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George Washington's lasting gift to generations of Jews NEWPORT, R.I. — In most of Colonial-era New England, it would have been about as hard to find a Jewish family as a grove of palm trees. But when George Washington visited Newport, R.I., in August 1790, the president found not just one Jewish family, but a Hebrew congregation with its own synagogue. They offered him a warm welcome to their community through a letter written by the leader of their congregation, Moses Sexias. Four days later, Washington penned a cordial response, assuring them they could enjoy full citizenship in the new United States of America - welcome news to a community whose ancestors had been expelled from the Iberian Peninsula during the Spanish Inquisition. Today, Jews still worship at the Touro Synagogue in Newport, and every August they - along with other supporters of religious freedom - file into the 18th-century Georgian building to read Washington's letter and to reflect on his words once again. "It is now no more that toleration is spoken of," Washington wrote, "as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights." He also declared that the government gave "to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance." After centuries of persecution in Europe, Jews welcomed Washington's message of equality, which set the stage for the US to become home to the largest, most prosperous Jewish community in the world. Washington's outreach to Jews was revolutionary, notes David Logan, dean of Roger Williams University's law school. America's Founding Fathers were unique in the world when they wrote freedom of religion into the laws of the new country, he says. "It's that pluralism and heterogeneity that make [America] a remarkable place." In the spirit of that pluralism, this year's letter-reading event was officiated and attended by people of a variety of faiths. The Rev. John Holt, a Methodist and executive minister for the interfaith Rhode Island Council of Churches, noted that the Touro Synagogue, dedicated in 1763 and the oldest surviving synagogue in the country, is "not a relic; it's a symbol of continuing religious tolerance." It was America's religious freedom that allowed Jews eventually to be appointed to the highest bench in the country, said US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the keynote speaker. But she also referred to "the persecution Jews have endured throughout history." She contrasted her experience on the bench with that of Louis Brandeis, the first Jew to become a member of the Supreme Court. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1876 at the age of 20 with the highest scholastic average in the history of the school. Despite his qualifications, he faced open anti-Semitism among his colleagues, one of whom refused to stand next to him for a Supreme Court photo. In contrast, Justice Ginsburg said, she and her coreligionist, Justice Stephen Breyer, faced no such opposition. Eliot Barron of West Hartford, Conn., seated in the synagogue's balcony, nodded emphatically at Ginsburg's remarks about Jews' persecution, almost sending his yarmulke flying into the crowd below. To Dr. Barron and his wife, Vida, both of whose parents immigrated to the US from Eastern Europe, the occasion was a meaningful reminder of the refuge America provided their relatives and fellow Jews. Logan, too, can bear witness to that. His father was a Sorbonne-educated lawyer from the Czech Republic who escaped the Nazis by working as a clown's assistant. He later fled to the US, where he worked as a busboy. Logan credits the social mobility of Jewish immigrants such as his father to the religious freedom guaranteed by the American government. "There were definitely individuals, even powerful individuals, who behaved in an intolerant way," he said. "There remain intolerant individuals. [In the US,] someone has the right to be intolerant, but they can't have the government help them."
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A gorilla at the Philadelphia Zoo has given birth to a healthy baby after a difficult labor that required medical techniques typically used for delivering humans. A keeper noticed 17-year-old Kira had gone into labor on Thursday. Gorilla labor is typically very quick, but by Friday, it had not progressed and she seemed unwell. Concerned about her and the baby's health, the zoo brought in a team of veterinarians and doctors who treat people. They included an ob-gyn, surgeons and anesthesiologists from hospitals affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson University, as well as University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. A similar team was in place for a gorilla birth at the zoo last year, but the emergency response wasn't needed. After 1 1/2 hours, the team delivered the male baby using forceps and an episiotomy, a procedure to enlarge the birth opening. "It was an anxious and dramatic day at the zoo, but in the end a tremendously rewarding one," said Andy Baker, the zoo's chief operating officer. There have been several successful cesarean section deliveries for gorillas over the past few years, but assisted vaginal delivery isn't common, according to the zoo. Kira was reunited with the baby by Saturday morning and has been continuously cradling and nursing him. This is the first birth for Kira and third offspring for 32-year old Motuba, who is also father to baby Amani, a female born at the zoo last August. Western lowland gorillas, which inhabit African forests, are listed as critically endangered species.
Do you suffer from headaches? Have you tried everything to soothe your pain or reduce their frequency? Are you still suffering? Let Your Osteopath try helping you with your migraines! A headache is a common problem and almost everyone has suffered through the pain of headaches at some point. However, what might seem like normal, everyday pain to you may actually be something that needs treatment. Types of Headaches A headache (pain felt in the head or sometimes even in the upper neck) is one of the most common pains in the body. There are varying degrees of pain and many headaches have many different causes. Some of the most common headaches (also known as primary headaches) are caused due to tension. Tension headaches are the average everyday headache that almost 90% of adults have experienced at some point in their lives. Other primary headaches also include migraines and cluster headaches. While primary headaches are commonplace they can still be debilitating and affects the quality of life for some people. For those suffering regularly, it is advisable to seek a permanent pain relief option. Secondary headaches may be caused by structural problems in the head or neck. Those suffering from facial pain, cranial neuralgia and other types of headaches need to seek pain relief for secondary headaches. What Causes Headaches While tension headaches are the most commonly experienced headaches, no one really knows what causes them. It is believed any sort of emotional or physical stress can trigger a tension headache that causes muscles in and near your head to spasm and cause pain. Pain from a tension headache can occur sporadically or daily and the symptoms vary from person to person. Cluster headaches are believed to be caused when certain areas of the brain experience interrupted signals and are found to occur most commonly when there is a change in sleep patterns or may be triggered by medications. They are often hereditary as well. Secondary headaches are symptoms of various illnesses and it is important to determine the underlying cause or disease first. Can Osteopathy Help My Headaches? Osteopathy may be helpful for people suffering from recurrent, long lasting headaches that can affect their quality of life. Experienced Osteopaths can use massage and strain relieving techniques as well as address structural problems.
BA in English Language is a degree program that has an in depth study of English as a language and how it works, it various changes over time, and its use in various social, political, commercial, and cultural areas. The United States of America is a large country in North America, often referred to as the "USA", the "US", the "United States", "America", or simply "the States". American colleges are funded by "tuition" charged to the student, which is often quite expensive, very commonly reaching into the tens of thousands of dollars per year. In Wells’ popular and respected English program, students investigate texts for their historical and cultural significance, for their expression of a writer’s artistic vi In Wells’ popular and respected English program, students investigate texts for their historical and cultural significance, for their expression of a writer’s artistic vision, and for the ways literary works relate to our own lives.You and your fellow students will read and discuss a wide range of works, from classic plays and novels to poetry that has defined generations and eras, to the often unknown but culturally significant works of minority and women writers. At the same time, you’ll learn to develop your own voice as a writer, blending different styles to develop an understanding of how to write in different disciplines and for different purposes. Students are assisted in the development of their work and encouraged to pursue publishing opportunities through student groups and outside journals. The importance and relevance of good writing are taught across the curriculum at Wells, resulting in an expressive, connected community....
\|Protein C (inactivator of coagulation factors Va and VIIIa)\| \|External IDs\|\|IUPHAR: GeneCards:\| \|RNA expression pattern\| Protein C, also known as autoprothrombin IIA and blood coagulation factor XIV,:6822 is a zymogen, the activated form of which plays an important role in regulating anticoagulation, inflammation, cell death, and maintaining the permeability of blood vessel walls in humans and other animals. Activated protein C (APC) performs these operations primarily by proteolytically inactivating proteins Factor Va and Factor VIIIa. APC is classified as a serine protease as it contains a residue of serine in its active site.:35 In humans, protein C is encoded by the PROC gene, which is found on chromosome 2. The zymogenic form of protein C is a vitamin K-dependent glycoprotein that circulates in blood plasma. Its structure is that of a two-chain polypeptide consisting of a light chain and a heavy chain connected by a disulfide bond.:4673 The protein C zymogen is activated when it binds to thrombin, another protein heavily involved in coagulation, and protein C's activation is greatly promoted by the presence of thrombomodulin and endothelial protein C receptors (EPCRs). Because of EPCR's role, activated protein C is found primarily near endothelial cells (i.e., those that make up the walls of blood vessels), and it is these cells and leukocytes (white blood cells) that APC affects.:34:3162 Because of the crucial role that protein C plays as an anticoagulant, those with deficiencies in protein C, or some kind of resistance to APC, suffer from a significantly increased risk of forming dangerous blood clots (thrombosis). Research into the clinical use of activated protein C also known as drotrecogin alfa-activated (branded Xigris) has been surrounded by controversy. The manufacturer Eli Lilly and Company ran an aggressive marketing campaign to promote its use in people with severe sepsis and septic shock including the sponsoring of the 2004 Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guidelines. A 2011 Cochrane review however found that its use cannot be recommended as it does not improve survival (and increases bleeding risk). Protein C's anticoagulant role in the human body was first noted by Seegers et al. in 1960, who gave protein C its original name, autoprothrombin II-a.:6822 Protein C was first isolated by Johan Stenflo from bovine plasma in 1976, and Stenflo determined it to be a vitamin K-dependent protein. He named it protein C because it was the third protein ("peak C") that eluted from a DEAE-Sepharose ion-exchange chromotograph. Seegers was, at the time, searching for vitamin K-dependent coagulation factors undetected by clotting assays, which measure global clotting function. Soon after this, Seegers recognised Stenflo's discovery was identical with his own.:6822 Activated protein C was discovered later that year, and in 1977 it was first recognised that APC inactivates Factor Va.:2382 In 1980, Vehar and Davie discovered that APC also inactivates Factor VIIIa, and soon after, Protein S was recognised as a cofactor by Walker. In 1982, a family study by Griffin et al. first associated protein C deficiency with symptoms of venous thrombosis. Homozygous protein C deficiency and the consequent serious health effects were described in 1984 by several scientists.:1214 cDNA cloning of protein C was first performed in 1984 by Beckmann et al. which produced a map of the gene responsible for producing protein C in the liver. In 1987 a seminal experiment was performed (Taylor et al.) whereby it was demonstrated that activated protein C prevented coagulopathy and death in baboons infused with lethal concentrations of E. coli.:2382 In 1993, a heritable resistance to APC was detected by Dahlbäck et al. and associated with familial thrombophilia. In 1994, the relatively common genetic mutation that produces Factor VLeiden was noted (Bertina et al.). Two years later, Gla-domainless APC was imaged at a resolution of 2.8 Ångströms.α[›] Beginning with the PROWESS clinical trial of 2001, it was recognised that many of the symptoms of sepsis may be ameliorated by infusion of APC, and mortality rates of septic patients may be significantly decreased.:3161,6 Near the end of that year, Drotrecogin alfa (activated), a recombinant human activated protein C, became the first drug approved by the U.S. FDA for treating severe sepsis. In 2002, Science published an article that first showed protein C activates protease-activated receptor-1 (PAR-1) and this process accounts for the protein's modulation of the immune system.:2382 Synthesis, structure and activation Human protein C is a vitamin K-dependent glycoprotein structurally similar to other vitamin K-dependent proteins affecting blood clotting, such as prothrombin, Factor VII, Factor IX and Factor X.:1215 Protein C synthesis occurs in the liver and begins with a single-chain precursor molecule: a 32 amino acid N-terminus signal peptide preceding a propeptide.:S11 Protein C is formed when a dipeptide of Lys198 and Arg199 is removed; this causes the transformation into a heterodimer with N-linked carbohydrates on each chain. The protein has one light chain (21 kDa) and one heavy chain (41 kDa) connected by a disulfide bond between Cys183 and Cys319. Inactive protein C comprises 419 amino acids in multiple domains::2383 one Gla domain (residues 43–88); a helical aromatic segment (89–96); two epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like domains (97–132 and 136–176); an activation peptide (200–211); and a trypsin-like serine protease domain (212–450). The light chain contains the Gla- and EGF-like domains and the aromatic segment. The heavy chain contains the protease domain and the activation petide. It is in this form that 85–90% of protein C circulates in the plasma as a zymogen, waiting to be activated.:6822 The remaining protein C zymogen comprises slightly modified forms of the protein. Activation of the enzyme occurs when a thrombin molecule cleaves away the activation peptide from the N-terminus of the heavy chain.:4673 :S11 The active site contains a catalytic triad typical of serine proteases (His253, Asp299 and Ser402).:2833 The activation of protein C is strongly promoted by thrombomodulin and endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR), the latter of which is found primarily on endothelial cells (cells on the inside of blood vessels). The presence of thrombomodulin accelerates activation by several orders of magnitude,:34 and EPCR speeds up activation by a factor of 20. If either of these two proteins is absent in murine specimens, the mouse dies from excessive blood-clotting while still in an embryonic state.:1983:43335 On the endothelium, APC performs a major role in regulating blood clotting, inflammation, and cell death (apoptosis).:28S Because of the accelerating effect of thrombomodulin on the activation of protein C, the protein may be said to be activated not by thrombin but the thrombin-thrombomodulin (or even thrombin-thrombomodulin-EPCR) complex.:2381 Once in active form, APC may or may not remain bound to EPCR, to which it has approximately the same affinity as the protein zymogen.:3162 The Gla domain is particularly useful for binding to negatively charged phospholipids for anticoagulation and to EPCR for cytoprotection. One particular exosite augments protein C's ability to inactive Factor Va efficiently. Another is necessary for interacting with thrombomodulin.:2833 The biologic instructions for synthesising protein C in humans are encoded in the gene officially named "protein C (inactivator of coagulation factors Va and VIIIa)". The gene's symbol approved by the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee is "PROC" from "protein C". It is located on the second chromosome (2q13-q14) and comprises nine exons.:2383 The nucleotide sequence that codes for human protein C is approximately 11,000 bases long.:4675 Protein C in zymogen form is present in normal adult human blood plasma at concentrations between 65–135 IU/dL. Activated protein C is found at levels approximately 2000 times lower than this.:3161 Mild protein C deficiency corresponds to plasma levels above 20 IU/dL, but below the normal range. Moderately severe deficiencies describe blood concentrations between 1 and 20 IU/dL; severe deficiencies yield levels of protein C that are below 1 IU/dL or are undetectable. Protein C levels in a healthy term infant average 40 IU/dL. The concentration of protein C increases until six months, when the mean level is 60 IU/dL; the level stays low through childhood until it reaches adult levels after adolescence.:1216 The half-life of activated protein C is around 15 minutes.:6823 The protein C pathways are the specific chemical reactions that control the level of expression of APC and its activity in the body.:34 Protein C is pleiotropic, with two main classes of functions: anticoagulation and cytoprotection (its direct effect on cells). Which function protein C performs depends on whether or not APC remains bound to EPCR after it is activated; the anticoagulative effects of APC occur when it does not. In this case, protein C functions as an anticoagulant by irreversibly proteolytically inactivating Factor Va and Factor VIIIa, turning them into Factor Vi and Factor VIIIi respectively. When still bound to EPCR, activated protein C performs its cytoprotective effects, acting on the effector substrate PAR-1, protease-activated receptor-1. To a degree, APC's anticoagulant properties are independent of its cytoprotective ones, in that expression of one pathway is not affected by the existence of the other.:3162:26S The activity of protein C may be down-regulated by reducing the amount either of available thrombomodulin or of EPCR. This may be done by inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin-1β (IL-1β ) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). Activated leukocytes release these inflammatory mediators during inflammation, inhibiting the creation of both thrombomodulin and EPCR, and inducing their shedding from the endothelial surface. Both of these actions down-regulate protein C activation. Thrombin itself may also have an effect on the levels of EPCR. In addition, proteins released from cells can impede protein C activation, for example eosinophil, which may explain thrombosis in hypereosinophilic heart disease.β[›] Protein C may be up-regulated by platelet factor 4. This cytokine is conjectured to improve activation of protein C by forming an electrostatic bridge from protein C's Gla domain to the glycosaminoglycan (GAG) domain of thrombomodulin, reducing the Michaelis constant (KM) for their reaction.:2386:29S In addition, Protein C is inhibited by protein C inhibitor.:369 Protein C is a major component in anticoagulation in the human body. It acts as a serine protease zymogen: APC proteolyses peptide bonds in activated Factor V and Factor VIII (Factor Va and Factor VIIIa), and one of the amino acids in the bond is serine.:2381 These proteins that APC inactivates, Factor Va and Factor VIIIa, are highly procoagulant cofactors in the generation of thrombin, which is a crucial element in blood clotting; together they are part of the prothrombinase complex.:26S Cofactors in the inactivation of Factor Va and Factor VIIIa include protein S, Factor V, high-density lipoprotein, anionic phospholipids and glycosphingolipids.:3161 Factor Va binds to prothrombin and Factor Xa, increasing the rate at which thrombin is produced by four orders of magnitude (10,000x). Inactivation of Factor Va thus practically halts the production of thrombin. Factor VIII, on the other hand, is a cofactor in production of activated Factor X, which in turn converts prothrombin into thrombin. Factor VIIIa augments Factor X activation by a factor of around 200,000. Because of its importance in clotting, Factor VIII is also known as anti-haemophilic factor, and deficiencies of Factor VIII cause haemophilia A.:2382,3 APC inactivates Factor Va by making three cleavages (Arg306, Arg506, Arg679). The cleavages at both Arg306 and Arg506 diminish the molecule's attraction to Factor Xa, and though the first of these sites is slow to be cleaved, it is entirely necessary to the functioning of Factor V. Protein S aids this process by catalysing the proteolysis at Arg306, in which the A2 domain of Factor V is dissociated from the rest of the protein. Protein S also binds to Factor Xa, inhibiting the latter from diminishing APC's inactivation of Factor Va.:2386 The inactivation of Factor VIIIa is not as well understood. The half-life of Factor VIIIa is only around two minutes unless Factor IXa is present to stabilise it. Some have questioned the significance of APC's inactivation of Factor VIIIa, and it is unknown to what degree Factor V and protein S are cofactors in its proteolysis. It is known that APC works on Factor VIIIa by cleaving at two sites, Arg336 and Arg562, either of which is sufficient to disable Factor VIIIa and convert it to Factor VIIIi.:2387 When APC is bound to EPCR, it performs a number of important cytoprotective (i.e. cell-protecting) functions, most of which are known to require EPCR and PAR-1. These include regulating gene expression, anti-inflammatory effects, antiapoptotic effects and protecting endothelial barrier function.:3162 Treatment of cells with APC demonstrates that its gene expression modulation effectively controls major pathways for inflammatory and apoptotic behaviour. There are about 20 genes that are up-regulated by protein C, and 20 genes that are down-regulated: the former are generally anti-inflammatory and antiapoptotic pathways, while the latter tend to be proinflammatory and proapoptotic. APC's mechanisms for altering gene expression profiles are not well-understood, but it is believed that they at least partly involve an inhibitory effect on transcription factor activity.:3162,4 Important proteins that APC up-regulates include Bcl-2, eNOS and IAP. APC effects significant down-regulation of p53 and Bax.:2388 APC has anti-inflammatory effects on endothelial cells and leukocytes. APC affects endothelial cells by inhibiting inflammatory mediator release and down-regulating vascular adhesion molecules. This reduces leukocyte adhesion and infiltration into tissues, while also limiting damage to underlying tissue. APC supports endothelial barrier function and reduces chemotaxis. APC inhibits the release of inflammatory-response mediators in leukocytes as well as endothelial cells, by reducing cytokine response, and maybe diminishing systemic inflammatory response, such as is seen in sepsis. Studies on both rats and humans have demonstrated that APC reduces endotoxin-induced pulmonary injury and inflammation.:3164 Scientists recognise activated protein C's antiapoptotic effects, but are unclear as to the exact mechanisms by which apoptosis is inhibited. It is known that APC is neuroprotective. APC's antiapoptotic effects are part of the reason that APC is effective in treating sepsis, as reduced levels of apoptosis are correlated with higher survival rates in septic patients.:3165 Antiapoptosis is achieved with diminished activation of caspase 3 and caspase 8, improved Bax/Bcl-2 ratio and down-regulation of p53.:2388 Activated protein C also provides much protection of endothelial barrier function. Endothelial barrier breakdown, and the corresponding increase in endothelial permeability, are associated with swelling, hypotension and inflammation, all problems of sepsis. APC protects endothelial barrier function by inducing PAR-1 dependent sphingosine kinase-1 activation and up-regulating sphingosine-1-phosphate with sphingosine kinase.:3165 Role in disease A genetic protein C deficiency, in its mild form associated with simple heterozygosity, causes a significantly increased risk of venous thrombosis in adults. If a fetus is homozygous or compound heterozygous for the deficiency, there may be a presentation of purpura fulminans, severe disseminated intravascular coagulation and simultaneous venous thromboembolism in the womb;:1214 this is very severe and usually fatal.:211s Deletion of the protein C gene in mice causes fetal death around the time of birth. Fetal mice with no protein C develop normally at first, but experience severe bleeding, coagulopathy, deposition of fibrin and necrosis of the liver.:3161 The frequency of protein C deficiency among asymptomatic individuals is between 1 in 200 and 1 in 500. In contrast, significant symptoms of the deficiency are detectable in 1 in 20,000 individuals. No racial nor ethnic biases have been detected.:1215 Activated protein C resistance occurs when APC is unable to perform its functions. This disease has similar symptoms to protein C deficiency. The most common mutation leading to activated protein C resistance among Caucasians is at the cleavage site in Factor V for APC. There, Arg506 is replaced with Gln, producing Factor V Leiden. This mutation is also called a R506Q.:2382 The mutation leading to the loss of this cleavage site actually stops APC from effectively inactivating both Factor Va and Factor VIIIa. Thus, the person's blood clots too readily, and he is perpetually at an increased risk for thrombosis.:3 Individuals heterozygous for the Factor VLeiden mutation carry a risk of venous thrombosis 5–7 times higher than in the general population. Homozygous subjects have a risk 80 times higher.:40 This mutation is also the most common hereditary risk for venous thrombosis among Caucasians.:2382 Around 5% of APC resistance are not associated with the above mutation and Factor VLeiden. Other genetic mutations cause APC resistance, but none to the extent that Factor VLeiden does. These mutations include various other versions of Factor V, spontaneous generation of autoantibodies targeting Factor V, and dysfunction of any of APC's cofactors.:2387 Also, some acquired conditions may reduce the efficacy of APC in performing its anticoagulative functions.:33 Studies suggest that between 20% and 60% of thrombophilic patients suffer from some form of APC resistance.:37 Warfarin necrosis is an acquired protein C deficiency due to treatment with warfarin, which is a vitamin K antagonist and an anticoagulant itself. However, warfarin treatment may produce paradoxical skin lesions similar to those seen in purpura fulminans. A variant of this response presents as venous limb gangrene when warfarin is used to treat deep vein thrombosis associated with cancer. In these situations, warfarin may be restarted at a low dosage to ensure that the protein C deficiency does not present before the vitamin K coagulation factors II, IX and X are suppressed.:211s Role in medicine rhAPC has been the subject of significant controversy since its approval for clinical use in 2001. A 2011 Cochrane review concluded that it does not decrease mortality in severe sepsis or septic shock. It has been noted that rates of severe hemorrhages, drug infusion-related fatal events and termination of infusion due to adverse reactions are all higher in clinical use and open-label trials than in controlled trials. There is a dispute as to whether or not studies after PROWESS confirm its results, and if so, for what subgroups.:396,7 Protein C levels have long been noted to predict mortality in patients with sepsis. Because of this, and its pleiotropic anticoagulative and cytoprotective effects, protein C has long been suggested, along with many other drugs, for use in treating patients with severe sepsis. In November of that year, the Food and Drug Administration approved drotrecogin alfa-activated (DrotAA) in the clinical treatment of adults suffering from severe sepsis and with a high risk of death.:1332 Drotrecogin alfa-activated is a recombinant form of human activated protein C (rhAPC), i.e. it is a protein produced by recombinant DNA. It is marketed as Xigris by Eli Lilly and Company,:224 but recently recalled and taken off the market. APC has been studied as way of treating lung injury, after studies showed that in patients with lung injury, reduced APC levels in specific parts of the lungs correlated with worse outcomes.:3167,8 APC also has been considered for use in improving patient outcome in cases of ischemic stroke, a medical emergency in which arterial blockage deprives a region of brain of oxygen, causing tissue death. Promising studies suggest that APC could be coupled with the only currently approved treatment, tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), to protect the brain from tPA's very harmful side effects, in addition to preventing cell death from lack of oxygen (hypoxia).:211 Clinical use of APC has also been proposed for improving the outcome of pancreatic islet transplantation in treating type I diabetes.:2392 - ^ α: GLA-domainless protein C is produced by selective proteolysis between residues 82 and 83 to remove the N-terminal portion of the protein that includes essentially all of the GLA domain (residues 47–88). 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Austin’s Congress Avenue Bridge was rehabilitated in 1982. Hundreds of thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats chose the under-side of the bridge to sleep during the daytime, and the city of Austin soon became celebrated as “Bat City.” The bats eat insects and are harmless to humans. The name “Bat City” is also a humorous nod to the popular comic book, television series, and movie Batman. Wikipedia: Congress Avenue Bridge The Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge (formerly Congress Avenue Bridge) runs over the Colorado River, at Lady Bird Lake (formerly Town Lake) in Austin, Texas. The bridge is currently home to the world’s largest urban bat colony, making it a lucrative tourist attraction for the Texas capital. Bat Conservation International A Little History Every summer night, hundreds of people gather to see the world’s largest urban bat colony emerge from under the Congress Avenue Bridge. These 1.5 million bats are fun to watch, but they’re also making our world a better place to live. When engineers reconstructed downtown Austin’s Congress Avenue Bridge in 1980 they had no idea that new crevices beneath the bridge would make an ideal bat roost. Although bats had lived there for years, it was headline news when they suddenly began moving in by the thousands. Reacting in fear and ignorance, many people petitioned to have the bat colony eradicated. About that time, BCI stepped in and told Austinites the surprising truth: that bats are gentle and incredibly sophisticated animals; that bat-watchers have nothing to fear if they don’t try to handle bats; and that on the nightly flights out from under the bridge, the Austin bats eat from 10,000 to 20,000 pounds of insects, including agricultural pests. As the city came to appreciate its bats, the population under the Congress Avenue Bridge grew to be the largest urban bat colony in North America. With up to 1.5 million bats spiraling into the summer skies, Austin now has one of the most unusual and fascinating tourist attractions anywhere. A Little Background Austin’s bridge bats are Mexican free-tailed bats. They migrate each spring from central Mexico to various roosting sites throughout the southwestern U.S. Most of the colony is female, and in early June each one gives birth to a single baby bat, called a pup. At birth the babies weigh one-third as much as their mothers (the equivalent of a human giving birth to a 40-pound child!). Batman (originally referred to as the Bat-Man and still referred to at times as the Batman) is a fictional comic book superhero co-created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger (although only Kane receives official credit) and published by DC Comics. The character made his first appearance in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939). Batman’s secret identity is Bruce Wayne, a wealthy industrialist, playboy, and philanthropist. Witnessing the murder of his parents as a child leads him to train himself to physical and intellectual perfection and don a bat-themed costume in order to fight crime. Batman operates in Gotham City, assisted by various supporting characters including his sidekick Robin and his butler Alfred Pennyworth, and fights an assortment of villains influenced by the characters’ roots in film and pulp magazines. Unlike most superheroes, he does not possess any superpowers; he makes use of intellect, detective skills, science and technology, wealth, physical prowess, and intimidation in his war on crime. Batman became a popular character soon after his introduction, and eventually gained his own title, Batman. As the decades wore on, differing takes on the character emerged. The late 1960s Batman television series utilized a camp aesthetic associated with the character for years after the show ended. Various creators worked to return the character to his dark roots, culminating in the 1986 miniseries Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, by writer-artist Frank Miller. That and the success of director Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman motion picture helped reignite popular interest in the character. A cultural icon, Batman has been licensed and adapted into a variety of media, from radio to television and film, and appears on a variety of merchandise sold all over the world. Question #72542. skysmom65 asks: Which city, aptly nicknamed “Bat City”, hosts the world’s largest urban bat colony, numbering up to 1.5 million? Correct Zbeck!! Austin, Texas, (nicknamed Bat City) hosts the world’s largest urban bat colony, 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats. They live under the Congress Avenue Bridge and emerge every summer evening to an appreciative human audience. And the human fans have much to appreciate: On their nightly excursions from under the bridge, the bats consume an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 lb (5,000 to 9,000 kg) of mosquitoes and other insects. Nov 22 06, 11:09 AM Bat City T-Shirts Anyone who’s ever been to Austin has heard about the bats. Each evening around sunset the Congress Avenue bats emerge like a black cloud from the crevices of the bridge. Covering the countryside in search of food, it is estimated that the bats consume from 10,000 to 30,000 pounds of insects. Giving birth in June or July, the bats and pups hang around til October when they head back south. Watching the nightly forays for food is a favorite evening activity, especially in late summer. While bats have called Austin home for many years, it was after renovations to the Congress Avenue bridge in 1980 that they found their favorite hang out. Narrow but deep openings created in the bridge turned out to be perfect accommodations. So now you know why Austin has been dubbed “Bat City.” Class dismissed. “Bat City” is printed on a burnt orange American Apparel tee, and specially made for Storyville Austin. To see more of Will Heron’s t-shirts, click here. Bat City Review: Contact Bat City Review Department of English The University of Texas at Austin 1 University Station B5000 Austin, TX 78712 Bat City We Hosting & Design Bat City Productions, web site design and web site hosting, has been in business since 1996 and is located in Manchaca, Texas (just south of Austin). Austin is home to the largest urban bat colony in North America! (Thus, the name...) You can find some very interesting articles about the “Congress Avenue Bridge Bats” at the Bat Conservation International web site. Bat City Awards Austin’s Source for Corporate Awards, Trophies and Promotional Items 4101 Guadalupe St., Suite #400, Austin, TX 78751 (inside Hyde Park Marketplace) Bat City Hot Wheels Collectors Welcome to Austin Bat City Collectors Website! Welcome to the Bat City Hot Wheels Collectors Website. Club Information is located on this website. 22 May 1994, The Virginian-Pilot (Hampton Roads, VA), pg. G5: Austin is Bat City. Letter From Austin City Embraces the Bats Who Came Home to Roost Monday, July 19, 2004; Page A03 Just blocks from the bats’ roost, the Bitter End Brewery makes Bat City Lager (its second-most-popular brew), and along the bridge, hawkers sell bat T-shirts and bat glow sticks, next to the bat experts who answer tourists’ questions. There is a Bat Hotline to call for nightly bat flight times, and bat cruise boats that traverse Town Lake and wait underneath the Congress Avenue Bridge just as the mammals fly out. There is the specially commissioned public art purple bat sculpture ("Night Wing") on Congress Avenue, and the reports by local television meteorologists, who track not only the weather, but also the nightly bat flight whenever it makes the Doppler radar. When a minor league hockey team came to Austin in 1996, it considered, but rejected, typical Texas monikers such as the Outlaws, Rough Riders or Rattlers because it wanted a name with “a distinctly Austin feel,” team spokesman Glen Norman said. It picked the Austin Ice Bats, of course. The migratory arrival of the Mexican free-tailed bats to the Congress Avenue Bridge began in 1982, right after the structure, which connects downtown to south Austin, was rehabilitated. Texas Transportation Department engineers had built a four-lane bridge of concrete box beams, each separated by a crevice 3/4 to 1 1/2 inches wide to allow for expansion. Each crevice was 16 to 18 inches deep and was capped by the bridge’s road surface. The department’s special projects engineer, Mark Bloschock, said the crevices created, quite unintentionally, an ideal home for the bats, which seek dark, warm, narrow habitats in which to sleep during the day and to nurse their pups, born each June. Texas (Lone Star State Dictionary) • (0) Comments • Thursday, December 06, 2007 • Permalink
Most of the summertime weeds we spend so much time trying to control in the Central Valley are well-adapted to heat, dry conditions and poor soil. Spotted and prostrate spurges, purslane and dandelions can survive quite nicely with little water in hardpacked soil and intense heat. This summer, though, we’re seeing a proliferation of weed types that require damp soil. Dallis grass, white clover, English daisy and yellow wood sorrel are far more prevalent than in other years. There are two reasons for the increase in weeds that thrive in wet soil. During the last four severe drought years with mandated watering restrictions, all weeds produced larger amounts of seeds; many of those seeds did not germinate but remained viable on the dry soil surface during the drought (a survival mechanism). Above-average rainfall last winter followed by a wetter, cooler spring fostered the germination of those dormant weed seeds in the big bare spots in our formerly brown dead lawns. Also, a lot of homeowners who longed to see lush green grasses around their homes have begun to increase watering times or even ignore the mandated watering schedules and are now overwatering their lawns. With warnings now about the possible carcinogenic effects of glyphosate (the active ingredient in many post-emergent herbicides including Roundup), we should reconsider discontinuing or modifying our chemically-based weed control programs. Here are the labor-intensive, not as thorough, but environmentally safer controls for the new weeds on the block: Dallis grass – It forms fairly large clumps in low, wet areas. The grass blades are coarse, dark green and stand almost upright. Use a spading fork or spade to dig up clumps and all the rhizomes (root structure), replace and level soil, and mulch bare spots heavily until reseeding the lawn in fall. White clover – This used to be included in grass seed mixes. It goes dormant during drought, creating bare spots which have now filled in with clover. White clover is extremely hard to eradicate since it spreads by aggressively-growing, above- and below-ground stems. If you’re worried about bee stings on paws and bare feet, try painting the plants with a post-emergent herbicide. English daisy – I like seeing the white daisy flowers in a lawn, but many lawn purists don’t. Dig out the fleshy roots in spring and adjust irrigation sprinklers and timers to keep the lawn on the dry side. Don’t overirrigate. Yellow wood sorrel – The bright yellow flowers of wood sorrel, also called oxalis, stood high and tall in many uncultivated areas this spring. If oxalis is not mowed or pulled in spring before seed pods form, the dry pods will shoot seeds into the neighbors’ yards when touched. Look for the bronzy/green clover-like leaves and dig or pull the plants out. A vigorously-growing lawn will outcompete oxalis. Send Elinor Teague plant questions at email@example.com. For help identifying the weeds in your lawn, check the University of California’s Weed Photo Gallery: ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/weeds_intro.html. It’s important to know exactly which weeds you have before buying and applying preemergent herbicides next fall or spring to prevent weed seeds from germinating.
By Dr. Vik, MBBS, MRCP(GB), PhD The human body is mostly composed of water. A proper level of water is important to the body, since water is required for numerous physiological processes. When the amount of water within the body gets too low, the condition is known as dehydration. We can define dehydration as ‘a state of negative fluid balance’. In simple terms, this means that the total amount of water in the body is less than what is required for normal function. This negative fluid balance can be a result of one of the following: This may occur without an individual realizing that they aren’t drinking enough. In these instances, it is important to increase fluid intake to compensate for the amount of water lost to sweat. This can be caused by: Another cause of dehydration is when fluids leak into a space in the body, such as the abdomen or under the skin. This is known as a fluid shift and can occur in individuals who have suffered burns or have some form of infection and sepsis. To define dehydration, it is important to take all of these factors into consideration, since the treatment for dehydration is determined by the cause. It is especially important to recognize when a child is dehydrated and to determine the cause, since children are more prone to developing dehydration. As we look deeper into how to define dehydration, we discover that it is not so simple as just a negative fluid balance. There are other factors that must also be considered when defining dehydration. One such factor is the level of sodium within the blood. Sodium and water are present in a very specific ratio within the body. Sodium levels in the blood help define ‘osmolarity’, which is the concentration of sodium in comparison with the amount of water present in the body. In healthy individuals, the proper sodium value in the blood should be between 130 to 150 mEq/L. three different forms of dehydration can be defined based on the amount of sodium in the blood. When we define dehydration in this form, water and electrolytes are both lost from the body in the same proportion. As a result, the dehydration that takes place affects every part of the body. When this happens, it negatively affects the pH of the body, making it harder for blood to hold oxygen. With this type of dehydration, a person can feel run down and a little sick. This is the most common type of dehydration. Isotonic dehydration symptoms, such as muscle cramps, an inability to concentrate, headaches and increased blood pressure can begin with as little as 1% of water loss in the body. For initial treatment, an electrolyte solution should be consumed in proper proportion with water. To rehydrate, especially after sports and other physical exertion, mix 1/8 tsp. of sea salt and 1 tsp. of concentrated sea minerals into 2 liters of water. Lemon juice and sweetener may be added for flavoring. This mixture provides the 4 main electrolytes – chloride, potassium, sodium and magnesium. Sea minerals also contain needed trace mineral electrolytes. In this form of dehydration, the body has lost a greater amount of electrolytes than water. It is often caused by drinking only water to alleviate the loss of water and electrolytes due to excessive sweating or other fluid loss. In this form of dehydration, fluid shifts from outside of cells into cells. This condition poses a great threat to the body. Early treatment involves consuming a solution high in electrolytes, as described in point 1 above. In this form of dehydration, the amount of water that is lost exceeds the amount of electrolytes lost. This results in a relative increase of electrolytes in relation to the amount of water present in the body. Hypertonic is more prevalent in those with diabetes, but is also often found in children as a result of diarrhea and vomiting. Initial treatment is to consume water without added electrolytes. Another way of defining dehydration is to look at it according to severity. Dehydration is classified as mild, moderate or severe. In this classification, the level of dehydration is determined by the age of the individual, as you can see below: In adolescents, a loss of up to 3% of body fluid is classified as mild dehydration. In infants, it is a loss of up to 5% of body fluid. In adolescents, it is a loss of 4% to 6% of total body fluid that is considered moderate dehydration. In infants, it is a loss of between 6% and 10% of total body fluid. In adolescents, it is a loss of 7 to 9% of total body water is considered severe dehydration. In infants, it is a loss of 11% to 15% of total body fluid. In adults, the degree of dehydration is determined by the presence or absence of certain clinical signs and symptoms. For example, when defining mild dehydration in adults, the heart rate is only slightly increased while in severe dehydration, the heart rate is increased significantly. Similarly, in mild dehydration, the blood pressure and skin elasticity may be normal while in severe dehydration, the blood pressure can be significantly reduced while the skin elasticity demonstrates ‘tenting’, a phenomenon where the skin does not retract back to its normal position quickly. Depending on the severity of dehydration, different treatment regimens are prescribed so as to correct the deficit and restore normal physiology. Dehydration is a process where there is insufficient water present in the body to support normal physiological processes. The causes of dehydration may differ. Defining the type of dehydration can help determine what sort of treatment options need to be undertaken to restore normal body water content. Defining dehydration is probably the most important step before proceeding to diagnosis and management of this condition.
Today in Florida, President Obama will announce his new goals for the NASA space program. Robots will go to space instead of humans. And Americans may never walk on the Moon again. But is that a bad thing? UPDATE: Obama's speech has concluded. Speech highlights are here. The new NASA budget In February, Obama announced the new budget for NASA, which involved cutting the Constellation "humans on the Moon" program. It also outlined ways that NASA would retire its human space travel projects, outsourcing those to private companies like SpaceX. But it also fattened up NASA's research budget considerably, allocating billions of dollars for robots to explore the solar system and pave the way for a Mars colony. (You can read a detailed analysis of that budget here.) Astronaut Neil Armstrong says this is "devastating" Astronaut Neil Armstrong has just come out vehemently opposing Obama's plans. In an open letter to the president, he wrote: Although some of these proposals have merit, the accompanying decision to cancel the Constellation program, its Ares 1 and Ares V rockets, and the Orion spacecraft, is devastating. America's only path to low Earth orbit and the International Space Station will now be subject to an agreement with Russia to purchase space on their Soyuz (at a price of over 50 million dollars per seat with significant increases expected in the near future) until we have the capacity to provide transportation for ourselves. The availability of a commercial transport to orbit as envisioned in the President's proposal cannot be predicted with any certainty, but is likely to take substantially longer and be more expensive than we would hope. It appears that we will have wasted our current $10-plus billion investment in Constellation and, equally importantly, we will have lost the many years required to recreate the equivalent of what we will have discarded. For The United States, the leading space faring nation for nearly half a century, to be without carriage to low Earth orbit and with no human exploration capability to go beyond Earth orbit for an indeterminate time into the future, destines our nation to become one of second or even third rate stature. While the President's plan envisages humans traveling away from Earth and perhaps toward Mars at some time in the future, the lack of developed rockets and spacecraft will assure that ability will not be available for many years. However, other astronauts like Sally Ride and Buzz Aldrin have been very vocal in their support for Obama's new goals for NASA. Can Constellation be saved? At stake is whether America will continue putting humans into space, which puts the Constellation program front and center of the debate. According to the Wall Street Journal: Congress wants to save NASA's existing exploration program, called Constellation, which was expected to produce 25,000 jobs and more than $60 billion in contractor revenue over its lifetime. As originally conceived, Constellation was a $100 billion project to take astronauts into orbit, and later to deploy next-generation rockets and landers to explore the moon and, eventually, pave the way for manned exploration of Mars. The White House believes the Constellation program will take too long and that a fresh approach is required. Lawmakers say they are skeptical of the president's plan to entrust core functions of the space program to untested start-up companies. NASA chief Charles Bolden, a former astronaut, said Mr. Obama's visit to Florida would persuade doubters that "he is dedicated to exploration and human space flight" and "committed to a vibrant future" for NASA. The president also plans to provide details on a few concessions, such as retaining a small portion of the Constellation program, as well as announcing that workers who lose their jobs when the space shuttle retires will be eligible for retraining and other benefits, according to people familiar with the matter. The White House responds Yesterday in a press conference Robert Gibbs told reporters who asked about Neal Armstrong's criticisms: An independent commission was formulated to study where the [space] program was, whether it was capable of fulfilling what it said it was going to do. The commission — and, again, an independent commission — came back and said that was un-executable, not going to happen. What the President has done is put in place something that is sustainable, that will return astronauts and rockets to space, increase our investment in cutting-edge research and innovation, and provide us the best opportunities. You can listen to Obama announcing his NASA goals live at 2:50 EDT here. Additional research from Andrew Liptak.
Sun Jan 12, 2014, 12:01 AM niyad (32,518 posts) "prolonged exposure may result in death, but not known to be fatal"??? am I missing something? . . . . The chemical released was "crude MCHM," which was intended for use as a foaming/wash agent to aid in the processing of coal. The chemical smells sweet and is similar in scent to licorice. According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, if consumed the chemical may provoke the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, dizziness, headaches, diarrhea, reddened/burning skin and/or eyes, itching, and rashes. The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists stated that MCHM caused headaches, eye and skin irritation, and difficulty breathing from prolonged exposures at high concentrations. Routes of exposure to MCHM include inhalation, dermal contact, and ingestion. According to the Hazardous Substances Data Bank of the U.S. National Library of Medicine Toxicology Data Network (Toxnet), exposure to MCHM vapors, particularly prolonged exposure and exposure at excessive concentrations, can produce irritation to eyes, skin, upper respiratory tract, and mucous membranes; skin rash, and headache. "High exposures from skin contact or inhalation may cause damage to the heart, liver, kidneys, and lungs, and may result in death." Both health and company officials have stated the chemical consumption is not known to be fatal, even if consumed in its purest form. The chemical leaked was highly diluted due to the large amount of water involved, however, due to the potential health effects, authorities advised over 300,000 residents in surrounding communities to avoid utilizing the water for cooking, drinking, or bathing. Because shipment of MCHM is not regulated by the United States Department of Transportation, it was not being considered "hazardous" by emergency response and environmental protection officials. However, under the regulatory standards of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, MCHM is considered "hazardous." The chemical's manufacturer, Eastman Chemical Company, identified it as a "skin irritant that could be potentially harmful if ingested." The median lethal dose of MCHM is 825 milligrams per kilogram. . . . 4 replies, 772 views Always highlight: 10 newest replies \| Replies posted after I mark a forum Replies to this discussion thread "prolonged exposure may result in death, but not known to be fatal"??? am I missing something? (Original post)
Joe Radle/Getty Images Senior Defense Department officials have stressed repeatedly in public they are doing everything they can to provide the best care possible to U.S. troops injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. But that might not be the case for the tens of thousands of troops who have experienced some form of brain injury. Four years ago, a group of Air Force doctors treating wounded soldiers at field hospitals in Iraq sought a better way to evaluate the impact of blast injuries on soldiers' brains when there were no visible head wounds -- a condition known as mild traumatic brain injury. Mild TBI can be deceptive, because it often occurs without any outward signs of trauma. A soldier can recover completely from mild TBI, but left undiagnosed and untreated, it can lead to serious impairment over time, especially if the individual is exposed to additional blasts later on. Lacking an adequate tool to help determine when it was safe to send soldiers back to combat, Air Force doctors in 2006 began using an off-the-shelf, Web-enabled assessment tool called the Cognitive Stability Index, developed by a small, New York-based company called Headminder. At least one of the Air Force doctors had used it before, liked it, and believed it could work well in the field. The CSI was developed in 1999 by David Erlanger, a neuropsychologist, to measure deterioration, improvement or stability in people whose brain function has been compromised, either through illness, disease or injury. It has been used in a number of drug research studies and clinical settings and has a good track record, doctors unaffiliated with Headminder told Government Executive. The Air Force doctors in Iraq were impressed enough with the CSI's clinical performance in the field that they sought and received approval from a military institutional review board to conduct a scientific study comparing the CSI to two other tools the military uses: a computer-based tool the Army developed in 1984, called the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics; and a basic screening tool developed by military medical personnel in 2006 called the Military Acute Concussion Evaluation. The study compared all three instruments to a paper-and-pencil tool called the Repeatable Battery for Assessment of Neuropsychological Status, and was conducted from late 2006 through August 2007 on troops who had lost consciousness at least briefly, because that was the only way in battlefield conditions to know if a soldier had in fact sustained a concussion. RBANS served as the standard against which the others were measured, because it is used widely in the Veterans Affairs Department and private institutions and is considered a reliable measure of cognitive ability. This was the first combat study of its kind approved by an institutional review board, a panel of experts charged with ensuring that biomedical research involving human subjects meets federal regulations. It required a deep commitment from the military medical personnel who conducted it under difficult circumstances on the battlefield. According to three of the doctors directly involved in the study and an outside adviser, the data they collected showed that CSI correlated closely with RBANS, the standard, and worked notably better than the Army's ANAM in important respects, particularly in measuring blast effects on memory and attention. The data showed that the Military Acute Concussion Evaluation had limited utility. What happened next with the study is the subject of some disagreement among those with knowledge of it. Doctors involved told Government Executive the study was "put on hold" by senior Air Force officials, although none of the physicians or psychologists had direct knowledge of the reason. Two military officials familiar with the study said it essentially was dropped after the chief executive of PanMedix, the company that developed the electronic backbone of CSI and Headminder's partner, alienated key Air Force officials by aggressively promoting the initial findings. Another Air Force official told Government Executive the study was "blocked" by senior Air Force and Army officials who favored using ANAM, which didn't perform well in the study, but essentially was free because the Army developed it. Officials at the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, or DCoE, declined repeated requests for interviews from Government Executive. But they did issue a written statement saying the study was not dropped, but instead was "completed after enrolling the number of patients approved by the institutional review board." What is undisputed is the data from the 2006-2007 combat study has never been published in a peer-reviewed journal, an essential step in validating the teams' findings. Without such review by disinterested peer scientists, the doctors' findings and conclusions are in limbo. Jeffrey Barth, chief of medical psychology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and medical director of the school's Neuropsychology Assessment Laboratories, is an expert in mild traumatic brain injury and served as an outside adviser on the study. He said he doesn't know why the study was never published, or if it was even completed. "We certainly had sufficient data to put together [a manuscript for] publication," he said. "All I know is we were writing an article and the last I heard about it [was] in the middle of 2008." In a May 28, 2008, memo, then-assistant secretary of Defense for health affairs Dr. S. Ward Casscells directed all three service chiefs to immediately begin using ANAM as the assessment tool of choice "until ongoing studies to obtain evidence-based outcomes of various neurocognitive assessment tools are completed." "The issue here would be, did the DoD know there was a superior product available?" Barth said. He doesn't know the answer to that. "This particular paper these folks were writing, which I was reviewing and being a consultant on, did show in a sort of head-to-head evaluation that CSI from Headminder did a better job in correlation with the RBANS than the ANAM did," he said. If the study had been sent out for review, "and if those peers … thought that the findings were correct … that would at least be one piece of information the Department of Defense should want to utilize in determining what they're going to use in theater." In a May 24 interview with Government Executive, Casscells said he was not aware of the study that showed CSI to outperform ANAM and MACE. In issuing the directive to the services mandating the use of ANAM, Casscells said he relied on the advice of then-Lt. Col. Michael Jaffee, an Air Force neurologist who now is the national director of the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, and other experts from the Defense Health Board. Jaffee declined through a spokeswoman to be interviewed for this article. "I do have confidence that all this is done in open committees without any bias," Casscells said. "Having said that, doctors have all kinds of things that they favor. They have their pet theories and pet devices they develop, et cetera. That's why it's important to have fairly large groups looking at this and I think we had a large group looking at that [ANAM decision]." Casscells is now the John E. Tyson Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Public Health and Vice President for External Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. According to the DCoE statement, "The DoD and [Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center] have encouraged an open academic review and publication of this data." Headminder's Erlanger, who was a co-investigator in the study, disputes that, saying, "In my opinion, the DoD and [Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center] actively discouraged completion and publication of this study." In addition, some Air Force doctors involved told Government Executive they were prohibited from continuing to work with Headminder, although none knew why. While the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, which is part of DCoE, has convened a number of panels in recent years to consider blast-concussion injury, Erlanger said, "They always have invited ANAM [representatives] to present to these consortium panels and have never invited me or asked any of my co-authors for presentation and discussion of any of the data we collected in Iraq. They have simply tried to pretend that the research never happened. This is hardly encouraging authors to present." Dr. S. Ward Casscells, former assistant secretary of Defense for health affairs, says he was unaware of the study that showed CSI to outperform two other brain injury screening tools. A New Study According to the statement from Defense, "The DoD is committed to selecting the best available [neurocognitive assessment tool] for use by the DoD population and has invited all companies to participate in an objective head-to-head evaluation." Defense now expects to launch this new study in August and complete it by November 2013. The DCoE statement said the department is working with the National Academy of Neuropsychology "to have an independent study advisory committee of acknowledged [neurocogitive assessment tool] experts who have no incentive or affiliation with any of the commercial NCAT companies." An independent company will analyze the data and "study results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented to policymakers in order to inform future decision-makers." The CSI will not be included in the evaluation, however. According to PanMedix CEO Don Comrie, the company has no confidence that DoD will conduct a fair or appropriate head-to-head study, in part because all the instruments initially selected for head-to-head evaluation, including one developed by Headminder called the Concussion Resolution Index, were designed to assess sports-related injury. Defense officials did not select CSI for the study, Comrie said, and his company will not participate using its sports-injury product, which it does not believe adequately measures more devastating combat injuries. Although blast injuries share some characteristics with sports injuries, they differ in significant ways, UVA's Barth said. Barth pioneered sports injury research in a groundbreaking study in the 1980s that assessed the impact of concussion on more than 2,300 football players over time. Contact sports typically lead to two types of brain injury: blunt injury, such as when a helmet smashes into a head; and rotational injury where the brain turns inside the skull, such as when a player gets hit from the back and the front at the same time, or hit from the side, creating a whiplash effect, he said. Blast injuries typically include four elements: The primary characteristic is the atmospheric pressure created by the blast wave, followed by a vacuum. The wave pushes, then the vacuum pulls. The effect on the brain is not entirely clear, but it can wreak havoc with brain and spinal fluid, creating tiny bubbles that affect the vascular system, Barth said. A secondary effect is created by rocks and other items that can be blown into a person standing near the blast -- similar to the blunt trauma in sports injury. A third effect is the force of the blast can pick up a person throw him or her around -- also similar to the rotational brain injuries found in sports. "Then there's a [fourth] level of injury, which is the toxic fumes and so on that may occur in the blast," Barth said. The toxins can affect brain tissue, increase a soldiers' blood pressure and leave burns. While the military can learn a lot from the treatment of concussive injury in sports, the differences are important, Barth said. He said he didn't know why Defense would exclude CSI from the new head-to-head study of cognitive assessment tools. "To me it makes more sense to use the CSI," because it can pick up a broader range of cognitive impairment than the company's sports concussion tool, which he also thinks highly of and uses to assess concussion injuries with the university's football team. One of the things that makes Headminder's tools particularly valuable is they are Web-enabled, meaning medical professionals can access historical data anywhere they can get an Internet connection, allowing them to instantly compare post-injury brain functioning with any data collected earlier, Barth said. stock.xchng user kilokilo Brain injury can be present even when CAT scans appear normal, military doctors say. Creating a Baseline In the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress required the Pentagon to develop and deploy "a system of pre-deployment and post-deployment screenings of cognitive ability in members for the detection of cognitive impairment." The law also required Defense "to assess for and document traumatic brain injury by establishing a protocol for a computer-based, pre-deployment neurocognitive assessment (to include documentation of memory), to create a baseline for members of the armed forces for future treatment." The May 2008 memo from Casscells required the services to use the Army's Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics to create such a baseline. But there are a number of problems with the way that decision has been implemented, several experts said. To date, the department has conducted more than 500,000 assessments with ANAM. But according to the medical literature and a contractor involved in administering ANAM, each soldier would need five separate assessments to create a stable baseline for that individual. In most cases, soldiers are receiving a single pre-deployment assessment, raising doubts about the reliability of the data being collected. In addition, many of the assessments are being conducted just weeks or days before a soldier deploys, when he or she has many other priorities and might be too distracted to perform "normally" as would be necessary in a baseline test. Finally, ANAM is not Web-enabled, rendering the baseline data useless to medical personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, several medical professionals told Government Executive. In a statement responding to that criticism, Defense said, "Data is available electronically in theater to assist in [return-to-duty evaluation decisions]. Currently, this is being done through an electronic and telephone help desk systems [sic]." Casscells said Defense set up both internal and external panels of experts to review the experience with the ANAM, the idea being it would evolve as needed over time. "Almost as soon as we launched it there were people saying it's not perfect, so my assumption is there are going to be proposals to improve upon it," he said. A Way Forward Dr. Gerald Grant, the Air Force neurosurgeon who led the combat study in 2006, said he hasn't given up on being able to publish the data he and his colleagues collected under extremely difficult circumstances. Besides publishing the earlier findings in a peer-reviewed journal, he would like to follow up with the nearly 100 soldiers assessed in the original combat study and measure their progress since then. Last summer he applied for approval to follow up from an institutional review board, but he hasn't received permission yet. Grant retired from the Air Force after he returned from Iraq in 2006. Now an associate professor of pediatric neurosurgery at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., he told Government Executive, "I still believe in the data." He said he has begun working with some of the other doctors involved in the study and expects to finalize a manuscript within the next few weeks. "It has to be approved by the Air Force and the Army [prior to publishing in a peer review journal], and I don't know if they'll do that," he said. "I'm committed to get this out. We owe it to the soldiers," he said. Response to this article from Michael Lutz, Chairman and COO, Vista Partners, Inc./Vista LifeSciences
Righteousness relates to acts of God or man. Yahweh is righteous. The “Righteous acts of Yahweh” are spoken of in 1 Sam 12:7, Dan 9:16, Micah 6:5, and Rev 15:4. That does not make Him subject to our judgment – He holds all rights. The “Righteous acts of the saints” are mentioned in Rev 19:8. The righteousness of a man relates to tzedaqah / deeds of obedience to God’s instructions – judgments, ordinances, and statutes, and repentance from disobedience. Holiness is distinct from righteousness. Holiness relates to men or objects that are dedicated to God’s service, either by God “Holy” and “sacred” and “sanctified” are translations of the Hebrew word qodesh’, or the Greek word hagiasmos’ – meaning dedicated to the service of Yahweh. Holiness is not a physical attribute, like righteousness, but rather a state of being dedicated solely to God. Holiness may result from God’s decree of dedicating something to Himself, or from a man’s declaration of dedicating something to God. There are different levels of holiness, for various places, times, articles – and people. God has dedicated Sabbaths and specific Holy Days to Himself. He has dedicated certain tithes to Himself. We are required to keep those A group of people may dedicate a building to God, as a place for worship. That building then is to be used only for holy purposes. However, a common building may be used for both common purposes and As individuals or families, we may dedicate certain monies or other objects to God. If we make personal use of dedicated things, we are then profaning the holy – committing sin. The Holy-of-holies had a higher level of holiness than the Holy Place, which in turn had a higher level of holiness than the Temple courts. The Holy Temple had a higher level of holiness than local synagogues. Sabbaths have a higher level of holiness than intermediate feast days. The Holy Temple had a higher level of holiness than the offerings of gold that were placed there. Priests were required to have a higher level of holiness – dedication to God’s work – than other people. And they were required to teach the people to distinguish between the holy and the common (Ezekiel 22:26, 44:23). We are commanded to be holy to Yahweh (Leviticus 19:2, 20:26, 1 Peter 16:2), and without holiness, no man shall see Him (Hebrews 12:14)! In contrast to the world, even work and family matters should be performed acceptably to be dedicated to the service of our Savior – thus the common to us may have a level of holiness. Finally, Yahweh is “Holy, holy, holy” (Isaiah 6:3) – all of His creation and works are dedicated to Himself. Consider the sovereignty and awesomeness in that! Dedication to our Savior is about our hearts. It encompasses how we treat others, worship and prayer, praise and thanksgiving, our manner of speech, overcoming of sin, morality and raising children for God’s kingdom, Sabbath and Holy Day observance, ethical work life, tithing and almsgiving, respect for law and authority. Dedication to our Savior is about the community’s heart. It encompasses formal Bible instruction, Sabbath and Holy Day services, a court system of righteous judgment (recognition that God holds all of the rights), a support system for the
\|\|It has been suggested that this article be merged with Calmness. (Discuss) Proposed since August 2014.\| Tranquillity (also spelled tranquility) is the quality or state of being tranquil; that is, calm, serene, and worry-free. The word tranquillity appears in numerous texts ranging from the religious writings of Buddhism, where the term passaddhi refers to tranquillity of the body, thoughts and consciousness on the path to enlightenment, to an assortment of policy and planning guidance documents, where interpretation of the word is typically linked to engagement with the natural environment. - 1 Benefits - 2 Tranquillity Research - 3 See also - 4 Notes - 5 References Psychological Being in a tranquil or ‘restorative’ environment allows individuals to take respite from the periods of sustained ‘directed attention’ that characterise modern living. In developing their Attention Restoration Theory (ART), Kaplan and Kaplan proposed that recovery from cognitive overload could most effectively be achieved by engaging with natural restorative environments, that are away from daily distractions and have the extent and mystery that allows the imagination to wander, thereby enabling individuals to engage effortlessly with their surroundings. The theory works on the principle that the amount of reflection possible within such an environment depends upon the type of cognitive engagement, i.e. fascination; that the environment holds. ‘Soft fascination’ is deemed to occur when there is enough interest in the surroundings to hold attention but not so much that it compromises the ability to reflect. In essence, soft fascination, which has been taken by Herzog and Pheasant as a reasonable term to describe tranquillity, provides a pleasing level of sensory input that involves no cognitive effort other than removing oneself from an overcrowded mental space. For many, the chance to experience tranquillity is what makes the countryside different from cities. In a survey by the United Kingdom Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) 58% of people said that tranquillity was the most positive feature of the countryside. In contrast to ‘soft fascination’, ‘directed attention’ requires a significant amount of cognitive effort and it is known that prolonged periods of sustained mental activity can lead to directed attention fatigue. This condition has the potential to significantly affect performance and bring about negative emotions, irritability and decreased sensitivity to interpersonal cues. As the incidence of mental illness continues to rise, there is growing evidence that exposure to natural environments can make a significant contribution to health and wellbeing. Mounting evidence shows, that exposure to nature contributes to physical and psychological wellbeing, such as the review carried out by Louv, that found evidence of ‘nature-deficit-disorder’ in children, which suggests that the importance of being able to engage with restorative environments applies across a wide age range. Others report that natural tranquil surroundings have profound physiological effects on people suffering from stress. For example Ullrich found that stress (as measured by blood pressure, muscle tension and skin conductance response), induced by showing videos of workplace injuries, improved significantly quicker following further viewing if videos included natural surroundings rather than busy traffic or shopping scenes. A recent study has demonstrated the benefits of simulating such environments for pain relief during bone marrow aspirate and biopsy. Since seeking tranquillity is an important reason why many people visit the countryside, the presence of tranquil areas helps boost rural tourism. Since rural tourism in the UK directly supports 380,000 jobs and £13.8 billion annually to the economy, and a recent survey showed that tranquillity is the main reason why 49% of visitors go are attracted to the countryside, one can conclude that tranquillity is worth 186,200 jobs and £6.76 billion a year to the economy. In computer science, tranquility is a status in which software entities must reside, before their implementation can be safely altered dynamically. Tranquility, as a status, was first introduced in 2006, by Vandewoude and Ebraert. They implemented tranquility on the level of software components. Natural settings that effortlessly engage our attention are typically associated with soft fascination and with the analysis of tranquillity and preference published by Herzog and Bosely (1992). In this study, the authors attempted to distinguish empirically between the constructs of tranquillity and preference as affective qualities of natural environments. Motivated by ART, from which they took tranquillity as a reasonable term to describe soft fascination, they produced definitions for each component. Tranquillity they defined as “how much you think this setting is a quiet, peaceful place, a good place to get away from everyday life”, and preference as “how much you like this setting for whatever reason”. Subjects were asked to score the following visual settings: mountains, deserts, fields / forests and waterscapes against the two target variables, tranquillity and preference, and four descriptor variables: mistiness, unstructured openness, focus and surface calmness. Tranquillity and preference were positively correlated across all settings with tranquillity scoring higher ratings in the field / forest, waterscape and mountain categories, whilst rushing water had the highest rating in the preference category. Analysis of the results identified three physical features that help explain the apparent split between tranquillity and preference. These were; mistiness, unstructured openness; which refers to how open the scene is and how difficult it is to establish a sense of depth or distance, and surface calmness. Mistiness and unstructured openness tended to depress preference relative to tranquillity whilst surface calmness tended to enhance it. Herzog and Barnes conducted a follow up study in which deserts and waterscapes were included in the setting types. In 2000, Herzog and Chernick conducted further research into the tranquillity construct when they investigated the relationship between tranquillity and danger in urban and rural settings. The key results that emerged from this research were that ‘setting care’, which relates to how safe we feel in a particular setting, is more salient for judgments of danger in urban settings than natural ones and that openness was a significant predictor of danger but not of tranquillity. The authors concluded therefore that tranquillity and danger should not simply be viewed as polar opposites, but like preference and tranquillity as distinct constructs. The role of audio-visual interaction within the tranquillity construct Within tranquillity studies, much of the emphasis has been placed on understanding the role of vision in the perception of natural environments, which is probably not surprising, considering that upon first viewing a scene its configurational coherence can be established with incredible speed. Indeed scene information can be captured in a single glance and the gist of a scene determined in as little as 100ms. The speed of processing of complex natural images was tested by Thorpe et al. using colour photographs of a wide range of animals (mammals, birds, reptiles and fish), in their natural environments, mixed with distracters that included pictures of forests, mountains, lakes, buildings and fruit. During this experiment, subjects were shown an image for 20ms and asked to determine whether it contained an animal or not. The electrophysiological brain responses obtained in this study showed that a decision could be made within 150ms of the image being seen, indicating the speed at which cognitive visual processing occurs. However, audition, and in particular the individual components that collectively comprise the soundscape, a term coined by Schafer to describe the ever present array of sounds that constitute the sonic environment, also significantly inform the various schemata used to characterise differing landscape types. This interpretation is supported by the auditory reaction times, which are 50 to 60ms faster than that of the visual modality. It is also known that sound can alter visual perception and that under certain conditions areas of the brain involved in processing auditory information can be activated in response to visual stimuli. Research conducted by Pheasant et al. has shown that when individuals make tranquillity assessments based on a uni-modal auditory or visual sensory input, they characterise the environment by drawing upon a number of key landscape and soundscape characteristics. For example, when making assessments in response to visual-only stimuli the percentage of water, flora and geological features present within a scene, positively influence how tranquil a location is perceived to be. Likewise when responding to uni-modal auditory stimuli, the perceived loudness of biological sounds positively influences the perception of tranquillity, whilst the perceived loudness of mechanical sounds have a negative effect. However, when presented with bi-modal auditory-visual stimuli the individual soundscape and landscape components alone no longer influenced the perception of tranquillity. Rather configurational coherence was provided by the percentage of natural and contextual features present within the scene and the equivalent continuous sound pressure level (LAeq). Researchers at the Bradford Centre for Sustainable Environments have developed a methodology by which the perceived tranquillity rating (TR) of an amenity area such as park, green or urban square can be measured, on a 0 - 10 scale. The method involves the assessment of average daytime noise levels Lday (usually traffic noise) and the measurement of the percentage of natural and contextual features NCF contained within the visual scene. The latter includes the percentage area in the visual scene occupied by natural features in the landscape such as vegetation, water and geological features, e.g. exposed rock outcrops, and contextual features. These contextual elements include listed buildings, religious and historic buildings, landmarks, monuments and elements of the landscape, such as traditional farm buildings, that directly contribute to the visual context of the natural environment. Lastly, the equation includes moderating factors (MF) that can influence the perception of tranquillity in either a positive, or a negative way. TR = 9.68 + 0.041 NCF – 0.146 Lday + MF These moderating factors are not expected to be large and because they are relatively difficult to quantify they are the subject of ongoing research. One potentially effective solution to improving tranquillity, is to mask traffic noise or distract attention with an attractive water sound. A previous experiment has demonstrated that water generated sounds have the potential to improve the perceived tranquillity of gardens blighted by noise. A further study has demonstrated that litter has the potential to degrade an environment such that the tranquillity rating drops on average by one scale point. This bi-modal relationship is supported by work recently carried out by SCANLab at the University of Sheffield, using fMRI neuro-imaging techniques. This study demonstrated for the first time the significant differences in effective connectivity between areas of the brain, namely the auditory cortex and the medial pre-frontal cortex, under tranquil and non-tranquil conditions. Specifically the medial pre-frontal cortex receives significantly enhanced contributions from the auditory cortex when presented with a tranquil visual scene compared with non-tranquil visual stimuli. The first method of mapping tranquillity was developed by Simon Rendel of ASH Consulting for a Department of Transport study in 1991. This led to the production of a set of Tranquil Area maps covering England, produced by Rendel and ASH Consulting and published by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and the former Countryside Commission. In these maps tranquil areas were defined as places sufficiently far from the visual or noise intrusion of development or traffic to be considered unspoilt by urban influences. Maps have been produced for the whole of England that show the tranquillity score of Ordnance Survey Grid derived 500mx500m squares. The tranquillity rating for these is based on 44 different factors that add to or detract from people’s feelings of tranquillity. These factors were defined following extensive public consultations. The new methodology uses advanced modelling techniques to look at the diffusion of the impact of these factors over distance, taking into account the terrain of the land. For example, the tranquillity increases gradually the further one is from a busy road, but increases more sharply if the road is hidden in a cutting. The mapping process was developed by Northumbria and Newcastle Universities. The dark green areas represent those with the highest composite tranquillity score; dark red areas have the lowest composite tranquillity score (i.e., are least tranquil). Stimuli with positive impacts on tranquillity - a natural landscape, including woodland - presence of rivers, streams, lakes or the sea - birds and other wildlife - wide open spaces - clear open night sky with/without moon - beach in a unique location - open field,flora etc. with gentle to moderate wind flow Examples of stimuli having negative impacts on tranquillity - Motorised transport: cars, motorcycle, trains and aircraft – and roads and railways - light pollution - large numbers of people - pylons, power lines, masts and wind turbines Note: This cartographic study showed that tranquillity is not the absence of all noise, activity and buildings. Indeed it found that many rural activities, such as farming and hiking, and natural noises such as birdsong and cows lowing, enhance people’s experience of tranquillity. - Answers.com, retrieved on 12-16-2010. - Kaplan R. and Kaplan, S. (1989). The Experience of Nature. New York: Cambridge University Press. - Herzog, T. R. and Bosley, P. J. (1992). Tranquillity and preference as affective qualities of natural environments. Journal of Environmental Psychology 12, 115-127. - Robert J. Pheasant, Mark N. Fisher, Greg R. Watts, David J. Whitaker and Kirill V. Horoshenkov. (2010). The importance of auditory-visual interaction in the construction of tranquil space. Journal of Environmental Psychology 30, 501 -509. - Hartig, T., Kaiser, F. G. & Bowler, P. A. (1997). Further development of a measure of perceived environmental restorativeness. Working paper 5, Institute for Housing Research, Uppsala University, Sweden. - Berglund, B., Lindvall, T and Schwela, D. H. (1999). World Health Organisation guidelines for community noise. - Richard Louv. (2008). Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. Algonquin Press - R. S. Ulrich, F. Simons, B. D. Losito, E. Fiorito, M. A. Miles and M. Zelson. (1991). Stress recovery during exposure to natural and urban environments. Journal of Environmental Psychology 11, 201-230. - biopsyLechtzin N, Busse A M, Smith M T, Grossman S, Nesbit S, Diette G B. (2010). Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 16(9), 965–972. - Herzog, T. R. & Barnes, G. J. (1999). Tranquillity and preference revisited. Journal of Environmental Psychology 19, 171-18. - Herzog, T. R. and Chernick, K. K. (2000). Tranquility and Danger in Urban and Natural Settings. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 20, 29-39. - Oliva, A. & Torralba, A. (2006). Building the gist of a scene: The role of global image features and recognition. Progress in Brain Research 155 (2), 23 – 36. - Dobel, C. & Gumnoir, H. (2006). Describing scenes hardly seen. Acta Psychologica 125, 129 – 143. - Thorpe, S., Fize, D. & Marlot, C. (1996). Speed of processing in the human visual system. Nature 381, 520 – 522. - Schafer, R. M. (1977). The Soundscape: Our sonic environment and the tuning of the world. Destiny Books Rochester, Vermont. - Jaśkowski, P., Jaroszyk, F., & Hojan-Jezierska, D. (1990). Temporal-order judgement and reaction time for stimuli of different modalities. Psychol Research 52, 35-38. - Shams, L., Kanutani, S. & Shimojo, S. (2002). Visual illusion induced by sound. Journal of Cognitive Brain Research 14, 147 – 152. - Robert J Pheasant, Kirill V Horoshenkov and Greg R Watts. Tranquillity Rating prediction tool (TRAPT). Institute of Acoustics – Acoustics Bulletin, 35 (6), November/December 2010. - R. J. Pheasant., K. V. Horoshenkov., G. R. Watts and B. T. Barrett. (2008). The acoustic and visual factors influencing the construction of tranquil space in urban and rural environments: Tranquil Spaces - Quiet places? J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 123(3), 1446-1457. - R. J. Pheasant., G. R. Watts. and K. V. Horoshenkov. (2009). Validation of a tranquillity rating prediction tool, J. ACTA Acustica United with Acustica. 95(6), 1024-1031. - G. R. Watts, R. J. Pheasant, K. V. Horoshenkov and L. Ragonesi. (2009). Measurement and subjective assessment of water generated sounds. Acta Acustica united with Acustica, 95, 1032-1039. - G. R. Watts, R. J. Pheasant and K. V. Horoshenkov. Validation of tranquillity rating method, Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics & Belgium Acoustical Society, Noise in the Built Environment, Ghent, 29–30 April 2010. - M.D.Hunter., S. B. Eickhoff., R. J. Pheasant., M. J. Douglas., G. R. Watts., T. F. D. Farrow., D. Hyland., J. Kang., I. D. Wilkinson., K. V. Horoshenkov and P. W. R. Woodruff. (2010). The state of tranquillity: Subjective perception is shaped by contextual modulation of auditory connectivity. NeuroImage 53(2), 611 – 18. - Presentation given by Andrew Oliver on Tranquillity to the University of Surrey, retrieved 2 Nov 2007 - Saving Tranquil Places, CPRE report on Tranquillity, retrieved 2 Nov 2007
Today, sports eyewear can be spotted on almost anyone who picks up a ball, bat, racquet or stick — whether they play in the major leagues or the Little League. Fortunately, coaches, parents and players now realize that wearing protective eyewear for sports pays off in several ways. The risk of eye damage is reduced or eliminated, and the player’s performance is enhanced by the fact that they see well. In fact, many clubs today do not permit their members to participate without wearing proper eye gear. Initially, there was some resistance by children to “looking funny” when they wore protective eyewear. Today, sports goggles are an accepted part of everyday life, much the way bike helmets have become the norm. In addition, both children and adults like the image that wearing protective eyewear gives them: it shows they mean business on the playing field. If you’re not wearing protective eyewear, consider this… Prevent Blindness America reports that hospital emergency rooms treat 40,000 eye injuries every year that are sports-related. Sports such as racquetball, tennis and badminton may seem relatively harmless, but they involve objects moving at 60 miles per hour or faster. During a typical game, a racquetball can travel between 60 and 200 miles per hour. Another potential danger is that the racquets themselves move at high speed in a confined space and often make contact with one another. Flying objects aren’t the only hazard. Many eye injuries come from pokes and jabs by fingers and elbows, particularly in games where players are in close contact with each other. Basketball, for example, has an extremely high rate of eye injury. These are great reasons to wear protective eyewear. Another aspect has to do with performance. It used to be common for people with mild to moderate prescriptions to simply participate in sports without wearing their glasses or contacts. But sharp vision is a vital ingredient to performing well in nearly every sport, and participating in sports when you have less than 20/20 vision is counterproductive. Features to look for Prescription glasses, sunglasses and even on-the-job industrial safety glasses don’t provide adequate protection for sports use. Sports goggles are made in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some are even designed to fit in helmets used for football, hockey and baseball. Sports goggles should allow the use of helmets when the sport calls for it. Lenses in sports eyewear are usually made of polycarbonate. Since polycarbonate is such an impact-resistant lens material, it works well to protect eyes from fast-moving objects. Polycarbonate lenses also have built-in ultraviolet (UV) protection and are coated to be scratch resistant — valuable properties for outdoor sports. Polycarbonate is the material of choice for sports lenses, but the eyewear frame plays just as important a role. Different sports require different types of frames, which has led to development of sport-specific frames. Sport frames are constructed of highly impact-resistant plastic or polycarbonate, and most come with rubber padding to cushion the frame where it comes in contact with your head and the bridge of your nose. Some sports styles are contoured, wrapping slightly around the face. This type of goggle works well for biking, hang-gliding, and sailing. Contact lens wearers especially benefit from the wraparound style, which shields your eyes from wind and dust. A note about handball goggles At one time, handball goggles for those with no need for vision correction were simply goggles with small openings in place of lenses. It was eventually recognized that the high speed of handballs compressed the ball enough to protrude through the opening and cause serious eye damage. All goggles worn for handball and racquetball should include impact-resistant polycarbonate lenses for adequate protection during these sports. Important fitting considerations Sport goggles must be properly fit to the individual wearer. This is particularly important with children, because there is a temptation to purchase a larger goggle than what is needed today so the youngster has “room to grow.” Some growing room is acceptable, since sports goggles are made to be somewhat flexible in their width adjustment. If the frames are oversize, however, they will not protect the way they were designed, leaving a potential for damage when there is impact to the head or the face. It’s a risk not worth taking. By the same token, permitting a youngster to continue wearing goggles that he or she has outgrown can be just as dangerous. First, the frames will be uncomfortable, tempting the child to take them off. Secondly, the frames may obstruct peripheral vision, leading to poor performance with a potential for impact from unseen sources to one side or another. Review the fit of your youngsters’ sports eyewear each year to ensure that they are still providing proper protection and are fitting comfortably. Make sure the padding inside the sides of the goggle rests flush with the face and the eyes are centered in the lens area. Article ©2012 Access Media Group LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction other than for one-time personal use is strictly prohibited.
Katie Byerly shares her knowledge and photographs of yet another wildflower I’ve never seen in the wild. -promoted by desmoinesdem In his book The Secrets of Wildflowers, Jack Sanders calls Gentians the Royal Family of Wildflowers. Gentians are named after King Gentius, who ruled as the last Illyrian King from 181 to 168 BCE. It is believed that Gentius discoverd medicinal value from the plant and used it as an antidote to poison and in the dressing of wounds. If we follow the belief that Gentians are the royal family of the wildflowers, I’d like to imagine the handsome King Fringed Gentian ruling his flower kingdom with his beautiful pale Queen Cream Gentian at his side. His brother Prince Bottled Gentian leads the flower army and is known for his strength. And then there is their rigid cousin Duke Stiff Gentian … he is often overlooked as part of the Gentian family as he quietly rules his northern counties. I first found this stately wildflower while walking the Rock Falls prairie (Wilkinson Pioneer Park) with my then puppy Prairie Dog. Like most gentian, Stiff Gentian (Gentianella quinquefolia) blooms late in the summer. Many writers describe the pleasant surprise of finding a blooming gentian just when you think the flower season has come to an end. I know I was excited to find a new wildflower that September day. My dog Prairie Dog also appears happy when we find a new flower together. I’m sure she must sense my pleasure, but she sure acts happy too. The Virginia Wildflowers website describes the wildflower as “a species that grows to about 2 feet in height. It bears numerous clusters of violet to lilac tubular flowers that open into 5 pointy lobes. The narrow flowers are held strongly upright, hence the name Stiff Gentian.” One would think that these five pointy lobes are why the plant is also called the “five flowered gentian,” but Virginia Wildflowers corrects that thought. It is because the clusters of flowers often, but not always, occur in groups of five. More pictures from the Rock Falls prairie: In addition to the Rock Falls Prairie, I have found Stiff Gentian in a small “triangle prairie” a mile from my country home in Cerro Gordo County. A triangle prairie is a triangular piece of land often created by a railroad track. This piece of land is too small and inconvenient to farm. This particular piece of land was a waste site for the railroad, and the county restored it. Both the Rock Falls prairie and this triangle prairie are managed by the Cerro Gordo Conservation board. Illinois Wildflowers lists numerous types of habitats for the Stiff Gentian. Some of these habitats are “hill prairies, upland savannas, thinly wooded slopes and rocky meadows to name a few. But most interesting to me is that this species is usually found in high quality natural habitats, often where limestone is close to the ground surface. Perhaps this explains the success of Stiff Gentian in Cerro Gordo County – known for its brick and tile businesses. This September, Prairie Dog and I found one lonely Stiff Gentian growing in our limestone prairie. It is the first gentian of any type I have found on our land. We (yes, my dog and I) were pretty tickled to find it. So going back to the Royal Family idea… if this plant is the only gentian on my land, then I should dub this duke of the gentians “King” of my prairie. Prairie Dog agrees.
In the latest of a string of actions brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the crypto exchange Kraken agreed to pay $30 million to settle allegations that it broke the agency’s rules by offering a service that allowed investors to earn rewards by “staking” their coins. The SEC is pushing to bring crypto operators within the US under the same regulatory framework that governs the sale of all sorts of securities — to treat the tokens much like stocks and bonds. What’s different from other crackdown efforts is that staking is a central feature of many blockchains such as Ethereum and key to potentially switching other cryptocurrencies away from a system that requires vast amounts of electricity. 1. What is staking? It’s depositing Ether or other cryptocurrencies for use in what’s known as a “proof-of-stake” system that helps run a blockchain network by ordering transactions in a way that creates a secure public record. Ethereum in September switched to staking to replace the “proof-of-work” system pioneered by Bitcoin, which continues to use it. Ethereum’s switch was said to cut the network’s energy usage by about 99%, an important step for an industry that has come under fire for the amount of electricity it uses. 2. What are the ‘proof of’ systems for? Cryptocurrencies wouldn’t work without blockchain, a relatively new technology that performs the old-fashioned function of maintaining a ledger of time-ordered transactions. What’s different from pen-and-paper records is that the ledger is shared on computers all around the world. Blockchain has to take on another task not needed in a world of physical money — making sure that no one is able to spend a cryptocurrency token more than once by manipulating the digital ledger. Blockchains operate without a central guardian, such as a bank, in charge of the ledger: Both proof-of-work and proof-of-stake systems rely on group action to order and safeguard a blockchain’s sequential record. 3. How are the two different? In both systems, transactions are grouped into “blocks” that were published to a public “chain.” In proof of work, that happens when the system compresses the data in the block into a puzzle that can only be solved through trial-and-error computations that can potentially need to be run millions of time. This work is done by miners who compete to be the first to come up with a solution and are rewarded with new cryptocurrency if other miners agree it works. Proof of stake works by giving a group of people a set of carrot-and-stick incentives to collaborate on the task. An example: People who put up, or stake, 32 Ether (1 Ether traded at around $1,519 on Feb. 10) can become “validators,” while those with less Ether can become validators on Ethereum jointly. Validators are chosen to order blocks of transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. 4. What’s the incentive for staking? If a block is accepted by a committee whose members are called attestors, validators are awarded new Ether. But someone who tried to game the system could lose the coins that were staked. Typically people who stake their coins are rewarded by earning yields of about 4% for staking-as-a-service users on Ethereum. 5. What’s the SEC’s issue with staking? Kraken and other centralized providers had been offering “staking as a service,” which lets users stake their coins without buying or maintaining the computers needed for staking. The agency’s action against Kraken makes clear that it considers this to be akin to crypto lending, in which providers would pay crypto depositors high rates of interest for lending out their coins. It’s a practice regulators cracked down on last year, when a slew of lenders like Celsius Network, BlockFi and others collapsed. The SEC considers both crypto lending and staking-as-a-service programs to be securities, a designation that imposes a wide range of regulatory requirements that crypto used to think it was immune from. Kraken agreed to immediately cease offering or selling securities through crypto asset staking services in the US; it didn’t admit or deny allegations in the SEC complaint. 6. What does it mean for something to be a security? In its most simple form, whether something is or isn’t a security under US rules is basically a question of how much it looks like shares issued by a company raising money. To make that determination, the SEC applies a legal test that comes from a 1946 Supreme Court decision. Under that framework, an asset can be under SEC purview when it involves a. investors kicking in money b. into a common enterprise with c. the intention of profiting from d. the efforts of the organization’s leadership. In staking-as-a-service, users deposit their coins with the expectation of earning a yield on them, while the service provider takes care of the technical side of things. 7. Why does being labeled a security matter? For starters, such designations may make running a staking-as-a-service program more expensive and complex. Under US rules, the label carries strict investor-protection and disclosure requirements. This burden would put smaller providers at a disadvantage compared to deeper-pocketed competitors. What’s more, exchanges that try to continue offering the service would face continuous scrutiny by regulators, which could lead to fines, penalties and, in a worst case, prosecutions if criminal authorities ever got involved. It could also mean losing future funding from investors who may be skittish of those increased compliance burdens and regulatory scrutiny. Supporters of more regulation believe securities designations would result in more information and transparency for investors — and would ultimately bring more users into the services. 8. What might a crackdown on crypto staking mean? The crackdown only applies to staking-as-a-service providers focused on US consumers. Blockchains are typically secured by validators from around the world, so they will continue to function, assuming overseas regulators take a more lenient view of their services. This would further the split between heavy regulation in the US and the Wild West in some other parts of the world. There are questions about whether the tightening of regulations surrounding staking will impact so-called decentralized staking providers, which claim to be immune to them because they are not operated by a particular company or based in a particular place; in theory, such providers are just collections of software that execute transactions automatically. But many of these decentralized finance (DeFi) services are actually run by a core group of people whom regulators could potentially still hold responsible for noncompliance. Original Source link Author of this Amazing Article –
Basics of Aliases in OS X Mavericks In OS X Mavericks, an alias is a tiny file that automatically opens the file, folder, disk, or network volume that it represents. Although an alias is technically an icon, it actually does nothing but open another icon automatically when you double-click. Aliases are organizational tools that let you have an icon appear in more than one place without having to create multiple copies of the file that icon represents. An alias is very different from a duplicated file. For example, the iTunes application uses around 290 megabytes (MB) of hard-drive space. If you were to duplicate iTunes, you’d have two files on your hard disk, each requiring around 290MB of disk space. An alias of iTunes, on the other hand, looks just like the original iTunes icon and opens iTunes when you double-click it but requires less than 5MB of hard disk space. So try placing aliases of programs and files you use most often in convenient places such as the Desktop or a folder in your Home folder. But there are many other reasons why aliases rock: Convenience: Aliases enable you to make items appear to be in more than one place. For example, keep an alias of your word-processor program on your Desktop and another in your Documents folder for quick access. Aliases enable you to open your word processor right away without having to navigate into the depths of your Applications folder every time you need it. Flexibility and organization: You can create aliases and store them anywhere on your hard drive to represent the same document in several different folders. This is a great help when you need to file a document that can logically be stored in any of several folders. If you write a memo to Fred Smith about the Smythe Marketing Campaign to be executed in the fourth quarter, which folder does the document belong in? Smith? Smythe? Marketing? Memos? 4th Quarter? Correct answer: With aliases, it can go in every folder, if you like. Then you can find the memo wherever you look instead of guessing which folder you filed it in. Integrity: Some programs must remain in the same folder as their supporting files and folders. Some programs, for example, won’t function properly unless they’re in the same folder as their dictionaries, thesauruses, data files (for games), templates, and so on. Thus, you can’t put the actual icon for such programs on the Desktop without impairing their functionality. An alias lets you access a program like that from anywhere on your hard drive. How to create aliases in OS X Mavericks When you create an alias, its icon looks the same as the icon that it represents, but the suffix alias is tacked onto its name, and a tiny arrow called a badge (as shown in the margin) appears in the bottom-left corner of its icon. Here is an alias and its parent icon — the icon that opens if you double-click the alias. To create an alias for an icon, do one of the following: Click the parent icon and choose File→Make Alias. Click the parent icon and press Command+L. Click the parent icon and use the Action menu’s Make Alias command. Click an icon while holding down the Control key and then choose the Make Alias command from the contextual menu that appears. Click any file or folder, press and hold down Command+Option, and then drag the file or folder while continuing to hold down Command+Option. Presto! An alias appears where you release the mouse button. How to delete aliases in OS X Mavericks This is a short section because deleting an alias is such an easy chore. To delete an alias, simply drag it onto the Trash icon in the Dock. That’s it! You can also Control-click it and choose Move to Trash from the contextual menu that appears, or select the icon and press Command+Delete. Deleting an alias does not delete the parent item. (If you want to delete the parent item, you have to go hunt it down and kill it yourself.) The alias’s parent file Suppose that you create an alias of a file, and later you want to delete both the alias and its parent file, but you can’t find the parent file. What do you do? Well, you can use the Finder’s Find function to find it (try saying that three times real fast), but here are four faster ways to find the parent icon of an alias: Select the alias icon and choose File→Show Original. Select the alias icon and press Command+R. Select the alias icon and use the Action menu’s Show Original command. Control-click the alias icon and choose Show Original from the contextual menu. Any of these methods opens the window containing the parent document with its icon preselected for your convenience.
The Commandant of the Sipo –SD School in Bad Rabka Wilhelm Rosenbaum was born on the 27 April, 1915 in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin. His father, Peter Rosenbaum was a municipal worker at the central covered market at the Alexanderplatz. His mother died when Wilhelm was just one year old. His father re-married which brought forth the stepbrother of Wilhelm, Franz, born in 1910. He has been listed as missing since the Second World War. The second marriage was dissolved after three years. In about 1917/18, his father married a third time. From this marriage comes the other stepbrother Kurt, born in 1919. He lives today in Freyburg. Wilhelm had an unhappy childhood, experienced rejection and had to stand on his own two feet at a relatively early age. He spent his childhood with father and stepmother in Berlin, in a 3 room apartment. Since this accommodation quickly proved insufficient, Wilhelm was found a place in a catholic boarding school. When he was 6 years old, he entered the ‘Volksschule’ (elementary school) until the age of 11 years. He then moved onto the ‘Realschule’ (secondary school) where he dropped out after the third grade, at the age of 16 years. His school reports were poor. It was said, that this was due to a bad, oppressing circumstances at home, holding back his development in every way. The Stepmother despised, beat, harassed and insulted him as well as his brother Franz. She looked upon them as ‘Polackenkinder’ (Polish children) the women whom his father had married in the first and second marriage were ‘Hurenweiber’ (whores). Wilhelm was addressed as ‘Tadrig’, Franz was addressed as ‘the big one’. Her favourite was her own child. The father was a weakling and did not dare to defend his two children, nor preserve the memory of his late wives from the stepmother. He was physically afraid of his third wife and believed that she would eventually kill him. The stepmother died in 1955 in a state of psychological confusion. The father put his two sons through military Prussian rules. He taught Wilhelm the piano and the violin; Franz had to learn the cello. Both boys were punished and beaten, when mistakes occurred during practising. This is the way it also went for schoolwork, where the father acted as a private tutor. Whoever did not know his vowels or made spelling mistakes was beaten. Eventually, Wilhelm cold not stand this uncaring and unhappy childhood at home anymore. After his brother Franz had turned his back on his parent’s house (following a suicide attempt in 1930), Wilhelm left his parent’s house in October, 1932; this was the end of his studies at the secondary school. After having lived for a short period in his own room in the city, he joined the SA-sports school Prenden in November, 1932. His apprenticeship to NS had partly been accomplished, and was now in its final phase where he would be groomed for higher office. Wilhelm had already encountered a National Socialist leaning in school. Some teachers at the secondary school were nationalists, German-nationals and against the republic. There was a particular group of teachers that was promoting co-operation within the Association for the Germanisation Abroad (VDA). Wilhelm also did his best to sell stickers and badges for the VDA. At the beginning of 1930, when he was 15 years old, he joined the NS- pupil’s league comprising of approximately 25 pupils of the elementary school and lead by a sympathetic teacher. They had a special ‘Wolfsangel’ badge. As far as Wilhelm can remember, the NS- pupils’ league was particularly pushed and supported by the gym and vocal music teachers, who also propagated the VDA. When Wilhelm joined the ‘Hitlerjugend’ (Hitler youth),in the autumn of 1930, he ended his membership and activities at the NS-pupils’ league. From the period of his membership at the ‘Hitlerjugend’, he can remember that both his friends and himself had to purchase uniforms and equipment on their own, which they did gradually with their hard-earned money. His parents did not mind him joining the National Socialist movement. They were, and especially his father, German-Nationalist-minded. The population in the Berlin suburbs where he lived was mainly communist; therefore, the National Socialists encountered firm rejection and the SA people did not have an easy task. Since there was an SA –Stormtrooper house near his parents’ house, Wilhelm was able to observe confrontations that became violent. He felt - just like his brother Franz - that their political views were drawn towards the SA and National Socialism. On the 1 February, 1932, both brothers joined the Berlin SA -Stormtroopers 2. This ended Wilhelm’s membership of the ‘Hitlerjugend’. From the 28 November, 1932 until the 1 January 1933, Wilhelm was active at the SA-sports school at Prenden in Bernau. About 60-80 SA people had training in defence sports and pre-army practices. Wilhelm was only called in for guarding and as such, did not have anything to do with the defence sports. Wilhelm actually wanted to join the ‘Reichswehr’ (army of the Reich) and become a soldier. Following an interview, he was told that he was too weak and undeveloped. He was advised to re-apply in a year. On the 6 February 1933, Wilhelm went to Berlin-Doberritz for voluntary work. His work comprised of agricultural labour, clearing hedges and gorses, etc. He was paid 0.25 RM a day. On his 18th birthday, the 27 April 1933, he was admitted to the NSDAP; his earlier request for admission had not been taken into consideration until then because of his age. He attended the ‘Reichsfurrerschule’ (Führer School of the Reich) of the voluntary work service from the 9 May, until the 3 August, 1933. As this school was just in its development stages, he was only told to do excavations and similar jobs. Nevertheless a certain training - of a military and political influence - took place. Wilhelm applied for work with the German Work Front and was accepted on the 5 August 1933; he dealt with the postal dispatch office and other menial tasks. From the 1 November, 1934, until September 1935, he served voluntarily with the ‘Reichswehr”namely the 12th infantry-regiment Dessaue-Halberstadt. He had un -pleasant memories of this period. The training was hard and the soldiers were often harassed and excessively put through the mill. He left the ‘Reichswehr’ as a Lance Corporal. In October, 1935, he was offered the opportunity to stay with the ‘Reichswehr’ as a first-aid-man. He refused as he was ‘fed-up’ with the ‘Reichswehr’. His actual wish would have been to join the Guard Regiment in Berlin which corresponded with the military splendour of his upbringing and longing. Nevertheless, his application was rejected. With the assistance of the SA, Wilhelm found a job as clerk at the SS-Head Office. Again he was given menial tasks, probably just within his capabilities. He remained there until the spring 1936. On advice he applied for, and was accepted by the Head Office of the ‘Staatspolzei’, Berlin. He worked for Department 1(Management and Law) as a police office clerk where he registered reports of weaponry and confiscation issues. He had no decision making authority. Based upon his employment at the head Office of the security police, Wilhelm was taken on temporarily (on probation) by the SS on the 1 July, 1936, a critical time at the onset of Security Services amalgamations. At this time he recalls an SS-Führer addressing him and his colleagues with the following words: “Listen, you have to join the SS; you cannot walk around in these SA uniforms anymore!” as a result of which Wilhelm signed a preparatory application for admission to the SS. Following the transfer, he had the SS rank of ‘Unterscharführer’ as he was already ‘Oberscharführer’ with the SA, he was downgraded. He had to personally buy his SS-uniform and to attend various meetings for training. His supervisory officer both from the police and the SS - was Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich. In July, 1938, his SS -status was confirmed. This appointment must have been beyond his wildest dreams. Wilhelm married Hedwig Bober in August, 1937; on the 22 June, 1938, their daughter Ellen was born. The marriage was not a success and they were divorced in 1940 by mutual consent. With the outbreak of war against Poland, Rosenbaum, as a member of the SS, was transferred to the Inspector of the Security Police in Oppeln He was issued with a grey SS-uniform of the ‘Oberschaführer’ rank and joined the Dr Emanuel Schafer task force which consisted of some 60-80 men. This task force was commanded by SS- Obersturmbannführer Otto Sens. This unit was to fight partisans and find ‘insurgents’ and make them harmless. After a short stay in Oppeln, the task force operated in Czestochowa and then moved to Krakow. In Krakow Rosenbaum was transferred to Sipo-SD squad that had to shoot enemies of the Reich who had been condemned to death by court martial, The officer in charge was Sipo-SD SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Kruger. Kruger, a ruthless and brutal man, obsessed with national-socialist ideas made an immediate impression on the 24 year old Rosenbaum. In early November, 1939, Rosenbaum was moved to the department of the Commander-in-Chief of the Security Police and Sipo-SD (BdS) in Krakow, whose leader was SS-Obergruppenführer Dr. Karl Eberhard Shongarth. Under the direct leadership of Kruger (Schongarth’s deputy), Rosenbaum and his squad were mobilized to force their way into Jewish homes to collect money and ‘contributions’ from the Jews of Krakow. This was the first but lasting confrontation that Rosenbaum encountered with the ‘Jewish problem’ after the invasion of Poland. So far, he was only influenced by the general anti-Jewish political agitation of the national socialists and had received an anti-Semitic education at home. He believed, based upon the brainwashing that he had received, that Judaism was ruling the entire world, justifying Hitler’s war. In December, 1939, Rosenbaum was commissioned to take over the re-organization of a school of the Commander-in-Chief of the Security Police (Sipo-SD) in Zakopane as ‘Wirtschaftsführer’ (economic leader). The commandant of this school was Hans Kruger. In July, 1940, Rosenbaum was at that time on leave - the school was transferred from Zakopane to Bad Rabka. He received orders to terminate his leave and go direct to Bad Rabka to take over duties of SS – Untersturmführer and Police Secretary to the newly located school. He was now deputy to Hans Kruger. The Rosenbaum - Kruger administration was short lived. Transfers, promotions and sideways moves were numerous. Kruger was seconded to the office of Dr. Schongarth in Krakow, Rosenbaum took his place but without promotion. Rosenbaum was like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a car when he was in the presence of Dr. Schongarth. Rosenbaum idolized him and became literally absorbed by him, as he had Hans Kruger. Rosenbaum because of his unhappy childhood was longing for authority and a role model. Dr. Schongarth quickly turned into his Führer - and father figure to whom he submitted himself blindly and unconditionally. Therefore, he carried out his orders and directions so to speak automatically and without giving it any thought; on top of that, he had the tendency to interpret every move, every remark and comment of Dr. Schongarth as an order. He made a diligent effort to receive a ‘good mark’ and earn credit with his Commander-in-Chief. His efforts to win the favor of Dr. Schongarth lead to effeminate subservience. He read each wish from his superior’s mouth hanging on every word and served him blindly and zealously as soon as he came back to Bad Rabka. Rosenbaum did not always earn thanks and recognition. In spite of everything, he remained for Dr. Schongarth - the ‘foolish kid’ and ‘bootjack’. Whenever Dr. Schongarth showed his dissatisfaction with him, e.g., criticized loudly that the food served was not enjoyable, the Schnapps too warm etc., Rosenbaum was deeply hurt, down and depressed. When criticized, Rosenbaum always felt this to be an outrageous insult, had a self-pitying reaction and immediately broke out in tears whenever Dr. Schongarth criticized. The situation reached even the level of perversion in the sense that Rosenbaum considered the displeasure of Dr. Schongarth as an honor. After a bizarre incident, when Rosenbaum presented Dr. Schongarth with a brace of geese in order just to please him, there were terrible repercussions. Rosenbaum had mistakenly taken the geese from property belonging to Freidrich Wilhelm Kruger “HSSPF Ost” and Kruger was informed of the incident. Rosenbaum received a ‘tongue lashing’ from Dr. Schongarth over the incident and sunk into further depths of depression and cried on the shoulders of a comrade, SS-Unterscharführer Kluck. All these humiliations did not result in Rosenbaum’s breaking away from his inner fixations on Dr. Schongarth as role model and father figure. His idolatry would remain intact, until reasons lead to it that both roads were separated. To outsiders, Rosenbaum, the small Untersturmführer became someone respectable, as a personal confidant and indispensable aid and organiser. Dr. Schongarth, the big benefactor, had made him a little god and despised him at the same time. In April, 1941, Rosenbaum and his immediate staff were withdrawn from the school and seconded to Dr. Schongarth’s office in Krakow. Rosenbaum was given the task of organizing an officers club. He remained in Krakow until receiving orders in June, 1941, to join the ‘Einsatzkommando’ zbV of Dr. Schongarth with whom he remained, seeing service in Galicia, returning to take charge of the Sipo-SD school in Rabka in the autumn of 1941. It is between the autumn of 1941, and the spring of 1943, that Rosenbaum’s murderous activities took place in Bad Rabka. Rosenbaum made sure to show himself regularly in an impeccable uniform during his service and free time. According to the dress regulations he wore ‘roebuck leather’ or grey gloves. Within the Sipo-SD-Führer-corps, he was looked upon as a sharp, dynamic and well-educated Sipo-SD-Führer. Rosenbaum was a convinced national-socialist and man of the Party. He was proud of being promoted SS-Führer at the age of 25 and being the youngest SS-Führer in the Krakow District. On his blue uniform shirt, he was wearing apart from the gold H-J sign, the Reich-sports sign, the SA-sports sign and later the war merit cross with swords and other decorations. Friends of the same rank considered Rosenbaum to be arrogant and a man where the ‘Führer went to his head’: others considered him friendly in the official and private relationship. The Sipo-SD-people under him knew to respect Rosenbaum: he appeared as a superior who was used to giving orders. Nobody dares not to execute his orders or act without his orders for important things. Rosenbaum was correct and polite towards female employees of his office. They considered him to be lively and cheerful Sipo-SD Führer. Rosenbaum exercised power with a despotic cruelty over his Jew workers; he tortured them physically and psychologically. From their point of view he was the ‘master over life and death’, ‘the horror of the camp’, a ‘God’, He put the Jews working in the School in constant fear of death. Each worker avoided him. His appearance in the places of work meant punishment of some kind, sometimes one of them was selected to be shot. Almost daily, Rosenbaum made sure to appear by foot or horseback at the building sites in the School area: shooting range, sports grounds, and stables. When he appeared all the workers became restless; ‘he is coming’ was said and everybody worked faster not to attract attention. Rosenbaum urged on the frightened people: ‘Shovel, Shovel, fill the carts and run!’ ‘Shovel, shovel, shovel you Jews, I will show you how to work!’ ‘Go, go, on the double!’ were his commands. If a worker would draw attention for no apparent reason, he received a lash with a whip covered by a metal piece at its end, which Rosenbaum was always carried with him. The lash was given in such a way that the metal end of the whip would hit the victim from the back towards the front in the face in the proximity of the eyes. The areas of the eye socket was swollen and turned blue. Rosenbaum used also other objects and his bare fist to maltreat his workers at the slightest occasion. He used every possible opportunity to hurt the Jews in their human dignity: the ‘foolish kid’ of Dr. Schongarth was making his presence felt. There was a catalogue of violence and abuse against his Jewish workers, which would pale into insignificance when placed along side the catalogue of murder that was about to break out in the Rabka School. Rosenbaum tortured his Jewish workers mentally and to hurt their religious feelings. He took Jewish gravestones for neighboring Jewish cemeteries and used them to build a large staircase in front of the School building. When these Jews arrived at the School the SD and Ukrainians organized games. The Jews were driven back and forth in wheelbarrows, the elder Jews had to sit in the wheelbarrows and the younger Jews had to push them through dirt and water pools until the wheelbarrows turned over. The Torah Scrolls were taken from the religious Jews and destroyed. Dogs were let loose on the Jews to frighten them for the entertainment of their tormentors who were also beating them with sticks. Rosenbaum took part in this scene by whipping the Jews and screaming to these anguished people: ‘Where is your God now you damned Jews?’ Whenever he saw Jews whistling in the School he would yell: ‘Only we are allowed to whistle and sing, as we are fighting and winning’. Rosenbaum appeared frequently at the Jewish tailors with a blood stained uniform: ‘Clean this swine blood’. Turning to the Ukrainian guard Radke, he said, referring the tailor Gold, ‘he is a good tailor but will be shot anyway’. During the day, about 20 work-Jews had excavated a large grave in the woods. The pit measured 20 x 4m and 3m deep. About 12 - 15 Jews were picked out from the newly arrived transport and separated from the others. That evening at least 55 Jews were executed in the woods. Rosenbaum personally directed the executions, which was carried out by the SD and Ukrainians as described above. One of the most curious aspects of the Rabka School murders was the secrecy Rosenbaum was able to maintain. When Rosenbaum gave evidence at his trial in Hamburg in 1968, he agreed that he had done his utmost to conceal the murders from domestic staff at the School. That is why most executions were committed in the evening time, when all the general office and domestic staff had finished work and gone home. To this extent he was successful. While the witnesses Meta Kuck, Kathe Engelmann and Adela Schmitt (non Jews) - all employed in the offices of the School in 1942, were quite ignorant, the witness Elfrieda Bohnert - wife of SS-Scharführer Bohnert noticed the execution places during her walks in the woods. Mrs Bohnert had overheard the kitchen staff discussing that Jews were being killed in the woods. However, she considered questions about this were inappropriate. The Jewess, Lucia Schon, in her special relationship with Rosenbaum and the senior SS staff, mentions that the SS wives climbed onto the roof to view the killings when they were taking place in the woods. Lucia Schon was a very important witness due to his domestic attachment to the day-to-day household of the Rosenbaum family. She would reflect when Rosenbaum, would flick through some of the most beautiful paintings she had ever seen, sorting them, like plates in a rack. In east Galicia, SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Kruger, the first commandant of the Rabka School had been busy since October 1941: destroying the Jewish communities in the region of Stanislawow, and in March 1942, the first deportation transports started rolling towards the Belzec death camp. In April, 1943, there was a big upheaval, of Security personnel in Krakow. The Reichsführer SS, Himmler disciplined a number of SS/Sipo-SD officers for theft of Jewish property. Schongarth was transferred to Greece, Hans Kruger to Paris and Rosenbaum by the skin of his teeth escaped theft charges, but was moved sideways from Sipo-SD Führer of Sipo-SD school Rabka, to Krakow (BdS) Führer of Sipo-SD. On August, 1943, Rosenbaum married his then current woman friend from Bad Rabka and shortly afterwards he was transferred to Salzburg. On the 2nd January, 1945 he returned to Bad Rabka to his former place of activity, as a participant in a Chief of Staff course. On the 3rd February, 1945 this course had to be aborted due to the advance of the approaching front line. On the 20th April, 1945, he was promoted to SS-Untersturmführer. When the war drew to a close in April, 1945, Rosenbaum moved from Salzburg to Simmling where he saw out the war. On the disbandment of the German military forces, Rosenbaum was employed as a transport manager for a farm co-operative in the eastern Zone, but after a few months moved to Hamburg where he was employed as an Insurance Agent, Private Detective and Traveling Salesman. In 1949, he settled to taking a sweet shop in Hamburg, and then moved into Wholesale Confectionery where he was very successful. The Rosenbaum business had a total annual turnover of approximately 1.3 million DM. His marriage was childless, but adopted a nephew of his wife. In 1951, he traveled to Holland to seek out Pieter Menten who owed him a share of the looted property from Galicia in the ‘Good Old Days’. Menten persuaded him to sit tight, he would get his share, but at the same time also persuaded Rosenbaum, on a share 50-50 basis, to support a private prosecution for damages, that Menten was taking against the West German Government. Menten at that time was a free man, as his war crimes in the Stryj Valley and Lwow had not come to notice. Menten was suing the government for his arrest and detention by the SS prior to his expulsion from Krakow to the Netherlands in 1943. Menten won his case and received over $200.000 for his trouble. It is not known if Rosenbaum ever received a cent. Rosenbaum was arrested for War Crimes on the 7th September, 1961. The trial dragged on until 1965 when he was given sixteen life sentences. Used with Full Permission of the Author Robin O’Neil by Chris Webb Copyright Robin O'Neill H.E.A.R.T 2007
THE MAGIC OF HIGH EXPECTATIONS According to the U.S. DOE, if we would only have high expectations then even children with learning disabilities can learn to read or cypher at "grade level." Michael "I'm-an-attorney-not-a-teacher" Yudin wrote the blog post describing the U.S. DOE's position on the achievement of students with disabilities. In it he claims that ...fewer than 10 percent of eighth graders with disabilities are proficient in reading and math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Too often, students’ educational opportunities are limited by low expectations.Just think about Yudin's statement for a moment. Fewer than ten percent of students with learning disabilities can't overcome those disabilities and become proficient in reading or math. Pardon me for stating the obvious, but doesn't the first part of that statement encompass the definition of "disability?" High expectations are important...and most educators working with students with disabilities have high expectations for their students...but high expectations alone aren't enough. Peter Greene explains the DOE's thinking... This certainly fits in with the philosophy that the way to get all students to read at grade level is to just, you know, make them do it. Insist real hard. If we believe that we can get a student with a second grade reading skill read at the fifth grade level by just somehow making him do it, why can't we make a dyslexic student or student with other processing difficulties read at level by just expecting her to? "Stop pretending you're blind, Jimmy, and read this book right now!" THE MYSTERY OF "SUPPORT" To be fair, the U.S. Department of Education seems to give lip-service to the belief that "high expectations" aren't enough to bring students up to "grade level." They need "support," too. We must do everything we can to support states, school districts, and educators to improve results for students with disabilities.Problem solved. With sufficient support and high expectations children with disabilities can become "undisabled." But what defines "doing everything we can to support?" Does the DOE know how to magically eliminate dyslexia, for example? If so, why haven't they shared that with the rest us? Does "doing everything we can to support" mean providing extra funds just to states which promise to evaluate teachers on test scores and build more charter schools...or does it mean providing funds where it is needed most? If the U.S. DOE doesn't fund "support" and states keep cutting back on public education (in favor of privately run charter schools and vouchers for private and parochial schools), then who is responsible for "support?" SHARE THE BLAME In the end, is "support" limited to blasting away at teachers until they have "high expectations" and if students with disabilities can't "pass the test" do we continue to just blame teachers? Arne Duncan doesn't think so. He wants the blame to be shared by teachers and the colleges and universities that prepare them (more on that at a later date). In the meantime, teachers, it's up to you to make sure all your students are at "grade level" through the magic of "high expectations." All who envision a more just, progressive and fair society cannot ignore the battle for our nation’s educational future. Principals fighting for better schools, teachers fighting for better classrooms, students fighting for greater opportunities, parents fighting for a future worthy of their child’s promise: their fight is our fight. We must all join in. Stop the Testing Insanity! Vermont State Board of Education: Statement and Resolution on Assessment and Accountability, Adopted August 19, 201
FQHC is the acronym for Federally Qualified Health Centres while RHC stands for Rural Health Centres. Both types of facilities provide primary health care services. RHC is the health care system that provides health care in rural and underserved areas. RHC was created in 1977, and there are currently over 4,000 RHC across the United States. RHC is under the Centres for Medicare service, and they do not use federal funding. FQHCs were established in 1991. There are over 1000 FQHCs across the United States. FQHCs are situated in both urban and rural areas. FQHCs are usually under a federal objective review. FQHCs are also eligible for federal coverage. RHC is the acronym for Rural Health Clinics, while FQHC is the acronym for Federally Qualified Health Centers. Both of these government programs are intended to provide medical help for people in medically challenged areas. The centers certify RHC's for Medicare and Medicaid Services. They offer healthcare services for the insured and uninsured. RHC's provide care in rural areas and places that are lacking healthcare and health providers. FQHC's are also known as Community Health Centers. These centers offer RHC care with more multifaceted services, which include diagnostic and lab behavioral and oral, hospital and specialty, after-hours care, and case management. RHC's don't have particular requirements for a Board of Directors, unlike FQHC's. RHC's do not receive federal funding for a start-up, support, or expansion. On the other hand, FQHC may receive funding for these. FQHC is the acronym given to Federal Qualified Health Centers, while the full meaning of RHC is Rural Health Clinics. These are clinics established to meet people's immediate medical needs. RCH and FQHC are different in some areas, such as their locations, scope of benefits, and range of services. The way they are both administered by the federal government is another major difference between them. Rural Health Clinics, RHC, are located in a seemingly local area to provide basic lab services, emergency care, and outpatient care. RHCs receive their certification from the Centre for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). RHCs are usually private clinics or affiliated with a major Medical Center. They provide health services for the underinsured, the insured, and the uninsured. FQHCs, on the other hand, are referred to as Community Health Centers. They equip the RHCs with needed services and equipment. FQHCs provide wider service and work on an appointment basis. RHC stands for “rural health clinic,” and “FQHC” is the acronym for “Federally Qualified Health Centers.” Both government programs are intended to provide medical help for people in medically challenged rural areas. The difference between RHC’s and FQHC’s involves many aspects. Unlike FQHC, RHC may be either for-profit or non-profit and governing board of directors is not required. An RHC must be in a medically underserved and non-urbanized area. An NP or PA must be on staff in an RHC, and an NP, PA, or CNM must work in the clinic. RHC’s do not use federal funding, while FQHC’s are eligible for federal coverage. The RHC’s provide for the insurance, but FQHC’s can get the money from the federal funding under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The FQHC’s require a Board of Directors, while the RHC’s do not. However, both RHC’s and FQHC’s can exist as for-profit or non-profit. FQHC and RHC are the acronyms for Federally Qualified Health Centers and Rural Health Clinic. Both programs are sponsored by the government to provide medical services to the citizen and most especially to those who can't afford to pay the bills for private treatment. However, there are some differences between FQHC and RHC, especially in terms of location, scope and different medical services they render to people. FQHC provides medical services in both urban and rural areas and the scope of its services covers a large number of people. RHC, on the other hand, provides medical services to people in rural areas, and the type of medical services it renders are limited to only people in the rural area. FQHC has the capacity in terms of medical facilities, to perform a series of operation, whereas RHCs are less equipped with the right facilities to perform some operations. RHCs are not being funded by the federal government, but FQHCs receive financial assistance from the federal government.
Human Flower Project With evergreens and candles, advent wreaths build anticipation of December 25 Lighting the Adventskranz Photo: Johann Peter Heber School Thanks to John Stokes, long-distance friend and faithful steward of Mary’s Gardens, for sending this piece from ZENIT: an interview with Father Juan Javier Flores Arcas, rector of the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of St. Anselm in Rome, about the meaning of the Advent wreath. On the Sunday closest to November 30 (the Feast of St. Andrew), these circles of greenery are brought into houses and churches, and the first of four candles is lit. The custom in our Episcopal Church was to light one more candle each Sunday until Christmas. On December 25, all four would shine. Catholic Community of Pleasanton, CA Photo: via St. Nicholas Center According to Father Arcas, purple is “most appropriate” for the candles, this color being both regal and penitential. The wreath itself, he says, “must be placed in a visible place in the presbytery—very near the altar, very near the pulpit—on a small table, or the trunk of a tree or hung from the ceiling.” Interesting, how the tree slips in. Lighting candles and logs with the approach of Winter solstice is a custom far older than Christianity. A strong fire could lengthen winter days and ward off icicles, much appreciated in the high latitudes of Scandinavia. Lights at four points of the compass and green boughs bent into a circle suggest an ancient pagan custom, but according to a couple of sources, the Advent wreath (known in its native Germany as Adventskranz) is relatively modern. Wikipedia credits Johanes Hinrich Wichern, a Protestant minister, with designing the first one. He was running an orphanage in 19th century Hamburg, Germany, and surely trying to contain the children’s excitement. It’s said that the first wreath held 28 candles, four “Sunday” ones taller than the rest. With each passing day, another candle would be lit, until the whole wreath shone on Christmas. (The Advent calendar, also of German origin, likewise builds suspense day-by-day.) While in the U.S., one most often finds Advent wreaths in churches or schools, in Germany it’s also become customary to have such a wreath at home. “We always had an advent wreath when I was growing up,” writes Carol Lehr. “Right before bedtime my brothers and I gathered around the wreath and we each took turns lighting the candle(s) and reading the bible verses. I can’t, in all honesty, say that as a child I appreciated the tradition. But I must have gotten something from the practice because I carried on the same custom with my children.” More evidence that the juice of tradition is in the passing as much or more than in the practice. Writer Ken Collins takes an especially down-to-earth approach: “Historically, the candles have no more meaning than a countdown. That is, they originally stood for 4, 3, 2, and 1. However, people like for things in the church to have symbolic meanings,” he writes, and goes on to specify for us those associations. As Collins suggests, this is custom in its late mannerist phase, the same kind of symbolic filigree that emerged with “the language of flowers.” “If someone in your church tells you that the candles have some other meaning than Hope, Love, Joy, or Peace, they aren’t wrong, they are just different,” he advises. “The meanings are so new,”—so superfluous and arbitrary, we might add—“that they aren’t completely standardized.” St. Anthony High School Detroit, MI (1961) Collins alludes to Advent’s older, more solemn mood—before the piping in of “ring-ting-tingling,” etc. In keeping with this penitential spirit, there were to be no flowers on the Advent wreath (December in Germany isn’t known for its blooms anyway). The third Sunday in Advent, however, was known as Gaudette Sunday, a day to lighten up on austerity. According to Collins, priests would change their vestments from dreary purple to rose on this day; and “the pope had the custom of giving someone a rose,” late in the Advent season. John, do you know any more about this papal custom? While the Adventskranz does seem to have originated among German Lutherans, it’s now a custom observed by Presbyterians in Alabama, Episcopalians in California, Anglicans in Melbourne. Perhaps because it’s not bound to Christian liturgy, the Adventskranz crops up and lights up in schools, hotels, and even on the German airline Lufthansa. “There are seven on each jumbo jet,” we learn, “adorned with apples, cinnamon sticks, pyracantha and other greenery, and festive red bows.” And why not? Father Arcas says, “Advent is a live and actual time. While we hear the still unfulfilled prophecies, we see the world pass before our eyes and long for the world to come…” ...where, along with lights and greenery, there will be flowers.
The past participle of Middle English werken (“to work”), from Old English wyrcan (past tense worhte, past participle geworht), from Proto-Germanic wurkijaną (“to work”), from Proto-Indo-European werǵ- (“to work”). Cognate with wright (as in wheelwright etc.), Dutch gewrocht, archaic past participle of werken (archaic past tense wrocht, archaic past part. gewrocht), Low German wracht, archaic past participle of warken (archaic past tense wrach, archaic past part. wracht). - Having been worked or prepared somehow. - Is that fence made out of wrought iron? - simple past tense and past participle of 2013 June 29, “High and wet”, The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28: - Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers, washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages. Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge. - In modern English, wrought is usually not interchangeable with worked, the more common contemporary past and past participle of work. - Wrought often lends a more archaic flavor. - The separation of wrought from work has also occurred because while work can be either intransitive or transitive, it is more commonly intransitive, and wrought is transitive only. - Because the phrase "work havoc" has become uncommon in modern English, its past tense "wrought havoc" is sometimes misinterpreted as being a past tense of "wreak havoc".
The city had lost before by infamous way of betrayal: the largest artillery Nativity Villamil negotiated delivery with the brigadier Francisco Tomas Morales, second in command of the Army Spanish, on the grounds that he had no military resources to defend. The terrible loss caused a serious moral damage in the Venezuelan armies and alarmed to Bolivar and Sucre, who were concentrated in the southern campaign. And the glory of recovering as strategic position was to padilla. The battle began at two in the afternoon of 24 July 1823 when the Patriot Army put bow towards the enemy. At the end of the combat victory was total. In his book El Almirante Padilla, Jose Torres Almeida takes stock of the battle: the royalists had 800 casualties between killed and wounded and 438 prisoners made by the Patriots, including 69 officers. The Venezuelan Admiral Eljuri-Nunez writes, to purpose of the contest: the triumph of Maracaibo consolidated freedom of Venezuela and allowed freedom of mid continent. The historian and diplomat Venezuelan Arturo Uslar Pietri for his part, is categorical when he says: If you lose the battle of Maracaibo luck the war of independence would have been another. Surely has had prolonged for several years more, perhaps, Bolivar had to return South. All cattle in thirteen years of long and desperate war had been again in game. Padilla is not large by what you say of him or statues to be erected in honor to his memory. Even for speeches that are pronounced in special dates. It is for their achievements and their brave and valuable contributions to a cause in which firmly believed. His courage, gallantry and intelligence is an example not only to his neighbors but to anyone that creates even on the importance of loyalty to the homeland and love of his own. Jose Prudencio Padilla the phrase of the writer comes well French Romaind Rolland: success no matter. Does is about being big, does not seem so by: ALEJANDRO RUTTO MART?NEZ original author and source of the article
The Internal assessment The internal assessment is a key compnonent of the IB Psychology. In this practical you will replicate an actual psychology experiment. 1) you may work by yourself, with a partner, or in a triple. 2) you MUST do you your own write-up. This is the only way to earn a grade. 3) Ethics considerations must be observed: • Conformity studies are nearly all out - as are all animal experiments • Any stereotyping practical to do with race, religion, gender or social class is out • Quasi experiments are out - e.g. where the IV is age/race/gender/class/ability • Informed consent must always be obtained, and debriefing must be carried out. 3) You must have it approved by me. Check out the list of possibilities. 4) Follow all the procedures outlined and meet deadlines. Ideas for IB internal assessments Don’t assume you can do the practical just because it appears here! It may be unethical or not an experiment or a quasi-experiment. Please note that your study is supposed to be based on a previous experiment carried out by psychologists (i.e. a replication). My Big List (read all to discover the many, many possibilities) B PERCEPTION, THINKING AND PERFORMANCE C CONFORMITY AND PREJUDICE and other social topics D DRIVES AND MOTIVATION 1. Memory and the serial position curve: Subjects learn a long list of words and after a delay they have to recall as many as possible. The hypothesis is that people tend to remember the first and last words in a list due to the primacy and recency effects but not the middle words. 2. Memory and acoustic encoding: 1. There is a theory that when we have to learn something like a telephone number that we store the number in the form of the mental sound that it makes i.e. acoustically. Subjects have to learn lists of letters and then write them down after a delay. According to the acoustic coding theory subjects will have more difficulty recalling letters which sound similar compared to a list of words which sound quite different. 3. Improving memory: 1. Learning and recall can be helped by making associations with something else. Words to be learned are associated with other words which are used later to help retrieval. 2. Give subjects an ambiguous passage (which could mean anything) which they later have to recall. Some subjects are given a title to the passage which makes it sensible while other subjects are not. Those with the title should process the passage more meaningfully and therefore recall the passage more successfully. 3. Imagery vs rehearsal: participants recall more words from a (20) word list when they use an imagery method (forming a vivid mental image and linking each item to the last in a dynamic fashion) than if they use either rehearsal (repeat each item until you hear the next) or no particular method (no prior instruction). Bower (1967); Paivio (1971). 4. Organisation and memory: If word lists are organised in some meaningful way, subjects will recall better than from a jumbled list? 4. Memory and levels of processing: Craik and Lockhart hypothesise that the deeper and more meaningfully we process information the better subsequent recall will be. Subjects are asked to process words either at a basic structural level like 'is the word in capitals?' or at a level requiring the comprehension of meaning e.g. 'is it something you can eat'? Subjects would be expected to recall those words processed more deeply more successfully. Craik and Tulving (1975). 5. Memory interference: This could be nicely applied to school revision. Subjects have to learn for example a list of words and then recall them. However, memory is interfered with by learning another list of words but some subjects learn this interfering list before the main list and some learn it after the main list to see which has the greater effect. 6. Eye-witness reports: Loftus and Palmer (1974); Loftus and Zanni (1975). Participants asked how fast cars were going when they ‘smashed’ into each other, after viewing a car accident, report greater speeds than do participants asked the speed when they ‘hit’ each other. The former group are more likely to report seeing broken glass (when none is there) a week later. Participants are more likely to report seeing broken glass if the question uses ‘did you see the broken glass?’ rather than ‘....any broken glass?’. Weapon focus is linked. Loftus et al (1987) showed that when a person entered a room with a gun, syringe or cheque in their hand, participants recalled least features of the person (hair colour, facial characteristics) in the gun condition and most in the cheque condition. This could be replicated using pictures or video. Health and Safety brochures and videos are a useful resource for this. 7. Does time of day influence peoples ability to recall words? 8. Does background noise impair memory? B PERCEPTION, THINKING AND PERFORMANCE 1. Perceptual Set: 1. This one is based on the idea that people have a very fixed association between colour and taste and attempts to find out how strong this is. It involves giving subjects coloured drinks but in some conditions the colour doesn't match up with the flavour (e.g. red coloured mint). By measuring how long it takes for subjects to judge the flavour will tell us how strong the associations are. 2. This is based on the hypothesis that peoples perception of colour depends on what they associate that colour with. For example people associate tomatoes with being red so might perceive a stronger red colour than say a red hat which doesn't have the same associations. This practical involves showing subjects pictures of fruit but with some of the colours mixed up. For example subjects are showed a picture of a red tomato and then a red banana and later have to judge the colours of each on a colour chart. 3. Solving lists of anagrams is easier if all the words belong to a category (e.g. animals) than if they are random words. 4. It has been suggested that people perceive the size of coins depending on how they perceive it's value. Specifically children and people from low income families are thought to overestimate the size of coins. This can be designed easily enough by showing subjects different coins and asking them to later to judge their size using a comparison chart of different sized circles. 5. This is based on the old/young woman ambiguous figure you may have seen - but will only work on students who haven't seen it (or you could invent your own alternative). The hypothesis is that if you predispose someone to think positively or even romantically by reading a short story or showing a film clip they will be more likely to see the young woman than the old witch. 6. People are first predisposed to think about a particular set of objects e.g. fruit or letters of the alphabet, by showing them pictures. Then an ambiguous picture is flashed to them which could be a banana or a letter 'C' for example. The hypothesis is that they will label the object according to the set of objects they saw previously. 7. The subject is presented briefly with a list of words about a topic e.g. letter, post, stamp etc. which they have to write down - and then one of them is misspelled e.g. mael, and the hypothesis is that because a strong mental concept of the topic has been set up that they will write down the word as 'mail'. 8. Illusions: This is based on the Muller-Lyer illusion: By re-designing the illusion it is possible to test the hypothesis of constancy scaling put forward by Richard Gregory that the reason the illusion works is because it has hidden depth cues. The practical involves showing subjects different forms of the illusion to find out when it is most powerful. 1. Stroop effect: Participants take a lot longer to name the colour of ink that words are written in when the words themselves are contradictory colour words e.g. ‘red’ written in yellow ink – Dyer (1973). 2. Word and letter recognition: Visual search: Time taken to find X’s hidden in a four column list of similar shaped letters (Y, Z etc.) is longer than for lists with letters such as S, R, P etc. – Neisser’s (1964) feature analysis model of pattern recognition. Alternatively: Participants will take longer to find 0 among letters if it is called tzero’ than when it is called letter ‘oh’ and vice versa – Jonides & Gleitman (1972). 3. Is performance is impeded by noise? Subjects have a task to perform with or without noise. 4. Estimation of time: Effects of mental activity on the estimation of time: Ornstein hypothesised that the more mental activity we do in a fixed period of time the longer the subjective estimate of that time interval. This could be tested by asking subjects to listen to a passage of prose for say 100 seconds and then to estimate when a further 100 seconds of the prose had elapsed. In one group the prose could be read slowly to reduce the amount of mental processing and in the second group the prose would be read out faster. 5. Concrete v abstract reasoning (problem solving) and concept formation: When it comes to logical problem solving people are typically very poor and tend just to look for examples which confirm their theory rather than looking for possible exceptions which might disprove it. This practical is based on giving subjects seemingly simple tests of logic to see what errors they make. However, the hypothesis being tested is that if the logic problems are purely abstract (e.g. if x is always double y and y is never an even number .....etc.) then many more mistakes will be made compared to more concrete problems (e.g., if worms are always animals and animals are sometimes birds....etc.) even if the basic logical pathway is the same. A similar alternative is as follows: The Wason (1969) selection task –participants are shown four cards displaying B E 3 and 8. They are given the rule ‘every consonant has an even number on the other side’. Participants have to decide which two cards to turn over in order to check the validity of the rule. They tend to demonstrate false logical reasoning and assume that the B and 8 cards must be turned over whereas B and 3 are correct. Griggs and Cox (1982) used more realistic material with ‘beer’ or ‘Pepsi’ on one side and an age on the other. To check the rule ‘only 18 year olds and above may drink’, and given cards showing ‘beer’, ‘Pepsi’, ‘16’ and ‘20’, participants do much better than on the abstract task. Similarly, participants might be asked to check the rule ‘all first class envelopes are sealed’ given sealed unsealed, first and second class stamped envelopes. Frequencies of correct response can be compared with those for the abstract Wason task using chi–squared. 6. Heuristics: Tversky and Kahneman’s (1973) ‘availability’ hypothesis. If people recall more items from one set than from another they assume (heuristically) that there actually were more in the former set. Demonstrate this by giving participants a set of names to remember containing 19 very famous males and 20 not so famous females. Since participants tend to recall more male names they tend to judge that more males were in the list. 7. Attitudes and classical conditioning: Involves making positive or negative associations between words to see if this changes our attitudes (see Flanagan) 8. First impressions and Primacy effects: ask participants to score a person’s maths test and then estimate the overall score on that person on Maths ability: Group A have correct answers first, then incorrect. Group B have incorrect answers first, then correct. Group A will estimate a higher score than Group B. C CONFORMITY AND PREJUDICE and other social topics 1. Prejudice and stereotypes: 1. Subjects are presented with a list of facts about someone like 'tall', and 'keen on sport' etc. They then have to fill in a questionnaire about the personality traits they think that person would have. There are two experimental groups with identical lists of facts except for one key difference e.g. 'black'/'white' (this particular version is not ethical). This attempts to discover peoples prejudices about race, sex, social class etc. Social class stereotypes. Subjects hear identical lists of descriptions about a person except for him living in a large country house or a high rise flat. Subjects then fill in a questionnaire. Will need modifying and simplifying for IBs. 2. Person perception: Versions of Asch’s (1946) ‘warm’, ‘cold’ central traits paradigm can be implemented in many topical ways. Candidates give one description of a person to one group of participants and an identical version to another group varying only one characteristic, for instance ‘agrees with nuclear testing’ for one group and ‘disagrees....’ for the other. They then ask participants to assess the fictitious person on, say, liking or trustworthiness on a 10 point scale and look for differences between groups. Asch’s ‘primacy’ effect can also be tested using a list of descriptors – e.g. ‘orderly entertaining humble cool calculating moody’ in that order for one group and in the opposite order for another. Those hearing the positive traits first might rate the person more favourably on a ten point scale – Anderson and Barrios (1961). 3. Snyder and Uranowitz (1978) presented two versions of a woman’s life to two different groups. One group was later told that she took up a lesbian life-style (avoid this specific example); for the other group, she married. From the statement in the description ‘although she never had a steady boyfriend she did go out on dates’, the former group were more likely to recall the first part of this statement and the second group did the reverse. 4. Gordon et al (1988) showed that, given a scenario about a crime, black muggers and white embezzlers got heavier sentences than the opposite combinations, supporting the view that the crimes are stereotypical in people’s minds for the categories of person. Typically candidates can write a scenario and vary sex, ethnic group, occupation of the criminal or other fictitious actor and look for difference in how the fictitious person is sentenced, rated for liking or otherwise appropriately assessed. Care must be taken in such studies, however, not to reinforce any existing stereotypes which candidates already hold. 5. Luria and Rubin (1974) – participants given the same picture of a baby but one group told it is male the other female. Record differences in descriptions. It is best to give a checklist to participants containing ‘typical’ masculine and feminine traits – fine featured, strong, robust, sensitive, cute, delicate etc 6. The halo effect: The effects of physical attractiveness: The halo effect states that attractive people are perceived as having more positive attributes. 1. Person perception and first impressions: A two paragraph description or story of someone is written with one paragraph being more positive than the other. Paragraph order can be reversed and subjects get one of the two possible orders. Subjects then have to rate the person on a questionnaire. The hypothesis is that due to first impressions the subjects who hear the story with the first paragraph being the positive one will rate the person more positively. E.g. Story of Jim with the first half suggesting he is friendly and the second half suggestion he is unfriendly. Different subjects receive different orders of the story. 2. Social facilitation: The idea is that people tend to perform better when in groups than when on their own. Subjects can be given tasks (e.g. word searches) either in groups or on their own to test this theory. 3. Conformity: Do people over-estimate the number of beads in a jar if they see a list of other peoples ‘over-estimates’? i.e. do they conform to other peoples views? 4. Defensive attribution: The more serious an accident appears, the more people wish to assign responsibility to someone. D DRIVES AND MOTIVATION 1. Incentives and performance: It would seem logical that incentives should improve our performance. This could be tested by asking subjects to perform simple tasks like anagrams and measuring their speed of performance under different conditions. e.g. with or without an incentive like a Mars bar or alternatively by creating a fear of failing - to see whether positive or negative incentives are the most effective (e.g. telling the subjects that the results will be put on display and that the average number of completed anagrams in 5 minutes by 8 year olds is 15!) This could be developed to find whether the fear of failure impedes performance most on more complex cognitive tasks like anagrams rather than simple memory recall type tasks. Alternatively you could test the hypothesis that a group of subjects will perform better on a task if they have previously (based on an earlier test) been told they have scored highly, than a group who have been told (falsely) they have performed badly. 2. Is performance in a task impeded by noise? From the IB Cognitive psychology is concerned with how people acquire, store, transform, use and communicate information. Cognitive psychologists rejected the behaviourist assumption that mental events or states were unsuitable for scientific research. In this unit students will examine the model-based approach often employed by the cognitive perspective. Issues of ecological and construct validity will be explored with regard to the methods employed by the perspective. Memory is the topic which we will study in depth. Objectives of the Unit: • Describe and evaluate the cultural context and development, the conceptual framework, the methodology, and the application of the cognitive perxpective. • Describe and evaluate theories and empirical studies within this perspective. • Explain how cultural, ethical, gender, and methodological considerations affect the interpretation of behaviour from a cognitive perspective. • Compare theories, empirical studies and the conceptual framework of this model with the other perspectives. • Identify and explain the strengths and limitations of cognitive explanations of behaviour. • Explain the extent to which free will and determinism are integral in this perspective. • Assess the extent to which concepts and models of information processing have helped the understanding of cognition. • Assess claims that this perspective lacks ecological validity, and be able to consider alternative research methods.
Honey bee on thistle flower (Photo: John Obermeyer) William Shakespeare was born in England in 1564 in the village of Stratford-upon- Avon. Many have lauded him as the greatest writer in the English language. The Bard of Avon penned some 38 plays, including comedies such as "Taming of the Shrew." Many of us have seen that play performed in our high schools as Cole Porter's musical adaptation "Kiss Me, Kate." Shakespeare also wrote tragedies such as "Romeo and Juliet" and histories, including "Henry VIII." Within his comedies, tragedies and histories, Shakespeare mentioned insects over 100 times. Only two of Shakespeare's plays are devoid of insects. So it could be said that the Bard gained some inspiration from the natural history of insects. Few people would argue that Shakespeare was a serious student of insect biology, as were ancient writers Aristotle and Pliny. Nor was Shakespeare as interested in insects as fellow countryman and natural theologist Erasmus Darwin, who lived a century later. Erasmus, as it turned out, was grandfather to Charles Darwin of natural selection fame. So it is reasonable to assume that Shakespeare's knowledge of insects came from two sources. The first was probably what existed in folklore of his time. The insects that he mentioned were common and would have been familiar to almost everyone of this era. The second source for Shakespeare's entomological knowledge was likely both contemporary and ancient literature. The Bard was certainly a learned individual. Of course, the notion that both scientists and literary folks build on the discoveries of individuals who preceded them is, in today's lingo, "standard operating procedure." Jonathan Swift, another British poet, captured the idea in a few lines from his long poem, "On Poetry: A Rhapsody": "So nat'ralists observe, a flea Hath smaller fleas that on him prey; And these have smaller fleas to bite 'em And so proceeds Ad infinitum." So what are the insects in the writings of Shakespeare? They are flies. One type of fly mentioned by Shakespeare is the blue bottle. This is a fly that lays eggs on dead animals; its maggots use rotting carcasses as a food source. It was apparently this unsavory biology that prompted Shakespeare to write in "Henry IV" this reference to the blue dress of a beadle: "I will have you as soundly swinged for this, you blue-bottle rogue!" Me thinks this was not intended to be a compliment for blue-robed church officials called beadles, who were tasked with keeping order at services! The term "bottle" that is applied to some groups of flies is probably a reference to the term "bot," which was once used to describe fly maggots. Many people are familiar with the use of maggots of bottle flies to help pinpoint the time of death in crime-scene, death investigations. Gil Grissom, the fictional, forensic entomologist on the CBS crime drama "CSI," was well known for collecting insects - especially maggots - at a crime scene. Today, bot is used for flies with maggots that feed in living animal bodies. There are several species of bot flies, and most are specific to a host, such as deer, rabbits, mice and even humans. One of the most common is the cattle bot. Historically, such a fly was called breese, and that is the term used by Shakespeare. In "Troilus and Cressida," he writes: "The herd hath more annoyance by the breese Than by the tiger." Antony's friend Scarus describes Cleopatra's flight after the battle of Actium as "The breese upon her, like a cow in June, Hoists sails and flies." This is in reference to cattle that run with their tails in the air when pestered by bot flies. Shakespeare also includes fleas, lice, beetles, crickets and grasshoppers in his writing. Locusts, as a food item, are mentioned in "Othello" with the line, "the food that to him now is as luscious as locusts." Bees, ants and wasps also get included, but it is the industry, social habits and products of the honey bee that are extolled. In "Henry V," for instance, the king and his advisors discuss the merits of a war with Scotland and France at the same time. The argument is that if honey bees can engage in multiple simultaneous activities, then England ought to be able to do so as well. But the Bard perpetuates a long-standing notion that the leader of the hive is male with the line, "They have a king." On the other hand, he writes about the "lazy, yawning drones" in reference to male honey bees. So Shakespeare was like most of us - figuring out the sex of an insect is not an easy thing to do!
MEPS 301:9-22 (2005) - doi:10.3354/meps301009 Sand DNAa genetic library of life at the waters edge Robert K. Naviaux1,*, Benjamin Good2,6, John D. McPherson3, David L. Steffen3, David Markusic1,7, Barbara Ransom4,8, Jacques Corbeil2,5 ABSTRACT: Powdered silica has long been used for the purification of nucleic acids in the laboratory. Silicate-rich, ordinary ocean beach sand was found to concentrate dissolved DNA from seawater over 10000-fold, providing a rich, renewable, and easily accessible genetic library that is easy to harvest and inexpensive to process. We found an average of 29 µg ml1 of cell-free DNA adsorbed to silicate-rich, wave-washed sand from 14 beaches bordering 9 seas around the world. The DNA from a reference beach was shotgun cloned, 3107399 nucleotides of anonymous, non-redundant sequence were analyzed, and 2571 genes were found; 2562 of these genes were new. The apparent complexity of sand DNA was greater than 1.4 × 1011 nucleotides. About 90% of the sequences identified were from prokaryotes, 10% from eukaryotes, and 1% were viral. Sequences from all kingdoms of life were present. Over half the sequences came from new phylotypes, reflecting the novelty of this genetic reservoir. KEY WORDS: Sand · Genetic library · Dissolved DNA · Beach \|Full text in pdf format\|
Both in science and business, we often experience difficulties collecting enough data to test our hypotheses, either because target groups are small or hard to access, or because data collection entails prohibitive costs. Such obstacles may result in data sets that are too small for the complexity of the statistical model needed to answer the questions we’re really interested in. Several scholars teamed up and wrote this open access book: Small Sample Size Solutions. This unique book provides guidelines and tools for implementing solutions to issues that arise in small sample studies. Each chapter illustrates statistical methods that allow researchers and analysts to apply the optimal statistical model for their research question when the sample is too small. This book will enable anyone working with data to test their hypotheses even when the statistical model required for answering their questions are too complex for the sample sizes they can collect. The covered statistical models range from the estimation of a population mean to models with latent variables and nested observations, and solutions include both classical and Bayesian methods. All proposed solutions are described in steps researchers can implement with their own data and are accompanied with annotated syntax in R. You can access the book for free here!
From the April 1939 issue of Popular Science magazine comes a "radio man" who walks, talks and yodels. Here's what they had to say about Swiss engineer, August Huber's creation: TOWERING seven feet high, a strange "radio man" has just been completed after ten years of arduous work by August Huber, a Swiss engineer. Beneath its jointed steel body, the gigantic mechanical man is a maze of automatic switches, relays, and other controls. Microphones within the automaton's' ears pick up spoken commands and carry them to an intricate system of twenty electric motors that make the fantastic creature walk, talk, sing, or yodel at the will of its master. Power for these various activities is supplied by batteries concealed in the ponderous legs. When this modern monster talks through the loudspeaker installed in its chest, its lips move in time with its speech. An ultra-short-wave receiver installed in its torso enables the "radio man" to follow orders transmitted to it by radio from remote points.
Tracing the Course of the Eagle Rock Creek in Rockdale October 20, 2012 § 5 Comments In February 2010, Jane Tsong posted these photos on L.A. Creek Freak of flooding in the Yosemite Drive area of Eagle Rock in 1934, with a challenge to readers to find the location of the photographs. The 1934 New Year’s Day Flood is notorious for causing the death of at least 45 people in Montrose and La Crescenta. It inspired Woody Guthrie to write a song of that title. Several days of very heavy rain caused lethal debris flows in areas of the San Gabriel Mountains that had been burned that fall. The flooding in the Los Angeles basin as a whole was not particularly severe, but the deaths of so many people in the foothills focused people’s attention on the dangers of flooding, and gave added impetus to the comprehensive flood control planning for the entire watershed. In the case of Eagle Rock, where no lives were lost, the 1934 flood increased public pressure to complete the area’s storm drain system, and, in particular, to construct the Yosemite Drive storm drain with Civil Works Administration funds. Soon after these photographs were taken, the natural (or semi-natural) creek documented by these photographs disappeared into a 102″ concrete pipe under Yosemite Drive. The first photograph of the flood shows F. E. Montee’s house at 4815 Avoca Avenue, on the north side of Yosemite Drive. On January 4th, the Eagle Rock Advertiser reported that the house was “almost completely undermined and the family forced to vacate.” The house survives, in a much altered state, while the path of the creek has been turned into an alley; only the large sycamore growing in the middle of this alley provides a clue to the former presence of the creek. On the upstream side of Avoca, however, the old channelized stream actually survives. Completely overgrown with invasive Tree of Heaven, it probably extends as far as Rockdale elementary school; the sides of the channel are lined with corrugated iron and it measures about five feet wide and three feet deep. The second and third photographs of the 1934 flood show the creek on either side of the Yosemite Drive bridge, just downstream from Avoca Street and near to the the intersection of Yosemite Drive and Ray Court. The present day jog in the course of Yosemite Drive in this area is a vestige of the need to cross over the creek. The second photograph is looking downstream, with the silhouette of Occidental College’s Fiji Hill clearly discernable in the background; the power poles are running along Yosemite Drive, just as they do today. The third photograph is looking upstream, from the other side of Yosemite Drive, with the now demolished two-story masonry Rockdale elementary school just visible in the background. The exact location of the bridge remains a little vague, but an older photograph of the area taken from Wildwood Drive clearly shows the course of the creek as it crosses under Yosemite Drive and heads across the land that is now occupied by the Yosemite Manor and other large apartment complexes. Another useful document for creek freaks is an undated storm drain map, in which the storm drains were expediently drawn over an older topographical map. The palimpsest of the old contour lines clearly describes the path of the creek as it heads towards Oak Grove Drive. The most remarkable thing revealed by these photographs is the proximity of the houses to the creek. The potential destructive force of the creek seems to have been entirely underestimated. A portion of Oak Grove Drive (where the High School now stands) was actually built along the line of the creek, with predictable consequences! It is sad to think that with only a little planning, in terms of prudent setbacks from the watercourse and preservation of floodplain width, the creek could have been preserved in an almost natural state for the whole length of the valley. Large parcels of land along the creek, including three school properties and the Yosemite Recreation Center, were still largely open space in the 1930s. It is a story of missed opportunity—in fact, a version of the history of the whole watershed, in miniature.
That's the intriguing new hypothesis put forward to explain the Permian mass extinction, which wiped out more than 90% of all Earth's species 251 million years ago. And we even know which microbe is responsible for this omnicidal annihilation. MIT researcher Daniel Rothman has proposed this idea based on his analysis of sediment samples dating back to the very end of the Permian. The samples seem to suggest that carbon levels rose very quickly, and no known geological process — including a volcanic eruption or a meteorite impact, two common explanations proposed for the Permian extinction — could account for it. However, a microbe could account for that kind of spike in carbon levels. Writing for New Scientist, Sara Reardon explains how Rothman identified the likely culprit: When Rothman's group analysed the genome of Methanosarcina - a methanogen responsible for most of Earth's biogenic methane today - they discovered that the microbe gained this ability about 231 million years ago. The date was close to that of the mass extinction, but not close enough to suggest a link. But Methanosarcina needs large amounts of nickel to produce methane quickly. When the team went back to their sediment cores, they discovered that nickel levels spiked almost exactly 251 million years ago - probably because the Siberian lavas were rich in the metal. Of course, this hypothesis is far from confirmed, and the dates in the geological will probably need to line up better than that before this really starts gaining credence. Either way, Methanosarcina wouldn't have been able to devastate Earth's biosphere if not for the availability of that nickel-rich lava, so the volcanoes aren't off the hook here just yet. But, if this is true, then I think Methanosarcina has taken a very strong step towards being the biggest assholes in the history of our planet. Then again, biologists are pretty much certain that we humans are driving the current loss of biodiversity that might well become the next mass extinction... so we're not exactly off the hook either.
Teacher Librarians who can work collaboratively with teachers in a teaching team can help make successful learning activities in the school. Despite schools still being inundated with “inertial bureaucracy” (Fullan, 1999, p. 31), which is a very depressing feature of the education system, teaching staff who can collaborate have a happier, more positive learning environment for students. Louis and Kruse (1995) in Fullan, 1999, p. 31) state that they have evidence that measured a better performance in several subject areas. Todd (2008) states that the concept of collaboration of teachers and teacher librarians is not new and it is part of the practice of the teacher librarian. Many of the criteria in an TL applications state that the TL should be able to collaborate with teachers to implement information literacy programs which will produce positive learning outcomes for students (Todd, 2008) and (Australian School Library Association (ASLA) and Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), (2004). Kahn & Valence (2012) describe a collaborative set of lessons to produce a social studies paper, where the teacher librarian and English teachers worked together to teach students how to write a research paper. The English teachers helped students devise good questions and the teacher librarian helped the students find accurate reliable information and also how to create citations. The use of a pathfinder enabled to student to stay focussed and start to study their subject in more depth. Kahn & Valence (2012) describe the further steps that the students took to turn in a very successful paper. They also describe other activities that older students could do to help with their studies and make videos and wikis of research activities that could be revisited at any time. I think that the production of videos by students and media teachers would be a good idea for my senior secondary students as it would reinforce lessons that I have taught them in the library. It would also provide a basis for them in future studies. Subject based wikis produced by librarian, IT teachers and subject teachers would also be a useful to put in the good sources of information, and perhaps, which sources not to use and why. I have also just discovered Google Lit Trips which would be a great way to bring Literature to life (Colorado State Library, 2011). It would involve collaboration between library staff and teaching staff and initiate the projects for the students. Hammond & Barnabei (2013) describe how their flipped classroom works in the Vocational Education sector, where homework entails watching instructional videos that are supplied by teachers and teacher librarian/technology integrator and the majority of classroom time is spent doing the practical activities. This has taken collaboration to a different level where TL support is provided in the forms of apps, the Apple environment and videos which support real-world projects. Todd ( 2008) states that instructional collaborations do not happen by chance and that the lessons must be planned well and must be flexible to meet realistic goals. Australian School Library Association (ASLA) and Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). (2004). Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. Retrieved July 24, 2013, from http://www.asla.org.au/policy/standards.aspx Colorado State Library. (2011, August 2). Highly Effective School Librarians Create Collaborative Culture. Retrieved September 22, 2013, from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-Kaz6LXu30 Fullan, M. (1999). Deep meaning of inside collaboration. In Change forces : the sequel (pp. 31-41). London : Falmer Press. Hammond, J. K., & Barnabei, C. (2013). Reinventing ourselves in the digital age. Library Media Connection, 31(6), 14-16. Kahn, E., & Valence, L. (2012). Collaboration is the key to successful research. Library Media Connection. (March/April), 40-42. Todd, R. J. (2008). The dynamics of classroom teacher and teacher librarian instructional collaborations. Scan, 27(2), 19-28.
Dynamic light scattering is increasingly important for determining nanoparticle size, but researchers also want to know about zeta potential. Nanoparticles occupy an important middle ground between bulk materials and atomic or molecular structures. Generally considered to be any object under 100 nm in diameter, nanoparticles are so small that they exhibit the properties of large, bulk materials, but are heavily influenced by the dynamics of molecules and atoms, where different forces exert greater influence. As such, they are seen as a bridge and a potential tool for manipulating systems at a variety of size levels. But the learning curve for nanoparticle production has been steep. They are difficult to visualize, and their properties are often unknown until they are subjected to extensive experimentation. Some nanoparticle types, such as gold, have been studied for years before their strengths could be harnessed. But it’s well known that size and surface area play a large role in how nanoparticles behave. In response to this, a wide variety of techniques have been developed to gauge size. For analysis of specific particles, few options can outdo electron microscopy, which can accurately determine structures down to just a few nanometers or less. Other options include atomic force microscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, and various forms of spectroscopy. But for fast and non-destructive determination of nanoparticles in solution, few methods can compare to the compactness and simplicity of use offered by dynamic light scattering (DLS). Horiba Instruments, Irvine, Calif., manufactures a wide range of scientific instruments geared for particle characterization, including those based on laser diffraction. But until recently, it had not released a dynamic light scattering tool that included the ability to measure zeta potential. According to Ian Treviranus, the product line manager for Horiba’s particle characterization instrument business, the increased capability and popularity of the technique eventually convinced the company to develop their own approach to DLS with zeta potential, which debuted in 2011 in the nanoPartica SZ-100 desktop nanoparticle analyzer. In addition to the sizing capabilities of DLS, the SZ-100 featured another capability: the ability to find zeta potential. A measurement that is becoming highly prized among researchers involved in nanoscale research, zeta potential is determined through electrophoretic light scattering, or ELS. Just as particle size and surface area play a major role in how a concentration of nanoparticles behaves, so too, does zeta potential, which describes the stability of a particle concentration. The DLS advantage As compared to the wavelength of visible light, nanoparticles are small enough to conform to the phenomenon known as Rayleigh scattering, in which light is scattered in all directions. Use of coherent light, typically a laser, can then produce a signal that contains information about changes in scattering intensity. The changes stem from Brownian motion, which describes the constant movement experienced by nanoparticles. Interference patterns, which describe intensity fluctuations, are generated by the laser and information about how the particles are changing position over time can be gathered. Signal processing algorithms can then be applied to the raw signal data to produce a chart showing peaks and average particle size. “The technology of dynamic light scattering has been around for decades, but the ability of companies like Horiba to develop advanced designs has been driving costs down,” says Treviranus. DLS, as a technique, has been available for more than 30 years. But only in the last 10 years, he says, has the popularity of DLS accelerated. The critical mass of acceptance was achieved in several ways. First, the instruments themselves improved markedly, becoming more reliable and predictable, says Treviranus. As researchers paid more and more attention to particles 100 nm in size and below, they became more skilled and more comfortable with the technique. This has helped results because DLS requires a skill set for preparing samples and interpreting results. Researchers began to trust results through experience. Additionally, standards authorities such as NIST began releasing reference materials that could be directly tested on DLS instruments. This allowed laboratory researchers to achieve a greater degree of process control. The other factor, says Treviranus, is a regulation. Horiba has been watching European Union regulations, for example, which are beginning to determine what kind of nanoparticles constitute a potential health risk. These impending rules represent both a challenge and an opportunity. “We want to meet the need or demand whether it’s the market or the regulations themselves stipulating a demand or need,” he says. As a result of this expectation of rules regarding nanoparticle content for various commercial products—as common as sunscreen, or as rarified as functionalized gold nanoparticles—sales of particle sizing tools have been increasing in recent years. In addition to the compact, bench-top footprint and the approachable, reliable operation of DLS instruments, the attraction to the technique is its strong ability in the “sweet spot” of nanoparticle size, from about 10 to 100 nm. “That’s the size where most applications are looking, and other modern sizing technologies tend to peter out when you start talking about sizes below 100 nm,” says Treviranus. Theoretically, DLS can pick out particle sizes from as small as 1 nm to as large as several micrometers in diameter. But realistically, he says, the useful results will emerge from somewhere in the middle. One of Horiba’s other particle sizing tools, the LA950 laser diffraction analyzer, can measure “peaks”, or particle signatures, well down to 30 nm. But DLS can reliably go much smaller. Finally, real-world applications for these instruments are beginning to proliferate. In the carbon black market, for example, the standard of size not too long ago was 2 µm. Now the carbon black industry is examining materials deep into the nano regime. “People are increasingly asking about how product quality can change and the process can change at the nanoscale,” says Treviranus. “One of the clearest aspects of that is the pharmaceutical drug delivery research taking place with regard to gold nanoparticles.” Known for their benign and neutral interaction with biological systems, gold is a popular choice for biotechnology researchers who aim to decorate the particles with various therapeutics and use them as a delivery vehicle. Gold nanoparticles in the size concentration considered useful for this type of application can’t be quickly measured with other techniques. This application is also good example of how DLS has become a reliable laboratory tool. NIST has established three standards for gold nanoparticles, and these references can be checked against the SZ-100s results repeatedly. The SZ-100 is Horiba’s first DLS instrument to incorporate zeta potential measurement capability. Zeta potential can be thought of as a stability measurement. In solution, nanoparticles not only have their inherent characteristics based on material type and surface area. They also interact with other particles in various ways that researchers are increasingly keen on observing. “I like to use this analogy. When you go to the grocery store and you see salad dressing on the shelf with their oils and ingredients all separated, it’s the opposite of what you want when you pour the dressing. You want for that stuff to stay mixed up and the same is true of pharmaceutical drugs and nanoparticle formulations. You do not want your material to aggregate or phase separate,” says Treviranus. In the SZ-100, the zeta potential measurement occurs in a disposable plastic cell. A field is created between two electrodes, and as the materials begin to accelerate, the difference in charge between the particles and surrounding medium can be measured using electrophoretic light scattering. Scattered light is mixed into an unscattered reference beam to determine velocity. The direction of the particle motion determines if the charge is negative or positive, and the mobility of the particles in the applied electric field determines the magnitude of the zeta potential. This charge magnitude, or electron mobility, of the particles is described by the zeta potential. The result indicates the sample’s dispersion stability. When developing their zeta potential cells, Horiba discovered that traditional electrode materials and cell designs suffered from several shortcomings that were not well suited to studying nanoparticles or macromolecules. One significant problem involved Joule heating near the electrode surface, which often “cooked” the sample and changed its nature. The burning effect hurt results and lowered the lifetime of the cells. “The early cells never helped people believe that zeta potential measurements were helpful,” says Treviranus. Inspiration for a solution may have come from an unexpected source, he continues. During development, particle characterization instrument engineers at Horiba’s Kyoto, Japan, headquarters were located not far from the medical division engineers, who had already developed a carbon, or graphite, electrode for use in clinical settings. This non-metallic electrode was adapted to the SZ-100 with positive results. Resistant to both burning and fouling, the new zeta potential cells generate more reproducible results and last up to 20 times longer. “That’s really cut down significantly on the consumable cost of these measurements, and was essentially one of the biggest innovations on the SZ-100,” says Treviranus. Horiba also improved on the cell’s basic design, using optically clear plastic and other measures to minimize electro-osmotic flow. An average magnitude of zeta potential greater than 30 mV (in water-based systems) typically denotes a stable system, which means that pharmaceutical companies want to build up a certain amount of charge on the particles in use. This is a crucial step during formulation so that a product does not go bad, either during processing or after sale. Released in 2011, Horiba’s nanoparticle SZ-100 is the company’s first dynamic light scattering instrument, and has been engineered to provide reliable zeta potential measurement results. The future of DLS As a standalone technology, dynamic light scattering is mature. The developments and innovations, says Treviranus, are incremental and now mostly have to do with the special approach of the manufacturer. In the SZ-100, for example, Horiba has its own method for processing the signal, which collected by the correlator. Each manufacturer programs their tools to collect data in a specific, and sometimes patented, pattern. Data may be collected as quickly as every few nanoseconds for single-nanometer sized particles. This forms the autocorrelation function from which size information is extracted. The future of DLS, then, is partly determined by the proliferation of products that use nanoparticles. Horiba has already published a variety of application notes in which the SZ-100 is used to study biopolymers, food industry particles like maltose, and industrial nanoparticles like antimony trioxide. Treviranus feels comfortable with future demand. But its long-term success also depends on the capability of competing techniques. “What we see with DLS that’s really apparent right now is that four or five new organizations are out there trying to develop technologies that will complement DLS size results, or, for some applications, supplant DLS size results,” says Treviranus. These new technologies have their uses, he says, but the downside with many of them is the limitation in capacity, or that they might not do well in reporting the size regime that is frequently demanded by researchers. In SEM and TEM, the downside is sample preparation, and the fact that electron microscopes have sample size restrictions and sample preparation limitations with regard to delicate organic specimens. While several particles may be viewed by a TEM in high detail, the sample may not be giving enough information about the particle distribution of the colloid as a whole. “Companies are also trying to visualize nanoparticles, but still with light scattering,” says Treviranus. Some of these emerging techniques, which include technology from NanoSight Inc., Amesbury, U.K., that relies on an optical approach, have been covered in R&D Magazine previously. Nanoparticle counting through resonance techniques is also in its nascent stages, and some centrifuges have been developed that spin particles through a measurement zone, where their size is determined by relative speed. These methods may improve and become more widespread. But so far they lack good market recognition. The other factor that will help determine DLS is zeta potential. While DLS as a technology is relatively mature, says Treviranus, ELS is still a developing technique that could benefit from future improvements, particularly in cost of ownership and ease-of-use.
RADAR is to air-traffic control what eyes are to people. It allows ground controllers to guide planes around the skies without the risk of a mid-air collision. But air-traffic-control radars—which use up more than 25kW per pulse—have a hefty appetite for electricity. A big airport may use up to four separate devices: to provide a picture of the surrounding airspace, guide aircraft during bad weather, see position of aircraft and vehicles on the ground to prevent collisions, and provide weather information. Multiply that by the number of airports worldwide, add in other radars that track aircraft between airports, and you end up consuming oodles of power. Radar engineers believe that this thirst could be reduced by the use of so-called Active Electronically Scanned Arrays (AESAs). AESAs use thousands of individual radar-emitting blocks mounted on a single antenna. The technology is somewhat similar to a fly's compound eye, in that it builds up a single image from hundreds of individual light-sensitive bumps, all looking in slightly different directions. The difference between an AESA-based radar and a fly's eye is that each of the radar's blocks can be given a different task by the radar's controlling computer. The attraction, says Odile Adrian, in charge of Radar Advanced Developments at Thales, a French engineering firm, is that “you could replace several airport radars with one system,” to perform airspace, surface and weather surveillance and guidance all at the same time. For now, such high-tech radars are prohibitively expensive, but Ms Adrian and her colleagues are working on bringing the cost down, and they reckon that it might be available to airports in the next two decades. In the meantime, clever signal-processing tricks can help. IAI Elta, an Israeli radar specialist, is enthusiatically pursuing an approach called non-co-operative bistatic Radar systems. These exploit the fact that the atmosphere is already full of electromagnetic radiation, in the form of television, radio waves and the emissions from other radar systems. That means that, with a bit of clever engineering, it is possible to work out where targets are simply by listening to the echoes of other people's broadcasts. Without the need for a powerful transmitter of their own, such systems use considerably less juice. They are already in use, although the firm will not say where or by whom. But even if airport radar becomes subtler, the electromagnetic spectrum, which radar shares with television transmissions, mobile phones and satellite communications, is likely to get increasingly crowded. Its busy bands create what radar engineers call noise, interference from other spectrum users. Michael Agergaard Riis, business development director at Terma, a Danish radar firm, says that a combination of supersensitive receivers and clever algorithms allow his firm's radars to use much less powerful beams without compromising detection capability. Once again, that reduces power consumption, with the added benefit of making life easier for other users of electromagnetism. That same high-tech signal processing is also helping ground radar to learn to live with wind turbines, whose fast-spinning blades create thousands of blips on a radar screen, which can obscure the one caused by a passing aircraft. Radar engineers are tweaking their designs to help their products listen through this noise. Complex computer algorithms enable a radar to know when it is seeing a spinning wind turbine blade, rather than an aircraft, based on the nature of the blade's movement. Alternatively, radars can be positioned in the middle of a wind farm to look directly above the turbines to see the plane. These would not necessarily use less power, of course. But deploying them might mean that more is produced cleanly from wind without sacrificing the safety of air travel.
Overview – Financial Accounting-Meaning & Accounting Process A ‘Self Study Theory book’ with Quick Revision through Multiple Choice Questions followed by individual answers and specific explanations for each answer. The book adopts a fresh and unique approach for the beginners to the study and grasp the meaning and process of Accounting. It highlights an insight step-wise procedural details to the students, entrepreneurs, professionals and business persons. It has been written in a simple language with ‘Teach Yourself Style’ strictly following a student-friendly approach, and is essential meant to serve as a Tutor at Home. It has fully solved scanner containing 18 Chapter divided into120 Sections with about 500 Headings for individual paragraphs, and more than 1500 solved MCQ’s with rationales along with Answers. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Meaning & Scope of Accounting 2. Accounting Concepts, Principles & Conventions 3. Documents & Books of Accounts: Invoice, Vouchers, Debit &Credit Notes. 4. Process of Accounting 5. Classification of Accounts 6. Concepts of Debit & Credit 7.Accounting equation 8. Day Books-Journals 9. Subsidiary books-Purchase, Sales & Returns 10. Cash Books 11. Ledger 12. Trial Balance 13. Capital & Revenue Expenditure and Receipts 14, Contingent Assets and Contingent Liabilities 15. Errors & Rectification of Errors 16. Bank Reconciliation Statements 17. Depreciation Accounting 18. Final Accounts of Sole Proprietor Disclaimer: By providing links to other sites, FatWallet.com does not guarantee, approve or endorse the information or products available at these sites, nor does a link indicate any association with or endorsement by the linked site to FatWallet.com. Members of our community may attach files to a post in accordance with the User Agreement. FatWallet is not responsible for the content, accuracy, completeness or validity of any information contained in any attached file. Files have not been scanned for viruses. Be especially wary of Excel files which may contain malicious content. Earn Cash Back while you shop - just 3 simple steps. 1. Sign Up so we know who to pay! (It's FREE.) 2. Shop through FatWallet for deals from your favorite stores. Your online purchases earn Cash Back that builds in your FatWallet account. 3. Get Paid by requesting a payment via check or PayPal. FatWallet coupons help you save more when shopping online. Use our Coupons Search to browse coupons and offers from thousands of stores, gathered into one convenient location. As part of our FatWallet Community, you can share deals with almost a million shoppers in our forums. Forum content is generated by consumers for consumers. Share deals, money-saving tips, and more. It's FREE, fun, and addicting. Our customer experience team is here around the clock - real people ready to assist.
Report on sleep disorders in children - 12/09/2015 15:24 - تنبيه : أنت تتصفح محتوى من أرشيف الموسوعة تم نشرة منذ 4 سنة The sleep disorders in children and infants is considered a phenomenon spreading by a large margin, but it appears in many different types differing from a child to another, and it may be a transient state, or repeated every now and then, or chronic ongoing state with the child. Having a sleep disorder might be associated with an emerging social status of the child such as entering school for the first time, or fear of strangers, so some cases of sleep disorders appear such as night terrors in pre-school age. In all cases the child needs support of parents, especially the mother. Types of sleep disorders in children: - Sleeping nonsense: It is the most common type, and we can say that most of us experienced this type of sleep disorders, and it is defined as the physical and kinetic and psychological phenomena that occur during sleep, such as talking or yelling, walking, sudden movements, cramps, nightmares. The phenomenon of sleepwalking phenomenon is experienced by 15% of children, it is a phenomenon that begins and ends automatically with age, and the gravity of these phenomena is when the child gets hurt due to collision or falling, which requires taking caution and prudence to secure the child. - Night terrors: It is a common type of sleep disorders, as parents can be surprised by the screaming and crying of the child during deep sleep without being aware of what surrounds him or what had happened or the reason for this panic, Also they can face difficulty in calming the child. which is also a state that will disappear with age , except in limited cases that require therapeutic intervention. - Disruption of sleeping: The imbalance in the number of sleeping hours, the inability to sleep and constantly falling asleep, or hypersomnia with fatigue and this results from confusion and disorder in the biological clock of body which is appropriate for hours of darkness and light, and this may be an emergent situation which is not repeated, or the occurrence of spontaneous reversal in the child's biological clock. These cases can be treated with several basic ways to adjust the biological clock like exposure to strong light each day in the early morning hours for half an hour, or having the melatonin hormone as a treatment. - Breathing disorders during sleeping (sleep apnea): drop in breathing may occur and could reach apnea as a result of special physiological changes in functions related to the organs during sleep, producing this kind of disorders for several reasons such as abnormalities in the back of the nose and pharynx area, or muscle tension as a result of nervous disorders. Obesity, which became the era's disease in some Arab societies, is also one of the causes of sleep breathing disorders. The consequences of sleep disorders: - Inability to concentrate and educational attainment. - Attention Deficit. - Decline in intelligence. - Disturbances in memory. - Behavioral disorders such as hyperactivity, difficulty in making social relationships, aggressiveness and difficulty in education. - Sleep apnea in infants may lead to an imbalance in growth and development, and sometimes damage of the heart. The diagnosis of sleep disorders: - Sleep disorders are Difficult for the doctor to diagnose, as snoring is not a clear cause. - Through sleeping tests sleep disorders can be confirmed, and their extent, and the proper treatment thereof, and the cases that may need pharmaceutical and surgical intervention if the cause was an organic or physiological defect. - Oxygen or ventilators can be used during sleep. - In recent years, advanced sleep laboratories equipped for diagnosis and treatment were available. The treatment of sleep disorders in children: The surgical intervention is considered the treatment of some organic conditions such as tonsillectomy, or psychiatric treatment in order to get rid of the social and psychological reasons causing the defect, and in both cases the physician determines the quality of treatment depending on the cause.
The area of education is exciting because the research keeps getting stronger. It wasn't long ago it was common and forward thinking to say school principals should be instructional leaders. Over the years this idea has been pushed and administrators trained to become strong instructional leaders. Research started to show instructional leaders being successful in high-performing districts, and at the same time showed no success using instructional leaders in low-performing districts (Gavoni, 2016). So what does this mean for students? What message does it send to school improvement experts? Maybe those working in low-performing schools should re-think strong instructional leaders compared to organizational leaders. Several professional organizations are trying to change the narrow definition of instructional leaders to include the qualities of organizational leaders by broadening their role. Both Horing and Loeb are suggesting broadening the definition of Instructional Leadership to include Organizational Leadership (2010). Hiring and Loeb goes on to say "A different view of instructional leadership emphasizes organizational management for instructional improvement rather than day-to-day teaching and learning" (2016, Pg 66). It is clear that creating an organizational system of support within the school is necessary. Principals need to employ high-quality teachers, assign them correctly, retain, engage and offer opportunities for teachers to improve. The research is suggesting more attention should be given to working with principals to develop organizational leadership over instructional leadership. It is evident instructional leadership is an asset however organizational leadership is essential for those working with low performing schools. Louis, Leithwood, Wahlstrom and Anderson are clear that "leaders who strike a proper balance between stability and change emphasize two priorities in the direction they provide and the influence they exercise: they work to develop and support people to do their best, and they work to redesign their organizations to improve effectiveness" (2010, Pg 7). So in conclusion, studies are showing organizational leaders are making an impact on student academic growth of staffing schools with highly effective teachers, supporting them with effective teaching and learning environments. "Rather than by focusing too narrowly on their contributions to classroom instruction" (Horng, & Loeb, 2010 Pg 69). Please consider the questions and suggestions and as always leave a comment. Informative feedback on this author's writing is always welcome. Ron Gavoni, P. (2016, April 12). Instructional vs Organizational Leadership: Which is Best for Schools? Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/discussion/instructional-vs-organizational-leadership-which-best-schools Gino, F., & Staats, B. (2015, November 19). Why Organizations Don't Learn. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2015/11/why-organizations-dont-learn Horng, E., & Loeb, S. (2010, November 01). New Thinking about Instructional Leadership. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(3), 66-69. doi:10.1177/003172171009200319 Louis, K., Leithwood, K., Wahlstrom, K., & Anderson, S. (2010, July). Learning From Leadership: Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning. Retrieved from http://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/Pages/Investigating-the-Links-to-Improved-Student-Learning.aspx
In the 1800’s earthworms were commonly thought of as a pest. Charles Darwin, famous for formulating the mechanism of the evolution of species, overturned this incorrect idea in the last book he published before his death. Although famous for formulating the mechanism of evolution of species (natural selection), Darwin also contributed to numerous other parts of biological knowledge. One of these was dispelling the popular idea of the 1800’s that earthworms are pests of the soil. Darwin overturned this incorrect idea and demonstrated the beneficial role of earthworms in turning over the soil and mixing its components. He showed their role in improving soil fertility. He was very interested in agriculture and spent many hours discussing this topic with his relatives who farmed land nearby. He watched carefully the activities of earthworms in incorporating layers of burnt lime into soil by the activities of earthworms. The earthworms brought soil to the surface and gradually buried the burnt lime that had been applied at the surface. The burnt lime gradually sank below the soil surface in an undisturbed visible band. Darwin published the results of his seminal investigations in the last book he published in 1882, one year before he died. The baook was called: “The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms, with Observations on their Habits”. Darwin’s ‘earthworm’ book has been reprinted many times, although seldom as a facsimile. It is still worth reading today, although it should be remembered that he worked mainly with the species of earthworm found in his backyard at Down House, in Kent, south of London. The book can be downloaded from the internet. Darwin C (1881). Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms with Observations. John Murray, London. Free download available from: www.gutenburg.org.
Calculation from Outdoor to Indoor Transmission INSUL calculates the noise level inside a room due to outdoor noise. Calculations are based on EN 12354/3. The prediction accounts for the sound transmission loss (STL) of the building façade, the size of the room and its acoustical characteristics. Up to five different elements (e.g door, wall, window, roof, floor) can be included. STL data can come from INSUL or be manually entered from other data. Several standard outdoor noise spectra are available (e.g. traffic noise, aircraft noise, entertainment noise, voice). INSUL can be used to design the optimum façade element to match the design requirements. Prediction of Impact Sound for light weight floors INSUL can now predict the impact sound insulation of light weight floors. Impact sound insulation predictions can now be carried out for different joist constructions including timber joists and ZGirts. The prediction routines are sensitive to the dimensions of the joists, their mass and spacing and all of these variables can be set independently in INSUL. A range of floor linings is available including plywood, particle board, orientated strand board (OSB) and thin timber floor boards. As with previous versions of INSUL, ceilings can also be included in the predictions, with a range of ceiling connections including directing fixing to the joists, rubber isolation clips and separate ceiling joists. INSUL also includes the option to add infill material in the cavity of the construction. Sound Insulation of Sandwich Panels INSUL can now predict the sound insulation of a variety of light weight sandwich panels. A typical example would be panels with thin steel or aluminium skins, with a polystyrene or mineral wool core. For instance panels from Kingspan or Paroc. The sound insulation both of single panels and panels used in more complex constructions can be predicted. The properites of the core can be adjusted using the in built materials properties editor. In addition sandwich panels with much stiffer cores can also be predicted, a typical example would be a panel with steel facings and a light weight aerated concrete (Speedwall) Trapezoidal Profiled Metal Panels INSULhas improved the prediction of profiled metal panels, typically used for commercial and industrial buildings. Previously only single panels could be predicted, and not complex constructions using corrugated or profiled panels. New routines based on the work of Lam and Windle in England allow more accurate prediction of particular profiles, and of constructions using profiled panels in conjunction with flat sheets and in cavity constructions as well. For instance the effect of a layer of plywood underneath a profiled steel skin can be predicted. Then this can be extended by adding an air gap and a second lining, with or without an acoustic blanket in the cavity. Porous Blankets and Facings INSUL can now predict the sound transmission loss of porous blankets either alone or as a facing for a construction. Typical constructions would include modular panels for acoustic enclosures that have a steel skin with a mineral wool infill and perforated steel internal facing.
Rzeszow supports its merchants in poverty and riches Its days roll by with honorable business Its fairs provide profit in winter or summer There is trade in textiles, fuel and foodstuffs Household implements, grain, and salt stone And the farmers set their eyes on everything(Berish Weinstein: Rzeszow, a poem translated into Hebrew by Tzvi Shtok, page 47) We do not know the exact beginning of the Jewish settlement in Rzeszow. We know from documents that in the 16th century, when the city was owned by members of the Ligenza family, there were only seven Jewish homes in the city that were located on church property. If we estimate that in every home – according to the accepted statistics of Polish historiography – two or three families would dwell with five or six members each, we can estimate that during that time the Jewish population of Rzeszow was 80-90 people. There were homeowners among the Jews, however since they did not possess citizenship of the city, they were registered in the civic documents as residents (incolae). The total Jewish population was known as the Jewish Community (Tota comunitas Judaeorum civitatis Rzeszoviensis). By the end of the 16th century the Jews already filled an important role in the city, and several of them had already amassed large sums of money, so that they were able to conduct all sorts of financial business, and were able to lend money to the farmers and citizens in return for surety. The civic council, acting in the name of the Jewish residents, headed by Yitzchak Marczides and Yosef, obligated themselves on June 26, 1592 in the presence of the owner of the city Mikolaj Spytek Ligenza to pay the following sums for the following homeowners in lieu of the szarwark (tax for road, bridge and fence improvement): Zusman Bebenk – 1 mark, David and Itzko Marczides – 1 florin, Yaakov Joachimides – 1 florin, Yosef – 24 groszy, Yisrael – 1 florin, the yearly residents and the rest of the Jews – 20 groszy per year. However, they were required to pay all other taxes as well as royal, general and personal fees just as the rest of the residents of the city, as well as the royal and civic payments from the non-moveable property. In 1592 the following Jewish homeowners lived in Rzeszow: Yitzchak Marczides, Zusman Bebenk, David, Yaakov Joachimides, Yosef, and Yisrael. Two parnassim (communal leaders) stood at the helm of the community: Yitzchak Marczides and Yosef. On December 7, 1592, the citizen Marysin Gajdziak issued a strong protest against Yitzchak and the tax collector Yaakov Joachimides and his wife Bluma who had accused him of stealing chests of the Jews during the fire that had broken out in the city. He requested that they be punished on account of issuing a false accusation that harmed his good name. Gajdziak was apparently a troublemaker, as can be deduced from the transcripts of several court cases in which he accused various citizens of slandering him. It is interesting to present several facts about the above-mentioned Jews, as can be deduced from the minutes of the council. Yaakov was the tax collector of the city and he also loaned out money, as can be deduced from one document in which he certified the receipt of 24 guilder on January 3, 1592, paid to him by the priest Andrzej Zak, who was the guarantor for Andrzej Fielesz to Andrzej Karzel in return for the loan which he gave him. He conducted business dealings with the noblemen (such as Yaakov Borowski).In 1598, he had a dispute with Marysin Caniat about the rental of an anvil. The council issued a decree on October 7 that Caniat is required to rent him the anvil. Religious opposition and even conflict fueled the struggle between the Jews and the citizens already from the time of the beginning of Jewish settlement in Rzeszow. An expression of this can be found in the privilege that Ligenza granted in 1599. That privilege established that only Jews who owned property would be permitted to build houses, and only seven Jewish homes would be allowed in the city. The area of the Jewish residents was restricted to the grounds near the synagogue that used to belong to the church. The Jews were required to pay a specific amount in tax that was imposed on them according the quota of seven residential homes. However, they attempted to evade this tax. Ligenza forbade them to conduct any business with products produced by the local artisans. He granted them the right to appeal any civic judgement to the palace offices. The legal and judicial status of the Jews was tied to the owner of the city and his will, and they were subordinate to him along with the rest of the residents of the city. Any Jew who would arrive in Rzeszow and wish to settle there was required to obtain a special permit from the owner of the city, that is to say that he would have to be accepted as a subject of the owner of the city. Furthermore, he was required to obtain a permit for the purchase of a house or lot so that he would be registered as a taxpayer. If he was in arrears in his tax payments or if he abandoned his house, the house would be confiscated by the owner of the city. The owner of the city would be authorized to sell it or to grant it to somebody else. No Jew was allowed to move to another city, or to travel out of the city for business purposes without a permit from the owner of the city. If he left for a foreign country on business he was required to bring a pledge guaranteed by four acquaintances. A permit from the owner of the city was also required if the daughter of a Jew married a boy from a different city. In such a case he was required to give an additional pledge to guarantee that his daughter would return (according to the “Universal” of August 8, 1723). A special oath was administered to a Jew when he was accepted as a subject. When the community wished to accept a loan, or even if individual Jews wished to put their homes up as a guarantee against a lo, they were required to request permission from the owner of the city, and only with his permission would the document acquire legal validity. The owner of the city had full jurisdiction over all the affairs of the Jews, just as he had over the affairs of the Christians. With regard to civic matters, the Jews presented themselves as a single unified group – as the second half of the city. A bitter struggle took place between the Jews and Christians about rights and duties, and the leadership of each community was very vigilant that nobody from the other community would encroach on their rights. On several occasions they turned to the palace for mediation, and thus the palace had no choice but to enter into the dispute. The mutual relationship between the two communities was built on the fact that all of them, without any exception at all, were required to protect the city in the event of a fire or enemy invasion. In the event of a fire everyone was required to be present and to assist in the putting out of the fire; and in the event of an invasion, everyone was required to concern himself with the defense of the walls and fences in the proximity of his home. During a time of war the Jews had their own Hetman. (In 1627, Moshko Haftarz was appointed as the Hetman). The Jews were required to defend the area of the city that was controlled by them under the command of the Hetman. In all legal matters, such as inheritance, contracts and mortgages, the Jews were subject to the civic judicial authority. According to the “Universal” of Jerzy Lubomirski, from 1742 any document on such matters would not be valid unless it was registered in the civic registers. Every Jew who acquired chattels from a Christian was required to accept the civic law and to become bound by it. All taxes and payments that were connected with such an ownership became binding. The community was required to pay half of the civic payments, such as: the improvement of roads and bridges, the construction of ramparts for defense and fire protection, as well as the civic dikes. The community was given responsibility for the roads of Baldaczowka, through the center of the new city until the civic brick kiln, as well as the fences of the new city from the center of the city to the gate of the Wislok. The responsibility for maintaining of the bridge near the Pierrian monastery as well as the bridge near the palace was placed upon both the Jews and the Christians, half-and-half. The Jews also paid half of the salary of the civic officials, which included: the civic scribe, the executioner, the instigator, envoys, and several officials of the palace, who were exempt from taxes set by the magistrate. The cemetery and hospital for indigents were also exempt from taxes. In the 16th century, the Jews were engaged in a difficult struggle for their livelihood in an atmosphere of hatred. They fought to be accepted in the guilds, and for the possibility to engage in commerce. In spite of the difficulties and even persecution, with the passage of time they succeeded in obtaining a significant standing in the economic life of the city. Some of them filled recognizable roles by expanding business, establishing workshops and amassing fortunes. Jews served as tax collectors: in 1592 the tax collector was Yaakov, and in 1607 the tax collector was Bendiket. In 1613 Sobielowski, the tax collector of the Przemysl region, gave the right to collect the liquor tax to Yitzchak Markowicz, and in 1612 to Yoachim. Several people rented out taverns and mills. Markowicz rented out the rights to the liquor still, and Avraham was a soap maker. In the city there were moneylenders, as well as wholesale and retail businessmen. For the lease of the mills and the right of tax collection, the Jews paid 25 guilder quarterly toward the sum of 1,500 guilder that Ligenza gave in 1619 for the Rzeszow Hospital. This money was paid according to the ‘wiederkoif’ law. (Footnote 11 states that this is an old Polish law that permits the purchase of property on the condition that the seller retains the right to repurchase. Wiederkoif in German means repurchase.) After a short time the Jews controlled an entire road in Rzeszow, which was called Area Judaica in 1610, and in 1627 Platea Judaica. They rented stores in the center of the city despite the opposition and disputes with their competitors. In 1617, the Jew Yoachim MiYaakov established a store for the sale of merchandise during the time of the fairs. The Jews had an old synagogue with a sexton and a cantor (in 1615 Wolfe is mentioned). This synagogue was built of brick in the baroque style. It was already functioning in 1617 and was destroyed by the Nazis during the Second World War. On March 20, 1606 Ligenza imposed new payments on the Jews. He proclaimed in the documents: “I command that the Jewish homeowners should each pay six groszy and the residents three groszy toward the security of the fairs. This is in addition to the annual security fee that is paid by the Christian citizens, homeowners and renters. The mayor and his advisors are responsible for acting upon this command.” It is possible to surmise that the Christians were responsible for this demand. In 1627 , special instructions in the “Universal” were made regarding the Jews in relation to the protection of the city. These instructions were not more stringent toward the Jews than they were toward the rest of the citizens. Every Jew was required to own a fire-rod (Rusznica). Only women and children of age 10 and below were exempt. The Jews were required to answer each draft call, and to participate in training exercises and parades. Refusing to participate in training exercises and refusing to answer the call of a draft during the time of an enemy invasion was punishable by a monetary fine and even imprisonment. Ligenza also exploited the synagogue for defense purposes. He turned it into a building with a cylindrical wing, with the understanding that it would be included in the fortifications with the objective of protection against a fire from the flank. This was in accordance with the fortification style common in France and Belgium during the 16th and 17th centuries. Ligenza ordered that a ditch be dug around the Bernardine monastery for defensive purposes. This ditch was filled with water that flowed to the palace. When the water overflowed a large area, it became necessary to erect a bridge from the gate of the palace to the Pierrian monastery. Ligenza commanded that both the Jews and the Christians erect the bridge, and disputes broke out between the two groups with regard to this matter. Ligenza arranged security watches for the city, and he even established a curfew, at which time it was necessary to close the taverns and restaurants, and at that time it was forbidden to play instruments and songs. The Jews were freed from the watch duty. In lieu of that duty, they were required to pay for two guards of the Yadamks for an entire month each year. The Jews were required to maintain three cannons in the fortifications that were in the Jewish quarter. A Jewish Hetman was appointed over the warriors. There was also a Hetman over the citizens, as well as one over the suburbs. The Jewish Hetman was responsible for the fences, embankments, fortification, and weapons. The Jewish Hetman had a flag as a symbol of his authority, as well as a drum. Footnote 16 – In the days of Ligenza, the Jews were not permitted to reside in the city itself, but rather in the Jewish quarter which was like a suburb surrounding the old synagogue. Before 1914, this area was the northern area of Mickeiwicz Street and Boznica Wegalozowski Street. The Jewish Street (Ulica Zydowska) was in the area of Yoselowicz and Blum Streets before 1914. Only at the end of the 17th century, during the time of Lubomirski, were the Jews allowed to reside within the borders of the city in return for payment of money. Ligenza himself set the economic bounds of the Jews. Already in the privilege of 1594, there was a paragraph that stated “The Jewcannot build more houses, aside from those in the lots already in their possession. Their merchants cannot sell their merchandise at lower prices than the Christian merchants, and they cannot do business with products produced by the artisans”. Over and above the opposition that was rooted in the economic competition, during the era of Ligenza there was also an atmosphere of hatred toward the Jews. We learn from the documents of the city council that on June 23, 1622, the offices of the council issued a special decree with regard to Christian maids in Jewish homes. According to this decree it was forbidden for the Christian women to serve in Jewish homes. The reason given was that the high salaries and the luxury would corrupt them. The Jews were forbidden to hire helpers and maids from amongst the Christian, with the exception of those who would come from other towns and villages. The Jews were warned, with the agreement of the local priest Jan Rubakowski, that they must let their maids go to church on Sundays and holidays, and that they should not work them on those days. The maids were permitted to terminate their contract with their employers, and to leave their houses with all of their belongings. The Jews were forbidden to open their stores on Sundays, and even to display their wares in their display windows. The Jews were required to close the doors of their residences and remain inside their homes during the times of church services. The heads of the community were personally responsible to carry out this decree, which was made with the agreement of the priest Rubakowski, however they did not want to agree to it. On August 17th 1627, the heads of the community Yitzchak Markowski, Yona Bieniasz, and Moshe Krakowski appeared before the council offices and presented a protest against Krzysztof Konisz, Jakob Robel, Lukasz Gajdziak, Sczenini Gwozdz, Adam Karzona, as well as against the clerk Woijciech Szlebicki. Despite the restrictions that Ligenza imposed upon the Jews, it was not forbidden to do business in financial matters with the Jews, to borrow money from them, and if the Christians could not meet their financial obligations, it was obligatory to give them land. In 1617, a plot of land on the other side of the Wislok River was given to the Jew Yitzchak Markowicz in return for a loan made by his wife for the sum of 300 guilder. In 1618 Ligenza, permitted the Jew Yona Gorzalnik (a distiller of spirits) to purchase the rural home of Polta. However he made it clear that this permit was issued only for that particular Jew, and was not transferable to others, in order to prevent the spreading out of the Jews to the detriment of the city. Nevertheless, in the middle of the 17th century the Jews began to dwell in the new city, and built forty homes there. In 1648 Prince Wladislaw Ostrowski, the owner of the city after Ligenza, renewed the prohibition of selling homes and fields to the Jews in the old city. The first Jewish tailor who settled in Rzeszow in 1647 with the permission of Ostrowski was permitted to work only for Jews. Photo on top of page 28 – Prince Lubomirski’s castle before its restoration. The situation changed during the time of Prince Lubomirski. In exceptional circumstances, he permitted Jews to take ownership of lots and houses in the old city, with a permit from the owner of the city and with agreement of the residents of the city. In 1680 Izik Abrahamowicz purchased a home in the plaza (Rynek) of the old city from the citizen Lubocki, after the agreement of the people’s council (pospolstwo). This was agreed to under the condition that Abrahamowicz would fulfil all of the obligations that were required of a homeowner in the old city. In fact, Rzeszow had more than forty Jewish families. Homeowners and Christians rented dwellings to several families as yearly tenants. However, officially, the Jewish population of Rzeszow was approximately forty families. The first privilege granted to the Jews of Rzeszow that is known to us is the one granted by Hieronim Lubomirski in 1657. From it, we learn that the Jews evaded the fulfillment of their civic guard duty as well as the payment of taxes, and they attempted to pay only the general amount which they were required to pay according to the privilege which had been granted to them by Ligenza, when the number of their homes was only seven. According to this privilege, all of the edicts affecting their business and commerce remained in effect. The Jews were occupied in businesses that were forbidden to them according to the agreements, both inside the city and outside of it. These activities had an adverse affect upon the artisans. The Jews produced mead, and conducted trade with various fishes. In contravention of the laws of the city, they sold mead and wines, purchased large quantities of wheat and other agricultural products from the villages and brought them to the city. These activities were only permitted to the artisans. According to the order of Lubomirski, the Jews were only permitted to produce mead in quantities necessary for them for the Passover holiday, and they were forbidden to produce mead for weddings and other occasions. If they went against this, they were threatened with fines to the treasury (not to the coffers of Christian religious organizations). All of the rest of the old enactments in the area of commerce remained in force. They were required to fulfil all of their national and civic responsibilities and payments, according to the number of residents. In legal affairs, related to civic judgements, they were subject to the civic court in the first instance, and to the palace court in the final instance. This law had not been changed up until this time. On April 4, 1674, the Christian citizens presented a written request to the prince, complaining that the Jews were not fulfilling the conditions of their privilege. They complained that the Jewish lessees imported mead from other places, thereby damaging the local production; and that the Jews do not fulfil their proportional obligations to the civic expenditures, given that the number of Jews in the city was increasing against the number of Christians. In that era at the end of the 17th century, in 1686, the directors of the hospital purchased lands from the head of the civic council Pawel Zaglobinski for the new cemetery, for the sum of 3,200 guilder. In 1691, they bought a second section from Woijciech Nawrocki for the purpose of the new synagogue, which was constructed during the years of 1700-1708. During the time of Lubomirski, the new city was constructed with its plaza and streets. Along with the Poles, Jews who were merchants and peddlers settled there. Slowly, Jews purchased lots and houses that had been in the possession of Christians. They started to build a new synagogue, and received a permit for that purpose from Hieronim August Lubomirski on January 6, 1686. In 1674, the number of Jews in Rzeszow exceeded the number of Poles, and reached 1,400 souls. In 1656, when Jews were allowed to acquire homes in the old city, the immediately began to purchase houses, and signed contracts agreeing to “protect the holy cross”. This type of clause was not included in the contracts during the days of Ligenza, but was introduced by Lubomirski at the urging of the monks. In 1728, there were already sixteen Jewish houses in the old city, however they were not used for residential purposes but rather for communal needs: such as the rabbinical court and the synagogue. There were still difficulties involved in obtaining ownership of private homes in the old city even after the edit forbidding Jews from residing there was repealed in 1696. The difficulties involved the parades of Boze Cialo that took place in the city plaza, and the requirement that Jews who bought homes would be obligated with all the same obligations of the Christian homeowners, such as: guard duty, civic taxes, as well as church taxes which were to be paid to the bishop. The business and work of the Jewwas centered in the new city, and at the end of the 18th century the Jewish quarter was annexed to it. The Jewish quarter was previously associated with the old city, not from an administrative point of view but rather due to its topographical situation. According to the directives of the palace, the roads between the old city and the new city were paved in order to facilitate communication. The improvements to these roads were the responsibility of both the Jews and the Christians, however controversy broke out between them with regard to which roads each side was responsible for. Lubomirski had to intervene in the debate. In 1724, Lubomirski issued a “Universal” in which the allocation of the roads was set as follows: the Christians were responsible for the upkeep of the road which runs from the house of the honorable Pasakowicz, now owned by Yaakov Baldorf, which runs through the plaza of the old city in the direction of the rectory (fara), and from there to Rozanka Street, and continues from there to the plaza near the gate in the wall, and from that gate to the gate of the Bernardines, and from the Wola to the end of the suburb. The Jews were required to maintain the roads that run from Baldorf’s house in the direction of the plaza of the new city, and from the plaza to the civic brick kiln on one side, and on the other side to the bridge of the new city. From there continuing to the Wola until the gate that is on the Wislok River. Despite the intervention of Prince Lubomirski, the controversy continued between the Christians, who saw themselves as the rulers of the old city, and between the Jews who were becoming more numerous in the new city. The root of the dispute was about whom was obligated to cover the costs of the new gate that was erected in those days in the new city. The Christians claimed that this was the responsibility of the Jews, whose population in the new city was greater than that of the Christians, and since the new city was the seat of their community (Synagogowi Starsi). The Jews claimed that the gate led out to the fields, and therefore was required by the Christians. Lubomirski determined that both the Jews and the Christians were required to build the new gate. In order to put an end to these disputes, he forcefully decreed the arrangements for these gates: “since the city has eight gates for entry and exit, four should be the responsibility of the Christians, and four the responsibility of the Jews. For the Christians: the first gate by his Holiness Jan Nepomocen, the second by the garden of the palace, the third by the gate in the city wall, and the fourth by the Bernardine monastery in the direction of Przeworsk. For the Jews: The gate in the new city near Wola-Jaroslawska, the second in the new city near the brick kiln owned by the owner of the city, the third is the new gate, and the fourth by the Podzamcz pool. The Christians and the Jews are responsible to arrange for necessary repairs.” Lubomirski maintained his own palace army. When he built a stable for the horses of his army, he imposed upon the Christians and the Jews to cover the building expenses. As the years went on, an improvement took place with regard to the ability of the Jews to take ownership of houses in the old city. Previously, the Jewish purchasers were required to give payment on the condition of ‘wiederkauf’, a condition that the Jews refused to accept. After the ‘wiederkauf’ was repealed, it was possible to take possession of property by incurring a personal debt. During those years, the community was not able to have its concerns taken into account in this matter by the civic governing authorities and the palace. The number of houses in the old city diminished, and many of the citizens abandoned their houses. These conditions enabled Jews to take possession of homes and to draw nearer to the tower that was in the plaza. By the middle of the 18th century, the Jews possessed 26 houses. During the 18th century, the commerce in the old city was almost completely in the hands of the Jews. Based on the agreement of the owner of the city as well as the privilege which has already been quoted several times, the Jews in the new city were considered to be a separate community. Just as in all of the cities of Poland, the relations between the Jews and the Christians were shaky, due to the economic competition as well as the religious hatred. The situation of the Jews was made worse by the law preventing them from doing business on Sundays and Christian holidays. Most of the Jews were merchants and artisans, so this affected them substantially. In 1674, the ruler of the palace issued a strong edict which forbade the Jews from opening their stores on Sundays, with the exception of those that sold wheat, bread, meat, foul, fuel and other foodstuffs and related items. The sale and production of spirits was absolutely forbidden. The Jews of Rzeszow were affected even more by the edict of the bishop Sierakowski in 1746: According to edict the following rules were imposed upon the Jews a) they must conduct the prayers in their synagogues and other religious observances without shouting; b) they must obtain permission from the church rulers before they could build any new synagogue; c) it was forbidden to request Christians to put out candles on Yom Kippur ; d) according to the law of King Zygmunt August of 1562, it was forbidden to employ Christian maids and domestic helpers; e) it was forbidden to open stores, workshops and to conduct any public work on Christian holidays; f) the Jews were required to remain in their homes and not to appear on the streets during the Boze Cialo and Good Friday processions; g) it was only permitted to arrange a wedding on days that were known to the Christians; h) it was forbidden to employ a Christian in the Jewish cemetery; i) due to the large areas that the Jews owned in the cities and towns, they were required to give annually to the local church two wax stones and one milk stone . As can be understood, in this tense situation, there were attacks upon the Jews, primarily in the 17th century when it was forbidden for them to live in the old city. The appearance of Jews in the plaza would arouse the youth, who would then instigate fights. Attacks on the Jews also took place in other parts of the city as well. In 1679 there was a fight with students, who fell upon a group of Jews and injured them. There were also incidents of Jews striking other Jews. In 1685, Lewko Moszkowicz, the director of the Jewish hospital announced that he was struck and injured. His staff members Walenti Litwinowicz and Netanel Andrizen found him lying on a bed in the hospital and they saw the wounds that were caused by the blows. When the civic administrator asked him three times who was guilty, he answered: “Moshko and his wife”. They attacked him during the night and struck him several times. The relation of the palace rulers with the Jews was not always fair, and in many cases it was even cruel. This can be seen from several events during the course of the 1840s. The rulers Ticzinski and Ulmiczer persecuted the Jews cruelly. They extorted merchandise and money from them, and imposed special duties upon the community in an arbitrary fashion. They confiscated sheets, blankets and pillows from Jewish homes. When difficult inspections were imposed on the merchants, the merchants had no choice but to hide merchandise in villages, behind the back of the palace inspectors, and to bring the merchandise to the city secretly. In 1741 a Jewish merchant Meir Doktorowicz was forced by the palace court to work for three months upon the fortification of the palace while bound in fetters to a wagon. The cruel behavior of the rulers also affected the gentiles. In order to appease the residents of the city in regard to these matters, in 1740 Lubomirski repealed all of the impositions of the rulers and established that the residents were only required to supply two wagonloads of wood for fuel once a week during the winter months. At that time, thepalace took control the export of grain as a monopoly. This seriously harmed the business of the Jews. At the beginning of the 18th century, a judgement was passed in Rzeszow accusing a Jew of profaning and cursing the Christian faith. The tavern owned by Shmuel Dubinski was well known in the city as a place where the citizens of the city would gather and discuss the matters of the day. Thus, one of the days in 1726, prior to the elections to the council, an interesting discussion was held there about the merits of the candidates. One citizen said to his friend: “Whom can we elect as the mayor of the city? One instigates a dirty controversy, another is a ‘zatut’, another is stupid, and the other would first have to convert to Christianity.” Apparently, the owner of the tavern himself enjoyed participating in these discussions, and even to enter into debate with his customers. However, one such conversation tripped him up and caused him to be brought before the court. The event was as follows: One time, over a cup of beer, a debate was held about the elections to the council, and the relations of the Jews to the Catholics, as well as the need of the Jews for Christian blood , and other such matters. The disputant turned his attention to the Jewish faith. The Jew, Shmuel Dubinski claimed: Our god is older than your Catholic god is. The accuser claimed in the courthouse that in order to defend his claim, Shmuel arose, opened the window, pointed to the statue and the cross, the work of a potter and said: “You believe in this? Szteksziper the potter made it out of tin.”. To the response that it was only a statue, Shmuel pointed out: “Why would god have permitted himself to be crucified if he was so strong, and why is your god bent over?”. They answered him: “Shmuel, don’t debate, for god is god, even if the wood bends over and collapses. Don’t debate why he permitted himself to be crucified, for he is merciful, and he agreed to be tortured to forgive our sins.” This matter was brought to the court and Shmuel was imprisoned. A theologian in Rzeszow as well as a professor of theology in Przemysl saw this as blasphemous against Christianity, and had him brought to justice. Due to the testimony of the witnesses that were brought in, the court was convinced of the guilt of Shmuel and issued a judgement that in accordance with the Magdeburg law, paragraph 65, chapter 106, the tongue of Shmuel should be cut out and he should afterward be hung and burned in a wood pyre. There were also criminal cases brought against the Jews. At the end of the 17th century, David and Yaakov Jakobowicz – David from Rovno in Volhynia and Yaakov of Chmielnik – Mark Leizerowicz of Dubno, Mark Itzkowicz of Brest-Litovsk, were all accused of stealing merchandise from the merchant Piotrow Sorbes of Krakow in an inn not far from Rzeszow. In another case in Rzeszow, 24 people were sentenced to death by hanging. A second criminal case was brought against the Jew Moshe Jozefowicz of the village of Krupnik. The merchant Shachna from Rzeszow was sitting with him in the wagon on the way to Zawanice. Jozefowicz strangled him near Kamenice-Podolsk and plundered all of his belongings. In accordance with paragraph 31 of the criminal code, they sentenced him to be torn into four pieces beneath the hanging post, and the four pieces of his body were hung from posts. There were a number of people who became apostates, gave up on their people and religion and sought refuge in the Catholic Church. The first Jew who converted to Christianity was Moshko in 1611. He changed his name to Adam Torowinski. The number of apostate Jews grew during the years 1758-1762, and reached 15. (It is quite possible that this was due to the influence of the Frankists . The following Christian families in Rzeszow were of Jewish extraction: Majowski, Dobrowolski, Wrzeszniowski, Czerwiecki, Nowicki, and Jakobowski of the Koppel family. We should add that these names were Frankists (according to the Liber baptisatorum of the church of Rzeszow). The surnames of the Jews were listed in full in the registry of Starozakonny Infidelis, or in short as a resident of Rzeszow. The names were for the most part based on their places of origin, such as : Pinczowski, Dubinski, Krakowski, Przemiski, and the like. At first these names indicated the place of origin of the bearer himself, but with the passage of time these names were transferred to their children. There were also names based on their profession, such a merchant (socher), cloth maker (Plucienik), Tabachnik, and Koracnik. They also took names based on the local area, such as: Bieniasz, Nowotni, and Nowak. The relation of the Jews to the owner of the city was no different than the relation of the Christians to him. The owner of the city supported the citizens to the extent that it brought him personal benefit. The Jews as well as the Christians were subjects who were under the authority of the owner of the city. A Jew who arrived in Rzeszow was required to request that the owner of the city grant him right of residency in the city, and that he be accepted as a subject. He was required to obtain a similar permit in order to be able to purchase a house or a lot. He was required to pay taxes in return for these permits, and if he did not pay he would lose all of his rights, and the owner of the city would sell his house. A Jew was not permitted to move from Rzeszow to another city without the permission of the owner of the city, and without the knowledge of the palace judges. A Jew was only permitted to travel a distance of six miles outside of the city for his own personal business. He was obligated to obtain a note of security from four friends in order to be able to make a business trip, and he was required to obtain a permit for his daughter to marry in a different city. A Jew was required to take an oath as a subject of the owner of the city. If the Jews wished to obtain a loan with the communal property as surety, they were required to ask permission from the owner of the city, and only with such permission could a legal document be drawn up. The owner of the city had the supreme rights of approval over the affairs of the Jews, just as he had over the affairs of the Christians. The Jews appeared as one faction in matters of civic affairs, as the second half of the city. Two authorities – the city and the Jewish community – were in conflict over the rights and duties of their members. Matters were conducted with each side watching that no laws were broken, and no duties were neglected, and on numerous occasions, the governing authorities of the palace had to intervene in order to adjudicate on duties and privileges. In the middle of the 18th century, 140 of the total of 250 houses in the city were under Jewish ownership. The Jews suffered greatly from fires, and several houses were vacant, such that in 1732 there were nine Jewish homes . The value of an ordinary house along with its lot was 600 guilder in the 17th century. In the middle of the 17th century, in 1623, ten Jewish homes in the center of the city belonged to: Wolf Moszkowicz, Berko Eizikowicz, Rabinowicz, Koppel, David Moszkowicz, Zitman, Kolman, the Jewish courthouse, the home of the Rabbi, and the Yeshiva building. By the end of the 18th century, when the city was already under Austrian rule, there were 330 houses in the city. In the event of a fire or an enemy invasion all of the residents of the city, without exception, were required to protect the city. In the event of a fire, every resident was required to present himself for the salvation effort. In the event of an invasion, every resident was required to protect the walls and courtyards in proximity to his home. During the time of war, the Jews had their own Hetman who allocated the sections of the city for which they would be responsible for defending. In all legal and military documents, contracts, and property taxes, the Jews were subject to the civic laws. According to the 1724 of Jerzy Lubomirski, any matter that was not recorded in the books of the city was lacking legal authority. Any Jew who obtained property from a Catholic was required to accept the civic law and to pay any taxes associated with the purchase. The Jewish community was required to participate with the Catholic community in all civic duties, including the guarding of the streets and bridges, courtyards, ramparts, and participation in fire fighting duties. The Jewish community was responsible for the maintenance of the roads of Baldaczowka, through the marketplace until the civic brick kiln, as well as the road from the marketplace to the city gate of the Wislok. They had responsibility as well for all of the gates in the new city. The Jews were required to maintain together with the Catholic community the gate near the Pierrian monastery, as well as the gate and ramparts of the palace. Together with the Catholic community, the community was required to cover half of the expenses of the civic officials, as well as the expenses of some of the palace officials. In return for this, they were freed from taxes imposed by the city. They were also freed from paying taxes for the cemetery and the hospital for the poor. Even though the Jews were recognized as an independent religious community, they were to some extent subject to the jurisdiction of the Catholic spiritual authorities. The following edicts are found in the Universal of Bishop Sierakowski of 1746: During the 17th century, the private relations between the Christians and the Jews were shaky, but the relations improved slightly in the 18th century. In the 17th century, when it was forbidden for Jews to live in old Rzeszow, the appearance of a Jew in the marketplace would cause attacks and beatings. Events such as this took place almost daily. On only one occasion, in 1679, a very important event that made a great impression on the population was recorded in the annals of the city. There was a clash in which several Jews were injured. Students were involved in this event, and Mozdanski, the civic advisor, quieted them down. Events were also recorded where the Jews related, so to speak, in an “ill-mannered” fashion toward the Christians. The Jews of Rzeszow received loans from the church organizations, priests, citizens, and the church funds. According to the documents, the Jews of Rzeszow received loans in the sum of 100,000 guilder and more during the 18th century. This sum is accounted for by the money received by the communal leaders in 1700-1710 for the purposes of building a new synagogue, for the payment of taxes, and to cover deficits in the communal coffers. These loans were “perpetual”, guaranteed by the property of the Jews and they brought benefit to the debtors. From the enactments of the guilds of blacksmiths, medics, butchers and bakers we learn that Jews were accepted as members of these guilds, enabling them to work in their professions in a legal fashion. In order not to be dependent on the rights and duties of the Christian members, they only paid dues sufficient to obtain an agreement that they would be permitted to work in their trades. During fairs, the Jews were stationed together with the merchants from outside the city in places set aside for them by the guilds. The Jews were subject to the same limitations as the outside merchants with regard to the purchase of merchandise. They were permitted to purchase merchandise only with the permission of the guild, and only in limited amounts. The purpose of these restrictions was to protect the members of the guilds from competition, since – according to the regulations of the barrel makers – “the Jews purchase merchandise and sell it to them, thereby doing great damage”. The Jewish medics, bakers, and butchers were members of guilds. The number of butcher shops that could be owned by Jews was specified in the regulations of these guilds. The butchers could have six stores and the bakers could have eight. The number of trainees and apprentices that the artisans were permitted to retain was set (in any event at least one trainee was allowed). In the regulations of the butchers’ guild, it was stated that the head of the guild could be only a Christian. The bakers’ guild maintained a separate list of Jews and of Jewish trainees. The guild examinations were conducted separately for them. Four Jews were accepted as members of the guild between1747 and 1769. There were 10 Jewish members of the butchers’ guild in the years 1734-1754. The Jewish butchers were permitted to run six butcher shops (the Christians had fourteen), and they were required to post a price list in their shops. In order to prevent controversy with the guilds, the palace issued a “Universal” in 1760 that set up the regulations for the kosher butcher shops. The butchers were under the supervision of an overseer who was appointed by the palace, as well as the ritual slaughterer (shochet). The shochet was only permitted to slaughter with the permission of the chief overseer. Hides from the slaughter of kosher animals were to be given to the supervisor for no payment, while hides from non-kosher slaughter were to be given over at half price. The Christian butchers protested against giving over the hides of non-kosher slaughter at half price. The citizens registered a complaint that the giving over of the hides raises the price of meat. Due to these complaints, Lubomirski issued an edict that the hides should no longer be given to the overseer. The Jewish furriers who lived in the new city had a guild of their own. According to the privilege of 1686, they had to have their own flag, and had to own guns, gunpowder and bullets. All disputes had to be adjudicated by the palace vice-director. The situation changed in the 18th century when Jerzy Ignace Lubomirski repealed the edict from the days of Ligenza and Prince Wladislaw Ostrowski of 1640, which forbade the Jews from taking possession of houses and lots in the old city. In 1647 there was not one Jewish tailor in the old city. By the beginning of the 18th century there already were disputes between the Christian and Jewish tailors with regard to purchasing cloth and tailoring implements from the merchants of Danzig and the east. According to the population records (lustracia) of 1757, there were in the old and new cities 77 Jewish artisans, including 26 smiths, 19 tailors, 6 hat makers, 4 butchers, 4 doctors (medics), 4 belt and ribbon makers, 4 furriers, 3 cord makers, 2 polishers, and 1 engraver. The Christian merchants saw the Jews as fierce competitors, and they used all means at their disposal in their struggles, especially accusing them of counterfeiting their merchandise – a thing which even the historian of Rzeszow Pincekowski records as a historical fact without being able to prove it from the documents which were in his possession. He did not even quote one case against the Jews that accused them of counterfeiting merchandise. At first, the Jews of Rzeszow were merchants of cattle, which they purchased primarily from the noblemen that were in the area of Jaroslawand Rzeszow. The Christians and Jewish merchants formed agreements with the artisans, as they would sell their wares. The merchandise was spread out beyond the borders of the city, especially in the direction of Breslau (Wroclaw). In the 17th century, the Jewish merchant Eizikowicz stood out in particular. He used to frequent the fairs of Breslau. In 1674, during the Breslau fair, he made a contract with the merchant Jan Klins of Waszow to provide him with 100 large quartz stones. It was agreed that Klins would come to the fair of Sandomierz in 1675 with his merchandise, and there he would acquire the quartz. He would pay Eizikowicz 6,000 guilder in cash or merchandise after examining the wares. The situation between them had to be adjudicated. Klins requested the stones according to the weights used in Waszow, and Eizikowicz provided them according the weights used in Sandomierz. The difference was 1,000 stones. In addition, Eizikowicz was late by three weeks. Klins refused to accept the stones, since according to his claim he lost 2,000 guilder. Eizikowicz claimed that he traveled to him in Pinczow to find him, and the sum of his expenses was 800-900 guilder. The matter was brought to court, but we do not know how it was adjudicated. photo on top of page 33 – Business on market day. Eizikowicz supplied the merchants of Rzeszow with textiles for many years during the second half of the 17th century. During those years, Eizikowicz was a Jew who was well known in mercantile circles outside of Rzeszow. Merchants from outside the city made arrangements with him to provide them with merchandise for fairs outside of Rzeszow. In 1633, the city was permitted to maintain a warehouse for wine and fish in accordance with the regulations in effect for other such warehouses. In 1677 all of the privileges of the kings of Poland were endorsed, and an additional fair was allowed over and above the existing fairs. This fair was to take place on the holiday of Saint Jan Cziszial, and was to be on par with the fair of Jaroslaw. The Jewish merchant Josefowicz became prominent in 1678, as he exported wagons laden with lead to Hungary. In 1674 Jan Klins of Waszow ordered from him 200 hides for the fair of Moszcziska. Marczin Grodka of Waszow ordered textiles from Rzeszow for the fair of Moszcziska, and Melchior Lambrecht ordered textiles and hides. In 1675, the Jewish merchant Markowicz imported 1,200 cubits of lace and ribbons of various colors from Danzig in return for the grain that he sold there. In 1718 a Jew from Rzeszow sold wax to the merchant Malochoczki of Krakow in return for pepper, golden and silver lacework and other fabrics. Jews imported various merchandise from Posen (Poznan) in return for agricultural products, cattle, horses, cream, and mead. Imported merchandise from Hungary included wine, hides, metal, English and French fabrics, and smooth stones. Silk and other fancy goods were imported from Breslau and Leipzig. They also imported merchandise from Wallachia, Turkey and Transylvania, including: wine, carpets, silk, tobacco, and colonial merchandise. A few of the local Jewish merchants were representatives of firms from outside of Rzeszow. In 1718, the Jews of Rzeszow signed a contract with the merchant Malochoczki of Krakow to provide them with 551 wax stones. The Jewish inn of Yosef Leizerowicz and six Christian inns were located in the old city. Jews owned most of the inns of the new city. The most important of these were those of Mrs. Zalmanowicz, Shaul Leviczowa, Lochmonowicz, and Lewko Zelichowicz. Jewesses were involved food retail business. They would pay eighteen groszy a month for a booth. The retail stores were owned mainly by Jewesses. In 1730 there were 91 stores. Of these, 31 were large (6 of these were owned by Christians). The number of stores decreased to 41 in 1761. In the 17th century, almost all of the stores were owned by Jews, however there was a special restriction on the sale of baked goods. Only 8 of these type of stores were permitted to Jews, while the Christians had 30. The list of merchants from 1730 included 85 Jewish names, and only 6 Catholic names. There was only one Catholic store in the center of the city in 1762. The German geographer Bardotzki called Rzeszow “Jerusalem of Galicia” at the beginning of the 18th century. In the middle of the 18th century the population of the Jews equaled that of the Christians, and they then began to become the majority. Photo on top of page 34: Jewish peddlers on Mateyko Street. A number of Jews were in the business of providing loans in return for surety. In 1757, Barak, the Rabbi of Rzeszow, and Kelia Moszkowicz Rafaelowicz who was a lessee along with her daughter Tzvia, were all involved in the providing of loans. There was tension between the Christians and the Jews. The Jews lived peaceably together in the new city, but very few of them lived in the villages. In 1790 there was one Jewish family of five people living in Staroniwa; in Zwieczyce there were four families with a total of sixteen people; In Przybyszowka – two families with a total of seven people; In Krasna – seven families with 34 people; in Malawy – three families with fifteen people. Thus, in 1790, these towns had seventeen families with a total of 77 people. In Drabinianka, Staromiescie, Pobitno, and Ruskawies there were no Jews at all. The Jews in the villages were owners of taverns and lessees. The palace related to the Jews according to their ability to pay. From 1725 to 1734 the palace governor in Rzeszow was Jan Ticzinski. He was a cruel man who beat the residents, demanded gifts from them, and did not pay the artisans and palace workers. When it became known that he hid payments that were due to the palace, Lubomirski demanded that all of the residents, Jews included, present to him their complaints about Ticzinski. However, the second governor, Timoteus Ulmiczer, behaved in the same manner of Ticzinski from 1744 to 1747. He was accused in 1747. It is no wonder that on April 29, 1740, Lubomirski turned to the mayor and head of the Jewish community with a request to provide one wagon weekly in the summer, and two weekly in the winter, full of firewood for the residence of the palace captain. The edict of the owner of the city in 1723 that imposed many payments upon the Jewish merchants did great damage to the livelihood of the residents. From that time on, the number of non-local merchants who came to the fairs of Rzeszow diminished. The local business shrank due to the various payments known as “Krupka”. The palace inspectors would confiscate merchandise that was not registered in the books of the merchants. Thus was trapped the Jewish merchant Doktorowicz in 1741, who was sentenced by the palace court to twelve weeks of labor in the palace citadel while bound in chains. There were cases where stores were closed and the money in them was confiscated. The decline of the city began already at the beginning of the 18th century. The great fires of 1709 and 1729 destroyed the city, and it was rebuilt with great difficulty. Aside from the fires, epidemics affected the city, which affected the economic life. A severe epidemic spread in the city between 1707 and 1713, and again in 1735. Aside from these situations, wars and national unrest affected the city. In the first half of the 18th century, great damage was inflicted on the city and its residents in the form of plunder, and pillage of merchandise and food by the armies of the Swedes, Russians, and Poles. An internal emigration began in 1730. The Christian merchants move from “Nowo Miasto” (the new city) to Stara Miasto” (the old city). The owner of the city Jerzy Lubomirski attempted to stem this emigration, which was resulting in an evacuation of “Nowo Miasto” of its residents. He issued an edict in 1740 that anyone who would reside in the new city would be freed from palace taxes for seven years, and would be permitted to engage in commerce and the serving of liquor in a free fashion. However, these new conditions did not apply tothe original residents. The debts on houses give evidence of the impoverishment of the residents of Rzeszow, and it is no wonder that in 1730, 1740, and 1750 we hear of the flight of citizens from the city, and of abandoned houses which were confiscated by the palace. In those years, some individual Jews began to purchase homes, and Yona Izraelowicz purchased the house of Yaakov Pokolowski for 2050 guilder. Yaakov Pokolowski left his home on Zatilna Street in the old city together with his family. From the moment that the new city began to organize, Jews began to purchase homes of the citizens. Therefore, there arose the need for the establishment of a new synagogue, which was erected with the permission given by Hieronim August Lubomirski to the Jews on January 26, 1681. In 1724, Lubomirski issued an edict about matters affecting the Catholics and Jews. It was commanded that Jews maintain the following roads and areas: “from the house of Yaakov Baldorf in the direction of the market of the new city, through the market to the civic brick kiln on one side, and on the other side from the gate of the new city through the Wola to the bridge over the Wislok. The Jews lived in “Nowo Miasto” (the new city), and that became their center of activity. In order to put an end to the disputes between the Catholics and the Jews, Lubomirski issued a judgement that the Catholics and the Jews were required together to build the new gate of the city. Of the eight entry and exit gates of the city, the maintenance of four was the responsibility of the Catholics, and the maintenance of the other four was the responsibility of the Jews. The Jews were responsible for: the “Nowo Mieski” gate near the “Wola Yaroslawska”; the “Nowo Mieski” gate near the brick kiln; the new gate; and the “Podzamcza Pool”. All of the gates were to be kept in good repair, and they had to pay for any repairs. We know from the “Universal” of Lubomirski that the Jews were also required to pay for the new stable. However, there were also some Jews who were not even able to maintain their own homes, and therefore, for example, in 1764, the lessee Moszkowicz gave over his home in the new city to the palace. This home was already in ruins, without ovens, windows, or doors, and the roof was shaky. He was not able to maintain the house due to his poverty. The economic decline of the city also caused emigration from the city. The calls of Lubomirski that those that left should return to their homes were of no avail, and the threats of Lubomirski that the abandoned homes would be transferred to the palace property also were to of no avail. In 1735, the palace forbade the merchants to leave the city, and issued a series of commands that the head of the city and members of the council were responsible to insure that the residents did not leave the city. In 1740 all of the homeowners were commanded to fix the old houses and to build new houses. Similar conditions existed at this time in other cities. For example, in Krakow, there were 70 abandoned houses; in Czanow – also 70 abandoned houses; and in Biecz in 1717 only 18 occupied houses. A period of decline overtook Rzeszow in the 18th century. Documents of the Rusin Wojewodztwo from the 18th century repeatedly referred to Rzeszow as a “poor city”. A new period only began in 1750, which brought Rzeszow toward the 18th century, thanks to new conditions. A special court used to operate during the fairs of Rzeszow. The members of the court during the Rzeszow fair of 1688 is known to us, as follows: David Rzeszowski, Yehuda Lewkowicz of Lubartow, Menachem Manes Levita of Rzeszow, and Aharon Markowicz of Rzeszow. A police force operated during the time of the fair, which used to issue on-the-spot judgements. The Krakow court also operated during the fairs of Rzeszow. In 1688, the administrator from Krakow Ber Yaakovowicz was sent to the fair of Rzeszow. Theft of merchandise would occur during fairs, and in 1681 the merchandise of Yaakov Wales of Krakow was stolen. In 1725, Baruch Naftalowicz, who was the Jewish commissioner from Rzeszow, requested that the activist of the Krakow community Hirsch Manischewicz issue a judgement regarding a situation where he was overpowered and mocked on Groczka Street in Krakow. The free permit allowed the distilling of liquor. In practice, no limits were imposed on the production and serving of liquor. Special beer did not have to be made for the benefit of the city or the owner of the city, and the beer brewers did not receive an exclusive permit for the brewing of beer. There were taverns that sold only beer that was brewed under the authority of the owner of the city or the Bernardines, and these taverns were exempt from taxes. With the passage of years, some beer breweries disappeared, and others were transferred to the owner of the city. Wolf Mendelowicz paid 9,000 guilder in 1764 for the license for all of the taverns and breweries for three years. There were 29 taverns in 1730. These included: 4 owned by producers of mead, 6 by brewers of beer, 11 hotels, and 8 beer halls. The brewing of beer was in Christian hands until the beginning of the 18th century. Avraham Chaimowicz produced and sold all types of drinks in his house with a license from the owner of the city. Wolf Mendelowicz leased all of the taverns for three years from Lubomirski for 90,000 guilder , and he leased the right to sell only three taverns in the city. By the beginning of the 19th century, the production of liquor was already in the hands of the Jews. Weinberg leased the civic beer brewery in 1803-1804, and produced 1,021 casks of beer per year. Berel Leinder produced 11,340 jugs of mead in his brewery. At the same time, the Jews took over a greater portion of the trade to the north. Jews of Rzeszow traveled to Danzig and Torun on business. Yitzchak Eizekowicz and Yisrael of Rzeszow were prominent in this trade in the 17th century. Some of the Jews of Rzeszow participated in the Leipzig fair. In 1678, five Jews of Rzeszow took part; in 1681 – one; in 1699 – three. In 1778-1779 the city of Danzig issued a concession to the Rzeszow Jew Hirsch Yisrael, in order to induce him to stay in Danzig. Jews took part in the fairs of Breslau during the 17th century. In 1684, the Krakow Jew Wolf Yaakov participated, and in 1697 Shamir of Rzeszow participated. In 1674 and 1678 the Jews of Rzeszow were required by the city of Breslau to pay a debt which they owed to the heads of Polish Jewry. The owner of the city, Prince Alexander Lubomirski requested on December 11, 1678 that the city of Breslau not force his Jews from Rzeszow to pay the debts of the Jewish leaders that were under the auspices of the King of Poland. He requested that they not oppress the Jews who come to Breslau. The heads of Polish Jewry did not find any other way to demand their debts from the Jews, other than to present themselves on the market day in Breslau, and with the assistance of the council to force the Jews to pay their debts, and to arrest those who refuse. Many Jews of Rzeszow came to Breslau for the Elizabeth fair, and in 1696, the administrator of the Rzeszow Jews was there. In 1697, the administrators of Poland included one administrator from Rzeszow. With the passage of time the situation of the administrators improved, in that they made money and their numbers were limited. In 1722, there were eleven administrators, and the eight from Poland included one from Rzeszow. Disputes broke out regarding this matter. The administrator was the spokesman of the Jews of his region. Even though his appointment was connected to, and required a permit from the Council of Four Lands, the actual appointment was made by the leaders of the province or region. In 1722, there were 159 Jews from Poland in Breslau, including 11 from Rzeszow. Rzeszow had approximately 40 Jewish homes during the 17th century, and in each home lived several families. In one source it is stated that the number of Jews exceeded the number of Christians. However, we only have exact numbers from 1. In that year there were in Rzeszow: 140 Jewish citizens (obywatele), 172 residents, and 49 artisans. Of these, the numbers in the old city of Rzeszow were as follows: 26 citizens, 45 residents, and 27 artisans. In the new city there were 78 citizens, 127 residents, and 27 artisans. With an estimate of 5 people per family, we come to a number of 1,429 for the Jewish population of Rzeszow. In 1765 there were 1202 Jews in Rzeszow, however this is not an exact figure, since the community did not register the children who were exempt from the head-tax. The population by profession is as follows: 94 whose profession was unspecified, 29 tailors, 27 goldsmiths, 26 taverners, 31 merchants and store owners, 12 money-changers, 10 hat-makers, 10 teachers, 10 clergymen, 6 cord-makers, 6 bowl-makers, 5 furriers, 5 doctors, 4 musicians, 4 draznicy (porters), 3 bakers, 3 butchers, 2 textile-makers, 1 glass-blower, 1 soap-maker, 1 tile-maker, 1 plasterer, 25 who received support, and 8 servants. The ones with unspecified professions were for the most part merchants, middlemen, brokers, and agents who conducted business on behalf of themselves or others. In 1723, the prince who was the owner of the city issued an edict that only an agent who possessed a special privilege was permitted to fill his duty. In 1757, the number of these privileges as limited to four, with the condition that it was possible to revoke the privilege if they were causing damage to the merchants. With respect to the size of the tax base as an indicator of economic power, the first place went to the merchants (excluding the store owners), the second place went to the tailors, and the rest – to the smiths, cord-makers, medics and bakers. Families worked in the smith business for many years, and in the event that a son was not born to the family, a son-in-law or brother-in-law would conduct the business. The business of the smiths reached as far as Vienna, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin, and St. Petersburg. In St. Petersburg and Copenhagen they also filled the role of royal engravers. Entire families, fathers together with children, also worked in the tailoring profession. JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions. Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited. Rzeszow, Poland Yizkor Book Project JewishGen Home Page Copyright © 1999-2016 by JewishGen, Inc. Updated 22 Jul 2008 by LA
In the late 1970s China embarked on economic reform, gradually transforming what was originally a centrally planned system into a more liberal one. As a result, in 2010 China stood as the second-largest economy in the world. Many aspects of a market-oriented system are now in place: competitive commodity and labor markets, the development of stock exchanges, a rapid growth of the private sector, and opening up to foreign trade and investment. Some observers believe that China is on the right track toward a market economy. They also believe that economic reform will finally bring about political reform – that a Taiwan style democratic China will emerge in the mainland. However, this is not what the initiator of reform – the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – wants. This article shows that the Communist Party initiated economic reform for its own survival and the continuation of its one-party governance. The Party used private ownership, foreign capital, and a competitive market to strengthen the socialist system instead of deviating from the socialist path, and it is now using its economic success to justify the one-party political system. Economic Reform as Political Elixir The 1979 economic reform was launched in the aftermath of the Great Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), a period that left the whole nation in turmoil. The “Revolution” had disastrous consequences, as even Deng Xiaoping acknowledged. “The ten-year ‘Great Cultural Revolution,’ together with the period dominated by errors from the ‘Leftist’ period, which began in 1957, caused us to waste twenty years. … However, the overall political situation was chaotic, and the economy either grew slowly or stagnated.” “As for productivity, there was a huge gap between China and the rest of the world. In 1978, China’s per capita GDP was lower than India, one-twentieth of Japan, and one-thirtieth of the United States. The level of our science and technology was 40 years behind developed countries, and 20 years behind South Korea, Brazil, and other developing countries. An open mine in West Germany employed 2,000 workers to produce an annual output of 50 million tons of lignite coal, while it took 160,000 Chinese workers to produce the same amount, a difference of 80 times more workers. It took 7,000 workers at a steel plant in Marseille, France, to produce 3.5 million tons of steel in one year, while China’s Wuhan Steel Plant had 67,000 workers with an annual output of 2.3 million tons of steel, making it 14.5 times less efficient. A plane took off or landed at France’s De Gaulle Airport once a minute, which was 60 planes per hour. Beijing International Airport could barely handle two planes in one hour. The gap between China and the world was shocking, putting the Party and country under unprecedented pressure.” At the same time, the Chinese people, having suffered from dozens of political movements, culminating in the Cultural Revolution, questioned the legitimacy of the one-party system. For the first time since 1949, the Chinese Communist Party faced a critical challenge. Deng acknowledged this as well. “Is the Central Committee making a mountain out of a molehill when it takes this view of the matter? No, it is not. In the light of current developments the Party has no choice. … In Shanghai there is a so-called Democracy Forum. Some of its members have slandered Comrade Mao Zedong and put up big counter-revolutionary posters proclaiming that ‘the proletarian dictatorship is the source of all evil’ and that it is necessary to ‘resolutely and thoroughly criticize the Communist Party of China.’ They allege that capitalism is better than socialism and that, therefore, instead of carrying out the four modernizations, China should introduce what they call ‘social reform,’ by which they mean that it should turn to capitalism. They publicly declare that their task is to settle accounts with those whom the Gang of Four called the ‘capitalist roaders’ but whom it failed to deal with. Some of them have asked to go abroad to seek political asylum, and some have even made clandestine contact with the Kuomintang secret service, plotting sabotage.” In 1979, Beijing cracked down on the Democracy Wall movement, arresting political dissidents including Wei Jingsheng, who called for a democratic political system. It was against this economic and political backdrop that, in 1978, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee ushered in economic reform. Clearly, for the CCP, the reform was merely a means to strengthen and prolong its rule, instead of a first step toward political reform. From day one of the reform, Deng Xiaoping firmly stressed The Four Cardinal Principles. “The Central Committee maintains that, to carry out China’s four modernizations, we must uphold the Four Cardinal Principles ideologically and politically. This is the basic prerequisite for achieving modernization. The four principles are: 1. We must keep to the socialist road. 2. We must uphold the dictatorship of the proletariat. 3. We must uphold the leadership of the Communist Party. 4. We must uphold Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought.” “Throughout the process of reform and opening, we must also adhere to the Four Cardinal Principles.” Ten years later, after suppressing the 1989 students’ movement, Deng said, “Had it not been for the achievements of the reform and the open policy, we could not have weathered June 4th. And if we had failed that test, there would have been chaos and civil war. The cultural revolution’ was a civil war. Why was it that our country could remain stable after the June 4th Incident? It was precisely because we had carried out the reform and the open policy, which promoted economic growth and raised living standards. The army and the government should therefore safeguard the socialist system and these policies.” 20 years after 1989, the basic logic of using economic reform to defend and prolong the one-party political system remained unchanged. For example, in June 2009, People’s Daily published a series of articles titled the “Six Why’s – Answers to Several Important Questions,” which was the CCP Central Propaganda Department’s ideological campaign program carried out for all of the Party members. The sixth article “The powerful driving force behind the development of contemporary China – why we must unswervingly pursue reform and opening up, and cannot go back” emphasizes just that point. “Throughout the process of reform and opening up, our Party has constantly emphasized that reform is not to remove the socialist system or to integrate into capitalism. Rather, reform and opening up is the self-perfection and development of the socialist system. Comrade Deng Xiaoping stated that to engage in reform will change a lot of things, but ‘the biggest no-change is the socialist system.’” “We cannot abandon our ancestors.” A Socialist Market Economy with Chinese Characteristics China’s official characterization of its development stage is the “preliminary stage of socialism,” in which the features of the economic system are public ownership as the main component supplemented by diversified forms of ownership Public ownership includes state ownership and collective ownership. State ownership is defined as having the means of production (land, machinery, raw materials, etc.) owned by the entire body of working people. It refers to state owned enterprises and the state portion in joint ventures. Collective ownership includes only a small portion and still exists in rural areas. It refers to ownership by a group of local people. Diversified forms of ownership include varying degrees of private ownership. It is the growth of the private sector that leads observers to embrace the hope for a market economy in China. In 2005, a Chinese economist said in an interview with Businessweek that “The major reform achievement has been in privatizing state enterprises. The private sector accounts for 70% of gross domestic product.” The government media also attributed China’s economic growth mainly to the private sector “The latest figures from the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC) showed that China’s private sector created 11.4 million new jobs in 2009, contributing to more than 90 percent of all new urban employment.” On the other hand, the government remains in the tight grip of the land and banking industry and large-sized enterprises. The state banking industry is notorious for having a high bad debt ratio and the State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) operate with low efficiency. Government control of the land is one of the major contributors to the corruption of officials, growing social unrest due to forceful demolition of residential housing, and skyrocketing housing prices. However there is not only no sign that the CCP is ready to give up or weaken that control, but the official rhetoric suggests the opposite. “The policies of using foreign funds and allowing the private sector to expand will not weaken the predominant position of the public sector, which is a basic feature of the economy as a whole. On the contrary, those policies are intended, in the last analysis, to develop the productive forces more vigorously and to strengthen the public sector.” “This ownership structure exists not simply to maintain control over the rise in the private economy, but to consolidate, develop, and strengthen the public sector at the same time as the development and growth in private ownership, and always to maintain the foundational and dominant position of the public sector and the dominant and controlling position of the state-owned economy.” “The dominant position of public ownership is mainly reflected in the proportion of public assets out of all total assets; the state control of the national economic lifeline plays a leading role in the country’s development.” “To uphold and improve the fundamental economic system in the preliminary stage of socialism, we must first adhere to and improve public ownership as the main body and the state economy as the leading sector. If this main and dominant position is shaken and rejected, the socialist economic system will be shaken and rejected” Maybe because of these seemingly conflicting phenomena, observers find it difficult to comprehend the nature of China’s economic transformation. As it said in the Council on Foreign Relations’ 2007 China Task Force report, “China is modern and ancient. Communist and capitalist.” However, China’s government scholars have given clear and convincing answers to the co-existence of the rapid growth of the private sector and unswerving emphasis on state ownership. The following is from Wei Xinghua, a Marxism theorist and professor at Renmin University of China: “To implement the basic economic system of the preliminary stage of socialism, one should be clear about two theoretical points. First of all, the means of production being wholly owned by society in the socialist system that the founders of Marxism talked about is to take place after socialism is born out of advanced capitalist countries. … China is still far from a mature socialist model. Second, the elimination of private ownership is a gradual process side by side with the continuous development of productivity and the corresponding development of public ownership after the victory of the proletariat revolution. In other words, the eradication of private ownership is a historical process; even after the socialist revolution succeeds in advanced capitalist countries, the eradication of private ownership also needs to go through a historical process.” “‘The socialist economic system’ exists in the preliminary stage of socialism and other future stages, and is a process of continuously maturing and developing. One can also envision that, at the end of the preliminary stage, the non-public ownership economy will not quickly be replaced. Entering into the intermediate stage, public ownership will further strengthen, and its proportion continuously increase, while the non-public sector will gradually decrease, and its proportion be reduced. … at the advanced stage of socialism, when the socialist economy matures, the private economy will leave the stage of history.” Wei’s point is echoed in a Chinese Wall Street Journal article: “If the ultimate goal of China’s development is socialist, then the current stage of state capitalism in China is only temporary. Its purpose is different from the state capitalism appearing in developed countries or other emerging markets. Their state capitalism is to ease the inherent contradictions of capitalism, and, in essence, to safeguard the capitalist system. However, China’s state capitalism may be to improve the socialist public ownership and eventually eliminate capitalist private ownership.” In addition to allowing private ownership, the economic reform has also brought in foreign capital and a competitive market, but they all serve the same purpose of improving socialist public ownership and eventually eliminating capitalist private ownership. In his famous “Southern Tour” talks after the 1989 students’ movement, Deng Xiaoping made these points very clear: “Special economic zones are socialist, not capitalist. In the case of Shenzhen, the publicly owned sector is the mainstay of the economy, while the foreign-invested sector accounts for only a quarter. Even in that sector, we benefit from taxes and employment opportunities. We should have more of the three kinds of foreign-invested ventures [joint, cooperative, and foreign-owned]. There is no reason to be afraid of them. So long as we remain levelheaded, there is no cause for alarm. We have our advantages: we have the large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises and the rural enterprises. More importantly, political power is in our hands. “Some people argue that the more foreign investment flows in and the more ventures of the three kinds are established, the more elements of capitalism will be introduced and the more capitalism will expand in China. These people lack basic knowledge. At the current stage, foreign-funded enterprises in China are allowed to make some money in accordance with existing laws and policies, but the government levies taxes on those enterprises, workers get wages from them, and we learn technology and managerial skills. In addition, we can get information from them that will help us open more markets. Therefore, subject to the constraints of China’s overall political and economic conditions, foreign-funded enterprises are useful supplements to the socialist economy, and in the final analysis they are good for socialism.” “The proportion of planning to market forces is not the essential difference between socialism and capitalism.” “Planning and market forces are both means of controlling economic activity.” In March 2011, at an NPC session, Wu Bangguo, Chair of the National People’s Congress, spoke of five “no’s.” The last “no”–No Privatization–reemphasizes that the CCP will not voluntarily lose its control of the national economy. Actually, as of today, princelings–the sons and daughters of senior Communist Party officials–head many large state-owned enterprises. State control of the economy fundamentally boils down to the Communist Party’s ruling status. Professor Wei has made it very clear: “If (we) engaged in privatization, public ownership would be replaced by private ownership, and the socialist economic system would not exist. Private economy and the ownership of foreign capital are part of the capitalist economy. If they become the main body, then (we become) a capitalist system, and the basis of Communist Party rule will no longer exist.” Economic Success Validates the Political System and Socialism Thirty years ago, economic reform was launched to save and prolong the Party’s lifeline; 30 years later, the reform and the high economic growth, especially during the recent global financial crisis, have become the reason to justify and even glorify its one-party political system. In January 2011, before Hu Jintao’s visit to the U.S., he said in his interview with the Washington Post, “In the past 30-plus years since the reform and opening-up, notable progress has been made in China’s political restructuring. The fact that China has enjoyed sustained, rapid economic growth and social stability and harmony proves that China’s political system fits China’s national conditions and meets the requirement of overall economic and social development.” A Chinese Academy of Social Science scholar attributes China’s success to the “correct leadership of the Chinese Communist Party:” “Since 20 years ago, when the Cold War between East and West ended, China, a country with a population of 1.3 billion, under the correct leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, has not repeated the disastrous failure (resulting in) the disintegration of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, nor has it followed the tragic fate of the Soviet style collapse and the Russian type recession. It has not only achieved economic development and social progress, but it has maintained a good momentum of reform, growth, stability, and harmony. In particular, after the outbreak of the international financial crisis, the Western socioeconomic system and mode of governing have hit a wall, and many countries are facing instability and an uncertain future. On the contrary, China has successfully survived the crisis and taken the lead in recovery, displaying the appeal of the Chinese model. For over 30 years, China has been a powerful driving force in the world economy; its political stability and form of government have influenced the world structure and enriched the world’s political landscape. The ideological guidance and experience of China’s development path have broadened the meaning of human progress, leaving a colorful stroke in the painting of world civilization.” Many official documents reflect the fact that the late-2000s financial crisis that originated in the U.S. and was a huge blow to advanced economies and has become a perfect justification for the Beijing regime to tout the failure of capitalism and the superiority of socialism. “From the viewpoint of the rise and fall of the capitalist and socialist systems, the crisis that is sweeping the globe was a heavy blow to the capitalist world. It exploded the myth advocated by some Western theorists that this is the end of history and capitalism will last forever. It has prompted a reflection on the rationality of capitalism itself. This will undoubtedly help the world socialist movement, currently at a low ebb, to march forward. More importantly, while many crisis-hit capitalist countries are struggling, China has successfully overcome the adverse effects of the crisis, reached the national goal of rapid and steady growth, and achieved remarkable success. This is irrefutable proof that socialism with Chinese characteristics has great vitality; it demonstrates that socialism is a superior system. … China’s success is the greatest contribution to the world’s socialist movement.” “Global communists share a general view (on the global financial crisis): the capitalist system generated the crisis; the outbreak of the crisis resulted from an intensification of the basic contradictions of capitalism. Therefore, only the elimination of the capitalist system can fundamentally eliminate this monster of a crisis. The crisis confirms that it is an inevitable historic trend for socialism to replace capitalism.” “Once again the crisis proved to the world the truth of Marx’s theory, both as to the cyclical nature of crises in a capitalist economy and the inevitable demise of the capitalist mode of production. As long as the capitalists’ insistence on private ownership does not change, the inherent contradictions within capitalism cannot be fundamentally resolved, and it will develop into a cyclical and worldwide economic crisis. Once the crisis is over, not only will the level of the socialization of production increase, but also the concentration and monopoly of production will intensify, deepening the basic contradictions of capitalism and creating conditions for an even more severe crisis. … China, relying on the socialist system with public ownership as the main component, has not only withstood the crisis, but maintained a growth rate of 8%, outshining the rest of the world. Facts have proved that we have chosen the completely correct road of socialism with Chinese characteristics, which is the fundamental guarantee for sustained and rapid economic development and the great renaissance of the Chinese nation.” In retrospect, the Chinese government’s economic reform is clearly logical: The reform was for the survival of the Party; elements of capitalism were introduced in the reform process in order to achieve economic success, which, in turn, justifies and glorifies the Party’s rule. In the long run, private ownership will be eliminated as China enters into the mature stage of socialism. This is the essence of China’s economic development model. Endnotes: Selected Works Of Deng Xiaoping, “We Must Continue to Emancipate Our Minds and Accelerate the Reform,” May 25, 1988. http://web.peopledaily.com.cn/english/dengxp/vol3/text/c1850.html. Xinhua, Six Why’s, “Article Six: The Powerful Driving Force of the Development of Contemporary China,” June 12, 2009. http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-06/12/content_11531499.htm. The Gang of Four (四人帮) was the name given to a political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party officials. They came to prominence during the Great Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and were subsequently charged with a series of treasonous crimes. The members consisted of Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong’s last wife as the leading figure of the group, and her close associates Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen. Selected Works Of Deng Xiaoping, “Uphold The Four Cardinal Principles,” March 30, 1979. http://web.peopledaily.com.cn/english/dengxp/vol2/text/b1290.html. The Democracy Wall (西单民主墙) was a long brick wall on Xidan Street, Xicheng District, Beijing, which became the focus for democratic dissent. Beginning in December 1978, in line with the Communist Party of China’s policy of “seeking truth from facts,” activists in the Democracy movement—such as Xu Wenli—recorded news and ideas, often in the form of big-character posters (dazibao), during a period known as the “Beijing Spring.” The first posting on the Wall was by a poet from Guizhou Province, Huang Xiang. These activists were initially encouraged to criticize the Gang of Four and previous failed government policies as part of Deng Xiaoping’s struggle to gain power, but the wall was closed in December 1979, when the leadership and the communist party system were being criticized along with acknowledged mistakes and previous leaders. The shutdown coincided with suppression of political dissent. The Fifth Modernization was a signed wall poster placed by Wei Jingsheng on December 5, 1978, on the Democracy Wall in Beijing. It was the first poster that openly advocated further individual liberties. It created a spectacle, espousing that freedom was the only “modernization” that really mattered, rather than improved living standards. The poster was in response to the government’s “Four Modernizations” campaign. Selected Works Of Deng Xiaoping, “Uphold The Four Cardinal Principles,” March 30, 1979. http://web.peopledaily.com.cn/english/dengxp/vol2/text/b1290.html. Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, “Excerpts from Talks Given in Wuchang, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shanghai,” January 18 – February 21, 1992. http://web.peopledaily.com.cn/english/dengxp/vol3/text/d1200.html. Ibid. Xinhua, Six Why’s, “Article Six: The Powerful Driving Force of the Development of Contemporary China,” June 12, 2009. http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-06/12/content_11531499.htm. Businessweek, “‘China Is a Private-Sector Economy,’” August 22, 2005. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_34/b3948478.htm. China Daily, “Private sector major contributor to China’s new employments in 2009,” January 30, 2010. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2010-01/30/content_9402597.htm. Selected Works Of Deng Xiaoping, “There Is No Fundamental Contradiction Between Socialism and a Market Economy,” October 23, 1985. http://web.peopledaily.com.cn/english/dengxp/vol3/text/c1480.html. Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Marxism Research Website, “Analysis of China’s Economic Development Model,” March 12, 2010. http://myy.cass.cn/file/2010031235517.html. Xinhua, Six Why’s, “Article Five: The Basic Economic System Full of Vitality,” June 10, 2009. http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-06/10/content_11520645.htm. Red Flag Manuscript, “Uphold and Improve Our Basic Economic System of the Present Stage,” September 25, 2010. http://www.qstheory.cn/hqwg/2010/201018/201009/t20100925_50285.htm. Council on Foreign Relations Task Force Report, “U.S.-China Relations An Affirmative Agenda, A Responsible Course,” April 2007. http://www.cfr.org/china/us-china-relations/p12. Red Flag Manuscript, “The Formation and Consolidation the 60 Years of New China’s Basic Socialist Economic System,” September 10, 2010. http://www.qstheory.cn/zywz/200909/t20090909_11132.htm. Chinese Wall Street Journal, “China Model and State Capitalism,” May 5, 2010. http://chinese.wsj.com/gb/20100505/CWS184713.asp. Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, “Excerpts from Talks Given in Wuchang, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shanghai,” January 18 – February 21, 1992. http://web.peopledaily.com.cn/english/dengxp/vol3/text/d1200.html. No multiparty election, no diversified guiding ideology systems, no separation of powers, no federal system, no privatization. The Australian, “China’s top jobs all in the family,” June 09, 2008. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/chinas-top-jobs-all-in-the-family/story-e6frg6t6-1111116576044. Red Flag Manuscript, “Uphold and Improve Our Basic Economic System of the Present Stage,” September 25, 2010. http://www.qstheory.cn/hqwg/2010/201018/201009/t20100925_50285.htm. Washington Post, “Excerpts from Hu Jintao interview,” January 16, 2011. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/16/AR2011011603532_3.html?sid=ST2011011404809. Red Flag Manuscript, “The Political Advantage and Ideological Value of the China Path,” January 11, 2011. http://www.qsjournal.com.cn/hqwg/2011/201101/201101/t20110111_61810.htm. Red Flag Manuscript, “Profound Analysis of the Root Causes of the Global Financial Crisis, Further Understand the Nature of Contemporary Capitalism,” October 9, 2010.
You’re done with your shift. It’s time to go home. How many hours have you worked without sleep? If you haven’t slept at least five hours in the last 24, when you get behind the wheel your drowsiness could pose a very real danger to you, as well as others on the road. In fact, you are six times more likely to be involved in a crash. Drowsy driving is a very real thing, just like drunk driving. - Every year 100,000 police-reported crashes involve drowsy driving, resulting in 1,550 fatalities and 71,000 injuries. - However, a study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety suggests that the real number of drowsy driving crashes is more than triple that number – 328,000 crashes with 6,400 fatalities and 109,000 injuries. - The Governor’s Highway Safety Association says that more than 5,000 people died in drowsy driving crashes in 2015 alone. The National Safety Council makes no bones about it: - If you are driving after more than 20 hours without sleep, it is the equivalent of driving with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08% – the US legal limit – considered driving drunk in every state. If you wouldn’t drive after drinking, then it’s time to realize you can’t drive after not sleeping. The National Sleep Foundation agrees. It’s Drowsy Driving Consensus Panel 2016, stated that an individual is “unfit to drive” if he or she has slept two or fewer hours in the past 24 hours. AAA conducted drowsy driving research using in-vehicle dashcam video from more than 700 crashes. “Using a scientific measure linking the percentage of time a person’s eyes are closed to their level of drowsiness, the researchers determined that 9.5% of all crashes and 10.8% of crashes resulting in significant property damage involved drowsiness. Federal estimates indicate drowsiness is a factor in only one to two percent of crashes.” In other words, drowsy driving is one of the most underreported traffic safety issues in the US. Drowsy driving is so dangerous and causing so many crashes, injuries, and fatalities that the issue reached the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) annual wishlist. In 2016, “reducing fatigue-related accidents” topped the NTSB’s Most Wanted Transportation Safety Improvements list. When drowsy driving tops what is essentially your Christmas list, you know it is a significant issue. Drowsy Driving Can Be Tough to Identify The problem is that not all crashes can be identified as caused by drowsy driving. The driver may be fully awake by the time police arrive and may not realize that he or she felt drowsy at the time of the accident. When the AAA Foundation studied drivers who fell asleep and crashed, they found “nearly half said they felt only “slightly drowsy” or “not at all drowsy” just before the crash”. In addition, police cannot measure drowsiness in drivers like they can measure alcohol levels. Even when police do know drowsy driving is the cause of an accident, injury or fatality, often there is no way to report it. A 50 state review by the National Safety Council discovered that “no state crash reports have fields or codes for police to record the level of driver fatigue at the time of a crash”. While we’re on the topic of record keeping, it’s worth mentioning that the majority of states have no way to capture data on other types of distracted driving either: - 26 state reports lack fields to capture texting - 32 states lack fields to record hands-free cell phone use - 32 states lack fields to record specific types of drug use identified on positive drug tests, including marijuana Despite the lack of documentation, surveys show that driving while drowsy and fatigued is a rampant problem. A survey by AAA found: - 29% of those surveyed admitted to driving when they were so tired they had a hard time keeping their eyes open at some point in the past month. - 43% of US drivers admitted to falling asleep or nodding off while driving at least once in their lifetime. If all the statistics aren’t enough to make you take pause, consider this chilling fact: Sleep-related crashes look different from alcohol-related crashes, in that there is no evidence of the driver braking or making evasive maneuvers. Combatting Drowsy Driving Obviously sleep is the best answer to preventing drowsy driving – seven to eight hours of it every night. If your rotation doesn’t allow for that, try these steps to avoid drowsy driving – with one caveat – nothing can substitute for getting enough sleep. Even with these strategies, your body may take “micro-naps” while you are driving. At 65 miles per hour, you travel more than 100 yards in four seconds. If you are sleeping during those four seconds, you can imagine what could happen. If you are turning up the radio or rolling down the window to stay awake, pull over! You are drowsy and may fall asleep while driving. Before getting behind the wheel: - Take a 15- to 20-minute nap before leaving for home. More than 20 minutes may make your groggy. - Drink coffee 30 minutes before driving. Two cups will increase alertness for several hours but will not completely eliminate your body’s desire to sleep. - If you realize you are drowsy while driving, pull over and take a nap. - Use the buddy system. Travel to and from work with someone else and let them drive when you are drowsy. Remember, you do not know when you are sleepy and you will not know when you are about to fall asleep behind the wheel. You save lives all day. Make time to save your own. Be aware of drowsy driving and do everything in your power to avoid it.
We all deserve a break from the past week’s news. This NASA video could be just the right thing. According to the space agency, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) “captures a shot of the sun every 12 seconds in 10 different wavelengths.” The video features images from the past three years, “at a pace of two images per day.” “There are several noteworthy events that appear briefly in this video. They include the two partial eclipses of the sun by the moon, two roll maneuvers [by the observatory, as it changes position], the largest flare of this solar cycle, comet Lovejoy, and the transit of Venus. The specific time for each event is listed below, but a sharp-eyed observer may see some while the video is playing. — “00:30;24 Partial eclipse by the moon — “00:31;16 Roll maneuver — “01:11;02 August 9, 2011 X6.9 Flare, currently the largest of this solar cycle — “01:28;07 Comet Lovejoy, December 15, 2011 — “01:42;29 Roll Maneuver — “01:51;07 Transit of Venus, June 5, 2012 — “02:28;13 Partial eclipse by the moon” (H/T to Huff Post Science.) Read original article - The Juneau Crime Line is offering a reward for tips in a nearly 6-month-old report of an attempted kidnapping. - After months of mixed signals, Gov. Bill Walker's administration and the state's three current partners - ExxonMobil, BP and ConocoPhillips -- told lawmakers this week that the state will take the lead on the megaproject as soon as this fall. - Company seeks to shut down state subpoenas in federal court - Alaska State Troopers are reporting the presence of high levels of Fentanyl in what was suspected heroin seized in Quinhagak.
In this lesson, students will listen to a monologue about mobile phones. They will put the monologue in the correct order and listen to check answers. There are also suggestions for developing the theme of mobile phones to practise specific areas of grammar. - To Practice listening skills - To improve students’ vocabulary and speaking skills specifically related to mobile phones CEF level A2-B1 30 minutes plus time for developing the theme The lesson plan, transcript and student worksheets can be downloaded in PDF format below Related resources you may like Mobile Phones - Students will review vocabulary related to mobiles, do a quiz to see how much they know about mobile phones, and practise using text language to send messages to each other.
South Stream – a pipeline project designed to bring natural gas from the Russian Federation to the Balkans, Eastern and Central Europe, the proposed route of which lies under the Black Sea. Although this project was in the theoretical stages of negotiation and planning, it now seems that it will become a reality. Yet, what is the story behind this colossal undertaking to build a pipeline under the sea? The South Stream pipeline project was proposed in 2007, when the Italian CEO of Eni (an energy company) signed a memorandum with Gazprom’s Vice-Chairman, Alexander Medvedev. Since then, several joint-venture companies have been established through bilateral contracts between Italian, Austrian, Serbian energy companies and Gazprom. On October 23rd, 2010, the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) finalized the negotiations, paving the way for South Stream to become a reality. This was the key deal to the project, since the entry-point for the Russian gas coming into the Balkans would be the South-Eastern EU member state. Yet, most people are not aware of the nature of the BEH and its relationship with Gazprom. The Ministry of Economics, Energy and Tourism created the BEH in 2008 to oversee the major Bulgarian energy companies. It is 100% state-owned and forms the foundation for all production, transit, distribution and supply of energy. Its subsidiaries include Bulgargaz, which holds the only license for public distribution of natural gas in the country; and Bulgartransgaz, which administers the supply, transit, and storage of natural gas. These two enterprises control this important energy resource, 92% of which is imported from the Russian Federation (the other 8% are produced locally). It therefore makes them major actors in the trade relationship between Bulgaria and the country’s sole natural gas supplier. Bulgargaz is at a disadvantage in the relationship because of its total dependency on Gazprom for supply of natural gas. In the January 2009 gas crisis, the supply was cut off and Bulgaria was left without this vital energy resource. Yet, being a large international company, Gazprom did not suffer from this action (if we consider Bulgaria only). The size of the two companies is incomparable and that makes the trade relationship asymmetric. Also, because the two companies are state-controlled, there is always the threat that a political crisis between the two countries can spill-over into the energy resource trade relations or vice versa. In both cases, Bulgaria is at a disadvantage in the relationship. This seemed to be the last hurdle which had to be cleared for the initiation of South Stream – a political tension. On August 11th, 2010, the Serbian Prime Minister, Boris Tadic, visited Sofia and met with his colleague, Boiko Borisov. At their meeting, the South Stream pipeline project was discussed, and the exact location of where the pipeline would cross the border between the two countries was agreed. Following this, Gazprom lashed out, stating that Bulgaria and Serbia can “state their opinions as much as they want… but the final word for the route of the pipeline is Gazprom’s” (Dnevnik News, 2010). A rather strong reaction in anyone’s mind. It now seems that this political hurdle has been overcome and consensus has been achieved. It is expected that on November 15th, a joint company between the BEH and Gazprom will come into being and the construction of South Stream to bring natural gas to Bulgaria can begin. It is estimated that the pipeline will become functional in 2015. Yet, what does this mean for Bulgaria? There are three aspects of this story that need consideration. Firstly, the construction of South Stream means that any future conflict between one of the parties and a state which currently transports gas as a transit country will not impact the receiving state as it did in January 2009. In effect, the status quo will not be changed in the direct relationship between Bulgaria and Russia, but some elements constituting unpredictability and raising security concerns will be eliminated. Secondly, Bulgaria will benefit economically from the project. With the construction of South Stream, and the eventual completion of Nabucco (a rival gas pipeline project from Turkey), and the hopeful coming into operation of a new nuclear power plant, Bulgaria will have an abundance of energy resources at its disposal. This would allow it to become a transit country and reap the benefits of re-exporting the gas that is imported into the country. Thirdly, Bulgaria is looking to develop a balanced energy mix for its production system. Nevertheless, it is also looking to cut CO2 emissions from energy production. While in most countries, these two problems would be addressed jointly, the Bulgarian government has decided to take it one step at a time. By importing more natural gas, it would allow the production of energy in the country to rely almost completely on the fossil-fuel. Yet, if this means the closing down of the several coal-fired power plants in the country, it would lead to a significant reduction in air pollution. The next step, which is still to be considered, is the replacement of fossil fuels for energy production all together. The new nuclear power plant is one piece of the puzzle, but in the long-term (optimistically after 2025), the country will have to begin its transformation to a ‘greener’ energy production system. It would be interesting to see the position of Gazprom when that time comes. On the whole, Bulgaria is poised to gain a lot from South Stream, but only if all the other projects continue their development as well. It was recently announced the the new nuclear power plant will not be financed by the Russian Federation alone (as it was until now), but also by a strategic, European investor. It has also come to light that negotiations on the Nabucco pipeline (supported more by the EU than South Stream), are going well. The general outcome of the situation remains to be seen, but one fact remains certain – through South Stream, Russia is being brought even closer to Europe than it already is.
If you walk in many of New England’s woods, it is likely that you will come upon deer tracks. If the snow isn’t deep enough to keep the deer confined to one area, or “yard,” such as this year, then tracks can often be found throughout the woods. Where there are tracks, there are also beds – spots, often on higher ground, where deer bed down for the night. By looking at the edges of the indentation left when a deer lies down, you can usually determine which direction the deer was facing. (It’s back leaves a fairly symmetrical curve in the snow, and its knees often make impressions.) Deer frequently travel in herds and bed down together. Because they are prey for numerous animals, it should come as no surprise that their actions, even ones as simple as in which direction to lie down, are intentional. If you look at an area where several deer bedded down, you will usually find that each deer is facing a different direction. This is so that, together, they have as much of a 360 degree view as possible, in order to spot an approaching predator. The deer that occupied the closest bed in this photograph was facing right, while the further deer was facing left. White-tailed deer are known to eat over 600 species of plants in North America. They consume, on average, about 5 to 8 pounds of food for every 100 pounds of body weight, per day. As a result, a deer, on average, defecates about 13 times a day. A crude but somewhat accurate way to estimate how many white-tailed deer are in your area is to count the number of scat piles you find in a square mile within 24 hours, and divide this number by 13. A little snow on the ground would make this particular method of population estimation a lot easier! A white-tailed deer’s diet consists of a wide variety of herbaceous and woody plants, the ratio of one to the other being determined by the season. Fungi, fruits and herbaceous plants form much of the summer diet. Dried leaves and grasses, acorns, beechnuts and woody browse are important autumn and early winter food. After snowfall, the winter diet consists mostly of woody browse (twigs, leaves, shoots and buds) from many different trees (maples, birches and cedars among them). Come spring, deer eat buds, twigs and emerging leaves. Deer are ruminants (as are cattle, goats, sheep and moose). They have a four-chambered stomach, which is necessary in order to digest the cellulose in the vegetation they consume. Food goes first to the rumen, the first of the four chambers, which contains bacteria and other microorganisms that help digest the cellulose. Food is circulated from the rumen back to the deer’s mouth by the second chamber, or reticulum, and the deer ruminates (“chews its cud”). The third chamber, or omasum, functions as a pump, sending the food to the final chamber, the abomasum, where the digestion process is completed. A doe giving birth for the first time usually has one fawn. The following year, and until she is quite old, twins are the norm. Triplets are fairly common, quadruplets are known, and there are at least two records of quintuplets. Fawns nurse for eight to ten weeks before being weaned. It’s apparent from this doe’s udder that her young are still nursing in late July.
Skip to comments.Clay Deposits Don't Prove Existence of Ancient Martian Lakes Posted on 09/17/2012 3:05:37 PM PDT by SunkenCiv In the hunt for evidence of a warmer, wetter past on Mars, clay deposits have been viewed as good indications that stable liquid water existed on its surface for some time -- perhaps even long enough to allow life to develop. But new research conducted here on Earth shows that some clays don't necessarily need lakes of liquid water to form. Instead they can be the result of volcanic activity, which is not nearly so hospitable to life. A research team led by Alain Meunier of the Université de Poitiers in France studied lavas containing iron and magnesium -- similar to ancient clays identified on the surface of Mars -- in the French Polynesian atoll of Moruroa. The team's findings show that the same types of clay outcrops can be caused by the solidifying of water-rich magma in a volcanic environment, and don't require Earthlike aquatic conditions at all. The results also correlate to the deuterium-to-hydrogen (D/H) ratio within clays found in Martian meteorites. "To crystallize, clays need water but not necessarily liquid water," said Alain Meunier to the Agençe France-Presse (AFP). "Consequently, they cannot be used to prove that the planet was habitable or not during its early history." Additionally, the clay deposits found on Mars can be several hundred meters thick, which seems to be more indicative of upwelling magma than interactions with water. (Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ... HiRISE image of branching features in the floor of Antoniadi Crater thought to contain clay material. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona) Do Martian clay deposits prove... Red planet’s hue due to meteors, not water New Scientist \| September 4 2003 \| Hazel Muir Posted on 12/21/2006 12:27:00 AM PST by SunkenCiv NASA Finds Red Planet Is Rich In Green Gem The Telegraph (UK) \| 10-24-2003 Posted on 10/23/2003 6:41:41 PM PDT by blam Exploding Clays Drive Geminids Sky Show? National Geographic \| Tuesday, October 12, 2010 \| Breaking Orbit ‘blogger Posted on 10/19/2010 2:41:48 PM PDT by SunkenCiv NASA Gets A Good Look At Mars Soil And A True Puzzle Chicago Tribune/Yahoo \| 1-7-2004 \| Jeremy Manier Posted on 01/07/2004 3:41:30 PM PST by blam I don’t know. It kind of looks like that satellite photo the neighbor showed me of our block back when everyone had young kids and there was a trampoline in every back yard. My son discovered obvious evidence of glaciers that existed in the Northern regions of Mars. They may have disappeared only a few million years ago. He said that it was evidence that Mars has warmer, wetter periods when there is liquid water on the surface. BTW, he did this at least a year before papers were published using the same data. He was taking an undergrad course in remote sensing for geology. He found all the evidence using satellite photos. Now, only a few years later, he’s making more money than his old man. In oil exploration, of course. My offer is still open. I bet all takers $100 each that we find life, at least microbes, on Mars. It’s a good bet to make, IMHO. The people on Jupiter told me that everyone on Mars moved away a long time ago. Obviously, the Martian water was already stolen by Los Angeles. When is the payoff date if no life is found? I would bet you that we don’t find life within five years on Mars. It has been theorized that both Earth and Venus were subjected to numerous impacts by large bodies, which increased their size and mass considerably, but Mars avoided the big collisions. Perhaps the largest, or the last, collision to hit Earth is estimated to be about the size of Mars. Venus is about 95% the size of Earth, Mars only about 50% We need a sample return mission to be sure. AFAIK, no such mission is planned. By the time the other side has to pay me $100 when we find life, that amount will probably not be enough to buy a cup of coffee. I will be amazed if we do not find microbes. Remember the Allen Hills meteorite? I met with the scientists who wrote the paper on the nano-fossils. They had pretty strong proof. We found almost identical nano-bacteria two miles deep in basalt on Earth. Dr. Arthur C. Clarke has pointed out that we see objects in photos from Mars that look like seashells, root systems, and seeds. He says we already have proof of past life. Quibble, Mars is only 1/9th Earth’s mass. While Mars has been continously refaced, and has even had at least a couple (because the impact craters remain visible) of impactors so large that, if there had been an ecosystem, it would have been wiped out. Re: a Mars-sized impactor on the Earth— whoops, I got distracted and didn’t finish that sentence — Mars has been continuously refaced, but hasn’t picked up much mass in the process. I suspect that its lack of a magnetic field answers the question. It probably had lots of large impacts from comet bodies, that created a lot of atmospheric water that was relatively quickly whisked away by the solar wind. For whatever reason, Earth probably got one or more big rocky iron bodies that contributed substantial mass. So, you won’t take the five year bet? 3 ounces of silver? The planetary bodies in the Solar System fall into three groups — the gas giants, which have a density near that of water; the rocky planets, which have about, hmm, 4 times the density I think, and are all similar, but if memory serves, from densest down are Mercury, Earth, Venus, Mars; the third group consists of Pluto, about which not enough is known (yet), and of course, there was the infamous “Pluto’s Not A Planet” vote by a bunch of anti-American foreigner astronomers who suck. Oh, sorry. Jupiter’s known composition shows that it didn’t form where it is now, and must have migrated inward, or absorbed a substantial amount of its mass from infalling debris from the outer Solar System, and oddly enough, there’s no consensus on this because no one can quite believe any of the three possibilities (the third is not aforementioned, but is that Solar System formation isn’t understood at all). Mars’ water (however much is there) is frozen. Given the planet’s mass — and it is heavier now that it was in the past, thanks to space crap raining down over the eons — as well as surface measuremants, the atmospheric pressure on Mars is the same as pressure at 40 miles altitude over the Earth. The statutory boundary of space is 50 miles above Earth. When impacts occur, water ice in the soil can form a short-lived local atmosphere of water vapor, which allows liquid water to exist until the vapor freezes again. This is consistent with observation of surface features — it appears that large amounts of water start flowing, as if from nowhere, leave large erosional features, then the water just flows back out into nowhere. Eventually I’ll get credit from the scientific community for this idea, I’ve not been shy about posting it on the web. :’) The Viking Orbiter Infrared Thermal Mapper showed a peak temperature of 81F. Together with a mean surface pressure of about 600 pascals, much lower than the Earth’s 101,000 Pa. According to NASA, the solar wind stripped away much of the Martian atmosphere, and I imagine much of its water as well. The point is, Mars didn’t have much if any in the first place. How am I going to obtain conclusive proof in 5 years? I need a soil sample and bugs grown in the lab. This is a serious bet. Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
\|Birthplace:\|\|Drury Lane, London, Middlesex, England\| \|Death:\|\|Died in Charles County, Province of Maryland\| Son of Raphael Neale and Jane Neale \|Managed by:\|\|Private User\| Matching family tree profiles for Capt. James Neale About Capt. James Neale Captain James Neale, who, according to Semmes, was the grandson of "Shane the Proud," O'Neill and great-grandson of Conn O'Neill, surnamed Bacach (the Lame), the first Earl of Tyrone. When Shane was usurped and beheaded in Ireland in the early 1600's, Priests secretly whisked away his son to Spain for safekeeping. This son was raised at Court by the King of Spain. His name was changed to Neale to hide his identity. [Fiction!] James Neale was actually descended from a respectable, armigerous family of the untitled English gentry. If they were Catholics, they weren't especially fanatical ones. That he had his own ship is likely; that he was in the British Navy is less certain. In 1652 he came to America, liked what he saw and petitioned Lord Calvert for a land grant. It was issued for services to the Crown. He built a Plantation (Wollaston Manor) on the junction of the Wicimoca and Potomac Rivers that stood until the early 1900’s, when it was consumed by fire. Captain James Neale’s descendants played a huge role in establishing Catholicism in early Maryland and his descendants all married well and were among the elite pioneers of early Maryland. Captain Neale represented the Lord Baltimore in Holland and in Maryland. Through his daughter Henrietta Maria Neale, there was planted descendents who furnished the Province with an exceptionally large group of distinguished families. The Neales appeared first in Virginia. The relationship of the families in the two colonies has not been entirely traced but there was obviously a link between them. Henry Hill, Commander of the Horse in Virginia, was witness to a lease in 1630 to "his loving friend John Neale", who had a large business as a merchant in Accomac County on the Eastern Shore of Virginia adjoining and south of the Eastern Shore. A cousin of Captain James Neale was guardian of Margaret, the only daughter of John Neale, so there is no reason to doubt a connection of some kind. [Per current family tree, they were first cousins.] The Maryland members of the family, however, were more prolific and regarded as more important than those in Virginia. [Says a Maryland-based source!] Anna Gill, having become, in time, a member of the royal household, one would expect to hear something of her ancestry, but the record (currently available) goes back no further than her father Benjamin Gill, who died in London in 1655.The unusual achievements of Captain Neale and his wife must therefore be attributed to their own good qualities and not to inherited position. In June 1638, a large consignment of goods was shipped to James Neale in Maryland, of a kind that shows quite clearly he was trading with the Indians. He is said to have been an Admiral in the Royal Navy and he was certainly Captain of a Maryland "pinnace". In 1642, he was commissioned by Governor Calvert to go to Boston to buy mares and sheep. While there, one of his two vessels, a "pinnace", was found to be.....(see page 76, my copy is incomplete)...........was told to advise with Captain Neale in all matters of importance. The previous year, Lord Baltimore placed Captain Neale and other members of his Council in charge of his property, with power to sell it from time to time. He also told them to sell all his carpenters and other apprentice servants,saying he understood they would yield 2,000 pounds of tobacco each, although they had only one year to serve. The anxiety to liquidate his property was due to the success of the Puritans in England and to disturbances in the Colony brought on by Claiborne and by the "pirate" Richard Ingle. I say pirate, because the records of the Assembly sometimes refer to the miseries suffered from "that notorious villain, Richard Ingle," or mention him briefly as "that pirate Ingle." He was looked upon differently in England where Parliament rewarded his iniquities. Claiborne was in the forefront of trouble as usual, breaking the settlers' honeymoon at St. Mary's, where crops were growing, peach trees were in blossom, Indian maidens were friendly and all was contentment when one of Claiborne's ships, the "Long Tayle", sailed into Maryland waters to trade without a license from Lord Baltimore. It was detained by officers of the Provincial government, whereupon Claiborne sent an armed pinnace to retaliate. In doing so, he was merely carrying out instructions from his own government for in 1634, when he asked the Virginia Council if he should recognize the Maryland claim to Kent Island."It was answered by the board, that they wonder why any such question was made; that they knew no reason why they should render up the rights of that place of the Isle of Kent, more than any other formerly given to this colony by his majesty's patent; and that, the right of my lord's grant being yet undetermined in England, we are bound in duty and by our oaths to maintain the rights and privileges of this colony." The first naval battle (according to this record) on inland waters in America then took place in the Pocomoke River on the Eastern Shore on 23 APR1635,between Claiborne's vessel commanded by (ended on page 77). Descendents of James Neale include: Leonard Neale, Vicar General to Bishop Carroll and later President of Georgetown College and Archbishop of Baltimore in 1815. Sources include but are not limited to: "Ancestral File" and the "IGI", "International Genealogical Index", both resource systems developed and solely owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints also; "Pillars of Maryland". In 1660 he returned to Maryland and petitioned for and obtained naturalization for children Henrietta Maria, James, Dorothy, and Anthony, who were born in Spain. -------------------- Birth: 1615 Greater London, England Death: Mar., 1684 Charles County Maryland, USA James Neale is the son of Raphael Neale and Mrs Jane Baker Forman. Born Drury Lane, London. He married Anna Maria Gill, Daughter of Benjamin Gill and Mary Mainwaring, 1657. Children are Dorothy, Henrietta Maria, Anthony, James, Jane. The Neale family of Charles Co, MD with the background and position which it held in England and Later in the colonies, takes its place among the leading aristocratic colonial families in America. Captain James Neale of Drury Lane, London and Wollaston, Northamptonshire England. James Neale , a royalist maintained an enviable position at the court of Charles I and later in the colonies, married Ann Gill who was said to have been a lady in waiting to Queen Henrietta Maria. Both of these families go back to the nobility of England. On 25 Jul 1641, Celilius, Lord Baltimore, requested his brother, Gov Leonard Calvert to survey for James Neale, Gent a manor of 2,000 acres with full manorial rights. Neale named his manor Wollaston after his paternal grandfathers lordship in Northamptonshire, and it was accordingly laid out on the west bank of the Wicomico River on the neck formed as the river meets the Potomac. As a young man, James Neale was almost at once appointed to posts of trust and importance. Within the year after his arrival, he was made a member of his Lordships Council and commissioner of the Tresurey. In 1642 he seems to have imprudently connived at the escape of his fillow-Captain Ingle, who had been arrested on a charge of "highe treason". Neale swore he was not guilty and the Council believed him. In 1644, He was commissioned a magistrate of the local court. After 18 Sep 1844, however he returned to England and was in Europe as a merchant and as an ambassador for Charles I at the Spanish and Portugese Courts and as a agent for the Duke of York. Some of his children were born in Spain. He next appered in Maryland in 1661 with a letter from Lord Baltimore that permitted him to have back all the lands he had abandoned, provided he paid up the accrued quit rents. He had been sent back to Maryland to expell the Dutch, but before Maryland decided to act, the British warships in the harbor of New Amsterdam had forced the Dutch to surrender. In 1661 James Neale was sworn a Councillor. He was later Deputy governor. In 1666 Neale petioned for the naturaliztion of four of his children who were born in Spain during his residence there. One of these children was Anthony Neale. The petition was granted the next year. Captain Neale represented Charles Co, Md in the house of Burgessses in the year 1666 and perhaps later. Besides the four children born in Spain, Capt Neale had a dau Jane, apparently born after 1661 when he returned to Maryland, Jane married William Boreman. In Aug 1682 a pre nuptial agreement was made between Capt Neal and William Roswell of St Mary's, Gent whereby he made a deed of gift of a portion of his manor to Neale's Son Anthony, in consideration of his bethrothal to Elizabeth Roswell the dau of William. His will dated 17 Nov 1683 was probated in Charles Co, Md 19 Mar 1684 Neale, James, 27th Nov., 1683; 29th Mch., 1684. To sons James and Anthony, gifts of land, etc., confirmed. To grandson Raphael Neale, 100 A. is Charles Co. To grandchild., viz., Roger, James and Dorothy Brooke, Jane Boarman, dau. of William and Jane Boarman, and Jas. Lloyd, personalty. To wife Anne, son Anthony, and daus. Henrietta Maria Lloyd and Jane Boarman, residue of estate, equally. Exs.: Wife Anne and son Anthony afsd. Test: John Darnall. 4. 40. Spouse: Anna Marie Gill Neale (1630 - 1698) Children: Dorothy Neale Brooke (1646 - 1680)* John Neal (1648 - 1735)* Anthony Neale (1659 - 1722)* James Neale (1660 - 1727)* - Calculated relationship Inscription: It is only a guess that he is buried on his property at Wollaston Manor in Charles Co, MD This grave site is no longer present. The area of where James was possibly buried is now a huge housing development. His property has been turned into a huge golf course on the water with homes all around. It is called Swan Point. As far as I know it is unknown as to where James Neale is even buried. There is a grave site in the area just before entering the housing/golf course area. There are a few Neales buried there Burial: Wollaston Manor Cemetery Wicomico Charles County Maryland, USA Created by: JKK Record added: Aug 19, 2009 Find A Grave Memorial# 40851489 ___________________________________ Neale applies for naturalization of children In 1666 Captain James Neale, an English born subject, then of Charles Co., petitioned the Assembly for the natualization of his children, stating that he, "hath lived divers yeares in Spain and Portugal following the trade of merchandize and his Royal Highness the Duke of Yorke in Several Emergent Affaires as by commissoion herewith presented may appeare dureing which tyme of his abode in those he had four children by his lawful wife Anna Neale, vizt, Henrieretta Maria James Dorothy and Anthony Neale which four he hath now liveing in this Province of Maryland." His ancestry is listed in the Visitation of Bedfordshire. REF Md Archives. Vol 2, p. 89-90; Harleian Pub. Soc., vol. 19, pp. 33, 34, 185; Md. Hist.Magazine, vol. 7, p. 201 Source: To Maryland From Overseas by Harry Wright Newman, published 1982 Capt. James Neale's Timeline London, Middlesex, England March 29, 1646 April 28, 1647 Calvert County, Province of Maryland Charles, Maryland, USA October 23, 1663 Madrid, Reino de Castillo, España March 29, 1684 Charles County, Province of Maryland
If there is one man who can be said to have changed the face of the postal service forever it is Rowland Hill. Hill was a noted reformer in the Victorian era, pioneering pupil-focused mass education and working for the South Australian Colonisation Commission, but he also had an interest in the postal service. In 1837 he published and circulated the pamphlet Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability. During the 1830’s there were growing calls for postal reform and Hill’s pamphlet proved influential, ultimately leading to the introduction of the world’s first postage stamp, the Penny Black, in 1840. A cross-written letter Prior to 1840 the postal system was expensive, confusing and seen as corrupt. Letters were paid for by the recipient rather than the sender, and were charged according to the distance the letter had travelled and the number of sheets of paper it contained. As a result cross-writing, the practice of writing in different directions, was a common method of saving paper and money, and envelopes were rarely used. For ordinary people the cost of receiving a letter was a significant part of the weekly wage. If you lived in London and your relatives had written to you from Edinburgh you would have to pay one shilling and one pence per page – more than the average worker earned in a day. Many letters were never delivered because their recipients could not afford them, losing the Post Office a great deal of money. But while ordinary people scrimped and saved to use the postal system, many items, such as newspapers, were not subject to charge, and Members of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords had the right to frank and receive letters for free. Well-connected individuals could thus ask their MP to frank their mail for them, further reducing Post Office revenue. After the Napoleonic Wars postage rates were high – a sly method of taxation – and there were many other anomalies and a number of local services with different charges. The system was ripe for reform. Rowland Hill’s solution was prepayment, and a uniform rate of one pence for all letters weighing up to one ounce. Hill made no mention of the method of prepayment but later proposed the use of stamped covers (an idea previously suggested by Charles Knight). At an official inquiry into the Post Office, Hill outlined his ideas further and suggested that “a bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamp, and covered at the back with a glutinous wash” be used. When the inquiry reported it recommended Hill’s plan to reduce postal charges and appended samples of stamped covers to the report. The establishment of a parliamentary Select Committee chaired by fellow postal reform campaigner Robert Wallace followed, and at the same time a Mercantile Committee on postage was set up by merchants to campaign for lower postal rates. Rowland Hill was a member of the Mercantile Committee. The Select Committee recommended Hill’s ideas in early 1839, but favoured a uniform rate of 2d. After public pressure was put on the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, the uniform rate was reduced to 1d, and on 15th August 1839 a bill was passed in favour of a universal penny post. The same bill abolished free franking and introduced prepayment in the form of stamped paper, stamped envelopes and labels. Penny Black and Twopence Blue Rowland Hill was appointed to the Treasury to oversee the implementation of the bill and the uniform penny post was introduced on 10th January 1840. Covers, envelopes and the world’s first adhesive stamps, the Penny Black and Twopence Blue, were introduced in May 1840. The stamps quickly proved themselves to be most popular method of prepayment. Rowland Hill’s idea for a universal penny post was quickly vindicated. The number of chargeable letters in 1839 had been only about 76 million. By 1850 this had increased to almost 350 million and continued to grow dramatically. The Post Office’s revenue was initially cut but with the increase in the number of letters it soon recovered. Adhesive postage stamps were gradually introduced throughout the world and with the change to charging by weight, envelopes became normal for the first time. Hill’s brother Edwin invented a prototype envelope folding machine, enabling increased production to fulfil the growing demand. The rapid increase in the use of the postal service is also partly credited with the development of the transport system, particularly the railways, and improved opportunities for businesses in the Victorian era and beyond. The lower charges also had wide social benefits and the increasingly literate working classes took full advantage of the now affordable postal system. Death Centenary of Rowland Hill stamp, 1979 Rowland Hill continued to influence the Post Office, becoming Secretary to the Postmaster General in 1846 and Secretary to the Post Office in 1854. During this period Hill established the Post Office Savings Bank, which encouraged more people to save, and introduced postcodes to London – essential in a city made up of lots of little villages all growing into each other, where streets in different parts of the city often had the same name. Fittingly, Rowland Hill and his reforms have been celebrated on several postage stamps, including four stamps released to mark his death centenary in 1979, and the 1995 Communications stamps which commemorate the campaign for a universal penny post and the introduction of the Penny Black. Rowland Hill has also been honoured by three public statues and is buried in Westminster Abbey, a mark of how important his work was. There is also an awards scheme named after Hill for innovation, initiative and enterprise in the field of philately, and the Rowland Hill Fund, established in 1882, offers financial aid to past and present Royal Mail workers in times of need. Pioneers of Communication: Rowland Hill stamps, 1995 For more on postal history during the Victorian era please see our online exhibition Victorian Innovation.
Syrian Debt Crisis With the start of commercial oil exploitation in Syria (1956) local economy boomed. Shukri al-Kuwatli’s left wing pan-arabist regime promoted and subsidized then a huge program of industrialization and public works. With such intervention of the state on economics it didn’t take much time until the public sector become growing fast. Corruption followed that growth. Oil exploitation was supposed to finance this entire program but as exploitation wasn’t yet in full strength large sums of money were borrowed. Al-Kuwatli, as pan-arabist, preferred Christian Arab Lebanese bankers instead the usual European or North American ones. Development was being paid not by the oil was being produced but by the oil which was expected to be produced in near future, even so Lebanese bankers believed that Syrian debt was a safe investment. Syria and Egypt unified in a confederation called the United Arab Republic in 1958. From now on Syria sided with Nasser’s active politics on Arab Unification, providing funds and even weapons to rebel movements across the entire Arab World. Also between 1960 and 1961 the United Arab Republic sided with the rebels in the Yemens War deploying thousands of troops. Being Egypt the economically weakest country of the confederation (this was one of the reasons of the unification) much of the financial war effort was taken by Syria. In 1961 Syrian nationalists deposed al-Kuwatli and Syria withdrew from the United Arab Republic, thus ending the confederation. By this time Syrian debt was already too large compared to the profits generated by oil exploitation. A friend from Iraaq When debt started to be paid, in late 1961 and early 1962, the new nationalist Syrian military regime found itself with certain liquidity difficulties despite Syria was one of the most developed regional powers. Despite reasonably high oil prices since the Suez Crisis, which were financing economical booming in oil producing countries in general, and local industries the Syrian economic booming of the late 1950’s faded due to political turmoil, uninspired politicians and widespread corruption. Also much of the state budget was being absorbed by the large state apparatus and its earnings. To face this growing lack of liquidity taxes rose causing widespread discontent among the people. This regime was finally toppled by a coup lead by several Nasserists making of Colonel Muhammad al-Sufi president in 1963. The new power being ideologically very close to General Abdul Karim Qassim’s regime from Iraaq started an approach to Baghdaad, by dropping the recognition of the Hashemite claims to Iraaqi throne. Conversations were held between al-Sufi and Qassim in order to Syria have help from its eastern neighbor. Al-Sufi described Qassim as ”a friend from Iraaq who was going to give Syria a hand when needed”. By this time Qassim’s Iraaq was having an economic booming. Qassim accepted to buy the Lebanese bankers one third of the Syrian debt hoping further integration of Syria in a unification project. This third of the debt was being paid in Italian liras (traditionally a consequence of 19th century Lombard presence in Lebanon during early stages of the building of the Suez Canal) but was exchanged to iraaqi dinars in a time iraaqi currency valued about 500 gr of fine silver. Following the principles of Islamic banking no interest rate (the riba) was asked by iraaqi regime. Between 1964 and 1965 Iraaq acquired almost the rest of Syrian debt to Lebanese banks always exchanging it into iraaqi dinars and giving new and longer periods for repayment. The al-Sufi regime borrowed then more money from Iraaq for investing in infrastructures and defense. Qassim never refused what al-Sufi asked and didn’t note Syria was fastly in a spiral of debts. During this period iraaqi economy was booming as oil exports granted constant financing to large development projects across the Middle East. In fact Iraaq was by then the strongest oil based economy of the Middle East as Saudi Arabia was also struggling to pay its own external debt. Beside strongly investing in national development Qassim’s regime also invested in acquiring large quantities of silver thus valuating dramatically national currency. By early 1970’s the iraaqi currency reached its value peak, 1800 gr of fine silver per dinar. Despite no interest rates were ever asked to Syria the external debt had over tripled its value as the iraaqi dinar valued then over three times more than during early 1960’s. Syrian economy didn’t grow at same rhythm. Still political turmoil (al-Sufi was deposed) and corruption in Syria. Despite power shifts in Damascus not always aligned to Qassim’s regime good relations were usually maintained while Qassim’s intentions to unify both countries were delayed by political instability in Syria. Beginning of the debt crisis Iraaqi prosperity wouldn’t last forever. On the 17th October 1973 oil prices decreased 20% in a single day due to overproduction on which Iraaq was blamed and suspended from COPEN. Oil prices downfall spiral lasted eight months until prices stabilized after losing 60% of its value. For oil based economies was just like an earthquake while industrialized world’s economy started several years of prosperity and growth. Countries like Iraaq which owed much of their development to oil industry found themselves suddenly without revenues. Iraaqi regime (so as others) faced then lack of liquidity and unilaterally shortened the schedules of Syrian repayment of its debt. Qassim forced then the Syrian president (now once again a pan-arabist, Hafiz al-Assad) to accept what was called as “iraaqi financial advisors”. Iraaqi troops were sent to the border of the two countries while the so-called “advisors” pressured Damascus in order Syria make what was needed to repay what it owed to Iraaq. For the repressed Syrian opposition and common people in general the reason of Qassim’s friendship had just one purpose, it was “a plot of national domination by communist Qassim” Under the pressure of Iraaq President al-Assad implemented austerity measures in order to repay the debt but people and some sectors of the military reacted by rebelling. Two major rebel parties arose. In urban areas a more cult middle class defended the end of al-Hafiz dictatorship to replace it by a democratic regime. In rural areas local clerics refused both representative democracy and al-Hafiz regime. For them Koran was the answer, in a context of growing radical Islam growth across the Middle East. When rebellion was out of control Al-Assad, in an act of despair, invited then Iraaq to form a union between both countries hoping iraaqi troops would help his regime to defeat the rebells. But it was too late. Even before Qassim made any move al-Assad was deposed by pro-democracy militaries, on August 1974, while the new power in Damascus declared default. Coming out the crisis Afraid of an iraaqi invasion Syrian people rallied around their new provisional government, made of pro-democracy and radical Islamite. Mass demonstrations of support were held in the major cities. Qassim understood their message. Instead of invading Syria in a costy and unpredictable war accepted the renegotiation of the debt. After several meetings between the Ministers of Finance of both countries under the supervision of the Arab Community Iraaq accepted Syria to delay its debt repayment while Syria accepted Iraaq to charge Syrian loans with an interest rate. Such caused some criticism from Islamite opposition so as from Islamic bankers worldwide. Also Syria accepted Iraaq to build pipe lines to the Mediterranean in order to be in advantage against its oil exporter competitors of the Gulf area. Such was much important as Iraaq was by then a pariah among the COPEN members and countries such as Saudi Arabia or Persia often blockaded in the Hormuz Strait oil tankers coming from Iraaq. New powers in Syria understood they had to make reforms in order to be possible future repayment of the debt so as to return to lost economic prosperity. The Provisional Government was able to get rid of the Islamite in a series of political schemes causing a feeling of betrayal among some of the ex-rebels. It was a period on which democracy was still far from instituted. The State privatized much of its companies and allowed foreign investors to make business in the country. Safety was a priority and law was strongly enforced both for create a good environment for business so as to control radical Islamite and purge the corrupts. Also taking advantage from cultural heritage, coastline and traditional Levantine tolerance promoted tourism. As oil remained one of the major exports Syrian government made a quite aggressive prices policy against its competitors selling oil at a lower price than COPEN member countries. Industry was once again promoted to reduce economic dependency from oil extraction but salaries were kept low. Instead the state to subsidize industries was created appellative conditions for foreign investment. Companies were allowed not to rise salaries as long they wouldn’t give profits. To avoid people’s unrest taxes for workers were kept low. Taking advantage from European economic growth then was given special attention to exporting industries as local people often didn’t earn enough to be large consumers. Progressively economy improved and little by little the debt was started to be repaid. Even so many considered that Syria was still far away from prosperity. Average people started to feel tired from promises of a better future while present-day poverty was still a harsh reality. Efforts from the population seemed to be too high for paying the mistakes of past non-elected governments. There was a growing movement to declare Syrian external debt as an odious debt. Unrest grown and repression either. End of the crisis On September 1980 Iraaq invaded Persia. Such was the way Iraaq found to end the oil crisis which was lasting since 1973. By causing a war against another major oil producer prices were expected to rise once again. Iraaq was able to gather around the sympathy of most of the Arab World, even from those who disliked the new theocratic power in Baghdaad lead by Saddaam Hussayn. After all it was a war between fellow Muslim Arabs against Zoroastrian Persians. The plan worked out and prices reached historical maximums. In time such successful plan would cause one million dead. As oil prices rose fast oil producing countries in general saw their economies to improve after seven years of recession. Syria wasn’t an exception and used oil to counterbalance the diminishing of the manufactured goods exports to Europe which was now coming to certain economic slowdown caused by surprising oil prices rise. Despite being a tolerant country Syria sided with theocratic Iraaq (a concession to radical Islamite opposition) and nearly all iraaqi imports and exports were now crossing Syrian territory as the Persian Gulf was now a battlefield. With the war effort iraaqi economy didn’t take advantage from higher oil prices and counterfeit iraaqi dinars which by mid-1980 have flooded the market eroded the currency’s value. It was the chance Syria had to finally repay the remain of its debt. With iraaqi dinar progressively valuing less the value of the debt also decreased in practical terms. Even the interest rates weren’t able to recover the debt value. By mid-1990’s the Syrian debt was declared totally repaid in a time the country had become a regional economic power and a stable democratic regime.
Vetstreet. All rights reserved. Powered by Brightspot. Vetstreet does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. See Additional Information › If you've visited a zoo recently, you may have noticed that the exhibits the animals call home look very different from the old concrete and metal bar living spaces the animals once inhabited. The new spaces are prettier, for starters, but what makes a good exhibit for an animal may not be exactly what you would expect. Ideas about appropriate zoo habitats are still evolving, and it's a complicated process. Juggling the needs of animals, keepers and visitors can be a challenge, says Stacey Tarpley, who designs exhibits in her job with the firm PGAV Destinations and blogs about it at designingzoos.com. "Each of these groups often has competing needs, and all these things are trying to be put together to make this place where animals and people and staff can be happy and healthy together." In the 19th century, zoo exhibits were natural looking, but not because designers were concerned with the needs of the animals. "They thought about the viewing area as a painting," Tarpley says. "The animals weren't really being addressed at that time — they were more like set dressing for the painting." In the mid-20th century, those romantic landscapes were replaced by concrete boxes that look barbaric to us now but were meant as a step up in animal care. "Animals started living longer because [zoo staff] could clean easily and control disease," Tarpley explains. But those bare spaces caused other problems both for animals and viewers. For example, behaviors like pacing emerged as symptoms of stress and understimulation. In the late 1970s, zoos began to introduce the landscape immersion exhibit. The goal was to recreate a natural habitat — an attempt that wasn't always successful."We wanted to go back to the idea of creating this beautiful place where people feel good about being there but animals also are being cared for and have longevity," Tarpley says. "Those exhibits looked very nice and made people feel very comfortable." But though the spaces were a success in the short term, they often failed to meet the long-term needs of both the animals and the zoos. The problems with creating specific landscapes for specific animals become clear when the species in an exhibit is changed, as often occurs because zoos have to make use of what animals they have. "You get an exhibit that was designed for, say, snow leopards, and it ends up being used 20 years later by baboons," Tarpley says. "A snow leopard exhibit would be very vertical, there would be a lot of rocks, places for the animals to climb and to hide," Tarpley says. Put baboons in the same space, though, and for them it's only a little better than the concrete box, although it would still look like a nice wild habitat to the viewer. "The naturalistic exhibit gives a little bit more choice than the sterile environment, but you have to provide for the things that allow the animal to use the environment in the way they'd naturally want to," Tarpley says. Because baboons don't naturally climb, most of that vertical space would be of no use to them and wouldn't help them engage in their natural behaviors. Like this article? Have a point of view to share? Let us know! Take our breed quiz to find your next pet. Bartonella is a type bacteria that can be transmitted to cats, dogs and humans from exposure to infected fleas and… Want to give your pup yummy, low-calorie treats? We’ve got the skinny on which foods are OK to feed him. Not sure about food puzzles? Our veterinarian reveals why the payoff for your pet is well worth any extra work. With these simple dental care tips, you can help keep your canine’s adorable smile shiny and healthy for life. The friendly and inquisitive LaPerm has an easy-care coat that comes in a variety of colors and patterns. Check out our collection of more than 250 videos about pet training, animal behavior, dog and cat breeds and more. Wonder which dog or cat best fits your lifestyle? Our new tool will narrow down more than 300 breeds for you. If the video doesn't start playing momentarily, please install the latest version of Flash. Thank you for subscribing.
There are numerous conditions associated with pediatric care that require highly specialized treatment, and many are present at birth. These conditions include scoliosis, congenital clubfoot deformities, spina bifida, and cerebral palsy. Treatment is sometimes conservative, but in some cases, intricate surgical procedures are necessary. Dr. Michael Frierson is our Pediatric Orthopaedic Specialist and completed a Fellowship at the Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children in Tampa, Florida in 1993. Dr. Frierson became certified in orthopaedic surgery in 1996 by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery. For the past 18 years, he has contributed his time to The McMains Children’s Developmental Center and to Children’s Special Health Services. Lateral curvature of the spine. Because there are few symptoms associated with it, the curve is usually detected during a physical examination, and x-rays should confirm it. Treatment for pediatric scoliosis depends on the severity of the curve and the time of its onset. Bracing is used to straighten the spine, but surgery is sometimes needed in order to straighten and fuse the vertebrae together. Congenital clubfoot deformity Foot is rigidly deformed. It can sometimes be corrected with casting and bracing, but surgery is often needed. Vertebrae do not develop normally, exposing part of the spinal cord. The most common forms of this condition are less severe, while in more severe forms the spinal cord actually protrudes. Surgery is necessary to close the gap in the spinal cord. Many lower extremity deformities may require lifelong bracing and often surgical intervention is indicated. Result of an injury to the brain in which there is poor muscle control, paralysis, and other neurological conditions. There is no cure for cerebral palsy, but the secondary deformities and effects can be treated. All physicians at the Bone & Joint Clinic provide care for common pediatric injuries, fractures, and disorders.
Ground water withdrawn for water supply reduces streamflow in the Hunt-Annaquatucket-Pettaquamscutt Basin in Rhode Island. These reductions may adversely affect aquatic habitats. A hydrologic model was prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Rhode Island Water Resources Board, Town of North Kingstown, Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, and Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation to aid water-resource planning in the basin. Results of the model provide information that helps water suppliers and natural-resource managers evaluate strategies for balancing ground-water development and streamflow reductions in the basin. Additional publication details USGS Numbered Series Balancing Ground-Water Withdrawals and Streamflow in the Hunt-Annaquatucket-Pettaquamscutt Basin, Rhode Island
Chancellor, Lord Lieutenant, My Lord Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen 1948 was an exceedingly good year for computer babies. In that year, on June 14th, the worlds first stored programme computer ran successfully at the University of Manchester. It was nicknamed `the baby'. Meanwhile, in Austria, in the imperial city of Vienna, the person we honour today - Dr. Hermann Hauser - was born. Both births would turn out to be very significant for the, as yet unknown, new discipline of Computer Science. The Manchester `baby' spent its first years in a Basement Laboratory. In contrast, Hermann Hauser was raised, high up in the clean and bracing air of the Tyrolean mountains. In 1964, at the age of 16, Hermann's father called him in to his study. "English is the language of the future and you must learn it" he told the young Hermann, and he was dispatched to Cambridge to achieve this goal. He enjoyed his year at Cambridge immensely, and also learned some English, but the important result of this visit was a love of Cambridge, which would affect his whole life. At the age of 18, the decision had to be taken as to which degree Hermann would read at University. The choice was between Physics and Economics. A conference was called and the family asked a friend who was a Physicist for advice. "Which do you want Herman" he asked "fun or money ? If you want money read Economics, but if you want fun read Physics". Hermann chose fun, and read Physics at the University of Vienna. In 1973 he returned to Cambridge to study for a PhD in Physics at the University. At the time he did not realise that he would not live in Austria again. The 1970s were technologically very exciting times. The microchip had recently been invented and the possibilities seemed endless. Computing was on the edge of a huge breakthrough, perhaps similar to the excitement that exists in Biotechnology research today. Hermann saw the BBC programme `The Chip' and it stirred him into action. In those days, computers were large complex systems that required special air-conditioned environments and expensive electrical supplies. Hermann saw the opportunity of creating a computer for the people - a kit which any enthusiast could buy and set up in their living room. It seems obvious now, but it was a novel idea then. Within only one year of completing his PhD, he had formed Acorn Computers and, with others, designed the first computer kit. This first computer kit, the ACORN System 1, proved difficult to get working (just like the Manchester baby) and many mistakes were made. Hermann comments that, in retrospect, this difficult period was a very important one, because the struggle to make that system work taught both him and the team a huge amount. It reminds one of the comment made by a past Chairman of IBM, who when asked the secret of his success said it was due to good judgement. When queried as to how he managed to make such good judgements, replied because of `experience'. Finally, when cornered and asked how one gained the right experience he paused a long time and replied `bad judgement'. I would not go so far as to say Hermann Hauser stands here today because of his errors of judgement, but he realised that to succeed, you need to fail once in a while. In 1981 came a real breakthrough. He led the design team that built the BBC Microcomputer, of which over one and a half a million were sold. There are probably many people in this room whose first experience of computing was on this machine. He chaired the committee that defined BBC BASIC - a standard computer language in schools. As a result, the UK led the world in personal computing, and there were more computers installed, per head than any other country in the world, including the USA. In 1984 he was awarded Computer Personality of the Year for this work. Other important research work followed - the world's first commercial RISC processor, the first computer designed exclusively in Silicon, and work on the Cambridge Ring. Then in 1986 Dr Hauser joined Olivetti as Vice President Research. During this interesting time he set up the Olivetti Corporate Research Organisation and established three new laboratories in Europe and the USA. In the last decade, Dr Hauser has become heavily involved in creating high technology companies. In 1992 he spun out a new company from logica, this was Vocalis a company specialising in voice recognition. I'm sure the audience may have come across the response when dialling a service `press one for Sales, Press two for Marketing and Press Three if you have forgotten what I just said'. Well, Hermann Hauser is the man to blame, though to be fair he should not be blamed for poor implementations. Vocalis was followed by twenty five companies including Cambridge Display Technology, Electronic Share Information (now known as Etrade UK), Virata, Advanced RISC Machines, now valued at nearly $1 billion. Today Hermann Hauser is primarily a Venture Capitalist specialising in new technology. You will remember that he originally rejected Money for Fun when he chose to read Physics back in 1968. Over the years he has modified this guiding principle of `having fun' to `having fun and making money', because as he points out, he needs to make the money to have the fun. For all we know there may be a new Hermann Hauser currently sitting amongst the graduates in front of us who will be stirred to action by this astonishing career. If there are such graduates out there who have a great idea for making money, and of course, having fun, Dr Hauser would like to meet them to discuss terms and conditions ! Chancellor, for these reasons, it is an honour and a priviledge to present to you and to the University, Dr Hermann Hauser for the degree of Doctor of Science, Honoris Causa for services to the Computer Industry and Education. , July 1998. Copyright © Loughborough University. All rights reserved.
A study found that less than half of children ages 2 to 16 years with sickle cell anemia are screened for stroke. Sickle cell anemia is the leading cause of childhood stroke and the most severe form of sickle cell disease, a red blood cell disorder that predominantly affects Black and African-American people and often result in episodes of extreme pain. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study analyzed data on 3,300 children with sickle cell anemia enrolled in Medicaid and found that only 47% of children ages 2 to 9 years old and 38% percent of children ages 10 to 16 were assessed for stroke risk. What’s more, a concerning 60% of children were not taking the medication hydroxyurea, which is recommended to reduce pain as well as acute chest syndrome, another common complication of the illness. Hydroxyurea can also improve anemia and quality of life. “We must take action to ensure that children with sickle cell anemia are receiving potentially lifesaving treatment,” said CDC Acting Principal Deputy Director Debra Houry, MD, MPH, in a CDC news release. “The pain and complications these children often experience can be excruciating and debilitating and can last for hours, days or even weeks. Preventive care and medicines, such as hydroxyurea, can help ease the pain and suffering these children go through and may extend their lives.” The CDC recommends that health care providers integrate stroke screening into a single, comprehensive visit for children with sickle cell anemia. It also recommends educating patients and their families on the importance of annual stroke screening and the necessary follow-up steps to take. Last, the CDC encourages community-based organizations and partnerships to develop and provide resources for patients and health care providers regarding the prevention of childhood stroke. “We must do more to help lessen the pain and complications associated with this disease by increasing the number of children who are screened for stroke and using the medication that can help reduce painful episodes,” said Karen Remley, MD, MPH, and director of CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.
© Technical Services Group, MIT Department of Physics. This tube of corn syrup is filled with right-handed sugar molecules. As polarized white light passes through the tube, its plane of polarization is rotated by an amount that depends on the wavelength, or color, of the light. The result is the rainbow shown here. (Unit: 9)
Helping others especially those most vulnerable in society in all kinds of ways can make a huge difference to not only their lives but yours also. Offering to give up your own time so that others are comforted by you can allow you to have a feeling of worthwhile and great satisfaction. In a way it is not a selfless act as it can be seen as a ‘win Win’ situation because the individual or organisation you are offering such kindness to can help encourage people and improve their situation. It has often been said that you get a lot more happiness when you give something rather than when you are given something and in many ways this is very true. Even if your life is completely complete and fulfilled with happiness why not share the greatness you have found and allow others to feel even a hint of how it feels to be self satisfied. Having self esteem and self-worth builds a basis and foundation for anyone to lead a happy life. It is always important to remember that there may come a time when you need the help of others and that you may look on people to offer up their kindness. Giving to others not in materialistic items but in time and goodness allows you to welcome those things that are important in to your life. You are always rewarded for the good things you do in life in more ways than you are aware of even if it means that the person you helped goes on to help others you have helped to bring about a better society even in a small way. Why Should We Help Others - It is human nature to help others no one was put on the earth to suffer - It may help fulfil your own life as well as those you help - It allows the lonely to be integrated back in to society and give them a feeling of belonging - In most cases the treatment you offer to others will be returned to you - Help others to rise above social constraints and thrive in life - Mutual exchanges of kindness helps society to develop and come together - Helping others that are vulnerable which can help them to build confidence and reassurance - Helping those that are ill can help them to feel a sense of encouragement to get better Helping Those That Are Hospitalised and Reducing Medical Negligence Anxiety Having to stay at hospital due to an illness can in most cases be a worrying and trying time. A sense of anxiety and apprehension can cause a person to suffer psychological problems and in some cases may cause even more illness. The nature and surroundings of hospitals can offer alarm people as they present such a medical atmosphere which in turn encourages a person’s fear further. No one, to be fair wants to be ill, having good health is the greatest thing in life. More and more people are striving to improve their health each day. It is fair to say that due to the increase of medical negligence concern and despair about attending hospital is growing. More and more people than ever are filing medical negligence compensation claims cases than ever before which is putting an uneasy feeling among society especially those who have ill health. If you believe that you have been a victim of medical negligence you may be entitled to make a compensation claim for medical negligence. Receiving a below par standard of service by a medical professional is unfair but to be go on to be injured due to the negligence is more than a mistake. It is the duty of any medical care worker to offer a standard of care that is set out in the health industry, however this is not always the case and such standards in places are slipping. Due to the below par standards some patients are receiving and they are suffering health wise both mentally and physically as a consequence. The degree of negligence varies with some suffering minor injuries that will make a full recovery in due time, while others are severely being affected and their quality of life deteriorates. It s important that those people who suffer such nervousness and restlessness about attending hospitals are helped to feel an easiness rather than them adding to their illness by worrying relentlessly. This can be done in the following way; Visit Those in Hospital By visiting people in hospital especially those who have little or no visitors can help them to feel calmer and with a little encouragement it can help sooth any concerns they may have. Hospitals can be a very lonely place as for much of the time patients are alone and left with their own distress so just by paying them a small visit at visiting time can largely benefit them. Visit Nursing Homes and Care Homes Offering up any time to those that are ill even by visiting care homes and nursing homes just to take their minds off their pain and suffering can comfort them as you bring in a sense of the outside world that doesn’t come from a member of the care staff and your approach to life may give them a new meaning to theirs. Visiting the Elderly and the Sick at Home Visiting those that are old in age and those that are suffering from an illness in hospital may feel quite different to visiting them at home and in away this is true but those who are at home may need your comfort a lot more than those in hospital especially if they have little family. Visiting the elderly and the sick can help can give them encouragement and a better outlook on life. It can take away any stress and apprehension they feel if they may be ill and any concerns they have regarding medical treatment in which they need to receive. How to Prevent Medical Negligence By simply visiting those who are hospitalised or who are ill you can be their voice in a time of despair and help them communicate effectively with the medical staff. Hospital’s are busy places and often run on a tight budget. Staffing levels are being reduced dramatically, meaning those that are still employed are exhausted from long and tiring shifts and do not have the time to allocate every patient with an ear to listen. This is when communication lines break down and patients are not getting the chance to speak out regarding any further symptoms or pain they are feeling. This may result in illnesses getting worse due to delays in further diagnosis. Just by visiting and listening to a patient you may be able to spot signs of deterioration or even be able to pass on messages from patients to medical staff. ‘It has been reported that a patient in a hospital was so dehydrated he rang the emergency help line and requested the police due to needing a drink. Unfortunately the police came but were turned away and the man was ignored and suffered fatality consequences’ (According to the Telegraph)
The idea of a citizen's income (a guaranteed, non means-tested, basic income granted to every adult citizen of the country, regardless of whether they are working or not working) is growing in popularity and political support. A citizen's income (CI) would turn the tide on the brutal backdrop of welfare reform. The number of disabled people left in destitution and despair after failing inadequate work capability assessments is well-documented. The new sanctions regime is driving thousands into using food banks. The bedroom tax is turning a housing crisis into a disaster, with thousands in arrears. The obvious question is: where would the incentive to work be? It comes from everything you earn on top of the CI. A basic income is just that. The poverty trap, in which people can end up poorer or no better off in work than out would no longer exists. Furthermore, it's possible we would see an increase in overall employment. Part-time jobs that were previously not an option could be taken on. Risky entrepreneurial ventures that weren't previously viable could be launched. Business could boom. Indeed, when a form of the basic income was trialled in Namibia, what was found was that economic activity actually rose, and that people became mini-entrepreneurs. Non-CI income rose by some 200%. Scotland has its own communities devastated by de-industrialization: under a CI and a proper industrial strategy, these communities could be reborn. And let's not forget that a colossal amount of work is done in society that is not formally regarded as work. There are several examples: parenting, care of the disabled by family members and voluntary work in the community. Much of this work goes unremunerated and is even regarded as inferior to proper, paid work in the formal sense. As Professor Ailsa McKay, the late economist, explained: "Formal social security arrangements have traditionally served men more favourably than women. This is in part due to … policies that fail to recognize the diverse role of women as wives, mothers, carers and workers." This also involves class politics and how the relationship between labour and capital is affected. It seems to me that welfare reform has a very specific agenda, which is to create a more pliable workforce. If people in work know there is no longer much of a safety net, then they will hold on tenaciously to jobs with bad conditions and poor pay. All of that means higher profits. A CI in a new, bolstered welfare state begins to tip the bargaining power back in favour of labour. This is why a CI should be taken up by the trade union movement. But, for me, the best argument for a Citizen's Income is to improve public health, through the stress relief that it would bring. I write this as someone who has been on and off benefits for the past few years, and I can testify that the stress of it all sometimes made me feel physically ill. As Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, authors of the Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone, suggest, what could account for economic inequality and poor social outcomes is, simply, stress. Obesity, depression and addiction are all rooted in the intensely stressful society we live in. A CI, as well as being profoundly redistributive, would, in one fell swoop, lift a corrosive level of stress from our society. A Yes vote in September could help make this a reality. There is a growing movement clamouring for a CI. The policy is endorsed by the Green Party, the Radical Independence Campaign, the Common Weal initiative, and some independent MSPs. A CI under Westminster rule is not impossible (I don't think any form of political change is impossible) but it would inevitably be far more difficult, with yet more devastating welfare cuts on the table. But, Yes or No, this is certainly an idea worth fighting for. :: Professor McKay died on Wednesday but news of her death did not emerge until after The Herald print edition had gone to press. We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well and trust you then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.
The Tao of Learning: Assent, Skepticism, and the Ways We Learn I would like for us to think about two distinct ways of learning, which turn out to be two ways of knowing, and two ways of being. I am going to shorthand these two ways of knowing as “skepticism” and “assent” though I will use synonyms for both as I elaborate. The relationship between these two ways should be seen as reciprocal or dialogic or complementary—much like the yin and yang. Often when people are asked to draw the symbol of yin and yang they mistakenly color the one side in completely and leave the other empty—but the symbol’s power comes not just from the beauty of the circle bisected by a sine curve—but because in each half “the other” is represented. In the yin, the dark half, there is a light “eye” and in the light half, the yang, there is a dark “eye”. One of the great gifts of the Enlightenment, perhaps the singular gift of the Enlightenment, is the gift of skepticism. The residue of the Enlightenment, the skeptical approach, has proven to be a tremendous tool to advance learning. In fact, one might argue that knowledge only exists with skepticism. There are limits to perpetual skepticism, however. Descartes and his descendants ran into problems with radical doubt and Stephen Toulmin analyzes the failure of radical doubt in his book Cosmopolis. The philosopher Wayne Booth studied this radical skepticism as it appears in all forms of contemporary life and even identified what he helpfully calls “motivism.” Motivism states that people’s actions and their reasoning are not the product of their free will but rather of motives—often concealed even from themselves—and that those motives, being “unclean” de facto render their actions and opinions wrong and self-serving. Think of our political discourse filled as it is with statements beginning with, “The only reason that Senator X says this is….” Or, “The real reason that the President wants to do such and such is….” Motivism attacks the idea that there can be any verifiable actions or policies or ideas—and in some cases even facts—except, of course, one’s own. If someone’s motives can be questioned, and whose motives can withstand the inquiry of absolute doubt, then all of that person’s subsequent ideas and actions can be dismissed as self-interested. Booth’s intricate and demanding book-length argument, Modern Dogma and the Rhetoric of Assent, fleshes out a series of lectures he gave at the University of Notre Dame where he demonstrates that contemporary life is far more comfortable with skepticism or doubt, often to the point of fetishizing it as, ironically, its own religion with its own dogma. It is clearly the predominate mode of intellectual inquiry in contemporary culture. In an age where despite a rampant publication of the self we are terrified of looking “duped” or “credulous” (“punked” in the vernacular) and where “belief” (in all sorts of areas) is held to be indefensible and merely a reflection of a weak mind and/or personal preference, skepticism and its close cousin, irony, are ascendant. One thinks of Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens or Sam Harris or those I think of as “evangelical atheists” who are as certain in their view as any religious fundamentalist. To change one’s mind with shifting evidence is also regarded as a catastrophe to be avoided as one would avoid drinking raw sewage. This, of course, denies the possibility of growth, but that apparently matters little to those wanting to play “gotcha” or those terrified of “flip-flopping.” This adoption of skepticism and irony is reflected not just in the sciences but in the arts. David Foster Wallace traced this notion to its logical conclusion and said: “Postmodern irony and cynicism has become an end in itself, a measure of hip sophistication and literary savvy. Few artists dare to try to talk about ways of working toward redeeming what’s wrong, because they’ll look sentimental and naive to all the weary ironists. Irony’s gone from liberating to enslaving.” In fact, if I am honest with myself I will recognize that I have been guilty of exactly this and I need to be on guard against it—to teach myself to be careful of the seduction of skepticism. Still, motivism is an extreme application of skepticism (hence the separate name). Which of us has not benefitted from doubting ourselves at some point—or from questioning others or received opinion? Indeed, little progress would be made if each generation merely genuflected at the altar of the previous generation. And this is the danger of “assent”—or really of blind assent. Though I’d say most people’s problems with systematic assent are related to psychological defense or fear—a fear of being taken advantage of—rather than a more reasoned response, but I could be wrong. Following Booth’s argument, we might point out that those devoted to skepticism as their tool for developing knowledge and learning about the world have assented to its primacy over all other methods—so is assent prior to skepticism and equally important to knowledge? I don’t know which is prior—that strikes me as something of a chicken-and-egg argument—but I cannot conceive of the advance of knowledge without both. But to demonstrate that I will need to move away from Wayne Booth; I will need to appeal to a different contemporary philosopher, Tina Fey. You may know Fey as a wonderful comic and female outsider in a predominantly male genre; I’d say that her autobiography, Bossypants, is filled—as much comedy is—with philosophical insights delivered with a candy-coating. In a framed set-piece she asks us to consider that adopting the rules of improvisation that will change our lives (and eliminate “bellyfat,” though she acknowledges that part needs more investigation). Here are the rules of improv: 1) Always Agree and Say Yes; 2) Say “Yes, AND”; 3) Make Statements; and 4) There are no mistakes, only opportunities. So, how does this work in real life? Here is how Fey demonstrates rule 1, Agree and Say Yes. If I say, “’Freeze, I have a gun,’ and you say ‘That’s not a gun. It’s your finger,’ our improvised scene has ground to a halt. But if I say ‘Freeze, I have a gun!’ and you say, ‘The gun I gave you for Christmas!’ then we have started a scene because we have AGREED that my finger is in fact a Christmas gun.” What this rule teaches us, Fey points out, is to “respect what your partner has created.” Since teaching is relational—we gather with our students around the subject to be taught and journey together—and being a colleague is also relational—this is a good rule to know and to master. Respect what your student has created; respect what your colleague has created. (This does not prohibit us from later on going back and applying our skepticism to this first assertion that your finger is a gun; but if we applied the rule of skepticism first, we would not discover—or create—the next idea.) Fey explains rule 2, “Yes, AND” in the following way, “If I start a scene with ‘I can’t believe it’s so hot in here,’ and you just say ‘Yeah…’ then we’re at a standstill. [but, if you follow on with] ‘What did you expect, we’re in hell,’ [or] ‘Yes, this can’t be good for the wax figures,’ [or] ‘I told you we shouldn’t have crawled into this dog’s mouth,’ now we’re getting somewhere.” If the lesson to Rule 1, AGREE, is to “respect what your partner has created,” then the lesson to rule 2, Yes, AND, is that we each have a responsibility to contribute—it is OUR relationship. It is our relationship with our students or colleagues—not just their relationship. The third rule is MAKE STATEMENTS. “This,” as Fey explains, “is a positive way of saying ‘Don’t ask questions all the time.’ If we’re in a scene and I say, ‘Who are you? Where are we? What are we doing here? What’s in that box?’ I am putting pressure on you to come up with all the answers. “In other words: Whatever the problem is, be part of the solution. Don’t just sit around raising questions and pointing out obstacles. We’ve all worked with that person. That person is a drag,” Fey concludes. I agree; that person is a drag. I have been that person. Perhaps when we approach our students or colleagues with criticism—and I am assuming the criticism is legitimate since why would be criticizing otherwise?—maybe we could approach them by saying, “It looks like you are having trouble getting your homework done. How do you think we might address that?” The lesson to MAKE STATEMENTS is “be part of the solution, be active, not passive.” The last rule is THERE ARE NO MISTAKES, only opportunities. As a veteran teacher I can tell you that I have graded many tests, quizzes, papers and projects FILLED with “opportunities” and often “opportunities” I really wish that I could ignore. But my students and I have often learned from the “opportunities.” If many students keep making “opportunities” then maybe I am not teaching what I think I am teaching. A classroom, even when tightly scripted, (and all classes should be scripted), is a place of improvisation because the student doesn’t know the script. Fey concludes her piece on improvisation by pointing out that improv is a road to discovery. All learning is discovery, and we can discover as much by assenting as by doubting. Let’s think about the four rules and their lessons: AGREE and SAY YES so that we respect what our partner has created; SAY YES, AND so that we honor our responsibility to contribute; MAKE STATEMENTS so we remind ourselves to be part of the solution; and THERE ARE NO MISTAKES so that we teach ourselves to see opportunities. Among Greg Boyle’s remarkable gifts in Tattoos on the Heart: his resiliency, his optimism, his hope, his practicality, his honesty, and his pain; perhaps the one I appreciate most is his gift to “stand with” the other. To empathize, not sympathize and not pity, but to stand with another. “Leon Dufour,” writes Boyle, “a world-renowned Jesuit theologian and Scripture scholar, a year before he died at ninety-nine, confided in a Jesuit who was caring for him, ‘I have written so many books on God, but after all that, what do I really know? I think, in the end, God is the person you’re talking to, the one right in front of you.” How Trinitarian that concept is. The Gospel of the Trinitarians is the one that tells us the parable of the saved and the damned. The saved fed Jesus when hungry, clothed him when naked, visited him in prison, gave him drink when thirsty and comforted him when ill. The saved are unable to remember having done this. So Jesus tells them that whenever they did it for the least of his brothers, they did it for him. They “stood with” the others. The damned did not; in fact they want a do-over. “God,” they say, “if we knew it was you of course we would have behaved better!” This ability to truly see others, to—by an act of the imagination—place yourself with them, is a form of assent. If skepticism functions as a distancing tool (like irony or doubt), we use assent as a kind of embrace—an intellectual embrace that brings us to stand with the idea of a partner (or critic). Boyle quotes the poet Wendell Berry who says that, “You have to be able to imagine lives that are not yours.” I suspect this is because that willed imaginative empathy is a distinctly human quality. I doubt anyone is fully human until she can put herself in the place of another. Edith Stein, the Carmelite nun and Jew, who was executed in Auschwitz, argued, and I am paraphrasing Garry Wills here, that we achieve our own interiority, our soul, our self, only by the interplay with other interiorities. I explore other persons like me and different from me, and define a self in the process—so that the isolated person is a non-person. Even our God is not an isolated God but one who exists in relationship with a Self. Moral progress, Stein argues, is a matter of making a self that pays its debts to the other selves that helped it come into being. To break off or diminish that respectful interplay with other minds is morally to die. And really, how dare we ignore the debts we owe each other? Respect what the partner has created; remember your obligation to participate, be part of the solution, see opportunities where others see failure. How do we learn the interplay with other interiorities? How do we teach that? Is assent or skepticism more likely to lead us to that goal? It seems to me that you will be more likely to inhabit someone else’s point of view in an act of assent. Even if you later reject that point of view, having had it is a remarkable tool for growth. I would say we are more likely to recognize that interplay with others in assent than in skepticism, we are more likely to pay our debts to others in assent than in skepticism. At DeMatha, we strive to provide an education that is both timeless and timely. If we educate only for the timely we will be forever chasing the new, trying to harness the fleeting. But what if we “stand with” our students, “stand with” our colleagues, practice assent as well as doubt. What if we teach them timeless values and ideas and approaches and make use of timely discoveries and technology. I’d like us to try so that we will have educated the whole person. Ordinarily I would end at this point but I want to append what the Japanese call an atogaki. The literal translation of atogaki is “afterword” or “postscript” but it means quite a bit more. A Japanese author of a nonfiction book or article will often in the atogaki provide a guide for how to critique his or her work. As the builder of the argument, the author knows where more spackle and tape and paint have gone in to making the argument appear cleaner and smoother than it really is. A Japanese atogaki will often contain phrases such as, “Had I further time to develop my thesis I would have done the following,” or “The evidence is weakest at this point and I would like to pursue further corroboration.” How typically Japanese this seems to me. So, here is a partial atogaki of this talk. I have been hesitant to give this talk for many reasons: the first is that I find the concepts herein are demanding and the philosophy difficult and I fear my own examples and explanations may be inadequate and so I risk losing some people; 2) I do not want to be misunderstood as arguing for either one of these two ways of knowing above the other—neither is “better” than the other in every situation; 3) I do not want people to think that I am after a kind of special pleading that demands acquiescence given my position as principal and my interest in defending “knowing through assenting.” That is, I don’t want to be heard as asking for people to agree with me on every decision or approach or action. One of the most important gifts we can have in life are the people who will force us to articulate as clearly as we can what we do and why we do it, who will encourage us to face our limitations—to battle those—and often that happens in the realm of skepticism (not motivism but genuine skepticism) though I believe it can also happen in assent; 4) I know I missed several opportunities to make closer connections; for example I ignored Wallace’s use of the word “redeemed”—a distinctly religious word—and I didn’t make anything out of his pairing of “liberating and enslaving”—those words which echo our Trinitarian charism; and 5) I am pretty sure that I did not really pave the way for the transition that explains how assent as illustrated through improv connects to Boyle’s call to “stand with” the other—though I sense it exists. Doubtless there are many other lacunae large and small but these seem to me the most pressing. I hope we’ll have a great year, that we’ll stand with kids and stand with families and stand with colleagues, that we will doubt and assent, that we will discover—both knowledge and wisdom, both ourselves and others. Welcome to the 2014-2015 school year.
My Year 3 & 4 students loved making their own emojis this week. While there are specific ’emoji creation’ apps you could use throughout this task, my young learners were asked to craft a distinctive design using a considered colour palette and a combination of shapes, using Assembly app on their iPads. The open-ended nature of this app means that the skills developed and this creative toolkit can be extended and used across tasks. The principles of art and design took centre stage during the production of this purely visual piece of communication. Students were presented with an opportunity to create expression and character using visual language (colour, shape, etc). They also needed to work with layers, to think in stages, and use overlapping shapes to develop design complexity. Our first investigations gave students a chance to explore the potential of the Assembly app. Students were asked to explore the tool box and create an emoji that represented themselves in a particular mood. The next challenge prompted students to create a fantasy pet emoji… The students designed a final challenge for themselves, jumping into a competitive fashion-fest! With the timer set at 15 minutes, the girls worked to design a ball gown that was judged after the buzzer. Fabulous!
Canadian scientists have discovered a tiny alchemist in disguise, the bacterium Delftia acidovorans. When this microbe is infused within a toxic mixture of water-soluble gold, it excretes a molecule that both protects it from the elements while also transforming the poisonous ions into solid nanoscale gold particles. It's a discovery that could someday allow for the conversion of mine waste into gold, or the creation of gold structures with unique properties. Details of this remarkable biochemical process were recently published the journal Nature Chemical Biology. The paper's authors, who work at McMaster University in Ontario, did not look specifically at the viability of using this particular stand of bacteria to grow gold from a liquid mixture, but noted that such processess are "distinctly possible." In the paper itself, researchers Chad Johnston, Nathan Magarvey and colleagues noted that the "finding is the first demonstration that a secreted metabolite can protect against toxic gold and cause gold biomineralization." Nature News explains more: Using biochemical and genome analysis, the researchers discovered a set of genes and a chemical metabolite that were responsible for precipitating the gold. Bacteria engineered to lack the genes no longer formed dark haloes, and their growth was stunted in the presence of gold. The team also isolated a chemical produced by the unengineered bacteria that caused gold particles to precipitate out of a solution. The chemical was dubbed delftibactin. The researchers suggest that the genes they identified are involved in producing delftibactin and shunting it outside the cell. By precipitating gold, D. acidovarans may keep the metal from entering its cells in solution. But Magarvey says that it is possible that D. acidovarans also uses other mechanisms to detoxify gold that breaches its cell walls. Images: optimarc/Shutterstock, McMaster University.
Scientists discover the secret of ageing By Clive Cookson in London Published: February 15 2010 23:00 \| Last updated: February 15 2010 23:00 One of the biggest puzzles in biology – how and why living cells age – has been solved by an international team based at Newcastle University, in north-east England. The answer is complex, and will not produce an elixir of eternal life in the foreseeable future. But the scientists expect better drugs for age-related illnesses, such as diabetes and heart disease, to emerge from their discovery of the biochemical pathway involved in ageing. The Newcastle team, working with the University of Ulm in Germany, used a comprehensive “systems biology” approach, involving computer modelling and experiments with cell cultures and genetically modified mice, to investigate why cells become senescent. In this aged state, cells stop dividing and the tissues they make up show physical signs of deterioration, from wrinkling skin to a failing heart.
Scores, Musical Recordings & Musical Videos in the University of Arizona Library A great deal of variety exists as to the exact wording of the title that appears on the cover of published scores, musical recordings and musical videotapes. As you can see in the following examples, this occurs for several possible reasons: (1) the same title may appear in different languages on the covers of different scores, recordings or videotapes of the same composition, (2) the many identifying elements (form, instrumentation, opus number, key, etc.) can be arranged in an amazing variety of patterns, and (3) many musical compositions have become known by "descriptive" or "popular" titles, e.g. "Drum Roll Symphony,"or "Trout Quintet." Therefore, in order to provide a more standardized means for users to locate all of the library's scores, recordings or videotapes of a particular composition, without having to guess at the variable wording of cover titles, music librarians often add another title, known as a "UNIFORM TITLE" above the cover title on the cataloging records they input into their library's card catalog. In many systems, this added title is identified in a field labeled as "uniform title." In the University of Arizona's system, SABIO, the software of which is purchased from a company called Innovative Interfaces, Inc., the cover title and uniform title appear together in a field labeled "title," and the "uniform title" is always above the cover title. In the examples below, uniform and cover titles have been labeled as such in order to underscore their differences. There are three different types of uniform titles: (1) "distinctive" titles (Example 1), which appear in the language of the composer's original, unique title, e.g. "Die Dreigroschenoper," "Symphonie Fantastique," (2) "form" or "genre" titles (Example 2), where the composer has not provided a distinctive, unique title, but has used the work's musical form as the title, e.g. "Symphony No. 2," "Fourth Piano Concerto," and (3) "collective" titles (Example 3), which represent all of a composer's works within one broad category, e.g. "piano music" or all of a composer's works, e.g. "works." Last modified: December 15, 2015
There are several key steps to action in conflict scenarios. After a conflict has erupted the first thing to do is to create space to deal with it well. Negotiate a cease-fire. In this space spend some time agreeing to how to proceed. We call this ‘negotiating process’. Agreement can be around the use of ground rules, covenant commitments, or a shared set of core values to honour in conflict. It may be a good time to do some teaching if the situation is not too volatile and tense. Although if the pastor is personally involved, it cannot be the pastor who teaches this. The second key element of creating space is reconciling hurt relationships. It is essential to make sure relationships are put right if there were hurtful events in the initial flare up. This reconciliation doesn’t solve the conflict, but it does create the spiritual and psychological space in which the conflict can be worked on. Open up the conflict The second key phase (green in the diagram above) is to open the conflict through exploring the issues, understanding the needs, interests and values of each side and looking at all of the contributing factors. This is a great time to complexify the conflict. A natural response is to look for a quick fix solution to reduce the tension. This is rarely successful. It is better to understand all of what has contributed to this and get it mapped out. Let all parties work on this together. If the space has been created and can be maintained, this is a key step towards finding a creative way forward. Begin the process of Narrowing Down the Options Only when some time has gone into understanding the issues and needs of all involved can the process of generating and evaluating the options begin (Blue in the above diagram). Work on some creative ways to get these options out in the open without necessarily making people commit to them in the process. People need time to think these through. Get as many options up as possible. The take some time to agree on what the criteria for evaluation will be. Once this is done, a preliminary evaluation can take place. You may need to cycle this process a couple of times This third step usually throws up some new insight into the issues, needs and values of the parties involved. It is not uncommon to have to cycle through the green and blue areas several times. This does not have to take time but it is worth people being aware that this is what is happening. Finally there needs to be a Decision made In all conflicts and the management of polarities in organisations, there have to be decisions made about how things will proceed. There does come a time when the authorised decision making processes of the organisation need to be used to reach an outcome. This needs to be done with a much consultation with all involved as possible. If there are communal processes of discernment available for use these can be wisely used at this time. When a decision is made, it needs to be implemented with thought and care, especially with understanding of the needs of those who disagree. There may need to be a pastoral process of healing and restoration in some situations. Other resources on this site are referenced on the diagram.
- Among his inventions is the Franklin life-buoy, which was adopted generally in the United States and other navies of the world. He was elected a member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers of America. His article "Sheathed and Unsheathed Ships," published in the Proceedings of the Naval Institute, April, 1890, was widely Copied and commented on; and in 1898 the necessity of his plan for sheathing ships was demonstrated in the war with Spain. After which all vessels authorized by congress Were required by law to be sheathed and coppered. famous inventor
This state of affairs gives rise to the following paradox in the ICU. Namely, to watch over the patient, the hospital workers eject from the ICU the family -- who are watching over the patient. This is because the hospital workers are concentrating only on the medical aspect of the patient. [30/31] Apart from the few minutes twice a day when they can be face to face with the patient, the family can only wait outside the ICU. Compared to the all-pervasive medical line of sight of the nurses, and monitoring machines, the family’s “line of sight” to the patient inside the ICU is blocked. Only the medical aspect of the patient is watched seriously, and this unique, uniform gaze is all that fills the ICU. Treatment in the ICU is said to be comprehensive treatment that treats the whole human body. However, just when the human body should be seen comprehensively, in fact, the “human” is seen only one-sidedly, with all other aspects excluded to the utmost extent. I think this is the largest paradox of the ICU. Why does this paradox exist? It is because looking at patients in this way is thought to be tremendously efficient. In an efficient place, medical treatment can bring its full power to bear. Modern medicine is efficient medicine. The problem of “line of sight” in the ICU is made clearer if you take a look at figure 3 (ICUKango Nyuumon p.131). This is the layout of an ICU that has been divided into private rooms. The beds have been separated with walls or curtains between them. Fellow patients have had their lines of sight entirely cut off. However, it has been made possible to see all of the patients from the nurses’ station in the very center. Here the intense gaze of those supervising falls on all those being supervised. This one central watchtower is designed to allow supervision of many small rooms from one place. This looks incredibly similar to the structure of the modern European thinker Jeremy Bentham’s “Panopticon” -- a design for a prison. This was designed so that all the movements of the inmates could be seen from a central watchtower. [31/32] The ICU is at the forefront of contemporary medicine, which started in Europe, and so it is of deep significance that the model of the Panopticon reappears here. Perhaps only a modern gaze fills the ICU. The problem of a brain dead person occupying a bed So let us suppose that, despite the strenuous medical efforts within the ICU, a patient becomes a brain dead person. This is also a defeat of the ICU’s medical treatment. Considering contemporary medical treatment, we can’t expect brain dead patients to recover. We can only wait for their hearts to stop. A brain dead person is lying on a bed in an ICU. Their heart continues to beat normally for several days, and during this time, they must occupy a bed. This is the cause of many problems. For how long should medical treatment continue? The first problem that arises is that of when to cease artificial respiration. It’s acceptable to discontinue artificial respiration if the heart stops within two or three days, but what should we do if the heart continues to beat for a week or more? If we discontinue artificial respiration, then a brain dead person’s heart will soon stop beating. It seems to be particularly true that in cases where a brain dead person is still young, their family expresses the wish that the patient remains as they are until their heart stops beating naturally. As far as the circumstances permit, the family’s wishes should be respected, but the issue is not that simple. [32/33] Firstly, if a brain dead person is continually occupying a bed, there is the danger that in an emergency, an emergency patient cannot be admitted to the hospital. Also, to regulate and maintain an artificial respirator takes a lot of labour. There is also the way of thinking that if a lot of labour is being spent on patients who won’t recover, it should really be spent on patients who have a chance of recovery. To run an artificial respiration machine of course takes a lot of money. This expense is sometimes paid by health insurance, and sometimes by the hospital. Payment by health insurance means it is paid for by our insurance premiums or taxes. There is the feeling that using public money on brain dead patients who have no chance of recovery is just throwing it away. Finally there is the opinion that keeping a brain dead person who has no chance of recovery on an artificial respirator is disrespectful to them as human beings. The continuous treatment of a brain dead patient is not limited to the use of artificial respiration machines. First and foremost there is medication to boost blood pressure, as well as various other medications supplied by intravenous tubes. Similarly, nutrients to keep the brain dead patient’s body alive are also supplied in liquid form. In some cases it is necessary to perform a blood transfusion. These kinds of medical treatments consume labour and money. And on top of that, there is a chronic shortage of blood for blood transfusions. There is the opinion that using valuable blood on brain dead patients who will not recover is just immoral. How long should nursing continue? As stated in chapter one, brain dead patients require various kinds of care. [33/34] For how long should we continue to measure and record the temperature, pulse and blood pressure of a person who has no hope of recovery? For how long should we clean a brain dead person’s body for them? If nurses are tied up with this kind of continuous care, it could possibly hinder the care of other patients. Nurses might also become disheartened by the futility of having to give continuous care to a patient who will never recover. To supervise brain dead people properly requires many kinds of care. It takes about as much trouble and labour as for a patient in a coma. This point has rarely been given much weight in literature about brain dead people. Here I will try to introduce in a more concrete way the kind and level of care that is necessary to supervise both a brain dead person and a person in a coma, as it is the same. First, the inside of their mouth is cleaned regularly. Because the patient’s mouth dries out easily and is not very moist, it becomes easy for bacteria to breed. So using a cotton swab, the upper and lower teeth and gums, the tongue and the inside of the mouth are painstakingly cleaned. The body is wiped clean. If the skin is not kept clean, then rashes can break out, and it becomes difficult for the body to perspire freely. In particular, if the genital area containing the tube used to pass urine is not kept clean, it may become inflamed. The patient’s hair is washed with medicinal alcohol. The eyes, nose and ears easily become dirty and so are cleaned with an oiled cotton swab. Because patients in a coma often have their eyes slightly open, their eyes are covered with bandages to prevent the cornea drying out. The position of the body is changed. The patient is lying on the bed, connected to various tubes, and facing upwards in a fixed position. If they were to be left in this position, then the side of their body with the weight on it would develop bed sores. [34/35] So the position of their body is changed every two to three hours. This takes more than two people who turn the body in an instant. At the same time, massage and shiatsu is used to relieve the muscles. Because the patients cannot move themselves, the nurses exercise the joints of the legs, knees, thighs, and the shoulders at regular intervals. The patients have intravenous and blood transfusion tubes inserted in them. The skin is checked thoroughly and often, to make sure that the needles are inserted correctly, and that the skin has not become inflamed. A check is made on the amount of the drip. Urine and bowl movements are disposed of. Urine comes out through a tube, so the amount of urine is measured. Even supposing that a person is brain dead, if they are to be supervised correctly, then this amount of nursing is necessary to keep their heart beating. This is quite a burden. It wouldn’t be a strange thing if, when wiping down the patients’ bodies and changing their position, some feelings of doubt might arise in a nurse. Funding treatment and providing insurance for brain dead people If you support a brain dead person in the ICU, it takes a certain amount of labor, medical resources and expenses. For example, according to Yusuke Sawada, costs for one week of IVH (high calorie drip), artificial respiration and care comes to: - 2 official diagnoses of brain death: 100,000yen - One week of examination in the ICU: 180,000yen [35/36] - Nutrient supplies, oxygen supply, medications, blood plasma, expenses for antibiotics: 580,000yen - Heart massage, death formalities: 80,000yen - Miscellaneous costs: 30,000yen Total:1,060,000yen (around USD $10,000) Sawada says the following: If a person receives care for 50 days after being pronounced brain dead, then including costs for dealing with the dead body, the total comes to approximately 6 million yen. The patient is liable for around 30,000yen and so in reality insurance pays up around 6-7 million yen for the care of the brain dead person’s body. (Zokuzoku Nosushi to Shinzoushi no Aida de (Between Heart and Brain Death Part 3.)), Medical Friend, The Japan Society for Transplantation (ed.) Sep. 1986, pp. 219-221.) So it’s not strange to hear medical staff calling for treatment and care for brain dead patients to be cut off as soon as possible. For example, KagoshimaUniversity hospital has set forth a policy to end application of antibiotics, blood pressure medication, dialysis and so on, even without the agreement of the patient’s family. The family’s agreement is required for the withdrawal of artificial respiration. These calls do not just come from the medical field. The same appeals can be heard from those thinking about national medical economics. For example, Shin’ichi Fujita, a member of the Asahi Shimbun group has this to say: Once a person has been medically certified as brain dead, even though the respirator is moving and the heart continues to beat, it’s not to keep the patient alive but to console the family, and this is widely known. [36/37] This is nothing to do with the “life” of the patient, but nothing more than wasteful playing with the “dead body” of the patient, and sooner or later, I think that the general population will come to see the common sense of this. (…statement partially omitted…) If a patient is judged to be brain dead, with a zero percent chance of his or her life being saved, then what cause does it serve to keep the respirator running for a day, two days or even a week, just because the family wishes it so? I think it’s just for appearances. Of course, to let go of a dead person, a certain amount of time is necessary; that goes without saying. However, just because of that, there is no logic to the idea that the dead body should be cared for indefinitely even after the medical diagnosis of “death,” just to let go of the dead person. After one week, the brain begins to liquify itself, and the smell of death is unbearable, I have heard. It seems that some people just do not wish to see the death of a blood relative. However, if the blood relatives were to look from the standpoint of the dead person, they would understand that to have all sorts of tubes and needles continually inserted into you, so your body is toyed around with for no good reason is a terrible annoyance and amounts to desecration. I have heard that in any hospital, the lowest cost for maintaining a body after brain death for one day is 50,000yen. In some hospitals one day costs more than 100,000yen. If claimed as “medical expenses,” this whole cost is paid as part of health insurance, and this is a problem. [37/38] Sooner or later we may have to draw the line. If brain death has been diagnosed, then because medical treatment stops (a dead person cannot be treated), I think there is no other choice but for families who wish the respirator to continue running anyway to shoulder the medical expenses themselves. How many people would really want to continue the maintenance of a dead body at 50,000yen or even 100,000yen per day? If, faced with these kinds of costs, a family says, “Please stop medical treatment” then there is really nothing more we should say to them.” (Seiji to Seimeirinri (Politics and Bioethics)), FA, Diet Members’ Bioethics Research League (ed.), Feb. 1985, pp.29-31.) In the final report of the Japan Medical Association’s Bioethics Committee (Jan.12, 1988), there is the following passage: In the case of organ donation, medicinal and blood transfusion measures continue after the pronouncement of brain death, as well as artificial respiration. It should be examined whether or not the application of medical insurance is the best way to deal with the problem of medical expenses occurring in the case stated above. There is no doubt that the problem of medical insurance will become a matter for social debate. What is the best way to treat and nurse a brain dead person? Due to the above circumstances, the first ethical problem of brain death, that is to say, the first ethical problem of the ICU arises. Let’s review it once again. The ethical problem of brain death was, what is the best way to proceed with the person to person relationships surrounding brain dead people? In the same way, the ethical problem of the ICU is, what is the best way to proceed concerning brain dead people within the place just described known as the ICU? [38/39] The ethical problems in the ICU can be organised into roughly three types. 1) Is it right to cut off medical treatment and nursing, and artificially accelerate the heart failure of a brain dead person? 2) Who should decide this? 3) What should we do if the family wants medical treatment and nursing for the brain dead person to continue? These are difficult problems that do not have a simple answer. There are many possible ways of thinking about it. I think that if the brain dead person has expressed the desire at some point, and if his or her family consents, then we should respect a request to terminate medical treatment and care. However, there is one condition. This is as follows: the decision to stop medical treatment should be made by the doctor in charge who has fully confirmed the patient’s former wishes and the family’s will. When the family wish for medical treatment and nursing to continue, the nurses and doctors, should continue for as long as possible, providing as much care as they can for the family of the brain dead person. I will try to state this point in a more easily understandable way. I think there are two ways of thinking concerning the grounds for the opinion that we should stop medical treatment and nursing of brain dead people. The first is that, although of course we want to keep a brain dead person’s heart alive, if we consider the labour of the doctors and nurses, and the hindrance to other patients in the ICU, and the expenditure of essential resources, and money, then we should end medical treatment and nursing. In other words, this opinion is that although there may be reasons for giving brain dead people medical treatment and nursing, if we consider the surrounding circumstances, this is not a good enough reason to continue treatment. I think that this argument is correct, if you think we should concentrate only on how to distribute scarce medical resources. [39/40] The other way of thinking is that we should end medical treatment and nursing of brain dead people because it is futile. Brain dead people are not going to recover. Giving them medical treatment and nursing is a complete waste, and therefore a meaningless action. The Japan Medical Association too, holds that as brain dead people are medically dead, then treatment of the dead body cannot be said to be medical treatment. This is their way of thinking. I think that this is mistaken. The reason for this is because, I think that the medical care of the dead body can be said to be excellent medical treatment. Using the phrase “dead body” here might suggest that I am thinking of the brain dead person only as a dead body, so to avoid this misunderstanding, I would like to rephrase my last sentence to the following: I think that the medical care of brain dead people can be said to be excellent medical care. Many people will probably have a strange impression as they read this. “There is no such thing as medical care for brain dead people. You see, brain dead people are already medically dead, and won’t recover, and aren’t even conscious. What kind of treatment are you going to give them? What kind of merit do you see in such treatment?” To those who think in this way -- you are already caught in a trap. This is the trap of thinking that you can understand brain death just by understanding the contents of the brain, as stated in chapter 1. You must change your way of thinking. Let’s return and consider the issue from the beginning. “Brain death” did not concern the contents of the brain, but rather person to person relationships. “Brain death” was about the human relationships surrounding the brain dead person. What I mean is, the medical care of a brain dead person is medical care of the “sphere” of the human relationships surrounding the brain dead person. [40/41] Well, what could “medical care of the sphere” be? The life saving treatment in the ICU was medical care that takes as its focus the treatment of the patient’s body and the inside of the patient’s brain. By contrast, I want to define “care of the sphere” as medical treatment that takes as its focus the work that supports and cares for the condition of the human relationships that surround the patient. Medical treatment that centers around care of the sphere of person to person relationships Let’s take a more concrete look at the medical care of this sphere. When a comatose patient is carried into the ICU for the first time, the first thing that occurs is “life saving treatment of the comatose patient.” This medical care concentrates completely on the contents of the patient’s brain, and their body. From the time when this treatment fails, and the patient becomes a brain dead person, then “treatment of the sphere” -- which is different from the life saving treatment of the patient -- begins. Or, in other words, we begin the “medical treatment of brain death.” Amongst all the people surrounding the brain dead person receiving medical treatment, the most in need of assistance are the family of the brain dead person. As has already been stated before, the ICU is a world in which the attendant gaze of the blood relatives is excluded to the utmost extent. The family are continuously waiting outside the ICU, hoping to see the figure of their own kin recover and come out of the ICU, so to suddenly be told that “the patient is brain dead” leaves them at a loss for how they should react. This is because the family cannot yet completely accept the death of their blood relative. At some point the brain dead person’s heart will stop and their dead body will become cold. [41/42] But until that point, the family do not fully comprehend that this will happen, and they have not said farewell to their loved one. This experience is necessary for a family to fully accept the death of a brain dead person. If you switch off the respirator and perform organ transplants before they can have this experience, then a perpetual scar will be left on the hearts of the family. The family’s acceptance of their loss comes about through care of the blood relative who has become brain dead -- care or attendance of the brain dead person. The first job of the medical treatment of the brain dead person is helping the family to attend the brain dead person. Helping the family to attend the brain dead person means, establishing a quiet place away from doctors and nurses for the family attending the brain dead person, showing consideration, and in other words providing nursing care for the family. The emergency treatment in the ICU was medical treatment that prioritised the medical health aspect of the patient above nursing the patient. By contrast, the medical treatment after brain death is medical treatment that places priority on the nursing care of the sphere of person to person relationships surrounding the brain dead person. In particular, the nursing care of the family watching over the brain dead person becomes the main focus here. I think that the opinion that care of the family’s feelings is best left up to nurses, and that it does not deserve the name of “medical treatment” is due to the arrogance of doctors. This arrogance is the cause of a growing feeling of distrust of doctors by patients and families, as will be covered in the next chapter. By clinging to the fixed idea that medical treatment is to cure the bodies of people who have a chance of recovery, the treatment of brain dead people is ignored. If you are aware of the fact that the goal of medical treatment of a brain dead person is nursing care of the person to person sphere, you can easily come to understand the concept of medical treatment of brain death. The ethical problem of the ICU was how best to proceed concerning the relationships of the family, doctors and nurses, surrounding the brain dead person in the ICU. [42/43] Now, we can give this question only one answer. It is that doctors and nurses should care for the family watching over the brain dead person. Therefore I think that our society should adopt the courtesy of caring for the family watching over the brain dead person. This way of thinking is not entirely new in itself. As a matter of fact, in the case of “terminal care” for cancer patients facing death, alongside the care of the patients themselves, the importance of caring for the patient’s family is also beginning to be discussed. The family, watching over the final struggle against illness by a blood relative with whom they have shared a long life, are in a state of confusion, pain and sadness. The care of the mental health of the family continues after the death of the patient, by making efforts to contact the family and staying with them in their time of sadness. (Ganshi Kea Manyuaru (Care Manual for Cancer Deaths)), Masahiro IIo and Hiroomi Kouno, Igaku Shoin, Apr.1987). In the case of “terminal care,” the family receives this kind of care. This is not simply an addition to life-prolonging medicine. Instead, at the bottom of terminal care lies “nursing care of the sphere” of human relationships that takes the family as one of its main objects. One characteristic of the essence of nursing is care of the person to person sphere. In the ICU, specific techniques concerning the brain dead patient’s body were given priority, but even here the “nursing care of the sphere” was by no means absent. I want to call this medical treatment that centers around the “nursing care of the sphere”: “sphere treatment.” If “sphere” is too difficult a word, it can be expressed as “treatment of relations.” The treatment for brain death is the same. We must move towards the existence of medical treatment that centers around care of the sphere. [43/44] Caring for Brain Dead People So, to support a family’s care of a brain dead person, doctors and nurses must do three things: 1) Guarantee a sufficient amount of time spent for the family to attend the brain dead person. 2) Offer to set up a quiet place where this can be done. 3) Offer basic minimum nursing care to a brain dead person. The first two relate to the care of the family, and the third relates to the care of the brain dead person. I shall explain them in order. The care of a brain dead person is care that allows the family to bid farewell and let go of the brain dead person, through realising that the brain dead person is at last a cold dead body that will not recover. In the case of a brain dead person, who is warm and with blood still flowing, it is significantly harder to say goodbye. When attending a brain dead person, the (imminent) death takes a lot of time to accept. Those with a warm brain dead person before them cannot suddenly let go as if it were a cold dead body; they need more time. Even doctors too, such as Tateo Sugimoto speaks of his experience as follows: We have reached a point these days where there is no system where doctors and patients and their families can speak on completely equal terms. If there is a sudden unexpected incident such as a traffic accident, no matter how simple the contents of the doctor’s explanation is, a certain amount of time is necessary before a level of acceptance is reached. Even from my standpoint, as a person who understands the physiology of the brain, it took several days for me to accept it satisfactorily. [44/45] Understanding the inside of the brain and actually comprehending it in reality are two separate things. (Kita Kamo Shirenai Seifuku (A Uniform My Son Might Have Worn), p.198). A group formed by Yoshiko Taguchi, from Nippon Medical School, is conducting research that records in detail the mental condition of the brain dead person’s family (Asahi Shimbun 1988, Jan 26, morning edition). For example, the mental changes in the wife of a 52 year old brain dead man, were divided into four stages. The first stage lasted until 3 days after the diagnosis of brain death. It was a state of panic and incomprehension. The second stage was from the 3rd to the 4th day. This was a state of confusion and anxiety, and the family prayed for a miracle. The third stage was from the 4th to the 6th day. Their emotions become more ordered and they became able to think about things realistically. And when they reached the fourth stage, from the 6th to the 10th day, they finally accepted the death, and are able to ask for the respirator to be removed. In the case of this family, from the diagnosis of brain death to acceptance of the death took a little over one week. I don’t know under what conditions and for what length of time the family were allowed to visit the brain dead person in this ICU, but to accept the death of a family member, I think that several days to one week is necessary as the minimum length of time. Depending on the family, there are many levels to their acceptance of the death. For example, a level at which they understand it in their heads, but have not really registered it yet, a level at which patients’ sadness and confusion seems to have passed and they are comparatively calm, a level at which you have become able to assent to removing the respirator of your own free will, and the level at which you can finally accept in reality that the patient has passed away and calmly respond to the situation, and so on. It might take many months or even many years to reach this final state of mind, even after the patient’s heart has stopped beating. [45/46] Although there are many levels to be distinguished during the acceptance of death, I would like to think now about the level that could be described as “Having passed the state of confusion and panic, and reaching a level at which you have become able to assent to removing the respirator of your own free will.” By the above reasoning, to really assist in the care of brain dead people, the family must be guaranteed at least several days to one whole week. However, under the current system family members are not allowed into the ICU apart from about ten minutes twice a day, so I wonder if this guarantee is really possible. If only the hospital side would take an interest, it would not be impossible for the family to spend an extended amount of time in the ICU. Keiko Tajima says the following: In America from the mid 1950’s to the 1960’s, the problem of “ICU syndrome” grew steadily worse, but one measure introduced to deal with it was to extend the visiting time of a family and break down the visiting restrictions, and it seems their condition began to improve. The relation of long visits to equipment, medical treatment, and the level and frequency of care in the ICU must be considered, but if nurses make accurate judgements according to the necessity of these things, it’s possible to say that attending will not in any way obstruct medical care or nursing. I hope that in the management of future ICUs, visiting times will have as few restrictions as possible.” (ICUKango Nyuumon, pp. 32-33.) So as long as the doctors and nurses do not resent it, isn’t it possible for the family to visit brain dead patients in the ICU for an extended period of time? Doubtless it will be said that there is the danger of the family bringing dust and bacteria into the ICU. But Tajima says, “There are modern ventilation systems and air purifiers, and if these are taken into account then surely this situation will improve.” (same publication, p.32.) [46/47] Further, because the patient is already brain dead, there is no need to be so nervous about the family causing the monitoring equipment attached to the patient to malfunction. Let’s think about nursing care in relation to a brain dead person. The very first thing that should be done is to make it so that the family receives support in their attendance of the brain dead person. If the very least consideration is to be given to the attendance of the death of a person and the family’s acceptance of this death, then we must not neglect to pay respect to the dying (or dead) person’s body and to keep it clean. For example, at a funeral, the body is treated with great care and made so that it looks presentable and not offensive. On the occasion of a funeral, a parting, this happens as a matter of common sense. The attendance of a brain dead person is the same. When they support the parting of the family from the brain dead person, I think that as a show of respect and courtesy to the family, doctors and nurses should keep care of the patient to a minimum. So it is not necessary to continue all the care that took place before the patient was pronounced brain dead. To be useful to the attendance of the family, only care that does not impinge on the dignity of a brain dead person should continue. For example, it’s acceptable to detach various types of monitoring equipment. It might also be acceptable in some cases to stop blood transfusion. The use of artificial respiration machines, intravenous tubes for nutrition, and various medicines including vasopressin should be kept to a minimum. The body’s position may still be changed, and it may be cleaned. The family members could participate in this care, not just the nurses. I think the exercising of the patient’s legs and arms can be left out. Exactly what should continue and what may stop should be decided by the nurses and doctors present at the time. [47/48] Moving the bed outside the ICU If we think in this way, the number of kinds of machines and equipment around the brain dead person will be drastically reduced. Further, as this is not a life and death situation, there is no need for such severe observation. And if we do that, then another possibility for attending to the brain dead person arises. It’s as you think. Move the bed right out of the ICU. The bed has wheels attached, so swap the artificial respirator for a smaller one, and taking along the IVH drip, move the bed right out of the ICU. If the bed is put in an ordinary hospital room, then other patients may be disturbed, so an individual room would be fine. Depending on the size of the hospital, there is an even better method. Please take another look at the diagram 2 of the ICU at Kobe City General Hospital. There are many small rooms adjoining the main ICU. Amongst these, there is a family waiting room, a briefing room, a conference room, a doctor’s lounge and so on. One of these should be made into a room to attend the brain dead person. With a little juggling, this wouldn’t be impossible. In newly-established wards, rooms made especially for attending brain dead patients, between the ICU and ordinary wards, are being considered (a kind of “halfway-house” concept if you will). Of course, rooms for attending brain dead patients do not have to be permanently so; they may be used for other purposes according to the circumstances. Recently, in large hospitals, “serious illness supervision rooms,” lying directly between the ICU and ordinary hospital rooms have begun to appear. So for example, what if we section off a corner in this serious illness supervision room, and make it into a room for attending brain dead people? I think that it is worth considering. [48/49] If you take a brain dead person out of the ICU, then obviously it will speed up heart failure. However, because treatment of a brain dead person is nursing those attending them rather than extending the life of their heart, then if the family so wishes, doctors need not have a guilty conscience about this. Those who hold the opinion that medical treatment of brain dead people is useless medicine, also say that brain dead people should quickly be taken off respirators and moved out of the ICU. However, they are saying this only thinking of economic efficiency. The necessity of attending the brain dead person does not enter their field of view. This way of thinking should be ruled out. The members at the Japan Medical Association’s Bioethics Committee made a statement at a press conference to the effect that keeping brain dead people on artificial respirators was contrary to respect for human beings. However, the wishes of the brain dead person made before the event should take priority, followed by the judgement of the family attending the brain dead person, so this is not a general proposal that should have been put forward by an authoritative group. From life saving medicine to medicine centered around nursing Well, let’s express what has been said so far as a diagram (refer to the following figure 4). A patient who cannot regain consciousness or is in a comatose state is brought into the ICU. Life-saving treatment is given, but despite that, the patient falls into a state of brain death. The treatment that takes place at this time is first and foremost treatment for the patient in a comatose state. [49/50] The nurses provide necessary care for the body so that life-saving treatment may have its greatest effect. They also try to present easily understandable information to the family waiting outside the ICU.
On 1 January 1834, Emperor Nicholas I confirmed an organizational statute for the Corps of Mining Engineers [Korpus Gornykh Inzhenerov], which had been created following the French example to manage the administrative and technical facets of mining, minting, and salt operations (§1). This was the second militarized corps under a civilian department, following the Corps of Engineers of Ways of Communications.(1) The early history of a specially organized mining service is traditionally traced to the Petrine era, when on 4 August 1700 the Office for Mining Affairs [Prikaz rudokopnykh del], subsequently reorganized on 10 December 1719 and Mining College [Berg-kollegiya].(2) At the time it was considered that mining has the closest of relationships to artillery, and mining works are mainly built with the purpose of using the appropriate metals to make guns, artillery rounds, etc., and therefore the first mining administrators were assigned from the military, mainly artillerists.(3) They all enjoyed the privileges of the military service and wore military uniforms up to 1724, when this right was taken from them. On 31 October 1734, officials in the mines administration were again equated to officers, but their grades in the Table of Ranks were given special titles. Nothing is known of the uniforms of mines officials before the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna. Only on 10 April 1755 were special uniforms established for them.(4) In the relevant ukase it was stated: 1. Field-grade mines officers will have a uniform: a coat [kaftan] of good red cloth, slit white cloth cuffs, called Swedish; white cloth collar and vest [kamzol], similar red cloth breeches [stany]; white lining and on the edges of the coat and vest is gold crenellated galloon 1½ vershoks [1 vershok=¾ inch] wide at its broadest part, the crenellation [goroda] being just on one side, and on the flaps on the vests is decorative tracery [pod klaponom vykladka s figurkoi]; gilt tombak buttons; hats with the same galloon as on the coat. 2. Company-grade officers are to have a coat of the same color, and are to have on the coat and vest galloon crenellated on one side, one vershok wide, and with no tracery on the flaps of the vest; hats with the same galloon The Senate prescribed that in all colleges, chancelleries, offices, and bureaux, no one is to lack such uniforms. This is explained by the mines administrations equivalency to the military. It is known, for example, that in 1761 mines officials of the Kolyvan-Voskresenskii works were granted ranks, allowances, and actual honors, on account of the similarity of their mathematical expertise with that of artillery and engineer officers. It is not known exactly how long the 1755 uniform lasted. However, it is known that in 1775-77 the Yekaterinburg Mines Companies had red coats with distinctions, while the artillery detachments were black crepe [krep].(5) Apparently, the trimming of the coat with galloon had been discontinued since the middle of the 1760s, but the white facings were kept right up to the abolishment of the Mines College in 1784. Subsequent to that even, some of the mines officials, serving in the provinces, most probably changed over to the provincial uniforms, while others began to wear a uniform analogous to that of officers of the armys mines battalionsa red coat with green collar, cuffs, and lapels; silver metal appointments, and vests and breeches that were also green. In any case, in the 1794 album Depiction of Provincial, Local, Collegial, and All Authorized Uniforms, the uniform for officials of the Mines School is shown just that way, with green facings. That a similar uniform was spread to all other places is evidenced by documentation from 1796. When Paul I re-instituted the operations of the Mines Colleges on 14 December 1796, it was ordered that members of the college and its subordinate officials have a uniform coat as now in use: red with lapels, vest, and netherwear of green. Upon the query of the Mines Office, the College declared that mines officials would have coats of red cloth; cuffs, lapels, collars, vest, and breeches of green; buttons white and convex; green stamin lining; hats trimmed with narrow white gauze [gas] for field and company-grade officers, silver swordknots and tassels; boots and shoes are to be worn.(6) The existence of general-officers uniforms was not foreseen by these documents. In the beginning of Alexanders reign the mines uniform was changed along with various other uniforms for civilian agencies. Like the others, it acquired a new style: the coat received a standing collar, and in front its skirts were cut out below the waist. In accordance with an ukase of 24 March 1804, for officials of the mines and mint and the Mines Cadet Corps (all having become part of the Finance Ministry in 1802), there was prescribed: A single-breasted coat of dark blue with a standing collar and slit cuffs of black velvet; lining on the skirts and turnbacks of cloth of the same black color; the edges of the facings, collars, cuffs, and of the flaps on the sleeves are trimmed with red cloth; flat yellow buttons; lining of black stamin; pants and vest of white cloth. General and field-grade officers are in addition to have gold embroidery [nashivka] on the coats collar and cuffs.(7) Company-grade officers had no embroidery at all. The mention in the 1804 ukase of general and field-grade officer ranks, and of lining on the skirts and turnbacks and flaps on the cuffs all indicate the semi-military character of the uniforms that were being introduced. Accompanying drawings of the uniforms have not been preserved, and from the ukases text it is not possible to know what the pattern of the gold embroidery was. This phrase usually indicates embroidery of gold galloon, but sometimes it is used for embroidery in the form of buttonholes. Fortunately, several early depictions of the 1804 uniforms have survived, which show that in this case what was meant was gold embroidery in the form of oak and laurel branches making a decorative buttonhole. There were two such buttonholes on each side of the collar and three small ones on each cuff flap. It was in this form that in 1805 mining uniforms were depicted in the album Collection of Coats of Arms For All Provinces of the Russian Empire, Provincial Uniforms, and Uniforms of Other Offices Now Existing. We see such buttonholes in the portraits of A.F. Bestuzhev (by V.L. Borovikovskii, 1806) and of the chief of the Olonets mining works Charles Gascoigne (by D. Sekon, no later than 1807 to judge by the fact that according to the reference books, by that year Gascoigne was no longer in the mines administration). It would be important to establish the date that embroidery of this design appeared since it continued in use on the coats of civilian mines officials until 1854, reappeared on mines uniforms in June of 1867, and in October of that year was introduced on coats for transportation and communications engineers (in silver), and later became universal for all engineers. In 1806 the State Mines College was abolished, and in its place on 13 June 1806 was established a Mines Department [Gornyi Departament] within the Ministry of Finance, renamed in 1811 the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs [Departament gornykh i solyanykh del]. Instituted by the ukase of 24 March 1804, the uniform for officials of the Department of the Mint [Monetnyi Departament] differed from that of the Mines department in the color of embroidery and buttonssilver instead of gold. This uniform continued in use until 1811, when the Department of the Mint was absorbed into the Mines Department. On 14 February 1819, uniforms were established for officials of the Ministry of Finance as a whole. With this, personnel in the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs kept their previous uniforms, but those who held Class IV rank, in addition to the embroidery of the 1804 pattern, also received the bort (border embroidery) common throughout all ministriesat the top and front of the collar, around the cuffs, and on the cuff flaps.(8) In the beginning of 1833 it was decided to reorganize the mines administration. The Mines Cadet Corps was reformed as the Institute of Mining Engineers. Along with this, on 10 March Nicholas I confirmed an administrative regulation for uniforms of the mines department.(9) The following were the changes to the 1804 and 1819 regulations: At the very beginning of 1834, the mines administration (as part of the Ministry of Finance) was divided into two parts: the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs and a militarized Corps of Mining Engineers [Korpus gornykh inzhenerov]. In accordance with the Corps administrative regulation of 1 January 1834, the authorized number of officers was 320.(10) The special mining ranks were replaced by military titles. Already in September of 1833 Nicholas I had ordered that there be prepared a listing of all grades in the mines administration with their titles, with an indication of to what rank they belong. (i.e., to what military rank they corresponded). Mining engineers now formally received military rank, which had an important significance for their social standing. Since a Class V military rank did not exist, junior Ober-Berg- Hauptmänner were retitled senior colonels. Uniforms for mining engineers were established as follows: Dark-green single-breasted coat [kaftan] and pants; black-velvet collar and slit cuffs; blue [svetlo-sinyaya] piping on the collar, coat cuffs, and pants; two pieces of silver lace [nashivka] on the collar, and silver epaulettes according to rank; buttons also silver, with the design especially prescribed for them. Dark-green lining. A frock coat [syurtuk] of the same colors without lace; black velvet collar; round dark-green cuffs; the same piping. We note that generals and officers of the Corps did not have tracery embroidery on the collar or cuffs, but only straight silver lace-bars [petlitsy]. Ranked and classed officials who were part of the Corps kept their single-breasted dark- blue civilian uniform coats with red piping as currently confirmed for the mines service (§15). Soon after the confirmation of the administrative regulation for the Corps of Mining Engineers, the minister of finance, Ye. F. Kankrin, reported to Nicholas I on the need to supplement the description of the uniform with the following: Officers of the Mines Institute were prescribed the same uniforms as for the Corps engineers but with the velvet collar replaced by cloth, the embroidery of the military educational institutions on the collar and cuffs, and crests on the buttons. Students in the officer classes wore the coat of officers of the Corps of Military Engineers while junior classesconductors and cadetsreceived a uniform modeled after that of cadets in the Institute of Ways of Communications, but with blue [svetlo-sinii] piping. Soon, on 27 February 1834,(12) there was confirmed, and on 19 March published, a Regulation for Civilian Uniforms in which the coat of the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs was included under those having a military cutof the pattern for classed officials of the military administration (§99). In §115 it was stated: The coat for the mines administration is of dark-blue cloth, collar and slit cuffs of black velvet, lining on the skirts of black cloth, likewise black stamin lining, and red piping on the collar, cuffs, cuff flaps, and edging; gold embroidery, smooth gilt buttons; dark-blue pants without piping, over boots. In Appendix B it was explained (§26-29) that the coat embroidery was of four groupings [razryady]: for generals full [with the border (?bort) of the Ministry of Finance] on the collar, cuffs, and pocket flaps; for chiefs of sub-departments [strukturnye chasti] the same embroidery but without the border and with an embroidered edging on the pocket flaps; for field-grade officers embroidery on the collar and cuffs but none on the pocket flaps; and for company-grade officers embroidery only on the collar. The frock coat was prescribed to be of the army pattern and worn with a forage cap with a black lacquered visor and cloth band the same color as the collar. A special civilian uniform for officials of the mines administration, as in use previously, was not foreseen. However, the described military-style coat kept the gold 1804-pattern embroidery in the form of two buttonholes of oak and laurel leaves, with a division into razryad groups that repeated the 1833 system. Unlike the coat style for civilian officials, the mining administration coats could have embroidery only on the collars, cuffs, and pocket flaps, and not along the coats edges or skirts. On 31 December 1848 a new Regulation for the Institute of the Corps of Mining Engineers was confirmed (and published on 14 February 1849). In regard to the uniform clothing of the teaching staff and administrative personnel, it was explained: §17. Generals and field and company-grade officers assigned to the Institute from the Corps of Mining Engineers are to have a uniform of the pattern prescribed for that Corps. §18. All other field and company-grade officers have the same uniform, but with cloth collar and cuffs, and instead of silver buttonholes on the collar and flaps, there are prescribed silver embroidery of the pattern confirmed by Highest Authority for military educational institutions and buttons with the state crest §19. Civilian and medical officials of the Institute and its instructors, who are on active duty, are prescribed the uniform established for classed mining officials.(13) * * * For fifteen years the uniform of mining engineers remained unchanged. Only on 13 January 1850,(14) at the urging of the viceroy in the Caucasus was it ordered that officers of the Corps of Mining Engineers who were serving in the Caucasus and Transcaucasus territory wear the uniform prescribed for troops of the Separate Caucasus Corps, but in the color for mining engineers. This meant that the round Caucasian hat was to have a top of dark-green cloth with silver galloon with blue [svetlo-sinii] lines through it. The previous dress tailcoat, cut away in front, was replaced by a single-breasted half-tunic [polukaftan] of dark-green cloth with velvet (black) collar and cuffs. Blue cloth piping was prescribed for around the collar, cuffs, front opening, and skirts. Three years later (2 January 1853)(15) the uniform was changed for classed officials of the mines administration in the Caucasus. It was to be of the pattern for Caucasian troops: a fur cap with a dark-blue cloth top and gold galloon without any colored lines through it; half-tunic of dark-blue cloth with black velvet collar and cuffs; red cloth piping around the collar, cuffs, front, and skirts. Embroidery on the collar and cuffs remained gold and was different according to classed rank. On 29 February 1852,(16) for the whole Corps of Mining Engineers the triangular hat was replaced by a helmet with silver fittings and a black horsehair plume. For generals the plume was of the pattern for army general officers, and for other officersas for army adjutants with the Cyrillic letters G.K. on the helmet plates shield. On 4 June 1854 a new coat was introduced for classed and medical officials in the Corps of Mining Engineers.(17) It had a military cut of the pattern for officers of this Corps, and was single breasted, dark green, with a black velvet collar and cuffs, dark-blue cuff flaps, and blue piping around the collar, down the front, skirts, and cuffs. Embroidery on the collar was prescribed to be silver in the four razryad groups. In the first group it consisted of straight silver lace-bars and silver general-officers border trim and edging; in the other groups it was only the lace-bars with or without edging. The blown [dutyi] silver buttons of officials in central offices received the government crest; personnel serving in subordinate local offices had two crossed hammers, and officials at the Institute for Mining Engineersa government crest with a semicircular aureole [s polukruglym siyaniem]. Judging from subsequent statutes, the coats and frocks of classed officials and doctors of the higher classes were prescribed shoulder knots of twisted cord.(18) In the same year of 1854 the dark-blue coat for civilian mining officials was abolished. The coat for classed officials serving in the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs was replaced by the common uniform coat of the Ministry of Finance. As a result, the embroidered oak and laurel-branch tracery of 1804 and 1834 ceased to exist for a time. The new 1854 uniforms, however, remained unchanged for only a short time. In February of the following year Emperor Nicholas I died, and when Alexander II ascended the throne he immediately initiated a complete reform of uniforms. A ukase of 25 March 1855 introduced new uniforms for the mining administration, the development of which we will discuss in following articles. In the future we also plan to relate the history of the mines troops, who had their own organization and uniform. [INSET Page 14] State Mines College [Gosudarstvennaya Berg-kollegiya] established 10 December 1711 (until 1722 in the combined Mines and Manufacturing College). Abolished in 1731 (in its place a Special Office for the Control of Mining Affairs [Osobaya ekspeditsiya dlya upravleniya gornym delom] was in the Commerce College, renamed the General Mines Directorate [General-berg-direktorium] in 1736. Reestablished in 1741. In 1775 the control of mining affairs for each locality was turned over to the provincial administrations, and in 1784 the Mines College was again shut down (after transferring its functions). In 1796 it was opened on the previous basis; permanently abolished in 1807, with its functions transferred to the Mines Department (until 1825(!) there existed within the Ministry of Finance a Department of the Mines College for the liquidation of affairs). Mines Office [Berg-kontora] in operation in Moscow 1722-1728, 1760-1767, and 1796- 1807. During periods when the Mines College was located in Moscow, the Mines Office established itself in St. Petersburg. Mines Department [Gornyi departament] established 13 June 1806 under the Ministry of Finance. From 1807 it had a Mines Council and Mines Executive Office. In December 1811, with the joining of the salt office and the functions of the Department of the Mint, it was renamed the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs [Departament gornykh i solyanykh del]. In 1825 it formed an Expert Committee. In 1863 it was renamed the Department of Mining Affairs [Departament gornykh del]. From1874 it was under the Ministry of State Properties, and from 1905in the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Abolished 21 January 1918. Department of the Mint [Monetnyi departament] established 8 September 1802 in the Ministry of Finance. From 1807 it was part of the State Treasury. In 1811 it was abolished and its functions transferred to the Mines Department. Corps of Mining Engineers [Korpus gornykh inzhenerov] established 1 January 1834 (on a military basis). It included a Headquarters [Shtab] (1834-1863), Mines Legal Office [Gornyi Auditoriat] (1837-1863), and also an Institute and Technical Mining School. Disbanded 22 April 1867. Mines School [Gornoe uchilishche] established in St. Petersburg in 1773 (opened in 1774). In 1804 reformed as the Mines Cadet Corps [Gornyi kadetskii korpus] under the Ministry of Finance. From 1806 the Corps was administratively equal to the universities. In 1833 it was reorganized into the Institute of Mines [Gornyi institut] (from1834-1866 the Institute of the Corps of Mining Engineers). In 1896 the Institute was given the name of Empress Catherine II. It is now the G.V. Plekhanov Saint-Petersburg Institute of Mines. [INSET Page 16] While preparing this article on the uniforms for mining engineers we were able to attribute a portrait from the collection of the Museum of the Borodino Panorama. The portrait came to the museum in the summer of 1997 and was described as the likeness of an unknown officer. On the back of the watercolor one could make out the almost worn-away note Director of the Technological Institute. This suggested that the identity of the depicted person be looked for among the directors of that St.-Petersburg institute of practical technology. The officers uniform and his epaulettes without rank stars indicated a colonel in the Corps of Mining Engineers. His decorations were well painted: around the neck were crosses of the orders of St. Anne 2nd class with Imperial Crown and of St. Stanislaus 2nd class; on the chestthe order of St. Vladimir 4th class (without bow), the silver medal For the capture of Paris 19 March 1814, and a clasp for twenty years of irreproachable service in officer rank. From the time it was founded in 1825 up to 1855, the institute had three directors. Until 1838 this position was occupied by Ivan Mikhailovich Evreinov and then, from 1838 to 1852, by Vasilii Ivanovich Blau (Wilhelm von Blau). From 1852 to 1858, the director was Konstantin Fedorovich Butenev. After 1858 the directors position was mainly occupied by persons who were distinguished by their scientific achievements, and none of them were found to have served as field-grade officers in the Corps of Mining Engineers prior to 1855. Of the three directors named above, two were field-grade officers of the Corps of Mining Engineers: Blau and Butenev. When serving as director both men held the rank of colonel and had orders identical to those shown in the portrait. But Butenev lacked the medal For the capture of Paris 19 March 1814, and besides, shortly before being named director of the institute he received the clasp for 25 years of irreproachable service in officer rank. Thus his medals group would be different from that shown in the portrait. While director, Colonel Blau did have the medal For the taking of Paris 19 March 1814 and the clasp for 20 years of irreproachable service. Thus, it can be stated with certainty that the portrait under investigation depicts Vasilii Ivanovich Blau (Wilhelm von Blau) (1790-1866). The time the painting was made could be determined by the colonels awards. On 31 July 1842 Blau received the Imperial Crown to his order of St. Anne 2nd class. On 1 January 1847 he was decorated with the next order of St. Vladimir 3rd class, which is missing in the portrait. It follows that the watercolor can be dated from1843 to 1846. For Blaus biografph see: A.V. Kubovskii, Dva inzhenera. Atributsiya dvukh portretov iz novykh postuplenii muzeya-panoramy ?Borodinskaya bitva in Epokha napoleonskikh voin: lyudi, sobytiya, idei. Materialy nauchnoi konferentsii. Moscow, 1999. Pages 40-47. [INSET] In the preceding issue of the magazine several errors were allowed into the article on uniforms of the administration of ways of communications. On page 19, in the captions to the buttons for the ways of communications, in 3, instead of the words Officials of the Main Directorate in the second half of the 19th century, one should read Officials of the Main Directorate since the second half of the 1830s. In number 9, instead of the words Waterways company, one should read Waterways police. We ask the readers forgiveness. Page 10: (Left) Official of the Mines College, 1755. Reconstruction based on the text of the ukase of 10 April 1755. (Right) Official of the Mines School, 1794. Reconstruction based on the book Depiction of Provincial, Local, Collegial, and All Authorized Uniforms. Artist Igor Dzys. Page 11: (Top) Ober-Bergmeister V.Yu. Soimonov (1772-1825). Miniature by an unknown artist, c. 1794 (G-T-G). Upon finishing at the Mines School in 1790, he was graduated and went to the Nerchinsk Mines Battalion. Promoted in 1793 to Ober-Hüttenverwalter and named manager of the Barnaul works. In 1797, after the reestablishment of the Mines College, he was recalled to St. Petersburg, promoted to Ober-Bergmeister, and placed at the disposal of the chief director. Vice-president of the Mines College from 1800. Here he is depicted in the 1796 uniform for the Mines College. The dark-blue facing color is possibly a result of a transformation in the paint which is often encountered in just such miniatures from the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. In any case, Soimonovs service record convinces us that in the second half of the 1790s he could only be wearing the mines uniform. Even more so, such a uniform with dark-blue trim has not been discovered for their period. (Inset) Cadet (non-commissioned officer) of the Mines Cadet Corps: first pattern uniform, January-March 1804. On 19 January 1804 there were confirmed a regulation and organizational table for the newly established Mines Cadet Corps (Polnyi Svod Zakonovi, No. 21,133). According to the table, the uniform for the 60 cadets was prescribed to be: parade coat of red cloth with dark- green lapels and lining, with silvered buttons; black neck cloth, white vest and pants; shoes with stockings, or boots; felt hat with binding, black cord, and bow. A short sword [tesak] with brass fittings and a worsted swordknot was worn in a frog on a belt around the waist. Ten non-commissioned officers had silver galloon on the collars and cuffs, suede gloves with cuffs, and a cane. Everyday dress consisted of a grey coat [syurtuk] with covered buttons, over a vest and breeches. Officials of the corps were to have the special uniform according to the assigned pattern. It may be assumed that when confirming this pattern, the higher authorities took note that the red color of mines uniforms was no longer in accordance with either the actualities of the time or the system of uniforms that was developing in the empire. As a result there appeared an ukase of 24 March 1804 On uniforms for officials of the Mines and Mints administrations and of the Mines Cadet Corps, which introduced new dark-blue uniforms. This means that the cadet uniforms were soon being changed (it is possible that the red uniforms established by the January authorization table were thus not able to be made up.) Later they were also prescribed shakos, but no description of them, or the date they were introduced, is known. Page 12: (Left) A.F. Bestuzhev, official of the mines administration. Portrait by V.L. Borovikovskii, 1806. (Vyatka Art Museum of V.M. and A.M. Vasnetsov.) A.F. Bestuzhev (1761-1810), the father of the famous Decembrist brothers, for a certain time occupied the position of manager of the Yekaterinburg lapidary and bronze factories and had the right to wear the mines uniform. However, Bestuzhev was awarded the order of St. Vladimir 4th class, as shown in the portrait, on 26 October 1807, and it is possible that the order was painted on later. (Center) Ober-Berg-Hauptman Class IV A.F. Deryabin (1773-1820), director of the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs. Portrait by an unknown artist, c. 1813. (St. Petersburg Institute of Mines.) (Right) Ober-Berg-Hauptman Class IV Ye.I. Mechnikov, director of the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs. Portrait by an unknown artist, end of the 1820s. (St. Petersburg Institute of Mines.) Depicted in the 1819-pattern uniform. Ranks for Mining Officials (1734-1834) With Class and Corresponding Army rank. IV Ober-Berg-Hauptman class IV Major General VOber-Berg-Hauptman class V Brigadier VI Berg-Hauptman Colonel VII Ober-Bergmeister Lieutenant Colonel VIII Ober-Hüttenverwalter Major IX Markscheider Captain XIII Ober-Berg-Probierer; Schichtmeister class XIIISublieutenant XIV Berg-Probierer; Schichtmeister class XIVEnsign Artist Sergei Popov 2001. Page 14: (Left) Company-grade officers of the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs in the uniforms confirmed by Highest Authority on 27 February 1834. (Drawings for Polozhenie o grazhdanskikh mundirakh.) (Right) Pattern drawing for full embroidery (Group 1) of the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs, confirmed by Highest Authority on 27 February 1834. Judging from portraits, in practice the border embroidery was not smooth, but rather had shiny specks [s blestkami] following the style for the Ministry of Finance. [Writing on the pattern: Confirmed by Highest Authority in St. Petersburg, 27 February 1834. Full embroidery on collars, cuffs, and pocket flaps for officials of the Mines administration holding general-officer rank.] Page 15: Frock coats [syurtuki] for officials (above) and for unclassed chancellery employees [kantselyarskie sluzhiteli, klassov ne imeyushchikh] (below), Department of Mining and Salt Affairs, confirmed by Highest Authority 27 February 1834. (Drawings for Polozhenie o grazhdanskikh mundirakh.) Page 16: (Top left) Lieutenant General Ye.V. Korneev, commander of the Corps of Mining Engineers. Portrait by an unknown artist, 1834 (St.-Petersburg Institute of Mines). Depicted in the common general-officerss parade uniform of the mines administration. (Top right) Colonel V.I. Blau of the Corps of Mining Engineers, director of the St.- Petersburg Institute of Practical Technology. Portrait by an unknown artist, 1843-46 (Musuem of the Borodino Panorama). (Bottom right) Coat button of the Corps of Mining Engineers, 1834 pattern. Page 17: (Top row) Civilian officials of the mines administration. 1. Official of the Mines College and Mines Departmen (class V and higher), 1804-15. 2. Official of the Mint Department (field-grade officer rank), 1804-11. 3. Class IV Official of the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs, 1819-26. 4. Official of the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs (company-grade officer rank), 1833-54. 5. Official of the mines administration (field-grade officer rank) in the Caucasus, 1853-54. 6. Student (pupil in the senior classes) of the Institute of Mines, 1833-34. (Bottom row) Corps of Mining Engineers. 7. Captain of the Corps of Mining Engineers, 1834-38. 8. Lieutenant colonel of the Institute of the Corps of Mining Engineers, 1852-55. 9. Major of the Corps of Mining Engineers in the Caucasus, 1850-55. 10. Official of the Corps of Mining Engineers (in Group 2 coat), 1854-55. 11. Cadet (non-commissioned officer) of the Institute of the Corps of Mining Engineers, 1834-48. 12. Mines cadet (conductor) in service uniform, 1839-55. (1)1. Polnoe sobranie zakonov Rossiiskoi Imperii (Sobranie II). No. 6685. (Henceforth PSZ.) (2)1 In connection with the 200th anniversary of the mines administration, at the beginning of the 20th century an attempt was made to prepare an illustrated book on the history of the mines administration uniformsthe very first civil uniforms in Russia. The work was not completed, but the manuscript was preserved in the Russian State Historical Archive [RGIA] (86 pages). The illustrative material for it, however, is in the Technical Library of the Institute of Mines. (3)2. Materialy k istorii mundirov gornogo vedomstva. RGIA, F. 77. Op. 52. D. 2213. L. 21. (4)3. Ibid., L. 21-22. (5)4. V.N. Zemtsov and V.A. Lyapin. Yekaterinburg v mundire. Yekaterinburg, 1992. Page 50. (6)5. Materialy L. 23. (7)6. PSZ-I. No. 21,226. (8)7. PSZ-I. No. 27,681. (9)8. PSZ-II. No. 6038. (10)9. PSZ-II. No. 6685. (11)10. RGIA. F. 40. Op. 2. D. 19. L. 16-17. (12)11. PSZ-II. No. 6860. Drawings: RGIA. F. 1409. Op. 10. D. 24. L. 7, 8, 9. (13)12. Ibid., No. 22,879 (14)13. Materialy L. 26ob.-27. (15)14. PSZ-II. No. 26,905. (16)15. Corps order No. 5, 29 February 1852. (17)16. PSZ-II. No. 28,318. (18)17. Corps order No. 3, 2 February 1861.
Following the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, Reno—like other towns in the West—became a home for displaced Chinese laborers. The Sacramento-to-Reno section of the Central Pacific Railroad was completed in the spring of 1868; Chinese laborers who had risked life and limb laying track over the Sierra Nevada received final payment and were left along the line to fend for themselves. Many constructed flimsy bare-wood structures at the crossroads of Virginia and First streets along the banks of the Truckee River. Reno’s Chinatown was born. On Aug. 3, 1878, fire consumed the Chinese quarter. Tensions had been running high since May when the San Francisco-based firm Lung Chung & Company received the contract to construct the proposed 33-mile Steamboat Ditch irrigation canal from near Truckee into Reno. Local Workingmen’s Party members were vocal in their condemnation of the Truckee and Steamboat Springs Canal Company for employing Chinese labor. Coincidentally the Workingmen’s Party held a meeting that very same evening to discuss and adapt a series of resolutions on “the Chinese question.” Few incidents of violence or physical hostility occurred in Chinatown for more than 20 years after 1878, when the Chinese community agreed to relocate out of town to First and Lake streets. In November 1908, a Washoe County Grand Jury ordered the razing of Chinatown—a “plague spot” and “disease-breeding place” according to Dr. James L. Robinson of the newly formed Reno Board of Health. Only the Joss house (a place of worship), and some of the more-frequented brothels that housed Chinese prostitutes were spared. The events in Reno created a stir along the West Coast, drawing protest from Washington State to San Francisco. The Reno Chinese community reached out to San Francisco’s Chinese Consul, and even hired an attorney to file a suit against the City of Reno for $7,000. The Chinese proved to be mostly powerless, however, because many of the buildings in the Chinese quarter had been situated on land owned by white proprietors. The final remnant of Reno’s Chinatown on Lake Street, Bill Fong’s New China Club, disappeared in the 1970s as Harrah’s expanded to build a larger parking garage. The only indication of northern Nevada’s Chinese past is Nevada Historical Marker No. 29 located in Sparks. The plaque, dedicated in 1964, celebrates Nevada’s centennial and the salutes the contributions of Chinese pioneers. A more recent memorial—the Chinese Pagoda Pavilion—was built in Reno’s Rancho San Rafael Park in 1984 as a result of leftover funds donated by Reno’s Joss House Society. Today, these markers serve as the only remaining evidence of a displaced culture’s trials and tribulations in the Truckee Meadows.
I like the specific content knowledge that the tribes’ Challenge to Survive series makes available. Using such materials fits quite well into my understanding of the sort of teaching that CCSS is encouraging. However, looking ahead I see that the course I’m enrolled in has a bias in favor of “constructivist” teaching, and that led me to look into what assessments are being planned for the new standards. I find that Linda Darling-Hammond is the chief research consultant for the consortium that is creating the tests that will drive accountability for teachers and school in Montana. That’s reassuring, if you mainly agree with Bill Ayers on what schools are for. Ho-hum. I have been trying to ignore social justice activists such as Darling-Hammond for years, and I worked through and moved on from constructivist pedagogy years ago as well. I have approximately zero interest in revisiting all those arguments at this point. To a great degree, I think the impetus for CCSS was to undo the harm that such ideas have done in K-12 education. So will the new standards make any difference? I need to get my assumptions clear before I’m very motivated to work on details. - The CCSS seeks to reorganize k-12 teaching around literacy–reading and writing–and content knowledge. - CCSS consists of standards. It is not a curriculum. - For CCSS to make a difference at a level that students will experience something different in the classroom, both instructional practices and the curriculum would need significant changes. Leaving aside the challenge of changing instructional practices, either a new curriculum would need to adopted, or a new curriculum would need to be written. - So far, the conversation about implementation in Montana has centered on “alignment.” This suggests that existing curriculum needs to be reorganized under new standards. This is easy enough to do if one interprets the new standards into existing mental categories and definitions. This is a familiar routine. It amounts mostly to adopting new jargon to describe old practices. For example, Rudolf Dreikurs argued in the late 1960s that educators should replace the concept of “punishments” with his ideas about natural and logical consequences. His theories were successful, as such theories go. So schools no longer have punishments–they now have consequences. However, the new consequences bear an uncanny resemblance to the old punishments. It’s easier to create new euphemisms than it is to affect practices. - A further complication is that reasonable people will disagree as to what specific standards mean in practice. The interpretations that will ultimately matter–in terms of accountability–will be those made by authors of the Balanced Assessment tests that will drive both teacher and school accountability, beginning in 2014. Some of the test items have been released but to a great extent what and how the tests measure remain unknown. - The drive for new standards is driven by College Board research that suggests that only about 30% of high school graduates read and write at the level needed for success at college and by the idea that workplace demands on literacy are similar to those at college. The new standards call for a curriculum that is rich in content knowledge and for instructional practices that support routines of close reading and analytical and expository writing that uses that knowledge. - To a great extent, these standards work against conventional wisdom in the profession, which leans heavily toward extolling “creativity” and “higher order” thinking. However, the usual result of using consensual and collaborative processes to get work done is that the conventional wisdom gets repeated. One would expect that using collaborative processes to align curriculum to CCSS will result in little or no real change. Real change would require authoritative processes. - If the goal is to make a serious effort to effect the changes that the CCSS call for, what is needed at this stage is teaching. Teachers need readings and presentations that accurately explain what the standards mean–both what research has called them into being and what teaching practices are actually coherent with the standards.
When one has just been diagnosed with having thyroid cancer, it can be quite overwhelming. You may feel lost as to what you should do next. You will even find yourself re-evaluating your future and the impact of the condition. This can be a challenge but there are some things you can do while trying to cope. Find out all you can. Becoming as knowledgeable as you can will help greatly. Get all the details including the type, stage and any and all treatment options. Ask your physician where you can get more information about it. The National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society should be at the top of your list. Connect with other survivors. Sometimes this approach might be difficult. You may not be someone who can open up easily, especially in this situation. However, talking with persons in a similar situation can be a source of strength. Speak to your physician about joining a local support group. The American Cancer Society or the Thyroid Cancer Survivors’ Association can be a place to connect with other cancer survivors online. Control what you can about your health. Take steps to keep your body healthy while undergoing treatment. Even after treatment, your health should be a high priority. This entails eating a healthy diet consisting of fruits and vegetables. Be sure to get enough sleep every night. Being well rested is very important. Incorporating physical activity regularly such as regular exercise will also contribute to your overall health. Doctors still aren’t sure of the causes of thyroid cancer. There is no method to prevent thyroid cancer in persons who have a risk of developing it. Prevention for people with a high risk Surgery may be the best option for persons who have an inherited gene mutation that increases risk. Prophylactic thyroidectomy is one such procedure. A genetic counselor will be able to explain your risk and discuss treatment options with you. Prevention for people near nuclear power plants If a nuclear power plant suffered fallout, it is possible for people living nearby to develop cancer. If you live near a nuclear power plant in the U.S. (within 10 miles), you may be eligible to receive a supply of potassium iodide. Potassium iodide blocks the effects of radiation, which could cause thyroid cancer. If fallout should occur, potassium iodide tablets could help prevent thyroid cancer from development. Your local emergency department can provide more information. Explore Alternative Remedies There are alternative treatments that can be taken in conjunction with any conventional prescriptions. These alternative treatments can improve the quality of life during the treatment period. They can be continued even after the treatment process. The goal of alternative thyroid cancer therapy is the rebuilding and strengthening of a weak immune system. It helps the body to fight thyroid cancer more effectively. Alternative therapies for thyroid cancer include meditative techniques, acupuncture, yoga, aromatherapy and massages. This is not direct treatment but enhances the healing process greatly. Such therapies help to keep the patient calm and mentally strong during therapy and recovery. It also helps to dissipate any negative emotions brought on by the cancer. Herbs and herb -derived dietary supplements can also be effective as alternative therapies for thyroid cancer sufferers. These herbal supplements assist the immune system and the body fight off cancer cells.
Kaifeng Jew, Wade-Giles romanization K’ai-feng Jew, member of a former religious community in Henan province, China, whose careful observance of Jewish precepts over many centuries has long intrigued scholars. Matteo Ricci, the famous Jesuit missionary, was apparently the first Westerner to learn of the existence of Chinese Jews. In 1605 he was visited by a young Chinese man who claimed to be one of many monotheists living in the city of Kaifeng. Three years later a Chinese Jesuit visited the community, confirmed the existence of a large synagogue (with a Holy of Holies accessible only to the chief rabbi), and testified to the authenticity of Jewish observances. The Jewish character of the community was unmistakable, for the Chinese observed the Sabbath and major religious festivals, practiced circumcision, read the Torah, had Hebrew manuscripts, used name tablets rather than pictures in their synagogue, and abstained from eating pork. Their Chinese name, Tiaojinjiao (literally, “pick out the tendons”), refers to practices prescribed by Jewish dietary laws. An extant stone tablet dated 1512 and found in Kaifeng claims that Judaism entered China during the latter half of the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce), but it is more likely that Jews entered Kaifeng sometime prior to 1127 from India or Persia (Iran). The oldest known synagogue in Kaifeng was built in 1163. The religious life of the Jewish community in Kaifeng was permanently disrupted by the protracted period of war and social upheaval that accompanied the establishment of the Qing (Manchu) dynasty in 1644. The flooding of the city in 1642 by rebels to prevent its capture destroyed the synagogue as well as Jewish records, books, and burial grounds. Jewish religious education was also severely disrupted at that time, and these factors, combined with the increased tendency of the Kaifeng Jews to intermarry with Han Chinese or to convert to other religions, resulted in a rapid decline in religious fervour that was never rekindled. The strong ties with past traditions were irreparably severed with the passing of the older generation. Though the synagogue was rebuilt in 1653, few members of the community were left who could read Hebrew by 1700. When the last Chinese rabbi died in 1800, the spirit of Judaism in Kaifeng was so enfeebled that Christian missionaries were able to purchase Torah scrolls, Hebrew manuscripts, and records, which eventually were placed in libraries and museums in Europe and the United States. Efforts by the Portuguese Jews of London in 1760 to contact the Chinese Jews were unsuccessful, as were similar efforts by the Jews of London in 1815. Two Chinese Christian converts, however, dispatched to Kaifeng in 1850 by the Anglican Mission in Hong Kong, visited the synagogue, obtained scrolls and Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament, and brought back copies of Hebrew inscriptions. Though few traces of active Judaism remained, the information thus obtained (which was published in Shanghai in 1851) made it possible to reconstruct history. A Protestant missionary visiting Kaifeng in 1866 was told that poverty had forced the Chinese Jews to dismantle their synagogue and sell the stones to Muslims who wished to build a mosque. In 1870 a letter from Kaifeng arrived in Hong Kong. It was in reply to a letter sent 26 years earlier by a British officer. The reply described the plight of the Kaifeng Jews in pitiful terms. When several attempts by European Jews in China to raise money for the Kaifeng community met with little response, the Chinese Jews were invited to move to Shanghai. An old gentleman and his son arrived in the early 1900s to announce that they were among the last members of the once-flourishing community. There is indisputable evidence that other Jewish communities existed in China for much more than 1,000 years, but only the history of the Kaifeng Jews has been well documented. Learn More in these related Britannica articles: Henan, sheng(province) of north-central China. The province stretches some 300 miles (480 km) from north to south and 350 miles (560 km) east to west at its widest point. It is bounded to the north by the provinces of Shanxi and Hebei, to the… China, country of East Asia. It is the largest of all Asian countries and has the largest population of… Matteo Ricci, Italian Jesuit missionary who introduced Christian teaching to the Chinese empire in the 16th century. He lived there for nearly 30 years and was a pioneer in the attempt at… Jew, any person whose religion is Judaism. In the broader sense of the term, a Jew is any person belonging to the worldwide group that constitutes, through descent or conversion, a continuation of the ancient Jewish people, who were themselves descendants of the Hebrews of the… Kaifeng, city, northern Henan sheng(province), north-central China. It was the provincial capital until 1954, when the capital was transferred to Zhengzhou, about 45 miles (75 km) to the west. Kaifeng is situated in the southern section of the North China Plain, to the south of the…
The answer might shock us, because while we all know how much our boys and girls love their technology. Rarely are our kids seen without a tablet, phone, game controller, or computer in their hands and a few minutes spent scrolling here and there can add up fast during a day. This hit and miss media consumption happens gradually, often leaving us in the dark to the true amount of time they spend connected everyday. Surprisingly, our kids spend about 9 hours everyday looking at the screens of some type of media device. At first glance, we might be appalled and consider how the glare of the screen harms our kids’ eyes, reduces their physical activity levels, interferes with learning, and disrupts sleep patterns. While we are still processing the shocking amount of time our kids are spending online, we might be overlooking one serious side effect all of this social media exposure is having on our kids. Social media might connect our kids with their peers, but it also leads to FOMO (fear of missing out) and accents the need to be accepted by their peers as our boys and girls try to garner more likes, friends, followers, and comments. Our children are being bombarded with carefully crafted profiles and stylized selfies that portray the look of perfection day in and day out. Kids, just like adults, are noticing that others seem to look amazing, never have a bad day, and are happy all the time. In addition, our kids rely on the amounts of likes they receive as a gauge for their self-worth and popularity. This leads to an unending game of compare and despair, which can leave teens and children feeling emotions that harm their self-esteem and can potentially manifest in body image issues, depression, and eating disorders. For more information about the ways our children’s social media exposure affects their self-esteem and can generate body issues, please read the following infographic on ways to detect body image issues in our kids:
Young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg crossed the Atlantic on a zero-emissions sailboat to attend the UN Climate Summit and then begin a tour around the Americas before attending the UNFCCC COP25 meeting in Chile. She and a sailing crew encountered rough seas on the way to New York in hurricane season. Anyone who is willing to put themselves through such conditions for what they believe in is to be admired for their principled approach. Greta obviously appreciates the importance of gatherings such as the United Nations for bringing together people in common cause. The ability to meet face-to-face, to look another human in the eyes, and learn from one another is unable to be matched through screens and conference calls, as practical and useful as they are. There is nothing that replaces travel to help people connect. Despite the yacht, the crossing was anything but luxurious voyage: cramped conditions and significant swells that tested even the hardiest of sailors. However, her choice to travel this way does bring with it a luxury most of us do not possess: time. Aside from the two weeks to get to New York, there was also the travel from her home in Sweden to the UK, the long journey from New York to Santiago and then presumably travel back to Stockholm somehow. All-told at least three months of travel which may be possible when you are a 16-year old taking a year off school. But most of us do not have the luxury to take so long to travel to meetings or see friends or family. We have jobs, we have responsibilities, we have kids to take to soccer and grandparents that need to be taken care of. Air travel has helped change the way we see and experience the world. Families now live all over the globe and are connected by rapid and affordable flight. The voyage across the Atlantic that was common a century ago has been replaced with a swift, safe, and reliable air service. The same human drive that helped create aviation also brought with it other innovations: improved healthcare, more affordable food, computers, and easily accessible transport. Lives today are incredibly different and richer than they were before we had access to these services and opportunities. But it is now clear we need to change these systems to provide the same quality of life but without the negative planetary implications. The air transport industry has been working to make air travel much more sustainable for decades now. A passenger’s flight taken today produces half the CO2 that the same flight would have in 1990. The latest generation of aircraft have CO2 emissions per passenger-kilometer that rival that of compact and even hybrid cars. And our colleagues across the sector are working hard to do even better in the future. Despite the growth in connectivity, we aim to halve our net CO2 emissions by 2050 through an energy transition away from fossil fuels and a dogged determination to roll-out cutting-edge and ever-increasing efficiency through new technology and more innovative ways to fly our aircraft. We want to ensure people can fly in the future, but to do so as sustainably as possible. This process cannot happen overnight. An energy transition takes time, as does the deployment of new technology. And we need to be careful to make choices that are well-informed. Every activity we undertake has some kind of footprint. European politicians and activists will suggest a ban of all short-haul flying and replacing it with rail travel, but few (if any) have done the analysis on how much concrete, steel, renewable energy, land, and government funding it will take to build so much rail infrastructure. Just ask the UK Government how the High Speed 2 rail project is going. Even emailing and watching YouTube produces CO2 emissions: actually, more CO2 is generated by the servers and cables of the internet than global aviation. This is not to suggest we stop traveling and stop emailing. We should not. Human connection and learning from other cultures are too important for us all to give up. There is already too much intolerance in the world for us to retreat into nationalistic bubbles. But we do need to work to make future of flight even more sustainable, and I am convinced we have the right minds and the right determination to do it. In the meantime, passengers can choose to offset their flights by supporting low-carbon action worldwide, and airlines are already starting to use sustainable aviation fuels which cut CO2 emissions by up to 80% — including out of Stockholm Airport. Greta has said that she does not yet know how she will return to Europe. Last week she took part in the UN summit on September 23rd, then she continued to Canada and then Mexico, and in December, she’ll make her way to Chile for the UN climate conference and visit neighboring South American countries. We genuinely wish Greta all the best. The adventure of travel should be experienced by all of us! Michael Gill is Executive Director of the Air Transport Action Group
All possible knowledge, then, depends on the validity of reasoning. If the feeling of certainty which we express by words like must be and therefore and since is a real perception of how things outside our own minds really ‘must’ be, well and good. But if this certainty is merely a feeling in our own minds and not a genuine insight into realities beyond them — if it merely represents the way our minds happen to work — then we can have no knowledge. Unless human reasoning is valid no science can be true. It follows that no account of the universe can be true unless that account leaves it possible for our thinking to be a real insight. A theory which explained everything else in the whole universe but which made it impossible to believe that our thinking was valid, would be utterly out of court. For that theory would itself have been reached by thinking, and if thinking is not valid that theory would, of course, be itself demolished. It would have destroyed its own credentials. It would be an argument which proved that no argument was sound — a proof that there are no such things as proofs — which is nonsense. A worldview is meant to give a systematic explanation of those inescapable, unavoidable facts of experience accessible to all people, in all cultures, across all periods of history. In biblical terms, those facts constitute general revelation. Philosophers sometimes refer to them collectively as the life-world, or lived experience, or pre-theoretical experience. The whole point of building theoretical systems is to explain what humans know by pre-theoretical experience. That is the starting point for any philosophy. That is the data it seeks to explain. If it fails to explain the data of experience, then it has failed the test. It has been falsified. About 30 years ago there was much talk that geologists ought to observe and not to theorize; and I well remember someone saying that at that rate a man might as well go into a gravel-pit and count the pebbles and describe the colours. How odd it is that anyone should not see that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service! It is a matter of some importance and also a matter which falls properly within the province of philosophy, to discuss the question what sort of proof, if any, can be given of ‘the existence of things outside of us’. And to discuss this question was my object when I began to write the present lecture. But I may say at once that, as you will find, I have only, at most, succeeded in saying a very small part of what ought to be said about it. William K. Clifford, Contemporary Review, (1877); reprinted in William K. Clifford, Lectures and Essays, ed. Leslie Stephen and Frederick Pollock (London: Macmillan and Co., 1886).William K. Clifford (1845–1879) was an English mathematician. The sincerity of his conviction can in no wise help him, because he had no right to believe on such evidence as was before him. He had acquired his belief not by honestly earning it in patient investigation, but by stifling his doubts. And although in the end he may have felt so sure about it that he could not think otherwise, yet inasmuch as he had knowingly and willingly worked himself into that frame of mind, he must be held responsible for it. Your brain creates a simulation of the world that may or may not match the real thing. The “reality” you experience is the result of your exclusive interaction with that simulation. We define “illusions” as the phenomena in which your perception differs from physical reality in a way that is readily evident. You may see something that is not there, or fail to see something that is there, or see something in a way that does not reflect its physical properties. Let’s be honest, we’ve all expressed opinions about difficult hot-button issues without always thinking them through. With so much media spin, political polarization, and mistrust of institutions, it’s hard to know how to think about these tough challenges, much less whatto do about them. One Nation Undecided takes on some of today’s thorniest issues and walks you through each one step-by-step, explaining what makes it so difficult to grapple with and enabling you to think smartly about it. ~ Publisher’s Description It is difficult to think of a topic of greater concern than the nature of truth. Indeed, truth and the knowledge thereof are the very rails upon which people ought to live their lives. And over the centuries, the classic correspondence theory of truth has outlived most of its critics. But these are postmodern times, or so we are often told, and the classic model, once ensconced deeply in the Western psyche, must now be replaced by a neopragmatist or some other anti-realist model of truth, at least for those concerned with the rampant victimization raging all around us. Thus, “we hold these truths to be self evident” now reads “our socially constructed selves arbitrarily agree that certain chunks of language are to be esteemed in our linguistic community.” Something has gone wrong here, and paraphrasing the words of Mad magazine’s Alfred E. Newman, “We came, we saw, and we conked out!” The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false. It is sobering, too, to find huge and frightening errors constantly repeated; lessons painfully learnt forgotten in the space of a generation; and the accumulated wisdom of the past heedlessly ignored in every society, and at all times. Instead of trying to combat each leak directly, the United States government should teach the public to tell when they are being manipulated. Via schools and nongovernmental organizations and public service campaigns, Americans should be taught the basic skills necessary to be savvy media consumers, from how to fact-check news articles to how pictures can lie. Dallas Willard, The Allure of Gentleness: Defending the Faith in the Manner of Jesus (HarperCollins: February 10, 2015), pp. 14-15, Kindle Edition. We say “science,” but in actuality there are sciences like physics and biology. We say “religion,” but it would be more accurate to say religions like Christianity or Buddhism. Scientists will tell you that they do have a method, but the method of one science doesn’t work in another science. The method of validating a theory in biology doesn’t work particularly well in astronomy. Method is always tied to subject matter, and in dealing with life in general there is no such thing as a single scientific method. This has become the quandary of our culture, because everything that really matters in guiding life falls outside of science. Is there such a thing as natural knowledge of God? C. Stephen Evans presents the case for understanding theistic arguments as expressions of natural signs in order to gain a new perspective both on their strengths and weaknesses. Three classical, much-discussed theistic arguments — cosmological, teleological, and moral — are examined for the natural signs they embody. At the heart of this book lie several relatively simple ideas. One is that if there is a God of the kind accepted by Christians, Jews, and Muslims, then it is likely that a ‘natural’ knowledge of God is possible. Another is that this knowledge will have two characteristics: it will be both widely available to humans and yet easy to resist. If these principles are right, a new perspective on many of the classical arguments for God’s existence becomes possible. We understand why these arguments have for many people a continued appeal but also why they do not constitute conclusive ‘proofs’ that settle the debate once and for all. Touching on the interplay between these ideas and contemporary scientific theories about the origins of religious belief, particularly the role of natural selection in predisposing humans to form beliefs in God or gods, Evans concludes that these scientific accounts of religious belief are fully consistent, even supportive, of the truth of religious convictions. The proud person “must either talk or burst …. He hungers and thirsts after hearers, to whom he may vaunt his vanities, to whom he may pour forth all his feelings, to whom his character and greatness may become known. … Opinions fly around, weighty words resound. He interrupts a questioner, he answers one who does not ask. He himself puts the questions, he himself solves them, he cuts short his fellow speaker’s unfinished words. … He does not care to teach you, or to learn from you what he does not know, but to know that you know that he knows.” Certainly for anyone who thinks that Biblical teaching is at least in some ways normative, or that the Bible is in some sense authoritative, or who merely claims to take the Bible seriously, it should be a fundamental principle that the Bible must be allowed to say exactly what it wants to say irrespective of the consequences. We may then freely reject what it says as being foolish, inconvenient, embarrassing, or offensive. But no good is served by acting dishonestly with Biblical texts, that is, turning or twisting or otherwise manipulating and forcing them in the direction of what we want them to say. To be sure, we do not often do this in a deliberate or even conscious way, though this renders the problem even more insidious than it might otherwise be. The revered Christian author whose bestselling classics include The Divine Conspiracy and The Spirit of the Disciplines provides a new model for how we can present the Christian faith to others. When Christians share their faith, they often appeal to reason, logic, and the truth of doctrine. But these tactics often are not effective. A better approach to spread Christ’s word, Dallas Willard suggests, is to use the example of our own lives. To demonstrate Jesus’s message, we must be transformed people living out a life reflective of Jesus himself, a life of love, humility, and gentleness. This beautiful model of life — this allure of gentleness — Willard argues, is the foundation for making the most compelling argument for Christianity, one that will convince others that there is something special about Christianity and the Jesus we follow. … thy book Is cliff, and wood, and foaming waterfall; Thy playmates — the wild sheep and birds that call Hoarse to the storm; — thy sport is with the storm to wrestle; — and thy piety to stand Musing on things create, and their Creator’s hand! Books were understood to be a storehouse of wisdom from the past, a treasury and repository of hard-won experience and knowledge of these limits. What these books taught was itself a justification for an education centered around them. Because the present and future were believed to be fundamentally identical to the past, the past was understood to be a source of wisdom about our condition as humans in a world that we do not command. An education in great books was itself a consequence of a philosophical worldview, and not merely an education from which we derived a worldview (much less sought an education in critical thinking). Many commend the teaching of great or core texts to provide something more than the exercise of “critical thinking,” a goal onto which academics have latched (after the ferocious curriculum battles of the 1980s and 1990s) with an almost audible sigh of relief. Debates about substance were put to rest as agreement was reached on the contentless goal of critical thinking, which allowed academics to lay down their arms and embrace the common project of cultivating a thinking style . Indeed, it has reached a pass in which the only idea impervious to critical thinking is the shared goal of critical thinking: No one quite knows what it is, but we can all agree that we want our students to be able to do it. Push-pins is equal to Homer, and Homer equal to push-pins, since both can be claimed to foster critical thinking. A miracle is an extraordinary manifestation of supernatural power, perceptible to unbelievers as well as believers. Grace is a manifestation to believers only: Miracles are manifestations to unbelievers. A miracle is something perceptible to the senses, or to the intelligence, of a natural man. A miracle, therefore, may be called something tangible: something that we can lay before him and allege to him: something concerning which we can make an appeal to his natural perceptions: something concerning which we can charge it upon his conscience, that he knows within himself that such a thing has taken place. The world, therefore, is opposed to the doctrine of miracles: and opposed to it for this very reason, because they are tangible or perceptible. And mock professors, in like manner, shrink from the doctrine of miracles: because it brings them, at once, to an issue with the world. They shrink not, equally, from the profession of spiritual truths; because these may be eluded by the world, and lead to no issue. Doctrines, the world can explain away: miracles, it cannot. Here is something that it cannot get over. It is easy, for instance, to say to a man sick of the palsy, “Thy sins be forgiven thee;” because there is nothing to shew, at the moment, whether they are so or not: the issue stands over to the day of judgment. But it is not so easy to say to him, “Arise, and walk;” because, if the speaker be an impostor, he knows the sufferer will not rise and walk, and he dreads the consequent exposure. Many people, including philosophers, have misguided expectations for God. These expectations are misguided in their failing to match what would be God’s relevant purposes, if God exists. The latter purposes include what God aims to achieve in revealing to humans (the evidence of) God’s reality and will. Misguided expectations for God can leave one looking for evidence for God in all the wrong places. In failing to find the expected evidence, one easily lapses into despair, anger, or indifference toward matters of God. We find such regrettable attitudes among many people, including philosophers and theologians. ¶ The needed antidote calls for a careful reconsideration of our expectations for God. This antidote enables us to approach religious epistemology in a way that does justice to the idea of a God worthy of worship. As we shall see, the evidence available to humans from a God worthy of worship would not be for mere spectators, but instead would seek to challenge the will of humans to cooperate with God’s perfect will. This would result from God’s seeking what is morally best for humans, including (a) their cooperative reconciliation to God, (b) their redemption from volitional corruption, such as selfishness, pride, and despair about human life, and (c) their ongoing cooperative life with God. ¶ What if, as Kierkegaard (1846) suggested, God maintains God’s value by refusing to become a mere third party and instead offering second-person (I–Thou) access to humans? What if, in addition, God is elusive in hiding from people unwilling to cooperate with God’s will? Such “what if” questions can shake up misguided expectations for God and point us in a new, reliable direction. “A liberal society stands on the proposition that we should all take seriously the idea that we might be wrong. This means we must place no one, including ourselves, beyond the reach of criticism; it means that we must allow people to err, even where the error offends and upsets, as it often will.” So writes Jonathan Rauch in Kindly Inquisitors, which has challenged readers for more than twenty years with its bracing and provocative exploration of the issues surrounding attempts to limit free speech. In it, Rauch makes a persuasive argument for the value of “liberal science” and the idea that conflicting views produce knowledge within society. Among philosophers some have pretended that man might know every thing, — these are madmen; others that he could know nothing, — these men were not more wise: the former have given too much to man, the latter too little; both the one and the other have rushed into excess. Where then is wisdom? She consists in not believing that you know every thing — that is the attribute of God alone; in not pretending that you know nothing — that is the property of brutes: between these two extremes there is a medium which is appropriated for man — it is knowledge mixed up with darkness and tempered with ignorance. Science has been digging deeper and deeper, and as it has done so, particularly in the basic sciences like physics and astronomy, we have begun to understand more. We have found that the world is not deterministic: quantum mechanics has revolutionized physics by showing that things are not completely predictable. That doesn’t mean that we’ve found just where God comes in, but we know now that things are not as predictable as we thought and that there are things we don’t understand. For example, we don’t know what some 95 percent of the matter in the universe is: we can’t see it – it’s neither atom nor molecule, apparently. We think we can prove it’s there, we see its effect on gravity, but we don’t know what and where it is, other than broadly scattered around the universe. And that’s very strange. ¶ So as science encounters mysteries, it is starting to recognize its limitations and become somewhat more open. There are still scientists who differ strongly with religion and vice versa. But I think people are being more open-minded about recognizing the limitations in our frame of understanding. Like my Swarthmore peers, I wanted to be sophisticated and enlightened — and to be regarded by others as sophisticated and enlightened. So a lot of what I believed simply as a matter of tribal loyalty was reinforced by a tendency to adopt views that conformed to the beliefs of what the late Irving Kristol dubbed “the knowledge class” — professors, elite journalists, and the like. With the exception of abortion, which I had thought about a lot, I hadn’t really thought myself into the positions I held. Rather, I had taken the short cut: I was content to believe what I thought sophisticated and enlightened people believed, or at least were supposed to believe. I simply, and rather unselfconsciously, assumed that an approach of that sort would reliably place me on the correct side of the issues. And, of course, it would give me access to a world I wanted to enter more fully — the elite world of important people who really counted and made a difference. If I got the right credentials, beginning with a Swarthmore degree, and held the right views, I could be someone who mattered. It was then, as it is now, a common motivation for students at elite colleges and universities. A salient feature of the success of any social, religious, or moral movement is the degree to which its advocates understand, shape, and employ the flow of ideas that forms the intellectual backdrop against which those advocates carry out their work. Setting aside Marxist and other self-refuting materialist forms of social determinism, it seems clear that ideas are among the primary things that impede or facilitate revolutionary movements. ¶ Nowhere is this more evident than the pro-life cause. But just exactly what ideas constitute the core components of the milieu in which pro-life advocates live and move and have their being? I am not a sociologist nor the son of one, and I am no expert in the sociology of knowledge. However, I am a philosopher and, as such, I have a take on this question upon which I believe it is important for us to reflect.
Population Bottlenecks and Volcanic Winter The "Weak Garden of Eden" model for the origin and dispersal of modern humans posits a spread around 100,000 years ago followed by population bottlenecks. Then, around 50,000 years ago, a dramatic growth occurred in genetically isolated, small populations. In a 1998 article, Stanley Ambrose proposed an alternative hypothesisa volcanic winter scenarioto explain recent human differentiation. The bottleneck was caused by a volcanic winter resulting from the super-eruption of Toba in Sumatra. If Ambrose's hypothesis is correct, modern human variations differentiated abruptly through founder effect, genetic drift, and adaptation to local environments after around 70,000 years ago. Ambrose points out that the Out of Africa dispersal date of around 100,000 years ago fits the generally warm, humid last interglacial period, 130 -74,000 years ago. An impressive body of paleontological evidence shows an Afro-Arabian biotic community expanded northward during this period. Several such multi-species dispersals out of Africa have occurred during previous interglacial phases. He considers the variants of the Replacement model to be more accurate and realistic than the Multiregional models. The number of DNA mutations within a population increases temporally. When a population has passed through a bottleneck, the mutation distribution evidences the bottleneck. DNA studies have identified a significant bottleneck (or bottlenecks) during the last glacial period. The Multiple Dispersals model proposes a population bottleneck occurred when cold, dry climates isolated populations in Africa. Additional bottlenecks occurred through physical bottlenecks such as the Sinai Peninsula. The first dispersal of anatomically modern humans, to the Levant around 100,000 year ago, is evidenced by early modern human skeletons in the Near East. According to Ambrose, this first dispersal apparently failed to permanently establish modern humans outside of Africa. Genetic evidence shows that non-African populations can be divided into southern Australasian and northern Eurasian populations that divided 50-75,000 years ago. In contrast, Ambrose's model proposes a scenario of a globally synchronous bottleneck. If bottlenecks were caused by the cold climate, duration was approximately 10,000 years with release 60,000 years ago. If the eruption of Toba alone caused the bottleneck, then release may have followed within a few decades of the volcanic winter 71,000 years ago, or the bottleneck could have lasted 1000 years, during the coldest portion of the Ice Age following the Toba eruption. In the bottleneck scenarios, more individuals survived in the African tropical refugia, resulting in the greatest genetic diversity survival in Africa. Ambrose concludes that bottlenecks occurred among genetically isolated human populations because of a six-year long volcanic winter and subsequent hyper-cold millennium after the cataclysmic super-eruption of Toba. This volcanic winter played a role in recent human differentiation. The resultant combination of founder effects and genetic drift may account for low human genetic diversity as well as population differences associated with so-called races. The bottleneck hypothesis offers an explanation for why humans exhibit so little genetic variation, yet superficially appear diverse. It also affords an explanation for the apparent recent coalescence of mtDNA and African origins. Ambrose, Stanley H. 1998. Late Pleistocene human population bottlenecks, volcanic winter, and differentiation of modern humans. Journal of Human Evolution 35:115-118.
Consider these two sentences: (1) 母はついてくるようにアリスに合図した (Mother signaled to Alice to follow her) と合図した。 (Father gestured to me to go out of the room) And another sentence which I suspect has the same use of と as (2) but I cannot exactly say what it does: とした本です。(Unnatural: This book is a book that is done in order for children to be targets) (Natural: This is a book for children) Now I deconstruct the use of AをBとC in (3) to mean "Do verb C to achieve state B in direct object A" (Question) How would I understand the use of と in (2)? Since (1) does not require と yet has a similar structure involving XようにY means "to do Y so that X can happen". What happens when と is added to the mix as in (2)? (Example sentences taken from WWWJDIC)
In the worksheet on line graph the points are plotted on the graph related to two variables and then the points are joined by the line segments. 1. The following are the runs scored by a team in the first 5 overs: Draw the line graph for the above data. 2. Draw the line graph showing the following information. The table shows the colours favoured by a group of people. \|No. of People\|\|16\|\|20\|\|30\|\|26\|\|34\| 3. Can there be time-temperature graphs as follows? Give reason. 4. The following tables give the information about a patient’s body temperature recorded in the hospital every hour. \|Time\|\|9 am\|\|10 am\|\|11 am\|\|12 noon\|\|1 pm\|\|2 pm\|\|3 pm\| \|Temperature\|\|35° C\|\|36° C\|\|39° C\|\|38°C\|\|36.5° C\|\|36.5° C\|\|37° C\| Represent this information on a line graph. Answers for the worksheet on line graph are given below to check the exact graph and the answers of the above question. 3. (a) and (c) possible (b) not possible – time being constant ● Statistics - Worksheets
Cortés received by Moctezuma II From the exhibition: Imagining Mexico: From the Aztec Empire to Colonial New Spain New Mexico History Museum Cortés received by Moctezuma II Engraving 1724 (Jacobus Schijnvoet 1685 – 1733) Hernán Cortés met Emperor Moctezuma II on a causeway leading to Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire, on Nov. 8, 1519. Although there are no known images of the meeting, it was commonly depicted in accounts of the Conquest, such as that of Antonio Solis. Moctezuma II is depicted here the way many European artists of the period showed Native Americans, dressed in a feather skirt and a feather headdress. The emperor’s pointed crown is an accurate detail. Antonio de Solis, The History of the Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards (1684). Translated from the original Spanish by Thomas Townsend. London: Printed for John Osborn, at the Golden Ball in Pater-Noster Row, 1724. Fray Angélico Chávez History Library NMHM, John Bourne Collection 972.02 S687Et v. 2 Photo by Blair Clark, New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs Note: Representative image at left is often cropped for display purposes. Downloaded high-resolution images are not cropped.
Get all products for one price Interlace is a technique of improving the picture quality of a video signal without consuming extra bandwidth. Interlaced video was designed for display on CRT televisions. In the domain of mechanical television, the concept of interlacing was demonstrated by Léon Theremin. He had been developing a mirror drum-based television, starting with 16 lines resolution in 1925, then 32 lines and eventually 64 using interlacing in 1926, and as part of his thesis on May 7, 1926 he electrically transmitted and then projected near-simultaneous moving images on a five foot square screen. The concept of breaking a single video frame into interlaced lines was first formulated and patented by German Telefunken engineer Fritz Schröter in 1930, and in the USA by RCA engineer Randall C. Ballard in 1932. Commercial implementation began in 1934 as cathode ray tube screens became brighter, increasing the level of flicker caused by progressive (sequential) scanning. It was ubiquitous in television until the 1970s, when the needs of computer monitors resulted in the reintroduction of progressive scan. Interlace is still used for most standard definition TVs, and the 1080i HDTV broadcast standard, but not for LCD, micromirror (DLP), or plasma displays; these displays do not use a raster scan to create an image, and so cannot benefit from interlacing: in practice, they have to be driven with a progressive scan signal. The deinterlacing circuitry to get progressive scan from a normal interlaced broadcast television signal can add to the cost of a television set using such displays. Currently, progressive displays dominate the HDTV market. Interlaced scan refers to one of two common methods for "painting" a video image on an electronic display screen (the other being progressive scan) by scanning or displaying each line or row of pixels. This technique uses two fields to create a frame. One field contains all the odd lines in the image, the other contains all the even lines of the image. A PAL based television display, for example, scans 50 fields every second (25 odd and 25 even). The two sets of 25 fields work together to create a full frame every 1/25th of a second, resulting in a display of 25 frames per second. With progressive scan, an image is captured, transmitted and displayed in a path similar to text on a page: line by line, from top to bottom. The interlaced scan pattern in a CRT (cathode ray tube) display completes such a scan too, but only for every second line. This is carried out from the top left corner to the bottom right corner of a CRT display. This process is repeated again, only this time starting at the second row, in order to fill in those particular gaps left behind while performing the first progressive scan on alternate rows only. Such scan of every second line is called interlacing. A field is an image that contains only half of the lines needed to make a complete picture. The afterglow of the phosphor of CRTs, in combination with the persistence of vision results in two fields being perceived as a continuous image which allows the viewing of full horizontal detail with half the bandwidth that would be required for a full progressive scan while maintaining the necessary CRT refresh rate to prevent flicker. Only CRTs can display interlaced video directly – other display technologies require some form of deinterlacing. The article is based on materials from wikipedia.org.
Embryo: A Defense of Human Life Since the 1973 Supreme Court decision in the case of Roe v. Wade, the question of the status of the human embryo (and fetus) has been at the center of heated political debate, typically focusing on the issue of abortion. Such debate has only intensified as disputes over stem cell research have entered the public consciousness as well. The ethical questions involved in these issues are numerous. The most significant question, however, is the one that is often overlooked as rhetoric about “choice” and “privacy” drowns it out. This question that must remain at the forefront of such debates is this: At what point does the life of an individual human being begin? Embryo: A Defense of Human Life by Robert P. George and Christopher Tollefsen addresses this and other related ethical questions. Robert George is a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics and is a professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University. He is the author of several books including Making Men Moral and In Defense of Natural Law. Christopher Tollefsen is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina. He is the author of the forthcoming book Biomedical Research and Beyond. Embryo begins anecdotally with the story of Noah Benton Markham who was born on January 16, 2007. Amazingly, Noah was rescued from a flooded hospital in New Orleans sixteen months before his birth. How is this possible? Sixteen months earlier, during Hurricane Katrina, Noah was an embryo frozen in liquid nitrogen in a New Orleans hospital. George and Tollefsen use this story to illustrate a point, namely, that it was Noah who was rescued that day, and it was Noah whose life was saved. As the authors explain: Human embryos are not…some other type of animal organism, like a dog or cat. Neither are they a part of an organism, like a heart, a kidney, or a skin cell. Nor again are they a disorganized aggregate, a mere clump of cells awaiting some magical transformation. Rather, a human embryo is a whole living member of the species Homo sapiens in the earliest stage of his or her natural development (p. 3). The authors argue that the embryonic stage is, like the fetal stage, the infant stage, and the adolescent stage, one stage in the development of a single human being who begins his or her existence at the point of fertilization. Based on this, the authors argue that the human embryo is a human person worthy of full moral respect and that it is “morally wrong and unjust to kill that embryo, even if the goal of the embryo killing is the advancement of science or the development of therapeutic products or treatments” (p. 17). Unlike many books defending the moral worth of human life before birth, George and Tollefsen argue on the basis of natural law rather than on the basis of any explicitly religious claims. Their book is structured to address four possible ways of refuting their basic thesis. The first claim addressed is the denial “that the early human embryo is a human being.” The second claim addressed is the denial “that persons…are to be identified with the biological entities that are human beings.” The third claim addressed is the denial “that all human beings deserve full moral respect.” Finally, the fourth claim addressed is the assertion that “we can both respect the embryos in the way they deserve and use them in research involving their destruction” (pp. 22–25). Although the book is relatively short, at only 242 pages, it is not exactly light reading. There are detailed discussions of embryology, philosophy, and ethics. The book, however, is well worth the effort, even for those who are not familiar with one or more of these fields. The issues raised in this book affect us all because the tax dollars of each of us may be put to use funding some of the kinds of research described by George and Tollefsen. For those who are involved or interested in the debates surrounding abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research, in vitro fertilization, cloning, etc., and for those interested in how natural law could be applied to such questions, Embryo by George and Tollefsen is an important contribution. This book will likely spark much discussion in the coming years and may very well prove to be a landmark book.
Unveiling Dysphagia: Understanding, Pronunciation, and Impact Dysphagia, a medical term for swallowing difficulties, is a condition that affects a significant number of people worldwide, particularly among certain populations such as the elderly and those with neurological conditions[^1^]. This article sheds light on how to pronounce dysphagia, its meaning, and how it affects the lives of those it touches. Dysphagia, at first glance, might seem a daunting term to pronounce, but once broken down, it becomes simpler. It’s pronounced as “dis-fay-juh”[^2^]. Meaning and Impact of Dysphagia Dysphagia, from the Greek words “dys” (difficult or disordered) and “phagia” (eating or swallowing), refers to the condition where individuals find it challenging to swallow food, drink, or even their saliva[^3^]. The difficulty in swallowing can be due to issues in the throat or esophagus and may involve discomfort, pain, or the sensation of having food stuck in the throat or chest[^4^]. This condition is common among people with nervous system disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis, and may occur as a complication of a stroke[^5^]. Dysphagia can have a significant impact on a person’s quality of life, as it affects one of the most basic human functions – eating. It can lead to weight loss and malnutrition due to difficulties in consuming adequate nutrition. Moreover, if not appropriately managed, it can lead to serious complications such as aspiration pneumonia, which is a lung infection that occurs from inhaling food or liquids into the lungs[^6^]. Revolutionising Dysphagia Care with Innovative Solutions Recognising the critical need to support people living with dysphagia, Refreshment Systems, in partnership with a number of manufacturers, has developed an innovative dysphagia drinks machine. This unique beverage solution, designed specifically for hospitals, elderly and disabled care facilities, delivers drinks with the exact consistency required by the International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative (IDDSI) levels. The dysphagia drinks machine provides a wide variety of beverages, eliminating the sliminess often associated with manually thickened drinks. It not only enhances the taste and texture of the beverages, but its efficient operation also significantly reduces labour costs and waste. The role of such innovations in healthcare can’t be understated. In a field where time, efficiency, and quality of care are paramount, these advanced tools help streamline care processes, bringing much-needed relief to both healthcare providers and individuals living with dysphagia. Dysphagia: An Issue Worth Talking About Understanding dysphagia, from its pronunciation to its impacts, is an important step in acknowledging the challenges faced by those living with this condition and their caregivers. It brings us closer to addressing their needs more effectively and compassionately. Dysphagia care requires a comprehensive approach that encompasses not only medical treatment but also dietary modifications, lifestyle adjustments, and the use of innovative aids like the dysphagia drinks machine. It is by weaving together these various strands of care that we can hope to improve the quality of life for those affected by this condition. As with any medical condition, individuals experiencing difficulty swallowing should seek professional advice for an accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment. [^1^]: Mayo Clinic, Dysphagia [^2^]: Oxford Learners Dictionaries, Dysphagia [^3^]: Medline Plus, Swallowing Disorders [^4^]: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, Dysphagia [^5^]: NHS, Swallowing problems [^6^]: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Adult Dysphagia
This article is a collaboration between MedPage Today® and: Among nearly 11 million marathoners and half-marathoners, only 59 went into cardiac arrest during a race, for an incidence rate of just 0.54 per 100,000 participants, Aaron Baggish, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. "Event rates among marathon and half-marathon runners are relatively low, as compared with other athletic populations, including collegiate athletes, triathlon participants, and previously healthy middle-aged joggers," they wrote. Men, however, were more likely to have an event than women, they noted. In 2010, about two million people around the U.S. ran long-distance races, a figure that more than doubled from 10 years prior. But that growth has been accompanied by a rise in race-related heart problems and in news headlines about the risk of sudden death. So the researchers created the Race Associated Cardiac Arrest Event Registry (RACER) to assess the incidence and outcomes of cardiac arrest associated with long-distance races in the U.S. between Jan. 1, 2000 and May 31, 2010. The database included a total of 10.9 million runners; only 59 had suffered a cardiac arrest, for an overall incidence rate of 0.54 per 100,000 participants, the researchers reported. Their median age was 42. A total of 71% of those cases were fatal. As expected, rates of cardiac arrest were significantly higher during marathons than half-marathons (1.01 versus 0.27 per 100,000, respectively, P<0.001), as was the incidence of sudden death (0.63 versus 0.25 per 100,000, P=0.003). Men were more likely to go into cardiac arrest than women (0.90 versus 0.16 per 100,000, respectively, P<0.001), and they also were more likely to die, the researchers reported. They said the finding "reaffirms a male predisposition to exertional cardiac arrest" which is likely due to their higher prevalence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy -- the condition most responsible for cardiac arrest during races -- and early-onset atherosclerosis. Baggish and colleagues also noted that men who ran marathons had an increased incidence of cardiac arrest during the latter half of the study decade (0.71 per 100,000 in 2000-2004 versus 2.03 in 2005-2010, P=0.01). They called this finding "troubling" because it suggests that more high-risk men are being drawn to long-distance running for its health benefits, though this could essentially backfire on them. All runners were more likely to survive cardiac arrest if a bystander started cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on them, and if they had an underlying heart diagnosis other than hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (P=0.01 for both). There also was an association between age and cardiac arrest outcome, with better survival among older patients – those age 40 and up. That's because younger arrest patients are more likely to have had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and resuscitation is less successful in this condition than in others, the researchers said. They also suggested that the practice of taking aspirin before a race may have limited efficacy, because there was little coronary plaque rupture and thrombosis in marathoners who had cardiac arrest. Pre-race screening, on the other hand, may help identify at-risk patients, but further study is needed, they said. They added that clinicians evaluating potential marathoners should be aware of the risks of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in these patients. The study was limited by a lack of complete clinical data on all cases of cardiac arrest. From the American Heart Association: - Recommendations and Considerations Related to Preparticipation Screening for Cardiovascular Abnormalities in Competitive Athletes: 2007 Update - Hands-Only (Compression-Only) Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: A Call to Action for Bystander Response to Adults Who Experience Out-of-Hospital Sudden Cardiac Arrest The researchers reported relationships with Regeneron, Furiex Pharmaceuticals, Lupin Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline, Genomas, Novartis, B. Braun, Aventis, Merck, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Kowa, Abbott, Zoll Medical, General Electric, Zimmer, Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson, and sanofi-aventis. - Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco and Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner New England Journal of MedicineSource Reference: Kim JH, et al "Cardiac arrest during long-distance running races" N Engl J Med 2012; 366: 130-140.
Agra(English pronunciation: /ˈɑːɡrə/) is a city in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India. The city is famous for the capital of the Mughal emperors from 1526 to 1658 and maintains a major tourist destination because of its many marvelous Mughal-era buildings such as Tāj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpūr Sikrī, all three of which are selected as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Climate[change \| change source] Agra is located on the Indo-Gangetic plain and has a continental climate, with long, hot summers from April to September. During summers dry winds blow in this region. The monsoon months from July to September see about 69 cm of rainfall annually. Winters are from November to February. Agra is best visited in the months of October, November, February and March, when the average temperature are between 16 and 25 Celsius. Demographics[change \| change source] According to the 2001 Indian census, Agra had a population of 1,326,000. Males consist of 53% of the population and females consist of 47% of the population. 11% of the population is under 6 years of age. The main language used by the people in Agra is Hindifollowed by English and Urdu. History[change \| change source] Agra has a rich history, which is amply evident from the numerous historical monuments in and around the city. The earliest reference for Agra comes from the epical age, when Mahabharata refer Agra as Agravana. In the sources prior to this, Agra has been referred as Arya Griha or the abode of the Aryans. The first person who referred Agra by its modern name was Ptolemy. Though the heritage of Agra city is linked with the Mughal dynasty, numerous other rulers also contributed to the rich past of this city. Modern Agra was founded by Sikandar Lodhi (Lodhi dynasty; Delhi Sultanate) in the 16th century. Babar (founder of the Mughal dynasty) also stayed for sometime in Agra and introduced the concept of square Persian-styled gardens here. Emperor Akbar built the Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri near Agra. Fatehpur Sikri remained his capital for around fifteen years after which the city was left isolated in mysterious circumstances. Jahangir beautified Agra with palaces and gardens despite spending most of his time in Kashmir with which he was passionately attached. Agra came to its own when Shahjahan ascended to the throne of Mughal Empire. He marked the zenith of Mughal architecture, when he built the Taj Mahal in memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. In his later years, Shahjahan shifted his capital to the new city of Shahjahanabad in Delhi and ruled from there. Shahjahan was dethroned in 1658 by his son, Aurangzeb who imprisoned him in the Agra Fort. Aurangzeb shifted the capital back to Agra till his death. After the death of Aurangzeb, Mughal Empire could not touch its peak and many regional kingdoms emerged. The post-Mughal era of Agra saw the rule of the Jats, Marathas and finally the British taking over the city. Local Tansportation[change \| change source] There are City buses but they are infrequent. Places of Interest[change \| change source] Agra's Taj Mahal is one of the most famous buildings in the world. It is well known for its reason to be built for Shah Jahan's favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It is one of the New Seven Wonders of the world, and one of three World Heritage Sites in Agra. Completed in 1653, the Tāj Mahal was built by the Mughal king Shāh Jahān as the grave for his beloved wife, Mumtāz Mahal. It was built in white marble. It is perhaps India's most fascinating and beautiful monument. This perfectly symmetrical monument took 22 years (1630-1652) of hard labour and 20,000 workers, masons and jewellers to build. Along with the building there is landscaped gardens. The architect who built the monument is named Persian architect, Ustād 'Īsā. The Tāj Mahal is located on the bank of the Yamuna River which can be observed from Agra Fort.
You know trans fats are bad for you. High consumption of trans-fatty acids raises cholesterol levels and increases the risk of heart attacks, especially among women. "A 2 percent absolute increase in energy intake from trans fat has been associated with a 23 percent increase in cardiovascular risk," note researchers from Kansas State University. But did you know how these diabolical fats are manufactured to make them so dangerous? Toxic Trans Fats To understand the toxic potential of trans-fatty acids, you have to know how they affect the body's use of essential fatty-acids (EFAs). EFAs have a chemical structure that is polyunsaturated. Technically, this means that each molecule of an EFA has two or more double chemical bonds. The double bonding twists the molecule, giving it a serpentine shape. When incorporated into a cell's membranes, the snakelike EFA molecules add fluidity and flexibility to the membrane. But unfortunately, EFAs are rather unstable when exposed to air. The double bonds break down rapidly, producing a toxic form of fat that can be detected in food by its rancidity. Preservatives may be added to food to prevent this breakdown from occurring, thereby increasing the shelf-life of the food. A natural preservative for fatty acids is vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol), but the most commonly used preservatives are the synthetic antioxidants BHT and BHA. Learn More: "Bad Fats Linked to Depression" A Fat Is Born Industrial food processing has discovered a more efficient way to prolong shelf life of products: hydrogenate the fatty acids, destroying the EFAs. In hydrogenation, the double bonds are broken by hydrogen gas and the unsaturated fatty acids become saturated with hydrogen. This means that all sites for chemical bonding are filled. Naturally saturated fatty acids are commonly consumed in meat and dairy products. They are also manufactured in your liver and stored in your body's fat cells. Saturated fatty acids are straight, not twisting, in shape, and impart stiffness and solidity to membranes. Human cell membranes usually have one saturated fatty acid lined up alongside one unsaturated fatty acid, producing just the right blend of stiffness and flexibility for responding properly to signals sent from other cells. Manufacturing an Abnormal Oil In food processing, the hydrogenation of vegetable oils is usually not complete. It is partial. Partially hydrogenated oils are easier to work with and produce a softer foodstuff than fully hydrogenated oils. "Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils have been in the American diet since 1900," note University of Illinois researchers. Chemically, partial hydrogenation converts EFAs into trans-fatty acids, which are unsaturated fatty acids that twist abnormally. Trans-fatty acids do not have the serpentine shape and fluidity of naturally unsaturated fatty acids. Trans-fatty acids are stiff and straight, like saturated fatty acids, but because they are unsaturated, they replace natural unsaturated fatty acids in the cell membranes. The result of trans fatty acid consumption is stiff cell membranes, abnormal response to signals from other cells, and an increase in dietary requirements for EFAs. Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, which are prevalent in manufactured foods, are loaded with these anti-nutrients. In my book Superimmunity for Kids, I warned parents about the dangers of raising their children on margarine and other foods built from partially hydrogenated oils. My arguments derived from research on the chemical effects of trans-fatty acids and knowledge of how this chemistry could distort cell function. Clinical studies have vindicated the warning. Nutrition researchers now sing together loud and clear: Eat zero trans fats! Read the ingredients on the label and skip anything that says hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated. Now I'd like to hear from you: What do you think of trans fats in the food supply? How do you avoid trans fats? What do you think of trans fats bans (such as New York City's)? Please let me know your thoughts by posting a comment below. Leo Galland, M.D. For more by Leo Galland, M.D., click here. For more on diet and nutrition, click here. References and Further Reading Nat Rev Endocrinol. 2009 Jun;5(6):335-44. Epub 2009 Apr 28. "Trans fatty acids: effects on metabolic syndrome, heart disease and diabetes." Micha R, Mozaffarian D. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA. J Am Diet Assoc. 2010 Apr;110(4):585-92. "Trans fats in America: a review of their use, consumption, health implications, and regulation." Remig V, Franklin B, Margolis S, Kostas G, Nece T, Street JC. Department of Human Nutrition, Kansas State University, 206 Justin Hall, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA. Atherosclerosis. 2009 Aug;205(2):458-65. Epub 2009 Mar 19. "The negative effects of hydrogenated trans fats and what to do about them." Kummerow, FA. Department of Bioscience, University of Illinois, Urbana, 61801, United States. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2009 May;63 Suppl 2:S5-21. "Health effects of trans-fatty acids: experimental and observational evidence." Mozaffarian D, Aro A, Willett WC. Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. N Engl J Med. 1999 Jun 24;340(25):1933-40. "Effects of different forms of dietary hydrogenated fats on serum lipoprotein cholesterol levels." Lichtenstein AH, Ausman LM, Jalbert SM, Schaefer EJ. Lipid Metabolism Laboratory, Jean Mayer U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, MA 02111, USA. CMAJ. 2005 Nov 8;173(10):1158-9. "Chewing the fat on trans fats." Murray S, Flegel K. N Engl J Med. 2007 May 17;356(20):2017-21. "New York to trans fats: you're out!" Okie S. Ann Nutr Metab. 2004;48(2):61-6. Epub 2003 Dec 16. "Influence of trans fatty acids on health." Stender S, Dyerberg J. Danish Nutrition Council, Gentofte Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Denmark PLoS ONE 6(1): e16268. 26-Jan-2011, Sanchez-Villegas A, Verberne L, De Irala J, Ruı´z-Canela M, Toledo E, et al. (2011) "Dietary Fat Intake and the Risk of Depression: The SUN Project." Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol. 125, No. 4 "Fat Substitutes Promote Weight Gain in Rats Consuming High-Fat Diets," Susan E. Swithers, PhD, Sean B. Ogden, and Terry L. Davidson, PhD, Purdue University; Power Healing: Use the New Integrated Medicine to Cure Yourself. Leo Galland, 384 pages, Random House, (June 1, 1998) The Fat Resistance Diet Leo Galland, M.D. ( 2005) Superimmunity for Kids : What to Feed Your Children to Keep Them Healthy Now, and Prevent Disease in Their Future, Leo Galland with Dian Dincin Buchman, Dell (August 1, 1989) Important: Share the Health with your friends and family by forwarding this article to them, and sharing on Facebook. Leo Galland, M.D. is a board-certified internist, author and internationally recognized leader in integrated medicine. Dr. Galland is the founder of Pill Advised, a web application for learning about medications, supplements and food. Sign up for FREE to discover how your medications and vitamins interact. Watch his videos on YouTube and join the Pill Advised Facebook page. This information is provided for general educational purposes only and is not intended to constitute (i) medical advice or counseling, (ii) the practice of medicine or the provision of health care diagnosis or treatment, (iii) or the creation of a physician--patient relationship. If you have or suspect that you have a medical problem, contact your doctor promptly. Follow Leo Galland, M.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Pilladvised/
Please publicise widely: 100 years since the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, Remembering the Real WWI presents: A TOUR OF WHITEHALL Remembering the victims and opponents of World War 1 Saturday 28 June, The official commemorations for the start of WW1 will focus on the sacrifice and suffering of the war. But the statues displayed around Whitehall – of Lloyd George, Churchill and Haig – show that the British establishment still has few regrets about that suffering. These WW1 leaders were responsible for sending a million men to their deaths in a war that killed 16 million, a war that led, inexorably, to fascism and the horrors of WW2. But Whitehall has an alternative history, a history of protests by suffragettes, soldiers and workers. Join us to explore that history. (Dressing up is optional. But it would be great if people came as anti-war suffragettes or ‘unknown soldiers’ – and the more Archduke Ferdinands and Duchess Sophies, the better!) the night before, some culture: Remembering the Real WWI presents: Abel Gance’s anti-war film, ‘J’ACCUSE’ Friday 27 June, at the Cock Tavern, By 1918, after almost four years of war, European society was in a state of shock. French soldiers had mutinied and the Russian revolution had shown an alternative to capitalism and war. But there still seemed no end to the slaughter. In this atmosphere, Abel Gance resolved to make a film exposing ‘the horror of war’. The result was J’Accuse, a complex love story that culminates in stunning scenes of the war dead rising from their graves ‘to see if their sacrifice was worth anything at all.’ A veteran himself, Gance used French soldiers to play these ‘zombies’ – many of whom, in real life, went on to fight and die in the last battles of WW1. Gance was inspired by the idea that ‘if all the dead came back, the war would stop at once.’ A romantic delusion? Yes, certainly, but more radical and thought-provoking than the barrage of TV programmes presently commemorating the centenary of the conflict. The Imperial War Museum will be opening its new WW1 exhibition on Saturday 19 July. The museum was set up in 1917 by the very same generals and politicians who started the war. Join us on that day to commemorate the fact that it wasn’t victorious generals and politicians that ended the conflict, it was mutinying soldiers and striking workers – and they did so in revolutions that, almost, toppled the entire capitalist system. More details to come soon… Contact Remembering the Real WW1 (London):
Until now, paleontologists have generally believed that the closest relatives of dinosaurs possibly looked a little smaller in size, walked on two legs and were carnivorous. However, a research team including Randall Irmis, curator of paleontology at the Utah Museum of Natural History and assistant professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Utah has made a recent discovery to dispel this hypothesis The team announced the discovery of a proto-dinosaur (dinosaur-like animal) -- a new species called Asilisaurus kongwe (a-SEE-lee-SOAR-us KONG-way), derived from asili (Swahili for ancestor or foundation), sauros (Greek for lizard), and kongwe (Swahili for ancient). The first bones of Asilisaurus were discovered in 2007, and it is the first proto-dinosaur recovered from the Triassic Period in Africa. Asilisaurus shares many characteristics with dinosaurs but falls just outside of the dinosaur family tree -- living approximately 10 million years earlier than the oldest known dinosaurs. The description of the new species Asilisaurus kongwe appears in the March 4 issue of the journal Nature in a paper co-authored by an international team, including Irmis, Sterling Nesbitt, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Austin's Jackson School of Geosciences, Christian A. Sidor (Burke Museum and University of Washington), Kenneth D. Angielczyk (The Field Museum, Chicago), Roger M.H. Smith (Iziko South African Museum, South Africa), and Linda A. Tsuji (Museum für Naturkunde and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany). Fossil bones of at least 14 individuals were recovered from a single bone bed in southern Tanzania making it possible to reconstruct nearly the entire skeleton, except portions of the skull and hand. The individuals stood about 1.5 to 3 feet (0.5 to 1 meter) tall at the hips and were 3 to 10 feet (1 to 3 meters) long. They weighed about 22 to 66 pounds (10 to 30 kilograms), walked on four legs, and most likely ate plants or a combination of plants and meat. "The crazy thing about this new dinosaur discovery is that it is so very different from what we all were expecting, especially the fact that it is herbivorous and walked on four legs, said Irmis, who was involved in the researching the discovery over the past three years. Asilisaurus kongwe is part of a newly recognized group known as silesaurs. "We knew that there were a number of species from the Triassic that were similar to Asilisaurus," said Irmis, "but we were only able to recognize that they formed this group called silesaurs with the new anatomical information from Asilisaurus." Members of the silesaur group were distributed across the globe during the Triassic, when all of the continents were together in a supercontinent called Pangaea. Silesaurs are the closest relatives of dinosaurs, analogous to the close relationship of humans and chimps. Even though the oldest dinosaurs discovered so far are only 230 million years old, the presence of their closest relatives 10 million to 15 million years earlier implies that silesaurs and the dinosaur lineage had already diverged from a common ancestor by 245 million years ago. Silesaurs continued to live side by side with early dinosaurs throughout much of the Triassic Period (between about 250 million and 200 million years ago). The researchers conclude that other relatives of dinosaurs, such as pterosaurs (flying reptiles) and small forms called lagerpetids, might have also originated much earlier than previously thought. Silesaurs have triangular teeth and a lower jaw with a beak-like tip, suggesting that they were specialized for an omnivorous and/or herbivorous diet. These same traits evolved independently in at least two dinosaur lineages (ornithischians and sauropodomorphs). In all three cases, the features evolved in animals that were originally meat-eaters. Although difficult to prove, it's possible that this shift conferred an evolutionary advantage. The researchers conclude that the ability to shift diets may have lead to the evolutionary success of these groups. "The research suggests that at least three times in the evolution of dinosaurs and their closest relatives, meat-eating animals evolved into animals with diets that included plants," said Irmis. "These shifts all occurred in less than 10 million years, a relatively short time by geological standards, so we think that the lineage leading to silesaurs and dinosaurs might have had a greater flexibility in diet, and that this could be a reason for their success." This new species (Asilisaurus) is found along with a number of primitive crocodilian relatives in the same fossil beds in southern Tanzania. The presence of these animals together at the same time and place suggests that the diversification of the relatives of crocodilians and dinosaurs was rapid, and happened earlier than previously suggested. It sheds light on a group of animals that later came to dominate terrestrial ecosystems throughout the Mesozoic Era (250 million to 65 million years ago). "This new research suggests that there are more groups of animals yet to be discovered in this early period of dinosaur relatives," said Irmis. "It's very exciting because the more we learn about the Triassic Period, the more we learn about the origin of the dinosaurs and other groups." Funding for the research was provided by the National Geographic Society, Evolving Earth Foundation, Grainger Foundation, and the National Science Foundation. Click to view image: '5e19e1afcd49-100303131530.jpg' \|Liveleak on Facebook\|
What sort of research about the world’s wildest places could you possibly do in the middle of the world’s biggest cities? In fact, you can do a lot of research without leaving town… in your library. In addition to location and wolf research, I also did lots of library research. What weapons did Torak’s people use? What shelters did they build? For that I’ve studied archaeology. And to fill in the gaps, I’ve taken clues from the ways of life of more recent traditional people, including the Inuit and Native American peoples, the San of Africa, the Ainu of Japan, the Sami of Lapland, and certain central and south American tribes. The more I studied, the more I realized that the term `hunter-gatherer’ can be misleading, evoking (at least for me) a picture of someone casually spotting a clump of berries and saying, `Oh, good, I think I’ll gather some of those’. In fact, hunter-gatherers had to be experts about their world. They had to know precisely when particular plants bore fruit or nuts; when the bark of different trees was at its best for making rope, and where such trees could be found, and so on. The more I learned, the more I understood how unbelievably skilled these people were. It’s as far from The Flintstones as you could possibly imagine! But the world of the clans is about more than tracking prey and scraping hides. How did they think? What did they believe about life and death? Again, I’ve learnt from more modern hunter-gatherers. I’ve found that many similarities among them:- - Because hunter-gatherers travel often, they don’t tend to value possessions as much as we do (you wouldn’t, would you, if you had to carry them around?). - They often don’t have a concept of owning land. - They value the qualities you need for hunting: patience, resilience, and the ability to listen (hence the idea of Torak being “the Listener”). - Often they treat their spear or bow as a valued `hunting partner’, not just as an object (hence Renn and her bow). They treat their prey with respect, honouring its spirit, and taking care to use of every part of it.
To say that flossing is fun is an irony. Some would even prefer doing strenuous chores than grab a piece of floss. No wonder a lot of people are suffering from gum disease. Flossing is an essential part of an oral care routine – whether you like it or not. Dental professionals highly stress the importance of using a floss at least once a day to make sure that plaque is thoroughly eliminated from the mouth. However, not everyone is convinced of this truth. Their negligence of the said dental care practice causes them to experience oral problems like periodontal issues. It is sad to know that only 50 percent of the population in the U.S is faithful to their daily flossing routine. Half of the Americans, therefore, either skip this step or do not even take time to do it at all. Are you one of them? We certainly hope not. But to give you a clear view about the importance of flossing, here are some facts about it that we at Cambridge Dental Group listed. Facts About Flossing It is a tooth-saving practice Flossing is not an add-on, but rather a staple. Merely cleaning the teeth using a toothbrush cannot save the pearly whites against tooth decay and gum disease. Try to look at the spaces between your teeth. Those areas are not easily accessible to toothbrush bristles. If a floss eliminates plaque residing in these particular sites, gingivitis can be avoided. Heart disease, stroke, and other health-related conditions are prevented as well. Flossing has no strict rules You don’t have to pull your tired self in the middle of the night to floss nor wake up early in the morning to get rid of the unwanted particles in your teeth. Flossing requires no specific time to be done. It doesn’t matter if you floss after breakfast or before dinner. What’s important is you do it at least once every day. You don’t necessarily have to use a dental floss Yes. If you find it tricky to clean your teeth using dental floss, you can opt for other alternatives. There are pre-threaded flossers, wooden plaque removers, or interdental brushes available in the market. You can even get flosses with flavors if you find it tedious to use the traditional dental floss. Flossing is not enough Unfortunately, like brushing, flossing is not enough. It needs to be paired with rinsing, brushing, and professional teeth cleaning. The latter is essential as it maintains the healthy state of the mouth, teeth, and gums. People are recommended to undergo this dental care procedure every six months. Flossing is good – but never forget to accompany it with Complete Checkups services in Dearborn Heights, MI for the best results! Book an appointment with us at Cambridge Dental Group now. We are located at 27281 W. Warren Street, Dearborn Heights, MI 48127.
Agnosticism, literally meaning “without knowledge, was first coined by the biologist (and friend and supporter of Charles Darwin) T.X. Huxley. According to Brittanica.com: He coined it as a suitable label for his own position. “It came into my head as suggestively antithetical to the ‘Gnostic’ of Church history who professed to know so much about the very things of which I was ignorant.” “... in another 1889 essay “Agnosticism and Christianity,” he contrasted “scientific theology,” with which “agnosticism has no quarrel,” with “Ecclesiasticism, or, as our neighbours across the Channel call it, Clericalism,” and his complaint against the latter’s proponents was not that they reach substantive conclusions different from his own but that they maintain “that it is morally wrong not to believe certain propositions, whatever the results of strict scientific investigation of the evidence of these propositions.” The second possibility, that of an agnosticism that is religious as opposed to secular, was realized perhaps most strikingly in the Buddha. Typically and traditionally, the ecclesiastical Christian has insisted that absolute certainty about some minimum approved list of propositions concerning God and the general divine scheme of things was wholly necessary to salvation. Equally typically, according to the tradition, the Buddha sidestepped all such speculative questions. At best they could only distract attention from the urgent business of salvation—salvation, of course, in his own very different interpretation.” More recently, the term agnostic has been used in some cases as a substitute word for atheism, the lack of belief in a god. While some people use it to express doubt or lack of conviction for their atheism (i.e. “fence sitters” or “weak atheists” ), as Richard Dawkins described in “The God Delusion”, we stress that agnosticism is more a reason for atheism than a replacement for the term. Many have quarreled over which word to use and when. Agnostic, as it is correctly defined, is about knowledge, where atheism is about belief, so the two terms are not on a separate scale if taken literally. Indeed, Humanism, agnosticism, and atheism, are often used interchangeably, but taken literally they are all on different scales (Agnosticism is about knowledge, atheism is about belief, Humanism is about ethics). However, the popularity of Dawkins’ scale shows modern usage has shifted from the original intent. Today, the distinction between agnostic and atheist is less important than the overall lack of belief in the supernatural in general and of gods specifically. The difference between the two terms, then, is not “softness” or “Weakness” as Dawkins implied, but humility. Agnostics are not weak atheists; they are humble atheists. Agnostics are indeed sometimes quite militant in their convictions (“I’m not sure and neither are you” ). Whatever your degree of conviction is behind your agnosticism, it implies an acknowledgement that while you don’t have a belief in gods (or faeries, or unicorns), you don’t know everything, and when one of those beings shows up, you’ll take in the new evidence an believe in it (after first making sure it’s not a hoax). Agnosticism is modest, humble, and anti-extreme in its atheism. You don’t believe in any gods per se, but you’re aware of your own limitations and are therefore not willing to rule out gods, or anything about which you don’t know. To be sure, there is lots of room for discussion on the terms, and we at agnostic.com don’t really care what you call yourself. Indeed, you could say we are agnostic about labels or their correct usage. After all, we could be wrong.
Albinism refers to a group of disorders that are present at birth. It is characterized by a decrease or lack of color in the skin, hair, and eyes. What is going on in the body? Albinism refers to a group of genetic defects that cause decreased levels of the pigment, melanin, which forms color in skin, hair, and eyes. Low levels of melanin cause very light skin tone and blond-white hair. The eyes might also be affected and have an iris that is dull-gray to blue or brown. Since melanin protects the skin from ultraviolet radiation from the sun, people with albinism are easily sunburned. What are the causes and risks of the disease? Albinism is an inherited disorder that occurs in at least four different types. Most of them are inherited in the autosomal recessive manner, which means that a person with the condition has received one abnormal gene from each of his or her parents. The parents of most children with albinism have one normal and one abnormal gene each, and thus have normal melanin production and no symptoms of albinism themselves. What can be done to prevent the disease? Albinism is an inherited disease and cannot be prevented. How is the disease diagnosed? Albinism is diagnosed using a medical history and complete physical that includes an eye examination. Long Term Effects What are the long-term effects of the disease? People with albinism have a much higher risk of skin cancer because they lack a protective pigment in the skin. What are the risks to others? Albinism is not contagious and poses no risk to others. Because it is inherited, it can be passed from parents to their children at conception. What are the treatments for the disease? There is no treatment per se for albinism. People with albinism are advised to avoid excess sun exposure in order to minimize their risk of skin cancer. Large-print books, high-contrast materials, and computers with large letters can help people with visual impairments. What are the side effects of the treatments? Rarely, a person may have an allergic reaction to a certain sunscreen lotion. What happens after treatment for the disease? Albinism is a lifelong condition that cannot be cured. How is the disease monitored? Careful skin examination performed by a healthcare professional should be done periodically to check for skin cancer. Any new or worsening symptoms should be reported to the healthcare professional.
Outlet Full Name: The Courier News Author Name: Emily McFarlan Miller A recent study is providing more evidence of a link between lung cancer and air pollution often found in urban areas. But according to Ashby Jordan, medical director of the Respiratory Care Clinic at Advocate Sherman Hospital, it doesn’t mean city dwellers should pack up and move to the farmlands west of here. “This is not, ‘I live in a city, I’m going to get cancer,’ ” Jordan said this week following the just-released multinational study published earlier this month in The Lancet Oncology that suggests a link between air pollution and lung cancer. “Pollution can absolutely play a role in increasing a person’s risk for cancer,” he said. The European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects, or ESCAPE, focused on the health risk of long-term exposure to pollution. Led by the Danish Cancer Society Research Center, it compared local air quality levels with the number of reported lung cancer cases, according to the Advocate Health Care website. That included an analysis of 17 cohorts in nine different European countries — more than 300,000 people. Of those, 2,095 people developed lung cancer over a period of 13 years, it said. That’s a “slight increase of lung cancer in the area where there’s more pollution,” Jordan said. The link between pollution and lung cancer was first established “long ago” when researchers noticed an increase in that type of cancer in places where charcoal was used for cooking indoors, such as South Korea and Mexico City, according to the doctor. The ESCAPE study also is similar to studies in the 1940s and ’50s linking lung cancer and smoking, which is still more likely to cause cancer than pollution, he said. So are asbestos exposure or working in certain industries and environments with large amounts of pollution, he said. But, he said, “That’s becoming more historic than current. What I see is guys in their 80s who have lung cancer, who, when you look at history, is, ‘Yeah, I worked in these things.’ ” And air pollution — caused by exhaust from cars or manufacturing, by soot and by other kinds of aerosols — has a direct environmental impact more troubling than its indirect health impact, according to Eric Stromberg of the North Park Public Water District. It can increase temperatures and rainfall, and even cause acid rain, Stromberg noted. Still, it’s not the problem it was a decade or two ago, he said, not since amendments were passed in 1990 to the Clean Air Act to address acid rain, ozone depletion and toxic air pollution, and create new standards for gasoline. Local air quality And it can vary widely from county to county, according to the American Lung Association’s 2013 State of the Air report. The annual report gives counties a letter grade based on the amount of particle pollution in the air and the number of high-ozone days they have. Kane Country received an A in particle pollution and B in high-ozone days, according to the report. Adjacent Cook County received an F in both. What you can do “When people hear a study like this, they need to realize these are small, incremental, statistical things. This is not something to cause great panic,” Jordan said. “The reality of changing this is changing environmental policy. As an individual, there’s not much you can do.” Cancer is caused by a genetic mutation, not simply by breathing polluted air, according to the doctor. Particles can enter the lungs and cause an inflammatory reaction that can cause the mutation that then can lead to cancer, he said, but he compared it to a gun. Most people have the safety on, he said. Those with a genetic predisposition to lung cancer have the safety off. Something like smoking or breathing polluted air could be what pulls the trigger, he said. Still, pollution is much more dangerous to those with lung disease, such as asthma or emphysema, according to Jordan. They can reduce their exposure by paying close attention to weather reports and avoiding the outdoors on particularly smoggy days like we get most often in the summer, he said. They also can wear a surgical mask when outside or invest in a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filter for the home. For others, he said, “The potential benefit of that is probably negligible.” Still, everybody can do their part to reduce the amount of air pollution. “Anything that reduces your energy consumption — not driving your car as much, not running your air conditioning,” Stromberg said. “Little things like that add up. It’s not much for the average person — but when you multiply that by 300 million people, it adds up.”
David J. Hill March 1, 2013 Throughout history, war and innovation have gone hand in hand, whether it’s breakthroughs out of heavily funded R&D programs or makeshift contraptions thrown together with spare parts. Soldiers are trained to use the technology on hand to get the job done, one way or the other. But how would military operations change if soldiers on the battlefield could have the best of both worlds: access to expert engineers able to fabricate custom-designed fixes right on-the-spot and in very little time? The ability to rapidly evolve solutions from conception to implementation has become a reality with the Expeditionary Lab Mobile (ELM). The 20-foot container comes equipped with 3D printers, computer-assisted milling machines, and laser, plasma, and water cutters, along with common tools like saws and welding gear. Parts can be made of plastic, steel, and aluminum.
What will the exercises look like? From the beginning it was quite clear to me that figured bass and chord symbols would play an important role in the exercises to be created. Working form the bass is important. Strobbe (2014) argues that anyone wanting to acquire skills within tonal music should learn to focus on the bass and derive the other voices from the bass.4 Chord symbols have the advantage of being a hands-on approach, but have the disadvantage of not being an aid in transposition. That’s where figured bass can play an important role, making transposing easier.
ViewDemographics Table of Contents An important component of any plan is to understand the trends of the past, present, and projected population. Once this is achieved, a plan can be properly prepared to meet the needs of the population. By understanding the demographic makeup of a community, it becomes easier to identify needs and to provide opportunities and amenities that will not only attract new residents, but also retain current residents. Furthermore, appropriate services, jobs, and housing opportunities at the county-wide level can be provided as well as in specific regions of the county. This element will assess Boone County’s past, present, and future demographic profile and examine the existing housing supply and present a plan to meet future housing needs. U.S. Census Population (1980-2010) According to U.S. Census Bureau figures, during the 30 year period from 1980 to 2010, the population of Boone County more than doubled from 45,842 to 118,811. The three incorporated cities in Boone County (Florence, Union, & Walton) all experienced steady population growth during this period as well. Florence has remained the county’s most populated city. Union was the county’s smallest city in population until 2000 when it overtook Walton. BOONE COUNTY POPULATION BY MUNICIPALITY, 1980-2010 Source: U.S. Census Bureau Post-2010 U.S. Census Estimates (2011-2017) Population estimates since the 2010 Census are derived from the American Community Survey (ACS) conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau using monthly data samples from over 3.5 million addresses to produce annual (July 1) estimates between each decennial long form Census. Since the 2010 Census, Boone County has grown an average of 1,700 people per year to a July 1, 2017 estimate of 130,728. During the period from 2010 to 2017, the cities of Florence, Union, and Walton have all continued to grow at the same 1.2% annual rate as the entirety of Boone County. [Note: In 2017 the City of Erlanger, KY annexed 2 small portions of unincorporated land in Boone County but neither has any residents living on them.] Regionally, Boone County’s growth rate is well above that of the Greater Cincinnati area (0.4%), Kenton County (0.6%), and Campbell County (0.4%). BOONE COUNTY POPULATION ESTIMATES BY MUNICIPALITY, 2010-2017 Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2018 Projections to the year 2040 Population projections are forecasts of the population in future time periods using a model that integrates recent historical data and standard demographic processes, and are generated based on historic patterns. The population projection model used by the Kentucky State Data Center, located at the University of Louisville, is the Cohort Component Model which captures the impact of the primary components of population change (births, deaths, and net migration) in order to forecast changes in future population. Projections for Boone County show growth continuing through the year 2040 to an estimated population of 191,093 persons. This number may be a bit high based on current trends as the county is likely to fall short of the 139,018 population forecasted for 2020. The current trend suggests a 2020 population closer to 135,000. However, during the course of several decades, several increases and decreases in the growth occur and Boone County may still reach the 2040 projection if the growth rate increases as it has done in the past. NORTHERN KENTUCKY COUNTY POPULATION PROJECTIONS TO 2040 Source: KY State Data Center, 2016 Boone County’s median age has risen from 33.4 in 2000 to 36.6 in 2016. This trend is being seen across the nation as the large group of residents known as “baby boomers” (those born from 1946 to 1964) grow into retirement status. The larger this group becomes, the greater the tax burden on the county’s economy will be in order to provide necessary community services. BOONE COUNTY AGE BREAKDOWN, 2000-2040 Source: U.S. Census Bureau; KY State Data Center, 2016 Boone County’s population is relatively homogeneous in racial composition with approximately 90% defined as white. The non-white population (Black, American Indian, Eskimo, Asian, etc.) has risen over the past couple of decades from 4.8% in 2000 to a 2016 estimate of 10.3% which is lower than that of the Commonwealth of Kentucky (12.5%) but higher than seen in Kenton County (9.6%) and Campbell County (6.2%). In a regional context, the Greater Cincinnati area as a whole has a non-white population of 20.0%. The Hispanic population is not considered a separate race by the U.S. Census Bureau, but rather an ethnicity. Since 2010, Boone County’s Hispanic population has grown from 3.5% to 3.9% in 2016. This is higher than both Kenton County (2.9%) and Campbell County (1.8%). Regionally, Boone County has a higher percentage of Hispanic population than the Cincinnati Metropolitan Statistical Area which stands at 3.0%. BOONE COUNTY RACIAL AND HISPANIC COMPOSITION, 2000-2016 Source: U.S. Census Bureau; KY State Data Center, 2016 Educational attainment is measured in terms of the percentage of high school graduates among persons who are 25 years old and older. In 2016, Boone County’s percentage of residents 25 years old or older with at least a high school diploma (or equivalent) was considerably higher than the national and Kentucky rates and slightly higher than the Greater Cincinnati area average. Boone County’s rate is also above the national and Kentucky rate when it comes to population with a Bachelor’s degree or higher. EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT – 2016 Source: U.S. Census Bureau; KY State Data Center, 2016 Household and Family Size Household is one of the most basic reporting units of demographic data. Except for institutions or other forms of group housing, households are defined as the person(s) occupying a housing unit. According to 2010 Census results and the 2015 ACS estimates, the average household size in Boone County dropped slightly mirroring the trend nationally as household sizes will drop through the 2040 planning horizon. Regionally, Boone County’s household size is larger than that of the Greater Cincinnati area (2.50) as well as the national average of 2.54. NORTHERN KENTUCKY HOUSEHOLDS AND AVERAGE HOUSEHOLD SIZE, 2010-2040 Source: U.S. Census Bureau; KY State Data Center, 2016 A household can further be classified as either a (1) family household or a (2) non-family household. The U.S. Census defines family households as two or more persons related by blood, legal adoption, or marriage. Family households largely represent married persons who are more likely to remain in the area in which they are currently residing. Non-family households are generally comprised of single persons who are more transitory and career mobile. In 2016, 23.1% of households in Boone County were non-family, down a bit from 2010. This compares favorably to the State (33.8%) and National (34.1%) averages and suggests that Boone County has a more stable population than Kentucky and the United States as a whole. Population density refers to the number of persons per square mile of land area and serves as an indicator of the degree of settlement in an area. The City of Florence is by far Boone County’s most densely populated municipality. The higher densities of population in Boone County are located in the eastern half of the county while the lowest density areas are located in rural western Boone County with most developments in this region having less than one person per ten acres. Boone County’s population density has increased in recent decades but is still much lower than that of its more urbanized neighboring counties in northern Kentucky. POPULATION PER SQUARE MILE, 2010-2016 Source: U.S. Census Bureau; KY State Data Center, 2016 Migration measures all changes of residence including moving into, out of, or within a given area. Migration statistics are basic indicators of the economic situation within an area. Generally, if the local economic climate is poor, negative migration occurs as local residents relocate to areas with brighter economic opportunities. If the local economic climate is good, positive migration is experienced as outside residents move to the area. From 2010 through 2016, Boone County experienced a significant positive migration rate; higher than every other county in the Cincinnati metropolitan area with the exception of Warren County, OH. In fact, 12 of the 17 counties in the region actually experienced negative migration (more people moving out of their county than into it). The metropolitan area as a whole has experienced a very slight negative migration of -517 people over that same period. NORTHERN KENTUCKY NET MIGRATION, 2010-2017 Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2018 In primarily suburban areas such as Boone County, the majority of housing units are single family detached homes. In 2017, almost three-fourths of Boone County’s 49,863 dwelling units were detached single family homes according to the Boone County Geographic Information System (GIS). Most of them (74%) were located in unincorporated areas of the county. Of the 13,875 multi-family (or attached) dwelling units in Boone County, over half of them (52%) were located in the City of Florence. In fact, over half (54%) of dwelling units in Florence were multi-family while only 18% of the remainder of the county’s housing stock were multi-family. BOONE COUNTY HOUSING UNITS BY JURISDICTION, 2017 Source: Boone County GIS, 2018 The majority of Boone County’s housing stock is fairly new with 62% of the homes built after the year 1990. In fact, the median construction year for a house in Boone County is 1994. Houses built prior to 1980 will likely see transition as the original owners grow to retirement age and consider other housing options (i.e. condominiums, retirement homes). The Cities of Florence (41%) and Walton (40%) have the highest concentration of homes built before 1980, whereas the City of Union has the lowest percentage of homes constructed prior to 1980 at 6.6%. In the remaining, unincorporated areas of Boone County, 20% of the housing was built before 1980. The median value of a single family housing unit in Boone County in 2017 was nearly $198,564; up from $182,300 in 2010. These figures include the cost of the structure, but not the land cost. According to the building industry a general rule of thumb is that the lot value is typically around one-fifth of the total home cost. With the rising cost of land in Boone County, the trend of increasing median housing value is expected to continue. In 2017, Boone County had an estimated 5.8% vacancy rate for all units, both single family and multi-family, which is down from the 6.4% 2010 rate. This is below the national average of 6.9% and usually leads to increasing housing prices as demand nears supply. The two major population factors affecting housing demand are total population and average household size. Besides the obvious increase in housing demand as population grows, the smaller the household size also adds to housing demand in a community. Boone County’s growth in population since 2000 will continue to be a factor in generating housing demand. Migration is another factor that affects the amount of housing needed for future residents. One attractive feature of Boone County that encourages people to move here has been rapid growth in commercial and industrial jobs. Industrial growth has been strongest around the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport and along the I-75 corridor south of Florence. Commercial developments continue to expand in the Houston Road and Mall Road areas. These industrial and commercial areas, along with the airport, constitute regional employment centers and are acting as attractions for new residential development to occur within commuting distances. Boone County’s continued positive net migration will only add to the demand for more housing. Boone County’s population is becoming more elderly (65 years and older) in proportion as is the trend nationally. This “graying” of the population has an impact on housing demand as many of these “empty nesters” will want to move out of their high-maintenance, large lot single-family homes and into condominiums, landominiums, or small lot single-family homes, preferably with fewer flights of stairs or even moving to “granny flats” near family members. This demographic shift, in part, has led to the development of senior living centers throughout Boone County during the past decade. Marital status is another demographic characteristic useful in determining housing demand. In general, married couples with children tend to live in single-family houses, while other groups, such as young couples without children or empty nesters, tend to reside in multi-family or attached dwelling units. Boone County’s percentage of population over 15 years of age who are married is 58.4%, well above the national average of 48.1%. This indicates higher demand for single family detached units than other areas. Economic variables of households also determine housing demand. Single family dwelling units tend to cost more to live in than multi-family rental units. An important factor in detached single-family housing development is the relative cost of a building lot. Rapid residential growth throughout the last 20 years has pushed the expense for developable land higher and has strengthened the trend toward smaller residential lots as developers try to offset high land costs. The demand for detached single-family units is evident in Burlington, Union, northern Hebron, and western Florence, where subdivision development is the most active. Demand for multi-family housing has historically been in the Florence area. However, since 2010 an emphasis on new multi-family construction has shifted to the unincorporated county due in part to the continuing in-migration of a young, professional population, influx of unskilled labor jobs (such as warehousing and logistics employment centers) throughout the county, an increased growth of single-parent families, and the overall graying of the population. As a result, the demand for various multi-family housing options is likely to continue to extend into all developing areas of Boone County. Another economic variable essential to identifying housing demand is the extent and location of poverty. The more people who are considered living in poverty in an area, the greater the demand will be for access to affordable housing or housing assistance. However, Boone County’s 2016 estimated poverty rate of 7.9% is well below both the national average of 15.1% and the Kentucky average of 18.8% and should not be a major factor in housing demand as it is in urbanized areas with higher poverty rates. There are a few avenues in Boone County that provide assistance to the population looking for, or having trouble paying for adequate housing. Boone County Assisted Housing Department administers the local Section 8 Rental Assistance Program designed to help low to moderately low income families find safe, decent, and sanitary housing as well as helping them with their rent. In 2017, 234 vouchers were issued through the Rental Assistance Program but these numbers change from year to year due to being influenced by funding levels. Also, Boone County Human Services Department oversees the distribution of tax funds, some of which are designated to providing emergency and stabilizing services to homeless residents in Boone County. Recent Kentucky point-in-time counts (K-Count) have shown a wide range in the number of homeless persons in Northern Kentucky (Kenton, Campbell, and Boone Counties) since 2010. Those who are counted include individuals with a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not meant for human habitation or those living in a shelter designated to provide temporary living arrangements including congregate shelters, transitional housing, and hotels or motels paid for by charitable organizations or by federal, state, and local government programs. The counts, performed and published by the Kentucky Housing Corporation, historically underrepresent the number of homeless in Boone County due to several factors: (1) the lack of shelters in the county; (2) the large geographic area; (3) the variable weather conditions from year to year on date of the count. Boone County’s 2017 total homeless population was 33 (in comparison, Campbell County had 51 and Kenton County had 168). This number is down from 116 in their 2010 count. However, the preliminary 2018 K-Count results for Boone County shows an increase to 132 homeless people. These relatively low numbers have been offset by the fact that there are no permanent homeless shelters in Boone County, whereas Kenton and Campbell counties do provide some shelter and services to homeless Boone County residents. However, a couple of regional programs do exist in the county to address this issue such as the Brighton Recovery Center in Florence and the Women’s Crisis Center near Burlington. In addition, the Welcome House and the Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission have experience in developing “affordable” housing options for those in need. Welcome House is initiating a new program in Boone County that employs an outreach specialist and a part time nurse practitioner to identify, meet, and address the needs of the homeless. Lastly, a regional Northern Kentucky task force has recently been set up to look at the issue of homelessness. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Boone County’s steady and strong population growth is anticipated to continue through the year 2040. During this time, it is imperative that the most recent population trends, estimates, and demographic makeup of Boone County’s residents are gathered and analyzed in order to properly identify their needs and meet them through orderly growth. By understanding the demographic components of the population, adequate housing opportunities can be properly planned for and provided. Identify the Needs of the Population Constant monitoring and analyzing the demographics of a population will give understanding as to the needs of the residents of Boone County. By doing this, the possibility of inadvertently discriminating against or not meeting the needs of any segment of the population is avoided as it becomes more diverse racially and ethnically. It is clear that Boone County’s population will continue to grow older. Therefore, appropriate housing must be provided for the growing elderly population near transit, commercial areas, and public facilities and be consistent with the desires of that segment of the population. This can be addressed by providing multi-family dwellings such as apartments, condominiums, assisted living complexes, and even smaller 1-story single family homes or “granny flat” accessory units to single family homes. Furthermore, by continuing to monitor the composition of the population, Boone County will be more prepared to provide proper and adequate amenities that encourage them to stay in the county rather than moving elsewhere for their needs to be met. Knowing the makeup of the population will assist in providing the appropriate housing, employment, and retail shopping opportunities to meet their needs at the countywide level as well as within specific areas within the county as development plans and zone change requests are reviewed. Housing Types and Locations The main need of a population base is for safe, sound, and sanitary housing. Meeting this involves considering both housing supply and demand in order to determine what those future needs will be. It is important to forecast housing growth by areas in order to ensure that an equal balance of options exist to meet the needs of a diverse population. Furthermore, in order for Boone County to retain its youth, the county must provide housing choices that complement the educational opportunities, the current job market, and commercial attractions. Otherwise, an out-migration of the young population will occur. A variety of multi-family housing options should include apartments, townhouses, patio homes, condominiums, nursing homes, and retirement housing all ranging greatly in price per unit to accommodate a wide range of relative affordability. These types of units are increasing in demand beyond the established urban areas such as Florence and should be encouraged to occur in the unincorporated portions of Boone County as viable options for both the building community and the prospective resident, especially as the county’s land values rise. Older housing stock that can be rehabilitated without undue effort or expense should be retained and in some cases, incorporated into new subdivision design rather than being demolished. There are concentrations of older housing stock in need of restoration or rehabilitation in many of the older communities like Florence, Belleview-McVille, Burlington, Constance, Hebron, Petersburg, Stringtown, Taylorsport, Union, Verona, and Walton. Home ownership, maintenance, and rehabilitation assistance of older homes in these areas should be incentivized and encouraged through Federal or local grants. New residential development, regardless of the type, should be evaluated for its impact on the county’s existing infrastructure and natural environment to ensure that it fits in with existing surrounding development through proper buffering and design. High density developments should be close to thoroughfares and urban services and be sensitively developed in terms of building height, setbacks, mass, and visual impact. A variety of housing opportunities within the established urban (and suburban) areas of Boone County would encourage mixing of different income levels. Most new construction of typical single-family housing should be encouraged to occur within undeveloped areas within the established suburban portion of the county in order to take advantage of existing infrastructure and services already in place and avoid placing strain on the more rural transportation network in the undeveloped portions of the county. Consideration must be given to existing conditions that may affect new development in established areas such as adjoining land uses and proximity to the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport where commerce and airplane noise may be an issue. Established single-family housing areas should not experience an influx of multi-family or duplex construction unless adequate buffering or proper development design can be provided to ease the transition. Duplexes are often more successful than multi-family housing in blending in with single-family residential surroundings. Therefore, when buffering is minimal between single-family housing areas and proposed multi-family units, an appropriate transitional area of duplexes may be designed. New subdivision development should include design considerations and gradation of lot sizes to lessen the impact on the character of the area. This is particularly true in areas of agricultural zoning and could include larger lots or green space along the main road(s), larger lots or a buffer along adjacent low density residential uses, strategic open space, and detailed attention to the orientation of housing units. The bottom line is that infrastructure partners must work together and correlate improvements in order to ensure capacity and be sensitive to the surrounding area. A progression of densities of residential uses from high (multi-family) to low (single family) shall be encouraged. Where traditional progressions of high to low net density are not possible through creative development design, an appropriate and attractive visual transition should be achieved. This could include existing vegetation or new landscaping and/or fencing. Existing vegetation (such as wooded fence rows) should be retained as much as possible to provide buffer strips and stormwater filters. The density of typical residential developments in Boone County over the past couple of decades has been consistent with the suburban residential densities reflected on the 2035 Future Land Use Map (up to 4 units per acre). However, there is a large segment of the population that desires to live in more rural areas while still having convenient access to centers of commercial, services, and employment activity. For residential development to occur in these outlying areas, adequate and proper infrastructure must be provided, and impact on the natural environment must be minimized. If significant large lot residential subdivision development does occur in some of these rural areas, roads and other components of infrastructure will have to be improved. Existing and planned water, stormwater, and sanitary sewer services influence the locations of new residential construction. However, just because one form of public infrastructure exists or has been improved, does not automatically mean the area is ready for suburban development. Other forms of infrastructure may also be needed or improved first. Development phasing is an option to ensure that the timing of a new development corresponds with the provision of adequate infrastructure. In order to support the densities needed to sustain mass transit and to foster new affordable housing options, average minimum densities should be encouraged for mixed-use, planned developments. This would allow a variety of housing types but also enable a logical progression of intensities. The highest residential densities would be in the activity centers of these mixed-use developments and would include neighborhood commercial, employment, public uses, as well as transit stations or stops. The demand for more affordable residences, generated by the commercial and industrial employment growth centers, has resulted in the development of many new condominium and apartment complexes. However, attempts at more affordable new construction single-family or apartment developments are often met with localized resistance from the public. Creative site design and architecture can help overcome some of this opposition. Clustered housing or Open Space Subdivisions shall be promoted (via density bonuses) as they enable the development industry and local government to address density concerns and strengthen the sense of community, as well as meet the housing demands of a changing population. Mixed-use, planned developments that can provide a mix of housing options, commercial opportunities, offices, public uses, recreational uses, and multiple transportation options (i.e. transit, pedestrian, park-and-ride) could be one strategy for meeting this demand for higher density. Areas of employment growth in Boone County should experience development pressure for housing options relative in affordability to the jobs and shopping opportunities being created in the area. Manufactured (or modular) homes are an economical alternative to conventional homes and can lower the cost of construction to help offset rising land costs. These manufactured homes have historically been in demand in the rural, western half of the county. Most manufactured homes are permitted throughout all of Boone County and can occur separately or in a subdivision, unless regulated by private deed restrictions or restrictive covenants. Mobile homes, however, are strictly limited to the few remaining mobile home parks in Boone County or in the Agricultural (A-1) zoning district which is primarily located in the western portion of the county. However, A-1 zoning requires a minimum five acre lot size making this a less economical housing alternative with the increasing land prices. Despite Boone County’s relatively low poverty rate and homeless population, the problem is still real and needs to be addressed. Every effort needs to be made to identify people who are having trouble obtaining sound housing and connect them with agencies such as the Boone County Assisted Housing Department or Boone County Human Services. In addition, affordable housing development could be facilitated through non-profit housing organizations such as Habitat for Humanity. Also, homeless advocate organizations like Welcome House should be utilized whenever the situation of homelessness is suspected. In conclusion, it is essential that the makeup of Boone County’s population be accurately identified in order to make sure that all resident needs and housing opportunities are met and balanced with affordability, proximity to employment and commercial centers, access to educational resources, and proximity to public transportation as needed. Residential development has occurred at a lower density than planned in the Future Land Use Plan over the last several comprehensive plan updates in Boone County and the development has predominantly been in a limited variety of product, typified by mid-to high-range single-family subdivisions at approximately three units per acre. The demand for this product should remain fairly strong throughout the 25 year planning horizon; however, Boone County needs to be open to changes in the market as well as type and design of housing options in the coming years as the demographics of the county evolve.
Time between successive collision on wall Where, N= total number of particles, m=mass of each particle, C=rms (root mean square), V=volume. = no. of particles per unit volume then, Nm=M= total mass of gas then, If E is the total kinetic energy of the gas molecules per unit volume. Average kinetic energy per mole of the gas = = Average kinetic energy per molecules of the gas = = Where,k=is Boltzmann constant and it's value is The average kinetic energy of the gas is directly proportional to the absolute temperature. If temperature is increased, the average kinetic energy of the molecule also increase. Thus, the temperature of the gas gives a measure of average kinetic energy of the gas. Also, at absolute temperature, the molecules of the gas are at complete rest. Degree of freedom of a system are defined as the total number of co-ordinates or independent quantities required to described the configuration of the system completely. The average kinetic energy of a molecule of a gas is = The average kinetic energy of a monoatomic molecule, in each degree of freedom is, so, the molecule has kinetic energy per degree of freedom. For diatomic gas, there is rotational and translation kinetic energy of the molecules. So, the rotational KE of a diatomic molecules is, Average KE of monoatomic molecules= (trans.) Average KE of diatomic molecules= (trans.)+ (rot.)= Average KE of polyatomic molecules= (trans.)+ (rot.)= It states that for a dynamical system in thermal equilibrium, the energy of the system is equally distributed amongst the various degrees of freedom and the energy associated with each degree of freedom per molecules is . Mean free path of a molecule is defined as the average distance travelled by the molecule between two successive collisions and is measured as the mean of a large number of free path.
- freely available Sustainable Non-Metallic Building Materials AbstractBuildings are the largest energy consumers and greenhouse gases emitters, both in the developed and developing countries. In continental Europe, the energy use in buildings alone is responsible for up to 50% of carbon dioxide emission. Urgent changes are, therefore, required relating to energy saving, emissions control, production and application of materials, use of renewable resources, and to recycling and reuse of building materials. In addition, the development of new eco-friendly building materials and practices is of prime importance owing to the growing environmental concerns. This review reflects the key tendencies in the sector of sustainable building materials of a non-metallic nature that have occurred over the past decade or so. Share & Cite This Article Joseph, P.; Tretsiakova-McNally, S. Sustainable Non-Metallic Building Materials. Sustainability 2010, 2, 400-427.View more citation formats Joseph P, Tretsiakova-McNally S. Sustainable Non-Metallic Building Materials. Sustainability. 2010; 2(2):400-427.Chicago/Turabian Style Joseph, Paul; Tretsiakova-McNally, Svetlana. 2010. "Sustainable Non-Metallic Building Materials." Sustainability 2, no. 2: 400-427. Notes: Multiple requests from the same IP address are counted as one view.
New research shows that depression is significantly more likely to occur in teenage boys with elevated levels of the “stress hormone” cortisol, illuminating a possible biological marker for the difficult condition that one in six will experience at some point in their life. Dr. Ian Goodyer, a professor at the University of Cambridge and lead author of the new study, said in a press release that the findings will pave the way for more effective preventative strategies. "Depression is a terrible illness that will affect as many as ten million people in the UK at some point in their lives," he explained. "Through our research, we now have a very real way of identifying those teenage boys most likely to develop clinical depression. This will help us strategically target preventions and interventions at these individuals and hopefully help reduce their risk of serious episodes of depression and their consequences in adult life." The study, which is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that teenage boys who show a combination of depressive symptoms and elevated levels of cortisol may constitute a previously overlooked risk group for major depressive disorder. For their investigation, the researchers compared saliva samples and self-reported psychiatric health in two young cohorts. Data was collected on two occasions separated by a year. The team found that boys with high levels of cortisol in the morning and high incidence of symptoms associated with depression were 14 times more likely to develop major depressive disorder compared to boys with normal levels of cortisol and low depression symptoms over time. "This new biomarker suggests that we may be able to offer a more personalised approach to tackling boys at risk for depression,” first author Dr. Matthew Owens added. This could be a much needed way of reducing the number of people suffering from depression, and in particular stemming a risk at a time when there has been an increasing rate of suicide amongst teenage boys and young men." What Causes Depression, Really? The current study is the latest in growing series of attempts to identify so-called biomarkers indicative of depression — that is, biological rather than psychiatric signs of the condition. Another example is a 2013 study from Brigham Young University, in which researchers show that depression may arise from difficulties in processing certain memories. Similarly, a study from the University Heart Center in Hamburg shows that major depressive disorder may be tied to arterial fibrillation, or irregular heartbeat. "Progress in identifying biological markers for depression has been frustratingly slow, but now we finally have a biomarker for clinical depression,” Dr. John Williams, a researcher at the Wellcome Trust who helped fund the current study, told reporters. “The approach taken by Professor Goodyer's team may yet yield further biomarkers. It also gives tantalising clues about the gender differences in the causes and onset of depression." Source: Owens M, Goodyer I, et al. Elevated morning cortisol is a stratified population biomarker for major depression in boys only with high depressive symptoms. PNAS. 2014.
The numbers for suicide among students continue to trend upward – to the point that many states and districts now require teachers and other educators to be trained in suicide awareness. 2017’s vastly popular NetFlix series, 13 Reasons Why, served to increase the discussion about suicide but also increased online searches on how to commit suicide by 26 percent. At the same time, non-suicidal self-injury, including cutting, has increased at an alarming rate over the past decade. Overlooking emotional problems in the school can lead to grave consequences for students, parents and educators. Many students experience emotional or mental health issues at some point in their academic careers. For some students, these issues can escalate into severe behaviors – behaviors that are harmful to the student and/or to others. Kim Johancen will provide straightforward insights, innovative strategies and “how-to-handle” tips for real cases in classrooms and schools. Interpreting mental health behaviors according to intensity, frequency, duration and impact will also be addressed – including what to do when a student has moved into a crisis phase. Participants will develop an understanding of critical mental health issues in a way that will help both educators and students in their classrooms and schools. Increase your educators’ awareness of mental health issues. \|Overview and Objectives The Signs and Symptoms of Trauma PTSD: Symptoms, Behaviors and Interventions How to Talk to Students Who Have Experienced Trauma Mental Health Priorities and Trauma Myths Overview of the Ten Trauma Truths\| \|Trauma Truths 1 – 5 Anxiety: Symptoms, Behaviors and Interventions Depression: Symptoms, Behaviors and Interventions\| \|One Hour Break\|\|Lunch (on your own)\| Trauma Truths 6 – 10 Self-Injury: Symptoms, Behaviors and Interventions Eating Disorders: Symptoms, Behaviors and Interventions Suicide: Symptoms, Behaviors and Interventions Best Practices for Addressing High-Risk Behaviors in Students Burnout and Compassion Fatigue \|Questions and Answers\| *In case of an emergency, another qualified presenter will substitute Kim Johancen, M.A., LPC is a Colorado-based author, therapist, and speaker with specialties including sexual trauma, relational trauma and betrayal, suicide, and self-injury. She has worked extensively with kids, families, and adults throughout her 25 year career and works to help clients alleviate post-trauma symptoms while also building resilience and strength. Kim is well versed in multiple evidence-based therapeutic modalities including Internal Family Systems, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. She is a certified EMDR therapist and is nearing completion of a second certification in Brain Spotting Therapy. In addition to her clinical practice, she is also a clinical supervisor and consultant for a variety of professionals and multidisciplinary teams. She has served as Assistant Training Director at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado and has been an active board member for the Suicide Prevention Coalition of Colorado and the Sexual Assault Services Organization in Durango. She is currently developing a comprehensive training program in Denver for graduate-level students and counselors. In regards to public speaking, she has presented her clinical work throughout her career. She received an invitation to present her team’s work on self-injury at Harvard and her work on suicide intervention efforts at Stony Brook University in New York. She is a contributing author to Matthew Selekman’s Young Adult and Adolescent Self-Harming Treatment Manual and is a co-author of Traumatized Students: School-Based Interventions for Reaching Under the Surface. She has published numerous articles with the American Counseling Association (including having her own column with ACA) and has published a coping card deck for children and middle schoolers to help build resilience.
Noob button question. I want to make an Java programm with a button in it. That's all. But I can't find any tutorials on it. I have wordpad. Could someone give me a tutorial or help me out a bit. I found some code and saved it as button.java but when I clicked it some programm called JavaEditor opened and gave me lots of errors. Start by reading Sun's Java tutorial to understand the basics about code structure, compiling e.t.c first. Read the JButton API and you will find a link to the Swing tutorial on "How to Use Buttons". Well the thing is I don't know how to start. I am reading a tutorial about making a java file. I have to install java sdk, theygive me this link: java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp But I don't know where to click next. Please help. Please go to the intro to Java tutorials. It's all in your hands really. Originally Posted by dudejonne
This electricity originates from the heart's sinoatrial node, also known as the heart's pacemaker, which is found in the right atrium at the top half of the heart's upper right chamber. The rate of electrical current discharged by the sinoatrial node, together with nerve impulses and hormone levels in the blood, determines a person's heart rate or heart rhythm. IRREGULAR HEARTBEAT SIGNS AND SYMPTOMSThe normal heart rate for adults runs from between 60 to 100 beats per minute when at rest. This rate is lower for younger people who are more physically fit than most. Each person's heart rate responds differently during exercise, exertion, or other stimuli which include intense emotions. When the electrical impulses that govern the heart rate start to malfunction, the heart may either start to beat too fast (tachycardia), too slow (bradycardia), irregularly (dysrhythmia), or even pass through abnormal electrical pathways. These group of heart conditions are called arrhythmias, or abnormal heart rhythms. Arrhythmias are a common occurrence and are normally harmless. People who have irregular heartbeats experience a fluttering or racing heart, or a sensation as if their hearts may have skipped a beat or two. Even children experience a normal kind of irregular heartbeat called sinus arrhythmia, which is characterized by a slight acceleration or slowing of the heart rate in relation to the rhythms of their respiration. This condition normally lessens as they grow up. IRREGULAR HEARTBEAT CAUSESHowever, there are some arrhythmias, that can cause annoying, and worse, even seriously fatal symptoms, like coronary heart disease and cardiac arrest. Some arrhythmias can be signs of other dangerous illnesses, like a stroke or embolus (obstruction of the blood flow). In the U.S. alone, over 850,000 people are treated for these types of arrhythmias each year. Other causes of irregular heartbeat include an imbalance of electrolytes, like sodium and potassium in the blood; injuries stemming from a heart attack; changes in the heart muscle, and as part of the healing process after heart surgery. Smoking can also result in arrhythmias, as well as caffeine use, and alcohol or drug abuse. In some cases, prescription or over-the-counter medications, some dietary supplements and herbal remedies can trigger irregular heartbeat, as well. If a person’s heart has incurred some scarring from a previous ailment, like a heart attack, or if there is a pre-existing heart condition like inadequate blood supply, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy (enlargement of the ventricular walls), or valvular heart disease (narrowing of the heart valves), these can cause a destabilization of the electrical impulses in the heart, resulting in the development of arrhythmia. IRREGULAR HEARTBEAT RISK FACTORThe risks for developing an arrhythmia increases with age, when the heart muscle starts to weaken and affects the way electrical impulses pass through the pathways. People who have congenital (at birth) heart problems, thyroid conditions (hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism), high blood pressure, digestive disorders like diarrhea, obesity, diabetes, and obstructive sleep apnea have a higher risk of acquiring an irregular heartbeat. Even fatigue, hunger, pain, exercise and emotional stress can trigger arrhythmia, although in these cases, the irregular heartbeat tends to resolve itself after the affecting stimuli has ceased. Other symptoms include a fluttering sensation of the heart, pounding in the chest, shortness of breath, a feeling of discomfort in the chest, and fatigue. Some arrhythmias do not carry any symptoms and are not a cause for concern. The most common symptom is an increased awareness of heartbeat, also known as palpitations. Palpitations can occur either frequently, infrequently, and can also go on continuously. These type of arrhythmias can cause annoyance, and are mostly harmless. When an arrhythmia causes the heart to beat too slow or two fast to be able supply what the body needs, a person may suffer from low blood pressure and experience lightheadedness, dizziness, and may even faint. Some arrhythmias signal the presence of more serious ailments, and some even increase the risk of certain conditions, like strokes or embolisation, heart failure and cardiac death. Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndome (SADS) is sudden death from a cardiac arrest caused by arrhythmia. Although SADS can also be due to other causes, it commonly stems from coronary artery disease. Image: Irregular Heartbeat IRREGULAR HEARTBEAT DIAGNOSISThe doctor can determine whether the arrhythmia is acute or chronic by taking the person’s medical history, and to determine whether they are sensitive to certain substances like alcohol, caffeine and other drugs. The doctor can also take a persons pulse or use a stethoscope to determine whether the heart rate is regular or irregular. IRREGULAR HEARTBEAT TESTThe most specific test to assess a person’s heart rhythm is through an electrocardiogram (ECG). Another method is through Holter monitor, an EKG which can be worn for a day to record any instances of irregular heartbeat as they occur during a 24-hour period. Other tests used to diagnose arrhythmia include a Stress Test (monitoring the heart during exercise), the use of an Event Monitor (a portable ECG), an Echocardiogram (uses sound waves to take images of heart’s movements, size and structure), cardiac catherization (thin tubes with electrodes are threaded into some blood vessels of the heart), an Electrophysiology study (EPS), and a head-up tilt table test (used for patients who suffer fainting spells). IRREGULAR HEARTBEAT TREATMENTTreating arrhythmias will depend on the type of irregular heartbeat a person has, and how serious the case is. Some arrhythmias will not require treatment at all, while others necessitate major surgical procedures, medication and a change in lifestyle. Irregular heartbeat can be treated using Cardioversion, where an electrical current is applied across the heart’s chest wall to treat pulsed ventricular tachycardia (fast heartbeat caused by abnormal electrical impulses). Defibrillation, where even more electricity can be delivered, is used to remedy ventricular fibrillation, a condition where a confusion of electrical impulses trigger the heart's ventricles to quiver uncontrollably instead of pumping blood. Ventricular fibrillation is believed to be one of the causes of sudden cardiac death (SAD) that kills around 300,000 Americans each year. Cardiac pacing may also be applied for sufferers of bradycardia, or very slow hearbeats. This is usually indicated for arrhythmias caused by a drug overdose or myocardial infarction (heart attack). Sometimes, a pacemaker has to be inserted into the heart for patients who have severe bradycardia. A cardiologist, who specializes in heart ailments, may also treat a patient with pulmonary vein isolation, a procedure used to treat atrial fibrillation, which is a kind of arrhythmia which causes the heart's atrial chambers to beat abnormally. Other treatments include implanting a cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) to monitor the heart's rhythm and to deliver a spurt of energy to the heart when it stars beating irregularly; catheter ablation, where electrical energy in high frequencies is directed through a catheter and targeted at areas of the heart with irregular rhythms; in cases where there is a pre-existing heart condition which causes the arrhythmia, surgical procedures like the Maze procedure, ventricular aneurysm surgery or a coronary bypass may be needed to correct the problem. There are also many drugs that doctors prescribe to treat troublesome arrhythmias. These include antiarrhythmic medications which are used to control a person's heart rate, like beta blockers. Anticoagulants and antiplatelet drugs lower the risk of blood clots. Examples of these are blood thinners like warfarin, and the generic aspirin. IRREGULAR HEARTBEAT PREVENTIONTo prevent and lower the risks of life-threatening arrhythmias, especially those that are caused by underlying heart conditions, certain lifestyle changes should be affected. This includes avoiding activities which can trigger the onset of irregular heartbeat, cutting down on alcohol or caffeine intake, stopping a smoking habit, and avoiding cough or cold medicines that may contain alcohol or stimulants. The doctor may also recommend a healthy diet rich in food that is good for the heart, regular exercise, and reducing the levels of stress in a patient's life. The prognosis for arrhythmia will depend on the kind of irregular heartbeat a person has, whether is harmless or potentially dangerous, like ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation that can cause sudden death. It will also depend on the heart's pumping ability, and a person's response to the arrhythmia. A new system has recently been developed to combine computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the heart during the performance of a catheter ablation procedure. Current research at the University of California in San Francisco Medical Center is looking at mapping and ablation of patients diagnosed with atrial arrhythmias. It is also trying out new drug therapies to remedy potentially dangerous arrhythmias which cause sudden cardiac death. Medication commonly used for these disease:Irregular heartbeat drugs Blood Pressure Test Blood Test for Heart Disease C-Reactive Protein Test Complete Blood Count Test Coronary Calcium Scan CT Heart Scan Diagnostic Medical Sonography Magnetic Resonance Imaging Nuclear Stress Test Prothrombin Time Test Tilt Table Test
Planning and Monitoring Curriculum Level Planning and Monitoring Considerations Intervention at all levels is managed in close collaboration with parents, allied health professionals (if there are signs that this is warranted) and others who may be able to give support either directly or indirectly. Where a collaborative plan of intervention for a child needs to be developed, all involved parties should meet with the parents to ensure a common strategy for supporting the child. A record should be kept of any such meetings and retained with the paperwork for the Staged Process of Assessment and Intervention. As highlighted in Section 4.1 the identification of dyslexia is not the end of the process. The assessment of dyslexia in children and young people is a process rather than an end-product. The information provided in the assessment should support the planning for the learner’s next steps and this will require monitoring due to the changes and challenges which will occur as the child grows and the curriculum develops. For example, the difficulties experienced in P6 may not be exactly the same in S3 – they may be harder or easier and other challenges may replace them. Levels of Planning and Dyslexia Personal Learning Planning (PLP) – Universal Support All children and young people should be involved in personal learning planning (PLP). PLP sets out aims and goals for individuals to achieve that relate to their own circumstances. They must be manageable and realistic and reflect the strengths of the child or young person as well as their development needs. Monitoring their progress in achieving these aims and goals will determine whether additional support is working. For most children, including many who are dyslexic, a PLP will be enough to arrange and monitor their learning development. The 2010 Code of Practice says that children with additional support needs should be involved in their personal learning planning. It also says that, for many, this will be enough to meet their needs. Some examples of PLP which support children and young people with dyslexia will be available soon. Individual Education Plan (IEP) – Universal and Targeted Support If a PLP does not enable sufficient planning, a child or young person’s PLP can be supported by an individualised educational programme (IEP). IEPs are usually provided when the curriculum planning is required to be ‘significantly’ different from the class curriculum. Involvement with group work or extraction for a number of sessions a week does not normally meet the criteria for an IEP. An IEP is a non-statutory detailed plan of the child/young person’s learning. It will probably contain some specific, short-term learning targets relating to wellbeing, literacy and/or numeracy and will set out how those targets will be reached. It may also contain longer-term targets or aims. IEP targets should be SMART: IEPs should be monitored regularly and reviewed and updated at least once every term with the child/young person and their parents/carers. Examples of Dyslexia IEPs will be added shortly. If you have any examples you would like to share, please email the Toolkit team on firstname.lastname@example.org A Coordinated Support Plan (CSP) – Targeted Support A CSP is a detailed plan of how multi agency support for a child will be provided. It is a legal document and aims to ensure that all the professionals, the child/young person and the parents/carers work together and are fully involved in the support. Dyslexia on its own as an additional support need would not commonly trigger the opening of a CSP. A Child’s Plan – Targeted Support In line with the 2014 Children and Young People Act and ‘Getting it right for every child’ (GIRFEC) approach, many children will now have a Child’s Plan. Child’s Plans are created if a child or young person needs some extra support to meet their wellbeing needs such as access to mental health services or respite care, or help from a range of different agencies. The Child’s Plan will contain information about: - why a child or young person needs support - the type of support they will need - how long they will need support and who should provide it. All professionals working with the child would use the plan, which may include an IEP or a CSP.