas. It also showed that more than 40 percent of men and 27 percent of women never use sunscreen on their face or other areas of exposed skin when outdoors for an hour or more, Carrie Myers reports for HealthDay News.
“The overwhelming majority of melanomas — the deadliest form of skin cancer — and non-melanoma skin cancers are associated with exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun,” Dr. Deborah Sarnoff, senior vice president of the Skin Cancer Foundation, told Myers. “That’s why daily sun protection is critical,” she said.
The foundation recommends that when you are out in the sun you should seek shade, wear protective clothing, including a broad-brimmed hat, wear UV-blocking sunglasses and wear a broad-spectrum daily sunscreen that has an SPF of 30 or higher and is water-resistant,of which you should check the expiration date, Sarnoff told Myers.
The study also found that nearly 40 percent of sunscreen users didn’t know whether their sunscreen provided broad-spectrum protection.
“Broad-spectrum means that the sunscreen protects the skin from both UVA and UVB rays. UVB rays are responsible for sunburns, while UVA rays go deeper into the skin, causing sagging and wrinkling. It is believed that both UVA and UVB rays play a role in skin cancer,” Myers writes.
“To take advantage of the full protection your sunscreen offers, it should be applied thickly to all exposed skin and reapplied every two hours and after swimming, sweating, and toweling off,” Dawn Holman, lead author of the study, told Myers. “Sunscreen is most effective when paired with other forms of sun protection.”
Holman recommended products with physical blocks, such as titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, for those who shy away from sunscreens because they fear the chemicals in them. She also told Myers that everyone should avoid midday sun exposure because that is when the UV rays are most intense and encouraged people to check the UV index before going outdoors, saying, “The higher the UV index, the more sun protection you will need.”
Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States, according to the CDC. The most severe form, melanoma, causes more than 9,000 deaths a year in the United States, Myers reports. | <urn:uuid:9ad18236-922b-4be0-847d-44aca948d429> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://ci.uky.edu/kentuckyhealthnews/2015/05/24/many-americans-still-dont-use-sunscreen/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571056.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809155137-20220809185137-00532.warc.gz | en | 0.947599 | 536 | 3.265625 | 3 |
LAWRENCEVILLE - In the span of a few months, thoughts of an avian flu pandemic have swirled in the minds of millions.
Nations are developing a pandemic response strategy, as are the federal government and the state. But Gwinnett County has been preparing for the event for many years.
"We've been worried (about avian flu) since 1997," said Marcia Postal-Ranney, RN and infection control coordinator at Gwinnett Medical Center Hospital Systems. "We've been concerned about when the next flu pandemic would come and have been talking about preparedness for a long time."
The H5N1 virus, a subtype of the avian influenza virus, is found in poultry. Scientists first believed it impossible for birds to directly infect humans with the virus, but outbreaks in Hong Kong in 1997 that killed six of 18 people infected have proven the contrary.
No vaccine for the disease is available, but according to the Centers for Disease Control vaccine development efforts have been taking place since April 2005.
"This is where the rubber hits the road," said Vernon Goins, spokesman for the East Metro Health District.
Once a pandemic plan has been prepared on the national and state level the next move is to plan for the pandemic on a local level, he said. For a disease to be deemed a true pandemic it must never have been seen in the human population, be easily transmissible between humans and show a significant death rate. As of now there is no pandemic, but being prepared for one is key.
"We've had a couple practices with this kind of thing," said Goins. "Last year we did the drive-thru flu clinic and that might be the way we'll decide to handle something as contagious as a pandemic flu."
Gwinnett Medical Center Hospital Systems have had an avian flu plan in place since 2003 following an influx in avian flu cases in Vietnam and Thailand. Anyone who comes through the hospital doors now with flu-like symptoms and has traveled to Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia or Cambodia is immediately ushered into a sealed-off section of the hospital for airborne contact prevention. They are then tested for strain A and B Influenza, strain A being H5N1 (avian flu).
"If they have Influenza A we would contact the Health Department, which is part of the East Metro Health District, and we would arrange to have specifics sent to the state lab for testing," Postal-Ranney said.
The Health Department would then contact family members and anyone else known to be in contact with the individual and certain precautions would be made while keeping the individual in isolation.
Last February a man from Vietnam was tested at Gwinnett Medical Center and was initially thought to have Influenza A (avian flu), said Postal-Ranney. However, later tests showed he did not have Influenza A. The situation resulted in a dry run for the hospital staff, giving them a chance to enact the procedures necessary should an outbreak truly occur in Gwinnett. | <urn:uuid:f5616e98-5dbb-40f4-9e4b-8e991ad05f4b> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/news/2005/nov/08/county-has-head-start-on-preparing-for-bird-flu/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1414119646425.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20141024030046-00248-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971808 | 631 | 2.75 | 3 |
Once Upon a Time
‘Once’ names the specific, the particular. ‘Upon’ signifies emplacing, situating, taking place. ‘A time’ sets a temporal context. Before the phrase ‘once upon a time’ is written or spoken there is a suspension: a ‘nowhen’, a nowhere, a nothing. The phrase prepares us to be temporally and spatially situated. It enacts a ritual that creates a space in the imagination for a story to unfold. What follows ‘once upon a time’ is an important set of variables that begin to happen, to take place in that cleared, prepared site in the mind’s eye. Did I say ‘mind’s eye’? I meant to say the mind’s body: the imagination is not merely visual, but multi-sensory and emotional. Stories are not just visual, they are visceral. I could just as easily have said the body’s mind. Like lovers, they belong to each other. Belonging: being and longing.
Once upon a time there was a princess who lived in a castle. The princess had everything she could ever want: jewels, fine clothing, the most delicious food in the kingdom. Still, though, she was sad.
The castle is a cold and sorrowful place, isn’t it? Those jewels are joyless rocks, and the supposedly delicious food tastes like cardboard and smells of nothing. The sadness that enters in the last sentence sets the tone, the mood, the atmosphere. You can probably feel the rough surface of the castle’s stone and the stout planks of the princess’s dinner table. Yes, that’s you I’m talking to. Hello out there. Welcome to my mind, and welcome to the place I’ve cleared and prepared for both of us in our imaginations. It’s nice to share this scene with you. It’s nice to have made a little space for meaning: what does anything mean without emotion and sensation?
Once upon a time we built the places of our heart’s desires
I want to imagine with you a scenario in which desire and pleasure are at the core of the design process. The processes of design have much in common with the processes of imaginative play. They both require the envisioning and rehearsal of scenarios, and they are both often utopian. Utopias are ways of analysing and evaluating situations through narratives that allow us to test possible worlds. They can be used as methods both to imagine better worlds (not necessarily perfect ones). Or they can be used to picture what might happen if things go wrong: meet dystopia, utopia’s evil twin. Sometimes our heart’s desires don’t lead to healthy choices, and working through utopian scenarios is a way to figure out which of our desires may feasibly be fulfilled (which moves them from the realm of the utopian to the attainable)—and to what extent. The limits of fulfilment under capitalism and its attendant structural inequalities can, in many ways, only be tested first as utopian scenarios. Both design and imaginative play also allow us to test potentially dangerous scenarios without endangering actual subjects in real life experiments.
The experiment I want to undertake here, though, is a daring but not a dangerous one, and it is potentially enriching. I want to dare to imagine a world where people live lives characterised by ease, pleasure, and sensuality; a world in which everyone has enough to satisfy both their basic needs and a generous selection of superfluous desires. This world is one that must be imagined in detail. Such prefigurative work is an act of make-believe. Ruth Levitas refers to the ‘imaginary reconstitution of society’ (Levitas, 2013: xi); but the act of imagining encompasses the imaginary reconstitution, not only of society as such, but of the spaces in which society exists. Make-believe is a practice that has agency. Our dream-worlds and our life-worlds are constantly interacting to shape place and dwelling. Using utopian imagination as method, then; for enacting positive change in the built and lived landscape is the only way to ensure that our future world provides adequate pleasure to support a good life for all.
This article will examine the roles designers play in humankind’s futurity—as makers, envisioners, and tastemakers—in light of contingent and relational models of utopianism, rather than those that are simplifying, teleological, and diagrammatic. Further, the creation of more fulfilling and sustainable places to live requires the reshaping of popular beliefs to change patterns of everyday life and consumption. The article specifically addresses the persuasive, propagandistic nature of representation for design and asks that designers concentrate on using their powers for good.
Naturally, none of this can happen without education; and education, like utopianism, is a practice of futurity. It seeks to prepare the minds and bodies that will construct and inhabit the future. The educational experience that most people receive, in the architectures or any other discipline, however, is one that is designed to prepare them for a particular future.2 This involves preparing students for preconceived roles, often employing what Paulo Freire (2007) called ‘banking education’, in which students are envisioned as containers into which knowledge is deposited. The nation-state, for example, has an interest in creating patriotic citizens, while the neoliberal project seeks to create ‘flexible’ subjects who are ‘lifelong learners’. A fully democratic model of education might resemble neither of these, seeking, rather, to put into practice equality and striving towards emancipation (see Simons & Masschelein, 2011; Ross, 1991): both emancipation (here the freedom that comes with ability and empowerment) and equality are mutually assured and maintained through everyday practices. The ‘learning society’, while expressing ‘principles of a universal humanity and a promise of progress that seem to transcend the nation’ (Simons & Masschelein, 2007: 9), is undermined by its risk-aversion and also by the absence of emancipation from studenthood itself at formal education’s end. As Gert Biesta warns:
The desire to make education strong, secure, predictable, and risk-free is an attempt to forget that at the end of the day education should aim at making itself dispensable—no teacher wants their students to remain eternal students—which means that education necessarily needs to have an orientation toward the freedom and independence of those being educated. (Biesta, 2014: 2, emphasis in original)
While learning may continue through life, education as formal learning is a transitional period and thus should come to an end, otherwise the student becomes stuck in this threshold, forever a student; never released into full competency and agency. Education should build the capacity to apply the imaginal to the real and thus to transform it, and in doing so make other, better futures possible. In this, education might resemble what David Graeber, reflecting a common position in anarchist theory, refers to as ‘prefigurative politics’, ‘the idea that the organizational form that an activist group takes should embody the kind of society we wish to create’ (Graeber, 2013: 23). Graeber applies this to activism, particularly to the Occupy movement. The ‘democracy project’, to which Graeber refers in the title of his book, should be brought into education, in particular to encourage dissent. Democracy, conceived as a project, allies itself naturally to emancipation and equality as practices. There is no room for practices of dissent in an education that is ‘strong, secure, predictable, and risk-free’, nor in the society which it might produce. A project of democracy exists as a ‘social ecology’ (another term from anarchist theory; see Bookchin, 2005) of interpenetrating, mutually informing ideas that exist in the world and in human associations. That social ecology must be nested into the ecology of the physical, inhabited world.
In both education and professional practice, design processes are currently being re-envisioned in ways that are analogous to natural processes and ecologies (see Corner, 1999; Meyer, 2000; Reed & Lister, 2014). This makes sense if we are to design, make, and build in responsively cohesive ways. Envisioning design as a conversation with sites, materials, processes, habitats and habits, and so on engenders the according of agency to places and all they are made of. The increasing interpenetration of social, cultural, and physical worlds with new media ecologies further underscores the importance of envisioning these processes differently.
Design involves drawing, making, modelling, and simulating, which is yet another practice which can be envisioned as having an ecological structure. As an imaginative activity, simulation is aided by design iterations involving the standard modes of representation for design. Simulation can be immensely rich if we are simulating the right things. Simulation takes place in the brain (and the mind) during the design process, and the designer rehearses movements and activities in space during simulations using the same neural pathways that they would if they were physically negotiating and interacting with an actual site. In this way, we use the mind’s body rather than the mind’s eye. These simulations necessarily mimic not just spaces, forms, objects, and buildings, but situations, sensations, emotions, and interactions. ‘Modes of attending to scenes and events spawn socialities, identities, dream worlds, bodily states and public feelings of all kinds’, writes Kathleen Stewart (2007: 10). The possible futures to which we might be directed; and the possible worlds we might prefigure, are embedded in this rich, relational past and present.
Making a Living or Making a Killing
I mentioned above that the possible worlds and narratives we imagine can positively or negatively shape our beliefs. We have all come to increasingly inhabit a dystopian world—a real world—that is shaped by an imaginary that is at once utopian and anti-utopian. This imaginary speaks a language of freedom and flexibility, but in practice it encloses and constrains while sowing precarity—and precarity puts people on the defensive, whereas flexibility implies enough security to explore options. This dystopia is the product of magical thinking. It is shaped by an imaginary that exhibits the hallmarks of magical religiosity: ‘the naive, need-based, unquestioning hope in the face of experience, reason and refutation is a feature…not of Utopia but of religion’ (Howells, 2015: 24). Howells assigns these attributes to all religion, but his formulation needs elaboration, as it seemingly assigns to all registers of religiosity the character of fundamentalism. Let us say, then, that this imaginary bears the hallmarks of fundamentalist religiosity, a construct reinforced by the prevalent use of the term ‘market fundamentalism’ to describe much capitalist ideology. In this imaginary, individuals are alone in the world and their success, or lack thereof, is solely the product of their own efforts. There is no expectation that any individual who succeeds should have any obligation (or any wish) to share the fruits of their success. Individuals achieve their successes or failures in an economic system that is perceived to be guided by an underlying moral compass, the ‘invisible hand’ of the market, a concept crudely adapted from the writings of Adam Smith. Financial success is thus believed to be a mark of human goodness and worthiness—perhaps the mark. Lavish displays of wealth, even in the presence of pitiful displays of poverty, are therefore acceptable because they are the trappings of goodness and represent those ‘goods’ to which the impoverished should aspire and which their lack of striving has denied them. The ‘invisible hand’ will also see to it that the biological environment is safeguarded for the future so that the natural resources which support the lifestyles of the rich and famous remain abundant. The individual who has succeeded in this system, some like to say, has ‘made a killing’.
This construct, as I have noted above, is at once anti-utopian and utopian. Lucy Sargisson writes that ‘anti-utopianism is not just dystopianism or gloominess about the future. Rather, it is a phenomenon that resists the utopian impulse’ (Sargisson, 2012: 22). It insists upon the appearance of bloody-minded pragmatism over foolish dreaming. This constrains the political left by painting it as obliviously utopian when it seeks to define what the future ought to be, just as it fuels the right’s claims to the superiority of rationality over hope when it seeks to insist that injustice is a ‘natural’ condition. A stern mask of anti-utopianism is applied over the ghostly face of neoliberalism’s magical utopianism, which, at its libertarian or ‘anarchocapitalist’ extremes, displays all the marks of fundamentalism. Fundamentalism’s most wicked spectres—the Inquisition, possibly—are summoned as Sargisson continues:
The utopianism that drives religious fundamentalism is perfectionist, closed, static and it has divine sanction. This combines with core elements of religious fundamentalism to create a drive towards purity and purge. In proselytizing religions this is even more dangerous because expansionism and territoriality are added to the mix. (Sargisson, 2012: 41)
This perfectionist utopia allows free-market neoliberalism to make the claim, for example, that the market is not yet completely self-regulating because it is not yet completely free.
The cultural and political theorist Jeremy Gilbert has described this magical system as ‘competitive individualism’ (Gilbert, 2014); whilst Neal Curtis, also a cultural theorist, has used the term ‘idiotism’ (derived not from the use of the word as a slur or an archaic descriptor for mental illness, but rather from the Greek idiotes [ιδιοτɛς], which describes a person who is private, who lacks the ability to function publicly (Curtis, 2013)). I prefer the former, though I have sympathies with the latter. Competitive individualism is a key narrative of capitalism and the foundation stone for neoliberalism, the system in which governments everywhere are supposedly being minimised, but which instead have become more authoritarian, corporatised, privatised, and marketised; and have remained large despite shedding many of their altruistic functions and obligations. This is in response to the progressive loss of power in the nation-state to the free-floating power in the ‘space of flows’ (as formulated by Manuel Castells, 1989, 2004) in what Zygmunt Bauman calls ‘liquid modernity’.3 Competitive individualism and neoliberalism have literally been ‘making a killing’ by fuelling war and terrorism, squandering planetary resources; and polluting and destroying wantonly in processes that are flatteringly described as ‘wealth creation’ despite having actually created a preponderance of ‘illth’ (as John Ruskin [1921: 97–8] once termed wealth’s opposite).
For Curtis, the idios, the realm of the private, is identified with the practice of the enclosures, which have been ‘the primary means for capitalist accumulation over the centuries’ (2013: 14). This enclosing tendency takes place across all realms of human endeavour anywhere a commons and a common good may be founded. This includes digital realms (for example Microsoft’s ongoing enclosures in the name of ‘intellectual property’; see Stallman, 2005), cultural realms (such as the practices of corporate ‘cool-hunting’; see Klein, 2001), and the landscape (from the early enclosures in England which pushed the peasantry, often violently, off the land and into the proletariat; see Williams, 1973). In late capitalism, enclosures continue apace in all these realms, but are obscured by liquid modernity’s incessant shape-shifting. This is the sort of world in which ‘flexible’ workers who are ‘life-long learners’ can flourish. What is sorely needed is a positive counter-imaginary of prosperity and flourishing that is identified not with destruction but with careful management of resources and ecologies, with sharing, creating economies of care, and planning constructively for a future in which all will share. In contrast to ‘making a killing’, this could and should be called ‘making a living’, which would redefine success in terms of whole lives rather than whole paychecks.
Those who argue for competitive individualism tend to frame their claims in terms of cold rationality, which allows the masquerade of eschewing morality. Decisions that are made on qualitative or emotional bases are suspect, and moral arguments are viewed as subservient to rational calculations. Ugly buildings, for example, are justified on the basis of their efficiency or their cost-effectiveness. Such decisions may be rational (arguably), but they are not sensible or reasonable. Calculation does not equal evaluation (or valuation, for that matter). What ‘makes sense’ to most people on a daily basis are those things that provide them with convenience, comfort, pleasure, and satisfaction, and these things are almost never merely selfish concerns. The value that people see in their lives is usually dependent upon and interactive with the lives and desires of others. Seeking the approval of others, as well as their satisfaction, is fundamental to human behaviour. The decisions about what is reasonable are based in the evidence of the senses and the emotions. By this token an ugly building is unreasonable and makes no sense. It is also selfish, lacking any intrinsic worth of its own. Meaning and values are sensual and embodied—looking good and feeling good are moral and ethical qualities, and they are dependent upon their context.4 As Tim Cresswell points out, ‘[t]he geographical setting of actions plays a central role in defining our judgment of whether actions are good or bad’ (Cresswell, 1996: 9).
For the design process, the implications are fairly clear. If an architect is asked to design a building and the sole considerations are pecuniary—to maximise space and minimise cost—then it will be exceedingly difficult for the architect to make a sensible building. The logical extreme is demonstrated by the big box retail building, which is exactly as it sounds—a big box of a building which maximises retail space but in all other regards is utterly ungenerous to and/or destructive of its environment. The emergence of the computer as the preferred design tool, often to the exclusion of all others, reduces the sensory engagement in the design process to a single sense, that of vision, which actively abets the process of reducing buildings (including landscapes) to mere (financial) instruments. As architect Santiago Pérez puts it: ‘The gap between computation and making today may be seen as a rapidly developing over-reliance on parametric instrumentality, at the expense of material invention and discovery’ (Pérez, 2012: 382). It might be argued that at least buildings produced solely through digital means will ‘look good’, but a building that looks good but that doesn’t do good or feel good in its material reality is a failed building. Again, it doesn’t make sense.
An active engagement with multisensual materials and media is key to creating buildings that make sense. What is necessary is a particular engagement that architect Kyna Leski calls ‘material reasoning’. Leski refers to Antoni Gaudí’s methods of making and modeling, specifically his designs for Barcelona’s celebrated cathedral, the Sagrada Familia. Its arches were tested with a model made of draped chains, which inverted the building’s structure. His methods include exploration of ‘material behavior, material geometry, material tolerances, and material analogies’ (Leski, 2015: 78). I would extend the analogy of material reasoning to include consideration of the sensual qualities of materials, something Pérez approaches more closely with his similar concept of material intelligence which ‘combines parametric workflows, traditional crafts and advanced rapid-prototyping and manufacturing’ (Pérez, 2012: 383). But the concept still needs expanding, and the framing of design processes as ‘workflows’ smacks of the liquid modern vocabulary of neoliberalism. First, materials used in modelling in the studio may be employed to test textures, acoustics, and even the smell (using wood in models to bring to mind the odor of panelling or decking, for example). Secondly, the sensual qualities of materials used in the studio may be used to recall and make more vivid the sensual qualities of the site itself, and to make it more real in the imagination during design explorations. A riverside site might be brought to mind by pressing one’s thumbs into clay—to recall the alluvial mud encountered—and, perhaps, to make drawings, choosing the paper and drawing medium to recall the texture of reeds and grasses. Recalling a site as three-dimensional, sensual, and real rather than merely a red-bordered abstraction drawn on a plan is an important step to resist treating it merely as a commodity or a surface that exists only to be filled. Importantly, as Cresswell tells us:
We live in a world of meaning. We exist in and are surrounded by places—centers of meaning. Places are neither totally material nor completely mental; they are combinations of the material and mental and cannot be reduced to either. (Cresswell, 1996: 13)
A further boon is that the designer also becomes more present, embodied, and thus becomes a more human presence in the design imaginary. Perhaps thinking in these terms will also help us to demand more, for example, from processes of remote sensing for geospatial analysis, which presently are composed primarily of statistical and visual data.
It is perhaps important to note, as well, that these processes are certainly available to capitalist modes of production, and that luxury products, for example, are often the result of careful, embodied design. What can redeem this process from the mere creation of sensually fulfilling commodities is a concomitant awareness of context, an embedded altruism, and an ecology of thinking: that is, it is not merely the tools and the product, but the whole mind-set we bring to design. Contemporary placemaking processes rely heavily on the imaginal, ‘which emphasizes the centrality of images’ (Bottici, 2014: 5); and the imaginary, which ‘primarily means what exists only in fancy and has no real existence and is opposed to real or actual’ (Bottici, 2014: 7). This is reflected both in the luxurious imagery of the architectures—filled with birds, balloons, well-groomed people, and a flash of lens flare—and in the language—in which a different ‘sense’ is made. This is the ‘sense of place’, or the ‘sense of community’, which here refers not to immersive, reflexive, multisensual engagement, but to a general feeling that something might be the case. Places that are at best humdrum, common and stultifying are presented as ecstatic and playful, but actual well-being created by fulfilling places is as far away from this as certainty is from a hunch. The relentless pursuit of empty glamour—where pursuit is merely the ‘thrill of the chase’—has for decades trumped the pursuit of happiness. And here the importance of the pursuit as practice, pastime, and lived experience is key to overturning the chimerical, illusionary, neoliberal sense of happiness and well-being. Here the ‘art of living’ is one of cultivated goodness, and thus authentic in that it is ‘authored’. The design of places that are capable of sustaining such authentic fulfilment requires more of the designer than merely pretty pictures and a ‘sense’ of goodness. It requires the deep and rigorous exercise of the suppositional imagination.
I have sometimes used a short studio exercise in which I ask students to come up with as many words for sounds and states of water as possible. The exercise, of course, begins with onomatopoeia such as ‘splash’ and ‘gurgle’. Hilarity is allowed and encouraged with words like ‘piss’ and ‘piddle’. States of water—waves, ripples, limpid pools, froth, are all explored. I then give them an assignment to design a garden room that provides/contains these experiences. They are encouraged to think about the sensual experience of water, for example, sliding their hand into cool, calm water on a hot summer day. I then ask the students, as part of their process, to play with water, and they are sent outside with cups and buckets. I also encourage them to draw a bath full of water at home, and play with the water as if they were children, taking delight in its qualities and listening to the amusing noises it makes. Ploop, slosh, tinkle, plash. The delight of this exercise is immediately apparent to the students, and they all comment on how different and refreshing it feels to begin with a proposition that involves senses other than vision, in this case primarily touch and sound.
Design in the architectures is a work of supposition: ‘Suppose it’s like this’. The designer is supposing a scenario. The designer, like Moses (who supposes his toeses are roses), knows(es) this is only a scenario, but introducing a realm of (in this case comic) possibility is at the very heart of the act. Writing about the important work of Shaun Nichols and Stephen Stich (2000) on the cognitive theory of pretence, Peter Carruthers sums up that they:
Argue that we need to recognize the existence of a distinct type of attitude, alongside belief and desire—namely, the attitude of supposing. When children pretend, they are supposing that something is the case (e.g. that the banana is a telephone, that they have an invisible friend called ‘Wendy’, etc.), and they act out their pretence within the scope of that supposition. Moreover, supposing can’t be reduced to believing, or to desiring, or to any combination thereof (nor can it be reduced to any sort of planning or intending). It therefore needs to be assigned its own ‘box’ within a functional boxology of the human mind. (Carruthers, 2006: 90; emphases in original)
Carruthers points out that Nichols and Stich refer to the attitude of supposing in pretence and imaginative play, but the construct is directly applicable to design. Further, the act of supposition is accompanied by simulation. The designer who works at the scale of architecture and landscape cannot prototype their design in the studio: they cannot work at full scale to test a design. The designer must therefore undertake to simulate the experience of the site or building as faithfully as possible, and then to work through imaginative scenarios to assess whether a design iteration is more or less successful.
Gaston Bachelard remarked that ‘it is impossible to think the vowel sound ah without a tautening of the vocal chords. In other words, we read ah and the voice is ready to sing’ (Bachelard, 1964: 197). This prescient observation is now confirmed by studies in cognitive neuroscience of mirror-neuron phenomena. These, Mark Johnson says:
Suggest that understanding is a form of simulation. To see another person perform an action activates some of the same sensorimotor areas, as if the observer herself were performing the action. This deep and pre-reflective level of engagement with others reveals our most profound bodily understanding of other people, and it shows our intercorporeal social connectedness. Moreover, mirror-neuron research supports the hypothesis that imagination is a form of simulation. Research by Marc Jeannerod shows that imagining certain motor actions activates some of the same parts of the brain that are involved in actually performing that action. Imagining a visual scene also activates areas of the brain that would be activated if we actually perceived that scene. (Johnson, 2007: 161–2; emphases in original)
Simulation has incredible power in the human mind, and designers can think of themselves as ‘flight simulators’ who test flying the site’s design in a simulated world before real lives are at stake in real situations. When I want to envision the power of simulation, I need only think back to certain childhood experiences. I can remember opening National Geographic to see photos of swarms of insects on the pages, and not wishing to touch the images directly. I can also remember feeling cold on behalf of scantily clad models depicted on billboards in winter. When asking students to run their own ‘flight simulations for design’, I ask them to imagine the experience of users of the space, perhaps holding their site model up to eye level to envision that person in the space. A mother carrying a child, a person in an electric wheelchair, a tipsy woman in stiletto heels at a garden party carrying a glass of champagne and a small plate of hors d’oeuvres. What will happen when the tipsy woman laughs and steps backward into the soft lawn? In simulating, the designer’s imagining mind is living the experience on behalf of the proposed site’s speculative inhabitants. The imaginal provides a facsimile of real experience. Is there a correlation between the facsimile and the use of media as surrogates for experience? In representation, the medium is used to stand in for—literally, to represent—so it stands to reason that this is true.
Sherry Turkle, in her book Alone Together, which addresses the problem of people retreating into virtual worlds that are surrogates for real life (‘RL’, she calls it, in contrast to VR, virtual reality) shows that the phenomenon has a dystopian aspect as well. One of her students, she recounts, says he sees RL as ‘just one more window [and] it’s not usually my best one’ (Turkle, 2011: xii). The problems of creating an immersive virtual world that allows people to live parallel and isolated lives outside of and away from RL are not, I wager, problems to be encountered in methods for imaginal design that seek to employ a vast range of materials and methods to represent the world; and experiences of living and dwelling. In design process, the imaginal always acts upon the lived, so it is vitally important that RL does not become conflated with VR for the designer. The answer here is found in clay, pencils, wood, cardboard. Scenario-making has real agency in the world, and the utopian imagination is deeply important in combination with it, tying together human experience and human striving in place. Supposition in design takes on a prefigurative function, undertaking the awesome task of translating prophecy into corporeal existence. The more the corporeal and the sensual have agency in the design process, therefore, the more effectively will we design places that feel good and the more special we can make the lives and experiences of those for whom designs are undertaken.
So far, I have not distinguished between the quotidian function of design and the art function. While they are interdependent and simultaneous, they still represent separate aspects. Landscape architecture and architecture are both fields of endeavour that must answer to practical and scientific concerns. Will what we build stand up? Will it stay standing? Will it shed water? Collect water? How can one make a big box better? The architectures must answer these concerns, and the last question points to the fact that, in the work of design for built environments, practical concerns and the demands of art are inseparable. Art is an essential component of designing and building places—in particular if there is a wish to make places distinctive—and the goal of ‘making special’ is fundamental to both.
Ellen Dissanayake shows that ‘making special’ is definitive of art practice: ‘art’, she says, ‘can be plausibly considered a biological need that we are predisposed to want to satisfy, whose fulfilment gives satisfaction and pleasure, and whose denial may be considered a vital deprivation’ (Dissanayake, 1992: 38). She toys with a number of terms to describe the necessity of the superfluous, such as ‘elaboration’ or ‘the extra-ordinary’. She ends up defending the ‘special’ and highlights the way elements of both play and ritual define the experience of the special. Here, when she speaks of imaginative play, try substituting the term ‘design’:
In play, novelty and unpredictability are actively sought, whereas in real life we do not usually like uncertainty. Wondering whether an untried shortcut will take us to the bank before it closes on the day before a holiday is different from choosing an unknown path just to see where it will lead while on holiday. Play can be said to be “extra”, something outside normal life. (Dissanayake, 1992: 43)
Design allows us to venture down those untried pathways. Design helps us to find the special and the superfluous to introduce it into quotidian spaces. Indeed, I would argue—given the need to build distinctive places—that the superfluous, the special, are just as necessary to everyday life and everyday spaces as art practices are to the practicalities of building. This superfluity is not just necessary, but utopian. What Lucy Sargisson says of literary utopias is equally applicable to design:
Excess and play are core conventions of literary utopias… They perform several different functions. Excess permits radical creativity. Utopians imagine and desire radically different worlds but they often work with a light touch. They fool around with reality and tweak the nose of convention: transgressing norms, breaking rules and crossing boundaries. Utopians play with reality like a dog with a rag, twisting and shaking it until it breaks. And they poke fun; evoking satire and using jokes and wit as strategic weapons to show ‘it doesn’t have to be like this! (Sargisson, 2012: 16)
Richard Howells, in his A Critical Theory of Creativity, brings Ernst Bloch’s utopian concept of ‘educated hope’ to the ‘making special’ narrative of art: ‘[v]isions of a better world are encoded—often unconsciously—in art and literature, including popular culture. …Bloch’s vision is not teleological in nature. Rather, it is a process rooted in the principles of creative imagination and educated hope’ (Howells, 2015: 2; emphasis in original). It is precisely the notion of educated hope in the creation of utopian scenarios that allows for new and better structures of popular belief to emerge, allowing us a ready answer to the question, ‘why art?’ Howells prefers the term ‘making better’ to Dissanayake’s ‘making special’. This narrows the range of the discussion, however, by asserting that utopias, utopian scenarios, should primarily be employed as devices for imagining positive possible futures. We can’t merely employ unidirectionally positive utopias—we must imagine critical dystopias too. Lyman Tower Sargent calls this utopian/dystopian action ‘social dreaming’: ‘the dreams and nightmares that concern the ways in which groups of people arrange their lives’ (Sargent, 1994: 3). We need both dreams and nightmares to imagine both what to strive for, and what to strive to prevent.
Making a Scene
The imaginative ‘play’ that we call design has a special space—the studio. It is a physical space that is particular to the act of design. Like the theatre, the stadium, or the pitch, it has a particular construction that marks the space out for a particular role. Like ‘once upon a time’ and the set-ups it elaborates, the studio is a physical space that corresponds to a specific space of the imagination. While, as with other species, play can take place anywhere, there is still a particular role for this special place, which is the setting for a ritual that triggers the flow of creativity. When entering the studio this frame of mind takes over, and any interruption to the atmosphere can be catastrophic—or at least it feels catastrophic. It is certainly detrimental to the creative design process.
As I write this, I am sitting in the British Library in London, as I often do, and I am reminded that here is a special place for imaginative play as well. I am also reminded how much I resent any intrusion upon my space of solitary play here. As if to prove my point, a woman has just walked in and is unpacking and rustling around just opposite me; and a young man has followed right behind and sat to my right, wearing too much perfume. I note, looking up at the continuing noise, that the woman is plugging in and setting up three (!) laptops in her space. The space of creativity and play is mental, physical, multi-sensual (as the scene above shows), affective, and particular, and is also marked by prohibitions and restraints—‘rules’—that are often internally imposed:
One generally finds, even in animals, “rules” of play: special signals (such as wagging the tail or not using claws), postures, facial expressions, and sounds that mean “This is make-believe”. Often special places are set aside for playing: a stadium, a gymnasium, a park, a recreation room, a ring or circle. There are special times, special clothes, a special mood for play—think of holidays, festivals, vacations, weekends. (Dissanayake, 1992: 43)
The studio is the particular place where make-believe is enabled in design. Kyna Leski addresses the role of the studio as a space of experimentation (just as the space of the library allows critical experimentation), brilliantly and poetically speaking of the individual experience of material reasoning within it. Her narrative is a modernist one—with roots in the methods of the Bauhaus—in which learning to trust the senses, to trust the materials, involves an initial un-learning (though not a total un-learning: the student does not become a tabula rasa). All the prejudices and preconceptions of the future designer are stripped away, and a newly built Homo faber steps forth. This is a useful narrative with which to encourage the student to trust in the process: We are taking a portion of yourself away, but replacing it with something much better. The importance of that trust cannot be underestimated.
Leski’s methods and interpretation, however, are often too focused on the personal. The studio is not merely a space of trust and a space for the interaction of the teacher, the student, and the media they will employ. It is also an intensely social space. The imaginative work that takes place in the studio is part of a larger process of co-making, co-working, co-imagining; and the studio is part of the larger world of associations, professions, families, etc., all of which inform and support the individual. The musician Brian Eno calls this larger process the ‘scenius’, a portmanteau of ‘scene’ and ‘genius’. This concept helpfully reminds us that even for the seemingly solitary ‘genius’ painting or writing poetry in a garret, that invention emerges from a shared background of teaching, conversation, making, exploring, and feeling together: an ‘ecology of talent’ (Eno, n.d.). It posits a play-space/design space of situated, mediated, and intercorporeal social connectedness—a space of what Elaine Scarry calls ‘aesthetic fairness’—that ‘creates in all participants a state of delight in their own lateralness’ (Scarry, 2000: 114). When I sit and create a space of intellectual experimentation and play for myself, alone in the library, I bring along all that has contributed to my current self, and I am reaching out laterally into other intellectual worlds with every book I open and every connection I make. Then I carry that back out into the world with me, in my own text, my teaching, my engagement with my profession, and so on.
For the architectures, particularly landscape architecture, the awareness of a ‘scene’ must include not only those people involved in co-invention, but they must enter into a constructive dialogue with all the processes and forces that comprise a landscape: biological, geological, climatic, cultural, social. The landscape architect needs to employ a mode of thinking and acting that Lorraine Code calls ‘ecological thinking’ (2006). I prefer a term I’ve borrowed from ethnology: ‘toposophy’ (see Kockel, 2014), thinking that is about place, grounded in place, not just about objects, but about vast arrays of intersecting and interdependent processes and forces. Unlike philosophy—‘beautiful thinking’—toposophy is thinking that is always about somewhere. The term ‘ecological thinking’, useful as it is, seems to direct us too much towards preconceptions of the natural world, while toposophy engages both nature and artifice. Toposophy is a perspective, allied to what Tim Ingold calls the dwelling perspective, which treats people as organisms immersed in their lifeworlds, as opposed to what he calls the building perspective, which supposes that ‘people inhabit a world—of culture or society—to which form and meaning have already been attached’ (Ingold, 2000: 153). This posits that the individual must ‘construct’ their world in order to act on it, rather than being, from birth, an actor in concert with the landscape in which he or she dwells. These simultaneous and interdependent actions and interactions are described well in theories of practice, which hold that practices ‘should be treated as involving thought and action together, and in so far as this is the case, embodied theory, as it were, is a part of practice itself’ (Barnes, 2001: 20). ‘Making a scene’ is connecting with and learning from others as practice; and as intercorporeal, embodied, emplaced sociality. This ‘scene’ contains conversations immersed in their lifeworlds. It makes connections with past realities; past dreams and ambitions; past constructions; and incorporates them as parts of possible futures. Thus it resists tendencies within modernity to clean the slate—where past forms and meanings may be expunged and new ones written upon a tabula rasa. Here an unlearning of the past is necessary for total invention. In a scene, though, ‘[t]hinking means venturing beyond. But in such a way that what already exists is not kept under or skated over’ (Bloch, 1986: 4). What already exists probably contains fragments and relics of past utopias, ready to be called into the future as part of the next scene. To those fragments are pinned satisfaction, fulfilment, beauty, and love; qualities deserving of continuity.
It is through imaginative renderings of possible future worlds that designers have the ability to influence structures of both belief and desire to positive and ethical ends. Worlds that we know to be physically and morally possible, but which have been suppressed by ideologies of selfish cynicism, fatalism, and nihilism; or hidden behind a smokescreen of agnotology (culturally induced or purposely sown ignorance or doubt; see Proctor & Schiebinger, 2008), can be forced to re-emerge. The ‘future as a cultural fact’ remains true, but its alethic valence has shifted from the negative to the positive, from the dystopian to the utopian. Truth has become the province of hope, not the grounds for the abandonment of desire and fulfilment.
Another face of neoliberalism is the alluring glamour of the consumer object, which distracts us from more authentic modes of fulfilment. Nigel Thrift identifies this tendency and its amplification by media and social media, writing that: ‘[e]ach of these technologies demonstrates the singular quality of allure through the establishment of human-nonhuman fields of captivation, for what seems certain is that many of the objects and environments that capitalism produces have to demonstrate the calculated sincerity of allure if people are to be attracted to them: they need to manifest a particular style that generates enchantment without supernaturalism’ (Thrift, 2010: 290). The enchantment worked by capitalism’s processes militates against the sociality—common good the scenius that is needed to create true forms of common good and it distracts from education’s primary goal of emancipation, which ‘has a tradition that is not made of spectacular acts, but is shaped by a search to create new forms of the common, which are not those of the state or of consensus’ (Simons & Masschelein, 2011: 6). This emancipation, and all forms of utopian creativity, are co-opted by neoliberalism and are commodified and depoliticised by it. In the process, the project of transforming the present by reimagining the future is crushed under the weight of an endless, enchanted, commodified, consumerist present. A sense of lateralness, interconnection, and hope is required to displace the weight of such a present. Elaine Scarry locates this lateral position as a site of beauty: ‘not now the suspended state of beholding but the active state of creating—the site of stewardship in which one acts to protect or perpetuate a fragment of beauty already in the world or instead to supplement it by bringing into being a new object’ (Scarry, 2000: 114). And it is not merely objects which are created, but new places and new dwellings where this beauty and connectedness can be made special, and may grow.
Hope involves desire, imagination, and belief—all three—and design insists on the addition of supposing as another attribute. First, we must simultaneously suppose and believe that hope is possible at all, and once that possibility is admitted, then the belief in a better future undergirds and impels the processes of aspiration and envisioning that are germane to design, but which can be led astray by cynical or fatalist attitudes, and/or by greed and hubris. As Pierre Bourdieu argued, hope also requires a collective effort—a scene—rather than a reliance on the emergence of a new and charismatic leader:
The whole edifice of critical thought is in need of reconstruction. This work of reconstruction cannot be done, as some have thought in the past, by a single great intellectual, a master thinker endowed only with the resources of his singular thought, or by the authorized spokesperson for a group or an institution presumed to speak in the name of those without voice, union, party, and so on. This is where the collective intellectual can play its irreplaceable role, by helping to create the social conditions for the collective production of realist utopias. (Bourdieu, 2000: 42–3; emphasis in original)
The ‘realist utopia’ is here one which is mutually created as a form of social dreaming. Jeremy Gilbert similarly argues that:
This is a very important issue for any attempt to think about the nature of democracy, because the assumption that agency, creativity and rationality are qualities which pertain to individuals but not to groups poses severe problems for any attempt to base a politics on the possibility of collective decision making. (Gilbert, 2014: 33)
Belief in the possibility of positive change is fundamental to what is constructed and imagined mutually; and it is precisely this collectivity that is essential to making the future, whether through design or through the education which prepares the future makers of the future. The intellectual qualities and faculties of both individuals and collectives must be developed together. It almost goes without saying that contemporary education everywhere is subject to ideological forces that are pulling precisely in the opposite way from what I am arguing is necessary. Universities ‘cannot compel or otherwise bring about the production of the thing that matters most—intellectual quality, whether in teaching or scholarship or research’ (Collini, 2017: 44). The prevailing ideologies of our time, if not countered with other possible futures, will lock us into a loop of increasing authoritarianism (or ‘dirigisme’, as argued by Collini) and enclosure on the one hand; and ever greater precarity and liquid modern placelessness on the other. I would hope, though, that far from seeming like pie in the sky, my approach shows just how disconnected from problems of education, sustainability, and civic responsibility government and the management of education has become. As a result of the marketisation of educational institutions, education now mirrors the construction of society outside it and reinforces it. Education reinforces the nihilistic loops in which our political economy is mired, in which, ‘freedom is reduced to a market strategy and citizenship is narrowed to the demands of consumerism. The upshot is that it has become easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism’ (Giroux, 2007: 25).
When designers work with communities to remodel their buildings and landscapes to provide for better futures, they should do so through processes of supposing and scenario-making, to find out how they can make more and better—more special—what they already are. Design in the architectures is a process of becoming that addresses being and longing—belonging—to clear and prepare a space for play; for a shared imagining of the future and a striving towards it that builds upon scenius and toposophy for creation that, by making special through make-believe and social dreaming, makes belief in a better and more mutual world possible. | <urn:uuid:3d680033-c881-436b-8fa7-e0844e737114> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | https://olh.openlibhums.org/article/10.16995/olh.109/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027314904.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20190819180710-20190819202710-00111.warc.gz | en | 0.947242 | 10,542 | 2.953125 | 3 |
|Reever Morghan, Kimberly|
|Denny, Marcus - NORTHERN CHEYENNE RESERVA|
|Pokorny, Monica - CTR FOR INVASIVE PLANT MG|
Submitted to: Ecological Restoration
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: July 1, 2005
Publication Date: September 1, 2005
Citation: Reever Morghan, K.J., Sheley, R.L., Denny, M.K., Pokorny, M.L. 2005. Seed islands may promote establishment and expansion of native species in reclaimed mine sites (Montana). Ecological Restoration. 23(3): 214-215. Interpretive Summary: Interpretive Summary: Restoring native plant communities can be expensive and labor-intensive. However, “island seeding” may allow us to more easily add additional species to a restored site. Island seeding involves creating small, dense patches of native species, and then allowing the plants in these dense patches to naturally disperse themselves out into the landscape over time. We tested island seeding using three native species. After years three and four, we mapped the plants and found that two of the three species had successfully dispersed outside of the seed islands, so the plants did spread naturally using this technique. We conclude that island seeding can be used as an inexpensive and easy way to add additional native species to restoration sites.
Technical Abstract: Technical Abstract: Restoring diverse native plant communities to sites with histories of extensive disturbance can be a challenge. Native seeds are often costly, and it can also be difficult to find enough locally-adapted seed to restore a diverse community of native plants to a large site. One way to address these challenges is called “island seeding”. Small islands densely seeded with desired native plants are established in a site, and natural seed dispersal allows these plants to colonize the area surrounding the islands. In 1999, at a reclaimed coal mine site in Montana, we created islands of three native species: narrow-leaved coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia), white sagebrush (Artemisia ludoviciana), or large Indian breadroot (Pediomelum esculentum). In 2002 and 2003 we mapped the locations of recruits of these species outside of the islands. We measured the number of recruit patches and the distance from each recruit patch to the nearest seed island. We found no recruits of breadroot, but coneflower and sagebrush both recruited successfully outside of the seed islands. There was no difference in the number of recruits between 2002 and 2003 for either coneflower or sagebrush. The distance from a seed island to the sagebrush recruits did not change between years, but coneflower seeds traveled significantly farther in 2003 than in 2002. We conclude that, at least for some species, island seeding may be an effective technique for creating diverse native communities with a minimum of cost and effort. | <urn:uuid:504bc65f-af18-47d1-ad2d-5cc49bf24250> | CC-MAIN-2014-49 | http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?SEQ_NO_115=181998 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-49/segments/1416931008289.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20141125155648-00043-ip-10-235-23-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922417 | 614 | 2.78125 | 3 |
In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Aston like this:
ASTON, a chapelry in Stone parish, Stafford; on the river Trent, the Grand Trunk canal, and the Northwestern railway, 2 miles SE of Stone. It includes the hamlet of Little Aston; and has a post office under Stafford. Real property, with Burston, Stoke, and Little Aston, £6,188. Pop., 625. ...
Houses, 149. The manor belonged anciently to the Astons, and passed to the Hevinghams and the Simeons. The living is a p. curacy, united with the curacy of Burston, in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £166. Patron, the Hon. E. S. Jervis. The church is a neat edifice in the English style, with a tower. There is a Roman Catholic church.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Aston, in Stafford and Staffordshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
Date accessed: 28th April 2017
Click here for more detailed advice on finding places within A Vision of Britain through Time , and maybe some references to other places called " Aston ". | <urn:uuid:6efa7465-c45f-48fe-9cea-6b1455fc04db> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/place_page.jsp?p_id=21326 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917122720.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031202-00054-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911316 | 264 | 2.984375 | 3 |
The Shade Garden at the Greenbank Master Gardener Demonstration Garden started as an official garden in the spring of 2006 by several members of the Master Gardener Class of 2006. The garden was created to:
- display a variety of shade-tolerant plants that thrive on Whidbey Island,
- provide a quiet resting spot under the trees
The initial work consisted of clearing horsetail and developing planting areas and the seating area cleared and graveled. A craftsman from Scatchet Head was commissioned to make the twig furniture.
- Hosta (Lilaceae)
- Ferns (sword fern; polystichum munitum)
- Lilies (Lilium)
- Hellebore (Helleborus)
- Several ground covers
A swath of colored pebbles washed down to the dry creek bed where it blends into the Native Garden at the footbridge. A fence was constructed at the lower (east) side of the garden to define the edge of the shade garden and beginning of the natural wetland. Three Gunnera plants were established in the wet soils along the fence.
A winter storm in 2007-2008 toppled the centerpiece tree in the round bed. The bed was replanted with several hydrangeas and sedums, geraniums, and bulbs.
The trees around the shade garden continue to age and some became diseased and weakened. In 2013, the curly willow tree was removed as 70 percent of its crown was dead and it was becoming a hazard for breakage. The tall stump remains and may one day become garden art. The native cherry trees on both sides of the garden became infested with the Cherry Bark tortrix, a moth common to Europe and first found in British Columbia and Washington State in 1989. The decision was made to remove all the cherry trees in 2014.
So 2015 is a year of major change for the shade garden. New shade tree have been planted (Magnolia, Red Maple, Scarlet Oak, Western Yew, Cascara) to produce the next generation of deciduous shade. You will also notice new (in 2014) furniture in the seating area, crafted from the curly willow branches by Albe. It will take time to redevelop dense shade the garden had prior to 2013. In the interim more sun-loving plants will take center stage, while a new list of shade-loving plants is developed for the future.
Please take time to sit in the Shade Garden and enjoy the sights and sounds. | <urn:uuid:643a8159-ae4e-467e-8c5e-eb7020897b5c> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | http://extension.wsu.edu/island/gardening/greenbank-educational-garden/shade-garden/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917121355.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031201-00541-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955127 | 517 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Cognitive processes essays
In this essay i will discuss what i have learned about social cognitive theory through a cognitive comparison process” social cognitive theory. Cognitive models of writing: writing proficiency as a cognitive models of writing: writing proficiency as a complex strategies to manage the writing process. Lamadrid takes into account the mythical or magical dimension of the novel and relates it to the emerging social consciousness of the protagonist. Custom essay writing service question cognitive process all instructions are in the attached doc deadline: 2 hours attachments: instructionsdocx answer psychology.
· check out our top free essays on cognitive processes paper to help you write your own essay. View essay - cognitive process sample essay 1 from psych 304:61 at rutgers - newark cognition is the mental process related to acquisition, storage, and the. Essays - largest database of quality sample essays and research papers on cognitive processes paper. Free cognitive psychology papers, essays eye movements are a reflection of cognitive processes - introduction the mind is an intriguing element of the. Stress may be conceived as an array of neurological and physiological responses that performs an adaptive purpose (bernard & krupat, 1994.
Cognitive processes essays
Process analysis essays - download as powerpoint presentation (ppt / pptx), pdf file (pdf), text file (txt) or view presentation slides online. Explain how biological factors may affect one cognitive factors may affect one cognitive process the whole essay and download the pdf for. Cognitive processes denise moore psych 560 july 23, 2012 cognitive processes the aspects of cognitive processes can emerge at a fraction of a second that. In conclusion, cognitive processes refer to mental activities among individuals they are vital in building an individual through the adoption of better ideas in life various. Cognitive development essay examples cognitive processes of the school age child 475 words 1 page an analysis of the importance of the cognitive abilities of.
A deep approach, on the other hand, can lead to good understanding, long term memory and better grades (gibbs 1994) memory does not have a distinct definitio. Cognition is the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses it encompasses processes such as. Process of perception, attention, & memory order description in the first part of your essay you will examine the basic cognitive processes of perception, attention. Control of cognitive processes: this book is based on the papers presented at the eighteenth international symposium on attention and performance, held at.
1 esl essay raters’ cognitive processes: an eye-movement study in this study, we examine how raters cognitively process an analytic rubric while rating english-as. The cognitive perspective definitions of cognitive psychology: “stresses the role of mental processes in understanding behaviour” “study of how people acquire, store, and use information” “science of information flow through people” the words ‘cognition’ and ‘cognitive’ refer to ideas, thoughts, knowledge and beliefs that people have. Sample essay questions – cognitive psychology (psyc 325 / final) this list contains 6 potential questions from the second half of the semester, and 3 “old. This is a study of rater behavior my essay language testers need to know if construct-irrelevant variation in scores stem from how raters approach and think about a. The cognitive process theory of writing and even meditate before writing essays called for research on cognitive process as it relates to writing.
Read this essay on cognitive process associated with language come browse our large digital warehouse of free sample essays get the knowledge you need in order to. There are a few cognitive processes, but only three will be discussed the three processes are memory, language, and learning the stages of processing include steps required to form, use, and modify mental representation in a cognitive task memory memory refers to the processes that are used to obtain, store, retain and later retrieve. One theory that connects both latan and darley’s cognitive model and piliavin et al’s arousal-cost-reward model is sherif’s (1935) autokinetic paradigm a. More cognitive psychology essay topics cognitive processes jerry a fodor says that the theory of meaning must be able to answer the question “what is it to have a concept,” and this would reduce a concept to an “epistemic capacity.
Cognitive processes lauren nicole jones may 23, 2011 psychology 560 instructor, jessy sadovnik cognitive processes in the 1920s scientists and. Your essay should be well organized, logical, and unified, as well as original explain the cognitive processes of perception, attention and memory. Free cognitive processes papers, essays, and research papers. Running head cognitive processes cognitive processes laura dove university of phoenix cognitive processes introduction cognitive processes are very vital. | <urn:uuid:df5f9aea-f1c6-473d-a212-051e440cfddb> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | http://wjessaydkbr.bodyalchemy.info/cognitive-processes-essays.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084887849.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20180119085553-20180119105553-00044.warc.gz | en | 0.89525 | 990 | 2.703125 | 3 |
This psychogeography experiment involved nine of my friend’s mobility patterns throughout Vancouver during the month of February, 2005. The image above is comprised of all nine friends daily mobility patterns superimposed, revealing a recognizable map of Vancouver. The project was inspired by the Waag Society’s Amsterdam Real-time project. But our project was done old skool, without GPS or Google MyMaps. Each person was given large format trace paper, a map of Vancouver, and a black Sharpie pen. At the end of each day we traced our movements throughout the city on a separate sheet of trace paper, which was layered over the preceding days. It was a fascinating journaling exercise. As the days went by, the patterns of our routes were revealed to us and we began to realize the limited and predictable space we pass through in our urban environment, and the peculiar shape it takes. This visual feedback caused many of us to question the routes we take, and subsequently caused a change in behaviour as we began to change our mobility patterns. Many observed that the habit patterns of our movements through space reflect the habit patterns of our minds, and that changing how we move through space changes how we think and what we experience.
All of the traced maps were painstakingly scanned to image files and manually superimposed to create the image shown above. The thicker the lines, the more “people traffic” through that space. Below are each person’s month of movements, along with the final compiled map. | <urn:uuid:68a7d0da-799a-4128-9206-0dc7feac488c> | CC-MAIN-2018-17 | http://eesmyal.com/portfolio/urban-mobility-mapping/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125947968.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20180425213156-20180425233156-00606.warc.gz | en | 0.95728 | 304 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Stefani Bush, a 35-year-old mother, spoke to reporters from her bed, wrapped in blankets, because she cannot regulate her body temperature. She cannot walk more than 20 yards, and has a host of gastrointestinal and cardiovascular problems. This year alone, she has been to the hospital 16 times. Her symptoms come from a mutation in her mitochondrial DNA. Though Bush was unaware about her condition until seven years ago, her 9-year-old son has already been diagnosed with the same mutation. On a recent dream family vacation to Disney World, her now seven-year-old daughter spent an entire day suffering from seizures.
Bush, and perhaps both of her children, is among the 1,000 to 4,000 people in the United States who were born with mitochondrial mutations. Mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down from the mother, does not compose most of a person's DNA, nor is it responsible for a child's appearance or most of his or her characteristics, but it is incredibly important. Mitochondria are present in every cell in a person's body except blood cells, and are responsible for converting glucose into energy. And mutations in the 13 genes that mitochondria hold can cause rare diseases, with serious symptoms like blindness, deafness, dementia, epilepsy, heart disease, kidney failure, and strokes.
Now, recent research published in the journal Nature seeks to nip that problem in the bud with an unusual solution - three parents. There are two techniques that have been performed with experiments: one takes the chromosomes from the mother's egg, which contain 99.8 percent of the mother's genetic information, and places them in an egg where the chromosomes have been removed but the mitochondria are still there. That egg would then be fertilized by the father's sperm. The other technique would fertilize the mother's egg with the father's sperm before placing the product's nucleus in a donor egg of which the nucleus had been removed. The study published in Nature looks at the first proposed solution. Either way, the resulting child would barely have three parents; the parents would provide 99.8 percent of their DNA, and none of the DNA that dictates eye color or height. But the child would ostensibly be free of mitochondrial diseases.
The first technique, published in Nature by researchers at the University of Oregon, saw that embryos created from their technique were fertilized at the same rate as the control group. However, half were abnormal. Still, the results are encouraging; those that were normal developed to the blastocyst stage, five or days after fertilization when the eggs would normally be implanted in mothers, at a similar rate to the control group. Scientists are unsure about whether the embryos would lead to a healthy infant, and they want to conduct more studies to be sure that the procedure is safe. Previous studies on similar procedures on rhesus monkeys three years ago have produced juvenile primates that are indistinguishable from their peers.
The United Kingdom's Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority is mulling over a change in law that would allow three-parent in vitro fertilization to occur. The concern is whether the procedure would lead to a "slippery slope" of parents choosing designer babies with specific hair and eye colors.
But for Stefani Bush, the answer is clear. She said to NBC News that, if the option had been available to her and she had known about her condition, she would have done it. "If I could have spared my children one ounce of what they have gone though, I would," she said. | <urn:uuid:b8ac43b4-aa9f-4047-ae18-96bff778a41e> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://www.medicaldaily.com/three-parent-vitro-fertilization-considered-success-study-243264 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386163041478/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204131721-00002-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979987 | 721 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Routine blood test results could help the physician identify if the patient have a multiple myeloma, however it may require further testing for proper diagnosis.
- Complete blood count: to check for abnormalities in red blood cells, white blood cells count, and platelets.
- Blood test: patient’s blood may be analyzed in a lab to look for M proteins made by myeloma cells. Beta-2-microglobulin is a different abnormal protein made by myeloma cells that may be found in the blood and provide the specialist with information about how aggressive the myeloma. Blood tests to check your calcium levels, uric acid levels, and kidney function can also provide your doctor with information on your diagnosis.
- Urinalysis: urine analysis may reveal M proteins, also known as Bence Jones proteins when they are found in urine
- Bone marrow biopsy and aspiration: A long, thin needle is inserted into the bone marrow (commonly at the pelvic bone) to aspirate fluid during the procedure, then the sample is sent to laboratory for testing to determine the percentage of abnormal cells. A test called fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) will be used to analyze myeloma cells to identify gene mutations.
- Imaging test: To identify bone issues brought on by multiple myeloma, imaging studies will be recommended. An MRI, CT, positron emission tomography (PET), or an X-ray are examples of possible tests.
After the diagnosis of the multiple myeloma is confirmed, staging will be used to identify the extent of the cancer. The stages of cancer are indicated by Roman numerals ranging from I to III. The lowest stage indicates that the disease is less aggressive and the highest stage – stage III – indicates that the disease is most aggressive.
The staging will help the specialist to provide the most appropriate treatment.
Treatment can improve symptom-related discomfort, manage disease complications, stabilize your condition, and slow the spread of multiple myeloma
There may be no need for immediate treatment. Smoldering multiple myeloma, which is characterized by the absence of symptoms in multiple myeloma, may not require immediate medical attention. If multiple myeloma is diagnosed early and is slow-growing, immediate treatment might not be required. Even so, the specialist will have regular checkup with the patient to look for symptoms of a developing disease. Regular blood and urine tests may be required for this.
The specialist and the patient may plan out and may decide to start treatment if the patient exhibit symptoms or if the multiple myeloma demonstrates indicators of progression.
- Targeted therapy – focuses on a specific part of the cancer cells by focusing on the weaknesses of the cells and therefore blocking the abnormalities. The therapy cause cancer cells to die.
- Immunotherapy – will help the immune system fight the cancer by boosting the immune system.
- Chemotherapy – uses drugs to kill cancer cell. Prior to bone marrow transplant, higher dose of chemotherapy drugs are given to kill the cancer cells.
- Steroids/ Corticosteroid – will help kill the cancer cells and prevent or reduce inflammation in the body.
- Bone marrow transplant (stem cell transplant) – will replace the bone marrow with healthy stems cells that will help in the formation of healthy bone marrow.
- Radiation therapy – High-powered energy beams from sources like X-rays and protons are used in radiation treatment to kill cancer cells. When a group of abnormal plasma cells forms a tumor (plasmacytoma) that is inflicting pain or damaging bones, it may be used to rapidly shrink myeloma cells in that location. | <urn:uuid:e1973e44-bd67-428c-992f-954a2869700e> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.vejthani.com/diseases-conditions/multiple-myeloma/?tab=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296945289.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20230324211121-20230325001121-00734.warc.gz | en | 0.906835 | 757 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Data Privacy Day is January 28, 2021 and is an international effort to empower people to protect their personal data and privacy, particularly online. According to Cybint, a global cyber security educator, 95 percent of cybersecurity breaches are caused by human error. The practices that help protect individuals’ security online will also help protect businesses, so on this day let’s review the most powerful and simple steps everyone can take to secure their own data and that of their customers who entrust them with it.
Use strong passwords and keep them secure.
Good password practices are a key security measure. Passwords should not include personal information like maiden names and birthdates. They should use a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters. Frequently used and sensitive passwords should also be changed regularly. These include for access to customer management software, sensitive files, and remote desktop access.
Don’t reveal private or secret information in an email, and do not respond to email solicitations for this information.
Phishing emails remain one of the most common ways by which bad actors breach both personal and business information. Typically these emails will attempt to be from a reputable source, such as a colleague or vendor. Because phishing emails can be so convincing, we recommend never revealing private or secret information in response to an email. This includes following links sent in email.
If you are unsure whether an email request is legitimate, try to verify it by contacting the company or sender directly.
Contact the company or sender using information provided on an account statement or other prior contact method, not information provided in an email. If you respond to an email, the scammer will often respond promptly and attempt to continue to maintain the scam. Therefore, use a different method to confirm the propriety of the request.
Before sending or entering sensitive information online, check the security of the website.
Pay attention to the website’s URL. Malicious websites may look identical to a legitimate site, but the URL may use a variation in spelling or a different domain (e.g., .com versus .net). Another good practice is to check for reviews of the website; e-commerce scams are a growing issue. Finally, be careful when entering payment information. Credit cards are usually the more secure option for online shopping.
Keep a clean machine.
Software updates may seem overbearing and troublesome, but they are vital to keeping your data secure. Keep all software on internet-connected devices – including PCs, smartphones and tablets – up to date to reduce risk of infection from malware. | <urn:uuid:406b960d-c006-4636-8511-04f1240f60a9> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://mail.scalirasmussen.com/news/2021/01/28/data-privacy-day | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233506339.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20230922070214-20230922100214-00743.warc.gz | en | 0.913015 | 520 | 3.140625 | 3 |
In honor of Black History Month, Maya Angelou’s iTunes series, “Telling Our Stories”, is an attempt to help explain to the younger generation the efforts of those who’ve forged the path, for those who look-alike and those who look different. This is the third year Angelou has done the series and features stories from Kofi Annan, Jennifer Hudson, and Alicia Keys.
One subject Angelou touches upon is the use of the “b” and “n” words.
In an interview with Politics Nation, Angelou expressed her views on the state of young people and the use of the two words:
”Too many young black men and women don’t know that they’ve already been paid for, don’t know some of the great men and women who have lived in this world and paid for them already,” she explained. “It’s important for young black men and women. I think it’s imperative for young white men and women. You see, only equals make friends. Any other relationship is out-of-order.”
“I continue to say to young people, You are cared for,” she said. “They are worth everything. Women are better than being called the “b” word, and blacks are better than being called the ‘n’ word.”
“No matter what your race group, no matter what your age group, you are better than being called the word that would deny your humanity.”
Angelou also expressed her opinion on the recent debate over gun violence. “We have the right to respect and protect our children and we ought to do so and we ought to look at the guns that allow the mad man or the mad woman to kill off 200 of our children or fifty of our children, or twenty or one,” she said. “We have to look at that and say, Do we really have enough nerve to say stop it, stop it. This won’t do.”
You can download Maya Angelou’s Black History Month Special 2013 “Telling Our Stories” on iTunes. | <urn:uuid:36f431a0-e034-423c-a2ff-444c60cd0fb3> | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2013/02/maya-angelou-says-women-are-not-the-b-word-and-black-people-arent-the-n-word/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440645330816.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827031530-00349-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966833 | 466 | 2.828125 | 3 |
The main purpose of alternative energy is to harness that which will occur anyway: solar panels collect sunlight that would have otherwise been absorbed or reflected back into the air, wind turbines use air currents to spin generators, and hydroelectric generators do the same as wind but with ocean currents.
It is not without reason, therefore, to try and harness energy from all forms of natural phenomenon; there is a plethora of natural and clean energy potential wasted every day. One such phenomenon is lightning, with potential energy being formed at all times due to static electric from the friction of adjacent clouds.
Enter Ryan Davis: Marine Corps veteran and native to the Southeastern United States, an area no stranger to intense lightning storms. Inspired by his service as a young man, Davis wanted to continue helping humanity in whatever way he could even after his tour of duty ended. He was always fascinated by electrical storms as a child, so why not pursue this passion as a means to power the world? Just one lightning strike contains enough electricity to power 56 households for an entire day, according to Davis. Multiplied by the vast number of lightning strikes throughout the year, and the picture begins to take shape.
Ryan Davis formed First Light Consulting Incorporated, a company that wants to be a part of the clean energy future of the world. The company is focused on quantifying the total atmospheric energy in the skies above. He believes that in just 5 years, his company will be able to convert potential energy in the clouds into usable energy for homes and cars on the ground.
What’s next for Davis after that? He points to space mining as his goal for the next 25 years; even the sky isn’t the limit. | <urn:uuid:42c3db39-24f9-4754-88b6-503c9d886d64> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | https://renewsable.net/2017/05/31/marine-vet-aims-convert-lightning-usable-power/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570987769323.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20191021093533-20191021121033-00372.warc.gz | en | 0.967196 | 345 | 2.671875 | 3 |
8-12yrs Ease *
Overview: Learners investigate how to improve the composition of photographs and to understand which are the main aesthetic rules of composition through a digital analysis of the most famous images of statues, paintings and photos by some of the most important artists in history. With the aid of a computer you can easily view the imaginary construction lines that an artists has utilised in order to create effective pieces of art. All this can be analysed through the various types of compositions, as this example shows
The rectangle in the frame is theoretically divided into two triangles by a diagonal. Usually one triangle is darker than the other. Usually, along the diagonal, you can detect two major points of interest. The composition on the diagonal necessitates an angled shot in respect to the object. It is a way of composing that is more classical and elegant. It is a type of composition that is often neglected, because many of us prefer frontal filming points:
From the composition of the objects and lines, it is not hard to perceive a triangle composition that leans firmly on the base. Very stable composition, which is well adapted to static subjects inspire an impression of peace, as in classical compositions of portraits, where the head represents one of the top levels of the triangle:
All elements are arranged around a point of interest, as to form a crown. This is often used to photograph scenery where a series of scenes, in close up, surround the main subject:
From a principal point lines branch out bringing to a series of significant details which are fthen framed in the resulting shot
Rule of thirds
According to this rule there should be “ideally” an overlapping of the reticle composed of two vertical lines and two horizontal (strength lines), equidistant to each other and the borders of the image. The image is then divided into nine sections all the same: the central square is named the golden section and is defined by four intersection points of the lines (strength points, focal points or focus). These are the points where the eye is mainly concentrated after having “looked” at the center of the image and from where you collect most of the information:
In order to make the image more dynamic the object must be placed on the strength lines of the image (usually the vertical ones) or more precisely on the focal points of the shot; the decentralized position emphasising the importance of the object. The horizontal force lines, in the composition of landscaping photography, are used as reference in order to position the horizon and the perspective. Furthermore the diagonal ones which pass as two opposite points of interest could be used as guidelines. The rule of the third is applicable to every type of format and can therefore be even square or scenic whenever it is possible to divide the image in to thirds with strength lines.
The rule of thirds and the golden ratio are some of the main aesthetic rules that nature used in order to create the biggest work of art ever – the Universe.
In a second phase of post-production the snap shots will be analysed to correct, if necessary, the compositions.
The teacher together with the students analyses how the composition rules are observed in each of the works examined (show examples). The students analyze several reproductions, measuring, comparing, overlapping and “dismantling” the various works in order to see the differences, the similarities, singularities and the repeated parts in order to understand the main aesthetic rules and how mathematics can be applied to areas that are, apparently, unrelated to science.
As a matter of fact, nature uses even rigid math rules in order to connect in a single structure all its creations.
As examples we can use Fibonacci Theories:
Or the idea that brought the Scottish naturalist D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860-1948) to a mathematics study of the nature of species:
The students should be asked to analyze natural elements in order to understand if the rules are similar or completely different. Once this concept has been acquired, the activity entails going around to take pictures and then analyse their own pictures with and image editing software and make improvements where necessary according to the different composition rules.
What do I need?
PC, Wiki, image editing software (e.g. http://www.gimp.org/ or pixlr.com), digital cameras.
Learners create effective digital images and compositions and begin to understand the mathematical rules of aesthetics.
Hints and tips:
Suitable explanation of the golden section will need to be given depending on the age of learners. This exercise allows us to apply these rules concretely using the images from the world around us.
Safety: There are no safety issues relating to this activity. | <urn:uuid:5bdbcb72-7118-4c65-b70e-fb24b975f5d7> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | http://taccle2.eu/creative-performing-arts/art/classic-compositions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084886794.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20180117023532-20180117043532-00341.warc.gz | en | 0.923678 | 961 | 3.421875 | 3 |
How to make sprouts.
Benefits and uses of germination.
Sprouts are live foods that are very rich in nutrients: especially vitamins and enzymes. They require simple preparation. Sprouts are very appropriate for this season, the Spring, they can very useful for charging us with energy and for improving our digestion.
The main advantage of sprouted seeds is that they are already pre-digested, I mean, having a complex chemical process takes place inside the seed: Certain enzymes are activated that begins the digestion of the proteins, starches and fats that are inside the seed. It´s a similar process to the one that occurs in our digestive system.
Benefits of Sprouted Grains and Seeds.
This chemical process favours us in many aspects:
- Some antinutrient components of the seed disappear, such as phytic acid, or protease inhibitors, so our body creates less gas and therefore we digest vegetables, fats, etc. better.
- New substances are created such as C vitamin, chlorophyll and B group vitamins.
- It’s easy and cheap.
- They give a fresh flavour to salads, pasta, sauteed veggies…
Which Seeds Can we Sprout?
We can germinate seeds or grains that we have available at home: for example lentils, beans … If we are looking for something more specific we can buy seeds to germinate in an organic shop or buy them directly germinated.
In addition to the benefits mentioned above, each seed can have its own characteristics:
- Alfalfa seeds: Vitamin K has a coagulating agent that prevents bleeding. They help to detox the live rand lower cholesterol. It has a lot of chlorophyll so they favour the creation of red blood cells and to treat anaemia.
- Fenugreek seeds: Fenugreek is an excellent stomach protector. They have a large number of antioxidants. They stimulate digestion and in the case of athletes improve physical performance by producing an increase in creatine and not having as much need for simple carbohydrates when training.
- Mung bean seeds: They contain isoflavones and help to digest fat better. High protein content.
- Broccoli seeds: It has all the properties that cruciferous have and a slightly spicy flavour.
Tremendously antioxidant and with anticancer compounds such as glucosinolates.
The germination process is very simple and no special material is required. Just a bowl and a strainer. The process of how to sprout seeds is the following:
DAY 1: Put the seeds that you have chosen to germinate in a bowl covered with water. Don’t put too many because later they will grow a lot and it is convenient to eat them in two or three days.
DAY 2: Strain the seeds and wash them in the tap to remove impurities.
Place them again in the bowl. They must be wet, but there should be no water at the bottom of the bowl.
DAY 3 AND FOLLOWING: We repeat the process on day 2, twice a day until they germinate. | <urn:uuid:a78abf76-b6f8-4c26-af08-3e431b1a74c2> | CC-MAIN-2021-25 | https://iraidescookinglab.com/en/how-to-make-sprouts/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-25/segments/1623487649731.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20210619203250-20210619233250-00141.warc.gz | en | 0.938937 | 647 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Apr 17, 2017 07:07 PM EDT
It was during the time of President Obama when transparency has been pushed for in the White House. Within his administration, millions of visitor logs showing the entries and exits of individuals to the White House have been voluntarily released to the public.
The Trump administration has pushed for reversing the old policy by citing that secrecy of the White House visitor logs is a must due to privacy and national security issues. They have indicated that it is to the best interest of the visitors to protect their identities. If their identities are known, biases from the public can become an issue and might rouse unnecessary dispute from the public.
According to a report from ABC News, it is in the best interest of the White House security to create these visitor logs to monitor individuals or groups that are entering one of the most important structures in all of America. There are reports that indicate that keeping the logs secret will hide away from the public constant visitors that might be trying to influence the government.
Although this particular issue seems to irrelevant for some, a lot of civil rights groups have lobbied against the decision of the new administration. Their primary weapon - Freedom of Information Act. This enables the public to ask for access or publication of certain information and documents.
The White House has seen a very significant number of policy changes since the new President took his position in January. For instance, the Guardian has reported that the White House must adjust to the "America-first" policy that the President has promised during his campaign.
Changing the rules on visitor logs is just one of the many changes seen in the White House. Based on this report, the White House policies has been starting to get refurbished and refocused on agendas such as job security, economic growth, and strengthening the American military.
2. 08:33 AM
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Unraveling of 58-year-old corn gene mystery may have plant-breeding implications
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Next generation photonic memory devices are light-written, ultrafast and energy efficient
3. Jan 16, 2019
Army researchers explore benefits of immersive technology for soldiers
4. Jan 14, 2019
Gut microbes from healthy infants block milk allergy development in mice | <urn:uuid:80500608-ab93-405b-a2f4-34e4d84631f4> | CC-MAIN-2019-04 | http://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/12680/20170417/visitor-logs-to-the-white-house-to-be-kept-secret-according-to-the-trump-administration.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583681597.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20190119201117-20190119223117-00162.warc.gz | en | 0.95753 | 476 | 2.75 | 3 |
Breadfruit, Artocarpus altilis, is a wonderful food. It is a staple in the Pacific and the Breadfruit Institute, part of Hawaii’s National Tropical Garden, highlights its potential in helping fight hunger and ameliorate environmental issues worldwide.
Agriculturally, breadfruit is a high yielding tree, producing 50-150 fruits a year. Its tree can be used for construction, medicine, and even its flower can serve as a mosquito-repellent. Nutritionally, breadfruit is low in saturated fat, full of fiber, and a good source of calcium, potassium, iron, and vitamin C. Gastronomically – it depends on who you ask.
If you ask me, Breadfruit is a delicacy, a wonderful treat. In Puerto Rico, we call this delicious green ball “pana” – a word we also use to refer to a dear friend. In the town of Humacao, on the east coast of the island, a weekend festival is dedicated to this fruit, El Festival de la Pana. There, a magnificent mountain view of the island’s east coast serves as a backdrop for the culinary and artistic creativity of the festival’s hosts who prepare varied iterations of this food, including flan, wine, sangria, chips, cake…along with music, crafts, and even food art.
Mostly, we eat pana fried (tostones, mofongo) or boiled – pretty much anything you can do with a plantain or a root crop, you can make with a pana. Below, a few images from the preparation of tostones de pana, from a recently picked Puerto Rican breadfruit this week (Gracias, Angel!):
While our culinary appreciation for breadfruit is shared by some of our West Indian neighbors in the Caribbean, in our sister Spanish-speaking countries, Cuba and Dominican Republic, our pana, our friend, is seen with different eyes. From a desired, traditional food, breadfruit becomes fruta de pan, commonly used as pig or livestock feed. Anecdotal accounts describe how breadfruit was left to rot in Cuba, even during the difficult period of the 1990s known as the Special Period in Times of Peace. Less extreme (but similar) perceptions are found in other Latin American countries, where breadfruit is called pan de pobres (poor people’s bread), among other names, and eaten only in times when there is nothing else left.
Breadfruit is thought to be native of New Guinea. It was brought to the Caribbean to feed slaves, and, on occasions, it was rejected by them. Such past and current rejections, even in times of hunger, underscore the cultural specificity concerning which foods are good enough to eat. It also points to the necessity of understanding the different notions and experiences of food insecurity, scarcity and hunger, even in culturally and historically close contexts. In this case, how has breadfruit transitioned from a slave food to a beloved fruit in Puerto Rico and to a low prestige, non-human food in Cuba, Dominican Republic and other Latin American countries? | <urn:uuid:a638b876-540e-4637-a88f-4978433f39d2> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | https://melissafuster.wordpress.com/tag/breadfruit/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948511435.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20171210235516-20171211015516-00070.warc.gz | en | 0.94428 | 646 | 2.78125 | 3 |
NASA plans to explore the universe, but it won’t be right away.
The space agency says it will wait until 2015 to lay out a proposal for its next big astrophysics mission, which could take the form of a single large spacecraft or a series of smaller craft performing related studies, a senior agency official said July 30.
A new flagship mission stands almost no chance of being funded until after work is finished on the budget-busting James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to launch in 2018, said Paul Hertz, director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division. But the planning can begin before JWST begins its five-year mission to study the origins of the universe.
When the prime contract for the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, was awarded in 2002, the observatory, billed as the successor to NASA’s hugely successful Hubble Space Telescope, was expected to launch in 2010 and cost a few billion dollars. The observatory’s projected price tag has since risen to nearly $9 billion. | <urn:uuid:e4b09d13-8231-47a1-8abc-ae7ac58266d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2012/08/08/how-long-will-we-wait-for-nasas-next-astronomy-mission/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708808740/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125328-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958134 | 215 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Prostate Cancer: What Are The Screening Options?
Your doctor can check for
prostate cancer before you have any symptoms. During an office visit, your doctor will ask about your personal and family medical history. You'll have a physical exam.
You may also have one or both of the following tests:
Digital rectal exam: Your doctor inserts a lubricated, gloved finger into the rectum and feels your prostate through the rectal wall. Your prostate is checked for hard or lumpy areas.
Blood test for
prostate-specific antigen (PSA)
: A lab checks the level of PSA in your blood sample. A high PSA level is commonly caused by BPH or
prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate). Prostate cancer may also cause a high PSA level.
The digital rectal exam and PSA test can detect a problem in the prostate. However, they can't show whether the problem is cancer or a less serious condition. If you have abnormal test results, your doctor may suggest other tests to make a diagnosis. For example, your visit may include other lab tests, such as a urine test to check for blood or infection.
Your doctor may order other procedures:
Transrectal ultrasound: The doctor inserts a probe into the rectum to check your prostate for abnormal areas.
: The doctor inserts needles through the rectum into the prostate. The doctor removes small tissue samples (called cores) from many areas of the prostate. Transrectal ultrasound is usually used to guide the insertion of the needles.
If Cancer Is Not Found
If cancer cells are not found in the biopsy sample, ask your doctor how often you should have checkups.
If Cancer Is Found
If cancer cells are found, the pathologist studies tissue samples from the prostate under a microscope to report the grade of the tumor. The grade tells how much the tumor tissue differs from normal prostate tissue. It suggests how fast the tumor is likely to grow.
Tumors with higher grades tend to grow faster than those with lower grades. They are also more likely to spread. Doctors use tumor grade along with your age and other factors to suggest treatment options.
Prostate Tumor Grading Systems
One system of grading is with the
Gleason score. Gleason scores range from 2 to 10. To come up with the Gleason score, the pathologist uses a microscope to look at the patterns of cells in the prostate tissue. The most common pattern is given a grade of 1 (most like normal cells) to 5 (most abnormal). If there is a second most common pattern, the pathologist gives it a grade of 1 to 5, and adds the two most common grades together to make the Gleason score. If only one pattern is seen, the pathologist counts it twice. A high Gleason score (such as 10) means a high-grade prostate tumor. High-grade tumors are more likely than low-grade tumors to grow quickly and spread.
Another system of grading prostate cancer uses
grades 1 through 4 (G1 to G4). G4 is more likely than G1, G2, or G3 to grow quickly and spread.
Above content provided by the National Cancer Institute in partnership with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. For advice about your medical care, consult your doctor.
Posted September 2010 | <urn:uuid:57a92754-e8da-4dc1-8f10-b998df621e95> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://www.bidmc.org/YourHealth/HealthNotes/ScreeningTestsYouNeed/JustforMen/ProstateScreeningOptions.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1413507444465.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20141017005724-00153-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936964 | 693 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Experiencing neck pain once in a while is common. In most cases, neck pain or stiff neck occurs due to poor posture, improper sleeping position, overuse, or normal wear and tear. Sometimes, it may also be due to injuries, accidents, and falls involving the neck.
Typically, neck pain is a minor condition which many people do not worry about as it can be treated with simple remedies and, before you know it, it has already disappeared. However, be careful, too, as some cases of neck pain indicate that there might be a more serious underlying condition. If this is the case, it is important to seek medical care and attention right away.
Common Causes of Neck Pain
There are three main causes of neck pain. Find out if any of the following is causing you pain in the neck.
One of the major reasons why an individual acquires neck pain is muscle tension and strain. This usually develops when you sit all day without changing positions such as at work, sleep with your neck in an uncomfortable position, twitch your neck during exercise, or have a poor posture. To avoid straining your muscles in the neck, make sure to change your daily routines such that your neck won’t be too stressed.
Another common cause of neck pain is experiencing injuries or accidents, such as falls, vehicular accidents, or sports-related injuries where the neck gets affected and the ligaments and muscles got dislocated from their normal positions. During more serious injuries when the neck gets fractured or dislocated, the spinal cord can be affected, too. Neck pain due to vehicular accidents is called whiplash. (Read: Everything You Need to Know about Whiplash)
There are health disorders and conditions that cause neck pain, including arthritis, osteoporosis, fibromyalgia, meningitis, slipped disc, and even heart attack. Thus, if suddenly your neck feels some unexplainable pain, make sure to have your overall health checked up to identify what other disorder you may have.
Quick and Easy Neck Pain Relief Tips
If you are suffering from minor neck pain, you may want to try the following measures in order to reduce the ache.
- At the onset of the pain, apply ice on your neck. After a couple of days, apply heat on the neck using hot compress or heating pad, or simply take hot showers.
- Over-the-counter pain relief medications such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen should help get rid of the pain temporarily.
- While the pain is still present, avoid sports and other activities such as heavy lifting that may aggravate your condition. Resume normal routine once the neck pain has subsided.
- Regularly work out your neck by doing simple stretches and turns.
- Maintain a good posture.
- Move and change positions often. Avoid standing up or sitting down for long periods of time.
- Get a neck massage. The soothing pressure applied to your neck will minimize the pain and tension in the muscles.
- Get a chiropractic adjustment to restore strength and mobility of the affected muscles in the neck.
Any pain you feel in your body – no matter how minor – should not be neglected. Make sure that you take necessary measures to know what you are feeling how serious it is, and how to treat and prevent it recurrence. | <urn:uuid:5747c514-d9e4-4741-b9d6-0a24acad8557> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://arac-et-mutuelle.com/2015/11/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463607242.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20170522230356-20170523010356-00593.warc.gz | en | 0.93387 | 686 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Colombia's Oil War
The U'wa battle Occidental over "the blood
of Mother Earth"
by Ron Chepesiuk
Toward Freedom magazine, May 2001
In Colombia's northeast Norte de Santander province, the country's
richest oil region, an indigenous people known as the U'wa are
in a life and death struggle with Occidental Petroleum (OXY),
one of the world's largest multinational oil companies. It's been
going on since the early 1990s, when OXY began oil exploration
plans that threaten to destroy the tribe s culture and way of
life. The U'wa oppose oil drilling in their ancestral lands, saying
that oil is "the blood of Mother Earth" and therefore
must not be touched.
It's been an uphill battle for these indigenous people, given
the powerful corporate and government interests aligned against
them. Yet, their future became even more bleak last November,
when the Colombia Supreme Court gave OXY the green light to begin
drilling a long-awaited test well near the tribe's reservation.
The $40 million, 14,300-foot well was to be sunk in the first
half of this year.
While no one knows for sure what the test well will reveal,
OXY estimates that the region contains approximately 1.5 million
barrels of oil. The figure may seem like the makings of a huge
supply of oil, but, as OXY's critics have pointed out, that amount
will fill a mere three months of US oil needs.
Considerable money is at stake, especially for the Colombian
government. For example, Ecopetrel, the state-owned oil company,
is expected to receive as much as $900 million in additional taxes
and royalties annually-if the script goes according to plan. Increasingly
reliant on oil exports, since coffee is declining as a major source
of export earnings, the government doesn't want to lose the OXY
The money at stake has no doubt helped weigh the Colombian
system against the U'wa's interests. As the tribe has argued in
a prepared statement, "For our people, it's ominous and abusive
that the men of Occidental, along with the Colombian government,
program actions that injure and violate the cultural and territorial
principals of the U'wa and of the campesinos ... our brothers
who come with impartiality to support our cause."
The U'wa have played by the rules, seeking justice through
the Colombian judicial system. They've provided records documenting
their claims and showing that they have titles to land from the
Spanish Crown dating from 1661. The records also protect their
rights to subsoil minerals, including oil, they say.
A lower Colombian court decision did halt the oil exploration
on the grounds that the government violated the U'wa's constitutional
rights by not consulting them before granting OXY a license to
drill. However, a higher court overturned that ruling in May 2000.
In a meeting on March 30, 2000, with indigenous leaders and their
supporters, OXY Vice President Larry Meriage admitted that the
tribe wasn't consulted about his company's drilling plans.
The ruling has taken the U'wa back to square one in their
battle for survival. In August 1999, the Colombian government
signed an agreement with the U'wa expanding their borders from
61,000 to 220,000 hectares. But the U'wa have repeatedly maintained
that their sacred ancestral land extends beyond the limits of
the reservation. They oppose oil exploration anywhere within that
Nevertheless, a court ruling said that the Colombian government
didn't have to consult the U'wa before granting OXY a license
to drill, since the exploration was occurring outside the border
of their reserve. Meanwhile, the government has failed to turn
over any of the land that would expand their territory.
The National Indigenous Organization (ONIC), an umbrella group
of Colombian indigenous peoples, announced that it would take
the U'wa case to the country's Supreme
Court and international forums. A "mere legalism,"
responded Armando Valbuena, ONIC's president, when it was pointed
out that the test well was close to-but not in-the U'wa reserve.
"The fact that the Colombian government would allow the oil
well to endanger a people's survival shows that economic interests
prevail over the welfare of the indigenous peoples," Valbuena
Domestic and international support for the U'wa continues
to grow, coming from organizations ranging from US environmental
groups to the Green Party of Europe and guerrilla forces in Colombia.
Last year, in the months leading up to the US presidential election,
candidate A1 Gore became a main target. Gore's family owns stock
in OXY; getting the Gores to sell their shares would have been
a major coup for the U'wa and their supporters. The campaign caused
Gore some embarrassment, but the US media basically ignored it.
Amazon Watch, Rain Forest Action, and Project Underground
ran an ad in the New York Times, asking: "Who is Al Gore.
Environmental Champion or Petroleum Politician?" In July,
activists occupied Gore's campaign headquarters in Knoxville,
Tennessee. Two months later, 200 activists took over his Olympia
office and demanded that he accept responsibility for his role
in the OXY petroleum project.
Gore tried to ignore the heat, as well as a letter from the
U'wa. "We don't want to have to hold you responsible for
the destruction of our culture," they warned. "Your
silence signifies the death of planet Earth and consequently,
the possibility of life upon her."
In September, Stephano Boco, president of the Italian Green
Party, announced that the Green Party of Europe is ready to bring
the U'wa's case before the Hague Tribunal, and that Italian legislators
are prepared to set up a permanent residence in U'wa territory.
Colombia's second largest guerrilla group, the National Liberation
Army (ELN) has publicly expressed support for the U'wa, and has
repeatedly attacked construction and engineering equipment moved
into the test well site. The U'wa reject such actions as only
making their situation worse.
Targeting OXY's major investors has been the most successful
strategy employed so far. Last December, after an aggressive two-month
campaign by Rainforest Action Network, Amazon Watch, and other
environmental groups that focused attention on the Boston-based
Fidelity Investments and its relationship with OXY, the company
sold 60 percent of its OXY holdings, totaling $400 million.
The latest target is the largest institutional investor, the
Sanford Bernstein investment firm, and its parent company Alliance
Management, which owns 53 million shares valued at $1.19 billion.
Last December, U'wa supporters demonstrated outside the company's
San Francisco office, and U'wa leader Roberto Perez hand-delivered
a letter to the company.
Yet, after nearly nine years of struggle, the U'wa aren't
any closer to winning their battle. The tribe has threatened mass
suicide if OXY continues to violate the blood of their land. Its
not an idle threat. In the late 17th century, a group of U'wa
jumped to their deaths from a cliff to avoid submitting to the
authority of Spanish tax collectors and missionaries.
That could happen again. And as things currently stand, only
continued international support, along with intense pressure on
Occidental and the greedy corporate interests that back the multinational,
can help prevent it.
Contributing writer Ron Chepesiuk is a Rock Hill, SC-based
journalist. He is the author of The War on Drugs An International | <urn:uuid:e39cfb9a-33a9-45eb-8eb3-9350054bf2fa> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Oil_watch/Colombias_Oil_War.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578711882.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20190425074144-20190425100144-00069.warc.gz | en | 0.953778 | 1,648 | 2.875 | 3 |
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