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I created a graphic so that I can quickly address a question that arises often. Exactly!!! Spot on Greg. I have often found the activities in science that were the most motivational were not the ones that I had been told would be (i.e. they conduct all their own experiments and decide for themselves). I can still remember one lesson where we filtered soil and water, it was done as a whole class demonstration and the children absolutely loved it and were recording every filter. I had never seen them as engaged as they were free from having to think about conducting it and could go straight for the explanation. Not that I don’t think children should do experiments but just that they start off having to work out what they need and choosing how to conduct the experiments before they really understand what a good one is and how it works. Until they have lots of exposure to this, they can’t come up with their own in the same way. I was at a corporate event in the autumn and listened to a presentation on motivation, the results of which I think are based on well-established research. Money is only a motivator when the task is mechanical, like stuffing envelopes. When the task is difficult, the prospect of reward is distracting and so often reduces performance (maybe in the classroom context, for “money” read “praise” or other extrinsic reward). In these circumstances, the key motivators were (1) a sense of purpose (divisible into (1.a) “ultimate” purpose and more immediately, (1.b) recognition by those around you; 2. autonomy; and 3. increasing mastery. So I agree with you, Greg, on account of point (3) – spot on, as teachwell says. Good teaching is its own motivator. And with reference to the selection of learning activities, which is the subject of this diagram, that may be all that needs to be said. In my field of ed-tech, we have been bedevilled by people advocating irrelevant and often extremely time consuming activities, such as commercial games like Minecraft or Angry Birds, on the grounds that they are “fun”. But more widely, isn’t there a bit more that this to be said about motivation? Is there no place at all for the odd Tim Collins / Henry V motivational pep-talk? And most critically, what is the value of relationships? When people say to me (as an advocate of ed-tech) that teaching is an intrinsically human activity, with the implication that it therefore cannot be modeled in a sequence of learning activities, I ask “why is teaching intrinsically a human activity?” and answer my own question, in part, by suggesting that role modelling may be vitally important. Do not adolescents in particular tend to latch on their role models – for better or worse – whom they both imitate and seek to please? And do we not, looking back on our own adolescence, have the experience of really wanting to do well for certain teachers whom we admired? Is it not our duties as teachers to exploit this psychological and developmental tendency? In which case, could the motivation issue not be reduced primarily to: 1. experience of increasing mastery (through effective teaching); 2. and good relationships with teacher? …recognising autonomy and understanding of purpose as important secondary issues. Here’s the next question: what then is the relationship between those two primary considerations? In your diagram, Greg, who is doing the designing, choosing and sequencing of the learning activities? Why does it have to be the classroom teacher? I think the nub of the argument that I am trying to make is that this business of designing, choosing and sequencing learning activities lies at the heart of pedagogy – the technical aspect of teaching – and it is a characteristic of technology (defined as the application of empirical knowledge to the the attainment of an objective) that it is explicit and replicable, not private and intuitive. Given that the education service is a very large and complex business delivering a very complex service, highly dependent on skilled labour of a sort that it is often in very short supply, should we not be trying to implement a rather more effective division of labour than is the case at present? Shouldn’t we be tending to centralise the design and sequencing of activities, which is by no means a simple matter, while leaving front-line classroom teachers to the equally important business of managing human relationships and presenting their students with good role models? The first aspect of teaching is a sort of technology, the second is a sort of craft. I am not proposing to reduce the autonomy of the classroom teacher in this matter – but rather suggesting that there is a role for digital technology to create the activity platforms and activity sequences that will give the classroom teacher the “tools of the trade”, making this more technical aspect of the teacher’s job much easier, and helping to make their performance much more reliable than is commonly the case at the moment. I don’t think Crispin you are that far off from what I believe and I do believe, despite being v. trad in my teaching, that technology has a huge role to play in the future of teaching. However, it is interesting the results of using ed tech is down to the quality of the teacher. A good teacher can use technology effectively to teach and this adds to the learning, a poor teacher won’t. The reasons are the same – motivation as a learner. I think the kind of approach Greg is criticising which is that learners discover it all for themselves with teachers as facilitators actually reduces the impact of the ed tech. While I agree that there is much tech to use out there, I would also say it needs to be flexible enough to adapt as teachers see fit as rigid software has a limited use in the face of teaching a group of children whose learning will never fall into neat categories. What one child understands easily, another doesn’t. Neither do ability labels help – in terms of visualising nets of cubes for example, the child who had the most aptitude was in one of my lowest groups for maths. Sometimes kids just get it and the problem with tech is that many teachers will restrict activities based on the labelled ability of the child even more so whereas in real life you can react a lot quicker in the face of evidence. Having rolled out the new curriculum and been the computing lead in my previous school, I realised that teachers need to see tech as a tool not a panacea and they still need to be able to assess the quality of the products they are using, as this in itself is an education for children. I completely disagree with the ‘just google it’ angle as I think a lot of adults who have the benefit of stored knowledge are not taking into consideration what it would be like as a child to navigate the internet with no prior knowledge to guide. In fact, one the things I asked teachers to do was to stop asking children to do random searches but instead teach them about key words and the difference between reliable and unreliable sites. Without good quality teaching, children will just go to the first website and copy and paste. Why not? Is that not the easiest option when there is so little guidance? Hi teachwell, I agree with everything you say here – a preference for traditional approaches, belief that tech has an important part to play, that tech has to be flexible and subject to teacher control (I like the tool metaphor), that “just google it” is just a route to plagiarism (which isn’t malicious in young children but just their natural way of doing research) etc. – except one. I don’t agree that there is lots of tech to use out there. In my view the tech is mainly generic (iPads, browsers, file-sharing, YouTube, Google) and the education-specific tech is mainly of poor quality. And this is my explanation for why the evidence for tech helping to improve learning outcomes is very very thin. Tech of the generic sort has generally been used, IMO, as a vehicle for progressive, independent learning. In my view, the potential is to use tech to manage activity and feedback following a more traditional paradigm and for this to work, we need better education-specific software, of a type that isn’t really available at the moment. I tried my hand at an infographic to illustrate what I mean, at https://edtechnowdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/my-first-infographic1.gif. Thanks, Crispin. I see what you mean – I actually am in the process of trying to design some planning software that is linked to assessment/data in a meaningful way that actually cuts down the time spent on each. However, while I have the ideas, alas I do not have a programmer!! I love the clarity of the infographic. Don’t do it teachwell! I spent many years of my life on this in the last 1990s/early 2000s. I reckon I produced some pretty capable software but there are two huge politico-commercial barriers: (1) the lack of activity-driven content to plug into such a management system, (2) the lack of robust interoperability standards to allow them to do so. You might like to have a look at the history of SCORM, Learning Design, and Simple Sequencing that track this problem. In short, what you call “planning software” is a piece of infrastructural software that really needs an Apple, Google or Microsoft to take the lead – and they will not move until government(s) starts to get to grips with the issue and create the sort of benign market environment in which companies can hope to achieve ROI. Reblogged this on The Echo Chamber. […] have a different theory of motivation to many people. I have even gone to the trouble of creating a graphic to explain this (I have also written that I reject the dubious idea that explicit instruction is […] […] Ashman’s view on motivation in science and mathematics. Retrieved from https://gregashman.wordpress.com/2015/07/19/motivation-in-science-and-mathematics/ on […] […] it wasn’t, the story quickly became a source of frustration instead. I’m on board with Greg Ashman’s posts on this very topic. The fun and creativity must be subservient to aiding learning, understanding and […] […] this works and efforts should probably focus more on the quality of STEM teachers (more later). I think it represents a misunderstanding of cause and effect in academic motivation and there is some evidence to support my […] Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change ) You are commenting using your Twitter account. 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- Resource Centers A successful treatment strategy for angina requires an understanding of an individual patient's symptoms and history. Angina pectoris—chest discomfort caused by myocardial ischemia (insufficient oxygen)—affects approximately 10 million Americans, with 500,000 new cases reported each year. Angina pectoris, or simply angina, can occur in the absence of other coronary diseases; however, approximately 58% of patients suffering from coronary heart disease experience angina. 1 Prevalence increases with age; women are disproportionately affected (femaleto-male ratio of 1.7:1). 2 Symptoms include sensations of discomfort, burning, dull aches, and squeezing or “heaviness” of the chest. Pain may radiate to the shoulders, arms, neck, throat, jaw, or back. Patients often mistake angina for heartburn. 3 Myocardial ischemia develops when blood flow is inadequate to meet myocardial demand. This results in myocardial cells switching from aerobic to anaerobic metabolism, leading to impaired cardiac function. 2 Numerous factors can induce angina (eg, abnormal constriction of vessels, abnormal heart rate, microvascular disease, structural abnormalities of arteries), but the most common is atherosclerosis—the narrowing and constricting of arteries resulting from cholesterol plaque and other deposits that build up over a period of years. It takes approximately 10 years of atherosclerosis progression before symptoms appear (when vessel narrowing exceeds 50%). 4 Risk factors associated with angina include family history of coronary heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity, hypercholesterolemia, metabolic syndrome, and low levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. 2,5 Elevated C-reactive protein is an important risk factor for women. 6 Several types of angina exist, but 2 account for the majority of cases: • Stable angina: Pain onset is predictable and present only during physical exertion or extreme emotional distress. Stable angina is generally relieved by resting for several minutes. • Unstable angina: Occurs more frequently, lasts longer, and may occur while resting or after a few minutes of moderate activity. Unstable angina may signal a pending heart attack. 5,6 Patient assessment must differentiate angina from noncoronary causes of chest pain, such as pulmonary disease, gastrointestinal disorders, chest wall trauma, and infections. Coronary angiography remains the gold standard in diagnosing coronary artery obstructions. 6 Treatment’s 3 primary interrelated goals are to limit the number and severity of attacks; protect against future and potentially more lethal ischemic syndromes, such as sudden death and myocardial infarction; and lower the risk for atherosclerosis progression. 6 Treatment strategies, consisting of pharmacotherapy, surgical interventions, and lifestyle changes, differ for each variant of angina. Combination treatments are more effective than any single intervention. 7 Traditional anti-ischemia therapy relies on 3 drug classes: nitrates, beta-blockers, and calcium channel blockers (Table 1). Pharmacologic agents are effective in managing symptoms, but are not disease modifying, ie, they do not alter the risk for heart attack or sudden death. 5 Lifestyle changes are disease modifying, however. It is important to note that antiplatelet agents may be prescribed for patients with other forms of coronary disease, but are contraindicated for patients with unstable angina. 4 Sublingual nitroglycerin has been the mainstay for treating stable angina for those with a maximum of 1 episode per week. It is used for acute episodes, or prophylactically prior to physical activity. For those experiencing more frequent episodes, a long-acting nitrate or betablocker is added. Beta-blockers reduce myocardial oxygen demand and decrease heart rate and myocardial contractility. Long-term nitrates are not recommended; patients quickly develop a tolerance, and new evidence suggests long-term use increases risk for and severity of heart attacks. 8 Patients taking sublingual nitroglycerin do not build up a tolerance. Calcium channel blockers are used for patients who cannot take beta-blockers or for patients in whom both nitroglycerin and beta-blockers are ineffective. Calcium channel blockers dilate arteries, lower blood pressure, and decrease the force of the heart’s contractions. 7 Shortacting dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers are avoided; they increase risk for adverse cardiac events. 8 Beta-blockers are considered first-line agents and are more effective in reducing angina’s frequency than calcium channel blockers. Ranolazine, a piperazine derivative, is the newest anti-ischemic agent (approved by the FDA in 2002), and when combined with traditional anti-ischemia agents, often results in more positive outcomes, such as higher levels of exercise tolerance. Unlike beta-blockers, ranolazine does not alter heart rate or blood pressure. 9 Refractory angina—angina that cannot be controlled with available treatment options—affects up to 900,000 Americans. Ranolazine combined with enhanced external counterpulsation has emerged as an effective treatment option. 9 Although allopurinol is not FDA approved for ischemia, studies suggest that it, too, may be useful in treating refractory angina. 9 Patients need to understand treatment options, treatment risks and benefits, and the importance of healthy lifestyles (Table 2). Research demonstrates that angina patients can benefit if pharmacists provide more information on the importance of lifestyle factors and the purpose of medications, and their potential adverse effects. 10 Angina is not a contemporary disorder; atherosclerotic lesions have been identified in 3500-year-old Egyptian mummies. 6 Unlike in ancient Egypt, however, cardiovascular disease is now the leading cause of death in the United States. What your patients need to know is that it is preventable. PT Dr. Zanni is a psychologist and health systems consultant based in Alexandria, Virginia. 1. Lloyd-Jones DM, Hong Y, Labarthe D, et al; American Heart Association Strategic Planning Task Force and Statistics Committee. Defining and setting national goals for cardiovascular health promotion and disease reduction: the American Heart Association’s strategic Impact Goal through 2020 and beyond. Circulation. 2010;121:586-613. 2. Alaeddini J. Angina pectoris. http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/150215-overview. Accessed October 18, 2011. 3. WebMD Heart disease health center, heart disease and angina (chest pain). www.webmd.com/heart-disease/guide/heart-disease-angina. Accessed October 20, 2011. 4. Haber M. Angina pectoris in emergency medicine. http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/761889-overview. Accessed October 21, 2011. 5. Kones R. Recent advances in the management of chronic stable angina II: anti-ischemic therapy, options for refractory angina, risk factor reduction, and revascularization. Vasc Health Risk Manag. 2010;6:749-774. 6. Kones R. Recent advances in the management of chronic stable angina I: approach to the patient, diagnosis, pathophysiology, risk stratification, and gender disparities. Vasc Health Risk Manag. 2010;6:635-656. 7. Aroesty J, Kannam J. Patient information: angina treatment - medical therapy. www.uptodate.com/contents/patient-information-angina-treatment-medical-therapy. Accessed October 21, 2011. 8. Sun L, Ferreira JC, Mochly-Rosen D. ALDH2 activator inhibits increased myocardial infarction injury by nitroglycerin tolerance. Sci Transl Med. 2011;3(107):107ra111. 9. Manchanda A, Aggarwal A, Aggarwal N, Soran O. Management of refractory angina pectoris. Cardiol J. 2011;18:343-351. 10. Haugbølle LS, Sørensen EW, Gundersen B, et al. Basing pharmacy counselling on the perspective of the angina pectoris patient. Pharm World Sci. 2002;24:71-78. 11. Tobin KJ. Stable angina pectoris: what does the current clinical evidence tell us? J Am Osteopath Assoc. 2010;110:364-370. 12. Mayo Clinic. Angina treatment: stents, drugs, lifestyle changes -what’s best? www.mayoclinic.com/health/angina-treatment/HB00091. Accessed October 20, 2011.
- Are you being insulted? Teased constantly? Humiliated? - Are you afraid to disagree with you partner? - Do you feel isolated? Afraid to participate in family activities with your partner? Afraid to get together with friends when you're with your partner? - Are you being hit, shoved, kicked, grabbed, punched or choked? - Are you being forced to have sex? - Are you unable to have access to your own finances? Domestic violence/dating violence/relationship violence is a pattern of abusive behavior by one partner to another that can include physical, emotional, sexual or economic abuse. It's all about control and power. It can happen between two people who are just dating, those in a long-term relationship, or partners who have been together for years. Abusers may say they're acting out of love and concern, but what they're really doing is manipulating and controlling, exerting their power over their partners. If you think you may be in an abusive relationship, it's not your fault. You can get support. You can get help. Contact the CAPE Director at 303- 871-3853.
Civic engagement is the participation of civil society organizations and citizens-at-large through direct and indirect interactions with government, multilateral institutions and business establishments to influence decision making and share control over priority setting, policy making, resource allocations and access to public goods and services. There are many ways in which citizens can engage, such as voting, volunteering, political advocacy and public demonstrations, community organising and getting directly involved in government processes such as through participatory budgeting. Civic engagement is essential to a healthy democracy, to ensure transparency and accountability in governments and to foster fundamental human rights and freedoms. Measuring Civic Engagement The Civil Society Index (CSI), produced by CIVICUS, the Worldwide Alliance for Citizen Participation, is a participatory needs assessment and action planning tool for civil society around the world, with the aim of creating a knowledge base and momentum for civil society strengthening initiatives. The two primary goals of the CSI are: to enhance the strength and sustainability of civil society, and to strengthen civil society’s contribution to positive social change. The CSI is designed to measure civic engagement, level of organisation, practice of values, perceived impact and external environment. There are currently 56 countries implementing the project. CIRCLE, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, presents a series of studies and data sets on the civic and political engagement of Americans between the ages of 15 and 25. The Toolkit Partnership is an alliance of NGOs and local governments that provides toolkits, databases and case studies on participatory governance from all over the world. - Occupy movement - International Conference on Social Cohesion and Development - The Revolution IS Currently and Will be.... Facebooked? (27 January, 2011) - Civic Engagement - Canada 25 - Public Intellectual Studies and publications - Citizen Involvement & Quality of Life: Exit, Voice and Loyalty in a Time of Direct Democracy by Yonk and Reilly. Applied Research in Quality of Life. (2010) - ESDS International Case Study: Something about young people or something about elections? by Edward Fieldhouse, Mark Tranmer and Andrew Russell. (published as Fieldhouse, E., Tranmer, M. and Russell, A. (2007) - Something about young people or something about elections? Electoral participation of young people in Europe: Evidence from a multilevel analysis of the European Social Survey European Journal of Political Research 46 797-822) (2007) - ESDS International Case Study: When do people feel European? European identity, EU attitudes, and questionnaire design by Robert Johns, University of Strathclyde. (2008)
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has gathered surprising new details about a supersized and superheated version of Earth called 55 Cancri e. According to Spitzer data, the exoplanet is less dense than previously thought, a finding which profoundly changes the portrait of this exotic world. Instead of a dense rock scorched dry by its sun, 55 Cancri e likely has water vapor and other gases steaming from its molten surface. Spitzer measured the extraordinarily small amount of light 55 Cancri e blocked when the planet crossed in front of its star. These mini-eclipses, called transits, allow astronomers to accurately determine a planet's size and calculate its density. Promisingly, the results show how astronomers can use Spitzer, operating in "warm" mode since depleting its liquid coolant in May 2009, to probe the properties of strange alien worlds. "This work demonstrates that 'warm' Spitzer can measure an extremely faint eclipse caused by exoplanets' transits with very high precision," said Brice-Olivier Demory, a post-doctoral associate in Professor Sara Seager's group in the Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Demory, who is lead author of a paper accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, said that the study "emphasizes the important role Spitzer still has to play for the detection and characterization of transiting planets." Astronomers first discovered 55 Cancri e in 2004, and continued investigation of the exoplanet has shown it to be a truly bizarre place. The world revolves around its sunlike star in the shortest time period of all known exoplanets - just 17 hours and 40 minutes. (In other words, a year on 55 Cancri e lasts less than 18 hours.) The exoplanet orbits about 26 times closer to its star than Mercury, the most Sun-kissed planet in our solar system. Such proximity means that 55 Cancri e's surface roasts at a minimum of 3,200 degrees Fahrenheit (1,760 degrees Celsius). The new observations with Spitzer reveal 55 Cancri e to have a mass 7.8 times and a radius just over twice that of Earth. Those properties place 55 Cancri e in the "super-Earth" class of exoplanets, a few dozen of which have been found. Only a handful of known super-Earths, however, cross the face of their stars as viewed from our vantage point in the cosmos. At just 40 light years away, 55 Cancri e stands as the smallest transiting super-Earth in our stellar neighborhood. In fact, 55 Cancri is so bright and close that it can be seen with the naked eye on a clear, dark night. Based on the precise Spitzer data, Demory and his colleagues came up with a revised, lower density for 55 Cancri e. Coupled with its tight orbit, 55 Cancri e possesses a unique combination of super-Earth traits. Its low density is similar to that of a cooler super-Earth called GJ1214b, discovered in 2009 orbiting a tiny, dim star. Yet 55 Cancri e's orbit is more like that of the denser, inferno worlds CoRoT-7b and Kepler-10b. "What makes 55 Cancri e so remarkable is that despite its high temperature, the planet has a low density," said Demory. Previously, a separate international team of astronomers had made observations of 55 Cancri e in visible light with Canada's MOST telescope. Initially, their evidence implied that 55 Cancri e's diameter was smaller by 25 percent, leading to reports of 55 Cancri e as actually the densest planet known. Refinements to those observations, however, now agree with the new Spitzer findings, which rely on a transit seen in longer-wavelength infrared light. No longer looking like a dense planet of solid rock, 55 Cancri e instead appears to be an unprecedented world with an intriguing history. The Spitzer results suggest that about a fifth of the planet's mass must be made of light elements and compounds, including water. In the intense heat of 55 Cancri e's terribly close sun, those light materials would exist in a "supercritical" state, between that of a liquid and a gas, and might sizzle out of the planet's surface. New developments in planetary formation and evolution theory will probably be necessary to explain 55 Cancri e's back story. According to our models of the birth of solar systems, for example, 55 Cancri e could not have formed so near its star. Maybe it started out as a more distant planet with a large gaseous atmosphere. As worlds took shape in the 55 Cancri solar system, gravitational interactions amongst the system's five known planets could have prodded a young 55 Cancri e to migrate in toward its sun. In the process, the Neptune-like exoplanet might have lost most of its atmosphere, exposing a core that sputters with the venting of heated chemicals. It seems certain that 55 Cancri e is on a "death spiral," soon to be devoured or ripped apart by its host star. But for now, the world's serendipitous placement in our sky will allow Spitzer and other instruments to study 55 Cancri e in further detail, expanding our knowledge of how exoplanets work. "55 Cancri e orbits a very bright star thus enabling the possibility of obtaining a wealth of observations with space-based facilities at various wavelengths," said study co-author Michael Gillon of the University of Liege in Belgium and principal investigator for the warm Spitzer program aimed at detecting transiting low-mass exoplanets. "This fact will make 55 Cancri e a landmark for our understanding of the planetary interior and atmospheric composition of super-Earths." Other authors of the paper are Diana Valencia, Sara Seager and Bjorn Benneke of MIT; Drake Deming of the University of Maryland; Christophe Lovis, Michel Mayor, Francesco Pepe, Didier Queloz, Damien Ségransan, and Stéphane Udry of the University of Geneva; and Patricio Cubillos, Joseph Harrington, and Kevin B. Stevenson of the University of Central Florida.
An enormous, radiating nebula has been spotted at the heart of a cluster of early galaxies called a protocluster. This nebula caught the attention of astronomers due to the fact that the source of the powerful light emitted by it remains unknown. This nebula is a glowing blob of gas located in a distant part of the universe, and was spotted by researchers from the Santa Cruz University led by Zheng Cai, a Hubble Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Santa Cruz as the lead researcher. More from IBTimes India: New Delhi to host MWC-like Indian Mobile Congress this year "Our survey was not trying to find nebulae. We're looking for the most overdense environments in the early universe, the big cities where there are lots of galaxies," Cai said in a statement. "We found this enormous nebula in the middle of the protocluster, near the peak density," Cai added. So far, very few such nebulae have been spotted by scientists, they are referred to as -- "enormous Lyman-alpha nebula" (ELAN) — and this one is among the largest and brightest seen so far. The brilliant glow of the ELANs were previously credited to have originated from quasars -- which are enormous celestial objects that emit enormous amount of energies and appear to be star-like in images taken by telescope. Also, quasars are likely to contain massive black holes. This study has been published in the journal Astrophysics, which reveals that researchers dubbed the newly-discovered nebula MAMMOTH-1, which is the first one that's not linked to a quasar. This finding leaves researchers questioning the bright emission of Lyman-alpha radiation by the nebula. The ELAN is tremendously luminous and it might be more enormous than the 2-million-lightyear-spanning Slug Nebula, J Xavier Prochaska of UC Santa Cruz, a team member explained. "So it's a terrifically energetic phenomenon without an obvious power source," Science Alert report stated. The researchers came up with a conclusion that states the MAMMOTH-1 comprises radiations strongly emitted by an active galactic nucleus (AGN), which is covered by dust and goes unseen, leaving behind a very faint source that can be linked back to the nebula. A super-massive black hole, which feeds on gas at the heart of a galaxy powers the AGN, which is a source of extremely radiant light.
When envisioning a chemical weapon for use in a murder plot, there are several criteria that should be considered: 1) the chemical must be lethal, of course, 2) it should be readily available to the villain in the story, 3) it must be easy to use but not easily detectable to the victim, and 4) it should be unique enough to “wow” your reader. Methyl bromide meets all of those standards. Acute exposure to methyl bromide, usually by inhalation, causes serious neurological effects in humans and can be a lethal neurotoxin in the proper doses. Symptoms of exposure include headaches, dizziness, weakness, confusion, speech and visual impairments, as well as numbness and twitching. The chemical is irritating to the eyes and mucous membranes. It can cause itching, redness and blisters upon contact with skin. In short, the effects are dramatic enough to create an interesting murder scene. Sudden exposure of sufficient quantities can cause muscle paralysis and convulsions that lead to death. Acute exposure might even produce a delayed effect. The second criteria—that the poison should be readily available—is an interesting story in itself and that ties into the final criteria of being unique and creative. Methyl bromide is a very effective fumigant and pesticide used in soil and food storage facilities (in mills, ships, freight cars and warehouses) to control fungi, nematodes, weeds, insects and rodents. An interesting dichotomy is that methyl bromide was banned from use in the United States in 1987 because of its ozone-depleting capacity and its harmful effects on human life, yet the chemical is readily available to this day for use in the agricultural industry under controlled conditions. Applications for continued use can be submitted to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and presently the agency is accepting applications for 2018. Applications are approved via a “Critical Use Exemption” from the agency. The list of critical uses includes post-harvest rice milling, pet food manufacturing, as well as storage of walnuts, dried fruit and dry cured pork products. Significant users of methyl bromide are the California strawberry growers and that fact provides a ready source of the poison for the creative writer. California nurseries that grow strawberry plants for later transplantation elsewhere often fumigate their soils with methyl bromide to control fungi and insect infestations. I found it fascinating that the strawberry plants initially grown at these nurseries can later be moved to organic fields and be produced under organic certifications. That fact alone should make for a captivating side story to a murder plot. Lastly, methyl bromide fits the criteria of not being easily detectable to the intended victim. The poison is a colorless and highly volatile gas. It’s almost odorless, producing only a faint, sweet chloroform-like smell at higher concentrations. Methyl bromide can be lethal by inhalation in a closed environment. In March of 2015, a family of four on vacation at a resort in the US Virgin Islands became seriously ill and had to be hospitalized following inhalation exposure to methyl bromide that was used to fumigate the vacation villa beneath theirs. The family was unaware that they were being poisoned since they detected nothing unusual until they experienced symptoms. Methyl bromide is an appealing poison choice for a murder mystery. It’s an unusual lethal weapon that can be used in unique ways to murder and it provides the opportunity for an engaging backstory for your characters. Thoughts? Comments? I’d love to hear them!
Fourteenth Amendment Definition: A 1868, post-USA civil war amendment to the US Constitution designed to, inter alia, give full civil and legal rights to former slaves. Thirteenth (13th) Amendment Political events in the United States of America made the 14th Amendment necessary. The Amendment is often referred to as "citizenship rights" and the most important constututional change in the USA since the Bill of Rights. One was the Supreme Court of the United States dreadful 1857 decision in Dred Scott v Sanford which held that slaves, free or not, could never become US citizens, and that slaves were the chattels of their owners and not persons in the eyes of the law. Secondly, many Southern states responded to losing the Civil War by passing, mostly in 1865, Black Codes. Judges have breathed life into the Fourthteenth Amendment by extending the actual text of the Amendment to read into it other legal rights. It was the legal weapon with which racial segregation in American schools was ended in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. In Lochner v New York, it was used to found and articulate "liberty of free contract" or liberty of contract. The "due process" words in §1 were used to render the US Supreme Court's abortion decision in Roe v Wade: Here is the full actual text of the 1868 "Amendment XIV": ? 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. ? 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state. ? 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. ? 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. ? 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article." There exists a body of experts in the USA that continues to this day to proclaim that the Fourteenth Amendment was not properly ratified and therefore ought not to have any force or effect.
There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them. We never see other people anyway, only the monsters we make of them. Monsters Are Real… (they just look a little different in the light of day) HIC SUNT DRACONES. This phrase translates from the Latin as “here are dragons.” It is etched on the eastern coast of Asia on one of the oldest terrestrial globe maps, the Lenox Globe, dating to 1510. Though the phrase itself is found on only one other historical artifact, a 1504 globe crafted on an ostrich egg, the depiction of monsters and mythological beasts are common on early maps. They crop up most commonly in the unexplored reaches of the oceans, warning would-be explorers of the perils of these unknown territories. One of the most famous of these maps is Olaus Magnus’ Carta Marina, drawn in 1527-39. A detailed map of Scandinavia-one of the oldest ever created-it depicts the Norwegian Sea as so teaming with monsters that it would seem impossible to escape these waters uneaten. Magnus (1490-1557) was the Catholic archbishop of Sweden and a prominent historian. His travels brought him farther north than any of his contemporary European intellectuals, lending a great deal of perceived credibility to his accounts and publications. In 1555, Magnus published Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (“A Description of the Northern Peoples”), which not only related the history, customs, and beliefs of the Scandinavian people, but also reprinted and described the creatures found on Carta Marina. His standing and reputation secured the widespread acceptance of his stories. Olaus’ descriptions and drawings were copied repeatedly, with little to no modification, for centuries by such historical titans as Conrad Gessner (whose Historia Animalium, replete with Magnus’ drawings, is the first modern zoological work attempting to describe all known animals), Edward Topsell, Ulisse Aldrovandi, and John Jonstonus. Such repurposing ensured that these creatures were ingrained in the public mind as truth. And over the centuries, many new monsters were added to the mix as well. Creating Myth from Reality Where did the accounts of monsters come from in the first place? Were they simply fairytales invented to scare curious minds and small children? Henry Lee, who wrote extensively on sea creatures and monsters, emphasized that many classical monsters are not simply pure myth. In his publication Sea Fables Explained (1883), he wrote, “…the descriptions by ancient writers of so-called ‘fabulous creatures’ are rather distorted portraits than invented falsehoods, and there is hardly any of the monsters of old which has not its prototype in Nature at the present day.” How did these “distorted portraits” come about? By the 1500s, extensive European oceanic exploration was still limited, and the fauna that called these places home remained virtually unknown. Publications by Magnus and those who copied him represented some of the first attempts to systematically aggregate and describe these animals. More often than not, their information came not from first-hand observations, but from sailors’ accounts of mysterious encounters while at sea. Less often, the decomposing remains of a washed-up carcass also fueled confidence in the existence of these terrible beasts. Sailors, or those unlucky beachgoers who had the misfortune to stumble upon a rotting basking shark, had no experience with such creatures. So, they explained them with what they did have experience with – myths and legends. If they enlivened their accounts with some embellishments, that simply made for a better story. And so, an oarfish became a 200 foot long sea serpent. A giant squid became a blood-thirsty kraken. A manatee became a mermaid. Olaus and others like him gobbled up the stories and published them alongside authentic species. The more the stories were circulated and published, the more likely people were to mistake what they did see for a monster. And the cycle continued. The atmosphere of the day also fed people’s willingness to believe such tales. The 1500’s were rampant with superstition. The Scientific Revolution would not start to make headway until later in the seventeenth century. There was no division between magic and reality – the two simply coincided. Thus, there was no reason that mythical beasts could not be real. And even when scientists began to embrace the scientific method, they still struggled to reconcile previous beliefs in the supernatural with science. It would take hundreds of years of dedicated scientific study and exploration to overturn classical and common opinion. In the case of some creatures (i.e. sea serpents), sightings and questions of authenticity still remain. Are Monsters Real? So what’s the moral of the story? The animals that inspired such hair-raising tales as the sea serpent, leviathans, and hydra, and authenticated stories of mermaids and the kraken, are real. They just received some creative embellishments (and sometimes blatant artistic fraudulence) along the way. And in a world just beginning to turn away from superstition, but still inclined to embrace elements of mysticism, it’s not surprising that the tales were accepted. Besides, who doesn’t love a good monster story? List of Monsters (Pop culture) \|Orga (Phase II)\|\|1999\| \|Godzilla (2nd Generation)\|\|2000\| \|Godzilla (3rd Generation)\|\|2001\| \|Godzilla (4th Generation)\|\|2002\| \|Yamata No Orochi\|\|2003\| \|Kiryu (2nd Version)\|\|2003\| \|Mothra (2nd Generation)\|\|2003\| \|Mothra Larva (2nd Generation)\|\|2003\| \|Godzilla (5th Generation)\|\|2004\| \|Mothra (3rd Generation)\|\|2004\| \|Godzilla (6th Generation)\|\|2007\| \|Giant Robot (2nd Generation)\|\|2009\| \|Godzilla (First Form)\|\|2016\| \|Godzilla (Second Form)\|\|2016\| \|Godzilla (Third Form)\|\|2016\| \|Godzilla (Fourth Form)\|\|2016\| \|Godzilla (Fifth Form)\|\|2016\| \|Shikigami (Flying Form)\|\|1988\| \|Hell Queen (Final Form)\|\|1990\| \|Godzilla (US 1998)\|\|1998\| \|Baby Godzilla (US 1998)\|\|1998\|
As gender gains attention in the agricultural world, data and information show women as major players in food production. Over 60% of women in Sub-Saharan Africa are employed in agriculture. And according to Oxfam, “women produce more than half of all the food grown in the world.” But, development practitioners and policy makers have been slow to recognize women’s vital and diverse role in food security. Linked to this, little is being done to understand the relationship between women and land grabbing. A number of posts on this blog discuss land grabbing, look here and here for more information. Amidst land grabbing discussions and debates on the benefits of smallholder farms vs. large mechanized farms, we seem to have left out an important discussion. What happens to rural women when corporations grab up land in Africa? Oxfam’s new report, Promise, Power and Poverty, takes a deeper look into the immediate impact of land investments “on women’s land use-options, on their livelihoods, on food availability and the cost of living, and ultimately, on women’s access to land for food production.” Women often lack formal land rights in most developing countries, and especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where less than 20% of women own land. Without land rights, women may have difficulty gaining access to credit and a variety of natural resources. As a result, their bargaining power often is compromised. The Oxfam report finds that thanks to large-scale land investments this situation is getting worse. When investors buy out land, smallholder farmers have limited options to pursue action against the loss of land and the resources on it. In most cases, women will rarely receive compensation for lost land. If compensation is given, it is more likely that it would go to their husbands and it is uncertain what they do with that money. “When you lose your land, you have lost your value and even your body, because the body adds value to the land. You see us talking [but] we are moving corpses.” –one woman who was evicted from her land told Oxfam. Even when communities are involved in large-scale investment deals, women are rarely given a seat at the bargaining table, despite corporations’ claims that they will bring positive development benefits, according to the report. The report also finds that land grabbing interferes with the division of labor between men and women. Men typically grow cash crops in Africa and women are primarily responsible for growing household crops. When companies swoop in to produce cash crops, women often lose out, with available labor positions often going to men. Common lands are a key source of food, income and survival for rural poor. Women often collect fuelwood, foods and/or medicinal plants, or as grazing land. It is often termed as ‘unproductive’ or underutilized making it ripe for investors to claim. When investors stake a claim to land, they may fence it in limiting access to both men and women, finds Oxfam. In addition to losing access to fertile land and water sources, women are thus prevented from harvesting indigenous plants. In this case, not only is the food security in the hands of women compromised, but local people lose their access to traditional resources that they relied upon and genetic biodiversity is lost. In Laos, for example, it was found that women are the major users of riparian strips along rivers where they can grow vegetables and collect riverweed. This provides substantial nutrition and income for them. When dams are built and people are relocated, women lose this source of income. Rarely are such systems part of compensation schemes. Where do we go from here? Many conversations on land grabbing fail to address gender disparities. But, the effects of land grabbing on female farmers can be severe—often accentuating already existing challenges that rural women face. Anyone who works on gender often starts feeling like a broken record—“Don’t forget about the women!” Is that where we are in the land grabbing debate? Are we at the point where we remind governments and investors that women exist, have a special stake in these investments, and should be recognized accordingly? About the Author: Abby Waldorf is a Communications and Engagement Fellow at the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems. She has a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and was formerly the Managing Director of wH2O: The Journal on Gender and Water.
Over a century after the abolition of slavery, Brazil has become a hub of international human trafficking. Illegal migrants are coming not only from neighboring Latin American countries but from as far away as Asia. Brazil's booming economy is not only attracting migrants from impoverished neighboring Latin American countries, but more recently emigrants from Asia. In the past week, a human trafficking ring was uncovered near the capital, Brasilia, for the first time. The liberation of 80 Bengali laborers in Samambaia, a suburb of Brasilia, shines a light on the dark side of Brazil's rise to economic and political dominance within the region. "We are concerned," says Arnaldo Jordy Figueiredo, chairman of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) on human trafficking. "It's the first time forced laborers from Bangladesh have been discovered here." The inclusion of the largest Latin American country in the lucrative global human trafficking trade took place gradually and went largely unnoticed. In 1995, the Brazilian government began systematically combating human trafficking and slave labor. Since then, official figures suggest some 44,000 people have been released from slave-like conditions. The business of poverty With the World Cup and Summer Olympic Games to be held in Brazil in coming years, forced labor has become more international and shifted from the country's interior to the cities. Illegal exploitation of workers now mostly takes part on construction sites, in cold storage facilities and within the textile industry. "We have to find a scheme that prevents human trafficking and controls labor migration," Rodrigo Souza do Amaral, a Brazilian foreign ministry diplomat, told the Agencia Brasil news agency. The business of poverty is flourishing, the 80 Bengalese who were discovered by federal police in Samambaia paid up to $10,000 (7,684 euros) to come to Brazil. They had apparently been told they would earn $1,000 to $1,500. Gateway to the Amazon Most immigrants are smuggled across the north of the country through Bolivia and Peru, or Guyana and into Brazil. In the border town of Assis Brasil, the military had to be deployed to help the town's 7,000 inhabitants, who were overwhelmed by the onslaught of Haitian refugees. The list of countries from where migrants are emigrating is long: including Bangladesh, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal and Sri Lanka. Most of the migrants do not stay in the Amazon, but move on to major metropolitan centers. Estimates by the NGO Reporters Brasil suggest that more than 300,000 illegal immigrants from Bolivia and Paraguay live in the greater Sao Paulo area, as well as 70,000 from Paraguay and 45,000 from Peru, most of whom work in slave-like conditions. "Manpower is not lacking," CPI's Jordy Figueirdeo told DW, adding that the exploitation of illegal immigrants pushes down wage levels and sets in stone precarious working conditions. The focus of investigations by Brazil's labor ministry is clandestine textile production. In Sao Paulo, a total of 50 sewing workshops, in which migrants were working up to 16 hours a day for starvation wages, have been shut down. Among the customers, according to the ministry, are internationally known companies such as Zara, Gap and Gregory, as well as the Brazilian chains Lojas Marisa and Pernambucanas. Harsher penalties for companies "The ministry inspections in past years has prompted a debate about slave labor and human trafficking like never before," explained Renato Bignami, regional supervisor for the ministry in the state of Sao Paulo. In inspections on location, parliamentarians had been able to see contemporary forms of slave-like labor for themselves. Meanwhile, four different parliamentary inquiry committees at federal, state and local levels have begun concentrating on the problem. The parliamentary commission's mandate was extended by Brasilia for the fourth time in late May. As a direct result of public debate, the legislation was changed. Firms operating in Sao Paulo state will lose their operating licenses for 10 years if slave-like working conditions are discovered by authorities. In future the authorities will be able to repossess property on which slave labor occurs throughout Brazil. Under Portuguese colonial rule, African slaves were the mainstay of the Brazilian economy. Ironically, 125 years after the abolition of slavery inhumane working conditions have returned through the back door.
Can’t do vegetarian? How about flexitarian? This food trend is a marriage of two words: flexible and vegetarian, and is more than just a fad. It’s the diet of the future. It started with Meatless Mondays, and now there’s no slowing down the meatless movement. Every self-respecting burger joint now boasts designer bean burgers, more and more restaurant menus offer innovative dishes for vegetarians, and most supermarkets and delis are stocked with almond milk, tofu and quinoa. For reasons of health – both for ourselves and for the planet -- many have turned to meat-free eating, especially the socially aware, eco-conscious millenials (that generation who reached adulthood in the 21st century). The consequences of meat production are detrimental to the planet and the toll is becoming clearer: meat production requires unsustainable levels of water, land and energy consumption. Additionally, new studies estimate that the livestock sector could be responsible for as much as 51 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Plus, one has to take into account the use of hormones, antibiotics, pesticides and more – all of which affect us, our water, the earth itself. We know that eating less meat is good for the planet and good for our well-being, and it seems more people, not just those millenials, are consciously making an effort to cut down on meat consumption. Consider this: in the U.S., the Department of Agriculture data posits that the average American eats 21,000 animals in a lifetime. It’s a terrifying thought: factory farming has Americans eating 150 times as many chickens a year as they did 80 years ago. But, while many want to avoid eating meat, entirely cutting out those chargrilled steaks, roast Peking ducks, siu long baos and BLT sandwiches for tofu steaks, veggie stir-fries, chickpea burgers and hummus wraps just might be too much. So what do you do if you care about the environment, are concerned about sustainability, worry about what too much meat can do to your health -- but still want to indulge in a big fat juicy burger or a plate of char siu every so often? The answer is: embrace flexitarianism. It’s a trend that is basically vegetarianism with the right to cheat once in a while. That’s right, you can be a vegetarian (or even a vegan) but sneak in a bit of meat occasionally. And the trend is huge: it is predicted to be one of the biggest food movements of 2017, emerging as a much more attainable alternative to going full vegetarian or vegan. With rising meat prices and an increasingly compelling moral and environmental argument, more and more people are becoming flexitarians (also known as veggievores). So what is it exactly? Flexitarianism is a diet that is more flexible and inclusive and allows you to eat your grass-fed, organic, free-range, antibiotic- and hormone-free, sustainably raised, beef, lamb, pork and chicken in between your healthy and sustainable vegan/vegetarian meals. Because that’s important too: the type of meat you choose on your “off days” should be, as far as possible, ethically sourced and environmentally friendly. A flexitarian diet has no rules – and that’s part of the appeal. You can be a part-time vegetarian, eating all the grains, beans, nuts, seeds, lentils and vegetables you want, while still giving in to your food cravings to enjoy meat or fish occasionally. You can choose when, and where and how much: as a flexitarian, you might only eat meat on weekends, or when you are in a restaurant, or only at lunch -- you can make it work so that it is most manageable for you and your lifestyle. Reducing your intake of animal-based produce such as meat, poultry, and dairy is shown to reduce the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Think of flexitarians as vegetarians with benefits – a way to improve your health without going the whole hog – so to speak. And, as with all food trends, big name chefs like Jamie Oliver, Yottam Ottolenghi, Wolfgang Puck, Mario Batalli and others have jumped on the bandwagon and are showcasing a variety of mouth-watering vegetarian/flexitarian options in their restaurants and cookbooks. No longer do great slabs of rare prime rib take centre-stage on the plate in a restaurant – unless you’re in a steakhouse -- and meat is now treated more as an accompaniment than the main. Goodbye carnivorous gluttony. Hello flexitarianism. Bottom line is this: you don’t need to eliminate meat entirely to reap the health benefits of a vegetarian diet.
Q. Glen, What are some of the Complications of Diabetes? A. in keeping with the latest research on diabetes, which shows that taking early and aggressive steps to achieve tight control of your blood glucose levels -- by eating right and exercising, for instance -- pays off big time. Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder that affects the body’s ability to effectively use insulin, an important hormone that enables blood sugar to enter the body’s cells and be converted to energy. The result is an elevated level of glucose, or sugar, in the blood, which damages the body. Type 2 diabetes in America Early diagnosis and fast action are best. An estimated 20.8 million people, or 7% of the U.S. population, currently have the disease, but of that total, only 14.6 million know it. This is because type 2 diabetes is usually diagnosed years after its onset, giving the disease a head start in causing damage. The result? Serious complications, including heart disease, kidney disease, blindness, erectile dysfunction, infections, and more. According to Kenneth Snow, MD, acting chief of the adult diabetes section at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, keeping blood glucose levels as close to normal as possible may prevent or slow the progress of these complications. Snow offers five key steps you can take right now to help achieve this goal. Lose 10 pounds. “More than 80% of people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes are obese, but people find the idea of losing 40 or 50 pounds daunting. Just losing 10 pounds is doable and will have a huge impact on blood glucose levels,” Snow says. There are two dietary keys to achieving this goal, he says: Making wise choices about what you eat and limiting portion size. “Spend a little time weighing and measuring your food to learn how much you’re eating. Read the labels. People see that a serving size of cereal is 110 calories, so they just pour it into a large bowl and figure they’re eating 110 calories when they are really eating about 350,” he says. Increase your activity. “I avoid the word ‘exercise.’ Exercise is fantastic, but it’s very difficult for people to do, at least initially, and sustain. But everyone can add activity to their daily lives,” Snow says. Some ideas: Take the stairs instead of the elevator. If you work on the 10th floor, you can take the elevator to the ninth and walk up a flight, he notes. Walking is extremely beneficial, so Snow tells his patients to buy a pedometer to measure their daily steps. “Set yourself a goal. Try to get to 10,000 steps a day. If you’ve been sedentary, your goal might be 4,000 steps.” Recently, a CDC study found 52% of people with diabetes also have arthritis. While this may make exercise more difficult for some, people with arthritis can do many low-impact activities, such as walking or swimming. Keeping active helps both conditions, Snow notes. If you smoke, quit. “If you have diabetes and smoke, that’s slow suicide,” says Snow, who adds that smoking accelerates the onset of every single diabetes complication. Ask your doctor for help to break the habit. Relax. If you’re under stress, your body can react physically; this is known as the “fight or flight” response, and it can adversely affect blood glucose levels. However, Snow says, “it isn’t only the stress itself, it’s how people respond. Usually, people under stress don’t eat right, so stress impacts in that way.” Stress relievers such as meditation, deep breathing, and relaxation exercises can help. Monitor your blood glucose levels. Snow prefers the word “monitor” to “test” because test has a pass-fail connotation, which sends the wrong message, he says. “You want to check to see what your blood sugar is doing at different times of the day. That way, you’ll know whether the changes you are making are successful.” These steps can help you achieve tight glucose control, something Anne Tierney knows a lot about. “I don’t use large plates anymore; I eat my food out of little ramekins,” she says. She exercises on a treadmill and an elliptical trainer, and she lifts weights. And what about the chocolate? “I still eat it, but only the sugar-free kind.” The payoff is that her high blood glucose levels fell so much she’s now classified as “prediabetic.” According to Snow, this doesn’t happen to everyone, but is a possibility when diabetes is caught early and treated vigorously. Says Tierney, “I was very fortunate to get my blood glucose levels under control. I’m not going back.” Of course, good medical care is also key in controlling blood glucose levels. If you have type 2 diabetes, make sure you get regular checkups for potentially serious complications. Doing so will help prevent heart attacks and strokes (the most common causes of death among people with diabetes) as well as kidney disease and blindness. In addition, be sure you get your blood pressure, cholesterol, kidney function, and eyes checked on a regular basis, as all of these can be affected by your type 2 diabetes Bottom Line! I am a Diabetic.....Do This!!!!Nuff Said Any personal health questions or problems mental or physical or before starting any diet or exercise program. Please consult your physician ! My mission is to provide you with "Trusted Advice for a Healthier Life." Yours in good health
The penny drops A belated realization of something after a period of confusion or ignorance. The Oxford English Dictionary states that this phrase originated by way of allusion to the mechanism of penny-in-the-slot machines. The OED's earliest citation of a use of the phrase with the 'now I understand' meaning, is from The Daily Mirror August 1939: And then the penny dropped, and I saw his meaning! The image of someone waiting for a penny-in-the-slot mechanism (which often jammed) to operate does sound plausible and, if that isn't the origin, it is difficult to imagine what is. British public toilets in 1939 required users to 'spend a penny' in order to unlock the door to get in and that has given rise to speculation that that is the source of the phrase. There's no evidence to support that theory though. Likewise the theory that the expression originated with the 'Button A/Button B' style of telephone boxes, which used coins as payment for calls and which were also in use in 1939. Earlier citations, which make literal reference to actual coins and which are likely precursors of the later figurative use of the phrase, appear in print in the USA from the early 20th century; for example, this piece from the Maryland newspaper, The Daily News, November 1921: The penny dropped [into the weighing scales], the needle started around the figures, and stopped this time on 150.
Has there ever been a more confounding woman writer than Nobel Prize (2007) author Doris Lessing, who died on November 17 at the age of 94? Revered by female fiction and nonfiction writers—and women readers and activists—since her best-known work, The Golden Notebook, published in 1962, leapt to the forefront of our attention, unequaled in her perception and depiction of modern women, she confounded her worldwide audience by rejecting any and all feminist labels throughout her life and career. Reveling in her irascible, pugnacious, and contrarian role, she dismissed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States as “not that terrible” compared with the toll from decades of Irish Republican Army violence. And when she received the Nobel Prize, she declared, “Oh Christ, I couldn’t care less.” She publicly attacked, mocked, and decried the women’s movement at every opportunity, As Phyllis Chesler recently noted, “In an NPR interview with Lessing when she was just shy of her 89th birthday, the writer briskly rejected the label most frequently attached to her as a feminist icon—particularly when applied to her 1962 novel, The Golden Notebook. Lessing told NPR: “Oh, It’s just stupid; I’ve seen it so often. I mean, there’s nothing feminist about The Golden Notebook.” Many of her obituaries noted that she not only said, “I think a lot of romanticizing has gone on with the women’s movement,” but added that “ modern men are ‘cowed’ by women, and men should fight back.” How ironic, then, that so many men never returned the favor. For example, when she received her Nobel Prize, literary critic Harold Bloom said, “This is pure political correctness.” How wrong he was. Doris Lessing—born in Persia (now Iran) in 1919, raised on a farm in Southern Rhodesia, and largely self-educated after dropping out of high school at the age of 14— is one of the great writers of our age, her many prizes well deserved. But like many geniuses from Norman Mailer to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, her strengths were also her weaknesses. She was an unconventional and original thinker, but her search for sweeping ideologies often led her astray. Though a staunch anti-apartheid fighter, she remained a Communist decades after most had rejected Communism—until after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956—and then embraced the ideas of London’s radical psychiatrist R.D. Laing. His “belief that schizophrenia is a sane reaction to an insane world created a near-romantic idealization of madness,” declared writer Lesley Hazelton. Whatever her limitations as a political thinker, psychologically, when it came to her fictional characters, Lessing was brilliantly right. This was evident in her very first novel, published in 1950, The Grass Is Singing, a haunting depiction of a white, married woman’s mental disintegration in apartheid Africa. Lessing’s brilliance was subsequently confirmed in her sublime autobiographical quintet of related novels, Children of Violence, three of which were written and published in England before The Golden Notebook. The first two Children of Violence books, Martha Quest and A Proper Marriage, were published in the U.S. as one volume in 1964, and if you’ve never read them, you have a treat in store for you. Unlike The Golden Notebook, which piled up various identities of its central character, Anna Wulf, Children of Violence is a series of realistic novels that move chronologically. Their form suited the author’s ambition, which was nothing less than capturing a universal cycle of female behavior and experience, from adolescence to middle age. Martha’s quest is not simply her own. She partakes of the eternal experiences of women in her era—courtship, marriage, childbearing (and it is a childbirth scene unequaled in contemporary literature), motherhood, divorce, departure from the provinces to a new, urban life and home. I fell under Lessing’s spell in the 1960s and, decade after decade, have continued to marvel at her insights into the human heart and the relationship between men and women. Doris Lessing was a remarkably prolific writer, pouring forth more than 55 works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, among them some extraordinary collections of short stories and novellas, including The Grandmothers, a provocative little bombshell of a short novel recently made into a film, Adore (directed by Anne Fontaine)—in which two women, lifelong friends, fall in love with each other’s son and carry on romantic relationships with them, even after the boys marry. She also wrote, under a pseudonym, two splendid novels about aging, to see if anyone would publish them on their own merit. Most publishers turned them down. Today, they can be found under the title Diaries of Jane Somers. Published in the 1980s, they revealed, among other things, a humane National Health Service in the U.K. far in advance of anything we still offer in the U.S. Anyone who has followed Lessing’s career and—through biographies and an autobiography—tumultuous private life, understands that one can admire and respect the work but not necessarily the person. Michiko Kakutani, reviewing the autobiography, said Lessing’s “matter-of-fact tone” leaves “ . . . a vivid if somewhat chilling picture of the author as a self-absorbed and heedless young woman.” In the past, it was considered unseemly for women to admit that, like men, they were aggressive, domineering, selfish, and driven in their work and careers. Fortunately, gone are the days when women pretended their careers “just happened” or they were “lucky.” Now we know that in her life, Lessing, like equally ambitious male novelists, such as Philip Roth and Saul Bellow, was a mix of charm and ruthlessness. Bob Gottlieb, her editor at Simon & Schuster, once described Lessing’s “willfulness and stubbornness” as being one of her many virtues. She was so fiercely inner-directed and emotionally detached that Gottlieb’s criticisms, like others’, never fazed her. She went her own way. She replaced her fierce belief in Communism with Sufism and wrote obscure sci-fi type novels which few critics—including this one—admired. Lessing famously adored her cats (and wrote about them), but, as she said, “People don’t purr.” According to Carole Klein, her biographer, Lessing was deprived of mother love. Klein suggests that this gave her strength and independence, but also provided an emptiness she filled with fantasy and storytelling. In my view, a hallmark of Lessing’s female characters is that they have many “selves” and are trying to figure out who they really are. So, paradoxically, while Lessing appears to have been a single-minded and controlling personality, her characters do not appear to be that way at all. In fact, their striving to figure out who they are strikes a universal chord in contemporary women who are constantly juggling their many selves. Lessing seems to have embraced old age. She acknowledged her sorrow at no longer being pretty, but as a writer insisted that there are many advantages to being older and unnoticed. Yet at midlife, she did have an affair with a much younger man and wrote about it in Love, Again. One senses that certain subjects, like love, aging, and parenting, were itches that she continued to creatively scratch. The definitive biography of Lessing has yet to be written. Nevertheless, what is blazingly clear is that instead of being defeated by her difficult childhood, unloving mother, and lack of formal education, she overcame these circumstances, was strengthened by them, and drew upon them in an imaginative way to become one of the outstanding writers of our era. For now, we are left with a powerful, daring, and moving body of work that will be read and reread by generations of grateful readers for decades to come.
Why parents should make sure their kids are listening to appropriate media! Videos and TV Watching too much violence in Cartoons make a child more likely to be aggressive, care less about seeing other people get hurt, and can make them think the world is a scarier place. · 61%of TV shows are violent · 40% of violent scenes on TV include humor · 54% of the violence is lethal · 51% of TV violence shows no pain The number of hours the average child spends in front of the TV by the time they finish high school, if they watch only three hours a day, is 18,000 hours. Compare this to the 13,000 hours they spend in the classroom. Fourteen to sixteen year olds who watch one to three hours of television a day are 60% more likely to be involved in assaults and fights as adults then those who watch less TV. Watching a lot of TV like our family, you see a lot of commercial s for junk food and stuff. You sit there shoving food down your throat, so you become a ’’couch- potato. ‘’ you could choose to play outside, using your imagination, playing with friends, or enjoying a bike ride around the neighborhood instead of sitting on your lazy butt on the couch and watching cartoon reruns. TV shows make sex, smoking, drinking, and violence look glamorous. Kids prefer real life shows but they usually don’t understand the plot and the violence scares them (children8-12 are most frightened by realistic violence).This fear and its effects can last until they’re adults. TV in kid’s rooms is linked with difficulty with sleeping and nightmares. Children under the age of 2 should not watch TV at all or even have it playing in the background. Gender identity begins in toddler ages. A pre-teen becomes aware of what society’s standards are for the ‘’ideal body.’’ Children learn what people think they should be like. Girls are taught to be focused on makeup and boys, instead of being adventuresome. On TV they are shown in typical female or unpaid jobs. “How they look” is more important than “What they do.” Out of girls 9 and 10 years old, 40% of these girls have tried to lose weight. The amount of time an adolescent watches soap operas, movies and music video is associated with their degree of body dissatisfaction and desire to be thin. At the age thirteen, 53% of American girls are ‘’unhappy with their bodies.’’ This grows to 78% by the time girls reach seventeen. The thing about video games is the violence, often trying to get you to kill people and you get rewarded if you do, or breaking laws by speeding and driving recklessly. Video games are more realistic and scary then TV. Video games get you to practice hurting and killing people over and over again. Watching others play games leads to greater aggressive feelings and behaviors (maybe because you are frustrated because you can’t do anything). Kids imitate the tough and bad languages they hear on TV. They are not learning to use complicated thoughts and their imagination. Texting has all but destroyed spelling and grammar. The lyrics use bad language and bad messages. Although kids don’t always listen to the lyrics to their favorite songs, the people singing the song and dancing have a greater impact because they’re impossible to ignore. They also dress really inappropriately. So if you like certain songs, you think that you should dress like that because you want to look like your favorite singer. Your brain holds a special place for music (think how many songs you can memorize compared to speeches). It affects your behavior and mood in powerful ways. While most kids imitate aggressive behavior learned from watching hours and hours of media, it is good to know that children are more likely to copy positive behavior - 87% of kids mimic positive behavior. So when parents limit TV time, and give kids appropriate media (Music, videos, books …etc.), they are doing this because they love their kids and want to help them.
I understand that the construction Aつもりで means "with the intention of doing A". However, I've seen in several fonts that when A is a verb, it can be both in the た form or the dictionary (る) form. I've also asked a native Japanese person about it, but she couldn't explain the difference to me, but rather just confirm that in some example sentences I have, only one of the possibilities makes sense. So there must be a difference. The examples are: "My father bought a piece of land with the intention of building a house." "Saving money with the intention of going on a trip." I think that this answer is related to my problem, but I can't make sense of "with imagination as if you had bought it", either. Thank you in advance!
Fact Sheet: Pests and Solutions Presenter: Josh Byrne, 16/12/2006 Josh suggests some organic pest controls Pests are a normal part of every garden. They come and go with the seasons without really causing too much drama. In healthy gardens, they are kept in check by birds, frogs and lizards as well as beneficial predatory and parasitic insects. But keeping plants in good shape is crucial, because weak, sick and stressed plants are more prone to attack. Cultural practices like crop rotation and companion planting further reduce the risk of attack. Traps and barriers can be used to protect vulnerable plants such as seedlings. As a last resort make organic sprays to cure particular outbreaks. Look on olive trees, citrus or passionfruit vines and you'll probably find black scale. These sucking insects gather on leaves and stems and can quickly build up to the point where they stunt plant growth. Scales shoot a sweet substance called honeydew. Ants literally farm the scale to feed on the honeydew. They'll pick them up and they'll move them all over the tree. Honeydew also leads to sooty mould, a black dusty fungus that grows over the leaves and stems. Controlling the scale will also get rid of the sooty mould. If you only have a small amount of scale, scrape it off with a fingernail or toothbrush. Larger infestations can be controlled by spraying with an oil to suffocate them. Make the oil spray by blending two cups of vegetable oil with one cup of pure liquid soap, and mix it until it turns white. Dilute one tablespoon of the emulsion to one litre of water and spray all affected areas thoroughly. Do this during mild weather, because if it's hot it may burn the plantís leaves. Mealy bug is another common sucking insect that's around at the moment. Mealy bugs like sheltered conditions and are commonly found on plants under patios, in glass and shade houses as well as indoor plants. Being sap suckers, they cause the leaves to wilt and distort. They also produce honeydew, which leads to sooty mould fungus, also farmed by ants. The big ones can just be squashed with your fingers, but dab the little ones with methylated spirits. This dissolves the waxy coating, which causes them to dehydrate and die. Citrus leaf miner is a common pest during summer and autumn affecting all citrus. The larvae tunnels in the leaf, forming a squiggly silvery window pattern. When it's fully grown, it curls the edges of the leaf together and pupates to emerge as a small moth about five millimetres in length. The moth is only active at night, so it's rarely seen and its lifecycle may take as little as three weeks. The leaves often become severely distorted, which can stunt growth and reduce yield, but rarely kill a tree. Damage is normally on new sappy growth and can be controlled by cutting off and destroying the damaged parts. Citrus leaf miner like warm weather, so fertilise citrus at the end of autumn and in early winter so the new growth won't be attacked. During warm weather, you can also protect new growth by spraying with an oil spray, similar to that for scale. Slugs and snails are common garden pests and can cause damage, particularly to young seedlings, but it's surprisingly easy to keep numbers down. Set some beer traps. Just half fill a jar with beer and lay on its side, where slugs and snails are likely to strike. They will be attracted to it. They'll crawl in there for a drink, get drunk, and die. It's also a good idea to lay traps in cool, damp places where snails hide. If you can't stand to waste beer, try coffee spray. This is an idea borrowed from Jerry Coleby-Williams, and it works a treat. One part really strong espresso coffee to 10 parts water, and spray the seedlings and surrounding soil thoroughly. The slugs and snails cross, it absorb the caffeine and die. You have to reapply after rain or irrigation. Some natural sprays can be harmful. For example, pyrethrum is actually quite poisonous until it breaks down. Chilli and garlic spray, used to control aphids, can be painful if it gets in your eyes. Always label containers, even if they're harmless, and keep out of reach of children. Remember, even natural sprays should only be used as a last resort, because they can also harm beneficial insects, some of which help keep pest insects under control. Information contained in this fact sheet is a summary of material included in the program. If further information is required, please contact your local nursery or garden centre. Copyright Restrictions: This fact sheet is for private and domestic information purposes only. It may not be copied, reproduced, sold or used for any other purpose without the express permission of the ABC.
The Alaskan husky is not so much a breed of dog as it is a type or a category. It falls short of being a breed in that there is no preferred type and no restriction as to ancestry; it is defined only by its purpose, which is that of a highly efficient sled dog. more... That said, dog drivers usually distinguish between the Alaskan husky and â€śhound crossesâ€ť, so perhaps there is informal recognition that the Alaskan husky is expected to display a degree of northern dog type. The Alaskan is the sled dog of choice for world-class dogsled racing competition. None of the purebred northern breeds can match it for sheer racing speed. Demanding speed-racing events such as the Fairbanks (Alaska) Open North American Championship and the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous are invariably won by teams of Alaskan huskies, or of Alaskans crossed with hounds or gundogs. Hounds are valued for their toughness and endurance. Winning speeds often average more than 19 miles per hour over three days' racing at 20 to 30 miles each day. On the rare occasion when purebred teams are entered in such races, they nearly always finish last. Alaskan huskies that fulfill the demanding performance standards of world-class dogsled racing can be extremely valuable. A top-level racing lead dog can bring $10,000-15,000. Conversely, dogs that fail to perform effectively are worth nothing, and the high levels of culling practiced in many kennels are strongly condemned with animal rights activists. The Alaskan husky is basically a mixed-breed dog, in which northern or husky-type ancestry, such as the Siberian Husky or the traditional Alaskan village dog, predominates. Many other breeds have contributed to its genetic makeup, from staghound and foxhound to greyhound and Dobermann, which accounts for the Alaskan's great variability of appearance. Alaskan huskies (at least those used for speed racing) are moderate in size, averaging perhaps 46 to 50 pounds for males and 38 to 42 pounds for females. They often resemble racing strains of the Siberian Husky breed (which is undeniably a major component of the Alaskan husky genetic mix) but are usually taller and leggier with more pronounced tuck-up. Colour and markings are a matter of total indifference to racing drivers; hence the husky may be of any possible canine colour and any pattern of markings. Eyes may be of any colour and, as in the Siberian Husky, are often light blue. Coats are almost always short to medium in length, never long, and usually less dense than the coats of northern purebreds; coat length is governed by the need for effective heat dissipation while racing. In very cold conditions, Alaskans often race in â€śdog coatsâ€ť or belly protectors. Particularly in long distance races, these dogs often require â€śdog bootiesâ€ť to protect their feet from abrasion and cracking. Thus the considerations of hardiness and climate resistance prevalent in breeds such as the Siberian Husky and Canadian Inuit Dog are subordinated in the Alaskan husky to the overriding consideration of functional capability. The Alaskan huskies lack the dense coat required to keep them warm, and they are not as hardy as Siberians, often requiring extra care on the trails. Andre Nadeau says this is the reason his Siberians did so well in the 1998 Yukon Quest, where he led nearly the whole race until being passed by a team of Alaskan huskies. Read more at Wikipedia.org
Small unmanned spacecraft with electric solar sail. Space Colonization Journal, Issue 8, 2014. Abstract. It is proposed schematic design of unmanned spacecraft (SC) for the study of distant regions in the solar system, including small bodies of the Kuiper Belt, and its engine-power plant – electric solar sail (ESS). The use of such solar sails in Earth orbits is not expected because of “littered” near-Earth space. Proposed spacecraft such as “Electric solar sail” with ESS are nano-satellites (up to 50 kg) spacecraft “budget” cost level that allows them to launch a massive object of interest and make non-critical for solving the possibility of individual devices loss. SC must have high reliability and resistance factors of space, with long working ability.
How the process works DOWNLOAD OUR HOMEBUYER’S MORTGAGE GUIDE History of South Ogden, UT The area was settled by members of the Mormon pioneers. Daniel Burch and his family arrived in Brownsville (Ogden) in 1848. Burch came from Kentucky with the Lorenzo Snow company of Utah pioneers. In 1850 the area was named Burch Creek in his honor. In 1852 the Weber Canal was built and Burch built a gristmill near its source in what is now Riverdale. The Ogden City Council founded a six-room isolation facility for smallpox patients in Burch Creek in 1882. The area was a farming community with several dairy farms. There was little development until 1890 when extensive investments in land, both residential and commercial, took place. Burch Creek Elementary and Junior High School was built in 1897. It was the first school in the area and was considered one of the most modern in the state. The first church building, the Ogden LDS 14th Ward, was erected in 1925. In the 1930s Burch Creek was a farming community of about 800 people in need of more water. The water supply was augmented in 1934, a year of serious drought, when the Federal Drought Relief Agency financed the installation of a water supply line from Burch Creek Canyon. The question of annexing Burch Creek to Ogden was raised many times, but each time the proposal was rejected by a majority of the people. Burch Creek was in need of a sewer system, more water, roads, and sidewalks. In 1936 a committee petitioned Weber County commissioners to allow incorporation. The petition was granted and on July 6, 1936 the town of South Ogden was established. South Ogden’s close location to Hill Air Force Base and the Ogden Arsenal led to a housing boom in the 1940s. By 1946 the population exceeded 3,600, and South Ogden became known as the “City of Homes.” The largest growth for the city came in the 1950s, at which time it grew by 150 percent. Because of this new growth, a new municipal building was constructed. The building also housed a fire station, and a new 1953 fire truck was purchased. Washington Boulevard was widened to four lanes south of 40th Street. Geography and Demographics South Ogden, UT According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 3.7 square miles (9.5 km2), all land. As of the census of 2000, there were 14,377 people, 5,193 households, and 3,873 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,917.1 people per square mile (1,512.5/km2). There were 5,459 housing units at an average density of 1,487.3 per square mile (574.3/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 91.51% White, 0.74% African American, 0.70% Native American, 1.45% Asian, 0.27% Pacific Islander, 3.18% from other races, and 2.15% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 7.35% of the population. There were 5,193 households, out of which 34.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.9% were married couples living together, 10.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.4% were non-families. 20.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.73 and the average family size was 3.18. In the city, the population was spread out, with 27.3% under the age of 18, 11.7% from 18 to 24, 25.2% from 25 to 44, 20.1% from 45 to 64, and 15.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.4 males. The median income for a household in the city was $46,794, and the median income for a family was $52,471. Males had a median income of $40,611 versus $25,856 for females. The per capita income for the city was $20,662. About 3.1% of families and 5.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.3% of those under age 18 and 2.8% of those age 65 or over. 2564 Washington Blvd, Ogden, UT 84401 Whether you are a seasoned real estate investor or a first-time homebuyer, we know what it is like to apply for a mortgage and we strive hard never to forget that feeling. We’re excited for the opportunity to earn your trust by offering the right mortgage for your unique financial scenario, providing competitive & fair pricing, and by making sure you are properly communicated to so you have the information you need to know.
We were looking for British kahoots to play along with our new Brit-inspired Kahoot! theme music, and came across this fantastic kahoot by brookeajackson: Who, What, Wear: British Fashion in the 1930s and 40s. Here’s why we thought it was a great kahoot to play, plus a few tips on how to adapt or play it. 1. What a great title! When you’ve worked hard to create an awesome kahoot, it deserves to be played by as many people as possible. Think about what will make your learning game stand out from the crowd, especially when it’s for a popular subject. This Kahoot!’er used a descriptive title to make the game super easy to find, plus a catchy little play on words to reel in players. Nice. 2. The clues are in the photos No matter what the subject, we always recommend using high quality photos and videos – not only do they increase engagement, but they also help crystallize concepts for people who are more visual learners. In this kahoot, brookeajackson takes the use of images a step further by getting players to scrutinise them to correctly answer a question. TOP TIP: Make the photo questions even trickier using “image reveal” animated gifs – here’s how! Remember to click the Full Screen button (top right) before or during gameplay to make the most of your pictures. 3. We learned lots! We love how the questions themselves are peppered with interesting facts and discussion prompts, giving us many more opportunities to learn something new. Take the question below for example – just by the way the question was phrased, we learned that this person won a Nobel Prize, which prompted some thinking and research about what the Nobel Prize was for, and discussion about pioneering women in science. Wow. Tips for playing or adapting this kahoot: - Embed video clips from AP Archive’s Fashion archive on YouTube (it’s free to use) – there are interviews with fashion icons and young designers, fabulous catwalk moments, features about shoes through the ages, and much more. Just duplicate the kahoot, edit, and then either add new questions or swap the existing images with the videos you want to use. - British Fashion is a popular topic all around the world – why not connect with some friends on a video call (for example, Appear.In, Google Hangouts or Skype) and launch the game on a shared screen? - Use this kahoot as a prompt to delve into wider discussions, such as how world events, politics and music affect fashion!
Fatty acid fuels epilepsy breakthrough Researchers in Australia and US have made a discovery they hope will lead to a new treatment for epilepsy. The scientists found that feeding mice with a diet composed of 17 per cent of a rare fatty acid protected them against epilepsy seizures. Dr Karin Borges from the University of Queensland says they do not know how the oil works but they are hoping to find out and trial it on humans. "We tried to test our hypothesis, but at the moment it seems that our hypothesis was wrong, but the oil worked for seizures anyway. So now it's a big question - how does the oil work?" she said. "We're hoping to find the mechanism of action of this oil and then hopefully we can develop something in pill form that's easier to take than 90 millilitres of oil per day. "I think it will be a breakthrough for patients who have epilepsy and don't respond to drugs." It is estimated nearly one-third of patients do not respond to the available drugs.
Students from Ontario's Carleton University, Algonquin College and Queen's University have joined forces to enter a prestigious U.S. competition that will challenge their skills, creativity and ingenuity while they build a solar-powered house of the future. Called the Solar Decathlon, the decade-old competition, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, attracts dozens of applicants worldwide every two years. Twenty are chosen to compete over 10 days in 10 categories from energy balance and architecture to market appeal and home entertainment. The winning team will be the one judged to best blend affordability, consumer appeal and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency. "It's pretty exciting," says Chris Baldwin, Carleton's student project manager. "It builds the image of the schools and the programs involved and it gives us a lot of experience as well." The local group, called Team Ontario, has spent upwards of three years preparing its proposal, but now the real work begins. The 50 or so students involved have 18 months to finalize a modular design for a single-storey home of about 1,000 square feet and then build it here before taking it all down, shipping it on a flatbed truck for 4,500 kilometres and spending about a week putting it back together at the com-petition site in California. Depending on their level of involvement, Carleton faculty adviser Cynthia Cruickshank estimates they "could easily spend at least 30 hours per week on the project and then during the summer time, it'll be at least 60 hours a week." The aim of the competition is to bring clean-energy products and technology into the mainstream, educating both students and the public along the way. Baldwin, a 22-year-old mechanical engineering graduate student with an interest in solar thermal technology, says the main focus of Team Ontario's design "is to create a house that a starter family could use, young adults with one or two young kids, that could be affordable for the next generation." Called Aurora House, the concept plan calls for a home that can trans-form from a bachelor pad to a one bedroom and then a two-bedroom home as the family grows. Although the design of the house may change over the next several months, it has a contemporary, open-concept look that takes advantage of natural ventilation, photovoltaic panels, super-insulated walls and floors and rainwater recovery. Automated windows and shades will adjust as needed to either block or allow in the sun's rays. The group aims to include technologies that exist now but may not be widely available. They'll determine the most efficient systems and materials for insulation, hot water, appliances, home entertainment and storm water use, says Cruickshank, an assistant professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department. "In the process, students will have applied their classroom knowledge to create viable, real-world solutions for energy-efficient housing — and inspired the public to demand more from the next generation of homes." This is the first time the Team Ontario institutions have been accepted, although they applied for the 2011 competition, and the group is one of just two Canadian teams participating (the other is a returning group from the University of Calgary). It combines students from architecture, skilled trades, engineering and business across all three institutions. Although some of the students may graduate before the competition takes place, they tend to stay with the project, says Cruickshank. "It's one of those projects where once you start, it's really hard not to continue with it." Why the partnership of the three schools? "Queen's and Carleton have been collaborating for quite some time on different solar projects to begin with so it was a natural fit," says Cruickshank. "And Algonquin, they are very good for their practical experience. It's just a really nice fit with a lot of expertise around the table for the three of us to be all together." They're still figuring out where they'll build the home, she says, but they're hoping to utilize Algonquin's Perth campus and start construction by January. "It's really a chance to get your hands dirty, get to think outside the box, to really challenge yourself to do something," says Cruickshank before adding with a laugh, "It's very addictive."
What Does Industrial Internet Consortium Mean? The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) is a nonprofit, open-membership organization established with the goal of accelerating the development and availability of intelligent industrial automation systems for the common good. It was founded in 2014 by AT&T, Cisco, GE, Intel and IBM to further the development and global adoption of interconnected machines and intelligent analytics, and, especially, to enhance collaboration between people in different industries. Techopedia Explains Industrial Internet Consortium The IIC not only advocates the standardization of various protocols and processes on the Internet, but also seeks to better lives by fostering the development and implementation of smart technologies like self-navigating cars that can help prevent accidents and lessen traffic, or health monitoring systems that can work from anywhere so that a patient with certain conditions does not need to stay in the hospital or may just stay at home for observation. The consortium aims to do these through the convergence of technology and intelligent data in what it calls the “Industrial Internet.” The role of the organization is to catalyze, coordinate and manage collaborative efforts between industries, academia and governments in order to accelerate the growth of the Industrial Internet. The goals of the consortium are as follows: - Use existing and also create new use cases and test beds for real-world applications - Influence global standards processes for industrial systems and the Internet - Deliver reference architecture and standards, best practices and case studies in order to ease the development and deployment of interconnected technologies - Facilitate open forums for people in industry and academia to exchange real-world ideas, insights, lessons and best practices - Foster confidence in new and innovative security approaches
Kalanchoe beharensis, or Elephant's Ear Kalanchoe, is a woody, succulent shrub native to Madagascar. Plants are pretty large in stature, reaching 12 feet (3 m) in height under the right conditions. The large opposite leaves are triangular, nearly hastate, and irregularly lobed, reaching from 5-14 inches (12.5-35 cm) long by 3-14 inches (7.6-35 cm) wide. Leaves are covered with dense felt-like hairs with mature leaves having a rusty color on top and silvery underneath. Leaves are usually crowded at the tips of branches. Elephant's Ear Kalanchoe is very easy to culture and makes an interesting plant in any collection. Blooming: In spring to summer, the small yellowish blooms form on terminal racemes. They are not particularly showy. Culture: Kalanchoe beharensis need full sun to partial shade, with intermediate to warm temperatures. In the greenhouse, we use a soil mixture consisting of equal parts of loam and sand, with small gravel added to ensure good drainage. The plants should be watered thoroughly and allowed to dry before watering again. These plants will survive on neglect. Over-watering is the most common cause of plant failure. During the growing season, we water plants about every other month and no fertilizer is added. In the winter months, water is restricted to about once during this period. Propagation: Kalanchoe beharensis is propagated by removal of small offsets at the base of the main plant or by leaf and stem cuttings. Kalanchoe beharensis was featured as Plant of the Week January 21-27, 2005. Guide to Past Plants-of-the-Week: Cal's Plant of the Week was provided as a service by the University of Oklahoma Department of Microbiology & Plant Biology and specifically the late Cal Lemke, who used to be OU's botany greenhouse grower and an avid gardener at home as well. If the above links don't work, then try the overview site. You may also like to look at the thumbnail index. ©1998-2012 All rights reserved.
1280 Main Street West, Welcome to the Early Autism Study. We are inviting infants to come into the lab for four visits in their first year of life. These young babies are helping us to study autism by spending just a few minutes looking at faces, eyes, emotions and dots “playing” on a computer screen. While these babies are looking at the computer, we measure what they are looking at. We can tell what they are looking at because we have “eye tracker” equipment to measure light reflected from their eyes. This gives us a very early measure of a baby’s social development. We want to find early signs of autism. This study started in the spring of 2005, after a couple of years in development. We have only just begun to have enough data from which to draw any conclusions. The exciting thing is that our early results indicate that the measures work! Our ultimate goal is to be able to predict which of the young babies visiting our lab will develop autism, but in order to do that, we need more people to participate. Do you have a young baby, early in his or her first year of life? We are especially interested in babies who have autism in the family. Does your baby have a sibling with autism? Come visit our lab, or we can visit you! Join the Early Autism Study! Very little is known about autism in the first year of life. Autism is often diagnosed when a child is three or four or even older. There aren’t reliable tests of autism for very young babies, which is why we are working hard to create one. Earlier diagnosis means earlier treatment, and earlier treatment means better outcomes for most children. We are hoping that if enough young babies join our Early Autism Study, we will be able to create a tool for the early detection of autism. We hope to be able to identify autism in the first year. Take some time to explore our Early Autism Study web site. On this site, you will find some helpful information about autism, and what autism might look like in a young baby. You can also find some helpful resources for parents who have a young child with autism. You’ll be able to find resources in Ontario, as well as resources for working with your child on your own. You’ll also find information on your day in the lab, if you decide to participate in the Early Autism Study. You’ll find a map, parking information and some nice pictures of babies in our study! The information on this web site is not medical advice. You should consult with a licensed clinician to develop your treatment plan. The principal investigator of this study is Dr. Rutherford, Ph.D, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, and Canada Research Chair in Social Perception. Dr. Rutherford heads a dynamic research laboratory at McMaster University, 2004 Research University of the Year.
The Importance of Work-Life Balance in Reducing Stress We are often caught up in our professional lives and tend to neglect the importance of finding a balance between our work and personal lives. This can lead to a multitude of negative consequences, including stress, burnout, and even physical injury. It is essential to understand what work-life balance is and how it affects us so that we can take the necessary steps towards achieving it. What is Work-Life Balance Work-life balance refers to the equilibrium between an individual’s professional responsibilities and their personal life. It involves managing time between work-related tasks such as meeting deadlines, attending meetings, and carrying out assignments, while also prioritizing one’s health, relationships with family and friends, hobbies or interests outside of work. A common misconception about work-life balance is that it implies spending an equal amount of time on both areas. However, this is not always possible or desirable for everyone. Instead, achieving work-life balance means finding a sustainable way to meet professional demands without compromising one’s mental health or personal life. Importance of Work-Life Balance in Reducing Stress The negative effects of stress on the body have been well-documented in scientific literature. In today’s fast-paced world where technology enables us to be connected 24/7; it becomes more challenging than ever before to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Stress triggers the release of hormones such as cortisol that can lead to various physical conditions such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, obesity and poor sleep quality which eventually results in decreased productivity at work. Furthermore, stress can also adversely impact mental health leading to anxiety disorders or depression. This creates a vicious cycle where individuals are unable to perform well at their job due to mental exhaustion caused by long working hours which then leads them into seeking quick fixes like alcohol or drugs for relief thereby further aggravating the issue. Achieving work-life balance is crucial for maintaining good health and well-being while also being productive at work. The next section will delve deeper into the negative effects of work-related stress on our physical and mental health. The Negative Effects of Work-Related Stress Physical effects on the body Work-related stress can have a significant impact on one’s physical health. It can lead to various health problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. Additionally, individuals who experience work-related stress may develop unhealthy habits such as poor eating habits or skipping meals, lack of exercise or physical activity, and difficulty sleeping. These unhealthy behaviors can further exacerbate the negative physical effects of stress. Other physical symptoms caused by work-related stress include headaches, muscle tension or pain, fatigue and exhaustion, and gastrointestinal problems like irritable bowel syndrome. These symptoms may vary from person to person depending on their susceptibility to stress. Mental health effects The negative effects of work-related stress are not limited to one’s physical health but also extend to their mental well-being. Stress increases the risk for developing depression and anxiety disorders that can affect one’s ability to function in daily life. Individuals who experience work-related stress may exhibit signs such as mood swings or irritability that can negatively impact their professional relationships with colleagues. They may also struggle with concentration and decision-making abilities leading to reduced productivity at work. Another aspect of work-related stress is that it has an impact on an individual’s personal relationships outside of work. The constant pressure and demands at work often leave them fatigued and emotionally drained which leads them unable to engage fully in family activities or social events outside of the workplace. Stressful situations at the workplace may cause emotions like anger or frustration that they bring home with them affecting their interactions with their family members negatively Additionally, individuals experiencing high levels of job strain might feel too overwhelmed by professional responsibilities leaving no enough room for quality time with family members leading to marital conflicts. It’s essential to note that the negative effects of work-related stress don’t surface overnight but accumulate over time. The longer an individual experiences high levels of job strain, the greater their chances of developing physical or mental health problems. Hence, it is crucial for people to learn how to manage their stress and strike a balance between work and personal life to maintain good health and well-being. Strategies for Achieving Work-Life Balance Time management techniques Effective time management is vital to achieving work-life balance. One of the most significant contributors to work-related stress is feeling overwhelmed by a never-ending to-do list Time management techniques can help combat this and reduce stress levels. One useful technique for managing time is to prioritize tasks based on their importance and deadline. This involves breaking down tasks into smaller, more manageable chunks and scheduling them at times when you’re most productive. Another effective time management technique is the Pomodoro Technique, which involves working for set periods (usually 25 minutes) with short breaks in between. Setting boundaries between work and personal life In today’s digital age, it can be difficult to separate work life from personal life, leading to increased stress levels. Setting clear boundaries between these two areas of your life can significantly improve your work-life balance. For example, you might choose not to check your emails or take calls outside of working hours or dedicate certain evenings each week as family time only. Another way to set boundaries is by creating a designated workspace within the home that’s separate from leisure areas like the living room or bedroom if possible.. This helps create a mental separation between work and personal life – when you leave your workspace at the end of the day/shift it signals the end of your working day and tells you it’s now okay to relax. Prioritizing self-care activities Self-care activities such as exercise, meditation or mindfulness practices are important strategies for achieving a healthy work-life balance. They help reduce stress levels by promoting feelings of relaxation and well-being while also helping maintain overall physical health. It’s essential that self-care becomes an integral part of daily life rather than something that’s done sporadically or only when there’s free time available – because there rarely is. For instance, you could make it a habit to meditate for 10-15 minutes each morning before starting your day or take a lunchtime walk to clear your head and recharge. The strategies mentioned here are not mutually exclusive; in fact, they work best when used together. Prioritizing self-care activities will help you manage stress levels, which helps establish clearer boundaries between work and personal life. Setting boundaries allows for more free time, which can be used for health-promoting activities like exercise or even just spending time with family and friends. Ultimately, creating a healthy work-life balance requires effort and commitment on your part – no one else can do it for you. By utilizing effective time management techniques, setting clear boundaries between work and personal life, prioritizing self-care activities, and combining these strategies as needed – achieving balance becomes more attainable. Benefits of Work-Life Balance Increased Productivity at Work It may seem counterintuitive, but taking time away from work can often lead to increased productivity. When employees are overworked and stressed, they are more likely to make mistakes and experience burnout. By prioritizing a healthy work-life balance, employees can avoid these negative effects and come to work feeling refreshed and energized. This leads to improved performance, focus, and efficiency on the job In fact, a study by the American Psychological Association found that employees who have a good balance between their work life and personal life are more engaged in their jobs. They also report higher levels of job satisfaction compared to those who don’t prioritize work-life balance. Improved Mental and Physical Health One of the most significant benefits of achieving a healthy work-life balance is improved mental health. Chronic stress from overworking can lead to anxiety disorders or depression over time. When an employee feels overwhelmed with their workload or feels like they never have time for themselves, it can negatively impact their overall well-being. By incorporating activities outside of work into one’s daily routine, such as exercise or hobbies, it promotes mental clarity while also boosting physical health. Exercise releases endorphins which promote happiness while reducing stress levels in the body. Better Relationships with Family and Friends When individuals prioritize maintaining a healthy balance between their personal lives with family and friends alongside their professional careers; this translates into better relationships with loved ones outside of the workplace. Work-related burnout not only affects an individual’s mental health but can also cause strain on personal relationships due to neglecting spending quality time with loved ones outside of working hours. Maintaining open communication with family members or friends about priorities allows for scheduling activities where everyone can participate together without interfering in other schedules. Furthermore, this positive relationship reinforcement creates a positive feedback loop that promotes work-life balance, enhancing mental and emotional well-being. Maintaining a healthy work-life balance provides numerous benefits that span from an individual’s personal life to their professional career. Improved mental and physical health, better relationships with family and friends, along with increased productivity at work are all healthy byproducts of balancing life’s demands. It is essential for employers to encourage and promote practices that foster a healthy lifestyle while giving employees sufficient time off, flexible scheduling arrangements or access to employee support programs. When individuals prioritize their work-life balance, they prioritize their overall well-being. Implementing Work-Life Balance in the Workplace Company policies promoting work-life balance Workplace policies promoting work-life balance can play a significant role in reducing stress levels among employees. These policies can include flexible working hours, job sharing, and telecommuting options. One effective policy is to provide paid time off for personal reasons, such as attending a child’s school event or taking care of a sick family member. This allows employees to take care of their personal responsibilities without worrying about losing pay or their job. Another policy that can promote work-life balance is providing access to wellness programs such as gym memberships, nutrition counseling, and mental health services. These programs can help employees manage stress and improve their physical and mental wellbeing. It is important for companies to communicate these policies effectively to all employees in order to ensure they are aware of the resources available to them. Employers should also regularly evaluate the effectiveness of these policies and make adjustments as needed based on employee feedback. Flexible working arrangements Flexible working arrangements have become increasingly popular in recent years due to their ability to promote work-life balance for employees. These arrangements can include flexible hours, job sharing, part-time work, and telecommuting options. Flexible hours allow employees to adjust their schedules based on personal needs such as caring for children or attending medical appointments. Job sharing allows two people to share one full-time position which provides greater flexibility for both individuals while still ensuring continuity in the workplace. Part-time work is another option that allows employees with personal responsibilities to maintain a healthy work-life balance without sacrificing income or career advancement opportunities. Telecommuting options provide employees with the ability to work from home which can reduce stress associated with commuting and allow for greater flexibility in managing personal commitments. Providing employee support programs In addition to company policies promoting work-life balance and flexible working arrangements, providing employee support programs can be valuable in reducing work-related stress. These programs can include mental health resources such as employee assistance programs (EAPs), counseling services, and stress management workshops. EAPs provide confidential support to employees and their families for a variety of personal and work-related issues. Counseling services can help employees manage stress, anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions. Stress management workshops teach employees coping mechanisms to deal with stress in the workplace. Implementing work-life balance initiatives in the workplace is crucial for reducing employee stress levels Company policies promoting work-life balance, flexible working arrangements, and providing employee support programs are all effective ways to promote a healthy work-life balance for employees. Employers who prioritize these initiatives are likely to see an increase in productivity, morale, and retention among their workforce. A Recap on the Importance of Achieving a Healthy Work-Life Balance to Reduce Stress Achieving a work-life balance is crucial for reducing stress and improving overall well-being. The negative effects of work-related stress can have lasting impacts on both physical and mental health, as well as personal relationships. By implementing strategies such as time management techniques, setting boundaries between work and personal life, and prioritizing self-care activities, individuals can effectively reduce their stress levels and achieve a healthy balance. Final Thoughts on How to Maintain a Balanced Lifestyle Maintaining a balanced lifestyle requires ongoing effort and dedication. It’s important to continuously evaluate one’s priorities and make adjustments as needed to ensure that there is enough time for both work responsibilities and personal activities. This may involve saying “no” to certain commitments or delegating tasks at work in order to free up more time for self-care. Additionally, it’s important to make self-care activities a regular part of one’s routine. This can include exercise, meditation or mindfulness practices, spending time in nature, or simply taking breaks throughout the day to recharge. By prioritizing these activities along with work responsibilities, individuals can achieve greater overall satisfaction with their lives. Overall, achieving a healthy work-life balance is possible with the right mindset and strategies in place. By taking steps to reduce stress levels through effective time management techniques, prioritizing self-care activities, and maintaining clear boundaries between work and personal life, individuals can improve their overall well-being while achieving greater success in their careers and personal lives alike.
However, suicide is often not about wanting to die; it’s that we cannot find a way of living. It is important to remember that depression can significantly alter the way we look at the world – our decision-making processes can become skewed, as it grows ever harder to separate rational thought from depressed thinking. Many people who have attempted suicide, or come close to it, look back with gratitude that they were not successful in acting on their intentions. If we can be supported through this time, most people will gradually find a way out of the dark and begin to see through their suicidal feelings. The key facts to remember here are that suicide is strongly associated with depression and, equally importantly, with support we can begin to find different ways of thinking about ourselves and our problems that don’t include suicide. If you are about to harm yourself or have already done so, phone 999 or get yourself quickly to your local hospital’s A&E (Accident & Emergency). If you feel suicidal now, take a look at our I Need Help Now page for quick, practical things you can do to access help. The pages throughout this site will help you understand depression and anxiety in greater depth, as well as how to access support from those around you, and ways to support yourself. The Importance of Self-Care and Prevention It is not uncommon for people with depression to regularly experience suicidal thoughts (ideation) without any plans of actually acting on them (intent). Talking to someone, such as a trusted friend or member of the family, or a GP or counsellor, can be an important step in supporting yourself. In addition, taking some self-care steps can be vitally important in helping yourself at times of crisis, particularly if you understand the factors that make things worse. Developing for yourself what is known as a ‘Safety Plan’ could save your life. Download the Make A Safety Plan self-help resource here. Other self-help worksheets are also available here: Self-Help Resources You can do this on your own, or with someone. It simply involves making a list of those things that can make your suicidal feelings worse (risk factors), a list of things that can lessen your suicidal feelings (protective factors), and developing a plan around those two lists for you to act on at times of crisis.
It's hard not to notice the increase of bicycles being used for all of their various purposes these days. Bicycles are being used more and more for commuting to work, exercise, recreation and a way to reduce one's carbon footprint. Bike riding is a means of transportation that is very common in other countries around the world and is starting to catch on in the United States. Not only are everyday people buying bikes but there are new bike sharing companies popping up and corporate campuses providing bikes for employees to travel from one side of the campus to the other. With so many bikes on the road that also means there is an opportunity for Bike Mechanics to stay busy. If you're passionate about riding bikes and want to work within the business, a job as a Bike Mechanic is a great choice. In general there are no educational requirements to be a Bicycle Mechanic although most employers will prefer candidates who have a high school diploma. There are a couple well known training programs around the country that do offer Bicycle Mechanic training such as Barnett Bicycle Institute (BBI) and United Bicycle Institute (UBI). These programs will not guarantee you a job but if you're completely new to bicycle maintenance and repair, these programs can be a good way to gain some knowledge. There are also many books on the subject that provide valuable information. Another option, and maybe the best training you could receive, is to work in a bike shop or for a bicycle manufacturer. This would give you the opportunity to work alongside a veteran Bike Mechanic and learn the trade hands on. Even if you're the one selling bikes or parts, you may have an opportunity to assist the mechanic to learn the ins and outs of the jobs. Working as a Bicycle Mechanic, you will likely perform many different tasks. It may be your responsibility to determine the issue when customers bring in bikes that are not working properly. After a thorough inspection, you will need to identify the damaged or worn part(s) that needs repair. In many cases you will need to document the problem and provide an estimate for the total repair costs. You may be building brand new bikes that will be on display and performing basic safety checks to ensure the bike assembly was done correctly and the bike performs as it should. To be truly effective in your position there are some other skills that will benefit. As you will work with a variety of tools during the bike building or repair process, a solid understanding of the proper tools to use and how to correctly use them will be important. It's important to familiarize yourself with types of bikes, as you may be asked to on work on a variety of different bikes such as road bikes, mountain bikes, tandem bikes, BMX bikes. Good interpersonal communication skills will be necessary since you will likely be assisting customers. This is a hand on job that may require a lot of standing for most of the day so good dexterity and ability to stand and lift bikes is necessary. Bike Mechanics can make from $20,000 to $40,000 a year depending on different factors such as location and employer. There are many options for work in this business too. Local bike shops will often employ Bike Mechanics. Sporting Goods stores and even bike manufacturers also hire for Bike Mechanic positions. If you're lucky you may even find a position on a professional biking team where you would be responsible for the ongoing maintenance and repair of team bikes. While you're probably not going to become a millionaire working as a Bicycle Mechanic it does have its rewards. You are helping others in their quest for recreation, exercise and transportation.
This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Germany (cc by-nc-sa 3.0) Licence. In January 1957, a group of physicists from several countries met at the University of North Carolina to discuss the role of gravitation in physics. The program was divided into two broad sections: unquantized and quantized general relativity. The first section included a review of classical relativity, its experimental tests, the initial value problem, gravitational radiation, equations of motion, and unified field theory. The second section included a discussion of the motivation for quantization, the problem of measurement, and the actual techniques for quantization. In both sections the relationship of general relativity to fundamental particles was discussed. In addition there was a session devoted to cosmological questions. A large part of the discussions is reproduced in the present report in an abridged form, followed by a conference summary statement by P. G. Bergmann. The Chapel Hill conference also marked the establishment of the Institute of Field Physics, directed by Bryce and Cécile DeWitt. The conference was the inaugural conference of this institute.
If you can't view this video, please insert this title URL into your browser search box: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kXRz6fPFKY. If you live on a small urban or rural lot, erecting a full-size 80 meter horizontal dipole antenna can be quite a task. In this video from Peter Parker (VK3YE), we learn how to convert a 40 meter horizontal dipole antenna into a serviceable dipole for the 80 meter band. The secret is to add loading coils to both ends of the dipole antenna. Peter supplies the necessary coil winding data, materials list, and tuning procedures to get your old 40 meter dipole working on the 80 meter band. Although this modification won't be as efficient as or capable of the same bandwidth of an 80 meter dipole, this antenna will get you on the air from a small size lot. You may even be able to operate this antenna on the 3rd harmonic of 15 meters, where the 40 meter portion of the dipole will serve as a 3/2 wave length antenna on 15 meters. For the latest Amateur Radio news and information, please visit these websites: http://www.kh6jrm.info (breaking news for radio amateurs). Other sites of interest: http://hawaiisciencedigest.com (science and technology news for radio amateurs). https://hawaiiintelligencedigest.com (trends in geopolitical intelligence, strategic forecasting, politics, terrorism, and cybersecurity). Be sure to check out the blog sidebars for more antenna and propagation articles. Opinions expressed in this blog are mine unless otherwise stated. Thanks for joining us today. Aloha es 73 de Russ (KH6JRM)
- June 4, 2014 For LGBT youth that go to bed at night and stare at the ceiling, sleeplessly wondering what awaits them the next day at school or at church or in their home, anti-LGBT vitriol is commonplace. Words are a powerful tool and when used to injure or demoralize, can incite great harm, particularly on LGBT youth who hear nothing but negativity about being g lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. According to HRC’s groundbreaking youth survey, LGBT youth are twice as likely to report they are harassed, assaulted, kicked or shoved at school. Ninety-two percent say they hear negative messages about being LGBT at school, on the Internet and from peers. LGBT middle school students reported far more harassment than LGBT high school students or straight students. And among middle school LGBT students, 58 percent reported being excluded for being different. Each time a friend, ally, teacher, parent, elected official or role model uses harmful, anti-LGBT language, it sends a powerful message to LGBT youth that they are lesser than. Words can silence and marginalize LGBT youth, affecting their performance at school and dampening their mood. It is up to each and every one of us to ensure that young people can thrive, and that begins with our words. To learn more about HRC’s groundbreaking LGBT youth survey, click here.
Date Built: 1924 Architectural Style: Neoclassical Revival Designer: Curran R. Ellis Other Information: This is Bibb County's fourth courthouse. The first was a one-room building built in 1825, the second was a brick building constructed in 1828. The third was a large, three-story structure with a clock tower, completed in 1870 [see postcard 1, postcard 2, and postcard 3]. The current courthouse was completed in 1924 [see postcard 4.] A jail was added to the top floor in 1926; the entire structure was remodeled in 1940 as a WPA project. The lobby floors are made of marble. County History: Bibb County was created on Dec. 9, 1822, by an act of the General Assembly (Ga. Laws 1822, p. 21). Georgia's 55th county was created from portions of Houston, Jones, Monroe, and Twiggs counties and named for Georgia-born Dr. William Bibb, who was the first elected governor of Alabama. County Seat: Macon [named after former U.S. Speaker of the House and then U.S. Senator from North Carolina Nathaniel Macon -- presumably because of the number of North Carolina settlers who moved into the area following the 1821 Treaty of Indian Spring, in which the Creeks ceded lands between the Ocmulgee and Flint rivers; created and designated county seat of Bibb County on Dec. 23, 1822, and incorporated Dec. 8, 1823]
way families communicate and share storiessuch as reminiscing about a beloved pet that died or recounting episodes from a favorite tripcan have an impact on their childrens well being, according to researchers from Emorys Center for Myth and Ritual in American Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology Robyn Fivush and Charles Howard Candler Professor of Psychology Marshall Duke decided to find out more about family members interactions by recording the mealtime conversations of forty families in metro Atlanta. were encouraged to talk about shared events and experiences (Tell us about a vacation, a family reunion, or the birth or death of a family member), and the children were questioned about their familys history (Do you know how your parents met? Where they grew up? Where they went to school?). observing the families and analyzing transcripts, Fivush and Duke discovered that the amount of family history known by a child is related to the childs level of self-esteem and how well the family functions as a narratives, often told again and again, define the shape of each familys emotional life, says Fivush. Its not as if children who come from families that dont tell stories turn out to be juvenile delinquents. But this is an important way in which children understand themselves, who they are and what they are a part of, and how to feel emotionally secure. about family heroesrelatives or ancestors who did something good or who survived hard timesare particularly effective in providing children with a sense of family continuity and resilience. Rather than minimizing the possibility that more bad things will happen, Duke says, we have to teach children how to overcome telling of detailed, embellished, and emotionally rich family stories appears to be a skill that is passed down through the generations. and children [who tell stories] of their shared past are creating and maintaining strong and secure emotional bonds, says Fivush. Family narratives are not simply about what has happened in the past; they are very much a part of the way in which families recreate themselves . . . in the present.M.J.L.
1. Introduction: Kickboxing and Cardio Kickboxing Kickboxing and cardio kickboxing are both dynamic and physically demanding forms of exercise that combine martial arts techniques with aerobic conditioning. While they share similarities, it’s important to understand the distinctions between these two disciplines to determine which one aligns better with your fitness goals and preferences. 2. Understanding Kickboxing What is Kickboxing? Kickboxing is a combat sport that originated in Japan and gained popularity in the United States in the 1970s. It integrates elements of traditional boxing with kicking techniques from martial arts such as karate and Muay Thai. Kickboxing matches involve strikes with both the hands and feet, providing a full-body workout that engages various muscle groups. Origins of Kickboxing The roots of kickboxing can be traced back to ancient martial arts practices in Asia, including Muay Thai in Thailand and karate in Okinawa, Japan. It was later formalized into a sport with specific rules and regulations. Today, kickboxing is practiced worldwide, both as a competitive sport and as a fitness regimen. Techniques and Training in Kickboxing Kickboxing training involves a combination of punches, kicks, knee strikes, and defensive maneuvers. Participants learn proper form, footwork, and offensive and defensive strategies. Training sessions typically include pad work, bag work, partner drills, and sparring under controlled conditions. 3. Exploring Cardio Kickboxing What is Cardio Kickboxing? Cardio kickboxing, also known as aerobic kickboxing, is a non-contact fitness program inspired by the techniques of kickboxing. Unlike traditional kickboxing, cardio kickboxing focuses more on the aerobic and cardiovascular aspects of the workout. It incorporates high-energy movements, rhythmic combinations, and music to create an exhilarating exercise experience. Evolution of Cardio Kickboxing Cardio kickboxing emerged in the 1990s as a response to the growing popularity of kickboxing. Fitness instructors and martial arts enthusiasts adapted kickboxing movements and choreographed them into aerobic routines. This modification made kickboxing accessible to a wider audience, including those who were primarily interested in fitness rather than competitive fighting. Fitness Benefits of Cardio Kickboxing Cardio kickboxing offers numerous benefits for overall fitness and well-being. It improves cardiovascular endurance, strength, flexibility, coordination, and balance. The high-intensity nature of the workout helps burn calories, making it an effective option for weight loss and toning. Additionally, cardio kickboxing releases endorphins, which can boost mood and reduce stress levels. 4. Key Differences Between Kickboxing and Cardio Kickboxing While kickboxing and cardio kickboxing share similarities, several key differences set them apart: Focus and Objectives Kickboxing emphasizes self-defense techniques, competitive sparring, and martial arts skill development. It appeals to individuals seeking a challenging and competitive sport. Cardio kickboxing, on the other hand, prioritizes cardiovascular fitness, calorie burning, and overall conditioning. It is well-suited for those who prefer a non-contact workout with a focus on aerobic exercise. Contact Level and Sparring Kickboxing involves controlled contact sparring, allowing participants to apply their skills in a simulated combat environment. It requires protective gear, including gloves, shin guards, and mouthguards. Cardio kickboxing, being a non-contact activity, does not involve sparring or physical contact with others. Participants can enjoy the benefits of kickboxing-inspired movements without the risk of injury from strikes or kicks. Kickboxing necessitates specialized equipment such as heavy bags, focus mitts, and protective gear for sparring sessions. The use of hand wraps and gloves is crucial to minimize the risk of hand injuries. Cardio kickboxing typically requires minimal equipment. Participants may use punching bags or focus pads during workouts, but they are not mandatory for every session. Comfortable workout attire and supportive footwear are sufficient for most cardio kickboxing classes. Skill Development and Technique Emphasis Kickboxing places a strong emphasis on technical proficiency, precision, and practical application of strikes and defensive maneuvers. Participants progressively refine their skills and may choose to compete in amateur or professional kickboxing matches. Cardio kickboxing prioritizes movement flow, aerobic intensity, and overall fitness benefits. While some attention is given to technique, the primary focus is on providing an engaging and challenging workout rather than mastering martial arts techniques. 5. Choosing the Right Option for You When deciding between kickboxing and cardio kickboxing, consider the following factors: Fitness Goals and Preferences If your main goal is to enhance self-defense skills, engage in competitive matches, or explore martial arts principles, traditional kickboxing may be the better choice. For those primarily seeking improved cardiovascular fitness, weight loss, stress reduction, and an energetic workout, cardio kickboxing is a suitable option. Kickboxing involves contact sparring, which carries a risk of injury. It requires adherence to safety protocols, appropriate protective gear, and skilled supervision. Cardio kickboxing offers a safer alternative without physical contact, making it accessible to a broader range of individuals, including beginners or those with specific health considerations. Availability and Accessibility The availability of kickboxing and cardio kickboxing classes may vary depending on your location and the facilities near you. Consider the accessibility and convenience of attending classes or joining a gym that offers the desired program. Kickboxing and cardio kickboxing are both exceptional forms of exercise that provide unique benefits to participants. Traditional kickboxing offers a competitive and technical approach, while cardio kickboxing focuses on cardiovascular fitness and an invigorating workout experience. By understanding the key differences between these two options and considering your fitness goals and preferences, you can make an informed decision and embark on a fitness journey that suits your needs. Hello! 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You may see the hashtag #NEDAwareness trending this week. The hashtag stands for National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, a movement that lasts from February 25 to March 3, which aims to combat society's beauty standards and promote self-acceptance. The annual initiative was created by the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), a nonprofit that offers programs and services to people experiencing eating disorders. This year, the organization aims to make conversations about eating disorders more inclusive by amplifying stories from people of marginalized communities. Online, they're promoting this theme through #ComeAsYouAre as well as #NEDAwareness. "There is a stereotype that eating disorders only occur in thin, white, affluent women. Not only is that incredibly false, it is dangerous, too," Ryan Sheldon, an ambassador to NEDA, wrote in an email. Sheldon explains that more than 30 million Americans will struggle with eating disorders at some point in their lives. Organizers want to assure people experiencing eating disorders that they are not alone, said Lauren Smolar, the director of programs at NEDA. The group encourages people to take the Body Acceptance Challenge, a pledge to accept their bodies, respect others' bodies, and fight weight stigma. "If we’re truly going to break the stigma that surrounds eating disorders, we need to show people that the spectrum of those affected is vast," Smolar wrote in an email. When shared, the hashtags #NEDAwareness and #ComeAsYouAre can help spread awareness but it can also guide you to additional resources, like text hotlines and information about common types of eating disorders. Here are nine tweets to read, like, and share to understand more about the campaign and eating disorders in general. 1. Stories from people recovering from eating disorders For #NEDAwareness Week, @Instagram and @NEDA have teamed up to let individuals at all stages of body acceptance and eating disorders recovery know that their stories are valid, and to encourage them to share their whole stories. Learn more! https://t.co/qomNNdLqxz — NEDA (@NEDAstaff) February 26, 2019 2. Methods to support LGBTQ youth 3. Apps, phone hotlines, and other services 4. A reminder that you don't have to prove yourself on social media Happy #Monday and start of #NEDAwareness week! Here’s a quick reminder that before + after pictures don’t have to prove your #eatingdisorder especially since there is no weight limit. If seeing these upset you, please reach out for support 🌸 🎨: GMF.DESIGNS on IG pic.twitter.com/bS3GhU4UKA — Project HEAL (@TheProjectHEAL) February 25, 2019 5. Information about who eating disorders affect Eating disorders affect people of all genders, ages, races/ethnicities, body weights, and socioeconomic statuses. Learn about the impact that eating disorders have on mental & physical well-being for National Eating Disorders Awareness Week: https://t.co/NvTD6KkXzK #NEDAwareness pic.twitter.com/67E6MIqiiE — Mental Health NIMH (@NIMHgov) February 25, 2019 6. Strategies to support your friends 7. An inspirational body acceptance challenge This National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (#NEDAwareness), #ComeAsYouAre and fight back against diet culture and weight stigma. You can start by completing - and sharing - the body acceptance challenge at https://t.co/dM7PBvLbjB. pic.twitter.com/uez84x30D5 — University of Miami Counseling Center (@UMiamiCC) February 26, 2019 8. Tools to spread awareness It's #NEDAwareness Week! Join the movement and raise awareness through social media, legislative advocacy (https://t.co/9gFx0zUe8x), building lightings, local events, and more. Get started by taking @NEDAstaff's screening tool: [https://t.co/zvHRQoBhZT] pic.twitter.com/jGifDWx7Bl — Mental Health America (@MentalHealthAm) February 25, 2019 9. Resources on combatting stigma for men There are many factors that lead to males to be under- and undiagnosed for eating disorders, including the social stigma of males seeking psychological help. Learn more from @NEDAstaff about how we can #StampOutStigma this #NEDAwareness Week! 👉https://t.co/SVS9cqOwKa pic.twitter.com/fAZmhI35ts — Stamp Out Stigma (@StampStigma) February 26, 2019
I am raising my recommendation of 1,000 IU of vitamin D per day to 2,000 IU per day. Since 2005, when I raised it from 400 to 1,000 IU, clinical evidence has been accumulating to suggest that a higher dose is more appropriate to help maintain optimum health. We have known for many years that we need vitamin D to facilitate calcium absorption and promote bone mineralization. But newer research has shown that we also need it for protection against a number of serious diseases. In recent years, scientists have discovered that it may help to prevent several cancers, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, psoriasis, diabetes, psychosis, and respiratory infections including colds and flu. To focus particularly on cancer prevention, two recent meta-analyses (in which data from multiple studies is combined) conducted by the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California at San Diego and colleagues suggested that raising blood levels of vitamin D could prevent one-half of the cases of breast cancer and two-thirds of the cases of colorectal cancer in the U.S. Discussing the breast cancer analysis, study author Cedric Garland, Dr.P.H., stated that "The serum level associated with a 50 percent reduction in risk could be maintained by taking 2,000 international units of vitamin D3 daily plus, when the weather permits, spending 10 to 15 minutes a day in the sun." A 50 percent reduction in breast cancer deaths would have saved the lives of more than 20,000 American women in 2009. As these meta-analyses suggest, vitamin D deficiency is widespread. Aside from breast cancer, it is quite likely that hundreds of thousands of cancers of various kinds worldwide might be prevented each year if we all were getting enough. We can get vitamin D through foods such as fortified milk and cereals as well as eggs, salmon, tuna and mackerel, but the amounts are not nearly sufficient to lift blood concentrations to optimal levels. Sun exposure is the best way to get it; ultraviolet rays trigger vitamin D synthesis in the skin. Factors that decrease the body's ability to make vitamin D include dark skin, heredity, obesity and certain medications, including some anti-seizure drugs (check with your pharmacist). Most significantly, sunscreen blocks vitamin D synthesis in the skin, and in northern latitudes (above that of Atlanta, Georgia) the sun is at too low an angle for half the year to provide sufficient UV radiation. Low levels of vitamin D in the population as a whole suggest that most people need to take a vitamin D supplement. This may be especially true for seniors, as the ability to synthesize vitamin D in the skin declines with age. Always take your vitamin D with a fat-containing meal to ensure absorption. Don't be concerned that 2,000 IU will give you too much. With exposure to sunlight in the summer, the body can generate between 10,000 IU and 20,000 IU of vitamin D per hour with no ill effects. In addition, no adverse effects have been seen with supplemental vitamin D intakes up to 10,000 IU daily. If you decide to have your vitamin D levels tested, look for results in the normal range, from 30.0 to 74.0 nanograms of 25-hydroxy vitamin D per milliliter (ng/mL) of blood. If you are found to be deficient, your physician can advise you on the best way to raise your blood concentration into the normal range. Andrew Weil, M.D., is the founder and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine and the editorial director of www.DrWeil.com. Become a fan on Facebook, follow Dr. Weil on Twitter, and check out Dr. Weil's Daily Health Tips blog.
\| * Please note that most treatment modalities listed below are based on conventional medicine. PreventDisease.com does not advocate the use of any pharmaceutical drug treatments. Long-term drug therapy is very detrimental to human health. All drug information is for your reference only and readers are strongly encouraged to research healthier alternatives to any drug therapies listed. IS PROSTATE CANCER? is a malignant tumor that arises in the prostate gland. [ See Box The Prostate Gland, below. ] As with any cancer, if it is advanced or left untreated in early stages, it can eventually spread through the blood and lymph fluid to other organs. Fortunately, prostate cancer tends to be slow growing compared to other cancers. As many as 90% of all prostate cancers remain dormant and clinically unimportant for decades. This high incidence of latent or incidental malignancy is unique to the prostate gland. Most older men eventually develop at least microscopic evidence of prostate cancer, but it often grows so slowly that, as one specialist has written, many men with prostate cancer "die with it, rather than from it." The Prostate Gland Description of the Prostate Gland gland is located between the bladder and the rectum and wraps around the urethra (the tube that carries urine through the penis). It is basically composed of three different area of the prostate that wraps around the urethra is called the transition zone. The entire prostate gland is surrounded by a dense, fibrous capsule. Smooth muscle cells, which contract during sex and squeeze the fluid from the glandular cells into the urethra, where it mixes with sperm and other fluids to make semen. Glandular cells, which produce a milky fluid that liquefies Stromal cells (which form the structure of the prostate). Functions of the Prostate Gland gland provides the following functions: The glandular cells produce a milky fluid, and during sex the smooth muscles contract and squeeze this fluid into the urethra. Here, it mixes with sperm and other fluids to make semen. The prostate gland also contains an enzyme called 5 alpha-reductase that converts testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, another male hormone that has a major impact on the Changes During the Lifespan gland undergoes many changes during the course of a man's life. At birth, the prostate is about the size of a pea. It grows only slightly until puberty, when it begins to enlarge rapidly, attaining normal adult size and shape, about that of a walnut, when a man reaches his early 20s. The gland generally remains stable until about the mid-forties, when, in most men, the prostate begins to enlarge again through a process of cell multiplication. SERIOUS IS PROSTATE CANCER? is the most common male cancer in the US. Only lung cancer causes more cancer deaths in American men. The lifetime probability of developing prostate cancer is 8%. Each year, approximately 180,000 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and about 32,000 will die from the disease. It should be noted that because older men often die while suffering from both prostate cancer and other serious medical disorders, official records may attribute many deaths to prostate cancer that are actually due to other causes. Some researchers believe that deaths caused by prostate cancer are misreported (mostly overdiagnosed) by as much as 10% to 20%. After Early Detection Because so many prostate tumors are low-grade and slow growing, survival rates are excellent when prostate cancer is detected in its early stages. Cure rates are as high 98%. After Late Detection If the disease is at a stage known as locally advanced, in which it has spread beyond the prostate but only to nearby regions, it is more difficult to cure, but survival rates can be prolonged for years in many men. (When cancer has metastasized to the pelvic lymph nodes, the outlook is worse than if it spread to other areas.) Metastasized Cancer. If prostate cancer has spread to distant organs (metastasized), average survival time is one to three years, but some of these patients may live longer or die of other causes. If cancer recurs after initial treatment for early-stage tumors, it is still potentially curable if it is contained within the prostate, although in most cases the cancer has spread. Hormone treatments for such recurring cancers can often prolong survival for years, although the cancer almost always returns again. ARE THE RISK FACTORS FOR PROSTATE CANCER? of prostate cancer rose dramatically between 1976 and 1994, particularly in younger men, in large part because of early detection with the use of more accurate screening tests. In determining risk factors for prostate cancer, a recent analysis of major cancers suggested that heredity might play a critical role in many prostate cancer cases. There has been somewhat less evidence for a major role from lifestyle or other environmental factors in prostate cancer than in some other major cancers (breast, lung, and stomach). and Prostate Cancer It is clear that hormones play a critical role in prostate cancer, but researchers have not yet fully clarified the specific hormones that may contribute to the disease. Some hormones under investigation include the following: In a 2001 study of 17 hormones, none were associated with prostate cancer risk except one called androstanediol glucuronide, which at certain levels suggested a lower risk. One study found a higher risk with increasing testosterone and a lower risk with increasing estrogen levels. Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is the principal male hormone in the prostate gland. It affects the size of the prostate gland itself and may play a role in prostate cancer. Sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) binds to male hormones and leaves less available to stimulate prostate cell growth. High levels, then, are associated with protection against prostate cancer. Insulin-like growth factor-I is a hormone that may increase the risk for prostate cancer. occurs almost exclusively in men over the age of 40 and is still rare until age 50. Almost half of all men under 70 have at least microscopic prostate tumors. By age 80 to 90, 70% to 90% of men have evidence of microscopic disease. and Being African American men have the world's highest risk for prostate cancer, more than 50% higher than the risk for Caucasian American males. The disease is also far more lethal among African Americans. A number of factors may explain these differences. Socioeconomic Issues. Socioeconomic factors may contribute to higher mortality rates in African Americans. For example, a 2000 study at a Veterans hospital where all the men had equal care reported no differences in tumor properties between African American and Caucasian men. The study suggests that African Americans have no higher risk for aggressive tumors, and their higher mortality rates are likely to be due to socioeconomic factors, such as lack of insurance, irregular screening and a late diagnosis, and unequal access to health care. Still, biologic factors still appear to play a role in the ethnic differences for the risk for prostate cancer itself and possibly in the severity of the cancer. For example, prostate cancer rates among Native Americans and Hispanic Americans are lower than those for Caucasians, despite their social and economic disadvantages. Dietary Factors. Dietary or other environmental factors may play some small role in ethnic differences. This is suggested by the fact that, in spite of the high incidence in African American men, prostate cancer is rare in many parts of Africa. As another example, when Japanese men move to the US and adopt Western dietary habits, their risk for prostate cancer increases. Differences in PSA Results. Research has suggested that African men may have higher prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels than Caucasian men in their own age groups. This suggests that the current screening standards for PSA levels are less accurate for African Americans, although a 2001 study suggested that the known differences are minor and do not yet justify race-specific testing standards. Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein (IGFBP3). A study reported that African American men have lower levels than Caucasian men of a protein called insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 (IGFBP3), which may protect against cancer. (Insulin-like growth factor-I is a hormone that may increase the risk for prostate cancer in any man.) History and Genetics Men with a family history of the disease have a significantly higher risk of developing prostate cancer. For a man whose father had prostate cancer, the risk is about two and one-third times normal. The brother of a prostate cancer patient may face four and a half times the normal risk of developing prostate cancer. A number of genes are under investigation. Some genetic defects are inherited, but other mutations may be acquired after environmental or biologic assaults over a man's lifetime. ELAC2. Researchers have identified a gene, called ELAC2, that may play a role in 2% to 5% prostate cancers. One variation puts men at moderate risk for prostate cancer and the other at significant risk (5 to 10 times). . BRCA2. There is some evidence that mutation of the BRCA2 gene may carry a risk for prostate cancer in men, although in a very small fraction of patients. (This gene is associated with breast and ovarian cancers in women.) Previous research has found a higher risk of prostate cancer among men with a family history of breast or ovarian cancer, although a 2000 study did not find such a link, at least with breast cancer. HPC1. Researchers have identified a gene called HPC1, which has been associated with 30% of inherited cases. A genetic abnormality that causes overproduction of a protein called Ret may prove to be implicated in some prostate cancers. Androgen Receptor Gene. Variations in the gene that regulates the receptor for androgen are associated with prostate cancer and also with changes in PSA levels. They also may help explain some of the differences in risk between African Americans and other ethnic Mutations in Tumor Suppressing Genes. Mutations in genes that ordinarily suppress tumors, such as PTEN and p27, may play a role in some non-inherited cases. the relationship between vasectomy and prostate cancer have been None of the studies reporting higher rates of prostate cancer in men with vasectomies can exclude the possibility that they may simply be due to earlier prostate screening in men who have had vasectomies. Research on the relationship with prostate cancer is continuing, although if any link is found, it is likely to be very weak. - A number of studies have reported some association between vasectomy and a higher incidence of prostate cancer. Two of the most recent ones were Canadian studies in 2000 and 2001. The 2001 study reported a higher risk beginning 10 years following the procedure. - A 1999 study that specifically investigated a possible association between vasectomy and prostate cancer found no link. In fact, men with vasectomy who did have prostate cancer were more likely to be diagnosed at an earlier stage and with a less aggressive Men whose work involves heavy labor and those exposed to certain metals and chemicals, including cadmium, dimethylformamide, and acrylonitrile, may be at higher risk for prostate cancer. Some studies have indicated that farmers might be at higher risk. A 2001 study of data collected between 1979 and 1985 concluded that certain leisure activities may expose men to the same chemicals as those that pose a possible danger in the industrial setting. They included the following: - Home or stripping, or varnishing furniture that involve exposure to lubricating oils or greases, metal dust, or pesticides or garden sprays a Western lifestyle is associated with prostate cancer, a direct causal role for either obesity or dietary fats has not been established. [See What Dietary Factors Are Associated with Prostate Cancer Risk and Protection?] A 2001 study did find obesity to be associated with a modest increase in prostate cancer mortality, although not with the risk for prostate cancer itself. In a previous study of Chinese men, however, it was not obesity itself but an unhealthy fat distribution that was associated with a higher risk. High-risk individuals in the study were those whose fat was more centered in the abdomen, the so-called apple-shape. This higher waist-to-hip ratio is also a risk factor for diabetes. Such findings have led experts to investigate two hormones, leptin and insulin-that are associated with both obesity and diabetes. Either of these hormones could theoretically stimulate prostate cancer growth. In another 2001 study, moderate (not high levels) of the hormone leptin was linked to prostate cancer, suggesting that there may be a critical fat mass that is predisposed to the disease. [ See also Diet under How Can Prostate Cancer be Prevented, below.] Factors Associated with Prostate Cancer Life. A lthough some studies have suggested that an active sexual life may increase the risk for prostate cancer, most studies refute this possibility. One study found that the risk for Catholic priests was no lower than in sexually active men. Nonmelanoma Skin Cancers and Sunlight. One study reported that patients with prostate cancer and a history of nonmelanoma skin have a higher risk for a poorer outlook. Such skin cancers are highly associated with exposure to sunlight. It should be noted, however, sunlight triggers production of vitamin D in the body, which may help protect against prostate cancer. Prostate cancer rates are, in fact, lower in southern, sunny regions. Infection. Some association has been seen between prostate cancer and infections, such as bacterial prostatitis, and some viral infections, including those caused by herpesvirus, human papillomavirus, and cytomegalovirus. No link has been proven and a study found no relationship with papillomavirus. Although some of these agents are sexually transmitted, the association with sexual activity is still unclear; one study even found a lower rate of prostate cancer in men with a history of sexually transmitted diseases. DIETARY FACTORS ARE ASSOCIATED WITH PROSTATE CANCER RISK AND PROTECTION? evidence of prostate cancer appears to be similar in men around the world, its progression differs with location. For example, men who live in Asia have a lower incidence of clinically apparent prostate cancer than Asians who move to America. Diet may play some role, although it is not yet clear if there is any protective diet. It is important to note that the effects of the foods and food substances discussed below on prostate cancer risk require further investigation, and any evidence on their effects is very weak. A major study is underway to determine the cancer-protective effects of selenium, vitamin E, and low fat diets. have found some association between high fat-intake and prostate cancer. A 1999 study found no association between intake of any major fats, including saturated (animal fats) and unsaturated fats (vegetable oils). More intensive research however is investigating specific fatty acids, compounds that make up fats, which may clarify the role of fats. It should be noted that some dietary intake of all of these fatty acids is important for health. Research suggests, however, that our current Western diet contains an unhealthy high ratio (10 to 1) of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid, and that a better balance may be beneficial. Fish and Omega-3 Fatty Acids. Some research has suggested that omega-3 fatty acids, which are plentiful in dark, oily fish, may be protective. A study in Sweden found that men who ate little or none of such fish (e.g. salmon, sardines, halibut, swordfish, and tuna) were twice as likely to develop prostate cancer as those who ate two or more servings a week. Omega-3 fatty acids also may combat heart disease, and have shown promise against cancers of the colon, rectum and ovary. and Omega-6 Fatty Acids. On the other hand, some research has indicated that alpha-linolenic acid and total omega-6 fatty acids may increase the risk of prostate cancer. Sources of these fatty acids are the polyunsaturated vegetable oils (e.g., corn, safflower, soybean, canola, and sunflower oil), which constitute most of the oils consumed in the US. A number of studies have suggested that soy may be protective, which may partially explain the low rate of prostate cancer observed in Japanese men. Soy is a rich source of an estrogen-like plant compound that has been shown in laboratory studies to inhibit hormones that promote prostate Diets high in fresh fruits and dark-colored vegetables are known cancer fighters. Specific vegetables that may be particularly important for preventing prostate cancer include cooked tomatoes, which are high in a beneficial plant chemical called lycopene, and cruciferous vegetables such as cauliflower and broccoli. Boron-rich fruits may also be protective. They include red grapes, avocados, and dried fruits. Grains and Nuts Whole grain cereals, seeds, and nuts appear to be protective. Part of this protection may be due to their high fiber content. Fiber binds to sex steroids and is excreted, carrying the hormones with it. Whole grains contain selenium [ see below ], a rare element that may have some protective properties. And nuts contain boron, which may also protect against prostate cancer. Vitamin D. One 2000 study reported an association between consuming large amounts of dairy products and a modestly increased risk for prostate cancer. One possible basis for this finding is some evidence that calcium (contained in dairy products) can lower levels of the most active form of vitamin D (1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D), which may help protect against prostate cancer. In fact, some research is focusing on prostate treatments using vitamin D analogs. There is still no clear proof, however, that high calcium and low vitamin D levels pose a significant risk for prostate cancer. Vitamin E. A large 1998 trial of male smokers found that long-term daily use of 50 mg of vitamin E markedly decreased the incidence and mortality of prostate cancer. It had no protective effect for men who already had prostate cancer. One major study suggests the possible benefit of vitamin E is confined strictly to smokers or recent quitters. Other, more recent studies suggest that specific natural forms of vitamin E, such as gamma tocopherol or vitamin E succinate, might have anti-cancer benefits and warrant more study. (The form of vitamin E in most supplements is dl alpha tocopherol, a synthetic form.) Selenium. In laboratory studies, selenium has acted directly on prostate cancer cells, stimulating cell death and inhibiting growth. Studies on actual significant protection from selenium supplements against prostate cancer, however, have been weak. In one study, men who took a 200 mcg daily supplement had a lower incidence of prostate cancer. It should be noted that high amounts of selenium can be toxic, and can cause hair and nail loss. Zinc. Zinc is of interest because it accumulates to the highest levels in a man's body in either a normal prostate or one enlarged from benign prostate hyperplasia. It may be important for prostate health, although its effects are still not clear. known as turmeric, is a common yellow seasoning in Indian and other Southeast Asian countries. Interesting laboratory studies have suggested that it significantly inhibits the growth of prostate cancer. To date, however, animal studies have not reported any protection. Moderate to heavy alcohol intake (22 to 56 drinks a week) has been associated with NONDIETARY MEASURES CAN HELP PREVENT PROSTATE CANCER? Exercise is beneficial for general health and it temporarily lowers testosterone levels. Studies on its effects on prostate cancer are mixed. It may not have much effect on men who are at low risk to begin with. A 1998 study suggested that although exercise had no protective effect overall on prostate cancer, vigorous exercise was associated with a lower risk for metastatic prostate cancer. Exercise in any case is an important component in any health-protective program. Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) There is some evidence from animal studies that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have properties that offer some protection against prostate cancer. NSAIDs suppress chemical in the body called COX-2, a protein that may cause prostate cancer cells to spread. Standard NSAIDs include aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil), and naproxen (Aleve, Naprosyn, Naprelan, Anaprox). More powerful NSAIDs, such as sulindac (Clinoril) are available by prescription and are being studied for protection. Newer agents, such as celecoxib (Celebrex), rofecoxib (Vioxx), and meloxicam (Mobic) only suppress COX-2 and may warrant specific investigation. Human studies on the protective value of NSAIDs are weak to date, and they may be helpful only in specific ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF PROSTATE CANCER? usually causes no symptoms in the early stages. As the malignancy spreads, it may constrict the urethra and cause urinary problems. Later-stage symptoms typically include: - Weak urinary in the urine. of urinary stream (stopping and starting). urination (especially at night). - Pain or burning during urination. of significant pain in one or more bones may herald the occurrence of bony metastases. This chronic pain occurs most often in the spine and sometimes flares in the pelvis, the lower back, the hips, or the bones of the upper legs. It may be accompanied by significant OTHER CONDITIONS HAVE SYMPTOMS SIMILAR TO PROSTATE CANCER? Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) In up to half of men in their fourth decade, the prostate begins to enlarge through a process of cell multiplication called benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The symptoms of BPH can mirror late-stage prostate cancer because the enlarging inner portion of the prostate puts pressure on the urethra, which can potentially cause urinary problems. About 80% of men eventually develop enlarged prostates, but only some experience significant symptoms. BPH is a normal condition and is not life-threatening. [ For more information, 71, Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia .] Relationship to Prostate Cancer. Because the prostate enlargement in BPH is affected by testosterone, many men are concerned that it may be related to prostate cancer. Fortunately, current evidence indicates that it has no effect one way or the other. The two conditions develop in different parts of the prostate. BPH occurs in the inner zone of the prostate, while cancer tends to develop in the outer area. A ten-year study found no higher risk for prostate cancer in men with BPH. an inflammation of the prostate, often caused by bacterial infections. Symptoms include urgency, frequency, and pain in urination, sometimes accompanied by blood in the urine or fever. TESTS ARE USED TO SCREEN AND DIAGNOSE PROSTATE CANCER? for Annual Screening Cancer Society and the American Urological Association (AUA) recommends annual screening in the following: screening should start in most men aged 50 to 70. (Based on a computer model, however, some experts recommend testing all men at ages 40 and 45 then every two years from age 50 on. Such a protocol, the model suggests, would be more cost effective and prevent more deaths than the current screening schedule.) - Most experts agree that men with a family history of prostate cancer and all African-American men should start screening at about age Screening Tests for Early Detection standard tests are used for early detection of prostate cancer: PSA is currently considered the best single test for early prostate cancer detection, although the DRE will sometimes detect tumors in patients who have normal PSA levels. There is considerable controversy, however, surrounding the value and accuracy of these tests for early detection of prostate cancer. [ See Box Accuracy of Screening Tests.] - A digital rectal exam (DRE), in which a physician palpates the prostate in order to feel lumps or masses. - A blood test that measures the level of a protein produced in the prostate known as prostate-specific antigen (PSA). If the digital rectal examination indicates the presence of cancer, regardless of the PSA results, a physician may also obtain a visual image of the prostate through an ultrasound procedure called transrectal Only a biopsy, however, in which a tiny sample of prostate tissue is surgically removed, can actually confirm a diagnosis of prostate cancer. Other tests are being developed, such as the so-called free PSA test, that may improve accuracy. Rectal Exam (DRE) About 90% of all prostate cancers arise in the outer part of the prostate where they may be detected by a digital rectal exam (DRE), which is the simplest and most widely-performed screening procedure. The doctor inserts a gloved and lubricated finger into the patient's rectum and feels the prostate for bumps or other abnormalities. The exam is quick and painless but some men find it embarrassing. It is not very accurate in detecting early cancers but studies indicate that regular DREs still save lives. [ See Box Accuracy of Screening Tests.] PSA is a protein produced in the prostate gland that keeps semen in liquid form. Prostate cancer cells appear to produce the protein in elevated quantities. Measuring PSA levels, then, increases the chance for detecting the presence of cancer when it is microscopic. Elevated or reduced levels of PSA can be used for guidelines only, however. The test is not accurate enough to either completely rule out or confirm the presence of cancer. [ See Box Accuracy of Screening Tests.] Factors Affecting Accuracy. A number of factors and noncancerous conditions can influence PSA levels: Even with its limitation, the PSA test has increased the number of detectable early-stage and therefore treatable cancers. In one study, centers reported that between 1987 to 1995 cancers detected in very early stages increased from 2.1% to 36.4%, while advanced cancer rates declined from over 25% to under 6%. Because of the slow-growing nature of prostate cancer, however, it is not known whether all of these very early cancers will result in significant or life-threatening Normal levels in Caucasian males may be different from those for African-American or Asian men. Some experts believe that there should be different scales for determining risk among these groups, but there is still not enough information to support a specific range for various ethnic groups. - Age. PSA levels tend to rise naturally with age, so an elevated level in a man who is 70 may be less serious than the same level in a younger man. Some experts believe that men over 65 years old who have low PSA levels are at such low risk for prostate cancer that they may be able to forego further testing. Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) and Its Treatments. Between 25% to 56% of patients with BPH have elevated levels. Certain surgical treatments for this condition can also elevate PSA. On the other hand, the drug finasteride (Proscar) may reduce PSA levels, so that cancer might be missed. About half of men with elevated PSA levels but no signs of cancer on biopsy have signs of prostatitis as indicated by urine and prostate secretion tests. (Prostatitis simply means inflammation in the prostate. Inflammation is usually due to bacterial infection but it can also be caused by nonbacterial factors.) In one study, screening for prostatitis increased the accuracy of the PSA test significantly and reduced the number of unnecessary biopsies. Noncancerous Conditions. Other noncancerous conditions that can increase PSA levels include surgical procedures for BPH, acute urinary retention, digital rectal examinations (DREs), and prostate biopsies themselves. Ejaculation within 48 hours can raise PSA levels, although one study suggested that this occurs only when PSA levels were already PSA Tests and Effects on Mortality Rates. It is not yet confirmed that PSA tests actually save lives, although studies are promising. Deaths from prostate cancer, for instance, have declined in the US and European countries where screening is common, which might be due to earlier diagnoses and treatment at localized stages. Such studies, however, lack confirming evidence that these reductions in mortality rates are directly due to early screening or to other factors, such as improvements in risk factors. Moreover, prostate cancer death rates have also declined in England and Wales, where PSA screening is not widely practiced. In addition, while early detection has increased cancer diagnosis by about 80 per 100,000 men in the US, the death rate has declined by only 4 per 100,000 and is still greater than in the 1970s and 1980s. To improve the accuracy of the PSA tests, particularly when PSA levels fall between 4 and 10 ng/mL, researchers are developing methods for measuring other factors. To date, no test has emerged as clearly superior to the PSA test. Free PSA Test. A small amount of prostate specific antigen leaks out of the prostate into the bloodstream. There, PSA can circulate without bonding and is referred to as free PSA. It can also form chemical combinations with other proteins. If cancer is present, PSA is more likely to be bound, and so there is less free PSA in circulation. The free PSA blood test, then, is a ratio of free PSA to the total PSA (free PSA plus chemically bound PSA). The following results are used to determine the presence or absence A 2000 report suggested that testing free PSA may improve prostate cancer detection by roughly 40%. In addition, any cancers that the test missed would not develop into significant disease for at least nine years, providing ample opportunity to identify them before they became serious. Not all studies support its advantages over total PSA, however. For instance, a 2001 study compared repeated screening tests using total, free, and complexed PSA [ see below ]. Its results suggested that total PSA was more accurate in predicting prostate cancers than the other two. - A free-to-total PSA ratio of 20% or lower plus total PSA levels of 4 to 10 ng/mL are strongly suggestive of prostate cancer. (Some experts use 25% as a cut-off, but studies suggest that using this cut-off would miss cancers in many African American and older men.) - A free-to-total PSA level of over 20% plus normal or even moderately elevated total PSA are more likely to indicate the presence of other, benign conditions, such as benign prostatic hyperplasia. Complexed PSA Test. Complexed PSA (cPSA) is a form of circulating PSA that is bound to a molecule termed alpha1-antichymotrypsin. It represents about 90% of the total PSA in men and is significantly higher in men with prostate cancer than in those with BPH. To date, studies have reported conflicting results on its benefits for diagnosing procedure called transrectal ultrasonography (TRUS) provides a visual image of the prostate and is used if the DRE indicates the presence of cancer. Ultrasound is not effective as a diagnostic tool by itself because it cannot differentiate very well between benign inflammations and cancer, but the procedure may help to confirm an uncertain preliminary diagnosis and is useful as a guide for needle biopsies. Ultrasound enhancements, such as Doppler imaging or computer modeling techniques called artificial neural networks (ANN), may increase the accuracy for Biopsy and Follow-Up would consider performing a biopsy to confirm a diagnosis of prostate cancer after screening tests report the following results: however, are not cut in stone. In most cases, abnormal levels do not mean that a man has cancer and normal levels do not always mean a man is cancer-free. For example, biopsies in the majority of men with elevated PSA levels show no cancer after biopsy. (This does not necessarily mean these men are cancer-free. Biopsies, too, can miss cancers, particularly when tumors are very small.) A 2000 study concluded that the best indicator for a biopsy was a combination of a positive PSA and DRE result in an older man, rather than any one test taken alone. And, there is some evidence that each test may detect cancers that the other doesn't. Researchers in a major European study, however, are recommending biopsies without a DRE for PSA readings of 3 ng/ml and above. [ See Box Accuracy of Screening Tests.] - PSA level of 4.0 ng/mL or higher. - PSA level that has increased significantly from one test to the next. digital rectal examination (DRE). Between 85% and 92% of men have PSA levels below 4.0. In such cases, some experts recommend follow-up in these cases: - DRE and PSA screening every three years for PSA levels lower than 1.0 ng/ml. (DRE at these levels are more useful than PSA in detecting PSA screening for levels 1.0 to 3.0 ng/ml. of Screening Tests Risk of Cancer with Abnormal Results About 2% or less chance of cancer for readings below 3 ng/ml. Between 17% and 50% chance of cancer for readings 3 to 10 Very strong chance above 10 ng/ml. Less than 20% chance for cancer with abnormal results. Unfortunately, up to 70% of cancer detected with DRE alone have already spread beyond the prostate gland. Over 60% chance for cancer with abnormal results. Risk of Missed Cancers with Normal Results Between 9% and 37% of prostate cancers are present in men with PSA levels below 4 ng/ml and no indications from a About 60% of cancers are missed. If preliminary tests raise the suspicion of cancer, physicians will perform a biopsy. Biopsy is used to diagnose prostate cancer, and is a very accurate method for predicting the severity of an More than half of the men who have a biopsy experience discomfort and anxiety, with men under 60 reporting higher levels of discomfort than older men. Taking a sedative an hour or two before the procedure can help reduce distress. Complications of biopsy are low, but urinary tract infection, fever, or bleeding occurs in 0.1 to 4%. - Core Biopsy. The standard method is called a core biopsy, which uses a spring-loaded biopsy device inserted into the rectum. The device propels a needle into the prostate, obtaining a core of tissue, which is examined by pathologists. - Fine Needle Aspiration. A more recent procedure called fine needle aspiration is less painful and may be as accurate as a core biopsy if the sample obtained is sufficient for analysis and if it is analyzed by a skilled pathologist. Repeat Biopsies. Because a biopsy can miss very small cancer cells, sometimes three or even more biopsies are recommended if PSA levels are very high. Repeat biopsies are indicated if initial results do not detect any cancer but any of the following are true: In a 2001 study, in men with PSA levels of 4 to 10 ng/mL who did not show signs of cancer on the first biopsy, the following cancer rates were reported on subsequent biopsies: - PSA levels are abnormally high. One study suggested that patients with free PSA less than 30% or transition zone PSA density of 26% or greater should have repeat biopsies. (Free PSA was the most accurate predictor of prostate cancer for repeat biopsy patients.) - DRE results are abnormal [ see above ]. results are abnormal [ see above ]. - The initial biopsy yields microscopic findings that are suspicious. - The initial biopsy detects precancerous cells known as high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN). No treatment is necessary with this finding, but these patients should be rechecked every three to six months for the next two years, and then annually. The cancers found in biopsies 3 and 4 tended to be nonaggressive with favorable outlooks. biopsy: 10% cancer rates. Zone PSA Test. Some tests have been developed to measure the density of the PSA in the transition zone of the prostate gland. (The transition zone is the central area of the prostate that wraps around the urethra, the tube that carries urine down through the penis.) One study reported that a PSA density of 35% predicted prostate cancer in 90% of cases. A combination of free PSA and transition zone PSA may be particularly useful. Human Glandular Kallikrein 2 (hK2), Human glandular kallikrein 2 (hK2) is a chemical cousin of PSA. HK2 testing seems to do a better job than testing for total and free PSA for discriminating between cancers that are confined to the prostate and those that have spread to other locations. Urine Test for Hypermethylation. A condition known as hypermethylation is an early genetic change that occurs in 90% of prostate cancers. Hypermethylation is caused by the glutathione-S-transferase (GSTP1) gene and it is not found in normal cells or in men with benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH). Tests to detect this condition are in development. Tests for Insulin-like-Growth Factor. Insulin-like growth factors have been implicated as possible triggers of cancer cell growth. Levels of these growth factors may provide information on future cancer risks, particularly in African American men. More research is needed in this area, however. TESTS INDICATE THE EXTENT OF EXISTING PROSTATE CANCER? Once cancer is diagnosed, PSA levels may help to determine its extent. If PSA levels are less than 20 ng/ml, then it is possible that the cancer has not spread to distant sites. PSA levels over 40 ng/ml is a strong indicator that cancer has metastasized (has spread to sites that are distant from the origin, in this case the prostate gland). PSA levels are also monitored after initial treatments for prostate cancer. Rising levels indicate recurrence, although the cancer may not recur for a long time, and the location of the new cancer cannot be determined using PSA testing. Measuring the free PSA percentage before surgery may prove useful for determining outcome. One study indicated that the higher the percentage, the less aggressive the disease. [ For more details, see What Tests Are Used to Diagnose Prostate Cancer? , above .] A number of biological factors are being used or investigated as markers for cancer or Chromosomal Sets. The number of chromosomal sets in the nucleus of the tumor's DNA, known as its ploidy, is an important marker for patients in late stages of prostate cancer. Tumors with the normal two sets of chromosomes, called diploid tumors, usually have a more favorable outcome than tumors that have four sets of chromosomes (tetraploid tumors) or have an abnormal number of individual chromosomes Blood Vessel Density. The density of blood vessels in the tumor is an important indicator of outcome. The greater the density, the more likely the tumor is to be aggressive. Testosterone Levels. Higher total testosterone levels may increase the risk for metastasis. A 2000 study found an association with low free testosterone and more extensive prostate cancer, suggesting it could be a marker for aggressive disease. (Free testosterone, as with free PSA, is not chemically bound.) Other Markers, Other markers being investigated for predicting cancer progression include prostate-specific membrane antigen, prostatic acid phosphatase, growth factors, and genes that regulate tumor growth (eg, p53, p27, bcl-2). is a scanning technique that uses tiny amounts of radioactive material with a monoclonal antibody that can attach specifically to prostate cancer cells. A special camera then can detect tumor cells that cannot be detected with other diagnostic tools. It may be effective in helping physicians make better treatment decisions. In a 2000 study, 90% of patients who underwent ProstaScint scanning had a successful treatment outcome (determined by normal or below normal PSA levels) compared to 60% of patients who did not undergo scanning. The role of this test in the routine management of prostate cancer is still being defined. If the biopsy indicates cancer, the physician will order other tests to determine whether or how far the cancer has spread. Bone Scans and X-Rays. Bone scans and x-rays may reveal whether the cancer has invaded the bones. To perform a bone scan, physicians inject low doses of a radioactive substance into the patient's vein, which accumulates in bones that have been damaged by cancer. A scanner then reveals how much of the radioactive material has accumulated. Arthritis and infections may also produce positive scans. Patients with PSA levels below 20 ng/mL are unlikely to have scans that show cancer in the bone. Computed Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans can further pinpoint the location of cancer that has spread beyond the prostate. Bone Metastasis Markers. Researchers are investigating chemical markers, such as a amino-terminal propeptide of type I procollagen (PINP), as early indicators of bone metastasis. ARE PROSTATE CANCER TUMORS STAGED AND GRADED? continually searching for methods to determine how aggressive individual prostate cancers are so they can choose the best treatments. As an aid, experts have devised different classification systems that help assess the properties of the cancer. These systems include staging and grading the tumors and measuring PSA levels. In general, the higher the stage, grade, and PSA numbers, the more severe the condition and the more aggressive the treatment. Current classifications systems have significant limitations in guiding treatment choices. Newer tests, markers, and imaging techniques may eventually improve the accuracy of staging categories. A tumor's stage is an indication of how far it has spread from its original site. Cancers are staged according to whether they are still localized (remain surrounded by healthy cells) or have spread beyond the original site. Two prostate cancer staging systems are commonly used: the TNM system and the Jewett system. To avoid confusion, this report only uses the TNM system. The TNM system is explained in detail, and the Jewett system is explained in reference to the TNM system. TNM Staging System The TNM system refers to clinical tumor stages as: - _ T for - _ N for regional lymph nodes. - _ M for metastasis (tumors developing outside the prostate). T followed by numbers 0 through 4 refers to the size and extent of the tumor itself. The tumor cannot be felt or seen using imaging techniques. Cancer cells are incidentally found in 5% or less of tissue samples from prostate surgery unrelated to cancer. Cancer cells found in more than 5% of samples. Cancer cells identified by needle biopsy, which is performed because of high PSA levels. The cancer is confined to the prostate but can be felt as a small well-defined nodule. Tumors are in half a prostate lobe. Tumors are in more than half a lobe. Tumors in both lobes. The tumor extends through the prostate capsule. The tumor is fixed to or invades adjacent structures. N followed by 0 to 3 refers to whether the cancer has reached the regional lymph nodes, which are located next to the prostate in the pelvic region. Regional lymph nodes are still cancer-free. A small tumor is in a single pelvic node. A medium-size tumor is in one node or small tumors are in A large tumor is in one or more nodes. M stages refer to metastasis (tumors developing outside the prostate). Metastasis has not occurred (cancer has not spread beyond the regional lymph nodes). Cancer has spread to lymph nodes beyond the regional lymph Cancer has invaded the bones. Cancer has spread to other sites. Jewett Staging System The stages in the Jewett system are roughly equivalent to the stages in the TNM system as follows: N1, N2, N3, M1 Gleason Grading System Tumors are graded according to a scale known as the Gleason system, which measure how well or poorly organized they are under the microscope. Two-thirds of prostate cancers have a mix of tumor grades. The cancer is then scored by adding the totals of the primary tumor grades. a prognosis, the tumor grades are then added together for a final score. For example, a tumor with primarily 3 and 4 grade tumors is given a score of 7. The following scores are often used to suggest how well or poorly the tumor is differentiated. The higher the score, the more severe the break-down of their cellular structure and the more likely they are to spread aggressively: 1: Single, well-packed tumors. 2: Single, more loosely arranged and less uniform tumors. 3: Single tumors of different sizes and patterns, with cellular breakdown becoming increasingly worse. 4: Irregular tumor masses, fused together. May show clear cells. 5: the tumors have broken down and cellular structure has markedly 2-4: Well-differentiated. Indicates about a 95% chance for surviving 15 years without aggressive treatment. 5-6: Moderately well differentiated. Slightly lower chance of survival that decreases with time. 7-10: Moderately poorly to poorly differentiated. 15-year survival rates of 15% to 40%. ARE THE TREATMENT OPTIONS FOR PROSTATE CANCER BY GRADING AND STAGING devised treatments based on classification systems, including staging and tumor grade. N0, M0, G1, Stage A. Treatment Options. Watchful waiting, with hormone treatment if symptoms develop. Surgery (radical prostatectomy or cryosurgery). Radiation treatment (either external-beam irradiation or interstitial implantation in selected patients). For reducing mortality rates, no strong evidence supports one treatment choice over another; survival rates appear to be equivalent and close to normal. Treatment may be considered in men under 60, particularly those with tumors classified as T1b, in which cancer cells are found in more biopsy samples than in T1a. Postoperative radiation treatment may be considered if surgery reveals high risk for recurrence. Radiation with hormone therapy is under investigation for intermediate and N0, M0, G2, 3, or 4. Treatment Options. Watchful waiting in selected patients (such as those with low-grade tumors). Surgery (radical prostatectomy usually with pelvic lymphadenectomy) or radiation therapy (external-beam irradiation or interstitial implantation in selected patients). Radiation treatment after prostatectomy may be considered to reduce local recurrence. Tumors: T2, N0, M0, Any G, Stage A2, B1 or B2. Treatment Options. Careful watchful waiting in selected patients (such as those with low-grade tumors) followed by hormone treatment when symptoms occur. Radical prostatectomy or radiation treatment (external-beam irradiation or interstitial implantation in selected patients). Treatments have similar results for up to 10 years. Possible use of hormone therapy with radiation treatment. Cryosurgery under investigation. Neoadjuvant hormonal therapy followed by radical prostatectomy under N0, M0, Any G (Stage C), Treatment Options. External-beam irradiation using a linear accelerator is a commonly used treatment for most of these patients. Hormonal treatment (orchiectomy or androgen-suppressing drugs) along with radiation may improve survival rates from prostate cancer. Hormonal treatments alone. Clinical trials using other therapies. Careful observation in selected patients. (One study reported that in selected patients with low-grade tumors who chose watchful waiting, survival rates were 88% at five years and 70% at nine years.) Radical prostatectomy usually with pelvic lymphadenectomy considered in highly selected patients but, in general, surgery has very inferior results compared to radiation. for Urinary Tract Symptoms. External beam radiation therapy. Hormonal manipulation. Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP). Investigative radiation therapy using protons or neutron radiation. Investigative cryosurgery. N0, M0, Any G; or any T, N1 through 3, M0, Any G; (stage D1 or D2) Treatment Options. Hormonal therapy, which may be one of the following: orchiectomy alone or with an antiandrogen; LHRH agonists, such as leuprolide; leuprolide plus an antiandrogen; estrogens. External-beam radiation possibly used with on-going androgen suppression treatment for attempted cure in highly selected MO patients. Radical prostatectomy with immediate orchiectomy under investigation. Systemic chemotherapy under investigation. Clinical trials using other therapies. Cure is rare in these patients but striking subjective or objective responses to treatment occur in many patients. T, any N, M1, Any G (stage D2). Treatment Options. Hormonal therapy, which may be one of the following: orchiectomy alone or with an antiandrogen; LHRH agonists, such as leuprolide; leuprolide plus an antiandrogen; estrogens. Cure is rare in these patients but striking subjective or objective responses to treatment occur in most patients. for Urinary Tract Symptoms. External beam radiation therapy. Hormonal manipulation. Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP). Investigative radiation therapy using protons or neutron radiation. Investigative cryosurgery. Relief. Low dose prednisone (a corticosteroid) alone or with mitoxantrone (a chemotherapy agent) reduces inflammation and may help relieve pain. for Urinary Tract Symptoms. External beam radiation therapy. Hormonal manipulation. Transurethral resection of the prostate for Symptoms of Bone Metastasis. R adiation therapy (external beam radiation or strontium-89 radioisotopes) or hormonal manipulation (orchiectomy or LHRH agonist drugs or both). Relief. Low dose prednisone (a corticosteroid) alone or with mitoxantrone reduces inflammation and may help relieve Options. Dependent on various factors: prior treatment, site of recurrence, coexistent illnesses, and individual patient whose cancer recurs locally after prostatectomy: radiation therapy, whose cancer recurs locally after radiation therapy: hormonal therapy, prostatectomy (very select patients). whose recurrent cancer has spread see treatment options for ARE THE GUIDELINES FOR TREATING LOCALIZED PROSTATE CANCER? for Choosing the Best Treatment for Localized Cancer best treatment for localized prostate cancer (T1 or T2) is generally based on the patient's age, the stage and grade of the cancer, and the patient's knowledge and acceptance of the risks and benefits of each therapy. Patients have three main options: of Classification System, The classification systems are not perfect. For instance, even if tumors are rated in low stages and grades and are treated accordingly, undetected cancer cells may escape and spread beyond the prostate. [ See What are the Treatment Options for Prostate Cancer by Grading and Staging Categories?] Other factors, such as the man's age and medical condition, must be included in determining whether aggressive treatments or conservative measures are appropriate. (radical prostatectomy or cryosurgery) removes or destroys the prostate gland. The vessels that carry semen and surrounding tissue may also be removed. With cancer that has spread beyond the prostate, the pelvic lymph nodes are removed. is used to destroy tumors. waiting (for selected patients only) involves lifestyle change and careful monitoring to see if surgery or radiation becomes - even the medical community is divided over the best treatment for localized prostate cancer. No treatment appears to have a survival advantage. The choice is often not an easy one, even for experts, for many - of Data on Survival Rates. No studies to date have provided evidence strong enough so that patient and physicians can make confident choices between watch-and-wait and aggressive treatments. In general, no approach has emerged with a survival advantage. In the United Kingdom, radiation therapy is the most common treatment and mortality rates are similar to those in the US where surgery is the standard approach. In Sweden, watchful waiting is the most often chosen option and one study suggested that their mortality rates declined in parallel with a decline in aggressive treatments. However, experts argue that the biopsy techniques used in Sweden are more likely to result in false diagnoses of prostate cancer and the men in the study tended to be older than in other studies. A major well-designed study is underway to help resolve these questions. Specialty Bias. Patients should be aware that physicians may be biased to prefer a specific treatment depending on their specialty. For example, in one study the following treatments were favored for patients who were generally appropriate candidates for either surgery, radiation, or watchful waiting: of the physicians recommended watchful waiting. When in doubt, patients should always seek a second opinion to help them make this important - 93% of urologists recommended radical prostatectomy. - 72% of radiation oncologists recommended radiation. (And 82% thought that radical prostatectomy was overused.) Quality of Life. Surgery and radiation both have potentially distressing side effects, including the possibility of impotence, incontinence, or both. A man must then weigh his own emotional responses to the possibility of these side effects versus the possible stress of watchful waiting. In general, differences in quality of life after surgery or radiation treatment have to do with the specific effects of each type of treatment. Studies report the following: generally causes more bowel problems than surgery does, 30% to 35% versus 6% to 7%, according to a 2001 study. In the same study, radiotherapy patients reported more physical and emotional limitations, although they tended to be older than the surgical patients. In another 2001 study, however, patients who underwent external radiation reported no significant decrease in quality of life throughout the study, which extended to a year after treatment. Those who underwent brachytherapy (radiation implants) reported a reduced quality of life during the first three months, but it returned to normal within a year. causes more urinary incontinence (39% to 49% versus 6% to 7% for radiotherapy patients) and more incidences of erectile dysfunction (80% to 91% versus 41% to 55%), according to a 2001 study. In another study in the same year, patients who underwent radical prostatectomy reported lower quality of life during the first month but it returned to normal by three months. waiting imposes an emotional burden on any man who must live with the possibility of progressive cancer and its difficult treatments. Many who decide to wait become what some physicians refer to as the "walking worried," men who are constantly concerned with their PSA levels. Because aggressive treatment reduces such anxiety, some studies reported that years after surgery, about three quarters of men say they would chose it again, in spite of significant side effects, which include impotence and incontinence in many of them. involves lifestyle change and careful monitoring to see if surgery or radiation becomes necessary. Most patients should have a digital rectal exam and PSA blood test every six to 12 months. If PSA levels rise, more intensive tests are required to determine if the cancer has advanced. Patients should exercise and eat healthy foods. [ See What Dietary Factors Are Associated with Prostate Cancer Risk and Protection?] Symptoms such as weight loss, pain, urinary problems, fatigue, or impotence should be reported to the patient's Candidates. Watchful waiting is a consideration for the following cancer grows so slowly, it is likely that good candidates will die first from causes unrelated to the cancer. There is therefore little potential benefit from surgery or radiation, which both pose a risk for impotence and incontinence. - Men in their late 70s and older. More aggressive therapies (surgery and radiation) are usually recommended for men in their 50s and younger. The choice for men in their 60s and early 70s is more problematic. The general recommendation at this point is that aggressive therapy is suitable for those who have a life expectancy of more than ten years and who have early and low-grade cancer. At this point the tumor grade is the best guide for determining the risks in choosing watchful waiting. men with early-stage (T0 to T2) low-grade tumors. - Men with low to moderate PSA levels. Surgery (Radical Prostatectomy) In men whose cancer is confined to the prostate, surgical resection (radical prostatectomy) offers the potential for cure. Cure rates from initial surgery in men with localized cancer are about 70%, depending on tumor stage, tumor grade, and PSA levels. Candidates. Radical prostatectomy is a consideration for men who meet all of the following criteria: is more likely to cause incontinence (up to 50%) and impotence (as high as 90%) than radiation treatment but has fewer bowel complications. Surgery for prostate cancer may be particularly difficult in men who have had transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP). - In good health and with a life expectancy of 10 years or more. As average life expectancy in men has increased, more older men are becoming candidates for surgery. Complication rates are higher the older a man is, however. - The cancer has not spread beyond the prostate gland. - The cancer is potentially life-threatening. (In general, a life-threatening tumor is indicated by volumes more than 0.2 cc and Gleason grade scores greater than 5.) (or radiotherapy) is administered as external-beam radiation or as brachytherapy (radiation implants). It may be used as the sole primary treatment for localized prostate cancer, and has five-year survival rates similar to those of surgery. Candidates. Radiation is a consideration for men with one or more of the following characteristics: older and, particularly, having other medical problems. - The cancer may have extended beyond the prostate capsule but has not spread to the lymph nodes or further. a good surgical candidates, but having decided against an operation. - risk for impotence (about 50%) and incontinence (less than 10%) is much lower than with surgery, although bowel problems occur in about a third of patients. in prostate cancer uses drugs or surgery (orchiectomy) to suppress or block male hormones (androgen), particularly testosterone and Hormonal Treatments for Local Cancer. Investigators are evaluating a hormonal approach called triple androgen blockade that might prove to be useful for local or locally advanced prostate cancer. It consists of an LH-RH agonist (leuprolide or goserelin), an antiandrogen (flutamide or bicalutamide) and finasteride Hormonal Treatment After Surgery for High-Risk Patients. Hormonal treatment may be useful after surgery in men who have high-grade tumors or tumors that have invaded the semen-carrying vessels or lymph nodes. Such men have a risk for failure after surgery of 50% Hormonal Therapy Before Radiation. Hormonal drugs combined with or used before radiation therapy (called neoadjuvant therapy) are under investigation and may improve survival rates in moderate- or high-risk groups. Neoadjuvant therapy may be helpful in shrinking enlarged glands to that brachytherapy (radiation implants) can be ARE THE OPTIONS IF LOCALIZED TREATMENTS FAIL? of Persistent Cancer after Initial Treatment Levels. If prostate cancer has been eliminated, PSA levels should drop to 0.5 or less after treatment. A sudden rise or persistently elevated PSA levels after treatment are often indications that prostate It is common for PSA levels to temporarily rise following radiation seed implantation without signaling cancer recurrence. - If PSA levels are above 2, then cancer is most likely still present. - If PSA levels are between 0.5 and 2, the situation is less clear. One study indicated that measuring free PSA may help determine the status of the cancer in such patients. An average free PSA of 27% indicated that cancer had been eliminated, while an average of 15% meant that cancer was still present. Prognosis with Recurrence or Failure Rising PSA levels do not necessarily mean that the cancer has spread or even that the cancer will recur during a man's lifetime. An actual cure is still possible if the cancer is localized within the prostate. In one study, 64% of patients with rising PSA levels after surgery still had cancer confined to the prostate. Indications of a poorer outlook in this study included the following: the men in the study, after seven years only 3% of patients had actually died of prostate cancer. After fifteen years, only 19% had evidence of recurrence. Other markers for persistent cancer are under investigation. For example blood tests that show low levels of acid phosphatase (ACP) before treatments may predict a higher chance for recurrence-free survival. penetration of the prostate capsule. surgical margins (microscopic evidence of cancer cells at the very edge of the resected specimen. of nearby vessels or lymph nodes. Hormonal therapy (drugs or surgery that block male hormones) is often the appropriate response to rising PSA levels after treatment failure. Some studies suggest that patients given hormonal drugs may live significantly longer if treatment is started as soon as PSA levels rise, even if no symptoms occur. Other studies indicate there is no increased survival from early treatment, and patients have a better quality of life if therapy is started only after symptoms Chemotherapy. Chemotherapy agents in combination with hormonal agents are being investigated for patients who fail surgery or radiation. (Chemotherapy alone does not appear to offer any benefits.) Salvage Prostatectomy. Salvage prostatectomy is sometimes performed after unsuccessful radiation treatment if the cancer is still local. The odds of the procedure's success are only 10% to 64%. Many experts recommend against salvage prostatectomy in most cases of radiation failure. Severe complication rates for salvage prostatectomy are very high: ten times that of men who have not had radiation. Potential complications after salvage prostatectomy is often untreatable with medications, collagen implants, or other standard treatment measures. [ See What Are the Surgical Treatments for Prostate Cancer?, below.] - Need for Salvage Cryosurgery. Salvage cryosurgery may be effective in certain patients who fail external beam radiotherapy. The best candidates are those with Stage II cancer or less and PSA levels below 10 ng/mL. Adjuvant and Salvage Radiation. Radiation is proving to be beneficial in patients who still show detectable levels of PSA after surgery (generally 2 ng/ml or less), and may even be useful years after surgery if PSA levels rise. Depending on timing, radiation after treatment failure is referred to as follows: One area of controversy is whether to use adjuvant radiation after surgery on patients whose PSA levels are very low or undetectable but who have other test results that indicate that the cancer is likely to spread. For example, analysis of tissue taken during surgery can indicate that the tumor extends outside the prostate capsule. One study reported that when such patients were given adjuvant radiation, they had significantly higher rates of disease-free survival than those who had salvage radiation. Only a minority (20% to 30%) of these patients experienced treatment failure, particularly if they had low to moderate Gleason grade scores. Patients with adverse findings and low PSA have to weigh the potential complications of radiation therapy against the odds of recurrence without it, which are about 20% to 30%. radiation is radiation therapy performed within 6 months of radiation is radiation therapy more than 6 months after surgery. ARE THE GUIDELINES FOR TREATING ADVANCED AND METASTASIZED PROSTATE The primary goals of late-stage cancer treatments are to: include the following: - Slow cancer treatments used to suppress or block androgens (male steroid hormones) are the mainstay treatment for advanced and metastasized cancer (Stage IV). beam irradiation is used for late stage patients and is the mainstay for controlling pain caused by metastasis. External-beam radiation used with on-going androgen suppression treatment is being investigated for advanced cancer that has not yet metastasized. [ For more information, see What Are the Radiation Treatments for Prostate Cancer?, below.] - One study has suggested that combinations of certain standard chemotherapy drugs may be useful for patients with advanced prostate cancer who fail hormonal treatments. In this study, after one year, 77% of the patients were alive. prostatectomy is rarely helpful. Therapies: Blocking Androgens (Male Hormones) is the mainstay for advanced and metastasized prostate cancer. Hormonal therapies (drugs, surgery, or both) are used to suppress or block male steroid hormones, called androgens. Androgens, particularly testosterone and dihydrotestosterone, determine male secondary sex characteristics and stimulate prostate cell growth. When prostate cells, both healthy and cancerous, are deprived of androgens, they no longer proliferate and eventually die. Standard Hormonal Treatments. Surgery to remove the testicles (orchiectomy), hormonal drugs, or both are standard hormonal treatments. Because orchiectomy is irreversible, about 75% of patients with advanced prostate cancer choose hormonal therapy to block androgens. Drugs. The primary agents used for suppressing androgens are called luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LH-RH) agonists. Orchiectomy is the surgical removal of the testicles. It is the single most effective method of reducing androgen hormones. Orchiectomy plus radical prostatectomy may delay progression in patients with cancers that have spread only to the pelvic lymph nodes. Combining orchiectomy with antiandrogen drug therapy adds a modest benefit. It is an extreme procedure, however, and studies do not indicate that it improves survival rates significantly. The median survival rate after the operation is about 55% over a 40 month period. An estimated 25% of patients survive five years or more. Nevertheless, orchiectomy, although irreversible, may produce fewer adverse effects than hormonal drugs, and interestingly, patients report significantly higher quality of life after orchiectomy than patients who opt for hormonal treatment, particularly total androgen ablation. Cure is possible in late stage prostate cancer but rare. Even without cure, however, striking subjective or objective responses to treatment occur in Unfortunately, in advanced disease, prostate cancer usually returns within 18 months. In such cases, so-called testosterone-independent tumors exist, which are not responsive to antiandrogen therapy. The reason for this is still unknown. One theory is that after cells that are sensitive to male hormones have been blocked, cells that are resistant to androgen are stimulated to grow, and the cancer returns. Some studies have also identified a genetic mutation that signals the cancer cells to grow in response to other hormones even in the absence of androgen. Researchers are continually searching for drugs to treat relapses and act against these testosterone-independent tumors. Some studies indicate that when tumors recur after antiandrogen treatments, they may actually be sensitive to testosterone. If so, administering androgens at the point of relapse might suppress tumor growth in some situations. More research is needed for this interesting finding. ARE THE SURGICAL TREATMENTS FOR PROSTATE CANCER? is the surgical removal of the entire prostate gland along with the seminal vesicles (the vessels that carry semen) and surrounding tissue. The incision can be made in one of the following regions: The gland and other structures are then removed. The operation lasts two to four hours. Advanced surgical techniques called minilaparotomy and laparoscopy are being developed for radical prostatectomy. These techniques use smaller incisions, are less invasive, and may cause fewer complications. (through the abdomen and under the pubic bone, exposing the entire surface of the prostate). the perineum (the skin between the scrotum and the anus). Nerve-Sparing Techniques. Surgical procedures have been refined over the years, and many operations for localized low-grade prostate cancer now spare the nerves that control erection. techniques can improve quality of life. The ability for sexual intercourse recovers in about a third of patients at three years and nearly 60% at five years after surgery. (Rates vary depending on certain factors, such as the patient's age. The younger the better.) In cases where the tumor is bulky and undifferentiated, nerve-sparing techniques may not be appropriate. - A bilateral nerve-sparing procedure saves the nerves on both sides of the - A unilateral procedure saves nerves on only one side. Convalescence. Patients remain hospitalized for up to two weeks. A temporary catheter used to pass urine is kept in place when the patient is sent home and usually removed about three weeks after the operation. The convalescent period at home is about a month. In general, younger patients with early-stage cancers recover fastest and experience the fewest side effects. from Radical Prostatectomy rates vary after radical prostatectomy and usually depend on the age of the patient and the experience of the surgeon and medical center. In one center they have ranged from 4% in men in their 40s to 14% in men over 70. Complication rates are 10 times higher in patients who have prostatectomy because of cancer recurrence after Complications include the usual risks of any surgery, such as blood clots, heart problems, infection, and bleeding. Complications specific to radical prostatectomy, incontinence, impotence, and contracture of the bladder neck, are discussed below. The mortality rate is very low, about 0.4%. It should be noted that quality of life usually improves shortly after surgery, and recovery from certain complications, such as incontinence and sexual function, can continue to occur even over Urinary Incontinence. Urinary incontinence is a common complication and a more distressing side effect of surgery for most men than sexual dysfunction. When the urinary catheter is first removed following surgery, nearly all patients lack control of urinary function and will leak urine for at least a few days and sometimes for months. Major medical centers report that continence returns within about 18 months for nearly all men under 70 years old and in the great majority of men older than 70. The average time for return of continence in one center was just 1.5 months. A number of approaches may help prevent or treat incontinence. The first nationally-representative study to evaluate long term outcomes after radical prostatectomy concluded that impotence occurs far more frequently than previously reported. The study included more African American, Hispanic, and young men than previously studied, although there was little difference among ethnic groups. About 40% of the study subjects considered sexual function a moderate to big problem, but over 70% still said they would have the surgery techniques can help prevent incontinence, although even in experienced centers, 8% of patients will have some postoperative incontinence, and this rate is much higher (up to 50%) in many community medical - A procedure called endopelvic anterior urethral stitch (EAUS) used with prostatectomy appears to reduce urinary incontinence. In one small study, 75% of selected patients recovered continence in a month. The procedure requires a simple stitch at the front of the urethra. exercises, contracting and relaxing the muscles used to shut off the urinary stream, strengthen the muscles on the pelvic floor and are reported to be very beneficial for many men. - If incontinence persists beyond a year, patients may require drug therapy or surgery. Collagen injections into the urethra, bladder neck suspension surgery, or a urinary sphincter implant may be helpful for men who have chronic incontinence. (In one study men had better results with the sphincter implant.) [ For more information, Nerve-sparing procedures are also helpful in reducing impotence as well as incontinence. [See Table Impotence Rates by Procedure]. Rates by Procedure Bilateral nerve-sparing procedure Unilateral nerve-sparing procedure Non-nerve sparing procedure Researchers are experimenting with a technique that involves harvesting nerve tissue from the patient's calf and grafting it into the pelvis during radical prostatectomy in order to maintain erectile function. It is still too early to determine whether this procedure will be effective, and some experts believe it is unlikely to improve sexual A number of treatments for sexual dysfunction are available that may help some men. Sildenafil (Viagra), for example, may help restore potency in an average of 30% of patients. In one study it had an 80% success rate in younger men who were potent before surgery and had bilateral nerve sparing procedures. (The rate was 40% with only unilateral procedure.) It may take nine months or longer to respond to the drug, so men might benefit from alprostadil injections starting right after surgery to preserve elasticity and help prevent scarring. It is unlikely to be effective for men over 55 who had unilateral or no nerve sparing procedures. [ Even when erectile function is preserved, men may experience other of the Bladder Neck. Another common post-surgical complication is contracture of the bladder neck at the point where it has been stitched to the remainder of the urethra. Contracture usually occurs within the first three months after the operation, causing a sharp decrease in urinary stream. The condition can be treated by dilation or surgery on the bladder neck, and rarely recurs. may not be as rigid as before the operation. and sexual sensation may be altered. who retain potency may suffer from retrograde ejaculation, also known as dry ejaculation. During ejaculation, semen travels backward into the bladder, causing infertility. Incontinence. Radical prostatectomy can also cause fecal incontinence. The risk may actually be higher in men undergoing is the surgical removal of the pelvic lymph nodes. It is usually performed at the same time as prostatectomy [ see above ]. If the surgeon suspects that cancer has spread beyond the prostate, he will perform the lymphadenectomy as part of the operation. Some surgeons do this procedure as a matter of course when performing prostatectomy, since it has few complications and adds information on the state of the disease. The lymph nodes are removed through an incision in the lower part of the abdomen, using conventional surgery or laparoscopy, a less invasive variation. The nodes are immediately examined. If they show signs of cancer, then metastasis has occurred. In such cases, the operation is usually stopped and the patient is offered radiation or hormone treatments. Experts argue about whether a prostatectomy may still be beneficial. One study found a survival advantage in those who had their prostate removed even when cancer had spread. More research is needed. an alternative to standard prostatectomy. And, a 2001 study reported that it was as effective as radiation therapy (and perhaps more effective than brachytherapy in patients at medium to high risk.) Survival in the study exceeded 70%, comparable to radiation therapy and brachytherapy. Among patients with localized prostate cancer, the five-year disease-free rate approached 80%. The cryosurgical technologies used in the study were not as good as newer ones now available, so these figures even may understate the technique's The Procedure. The goal of cryosurgery is destruction of the entire prostate gland and possibly surrounding tissue. Steel probes are inserted through the skin between the anus and the rectum and into the prostate. Liquid nitrogen is pumped through the probes to freeze all prostate cells, both healthy and cancerous. For success, cryosurgery requires a uniformly frozen area. The dead cells are absorbed and eliminated by the body. Patients can leave the hospital in two or three days. Candidates. Cryosurgery may be considered for patients with of treatment failure include: stage local cancer. that has recurred after radiation treatments. primary tumors that the surgeon wishes to reduce. useful for tumors that have spread beyond the prostate if they have not yet reached the lymph nodes. - A history of both hormonal and radiation treatments. grades 8 and above. - PSA levels of more than 10 ng/mL. Complications are similar to those of standard prostatectomy, but incontinence rates are much lower. In one study, 85% of men who were potent before the procedure reported impotence afterward. Nevertheless 96% reported that they were satisfied with the results. Incontinence and other side effects may be higher in patients who have had previous radiation treatments. Other significant complications include scarring and narrowing of the urethra and fistulas (abnormal passages from internal organs to the skin or between two internal organs). surgical removal of the testicles. It is the single most effective method of reducing androgen hormones, but it is considered an extreme procedure. The operation can be done on an outpatient basis, through a tiny incision in the scrotum, and is relatively pain-free. Sexual Effects. Many men can still achieve erection after orchiectomy, but there is almost always a decline in sexual drive. Men who cannot achieve erection can receive a penile implant. Patients do not experience a reversal of sex characteristics: the voice does not change and body hair is not affected. Quality of Life. Interestingly, patients who choose this option report significantly higher quality of life afterward than those who opt for hormonal treatment, particularly total androgen ablation. Although the operation impairs sexuality, it causes less fatigue, physical dysfunction, and psychological distress than other treatments for advanced cancer, excluding no treatment at all. These studies, however, did not compare orchiectomy to intermittent hormonal therapy, which may prove to have psychological benefits. Osteoporosis. Like all androgen deprivation therapies, orchiectomy increases the risk for osteoporosis, a loss of bone density that increases the risk for fracture. In fact, the risk for osteoporosis may be higher with surgery than hormonal drugs. Enucleation, Holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP) is an investigative procedure that may prove to be preferable to open ARE THE RADIATION TREATMENTS FOR PROSTATE CANCER? Two major radiation treatments are now available: Advances in both treatments have been generally equivalent in success rates. In some cases, both techniques may be used in high-risk patients. radiation therapy, a physician focuses a beam of radiation directly on the tumor for 35 three-minute treatments, five times a week, over seven weeks. 3D conformal techniques use computers and a 3-D image of the prostate to provide precise targeting of the tumor using high-dose radiation beams. It allows high doses and poses a lower risk for inflammation. In a 1998 study, the higher-dose conformal therapy significantly improved survival rates compared to lower dose treatment. Men who have had transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) or have a history of lower urinary tract symptoms may have a better experience with external-beam radiation using 3D conformal techniques. is an outpatient technique that implants radioactive "seeds" directly into the prostate. Implants can be temporary or permanent. Temporary implants are usually accompanied by external-beam radiation. This procedure requires more skill than external-beam radiation therapy, and even with experienced physicians, the distribution of radioactive seeds is uneven in 15% of cases, increasing the risk for insufficient Computerized systems are being developed to help oncologists optimize seed placement and allow precise treatment for each patient and higher radiation doses. Eventually, it could improve tumor control, reduce side effects, and cut costs. It should be noted, that it is common for PSA levels to temporarily rise, or "bounce," following seed implantation without it being a signal for cancer recurrence. This effect can produce anxiety and can interfere with the diagnosis of true recurrence. Candidates. Studies are indicating the brachytherapy is useful for select patients, specifically those with prostate volumes less than 60 mL and who have early-stage prostate cancer (T1 or T2 tumors, a Gleason grade lower than 7, and PSA levels below 10 ng/mL). It may be beneficial in patients with inflammatory bowel disease or with cancer close to the bowel. Poor candidates for brachytherapy include men who have had TURP and patients with advanced cancer, high-grade tumors, or very enlarged prostate glands. The side effects of radiation therapy include most of those of surgery, but the risks for impotence and incontinence are considerably lower. A 2000 study concluded that adjuvant radiation therapy (given right after surgery) in moderate doses does not increase the risk for long-term urinary incontinence or sexual dysfunction beyond that of surgery alone. Gastrointestinal Complications. Complications in the gastrointestinal are common. Short-term effects include: The risk for incontinence is about 7% to 20%. Patients treated with radiation may experience a painful, but usually temporary, urinary tract inflammation. About 10% to 15% of patients develop a long-term urgent and frequent need to void their bladder. Brachytherapy carries a lower risk for urinary incontinence. - Loss of is a very common side effect and can last for the duration of therapy. It is usually treated with Lomotil. A few patients have diarrhea flare-ups for years afterwards. Less than 1% suffer more serious intestinal problems. is potential for injury to the rectum with brachytherapy. Ulcers in the rectum occur in over 10% of patients, but the risk decreases with greater experience in the technique. Scarring and narrowing of the urinary tract (stricture) may occur, particularly in men who had TURP performed within a short time before radiation treatment. In such men, radiation treatments should be delayed by four to six weeks. If the prostate has been injured or damaged or the bladder is easily irritated, side effects with brachytherapy may actually be worse than with other procedures. Impotence. Risks for impotence are around 40% in men who have brachytherapy and are between 60% and 70% or higher with external beam radiation. Although brachytherapy may pose less of a risk for impotence than external-beam radiation or surgery, one study reported a high long-term rate of impotence (53%) after five years. Sildenafil (Viagra) may be effective for 70% of men experiencing impotence following radiation therapy for local prostate cancer. Other treatments may also be useful. [ See also Report #15, Impotence.] A 2000 study suggested that the dose of radiation received by the bulb of the penis correlates with risk of impotence. If this is confirmed by further study, carefully designed radiation may improve current rates. Radiation or Other Nonsurgical Procedures Radiation Treatments. Investigators are also testing radiation treatments that use a combination of neutrons and protons (mixed-beam) or proton beams rather than the standard proton radiation therapy. High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU.). Studies are reporting promise with an intensive ultrasound procedure called transrectal high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU). It allows for very precise minimally-invasive removal of tissue in local prostate cancers. It may eventually prove to be an alternative to radiation therapy. More research, with long-term follow up, is needed. Thermoradiotherapy. Thermoradiotherapy is a procedure that combines heat and conformal radiation. A 2000 study reported that it is a well-tolerated treatment for prostate cancer. The researchers reported a significant drop in PSA, but more research is needed. Implanted Magnetic Rods An interesting and unique procedure implants very small rods that heat up when exposed to a magnetic field and destroy surrounding tissue. The rods are permanent, so therapy can be repeated non-invasively if the patient's PSA levels rise. The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a clinical study at the University of California San Francisco, treating patients who have recurring cancer after undergoing radiation therapy. ARE THE HORMONAL DRUG TREATMENTS FOR PROSTATE CANCER? Suppression Drug Therapy Guidelines either drugs or orchiectomy (surgical removal of the testicles), is used under the following circumstances: is irreversible, about 75% of patients with advanced prostate cancer choose drug therapy to block androgens. It should be noted that hormonal therapy is not a cure. Further, between 20% and 30% of patients do not respond to hormonal treatment; success rates given in studies then are not based on the total cancer patient population. therapy is used if treatment for localized prostate cancer has failed and cancer recurs (as indicated by rising PSA levels). therapy is used for treating advanced or metastasized prostate The primary agents used for suppressing androgens are called luteinizing hormone-releasing hormones (LH-RH) agonists. They include: block the pituitary gland from producing hormones that stimulate testosterone production. Patients must have injections of LH-RH agonists for the rest of their lives. (Lupron, Leuprogel). Studies report that disease progression is prevented in 72% of men taking daily leuprolide and up to 89% of those taking monthly injections. Certain men, however, may not respond to injections. Drug delivery using implants is under investigation. (Zoladex). Partial responses of 60% to 80% have been reported. Testosterone and PSA Surges. Treatment with LH-RH agonists produces a testosterone surge in the first week, which may actually intensify symptoms. After this phase, testosterone levels drop to near zero. Leuprogel, a newer leuprolide, may pose a lower risk for this effect. Researchers are investigating other drugs, such as GnRH antagonists, that do not produce this surge. [ See below. LH-RH agonists can also cause PSA levels to rise temporarily. A 2000 study suggested that administering flutamide, a drug known as an antiandrogen, for two weeks prior to LH-RH agonists may not only prevent PSA surge but also induce early declines in PSA levels. Side Effects. Side effects include hot flashes and occasionally nipple and breast tenderness. are powerful agents produced in the adrenal gland. They are used alone or in maximal androgen blockage (MAB), in which they are combined with LH-RH agonists or orchiectomy to completely block androgen hormones. Antiandrogens are either steroidal or nonsteroidal. Nonsteroidal Antiandrogens. The nonsteroidal drugs are as Antiandrogens. The steroidal antiandrogens act like female hormones and include the following: (Eulexin, Drogenil). Flutamide has produced extended response in some patients. Interestingly, studies report that simple withdrawal produced a PSA decrease in about 20% of patients, which lasted between 3.5 and 5 months. Side effects reported with flutamide include diarrhea and liver damage, which has been fatal in rare cases; liver function must be monitored closely. (Nilandron). Nilutamide is associated with reversible interstitial pneumonitis, nausea, alcohol intolerance, and visual disturbances. (Casodex). Bicalutamide may be as effective and have fewer severe side effects, including loss of sexual interest and osteoporosis, than other antiandrogens. This agent is proving to be an alternative to maximal androgen blockage (MAB) using goserelin plus flutamide or orchiectomy. In a comparison study with MAB, survival rates were similar. The bicalutamide group reported more breast swelling but the MAB group had significantly worse diarrhea and hot flashes. Both groups reported impaired sexual function. Physical capacity increased in those taking bicalutamide and decreased in the MAB group. In a comparison study with orchiectomy, patients taking bicalutamide had more sexual interest and physical capacity, and preliminary data indicates that bicalutamide does not deplete bone mineral density. Acetate. (Megestrol acetate suppresses androgen production, but incompletely, and is generally not used as initial therapy.) acetate. (Cyproterone combined with estrogen may prevent the testosterone surge that occurs with LH-RH agonists.) Releasing Hormone (GnRH) Antagonists releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonists are relatively recent agents. Those studied include abarelix and histrelin. (GnRH is another name for luteinizing hormone-releasing hormones (LH-RH). Drugs known as GnRH antagonists have two advantages over LH-RH agonists: In one study, histrelin was administered as an implant and was effective for up to 30 months. This offers an advantage over existing drugs, which must be administered at one to three -month intervals. - They do not cause the same testosterone surge that can temporarily worsen - They seem to reduce testosterone levels more quickly. diethylstilbestrol (DES), may also be used. These female hormones may exacerbate heart conditions in high doses and their use has declined. Other estrogens, such as fosfestrole, may prove to be effective without posing such high risks. An estrogen agent, estramustine phosphate, which is also used in chemotherapy, is showing promise. Treatments for Maximal Androgen Blockage (MAB) even after using standard hormonal agents, residual testosterone is usually present. In such cases, physicians may try drugs or techniques to produce a complete shut-down of all male hormones. This approach, known as maximal androgen blockage (MAB), uses LH-RH agonists or orchiectomy combined with other agents known as antiandrogens. MAB, however, has considerable adverse effects on quality of life, and studies suggest that survival benefits are very modest over androgen suppression with single agents or orchiectomy. (One 2000 study suggested that taking MAB longer than 120 days may improve survival times.) Intermittent Androgen Suppression. Oddly, stopping antiandrogens sometimes causes PSA levels to drop again, a phenomenon called the antiandrogen withdrawal syndrome. This has led to investigation of therapy that uses intermittent androgen suppression, which involves alternating cycles of therapy and rest. First, antiandrogen drugs are given for at least six months until PSA levels are at their lowest and remain there. The drugs are then stopped until PSA levels rise again to greater than 10 ng/ml, at which point treatment resumes. This cyclic therapy appears to delay tumor progression, and in any case, it offers a drug-free period in which the patients experience renewed sexual function and a greater sense of well-being. Sequential Androgen Blockage. Sequential androgen blockage, like intermittent androgen suppression, is designed to effectively reduce the effects of testosterone while offering the patient some relief from side effects. It uses drugs known as 5 alpha-reductase inhibitors to block conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone along with an antiandrogen to mop up any residual male hormones. This treatment allows some testosterone to remain in circulation and helps prevent some of the distressing side effects of total of Androgen Deprivation Men often experience fatigue, loss of energy, and emotional distress. Hormonal therapy may significantly impair quality of life, particularly in men who had no symptoms beforehand and whose cancer has not metastasized. Common side effects of androgen suppression drugs include the following: Needless to say, these side effects can cause severe emotional problems. the loss of bone density. This risk is higher with orchiectomy than with androgen suppressants. It does not occur with all androgen suppressants. The use of estrogens may actually be - Loss of - Loss of sexual drive and sexual dysfunction of the breasts (gynecomastia) - Hair loss Therapies for Manipulating Hormones cancers after androgen suppression fails, researchers are investigating the use of other therapies that affect hormonal triggers of prostate Ketoconazole. Ketoconazole, usually used to fight fungal infections, is a nonhormonal drug that inhibits an enzyme that stimulates production of testosterone. It is effective in high doses but can have severe gastrointestinal effects, mainly nausea and anorexia. Long term use can result in impotence, itchy skin, nail changes, and suppression of stress hormones. One center reported a consistent PSA response in more than 60% of patients who had failed other androgen Aromatase Blockers. Drugs, such as aminoglutethimide (Cytadren) that block aromatase, an enzyme important in estrogen production, are being studied. Because the female hormone estrogen plays such a major role in the development of breast cancer, some experts postulate that blocking the small amount of estrogen found in men may also affect prostate cancer. Side effects include drowsiness and skin ARE NONHORMONAL DRUGS USED FOR PROSTATE CANCER? for prostate cancer improves symptoms but standard agents have not improved survival rates. A number of drugs are being investigated, both alone and in combinations, for cancer that is unresponsive to hormone treatments. These drugs include vinblastine, mitoxantrone, vinorelbine, adriamycin, mitoxantrone, and estramustine (which combines estrogen with nitrogen mustard and acts on prostate cells). Amsacrine and etoposide, which break down DNA, may prove to be effective for men with certain inherited forms of prostate cancer. Unfortunately, studies to date are reporting toxicities and lack of effect with some of these agents. A study of vinorelbine had more encouraging results; the drug was shown to be safe and provided relief from symptoms, especially bone pain. Paclitaxel and docetaxel, drugs used in gynecologic cancers, are also showing promise. such as prednisone, are important for reducing pain and improving quality of life. Some experts believe they should be the first choice for progressive prostate cancer that is resistant to hormonal treatments. Corticosteroids may be particularly effective in relieving pain and delay disease progression when used in combination with chemotherapy drugs, particularly mitoxantrone. There is evidence that corticosteroids can reduce PSA levels and boost survival in some patients. for cancer uses agents that enhance the power of the patient's own immune system to fight cancer cells. Vaccines. One technique employs genetically-designed vaccines that inject factors into prostate cancer cells to serve as antigens so that the immune system is tricked into attacking the real cancer cells. A number of vaccines (eg, Provenge, Gvaz, JBT 1001) are in clinical trials. Researchers have identified an antigen that may be unique to prostate cancer cells and so a potential very effective target for a vaccine. Monoclonal Antibodies. Monoclonal antibodies are genetically designed immune factors that target and attack specific antigens and are being tested with prostate cancer cells. are proving to be very helpful for reducing bone pain in metastasized cancers. These drugs actually help inhibit prostate cancer cell growth in the bone. A number of non-hormonal drugs are under investigation. Potent Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs. COX-2 inhibitors and potent NSAIDs, such as exisulind or sulindac (Clinoril), are being investigated for treating and delaying recurrence of prostate cancer after surgery. Vitamin-D Derived Treatments. Some studies are reporting that vitamin-D derived agents, such as calcitriol, may eventually be beneficial for prostate cancer patients, particularly in combination with other chemotherapies. Liarozole blocks the break down of retinoid acid (a vitamin A derivative important in maintaining normal cell growth and structure) and is showing promise for reducing PSA levels and improving symptoms in early trials. Angiogenesis Inhibitors. Thalidomide, and AE-941 (Neovastat) are investigative agents that inhibit angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels that are critical for spreading cancer. It is still too early to determine whether these therapies will be Matrix Metalloproteinase Inhibitors. Drugs are being tested in clinical trials that inhibit matrix metalloproteinase, which are enzymes that may degrade cell structure allowing cancers to grow and metastasize. Doxazosin. Doxazosin (Cardura), a drug commonly used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia, has been shown to kill prostate cancer cells in lab experiments. The effects are amplified when doxazosin is combined with adriamycin or etoposide, chemotherapy drugs. More research is needed to determine if this effect has significance PC-SPES. An extract from eight Chinese herbs referred to as PC-SPES is showing promise in reducing PSA levels by up to 80% in some men. Side effects include breast swelling, leg cramps, nausea and vomiting, and blood clots due to the estrogenic activity of Quercetin. Q uercetin is a flavonoid compound found in apples, onions, black and green tea, red wine, green leafy vegetables, beans, and citrus fruits. It may have specific actions that block androgen activity in prostate cancer cells, making it a good research subject. Atrasentan. Atrasentan shows promise in reducing bone loss and delaying progression of prostate cancer in men with advanced disease that no longer responds to hormone therapy. Side effects are relatively mild. ELSE CAN HELP BE OBTAINED FOR PROSTATE CANCER? National Cancer Institute Call (800-4-CANCER) (800-422-6237) during working hours. Deaf and hard of hearing callers with TTY equipment may call (800-332-8615) Call CancerFax at 800-624-2511 or 301-402-5874 from your touch-tone phone or from the telephone on a fax machine (the machine must be set to touch-tone dialing). or on the Internet American Cancer Society, 1599 Clifton Road, NE, Atlanta, GA 30329-4251 Call (800-ACS-2345) or (404-320-3333) or on the Internet (http://www.cancer.org) American Society of Clinical Oncology, 1900 Duke Street, Suite 200, Alexandria, VA 22314 Call (703) 299-0150 or on the Internet (http://www.asco.org) National Prostate Cancer Coalition, 1156 15th St., NW, Washington, DC 20005. Call (888-245-9455) or on the Internet (http://www.4npcc.org) Cancer Care, Inc., 275 7th Avenue, New York, NY 10001, Call (800-813-HOPE) or (212-712-8080)or on the Internet (http://www.cancercare.org/index.asp) American Foundation for Urologic Disease , 1128 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. Call (800-242-2383) or (410 468-1800)or on the Internet (http://www.afud.org/) Digital Urology Journal 300 Longwood Avenue, Hunnewell 3, Boston, An online journal with research articles on urologic problems is located at (http://www.duj.com/) National Association for Continence (NAFC), Box 8310, Spartanburg, SC 29305-8310 Call (800-BLADDER) or on the Internet (http://www.nafc.org/) Offers free literature. Paid membership includes a resource guide, a quarterly newsletter, the Resource Guide (a very comprehensive directory of products and services for the incontinent), and referrals to physicians who specialize in continence. Acts as an advocate for the incontinent with governmental agencies, insurance companies, and health organizations. The Simon Foundation for Continence, Box 835-F, Wilmette, IL 60091 Call (800-23-SIMON)or on the Internet (http://www.simonfoundation.org) American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR), 1759 R Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009. Call 1-800-843-8114 or (202) 328-7744 in Washington, D.C. Internet source for dietary recommendations: (http://www.aicr.org) For Internet Users Listing of clinical trials (http://www.centerwatch.com/studies/listing.htm) Journal of Clinical Oncology (http://www.jco.org/) National Comprehensive Cancer Network (http://www.nccn.org/) PSA Rising Magazine (http://www.psa-rising.com/) Useful site for learning about cryosurgery (http://members.aol.com/dtkn21/endo/tcap_info.html)
Poaching is a deadly crime against wildlife. Wildlife officials say that legal hunters kill tens of millions of animals every year. For each of those animals, another is killed illegally, perhaps on closed land or out of season, leaving orphaned young to starve. Few poachers are caught or punished. Poachers may also kill endangered species or use illegal weapons. Some poachers just love killing animals, or want a trophy. For many, profit is the motive. Bear gall bladders get top dollar for Chinese herbal remedies, and big-horned sheep antlers can fetch $20,000 on the black market. Let's stop this war on wildlife. - Going hiking or bird watching? Know your state's wildlife regulations and hunting seasons so you can identify violations. - If you see suspicious activity, don't confront anyone. - Get a description of the poacher, the vehicle and the surrounding area. - Call your state wildlife department immediately [PDF]. News & Events April 18, 2016 April 12, 2016 American Voters Oppose Delisting Greater Yellowstone Area Grizzly Bears from Endangered Species Act Protections A new national poll shows that the majority of voters oppose the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) proposal to remove grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem from the list of federally threatened and endangered species (55 percent oppose and 26 percent support). March 1, 2016 A new statewide poll by Remington Research Group shows that Alaska voters strongly support an end to cruel and unsporting practices used to kill bears, wolves and coyotes on the state’s National Wildlife Refuges. February 17, 2016 The New Hampshire Fish and Game Commission voted today to open a season on bobcats for the first time since 1989.
On anniversary, Germans look to a broader unity Ten hard years after reunificaiton, an eastern city pins hopes on EU expansion. Germans are marking the 10th anniversary of their country's reunification today with an official ceremony in the eastern city of Dresden and a large celebration in Berlin. Former chancellor Helmut Kohl, disgraced by a slush fund scandal, declined to attend festivities after he wasn't invited to speak. A decade after the unprecedented fusion of the communist East and capitalist West, German politicians are arguing over who should take the credit. But with the promises and pitfalls of Europe's tortuous integration made tangible here like nowhere else, to many Germans, the debate almost seems irrelevant. Nowhere is this more evident than in Eisenhttenstadt, an archetypical East German city that is staking its hopes on the next steps beyond German unification, to a more unified Europe. If it had been up to the citizens of Eisenhttenstadt, it's possible that the dramatic November 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, which set the course for reunification less than a year later, would never have happened. Known as Stalinstadt before it was renamed "Iron Works City," Eisenhttenstadt owes its very existence to the country's division after World War II. With steel production concentrated in capitalist West Germany, the Communist leadership decreed the construction of six blast furnaces in a pine forest on the Polish border. It was conceived as the model socialist city. "The model failed," says Mayor Rainer Werner. "Everything was in a desolate condition" at the time of unification. Today, the sprawling metallurgical plant still dominates the city, but three-fourths of the steel mill's 12,000 workers have been laid off since reunification. As in much of eastern Germany, the costly task of renovating Eisenhttenstadt is only half complete. Nevertheless, the city has come a long way in the past decade. Thanks to more than half a billion dollars in subsidies, the privatized steel plant is turning a profit and is starting to expand once again. Workers here are the first to note that without drastic restructuring, the factory would have gone bust. To document changing attitudes since reunification, Andreas Ludwig has set up the Documentation Center of Daily Culture in East Germany here, in a former palatial kindergarten with stained-glass windows. While western Germans continued with their lives more or less normally, people in the East were faced with a completely new reality. "Eastern Germans feel like the losers," says Mr. Ludwig. "In the East it was a virtue to listen, in the West to be able to speak. So you can imagine what happened when the two met." As billions in aid flowed to the ailing east, western generosity was mixed with a strong dose of condescension. The result, says Ludwig, is that in the east there is a greater preoccupation with the past, not unlike that with the Civil War in the American South. Another source of perceived inequality is that wages haven't yet reached western levels. Former Eisenhttenstadt dissident Rolf Henrich, who played an influential role in the 1989 pro-democracy movement, counters that "as long as productivity isn't the same, you can't expect that you'll earn as much." Mr. Henrich says that even the reunified Germany stifles personal initiative with overly generous welfare benefits. Yet with a certain degree of pride, he hints that young eastern Germans are more ambitious than their western counterparts - exactly because of the challenges they have had to overcome. Regional differences have always shaped the consciousness of Germans, who historically lived in fractured kingdoms and principalities, not in a unified state. While eastern Germany's emerging generation may have little recollection of socialism and consider itself "German" without a prefix, the traditional faultline between the rich Southwest and poor Northeast is once again becoming clearer, says historian Ludwig. Many are placing their hopes on the eventual eastward expansion of the European Union, when Germany's borders with Poland and the Czech Republic open for good. All of a sudden, cities like Eisenhttenstadt would be at the center - rather than the periphery - of a vast free-trade zone. Already, the steel plant is planning to double exports further east. Richard von Weizscker, who was president of West Germany at the time of unification, says Germany can use its unique position to mediate between Eastern and Western Europe. "There will be no 'German' policies in Europe, but rather 'European' policies," he says. "It is Germany's vital interest that we are heard in the world as a European voice." And despite shocks of the market economy over the past decade, few in Eisenhttenstadt would willingly return to the past. "Nobody here wants to rebuild the [Berlin] Wall," says steel worker Frank Stubner. "The opportunities to live out my life are much better." On the holiday marking the 10th anniversary of German unity, Mr. Stubner won't be forced to march past old men waving from a grandstand, as was common during the Communist era. He'll be working his shift, just as he would on any other day. (c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society
While debt-infested countries in the eurozone are struggling to decrease their budget deficits, the U.S. government is reporting an increase in its deficit. For the fiscal year of 2012, the federal government budget deficit was $1.09 trillion, slightly below 2011’s deficit of $1.29 trillion. (Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury, October 12, 2012.) As a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), the U.S. government’s budget deficit for the year 2012 stands at seven percent. Yes, some might jump on the “decline” in the federal budget deficit in 2012 over 2011, but there is more to it. For the first month in the current fiscal year of 2013, which ended October 31, the deficit increased by $120 billion. This is an increase of almost 22% from the same month last year—$98.0 billion in October 2011. (Source: Department of the Treasury, November 13, 2012. In the month of October, U.S. government spending was much higher than the previous month. In September, the U.S. government spending was $186.3 billion, in October 2011, it was $261.5 billion. In October of this year, government spending reached a staggering $304.3 billion—an increase of 63.3% from a month earlier and 16.4% from October last year. So all this talk of lowering the government’s annual budget deficit seems to be just that; talk. Increasing budget deficits is not good for any country; every economist would agree with me on this one. So, where do we go from here? The issues in the U.S. economy are becoming similar to the ones in the eurozone countries. For example, in those countries, government spending simply was greater than tax revenue, hence the basic reason behind the deficit. In the U.S., 2012 marked the fourth year in a row where the government experienced an annual deficit above $1.0 trillion. I expect the budget deficit of the federal government to continue in the annual $1.0-trillion range. It doesn’t require a lot of research to come to that conclusion. Averting the fiscal cliff is nothing but a promise of more government spending and an increase in the government’s deficit. Further, I don’t think U.S. economy has any chance of improving anytime soon. Once a family starts spending more than it earns, it is very difficult to get back on track. Our financial situation is poor in the U.S. and our expenses are increasing daily. Dear reader, brace yourself for picking up the tab of government spending. Your taxes will go higher and the austerity measures you hear about in the eurozone are a very likely scenario for our U.S. economy. If you thought your income was declining, wait until the government tries to get its act together. In the eurozone, many countries have raised taxes on citizens and introduced austerity measures. Does the U.S. really have any other options other than that combination? What no politician has the guts to do: Step 1: stop printing more fiat currency; Step 2: have all fiat currencies backed by gold. It wasn’t too long ago that the global economy had the gold standard—only a certain amount of money was printed and that printing was based on the holdings of gold bullion a country had. Now, after a few decades of running away from the gold standard and flooding global economy with paper fiat currency that can be created out of thin air, countries are regretting what they’ve done. We are starting to see countries in the global economy turning their attention towards gold as a source of safety—something that has stored value for much longer. Since the inception of paper money, the amount of economic risk in the global economy has simply increased. The biggest concerns are inflation and the constant debasement of money. A dollar U.S. in 1970 is now worth $5.96 in the U.S. economy. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, November 14, 2012.) For American citizens, their currency value has declined almost five-fold since we stepped away from the gold standard. It’s the same situation elsewhere in the global economy. Fiat paper simply has less purchasing power as the year passes. All this leads to a simple question: to stop the erosion of the purchasing power of paper money, what do we do? Go back to the gold standard? The Prime Minister of Turkey thinks we should do just that. He is urging the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to consider gold as its base currency. He suggested that the IMF has heavily relied on the U.S. dollar and this factor alone has caused more chaos for the other countries in trouble. (Source: Sabah, November 14, 2012.) Along the same theme, a study done in the European Union (EU) is recommending countries in the eurozone area use gold as collateral, as this can bring down their borrowing costs. If the eurozone area combined all its gold and pegged it to the euro, it could potentially put a stop to the crisis destroying the global economy. The eurozone area has 10,792 tonnes of gold. (Source: CNBC, November 5, 2012.) From all of this, what I get is that gold bullion prices are going to increase. Uncertainty and debasement of currencies in the global economy will certainly change attitudes of countries toward gold. Are we going back to the gold standard? I don’t know, but for a gold bull like me, what’s happening with the deterioration of the purchasing power of fiat currencies is a good sign for gold. As the global economy deteriorates further, we might just get a gold rush dominated by central banks—and I believe we are already seeing some action on this. Going forward, I will not be surprised to see more world leaders coming out and agreeing with the prime minister of Turkey. Fiat currencies have created more trouble in the global economy than they have benefits. Where the Market Stands; Where it’s Headed: For the Dow Jones Industrial Average, we are near the end of a multi-year “head-and-shoulders” formation. In technical terms, looking at the multi-year chart, the left shoulder was created over the years 1995 to 2002. The neckline was created in the years 2003 to 2007. The right shoulder creation started in 2008. The right shoulder has likely reached its peak and we are now starting the long-term trend down for the right shoulder. At this exact moment, the market is oversold from its recent sell-off, but any upside rally will be limited in scope. What He Said: “Starting two years ago, I was writing how the housing boom would go bust and cause the U.S. economy to suffer sharply. That’s exactly what is happening today. From what I see happening in the U.S. economy, I’m keeping with the prediction I made earlier this year: By late 2007/early 2008, the U.S. will be in a homemade recession. Hence, I expect housing prices to continue declining, soft auto sales, soft consumer spending, and a lower stock market.” Michael Lombardi in Profit Confidential, August 15, 2007. You would have been hard pressed to find another analyst predicting a U.S. recession in the summer of 2007. At the time, the stock market was roaring, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average hitting its all-time high of 14,164 in October of 2007.
This study is provided by ICPSR. ICPSR provides leadership and training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis for a diverse and expanding social science research community. American Time Use Survey (ATUS), 2006 (ICPSR 23024) Principal Investigator(s): United States Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) collects information on how people living in the United States spend their time. Data collected in this study measured the amount of time that people spent doing various activities in 2006, such as paid work, child care, religious activities, volunteering, and socializing. Respondents were interviewed only once about how they spent their time on the previous day, where they were, and whom they were with. An Eating and Health (EH) module was introduced in January 2006, which included questions related to eating, meal preparation, and health, all of which were asked after completion of the ATUS questions. Part 1, Respondent and Activity Summary File, contains demographic information about respondents and a summary of the total number of minutes they spent doing each activity that day. Part 2, Roster File, contains information about household members and nonhousehold children under the age of 18. Part 3, Activity File, includes additional information on activities in which respondents participated, including the location of each activity and the total time spent on secondary child care. Part 4, Who File, includes data on who was present during each activity. Part 5, ATUS-CPS 2006 File, contains data on respondents and members of their household collected during their participation in the Current Population Survey (CPS). Parts 6 and 7 correspond to the 2006 Eating and Health (EH) Module. Parts 8-12 contain supplemental data files that can be used for further analysis of the data. Part 8, Case History File, contains information about the interview process. Part 9, Call History File, gives information about each call attempt. Part 10, Trips File, provides information about the number, duration, and purpose of overnight trips away from home for two or more nights in a row in a given reference month. Parts 11 and 12 contain base weights, replicate base weights, and replicate final weights for each case that was selected to be interviewed for the ATUS. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, ethnicity, education level, income, employment status, occupation, citizenship status, country of origin, and household composition. These data are available only to users at ICPSR member institutions. Because you are not logged in, we cannot verify that you will be able to download these data. WARNING: Because this study has many datasets, the download all files option has been suppressed, and you will need to download one dataset at a time. WARNING: This study is over 150MB in size and may take several minutes to download on a typical internet connection. United States Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. American Time Use Survey (ATUS), 2006. ICPSR23024-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2008-11-13. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23024.v1 Persistent URL: http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23024.v1 This study was funded by: - United States Department of Agriculture. Economic Research Service - United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Cancer Institute Scope of Study Subject Terms: child care, domestic responsibilities, eating habits, employment, family life, family work relationship, health behavior, housework, leisure, lifestyles, quality of life, recreation, social interaction, social life, time utilization, work, working hours Geographic Coverage: United States Date of Collection: Unit of Observation: individual Universe: All residents at least 15 years of age who were living in households in the United States, with the exception of active military personnel and people residing in institutions such as nursing homes and prisons. Data Types: survey data Data Collection Notes: The data available for download are not weighted and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis. The method used to generate weights changed each year from 2003 to 2006, so users who combine multiple years of ATUS data must use weights that were generated using comparable methods. For information on weighting, linking files, combining multiple years of data, and producing time-use estimates, please refer to the User's Guide or the American Time Use Survey 2006 Web site. The data file in Part 1 contains the linked Respondent and Activity Summary files. The files in Parts 8-12 have not been processed by ICPSR staff and are being distributed in essentially the same form in which they were received. The ATUS 2006 Eating and Health (EH) Module was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Health's National Cancer Institute. Files pertaining to the EH module can be found in Parts 6, 7, and 12. ATUS respondents who participated in the module were identified in the TREMODR variable in Part 1. Variable labels and value labels were added in several variables. The formats of the variables ERBMI, TUBWGT, TUFINLWGT, and EUFINLWGT were adjusted to fit the width of the values present in these variables, and the following variables were converted from character to numeric: TUCASEID, HRHHID, HRHHID2, TEHRUSLT, TEHRUSL1, TEHRUSL2, TEIO1ICD, TEIO1OCD, PEIO1ICD, PEIO1OCD, PEIO2ICD, and PEIO2OCD. The CASEID variable was added to the data file in Part 1 for use with online analysis. The activity code variables in Part 1 are preceded by the letter "T" and include a six-digit activity classification code. Activity classification codes and examples of activities can be found in the ATUS Coding Lexicon. For more information about the ATUS Coding Lexicon, please refer to the User Guide. The Trips file in Part 10 does not contain weights and should be used with caution. More information on the Trips file can be found in the data dictionary and via the American Time Use Survey Web site. Published tables and charts showing time-use estimates for major activity categories, selected detailed activities, and selected demographic characteristics are available via the American Time Use Survey Web site. Tables showing estimates from the Eating and Health Module are available from the USDA's Economic Research Service Web site. The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) was conducted by the United States Census Bureau. Sample: The ATUS sample was drawn from households that had completed their final month of interviews for the Current Population Survey (CPS). Households were selected to ensure that estimates could be made across major demographic groups. One individual from each selected household was chosen to participate in the ATUS, and this person was interviewed only once about his or her time use. Please refer to the User Guide for additional information on sampling. Weight: The data contain weight variables that should be used in analyzing the data. Users need to apply weights when computing estimates with the ATUS data because simple tabulations of unweighted ATUS data produce misleading results. The Respondent and Activity Summary data file in Part 1 contains the ATUS final weight TUFINLWGT and the ATUS base weight TUBWGT. When computing estimates using variables from the Eating and Health Module, the weight variable EUFINLWGT in Part 6 should be used instead of TUFINLWGT. More information on the weight variables used in this study can be found in the User Guide. Parts 11 and 12 contain replicate weights based on the replicate weights developed for the CPS. The CPS replicate weights are based on a modified balanced half-sample method of replication, developed in the 1980s by Robert Fay. For information about the replicate weights, see the publication, Technical Paper 66: Current Population Survey -- Design and Methodology, available via the Bureau of Labor Statistics Web site. Mode of Data Collection: computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) Response Rates: The overall response rate was 55.1 percent. Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: - Created variable labels and/or value labels. - Created online analysis version with question text. - Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes. Original ICPSR Release: 2008-11-13 Related Publications (?) - List all ~49 citations associated with this study - View citations for the entire series Most Recent Publications - Citations exports are provided above. 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Q: I'm disturbed by a report I heard on the radio. The announcer said a study just published shows that fatness is inherited. My father is fat. Does this mean I'm doomed to be fat as well? A: Hold on. Things aren't as bad as you might think. Let's see what that study, published in the January 23, 2003, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, actually found. The researchers compared a sample of 540 Danish adoptees with their natural parents and their adoptive parents. They found a strong correlation between the fatness of the adoptees and their biological parents, but no relation between the fatness of the adoptees and their adoptive parents. The researchers concluded: "Genetic influences have an important role in determining human fatness in adults, whereas the family environment alone has no apparent effect." In one way the results of this study are not surprising. An earlier study of twins separated at birth showed that fatness is strongly influenced by inheritance. Moreover, research has shown that 80% of the offspring of two obese parents become obese, as compared with no more than 14% of the offspring of two parents of normal weight. The surprising finding was that, as far as researchers could tell, the adoptive family seemed to have no impact at all. That's the bad news. The good news is that the researchers cautioned against reading too much into their results. "These findings do not mean that fatness, including obesity, is determined at conception and that, as is the case of determination of eye color, the environment has no effect," they wrote. "We do not know, for example," they continued, "how genetic predisposition to fatness may be affected by environmental factors." In other words, this study doesn't mean that there is nothing you can do to counteract an inherited tendency to be fat. As the study's director, Dr. Albert J. Stuckard of the University of Pennsylvania, noted in a subsequent interview, lots of people with two fat parents (the ones who probably face the highest genetic risk of obesity)take weight off and keep it off. The study simply confirms that some people have to work harder than others to stay lean. If one of your parents died at an early age from a heart attack, you wouldn't close your eyes to the controllable risk factors (smoking, high-fat diet, etc.) in heart disease. On the contrary, because heart disease appears to run in your family, you'd do everything possible to prevent having a heart attack yourself. By the same token, if you believe you have a genetic tendency to be fat, you should redouble your efforts to avoid it. If you work at it, chances are that you can become lean and stay lean; overcoming any tendency you may have toward fatness. To show there's hope for those with fat genes, Dr. Stuckard and his fellow researchers cite a study involving genetically obese mice. Simply increasing activity, with no dietary intervention, prevented obesity in 50% of the mice, and greatly limited it in the other half. Actually, this adoption study may merely demonstrate that body mechanisms which allowed us to survive in former times work against us in a modern world where there's a McDonald's on every corner and our cupboards are almost never bare. The fat our ancestors put on in the summer when food was comparatively plentiful was burned off during the lean winter months. Back then, those with the genetic tendency to store fat were the ones that survived the hard times when food was scarce. The others perished. Today, with an abundance of high-calorie food and machines to do our work, our beautiful adaptive mechanisms simply make us fat. It's the same phenomenon that causes animals, who stay extremely lean in the wild, to become obese in captivity and many professional athletes to blow up like balloons after they retire. As you have probably guessed by now, one of the most effective things you can do to avoid becoming like your father is to stay physically active. As suggested by the experiment involving obese mice, the weight of people who begin to exercise regularly usually drops even if they make no attempt to diet. How lean you are depends to a large extent on the amount of exercise you do. Perhaps the best examples are endurance athletes: marathon runners, cross-country skiers and competitive cyclists. They are usually lean even when they eat whatever they want. Bodybuilders also have an advantage in terms of the ability to stay lean. That's because your muscles burn most of the food you eat. Your muscles burn calories even when you're asleep. In addition to the fact that they burn extra calories lifting weights, bodybuilders find it easier to stay lean because they have developed more calorie-burning muscle tissue. In contrast, people who are inactive have less muscle tissue and therefore burn fewer calories and have a greater tendency to get fat. If you've ever had an arm or a leg placed in a cast, you know how inactivity causes muscles to atrophy. The kind of food you eat also affects how well you control a tendency to get fat. We seem to have an inclination to pig out on high-calorie, high-fat, high-sugar foods. Again, in the days when famines were common, this tendency protected us against starvation. The best way to counteract it today is to eat plenty of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and steer clear of refined and fatty foods. Bulky whole grains, fruits and vegetables provide lots of chewing, tasting and stomach-filling satisfaction without giving you too many calories. Refined and fatty foods, on the other hand, pack calories into a small volume and give you too many calories long before you've eaten your fill. So to make a long story short, some people are born with the right genes for our modern world of inactivity and fast foods and don't have to worry about their weight. Others (you may be one of them) get fat if they don't exercise and eat correctly. Nevertheless, the bottom line is that most people with fat genes can control their tendency to be overweight. Now, stop worrying and go work out. Your Bodyweight and Body Fat Weight Problem Be Genetic? Is Obesity a Disease?
Today I took part in the final day of The big butterfly count 2017; a nationwide survey endorsed by Sir David Attenborough to assess the health of our environment. Launched at the London Wetland Centre in July, the survey — which saw more than 36,000 people take part last year — uses butterflies’ quick reaction to change in their environment as an indicator for biodiversity. Declines in butterfly numbers can act as early warning signs for other wildlife losses. Following the advice of the big butterfly count’s website, I found a sunny spot and stood for 15 minutes with my survey sheet and eyes peeled, monitoring all the butterflies that came into view. As Sir David Attenborough explains in the video above, buddleia is an invasive species, but its flowers hugely attract butterflies. two orange and brown Commas (pictured above)… and one Small Tortoiseshell butterfly (note the tiny dots of blue at the base of its wings). The official data collecting days of the big butterfly count were 14th July to 6th August, though sightings from this period can be logged online or through the app until the end of the month. Butterfly ID sheets are still available to download online here.
Everything you see in the modern world has been designed. This technology: the gadgets you use, the vehicles you drive or were driven in, the words you speak and the letters you write didn’t exist once, they had to be imagined, and then created. Some of this technology such as writing was designed and built thousands of years ago. Other things such as the tablet computer, smart phone and the personal computer have only been imagined and built in the past few decades. So, if I were to ask you how many robots are in your home what would you say? You probably didn’t think of the washing machine, dishwasher and tumble dryer. These things are so every day that you probably didn’t even think of them as technology, they have simply disappeared from view and become part of the infrastructure of modern life. If you’re reading this you are probably at the start of a career in design, and now couldn’t be a better time. We are now living through the most exciting period of technological innovation since the 1970. The rewards are massive, You can use advanced tools to design not just software but business in months rather than years. You can design for the desktop, web, phones, tablets and a myriad other devices and in the most part you can do it without thinking too much about it. The rewards are massive, but so are the risks. The risks are that if you don’t design for how people understand and use technology then you will waste time and money creating product that no one will buy and no one can use. To meet the challenges of the fast paced nature of change, you must understand the principle of good design and this start with understanding one key fact. Good design is all about understanding how to communicate the intention of a design and how to make that experience engaging. The 4 key principles of communicating design are: - Signifiers – A signifier is a designed indication of how to use an object. - Mapping – The relationship between an object and the thing it effects - Feedback – The mechanism by which we understand if have/don’t have the intended result - Conceptual model – Is the narrative of how the ‘user’ expects the designed object to work. They form this model through the use and experience of other things or by following social or designed signifiers. The 2 key principle of creating engaging experience are: - Sociable design – inclusion of empathy and understand of interruptions and unexpected events. - Pleasure (Emotion) – Things work better then they look pretty, and/or make us feel good about ourselves.
Endangered Colorado: Is it Too Late to Save One of Our Greatest Rivers? Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. The following excerpt is from River Notes: A Natural and Human History of the Colorado by Wade Davis, © 2013 Wade Davis. Reproduced by permission of Island Press, Washington DC. "Man always kills the things he loves, and so we the pioneers, have killed our wilderness. Some say we had to. Be that as it may. I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?" —Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 1949 In 1922, having completed work on the first comprehensive management plan for the Grand Canyon, Aldo Leopold, along with his younger brother, set out by canoe to explore the mouth of the mighty Colorado. At the time the main flow of the Colorado reached the sea, carrying with it each year millions of tons of silt and sand and so much fresh water that the river’s influence extended some forty miles into the Gulf of California. The alluvial fan of the delta spread across two million acres, well over three thousand square miles, a vast riparian and tidal wetland the size of the state of Rhode Island. It was one of the largest desert estuaries on earth. Off shore, nutrients brought down by the river supported an astonishingly rich fishery for bagre and corvina, dolphins, and the rare and elusive vaquita porpoise, the world’s smallest marine cetacean. At the top of the food chain was the totoaba, an enormous relative of the white sea bass that grew to three hundred pounds, spawned in the brackish waters of the estuary and swarmed in the Sea of Cortez in such abundance that even fishermen blinded in old age, it was said, had no difficulty striking home their harpoons. In contrast to the searing sands of the Sonoran Desert through which the lower Colorado flowed, and the blue and barren hills of the Sierra de los Cucapás, cradling the river valley to the north and west, the delta was lush and fertile, a “milk and honey wilderness,” as Leopold called it, of marshes and emerald ponds with cattails and wild grasses yielding to the wind, and cottonwoods, willows, and mesquite trees overhanging channels where the water ran everywhere and nowhere, as if incapable of settling upon a route to the sea. The river, wrote Leopold, “could not decide which of a hundred green lagoons offered the most pleasant and least speedy path to the gulf. So he travelled them all, and so did we. He divided and rejoined, he twisted and turned, he meandered in awesome jungles, he all but ran in circles, he dallied with lovely groves, he got lost and was glad of it, and so were we.” Drifting with the ebb and flow of the tides, waking by dawn to the whistles of quail roosting in the branches of mesquite trees, making camp on mudflats etched with the tracks of wild boar, yellowlegs, and jaguar, the Leopold brothers experienced the Colorado delta much as had the Spanish explorer Hernando de Alarcón, who first reached its shores in 1540. There were bobcats draped over cottonwood snags. Deer, raccoons, beavers, and coyotes, and flocks of birds so abundant they darkened the sky. Avocets and willets, mallards, widgeons, and teals, scores of cormorants, screaming gulls, and so many egrets on the wing that Leopold compared them in flight to “a premature snowstorm.” He wrote of great phalanxes of geese sideslipping toward the earth, falling like autumn leaves. On every shore he saw clapper rails and sandhill cranes, and overhead, doves and raptors scraping the sky.
Chocolate Glossary Directory A, B, Bl, C, C-2, Ch, Ch-2, Co, Co-2, Cr, D, E, F, Fi, Fo, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, Mo, N, O, P, Pe, Pr, Q, R, S, Sn, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z The percentage (by weight) of cacao or chocolate liquor in the finished chocolate. In general, a higher cacao percentage indicates a darker chocolate with a lower sugar content and a more intense chocolate flavor. One important note: cacao percentage is never an indication of the quality of the chocolate! A higher percentage merely indicates a greater concentration of whatever quality cacao was used. Since cocoa beans are naturally bitter and tannic, for a finished chocolate to be palatable, the higher the cocoa content, the higher the quality of the cocoa beans that should be used. Even so, there are mass-market companies which use low quality cocoa beans for high cocoa content chocolates, resulting in exceptionally bitter chocolate. According to US standards, milk chocolate must contain at least 10% chocolate liquor. Sweet chocolate must contain at least 15%, while 35% chocolate liquor is the minimum for semisweet. The French phrase for a bean-to-bar chocolate producer. See Cocoa Powder Yes, chocolate contains caffeine, but only a small quantity. One ounce of chocolate, whether it’s milk or bittersweet, contains only about 5 to 10 mg of caffeine; six ounces of prepared hot cocoa contains roughly 10 mg of caffeine as well. According to the Mayo Clinic website, generic brewed coffee contains 95 to 200 mg of caffeine in eight ounces, while the same quantity of generic instant coffee has 27 to 173 mg of caffeine. Eight ounces of green tea or black tea will have between 14 and 61 mg of caffeine, while a twelve ounce can of a caffeinated soft drink contains in the neighborhood of 27 to 55 mg. So while chocolate contains enough caffeine to possibly be of concern to those with some heart (or other) ailments, many people who are sensitive to caffeine can consume a reasonable amount of chocolate at any time without incurring any of caffeine’s side effects. Depending on the chocolate (especially if it is mass market chocolate with high amounts of sugar), the sugar is likely to make you feel sick long before the caffeine has any significant effect. If you are concerned about this, please ask your doctor. It should be noted that different types of cocoa have more caffeine than others. Criollo typically has less while Forestero has more. Conversally, Criollo has more theobromine while Forestero has less. The ratio of caffeine to theobromine has allowed scientists to perform genetic testing and develop genetic histories on various strains of cocoa. A long, thin “scroll” of chocolate used for decoration. The French word for “square”. A carre is a small tasting square of chocolate, typically of five to ten grams. See also napolitain. \|This glossary would not have been possible without the kind assistance of my good friend Karen Hochman who runs the website: The Nibble. Karen gave us permission to base our chocolate glossary on hers. TheNibble is one of the Internet’s greatest resources for food articles, reviews, history, and just about anything when it comes to quality food. Please, if you have a few moments, visit my friend Karen’s website and you’ll be amazed at what a valuable resource it is. Thanks for all your help Karen!\| More Amano Articles You May Also Enjoy:
The essayist Frank Moore died at the age of 61. Here is all you want to know, and more! Biography - A Short Wiki An American encyclopedia editor and essayist, he is known for works such as Outlines of General History (1900), Imaginary Obligations (1904), and Constrained Attitudes (1910). He taught history and economics at Amherst College, Barnard College, and New York University. He was born and raised in Washington, D. C. In the 1880s, he attended college in New York City. If a large city can, after intense intellectual efforts, choose for its mayor a man who merely will not steal from it, we consider it a triumph of the suffrage. Men will confess to treason, murder, arson, false teeth, or a wig. How many of them will own up to a lack of humor? A ‘new thinker’, when studied closely, is merely a man who does not know what other people have thought. I know of no more disagreeable situation than to be left feeling generally angry without anybody in particular to be angry at. Talk ought always to run obliquely, not nose to nose with no chance of mental escape.
In some of your assignments, you might need to use text boxes within Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint. Text boxes are squares which you can insert into your document. You can then add text in them. You can change the size/colour/font of your text, you can change the inner colour of the square, and you can change the colour of its outline. Here’s a quick guide on how to do all this. - In your document, click at the point where you’d like to add a text box. - In the top tools bar, select Insert, then Shapes. - Select Text Box (it’s the first option in the section Basic Shapes). - Go back to your document, and drag/drop your mouse pointer to ‘draw‘ the box. - To resize it, ‘grab’ it with your mouse from any of the little circle points around it, and drag it. - To change the inner or outline colour of the box, click once on the outline of the box. Then in the top tools bar, select Format. Then play around with the Shape Fill or the Shape Outline colours. - To add text, click once inside the box and type (or paste). - To change the appearance of text, select the text and edit it as you normally would (make sure you’re in the Home section at the top tools bar).
I think people often disregard the value of imaginative play in learning early, fundamental skills that are building blocks to learning more advanced skills. This pretend play set targets so many of those skills! Here are just a few of the variety of skills children can learn while playing with this great set from Learning Resources: ~Social skills - With 5 slices of cake, 5 plates, and just one birthday crown, children are required to take turns to play with this set imaginatively. One child can be the 'birthday kid' while the others are guests at the party. Children can also play different roles, like the invitation maker, cake baker, cake slicer, and gift giver. Role playing is such an important part of a child's development. ~Early math skills - Some of the early math skills targeted in this set include number identification, counting, and one-to-one correspondence (understanding that each guest receives one slice of cake, one plate, and one invitation). The nesting gifts also work on teaching size concepts. ~Fine Motor development - Fine motor skills are those that require use of your hands. Children can work on placing the candles in the cakes, similar to placing pegs in a peg board. They can work on placing each lid on the corresponding gift before arranging by size. Adjusting the crown to the proper size and taking pictures with the camera also require the child to use both hands together. ~Language skills - Most importantly, pretend play allows children to practice their language skills. Parents can provide their children with directions to play with each piece in new ways. Here are some examples: "Put the candle in the cake and put the cake on the plate." "Take a picture of daddy wearing the birthday crown." "Show me what you do with the birthday candles." Children can also work on their own spontaneous language as they explore each piece in this set and use it to make up pretend games with parents and friends. Here's a video clip of Lydia (age 2) and Daddy playing together. The recommended age for this toy is 3+, but with supervision, I think this set is appropriate for children who are 2 years of age.
Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago, or group of islands, in the Arctic Ocean. It lies about 580 miles (930 kilometers) north of Tromsø, Norway. The archipelago is made up of nine main islands. They are Spitsbergen (formerly West Spitsbergen), North East Land, Edge Island, Barents Island, Prins Karls Foreland, Kvit Island (Gilles Land), Kong Karls Land (Wiche Islands), Bjørn (Bear) Island, and Hopen. The total area of Svalbard is 24,209 square miles (62,700 square kilometers). Spitsbergen, the largest island, is 15,075 square miles (39,044 square kilometers). Vikings discovered Svalbard in the 12th century. It remained unknown to the modern world until the Dutch explorers Willem Barents and Jacob van Heemskerck rediscovered it in 1596.
1 Answer \| Add Yours Although it seems unlikely to us, Hamlet is returned to Denmark by pirates who apparently attack the ship he is on. In a letter to Horatio that is delivered to sailors, Hamlet tells his friend the story of this pirate tale. When the pirate ship sails alongside Hamlet's ship, he boards the pirate ship to escape. The pirates agree to help Hamlet; in return he is to do them "a good turn," or favor. He doesn't, however, explain what that favor is. Perhaps we can assume that since he is a prince, the pirates ask for safe passage or maybe even money if they deliver him successfully to Denmark. We’ve answered 334,042 questions. We can answer yours, too.Ask a question
Annually, more than 2 million new cases of skin cancer occur in the U.S. Over the past 30 years, more people have had skin cancer than all other cancers combined, i.e. breast, prostate, lung, colon. According to the Sun Safety Alliance (www.sunsafetyalliance.org), one out of five Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime. Skin cancer varies in numbers and types. One type of skin cancer is Melanoma. Of the seven most common cancers, it is the least common, yet, the deadliest form of skin cancer. It is the only one whose incidence is increasing, killing one person every hour (57 minutes). In 2010, over 60,000 people in the U.S. were diagnosed with melanoma of the skin; over 9,000 died from it. Melanoma is caused by exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet light and artificial sources of light in tanning beds. Although UV rays are its strongest during the summer, exposure to UV rays can occur throughout the year. According to the Center for Disease Control (www.cdc.gov), surfaces like water, cement, sand and snow reflect 85-90% of the sun’s UV rays. The strength of the sun’s UV radiation is determined by the UV index developed by the National Weather Service and EPA. The UV index is based on a scale of 1 to 11+. 1 indicates low levels of exposure and 11+ indicates extremely high levels of exposure. The higher the index level the exposure and strength of the sun's UV rays becomes greater and the faster you can burn! When the index level is very low, 0-2, sunburn can occur in an hour/60 minutes. When the index level is very high, 10+, sunburn can occur in 10 minutes or less. Sun Safety Week is June 1st – 7th; it is a reminder that one should take the necessary precautions to prevent skin cancer. Prince William County Department of Fire and Rescue in conjunction with national health organizations and associations urge the public to take precautions in protecting you and your loved ones against the sun’s harmful rays by following these simple safety tips: - Cover up - Wear clothing to protect the skin - Wear a wide brim cap/hat - To shade the face, head, ears, and neck - Apply sunscreen that protects against UVA and UVB rays - Sources indicate that 60 to 80 percent of total lifetime sun exposure occurs in the first 18 years of life. Use sunblock SPF 15 or higher from birth to 18 years of age to help lower the risk of certain types of skin cancer (by up to 78%): - Adults (18 years & older) - SPF 15 or higher - Children (under 6 years old) - SPF 30 or higher - Apply sunscreen every two hours and after swimming, perspiring, or toweling off - Wear UVA and UVB protective sunglasses - Protects eyes from developing cataracts and other eye diseases - Seek shade at peak sun hours (10 a.m. – 4 p.m.) - Avoid indoor tanning No matter the time of year, when enjoying outdoor activities, practice sun safety even during overcast days. Pay special attention to seniors and children who are most vulnerable to being overexposed to the sun which can lead to sun poisoning resulting in life-threatening effects. For more information, visit American Cancer Society at www.cancer.org.
A project team will normally have between three and six members with clearly-defined responsibilities. What follows is a description of six of the most common specialists that are found on e-learning project teams. The composition of project teams will vary from organization to organization and in some cases, responsibilities may be combined. 1. Subject-matter expert The subject-matter expert is typically a faculty member with expertise in a particular academic discipline, topic, or field of practice. He or she serves as the course author and develops the content, helps to design learning activities and assessment strategies and brings his or her experience with the challenge of teaching the content. Ideally, the subject-matter expert also goes on to teach the course at least once after it is developed. In some distance education contexts, however, it is often the case that the original subject-matter expert is not available to teach the course, or it is designed to be taught by more than one instructor. The subject-matter expert, therefore, often plays the role as both author and instructor, or academic lead for a team of instructors. 2. Project Manager The Project Manager’s primary role is to support the day-to-day details of the project through the planning, development and delivery stages. The Project Manager helps to define the project budget, negotiates a project schedule with the rest of the team, and pulls together the people who will be needed to develop the materials. The Project Manager is also responsible for tracking progress and the allocation of resources throughout the life of the project (which is most cases includes the period when a course is actually being delivered to students). The Project Manager is often also the Instructional Designer. 3. Instructional Designer The Instructional Designer’s primary responsibility is to assist the subject-matter expert in developing high-quality, pedagogically sound learning materials. Instructional Designers typically have some background in an academic area, but are not necessarily experts in the subject area of the project, nor actively teaching. Instructional Designers work to help subject-matter experts gain a critical awareness of the relationship between course materials, activities and assignments, and evaluation methodologies. They also play a critical role in helping everyone on the project team to negotiate the impact of media and different modes of delivery on teaching and learning relationships. 4. Media Designers Media Designers are professionals in the design of graphics, multimedia, video or whatever media are required to support a project. Such designers have extensive skills in using development tools and authoring environments to create media for use in print, television, the web, CD ROMs or DVDs. The type of designer needed for a project varies with the nature of the particular course and delivery context. For a course that will be developed for the web, it is quite common to have a graphic designer and multimedia designer involved. A media designer can play a very important role in helping both subject-matter experts and instructional designers to come up with creative approaches to use media to serve instructional ends. It is particularly productive to include such people in some of the early design conversations with subject-matter experts. 5. Web Developer For projects that are to be delivered online, it is typical to include a web-developer on the team. A web developer has the necessary skills to convert project documents into HTML formats for publication, and may also have expertise in using tools within a learning management system like Web CT to support presentation of material, quizzes, and site management. While faculty members are increasingly capable of of handling their own web publishing, one of the principles of a project management approach is that the expensive time of a faculty member not be used for such purposes. Web developers may also play a role in assisting with learner support, as they are well-positioned to help learners who are having technical problems with the learning environments they have programmed. Depending upon the skill level of the web developer as well as the technical needs within different projects, it is possible that web developers will also fill programming functions as well by designing java script or database integration to support dynamic web-pages. 6. Learner Support Learner support professionals are, ideally, also available within a project team, and may play a direct role in the development of orientation and support resources tailored to support e-learning in general. They may also be called upon to develop systems to support the delivery of courses where organizational resources are inadequate to meet the need. We will be looking more closely at learner support in the last topic of this unit, but at this point, it is enough to say that learner support crosses over many roles (including administrators and teachers) to ensure effective delivery of a course. Strategies to support learners must be considered as part of the discussion when a project is being developed so as to ensure that there is a successful implementation. Defining Roles and Responsibilities While the specific configuration of a project team will vary from institution to institution and, even, within and between different departments in a single institution, it is important for roles and responsibilities to be clearly defined at the start of a project. The description of roles as listed above are typically required for projects, especially more complex ones, though the particular functions may be combined in single people. Some institutions use dedicated Project Mangers while others combine the roles of Project Manager and Instructional Designer, for example.
Onagadori is the name of a long-tailed Japanese chicken that is highly prized in the world of poultry breeding. It is a rare breed and is native to Japan. In fact, it is considered an endangered species and is the only bird that is listed as an endangered species by the Japanese government. The Onagadori is a very large breed of chicken, with some males reaching lengths of seven feet or more. The tail feathers are white at the base, with a black tip and can reach up to four feet in length. The Onagadori’s feathers are also longer and more wispy than those of other breeds of chickens. This makes them particularly difficult to breed and the birds are quite expensive. Onagadori are also very friendly and social birds that are often kept as pets. They are highly intelligent and some have even been taught to dance and play tricks. They love to eat and can take quite a bit of food during the day. The Onagadori is a symbol of status in Japan, and keeping one is seen as a sign of wealth and prestige. In fact, the Japanese government has imposed strict laws on the ownership and breeding of the birds, which has helped to ensure that their population remains stable. The Onagadori is a hardy breed and is known to have a long lifespan. It is said that if an Onagadori is kept and cared for properly, it can live for up to 25 years, which is much longer than many other breeds of chickens. Breeders of the Onagadori often have to meet special criteria in order for the birds to be accepted into an exhibition. The birds must have their tails measured to make sure their tail feathers reach the expected length, and a DNA test is also usually required to make sure the bird is a purebred. The Onagadori is a beautiful bird and is highly prized in the world of poultry breeding. It is a rare and expensive breed and is often kept as a pet due to its friendly nature, intelligence, and long life span.
The Effect of Hatchery Cell Size on Growth of Juvenile Blue Crabs, Callinectes sapidus Rathbun In response to declining Chesapeake Bay blue crab populations, an effort to better understand the life cycle of the blue crab has been launched in hopes of using the information to create an effective hatchery system to restore the bay's populations. Cell size significantly affects the growth of numerous crustaceans, suggesting that a similar effect could be found with blue crabs. This study examines the effect of both cell area and depth upon the growth of juvenile blue crabs. Only during the past century has the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, been the subject of experimentation and study. In earlier centuries the blue crab population was abundant and healthy, faithfully providing for a huge, profitable industry. Giving no cause for special study, the biology and life cycle of the blue crab remained largely mysterious. However, in this past century the blue crab population has become less abundant, giving alarm to those that rely on this economically and ecologically important crustacean and thus sparking experimentation and study. Several projects have confirmed that the population has been greatly reduced from what it was only 200 years ago by utilizing modern dredge surveys in comparison with past crabbing figures (Lipcius and van Engel, 1990; Rugolo, et al., 1998). As a result, further studies of the blue crab were finally put into motion to understand what factors affect the blue crab and what could possibly have caused this recent decline. A common subject of study has been the relationship between blue crabs and the declining number of seagrass refuges (Heck and Thoman, 1984; Ryer, 1987; Ryer et al., 1990), as well as with shallow water refuges (Dittel, et al., 1995; Hines and Ruiz, 1995). Tidal-stream transport and migration, once mysterious aspects of the blue crab life cycle, have also been studied, and it has been found that blue crabs do in fact utilize the tides to migrate throughout estuaries (Cargo, 1958; Olmi, 1994; Tankersley et al., 1998). Blue crab prey selection and response to stimuli, a complex formula that factors in relative size, distance, contrast to the surroundings, movement, and energy usage (Hughes and Seed, 1995; Hughes and Seed, 1997; Seed and Hughes, 1997; Taylor and Eggleston, 2000; Cote et al., 2001), is yet another important, studied aspect of the blue crab life cycle. As for the quality of the water itself and its impact on blue crabs, the adverse effects of hypoxia and anoxia on blue crabs (Tankersley and Wieber, 2000; Taylor and Eggleston, 2000) have been the most common subjects of study. Beyond these few examples, there are still many more new studies that cover a broad range of items related to the blue crab, such as early development, nutrition, and metabolism. None of these projects, however, have fully "unveiled the poorly understood, yet complex, basic biology and life cycle" of the blue crab (Zohar, 2002). Therefore, because of this uncertainty and the need for blue crab hatcheries that could restore the bay's populations, a joint, multi-state effort between Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Mississippi was created in 2001 to better understand the blue crab population and to use the newly gained information to create an effective hatchery system (Zohar, 2002). Within its first year, this effort greatly advanced the current understanding of the blue crab life cycle and created a hatchery system that demonstrated the capability to produce tens of thousands of crabs (Zohar, 2002). Currently, this research is continuing so as to perfect a blue crab hatchery system, including the study of optimal conditions for juvenile blue crabs. The goal of these "optimal condition" experiments is to fine-tune a hatchery system to make it more efficient and worthwhile—in other words, to attain maximum growth per crab and a maximum yield of crabs. Ultimately, the goal is to perfect a blue crab hatchery system that is capable of restocking the Chesapeake Bay. Specifically, a separate-cell hatchery system will be used to produce adults that can be used for study or for spawning. The adult females capable of spawning could then be released into protected areas unthreatened by crabbers and spawn in the Chesapeake Bay itself. Since females can produce as many as 8 million eggs over a period of several sponges (Chesapeake Bay Program), a relatively low release count of adult females could greatly boost the crab populations in the bay. It is common knowledge that blue crabs are cannibalistic once they reach the juvenile stages where they grow claws. This means that a single population tank for a crab hatchery would be inefficient, since the larger-sized half of the population will cannibalize the smaller-sized half of the population. The solution to this problem is to use a separate cell system, where each individual crab is in its own solitary cell, or cage. One of the single most important questions that must be addressed when developing this type of hatchery system is what impact, if any, cell size has on the growth of juvenile blue crabs. If cell size does affect the growth of the crabs, then cell size would correspond to crab size, which would dictate how large the hatchery system needs to be, and ultimately whether or not the blue crab hatchery system is a viable option for blue crab production for the restocking of the declining populations within the Chesapeake Bay. With this question in mind, the purpose of this project was to study the impact of cell size on the growth of juvenile blue crabs, Callinectes sapidus Rathbun. The impact of cell size, both area and depth, on juvenile blue crab growth were analyzed for statistical significance. Hypotheses and Objectives Previously, an experiment that was conducted on redclaw crayfish showed that cell size proportionally influenced crayfish size (Aflalo, 2002). Since the blue crab is also a crustacean, it was expected that The Effect of Hatchery Cell Size on wet weight, carapace width, and molt frequency (time between molts) would be significant for blue crabs and that the development of a curve modeling the ratio between crab size and cell size would be possible. Setup and Materials First, to construct the cages, PVC board was cut with a table saw and pieced together to the cell dimensions shown in Table 1, with the adjacent pieces interlocking. Three sets of the layout shown in Figure 1 were constructed, each placed in one tank connected to the sump. Next, the 90-gallon tanks were rinsed with tap water, cleaned with LiquinoX soap or 12% ammonia bleach, and rinsed out with tap water again. Then the system was filled with 12% bleach at 200 parts per million (approximately 2.07 liters of 12% bleach for the 1,300-liter system), and the bleached system was run for 24 hours. Finally, the system was drained and fresh water was run through the system for 24 hours and drained. After the system was cleaned, the tanks were assembled. With PVC pipes, every tank's drain was run into the sump. Two medium air stones were then run into each tank using plastic hose. Biofilter, two medium aeration stones, two large aeration stones, an ultraviolet filter, and the pump were all combined to create the sump, a fourth 90-gallon tank in the system. Then the inflow to each tank was set up using PVC piping and plastic hose, creating a circuit of filtered water through every tank. The physics of water equalization is used in the circuit design: the pump gives water flow into the tank and as the water level rises above that of the drain, gravity drains the overflow into the sump. The system was filled with salt water to 27 ppt, two heaters were placed in the sump with a temperature regulator set at 23°C, and the dead Biofilter was replaced with living Biofilter. Finally, the pump and air were turned on. Next, a grid floor was propped up on PVC pipes in the tank so that the depth in the cells was about 5 cm. On top of the grid floor, a mesh floor was placed so that the crabs couldn't escape through the bottom, but air could still flow through. Then the assembled cages were placed on top of the mesh floor, and grid ceilings were placed over each block of cages. To seal the cages, extra four-inch PVC pipes and sand-filled 16-ounce plastic bottles were placed on top of the ceiling. To set up the C6 (meaning "crab stage 6" or "6 molts into crab form since reaching megalopa form") juvenile crabs in the cells, carapace widths and wet weights were measured, the genders noted, and the crabs individually and randomly assigned to and placed in cells. Table 2: Cell Depth Setup Parameters First, the cells and cell stands, mesh bottoms, and grid floors were cut to the parameters described in Table 2 (see above) using pipe cutters, a utility knife, and scissors, respectively. The mesh bottoms were then hot-glued onto the bottoms of every cell. After this, standpipes were installed in each tank to insure uniform water levels throughout the tanks. The tank water level equalizes at the mouth of the standpipe and stays there constantly, eliminating the water level variability experienced in the cell area experiment. In addition, the tanks themselves were leveled and placed at the same height for the benefit of the standpipes' operation and to further insure uniform water depth throughout and among the tanks. Once the water levels were finalized, the stands were cut so that the floor depth was 12 cm, the largest depth tested. Next, the 90-gallon tanks were cleaned and prepared using the same method as in the area experiment, but the temperature was increased to 26°C to induce molting. Within each tank, depths were randomly assigned to each position and each tank reserved 11 positions for one depth, 11 positions for another depth, and 12 positions for the third depth, shown in Figure 2. For the deep cells, the cells were simply placed directly onto the overall grid. As shown in Figure 3, for the medium-depth cells, 5-cm-high stands and then 1-cm grid floors were placed beneath the actual cells. And for the shallow cells, 8-cm-high stands and then 1-cm grid floors were placed beneath the actual cells. To set up the C4 juvenile crabs in the cells, carapace widths were measured with the aid of a microscope, wet weights were measured on a scale, and the crabs were individually and randomly assigned to and placed in cells. The different depths accomplished a weighted data collection for the smaller depths because the 11-cm depth tested for a significant effect in general and the closer 3-cm and 6-cm depths gave a more precise view of the significance. The duration of this project was two to three months based upon the collected data and crab health. Trial 1 lasted from November 14, 2004, to December 9, 2004; Trial 2 lasted from December 20, 2004, to March 22, 2005. Crabs were alternately fed diced squid or Zeigler 8mm shrimp pellets ad-libitum daily. Each day, if any crabs molted the previous day, the new wet weight and carapace widths were measured. New molts that day were noted, and any dirty cells were cleaned. At the end of the experiment, when all data was collected, the final carapace width and wet weight of every crab was measured. Then the crabs were donated to another scientist for use in a separate study. This project began on August 22, 2005, and ended on October 17, 2005. The same procedure as that of the area experiment was used. Every day, crabs were fed Zeigler 2mm shrimp pellets ad-libitum, and one tank was measured in case any molts were missed Cell Area The data was analyzed for a significant effect of cell area upon juvenile blue crab growth with the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) procedure. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to determine if the data was properly distributed for valid analysis. When it was found that wet weight, carapace width, and molt frequency were not usable, the logarithm of each was taken to normalize the data. Molt increment, or percent increase in carapace width, was normal, so the raw percents were analyzed. The logarithm of wet weight, the logarithm of molt frequency, and the molt increment were analyzed with the initial wet weight as the covariant while the logarithm of carapace width was analyzed with the initial carapace width as the covariant. Cell Size This data was analyzed for a significant effect of cell depth upon juvenile blue crab growth with the Mixed Linear Model procedure. Specifically, the carapace widths and wet weights for each molt, molt increment after each molt, molt frequency, and total molts were analyzed for significant differences. The initial carapace width was used as the covariant for all data involving carapace width and initial wet weight was used as the covariant for the remaining data. For post hoc analysis, Tukey's LSD Post Hoc One-Way ANOVA was used. Results and Discussion Cell Area, Trial 1 In the experiment's first trial, the system was plagued early on with high levels of ammonia (Figure 4) because of Biofilter lag due to the change of water. High levels of ammonia are toxic and subsequently inhibit growth, thus no significant data had been collected. A comparison can be made between the Trial 1 molt numbers (Figure 6) and the Trial 2 molt numbers (Figure 7), which inversely correlate with the level of ammonia in the respective systems (Figure 4 and Figure 5, respectively). In high ammonia levels, few molts were observed, which indicated that their growth was stunted. Under conditions such as these, the blue crabs have a difficult time achieving the number of molts necessary for proper growth and health. This is a profound illustration of part of the problem for the crab population in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, an extremely polluted watershed with worse water quality than that of Trial 1 (Chesapeake Bay Foundation). Table 3: Cell Area versus Crab Size Significance Cell Area, Trial 2 In the second trial, a sufficient amount of data for valid statistical analysis was collected; this was attributed to the improvement in water quality due to stable Biofilter. Analysis showed that cell area has no significant effect (P < 0.05) upon any aspect of juvenile blue crab growth analyzed: wet weight, molt increment, or molt frequency (Table 3, see above). Thus, one of three conclusions can be made: 1) cell area has no significant effect on the growth of juvenile blue crabs, 2) juvenile blue crab growth inhibition points were not reached, or 3) the range of cage sizes used was not broad enough to detect a difference between treatments. In other words, because the crabs were small in comparison to the area of the cage, such as in Figure 8, the crabs may not have experienced any stress from the walls of the cage and thus not have been inhibited by the size of the cell. Future research could be done to substantiate which of these three conclusions is correct by either keeping the same-sized cells with larger juveniles, or by using the same-sized juveniles with smaller cells, as shown in Figure 9. Although some questions remain as to what impact, if any, further cell area reduction has on the growth of juvenile blue crabs, it has been concluded that cells at least 90% larger (smallest cell area÷average crab area) in area than the juveniles do not promote any growth inhibition. Table 4: Cell Depth versus Crab Size Significance Initial analysis of the data yielded no sign of a significant effect (P < 0.05) of cell depth upon any aspect of juvenile blue crab growth except total molts and the time between molts two and three (Table 4, see above). Post hoc analysis revealed that there was a significant difference between the total molts of shallow and medium depths and between shallow and deep depths, and that there was a significant difference between the times to reach molt three of medium and deep depths. The deep depth had both less total molts and less time between molts two and three than the shallow depth. Although this seems to contradict itself at first, since greater molt frequency would seemingly yield more molts, a closer observation of the situation reveals that this is not so. Since the deep-depth crabs molted more frequently, they also hit a larger size and their third molt faster. As crabs grow larger, molt frequency decreases, so the deep-depth crabs basically stopped growing, according to the data of the experiment, since their fourth molt was never recorded. However, since this only indicates a slight difference in stage of life and not a significant difference in actual size, there is no significant effect of cell depth upon the growth of juvenile blue crabs at least 17% (average crab volume÷average shallow depth volume) of the volume of water. In the same manner as the data for the effect of cell area on crab growth, this information could be key in setting up an economically viable separate-cell hatchery system in which the crabs grow uninhibited but still allowing for maximum organism capacity. Further study could be continued on the effect of reduced cell depths on juvenile blue crab growth. Although cell size, both the area and depth aspects, doesn't seem to have a significant effect upon the growth of juvenile blue crabs, this research has still made an important contribution to knowledge about the blue crab and for the development of an economically viable separate-cell juvenile blue crab hatchery system. The BCARC (Blue Crab Advanced Research Consortium) now knows that small cells can be used with no loss of crab growth, so with maximum, uninhibited crab growth coupled with maximum organism capacity, the hatchery system can be effectively used to restock the declining blue crab populations within the Chesapeake Bay. This research project will also indirectly help to revive and sustain the blue crab-related economic activity that is essential to the Chesapeake Bay region by increasing the available blue crab supply. Thus, this research on The Effect of Hatchery Cell Size on the growth of juvenile blue crabs will ecologically help the Chesapeake Bay and economically help humans. Aflalo, Eliahu D., et al. "Intensification of Redclaw Crayfish Cherax Quadricarinatus Culture II. Growout in a Separate Cell System." Aquacultural Engineering 26 (2002): 263-276. Cargo, D.G. "The Migration of Adult Female Blue Crabs, Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, in Chincoteague Bay and Adjacent Waters." Journal of Marine Research 16.3 (1958): 180-191. Chesapeake Bay Foundation. "State of the Bay 2004." Philip Merrill Environmental Center, Annapolis. 2005. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 29 September 2005. Chesapeake Bay Program. "Blue Crab." Chesapeake Bay Program Office, Annapolis. 2002. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 29 September 2005. Cote, J., C.F. Rakocinski, T.A. Randall. "Feeding Efficiency by Juvenile Blue Crabs on Two Common Species of Micrograzer Snails." Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 264 (2001): 189-208. Dittel, A.I., et al. "Effects of Shallow Water Refuge on Behavior and Density-Dependent Mortality of Juvenile Blue Crabs in Chesapeake Bay." Bulletin of Marine Sciences 57.3 (1995): 902-916. Heck Jr., K.L., and T.A. Thoman. "The Nursery Role of Seagrass Meadows in the Upper and Lower Reaches of the Chesapeake Bay." Estuaries 7.1 (1984): 70-92. Hines, A.H., and G.M. Ruiz. "Temporal Variation in Juvenile Blue Crab Mortality: Nearshore Shallows and Cannibalism in Chesapeake Bay." Bulletin of Marine Science 57.3 (1995): 884-901. Hughes, R.N., and R. Seed. 1995. "Behavioral Mechanisms of Prey Selection in Crabs." Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 193 (1995): 225-238. Hughes, R.N., and R. Seed. "Chelal Characteristics and Foraging Behavior of the Blue Crab Callinectes sapidus Rathbun." Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 44 (1997): 221-229. Lipcius, R.N., and W.A. van Engel. "Blue Crab Population Dynamics in Chesapeake Bay: Variation in Abundance (York River, 1972-1988) and Stock-Recruit Functions." Bulletin of Marine Science 46.1 (1990): 180-194. Olmi III, E.J. "Vertical Migration of Blue Crab Callinectes sapidus Megalopae: Implications for Transport in Estuaries." Marine Ecology Progress Series 113 (1994): 39-54. Rugolo, L.J., et al. "Stock Assessment of Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab (Callinectes sapidus Rathbun)." Journal of Shellfish Research 17.2 (1998): 493-517. Ryer, C.H. "Temporal Patterns of Feeding by Blue Crabs (Callinectes sapidus) in a Tidal Marsh Creek and Adjacent Seagrass Meadow in the Lower Chesapeake Bay." Estuaries 10.2 (1987): 136-140. Ryer, C.H., J. van Montfrans, and R.J. Orth. "Utilization of a Seagrass Meadow and Tidal Marsh Creek by Blue Crabs Callinectes sapidus. II. Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Molting." Bulletin of Marine Science 46.1 (1990), 95-104. Tankersley, R.A, et al. "Migratory Behavior of Ovigerous Blue Crabs Callinectes sapidus: Evidence for Selective Tidal-Stream Transport." Marine Biology 141 (1998): 863-875. Tankersley, R.A., and M.G. Wieber. "Physiological Responses of Postlarval and Juvenile Blue Crabs Callinectes sapidus to Hypoxia and Anoxia." Marine Ecology Progress Series 194 (2000): 179-191. Taylor, D.L., and D.B. Eggleston. "Effects of Hypoxia on an Estuarine Predator-Prey Interaction: Foraging Behavior and Mutual Interference in the Blue Crab Callinectes sapidus and the Infaunal Clam Prey Mya arenaria." Marine Ecology Progress Series . 196 (2000): 221-237. Zohar, Y. Research Programs at the Center of Marine Biotechnology Baltimore (COMB). 2002. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 7 September 2005. Thanks to Dr. Yonathan Zohar, John Stubblefield, Prof. Allen Place, Odi Zmora, Andrea Findiesen, Bridgette Bystry, Sarah Grap, Eric Evans, Kimberly Gaeta, and Keri O'Neil for instruction, assistance, and the use of their labs and equipment. Also, thanks to University of Maryland in general for use of their building and all other materials. Thanks to Dr. Barney Wilson and the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute for the opportunity to conduct the research. Thanks to Mrs. Carol Costa, Mrs. Dolores Costello, Ms. Charlotte Saylor, and to all of the Ingenuity Project at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute for the opportunity to conduct the research and for their priceless guidance along the way. Finally, thanks to Gary and Lucia Tibbels for transportation and support. More About This Resource... This winning entry in the Museum's Young Naturalist Awards 2006 is from a Maryland 12th grader. Justin examined the effect of cell area and depth on the growth of juvenile blue crabs. His essay includes: - an introduction to the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, and the recent decline in its population; - details of the materials and methods he used to study the impact of cell size on the growth of juvenile blue crabs; and - the results of his experiment, which indicate that cell size does not seem to have a significant effect on the growth of juvenile blue crabs. Supplement a study of biology with an activity drawn from this winning student essay. - Send students to this online article, or print copies of the essay for them to read. - Working alone or in small groups, have students research and report on blue crab management and restoration efforts in the Chesapeake Bay. What methods are proving most beneficial? OriginYoung Naturalist Awards
World population is slated to top nine billion by 2050, and seeing as how arable land is being rapidly swallowed by towns and cities, oceans are increasingly overfished, and climate change is disrupting traditional farming, a new United Nations study proposes a twist on Marie Antoinette’s dietary advice: let them eat bugs. “Common prejudice against eating insects is not justified from a nutritional point of view,” write the authors of a 191-page report (PDF) released by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) entitled “Edible insects: Future prospects for food and feed security”. Bugs are not only good eatin’, say the authors, but they’re also highly efficient sources of nutrition. Your average insect, the report claims, requires a mere two kilograms of food to produce one kilogram of what it charmingly refers to as “insect meat”, a far better feed-to-food ratio than, for example, a fatted calf, which requires eight kilograms of feed to produce one kilogram of beef. Two billion of our current seven billion fellow travelers have already welcomed bugs into their diets, the report contends. Over 1,900 insect species find their way into our alimentary canals, with beetles being the most popular at 31 per cent, followed by caterpillars at 18 per cent; bees, wasps, and ants at 14 percent; and grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets at 13 percent……………….. full article at source.http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/13/insects_as_food_and_feed/ More than 200 men, women and children appear to have been killed in this latest atrocity. Everything we have seen of the Syrian regime’s behaviour over the last seventeen months suggests that these reports are credible. They demand a united response from the international community. We have two urgent priorities – to establish an accurate account of what happened in Tremseh so that those responsible can and will be held to account; and to agree urgent action at the United Nations Security Council. To that end, the UN mission in Syria must be able to access Tremseh quickly and without hindrance so they can carry out an independent investigation into what has happened and who is responsible. And we will redouble our efforts to agree a Chapter VII resolution of the UN security council. This would compel the Syrian regime to fulfil the commitments it has made under the Annan plan, to withdraw its military from residential areas, and establish a transitional government as called for by Kofi Annan and endorsed by the P5 and Arab League. It should be a legally binding security council resolution with teeth, that creates a trigger for sanctions if the Assad regime does not comply. British diplomats in New York will continue negotiations on a resolution at the security council today: see also: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/2012/07/13/gJQAyfUahW_story.html This butchery must stop and the UN should now just move in and restore order and the criminals who are responsible for these murders must be brought to justice ASAP. The world stands condemned for standing by and allowing this genocide to continue ! The ESM has the exact same safeguards as the IMF Question: Are they the same organisation? Immune from prosecution, from any state or government in the world? Who gave them this right? Let’s be clear the IMF and now the ESM both have immunity from all prosecution from any national government of world organization like the UN??? We cannot hand over this power to an organization that has no accountability to anybody ,That is shear madness and a total betrayal of the citizens rights enshrined in the Irish constitution. We must not allow faceless, unaccountable financial dictators to just take our rights away from us Vote No to this madness! Image via Wikipedia With the constant stream of brutal killings in the various Syrian cities and the absence of any of the world peace bodies capable of stopping this blatant Syrian Government murder I feel compelled once again to call on the forceful removal of this Butcher of his own people and pray to god that this creep will meet the same faith as Gaddaffi, the once proud master of Libya .Monsters like Assad will be brought to justice and the United Nations must now enforce the international rule of law. This is not the middle ages where the world was oblivious to the crimes of so called leaders. The Peoples of the world demand action now and the protection of the innocent. The last slide is of a little girl holding a placard for help ,she was brutally murdered just one day after this photo.All decent people must take a good look at this little girl face and ask themselves “have I done enough to stop her murder” and many more that might come to some other child what if she was your child??? ????? (see article below) This innocent little girl is Martyred by the forces of Bassar al-Asad, some days ago. She was killed just one day after she was holding that board. The board says to help the Syrian children (especially in Homs). The armed forces of Syria are targeting children and killing them. The Syrian regime says life in Homs is normal, but the pictures and reports tell a much different story. In an emotional interview, a Syrian activist gives voice to a reality of death and destruction. Innocent men, women, and children are being slaughtered by the Assad government because they are asking for freedom. Russia and China have this blood on their hands and should now be expelled from the UN. The UN is now a farce .Thousands of people are now dead and are now been killed! Why is this been allowed to continue? Any person who calls themselves human must condemn this genocide. The Syrian army leadership must be told that they will have to face the international court of justice for murder and crimes against humanity. These criminals must be brought to justice a face the hangman for this! Currently, the US is following a trajectory of past unsuccessful empires that were unable to sustain themselves resulting in an eventual collapse from within. The US is currently running up a budget deficit which is not only threatening to bankrupt its entire economy, but also threatening the hegemony of its sole instrument for advantage and influence on the world stage – the US dollar. Any threat to the supremacy of the dollar is also a threat to the empire. It is difficult to calculate the outcome of a western attack against Iran -because there are so many variables. No moral mandate For centuries, even Rome required a moral mandate as it conquered the known world. As was the case with the Iraqi invasion and occupation in 2003, the West and its Axis powers led by Washington will require a multi-nation coalition backed by some form of moral mandate in order to move forward with their plans. Previously, a US-UK campaign against Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction was waged through the UN, and was sufficient at the time in achieving a minimal sway in public opinion needed from both the American and British people, justifying their governments’ foreign policy goals enough to get the war off the ground. But the cost in 2012 of pushing forward under false pretences with both Afghanistan and Iraq in 2003, means that the Axis coalition powers have already played their best hand under the current social democratic system. full article at source:http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article32471.html As the Libyan conflict seems to be coming into the final stages we are now beginning to see more and more people braving bullets in Syria .It must be made clear to the leadership of Syria that they will be brought before the international court of justice for the murder of their own citizens :Assad must go now!
The position of the S. Vietnamese was an increasingly tenuous one. They obviously could see the war was not going well and the support of the US was waning. Other than make demands of the US during negotiations, as you mentioned, what was the S. Vietnamese reaction to the US desire to save face? 1 Answer \| Add Yours The South Vietnamese understood fairly quickly in the negotiations that they stood to be the biggest losers. The United States, under mounting domestic pressure, were able to save face with a withdrawal. The North Vietnamese, also facing significant drop in public support, were able to claim a level of victory out of the negotiations. Yet, the South Vietnamese were in a tough position. The South Vietnamese reaction to the United States' desire to save face was to recognize its few options. It could not beat the North Vietnamese on the battlefield without American troops. Even with the Americans leaving their machinery behind to the South Vietnamese, the South understood that it could not compete. Adding to this was that the political leadership of the South was nowhere near as unified as in the North. General Thieu understood that he was not very popular and that the war, for better or worse, legitimatized his rule. He understood that with the US withdrawal, he would have to fend for himself politically, something he understood that he could not do. The most overwhelming reaction that the South Vietnamese had to the United States' desire to save face was to sign the cease fire, "but secretly hope that it would fall apart in a quick time frame." This would reengage US forces and resume the fighting and Status Quo. Failing to incorporate how vastly unpopular the war was in the US domestic realm, this reaction was the only one that the South Vietnamese leadership could muster in the hopes of continuing the Status Quo when few others wished to do so. We’ve answered 334,042 questions. We can answer yours, too.Ask a question
In the Middle Ages, a herald was an employee of a king or nobleman, whose job it was to be that noble’s “voice.” When a knight entered a tournament or joust, his herald would announce him, and deliver challenges to his opponents. When a noble held court, and heard the grievances of the people living on his land, the herald again played a part, calling people into court, and announcing the judgments rendered. Heralds also went into the field of battle with their lords, as part of their entourage. Heralds in the SCA do many of the same things that heralds in the Middle Ages did. Court and tournaments are a big part of what we do. But there’s more. In the SCA, participants use another name, a name that might have been used during our time period. These names reflect the culture and specific time period that a person is interested in. Each person also designs a device, a coat-of-arms, to identify him or herself. These devices follow the rules of heraldry that were set down in the 11th and 12th centuries and are still used today. We check these against names and devices already being used, to make sure there are no conflicts. Heraldry in the Middle Ages was a person’s identity, arms were property. My job as a herald in the Current Middle Ages is to help people create an identity, a real person who does and is all the things that we, in our “real” lives wish we could be. I am the voice of our Baron and Baroness, and strive to provide them with the same services a medieval herald would. For more information on the available awards, and how to recommend someone for an award, and other heraldic information see:
1 Answer \| Add Yours The differences of these three types of writing are easier to understand than perhaps their similarities. Drama is often written in the form of a play. It is divided into acts, which are further subdivided into scenes. Drama can be comedic or tragic, but only includes the dialogue the characters are saying, sometimes accompanied by stage directions, which indicate what the characters are doing. Some people consider drama or plays difficult to read because the reader needs to use his/her imagine to find out what's going on, rather than the author's descriptions. Drama is alos meant to be acted out or read out loud, rather than read on the page. SOme examples of drama are any of Shakespeare's plays, Oedipus Rex and Antigone by Sophocles, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornotn Wilde, and The Glass Menagerie by Tennesee Williams. Poetry stands out in its form--that is, the way it's written. Poetry, in the technical definition is writing with meter (or some kind of rhythm of stressed or unstressed syllables.) Often times, when you read a poem, the lines break mid-sentence and don't go all the way to the end of the page. That's because the author is counting the number of syllable and making the rhytm of the words fit his poetry (this is less often true in more contemporary poetry.) However, it is the sound of the words when read outloud that gives poetry its meaning. Authors do their best to condense as much meaning into a few words as they can. Poetry will often be filled with all kinds of figures of speech--similies, metaphors, personification, irony, etc--rather than simply stating a point and moving on. Some examples of poems include "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allen Poe, "Because I Could Not Stop for Death--" by Emily Dickinson, any of Shakespeare's sonnets (and many portions of his plays), and "The Road Less Travelled" by Robert Frost. In addition, a lot of people consider song lyrics poetry. Short stories are written in prose, which is the opposite of poetry--it's normal, every day lanuage that we speak. In a short story, an author tells a story that starts as close to the end as possible. Short stories usually only have one plot, a few characters and can be read in a relatively short period of time. They provide the read with brief descriptions of characters and places, and strive to tell a full story. Some examples include "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allen Poe, "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry, "The Lie" by Kurt Vonnegut, and "A Perfect Day for Bananfish" by J.D Salinger. The similarities are that they are all usually works of fiction that strive to tell a complete story of the human experience. The form in which each genre accomplishes that is what makes them different. We’ve answered 334,040 questions. We can answer yours, too.Ask a question
Coffee is a staple of daily life around the world — so much so that 136.5 million bags of coffee were consumed in 2011 according to the International Coffee Organization. That’s up two percent from the 2010 totals. A whopping 64 percent of U.S. adults over 18 drink coffee, in 2012, according to the National Coffee Association, up from 58 percent, in 2011. The steady rise in coffee in drinkers isn’t such a bad thing because there are numerous health benefits associated with that morning cup of coffee besides a great boost in energy. It will help you live longer A 2012 study of over 400,000 individuals between the ages of 50 to 71 showed that drinking coffee was associated with living a longer life. “There was a significant inverse association between coffee consumption and mortality,” the study said. Source: New England Journal of Medicine It may help prevent Alzheimer’s disease Drinking coffee throughout adulthood may delay or even prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. “Older adults with mild memory impairment who drink moderate levels of coffee – about 3 cups a day -will not convert to Alzheimer’s disease, or at least will experience a substantial delay before converting to Alzheimer’s,” said study lead author Dr. Chuanhai Cao of the University of South Florida. Added with sugar, it boosts brain power and attention span Drinking coffee with sugar boosts the brain’s efficiency and helps lengthen your attention span. A 2010 study in the journal Human Psychopharmacology found that “sugar-sweetened coffee may be the best way to prepare the brain for a busy day ahead.” Source: UK Daily Mail It helps reduce skin cancer cells Your daily espresso (or two) could reduce the risk of basal cell carcinoma, the predominant form of skin cancer. “Our data indicate that the more caffeinated coffee you consume, the lower your risk of developing basal cell carcinoma,” said Jiali Han, a professor at the Harvard Medical School who led a study with over 110,000 participants. In moderation, it helps reduce heart failure A study of over 140,000 individuals in the journal Circulation Heart Failure showed that drinking one to two cups of coffee per day may reduce the risk of heart failure. People who drank two cups a day were 11 percent less likely to have heart failure, but that benefit disappears once you consume that third cup, the study showed. Source: FOX News Women could significantly lower their risk of developing diabetes A 2011 UCLA study showed that women who had at least four cups of coffee per day reduced the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 56 percent. Coffee raises the levels of sex hormone-binding globulin in the bloodstream, and this SHBG is known to reduce the risk of developing diabetes, the study said. It lowers the risk of developing colon cancer A study of nearly 490,000 men and women showed that drinking at least four cups of coffee per day reduced the risk of developing colon cancer. “Coffee was inversely associated with colon cancer, particularly proximal tumors,” the study concluded. It helps reduce the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease Because the direct cause of Parkinson’s disease is currently unknown, it’s hard to pin down exactly how coffee helps reduce the risk of developing the disease. But the Mayo Clinic wrote that “some research has shown that caffeine, which is found in coffee and tea, may reduce the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.” Source: Mayo Clinic It reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease A 2011 study found that coffee consumption reduced the risk of cardiovascular diseases including stroke and coronary heart disease. Caffeine consumption reduced the risk of cardiovascular disease by 38 percent in men and 22 percent in women, the study showed. It Helps You Recover After Exercise A 2009 study from the University of Illinois found that a cup of coffee before exercise not only energizes your body but also “kills some of the pain of athletic exertion.”
In Independence Lost, Kathleen DuVal recounts the history of the Revolutionary Era as experienced by slaves, American Indians, women, and British loyalists living on Florida's Gulf Coast. Independence Lost reveals that individual motives counted as much as the ideals of liberty and freedom the Founders espoused: Independence had a personal as well as national meaning, and the choices made by people living outside the colonies were of critical importance to the war's outcome. DuVal introduces us to the Mobile slave Petit Jean, who organized militias to fight the British at sea; the Chickasaw diplomat Payamataha, who worked to keep his people out of war; New Orleans merchant Oliver Pollock and his wife, Margaret O'Brien Pollock, who risked their own wealth to organize funds and garner Spanish support for the American Revolution; and Scottish loyalists James and Isabella Bruce, whose work on behalf of the British Empire placed them in grave danger. Their lives illuminate the fateful events that took place along the Gulf of Mexico and, in the process, changed the history of North America itself. "This book adds to the literature of the period." (Library Journal, starred review) We've sent an email with your order details. Order ID #: To access this title, visit your library in the app or on the desktop website. Extremely enlightening & fascinating, especially to a Southerner - Derek B. Reader who doesn't understand content - Heidi Rabel
Beware of the trees Our latest geotechnical1 article looks at building near trees, suggesting how recent failures could have been avoided In the uk the shrinkage and swelling of clay soils, particularly when influenced by trees, is the single most common cause of foundation movements which damage domestic buildings. Currently, the value of insurance claims for subsidence and heave damage to domestic properties amounts to almost £400 million per annum. While the problem primarily affects the older existing building stock, it is also a potential problem for new construction with implications for design, detailing and construction quality control to prevent it becoming a real problem. A fuller explanation is given in 'bre Digest 298'2 which has just been revised. The influence of trees Trees can damage buildings and building services by direct or indirect action. Direct action includes the growth of roots or the trunk lifting or distorting structures or services. Damage by direct action is relatively uncommon. Guidance on safe distances from trees to avoid direct damage is given in bs 5837: 19913. Indirect action means, in particular, the problems associated with clay subsoil. Trees can cause clay soils to shrink by drawing water through their roots, predominantly during spring and summer. This shrinkage results in both vertical and horizontal ground movements that, if transmitted to a building's foundations, can cause damage to the building structure. The amount of shrinkage depends on the type of clay soil, the type and size of tree, and on climate. Long dry periods result in the greatest movements particularly when, as was the case in 1989/90, two dry summers are separated by a relatively dry winter. Trees growing under grass cover are forced to compete for their water and to extract water from greater depths than they might otherwise do. The figure illustrates how the water content of a high volume-change- potential clay soil might vary with depth remote from and near to a large tree (from 'bre Digest 240'4). The left-hand drawing shows water-content profiles remote from the tree in open grass-covered ground, towards the ends of both summer and winter. Near the ground surface there can be relatively large changes in soil water content between summer and winter as a result of evaporation from the ground surface and transpiration by the grass. Such variations are normally confined to the top 1-1.5m of the ground, possibly less adjacent to buildings. If there were a mature tree growing at the same location, then the water- content profiles might look more like those shown on the right-hand side of the figure. In this case the seasonal fluctuations in soil water content are both larger and extend to a greater depth. Soil volume changes and hence ground movements will be greater. In addition, a persistent water deficit may develop as the tree grows - the toned area in the right of the figure. That is, the ground is unable to rehydrate completely over the winter months. The establishment of a persistent moisture deficit results in shrinkage of the soil and consequent subsidence of the ground. Where a persistent deficit has been established, tree removal will result in rehydration of the ground. Water contents at depth will return to values close to their original ones, accompanied by soil swelling and ground heave. In summary, it is possible to identify four types of ground or foundation movement associated with clay soils and vegetation: normal seasonal movements, associated with evapo-transpiration from, say, a grass-covered surface enhanced seasonal movements, associated with trees long-term subsidence, as a persistent water deficit develops long-term heave, as a persistent water deficit dissipates. Of these, the first rarely gives rise to problems under normal circumstances. It is the others that can result in more intractable problems. Different tree types cause problems of different extents, depending on how much water they extract from the soil mass and where they extract it from in relation to founding level. The potential magnitude of a tree species' influence on the ground is often referred to as its 'water demand'. Trees like birches and holly tend to have low water demand whereas poplars, willows and oaks have high water demand. Tables indicating the mature tree height and the degree of water demand for many tree species encountered in the uk are given by nhbc5 and Zurich Municipal6. Trees close to new foundations The movements described above can result in damage to existing buildings and to problems of design, detailing and construction quality control for new buildings. The investigation of damage to existing buildings is not considered in this article, but the topic is covered in 'bre Good Repair Guide 2'7. For new construction, the basic principle is to take foundations to a depth where they are not significantly influenced by vegetation. bre has long advocated the use of pile-and-beam foundations for low-rise buildings on heavy clay sites near major vegetation. Concrete piles should be reinforced to well below the zone of soil where heave is occurring. However, many builders are unwilling to install such a pile-and-beam system, preferring to use a deep trench fill foundation instead. The nhbc has produced widely-used tables which give different foundation depths according to the soil type, the foundation's proximity to trees and the tree's water demand. Atkinson8 and 'bre Digest 241'4 show typical foundation details used on sites where trees are a problem. As discussed in the recent revision to 'bre Digest 298'2, this approach can present problems, especially in swelling ground. Apart from construction disadvantages such as the large quantities of spoil to be removed, the risk of trench collapse and, of course, the cost of the large quantities of concrete required, there are also two technical reasons why deep trench-fill foundations are undesirable in swelling ground: they may be subject to lateral movement and rotation owing to swelling pressures acting laterally on large areas of foundation they may be subject to large uplift forces generated by swelling pressures acting vertically on the sides of the foundation. Where trees are removed prior to construction, it is clear that swelling of the ground is a possibility. However, it is not always recognised that where deep trench-fill foundations are to be constructed, swelling may be initiated by the severing of tree roots within the building footprint even if trees are not being removed from the site. Compressible or collapsible building materials are commonly used to reduce the pressures transmitted to foundations and suspended slabs. Some grades of expanded polystyrene can compress under modest load and are therefore commonly used to resist the build-up of excessive lateral pressure on the inside face of trench-fill foundations. Collapsible honeycomb cardboard, designed to soften on wetting to such a degree that it collapsed under very light pressure, used to be in common use under domestic floor slabs. Over recent years the use of such products in the housing market has reduced because, under certain circumstances, they have been found to generate methane as they decompose. However, it is now recognised that the reactions required for methane generation are only likely to take place when the material is persistently waterlogged. Therefore it is highly unlikely that methane-generating conditions would apply under a ground-level domestic floor slab. Caution is still required for deep trench-fill applications. Compressible or collapsible materials are also used to address the vulnerability of trench fill foundations to uplift forces in swelling ground. Their use on one face of the foundation as recommended by nhbc5 helps to reduce the uplift force transmitted to the foundation. But it is important that the trench faces are smooth and vertical. For internal foundation walls, if no compressible material is being supplied it would be prudent to supply a slip surface, such as polythene sheet, on both faces. The bre has recently been involved with a number of cases of damage to new buildings where trench-fill foundations have failed due to lateral swelling of the soil within the building footprint. These failures have shown that provision of the correct quantity, grade and thickness of compressible or collapsible materials in the correct place is vital for the adequate performance of trench fill foundations. Mike Crilly is project manager at the Centre for Ground Engineering and Remediation, bre. Tim Chapman is an associate with Arup Geotechnics. 1 Previous geotechnical articles were on ground investigations (aj 24.9.98), piles and retaining walls (aj 24.9.98), gravity retaining walls (aj 22.10.98), on why ground problems arise (aj 17/24.12.98) and on water in the ground (aj 11.3.99). 2 Low-rise building foundations: the influence of trees in clay soils. 'bre Digest 298. 1999'. From crc, tel 0171 505 6622. 3 bs 5837: 1991: Guide for trees in relation to construction. 4 Low-rise Buildings on Clay Soils: Part 1. 'bre Digest 240'. 1993. Low- rise Buildings on Clay Soils: Part 2. 'bre Digest 241'. 1990. From crc, tel 0171 505 6622. 5 Building Near Trees. National House-Building Council Standards, Chapter 4.2. 1997. nhbc, tel 01494 434477. 6 Foundations - Proximity of Trees in Clay Soils. Zurich Municipal Builders' Guidance Note 3A. 1996. Zurich Municipal, tel 01252 522000. 7 Damage to buildings caused by trees. bre Good Repair Guide 2. 1996. From crc, tel 0171 505 6622. 8 Structural foundations manual for low-rise buildings. M F Atkinson. e&fn Spon. 1993.
Like most of George Eliot’s novels, Silas Marner is set in the rural England of the author’s childhood memories. Like her other novels, too, the work is meticulously realistic in many aspects of its dialogue, description, and characterization. Unlike most of her novels, however, Silas Marner is very short, with an almost geometrically formal structure, and its plot relies upon some rather improbable incidents. Such elements reflect the author’s intent to deal with profound themes in the form of a fable. In Silas’ story, George Eliot obliquely approaches the realm of spiritual truth by depicting the restoration of faith in the heart of a very simple man. The old-fashioned rural setting is important as a frame; its cultural remoteness from the world of the reader gives it the archaic simplicity and uncontested credibility of a fable or fairy tale. Even so, George Eliot critics have never been comfortable with the implication that somehow Eppie has been given to Silas by a benevolent providence in return for his lost gold. The question of the author’s stance is especially problematic in view of her own agnosticism. Although George Eliot herself as a child was an ardent, evangelical Christian, in maturity (like many Victorian intellectuals) she rejected traditional beliefs for a humanist credo. In Godfrey’s story, realism predominates, and thus the author’s control of theme is more secure. Godfrey’s marriage to Molly Farren is the fatal step that enmeshes him in lies and guile as he tries to evade its consequences. One must beware of condemning Godfrey, however, because the author herself does not. Rather, she sees him as a type of erring humanity—a good-hearted but weak-willed young man who desperately wants to rewrite his past and enjoy a happy future with Nancy Lammeter. The role of Dunstan as a foil to Godfrey is important: Together, they represent a classic Cain-and-Abel, bad brother-good brother contrast. This structural polarity helps to create a context of judgment in which Dunstan’s viciousness makes Godfrey’s wrongdoing seem less damning. Structural patterns of this kind are in fact a key to the novel’s meaning. The various parallels and contrasts between the Silas and Godfrey stories show these respective halves of the novel to be formally related, like the panels of a diptych. Both Godfrey and Silas are living out the consequences of a past wrong, in which the one was the secret wrongdoer, the other the falsely accused victim. In both stories theft is a pivotal event: Dunstan’s stealing of Silas’ gold complements William Dane’s taking of the church money. Silas suffers unjustly but magnifies his misery by becoming a virtual hermit. Godfrey suffers the pangs of conscience while maintaining an outwardly cheerful, gregarious disposition. As the ironic consequence of denying his wife and child, Godfrey remains childless, since he and Nancy apparently cannot have children, whereas Silas, the lonely bachelor, receives Eppie into his life as a daughter. In general, the unfolding of each story suggests the influence of a power or force of destiny beyond human understanding—something rather like Nemesis in Godfrey’s case, and something rather like Providence in Silas’. If the metaphysical implications of Silas Marner go beyond the realm of earthly reality, the primary moral intent of the author is firmly grounded in human relationships. As is the case in her other novels, the bonds of love, sympathy, and fellow feeling are the highest good that one can truly know. As such, they are redemptive in themselves and are the basis of George Eliot’s “religion of humanity.” Although she doubts the existence of God, she is assured of the existence of a sublime, collective goodness. Thus, in both stories, the power of human affection, especially as shown by the women of the novel, heals psychic wounds, restores humanity, and, insofar as it can, atones for wrongdoing. In Godfrey’s story, it is Nancy who serves in this role. She is a “centered” personality who counterbalances Godfrey’s lack of inner strength; her love for him unites her sensitive, affectionate nature with her deep moral principles. In Silas’ story, Dolly Winthrop and, later, Eppie, perform comparable functions. Dolly’s good sense and warm sympathy provide Silas with a lifeline to a restored faith in humanity and God. Eppie’s decision at the end to remain with Silas reflects the strength of their shared affection and affirms the bonds of feeling as the surest basis of right choice.
WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT UK: Why should we manage land for wildlife? In short, wildlife needs to thrive and disperse throughout the landscape. It helps to ensure future generations will enjoy experiences with the natural heritage. Fact: Some special areas for wildlife and animals are vanishing. They depend on organisations like The Wildlife Trusts’ network and other conservation groups. These organisations help to protect isolated pockets of land. They also manage much larger areas for wildlife animals and for people. The United Kingdom needs to retain its living landscapes. Managing wildlife on your land helps to restore the biodiversity of animal species. It reconnects areas of damaged or neglected habitats. Managing Wildlife on UK Land Land owners may need to get a wildlife licence to kill or cull certain animals. Wildlife licences also apply to the removal or disturbance of their habitats. This is because certain wild animal species have legal protection. Note: As a rule you need a valid reason to get a wildlife licence. Creating a public health problem or attacking your farm crops may justify a licence to kill. Wildlife Protection Laws But, the wildlife protection laws differ in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Use this contact list to find the correct organisation in your area. They will help you determine which animal species have protection. Each wildlife management team will inform you what action you can take – and what you cannot do. Wildlife Management and Licensing at Natural England Advice is available from Wildlife Management and Licensing at Natural England. They can help you deal with animals and birds on your land. Note: You can report a suspected poisoning of an animal or bird to the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme. Scottish Natural Heritage Contact the Scottish Natural Heritage in Scotland. They will help you check your legal responsibilities for the protection of wildlife. They also have information on activities which may need a licence and how to apply. Welsh Assembly Government You should contact the Welsh Assembly Government for advice on managing wildlife. They also specialise in the management of badgers on your land in Wales. Note: Often, ground moles cause damage to agricultural land. They can cause harm to plant growth or grass-cutting machinery. But, you can only control moles by trapping them or gassing them. The gas used must be aluminium phosphide. Report any suspected animal or bird poisoning to the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme. Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme Open 24 hours a day Northern Ireland Environment Agency Managing wildlife and animal biodiversity in Northern Ireland will require a licence to: - Remove bats from your building. The licence also applies to any disturbance to their habitat (e.g. for development work). - Kill certain bird species, move them, or take their eggs. - Keep or breed certain protected birds of prey. Apply for a licence online at the Biodiversity Unit. It is part of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency. They will also give advice on the use of rat poison on your land or guidance on photographing wildlife.
Advancing cold hardiness of winter wheat and rye Improving traits associated with greater winter survival and injury avoidance. July 6, 2020 By Donna Fleury Winter wheat is an important crop in some areas; however, overwinter survival – particularly under low snowfall conditions – can be challenging in some years. Winter hardiness is a complex trait that is heavily influenced by several environmental factors, such as the presence of snow cover, soil fertility, soil heaving or ice encasement, as well as biotic factors like disease pressure or insect damage. Researchers continue to work on advancing cold hardiness of winter wheat and rye and improving traits associated with greater winter survival and injury avoidance. This work builds on previous studies conducted by C. Robert Olien from Michigan State University, Brian Fowler and Larry Gusta from the University of Saskatchewan, David Livingston from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service and Bryan McKersie from the University of Guelph. “Although it is well known that the crown of winter wheat is critical to overwinter survival, until recently little was known about the specific areas of the vegetative crown or different tissues that were important,” says Karen Tanino, professor in the University of Saskatchewan’s Department of Plant Sciences. “The crown was really a black box, and we are trying to break down the black box to better understand what the key critical tissues are that enable winter survival and avoidance of injury. “We are developing a complete model of freezing behaviour in the critical crown organ to identify meaningful improvements in winter cereal cold hardiness,” she says. “We wanted to study the mechanisms of the parts of the winter wheat crown that were being injured or killed over winter. Once the mechanism of survival has been identified, breeders can then select for this trait.” Tanino first studied winter wheat as part of her master’s thesis in the mid-80s, looking at eastern Canadian varieties and mechanisms of cold hardiness at the University of Guelph. Limited new research has been published in this specific area since then, leading Tanino and her PhD student Ian Willick to initiate a new project in 2013 focused on improving cold hardiness of western Canadian varieties of winter wheat. Norstar winter wheat and Puma and Hazlet winter rye were selected for the investigation of cold-acclimation and freezing behaviour responses in the crown. This project is funded as part of a larger program led by Brian Fowler at the University of Saskatchewan. “The vegetative crown of winter cereals, which is a modified stem, is the key organ that survives the winter,” Tanino explains. “The leaves and roots eventually die over winter, but if the crown is alive then the plant can regenerate new roots and shoots in the spring. The vegetative crown organ is divided into two major constituents: the shoot apical meristem (SAM) and the vascular transition zone (VTZ). The shoot apical meristem includes the apical meristem tissues as well as newly formed leaves. The vascular transition zone, which is located between the SAM and the base of the crown, is a complex tissue comprised of root meristem cells, pith and xylem responsible for the translocation of water from the roots to the above-ground organs. The leaf sheath, which is associated with the mature leaf aerial organs, encapsulates the crown. “However, due to the complex nature of the vegetative crown, the critical organ for survival, not all these constituents achieve the same level of hardiness,” Tanino says. “The ability of the plant crown to withstand prolonged exposure to low temperatures can also substantially vary between winter cereals and different genotypes, with winter rye the most cold-hardy, followed by winter wheat, winter barley and oat.” Further lab studies were conducted on the winter wheat and rye crowns to determine the tissue-specific differences in freezing survival. The tissues were subjected to controlled freeze testing and cold acclimation, and then sampled and tested for recovery. Tetrazolium chloride (TTC) vital staining was used to compare freezing survival on tissue samples, and is also a common method used for testing seed viability for germination. The TTC essentially assesses respiration of living tissues: the sample will turn a red colour for live cells/tissue, while the off-white and yellow tissue colour indicates injured or dead cells/tissue as a result of freezing. The results confirmed that the lower region of the crown, or the VTZ, is the area where injury first occurs. However, the results also showed that the VTZ is not the most important tissue in the crown; rather, it is the apical meristem, or SAM. If the VTZ was injured, the injury was not lethal and the crown could recover; however, if the SAM was damaged, that was the final blow to the plant. This is in contrast to earlier findings on eastern Canadian varieties, where the VTZ appears to be the most important tissue in the crown. Several approaches were used in lab trials to further identify how the freezing process results in injury to plants, including differential thermal analysis, ice nucleation, and spatial localization studies using the Canadian Light Source in Saskatoon. The objective was to understand how the plant managed freezing and ice propagation, including where freezing starts in the plant, how fast it develops and what the barriers are that may help the crown avoid or tolerate freezing. “The results confirmed there is a differential pattern of freezing in winter wheat and rye, and it is the leaves that are the initial source of freezing in the fall,” Tanino says. “The ice then rapidly travels down the leaves into the crown. However, the crown has developed various barriers, including one shown by others to be located below the apical meristem, presumably preventing ice from reaching the apical meristem and preventing injury. “Although this differential pattern of freezing injury has long been reported in other complex structures, such as overwintering tree bud organs, this is the first study that has proposed that cold-acclimated crowns of winter cereals utilize a similar strategy of translocating and segregating ice into freezing-tolerant tissues and organs to avoid lethal injury.” Tanino adds that in reviewing how overwintering tree buds manage water flow, freezing and thawing, it is the outer bud scales that are the first to freeze. A barrier between the scales and the bud tissue allows water to flow out of the bud to the scales, but prevents larger ice crystals from moving back into the bud. The apical meristem in the bud basically dehydrates, preventing freezing. “As temperatures fall, the tree buds or crowns begin to reduce free water,” Tanino explains. “There is not a single process but rather a sequence of events that will vary depending on the tissue, degree of acclimation, temperature of initial ice nucleation, rate of ice growth, and physical and chemical factors that affect water activity and migration.” In this study, three distinct freezing events were identified that correspond to the risk of injury to different parts of the crown. A high-temperature event at -3 C to -5 C corresponded with ice formation and high ice-nucleating activity in the leaf sheath encapsulating the crown. The leaf sheath appears to act as an ice sink by accommodating ice from the VTZ and SAM water vapour. A mid-temperature event at -6 C and -8 C corresponded with cavity ice formation in the VTZ, but an absence of ice in the SAM. A low-temperature freezing event, similar to buds, corresponded with SAM freezing injury and also corresponded with the killing temperature in winter wheat at -21 C and rye at -27 C. The findings show that cold-acclimated winter wheat and rye crowns likely survive freezing using an ice segregation freezing strategy, and rye is better able to survive due to higher SAM freezing avoidance. “A proteomic analysis was also performed to understand tissue-specific differences in cold acclimation and freezing survival,” Tanino adds. “This component of the study was conducted in Japan at Iwate University. The results of the analysis indicate that the SAM and VTZ express two distinct tissue-specific barrier responses during cold acclimation, and show differences in how proteins are regulated in the crown and specifically in the cell walls. “The analysis identified that dehydrins, vernalization-responsive proteins, and cold shock proteins preferentially accumulated in the SAM,” Tanino says. “In contrast, modifications to the VTZ centred on increases in pathogenesis-related proteins, anti-freeze proteins and sugar-hydrolyzing enzymes. These findings suggest that there may be some commonalities or overlap with other abiotic or biotic stress resistance such as diseases. For example, those plants that are more cold-hardy are known to be more disease-resistant, but the mechanism is not yet known.” “The results from this project have provided a better understanding of cold hardiness in winter wheat and rye and the mechanisms for winter survival. This new knowledge helps inform and expand my program, which is focused on finding strategies to enable plants to overcome a range of abiotic and biotic stresses,” Tanino says. “In the field, crops have to survive everything, and we never know from one year to the next what will be more important: cold or drought tolerance, diseases, insect pests or other stresses. And ultimately, the results of the project have provided additional targets and tools for plant breeders in advancing cold hardiness in winter wheat and rye.”
Watermelon is a fruit that is rich in water and helps to keep the body and skin hydrated. It can also help to manage fluid retention and prevent the formation of kidney stones. In addition to being a natural diuretic, watermelon also has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer, digestive and antihypertensive properties. Eating watermelon regularly can therefore offer several health benefits. The red color of watermelon is due to the presence of lycopene in its composition. This compound has a potent antioxidant action in the body. Watermelon is made up of 92% water and only 6% sugar, meaning that a small portion will not negatively affect blood sugar levels. Health benefits of watermelon The main health benefits of watermelon are: 1. Improving and preventing water retention Watermelon is a fruit with a large amount of water, giving it a natural diuretic effect on the body. It can help to reduce bloating and to eliminate excess fluid through the urine. In addition, watermelon contains potassium, a mineral that promotes the elimination of excess fluid from the body. This can help to reduce inflammation. 2. Hydrating the body Watermelon helps to keep the body hydrated, as 92% of this fruit is made-up of water. It is a great snack to consume on very hot days. 3. Preventing the formation of kidney stones Watermelon is a fruit with protective properties that are effective against kidney disease, It helps keep urine clean, due to its diuretic properties. Furthermore, the pulp contains steroids and alkanes, which can help prevent the formation of kidney stones. The potassium found in watermelon also helps to balance acids produced by the body, which can increase pH and reducing excess calcium in the urine. These factors are important for preventing the formation of kidney stones. 4. Strengthening the immune system Watermelon contributes to the proper functioning of the immune system. The vitamin C and vitamin A in this fruit are antioxidants that stimulate the body's defense cells, which can prevent the development of diseases like the cold or flu. 5. Protecting the skin from the sun Because is it rich in carotenoids, such as lycopene, watermelon is a great option to help protect the skin from damage caused by the sun's rays. It also has antioxidants that help prevent damage to the skin caused by free radicals cause to the skin, which can aid in preventing premature aging. 6. Improving intestinal flow Watermelon is high in fiber and water, both which add volume to the stool and contribute to better intestinal flow. 7. Promoting weight loss Watermelon is low in calories and also has some fiber. These elements make watermelon a great snack to add to balanced and healthy diet, and can contribute to weight loss. 8. Helping to manage blood pressure Watermelon contains citrulline, an amino acid that can increase nitric oxide levels in the body. This helps to dilate blood vessels and promote blood pressure reduction. This fruit also contains potassium, a mineral that promotes the elimination of excess sodium through urine. This can also help to regulate blood pressure. Lycopene, another antioxidant compound found in watermelon, can also help regulate blood pressure, as some studies indicate that this fruit reduces vasoconstriction. 9. Improving skin and hair health Watermelon can help to improve the appearance and health of the skin and hair, as it contains vitamin A, vitamin C and lycopene. Vitamin C facilitates the collagen synthesis process, vitamin A contributes to cell regeneration and lycopene helps protect the skin from sun damage. The red part of the watermelon is rich in antioxidants like carotenoids, beta-carotene and lycopene. These help protect the skin from the harmful effects of the sun. The transparent part, close to the rind, is also rich in nutrients and should therefore be consumed when possible. 10. Improving physical performance Citrulline is an amino acid that is found in watermelon and can improve performance during exercise. Watermelon also contains potassium and magnesium, which are minerals that are important for preventing muscle weakness and improving muscle contraction and cramps during intense physical activity. 11. Protecting the heart The lycopene present in watermelon naturally contains antioxidant and anti-inflammatory action. This can prevent the LDL cholesterol oxidation and prevent the formation of atherosclerosis plaques, as well as the development of heart diseases. Lycopene is also able to increase the concentration of HDL cholesterol, which promotes heart health. 12. Preventing cancer Watermelon has carotenoids, mainly lycopene, which is a compound with antioxidant and anti-cancer properties. It can be effective in preventing some types of cancer, such as prostate and colorectal cancer. This fruit also contains cucurbitacin E, a compound that, according to some studies, can inhibit the growth of tumor cells. It can also promote the removal of sick cells from the body. The following table outlines the amount of nutrients in 100 g and 1 slice (300 g) of watermelon: \|Components\|\|100 g of watermelon\|\|One slice (300 g)\| \|Energy\|\|26 calories\|\|78 calories\| \|Fat\|\|0.2 g\|\|0.6 g\| \|Carbohydrates\|\|5.5 g\|\|16.5 g\| \|Protein\|\|0.4 g\|\|1.2 g\| \|Water\|\|93.6 g\|\|280.8 g\| \|Vitamin A\|\|50 mcg\|\|150 mcg\| \|Vitamin C\|\|4 mg\|\|12 mg\| \|Potassium\|\|100 mg\|\|300 mg\| \|Calcium\|\|10 mg\|\|30 mg\| \|Phosphorus\|\|5 mg\|\|15 mg\| \|Magnesium\|\|12 mg\|\|36 mg\| To obtain all the benefits mentioned above, it is important to include watermelon as part of a healthy and balanced diet. You should maintain good overl health habits, which include regular physical activity. How to consume Watermelon is a fruit that contains carbohydrates and, therefore, you should combine a fiber source with it when consumed. Some examples include 15 to 30 g of dried fruits (walnuts, almonds, chestnuts, etc.), 1 tablespoon of rolled oats or 1 teaspoon of flaxseed or chia seeds. Healthy watermelon recipes Watermelon is a fruit that is generally consumed in its naturally raw state. However, it can also be prepared with other foods. Some healthy watermelon recipes include: 1. Watermelon and pomegranate salad - 3 medium slices of watermelon - 1 large pomegranate - Mint leaves - Honey to taste How to prepare: Cut the watermelon into pieces. Peel the pomegranate, and extract its seeds. Place everything in a bowl, decorate with mint and drizzle with honey as desired 2. Watermelon rind strew - Rind of half a watermelon - 1/2 tomato - 1/2 chopped onion - 1 clove of garlic - 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley and chives - 2 tablespoons of olive oil - 1/2 cup of water - Season with: salt, pepper and one bay leaf How to prepare: Sautee the garlic clove and onion in the olive oil until golden. Then, add the watermelon rind, tomato and bay leaves and leave over medium heat for a few minutes until everything is very soft. Add the water, parsley and chives, and then serve with a meat or fish dish. 3. Green sausage - Rind of one watermelon - 1 tomato, chopped - 1 onion, chopped - Parsley and chives to taste, chopped - 1kg of chicken breast, cooked and pulled - Olives, sliced - 3 tablespoons of mayonnaise - Juice of half a lemon How to prepare: Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Place in small molds or cups and serve chilled, accompanied with rice, for example.
Lake Bottom Dig Proves Tricky for Archeologists SCOTT SIMON, host: Archaeologists in Peru are pursuing a big idea that change in climate thousands of years ago altered the course of a civilization. Christopher Joyce recently learned firsthand how hard it can be prove big ideas on a small budget. Here's his Reporter's Notebook. (Soundbite of banging) CHRISTOPHER JOYCE: We're going out on a Peruvian lake and Dylan Betermetz(ph) is our anchor man. Mr. DYLAN BETERMETZ: We're basically just filling these buckets with rocks and we're going to find some rope and use these buckets as anchors for our boat. JOYCE: I'm following Jonathan Haas from the Field Museum in Chicago. He believes hunter-gatherers lived along the coast of Peru, until 5,000 years ago, the climate there changed. That forced them inland where they learned agriculture and built huge earthen mounds even before the pyramids of Egypt. (Soundbite of splashing water) Mr. JONATHAN HAAS (Field Museum in Chicago): We are in the Abu Fera del Media Mundo(ph), which is the Lagoon of the Middle Earth. JOYCE: We row out in a 14-foot boat. Since these are dry-land archaeologists, I do most of the rowing. Mr. HAAS: Weigh anchor! JOYCE: What we're after are lakebed sediments. They contain pollen that could reveal climate changes. The coring device is a long metal pipe. A local mechanic cobbled it together for a couple hundred bucks or so. We have to whack it into the lake bottom. (Soundbite of clanging) Mr. HAAS: The hammer will pound it down into the sediment to the bottom. So we'll lower this thing down and you'll go (makes sound) with a hammer going down on it. It's a pile driver. JOYCE: We take turns hammering, and despite the anchors, the boat spins around the corer like a dog leashed to a telephone pole. That takes half an hour. Then we have to twist the corer to grab some sediment, and finally we have to pull it out. Mr. HAAS: Well, you just hold the pole. That'll keep us from bending it. JOYCE: And the Lagoon of Middle Earth winds. The corer breaks in half, no sediment this time. They wonder what future archaeologists will make of a broken metal pole stuck in the lakebed like some Peruvian Excalibur. Haas is philosophical. Mr. HAAS: You take a risk, you go experiment with something, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. In this case it didn't but, you know, lots of other things are going just fine. (Soundbite of splashing) SIMON: Archaeologist Jonathan Haas with Christopher Joyce. You can get a photographic tour of his dig on our Web site, npr.org/climateconnections. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
(Seize the Day!) My USAF radar shop Airplanes and Rockets: My personal hobby website My daughter Sally's horse riding website September 1960 Popular Electronics[Table of Contents] People old and young enjoy waxing nostalgic about and learning some of the history of early electronics. Popular Electronics was published from October 1954 through April 1985. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged. See all articles from Popular Electronics. There is little incentive to build your own field strength meter these days when commercial instruments are readily available and relatively inexpensive. For instance, you can buy an MJF-801 FSM with a 100 kHz to 500 MHz bandwidth for just $30, brand new. More sophisticated, calibrated instruments are available for a lot more, but this basic unit is dirt cheap. However, if you want to read a little about the theory behind a field strength meter and see how one goes together, this article from Popular Electronics provides that opportunity. Are you curious about the radiation pattern of your CB or ham antenna? Here's a simple field strength meter (FSM) that will give you an indication of relative field strength on either the 6- or 10-meter ham bands or the 11-meter Citizens Band. Make a short whip antenna, as shown, by soldering a 1' or 2' length of No. 12 or No. 14 busbar to a banana plug. Jack J1 on the FSM is a banana jack and permits the antenna to be unplugged when the FSM is not in use. Operation. You can use the FSM to check the radiation pattern around your antenna or to see if your transmitter is improperly shielded and radiating r.f. Before these checks can be made, however, the FSM must be tuned to the transmitter. Do this by inserting the FSM's whip antenna into J1 and placing it near the transmitter. Then rig a temporary short-wire antenna to the transmitter, and tune up the transmitter. If yours is a CB rig, just switch to "transmit" and use a clear channel. In any case, keep all experiments down to a minimum so that already burdened Citizens Band and ham frequencies are free of unnecessary interference. Switch on the FSM and adjust capacitor C1 to the transmitter frequency. The meter will show a sharp rise from the zero mark at the transmitter's frequency. Adjust C1 for a maximum reading on the FSM. If the meter goes off scale, move the FSM further away from the transmitting antenna. At this point, you'll notice that the FSM pickup depends on its polarization with the transmitting antenna: maximum pickup results when the FSM antenna and the transmitting antenna are parallel to each other. Once the FSM is tuned to the transmitter, disconnect the temporary antenna and connect your regular transmitting antenna. If your transmitter and coaxial transmission line are properly shielded and grounded, you should get no reading on the FSM no matter how close to the transmitter or coax the FSM antenna is placed. How It Works Operation of the FSM is similar to that of a receiver using a diode detector followed by a one-transistor amplifier. In this case, the transistor feeds a milliammeter rather than headphones. When r.f. is picked up by the antenna, it is tuned by coil L1 and variable capacitor C1 . Diode D1, connected to a low-impedance tap on L1, rectifies the r.f. appearing across the L1-C1 tuned circuit. The rectified signal is filtered by capacitor C2 and fed to the base of transistor Q1, where it is amplified and fed to meter M1. Serving as a visual indicator, Ml measures the amplitude of the rectified signal, which is proportional to the r.f. field strength. Battery B1 powers Q1 through on-off switch S1. Posted March 26, 2013
Considered too risqué for high school students, Emerson Burkhart’s mural was whitewashed. Decades later, high school students restored it and it was relocated to the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Music was painted by Columbus artist Emerson Burkhart in 1934. It was painted on seven canvases and installed about the proscenium arch in the auditorium of Central High School, located along the riverfront in downtown Columbus. Only four years later, Central’s principal had the mural covered with whitewash. By the mid-1980s, Central High School was closed and the property was eventually sold to the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) for a new museum. The restoration of Music was made possible through the dedication and hard work of many – especially the students, faculty, and administration of Ft. Hayes Metropolitan Education Center. Approximately 1,000 students worked over a six-year period to remove the layers of over paint and to restore the painted surface of the mural. It was precise and painstaking work and was accomplished one square inch at a time. Music was one of only two murals painted by Burkhart. The other is located at Stillman Hall at Ohio State University.
27a-35a Dalgety Road, Millers Point facts for kids Quick facts for kids27a-35a Dalgety Road, Millers Point 33 and 33a Dalgety Road, pictured in 2019 \|Location\|\|27a, 29a, 31a, 33, 35a Dalgety Road, Millers Point, City of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia\| \|Official name: Terraces\| \|Type\|\|State heritage (built)\| \|Designated\|\|2 April 1999\| \|Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 420: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).\| 27a-35a Dalgety Road, Millers Point are heritage-listed terrace houses located at 27a, 29a, 31a, 33, 35a Dalgety Road, in the inner city Sydney suburb of Millers Point in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The property is also known as Dalgety Terrace and Dalgety Terraces. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. Millers Point is one of the earliest areas of European settlement in Australia, and a focus for maritime activities. These are a group of early twentieth century workman's terraces built c. 1911 as part of the post plague redevelopment by the Sydney Harbour Trust. First tenanted by the NSW Department of Housing in 1986. These large terraces feature elaborate timber verandahs with ornamental brackets in the Federation style. Also, they have teracotta Marsailles roofs. The terrace consists of a two bedroom units on both the ground floor and the first floor. The stairs leading to the upper units are generally shared by two units, with the entry to the lower units directly to the sides of them. Storeys: Two; Construction: Facebrick walls, tiled roof, timber verandah and balustrading. Style: Federation. The external condition of the property is good. As at 23 November 2000, this terrace is one of a group of early twentieth century workmen's terraces built as part of the post plague redevelopment. It is part of the Millers Point Conservation Area, an intact residential and maritime precinct. It contains residential buildings and civic spaces dating from the 1830s and is an important example of 19th century adaptation of the landscape. 27a-35a Dalgety Road, Millers Point was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. 27a-35a Dalgety Road, Millers Point Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.
Sandbar sharks mainly feed opportunistically on small bottom fish, mollusks, and crustaceans. Research suggests that their diet is related to their size. Juveniles and smaller sharks mainly feed on crustaceans, such as blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) and mantis shrimp (Lysiosquilla scabricauda). Larger sharks feed may feed on crustaceans as well, but will also consume elasmobranch prey including small sharks, skates, and rays. According to the IUCN Red List, a sandbar shark’s diet may include “sardines, shad, menhaden, anchovies, sea catfishes, moray and snake eels, pipefish, barracuda, mullets, goatfishes, hairtails, spanish mackeral, bonito, mackeral (Scomberomorus maculatus), jacks, groupers, croakers, grunts, porgies, flounders and soles, sea robins, toadfish, cusk eels, porcupine fish, sharpnose sharks (Rhizoprionodon terraenovae), spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias), bonnethead sharks (Sphyrna tiburo), guitarfish, skates, stingrays, squid, cuttlefish, octopi, bivalves and conchs, amphipods, shrimp and crabs.” Sandbar sharks are known to feed more actively at night. Animal Foods: fish; mollusks; aquatic crustaceans Primary Diet: carnivore (Piscivore , Eats non-insect arthropods, Molluscivore )
What is Income Tax of India? In simple words, Income Tax means Tax on Income you earned. Some portion of your income you are supposed to pay to Central Government for development of our country. Now to know How much Income is taxable, What amount of Tax you have to pay and How to save Tax you have to look at provisions of Income Tax Act and amendments in that act from time to time. We have tried to simplify all necessary income tax provisions to get maximum benefits of the same.
Scientists have extracted and sequenced the oldest human DNA. It came from a fossilised leg bone of an early human who died about 400,000 years ago in what is now northern Spain. Its DNA sequence indicates that this early European was more closely related to a much earlier species of human living in Siberia about 700,000 years ago than to the later Neanderthals of Europe who became extinct about 30,000 years ago. The genetic link between early Europeans and even earlier Asians has surprised researchers who had expected to find a closer genetic relationship to the later Neanderthals, who had occupied Europe for tens of thousands of years before eventually dying out after anatomically-modern humans arrived. “It really raises more questions than it answers,” said Svante Paabo, the director the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig where the ancient DNA was extracted from the thigh bone of a skeleton excavated from the cave site known as the “pit of bones” in Sierra de Atapuerca. More than 28 human skeletons have been excavated from Sima de los Huesos cave, along with the bones of extinct animals such as cave bears dating back about 600,000 years, making it one of the richest sources of prehistoric fossils in Europe. Many palaeontologists believe that the femur bone used in the DNA extraction comes from an early “hominin” species known as Homo heidelbergensis, although other experts think that it is more likely to be a primitive ancestor of Neanderthal man. However, what has surprised the researchers is the relatively close similarity between the mitochondrial DNA of this Neanderthal-like European and the mitochondrial DNA of the Denisovans, a species that lived about 700,000 years ago in the Altai mountains of Siberia and known only from a small finger bone and two relatively large molar teeth. “The fact that the mitochondrial DNA of the Sima de los Huesos hominin shares a common ancestor with Denisovan rather than Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA is unexpected since its skeletal remains carry Neanderthal-derived features,” said Matthias Meyer of the Max Planck Institute, who led the study published in the journal Nature. One possibility is that the Sima humans were related to a population of early man that was ancestral to both the Denisovans and the Neanderthals. Alternatively, there could have been interbreeding with another group of humans who brought Denisovan-like DNA from Asia into the Sima people or their direct ancestors. Dr Paabo said that one way to resolve the conundrum over who was related to whom, would be to extract the nuclear DNA of the chromosomes, which is technically harder in fossilised bone than extracting the DNA of the mitochondria, which is inherited solely down the maternal line. “Our results show that we can now study DNA from human ancestors that are hundreds of thousands of years old. This opens prospects to study the genes of ancestors of Neanderthals and Denisovans. It is tremendously exciting,” Dr Paabo said. Juan-Luis Arsuaga, director of the Centre for Research on Human Evolution and Behaviour in Madrid, said: “The unexpected result points to a complex pattern of evolution in the origin of Neanderthals and modern humans. I hope that further research will help clarify the genetic relationships of the hominins from Sima de los Huesos to Neanderthals and Denisovans.” Professor Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural History Museum in London, said that the unusual finding poses intriguing questions about the early origins of Neanderthals and their relationship with other humans living at that time. “It is exciting to see genetic material of this age being successfully sequenced. The mitochondrial DNA from a fossil femur found at La Sima de los Huesos or the Pit of Bones in Spain could be from around 400,000 years old. This represents the oldest human DNA material yet recovered,” Professor Stringer said.
The Seal of the State of Oregon is the official seal of the U.S. state of Oregon. It was designed by Harvey Gordon in 1857, two years before Oregon was admitted to the Union. The seal was preceded by the Salmon Seal of the Provisional Government and the Seal of the Oregon Territory that ran from 1843 to 1849. The state seal is mandated by Article VI of the Oregon Constitution. The first seal for Oregon was during the Provisional Government that ran from 1843 to 1849. That government used the Salmon Seal, a round seal featuring three sheaves of grain and a single salmon. The salmon was at the bottom, with Oregon along the top. The salmon was designed to symbolize the fishing industry and the grain to represent agriculture. Designed to be neutral concerning the Oregon Question and whether the U.S. or Britain would ultimately control the region, the seal was used until the Oregon Territory was created and the territorial government arrived in 1849. With the arrival of Governor Joseph Lane in 1849 the territorial government took control of the region. That year the government adopted a new seal featuring a motto and a variety of motifs. In the center was a sailing vessel used to represent commerce, and above that was a beaver to symbolize the fur trade that was prominent in Oregon's early recorded history. On the left of the ship was a Native American and on the right an eagle. Above the beaver on a banner was the Latin motto, Alis Volat Propriis, translated as "She flies with her own wings". Along the perimeter were five stars at the bottom and Seal of the Territory of Oregon on the top. A resolution adopted by the Constitutional Convention in session on September 17, 1857, authorized the president to appoint a committee of three, Benjamin F. Burch, L. F. Grover and James K. Kelly to report on a proper device for the seal of the state of Oregon. Copy was submitted to the committee by Harvey Gordon, to which the committee recommended certain additions that are all incorporated in the state seal. A proposal for a seal from Harvey Gordon was used with the addition of an elk added by the committee. Usage began after Oregon became the 33rd state on February 14, 1859, and the number of stars was increased to 33 from the original 32 by the Oregon Legislative Assembly (Minnesota became a state in 1858). Whereas the existence of an Oregon state seal is written into Oregon's state constitution, the design of the seal itself is dictated by Oregon Revised Statute (ORS) chapter 186. The statutes list two laws pertaining to design and usage of the seal. The state seal consists of an escutcheon, or shield, supported by 33 stars and divided by an ordinary, or ribbon, with the inscription "The Union." Above the ordinary are the mountains and forests of Oregon, an elk with branching antlers, a covered wagon and ox team, the Pacific Ocean with setting sun, a departing British man-of-war signifying the departure of British influence in the region and an arriving American merchant ship signifying the rise of American power. Below the ordinary is a quartering with a shear of wheat, plow and pickax, which represent Oregon's mining and agricultural resources. The crest is the American Eagle/ Around the perimeter of the seal is the legend "State of Oregon, 1859." The seal appears on the obverse of the state flag of Oregon. 2011 ORS > Vol. 5 Chapter 186 > State Emblems Description of state seal The description of the seal of the State of Oregon shall be an escutcheon, supported by 33 stars, and divided by an ordinary, with the inscription, The Union. In chief mountains, an elk with branching antlers, a wagon, the Pacific Ocean, on which there are a British man-of-war departing and an American steamer arriving. The second quartering with a sheaf, plow and a pickax. Crest The American eagle. Legend State of Oregon, 1859. Improper use of state seal (1) Except as authorized by the Secretary of State, no person shall knowingly use any device, or possess any device capable of such use, to emboss upon a document the seal of the State of Oregon described in ORS 186.020 (Description of state seal). (2) No person shall use any reproduction of the seal of the State of Oregon: (a) In any manner falsely implying official indorsement or sponsorship by the State of Oregon or any of its agencies of any product, business, service or other activity; or (b) In any manner that subjects or exposes the seal of the State of Oregon to ridicule, debasement or infamy. [1983 c.325 §1] Injunction and civil penalties for improper use of seal • judicial review (1) In addition to any other liability or penalty provided by law, the Secretary of State may do one or both of the following: (a) Petition the circuit court to enjoin violation of ORS 186.023 (Improper use of state seal); or (b) Pursuant to a hearing, issue an order imposing a civil penalty upon a person for any violation of ORS 186.023 (Improper use of state seal). (2) A civil penalty may only be imposed under this section pursuant to ORS 183.745 (Civil penalty procedures). (3) The Secretary of State may assess a civil penalty under this section not exceeding $500. The Secretary of State may remit or reduce any penalty imposed under this section upon such terms and conditions as the Secretary of State considers proper and consistent with the protection of the integrity of the seal of the State of Oregon. In imposing any penalty under this section, the Secretary of State shall consider the following factors: (a) Prior violations, if any, of the person under ORS 186.023 (Improper use of state seal); (b) The economic and financial conditions of the person; and (c) Whether and to what extent the seal or reproduction thereof was used or possessed for deceptive or fraudulent purposes. (4) In any judicial review of civil penalties imposed under this section, the court, in its discretion, may reduce the penalty. (5) All penalties recovered under this section shall be paid into the State Treasury and credited to the General Fund and are available for general governmental expenses. [1983 c.325 §2; 1989 c.706 §9; 1991 c.734 §10] Record of description The description in writing of the seal of this state shall be deposited and recorded in the office of the Secretary of State, and shall remain a public record. Article VI: Administrative department Seal of state. There shall be a seal of State, kept by the Secretary of State for official purposes, which shall be called "The seal of the State of Oregon".-
There are many mysteries concerning the origin of our universe, including whether there are other universes, as suggested by the multiverse theory proposed by the late physicist Stephen Hawking. One thing we do know is that our universe appears to be continuously expanding. Now researchers from Uppsala University have added to that finding; they now suggest that the universe is riding on an expanding bubble in an additional dimension. Uppsala University researchers proposed this new model for the ever-expanding universe. Their theory also tackles the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, which are believed to be the universe’s main components, although they are invisible. They published the findings from their study in the Physical Review Letters. According to a news release about the study, the researchers used their knowledge about the universe’s accelerating expansion. The researchers suggest that the invisible dark energy which surrounds the universe is pushing it to expand. They also said that if scientists can one day understand the nature of dark energy, they will be able to understand the universe too, given that this is the most difficult-to-understand enigma of fundamental physics. The researchers also focused on string theory, hoping it would yield some results in their research. String theory suggests that matter consists of small vibrating strings. However, the theory also says that more than three spatial dimensions are required for the theory to make sense. Even though string theory has been studied for the last 15 years and many models have been proposed, there has been a lot of criticism about it. Many researchers have suggested that all the previous models of the universe and matter are unworkable. As a result, Uppsala researchers have now proposed that our universe is riding on an expanding bubble. The new model described in the study proposes that the universe is riding on an expanding bubble in an additional dimension. The researchers suggest that the universe is situated on the edge of the expanding bubble. They also propose that the matter we see, touch and measure connects to the ends of the strings which extend into the additional dimension. The researchers say their model can be used within the framework of string theory. To support the multiverse theory, the researchers say there could be more bubbles corresponding with other universes in the multiverse. The researchers believe their “new picture of the universe” may provide new methods of researching it and be used to test string theory. Earlier this month, another study focused on the existence of dark matter and energy in the universe. Oxford University researcher Jamie Farnes conducted a study and published the results in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. Farnes proposed that dark matter is not exactly dark matter, but rather, a negative-mass fluid which fills up 95% of the universe’s space.
Double jumping is a staple in many games. It’s especially common in many platformers and Metroidvanias. Now, if you’re like me starting out, I had no idea where to start, so today we’ll give you a breakdown of how to create your own double jump mechanic using the Pico-8. The Physics Of The World Every game world that has a double jump usually has some physics calculations associated with it. I promise we won’t be going too deep into Physics or Math. The most important concepts to understand here are gravity, time, velocity, and vectors. Let’s start with gravity and time. Gravity And Time Gravity is acting upon objects in your game over time. In most games, this would happen during the Physics process, in Pico-8, that’s during the update loop. Why? Because the update loop runs every frame; this is your time in the game. So, we apply gravity every frame. Here’s an example in code and the result you can see above, as the character continues to fall to the bottom of the screen. Note, we use our property dy to modify the player’s y-value. The only reason we don’t have the character falling forever is as a result of our adding bounds check to prevent that. Now, with physics in place, we can create our own jumping and double jump mechanics. A jump is just a burst force in the opposite direction of the gravity; it is also triggered on demand. So, we need to add force in the opposite direction and allow the player to perform the action twice. Here’s our code example and the result. As you can see, we add a new property to check the jump count of the player, as long as it is less than 1, the player can jump again. And, the jump is force in the opposite direction of the gravity we set. Tada! You have a double jump mechanic in your game. This may have been written in the Pico-8, but the same code applies to just about any game you make in the 2D space, and possibly 3D. This is a simple example, so you may have a more complicated checks and balances in your own game to accomodate. In the meantime, this will get you started and stay tuned!
Three recent graduates and one student from RIT’s imaging and photographic technology program experienced human spaceflight without leaving earth’s orbit. The team of James Craven, Greg Sharp, Christopher Ubelacker and Jarret Whetstone earned an opportunity to fly aboard NASA’s Weightless Wonder, a C-9 aircraft that climbs to a 45-degree angle over the Gulf of Mexico and then nosedives to simulate zero gravity. RIT’s team spent a week in July at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Texas along with teams from University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M, University of Michigan and University of New Mexico as part of NASA’s Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program. The program allows undergraduate students to propose, build and fly a reduced gravity scientific experiment. RIT was one of 40 selected from more than 80 submissions. “I am really excited I got to go,” says Sharp ’08. “It was a lot of fun. You did end up floating off the floor. I found I had to keep grabbing on to things to keep myself from floating all over uncontrollably.” The aircraft, more popularly known as the “Vomit Comet” follows a parabolic flight path, providing short periods of free fall in which people experience reduced gravity or weightlessness, similar to a ride on a rollercoaster. During the 90-minute flight, participants experience more than 30 free falls, each lasting between 18 and 25 seconds. The team’s experiment looked at the feasibility of inkjet printing in a microgravity environment, focusing on print heads, ink drop characteristics, ink drop flight and printing accuracy. “We tested thermal and piezo electric methods of inkjet printing in microgravity, consisting of two different tests, printing out standard targets to see if there were any changes in print quality,” says Craven ’08. “We also used a high-speed camera to image an inkjet droplet to see if there was a difference in size, shape, speed and amount.” The data is being examined and the team will submit its research findings to NASA. “The creation of circuit boards could be one potential application used in space by utilizing modified inkjet technology,” says Ubelacker, a fourth-year student. “The technology requires placing small volumes of liquid into a very accurate location so our data from the printers could be helpful.” The team met many RIT alumni who work at Johnson Space Center and had the chance to present their experiment to astronaut Barbara Morgan. They also toured mission control for the International Space Station. This is the second time NASA has selected a student team from RIT to be part of this program. In 1997, four undergraduate students in the imaging and photographic technology program flew aboard the Vomit Comet. So did the Vomit Comet live up to its reputation? For some, but not all. “Weightlessness is quite an interesting experience along with the nausea that comes with it,” says Whetstone ’08. “Luckily for me, I did not expel anything.”
As our country has experienced significant population shifts over the last 150 years with fewer Americans living or working on farms, the visibility surrounding the value of farming has diminished. Our country has experienced significant population shifts over the last 150 years with fewer Americans living or working on farms, the visibility surrounding the value of farming has diminished. In what would be his final annual message to Congress, Lincoln called USDA "The People's Department,” because at that time about half of all Americans lived on farms, compared with only about two percent today. But through work on food, agriculture, economic development, science, natural resource conservation and a host of issues, USDA still fulfills Lincoln's vision - touching the lives of all Americans every day. Though more Americans now live in suburban areas than on farms, our dependence on agriculture remains the same. As part of its 150th anniversary celebrations, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) invites youth and adult 4-H members to submit photos that capture the diverse ways young people are engaged in agriculture today and the impact it has on communities. Contestants must be a 4-H member, volunteer, alumni or staff and 14 years of age or older. All photographs must be taken by an amateur photographer. Photos should reflect on one of three areas of focus: citizenship in agricultural issues, how agriculture affects healthy living, and the science behind agriculture. The winning photographs will be prominently displayed within the 4-H/USDA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., during National 4-H Week, October 1-6, 2012. 4-H has been an integral part of USDA’s rich history, with the formation of boys’ and girls’ agricultural clubs in 1902 and the establishment of the Cooperative Extension System in 1914. The history of 4-H reflects that young people are early adopters of innovation and can change a community or influence societal changes. How to enter Submit your photo through the Enter a Submission function on Challenge.gov. Make sure you enter your full caption in the Description field. Scan and upload the completed entry form, copyright permission form and subject consent release forms in the Upload a File field through the Enter a Submission function. See the full rules for more details and to access all necessary forms. 4-H National Headquarters/National Institute of Food and Agriculture Citizenship in Agricultural Issues How Agriculture Effects Healthy Living The Science Behind Agriculture
Researchers from the Universidad Pablo de Olavide (UPO) and the Universidad de Sevilla (US) have found patterns of behaviour that occur before an earthquake on the Iberian peninsula. The team used clustering techniques to forecast medium-large seismic movements when certain circumstances coincide. "Using mathematical techniques, we have found patterns when medium-large earthquakes happen, that is, earthquakes greater than 4.4 on the Richter scale," Francisco Martínez Álvarez, co-author of the study and a senior lecturer at the UPO revealed to SINC. The research, which will be published this month by the journal Expert Systems with Applications, is based on the data compiled by the Instituto Geográfico Nacional on 4,017 earthquakes between 3 and 7 on the Richter scale that occurred on the Iberian Peninsula and in the surrounding waters between 1978 and 2007. The scientists applied clustering techniques to the data, which allowed them to find similarities between them and discover patterns that will help to forecast earthquakes. The team concentrated on the two seismogenic regions with the most data (The Alboran Sea and the Western Azores-Gibraltar fault region) analysing three attributes: the magnitude of the seismic movement, the time elapsed since the last earthquake and the change in a parameter called the b-value from one earthquake and the other. The b-value reflects the tectonics of the region under analysis. A high b-value means earthquakes are predominantly small in size and, therefore, the land has a low level of resistance. In contrast, a low value indicates that there are a relatively similar number of large and small seismic movements, which implies the land is more resistant. Successful Forecast Probability Greater than 80% "We have discovered the strong relationship between earthquakes and the parameter b-value, recording accuracy rates of more than 80%," Antonio Morales Esteban, another of the co-authors of the study and a senior lecturer at the US highlighted. "After the calculations had been performed, providing the circumstances and sequences we have determined to be forerunners occur, we obtain a significant success probability". The technique summarises the forecasts in two factors: sensitivity (probability of an earthquake occurring after the patterns detected occur) and specificity (probability of an earthquake not occurring when no patterns have occurred). The results reflect a sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 82.56% for the Alboran Sea region and 79.31% and 90.38% respectively for the seismogenic region of the Western Azores-Gibraltar Fault. That is, there is a high probability of an earthquake in these regions immediately after the patterns discovered occur (high sensitivity) and, moreover, on most of such occasions, they only occur after the patterns discovered (high specificity). At present the team is analysing the same data using their own algorithms based on "association rules", other mathematical techniques used to discover common events or those which fulfil specific conditions within a set of events. "The results are promising, although I doubt we will ever be able to say that we are capable of forecasting an earthquake 100% accurately," Martínez Álvarez conceded. A. Morales-Esteban, F. Martínez-Álvarez , A. Troncoso , J.L. Justo y C. Rubio-Escudero. "Pattern recognition to forecast seismic time series". Expert Systems with Applications 37 (12): 8333�, diciembre de 2010. Doi: 10.1016/j.eswa.2010.05.050.
The 3 Key Elements of a Criminal Act For an act to be considered criminal, it must contain certain essential elements. These key components that make up a crime are known as the actus reus, mens rea, concurrence, and causation. Understanding these elements is crucial for determining criminal liability. Actus Reus – The Physical Act The actus reus refers to the physical action or behavior that comprises the criminal act. It is the external element of the crime. For an actus reus to occur, there must be a voluntary act or omission. Examples of actus reus include assaulting someone, taking property, or failing to provide food and shelter for a dependent. The act does not necessarily have to be successful to qualify as actus reus. For instance, attempted murder still fulfills the actus reus requirement. Mens Rea – The Mental State Mens rea refers to the mental state or intent behind the criminal act. Establishing mens rea means showing that the defendant committed the actus reus intentionally, knowingly, recklessly or with criminal negligence. Mens rea requirements vary based on the crime. For example, first-degree murder typically requires showing the defendant acted with premeditation and intent to kill. In contrast, crimes like statutory rape are strict liability offenses that do not require proof of mens rea. Concurrence – Timing of Act and Intent For a criminal act to occur, the mens rea and actus reus must happen at the same time. This is known as concurrence. The intent and action must coincide for criminal liability. For example, a person cannot be guilty of theft if they intended to steal an item after it was already taken. The mens rea would not align with the actus reus. Causation – Direct Link between Act and Harm In addition to demonstrating actus reus and mens rea, prosecutors must establish causation. This means proving the defendant’s conduct directly led to or caused the criminal harm or injury. For instance, if a person dies months after being assaulted, medical experts may be needed to show the assault injuries led to the death. Causation connects the physical act to its consequences. Understanding the elements of actus reus, mens rea, concurrence, and causation is key for analyzing criminal liability. Proving these components occurred beyond a reasonable doubt is necessary for securing a criminal conviction.
The Science Of Grammar Grammar is the art of writing and speaking correctly. Grammar bears to language. The composition of language. The term grammar. language is an attribute of reason, and differs essentially not only from all brute voices, but even from all the chattering. \|Рубрика\|\|Иностранные языки и языкознание\| \|Размер файла\|\|30,1 K\| Отправить свою хорошую работу в базу знаний просто. Используйте форму, расположенную ниже Студенты, аспиранты, молодые ученые, использующие базу знаний в своей учебе и работе, будут вам очень благодарны. Министерство образования Республики Беларусь «Гомельский государственный университет им. Ф. Скорины» THE SCIENCE OF GRAMMAR Студентка группы К-42 - 1. Grammar bears to language - 2. Grammar is the art of writing and speaking correctly - 3. The term grammar - 4. The composition of language - "Haec de Grammatica quam brevissime potui: non ut omnia dicerem sectatus, (quod infinitum erat,) sed ut maxima necessaria."--QUINTILIAN. _De Inst. Orat._, Lib. i, Cap. x. - Language, in the proper sense of the term, is peculiar to man; so that, without a miraculous assumption of human powers, none but human beings can make words the vehicle of thought. An imitation of some of the articulate sounds employed in speech, may be exhibited by parrots, and sometimes by domesticated ravens, and we know that almost all brute animals have their peculiar natural voices, by which they indicate their feelings, whether pleasing or painful. But language is an attribute of reason, and differs essentially not only from all brute voices, but even from all the chattering, jabbering, and babbling of our own species, in which there is not an intelligible meaning, with division of thought, and distinction of words. 1. Grammar bears to language Speech results from the joint exercise of the best and noblest faculties of human nature, from our rational understanding and our social affection; and is, in the proper use of it, the peculiar ornament and distinction of man, whether we compare him with other orders in the creation, or view him as an individual preeminent among his fellows. Hence that science which makes known the nature and structure of speech, and immediately concerns the correct and elegant use of language, while it surpasses all the conceptions of the stupid or unlearned, and presents nothing that can seem desirable to the sensual and grovelling, has an intrinsic dignity which highly commends it to all persons of sense and taste, and makes it most a favourite with the most gifted minds. That science is Grammar. And though there be some geniuses who affect to despise the trammels of grammar rules, to whom it must be conceded that many things which have been unskillfully taught as such, deserve to be despised; yet it is true, as Dr. Adam remarks, that, "The study of Grammar has been considered an object of great importance by the wisest men in all ages."--_Preface to Latin and English Gram._, p. iii. Grammar bears to language several different relations, and acquires from each a nature leading to a different definition. First, It is to language, as knowledge is to the thing known; and as doctrine, to the truths it inculcates. In these relations, grammar is a science. It is the first of what have been called the seven sciences, or liberal branches of knowledge; namely, grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. Secondly, It is as skill, to the thing to be done; and as power, to the instruments it employs. In these relations, grammar is an art; and as such, has long been defined, "_ars recte scribendi, recteque loquendi_" the art of writing and speaking correctly. Thirdly, It is as navigation, to the ocean, which nautic skill alone enables men to traverse. In this relation, theory and practice combine, and grammar becomes, like navigation, a practical science. Fourthly, It is as a chart, to a coast which we would visit. In this relation, our grammar is a text-book, which we take as a guide, or use as a help to our own observation. Fifthly, It is as a single voyage, to the open sea, the highway of nations. Such is our meaning, when we speak of the grammar of a particular text or passage. Again: Grammar is to language a sort of self-examination. It turns the faculty of speech or writing upon itself for its own elucidation; and makes the tongue or the pen explain the uses and abuses to which both are liable, as well as the nature and excellency of that power, of which, these are the two grand instruments. From this account, some may begin to think that in treating of grammar we are dealing with something too various and changeable for the understanding to grasp; a dodging Proteus of the imagination, who is ever ready to assume some new shape, and elude the vigilance of the inquirer. But let the reader or student do his part; and, if he please, follow us with attention. We will endeavour, with welded links, to bind this Proteus, in such a manner that he shall neither escape from our hold, nor fail to give to the consulter an intelligible and satisfactory response. Be not discouraged, generous youth. Hark to that sweet far-reaching note: "Sed, quanto ille magis formas se vertet in omnes, Tanto, nate, magis contende tenacia vincla." VIRGIL. Geor. IV, 411. "But thou, the more he varies forms, beware To strain his fetters with a stricter care." DRYDEN'S VIRGIL. If for a moment we consider the good and the evil that are done in the world through the medium of speech, we shall with one voice acknowledge, that not only the faculty itself, but also the manner in which it is used, is of incalculable importance to the welfare of man. But this reflection does not directly enhance our respect for grammar, because it is not to language as the vehicle of moral or of immoral sentiment, of good or of evil to mankind, that the attention of the grammarian is particularly directed. A consideration of the subject in these relations, pertains rather to the moral philosopher. Nor are the arts of logic and rhetoric now considered to be properly within the grammarian's province. Modern science assigns to these their separate places, and restricts grammar, which at one period embraced all learning, to the knowledge of language, as respects its fitness to be the vehicle of any particular thought or sentiment which the speaker or writer may wish to convey by it. Accordingly grammar is commonly defined, by writers upon the subject, in the special sense of an art--"the art of speaking or writing a language with propriety or correctness."--_Webster's Dict._ 2. Grammar is the art of writing and speaking correctly Lily says, "Grammatica est recte scribendi atque loquendi ars;" that is, "Grammar is the art of writing and speaking correctly." Despauter, too, in his definition, which is quoted in a preceding paragraph, not improperly placed writing first, as being that with which grammar is primarily concerned. For it ought to be remembered, that over any fugitive colloquial dialect, which has never been fixed by visible signs, grammar has no control; and that the speaking which the art or science of grammar teaches, is exclusively that which has reference to a knowledge of letters. It is the certain tendency of writing, to improve speech. And in proportion as books are multiplied, and the knowledge of written language is diffused, local dialects, which are beneath the dignity of grammar, will always be found to grow fewer, and their differences less. There are, in the various parts of the world, many languages to which the art of grammar has never yet been applied; and to which, therefore, the definition or true idea of grammar, however general, does not properly extend. And even where it has been applied, and is now honoured as a popular branch of study, there is yet great room for improvement: barbarisms and solecisms have not been rebuked away as they deserve to be. Melancthon says, "Grammatica est certa loquendi ac scribendi ratio, Latinis Latine." Vossius, "Ars bene loquendi eoque et scribendi, atque id Latinis Latine." Dr. Prat, "_Grammatica est recte loquendi atque scribendi ars._" Ruddiman also, in his Institutes of Latin Grammar, reversed the terms writing and speaking, and defined grammar, "_ars rece loquendi scribendique_;" and, either from mere imitation, or from the general observation that speech precedes writing, this arrangement of the words has been followed by most modern grammarians. Dr. Lowth embraces both terms in a more general one, and says, "Grammar is the art of rightly expressing our thoughts by words." It is, however, the province of grammar, to guide us not merely in the expression of our own thoughts, but also in our apprehension of the thoughts, and our interpretation of the words, of others. Hence, Perizonius, in commenting upon Sanctius's imperfect definition, "_Grammatica est ars recte loquendi_," not improperly asks, "_et quidni intelligendi et explicandi_?" "and why not also of understanding and explaining?" Hence, too, the art of reading is virtually a part of grammar; for it is but the art of understanding and speaking correctly that which we have before us on paper. And Nugent has accordingly given us the following definition: "Grammar is the art of reading, speaking, and writing a language by rules."--_Introduction to Dict._, p. xii. The word _recte_, rightly, truly, correctly, which occurs in most of the foregoing Latin definitions, is censured by the learned Richard Johnson, in his Grammatical Commentaries, on account of the vagueness of its meaning. He says, it is not only ambiguous by reason of its different uses in the Latin classics, but destitute of any signification proper to grammar. But even if this be true as regards its earlier application, it may well be questioned, whether by frequency of use it has not acquired a signification which makes it proper at the present time. The English word correctly seems to be less liable to such an objection; and either this brief term, or some other of like import, (as, "with correctness"--"with propriety,") is still usually employed to tell what grammar is. But can a boy learn by such means what it is, _to speak and write grammatically_? In one sense, he can; and in an other, he cannot. He may derive, from any of these terms, some idea of grammar as distinguished from other arts; but no simple definition of this, or of any other art, can communicate to him that learns it, the skill of an artist. R. Johnson speaks at large of the relation of words to each other in sentences, as constituting in his view the most essential part of grammar; and as being a point very much overlooked, or very badly explained, by grammarians in general. His censure is just. And it seems to be as applicable to nearly all the grammars now in use, as to those which he criticised a hundred and thirty years ago. But perhaps he gives to the relation of words, (which is merely their dependence on other words according to the sense,) an earlier introduction and a more prominent place, than it ought to have in a general system of grammar. To the right use of language, he makes four things to be necessary. In citing these, I vary the language, but not the substance or the order of his positions. First, That we should speak and write words according to the significations which belong to them: the teaching of which now pertains to lexicography, and not to grammar, except incidentally. " Secondly, That we should observe the relations that words have one to another in sentences, and represent those relations by such variations, and particles, as are usual with authors in that language." Thirdly, That we should acquire a knowledge of the proper sounds of the letters, and pay a due regard to accent in pronunciation. Fourthly, That we should learn to write words with their proper letters, spelling them as literary men generally do. From these positions, (though he sets aside the first, as pertaining to lexicography, and not now togrammar, as it formerly did,) the learned critic deduces first his four parts of the subject, and then his definition of grammar. "Hence," says he, "there arise Four Parts of Grammar; Analogy, which treats of the several parts of speech, their definitions, accidents, and formations; Syntax, which treats of the use of those things in construction, according to their relations; Orthography, which treats of spelling; and Prosody, which treats of accenting in pronunciation. So, then, the true definition of Grammar is this: Grammar is the art of expressing the relations of things in construction, with due accent in speaking, and orthography in writing,according to the custom of those whose language we learn." Again he adds: "The word relation has other senses, taken by itself; but yet the relation of words one to another in a sentence, has no other signification than what I intend by it, namely, of cause, effect, means, end, manner, instrument, object, adjunct, and the like; which are names given by logicians to those relations under which the mind comprehends things, and therefore the most proper words to explain them to others. And if such things are too hard for children, then grammar is too hard; for there neither is, nor can be, any grammar without them. And a little experience will satisfy any man, that the young will as easily apprehend them, as _gender, number, declension_, and other grammar-terms." See _R. Johnson's Grammatical Commentaries_, p. 4. It is true, that the _relation of words_--by which I mean that connexion between them, which the train of thought forms and suggests--or that dependence which one word has on an other according to the sense--lies at the foundation of all syntax. No rule or principle of construction can ever have any applicability beyond the limits, or contrary to the order, of this relation. To see what it is in any given case, is but to understand the meaning of the phrase or sentence. And it is plain, that no word ever necessarily agrees with an other, with which it is not thus connected in the mind of him who uses it. No word ever governs an other, to which the sense does not direct it. No word is ever required to stand immediately before or after an other, to which it has not some relation according to the meaning of the passage. Here then are the relation, agreement, government, and arrangement, of words in sentences; and these make up the whole of syntax--but not the whole of grammar. To this one part of grammar, therefore, the relation of words is central and fundamental; and in the other parts also, there are some things to which the consideration of it is incidental; but there are many more, like spelling, pronunciation, derivation, and whatsoever belongs merely to letters, syllables, and the forms of words, with which it has, in fact, no connexion. The relation of words, therefore, should be clearly and fully explained in its proper place, under the head of syntax; but the general idea of grammar will not be brought nearer to truth, by making it to be "the art of expressing the relations of things in construction," &c., according to the foregoing definition. 3 The term grammar The term grammar is derived from the Greek word [Greek: gramma], a letter. The art or science to which this term is applied, had its origin, not in cursory speech, but in the practice of writing; and speech, which is first in the order of nature, is last with reference to grammar. The matter or common subject of grammar, is language in general; which, being of two kinds, spoken and written, consists of certain combinations either of sounds or of visible signs, employed for the expression of thought. Letters and sounds, though often heedlessly confounded in the definitions given of vowels, consonants, &c., are, in their own nature, very different things. They address themselves to different senses; the former, to the sight; the latter, to the hearing. Yet, by a peculiar relation arbitrarily established between them, and in consequence of an almost endless variety in the combinations of either, they coincide in a most admirable manner, to effect the great object for which language was bestowed or invented; namely, to furnish a sure medium for the communication of thought, and the preservation of knowledge. All languages, however different, have many things in common. There are points of a philosophical character, which result alike from the analysis of any language, and are founded on the very nature of human thought, and that of the sounds or other signs which are used to express it. When such principles alone are taken as the subject of inquiry, and are treated, as they sometimes have been, without regard to any of the idioms of particular languages, they constitute what is called General, Philosophical, or Universal Grammar. But to teach, with Lindley Murray and some others, that "Grammar may be considered as consisting of two species, Universal and Particular," and that the latter merely "applies those general principles to a particular language," is to adopt a twofold absurdity at the outset. For every cultivated language has its particular grammar, in which whatsoever is universal, is necessarily included; but of which, universal or general principles form only a part, and that comparatively small. We find therefore in grammar no "two species" of the same genus; nor is the science or art, as commonly defined and understood, susceptible of division into any proper and distinct sorts, except with reference to different languages--as when we speak of Greek, Latin, French, or English grammar. There is, however, as I have suggested, a certain science or philosophy of language, which has been denominated Universal Grammar; being made up of those points only, in which many or all of the different languages preserved in books, are found to coincide. All speculative minds are fond of generalization; and, in the vastness of the views which may thus be taken of grammar, such may find an entertainment which theynever felt in merely learning to speak and write grammatically. But the pleasure of such contemplations is not the earliest or the most important fruit of the study. The first thing is, to know and understand the grammatical construction of our own language. Many may profit by this acquisition, who extend not their inquiries to the analogies or the idioms of other tongues. It is true, that every item of grammatical doctrine is the more worthy to be known and regarded, in proportion as it approaches to universality. But the principles of all practical grammar, whether universal or particular, common or peculiar, must first be learned in their application to some one language, before they can be distinguished into such classes; and it is manifest, both from reason and from experience, that the youth of any nation not destitute of a good book for the purpose, may best acquire a knowledge of those principles, from the grammatical study of their native tongue. Universal or Philosophical Grammar is a large field for speculation and inquiry, and embraces many things which, though true enough in themselves, are unfit to be incorporated with any system of practical grammar, however comprehensive its plan. Many authors have erred here. With what is merely theoretical, such a system should have little to do. Philosophy, dealing in generalities, resolves speech not only as a whole into its constituent parts and separable elements, as anatomy shows the use and adaptation of the parts and joints of the human body; but also as a composite into its matter and form, as one may contemplate that same body in its entireness, yet as consisting of materials, some solid and some fluid, and these curiously modelled to a particular figure. Grammar, properly so called, requires only the former of these analyses; and in conducting the same, it descends to the thousand minute particulars which are necessary to be known in practice. Nor are such things to be despised as trivial and low: ignorance of what is common and elementary, is but the more disgraceful for being ignorance of mere rudiments. "Wherefore," says Quintilian, "they are little to be respected, who represent this art as mean and barren; in which, unless you faithfully lay the foundation for the future orator, whatever superstructure you raise will tumble into ruins. It is an art, necessary to the young, pleasant to the old, the sweet companion of the retired, and one which in reference to every kind of study has in itself more of utility than of show. Let no one therefore despise as inconsiderable the elements of grammar. Not because it is a great thing, to distinguish consonants from vowels, and afterwards divide them into semivowels and mutes; but because, to those who enter the interior parts of this temple of science, there will appear in many things a great subtilty, which is fit not only to sharpen the wits of youth, but also to exercise the loftiest erudition and science."--De Institutione Oratoria, Lib. i, Cap. iv. 4 The composition of language Again, of the arts which spring from the composition of language. Here the art of logic, aiming solely at conviction, addresses the understanding with cool deductions of unvarnished truth; rhetoric, designing to move, in some particular direction, both the judgement and the sympathies of men, applies itself to the affections in order to persuade; and poetry, various in its character and tendency, solicits the imagination, with a view to delight, and in general also to instruct. But grammar, though intimately connected with all these, and essential to them in practice, is still too distinct from each to be identified with any of them. In regard to dignity and interest, these higher studies seem to have greatly the advantage over particular grammar; but who is willing to be an ungrammatical poet, orator, or logician? For him I do not write. But I would persuade my readers, that an acquaintance with that grammar which respects the genius of their vernacular tongue, is of primary importance to all who would cultivate a literary taste, and is a necessary introduction to the study of other languages. And it may here be observed, for the encouragement of the student, that as grammar is essentially the same thing in all languages, he who has well mastered that of his own, has overcome more than half the difficulty of learning another; and he whose knowledge of words is the most extensive, has the fewest obstacles to encounter in proceeding further. It was the "original design" of grammar, says Dr. Adam, to facilitate "the acquisition of languages;" and, of all practical treatises on the subject, this is still the main purpose. In those books which are to prepare the learner to translate from one tongue into another, seldom is any thing else attempted. In those also which profess to explain the right use of vernacular speech, must the same purpose be ever paramount, and the "original design" be kept in view. But the grammarian may teach many things incidentally. One cannot learn a language, without learning at the same time a great many opinions, facts, and principles, of some kind or other, which are necessarily embodied in it. For all language proceeds from, and is addressed to, the understanding; and he that perceives not the meaning of what he reads, makes no acquisition even of the language itself. To the science of grammar, the nature of the ideas conveyed by casual examples, is not very essential: to the learner, it is highly important. The best thoughts in the best diction should furnish the models for youthful study and imitation; because such language is not only the most worthy to be remembered, but the most easy to be understood. A distinction is also to be made between use and abuse. In nonsense, absurdity, or falsehood, there can never be any grammatical authority; because, however language may be abused, the usage which gives law to speech, is still that usage which is founded upon the common sense of mankind. Grammar appeals to reason, as well as to authority, but to what extent it should do so, has been matter of dispute. "The knowledge of useful arts," says Sanctius, "is not an invention of human ingenuity, but an emanation from the Deity, descending from above for the use of man, as Minerva sprung from the brain of Jupiter. Wherefore, unless thou give thyself wholly to laborious research into the nature of things, and diligently examine the causes and reasons of the art thou teachest, believe me, thou shalt but see with other men's eyes, and hear with other men's ears. But the minds of many are preoccupied with a certain perverse opinion, or rather ignorant conceit, that in grammar, or the art of speaking, there are no causes, and that reason is scarcely to be appealed to for any thing;--than which idle notion, I know of nothing more foolish;--nothing can be thought of which is more offensive. Shall man, endowed with reason, do, say, or contrive any thing, without design, and without understanding? Hear the philosophers; who positively declare that nothing comes to pass without a cause. Hear Plato himself; who affirms that names and words subsist by nature, and contends that language is derived from nature, and not from art." "I know," says he, "that the Aristotelians think otherwise; but no one will doubt that names are the signs, and as it were the instruments, of things. But the instrument of any art is so adapted to that art, that for any other purpose it must seem unfit; thus with an auger we bore, and with a saw we cut wood; but we split stones with wedges, and wedges are driven with heavy mauls. We cannot therefore but believe that those who first gave names to things, did it with design; and this, I imagine, Aristotle himself understood when he said, _ad placitum nomina significare._ For those who contend that names were made by chance, are no less audacious than if they would endeavour to persuade us, that the whole order of the universe was framed together fortuitously." "You will see," continues he, "that in the first language, whatever it was, the names of things were taken from Nature herself; but, though I cannot affirm this to have been the case in other tongues, yet I can easily persuade myself that in every tongue a reason can be rendered for the application of every name; and that this reason, though it is in many cases obscure, is nevertheless worthy of investigation. Many things which were not known to the earlier philosophers, were brought to light by Plato; after the death of Plato, many were discovered by Aristotle; and Aristotle was ignorant of many which are now everywhere known. For truth lies hid, but nothing is more precious than truth. But you will say, 'How can there be any certain origin to names, when one and the same thing is called by different names, in the several parts of the world?' I answer, of the same thing there may be different causes, of which some people may regard one, and others, an other. * * * There is therefore no doubt, that of all things, even of words, a reason is to be rendered: and if we know not what that reason is, when we are asked; we ought rather to confess that we do not know, than to affirm that none can be given. I know that Scaliger thinks otherwise; but this is the true account of the matter." "These several observations," he remarks further, "I have unwillingly brought together against those stubborn critics who, while they explode reason from grammar, insist so much on the testimonies of the learned. But have they never read Quintilian, who says, (Lib. i, Cap. 6,) that, 'Language is established by reason, antiquity, authority, and custom?' He therefore does not exclude reason, but makes it the principal thing. Nay, in a manner, Laurentius, and other grammatists, even of their fooleries, are forward to offer reasons, such as they are. Moreover, use does not take place without reason; otherwise, it ought to be called abuse, and not use. But from use authority derives all its force; for when it recedes from use, authority becomes nothing: whence Cicero reproves Coelius and Marcus Antonius for speaking according to their own fancy, and not according to use. But, 'Nothing can be lasting,' says Curtius, (Lib. iv,) 'which is not based upon reason.' It remains, therefore, that of all things the reason be first assigned; and then, if it can be done, we may bring forward testimonies; that the thing, having every advantage, may be made the more clear."--Sanctii Minerva, Lib. i, Cap. 2. ulius Caesar Scaliger, from whose opinion Sanctius dissents above, seems to limit the science of grammar to bounds considerably too narrow, though he found within them room for the exercise of much ingenuity and learning. He says, "Grammatica est scientia loquendi ex usu; neque enim constituit regulas scientibus usus modum, sed ex eorum statis frequentibusque usurpatiombus colligit communem rationem loquendi, quam discentibus traderet."--_De Causis L. Latinae_, Lib. iv, Cap. 76. "Grammar is the science of speaking according to use; for it does not establish rules for those who know the manner of use, but from the settled and frequent usages of these, gathers the common fashion of speaking, which it should deliver to learners." This limited view seems not only to exclude from the science the use of the pen, but to exempt the learned from any obligation to respect the rules prescribed for the initiation of the young. But I have said, and with abundant authority, that the acquisition of a good style of writing is the main purpose of the study; and, surely, the proficients and adepts in the art can desire for themselves no such exemption. Men of genius, indeed, sometimes affect to despise the pettiness of all grammatical instructions; but this can be nothing else than affectation, since the usage of the learned is confessedly the basis of all such instructions, and several of the loftiest of their own rank appear on the list of grammarians. Quintilian, whose authority is appealed to above, belonged to that age in which the exegesis of histories, poems, and other writings, was considered an essential part of grammar. He therefore, as well as Diomedes, and other ancient writers, divided the grammarian's duties into two parts; the one including what is now called grammar, and the other the explanation of authors, and the stigmatizing of the unworthy. Of the opinion referred to by Sanctius, it seems proper to make here an ampler citation. It shall be attempted in English, though the paragraph is not an easy one to translate. I understand the author to say, "Speakers, too, have their rules to observe; and writers, theirs. Language is established by reason, antiquity, authority, and custom. Of reason the chief ground is analogy, but sometimes etymology. Ancient things have a certain majesty, and, as I might say, religion, to commend them. Authority is wont to be sought from orators and historians; the necessity of metre mostly excuses the poets. When the judgement of the chief masters of eloquence passes for reason, even error seems right to those who follow great leaders. But, of the art of speaking, custom is the surest mistress; for speech is evidently to be used as money, which has upon it a public stamp. Yet all these things require a penetrating judgement, especially analogy; the force of which is, that one may refer what is doubtful, to something similar that is clearly established, and thus prove uncertain things by those which are sure."--QUINT, _de Inst. Orat._, Lib. i, Cap. 6, p. 48. He science of grammar, whatever we may suppose to be its just limits, does not appear to have been better cultivated in proportion as its scope was narrowed. Nor has its application to our tongue, in particular, ever been made in such a manner, as to do great honour to the learning or the talents of him that attempted it. What is new to a nation, may be old to the world. The development of the intellectual powers of youth by instruction in the classics, as well as the improvement of their taste by the exhibition of what is elegant in literature, is continually engaging the attention of new masters, some of whom may seem to effect great improvements; but we must remember that the concern itself is of no recent origin. Plato and Aristotle, who were great masters both of grammar and of philosophy, taught these things ably at Athens, in the fourth century before Christ. Varro, the grammarian, usually styled the most learned of the Romans, was contemporary with the Saviour and his apostles. Quintilian lived in the first century of our era, and before he wrote his most celebrated book, taught a school twenty years in Rome, and received from the state a salary which made him rich. This "consummate guide of wayward youth," as the poet Martial called him, being neither ignorant of what had been done by others, nor disposed to think it a light task to prescribe the right use of his own language, was at first slow to undertake the work upon which his fame now reposes; and, after it was begun, diligent to execute it worthily, that it might turn both to his own honour, and to the real advancement of learning.He says, at the commencement of his book: "After I had obtained a quiet release from those labours which for twenty years had devolved upon me as an instructor of youth, certain persons familiarly demanded of me, that I should compose something concerning the proper manner of speaking; but for a long time I withstood their solicitations, because I knew there were already illustrious authors in each language, by whom many things which might pertain to such a work, had been very diligently written, and left to posterity. But the reason which I thought would obtain for me an easier excuse, did but excite more earnest entreaty; because, amidst the various opinions of earlier writers, some of whom were not even consistent with themselves, the choice had become difficult; so that my friends seemed to have a right to enjoin upon me, if not the labour of producing new instructions, at least that of judging concerning the old. But although I was persuaded not so much by the hope of supplying what was required, as by the shame of refusing, yet, as the matter opened itself before me, I undertook of my own accord a much greater task than had been imposed; that while I should thus oblige my very good friends by a fuller compliance, I might not enter a common path and tread only in the footsteps of others. For most other writers who have treated of the art of speaking, have proceeded in such a manner as if upon adepts in every other kind of doctrine they would lay the last touch in eloquence; either despising as little things the studies which we first learn, or thinking them not to fall to their share in the division which should be made of the professions; or, what indeed is next to this, hoping no praise or thanks for their ingenuity about things which, although necessary, lie far from ostentation: the tops of buildings make a show, their foundations are unseen."--_Quintiliani de Inst. Orat., Prooemium._ But the reader may ask, "What have all these things to do with English Grammar?" I answer, they help to show us whence and what it is. Some acquaintance with the history of grammar as a science, as well as some knowledge of the structure of other languages than our own, is necessary to him who professes to write for the advancement of this branch of learning--and for him also who would be a competent judge of what is thus professed. Grammar must not forget her origin. Criticism must not resign the protection of letters. The national literature of a country is in the keeping, not of the people at large, but of authors and teachers. But a grammarian presumes to be a judge of authorship, and a teacher of teachers; and is it to the honour of England or America, that in both countries so many are countenanced in this assumption of place, who can read no language but their mother tongue? English Grammar is not properly an indigenous production, either of this country or of Britain; because it is but a branch of the general science of philology-- a new variety, or species, sprung up from the old stock long ago transplanted from the soil of Greece and Rome. It is true, indeed, that neither any ancient system of grammatical instruction nor any grammar of an other language, however contrived, can be entirely applicable to the present state of our tongue; for languages must needs differ greatly one from an other, and even that which is called the same, may come in time to differ greatly from what it once was. But the general analogies of speech, which are the central principles of grammar, are but imperfectly seen by the man of one language. On the other hand, it is possible to know much of those general principles, and yet be very deficient in what is peculiar to our own tongue. Real improvement in the grammar of our language, must result from a view that is neither partial nor superficial. "Time, sorry artist," as was said of old, "makes all he handles worse." And Lord Bacon, seeming to have this adage in view, suggests: "If Time of course alter all things to the worse, and Wisdom and Counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?"--_Bacon's Essays_, p. 64. Hence the need that an able and discreet grammarian should now and then appear, who with skillful hand can effect those corrections which a change of fashion or the ignorance of authors may have made necessary; but if he is properly qualified for his task, he will do all this without a departure from any of the great principles of Universal Grammar. He will surely be very far from thinking, with a certain modern author, whom I shall notice in an other chapter, that, "He is bound to take words and explain them as he finds them in his day, without any regard to their ancient construction and application."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 28. The whole history of every word, so far as he can ascertain it, will be the view under which he will judge of what is right or wrong in the language which he teaches. Etymology is neither the whole of this view, nor yet to be excluded from it. I concur not therefore with Dr. Campbell, who, to make out a strong case, extravagantly says, "It is never from an attention to etymology, which would frequently mislead us, but from custom, the only infallible guide in this matter, that the meanings of words in present use must be learnt."--Philosophy of Rhetoric, p. 188. Jamieson too, with an implicitness little to be commended, takes this passage from Campbell; and, with no other change than that of "_learnt_" to "_learned_" publishes it as a corollary of his own.--Grammar of Rhetoric, p. 42. It is folly to state for truth what is so obviously wrong. Etymology and custom are seldom at odds; and where they are so, the latter can hardly be deemed infallible. 1. Brill, E. and Mooney, R. J. (1997), `An overview of empirical natural language processing', in AI Magazine, 18 (4): 13-24. 2. Chomsky, N. (1957), Syntactic Structures. The Hague: Mouton. 3. Curme, G. O. (1955), English Grammar. New York: Barnes and Noble. 4. Dowty, D. R., Karttunen, L. and Zwicky, A. M. (eds) (1985), Natural Language Parsing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 5. Garside, R. (1986), 'The CLAWS word-tagging system', in R. Garside, 6. G. Leech and G. Sampson (eds) The Computational Analysis of English. Harlow: Longman. 7. Gazdar, G. and Mellish, C. (1989), Natural Language Processing in POP-11. Reading, UK: Addison-Wesley. 8. Georgiev, H. (1976), 'Automatic recognition of verbal and nominal word groups in Bulgarian texts', in t.a. information, Revue International du traitement automatique du langage, 2, 17-24. 9. Georgiev, H. (1991), 'English Algorithmic Grammar', in Applied Computer Translation, Vol. 1, No. 3, 29-48. 10. Georgiev, H. (1993a), 'Syntparse, software program for parsing of English texts', demonstration at the Joint Inter-Agency Meeting on Computer-assisted Terminology and Translation, The United Nations, Geneva. 11. Georgiev, H. (1993b), 'Syntcheck, a computer software program for orthographical and grammatical spell-checking of English texts', demonstration at the Joint Inter-Agency Meeting on Computer-assisted Terminology and Translation, The United Nations, Geneva. 12. Georgiev, H. (1994--2001), Softhesaurus, English Electronic Lexicon, produced and marketed by LANGSOFT, Sprachlernmittel, Switzerland; platform: DOS/ Windows. 13. Georgiev, H. (1996-2001a), Syntcheck, a computer software program for orthographical and grammatical spell-checking of German texts, produced and marketed by LANGSOFT, Sprachlernmittel, Switzerland; platform: DOS/Windows. 14. Georgiev, H. (1996-200lb), Syntparse, software program for parsing of German texts, produced and marketed by LANGSOFT, Sprachlernmittel, Switzerland; platform: DOS/Windows. 15. Georgiev, H. (1997--2001a), Syntcheck, a computer software program for orthographical and grammatical spell-checking of French texts, produced and marketed by LANGSOFT, Sprachlernmittel, Switzerland; platform: DOS/Windows. 16. Georgiev, H. (1997-2001b), Syntparse, software program for parsing of French texts, produced and marketed by LANGSOFT, Sprachlernmittel, Switzerland; platform: DOS/Windows. Methods of foreign language teaching and its relation to other sciences. Psychological and linguistic prerequisites for foreign language teaching. Aims, content and principles language learning. Teaching pronunciation, grammar, speaking and writing. курс лекций [79,6 K], добавлен 13.03.2015 The Importance of grammar. A Brief Review of the Major Methods of Foreign Language Teaching. Some General Principles of Grammar Teaching. Introducing new language structure. The Most Common Difficulties in Assimilating English Grammar. Grammar tests. курсовая работа [47,2 K], добавлен 28.12.2007 The word is the minimum normally separable. Grammatical structure to a class. What is grammar. The place o grammar teaching. Grammatical terms. Presenting and explaining grammar. Structures: grammar and functions. Exercises on a theme "Grammar". конспект урока [42,2 K], добавлен 25.12.2010 Prominent features of Shakespeare’s language. The innovations of the poet in choice and use of words. His influence on the development of grammar rules and stylistics of modern english language. Shakespeare introduction of new elements in the lexicon. реферат [38,9 K], добавлен 13.06.2014 Subject of theoretical grammar and its difference from practical grammar. The main development stages of English theoretical grammar. Classical scientific grammar of the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Problems of ’Case’ Grammar. курс лекций [55,4 K], добавлен 26.01.2011 Practical English Usage by Michael Swan. English Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy The book is intended for students of intermediate level. They both are useful for studying language. Active voice, Passive voice, Future forms and Past continuous. практическая работа [226,5 K], добавлен 06.01.2010 Grammar in the Systemic Conception of Language. Morphemic Structure of the Word. Communicative Types of Sentences. Categorial Structure of the Word. Composite Sentence as a Polypredicative Construction. Grammatical Classes of Words. Sentence in the Text. учебное пособие [546,3 K], добавлен 03.10.2012
Jessica M.E. Kirwan // Pictures are received information. We need no formal education to ‘get the message.’ The message is instantaneous. -Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics. New York: Harper Collins, 1993. In June, I suggested that some of the foundational beliefs about fetal personhood that dominate today’s abortion debate are influenced by William Hunter’s 1774 obstetrical text, Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus, which represented pregnant women as beasts alienated from their fetuses, and women’s contributions to reproduction as inferior to that of the fetus. In showing passive, fragmented, dissected women alongside whole, active, live-appearing fetuses, Hunter joined an ongoing philosophical discussion concerning women’s roles as mothers and citizens, a discussion that was especially lively at the end of the eighteenth century after the rise in popularity of Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Emile (1763), which argued that women’s domestic and sexual roles were primarily in serving the nation. That Hunter could help redefine the natural functions of the female body according to social and cultural desires was possible because of the familiarity of the format he used to represent the female form. More specifically, when not resembling quadrupeds, Hunter’s depictions of female fragments resembled maps. Plates III and XVIII (above) serve as examples of this argument. Fragments of women are shown as isolated islands afloat a vast and empty sea. Each landmass is plotted out, the terrain a diagram labeled for future reference and ideation. In The Grammar of Visual Design, Kress and van Leeuwen offer that, “Diagrams, maps and charts are most often found in contexts that offer the kind of knowledge which, in our culture, it mostly highly values—objective, dispassionate knowledge, ostensibly free of emotive involvement and subjectivity. Hence the ‘demand’ [on the reader] is rare in these visual genres” (126). By representing anatomical images in map format, readers arrive at the text with preconceived notions and biases about how to read the images. Non-specialist readers, especially, would have gained little knowledge from reading the Latin descriptions of the images, after all. Medical illustrations, like maps, depend on viewers’ recall of existing knowledge to create new knowledge. William Hunter argued in the preface to Gravid Uterus: Anatomical figures are made in two very different ways; one is the simple portrait, in which the object is represented exactly as it was seen; the other is a representation of the object under such circumstances as were not actually seen, but conceived in the imagination. He draws a distinction between the figure that is “a close representation of nature” and that which is “a figure of fancy, made up perhaps from a variety of studies after Nature,” or what we today might refer to as simulacra. Further, he tells us, an “advantage of the first is, that it represents what was actually seen, it carries the mark of truth, and it becomes almost as infallible as the object itself.” Hunter believed his work was a “faith representation of what was actually seen,” although, perhaps admitting subjectivity in all representation, also that “the judgment of the public will probably be divided.” Put in Kress and van Leeuwen’s terms, then, Hunter ‘demands’ little prior knowledge from his reader. Yet in that he chose to exhibit the female anatomy in fragments speaks to the imagination and subjectivity at display in these illustrations. The simultaneous pairing of existing and new knowledge and of objective and subjective representations requires the reader to interpret the new information presented, which opens the door to resignification of the object represented (in this case, the female reproductive system). As Ludmilla Jordanova has pointed out, “Hunter himself employed a topographical analogy, and considerably developed it by likening the medical practitioner to a general, and the human body to a country under civil war or invasion” (190). Hunter said in 1784, To do his duty with full advantage, a general…must make himself master of the Anatomy and Physiology, as we may call it, of the country. He may be said to be master of the Anatomy of the country, when he knows the figure, dimension, situation, and connection…as the lakes, rivers, marshes, mountains, precipices, plains, woods, roads, passes, fords, towns, fortifications, etc. Plate IX (below) is particularly interesting in that a body of water bifurcates the island. Whether the represented pelvis is expecting a child or has just expelled one is unclear, but the reader of this map understands that this physiological specimen is used to harbor a child. Through his emphasis on familiarity with the terrain, Hunter’s description is reminiscent of Machiavelli’s The Prince (1532). As maps are requisite to the formation of the nation, so anatomical illustrations are requisite to demarcating the boundaries of personhood. Determining such boundaries and defining the rights of the fetus and mother were as central a concern at the end of the Enlightenment era as they are today, especially in the Empire’s quest to unite an increasingly growing and diverse population across vastly separate landmasses. Consider, for example, that by the end of the eighteenth century British men employed by the East India Company and residing in India were increasingly adopting local customs, including marrying local women (sometimes several). As these British men passed away, defining the rights of the Anglo-Indian children of these unions in comparison to those of their Indian mothers (as inheritors) became an increasingly complex dilemma for the Empire. Hunter’s anatomical illustrations centering on human reproduction could contribute to the evolving needs of the nation by helping define what was considered the naturally divined personhood of mothers and children. In representing human reproduction through floating land masses, William Hunter marked the female body as a floating signifier, allowing what seemed like a natural and purposefully occurring state of being to take on new meaning according to nationalistic desires. In Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson argues that, “nationalism has to be understood by aligning it, not with self-consciously held political ideologies, but with the large cultural systems that preceded it, out of which—as well as against which—it came into being” (12). From its description of natural sex roles to its regulation of medical professionals who administrated to the medical and moral needs of the empire’s citizens, Enlightenment-era medicine under the British Empire relied on readers’ familiarity with maps to not only manage how sexuality and reproduction were visualized but also how personhood was defined. Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities, 3rd Ed. New York: Verso, 2006. Print. Hunter, William. The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus Exhibited in Figures. Birmingham: John Baskerville, 1774. Web. Accessed on: March 30, 2015. http://film.wellcome.ac.uk:15151/MaryToft/F_438a.pdf. Hunter, William Two Introductory Lectures Delivered by Dr. William Hunter, his Last Course of Anatomical Lectures, at his Theatre in Windmill-Street. Printed by order of the Trustees, for J. Johnson: London, 1784. Electronic. Jordanova, Ludmilla. Nature Displays: Gender, Science and Medicine 1760 – 1820. New York: Addison Wesley Longman Inc, 1999. Print. Kress, Gunter and van Leeuwen, Theo. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. New York: Routledge, 1996.
The mosaics of The Church of the Sacred Heart and St Catherine of Alexandria are considered to be among the finest in England. They were designed by Gabriel Pippet and carried out by the mosaicists Maurice Josey and Fred Oates. Pippet was born and died in Solihull, and he was responsible for artwork in many parts of England and around the world. He died in 1962 aged 82 years, and is buried next to the church with his wife Alice, who died just two days before him. Mosaics are composed of “tessarae” - coloured pieces of Venetian glass.The designs were carried out by Gabriel in full size cartoon form. The outlines were transferred onto the walls and then each individual piece of mosaic was fixed to the plastered walls by Gabriel Pippet spent some time in Ravenna and Rome where he was most impressed by the mosaic decoration, and this influence is clearly apparent in our church. The mosaicist, Maurice Josey, had been employed on the mosaics in Westminster Cathedral before he came to Droitwich. the church was first built the walls were just bare, white plaster. If you place your cursor over the next series of pictures you will see how the interior of the church used to look prior to its transformation into the fully decorated splendour that we see today. The walls of the church are covered in marble and in mosaics portraying major themes, stories and individual holy figures. This website cannot begin to do justice to the full scope and brilliance of the mosaics but some of the principal areas are described and illustrated in this section of the website. There is a guidebook available in the church (by Father Gerard Harrison S.C.J.) with detailed information on the mosaics and the stories behind them. church is usually open every day during daylight hours.
\|social science focuses on providing an insight into how science and innovation work/ Photo By ammentorp via 123RF\| Social science is defined by Science Daily as an academic discipline which is concerned about the society and the relationships among individuals who are living within the society. The study of social science covers anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, and sociology. Meanwhile, some fields in humanities such as archaeology, history, law, and linguistics are also covered by the social scientists as they study the natural sciences as they try to understand the nature of society and to define science in its stricter modern sense. There are some social scientists who are using social critique or symbolic interpretation rather than constructing empirically falsifiable theories, and thus treat science in its broader sense. During the recent years STEM sciences have received the majority of investments and support from the government, universities, and other organizations that are concerned or interested in supporting STEM programs. Although, despite the monetary support that the STEM sciences received, there are still some people who choose to ignore the importance of social sciences in real-world applications. These people don’t realize that social sciences exist in social and primary care, the justice system, and business. One of the common misconceptions about the social sciences is that the only job or work for people who choose to be professional in this field of study are social workers or teachers, but people should know that the study of social science focuses on providing an insight into how science and innovation work, which is why social scientists must be equipped with analytical and excellent communication skills that they could use as they work on different industries and organizations. Math and Econophysics According to Daily.jstor.org, a researcher named, Stephen Guy from the University of Minnesota observed that people move to avoid hitting each other when they are interacting in large groups. Stephen Guy and his colleagues wrote that the human interaction in large crowds has a striking resemblance to how particle systems interact with each other. “Pedestrian move, like negatively-charged electrons, which repel each other more strongly as they approach, with one key difference, unlike electrons, pedestrians anticipate when a collision is imminent and change their motion beforehand by swinging wide to avoid a crash.” Moreover, the idea of using the principles of math and physics in illuminating the human behavior dates back to the 18th century when French Philosopher Auguste Comte proposed that there are general laws which describe human societies, while the Belgian mathematician Adolphe Quetelet began performing statistical analyses of human qualities. Today, all these ideas are now being used in an attempt to explain human behavior with the help of the sciences of sociophysics and econophysics. \|study of econophysics is mainly based on statistical, probabilistic physics, nonlinear dynamics/ Photo By Denis Ismagilov via 123RF\| Chegg defined econophysics as the branch of physics where the theories in physics are used in the application for the analysis of the problems which are related in economics and finance problems. The study of econophysics is mainly based on statistical, probabilistic physics, nonlinear dynamics. The statistical property of actual dynamics of the market and the model of the dynamic behavior can be measured using the empirical studies, which can be used to understand the movement of the market. The link between econophysics and social studies is observed when researchers noticed that there is a similarity between how particles are interacting to produce a new effect and when individual people are forming voting blocs during debates between political candidates. Meanwhile, sociophysics is also applicable in strengthening the capacity of an organization to manage their data. In a website by Govexec, traditional social science can be expensive, since it involves collecting a large amount of survey data that are drawn from thousands of sample members and it is helpful since it uses a much cheaper data, called “big data”. \|Econo Physicists became interested in the mathematical power laws, where one variable depends on another raised to some power/ Photo By filmfoto via 123RF\| How Econophysics Helped the Traditional Economics Econo Physicists became interested in the mathematical power laws, where one variable depends on another raised to some power. The power laws described a range of economic activities such as stock market transactions and, especially relevant today, income inequality. Data analysis served a great purpose in exposing the disproportional large share of income and wealth and the question of global inequality comes to light through the groundbreaking 2014 book titled, ‘Capital in the Twenty-First Century’ written by the French economist Thomas Piketty. Daily.jstor.org noted that even though sociophysics and econophysics have the ability to answer the question about how people behave in the society, there are no available researches that could claim that these principles in social sciences can uncover the deep truths about the human nature. Even though, the current generation of scientists has a long shot in surpassing the elegance of the famous result in physics like Isaac Newton’s equation F= ma or Einstein’s E = mc2, the current genius minds will be able to have a better understanding of their field of study if they take patience in deriving their ideas just like Newton and Einstein.
This important increase in police powers improves the thrust towards a better intelligence-based system and will, in theory, enable the police to compare people against other people, and people against stains found at the scene of a crime or on a victim. DNA checks will allow blood, semen, skin tissues or saliva to be scientifically compared by scene-of-crime officers and later at forensic science laboratories. Genetic fingerprinting should provide the police with an intelligence database whereby the chances of escaping detection are virtually nil for those who commit sexual offences, violent assault or murder.A subsequent conviction, of course, will depend very much on the accuracy with which the tissue samples are obtained, stored, analysed and scientifically presented at court. But are the police ready for this dramatic power, which many see as another infringement of civil liberties? Certainly the police need all the improvements they can get in preparing forensic evidence, given the catalogue of own goals that has resulted in many innocent people being convicted, released from prison and paid huge sums of compensation from the public purse. In the past, important forensic evidence has been lost or ruined through inept handling by ignorant or inexperienced police officers. In the West Midlands force, training is under way to teach officers - and indeed the growing numbers of civilian scene-of-crime investigators - to be more aware of vital evidence that may have been left at a burglary or on the victim of a sexual assault. Training is not the only problem area of preparation, though. Although the legislation allows DNA samples to be taken for all recordable offences, the size of that cataloguing taskwould swamp the scientists. The Association of Chief Police Officers has thereforedecided that samples will be taken only in respect ofserious crime, such as grave assault, sex offences and burglary. The police are enthusiastic about what they see as a breakthrough in obtaining safe convictions.Over five to ten years, seasoned detectives say, there will bedramatic improvements in detection rates. This should be so. But the ACPO approach of restricting the taking of samples is a clue to a third serious problem: the huge costof obtaining samples from every person the police are entitled to take DNA from - not to mentionthe cost of retrieving, storing and analysing millions of samples. The flaw with the whole concept is that by not including all offenders in the system, many will escape conviction. During 1994 more than 30,000 crimes, including nine murders, were recorded in the Birmingham North division of West Midlands police - an area covering a population of 450,000 and including half of the city's council housing. In excess of 300,000 crimes were recorded for West Midlands police as a whole. Parliament has given the police the legislative power to improve their performance by scientific means, but it has not given them the confidence that they can financially achieve it. The writer recently retiredas a chief superintendent with West Midlands Police.
Seeding and sodding home lawns When establishing a new lawn, a common question asked is, "Should I seed or sod?" Both have advantages and disadvantages. There are three important decisions when considering establishment methods: 1) turfgrass selection, 2) site preparation, and 3) care of the new lawn. These considerations will be discussed for each establishment method. The pros and cons The most important difference between seeding and sodding is the time necessary for developing a mature or durable turf. Sodding is essentially transplanting a mature turf that has been cared for by a professional. Seeding involves the same process used in the establishment of sod and can be accomplished by a professional or the homeowner. The number of variables involved in seeding make it difficult and many times unsuccessful for the homeowner. The following outline lists some of the advantages and disadvantages of each establishment method. - More grass types and varieties to choose from - Less expensive than sodding - Stronger root system development initially - Initial establishment is longer - For best results, time of seeding is limited mainly to late summer and early fall - Moisture is critical for the young seedlings - Rapid establishment and relatively weed-free in the beginning - Good for slopes or areas prone to erosion - Can be laid any time during the growing season - Less selection or control over kinds of grasses, especially shade tolerance In Minnesota, Kentucky bluegrass, fine fescue, and some of the perennial ryegrass cultivars are recommended. Grasses that are sold in the state, but not recommended, will be discussed later. Before a seed mix is chosen, evaluate the location: Is there shade, excessive use or wear, etc.? Is the lawn desired to be a showcase and green throughout the season (high maintenance), or is a healthy turf desired with a minimum of fuss (low maintenance)? These are important questions to consider when choosing grasses. - For shady locations, look for seed mixtures specifying shade tolerance. These will contain fine fescues along with some common and shade-tolerant Kentucky bluegrasses. - For sunny areas that receive a lot of wear, mixtures of 50% improved Kentucky bluegrasses and 50% perennial ryegrasses are best. - For low maintenance turf, mixtures of Kentucky bluegrasses and fine fescues will offer a durable lawn. The availability of specific varieties will vary from year to year; however, within a particular kind of grass (e.g., fine fescue or improved Kentucky bluegrass), most varieties will perform equally well. Your local seed distributor, garden center, or county extension educator can help you evaluate the best varieties for your lawn. Some varieties may be special ordered as seed, but at a higher cost. Grasses to avoid Zoysia: Well adapted to the southern U.S., but not Minnesota. Establishes slowly and is green only between the last spring frost to the first frost of fall. Annual Ryegrass (Italian Rye): Usually found in cheap seed mixtures. Useful as a temporary green cover or nursecrop, but will not come back the following year. Different from perennial ryegrass. Bentgrass: Major use is in golf course turf under low mowing heights (1/8" to ½" ). At lawn mowing height (2–3"), bentgrasses tend to be very puffy, not uniform, poorly colored, and disease prone. Tall fescue: Older varieties have not performed well in Minnesota due to their coarse texture and limited hardiness. Newer varieties, however, are being developed and may be recommended in the future. When sodding a lawn, the consumer is limited in the varieties available. Most of the sod grown in Minnesota is a mixture of Kentucky bluegrass. Occasionally, some perennial ryegrass or fine fescue is available in the mixture. A retailer or installer should know what varieties are in their sod; if not, they can get this information from the sod grower. Soil preparation: Seed and sod Whether seeding or sodding an area, preparation of the soil is critical, yet often neglected in establishment. Good site preparation will simplify maintenance for years to come and ensure healthier turf. Soil preparation should be the same for seeding or sodding. Before you begin, take a soil test to find out the characteristics of the soil you are working with. Consult the nearest county extension office for sampling materials and procedures. The best type of soil for growing turf is a sandy loam. This soil is mostly sand with some silt and clay. Other soils may need amendments and more care, but will support a good lawn. Amending heavy clay soil with organic matter such as peat (2–3 cubic yards2) will open up a soil, allowing better air and water movement. The addition of "black dirt" should be evaluated since it often consists of mainly silt and clay soils, and compacts easily. If a large amount of fill is needed, such as to raise up an area, good quality topsoil can be used as long it is less than 20% clay and free of residual herbicides. Any topsoil or soil ingredient should be incorporated into the native soil carefully. Once amendments have been tilled in, fine grade the area with the addition of phosphorus and potassium fertilizer, as prescribed by the soil test. Additional nitrogen can be added after the lawn is mowed the first time. A roller or cultipacker (a segmented roller that also breaks up soil lumps) can be used to firm the soil slightly. The site is now ready for seed or sod. The best time to seed in Minnesota is late summer (mid-August to mid-September) due to favorable conditions for germination and growth. In addition, fewer weed seeds are germinating that might compete with the grass seedlings. Lastly, there is ample time for the plants to be well established before winter. Seeding can be done in the spring; however, weeds and high summer temperatures often reduce the chance of success. Most annual weeds that compete with new grass seedlings germinate in spring. A selective herbicide (such as) Siduron, may be used on newly seeded lawns, reducing these weed problems to some extent. In addition, the short growth period in spring allows little time to develop a root system to survive the summer heat stresses. Seed should be spread in two steps, each at a half rate, in perpendicular directions across the site. This technique ensures the most uniform coverage. Follow up with a light raking allowing about 10–15% of the seed to show. Use a roller or cultipacker over the area to ensure good seed-soil contact. Watering the new site is very important. For the best germination, be sure that there is moist soil to a depth of 4–6 inches. After seeding, water only as needed. Some drying during the day will not harm the seeds, and may actually enhance germination. Cease watering when free water (puddles) begin to appear. When the seed has germinated, begin regular watering while the seedlings are very small. Gradually taper off the watering as the plants grow larger and the temperature (in fall) cools off. Ordinarily, 6–12 weeks are needed for establishment. It takes nearly a full season for the new lawn to be a mature and durable turf able to withstand considerable traffic. Purchase sod as fresh as possible. Ideally, it should have been cut no more than 24 hours prior to delivery. The sod should be laid as soon as possible, or within one day after delivery. If the sod needs to be stored for a time, it should be kept in a cool, shaded area to avoid drying out of exposed rolls. Lay the sod on slightly moistened soil, staggering the joints much like brick laying. When laying sod on a slope, lay the rolls across the slope and stake each piece to hold it in place. Fill any cracks with soil to prevent edges from drying. Use a roller about one third full of water to smooth the site and ensure the roots of the sod have good contact with the soil. Keep the sod moist but not saturated until it is firmly rooted in the soil (a few days), then gradually reduce watering. In two to three months it can be treated as an established lawn. Aerification may help to prevent layering caused by peat or soil that came with the sod. Aerify after establishment in spring or fall, to at least a depth that goes through the sod and penetrates the existing soil layer. Once the lawn is established, it will provide its many benefits such as cooling effects, erosion, runoff control, and allergen reductions.For more information about sustainable lawn care see the Sustainable Urban Landscape Information Series website at www.sustland.umn.edu
Climate warming is changing the distribution of plants and animals worldwide. Recently it was shown that in the past two decades, European bird and butterfly communities have moved on average 37 and 114 kilometers to the north, respectively. Plants are moving uphill due to rising temperatures. In figure: Leopard’s bane (Doronicum clusii). Illustration: Jörg Schmill Tobias Roth and Valentin Amrhein from the University of Basel now found that in Switzerland, plant, butterfly and bird species also moved uphill. At an altitude of 500 meters, plants have on average shifted uphill 8 meters, butterflies 38 meters and birds 42 meters. The study was based on data collected between 2003 and 2010 in 214 sample areas up to an altitude of 3000 meters, covering all major ecosystems of Central Europe. “An average of eight meters difference in altitude in eight years and across all plant species is quite impressive for the often not very mobile plant communities”, says Valentin Amrhein. “The results show that the biological impacts of climate change will not only become apparent in the long term. Animals and plants are already today adapting to the rising temperatures at a surprising pace.” Different Trends above the Tree Line While birds also moved uphill at higher altitudes, plants and butterflies surprisingly showed no significant changes in altitude above the tree line. Contrary to the developments in lower altitudes, alpine plants and butterflies even showed a tendency towards a downhill movement. Explanations for this phenomenon have yet to be found. “It is possible that land-use related changes in habitats near the tree line outweigh the effects of climate warming. For example, many alpine pastures have been abandoned in recent years”, says Tobias Roth. “It is also possible that alpine plants are better protected against changing climatic conditions, due to the highly varied surface of alpine landscapes.” In any case, the fact that plant and butterfly communities have changed towards warm-dwelling species at low altitudes but remained relatively stable at higher altitudes cannot be explained with different temperature developments across altitudes. The scientists also studied data on air temperature of 14 meteorological stations: During the 16 years between 1995 and 2010, the summer temperatures in Switzerland rose by about 0.07 °C per year at all altitudes. Plos One, published January 8th, 2014 \| doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0082490Further Information • Dr. Tobias Roth, Hintermann & Weber AG, 4153 Reinach, Tel. +41 61 717 88 62, E-Mail: firstname.lastname@example.org Olivia Poisson \| Universität Basel Protecting fisheries from evolutionary change 27.04.2016 \| International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) From waste to resource – how can we turn garbage into gold? 27.04.2016 \| DLR Projektträger Researchers from the Max Planck Institute Stuttgart have developed self-propelled tiny ‘microbots’ that can remove lead or organic pollution from contaminated water. Working with colleagues in Barcelona and Singapore, Samuel Sánchez’s group used graphene oxide to make their microscale motors, which are able to adsorb lead... Neutron scattering and computational modeling have revealed unique and unexpected behavior of water molecules under extreme confinement that is unmatched by any known gas, liquid or solid states. In a paper published in Physical Review Letters, researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory describe a new tunneling state of... Honeycomb structures as the basic building block for industrial applications presented using holo pyramid Researchers of the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) will introduce their latest developments in the field of bionic lightweight design at Hannover Messe from 25... Polymer solar cells can be even cheaper and more reliable thanks to a breakthrough by scientists at Linköping University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). This work is about avoiding costly and unstable fullerenes. Polymer solar cells can be even cheaper and more reliable thanks to a breakthrough by scientists at Linköping University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences... As one of the leading R&D partners in the development of surface technologies and organic electronics, the Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP will be exhibiting its recent achievements in vacuum coating of ultra-thin glass at SVC TechCon 2016 (Booth 846), taking place in Indianapolis / USA from May 9 – 13. Fraunhofer FEP is an experienced partner for technological developments, known for testing the limits of new materials and for optimization of those materials... 27.04.2016 \| Event News 15.04.2016 \| Event News 12.04.2016 \| Event News 29.04.2016 \| Physics and Astronomy 29.04.2016 \| Health and Medicine 29.04.2016 \| Life Sciences
Is the government destroying fisheries in order to save them? It’s a question I started asking several years ago after spending time on a commercial dragger in Montauk, watching thousands upon thousands of pounds of dead fish getting thrown back into the ocean after they’d landed on the deck. The reason? Many of those fish were valuable but out of season and could not be landed without risk of major fines. Some of the fish — whiting, in this case — were of legal size and in season, but too small for the processor and were thrown back. Others fell into the category of “trash” fish with little commercial value. A 2005 UN report found that 7.3 million tons of total “bycatch” is wasted annually. In an ocean of dwindling resources, wasting any fish (whether it’s edible or useful for other commercial purposes) ought to be avoided, and government regulators charged with protecting our shared natural resource must step up with pragmatic and effective new regulations. It’s not only the fish that are endangered. Livelihoods are on the line, in Montauk and elsewhere, and small-time operators pursuing this tough, honorable and ancient trade are struggling to keep up with the bills amid ever-changing regulations — even as Americans continue to demand more and more of their product. Better regulations need to be matched by policies that promote economic opportunities for fishermen. There’s a case to be made for a total reset of the fisheries management scheme. How about an intensely localized fisheries program modeled after sustainability efforts that now support locally grown produce? There is a feel-good aspect to ordering “line-caught” fish on your local menu — but that’s a boutique and pricey gesture that mainly appeases liberal sensibilities, while putting unfair stigmas on fishermen who run draggers and other commercial boats. When done responsibly and within a regulatory framework that’s fair and sensible, those methods can and should continue to be utilized. The bottom line is that it will take fishermen working hand-in-hand with regulators to ensure that there will be fish available for future generations of consumers and fishermen alike. It’s easy, as any fisherman will tell you, for self-satisfied environmentalists to declare that overfishing is the main culprit in an imminent “aquapolypse” — despite the toxic effects of relentless coastal development and offshore drilling, which have helped to produce dead zones where nothing can live, let alone be harvested. Still, new fishing regulations could make a real difference. The European Commission, which recommends legislation and other policy initiatives under the aegis of the European Union, has just proposed a new land-everything quota system that promises to eliminate bycatch — and potentially save livelihoods — by mandating that no fish is thrown back. It’s worth looking at whether such an approach stateside would help maintain the mom-and-pop American commercial fleet. Any new regulatory scheme must be designed to protect small-time draggers; owing to the scale of their operations, they are in the best possible position to mitigate against bycatch of all sorts. Generally speaking, the less time a fish spends on the deck of the boat, the greater its chances of survival. The longer it takes to sort through the catch, the greater the mortality rate. Additionally, many of the smaller operators have long-standing, multigenerational expertise in their local waters and are well-equipped to avoid excessive waste. Instead of policies that prune the fleet by keeping big operators in business at the expense of smaller boats (in the interest of more efficient management), government ought instead to focus on phasing out the “super-trawlers” that catch, for example, the pollock that goes into McDonald’s fish sandwiches. The bigger the boat, the bigger the pile of wasted fish, crushed under the weight of a huge net teeming with all sorts of fish. Today, the American National Marine Fisheries Service is promoting bycatch-reduction devices, quota systems and all sorts of intense micromanagement, not to mention a program for monitoring fishermen that is the seaborne equivalent of a felon’s ankle bracelet. The latest innovation is the “catch shares” model, being implemented in the Mid-Atlantic and elsewhere, where fishermen are given a piece of the total quota and aren’t hamstrung by constricting protocols such as “days at sea” regulations — a rigid model that dictated which days fishermen could fish for a particular species and, among other ensuing problems, often forced them to fish in bad weather or lose their chance at making a buck. The catch-shares model lets you trade your individual quota to another (usually bigger) boat, and as such, has a mixed reputation. It’s been found to dramatically reduce bycatch in the Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery. But for some fishermen, it’s yet another whack-a-mole regulatory snafu-in-waiting; in Europe it drove many small operators out of business. It should come as no surprise that a recent Commerce Department report found that mistrust and hostility toward fisheries regulators has reached an apex in this country. It’s especially the case in the Mid-Atlantic, which has seen a number of protocols come and go in recent decades, each more maddening than the last. Fishermen have seen healthy fisheries nearly shut down because of inaccurate science; they’ve tossed back thousands of dead bluefin tuna because the bluefins wound up on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration‘s endangered species list. “Common sense, it isn’t so common out here,” says one Montauk fisherman. In fairness, the National Marine Fisheries Service is working hard on sustainability in the face of intense industrial pressures on the high seas. In trying to address those competing interests, the Obama administration has offered up a comprehensive oceans policy blueprint that begins with the premise of ecosystem-based management and marine spatial planning, which divides the waters into sectors: The oil rigs will go here, the wind farms there, the natural gas pipelines here — even Republican Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour thought it was a good idea. But last year’s BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico eclipsed that conversation. But where will the fishermen go? Where does this leave local fishermen already faced with a zeroing-out of new commercial fishing licenses? This codification of the sea into industrial sectors may yet be another sign that the fix is in for them, that an ever-shrinking fleet will be forced to negotiate a wind-befarmed future horizon while, back on land, hysterical environmentalists perched on oceanfront estates shovel fried squid down their gullets. It’s time to put the small fishermen first, and stop treating them like the pariahs of the high seas. Acknowledge that overfishing is part of the problem, but recognize that the fishermen are the ones with the highest personal stake in the future health of our fisheries. If fishermen can begin working with regulators in the spirit of mutual sustainability, and abandon the battle of wills with regulators, American fisheries can survive — and might even begin to thrive again.
Creatine is an amino acid, which (in the form of phosphocreatine - creatine phosphate) is an important store of energy in muscle cells. Phosphocreatine is broken down to creatine and phosphate, during short bursts of intense exercise (up to half a minute). The energy released is then used to regenerate the primary source of energy, ATP (adenosine triphosphate). As phosphocreatine becomes depleted, power decreases as ATP production is not fast enough to regenerate the demand of the exercise. Consequently it makes sense that a larger store of phosphocreatine in muscle would reduce fatigue during sprinting and short bursts of intense exercise. Extra creatine also should aid the muscles rate of regeneration of phosphocreatine following sprints, leading to less fatigue in repetitions. Furthermore, long term creatine supplementation has shown to improve strength and lean body mass.
In this series, we examine how AI has been “creating” novel things spoiler alert – it’s getting really good… Welcome to my multi-part series on AI as a creator. In this series we aim to look at whether today’s artificial intelligence is capable of devising new works of arts. We realize that Art is completely in the eye of the beholder, so what may be considered art to some is different than others. Our definition of art will be loose and we will use it to mean the following: In today’s part of the series we are examining: AI as a creator of When we recently spoke to AI experts and thought leaders, their opinions varied as to whether AI has the potential to become a true creative partner or even the creator of solo works of art. While this debate will likely continue for some time, it’s clear that as digital content and delivery platforms continue infiltrating all forms of media and expression, the role of AI will undoubtedly expand. Examples of these amazing applications are becoming more numerous, ranging from generating still images, to videos (i.e. deepfakes), or even generating videos from still images. The good news is, now you can see the Mona Lisa nodding and laughing. Machines are developing the capacity to create rather than just learn. And here’s where it gets interesting—what if we can teach machines to be creative? If they can create an image, then why not a painting? And if they can create a sound, then why not a pleasing sonata? And if they can generate a logical sequence of words, then why not poems, tales, and novels? We’re in the age of machine evolution. Have you ever looked at a cubist or an avant-garde painting and said to yourself, this better be created by machines? The sharp lines, the hazy features—all characteristics of these artifacts. We humans of the postmodern era are more inclined towards abstraction. So why not let machines take the lead—they love abstraction! The techniques are primitive in the case of image data, involving crops, flips, zooms, and other simple transforms of existing images in the training dataset. Successful generative modeling provides an alternative and potentially more domain-specific approach for data augmentation. In fact, data augmentation is a simplified version of generative modeling, although it is rarely described this way. In complex domains or domains with a limited amount of data, generative modeling provides a path towards more training for modeling. GANs have seen much success in this use case in domains such as deep reinforcement learning. There are many research reasons why GANs are interesting, important, and require further study. Ian Goodfellow outlines a number of these in his 2016 conference keynote and associated technical report titled “NIPS 2016 Tutorial: Generative Adversarial Networks.” Among these reasons, he highlights GANs’ successful ability to model high-dimensional data, handle missing data, and the capacity of GANs to provide multi-modal outputs or multiple plausible answers. Perhaps the most compelling application of GANs is in conditional GANs for tasks that require the generation of new examples. Here, Goodfellow indicates three main examples: Edmond Belamy, to whom this portrait belongs, is a part of the Belamy family— all created with the GAN model. The generated portraits are stunning! It’s like artificial intelligence has its own Van Gogh. Well, it actually does. Kenny Jones and Derrick Bonafilia developed a fascinating project based on GANs—GANGogh, which include huge dataset of artistic works with different styles. The network then learned how to create paintings mixing those styles. The project is based on a variation of GANs called DCGANs. DCGANs (deep convolutional GANs) build both the generator and the discriminator based on convolutional neural networks, which are discriminative algorithms mostly used for image classification. The generated images are surrealistic with pleasing figures and color mixtures. I personally find them beautiful—perhaps with high artistic content that some might find expressive and relatable. However, of all art generation algorithms, I find AICAN the most interesting. AICAN is an AI application based on creative adversarial networks developed by professor Ahmed Elgammal, the director of Rutgers university’s Art and Artificial Intelligence Lab. These paintings are revolutionary! The fancy artistic style, the dream-like mood, the swaying lines and shapes, and the harmonic mixture of colors make them indistinguishable from contemporary human-created art. Elgammal has presented the works of his little creative artist, AICAN, in many art exhibitions. More notably, the “Faceless Portraits Transcending Time” gallery, showcased portraits generated by the algorithm without any details given to their faces. You can check out a demo of their exhibition here. These promising results make the AI community a very exciting one with new adventures every once in a while. And they give us hope more interesting machine-generated art in the future. So what do you do when all signs point to having to go to University to gain any sort of advantage? Unfortunately it’s the current state of affairs that most employers will not hire you unless you have a degree for even junior or starting jobs. Once you have that degree, coming to my Mentor Program, with 1000ml with our Patent Pending training system, the only such system in the world; is the only way to gain the practical knowledge and experience that will jump start your career. Check out our next dates below for our upcoming seminars, labs and programs, we’d love to have you there.
Which book to learn Latin is best? Latin may be a dead language, but it is still a very rewarding language to study and learn. Since it is required in many schools’ curricula all around the country, Latin is still a very in-demand foreign language. Whether or not you’re wanting to learn Latin on your own or if you’re having to learn it for a class, having the right tools at your disposal is a must. The top pick, Wheelock’s Latin 7th Edition, is a tried and true Latin learning resource that has helped instruct and inspire students of classical studies for years. Wheelock’s Latin even has an accompanying workbook for extra study. What to know before you buy a Latin textbook Why learn Latin? Latin, originally spoken by the Romans, may be a dead language, but that doesn’t mean that it hasn’t left its mark on our modern society. Latin went on to influence several languages, namely those of the Romance language family which includes languages such as French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. Latin also had a large impact on English, and many English words have Latin roots. So, not only can learning Latin help speakers of English understand and study Romance languages, Latin can help English speakers understand their own language on a deeper level. In fact, one of the main reasons that Latin is still taught in schools today is because it challenges students to understand language in a different context and can ultimately help increase English vocabulary. How to self-study with a Latin textbook When it comes to self-studying any language, every individual person will have their own unique process. However, with the help of a well-organized textbook, making your own study plan or routine will be a breeze. Simply follow the lesson as it is presented to you and then check your understanding with language exercises. Common issues for English speakers learning Latin English speakers will often struggle with Latin’s case system, as this is a grammatical feature that we do not have in English. Since cases are a fundamental and ever-present part of Latin, it’s important to find a textbook that explains cases clearly and concisely. Another common issue that English speakers may face while learning Latin is vocabulary retention. While some Latin words are recognizable to us through English, others may seem very complex and foreign. The best way to study and retain vocabulary is to have a textbook or language exercises that involve using the word independent of its English translation. What to look for in a quality Latin textbook Lesson layout and formatting The most important qualities of any language textbook are its layout, presentation and formatting. If a textbook is too dense or only presents new material in blocks of texts, it will be difficult to self-study with. It’s best to look for a textbook that presents each lesson or chapter in a way that is laid out clearly and that breaks up the lesson into different sections. For example, it’s helpful to find a Latin textbook that has designated sections for new grammar points, new vocabulary and new supplemental readings in each chapter or lesson. Ample exercises for practice Since Latin is effectively a dead language, you won’t find many opportunities to use it out and about. That’s where language exercises come in. Language exercises are a great way to practice and cement new grammar points, vocabulary and more. Look for a Latin textbook that either has ample exercises or an accompanying workbook. Accompanying classical texts for immersion Again, Latin’s status as a dead language affects how it should be learned. With living languages, most immersion can come from watching TV shows, listening to music or having conversations in the target language. With Latin, however, the most immersion that you will get is from the readings that your textbook presents. How much you can expect to spend on books to learn Latin Latin textbooks can range from around $20-$50 depending on the book. Latin textbook FAQ What can I use Latin for professionally? A. Latin is an excellent language for med students, law students, linguistics students and classical students to learn for use in their fields. Is Latin easier to learn if you know a Romance language? A. Yes. Because Latin directly influenced the modern Romance languages, Latin will be easier to understand if you have knowledge of or fluency in a Romance language. What’s the best Latin textbook to buy? Top Latin textbook What you need to know: “Wheelock’s Latin” is a classic Latin textbook that has been used by students worldwide for decades. It’s perfect for self-studying. What you’ll love: “Wheelock’s Latin” presents new material in each of its 40 chapters and contains original, classical texts as well as ample language exercises for additional practice. What you should consider: This is a more traditional language textbook and may be a bit bland for some. Where to buy: Sold by Amazon Top Latin textbook for the money What you need to know: Henle Latin First Year is a tried and true Latin resource with the objective of getting students comfortable reading classical Latin texts. What you’ll love: The book presents new material clearly and concisely, so it is easy to understand. The books guide you through several classical Latin texts. What you should consider: These books may be hard to follow if you are self-studying and are not as comprehensive as Wheelock’s Latin since Henle’s Latin is a series of four books. Where to buy: Sold by Amazon Worth checking out What you need to know: This comprehensive textbook is more modern than its competition and is great for beginners. What you’ll love: This book goes above and beyond with helping anyone to learn Latin. The book has a website and application that can help students practice through exercises and pronunciation guides. What you should consider: Since this textbook is meant for beginners, it may not be the best choice for those that are learning Latin for their higher education or future career. Where to buy: Sold by Amazon Sign up here to receive the BestReviews weekly newsletter for useful advice on new products and noteworthy deals. Addison Hoggard writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money. Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
Step 2: Plant Food 101 This article discusses nutrient solutions available for hydroponic gardening. Water alone is not enough to feed a plant. Distilled water, in particular, lacks the minerals and nutrients which make flora thrive. In systems where the substrate is allowed to moisten and support roots, the substrate itself may be permeated with nutrients and minerals. In systems where there is no substrate, or the substrate is simply provided to support the plant physically, the water must be saturated with store-bought or homemade nutrient-and-mineral solutions. The PH of your solution is important for the health of your flora, and the maintenance of your equipment. Your water/nutrient solution should have a final PH between 6.0 and 7.0. These solutions usually contain varying quantities of potassium nitrate, calcium nitrate, potassium phosphate, magnesium sulfate, iron, manganese, copper, zinc, and nickel. Potassium, especially, assists with healthy root growth. Salt is an important (but often forgotten) addition to the solution, as it tends to improve the taste of the plants grown. Store-bought liquid-soluble fertilizers are readily available at your local big-box greenhouse, nursery, or hardware store. They work well enough, but they can be expensive, or simply may not be available. The rest of the article will discuss making your own fertile solution. A popular, homemade recipe consisting of accessible ingredients is available at your disposal. I daresay it's not the most eco-friendly option, but it's quick and easy. For every gallon of water your system requires, add two teaspoons of Miracle Gro and 1 teaspoon of epsom salts. I've always found semi-symbiotic relationships both fascinating and convenient. On a controversial note, human urine can be used as a nutrient solution. Remember, the body filters everything you eat and drink, expelling toxins and retaining the essentials. If you eat something slathered in pesticides, you'll be urinating it out later. If you use that urine to grow spinach, you'll re-absorb it when you eat it. There are risks involved. Do your research. You'll need to have a sample of your pee tested by a floraculture lab, of course, so you may need to adjust your diet. Vegans will find their urine more appropriate for plant growth than their animal-product-eating companions. If the plants you are growing are intended for consumption, you will need to find a way to treat and sterilize your urine, making it less of a biohazard. Introducing nitrous bacteria, and diluting the solution, will help break down the ammonia prevalent in your urine. Circulating it through a biofilter will do this. Alternatively, you may be able to find an ammonia treatment in your local aquarium store. Wanna learn how to build a biofilter? I'll get back to you on that one. You might consider using your hydroponic system in lieu of a filter for a fish tank, hooking up a circular system filtering fish water through various substrates. There are three kinds of filter medias used in household tanks-- mechanical, biological, and chemical. Mechanical media is used to filter out solid matter-- chunks of substrate, algae scrapings, what have you. Sponges and fibrous materials (rock wool, for example) work admirably in this fashion. Consider inserting a sponge or somesuch in each plant's drain, to reduce the risk of clogging your system, at the very least. Biological filters are meant to encourage colonies of healthy bacteria, and control levels of ammonia, nitrites and nitrates prevalent in fish waste. Your plants will be glad to serve this function. Chemical filters clean your water of unwanted color and odor. Unfortunately, it also excels at removing the trace elements which allow plants to thrive. You won't need it. If you already have a fishtank, you could simply use the water you would normally siphon off and discard during cleaning, and use it to top off your hydroponics system. If your fishtank filtered, you'll have limited success with this technique. In the meantime, consider this: a successful hydroponics system will grow plenty of plant matter, and much of it will be consumed. What little waste there is, could be recycled back into the system (accompanied by other waste matter) with the help of another animal: the worm. Vermicomposting is a composting technique in which live worms are used to turn food waste into fertile soil. A handy by-product of the process is a nutrient-rich liquid commonly referred to as "worm tea". Obviously, this bin won't be for composting materials from your hydroponic system exclusively-- your kitchen scraps should go in, too. Waste not, want not! Vermicompost can be suitable for indoor and outdoor composting. If maintained properly, a good vermicompost system will not stink the same way traditional compost can. The ammonia smell we commonly associate with compost is only prevalent when the wet waste content (rotting detritus) of the bin overexceeds the dry matter (paper or plant fiber) mixed in. Worms-- red wrigglers in particular-- like to have soft, dry bedding like shredded paper or coconut fiber available to them, anyway. A stinky bin usually means unhappy worms. There are many ways to compost in this fashion, however, for the intentions of this instructable, we will focus on the relatively uncomplicated "non-continuous" vermicompost bin. This system is usually very small and easy to build, but if you plan on using the worm castings as well as the worm tea, you'll need to dump out the whole container after draining it. I would highly recommend transferring your worms and a small portion of the castings to another vermicompost system of any other build type, after dumping. In order to harvest liquid worm tea (instead of distilling it from worm castings in a water bath) you will need a large plastic bucket with a draining tap and a lid. Plastic is nonporous, unlike wood, so it shouldn't absorb the valuable tea. That old, giant thermos football players bully their waterboys around would do the trick nicely. Non-continuous systems like this can be very simple-- they're just an undivided container layered from the bottom up as follows: sump, bedding, worms, wet waste, dirt. The bottom layer-- the sump-- should consist of a two-inch deep level of small stones and gravel. This area will be rife with crevices liquid can settle into, to drain at your convenience. A layer of fine mesh should be placed over this level to prevent the worms and their solid castings from falling into the sump. Mesh should not be placed between any other levels. Worm bedding, as mentioned earlier, is typically three inches of loosely-packed shredded paper or coconut fiber. This level will help aerate the mixture, lower fragrant nitrogen levels, and allow your worms to thrive. Your wet waste should never include meat or dairy product like cheese or yoghurt. Frankly speaking, those things stink when they decompose, which they do quickly because of their high protein content. Genuinely putrid food is toxic to worms. Beans are also high-protein, and dangerous as such. Oils and fats prevalent in animal products will cling to the skins of your wrigglers and suffocate them. Stick to eggshells, tea bags, vegetable peels, stale/mouldy bread, coffee grounds, rotting fruit, etc. Citrus fruit is generally considered safe, but not citrus peel-- the oil found in the skins are toxic. Banana peels are usually heavily sprayed with herbicides and pesticides, so include them at your own peril. Worms are highly sensitive to poison. Wet waste should be covered with another layer of bedding, for odor control. As the worms eat the rotting material, add wet waste to the top level, sprinkling with shredded paper as you go. The worms will consume what they can, and then travel up out of their castings (urine and feces) and into the new feed. Continue the process until the bin is full, and most of the edible matter has been turned into castings by the worms. Drain the sump whenever your hydroponic system requires more fertilizer. Make sure you test the water's final PH, and adjust accordingly!
Be Safe! will be replacing the c.a.r.e. program in 2013! This course is currently being developed and is not available, if you would like to be notified when this course is ready please click here. You will also require an OnLine Learning account, if you don't already have an account, please click here and create one. Pre-requisite Course: Introduction to RespectED - Click Here to take this free course. Enrolment key: free Course Purpose: Be Safe! offers educators the latest information on how to communicate the subject matter effectively, including best practices to handle disclosures. The Be Safe! kit is part of a personal safety program designed for children ages 5-9 that incorporates cultural and family diversity. The kit includes everything needed to deliver the program in a positive, child-friendly and non-threatening way. Key Topic Areas Include: Information on new sections of the Be Safe! kit including rights-based education, healthy relationship development, teaching the kit, safe learning environments, handling disclosures and working with parents effectively on this topic area. Have questions or need help? Our Contact Information, Privacy and Refund Policy can be found in the Main Menu (top left). Course Purpose: This course contains the information to support the RespectED Training Partners offering online courses. Please contact Cathy Forner to gain access.
A true or false question makes a statement and asks the person taking the test if the statement is true or false. There are no other responses. Each answer has a 50 percent chance of being correct. Multiple choice questions follow a somewhat similar format, and do not require the person taking the test to create an answer of their own. Multiple choice questions ask a question, and the person taking the test must choose the correct answer from a list of four or five similar answers. There is a 20 to 25 percent chance of randomly choosing the correct answer.
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MEMS is combination of electronic and mechanical system in a single chip,while nanotechnology consist of eveyrthing which of nanometre lenght,even chemical,physical and biological systems,anyhow MEMS are bigger than nano-systems. Thats about it. A MEMS chip consists of different parts; the microelectronics,the microsensors, microactuators, microstructures, and are fabricated together using microfabrication techniques (like IC's). The benefits of MEMS are limitless! I believe the basic difference between MEMS and Nanotechnology is the size: MEMS are typically between a micrometer (10-6m) and a millimeter (10-3m), while nanotech is in the nanometer scale (10-9m). Because we go down to such a small scale, we make use of the properties of the materials down at the nanoscale. It's quite amazing though... We can achieve remarkable sensitivities and precision using the MEMs technology when it comes to electromechanical sensor and actuators. For eg., consider the accelerometer...its made up of a spring, a mass and a damper... the natural frequency is given by sqrt(k/m).. that means, when the mass is taken to the 'micro' level, you have an extremely sensitive accelerometer with great resolution.. Its amazing, MEMs... As far as Nanotech is concerned, when you're down to the nano scale, everything is in its 'primordial' form. It's all broken down to the level of bio-chemo-physical molecules. There are a few researchers at my university who have done breakthrough research in this field. We recently bought a Nano-Indentation machine as well. Also, its usually the materials engineers with a know-how in biochemistry who usually pursue this research. Also, your maths has to be great. MEMS is the integration of a number of microcomponents on a single chip which allows the microsystem to both sense and control the environment. The components typically include microelectronic integrated circuits (the “brains”), sensors (the “senses” and “nervous system”), and actuators (the “hands” and “arms”). The components are typically integrated on a single chip using microfabrication technologies similar to those used for integrated circuits. Nanotechnology takes advantage of the observation that at the nanoscale, properties of materials change. Nanotechnology is that array of technologies that use properties of materials that are unique to structures at the nanoscale.
The Current Surface Analysis map shows current weather conditions , including frontal and high/low pressure positions, satellite infrared (IR) cloud cover , and areas of precipitation . A surface weather analysis is a special type of weather map that provides a view of weather elements over a geographical area at a specified time based on information from ground-based weather stations. Weather maps are created by plotting or tracing the values of relevant quantities such as sea level pressure, temperature , and cloud cover onto a geographical map to help find synoptic scale features such as weather fronts. The first weather maps in the 19th century were drawn well after the fact to help devise a theory on storm systems. After the advent of the telegraph, simultaneous surface weather observations became possible for the first time, and beginning in the late 1840s, the Smithsonian Institution became the first organization to draw real-time surface analyses. Use of surface analyses began first in the United States, spreading worldwide during the 1870s. Use of the Norwegian cyclone model for frontal analysis began in the late 1910s across Europe, with its use finally spreading to the United States during World War II. Surface weather analyses have special symbols which show frontal systems, cloud cover , or other important information. For example, an H may represent high pressure, implying good and fair weather. An L on the other hand may represent low pressure, which frequently accompanies precipitation . Various symbols are used not just for frontal zones and other surface boundaries on weather maps, but also to depict the present weather at various locations on the weather map. Areas of precipitation help determine the frontal type and location.
Language Resident/Assistant Name: Eva Saunders Day and Date: 11/24/2020 Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): Intermediante/Advanced Class theme/topics discussed: Christmas & the holidays Goal of the class: Learning about German customs and escaping Krampus’ mine How did you structure the class? A) Warm-Up: With the lights off and your Zoom background set to a coal mine, tell the students they have been captured and brought to a coal mine because they opened their advent calendars too early! Impersonating Krampus for this is highly recommended & fun (I wore a Santa hat and used a flash light to make myself look frightening) B) Give them the “escape room” game Google Sheet link and explain (as “Krampus”) how they are going to find the code word to get out (which is “Merry Christmas” in German, but backwards, see Key sheet). Stress that they are supposed to talk to each other to solve riddles together, one at a time. Then set a timer for 45-50 minutes for them to solve the questions and to guess the code word. It’s good to remind them of the time they have left every once in a while (half time and maybe 5 minutes before, depending how they are doing on time). I plan about 5 minutes per question on average as a guideline. If they are taking longer, feel free to help them a bit by telling them if their answer is right or wrong before they type them in, to avoid detours. And giving hints or more information about a correct answer works well, too. C) Once the game is finished, go over the answers the students provided or answer any outstanding questions about Christmas in Germany. D) Extra activity: Watch “Cat-A-Claws”, a 2-minute Christmas themed cat movie https://vimeo.com/381605666 (this is my own production, but available publicly). Find traditions and words we talked about in the movie. What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.): Share Screen function in Zoom, Chat, Google Sheets, Vimeo, Course Website as a resource for homework and reference What worked well in this class? What did not work? The students enjoyed the surprise escape room very much and solved the riddles just in time. I clarified some things during the game and helped a bit to keep it moving. It was a fun way to learn! How could this class be improved/ modified? I’ve tried this both with just one student and a group of three students and both took about 45-50 minutes to finish it. If the group is much larger, communication might be hard so they should probably be split up into groups of three or four and you can jump from room to room to help if necessary. If you have a more detailed lesson plan, please attach it below (OK to use target language for that). Please attach any handouts as well. Virtual Handout in target language https://courses.pomona.edu/la-german-2020/blog/2020/11/24/13-1-class-25-11-23-2020/ (Password: GERMAN) Note: You can use the key document for yourself and then load the blank template tab into Google Sheets to have the students work in the same document. It’s best if one student shares their screen of it so all can see what’s asked.