Split (1)

train · 1.2B rows

text stringlengths 188 632k
The 10 Tech Terms to Know in 2013 By Rachel Z. Arndt, Popular Mechanics, 31 December 2012. By Rachel Z. Arndt, Popular Mechanics, 31 December 2012. In 2013 we will sequence DNA faster and cheaper than ever, design radios that intelligently find open spectrum amid the crowded airways, and charge EVs without plugging them in. Consider this your cheat sheet for the year in tech. 1. Nanopore Sequencing Back in 2008 it took four months and nearly US$1.5 million to sequence the complete genome of DNA co-discoverer James Watson. Now, with the commercialization of nanopore sequencing on the horizon, it should take only 15 minutes. Decoding a genome requires linking together several of Oxford Nanopore Technologies' US$30,000 sequencers. Each sequencer pulls a strand of DNA through a 1-nanometre - wide hole - about 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair - and monitors the distinctive changes in an electric current that reveal which of the four DNA bases is passing through the opening. Oxford Nanopore Technologies is also releasing a single-use sequencer that plugs into a computer like a USB key and costs less than US$900. 2. Cognitive Radio The airways are getting crowded, thanks to smartphone and tablet data transmission that doubles every year. One solution: cognitive radio devices, whose signals automatically jump back and forth between frequencies in a fraction of a second to find open spectrum. A prototype developed at Rutgers University can switch to a new frequency in less than 50 microseconds while sending eight times the data of a typical home wireless system, taking advantage of openings on the AM and FM radio, TV, and cellular frequency bands. And Florida-based xG Technology has already set up a demo network in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that uses cognitive radio for mobile broadband and VoIP links. Crucially, the FCC announced in September a pending rule change that will pave the way for spectrum-sharing technologies such as cognitive radio to use previously restricted frequencies. Old-school industrial robots work best alone - try to help an assembly-line welding bot and you'll probably get welded. But the next generation of robots will work closely with humans, augmenting our capabilities and compensating for our weaknesses. That's why the National Robotics Initiative is pouring up to US$50 million a year into co-robotics. The initiative is backed by agencies ranging from NASA (robots to help astronauts and to explore terrain where humans can't go) and the National Institutes of Health (robot surgery for everyone and home care for the elderly) to the Department of Agriculture (robots that can deworm animals and sense fruit ripeness). A key first step to robot-human interaction: full-size humanoids such as UPenn and Virginia Tech's SAFFiR (above), which will help fight fires. 4. Targeted Tweets Most everything you post online can be used by advertisers to judge what kind of consumer you might be. On Twitter, brands want their promoted tweets to show up only for specific target audiences. So they use what people post to sort users by demographics such as location, platform, and time - and likely, in the future, by tweets' subject matter. That way, companies can serve up ads only to those they think will listen. 5. Plug-and-Play Satellites CubeSats are tiny satellites 4 inches long and less than 3 pounds each. They're easy enough to build that amateurs and high school students have done it - and they've helped spark a total rethinking of what it takes to send a satellite into space. Researchers at the Air Force Research Laboratory and elsewhere have been working on a new plug-and-play approach that can be applied to satellites up to 1000 pounds. By standardizing the usual components and developing a common language for the parts to communicate with one another, designers can avoid rethinking the gyroscope for every new project. The result: A satellite can be designed and built in six days instead of six years. Northrop Grumman has adopted this approach for its Modular Space Vehicles (MSV), which will allow military commanders to order custom tactical satellites and receive them within weeks. The first MSV is expected to launch in 2013. 6. IGZO Display As the display-resolution arms race heats up, computer and mobile device makers need to look beyond silicon to get sharper images. By replacing the backplane of LCD displays' silicon with the semiconductor indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO), manufacturers can shrink pixel size, making screens sharper. That semiconductor swap also results in energy savings because electrons zip around more quickly than they do in the current amorphous silicon. Sharp's prototype crystalline IGZO display has a 6.1-inch screen and a resolution of 498 pixels per inch, far outstripping the iPhone 5's 326-ppi Retina display. (And yes, despite Apple's claims, you'll be able to see the difference.) IGZO can also be incorporated into organic LED displays, boosting resolution and efficiency. Sharp is already manufacturing first-generation IGZO displays and expects to ramp up production in 2013. 7. Cocrystallized Explosive Borrowing a technique from pharmaceutical researchers, military engineers are using co-crystallization to create a new generation of designer explosives. The method lets scientists merge two complex materials with different properties into a single co-crystal that combines the best properties of its two constituents. For example, a team funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency has succeeded in co-crystallizing the standard military explosive HMX with a powerful but dangerously unstable explosive called CL-20. The new explosive has a detonation velocity that is 225 miles per hour faster than standard HMX, producing a more powerful blast wave - but, crucially, in drop tests it's just as stable as HMX. 8. Single-Board Computer With credit-card-size computers, each made of a single circuit board, the Raspberry Pi Foundation aims to take science and technology to schools around the world. The Raspberry Pi computer - generically known as a single-board computer - costs just US$25, runs on Linux, and can be plugged directly into a TV or keyboard to play HD video and run software for word processing and games. To keep down costs, the unit has no Flash or hard drives and instead relies on SD cards for system information and storage. 9. Inductive EV Charging It's not terribly complicated: An electric current in one coil of wire generates an electromagnetic field, and that induces a voltage in another nearby coil of wire. Presto, you've just charged your battery with no wires! And it's not terribly new either. (Remember the Palm Pre's optional inductive charger back in 2009? Exactly.) But it's looking like 2013 could be the year when wireless inductive charging finally reaches critical mass. Infiniti plans to release a model in 2014 that charges from a coil embedded in the ground under your parking spot. The technology is also showing up in consumer electronics, including Nokia's new Lumia phones. The critical question: Will the Wireless Power Consortium, an organization that aims to impose standards so any wireless charger can work with any device, manage to get companies to cooperate so that everyone's parking spots and portable devices can play nice? 10. Space Fence Even the final frontier is getting crowded these days, as illustrated by the 2009 smashup of an American communications satellite with a Russian one. The U.S. is currently tracking space objects with an outmoded system commissioned in 1961. But that will start to change in September when crews on Kwajalein Island in the northern Pacific start construction of the first radar site in the new US$3.5 billion Space Fence network. The system uses high-frequency radar to detect objects as small as a softball at a distance of 1200 miles and can perform "uncued tracking," which means it can track objects it hasn't already registered. The result: Once it's up and running in 2017, the Space Fence will keep tabs on more than 200,000 objects in low- and medium-Earth orbit. 1. Tracking Cars with GPS, Rescuing Satellites With Robotic Tugs, Bomb-Proofing Trashcans and More: Techwatch [Source: Popular Mechanics. Edited.]
Trends in the Region What is threatening farmland? The most serious threat to the viability of farmland in the region is rapid suburban development. Much of the region's growth in the past several decades has occurred on former agricultural land. Often, residential development occurs first, and then creates demand for more roads, schools, and other services. The housing market bubble over the last couple of years, with decline beginning in 2006, has dramatically slowed down the pace of development, it still remains as one of the most significant threats to farmland. Farmland is desirable to residential and commercial developers because it is inexpensive to acquire and develop. In a survey completed in 2007 by the Illinois Society for Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers (ISPFMRA), farmland per acre sold in 2006 between $3,600 to $10,625 for prime land, $3,400 to $5,600 for good quality land, and $1,800 to $3,500 for recreational tracts of land for activities such as agri-tourism. The highest prices paid per acre for recreational tracts were concentrated in Southern Illinois; within Northeast Illinois land values were also high and values were between 7% and 12% higher than the prior year (Aupperle, Schnitkey, ISPFMRA). Should private developers be more considerate of agricultural land when building housing communities? Is there a way to involve developers in preservation and create more accountability?
GMT obsolete as prime meridian moves to Paris Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) will both become obsolete as time standards as the world's prime meridian is to move from its long standing home in Greenwich, London (U.K.) to Paris (France). The change will take place at midnight between June 30 and July 1, 2014, the International Timekeeping Committee (ITC) announced in a press release this morning. Please Note: This article is an April Fool's joke from timeanddate.com. The following information is false and the Prime meridian and time will not change on July 1. Thank you for participating in our joke and sharing it with others. Clocks around the world will have be set back 9 minutes and 21 seconds, the International Timekeeping Committee (ITC) just announced. Forward 9 minutes 21 seconds Clocks around the globe will have to be adjusted to reflect mean solar time in Paris, commonly referred to as Paris Mean Time (PMT). It is 9 minutes and 21 seconds ahead of the current local time, which is determined on the basis of UTC/GMT. “From July, Paris will be the new center of world time”, ITC director Christophe L'Heureux summarized the change. “PMT will be the new GMT.” According to Mr. L'Heureux, it will be a minor change for most people around the world. “Simply turn your clock from midnight to 12:09:21 a.m. (00:09:21) on July 1.” He added that the committee works closely with the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), which incidentally is also based in Paris, to make sure that the world's atomic clocks will be adjusted accordingly. Back to Paris meridian after 100 years Before the Greenwich meridian was officially declared the world's prime meridian at the International Meridian Conference in Washington D.C. in 1884, Paris was its most potent rival. Even as late as 1914, the Paris meridian was unofficially used by many around the world for timekeeping and navigation purposes. “2014 is a good choice”, Mr. L'Heureux said. “Paris has waited for exactly 100 years. It is only fair to let us have a go after such a long period of British time rule.” Sour mood in Greenwich, scolding farmers Pierre Bontemps, a French ITC delegate, apologized for the inconvenience the time change may cause, but maintained that most people won't mind. “If we inform people about the historical background, I think they will understand. We at the committee don't think that the world will even notice such a minor change.” However, many have already voiced their disapproval. The online forum at the British Association of Farmers' website abounded with criticism. “What will my animals do?”, one comment read, “Do the French think my cows know what Paris Mean Time is?” Simon Redcliffe from the Greenwich Royal Observatory couldn't quite hide his dismay. “We wish them luck. I hope the people at the Paris Observatory don't mess it up”, he said in a televised statement.
Colette O'Neill, creative force at Bealtaine Cottage… Ireland's Sustainable Living, Permaculture Lifestyle Practitioner, celebrating 12 yrs growing a sustainable sanctuary for Mother Earth, with magical gardens powered by Goddess-inspired Permaculture. Mother Earth can live without us. We cannot live apart from Her. It's time to nurture and care for our only home. Permaculture Notes from Bealtaine Cottage, Ireland Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium ), a member of the sunflower family, has been used for centuries in European folk medicine. This sweet smelling flower is commonly associated as a remedy for headaches, arthritis, and fevers. The name Feverfew is derived from the Latin word for fever…febrifugia, meaning, fever reducer! It grows really easily from seed, self-seeding all over the gravel here at Bealtaine Cottage. This is growing in a pot near the back door of the house, on the southern side. These are rambling roses, climbing and pushing their way across a willow arch I made to help support them last year. Roses are best known as ornamental plants grown for their flowers in the garden. There are several different varieties here, though I don’t really know the names, as I have grown them from slips, mostly purloined from other gardens! Roses are used for commercial perfumery and commercial cut flower crops. Some are used as landscape plants and for hedging. Although Roses have minor medicinal uses, the fruits, or Rose-hips tell a different story altogether, most famous for the syrup made from them and fed to babies! This is a little apple tree bought by my mother and planted into a quiet little spot on the land behind the cottage. The apple is from the species, Malus domestica, in the rose family (Rosaceae). It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits. The tree originated in Western Asia, where its wild ancestor, the Alma, is still found today. There are more than 7,500 known cultivars of apples. Cultivars vary in their yield and the ultimate size of the tree, even when grown on the same rootstock. This particular cultivar is a miniature apple tree. At least 55 million tonnes of apples are grown worldwide, annually. China produces about 35% of this total. The United States is the second-leading producer, with more than 7.5% of world production. Iran is third, followed by Turkey, Russia, Italy and India. Plants in pots and tubs at the back of the cottage today. I noticed the birds coming down to feed on the flowers of the pansies. The red and pink plant at the front is the little plant, Herb Robert.
Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! Or so goes the mantra when it comes to taking care of our skin. The skin is our body's largest organ, and as such, deserves our undivided attention when it comes to proper care. Our skin protects our bodies from the elements and is susceptible to potentially damaging factors such as weather, water and pollutants in the environment. Remember, moisturizers do their job best when applied to clean skin that is periodically exfoliated to remove dead skin cells. Body moisturizers can be classified in two groups: humectants, which draw water from inner layers toward the surface of the skin, and occlusives, which block water from evaporating from skin cells.
This utility is very useful for counting the number of lines and words in programs or text files. It is a very simple utility, but it is also very powerful. Latest C++ & MFC Articles - Page 31 Learn how and why you should use C++ exceptions to replace the use of the exit() method in legacy code. Discover how to create a class which provides DIRECT access to individual elements in a Linked List. Wrap-around array is implemented in the form of a class template and thus allows elements of any type. The idea of such an array is to have it in the form of a loop. Discover a method to create instances of a class based upon their classtype. The collection of creatable classes is built automatically upon program startup without the need of writing specific registration code. Learn where "make" fits in the process of developing an application and see an example of using it with multiple file compilation. Latest CodeGuru Developer Columns Learn to implement exception handling mechanism in C++. Bots are rapidly replacing the older technologies. Read through and become proficient with Bing Bots. Learn to distinguish between interfaces and classes, and when to use which. With Microsoft's new Project Rome, the user experience across all platforms (Windows, iOS, or Android) will be seamless among different hardware.
PAIRS AND EXTRA MALES AVAILABLE The Tambourine Dove (Turtur tympanistria) is a pigeon which is a widespread resident breeding bird in woodlands and other thick vegetation in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Its range extends from Senegal east to Ethiopia and Kenya and southwards through eastern Africa to south-eastern South Africa, but it is absent from the drier areas of south-western Africa. This is very much a species of thick woodlands, including dense gardens and plantations of castor oil, cocoa and rubber. As such, this shy species is usually seen when flushed while feeding on the forest floor The Tambourine Dove is a small plump pigeon, typically 22 cm in length. The male has a white face with a black spot behind the eye, white underparts and a grey crown. Its back, hind neck, wings and tail are pale grey brown, and the folded wings have large dark purple patches. The under tail is brown. The eye ring and feet are purple-red, and the bill is purple. The female is duller, and is white only on the belly, the face and breast being a pale grey-brown. The crown is grey-brown, without the blue-grey of the male. The juvenile resembles the female but has chestnut fringes to the feathers of the back, breast and flanks. The Tambourine Dove builds a frail stick nest low in a thicket or vine tangle, and lays two cream-colored eggs. Both sexes incubate, although this task is performed mainly by the female, and the eggs hatch in 13 days with another 13–14 days to fledging. The chicks are fed regurgitated food. Tambourine Dove feeds on seeds and small fruits. It has a preference for seeds of the castor oil plant. It will on occasion eat small insects.
On Monday, NASA will host a teleconference "to present new findings from images captured by the agency's Hubble Space Telescope of Jupiter's icy moon, Europa." If, like me, you were hopeful that this announcement might include hints of an extraterrestrial flavor, the space agency was keen to quickly nip any alien-related rumors in the bud: Of course, any revelations about Europa's hypothetical alien inhabitants probably wouldn't have been a possibility; this is a Hubble-related astronomical discovery and we don't currently have a mission close enough to the enigmatic moon to seek out direct evidence for extraterrestrial life. But as noted in the NASA press release, the announcement is related to the "presence of a subsurface ocean on Europa," which is the key factor behind the moon's habitable potential. There's already strong evidence that Europa possesses a sub-surface ocean cocooned inside a protective icy shell. Other studies suggest that the ocean circulates the crater-free surface, creating icy tectonics, absorbing chemicals from the surface into the ocean below. Interactions between Europa's hot, rocky core could make the water salty. All of these factors means that any hypothetical lifeforms in that ocean could have access to nutrients. WATCH VIDEO: HUGE Water Geysers Found on Jupiter's Moon! Some of the more interesting hypotheses about Europa include the possibility that the ocean may not only be able to support basic microbial life, there could be enough dissolved oxygen to support the evolution of complex, multi-cellular life forms. If you're thinking Europan jellyfish, you're not alone. In 2013, Hubble detected the presence of a plume of water vapor surrounding the moon, boosting hopes that geysers are blasting through Europa's thick crust, releasing some of the ocean's water to space. Europa became the second moon in the solar system, after Saturn's moon Enceladus, to be known to vent water through its icy crust. Not only does the presence geysers provide further powerful evidence of the existence of a liquid water ocean, venting it into space provides an opportunity for our robotic missions to directly sample the chemicals it contains. NASA's Cassini mission at Saturn has sampled Enceladus' briny water vapor and, after the 2013 Hubble find, hopes were high the same could be done for Europa. However, the excitement was short-lived; Hubble couldn't repeat the observation, possibly indicating that the first vapor detection was in error, or a transient event like an asteroid impact. Could this "surprising activity" on Europa announcement on Monday be related to the detection of another plume of water vapor? If so, it will be a very exciting find, confirming the moon has an active sub-surface ocean that is released via geysers to space. And if this is the case, it will surely boost excitement for NASA's "Europa Clipper" concept as not only a mission that will study the moon up-close, but a sampling mission that could get a taste of Europa's sub-surface ocean to find out if it has the right ingredients for life. Originally published on Discovery News.
Dear Drewbie: For mental health patients, when does ‘a little different’ become a diagnosis? Ready to start getting better? Read on as Drewbie talks about one of the best mental-health remedies: gratitude. My favorite class to teach is Abnormal Psychology, a class based on diagnosis and treatment of mental-health disorders. I always hated the word “abnormal” — it is outdated, offensive and indicates that those with a diagnosis are freakish — but still love the class though. It deals with an incredibly important topic: When do emotions and behaviors go from odd, stressful or uncomfortable, to diagnosable? All of us have experienced many of the symptoms of diagnosable disorders at some point: sadness, anxiety, worry, substance abuse, self-worth doubts and other negative feelings are very common. Just because these symptoms have some level of commonality, however, does not mean we all meet the requirements for a diagnosis. When making a diagnosis, there is substantial subjectivity and grey area. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (the Bible of mental health disorders) identifies disorders and specific symptoms and requirements for diagnosis, but there is still a level of interpretation. Learning how to accurately use this system requires substantial training, education and testing. The diagnosis process must be respected and performed by those with appropriate credentials. A mental-health diagnosis can be both beneficial and harmful. Regardless of the pros and cons, diagnosis is necessary and the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks, and when done responsibly by a professional, the risks and dangers should be mitigated. The “self-fulfilling prophecy”: This concept essentially states that if you believe something to be true, it is more likely to come true. This is often done subconsciously and unintentionally. If a person is diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, he or she may start to show signs of more anxiety because of the diagnosis. Stigma: Fair or not, mental-health disorders come with stigma. As a counselor, professor and, more importantly, a person with a mental-health disorder, I know this is too true. Our culture has a skewed idea of mental illness, manifesting in assumptions, fears and stereotypes. Appropriate or not, it is real. Inaccurate diagnosis: Because of the subjective nature of diagnosis (client self-reporting, hidden symptoms and other factors), clinicians can miss a diagnosis. This can have major consequences, including improper treatment methods, negative emotional consequences and more. Your clinician should understand that diagnoses could change over time. Excuses: A mental-health diagnosis should not be an excuse for negative behaviors, but it is often an explanation. Do not let your diagnosis be an excuse to be the worst version of yourself — use it as motivation. Relief: For most people, receiving a diagnosis can bring a huge sense of relief — the whole, “That’s what this is called,” moment. It might be a diagnosis, but it’s also a starting point for recovery. Validation: When diagnosed bipolar some years ago, I realized I wasn’t making up symptoms. It is real and I am not crazy — just a little ill. Treatment: Forgoing a diagnosis can limit treatments. In the field of psychology and counseling, people have spent years learning the best treatment options for each specific disorder, and the majority of treatments are non-medicinal with holistic benefits. For me, exercise, diet, art and yoga have all been helpful. Support: Counselors, family and friends (and people with similar diagnoses) can help support a person with a diagnosis. Find the people you need and let them know how best to support and encourage. Acceptance: For some people, a diagnosis can help with personal and outside acceptance. While it can sometimes feel alienating, it’s also a reminder you’re not the only one with these issues. Odd behavior or illness? The questions remain: When does normal sadness turn into Major Depressive Disorder? When can everyday life stress become Generalized Anxiety Disorder? The lines are grey at best, even as a professional with a decade in the field, but I have to remember that some of the most fascinating people I know are abnormal, weird and quirky. They might even have a diagnosis. Some of our favorite artists, writers, athletes and people have diagnosable mental-health disorders. First, it is essential to always look at the context of the behavior. If a person is showing mild signs of depression but just got divorced, lost their dog or even has the flu, they might not have depression. They could show signs, but they just had a horrible stretch of life events and sadness is appropriate. Understand that life circumstances, cultural and religious values, and all other factors make for an accurate diagnosis. Second, mental-health disorders fall on a continuum, or spectrum, of severity, ranging from mild to severe. Don’t assume that just because you know me, you also know what it is like for everyone who is bipolar. Everyone is unique. Know the signs Below are a few things to consider when evaluating the differences between a possible mental-health diagnosis and normal, everyday stress. Speak with a licensed clinician if you are experiencing mental-health symptoms to get an accurate diagnosis. Intensity: Being bummed out or melancholy is fairly normal — laziness, lack of motivation, and sadness are common. People with a mental-health disorder experience those feelings much more intensely, to the point the feelings disrupt daily functions. They’re often described as crippling, paralyzing and debilitating, including common symptoms like suicidal thoughts and panic attacks. Frequency: Symptoms of depression and anxiety can be typical for days, weeks, or even months at a time, and they can be brought on by changes (tourist season, work demands, life stressors and more). For people with a disorder, these are much more common, even constant. Duration: For most people, negative emotions will last a few hours, days or weeks, then fade back to normal. People with a diagnosis can experience negative feelings with little or no relief for months and years. Quantity of symptoms: Every diagnosis is essentially a checklist — a person meet’s X number of Y symptoms. The more symptoms a person has, the more likely a diagnosis. If you are concerned that you or a friend might have a diagnosis, don’t delay. Get them to a licensed professional to start getting answers and talk about treatment options. Just don’t stress if you get diagnosed — this is the beginning point for improvement. It is the start of treatment, relief and recovery, and remember: “normal” is kind of boring anyway. Drew Mikita is an associate professor of psychology at Colorado Mountain College. Since 2007, he has practiced mental health in Summit County as a licensed professional counselor. He is also a sports psychology consultant currently pursuing a doctorate in sport psychology. Originally from Summit County, Ohio, Drew is living out his dream as a mountain person. Start a dialogue, stay on topic and be civil. If you don't follow the rules, your comment may be deleted.
This page features the text of Charles McKay, written in 1841, describing the Tulipomania. Quis furor o cives! - Lucan. The tulip,-so named, it is said, from a Turkish word, signifying a turban,- was introduced into western Europe about the middle of the sixteenth century. Conrad Gesner, who claims the merit of having brought it into repute,-little dreaming of the extraordinary commotion it was to make in the world,-says that he first saw it in the year 1559, in a garden at Augsburg, belonging to the learned Counsellor Herwart, a man very famous in his day for his collection of rare exotics. The bulbs were sent to this gentleman by a friend at Constantinople, where the flower had long been a favourite. In the course of ten or eleven years after this period, tulips were much sought after by the wealthy, especially in Holland and Germany. Rich people at Amsterdam sent for the bulbs direct to Constantinople, and paid the most extravagant prices for them. The first roots planted in England were brought from Vienna in 1600. Until the year 1634 the tulip annually increased in reputation, until it was deemed a proof of bad taste in any man of fortune to be without a collection of them. Many learned men, including Pompeius de Angelis and the celebrated Lipsius of Leyden, the author of the treatise "De Constantia," were passionately fond of tulips. The rage for possessing them soon caught the middle classes of society, and merchants and shopkeepers, even of moderate means, began to vie with each other in the rarity of these flowers and the preposterous prices they paid for them. A trader at Harlaem was known to pay one-half of his fortune for a single root-not with the design of selling it again at a profit, but to keep in his own conservatory for the admiration of his acquaintance. One would suppose that there must have been some great virtue in this flower to have made it so valuable in the eyes of so prudent a people as the Dutch; but it has neither the beauty nor the perfume of the rose-hardly the beauty of the "sweet, sweet-pea;" neither is it as enduring as either. Cowley, it is true, is loud in its praise. He says- "The tulip next appeared, all over gay, But wanton, full of pride, and full of play; The world can't show a dye but here has place; Nay, by new mixtures, she can change her face; Purple and gold are both beneath her care- The richest needlework she loves to wear; Her only study is to please the eye, And to outshine the rest in finery." This, though not very poetical, is the description of a poet. Beckmann, in his History of Inventions, paints it with more fidelity, and in prose more pleasing than Cowley's poetry. He says, "There are few plants which acquire, through accident, weakness, or disease, so many variegations as the tulip. When uncultivated, and in its natural state, it is almost of one colour, has large leaves, and an extraordinarily long stem. When it has been weakened by cultivation, it becomes more agreeable in the eyes of the florist. The petals are then paler, smaller, and more diversified in hue; and the leaves acquire a softer green colour. Thus this masterpiece of culture, the more beautiful it turns, grows so much the weaker, so that, with the greatest skill and most careful attention, it can scarcely be transplanted, or even kept alive." Many persons grow insensibly attached to that which gives them a great deal of trouble, as a mother often loves her sick and ever-ailing child better than her more healthy offspring. Upon the same principle we must account for the unmerited encomia lavished upon these fragile blossoms. In 1634, the rage among the Dutch to possess them was so great that the ordinary industry of the country was neglected, and the population, even to its lowest dregs, embarked in the tulip trade. As the mania increased, prices augmented, until, in the year 1635, many persons were known to invest a fortune of 100,000 florins in the purchase of forty roots. It then became necessary to sell them by their weight in perits, a small weight less than a grain. A tulip of the species called Admiral Liefken, weighing 400 perits, was worth 4400 florins; an Admiral Von der Eyk, weighing 446 perits, was worth 1260 florins; a shilder of 106 perits was worth 1615 florins; a viceroy of 400 perits, 3000 florins, and, most precious of all, a Semper Augustus, weighing 200 perits, was thought to be very cheap at 5500 florins. The latter was much sought after, and even an inferior bulb might command a price of 2000 florins. It is related that, at one time, early in 1636, there were only two roots of this description to be had in all Holland, and those not of the best. One was in the possession of a dealer in Amsterdam, and the other in Harlaem. So anxious were the speculators to obtain them that one person offered the fee-simple of twelve acres of building ground for the Harlaem tulip. That of Amsterdam was bought for 4600 florins, a new carriage, two grey horses, and a complete suit of harness. Munting, an industrious author of that day, who wrote a folio volume of one thousand pages upon the tulipomania, has preserved the following list of the various articles, and their value, which were delivered for one single root of the rare species called the viceroy:- Item Value (florins) \|Two lasts of wheat\|\|448\| \|Four lasts of rye\|\|558\| \|Four fat oxen\|\|480\| \|Eight fat swine\|\|240\| \|Twelve fat sheep\|\|120\| \|Two hogsheads of wine\|\|70\| \|Four tuns of beer\|\|32\| \|Two tons of butter\|\|192\| \|A complete bed\|\|100\| \|A suit of clothes\|\|80\| \|A silver drinking cup\|\|60\| People who had been absent from Holland, and whose chance it was to return when this folly was at its maximum, were sometimes led into awkward dilemmas by their ignorance. There is an amusing instance of the kind related in Blainville's Travels. A wealthy merchant, who prided himself not a little on his rare tulips, received upon one occasion a very valuable consignment of merchandise from the Levant. Intelligence of its arrival was brought him by a sailor, who presented himself for that purpose at the counting-house, among bales of goods of every description. The merchant, to reward him for his news, munificently made him a present of a fine red herring for his breakfast. The sailor had, it appears, a great partiality for onions, and seeing a bulb very like an onion lying upon the counter of this liberal trader, and thinking it, no doubt, very much out of its place among silks and velvets, he slily seized an opportunity and slipped it into his pocket, as a relish for his herring. He got clear off with his prize, and proceeded to the quay to eat his breakfast. Hardly was his back turned when the merchant missed his valuable Semper Augustus, worth three thousand florins, or about 280 pounds sterling. The whole establishment was instantly in an uproar; search was everywhere made for the precious root, but it was not to be found. Great was the merchant's distress of mind. The search was renewed, but again without success. At last some one thought of the sailor. The unhappy merchant sprang into the street at the bare suggestion. His alarmed household followed him. The sailor, simple soul! had not thought of concealment. He was found quietly sitting on a coil of ropes, masticating the last morsel of his "onion." Little did he dream that he had been eating a breakfast whose cost might have regaled a whole ship's crew for a twelvemonth; or, as the plundered merchant himself expressed it, "might have sumptuously feasted the Prince of Orange and the whole court of the Stadtholder." Anthony caused pearls to be dissolved in wine to drink the health of Cleopatra; Sir Richard Whittington was as foolishly magnificent in an entertainment to King Henry V; and Sir Thomas Gresham drank a diamond, dissolved in wine, to the health of Queen Elizabeth, when she opened the Royal Exchange: but the breakfast of this roguish Dutchman was as splendid as either. He had an advantage, too, over his wasteful predecessors: their gems did not improve the taste or the wholesomeness of their wine, while his tulip was quite delicious with his red herring. The most unfortunate part of the business for him was, that he remained in prison for some months, on a charge of felony, preferred against him by the merchant. Another story is told of an English traveller, which is scarcely less ludicrous. This gentleman, an amateur botanist, happened to see a tulip-root lying in the conservatory of a wealthy Dutchman. Being ignorant of its quality, he took out his penknife, and peeled off its coats, with the view of making experiments upon it. When it was by this means reduced to half its original size, he cut it into two equal sections, making all the time many learned remarks on the singular appearances of the unknown bulb. Suddenly the owner pounced upon him, and, with fury in his eyes, asked him if he knew what he had been doing? "Peeling a most extraordinary onion," replied the philosopher. "Hundert tausend duyvel," said the Dutchman; "it's an Admiral Von der Eyk." "Thank you," replied the traveller, taking out his note-book to make a memorandum of the same; "are these admirals common in your country?" "Death and the devil," said the Dutchman, seizing the astonished man of science by the collar; "come before the syndic, and you shall see." In spite of his remonstrances, the traveller was led through the streets, followed by a mob of persons. When brought into the presence of the magistrate, he learned, to his consternation, that the root upon which he had been experimentalizing was worth four thousand florins; and, notwithstanding all he could urge in extenuation, he was lodged in prison until he found securities for the payment of this sum. The demand for tulips of a rare species increased so much in the year 1636, that regular marts for their sale were established on the Stock Exchange of Amsterdam, in Rotterdam, Harlaem, Leyden, Alkmar, Hoorn, and other towns. Symptoms of gambling now became, for the first time, apparent. The stockjobbers, ever on the alert for a new speculation, dealt largely in tulips, making use of all the means they so well knew how to employ, to cause fluctuations in prices. At first, as in all these gambling mania, confidence was at its height, and everybody gained. The tulip-jobbers speculated in the rise and fall of the tulip stocks, and made large profits by buying when prices fell, and selling out when they rose. Many individuals grew suddenly rich. A golden bait hung temptingly out before the people, and, one after the other, they rushed to the tulip marts, like flies around a honeypot. Every one imagined that the passion for tulips would last for ever, and that the wealthy from every part of the world would send to Holland, and pay whatever prices were asked for them. The riches of Europe would be concentrated on the shores of the Zuyder Zee, and poverty banished from the favoured clime of Holland. Nobles, citizens, farmers, mechanics, seamen, footmen, maidservants, even chimney-sweeps and old clotheswomen, dabbled in tulips. People of all grades converted their property into cash, and invested it in flowers. Houses and lands were offered for sale at ruinously low prices, or assigned in payment of bargains made at the tulip-mart. Foreigners became smitten with the same frenzy, and money poured into Holland from all directions. The prices of the necessaries of life rose again by degrees; houses and lands, horses and carriages, and luxuries of every sort, rose in value with them, and for some months Holland seemed the very antechamber of Plutus. The operations of the trade became so extensive and so intricate, that it was found necessary to draw up a code of laws for the guidance of the dealers. Notaries and clerks were also appointed, who devoted themselves exclusively to the interests of the trade. The designation of public notary was hardly known in some towns, that of tulip notary usurping its place. In the smaller towns, where there was no exchange, the principal tavern was usually selected as the "showplace," where high and low traded in tulips, and confirmed their bargains over sumptuous entertainments. These dinners were sometimes attended by two or three hundred persons, and large vases of tulips, in full bloom, were placed at regular intervals upon the tables and sideboards, for their gratification during the repast. At last, however, the more prudent began to see that this folly could not last for ever. Rich people no longer bought the flowers to keep them in their gardens, but to sell them again at cent. per cent. profit. It was seen that somebody must lose fearfully in the end. As this conviction spread, prices fell, and never rose again. Confidence was destroyed, and a universal panic seized upon the dealers. A had agreed to purchase ten Sempers Augustines from B, at four thousand florins each, at six weeks after the signing of the contract. B was ready with the flowers at the appointed time; but the price had fallen to three or four hundred florins, and A refused either to pay the difference or receive the tulips. Defaulters were announced day after day in all the towns of Holland. Hundreds who, a few months previously, had begun to doubt that there was such a thing as poverty in the land, suddenly found themselves the possessors of a few bulbs, which nobody would buy, even though they offered them at one quarter of the sums they had paid for them. The cry of distress resounded everywhere, and each man accused his neighbour. The few who had contrived to enrich themselves hid their wealth from the knowledge of their fellow-citizens, and invested it in the English or other funds. Many who, for a brief season, had emerged from the humbler walks of life, were cast back into their original obscurity. Substantial merchants were reduced almost to beggary, and many a representative of a noble line saw the fortunes of his house ruined beyond redemption. When the first alarm subsided, the tulip-holders in the several towns held public meetings to devise what measures were best to be taken to restore public credit. It was generally agreed, that deputies should be sent from all parts to Amsterdam, to consult with the government upon some remedy for the evil. The Government at first refused to interfere, but advised the tulip-holders to agree to some plan among themselves. Several meetings were held for this purpose; but no measure could be devised likely to give satisfaction to the deluded people, or repair even a slight portion of the mischief that had been done. The language of complaint and reproach was in everybody's mouth, and all the meetings were of the most stormy character. At last, however, after much bickering and ill-will, it was agreed, at Amsterdam, by the assembled deputies, that all contracts made in the height of the mania, or prior to the month of November 1636, should be declared null and void, and that, in those made after that date, purchasers should be freed from their engagements, on paying ten per cent. to the vendor. This decision gave no satisfaction. The vendors who had their tulips on hand were, of course, discontented, and those who had pledged themselves to purchase, thought themselves hardly treated. Tulips which had, at one time, been worth six thousand florins, were now to be procured for five hundred; so that the composition of ten per cent. was one hundred florins more than the actual value. Actions for breach of contract were threatened in all the courts of the country; but the latter refused to take cognizance of gambling transactions. The matter was finally referred to the Provincial Council at the Hague, and it was confidently expected that the wisdom of this body would invent some measure by which credit should be restored. Expectation was on the stretch for its decision, but it never came. The members continued to deliberate week after week, and at last, after thinking about it for three months, declared that they could offer no final decision until they had more information. They advised, however, that, in the mean time, every vendor should, in the presence of witnesses, offer the tulips in natura to the purchaser for the sums agreed upon. If the latter refused to take them, they might be put up for sale by public auction, and the original contractor held responsible for the difference between the actual and the stipulated price. This was exactly the plan recommended by the deputies, and which was already shown to be of no avail. There was no court in Holland which would enforce payment. The question was raised in Amsterdam, but the judges unanimously refused to interfere, on the ground that debts contracted in gambling were no debts in law. Thus the matter rested. To find a remedy was beyond the power of the government. Those who were unlucky enough to have had stores of tulips on hand at the time of the sudden reaction were left to bear their ruin as philosophically as they could; those who had made profits were allowed to keep them; but the commerce of the country suffered a severe shock, from which it was many years ere it recovered. The example of the Dutch was imitated to some extent in England. In the year 1636 tulips were publicly sold in the Exchange of London, and the jobbers exerted themselves to the utmost to raise them to the fictitious value they had acquired in Amsterdam. In Paris also the jobbers strove to create a tulipomania. In both cities they only partially succeeded. However, the force of example brought the flowers into great favour, and amongst a certain class of people tulips have ever since been prized more highly than any other flowers of the field. The Dutch are still notorious for their partiality to them, and continue to pay higher prices for them than any other people. As the rich Englishman boasts of his fine race-horses or his old pictures, so does the wealthy Dutchman vaunt him of his tulips. In England, in our day, strange as it may appear, a tulip will produce more money than an oak. If one could be found, rara in tetris, and black as the black swan alluded to by Juvenal, its price would equal that of a dozen acres of standing corn. In Scotland, towards the close of the seventeenth century, the highest price for tulips, according to the authority of a writer in the supplement to the third edition of the "Encyclopedia Britannica," was ten guineas. Their value appears to have diminished from that time till the year 1769, when the two most valuable species in England were the Don Quevedo and the Valentinier, the former of which was worth two guineas and the latter two guineas and a half. These prices appear to have been the minimum. In the year 1800, a common price was fifteen guineas for a single bulb. In 1835, so foolish were the fanciers, that a bulb of the species called the Miss Fanny Kemble was sold by public auction in London for seventy-five pounds. Still more astonishing was the price of a tulip in the possession of a gardener in the King's Road, Chelsea. In his catalogues, it was labelled at two hundred guineas! Thus a flower, which for beauty and perfume was surpassed by the abundant roses of the garden,-a nosegay of which might be purchased for a penny,-was priced at a sum which would have provided an industrious labourer and his family with food, and clothes, and lodging for six years! Should chickweed and groundsel ever come into fashion, the wealthy would, no doubt, vie with each other in adorning their gardens with them, and paying the most extravagant prices for them. In so doing, they would hardly be more foolish than the admirers of tulips. The common prices for these flowers at the present time vary from five to fifteen guineas, according to the rarity of the species.
Hedonic adaptation is the observed psychological tendency to revert back to prior levels of happiness soon after experiencing something pleasurable. The psychologists Brickman and Campbell began studying this phenomenon scientifically in the 1970s, calling it the Hedonic Treadmill. Hedonic adaptation accounts for our tendency to overestimate how happy pleasurable experiences will make us, and the fact that we tend to maintain a relatively stable level of happiness regardless of our material circumstances. It also explains our unfortunate human habit of taking what we have for granted. Even though the Hedonic Treadmill was scientifically observed in recent history, it turns out that Kant possessed a remarkably similar insight into human psychology, simultaneously defining hedonic adaptation and changing the course of one man's life in an impromptu late night meeting in 1789.
Study to Promote Walking in People with Parkinson’s Disease You are invited to participate in a research study in which you will be given a pedometer to measure the amount of walking you do over one month. The pedometer is a small device that you keep in your pocket or on your waist. At the end of each day, it measures how many steps you take. You will also be given a small computer to take home. The computer contains an automated exercise advisor – this advisor appears as an animated cartoon character that talks to you from the computer. You use it each day for five minutes. It is designed to help you increase your walking. You may qualify to participate in this study if you: - have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease - are living in the community (not institutionalized) - can walk at least two blocks without physical assistance or use of a cane or walker - do not exercise regularly or exercise less than two days per week for thirty minutes at a time Eligible participants will be asked to come to Sargent College, Boston University for two visits. Participants will be instructed in how to use the pedometer and the computer with the exercise advisor. Participants will answer questions about quality of life, exercise habits and using the animated exercise advisor. An examination of walking and balance will also be conducted. There is no cost associated with the examinations, the pedometer or computer. Parking will be available at Sargent College, Boston University free of charge. For more information about this study, please contact: Center for Neurorehabilitation at Sargent College, Boston University
FRANKFURT – The European Central Bank on Thursday loosened its monetary policy to bolster the 18-country eurozone’s economic recovery. Here are some basic facts about the central bank. Q: Where did it come from? A: The ECB was created by the Treaty of Maastricht, the basic treaty setting up the European Union. The treaty, which came into force in 1993, called for a single currency and a single central bank as a way of creating a closer economic and political union between member countries. The ECB came into existence on June 1, 1998 and the euro was introduced on Jan. 1, 1999. Q: Who runs it? A: The ECB is run by a 24-member governing council, made up of the heads of the central banks from the 18 euro countries, plus a six-member executive committee. The executive board, which includes the ECB’s president, runs the bank day-to-day at its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. The president and executive board members are named by the governments of the countries that belong to the euro in consultation with the EU parliament. Q: What does it do? A: The ECB plays a role similar to that of the U.S. Federal Reserve or the Bank of Japan. It serves as the issuer of the official currency, in its case the euro. It sets interest rates, a key factor in guiding the economy. And it plays an important role supervising commercial banks. The ECB’s first job, according to the treaty, is to keep inflation under control. That is different from other central banks such as the Federal Reserve, which has a broader mandate to seek both low inflation and high employment. The ECB is also tasked with supporting the economic goals of the EU, including growth and jobs. But stable prices come first. Q: How does the ECB affect the economy? A: The ECB’s main way of affecting the economy is through its benchmark interest rate, the refinancing rate, which determines what banks pay when they borrow money from the ECB. That in turn influences the rates banks charge for loans to customers such as businesses and consumers. So the ECB can cut rates to spur economic activity when the economy looks weak. And it can raise interest rates to restrict credit when the economy is growing strongly. That helps prevent inflation. The ECB can also use other, more unusual means to affect the economy. Those can include issuing loans to banks or purchasing bonds from banks to boost their finances.
Medical Conditions That Can Affect Monthly Periods Not all women experience regular periods. In a recent study about delayed menstruations or irregular periods, a lot of factors have been defined as some may have preexisting medical issues that affect their monthly due. “Irregular” period may mean one of these things: a delayed or missed period, light and shorter menstrual periods, or unusually heavy blood flow. Furthermore, menstrual periods that arrive less than 21 days or after 35 days after your last period can be a sign of something serious. On the other hand, irregular period in itself may not be something that you should be scared of. However, your irregular period may be due to underlying medical conditions that should be addressed immediately. In such cases, it may be time to consult a medical personnel if your irregular period persists from three months or more. While lifestyle changes can help reverse the onset of irregular periods, there are times that you may have to consider medical treatment to reverse its effects. Unless you are not pregnant, the following medical conditions may be the culprit that’s causing your irregular periods. Common causes of irregular monthly periods Also known as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, PCOS affects around 10 percent of women who have reached child-bearing age. Aside from affecting a woman’s ability to conceive, PCOS can also cause hormonal imbalance and weight fluctuations. In more serious cases, PCOS can also lead to other medical issues such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Aside from lifestyle changes, medical treatments are also available for women suffering from PCOS. In case you are not aware, your thyroid gland located in your neck regulate your metabolism. Likewise, your periods depend on your thyroid gland’s overall health. For example, if your thyroid gland is underactive – called hypothyroidism -- you can experience delayed, missed, lighter or heavier monthly periods. That is why doctors recommend thyroid screening if you are experiencing irregular periods. Perhaps you have heard of this before, but it is actually a serious reproductive health issue that can affect a woman’s fertility. This condition occurs when the endometrium, the lining inside your uterus, grows outside the uterus. It results to tremendous pain and heavier monthly periods with blood clotting. In such cases, your doctor may prescribe pain relievers to alleviate the feeling of pain. Some may have to take hormonal medication and even surgery as last resort. Von Willebrand disease is a blood disorder that can also cause heavy bleeding during menstruation for more than a week. It is said that von Willebrand disease affects 24 percent of women who experience chronic heavy menstrual periods. Hormonal medications are often given to women experiencing heavy menstrual flow, but it may not work for some women with the disease. Also known as pelvic inflammatory disease, this medical condition occurs when some parts of your reproductive organs become infected with a sexually-transmitted disease, such as Chlamydia or gonorrhea. This condition can result to irregular bleeding, fever, painful cramps, and vaginal discharge. Antibiotics can help manage PID; but if left untreated, it can lead to infertility. This medical condition involves excessive muscle cell growth in your uterus. Although this condition is generally not fatal, it can cause some serious discomfort such as heavy bleeding among women. In such cases, treatments are available which can also save your fertility, coupled with lifestyle changes. According to one study, women with type 1 diabetes may experience longer menstrual cycles and heavier periods. In the same study, women were given birth control pills to help regulate their menstrual cycles. On the other hand, women with type 2 diabetes and are overweight are also found to experience longer menstrual cycles. Given the effects of diabetes in a woman’s menstrual cycle, it is best to consult your doctor if you are experiencing irregular menstrual periods for any possible symptoms of diabetes. Whether you’re underweight or beyond normal weight, weight fluctuations can put you at high risk of irregular periods. According to experts, hormones are disrupted when you are malnourish, exercise or diet too much, or eat too much. Such irregular eating patterns can result to irregular menstrual periods. In such cases, there are treatments and medications available for eating problems. Among common types of cancers that claim women’s lives every year include cervical and ovarian cancers, to name a few. On the other hand, endometrial cancer can be confused with perimenopause, which is why you should consult your doctor if you are experiencing irregular bleeding and possibly rule out cancer in such cases. Meanwhile, cervical and ovarian cancer also cause irregular bleeding, and is best to get checked or treated sooner before it’s too late. Who knows whether that simple irregular monthly period can actually be the start of an onset of cancer.
What is Crawling for SEO? What is Crawling? Crawling (or spidering) is when Google or another search engine send a bot to a web page or web post and “read” the page. Don’t let this be confused with having that page being indexed. Crawling is the first part of having a search engine recognize your page and show it in search results. Having your page crawled, however, does not necessarily mean your page was indexed and will be found. Pages are crawled for a variety of reasons including: - Having an XML sitemap with the URL in question submitted to Google - Having internal links pointing to the page - Having external links pointing to the page - Getting a spike in traffic to the page To ensure that your page gets crawled, you should have an XML sitemap uploaded to Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) to give Google the roadmap for all of your new content. What getting crawled means is that Google is looking at the page. Depending on whether or not Google thinks the content is “New” or otherwise has something to “give to the Internet,” it may schedule to be indexed which means it has the possibility of ranking. What is the Difference Between Crawling and Indexing? Many terms are continually thrown around in the SEO world, many of which seem to be synonymous. Crawling and Indexing are a perfect example of two words that are used incorrectly. Whether or not the writer understands the difference in meaning, many SEO articles lead readers to believe the two words mean the same thing—but they most definitely do not. So, exactly what is the difference between crawling and indexing? Before we get into the difference between crawling and indexing, we must first explain what it means to have your site/page indexed. In no way does having your page crawled mean that it has been indexed and even has a chance to be found in a Google search. What Does Being Indexed Mean? Having your page Indexed by Google is the next step after it gets crawled. As stated, it does not mean that every site that gets crawled get indexed, but every site indexed had to be crawled. If Google deems your new page worthy, then Google will index it. After your page is indexed, Google then comes up with how your page should be found in their search. At this point, Google decides which keywords and what ranking in each keyword search your page will land. This is done by a variety of factors that ultimately make up the entire business of SEO. Also, any links on the indexed page is now scheduled for crawling by the Google Bot. It’s not only those links that get crawled; it is said that the Google bot will search up to five sites back. That means if a page is linked to a page, which linked to a page, which linked to a page which linked to your page (which just got indexed), then all of them will be crawled. This process is the basis of why external links that come to your site are so important. The higher the quality of the page that ultimately links to you, the better you will rank in the all-powerful Google Search. This is what many SEO companies charge big money for—creating (or allowing the creation of) many links that will come to your site from high-quality web sites using keywords you want to be found by. It’s not the ONLY thing that an SEO Company might do, but it’s almost guaranteed to be on the list. How Can I Tell What Google has Indexed? Although you NEED your site to be crawled, you WANT it to get indexed. There are several ways to determine what Google has indexed on your site. One is to simply go to Google.com and click on Settings at the bottom right then choose Advanced Search. From there, scroll down to “site or domain” put in your website and hit Search. This will show you everything that Google has indexed. It should include pages, posts, and photos and possibly other such items as feeds. The preferred way to see exactly what Google has indexed (because you have some control over fixing it) is to use Google Search Console (previously named Google Webmaster Tools). We aren’t covering how to set up Google Search Console in this article, but if you have a website, it NEEDS to be done. Google Search Console lets you upload an XML Sitemap, which lets you tell Google what you would LIKE for them to index and how often they should check back for changes. Google Search Console also provides a ton of valuable information on your website and is really the only two-way communication with Google that exists. It is always a good idea to run a quick, free SEO report on your website also. The best, automated SEO audits will provide information on your robots.txt file which is a very important file that lets search engines and crawlers know if they CAN crawl your website. Although some of the free SEO reports you will find across the web may be nothing more than a lead generation tool, One Click SEO offers (what we consider to be) the Best SEO Audit Tool with the promise that no one will harras you. How Does Google Decide What to Index? This is the real question everyone should be asking. At the end of the day, Google will index new, fresh content that Google believes will improve the user experience of THEIR clients—the people who go to Google and search for something. They are very picky about trying to provide the most relevant websites for a specific search term. If you’re copying pages or are using copy that’s otherwise already in their index, then there’s no need to index yours. You may have heard the term “Duplicate Content” thrown around in SEO articles. Duplicate content is a point of contention for many SEO gurus, but I say that at best, it confuses Google on which page to rank, and at worst, you get penalized. At the end of the day, stay away from duplicate content. But I digress. If what you wrote is BETTER or provides more information or if Google otherwise believes that showing your page as opposed to the other pages will give their clients a better experience, they will index and rank your site. This is why providing fresh, new SEO-rich blog content is so important. The more quality pages indexed with internal links to other pages within your site, the better for SEO. YAY! Now I Understand SEO! Not Quite! We are just scratching the surface of what Google likes or how to effectively leverage SEO. Depending on your type of business, there are different ways to have your company found in a Google search. For instance, if you are a bricks-and-mortar type of business with a storefront, you’ll want to focus on Local SEO. Local SEO focuses on searches that include a city or location. For instance, if you wanted to find an SEO Service in New Orleans, you’d Google New Orleans SEO. That type of search will provide you with local results for a Search Engine Optimization Company. If you’re a dry cleaner, you know this type of searching is important to you, but if you provide online training, then your geographical location isn’t as important. If you dig on this article, then sign up to get other cool stuff like this directly in your inbox! Just look for the red box at the bottom-left of the page. If you’re familiar with RSS feeds, you can get our last 10 articles HERE.
February 14th of each year is 情人节 (Valentine’s Day). It is a traditional festival in Western countries. Young people in China also like this festival very much. This is a celebration of love and romance traditionally expressed with flowers and chocolates. The couple in love give each other gifts on this day to express their affection for each other. In China, people take the traditional Double Seventh Festival as Chinese Valentine`s Day. This festival draws back to the Han dynasty, but the traditional celebration has nothing to do with activities such as dating. It was borne of the legend of the cowherd牛郎(niú láng) and the weaver girl 织女(zhīnǚ), and how their love was forbidden, so they were banished to opposite sides of The Silver River. However, once a year, on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, a flock of magpies would form a bridge to reunite th two. This gave the meaning of Chinese Valentine` Day to this festival. Traditionally, Chinese people also take the Lantern Festival (元宵节 yuánxiāojié) as Chinese Valentine`s Day. It is the first night of the year in which the moon is full and hanging high. This is a great chance for young people to go out and date while enjoying the lanterns on the streets. Here are some words and expressions about Valentine`s Day and love in Chinese. The words and stuff about the western Valentine`s Day: \|情人节\|\|qíngrén jié\|\|Valentine’s Day\| \|烛光晚餐\|\|zhúguāng wǎncān\|\|candlelight dinner\| \|我爱你\|\|wǒ ài nǐ\|\|I love you\| \|你是唯一\|\|nǐ shì wéiyī\|\|You’re the only one.\| \|恋人/情人\|\|Liànrén / qíngrén\|\|Lovers\| \|谈恋爱\|\|tán liàn’ài\|\|Fall in love\| The words about the Chinese Valentine`s Day: \|七夕节\|\|Qīxì jié\|\|The Qixi Festival\| \|织女\|\|zhī nǚ\|\|Weaver girl\| \|鹊桥\|\|quèqiáo\|\|The bridge of magpies, which the Weaver girl crosses to meet the Cowherd on the 7th of the Seventh lunar month.\| \|乞巧\|\|qǐqiǎo\|\|The legend says that women pray for cleverness every seventh evening of the seventh lunar month.\| \|元宵节\|\|Yuánxiāo jié\|\|The Lantern Festival\|
Killer whales sleep differently. If they are sleeping with their pod, they make a circle and their breathing at the same time and speed. If they are sleeping alone, they go nearer to the shore.The dorsal fin, their blowhole and part of their head will be out of the water. How do killer whales sleep How do sharks sense? Sharks have the strongest sense of smell. Sharks use their nose only for smelling and not for breathing. Some sharks can smell from 50 meters away. What do killer whales eat? They eat turtles, seals, blue whales, fish, squid, sharks, sea lions and sea birds How do sharks hear? Sharks have an inner ear so they hear low pitched sounds in the water. How do killer whales find shelter? Killer whales are animals that don't need any shelter so they don't mind about finding any. What food do sharks eat? All sharks are carnivores so they eat meat like crabs, squids, other fishes and lobsters. What sound to do killer whales make when they are talking to another? Killer whales communicate to each other by making a clicking sound. They usually make the clicking sound when they are hunting for prey. How do shark see (vision)? Most sharks have excellent vision in low light
If you want the full health benefits of broccoli, bypass the freezer aisle, as new research suggests that the frozen variety lacks the cancer-fighting properties the vegetable is known for. While busy families often reach for bags of frozen broccoli for the convenience factor, a team of U.S. scientists has found that blanching or cooking the vegetable at high heat (part of the flash-freezing process) zapped the broccoli of myrosinase, a key enzyme needed to produce sulforaphane, the powerful cancer-preventive compound. Sulforaphane is formed when fresh broccoli is chopped or chewed, a process that puts glucoraphanin and myrosinase into contact with one another. After conducting a series of experiments, however, scientists from the University of Illinois noted that blanching the vegetables at a slightly lower temperature than the current industry standard could help preserve most of the enzyme myrosinase without compromising food safety and quality. Instead of 86C, scientists recommend heating the broccoli at 76C. But not all is lost when it comes to frozen broccoli. The cancer-fighting compound can be unlocked in both its frozen and cooked state when paired with other foods that contain myrosinase. For example, team frozen broccoli with raw radishes, cabbage, arugula, watercress, horseradish, spicy mustard or wasabi to give the bioactive compounds a kickstart, scientists say. As little as three to five servings of broccoli a week has been shown to have a cancer-protective benefit. The full study was published in the Journal of Food Science and can be found here. Labels: Health Tips, New Research, Nutrition
Distance Runner’s Guide to Track: The 4×100 Relay Today we move ahead to the intricate choreography of track and field, the 4 x 100 meter relay. Four people, one lap around the track, with a baton that has to be exchanged inside a 20-meter long zone. You would think this race is all about having the fastest people, since no one is going to get tired in their 100-meter leg, and that is somewhat true. But 15% of the race is inside the exchange zone, and while you can’t totally make up for being slow by having good exchanges, you can certainly ruin being fast with bad exchanges. A sprinter can go more than half-a-second faster from 20m to 120m than they can from 0 to 100 meters, and this is the focus of everything in the 4×100. There is a 10-meter acceleration zone before the start of the exchange zone. (On a track, the exchange zone is usually marked by two yellow triangles whose tips point toward the middle of the zone. The acceleration zone is marked by a smaller triangle that points toward the exchange zone.) The runner who will be receiving the baton can start running as early as the beginning of the acceleration zone, as long they don’t actually receive the baton before entering the exchange zone. That means a runner could have as much as 20 meters to accelerate before getting the baton if they take it in the middle of the exchange zone, or almost 30 meters’ acceleration if they take the baton at the very end of the zone. The goal in the 4×1 is to have the exchange take place without the baton slowing down. This is usually not quite possible, since a fast sprinter will not be up to full speed even after 30 meters, but you can come very close if the outgoing runner times their start precisely. To do that, teams do a lot of practice to figure out exactly how much of a head-start they need to give the outgoing runner so the incoming runner just barely catches up inside the exchange zone. If you watch teams lining up for the 4×1, you will see runners for every leg other than the leadoff counting off steps and putting down marks on the track to help them get the timing right. If a team has determined its marks correctly, a bad exchange (with the possible exception of a dropped baton) is almost always the fault of the outgoing runner. Very often people get anxious and start too soon, especially if another team is passing them before their own runner arrives. This means getting disqualified (“DQ’d”) for running out of the zone before exchanging the baton, or slowing way down to allow the incoming runner to catch up. Starting too late is not quite as bad – usually the incoming runner can slow down a little to adjust – as long as the outgoing runner knows not to put their hand back for the baton before they get into the exchange zone. A very common type of bad exchange occurs when the timing was actually pretty good, but the outgoing runner panics and slows down to get the baton. The legs in a 4×1 are quite different. The leadoff runner needs to be good at starting from blocks and running the turn. Teams usually put their fastest runner last – to finish strong – or second, because by adjusting the exchanges you can have a second or third runner go up to 15 meters extra. Running the turn is an extra skill that people look for in a third runner – not as big a factor on the first, where the runners are not up to full speed for half the leg, and where being a good starter is a higher priority. The race is run in lanes all the way around the track, so the team in Lane 8 cannot see any of the other runners early in the race. You can tell who is leading usually by watching who hands off first, since the exchange zones are at the same relative position in every lane. Like all sprint races, the top teams are usually placed in the center lanes (4 & 5 on an 8 lane track.) Sometimes teams may put their best people on the first legs to see if they can cause the competition to panic, and either break down in their sprinting form or actually have a bad exchange. As you might expect while trying to do something very precise at a very high speed, mistakes are fairly common in the 4×100. At big meets you will always see DQ’s or teams that drop the baton and don’t finish. You would think this is result of high school inexperience, but unfortunately the results of the United States at the Olympics and World Championships show this is not the case. Since there is no steeplechase in high school, the 4×100 is your best bet if you are watching to see something go wrong. For a high school boys team, under 42 seconds is really good, and under 44 is respectable. For girls anything under 50 has a chance to make it to state, and under 52 is not too bad.
The Sun is entering the most intense part of its 11-year cycle, which means we can expect much more activity from our star. Activity from the Sun can come in various ways, and it's very important that researchers keep a close watch on our star for any dangerous charged particles heading our way. On October 10, researchers observed an M-class solar flare that caused the eruption of a coronal magnetic ejection (CME) that's headed towards Earth. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) researchers have forecasted the arrival of the CME for October 11. According to Spaceweather.com and SpaceWeatherNews.com, the CME that is on its way to Earth is expected to spark G1 to G2-class geomagnetic storms. Additionally, reports indicate that if a moderately strong G2-storm happens, residents in the United States may see auroras as far south as a line connecting New York to Oregon. It should be noted that this CME has an extremely low chance of affecting electricity grids on a global scale. On top of that, this is CME is classified as a "halo CME" as CMEs heading directly for Earth cause a 360-degree halo around the Sun.
Year 4 Direct Speech or Indirect Speech Teacher Specific Information This Year 4 GPS Direct Speech or Indirect Speech activity checks pupils’ understanding of sentences using direct and indirect speech. Children will identify whether a sentence uses direct or indirect speech, select words that should be included within the inverted commas for direct speech, identify if a speech bubble has been correctly converted into a sentence and convert between indirect speech and direct speech using the words and punctuation provided. This activity is linked to the Classroom Secrets Year 4 GPS scheme of work. Questions in this activity are based on the content in Spring Block 2 Steps 3 on the Classroom Secrets website, where you can find more resources. National Curriculum Objectives: English Year 4: (4G5.7) Using and punctuating direct speech English Year 4: (4G5.7) Use of inverted commas and other punctuation to indicate direct speech [for example, a comma after the reporting clause; end punctuation within inverted commas: The conductor shouted, “Sit down!”]
As in the mind, so in the body as recent medical research at University of North Carolina found that both blood pressure and levels of Cortisol, the hormone produced when we’re under stress, were significantly lowered (particularly in women) when subjects hugged their partners for at least twenty seconds. Another study that took place in 2000 showed that hugging babies while they were given blood tests made them cry less and kept their heart rates steadier. Other studies suggest a strong link between increased hugs and lower risk of heart disease. In addition to the clear health benefits, hugging also provides a window into the health of your relationship and offers an easy way to improve it. Hugging Until Relaxed is a therapeutic technique that encourages partners to hold each other while in a standing hug. Ultimately, both partners find stability and comfort in the embrace by achieving equilibrium of balance and closeness while holding each other. This technique, introduced by David Schnarch in Passionate Marriage, allows both partners to open up to a deeply intimate space where both are held and fully relaxed. This technique generally translates into better overall communication and more passionate intimacy. Opening up to being held is a powerful metaphor. A relaxed and full embrace allows us to feel and connect bodies in a way that literally couples us.
Mindwalker project: Brain-controlled robotic exoskeleton for disabled patients It is heartening when technology comes in handy for people who have been disabled due to paralysis due to spinal cord injury, giving them a new lease of life. For example the Indego exoskeleton which helps stroke patients walk upright as opposed to spending the rest of their lives in a wheelchair. Exoskeletons have also been used for other applications like going into dangerous territory which is affected with nuclear radiation. But now there is a mind-controlled robotic exoskeleton coordinated by Space Applications Services NV which uses complex technology to bypass the spinal cord and rerouting the brain signals to the exoskeleton, in a way hacking the brain signals to the robotic exoskeleton and help the paralyzed patients get back on their feet. This project called Mindwalker is funded EUR 2.75 million by the European Commission and aims at hacking the brain signals to control advanced orthosis and other medical conditions where the patient cannot walk. # Mindwalker specifications • This robotic exoskeleton can bear a weight of 100 kg adult and is capable of adjusting to user’s specific instability like the torso movement while walking or when being pushed accidentally by someone on the road. • Unlike other exoskeletons, Mindwalker robotic exoskeleton is light-weight with a weight of 30 kg (without batteries) and the final version will be self-powered and designed precisely to minimize energy consumption. • Energy efficiency is achieved by the use of springs fitted inside the joints of exoskeleton which absorbs the energy dissipated during walking. # Technology behind Mindwalker robotic exoskeleton To control the exoskeleton two methods are used, one that used steady-state visually evoked potential which reads the flickering visual stimuli to evoke correlated EEG signals for initiating commands like walking faster or slower; while the other one uses EMG signals generated by the user’s shoulders and the natural arm-leg coordination to control the exoskeleton’s commands. Yet there is another approach which uses the EEG Theta cortical signals produced in the brain itself, but as this was a very complex the Mindwalker team dropped it. # Exoskeleton’s advanced mind-control aesthetics The Brain controlled interface (BCI) and brain/neuronal computer interaction (BNCI system) is the key to this exoskeleton that converts electroencephalography (EEG) signals from the brain or electromyography (EMG) signals from shoulder muscles, into electronic commands which in the end control the Mindwalker exoskeleton. The Laboratory of Neurophysiology and Movement Biomechanics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) focused on these signals while the other team, Foundation Santa Lucia in Italy came up with the methods to work around EMG signals that are based on neural and biomechanical ocillators. # How Mindwalker robotic exoskeleton is controlled by the user? • Limit-cycle walking advanced control strategy is used to control and predict the movement of user during walking which avoids loss of balance and walking direction; thereby giving the user more stability without any worries of falling. • The user learns to control the Mindwalker exoskeleton by training on a virtual-reality program developed by Space Application Services which provides the user with an immersive environment to learn to walk with this robotic system. # When will Mindwalker robotic exoskeleton make it to the real world situation? Mindwalker team is looking to test the robotic exoskeleton with able-bodied trial users by the end of this year and thereafter the system will be transferred to the Foundation Santa Lucia for clinical tests. Then the system will be ready to be available for use. # Other applications of this robotic exoskeleton • Could be viably used for rehabilitation of stroke victims • Develop exoskeletons for elderly people for mobility support • Train astronauts to rebuild muscle mass after spending time in zero-gravity environments
Trypanosomiasis (trih-pan-o-so-MY-uh-sis) is a disease found in Africa and the American continents that is caused by infection with a parasite. Forms of the disease may persist for many years and have several phases, with symptoms that can vary from one stage to the next. for searching the Internet and other reference sources What Is Trypanosomiasis? Trypanosomiasis refers to three types of infections caused by protozoa * and spread to humans through insect bites. There are two kinds of African trypanosomiasis, East African and West African. Both of these varieties also are known as sleeping sickness. The disease can affect people living on the African continent south of the Sahara Desert. American trypanosomiasis also is called Chagas (SHAH-gus) disease. It occurs only on the American continents, from Mexico to Argentina. What Causes Trypanosomiasis? The bite of an infected tsetse (SET-see) fly usually transmits the organisms that cause the African forms of trypanosomiasis. These flies live in the countryside in Africa, especially in bushes and thick vegetation near rivers and lakes. Tsetse flies infected with the protozoan Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense (trih-pan-o-SO-mah BRU-see-eye ro-dee-see-EN-see) spread East African trypanosomiasis, the most severe form of the disease, to humans. The West African variety comes from a fly infected with Trypanosoma brucei gambiense (trih-pan-o-SO-mah BRU-see-eye gam-be-EN-see). * protozoa (pro-tuh-ZOH-uh) are single-celled microorganisms (tiny organisms), some of which are capable of causing disease in humans. * feces (FEE-seez) is the excreted waste from the gastrointestinal tract. Reduviid (rih-DO-vee-id) bugs (also called assassin, cone-nose, or kissing bugs) carry the Trypanosoma cruzi (trih-pan-o-SO-mah KROO-zee) protozoa that cause the American variety of trypanosomiasis, or Chagas disease, named for the Brazilian doctor who discovered it. These bugs hide during the day in the cracks in mud and adobe homes. At night they crawl across sleeping people and bite them, usually on the face but sometimes on the arms, legs, or trunk. They also leave behind their feces * , which contain the protozoa. Without knowing it, people can rub How Common Is Trypanosomiasis? Trypanosomiasis can infect people of every age and race, though it is uncommon in the United States. Since the late 1960s, fewer than 30 cases have been reported among U.S. citizens traveling to areas where the infection is found. In other parts of the world, however, the disease affects thousands of people. The World Health Organization estimates that as many as 500,000 people could have African trypanosomiasis, but because of poor monitoring most of these cases are not reported. Between 16 million and 18 million people in the Americas currently have Chagas disease. Approximately 50,000 may die from the disease each year. Is Trypanosomiasis Contagious? People cannot catch any form of trypanosomiasis in the same way that they catch a cold or the flu from other people. Only the tsetse fly spreads the African varieties, and the reduviid bug spreads Chagas disease. Rarely, a mother infected with the West African variety of trypanosomiasis or with Chagas disease can pass the illness to her unborn child. People who receive a transfusion * of blood or an organ transplant from an infected person also may contract the disease; this form of transmission tends to happen more often with Chagas disease than with the African types. What Are the Symptoms of the Disease? People who contract the African varieties of trypanosomiasis may start sleeping more, though this usually does not happen until the later stages of the disease. Sleeping sickness may start with the appearance of a sore called a chancre (SHANG-ker) at the spot where the person received the tsetse fly bite. Later symptoms include fever, extreme tiredness, severe headaches, rashes, itching, joint pain, and swelling of the hands and feet. The lymph nodes * on the back of the neck may become swollen as well. These signs typically appear 2 to 4 weeks after infection with East African trypanosomiasis. * transfusion (trans-FYOO-zhun) is a procedure in which blood or certain parts of blood, such as specific cells, is given to a person who needs it because of illness or blood loss. * lymph (LIMF) nodes are small, bean-shaped masses of tissue that contain immune system cells that fight harmful microorganisms. Lymph nodes may swell during infections. * blood-brain barrier is a biological shield in the body that helps prevent germs or other potentially harmful materials in the blood from entering the brain and spinal cord. * seizures (SEE-zhurs) are sudden bursts of disorganized electrical activity that interrupt the normal functioning of the brain, often leading to uncontrolled movements in the body and sometimes a temporary change in consciousness, * chronic (KRAH-nik) means continuing for a long period of time. * antibodies (AN-tih-bah-deez) are protein molecules produced by the body's immune system to help fight specific infections caused by microorganisms, such as bacteria and viruses. Other symptoms can follow quickly, as the protozoa cross the blood-brain barrier * and start affecting a patient's mental functions. The later stages of sleeping sickness may bring mental confusion, changes in personality, problems with walking and talking, weight loss, and seizures * . The spleen and liver may become enlarged. Sleeping sickness gets its name from the later part of the disease, when the sick person has nighttime insomnia (in-SOM-nee-uh, an inability to sleep) but sleeps for long periods during the day. If the person does not receive treatment, the heart muscles may become inflamed or weakened, causing death from heart failure. The early symptoms in West African trypanosomiasis are similar but may take longer to appear. Months or years may pass before an infected person becomes sick, and the disease develops more slowly, though it still can cause death if it is left untreated. The gap between infection and the start of symptoms can make this form of sleeping sickness difficult to diagnose. The first sign of Chagas disease may show up a few hours after infection, when a raised red spot called a chagoma (chuh-GO-mah) appears at the site of the insect bite. Most people have no other symptoms during the early, or acute, phase of the disease, which begins a few weeks later. People who experience symptoms may have fevers, rashes, extreme tiredness, vomiting, loss of appetite, or swollen lymph nodes. The side of the face where the infected feces were rubbed into an eye or a bug bite may swell. In most people these symptoms usually disappear within 4 to 8 weeks without causing problems, but infants can die in this early stage from brain swelling. About 10 to 20 years after this first phase, approximately one-third of infected people can show symptoms of the chronic * phase of Chagas disease. They may become constipated and experience trouble swallowing. The heart may become enlarged, and patients may have altered heart rhythms or heart failure leading to death. How Do Doctors Diagnose Trypanosomiasis? Because all types of trypanosomiasis are rare in the United States, it is important for people who have any symptoms of the disease to let their doctor know right away if they have been traveling in areas where the disease is common. To diagnose sleeping sickness or Chagas disease, a doctor will order blood tests to look for protozoa or antibodies * to the organism. In cases where the doctor suspects sleeping sickness, a sample drawn from fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord or tissue from swollen lymph nodes may be examined for evidence of the disease. If a patient has a suspicious-looking skin lesion * , a biopsy * will be performed to test for Trypanosoma cruzi protozoa. Can Trypanosomiasis Be Treated Successfully? There are medications available to treat all types of the disease. Doctors recommend that people with trypanosomiasis receive treatment as soon as possible. Treatment is given in a hospital. After leaving the hospital, patients typically are watched closely by a doctor for at least 2 years, to see whether they show any signs that they still have the infection. The bite of an insect can transmit bacteria, protozoa, or even worms into a person's bloodstream, leading to a variety of illnesses. Trypanosomiasis is just one example of a tropical insect-borne disease. Here are a few others, along with the insects that spread them: \|■ Yellow fever\|\|mosquitoes\| or river blindness Why are these diseases common to the tropics? It is because the hot and often rainy climate makes the tropics an ideal breeding ground for insects. Greenpeace, among other organizations dedicated to protecting the environment, has warned that global warming could create new breeding grounds for insects throughout the world. At the same time, rising temperatures could raise insect reproductive rates, increasing their numbers. As the climate in the United States and Europe becomes more "tropical," diseases such as yellow fever and malaria may become more common, bringing the tropics into our own backyards. * lesion (LEE-zhun) is a general term referring to a sore or a damaged or irregular area of tissue. * biopsy (BI-op-see) is a test in which a small sample of skin or other body tissue is removed and examined for signs of disease. What Happens to People with Trypanosomiasis? East African sleeping sickness can move through the body quickly, progressing in just weeks or months to the most serious phase of illness. West African sleeping sickness takes longer to develop. People may not Can Trypanosomiasis Be Prevented? There is no vaccine or medication that can prevent any form of the disease, so it is wise for people who travel in areas where the disease is common to take precautions. In Africa this includes wearing clothes of thick material, with long sleeves and long pants. Neutral colors, such as tan, are best because tsetse flies are attracted to dark and bright colors. Doctors recommend that travelers to Africa sleep under netting and avoid riding in the backs of open trucks, because dust from moving vehicles attracts the flies. It is also advisable to not walk through brush. In areas where Chagas disease is found, it is a good idea for people to avoid sleeping in mud, adobe, or thatch houses; to sleep under netting; and to use insect repellent. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1600 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30333. The CDC publishes fact sheets on all three types of trypanosomiasis at its website. World Health Organization (WHO), Avenue Appia 20, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland. WHO publishes information on sleeping sickness and Chagas disease at its website.
The growth of online education has brought more than just wider access to knowledge. It is also allowing colleges and universities an opportunity to experiment with completely new ways to deliver learning to their students. Experimentation of this kind is what led Daphne Koller, a professor at California’s Stanford University, to leave and co-found the online education platform Coursera. And that is the same reason that drives Joshua Kim, the director of learning and technology for Dartmouth’s Master of Healthcare Delivery Science Program. Kim is excited about bringing the internet into the equation not only because it widens the audience for Dartmouth’s offerings, but also because it has the potential to grow its faculty. When courses aren’t tied to a physical location, attracting top teaching talent – even talent outside the local geographical area – becomes easier. That doesn’t mean that by throwing its virtual doors open wide, the school will abandon the close, personal relationship with its students that has set Dartmouth apart all these years. Kim is very aware of this potential issue, and keeps it in mind as he debates whether entering the global education movement will mean betraying the Dartmouth’s “keep education personal” ethos. The College is approaching the trend cautiously, according to classics professor Roger Ulrich, a member of a newly formed committee organized by the Provost’s Office to examine opportunities for online learning at Dartmouth. The College considers itself a “high-touch” learning environment, and values student-faculty interaction, Ulrich said. Administrators aim to use technology to enhance classroom experiences. Hanlon said that information technology has the potential to improve the College’s undergraduate offerings. Hanlon doesn’t believe that with online education, a choice of one or the other must be made. If done well, offering students an option of internet-enhanced courses could improve the overall academic experience rather than diminish it. For example, introducing an online component could completely redefine the purpose of a traditional lecture. Material could be covered mostly independently via video and other digital tools and class time could be used for analysis, discussion and interactive activities to strengthen understanding. Dartmouth’s Master of Health Care Delivery Science program already uses this format. Students spend six weeks out of the 18 month-long course on campus and participate in a combination of real-time conversations and discussion board-based activities during the rest of the program, according to Kim. This blended course allows students, most of whom are full-time professionals, to continue working while they are enrolled. At the undergraduate level, professors can use blended learning to increase their classroom efficiency by posting videos of basic material online and spending time in the classroom interacting with students, Kim said. This kind of approach has additional benefits. By freeing the professor from moving at the pace of the slowest student in their class and by providing a place where everyone can bone up on the basics, the amount of material that can be covered in one course can jump delivering more educational bang for the tuition buck.
Trevor Wrayton for VDOT Public Affairs (http://www.flickr.com/photos/vadot/4707076118/) State Senator Yvonne Miller speaks at an event in 2010. Miller passed away this week at the age of 78. Lawmakers and residents in Virginia are mourning the death of State Senator Yvonne Miller, the first African-American woman elected to the state legislature. Miller became the first black woman to win a seat in Virginia House of Delegates in 1983, and then broke the combined gender and color barrier again four years later by winning a seat in the state Senate. Miller was known as an outspoken advocate for Virginia's poor and minority residents. You could count on Miller always to speak truth to power, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said in a statement. She was 77.
The cachexia anorexia syndrome is a complex metabolic syndrome associated with cancer and some other palliative conditions. Cachexia has been defined as involuntary weight loss involving both fat and muscle, due to shifts in metabolism caused by tumour by-products and cytokines. Although the definition of the syndrome varies, symptoms that are usually identified as part of the cachexia anorexia syndrome include weight loss, anorexia, early satiety, fatigue, weakness, anaemia, inflammation and low albumin. [2-3] Nutritional assessment tools that include markers of inflammation are being investigated. Their role in clinical practice may be to identify patients earlier in the palliative trajectory, and be incorporated into clinical practice guidelines about management of the syndrome. What is known The detailed neurophysiology of appetite / anorexia is not well understood in humans. It may be different from the mechanism of cachexia / weight loss. The metabolic profile of cancer cachexia is not the same as that of starvation, which is defined as secondary cachexia. Cancer cachexia involves inflammation, hypermetabolism, neuro-hormonal changes, and the production of proteolytic and lipolytic factors. [2-3] Appetite loss occurs in over half of all palliative care patients, and weight loss becomes more common in the last weeks and months of life. Loss of weight and loss of appetite do not always occur together. Some patients have cachexia despite maintaining a relatively normal appetite and nutritional intake. Loss of weight and appetite due to cancer progression have prognostic relevance for symptom burden, performance state, survival, and the ability to tolerate palliative chemotherapy. Cachexia may also be a prognostic factor in non-malignant conditions. What it means in practice - Appetite is a subjective symptom. Simple assessment tools are available, such as the Symptom Assessment Scale, which is part of the PCOC dataset. - A simple and valid nutrition assessment tool used in research and practice is the Patient Generated Subjective Global Assessment, which has been used in cancer cachexia and is recommended in evidence based practice guidelines for nutritional management of cancer cachexia. - Eating and food have great social, cultural and psychological significance for patients and their families, and issues relating to nutritional support are often socially and ethically complex. [10-12] - If an underlying malignancy can be effectively treated, this is likely to reverse the cachexia anorexia syndrome. - In patients who have advanced dementia, loss of appetite and decreasing oral intake may be a marker of the transition to end-stage disease, although contributing factors should be sought and addressed as appropriate. Families of patients with end-stage dementia may require increased support as they deal with this change. Artificial nutrition (tube feeding) has not been shown to improve life expectancy in patients with end-stage dementia. Finding out more Link to prescribing information Free full text overview article Related CareSearch pages - Del Fabbro E, Dalal S, Bruera E. Symptom control in palliative care--Part II: cachexia/anorexia and fatigue. J Palliat Med. 2006 Apr;9(2):409-21. - Dahele M, Fearon KC. Research methodology: cancer cachexia syndrome. Palliat Med. 2004 Jul;18(5):409-17. - Blum D, Omlin A, Fearon K, Baracos V, Radbruch L, Kaasa S, Strasser F; European Palliative Care Research Collaborative. Evolving classification systems for cancer cachexia: ready for clinical practice? Support Care Cancer. 2010 Mar;18(3):273-9. - Walsh D, Mahmoud F, Barna B. Assessment of nutritional status and prognosis in advanced cancer: interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, and the prognostic and inflammatory nutritional index. Support Care Cancer, 2003 Jan;11(1):60-2. - Mirhosseini N, Fainsinger RL, Baracos V. Parenteral nutrition in advanced cancer: indications and clinical practice guidelines. J Palliat Med. 2005 Oct;8(5):914-8. - Davis MP, Dreicer R, Walsh D, Lagman R, LeGrand SB. Appetite and cancer-associated anorexia: a review. J Clin Oncol. 2004 Apr 15;22(8):1510-7. - Teunissen SC, Wesker W, Kruitwagen C, de Haes HC, Voest EE, de Graeff A. Symptom prevalence in patients with incurable cancer: a systematic review. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2007 Jul;34(1):94-104. - Coventry PA, Grande GE, Richards DA, Todd CJ. Prediction of appropriate timing of palliative care for older adults with non-malignant life-threatening disease: a systematic review. Age Ageing. 2005 May;34(3):218-27. - Bauer JD, Ash S, Davidson WL, Hill JM, Brown T, Isenring EA, Reeves M. Evidence based practice guidelines for the nutritional management of cancer cachexia. Nutr Diet. 2006 Sep;63(Suppl 2):S3-32. - Hughes N, Neal RD. Adults with terminal illness: a literature review of their needs and wishes for food. J Adv Nurs. 2000 Nov;32(5):1101-7. - Shragge JE, Wismer WV, Olson KL, Baracos VE. The management of anorexia by patients with advanced cancer: a critical review of the literature. Palliat Med. 2006 Sep;20(6):623-9. - Bryon E, Gastmans C, de Casterlé BD. Decision-making about artificial feeding in end-of-life care: literature review. J Adv Nurs. 2008 Jul;63(1):2-14. - Edith Cowan University. Guidelines for a palliative approach in residential aged care: enhanced version. Canberra; National Health & Medical Research Council & National Palliative Care Program:2006. - Sampson EL, Candy B, Jones L. Enteral tube feeding for older people with advanced dementia. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2009 Apr 15;(2):CD007209. Last updated 27 June 2011
You know those images of wine glasses that have glowing edges against a solid black background? The technique, called “dark field” imaging, is a popular studio approach for showing off the smooth curves of translucent or transparent objects. It is less commonly applied to opaque objects, though it does sometimes show up in unusual commercial shots. I first used dark field imaging in microscopy, examining the surface of metals for technical characterization. In this tiny world, dark field imaging lets you see surface textures that can otherwise be hidden using standard bright field, or direct lighting. Photographers can use the same idea to bring out texture or enhance detail. When combined with more traditional lighting, you can get some startling effects. The idea of dark field imaging is simply to use a large light behind the subject, but then block out a small portion of the light with a “dark field patch” between the subject and the light. The camera is then positioned such that the field of view is slightly smaller than the patch, so the background of the image is flat black and no light goes directly from the source to the lens. Light from your source will spill over the edges of your patch and “graze” the surface of your subject. By controlling the amount of spill, you can control how much light wraps around your subject. You can do this by changing the size of your light source, or more simply by repositioning the patch, thus changing the relationship between the sizes of the light and the patch. Check out the illustration if you’ve not tried this setup before. Dark Field Lighting Setup Dark Field Lighting vs. Traditional Lighting This grazing light (blue in the illustration) is what you can use to your advantage for bringing out textures, especially in otherwise flat (not necessarily smooth) surfaces. To get this specific effect, the area you photograph must be relatively flat in the field of view. Imagine a basketball: it’s round all over, but if you zoom in with a macro lens the surface can look flat compared to the raised textures from the little bumps. Check out the two images of a metal surface. The ‘A’ image is shot with a combination of dark field and soft front fill lighting. The ‘B’ image is shot only with dark field lighting. You can see details on the surface that are invisible in the more traditional lighting shot. These details are surface defects that are the same color as the surrounding metal, but have a slightly different height (tiny scratches and dings). You can also see the different highlight positions in the two shots. Nothing changed between the frames except turning off the front fill. In post processing, I reduced the saturation so the effect is more readily visible, but only minor sharpening and exposure control was used. Dark Field Variables As you can see in the illustration, there are a lot of variables to play with. The distance between the source and patch can affect the hard edges as well as the angle of light on the subject. Moving the subject back and forth, the angle of incidence changes slightly, giving you a variety of effects. For the metal image, I also had to rotate the surface so light would just barely skim across the top. Note the highlights are essentially blown out – these surfaces face the side-firing light more directly. Now check out the vacuum tube. It was shot in nearly the same setup as the metal box, but I had to adjust the aperture flags a bit to prevent spill into the lens, which would cause flare. This shot was a little more difficult to set up because I wanted the dark field light to show off the edges of the glass, while the coil and other elements were lit by a warm fill. This picture demonstrates another challenge with shooting glass: stray reflections. Since this particular glass is laying down, I had to be careful to cover up any reflective or light surfaces from above that I didn’t want to show up. The side baffles in the illustration are used for this purpose, as well as a top ‘cap’ on the table-top stage. Additionally, I dropped a strip of orange construction paper along camera right, just below the glass – there is a warm highlight along that lower edge of the subject. This provides some depth cues for the viewer. Post processing again was done simply by exposure control and a small amount of sharpening. You can see that I didn’t get the glass quite clean enough – this is a hazard of dark field imaging! This small toy dragon was given drama with the same lighting treatment. In this case, the trailing edges are cool and highlighted, while the front is glowing warmly. I moved the model further from the dark patch to reduce the edge lighting, which meant I had to make use of the aperture flags to control spill again. In the setup illustration, the offending stray light is shown along the green line, so the flag on camera left was brought inside the field of view, then cropped out. I also had to move the camera back a little and zoom in. Finally, this headset shows a combination of opaque and translucent surfaces. The metal frame has beautiful, hard highlights, while the plastic ear and mouth pieces almost glow, pulling the light further around than the contrasting opaque edges. This combination of opaque and translucent edges really shows off what you can do with dark field lighting, showing just enough detail that you can recognize the subject without giving it all away. Explore Dark Field Lighting Dark field lighting is a great way to build drama and moodiness, even in mundane subjects. But it can also give a lot of information about small details textures and edges. Combining these characteristics yields some fantastic creative results. The keys to vastly different looks lies in experimenting with the relationships of off-camera elements in your setup, as well as combining with other lighting techniques. Rotate your subject, look for unique angles. The headset and metal images are suspended from black cord and wire, for example. Pay careful attention to highlights, and add or take away gobo pieces to shape your surface reflections. But most of all, get in there and tinker! This post was written by Scott Valentine. Learn more at his website Lighting Symphony.
This design is associated with ISIS project. I've put my design version in ben-design instead of editing it here. We don't want our adventure game to be a parser game because parsers don't translate well to multiple languages. Better to create something with translatable text (this is detailed in Action section). Our adventure game is a multiple choice system with some hooks for some alternative interface styles. Our game will be entirely editable by populating various files using a simple editor The game will support primarily text with icons, but may include images, sounds, and possibly video or music as additional assets. The basic entities in the game system are: - Objects -- rooms, creatures, things - Verbs -- the fundamental verbs of the system; operations like move, pick up, fight, turn on, etc. - Actions -- these are sequences of verbs and objects that make up the choices given to the player Everything in the game has a basic object structure that underlies each specific object type - General object structure - Name of object - Basic description of object - Icon for object - Type of Object - Objects might have images, sounds, video, music attached to it (probably not every object -- maybe only rooms) - Objects may be flagged for display upon some specific triggers or they appear in a list that the user can choose from to trigger it Types of objects - Specific places in the gameworld - Specific objects in the gameworld - Specific living things in the gameworld Designers edit these object types with simple dialogs and can choose from pre-populated objects from a clip list Each object has a unique icon Simple hierarchical lists make it easy to identify rooms that hold things or creatures and to re-sort the lists of things for quick editing Verbs are the fundamental things that can happen in the game. They're at a smaller level of granularity than Actions. The set of verbs available to the player is fixed; programming an adventure game consists of grouping verbs together into actions. Actions are basically choices the player may take in the system. Actions are collections of verbs and the objects they operate on. Actions can also include conditionals to decide when they are available as options - Universal Actions are always available. Default UAs are: walk (only for rooms), look (any object), use (only for things) and talk (only for creatures which are verbose). Also, creatures have a receive method that can receive an object by a give action from another creature (maybe this can be the same of use action). That means, for example, every room will have a "walk" method that is callable by a creature. A thing can't talk or go to anywhere and you cannot use an item from your backpack with a room, except if these are assigned manually to them from developer. - Local Actions are tied to particular objects. For example, a local action tied to a room is only available if the player is in that room. A local action tied to an object is only available if the object is in the player's inventory. These actions can be extended (or use) universal actions, or implement a new operation. Details in python implementation: removed this temporarily Action scripts are simply a sequence of verbs (possibly including objects). They also have an optional conditional system that can be tested. Possible conditions include the presence of certain objects in the room or in the inventory. Conditions can be combined with AND and OR. If the condition evaluates to true, the action is displayed to the user as a choice. The plan is to allow these scripts to be composed simply with drag and drop. Note: I think that variables are just another object type, but we'll think about it some more. - Roberto: I think variables aren't objects as they are only stored data about the game and they can't call an action. The system will have several variables that the game can keep state over. These game and player variables can be tested for by an overall game-script (a simple overall conditional script) and when met invoke a game over occurance, room, etc. The variables I've thought of so far include: score, time, currency, life, ability points, offense, defense, user 1, user 2. These variables as simple as they are let us offer some rudimentary RPGness to the system that could have kids accumulating wealth, casting spells, fighting creatures, etc. I've tried to choose variables that are basic - we should allow the designer to create two unnamed variables. These can then be referred to in the scripts as well. The player can create conversations with characters. We will need a specific conversation design - I have one but need to refine it before posting it. (Should probably be a hierarchical tree with cross-references to allow for looping.) Editing should be based on putting things on a map with iconography and a click and edit framework with various dialogue boxes. A hierarchal chart along the side makes it easy to manage objects in the system as well. The camera being active is a good tool for recording pictures and video. Black & White mode should also get some attention. Being able to integrate artwork easily into the game is important. We will have to think about what we can do to allow people to create various collages in the engine as well as provide some artwork library for people to use but we can't recreate an entire in-game drawing program. Sounds could also chosen from a menu or recorded using the mic. Same with video. We should beware though of memory limits - perhaps limiting the overall size of such things to ensure small-enough game files. We need to figure out how all text edited into the system could ideally be easily edited including simple search and replace, bold, italics, etc. Perhaps simple <HTML> markup for simple stuff (then kids learn HTML?) or a wiki style markup? Would also be good for there to be an easy means to integrate a spell checker too. Roberto: why we don't integrate with sugar text editor (ABI word modified)?
With a simple set of rules and a few materials, these fun math games are totally awesome. Mixed Facts Fun Math Game Boards Students will play with a die and chips to work towards covering the game board. They work to answer the mixed math facts as they move around the board and cover the answer in the middle of the board. They keep on playing until all of the answers have been covered with the last student to cover as the winner. Isn’t this a great, fun way to keep their basic math skills sharp? \| Submit Your Tip \| - 14 Easy Multiplication Charts and Tips - Primary Games To Make Teaching Standards Easier - 3 Free Math Activities for Area, Perimeter, Volume Like what you've found? Get creative and free teacher articles - delivered to your inbox weekly. p.s. A bonus pack of 11 printable classroom posters are headed your way!
Bean leaf beetles (BLB) are showing up in early planted soybeans that were treated with only fungicide seed treatment. As the result of area wide use of insecticide seed treatments, this pest had much of a presence over the last decade. Thankfully, rescue treatments are still possible if threshold has been reached. BLB have a great predator response. They quickly drop off the plant and run into soils cracks to hide if they detect your presence. Try to create as little disturbance as possible when scouting and avoid casting shadows over the plants that you are trying to assess. I tend to try to look a few metres ahead to spot them before they spot me and hide. Scout random areas of the field, as they do tend to be more prevalent at the fields edge. For soybeans in the VC to V2 stage, calculate the average number of beetles per metre (or foot) of row and make note if plants are being clipped off. Soybeans in V3 and beyond, assess the percentage of defoliation that they are doing. Defoliation is often overestimated. When assessing defoliation damage, do your best to visually push all of the holes to one area of the leaf and determine what percentage of the leaf would be missing. Seedling stages (VC-V2): 16 adult beetles per 30 cm of row. If plants are clipped off at the stem, control is warranted. V3 and all vegetative stages prior to Bloom: 30% defoliation – See the defoliation chart below for soybean for further guidance. A number of foliar insecticides are available. Go to the Soybean Chapter of the Field Crop Protection Guide for a list of products. Avoid spraying pyrethroid products in the heat of the day to ensure their effectiveness.
Have you ever wished you could connect your students with students across the world? What about provide a once in a lifetime experience to your students without having to leave the classroom? Edmodo can do just that. Edmodo is a social networking site designed specifically for use in education that has teamed up with Polar Bears International for their most recent initiative. Together they are sending five people to the Tundra to hold three webcasts while on location with the polar bears. The team will stream videos of the polar bears, send PowerPoint presentations with data they’ve collected, and answer questions from the students in real time. The first webcast took place last week for over 1,700 classrooms in 40 different countries. “Using technology in the classroom isn’t just about having a video,” said Betsy Whalen, Edmodo’s vice president of community engagement. “It really does provide a window into the world.” Another example of how Edmodo can be used in the classroom is in a foreign language class. Whalen says two schools used Edmodo to connect a level-two Spanish class in Iowa with a level-one English class in Madrid. Not only did students get to practice their new language skills with native speakers, they also gained peer mentors and tutors while studying in another country. Have you used Edmodo in your classroom? Is there another tech tool you’ve used to provide a window into the world from your classroom? Please share in the comment box. “Polar bears visit the classroom with Edmodo’s digital technology (exclusive)” by Meghan Kelly. 15 November 2011. Media Beat. Accessed on 18 November 2011. http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/15/polar-bears-edmodo/
A physics engine is a program that simulates Newtonian object collisions and interactions in a mathematically and computationally simulated virtual environment. A physics engine is capable of simulating gravity, elasticity, and the conservation of momentum between colliding objects, but these features are not its core purpose in Second Life. At its most basic level the physics engine is used in Second Life to determine empty space from filled space. Without the physics engine, an avatar in the 3D environment would simply move straight through anything in its path, and would fall through the ground and fall forever if gravity were applied to their avatar. It is the physics engine that makes sure that the avatar walks up and down hills with the terrain, and that if there are stairways or walkways above the ground, the avatar can stand upon those structures with confidence of their solidity. Havok and alternate engine options Linden Lab initially chose to use the Havok1 engine to construct their first virtual environment. The Havok engine is a commercial product for which LL paid several hundred thousand dollars for the privilege to use in Second Life, and if at some point the simulator code were to become open source, Havok could not be freely included with the simulator. While other free and open source physics engine are now available, the Second Life has so far been so deeply tied to Havok that substitution of a different engine is currently not possible. With the recent work towards upgrading from Havok1 to Havok4, some work has been done to create an abstraction layer between the simulator engine and the physics engine, so that at some point it may be possible to use other physics engines with the simulator. In most computer games, speed of simulation is more important than accuracy of simulation. Typically most 3D objects in a game are represented by two separate meshes or shapes. One of these meshes is a highly complex and detailed shape which the player sees in the game, for example a vase with elegant curved and looping handles. However for purposes of speed a second highly simplified invisible mesh is used to represent the object to the physics engine. To the physics engine, the object may be processed as nothing more than a simple tall cylinder. It is therefore impossible to insert a rod or fire a projectile through the handle holes on the vase, because the physics engine does not know the handles exist and only processes the rough cylindrical shape. The simplified mesh used for physics processing is often referred to as the collision geometry. Second Life is somewhat unusual in this regard in that the actual shape of the primitive is also usually its collision geometry, and that when multiple primitives are linked together, they combine to form a very complex collision geometry. This means that Second Life geometry is highly precise compared to most games, but the high precision comes at a cost of comparatively slow collision processing. Through prim torture it is possible to create complex overlapping collision geometries which collide with themselves or to create inverted geometries. Such objects have been used in the past with Havok1 for griefing purposes to cause intentional simulator slowdowns, but the geometry processing has been revised under Havok4 so as to no longer have these problems. As part of the new Havok4 engine, spheres now use a mathematically precise spherical geometry that is faster to calculate than the complex multifaceted surface of a rough sphere. This both increases the engine speed, and also helps to eliminate past annoyances with slow-moving spheres that stop rolling because they are insufficiently smooth. In the real world, physics is always active. There is a constant Brownian motion jitter to all particles in our universe as the forces push back and forth against each other. For a game physics engine, such constant active precision is unnecessary and a waste of the limited CPU power. In Second Life, if an object is resting on the floor and the object does not move beyond a certain minimal distance in about two seconds, then the physics calculations are disabled for the object and it becomes frozen in place. It remains frozen until a collision occurs with some other actively physical object, and that reactivates physics processing for the object. This freezing of stable unmoving objects allows the physics engine to conserve processing power and increase the framerate of other objects currently in motion, but can lead to unusual problems such as a huge slow pendulum freezing in place on the upswing, as it slows down and starts to reverse direction. Under Havok1, this conservation was so extreme that if a physical object was placed on top of another, and the physical object stopped moving, the object underneath could be removed without the physical object "waking up". This results in odd situations where physics objects would become permanently fixed in midair until directly pushed or touched. Havok4 now handles this situation better, so that removing the supporting object wakes up the physical object and it correctly falls to the ground. Math precision and simulation speed The primary limit of physics engine realism is the precision of the numbers representing the position of an object and the forces acting on that object. When the precision is too low, errors can creep into the calculations due to rounding, causing an object to overshoot or undershoot the correct position. These errors are compounded in situations where two free-moving objects are fitted together with a precision that is greater than what the physics engine can calculate. This can lead to an unnatural buildup energy in the object due to the rounding errors, that begins to violently shake and eventually blow the objects apart. Any type of free-moving compound physics object can demonstrate this problem, but it is especially prone to affecting chain links under high tension, and wheeled objects with actively physical bearing surfaces. Higher precision reduces the positional/force errors, but at the cost of greater CPU power needed for the calculations. Framerate vs Moving-Object Speed Another unusual aspect of physics precision involves the framerate, or the number of moments in time per second when physics is calculated. Each frame is treated as separate from all other frames, and the space between frames is not calculated. A low framerate and a small fast-moving object leads to a situation where the object does not move smoothly through space but in fact seems to teleport from one point in space to the next point in space as each frame is calculated. At sufficiently high speeds a projectile will miss a target, if the target is small enough to fit in the gap between the calculated frames of the fast moving projectile. In Second Life this problem is resolved by making all projectiles as if they were arrows; a long invisible shaft trails behind the bullet so that as the bullet teleports forward, the shaft is long enough to cover the gap between successive teleports of the bullet and collide with any object that might fit between the calculated frames. - Limitations of 3D Physics Engines: Unintended Explosion Google Video demonstration of calculation errors, in a Second Life island sandbox.
Need the answer to a specific plant query? Book a 1-to-1 video call with Joe Bagley, the website's friendly author, to overcome and address your niggling problem! Available on iMessage, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger & more. Perfecting the amount of light a Bird's Nest Fern receives is crucial for a long-lasting specimen. During the spring and summer, be sure to provide a brightly lit spot away from any direct light. Excessive exposure during this time will negatively affect the plant in the likes of sun-scorch and dehydration. Once the autumn kicks in, be sure to include an hour or two of direct light per day to get it through the dormancy period, lasting until the following spring. Alternatively, lower-lit areas should only be used if wholly necessary. Although they can thrive in shady locations, the reduced rates of photosynthesis and too-moist soil may lead to root or crown rot. If mould develops on the compost's surface, this is a tell-tale sign of over-watering and too little light. Provide good soil moisture, allowing the top third to dry out in between waters throughout the year. The amount of light and current season of the year will directly govern the frequencies of waters per month. Specimens placed in darker areas must be kept on the drier side to life, whereas brighter locations will require more soil moisture to lubricate photosynthesis. Under-watering symptoms include wilting, greying of leaves, little to no growth, distorted or crispy growth and foliage decline. These issues are commonly due to too much light or heat, forgetfulness or a much needed repot. Over-watering symptoms include wilting, yellowing leaves, soil mould, leaf spots and a rotten crown, which are typically caused by too little light, a too water-retentive soil, over-watering and low temperatures. Average room humidity is best as over-misting and poor air circulation may cause the development of powdery mildew or botrytis. At monthly intervals, perform a gentle hose-down to hydrate its leaves and reduce the number of dust particles on its foliage, avoiding the risk of excess moisture settling on its foliage. Feed every four waters during the growing period and every six in the autumn and winter, using a 'Houseplant' labelled fertiliser. Never apply a 'Ready to Use’ product into the soil without a pre-water first, as it may burn the roots and lead to yellowed leaves. Yellow central leaves are the result of excess moisture settling on the foliage, typically promoted by dark locations. Instead of pouring water directly onto the foliage, irrigate at the soil line by lifting the foliage at the side to prevent wetting the leaves. If symptoms don't improve, cut the fronds back to an inch above the soil line to promote new fronds. An under-humid room will not favour ferns in the slightest. Humid air and an absence of dry soil are what keeps this species happy, so introduce a humidity tray to keep the local environment constant. Do not situate it within four metres of an operating radiator due to the threat of dry air and browned leaf-tips. If your fern is located in a dark environment with mould developing on the soil's surface, use a chopstick to stab the soil in various areas gently. You should aim to enter the compost between the base of the plant and the pot's edge, as failure to do so may lead to damaging its lower portion. Leave the holes open for a few days before re-surfacing the soil to avoid it becoming overly dry. Not only will the gentle shift in the soil's structure mimic the work of small invertebrates in the wild (worms, etc.), but it'll also add oxygen back into the soil, thus reducing the risk of root rot. Repeat this monthly, or whenever you feel the potting-mix isn't drying out quickly enough. Curled leaves and brown leaf-edges are the result of too little water and over-exposure to the sun. They are best located in bright, indirect settings, and those that haven't acclimatised to the harsh rays will show signs of sun-scorch and environmental shock. A splash of winter sunlight is acceptable as long as the soil moisture is regularly observed, with complete avoidance once summer comes along. Black roots are natural for Bird's Nest Ferns. Only treat for root rot if the soil smells 'earthy' and the roots feel collapsed or squishy. Click on this link to learn about this issue and what to do next! Sudden crispy, grey or wilted foliage shortly after being repotted is a symptom of transplant shock. Increase the humidity around the plant, maintain evenly moist soil and feed every third water with a 'Houseplant' labelled fertiliser. Your Bird's Nest Fern is wilting due a damaged root system that doesn't uptake enough moisture to keep its foliage hydrated. Wrap the plant (& its pot) in a transparent plastic bag and check for drying soil. Provide a bright, sunless windowsill with temperatures above 18 ℃ (64℉) and wait for new growth to emerge in a few weeks. Additional Step: Purchase a 'foliar feed' from a local garden centre and mist the foliage to nourish the plant, thus helping its recovery process. Spider Mites are small, near-transparent critters, that'll slowly suck out the chlorophyll out of the leaves. Have a check under the leaves, most notably along the midrib, for small webs and gritty yellow bumps. Click here to read our article about the eradicating Spider Mites, along with some extra tips that you may not find elsewhere! A rotten core is usually accompanied by an array of collapsing leaves that can emit a foul odour over time. The usual culprits of this issue are excess of water in between hydrations either on the foliage or in the soil, too little light or a lack of drainage holes. Unfortunately for these ferns, this can, and often will lead to death. This is because the plant's body is harboured just below the soil line, with short rhizomes acting like its stem. If this plant part begins to rot, it's similar to a collapsed or rotten stem which will spell the end of its life. There are over seven hundred species of Asplenium, most of which have natural distributions in Asia, Australia and eastern Africa. The genus comes from the Spleenwort family and can be translated to 'spleen herb' from Ancient Greek. The most popular and recognisable Bird's Nest Fern, the A. nidus, has had multiple human uses over the years, from treating asthma to halitosis, but now serves mainly as a houseplant or a weed on walls around the world. The genus was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, with the most popular species, A. nidus, following soon after. Its name can be translated from Latin, referring to the 'nest-like' attributes of its foliage. 12° - 26℃ (56° - 85℉) H1b (Hardiness Zone 12) - Can be grown outdoors during the summer in a sheltered location with temperatures above 12℃ (54℉), but is fine to remain indoors, too. If you decide to bring this plant outdoors, don't allow it to endure any direct sunlight as it may result in sun-scorch and dehydration. Regularly keep an eye out for pests, especially when re-introducing it back indoors. Over 1m in both height and in width, with the ultimate height taking between 4 - 8 years to achieve. Remove yellow or dying leaves, and plant debris to encourage better-growing conditions. While pruning, always use clean scissors or shears to reduce the chance of bacterial and fungal diseases. Never cut through yellowed tissue as this may cause further damage in the likes of diseases or bacterial infections. Remember to make clean incisions as too-damaged wounds may shock the plant, causing weakened growth and a decline in health. Via Spores & Division. Spores (Moderate) - You may have noticed little brown spots under the leaves - those are reproductive spores that can be propagated in the same way as seeds, once matured. These zygotes will develop on the under-leaves of each frond; you'll know when they're ready to be propagated, as they'll brown over and begin to crisp. Once the spores have developed their first frond, place them into their own pot to grow. Safely remove the transparent bag and follow the care requirements listed at the top of the article. Rhizomatous Offshoot Division (Easy to Moderate) - Your plant will produce several basal offsets that can be separated once they have a sufficient root system, and surpass 8cm in frond length. If possible, water the soil 24hrs before the main event to reduce the risk of transplant shock, when its dry root systems are over-fingered. Take the plant out of its pot and place your fingers close to the nodal junction - soil may have to be removed for better access. Push the chosen offset downwards until you hear a snap. Separate the foliage and its root system away from the mother plant, mentally noting the high risk of damage. Transplant in the appropriate sized pot with a fresh batch of 'Houseplant' compost. Maintain evenly moist soil and situate it in a bright, indirect location away from any direct sunlight. After ten weeks, treat it like a healthy specimen, following the care tips above! Bird's Nest Ferns will not flower or produce seeds, and instead produce microscopic spores on the under-leaves which could eventually develop into its own plant. Have a look at the section above for more information on propagation. Repot every three years in the spring, using a 'Houseplant' labelled compost and the next sized pot with adequate drainage. Hydrate the plant 24hrs before tinkering with the roots to prevent the risk of transplant shock. For those that are situated in a darker location, add a thin layer of small grit in the pot's base to improve drainage and downplay over-watering. Click here for a detailed step-by-step guide on transplantation, or via this link to learn about repotting with root rot. Keep an eye out for mealybugs, spider mites, scale, thrips, vine weevils & root mealybugs that'll locate themselves in the cubbyholes and undersides of the leaves, with the exception of the latter two in the soil. Common diseases associated with Bird's Nest Ferns are root rot, rhizoctonia, leaf-spot disease, botrytis, rust, powdery mildew & southern blight - click here to learn more about these issues. Not known to be poisonous by consumption of pets and humans. If high quantities are eaten, it may result in vomiting, nausea and a loss of appetite. Dobbies, British Garden Centres, Online Stores. If you need further advice with your houseplants, book an advice call with ukhouseplants' friendly and expert writer today! This can be done via a video or audio call on most apps, including Facebook, FaceTime & Skype. A ten-minute call costs £5.99 (US$7), or £15.99 for thirty minutes. You can ask multiple questions, including queries on plants, pests, terrariums, repotting advice and anything in between. Please consider supporting this service to keep ukhouseplants thriving!
Many believe that everyone already But this is not true When groups do set goals, output invariably increases over groups that do not set goals. Goal setting and incentives Incentives improve performance – but Only if they cause individuals to set and commit to attaining specific goals Why does goal setting effect Goals focus activity Goals regulate expenditure of effort Difficult goals lead to more persistent effort than do easy goals These 3 are critical to the MBO process What is MBO? We set goals and then performance is judged based on how well we accomplish these goals. Intellectually – this seems like the way to go – and has for years The goals must be: Mutually agreeable to employee and Demanding (stretching) but achievable Within the control of the employee Reviewed periodically for modifications based on events The goals must also be: Simple to understand Problems with MBO programs Employees get systematically more credit or blame than deserved Bias still exist in rating.
Do LED Lights offer a high life time of 50,000 Hrs as in manufacturer's catalogs? There are some factors causing LED Luminaries ending their life in an unexpected way before the actual life time offered by the manufacturer. Integral parts of an LED lights are LED chip, LED Driver, and Heat Sink (which is generally LED fixture body), wires and harness.Another important material is the thermal compound which is applied as an interfacing material between LED chip thermal exchange pad and heat sink. There are certain criteria in selecting above components and integrating them to a product resulting in a high performance and highly reliable product. Why do LED luminaries fail early Power supply variations: LED lights are sensitive to fluctuations and surges in power supply which will cause LED driver failure. The best thing to prevent this to enable surge protection for LED drivers while manufacturing them.Also external surge protection devices can be installed to ensure higher protection. LED drivers also should operate in a wide range of input voltages say 85-320VAc. Before purchasing the LED drivers, read the manufacturer's product manual to ensure that basic protection is enabled. This is an important factor which should be given proper attention while assembling LED luminaries. Thermal interfacing material used should be adequate to conduct the heat from LED junction to the surface of heat sink so that the junction temperature of the LED chip specified by the manufacturer should be with in the permissible limit. Thermal characteristics of the thermal compound should be inline with the LED chip manufacturer's specifications, following the same will give a good life time. If a manufacturer is failing to use a thermal compound with adequate thermal conductivity, causing early burn out of LED chips so that the luminary life will be drastically lowered. An adequate hear sink with area of dissipation designed according to the LED chip manufacturer's specification is also mandatory. Manufacturing: ESD sensitive devices LEDs are sensitive to electrostatic charges. LED luminaries should be manufactured in ESD proof environments. Proper measures should be provided to handle the luminaries to protect them from static charge this will ensure a high life to luminaries. Improper assembling setups will cause permanent ESD damages to luminaries. Always refer the ESD guidelines before handling LED components. LED lighting products are gaining popularity among common people these days also the chances of choosing an undesirable product is more than ever. For choosing a desirable product, the following FAQs will be useful. 1. Choose higher lumen: Don't compare the power of the luminaries compare the lumen output. This will help you achieve more performance in same power compared to the luminary having less lumen output, sometimes you can reduce the no. of luminaries also.Different make of LED luminaries having same power may deliver different lumen outputs 2. Efficiency> 85%: LED Driver: choose a driver with higher efficiency. We need at least 85% efficiency to achieve the power savings offered by the LED technology. Which means a costlier LED luminary with lower efficiency driver may consume the same power of standard fluorescent luminary having higher efficiency driver. How ever higher the efficiency higher will be the cost of the luminary. 3. Power factor>0.9 : Power factor of the LED driver should be greater than 0.9 and THD< 15 to avoid more loading on the electrical grid and on your generators or inverters. With higher power factor you can connect more load to the existing generator or inverter compared to a lower PF one. Last few years Indian LED market is growing exponentially and LED will hold 80% of the Lighting market share by 2020. Nowadays most of the customers choose LED lighting products for their lighting applications especially home, outdoor, commercial and industrial application. How will we find best suited LED lighting application. This article will help you to find the application areas and LED fixtures that will give you better savings, performance and better ROI. Following application areas to be chosen for achieving maximum advantages from LED lighting Life of LED It is calculated that LED chips will give a long life up to 150000 hrs compared to 10,000 hrs of CFL and 1000 Hrs of Incandescent bulbs. But the life of LED s is dependent on the make of LED, thermal management of the LED fixture and LED driver life. If anything of above said is not matching the criteria for good performance of LED chips and according to the specs given by the manufacturer, the LED's life drastically reduce even if it offer a very long life in the datasheets. Long life of the LED light engines means you don't need to replace a LED light for 17 Years even if you are using it for 24 Hrs a day. So there is no burden of replacing the damaged products and you can save money buying new products for replacing damaged one and also maintenance costs will be very low. LEDs uses 50-70% less power compared to conventional luminaries. One should be very careful in choosing LED light engines to achieve the above said. Since the LEDs are available offering 30-160 Lm/W, the customer should select atleast 105 Lm/W LED to achieve an equivalent performance of CFLs which offer 60 Lm/W . Since the LEDs are directional and radiating in a narrow beam angle, say 120 Degree it will create more impact on performance compared to conventional fittings which is radiating in 360 Degree where there is a loss caused by the reflector or shade we use integrated with the light engines. Customers should also choose a good quality driver having higher energy efficiency and power factor, built in with long lasting electronic components to enjoy the max power saving and long life. Moreover LEDs contains no toxic substances like Mercury which is there in CFLs, disposal of these light engines have a lesser impact on the environment. Other benefits are What are the facts we need to focus before purchasing an LED lighting product. In this blog you can read some of the most important lighting facts customers need to know before taking a decision to choose a product. Do you know that High Bright LEDs offer different lument output for same power? Yes LEDs are available in the market that offer 30-160 Lm/W(Lumen /Watt). Lm/W is commonly reffered to the term Luminous eefficacy.This means that for the same power two LEDs having different efficacies can offer different lumen output. Customers may not be aware of this fact. Normally LED lighting products in the market are compared on the basis of output power of the product by customers. This may mislead them to choose a product with lowest price comapred to high priced products so that the products choosen may not be delivering sufficient amount of light customer need since the price of the LED lighting products generally depends on light out put of the product. So it is a good thing to compare price/lumen than price/watt when we decide to purchse a LED lighting product. It is more surprising to know that choosing a product with lowest luminous efficacy wont help you to save electricity considerably like you think, since you need to install more light engines having lowest efficacy compared to a high efficacy product, which in turn will increase your initial investment and power cost. It is a best option to choose a product offering lower price/lumen and higher efficacy. Key words: Lumen(Lm): Unit to measure light LED driver efficiency When calculating luminous efficacy we should consider luminous efficacy also, since the total power consumed by the LED driver considerable vary with the efficiency of LED driver. For example consider a LED driver is having a power output of 8W and with efficiency 90% , total power consumption of the product will be 8+10%=8.8W. Customer should consider this point while choosing a LED lighting product since the drivers are available with efficiency from 7 to 98%, choosing a driver with lower efficiency will lead to higher power charges compared to a driver with high efficiency. Power factor generally denoted by PF, gives an idea about how effectively a driver utilises the electricity given to its input. PF has an effect on the countrys electric grid. It is a number given between 0 and 1 and it is best to choose a HPF product always. Quality LED drivers are available with a powr factor greater than 0.9.
Remember that ash cloud? It didn’t exist, says new evidence By Sean Poulter Britain’s airspace was closed under false pretences, with satellite images revealing there was no doomsday volcanic ash cloud over the entire country. Skies fell quiet for six days, leaving as many as 500,000 Britons stranded overseas and costing airlines hundreds of millions of pounds. Estimates put the number of Britons still stuck abroad at 35,000. However, new evidence shows there was no all-encompassing cloud and, where dust was present, it was often so thin that it posed no risk. The satellite images demonstrate that the skies were largely clear, which will not surprise the millions who enjoyed the fine, hot weather during the flight ban. Jim McKenna, the Civil Aviation Authority’s head of airworthiness, strategy and policy, admitted: ‘It’s obvious that at the start of this crisis there was a lack of definitive data. ‘It’s also true that for some of the time, the density of ash above the UK was close to undetectable.’ The satellite images will be used by airlines in their battle to win tens of millions of pounds in compensation from governments for their losses. The National Air Traffic Control Service decision to ban flights was based on Met Office computer models which painted a picture of a cloud of ash being blown south from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano. These models should have been tested by the Met Office’s main research plane, a BAE 146 jet, but it was in a hangar to be repainted and could not be sent up until last Tuesday - the last day of the ban. Evidence has emerged that the maximum density of the ash was only about one 20th of the limit that scientists, the Government, and aircraft and engine manufacturers have now decided is safe. British Airways chief Willie Walsh always insisted the total shutdown went too far. ‘My personal belief is that we could have safely continued operating for a period,’ he said.
Holy Dormition Monastery of Sviyazhsk \| Holy Dormition Monastery \| \|Jurisdiction\|\|Diocese of Kazan \| Church of Russia \|Superior\|\|Hegumen Siluan (Khokhiashvilli)\| \|Approx. size\|\|6 monks\| \|Music used\|\|Russian Chant\| \|Official website\|\| Diocesan website\| Holy Dormition Monastery of Sviyazhsk is a monastery for men now on the island of Sviyazhsk, located at the confluence of the Volga and Sviyaga Rivers upstream from the city of Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia. The monastery was established in mid sixteenth century. It became a major institution associated with Christianity in the Diocese of Kazan. After being severely damaged during the Soviet time, restoration of the monastery and its dependency, the St. John the Forerunner Convent, has been in progress since 1997. - 1 History - 2 Monastery facilities - 3 Sources Dormition Monastery was founded by the Archimandrite German (Sadyrev-Polevoy) in 1555 at the fortress of Sviyazhsk. Sviyazhsk was the base from which Ivan IV staged his final and successful assault on the khanate of Kazan in 1551. Arch. German was canonized in 1595. The monastery prospered as the adjacent town of Sviyazhsk became the chief town of the province as reflected in the name of the Diocese of Kazan and Sviyazhsk. While the initial economic significance of the town declined in the following years the religious importance of the monastery grew during the following centuries. By the mid eighteenth century the monastery was the most wealthy and influential in the Kazan diocese. During the years of Bolshevik rule, the monastery was closed and initially turned into a forced labor camp. Later, it was used as a detention camp for juvenile criminals. Subsequently, the monastery was used as a psycho-neurological clinic until 1993. In 1997, the monastery property was returned to the Church of Russia. During the Soviet years, construction of a dam down stream on the Volga River formed the Kuybyshev reservoir. The reservoir raised the level of the river, drowning much of the low lying area around Sviyazhsk village. The flooding resulted in the formation of Sviyazhsk island in 1955 upon which the village and monastery are located. Upon the return of the monastery to the Church, Hegumen Kyrill (Korovin) was assigned as the first Superior. As the island and monastery complex have great historical as well as religious significance, restoration work on the island has pursued both restoration of the monastery and of the “Sviyazhsk” museum-reserve of history and architecture. Since its founding the Dormition Monastery has been led by a number of distinguished superiors. These include: - From 1594 to 1598 - Abraham Palitsin, an ecclesia writer and political figure during the Time of Troubles. - From 1738 to 1742 - Archimandrite Dimitri (Sechenov), later Metropolitan of Novgorod. - From 1787 to 1787 - Archimandrite Platon (Lyubarsky), later Metropolitan of Astrakhan. - From 1917 to 1918 - Bishop Amvrossy (Gudko), former vicar of the diocese of Vyatka and among the first martyrs of the Kazan diocese on July 27, 1918. He was glorified in 1999. The monastery consists of two parts, the Dormition Monastery itself and the dependency of the Convent of St John the Forerunner which is close by. Church of St. Nicholas The oldest church on the Dormition Monastery grounds is the Church of St. Nicholas. This church was built during the years 1555 and 1556 by a team of builders from Pskov led by Ivan Shyryay, The church was built out of limestone and includes the old cell used by St. German. A 138 foot (43 meters) high bell tower was built in the seventeenth century. Cathedral of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos Construction of the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos was begun in 1556 and continued until 1560, also by the team of craftsmen from Pskov led by Postnik Yakov and Ivan Shyryay. A number of changes were made to the cathedral over the following centuries. In the seventeenth century the refectory was added to the cathedral. The original design of the cathedral used a cylindrical drum and helmet shaped dome. In the eighteenth century, this combination was replaced by an octahedronical drum and a cupola in the Ukrainian baroque style. A high porch was added to the refectory in the nineteenth century. Among the features of the cathedral are the original murals that have been preserved. The frescos were restored during the 1890s through the efforts of the artisans N. M. Safonov, G. O. Chirikov, and Professor D. V. Ainalov. These frescos include portrayals of Tsar Ivan IV and Metr. Makary of Moscow. Restoration work on the cathedral continued from 1964 to 1984, and continues now after the Soviet period. Among the buildings of the monastery is the archimandrite’s residence that was built in the seventeenth century. The structure is a two storied building in the Russian tower chambered style. The residence was used by the Sviyazhsk Theological School from 1829 to 1858 before the school was moved to Kazan in 1859. Convent of St. John the Forerunner On August 14, 2004, the Convent of St. John the Forerunner became a dependency of the the Dormition Monastery. The convent is located a short, walking distance from the Dormition Monastery. The convent was established late in the sixteenth century in the northwest part of the town of Sviyazhsk. After fires in 1753 and 1759, the convent, in 1764, moved nearer the Dormition monastery, to the abandoned buildings of the Monastery of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius of Radonezh. This monastery had been founded in 1551, but was closed in 1764. Church of the Trinity On the grounds of the convent is the oldest church on the island, the small wooden Church of the Trinity. This church was brought by Ivan IV’s army as a prefabricated building to the Sviyazhsk fortress when it was established in 1551. During the intervening years the church has been re-constructed many times, but other than the original tent shaped dome that had been replaced by an onion shaped dome, the church has retained its initial features, . Cathedral in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God “The Joy of All the Sorrowful” The Cathedral in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God “The Joy of All the Sorrowful” is the center piece of the convent. The cathedral was built over the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (1896 to 1906) to a design by F. D. Malinovsky. The cathedral is a large four pillared crucifix shaped temple in a neo-Byzantine style. The frescos were funded by the manufacturer Sergei Semyonovich Mechnikov. During the Soviet period the interior of the cathedral was desecrated, the icons were removed and the walls whitewashed, leaving only a shell of a church. The cathedral is now being restored. St. Sergius Church The St. Sergius Church, which dates from 1604, is named in honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh occupies part of the first floor of the refectory in the convent. The miracle-working icon of St. Sergius of Radonezh, that was kept in this church, is now kept at the Church of the Miracle-Workers of Yaroslavl in Kazan.
When it comes to school leadership, there is no lack of models to follow. Consider the following list — if you’re like us you’ve heard a lot of these buzzwords lately: - Instructional leadership - Democratic leadership - Change leadership - Transformative leadership - Participatory leadership - Collaborative leadership - Moral leadership - Strategic leadership It’s enough to make anyone’s head spin. What do these things mean and how do we know what works? A 2004 study by the Wallace Foundation warns us to beware all the “leadership by adjective” literature out there. “Sometimes these adjectives have real meaning, but sometimes they mask the more important underlying themes common to successful leadership, regardless of the style being advocated,” say the authors. What are the underlying themes that make leaders successful? According to the folks at the Wallace Foundation, there are two: Successful leaders help establish a clear direction for the organization and influence others to move in that direction. It sounds so simple! And yet, research also suggests that many leaders do not enter the profession prepared to do these two things. This is especially true where leaders would have the highest impact on student achievement: underperforming schools. Another study by the Wallace Foundation suggests that principal training programs have a long way to go. They call for a more selective process for choosing candidates to enter leadership programs; enhanced preservice training that prepares principals to lead for improved instruction and school change, not just manage buildings; and high-quality mentoring and professional development catered to the individual needs of early-career leaders. New Leaders for New Schools, and American non-profit organization that trains leaders to work in high-needs urban schools, suggests that the best leaders are good at building effective teams, and thus need to develop strong abilities to do the following: Programs like New Leaders are popping up across the United States to shift the way we train principals. Instead of using traditional university programs, many schools and leaders are opting for alternative programs that offer more hands-on training in real schools. It seems that some university programs are following suit as well. They are starting to learn from medical and military training programs, both of which provide and require work in the field under close supervision and mentorship before issuing credentials. Whatever the “type” of leadership or training program, one thing is certain: there is a heightened focus on the role of principals and other non-teacher school leaders as drivers of student achievement. If principals account for 25% of a school’s achievement (as this study suggests) we cannot afford to not get this right. What leadership trends have you noticed in your school, district, or country? What’s working? What’s not? Leave a comment to let us know.
I’ve got two early learners here. One is great, albeit somewhat shaky-handed, with writing numbers — just seemed to learn to write them naturally. The other has struggled with them for a while. Even after a couple of years of math, there are still reversals in many of the numbers. Since this learner is pretty auditory, I went looking for a way to help with the problem. Enter my friend Donna, who always has a few tricks up her sleeve. She loaned me some number tracers with poems she used in her classroom years ago — back before she left teaching other kids to teach her own. I loved the little poems and the green and red dots to help a student know where to begin and end the stroke of the number. Learn to write numbers printables I made two sizes of the printables — one a full page size and then a second set small enough for little hands. I printed the second set, cut them apart, and laminated them. Then I put them on a binder ring, and we use a marker to practice the tracing. You could also slip the full-sized numbers into page protectors and keep them in a binder. Preschool numbers picture books To accompany these we have a few favorite counting books that we love that we find perfect for the preschool years. A Frog in the Bog– This one is my favorite hands down and the kids like it pretty well too. It counts to five and then back again in Karma Wilson’s rollicking rhyme. Lots of opportunity for reader exaggeration and FUN. Every Buddy Counts: Counting– My kids love the MathStart books and this one is no exception. A sweet book about counting friends important to little kids. The Water Hole– This book is a beauty with stunning artwork showcasing animals from around the world as well as a bit of humor. I find this one tucked away in Olivia’s room often. Click, Clack, Splish, Splash– The cows from Click, Clack, Moo are back along with an entire farmyard of mischievous animals on a mission of mercy. Good fun. Supplies for writing numbers In the photo above, John is working with a dry erase marker. We quickly determined that it smeared too easily on the lamination — especially for a lefty. Wet-erase markers to the rescue! You can use the ones for overhead projectors (brings back memories of high school math) or you can choose something chunkier for little hands like these Wet-Erase Fluorescent Markers. Crayola also makes a larger size dry erase crayon. A Frog in the BogEvery Buddy Counts (MathStart 1)The Water HoleClick, Clack, Splish, Splash (A Click, Clack Book)EXPO Vis-A-Vis Wet-Erase Overhead Transparency Markers, Fine Point, Assorted Colors, 8-CountSanford Wet Bright Sticks Wet-Erase Fluorescent Markers, Assorted Fluorescent Colors, 5-Pack (14075)Crayola; Dry-Erase Crayons; Art Tools; 8 Count; Washable; Perfect for Classroom Art Activities; Includes Sharpener and Erase ClothBAZIC Metal Book Rings, 1 Inch, Silver, 12 Per PackScotch 2 Roller System, Fast Warm-up, Quick Laminating Thermal Laminator (TL901C-T )Scotch Thermal Laminating Pouches, 8.9 x 11.4-Inches, 3 mil thick, 100-Pack (TP3854-100) I hope you enjoy! Latest posts by Pam Barnhill - How to really measure the success of your homeschool plan - July 18, 2019 - What is a morning basket? - July 17, 2019 - Are we measuring homeschool planning success wrong? - July 11, 2019
Ethnic hatreds, murky disappearances, and the purging of enemies are all on the rise in Robert Mugabe’s dictatorship. June 3, 2015 The southern African nation of Zimbabwe has fallen off the international radar screen in recent years, but alarm bells should be ringing loud and clear. Over the course of the past few months, we have witnessed an ominous series of warning signs: bitter political infighting within the country’s ruling party, the worsening of already deplorable economic conditions, the abduction and disappearance of a prominent human rights activist, and a surge of inflammatory rhetoric and political violence. According to a report by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, these are all telltale signs of growing atrocity risk — and precisely why the United States, and its allies, must wake up and take a proactive stand. Political violence has long shaped the landscape of Zimbabwe, home to an estimated 14 million people. After a bloody liberation struggle against British colonial rule, Robert Mugabe, the only head of state Zimbabwe has ever known, spoke of reconciliation, peace, and social cohesion at independence in 1980. Mugabe’s words, however, brazenly belied the reality on the ground. Wartime emergency measures were kept in place, and we now know that plans for massacres against the Ndebele people in Midlands and Matabeleland provinces — what would later be known as Gukurahundi — were well underway. This calculated campaign of terror against an ethnic minority, executed with assistance from North Korea, was a key component of Mugabe’s plan to eliminate any opposition to his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). This scorched-earth campaign left at least 20,000 people dead and thousands more displaced. Thirty years later, no one has been held accountable, and the perpetrators remain in positions of power. For a brief moment during Zimbabwe’s coalition government, from 2009-2013, the situation seemed as if it might be improving. The shattered economy stabilized and slowly began to recover, political space re-opened, and the most blatant forms of state-sponsored aggression declined. In reality, however, ZANU-PF and Mugabe were merely adjusting their tactics: Instead of physically assaulting opposition leaders in front of TV cameras, they undermined their influence through manipulation of the courts; instead of firebombing newspapers, they quietly intimidated the media and civil society activists; instead of beating up and maiming opposition supporters, they craftily rigged the polls to win the vote in July 2013. This more subtle approach worked, even leading to a softening of European sanctions earlier this year. Over the past several months, however, the mood in Zimbabwe has markedly changed. On March 9, prominent human rights defender Itai Dzamara was abducted in broad daylight. Diplomats claim that his disappearance bears all the hallmarks of an operation by Zimbabwe’s intelligence services, which has long operated with impunity under the direction of Mugabe and his security chiefs. More than two months later, Dzamara remains missing. Not only have the police ignored a High Court judgment, which ordered them to provide bi-weekly updates on the investigation and search for Dzamara, but a government minister went so far as to suggest that Dzamara staged his own disappearance. Dzamara’s abduction is not an isolated incident. Zimbabwe’s history is replete with examples of human rights and opposition political activists who have been abducted, tortured, forcibly disappeared, or murdered by state agents. Most recently, on April 26, ruling party operatives publicly assaulted six traditional leaders at a campaign rally in Mashonaland, in full view of the police, for supporting an independent candidate running for local office. Two of the headmen have been reported missing by the local press. The recent uptick of incendiary rhetoric espoused by leaders in ZANU-PF has also raised red flags. Last month, for example, Zimbabwe’s current Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, while on a campaign stop in Midlands, likened Zimbabwe’s political opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), to Satan, announcing to the crowd “we have come to cleanse you of the sins of the MDC.” Importantly, Mnangagwa — who is also minister of justice and the most likely successor to the 91-year-old Mugabe — was a chief architect of Gukurahundi as then-minister of defense. This type of dog-whistle rhetoric — including from Mugabe himself — is eerily reminiscent of Zimbabwe’s dark past. The ethnically-charged words are strategically chosen: meant to strike fear in the hearts and minds of would-be voters, but also to send a clear warning to those in ZANU-PF who might challenge Mugabe’s authority. In December 2014, for example, during the height of a frenzied intraparty struggle for power, Zimbabwe’s longtime vice president and liberation war hero Joice Mujuru — nicknamed “Spill Blood” — was ousted after allegations that she had planned to assassinate Mugabe. To date, Mujuru has maintained that the accusation is false and many observers, both inside Zimbabwe and out, believe the smear campaign was part of a more sinister plot to neutralize a political rival who had been gaining popularity. Even prior to this latest incident, Mujuru knew full well the ramifications of crossing Mugabe and ZANU-PF, whether intentional or perceived. Her late husband, Solomon Mujuru, a highly revered figure in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle and former defense minister, was killed in an eerily suspicious house fire in 2011. Following Joice Mujuru’s political demise this past year, the first lady of Zimbabwe and current chairwoman of the ZANU-PF Women’s League, Grace Mugabe, declared that if Mujuru were killed, “dogs and fleas would not disturb her carcass.” In Zimbabwe, this type of odious rhetoric has often coincided with political violence: It was a common tactic deployed during land invasions in the early 2000s, during a forced “urban clearance campaign” in 2005, and exemplified by targeted political attacks during and after the 2008 election period, when Robert Mugabe lost a first round but then unleashed a cascade of violence to force the opposition to withdraw. The latest developments in Zimbabwe come at a time when the country’s economy is again collapsing and the political elite are tearing themselves apart in a battle for succession. Monitors of mass atrocity risk typically watch for ethnic exclusion, hate speech, and indicators of political and economic stress. The greatest indicator of a country’s atrocity risk is whether it has suffered from similar events in the past. All of these factors are currently, and ominously, present in Zimbabwe. This is a dangerous moment for the citizens of Zimbabwe, and for the southern African region writ large. This is a dangerous moment for the citizens of Zimbabwe, and for the southern African region writ large. The United States government recently dispatched a delegation, including one of the State Department’s top human rights officials, to Harare. But the Obama administration will need to keep a keen and close eye on the ongoing events in Zimbabwe, including tasking the intelligence services for an assessment of the potential for mass violence. This should include elevating the issue of Zimbabwe to the president’s Atrocities Prevention Board, which can readily address the early warning indicators of mass atrocities that currently prevail. Just as important, authorities in the capital, Harare, must know that the world is watching. Preventative steps must be taken now by engaging with the African Union (which Mugabe currently chairs), other African heads of state, as well as the United Nations Security Council to dissuade the Mugabe government from going down this tragic road once again. Mugabe and his inner circle of ZANU-PF loyalists must also understand that those who continue to commit violence against their own people will ultimately be held accountable. The United States and its allies should make it profoundly clear, both publicly and in private, that visa bans, asset seizures, and even war crimes prosecutions are all viable policy options that remain on the table. Jekesai Njikizana/AFP/Getty Images
The German artist Max Ernst said about the art of collage, “Collage is the noble conquest of the irrational, the coupling of two realities, irreconcilable in appearance, upon a plane which apparently does not suit them.” The collage technique, is an emblem of the 20th Century in its expression of the will of creation and destruction, originality and reproduction. Artists, from the beginning of the 20th Century and after WWII, saw the critical potentiality of collage, its capacity of de-naturalize and de-contextualize as a way to call modernity into question from a new perspective. The nature of collage prevents us from carrying on with a certain uncritical vision of the world; fragments interrupt a continuous narrative of progress, and things that do not seem to belong together convey a secret message to be deciphered by the viewer. There is also a very playful and democratic side to collage: it is somewhat more accessible than, say, watercolor or drawing. Because it does not require the technical skill of fine arts, collage invites us to participate. In her book, “Collage” (Chronicle Books), Danielle Krysa (creator of the blog, The Jealous Curator) explores the playful and satiric side of this technique as it’s been employed by contemporary artists. She describes collage as a technique that turns the world of everyday two- and three-dimensional objects into an immense “thrift store,” where one can hunt for treasures and bring them together in surprising ways, making new meanings. Artist and illustrator Eleonora Arroyo, who has worked with collage since the beginning of her career, says, “The first time I illustrated a book I tried to do drawing but I did not find it comfortable. Looking for a different way of expression, the scissors made me feel that I could express myself with total freedom. It is a very agreeable technique; often the same material accidentally brings sculptural solutions.” There is a therapeutic side of collage too. The innovative art therapist, Helen Landgarten, developed a method she called “magazine photo collage” which stimulates storytelling with pictures found in magazines. The freedom of expression that collage offers makes it a perfect technique for children to make art while having fun. Collage is a great activity to do with kids, and can even be used as a communication tool, a way for children to talk about things that they find difficult to express. Barcelona-based artist and graphic designer Alma Larroca, describing her own work in assemblage (a form of collage that uses two- and three-dimensional materials), points to the way that the technique offers a way to transform forgotten objects with new arrangements and new meaning. Larroca says, “I especially enjoy making assemblages from elements and broken toys I’ve found (my children give me some of them, or my friends or I buy them at flea markets), re- signifying what is supposed to be obsolete or discarded. It is the best way I found to express my feelings.” The creative possibilities of collage resemble those of poetry, in which every element has its own particular meaning. Artist Cecilia Afonso Esteves makes delicate flower collages that she describes in the form of a Haiku: “Composing with fragments. Like someone who makes Ikebana. One hand cuts the paper, the other holds it. When I notice that gesture, I think of the paper, its nature, its being in the world.” This attention to the gesture of cutting paper and holding the scissors seems to be a very imporant part of the artistic process, one that conveys the work with a certain identity. The Argentinean artists Angela Corti observes: “Collage for me is something instinctive, it’s like drawing with scissors, without planning and without sketching first, because unthinkable things show up this way. Collage gives you the freedom to work with different kinds of papers; I like to create my own papers, I screen-print them or use other techniques, and I also love using discarded papers. When I cut them it feels like its original context become invisible but not in their essence. The type of paper used by a collagist gives their work identity, even in the artist’s gesture of the hand cutting the paper, the way one handles the scissors, all adds character to the artwork and can be very different in the hand of one artist or another.” The technique of collage is not only a very useful tool for critical thinking, communicating one’s feelings and storytelling, but also can provide opportunities to have fun and spend time with our kids. It is a wonderful form of self-expression that invites us to celebrate diversity and a playful way to create a new, enchanting world. Comments will be approved before showing up. Street art has a long and controversial history but in recent years it has evolved and has been reinvented as a form of high art. It was created as a way to convey political or social ideas in public places. Street art tends to happen in urban areas and is connected in certain ways to graffiti. But what is the difference? When is it considered vandalism and when is it considered art?
If you work anywhere in the American food industry — from farming to fast food, slaughterhouse to warehouseÂ — a new report seems to indicate you’re not being treat that well. The Food Chain Workers Alliance interviewed around 700 workers and employers in production, processing, distribution, retail and services and came up with some startling conclusions. Researchers found that food sector workers outnumber other big industries like healthcare, education and manufacturing, and that they produce $1.8 trillion in goods and services per year, more than 13% of our gross domestic product, reports the Chicago Tribune. Even with all that responsibility, only 1 in 10 of those workers earn a livable wage, and most don’t get basic benefits from employers or have a lot of chances for promotions. The report says workers could be in a situation where they’re forced to operate in conditions of high stress and little payback. Not ideal at all. A couple key findings: â€¢ Median wage for a food industry worker is $9.65 per hour, and while 8.3% of all American workers are on food stamps, 13.8% of food industry employees are on them. â€¢ 83% report their employers don’t offer health insurance, and 3 in 10 use the emergency room as primary care. â€¢ 79% don’t get paid sick days or aren’t sure if they do, and 3 in 10 don’t always get a lunch break. â€¢ 81% have never received a promotion, while “Minorities and immigrants face especially high levels of discrimination and segregation and rarely advance beyond the lowest-paying positions.” Few American food industry workers are treated well, report says [Chicago Tribune]
The one silver lining to the dark cloud in financial markets is that it is no longer tenable to credibly argue in favor of government-sponsored enterprises such as Fannie and Freddie. These corrupt entities played a significant role in causing the real-estate bubble, and politicians — if they had any sense — should liquidate Fannie and Freddie now that they are officially insolvent. Let’s quickly review why Fannie and Freddie should have been shut down and also show how they contributed to the financial mess. - Fannie and Freddie were explicitly designed to divert capital into residential real estate. The implicit (now explicit) government guarantee meant that interest rates for home mortgages were subsidized compared to rates for other forms of borrowing. This does not necessarily cause systemic risk, but it does harm long-run economic performance by soaking up funds that otherwise would have been used for business investment. - Fannie and Freddie were perverse examples of crony capitalism. An important feature of a genuine free market is that everybody plays by the same rules. But the interest-rate subsidy available to Fannie and Freddie gave them a huge advantage over other companies. Ironically, much of that subsidy wound up lining the pockets of the political elite that somehow — notwithstanding a total lack of real-world business acumen — wound up getting top slots in the Fannie and Freddie hierarchy. - Fannie and Freddie expanded their activities beginning in the 1990s, shifting from being akin to a subsidized investment bank that issued mortgage securities to being akin to a savings and loan institution on steroids. In effect, Freddie and Fannie became their own biggest customers, issuing debt to amass huge portfolios of securitized mortgages. This destabilized the entire financial system by contributing to the housing bubble. A few policymakers tried to rein in the worst excesses, but they were blocked by politicians such as Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd, all of whom were major recipients of campaign contributions from Fannie and Freddie. - In 2000, Bill Clinton’s Department of Housing and Urban Development made a bad situation even worse by imposing so-called affordable-housing quotas on Fannie and Freddie. The government-sponsored enterprises responded by becoming huge purchasers of securities containing subprime mortgages. This further contributed to systemic instability and the housing bubble. The Bush administration added fuel to the fire in 2004 by increasing the affordable-housing quotas, and Fannie and Freddie responded by lowering the standards for mortgages they would purchase for securitization. There is a lot more that can be written about Fannie’s and Freddie’s mistakes and their corrupt symbiotic relationship with the political class, but there’s only so much that can be said given space limitations. The key question is what should be done now that Fannie and Freddie are on life support. If there is any common sense in Washington, they will be shut down. The simplest approach, at least once the financial crisis has passed, is to cease and desist any new securitization (leave that function to real private-sector companies) and to pay off existing debt as the securities and mortgages in their portfolios mature.
King's College Chapel and Kings Parade, Cambridge, UK King's College was founded in 1441 by King Henry VI. His first design was modest, but by 1445 was intended to be a magnificent display of royal patronage. There were to be a Provost and seventy scholars, occupying a substantial site in central Cambridge whose drastic clearance involved the closure of several streets. The college was granted a remarkable series of feudal privileges, and all of this was supported by a substantial series of endowments from the King.
Johnson Model of Intervention "It is a myth that alcoholics have some spontaneous insight and then seek treatment. Victims of this disease do not submit to treatment out of spontaneous insight – typically, in our experience they come to their recognition scenes through a buildup of crises that crash through their almost impenetrable defense systems. They are forced to seek help; and when they don’t, they perish miserably." – Vernon Johnson, I’ll Quit Tomorrow, 1973 The Johnson Model of Intervention is a confrontational approach to drug and alcohol intervention that was introduced in the 1960s. Named after Vernon Johnson, often considered the father of intervention, it is based on his belief that denial is so pervasive in addicted individuals that they are only able to see the reality of their situation when presented with the crises it has caused in their life. An interventionist leads the family and close friends in this planned confrontation, which is unknown to the addicted individual beforehand. The Johnson Model of Intervention assumes that addicts are unable to see how their substance use is negatively affecting themselves and those around them, and will remain unable to see this reality until they “hit bottom.” This is not due to an unwillingness on the part of the addict, but rather on the extreme defenses they have created in response to addiction. The purpose of the intervention is to precipitate a crisis that would motivate the addicted individual to seek treatment, rather than waiting for the addict to hit bottom on his or her own—a potentially life-threatening situation. This is referred to as “raising the bottom.” In the Johnson Model, those closest to the substance abuser form a team that will confront the individual under the guidance of a trained interventionist. The team prepares for the intervention by learning about the disease of addiction, listing specific facts about the effects of the individual’s substance abuse, and deciding on potential treatment options. All preparations are conducted without the knowledge of the addicted individual. During the intervention, the reality of the addicted individual’s behavior and its consequences are presented in detail, in a nonjudgmental, unequivocal, and caring way. It is important to remain objective and specific, as the object of the intervention is to present reality in a way that the addict can accept. When this has been accomplished, and the addicted individual accepts help, available treatment options are offered to the individual and decided upon together. Although the intervention is confrontational in nature, it should be clear that it is the result of concern, not malice.
Banishment Of Nun Sisters by Gheorghe Virtosu resembles the chaos, in which all the elements are interrelated. The picture’s central figure looks like a jigsaw puzzle with numerous pieces, perfectly fitting each other. In the abstract art work, Gheorghe Virtosu employs a great number of hues, which vary in tones and value. Hence, both warm and cool colors intertwine in the painting, making it vibrant and saturated. Due to the contrasting tones, the abstract figure in the foreground stands out from the muted blue background. The shape of the subject matter is rather curvaceous, as it has prevalently flowing, thin, and curved lines. In addition, the balance is noticeably asymmetrical in the picture, since its right side looks heavier, due to the larger amount of colors and a greater variety of pieces included. Virtosu’s work is dedicated to the real exclusion of Sister Jeannine Gramick from the School Sisters of Notre Dame in 2000, due to her support of the LGBT community in her speeches. Previously, Gramick had received a number of warnings from the Holy See, concerning her activity. Nevertheless, she, along with Father Robert Nugent, continued to conduct classes on homosexuality and founded the New Ways Ministry in 1977 (“Notification Regarding Sister Jeannine Gramick”). Eventually, the Vatican forbade the two to mention homosexuality in their speeches and written texts. Moreover, they were banished from the New Ways Ministry (“Maryland Nun Faces Banishment”). The abstract painting reflects Gramick’s discord with the Vatican, concerning her right to speak and defend the sexual minorities. Consequently, the painting represents the timeline of the scandal, which begins at the bottom left corner of the abstract figure. There, a mostly homogeneous sphere with different shades of red and orange implies that Gramick did not have troubles in the beginning, since the Vatican did not start to criticize her activity immediately. Yet, there is a small triangular blue mark that must symbolize the interference of the Vatican. Further, marks of various colors intersperse with the monochromatic backgrounds of the other small pieces, which stand for the constant disagreements between the Sister and the Church. Ultimately, the scandal subsides and ends in the upper right corner of the canvas. There, one can see a small orange oval that is falling away from the whole figure, disrupting its structure. This represents Gramick’s final defeat, when she was banished from all Catholic organizations.
From the preface: Power represents the major bottleneck in modern semiconductors and systems. With transistor scaling over the last two decades, Moore's law has enabled the integration of millions of transistors within an integrated circuit. With lower gate capacitance and lower voltage, faster transistors have become available with each new generation of computers. However, increased transistor integration has resulted in an increase in the current supplied to the integrated circuit, thereby increasing power. Managing the transient current supplied to the integrated circuit at gigahertz frequencies is one of the biggest challenges faced by the semiconductor industry. With lowering of the supply voltage to the transistors, dynamic variation in the power supply due to current transients is becoming a major bottleneck. The dynamic variation of the supply voltage, also called power supply noise, delta I noise, or simultaneous switching noise, is the subject of this book. Managing power integrity is the process by which the variations on the power supply of the transistors can be maintained within a specified tolerance value. Noise on the power supply can have a direct influence on the speed of an integrated circuit, and hence supplying clean power is a very important element in the design of a computer system. A power distribution network consists of interconnections in the chip, package, and board that include decoupling capacitors, ferrite beads, DC-DC converters, and other components. Both the package and board form a very critical part of the power distribution network, which is the focus of this book. The book covers two aspects of power distribution: design and modeling, with an emphasis on modeling. The book is organized into five chapters, which cover basic and advanced concepts. All chapters contain several examples to illustrate the concepts, some of which can be reproduced using the software provided. These examples can also be used to evaluate the accuracy and speed of several commercial tools that are available today. Chapter 1: Basic Concepts – the chapter to be previewed Chapter 2: Modeling of Planes Chapter 3: Simultaneous Switching Noise Chapter 4: Time-Domain Simulation Methods Chapter 5: Applications Chapter 1 Basic Concepts Power delivery is a major challenge in present-day systems. This challenge is expected to increase in the next decade as systems become smaller and new materials are introduced into packages and boards. As devices scale and more transistors are integrated into a single integrated circuit, the power and current levels are expected to increase with a corresponding decrease in the voltage. With gigabit signals being propagated through the package and board, the ability to supply clean power to the transistor circuits becomes very critical. In addition, electromagnetic interference levels have to be kept low in the system to manage coupling and crosstalk. In this chapter, the basics of power delivery are described. Along with a description of the components of a power delivery network (PDN), the analysis methodology of such networks is described with examples. The book can be purchased here. In the first excerpt we examined: 1.2 Simple Relationships for Power Delivery In the second excerpt 1.3 Design of PDNs 1.4 Components of a PDN In the third excerpt 1.5 Analysis of PDNs 1.6 Chip-Package Antiresonance: An Example 1.7 High-Frequency Measurements 1.8 Signal Lines referenced to Planes 1.9 PDN Modeling Methodology The book can be purchased here. Madhavan Swaminathan received his B.E. in electronics and communication from Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirapalli, in 1985, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Syracuse University in 1989 and 1991. He is currently the Joseph M. Pettit Professor in Electronics in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and deputy director of the Packaging Research Center, Georgia Tech. He is also the cofounder of Jacket Micro Devices, a company specializing in RF modules for wireless applications. Before joining Georgia Tech, he worked on packaging for supercomputers for IBM. Swaminathan has written more than 300 publications, holds 15 patents, and has been honored as an IEEE Fellow for his work on power delivery. A. Ege Engin received his B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, and from the University of Paderborn, Germany. From 2001 to 2004, he was with the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration in Berlin. During this time, he also received his Ph.D. from the University of Hannover, Germany. He is currently a research engineer in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and an assistant research director of the Packaging Research Center at Georgia Tech. He has more than 50 publications in refereed journals and conferences in the areas of signal and power integrity modeling and simulation. This posting is part of the EDA Designline power series and is archived and updated. The root is accessible here . Please send me any updates, additions, references, white papers or other materials that should be associated with this posting. Thank you for making this a success - Brian Bailey.
Five years ago, the nation recoiled in horror as two planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers in New York City on Sept. 11, claiming the lives of more than 3,000 people. After the towers collapsed, firefighters, policemen and other emergency responders and volunteers rushed to Ground Zero to rescue anyone who still was alive beneath the rubble. Once rescue efforts became recovery and cleanup efforts, workers continued to toil at the site. But the calamity continues today. From the moment the towers collapsed, a toxic cloud filled with asbestos particles, shards of fiberglass and other toxins shrouded Ground Zero. Consequently, many of the responders and volunteers some say as many as 40,000 who spent days or even months at the World Trade Center site have reported a slew of irreversible and chronic illnesses ranging from upper and lower respiratory ailments to gastro-esophageal reflux disease, post-traumatic stress disorder and cancer. At least four responders firefighter Stephen Johnson, police officer James Godbee, detective James Zadroga and emergency medical services paramedic Debbie Reeve have died, allegedly as a result of exposure to World Trade Center dust particles. More than 12,000 people have been monitored in the two primary medical services for Ground Zero workers, one run by the New York Fire Department (FDNY), the other by the World Trade Center Monitoring Program based at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. In FDNY, more than 600 firefighters were forced into retirement because they were deemed permanently disabled, allegedly from exposure to Ground Zero hazards. The tragedy of the World Trade Center collapse not only is centered on the victims that died on 9/11, but also on the notion that these responders and contractors are getting sicker by the minute. According to Dr. Jacqueline Moline, principal investigator of the World Trade Center Monitoring and Treatment Program at Mount Sinai Medical Center, doctors were seeing as early as October 2001 that first responders were having health problems related to the World Trade Center dust. As more first responders are diagnosed with illnesses related to 9/11 dust, lessons are emerging for occupational and environmental health professionals who might one day face a similar disaster. While officials at OSHA and EPA appear to be unwilling to comment on the lessons those agencies learned as a result of 9/11 perhaps fearing they will be assigned blame for the illnesses now befalling responders and contractors at the World Trade Center site workers at Ground Zero have learned to live with these lessons everyday. Lesson One: Get the Facts Straight John Feal, an operating engineer contracted to work at the site on Sept. 12, is a textbook example of how respiratory protection was essential for the workers on site a lesson learned the hard way, since respirators were scarce commodities in the early days of the cleanup. In addition to suffering a painful and disabling injury when a 6,000-pound steel beam crushed his left foot as he was working on the site on Sept. 17, Feal also incurred sarcoidosis, a disease that scars lung tissue, and is bedeviled by acid reflux, a painful form of heartburn. He only worked at the site for 5 and 1/2 days, he says. According to Feal, he was never ordered to wear any type of respiratory protection the entire time he was there. "Not once did anyone tell me to wear a mask, so I never wore one," he says. "Now I can't go back to work because I am too sick and I won't know if I'll be able to pay my rent next month." Feal, like many other emergency responders, points the finger at EPA and former EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman for assuring 9/11 responders and the rest of New York the air was safe to breathe, an assurance later revealed by the EPA Inspector General's report in August 2003 to be unfounded. "When the EPA made a Sept. 18 announcement that the air was 'safe' to breathe, it did not have sufficient data and analyses to make such a blanket statement," the report noted. Feal believes Whitman misled many workers about the dangers at Ground Zero, causing them to work at the site without masks. "There is no reason for her to make such a statement without having proper evidence that the air was safe," Feal says. "I never smoked in my life. I am an Army veteran. I used to wrestle. For this to happen to me, in my mind ... I thought I was invincible." Lesson Two: Provide PPE and Training Appropriate half- or full-faced air-purifying respirators weren't made available to workers in adequate numbers until several weeks after the attack, says David Newman, an industrial hygienist from the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH). When the respirators finally became available for use, several problems emerged. According to Newman, there already was a short history of people not wearing respirators even though they were available, creating a culture of casualness among the workers. "You had Christie Whitman from the EPA and other officials stating that the air was safe to breathe, which undermines the success of any effort to get workers to wear respirators," Newman says. In addition, the nature of the respirators themselves was an impediment, Newman says. Not only can they be uncomfortable to wear especially when not fit-tested, which was the case at Ground Zero but the design itself didn't allow people to communicate with one another, important if a first responder has to warn others of potential dangers in the work area. Moline says one of the lessons learned by both first responders and government agencies is the importance of training first responders on how to properly use respirators. "People were wearing respirators on their chins. They didn't know what to do with them," Moline says. She says many of the rescue workers were not as well-trained as the firefighters, yet they were doing the same job. "We need to be aware that these people had exposures that they weren't trained for," she adds. Lesson Three: Don't Suspend Enforcement Joel Shufro, NYCOSH's executive director, points to what he calls OSHA's failure to enforce the respiratory protection standard and other regulations as another lapse in worker protections at Ground Zero one that will continue as other national emergencies occur, Shufro says. OSHA suspended enforcement of occupational safety and health regulations at the World Trade Center site, causing a concern for Shufro and others that lingers today. (Amid continuing complaints that local and federal officials were not doing enough to protect workers in the area adjacent to the World Trade Center, OSHA's Region Two office did begin a local emphasis program in Lower Manhattan in February 2002.) "We have a Freedom of Information Act request on [OSHA's] decision to not enforce respiratory protection and we are still waiting on that," Shufro says. "But based on what happened at Ground Zero, it's pretty much a guarantee [enforcement of workplace safety and health standards will be suspended] during a national emergency of this nature and we are going to see workers getting injured, sick and killed in the future." In fact, in the National Emergency Management Plan (NEMP) released in 2004, OSHA clarified that in the future, the agency will not enforce safety rules, but will instead provide technical assistance during large-scale emergencies. A major part of OSHA's assistance role during the emergency phase of nationally significant incidents includes the assessment and the management of the risks faced by first responders and recovery workers. That role was played out most recently during the response to the Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2005. According to the NEMP, the OSHA regional administrator in whose region the incident occurs may seek to regain OSHA's traditional enforcement authority, but this shift must be based on the incident's unique set of conditions and risks and only after consultation with the OSHA administrator. Lesson Four: Worry About the Worker, Not Liability The New York City government also has been heavily criticized for its alleged role in failing to address the safety and health risks for workers and volunteers at Ground Zero. "Rather than deal with the problem, they took the minimal approach and the consequences were that there were large numbers of people who were exposed who could have been protected," Shufro explains. According to Shufro and Newman, the city seemed much more interested in protecting itself from liability than protecting public health. The city's Department of Health also has failed to issue treatment guidelines for physicians, they say. "Unfortunately, we see more Ground Zero workers clinically diagnosed with respiratory and other medical problems and the city has been retrenching and posturing to make sure to make no statements that would increase their liability," Newman says. Lesson Five: Don't Allow Politics to Sabotage Response Newman and Suzanne Mattei, New York City director of the Sierra Club, claim that while federal agencies and the city of New York carry much of the responsibility for failing to protect emergency response workers, they were simply following orders issued by the White House, succumbing to tremendous pressure to reopen Wall Street as soon as possible. Everyone wanted life to return to normal as soon as possible, but the consequences one day could be deadly for workers and residents who returned while toxins still contaminated the air and buildings near Ground Zero. Mattei surmises that since the White House Council on Environmental Quality suppressed all health warnings, EPA took the position that the air was safe to breathe and OSHA took the position that the cleanup of Ground Zero was a safety and health success story. "By them assuring that everything was safe, it is as if they were saying that these people who are sick don't exist," Mattei says. "And if you can't admit that they're sick, how are they going to get help and get better?" At least 27 studies published by medical researchers from FDNY, Mount Sinai and other medical centers and associations state the opposite. They all detail how the toxins emitted following the collapse of the World Trade Center were the culprits in damaging the lungs of many, if not all, of the first responders who were there working for days and months. A study published in the August issue of the American Thoracic Society's journal the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine found that the firefighters who spent time at Ground Zero suffered a decrease in lung function capability equal to 12 years of age-related decline. Mattei says she fears response efforts in the future will continue to be shaped by political considerations rather than by public health, medical and scientific considerations, as they would put first responders at great risk. "My concern is emergency responders are a type of people who put other people's safety in front of their own; therefore if we don't protect them, who will?" Lesson Six: Emergencies Impact More People than First Responders The people working on the pile at the World Trade Center aren't the only ones who have developed health problems in the wake of 9/11. Robert Gulack, an attorney working for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), was at World Trade Center Building 7 when the planes hit. He was safely evacuated when the towers came down and had no exposure to the debris. A month later, though, SEC announced it had taken office space at the Woolworth building, located a block and a half away from Ground Zero. Within 2 days, Gulack says he fell sick. After several bouts of pneumonia and chronic bronchitis, tests showed he had permanent low-level lung damage. According to Gulack, EPA had claimed that no office worker in the Ground Zero neighborhood was hurt by the blown debris, and as a result, the agency is reluctant to decontaminate office buildings and residences around Ground Zero. "The important thing about my story is that it shows that somebody who was in fine health can get permanent lung damage simply by working at an office that was not properly decontaminated," he says. The New York City Department of Health also was not cooperative in work areas in the Ground Zero neighborhood, Newman says. He claims the department either ignored the issue of potential exposures to office workers and residences around Ground Zero or told them to clean the debris themselves. "This was widely inappropriate, ineffective and dangerous," Newman says. Lesson Seven: No Excuses In addition to theories about government agencies being pressured by the White House to not alarm workers and the rest of the New York population, other failures in protecting first responders and others working in the immediate area come from not having an adequate disaster plan. But Mattei claims this should not be an excuse. "If we keep saying that we're not ready, when are we going to be ready?" She asks. "That's the nature of an emergency, that it's unexpected." One of the problems in not having a proper plan when unprecedented disasters emerge is the first responder population is narrowly defined, says Newman. "We are seeing with the last few incidents [9/11 and the hurricanes in the Gulf Coast] that statutory provisions don't take into account the limited number of trained personnel that are available," he says. "We have a failure to adequately assess who it is that we need to respond to, but also who it is that does respond." During the World Trade Center rescue and recovery efforts, workers and volunteers responded by the thousands, and most of them had not received any training or had any experience in wearing respiratory protection, according to Newman. In addition, many of these workers were not tracked by their employers. For example, thousands of transit workers were sent to work at Ground Zero, but it's not clear that the New York City Transit Authority could even produce a list of people they sent to work there. Lesson Eight: The Importance of Site Control Having a list of responders on site in these types of situations is crucial, both for site management at the time of the crisis and for any public health concerns that might crop up later, says NIOSH Director John Howard, director of Mount Sinai's Medical Monitoring Program, which will debut its treatment arm in October. "In a big disaster, when there are lots of people rushing to help, someone should probably keep a list of who was sent and who was at the site," he says. "No one can assume that there will be a healthy aftermath and it is important to find these people so that we can offer treatment and care." Howard acknowledges a lot of money has been spent in making people aware of the problem and trying to find them, as many responders have scattered across the country since 2001. Because of this, Howard says it's almost impossible to figure out the magnitude of the problem. Bill Romaka, sergeant of arms safety and health officer with the Uniformed Firefighters Association an organization working with FDNY to secure money for treatment to firefighters who have gotten sick agrees that not having enough meaningful data is a big problem, despite the fact that FDNY has been conducting medical evaluations since before 9/11. "So many firefighters since 2001 have retired and moved away, even out of state," Romaka says. "If they aren't tracked down, it's hard [to get enough] data to make any type of conclusions." For this purpose, the New York City Health Department established the World Trade Center Health Registry in 2003, inviting people who worked at Ground Zero or worked around the area to report their health conditions. According to Dr. Lorna Thorpe, deputy commissioner of the Department of Epidemiology at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, more than 71,000 people who worked either on the pile or in the Ground Zero area have provided information, which she says has revealed "there is substantial evidence that many people had new or exacerbated respiratory health symptoms and conditions after 9/11." In the midst of conducting a follow-up survey to the initial 2003-2004 survey, the new results will point to the extent to which symptoms were resolved or continued to persist, Thorpe says. Lesson Nine: Protect Workers It is instructive to look at the management of the World Trade Center site in comparison to the Pentagon site, according to Mattei. One is a lesson in what not to do, the other in how such emergencies should be handled. "At the Pentagon site, [the workers] abided by HAZMAT rules and the site was tightly controlled," she says. "You weren't on that pile unless you had proper safety gear on." Howard points out one of the mistakes made at Ground Zero was to maintain the site as a rescue operation for 9 months. "Although it's overpowering to rescue your brothers and sisters, it's over on the fourth or fifth day," he explains. "It's important to control exposure at the site because these individuals don't have their own safety on their mind when going in." It is paramount, Howard says, to protect the workers who are doing the rescuing and recovering. Otherwise, these workers will have to deal with health issues for the rest of their lives. Says Howard: "To me, the real take-home lesson is prevention." Sidebar: Evacuation Plan is Critical While more than 3,000 people lost their lives as a result of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, thousands more survived. David Gold, an occupational safety and health expert with the International Labor Organization, believes those lives were saved because of an effective evacuation plan. "Where a large number of workers are concerned, it is not possible to evacuate the working areas in a timely manner without an evacuation plan," Gold said. To create an effective evacuation plan, you need to "know before you go," according to the Evacuation handbook from Coastal Training Technologies Corp. Specifically, Coastal advises employers to know five basic concepts: 1. Know the risks Know of every scenario that might require an evacuation of your workplace, from a fire to a tornado to a toxic chemical leak. Different causes lead to different types of evacuation. 2. Know the path A good evacuation plan makes sure the entire means of egress for example, not just a door, but also the hallways and stairwells is safely available, and, when possible, it suggests multiple or alternate means of egress. An exit needs to be large enough to accommodate all the workers who might have to use it, including workers with disabilities. 3. Know the people Evacuation plans need to take into consideration those who may require some assistance in evacuating (for example, those who are physically disabled, hearing-impaired or new to this country/job and are unfamiliar with evacuation procedures). Your evacuation plan should be designed to make sure everyone makes it to safety. 4. Know the destination Just as the nearest door isn't the entire exit path, being outside your building doesn't mean you've completed your evacuation. Different situations may call for different evacuation destinations, and some plans may have multiple destinations depending on the circumstances one for a fire, one for a flood, etc. Other plans may refer to a "refuge area" where workers should seek shelter after successfully exiting a building. 5. Know the drill A proper evacuation drill tests everyone's knowledge of the evacuation plan. A well-designed drill may simulate the blockage of certain exits, and certain workers might be asked ahead of time to simulate injury or disability. The goal of proper evacuation drilling is to make those procedures just as automatic as routine ones. To purchase the Evacuation handbook, or to order other safety training products from Coastal, call (888) 201-6767 or visit www.coastal.com.
The research project is a robotic façade system where each mirror rotates independently, controlled by a computer and electric motors to reflect daylight from the exterior deep within the building in precise locations. In this sense, each mirror can be considered to produce a pixel of daylight. The location of each pixel of light is determined by any raster-based image that is provided to the software. As each mirror rotates to reflect daylight onto a chosen location, it attempts to recreate a very low resolution version of the input image. This prototype could be used to control specific practical quantities of daylight for varying needs, but also to generate atmospheric effects. Principal Investigator Chandler Ahrens, Graduate School of Architecture, Washington University in St. Louis Co-Investigator Roger Chamberlain, Computer Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis Researchers Scott Mitchell, Adam Barnstorff, Joshua Gelbard Design, fabrication and assembly team Armaan Shah, Ryan Treacy, Adam Goldberg, Clayton Faber, Kyle Singer, Meredith Bickett, Alessandro Guttilla, Jonah Lillioja, Sophie Olund, Katie Engelmeyer, and Jiaheng (KJ) Kuang Location Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri Schedule Design 2016-2017 / Fabrication & installation 2017-2018
Public Understanding of Science, Technology & Economics The Foundation also sponsors innovative efforts using a range of media and other platforms to reach a broad, cross-cultural audience or to target specific segments of the public to enhance public understanding. These efforts may take the form of conferences, multimedia events, performances, ebooks, interactive games, science and arts festivals, and more. Recent grants have supported a documentary film about the avant garde opera Einstein on the Beach; an interactive ebook on the science of DNA and its role in overturning wrongful convictions that was developed by the New York Hall of Science; The Secret Lives of Scientists, a spin-off of the Sloan-supported NOVA ScienceNOW, commissioned and funded exclusively by Sloan as a web-based experiment; seed grants administered by the MIT Museum to launch new science festivals in communities with small resource bases; an iPad App based on the popular Sloan-supported NOVA show Hunting the Elements; talks, performances, and presentations on the role of beauty and aesthetics in Darwin's theories of selection; the annual World Science Festival; and an interactive virtual chemistry set for iPads called ChemCrafter developed by the Chemical Heritage Foundation. The Foundation supports innovative efforts like the annual World Science Festival in New York City. more False Conviction: Innocence, Guilt & Science, which uses animation, video, text, photos, and games centering on subjects such as DNA and cognitive psychology to explore what is and isn't scientific evidence, is now available on the iTunes store. more
Freedom of speech is anything but a modern concept. For thousands of years, humans have wrestled with the idea of allowing other people to speak their minds as they wish. In 399 B.C.E., Socrates was put to death for daring to question Roman religious practices. In 1633, Galileo was harassed by the Spanish Inquisition for claiming that the sun did not revolve around the Earth. Since then freedom of speech has evolved in myriad ways. But it's so vital to modern life that in the ashes of World War II, the United Nations saw fit to enshrine the ideal in the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers." Within this declaration is an implication of a free press. (The UN's resolution 59 takes this even further by saying freedom of information is a fundamental human right.) People ought to be able to express their ideas through any form. However, there's a key difference between freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Freedom of speech means that you can express your opinions without being punished. Freedom of the press is about distribution — you can publish and disseminate news and opinions without fear of intervention and retaliation. Many countries include press privileges in their governmental framework. Some back it up. Others do not [source: World Democracy Audit]. In the U.S., freedom of the press is enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution and reads as follows: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances" [source: Constitute Project]. "The way this right has been upheld by the Supreme Court has given the United States one of the most robust legal frameworks to protect free speech in the world," says Sarah Repucci, director of global publications at Freedom House, a U.S. organization that advocates and researches political and human rights issues around the world. "Here, the courts regularly strike down any attempts by the government or public figures that challenge the ability of journalists to freely report the news. It is something that Americans should be proud of."
A new study spotlights two key strategies: Start early. Watch for type 2 diabetes risk factors beginning in childhood. Manage weight for a lifetime. The goal is to head off a condition called metabolic syndrome , which can lead to type 2 diabetes. People with metabolic syndrome have at least three of these traits: - Large waist - Above-normal blood pressure - Above-normal blood sugar (glucose) after fasting - Above-normal triglycerides (a type of fat in the blood) after fasting - Below-normal HDL ("good") cholesterol Weight management, which includes exercise and a healthy diet, can make all of those problems less likely. The new study started in the 1970s and spanned a quarter of a century. At the study's start, 814 boys and girls (average age: 13) got their height, weight, blood pressure , glucose, triglycerides, and cholesterol measured. Back then, about 13% were overweight or at risk for becoming overweight and 4% had metabolic syndrome. Some 25-30 years later, the participants got another checkup. This time, a quarter of them were overweight, 26% had metabolic syndrome, and about 5% had type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes was most common among the following groups: - Adults who had metabolic syndrome as kids - Adults who had a parental history of diabetes - African-Americans, who were twice as likely as whites to have type 2 diabetes as adults - Older adults (diabetes becomes more likely with age) At all ages, being overweight made metabolic syndrome more likely, and overweight kids often became overweight adults. The researchers, who included John Morrison, PhD, of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, conclude that kids aged 5-19 should be checked for metabolic syndrome and parental history of diabetes. Morrison's team also emphasizes the importance of weight management to make metabolic syndrome and diabetes less likely. The study appears online in The Journal of Pediatrics. By Miranda Hitti Reviewed by Louise Chang ©2005-2006 WebMD, Inc. All rights reserved
Portal to the Past Cave The Children’s Museum is home to the coolest cave in town! Grab an explorer hat and head into the cave to explore artifacts, pass the cave drawings, stop by the campfire and then find your way down the slide. Build a dam, create a path for ducks and boats, splash and play, or try to catch fish-the water table is a favorite at the museum. Visit with Lake Erie fish and learn about where our water comes from! We are lucky to be located along one of the Great Lakes. This exhibit will help you learn all about the wonderful world of water. Use the blue blocks to build a castle, a fort, or anything that you decide to dream up! This exhibit transforms minds through creative play! Hey parents, you can join in the fun and help build something too!
1893 in science From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - July 11 – Kokichi Mikimoto, in Japan, develops the method to seed and grow cultured pearls. - Henry Luke Bolley discovers a method of treating smut with formaldehyde. - Hans Goldschmidt discovers the thermite reaction. - Alfred Werner discovers the octahedral structure of cobalt complexes, thus establishing the field of coordination chemistry. - Mary Kingsley lands in Sierra Leone on the first of her journeys through Africa in the interests of anthropology and natural history. - July 9 – Daniel H. Williams completes the first successful open heart surgery. - October 5 – Johns Hopkins Medical School opens in the United States. - Emil Kraepelin introduces the concept of dementia praecox in the classification of mental disorders, distinguishing it from mood disorder in his Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie (4th edition). - Ádám Politzer describes otosclerosis for the first time. - Vladimir Bekhterev describes Ankylosing spondylitis. - January 2 – Webb C. Ball introduces railroad chronometers which become the general railroad timepiece standards in North America. - February 1 – Thomas Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio in West Orange, New Jersey. - February 11 – János Csonka and Donát Bánki apply for a patent for the carburetor in Hungary. - February 23 – Rudolf Diesel receives a patent for the diesel engine. In this year he also publishes his treatise Theorie und Konstruktion eines rationellen Wärmemotors zum Ersatz der Dampfmaschine und der heute bekannten Verbrennungsmotoren. - February 28 – Edward Goodrich Acheson patents the method for making the abrasive silicon carbide powder. - May 9 – Edison's 1½ inch system of Kinetoscope is first demonstrated in public at the Brooklyn Institute. - May – William Scherzer (dies July 20, 1893) files a patent for his design of rolling lift bridge. - June 21 – The first Ferris Wheel opens to the public at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. - July 25 – Completion of the Corinth Canal in Greece. - August 17 – Wilhelm Maybach patents the spray nozzle carburetor in France. - Refinery for Pacific Coast Borax Company in Alameda, California, designed by Ernest L. Ransome, is the first major reinforced concrete building in the United States. - February 3 – Gaston Julia (died 1978), French mathematician. - April 29 – Harold Urey (died 1981), American winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. - April 30 – Roy Chadwick (died 1947), English aircraft designer. - June 13 – Alan A. Griffith (died 1963), English stress engineer. - August 5 – Sydney Camm (died 1966), English aircraft designer. - August 15 – Leslie Comrie (died 1950), New Zealand astronomer and computing pioneer. - August 24 – Haim Ernst Wertheimer (died 1978), German Jewish biochemist. - August 25 – Henry Trendley Dean (died 1962), American dental researcher. - September 16 – Albert Szent-Györgyi (died 1986), Hungarian physiologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. - October 23 – Ernst Öpik (died 1985), Estonian astronomer and astrophysicist. - November 3 – Edward Adelbert Doisy (died 1986), American biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. - December – Eugène Gabritschevsky (died 1979), Russian biologist and artist. - January 2 – John Obadiah Westwood (born 1805), English entomologist. - January 7 – Jožef Stefan (born 1835), Slovenian physicist and mathematician. - March 3 – Orlando Whistlecraft (died 1810), English meteorologist. - August 16 – Jean-Martin Charcot (born 1825), French neurologist. - September 1 – Leonard Jenyns (born 1800), English natural historian. - December 4 – John Tyndall (born 1820), British physicist. - December 6 – Rudolf Wolf (born 1816), Swiss astronomer. - December 28 – Richard Spruce (born 1817), English botanist. - Goldschmidt, H. (13 March 1895). Verfahren zur Herstellung von Metallen oder Metalloiden oder Legierungen derselben ("Process for the production of metals or metalloids or alloys of the same"). Deutsche Reichs Patent no. 96317. - "Alfred Werner: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1913". Nobel Lectures, Chemistry 1901–1921. Elsevier Publishing Company. 1966. Retrieved 2007-03-24. - Bechterew, W. (1893). "Steifigkeit der Wirbelsaule und ihre Verkrummung als besondere Erkrankungsform". Neurologisches Centralblatt. 12: 426–434. - 10891/1893, issued 3 May 1894. - Trudeau, Terence (1990). "The Work and Life of John Csonka". Csonka János Emlékmúzeum. Retrieved 2012-01-30. - Acheson, G. (1893) U.S. Patent 492,767 Production of artificial crystalline carbonaceous material. - U.S. Patent 511,713 granted December 26, 1893. Historic American Engineering Record (1984). New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, Fort Point Channel Rolling Lift Bridge (Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge) (PDF). HAER, MA-35. Washington, DC. pp. 7–8. Retrieved 2012-02-09. - Anderson, Norman D. Ferris wheels: an illustrated history. - Meehan, Patrick. "The Big Wheel". Hyde Park Historical Society. Retrieved 2011-10-20. - "Η αντίστροφη μέτρηση". Διώρυγα Κορίνθου. 2009. Retrieved 2012-11-06. - Engineering News 29 (16 February 1893) pp. 162–163.
In signal processing and related disciplines, aliasing is an effect that causes different signals to become indistinguishable (or aliases of one another) when sampled. It also refers to the distortion or artifact that results when the signal reconstructed from samples is different from the original continuous signal. Aliasing can occur in signals sampled in time, for instance digital audio, and is referred to as temporal aliasing. Aliasing can also occur in spatially sampled signals, for instance digital images. Aliasing in spatially sampled signals is called spatial aliasing. When a digital image is viewed, a reconstruction is performed by a display or printer device, and by the eyes and the brain. If the image data is not properly processed during sampling or reconstruction, the reconstructed image will differ from the original image, and an alias is seen. An example of spatial aliasing is the moiré pattern one can observe in a poorly pixelized image of a brick wall. Spatial anti-aliasing techniques avoid such poor pixelizations. Aliasing can be caused either by the sampling stage or the reconstruction stage; these may be distinguished by calling sampling aliasing prealiasing and reconstruction aliasing postaliasing. Temporal aliasing is a major concern in the sampling of video and audio signals. Music, for instance, may contain high-frequency components that are inaudible to humans. If a piece of music is sampled at 32000 samples per second (Hz), any frequency components above 16000 Hz (the Nyquist frequency for this sampling rate) will cause aliasing when the music is reproduced by a digital to analog converter (DAC). To prevent this an anti-aliasing filter is used to remove components above the Nyquist frequency prior to sampling. In video or cinematography, temporal aliasing results from the limited frame rate, and causes the wagon-wheel effect, whereby a spoked wheel appears to rotate too slowly or even backwards. Aliasing has changed its apparent frequency of rotation. A reversal of direction can be described as a negative frequency. Temporal aliasing frequencies in video and cinematography are determined by the frame rate of the camera, but the relative intensity of the aliased frequencies is determined by the shutter timing (exposure time) or the use of a temporal aliasing reduction filter during filming. Like the video camera, most sampling schemes are periodic; that is, they have a characteristic sampling frequency in time or in space. Digital cameras provide a certain number of samples (pixels) per degree or per radian, or samples per mm in the focal plane of the camera. Audio signals are sampled (digitized) with an analog-to-digital converter, which produces a constant number of samples per second. Some of the most dramatic and subtle examples of aliasing occur when the signal being sampled also has periodic content. Actual signals have finite duration and their frequency content, as defined by the Fourier transform, has no upper bound. Some amount of aliasing always occurs when such functions are sampled. Functions whose frequency content is bounded (bandlimited) have infinite duration. If sampled at a high enough rate, determined by the bandwidth, the original function can in theory be perfectly reconstructed from the infinite set of samples. Sometimes aliasing is used intentionally on signals with no low-frequency content, called bandpass signals. Undersampling, which creates low-frequency aliases, can produce the same result, with less effort, as frequency-shifting the signal to lower frequencies before sampling at the lower rate. Some digital channelizers exploit aliasing in this way for computational efficiency. See Sampling (signal processing), Nyquist rate (relative to sampling), and Filter bank. Sampling sinusoidal functions Sinusoids are an important type of periodic function, because realistic signals are often modeled as the summation of many sinusoids of different frequencies and different amplitudes (for example, with a Fourier series or transform). Understanding what aliasing does to the individual sinusoids is useful in understanding what happens to their sum. Here, a plot depicts a set of samples whose sample-interval is 1, and two (of many) different sinusoids that could have produced the samples. The sample-rate in this case is . For instance, if the interval is 1 second, the rate is 1 sample per second. Nine cycles of the red sinusoid and 1 cycle of the blue sinusoid span an interval of 10 samples. The corresponding number of cycles per sample are and . If these samples were produced by sampling functions and , they could also have been produced by the trigonometrically identical functions and which introduces the useful concept of negative frequency. In general, when a sinusoid of frequency is sampled with frequency the resulting number of cycles per sample is (known as normalized frequency), and the samples are indistinguishable from those of another sinusoid (called an alias) whose normalized frequency differs from by any integer (positive or negative).[note 1] Replacing negative frequency sinusoids by their equivalent positive frequency representations, we can express all the aliases of frequency as for any integer with being the true value, and has units of cycles per sample. Then the alias of is (and vice versa). Aliasing matters when one attempts to reconstruct the original waveform from its samples. The most common reconstruction technique produces the smallest of the frequencies. So it is usually important that be the unique minimum. A necessary and sufficient condition for that is where is commonly called the Nyquist frequency of a system that samples at rate In our example, the Nyquist condition is satisfied if the original signal is the blue sinusoid (). But if the usual reconstruction method will produce the blue sinusoid instead of the red one. In the example above, and are symmetrical around the frequency And in general, as increases from 0 to decreases from to Similarly, as increases from to continues decreasing from to 0. A graph of amplitude vs frequency for a single sinusoid at frequency and some of its aliases at and would look like the 4 black dots in the adjacent figure. The red lines depict the paths (loci) of the 4 dots if we were to adjust the frequency and amplitude of the sinusoid along the solid red segment (between and ). No matter what function we choose to change the amplitude vs frequency, the graph will exhibit symmetry between 0 and This symmetry is commonly referred to as folding, and another name for (the Nyquist frequency) is folding frequency. Folding is most often observed in practice when viewing the frequency spectrum of real-valued samples using a discrete Fourier transform. Complex sinusoids are waveforms whose samples are complex numbers, and the concept of negative frequency is necessary to distinguish them. In that case, the frequencies of the aliases are given by just: Therefore, as increases from to goes from up to 0. Consequently, complex sinusoids do not exhibit folding. Complex samples of real-valued sinusoids have zero-valued imaginary parts and do exhibit folding. When the condition is met for the highest frequency component of the original signal, then it is met for all the frequency components, a condition known as the Nyquist criterion. That is typically approximated by filtering the original signal to attenuate high frequency components before it is sampled. These attenuated high frequency components still generate low-frequency aliases, but typically at low enough amplitudes that they do not cause problems. A filter chosen in anticipation of a certain sample frequency is called an anti-aliasing filter. The filtered signal can subsequently be reconstructed, by interpolation algorithms, without significant additional distortion. Most sampled signals are not simply stored and reconstructed. But the fidelity of a theoretical reconstruction (via the Whittaker–Shannon interpolation formula) is a customary measure of the effectiveness of sampling. Historically the term aliasing evolved from radio engineering because of the action of superheterodyne receivers. When the receiver shifts multiple signals down to lower frequencies, from RF to IF by heterodyning, an unwanted signal, from an RF frequency equally far from the local oscillator (LO) frequency as the desired signal, but on the wrong side of the LO, can end up at the same IF frequency as the wanted one. If it is strong enough it can interfere with reception of the desired signal. This unwanted signal is known as an image or alias of the desired signal. Aliasing occurs whenever the use of discrete elements to capture or produce a continuous signal causes frequency ambiguity. This aliasing is visible in images such as posters with lenticular printing: if they have low angular resolution, then as one moves past them, say from left-to-right, the 2D image does not initially change (so it appears to move left), then as one moves to the next angular image, the image suddenly changes (so it jumps right) – and the frequency and amplitude of this side-to-side movement corresponds to the angular resolution of the image (and, for frequency, the speed of the viewer's lateral movement), which is the angular aliasing of the 4D light field. The lack of parallax on viewer movement in 2D images and in 3-D film produced by stereoscopic glasses (in 3D films the effect is called "yawing", as the image appears to rotate on its axis) can similarly be seen as loss of angular resolution, all angular frequencies being aliased to 0 (constant). Online audio example The qualitative effects of aliasing can be heard in the following audio demonstration. Six sawtooth waves are played in succession, with the first two sawtooths having a fundamental frequency of 440 Hz (A4), the second two having fundamental frequency of 880 Hz (A5), and the final two at 1760 Hz (A6). The sawtooths alternate between bandlimited (non-aliased) sawtooths and aliased sawtooths and the sampling rate is 22.05 kHz. The bandlimited sawtooths are synthesized from the sawtooth waveform's Fourier series such that no harmonics above the Nyquist frequency are present. The aliasing distortion in the lower frequencies is increasingly obvious with higher fundamental frequencies, and while the bandlimited sawtooth is still clear at 1760 Hz, the aliased sawtooth is degraded and harsh with a buzzing audible at frequencies lower than the fundamental. 440 Hz bandlimited, 440 Hz aliased, 880 Hz bandlimited, 880 Hz aliased, 1760 Hz bandlimited, 1760 Hz aliased \|Problems playing this file? See media help.\| A form of spatial aliasing can also occur in antenna arrays or microphone arrays used to estimate the direction of arrival of a wave signal, as in geophysical exploration by seismic waves. Waves must be sampled at more than two points per wavelength, or the wave arrival direction becomes ambiguous. \|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aliasing.\| - Kell factor - Sinc filter - Sinc function - Stroboscopic effect - Wagon-wheel effect - Glossary of video terms - Brillouin zone - Adding an integer number of cycles between the samples of a sinusoid has no effect on the values at the sample points. That is the essence of aliasing. - Mitchell, Don P.; Netravali, Arun N. (August 1988). Reconstruction filters in computer-graphics (PDF). ACM SIGGRAPH International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques. pp. 221–228. doi:10.1145/54852.378514. ISBN 0-89791-275-6. - Tessive, LLC (2010)."Time Filter Technical Explanation" - harris, frederic j. (Aug 2006). Multirate Signal Processing for Communication Systems. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR. ISBN 0-13-146511-2. - The (New) Stanford Light Field Archive - Flanagan J.L., ‘Beamwidth and useable bandwidth of delay- steered microphone arrays’, AT&T Tech. J., 1985, 64, pp. 983–995 - "Sampling and reconstruction," Chapter 7 in. - on YouTube by Tektronix Application Engineer - Anti-Aliasing Filter Primer by La Vida Leica discusses its purpose and effect on the image recorded. - Interactive examples demonstrating the aliasing effect - Matt Pharr; Greg Humphreys (28 June 2010). Physically Based Rendering: From Theory to Implementation. Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN 978-0-12-375079-2. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
Communication for Leaders Great leaders are effective communicators In most every workplace the most common complaint from workers about their leaders invariably revolves around the amount and the caliber of their communication. Clearly, effective communication in the workplace is in short supply and the urgency to improve communication skills is real and growing. Of all the qualities of good leadership, none has greater potential than the mastery of communication; everything else flows from it. Listening actively, providing feedback and asking questions All are part of effective communication, and all are essential leadership characteristics that every leader and manager needs to recognize as central to working relationships and overall workplace environment. This workshop will teach you how to ask the right questions at the right time to uncover the truth that needs to be known, and to do so in a collaborative and non-confrontational manner. You’ll also understand the importance of paralinguistics—everything but what you say. Gain the tools and master the skills to reinforce your message —even before large groups, when it’s impossible to connect individually —by controlling body language, tone of voice, facial expressions and mannerisms. All are orchestrated and coordinated, working in concert to elicit the desired response from your audience and your teams. - Master effective workplace communication for all circumstances. - Adapt personal style to your audience and different situations. - Develop awareness of paralinguistics and leverage its benefits. - Understand the Levels of Resistance and crafting persuasive messages.
Hang the Transit of Venus on your wall! Hubble-quality images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory are now available as metallic posters in the Space Weather Store. \| \|\| \| RUSSIAN METEOR UPDATE: On Friday, February 15th at 9:30 am local time in Russia, a small asteroid struck the atmosphere over the city of Chelyabinsk and exploded. According to reports from news organizations and Russian authorities, as many as 1000 people received minor injuries from the shock wave. This is the most energetic recorded meteor strike since the Tunguska impact of 1908. Researchers including Prof. Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario along with NASA experts have conducted a preliminary analysis of the event. "Here is what we know so far," says Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "The asteroid was about 15 meters in diameter and weighed approximately 7000 metric tons. It struck Earth's atmosphere at 40,000 mph (18 km/s) and broke apart about 12 to 15 miles (20 to 25 km) above Earth's surface. The energy of the resulting explosion was in the vicinity of 300 kilotons of TNT." (continued below) "A shock wave propagated down and struck the city below, causing large numbers of windows to break, some walls to collapse, and minor damage throughout the city," he continued. "When you hear about injuries, those are undoubtedly due to the effects of the shock wave, not due to fragments striking the ground. There are undoubtedly fragments on the ground, but as of this time we know of no recovered fragments that we can verify." Videos of the event may be found here and here. In many of the videos you can hear the sound of windows shattering as the meteor's loud shock wave reaches the ground. Onlookers cry out in Russian as alarms and sirens sound in the background. This pair of wide-angle gif animations is also worth watching: #1, #2. It is natural to wonder if this event has any connection to today's record-setting flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14. Paul Chodas of the Near Earth Object Program at JPL says no. "The Russian fireball is not related to 2012 DA14 in any way. It's an incredible coincidence that we have had these two rare events in one day." Stay tuned for updates! GOOD-BYE 2012 DA14: Asteroid 2012 DA14 few past Earth on Feb. 15th inside the orbit of many geosynchronous satellites. At closest approach, around 2:25 pm EST, the 45-meter wide space rock was only 17,200 miles above Indonesia. No satellites were damaged by the flyby, and the asteroid is now receding from Earth. Using a 3" refractor at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, Aaron Kingery captured this image of 2012 DA14 passing in front of the eta Carina Nebula: NASA's Goldstone radar in the Mojave Desert will ping the space rock for the next four days to refine its orbit and map its surface features. Researchers will look carefully for signs that Earth's gravity might have caused seismic activity on the asteroid. Browse the realtime gallery for more images from around the world. Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery VALENTINE'S DAY MAGNETIC STORM: Valentine's Day in Scandinavia began with a magnetic storm. Rob Stammes of the Polar Light Center in Lofoten, Norway, reports: "Our instruments recorded 2o swings in the local magnetic field, which induced strong electrical currents in the ground outside our lab." The needles on his chart recorder were swinging wildly: "Overhead we saw some fantastic auroras," he adds. The storm was caused by a region of south-pointing magnetism in the solar wind that wafted past Earth during the early hours of Feb. 14th. The solar wind's south-pointing magnetic field partially canceled Earth's north-pointing magnetic field, opening a crack in our planet's magnetosphere. Solar wind poured in to fuel the storm. Browse the realtime gallery for images of some sweet auroras on Valentine's day. Aurora alerts: text, voice. Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery Realtime Comet Photo Gallery Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery [previous years: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011]
Someone recently asked me this question: “What is the number one factor affecting human mortality?” The answer could well be, “Stress,” because stress supresses (reduce) brain activity and the growth of all cells! Let me clarify. There is no doubt that any kind of stress—physiological, cognitive, or emotional—damages an individual’s health. Each stressful moment reduces brain activity, especially frontal lobe activity, which occurs in the part of the brain that stores a person’s intellectual ability to communicate with the outside world. Under stress, intellectual ability is decreased: You can’t work efficiently, communicate properly, or make important decisions. Motivation is decreased, as well, which may result in your state of happiness dropping to its lowest level. Stress can prevent you from living a full life: It suppresses your brain, causing it to perform below the maximum level of your intellectual and physiological capacity. Unfortunately, when you experience stress, your body automatically switches to survival mode in an effort to help you survive the “attack,” whether that attack is real or imagined. So what’s wrong with being in survival mode? Although survival mode protects you from the stressor, it is not a normal mode with which the human body operates. Once the stress is over, you need to go back to normal mode; if you don’t go back, you’re in a state of chronic stress (persists over a long period of time). In survival mode, the human body needs to save energy by shutting down all “unnecessary” processes, such as digestion, the immune system, cognitive thinking, or libido. I’m not kidding: The stress response is brutally “honest.” It asks you: “Do you want to survive, or do you want to maintain all these processes? Choose one or the other, because you can’t have both.” Digestion, immune protection, or intellectual thinking comprise a kind of “wasting energy” when you’re in survival mode. In other words, you don’t need these processes when preparing for a fight or flight situation. All you need at that moment is to save energy and to survive. Now you know why people dealing with chronic stress are often sick (immunity goes down), why they have digestion problems (the whole process slows down), or why they are confused and can’t seem to concentrate. People experiencing this type of stress are full of stress hormones and, as a result, they influence the people around them to the point that they also feel stressed. Stress is contagious—did you know that? Under stress, the human body works inadequately, shutting down one of the most important processes in the human body: the process of growing. Human cells have two roles: to protect you from outside threats and to grow. When growing stops, the body collapses. Why? Because you can’t sustain both processes at the same time: protection and growth. Under stress, you’re functioning from a protective mode. When the protective mode is working, the process of growing is supressed. The human brain “knows” this and will always try to protect you first. Eventually, the process of growing will come back, but only when the protection mode is off and you’re once again in a relaxed state. Yes, stress is a killer. If you want to enjoy a long and healthy life, try to find the best way to reduce the stress in your own life and the sooner the better. The Internet is a helpful source for finding suggestions for stress reduction. If you think you don’t have the time to explore ways in which to reduce stress in your life, I urge you to reconsider. The truth of the matter is this: You can’t afford not to take the time. Your health, and perhaps your very life, is at stake. Jahiel Yasha Kamhi is a motivational and popular science freelance writer holding a degree, specialist in medical biochemistry, and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. He is passionate about writing articles that helping people live more empowered life, with knowledge, passion and purpose. Jahiel is contributing writer to many magazines. He also delivers presentations that inspire others to find more meaning and balance in their lives. He can be contacted at email@example.com. This article cannot be re-published without permission.
Learning a new language also gives you a new perspective on your own language. When I started to learn my first foreign language, I was amazed how many words in English have multiple meanings or functions. Left is both the opposite of right and the past of leave. Light can be a noun (a bright light), an adjective (a light suitcase) or a verb (to light a cigarette). Understanding the different uses and forms of words helps us to understand exactly what we need in different situations. I find that using the verb have is a typical problem for learners of English. People often ask me which is correct: Have you time? or Do you have time? and if it should be He hasn’t called or He doesn’t have called. This is because have has many different functions. The main two are to talk about possession (e.g. You have a car) and to talk about the past (e.g. You have sold your car). When talking about possession, have is generally treated as a ‘normal’ verb, which means it uses do to form questions and negatives: - You don’t have a car. (Du hast kein Auto.) - Do you have a car? (Hast du ein Auto?) When talking about the past, have is an auxiliary verb (Hilfsverb). It doesn’t use do for negatives or questions and is used in combination with the past participle of a verb (e.g. spoken, been or gone). - You haven’t sold your car. (Du hast dein Auto nicht verkauft.) - Have you sold your car? (Hast du dein Auto verkauft?) Another common way of using have is in have to, when we talk about the importance of something. Here, negatives and questions are also formed using do: - You don’t have to sell your car. (Du musst dein Auto nicht verkaufen.) - Do you have to sell your car? (Musst du dein Auto verkaufen?) A simple tip is to check if you’re using the past participle (third form) of the verb with have. If you are, there should be no form of do with it. Do you sometimes have this problem?
Rage—Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses, hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls, great fighters’ souls, but made their bodies carrion, feasts for the dogs and birds, and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end. Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed, Agamemnon lord of men and brilliant Achilles. The first lines of an ancient epic poem typically offer a capsule summary of the subject the poem will treat, and the first lines of The Iliad conform to this pattern. Indeed, Homer announces his subject in the very first word of the very first line: “Rage.” He then locates the rage within “Peleus’ son Achilles,” delineates its consequences (“cost the Achaeans countless losses . . .”), links it to higher forces and agendas (“the will of Zeus”), and notes its origin (when “the two first broke and clashed, / Agamemnon . . . and brilliant Achilles”). Interestingly, although these lines purport to focus on a human emotion, they interpret this emotion as unfolding in accordance with the expression of Zeus’s will. Similarly, Homer conceives of the entire epic as the medium through which a divine being—a Muse—speaks. As evident in this passage, the poem emphatically does not undertake to deal with the Trojan War as a whole. The poet does not even mention Troy here, and he specifically asks the Muse to begin the story at the time when Agamemnon and Achilles first “broke and clashed”—nine years into the ten-year conflict. Nor does he mention the fall of Troy or the Greek victory, referring only to a vague “end” toward which Zeus’s will moves. This does not mean that the Trojan War does not play an important role in the poem. Homer clearly uses the war not just as a setting but as a wellspring for the value system he celebrates, and a source of telling illustrations for his statements on life, death, and fate. Nonetheless, the poem remains fundamentally focused on the conflict within a single man, and this opening passage conveys this focus to the reader. We everlasting gods . . . Ah what chilling blows we suffer—thanks to our own conflicting wills— whenever we show these mortal men some kindness. Ares voices this lament after being wounded by Diomedes in Book 5. His plaint concisely captures the Homeric relationship between gods and men and, perhaps, Homer’s attitude toward that relationship. Homeric gods frequently intervene in the mortal world out of some kind of emotional attachment to the object of that intervention. Here, Ares describes this emotion as simply a desire to do “kindness,” but kindness toward one mortal often translates into unkindness toward another—hence Ares’ wound at the hands of Diomedes. Divine intervention in The Iliad causes conflicts not only in the mortal sphere but between the gods as well. Each god favors different men, and when these men are at war, divine wars often rage as well. Ares thus correctly attributes the gods’ “chilling blows” to their “own conflicting wills.” Ares’ whining does not make him unique among the gods. Homer’s immortals expect to govern according to their wills, which are in turn governed by self-interest. Correspondingly, they complain when they do not get their way. Ares’ melodramatic and self-pitying lament, which is greeted with scorn by Zeus a few lines later, probably implies some criticism of the gods by Homer. Ares’ appearance here as a kind of spoiled child provides just one example of Homer’s portrayal of the gods as temperamental, sulky, vengeful, and petty—a portrayal that may seek to describe and explain the inequities and absurdities in life on earth. Cattle and fat sheep can all be had for the raiding, tripods all for the trading, and tawny-headed stallions. But a man’s life breath cannot come back again— . . . Mother tells me, the immortal goddess Thetis with her glistening feet, that two fates bear me on to the day of death. If I hold out here and I lay siege to Troy, my journey home is gone, but my glory never dies. If I voyage back to the fatherland I love, my pride, my glory dies. . . . With these words in Book 9, Achilles rejects the embassy of Achaean commanders come to win him back to the war effort. His response here shows that Agamemnon’s effrontery—which he discusses earlier in his speech—does not constitute the sole reason for his refusal to fight. Achilles also fears the consequences in store for him if he remains in Troy. His mother, Thetis, has told him that fate has given him two options—either live a short but glorious life in Troy or return to Phthia and live on in old age but obscurity. As he confronts this choice, the promise of gifts and plunder—cattle, fat sheep, stallions—doesn’t interest him at all. Such material gifts can be traded back and forth, or even taken away, as his prize Briseis was. In contrast, the truly precious things in the world are those that cannot be bought, sold, seized, or commodified in any way. These include glory and life itself. The choice that Achilles must make in this scene is between glory and life; it is not merely a matter of whether to accept the gifts or to continue protesting Agamemnon’s arrogance. At this point in the epic, Achilles has chosen life over glory, and he explains that he plans to return to Phthia. However, the allure of glory later proves irresistible when he finds a compelling occasion for it—avenging the death of his beloved friend Patroclus. Zeus speaks these words to the horses of Achilles’ chariot, who weep over the death of Patroclus in Book 17. Grim as they are, the lines accurately reflect the Homeric view of the human condition. Throughout The Iliad, as well as The Odyssey, mortals often figure as little more than the playthings of the gods. Gods can whisk them away from danger as easily as they can put them in the thick of it. It is thus appropriate that the above lines are spoken by a god, and not by a mortal character or the mortal poet; the gods know the mortals’ agony, as they play the largest role in causing it. While gods can presumably manipulate and torment other animals that “breathe and crawl across the earth,” humanity’s consciousness of the arbitrariness of their treatment at the hands of the gods, their awareness of the cruel choreography going on above, increases their agony above that of all other creatures. For while the humans remain informed of the gods’ interventions, they remain powerless to contradict them. Moreover, humans must deal with a similarly fruitless knowledge of their fates. The Iliad’s two most important characters, Achilles and Hector, both know that they are doomed to die early deaths. Hector knows in addition that his city is doomed to fall, his brothers and family to be extinguished, and his wife to be reduced to slavery. These men’s agony arises from the fact that they bear the burden of knowledge without being able to use this knowledge to bring about change. Remember your own father, great godlike Achilles— as old as I am, past the threshold of deadly old age! No doubt the countrymen round about him plague him now, with no one there to defend him, beat away disaster. No one—but at least he hears you’re still alive and his old heart rejoices, hopes rising, day by day, to see his beloved son come sailing home from Troy. With these words, spoken in the middle of Book 24, Priam implores Achilles to return Hector’s corpse for proper burial. He makes himself sympathetic in Achilles’ eyes by drawing a parallel between himself and Achilles’ father, Peleus. Priam imagines Peleus surrounded by enemies with no one to protect him—a predicament that immediately mirrors his own, as a supplicant standing in the middle of the enemy camp. Moreover, the two fathers’ situations resemble each other on a broader scale as well. Hector was the bulwark for Priam’s Troy just as Achilles was the bulwark for his father’s kingdom back in Phthia, and with the two sons gone, Priam’s enemies—the Achaeans—will now close in on him just as those of Peleus will. Priam claims that the parallel fails in only one respect: Peleus can at least hope that his son will come home one day. But it is this one alleged hole in Priam’s comparison that truly summons Achilles’ pity and breaks down his resistance, for, unknown to Priam, Peleus is also destined never to see his son again. Achilles knows, as Priam does not, that he is fated to die at Troy and never return home to Phthia. He realizes that one day Peleus will learn that his son has died at the hands of enemies and that he will never see his body again, just as might happen to Priam if Achilles doesn’t return Hector’s corpse to him. Priam’s comparison turns out to be more true than he knows. In the summary for book 4 it says, " Zeus argues that Menelaus has won the duel," while in the quiz the "correct" answer for the person who believes that Paris won the duel is Zeus. This is a direct contradiction and should be rectified. 15 out of 19 people found this helpful I must disagree with Hektor's commentary above. "His refusal to flee even in the face of vastly superior forces makes him the most tragic figure in the poem." He did flee. THREE times... The only moment when he stands and fights is when he thinks he has a buddy by his side to back him up. ("Athene deceived Hector with her words and her disguise.") Sorry, but that is cowardice (and he is the GREATEST of the Trojans... just saying...) He is a coward by the end of the book, not so different from Paris. 12 out of 24 people found this helpful Read the full answer at 7 out of 9 people found this helpful
Intelligence and Emotional intelligence : According to Douglas Hofstadter, Pulitzer-prize winning author of the brilliant book Godel, Escher, Bach, intelligence can be defined in terms of the following eight abilities: 1. To respond to situations very flexibly. 2. To take advantage of the right time and right place. 3. To make sense of ambiguous or contradictory messages. 4. To recognize the importance of different elements of a situation. 5. To find similarities between situations despite differences that may separate them. 6. To draw distinctions between situations despite similarities that may link them. 7. To synthesize new concepts by taking old concepts and combining them in new ways. 8. To develop ideas that are novel. Without the intelligent guidance of emotions, human beings cannot respond to situations very flexibly, take advantage of the right time and right place, make sense of ambiguous or contradictory messages, recognize the importance of different elements of a situation, find similarities between situations despite differences that may separate them, draw distinctions between situations despite similarities that may link them, synthesize new concepts by taking old concepts and combining in new ways, or develop ideas that are novel. Without the guidance of emotions we cannot be intelligent. Without the guidance of emotions we cannot be rational. • Emotional intelligence is registered through deep listening — listening to oneself and listening to others (Kramer 1995, 1999). • People who are high in emotional intelligence know how to listen to their emotions and regulate their intensity so they are not hijacked by them. • Emotionally intelligent people know how to keep disruptive emotions in check. • Emotionally intelligent people sense the effect their emotions have on others. • Emotionally intelligence people know how to deploy their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses. • Emotionally intelligence people listen to other people’s emotions and can empathize with them. • Emotionally intelligent people act ethically and build trust through integrity and • Emotionally intelligent people admit their own mistakes and learn from them. • Emotionally intelligent people are comfortable with new ideas and new information. • Emotionally intelligent people are skilled at listening to a group’s emotional currents and discerning the power relationships. • Emotionally intelligent people can negotiate and resolve disagreements. • Emotionally intelligent people listen to other people and know how to communicate effectively. Emotionally intelligent behavior is a prerequisite for building bridges of mutual understanding and trust in the space between people — in “administrative space.” Niccollo Machiavelli (1469-1527) said that there are two types of governments – monarchy and free state(republic). He said that free states require virtuous citizens who care more for the state than themselves, and realistically people generally care more about their private interests or group concerns. Overtime, eventually there is failure of republic since they corrupt the state to achieve their private interests at the expense of the state. Paul Appleby, one of first presidents of the American society of Public Administration, counter argued above argument and felt that for a free state to remain a free state, virtuous public servants, who shared common social ethics of concern for public interest, were essential. A free state, where private interests think about maximizing their own good and refusing to consider common good is likely to self-destruct over time unless the nation’s leaders and bureaucracy act to focus public policy on public interests. He agreed that when citizens viewed their welfare as individuals and groups separate from the republic and, more important, from the welfare of the republic, then the society would become morally corrupt. To avoid that end, he argued that public servants must maintain democratic morality social ethics. He emphasized following fundamental values in civil servants • Importance of public trust in leading nation • The role of nation in curbing excesses and inadequacies of market system • The need of civic virtue • The commitment of the nation to continued social and economic progress. And these values are now more important considering globalization of economics, political influence of corporate , crime and corruption, environmental pollution and terrorism. He felt that public administrators should always perform their actions withing the large context of democracy. Rule of law and Elections must overrule public administrators. Of the three contemporary theories of ethics that is rule based, consequential and virtue, Appleby advocated virtue ethics for public officials. He said, “Moral performance begins in individual self-discipline on the partof officials, involving all that is meant by the word ‘character’” (1965, 344).But character is not enough for his democratic morality. The administrative process must also support individual group judgment that reflects a whole public or oneness responsibility. Individual public administrator’s honesty is not sufficient as there must also be “a devoted guardianship of the continuing reality of democracy”. Ideally, democracy should force private and special interests into a pluralistic mill that creates a majoritarian calculus that reflects the larger public interest. Eventually, the mill grinds and blends the myriad of private and special interests into one public interest. Hierarchy forces top officials to homogenize and moralize the private and special interests through the mill of organizational echelons. The role of the public servant is to sort though those various private and special interests and help transform them into a “public will.” Thus, politics and hierarchy are causal agents to the public servant, who must creatively search for a “public will to be.” He argued that this milling of private and special interests could occur only if legislative and administrative devices, such as due process and proper administrative notice, exist together. They must ensure that the public policy decisions emerged out of the complexity rather than out of the simplicity of particular private and special interests. Appleby said, “Our poorest governmental performances, both technically and morally, are generally associated with conditions in which a few citizens have very disproportionate influence” Another challenge for the moral public administrator is to recognize that four essential wisdoms help us understand the context of public service. • First, there is no way of avoiding personal and private interest in the calculus of public decision making. Whether the motivation is survival or greed, the human condition fosters personal and private interests. • Second, as humans, we are as much rationalizers as we are sometimes rational beings. The more educated and sophisticated we are, typically the better we are at rationalizing our actions sometimes even to ourselves. • Third, more successful public discourses require an effort to transcend, sublimate, and transform narrow vested interests (i.e., dialogical discourse) but this capacity is exercised imperfectly and intermittently. Dialogical discourse with others is difficult, time consuming, and often overly emotional to the point that it is unsuccessful. Too often such discourse requires skills that are not present in public situations. • Fourth, there is no public decision that is a total victory for the right and a total defeat for the wrong. In the process of milling to arrive at the “public’s will,” all parties will ultimately feel either that they did not get all that they wanted or that they did not lose everything. Beyond the simple recognition of these four wisdoms, the public servant must have the character virtues of optimism, courage, humility, and a willingness to offer compromise. Bailey projected Appleby’s virtue ethics into three essential moral qualities for the ethical public servant: Public administrators must be able to face the ambiguity and the paradoxical nature of ethics without being immobilized by them. They must be purposive in their behavior rather than reactive and, most important, they must remain ever hopeful in their outlook. True optimism is the affirmation of the worth of taking risks. True optimism is also the capacity to see the possibilities for good in the uncertain, the ambiguous, and the inscrutable. The uncertainty of the territory naturally creates timidity and withdrawal. Thus, the public administrator must come to the workplace with an inner courage that overwhelms the organizational factors that promote timidity and withdrawal in persons with a weak inner self. Certainly, cheerfulness, ambition, a sense of duty, and understanding are mitigating factors. Nevertheless, the person with a weak inner self rarely has sufficient courage to overcome the loneliness of authority. To be successful, the public servant must have the courage to overcome self-arrogance and be impersonal in her or his organizational performance. Additionally, public administrators must have the courage to face down the expert opinion that the expert cannot defend rigorously, and sometimes resist the clamoring public opinion, powerful interest groups, or the media. Bailey tells us that possibly the most important act of courage for a public servant is ultimately the courage to decide. One of the most difficult things public servants must do is to overcome their tendency toward inertia as a means to protect themselves. In many cases, a so-called non-decision is a decision that has enormous and often unintended negative consequences. Fairness tempered by charity Courage can be dysfunctional unless it results in just and charitable actions and attitudes. The authoritative allocator in society is government and it must act with ineffable standards of justice directed to having a sound healthy state. That can happen only if its public servants have the correct moral quality of love toward all. People in society must feel that their public servants exercise their power with fairness and compassion for them. The public can eventually forgive almost anything if they know the ultimate motivation for the action is an attempt to be fair and act with charity. It is that virtue that compensates for inadequate information and for mistakes in judgments. Contrary to what some might believe, charity is not always best characterized by using the term soft; rather, it often requires moral toughness. It requires teaching the inner self to subjugate the personal recognition, power, and status demands of our egos. It is the losing of the ego-self to find the true inner self. This act of love defines the “good” in a society beyond a pattern of privilege. Emotional intelligence (EI) is the area of cognitive ability involving traits and social skills that facilitate interpersonal behavior. There are two dimensions in emotional intelligence – one is interpersonal emotional intelligence and other is intrapersonal emotional intelligence. Emotional Intelligence has five essential components prescribed by Golemen: • Self awareness – first crucial component is awareness of one’s emotions. The ability to recognize and understand personal moods and emotions. It drives their effect on others. Hallmarks of self-awareness include self-confidence, realistic self-assessment, and a self-deprecating sense of humor. • Self regulation – managing one’s emotions. The ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods, and the propensity to suspend judgment and to think before acting. Hallmarks include trustworthiness and integrity; comfort with ambiguity; and openness to change. • Empathy- knowing about other people’s emotions (need to know different types of emotions). The ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people. A skill in treating people according to their emotional reactions. Hallmarks include expertise in building and retaining talent, cross-cultural sensitivity, and service to clients and customers. (In an educational context, empathy is often thought to include, or lead to, sympathy, which implies concern, or care or a wish to soften negative emotions or experiences in others.) • Social skills – Proficiency in managing relationships and building networks, and an ability to find common ground and build rapport. Hallmarks of social skills include effectiveness in leading change, persuasiveness, and expertise building and leading teams. • Motivation (More recently, Goleman favors only Four Domains of EI as described in his 2002-book “Primal Leadership”. Motivation is missing in those domains). A passion to work for reasons that go beyond money and status. A propensity to pursue goals with energy and persistence. Hallmarks include a strong drive to achieve, optimism even in the face of failure, and organizational commitment. More recently, Goleman favors only Four Domains of EI: • Self-awareness – awareness of one’s emotions (Emotional Self-Awareness. Accurate Self-Assessment and Self Confidence) • Self-management – managing one’s emotions (Emotional Self-Control. Transparency (Trustworthiness). Adaptability. Achievement Orientation. Initiative. Optimism. Conscientiousness) • Social awareness – knowing about other people’s emotions (need to know different types of emotions) (Empathy. Organizational Awareness. Service Orientation). • Relationship management – managing other’s emotions. (Inspirational Leadership. Influence. Developing Others. Change Catalyst. Conflict Management. Building Bonds. Teamwork and Collaboration. Communication). Emotions should be managed in rational /intelligent manner. Marshmallow experiment was done by a famous psychologist Walter Mischel to find out deferred gratification of people. In this experiment, 5 year children were given option of eating one marshmallow instantly but they will be 2 marshmallows if they will wait 15 minutes. Some waited for more time and they were found to be more successful in life. Based on this experiment following characteristics of emotional intelligence person can be listed: • Ability to delay satisfaction of desires/ delay in gratification important for emotional intelligence • Aware of his awareness • Handle stress/setback • Positive attitude • Resilient on the face of adversity Benefits of Emotional intelligence: • Better dealing with different kind of conflicts • Optimistic and resiliency • Better decisions can be taken • Person develops leadership qualities • Wise and appropriate behaviour • Better professional progress • Help in managing stress • Achieve positive mental health • Employee commitment, morale, and health • Innovation and improvement in productivity, efficiency and effectiveness • Build public trust Aristotle has said that “Anyone can become angry- that is easy, but to be angry with right person at right time and for the right purpose – that is not within everyone’s power and that is not easy” . Emotional intelligence can be developed and nurtured in individuals with proper guidance and training. IQ is relatively stable throughout life but much of emotional intelligence(EQ) is learned. Public Administrators need high EQ because they represent the organization to the public, they interact with the highest number of people within and outside the organization and they set the tone for employee morale. Leaders with empathy are able to understand their subordinate’s needs and provide them with constructive feedback. Different job requirements call for different types of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence influences organizational effectiveness in a number of areas.
According to research, The Hubble Telescope has discovered an enigmatic colossal star in the Milky Way Galaxy. You might be as well interested in Hubble assist Scientists to Investigate Andromeda Galaxy Halo. The star labeled as NASTY 1, is coined from the catalog name NASt 1. It is located at approximately 3,000 light years away from Earth. This is the first time when scientists have observed any star with such behavior. Hence, they believe that the newly found star may solve the mystery of evolution of massive Nevertheless, NASTY 1 is fairly unlike from the ordinary Wolf Rayet stars. Researchers believe that Nasty 1’s gravitational interaction is responsible for its characteristic properties. Several years ago, NASTY 1 was officially uncovered and named as Wolf Rayet stars. Such kind of stars is the residual parts of the enormous and gigantic stars. They are around 20 times greater than the size of the sun. They undergo an unpredicted flow of energy before they explode into supernova. The outer layer of Wolf Rayet stars is packed with different gases like hydrogen and Jon Mauerhaun, researcher from the University of California, explains the discovery. He states that scientists were enthusiastic and extremely excited when they speckled a star similar to disk. These stars have a short life span as compared to They live for only a hundred thousand years.
Life and career Menzies was born at Easter Stix (or Styx) in the parish of Weem, in Perthshire. While working with his elder brother William at the Royal Botanic Gardens, he drew the attention of Dr John Hope, professor of botany at Edinburgh University, who encouraged him to study medicine there. Having qualified as a surgeon, Menzies served as assistant to a doctor in Caernarvon, then joined the Royal Navy as assistant surgeon on HMS Nonsuch. Present at Battle of the Saintes (12 April 1782), in peacetime Menzies served on Halifax Station in Nova Scotia. In 1786 Menzies was appointed surgeon on board the Prince of Wales (Captain James Colnett), on a fur-trading voyage round Cape Horn to the northern Pacific. This ship, in company of Princess Royal (Captain Duncan), visited North America, China and Hawaii (the Sandwich Isles) several times; Menzies collected a number of new plants on this voyage, and also ensured that none of the crew died of illness. Menzies returned to Great Britain in 1789. He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1790. In 1790, Menzies was appointed as naturalist to accompany Captain George Vancouver on his voyage around the world on HMS Discovery. (see Vancouver Expedition) When the surgeon fell ill, Menzies took over his duties. In 1794, while Discovery spent one of three winters in Hawaii, Menzies, with Lieutenant Joseph Baker and two other men, made the first recorded ascent to Mokuaweoweo, the summit of Mauna Loa. Menzies used a portable barometer to measure the height of the mountain as 13564 feet (4134m) compared to its currently known height of 13679 feet (4169m). It would be forty years before another European, fellow Scotsman David Douglas, would reach the summit on 29 January 1834. He dropped off citrus fruit seeds that had been picked up in South Africa, so that future ships might be able to replenish their stocks at the Hawaiian islands. In 1795, Menzies was served the seeds of the Chile Pine, Araucaria araucana, as a dessert while dining with the Viceroy of Chile. He was able to pop some seeds into his pocket and grow them on board ship on the way back to Europe, and returned to England with five healthy plants, the first seen in Britain. Known as the Monkey Puzzle tree, the Chile Pine became a favourite in most formal gardens of the nineteenth century. After the voyage, Menzies served with the Navy in the West Indies. He received the degree of M.D. at the University of Aberdeen in 1799. After retiring from the Navy he became a doctor and surgeon at Notting Hill, London. He became the leader of the Linnean Society upon the death of A.B. Lambert. Menzies's wife died in 1837. They had no children. Menzies himself died in London on 15 February 1842 and is buried in Kensal Green cemetery. Menzies' name is commemorated in the scientific names of several of the plants he discovered, including Menziesia, a genus of shrubs in the Ericaceae, and the Douglas-fir Pseudotsuga menziesii, the most commercially important tree in western North America. The Pacific madrone, an evergreen tree and largest of the Ericaceae, was named Arbutus menziesii in his honour by Friedrich Pursh. Also named for Menzies, in a corrupted form as adapted by the Nuxalk people of the Bella Coola area of the Central Coast of British Columbia, is "Bensins Island", as recorded by Alexander Mackenzie during his visit there shortly after Vancouver's ship visited the area. The Ainapo Trail he used to climb Mauna Loa is also known as "Menzies Trail". - Birth (or Baptism) Record held in the General Registers of Scotland, 1754 Births in the Parish of Weem in the County of Perth, Reference 398/0010 0104 - Archibald Menzies (1920). William Frederick Wilson, ed. Hawaii Nei 128 Years Ago:Journal of Archibald Menzies, kept during his three visits to the Sandwich or Hawaiian Islands in the years 1792-1794. s.n. Retrieved 12 January 2008. - Naish, John (1996). The Interwoven Lives of George Vancouver, Archibald Menzies, Joseph Whidbey and Peter Puget: The Vancouver Voyage of 1791-1795. The Edward Mellen Press, Ltd. ISBN 0-7734-8857-X. - Kenneth M. Nagata (1985) "Early Plant Introductions in Hawaiʻi" in, Hawaiian Journal of History - "Monkey Puzzle Araucaria araucana". Kew Gardens. Retrieved 13 December 2008. - C. Michael Hogan (2008) Douglas-fir: Pseudotsuga menziesii, globalTwitcher.com, ed. Nicklas Strõmberg - "Bensins Island". BC Geographical Names. - Russell A. Apple (18 July 1973). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Ainapo Trail" (pdf). National Park Service. - "Author Query for 'Menzies'". International Plant Names Index. - Newcombe, C. F. (ed.) (1923). "Menzies' journal of Vancouver's voyage". Memoir V. Archives British Columbia. - Eastwood, Alice (ed.) (1924). "Archibald Menzies' journal of the Vancouver Expedition Extracts covering the visit to California". Quarterly of the California Historical Society. 2. - Jepson, W. L. (1929). "The botanical explorers of California: Archibald Menzie [sic]". Madroño. 1. - Galloway, D. J. and E. W. Groves (1967). "Archibald Menzies, MD, F.L.S. (1754–1842): Aspects of his life, travels and collections". Archives of Natural History. 14. - Captain Vancouver, Northwest Navigator, E.C. Coleman. Tempus Publishing 2006. \|Wikisource has original works written by or about:
In total, 12 patients will get ReNeuron's ReN001 cell therapy between six and 24 months after having an ischaemic stroke - caused by a blockage of blood flow in the brain - and their progress will be followed for two years. The study will initially examine the safety and feasibility of the treatment. If successful, researchers plan to develop the trials to focus on more severely disabled stroke patients. About half of all stroke survivors are left with permanent disabilities as a result of brain damage. The potential of different kinds of stem cells - master cells that can develop into specialised tissue in the body - is being examined by experts around the world for many diseases. But the technology is controversial, in part because some stem cell lines are derived from embryos or foetuses. The Society for the Unborn Child, a British-based pro-life charity, said last month that proposed trial was "sick". "It is unethical in every way - killing one member of the human race to help another. We are totally opposed to this," the BBC quoted a spokesperson as saying. Stem cells are the master cells of the human body from which all other cells - such as brain, blood, heart muscle or bone cells - are created. Stem cells are considered to be unique because they are the only type of cells which have the ability to divide into daughter cells. Daughter cells can then be used to create more stem cells or specialised cells, those tasked with a particular function within the human body.
In this era when anyone can write and publish anything, thinking critically about what you read is vital. Does the article make sense? Is there a bias towards one viewpoint or does the reporting seek to address multiple views or sides of an issue? How does the source report the facts, are they sensationalized or distorted? The goal of this guide is to help you understand the information cycle (what may be published when) and to give tips to evaluating what you read. Remember, both scholarly and popular sources are appropriate for research - depending on the context of your research. What is the distinction between popular and scholarly sources? Below is a chart comparing works with a more scholarly focus and those that are less so. Additionally, there are three main types of publications: For a detailed chart comparing these three types of publications, visit: \|More Scholarly\|\|More Popular\| \|Publishing source: Academic journals, government, some magazines and journals\|\|Publishing source: Trade journals, magazines, newspapers, websites, blogs\| \|Author: Expert on the topic, someone who works in or knows that field\|\|Author: Anyone; may be a reporter or someone who feels like writing on the topic\| \|Audience: Specialized (often of peers or students), people interested in the topic\|\|Audience: The general public\| \|Goal: To inform or present research; answer the "so what?" questions, make connections between variables/issues\|\|Goal: Generally to entertain or persuade, may inform; answers the "who, what, where, and when" questions\| \|Content: Research-based\|\|Content: Reporting events, the findings of others, or personal experiences; opinion-based\| \|Reviewers/Editors: Generally peer-reviewed or fact-checked by peers or staff editors\|\|Reviewers/Editors: Staff editor may review\| \|Format: Standardized (for scholarly articles and formal reports); variable for other publications\|\|Format: Variable: includes websites, blogs, and infographics\| \|Citations: Generally includes references, footnotes and/or links to sources\|\|Citations: Usually none, may link to related resources\| \|Vocabulary: Complex, generally technical and focused on the field, formal\|\|Vocabulary: Familiar, non-technical; may focus on an emotional appeal\| \|Graphics: Used to illustrate a point\|\|Graphics: Used for visual impact\| \|Title: May include: report, study, findings\|\|Title: Often general, usually catchy\| \|Examples: Annals of Psychology, Mother Jones, National Academies Press\|\|Examples: People, Time, My Blog\| The Information Cycle is the progression of media coverage of a particular newsworthy event. Understanding this cycle will help you know what information is available on your topic and to better evaluate information sources covering that topic at that time. (For a larger view of this chart, right click and open in a new tab). When finding resources, ask yourself the following questions to determine if they are appropriate to use (SCAAN test): The interactive tutorial "Evaluating your Sources" offers you practice exercises in source evaluation (may not work in Chrome). Other acronyms include: Finally, consider your own biases when reviewing your information. If the paper/presentation/article had the opposite position/result, would your opinion of its validity change?
By Constance Young How We Lie to Maintain Our Animal Bias The book Animal Equality - Language and Liberation by Joan Dunayer, is a powerful presentation of how we maintain the status quo toward other species by using deceptive and biased language. For example, hunters call animals they like to hunt "game"; people who raise animals for food call them "food animals" - instead of what they truly are, "vertebrates" who are stalked, and "mammals" who are bred to be killed for food. Other animals have "vices," turkeys are "lazy" or "stupid" and pigs are "stubborn" or "unclean." Calves who are jumpy from severe confinement are "flakey," those too upset or ill to eat are "duds." Dunayer also relates animal anecdotes that show the true humanity of other species. She tells of two rats whom she adopted. (Note, I don't use the impersonal "that," which is reserved for "things.") The two rats, Vegan and Nori (who was blind), always snuggled together. Once her cat companion Chi appeared to be trying to enter their cage. Dunayer saw Vegan rush forward, pushing Nori behind him, positioning himself as a shield. Vegan then confronted Chi, who retreated. When Vegan died two years later, Nori's personality changed; he became listless and withdrawn, "visibly mourning" his companion. tells other wonderful tales about crows, raccoons, spiders, and many other species of animals. This is a wonderful book for people who care about animals - and language.
As a writing exercise I often place pictures of important or famous people up on the screen in my room and ask students to provide a caption or write something about the picture. After a few minutes students share their ideas and then I share one of mine which leads into a quick lesson in history. Sometimes this type of activity can be used to review a topic, introduce something new, or simply move a unit along with additional content. The last time I presented students with this image they came up with some interesting responses: My belly hurts. I should have left that last taco in the bag and thrown it away. When are they going to invent a real tie that doesn’t look like a bow? This man is important. He looks really smart. Maybe he’s a writer or a great thinker. I wish the picture was in color. The picture looks like it is from a long time ago. I didn’t know they had hair gel back then. Interesting! These are the better ones, of course. I left out the silly, off the mark, or inappropriate ones that can be the result of this type of exercise, but you can see that some students can really get into the moment when analyzing photographs. Next we discussed names and labels…words we use to identify individuals or groups of people. We talked about how those names aren’t always meant to be nice. We also talked about how some names stick simply because it’s easier to remember a group of people by a certain name in order to remember what they stood for….groups like tree huggers, Bible thumpers, and even educrats. These types of monikers are not simply for the 20th and 21st century. Certain groups throughout history have claimed remembrance through their name such as the Know- Nothings, muckrakers, and don’t forget the hawks and doves. Do you know who the gentleman is in my image? It is President Franklin Pierce, our fourteenth president and the tidbit of knowledge I share with students is Franklin Pierce was a doughface. What’s a doughface? During the 1850s a doughface was a Northern politician who had Southern sympathies. President Pierce hailed from New Hampshire, one of our northern most states, so I’m sure it could be a little surprising that he might have southern sympathies, but he did. It wasn’t that he held slaves or thought slavery was a correct action, however, he did believe it was up to each state to decide its own course especially as new states entered the Union. He was against sectionalism and was not a fan of the abolitionist movement. President Pierce felt that compromise was an integral part of the Federal System. The United States was experiencing growth and expansion, but a negative impact was growing tension between states who held slaves and those that did not. Legislators from the South wanted an equal number of slave and free states in order to balance power. They feared a higher number of free states because slavery could then be abolished through a Congressional vote. The Kansas-Nebraska Act brought the question of slavery in the West to the forefront of national debate. In 1854 Congressman Stephen A. Douglas proposed the Kansas-Nebraka Act which would reverse the Missiouri Compromise of 1820 and allow settlers in Kansas and Nebraska territories to decide on their own if they would allow slavery or not. Reluctantly President Pierce gave his approval of the bill because many of his appointments were still pending in Congress and he wanted the Gadsden Purchase Treaty to be approved as well. Many Northerners disliked the way Pierce compromised with Southern viewpoints. Many of the discussions and debates on the floor of Congress were so emotionally charged that fistfights broke out and Charles Sumner, a U.S. Senator was so severely beaten it took him three years to recover. The Kansas Nebraska Act eventually led to a mini civil war in those territories, and Kansas became “bleeding Kansas”. The Democratic party split, the Republican party was created, and the Whig party became nonexistent. President Pierce is not the only president to be called a doughface during the time leading up the Civil War. President Buchanan and President Fillmore have also enjoyed the label.
"The Spanish War was one of the decisive events of our epoch, everyone said so at the time it was being fought, and everyone was right." Lionel Trilling, quoted in The Passionate War by Peter Wyde. This 2-CD set tells the story through songs and letter excerpts of two idealists starting their marriage while participating in an international effort to stop fascism in 1937-1938 before the start of World War II. George Watt went to Spain to fight with the Abraham Lincoln Battalion of the International Brigade for the democratically elected government of Spain. Ruth Rosenthal Watt remained in New York City at a job with the WPA. While fervent in her denunciation of war and active in organizing peace demonstrations, she also worked to foster public opinion favoring US involvement in Spain. She canvassed friends to send care packages to individual soldiers containing the necessities for the foxhole - coffee, cigarettes, gum, wool garments, and most importantly, news from the home front. She coped with the loneliness of being left behind, typing daily letters to George from her desk at work while avoiding the scrutiny of her boss. George learned to be a soldier at the front, to speak Spanish while handling his machine gun, to survive the fire of battle and the excruciating loss of comrades while far from the comforts of home. Music was an important part of rallying support around the world and keeping up the spirits of the troops in Spain. Songs of the period are sung in Spanish, English, German, French and Yiddish and interwoven with the reading of excerpts of letters exchanged between George and Ruth. The Spanish Civil War and the International Brigade For 1500 years the Spanish people were kept in poverty, and oppressed by a backward monarchy, wealthy landowners, the church and the military caste. In 1936 a united front of republicans, liberals, labor unions, communists, socialists, anarchists, Trotskyists and others on the left won the most democratic election ever held in Spain. The Republic started to provide relief to the suffering. The military and others on the right feared more reforms. Four generals, led by Francisco Franco, started an insurgency and attacked the Republic. They were aided by the military forces of Hitler's Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Fascist Italy and a supposed non-interventionist policy, including an embargo on arms for Spain's defense, on the part of the United States, Britain, France and other liberal democracies. Only the Soviet Union and Mexico officially came to the aid of democratic Spain. As an act of conscience, thousands of volunteers from many countries unofficially went to Spain to join the International Brigade, fighting to defend the republic and trying to stop the Second World War before it happened. The American volunteers in Spain formed the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, nearly one third died in Spain. The Spanish Republic fought valiantly against overwhelming odds for three years, but succumbed with the fall of Madrid in March 1939. Francisco Franco silenced all opposition and maintained a fascist dictatorship in Spain until his death. Like many student activists of his day, George left his home in July 1937 and traveled secretly from New York to Spain to join 2,800 Americans, 1,500 Canadians and tens of thousands of volunteers from Europe and Latin America, who made up the International Brigade. He and his traveling companions posed as tourists to evade the US and French governments' embargos on aid to the Republic. Before his departure, George had been a leader in the Young Communist League, and Executive Secretary of the American Student Union, a united front coalition of left-wing student organizations. In Spain, George served in the Mackenzie-Papineau battalion originally formed of Canadian volunteers, which also included many from the US. He was sent to Officer's Training School, and eventually became Political Commissar of the Lincoln Battalion, with responsibility for the morale and political education of his fellow volunteers. He returned home in January 1939, one of the last American volunteers to leave Spain. Ruth Rosenthal Watt George Watt and Ruth Rosenthal were married in January 1937. When George left for Spain in July of that year, he was 23 and Ruth was 22. Ruth lived in an apartment on East 16th Street in New York City. She was suspended from extra-curricular activities at Hunter College for leading a peace demonstration and helped organize a boycott of Japanese silk stockings. She knitted incessantly for the fellows in the International Brigade, rounded up and mailed supplies, and got everyone to write letters to keep up their spirits. She loved going to movies. She swooned over Rudolf Valentino's love scenes and went repeatedly to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. She was inspired by serious movies about the Dreyfus Affair and the blockade of Spain. She held a job in the geology department of the youth services of the WPA. This job provided a typewriter she secretly used for her almost daily letters to George, and kept the carbon copies. She wrote of her love and life, her work for the Republican cause in Spain, and her trials and triumphs taking on leadership roles in the Young Communist League and the Communist Party. All the songs in our program were sung by International Brigaders in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, or written during or shortly after the war in the United States. The Internationale was composed in the 19th century, became an international socialist anthem and was sung in several languages during the civil war in Spain. A number of the songs in this program were recorded during or shortly after the Spanish Civil War. An album of 78 RPM recordings, Six Songs for Democracy, was recorded in Barcelona in 1938, featuring German singer Ernst Busch and a chorus from the Thaelmann Battalion, German volunteers in the International Brigade. The album which included Los Cuatro Generales, Freiheit, The United Front Song and the Peat Bog Soldiers, was released by Keynote records in 1940 (Keynote 101). A group of American singers including Pete Seeger, Tom Glazer, Baldwin Hawes and Bess Hawes recorded songs in English and Spanish, released in an album as Songs of the Spanish Civil War, Asch Records, 1942. Our program includes Viva La Quince Brigada, Young Man from Alcala, The Cookhouse, Quartermaster Store, Si Me Quieres Escribir, Venga Jaleo and Jarama Valley from that album. Songs from both albums were popularized later by singers such as Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, The Weavers and others. Both albums were later re-released on a single Folkways LP, Songs of the Spanish Civil War, Volume 1 (Folkways, FH5436, 1961, reissued on CD by Smithsonian Folkways). Some of the English translations we use are from the booklet that accompanied the Folkways record. Tony Saletan researched some less known songs of the time. Woody Guthrie composed Mr. Tom Mooney is Free. Don't Buy Anything Japanese sung to the tune of Bai Mir Bistu Shein, was a topical song of the day. Tony found verses in Yiddish to Viva La Quince Brigada and the United Front Song, and two songs by poet and composer Lewis Allan about the Spanish Civil War, Abraham Lincoln Walks Again and Beloved Comrade (Music by Fred Katz). These two songs, now largely forgotten, were widely sung. A Note About the Historical Context in Songs We hope that listeners will understand that to reflect the historical context we retained the original wording in songs, although some of the uses are harsh. Moroccan mercenaries fighting on the fascist side were called "Moors" by the volunteers in the International Brigade. They were feared as fighters and despised as mercenaries, and a few of the songs composed in Spain include derogatory language. In the years before World War II Japanese aggression in China was part of the fascist offensive worldwide. The song Don't Buy Anything Japanese was written to promote a boycott of Japanese silk. After The War Ruth and George's son Dan was born in March 1940, a little over a year after George returned home from Spain. Sadly, Ruth died shortly after Dan's birth from complications of childbirth. Fifteen months later, George married their friend, Margie Wechsler, who raised Dan and their son Steve. The Watt family often told stories and sang songs of the Spanish Civil War. Perhaps it was the fashion of the times, but Ruth was not mentioned in their home. Dan and Molly discovered their letters in a box in January 2002, several years after the deaths of George and Margie Watt. The letters brought Ruth's voice to life after 65 years, and became the inspiration for this program. George Watt served in the Army Air Corps in World War II, was shot down over occupied Belgium and escaped through the help of a Belgian/French underground organization. Later, he wrote about this experience in his book, The Comet Connection, published by the University Press of Kentucky. One chapter of the book also described his experiences in Spain. George was a member of the American Communist Party until 1958. During the McCarthy period he was prosecuted and convicted under the Smith Act, but his conviction was overturned by an Appeals Court. During the last two decades of his career, George worked as a social worker and administrator at Maimonides Hospital's Community Mental Health Center. Recently, Tony Saletan learned that his father, David Saletan, who had a dental practice in New York, provided pro bono dental work for American volunteers on their way to Spain. This program was created collaboratively by Dan Lynn Watt, Molly Lynn Watt and Tony Saletan. Dan and Molly selected, excerpted and edited the letters of Dan's parents George and Ruth Watt. Dan reads George's letters while Molly reads Ruth's. Tony Saletan researched the songs, created the musical arrangements, sings and provides guitar, banjo and piano accompaniment. Sylvia Miskoe provides accompaniment on accordion. The performers share a friendship over decades and a life-long commitment to activism for peace and social justice and involvement in folk song, music and dance. Molly and Dan Lynn Watt are teacher educators, curriculum developers and writers living in Cambridge Cohousing, Cambridge, Massachusetts and in Antrim, New Hampshire. Tony Saletan is a folk singer, musician, dance caller and educator, living in Lexington, Massachusetts. He was a pioneer in public television having hosted eight programs and series on WGBH since 1955. Sylvia Miskoe lives in Concord, New Hampshire and plays for Scottish country dancing and contra dancing with White Cockade and is music director of the Strathspey and Reel Society of New Hampshire, a Scottish music orchestra and has recorded five CDs with these groups. The performers dedicate this album to those working for peace and social justice throughout the world.
Radio Controlled Airplanes Flying Model Planes: The Good Old Days & Now In it's early days, model airplane flight, as a phenomenon, was a fairly simple thing to study or talk about. It did not involve nearly so many people or types of flying, for one thing, as it does now. There weren't so many options to choose from, although experimentation and invention has always been the central core of model plane flight. This is not to imply that "in the good ol' days" of model airplane flight, the activity itself was all that simple. In those early decades, tinkering with model aircraft was anything but a simple activity. Especially in the very beginning. Requiring many hours (as in weeks or months) of preparation, design (and redesign), construction, trial and error, many would-be pilots did very little actual flying. The planes usually had to be built (often from one's own adaptations and designs) from the ground up. Most of the parts had to also be fashioned on the fly at home, as they were not available in hobby stores or mail-order houses. Every plane was truly unique. Even many of the engines, when used, were unique — perhaps even built by the flyer himself or by someone he knew. Props were often crafted and refined by hand: shaped, tested, adjusted, tested and modified again — until they either broke in a crash or did their job. This does not mean that the hobby of building and flying was reserved for engineers and mechanics. People from every walk of life fell under the spell of model airplane flight, including famous personalities like Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart, who even in the early years of their Hollywood careers, enjoyed going out to the desert to fly their planes. In time, of course, things changed, as they always do. More and more of the successful planes were reproduced as plans, and kits. Common building materials and even parts also became more readily available. Control linkage, engines, wheels, props, all sorts of necessary parts began to find their way into the marketplace, and their greater availability helped to expand the market. As the exciting challenge of building and flying a model airplane became easier, more people were drawn to the hobby. Radio-controlled flight struggled at first, since the required onboard equipment was anything but light. The old radios with vacuum tubes were heavy, and then there were the batteries. Batteries back then were not the lightweight Lithiums or even NiCad-type batteries. Everything was heavy, so rc planes were built larger to carry the load. Even so, the hobby was exciting and often rewarding. That is, when the plane didn't end up in a pile or in flames. Today, the entire experience of rc flight is very, very different. Today electric-powered planes, gas-powered planes, glow-powered planes, and countless ready-built and ready-to-fly rc planes are available just about everywhere. Department stores, huge discount stores, most toy stores, many electronic stores, and even local supermarkets have joined hobby stores in carrying radio-controlled aircraft. This is not to say or imply that the quality of r/c planes offered in most stores is where it needs to be for serious r/c fun. The vast majority of rc products offered in today's market leave a lot to be desired. But the products are out there. Even a casual glance at the world wide web shows that the same kind of "global" availability exists here on the Internet. Type "rc plane" in a search box, and over 8 million sites show up on Google alone. Granted, not all the results shown are merchant sites. But many are. It might seem like almost everyone is selling some kind of radio-controlled airplane or flying machine. Again, the quality is lacking in many of these products. But anyone can see that rc flying has definitely entered the mainstream of recreational activity. More people are flying radio-controlled aircraft today that at any other time in history. (Even the government is successfully and consistently using more rc aircraft today than ever before.) But in some ways the serious hobby of radio-controlled flight may be faltering. The majority of rc flying enthusiasts of today are not builders, at least not by choice. (The reconstruction of crashed aircraft is another matter.) Fewer and fewer know the first thing about aerodynamics, about what makes a plane fly and what can be done to improve its ability to fly. Not that the knowledge is hidden away somewhere. The Internet makes such knowledge easier than ever to find. But many simply buy a box off a shelf and head for the beach or park. As already mentioned, in the early days there tended to be more builders of radio-controlled aircraft than successful flyers. Some builders simply had a difficult time getting their planes in the air and keeping them there. In fact, getting a plane to fly was often something of a group effort, as fellow rc pilots would help new guys locate the problems. That fact has not changed so much, among those who build their own planes. Then as now, people were willing to help each other out, so that everyone could enjoy the thrill of successful rc flight. Most rc planes today are sold as RTF (ready-to-fly) planes. Yet a good number are still sold as ARF (almost-ready-to-fly) or ARC (almost-ready-to-cover) kits. And then there are the more basic kits and, of course, plans. This is not to say that many rc pilots are not building their own planes. Some are even designing their own planes. But the ratio has greatly shifted, as to the rc flyers who never build and the rc pilots who construct their own airplanes. Perhaps the best part of this story is that there are still excellent manufacturers and suppliers making plans, kits, parts and accessories available to those who want to build or modify their own plane. Lots of good products are still made in America, in England, France, Japan, Australia, and other parts of the free world. China has also become a serious supplier of model airplanes, parts, and accessories. You can still design and construct your own plane from scratch, or build from a tested and proven plan, shape your own parts from balsa, ply, aluminum, or any of several composite materials. You can build your own engine, if you choose to, carve your own prop, and do just about everything yourself. The knowledge, tools, and special equipment are all out there. Or you can buy a good kit, find a good pre-built engine or electric motor, buy the perfect prop for your application, and assemble your own plane that way. In today's world of rc flight, you can be just as involved in the design and construction of your radio-controlled model plane as you want to be. You can save money or save time — or maybe even save both. If all you want to do is fly, you can do that, too. Although you will more than likely still need to do some reconstructive work, from time to time. Crashes will happen. And you will always benefit from learning as much as you can about what makes flying possible, and how you can improve your techniques (and your plane) to increase flight time and reduce down time. And with all the rc flight help and discussion groups available out there, all the "how-to" and otherwise informative magazine articles, manufacturer's instruction and tip sheets, and the relatively low cost of available and proven materials, you can just about be assured of flying success, even if rc building and/or flying doesn't come naturally to you. For many r/c flyers, these are the very best of the "good ol' days" that they'll be talking about for generations to some. Click Here for Product or Order Information
Human evolution, conceptual computer artwork. Human footprint over the continent of Africa, representing the 'Out of Africa' theory of evolution. Also seen is a molecule of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), at left, which contains sections called genes that encode the body's genetic information. According to the 'Out of Africa' theory, anatomically modern humans evolved solely in Africa, between 200 and 100 thousand years ago. September 24th, 2018 Viewed 106 Times - Last Visitor from Emden, 06 - Germany on 07/10/2019 at 5:21 AM
TREE - TREES \|TREE - TREES Stories, Folktales, Folklore, Fairy Tales, Legends, Myths, History, Nursery Rhymes, Fantasy & Facts Scroll down or click on your choice below: • SOS-Searching Out Stories/Info- Trees Advice, Comments and References from Storytellers, Teachers and Librarians SOS - SEARCHING OUT STORIES AND INFORMATION - PINS AND NEEDLES Advice, Comments and References from Storytellers, Teachers and Librarians (excerpts from Storytell posts plus original research) Book titles and online links are in dark blue and underlined. Click on them to get more stories/information. In performance, always credit your sources. To retell these stories, get permission from the copyright holder if the material is not in the public domain. Posts are listed chronologically as they are received by Story Lovers World. NOTE: A very helpful and comprehensive website about trees is at: 1) Christmas story by Florence Holbrook entitled Why the Evergreen Trees Never Lose Their Leaves. 2) Soft Figs. A king, leading his army to war at a distant battlefield, passed an old man planting fig trees for future generations. 3) The Useless Tree by Chuang Tsu (China) -- carpenter distains huge oak tree who defends itself to him in a dream. 4) God's Creation - a Biblical midrash from Genesis Rabbah - When God created Adam, he walked him through the Garden of Eden, showing him all the trees that He had created. "See how beautiful are the works of My hands," he told Adam. "Take good care not to ruin or destroy my world. For if you destroy it, there will be no one after you to repair it." 5) A Blessing - a Talmudic tale from Tractate Ta'anit Rabbi Nachman and Rabbi Isaac were sharing a meal together. Rabbi Nachman asked Rabbi Isaac to teach him words from the Torah. Rabbi Isaac assented and plied his listener with commentaries and parables that contained deep wisdom. When they were about to part, Rabbi Isaac asked Rabbi Nachman to give him a parting blessing. "Now I'll tell you a parable," said Rabbi Nachman. "A man was walking through the desert, and he was hungry and tired and thirsty. He came upon a tree that bore ripe fruit, gave good shade, and had a stream of water running past it. He ate the fruit, drank the water, and rested in its shade. When it time to go, the man said to the tree: "O, tree, how shall I bless you? If I were to wish you sweet fruit--your fruit is already sweet. Good shade?--you already give good shade. Were I to say, 'May a stream of water run past you'--a stream of water already runs past you. So I wish for you that every sapling taken from you turns out exactly like you." "So, Rabbi Isaac--how shall I bless you? If I wish you the fullness of wisdom--you are already full of wisdom. Wealth?--you are already wealthy. Were I to say, 'May you bear children'--you have already borne children. So I wish for you that all of your children turn out exactly like you." 6) Daphne and Apollo - Greek mythology - How it came about that Apollo wore a laurel wreath. 7) The Tree's Wife from Dream Weaver by Jane Yolen. 8) The Man Who Planted Trees, Page 33, from Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart, edited by Christina Feldman and Jack Kornfield. This is a Chinese version, there's also a European one, by Jean Giono(?). The latter is a very beautiful story about a man who single-handedly reforests a devastated countryside... 9) Ulu and the Breadfruit Tree from Polynesia from Storymaking in Education and Therapy by Alida Gersie and Nancy King 10) The Young Man, The Lion and the Yellow Flowered Zwartstorm Tree, a Bushman's tale from South Africa from Earthtales by Alida Gersie. 11) Greek tale of the Goddess Ceres and her Sacred Forest. 12) Mysterious Tales from Japan - Rafe Martin. 13) The Magic Pear Tree from Jane Yolen. 14) Baucis and Philemon from the Greeks 15) The Great Kapok Tree by Lynn Cherry. Try stories about rain forest creatures. 16) Stories about Johnny Appleseed. 17) Genesis (the old Tree of Life?) 18) Swiss Family Robinson. 19) Connor and the Leprachaun by Jay O'Callahan 20) "True" stories, the story of Morton, the guy who started Arbor Day. 21) Three Wishes for a Forest. 22) The Tale of Three Trees - A traditional folktale retold by Angela Elwell Hunt (1989) Lion Publishing Corporation. It is essentialy a story about the birth of Christianity with the trees each representing one aspect of Jesus' life journey - the feedbox (manger), fishing boat and the cross. 23) Abraham Apple Tree From Seed to Tree A sound story, developed and written by Mabel Kaplan, 1995 This story can be used as a sound story. Use your own voice OR any musical instrument/sound from which you can produce a scale e.g. a piano, a keyboard, a xylophone, a mouth organ or kazoo. Suggested sung or instrumental musical sounds are given in the square [...] brackets. But you may like to try out some of your own. 24) Myths of the Sacred Tree, by Moira Caldecott. Destiny Books, 1993. It has around 40 myths/stories from around the world. Sources are given, and each myth is followed by a commentary which ranges from basic psychological and symbolic interpretation, through a little philosophy, to useful background facts. 25) Sacred Trees, Nathaniel Altman. 26) Hidden Stories in Plants, Anne Pellowski. 27) Native Plant Stories, Joseph Bruchac. 28) The Tree in the Moon, and Other Legends of Plants and Trees by Rosalind Kerven. 29) Dan Hall from Westport Connecticut has a great tree song on his tape-there is a tree for every letter of the alphabet- might be Earth Songs-lots of great material for recycling too! 30) The Direction of the Road by Ursula LeGuin. It's found in her collection The Wind's Twelve Quarters, Bantam, 1976. The tree in the story is an oak and the first person narrator of the story. It stands by the highway upholding the "law of relativity." 31) The Lore of the Forest, by Alexanmder Porteous, published by Senate 1996 (Random House, London). It was originally published in 1928, titled Forest Folklore. It's full of interesting facts, leads, bits of mythology and lore etc. It isn't a source of good stories, since it's a reference book. 32) The Magic Listening Cap (in a collection of the same title) features a magic cap that allows the wearer to hear understand the speech of plants & animals. It features a prominent camphor tree. 33) The Ancestor Tree by T. Obinkaram Echewa. The cover reads "In the African Villare of Amapu, there lives an old man who rises before the sun." 34) Erysichthon. A version of it is in Classic Myths by Charles MIlls Gayley and also in The Meridian Handbook of Classical Mythology by Edward Tripp. 35) The Apple Thieves can be found in The Family Storytelling Handbook, by Anne Pellowski, page 85. This paper cutting story is very much liked by young children, 36) Earth Care - World Folktales to Talk about by Margaret Read Macdonald. There is a section in the book that deals with Caring for the Forest. The stories are: Beast and Tree, Who is King of the World, Mikku and the Tree Hold Tight and Stick Tight, Spider and the Palm-Nut Tree. 37) West Indian Folk-Tales, retold by Philip Sherlock, Oxford Univ. Press, has a great story called The Coomacka-Tree that explains the origins of food plants in the Caribbean from one great marvelous tree. 38) Native American Gardening, Michael J. Caduto & Joseph Bruchac, Fulcrum Publishing, has several stories about food plants from different Native American traditions. 39) Finnish folktale on trees The Talking Spruces. 40) Tree Stories: A Collection of Extraordinary Encounters, edited by Warren David Jacobs and Karen I. Shragg, and published by SunShine Press of Colorado. Here is the back cover description: Tree Stories is a unique gathering of stories and poems, written by adults and children, about a special tree in their life. Reading of these healing, heartfelt connections nurtures our human spirit and reminds us of the simple beauties of life. They honor the personal, material and spiritual values that trees play in our lives. These personal tributes also encourage us to sanctify life in all its dimensions--human, plant and animal--and strengthen our resolve to protect our planet. 41) Australian Folktales -- Talwalpin and Towinka 42) Little pine tree where the tree wants to have other kinds of leaves and he doesn't belive when they tell him in winter he'll lose leaves. Well he does, and he's sorry he ever wanted another kind of leaf. When spring comes, the angel of the trees put his own shiny green pine needles back on him and after that he doesn't ever want to be any other kind of tree again. 43) Cristy West's new website Spirit of Trees, an excellent resource! Additional info: Margaret Read MacDonald's Mikku and the Trees might be one to consider Or Anne Pellowski's Why Plants have Human Characteristics at Since the launch a few week ago, there are about two dozen new links and a few new "Featured Tales," too. One of these is Alton Chung's The Old Man Who Made the Trees Blossom, a tale about cherry trees at Here in DC, the cherry trees are now blooming and the cherry blossom festival is in progress so this is quite relevant. There are a couple of other Japanese cherry tree tales, too, to be found in the story links section of Spirit of Trees-- such as the Cherry Tree of the Sixteenth Day (Jui-Roku-Zakura) and Ubazakura (or the Cherry Blossom Nurse) at Indeed, many tell The Peddlar of Swaffam (Peddlar's Dream) as a Cherry Tree story--though for others it is an Apple Tree story. Earth Day is on April 22. And here in DC Arbor Day comes just a few days later on April 25. Every state is different--to the north, later, to the south, earlier--around the time trees are leafing out. (Info about Arbor day at the Arbor Day Foundation--another link) Beyond that, well, don't forget the solstice. At http://www.Spiritoftrees.org, there's now a neat new link in the section for curricular resources. This goes to Diane Edgecomb's site and shows numerous photos of Diane performing her Tree Lore and Solstice Legends show at the Arnold Arboretum near Boston-- Let this be an inspiration!! And one of the tales she describes, The Dancing Spirit of the Birch Grove, is the same one I have posted at SOT as The Lady in White. 44) This is VERY definitely an audience participation story. As you begin the story, you ask for volunteers to help the audience "see" the story. When I told it at a church party, I enlisted the help of a friend who kept interrupting to tell me that she couldn't see the scene so I proceeded to show her. It was springtime in the forest. There was a special warmth in the air and birds sat in the trees singing. There was a weepinging willow (someone pretending to cry), a pear [pair] tree (two people standing with arms around each other), a nut tree (someone acting silly), a pine tree (someone with a sad expressing on their face), quaking asps, etc. [What other kinds of trees could we use?] There was a babbling brook wandering through the trees. (Ask someone to wander through the trees saying "babble, babble,") A gentle breeze wafted through the forest. (Ask someone to do their interpretation of "wafting" as they follow the brook through the forest.) Ask for one more volunteer (pick someone you KNOW is a good sport) and ask them to follow the brook and the breeze through the forest. Then you say, "Looks good. Now I know it is springtime because when it is springtime the sap starts to run in the forest." Obviously this is a story to use in a situation where you know the people but I couldn't resist posting it. I had a lot of fun with it. No one suspected a thing since I always tell a story at the annual church talent show. 45) Maple trees: Linking through the Spirit of Trees website, this one comes up. This is a more ornate telling than many Native American versions. Also, Joe Bruchac has a story about maple syrup -- how it used to flow so readily from the trees, but the people got lazy and began to lie around under the trees and let it drip into their mouths. So Nanabozho (trickster) poured lake water over the trees until the sap ran thin and it required time and effort to get the sweetness boiled down. It may be in Keepers of the Earth. 46) Maple trees: I have two tales to share and one that Lorna Coranza sent to the list awhile ago. a) The first I heard at Helmer's Nature Center in W. Irondequoit, NY. It was told by one the volunteer guides on a maple sugaring tour for a school group. Think I have seen a written souce for this, maybe in one Parker's volumes on Seneca stories. It's about Why Maple Sap Is... well, that's an explanation, not a title as I heard it not as a story, but there is a story "about." Bones of Why Maple Sap... Long ago, maple trees used to give sap that pure syrup. The people loved the sweet syrup and soon came to lie under the trees in the spring, open their mouths, and get fat and fatter on the syrup. When the Creator saw how his people were not working, he changed the trees by adding water to the sap. Sap that then had to be boiled and boiled to get a bit of pure syrup. b) There is another story that was told recently at the same center. In that story it is a little boy who discovers that something sweet comes out of the trees. Perhaps because his arrow missed its mark and hit the tree. Don't know a written source for that one. c) Why the Maple Wears a Beaded Dress Subject: Re: Oak trees I just thought of a Native American story. I don't have a source though, and it is mostly about the Maple with mention of the Oak. I think it is Seneca. If I recall it went something like this in basic form: Why the Maple Wears a Beaded Dress: Maple Maiden went to fetch water one beautiful day. As she walked she saw a handsome warrior by the road. He stood straight and tall. "Dear Maiden," he said "Would you give me a drink of water?" He held out his bowl and she poured some cool fresh water for him to drink. "I am Oak warrior." he said. And they exchanged smiles. He was grateful for Maple Maiden's kindness and so, when he had drained his bowl, he filled it with beads from his own headdress. Maple maiden sewed them onto her dress and wore them with pride. And of course, ever since that day, when you see Maple Maiden, you will find Oak warrior not far away. 47) Greetings all! Just to say that there is a delightful new "featured folktale" posted at Spirit of Trees, The Harper in Fairyland, from Beth Vaughan. In her very generous commentary Beth discusses three different kinds of workshops she has created around this particular story. A good example of workshop possibilities that can be derived from a single tale. Looking for a good tale to tell around the winter/Xmas season? If so, I especially recommend Silver Pine Cones, an offering from Sheryl Ann Karas at Spirit of Trees-- Last year I told this tale to assembled family members on Xmas eve and then handed out some pine cones I'd carefully painted with silver spray paint. It seemed to be a hit . Other seasonal tales at Spirit of trees can be found in the section for story links-- Why Evergreens Keep Their Leaves in Winter (three versions, including one in audio from Odds Bodkin) and The Thunder Oak. 48) The Tree That Survived the Winter by Mary Fahy The tree awakened earlier than usual one morning and stretched her arms toward the horizon as if to invite the early rays of dawn into her world. She shivered with delight, wiggling her roots in the muddy earth, which had only recently yielded its frozen hardness. She sensed something was different. Her roots seemed to be extending further and more firmly into the soil. Her arms seemed to embrace more of the world, not with the timid gestures of a sapling afraid of tangling with the wind, but with the freedom of knowing that the wind could not topple her. "I have survived the winter!" she marveled aloud. "How wonderful," whispered the dawn, who had a facility for appreciating new miracles no matter how often they occurred. She swirled around the tree in a ritual of blessing, enveloping her gently, making her feel very special. "How very different this feels," mused the tree, for a few short weeks ago the melting earth beneath her roots had sent shivers of panic through every single branch, She had cried out in alarm then, sensing that she might sink into the earth] and lose herself. often during the cold winter...., while she had trembled with anxiety she had felt an inner voice -- a small but steady voice -- which remained fluid and alive when everything else in her seemed paralyzed. But now -- now! -- she was filled with the realization that her inner life was in harmony with the world outside. She relaxed the tight fibers of her being which she had unwittingly held rigid during the cold gray months. "I have survived the winter!" she exulted. "You have survived the winter!" the birds echoed, hopping eagerly from branch to branch, bouncing on the tender extensions of herself that the tree had not even noticed. This one word, spoken softly and reverently, was all the tree could manage as she examined the white buds beginning to show through the tips of her branches, once held hard-clenched against the winter winds. "I have survived the winter," the tree sighed, "and I have grown!" Days passed, and the energy within her fairly exploded, spilling out into dusters of lovely blossoms. She watched each day as they grew larger and more beautiful. Spring rains showered her with congratulations and encouragement. "You have survived the winter and you are growing, growing, growing..." "Growing! Yes, I am growing," the tree acknowledged. "I have survived the winter and I am growing." She shivered with delight as she admired her new appearance, letting a few raindrops fall on the violets that enjoyed the shelter of her trunk. "It is good to be alive," she told them. "Indeed," said the sun, appearing suddenly from behind a rain cloud, "you have survived the winter because you are very much loved!" The tree could feel the warmth of the smiling sun penetrate deep into her branches, even through the bark of her trunk. But then she stopped. For the memory of the hard winter sent through her a stab of anger and pain that she thought the spring had healed. "Where were you when I needed you?" she cried to the sun. I needed you! I needed you so badly and you weren't there," she sobbed. "You've been gone so long, and I've been so cold and lonely and scared. The days were so gray when you weren't there, and even when I could see you in the distance I couldn't feel your warmth or seem to reach you with my voice. Didn't you see me shivering? I became so brittle I was afraid of breaking, and my roots became paralyzed in the earth. She could no longer go on except to cry out: "...and I missed you-- terribly!" The sun's glow only intensified and the message was repeated. "You have survived the winter because you are very much loved." The sun continued. "The chills and ice and bitter cold have toughened your timber to just the right degree, for you needed to be strong to carry the fruit that will appear on your branches. If I had stayed close all winter, you would not have grown this strong. But now -- just look at you! A blush of pink coursed through her petals. The tree stood speechless. You have survived the winter because you are, and were, and always will be very much loved," said the sun. "For that small place deep within you that remained unfrozen and open to mystery, that is where I have made my dwelling. And long, long before you felt my warmth surrounding you, you were being freed and formed from within in ways so deep and profound that you could not possibly know what was happening." "I...I...I had hope," she whispered, noticing that the words seemed to come from that inner space deep within her. "Yes, you had hope," sparkled the sun. You trusted in life and that is what enabled you to grow. For if you had no hope and trust in the center of your being, you could not have blossomed into you." This was almost too much joy for the tree to hear. No words would come, and no words were necessary. Weeks passed and the tree became a part of life in the meadow. She caught the kites of children who gathered nearby, and happily tossed them back gain. "You are a good sport," they said to her. "We will call you Friend." A young couple sat in the shade of her thickening leaves and spoke of their love for one another. "This is a special place," they said, and they left their initials on her toughened bark. "We shall call you Keeper of Secrets," they said to her. A tired woman, bent with care, walked silently through the meadow, oblivious to everything except her own worries. She did not notice the tree. "Come and rest for a while," whispered the tree, but she finally had to toss a piece of fruit onto the path before the woman saw her. Wearily, the woman sat and ate the fruit, and pondered deeply. The tree could feel the woman relax as she rested against her trunk. Finally the woman stood up. "Thank you," she said and embraced the tree. The tree winced, for the woman had touched a spot that had not healed from the winter's ravages -- a spot that remained vulnerable even though the spring and summer months had been good to her. The woman seemed to notice and caressed the spot thoughtfully. At that moment there was a oneness -- a sense of understanding between the troubled woman and the free. "I will call you Hope," whispered the woman, and touched her again with affection and gratitude. Long after her fruit had been shared and she began noticing touches of scarlet in her leaves, the tree still carried deep within her the memories of all her experiences. "Who could possibly have imagined all that has happened to me?" she said to no one in particular. And then addressing herself to the sun, she said, "...except you!" "Have you seen? Have you heard?" she asked eagerly. "I am needed! I am wanted! I am named! Aren't they beautiful names? I am called Friend, and Keeper of Secrets, and Hope." "Indeed," replied the sun, splashing a smile across the evening sky. "And what is the name I have given you?" "You named me?" the tree asked, astonished at her lack of awareness. "Long before you were a seedling," the sun replied solemnly. "What do you call me?" she asked. Watching the sun slide behind the farthest hill, she stood motionless, waiting in the promise of the newly-painted sky. "What do you call me?" she asked again in the stillness of the night. The small voice from within said,"You are called Faithful." "You are called FaithfuL" blinked the evening star, as if to reassure her. The conclusion is always the same; love is the most powerful, and still the most unknown energy of the world. -Pierre Tejihard de Chardin" 49) I don't know if this is what you seek but they are both sites. The first is more background info on willow trees and such, the second is a Japanese legend. Click here: The White Willow Green Willow - A Tale from Japan - retold by Rafe Martin Karen C. 5/15/05 50) Query: I'm telling tree stories in a museum gallery filled with tree paintings in about a week. After the stories, the participants are creating art containing some sort of tree motifs. I have some good stories, but I'm looking for more. If you have any favorites you'd like to share, I'd love to hear them. So far I'm considering "The Old Man Who Made Trees Blossom," "Green Willow," "The Useless Tree," "The Magic Pear," "The Magic Orange Tree" and a few short myths, e.g. Yggdrasil. I once heard a story about a baobab tree that had a secret entrance that it shared with one fortunate man. I believe the tree contained treasures inside. The one who was given access made the mistake of telling the wrong person who was greedy and got trapped inside. Anyone know this tale? John C. 11/7/05 Response: I do have different versions of this story, but they are all in French. The one who gets trapped inside the baobab is a hyena. Frank G. 11/ 7/05 Response: I found the baobab story in English, so I share this with you. I also included three other tree stories which might be of interest to you. 1- The treasure of the Baobab tree The day is hot, the air was thick, the ground is hard and the mouth was dry. The hare is making his way home when he comes across the baobab tree. "Baobab tree," he calls out, "You are old and wise and generous. Please let me rest in your shade." The tree answered, "Hare, your call is true, come sit in my shade." The hare sits and thanks the Baobab tree. But the air is still thick and the ground is still hard and the mouth still dry. The hare calls once again, "Baobab tree you are old and wise and generous, allow me to drink from your sap." And the Baobab says, "Hare, your call is true, please drink from my sap." The hare drinks from the sap, is refreshed, and thanks the Baobab tree. Some time goes by and the hare calls once more, "Baobab tree, you are old and wise and generous, won't you allow me to enter your heart?" And the tree answers, "Hare your call is true, come enter my heart." The tree opens her heart and the hare enters. Inside he sees unimaginable beauty, lights of all colors, sparkling dew drops, and precious stones everywhere onyx and emerald, diamond and sapphires all glittering and glowing. The hare calls to the Baobab, "You are old and wise and generous, wont you allow me to take one of your stones to my wife as a present?" The tree answers, "Your call is true, won't you take one of my stones?" The hare thankfully takes a single crystal, steps out and the heart closes behind him. Now the hare takes the stone to his wife, who places it on a chain around her neck and walks around town, showing it to all. But she shows it especially to the wife of the hyena, for she knows that the hyena and his wife will be the most jealous. That night, the wife of the hyena says to her husband, "Go, get me a stone from the heart of the baobab tree." The next morning, the air is thick, the sun is hot and the ground is hard. The hyena comes to the Baobab tree and says, "You are old and rich and very beautiful let me enter your heart." The Baobab tree opens her heart. The hyena enters and sees lights of many colors, sparkling dew, and precious stones. And the hyena starts to grab a diamond, a sapphire, a ruby. He grabs more and more, frantic with greed. He is out of control, taking from every corner of the Baobab's heart. The tree trembling and terrified calls out to him, but the hyena can not hear her. So with great shudder the Baobab closes her heart, trapping the hyena inside. The hyena dies. From that day on, the Baobab tree has not been willing to open her heart to anyone, even to those whose call is true. She simply pays them no attention. 2- Legend of the Willow According to a Polish legend, one early spring day, a mother cat and her kittens were exploring the forest along the river near their home. A butterfly drifted past them and over the water. The kittens, being young and inexperienced, leaped into the air to try to catch the butterfly, but instead landed in the swiftly moving water. The mother cat cried while her young kittens struggled with the current. The mother cat was afraid the kittens soon would drown. Along the bank of the river there grew a wise willow with graceful branches that bent all the way to the water. The willow saw the kittens floating nearby and bent all the way into the water. Each kitten grabbed the branch and was pulled to shore by the willow. To this day, the willow is honored for its heroic deeds by the tiny fur-like buds that sprout each season as the rivers start to run each spring. 3- Why the Evergreen Trees Keep their Leaves in Winter 4- Legend of the mulberry tree - How silk was discovered Chinese legend tells how silk was discovered almost 5,000 years ago by Xiling Shi, the wife of the semi-mythical emperor Huanghi. Walking in the garden, the empress plucked a cocoon from a mulberry tree. The cocoon fell by accident into her cup of tea. She and her handmaidens were astonished to see the cocoon start to unravel, revealing a long delicate thread. XiLingJi was so delighted by its beauty and strength that she had thousands of cocoons collected and then wove them into a robe for the Emperor. The Chinese guarded the secret of silk for thousands of years. Another Chinese princess, on her way to be married to a prince in India, is said to have smuggled some mulberry seeds and silkworm eggs in her headdress, allowing silk production in her new homeland. She wanted, the legend says, to have silk fabric easily available in her new land. Frank G. 11/8/05 51) Here is a list of tree-related references from myth and folklore. It will probably point the way to a few stories that could be of use: A list of sacred trees and phenomena related The Celestial Pole The Nail of the North The Pole Star: Polaris, the North Star, has not always been the pole star and will not remain so forever. Circa 3000 B.C. the pole star was Alpha Draconis; at the time of the Greeks, it was Beta Ursae Minoris; for the time being it is Alpha Ursae Minoris. By A.D. 12,000 the star Vega, in the constellation Lyra, will be the pole star. Yggdrasil, the World Ash The Huluppa-tree (in Gilgamesh) Sigu's Wonder Tree/Stump Pherecyde's World Oak ('draped with a starry mantle') The Broken Tree (Mexico) The Saltwater Tree (Palluwalla) of the Cuna Indians The Parent Pillar of the World (Tahiti) The Pillar of Heaven (the heliacal constellation) Uller's Yew Tree (belonging to Sirius) Zeus's Oak (part of which was built into the Argo) Sirius as the Celestial Arrow (the Bow of which is found in the constellations Argo and Canis Major) The Oak of the Kalevala The Tree of Life The Fig Tree at the Vortex (which saved Ulysses) The Heather Tree that enfolded the coffin of Osiris Dante's Purgatorial Mountain The World Mountain The Tower of Babel The Wheel of Fortune The Shaman's Drumstick/Drum --From Appleseed Quarterly, Feb 1991, Vol 1 No. 1 Meryl A. 4/13/06 52) David Albert discusses the history of the tree huggers/Chipko movement in India in our book - The Healing Heart ~ Community, in his article, Hugging Trees: The story behind the story, which follows his version of the story - Gaura Devi Saves the Trees. Allison C. 4/12/06 53) Query: I am researching some seasonal stories and have come across a photocopy of a story called Jack and the dancing trees. It's in Scottish dialect and seems to be part of something bigger called Battling Don's tales. I wondered if anyone had come across this. It would be nice to have a source for this story. It's about a grove of ancient oaks - the oldest tree is called Auld Croovie. They dance and go to mate with the younger trees in the valley every fifty years. When they are making merry they leave their birth spots and anyone can help themselves to the treasure buried there - so long as they're not too greedy. There is good hearted Jack and the greedy laird. Of course Jack wins out comes a way with a little money and the laird is never seen again - probably still digging for treasure beneath Auld Croovie. I would like to tell it but a bit more research is needed. Can anyone help? Ghislaine W. 4/24/06 Response: Trees were central to the Druidic Mysteries, none more central than oaks, and there are various hints in folklore and mythology. The obvious one to check is the work called the Cad Goddeu - the Battle of the Trees, in Celtic mythology, known as one of the three frivolous battles of Britain. Tolkien borrowed such tree mythology in creating the Ents in Lord of the Rings, and the battle at which they came to the rescue. But Tolkien was very learned and may well have gathered his inspiration from other North European/Scandinavian sources too. Robert Graves in the White Goddess interpreted the Cad Goddeu as referring to the sacred tree alphabet of the Druids, the battle being one of letters and hence symbolic of spiritual ideas and divine forces rather than a physical battle. He's undoubtedly right to look for deep symbolism, though most people trust his specific overall White Goddess thesis about as far as they could throw a tree - though an intellectual writer who gave copious references he was mainly a poet with a free-ranging imaginative vision. I know none of this is about dancing, but the leisure activities of trees may well be detailed in the same places. Tim S. England 4/25/06 54) The Stones of Poulhenic There is a story called The Stones of Poulhenic (my spelling might be off) in a collection of French stories I have at home. In this story, the stones move at midnight on New Year's Eve. They go to the water to drink, leaving their treasure uncovered. The story has Christian influences--a person may take the treasure if they bring three things to the trees, one of these being a Christian soul. It's great story, one I learned about 6 years ago, but have yet to tell. Granny Sue 4/25/06 Response: Is this The Stones of Plouhinec, pp. 113-119 in Barbara Leonie Picard's French Legends, Tales and Fairy Stories (Oxford University Press, 1992) or from a different collection? The one I have is a Breton tale. Barra the Bard 4/25/06 Response: I googled the title - its also in Andrew Lang's Lilac Fairy Tales and the text is on the net. Ellouise S. 4/26/06 MAPLE TREES AND SYRUP 55) Stories about maple trees and syrup: "The Celestial Bear" by Kate Dudding (our very own Kate!) "Gluskabe Changes Maple Syrup" (Abenaki) An Ojibwa myth about the maple tree (featuring Nokomis, the wise grandmother) Includes background information about the maple tree Maple Sugar: A Gift from the Indians "How Maple-Sugar Came" (Salteaux) "Mare's Son" from Sacred Texts (extensive source note) "Fox and Wolf" (American Indian) "The Funeral Maple" by Andrei Oisteanu (poem) "The Great Tree" by Margaret Odrowaz-Sypniewska "The Woodland Fairy" synopsis by Theodora Goss (Hungarian Fairies) 56) How about "Monkey loves Misery" from The Magic Orange Tree: and Other Haitian Folktales by Diane Wollstein? Merrilee H. 2/19/10 57) Here are a few ideas. I hope they are useful. Glooscap and the Baby In this story the baby sucks on a piece of maple sugar. Favorite folktales from around the world - Google Books The Greenwood Library of American ... - Google Books Canadian Garden Words sample page three Ojibwa Myth Abouth The Maple Tree Earth Care: World Folktales to Talk ... - Google Books Mikku and the Trees Great info on maple trees Myths and legends of flowers, trees ... - Google Books Karen C. 2/19/10 58) Do you mean the Maple Tapping story about why the sap has to be boiled down? It was because it used to be so sweet that folks just lay under the trees and were too lazy. This one is told in Western NY ... and someone mentioned that Bruchac has version in one of his books. Ina V.D. 2/19/10 59) Here's a Maple Story. One spring I worked at a nature center where we had a number of sugar maples that we tapped and sugared off. To illustrate the process before we went to the woods, I had pre-school kids play parts of a tree. We had a trunk... 4 or 5 kids lying on the ground for roots... a few became branches and leaves. Then we took a spout... pretended to hang it from the trunk. Put a big bucket on the floor and let the sap drip in. I was the first sap. Then, of course, everyone wanted to be the sap. Bob K. 2/19/10 Created 2003; last update 2/20/10 Story Lovers World ... 707-996-1996
I need a step by step solution to 16.91! Image text transcribed for accessibility: A 2 - kg disk slides on a smooth horizontal table and is connected' to an elastic cord whose tension is T = 6r N, where r is the radial position of the disk in meters. If the disk is at r = 1 m and is given an initial velocity of 4 m/s in the transverse direction, what are the magnitudes of the radial and transverse components of its velocity when r = 2 m? (See Active Example 16.7.) In Problem 16.91, determine the maximum value of r reached by the disk. Problems 16.91/16.92
Online Degrees, Distance Learning Online Education is the fastest growing segment of our college populations. About 35% of all college students are enroled in online classes. Online Degree Programs have an Online degree as a goal, whereas Distance Learning can mean any sort of education not done in a classroom or in a traditional college setting. Distance Learning, and online degrees programs can include degree programs, children's online classes or games, employee training, proficiency classes, technical training, language classes, online financial management classes, or any other sort of long-distance learning. Here you can find colleges that provide these opportunities. Most colleges have online programs, thus making it possible for anyone, anywhere to enroll, take classes, and progress toward a degree. Some colleges only provide online educational opportunities. Start with the U.S. Department of Education's Distance Learning Resource A great site for distance learning programs, you can search this directory by course name, subject, institution, location. Distance Learning Course Finder A Directory of Online Schools Online Degrees: Get that Degree from Your Education Site Education Connection, Free Matching Services for Online Diplomas, Colleges Find online degrees programs. Browse by program, degree, or school at Online Degree Program from Accredited Colleges and Universities A complete site for online degrees and distance education, World Wide Learn calls itself the world's premier online directory of education. They have tons of links, and a lot of info: Online Degrees by level, subject, school, U.S., International, non-degree, alternative classes. Guide to Online Schools and Learning Programs Online Bachelor's Degrees: Complete College Planning Online Masters Degrees, complete college planning All About Education - The United States Department of Education Anyone looking into online degrees has seen those ads for degrees you "earn" by paying a fee, with the promise of receiving a degree within a week or two. You may even get emails telling you how easy it is. You can go for it if you wish, but employers and real colleges know these are fake degrees. If you want to earn a degree from well recognized universities and colleges, while working from home, contact: Need an Education? Check out "Of Online College Degrees" The Degree Experts Learn about Accredited Schools How to succeed when you are studying from home in sweats and your bunny slippers with the floppy ears Distance learning, and working on online degrees has special challenges: You will probably never see or meet the teacher. You won't have classmates. You aren't involved in the social whirl of campus life.You don't meet people taking the same classes.You are not bound by any structure other than what you create for yourself.Gaining weight is easy because of the chocolate chips right there in the cupboard by the computer. Even so: You can succeed! Stay focused, stay on track, and remind yourself that success is yours.Follow the tips below, and you'll do better in your learning. These tips are simple and easy to follow - Set goals: - Keep telling yourself that you will manage this course and do well - or words to that effect. - Baby Step your way through the courses. - At the beginning of the course, look through the materials. - Break the lessons/assignments into manageable chunks and plan your time, and plan the amount of work you will finish in that session. - Establish a regular study/learning schedule. - Keep a calendar or journal with your study goals and important dates clearly marked-and look at it every day.You have to open it first! - Determine what time is best for you to study. Create a schedule that allows you to be flexible, but to accomplish your goals. - If possible, have a dedicated study place with all the supplies you might need (computer, paper, pens, calculator, etc.) - Pace yourself. Don't over extend. Remember it takes years to graduate from a live-in college, and those students rarely have the distractions that others have while trying to study. You're in this to learn, not just to get a certificate, so make sure you're learning, not just racing through the materials. Become a Super-Learner" and the grades will follow. - Tell people what you're doing. You might someone else learning the same material. It will help you stay on target, and if you need help, you may find someone to provide the support you need or who knows someone who can help. - Ask someone to proof your work before you submit it. This is especially necessary if you are submitting written work and will be graded on writing skills, grammar, word use, punctuation and the like. Don't overly rely on Spell-checker, you still need to put the document on your screen at 200% and go through it word by word. - Join a study group - Find some groups to join in your area of study. If you're studying a foreign language ask ask around to find someone who might like to do practice English while you practice his or her language. - Use the Web for bulletin boards or chat rooms related to your topic. Discipline yourself, because hours can go by almost without realizing it. - Know your learning style, and use it! There are three main types of learners: - Kinesics-by experience or physical involvement. I, in fact, learn by a combination of visual and experience. - Studies show that we learn best in short bursts. This means your learning might be less effective if you spend long hours hunched over your books and not absorbing the information. - Talk out loud to yourself when studying. - Analyze your classes, and any exams for the instructor's learning style, exam styles, and what is regarded as important. - Figure out if the instructor uses the textbook, or his/her own material. - Ask Questions: - If you are going back to school after an absence, or college for the first time, you might feel shy. Don't be. You are spending your money to learn, speak up when you need to know something or have a concern. - Reward yourself with each milestone. Useful Education Links A complete Web site for Online College Degrees This site offers a vast array of online information on online accredited bachelors and Master's degrees. Earn extra college credits: take examinations, get credit for life and work experiences, and graduate early College Entrance Exams for those who need them. GRE, GMAT, MCAT, LSAT... Scholarships (free money) Save Big Bucks - Find Free College Textbooks Return to the top of this page Return to Everything about college home page
- Historic Sites The Taking Of California A low comedy for high stakes: February 1973 \| Volume 24, Issue 2 The great battles of the Mexican War were played out a long distance from both the city where war had been declared and the land for which it was fought. It was America’s first major expeditionary war, and men struggled, marched, and sweated out the long agony of conflict in places with names unfamiliar to the American experience: Monterrey, Buena Vista, Veracruz, Resaca de la Palma, Chapultepec. It ground on for nearly two years and at its end had killed 13,283 Americans (most of them by disease) and uncounted Mexicans and had cost a hundred million dollars. Seen against the backdrop of the very real war going on in the valleys and plains of Mexico, the California conflict appears as a parody of warfare. The irony is heightened by the fact that this gray comedy was futile by any standards of military, political, or diplomatic necessity. With all deference to the risks of historical speculation, there seems little reason to doubt that the province’s inexorable drift toward the United States would simply have been accelerated once news of war reached its inhabitants. After all, for all their bluster and self-importance the Californio leaders had always demonstrated a decent respect for the arts of survival and an ability to accept and adjust to the inevitable—providing that their honor could also be satisfied, by no means an impossible task. If American occupation had been entrusted to reasonable men, the chances were excellent that the transition would have been as slick and peaceful as anyone might have desired. As it turned out, a handful of small men with large ambitions managed to sabotage this possibility and create a bitter, pointless little farce that only an unjustifiably charitable view of history could dignify with the title “Conquest.” The meaningless character of the affair was established even before war broke out between the United States and Mexico. It began in December, 1845, with the arrival of Captain John C. Frémont and a force of sixty hand-picked, well-armed men, most of them weathered, hard-bitten veterans of various wilderness exploits. His ostensible mission was to expand and correct some of the findings of his previous explorations, but the private mission he carried in his head went far beyond that prosaic if necessary task. He had competently accomplished some of the most extensive, well-reported, and useful exploring expeditions in the nineteenth century and had reaped more than a fair share of the country’s official and unofficial gratitude. But this was not glory enough for him. He was beginning to see himself as a Great Man, an image nourished by the artful prodding of his wife, Jessie—who was herself beautiful, brilliant, ambitious, and trapped in a time and place that robbed her of any alternative way to make her mark in a world ruled by men. To both of them—and to Frémont’s father-in-law, Senator Thomas Hart Benton—California appeared as a promising arena for the further development of an aspiring young man’s career. So, leading his small band of sharpshooters, Frémont entered California in December, 1845, with a palpable thirst for greatness. It got him into trouble almost immediately. After making a verbal promise to General José Castro in Monterey that he would sit out the winter in the San Joaquin Valley and then leave the country in the spring, Frémont loitered instead in the Santa Clara Valley until March, 1846. Then he set out—not east across the mountains, but south back toward Monterey. When Castro demanded that he keep his word and leave, Frémont’s response was to compose a screed of high-toned outrage, send it to Castro, retire to Gavilan (now Fremont) Peak near Mission San Juan Bautista, erect a jerrybuilt fort of logs, whittle a pole, nail the American flag to it, plant it with appropriate ceremony, and vow to defend it to the last man. Castro’s honor required that he pelt the region with belligerent circulars in the finest Californio style, round up a troop of volunteers, and maneuver them in various aggressive poses within range of American telescopes but not American rifles. Consul Larkin was aghast and worked frantically to prevent an exchange of gunfire that would start a war he considered neither necessary nor profitable. His intercession kept the two forces apart long enough for the situation to cool. After three days the wind toppled Frémont’s brave little banner. The captain announced that this was an omen to move on, and the party retired across the mountainsandup the Central Valley, arriving at Sutler’s Fort on March 21. He then wandered north, apparently on his way to Oregon. Behind him Frémont left a wellroiled California. Already a stewpot of rumor, the province now positively vibrated with the Gavilan Peak incident. Larkin did his best to placate Castro and the other Californio authorities, while clusters of settlers, squatters, adventurers, and con men gathered in Yerba Buena, Monterey, and Sutler’s Fort and gossiped, heightening the general lension.
What’s Jewish about gratitude? So many things! In Judaism hoda'ah means gratitude or being thankful for what we have. But there’s also a phrase, hakarat hatov, which extends beyond simple gratitude to “recognizing the good” all around us. Hakarat hatov is something kids often practice pretty naturally when they’re little. For babies, everything is new and everything is amazing! As kids grow older, it’s hard to keep that sense of wonder. Modeling gratitude and practicing hakarat hatov helps children (and us grownups) remember to be thankful for things in our life beyond material possessions. Understanding that everything really is amazing helps all of us stay grounded, thankful, and healthy. Here are eight activities that will help the entire family go beyond just saying “thank you,” to living hakarat hatov. Talk about it Make “Thank you” part of your routine. Let your kids see you say “thank you,” often. Be sure to thank each other: “hey, your room looks great, thank you for putting away your toys,” or “that was really yummy, thank you for making dinner.” You can also play the “Rose and Thorn” game. At dinner time or before bedtime each family member describes the “rose” of their day – a high point, followed by the “thorn,” a low. Part of this game is discussing how to turn the thorns into opportunities. Some families play this by keeping a rose in a vase on their dinner table, while others just discuss their days. You can see the Plonys playing the rose and thorn game in the video at the bottom of this post. Create a Gratitude Wall image via What Do We Do All Day? This fantastic hands-on activity from What Do We Do All Day? provides a tangible way to look at all the things, big and small, that your family feels gratitude for. Kids will stretch their creative muscles while working on their handwriting skills as they make their cards. This activity is also a great way to spark dinner time conversations about gratitude--you can use this as an alternative to or in addition to the "rose and thorn" game. Craft “Give Thanks” hands Image via sightandsoundreading.com Have children trace their hands and then write out “G-I-V-E-T-H-A-N-K-S” on each of the fingertips. Use the acronym as a reminder about practicing hakarat hatov and giving thanks. Say each line of the acronym with the corresponding finger as if you were counting to memorize your "Give Thanks" mantra. Work on your “attitude of gratitude” There’s a Jewish tradition that encourages finding 100 blessings each day. From waking up to trying something new, to turning a bump in the road into a new opportunity, there are occasions throughout our day to feel gratitude and awe. Our brains are trained to actually take greater notice of and hold on to negative experiences and interactions, but actively counting our blessings, appreciating even the smallest positive moment on an otherwise rainy day, and learning to turn around difficult situations helps us reframe our thinking. A story like Thank You, For Me! is also a wonderful reminder about all of the blessings a child encounters during their day. Not sure where to start with counting your blessings? We've got a blog post that can help. For more, watch the short video, Grateful for the Partial, below: Make a list Image via thegratitudegraffitiproject.com Use a whiteboard, sticky notes, or even washable paint on a window. Brainstorm together and write out a list of all of the things that you’re grateful for. Need help getting started? Use these prompts. Give to others The Pirke Avot tells us “Who is rich? The person who is happy with what he has.” Donate your time, your clothes, your toys – give new things and unused items in good condition. The act of cleaning house to prepare donations for a clothing drive, a relief effort, or a fundraiser, helps us to really take stock of what we have and appreciate it. Put together a family gratitude book A gratitude book is like a scrapbook that’s themed around things you’re thankful for. Compile your favorite family photos, recipes, and mementos into an album that you decorate together. You can create a hard copy using supplies from your local craft store, or make a digital scrapbook together using a service like Shutterfly or Mixbook. and of course… Read a Story You can find some of our favorite books, like Bagels From Benny or Good Night, Laila Tov in this list. The blog, Rhythms of Play, features a book list with reading suggestions for children and grownups. You can click here to see their full list. The Best Children’s Books website also has a list of books perfect for discussing gratitude and saying “thank you.” You can view it here. For more ideas, check out this fantastic two-minute video for parents from Shaboom!: « Find more activities, book lists, interviews, and recipes October 13, 2016
Approaches to teaching Guides and resources for academic staff on ways they can approach teaching at Victoria University of Wellington. At the University, we recognise that there is no one ‘right’ way to approach teaching. The approach needs to suit the teaching context. This includes the course, the teaching space—physical or online—and the students. We encourage staff to try new and creative approaches to teaching. We want to see them exploring how they can adapt and improve their teaching to meet the needs of their students and course. If they need some direction, the Centre for Academic Development is there to help. They can provide practical advice and resources. Learning and teaching guides The University’s Centre for Academic Development develops practical guides for teachers interested in developing their learning and teaching skills. The guides cover: - assessment for learning - developing questions - group work and assessment - peer reviews - teaching international students - informal feedback. The University encourages staff to use inclusive methods in every part of their teaching—from everyday communication with students to designing assessments. Find out more about inclusive teaching at the University and the resources available to teachers. Māori and Pasifika learning and teaching These resources have been designed for teachers interested in helping their Māori and Pasifika students succeed at university. They include: - language guides to help teachers improve communication and pronunciation - learning and teaching research with a focus on Māori and Pasifika students - guides to socially acceptable behaviour - research and innovation by Māori at the University. Steps to teaching success A highly accessible collection of strategies, ideas, and insights from top teaching staff to help raise teaching standards.
Zika continues to spread across the Americas. It is a virus originating from the most commonly hated species amongst humans; the mosquito. Here's what the buzz is all about. The Zika virus originates from the Aedes aegypti, a species of mosquito known for spreading illnesses such as yellow fever, dengue, and the West Nile virus. Once bitten, only one in five people develop symptoms such as fever, joint pain, rush, and red eyes, with temporary paralysis among a rarer effect exhibited. The virus remains in the body for about one-week. In the past, the virus never caused major concern, until cases of a rare birth defect began to rise at the same time Zika said hello to the Americas. An unusually high concentration of babies born with microcephaly-abnormally small heads and damaged brains- has been reported in Brazil since October. Normally, from the average three million babies born in the country each year, only 150 cases are documented. Doctors in Brazil are currently treating more than 4,000 babies with microcephaly. In the majority of children born with the disease, mothers reported experiencing Zika symptoms during pregnancy. Doctors believe it is no coincidence that the number of microcephaly cases is increasing exponentially as the Zika virus sweeps the continent. Microcephaly effects not only cranial size, but also brain development in 75% of diagnoses, causing a wide variety of issues including halting of brain development, hearing loss, and learning disabilities. Just this week, doctors in Brazil released that there has been an additional disturbing rise in retinal issues afflicting the vision of one-third of microcephaly babies. A Zika generation is emerging, and there is no treatment for the illness or its birth defects. The Zika outbreak began in Brazil, with the first case in South America reported by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in May 2015. The Aedes aegypti habitats areas of still, warm water. Unfortunately, many of the lower-class neighborhoods in Brazil have pools of sitting water within their own homes. The combination of still water and a tropical climate leads to the ideal reproduction ground for Zika to wreak havoc on lower income families. Previously, the virus was only known to exist in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Isles. There are no reported cases of active Zika transmission via mosquito in the United States. However, according to the Center’s for Disease Control, nearly 35 cases of Zika have been reported from travelers who have recently visited countries where the virus is prevalent. The only known method of human-to-human spread of Zika is through the form of an STD. So far, only one case of Zika has been contradicted in the US through sexual relations. There are no other known methods of contagion. How Zika originally came the the Americas, we may never know. But with the New York Times reporting that an estimated four million people will become infected with the virus in 2016, it appears as if Zika is here to stay for quite some time. Sources: Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Business Insider, New York Times: Short Answers to Hard Questions About Zika
Lens & Frame Technology - FAQs \| Sunglass Hut Online Store What does "polarized" mean? Polarized lenses fight glare by minimizing the passage of undesirable light to the eye. The result is sharper vision, more vivid color and greater depth perception. What does "photochromatic" mean? Photochromatic lenses darken with UV exposure, adjusting to a variety of light conditions. What are anti-reflective lenses? Anti-reflective lenses reduce distracting reflections that can bounce off the back of the lens into the eye. What are the benefits of gradient lenses? Gradient lenses fade from a darker tint to a lighter tint, allowing for comfortable vision over a wide range of distance and lighting conditions. Why might I want interchangeable lenses? Frames that have interchangeable lenses let you swap out lenses for different looks and performances. What are the benefits of mirrored lenses? Mirrored lenses have reflective coating that reduces the amount of light passing through to the eye. How do I find my frame size? To find your frame size, measure your features according to this guide: Measured from outermost edges of lenses horizontally. Approx. 40mil - 62mil The distance between lenses. Approx. 14mil - 24mil Length of the temple piece - also known as the arm piece or earpiece. Approx. 120mil - 150mil What difference do lens colors make? All colors absorb light differently. Lens colors determine which parts of the light spectrum pass through the lens to your eye. - Gray or "smoked" lenses protect eyes from dangerous ultraviolet radiation without distorting colors. They reduce glare and absorb the same quality of light at any wavelength, which makes them good for driving, prolonged wear and general use. - Yellow lenses filter out near-UV blue light while allowing a larger percentage of other frequencies through. Since blue light creates glare, these lenses make everything really bright and sharp. Just don't use them for anything that requires accurate color perception. With yellow lenses, colors are very distorted. - Brown lenses are good for general use. Like yellow lenses, they filter out a large proportion of blue light, but they offer greater clarity and contrast, and help you maintain optimal vision even in irregular light. - Green lenses offer the highest contrast and greatest visual acuity of any tint. They also filter some blue light and reduce glare. This filter is recommended for prolonged use in extreme conditions. - Purple and rose lenses offer the best contrast for object against a green or blue background, making them ideal for water sports.
City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality \|City of Johannesburg\| Location in Gauteng \|• Type\|\|Municipal council\| \|• Mayor\|\|Herman Mashaba (DA)\| \|• Total\|\|1,645 km2 (635 sq mi)\| \|• Density\|\|2,700/km2 (7,000/sq mi)\| \|Racial makeup (2011)\| \|• Black African\|\|76.4%\| \|First languages (2011)\| \|Time zone\|\|SAST (UTC+2)\| The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality is a metropolitan municipality that manages the local governance of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is divided into several branches and departments in order to expedite services for the city. Johannesburg is a divided city: the poor mostly live in the southern suburbs or on the peripheries of the far north, and the middle class live largely in the suburbs of the central and north. Unemployment is near 46% and most young people are out of work. Around 20% of the city lives in abject poverty in informal settlements that lack proper roads, electricity, or any other kind of direct municipal service. Another 40% live in inadequate housing with insufficient municipal housing. During the apartheid era, Johannesburg was divided into 11 local authorities, seven of which were white and four black or coloured. The white authorities were 90% self-sufficient from property tax and other local taxes, and spent Rand 600 (USD $93) per person, while the black authorities were only ten percent self-sufficient, spending Rand 100 (USD $15) per person. The first post-apartheid City Council was created in 1995. The council adopted the slogan "One City, One Taxpayer" in order to highlight its primary goal of addressing inequal tax revenue distribution. To this end, revenue from wealthy, traditionally white areas would help pay for services needed in poorer, black areas. The City Council was divided into four regions, each with a substantially autonomous local regional authority that was to be overseen by a central metropolitan council. Furthermore, the municipal boundaries were expanded to include wealthy satellite towns like Sandton and Randburg, poorer neighbouring townships such as Soweto and Alexandra, and informal settlements like Orange Farm. The four councils or Metropolitan Local Councils (MLCs) were the Northern MLCl, Southern MLC, Eastern MLC and Western MLC (sometimes referred to as Metropolitan Substructures), under a central metropolitan council. This arrangement ended in 2000. In 1999, Johannesburg appointed a city manager in order to reshape the city's ailing financial situation. The manager, together with the Municipal Council, drew up a blueprint called "Igoli 2002". This was a three-year plan that called upon the government to sell non-core assets, restructure certain utilities, and required that all others become self-sufficient. The plan took the city from near insolvency to an operating surplus of Rand 153 million (USD 23.6 million). The plan was fiercely contested by trade unions, who argued that it would result in job losses and tariff increases. The core of Igoli 2002 was to restructure Metro Gas, Rand Airport, and some sports stadiums as stand-alone corporate entitites. The city bus service, the Johannesburg Zoo, the Civic Theatre, the Fresh Produce Market, and the city's property holdings were turned into corporations with the city as the single shareholder. Each was run as a business, with management hired on performance contracts. In 2010/11 the municipality faced a qualified audit from the Auditor-General following a large number of billing issues, as the result of the flawed implementation of a SAP system. The city's call centre also experienced a crisis at the same time, with staff refusing to work. \|City of Johannesburg (non-urban)\|\|798002\|\|9,933\|\|289.84\| The municipal council consists of 270 members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. 135 are elected by first-past-the-post voting in 135 wards, while the remaining 135 are chosen from party lists so that the total number of party representatives is proportional to the number of votes received. In the election of 3 August 2016 the African National Congress (ANC) won the largest share of the seats on the council with 121 but did not achieve a majority. On 22 August 2016, minority parties voted with the DA to elect its mayoral candidate, Herman Mashaba, as the first Democratic Alliance mayor of Johannesburg. \|African National Congress\|\|555,284\|\|566,664\|\|1,121,948\|\|44.55\|\|84\|\|37\|\|121\| \|Economic Freedom Fighters\|\|141,395\|\|137,800\|\|279,195\|\|11.09\|\|0\|\|30\|\|30\| \|Inkatha Freedom Party\|\|21,824\|\|21,512\|\|43,336\|\|1.72\|\|0\|\|5\|\|5\| \|African Independent Congress\|\|17,538\|\|20,332\|\|37,870\|\|1.50\|\|0\|\|4\|\|4\| \|Freedom Front Plus\|\|4,400\|\|4,080\|\|8,480\|\|0.34\|\|0\|\|1\|\|1\| \|African Christian Democratic Party\|\|3,524\|\|3,951\|\|7,475\|\|0.30\|\|0\|\|1\|\|1\| \|United Democratic Movement\|\|3,494\|\|3,076\|\|6,570\|\|0.26\|\|0\|\|1\|\|1\| \|Congress of the People\|\|1,858\|\|2,691\|\|4,549\|\|0.18\|\|0\|\|1\|\|1\| Amos Mosondo was the first executive mayor. The city management team head office is the Metro Centre Complex in Braamfontein, which is responsible for overall administration, financial control, supply of services, and collection of revenues. The fire department and ambulances, the metropolitan police and traffic control, museums, art galleries, and heritage sites are all controlled by separate departments. Some of the key city service functions are supplied by separate, self-contained entities, each run on business lines with its own CEO. There are 10 utilities, including electricity which is run by City Power Johannesburg, water and sanitation which is run by Johannesburg Water, and solid waste management, also known as Pikitup. Utilities are registered companies, run on business lines. They must be self-funding, receiving no annual grants from the city. They provide billable services direct to individual households. Agencies include Johannesburg Roads, City Parks and Johannesburg Development Agency. Each of these performs a service to the public at large – there are no direct charges to individual consumers. These are also structured as separate companies, but they are reliant on the council for funding. The zoo, Civic Theatre, bus service, fresh produce market and property company each compete in the open market to "sell" their wares to individual consumers who choose to pay for their services. These departments have been "corporatised" into separate businesses, run by new managements on performance contracts, and tasked to cut their subsidy levels by R100-million in the next five years. \|New Administrative Regions The administration of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality was decentralised initially into 11 regions (largely unrelated to the 11 former apartheid administrations). These new regions were subsequently reduced in number to 7 regions in 2006. Each region is operationally responsible for the delivery of health care, housing, sports and recreation, libraries, social development, and other local community-based services. As of the August 2016 municipal elections, there are now 270 City Councillors in Johannesburg. The Councillors are divided into two kinds: (1) Ward Councillors: those who have won office in one of Johannesburg's 135 electoral wards; and (2) Those who are elected by Proportional Representation (PR) on the basis of party lists. Ward Councillors have more local responsibilities, including setting up Ward Committees in their wards to raise local issues, commenting on town planning and other local matters in their ward, and liaising with local ratepayers' and residents' associations. PR Councillors are usually allocated to more political tasks within their party structures and within the City. - "Contact list: Executive Mayors". Government Communication & Information System. Retrieved 22 February 2012. - "Statistics by place". Statistics South Africa. Retrieved 27 September 2015. - "Statistics by place". Statistics South Africa. Retrieved 27 September 2015. - Smith, David (12 July 2013). "Johannesburg rebuked over 'world-class city' advert". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 July 2013. - Archived 5 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine. - Chantelle Benjamin And Sarah Hudleston. "Billing crisis could result in qualified audit for Joburg". BusinessDay. Retrieved 15 May 2011. - Mawson, Nicola (1 February 2011). "Joburg call centre collapses". ITWeb. Retrieved 15 May 2011. - Gia Nicolaides (24 June 2009). "Joburg connect staff admit they are on a go-slow". Eyewitness News. Retrieved 15 May 2011. - "Herman Mashaba elected Johannesburg mayor, marking the end of ANC rule in the city". Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 23 August 2016. - "Results Summary – All Ballots: Johannesburg" (PDF). Independent Electoral Commission. Retrieved 17 August 2016. - "Seat Calculation Detail: Johannesburg" (PDF). Independent Electoral Commission. Retrieved 17 August 2016. - Archived 23 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
\|\|This article possibly contains original research. (March 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)\| \|Regions with significant populations\| \|Christianity (Roman Catholicism)\| \|Related ethnic groups\| \|East Indian people, Kuparis, Indo-Aryans\| East Indians or East Indian Catholics are an ethno-religious Roman Catholic community, based in and around the city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and North Konkan district (Thane) in the present state of Maharashtra, India. Although it is commonly thought that the origin of Christianity in North Konkan, originated with proselytising activities in the 16th Century, it may have actually been St. Bartholomew, one of the twelve Apostles of Christ, who preached in North Konkan much earlier. There are evidences of this in the writings of Kosmas Indicopleustes of his having seen in Kalyana a flourishing Christian Community in the 6th Century and of Jordanus, of his having laboured among the Christians in Thana and Sopara in the 13th Century. The Dominican friar Jordanus Catalani, who was either Catalan or Occitan (southern French), started evangelising activities in Thana and Sapora was the first work of Rome in North Konkan. Sopara was an ancient port and an international trading center. The water once extended all the way to Bhayander creek thus making the whole area extending from Arnala to Bhayander an island – referred to as Salsette island. In the time of the Buddha, Sopara (ancient Shurparaka), was an important port and a gateway settlement. Perhaps this induced Ashoka to install his edicts there. Sopara is referred in the Old Testament as Ophir, the place from which King Solomon brought gold, Josephus identifies Ophir with Aurea Chersonesus, belonging to India. Septuagint translates Ophir as Sophia, which is Coptic for India. This refers to the ancient city of Soupara or Ouppara on the western coast of India. It should then come as no surprise that contact with India dates as far back as the days of King Solomon. Pantaneus visited India about AD 180 and there he found a Gospel of Matthew written in Hebrew language, left with the Christians there by St. Barthlomew. This is mentioned by Eusebius, and by Jerome in one of his letters. The finding of a Gospel of Matthew left with the Christians by Bartholomew is very strong evidence to the existence of a Christian community in India in the first century at the time of the visit of St. Bartholomew. It traces the history of the Church in India to the first century. In fact, it is an independent confirmation of the Indian church's ancient and apostolic origin. Most history of The Indian Church was lost between the 9th and the 14th Century, as Persia went over to the Nestorianism in 800 AD. Since the provision of Church offices and all the apparatus of public worship, was looked to a foreign source; when this foreign aid was withdrawn. the Indian Christians were reduced to "nominal" Christians. The Brahmins and other high-class Hindus who were prudently and ceremoniously converted by the Portuguese, were treated with honour and distinction. In stark contrast, was the attitude of the Portuguese to those groups who were engaged in cultivation, fishing and other rural occupations handed down to them by their ancestors. These groups were given neither education, not proper instructions in the dogmas and doctrines of the church. Among the converts the Portuguese made, it cannot be denied that a large number of them were descendants of the Christian Community founded by Apostle St. Bartholomew and these new converts were not strangers to the old Christians. They were their own people with whom they had been living for centuries. The Portuguese however welded them into one community. Ever since then, this community has remained a separate entity, without becoming one with any of the other Christian communities. In certain instances, they were even referred to as "Portuguese Christians". The Franciscans spearheaded evangelisation efforts in the "Province of the North" (Província do Norte). Between 1534–1552, Fr. António do Porto made over 10,000 converts, built 12 churches and founded a number of orphanages and monasteries. Prominent among these converts were two yogis from the Kanheri Caves who came to be called Paulo Raposo and Francisco de Santa Maria. They in turn spread Christianity among their fellow monks converting many of them in the process. Another famous convert during this time was the Brahmin astrologer Parashuram Joshi. He was a learned, austere and devout person and embraced Christianity on 8 September 1565, taking the name of Henrique da Cunha. Joshi's example was followed by 250 Hindus, including over fifty Brahmins. In Salsette, Fr. Manuel Gomes converted over 6,000 Hindus in Bandra, earning the title of the Apostle of Salsette. The number of converts in 1573 was 1,600. From 1548, the Jesuits in Bassein (Baçaim) and Bandra converted many of the upper classes. For instance, the Bassein Cathedral registered the number of baptisms as being 9,400. At Thane (Tana), the Jesuit superior Gonçalo Rodrigues baptised between 5,000 and 6,000, many of them orphans and young children of lower caste Hindus sold by their parents. By the end of the 16th century, the Roman Catholic population of the Portuguese province of the North consisted of around 10,000 to 15,000 people, centered mainly in and around Bassein. However, following the defeat of the Portuguese at the hands of the Marathas and the advent of Maratha rule, the Catholics were discriminated against by the state administration. In the aftermath of the fall of Bassein, many Catholics were heavily taxed by the Marathas who used the money to feed Brahmins and to conduct a massive re-conversion campaign aimed at bringing them back into the Hindu fold. Large numbers were re-converted in this manner. Most Portuguese priests were forced to leave and by treaty, only five churches (three in Bassein City, one in Bassein District and one in Salsette) were permitted to remain. The remainder of the Christian population was left to the native clergy under a Vicar General at Kurla. When, in 1757, Antequil du Perron visited Salsette, he found a flourishing Catholic population with many churches rebuilt and an open practise of Christianity, but with European priests totally absent. Later on the advent of the British, there came a lot of change. In the 1960s, the Archdiocese of Bombay estimated that there were 92,000 East Indians in Bombay out of which 76,000 were in suburban Bombay and 16,000 in urban Bombay. British and modern era On 11 May 1661, the marriage treaty of Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza (Catarina de Bragança), daughter of King João IV of Portugal, placed Bombay in the possession of the British Empire, as they had pursued ever since their takeover of Surat, allegedly as part of Catherine's dowry to Charles. A weakened Portugal, no longer part of the Crown of Spain, had to oblige. Nevertheless, parts of current Mumbai, such as Bandra, besides Thane or Vasai remained Portuguese well into the first third of the 18th century. From the early days of the East India Company, there were no other Indian Christians in the North Konkan except the East Indian Catholics. Employments that were intended for Christians, were the monopoly of the East Indians. With development, came in railways and steamship, a boon for the travelling public. And with that came a number of immigrants from Goa who were also known as Portuguese Christians. The British found it expedient to adopt a designation which would distinguish the Christians of North Konkan who were British subjects and the Goan, who were Portuguese subjects (Mangalorean Catholics were no Portuguese subjects at this point any more). Accordingly, on the occasion of The Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria, the Christians of North Konkan, who were known as "Portuguese Christians" discarded that name and adopted the designation "East Indian”. By the adoption of the name "East Indian" they wanted to impress upon the British Government of Bombay that they were the earliest Roman Catholic Subjects of the British Crown in this part of India, in as much as parts of Bombay, by its cession in 1661, were the first foothold the British acquired in India, after Surat. As the children of the soil, they urged on the Government, that they were entitled to certain natural rights and privileges as against the immigrants. The Bombay East Indian Association was established on 26 May 1887 to advance the education, employment, duties, rights and economic backwardness of the East Indians. Dr. P. F Gomes was the first President in 1887. He was knighted by Pope Leo XIII in 19888. Mr. J. L. Britto was the first Secretary. The other great East Indian founding fathers were Mr. D. I. D'Monte, Mr. John Bocarro, Mr. Dominic F. Almeida, Mr. S. J. Abreo, Mr. P. A. Chaves, Mr. L. M. Valladares, Mr. Gabriel D' Aguair, Mr. John D'Mello and Dr. D. Cardoz. Rev. D. G. Almeida donated Rs. 1,00,000 towards an Education Fund. In September 2014, local Non Governmental Organisations (NGO)'s like Watchdog Foundation, Mobai Gaothan Panchayat, Bombay East India Association, Vakola Advanced Locality Management, Kalina Civic Forum and the Kolovery Welfare Association initiated the formation of a political organisation called the Maharashtra Swaraj Party (MSP). The organisation is aimed at representing the East Indian community and the party will field five candidates from Mumbai's suburbs in the 13th Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections. Architecture and Cuisine The ordinary Koli house comprises a verandah (oli) used for repairing nets or the reception of visitors, a sitting-room (angan) used by the women for their household work, a kitchen, a central apartment, a bed-room, a gods' room (devaghar), and a detached bath-room. Some of the East-Indian upper-class families and in the Khatri ward of Thane speak Portuguese. 110 Portuguese lexical items are found in Marathi. Traditions and festivals Although, they have preserved their pre-Christian Marathi culture and traditions, many Portuguese and influences have been absorbed. They still retain many of the practises of pre-Christian tradition.[better source needed] Costumes and ornaments The traditional dress for the female is the lugra and for male is a khaki short pant and white banian. A Koli Christian bridegroom usually wears a dilapidated Portuguese Admiral's uniform, which is specially preserved and lent out on such occasions. In the olden days, East Indian women wore a blouse and cotton lugra the hind pleats tucked into the waist at the back centre of the legs, while the girls do not make use of the upper portion of the sari covering the head and breast until they are married. This mode of wearing the sari is known as sakacch nesane as opposed to gol nesane the round or cylindrical mode of wear. The latter is popular among young girls and women. Formerly, women among the well-to-do used ornaments like rnuda, rakhadi, kegada, phul, gulabache phul and chandrakora, for the head, the thushi, galasari, Putalyachi mal and tika around the neck; bugadi, karaba; kudi, kapa and ghuma for the ears; and for the nose, nath, phuli, moti. Mangalsutras (wedding necklace), made of the black beads being stringed together in different patterns. The first feature film in East Indian Marathi–Konkani Dialect, Tu Maza Jeev was released on Maharashtra Day in 2009 Directed by: Ranjan singh Produced by: Nelson Patel (Godnel's Studio, Malad West) Notable East Indians - Aarti Sequeira: Food Network chef and television personality. - Gavin Ferreira: Olympic hockey player - Loy Mendonsa: Musician, part of the Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy trio. - Gonsalo Garcia: Roman Catholic saint from India - James Ferreira: Indian fashion designer and son of hockey Olympian Owen Ferreira - Joseph Baptista: Indian freedom activist - Luke Mendes – film maker - Michael Ferreira: amateur player of English billiards - Owen Ferreira: Indian hockey Olympian - Peter Pereira: Veteran Cinematographer and special effects pioneer of the Bollywood film industry. - Baptista 1967, p. 27 - Baptista, Elsie Wilhelmina (1967). The East Indians: Catholic Community of Bombay, Salsette and Bassein. Bombay East Indian Association.. Contents taken from East-Indians –- History (PDF, 80 KB) article, has been borrowed mainly from Elsie Wilhelmina Baptista's above book. - Thana District Gazeeteer Part – I: Popualation:Christians-History - Sarasvati's Children: A History of the Mangalorean Christians, Alan Machado Prabhu, I.J.A. Publications, 1999, p.104 - Sarasvati's Children: A History of the Mangalorean Christians, Alan Machado Prabhu, I.J.A. Publications, 1999, p.108 - Sarasvati's Children: A History of the Mangalorean Christians, Alan Machado Prabhu, I.J.A. Publications, 1999, p.132 - "Catherine of Bragança (1638–1705)". BBC. Retrieved 2009-06-03. - "MSP announces candidate list for assembly elections". I am in DNA of India. 23 September 2014. Retrieved 26 September 2014. - "East Indian party to field 5 candidates from suburbs". The Times of India. 18 September 2014. Retrieved 26 September 2014. - Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island I, II & III 1997, Chapter III : Population : Languages - Thane Gazzetter: Ppolation: Christians – Speech - Grover, Neelam; Mukerji, Anath Bandhu; Singh, Kashi N. (2004), Grover, Neelam; Singh, Kashi N., eds., Cultural geography, form and process: essays in honor of Prof. A.B. Mukerji, Concept Publishing Company, p. 275, ISBN 978-81-8069-074-7 - "The East Indian Community Original Inhabitants of Bombay, Salsette & Thana". - Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island I, II & III 1997, Chapter III : Population : The Kolis - Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island I 1986, Chp. People: Dress - Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island I 1986, Chp. People: Ornaments - "First East Indian movie releases on Maharashtra Day". The Times of India. 4 May 2009. - Target Goa. "Two hats of James Ferreira couture and activism". targetgoa.com. Retrieved 3 June 2013. - Dog Eat Dog was an official selection at the Festival De Cannes 2007 - Dhyan, Chand (1952). GOAL. Chennai, India: Sports & Pastime. p. 10. - Baptista, Elsie Wilhelmina (1967), The East Indians: Catholic Community of Bombay, Salsette and Bassein, Bombay East Indian Association - Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island. I, I & III. The Gazetteers Department (Government of Maharashtra). 1997 . Retrieved 2009-01-15. - Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island. I. The Gazetteers Department (Government of Maharashtra). 1986. Retrieved 2009-01-15. \|Look up East Indian Catholic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.\|
In October 1966, the U.S. Geological Survey began a reconnaissance study of water quality in Flaming Gorge Reservoir. The purpose of this study was to determine the load of dissolved ions in the reservoir, the changes in chemical quality of the water as a result of initial leaching and subsequent storage, and the effect of the reservoir on the effluent waters. The construction of Flaming Gorge Dam began in 1957, and the reservoir began storing water in November 1962. This report tabulates the chemical-quality data which were collected during the study (1966-68) and summarizes some of the data available prior to closure of the reservoir. An interpretive report will be prepared at a later date. Three sets of data were collected from the reservoir during the study. The sampling locations are shown in figure 1 and the data are listed in tables 1 and 3. At each site in the reservoir, samples were collected at various depths from the surface to the bottom, using a self-closing messenger-actuated sampler. For sites 1-6, the sampling verticals were at the deepest part of the reservoir cross section. For sites 7-12, in the upper reaches of the reservoir, sampling verticals were at three points in the cross section. Samples for complete chemical analysis were collected from sites 1-6 at both the beginning (October 1966) and the end (September 1968) of the data-collection phase of the study. The variation in dissolved ions with depth for these two sets of data are summarized in figure 2. Samples for partial analysis were collected from sites 1 and 6-13 in September 1967, and the partial analyses are included in table 1. \|Title\|\|Water-quality data for the Flaming Gorge Reservoir area, Utah and Wyoming\| \|Authors\|\|R. J. Madison\| \|Publication Subtype\|\|State or Local Government Series\| \|Series Title\|\|Utah Basic-Data Release\| \|Record Source\|\|USGS Publications Warehouse\| \|USGS Organization\|\|Utah Water Science Center\|
Great Marlborough Street Originally part of the Millfield estate south of Tyburn Road (now Oxford Street), the street was named after John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and was laid out around 1704. It was a fashionable address in the 18th century, but its character changed to commercial and retail use by the end of the 19th. Most of the street's original buildings have since been demolished. Great Marlborough Street has had an association with the law since the late-18th century; Marlborough Street Magistrates Court subsequently became one of the most important magistrates courts in London. The department store Liberty is on the corner of Great Marlborough Street with Regent Street and sports a Mock Tudor facade. The road is about 0.2 miles (0.32 km) long from end to end. At its western end it joins Regent Street and runs east, crossing Kingly Street, Argyll Street, Carnaby Street, and Poland Street. At its eastern end, it becomes Noel Street. 16th – 18th century In the 16th century, what is now Great Marlborough Street was land belonging to the Mercer's Company. It was surrendered to Henry VIII in 1536. The land was subsequently owned by local brewer Thomas Wilson, and inherited by his son, Richard, in 1622 who sold it to William Maddox, who called the estate Millfield. In 1670, Maddox's son, Benjamin, let the land to James Kendrick for 72 years, who in turn sub-let what is now Great Marlborough Street to John Steele. The land remained undeveloped, with building focusing on Tyburn Road (now Oxford Street) to the north. The street began to be developed in the early 18th century, when Steele let five acres of land to Joseph Collens for property development. It was named after John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, commander of the English Army who won the Battle of Blenheim in 1704, shortly before construction started. Initially the street was a fashionable address; in 1714, John Macky said it "surpasses anything that is called a street" and praised its architecture. Out of one hundred peers summoned before the King in 1716, five lived in Great Marlborough Street, including Richard Lumley, 1st Earl of Scarbrough at No. 12. For a time in the 18th century, the street was the main London residence of Lord Nelson. No. 13 was formed of two separate houses, both leased by John Richmond in 1710 and subsequently joined as a single property. It was bought by Lord Charles Cavendish in 1740 and later occupied by his son, the scientist Henry Cavendish. The Pantheon was based at the far eastern end of Great Marlborough Street. It was built on what had previously been gardens in 1772, becoming a popular place of entertainment during the late 18th century. The building burned down in 1792 and was rebuilt; it ceased to be an entertainment venue in 1818. It was later used as a bazaar in the mid-19th century before being demolished in 1937. The site is now the main Oxford Street branch of Marks and Spencer which has a side entrance onto Great Marlborough Street. A number of pubs have been based on Great Marlborough Street for centuries. The Coach and Horses at No. 1 and the Marlborough Head at Nos. 37–38 were both established in the 1730s. However, most of the 18th century buildings on Great Marlborough Street were later demolished, which led to the decline of its reputation as a fashionable street. During the 19th century, various professionals such as architects and scientists were living in Great Marlborough Street. Thomas Hardwick lived here between 1815–25, as did Charles Darwin between 1837–8. A police station was established at No. 21 Great Marlborough Street in 1793. This led to the establishment of Marlborough Street Magistrates Court at No. 20–21 in the early 19th century, which had become one of the most important magistrates courts in England by the end of the century. William Ewart Gladstone gave evidence in the court against a blackmailer who claimed Gladstone had frequented prostitutes in Leicester Square, while the Marquess of Queensbury's libel trial against Oscar Wilde took place here in 1895. The Church of St John the Baptist was built on the site of the former Nos. 49–50 in 1885, and was consecrated on 23 November. The building cost £5,100 (now £496,810) and catered for services in the local parish that had previously been held in rooms or temporary buildings. The church covered a district between Oxford Street, Poland Street, Brewer Street, Bridle Lane, Carnaby Market and Argyll Street. The London College of Music were based at No. 47 Great Marlborough Street from 1896 to 1990. Although it is one of the few 18th century buildings to survive, significant alterations have taken place, including being extended to cover four storeys. Since the college relocated, the building has been occupied by the London College of Beauty Therapy, the largest publicly funded college of its kind. The street inspired the name of one of Philip Morris' most famous brands, Marlboro (launched in 1924, but originally sold as Marlborough from 1885), because one of their original cigarettes factory used to be located on the street from 1881 onwards. 20th – 21st century In the early 20th century, a number of prominent automobile companies had showrooms on Great Marlborough Street. De Dion-Bouton, the largest automobile manufacturer in the world at the time, opened a London showroom at No. 10 in 1919. Charles Jarrott & Letts, Ltd (concessionaires for de Dietrich; Oldsmobile and Napier cars) was based at No. 45. The department store Liberty is on the corner of Great Marlborough Street and Regent Street. The founder, Arthur Lasenby Liberty, was unable to expand or modernise the existing shop front due to Crown planning restrictions, so he bought numerous properties on Great Marlborough Street in 1925, and rebuilt them in a Mock Tudor design as an extension of the store. It was Grade II* listed in 1972. Palladium House was built on the corner of Great Marlborough Street and Argyll Street in 1928 by Raymond Hood and Gordon Jeeves. It featured an Art Deco design inspired by the Paris Exhibition of 1925 and was extended in 1935. It is now a Grade II listed building. The magistrates court continued to cover significant trials that were widely reported by the media. In 1963, Christine Keeler was tried here for attempting to obstruct the course of justice. In the late 1960s, a number of rock stars, including The Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones, stood trial on drugs offences at the magistrates court. Richards was tried here again in 1973 for possession of heroin and owning unlicensed firearms, but miraculously was only fined £205 (now £2,236). John Lennon and Yoko Ono were tried for obscenity here in 1970. The building became Grade II listed in 1970. The courts closed in 1998, and are now the Courthouse Hotel. The European Headquarters of Sony Computer Entertainment (PlayStation) is at No. 10 Great Marlborough Street. London Studios and Guerrilla Games also have London offices at this address. Creative consultants Collective UK, now a subdivision of Time Inc., have offices on Great Marlborough Street. Great Marlborough Street is shown on the British Monopoly board as "Marlborough Street". This is as a result of the square being named after Marlborough Street Magistrates Court; the other two orange property squares on the board are Bow Street (named after the Bow Street Runners) and Vine Street (named after the Vine Street Police Station), completing a set based around police and law. - "Great Marlborough Street to Great Marlborough Street". Google Maps. Retrieved 29 July 2016. - "Central London Bus Map" (PDF). Transport for London. Retrieved 22 August 2016. - F H W Sheppard, ed. (1963). Great Marlborough Street Area. Survey of London. 31–32, St James Westminster, Part 2. London. pp. 250–267. Retrieved 30 July 2016. - Weinreb et al 2008, p. 342. - Moore 2003, p. 141. - Jungnickel & McCormmach 1999, pp. 73–4. - F H W Sheppard, ed. (1963). The Pantheon. Survey of London. 31 – 32, St James Westminster, Part 2. London. pp. 268–283. Retrieved 22 August 2016. - Moore 2003, pp. 145–6. - "London College of Beauty Therapy". Retrieved 21 August 2016. - "Marlboro cigarettes – name origin of the brand". highnames.com. 1 November 2013. Retrieved 24 November 2015. - "History of Philip Morris". sourcewatch.org. 1987. Retrieved 24 November 2015. - Kluger, Richard (1997). Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris. Vintage Books. p. 50. ISBN 0-375-70036-6. - "The British De Dion Co.". Commercial Motor. 3 June 1919. Retrieved 21 August 2016. - "Charles Jarrott". Grace's Guide. Retrieved 22 August 2016. - Moore 2003, p. 143. - "Premises of Messrs Liberty and Company Limited (Tudor Building), Westminster". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 22 August 2016. - "Palladium House". Historic England. Retrieved 22 August 2016. - "Bail For Christine Keeler, Two Other Women And A Man". The Times. 7 September 1963. p. 5. Retrieved 22 August 2016. (subscription required (. )) - "19–21, Great Marlborough Street W1, Westminster". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 22 August 2016. - "Law: Outlawing local justice". The Independent. 10 September 1998. Retrieved 22 August 2016. - "Our Distinguished Past". Courthouse Hotel (official website). Retrieved 22 August 2016. - "Contact Us". Sony. Retrieved 22 August 2016. - "About Us". SCE Worldwide Studios. Retrieved 22 August 2016. - "Time Inc acquires Collective UK to bolster digital growth". Campaign Live. 12 July 2016. Retrieved 22 August 2016. - Moore 2003, pp. 133,135. - Moore, Tim (2003). Do Not Pass Go. Vintage. ISBN 978-0-099-43386-6. - Weinreb, Ben; Hibbert, Christopher; Keay, Julia; Keay, John (2008). The London Encyclopedia. Pan MacMillan. ISBN 978-1-4050-4924-5. - Jungnickel, Christa; McCormmach, Russell (1999). Cavendish: The Experimental Life. Bucknell University Press. ISBN 978-0-838-75445-0.
When someone has leftover prescription medications that can be addictive, this signifies a high risk of misuse. Often, people will continue to use their prescription despite no longer needing it. Also, children and teenagers might have access to addictive substances at home that they’ll take for experimentation. In fact, many kids first start using drugs from their parent’s medicine cabinets. Learning the right way to dispose of medication keeps everyone safe. When Should You Dispose of Medication? Ideally, you should dispose of medication by the time it expires, is unwanted, or unused. When anyone no longer needs a prescription like pain medication or sleep medication, it should immediately be disposed of. Most over-the-counter and prescription drugs can be disposed of at a home or a pharmacy. Always check for the expiration date of all your medications, even over-the-counter ones. Expired medication can cause side effects and other health problems. However, if you have illegal drugs or controlled substances, there are federal programs to help you. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) sponsors National Prescription Drug Take Back Day in communities nationwide. These programs allow people to return illegal or controlled substances with no questions asked. The idea is to help people get rid of these drugs and take them away from their homes. The DEA places collection sites on hundreds of thousands of communities nationwide and align with other law enforcement agencies to promote properly disposing of medication. Disposing of Medication at Pharmacies Different pharmacies, including CVS and Walgreens, have nationwide drug take-back programs to help people dispose of unwanted medications. Some programs allow patients to mail their unwanted medications or place them in medication disposal kiosks to leave medicine. Then, pharmacies will incinerate these medications to guarantee they won’t be misused or accidentally used by anyone. Check online to see where there’s a disposal location near you. How to Dispose of Medication at Home Another option is to dispose of medications at home. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends the MPTS method: mix, place, throw and scratch out. This method will significantly reduce the likelihood that your unwanted medication will be misused by someone else. Don’t just throw medication on your household trash. Follow this method to safely dispose of medicine: - Mix: Pour the medication into a disposable bowl and mix it with an inedible substance like compost. - Place: Scoop the mix into a sealable plastic bag. - Throw: Seal the plastic bag and throw it in the garbage. - Scratch out: On the prescription bottle, use a dark pen to identify characteristics like your name, the type of medication, and any other information on the label. List of Medications That Can Be Flushed If you choose to dispose of medications at home, the other method is to flush them down the toilet. To do this, verify the FDA’s Flush List to ensure this is a safe method of disposing of your medications. Here’s a list of medicines recommended for disposal by flushing: - Sodium Oxybate Most of these medications are on the FDA’s Flush List because they are often misused and can be fatal even after a single dose. How to Dispose of Prescription Pill Bottles at Home You’ll be surprised to learn that your prescription pill bottles can be reused to obtain drugs. Regardless of the method, you choose to dispose of medication. You also need to dispose of your prescription container properly. Those who misuse drugs might find the pill bottles and target your home to get more drugs. Before discarding a prescription pill bottle, you should scratch out any personal information. Use a dark market to cover the medication, the name, the pharmacy, and the prescription number. Another method is to remove the sticker label altogether. If you do this, check with your municipality to see if you can recycle those bottles. Your local pharmacy might also have a recycling program for pill bottles; check with them before tossing the empty bottle. What Should I Do With Prescription Drug Receipts? Protect your privacy even further by taking the same care with your prescription drug receipt. Try to destroy any personal receipts or any paperwork that comes with your medications. You can shred it, blackout any sensitive information with a marker. It might seem like too much of a hassle to do all of these steps. But it doesn’t hurt to be safe. The CDC estimates that at least 46 people die every day from prescription opioid misuses, and over 65,000 children under the age of four were admitted to emergency departments after medication exposure. By taking these extra steps, you could be saving lives, you’re protecting your children and pets, and protecting yourself as well.
Jump Over Left Menu When the Atlas Computer Laboratory started in 1963, the Algol 60 report had been available for a sufficient time that most of the machines being placed in universities had Algol compilers on them. Algol was an attractive language compared with Fortran for teaching purposes so the take-up in universities was quite high. Unfortunately, neither the method of representing Algol programs or the input/output functions were standardised. This resulted in almost all computers having different facilities. The challenge for the Atlas Computer Laboratory was how to allow Algol programs from any university to run on the Atlas.
Elevated dust layers inhibit dissipation of heavy anthropogenic surface air pollution - 1Key Lab of Environmental Optics & Technology, Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China - 2Department of Precision Machinery and Precision Instrumentation, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China - 3Center for Excellence in Regional Atmospheric Environment, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, 361021, China - 4Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China - 5School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China - 6Key Laboratory of Precision Scientific Instrumentation of Anhui Higher Education Institutes, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China - 7Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Polar Environment and Global Change, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China - 8Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, 55128 Mainz, Germany - 9Department of Geology and Geophysics, King Saud University, 11451 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - 10School of Environmental Science and Optoelectronic Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China - 11Institute of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China Correspondence: Cheng Liu (firstname.lastname@example.org), Zhouqing Xie (email@example.com) and Qihou Hu (firstname.lastname@example.org) Persistent wintertime heavy haze incidents caused by anthropogenic aerosols have repeatedly shrouded North China in recent years, while natural dust from the west and northwest of China also frequently affects air quality in this region. Through continuous observation by a multi-wavelength Raman lidar, here we found that wintertime aerosols in North China are typically characterized by a pronounced vertical stratification, where scattering nonspherical particles (dust or mixtures of dust and anthropogenic aerosols) dominated above the planetary boundary layer (PBL), and absorbing spherical particles (anthropogenic aerosols) prevailed within the PBL. This stratification is governed by meteorological conditions that strong northwesterly winds usually prevailed in the lower free troposphere, and southerly winds dominated in the PBL, producing persistent and intense haze pollution. With the increased contribution of elevated dust to the upper aerosols, the proportion of aerosol and trace gas at the surface in the whole column increased. Model results show that, besides directly deteriorating air quality, the key role of the elevated dust is to depress the development of PBL and weaken the turbulent exchange, mostly by lower level cooling and upper level heating, and it is more obvious during the dissipation stage, thus inhibiting the dissipation of heavy surface anthropogenic aerosols. The interactions of natural dust and anthropogenic aerosols under the unique topography of North China increase the surface anthropogenic aerosols and precursor gases, which may be one of the reasons why haze pollution in North China is heavier than that in other heavily polluted areas in China. Booming industrialization and urbanization in China are releasing large amounts of atmospheric anthropogenic pollutants, especially in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) and surrounding regions, where the air pollution is the highest in the country (Zhang et al., 2019a, b). Accumulation of air pollutants from stationary and transportation sources and an explosive increase in new particles under stagnant weather conditions (Guo et al., 2014; Huang et al., 2014; Zheng et al., 2015) through chemical reactions, such as multiphase chemical formation (Cheng et al., 2016), as well as regional transport (Li et al., 2017) cause PM2.5 (particle mass less than 2.5 µm in diameter) mass concentrations to increase severalfold within a few hours. Recent studies have shown that the radiative effect of aerosols reduces solar shortwave radiation, increases the strength of the capping inversion, and enhances the stability of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) (Zhong et al., 2018). Such unfavorable meteorological conditions will enhance the explosive growth of surface air pollutants. Simulation results from atmospheric chemical transport models have also led to similar conclusions (Ding et al., 2016; Huang et al., 2018), i.e., that absorbing aerosols, particularly black carbon (BC), will increase the temperature at the top of the PBL and induce a cooling effect near the surface, thereby inhibiting the dispersion of air pollutants. In addition to BC, dust is also an important source of air pollution. Besides directly acting as an important component of PM10 (particle mass less than 10 µm in diameter) and PM2.5, it scatters solar shortwave radiation and absorbs longwave radiation and thus leads to a cooling at the earth surface (Xia and Zong, 2009). Compared with the impact of other aerosol types, such as nitrates and sulfates, the effect of dust on decreasing radiation is more serious (Sokolik and Toon, 1996). Recent studies have also shown that dust can function as a reactant or a catalyst affecting atmospheric chemical reactions (Cwiertny et al., 2008). However, the current understanding of the effects of dust on meteorology and air pollution in North China remains insufficient. To elucidate the role of dust during heavy air pollution, multi-wavelength Raman lidar (RL) was deployed to monitor the vertical structure of atmospheric aerosols with high spatial and temporal resolution. RL can provide several optical parameters of aerosols to distinguish anthropogenic aerosols, dust, and other aerosol types (de Foy et al., 2011; Freudenthaler et al., 2009; Groß et al., 2013; Müller et al., 2007; Tesche et al., 2009), including the aerosol extinction coefficient (EXT), particle linear depolarization ratio (PLDR), and lidar ratio (LR). The RL measurements have been performed at the Central Weather Bureau Farm (CWBF) since 17 December 2016 (Fig. S1 in the Supplement). The CWBF (39.15∘ N, 115.73∘ E) is located 120 km southwest of Beijing and approximately 40 km away from the Baoding urban district. It is surrounded by wheat fields, and there are no nearby stationary pollution sources. Combined with Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) simulations and multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) observations, the mechanism of dust's impact on meteorology and air pollution was explored. 2.1 Raman lidar system Ground-based RL measurements were performed at CWBF during January to March 2017. The RL was placed in an air-conditioned room to monitor air pollution through the roof skylight in a continuous mode (7 min for data collection with 15 min intervals). A schematic of the multi-wavelength RL system is shown in Fig. S2 in the Supplement. The light source of the RL system uses an Nd:YAG laser (QSmart850) with a pulse repetition rate of 10 Hz, producing two wavelengths: second harmonic generation 532 nm and third harmonic generation 355 nm, with an output energy of 300 and 230 mJ, respectively. The backscatter signals of the Raman, Rayleigh, and Mie scattering were received by a Cassegrain telescope with a diameter of 400 mm and field of view of 0.2 mrad. In addition, the 532 nm return signal was divided into parallel (532p) and vertical (532s) polarization components. Thus, the receiver had five channels: 532p, 355 nm Mie scattering channel, nitrogen (387 nm), water vapor (408 nm) Raman scattering channel, and polarization channel 532s. The data collector was a transient recorder (LICEL, TR20–160) with five acquisition channels. For each channel, the signal was acquired in both analog and photon counting modes with a spatial resolution of 7.5 m. Signals from 4000 laser shots were accumulated to produce a single sampled signal profile (approximately 7 min). More details on the RL system can be found in Table 1. * Inputs are the elastic or inelastic backscatter signal profiles of RL. The subscript indicates the wavelength. The total elastic backscatter signal (Freudenthaler et al., 2009) profiles at 532 nm are defined as . The RL used in this study can provide various aerosol optical parameters, including EXT, PLDR, LR, and relative humidity (RH). The PLDR distinguishes between nonspherical and spherical particles (Freudenthaler et al., 2009; Tesche et al., 2009), and nonspherical particles are identified by a high PLDR (over 15 %). The LR is related to the absorption (> 70 sr,) and scattering (< 40 sr) of particles (Müller et al., 2007). The input signals of aerosol optical parameters are provided in Table 1. The relative error was calculated in accordance with the law of error propagation and primarily depends on the signal-to-noise ratio (Heese et al., 2010) of the input signal given in Table 1. Data with a signal-to-noise ratio of the input signal less than 1 were discarded. Given that the uncertainty of the overlap correction (Wandinger and Ansmann, 2002) was too high below 400 m, data below 400 m were not used for subsequent analysis. The water vapor sounding experiment was conducted on 16 August 2017 at the Beijing Observatory near Beijing's South Fifth Ring ( N, E). The RH comparison of the RL and radiosonde is provided in Fig. 1, which shows that the RL and radiosonde were consistent in measuring RH at noon and night. The details of data inversion and data validation can be found in the Supplement Sect. S1 and our previous studies (Ji et al., 2019). 2.2 Multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy MAX-DOAS has been performed at CWBF since Jan 2017. The instruments used for MAX-DOAS include a telescope, two spectrometers (ultraviolet, 303–370 nm, and visible, 390–550 nm) with the temperature stabilized at 20 ∘C, and a computer that acts as a control and data acquisition unit. The elevation angle (1–6, 8, 10, 15, 30, and 90∘) of the telescope is controlled by a stepping motor. The scattered sunlight collected by the telescope is redirected by a prism reflector and a quartz filter to the spectrometer for data analysis. MAX-DOAS can retrieve aerosol profiles with the corresponding aerosol properties and trace gas profiles using the measured spectrum information. Further data screening was conducted using the root mean squares of the residuals of the trace gas (NO2) slant column densities. The system is only operational during the day (from 08:00 to 16:00 local time), with a temporal resolution of 15 min and a spatial resolution of 100 m, respectively. The complete description of the MAX-DOAS system and retrieval algorithm can be found in our previous studies (Xing et al., 2017; Xing et al., 2019). To explore the effects of upper level dust on low-level anthropogenic aerosols, the percentage of bottom EXT360 in total EXT360 and percentage of bottom NO2 volume mixing ratio (VMR) in total NO2 VMR measured via MAX-DOAS were used to represent the low-level air pollution. The percentage of bottom EXT360 in total EXT360 is defined as The percentage of bottom NO2 VMR in total NO2 VMR is defined as where z is the height, and EXT360_per and NO2_per are the percentages of bottom EXT360 and bottom NO2 VMR, respectively. The EXT comparison of RL and MAX-DOAS during our observation period is shown in Fig. 1. The hourly and spatially averaged EXTs from 400 to 600 and 600 to 800 m were selected due to the blind zone of RL and different spatial resolution between RL (7.5 m) and MAX-DOAS (100 m). The comparison of average EXT profiles during HPI 1 and HPI 2 between RL and MAX-DOAS is shown in Fig. S3. In general, the EXT comparisons of RL and MAX-DOAS show a reasonably good agreement (R > 0.8), while the slope of linear regression between RL- and MAX-DOAS-measured EXT is considerably less than 1 because the sensitivity of the MAX-DOAS measurements decreases with increasing altitude in the troposphere (Frieß et al., 2006). In addition, MAX-DOAS and lidar measurements were made with different geometries (a combination of zenith-sky and off-axis versus zenith-sky only, respectively) and different integration times for completing a set of measurements (15 versus 22 min, respectively), which may also explain part of the differences (Irie et al., 2008). 2.3 WRF-Chem simulations The air pollution and meteorology parameters from 20 January to 5 February 2017 were simulated by WRF-Chem version 3.6.1. The model domain was centered at 110.68∘ E, 39.34∘ N with a 20 km × 20 km grid resolution, encompassing North China, the Mongolia region, and its surrounding areas. There are 44 vertical layers from the ground level to the top pressure of 50 hPa, in which 17 layers were located below 2 km to describe the vertical structure of the air pollutants below the PBL well. The simulation was conducted from 15 January to 5 February 2017. Each run covered 48 h, and the last 24 h results were used for the analysis. The initial and boundary conditions of meteorological fields for simulation were adopted from the 6 h final operational global analysis (FNL) data generated by the National Environmental Prediction Center (NCEP) with a spatial resolution of 1∘ × 1∘. The Multi-resolution Emission Inventory for China (MEIC; http://www.meicmodel.org/, last access: 6 January 2020) (Liu et al., 2015; Li et al., 2014) was used to obtain anthropogenic emissions. The biogenic emissions were calculated online using the Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature (MEGAN) embedded in the WRF-Chem model. The chemical outputs from previous runs were used as the initial conditions for the following run. The first 5 d were simulated and considered as the model spin-up period to minimize the influence of the initial conditions. NCEP's ADP global upper air observations (NCAR archive ds351.0 and ds461.0) were assimilated every 6 h to reproduce the meteorological field more effectively. Details of model configuration options can be found in Table 2 and our previous studies (Liu et al., 2016a). In addition, to explore the role of dust in aerosol–meteorology interactions and its impact on surface air pollution during the dissipation stage, the simulation period of each heavy pollution incident dissipation stage was performed with five different initial times. i.e., the simulation period was from 00:00 to 23:00 on 26 January 2017, and the five initial times were set to 22:00 on 24 January 2017, 23:00 on 24 January 2017, 00:00 on 25 January 2017, 01:00 on 25 January 2017, and 02:00 on 25 January 2017. Particularly, four-dimensional data assimilation (FDDA) for wind, temperature, and water vapor mixing ratio was not adopted in the five simulations. The average of five simulations of each simulation period was used for the final analysis. In this study, we selected the MOSAIC aerosol scheme (Zaveri and Peters, 1999; Zaveri et al., 2008), and the analysis variables here were the 3-D mass mixing ratios of the 32 MOSAIC aerosol variables at each grid point. The model includes organic compounds, black carbon, sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, and other air pollutants with four bin size ranges: (1) 3 to 156 nm, (2) 156 to 625 nm, (3) 625 nm to 2.5 µm, and (4) 2.5 to 10 µm. Thus, model-simulated PM10 concentrations were given as where i denotes the bin numbers in the MOSAIC aerosol scheme, and NO3, SO4, NH4, OC, BC, CL, NA, and OIN are 3-D mass mixing ratios of nitrate, sulfate, ammonium, organic compounds, black carbon, chloride, sodium, and other inorganic compounds, respectively. The ρd is dry air density, which is used to convert the units of 32 MOSAIC aerosol mixing ratios from micrograms per kilogram (µg/kg) to micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3). We conducted two parallel experiments using WRF-Chem to investigate the mechanism of the elevated dust layer enhancing the pollution near the ground: (1) without considering the dust (dust_off) and (2) with consideration of the dust (dust_on). The dust concentrations are calculated as where OINidust_on and OINidust_off represent the other inorganic compounds in each bin when the influence of dust was considered and ignored, respectively. The non-dust particles concentration is defined as The concentrations of upper level suspended dust are calculated as where Dustup is the suspended dust concentration above the PBL, lpbl is the number of the model layer closest to the PBL, and Dusti is the dust concentration in each model layer. The height of the 18th model layer is approximately 2888 m. The turbulent change within the PBL is calculated as where Tur_exch is the average turbulent exchange coefficient within the PBL, and exchi is the turbulent exchange coefficient of each model layer. Tur_exchon and Tur_exchoff are the average turbulent exchange coefficients for the two experiments dust_on and dust_off, respectively. To ensure the accuracy of the WRF-Chem model, the key meteorology parameters, including temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed/direction, were compared with radiosonde data (http://weather.uwyo.edu/, last access: 6 January 2020) at Beijing (39.93∘ N, 116.28∘ E; WMO station number 54511). The radiosondes were launched twice a day (08:00 and 20:00 LT) and measured profiles of atmospheric variables such as air temperature, water mixing ratio, and wind speed. As shown in Fig. S4, the WRF-Chem model can effectively reproduce the meteorology parameters. Observed hourly surface-layer PM2.5 concentrations from 21 January to 6 February 2017 at Chengde (40.97∘ N, 117.82∘ E; station number 1065A), Zhangjiakou (40.81∘ N, 114.88∘ E; station number 1059A), Beijing (40.14∘ N, 116.72∘ E; station number 1008A), Tianjing (39.03∘ N, 117.71∘ E; station number 1023A), Baoding (38.88∘ N, 115.44∘ E; station number 1055A), Cangzhou (38.30∘ N, 116.89∘ E; station number 1071A), Shijiazhuang (38.14∘ N, 114.50∘ E; station number 1031A), and Hengshui (37.73∘ N, 115.69∘ E; station number 1076A) were compared with the model results from the dust_on case (Fig. S5). The observed PM2.5 values were downloaded from the environmental monitoring station (http://beijingair.sinaapp.com/, last access: 5 January 2020). Generally, the WRF-Chem model can reasonably reproduce the evolutional characteristics of the observed PM2.5 concentrations in the eight cities (Li et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2019; Gao et al., 2016) (R: 0.52–0.81). Both the observed and simulated PM2.5 concentrations exhibit a heavy pollution period from 22 to 26 January 2017 and 1 to 5 February 2017. 2.4 Characteristics of dust, ice clouds, and anthropogenic aerosols Based on RL measurements, the PLDR at 532 nm and LR at 355 nm were derived to represent the characteristics of different aerosol types. The PLDR can distinguish between nonspherical and spherical particles (Tesche et al., 2009), which is useful to identify ice clouds (Sassen, 1991) and dust layers (Murayama et al., 1999) (the value is typically greater than 20 %). Many researchers have reported the PLDR of dust and ice clouds (see Table 3). The typical PLDR of Asian dust is between 20 % and 33 %, which can be distributed at different heights. In addition, the different height distributions of Asian dust may be related to the different origins. The dust from Mongolia generally accumulates between 0 and 3000 m (Sun et al., 2001), and the dust from the Taklimakan desert is distributed above 5000 m (Liu et al., 2008; Sun et al., 2001). Unlike dust, ice clouds have a wider PLDR distribution between 20 % and 60 % and are usually located above 4000 m. Therefore, distinguishing Asian dust via a high PLDR is difficult due to the wide height distribution of dust and a PLDR comparable to ice clouds (Sakai et al., 2003). 1 ± for 1 standard deviation. 2 The superscript “p” is for particle linear depolarization ratio at 532 nm. 3 The superscript “v” is for volume linear depolarization ratio at 532 nm. 4 PBL indicates the lower aerosol layer. 5 Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) station of Shangdianzi (46∘ N, 117∘ E) in the North China Plain, 100 km northeast of Beijing. RL can provide independent measurements of backscatter and extinction profiles (Ansmann et al., 1990; Ferrare et al., 1998) to compute the LR. As the LR is related to the absorption and scattering of particles (Müller et al., 2007; Omar et al., 2009), a higher LR indicates that the particles tend to be more absorbing. The typical value of LR for Asian dust is 40–60 sr (Omar et al., 2009). The LR of Asian dust observed in Beijing is smaller, from 30 to 47 sr, and it is usually located below 3000 m (see Table 3). By contrast, the LR for ice clouds is lower, less than 30 sr. Therefore, a threshold of 30 sr can be set to distinguish between dust and ice clouds (Sakai et al., 2003). The combined PLDR and LR can distinguish between dust and ice clouds. Asian dust has a higher PLDR (20 %–33 %), and the LR is usually greater than 30 sr. The PLDR of ice clouds is even higher (20 %–60 %), but the LR is typically less than 30 sr. In addition to Asian dust and ice clouds, the LR and PLDR of anthropogenic aerosols are also summarized in Table 3. The low PLDR of anthropogenic aerosols (less than 10 %) indicates spherical particles (Tesche et al., 2009). The high LR of anthropogenic aerosols is very distinct compared with Asian dust and ice clouds, and the values range from 40 to 80 sr. 3.1 Vertical layering of particles in North China We focused on the transmission, explosive growth, and dissipation of air pollution along with the interactions between aerosol and meteorology in North China. The EXT355 (EXT at 355 nm wavelength) measured via RL shows a periodic cycle of 2–5 d, rising rapidly from less than 0.5 km−1 in the early stage of each heavy pollution incident (HPI) to 3–5 km−1 within 1–2 d (Fig. 2). For the subsequent discussion, the whole observation set was classified into clean stages, cumulative growth stages (CS), and dissipation stages (DS) based on the surface EXT360 (EXT at 360 nm wavelength) measured via MAX-DOAS and the surface winds from model simulations. Clean stages are defined as the times when the surface EXT360 is less than 0.5 km−1. The surface EXT360 during CS and DS is typically greater than 0.5 km−1, and the surface winds during CS were dominated by southerly weak winds or a static atmosphere, while much stronger northwesterly surface winds were most prevalent in the DS. An entire HPI includes a clean period plus the subsequent CS and DS. During our whole observation (Figs. S6, S7, Table S1), nine HPIs were observed. The PLDR in the upper lidar layer of eight HPIs is significantly higher than that of the lower lidar layer (except HPI 3), indicating the contribution of dust in the upper lidar layer and anthropogenic aerosols in the lower lidar layer and indicating that the aerosols were stratified. The aerosol stratification was most prominent in HPI 1, HPI 2, and HPI 5; HPI 5 lasted for less than 2 d during the whole observation period (Table S1), whereas the other two HPIs persisted for more than 4 d and had peak PM2.5 mass concentrations greater than 500 µg m−3. Thus, two HPIs (Table 4), namely, 22 to 26 January 2017 (HPI 1), and 1 to 5 February 2017 (HPI 2), measured via RL and MAX-DOAS, were selected to represent the typical wintertime pollution cycles in North China (Figs. 2 and S8). We evaluated the aerosol optical parameters, including the PLDR and LR provided by RL during the HPI 1 and HPI 2 in the upper lidar layer (700–1300 m) and lower lidar layer (400–600 m). Aerosols that accumulated in the upper lidar layer had a relatively broad PLDR value (4 %–43 % in most cases) and LR range of 32–72 sr (34–60 sr, in more than 90 % of the cases) during HPI 1 and HPI 2 (Fig. 3a and b). Therefore, aerosols that accumulated in the upper lidar layer are mainly scattering nonspherical particles. We also selected several RH profiles to identify the aerosol types in the upper lidar layer (Fig. S9). All of the available RH values of aerosols in the upper lidar layer were less than 80 %, whereas the RH of ice clouds was usually greater than 100 % (Ferrare et al., 1998; Sakai et al., 2003). Furthermore, the nonspherical scattering particles in the upper lidar layer during the two HPIs had the same origin (Fig. S1) and also had similar distribution heights (700–1300 m). Because anthropogenic aerosols also occurred in the upper lidar layer due to the southerly industrial transport, the nonspherical particles in the upper lidar layer during the HPI 1 and HPI 2 are mainly dust or mixtures of dust and anthropogenic aerosols (polluted dust). By contrast, a low PLDR of less than 10 % (1 %–9 % in most cases) in the lower lidar layer was always found during HPI 1 and HPI 2, and a much higher LR (53–85 sr) was found in the lower lidar layer (Fig. 3c and d), indicating the aerosol's trend to be more absorbing (Müller et al., 2007). The RH of pollutants in the lower lidar layer varied from 25 % to 85 % and increased as the pollution grew more severe (see Fig. S9). Moreover, aerosols that accumulated in the lower lidar layer came from the polluted industrial regions (Zhang et al., 2019a, b) (Fig. S1). Therefore, these spherical absorbing particles were mainly anthropogenic aerosols. Based on these measured lidar parameters, we conclude that the aerosols in the upper lidar layer primarily consisted of dust or polluted dust, while the aerosols in the lower lidar layer are mainly anthropogenic aerosols. During the period from 20 January to 5 February 2017, weak southerly winds (47 %) typically prevailed in the lower lidar layer between the polluted periods (Fig. S1), carrying polluted air masses from industrial areas and resulting in a sharp increase in EXT355. The strong northwesterly winds in the lower lidar layer from the Gobi desert (37 %) and sparsely populated northern mountain areas (16 %) were most prevalent in the dissipation stage and clean period, causing EXT355 to drop distinctly (Fig. 2d). The average EXT355 in the lower lidar layer during the weak southerly wind conditions was 1.76 km−1, followed by winds from Gobi desert (1.35 km−1) and sparsely populated northern mountain areas (0.62 km−1). The measured PLDR in the lower lidar layer was relatively low and fluctuated with the PLDR in the upper lidar layer. In the upper lidar layer, strong northwesterly winds (66 %) from the Gobi desert prevailed, carrying dust to the CWBF, leading to a significant increment in PLDR. The strong northwesterly winds (7 %) in the upper lidar layer from the sparsely populated northern mountain areas usually occurred during the period of PLDR decline (Fig. 2e). The EXT355 in the upper lidar layer is less than 1.5 km−1 in most cases, except that during the period of southerly wind (27 %) transmission, EXT355 increased considerably. The average EXT355 in the upper lidar layer during the weak southerly wind conditions was 1.00 km−1, which is clearly higher than that during the winds from Gobi desert (0.66 km−1) and sparsely populated northern mountain areas (0.38 km−1). The shift of the origin of the air mass from northerly to southerly, together with a considerable decrease in wind speed, promotes the southerly transport of industrial pollutants and explosive increase of new particles under stagnant weather conditions (Guo et al., 2014; Zheng et al., 2015) through chemical reactions, such as multiphase chemical formation (Cheng et al., 2016), which is conducive to the accumulation of aerosols in the lower and upper lidar layers. The air mass origin in the upper lidar layer shifts from industrial areas to the Gobi desert with a substantially increasing wind speed, driving the increase of dust concentrations in the upper lidar layer. As a consequence of these shifts, aerosols are stratified in distinct layers, with anthropogenic aerosols in the lower lidar layer and dust or polluted dust in the upper lidar layer. Thus, the meteorological conditions not only regulate the transmission, accumulation, and dissipation of aerosols, but also control the stratification of air pollutants, which is one of the most powerful factors that promote haze pollution in North China. 3.2 Correlation between elevated dust and surface haze pollution Stratified aerosol typically shrouded CWBF during 20 January to 5 February 2017. The maximum value of PLDR in the upper lidar layer usually appeared during the DS. Moreover, the percentage of EXT355 of total EXT355 in the lower lidar layer during the DS is considerably higher than during the CS and clean periods (Fig. S10). To further investigate the relationship between elevated dust and surface anthropogenic aerosols, HPI 1 and HPI 2 were examined in detail. During HPI 1, the upper dust layer formed slightly later than the accumulation of the anthropogenic aerosols in the lower lidar layer (Fig. 2), indicating that the formation of upper dust is independent of the formation of anthropogenic aerosols in the lower lidar layer. At the end of the CS during HPI 1, the air mass in the upper lidar layer was mainly from the northwest, and the wind speed increased significantly. Particularly, the upper PLDR and the percentage of bottom EXT355 rose considerably. The weak southerly winds in the lower lidar layer rapidly shifted to strong northwesterly winds during DS during HPI 1. The value of PLDR reached a maximum, while the percentage of bottom EXT355 rose at first and then declined. The upper dust layer during HPI 2 appeared earlier than the anthropogenic aerosols in the lower lidar layer (Fig. 2). Similar to HPI 1, the northwesterly winds in the lower lidar layer increased significantly during DS in HPI 2, and both upper PLDR and the percentage of bottom EXT355 reached a maximum. We selected hourly and spatially (950–1050 m) averaged PLDR as an indicator of dust in the upper lidar layer. Also, the percentage of bottom EXT360 in total EXT360 and the percentage of bottom NO2 VMR in total NO2 VMR measured via MAX-DOAS were used to represent the air pollution near the ground. We find that the hourly and spatially averaged PLDR roughly correlates with the hourly average percentage of bottom EXT360 and percentage of bottom NO2 VMR during HPI 1 and HPI 2 (Fig. 4). This positive correlation suggests that the increase in the upper level PLDR is related to the aggravation of the proportion of aerosol and trace gas at the surface in the whole layer. 3.3 Mechanism of the elevated dust layer enhances surface air pollution We conducted two parallel experiments using WRF-Chem to investigate the mechanism by which the elevated dust layer enhances air pollution near the ground, especially during DS: (1) without considering the dust (dust_off) and (2) with consideration of the dust (dust_on). In the MOSAIC aerosol scheme, dust is represented by the difference of “other inorganic compounds” (OIN) between dust_on and dust_off, and non-dust particles include nitrate, sulfate, ammonium, organic compounds, and BC. The dust concentrations are derived from the OIN difference between the two scenarios of dust_on and dust_off (Eq. 4), and model simulations reproduced the spatial and temporal variations of dust concentration at CWBF well (Figs. 5 and 6). The PBL height during the CS was usually below 800 m and decreased with the daily accumulation of air pollutants. Dust was typically concentrated above the PBL, and the fraction of dust in total PM10 concentrations increased with height. The lower PBL height led to a reduction of dust entrainment into the PBL from the upper levels, thereby promoting the stratification of aerosol at CWBF. The northwest wind strengthened during the DS, accompanied by a rise of the PBL. The dust concentration within and above the PBL increased significantly, which may be related to the northwesterly transportation and the rise of the PBL. The model simulations show, consistent with the RL observations, that a large amount of suspended dust can be transported from the Mongolia region to downstream urban/industrial regions in northern China, causing a dust layer that covers the anthropogenic aerosols below. Also, the higher PLDR (0.3–0.35) value during the DS suggests that dust controls the optical properties of the upper level aerosol (Freudenthaler et al., 2009). These invisible (at ground level) but common dust aerosols from northwestern China may induce strong aerosol–PBL feedbacks and affect the PBL structure along their transport path (Liu et al., 2002) and may also impede the dissipation of the underlying aerosol. To explore the role of dust in aerosol–meteorology interactions and its impact on surface air pollution during the DS, we examined the dissipation process during HPI 1 and HPI 2. The suspended dust above the PBL is widely distributed in North China during HPI 1, whereas it is mainly located in the upper air over the BTH region during HPI 2 (Fig. 7a). Surface dust concentrations also increased but are clearly less than those within the PBL (Fig. 7b). Unexpectedly, the concentration of surface non-dust particles increased by 0–11.4 µg/m3 after the upper level suspended dust had passed across the downstream urban/industrial regions in northern China (Fig. 7c). In addition, the gaseous pollutants (NO2) exhibited the same variation (increases by 0–4.4 ppb) as the non-dust particle concentration (Fig. 7d). The relative increment of surface non-dust particle and NO2 concentrations is 0 %–21 % (Fig. 7e and f). This indicates that, in addition to directly acting as an important component of air pollutants, suspended dust can also induce the enhancement of non-dust particles and precursor gases during DS, thus further increasing the surface anthropogenic aerosol concentrations. The interaction between dust and meteorology appears to be responsible for the enhancement of surface air pollution during DS. The dust layer during DS plays an important role in modifying the temperature vertical structure (Fig. 8a and b). The opposing effects of the dust on temperature, a net heating above the PBL, and cooling within the PBL favor formation of a capping inversion and thereby promote aerosol stratification. Consequently, the role of dust in aerosol–meteorology interactions results in more stagnant conditions, with the turbulent exchange coefficient within the PBL falling by over 60 %. Similarly, a significant decrease in PBL height was also attributable to the stable stratification (Fig. 8c and d). Also, the maximum reduction of surface horizontal wind speed up to 1.2 m/s, the relative attenuation of surface horizontal wind speed, is 0 %–27 % (Fig. S11), indicating that the elevated dust also weakens the surface advection. In addition, there is no active convection activity (Fig. S11) during our observed period (Baró et al., 2015; Gao et al., 2013). As a consequence, although the strong northwesterly winds during DS increase the horizontal and vertical diffusion in the atmosphere considerably, the upper level dust brought in simultaneously by the northwesterly wind strengthens the temperature inversion due to both scattering and absorption of solar radiation, thereby weakening convective motion. Enhanced horizontal and vertical atmospheric stability due to dust during DS hinders the air pollutants from being dispersed and leads to a reduction of the dissipation rates of surface air pollution (Li et al., 2017; Liu et al., 2016b; Wilcox et al., 2016). * Spatially averaged wind speed below 100 m. Units are meters per second (m/s). The results demonstrate that dust aerosols during DS can substantially affect meteorological conditions by strong radiative feedbacks and hence increase the surface air pollution (aerosols and precursor gases) by inhibiting the vertical diffusion of air pollutants. Evidently, such a deterioration of surface air quality is ultimately driven by the emission of pollutants but is also strongly related to the reduced vertical diffusion capacity of the atmosphere. Surface dimming and upper PBL warming by dust aerosols help strengthen the capping inversion and weaken turbulent mixing (Li et al., 2017). Previous studies have also found that the levels of gaseous pollutants, such as NO2 (Wallace and Kanaroglou, 2009), are closely related to temperature inversion. Changes of atmospheric stability, precursor gases, and solar radiation could significantly modify new particle formation (Zhang, 2010) and photochemical reactions (Zhou et al., 2007), which may also contribute to the surface air pollution. The decreasing upper level dust concentration (usually less than 40 µg/m3 in the model) during CS has an insignificant impact on low-level meteorological conditions, while its mixing with anthropogenic aerosols affects upper level aerosol optical properties. Moreover, the mixing of dust and anthropogenic aerosols will promote the atmospheric chemical reactions (Cwiertny et al., 2008) and enhance the formation and growth rates of particles (Nie et al., 2014) to strengthen the particle concentrations in the upper lidar layer (Tao et al., 2014), which in turn further enhances the atmospheric stability and promotes the temperature inversion (Reichardt et al., 2002). Our observations clearly show the stratification of aerosols over North China, especially during the DS. Absorbing spherical particles (anthropogenic aerosols) and scattering nonspherical particles (dust or polluted dust) prevailed in the lower and upper lidar layers, respectively. This stratification was primarily determined by the meteorological conditions. Firstly, the air mass origins of the different layers resulted in different aerosol types, whereby low-level anthropogenic aerosols came from the southerly polluted industrial regions (Wang et al., 2013), and the upper dust layers arrived mostly from Mongolia (Sun et al., 2001). Secondly, unfavorable vertical diffusion conditions, when strong northwesterly winds prevailed above the PBL with southerly air masses within the PBL, produced lengthy and intense temperature inversions and low PBL heights (Tao et al., 2014). The suppressed convection constrained dust into the PBL, which may also have contributed to higher surface relative humidity (Wilcox et al., 2016). These unique and unfavorable meteorological conditions in North China promote the extremely serious haze pollution and lead to a stratification of aerosols. The PLDR in the upper lidar layer and the percentage of EXT355 in total EXT355 in the lower lidar layer during the DS is considerably higher than during the CS and clean periods. Moreover, the increased share of elevated dust to the upper aerosols coincides with the increase in the proportion of surface aerosol and trace gas in the whole layer. Model simulations show that the elevated dust during DS reduces the lower level atmospheric turbulent mixing and thereby weakens the diffusion and convection of surface aerosols. During our 3-month observations, we captured nine HPIs, and eight of them showed differences of meteorological conditions in the PBL and in the free troposphere, which have led to the stratification of aerosols. Therefore, aerosol stratification is common in North China. Here we conclude when southerly transmission is dominant in the PBL (anthropogenic aerosols) and northwest transportation prevails in the free troposphere (dust), this usually leads to aerosol stratification. Upper dust aerosol induced dust–meteorology interactions; the dust–meteorology interactions mainly includes two aspects. Firstly, the difference in meteorological conditions between the upper and lower lidar layer leads to the aerosol stratification of upper dust and lower anthropogenic aerosols. Secondly, elevated dust alters the atmospheric thermodynamics and stability, mostly by lower level cooling and upper level heating, especially during the dissipation stage. The suppressed turbulent exchange and decrease in PBL height impede dissipation of persistent heavy haze pollution. The dust–meteorology interactions provide very important information toward a complete understanding of the formation mechanism of winter haze in North China and may also explain the special multiphase chemistry in this region. In summary, we use ground-based observations combined with WRF-Chem simulations to investigate the role of dust on meteorology and air pollution in North China, specifically focusing on the dissipation process during persistent heavy air pollution events over 4 d. Our results show that elevated dust not only directly affects the air quality, but also worsens the meteorological conditions to impede the rate of dissipation of surface air pollution, which may be one of the reasons why haze pollution in North China is heavier than that in other parts of the country. The interactions between natural dust and heavy anthropogenic surface air pollution events help us better understand the transmission, explosive growth, and dissipation of persistent wintertime air pollution in North China. In a similar way, considering the extremely strong long-range transport potential of dust aerosol, Saharan dust could affect India (Deepshikha et al., 2006), Europe (Papayannis et al., 2008) and the United States (Prospero, 1999), since Asian dust can even be transported one full circuit around the globe (Uno et al., 2009). Similar stratification and effects should be investigated in other parts of the world that also suffer from severe particulate pollution (Wu et al., 2017). All code and data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplement. Additional code and data related to this paper may be requested from the authors. The supplement related to this article is available online at: https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-14917-2020-supplement. CL, ZX, and QH conceived and supervised the study. ZW analyzed the Raman lidar data. YD provided the technical support for Raman lidar and data inversion recommendations. ZW wrote the manuscript with input from CL, ZX, and QH. MOA reviewed and commented on the paper. CZ, TL, YZ, and QH provided the WRF-Chem model simulations. HL, CX, WT, XJ, and JL provided the MAX-DOAS data. MOA, CL, ZX, QH, and JL contributed to discussing the results and revised the manuscript. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. The authors acknowledge the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) for the provision of the HYSPLIT transport and dispersion model used in this publication. We thank WRF-Chem developers for making the model available to the scientific community. We thank NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Sciences Data Center for providing the CALIPSO data. This research has been supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant nos. 2018YFC0213104, 2017YFC0210002, and 2016YFC0203302), the Anhui Science and Technology Major Project (grant no. 18030801111), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 41722501, 51778596, and 41977184), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant no. XDA23020301), the National Key Project for Causes and Control of Heavy Air Pollution (grant nos. DQGG0102 and DQGG0205), the Major Projects of High Resolution Earth Observation Systems of National Science and Technology (grant no. 05-Y30B01-9001-19/20-3), and the Civil Aerospace Technology Advance Research Project (grant no. Y7K00100KJ). This paper was edited by Matthias Tesche and reviewed by two anonymous referees. Ansmann, A., Riebesell, M., and Weitkamp, C.: Measurement of atmospheric aerosol extinction profiles with a Raman lidar, Opt. Lett., 15, 746–748, https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.15.000746, 1990. Ansmann, A., Wandinger, U., Riebesell, M., Weitkamp, C., and Michaelis, W.: Independent measurement of extinction and backscatter profiles in cirrus clouds by using a combined Raman elastic-backscatter lidar, Appl. Optics, 31, 7113–7131, https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.31.007113, 1992. Baró, R., Jiménez-Guerrero, P., Balzarini, A., Curci, G., Forkel, R., Grell, G., and Pirovano, G.: Sensitivity analysis of the microphysics scheme in WRF-Chem contributions to AQMEII phase 2, Atmos. Environ., 115, 620–629, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2015.01.047, 2015. Burton, S. P., Ferrare, R. A., Hostetler, C. A., Hair, J. W., Rogers, R. R., Obland, M. D., Butler, C. F., Cook, A. L., Harper, D. B., and Froyd, K. D.: Aerosol classification using airborne High Spectral Resolution Lidar measurements – methodology and examples, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 5, 73–98, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-5-73-2012, 2012. Chen, W. N., Chiang, C. W., and Nee, J. B.: Lidar ratio and depolarization ratio for cirrus clouds, Appl. Optics, 41, 6470–6476, https://doi.org/10.1364/ao.41.006470, 2002. Cheng, Y., Zheng, G., Wei, C., Mu, Q., Zheng, B., Wang, Z., Gao, M., Zhang, Q., He, K., Carmichael, G., Poschl, U., and Su, H.: Reactive nitrogen chemistry in aerosol water as a source of sulfate during haze events in China, Sci. Adv., 2, e1601530, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1601530, 2016. Cwiertny, D. M., Young, M. A., and Grassian, V. H.: Chemistry and photochemistry of mineral dust aerosol, Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem., 59, 27–51, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.physchem.59.032607.093630, 2008. Deepshikha, S., Satheesh, S. K., and Srinivasan, J.: Dust aerosols over India and adjacent continents retrieved using METEOSAT infrared radiance Part I: sources and regional distribution, Ann. Geophys., 24, 37–61, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-24-37-2006, 2006. de Foy, B., Burton, S. P., Ferrare, R. A., Hostetler, C. A., Hair, J. W., Wiedinmyer, C., and Molina, L. T.: Aerosol plume transport and transformation in high spectral resolution lidar measurements and WRF-Flexpart simulations during the MILAGRO Field Campaign, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 3543–3563, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-3543-2011, 2011. Ding, A. J., Huang, X., Nie, W., Sun, J. N., Kerminen, V. M., Petäjä, T., Su, H., Cheng, Y. F., Yang, X. Q., Wang, M. H., Chi, X. G., Wang, J. P., Virkkula, A., Guo, W. D., Yuan, J., Wang, S. Y., Zhang, R. J., Wu, Y. F., Song, Y., Zhu, T., Zilitinkevich, S., Kulmala, M., and Fu, C. B.: Enhanced haze pollution by black carbon in megacities in China, Geophys. Res. Lett., 43, 2873–2879, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016gl067745, 2016. Ek, M. B., Mitchell, K. E., Lin, Y., Rogers, E., Grunmann, P., Koren, V., Gayno, G., and Tarpley, J. D.: Implementation of Noah land surface model advances in the National Centers for Environmental Prediction operational mesoscale Eta model, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 108, 8851, https://doi.org/10.1029/2002jd003296, 2003. Ferrare, R., Melfi, S., Whiteman, D., Evans, K., Poellot, M., and Kaufman, Y.: Raman lidar measurements of aerosol extinction and backscattering: 2. Derivation of aerosol real refractive index, single-scattering albedo, and humidification factor using Raman lidar and aircraft size distribution measurements, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 103, 19673–19689, https://doi.org/10.1029/98JD01647, 1998. Freudenthaler, V., Esselborn, M., Wiegner, M., Heese, B., Tesche, M., Ansmann, A., MüLler, D., Althausen, D., Wirth, M., Fix, A., Ehret, G., Knippertz, P., Toledano, C., Gasteiger, J., Garhammer, M., and Seefeldner, M.: Depolarization ratio profiling at several wavelengths in pure Saharan dust during SAMUM 2006, Tellus B, 61, 165–179, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0889.2008.00396.x, 2009. Frieß, U., Monks, P. S., Remedios, J. J., Rozanov, A., Sinreich, R., Wagner, T., and Platt, U.: MAX-DOAS O4 measurements: A new technique to derive information on atmospheric aerosols: 2. Modeling studies, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D14203 https://doi.org/10.1029/2005jd006618, 2006. Gao, M., Carmichael, G. R., Wang, Y., Saide, P. E., Yu, M., Xin, J., Liu, Z., and Wang, Z.: Modeling study of the 2010 regional haze event in the North China Plain, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 1673–1691, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-1673-2016, 2016. Gao, Y., Wu, T., Chen, B., Wang, J., and Liu, Y.: A numerical simulation of microphysical structure of cloud associated with the 2008 winter freezing rain over southern China, J. Meteorol. Soc. Jpn., 91, 101–117, https://doi.org/10.2151/jmsj.2013-202, 2013. Grell, G. A. and Dévényi, D.: A generalized approach to parameterizing convection combining ensemble and data assimilation techniques, Geophys. Res. Lett., 29, 38-1–38-4, https://doi.org/10.1029/2002gl015311, 2002. Groß, S., Esselborn, M., Weinzierl, B., Wirth, M., Fix, A., and Petzold, A.: Aerosol classification by airborne high spectral resolution lidar observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 2487–2505, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-2487-2013, 2013. Guo, S., Hu, M., Zamora, M. L., Peng, J., Shang, D., Zheng, J., Du, Z., Wu, Z., Shao, M., Zeng, L., Molina, M. J., and Zhang, R.: Elucidating severe urban haze formation in China, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 111, 17373–17378, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1419604111, 2014. Hänel, A., Baars, H., Althausen, D., Ansmann, A., Engelmann, R., and Sun, J. Y.: One-year aerosol profiling with EUCAARI Raman lidar at Shangdianzi GAW station: Beijing plume and seasonal variations, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 117, D13201, https://doi.org/10.1029/2012jd017577, 2012. Heese, B., Flentje, H., Althausen, D., Ansmann, A., and Frey, S.: Ceilometer lidar comparison: backscatter coefficient retrieval and signal-to-noise ratio determination, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 3, 1763–1770, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-3-1763-2010, 2010. Huang, R. J., Zhang, Y., Bozzetti, C., Ho, K. F., Cao, J. J., Han, Y., Daellenbach, K. R., Slowik, J. G., Platt, S. M., Canonaco, F., Zotter, P., Wolf, R., Pieber, S. M., Bruns, E. A., Crippa, M., Ciarelli, G., Piazzalunga, A., Schwikowski, M., Abbaszade, G., Schnelle-Kreis, J., Zimmermann, R., An, Z., Szidat, S., Baltensperger, U., El Haddad, I., and Prevot, A. S.: High secondary aerosol contribution to particulate pollution during haze events in China, Nature, 514, 218–222, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13774, 2014. Huang, X., Wang, Z., and Ding, A.: Impact of Aerosol–PBL Interaction on Haze Pollution: Multiyear Observational Evidences in North China, Geophys. Res. Lett., 45, 8596–8603, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018gl079239, 2018. Irie, H., Kanaya, Y., Akimoto, H., Iwabuchi, H., Shimizu, A., and Aoki, K.: First retrieval of tropospheric aerosol profiles using MAX-DOAS and comparison with lidar and sky radiometer measurements, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 341–350, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-8-341-2008, 2008. Ji, X., Liu, C., Xie, Z., Hu, Q., Dong, Y., Fan, G., Zhang, T., Xing, C., Wang, Z., Javed, Z., and Liu, J.: Comparison of mixing layer height inversion algorithms using lidar and a pollution case study in Baoding, China, J. Environ. Sci. (China), 79, 81–90, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jes.2018.11.003, 2019. Li, M., Zhang, Q., Streets, D. G., He, K. B., Cheng, Y. F., Emmons, L. K., Huo, H., Kang, S. C., Lu, Z., Shao, M., Su, H., Yu, X., and Zhang, Y.: Mapping Asian anthropogenic emissions of non-methane volatile organic compounds to multiple chemical mechanisms, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 5617–5638, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-5617-2014, 2014. Li, T., Wang, H., Zhao, T., Xue, M., Wang, Y., Che, H., and Jiang, C.: The Impacts of Different PBL Schemes on the Simulation of PM2.5 during Severe Haze Episodes in the Jing-Jin-Ji Region and Its Surroundings in China, Adv. Meteorol., 2016, 1–15, https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/6295878, 2016. Li, Z., Guo, J., Ding, A., Liao, H., Liu, J., Sun, Y., Wang, T., Xue, H., Zhang, H., and Zhu, B.: Aerosol and boundary-layer interactions and impact on air quality, Natl. Sci. Rev., 4, 810–833, https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwx117, 2017. Lin, Y.-L., Farley, R. D., and Orville, H. D.: Bulk parameterization of the snow field in a cloud model, J. Clim. Appl. Meteorol., 22, 1065–1092, 1983. Liu, F., Zhang, Q., Tong, D., Zheng, B., Li, M., Huo, H., and He, K. B.: High-resolution inventory of technologies, activities, and emissions of coal-fired power plants in China from 1990 to 2010, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 13299–13317, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-13299-2015, 2015. Liu, H., Liu, C., Xie, Z., Li, Y., Huang, X., Wang, S., Xu, J., and Xie, P.: A paradox for air pollution controlling in China revealed by “APEC Blue” and “Parade Blue”, Sci. Rep., 6, 34408, https://doi.org/10.1038/srep34408, 2016a. Liu, L., Huang, X., Ding, A., and Fu, C.: Dust-induced radiative feedbacks in north China: A dust storm episode modeling study using WRF-Chem, Atmos. Environ., 129, 43–54, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2016.01.019, 2016b. Liu, Z., Sugimoto, N., and Murayama, T.: Extinction-to-backscatter ratio of Asian dust observed with high-spectral-resolution lidar and Raman lidar, Appl. Optics, 41, 2760–2767, https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.41.002760, 2002. Liu, Z., Liu, D., Huang, J., Vaughan, M., Uno, I., Sugimoto, N., Kittaka, C., Trepte, C., Wang, Z., Hostetler, C., and Winker, D.: Airborne dust distributions over the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding areas derived from the first year of CALIPSO lidar observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 5045–5060, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-8-5045-2008, 2008. Mlawer, E. J., Taubman, S. J., Brown, P. D., Iacono, M. J., and Clough, S. A.: Radiative transfer for inhomogeneous atmospheres: RRTM, a validated correlated-k model for the longwave, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 102, 16663–16682, https://doi.org/10.1029/97jd00237, 1997. Müller, D., Tesche, M., Eichler, H., Engelmann, R., Althausen, D., Ansmann, A., Cheng, Y. F., Zhang, Y. H., and Hu, M.: Strong particle light absorption over the Pearl River Delta (south China) and Beijing (north China) determined from combined Raman lidar and Sun photometer observations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L20811, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006gl027196, 2006. Müller, D., Ansmann, A., Mattis, I., Tesche, M., Wandinger, U., Althausen, D., and Pisani, G.: Aerosol-type-dependent lidar ratios observed with Raman lidar, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D16202, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006jd008292, 2007. Murayama, T., Okamoto, H., Kaneyasu, N., Kamataki, H., and Miura, K.: Application of lidar depolarization measurement in the atmospheric boundary layer: Effects of dust and sea-salt particles, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 104, 31781–31792, https://doi.org/10.1029/1999jd900503, 1999. Murayama, T., Masonis, S. J., Redemann, J., Anderson, T. L., Schmid, B., Livingston, J. M., Russell, P. B., Huebert, B., Howell, S. G., McNaughton, C. S., Clarke, A., Abo, M., Shimizu, A., Sugimoto, N., Yabuki, M., Kuze, H., Fukagawa, S., Maxwell-Meier, K., Weber, R. J., Orsini, D. A., Blomquist, B., Bandy, A., and Thornton, D.: An intercomparison of lidar-derived aerosol optical properties with airborne measurements near Tokyo during ACE-Asia, J. Geophys. Res., 108, 8651, https://doi.org/10.1029/2002jd003259, 2003. Murayama, T., Müller, D., Wada, K., Shimizu, A., Sekiguchi, M., and Tsukamoto, T.: Characterization of Asian dust and Siberian smoke with multi-wavelength Raman lidar over Tokyo, Japan in spring 2003, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L23103, https://doi.org/10.1029/2004gl021105, 2004. Nie, W., Ding, A., Wang, T., Kerminen, V. M., George, C., Xue, L., Wang, W., Zhang, Q., Petaja, T., Qi, X., Gao, X., Wang, X., Yang, X., Fu, C., and Kulmala, M.: Polluted dust promotes new particle formation and growth, Sci. Rep., 4, 6634, https://doi.org/10.1038/srep06634, 2014. Omar, A. H., Winker, D. M., Vaughan, M. A., Hu, Y., Trepte, C. R., Ferrare, R. A., Lee, K.-P., Hostetler, C. A., Kittaka, C., Rogers, R. R., Kuehn, R. E., and Liu, Z.: The CALIPSO Automated Aerosol Classification and Lidar Ratio Selection Algorithm, J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol., 26, 1994–2014, https://doi.org/10.1175/2009jtecha1231.1, 2009. Papayannis, A., Amiridis, V., Mona, L., Tsaknakis, G., Balis, D., Bösenberg, J., Chaikovski, A., De Tomasi, F., Grigorov, I., Mattis, I., Mitev, V., Müller, D., Nickovic, S., Pérez, C., Pietruczuk, A., Pisani, G., Ravetta, F., Rizi, V., Sicard, M., Trickl, T., Wiegner, M., Gerding, M., Mamouri, R. E., D'Amico, G., and Pappalardo, G.: Systematic lidar observations of Saharan dust over Europe in the frame of EARLINET (2000–2002), J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 113, D10204, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007jd009028, 2008. Prospero, J. M.: Long-range transport of mineral dust in the global atmosphere: Impact of African dust on the environment of the southeastern United States, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA., 96, 3396–3403, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.96.7.3396, 1999. Reichardt, J., Reichardt, S., Behrendt, A., and McGee, T. J.: Correlations among the optical properties of cirrus-cloud particles: Implications for spaceborne remote sensing, Geophys. Res. Lett., 29, 1668, https://doi.org/10.1029/2002gl014836, 2002. Sakai, T., Shibata, T., Iwasaka, Y., Nagai, T., Nakazato, M., Matsumura, T., Ichiki, A., Kim, Y.-S., Tamura, K., and Troshkin, D.: Case study of Raman lidar measurements of Asian dust events in 2000 and 2001 at Nagoya and Tsukuba, Japan, Atmos. Environ., 36, 5479–5489, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1352-2310(02)00664-7, 2002. Sakai, T., Nagai, T., Nakazato, M., Mano, Y., and Matsumura, T.: Ice clouds and Asian dust studied with lidar measurements of particle extinction-to-backscatter ratio, particle depolarization, and water-vapor mixing ratio over Tsukuba, Appl. Optics, 42, 7103–7116, https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.42.007103, 2003. Sassen, K.: The polarization lidar technique for cloud research: A review and current assessment, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 72, 1848–1866, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(1991)072<1848:TPLTFC>2.0.CO;2, 1991. Sokolik, I. N. and Toon, O. B.: Direct radiative forcing by anthropogenic airborne mineral aerosols, Nature, 381, 681, https://doi.org/10.1038/381681a0, 1996. Sun, J., Zhang, M., and Liu, T.: Spatial and temporal characteristics of dust storms in China and its surrounding regions, 1960–1999: Relations to source area and climate, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 106, 10325–10333, https://doi.org/10.1029/2000jd900665, 2001. Tao, M., Chen, L., Wang, Z., Ma, P., Tao, J., and Jia, S.: A study of urban pollution and haze clouds over northern China during the dusty season based on satellite and surface observations, Atmos. Environ., 82, 183–192, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2013.10.010, 2014. Tao, Z., Liu, D., Zhong, Z., Shi, B., Nie, M., Ma, X., and Zhou, J.: Measurements of cirrus clouds with a three-wavelength lidar, Chin. Opt. Lett., 10, 050101–050103, https://doi.org/10.3788/col201210.050101, 2012. Tesche, M., Ansmann, A., Müller, D., Althausen, D., Engelmann, R., Hu, M., and Zhang, Y.: Particle backscatter, extinction, and lidar ratio profiling with Raman lidar in south and north China, Appl. Optics, 46, 6302–6308, https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.46.006302, 2007. Tesche, M., Ansmann, A., Müller, D., Althausen, D., Engelmann, R., Freudenthaler, V., and Groß, S.: Vertically resolved separation of dust and smoke over Cape Verde using multiwavelength Raman and polarization lidars during Saharan Mineral Dust Experiment 2008, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 114, D13202, https://doi.org/10.1029/2009jd011862, 2009. Uno, I., Eguchi, K., Yumimoto, K., Takemura, T., Shimizu, A., Uematsu, M., Liu, Z., Wang, Z., Hara, Y., and Sugimoto, N.: Asian dust transported one full circuit around the globe, Nat. Geosci., 2, 557–560, https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo583, 2009. Wallace, J. and Kanaroglou, P.: The effect of temperature inversions on ground-level nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) using temperature profiles from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), Sci. Total Environ., 407, 5085–5095, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2009.05.050, 2009. Wandinger, U. and Ansmann, A.: Experimental determination of the lidar overlap profile with Raman lidar, Appl. Optics, 41, 511–514, https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.41.000511, 2002. Wang, Z. B., Hu, M., Wu, Z. J., Yue, D. L., He, L. Y., Huang, X. F., Liu, X. G., and Wiedensohler, A.: Long-term measurements of particle number size distributions and the relationships with air mass history and source apportionment in the summer of Beijing, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 10159–10170, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-10159-2013, 2013. Wang, Z., Huang, X., and Ding, A.: Optimization of vertical grid setting for air quality modelling in China considering the effect of aerosol-boundary layer interaction, Atmos. Environ., 210, 1–13, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2019.04.042, 2019. Wilcox, E. M., Thomas, R. M., Praveen, P. S., Pistone, K., Bender, F. A., and Ramanathan, V.: Black carbon solar absorption suppresses turbulence in the atmospheric boundary layer, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 113, 11794–11799, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1525746113, 2016. Wu, Y. C., Shiledar, A., Li, Y. C., Wong, J., Feng, S., Chen, X., Chen, C., Jin, K., Janamian, S., Yang, Z., Ballard, Z. S., Gorocs, Z., Feizi, A., and Ozcan, A.: Air quality monitoring using mobile microscopy and machine learning, Light. Sci. Appl., 6, e17046, https://doi.org/10.1038/lsa.2017.46, 2017. Xia, X. and Zong, X.: Shortwave versus longwave direct radiative forcing by Taklimakan dust aerosols, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L07803, https://doi.org/10.1029/2009gl037237, 2009. Xie, C., Nishizawa, T., Sugimoto, N., Matsui, I., and Wang, Z.: Characteristics of aerosol optical properties in pollution and Asian dust episodes over Beijing, China, Appl. Optics, 47, 4945–4951, https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.47.004945, 2008. Xing, C., Liu, C., Wang, S., Chan, K. L., Gao, Y., Huang, X., Su, W., Zhang, C., Dong, Y., Fan, G., Zhang, T., Chen, Z., Hu, Q., Su, H., Xie, Z., and Liu, J.: Observations of the vertical distributions of summertime atmospheric pollutants and the corresponding ozone production in Shanghai, China, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 14275–14289, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14275-2017, 2017. Xing, C., Liu, C., Wang, S., Hu, Q., Liu, H., Tan, W., Zhang, W., Li, B., and Liu, J.: A new method to determine the aerosol optical properties from multiple-wavelength O4 absorptions by MAX-DOAS observation, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 3289–3302, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-3289-2019, 2019. Zaveri, R. A. and Peters, L. K.: A new lumped structure photochemical mechanism for large-scale applications, J. Geophys. Res., 104, 30387, https://doi.org/10.1029/1999JD900876, 1999. Zaveri, R. A., Easter, R. C., Fast, J. D., and Peters, L. K.: Model for simulating aerosol interactions and chemistry (MOSAIC), J. Geophys. Res., 113, D13204, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007jd008782, 2008. Zhang, R.: Getting to the critical nucleus of aerosol formation, Science, 328, 1366–1367, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1189732, 2010. Zhang, C., Liu, C., Hu, Q., Cai, Z., Su, W., Xia, C., Zhu, Y., Wang, S., and Liu, J.: Satellite UV-Vis spectroscopy: implications for air quality trends and their driving forces in China during 2005–2017, Light. Sci. Appl., 8, 100, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-019-0210-6, 2019a. Zhang, Q., Zheng, Y., Tong, D., Shao, M., Wang, S., Zhang, Y., Xu, X., Wang, J., He, H., Liu, W., Ding, Y., Lei, Y., Li, J., Wang, Z., Zhang, X., Wang, Y., Cheng, J., Liu, Y., Shi, Q., Yan, L., Geng, G., Hong, C., Li, M., Liu, F., Zheng, B., Cao, J., Ding, A., Gao, J., Fu, Q., Huo, J., Liu, B., Liu, Z., Yang, F., He, K., and Hao, J.: Drivers of improved PM2.5 air quality in China from 2013 to 2017, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA., 116, 24463–24469, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1907956116, 2019b. Zheng, G. J., Duan, F. K., Su, H., Ma, Y. L., Cheng, Y., Zheng, B., Zhang, Q., Huang, T., Kimoto, T., Chang, D., Pöschl, U., Cheng, Y. F., and He, K. B.: Exploring the severe winter haze in Beijing: the impact of synoptic weather, regional transport and heterogeneous reactions, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 2969–2983, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-2969-2015, 2015. Zhong, J., Zhang, X., Dong, Y., Wang, Y., Liu, C., Wang, J., Zhang, Y., and Che, H.: Feedback effects of boundary-layer meteorological factors on cumulative explosive growth of PM2.5 during winter heavy pollution episodes in Beijing from 2013 to 2016, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 247–258, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-247-2018, 2018. Zhou, X., Huang, G., Civerolo, K., Roychowdhury, U., and Demerjian, K. L.: Summertime observations of HONO, HCHO, and O3 at the summit of Whiteface Mountain, New York, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 112, D08311, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006jd007256, 2007.
The study aims to provide current state of sustainable freight transport in Sri Lanka and encourages the Government of Sri Lanka and other relevant stakeholders to make freight transportation planning, policy, and investment decisions based on the three dimensions, or pillars, of sustainable development: the environmental, economic, and social dimensions (also known in economics as the triple bottom-line). It uses an understanding of the three dimensions and their interlinkages as elaborated by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Comprehensive research was conducted to inform the content of this study, consulting a wide variety of government, United Nations, and other available material. The study aims to help guide the integration of sustainable freight transportation planning efforts—vertically among levels of government and horizontally across modes—with a balanced development of modes. It also aims to support institutional, legal, and regulatory frameworks that promote effective and sustainable freight transportation; to build capacity among transportation planners; and to promote diversified funding sources and transformative transportation technologies. There is a special emphasis on emissions reduction, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (primarily CO2 in this context). With over 20 per cent of global CO2 emissions being derived from transportation and 40-50 per cent of that percentage coming from the transportation of freight, it is important to target the sector in the fight against climate change. This is particularly relevant to Sri Lanka as the country’s total freight transportation in ton-km continues to rise amid an outdated trucking fleet, a lack of economies of scale, poor road conditions and congestion, limited modal share, and a dependence on imported fuel. All these factors contribute to emissions, negative externalities, and economic losses that can otherwise be avoided in a world where Sri Lanka stands as one of the most vulnerable countries to GHG-induced climate change. As the preeminent port in South Asia, the Port of Colombo, figures prominently in the revenue generation, economy, and future of Sri Lanka. Rising to meet the challenges that come with the ever-growing number of port calls is thus important. Simplified customs formalities are central to the international transport of goods and their role in freight transportation has been underlined. The study is divided into Sections 1-5 that feed into Section 6, where the challenges to sustainable freight transportation in Sri Lanka are articulated. Section 1 provides a background where the rationale behind this study is briefly summarized, while an economic outlook and energy overview provide some context behind two these import elements to freight transportation. Sustainable freight transportation is an important component of better trade efficiency and logistical performance and is thus important for Sri Lanka’s continued development as limited economic complexity and stagnating exports necessitate changes in these areas. Section 2 then provides a comprehensive overview of sustainable freight transportation in Sri Lanka by exploring where it is at today, the issues at hand, and the gaps between the current situation and aspirational sustainable future. This overview is primarily presented through the lens of two frameworks: the SDGs and the avoid-shift-improve framework. Some SDGs identified as relevant to sustainable freight transportation include SDGs 3.6 (road traffic accidents), 3.9 (air pollution), 7.3 (energy efficiency), 9.1 (infrastructure), 11.2 (accessible and sustainable transportation systems), 11.6 (air quality), 12.c (fossil-fuel subsidies), 13.1 (climate change adaptation and resilience), and 13.2 (climate change policies, strategies, and planning). Upon review of these SDGs, some identified bright spots are Sri Lanka’s relatively good air quality, a high density of roads and rail lines, the continued development of its nascent expressway network, a drop in the transportation sector’s emission intensity, high container throughput at the port of Colombo, and a strong recognition of the issues at hand. However, noted issues are equally abundant. They include—among others—rising CO2 emissions from the transportation sector, a badly outdated railway system, congestion in the Colombo metropolitan region, and unsafe driving conditions stemming from deficiencies in enforcement and road conditions. Following this, Section 3 links Sri Lanka’s policies, plans, visions, strategies, and international commitments to sustainable freight transportation. A full list can be found in Sections 3.A and 3.B. For more details on the portions that are relevant to freight transportation in one way or another, see Appendix 10. Section 4, meanwhile, supplements this study. Section 4.A elaborates more on the key pillars of sustainable freight transportation or, in other words, the three dimensions of sustainable development as they relate to freight through a wide range of considerations. Next, Section 4.C provides a list of prospective performance indicators that can be used to measure progress towards sustainable freight transportation, organized under both the MoI and key pillars. Section 5 then provides a brief, yet concise, overview of the impacts of COVID-19 on Sri Lanka. Like most countries, the economy of Sri Lanka had taken a hard hit. Global disruptions to the supply chain, lockdowns, and travel restrictions have all had the effect of hurting key industries in Sri Lanka. Tourism has decreased and exports have fallen. The year 2020 also saw negative growth in container throughput at the Port of Colombo, against trends where numbers doubled in the last decade. This has all had a negative impact on the economy and revenue of Sri Lanka. However, the pandemic has also had the positive effect of accelerating paperless customs processes that had already existed in some form or another prior to the pandemic. Coming together, Section 6 articulates the main challenges to sustainable freight transportation in Sri Lanka. These have been identified as: Costs, Access to Finance, Systems Upgrades (e.g., Intermodal Networks, Railways, Rural Roads, and the Port of Colombo), E-commerce, Technology Platforms, Replacing the Aging Rigid Trucking Fleet, Scrapping Older Vehicles, Operator Resistance, Customs, and Enforcement and Driver Attitudes.
Intercostal muscles highlighted in dark red. \|Actions\|\|Elevation or Depression of the Ribs\| \|Anatomical terms of muscle\| Intercostal muscles are several groups of muscles that run between the ribs, and help form and move the chest wall. The intercostal muscles are mainly involved in the mechanical aspect of breathing. These muscles help expand and shrink the size of the chest cavity to facilitate breathing. There are three principal layers; - External intercostal muscles aid in quiet and forced inhalation. They originate on ribs 1-11 and have their insertion on ribs 2-12. The external intercostals are responsible for the elevation of the ribs and bending them more open, thus expanding the transverse dimensions of the thoracic cavity. - Internal intercostal muscles aid in forced expiration (quiet expiration is a passive process). They originate on ribs 2-12 and have their insertions on ribs 1-11. The internal intercostals are responsible for the depression of the ribs and bending them inward, thus decreasing the transverse dimensions of the thoracic cavity. - Innermost intercostal muscle, the deep layers of the internal intercostal muscles which are separated from them by a neurovascular bundle. This in turn is composed of: Both the external and internal muscles are innervated by the intercostal nerves (the ventral rami of thoracic spinal nerves), are supplied by the intercostal arteries, and are drained by the intercostal veins. Their fibers run in opposite directions. The scalene muscles, which also move the chest wall and have a function in inhalation, are also intercostal muscles, just not one of the three principal layers. \|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Intercostal muscle.\|
All the research reinforces the positive effect of performing a "first concert" with your beginning string players as soon as possible, and this collection was written to help you create a successful and exciting event. All of the compositions in this book use only the notes and skills covered in the first 10 - 12 pages of most typical method books. Of the thirteen pieces, five are pizzicato, and four others may be performed pizzicato or arco, providing you with the flexibility to select material that matches your students' abilities. Title: Jumpstart First Concert for Strings, Edited by Robert Woods, Published by Lorenz Corporation Fifteen pieces arranged for any combination of 3 or more stringed instruments. All 3 parts are included in each book allowing all students to gain experience playing both melody and harmony parts. The "mileage" of each selection is also increased as it never has to be played with the same instrumentation twice. Title: Ensemble Time for Strings, Published by Alfred Publishing Co., Inc. The comprehensive approach of Artistry in Strings provides all the basic tools necessary for establishing solid technique and expressive music making. Perfect for classroom, group, or private instruction. Each book includes music theory, composition, listening exercise, improvisation, ensemble performances, and interdisciplinary studies for a well-rounded approach. Music styles include classical, jazz, country, rock and folk music from a variety of cultures around the Book 1 provides the well-rounded approach students need to become successful string players and overall musicians. Bowing curriculum begins immediately to encourage the physical development needed for strong bowing technique. Note reading right from the start allows students to develop strong reading skills. Rhythm Charts feature rhythmic word associations for quick comprehension and long-term retention. Title: Artistry in Strings, By Robert S. Frost, Published by Neil A. Kjos Music Co. Folk Strings is a collection of folk melodies from around the world arranged for strings. This collection includes melodies in a variety of moods and with rhythmic patterns which are representative of their country of origin. The arrangements in Folk Strings can be effective with players at a variety of levels. Less experienced players can play the melody line. In order to provide maximum flexibility, the collection is available in a number of instrumentations. The melody is passed around so that all members of the ensemble can have the opportunity to play the tune. Score and parts are marked with "Melody" and "Harmony" to help players bring out the melody at the appropriate moment. Title: Folk Strings, Edited by Martin, Joanne, Published by Summy-Birchard Inc. More Folk Strings is a collection of melodies from around the world, representing rhythmic patterns and harmonies from their country of origin. The collection is available in a number of flexible scorings, allowing solo, quartet, or string orchestra parts to be used in any combination. Solo parts require little to no shifting and are perfect for the less experienced player. String quartet and orchestra parts alternate melody and harmony, providing all members of the ensemble the opportunity to play the main tune. Parts are marked with "Melody" and "Harmony" to help the player develop a sense of musical expression. The score also provides lyrics, background information, and rehearsal techniques on each song. Title: More Folk Strings, Edited by Joanne Martin, Published by Summy-Birchard Inc.
Associations and institutions are welcome to apply to become members of the ALCC. If you are new to copyright or looking for a refresher our Short introduction to copyright is the place to start. In brief, copyright covers a range of material such as literature, visual arts and films. Copyright owners enjoy a range of rights over that content, including the ability to allow or restrict reuse of the content. Material can be reused with the permission of the copyright owner, or, in some circumstances, by relying on an exception to copyright. For libraries, archives and other cultural collections this means much of the content in their collections are likely to be within the scope of what is protected by copyright, and, for as long as the material is protected, many of the uses they might want to make of that material will typically be protected by copyright. What is copyright? Copyright is an area of law that gives creators a bundle of rights to control how others use their creations. While these rights vary depending of the type of material in question, broadly a copyright owner can prevent uses that would infringe copyright in their material and they can authorise use of the material by another party. When giving other parties permission to reuse material they have the right to receive remuneration for the use of the material. It is one of the categories of ‘intellectual property law’, along with patents, trade marks and designs law. While patents protect inventions and trade marks protect brand names, copyright protects creative works like books, films, music and art. What is the purpose of copyright? If you ask most people they will tell you copyright is about protecting creative works. That is true. And this is a good starting point for understanding copyright. But there is more to it than that. Copyright is designed to incentivise the creation of new content and to provide a legal framework for the management of that content. It is specifically designed to facilitate the commercial exploitation of creativity. But copyright has a greater purpose than just making money. Copyright is meant to provide a balance between incentivising creativity by allowing authors to make money from their creations while also encouraging the dissemination of knowledge to the public through publication and sharing. Copyright should be a win–win. Sources of copyright law The modern copyright system plays out at four levels: - Internationally through treaties and trade agreements (international level). - Domestically through legislation and case law (jurisdictional/country level). - Organisationally through compliance and industry practice (industry level). - Normatively through community and behavioural norms (community level). Each tier is expanded on in our page on the sources of copyright law. Copyright Act 1968 In Australia, copyright law is set out in the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). It outlines many aspects of copyright including: - what is protected by copyright - what rights make up copyright protection - how long copyright protection lasts - what constitutes an infringement of copyright - what does not constitute an infringement of copyright The Copyright Act, as well as associated copyright regulations, copyright policy and international copyright issues are managed by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications. Material protected by copyright Broadly, copyright protects: - ‘Works’, including literary works (books, magazine articles, etc), dramatic works (theatre and dance), music and artistic works (paintings, drawings, photographs, etc). - ‘Subject matter other than works’ which includes sound recordings, films, broadcasts and published editions of works. While many of these categories seem obvious, some of the things that they include might surprise you. Copyright can cover items you may not ordinarily think of, like databases, computer software and costumes. If you are unsure if something is protected by copyright, it’s usually best to assume it is. Our information on material protected by copyright provides a more comprehensive look at copyright protected content. Requirements to gain copyright protection Copyright protection in Australia is free and automatic as soon as content is in a material form (such as the words of a poem being written down or a song is recorded). It does not need to be registered, applied for or paid for. To be protected content must be a work or other subject matter. In order to be protected, all literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works must be: - An expression, not an idea. - In a material form. - Made by a human author. For more about what these requirements mean see our page on the requirements content must meet to gain copyright protection. Rights in copyright The main group of rights in copyright are called economic rights. Owners of literary, dramatic and musical works have the right to reproduce the work, publish it, communicate it online, adapt it and perform it in public. Owners of artistic works have the right to reproduce, publish and communicate. The owners of sound recordings and films can make a copy of the recording or film, play the recording or film in public and communicate the recording or film online. Creators also have moral rights over their works, which protect their right to accurate attribution and to not have the work treated badly. And performers have rights over their performances, such as to stop bootlegging. Our information on the rights in copyright: Rights in copyright provides a more comprehensive overview of the economic and other rights in copyright. Duration of copyright The rights provided by copyright only last for a certain amount of time, and the duration of copyright depends on the type of material. For example: - Works are generally protected for the life of the creator plus 70 years, or if you don’t know who the author is, 70 years from when they were made public or created. - Sound recordings and films are protected for 70 years from when they were made public, or if they haven’t been made public, from when they were created. However, the full rules of copyright duration are complex, with the rules changing depending on when material was created, the type of material it is, who the creator was and how much we know about them. Our more detailed information on the duration of copyright: Duration of copyright looks at these situations. We also recommend the Department of Communications and the Arts’ information on their website about the ‘Duration of copyright’, in particular their tables that help to clarify the applicable duration rules. Ownership of copyright Generally speaking, for a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work the author is the owner of copyright: Authors of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works in Ownership of copyright in the work. The maker of other subject-matter is the copyright owner: Makers of other subject-matter in Ownership of copyright (except for published editions, for which the publisher is the copyright owner). There are exceptions to these general rules however. Ownership of copyright can be more complicated depending on the parties involved. We have a page that provides a more comprehensive look at who is the owner of copyright. Exceptions to copyright If you don’t have permission to use copyright protected material there may be an exception that allows use without infringement. The Copyright Act includes a number of exceptions to copyright. The most well-known group of copyright exceptions are referred to as fair dealing. A dealing with a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, with an adaptation of a literary, dramatic or musical work or with audio-visual items is not an infringement of copyright where the dealing is fair and is for the purpose of: - Research or study. - Criticism or review. - Parody or satire. - Reporting of news. - Judicial proceedings or professional advice. - Access by persons with a disability. There are also a number of exceptions for libraries and archives, including: - Preservation of the collection. - Reproducing and communicating works for users – i.e. document supply. - Reproducing and communicating works for other libraries or archives – i.e. interlibrary loan. - Onsite Research. - Administration of the collection. - Publication of unpublished works. There are nearly 90 other exceptions, including for: - Private copying – both format-shifting and time-shifting. Format-shifting allows you to copy certain types of material that you own for private and domestic use into a different ‘format’ – e.g. copying a CD to MP3 format. The time-shifting exception allows you to record a television or radio broadcast to watch or listen to it later. - Filming, photographing, drawing or painting sculptures in public places and buildings. - Public recitation of a “reasonable” part of a literary work. - Incidental filming of an artwork. - Temporary reproduction as part of technical processes. We have a page that provides a more comprehensive look at exceptions to copyright.
One of the world’s oldest scientific experiments has been revitalized secretly in the United States One of the world’s longest-lived science experiments was recently revitalized in the American city of East Lansing after a delay caused by the epidemic. Experience her 20-year control cycle, includingIt began in 1879 when botanist William James Bell filled 20 bottles with a mixture of sand and seeds from certain types of plants and buried them upside down in a secret location on the campus of what is now Michigan State University. The aim of the experiment was to prevent water from entering the plants and to determine whether they could germinate after remaining in that state for long periods of time. When the experiment began, over 100 years ago, reviews were done every five years, and seeds were sown to see if something grew, but today this procedure is done every 20 years. Bill, the scientist who founded this seed bank a century ago, He sought a better understanding of how long a plant could survive in the soil and the factors that led to its growth. With this, he wanted to help local farmers combat the continuous removal of weeds from their farms, as one of the conclusions of the experiment was to determine how long the weeds could continue to grow due to the seeds already in the ground. In 1910, the botanist entrusted his experiment to a colleague, and from there began a tradition of passing it on to younger botanists. The task of monitoring the seed bank at increasing intervals of time, first every 5 years, then every 10 years and finally every 20. To prevent the tests from losing traceability over the years, a type of seed keeper was established in Michigan, where The responsibility to ensure that the experience is passed on from one generation to the next. The task isn’t simple, because the history of Bell Seeds attracts vandals and curious people who want to find the remaining bottles, so their location is a closely guarded secret. CWhen the condition of the plants must be checked, it is done at night with picks and torches. Of the original bottles Bell buried, only 5 were left and one had to be recovered from Earth in 2020, but due to campus closures during the harsher months of the pandemic in the US, the trial had to be postponed. But last April 15 blew up the Seed Rangers team, Led by Professor Frank Telewski, he is finally able to rescue the container from its secret location. The recovered seeds were placed in a vase mixture and transported to the laboratory for examination. Professor Telewski is now 60 years old, and after decades as a specialist, he has chosen three younger faculty to help him with the excavation work and continue the legacy by keeping a secret where the seeds lie. Keep this The “direct connection with history” faces many other challenges, such as ensuring that no construction or adaptation of the campus takes place that harms the place where the seeds are buried. Stopping these fossils is not easy, especially given that the exact location of the experiment must be kept a secret. After 20-year cycles, The bottles Bell buried will finally run out in the year 2100, achieving a long life of 221 years, the longest experiment ever conducted. But it’s not the most ambitious because seven years ago a long-term bacterial feasibility study, perhaps inspired by Bell’s experiment, was proposed to double that time and complete 500 years of studies.
You can expose variable to the agent interface and connect it to a dependent variable of other agent. Connected variables will have the same value at any moment of time; i.e., changes of one variable will be immediately propagated to another variable declared as dependent one. This provides for continuous and/or discrete time object interaction. You can connect: - Two public variables of two embedded objects; - A variable of a container object with a public variable of an embedded object. The figure below is the screenshot from the Population model. It illustrates the case when two embedded objects interact via connected variables. - Only the variables of compatible types can be connected. - You cannot connect two variables of the same object. - AnyLogic allows connection of several dependent variables to one variable. But to prevent collisions, only one variable can be connected to a dependent variable. When connecting two variables, one variable should be necessarily defined as dependent one. The dependent variable always gets value of another variable. To make a variable dependent - Select the variable in the graphical editor or in the Projects view. - In the Properties view, select the Dependent check box. When finished, connect variables graphically with connectors. To connect two variables - Double-click the Connector element in the Agent palette to activate its drawing mode. - In the graphical editor, subsequently click both variables that you want to connect. When drawing connectors, you can notice that connector’s point put correctly inside variable icon is indicated with a small green circle. In the case you do not see the green circle, it probably means that you are trying to connect variables that cannot be connected, or you have put connector’s point close by a variable and you need to move it onto it. How can we improve this article?
Dryas Monkeys Found in the Central Congo Basin If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound? Not only does the tree make a sound, so do the creatures inhabiting the forest – or in this case – the rainforest deep in the heart of Africa. Using remote sensing cameras and sound recorders, researchers from Florida Atlantic University are the first to capture rare video footage of a newly discovered population of critically endangered monkeys in one of the most remote regions in the world. Spanning nearly 2.2 million acres and about 50 times larger than Washington, D.C. and almost the size of Yellowstone National Park, the Lomami National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Central Africa is now home to a new population of the Dryas monkey. Originally believed to inhabit only one site on the planet in the Congo basin, this colorful and beguiling animal is about the size of a house cat. Members of the Lukuru Foundation serendipitously discovered it near the border of the Lomami National Park when they noticed a dead monkey with a local hunter. They later confirmed it to be a Dryas monkey, known locally as Inoko. First discovered in 1932 and believed to be nearing extinction due to its small population size and unregulated hunting, this species has perplexed scientists for decades because of its elusive nature. “The Dryas monkey is extremely cryptic and we had to think of a creative strategy to observe them in the wild,” said Kate Detwiler, Ph.D., a primatologist and an assistant professor of anthropology in FAU’s Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, who has been collaborating with scientists at the Lukuru Foundation for more than eight years and helped to discover a new species, the Lesula monkey, in that same park in 2012. “Dryas monkeys are drawn to dense thickets and flooded areas. When threatened, they quickly disappear into a tangle of vines and foliage, mastering the art of hiding.” Detwiler jumped at the opportunity to bring the dryas project to her lab when her collaborator John Hart, Ph.D., scientific director of the Lukuru Foundation, revealed the discovery. For years, the Lukuru Foundation’s TL2 Project team members have been surveying the rainforests for the presence of DRC’s endemic and endangered species, and discovering diverse fauna including the Dryas monkey. Their efforts were the impetus for the DRC to officially establish the Lomami National Park within the Tshuapa-Lomami-Lualaba (TL2) conservation landscape last July, and is the country’s first national park in more than two decades. FAU is the first university in the United States to conduct primate field research in the Lomami National Park and greater TL2 Landscape. Trying to capture the monkeys by video in the middle of the rainforest was no easy feat and required unusual tactics. Detwiler reached out to then 24-year-old Daniel Alempijevic, now a master’s degree candidate in FAU’s Environmental Sciences Program to help accomplish the task. To get the job done, Alempijevic had to learn how to climb trees – really tall trees – and received a tree-climbing certificate from the Institute of Tropical Ecology and Conservation in Bocas del Toro, Panama. He is the first person to conduct an arboreal camera trap survey in the TL2 Landscape, and spent a semester there climbing very remote rainforest trees to set up the cameras. The cameras are placed in strategic locations on the ground, mid-range and in the canopy to determine what level of the forest the Dryas monkeys prefer. “This was an opportunity of a lifetime,” said Alempijevic. “It was an incredible experience to work in the canopy of such a remote site, and to get the first camera-trap videos of an extremely rare and elusive species.” Video footage from these camera traps are providing vital information about this critically endangered species as well as an array of other charismatic animals such as the bonobo, African palm civet, and potto who also inhabit the Lomami National Park. “The Congo Basin rainforest is the second-largest rainforest in the world, and contains some of the least known species on the planet, many of which are threatened from hunting pressure and deforestation,” said Detwiler. “Our goal is to document where new dryas populations live and develop effective methods to monitor population size over time to ensure their protection. Understanding where they reside is important, because the animals living inside the Lomami National Park are protected, as it is illegal to hunt.” In addition to much needed conservation efforts, Detwiler and her team also are working to solve the evolutionary puzzle of the Dryas monkey using genomic research to test the hypothesis that this species is a close relative of the Vervet monkey. Since 2014, the Detwiler laboratory has been studying a free-living population of Vervet monkeys that have remarkably survived for decades in a narrow strip of dense mangrove swamp next to the airport in Fort Lauderdale. Alempijevic used this population to practice his camera trap methods and hone in his observation skills before leaving for the dryas field study in the Congo forests. Detwiler and her team have received grants for this project from the Mohammed Bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, Primate Conservation, Inc., Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation, FAU Technology Fee Grant, and International Primatological Society.
Craniosynostosis is a rare problem with the skull that causes a baby to be born with, or develop, an abnormally shaped head. The irregular skull shape in craniosynostosis can cause persistent headaches, learning difficulties, eye problems and other symptoms. Most symptoms develop in later childhood. The symptoms of craniosynostosis usually result from increased pressure within the skull, which is called intracranial pressure (ICP). Read more about the symptoms of craniosynostosis. Craniosynostosis is usually diagnosed after a visual examination of your baby's head, although further tests may sometimes be necessary. Read more about diagnosing craniosynostosis. Craniosynostosis is the result of the premature fusion of different sections of the skull. This means the skull is unable to grow in affected areas. When one area of the skull is prevented from growing, other areas may 'overgrow' to compensate and limit the pressure developing around the brain. A lack of growth in some areas and compensatory growth in other areas will result in an altered head shape. In most cases of craniosyntosis, there are no other birth defects (known as nonsyndromic). When it develops with other birth defects, it is known as syndromic. The causes of nonsyndromic craniosynostosis are unknown. There are theories about cell defects and the baby's position in the womb, but these have not been proven. Syndromic craniosynostosis is the result of one of several possible syndromes. A syndrome is a range of symptoms related to a common cause, which is usually (but not always) genetic. Some of the syndromes that can lead to craniosynostosis are listed below. Read more about the causes of craniosynostosis. Different types of craniosynostosis can be described based on the areas of the skull affected and the resulting changes in shape (see symptoms of craniosynostosis for more information). Craniosynostosis is rare, affecting an estimated one in every 1,800 to 3,000 children. Three out of every four cases affect boys. Nonsyndromic craniosynostosis is the most common form of the condition, accounting for 80-95% of all cases. There are more than 150 different syndromes that can cause syndromic craniosynostosis, all of which are very rare. These include: The main treatment for craniosynostosis is surgery. This can either be carried out during the first year of your baby's life, or delayed until later childhood. The timing of the surgery is decided by doctors, in consultation with you. Most children with craniosynostosis recover well after surgery and the appearance of their skull improves significantly. However, around one in 15 children may have further problems with their skull's development as they get older, which will require further surgery to correct. Read more about treating craniosynostosis. Craniosynostosis causes an irregular skull shape. The baby's skull shape is determined by the type of craniosynostosis they have. The skull consists of plates of bone connected by strong elastic tissues called sutures. The sutures give the bone plates flexibility so the skull can grow along with the brain. Sagittal synostosis is the most common type of craniosynostosis, accounting for around half of all cases. It occurs when the suture at the top of the skull (the sagittal suture) fuses. This leads to a lack of growth in width and compensatory growth in length, resulting in a long, narrow skull. Coronal craniosynostosis is the second most common type of craniosynostosis after sagittal synostosis, accounting for around one in four cases. In coronal craniosynostosis, the fusion occurs in one or both of the two sutures that run from the top of the ear to the top of the skull. These are known as the coronal sutures. If only one coronal suture is fused, the infant will develop a flattened forehead on the affected side. They may also have a raised eye socket and a crooked nose. If both coronal sutures are fused, the infant will develop a flat and prominent forehead and brow. Metopic synostosis is an uncommon type of craniosynostosis, occuring in 4-10% of cases. The fusion occurs in the metopic synostosis, which is the suture that runs from the nose to the top of the skull. Infants with metopic synostosis will develop a pointed scalp that looks triangular. Lambdoid synostosis is the rarest type of craniosynostosis and occurs in about 2-4% of cases. Fusion occurs in the lambdoid suture, which runs along the back of the head. Infants with lambdoid synostosis will develop a flattened head at the back. However, not all children with a flattened head at the back have lambdoid synostosis. It is common and normal for babies to have some flatness at the back of their head as a result of lying on their backs for prolonged periods of time. This is known as positional plagiocephaly. Raised intracranial pressure (ICP) is a symptom that may occur in all types of craniosynostosis. ICP increases when pressure builds up inside your child's skull due to its irregular shape. When only one suture is involved, raised ICP occurs in less than 15% of children. However, in syndromic craniosynostosis where multiple sutures are involved, raised ICP is more common and may occur in up to 60% of cases. If your child has mild craniosynostosis, it may not be spotted until they begin to experience problems due to an increase in ICP. This usually occurs when a child is between four to eight years old. The symptoms of ICP usually begin with: If your child complains of any of the above symptoms, take them to see your doctor as soon as possible. In most cases, these symptoms will not be caused by raised ICP, but they do require further investigation. Left untreated, other symptoms of raised ICP can include: The cause of craniosynostosis largely depends on whether it is syndromic (exists with other birth defects) or nonsyndromic (there are no other defects). Sometimes, the cause is not known. The cause of nonsyndromic craniosynostosis is unknown. However, a number of theories have been suggested. One theory is that nonsyndromic craniosynostosis may be caused by the baby adopting an unusual position in the womb. For example, if the baby's head is pushed down by their mother's ribcage, this will place pressure on their skull. This extra pressure may push the plates of bone together, causing the sutures in the skull to fuse too soon. Other theories suggest that an unidentified defect in the cells that make up the sutures causes them to fuse prematurely, or that a signal from the brain itself results in the abnormal fusion. Most cases of nonsyndromic craniosynostosis do not appear connected to anything that a mother does during pregnancy. Women who took a medication called valproic acid (sodium valproate), used to treat epilepsy, during pregnancy were thought to be at increased risk of having a baby with craniosynostosis, although recent studies have failed to confirm this. Although it is rarer, more is known about the causes of syndromic craniosynostosis. There are many syndromes that can cause this form of craniosynostosis, including: Most cases of syndromic craniosynostosis are caused by one of four genetic mutations. A genetic mutation occurs when instructions carried in certain genes (a unit of genetic material) become scrambled. This means some of the body's processes do not work in the normal way. Examples of mutated genes in craniosynostosis are: The FGFR group of genes seem to make a protein called fibroblast growth factor receptor work less effectively. As this protein is involved in regulating cell growth, particularly the growth of bones, it is thought the FGFR mutation disrupts the development of the skull. The mutated TWIST gene seems to totally block the effects of fibroblast growth factor receptors. There are often a wide range of birth defects associated with this gene. Craniosynostosis can usually be diagnosed by a paediatrician (specialist in treating children) after a visual examination of your baby's head. Any severe distortions of the skull or face will be apparent, and the existence of ridges over fused sutures or misalignment of the ears will also provide evidence of craniosynostosis. An X-ray of the skull may be taken to confirm a diagnosis of craniosynostosis. A computerised tomography (CT) scan is the most detailed method of assessing the condition of your child's skull. A CT scan involves taking a series of X-rays and using a computer to reassemble them into a more detailed image. CT scans are usually only required to plan some types of surgery or if the diagnosis of craniosynostosis is in doubt. Read more about CT scans. If your child has other birth defects that suggest craniosynostosis may be part of a wider syndrome, such as Apert syndrome, a sample of their blood, hair or saliva may be taken and tested for any genetic mutations. Surgery is the main treatment for craniosynostosis, the timing of which depends on your child's condition and your personal preferences. Sometimes the surgery is carried out later in childhood to reduce the likelihood of the operation needing to be repeated. Earlier surgery may be recommended if there are problems inside the head or with the eyes and jaw, or for cosmetic reasons. You should talk to your child's doctors to decide when the operation should be carried out. Surgery for craniosynostosis is usually carried out by a team of two surgeons who each have their own speciality. These are: Surgery for craniosynostosis is carried out under a general anaesthetic, which means your child will be asleep during the procedure and will not feel any pain. The neurosurgeon will make an incision across the top of your child's scalp. This will leave a scar, but it will be hidden by their hair. The neurosurgeon will remove affected areas of skull. The removed pieces of bone are reshaped by the craniofacial surgeon before being returned to a normal position in the skull. The incision will then be sealed using dissolvable stitches. Extra precautions always have to be taken in cases where surgery is carried out on the skulls of very young children. Therefore, after the operation it is likely your child will be transferred to a high dependency unit (HDU) for one or two days so their condition can be carefully monitored. Most children are well enough to leave hospital around five days after surgery. Following surgery, most children will only experience mild pain, but it is common for them to develop significant swelling around their eyes. The swelling can often prevent them from opening their eyes. Your child may find this annoying or distressing, but the swelling does not present a health risk and should go down after a few days. After having surgery for craniosynostosis, it is likely your child will be asked to attend regular check-ups so the future development of their skull can be monitored. The check-ups will be quite frequent at first, such as every six weeks, before becoming less frequent as your child gets older. Most children will only require an annual check-up once they reach the age of six. Important: Our website provides useful information but is not a substitute for medical advice. You should always seek the advice of your doctor when making decisions about your health.
All blog posts in Exercise and Physical Activity There’s strong evidence that physical activity cuts the risk of cancer, but people don't move enough on a daily basis. Can policy changes reverse this trend? Associate Prof Brigid Lynch, a cancer epidemiologist in Australia, shares her latest evidence on what happens in a woman’s body when she exercises to reduce her risk of breast cancer Why aren't people more active? Margarita Kokkorou explores how the World Health Organization's Fair Play approach is encouraging the world to move more Reflecting on what physical activity policies we've discovered over the past 12 months and what to expect from the future Two team members reflect on the experiences of being physically active when growing up in their respective home countries Lindsay Bottoms from the University of Hertfordshire says the 10,000 step target has more to do with marketing than scientific fact
NASA's moon rocket returns to pad for next launch attempt NASA’s moon rocket is back on the pad for another launch attempt, following more repairs. The 322-foot rocket departed its hangar in the middle of the night and completed the 4-mile trip shortly after sunrise Friday. NASA is aiming for a launch attempt on Nov. 14, sending an empty crew capsule around the moon and back in a dramatic flight test before astronauts climb aboard in a couple years. Forecasters are keeping their eyes on potential tropical weather that could interfere. It is NASA's biggest step yet to get astronauts back on the moon by 2025. The space agency is nearing the 50th anniversary of its last human moon landing: Apollo 17 in December 1972. Although shorter, this early version of the rocket is even more powerful than the Saturn V that sent Apollo astronauts to the moon. Fuel leaks have kept the rocket grounded since August. Then Hurricane Ian forced the rocket back to the hangar at Kennedy Space Center at the end of September. NASA used the time to make repairs and replace critical batteries. NASA still does not know why hydrogen keeps leaking every time the rocket is fueled, but engineers are confident they can manage any future leaks, said Cliff Lanham, a senior manager. Liftoff would be in the wee hours for the next three launch opportunities. While NASA prefers a daytime launch for test flights to capture as many pictures as possible, it's not a requirement. Radar and infrared cameras should provide ample coverage, said Jim Free, a NASA associate administrator. The $4.1 billion mission will last close to a month, culminating with a splashdown in the Pacific. Test dummies are on board to measure radiation and vibrations. Copyright 2022 WLRN 91.3 FM. To see more, visit WLRN 91.3 FM.
All the research reinforces the positive effect of performing a "first concert" with your beginning string players as soon as possible, and this collection was written to help you create a successful and exciting event. All of the compositions in this book use only the notes and skills covered in the first 10 - 12 pages of most typical method books. Of the thirteen pieces, five are pizzicato, and four others may be performed pizzicato or arco, providing you with the flexibility to select material that matches your students' abilities. Title: Jumpstart First Concert for Strings, Edited by Robert Woods, Published by Lorenz Corporation Fifteen pieces arranged for any combination of 3 or more stringed instruments. All 3 parts are included in each book allowing all students to gain experience playing both melody and harmony parts. The "mileage" of each selection is also increased as it never has to be played with the same instrumentation twice. Title: Ensemble Time for Strings, Published by Alfred Publishing Co., Inc. The comprehensive approach of Artistry in Strings provides all the basic tools necessary for establishing solid technique and expressive music making. Perfect for classroom, group, or private instruction. Each book includes music theory, composition, listening exercise, improvisation, ensemble performances, and interdisciplinary studies for a well-rounded approach. Music styles include classical, jazz, country, rock and folk music from a variety of cultures around the Book 1 provides the well-rounded approach students need to become successful string players and overall musicians. Bowing curriculum begins immediately to encourage the physical development needed for strong bowing technique. Note reading right from the start allows students to develop strong reading skills. Rhythm Charts feature rhythmic word associations for quick comprehension and long-term retention. Title: Artistry in Strings, By Robert S. Frost, Published by Neil A. Kjos Music Co. The Sassmannshaus Tradition: Early Start on the Violin Title: The Sassmannshaus Tradition: Early Start on the Violin, By Sassmannshaus, Egon and Kurt, Published by Barenreiter. The most successful Tried and Tested German Violin Method now available in English. Author Egon Sassmannshaus is one of the most experienced and renowned violin pedagogues in Germany. For the new English edition his son Kurt worked as co-author and adapted his father's successsful method for English-speaking children. Note reading is introduced from the beginning. Ensemble playing is encouraged from the very beginning. Songs and Scales in different positions are easily explained and mastered. Large print notes and text as well as many colorful illustrations are particulary child-friendly and very attractive to pre-school and school aged children. Progresses swiftly by introducing advanced violin techniques in rudimentary form, such as shifting and varied bow strokes. All violin techniques used are demonstrated and explained on the web site www.violinmasterclass.com. This four-volume series for violin may be used in the classroom or private studio settings. It provides rote-trained students with an introduction to music notation. Each volume progresses in difficulty. Volume 4 introduces shifting and upper position work. 19-20 pages. Title: Quick Steps to Note Reading for Violin, Published by Neil A. Kjos Music Co. Folk Strings is a collection of folk melodies from around the world arranged for strings. This collection includes melodies in a variety of moods and with rhythmic patterns which are representative of their country of origin. The arrangements in Folk Strings can be effective with players at a variety of levels. Less experienced players can play the melody line. In order to provide maximum flexibility, the collection is available in a number of instrumentations. The melody is passed around so that all members of the ensemble can have the opportunity to play the tune. Score and parts are marked with "Melody" and "Harmony" to help players bring out the melody at the appropriate moment. Title: Folk Strings, Edited by Martin, Joanne, Published by Summy-Birchard Inc. A collection of folk songs, classical themes, rounds, and original compositions arranged in such a way as to be extremely versatile in meeting the needs of the beginning level string orchestra. Each instrument has the melody line as well as additional harmony lines. By using all the parts a string orchestra is achieved. With the addition of piano, any size string class can successfully perform these selections. 25 pages. Title: Primo Encores Elementary Level Ensembles, By Robert S. Frost, Published by Neil A. Kjos Music Co.
Why is it important to eat healthy to stay healthy? The best sports nutritionists suggest that nutritious healthy diet along with physical activity is the foundation of good health. Sometimes, eating unhealthy junk foods lead to unnecessary weight gain and you have to take help of body contouring treatment to regain your perfect body shape. Here is a write-up to briefly discuss the importance of healthy food to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Maintain body weight with healthy food- The quality and quantity of food are very essential to maintain the perfect body weight. You should include more fruits, vegetables, lean protein and whole grains in your diet to remain healthy. Refrain from high-fat and high-calorie foods as they can increase the formation of fat tissues in your body. In addition to the quality of food, you should also check the total calorie intake of the food. The best sports nutritionists advocate the intake of the same amount of calories that you can burn with your daily activities and workout sessions in order to maintain a perfect body weight ratio for a longer time. Otherwise, you have to end-up with body contouring treatment. Healthy food controls blood sugar level- There are certain foods like the white bread, carbonated drinks, fruit juice, ice-cream, chocolates, etc which causes a spike in your blood sugar level. Your body can handle occasional sugar abuse, but in the long run, this can be the precursor insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes. The top nutritionist recommends the copious use of oatmeal, whole grain bread, brown rice to regulate the release of glucose into your bloodstream. Decreased risk of heart disease- The best sports nutritionists clarify the intake of high-fat food like red meat, chocolates, pastries, pizzas can considerably increase your cholesterol and triglyceride levels which ultimately leads to the formation of plaque in your arteries. If this is not controlled in time, the health risk and stroke increase significantly. So, the top nutritionists in India suggest the intake of olive oil, lean meat, fish and seeds in your diet. If you still face issues with high cellulite formation in your body then you should avail the services of body contouring treatment. Decreased cancer risk- The top nutritionist suggested that the fruits and vegetables of your diet are loaded with antioxidants which can potentially neutralise the damaging cells of your body called free radicals. The free radicals have an uneven number of electrons in their cells which make them highly unstable. In order to regain their stability, they try to steal electrons from your healthy cells, thus causing enormous damage and even lead to cancer. The antioxidants in fruits and vegetables neutralise the free radicals by donating one of their electrons and thus prevents cancer. So, this was, in brief, the importance of healthy food to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Special Issue 5 (2) 2013 – Article The Importance of “Orff-Schulwerk” for Musical Social-Integrative Pedagogy and Music Therapy English translation: Gloria Litwin Which features of Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman’s ideas are relevant for work in the community and therapy? A child who is mentally or physically handicapped, emotionally or sensorially disabled or on the autistic spectrum, is never just only that. The characteristics of a person that are not expressed in these terms, however, are precisely the ones that make musical communication and thus a connection with so-called ‘normal’ people possible. A historical review will demonstrate the sources from which the adaptation of the Schulwerk for work with handicapped and disturbed children and young people was made possible and meaningful. A brief section will define the fields of “Music Education”, “Music in Special Needs and Community” and “Music Therapy” in order to distinguish them and highlight the contents they have in common. The author uses quotes by Carl Orff in order to document the basis of her ideas for therapeutic work and describes how pedagogues and therapists, from the early sixties until today, have developed them for and together with different groups with special needs: - The multi-sensorial approach through speech, free and bound rhythm, movement, singing and playing instruments provides possibilities for spontaneous creative play in a social context, even if one important sensorial area is severely damaged. - Every member of an integrative music and movement group is participating actively in a creative process. - The instrumentarium allows participants to play together in a spontaneous way. - Relationships developed through musical expression and play as an encounter between two people forms the basis for emotional development. - Musical reception and expression is independent of intellectual capacity, age and previous musical experience. elemental music; social-integrative pedagogy; music therapy; differences in methodology Prof. Dr. Karin Schumacher studied Music Therapy in Vienna and Elemental Music and Dance Education at the Orff Institute in Salzburg. Since 1974 she has worked as a music therapist with psychiatric patients, children with pervasive developmental disorders, especially autism and with handicapped children and teaches music therapy at the University of the Arts in Berlin and at the Music University in Vienna. Note: This article by Karin Schumacher was originally published in 1999 with the title «Die Bedeutung des Orff-Schulwerkes für die musikalische Sozial- und Integrationspädagogik und die Musiktherapie» in the journal Orff-Schulwerk-Informationen, volume 62 (see: http://bidok.uibk.ac.at/library/schumacher-orff.html). This English translation of the article is published with the kind permission of the author and the publisher. Apart from some copy-editing changes, the text has been attributed faithfully in the English language retaining the terminology used initially by the author.
Heart disease is the number one cause of death of men and women in the US and many other countries including the UAE (source). This health issue has been a global challenge most especially now that people with risk of heart disease – people with diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity – are more vulnerable than ever because of the pandemic. This situation is aggravated by the fear of getting the virus when people who are experiencing heart disease symptoms visit the hospital. This, including other rumors spreading related to the effects of COVID19 on heart health, are the things Dr. Estelle Jean, board certified cardiologist at MedStar Montgomery Medical Center, clarified to spread awareness to people about what should really be of a concern than those that only creates negativity and confusion in lifestyle choices and medical decisions. FACT: CHRONIC ANXIETY INCREASES THE RISK FACTOR OF HEART DISEASE Stress increases hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, and can impact a person’s heart pressure and heart rate. Also, Barry Jacobs, Psy.D., a clinical psychologist and director of Behavioral Sciences at the Crozer-Keystone Family Medicine Residency Program in Springfield, Pa, recommended that depression that mostly comes after a case of stroke must be monitored by the family of the patients. FACT: COVID19 PATIENTS MAY EXPERIENCE STROKES AND SEIZURES Some of the symptoms or warning signs of stroke that are also experienced by COVID19 patients are confusion and sudden headache. These call out for vigilance to call for medical help whenever a patient develops these neurological symptoms. MYTH: IT IS SAFER TO STAY AT HOME THAN VISITING THE HOSPITAL People with chronic illness or those who have the symptoms of heart disease are more receptive to COVID19. Knowing these risk factors causes the patients to just stay at home and not seek for medical help even if they need to. The ongoing fear of getting the viral infection when visiting the hospital can cause greater danger for these patients because the more the symptoms are not treated, the higher the risk of getting severely ill from COVID19. Hence, Dr. Estelle strongly advises to always stay connected within the healthcare system and do not delay care. MYTH: WHAT I AM FEELING IS PROBABLY NOTHING Experiencing shortness of breath; chest pain; numbness or pain on one arm, neck, or jaw; vomiting; and diarrhea are some of the symptoms of a heart attack. Ignoring these symptoms can cause worsening of your condition and the worst death. What are the two things you should know for having better heart health and mental wellbeing during the pandemic?: ONE \| Help is always there Remember that healthcare facilities have been here even before the pandemic. As the American Heart Association (AHA) says, healthcare workers are trained to help multiple emergency medical cases. They are committed to saving anybody’s life and that means that no medical condition or disease is unprioritized. TWO \| Nothing is better than knowing what is a fact and fiction Here is an amazing illustration by the World Health Organization (WHO) on how to misinformation spreads and how to avoid it.