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first and scale those that seem promising. Some of the solutions will fail, but that’s great because we got some very useful information. Fostering an experimental mindset in an organisation is a great investment.
You know that five-year strategic plan your team gave input on two years ago? How many times have you revisited it since it was published? The interventions that you are designing will have ripples and effects, some negative and some positive. Life is happening and things are constantly changing, so your strategic plan needs to be malleable and adaptable. The Asia Foundation has a fabulous resource on how to revisit your strategy, called Strategy Testing.
As we all know, one of the best ways to learn is exchanging ideas with others about what we did and what happened. One of the things that often surprises me is how little organisations know about what their colleagues are doing in other countries, but even in other departments. The best way to further test an innovation is to try it somewhere else in the organisation that has similar conditions. Fostering an environment of knowledge exchange internally is vital. Often, there is also latent knowledge and expertise across teams that can help you further design your project. Sharing project processes and outcomes externally is just as crucial. A great example of this is how the global Johns Hopkins projects Breakthrough RESEARCH and Breakthrough ACTION have created a mega resource for learning across disciplines and countries on how to apply behavioural science in global development.
For more, I highly recommend the article by Naru & Laffan (2021) on their experience fostering a behavioural mindset in the OECD, which can be found in the 2021 Behavioural Economics Guide.
Have you recently adopted any of these mindsets? What has your experience been? Share your thoughts with me here!The days get shorter. The temperatures get cooler. You spend less time outside and there is less opportunity to soak up that Vitamin D your body and brain need.
Many people, especially those who are vulnerable to depression, can have symptoms relating to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) throughout the year. However, it is more commonly experienced in the fall and winter months.
“SAD is something people may experience during that particular time of year or season when there’s less sunlight,” said Palmetto Infusion Patient Advocate and Licensed Social Worker, Chrissie Jenkins. “It is certainly something that people who already struggle, unfortunately, with depressive tendencies may notice to be more pronounced and disruptive. They just have an extra challenging time during this season.”
Some symptoms of winter-pattern SAD, in addition to major depression symptoms, can include Oversleeping (hypersomnia); overeating, particularly with a craving for carbohydrates; brain fog; weight gain; and social withdrawal (feeling like “hibernating”).
While scientists do not fully understand what causes SAD, there is a belief that lack of sunlight and its effects on Vitamin D levels and brain chemicals, such as serotonin and melatonin play a part, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
Research suggests sunlight controls the levels of molecules that help maintain normal serotonin levels.1 Serotonin, of course, is the main neurotransmitter regulating mood. Research also suggests that in people with SAD, this regulation does not function properly, resulting in decreased levels during late fall and winter.
According to Jenkins, it is not just serotonin levels that take a hit from less sunlight, but also Vitamin D levels and melatonin. In addition to Vitamin D consumed with diet, the body produces Vitamin D when exposed to sunlight on the skin. With less daylight in the winter, people with SAD may have lower vitamin D levels, which may further hinder serotonin activity, according to NIMH.
Other research concludes there could be too much melatonin produced in those with SAD.2 Melatonin is a hormone that is central to maintaining the normal sleep-wake cycle. Overproduction of melatonin can increase sleepiness.
There are a few options you can consider to mitigate symptoms.
- Talk to your doctor. Holistic approaches do not work for everyone. If you find you cannot manage symptoms of SAD and have consistent low mood, talk to your doctor about the possibility of starting an antidepressant.
- Go for a brisk walk. If you are able, take your lunch break outside and go for a walk around the block. If you are unable to get outdoors, try using a treadmill or other exercise equipment set close to a window.
- Try box light therapy. “These are nonmedical devices that can be purchased rather affordably online,” said Jenkins. “When you do not have the opportunity to get as much natural light, this device helps simulate a light like natural light, which will help boost those chemical levels. You can do this in the comfort of your own home, too!”
- Manage your time. “The best advice I can give is to be very protective and mindful of the value and quality of your time and wellbeing,” said Jenkins. “Going into something, like holiday gatherings, you must be realistic with yourself and work at managing and prioritizing increased expectations. For instance, you could have been invited to four or five holiday events. Instead of burning yourself out by going to all of them, pick just one or two that you feel are the most meaningful and purposeful. This way you are not overcommitting yourself to things that may end up taking a toll on your comfort level, energy reserves, and life satisfaction.”
- Be mindful of your food and alcohol consumption. Typically, around the holiday season, there are more opportunities to overeat and consume more carbohydrates, sweets, and alcohol than you may normally. “It’s okay to enjoy yourself and indulge with special sweet treats but try to be mindful of moderation and balance while you celebrate,” said Jenkins.
“The amount of sleep we get does greatly affect our mood and patience. The types of food we consume, such as lots of refined sugar, can give us these hard crashes that leave us feeling depleted and miserable,” said Jenkins. “There are many practical tips that we can all easily practice to minimize the effects of SAD. These are just some of the tools to consider applying.”
While SAD can disrupt your normal routine for a few months if you are experiencing these symptoms consistently or any symptoms associated with depression, contact your physician for help.
If you are a patient of Palmetto Infusion or AccuRX Infusion and are experiencing a need or area of concern, Chrissie Jenkins is available to listen to and offer guidance, support, and direction. You can contact her confidentially at no charge by calling 843-314-5908 or by emailing email@example.com.
1. Lambert GW, Reid C, Kaye DM, Jennings GL, Esler MD. Effect of sunlight and season on serotonin turnover in the brain. Lancet. 2002 Dec 7;360(9348):1840-2. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(02)11737-5. PMID: 12480364.
2. Melrose S. Seasonal Affective Disorder: An Overview of Assessment and Treatment Approaches. Depress Res Treat. 2015;2015:178564. doi: 10.1155/2015/178564. Epub 2015 Nov 25. PMID: 26688752; PMCID: PMC4673349.The Power of Lifelong Learning: How Self-Education Can Transform Your Life
In a world that’s constantly evolving, the value of learning doesn’t end when you leave school or earn a degree. In fact, it’s just the beginning. Lifelong learning, also known as self-education, is a powerful tool that can transform your life in countless ways. In this article, we’ll explore the importance of self-education and how it can benefit you in both personal and professional spheres.
1. Unlocking Your Potential
The journey of self-education begins with a simple but profound realization: you have the power to learn anything you desire. From acquiring new skills and knowledge to exploring your passions and interests, the possibilities are endless. When you embrace self-education, you unlock your potential and tap into your innate curiosity.
2. Adaptation in a Changing World
The world is in a constant state of flux, with technology, industries, and trends evolving at a rapid pace. To thrive in such an environment, adaptability is essential. Self-education equips you with the ability to adapt to these changes. Whether it’s mastering a new software program or staying updated on the latest industry trends, your commitment to learning keeps you relevant and competitive.
3. Expanding Your Horizons
One of the most beautiful aspects of self-education is the opportunity to explore diverse subjects and perspectives. You’re not bound by a rigid curriculum or course requirements. Instead, you have the freedom to delve into a wide range of topics, from art and history to science and philosophy. This expansion of horizons enriches your life and broadens your understanding of the world.
4. Self-Improvement and Personal Growth
Self-education is not just about acquiring external knowledge; it’s also a journey of self-improvement. As you learn and grow, you become more confident, adaptable, and open-minded. You develop critical thinking skills and gain a deeper understanding of yourself and others. This personal growth is invaluable and can positively impact every aspect of your life.
5. Career Advancement
In today’s competitive job market, continuous learning is often a prerequisite for career advancement. Whether you’re aiming for a promotion, considering a career change, or starting your own business, self-education plays a vital role. It allows you to acquire new skills, certifications, and knowledge that can set you apart from the competition.
6. Fulfillment and Passion Pursuit
Self-education isn’t just about meeting external goals; it’s also about pursuing your passions and finding fulfillment. When you invest time in learning about subjects that genuinely interest you, it brings a sense of joy and purpose to your life. Whether it’s painting, cooking, or learning a new language, self-education allows you to follow your heart’s desires.
7. Overcoming Challenges
Self-education is not without its challenges. It requires discipline, time management, and a commitment to lifelong learning. However, these challenges are opportunities for personal growth and resilience. As you overcome obstacles on your educational journey, you develop valuable life skills that serve you well in all areas of your life.
8. Connection and Community
The pursuit of knowledge often leads to connections with like-minded individuals. Whether you join online forums, attend workshops, or participate in local clubs, self-education can foster a sense of community. These connections can provide support, encouragement, and opportunities for collaborative learning.
In a rapidly changing world, self-education is not just a choice; it’s a necessity. It empowers you to take control of your personal and professional development, opening doors to endless possibilities. By embracing the mindset of a lifelong learner, you can continuously grow, adapt, and thrive. So, seize the opportunity to explore, discover, and transform your life through self-education. Your journey begins today.Pluto isn't quite as lonely as scientists had thought.
Astronomers have discovered another dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt, the ring of icy objects beyond Neptune. But this newfound world, dubbed 2015 RR245, is much more distant than Pluto, orbiting the sun once every 700 Earth years, scientists said. (Pluto completes one lap around the sun every 248 Earth years.) You can see an animation of the new dwarf planet's orbit here.
"The icy worlds beyond Neptune trace how the giant planets formed and then moved out from the sun," discovery team member Michele Bannister, of the University of Victoria in British Columbia, said in a statement. "They let us piece together the history of our solar system." [Meet the Solar System's Dwarf Planets]
"But almost all of these icy worlds are painfully small and faint; it's really exciting to find one that's large and bright enough that we can study it in detail," Bannister added.
The exact size of 2015 RR245 is not yet known, but the researchers think it's about 435 miles (700 kilometers) wide. Pluto is the largest resident of the Kuiper Belt, with a diameter of 1,474 miles (2,371 km).
The research team first spotted 2015 RR245 in February of this year, while poring over images that the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii took in September 2015 as part of the ongoing Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS).
"There it was on the screen — this dot of light moving so slowly that it had to be at least twice as far as Neptune from the sun," Bannister said.
OSSOS has discovered more than 500 objects beyond Neptune's orbit, but 2015 RR245 is the first dwarf planet that the survey has found, the scientists said.
Dwarf planets are massive enough to be crushed into spheres by their own gravity, but they have not "cleared their neighborhood" of other objects, which differentiates them from "normal" planets such as Earth and Saturn. This definition, which was devised by the International Astronomical Union in 2006, led to Pluto's controversial reclassification as a dwarf planet.
Astronomers are still working out the details of 2015 RR245's highly elliptical orbit, but the object appears to come as close to the sun as 34 astronomical units (AU), and farther away than 120 AU. (One AU is the average Earth-sun distance — about 93 million miles, or 150 million km.)
2015 RR245 — which will get a catchier, official name at some point — will make its closest approach to the sun in 2096, the researchers said.
Other confirmed dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt region include Pluto, Eris, Haumea and Makemake. Several other objects in this distant realm, including Sedna, Quaoar and 2007 OR10, probably meet the dwarf-planet criteria as well, scientists have said.The Kinghorn, a barge carrying a cargo of wheat to Montreal, sank on April 27, 1897 during a storm on the St. Lawrence River. While 120 years have passed since the sinking it remains an accessible dive site. It is resting in 90 feet of water in front of the Rockport, Ontario dock. The wreck is 400 feet from shore. The Kinghorn, along with six other barges, were being towed by a tug named the Hiram Walker.Fundamentals of Android App Development
Android Development for Beginners to Learn Android Technology, SQLite, Firebase and Unity
About the Book
Android, SQLite, Google Firebase and Unity (Game Development)
â— Uncover the basics of Android App Development.
â— Get to know more about the Database Structure of SQLite (Android database).
â— A quick start guide that will help beginners understand the structure of Android Development (Programming).
This hands-on book will teach you how to structure your android app, design flexible and interactive interfaces. It will help you develop your app on various platforms such as smartphones and tablets.
The book uses SQLite as it is a very lightweight database, with no installation required, zero-configuration, and no server required. SQLite is widely used as a database of choice in mobile apps, cameras, home electronic devices, and other embedded systems. Then you will see how to work with Google Firebase, Google’s mobile platform, which helps you quickly develop high-quality apps. You will see how it supports a real-time database for your apps. It will also show how to use Unity, a cross-platform game engine. It will help you develop 3D games with high quality as per your requirement.
What will you learn
â— Get familiar with the fundamentals of Android App Development
â— Use SQLite Database in Android development
â— Learn how to use Google Firebase Services
â— Understand how to work with Unity for Android Game Development
â— Create an Android Project towards the end of the book
Who this book is for
This book is more beneficial for young college students, Java Developer, any software engineer who is interested in android programming or mobile app development. This book is also for a person who wants to learn android programming.
Table of Contents
1. Android Basic
2. SQL Lite
BPB is Asia's largest publishers of Computer & IT books. For the last 63 years BPB has been a friend, philosopher and guide for programmers, developers, hardware technicians, IT Professionals who have made things happen in the IT World.
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Master prominent technologies at full length and become a valued certified professional.Explore NowFor more on the latest information on accreditation released by the Department, please click here.
History and Context of Accreditation in the United States
| Also refer to: Overview of Accreditation in the United States |
In the United States, institutions of higher education are permitted to operate with considerable independence and autonomy. The United States has no Ministry of Education or other centralized federal authority exercising control over the quality of postsecondary educational institutions, and the states assume varying degrees of control over education. As a consequence, American educational institutions can vary widely in the character and quality of their programs. To ensure a basic level of quality, the practice of accreditation arose in the United States as a means of conducting nongovernmental, peer evaluation of educational institutions and programs. With the passage of the HEA in 1965, Congress expanded the role of accrediting agencies by entrusting them with ensuring academic quality of the educational institutions at which federal student aid funds may be used subject to oversight by the federal government through the recognition process. Private educational associations have adopted criteria intended to reflect the qualities of a sound educational program and have developed procedures for evaluating institutions or programs to determine whether or not they are operating at basic levels of quality. Although accrediting agencies promulgate standards to ensure institutional quality, agencies have no legal control over educational institutions or programs.
Under the HEA, the Department does not have the authority to recognize accrediting agencies for the accreditation of private or public elementary and secondary schools. If an accrediting agency which is recognized by the Department for higher education also accredits elementary and secondary schools, the Department's recognition applies only to the agencies' accreditation of postsecondary institutions or programs.
Some Important Functions of Accreditation
- Assess the quality of academic programs at institutions of higher education
- Create a culture of continuous improvement of academic quality at colleges and universities and stimulate a general raising of standards among educational institutions
- Involve faculty and staff comprehensively in institutional evaluation and planning
Note: Accreditation does not provide automatic acceptance by an institution of credit earned at another institution, nor does it give assurance of acceptance of graduates by employers. Students should contact the receiving institution to help determine whether credits are transferrable. Acceptance of credit or graduates is always the prerogative of the receiving institution or employer. For these reasons, besides ascertaining the accredited status of an institution or program, students should take additional measures to determine, prior to enrollment, whether their educational goals will be met through attendance at a particular institution. Those measures should include inquiries to institutions to which transfer might be desired or to prospective employers, as well as any private or governmental entity responsible for licensing or certifying graduates to work in the field for which the educational program is intended.
Primary Accrediting Activities
- Standards: The agency, in collaboration with educational institutions and/or programs, establishes standards.
- Self-study: The institution or program seeking accreditation prepares an in-depth self-evaluation report that measures its performance against the standards established by the agency.
- On-site evaluation: A team of peers selected by the agency reviews the institution or program on-site to determine first-hand if the applicant meets the established standards.
- Decision and publication: Upon being satisfied that the applicant meets its standards, the accrediting agency grants accreditation or preaccreditation status and lists the institution or program in an official publication with other similarly accredited or preaccredited institutions or programs.
- Monitoring: An accrediting agency monitors each accredited institution or program throughout the period of accreditation granted to verify that it continues to meet the accreditor's standards.
- Reevaluation: The agency periodically reevaluates each institution or program that it lists to ascertain whether continuation of its accredited or preaccredited status is warranted.
Types of Accreditation
There are two basic types of educational accreditation, one referred to as "institutional" and the other referred to as "specialized" or "programmatic."
Institutional accreditation applies to an entire institution, indicating that each of an institution's parts is contributing to the achievement of the institution's objectives.
Specialized or programmatic accreditation normally applies to programs, departments, or schools that are parts of an institution. The accredited unit may be as large as a college or school within a university or as small as a curriculum within a discipline. Most of the specialized or programmatic agencies review units within an institution of higher education that is accredited by an institutional accrediting agency. However, certain agencies also accredit professional schools and other specialized or vocational institutions of higher education that are freestanding in their operations. Thus, a "specialized" or "programmatic" agency may also function in the capacity of an "institutional" agency. Some of these "institutions" are found within non-educational settings, such as hospitals.
The Accreditation Group (AG)
The Accreditation Group has been established within the Department of Education to deal with accreditation matters. Located in the Office of Postsecondary Education, the Group carries out the following major functions with respect to accreditation:
- Continuously reviews standards, policies, procedures, and issues in the area of the Department's accreditation responsibilities.
- Administers the process by which accrediting agencies and state approval agencies secure initial and renewed recognition by the Secretary.
- Serves as the Department's liaison with accrediting agencies and state approval agencies.
- Consults with institutions, associations, state agencies, other federal agencies, and Congress regarding accreditation.
- Interprets and disseminates policy relative to accreditation issues for the Department.
- Conducts appropriate research and investigates complaints against recognized accrediting agencies and state approval agencies.
- Interacts with the NACIQI during the recognition process. Also provides limited administrative support to NACIQI members.
- Works directly with the National Committee on Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation. Also provides administrative support to NCFMEA members. AG staff reviews the medical education standards used in foreign countries for comparability with the medical education standards used to accredit medical school in the US.
- AG staff reviews applications (6) foreign veterinary accrediting agencies to determine if their accreditation standards are acceptable.
- AG staff also periodically reviews military degree programs in accordance with Federal degree granting authority regulations.
U. S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW #270-12
Washington, DC 20202
Telephone: (202) 453-7615
Summary of the Recognition Process for Accrediting Agencies
The process for the recognition of accrediting agencies is set forth in 34 CFR Part 602 Subpart C. Summary of the application and recognition process is provided below.
Accrediting agencies desiring recognition by the Secretary of Education must apply and demonstrate their compliance with the criteria for recognition set forth in 34 CFR Part 602 Subpart B. An accrediting agency's application for recognition generally consists of a statement of the agency's requested scope of recognition, evidence of the agency' compliance with the criteria for recognition set forth in part 602, and supporting documentation (state approval agencies are review using different criteria).
An agencies' application for initial recognition or renewal of recognition consists of a narrative statement, organized on a criterion-by-criterion basis, showing how the agency complies with the regulatory criteria. Depending on the recognition criterion, the narrative may be detailed or streamlined, and in all cases must be accompanied by clearly referenced supporting documentation demonstrating that the agency meets the requirement. Below is an example of some (not all) of the documentation that agencies must include to support its application for renewal and initial accreditation:
- Accreditation standards and procedures
- Operational policies and procedures
- Most recent externally audited financial statement.
- Published list of accredited institutions or programs.
- Self-study guidelines
- Guidance and training materials for on-site evaluation team members
- Sample completed self-studies.
- Sample on-site evaluation reports
- Sample institution or program responses to on-site evaluation reports
- Sample minutes of decision meetings, and decision letters
- Agency's constitution and bylaws
- List of complaints received by the agency against accredited programs or institutions.
Application for Initial Recognition
Recognition is granted by the Secretary to an agency that meets certain federal eligibility requirements and can demonstrate compliance with all of the criteria for recognition, establishing through its accrediting actions and decisions that it is a reliable authority regarding the quality of education offered by the institutions or programs it accredits. The Accreditation Group accepts applications for initial recognition after consultation and based on workload.
Agencies seeking initial recognition should contact the AG to discuss the basic eligibility requirements and the application process. If the Department staff believes the accreditor meets the basic eligibility requirements, the agency will be provided with the information needed to submit an application through the Department's electronic system.
To request consideration at a particular meeting of the NACIQI, an agency seeking initial recognition must submit its application as directed by the AG.
An agency considering applying for initial recognition is encouraged to contact the Accreditation Group as early as possible to discuss its possible application and to afford staff the opportunity to observe several accreditation activities and to conduct file reviews. Because observation of an agency's on-site evaluations and decision meetings by staff is a critical component of the review of the agency's application, it is imperative that an agency seeking initial recognition submit a list of scheduled evaluations and decision meetings with its application for recognition. If an agency does not provide AG staff with an opportunity to observe an adequate number of on-site evaluations, decision meetings (typically 2-3 of each), and file reviews before the NACIQI meeting at which the agency requests consideration of its application, AG staff will not finalize the agency's application for initial recognition.
Agencies seeking initial recognition are reminded that recognition by the Secretary is not a prerequisite for an accrediting agency to function as an accrediting body, i.e., an agency does not have to obtain federal recognition before it begins to accredit institutions or programs. An agency seeking recognition must demonstrate that its accreditation is a required element in enabling at least one of the institutions or programs it accredits to establish eligibility to participate in one or more federal programs. Beyond that basic eligibility requirement, a new agency will need to have had at least two years' experience functioning as an agency - establishing standards, evaluating institutions or programs for compliance with those standards, and making accrediting decisions based on those standards - before it submits its application for recognition. Staff will also consider whether the new agency has been organized under conditions that reasonably ensure its stability and permanence.
Application for Continued Recognition
Accrediting agencies that have been granted recognition by the Secretary are officially notified of the expiration date of their recognition period in a letter each time recognition is granted or renewed. They should plan to submit their applications for renewal of recognition approximately two years (new regulatory requirement) in advance of the summer or winter meeting of the NACIQI that precedes that expiration date. As with the initial application, Accreditation Group observation of accrediting activities (e.g., decision meetings, on-site evaluations, file reviews, etc.) is an important component of the renewal process.
Staff Analysis of an Agency's Application
The application review process conducted by the Department includes analysis of the application and observation of some of the agency's on-site evaluations, decision-making activities by AG staff. AG Staff members will conduct file reviews. AG staff may hold meetings with agency staff. AG staff may also conduct interviews with other persons and organizations concerning the agency's approval process in order to obtain further information relating to the agency's compliance with the Criteria for Recognition. Department staff then prepares a written analysis of the agency's application for recognition, which includes a recommendation on recognition.
Hearing Before the Advisory Committee
When Department staff completes its evaluation of an agency's application for recognition, the agency's application is placed on the meeting agenda of the NACIQI. NACIQI is a federal advisory committee that operates according to the requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act. Its 18 members are appointed equally by the Secretary, House of Representatives, and the Senate. In preparation for the meeting, NACIQI is provided with the agency's application and supporting documentation; the final AG staff analysis of the application; the AG staff's recommendation on recognition; all information relied upon by AG staff in developing the analysis. Any response by the agency to the draft staff analysis, and any written third-party comments the Department timely received about the agency and agency response to the third-party comments.
NACIQI meets at least twice a year to review applications for recognition submitted by accreditors. The usual times for NACIQI meetings are summer (July) and winter (February). Each member of NACIQI receives every AG staff analysis of an application for recognition and all the other materials mentioned in the preceding paragraph. The Executive Director of NACIQI usually assigns two or more individuals to serve as principal readers for each application.
An agency that applies for recognition is invited to make an oral presentation before the NACIQI. NACIQI also hears oral presentations from third parties who request to be heard. Department staff is available throughout NACIQI meetings to respond to questions. NACIQI conducts its business in public, and a transcript of the proceedings is made.
Determination by the Senior Department Official
After each meeting, NACIQI's and Department staff's recommendations concerning recognition are forwarded to the Senior Department Official, who makes the decision regarding recognition. An agency that disagrees with the decision of the Senior Department Official may appeal to the Secretary. The Secretary's decision can also be contested in the Federal court. Agencies may be granted initial recognition or renewal of recognition for a period of up to five years (four years for state approval agencies).
Application for an Expansion of Scope
An application for expansion of an agency's scope of recognition may be included as an integral part of an application for renewal of recognition or it may be submitted separately. If an expansion of scope is sought prior to the agency's next regularly scheduled review, accrediting agency personnel should consult with the Accreditation Group staff concerning the application format.
The State Liaison team within the Accreditation
The State Liaison team within the Accreditation Group is composed of four currently assigned Accreditation Group analysts, and have the following responsibilities:
- Provide technical guidance to state officials on the Higher Education Act of 1965 as amended (HEA) and Department regulations in 34 CFR §§ 602 and 603.
- Participate in meetings and conferences designed to promote and advance dialogue with state higher educational organizations regarding state and federal statutory and regulatory. requirements governing authorization, licensure, and accreditation of Title IV institutions.
- Respond to routine controlled correspondence, and phone inquiries from state officials, and coordinate with the appropriate staff analyst or ED office.
- Identify higher education issues that needed to be brought to the attention of the Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education and initiating public forums for discussion and dialogue among members of the higher education community.
- Build and/or update a directory which would list each state's key higher education staff (including SHEEOS), and state licensure officers along with their contact information.
- Work closely with state officials and accrediting agencies on school closures regarding the following:
- Adequacy of teach-out plans and teach-out agreements.
- Confer with state officials and accrediting agencies regarding the status of institutions included in teach-out plans and agreements.
As a courtesy obtain information from state officials regarding student records and where student records are stored for the closed institution.Explore Careers in Social Sciences
Today’s world depends heavily on the social sciences, which explore fascinating insights into the “how and why” of everyday lives. Working in the social sciences allows you to engage your critical thinking abilities and gain insight into people and society.
A degree in social science can be ideal for you if you are curious to learn more, like to debate important issues, and are not afraid to ask questions. A profession in social science invites you to investigate a wide range of subjects while connecting ideas from sociology, social policy, and politics. You might be the ideal candidate if you’re interested in learning more about the ideas linked to societal responses to inequality and prejudice. Learn more about why Social science is the best career for you here at Eduvision.“Languages are true analytical methods” -Antoine Lavoisier
A molecule is a conglomeration of atoms. A conglomeration of atoms is called a molecule. An arrangement of atoms must be “sufficiently stable” to form a molecule. A neon molecule, however, contains one atom. A molecule, of course, can be divided into “atomic volumes”. Therefore, a molecule can be reduced.
But a cherry pie cut in half does not make the pie a cherry. A pie is an objective agreement of one gathering of substances. Just as a molecule is a gathering of atoms, or one atom.
In terms of logic, A equals B in its entirety. A molecule is a small unit of mass, thereby defined.
There again, one hour contains 60 minutes. An hour is 60 minutes. An hour can become 1/2 an hour and 1/4 of an hour and so on. But an hour does not become a minute. The passing of that hour relative to circumstances. So that 1/2 of a molecule does not make it an atom, but it reduces its mass.
Quantum chemistry attends to the particulars of molecules and atoms to make sense of the invisible. A certain sense of organization and familiarity with the invisible helps the chemist understand. In other words, a molecule could be called a “clump”, instead of a molecule. Molecule in french means, “extremely minute particle”. That particle has organization of some type and it makes sense within its environment and the sense which it makes is relative to another particle.
A molecule is proof that even at the most basic level of life, something is attempting to make sense. What if you went to the grocery store to buy cereal and instead of it being in a measured box, it was strewn among the onions? Wierd, right? So how wierd would it be for atoms to be strewn about without molecular structure? Without the appropriate chemical or electrical occurences which account for the structure?
In the interest of sane organization, which helps the world make a little sense, I say that molecules cannot be changed to atoms. Just as a baseball team cannot be changed to one player, though it can seem that way by persuasions of media.
In the case of the polar molecule, water, it is the atoms which make the molecule a molecule by not just the atoms but by positive charge on one side and negative on the other. There is a certain structure to a molecule and that structure in its entirety is called a molecule.
If this riddle does nothing else, it emphasizes the critical importance of language and the organization of definitions and how it allows for understanding beyond our immediate empirical experiences.Demonstratives or An cat ud thall
Soo... now we've done the more difficult adverbs, we can move on to the demonstratives. Again, Gaelic has the three way split to indicate that which is close to the speaker (proximal), close to the addressee (medial), and a long way from either (distal). Again, Doraemon is here to illustrate:
You simply add seo [ʃɔ], sin [ʃin], and ud [əd] to whichever noun you wish. They can't appear on their own, so linguists call them enclitics because they must latch on to a host noun. Note that the distinction between precise and fuzzy locations, (cf. an-sin vs. thall) largely does not enter this arena. The idea of fuzzy locations includes both far off and near by locations so thall is a "fuzzy location distant from the speaker" and a-bhos is a "fuzzy location near the speaker". However, the one thing you can do is to add thall to ud to give the meaning of "that thing over there", for example, a' phoit ud thall. You can not do that with sin, neither can you add a-bhos to seo.
So, you might ask, where does siud come into it? Good question. It comes into play when you build sentences which are seemingly missing a verb, such as seo mo mhàthair which gets translated into English as 'this is my mother'.
As you all know, in Gaelic, that's the easiest way of building a declarative sentence about existence, without getting into hot water about choice of verbs etc. I suspect that the s- in siud [ʃid] is simply an analogy to seo and sin to try and make ud fit in with seo and sin. However, it might just be the verb, is, itself. I'll try to find out, so watch this space. At any rate, that's how you use siud in a declarative sentence about existence: 'that's a pot', 'this is a cat', 'this is a boy' etc. Incidentally, this also works with definite nouns, for example, seo an cat 'this is the cat'. Just in case you were wondering.
|᚛ Pronunciation - Phonetics - Phonology - Morphology - Tense - Syntax - Corpus - Registers - Dialects - History - Terms and abbreviations ᚜|A personal budget is simply a written list of expected income and anticipated expenses for a given period of time. Personal budgeting can be broken down yearly, quarterly, monthly and/or weekly. The most important thing is that it’s easy to understand and follow. The most common time frame used is monthly, so we’ve created the following step-by-step guideline to set up a monthly personal budget.
- List all anticipated income.
- List all payments with a fixed due date and the date they are due.
- List all payments with a variable due date also listing the date they are due
- Separate the debts by categories, Home, Travel, Utilities, Entertainment, Miscellaneous and Savings.
Now that you have a listing of all expenses that will need to be paid in the month. The next step in personal budgeting is to organize these so that you insure all of your payments will be made on time.
- Write out the dates of each expected pay period and when the funds will be available to you.
- Take all of the categories that you have created and subdivide them by the dates that they are due.
- Allow time for mailing and list each payment you need to make under the pay period that the funds need to be paid from. (You may have too much going out one week at this stage but that’s okay you can make changes later)
- Compare the totals of both income and expenses for each week, if there is more going out in one pay period than is coming in, you may need to try to change some of the dates that the bills are due. Most creditors will cooperate with you on this if it’s a fixed payment schedule. If the due date cannot be changed, you will need to carry a rolling balance from the previous or last pay periods. If you can see that you have more funds in an early pay period [beginning of the month] than a later one, you can carry the funds throughout the week to meet the expenses in the following weeks.
- Now that you have a layout
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notes on the Ring, but in the finished cycle of operas.
In the first draft of the Siegfrieds Tod libretto (see Part One of this essay), Siegfried enters Valhalla at the drama’s climax, and a sort of anarchist utopia is established on earth. In the 1848 “Sketch” of the Ring, Wagner has Brünnhilde cry to the Nibelungs “Not Alberich shall receive [the ring]; no more shall he enslave you, but he himself be free as ye.” Here we detect an influence of Hegel’s “master-slave dialectic”: the master is actually unfree; he only attains true freedom for himself when all are free.
However, as was the case with many anarchists and socialists at the time, Wagner was simultaneously an odd kind of Radical Traditionalist: he believed that the sort of society he wanted to bring about had once existed on earth, in a Golden Age long gone by, when men lived free of gods and masters, and greed and war. Now, we may marvel at the naiveté of this and wish that Wagner had never held this position, but for the moment let us just note that such a tendency, for all its flaws, is quintessentially Western. It is Western both in its intense self-criticism – its radical critique of the present state of Western culture – and in its dream of a perfected, future society.
However, Wagner did come to shed this naïve anarchism and to radically reconceive the meaning of his own work. And the event that led to this was his encounter with Arthur Schopenhauer’s World as Will and Representation (published in 1818, 1844). In this work, which is one of the most accessible in all of German philosophy, Schopenhauer argues that the world is a manifestation of an infinite, striving force he called Will. The different species and natural kinds are all “grades of the Will’s manifestation.” These form a hierarchy, which works out to be more or less identical to the “great chain of being” we find in Aristotle, Schelling, and Hegel. At the top, of course, is man, the most perfect objectification of Will. Man is capable of knowing that he is Will – and thus, through man, Will confronts itself. This grand vision, however, is profoundly pessimistic. Schopenhauer thought that when mankind confronted itself as Will – or when Will confronted itself (it comes to the same thing) – the result would be horror and a rejection of life. And Schopenhauer urged that on us.
It would be no exaggeration to say that Wagner fell completely under the spell of Schopenhauer’s pessimistic vision. He read The World as Will and Representation four times in its entirety in 1854, during the period of time when he was writing the music of Die Walküre. Schopenhauer completely cured Wagner of his revolutionary optimism – and led him to rethink the Ring. However, the way that he did so is unusual. Wagner actually changed very little in the libretti of the Ring (mainly only tinkering a bit with Brünnhilde’s final speech in Act Three of Götterdammerung). Instead, he came to realize that the Schopenhauerean perspective was present in the work all along, and that the revolutionary ideology in terms of which he had consciously conceived it was forced and inauthentic. Wagner wrote the following in a letter to Liszt years later: “I looked at my poem and saw to my astonishment that what convinced me in Schopenhauer was already there, in my poetic concept. Only then did I really understand my Wotan. I was deeply moved. For years after that, Schopenhauer’s book was never far from me. Its ever-growing influence on me and my life was extraordinary and decisive.”
In short, for Wagner the Ring simply ceased to be a clarion call for a better world, a world without greed and power lust. Instead, it became a reflection on the tragic nature of life; on the ineradicability of greed and power lust, and the folly of optimism. And we will see that this is not a case of Wagner simply superimposing a new interpretation on a work already finished. He was, indeed, correct to think that this is the interpretation best supported by the work itself.
However, there is much more to the Ring than just a pessimistic commentary on life, as I shall discuss. And I will have more to say about Schopenhauer later on, but for now we need to consider another source for Wagner’s change of mind, one that usually goes entirely overlooked. Wagnerians normally attribute the shift in Wagner’s thinking entirely to his encounter with Schopenhauer. But we must also consider the possibility that Wagner was responding to the peculiar logic of the mythic material he was adapting; that it came to possess him, and to alter his outlook. Wagner himself gives us plenty of reason to suspect this. Here, in a passage worth quoting at length, is Wagner in his autobiography speaking of his encounter with Grimm’s Deutsche Mythologie:
All who know the work can understand how the unusual wealth of its contents, gathered from every side, and meant almost exclusively for the student, would react upon me, whose mind was everywhere seeking for something definite and distinct. Formed from the scanty fragments of a perished world, of which scarcely any monuments remained recognizable and intact, I here found a heterogeneous building, which at first glance seemed but a rugged rock clothed in straggling brambles. Nothing was finished, only here and there could the slightest resemblance to an architectonic line be traced, so that I often felt tempted to relinquish the thankless task of trying to build from such materials. And yet I was enchained by a wondrous magic. The baldest legend spoke to me of its ancient home, and soon my whole imagination thrilled with images; long-lost forms for which I had sought so eagerly shaped themselves ever more and more clearly into realities that lived again. There rose up soon before my mind a whole world of figures, which revealed themselves as so strangely plastic and primitive, that, when I saw them clearly before me and heard their voices in my heart, I could not account for the almost tangible familiarity and assurance of their demeanor. The effect they produced upon the inner state of my soul I can only describe as an entire rebirth. Just as we feel a tender joy over a child’s first bright smile of recognition, so now my own eyes flashed with rapture as I saw a world, revealed, as it were, by miracle, in which I had hitherto moved blindly as the babe in its mother’s womb.
The mythological material Wagner found in Grimm and the traditional sources touched a chord deep in his Germanic soul, and awakened him in new ways. As M. Owen Lee notes, “Like those novelists who tell us that their characters ‘take over’ the writing and determine their own fates, Wagner acknowledged that his Ring was shaping itself from some source beyond his conscious control.” And the main character of the Ring, of course, is Wotan. Essentially, in writing the Ring Wagner came to be possessed by the spirit of Wotan.
He wrote to his friend Röckel, another anarchist revolutionary, “I started my poem with an optimistic view of the world... and I hardly noticed, when I was outlining it, that I was unconsciously following a quite different and much more profound intuition. I was seeing, not a single moment in the world’s evolution [the supersession of capitalism by anarchistic socialism], but the essence of the world, the world in all of its moments.” In Schopenhauer, Wagner found a vocabulary in terms of which he could interpret this “intuition” – but the intuition did not originate with Schopenhauer. It was borne of Wagner’s study of Germanic myth, and his insight into the “essence of the world” was a product of its spirit.
The myths always say more than any writer makes them say. But Wagner comes closer than anyone to providing the complete mytho-poetic speech for the West. Through his profound engagement with the figure of Wotan, Wagner manages to express the essence of the Western spirit; the spirit of “Faustian man.” In another essay (“Ásatrú and the Political”) I wrote the following:
Oswald Spengler aptly described the soul of Northern European man as “Faustian.” He tells us that the “prime-symbol” of the Faustian is “pure and limitless space”:
Far apart as may seem the Christian hymnology of the south and the Eddas of the still heathen north, they are alike in the implicit space-endlessness of prosody, rhythmic syntax and imagery. Read the Dies Irae together with the Völuspá, which is little earlier; there is the same adamantine will to overcome and break all resistances of the visible.
The Faustian soul is characterized by a solemn inwardness, tending towards solitude and melancholy – but matched by a ceaseless, outward-striving will. European man has always sought to go beyond: to explore, to find adventures in other lands, to conquer, to peer into the mysterious depths of things, to find new ways to control and manipulate his environment. This is not to say that these qualities are never found in other peoples, but – as Spengler recognized – they are most pronounced and developed in Northern European man.
In telling the story of Wotan, the Ring tells the story of the Faustian West. In the same essay I wrote:
We find the Faustian spirit in our gods. Ódhinn is the ceaseless wanderer, and the leader of the wild hunt. From his throne, called Hlidskjalf, he can survey the entire world. His two ravens, Huginn and Muninn (Thought and Memory) fly over the earth, bringing news of all things back to him. But there are secrets concealed even from Ódhinn, and beings (such as the Norns) over which he has no power. Like us, he burns with a desire to know the hidden and to control his fate. So he hung on the windy tree, nights all nine, and won the secret of the runes – the hidden lore that explains all things. He sought wisdom too from Mimir’s well (the well of memory) and sacrificed an eye to drink from it. We are Ódhinn, and he is the embodiment of the Faustian spirit.
Wagner wrote to Röckel in 1854: “Observe [Wotan] closely! He resembles us to a tee.” What Wagner means here is that Wotan represents “modern man” (he goes on to describe Wotan as “the sum total of present-day intelligence,” and to contrast him with Siegfried, who is the “man of the future”). But here Wagner falls into the unconscious universalism that is characteristic of Western thinkers: the tendency to project Western features onto humanity as a whole. Obviously, however, Wotan does not resemble “modern man” in, for example, the China, India, or Africa of 1854 (or even of today).
In a similarly universalistic vein, Lee writes that “Wotan represents not so much the notion of God as what there is in man that has godlike potential.” But this is not fully accurate either. What Wotan represents is the striving of Western man for the infinite, for the transcendence of all boundaries; his striving, indeed, to become God. Wotan represents human consciousness in its Faustian inflection: the restless search for total knowledge, coupled with the desire to manipulate and to control all of nature. These are two sides of the same coin. But what Wotan depicts above all else is Faustian, Western man achieving self-consciousness: coming to full awareness of his nature – and willing his own end.
Cooke notes that “it has been mainly Europeans, or men of European origin, who have dominated and despoiled nature on a large scale; and in The Rhinegold Wagner was adapting North European myths to present an artistic diagnosis of the ills of European civilization.” Before we react in knee-jerk fashion against this seemingly “anti-Western” statement of Cooke’s, let us just pause to note that he is right.
And as a further piece of evidence to support the claim that it is really Western man that is represented in the figure of Wotan, not man in general, let us consider this quote from Wagner’s essay Art and Climate (1841):
Yet where climatic nature draws man beneath the all-sheltering influence of her rankest prodigality, and rocks him in her bosom as a mother rocks her child,—where we must therefore place the cradle of newborn mankind—there has man remained a child forever—as in the tropics,—with all an infant’s good and evil qualities. First where she drew this all-conditioning, over-tender influence back, when she handed man, like a prudent mother her adult son, to himself and his own free self-devisings,—where man, then, mid the waning warmth of the directly fostering care of climate, was forced to cater for himself,—do we see him ripening to the full unfoldment of his being. Only through the force of such a Need as surrounding Nature did not, like an over-careful mother, both listen for and still at once ere it had scarcely risen, but for whose appeasement he must himself provide, did he gain consciousness not only of that need but also of his power. This consciousness he reached through learning the distinction between himself and from whom he now must wrest it, became the object of his observation, inquiry, and dominion.
In short, only an inhospitable climate would have caused man to individuate himself from nature. We do not find this happening, to use Wagner’s example, in the Tropics, and so we do not find real history in the Tropics, or art, literature, science, or philosophy on anything other than an extremely rudimentary level. What inhospitable climate does Wagner have in mind, and where, thus, did history begin? He tells us on the next page of the essay:
Not, therefore, in the teeming Tropics, not in the sensuous flower land of India, was born true art; but on the naked, sea-splashed rocks of Hellas, upon the stony soil and beneath the scanty shadows of the olive trees of Attica, was set her cradle:—for here, amid privations, strove Hercules and suffered – here was the first true man begotten
And so it is Wagner’s view that it is primarily European man who succeeded in separating himself from nature – and who then turned on nature, so to speak, and sought to dominate her. Thus, if Wotan represents this aspect of “man,” it is truly European man that is meant here. Wagner is critical of this Western “will to power,” but he also seems to be aware that it is the source of all of our achievements. The early Wagner sought to reform the West; to heal the division Western man had made between himself and nature. The later Wagner saw our nature as inherently tragic, and offered, as we shall see, a different answer. And of course, Wagner was strongly influenced by Greek drama, in which the tragic nature of (Western) man is central. Oedipus, for example, represents the Western spirit: striving ceaselessly and heedlessly to know, until he is destroyed by knowing.
Wotan – Western man – is the tragic character of the Ring, and his tragic flaw is his restless, and reckless pursuit of knowledge and power.
Sketch, 311.
For more information see my review of Ricardo Duchesne’s The Uniqueness of Western Civilization (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2011): https://www.counter-currents.com/2013/04/ricardo-duchesnes-the-uniqueness-of-western-civilization/. Or better yet see the book itself.
See Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, Vol. 1, trans. E.F.J. Payne (Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 1969), see especially pages 153-154. The Idea that through man Will confronts itself is implicit in Schopenhauer’s theory of art.
Quoted in M. Owen Lee, Wagner’s Ring: Turning the Sky Around (New York: Limelight Editions, 1998), 53.
Richard Wagner, My Life, trans. Andrew Gray (New York: Da Capo Press, 1992), 260.
Lee, 26.
Quoted in Lee, 53.
Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West, Vol. I, trans. Charles Francis Atkinson (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926), 185-186
See also my review of Ricardo Duchesne’s The Uniqueness of Western Civilization (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2011): https://www.counter-currents.com/2013/04/ricardo-duchesnes-the-uniqueness-of-western-civilization/.
Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (New York: W.W. Norton, 1988), 308.
Lee, 56-57. In a way, Lee inadvertently hits on a very important point made by Edred Thosson: that the “Odinist” does not worship Odin; instead, he strives to become him.
Cooke, 252. Italics in original.
In Ellis, 252.REUTERS / GETTY
The mission, set to launch in 2020, will be Beijing’s first to the Red Planet.
Space boffins have released the computer-generated images as the country’s space programme moves at rocket-speed.
But doubts have reportedly been cast about the motives for the mission – which Chinese officials insist is for peaceful purposes.
The US Defence Department is said to have expressed concerns about China’s rapidly growing space capabilities.
And officials fear Beijing is concentrating on “activities aimed to prevent adversaries from using space-based assets in a crisis”.
It comes as the US Congress has reportedly banned NASA from working with Chinese space experts amid security worries.
“The challenges we face are unprecedented”Zhang Rongqiao, chief architect
The new 441Ib (200kg) rover is powered by four solar panels which give it a “butterfly” appearance and is mounted on six wheels.
It is set to be deployed in July or August 2020 for three months, in the hope of sighting water or ice and gathering information on the Red Planet’s soil and atmosphere.
The device is 132lb (60kg) heavier than a Chinese rover planted on the moon in 2013 - with astronauts set to launch a space mission later this year.
And ambitious plans reveal how they hope to launched manned visits in 2036.
Zhang Rongqiao, chief architect of the project, told how "the challenges we face are unprecedented".
As part of the mission announcement, the public have been invited to suggest a name and logo for the new rover.
It follows a number of setbacks which scuppered China’s plans to travel to Mars on a Russian spacecraft in 2011.
China became the third country to put a man in space, following the USA and Russia, in 2003.The advantages of exoskeletons include enhanced leverage for muscular movements and protective covering for muscles and internal organs, while their disadvantages include heightened vulnerability during the molting process and restrictive in terms of sizes and weights. Exoskeletons are the stiffened, resilient structures that form the external covering of arthropods. The members of Phylum Arthropoda, having insects as the largest group, are the most diverse organisms on Earth.Continue Reading
The exoskeletons, also referred to as "integuments," are divided into four functional sections: epidermis, basement membrane, procuticle and epicuticle. The epidermis secretes the cuticle layers and forms a portion of the basement membrane, which separates the exoskeleton from the main body cavity. Directly below the epidermis lies the procuticle, consisting of a tough fibrous and protein-based substance called chitin. The chitin-rich procuticle either develops into rigid, outer layers called "exocuticle" or into soft, inner tiers called "endocuticle."
The epicuticle, located on the topmost area of the cuticle layers, guards against foreign invasion. This region has an innermost stratum called the "cuticulin layer" that contains lipoproteins and fatty acids. Another layer made up of wax molecules occupies the area above the cuticulin layer. The wax serves as an impermeable barrier against dehydration. The majority of insects often have another protective layer called a "cement layer" that prevents the waxy material from being abraded. Although the materials comprising the exoskeleton are relatively light, the size of arthropods are limited by this structure and they are forced to constantly shed it.Learn more about ZoologyWednesday: Designing Designing Interfaces: How Not To Write A Pattern Catalog
Presenter: Jenifer Tidwell
Jenifer Tidwell, author of Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design, shared her motivations and the lessons she learned as she wrote her book.
One of the few conference sessions that actually related to patterns, this session promised to be interesting. Given everyone’s varying definitions and usage of patterns, I think it would have been helpful if Jenifer had started off this session with a clear definition of what a pattern is and how designers can use a pattern catalog. Afterward, when I spoke with attendees, I found not everyone was on quite the same page with the speaker when her talk began. Well into the session, Jenifer finally did define what she means by a pattern.
a suggestion, not a requirement
a product, not a process
able to capture relationships among elements
usable across platforms
able to clearly improve the user experience
Jenifer’s guidelines for preparing to write a pattern include the following:
Notice a recurring design element.
Work up and down the abstraction ladder.
Understand why the pattern works.
Figure out the appropriate context for the pattern—when you should or should not use it.
Name the pattern.
As a repository for design wisdom, pattern catalogs are important, because they can serve as job aids and teaching or learning tools for both novices and experienced designers. Jenifer shared several important tips and techniques for creating design pattern catalogs, as follows:
1. Design the pattern catalog for use.
Prefer the concrete to the abstract.
Use a simple and accessible organizational model. The organization doesn’t have to be perfect, just functional.
Provide examples—what, use when, why, how—as well as context, problems, forces, solutions, resulting context, diagrams, and notes.
Help users find the patterns they need. Make sure patterns link to each other, showing relationships such as is a, leads to, alternative to, and works well with.
2. Focus on your users.
Not all designers will use the pattern catalog. So don’t try to create a one-size-fits-all solution. Focus on one audience.
Use the vocabulary they know.
Use familiar examples.
3. Do not try to capture all design knowledge in the form of patterns.
Others types of information include
style guides and standards
genres and idioms
4. Think hard about contexts of use.
Avoid documenting the obvious, failing to provide any new insights.
Providing a pattern’s context of use will help you to add value and avoid the obvious.
5. Visual examples are critical.
Explain in pictures, not just words.
Pictures help you define the pattern and offer evidence.
6. Find out how designers are really going to use a pattern.
Once you’ve created the pattern catalog and put it into practice, follow up with users.
Conduct a survey and learn how designers are using the catalog. Collect suggestions for its improvement.
Wednesday: Training Up To Senior: Bridging the Gulf Between Internships and Senior UCD Positions
Panelists: Kaaren Hanson, Paul Sherman, Stephanie Rosenbaum, and Kelly Braun
The usability industry has grown rapidly in the past several years, and it has become clear that there are not enough experienced user-centered design (UCD) practitioners. During this panel, Kaaren Hanson of Intuit, Paul Sherman of Sage Software, Stephanie Rosenbaum of Tec-Ed, and Kelly Braun of PayPal shared their perspectives as hiring managers from four different organizations and facilitated a conversation with the audience about what has and has not worked in addressing this problem. The highlights of the discussion were as follows:
What Has Worked
To develop senior UCD practitioners on their staffs, managers should:
Hire the right employees.
Use contractors until the staff comes up to speed. They often have more experience than staff. Some stay on for several years.
Hire graduates from top design schools.
Hire subject-matter experts as designers, then teach them UCD.
Hire both process-oriented and creative, intuitive people.
Hire people who can take initiative and be change agents.
Join on-campus initiatives to identify and engage new team members early.
Train existing employees.
Enroll UX team members in certification programs.
Train developers and technical communicators in basic UCD skills.
Use “train-the-trainer” certification programs.
Send staff to a negotiation skills course.
Create suitcase training courses for your team to reduce costs.
Let newer employees help train new hires. It solidifies their new-found knowledge.
Create the right environment for employees.
Give people a variety of opportunities to grow their skills more quickly.
Give people lots of room to grow, as Google does.
Give top employees more opportunities and encourage them to mentor others.
Emphasize sharing of information and openness to feedback.
What Hasn’t Worked
Problems managers of UCD practitioners should avoid:
Hiring people with inadequate training. Some academic programs are several years behind the times, or the training they offer is not deep enough. Understand what the programs are and recruit at the higher-quality schools. Industry must tell academia what we need.
Hiring senior team members who don’t have experience in work, business, and politics is a mistake.
Candidates need internship experience before their first job. Hiring someone fresh out of school without this basic experience is not a good strategy. Not enough companies are offering internships to students. So many of the entry-level candidates are under prepared.
Hiring managers find it hard to identify real problems during an interview process.
A culture that fails to foster employees’ taking initiative doesn’t allow them to blossom.
Organizations that lack collaborative-culture skills and communities of practice are not conducive to doing the best work.
It’s difficult to retain creative employees. “Tweeners,” or people with multiple skill sets, might want to move between roles on the team. As creative staff, designers can get bored and need new headspace every couple of years. Motivating people to stay with the organization long term without negatively impacting organizational needs is a challenge.
What Can I Do To Move Myself Up to Senior?
To develop senior-level skills, a junior UCD practitioner should:
Cross-train wherever possible. Develop business savvy and other UX skills and understand the system development lifecycle.
Keep your mouth shut. Listen as much as possible!
Seek a mentor for support.
Learn what you can where you are.
Work at a consulting company to gain a lot of experience quickly.
Start where you can, then grow your role into what you want it to become. In young professions, job definitions are not cast in concrete.
Fight your way onto projects.
Learn teamwork outside a school setting.
Volunteer with the UPA or other UX-related organizations.
Thursday: So You Want To Be A Rock Star (Usability Consultant)
Panelists: Aaron Marcus, Janice James, Theo Mandel, Larry Marine, and Nicholas Simonelli
Recognizing that forming and operating a UX consultancy is a challenging process, “five veteran practitioners with a total of approximately 100 years of practice” discussed the pros and cons of striking out on your own. The panelists represented a broad range of consulting experiences—from single-person consultancies to small firms to medium-sized, multi-location firms and included:
Aaron Marcus, President of Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc.
Janice James, Director of User Experience at Perficient, Inc.
Theo Mandel, CEO and Principal Consultant at Interface Design and Development, LLC
Larry Marine of Intuitive Design
Nicholas Simonelli, President of Performance Research and Design, Inc.
While the majority of the session comprised a question-and-answer exchange between the audience and the panelists, in the background, slides provided a valuable list of considerations for contemplating this career path. The following captures the considerations covered in both the slides as well as the conversation that ensued.
Why start a consultancy?
Your goals might include the following:
personal goals—money, time, flexibility, location, family, and so on
business goals—strategy, focus, new opportunities, and so on
When is the right time to start a consultancy? How much experience do you need before heading into consultancy?
To make sure you’re ready for consulting:
First, consider taking an interim job with a consulting company before starting your own consultancy.
Build your presence in the UX community by writing books and articles, giving presentations, and participating in organizations.
Create a financial backup plan.
How do you start your consultancy?
Things to consider include:
whether you’re coming from academia or the corporate world
having a separate office versus an office in your home
your consultancy’s image—an individual versus a company
your company name, logo, and tagline
setting up shop
finding clients before you begin
dealing with business and taxes
getting business insurance—general and professional liability insurance; $1M umbrella policies
your consulting model—fixed bid, project based with minimum and maximum, or time and materials
consulting projects—one-shot, long-term, or repeat business
project location—onsite versus remote work
logistics of working remotely—time differences, conference calls, using WebEx or wikis, and so on
business tools—remote usability testing with Morae and so on
creating your Web site, blog, marketing collateral, business cards, press releases, and ads
networking and participating in industry organizations and conferences
Where should you set up your consultancy?
home office pros and cons—office in your home or home in your office?
need for lab space and other facilities
Who will work in your consultancy? What structure will you use?
Decide whether you want to be
a sole proprietor
consulting firm with employees
principal consultant with employees and/or contractors
a consultancy with employees versus contractors versus a consortium
a physical or virtual company
a full-service consultancy or focus on one of aspect of usability, specialty, or methodology—for example, usability evaluation and testing
How can you get and keep clients? How do you decide what clients and industries to target?
Things you need to do to get new clients and keep your old or current clients include:
marketing yourself as a consultant or company
advertising—online, print, and so on
networking with clients and colleagues
getting referrals from colleagues and clients
garnering publicity or press—books, articles, presentations, press releases, and quotations
participating in industry organizations and conferences
managing the client relationship—contracts, SOWs (Statements of Work), NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements)
How do you make money? How do you decide what to charge?
Things to think about:
using hourly rates versus fixed-bid pricing
charging different rates for different clients or services
charging for travel time—whether to charge for your time sitting on an airplane
using retainers, incentives, and bonuses
billing clients and collecting money
Tips for financial success:
Early-payment discounts work.
Some companies have 45-day to 60-day payment cycles. Plan for this.
Consider asking for a percentage of the payment up front
What do you need to do to start and sustain your business?
Getting started and sustaining your business:
Develop your Web site and collateral.
Do your business analysis.
Understand what it will take to cover the costs of insurance, materials, and resources, plus give yourself a salary.
Don’t confuse the company’s profitability with your own salary. Make sure to include both in your analysis.
Do not operate as a sole proprietor. Set yourself up as an employee of your own company.
Assume you’ll spend some percentage of your time marketing, educating your client audience, and looking for new work.
Unless you already have a client lined up when you first get started, you will be unemployed for a while.
How do you grow your business? What is your three-to-five year plan?
To grow your business:
Set short-term and long-term goals. Make a one-year and a five-year plan.
Stay in an industry niche or branch into new areas.
Work with new technologies or industries.
Establish, copyright, trademark, and patent methods, services, and products.
Participate in industry organizations. Attend, network at, and present at conferences such as the UPA, STC, CHI, HFES, AIGA, vertical market chapters, and so on.
fighting the consultant image—Sometimes it works to your disadvantage.
leveraging the consulting image—Sometimes it works to your benefit. There are many examples where employees were trying to make the right decisions, but management wouldn’t listen, then management finally did listen to the same advice from a consultant.
juggling client work
juggling work versus home and family
working with clients
frustrations of project management
frustrations of running a business
How do you include product development in the mix?
How do you deal with competitors?
frustrations of having employees
How do you handle staff?
There is a moral responsibility to take care of the people who work for you. You aren’t just looking out for yourself.
Payroll paperwork involves a lot of work. It is highly recommended that you outsource payroll and human-resources (HR) management to payroll and HR firms.
Where do you hire staff from?
What do you do with difficult staff?
Should you offer internships and train people up or hire only experienced people?
What are your training policies?
Friday: Closing Plenary: Oh Them? Designing for the Other 4 Billion Users I Forgot About
Presenter: Patrick Whitney
Patrick Whitney, Director of the IIT Institute of Design, shown in Figure 1, offered the parting thoughts for the UPA 2007 conference. His talk was a call to action for UX professionals to pay attention to the needs of the people who are at the base of the economic pyramid, where over 60% of the world’s population lives on under $2 a day.
Patrick began by considering the shift that has happened in the relationship between companies and the consumers that use their products. Henry Ford’s statement in 1930s, “Give them what color they want, as long as it’s black,” reflects the old way—when producers were in control. But now, the consumers are in control. As well articulated by an anonymous Wal-Mart customer, producers have received increasing pressure to “Give me what I want, when I want it, in my style, and close to free.” But, as we move forward, we have begun to realize the huge social and economic opportunity in designing for people at the bottom of the pyramid. The question becomes how and what do you design for these markets in light of all the issues around poverty—such as lack of infrastructure, scarcity of water, no land rights, inflow of rural migrants, overcrowding, and so on. Despite these challenges, China has become the “factory to the world” and India the “business-processing outsourcing center of the world.” The growth in these countries as well as in other emerging markets like Brazil and Russia is expanding the middle class by one billion people—a community larger than the top of the pyramid, a community that cannot be ignored.
Next, Patrick examined past and current business models and the opportunities they present, as well as proposed new models based on research conducted at IIT. When producers were in control, the focus was on economies of scale, emphasizing mass production and standardization. With consumers at the center, business success is a balancing act between desirability to users, technical feasibility, and economic forces. In the more traditional models, the major growth opportunities occur during mergers and acquisitions, when companies develop new products and innovations, or when you figure out how to sell existing products to people at the base of the pyramid.
However, an innovation gap exists. Most companies know how to make things, but the hard part is deciding what they should make. The way to address this innovation gap is to take a step back and observe the patterns of daily life—live, work, learn, play. To facilitate this process, Patrick reminded us that we need methods and tools “for developing consumer insights that are as powerful as our methods for developing technology and business models,” particularly those that do not require significant financial investment.
During the China Interactive Home project, the IIT team developed field notebooks as a mechanism for conducting research remotely that yielded rich, consistent data. They could distribute these rigorously structured notebooks in a region, to people who are not necessarily trained in user experience. Teachers and community leaders who are good at talking to others could easily conduct the research, document the data through photos and text—design factors, design criteria, activities, time, people, objects, environment, messages, services, and comments—then FedEx the notebooks back to the research team. At 20% of the cost, these notebooks provided 80% of the data and a variety of insights into the product opportunities that exist in China, particularly
buying fresh food
families staying in touch
helping kids learn
Subsequently, they conducted studies utilizing this method in India, where the average Indian home is 12x12 feet and contains a single floor a family uses for cooking, sleeping, and conducting a home-based business.
The insights from this project led Patrick and his team to iterate on their proposed business model for designing for emerging markets. In addition, they identified specific issues around the quality of and access to water, support for micro-businesses, and housing, which resulted in product or economic designs like Mobile H20, GuildNet, and StepOne Homes.
Patrick and the team at IIT Institute of Design are also working on a user insight tool that will help companies archive, catalog, and later use their research in a new culture, regardless of the particular project for which they originally conducted the research. Having a tool that captures information about the people, objects, environment, messages, and services will help practitioners determine where the breakthrough opportunities are. Patrick, let me know when you’ve finished the tool. I’d love to get my hands on a copy!
Posters, Idea Markets, and Special Interest Groups
Throughout the conference, other types of sessions encouraged knowledge exchange, active engagement, and networking. On Tuesday evening, a special poster review session took place during the welcome reception. And, for those who could not attend the poster review, the posters remained on display in the highly visible location for the remainder of the week shown in Figure 2, offering plenty of exposure and opportunity for discussion.
The active discourse continued Wednesday afternoon at the first Idea Market, where facilitators posed burning questions to participants. An Idea Market is a brainstorming free-for-all. Attendees buzz from station to station and share their ideas on selected topics. Being a session facilitators is a great way to get a quick
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1864 to 1869 and 1942 to 1943, will allow people with Irish ancestors to more fully investigate their genealogy and heritage.
Regina Doherty, Minister for Social Protection, described the work of digitization and increasing access to these files “one of the State’s essential services and one of the greatest resources for those establishing their family histories. Providing this open and free access to older records and register entries will further support the efforts of many family historians throughout the world,” according to the Irish Times.
Included in the cache are some notable documents, including the death certificate for poet Patrick Kavanagh, who died November 30, 1967, as well as that of his rival Brendan Behan, who died March 20, 1964.
Next steps, according to the General Register Office are to digitize death certificates in full back to 1864, as well as plans to update marriage records dating back to 1845.CSIRO, the national science agency of Australia, is building the largest solar-power tower of its type in the world at the National Solar Energy Centre in Newcastle, New South Wales.
The site will consist of around 450 mirrors (heliostats) that will direct solar heat onto a 30m-high tower to produce super-heated compressed air for a Brayton Cycle turbine.
‘The new technology will pave the way for the solar power of the future – solar power that only requires the sun and air to create electricity,’ said Dr Alex Wonhas, director of CSIRO’s Energy Transformed Flagship.
‘Most solar thermal power stations require water to operate a steam turbine to produce electricity,’ added Wonhas. ’Our Brayton Cycle technology does not need water. This technology is therefore ideally suited to many parts of Australia that only receive minimal rainfall.’
CSIRO received $5m (£3.3m) in funding from the Australian Solar Institute (ASI) – an Australian government initiative – to build the field and conduct research over two years.
The site for the solar tower will cover an area of 4,000m2 and will be capable of operating at temperatures higher than 900ºC.
The site is expected to be operational by March 2011 and is being built adjacent to an existing solar tower field.A biological recirculating aquaculture system that uses aeration and particle removal.
The Kaldnes RAS (recirculating aquaculture system) is a biological aquaculture treatment system that reuses water alongside continual treatment/delivery to cultured organisms. By using aeration and particle removal, it maximises production while reducing pollution, energy and water consumption.
Kaldnes RAS offers particle control down to nanofiltration, along with maximum utilisation of added oxygen in the smallest footprint possible.
Recirculating Aquaculture System Advantages
Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) offer a number of benefits over flow-through or pond aquaculture systems:
- Water is conserved, reducing environmental impact and supporting sustainability.
- Fish are healthier and less prone to disease.
- Effluent and waste control is simplified as less waste is created.
- High fish stock density reduces the amount of land needed, lowering costs.
- Whole system can be monitored and controlled remotely.125 Descriptive Essay Topics: The Simplest Way Writing a Descriptive Essay
Assignments and essays that are descriptive problems every student faces during studying period. Even in the event it is extremely hard to perform everything your professor provided you, you’ve kept to master how to write in different designs, meet all the demands, including most of the essentials you must have in your text. All of us have our very own tips and tricks to hold through the project duration, so we each one is professionals within our type that is own of.
He would probably recall a descriptive essay if you ask a college student to name the easiest type of paper. But exactly what is a descriptive essay and why is it so easy to compose? Or maybe you need to discover the website that is best to complete assignments? We’re here to help you out on that question and give you extra essay that is descriptive to make your college life easier.
Exactly what is a Descriptive Essay and How Does it Differ from a straightforward Description?
The goal that is main of description essay would be to explain something, be it an individual, a predicament or just one thing you intend to inform people about. While writing this kind of descriptive essay, you need to write the written text utilizing your experience that is own and. No researches, no opinions that are outer just your brain, and your head. Just information that is sensory used to know the descriptive topic. The description regarding the things is obvious and simple. Imagination, though, creates pictures in the mind for the reader, helping to make this experience unique and personified.
It could sound right to start out the introduction by having a description of the context of the topic on that the description that is entire concentrate. Doing this puts things into perspective for your reader.
How exactly does it vary from a description? a description that is simple be just a few sentences or one long paragraph when a descriptive essay frequently contains five paragraphs. This has its design and carries a thesis in a introduction, three human body paragraphs, and a summary.
How exactly to Write a Descriptive Essay?
When it comes to composing, you should know associated with the structure as it varies from all the other kinds of descriptive essay. To begin with, you should pick the topic through the descriptive message topics you’ll be interested in. Then, you’re free to plan down your components. Once we already mentioned, an essay that is descriptive five parts:
- Introduction. In the introduction you ought to include your thesis statement and dwell regarding the subject. That’s the component, which will grab the attention associated with the reader, so it must be written simply and smooth, giving some background that is essential for your reader to comprehend your subject better. Do not forget to produce a transition from the background data and your thesis statement. In descriptive essays, the thesis typically takes up one sentence that is full.
- 3 body paragraphs. Three human anatomy paragraphs need evidences which will show your thesis. When you’re fighting this part, utilize five simple tables to set up sensory information you have about your subject and then pick them from the comfort of your records to prove your thesis.
- Summary. This part that is last of paper concludes everything and provides a directory of it. You ought to have your remarks that are last this component and rephrase your thesis statement.
Prior to starting on your own essay that is descriptive about place or perhaps a individual, you need to know everything you can write on and explain it in general. Check out of the a few ideas:
- favorite trip an such like.
First of all, think of what you’d prefer to reveal and pick an interest from descriptive speech topics, social issues topics or procedure essay subjects that will match the theme. Possess some inspiration through the essays of others. Search around for descriptive writing topics and prompts if you can’t think about something unique for yourself. Expository essays are easy to compose when you have enough motivation on the chosen descriptive topic.
How to begin a descriptive essay?
If you find yourself struggling after getting some descriptive essay a few ideas, think of the primary statement you can use in your creation. This task may be the one which make down your main thesis statement and keywords that will explain your descriptive topic. Once we stated previously, make five tables for five sensory faculties. This arrangement can certainly make it less complicated to transfer your data towards the step that is next.
Develop a draft of your expository essay
Take the time to create a draft that will become a version that is close of descriptive essay. Choose all the key words you need to include them in to the five paragraphs. Don’t forget to make three points to prove your thesis statement and explain your topic. Make just an example that will be extended by one other details you’ll add during the alternative.
Incorporating details to your descriptive essay with all the help of enriched English vocabulary and online dictionaries
It is okay if you have restricted language because this task will include more value to your expository writing. Include anything you want and describe it correctly so that your audience will be thinking about what you had written. Create an image in the sensory words to their head you will find in online dictionaries like Oxford, Cambridge or Macmillan people. Make sure that they’ll touch on your descriptive topic and prolong the physical body paragraphs.
Make time to revise and modify the paper with the help of various free online grammar checking tools
Before you check your descriptive essays for errors by rereading it, remember to use online grammar checking tools to have your back covered in case your eyes miss one thing. You can make use of sentence structure corrector by EduBirdie simply by uploading your text there. You might be additionally free to utilize paraphrase tool and also make a paper unique or purchase it at on line email composing solution just in case you want another person to check on it before you do so by yourself.
Edit the descriptive essay
Before you start editing your paper, take a long break. You can always day your pals, take a walk, and also a nap or a of good sleep night. Your brain must be fresh before you keep coming back and reread your essay. Take all of the right time you need, read it out loud, add or remove sentences, verify that you have got put every thing properly. It is useful to double-check grammar just in case tools that are online one thing. Would your paper seem sensible if perhaps you were your reader? Perhaps you’ll have to rewrite paragraphs that are whole they might make more sense and convey the descriptive topic better.
Struggling with essay research?
Our authors have already assisted 2,000+ students conquer their research goals. Allow them to allow you to.
Tip: Ask your family member or perhaps a friend to listen to your essay that is descriptive them to criticize everything you’ve written. It shall assist your practice in the future.
The 125 Descriptive Essay Topics for Every Struggling Pupil
When you can’t choose your descriptive subject, you can find descriptive writing subjects on the net and select one for your theme. There are numerous things you can come up with as a writer if it will be about a place you’ve visited, a person you know or something completely different so you have to decide. In any case, here are our subjects for descriptive essay for the students that are struggling.
Topics to describe someplace
- My favorite destination within my hometown
- A room that is favorite the house
- The house I was raised in
- My perfect getaway
- I wish We lived in that household
- My perfect room
- The area I would like to see
- My dream apartment
- The best class room
- I love studying in this cafe
- My favorite restaurant to see
- A dream was had by me about any of it spot
- This store is my personal favorite to look in
- We walk my dog in this park
- A museum that we visited recently
- The road I love to circumambulate
- What I see from my screen
- A city I acquired lost in
If you wish to explain a person
- My mom is the most person that is creative
- Dad is the most person that is interesting
- A person I research to
- My favorite singer
- My favorite dancer
- An athlete that made me like activities
- My friend that is best
- I’d like to satisfy this celebrity
- My animal
- Meet with the composer of the essay
- They are missed by me
- This is an typical human
- I’d like to meet up with this individual in the past
- A perfect companion for me personally
- I love this in a person
- Why is me personally appreciate an individual
- A complete stranger that caught my eye
- Why I really like my boyfriend (gf)
Your memories and subjects about your experience
- This is my perfect date
- The i visited another country day
- The way I rode a horse for the time that is first
- Once I discovered the best hobby
- How I decided whom i do want to become
- My perfect journey
- Most useful childhood memory
- The way I spent my time with my grandparents
- Exactly How my moms and dads raised me
- Best memory with my closest buddy
- The day that is first of
- When I became a freshman
- The most readily useful celebration of my entire life
- The way that is best we invested my weekends
- My many birthday that is interesting
- What I keep in mind from my 12th birthday
- My animal in childhood
- The i attended a dentist day
- My first crush
- The last play I’ve seen
- The most readily useful concert I went to
- This made me frightened
- This made me excited
- We miss this day
- My funniest memory
- The time I came across my friend
Things and object in your life
- My thing that is favorite to with
- My favorite TV show
- An thing that is expensive want to have
- My research basics
- My anti-stress toy
- What I also have in my own pocket
- Furniture that helps me relax
- My sleep makes me feel comfortable
- My childhood toy
- Why I love my smartphone
- This thing is unique if you ask me
- A doll I nevertheless perform with
- My very first car
- We gather these things
- I’d send this to your future
- We never leave the house without our
- I’d send this to the past
- Explaining a smartphone to someone through the ’60s
- I like my laptop computer
- The best food
- I enjoy cook our
- My family treasures
- What’s in my pocket
- What’s in my bag
- My favorite tattoo
Hobbies, procedures, and occupations
- My future job
- Something I love to do in my spare time
- My friend’s pastime
- The way my loved ones members unwind
- My personal favorite club
- My dream work
- My brand new pastime
- The way in which I start my early morning
- Day how I usually end my
- Getting ready for a date
- Composing my very first story
- Learning one thing new
- Moving an exam
- The way I learn
- How the gym is visited by me
- Drawing a portrait
- Just how to bake a cake
- When you really need to finish your relationship
- How to escape a robber
- Exactly What assists me relax
Behavior and character
- I prefer this trait in someone
- We hate this trait in an individual
- An feeling we hate to feel
- How I react to a surprise
- What makes me laugh
- Ways to get my attention
- Why is me feel afraid
- Making my children people excited
- My animal peeve
- An addiction I have
- Something I quit doing
- My life as being a vegan
- Exactly What influences me personally being a individual
- Once I feel sad
- Once I want to give up
- The way I have motivated
- What annoys me
- Characteristics that my pal have commonly
Remember that your descriptive topic reflexes the reason that is main you made a decision to compose your essay. You need to convey your own feelings and explain this main indicate your visitors. Follow the structure, use your ideas and every thing will be alright along with your future essay. You should use paper help at Edubirdie or sentence generator that is topic! Our professional authors will be happy to assist you along with your research. All the best!The Republic of Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) is a representative presidential democracy. The country was established as an independent republic in 1960 having a centralized government within the constitutional framework. During the leadership of the first president, the country flourished economically despite the dictatorial regime featuring intolerance for the opposition. Towards the end of the 20th century, calls for democracy led to political tensions within the country culminating in the first Ivorian civil war in 1999. The civil war led to the adoption of a new constitution in 2000, which established a unitary government. However, the political condition in the country failed to change resulting in the second Ivorian civil war in 2011. The two civil wars are associated with the transition of Cote d’Ivoire from a despotic regime to a democracy rather than hostility between ethnic factions. The second civil war prompted the establishment of a transitional government and the adoption of the new constitution in 2016.
The Executive Branch Of The Government Of Côte D'Ivoire
The government exercises executive power in the republic with the president serving as the chief of state and government. He appoints cabinet members including the prime minister and the vice president. All cabinet members are answerable to the president. The Ivorian president, elected by a two round system, serves for five-year terms and may vie for the presidency as many times as he wishes. By agreement of the UN Security Council and the African Union, the current prime minister is an appointee of the international community.
The Legislative Branch Of The Government Of Côte D'Ivoire
Currently, the legislature exists as a unicameral body of 225 members. The national assembly members serve for five-year terms. Parliamentary elections are by a simple majority vote system in the single and multi-seat constituencies. The main responsibility of the Parliament is passing legislation from the president and sometimes introducing new legislations. A bicameral parliament will replace the current parliament, where the national assembly will serve as the lower house while the Senate will be the upper house. The Senate will consist of 120 members 40 of whom will be appointed by the president, and the rest will be elected by municipal and regional council members.
The Judicial Branch Of The Government Of Côte D'Ivoire
Cote d’Ivoire is established through a civil law system reflecting the French civil law system. The constitution establishes the judiciary as an independent branch of the government but places it under the authority of the president. The Supreme Court is the highest in the court system whose judges the president appoints. Also in the Ivorian court system are the courts of appeal, courts of the first instance and peace courts. Also within the judicial system is the high court of justice, which tries government officials.
The New Constitution
In a bid to avoid the occurrence of another war in the country, the government introduced the 2016 constitution, which had the approval of the majority of the voters in the country. The constitution establishes the country as a democracy with a joint presidential and vice presidential election, a bicameral parliament and grants the rights and freedoms to all citizens including minority groups. The first elections under the new constitution are scheduled for 2020. The constitution also requires presidential candidates to be a full Ivorian citizen and aged at least 35 years. The presidential term will also be limited to a maximum of two five-year terms.
Your MLA Citation
Your APA Citation
Your Chicago Citation
Your Harvard CitationRemember to italicize the title of this article in your Harvard citation.The following are excerpts from an article in Cycling Industry News by Mark Sutton:
A university of Colorado Boulder study has buried the myth that electric bike users are “cheating”, demonstrating that riders do indeed get an “effective workout” and the health benefits associated with pedal powered bikes.
Published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, the findings lent weight to a decision on whether or not to allow electric bikes on bike paths in the city of Boulder, which partially funded the study alongside the National Institutes of Health.
In delivering the study, researchers recruited a pool of twenty sedentary commuters, conducting tests of their overall health, blood glucose regulation, and fitness. These commuters were then asked to shift their transport to work to the e-Bike fleet, using a speed and intensity setting of their choice for a minimum of 40 minutes three times per week. Each wore a heart monitor and GPS.
After a month, volunteers revisited the lab and had the very same tests conducted again. Notable improvements to the 20 subjects’ cardiovascular health were evident, with improved aerobic capacity and blood sugar control noted in all cases.
“Commuting with a pedelec can help individuals incorporate physical activity into their day without requiring them to set aside time specifically for exercise,” said James Peterman, a graduate researcher in the Department of Integrative Physiology at CU Boulder and lead author of the new study.
In the study’s conclusion the researchers write: “Participants rode a pedelec in the real world at a self-selected moderate intensity, which helped them meet physical activity recommendations. Pedelecs are an effective form of active transportation that can improve some cardio-metabolic risk factors within only 4 weeks.”
There you have it; electric bikes, besides being good for the environment, are also good for the people who ride them. Let us help you help yourself as well as the world around you. Come test ride an electric bike. It’s simple, easy, and SO much fun!Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet KH, MRS (1792-1871) was the son of Sir William Herschel and, like his father, was both an outstanding astronomer and devout Christian. He discovered over 500 new nebulae and performed the prodigious task of cataloging the stars and nebulae of both northern and southern hemispheres. Concerning the Bible, he said:
All human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more and more strongly the truths come from on high and contained in the sacred writings.
Excerpted from Men of Science, Men of God by Henry M. Morris. Copyright 1982, 1988 by Henry M. Morris. Used by permission.Did you know?
Do something today your future self will thank you for tomorrow.
Know the Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen List! Which foods should you buy organic, and which can you safely buy conventional? The Environmental Working Group ranks pesticide contamination of popular fruits and vegetables based on more than 36,000 samples of produce tested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. The list includes the Dirty Dozen, the produce with the highest amount of pesticide residue, and the Clean Fifteen, the produce that is least likely to contain pesticide residue.
Snap a picture of the lists above and always have it handy when you are grocery shopping.
Share this Post|Most recent IBA monitoring assessment|
|Year of assessment||Threat score (pressure)||Condition score (state)||Action score (response)|
|2005||low||not assessed||not assessed|
|For more information about IBA monitoring please click here|
Mountains with quartziferous scarps of great dimensions located between the towns of Castelo Branco and Portalegre. Mountains are crossed by River Tejo and River Ocreza with high steep valleys. Pine-woods non native and some mediterranean shrubland. It is also important the existence of a great amount of Junniperus.
This site holds the greatest colony of Gyps fulvus in Portugal and other cliff-nesting species like ciconia nigra and Hieraatus fasciatus.Also it is possible to found Oenanthe leucura.
BirdLife International (2019) Important Bird Areas factsheet: Portas de Ródão e Vale Mourão. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 22/08/2019.The May 11 meeting of the RASC Mississauga Centre will feature a talk on the Earth's moon.
Talk Title: Earth's Battered Moon: Understanding how impacts from space have shaped our planet
Speaker: Sara Mazrouei, PhD Candidate in Planetary Geology, University of Toronto
Just like the Earth, the Moon is about 4.5 billion years old. It has been and continues to be constantly bombarded by meteorites. Some suggest that this rate of bombardment has remained constant in the past couple of billion years. The Moon’s surface without any substantial atmosphere or tectonic activity serves as a time capsule, helping us detangle Earth’s history. The only way to see if the bombardment rate has changed is to have an age for every single crater, an extremely difficult task using traditional crater dating methods. Recently, it has been shown that the rockiness of large craters’ ejecta provides an alternative means for estimating the ages of Copernican craters (younger than roughly one billion years old). This talk will focus on exploring the rate of bombardment in the past billion years.
Sara Mazrouei has been interested in outer space since an early age.
"To pursue my passion, I enrolled in the Space Science program at York University and continued to do my master's there. That is where I became more interested in planetary science. After finishing my master's, I worked as a Young Graduate Trainee at the European Space Agency for a year and then started my doctorate at U of T. I'm doing my PhD at the department of Earth Sciences, using remote sensing techniques to understand the age of impact craters on the Moon. From that data, we can extrapolate the frequency and scale of meteorite impacts on the Earth over time, which is an important part of our planetary history."
Sara Mazrouei's thesis focuses on the cratering rate on the Moon. She is a science team member on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's Diviner team. Sara received her MSc. from York University, where she studied rocks on asteroid Itokawa using data from the Japanese Hayabusa mission. In between her master's and PhD studies, Sara worked at the European Space Agency, calibrating radio science data from the Venus Express.
The meeting will be held from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. at The University of Toronto,Mississauga Campus, in lecture hall SE2074 in the William Davis Building. The meeting is open to the public and is free.
Enter off of Mississauga Road. Park in lot 4 or the parkade, across from the fitness centre south of theDavis Building. Enter through the Fitness centre, walk up the stairs untilyou reach the main corridor then turn right. (If you need an elevator,follow the corridor to the right of the stairs, then go up to the mainfloor.) Look for the Mississauga Centre sign in front of the lecture room. Directions
Post meeting plans: we usually continue the discussion post-meeting at a local bar – please join us!Geothermal Systems Heating and coolinggreenhouses and buildings consume large amounts of energy; a factor where their cost can be prohibitive for greenhouse climate management. Geothermal system’s pumps provide winter heating and summer cooling, especially important in greenhouse food production in the the northeast climate. After initial installation, consume no energy.
Solar Thermal Water absorbs heat slowly but holds it to release slowly as well. Aquaculture and hydroponics as food growing methods increase temperatures in the greenhouse enough to maintain ambient food production conditions. Protein production by growing fish in the greenhouse will also sequester carbon and contribute to the fertilization of other crops.
Local Energy Production We have designed a solar photo bioreactor to grow algae for the production of biodiesel. Using algae as a feedstock for biodiesel conserves water and land tranditionally used for food production. It is also sustainable and sequesters carbon dioxide. Including local food production is important to our model of sustainability. Local production of biodiesel decentralizes fuel production and enhances its potential for use in local transportation, heating, and other operating energy needs.The Impact of Climate Change on Water Supply in the Sahel Region: The case of Burkina Faso
Over the last few decades, Burkina Faso, partly due to its geographical location, has experienced strong seasonal and annual climatic variations that place pressure on limited water resources. Climate variability is a major constraint on food security, health, environment, and poverty reduction due to a high dependence on the agricultural sector, which is 86% of the GDP. Available water resources are highly vulnerable to changes in rain, temperature and wind patterns. This has become a major challenge in the operations of the national utility, Office National de l’Eau et de l’Assainissement (ONEA), supplying drinking water for 43 urban centers in the country, including Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou which has an estimated population of over 20 million people (figures from www.wordometers.info). According to ONEA, an IWA member since 2015, the major climate related risks to water supply faced by the country are droughts, floods and erosion. These risks do not just affect the quality and quantity of the resources but also result in damage to infrastructure, rendering them temporarily inoperative, leading to an increased risk of contamination or untimely distribution of water. In 2016, floods affected about 9 regions with a total of 27,826 people. Drought has also affected a cumulative number of about 12.4 million people between 1969 and 2014. Erosion, which occurs during both flood and drought events, silts up rivers causing deterioration of water quality by not only increasing the turbidity of the water but also by run-off of pollutants even in underground aquifers. Considering the country’s climate profile, it is appropriate to ensure proper planning to better address the impacts of the changing climate to manage the operations of the water utility and ensure equal access to water supply for a fast growing population.
Despite the challenges brought about by flooding and drought, ONEA is committed to providing equitable access to adequate water supply and effectively managing the limited water resources in order to contribute to sustainable development through several programmes. Water Safety Plans (WSP), a comprehensive risk assessment and risk management approach that encompasses all steps in water supply from catchment to consumer, is one such programme recommended by the World Health Organization and (WHO) and the International Water Association (IWA), and adopted by ONEA to help ensure their water service provision. Most of the major river banks in the country have a high concentration of commercial activities such as farming and mining. Through the use of fertilizers and pesticides, water is easily contaminated causing negative effects for fish stocks, human and animal health. Implementing WSP ultimately ensures a supply of safety and acceptable drinking water supply.
Mr. Olivier Yameogo, Water Quality Manager with ONEA, believes WSP plays a key role in operational planning and investments. He added that, it is the most effective way for ONEA to ensure the safety of the water supply by applying an overall risk assessment and management strategy, covering all stages of the supply system from catchment to the consumer and believes its integration of health security into planning is essential. Water professionals need tools that allow them to manage and plan for climate risks. DHI, a member of IWA has, together with the association, developed a methodology with a package of technical applications to help basin stakeholders, such as water utilities, better integrate climate information and future changes into planning. IWA has used its position as a leading association for water professionals to disseminate the portal and its technical application to IWA members, such as ONEA.
The Flood and Drought Portal (http://www.flooddroughtmonitor.com/), developed under the Flood and Drought Management Tools (FDMT) project, provides ONEA with a way integrate information about floods, droughts and future scenarios into WSP. Olivier made the point that the project has been beneficial to ONEA to address the issue around access to climate data, where knowledge and collection has been insufficient at the national level. Through the portal, ONEA is able to get free, reliable and near real-time climate data (rainfall, temperature, evapotranspiration, etc.). This information is necessary for ONEA to evaluate the risks to their water supply system and to propose reliable control measures, steps which are taken during the development and implementation of their WSP. A WSP supporting application is also available in the Flood and Drought Portal, which provides ONEA with a means of developing and documenting their WSP. For ONEA, this is just the beginning of the best to come. They believe their capacity and that of other stakeholders should continue to build around the Flood and Drought Portal to allow for better planning of operations and future investments.
About the Flood and Drought Management Tools project
The Flood and Drought Management Tools (FDMT) project, a Global Environment Facility (GEF) International Waters (IW) funded project, implemented by the UN Environment, with the International Water Association (IWA) and DHI as the executing agencies. The project is developing online technical applications to support planning from the transboundary basin to water utility level by including better information on floods and droughts. The project is being implemented from 2014 – 2018, with 3 pilot basins (Volta, Lake Victoria and Chao Phraya) participating in development and testing of the methodology and technical applications.
For more information on the Flood and Drought Management Tools project, visit: http://fdmt.iwlearn.org.
About Olivier Wendlassida Yameogo
Olivier Wendlassida Yameogo currently holds the position of Head of Water Quality Service of the National Office for Water and Sanitation (ONEA). His main mission in the institution is to monitor the quality of the water produced and distributed and to monitor the performance of the production and purification works.
The short-term goal is to improve the quality of drinking water in Burkina Faso by implementing strategies such as water safety management plans and improving planning for climate effects (floods and droughts) to make meaningful access to drinking water a fundamental right recognised by the United Nations General Assembly since 2010.Interesting & Informative Information
How can I get inspired? What is good practice? How can parents contribute?
Frequently asked questions from students & parents regarding lessons, motivation and practice
From "The Practice of Practising" by Concert Pianist, Stephen Hough, to health benefits of learning piano.
Articles that are interesting & relevant for students & parents
Listening is educational & inspirational for students, parents, & musicians of all levels.
Discover Classical Music in Calgary
Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it -- and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections.
"Everybody loves classical music -- they just haven't found out about it yet."
"I realized my job was to awaken possibility in other people."
"I've never subscribed to the idea that you can't find the time to do something like this..."
The pianist explains how just 20 minutes of practice a day can improve your technique.
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-playing...
When you listen to music, multiple areas of your brain become engaged and active. But when you actually play an instrument, that activity becomes more like a full-body brain workout. What's going on? Anita Collins explains the fireworks that go off in musicians' brains when they play, and examines some of the long-term positive effects of this mental workout.
Lesson by Anita Collins, animation by Sharon Colman Graham.
Like an actor's script, a sheet of music instructs a musician on what to play (the pitch) and when to play it (the rhythm). Sheet music may look complicated, but once you've gotten the hang of a few simple elements like notes, bars and clefs, you're ready to rock. Tim Hansen hits the instrumental basics you need to read music.
Music and science: one and the same? Concert pianist Jocelyn Swigger illustrates the behind-the-scenes process of memorizing at the piano, revealing surprising parallels between practicing music and science.
Find out which piano is better, an upright or baby grand grand piano. There are many different qualities that separate these two types of pianos.Quercus wislizeni (syn. Quercus wislizeni) Fagaceae
Interior Live Oak, Chapparal Oak kwer-KUS wis-liz-EN-eye
- Broadleaf evergreen tree 30-75 ft (9–23 m) tall, erect, usually single stemmed, short furrowed trunk, ascending or spreading branches, folage may reach the ground; it may also assume a shrub-like form with maximum heights of only 8-10 ft (~2.5-3 m). Leaves alternate, simple, leathery, 2.5-4 cm long, oblong, elliptical or lanceolate, mostly flat, tip acute to pointed, margins entire to spiny toothed, upper surface shiny dark green, lower surface shiny, light or yellow-green. Flowers; male flowers are borne in catkins 2-5 cm in length, whereas female flowers grow in clusters of
2-4 in the upper leaf axils. Fruit (acorn) matures in 2 years, cup about 15 mm wide and similar depth, cup-shaped to hemispheric, encloses about 1/3 of the nut, nut 2-4 cm long, ovoid to cylindrical, tapered to tip, often longitudinally striped.
- Hardy to USDA Zone 7 Native to much of western California, from Siskiyou County in the north, to Baja California; found in interior canyons, slopes, valleys, chaparral, pine and oak woodlands. At least two forms are recognized, Quercus wislizeni var. wislizeni essentially the tree form, Interior Live Oak. Shrub forms with oval leaves 2.5-4 cm long and margins entire or deeply lobed-dentate are treated by some as Quercus wislizenii var. frutescens Bush Interior Live Oak.
- Quercus × morehus (Oracle Oak) is a hybrid between Q. kelloggii (California Black Oak) and Q. wislizeni (Interior Live Oak). The hybrids are known from several populations that occur in southwestern Oregon, northern Douglas County to southern Josephine County, as well as California. The entire to spinose margins of Q. wislizeni are apparent in the leaves of the hybrid, which are quite intermediate between the two parents (H. L. Chambers, The Family Fagaceae in Oregon, Part II: The Oaks). The presence of the Quercus × morehus hybrid in Oregon has led some to suggest that Q. wislizeni was present in southern Oregon at sometime in the past.
- wislizeni: after Frederick Adolf Wislizenus (1810-1889), Army surgeon, explorer, botanist and plant collector of German birth who travelled extensively in the southwestern United States.City of Cleveland, Office of Sustainability
The Mayor’s Office of Sustainability in the City of Cleveland is a dedicated effort by the city to collaborate with communities on economic, environmental, and social initiatives that lead to a thriving, green city. The office has a cross sectoral impact and implements policies and practices with other city departments to advance city-wide goals. Among these goals are energy efficiency, renewable energy, zero waste, implementing local food systems, ensuring clean water, and sustainable transport. Sustainable Cleveland 2019 is a ten-year initiative that seeks to design and develop resilient and sustainable systems throughout Cleveland’s infrastructure and programs.
The Office of Sustainability highly prioritizes engaging with the larger public and Cleveland residents, and is a key part of the team behind the Cleveland Climate Resilience & Urban Opportunity Plan. This is a grassroots effort led by Cleveland Neighborhood Progress to ensure
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HDL) cholesterol in the blood. Avocados are also a good source of both insoluble and soluble fiber, as well as vitamin K, vitamin E, lutein (which helps protect the eyes), potassium (which helps to regulate blood pressure), and certain B vitamins.
Recipe: Caprese Stuffed Avocados
The allium family of vegetables includes aromatic staples like onions, garlic, shallots, leeks, and scallions. Some of the compounds contained in these vegetables — which give them their distinctive, pungent odor — are also what make them so good for you. They're a good source of allyl sulfides and saponins, which are thought to lower blood pressure, reduce cholesterol, and even hinder or prevent tumor growth. These vegetables also contain antioxidants called quercetins, which are thought to have anti-inflammatory properties that are crucial for anyone with inflammatory or auto-immune disorders like arthritis, according to an article on JoyBauer.com.
Recipe: French Onion Penne
Those little fish might not look like much, but the humble sardine is a nutrient powerhouse. Rich and flavorful, sardines contain lots of good stuff — like omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, vitamin D, and vitamin B12 — and also have less of the bad stuff, like mercury, often found in larger varieties of fish.
Recipe: Sardine Salad Sandwich
It's no secret that oatmeal is full of fiber, but you might not know just how much this food can do for your health. Oats are thought to lower inflammation and bad (LDL) cholesterol, as well as help guard against high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and weight gain.
BUY NOW: Bob's Rolled Oats, $14; amazon.com.
Edamame are soybeans, which can be bought frozen, either shelled or in the pod (a super easy and still incredibly nutritious way to use them). They're most often served simply boiled and salted — a great way to snack on them — but are also easily tossed into stir-fries, thrown on top of salads, puréed and eaten on their own, or mixed into dips, like hummus. However you cook them up, these little beans have a big nutrition benefit — they have just under 10 grams of dietary fiber per 1/2-cup serving, healthy polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, and about 11 grams of protein, according to WebMD, as well as some vitamin C, vitamin A, iron, and calcium.
Recipe: Roasted Edamame
Despite the word "wheat" in its name, buckwheat is actually gluten-free (it's a seed related to rhubarb), making it a great go-to ingredient for those who are gluten-allergic or averse. It's high in fiber, as well as essential nutrients like manganese, magnesium, copper, and zinc, and contains 8 essential amino acids needed to keep the body healthy, functioning, and strong — even lysine, which is not produced by the body. Try using buckwheat flour to make pancakes with an earthy, slightly nutty flavor. Or buy buckwheat groats and use them as a side dish, like rice, or a hot breakfast cereal — try toasting them lightly first to intensify the flavor, then boiling them in water or broth. One of the easiest ways to get buckwheat into your diet is by enjoying soba noodles — they cook up quickly, much like any other type of pasta, and taste delicious hot or chilled.
BUY NOW: Bob's Buckwheat Cereal, $14; amazon.com.
Bulgur is cracked wheat that has been dried and steamed. Because of that bit of pre-cooking before packaging, it cooks up quickly and has a lovely, light, fluffy texture. High in both protein and fiber, bulgur is a filling but low-calorie food that makes a great base for a vegetarian main dish or as a health-boosting ingredient in soups, salads, and stuffings.
BUY NOW: Bulgur, $11; amazon.com.
Pumpkin is best known for its place in the traditional holiday pie, but it's also a tasty addition to other baked goods, like breads and muffins, and to savory dishes, like curries and pastas. You'd do well to add it to as many of your meals as possible while it's in season. Pumpkin contains about double your daily requirement of vitamin A, as well as carotenoids like beta-carotene, which help protect your eyes, and which may also have a role in reducing cancer risk.
Recipe: Pumpkin Butter
BUY NOW: Organic Canned Pumpkin, $24; amazon.com.
This ubiquitous green vegetable might seem delicate, but it has a lot in it that can keep you healthy and strong — it's loaded with iron, folate, beta carotene, lutein, various antioxidant compounds, and has about double the fiber of most other leafy greens.
Watercress, which is related to cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cabbage, contains many of those veggies' health-boosting and cancer-fighting properties. This crunchy little green is packed with vitamins A, C, and K, as well as lutein and zeaxanthin, which are carotenoids that are thought to protect the eyes, the heart, and cardiovascular system.Biotin is a very important B complex vitamin that helps the body convert food into energy.
The water-soluble vitamin is especially vital during pregnancy and breastfeeding. t’s also needed for blood sugar balance, brain health, heart health, adrenal and thyroid function, and maintenance of healthy skin, hair, and nails.
Biotin was once called coenzyme R. This is because it acts as a coenzyme in the body, helping to metabolize glucose, amino acids, and fatty acids.
Basically, when we consume macronutrients carbohydrates, proteins, and fats through our food, biotin must be present to convert them into energy, which is required for proper physical and mental functions.
Biotin is also called vitamin B7 and vitamin H, which stands for German words Haar and Haut that translate as “hair and skin.” Although biotin is often added to skin and hair beauty products, experts believe that the vitamin is not well absorbed into the skin.
The health benefits of biotin are best obtained from ingesting biotin-rich food sources, and certain B complex supplements. Biotin is found in fish, organ meats, egg yolks, legumes, avocado, and more.
Symptoms of Biotin Deficiency
Biotin deficiency is uncommon in developed countries among populations with sufficient caloric intakes. So many whole foods provide biotin, the recommended daily requirements are considered quite low, and it is believed that our intestinal bacteria can create some biotin as well.
Since it is water soluble, any surplus amounts of biotin present in the body get eliminated through the urine within a few hours. So, there are no biotin reserves, making it very difficult to obtain too much. Ideally, small amounts of biotin must be ingested daily to get the body’s supply at high levels.
People at risk of biotin deficiency include those with intestinal malabsorption issues or severe digestive disorders like celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, or leaky gut syndrome. Prolonged antibiotic use or long-term use of certain anti-seizure medications may also increase the risk of biotin deficiency.
Although rare, biotin deficiency symptoms may include:
- Digestive and intestinal tract issues
- Muscle pains and aches
- Brittle hair or hair loss
- Dry irritated skin
- Chronic fatigue or lack of energy
- Mood changes and cognitive impairments
- Nerve damage
- Cramps and tingling in the limbs
5 Health Benefits of Biotin
What are the health benefits of biotin, aka vitamin B7? Biotin benefits so many different parts of the body. One of the most important roles of biotin is how it impacts women during pregnancy and breastfeeding. It is estimated that a mild biotin deficiency is common in up to 50% of pregnant women.
Deficiencies occur due to faster biotin breakdown during pregnancy, and may cause birth defects. It is best to consult a doctor or nutritionist/dietitian for the best supplement approach during pregnancy and while nursing.
Biotin is also needed to repair and build muscles and tissues while also reducing inflammation that can lead to joint or muscle pain. Biotin is also necessary for healthy metabolism; improving glucose intolerance and balancing blood sugar; maintaining healthy hair, skin, and nails; protecting brain function; and supporting the thyroid, adrenals, and cardiovascular system. The following is a detailed synopsis of seven key biotin health benefits you need to know.
1. Promotes Healthy Metabolism
Biotin plays a crucial role in regulating gene expressions needed for healthy metabolism and energy production. Biotin uses amino acids from proteins, activates fatty acids from foods with fat like avocado or oils, and converts glucose from sugar and carbs to produce useable energy source.
Once the body can use macronutrients from food for energy, normal metabolic function can occur. Biotin also improves the utilization and metabolism of glucose, which heavily benefits type 2 diabetics. Sluggish metabolism can lead to symptoms like fatigue, digestive problems, poor mood, and weight gain.
2. Improves Multiple Sclerosis
In multiple sclerosis (MS), the protective covering of nerve fibers in the spinal cord, eyes, and brain is destroyed or damaged. This protective material is called the myelin sheath, and biotin is known to have a role in its production.
A pilot study published in the journal Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders in 2015 found that over 90% of patients with progressive MS had some degree of clinical improvement when using high doses of biotin. While this preliminary data is positive, further study is necessary, and at least two randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trials are currently ongoing.
3. Supports Healthy Nails, Skin, and Hair
Biotin is needed for the maintenance of healthy nails, hair, and skin. That is why biotin deficiency can produce symptoms like dry skin, or thin, brittle hair. A study published in the Journal of American Academy of Dermatology found that nail thickness improved by 25% in all participants given 2.5 milligrams (mg) of biotin daily for six to 15 months.
There was also a reduction of nail splitting. Also, biotin may protect the skin from fungal infections, rashes, acne, and severe cracking and dryness of the skin.
4. May Reduce Blood Sugar Levels
Type 2 diabetes is related to impaired insulin function and high blood sugar. Studies have found that the combination of biotin and chromium could help reduce blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetics. Biotin may benefit blood glucose since it facilitates insulin activity. Better insulin response is necessary to balance blood sugar levels.
Biotin reduces enzyme expression that stimulates glucose production in the liver. As a result, less sugar releases into the bloodstream. Biotin could also help lower nerve pain related to diabetes.
5. Maintains Healthy Cardiovascular System
Studies have found that taking chromium and biotin together may improve cholesterol levels. Research shows that biotin increases HDL (high-density lipoprotein), or the “good” cholesterol, while also reducing LDL (low-density lipoprotein), or the “bad” cholesterol.
Biotin also could help protect against common heart disease causes, such as plaque buildup in the arteries (atherosclerosis), inflammation, stroke, and heart attacks.
Recommended Daily Intake of Biotin
Biotin is part of the B complex family of full-spectrum vitamins that also include vitamin B2, vitamin B3, vitamin B5, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12. Taking B complex vitamins together is the best way to ensure results. As a result, B vitamin complex can support brain function, metabolism, nerve signaling, and more.
However, not all supplements are created equal. It is best to purchase high-quality minerals and vitamins supplements made from real food sources, and without toxins and fillers. This method allows the body to recognize them as nutrients, and use them as a similar way as they appear in food.
However, when you can it is best to obtain biotin from food sources. The average adult over the age of 19 needs 30 mcg. According to the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences, the following is adequate intake recommended for biotin daily:
- Infants and babies 0 to 6 months: 5 mcg
- Infants and babies 7 to 12 months: 6 mcg
- Children 1 to 3 years: 8 mcg
- Children 4 to 8 years: 12 mcg
- Children 9 to 13 years: 20 mcg
- Adolescents 14-18 years: 25 mcg
- Men and female adults over 19 years: 30 mcg
- Pregnant females: 30 mcg
- Breastfeeding females: 35 mcg
Top Food Sources of Biotin
There are actually eight different types of biotin; however, the only one found in food is called D-biotin. It is the only type with full vitamin capabilities. This is a key example of why it’s best to get vitamins and minerals from real food whenever you can.
What are the best biotin food sources? That answer is not that simple. You see, in 2004, when researchers examined the biotin levels in 51 different foods, they found a varying range of biotin in each food. This is why nutrition authorities like the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) do not record the amount of biotin in common foods.
That being said, certain foods in studies have tested biotin levels, but the amount of biotin still has a significant range difference. It is still hard to tell how much biotin you are getting from your food. Some of the top biotin foods include liver, peanuts, almonds, Swiss chard, salmon, avocado, cauliflower, cashews, sesame seeds, mushrooms, and raspberries.
Interestingly, biotin is found in the egg yolk, and not in the egg whites. Not only do you miss out on valuable B vitamins when you discard the egg yolk, but the egg whites may deplete the effects of B vitamins and possibly create biotin deficiency.
The following is a biotin foods chart that is a useful tool for learning what foods can help you avoid a biotin deficiency. The chart will allow you to become aware of what whole foods contain the highest amount of biotin.
|Food||Serving Size||Amount (mg)|
|Liver||3 oz cooked||27-35|
|Yeast||1 tbsp (7 g)||1.4-14|
|Swiss chard||1 cup||10.5|
|Goat’s milk||1 cup||8.5|
|Sesame seeds||1/4 cup||4.0|
|Organic goat cheese||1-oz piece||0.4-2|
|Whole grain Ezekiel bread||1 slice||0.2-6|
Overconsumption of biotin is not considered a problem, and there have been very few cases of biotin toxicity. Still, vitamin B7 levels may be affected if someone is taking oral antibiotics or anti-seizure medications, or if they have a digestive disorder that disrupts normal levels of intestinal bacteria. Medications like isotretinoin (Accutane) that is prescribed for acne, may decrease biotin activity in the body.
Abnormal doses of other B vitamins like pantothenic acid (vitamin B5) can also reduce levels of biotin. Similar to all B vitamins, very high doses of vitamins in supplement form can impact the doses of other vitamins. That is why it is best to take dose recommended on the supplement package unless recommended otherwise by your doctor.
Mateljan, G., The World’s Healthiest Foods: Essential Guide for the healthiest way of eating (Seattle: George Mateljan Foundation), 736-737.
Palsdottir, H., “7 Health Benefits of Biotin,” Authority Nutrition, Sept. 11, 2016; https://authoritynutrition.com/biotin-benefits/, last accessed June 6, 2017.
“Biotin,” PubChem; https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/biotin#section=Top, last accessed June 6, 2017.
Sedel, F., et al., “High doses of biotin in chronic progressive multiple sclerosis: a pilot study,” Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders, March 2015; 4(2): 159-169, doi: 10.1016/j.msard.2015.01.005, last accessed June 6, 2017.
Colombo, V.E., et al., “Treatment of brittle fingernails and onychoschizia with biotin scanning electron microscopy,” Journal of American Academy of Dermatology, December 1990; 23(6 Pt 1): 1127-1132. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2273113, last accessed June 6, 2017.
Geohas, J., et al., “Chromium picolinate and biotin combination reduces atherogenic index of plasma in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a placebo-controlled, double-blinded, randomized clinical trial,” American Journal of the Medical Sciences, March 2007; 333(3): 145-153. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17496732.Alexander of Aphrodisias°
ALEXANDER OF APHRODISIAS°
ALEXANDER OF APHRODISIAS ° (end of second century–beginning of third century c.e.), Greek philosopher, commentator on the writings of *Aristotle, and author of independent works. Alexander was important for his systematization of Aristotle's thought and for the formulation of a number of distinct doctrines, especially in psychology. A number of his commentaries and independent works were translated into Arabic, and the views contained in them became an important part of medieval Islamic and Jewish Aristotelianism. The first book of Alexander's On the Soul was translated into Hebrew by Samuel ben Judah of Marseilles from the Arabic translation made by Ḥunain ibn Isḥaq. This translation, which contains brief annotations, was completed in 1323 in Murça and a revised version of it was finished in 1339–40 in Montùlimar.
Alexander, it was commonly thought, wrote a second book in psychology, called Treatise on the Intellect, and it circulated in Arabic translation. Averroes wrote a commentary to this work that was translated into Hebrew and is extant in manuscript only with the supercommentaries of *Moses b. Joshua of Narbonne (1344) and Joseph b. Shem Tov *Ibn Shem Tov (1454). H.A. Davidson edited the Averroean portions of the commentary themselves, without these supercommentaries, in 1988.
*Maimonides' estimation of Alexander may be gathered from a famous letter which he wrote to Samuel ibn *Tibbon. Evaluating the philosophical literature of the day, Maimonides advises his translator that for a correct understanding of Aristotle's teachings he should read, beside the commentaries of *Themistius and Averroes, also those of Alexander (A. Marx, in jqr, 25 (1934/35), 378). Maimonides used works by Alexander in the composition of his Guide, and Alexander's views formed part of Maimonides' own brand of Aristotelianism (for details see S. Pines, "Translator's Introduction," Guide of the Perplexed (1963), ixiv–ixxv). Maimonides cites Alexander as his source for his discussion of the factors which prevent man from discovering the truth (Guide 1:31), for his account of the celestial motions and intelligences (2:3), for his knowledge of the views of certain Greek philosophers (2:13), and for his discussion of God's knowledge (3:16). Alexander may also have influenced Maimonides' views on religion and political history, particularly the view that God used "wily graciousness" in bringing man from inferior forms of worship to more adequate ones (3:32).
Of special importance for Jewish philosophers was Alexander's doctrine of the intellect, discussed in detail particularly by *Gersonides (Wars of the Lord, Book 1). Aristotle's views (especially De Anima 3:5) were rather enigmatic. Central to Aristotle's discussion was the distinction between the agent intellect (nous poietikos) and the passive intellect (nous pathetikos). Interpreting Aristotle's views, Alexander held that the agent intellect did not form part of the individual human soul, but was identical with the intellect of God; while the passive intellect belonged to the soul as a mere predisposition or ability for thought. The passive intellect was also called material or hylic intellect (nous hylikos), and when actualized by the agent intellect became the acquired intellect (nous epiktetos) or intellect in habit (nous kath'hexin). The passive intellect, according to Alexander, being part of the individual human soul, is, like it, mortal; only the acquired intellect is immortal, insofar as the objects of its thought are the immaterial beings, in particular, God. While Alexander's doctrine of the intellect was more precise than that of Aristotle, it contained enough ambiguities to give rise to further refinements on the part of Islamic and Jewish philosophers.
Jewish, as Islamic, philosophers accepted Alexander's notion of the agent intellect, but instead of identifying it with God, they identified it with the lowest of the celestial intelligences, which, on the one hand, governs the sublunar world, and, on the other, is a causal agent in the production of human knowledge (see also *cosmology). The agent intellect is also important to Jewish Aristotelians for its roles in the production of prophecy. While there was general agreement about the nature of the agent intellect, there was disagreement about the nature of the passive one. Alexander's acquired intellect became a commonplace in Jewish philosophy, though the medievals refined this notion by distinguishing between the intellect in actuality, and the acquired intellect. Medieval philosophers disagreed about the exact nature of the acquired intellect, but it became important for their doctrine of the immortality of the *soul and the world to come (for details see *Intellect, Doctrines of).
P. Moraux, Alexandre d'Aphrodises, exégète de la noétique d'Aristote (1942); R. Walzer, Greek into Arabic (1962), index; Steinschneider, Uebersetzungen, index; idem, Die arabischen Uebersetzungen aus dem Griechischen (1893), 93–97; J. Finnegan, in: Mélanges de l'Université St. Joseph, 33 (1956), 159–62; E.I. Freudenthal, Die durch Averroes erhaltenen Fragmente Alexanders zur Metaphysik des Aristoteles (1885); A. Guensz, Die Abhandlung Alexanders von Aphrodisias ueber den Intellekt (1886). add. bibliography: A.P. Fotinis, The De Anima of Alexander of Aphrodisias (1979); A.H. Armstrong, The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy (1967), 117–23; H.A, Davidson, Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes, on Intellect (1992), 20–24; idem, "Averroes' Commentary on the De Intellectu Attributed to Alexander," in: Shlomo Pines Jubilee Volume (1988), 205–17.
[Julius Guttmann /
Alfred L. Ivry (2nd ed.)]
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When the idea of Santa Claus was first introduced into Korea, there was a slight problem. One of the most popular phrases used by Santa Claus, “Ho! Ho! Ho!” is the feminine way of laughing in Korean. Therfeore, since Santa is a man, this could not be possible. They had to alter Santa’s phrase to “Heo! Heo Heo!” The vowels ‘o’ and ‘a’ in Korean are considered to be feminine, while the vowels ‘u’ and [...]
Warai means laughing in Japanese, so wwwww is lolll… In Thai the number 5 is pronounced “ha”, so 555 is hahaha… In French, you can use “lol” or you can use “mdr” (mort de rire, dying of laughter). Check this Buzzfeed article to learn how to say lol (laughing out loud) in Japanese, Hebrew, Swedish, French, Spanish, Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Thai, Russian and [...]
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Korean is the official language of North Korea and South Korea, where it is spoken by about 78 million people. Korean has its own alphabet, called Hangul. The genealogical classification of the Korean language is debated. Some linguists place it in the Altaic language family, while others consider it to be a language isolate. It is also considered likely that Korean is related in some way to Japanese.
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On our romanized Korean dictionary page, you will find a selection of websites to learn Korean online.Latin America is a region that has the population of Western Europe and United States combined, a geographical area larger than Europe and United States put together, an economy three times the size of Bharat, and a per capita GDP 3x times developing East Asia and MENA (Middle East and North Africa).
Hindu cultures had, in their pre-colonial glory days, peacefully expanded trade throughout Asia and engaged culturally with China and even distant Japan and Rome. Recent Hindu international engagement however has largely been on the lines of its colonial legacy, following the British wherever they went or wherever they took us. While the Spanish (and the Portuguese) empire expanded through its colonial Governments in Latin America, Britain was left to play the role of traders and political brokers in the region, not requiring large immigrant labor to tend to its sugar cane plantations as in Fiji, Mauritius and even the Caribbean. What is striking is the vibrant presence of Hindu Dharma that defied persistent attempts by missionaries to convert and kill the ancient faith in neighboring Guyana and Surinam, but a complete absence in neighboring Northern Latin America. An invisible Lakshman Rekha of colonial legacy indeed!
However as the continent itself wakes up to democracy and is discovering its cultural and political sovereignty, albeit with multiple missteps, it is important for Hindus to cross the invisible boundaries of British colonial legacy and engage with Latin America on our own terms. Here are ten opportunities that Hindu entrepreneurs could use to create financial value:
Latin America controls resources that Hindu economies need. World copper is concentrated and Chile and Peru contain a lot of it. Environmentally sustainable timber forests are found in Brazil, Chile among others, unlike East Asia where forest cover is receding. Iron ore is controlled by Brazil and Australia today, and Brazilian internal industry is more fragmented in its production, though not in logistics. Land in Latin America is inexpensive, and with a long coast line, could be amenable for agriculture for exports. Land buying by foreigners is still acceptable and the region is generally welcoming to foreigners, with no great ethnic conflicts.
When commodity prices were higher, investing in these assets was far more difficult with a lot of competition. These assets are today available at more reasonable prices, and with insights in to Asian consumer markets, Hindu entrepreneurs are in a good position to extract value from such investments, as any other entrepreneur.
Latin America is home to an economy that is seeing the generation of a middle class. Recent cash transfer policies in the region have reduced income inequality. Brazil saw its income inequality index go from 55 % to 51% in the decade since 2001. Venezuela, a more problematic economy, reduced its income inequality from 49.5% in 1998 to 39% in 2011. Until the beginning of recession recently, this had translated in to a Brazilian consumption boom. With a per capita GDP at around USD 10K, these markets represent opportunities for Hindu products. Colombia, for instance, is already a great market for Bharatiya Motor Cycle brands – Bajaj holds 30 % market share in a nearly million motorcycles being sold in Colombia. TVS, Hero and Royal Enfield all are selling in to the market as well. Bharat’s generics companies sell almost USD 1 Billion worth of medicines in to the region.
The benefits of middle income economies is a combination of higher prices compared to Asia and regulatory and environmental regimes that are more investment friendly and allow a new entrant to grow gradually in product standards, as the economy implements regulations more in line with rich economies. For instance, Torrent Pharma in Brazil benefitted by avoiding expensive local bio equivalence studies in Brazil when Brazil opened up. Having established a presence in the market, as Brazil imposed increasingly tougher standards increasing cost of investments and lowering returns to latter entrants, Torrent has built a profitable USD 100 M business in Brazil, which cannot be threatened by latter entrants by timing its entry in to a favorable regulatory framework.
In new technologies too, Latin America is an exciting market. Take the example of mobile advertisements. While Latin America has a creative and large sized advertising industry and they even have a strong digital advertising landscape, mobile advertising is new in this region where mobile data rates have been very high in the past. As these rates decline and more people get smart phones, the prevalence of Android devices in Latin America compared to the higher proportion of iPhones in United States (the other credible competitor in this space), provides Hindu entrepreneurs with a great opportunity.
In agriculture and cosmetics, Argentina and Brazil could represent large markets, much larger than their economic ranking would imply. United Phosphorus is building a successful agrochemicals business in South America.
In his book, ‘India Inside’, Prof. Nirmalya Kumar talks about how Hindu entrepreneurs are already successful at innovating for large multinational corporations (MNCs). People of Bharat have found it difficult to brand their innovations or products. Hindu exports to the West are largely unbranded apparel, auto components, generics etc. However Latin America offers opportunities to create brands of Hindu origins. Bajaj in Colombia is a classic example, where Pulsar form the Bajaj stable signifies high quality not just in Colombia but throughout the Andean region including Peru and Ecuador.
Another opportunity to build brands is branding products from Latin America. Latin American exporters are relatively inexperienced in international marketing and business. Many products that currently are sold as commodities from Latin America, where Latin America has a dominant position, could increase their net price realization significantly by being branded. Coffee, orange juice, quinoa all are examples of this. Hindu entrepreneurs today do not have access to these cost effective supply chains from the countries they operate. They could help brand these products in consumer markets where they sometimes operate large retail businesses or distribution businesses.
4.) Global Scale in specific products:
Even in unbranded products, collaboration could help. Commodities which are supposed to be volatile, could still be good business if there is enough pricing power. Between Latin America and Hindu economies, huge industries could be controlled. Take vegetable oil or coal for instance. Bharat’s imports of palm oil and soy oil, could be combined if South East Asian companies work with Latin American companies to create a Global scale vegetable oil business. Coal mines in Colombia and Peru and Indonesia together can create significant pricing power for coal the way Brazil and Australia cornered the iron ore market. In coffee and tea, tea exporting Bharat and Sri Lanka and the Coffee exporting Brazil and Colombia could combine efforts to create a beverages conglomerate.
One key difference between Hindu economies and Latin America is the high levels of urbanization you find in Latin countries. If one plots a graph between per capita GDP and urbanization there is usually a linear correlation, but Latin America is a middle income region that has the urbanization levels of rich economies. Brazil for instance has the urbanization levels of United Kingdom at just 20 % of the per capita GDP. As Hindu cities urbanize, instead of looking to imitate the expensive and often unsustainable models of the rich Western countries, Latin American countries offer more appropriate models for smart cities. Especially in urban transportation by buses, Latin America could offer interesting lessons. The success of Marcopolo of Brazilian origin, through its Bharat’s Joint Venture with Tata Group, is a classic example. As it did not build its passenger railways, Latin American bus stations have evolved in to air-port like sophistication. Economic models in building urban infrastructure including budget housing and waste management of organic waste are other examples.
6.) Complementary spheres of influence with Bharat:
In the African continent, Bharat’s immigration and political influence is strong in commonwealth countries. Brazilian influence is stronger in Angola and may be in even Mozambique. Similarly around the world, Latin American influence is stronger in continental Europe, in countries such as Portugal, Spain and even France and Italy and Germany with strong immigrant ties to Latin America. Bharat’s influence is stronger in Britain, United States ( which is increasingly seeing a Hispanic influence) and Australia. By joining hands with Latin America, Hindu businesses can spread their influence wider.
Visas are much easier for Latin Americans visiting continental Europe. IT services companies could leverage this. European origin Multinationals such as Telefonica, Telecom Italia, Telecom Portugal and Santander, Isolux, Abengoa are not present in Hindu geographies in great strength or in the United States. Selling to them is probably easier starting in Latin America. Using a Latin country as a hub for distribution to the region or locating competence centers for other geographies in Latin America are all good ways to leverage this complementarity.
One specific area could be in the Auto components industry. As global OEMs look for fewer vendors to support simultaneous launch of new platforms, Mexico and Brazil with their strong auto component industries are great partners to Hindu auto component entrepreneurs in Bharat, Malaysia, UK etc. By forming a star alliance of sorts, Bharat and Latin suppliers can provide a credible competition to larger and global auto component suppliers. For specific models that are hatch back- such as Etios, Ecosport, UP and Datsun, this is a winning strategy.
In cosmetics too, combining Ayurveda with Amazonian plants, herbal and natural cosmetics brands could be launched.
As Latin America is passing through its current economic crises, many businesses are dying. This is a great opportunity for Hindu entrepreneurs with a lower cost of capital and access to different set of markets. Take the case of leather shoes for women. Brazil and Latin America once were large exporters to Europe. Today the leather shoe exports is uncompetitive due to the high cost economy Brazil has become. The designs and know-how and the reputation for Brazil made shoes continue. Bharat’s supply chain is cost competitive, but it does not have the skills to make leather shoes for women largely because the domestic market in Bharat is too small. Teaming up with Latin know how, Bharat’s leather exports could become a powerhouse for making women’s shoes.
The general point here is that as savings intensive Asian economies with their deeper stock markets (5000 companies in BSE versus just 400 in Sao Paulo), that provide access to capital for smaller and medium enterprises, have a great opportunity in specific industries in
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He documents how different pictures of horse evolution were drawn by different evolutionists from the same data, as the concept of evolution itself ‘evolved.’
This especially applies to reconstructing the animals from fossil skeletons, which are usually very incomplete. The evolutionist Gerald Kerkut wrote:
‘It takes a great deal of reading to find out for any particular genus just how complete the various parts of the body are and how much in the illustrated figures is due to clever reconstruction. The early papers were always careful to indicate by dotted lines or lack of shading the precise limits of the reconstructions, but later authors are not so careful.’8
Informed evolutionists now realize that the picture, even in their own framework, is not a straight line at all. While they still believe in horse evolution, the modern view of the horse fossil record is much more jumpy and ‘bushy.’9
What is the ‘dawn horse’?
This creature was discovered in 1841 by Richard Owen, one of the leading paleontologists of the day, the inventor of the word ‘dinosaur,’ and a staunch opponent of Darwin. Owen saw no connection with the horse, but thought it was very like a modern-day hyrax—that is, a rock badger or coney. So he named it Hyracotherium. Other fossils of the same type of creature were later named ‘Eohippus’ or ‘dawn horse’ by more evolutionarily-minded paleontologists. But the name given by the discoverer takes priority. Thus ‘it is not clear that Hyracotherium was the ancestral horse’, according to Kerkut.10
The fossils do not carry signs saying how old they are. Their age is generally assigned to them, depending on their relative depth of burial. Those in the deepest rock layers have the greatest ages assigned to them. Based on the biblical framework, we should expect many, but not all, fossils to have been buried during the Flood, so the oldest would really be only about 4,500 years old. Fossils higher up may have been buried by local catastrophes since the Flood.
It’s likely that many of the horse fossils were post-Flood. However, even if we were to grant the evolutionary/long age dating, they don’t show the clear progression presented by the textbooks. For example, in north-eastern Oregon, the three-toed Neohipparion and one-toed Pliohippus were found in the same layer. This indicates that they were living at the same time, and thus provides no evidence that one evolved from the other.11,12
Lots of different horses
Living horses come in a wide range of sizes. Their heights are usually measured in hands. One hand = 10 centimeters (4 inches). The largest is the English Shire horse, which can measure as much as 20 hands.1 Ponies are horses under 14.2 hands,1 and the Fallabella is just over four hands when fully grown.
Horses vary in other ways too. Modern horses can have 17, 18 or 19 pairs of ribs. Also, three-toed horses are known today. O.C. Marsh himself noted that some horses in the American southwest had three toes of almost equal size, ‘thus corresponding to the feet of the extinct Protohippus.’13
An important part of the biblical creation model is that different kinds of creatures were created with lots of genetic information. Natural selection can sort out this pre-existing genetic information, by eliminating creatures not suited to a particular environment. Thus many different varieties can be produced in different environments. Note that this sorting process involves a loss of information, so is irrelevant to particles-to-people evolution, which requires non-intelligent processes to add new information.14,15
Also, much of this (created) genetic information may have been latent (hidden, i.e. the features coded for are not expressed in the offspring) in the original created kinds. They also had other controlling or regulatory genes that switch other genes ‘on’ or ‘off.’ That is, they control whether or not the information in a gene will be decoded, so the trait will be expressed in the creature. This would enable very rapid and ‘jumpy’ changes, which are still changes involving already created information, not generation of new information.
Applying these principles to the horse, the genetic information coding for extra toes is present, but is switched off in most modern horses. Sometimes a horse is born today where the genes are switched on, and certainly many fossil horses also had the genes switched on. This would explain why there are no transitional forms showing gradually smaller toe size.
It’s possible that body size and tooth shape were also controlled by regulatory genes.16 This is supported by an experiment by Paul Sharpe and his colleagues on mouse embryos. They found that a single protein, called BMP-4, inhibits the gene that causes molars (back grinding teeth) to form, so incisors (cutting teeth) can grow instead. Without this protein, no incisors grew.17
These mechanisms would explain the alleged horse evolutionary series as variation within the equine (horse) kind. The amount of variety within living horses, undoubtedly one kind, supports this.
Certainly tooth shape can vary widely within a kind, meaning that it’s unwise to assume that different fossil teeth show evolution.18 It is also unwise to be dogmatic about diets based on tooth shape. We showed this with bats,19 and recent evidence has overturned previous thought about ancient horse diets based on tooth shape. The evolutionary paleontologist Bruce MacFadden analyzed teeth from six horse ‘species’ (more likely, varieties within a kind), ‘dated’ at five million years ago.20
Previous evolutionary theories would have asserted that because they all had high-crowned teeth, they must have been grazers. But the amounts of stable carbon isotopes 12C and 13C impregnated into the teeth indicated that the horses were browsers, not grazers.
The researchers also claimed that once hypsodonty evolved, it was impossible to return to having short-crowned teeth again. In a creationist model, this suggests that hypsodonty is a highly specialized condition, which has lost genetic information for any other sort of teeth.
Again, this information loss is the opposite of molecules-to-man evolution, much like the long-furred bears in the diagram of Ref. 15.
Many evolutionists claim that the horse’s splint bones in their legs (see diagram right) are vestigial, that is, useless leftovers from its alleged evolutionary past. But the evolutionary zoologist Scadding pointed out, ‘vestigial organs provide no evidence for evolutionary theory.’21
He pointed out that the argument is unscientific, because it is impossible in principle to prove that an organ has no function; rather, it could have a function we don’t know about.22 Scadding also reminds us that ‘as our knowledge has increased the list of vestigial structures has decreased,’ and pointed out that the 19th century claim of hundreds has been shrunk to a handful of doubtful cases.23 Also, at best, vestigial organs could only prove devolution (loss of information), not evolution.
In particular, the horse’s splint bones serve several important functions. They strengthen the leg and foot bones, very important because of the enormous stress that galloping puts on the legs. They also provide attachment points for important muscles. And they form a protective groove that houses the suspensory ligament, a vital elastic brace that supports the horse’s weight as it walks.24
Evolutionists claim that similarities in the limbs of frogs, reptiles and mammals show that they all evolved from a common ancestor. Amphibians (e.g. frogs) supposedly gave rise to reptiles, which gave rise to mammals, including bats and humans, hence the similarities in their limb structures. However, the horse’s leg doesn’t fit very well into this ‘explanation.’
The horse is much more similar to humans in other respects than a frog, but the frog’s limb is much more like ours. The evolutionist tells a story here to ‘explain’ this discrepancy: the horse is different because its legs became adapted to a different way of walking. This is ‘just-so’ story-telling, not science.
Perhaps the horse is part of the pattern God created to tell us there is one Creator (the similarities in living things) but that things did not make themselves (there are oddities which don’t fit any ‘everything made itself’ story).
Furthermore, the frog embryo develops its legs differently from us—amphibian digits develop by bud growth outwards, while amniote (reptile, bird and mammal) digits are formed as parts of a bony plate are dissolved in between. Yet they arrive at a similar pattern, again indicating the hand of a master designer rather than chance.25 There really is no excuse (Romans 1:20).
- The textbooks create this ‘evolutionary series’ from a probable non-horse (Hyracotherium) and varieties of true horses.
- Far from being an example of evolution, it is an example of the wide variation within a created kind.
- Particles-to-people evolution requires new information to be generated, while the horse varieties, especially in number of toes, result from pre-existing information being switched on or off, as well as natural selection removing information.
- Theories of adaptation to different diets based on tooth shape have been undermined by recent isotopic analysis.
- The ‘splint bones,’ far from being useless vestiges of evolution, play an important role in the horse’s leg.
References and notes
- ‘Horse and horsemanship,’ Encyclopædia Britannica, 20:646–655, 15th Ed. 1992. Return to text.
- Of course, some of these uses could only have taken place after Adam’s sin brought death into the creation (Romans 5:12, 8:20–22, 1 Corinthians 15:21–22); see The Fall: a cosmic catastrophe. Return to text.
- ‘Evolution, the Theory of,’ Encyclopædia Britannica, 18:855–883, 15th Ed. 1992—see p. 861. Return to text.
- Heribert-Nilsson, Synthetische Artbildung, Gleerup, Sweden, Lund University, 1954; cited in Luther Sunderland, Darwin’s Enigma: Fossils and Other Problems, 4th Ed., Master Books, Santee, CA, p. 81, 1988. Return to text.
- Eldredge, N., quoted by Sunderland, ref. 4, p. 78. Return to text.
- Eldredge, N., Life Pulse: Episodes from the story of the fossil record, Penguin, London, p. 222, 1989. Return to text.
- Barnhart, W., ‘A critical evaluation of the phylogeny of the horse,’ M.Sc. Thesis, Institute for Creation Research, Santee, CA, 1987. Return to text.
- Kerkut, G.A., Implications of Evolution, Pergamon Press, London, New York, p. 146, 1960. Return to text.
- The palaeontologist David Raup wrote: ‘The record of evolution is still surprisingly jerky and, ironically, we have even fewer examples of evolutionary transition than we had in Darwin’s time. By this I mean that the classic cases of darwinian change in the fossil record, such as the evolution of the horse in North America, have had to be modified or discarded as a result of more detailed information. What appeared to be a nice simple progression when relatively few data were available now appears to be much more complex and less gradualistic. So Darwin’s problem has not been alleviated.’ D.M. Raup, ‘Conflicts between Darwin and paleontology,’ Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin 50:22, 1979. Return to text.
- Ref. 8, p. 149. Return to text.
- Gish, D, Evolution: The fossils STILL say NO!, Institute for Creation Research, El Cahon, CA, USA, pp. 187–197, 1995. Return to text.
- However, some creationists believe that there really is a trend in the fossil record. They believe this reflects adaptation within the horse kind to a change from woodland to grassland, caused by cooling and drying of the post-Flood Earth. They point out that these climatic changes are difficult to explain under an evolution/billions of years scenario. See P. Garner, ‘It’s a horse, of course! A creationist view of phylogenetic change within the equid family,’ Origins (Journal of the Biblical Creation Society) 25:13–23, 1998. This was written before Ref. 20. Return to text.
- Marsh, O.C., ‘Recent polydactyle horses,’ American Journal of Science 43:339–354, 1892. Return to text.
- See Carl Wieland, Beetle Bloopers, Creation 19(3):30, 1997. Return to text.
- Weston, P., and Wieland, C., Bears across the world, Creation 20(4):28–31, 1998. Return to text.
- Brand, L., Faith, Reason and Earth History: A paradigm of earth and biological origins by intelligent design, Andrews University Press, Berrien Springs, MI, USA, p. 202, 1997. Return to text.
- Tucker, A.S., Matthews, K.L., Sharpe, P., ‘Transformation of tooth-type induced by inhibition of BMP signaling,’ Science 282(5391):1136–1138, November 6, 1998. BMP = Bone Morphogenetic Protein. Return to text.
- García-Pozuelo-Ramos, C., ‘Dental variability in the domestic dog (Canis familiaris): Implications for variability of primates,’ Creation Research Society Quarterly 35(2):66–75, 1998. Return to text.
- Weston, P., Bats: sophistication in miniature, Creation 21(1):28–31, 1998; but the online version lacks the picture of the bats’ skulls in the magazine. Return to text.
- MacFadden, B.J., et al., Ancient diets, ecology, and extinction of 5-million-year-old horses from Florida, Science 283(5403):824–827, 5 February 1999. See also comments on p. 757 and 773 of the same journal. Return to text.
- Scadding, S.R., ‘Do vestigial organs provide evidence for evolution?’ Evolutionary Theory 5:173–176, 1981. Return to text.
- The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1993) defines ‘vestigial’ as ‘degenerate or atrophied, having become functionless in the course of evolution.’ Some evolutionists now re-define ‘vestigial’ to mean simply ‘reduced or altered in function.’ Thus even valuable, functioning organs (consistent with design) might now be called ‘vestigial.’ Creationists should not let evolutionists change the rules when they lose. Return to text.
- R. Wiedersheim claimed that there were over 180 rudimentary organs in the human body, of which 86 were vestigial, in The Structure of Man: an Index to his Past History; translated by H. and M. Bernard, Macmillan, London, 1895. Return to text.
- Bergman J., and Howe, G., ‘Vestigial Organs’ Are Fully Functional, Creation Research Society Books, Kansas City, p. 77, 1990; Murris, H.R., ‘Vestigial organs: A creationist re-investigation,’ Origins (Journal of the Biblical Creation Society) 5(13):10–15, 1992; see also ‘Vestigial’ Organs: What do they prove? Return to text..
- ReMine, W.J., The Biotic Message, St. Paul Science, St. Paul, MN, USA, 1993; see review. Return to text.Become Society’s Role Model
Reminding ourselves to stay humble in a society that breeds competition, dominance and a race to the top can be a challenge if not practiced daily. Being humble will make you feel good about yourself, attract more positive people into your life and will allow you to demonstrate to others that being humble is awesome!
The benefits of being humble:
- You will be able to better cope with anxiety
- You will become a better leader and more people will like you
- You will develop a higher self-control and a better work performance
- You will become more tolerant of others and less defensive about your own beliefs
- You will achieve higher grades
- You will be more helpful with others and develop stronger relationships
- You will become more generous
Do not let society mold you into a person you are not. It is okay to be competitive and strive for success, but do it fashionably, by staying humble and becoming a role model for others. People will replicate your behavior if you demonstrate a kind and humble persona and this is what will help society become a better place. We need as many humble people in The DSM Ready Movement as possible.
Are you Ready? (This is Defeating Stigma Mindfully)Case Study – 3 Questions on a video
CEMEX was founded in Mexico in 1906. It is the world’s largest building materials supplier and the third largest cement producer. In 1999, CEMEX launched Patrimonio Hoy, offering do-ityourself construction services to low-income households.
Consider the following questions as you watch the video below:
1. Why should we consider this an example of social entrepreneurship?
2. What was new and different about this social intrapreneurial venture?
3. What were the needs it addressed?
Compose your response to these questions using a maximum of 2 pages 1½ spaced. Use sources including the one below the video.Maximum landing weight
The maximum landing weight (MLW) is the maximum aircraft gross weight due to design or operational limitations at which an aircraft is permitted to land. The MLW is set in order to ensure safe landings; if an aircraft weighs too heavy during touchdown, it may suffer structural damage or even break apart upon landing. Aircraft also have a maximum take-off weight, which is almost always higher than the maximum landing weight, so that an aircraft can weigh less upon landing due to burning fuel during the flight.(5:28)
The operation landing weight may be limited to a weight lower than the maximum landing weight by the most restrictive of the following requirements:
- Aircraft performance requirements for a given altitude and temperature:
- landing field length requirements,
- approach and landing climb requirements.
- Noise requirements
If the flight has been of short duration, usually due to an emergency just after takeoff, it may be necessary to dump fuel to reduce the landing weight. Some aircraft are unable to dump fuel, however. For example, on 3 February 2020, Air Canada Flight 837, a Boeing 767-300, suffered a rear tyre failure during take-off at Madrid–Barajas Airport on its way to Toronto, causing its left engine to catch fire. The pilots managed to extinguish it by shutting the engine down, but as 767-300s are not designed for fuel dumping, it had to stay in a single-engine holding pattern for over 4 hours to burn fuel and achieve its maximum landing weight, while an SAF fighter reported minimal damage to the landing gear. The plane landed safely and nobody was injured.
Sometimes the emergency may be so pressing that the aircraft has no time to dump or burn fuel in order to achieve its maximum landing weight before touchdown; in that case, a risky overweight landing may be permitted. In other cases, the flight crew may fail to dump fuel when it still had the time to do so before landing, leading to fatal accidents such as Aeroflot Flight 1492 on 5 May 2019, where an apparently needlessly overweight landing turned into a crash that killed 41 of the 78 people on board.
Where aircraft overweight landing is permitted, a structural inspection or evaluation of the touch-down loads before the next aircraft operation will be required in case damage has occurred.
- "Desperate Escape | Crashing Just After Landing in Moscow | Aeroflot Flight 1492". The Flight Channel. 22 October 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
- Redmond Shannon (3 February 2020). "Air Canada flight forced to make emergency landing in Madrid". Global News. Retrieved 15 October 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
- Travis Fedschun (16 April 2020). "Moscow plane crash: New video emerges of fatal accident in Russia". News.com.au. Retrieved 27 October 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)Hilary Maricle’s passion for food began in childhood as she helped her parents run their own grocery store. Get to know Hilary, now a farmer and a mother of five, as she discusses why food prices fluctuate and how farmers like her are impacted by these changes.Play Video
Reputably Sourced Food Facts
Fill up on data-driven food and farming information from resources that know the field. Don’t see your question answered here? Contact us and we’ll help you find the facts you need.
Are U.S. Food Prices High?
Families in the United States are fortunate. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS), Americans only spend an average of 6.7 percent of our income on food prepared at home. Comparatively, citizens in countries such as Mexico, China, India and Russia spend an average of over 25 percent of their income on food at home.1 Food in our country remains relatively inexpensive, and we have a wide variety in choices.
- http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-expenditures.aspx#26654 (Table 1: Food and alcoholic expenditures: Total expenditures)
Why Do Food Prices Rise?
Food prices rise due to the cost of inputs. The federal government points out that food prices increase in correlation with higher transportation, processing, packaging and marketing costs, as well as production costs and adverse weather.1
Do Farmers Make More Money When Food Prices Are Higher?
In 1950, farmers received more than 40 cents from every food dollar spent. Now the farm share of every dollar spent on food is 15.5 cents. According to the ERS, that amount is then divided to pay for services and supplies the farmer needs to grow the food.1Our Mission Statement
The Department of Earth Science at UCSB conducts field studies in diverse regions ranging from the tallest mountain peaks of the Himalayas, the wilderness of Antarctica, to the vast undiscovered depths of the ocean floor. Our graduate and undergraduate students participate directly in the excitement of exploring terra incognita. Taught by a distinguished and dedicated faculty (including several members of the National Academy of Sciences, and winners of the UCSB Distinguished Teaching Award), students discover the unfolding planetary drama of which they are part.
Our Earth is a water-rich rocky planet that has given rise to abundant and diverse life. We study the whole Earth system, focusing on interactions between the solid earth, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere, and on the historical evolution of the Earth system throughout geologic time. We explore ongoing terrestrial, marine, and interior Earth processes that are taking place today, and we examine the geologic record to illuminate the past behavior and changing properties of our planet over timescales ranging from centuries to billions of years. We use knowledge about active processes to read the rocky record of the past and seek clues to the origins of Earth's features and life. From the record of the past, we extrapolate to predict global changes that will affect people in the future. We discover the marvels of our home planet at spatial scales ranging from the atomic to the interplanetary through observations, measurements, experiments and models.
Layered Quartzite at Henry's Creek (photo credit: Helen Thomas)
The Department of Earth Science believes earth science is an important part of a student's education. An appreciation of the Earth and its systems is vital to understanding everyday problems such as pollution, limited energy resources, and geologic hazards. Our outreach program to local schools includes classroom visits, department tours and the development of educational materials based on local geology.
The Department of Earth Science is committed to enriching geoscience education in our local community. We conduct department tours, present talks to visiting students and travel to local schools if visiting UCSB is not possible.
We are pleased to bring you a variety of computer software available as freeware for use by teachers in their classrooms. Plate motion animations by Professor Tanya Atwater are available via Tanya's website.
For information pertaining to scheduling a Department visit or for questions concerning the Atwater animations, please telephone 893-3329 or email UCSB Earth Science Outreach.
The internationally prized collection of minerals and gem crystals featured on this web site and displayed in the Department of Earth Science at UC Santa Barbara, was a generous gift from the Bancroft family. Edward R. Bancroft, a teacher and gem cutter, offered the collection to the department, and Ed's parents—Peter Bancroft, class of '41, and his wife, Virginia—had a case especially designed and built to display the specimens.
For more than 50 years, the Bancroft family has had a close friendship with UCSB, contributing valuable minerals, gems, and fossils to geology, and a variety of other unique educational collections.
“Edward chose UCSB as the home for the collection because of our great affection for the university and its faculty, which developed while I was a student at the Riviera campus where Virginia worked,” said Peter Bancroft, who holds an undergraduate degree in education from UCSB when it was a state college.
Peter Bancroft's most memorable professor was the late geologist Charles Douglas Woodhouse, a mineralogist who was deeply committed to his students.
“When there was no money to pay his salary, Woodhouse taught for free," said Bancroft, a retired educator and an author of books about minerals. "His dedication to students so impressed us.”
History of the Department of Geology, Geological Sciences, and Earth Science, University Of California, Santa Barbara
1938 - 2010 by Arthur Gibbs Sylvester
- The Riviera Years: 1938-1954
- The Pre-Major Years: 1954-1959
- The Growth Years: 1960-1980
- The Decade of Diversification: The 1980s
- Even More Diversification: 1990-2010
- Physical Plant
- Summer Field Camp
- Geology 18
- Faculty Development
- Department Chairs
- Awards and Benefactors
- FACULTY SKETCHES
- GEOLOGY 104A TAs and Instructors (1972-2003)
Visiting the Department
We encourage you to visit the Department of Earth Science. To enhance the productivity of your visit, it is best to arrange your visit through a faculty member. To do so, please contact a member of our faculty by email or phone. If you are visting UCSB, there are campus tours available. You can also plan your visit at SantaBarbaraCA.com.
Our World and National Rankings
#5 Public University
UCSB ranks number 5 among all public universities in U.S. News and World Report's 2019 “Best Colleges” guide, the most widely read college guide in the country.
#1 Green school
Princeton Review ranked UC Santa Barbara as the No. 1 Green School among public universities in their 2015 Guide to 353 Green Colleges. Bren Hall, which houses the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, is among the “greenest” buildings in the nation, earning triple LEED Platinum certification — the highest sustainability rating possible — from the U.S. Green Building Council. In fact, our campus has the largest portfolio of LEED-certified buildings in the UC system.
6 Nobel Laureates
34 American Academy of the Arts and Sciences Members
29 National Academy of Engineering Members
In their most recent report on the Best Graduate Schools, US News and World Report ranked UC Santa Barbara #11 in Geology and #19 in Earth Science nationally. Worldwide, They ranked our program #39.
The UK Times Higher Education "World University Rankings" ranked UC Santa Barbara's Program # 20 in the world in physical sciences.Imagine the steeplechase. Such a beautiful, mad idea. Race you to the next church tower and back. Ride over anything in the way. Fields. Fences. Rivers. The course will be the land and the land will be the course. Everything allowed except roads. What could be more simple? Or more brave?
The Irish came up with it. The first recorded steeplechase was run between the Church of Buttevant, in County Cork, and the spire of St. Leger’s, four and a half miles away. That was in 1752, more than a century after flat racing — “the sport of kings” — had become popular with English monarchs and their courts, gathered on the sunny, wide turfs of Suffolk and Hampshire to see the magnificent speed of horses brought over from Arabia and Tangiers.
This was different. Improvised dashes, over stiff country, with hefty bets between young aristocrats, daredevils, and cavalry captains on leave. The horses were big and deep through the heart. Some races were 20 miles long, others run through the fog and the rain. The only witnesses were startled farmers, maybe their daughters. The fashion spread to England, and so did the drama. Captain Arthur Smith leapt inadvertently into a gravel pit. A horse called Chandler reportedly jumped 39 feet over a river in Warwick. There were washouts — “tumbledown races” — where nobody finished. An early attempt to run a steeplechase outside the growing port city of Liverpool, a place connected for millennia with Ireland, a hundred miles over the sea, took place in January 1836. Mr. Nelson and Mr. Blake agreed to race from a village called Aintree, set in the ancestral lands of the Earl of Sefton, to Crosby, near the coast. But the race was a bust. They barely got out of the village before Nelson’s horse fell and broke a leg. They had to shoot it and go home.
So it was some risk — to say the least — when William Lynn, a local hotelier, attempted to draw a crowd of thousands to a much bigger, grander, and more expensive steeplechase on the same spot just more than a month later. Lynn needed something to go right. He had been running horse races on Lord Sefton’s land for the people of Liverpool for seven years. He had built a grandstand and seen off the competition — another course down the road at Maghull — but it had cost him. Now he needed box office.
It’s unclear why Lynn chose a steeplechase. Can you think of a worse spectator sport for February in northern England? The air is reliably freezing and dull, and the whole point of a steeplechase was that it was strung out over miles. There was nothing to see, except in the single moment when the horses passed in a mud-flying blur. Besides, even if it was exciting, steeplechasing was hardly respectable. Unlike flat racing, with its studbook and Jockey Club, the sport was unregulated, the “recognised refuge of all outcasts, human and equine, from the legitimate Turf,” according to the 1886 book Racing and Steeplechasing. Gentlemen rode under false names.
But maybe that’s what tempted Lynn. Liverpool in the 1830s was no royal picnic. It was miles of dirty docks, blooming in the guts of the Industrial Revolution. Trade had grown fortyfold in two generations. The city was thick with immigrants and smoke. It was a dystopia of railways, warehouses, and cranes, a new kind of economic machine held together — oddly enough — by horses. Twenty thousand animals worked in the port, heaving the cotton and sugar and hardwoods. Maybe he thought the novelty and equine bravery of the steeplechase would strike a nerve with these people? Or maybe Lynn was persuaded by the big draw of his races for the last few years, Captain Martin Becher, the best jump jockey in the country? Maybe the Earl himself thought it was worth a go. Sefton was a huge man. A hunchback. A gambler. His nickname was “Lord Dashalong” because his carriage was pulled by four galloping horses.
Lynn went to it. He would organize Liverpool’s municipal feasts until his death in 1870, and he had ideas about spectacle. He plotted a course with promising difficulties — ditches, ploughed fields, a stone wall — and made it triangular, just more than two miles long. The horses would go around twice, passing in front of his grandstand each time. Lynn got lucky with the weather on the day of his race — February 29. It was fine and clear and thousands came. The rich saw pratfalls through telescopes and Becher won by a length on The Duke. (The runner-up had a gate closed in his way by the crowd.)
It’s bloody thankless, though, the race game. The following year, the novelty had worn off. Lynn got fewer runners. There was competition from St Alban’s — supposedly the finest steeplechase in the country — and Liverpool’s do-gooders were on his back. They said the race was cruel. The city withdrew its sponsorship. By 1839, Lynn had sunk £20,000 into his racecourse and he was desperate. He made one last play, relaunching his race as “The Liverpool Great Steeple Chase” and bumping up the prize money. It worked. Seventeen runners competed in a wonderful race. Captain Becher, sensationally, was thrown in a brook; he remounted, and was thrown again. A horse called Lottery, which had been trained jumping over garden chairs, leapt the fences “as if from a springboard” and beat out two Irish favorites. The winning time was 14 minutes and 53 seconds. Everyone was hooked. The Grand National — Britain’s favorite horse race — was born. Lynn went bankrupt.
Vulnerabilities We All Share
The better part of two centuries later, when I headed north to watch this year’s race, almost everything had changed. Liverpool’s docks have died and gone to a blank, postindustrial heaven, a place of oral histories and tapas bars. A bronze cart horse stands near the water, in memory of the city’s absent animals, and the Earl of Sefton’s lands have morphed into “Sefton,” a neighborhood of small, fantastically neat houses and the dross of mechanics and retail parks. Bike lanes are painted on the roads.
At Aintree, Lynn’s racecourse bulges over the roofs. The single grandstand has become five and his race is long fixed in the sporting imagination of this country. After 177 years, Grand National Saturday is the Christmas Day of the British racing calendar. There are more refined occasions — the Epsom Derby and Cheltenham Gold Cup feature younger, faster horses, less chaos, and more connections to the global sport of horse racing — but the Grand National is what the punters turn out for. Seventy thousand people stand on Aintree’s mounds and temporary terraces to watch the big screens and see the tiny movements in the distance. Half the British adult population places a bet — £300m in a normal year. Most amazingly, in a sporting environment almost wrecked by the mega-monoculture of soccer, the Grand National draws a massive domestic television audience. Last year it was 12 million viewers, larger than the figure for 2012’s FA Cup final, which is England’s Super Bowl. The rest of the world can do what it wants, but for nine minutes, Britain stops for a horse race. Screams. Covers its eyes.
To rinse as much revenue as possible from this experience, the National is now the climax of three days of jump racing. It was Wednesday, the day before this buildup begins, and the place was consumed in the preparation of food and drink. Champagne and beer were being carted around in the cold, bitter sunshine. Every third person was some kind of chef, and a receptionist was taking calls about the dress code. “It’s smart casual,” she said. “Just no trainers.” It was how I imagine the scene backstage at one of those mass weddings conducted by the late Reverend Sun Myung Moon. The Grand National’s sponsor, a beer called John Smith’s, had wrapped the stairways of one of the stands in fabric to make them look like giant cans.
At the base of the cans, however, there was a lick of green, a sight of the turf whose “light, springy nature” brought Lynn to Aintree in the first place. Part of the National’s appeal still flows from the formative genius of steeplechase. There is something primal, something that confuses your heart in the sight of 40 horses and riders pouring over senseless obstacles, pounding over four and a half miles of grass on the cusp of England’s contrary spring. Although the course has changed considerably — the stone wall went in 1844; jumps were given inclines in 1961; a concrete plinth next to “The Chair” (the largest jump on the course, 5 feet, 2 inches tall and 11 feet wide) was moved in 1993 — the Aintree fences are still the largest, and most ludicrous, of any racecourse in the country. Horses do not just fall here. They skid and trip and sink to their knees. They take off too early, they take wrong turns, and they take off too late. They crash in midair. Jockeys go flying like socks thrown across a room.
The rest of the power, of course, lies in repetition. With each year, the National weaves its myth a little further. Interrupted by war and other cock-ups, there have been 165 runnings and each contains a story. A few are imperious: In 1935, Golden Miller became (and still is) the only horse to win the Grand National and the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the official championship race of Britain’s steeplechase season, in the same year. The greater part of National lore, however, has nothing to do with perfection. It tells you a lot about the race that Captain Becher is not celebrated for winning it but for falling in a ditch. “Becher’s Brook,” the most notorious fence on the course, where the horses jump on an angle, leaping 4 feet, 10 inches in the air only to come down almost 6 feet on the other side, is his monument.
Grand National stories are about vulnerabilities that we share
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I learned so much. It’s a shame that these holograms, realtime streaming, and tactile feedback which are now commonplace in our schools and homes are used simply used to drill and kill information. It’s a shame that even though our technology has changed so much, our thoughts on education have changed so little.
Do we live in math world?
While reading Eisenberg’s paper I was captivated by the description of a real life mathland. Mostly, I mused on the fact that many of these things can be, and in some places are, used today. If you want to get technical about it almost everything requires some amount of math to create. Chairs, beds, windows are all composed of geometric shapes. We live in a math world. But, that doesn’t mean that we speak math. A chair is not a construct made of polygons, it’s a chair. Unless, someone can show us otherwise.
This lack of speaking math seems to spread onto the other examples that Eisenberg provides including his paper tape. Sure, you CAN develop the ideas of privative simple commands creating a more complex program. But when you’re simply playing with paper tape it’s hard to come up with that idea on your own. This is true for most transitional items and application. Unless someone help people find similarities, or there is incentive, the paper tape will probably end up being a testament to the user’s skill with paper tape. Not his geometric ability.
Microworlds vs Video Games: Why can’t we just get along.
When reading the Edwards paper I was continually reminded what defined a micro world. A microworld is a subset of known actions or commands that represent real life ideas. These actions and commands can then can be built upon or used to obtain a goal. Obviously, logo is a good example of a mathematical/programming microworld. In logo a turtle knows a few basic commands that make up it’s world. The user can then use those known commands to create almost anything, provided it doesn’t violate the existing rules.
With this definition in mind I submit that all video games are in fact micro worlds. Take the game pac man. Pac man’s “world” is composed of a few simple actions: turn left, turn right, go up, go down and eat. Using these actions players can then construct more sophisticated maneuvers such as eat all pellets, avoid enemies, and eat ghosts. Yet, people are hesitant to associate microworlds with video games seeing the former as academic and the latter as frivolous. This is very unfortunate since a well constructed video game, in my opinion, would probably serve as a very powerful microworld.
Anyone can ask a physics question and present multiple outcomes. However, if the user is immersed in the problem and is given the freedom to explore the possible outcomes themselves then learning can occur. For example, let’s place the user in a scenario where they are stranded on an island and need a way to get off. Suddenly, a question about buoyancy and engineering becomes much more involved. If executed correctly the user will be able to test different materials with know densities, and through trial and error come to the conclusion that a lower density correlates to a better floating raft. Yes, a problem about buoyancy is not explicitly presented, but the concept will be. Once the user understands the concept their understanding of the formulas that go with it will also increase.
People have struggled with the idea of creating educational video games for many years. A few companies have made some progress in this field but for the most part there has not been much study into the game’s effectiveness.
Speaking from experience I would argue that games, such as the ones created by MECC in the 80′s, are effective. I remember playing “Number Munchers” and memorizing my multiplication tables faster than I would have in a lecture setting. I remember assuming the role of a fish in “Odell Down Under” and learning about how I (my fish) fit into the food web. These experiences have stuck with me and to my knowledge it has also stuck with my friends who have also played these games. Obviously, MECC was onto something. Unfortunately that something must have been magic to them as well, as evident by their closure in 1999. So what is this magic? And if we can find it, what do we do with it?
Today educational video games lead a cursed life. For the most part they are loved by parents and loathed by kids. This is not surprising considering that the most popular (at least for parents and educators) educational video games follow a prize winning formula. They make academics explicit. Math formulas are plastered all over the front of box. Claims that students need practice are slathered on the back. If one didn’t know any better they might think their holding the very essence of the subject they want to study. Once the actual program is booted up the user is bombarded with questions, sometimes in exchange for an animation of some sort that disappears only to be seen when another question is answered. They feature academics so well that they forget it’s an educational game, not a virtual worksheet. The parents are over joyed, they feel they got what they paid for. The kids feel slighted, weren’t they supposed to be playing a game?
Unfortunately, there is a disconnect between how much an game sells, and how much it gets used. I’ve noticed quite a few times how kids get bored with an educational video game that forgets it’s a game. I would argue that this is probably the reason those games fail in the first place. Why should Batman waste time answering the question “2+2 =?”? Almost any kid knows that Batman much smarter and much too important to waste his time on such things.
So what are we to do? Well, why don’t we set the game up so that the skills desired must be applied in order to win? Say you wanted to teach english. Why not create a world where the student is a proofreader at a local paper. They are given a few articles that need corrections and must make the correct decisions before their deadline. Now the subject and the game are one. If a student wants to beat the game (they usually do) they must acquire the skills needed to be a proficient proofreader. Spelling, grammar, reading comprehension, anything a proofreader encounters can be inserted into the game. So proofreader doesn’t get you excited? Well then why not use Batman a better way? Batman is a detective. Thus students who play the game should also assume the role of a detective. Say you want to find the joker. Why not have the students analyze a letter from the joker to find out where he strikes next? If Batman needs to get into a room with a combination why not have the students crack that code? Cryptography involves many subjects including Math. In both this case and the previously mentioned case students must use math to advance the game. But only in this one do they not feel like it’s irrelevant.
Allowing the student to assume various roles in order to learn? What an odd idea? It’s not like someone’s already proposed learning through experience… What a strange idea to be applied to video games.
On Informal Learning
The relationship between informal learning and more traditional lecture style learning is a strained one. Lecture style learning has been around for a while, it’s been there done that and has taught millions. For lecture style learning, order and timelines are important. Informal learning, on the other hand, plays by it’s own rules. Informal learning is messy, fun, and a bit of a slacker. You would think that if these two were people they wouldn’t get along very well. Their personalities clash, they have different our looks on life and have different methods for achieving success. And yet we cannot resist getting them together.
I have to admit, I’m guilty of trying to use informal learning in a formal learning environment (In fact I still think it can be done). This is perhaps why one of Papert’s statement really jumped out to me. Papert states “[Discovery learning] is disempowered in part because discovery stops being discovery when it is orchestrated to happen on the preset agenda of a curriculum”. Here Papert argues that there is disconnect with the idea of discovering something that has already been found, or in this case is meant to be found. This presents a problem considering the fact that schools today must ensure that key concepts are being taught. There are no guarantees with true discovery learning, but that simply cannot exist in a standards based curriculum.
Further more, Papert puts forth the idea that it is not enough to learn through discovery if what the student discovers is of no use or interest to them. The ideas used and the ideas formed must be appealing to the students. The problem is: What idea is big enough to encompass the interests of all students? I love to learn about animals and the various defensive strategies they’ve evolved over millions of year, but others can’t even make it to the end of that statement without nodding off. This is exactly why there is so much interest in computers as educational tools.
There seems to be a misguided idea of what educational technology is, and at what point it is useful. Everyone seems to be waiting for that new program that can teach anyone anything. The truth is it will never come. Computers are seen as these magical creature that help people learn through their programs. The reality is that computers are no more than an evolution of paper. They are merely tools that display what others have created. If we take this a step further programs can then be seen as books, or pieces of artwork created on this paper. But just like in real life, some books really connect with the readers and expands their minds, and other don’t.
Perhaps this is why Papert believed Logo to be an excellent learning tool. Logo, as any other programming language, allows students to write and draw on this new paper. Now, I’m not saying that programming is the only option but I agree with the logic behind it. Allow the student to create what they want with a computer. If logo allows them to explore their Ideas, then great. If Microsoft Word allows students to express their ideas, then allow them to be used! The beauty of computers is that they are flexible enough to become whatever the student needs. Maybe Resnick said it best when he noted that “These new technologies should provide children with design leverage, enabling them to create things that would have been difficult for them to create in the past”.
While I agree that a child who grows up in france will learn french easier than say a person living in America I’m not quite sure that this is enough. Speaking french is quite different from say analyzing french poetry. Papert’s “math world” does get the children associated with some ideas of geometry but does it teach them poetry? I remember playing with logo, and I also remember others who did the same. We made some cool pictures, but only a few of us sought to make these pictures on purpose. Furthermore, I find it a bit difficult to say that everyone could express those ideas in terms of geometry.
If we agree to abide by the language analogy we will soon run into the problem of translation. A great french scholar may be crippled if he is forced to express those ideas in another language. At some point or another the children need to leave the math world. When then do they need to make sure that they can express the ideas they learn in the non math world. If they cannot translate these ideas and use it in other contexts they are at a disadvantage.By Brittany Dudgeon
Informational books have evolved in the last several years. These books are no longer left on the library shelf. Illustrations have improved and the books are targeted to younger audiences. Authors of informational books are working hard to make learning enjoyable for children. Informational books are nonfiction books that present current and accurate knowledge (Tunnell and Jacobs, 130). Students can use informational books to write reports, develop critical reading and thinking skills, and expand vocabulary. Authors of informational books often write them to encourage self reliance. A great reason to read informational books is for their enjoyment value. Children can spend hours reading and discovering new facts and ideas (Norton, 501).
How to select Quality Informational BooksEdit
Several aspects need to be considered when searching for quality informational books. The book should have an attractive format and design. The content should be appealing with a sufficient mix of text and illustrations. The text needs to include compelling details such as quotations and anecdotes. The accuracy of the text is important. It needs to have current information that is factual and reliable(Tunnell and Jacobs, 133). Authors can not include anthropomorphism in the text. This means they can not give animals or objects human-like characteristics. Stereotyping is also discouraged in informational books (Norton, 502).
Teachers and parents can choose award winning books to find quality informational books (Narang, 1). The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award is one well respected award. This award was established by the American Library Association. Three books that were given this medal or honor are described below. Another informational book award to look for is the Orbis Pictus Award. The National Council of Teachers of English give this award to an outstanding nonfiction book published each year.
Excellent Informational BooksEdit
Secrets of a Civil War Submarine Solving the Mysteries of the H.L. Hunley
- By Sally M. Walker
This book tells the story of the H.L. Hunley. A Civil War stealth weapon. It was the first submarine to sink an enemy ship in 1864. After the attack, something happened to the submarine because it never returned to port. Decades later the H.L. Hunley was found on the ocean floor. This Robert F. Sibert Medal winning book uncovers the mystery of what happened to the H.L. Hunley.
Sequoyah The Cherokee Man Who Gave His People Writing
- By James Rumford
This Robert F. Sibert Honer book is about a man named Sequoyah who created a writing system for the Cherokee Indians. In the 1820s, Sequoyah invented letters to spell out the sounds of his language. The Cherokee honored Sequoyah by naming him after redwood trees called Giant Sequoias.
- By Lynn Curlee
Brooklyn Bridge is a Robert F. Sibert Honer book about the eighth wonder of the world. The Brooklyn Bridge is a monument that has an interesting and scandelous history. Lynn Curlee presents the story in fascinating text, informative maps, and realistic illustrations.
Informational Books- Internet LinksEdit
- Curlee, Lynn. Brooklyn Bridge. New York: Athneum Books for Young Readers, 2001.
- Kurkjian, catherine, Nancy Livingston, and Vicki Cobb. "Inquiring Minds Want to Learn: the Info on Nonfiction and Informational Series Books." The Reading Teacher os 60 (2006): 86-96.
- Narang, Shama. "Choosing the Best Books for Your Child." Scholastic Parents 2008. 26 Mar. 2008 <http:www2.scholastic.com/browsw/article.jsp?id=1518&print=1>.
- Norton, Donna E. Through the Eyes of a Child: an Introduction to Children's Literature. 7th ed. Pearson Education/ Merrill Prentice Hall, 2007. 500-502.
- Rumford, James. Sequoyah: the Cherokke Man Who Gave His People Writing. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004.
- Tunnell, Michael O., and James S. Jacobs. Children's Literature Briefly. 2nd ed. Merrill Prentice Hall, 2000. 130-141.
- Walker, Sally M. Secrets of a Civil War Submarine: Solving the Mysteries of the H.L. Hunley. Carolrhoda Books Inc., 2005. 1.In watercraft, a racing shell (also referred to as just a fine boat (UK) or just shell) is an extremely narrow, and often comparatively long, rowing boat specifically designed for racing or exercise. It is outfitted with long oars, outriggers to hold the oarlocks away from the boat, and sliding seats. The boat's long length and semicircular cross-section reduce drag to a minimum. This makes the boat both fast and unstable. It must be actively balanced by the rowers to avoid tipping. Being able to balance, or "set" the boat while putting maximum effort into the oars is therefore an essential skill of sport rowing.
The racing shell evolved from the simple working rowboat. Boats with longer hulls and narrower in beam were developed in the early 19th century specifically for team racing. These dedicated boats were the first boats that could be called racing shells, and they have since evolved into the highly specialized forms used today.
A narrower boat provides a sharper angle to the bow and a smaller cross-sectional area reducing drag and wave drag, and avoiding hull speed limitations at race speed. The first racing shells, while narrower than working rowboats, were limited by the width necessary to mount the oarlocks on the boat's sides ("gunwales"). By attaching outriggers to the gunwales, the oarlocks could be placed farther out, two things happened: oars got much longer, providing more length to the strokes, and hulls got narrower, until they were as narrow as it was possible while still retain sufficient buoyancy and balance.
Originally made from lapstrake wood, shells are now almost always made from a composite material for strength and weight advantages. The first composite shells were made from a form of papier-mâché and became popular in the 1870s. These paper shells were sold world-wide by the Waters Paper Boat Factory of Troy, New York. Modern shells are usually made of carbon-fibre reinforced plastic in a honeycomb structure. They are manufactured by either cold laying up of the carbon, which is then left to set, or by using heat curing, which ensures that the carbon fibre composite is properly set. The best shells are characterized by their "stiffness", as the lack of flexing means none of the force exerted by the rower is wasted in twisting the boat.
A rower on a fixed seat is limited in the amount of power he can apply to the oars by the strength in his upper body and the distance he can pull the oars on each stroke. After riggers were added to the shell allowing the use of longer oars, rowers took advantage by taking longer strokes and using their legs during the stroke. At first, the athletes wore trousers with wear resistant leather bottoms covered in grease and the shells had concave, longitudinal seats. The athletes could then use their legs to slide along the seat, adding the power of their legs and letting them greatly lengthen the stroke. This eventually led to the modern sliding seat, mounted on rollers, which allows nearly frictionless movement of the rower's body.
The same advantages may be obtained by fixing the seat and mounting the outriggers on rollers. Now the athletes body mass remains stationary and the boat doesn't pitch bow to stern nearly as much. This improves the boat speed significantly. The disadvantage is that this arrangement may result in blisters on one's buttocks and in the risk of sliding off one's seat when exerting too much explosive force at the beginning of a race. In April 1877 Michael Davis of Portland Maine applied for a patent for a sliding rigger/foot-board with fixed seat. In 1981, the German, Peter-Michael Kolbe, won the FISA World Championship using a sliding rigger. In August 1983 FISA banned the use of the sliding-rigger, presumably because it was thought to be more costly than sliding-seat boats.
There are a large number of different types of boats. They are classified using:
- Number of rowers. In all forms of modern competition the number of rowers can be 1, 2, 4, or 8. Although they are very rare, boats for other numbers of rowers do exist (such as the 24 person Stämpfli Express). In the 19th century, there were often races with 6, 10 and 12 rowers per boat.
- Position of coxswain. Boats are either coxless, bow-coxed (also called bowloaders), or stern-coxed. In coxless ("straight") boats, a steersman is responsible for steering by either use of a mechanism connecting one of his shoes by wire to the rudder—the swiveling of the shoe turns the rudder, or by using a hand controlled string, called a tiller rope, which is parallel to the gunwales or the boat, and controls the rudder in a similar fashion. Singles and doubles do not employ a rudder in competition; the oarsmen steer by increasing or decreasing pressure or length on one scull or the other. In competition, bow- and stern-coxed boats may race one another.
Although sculling and sweep boats are generally identical to each other (except having different riggers), they are referred to using different names:
- Sweep: straight pair (2-), coxed pair (2+), straight four (4-), coxed four (4+), eight (8+) (always coxed)
- Sculling: single (1x), double (2x), straight quad (4x), coxed quad (4x+), octuple (8x) (very rare in world class, and always coxed)
- Miller, Bill (January 2000). "The Development Of Rowing Equipment". Retrieved 2011-04-26.
- Mallory, Peter (2010). "The Sport of Rowing". p. 1836. Retrieved 2011-04-26.
- Davis, Michael (1877-04-04). "Improvement in outrigger-boats (US patent 209,960)". Retrieved 2011-04-26.
- A history of paper boats, including the paper racing shell
http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/04/s/excerpts/maib/17/index.htm, For information on the development and process of paper boat production
- History of MIT Crew: Chapter 8, which covers the evolution of the rowing shellTomb of the Roaring Lions
||This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (February 2013)|
The Tomb of the Roaring Lions is an archaeological site at the ancient city of Veii, Italy. It is the oldest Etruscan tomb found and oldest burial chamber with frescoes in Europe. The site dates at least to the late 7th century BCE and was discovered in 2006 after an accused tomb robber led authorities to the burial chamber in the hope of leniency.
The site is located on a hill in a wheat field less than 13 miles north of Rome and may contain important artifacts which will allow further research into the Etruscan civilization. It was named the "Tomb of the Roaring Lions" after the four-legged animal figures on the frescoes of the tomb's walls. (The figures have also been hypothesized to be deer or horses instead of lions.)
- David, Ariel. "Police informant leads the way to 'Tomb of Roaring Lions.'" Associated Press. 17 June 2006.
- New York Times; June 17, 2006; Accused Tomb Robber Leads Police to Ancient Tomb in Italy
|This article relating to the Etruscan civilization is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.|
|This article relating to archaeology in Europe is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.|Zeroth law of thermodynamics
The classical Carnot heat engine
Two systems are said to be in the relation of thermal equilibrium if they are linked by a wall permeable only to heat, and do not change over time. As a convenience of language, systems are sometimes also said to be in a relation of thermal equilibrium if they are not linked so as to be able to transfer heat to each other, but would not do so if they were connected by a wall permeable only to heat. Thermal equilibrium between two systems is a transitive relation.
The law is important for the mathematical formulation of thermodynamics, which needs the assertion that the relation of thermal equilibrium is an equivalence relation. This information is needed for the mathematical definition of temperature that will agree with the physical existence of valid thermometers.
Zeroth law as equivalence relation
A system is said to be in thermal equilibrium when it experiences no net change of its observable state over time. The most precise statement of the zeroth law is that thermal equilibrium constitutes an equivalence relation on pairs of thermodynamic systems. In other words, the set of all equilibrated thermodynamic systems may be divided into subsets in which every system belongs to one and only one subset, and is in thermal equilibrium with every other member of that subset, and is not in thermal equilibrium with a member of any other subset. This means that a unique "tag" can be assigned to every system, and if the "tags" of two systems are the same, they are in thermal equilibrium with each other, and if they are not, they are not. Ultimately, this property is used to justify the use of thermodynamic temperature as a tagging system. Thermodynamic temperature provides further properties of thermally equilibrated systems, such as order and continuity with regard to "hotness" or "coldness", but these properties are not implied by the standard statement of the zeroth law.
If it is specified that a system is in thermal equilibrium with itself (i.e., thermal equilibrium is reflexive), then the zeroth law may be stated as follows:
If a body A, be in thermal equilibrium with two other bodies, B and C, then B and C are in thermal equilibrium with one another.
This statement asserts that thermal equilibrium is a Euclidean relation between thermodynamic systems. If we also grant that all thermodynamic systems are in thermal equilibrium with themselves, then thermal equilibrium is also a reflexive relation. Relations that are both reflexive and Euclidean are equivalence relations. One consequence of this reasoning is that thermal equilibrium is a transitive relationship: If A is in thermal equilibrium with B and B is in thermal equilibrium with C, then A is in thermal equilibrium with C. Another consequence is that the equilibrium relationship is symmetric: If A is in thermal equilibrium with B, then B is in thermal equilibrium with A. Thus we may say that two systems are in thermal equilibrium with each other, or that they are in mutual equilibrium. Implicitly assuming both reflexivity and symmetry, the zeroth law is therefore often expressed as:
If two systems are in thermal equilibrium with a third system, then they are in thermal equilibrium with each other.
If A is in thermal equilibrium with B and if B is in thermal equilibrium with C, then A is in thermal equilibrium with C.
Foundation of temperature
The zeroth law establishes thermal equilibrium as an equivalence relationship. An equivalence relationship on a set (such as the set of thermally equilibrated systems) divides that set into a collection of distinct subsets ("disjoint subsets") where any member of the set is a member of one and only one such subset. In the case of the zeroth law, these subsets consist of systems which are in mutual equilibrium. This partitioning allows any member of the subset to be uniquely "tagged" with a label identifying the subset to which it belongs. Although the labeling may be quite arbitrary, temperature is just such a labeling process which uses the real number system for tagging. The zeroth law justifies the use of suitable thermodynamic systems as thermometers to provide such a labeling, which yield any number of possible empirical temperature scales, and justifies the use of the second law of thermodynamics to provide an absolute, or thermodynamic temperature scale. Such temperature scales bring additional continuity and ordering (i.e., "hot" and "cold") properties to the concept of temperature.
In the space of thermodynamic parameters, zones of constant temperature form a surface, that provides a natural order of nearby surfaces. One may therefore construct a global temperature function that provides a continuous ordering of states. The dimensionality of a surface of constant temperature is one less than the number of thermodynamic parameters, thus, for an ideal gas described with three thermodynamic parameters P, V and n, it is a two-dimensional surface.
For example, if two systems of ideal gases are in equilibrium, then P1V1/N1 = P2V2/N2 where Pi is the pressure in the ith system, Vi is the volume, and Ni is the amount (in moles, or simply the number of atoms) of gas.
The surface PV/N = const defines surfaces of equal thermodynamic temperature, and one may label defining T so that PV/N = RT, where R is some constant. These systems can now be used as a thermometer to calibrate other systems. Such systems are known as "ideal gas thermometers".
Physical meaning of the usual statement of the zeroth law
The present article states the zeroth law as it is often summarized in textbooks. Nevertheless, this usual statement perhaps does not explicitly convey the full physical meaning that underlies it. The underlying physical meaning was perhaps first clarified by Maxwell in his 1871 textbook.
In Carathéodory's (1909) theory, it is postulated that there exist walls "permeable only to heat", though heat is not explicitly defined in that paper. This postulate is a physical postulate of existence. It does not, however, as worded just previously, say that there is only one kind of heat. This paper of Carathéodory states as proviso 4 of its account of such walls: "Whenever each of the systems S1 and S2 is made to reach equilibrium with a third system S3 under identical conditions, systems S1 and S2 are in mutual equilibrium". It is the function of this statement in the paper, not there labeled as the zeroth law, to provide not only for the existence of transfer of energy other than by work or transfer of matter, but further to provide that such transfer is unique in the sense that there is only one kind of such wall, and one kind of such transfer. This is signaled in the postulate of this paper of Carathéodory that precisely one non-deformation variable is needed to complete the specification of a thermodynamic state, beyond the necessary deformation variables, which are not restricted in number. It is therefore not exactly clear what Carathéodory means when in the introduction of this paper he writes "It is possible to develop the whole theory without assuming the existence of heat, that is of a quantity that is of a different nature from the normal mechanical quantities."
Maxwell (1871) discusses at some length ideas which he summarizes by the words "All heat is of the same kind". Modern theorists sometimes express this idea by postulating the existence of a unique one-dimensional hotness manifold, into which every proper temperature scale has a monotonic mapping. This may be expressed by the statement that there is only one kind of temperature, regardless of the variety of scales in which it is expressed. Another modern expression of this idea is that "All diathermal walls are equivalent". This might also be expressed by saying that there is precisely one kind of non-mechanical, non-matter-transferring contact equilibrium between thermodynamic systems.
These ideas may be regarded as helping to clarify the physical meaning of the usual statement of the zeroth law of thermodynamics. It is the opinion of Lieb and Yngvason (1999) that the derivation from statistical mechanics of the law of entropy increase is a goal that has so far eluded the deepest thinkers. Thus the idea remains open to consideration that the existence of heat and temperature are needed as coherent primitive concepts for thermodynamics, as expressed, for example, by Maxwell and Planck. On the other hand, Planck in 1926 clarified how the second law can be stated without reference to heat or temperature, by referring to the irreversible and universal nature of friction in natural thermodynamic processes.
According to Arnold Sommerfeld, Ralph H. Fowler invented the title 'the zeroth law of thermodynamics' when he was discussing the 1935 text of Saha and Srivastava. They write on page 1 that "every physical quantity must be measurable in numerical terms". They presume that temperature is a physical quantity and then deduce the statement "If a body A is in temperature equilibrium with two bodies B and C, then B and C themselves will be in temperature equilibrium with each other". They then in a self-standing paragraph italicize as if to state their basic postulate: "Any of the physical properties of A which change with the application of heat may be observed and utilised for the measurement of temperature." They do not themselves here use the term 'zeroth law of thermodynamics'. There are very many statements of these physical ideas in the physics literature long before this text, in very similar language. What was new here was just the label 'zeroth law of thermodynamics'. Fowler, with co-author Edward A. Guggenheim, wrote of the zeroth law as follows:
-...we introduce the postulate: If two assemblies are each in thermal equilibrium with a third assembly, they are in thermal equilibrium with each other.
They then proposed that "it may be shown to follow that the condition for thermal equilibrium between several assemblies is the equality of a certain single-valued function of the thermodynamic states of the assemblies, which may be called the temperature t, any one of the assemblies being used as a "thermometer" reading the temperature t on a suitable scale. This postulate of the "Existence of temperature" could with advantage be known as the zeroth law of thermodynamics". The first sentence of this present article is a version of this statement. It is not explicitly evident in the existence statement of Fowler and Guggenheim that temperature refers to a unique attribute of a state of a system, such as is expressed in the idea of the hotness manifold. Also their statement refers explicitly to statistical mechanical assemblies, not explicitly to macroscopic thermodynamically defined systems.
- Carathéodory, C. (1909).
- Maxwell, J.C. (1871), p. 57.
- Bailyn, M. (1994), pp. 24, 144.
- Lieb, E.H., Yngvason, J. (1999), p. 56.
- Planck. M. (1914), p. 2.
- Buchdahl, H.A. (1966), p. 73.
- Kondepudi, D. (2008), p. 7.
- Dugdale, J.S. (1996), p. 35.
- Carathéodory, C. (1909), Section 6.
- Serrin, J. (1986), p. 6.
- Bailyn, M. (1994), p. 23.
- Lieb, E.H., Yngvason, J. (1999), p. 5.
- Planck, M. (1926).
- Sommerfeld, A. (1951/1955), p. 1.
- Saha, M.N., Srivastava, B.N. (1935), p. 1.
- Fowler, R., Guggenheim, E.A. (1939/1965), p. 56.
Bibliography of cited references
- Bailyn, M. (1994). A Survey of Thermodynamics, American Institute of Physics Press, New York, ISBN 978-0-88318-797-5.
- H.A. Buchdahl (1966). The Concepts of Classical Thermodynamics. Cambridge University Press.
- C. Carathéodory (1909). "Untersuchungen über die Grundlagen der Thermodynamik". Mathematische Annalen (in German) 67: 355–386. doi:10.1007/BF01450409. A translation may be found here. A partly reliable translation is to be found at Kestin, J. (1976). The Second Law of Thermodynamics, Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, Stroudsburg PA.
- Dugdale, J. S. (1996). Entropy and its Physical Interpretation. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-7484-0569-0.
- Fowler, R., Guggenheim, E.A. (1939/1965). Statistical Thermodynamics. A version of Statistical Mechanics for Students of Physics and Chemistry, first printing 1939, reprinted with corrections 1965, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK.
- D. Kondepudi (2008). Introduction to Modern Thermodynamics. Wiley. ISBN 978-0470-01598-8.
- Lieb, E.H., Yngvason, J. (1999). The physics and mathematics of the second law of thermodynamics, Physics Reports, 310: 1–96.
- Maxwell, J.C. (1871). Theory of Heat, Longmans, Green, and Co., London.
- Planck. M. (1914). The Theory of Heat Radiation, a translation by Masius, M. of the second German edition, P. Blakiston's Son & Co., Philadelphia.
- Planck, M. (1926). Über die Begründing des zweiten Hauptsatzes der Thermodynamik, S.B. Preuß. Akad. Wiss. phys. math. Kl.: 453–463.
- Saha, M.N., Srivastava, B.N. (1935). A Treatise on Heat. (Including Kinetic Theory of Gases, Thermodynamics and Recent Advances in Statistical Thermodynamics), the second and revised edition of A Text Book of Heat, The Indian Press, Allahabad and Calcutta.
- Serrin, J. (1986). Chapter 1, 'An Outline of Thermodynamical Structure', pages 3–32, in New Perspectives in Thermodynamics, edited by J. Serrin, Springer, Berlin, ISBN 3-540-15931-2.
- Sommerfeld, A. (1951/1955). Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics, vol. 5 of Lectures on Theoretical Physics, edited by F. Bopp, J. Meixner, translated by J. Kestin, Academic Press, New York.in the two areas: linear pieces were removed by grooving and breaking; cutting was by sawing or hacking deep notches, then breaking. On the whole, the art seems most intense among the Eskimo, and in comparison with North America, the southern continent appears rather weaker in bone work, particularly in the simpler culture of Tierra del Fuego. Again, in the Antilles we find the thick parts of shells used for making celts and other tools.
Of ornaments, pendants, and beads, there are great varieties of various materials from both continents. Even pearl beads were extensively used by the Ohio mound builders.
MINES AND QUARRIES
Under the general head of materials dug from the earth, we have an important series of archæological topics. Notwithstanding that many of these aboriginal mining operations must have survived well down into the period of colonization, none was carefully observed
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grams per milliliter (ng/ml) offers imposing cancer defense. I trust testing your vitamin D level is one of the most significant cancer stoppage tests available. Preferably get tested twofold a year.
There are exclusions, obviously. If you sense a lump in your breast, a mammogram might be warranted, though even then there are additional non-ionizing substitutes, for example ultrasound, which has been revealed to be significantly grander to mammography, particularly for dense-breasted females who are at much greater risk of a untrue negative while using mammography.World Turtle Day began in 2000 by American Tortoise Rescue to raise awareness about turtles and tortoises.
How to Celebrate
Since World Turtle Day is all about rescuing the turtles, here are some tips posted at Wikipedia.com:
- Never buy a turtle or tortoise from a pet shop as it increases demand from the wild.
- Never remove turtles or tortoises from the wild unless they are sick or injured.
- If a tortoise is crossing a busy street, pick it up and take it in the same direction it was going – if you try to make it go back, it will turn right around again.
- Write letters to legislators asking them to keep sensitive habitat preserved or closed to off road vehicles, and to prevent off shore drilling that can lead to more endangered sea turtle deaths.
- Report cruelty or illegal sales of turtles and tortoises to your local animal control shelter.
- Report the sale of any turtle or tortoise of any kind less than four inches. This is illegal everywhere in the U.S.
Other than these things, you can see the turtles at a zoo (although ATR probably doesn’t support it), or perhaps make a watermelon turtle, which ATR recommends.
To celebrate this day, we selected the 1991 Australian four can set of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sodas.
The cans consist of all for “Heroes in a Half Shell”, Donatello Raspberry, Leonardo Lemonade, Michaelangelo Tango (This is misspelled as it should be “Michelangelo”), and Raphael Cola.
These sewer-living, mutated by ooze, pizza-loving, martial arts trained, teenaged turtles originated in comics in 1984 and gained popularity starting in 1987 through an animated series, a live action series, and two more animated series.
There have also been countless toys, video games, a few films and many other promotional items. Each turtle was named after an Renaissance era Italian artist: Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael.
Happy World Turtle Day (5/23)!
Photos used by permission of CanMuseum.comUpdated on 30 September 2013
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute conduct the largest analysis to date that evaluates the role of DNA copy number alterations across several types of cancer
Singapore: Scanning the DNA of nearly 5,000 tumor samples, a team led by scientists at Boston-based Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute, has identified 140 regions of scrambled genetic code believed to contain many undiscovered cancer genes.
The researchers said that mapping of the abnormal regions gives cancer scientists a starting point from which to search for yet undiscovered oncogenes and broken tumor-suppressor genes, which allow cells to divide and grow uncontrollably.
The authors said the analysis is the largest to date to evaluate the role of DNA 'copy number alterations' across several types of cancer. Normal cells carry two copies of the 20,000 genes that make up the genome. The genomes of cancer cells typically are riddled with areas where genetic sequences are duplicated or deleted; in fact, copy number alterations affect more of the genome than any other DNA abnormality in cancer. The study's goal was to identify patterns of copy number alterations and determine how they promote cancer.
Dr Rameen Beroukhim, assistant professor of Medicine at Dana-Farber and an associate member of the Broad Institute, said that in the survey of 4,934 cancers of 11 types, "We found that cancers often undergo doubling of the entire genomes, followed by large numbers of smaller copy number alteration events."
Dr Beroukhim also added, "We also saw a propensity of copy number changes to occur at telomeres and they exhibit features indicating they arise from different mechanisms than copy number changes of regions within chromosomes."Just How Unlikely Are You to Get Hit By Lightning?
A new Google Map shows how Massachusetts measures up.
We use the odds of getting struck by lightning as a benchmark by which to measure other unlikely events, so obviously, it’s a pretty rare thing (though not so rare as winning a Powerball jackpot, unfortunately).
But in this winter of storms, maybe it’s worth asking: just how rare? Are we better off here in Massachusetts than somewhere else? Actually, yes. Instances of lightning striking humans or destroying our property are not spread out evenly across the country. A NOAA map shows that Massachusetts had relatively few fatalities by lightning from 1959 to 2011, especially when you account for our population. Florida wasn’t quite so lucky. (Perhaps it was all those golf clubs they stick up in the air.)
Now, there’s a new Google Map Gallery map highlighted by The Atlantic, showing “Lightning Spatial Hazard Events and Losses for the United States, 1995-2009” that gives us even greater insight into our relative odds of incurring the wrath of Zeus. The map includes not just fatalities but injuries, property damage, and crop damage, totaling up all those “events” and shading the nation’s counties according to their frequency. With more than simply fatalities included in the measure, Massachusetts suddenly looks a little less lucky. We, like much of the well-populated Northeast United States, are shaded a darker red than the rest of the country. If you click on each county, it shows the breakdown of event types. There’s a silver lining for Boston: relatively within the state, Suffolk County saw slightly fewer lightning events than its surrounding counties.
Now, we don’t advocate you acting on this information by, say, moving from Norfolk County to Suffolk (or from Massachusetts to Oregon). But next time someone tells you you’re more likely to get struck by lightning than win that lottery jackpot, know that the gap isn’t quite as large as it might be. (It’s really, really big, though.)Flying around the world fueled only by sunshine, the Solar Impulse is now two-thirds of the way through the first-ever attempt to fly around the world in a solar-powered aircraft.
The plane is currently making final preparations for its trip across the Atlantic from the eastern United States.
Swiss pilots Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, who have alternated legs since the attempt began in Dubai in March of 2015, told Business Insider that although flying the strange, wider-than-a-Boeing-747 aircraft is very challenging, they both very much enjoy it.
"There is first a feeling of complete freedom because you have no fuel," Piccard said. "This is really the first aircraft with an unlimited endurance."
For Piccard, whose exploits include being the first — along with partner Brian Jones — to fly around the world in a balloon in 1999, the finicky Solar Impulse took some to get used to.
Borschberg, a former fighter pilot in the Swiss Air Force who currently holds eight various aviation world records, agreed.
"At the beginning it was very hard, because everything happens slowly and you tend to over-correct, overreact, over-control and create oscillations," Borschberg said. " It takes some time in the simulator."
Control forces are very heavy, and the airplane is especially difficult to handle in turbulence, Borschberg said.
"Any time we put new pilots, or even pilots that have never flown it, into the simulator, they always crash," Piccard said.
The aircraft travels at about 50 mph, and given enough headwind it can maintain the same place over the earth or even go backwards. That can make lining up an approach to an airport a challenge when the wind threatens to blow the aircraft away from the field, Borschberg said.
But despite the challenges, both pilots expressed a deep connection with their craft.
"It's an incredible airplane. I mean I love it, " Borschberg said. "Sometimes when you talk to test pilots it is like 'It's okay, I did it, but I am glad I don't have to get into the airplane again.' But this is totally not the case."
"It helped me to fly across the Pacific Ocean for five days, and of course I help it to get its energy, so we became partners in achieving the record flight," Borschberg said.
The machine, currently being kept cool under a large tent alongside the Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown, PA, looks like a prehistoric bird of outrageous proportions. Its carbon fiber bones, visible through the slightly translucent fabric skin, add to the illusion.
All around it, a team of mechanics and engineers are preparing for the transatlantic crossing.
Air conditioning units were brought in to keep its batteries cool hum under each wing, and the cockpit's carbon fiber shell sits on the ground beside the aircraft, revealing the complex systems underneath.
Behind the pilot's seat, which fully reclines to allow rest periods and a little mobility, several green oxygen tanks keep the pilot alive at altitudes of up to 28,000 feet — nearly the height of Mount Everest. They must wear cold-resistant flight suits in the un-pressurized, unheated cockpit.
Piccard and Borschberg have their own strategies for dealing with the stresses of extremely long flights. Borschberg practices meditation derived from yoga, while Piccard, a psychiatrist, practices self-hypnosis.
Borschberg found that he can sleep for about 20 minutes every two hours.
Each 24 hour period that the aircraft is airborne, the procedure is the same. During the day, the aircraft climbs to 28,000 feet and recharges its batteries in the sunlight. Just before sunset, when the light is no longer strong enough to charge the batteries, the pilot shuts down the electric motors and begins a slow and steady decent to around 5,000 feet that takes about four hours.
The motors are then restarted, and the aircraft uses the stored energy in the batteries to cruise through the night until dawn. At that point, only about 10% of the batteries' capacity remains.
Things get tricky, though, if it is unexpectedly cloudy, Piccard said.
From the way the pilots talk about their flights, its clear there are two things keeping the Solar Impulse aloft: sunlight and some very heavy duty math.
Each trip requires serious number crunching by engineers and meteorologists who must calculate the route and timing with the widest margin for error.
Piccard even brought with him Belgian meteorologist Luc Trullemans, who assisted him during his around the world balloon flight.
"He's a genius," Piccard said.
Borschberg will next fly the Solar Impulse from Pennsylvania to John F. Kennedy International in New York City, making a few circles around the Statue of Liberty for good measure.
From there Piccard will pilot it across the Atlantic, the last major barrier to overcome on the journey to Dubai.
The flight will roughly retrace the same voyage Charles Lindbergh undertook almost exactly 89 years ago, when he became the first to cross the Atlantic non-stop. But unlike Lindbergh, they will do so without using a single drop of gasoline.
"It's a technical adventure," Borschberg said. "A human adventure."Defining Deaf Culture
To properly understand a concept, we first turn to the dictionaries, to see how that word is defined in our language, objectively, and the multiple subjective meanings it holds in our society. So far, we haven’t found a dictionary that includes a citation for “Deaf culture,” but all dictionaries have listings for “culture,” so we’re including two of them. A definition of Deaf culture is quoted from our book, For Hearing People Only: Third Edition.
Dictionary definitions of culture
From The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language,
Fourth Edition (online version):
Cul·ture (kul'cher) n.
- a. The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought.
b. These patterns, traits, and products considered as the expression of a particular period, class, community, or population: Edwardian culture; Japanese culture; the culture of poverty.
c. These patterns, traits, and products considered with respect to a particular category, such as a field, subject, or mode of expression: religious culture in the Middle Ages; musical culture; oral culture.
d. The predominating attitudes and behavior that characterize the functioning of a group or organization.
- Intellectual and artistic activity and the works produced by it.
- a. Development of the intellect through training or education.
b. Enlightenment resulting from such training or education.
- A high degree of taste and refinement formed by aesthetic and intellectual training.
- Special training and development: voice culture for singers and actors.
- The cultivation of soil; tillage.
- The breeding of animals or growing of plants, especially to produce improved stock.
a. The growing of microorganisms, tissue cells, or other living matter in a specially prepared nutrient medium.
b. Such a growth or colony, as of bacteria.
tr.v. cul·tured, cul·tur·ing, cul·tures
- To cultivate.
- a. To grow (microorganisms or other living matter) in a specially prepared nutrient medium.
b. To use (a substance) as a medium for culture: culture milk.
[Middle English, cultivation, from Old French, from Latin cultura, from cultus, past participle of colere; see cultivate.]
From Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary,
cul•ture \ 'kul-cher\ n [ME, fr. MF, fr. L cultura, fr. cultus, pp.](15c)
- CULTIVATION, TILLAGE
- The act of developing the intellectual and moral faculties esp. by education
- expert care and training (beauty ~)
- a: enlightenment and excellence of taste acquired by intellectual and aesthetic training
b: acquaintance with and taste in fine arts, humanities, and broad aspects of science as distinguished from vocational and technical skills
- a: the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon man’s capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations
b: the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group
c: the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes a company or corporation
- cultivation of living material in prepared nutrient media; also: a product of such cultivation
|Note that “culture” has several definitions, and encompasses special training, socially transmitted codes and patterns of conduct, intellectual develpment, enlightenment, knowledge, beliefs, and sophistication. Particularly relevant to a discussion of Deaf culture are the characteristics of “predominating attitudes and behavior that characterize the functioning of a group or organization” and “beliefs. social forms... the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices.”
An insider’s definition
So much for the dictionary definitions. Now, here’s our definition of Deaf culture:
From For Hearing People Only: Third Edition, Chapter 55:
One possible definition of U.S. Deaf culture (and there must be many!) is a social, communal, and creative force of, by, and for Deaf people based on American Sign Language (ASL). It encompasses communication, social protocol, art, entertainment, recreation (e.g., sports, travel, and Deaf clubs), and worship. It’s also an attitude, and, as such, can be a weapon of prejudice“You’re not one of us; you don’t belong.”
Despite the mighty efforts of generations of oralists, deaf people still prefer to communicate and mingle with their own kind. That is the psychosocial basis of Deaf culture. Deaf people in the United States have staunchly resisted the unstinting attempts of oralists to eradicate the use of sign language and assimilate them into the hearing mainstream. The simple fact is that deaf people who attend the common residential schools for the deafno matter what mode of communication is forced on them in the classroomtend to seek out other deaf people and communicate in sign language. This is true, to some extent, in other countries, but the U.S. arguably has the most sophisticated and creativeand publicDeaf culture of any.
Note that “Deaf culture” is a positive term, indicative of pride and a communal identity, whereas terms like “hearing-impaired” and “deafness” do not connote any particular pride or sense of community. There are oralists (deaf as well as hearing) who deny that there is such a thing as Deaf culture. They prefer to see it as an artificial political construct formulated in recent times, more of a self-conscious, posturing attitude than a reality. This view denies the importance of ASL to Deaf people.
Each ethnic and religious group has its own culture. In the case of U.S. mainstream Protestants, the characteristics may not be sharply defined. Recent Hindu or Hmong emigrants, for example, will likely have a well-defined, all-encompassing culturea distinct mode of dress, a distinct cuisine.
Deaf people who claim a culturally “Deaf” identity compare themselves to members of other ethnic communities. “We have a language; we have a culture,” they say. Opponents of this view don’t see deaf people as members of an ethnic minority but simply as handicapped persons, people with a hearing loss, people with a hearing disability, audiological patients.A Survey of Common Design Patterns
The Template Method is a simple pattern. You have an abstract class that is the base class of a hierarchy, and the behavior that is common to all objects in the hierarchy is implemented in the abstract class. Other details are left to the individual subclasses. The Template pattern is basically a formalism of the idea of defining an algorithm in a class but leaving some of the details to be implemented in subclasses. Another way to think of the Template Method is that it allows you to define a skeleton of an algorithm in an operation and defer some of the steps to subclasses. Template Method lets subclasses redefine certain steps of an algorithm without changing the algorithm's structure.
The next class diagram shows the Template method simply consists of an abstract class and subclasses. These classes define a set of primitive behaviors that make up a specific piece of functionality in the application. Behaviors common to all objects (TemplateMethod(..)) are implemented in the abstract class. Subclasses are free to provide an alternate implementation (overriding a method), or to provide methods specific to a particular concrete class (such as Step1(...) and Step2(...)).
The Visitor pattern uses an external class to act on data in other classes. This is a useful approach to you when you have a polymorphic operation that cannot reside in the class hierarchy. Visitor is also a useful way to extend the behavior of a class hierarchy without the need to alter existing classes or to implement the new behavior in every subclass that requires it.
The following class diagram shows that the Visitor pattern consists of two different types of classes, Elements and Visitors. Elements are the objects your application uses and Visitors are encapsulated behaviors that are required for each concrete Element. Each Element must implement the Accept( ) method, which takes Visitor as an argument. In addition, each Visitor must provide an implementation of the VisitElementX( ) method for each element in the object structure. The client acts to instantiate the element class and the visitor class. The client then passes the visitor object to the element's Accept( ) method, and then calls the elements methods to have it perform operations. The actual action that gets performed is determined by which visitor class was instantiated by the client.
James Maioriello, Ph.D., is a Senior Design Engineer for Formation Systems Inc., a corporation located in Massachusetts dedicated to the development of software systems for product development in the processing industries. His position allows him to use his expertise and skills to design solutions for chemists and other scientists so they can focus their talents on innovation. Dr. Maioriello obtained degrees in Chemistry from Lehigh University and in Software Engineering from Polytechnic University in New York.
Page 5 of 5If you’ve read a bit about personal finance, chances are that you’ve heard the term Adjusted Gross Income (AGI). A fair bit of tax considerations are based on AGI, so it’s well worth familiarizing yourself with the term. Here’s a quick introduction to AGI and when you might need to consider yours.
Calculating Adjusted Gross Income
The IRS defines AGI as “gross income minus adjustments to income.” That’s not exactly a helpful definition. It doesn’t tell you what gross income is or what adjustments must be subtracted.
Your gross income is simply the total amount you receive in a given year. It is not limited to wages or salary. It includes wages, salary, bonuses, dividends, royalties, interest, business income, pensions and annuities, capital gains, and alimony you’ve received.
Turning to adjustments, here’s a brief list and description of common adjustments accounted for in your AGI:
- Certain expenses incurred by performing artists
- Certain expenses paid by teachers for books, supplies, and other equipment
- Certain travel expenses paid by members of the reserve components of the armed forces
- Losses from the sale or exchange of property
- Some costs associated with rental income or royalties
- Qualified retirement savings
- Jury duty pay remitted to your employer
- Clean fuel vehicle deductions
- Moving expenses
- Student loan interest
- Higher education expenses
- Health savings accounts
Why AGI Matters
Why does your AGI matter? Well, the IRS uses your AGI to determine whether or not you qualify for certain deductions and credits. For example, the IRS allows you to deduct medical expenses that exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income. In another example, qualifying for the Earned Income Tax Credit means falling under the income limit that applies to you, and all are based on adjusted gross income.
There’s yet another term you might hear thrown about, one used for a few other tax calculations: Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI). MAGI refers to your AGI with modifications. What these modifications are can vary and the tricky thing is that there’s not a single MAGI—there are various MAGIs used for different purposes. And each comes with its own set of modifications. A few common modifications include tax exempt interest and the excluded portion of Social Security payments.
You should be cognizant of what you expect your AGI to be at the end of the year, particularly if you receive income throughout the year that you do not initially pay taxes on. Knowing what you AGI will turn out to be will help you plan for the coming tax bill. If your tax situation is simple, this probably won’t require much attention. If you and your spouse are both income earners, your AGI will be roughly the sum of your salary less retirement savings.
If, on the other hand, you work an income earning job, pay alimony, run a small business part time and own a rental property, it’s a good idea to think ahead about what your expected AGI is. This will help you know your marginal tax bracket and plan for tax expenses. The last thing you want is unexpected tax bill you can’t pay.The Penguin English Library Edition of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens "What do you think that is?' she asked me, again pointing with her stick; 'that, where those cobwebs are?" "I can't guess what it is, ma'am." "It's a great cake. A bride-cake. Mine!" Great Expectations, Dickens's funny, frightening and tender portrayal of the orphan Pip's journey of self-discovery, is one of his best-loved works. Showing how a young man's life is transformed by a mysterious series of events - an encounter with an escaped prisoner; a visit to a black-hearted old woman and a beautiful girl; a fortune from a secret donor - Dickens's late novel is a masterpiece of psychological and moral truth, and Pip among his greatest creations. The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.This quick study guide is an essential resource for anyone studying: A Streetcar Named Desire. This play is considered to be an epic work from Tennessee Williams. This laminated reference guide covers the basics, characters, symbols, setting, main plot, time & structure, themes, and a scene-by-scene play summary.Ideal for exam preparation, home-schooling, studying, reference, review.
A Streetcar Named Desire Quick Reference Study Guide...get it today!
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Permacharts Inc is the world's largest and oldest publisher of premium, laminated quick reference study guides and study aids covering an extensive range of topics and subject matter. Expertly written by authors in their chosen field, our study aids allow a student to learn any subject in record time. Study Less - Learn More is our motto.International Hydrofoil Society Presents...
Airplane Foil Arrangement
A foil system in which the main foil assembly is located forward of the vehicle's center of gravity and whose main foil area (lifting surface) represents the major portion (65% or more) of the total foil lifting area. The remaining foil area is provided by a smaller foil located aft of the center of gravity.
Air Stabilized Foil
A lifting foil that uses controlled ventilation of air to modulate lift for achieving craft stability and control.
The measure of the ratio of a foil's span to its chord. It is defined as span2 / total foil area.
Base Ventilated Foil
(1) A system of forced ventilation designed to overcome the reduction in lift/drag ratio of a foil at supercavitating speeds. Air is fed continuously to the upper surface of the foil, unwetting the surface and preventing the formation of critical areas of decreased pressure. Alternatively, the air may be fed into the cavity formed behind a square trailing edge. (2) Air or water jet is used to provide side force forward of the center of gravity of the craft to assist in maneuvering. Thrust vector can be varied.
The approximate range of a craft based upon the average values of propulsion efficiency, specific fuel consumption, the ratio of initial-to-final gross weight, and assuming a constant life-to-drag ratio. Named after L. Brequet, who first suggested the simplified formula applied to airplanes.
The unwetting of a foil with resultant loss of lift due to the foil coming near to or penetrating the air-water interface.
A low-aspect-ratio foil, inclined at something like 45 degrees, and mounted on an outrigger. When it's to windward, the Bruce foil produces a downward lift due to the leeway of the sailboat, and a positive lift when the foil is to leeward - both are stabilizing.
Canard Foil Arrangement
A foil system in which the main foil assembly is located aft of the vehicle's center of gravity and whose foil area (lifting surface) represents the major portion (65% or more) of the total foil lifting area. The remaining area is given to a smaller foil located well forward of the center of gravity.
1. the rapid formation and collapse of vapor pockets in a flowing liquid in regions of very low pressure. 2. such a pocket formed. (Webster)
Photos of Different Types of Cavitation
Angular intersection of the side and bottom of a craft's hull, as opposed to a round bilge, which is sometimes called a soft chine.
A main foil system in which the foil area is one continuous section as opposed to being split in the center.
The motion of a craft when tending to follow the surface wave profile rather than tending to travel horizontally over the waves.
Conventional Foil Arrangement
Same as airplane foil arrangement.
The condition of foilborne operation of a hydrofoil caused by contact of the lower part of a hull and keel with the crests of the larger waves. The contact is brief and does not prevent the craft from remaining foilborne. Also called furrowing.
A foil whose span is not parallel to the horizontal (such as the PHM foils).
Small fins placed on struts or foils to prevent ventilation air from migrating down a strut or along a foil. The fences are attached to the strut or foil so as to be parallel to the direction of the fluid flow.
A method of controlling the lift of a submerged hydrofoil system by varying the angle of trailing edge flaps on the foils.
The distance between the keel and the mean water surface while foilborne. This provides a measure of actual keel clearance.
Lifting surface designed to support all or part of the weight of a waterborne craft at an appropriate forward speed.
A hydrofoil craft is said to be foilborne when the hull is raised completely out of the water and wholly supported by lift from its foil system.
Sudden breaking of the water surface by a foil or part of a foil, resulting in a loss of lift due to air flowing over the foil's upper surface.
The distance between the foil and the mean water surface while foilborne.
Refers to the formation of a gaseous cavity in the liquid flow past a body, e.g. a foil, and which terminates downstream behind the body.
Fully Submerged Foil System
See Submerged Foil System.
Operating condition of a hydrofoil craft or Air Cushion Vehicle (ACV) in which the weight of the craft is supported by the displacement of its hull.
The hump or peak formed on the graph of resistance against speed for planing craft, hydrofoils, or ACVs due primarily to maximum wave-making drag of the hull and induced drag of the foils.
The speed at which the hump occurs.
The drag at hump speed.
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Hydrofoil Small Waterplane Area Ship (HYSWAS)
Hybrid vessel comprising a single submerged hull with fully submerged foil system and an upper hull structure supported by vertical strut or struts. At low speeds, the craft is supported by buoyancy of the submerged hull, the strut, and the lower section of the upper hull. At speed, dynamic lift generated by the foil system raises the upper hull out of the the water with reduction of the waterplane areas of the strut.
The method of controlling the lift of a submerged hydrofoil system by varying the angle of incidence of the foil or foils.
A surface-piercing hydrofoil system consisting of several small parallel foils such that as speed is increased, fewer foils are required to support the craft. The remaining foils are then above the water surface and contribute no hydrodynamic drag. This is one of the earliest foil arrangements and was used by Forlanini in his 1905 hydro-aeroplane, which was probably the first really successful hydrofoil.
A foil system consisting of a continuous foil connected to the main hull by two vertical struts, the entire assembly thus resembling an inverted Greek letter pi.
Operating mode of a high-speed craft in which most of the vehicle weight is supported by hydrodynamic lift rather than by static buoyant force and which is characterized by a clean flow separation at transom and chine.
An operating mode of a hydrofoil craft in which the center of gravity of the craft is constrained to travel in straight and level flight with the hull clear of the waves, rather than conforming to the wave profile.
General term describing the performance, controllability, and dynamic response of a vessel in a seaway.
Quality of a craft/ship behavior in waves characterized by easy motions (i.e. low accelerations), dry decks, absence of propeller racing and slamming, and easy steering.
Slamming or Hull Slamming
Violent impact between sea waves and a portion of a craft's hull, resulting in large plating loads due to the large relative velocity. This can occur subsequent to a forward foil broach.
A main foil system with the foil area divided into two, either to facilitate retraction, or to permit the location of the control surfaces well outboard, where foil control and large rol- correcting moments can be applied for small changes in lift.
Streamlined, column-like appendage or support for foils or components of water propulsion systems.
A general classification given to foils similar in section shape to subsonic airplane wings. These foils are designed to operate effectively (high lift-to-drag ration) in fully-wetted, non-cavitating flow conditions.
Submerged Foil System
A foil system employing totally submerged lifting surfaces. The depth of submergence is controlled by mechanical, electronic, or pneumatic systems that alter the angle of incidence of the foils (or flaps attached to the foils) to provide stability and control. Also called Fully Submerged Foil System.
A general classification given to foils designed to operate efficiently at high speeds while fully cavitated. Since at very high speeds foils cannot avoid cavitation, sections are designed to induce the onset of cavitation from the leading edge and cause the cavities to proceed downstream and beyond the trailing edge before collapsing. Lift and drag of these foils is determined by the shapes of the leading edge and undersurface.
Cavitating flow, with cavity artificially vented to the atmosphere or a source of pressurized air.
Surface-Piercing Foil System
A foil system in which the lifting surfaces are partly submerged at foilborne speed. The system is stabilized by the varying submerged foil area. The lift produced is proportional to the submerged foil area.
The transition from hullborne operation to foilborne operation.
Tandem Foil Arrangement
A foil system in which the area of the forward foil(s) is between 35% to 65% of the total foil area.
Hydrofoil craft operations with struts down and main engine running, but craft not foilborne. Examples are: proceeding at reduced speed in restricted channels to or from berth; to maintain heading and reduce rolling when operating above design sea states; and, to reduce radar signature by lowering craft to displacement mode.
Foils designed to have no abrupt changes of loading as they pass from the fully wetted flow region through partial cavitation to the fully cavitating flow region at high craft speeds. Also called transiting foil.
Process by which a ventilated flow is formed and maintained. "Natural Ventilation" exists when a continuous or intermittent flow of air is created by means of the flow itself, as from the free surface in the case of a surface-piercing, ventilated strut. "Forced Ventilation" exists when the air is continuously supplied into the cavity by auxiliary means such as a pump.
A water propulsion system consisting of an inlet, a duct, and an exit nozzle, or combination thereof, with a pump located in the duct for transferring energy from a prime mover to the fluid. The system is used for propelling low-speed craft where low draft is required and for propelling high-speed craft as an alternative to a mechanical transmission and propeller system
International Hydrofoil Society
PO BOX 51 - CABIN JOHN MD 20818 - USA
Go to IHS Main PageSAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Scientists have transported 25 endangered Puerto Rican parrots to one of the U.S. territory's largest forests in a bid to save the island's last native parrot species.
The birds were placed Thursday in a large cage where they will learn survival skills for a year before being introduced into the wild at the Maricao state forest in southwest Puerto Rico.
Natural Resources Secretary Carmen Guerrero said the forest has the largest plant diversity on the island.
The arrival of the 25 parrots represents a local and federal effort to establish a third population of a bird that saw its numbers dwindle to only 13 in the early 1970s.
Puerto Rico has two other aviaries with nearly 400 parrots and more than 100 others are believed to exist in the wild.Epiphyllum are epiphytic cacti as their name suggests. Some call them orchid cactus due to their large bright blooms and growth habit. Epiphytic plants grow on other plants, not in a parasitic fashion but as hosts. They are not cold hardy and generally can be found only as houseplants or greenhouse specimens. Caring for Epiphyllums is a water balancing act. They can’t be allowed to dry out, yet overwatering is a death sentence to these cacti. Here are a few tips on how to grow Epiphyllum and achieve healthy plants that will astound with their blooms and fruit.
Epiphyllum make excellent hanging baskets with their jointed stems that grow 18 to 30 inches long. They are native to tropical Central and South America and span approximately 20 species. The pendant stems crown with spectacular flowers that last only a couple of days but produce from early winter through spring. They are a peculiar plant that flowers best when exposed to cool temperatures and shortened light periods.
These cacti grow in tropical forests, nestled in tree crotches and rotting vegetation. They can live off of leaf mold and other organic wastes. In cultivation, they perform well in standard potting soil amended with peat and sand. Use clean sand, not the saline laden sand from a beach. They can be fussy about their water, so use bottled or de-mineralized water to prevent unfavorable reactions to treated tap water.
An interesting bit of Epiphyllum information is that they grow edible fruit. The fruit is said to taste much like passion vine fruit and has a texture similar to kiwi, including the small black seeds.
How to Grow Epiphyllums
Collectors that are growing Epiphyllum cactus tend to call them “epis” for short. There are true Epiphyllums but also several hybrids available for trade. The plants start readily from seed but may take up to 5 years to bloom.
A more common method of propagation with quicker results is from stem cutting taken in spring or summer. Make a clean cut on new growth and allow the end to callus for a couple of days. Push the callused end into clean potting soil that is moderately moist. Place the container in bright indirect light and keep soil misted. It can take 3 to 6 weeks for the cutting to root.
New Epiphyllum plant care is the same as that for a mature plant.
Caring for Epiphyllum Cacti
Choose a filtered light location for growing Epiphyllum cactus. A site where they get full morning sun but shelter from high noon light is best for their growth.
Use a diluted fertilizer of 10-10-10 during the growth periods in spring and fall. In February, use a ratio of 2-10-10 to promote flowering and root development. Once flowering has commenced, suspend feeding the plant until October.
These plants appreciate cool temperatures and actually need to be exposed to 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 15 C.) in winter for a couple of weeks to force blooms. Temperatures below 35 F./1 C. will kill the plant, however.
Epiphyllum plant care is all about balancing water and light needs. They have few insect or disease problems and will bloom, and possibly fruit, for an entire season with good management.|Scientific Name:||Aotus nancym
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orged nymphs molted to adults (92 A. tigrinum, 13 A. parvum), which were individually submitted to the hemolymph test with Gimenez staining for detection of rickettsiae-like organisms (7). By the hemolymph test, 1 A. tigrinum female, and 2 A. parvum male ticks were found to contain red-stained rickettsiae-like structures. These 3 ticks were processed individually by the shell vial technique, with the purpose of isolating intracellular bacteria in Vero cell culture (7). Inoculated cells were always incubated at 28°C. Intracellular bacteria were successfully isolated from all 3 ticks and established in Vero cell culture, as demonstrated by Gimenez staining of infected cells from at least 10 subsequent passages, which all infected 100% of the cells (Figure, panel A). Infected Vero cells contained multiple vacuoles (Figure, panel B) that enclosed a seething mass of microorganisms (Video), compatible with Coxiella organisms. Such vacuoles were not seen in uninfected control Vero cells incubated under the same conditions as those of infected cells (Figure, panel C).
Vero cells infected by
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For molecular analyses, DNA from the infected cells of each of the 3 isolates was extracted by boiling at 100°C for 10 min; it yielded products of the expected size through PCR protocols selective for portions of 3 genes of the genus Coxiella: primers QR-FO (5′-ATTGAAGAGTTTGATTCTGG-3′) and QR-RO (5′-CGGCCTCCCGAAGGTTAG-3′) for the 16S rRNA gene (8); primers CAPI844F (5-ATTTAGTGGGTTTCGCGCAT-3′) and CAPI844R (5′-CATCAGCATACGTTTCGGGAA-3′) for the cap gene (9); and primers Cox-F-pry2 (5′-TTATTTACCAACGTTCCTGAGCCG-3′) and Cox-R-pry2 (5′-TTTATCCCGAGCAAATTCAATTATGG-3′) for the pyrG gene (9). PCR products underwent DNA sequencing in an automatic sequencer (Applied Biosystems/PerkinElmer, Foster City, CA, USA) according to the manufacturer`s protocol. We sequenced 1,386, 557, and 545 nt of the genes 16S rRNA, cap, and pyrG, respectively, which were identical to each other for each gene amplified from the 3 tick isolates. By BLAST analyses (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/blast), these sequences were 99.9% (1,384/1,386 nt), 99.6% (556/558 nt), and 99.6% (452/454 nt) identical to the corresponding GenBank sequences of the North American C. burnetii genes 16S rRNA, cap, and pyrG, respectively (HM208383, CP001020, CP001020). Partial sequences (16S rRNA, cap, pyrG) from C. burnetii generated in this study were deposited into GenBank and assigned nucleotide accession nos. JQ740886–JQ740888, respectively.
Infected Vero cell monolayers were fixed in a modified Karnovsky solution, stained with uranyl acetate and lead citrate, and examined in a transmission electron microscope according to standard procedures. Ultrastructurally, Coxiella organisms were identified by morphologic features within heavily infected Vero cells. The organisms possessed typical bacillary morphologic characteristics and were observed inside vacuoles (phagolysosomes) of different sizes, proportional to the number of organisms (Figure, panels D, E). Intravacuolar organisms had a mean length of 0.55 ± 0.13 µm (range 0.42–0.85 µm) and a mean width of 0.25 ± 0.03 µm (range 0.22–0.32 µm).
Ticks negative for rickettsiae-like organisms by hemolymph testing were subjected individually to DNA extraction by the guanidine isothiocyanate-phenol technique (10) and screened for Coxiella spp. by PCR that targeted the pyrG gene, as described above. Although no A. parvum tick yielded amplicons, 40 A. tigrinum ticks yielded amplicons of the expected size for the pyrG gene. DNA sequences generated from these ticks were identical to the pyrG partial sequences obtained from the C. burnetii isolates mentioned above.
We found 41 (44.6%) of 92 ticks and 2 (15.4%) of 13 of the A. tigrinum and A. parvum adult ticks, respectively, to be infected by C. burnetii. Because these ticks were collected as engorged nymphs from wild rodents in a natural biome of Argentina, namely, the Chaco phytogeographic domain (5,6), our results indicate that C. burnetii is established in this part of the country where ticks possibly play an essential role in the enzootic cycle. Serologic evidence of C. burnetii infection has been found among goats and cattle in several areas of Argentina (3,4). Because free-ranging domestic cattle and goats are considered among the most likely hosts for A. parvum adult ticks in the Chaco domain (6), humans are likely being exposed to C. burnetii as well.
We thank Gregory Dasch for technical advice during the laboratory work.
This work was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa no Estado de São Paulo, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (Brazil), Asociación Cooperadora Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuária Rafaela, and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (Argentina).
- Maurin M, Raoult D. Q fever. Clin Microbiol Rev. 1999;12:518–53.
- Lemos ER, Rozental T, Mares-Guia MA, Almeida DN, Moreira N, Silva RG, Q fever as a cause of fever of unknown origin and thrombocytosis: first molecular evidence of Coxiella burnetii in Brazil. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 2011;11:85–7.
- Kaplan MM, Bertagna P. The geographical distribution of Q fever. Bull World Health Organ. 1955;13:829–60.
- Trezeguet MA, Debenedetti RT, Suarez MF, Barral LE, Ramos M. Detección de fiebre Q en majadas generales caprinas, en la Republica Argentina. Revista Veterinaria Argentina. 2010;27:1–9.
- Nava S, Mangold AJ, Guglielmone AA. The natural hosts of larvae and nymphs of Amblyomma tigrinum Koch, 1844 (Acari: Ixodidae). Vet Parasitol. 2006;140:124–32.
- Nava S, Mangold AJ, Guglielmone AA. Aspects of the life cycle of Amblyomma parvum (Acari: Ixodidae) under natural conditions. Vet Parasitol. 2008;156:270–6.
- Labruna MB, Whitworth T, Horta MC, Bouyer DH, McBride JW, Pinter A, Rickettsia species infecting Amblyomma cooperi ticks from an area in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, where Brazilian spotted fever is endemic. J Clin Microbiol. 2004;42:90–8.
- Masuzawa T, Sawaki K, Nagaoka H, Akiyama M, Hirai K, Yanagihara Y. Identification of rickettsiae isolated in Japan as Coxiella burnetii by 16S rRNA sequencing. Int J Syst Bacteriol. 1997;47:883–4.
- Reeves WK, Loftis AD, Sanders F, Spinks MD, Wills W, Denison AM, Borrelia, Coxiella, and Rickettsia in Carios capensis (Acari: Argasidae) from a brown pelican (Pelecanus accidentalis) rookery in South Carolina, USA. Exp Appl Acarol. 2006;39:321–9.
- Sangioni LA, Horta MC, Vianna MC, Gennari SM, Soares RM, Galvão MAM, Rickettsial infection in animals and Brazilian spotted fever endemicity. Emerg Infect Dis. 2005;11:265–70.We have now released our third set of Science worksheets aimed at discovering more out about the materials we use and recycle every day.
There are activities for KS1, KS2 and KS3/4 classes, as well as one suitable for Home Learning. They are accompanied by a quiz to assess learning and a range of videos, making these suitable for online teaching too.
Download from our Science of Materials: Plastic page – https://zone.recycledevon.org/materials-worksheets/clothes-and-textiles
Try the fun quiz to test your knowledge of textiles!Customarily utilized in the production centers and automobile industries, the water level sensors are one-of-a-kind devices that accurately measure the level of fluid in a fixed container of average size. Such level indicators function as unique mechanical devices such as a sensor or float with an output signal for denoting the level within the container or pool. These level sensors operate with a standard technology for ascertaining the level of substances that can flow in varied water storage areas of tanks, pumps, and pools.
Such materials can be liquids, semi-liquids, granulated substances, and powders. These water level sensors come in two distinct variants of continuous level and point level sensors. Thus, to accurately measure the level of water, it is highly feasible to order the unique devices of level sensors for water tanks from Gordy’s Sensors, the specialist supplier for measuring, and sensing gadgets.
Let us go through the prime advantages to choose the water level sensors:
1. Provides Precision-Guided Measurement with Minimal Voltage Usage
The built-in high-quality sensor provides accelerated and accurate reflections of the subtle changes in the flowing or static water level, thus ensuring precise measurements. Moreover, these innovative level indicators assist to reduce voltage consumption by managing the water and other fluids in discrete storage channels. In addition, the automatic level indicator needs minimal power, and less water to regulate the accurate functions of measurements.
2. Completely Automatic Operations with Negligible Sustenance
Again, these level sensors seldom trigger any functional obstacles, hence ensuring industrial customers with reasonably low maintenance. As such mechanical devices come with stainless steel conductive electrodes that have plastic covering; it is thus highly resilient and neutralizes the issues of recurrent cleaning and sustenance. Moreover, the device does not have any complex circuit structure and delivers a smooth functional mechanism. The industrial operators never have to give any manual effort to track the water filling procedure in the container.
3. Easier Installation Process with a Durable Mean Life
Moreover, the level indicating gadgets provides simpler set-up procedures, while reducing operational expenses and delivering top-notch performances. An integrated firmware with a digital dry-contact circuit is interconnected to the LED lights for furnishing constant analyses through visual scanning and surveying during the functions of the level sensors. Again, these fluid level sensors can be efficiently utilized for 4 to 5 years in standard conditions, whereas 2 to 3 years in any hostile industrial circumstances.
4. Diverse Range of Measuring Platforms and Usages
Such sensors measure the accurate level of fluids by operating in distinctly different mediums of water, oil, and other preservative liquids. Likewise, the level indicator is never distressed by foamy, sedimentary, and electronic features of the measuring medium, whereupon it offers maximal density along with different temperature ranges. Utilized widely in discrete industrial and commercial zones of manufactories, agricultural, hotels, and other allied needs, these level indicators are simply seamless in functions. Furnishing the most suitable liquid level measurements consisting of higher temperature and pressure, the level sensors can also be beneficially utilized in adverse mediums consisting of pollutants and corrosion.
Furnishing industry-grade sensing, monitoring, and measuring gadgets with around 14 years of trailblazing expertise, Gordy’s Sensors can be the best platform to choose and order premium quality level sensors for water tanks. Such sustenance-free unique mechanical devices help to generate extensive industrial and commercial utilizations, delivering enhanced efficiency with cost-effectiveness for diverse industrial functions. These liquid-level sensors can be positioned at any particular elevation to measure the fluid and transforms the momentum on the front façade of the sensor to denote the measured water level. Over and above such water level indicators are used to analyze fluid levels in the water containers, swimming pools, rivers, and lakes, marine water bodies, oil trucks, cooling towers, and sewage pumps.My great, great grandfather, Patrick Blake, was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1833 and was brought to Ontario, Canada when he was about a year old. This is when details get murky. As I mentioned in my last post, historical records tend to be conflicting which is the case here. According to my research, he left Ireland with both his mother and father, John and Catherine Blake. My research also says John Blake died in 1842 in Ontario but I recently read an obituary for Patrick that says his father died when he was an infant and his mother brought him to Canada shortly thereafter. I did find a John Blake in the 1842 Canadian census for Quebec but the census is practically worthless since it did not list ages or the names of family members. John Blake is not exactly an uncommon name.
Patrick Blake moved to Detroit when he was young. Again, the records are conflicting but he arrived somewhere between the ages 12 and 20, possibly earlier. If my records are correct, he came there with his mother some time after his father died in 1842 which would make the obituary partially true. In another publication about the Blake family, Patrick was said to have come to Detroit with his mother and Father, which doesn’t match my records for opposite reasons. This information is not very important but it illustrates the difficulties in historical research.
At a young age, Patrick learned the art of shoemaking and opened a shoe store in Detroit. His shoemaking skills were exceptional and he even earned first prize for a pair of shoes he made for the first Michigan State Fair.
In 1855, Patrick married Eliza O’Rafferty. Eliza left Ireland with her family during the Irish Potato Famine. I wrote about her in another post that you can read here. Together they had nine or ten children. I will explain the uncertainty later.
In 1862, Patrick opened a furniture store after giving up the shoe business. By 1865 he was selling caskets as well as furniture in his store. In those days, funeral homes did not exist like they do today. People just bought caskets and buried their dead.
Patrick, like many others, lost money after the Panic of 1873 and gave up the furniture business. He then conceived the idea of devoting his time to directing funerals. He thought the casket business lacked the compassion needed at times of death and originated many ideas that are now common in the funeral home business.
Patrick’s funeral business became very successful in Detroit and the man himself was well regarded in the city. In a 1914 publication titled Successful Men of Michigan, Patrick’s business, which was later called P. Blake and Sons after the addition of his sons William and Charles, was touted as “the first to furnish their establishment with a morgue of modern construction and equipment. They were first to introduce the process of embalming in this part of the country; first to use black covered caskets; first to establish a chapel in connection with their undertaking rooms; and first to introduce the modern square funeral car or hearse.”
Patrick was also a charitable man. He took a special interest in St. Vincent’s orphan asylum, of Detroit, He was also a member of the city’s poor commission, and a member of the board of superintendents of the poor of Wayne county. This will be ironic years later when one of his own sons will end up poor and destitute.
Patrick died in 1893 and had a very thorough obituary in The Detroit Free Press. They mentioned nine children, eight of whom were living at the time and listed seven of them. They did not list my great grandfather, Nelson Blake. He was also not listed in other publications about the Blake family at the time. Nelson was the youngest of Patrick’s children, born in 1875.
A second cousin of mine found evidence that Nelson might have been the illegitimate child of Patrick’s oldest son, Harry, and Nellie Palmer, who were unmarried at the time. Patrick and Eliza may have adopted the child but no other evidence has been found to support that. I did find an 1880 census that shows Nelson listed as a 5 year old son to Patrick and Eliza along with eight other children in the household. I believe there was another child that had died by this time which may explain why he was said to have nine children in publications that I have read.
There is far less information about Nelson than Patrick but I know he ends up in Chicago and marries Matilda Williams (or Bouer). In the 1930 census he is listed as a gardener. Also in that census, he lists his father as being from Ireland. So if he is really Harry’s son then he either doesn’t know it or doesn’t acknowledge it.
From what I picked up over the years, Nelson and Matilda didn’t get along very well. I believe Matilda would complain often about Nelson’s behavior, in particular about his drinking. I don’t know if it was the drinking that was the problem or if going out to drink was the issue. My grandfather didn’t say much about it but it seemed he felt his mother drove his father away.
Whatever the reason, Nelson left Matilda and had a very hard life afterwards. The 1930 census has him living in a place called “Old Ironsides Hotel.” I looked it up but could find no information about it except one reference to it in a book called Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties by Michael Lesy. In the book he says “The Ironsides was a skid row flophouse.”
Things hadn’t improved for Nelson ten years later when he was listed as a patient at Oak Forest Infirmary in 1940. It was a place for the sick and disadvantaged. It was also known as the Cook County Poor House. Nelson died that same year.
I can’t help wonder where his family was during those years he was poor and destitute. His parents were dead but he did have eight brothers and sisters, some of whom were probably well off considering the success of the undertaking business. Granted, I don’t know what happened to the business. It doesn’t exist today, at least not by that name, but I would think at least one of his siblings could have helped him at the time. Also, if Harry truly was his father, why didn’t he help? I guess I’ll never know.
Matilda lived in the same house in Chicago for the rest of her life. She died 13 years after Nelson in 1953. My mother visited her sometimes as a child and thought that she may have been waiting for her husband to come home. I wonder if she ever knew of his death.By Rebecca Bird
LONDON — A new partnership may see more than half a billion US dollars (£400 million) invested in 10 recycling facilities across the United Kingdom over the coming years in a bid to tackle the plastic waste crisis.
Renewable and alternative energy company Clean Planet Energy announced a joint venture with Luxembourg-based private equity firm Crossroads Real Estate on Nov. 15.
They are funding Clean Planet Energy’s flagship ecoPlant currently under construction in Teesside, northeast England.
This will be the first of 10 new green, advanced recycling facilities that the two firms are jointly seeking to build and operate across the UK.
Potential sites have already been identified in Lincolnshire, Gloucestershire, Lancashire and South Wales, with further locations and announcements to be made in the months ahead.
Bertie Stephens, group CEO of Clean Planet Energy, said: “Clean Planet Energy’s mission is to remove over one million tonnes of non-recyclable plastic waste from our environment, every year.
“This exciting partnership gives us the capacity to make a significant dent in this target.”
He added: “We’re now reaching out to local councils and private partners across the UK who could benefit from a reduction in plastic waste entering their landfill.”
Clean Planet Energy’s ecoPlant is intended to process non-recyclable and hard-to-recycle waste plastics that would otherwise be sent to landfill. Each facility is designed to accept 20,000 tonnes of plastics each year.
It will convert this waste into ultra-low sulfur diesel to replace fossil fuels in the transport and heavy-machinery sectors.
Clean Planet Energy’s diesel can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 75% compared to the use of traditional diesel.
In addition, the plant will convert waste plastics into petrochemical feedstock like naphtha which can be used to make new plastic products without using fossil-based feedstock.
This means that over 200,000 tonnes of hard-to-recycle waste plastics will be re-purposed for use in the circular supply chain each year.
David Gillerman, founding partner and CEO of Crossroads Real Estate, said: “The negative impact of plastic waste on our environment, plus the challenges we face from excess carbon emissions, made the joint venture with Clean Planet Energy a very compelling opportunity.
“With this investment, we have the ability to make a significant environmental and social impact across the UK.”
The news comes as COP27 is currently underway and where world leaders are seeking solutions to reduce global GHG emissions and plastic pollution.
Data from 2021 shows that the UK still generates over two million tonnes of plastic waste each year, with well over 60% of this not suitable for recycling.
In November 2022, the UK government’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee published a report focusing on accelerating the reduction of plastic waste, with advanced recycling identified as a key policy recommendation.
Earlier this year, Clean Planet Energy announced a 10-year agreement with global energy company bp plc to off-take its circular products from its ecoPlants into the market.
Each new ecoPlant will be able to process hard-to-recycle plastics in the UK.
At their peak, the facilities should create more than 750 direct jobs, and thousands of indirect jobs when they move from development into construction and operation phases.
Recommended from our partners
The post Half A Billion Dollars To Be Invested In Advanced Plastic Recycling Facilities In UK appeared first on Zenger News.Xylota xanthocnema Collin, 1939
Biology & ecology:
The larva has been found in rot-holes of Yew Taxus baccatus. It usually occurs in or near ancient deciduous woodland, although, according to Speight (2010) it favours sites with well-drained soils. Adults are found running rapidly over foliage or basking on sun-lit trunks in clearings. There appear to be no records of this species visiting flowers.
Rare and largely confined to the southern half of Britain, but also found in old woodland on limestone in Yorkshire (Stubbs, 1996). It was found to be locally abundant in some woods near Coventry by staff of the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in the early 1980s.
Status & conservation:
The frequency of occurrence shows a decline over the past 20 years.The Dülmener or Dülmen is a German breed of small feral horse. It was formerly known as the Merfelderbrücher. A herd of approximately 300 head lives in feral conditions in an area of about 3.5 km² (1.4 square miles) in the Merfelder Bruch, near the town of Dülmen in the Kreis of Coesfeld in north-western Nordrhein-Westfalen, in north-western Germany.
It is gravely endangered; in 2014 it was the "endangered breed of the year" of the "Gesellschaft zur Erhaltung alter und gefährdeter Haustierrassen" (Society for the preservation of old and endangered domesticated animal breeds), and in 2021 was classified in category I, extrem gefährdet (extremely endangered) on the Rote Liste (Red List) of that association.
Herd of Dülmener Feral Horses (Equus caballus, german: Hauspferd, french: Cheval). All the horses in the reserve are on this meadow. (1136k) All the horses moved from the meadow into the forest to get out of the rain. (1349k) Mostly they move single file. (1215k) Dülmener mare with foal. (1186k) Dülmener. (1169k) Dülmener. (1483k)London: Scientists investigating how the Atkins Diet works have discovered that protein supresses hunger hormones.
In the experiment, the mice were put on a high protein diet with the result that they produced more of an appetite regulating protein known as YY or PYY. This protein is also found in humans.
The study which is published in the magazine Cell Metabolism advices that eating protein is a good way losing weight and also for keeping it in check.
Lead researcher, Rachel Batterham from the University College of London, said that the research demonstrated the theory that eating more protein may reduce appetite and lead to sustained weight loss.
The findings also reveal how the Atkins diet might actually work, keeping carbohydrates low and protein high in the diet.
Batterman explains that in the early stages, a condition called ketosis sets in causing the liver to go on starvation mode in the absence of glycogen: “The problem is that it makes you feel terrible.”Natural Treatment of Pleomorphic Adenomas – Symptoms & Causes
Pleomorphic Adenomais a very common type of non-cancerous tumor also known as benign neoplasm. It is found in your salivary gland and most common tumor of the parotid gland. Pleomorphic Adenoma term derived from pleomorphism ie. its variable appearance seen in light microscopy. It is a Benign Mixed tumor (BMT’s) type of salivary gland because of its pleomorphic appearance, characterized by neoplastic proliferation and having a malignant potentiality. Tissue origin that makes mixed tumor comes from different types of cells.
The parotid gland is the largest salivary glands and it has two lobes. The superficial lobe and the other is the deep lobe both lobes are separated by the facial nerve.
A Pleomorphic Adenoma is a benign overgrowth arising from the salivary gland tissue and it is a painless hard, mobile, solitary mass.
The growth is usually mobile unless found in the palate and when found in the parotid tail, it is present as an eversion of the ear auricle. Although it benign tumor Pleomorphic Adenoma but have the capacity to grow in large proportions and become malignant.
The epidemiology of Pleomorphic Adenoma occurs in both men and women, but this tumor is usually occurs in adults between the age group of forty five and sixty. It is more prevalent in women (age between thirty to sixty years) than men. It is seen in infants, children, young adults too.
Pleomorphic Adenomas are not unique to the parotid gland or other salivary gland and may arise in any of the various glands in the body. Pleomorphic Adenomas account for 60% to 80% of all tumors of the parotid gland.
Sign & Symptoms
Pleomorphic Adenomas are slow growing masses that are painless in the early stage. As these tumors start to grow larger it causes complications in ear and mouth.
When it causes complication in your mouth the symptoms are
- Difficulty in chewing
- Having a choking throat
- Difficulty in swallowing
If they start to cause complications in your mouth the symptoms are:
- An interference with your speech
- An interference with the nerves that control your facial muscles.
Causes of Pleomorphic Adenoma
There are many factors which are responsible to cause Pleomorphic adenoma. Such as
- Cigarette smoking
- Radiation exposure
- Viral infection of parotid glands
The most common cause of Pleomorphic Adenoma is blockage of salivary gland, which inhibits the drainage of saliva from the glands.
Diagnosis of Pleomorphic Adenoma
Diagnostic imaging of Pleomorphic Adenoma includes
- Computed Tomography (CT scan)
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
These are the preferred methods to diagnose size and location of the tumor. However, MRI testing is sufficient for differentiating Pleomorphic adenoma from the other growths. A biopsy should be taken to rule out, malignancy ie. which type of tumor it is benign or malignant. When the doctor finds any adenoma, they definitely will go for FNA (fine needle aspiration) to see, it is Pleomorphic adenoma.
According to Ayurvedic Concept – Pleomorphic Adenoma
The word Ayurveda is a Sanskrit term. Ayus meaning life and Vid meaning information or science. Ayurveda is the oldest medicinal system in the world, which originated in the Vedic culture of India, gives the power to the body that prevents the development of diseases.
The Ayurvedic treatment includes balancing the disturbed dosha by herbs. Herbs are 100% natural and pure to mankind. According to Ayurveda, formation of a tumor is due to the imbalance in Kapha and Vata dosha. Vata dosha is responsible for the irregular division of cells while Kapha dosha is responsible for the growth of tumor cells.
Dr. Vikram Chauhan, is very much renowned Ayurvedic expert in India. His organization Planet Ayurveda distributed his medicine all over the world. Planet Ayurveda offers natural and effective products for Pleomorphic Adenoma.
Herbal Remedies for Pleomorphic Adenoma
Planet Ayurveda offers various herbal remedies for Pleomorphic Adenoma that provides effective results on symptoms associated with this disease.
1. Shatavari Capsules
These capsules are used in Ayurveda to balance Pitta and Vatta dosha..
- Supports the immune system.
- Natural antioxidant properties.
- Rejuvenates and strengthens the body.
Dosage –1 cap. twice daily, 30 minutes post meals with plain water.
2. Graviola Capsules
Graviola is evergreen tree whose leaves, seeds, stems are used to make medicine. Graviola contains many chemicals that may be active against overgrowth of the cells. These capsules are pure herbal capsules made from Graviola herb. Theses are :
- Anti inflammatory
Dosage :-1-2 cap. twice daily, 30 minutes post meals with plain water.
3. Mahashankh Vati:
It balances Vatta, Pitta, Kapha dosha and maintain metabolism. It also possesses anti-inflammatory, digestive, appetizers and sedative properties. Its ingredients are:
Pippali (Piper longum), Chitraka (Plumbago zeylanica), Danti (Baliospurmum montanum), Shudh parad(Purified murcury), Shudh tankan(purified sodium biborate), Sarjakshar (Sodium carbonate), Yavakshar (potassium carbonate).
Dosage :-2 tablets twice daily, 30 minutes post meals with plain water.
4. Pitta Balance:
According to Ayurveda our body is made up of 5 elements – Earth, Water, Fire, Space and 3 physiological humors – Vatta, Pitta, Kapha which represent 5 elements. Pitta balance capsules from Planet Ayurveda is a great product which helps to balance pitta dosha in our body which is a root cause of infections and disorders. Pitta represents the fire. This medicine has cooling effects on the body.
Its ingredients are: Akik Pishti, Jawar Mohra Pishti, Kamdudha Ras, mukta Pishti, Giloy Satva.
Dosage :-1 capsule twice daily, 30 minutes post meals with plain water.
5. Curcumin Capsules
Curcumin is most the common compound of turmeric. It is most common and ancient herb used in medicine, So it has many benefits. Curcumin capsules are used in the treatment of cancer. Anti-oxidants present in the herb improves the health and immunity and it has anti-inflammatory effects. It is rich in antibiotics.
Dosage :-1-2 cap. daily with milk or water.
Draksha denotes raisins which are the main ingredient of this formulation. It has a jam like appearance.Drakshasava/Draksavaleha is very helpful in balancing Vata and Pitta Dosha as it preserves the strength and treats weakness.It is an effective solution for loss of appetite, fatigue, lethargy, restlessness
Dosage :-Consume 5-10 grams or 1 to 2 teaspoons with warm water or honey.
Dosage for children below 5 years :-1-2 grams, 1-2 times a day, along with a teaspoon of honey or warm water / milk.
Dosage for children between 5-12 years of age :-5 grams, 1-2 times a day along with a teaspoon of honey or warm water / milk.
Contact my assistant to provide you the costing / ordering and delivery information at – firstname.lastname@example.org or call at +91-172-5214030
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- TOP 7 HOME REMEDIES FOR SWOLLEN LYMPH NODES - August 17, 2021How do I design a game where I change my world?
7th and 8th GameMakers will venture into the world of game design and development. This happens by demonstrating the skills and knowledge of game design principles and theory by prototyping a physical game, analyzing an existing games, and modifying an existing game. You will also apply and practice a variety of computer programming structure by programming a variety of games so that you able to modify and make your own game where you are character changing your world.
Guidelines and Policies
Jedi Initiation Quest
What do I need to learn so that I am successful in STEAM?
In this initiation process, our GameMakers will be learning how to learn the basics of computing by learning how use the Innovator’s Hub to communicate and collaborate with other, participate in a variety of activities, and demonstrate what you know. Innovators will also learning how to organize themselves on Google Drive so that they know where all of their digital files are.
Elements of Game Design Quest
How are games designed?
In this quest, GameMakers will be explore the formal and dramatics elements that make up a game. The game maker will be using those elements to use the design thinking process to design a card arcade game. The cardboard arcade game will be tested by the school community.
Decipher the Code Quest
How do I use algorithmic structures to design a game component?
In this quest, GameMakers will be using a game engine learning how to use a number of different algorithmic structures to design a program. GameMakers will be looking into the concepts of assigning data to variables, storing/retrieving data, using conditional statement to control the outcomes, and defining and calling functions.
The Game Maker’s Path
How do I develop a game?
Once the GameMakers are familiar with the algorithmic structures, they will be explore how to make 2 of 4 different types of games of their choice – Maze Game, Space Shooter, Platformer, Role Playing Game. After the GameMakers are familiar with the development process, they will change or add elements to the game to change the dramatic features of the game.
The Final Game Jam
How do I make my own game?
By this time, the GameMakers will have all the necessary tools needs to make their own game. In this 1 month process, GameMakers will go through a design, developments, and testing phase until their game is publishable. Their games will be pitched and presented in front of an audience.
Pearl of Wisdom
How did I grow from this experience? What pearls of wisdom should I pass on to the next group of STEAM:Coding students?
Returning from the learning journey, you will have a chance to step back and reflect on you time in this adventure. You will also have time to provide some advice for our future GameMakers next year.Amongst the numerous special of animals out there, one of the most interesting is the giraffe, which is known for its uniquely long neck. Because of this, it is considered the tallest among the animals living on land. Add to that, it is also characterized by a background color of dark yellowish brown as well as irregular black to yellow patches. This animal lives well in natural environments like woodlands, grasslands and savannas. Let’s find out more interesting things about it including how much does a giraffe cost.
The Average Price for a Giraffe
How much does a giraffe cost? The answer is close to $25,000. Based on records, it is an illegal practice to own a giraffe privately in numerous states in the U.S. However, some areas in the country allow private ownership, such as the state of Texas.
This animal belongs to phylum Chordata, class Mammalia in the order Artiodactyla. Together with the okapi, they comprise the only two species living under the Giraffidae family.
Additional Details and Other Interesting Information
The giraffe can be divided further into a number of subspecies. For instance, the Kilimanjaro Giraffe or Masai possesses a yellowish background color, dark chocolate and vine leaf shaped spots. This kind of animal can be found somewhere in Tanzania as well as the southern and central parts of Kenya. Meanwhile, the so-called Rhodesian Giraffe or Thornicroft is found within the eastern parts of Zambia. On the other hand, the Kordofan
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has been achieved over planetary distances. The method is being investigated for use aboard satellites as a possible backup for radio communications, as well as increasing the data resolution over the current standard set by radio links.
This successful feat will contribute to the the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration (LLCD) that NASA plans for the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE,) the US space agency’s next moon mission.
Recommended additional reading:Andrea Mantegna’s Samson and Delilah
Andrea Mantegna. Samson and Delilah, c. 1505. National Gallery, London
Andrea Mantegna painted this Samson and Delilah (circa 1505) with features that are unexpected. Most depictions of Samson and Delilah should be identifiable by merely a woman cutting a sleeping man's hair, as would be derived from the biblical text of Judges 16. This simple image is all that is needed for a straightforward iconographic identification. When additional, idiosyncratic elements beyond this simple image appear, several questions arise about the possible reasons. In this painting, for example, why does Mantegna include a fountain spring pouring from a rock into a water trough? Why is there a vine entwined around a tree and a rocky crevice just between the fountain spring and the water trough? These are not elements in the Samson and Delilah biblical source story of Judges 16 nor are they found in Josephus. Are there other iconographic elements in the painting that connect to different biblical and related texts such as Proverbs 5 and 7?
Andrea Mantegna (1430-1506) was a sophisticated reader of both textual and material history, known for "using classical theme[s] as an opportunity to display his classical learning"; also renowned as the late fifteenth-century artist "most devoted to antiquity". (1) On the other hand, he had no obvious connections to Rabbinic commentary or the Jewish community in Mantua. Although it is difficult to assess how literate Mantegna was for his day, he was a Paduan and Mantuan painter of great influence in northern Italy and especially beyond his own region and in Venice, where he married into the accomplished Bellini family of artists. This unusual painting (48 x 37 cm) has been in the National Gallery of London since the late nineteenth century (c. 1883) and is an exceptional distillation of allegory and literary allusion as a biblical hermeneutic ekphrasis. This ekphrasis is overlaid by Renaissance historical narrative itself derived from an older complicated Medieval commentary, possibly even informed by Hebrew midrash, as unlikely as this might seem. (2) One of the most comprehensive prior discussions of this painting and its provenance is by Keith Christiansen.(3)
This grisaille (gray-tone) “cameo-style” painting of Andrea Mantegna was painted on linen and used glue sizing (guazzo) rather than gesso for its base. It has been often described as either imitating variegated marble (africano or africano rosso or breccia pavonazza di Ezine) or an imperial Roman sardonyx gemstone cameo with alternating reddish-brown and white layers, although marble imitation is more compelling as a description. The combination of grisaille subject with marbleized background is entirely in keeping with a Classicizing mode where Mantegna deliberately quoted Roman antiquity. The archaeologist Ward-Perkins elsewhere documented the Roman love of multicolored marble like this, as easily categorized in the encyclopedic Marmi Antichi. (4) While the painting lands in the category of history painting, in this case it is a famous biblical rather than a Classical subject. Because Mantegna’s adoptive father and teacher, the painter Francesco Squarcione, had been an antiquarian and collector, the artist would have been able early on to observe many such antiquities such as Roman cameo seals, gems or fragments of highly-colored Roman marbles and sarcophagus cast reliefs to provide ample all’antica models. Furthermore, one of Mantegna’s own patrons in 1459, Cardinal Lodovico Trevisan, had been “an ardent collector of ancient gems and medals.” (5)
Although not the first image of Samson and Delilah (Nicola and Giovanni Pisano earlier portrayed the story in relief on the Perugia fountain in 1278, which is ironic given the biblical exegesis of Proverbs 5 to follow below), this painting is a uniquely interpretive ekphrasis of the biblical narrative in the Book of Judges. The biblical passage describes how Samson, a great judge (shophet in Hebrew) of the Danite tribe and arch-enemy of the Philistines, was nonetheless ultimately neutralized by lust. His many trysts with harlots and Philistine women (somehow the biblical narrative attempts to equivocate the two) portray Samson as a man whose passions ultimately outweigh his prodigious strength. The frustrated Philistine elders had hired the femme fatale Delilah to learn the secret of Samson’s great strength after he had single-handedly slain a thousand Philistines with only the weapon of an ass jawbone (Judges 15:15). On other occasions when they had tried to lure him with a woman and trap him within the city of Gaza, Samson had torn the city gates from their sockets (Judges 16:3) and also burned their grain crops with 300 foxes whose tails he had lit with fire (Judges 15:4-5). Samson was assuredly not a paragon of virtue, but his people the Israelites tolerated his venality and moral weaknesses because he kept the Philistines at bay. After multiple failures to guilefully elicit the secret of his great strength, Delilah finally learned (only successful on the fourth try, as the third was not a charm for the desperate Philistine lords who finally offered Delilah 1,100 pieces of silver) that Samson was a Nazirite from birth, one sworn with a divine vow by his parents to never cut his hair or drink wine and spirits (Judges 13:4, 7 ff.). The text says a Nazirite must also not be defiled by non-kosher food, but is curiously silent about consorting with prostitutes, which was a regular pastime of Samson in his sad story of a compromised judge.
The way the sleeping Samson sprawls between Delilah’s legs suggests she has first enervated him by sexual intercourse after which his sleep would be only natural. The phrase “Delilah’s lap” was even a literary metaphor for harlotry.(6) With décolletage thinly veiled, Delilah cuts his hair with her scissors similar to sheep shears – perhaps symbolic of her own instrument of sexual prowess in this case unnaturally external like a man rather than internal - and thus destroys his superhuman power that was almost magically located in his hair until that moment. It is not surprising that in the Ancient Near East, cutting off a man's hair - especially his beard - was a degrading trope for loss of virility and often even believed superstitiously to have the parallel effect of a kind of eunuchizing. For misogynistic scholiasts and medieval biblicists, the association here of Samson's "emasculation" is at least in the right anatomical locus for her power, which is visually centered at her loins.
Detail of "Delilah's Lap" and Samson's loss
Mantegna has possibly cleverly allegorized multiple agendas in his painting by employing common symbols that the late Medieval and Renaissance biblically-informed world would have guessed without much trouble.
First, the tree, likely representing Samson, is intertwined by a sinuous vine laden with intoxicating fruit that frequently equate with desire (Song of Songs 1:2, “for your love is better than wine”). (7) Oak trees often represented strength and fidelity, but this one (Samson) has a prominent branch lopped off suggestively like his hair.
Detail of intertwined oak and vine
Second, there is a fountain pouring from a rocky spring into a water trough that resembles a sarcophagus with its rings. Although tenuous, the left side of the rocky orifice immeditaely between the spring of pouring water and the catchment water trough has a rather skull-like aspect like a face (almost exactly parallel to the plane of Samson's face and facing the same direction). There seems to be no other apparent reason for this rock orifice other than to suggest a skull-like rock feature in its shadowy frame. Allusion to death seems reasonable if the skull-like rock image can be connected to the sarcophagus water trough directly below it, especially interesting since Mantegna was familiar with recognizable Roman sarcophagi and their functions, and Samson's left foot is clearly touching the sarcophagal trough. The water trough is not just a compositional element, however, as it ties together several biblical texts, also somewhat misogynistic.
Details of the "skull", "sarcophagus" and fountain
Third, the water pouring from the spring, then into the man-made sarcophagal trough and out into a subsidiary pavement catch-basin is reminiscent of the biblical passage of Proverbs 5:15-18, about which nearly all commentators agree is admonishing men against pouring out their sexual energies indiscriminately: “Do not let your fountains be wasted by pouring into the streets”. Even the water here in Mantegna's grisaille ultimately pours into the earth at foot level before flowing to the right of the picture and possibly back to the left again across the painting at pavement level, in which case it would be a fairly-exact similitude of the proverb. Furthermore, young men are warned in Proverbs 5:4 to stay away from the harlot whose end is bitter death (“Her end is bitter as wormwood, her feet go down to death”). Here his foot is touching "death" because of Delilah. Tenuous as might be, could one of the several shrub plants on the left-hand side of the picture be “wormwood” (botanical Artemisia absinthia)? Death may even be somewhat proleptically marked on Samson’s sleeping features as death is the euphemistic long sleep. The Proverbs passage also extends the admonishment in that the victim of the “immoral” woman will be bound, perhaps alluded in the vine bound to the tree and imminent bondage by the Philistines that soon overtakes Samson. Proverbs 5:22 could warn any such Samson that “his own iniquities will take him, he will be bound with the cords of his sins.” Even the tolerant Josephus called Delilah a harlot (possibly also alluding Proverbs 7). Much of the picture then could be emblematic of both Judges 16 and Proverbs 5 (and 7) as a double ekphrasis of the combined biblical texts, although this would require much of Mantegna or the commissioner (perhaps a cleric like Bishop Ludovico Gonzaga or other possibilities explored below). (8)
Detail of inscription on the oak tree
In reference to Delilah, who is as much the primary subject here as Samson in her role as the powerful villainess, there is a fascinating Latin inscription on the tree-trunk: Foemina Diabolo Tribus Assibus Est Mala Peior. This was an old misogynist proverb from at least the fourteenth century (9) whose rough translation probably means “When a woman is evil, she is three pennies worse than the Devil.” This was a common medieval belief not at all original to Mantegna and may have been a textual requisite of the commissioner, perhaps like much of the imagery. Mantegna's Delilah, however, is otherwise hardly provocative, as Holmes noted, he "was better at soldiers than nymphs," although her nipples do seem to be showing through her blouse.
As many have shown, the hue scheme of Samson and Delilah is similar to other Mantegna grisailles and specifically to a larger Mantegna grisaille piece imitative of Roman cameos and marble, also in the National Gallery, The Introduction of the Cult of Cybele into Rome (also around 1505) celebrating the Venetian Cornaro family who claimed descent from the ancient Roman clan of Gens Cornelius. A story found in Livy (XXIX.14), Ovid (Fasti 4.247 ff) and elsewhere also narrates the honor and piety of the Roman matron Claudia Quinta who single-handedly rescued the grounded Tiber barge bearing Cybele’s image to Rome in 204 BCE. Although the debated Claudia is not so visible in Mantegna’s painting, possibly the "woman" in front of the procession with her hands out to the almost-kneeling person (Cornelius?), it has been hypothesized that these two (with Delilah and Claudia) and a few other Mantegna marbleized grisailles such as his Judith and Holofernes (Dublin) may have been part of a visual series cataloguing famous and infamous women, both virtuous and wicked, (10) possibly influenced by Boccaccio’s De Mulieribus Claris (Famous Women) written in 1362 (published in Latin in 1473) where he excoriates a few “wicked” biblical women (Athaliah but not Delilah) and Christine de Pisan’s response to Boccaccio’s chauvinism in her Book of the City of Ladies in 1405, rightfully indignant of misogyny in deep irony, or some other yet unidentified text.
Delilah deserves her own intriguing commentary. Her name seems to be a literary construct, a contrived feminized amalgam of several possible paronomasic Hebrew word plays with multiple connotations, possibly a fourfold word play so typical in Hebrew literature, although not directly applicable to Mantegna's painting. First, the verb dalah (דלה) can mean both “to hang down” and “to draw water”. In the painting, Samson’s hair no longer hangs down but the pendant grapes probably alluding Delilah and long oak branches probably alluding Samson certainly hang downward. Second, dalach (דלח) can mean “to stir up trouble”. The only phonetic difference here between the Hebrew verbs (dalah / dalach) is the voiced glottal "ch" sound in the heth (ח) instead of the nearly identical but softer aspirated "h" in he (ה). Third, dallah (דלּה) can mean both “hair” and “thrum” as an omen “of premature death”. Finally, dalal (דלל) usually also means “to be coquettish” and “to look amorously at a man.” Thus all four connected Hebrew homophones - here feminized for the persona of this woman - densely sum up the likely biblical intent of casting Delilah as a stereotype femme fatale embodying great danger,(11) especially significant for misogynist clergy. Although even more unlikely, on the other hand, could this unique painting - combining medieval scholiastic symbolism and sophisticated Renaissance love of philological allegory - have been intended for a rabbinically-trained Jewish audience inclined to midrashic commentary? As Maimonides (12th c.) said, "Give not thy strength unto women," and quoting Proverbs (Meshallim) 7:26, he also says of the harlot, "Yea, many strong men have been slain by her." (12) This giving of his strength and ultimate death was exactly what Samson did figuratively and literally as both the Judges 16 text and Mantegna painting ironically portray.
As incredibly subtle (and ultimately unfortunate for a gender stereotype as Delilah portrayed) as all these Hebrew wordplays appear, however familiar to Medieval rabbinic commentary in that rich literary tradition (13), it is doubtful that the Classically astute Mantegna himself knew any of this wordplay, since he would only likely have access to the Latin Vulgate of the Bible, however famous the story, although he was sufficiently familiar with Josephus' Jewish Wars and Antiquities of the Jews to use them elsewhere as sources for paintings. (14) In fact, Josephus in Antiquities V 306-16 tells the story of Samson and Delilah (Dalala in Greek) whom he mentions as a Philistine and his text summarizes that of Judges 16 but without the Hebrew wordplays or mention of fountains and vinous trees. So Josephus could be one source for Mantegna, but neither Josephus or the Judges text offer any explanation for Mantegna's fountain-sarcophagus motif or the intertwined vine and tree or Delilah's name. On the other hand, both Proverbs 5 and especially 7 could themselves be considered glosses on the Judges text, particularly with the reference to many strong men having been slain by the harlot. Nonetheless, the water and death associations are uncanny parallels in Hebrew from the Proverbs (Hebrew Meshallim) and Delilah's construct name as well as derivable in the painting. In short, Mantegna's assumed intricate knowledge of Proverbs 5 and 7 is dubious but not impossible and more likely directed by the type of erudite audience that a clerical or rabbinic commissioner might possess. That there was a Jewish community in circa 1500 Renaissance Mantua is well-attested by Schlomo Simonsohn and others. (15) Simonsohn reports the one documented instance when Mantegna had any connection with Jews in Mantua; unfortunately it was in 1495 when Mantegna was commissioned by the Gonzagas for 15 ducats to paint a Madonna (Madonna della Vittoria, Louvre) that was paid out of a penalty almost ten times that amount (120 ducats) assessed against the Jewish banker Daniel Norsa ultimately for requesting of the bishop that a Madonna be removed from his newly-bought house in Mantua, which somehow offended Mantuan Christians even though it was a perfectly legitimate request for a devout Jew. (16) In a possibly magnanimous and charitable return gesture, could Mantegna have painted this biblical grisaille for the Norsa family? The Latin inscription might argue against this, as suggested below, but it remains unknown.
Nonetheless, no one name surfaces as a possible Mantegna buyer or information source in Mantua for any possible midrashic material in this painting. Mantuan Jews of note include the erudite Rabbi Messer Judah Leon or his publisher Abraham Conat (also erudite) circa 1470-80, but these are too early and Rabbi Leon (father of Rabbi David Messer Leon) seems to have died no later than 1497 in Naples. Other members of the Conat family or their circle could be possible, but any definitive Jewish or midrashic influence on Mantegna in Mantua around 1500 is difficult to establish. Interestingly, according to Tirosh-Rothschild, Rabbi David Messer Leon (as mentioned, son of Rabbi Messer Judah Leon) knew and admired Boccaccio and "was informed of contemporary debates among the Italian literati (for example, the debate about women)" including the opinions of Pico della Mirandola on Plato and Kabbalah lore. David Messer Leon also visited Florence in 1492 and had "written poems in defense of women" (17) so he might be another commissioning source for Mantegna. The misogynistic Latin quotation is not, however, at all connected to the Jews of Mantua and both Proverbs and Josephus refer to the evil woman Delilah (although her name is Hebrew) not as a local but as an alien and a Philistine respectively. In this respect the Latin quotation is more likely Christian and clerical, but a well-educated Jew like David Messer Leon should not be ruled out as he was also a Humanist scholar familiar with Boccaccio's work.
Samson’s name, on the other hand, may have meant ”like the sun”. In this case, the Mantegna narrative may unintentionally evoke a dramatic marbleized sunset background for Samson who, when his hair grew back and, although blinded and chained to pillars after his capture, finally took down a Philistine temple full of partying enemies in his revengeful death (Judges 16:25-30).
Given Mantegna's (or someone else's?) biblical scholarship displayed in this unusual painting, such interpretation of biblical text as he provides acts much like visual commentary, an accepted form of ekphrasis. As Stephen Campbell suggests of Renaissance art, "Such a process is necessarily one of interpretation, which is itself a form of translation; the Latin terms interpres and interpretatio refer both to an intermediary or go-between as well as to the rendering of a text or object." (18) Hermeneutics of such biblical texts (here Proverbs 5 & 7 and Judges 16) is always, as Campbell states, a form of "translating" because there are filters through which interpretation occurs, mainly of different times, cultures and languages, and interpretation is also idiosyncratic and subjective because the interpreter inserts his or her own time, culture and language into such texts. By "interpreting" the Samson story as he has done visually, Mantegna has as its intermediary "translated" (a la Campbell) the text from one culture (Hebrew) to another (Renaissance Italy), and any viewer must engage in a similar process again in order to understand it in yet another culture (in our case, modern). Thus, cultural translation is one of the tasks of any artist, especially in rendering a visual text derived from a literary text from one time and medium into others.
In conclusion, Mantegna (or his commissioner) would have been far more likely to only know either the tradition of Samson or the biblical texts of first Judges, and second Proverbs, than be privy to sophisticated Hebrew wordplay, although we should not put such pictorial punning beyond Mantegna. Samson's tragedy is nonetheless a rich subject for Mantegna's intricate visual narrative.
(1) Keith Christiansen in Jane Martineau, ed. Andrea Mantegna. London: Thames and Hudson / Electa/ Royal Academy of Art, 1992, 416; George Holms. Renaissance. London: Phoenix / Orion, 1998, 130. As Holmes noted, Mantegna concentrates on Classical themes and had "pretensions to Classical scholarship of his own," 129-30. Notice his use of antiquities and Roman monuments in so many of his paintings, including his Camera Picta, Triumph of Caesar, Martyrdom of San Sebastian, among others. Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli is even featured in the background of Camera Picta, Palazzo Ducale. Also see "nel segno di Andrea Mantegna: arte e cultura a Mantova in età rinascimentale" in Civiltà Mantovana 41.122 (Sept. 2006), M. Bini and F. Portanova, 23ff and N. Zuccoli, 68-87.
(2) Jack Greenstein. Mantegna and Painting as Historical Narrative. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, esp. 25-6.
(3) Christiansen in Martineau, 1992, esp. 84, 397, 399. 405-7.
(4) Gabriele Borghini et al. Marmi Antichi. Roma: Edizioni de Luca, 1997. For africano rossso see Pl. 1a on 133 (often called merely africano or marmor luculleum. For brecchia pavonazza di Ezine see Pl. 33, 180.
(5) Ronald Lightbown. Mantegna. Oxford: Phaidon & Christies, 1986, 21
(6) Norma Broude and Mary Gerrard, eds. Feminism in Art History: Questioning the Litany. Westview Press, 1982. At least by the sixteenth century, “Delilah’s lap” was a metaphor meaning involvement with harlots but likely originated earlier, 135.
(7) Robert Alter. The Art of Biblical Poetry. New York: Basic Books reprint, 1987; Patrick Hunt. Poetry in the Song of Songs, New York: Peter Lang Publishing forthcoming 2008, where the word “love” in Hebrew may better translate as “lovemaking”.
(8) Christiansen, 399: "Dublin Judith and Samson and Delilah were a direct response to the highly developed tastes of Gianfrancesco and Bishop Ludovico Gonzaga at Bozzolo and of Isabella d'Este at Mantua." It might be more likely that a bishop would approve of the implicit misogyny than the thoroughly Renaissance noblewoman Isabella d'Este, although herself known for her "scholarly tastes" according to Holmes, 130.
(9) Lightbown, 448-9, quoting Erica Tietze-Conrat. Mantegna: Paintings, Drawings, Engravings. London, 1955.
(10) National Gallery of London online notes on this painting: (http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/
elsewhere also Giuseppe Fiocco, e.g., Mantegna. New York: Harry Abrams, 1958 ed., 41.
(11) F. Brown, S. R. Driver, C. A. Briggs. Gesenius' Hebrew Lexikon. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906 ed., esp. 194-195.
(12) Moses Maimonides. Dalalat al-Hairin (The Guide for the Perplexed). M. Friedlander, tr. New York: Dover, 1956, 7, 47.
(13) M. Bar-Ilan, Some Jewish Women in Antiquity, Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press (Brown Judaic Studies 317), 1998, esp. ch. 6; Alice Bach. Women in the Hebrew Bible: A Reader. New York: Routledge, 1998; Tikva Frymer-Kensky. Reading the Women of the Bible: A New Interpretation of their Stories. New York: Schocken Books, 2004, esp. 74-84.
(14) Lightbown, 431 (also citing Martindale).
(15) Shlomo Simonsohn. History of the Jews in Mantua. Medici Archive Project, 1999. 501 passim; also by Simonsohn, History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua, 2 vols., Jerusalem, 1962-4; and Hava Tirosh-Rothschild. Between Worlds: The Life and Thought of Rabbi David ben Judah Messer Leon. New York: SUNY Press, 1991, esp. 24 ff. As mentioned, another famous Jew who was more contemporary with this painting and who would have had Mantua connections would have been the equally educated Rabbi David, the son of Messer Judah Leon, but he had left Mantua with his father around 1480 for Naples and ultimately Padua and then Constantinople by 1496. Nonetheless, the Jewish community in Mantua was temporarily enlarged after the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 and the Renaissance Gonzaga court had mixed degrees of tolerenace and intolerance. There had already been a Jewish synagogue and cemetery in Mantua since 1420 (therefore a bonafide kehillah), such that this city was often perceived as a central place of refuge in all Italy, but this tolerance vacillated greatly between successive ruling members of the Gonzaga family.
(16) Simonsohn, 1962, 15-16.
(17) Tirosh-Rothschild, 233 & 46.
(18) Stephen J. Campbell and Stephen J. Milner, eds. Artistic Exchange and Cultural Translation in the Italian Renaissance City. Cambridge University Press, 2004, 1.
Copyright © 2006 Patrick HuntAs people age, certain hormones decline, which can lead to weaker bones. But this weakening can be delayed or minimized with appropriate lifestyle action, if you start early enough. When it comes to exercise, you need to do sufficient dynamic, impact exercise at an appropriate intensity -- and while enormously helpful, it may not always be enough.
Case in point: Recently a woman told me she had been exercising and losing weight, and when she checked her DXA test for bone mineral density (BMD), she had lost a little bone density, too. She was devastated. Unfortunately, this isn't unusual -- middle-aged women who lose weight are vulnerable to bone loss, and while exercise is helpful, it's not a magic wand. Sometimes patience is required -- continuing with workouts, maintaining an ideal weight and eating nutritiously should recover that bone loss, to some degree. If needed, bone-building medications can help, as well.
To assist in stabilizing or increasing bone density, an exercise program needs to be somewhat "physical" for best effect, and that may not be practical for some women (and men). In addition, the catabolism (cell breakdown) related to weight loss does not help in the effort to build or even maintain bone.
The best way to have excellent bone density is to have a lifelong history of healthy diet, exercise and weight, making it vital for young women and their parents to understand this. Not only that, but how smoking, binge drinking, poor diet, lack of physical activity, under-eating and extreme dieting in this age group can be a disaster for their bone health, especially in later years.
Facts About Bone Mineral Density
- More than a quarter of adult bone mass is laid down between the ages of 12 to 14 years in girls and 13 to 15 years in boys.
- Genetics determine 60 to 80% of peak bone mass.
- Diet and physical activity are predictors of bone building during growth.
- The intensity of an exercise program needs to be sufficient to improve bone mineralization.
- Dietary calcium predicts 10 to 15% of skeletal calcium retention during adolescence, although interaction with vitamin D is still not well understood.
- Men retain bone better than women; and black women better than non-black women.
- After menopause, the utility of exercise to increase bone mass depends on adequate availability of dietary calcium.
- Moderate consumption of alcohol (1 to 2 drinks/day) may be beneficial to bone in men and women. However, more than this may decrease bone mineral density.
- Caffeine/coffee consumption has no effect on bone economy providing adequate intake of calcium and vitamin D are consumed.
Things That Work Against Bone Health
- Menopause and low estrogen status in women
- Low androgen and estrogen status in men
- Low-energy and low-nutrient density diets, especially protein, calcium and vitamin K
- Female triad – disordered eating, cessation of periods, bone loss (some women athletes, anorexics)
- Excessive dietary salt; excessive alcohol consumption
- Inadequate fruit and vegetables
- Being underweight and not exercising
- Inadequate vitamin D from sunlight, food or supplements
What You Need to Do About Bone Density
- Start before puberty with appropriate exercise and healthy eating habits.
- Maintain normal weight and protect muscle with sports and physical activity.
- Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables and vegetable protein..
- Ensure the recommended intake of protein and calcium, especially if you're vegan or vegetarian.
- Eat calcium, vitamin D and K rich foods and avoid carbonated drinks, especially cola drinks.
- Get appropriate sun exposure for safe vitamin D absorption.
- Supplement to get adequate calcium and vitamin D if necessary.
- Weight training - weighted lunges and steps, jump squats, clap pushups, overhead push-presses, pump classes
- Plyometrics – bounds, box marches, skips, hops, step classes
- Running, jogging, fast walking, jumping, basketball, volleyball
Don’t do very low-calorie dieting and always include exercise in weight loss plans. However, under-eating and weight loss, excessive exercising and cessation of periods is a warning cluster for bone less in active women.
Don't undertake a vigorous exercise program without consulting your doctor for a clearance to do so, especially if you are older than 40 or have a limiting health condition.
SourcesBorer KT. Physical activity in the prevention and amelioration of osteoporosis in women : interaction of mechanical, hormonal and dietary factors.Sports Med. 2005;35(9):779-830.
Weaver CM. The role of nutrition on optimizing peak bone mass. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2008;17 Suppl 1:135-7.
Tucker KL, Morita K, Qiao N, Hannan MT, Cupples LA, Kiel DP. Colas, but not other carbonated beverages, are associated with low bone mineral density in older women: The Framingham Osteoporosis Study. Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Oct;84(4):936-42.
Feskanich D, Willett WC, Colditz GA. Calcium, vitamin D, milk consumption, and hip fractures: a prospective study among postmenopausal women. Am J Clin Nutr. 2003 Feb;77(2):504-11.
Vandenput L, Ohlsson C. Estrogens as regulators of bone health in men. Nat Rev Endocrinol. 2009 Aug;5(8):437-43.
Leblanc ES, Nielson CM, Marshall LM, et al. The Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) Study Group. The effects of serum testosterone, estradiol, and sex hormone binding globulin levels on fracture risk in older men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2009 Jul 7.
Booth SL, Broe KE, Gagnon DR, et al. Vitamin K intake and bone mineral density in women and men. Am J Clin Nutr. 2003 Feb;77(2):512-6.Moses assembled the entire community of Israel and said to them,
"These are the words which G-d commanded to do
come and do all that G-d
has commanded. The Sanctuary"
At this great assembly, Moses conveyed
G-ds commandment for the building and the furnishing of the Sanctuary.
The Midrash states that the building of the Sanctuary was an atonement for the
sin of the Golden Calf, and that the donation of gold for the Sanctuary was to
offset the gold contributed for the idol (Tanchuma).
Although idolatry ranks as the most grievous
transgression, and one who concedes to idolatry is considered to have rejected
the entire Torah (Sifri Shelach 15:22), we nevertheless find that when
Jews are united, G-d is willing to overlook even this grave sin (Bamidbar
The reason that this unique property of unity
and brotherhood is able to offset the most serious of sins may be because
idolatry leads to divisiveness. In fact, the Talmud states that Jews never took
idols seriously, and knew very well that they were of no substance. The only
reason they gravitated toward idolatry was because it allowed them to formulate
a religion that would cater to their desires (Sanhedrin 63b). Inasmuch
as peoples desires may differ greatly and are often in conflict with one
another, true togetherness and idolatry cannot co-exist. Thus, when Jews seek
to be united, they are far less likely to condone idolatry.
In implementing the building of the Sanctuary
which was to atone for the worship of the Golden Calf, Moses sought to
reinforce the resolve against idolatry. He therefore assembled the entire
community to encourage togetherness in the work for the Sanctuary.
Unity among Jews is without peer in eliciting
the divine blessing.
Excerpt from Living Each Week, by
Abraham J. Twerski, M.DIn the spring of 1844, a fiery political conflict erupted over the admission of Texas into the Union. This hard-fought and bitter controversy profoundly changed the course of American history. Indeed, as Joel Silbey argues in Storm Over Texas, it marked the crucial moment when partisan differences were transformed into a North-vs-South antagonism, and the momentum towards Civil War leaped into high gear.
Silbey, one of America's most renowned political historians, offers a swiftly paced and compelling narrative of the Texas imbroglio, which included an exceptional cast of characters, from John C. Calhoun and John Quincy Adams, to James K. Polk and Martin Van Buren. We see how a series of unexpected moves, some planned, some inadvertent, sparked a crisis that intensified and crystallized the North-South divide. Sectionalism, Silbey shows, had often been intense, but rarely widespread and generally well contained by other forces. After Texas statehood, it became a driving force in national affairs, ultimately leading to Southern secession and Civil War.
With subtlety, great care, and much imagination, Joel Silbey shows that this brief political struggle became, in the words of an Alabama congressman, "the greatest question of the age" - and a pivotal moment in American history.
The “Pivotal Moments in American History” series seeks to unite the old and the new history, combining the insights and techniques of recent historiography with the power of traditional narrative. Each title has a strong narrative arc with drama, irony, suspense, and – most importantly – great characters who embody the human dimension of historical events. The general editors of “Pivotal Moments” are not just historians; they are popular writers themselves, and, in two cases, Pulitzer Prize winners: David Hackett Fischer, James M. McPherson, and David Greenberg. We hope you like your American History served up with verve, wit, and an eye for the telling detail!
©2005 Joel H. Silbey (P)2010 Audible, Inc
This book would have been more accurately titled, "The Van Buren Faction in the Democratic Party of the 1830s and 1840s, and How it Occassionally Relates to the Annexation of Texas." Texas annexation is completed about halfway through the book, yet the author continues to goes on and on about the "Hunkers" versus the "Barnburners" (don't ask). Perhaps the author got a book contact and decided to economize on his effort by incorporating material from previous works. That being said, the first half of the book is pretty interesting, and may
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. Duff, Esq., of Fetteresso and Culter. The church, situated on the bank of the Dee, was built in 1779; it is a neat substantial structure, and contains 550 sittings. The members of the Free Church have a place of worship. The parochial school, for which a handsome and appropriate building has lately been erected, capable of receiving 120 scholars, is well conducted. The master has a salary of £28, with £3. 14. 2., being the interest of a bequest for the instruction of poor children, a portion of the Dick bequest, and a house and garden; the fees average about £28 annually. In a plantation on the lands of Binghill are the remains of a Druidical circle, and near it a large tumulus said to have been the burying-place of the ancient family of Drum, whose descendants now reside in an adjoining parish.
PETERHEAD, a burgh of barony, sea-port, and parish, in the district of Buchan, county of Aberdeen; containing, with the villages of Boddam and Burnhaven, and the late quoad sacra district of East Peterhead, 7619 inhabitants, of whom 4586 are in the burgh, 32 miles (N. N. E.) from Aberdeen, and 145 (N. E. by N.) from Edinburgh. This place, formerly called Keith-Inch, anciently belonged to the family of the Keiths, earlsmarischal of Scotland, of whom George, the fifth earl, and founder of Marischal College, Aberdeen, built the town, which he also erected into a burgh of barony. The property continued in the possession of the Keiths till their attainder for participation in the rebellion of 1715, when the title and estates were forfeited to the crown, and the town and lands adjacent were purchased by the York Buildings' Company. They are now chiefly the property of the governor and trustees of the Merchants' Maiden Hospital, Edinburgh. The town is situated on a peninsula projecting into the German Sea, which bounds it on the east, and connected with the main land by an isthmus not more than 800 yards in breadth. It consists of several well-formed streets intersecting each other at right angles; the principal are, Kirk-street, Marischal, St. Andrew's, Broad and Longgate streets, with some smaller streets diverging from them in various directions. The houses are generally well built, chiefly of granite; and many of them are of handsome appearance. The town is paved, and lighted with gas by a company who have erected works in Longgate; and the inhabitants are supplied with water conveyed from springs at Auchtigall, two miles and a half distant.
The public subscription library, established in 1808, contains about 1500 volumes of standard works; and the Peterhead Mechanics' Library, instituted in 1836, has a collection of about 200 volumes. A news-room is well supported by subscribers, and amply furnished with daily journals and periodical publications; there is also a scientific association, established in 1835, which has a museum of natural curiosities and antiquities. The museum belonging to Adam Arbuthnot, Esq., and which by his permission is accessible to the public, is a valuable and extensive collection of specimens in the departments of natural history, mineralogy, and geology; and of Grecian, Roman, and British coins from the earliest dates to the present time. The beach affords excellent accommodation for bathing; and during the summer months the town is much frequented by visitors, for whose reception there are good lodging-houses and a spacious inn, with an establishment of hot and cold baths. Near the town are several mineral wells, of various qualities and strength. The principal, called the Winewell, from the sparkling of the water, is in high repute for disorders of the bowels, indigestion, debility, and nervous affections, and is much resorted to; it holds in solution muriates of iron and lime, and glauber and common salt, and under proper regimen has been found highly beneficial. There are a few manufactures carried on here. Several of the inhabitants are employed in hand-loom weaving for Aberdeen houses; and the usual handicraft trades are exercised in the town, in which are also numerous handsome shops, well stocked with different kinds of merchandise. There are also rope-works and brick and tile works; and ship and boat building is pursued to a considerable extent. The trade of the port consists partly in the exportation of grain, meal, eggs, butter, pork, potatoes, various kinds of fish, but chiefly cod and herrings, and blocks of granite. The imports are, rum, whisky, molasses, groceries, flour, salt, hoops, wool, lime, iron, foreign and British timber, manufactured woollen goods, and bone-dust for manure. The number of vessels registered as belonging to the port in a recent year was eighty-five, of the aggregate burthen of 11,429 tons; and the number of ships that entered inwards and cleared outwards was 832, of 48,136 aggregate tonnage. A custom-house has recently been established, in consequence of the rapidly-increasing prosperity of the port, of which the shore-dues, amounting in 1808 only to £367, have increased to nearly £3000.
There are two harbours, separated by the isthmus which connects Keith-Inch with the main land, and which, as the extreme eastern headland on this coast, renders them, in a national view, most valuable as harbours of refuge for vessels navigating the German Sea. The North harbour is nearly eleven acres in extent; it has a depth of eighteen feet at spring tides, and fourteen feet at neap tides, and the total length of the quays is 2219 feet. The area of the South harbour is about six acres and a half, having at spring tides a depth of from twelve to fourteen feet, and from eight to twelve feet at neap tides; the length of the south quay is 480 feet, and of the west 653 feet. Both harbours are easy of access; and were they united by cutting a canal through the isthmus, an improvement which has been often contemplated, vessels might enter and depart at all times without being detained by contrary winds. The entrance is greatly facilitated by a lighthouse on Buchan Ness, finished in 1825: this building, which is of granite, and 118 feet in height, displays a flashing light every five seconds, visible at a distance of six leagues, and has fully answered the purpose intended. The improvements of the harbour have been successively completed at an expense of more than £50,000 by the proprietors, exclusive of grants of £15,000 each from government and the Trades of the town, and the entire appropriation of the harbour dues. The fisheries off the coast are very extensive, and conducted with great spirit: cod, ling, haddock, and whiting are taken in abundance; and flounders, plaice, soles, turbot, halibut, and lobsters and crabs, are also plentiful. The herring-fishery is likewise profitable, and the fish generally of the best kind; nearly 300 boats are engaged in this branch, and the average quantity exceeds 40,000 barrels. The shoals of herrings are frequently followed by spout-whales, of which several have been killed upon this part of the coast. Many vessels were once engaged in the Greenland whale-fishery, which has of late been less productive than formerly; at present only eleven vessels are employed, and the quantity of oil obtained does not exceed 100 tons. The principal fishing stations are at Ronheads, on the north side of the harbour; and the villages of Buchanhaven and Boddam, which are noticed under their own heads.
The government of the burgh, by charter of the Earl-Marischal, was vested in a baron-bailie and other officers appointed by the earls; but since the passing of the Municipal Reform act it has been vested in a towncouncil of twelve members, of popular election, who choose from their own body a provost, three bailies, and a treasurer. The jurisdiction of the magistrates extends over the whole of the parliamentary boundaries, which have been extended; and is equal to that of royal burghs: a bailie, also, appointed by the governors of the Merchants' Maiden Hospital, holds a court-baron. The only important privilege enjoyed by the burgesses is that of paying less for harbour-dues than strangers. The burgh is associated with those of Banff, Cullen, Elgin, Inverury, and Kintore, in returning a member to the imperial parliament; the number of qualified voters is about 240. The town-house, situated at the head of Broad-street, is a quadrangular building of granite, sixty feet long and forty feet wide, and surmounted with a spire 110 feet in height. It was completed at a cost of £2000, and contains on the ground-floor various shops, and on the first-floor several schoolrooms; above which are two spacious rooms, one for transacting the general business of the burgh, and the other for holding the courts. Underneath the building is a vault, originally intended for a gaol; but it is not used. The cross, a handsome Tuscan pillar of granite, crowned by the arms of the Earl-Marischal, the founder of the town, was erected by subscription in commemoration of the grant of the parliamentary franchise, in 1832. The post-office has a good delivery; and the revenue, previously to the alteration in the rate of postage, averaged about £900. There are three branch banks, and several insurance companies established. The market is on Friday, and is abundantly supplied with grain and provisions of all kinds; and fairs are held on the first Tuesdays after Whitsunday and Martinmas, chiefly for hiring servants. Facility of communication is afforded by turnpike-roads to Fraserburgh, Banff, and Aberdeen, and by steamers, which now touch at the port.
The parish is bounded on the east by the sea, and on the north by the river Ugie, which separates it from the parish of St. Fergus; it is nearly five miles in length and from three to four in breadth, comprising about 9085 acres, of which 8266 are arable, seventy-two woodland and plantations, and the remainder waste. The surface rises gradually towards the west, and is diversified with hills and dales; the highest of the hills are, Stirlinghill and Blackhill, which have an elevation of about 280 feet, and Methill, which varies from 150 to 200 feet in height. The Ugie has its source in the upper part of the district, in the union of the Strichen and Deer waters, and, after winding round the northern boundaries of the parish, falls into the sea at Buchanhaven. The coast is in some parts low and rocky, and in others indented with bays, and broken by projecting headlands and promontories, of which the principal are, the North and South heads, Invernetty Point, and Buchan Ness: the shore of the bay at Peterhead is for some distance a fine sandy beach. The soil varies from a sandy loam to a deep black mould of great fertility, and a strong clay. The crops are, grain of all kinds, turnips, and potatoes; the system of agriculture has been greatly improved, and much waste land has been recently brought into profitable cultivation. Few sheep are reared: the cattle are principally of the polled Buchan breed, with a few of the Teeswater; the horses are all of the native breed, and well adapted for the purposes of husbandry. The lands are inclosed, and most of the modern improvements in the construction of implements have been adopted; the chief manure is dung brought from the town. The plantations are on a very confined scale: near the coast they consist of ash, elm, birch, beech, mountain-ash, plane, alder, and willow; and in other parts, of white American spruce, silver, and Scotch firs, in a thriving state. The substratum is mostly granite, of which the rocks are composed: there are extensive quarries at Stirlinghill, from which blocks were raised for the naval docks of Sheerness, for the Duke of York's column, London, and for numerous other public works. At Salthouse head is a quarry of beautiful grey or white granite, and at Blackhill are also extensive quarries: all is of excellent quality, and in the aggregate not less than 8000 tons are annually shipped from the port. The rateable annual value of the parish is £22,410.
The ecclesiastical affairs are under the superintendence of the presbytery of Deer and synod of Aberdeen: the minister's stipend is £235. 9. 2., with a manse, and a glebe valued at £50 per annum; patron, the Crown. The parish church, erected in 1803, is a handsome structure of granite, with a spire 118 feet high, and contains 1863 sittings. A church built in 1767, in the eastern part of Peterhead, was purchased in 1834 at a cost of £500, and repaired and improved at an additional expense of £100; and in 1836 a portion of the town, including a population of 1173 persons, was assigned to it as a quoad sacra parish, under the designation of the East Church: the building contains 702 sittings. There is also an episcopal chapel, a fine structure, erected in 1814 at a cost of £3500; and members of the Free Church, the United Secession Synod, Independents, and Wesleyans, have places of worship. The parochial school is at present held in a room in the town-house; the master has a salary of £34. 4. 4., with an allowance of £13 in lieu of house and garden, and the fees vary from £40 to £80 per annum. Another school called the Town school, is held in the same building, by a master appointed by the fourth bailie, and to whom the landholders pay a salary of £10 from a bequest of Mr. William Rhind, for teaching seven poor children. There is also a school in connexion with the episcopal chapel, of which the master receives a salary of £20 per annum from a bequest by the late Dr. Anderson, of St. Christopher's. A coal fund distributes from £53 to £68 in coal annually; and there are several friendly societies. Some considerable remains exist of the old castle of Ravenscraig, the baronial residence of the Keiths, who eventually acquired by marriage the castle of Inverugie, on the opposite bank of the river; and here are also ruins of Boddam Castle, the residence of a branch of the family. A flagon of pewter, after the fashion of the age of James IV., has been discovered in cutting a deep water-course through a peat-bog; and on the summit of Methill is a tumulus, said to have been a seat for the administration of justice in ancient times, and on which it was recently contemplated to erect a monument to the late Lord Grey. On the north side of the den of Boddam are various pits, generally supposed to have been Pictish camps, but by some thought rather to have been formed by the Danes when they landed on the eastern coast of Scotland.
PETERHYTHE, a village, in the parish of Rathven, county of Banff; containing 49 inhabitants. This is a small place, contiguous to the village of Porteasie, and two miles north-eastward of Buckie.
Pettie, or Petty
PETTIE, or PETTY, a parish, partly in the county of Nairn, but chiefly in the mainland district of the county of Inverness, 6½ miles (N. E. by E.) from Inverness; containing, with the villages of Connage and Stuartown, 1749 inhabitants, of whom 88 are in that part of the parish which is within the shire of Nairn. This place includes the parishes of Petyn and Bracholy, which were united previously to the Reformation under the vicar of Petyn, who held a prebendal stall in the cathedral church of Elgin. The parish of Bracholy is supposed to have derived its name, originally Braichlich, from the Gaelic Eaglais-a-Bhraighe-choille, descriptive of its situation on a wooded hill; but the etymology of the name of Pettie is involved in great obscurity. Some of the lands long formed part of the territories erected into the successive earldoms of Moray; other portions seem to have belonged to the Mackintosh and Kilravock families at a very early period, and to have been subsequently held under the earls. In 1281, the Earl of Ross, having plundered the churches of Petyn and Bracholy, expiated his offence by a grant to the see of Elgin, of the lands of Cattepol and Pitkanny. At the battle of Clachnaharry, the Mackintoshes of Moy Castle levied the men of Pettie to aid them in the pursuit of Munro of Fowlis. In 1368, William, the seventh lord Mackintosh, had his residence here, at Connage; and after the earldom of Moray was annexed to the crown, in 1455, the barony of Pettie appears to have been held by the laird of Findlater for some time under the crown, and subsequently under the Earl of Moray, the title having been revived.
From 1495 the Earl of Huntly possessed Connage till the birth of James V., on which occasion the barony of Pettie was given to Sir William Ogilvie, of Banff, whose wife was the first to announce to James IV. the birth of the prince; and Sir William resided in the castle till it was besieged and burnt by the clan Chattan, who slew his son and eight men who were found in it. In 1548, the Earl of Huntly was invested with the earldom of Moray, and soon afterwards, under the powers he possessed as lieutenant-general in the north, put to death William, the fifteenth laird of Mackintosh, and declared all his lands to be forfeited. In 1551, the clan Chattan, to revenge this murder, entered the castle of Pettie by stratagem, and seizing Lachlan, Mackintosh's kinsman, by whom he had been betrayed to the Earl of Huntly, killed him on the spot; and the queen regent, to prevent further hostilities, annulled the act of forfeiture. The Mackintoshes seem never to have forgiven the murder of their chieftain, and with avidity took every opportunity of laying waste Huntly's lands; and on the murder of the regent, Queen Mary's brother, upon whom she had bestowed the earldom of Moray, and who was put to death at Donnybristle by Huntly in 1591, the Mackintoshes of Pettie, under Angus, ravaged the Earl of Huntly's estates of Strathdee and Glenmuick, and killed many of his retainers. The earl retaliated by ravaging the district of Pettie, and killing many of the Mackintoshes; but he had scarcely returned from his expedition, and disbanded his troops, when the clan, to the number of 800, entered his territories of Achindown and Cabrach, in which they committed fearful depredations.
The parish is bounded on the north-west by the Moray Frith, along the shore of which it extends for about eight miles; varying from two to three miles in breadth, and comprising 8120 acres, of which 5275 are arable, 1575 woodland and plantations, and the remainder meadow, pasture, and waste. The surface rises from the Frith in undulations more or less abrupt, being in some parts bold and precipitous, and in others gentle, and subsiding into pleasant vales; but, though it increases in elevation towards the south-east, it is no where of mountainous character. The only streams of any importance are, the burn of Ault-an-fhiler, which separates the parish from that of Inverness on the west; and a small burn flowing between it and the parish of Ardersier on the east, which has been diverted from its course to turn a mill, and empties itself into the Frith. From some of the higher lands, or braes, descend numerous small brooks, falling over a rocky bed into the chief vale, and which formerly supplied water to the tenants of the lands for the illicit purpose of making whisky; they are now employed to turn threshing-mills on their farms. The coast is not marked by any indenture deserving the name of a bay, with the exception only of that portion of the Frith inclosed between the headland of Altirlie and the small promontory on which the church is built. On the beach at this place, where a commodious harbour might easily be formed, coal and lime are landed for the supply of the district; and on the beach at Connage, towards Stuartown, the timber which is cut down in the eastern part of the parish is shipped for exportation. At low water the sea recedes to a great distance from the shore, except at Altirlie, which consequently during the bathing season is much frequented by visiters from Inverness, who find lodgings either in the fishing-villages or in the neighbouring farmhouses. The lakes are Loch Flemington and Loch Andunty, both situated on the ridge near the south-eastern extremity, and in the old parish of Bracholy; but neither of them is of any considerable extent, or distinguished by features of importance.
The soil in the low lands near the sea is generally light and sandy, but on the braes and higher lands, a rich black loam, of stronger and more fertile quality; the principal crops are, oats, barley, wheat, potatoes, and turnips. The system of husbandry, under the stimulus afforded by the Pettie and Ardersier Farmers' Society, established within the last fifty years, has made considerable advances; and the more liberal use of lime, since the enlargement of the farms, has tended much to the improvement of the soil. The lands have been drained, and subsoil ploughing and trenching are growing daily into more general use: on the Earl of Moray's lands, the main drains are formed and kept in order by the landlord, and the tributary drains by the tenant. The farm-buildings are substantial and well arranged, and are either built and kept in repair by the landlord, or by the tenant, according to the terms of the lease. The Aberdeen or Buchan polled breed of cows is preferred to the Ayrshire on the dairy-farms; but few cattle are reared in the parish, which is rather an agricultural than a pastoral district; though cattle and sheep purchased at the neighbouring trysts are fed, the former chiefly on turnips. The plantations, of which about 1200 acres are on the lands of the Earl of Moray, have been formed at successive periods; and some have attained more than sixty years' growth. They are usually oak and fir, at Flemington interspersed with larch and spruce; they are carefully managed, regularly thinned, and all in a thriving state. The principal substrata are of the old red sandstone formation, of which the rocks in the ridge to the south chiefly consist; there are thin seams of limestone and bituminous shale, but little or no conglomerate. The rateable annual value of Pettie is £4700.
Castle-Stuart, one of the seats of the earl, and from which he takes the title of baron, is a spacious and venerable structure erected about the year 1624; but it was not occupied, and consequently fell into a ruinous state. The eastern wing of this once stately castle has, however, within the last few years been put into repair, and is occasionally visited for a few weeks by the family during the shooting season. The other mansions are the houses of Gollanfield and Flemington, both occupied by their respective proprietors: these, with the lands belonging to them, originally formed one estate. A considerable portion of the village of Campbelton extends into this parish, under the appellation of Stuartown; and there are also the fishing-hamlets of Pettie and Connage, the former containing fifty-eight, and the latter ninety-seven inhabitants. Salmon are taken by stake-nets along the shore of the Frith, but not in any great numbers, the stations producing to the proprietors scarcely a rental of £60; oyster-beds have also been formed, by bringing oysters from a distance, but they are of very inferior quality. The principal fish taken off the coast are, haddocks, whiting, cod, skate, flounders, and soles; and during the season, twenty-four boats are engaged in the herring-fisheries at Helmsdale, Wick, and Burgh-Head, each boat having a crew of five men and a boy. The herring season generally commences about the middle of July, and terminates in the early part of September. The produce of the fisheries is usually sent to Inverness, the nearest market-town, whither is also sent the agricultural and dairy produce of the parish. A fair is held annually, at Lammas, in the village of Campbelton, chiefly for hiring servants. There is no post-office; the inhabitants in the eastern district receive their letters at Ardersier or Fort-George, and those of the western district at Inverness. Facility of communication is maintained by the turnpike-road from Inverness to Aberdeen, which passes through the whole length of the parish till it enters the county of Nairn; by other roads, of recent construction, kept in excellent repair; and by the steamers which ply regularly between Inverness and London.
The ecclesiastical affairs are under the superintendence of the presbytery of Inverness and synod of Moray: the minister's stipend is £234. 3. 4., with a manse, and a glebe valued at £5 per annum; patron, the Earl of Moray. The church, rebuilt in 1839, is a handsome and substantial structure with a campanile turret; the interior is well arranged, and contains 600 sittings. From its situation, however, near the western boundary of the parish, the inhabitants of the district of Bracholy are at an inconvenient distance. The members of the Free Church have a place of worship. The parochial school is attended by about fifty children; the master has a salary of £36, with a house and garden, and the fees average £5 per annum. A school at Gollanfield is supported by the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, and is held in a building towards the erection of which the sum of £40 was granted by government. The schools in several of the adjacent parishes are also available to the children of the eastern district of this parish. Among the relics of antiquity are some Druidical circles, and near Loch Flemington are vestiges of what is thought to have been a Flemish camp: in the loch were found, a few years ago, pistols rudely mounted with silver, and having the initials A. M. P., which are supposed to have lain there since the battle of Culloden. In digging the foundations for a house near the loch, was discovered an urn of clay, inclosed in slabs of stone rudely formed. Stone coffins, containing urns, have also been found near a moat on the farm of Balmachree; and on the farm of Culblair, the fragment of a battle-axe was discovered in the moss. Near the church are two artificial mounds called Tom-aMhoid, "the Court hill," and Tom-a-Chroich, "the Gallows' hill," in ancient times used for the administration of justice; and in the churchyard is the burying-ground of the chiefs of the clan Mackintosh. Dr. Fraser, of Chelsea, the munificent benefactor of King's College, Aberdeen, was the son of a minister of this parish.
PETTINAIN, a parish, in the Upper ward of the county of Lanark; containing 416 inhabitants, of whom 80 are in the village, 5 miles (E. by S.) from Lanark. The name of this parish is supposed to have been derived from the old British word Peithynan, signifying "a clear space of flat ground," in reference to a level tract stretching along the north of the village. It is stated in ancient records that the district was originally covered with wood, and that David I. gave to "Nicolas his clerk," a carucate of land in the forest here, with the right of common-pasture. This portion is thought to have been cleared of the wood after being thus assigned, and to have in consequence fixed the name of the place. No events of any consequence are recorded in connexion with Pettinain; but in the southern vicinity of the parish are the remains of a very extensive and well-fortified camp, adjacent to which are a large number of out-works, where many urns and other relics of antiquity have been found; and although no traces exist to identify this camp with any particular people, it evidently indicates the spot to have been the scene of some important military operations. The lands of Westraw, in the parish, were awarded to Sir Adam Johnston in the time of James II., King of Scotland, for his vigorous efforts in suppressing the rebellion of the Earl of Douglas. These were afterwards alienated, and came into the possession of the Earl of Hyndford, at whose death they passed, for want of male issue, into the family of Anstruther, an ancient branch of which had married a sister of the earl.
The parish is about three miles long and two and a half broad, and contains 3060 acres. It is bounded on the north by Carstairs and Carnwath parishes, on the south by Covington, on the east by Libberton, on the west by Carmichael, and on the north-west by a small part of Lanark. The figure of the parish, which stretches along the banks of the Clyde, is very irregular. The climate is damp and variable: in the spring the pastures and blossoms suffer severely from the east winds; while the plantations of young wood generally take an inclination north-eastward from the action of violent, and sometimes long-continued, south-west winds. A ridge runs from Covington, in a north-western direction, until it terminates in the western extremity of Pettinain, where it rises 500 feet above the bed of the river; the highest peak is Cairn-gryffe, and the other parts are called Westraw and Swaites hills, from the names of the respective places to which they are opposite. Pheasants and hares are seen in great numbers in almost every direction. The Clyde, rising twenty-five miles southward, in Crawford parish, flows with great impetuosity till it arrives within a few miles of this parish, when it assumes a totally different character; becomes deep and smooth; and, slowly approaching by numerous meanderings, quietly enters at its south-east boundary. Afterwards changing its course by a flexure from east to west, it runs along the northern limit of the parish, and, within about half a mile of its departure, rushes with considerable force over a bed of rocks. It is well stocked with trout, perch, and pike, the last of which make great depredations on the two first, and attain in some cases to the length of three feet, and the weight of upwards of twenty pounds.
The soil varies considerably, being in the vicinity of the river a mixture of soft clayey mould, running to a depth of several feet, and resting upon a gravelly subsoil; while in the neighbourhood of the village, as well as in several other parts, it is a rich loam; and in other places, again, is mixed with large quantities of gravel and sand. The haugh or holm land immediately close to the river is very fertile, and frequently inundated by the rising floods. On the high parts, which are covered with heath and bent, the soil is a poor and thin earth with a clayey or tilly subsoil. The number of acres under tillage is nearly 2320; and about 580 are waste or in pasture. The crops include potatoes, turnips, and hay; and about 580 acres are appropriated to the growth of oats and barley, the chief grain here cultivated, the high elevation of the land above the sea rendering it unfavourable to wheat. The manures used are chiefly those obtained from the farm, many cattle being kept, especially on the dairy-farms; and in very few instances is bone-dust employed. The character of the husbandry is in general good; and great care is taken in preparing the ground by ploughing and harrowing, and in the proper application of the manure; the result of which is unusually heavy crops, especially of turnips, which are grown in large quantities. Ayrshire cattle are preferred on the dairy-farms, which are very numerous, and managed in the best possible manner. Within the last twenty-five years, covered drains to the length of almost twelve miles, and from five to seven and a half feet deep, have been constructed. In addition to these, there are nearly 5000 yards of open drains; and surface drains to a great extent have been formed, in order to prepare the ground for plantations, ninety-two acres of which on hilly and waste land have been made within the last twenty years by one proprietor, besides others in different parts of the parish; amounting in the whole to about 160 acres. The farm-buildings are an exception to the general improvements that have taken place, being inferior in many respects to those of neighbouring districts; but in most cases the inclosures and stone fences are excellent, and the latter have been recently augmented by an addition of 4840 yards. The land is the property of three families, one of whom, of Carmichael House and Westraw, holds almost the whole. The rocks in the parish are mainly felspar-porphyry and sandstone, the former of which supplies an excellent material for the construction and repair of roads: limestone is wrought in two places, but only on a small scale, and used for burning into lime. The rateable annual value of Pettinain is £3235.
The chief mansion-house is that on the estate of Westraw, which has been at various times enlarged and improved, and is now a good and commodious building, belonging to Sir Windham Carmichael Anstruther, Bart., the representative of the ancient family of Carmichael. It has plantations of almost all the trees common to the county, and is encompassed with extensive grounds in the highest state of cultivation. With the exception of a few persons employed in hand-loom weaving, the population is entirely agricultural. About one-fifth reside in the village of Pettinain; the rest are scattered throughout the parish, and their intercourse is principally with the town of Lanark, to which they have easy access by a bridge over the Clyde at Hyndford. The town of Carnwath, only three miles distant, was formerly the chief place of resort; but the obstruction often raised by the swelling of the Clyde turned the traffic to Lanark. Since this change occurred, however, a large float has been placed at the Carnwath ferrystation, which is impelled by machinery, and safely conveys passengers and carriages at a small toll levied to defray the expense, £500. The turnpike-road leading from Carlisle to Stirling passes along the western boundary of the parish, and, as well as the parish roads, is kept in very good repair. The ecclesiastical affairs are subject to the presbytery of Lanark and synod of Glasgow and Ayr; and the patronage belongs to Sir W. C. Anstruther. The stipend of the minister is £162, of which £47. 6. are received from the exchequer, with a comfortable manse built in 1820, and a glebe of ten acres, valued at from £25 to £30 per annum. The old manse, still a good and substantial, but small house, serves as offices to the present residence. The church, which is a very plain building, is conveniently situated, is in good repair, and seats about 234 persons: the belfry, supposed to have belonged to an older church, bears the date of 1696 and the inscription, "Holiness becomes God's House." There is a parochial school, in which Latin and all the ordinary branches of education are taught; the master's salary is £32, with the interest of 500 merks left in 1708 by the Earl of Hyndford, and fees amounting to about £17, as well as a house and garden. The only relic of antiquity of note is the camp already mentioned, situated on a lofty moor; it covers about six acres, and is nearly of circular form. Its walls appear to have been very lofty and massive, and composed of large uncemented stones; and adjoining is a deep moss, in which is a fort, formerly connected with the camp. In the parish are also a number of tumuli.
PETTY, Inverness and Nairn.—See Pettie.
PHARAY, an island, in the parish of Stronsay and Eday, North Isles of the county of Orkney; containing 67 inhabitants. This isle, which lies in the Westray Frith, about two miles west of Eday, is two miles in length and nearly one in breadth, and forms the northern point of the bay of Fersness; it is of level surface and covered with verdure, and in ordinary years supplies a sufficiency of grain for the use of the inhabitants. A good number of cattle are pastured on the island; its situation is also very advantageous for fishing. On Pharay was a chapel, now demolished.
PHARAY, an island, in the parish of Walls, South Isles of the county of Orkney; containing 55 inhabitants. It is also called Faray isle, which see.
PHILIPSTOWN, a village
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over 150 species of birds.
The coastline of Cape of Good Hope is about 40 km long, and known to be shipwreck for centuries due its rocky surface.
False Bay was originally founded by the Portuguese and called ‘Golfo Dentro da Serras' which means ‘Gulf between the mountains'. This name originates from Portuguese name of Cape Hangklip which they called ‘Cabo Falso', due to coming from the East they often mistook this landmark for Cape Point and sailed into False Bay, then forced to turn about and search for the real Cape Point in the unpleasant foggy weather condition. This sometimes took few days or even weeks.
Nowadays both Hangklip and Cape Point are secured with lighthouses. The lighthouse in on the lowel level below the fog most of th time and is the most powerful in the world, at almost 20 million candle power.
Many of visitors ask, whether this is the meeting place for the two oceans*. If go into technicality of details, then the answer is NO. From geographical side, the answer should be Cape Agulhas which is the most southern point of Africa, located about 170 km to the South East.But oceanographer will emphasise that the meeting place is not stable, it moves from day to day due to difference of temperature. Invisible border between the two oceans is a straight line between Cape Agulhas and the South Pole, but where the two oceans meet – question for endless discussions.
* Two oceans: Indian and Atlantic.
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What happens when we stop defining fashion by genders?
“Different though the sexes are, they intermix. In every human being a vacillation from one sex to the other takes place, and often it is only the clothes that keep the male or female likeness, while underneath the sex is the very opposite of what it is above”.
— Virginia Woolf, Orlando
Clothing is one of the first tools we are given to express our gender. Throughout history, from fairy tales to pop culture, fashion has played a major role in defining and demonstrating our gender roles in society. Nowadays, the focus in fashion is becoming less about whether clothing is made for women or men, and more about clothing that represents an attitude, a feeling, a look, or an overall aesthetic. The identity of clothing has shifted from feminine and masculine, to identity in itself. A new concept is seeing the light of day, not solely in the fashion world but also in our the modern society: Genderless. The word seems contradictory but actually, holds an important message. For a long time, people have been trying to eliminate all the boundaries and differences between male and female gender imposed by the society. This message is evident in fields like fashion, where the idea of gender is deeply rooted. As Virginia Woolf wrote, we all have both male and female qualities; only the gender of clothing remains absolute. The gender of human beings is rather plastic and the so-called “Genderless revolution” seeks to validate that. Genderless is not an annulment of differences, but it’s an exaltation of them. Genderless is the translation of the idea of “escaping from the cage of masculine and feminine”. In other words, genderless could be defined as the “all free” rule. Free to be different and free to choose whatever complies with your soul and attitude, your personal and social identity.
However, it must be underlined that the “Genderless question” is nothing new. Louis XVI’s variegate outfits composed of ermine furs, velvet, lace, extravagant wigs, make-up and heels (the so-called “talons rouges” shoes), surely broke gender rules, at least how they are perceived today. Gender roles in fashion were fleeting in a different way that we have seen in the 19th century. In other parts of the world, the Japanese kimono replaced two-piece outfits of shirt and trousers starting in the Heian period (which lasted from 794 to 1185 A.D.). Both men and women wore kimonos belted at the waist with an obi or sash. While additional garments and fashions did add distinctions between men and women, the overall look was far more similar than that present in Europe. The "sarong", is also worth mentioning and is worn by people from Southeast Asia, the Arabian peninsula and the Horn of Africa. The sarong is also a ubiquitous fabric wrap that can be worn regardless of gender.
Plato’s hermaphrodite myth saying that to label by gender is the condemnation of beings to an eternal search for completeness, Louis XVI’s sumptuous garments, the “dandy” personified by Oscar Wilde and Charles Baudelaire or even the famous Chanel’s Garçonne look all suggested change. In more recent time, we can look at the “London Peacock Revolution” of the Sixties, the glam rock of the Seventies, the obsessive body care of the Eighties, the male makeup of the Nineties to understand that the boundaries of every wardrobe are constantly revolving.
Yes, gender is certainly present in fashion. From female empowerment as a marketing gimmick and shapeless t-shirts being sold as “genderless”, it is a talking point impossible to ignore. But something is changing. It seems there is a widening acceptance of a style with no boundaries: people of all ages and in all markets are constructing a visual representation of their own identities more freely than ever. As a result, consumption patterns are no longer defined by traditional values such as age, location, income, family status, and gender. We live in a world where gender stereotyping is old-fashioned. Men borrow from women’s wardrobes and women from men’s, but not to be “unisex”: Unisex is synonym of aseptic and cold it’s like defenceless and silent on the wearer’s skin. Genderless fashion, on the contrary, could be defined as a shared wardrobe ideal. It eliminates all fashion tags and creates a new kind of aesthetics with no stereotypes. Genderless is gender neutrality; it is the ability to give freedom to the expression of the individual’s inner self with.
“It’s the power of choosing that could define us as gender, but only if we decide to be defined. Gender doesn’t dominate us”
- Lou Stoppard for SHOWstudio
In high fashion these terms are no strangers to one another, they regularly cross paths in design houses, merging into one large trend with designers Alessandro Michele’s at Gucci or J.W Anderson or Rick Owens springing to mind. But have these high fashion ideas transcended into the everyday catwalk of the streets? We need not look any further than our social media platforms to meet the #genderless or the #agender Instagram hashtags. They have become some of the most attractive words for the "fashionistas". We see the biggest fashion runways and the glossy covers of the most important fashion magazines presenting a-gender models in both men’s and women’s catwalks. Even shops and fashion stores are inaugurating genderless departments such as the British department store Selfridges launching Agender, an experiential, gender-neutral pop-up shop devoted to gender-neutral garments. Above all, we see a younger generation’s consumption behaviour and their desire to be non-conformist grow increasingly. They are led by a new generation of young designers developing original and innovative proposals as to how we should dress. This way gender neutral fashion isn’t just an elite runway fashion phenomenon discriminating the masses from attaining this look.
One such brand is the Toronto-based fashion brand Muttonhead, created by Meg and Mel Sinclair and their friend Paige Cowan in 2009. They are creating fair trade unisex clothing for all genders and ages. Muttonhead has developed into one of Canada’s top ethical and sustainable fashion retailers because of their slow fashion approach. The brand focuses on timeless, rather than fad, designs which appeal to both men and women alike. Founder Meg Sinclair explains that she wanted to create a lifestyle brand that produces timeless, high-quality outerwear "for the everyday adventurer", regardless of their gender. Her efforts herald a new approach to fashion design that focuses on sustainability and quality, over globalised, disposable fashion. Using sustainable materials and fair trade practices they manufacture locally, pay workers a fair living wage, and use the highest quality and durable materials available, Muttonhead has steadily produced solid collections with a “boyish-shaped” style that many women appreciate.
Another brand is the Montreal-born Superfluous Culture that was founded by the Canadian designer Adam Taubert. The brand is based on the idea of offering gender neutral, durable, and functional garments that transcend the need for excess. While materials are sourced ethically, organically, nationally and internationally, the local manufacturing of all products is nearly entirely local. In fact, 80% of all products are manufactured less than 10 kilometres from the Superfluous Atelier.
“I find it very important to keep things local. Not only does it add life to your environment, but it also provides more opportunity should it become successful” the designer explained.
All items are unisex and Taubert introduced organic materials to the line only a year after The Superfluous Culture was created. Today, the brand produces mostly in cotton, hemp, linen, and bamboo materials. The brand offers a simple and clean approach but with a contemporary touch. Taubert hopes The Superfluous Culture might spark a change in the present consumer's mentality.
With all of this said, we can underline one thing for certain: Genderless fashion is not just a temporary fad but something much deeper, an echo from the past as well as our future. It’s a new way of living and thinking, reflecting on our social changes. It is the future of fashion and a movement towards a wider acceptance and appreciation of a limitless sense of style through the expression of our true identity.The human population is increasing rapidly, and demands urban landscape development. Contemporary urbanisation is expanding in such a way that previously natural areas are usurped for expansive growth resulting in protected and natural areas becoming islands embedded in an urban mosaic. This increases the interactions between humans and wildlife in the area. Human refuse, and plastics in particular, has become an increasing concern with wildlife, including seabirds.
The kelp gull. Refuse rummager. Beach bum. Awakening alarm. I am sure that many are familiar with the strident ‘kee-ah’ call of the kelp gull, one of 51 gull species worldwide. The kelp gull has a wide distribution throughout the southern hemisphere, and is increasing in various areas of the Cape provinces of South Africa. With many seabirds on the Red Data List, the kelp gull, along with a variety of other gull species, are increasing in numbers due to their ability to adapt to human activities. In Plettenberg Bay there are three main kelp gull colonies, and the one on Keurbooms Peninsula is the largest mainland colony in South Africa. On all three of these breeding colonies the evidence of humans is present. Plastic, especially, is found in nest bowls, and strewn throughout each colony, and not because people left litter there, but because the gulls brought these items to the colony. When the Robberg Road landfill was still open, kelp gulls were a familiar sight digging through the refuse. Outside houses on refuse collection day they have also learnt to tear open bags and dig through the rubbish. They will even take food from children on the playground, and from people on the beach. This penchant for junk food is understandably a concern, but rubbish is an easily accessible, dependable, year-round available food source – one can see the attraction. Kelp gulls are not the only species taking advantage of rubbish as a food source, here in Plett the sacred ibis has also become a regular sight tearing open refuse bags and leaving rubbish strewn across the verge. This highlights the need for improved waste management, where persistent wastes are separated from organic wastes that attract gulls and other species before disposal.
Written by: Minke Witteveen
For further reading:
- Crawford, R.J.M., Makhado, A.B., Waller, L.J. and Whittington, P.A. 2014. Winners and losers – responses to recent environmental change by South African seabirds that compete with purse-seine fisheries for food. Ostrich 85: 111-117.
- Whittington, P., Crawford, R.J.M., Martin, A.P., Randall, R.M., Brown, M., Ryan, P.G., Dyer, B.M., Harrison, K.B., Huisamen, J., Makhado, A.B., Upfold, L., Waller, L. and Witteveen, M. 2016. Recent trends of the Kelp Gull Larus dominicanus in South Africa. Waterbirds 39: 99-113.
- Witteveen, M., Brown, M. and Ryan, P.G. 2017. Anthropogenic debris in the nests of kelp gulls in South Africa. Marine Pollution Bulletin 114: 699-704.“Flying robots are cool! It’s as simple as that.”
That’s what recent Seidenberg grad Keith McPherson ’13 will say when you ask him why he and Seidenberg Professor Rick Kline, PhD, teamed up to build their own drone, an autonomous quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle, otherwise known as a flying quadcopter, and to research current and potential applications for them.
Their interest in quadcopters goes back two years to a college level competition affiliated with the FIRST Robotics program. Dr. Kline mentored a team, captained by McPherson, which built their first flying robot for the event, only to see it suffer a fatal crash on the first day of competition. This attempt may have ended poorly for the pair, but it did not damper their interest in the field. When the Undergraduate Student/Faculty Research Initiative opportunity came up, they jumped right on it and started over from scratch.
“We used Aeroquad, an open source platform for building the quadcopter,” says Kline, “There are three parts to Aeroquad… a discussion forum where people exchange their ideas and help one another, the hardware and building tutorials, and finally the software projects that people are using to control their vehicles.” Since neither have any formal engineering training, these and other resources were essential for their work.
With their software expertise, McPherson and Kline worked to develop code that would allow them to control their quadcopter using a WiFi connection to a laptop, taking input from handheld game controllers and rendering a virtual cockpit instrument display real-time on the screen. These replaced the more typical use of dedicated “RC” radio controllers that are one-way devices locked into issuing only motion commands.
“With the software and computer programming, we can tell the vehicle to not only move here or there, but to do flips, take photos, and record and stream live video,” says McPherson. Kline adds that “Technology keeps evolving so quickly. The control board that handles the live video costs $35, is the size of a credit card, and has the same power as a $2,000 desktop machine from 10 years ago.”
As they investigated different applications for the quadcopter, they encountered another group of drone enthusiasts who were exploring theirs for possible journalist usage for reporting news that was happening outside of traditional news organizations, such as during the Arab Spring. Should there be an event where traditional methods of communication were shut down, such as turning off Internet access, those who wanted to stream news out could use their phones or set up ad hoc networks to share images captured by their flying drones of what’s happening on the ground. McPherson shared many ideas with them and volunteered to do some web site development work for the project.
The pair also explored the use of drones for commercial purposes, such as capturing aerial images of neighborhoods and buildings for use in real estate sales and the like. Unfortunately, during their research, they found that this type of use is currently illegal, though flight regulations will be changing in the near future to take drones into account.
The building of the quadcopter included plenty of snags and took far longer than the pair anticipated, but the web sites and forums run by other drone enthusiasts were of great help in overcoming problems they encountered. “One of the biggest surprises for me while working on this project was discovering how big the Internet community is of people who are interested in building these things and sharing their expertise and sharing their designs,” Kline says, “That allowed us to do a whole lot more than if we were starting from and working in a vacuum.”
Two years ago, McPherson developed similar code for controlling the drone via computer and submitted it to the Aeroquad project with the hope that it would be included in their offerings. Despite the community’s enthusiasm over the submission, the code was not accepted to be part of the open source material. Now, after having participated in Pace’s research initiative, the pair hopes to resubmit their refined software for future inclusion with Aeroquad. McPherson believes that the Aeroquad people will be really impressed with improvements made to the virtual cockpit and that they potentially will integrate their new software. “Research publications are always nice—and they are what’s expected of a faculty member—but for a student to be able to have significant contributions to a huge open source project, that’s exciting to me and I hope we’ll be able to pull it off,” concludes Kline.
To learn more about their project and the Undergraduate Student/Faculty Research Initiative, visit www.pace.edu/uri.Robert Frost is a celebrated American poet. He had a great mastery of American colloquial speech and made realistic depictions of the early rural life. His great work in poetry mostly included settings from the rural life in New England in early 20th century. He used poems to examine complex philosophical and social themes. During his life, individuals honored and at many times quoted him due to his work and he also received four Pulitzer prizes.
He was born and raised in San Francisco, California to Isabelle Moodie and journalist William Prescott. His mother was a Scottish and his father came from the lineage of Frost of Tiverton, England who had traveled all the way
to New Hampshire in early 1634.
Frost's father was an editor of San Francisco evening Bulleting, but adopted this career after leaving his earlier teaching career. The newspaper later merged into San Francisco examiner. After his father's death, his family moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts. He graduated from the Lawrence High School in the year 1892.
In spite of his association with the early rural life, he grew up in the city and managed to publish his first poem while in high school in the schools magazine. After high school, he attended the Dartmouth College. After college he returned to his home town and started teaching and also did other work including newspaper delivery and manual labor some major factories. However, he never enjoyed any of the jobs as he felt his great calling as a poet.
His adult years
He managed to sell his first poem in the year 1894, My Butterfly: An Elegy which appeared in the New York Independent in November 8, 1894 edition. He earned fifteen dollars from the sale. Frost
went on a pleasure trip to Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia where he married Elinor Mirriam at the Harvard University where he studies arts for a two year period.
At Harvard University he did well but he decided to leave to support his growing family. His grandfather had earlier died although he had purchased a farm in Derry, New Hampshire. Frost worked in the farm for 9 years. Meanwhile, he used the morning hours to write poems some of which turned out to be very popular. Afterwards his farming work was unsuccessful and therefore he chose to return to his earlier teaching career. He taught at Plymouth Academy between 1906 and 1911 and then at New Hampshire Normal school in Plymouth - now Plymouth State University.
In the year 1912 frost and his entire family moved to Great Britain where at first they lived in Beaconsfield near London. In the following year he had his first poetry book, A Boy's Will, published. In England he managed to make several acquaintances like Edward Thomas, Ezra pound and T.E Hulme Pound later became the first American to write a favorable review about Frosts poetry work. While in England, Frost managed to write some of the best works alongside his peers.
Frost went back to America in 1915 at the onset of the First World War. He managed to purchase a farm in Franconia, New Hampshire where he launched his career of teaching, writing and lecturing. The homestead served as his summer home until the year 1938. The homestead is maintained as 'The Frost Place', a poetry conference site and a museum and in Francisco. Frost taught English at Amherst College, Massachusetts in 1916-1920, 1923-1924 and in 1927-1938 where he particularly encouraged his students to account for human voice sounds in their writing.
From 1921 to 1963, he spent almost every summer teaching English at the Bread Loaf School of English in Middlebury College. The school recognizes him as a major influence for its development and its writing programs. Therefore, the college owns and also maintains his former homestead as a historic site near the college.
In the year 1921, University Of Michigan awarded him a fellowship teaching post and he remained there until 1927. While In University of Michigan, the university granted him a lifetime appointment as a Fellow in Letter. He later returned to Amherst in the year 1927. In 1940 he purchased a farm in South Miami, Florida which he named as Pencil Pines. This is where he spent all his winters in the years that followed.
Harvard's alumni directory of 1965 indicates that Frost acquired an honorary degree from the university. Further, he received other honorary degrees from Cambridge, Oxford universities and Bates College. Dartmouth College also awarded him two degrees and therefore he became the first individual to attain two honorary degrees from the university. Several universities which include Amherst College, Virginia and Robert Frost Middle school in Fairfax have named their libraries after him.
He spoke and performed a reading of his poetry work in the inauguration of Former American president John F Kennedy in 1961 when he was 86 years. He died in January 20 1963 following complications from a prostate surgery.
His poems are reviewed in the "Anthology of Modern American Poetry", oxford university press. You can find one of Frost's original materials in which he personally contributed in Jones Library in Amherst. The collections consist of over twelve thousands pieces which include original letters and manuscript poems, photographs, and correspondence, audio and visual files.
His accomplishment in poetry
His first two collections publications happened while he was in England. One of the first collections 'A Boy's Will' published in the year 1915 shows a sign of the many themes and techniques that Frost developed further. Most
of the poems in the collection employ an archaic, Victorian fashion. In this collection, he never applies the conversational style which he highly uses in his later works. Most poetry reviewers including Ezra Pound reviewed the
work positively. His second collection, 'North Boston' cemented his reputation in both America and England as a poet with significant talent.
His poem, The Road Not Taken, published in the year 1961 'Mountain Interval Collection' became one of the anthologized and popular works in the Americas literature although critics complain that people misunderstood it. The poem is taken as a celebration of individuality when its most likely interpretation is regretful work.
'New Hampshire' published in the year 1924 confirmed Frosts as one of the significant poetic voices of the 20TH century. He won a Pulitzer Prize for the collection. The collection contains his most popular poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Frost claimed of having written the poem after working for another poem for a whole night. The poem uses imagery of a snowbound forest and a long journey to creating a metaphor of an individual struggling against nature.WHAT IS SPIRITUALITY?
This section presents the following:
This article deals with three aspects of Christian spirituality: nature of Christian
spirituality, developing spirituality, and reflecting spirituality in life.
Spirituality and Human Existence
A definition of spirituality emerges from an understanding of the nature of the whole person.
A table, illustrating the nature of the human person, shows the integrated and complex nature of the human
being. Spirituality deals with the spiritual dimension of existence and
View of Spirituality
This short article gives a broad-based definition and perspective of spirituality,
showing what spirituality encompasses.
Definitions and Descriptions of Spirituality
Eight definitions of spirituality are presented. The focus of each
definition is also described.
Reaching One's Potential
Spirituality has to do with
becoming a person in the fullest
This involves self-transcendence.
“In other words”, writes Main, “each of us is summoned to an unlimited, infinite, development as we leave the
narrowness of our own ego behind, and enter into the mystery of God.” It means coming to the fullness of being, the fullness of God
himself, as the apostle Paul explains.
Authentic Christian Spirituality
All authentic Christian spirituality is by its nature
Trinitarian. The doctrine of the Trinity, with its far-reaching
practical implications, constitutes the heart and soul of Christian spirituality. This article presents
fifteen principles of contemporary Trinitarian spirituality.
What Is Christian
This article first defines Christian spirituality, and then covers
ten aspects of Christian spirituality.
Three components or elements of spirituality include: (1) the transcendent, (2) the personal,
and (3) the immanent. These three elements are reflected in the Trinity.
Difference Between Spirituality and
What is the difference is between spirituality and religion? Is there a need for a community, such as
Community Dimensions of Christian
Ten points of the community aspect of Christian spirituality are
The Cycle of Spirituality
Spirituality is not a singular activity, but an integration of
different activities, spread out over a shorter or longer period. Theologian David Ranson suggests that
spirituality involves four stages of a cycle: attending, inquiring, interpreting, and acting.The Promise of Dragons
A stirge resembles a giant mosquito about the size of a housecat, being one foot long and half a foot wide and tall. It has a set of four leathery, bat-like wings with a span of two feet. It has a long, sharp proboscis, a short tail, barbed legs, and a row of short, curly hairs along the spine. Stirge coloration ranges from brown to rust-red, with the proboscis being pale pink.
The stirge needs blood to survive. It finds victims, and then desperately latches onto them with its legs and pincers before finding a weak spot and driving its deadly proboscis in. It sucks out the blood, causing a long, painful death. If the victim dies before the Stirge’s hunger is quenched, it detaches and finds a new victim. Though they grip onto their victims very excruciatingly, a good blow to one can detach it.With high school students’ grade point averages being one of the key factors in college admissions, it is no wonder that grades are one of the biggest priorities for them. In addition to taking honors and advanced placement courses, students are encouraged to invest their time into extracurricular activities like athletics and volunteering. If students are expected to balance their time between school work and extracurriculars, teachers should also be expected to balance their time with not just teaching, but with regularly updating students’ grades as well.
It is crucial for students to know how they are doing in a class. Hypothetically speaking, students should always be trying their best in every class. But in reality, students need to know where they stand in each class so they can know which subject to prioritize and put more effort into. This cannot be achieved if they do not receive feedback for their work. Keeping in mind that teachers have lives outside of school, it is understandable that not every assignment gets posted on PowerSchool right away. There is also the fact that teachers need to grade andinput scores for assignments for all of their students from all of the periods they teach, but that is not enough to justify putting grades in weeks—or in some cases, even months— late.
Although it is unrealistic to demand teachers input grades every single day, it is important to shine light on the fact that students need relevant feedback for the work they are doing and the tests they are taking. Even if teachers cannot find the time to update PowerSchool grades frequently, they should at least give verbal feedback so students know what they are doing well and what they could improve on. Learning is not reflected by a percentage and a letter, but it does not mean that grades are not important. Teachers should focus on delivering feedback for the assignments they give out. If this cannot be achieved, students may be left in the dark regarding their academic performance and assignments will start becoming less meaningful.Night Vocabulary | Teaching Night by Elie Wiesel
Teaching Theme with Night | Teaching Night by Elie Wiesel
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elie Wiesel was only twelve years old when, in 1941, the events of World War II and the Holocaust invaded his home in Sighet, Transylvania. His childhood was cut short, his dreams and beliefs shattered, as he witnessed the death of his family and his people in the Nazi death camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. After the war, Wiesel took a 10-year vow of silence before he attempted to put into words the horror and pain of the Holocaust. When he finally wrote Night, Wiesel had difficulty finding a publisher, for it was believed that few would want to read such heart-wrenching words. Today it is one of the most read and respected books on the Holocaust.
Night Final Project | Analyzing the Experiences of Elie Wiesel
After World War II, Wiesel lived in Paris, France, for 10 years where he studied at the Sorbonne and worked as a journalist, traveling to both Israel and the United States. Eventually, Wiesel moved to the United States and currently lives in New York City. In 1976, Wiesel became the Andrew Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University. His book Night has been followed by other equally powerful books. Against Silence: The Voice and Vision of Elie Wiesel is a three-volume collection of his work. In 1985, Elie Wiesel was the recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal and in 1986, he was honored with one of the greatest of all awards, the Nobel Peace Prize.
Elie Wiesel Quotes (Author of Night) - Goodreads
Night essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Night by Elie Wiesel.
Night by Elie Wiesel Free Download. Read online books …
In the novel Night, by Elie Wiesel, Elie went through so much depression, and it caused him to struggle with surviving everyday life in a concentration camp....
Download and read online for free Night by Elie Wiesel
In Elie Wiesel's book, Night, when Elie and his father rely on each other’s hope in order to survive, and within my own family when my brother was diagnosed with autism....Williams earned notoriety in 1835 while attending the legislature at Monclova by contracting for two of the 400-league grants offered by the state government as a means to raise funds to oppose President Antonio López de Santa Anna. He and six others were proscribed as revolutionaries, but he escaped arrest by going to the United States. He entered a partnership with Thomas F. McKinney in 1833 and used his family's mercantile contacts in the United States to secure credit for the firm. Their commission house, located at Quintana, dominated the Brazos cotton trade until 1838, when they moved to Galveston. The firm of McKinney and Williams used its credit in the United States to purchase arms and raise funds for the Texas Revolution in 1835-36. Neither the republic nor the state was able to repay the $99,000 debt in full, and the partners realized only a small portion of their investment in addition to the passage of favorable relief legislation. As investors in the Galveston City Company, McKinney and Williams aided in developing the city by helping to construct the Tremont Hotel as well as the commission house and wharf. McKinney withdrew from the partnership in 1842, when Henry Howell Williams assumed his brother's interest in the firm, which became H. H. Williams and Company.
Sam Williams concentrated on banking after 1841, when the commission house received special permission from the Texas Congress to found a bank to issue and circulate paper money as an aid to commerce. In 1848 he activated his 1835 charter, obtained from Coahuila and Texas and approved by the republic in 1836, to open the Commercial and Agricultural Bank of Galveston, which also printed its own money. Jacksonian antibanking sentiment inspired his enemies to attack the bank through the state courts on the grounds that it violated constitutional prohibitions against banks. The Texas Supreme Court sustained the bank in 1852, but subsequent suits brought its demise in 1859. Williams, a political supporter of Sam Houston, represented the Brazos district in the Coahuila and Texas legislature in 1835 and Galveston County in the lower house of the Texas Congress in 1839. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Congress in 1846. In 1838 he received a commission to negotiate a $5 million loan in the United States and to purchase seven ships for the Texas Navy. President Houston sent him to Matamoros in 1843 to seek an armistice with Mexico, an unsuccessful ploy. Williams lived quietly with his wife, Sarah Patterson Scott, on a country estate west of the city. His home, a one-story, frame, Greek Revival residence on brick piers, is operated by the Galveston Historical Foundation as a house museum and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built between 1839 and 1844, it is among the oldest structures on the island. Williams died September 13, 1858, and was buried by the Knights Templars whose chapter he had founded. He was survived by his wife and four of his nine children. One son, William Howell Williams, was Galveston county judge from 1875 to 1880. Source
29° 17.588, -094° 48.697
Trinity Episcopal Cemetery"Who would be free themselves must strike the blow.... I urge you to fly to arms and smite to death the power that would bury the Government and your liberty in the same hopeless grave. This is your golden opportunity." (Frederick Douglass; NPS)
“Organization directed by cautious aggression and manly defense will do for the race infinitel more than the policy of eternally stretching forth our hands without doing anything toward filling them, and of complaining because others are not watching our interest while we are asleep.” (Washington Bee, April 1, 1899)
The American Civil War (1861-1865) started because of uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states.
The event that triggered war came at Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay on April 12, 1861. Claiming this United States fort as their own, the Confederate army on that day opened fire on the federal garrison and forced it to lower the American flag in surrender.
The real fighting began in 1862. For three long years, from 1862 to 1865, Robert E Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia staved off invasions and attacks by the Union Army of the Potomac commanded by a series of ineffective generals until Ulysses S Grant came to Virginia from the Western theater to become general in chief of all Union armies in 1864. (McPherson)
In the early years, African Americans were not permitted to fight in the war. In early 1863, President Lincoln wrote to Andrew Johnson (military governor of Tennessee and later Lincoln’s vice president) that, “The colored population is the great available yet unavailed of force for restoring the Union.”
“The bare sight of fifty thousand armed and drilled black soldiers upon the banks of the Mississippi would end the rebellion at once; and who doubts that we can present that sight if we but take hold in earnest.”
Two months later, War Department General Order #143 sanctioned the creation of the United States Colored Troops (USCT,) and African American units began to be integrated into the Union Army. (civilwar-org)
In Massachusetts, on January 26, 1863, Governor John Albion Andrew received permission to begin recruitment of African-Americans to man regiments of volunteer infantry. The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was formed; because of excessive enlistments, a second regiment, the 55th, was formed.
The USCT were commanded by white officers. Captain Alfred Stedman Hartwell was assigned to the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry; when the 55th was formed, Hartwell was made its lieutenant colonel. In the fall of 1863, Hartwell earned the rank of colonel of the 55th.
Hartwell was born at Dedham, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard in 1858; was a tutor at Washington University, St Louis, 1858-61, and in the latter year enlisted in the Army.
The 55th fought in many battles, serving primarily in South Carolina and Florida. However, throughout his leadership, Hartwell had growing concern about the inadequacy of pay given to the African American soldiers.
“They felt their manhood was at stake. They were regarded as good enough to be killed and wounded, and to work in the trenches side by side with white soldiers, so they said they would wait until they got their dues.” (Hartwell; Soodalter)
Hartwell pressured his superiors on behalf of his troops. “I can hardly write, talk, eat or sleep,” he wrote, “I am so anxious and indignant that pay is not forthcoming … for my men. Can anything be done to hasten this thing? No man staying at home can imagine how great and terrible is the wrong done these men, and the distress they suffer.” (Sood
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- Your child has taken a huge risk in telling you. Provide attention and compassion. Let your child know that you believe them.
- Offer support and DON’T OVERREACT.
- Let your child tell of their experience without asking for additional details, and let your child know that you are going to get help. Report Abuse
- Assure your child that they are very brave for telling you and that they did nothing wrong.
How to Talk to Your Child About Scary Stuff
As a parent, it’s hard to talk to your child about difficult subjects, such as abuse, bullying, violence, drugs, and other challenging subjects. But in the media-saturated world we live in, children are often exposed to serious stories or situations.
When we are able to talk to our kids about the tough stuff, our bond with them is strengthened and we can teach them about the world we live in. It gives us the opportunity to share with them the way we gather and interpret information and gives them a baseline understanding so that they learn how to make good decisions.
When our kids experience something scary—getting hurt, witnessing violence either in real life or on TV, or seeing graphic porn via an innocent Google search, it is important to talk with them about it. But how? Here are some guidelines for discussing any difficult subject in a developmentally appropriate way with kids ages 2-12.
The Good News
The good news is that the more you talk with your child, the easier it gets to have conversations about difficult subjects. When you are talking with your child, consider this: If they are talking about an issue and asking questions (no matter what the subject matter is), they deserve a straightforward, age-appropriate answer. If you don’t immediately have the answer, that’s okay. It gives you the chance to strengthen the bond with your child by learning and working together.
Want to learn more about navigating the media-saturated world we live in? A good resource for all things related to children and media usage is Common Sense Media.The Lamb and Tyger
Literary analysis of William Blake's The Lamb and The Tyger. It contains critical appreciation of two poems....
William Blake surpasses the connotative limitations that the the phra phrase se ‘p ‘prrecur ecurso sorr to Roman omanti tici cism sm’’ cont contai ains ns as a signifer since he was an embodiment o multip tiple geniuses compacted into one fgure. Blake’s poetic crat is a collection o myriad pictures, a ‘mythography’ that embodi bodie es si sign gnif ifca can nt aspe aspect cts s cruc crucia iall to the the overa veralll theor theoreti etical cal struct structur ure e o Willi William am Blak Blake’s philos philosoph ophy y and metap metaphys hysics ics!! those those aspect aspects s being being state state o childh childhood ood,, state o innocence, states o worldly e"perience, ce, repr epressi ession on,, su supp pprressi ession on owin owing g to di divi visi sive ve,, corr corrup upti ting ng,, dark darken enin ing g in in#u #uen ence ces, s, $ude $udeo! o!%h %hri rist stia ian n sy symb mbol olic ic meta meta!! structures, ethno!religious rituals and their psychosomatic psychosomatic implications. implications. &s anthologies that received his personal attention, the 'ong 'ongs s are are e"tra "traor ordi dina nary ry not not only only beca becaus use, e, as Bowra maintains, they constitute one o the most remarkable collections o lyrical poems in (nglish, but also due to the act that the they provide an e"clusive entry into the e"ceptional e"ceptional mythopoeic universe o Blake, Blake, populated with uni)ue symbolic constructs that make sense only in the world that he has both written and engraved into e"istence. *he 'ongs, one o +nnocence and another o ("perience, illustrate two contrary states o the human soul soul that that both both wor work in oppos pposit itio ion n to, to, and and ul ulti tim matel ately y complement each other,! a principle o proound aith urther supported by the most ot!)uoted ma"im o Blake
‘without contraries there is no progression.’ progression.’ +n his scheme o things things,, *he 'ongs 'ongs o +nnoce +nnocence nce sig signi niy y ree reedom dom and liberty, purity and uninterrupted en-oyment whereas the 'ong 'ongs s o ("pe ("peri rien ence ce are are popu popula late ted d with with sy symb mbol ols s o chains, manacles and iron!rods, ferceness and -ealousy, deflement and corruption. But both states are inevitable as ar as the maturation!process o the human soul is con concer cerned ned in a all alle en, degr degra aded ded world rld o sh sha atte ttered dreams dreams and vitiated motis.
The Lamb: Blake’s verses with regard to the 'ongs o +nnocence and those o ("perience are meant or children, and this act encourages their depiction in nursery rhymes which he incorporated in his complicated mythography admirably and laudably, cautiously avoiding strong and hyperbolical e"pression o words, suiting the lines to the purpose o chil childi dish sh rhyth hythmi mic c st stru ruct ctur ure. e. *he *he limi limite ted d voca vocabu bula lary ry conse)uent upon it, thereore, was an ingredient unavourable to him on his way tow towards the goal o fnding e"pression to his elaborate metaphysical system. 'o )uit )uite e natu natura rall lly, y, the the poet poet soug sought ht the the assi assist stan ance ce o symbols, allegories and metaphors or transorming his abstract visionary images in to a concrete rom which might help the reader to ollow his way o thought in the words o F.W Bateson, ‘e used his symbols to e"press increasingly increasingly subtle and comple" intellectual distinction’. Blake, Blake, in his 'ongs o +nnocence, strives to represent represent the children out o the vicious circle o oppression and restore them them to a heav heaven enly ly st stat ate e o unpe unpert rtur urbe bed d bl blis iss s that that is
characteri/ed by purity, guiltlessness, liberty, vuln vulner erab abil ilit ity y and and unin uninhi hibi bite ted d en-o en-oym ymen entt o in inno noce cent nt ancie ancies. s. *he *he 0amb 0amb is a most most rema remark rkabl able e poem poem in which which the lamb is a symbol o 1*he 0amb o 2od that taketh away the sin o the world.3 +n this symbolic universe the harmlessness o the lamb and the purity o the heart o a chi child are noth nothin ing g but but the the manie iestati tatio ons o %hris hrist’ t’s s innocence innocence.. +n the world world o innocen innocence ce even the the meanest meanest creature such as a lamb is treated as having unbound divi di vini nity ty.. er ere is an e"clu "clusi sive ve unif unifca cati tion on o the the thre three e characters 4 %hrist, %hild, and the 0amb that constitute and enact the %hristian concept o *rinity in the world o innoce innocence nce.. *his *his identi identifc fcati ation on betwee between n the creat creator or and the created which accords a symbolic dimension to the lamb’s gentleness and meekness is raught with theolo theologic gical! al!me metap taphys hysica icall implic implicati ations ons.. *he line, line, ‘e is meek and he is mild ld’’ is an echo cho o Charles Wesley ’s 12entle $esus, meek and mild. d.3 3 +t under derlines the devotional motivation behind the poem and relates it to the tradition o moral tales or children which #ourished during the last decades o the 56 th century. %hrist is the 0amb o 2od the child is oten called 1little lamb3, a term o a7ec a7ecti tion on.. Bu Butt Bl Blak ake e also also wide widens ns the the reer eeren ence ce by recalli ecalling ng $eremi $eremiah, ah, ‘*hou, ‘*hou, 8 lord lord,, art art in the midst midst o us, and we are called by the name, leave us not,’ or ‘We are called by thy name9we are the lord’s chosen people’. *hese inter!te"tual inter!te"tual reminiscences reminiscences give richness and depth to an apparently simplistic sentiment and make it out as a prooundly religious religious view o the world. +t may be remembered in this connection that or Blake the true 2od is the 2od o love, o whom %hrist is the most perect
embodi bodim ment. ent. 'om 'ometim times the the poet spea peaks o im im in traditional %hristian terms, terms, as in the frst line o the 0ord’s :rayer, but usually he does not think o im as dwelling apart rom in heaven, or as an abstraction in the void! e is within each one o us. 2od is the best sel o each o us, and in so ar as we live up to the highest that is within us we become 2od like. What Blake means is o course that that ther there e are are di divi vine ne )ual )ualit itie ies s in ever every y one one but but it is simultaneously more than that. &s a staunch believer in the divine nature o the aculty o imagination, or Blake 2od is the the source o it, e is def defned, ned, acce ccess ssed ed and reali/ed by it. *he concept o 2odhead, or him, is as immanent in the ;antian sense o the term as is imagination. imagination. *he 0amb, then, becomes a signifcant poem with mythopoeic overtones that underscores imaginative purity, an idea strengthened by the ‘lilly!ed lamb’ o the Book o *hel where purity is ollowed by soulul contentment and celestial ulfllment. +n the larger Blakean Blakean scheme the lamb symboli/es the tend tende er, sot and less ess har harsh aspect pects s o huma uman soul ul,, represents represents the our undamental )ualities o +nnocence as attested by Blake, namely, mercy, pity, peace and love acting acting,, there thereo ore re,, as a counte counterpa rpart rt to *he *yger yger in the 'ongs 'ongs o ("peri ("perien ence. ce. +n other other words words *he 0amb and *he *he *yger *yger represent represent two contrary states o the human soul the humility and innocence o childhood and the violent terriying eatures eat ures o maturity matu rity..
'ongs o ("perience records, records, in the poet’s own words, the conditions o ‘su7ering and distress’ that are not ‘natural to man’, but nonetheless pave the ine"orable way toward ("pe ("peri rien ence ce,, as he has has e"pla "plain ined ed in hi his s anno annota tati tion ons s to 'wedenbor 'wedenborg’s g’s a tiger but through that ob-ect embodied in a particular vocabulary, starting rom the the way way ‘tig ‘tiger er’’ is sp spel elle led. d. *he *he desc descri ript ptio ion n o ‘b ‘bur urni ning ng eyes’ or instan tance has got crucial uncertainties o mean meanin ing. g. :rima rimari rily ly the the phra phrase se itse itsel l mak makes the the whol whole e tiger a symbol o a burning )uality>wrath, passion and order. &gain the word ‘bright’ modifes the kind o burning suggested with an additional sense o illumination. Blake in this poem makes the use o symbolic language that stimulates a group o eelings, and attitudes that might reer to a multitude o associations. *he *yger *yger and *he 0amb, the two are the most representative representative poems o 'ongs o ("perience and o +nnocence. athleen aine says o these two poems, ‘9 rom many passages in Blake’s longer poems it seems that the ‘*yger’ is an embodiment o evil and a corruption o huma humani nity ty tige tigers rs and and lion lions s are are call called ed dehu dehuma mani ni/e /ed d men, 0amb and child, on the contrary, live in the vision o eternity, the world o $esus and the imagination.’ But ar rom rom being -ust a counte counterpa rpart rt to *he 0amb, 0amb, this this poem, evaluated rom a ully!reali/ed Blakean myth mythog ogra raph phy, y, beco become mes s some someth thin ing g in inco comp mprrehen ehensi sibl bly y vast vaster er in sc scop ope, e, too too ambi ambigu guou ous s to allo allow w a def defni niti tive ve interpretation. + the ‘orests’ in the poem, as or e"ample, repr epresent sent pol politic itical al oppr ppress ssio ion n signi gniyi yin ng the the post post!! revolution $acobin terror and persecution in @rance, then
it is evident that *yger stands out as a orce o liberation. &gain, as a staunch believer in the divine nature o the
aculty o imagination, or Blake 2od is the source o it, e is defned, accessed and reali/ed by it. *he concept o 2odhead, or him, is as immanent in the ;antian sense o the term as is imagination. *yger may, thereore, rom this this pers perspe pect ctiv ive e, e)ua )ually lly repre present ent the the organi gani/i /ing ng imag imagin inat atio ion n gene genera rati ting ng the the ‘ter ‘terri ribl ble e sy symm mmet etry ry’’ o the the beas beast, t, the the acu acult lty y o imag imagin inat atio ion n whic which, h, unr unrestr estrai aine ned, d, can have the apocalyptic maniestation in the fgure o a tige tigerr and and that that can can only only assu assurre the the cele celebr brat atio ion n o the the principle o imaginative reali/ation. reali/ation.If nothing else, media coverage of the “fiscal cliff” debates have made most Americans aware that federal spending is outpacing federal revenue, thereby fueling a massive—and growing—federal budget deficit. It is also likely that most people have heard that Social Security and Medicare, the two largest “entitlement” programs, are major contributors to this budget crisis.
Most Americans probably do not know how many entitlement programs there are, how much is spent on them, and how they have grown in the past fifty years or so, all of which are well-documented in this compact book by Nicholas Eberstadt entitled A Nation of Takers. Moreover, it is unlikely that most persons who receive benefits from the largest of these programs see themselves as “takers,” in the sense used by Eberstadt.
While Eberstadt has assembled an impressive array of empirical evidence, it is not necessarily the whole story. Not all entitlements are government “welfare,” as that term is commonly used. Moreover, Eberstadt’s moral reasoning, that this entitlement “epidemic” represents a “national declaration of dependence” which has converted our society into a “nation of takers,” is not fully persuasive.
Eberstadt follows the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Affairs in defining entitlements as “current transfer receipts of individuals to government” which are “benefits received by persons for which no current services are performed.” The term “current” is significant here, because it implies that services might have been performed in the past.
Eberstadt’s most striking statistics are the growth of these programs between 1960 and 2010. In constant 2010 dollars, entitlement programs grew from about $250 billion to $2.2 trillion. Given that the U.S. population also grew during this time, perhaps a more useful comparison is per capita entitlements, which grew from about $1000 per person in 1960 to over $7000 per person in 2010, a staggering seven-fold increase.
The increase in entitlements as a percentage of total federal expenditures is another troubling trend. In 1960, entitlements accounted for about 30 percent of federal budget outlays, but in 2010 that figure had climbed past 65 percent. In other words, nearly two-thirds of government spending is for entitlement benefits. Eberstadt uses this trend to raise the possibility that entitlement expenditures might eventually “squeeze out” other federal programs, particularly those mandated by the U.S. Constitution. He uses national defense as his prime example.
Although there are dozens of entitlement programs, Eberstadt stresses that four programs deserve the greatest attention, because they account for nearly 90 percent of the total. Social Security accounts for about one-third of the total; Medicare one-fourth; Medicaid a little less than one-fifth; and Income Maintenance a little over one-tenth. The last category includes food stamps, Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF, which replaced AFDC in 1996), and Supplemental Security Income (SSI, primarily for disabled persons).
This means that eligibility for nearly 60 percent of entitlement programs, Social Security plus Medicare, is determined by age, and only about 30 percent of entitlement programs have eligibility requirements based on income or poverty status. I believe this distinction is critical when evaluating Eberstadt’s moral arguments.
Another startling statistic is the proportion of Americans in households receiving an entitlement benefit of some type. The Census Bureau reports this as 49 percent, but Eberstadt notes that Census figures underreport participation in many means-tested (e.g., “antipoverty”) programs, so he concludes the true rate is over 50 percent. Since this rate includes older persons receiving Social Security and Medicare, perhaps a more telling statistic is the 30 percent of Americans who live in a household receiving a means-tested program benefit, which is nearly double the rate of 17 percent in 1990.
Before commenting on Eberstadt’s empirical evidence and his conclusion that we have become a “Nation of Takers,” there are two additional essays in this book, one by William A. Galston and the other by Yuval Levin, presented as “dissenting points of view.”
Galston questions the causal link between growing entitlements and dependence, which Eberstadt sees as the primary moral problem. Galston sees Social Security as similar in principal to a private sector retirement plan, where employees and employers contribute to a retirement fund, to which employees are entitled when they retire. This does not make the retiree “dependent” in the negative sense used by Daniel Patrick Moynihan (referring to Eberstadt’s quote of Moynihan that “the issue of welfare is the issue of dependency”). A similar argument could be made about Medicare.
Galston distinguishes between Social Security and Medicare on the one hand and means-tested programs on the other, like Medicaid and food stamps, which provide benefits at no cost to recipients. He says the growth of benefits for persons above poverty thresholds raises a “moral hazard” of expanding dependence, but he also says that “there is no moral algorithm that tells us whether it is better for public programs to help too many people or too few.”
The essay by Yuval Levin takes a more complex and nuanced approach to the growth of the “liberal welfare state,” which he sees as a threat to civil society. He agrees with Eberstadt that the expansion of U.S. entitlement programs must have some effect on its citizenry, and he is especially concerned with Eberstadt’s statistic that more than half of Americans now claim a federal entitlement of some kind.
Levin believes the impact of this expansion is not just on the moral character of American life, but on the civil society upon which our government relies to replenish and sustain the liberal welfare state. It is not merely the increase in the number of beneficiaries compared to the number of taxpayers, but also in the inefficiency of benefit delivery. This is best illustrated in government health programs, both Medicare and Medicaid, which are costing more and delivering less, and whose projected costs are not only sustainable, but threaten to “undermin[e] the ethic of our democratic republic.”
While agreeing with much of Eberstadt’s statistical evidence, neither Galston nor Levin see the problem of entitlements primarily in moral terms, transforming American society into a nation of takers increasingly dependent on government largess. While the two dissenting essays offer useful perspectives, there is more to say about the way in which Eberstadt has presented his data, pursued his argument, and offered future scenarios.
With respect to his data, putting all government transfer payments in the same entitlements box weakens Eberstadt’s moral argument and limits discussion of remedies. Social Security, Medicare, antipoverty programs, and certain other categories of entitlements have different origins and rationales, enjoy varying levels of public support, and require different remedies. Indeed, it is likely that successful remedies depend on recognizing these differences.
The problems can be illustrated starting with two smaller entitlement programs, Veterans benefits (about 3 percent of total transfer payments) and unemployment compensation (about 5 percent). Like certain other entitlements, Veterans benefits (mostly pensions and disability provisions) are justified by past military service and resultant illness or injuries that entitle the Veteran to some sort of compensation or health care. Veterans benefits enjoy widespread popular support, and most Americans would not group them with other entitlement programs, particularly means-tested welfare programs.
While unemployment insurance is means-tested, the test is prior employment (terminated by an employer) rather than poverty status. Moreover, unemployment compensation has a fixed time limit, the insurance is funded in part by employers, and therefore it is not like transfer payments funded exclusively by taxpayers. To be sure, recent extensions of unemployment insurance (paid entirely by the federal government) threaten to transform unemployment compensation into a more traditional welfare program. While this expansion should be scaled back, the original program is not controversial and is not seen by most as a government handout.
This brings us to the largest two entitlement programs, Social Security and Medicare, which account for nearly 60 percent of entitlement spending. Both of these programs are triggered by age requirements, and they have one other feature in common, noted by Galston, which distinguish them from means-tested antipoverty programs. Most beneficiaries contribute to these programs during their working years, thereby changing the moral calculus.
While payroll taxes may not provide a retiree’s full benefit, their contributions contradict the notion they are simply receiving a government handout. In 2010, for example, Social Security outlays were $580 billion compared to cash income of $680 billion. Medicare outlays were $525 billion compared to cash income of $505 billion. Equating these programs to welfare, as that term is commonly used, is not a convincing argument.
Despite their similarities, there is reason to separate these two programs when it comes to remedies. As a technical matter, Social Security is relatively easy to fix, as noted by Galston, while Medicare is not, as noted by Levin (Galston concurs). While neither fix is easy politically, Social Security can be put on sound footing with relatively modest changes in retirement ages, cost of living increases, or payroll tax changes. The entire program does not need to be overhauled.
Putting Medicare on sound financial footing is much more complicated, because of severe inflation in the costs of medical treatment. This matter is too complex to resolve here, and in fact there is no clear consensus about how to do this even among those who want to put medical insurance and treatment on a sustainable basis.
The final category of entitlements is traditional welfare or antipoverty programs, including Medicaid and the income maintenance programs, which comprise the traditional welfare or antipoverty programs. About 30 percent of entitlement spending go to these programs, amounting to $666 billion in 2010. Unlike Social Security and Medicare, welfare recipients do not pay in to these programs, and their moral justification is the safety net concept. All three authors note that eligibility for some of these programs have been expanded beyond clear poverty criteria, and they present the greatest threat for expanding the type of dependency warned against by Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
While there is broad public acceptance of welfare as a safety net, there is less consensus that welfare should be extended well into the working and middle classes, with no provision for co-payment. This might be the most promising area for reform, in the same way that AFDC was reformed in 1996. Elsewhere I have estimated nearly $200 billion in annual savings by scaling eligibility back to a reasonable definition of poverty (“Restoring a True Safety Net” in National Affairs).
Eberstadt’s strategy seems to be shaming Americans into action by putting all entitlement programs under the same roof, with a truly staggering price tag, then accusing America to be a nation of takers. This strategy is effective only if it is credible to treat all entitlement programs as welfare. I think a more promising strategy is to recognize the differences in these programs, take advantage of different program characteristics and levels of support, and create a more tailored plan of reform much like the successful welfare reform of 1996.
Related items: A podcast at Liberty Law Talk with Nicholas Eberstadt, author of A Nation of Takers.“The Black church” is shorthand for the vast network of racial-ethnic communities of Christian faith, worship, and life born out of and informed by the historic and present day experiences of people of African descent in the United States.
The Black church is a sacred and social movement, representing communities of faith and, at its best, arenas of change. In oppressions affecting Black children, women, and men, Black churches have access to liberative and holistic resources and to reconciling potential, restoring ancestral wisdom and cultivating contemporary insights that uphold the agency of Black humanity. When and where the Black church upholds and models its own virtues of love, justice, freedom, community, equality, dignity, self-worth and more, it bears magnificent witness to a just and humanizing world.
In the last 50 years the African American community has undergone momentous and convoluted change. By the middle of the twentieth century, a largely Southern agrarian population had become predominately urban as Blacks “voted with their feet” against Jim and Jane Crow segregation and repressive white brutality for the “promised land” of the urban and mostly Northern and Western industrial cities.
The Black-led freedom movement of the 1950s and beyond was an intense evocation of powerful and prolonged experiences that for the better part of three hundred years had sought to dismantle the institutional mantle of racism. The scope and magnitude of these militant new protests were of a scale previously unknown and firmly identified with the ethos of the Black faithful — the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Ella Baker, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee among others.
Religion scholar C. Eric Lincoln identified the 1960s as the watershed years when the “Negro Church” died and was reborn in the form of the “Black Church.” Black churches joined spiritual imperatives with Black sociopolitical objectives in intermittent fashion, at times impressively so and other times faltering, as Black clergy and laity — especially women and young people — determined to embrace the clarion call to resistance, liberation, and social justice as part of their spiritual inheritance. In the aged presence of racism Black churches bore witness to the transcendent power of the divine resident in the souls of Black folk and others of the disinherited.
In the years since the Civil Rights, Black Power and Black Consciousness Movements, Black religious and theological scholars have provided Black churches with critical tools of analysis and advocacy in the struggles against discrimination, apartheid, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, mass incarceration, human trafficking and forms of social stigma, and for gender equality, gay equality, environmentalism, health care equity, reproductive freedoms, diverse religiosity, Africa and the Diaspora, immigration, globalization, gun control, living wages, sustainable community, and so much more. This demanding and strategic work has only just begun.
There is a pervasive myth that the United States is comprised of a common citizenry living in a post-racial and inclusive society. In truth, the oppressive legacies of the past are hardly eradicated and never so easily dismissed. Disparity and death, violence and abuse, stigma and structural unemployment, food deserts and educational malfeasance, the War on Drugs and mass incarceration, racial profiling and anti-immigration legislation, voter identification and “stand your ground” vigilantism all function as contemporary forms of hegemonic social control.
Bi-partisan obstructionism and market forces dictate the new racial reality. Race-relations management forged in civic and corporate spaces masquerades as principled public policy. Intersections between race and other socially contested realities — gender, generation, sexuality and class among others — are denied critical nuance, coalescent recognition, and emancipating capacity. Injustice comes in new and myriad forms. The nation’s crisis of confidence in democratic freedoms continues unabated. Racism, America’s original sin, lives on.
The state of affairs in African American churches is as unsettled as those of larger society. Among Black mainline denominations meaning, mission and memberships are in disrepair. Non-denominationalism and non-affiliation are the new church growth sectors. The litmus test for inclusion in the church grows weary and unsteady in the face of a host of contested and expansive values ranging from family, gender and sexuality to culture, ethnicity and social class. Islam, indigenous African religions and other traditions are redefining and shaping what it means to be the Black faithful as never before. The largest reservoir of the Black un-churched is once potential members who finally despaired of finding spiritual, moral and holistic fulfillment in extant Black religious institutions. In point of fact, the Black faith community mirrors the same levels of mistrust and territorialism as the African American community and United States society writ large.
Today Black churches are at a crossroads. They are the fault line between many progressives and traditionalists, women and men, young and old, same and both gender loving, and the haves and have nots, wherever communities of African descent in the United States are to be found. The African American estate awaits the “good news” that leads to the moral, personal, familial, social, economic, political, and cultural transformation of our time. However, Black churches by and large have yet to seriously accept the fact that tackling the root problems of Black America will require a far more organized and intentional structural witness than is currently the case.
Martin Luther King, Jr. reminds us:
Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men (and women) and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a dry-as-dust religion (Stride Toward Freedom, 1958).
Half a century has passed since the epic Birmingham campaign, the murder of Medgar Evers, the March on Washington and the bombing of Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Fifty years later, many African Americans continue to suffer the indignity of social pathologies not of their making. A culture of death, disprivilege, and disparity continues to be visited upon those who are Black, brown, poor, young and female. Policymakers eager to restore the United States to a presumed pristine former glory, legislate libertarian and limited (federal) government philosophies as a means to social and political control, brazenly oblivious to the gritty trauma that marks many of our nation’s neighborhoods and streets.
Black churches must direct their still formidable resources to public policy advocacy and education, to engaging the complex underlying structural and systemic forces that work against community building. The negative distribution of goods and services in Black communities everywhere is one major social policy trend awaiting proactive and concerted response from Black churches. The wholesale shift of economic and health activity away from Black urban and rural centers, with tragic consequences for the poor, is yet another. The “Moral Monday” Movement in North Carolina, the Dream Defenders in Florida, and the Fiftieth Anniversary March on Washington demonstrate the power of people of dedication and faith joined in coalition for insurgent political advocacy. Finally, it is important to identify and address what causes so many Black churches — and Black organizations as a whole — to focus with such passion on their own institutional and entrepreneurial interests, to the neglect and detriment of the wider community.
The work of social transformation and community empowerment requires far more resources than what the institutional Black church alone can hope to accomplish in our day and time. African America has a broad array of organizations and enterprises that have to be called upon to be accountable to one another and the whole. The culpability of us all is an inconvenient truth. The time to empower the entire Black estate is now.
This will not in the least relieve Black churches of their social and spiritual responsibility. Megachurches, storefront churches, and every form of church in between must commit to establishing a more liberative ethos and presence in the wider community. Tragically, for too many churches the recognition that there has been a shift in the political terrain over the last fifty years, that the struggle for freedom principally moved from the steps of the courthouse and city hall and migrated to legislative assemblies, corporate boardrooms, executive suites, and social media platforms never seems to have occurred.
Now as never before a learned, strong, prophetic and resourceful Black church must be joined with the best social and political thought and practice at our community’s disposal. As we move well into the twenty-first century, as the racial lessons of the recent past fade from the collective memory only to be confronted by the specter of a New Jim Crow at home and imperialist impulses abroad, pressing questions remain: How well will Black churches respond to assaults on the human spirit, to the erosion of our freedoms, to our quest for participation in a humanizing world? What spiritual sensibilities will be brought to bear in the everyday affairs of life? What theological and ethical resources will Black America employ in light of our ceaseless struggles? What public policy and civic commitments will we radically engage in spirit and in truth?
Having come this far by faith, with a renewed dedication to prophetic action and critique, Black churches are poised on the edge of a future, still too full of the provincial, but instilled with possibilities for insurgent renewal and change.
Written By: Alton B. Pollard, III, Ph.D.
Taken From: huffingtonpost.com (posted on 09/27/2013 4:07 pm)Guest post by Jane Rabinowicz, Director of the Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security at USC Canada and Bob Wildfong, Executive Director of Seeds of Diversity Canada
The future of food will be dictated by climate and weather patterns that will be different than any farmers have yet experienced, and which are now unpreventable. Climate change will affect different geographical regions in different ways, but the common factor is that the weather will not just be warmer; it will be more variable and unpredictable.
Everyone has noticed that summer storms seem more frequent, more violent, and harder to forecast. Farmers are seeing greater variation in the first and last frost dates that dictate the length of the growing season. Unexpected droughts and floods are affecting food prices. These are not just warning signs; they are very real challenges that threaten an agriculture system built on an industrial assumption of predictable conditions.
Most of the world’s deserts are in two bands on either side of the equator where atmospheric currents draw water from the ground. A warming earth means stronger air currents, making deserts bigger, and wiping out farmland. Massive losses of arable land and water sources could force enormous migrations from subtropical countries, making current and previous refugee crises look like mere rehearsals for the calamities to come.
In North America we will probably see the deserts of the southern U.S. encroach into the agricultural heartland, and permanent drought conditions in adjacent areas such as California. Higher summertime temperatures will reduce wheat production in the northern U.S. and Canada by as much as 10%. Although average temperatures will be warmer, we will not necessarily reap benefits from longer growing seasons, because the fluctuations of highs and lows will happen faster.
A century ago most farms grew a mixture of diverse crops, making their local food systems resilient to unexpected events. Seeds were saved and passed from generation to generation. Each growing season plants gain intelligence about their environment, the climate, and the practices of the farmers who grow them. This intelligence becomes wrapped up in the genes of the seeds and keeps plants adapting to changing conditions year after year. Diversity and local adaptation are critical for climate resilience.
This elegant process of co-evolution does not happen in the commodity-focused global food system.
Over the past century we have seen a rupture in the passing of knowledge and seeds in many communities, and an over-emphasis on specialization, yield, and uniformity in the name of optimizing the mechanisms that get food from farms to our tables. Although many Canadians enjoy unprecedented access to cheap food, the system is set up on a precipitous series of dependencies that neglect biodiversity, environmental, and human wellbeing.
The vision for our work is for communities to have greater self-determination in the food they eat. The future of food rests with farmers who conserve crop diversity, develop new diversity, and ensure the genetic resources we need for climate resilience are publicly accessible. Our job is to listen to, learn from, and support these producers, and build cohesion across sectors and geographies. Our vehicle is The Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security,
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ational and/or decision-making structure
- it is a criminal group
b. It operates in one country only
c. It has government’s represented in its organisational and/or decision-making structureYou’d be amazed at some of the misconceptions that I hear from my patients from time to time. It’s not their fault though! There’s a lot of confusing and conflicting information out there about dental care and oral health. So, let’s go ahead and debunk some of the most common dental myths!
Harder Brushing = Cleaner Teeth
This is one that makes us dentists cringe! Brushing too hard does not clean your teeth better. In fact, it can be harmful to your enamel and your gums. Always use a soft-bristled brush or a Sonicare and use a circular motion to clean all the surfaces of your teeth. This will keep your entire mouth much, much happier!
If You Can’t Brush, Just Chew Gum!
Wouldn’t that be wonderful? While sugar free gum — especially the kind that contains xylitol — can help protect teeth, chewing gum cannot replace brushing and flossing. When you chew gum, you make more saliva, which can help wash away acids that can erode enamel on the teeth. So, (sugar free) gum is not all bad, but it definitely doesn’t do as good of a job as brushing and flossing!
Sugar Causes Cavities
If you’re turning down extra servings of sweets, you probably think you’re doing a great thing for your teeth, right? Well, it’s always good to practice moderation, but don’t be fooled. When it comes to cavity-causing foods, crackers, chips, and other carbs might actually be WORSE for your teeth than candy! Starches in carbohydrates can stick to your teeth and do more damage than straight-up sugar can.
No Pain, No Check-Up Needed
As a dentist, it’s concerning how many people think they only need to make an appointment when they feel pain. Many dental issues don’t trigger pain right away, and by the time you feel something, the situation could be much worse than if we caught it at your six month checkup. For instance, a simple cavity could turn into an extraction or root canal. It’s always best to keep those six month checkups a regular part of your schedule to get ahead of any issues before they become more serious.
At Sugar Fix Dental Loft, we offer a full array of cosmetic dentistry services in addition to Invisalign, including same day crowns, porcelain veneers, and sedation dentistry. If you’re in need of a six month cleaning or want to talk about a smile makeover, give us a call at (773) 883-1818.Anorexia is a serious, and sometimes deadly, eating disorder. It is said that 0. Anorexia is an eating disorder that causes the person to severely restrict what he or she eats or drinks. There are many and varied signs of anorexia in teens:.
Girls with anorexia are at risk for a number of serious health problems, including osteoporosis bone loss, kidney disease, liver disease, heart failure, and even death. Often, sufferers are not aware of the serious risks posed by their condition and, therefore, may not seek the treatment they need. Girls in their teens and twenties are most likely to be diagnosed with anorexia, but even younger children with anorexia are sometimes diagnosed. Of course, older women can also develop anorexia. The disorder is probably under-diagnosed, because many sufferers do not seek treatment for their condition.
Our focus on sustainable healing puts teens and young adults on a pathway for success. The incredible success stories from our alumni inspire us every day. See for yourself.
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder in which a person intentionally limits the intake of food or beverage because of a strong drive for thinness and an intense fear of gaining weight. This can happen even if a person is already thin. The resulting weight loss and nutritional imbalance can lead to serious complications, including death. Obsessions and anxiety about food and weight may cause monotonous eating rituals, including reluctance to be seen eating by others. It is not uncommon for people with anorexia nervosa to collect recipes and prepare food for family and friends, but not partake in the food that they prepared.Home milling wood is France. The translation of the word «frase» means strawberry. The form of the first mills actually looked like strawberries. Their modern designs are far from this similarity. The application of mills is used widely and commonly disseminated. There are many operations available for performing on a normal milling machine, but easily doable with the router in the tree.< / span>
Known types of cutters for drill:
Cylindrical, which is adapted to process a flat surface. They may have straight or helical teeth. Smooth operation is required with cutters having helical teeth. Contraindicated sudden movements. Horizontal milling machines are used to install them.on
Mechanical, which are processed in the same flat surface. For use vertical milling machines are used. They are distinguished by the presence of the axis of rotation perpendicular to the work surface.on
Disk, designed for milling grooves and slots of all kinds. They are distinguished by the fact that a cylindrical surface and both end faces are equipped with teeth.on
Limit by which get complex dredging and deepening.on
Shaped and angled, used for the manufacture of parts with complex surface. They can be: odnopolnymi and dvupolnymi. Odnopolnye cutters have cutting edges on the ends. Dvupolnye cutters have cutting edges on each side.on
Welt and cutting.on
All the known cutters are divided on the end (attached with collets and chucks) and shell (through the spindle).
There is a difference in their designs. Cutters can be:
Solid, made from one the whole of the workpiece. Typically, these cutters have a small size.
Teams, where the manufacture of the body is cheap steel and hard alloys used for making teeth. The complexity of such cutters is compensated by the fact that there is an opportunity to put knives of any size, or simply replaced.
the Existence of many different types of milling did not affect the change in the structure of the teeth. Known only two forms:
the form of Pointed teeth, which are characterized by the flat shape of the front and rear surfaces. The disadvantage is the reduction of the height of the tooth when regrinding. The cutting edge can change its shape.
Relief the form of teeth, which does not change the height of the teeth of regrinding.
the Diversity of cutters
woodworking hand router use a special cutter. It includes a cylindrical shank (collet in diameter 6mm, 8mm, 12mm) and a working part provided with a cutting edge. Aware of the huge variety of cutters.
Cutters are different:
the shape of the cutting edge;
If the wood is soft rock, it is recommended to apply special cutter. They have knives, in the manufacture of which used high speed tool steel. When working with solid wood (oak, ash, beech) use cutters with blades made of hard alloys.
Technological purpose cutters
Based on the technological purpose, the cutters are divided into:
edge (profile), which perform the processing, polishing and grinding the edges of the treated wood.
Interlocking needed to perform finger joinery joints, depressions, grooves, and to perform complex elements. They are:
molding creating grooves with a semicircular shape;
burnished used for the formation of the edge fillets. Its use you need to get a decorative edge products;
V-shape (cone), forming the grooves with walls at 45⁰. With the help of such cutters cut out the letters and various ornaments;
the form of «dovetail», are used for furniture production (open and hidden tongue and groove connection).
Фигирийные, с помощью которых выполняют дверные и мебельные филенки, багетные рамы, декоративные элементы интерьера.
Спиральные, используемые при черновой или чистовой обработке древесины.
Фрезы, используемые в работе с деревом, часто изготавливаются из различных сплавов. Использование комбинированных фрез в работе с деревом наиболее популярно. В их оснащении имеется несколько ножевых головок и корпусов. Они обладают большей экономичностью.
Company for the sale of mills
To buy cutters for wood for the drill, visit «KAMI». This company has in its range a large choice of goods of this type. The least popular company «Dimar», supplying woodworking tools in 44 countries, including Russia. The manufacture, sale and repair of mills successfully produced at Moscow firm called «Flint». Using the Internet stores or firms selling mills on a tree for a drill, you can buy kits, or only a few mills using the directory on the website. You can make the personal order with the desired size and the required profile.It's just plain common sense to realize that species native to drastically different ecological and environmental climates, each with vastly different food sources available, would have evolved with different nutritional needs.
Over the past few several years, it has been acknowledged that nutritional needs do vary by individual parrot species and, as a result, some manufacturers have developed species specific formulated diets. For example, low fat content for Amazons, higher fat content for Macaws, increased vitamin A for Eclectus and low iron diets for softbills.
There are ongoing studies to understand the requirements of various species but honestly, the science has a long way to go. Most of our knowledge of avian nutritional requirements has been developed from studies conducted on poultry....yes, chickens.
The basic nutrients needed are the same for all avian species, however, the source of the nutrients and levels required vary between species and even within a species depending on the status of the individual bird (i.e., age, activity level, breeding status, sex, health, size, environmental conditions, etc.)
Bird owners are encouraged to consult with their avian vet as well as to research the crops, fruits, nuts and other flora indigenous to the geographical area native to their species of bird. Armed with this knowledge, it is then possible to incorporate the most appropriate foods and supplements into their birds overall feeding plan.
Again, we would like to emphasize, that no one commercial diet comes close to simulating how our birds eat in nature and none of the commercial diets provide for 100% of the nutritional needs of our birds. We must arm ourselves with as much knowledge as possible about our birds, their native environment and to do the best we can to meet their needs by providing a well rounded selection of healthy foods.
Comments powered by CCommentLyme disease is a very prevalent concern across the United States and particularly in our neck of the woods. Without prompt attention, the Lyme spirochetes spread throughout the body through the bloodstream, affecting the joints, heart, brain and eyes. Individuals may experience a wide range of symptoms, including headaches, joint pain, muscle pain, back and neck stiffness, facial paralysis, blurred or double vision, and ringing in the ears. Other symptoms can include chest pains, palpitations, tremors, chronic fatigue, numbness, dizziness, burning sensations, mood swings, irritability, sleep disturbances, mental instability, panic attacks, speech difficulties, disorientation, confusion and memory loss.
There are some challenges to the LD diagnosis. Even when LD is suspected, blood tests are inaccurate and miss specific markers for the disease. In addition, LD often comes with co-infections that make diagnosis and treatment trickier. Understanding that LD and its co-infections can have effects throughout the body can make a key difference in getting the right answers to move forward with treatment. Seemingly unrelated symptoms can be pieced together to come up with a better understanding of what is happening in the body.
For example, certain vision conditions accompany LD and co-infections. People are becoming much more aware of vision involvement and its effects. Vision concerns can be as mild as light sensitivity to the serious Bell’s palsy. This palsy, a common nerve-related problem, is a drooping of the muscles on one side of the face; it leaves the person with the inability to blink or close their eye, drying the cornea and endangering sight.
Being aware of the diverse symptoms that accompany LD and its co-infections, including the visual conditions, can help to connect the dots on this disease and get the appropriate treatment needed. Typical treatment is a course of antibiotics. Naturopathic and integrative practitioners recognize that LD and its co-infections must be viewed as part of a larger picture and addressed at the immune-function level. Supporting the immune system and the body’s natural way of fighting infection is an important part of the treatment process as well as addressing the subsequent effects throughout the body. The vision concerns can be addressed and alleviated concurrent to the overall health of the body.
The most common vision symptoms include:
- light sensitivity that requires sunglasses on a cloudy day and prevents night driving;
- flashes, floaters and phantom images with dots, lines or streaks that range in color and are seen out of the corner of the eye;
- cloudy or “foggy” vision where objects go in and out of focus;
- faulty depth perception resulting in poor judgment of space and a feeling of instability;
- double vision where there is a “ghosting” of another image or a print becomes double; and
- reading confusion consisting of difficulty focusing on words, words jumping, and an inability to recall what has been read.
Eye involvement seems to be related to the stage of the disease. In the early stages, many people develop conjunctivitis or pink eye. The eyes are red, uncomfortable and discharge pus. Typically contagious, in this LD-related form, the pink eye is not and usually resolves on its own. Keratitis, an inflammation of the cornea, is also seen in early stages of LD and can cause pain in the eye, light sensitivity, tearing and blurred vision. The eye may appear opacified, or covered with a white haze. Prednisone, a steroid, may be given as eye drops, or by mouth for up to six months.
Later stages result in more serious inflammation of the eye including uveitis (inflammation of the uvea), pars planitis (inflammation of the midsection of the eye) and optic neuritis (inflammation of the optic nerve). Symptoms of eye inflammation include significant photophobia or light sensitivity, flashes and floaters, or lights and spots seen in front of the eyes. More concerning inflammatory symptoms are a loss of color vision and/or vision loss as seen in retinal vasculitis (an inflammation of the blood vessels of the retina) or papillitis (inflammation of the optic nerve).
The main treatment used for uveitis is steroid eye drops, which reduce inflammation. Treatment can take several months as steroids need to be slowly reduced or a rebound effect will occur. Drops that dilate the pupil may also be used to keep the iris from sticking to the lens, which can happen if the iris becomes scarred and can cause permanent vision loss. Steroids are typically given both intravenously and as eye drops and/or intraocular injections to treat the more serious retinal vasculitis and optic nerve neuritis.
In addition to specific, more allopathic methods of treatment for such conditions as keratitis and uveitis, there are natural methods for supporting the health of the eyes and combating some of the more frustrating symptoms of blurred vision, double vision and light sensitivity. Syntonic light therapy, nutritional support and lenses and/or prisms can help treat and alleviate vision symptoms associated with LD.
Consulting with an optometrist or ophthalmologist is important if any concerning visual symptoms are occurring.
Randy Schulman, MS, OD, FCOVD, specializes in behavioral optometry and vision therapy, pediatrics, learning disabilities, and preventative and integrative vision care for all ages. EyeCare Associates has locations in Trumbull, Southport and Norwalk. Connect at cteyecareassociates.com.What is cCBT?
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is among the most researched and effective approaches used in counseling and psychotherapy. This method focuses on examining and modifying one’s inner self-talk, which, when it proves negative, catalyzes emotional states and behaviors that undermine well-being. Often used to treat depression, anxiety, stress, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related mental challenges, CBT actively engages the client in addressing these issues by learning new ways of thinking, feeling and behaving that promote improved self-care and mental wellness. What’s more, CBT has been used to assist individuals with the psychological impacts of chronic medical conditions like diabetes, pain, heart disease and other health challenges.
Until the advent of the internet and mobile devices, CBT was provided almost entirely through face-to-face sessions. However, increasingly, mental health organizations are offering an online version of this approach called “computerized CBT,” or cCBT for short. Like many consumer-driven online services, cCBT uses artificial intelligence or AI, and interactive algorithms to approximate some of the same back-and-forth exchanges one might expect in face-to-face counseling. In this sense, AI assumes the role of “therapist.” Most cCBT programs involve a series of online sessions and interactive experiences conducted over a period of weeks. Frequently, the client is assigned specific “homework” to complete in between sessions. Some cCBT formats are entirely AI-driven, while others offer the user the option to interact with a live counselor when additional guidance is needed.
Why the Need?
The impetus for this new platform stems from a varying array of needs. 1.) The challenges facing those in rural communities in accessing counseling resources. 2.) The increased preference among consumers of mental health services for immediate, 24/7 accessibly that provided maximum convenience and privacy. 3.) Nearly 3 out of 4 in need of mental health therapy will not seek in-person therapy due to social stigmas or accessibility limitations. 4.) The increased confidence, through studies and research, that cCBT is just as effective as in-office therapy.
As the demand for mental health services increases (1 in 5 Americans need help at some point), providers are seeking new ways to assist the greatest number of people in the most efficient manner. The cCBT approach directly addresses this need.
Does It Work?
Research into the effectiveness of cCBT is ongoing and far from complete. However, initial studies show considerable promise, and some demonstrate that its efficacy is similar or equal to that found with traditional CBT. A variety of delivery platforms are available and it will take time to clarify which yields the greatest benefits. What’s more, research of this kind requires long-term studies that follow clients over many years to fully confirm longitudinal results.
However, while few studies have examined the impact of cCBT on measures of employee performance and well-being (e.g., absenteeism, productivity, mental health insurance claims, etc.), many researchers assert that improvements were seen in clients treated with this modality in clinical settings likely translate into the workplace. The expectation, then, is that improvements in depression, anxiety and stress-related disorders seen among cCBT users, in general, should show positive impacts on employee performance and well-being in specific.
What we do know is that cCBT, like its face-to-face version, is most effective in addressing the following types of unhealthy mental tendencies:
Negative Cognitive Bias: The subconscious habit of seeing only the negatives in one’s life and few, if any, of the positives.
Overgeneralization: Assuming all happenings and people are the same, based entirely on one or a very few negative experiences.
Catastrophizing: Certainty that the worst-case scenario one is worrying about, will come to pass.
Fallacy of Fairness: Believing the world should be fair and just, and that one can make it so by doing all the right things.
Blaming: Assigning responsibility for one’s distress or unhappiness entirely to one’s self, others or fate.
Shouldism: Applying a rigid set of beliefs and judgments to one’s self, while also expecting others to conform to what one believes they should or should not do.
Perfectionism: Expecting one’s self (or others) to never make mistakes and meet unrealistically high standards of behavior and performance.
Emotional Certainty: Maintaining the belief that, “If I feel it, then it must be true.”
In terms of specific challenges, cCBT has been studied most in relation to anxiety and depression, the two most common mental disturbances. Here, it has shown considerable promise in treating these conditions, at least among those with mild to moderate cases. Severe and debilitating depression and anxiety often require face-to-face intervention, sometimes including medication.
The effectiveness of cCBT is based, in large part, on its ability to replicate key elements of what occurs in face-to-face CBT, which relies heavily on active client involvement with the treatment process. Specifically, both these modalities incorporate these fundamental interventions:
- Identifying your specific mental health challenge and how your thinking (or self-talk) perpetuates it.
- Clarifying how your thoughts trigger your emotions and, subsequently, your behaviors.
- Teaching you to think about your issue in a different, more helpful way.
- Helping you challenge self-defeating thoughts while replacing them with more useful and positive ones.
- Lowering your emotional reactivity to people and events in deference to more thoughtful and reasoned responses.
- Increasing the variety and range of self-care behaviors that diminish the negative impacts of your mental distress.
Not a One-size-fits-all Solution
Like other approaches to addressing mental health challenges, cCBT does not work for everyone or every issue. Persons with severe mental health challenges, like destructive addictions, suicidal impulses, intractable depression, debilitating anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and the like, often require more traditional and intensive forms of care. All cCBT programs seek to rule out users who are not likely to benefit from this kind of treatment, instead offering them resources more appropriate for their concerns. However, when indicated, cCBT, like its in-person counterpart, often results in lasting change. Why? In part because it helps the user clearly understand and positively influence the think-feel-act sequence underlying many mental challenges. When we know why we feel and act the way we do and learn how to take charge of our thoughts and the emotions and behaviors they create, our well-being increases.
Increasingly, traditional forms of talk therapy are migrating to digital platforms, including video chat, behavioral gaming and cCBT. These approaches show considerable promise in making effective mental health care more accessible, convenient and affordable. The bottom line? When used properly and according to researched clinical guidelines, cCBT can often make a positive difference in one’s life, not just in the immediate future but over the long term, as well.
Philip Chard served as President and CEO for Empathia, Inc. for over 30 years and continues to serve client organizations as a consultant.
Empathia’s latest article has recently been featured in BenefitsPRO Magazine.The Victorian Deer Control Strategy is our plan to reduce the impact deer are having across Victoria. It outlines a new approach to deer management and has 3 key goals:
- The impacts of deer on key environmental, agricultural and Aboriginal cultural heritage values and public safety are reduced.
- Deer control is more effective through partnerships and community collaboration.
- Awareness, understanding and capacity to control deer is increased.
To deliver the Strategy, the Victorian Government will work in partnership with:
- Traditional Owners
- public and private land managers
- conservation and community groups
- the agricultural sector
- water and catchment management authorities
- Local Government
- the Commonwealth Government
- other states and territories
- the commercial deer harvest industry
- hunting organisations and hunters
- community members.
The Strategy has been prepared by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) and the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions (DJPR). It is a key action under the Victorian Government’s Sustainable Hunting Action Plan 2016 – 2020 and is recognised in the Protecting Victoria’s Environment - Biodiversity 2037 Implementation Framework.
The Victorian Deer Control Strategy is available to download:
Frequently Asked Questions
Page last updated: 04/11/20ICD Antibiotics Video
Antibiotic Resistance: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You
Video Course Description:
Antibiotic Resistance (AR) is a very critical global problem that causes serious healthcare issues. Infections that were once easily treated with antibiotics are becoming more dangerous (“Superbugs”), causing treatment failure, prolonged suffering, or even death. This video presentation is intended to provide a basic understanding of the critical worldwide importance of AR using information from the International College of Dentists, United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Health Organization. A special focus will be on how AR impacts dentistry and what dentists and their staff can do to help reduce AR in their practices. Online resources will be shared to assist you in your practice with updated recommendations for pre-medication of medical conditions as well as educating your patients on appropriate use of antibiotics.
Video Course Objectives:
- Understand the critical importance of antibiotic resistance and what impact it has on public health globally.
- Explain how the over-prescribing of antibiotics critically impacts the world today and what we can do about it.
- Identify challenges with antibiotic prescribing in dentistry, antibiotic safety, and appropriate use of antibiotics on patients with various medical conditions.
- Discuss resources available through the International College of Dentists (ICD), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC: Be Antibiotics Aware), and the World Health Organization (WHO).
*Course Materials were created in collaboration between John B. Tullner, DDS, FICD (Chair, ICD Understanding Antimicrobial Resistance Program) and Christine Benoit, DMD, FICD. Download the brief biography for Dr. Tullner here.
Video and Knowledge Test
After watching the video, you must take and pass successfully (7 out of 10 correct) the knowledge test in order to receive a completion certificate for 1 hour of ADA CERP approved credit. You may take the knowledge test as many times as needed in order to get credit for the video course.
Click Here for course Handouts.
Click Here to download a reference copy of the Study Questions.Introduction: Getting Started With Raspberry Pi (B,B+)
In this Instructable,I will go to know about how to setting up Raspberry PI ( B,B+ and Other Modules).
Follow these step for setting up your Raspberry Pi Module.
Step 1: Requirements:
- 1 Raspberry Pi(model, B, B+, Bv2).
- 1 Power supply(for the Pi).
- 1 SD card.
- 1 HDMI Monitor(any monitor will work as long as you have the right cable to go to the raspberry pi).
- 1 HDMI cable(to connect a monitor to raspberry pi).
- 1 WIFI USB dongle(or an Ethernet connection).
- 1 USB Mouse.
- 1 USB Keyboard.
- 1 Case(optional).
- 1 SD card Reader
Step 2: Setting Up Your SD Card
If you are going to buy (or have) an SD card preinstalled with the OS, skip this step.
In this step, I will show you how to install the NOOBSon the SD card. If your computer has an SD card slot,then go right ahead and insert your SD card. If not you'll need to use your SD card reader.
Now go to - http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads and download the OS.
Once it is downloaded, Extract it, and then use Win32DiskImager to image it to the SD card.
Step 3: Connections of the Raspberry PI
Now we are ready to connect everything to the raspberry pi. First, we must put the SD card in, then connect the HDMI lead to your television or monitor.Now, connect the keyboard and mouse to the USB ports and the Ethernet port to your internet router or network.
Note: If you don't plan to use your Raspberry PI near your router,you can use a Wi-Fi also.
Step 4: First Boot
Connect the power, and after a few moments, the NOOBS environment starts up and presents you with all the different operating systems you can install on your raspberry pi. In most cases you should use Raspbian, so select it and click "Install". This will begin a process that will install Raspbian on your SD card - it will take around 30 minutes.
Once it's complete, click "OK" and the PI will reboot, ultimately presenting a configuration menu, here you can change whatever settings you want, as long as you know what your doing. All being well, you raspberry pi will reboot into desktop view that, on the surface at least, is pretty familiar. At the bottom-left you'll see the equivalent of Windows 7's Start button, for accessing the software that is already pre-installed on the raspberry pi. Next to the start button is an icon that launches the File Manager, which works in a similar way to the Windows File Explorer. You'll also notice an icon labelled "LXTerminal",which, when double-clicked, launches a window containing the text pi@raspberrypi in green at the top left.
Step 5: Find and Install Software
The Raspberry Pi comes with a basic range of software, but one of the benefits of a Linux-based system is a huge library of additional free programs. Finding and installing software for the Raspberry Pi is done by using the LXTerminal and typing in commands, but don't worry, you'll only need to learn a few. Let's begin by installing Geany. Geany is the a code editor that I will be using in this instructable (you can use the python IDLE pre-installed on the Raspberry Pi).
Install Softwares- Now, if you want to have a better web-browser than Midori (Midori is pre-installed on the Pi),just install Chromium Browser (an Open-Sorce version of Google Chrome).
Step 6: Python Programming Basics:
In this step, I'll show you some things about python programming and show you how to make a basic program in python.
Make sure you have Python installed:
Sudo apt-get install python
Now go ahead and open up Geany and create a new python file called main.py (you can call the file anything you want but it must have the.py extension ).
Type this into the editor:
Now click Run or press F5, You should see this in another window:
This is first python program!
Same as you can program for Raspberry PI.
To find out more about Python, go to- https://www.python.org/Perhaps you like bats. Perhaps you don’t. Whether you want to attract or repel these nocturnal fliers, your yard and its features can do that job for you. Bats and humans have a few things in common. Bats look for a nice home, ample food, and serene surroundings.
Why do bats live in houses
Bats look for a nice place to live. Smaller bats who eat insects favour cool, dark spots like caves and hollow trees. Bats believe in community, so they live closely crowded together. The shared body heat helps keep them warm and toasty. They enjoy enclosed spaces. If you do want bats, you can build a bat house, similar to a bird house, but bigger. Larger bat species (like flying foxes and fruit bats) roost in great numbers in forests or heavily wooded areas.
A Neverending Buffet
Smaller bats that live in temperate areas hunt flying insects by night. They use echolocation (basically a built in radar) to find their food. If you have a yard teeming with insects, you probably have bats visiting your yard. Larger bats that live in tropical areas eat a raw, vegan diet of fruit and nectar. They cover huge areas of land during the course of a year looking for flowering plants or ripening fruits. If you have a great number of wild flowers, garden plots, or an orchard, you may draw bats to your yard.
Just like humans, bats want something with which to wash down their meal. They can dehydrate quickly, losing 50 percent of their body weight from water loss in a single day. If you have a pond on your land, bats will enjoy the natural water source. If not, they also find birdbaths and fountains attractive.
A Little Quiet to Think
The echolocation smaller bats use to find food requires relative quiet. If you have a noisy yard or neighborhood, bats will likely avoid your yard since it is not conducive to passive listening. Serene surroundings draw bats in droves.
Batty or Not?
Now that you know what attracts bats to your yard, you can decide if you want them there. Here are a few pros and cons:
- Bats love mosquitoes. A colony of bats – about 75 – eats about 75,000 bugs per hour. North American bats love mosquitoes. One little bat munches about 1,000 mosquitoes per hour.
- Bat guano (excrement), makes an amazing nutrient-rich natural fertilizer for a garden.
- While hunting, bats can be noisy neighbors. They emit sounds that bounce back.
- All that guano gets a bit smelly.
Perhaps you have a happy family of bats ridding your yard of mosquitoes and you love them. If you’d rather not attract these night fliers. We’ll humanely remove any bat residents from your property and relocate them.Self-awareness is a superpower that unleashes your full potential.
The goal is to understand what drives your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and behaviors on a deep level.
Getting in sync with your most natural self allows you to play the game of life on easy mode. Are you ready to win? Let's go!
What is self-awareness?
"Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom." -Aristotle
Every human being forms habits throughout their lifetime.
Some habits, like brushing and flossing our teeth, are beneficial.
Other habits, like smoking and eating candy for breakfast, have consequences.
Changing a habit is hard. After you repeat a behavior many times, it becomes automatic.
At least 40% of your daily activity qualifies as a habit (read: you do the thing without any thought process).
Others argue habitual behavior patterns account for up to 90% of activity. The real total's probably in the middle.
For most of the day, you might as well be possessed by a spirit, because your mind isn't engaged in whatever you're doing.
Do you pause to reflect before you open a social media app and doom scroll through scary sounding headlines? No. You just do it.
This is the opposite of self-awareness, which is defined as: "Conscious knowledge of one's own character, feelings, motives, and desires."
The key word is "conscious." Without a conscious awareness of how your actions influence yourself and your loved ones, bad things will happen.
Why's it hard to be self-aware?
“Until you realize how easy it is for your mind to be manipulated, you remain the puppet of someone else's game.” -Evita Ochel
Let's return to doom scrolling for a moment.
The average American spends two hours on social media every day.
Social media apps are built to be addictive. Their creators borrowed tricks from casino slot machines.
Even worse, many people use Facebook and Twitter to follow news stories, which are overwhelmingly negative.
The media isn't here to inform you. They're here to frighten you. It's true. Every news outlet preys on your negativity bias.
People don't pay as much attention to positive news stories. Thus, positive stories aren't covered. And negative stories are exaggerated.
This is why Donald Trump's international peace deals and Nobel Peace Prize nominations got minimal coverage, while every tweet receives endless scrutiny.
For the record, I'm not a Trump supporter. But he is absolutely right about one thing. Our biased media outlets deserve the "fake news" label.
They aren't concerned with presenting an objective assessment of world events. Most "journalism" is PR or propaganda in disguise.
What's this have to do with self-awareness? Everything. We live in a world where people and entities try to manipulate us 24/7.
Advertisers. Government spooks. Fake news producers. Social media algorithms. There is no escape in the digital age.
Every time you look at a screen, assume you're being manipulated. Learn to program yourself or be programmed.
To become self-aware, you must first become situationally aware of how many lies you're being fed.
Why does self-awareness matter?
“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” -C.G. Jung
A lack of self-awareness causes many major problems.
The biggest one is an inability to admit or acknowledge your mistakes.
Failing to be open about your flaws will halt your progress faster than anything else.
Imagine a relationship with a partner who insists on being "right" all the time. It's pure misery.
You can't negotiate or have grown-up conversations with this individual, because their ego is too fragile.
The same tendency appears in professional collaborations. Freelance copywriters and web designers know what I mean.
You get hired by a client to build a new website or produce content for it. And then they insist on a ton of adjustments that make no sense.
"Let's change the color from blue to orange. Can the button say Purchase Today instead of Buy Now? Oh, here's a random cartoon my kid drew. Put that on top."
Never mind the reality your design and word choices were based on YEARS of practice. Some clients arrogantly assume their instinct is better than your expertise.
There's nothing wrong with trusting your instinct or intuition. But you have to earn the right. And your gut feeling should often be: "You know what? I'm not sure."
If that thought never occurs to you, I have bad news. Your self-awareness is on life support. You also might be suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Being skilled in one aspect doesn't mean you're good at everything. I'm the best at writing and web design. But I sure suck at arts and crafts.
I'm not saying celebrities should never talk about politics, but it's astounding how confident they can be about an uneducated opinion.
It's better to be honest with yourself when you're not 100% sure about something, because then you can find the right answer.
Lastly, people who lack self-awareness identify with their feelings too much. Feeling an emotion doesn't mean it's accurate.
For two decades, I hated exercise. This feeling was based on nothing more than how out-of-shape I was at the time.
Today, I love exercise. It benefits my mood, self-esteem, energy levels, and mental health more than anything else.
The things that make you feel uncomfortable are often the very same things that prove to be rewarding.
How can you become more self-aware?
“Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?” -Marcus Aurelius
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“We are happy to participate in this study in hopes that my son's experience and challenges and the results of your findings will indeed help someone else with unique challenges and abilities...Thank you so much to all of the great therapists out there!” ~ parent participating in the study
What is On Track?
The On Track Study (2012-2017) involved 708 children with cerebral palsy and their families, researchers, and therapists from across Canada and the United States. Health care providers define cerebral palsy (CP) as a group of disorders of the development of movement and posture. People with CP often have related sensation, perception, cognition, communication, and behavior concerns as well as epilepsy and developing muscle and bone problems.
The On Track Study set out to better understand how young children (ages 2-12 years) with CP who have difficulties with movement activities progress and develop in these areas:
- Range of Motion
- Impact of Health Conditions on Daily Life
- Participation in Family and Recreational Activities
- Performance in Self-care Activities
What we learn from studying a large number of children with motor and movement delays can help develop future programs and services that support individual children based on their unique features. On Track Study results can help health care providers and families with questions like these…
How should I expect my child to develop?
How can health care providers and the health care system help us make the best decisions about my child’s health and rehabilitation care?
By understanding what helps children progress in their abilities and by monitoring progress, we can focus on a collaborative approach to providing individualized services that are most beneficial.
Researchers created longitudinal graphs and reference percentiles based on children’s assessments over a 12-month timeframe, similar to the growth charts used by pediatricians.
The longitudinal graphs help with considering future development based on children’s functional ability. The percentile results are a tool that therapists can use in collaborative discussions with a family to look at whether a child with CP is progressing as expected, more than expected, or less than expected, depending on his/her functional ability level in relation to other children with CP. Therapists can use the materials created through the On Track Study to:
- RECORD your child’s current assessment scores and how your child is progressing, relative to what we might expect.
- DISCUSS your child’s strengths and important areas for improvement and make notes to help individualize your child’s treatment plan.
Why is it important to monitor progress over time?
For families who find it helpful, this type of developmental monitoring is a place to start the conversation about what we might expect to see based on assessments of children with CP in similar functional levels.
The childhood years are an important time for children to learn and develop skills to the best of their abilities. On Track Study results give health care providers important information that will help support young children with CP who have motor delays and problems with muscle tone and balance. The assistance families and health care professionals can give during these early years will have benefits that are long lasting.
Summing it all up!
The graphs and tables created in the On Track Study will illustrate how young children with CP progress in many aspects of their physical development and participation in daily life. This information will help therapists and parents monitor if a child is developing as expected in his or her physical development and participation. Then, the health care professionals working with children can use the results of this study, in combination with our previously completed Move & PLAY study results, to provide the services that are most beneficial and meaningful for each child and their family members.
The On Track Study is now ready to share the materials resulting from the study with therapists and parents across North America.
Important Take-away Messages
- We offer a system for monitoring progress in the context of what we might expect to see based on assessments of children in similar functional levels of CP.
- We provide a framework for making decisions about interventions and supports for young children (ages 2-12) with CP and their families.
- Our results encourage a broader focus of rehabilitation services, to include not only development of motor abilities, but also enhancing performance in self-care and participation in family and recreational activities.
- We value the important role of parents to provide therapists with information about many unique aspects of their child and family. Collaboration is the foundation for planning the best treatments for each individual child.
We thank the participating children and families, whose continued involvement made this study possible, the important contributions of the regional coordinators, and the 90 therapists across North America who assessed children during the study.
On Track Team members: Academic researchers: Doreen Bartlett, Sarah Westcott McCoy, Lisa Chiarello, Robert Palisano, Lynn Jeffries, Alyssa Fiss, Jan Willem Gorter, Steven Hanna, and Lisa Avery; Canadian project coordinator Barb Galuppi; US project coordinator Monica Smersh; and parent researchers: Lisa Diller, Paula Drew, Nancy Ford, Marquitha Gilbert, tina hjorngaard, Kimberly Rayfield, and Barbara Sieck Taylor.
On Track Study funding was provided by: The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, MOP-119276 and The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, CE-12-11-5321.
The statements presented in this work are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of either the Canadian Institutes of Health Research or the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), including its Board of Governors or Methodology Committee.Cancer, HIV, and organ transplants can also increase the risk of shingles.
Shingles (herpes zoster, or HZ) is one of the common opportunistic infections that occur more frequently and are more severe in individuals with immune systems that have been weakened by disease or aging. Age and immunodeficiency have long been 2 of the known primary risk factors for developing shingles.
Prompted by that knowledge and the fact that estimates of HZ risk by immunocompromising medical conditions has not been well characterized, investigators at the CDC and Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center at the University of Washington conducted a comprehensive systemic review of medical literature. Their findings were recently published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.1
The scientists focused on estimated HZ risk in 6 categories of immunocompromised patients: hematopoietic cell transplants, cancer (both blood and solid tumor), HIV, and solid-organ transplant (kidney and other). They identified studies in a number of databases including PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, Scopus, and clinicaltrials.gov. Articles chosen for review were published after 1992 and presented original data from studies in the United States on risk of HZ in adults.1
“HZ is common among all immunocompromised populations studied, exceeding the expected HZ incidence among immunocompetent adults aged ≥ 60 years,” the investigators concluded. They added that better evidence of the incidence of HZ complications and their severity in immunocompromised populations is needed to inform economic and HZ vaccine policies.1
A second separate statistical analysis was conducted at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of British Columbia in Canada. Subsequently reported on in the same publication, the study results identified various risk factors that may predispose an individual to developing HZ and reached similar conclusions to the American study.2
The meta-analysis demonstrated that immunosuppression through HIV/AIDS or malignancy significantly increased the risk of HZ compared with controls. Family history, physical trauma, and older age were also shown to be associated with a greater risk. Other risk factors include psychological stress, female gender, and comorbidities like diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular diseases, and inflammatory bowel disease.2
“Many of these characteristics are known well in advance by the patient and clinician and may be used to guide discussions with patients for prevention by vaccination,” the investigators concluded.2
The Shingrix vaccine was proven in clinical trials to be over 90% effective in the prevention of shingles, and a recent study concluded that it is safe for use in frail individuals. The vaccine is FDA-approved for adults aged 50 and older.
Administered in 2 doses given 2 to 6 months apart, Shingrix helps defend the immune system against the resurgence of the varicella zoster virus (VZV) that remains dormant in the body after causing chickenpox. It is estimated that virtually all Americans 40 years and older have had chickenpox, and therefore VZV, putting them at risk of developing shingles.
1. Dooling KL, Guo A, Pergam SA, McKay S. 1629. Herpes zoster risk in immunocompromised adults in the United States: A systematic review. Open Forum Infectious Diseases. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofz360.1493
2. Marra F, Parhar K, Vadlamudi N. Risk factors for herpes zoster infecton: A meta-analysis. Open Forum Infectious Diseases. 2020. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6984676/In order to understand how Jonathan Edwards uses parallelism, one must first understand the context of the piece. First, this text is a sermon, an oral piece meant to be heard, not read. So speakers use particular techniques to aid their listeners in remembering the message being presented. Parallelism is one of those techniques (along with repetition and imagery).
Second, Edwards uses parallelism for different purposes for his message. For instance, Edwards proclaims to the church congregation: "The Wrath of God burns against [the unconverted], their Damnation don’t slumber, the Pit is prepared, the Fire is made ready, the Furnace is now hot, ready to receive them, the Flames do now rage and glow." Here, Edwards is describing, metaphorically, to his audience about the imminent danger that is God's wrath and the fires of Hell. By listing all the ways that the unconverted are nearing their doom, he is emphasizes the urgency for sinners to change their ways.
Another way that Edwards uses parallelism is through the logical appeal. Because Edwards wants to convince his audience to convert immediately to a more Christian life, he must not just scare them into converting but also convince them through rationalization: "The bigger Part of those that heretofore have lived under the same Means of Grace, and are now dead, are undoubtedly gone to Hell: and it was not because they were not as wise as those that are now alive: it was not because they did not lay out Matters as well for themselves to secure their own escape." In this example, Edwards gives evidence as to how those who appear on the outside to be good and holy are not necessarily saved from God's wrath. This evidence may not be proven factually, but because the congregation is comprised of believers who invited Edwards to preach to them, then he will convince them with this logic.On October 2, 1596, according to tradition, the first congregation of Sephardi Jews in Amsterdam had its first service. It was on that day, Yom Kippur of Hebrew year 5357, that – at least according to legend - community dignitaries Manuel Lopez Pereira, Maria Nunez and Miguel Lopez met for prayers in the home of Don Samuel Palache, together with 13 other Jews.
- 1920: An Old Grump Is Born
- 1941: Butchery at Babi Yar
- 1915: A Pioneer Historian Is Born
- 1965: Koufax Sits Out on Yom Kippur
- 1886: Controversy-beset Senator Dies
For most of the first century after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, Jewish refugees had not been permitted to settle in the Low Countries. It was only after the Netherlands gained independence from Spain, in 1581, when it joined the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, that relative religious freedom was allowed, making it possible for Jews, among others, to settle there.
Tradition says that Manuel Lopez Pereira and Maria Nunez, a brother and sister, and their uncle, Miguel Lopez, were Portuguese Conversos who set forth from their birthplace in 1593 in search of a place where they could live as Jews. With them on their ship was a large group of other Jews. En route to the Netherlands, they were stopped by a British ship and brought to shore as captives. There, according to the legend, a nobleman saw the beautiful Maria and asked to marry her. Hearing about this, Queen Elizabeth asked to meet the young Jewish woman, and also captivated by her beauty, ordered the release of her and her fellow passengers, together with their ship.
The group continued on to Amsterdam, where, in 1596 (some sources date the event to 1603), they were introduced to Samuel Palache, who was the Moroccan ambassador to the Netherlands, and a Jew. It was at his home that, on Yom Kippur of that year, they met for prayers. The gathering, however, drew the attention of legal authorities, who took the entire group in for questioning, on suspicion of being Catholics. Fortunately, one of group, Jacob Tirado, spoke Latin and was able to explain that he and his colleagues belonged to the persecuted, not the persecutors responsible for the Inquisition. They were released, and permitted to complete their prayers.
Some time later, they moved into a prayer house of their own, which they named Beth Jacob, in honor of the same Jacob Tirado, consecrating it on Rosh Hashanah of the following year.
In 1608, a group of Jewish migrants from North Africa, centered around Samuel Palache, opened another synagogue, which they called Neveh Shalom. Together with another Sephardi synagogue, all three merged back into a single united congregation in 1639, called Talmud Torah. In 1615, the Amsterdam Jewish community was officially recognized, and given permission to operate freely, with the only restrictions being a prohibition on intermarrying with Christians or from publicly criticizing Christianity.
By the end of the 17th century, according to the Dutch-Jewish historian Edward van Voolen, there were as many as 7,500 Jews in Amsterdam, both Sephardi and Ashkenazi, the latter coming from Germany and later from Poland. They were heavily involved in commerce and trade (at one point Jews controlled one-quarter of the shares of the Dutch East India Company), but also medicine, academia, and most other walks of life. British Historian Cecil Roth even suggests that the greatest period of Dutch prosperity coincided with the period of the Marrano immigration and activity.Edison Classroom Transforms into a Science Lab
Two incoming fifth-graders watched as a scoop of sugar in a small container reacted to heat from their homemade burner, fashioned from a candle, pie tin and sand.
"What's it doing? Is it dissolving?" one of the students asked.
"It's melting," the other replied.
They recorded their findings in their journal and moved on to salt.
The students – part of Julie Selland's summer school class at Edison Elementary – were testing common household substances under heat as part of their science unit on the properties of matter. Along with sugar and salt, they tested cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder and alum.
As students in the class tried out each substance, they made enthusiastic observations.
"It looks like mold!"
"It smells like s'mores!"
"It smells like a burger!"
More than 3,000 students are participating in summer school this year in the Kennewick School District. For students in preschool through eighth grade, the focus is on engaging, hands-on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, the arts and math) learning – like Selland's heat lab at Edison.
For high schoolers, the focus is credit recovery, extra help with math and enrichment activities.
In Selland's class, students found that sugar and alum reacted the most when heated – melting and/or bubbling.
Further experimentation is planned, and by the end of summer school, students will be able to identify some mystery substances based on how they react in certain conditions.
Selland said she hopes her students enjoy summer school and think of science as a fun and interesting subject.
That seems to be happening.
As her fifth-graders put away their heat lab supplies the other day, they chatted excitedly about what they'd just done.
"I liked this experiment. It was awesome," one boy said. "No. 6 (the alum) bubbled. No. 6 was awesome!"A resting ECG, or electrocardiogram, measures the electrical impulses generated by the heart. These signals are generated by the sinus node, which is often referred to the heart’s natural pacemaker. As electrical signals cross the heart, it contracts. This occurs about 60 to 80 times per minute when the heart is at rest. A PC-based ECG, the Nasiff CardioResting system uses Bluetooth for a wireless connection to transfer information to a computer, allowing physicians to instantly read measurements at the point of care.
The machine is shipped with other materials, including batteries and 100 SupraTab Resting Tab electrodes, a cable, adapter clips, and Bluetooth USB adapter. The CardioCard™ software allows readings from the Bluetooth ECG system to be tracked via a mobile phone. Users can also save readings on their phone, along with a complete set of patient information entered via the program.
Using a PC/Bluetooth ECG
Doctors and cardiologists use an electrocardiogram during routine examinations. Patients lie on their backs and electrodes are placed on their chests, arms, and legs, adhered using an aqueous gel. It takes just a few seconds to acquire readings and record them.
Fast and painless, an ECG is a useful screening tool. It’s able to detect the presence or absence of symptoms associated with a heart attack, ischemia, hypertrophy, and cardiac arrhythmias. Also, an ECG helps diagnose the cause of chest pain, palpitations, fainting, and other symptoms, and it can also verify the function of a pacemaker or effect of medications.
Interpretation of resting ECG readings by experienced medical professionals is essential to diagnosing potentially serious health issues. In many cases, doing so saves lives.
Where to Find the Best ECG
A PC ECG can be found on a medical device supplier’s catalog. To determine the best options, review the specifications of available devices. You’ll need to assess parameters, such as:
Heart rate range
Knowing how precise the unit is will tell you if it meets your accuracy requirements. You want it to support the fullest range of cardiac assessments possible. Speed is critical. A fast ECG detects abnormalities right away and allows for immediate management of any heart health issues. The comfort of the patient is important as well.
Compatibility is also a factor you’ll need to consider. The Nasiff CardioResting PC Based Bluetooth ECG System, for example, works with desktop computers, laptops, and tablets, and with Windows and Mac operating systems. It’s also network-compatible thanks to built-in networking capability. The system is convenient and preferred by many medical providers because it can be set up within five minutes.
In fact, the PC-based ECG is a fast option for point-of-care applications. Just hook it up to your computer and follow the steps to taking patient readings, and you can instantly monitor resting cardiac activity. For more information, visit the Medical Device Depot product page, request a free online demo, or call 877-646-3300.In today’s world, it is pure, irritating routine to walk to the mailbox and be greeted with a smattering of coupons. But, that wasn’t always the case. When Coca-Cola inventor John Pemberton began sending out these coupons for one complimentary glass of the sugary concoction, the practice was anything but common. But, as Wired explains, it certainly seems to have done the trick:
In its first year (1886), the company sold, on average, nine glasses a day. By 1913, Coca-Cola had redeemed 8.5 million “free drink” coupons.Truck driving is challenging job, not least of all because of its inconsistent schedule and timing. Most truck drivers end up working 24 hours shifts as a result and therefore they don’t get enough time to rest. Being tired is a contributing factor of a fair amount of accidents and injuries on the road. Secondly, factors such as inappropriate maintenance of vehicles, poor infrastructure, and a general disregard for the pedestrians and other drivers on the road have fuelled the incidence of road accidents. This is why it is important for any truck driver to understand and practice road safety rules especially for a country like ours, which is notorious for road accidents and related fatalities.
As a truck driver, there are some simple things that you can do every day to ensure your own safety, as well as the safety of other drivers who share the road. To help make the roads safer, we have collated a few safe driving tips for truck drivers below.
Seat belts save lives. Worn properly, they prevent you from being thrown around the inside of a crashing truck or, worse, thrown through the windshield and flung completely out of the vehicle. Studies show that nearly one in six truck drivers don’t wear their safety belts. Seatbelts are not only required, but they are also the best way to prevent injuries. More than 40% of crash-related deaths occur every year from not wearing a seatbelt. [source: NHTSA].
Several states in the U.S. have passed laws prohibiting the use of cell phones while driving. This is down to the number of deaths attributed to this seemingly harmless activity: 2,600 deaths nationwide every year, by some estimates [source: Live Science]. If you think talking on a cell phone while driving isn’t a problem, consider this: One researcher compared the reaction time of a 20-year-old driver talking on a cell phone to that of a 70-year-old driver who is not on a cell phone. What’s more, working a cell phone behind the wheel can delay reaction times by as much as 20 percent.
It isn’t just cell phones that cause distractions for truck drivers, however. Eating, fiddling with electronic devices, or interacting with other passengers also diverts a driver’s attention in potentially deadly ways.
Speed limits are there, especially ones specifically noted for trucks. Stay within the speed limit and you will stay safer on the road. Research has shown that for every mile per hour you drive, the likelihood of your being in an accident increases by four to five percent [source: ERSO]. At higher speeds, the risk increases much more quickly.
A speed increase of even 10 mph (16.1 kph) on your average drive across town will only save you a few minutes–while increasing your crash risk by up to 50 percent and using more fuel. Even on long trips, the time you’ll save is inconsequential compared to the risks associated with speeding. Take your time and obey posted speed limits. If you want to get there as fast as possible, there’s one fool-proof solution: Leave earlier.
Although it sounds obvious, drinking and driving is a very dangerous combination and should always be avoided. More than 30 percent of all auto accident fatalities in the United States involve drivers impaired by alcohol. These accidents led to 11,773 deaths in 2008 alone [source: NHTSA]. Drugs include anything that impairs your judgment or physical faculties, such as medications that may cause drowsiness. Besides having safety concerns, being under the influence can also cost you your job.
When loading or unloading freight, ensure that the truck and freight are properly secured. Apply truck and trailer parking brakes and turn off your truck. If available, use chock blocks for extra security. Do not pull out of a loading dock until the dock plate has been removed and you have verified that the loading/unloading has in fact been completed and that no equipment or people are still working in the truck.
There are all sorts of unexpected events that could occur on the road, but having a plan can make you more prepared. The better you have your trip planned out (driving hours, routes, weather scouting, etc.), the safer your journey will be.
Once you receive your order, you must prepare yourself for the trip. It is strongly recommended to take some rest before embarking on the trip. Take a comfortable and deep sleep in advance, and pull over if you are feeling tired while driving. Grab a light snack, stretch your legs or take a catnap. Munching on junk foods, drinking sugary drinks, and consuming heavy meals can make you drowsy, so look for healthy alternatives when you can.
Safe driving guidelines advise truck drivers to keep a safe distance between themselves and the car ahead. Truckers need enough time to react if that car makes a sudden turn or stops. It can be too difficult to estimate the recommended distances while driving and the exact distance would have to be adjusted for speed, so most experts recommend a “seven-second rule.”
The seven-second rule is simple. Find a stationary object on the side of the road. When the car ahead of you passes it, start counting seconds. At least seven seconds should pass before your car passes the same object. Once you have some driving experience and have practiced keeping this minimum distance, you’ll develop an instinct for it and know how close to follow without having to count. However, even experienced truck drivers should count off the seven-second rule now and then to make sure.
Certain parts of the country are known for having unpredictable weather, but try to keep track of changes and avoid dangerous driving conditions whenever possible.
When driving through fog, heavy rain, a snowstorm, or on icy roads, be extra careful. Take all of the other tips presented here and make full use of them: Drive below the speed limit if necessary, maintain extra space between you and the car ahead, and be especially careful around curves. If you’re driving through weather conditions you don’t know well, consider delegating driving duties to someone who does, if possible. If the weather worsens, just find a safe place to wait out the storm.
Defensive driving is a practice that helps drivers consciously reduce the dangers linked to driving. In this form of driving, you anticipate scenarios that could result in an accident, such as unfavorable weather conditions and reckless motorists on the road. When more people practice defensive driving, the roads will be safer.
Defensive driving incorporates the other tips shown here, such as maintaining a safe distance and not speeding, but remaining calm in the face of frustrating traffic issues is another major part of the concept. Accept small delays, such as staying in line behind a slower car instead of abruptly changing lanes. Yield to other cars, even if you technically have the right of way.
Defensive driving is not only safer, but it can also save you money. Many insurance companies offer discounts to truck drivers who complete defensive driving courses.
Next time you are out on the road, keep these safety tips in mind, as these are great safety tips for truck drivers to follow. These trailers are large pieces of equipment and full concentration is necessary from the driver at all times. It’s important also not only for truck drivers to be at their best but also for their trucks, as proper maintenance will greatly reduce the chance of breakdowns.
Also, now that you know these saving driving tips, combine these tips with a great fuel card, sign up for our invoice factoring service (we are the only 4.9 stars Google-rated freight factoring company Pay4Freight Google review) or you can take advantage of our better together factoring-dispatch deal and you’ll be saving yourself even more money.1893 Print Chicago World's Fair State Buildings Utah - ORIGINAL HISTORIC FAR1
This is an original 1894 halftone print showing the State buildings, which include Colorado, Utah, North Dakota and South Dakota. The Colorado State building has an architectural style is of the Spanish Renaissance. At either side of the entrance are two slender towers that rise almost 60 feet above the roof and taper to a point from balconies and windows near the top. The main entrance is forty feet wide and consists of three arched portals into a portico of about 28 feet deep. The South Dakota building is two stories tall and cost about $15,000 to construct. The front contains a wide veranda that extends across the building with the center rounding out in a curve. The veranda roof forms a balcony at the second story and is roofed to the extent of the bow. The structure is covered to prevent weathering and provide shelter from the elements. The structure is made of Yankton cement, which was treated to appear stone in nature. The North Dakota building is two stories high and has a wide veranda in front of each level. It is composed of a balustrade design, which extends around the the building above. There is a cornice enclosing the roof, which adds to the attractiveness of the structure. (Please note that, typical of halftone prints, there is printing on the reverse.)
Period Paper has obtained a wonderful set of halftone images of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, also known as the World Columbian Exposition. This collection of the fair's many architectural, artistic, mechanical, agricultural, industrial, archeological, ethnological, historical, and scenic attractions was published in 1894.
The World Columbian Exposition was held from May to October 1893 in Chicago in honor of the 400th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of the new world. In competition with many other cities, Chicago was finally designated the official site and the Exposition was built on 630 acres in and around Jackson Park. It was a spectacular display of progress and prosperity, and included among its many wonders electrical exhibits, exhibits from other countries, and a popular amusement area on Midway Plaisance with carnival rides, among them the first Ferris Wheel. Most of the fair's architecture was based on classical design which gave the area around the Court of Honor the name "The White City."
This 117+ year old Item is rated Very Fine +++. Light aging throughout. No creases. No natural defects. Some light surface rub. No tears. No water damage. Please note that there is print on the reverse. We will also include the text related to this image for reference.
- Product Type: Original Halftone Print; Black / White
- Grade: Very Fine +++
- Dimensions: Approximately 10.25 x 8.25 inches; 26 x 21 cm
- Authentication: Serial-Numbered Certificate of Authenticity w/ Full Provenance
- Protection: Packaged in a custom archival sleeve with an acid-free black board (great for display, gift-giving, and preservation)
Keywords specific to this image: ArchitectureWalking a Dog Can Help Us Walk the Talk About Other Animals
Dogs can help people learn about the inconsistencies in how we treat animals.
Posted December 30, 2018
Nonhuman animals aren't less than human animals
"Man in his arrogance thinks of himself a great work, worthy the interposition of a deity. [Yet it is] more humble and, I believe, true to consider him created from animals." —Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man
At the end of each year, I try to think of ways to ask people not only to treat nonhuman animals (animals) with more respect, compassion, empathy, and dignity, but also to reflect on the inconsistencies with which they view and treat them. For some time now, it's become clear that by focusing on our relationships with dogs, we can learn about these inconsistencies that typically incorporate denialism, essentially, the irrational rejection of truth or scientific facts and speciesism. In Rewilding Our Hearts: Building Pathways of Compassion and Coexistence, I've proposed that humans can rightfully be called Homo denialus. (For more discussion, see Michael Specter's Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives.)
Speciesism also influences how humans view and treat other animals. Speciesism, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, refers to the "discrimination against or exploitation of certain animal species by human beings, based on an assumption of mankind’s superiority," involves assigning different values or rights on the basis of species membership, and constructs false boundaries among species. Speciesism doesn't work, because it assumes human exceptionalism, and also because it ignores within-species variation that often is more marked than between-species differences, a fact that is extremely obvious in domestic dogs. Speciesism also ignores the importance of individuals. (See The Animals' Agenda: Freedom, Compassion, and Coexistence in the Human Age, "Individual Animals Count: Speciesism Doesn't Work," "Animal Minds and the Foible of Human Exceptionalism," and links therein.) For example, all and only humans might constitute a protected group regardless of an individual's unique characteristics. When animals such as great apes are protected from invasive research, this decision is speciesist, because all great apes are protected regardless of an individual's unique characteristics. Speciesism also results in animals being classified hierarchically as “lower” and “higher,” with humans on the top rung of the ladder. This speciesist view clearly ignores individual variations in behavior within and between species, and hierarchical speciesism results in endless harm and is bad biology. Speciesists often use taxonomic or behavioral (cognitive, emotional) closeness to humans, similar appearance, or the possession of various cognitive capacities displayed by normal adult humans to draw the line that separates humans from other animals. Cognitive abilities include the capacities for self-awareness, to engage in purposive behavior, to communicate using a language, to make moral judgments, and to reason (rationality). The bottom line is that nonhumans aren't less than humans. Different doesn't mean "less than," "more than," "less valuable than," or "more valuable than."
Let's listen to youngsters, ambassadors for a more compassionate future
As I was writing this essay, I thought about some questions I've been asked by youngsters that are relevant to the topics at hand. These include: "What allows people to kill cows and pigs and chickens and other animals, but not dogs?"; "What allows people to say one thing and do another?"; "How Come People Say They Love Animals and Kill Them?"; "Why don't people 'walk the talk' when they say they love animals and then kill them?"; and "How can my friend's father say he loves deer and then hunt them for fun?" I also thought about how New Zealand's violent and brutal war on wildlife is using youngsters to harm and to brutally kill so-called "pests." Luckily, some kids are speaking out against these school-sanctioned activities and asking questions, such as: "Why Is It Wrong to Not Want to Kill Animals?" (Also see "Violence Toward Animals: 'Can You Please Help My Daughter?'")
Where to go from here?
"We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth." —Henry Beston, The Outermost House, 1928
This 90-year old quotation from Henry Beston is one of my all-time favorites when I think about how we treat and view other animals, and where we're heading in the future. It needs to be read in full, and I always wish it could be made into a poster that would go viral globally. It also could form the basis for an entire course in animal-human relationships. I go to it constantly, because it says so much about who other animals are and about our relationships with them. First, we do indeed view others through our own senses, and as we have clearly seen, dogs don’t sense the world how we do. So our views are, indeed, distorted. We also patronize them for not being like us, for what we perceive as their incompleteness, as if we are complete. This misrepresentation allows some people to place dogs and other animals below us on some mythical evolutionary scale. They’re referred to as “lower” beings, a move that results in rampant mistreatment and egregious abuse. As Beston asserts, “And therein we err,” for we should not be the template against which we measure other animals. I also like how he views other animals as “other nations,” since this asks us to view them as the beings they are, not as what we want them to be. And, surely, dogs and other animals are caught up in the “travail of the earth,” captive to whatever we want them to do and whoever we want them to be. As we’ve seen, this makes for a good deal of stress in their lives as they try to adapt to a human-dominated world.
Let's allow dogs to help us bridge the empathy gap to other animals, nonhuman and human
My purpose here is to make a simple request, which is to ask people to think about how they view and treat other animals and to try as hard as they can to iron out the wrinkles in how they make decisions about who lives, who dies, and why. I'm focusing on dogs, because they can and should help humans bridge the empathy gap and serve as a "gateway" species to include other nonhumans in the arena of compassion. (See "'Everyone Wants a Lost Dog Found,' Bridging the Empathy Gap.") These other animal beings do not suffer less than dogs when they're mistreated and abused, so it's important to ask, "Why the disconnect?" and "Why are there rampant and blatant inconsistencies in how dogs (and other companion animals) are treated, and how non-companion animals are treated?"
It's also important to know how people deal with these obvious inconsistencies in how they view, treat, or allow other animals to be treated using denial, ignorance, or other rationalizations. (See "'Oh, I know animals suffer, but I love my steak': The self-serving resolution of the'meat paradox'," Hal Herzog's Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals and Melanie Joy's Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism.) We also need to appreciate how fascinating other animals are, and that we can no longer continue to be over-producing, over-consuming, arrogant, big-brained, big-footed, and invasive mammals who don't give other animals the respect, compassion, and love they deserve.
I often wonder if dogs, by bridging the empathy gap among humans, could help to heal our wounded world by bringing together people of all ages and all cultures who share an attachment and affection for these wonderful beings. This would be a win-win for all animals, nonhuman and human, because all individuals matter. (See "Why People Should Care About Animal and Human Suffering.")
We are most fortunate to have dogs
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world is produced by smallholder farmers, often in complex multi-functional landscapes, which depend on integrated crop management.
In addition, recent estimates from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) suggest that around 1.6 billion people rely on forests and other natural systems in some way for their diets, health and wider livelihoods.
Forests, and the wider landscapes in which they occur, potentially have a considerable role to play in the emerging strategies to achieve global food security.
Forests not only contribute to diverse and nutritious diets, particularly for the poorest members of society, but also sustain agriculture through the provision of critical ecosystem services such as pollination, soil stabilization and watershed protection.
However, recognition of the role of forests in food security is not new: 1985 was designated the year of Forests and Food Security and a special issue of the FAO journal, Unasylva was subsequently published.
The forests and food security agenda was gradually replaced by other pressing development concerns. Until recently, it was off the agenda altogether.
However, with “mainstream” food security issues coming to the fore, the role of forests in securing nutritional and food security is back in the frame.
This week, the FAO International Conference on Forests for Food Security and Nutrition in Rome will feature discussion on how we can ensure that sustainable food production can take place without compromising the wider environment.
We seem to have come full circle. Given the evidence, we should not be surprised that the issue of forests and food security is once again at the forefront of the international development agenda: the challenge will be to keep it there.|Mongolia Table of Contents
Mongolian agriculturalists, most of whom were actually herders of animals, worked either for state-owned farms or for herding cooperatives. State farm workers were on the state payroll, just as were those who worked in state factories or for the national railroad. Influenced by the Soviet Union, stateowned farms represented a more creative adaptation of Soviet models to the Mongolian environment than did factories or government offices. In practice, membership was compulsory, and the collectives owned the means of production in the form of both the livestock herds and the rights to use pastures and winter campsites. Member families carried on a modified form of traditional herding by dispersed small herding camps of several households. Households were permitted to own a limited number of private livestock--analogous to the private plot allocated to collective farmers--about 20 percent of the total herd. Households received much of their income in kind, and they earned a share of the collective's profit from the sale of animals and animal products to state purchasing agencies. Their total income, in kind and in cash, varied, from year to year and from collective to collective, along with the condition of the herds and the weather.
The average herding cooperative had about 300 households. The cooperative employed some people as administrators, truck drivers, and the like, but most work consisted of the traditional tasks of herding and milking animals, and of producing butter, cheese, and wool products. As in the past, herding was done by herding camps of two to six households. The herding cooperatives in most cases had the same boundaries as the somon, the third-level administrative units into which Mongolia's eighteen aymags were divided, and the administration of the somon and the herding cooperative appeared to be in the same hands.
In contrast to the period before the collectivization of herding, which was carried out in the late 1950s, the work of individual herders in the late 1980s was more closely supervised by administrative authorities. Herders were responsible for a herd of collective animals that usually included some of their privately held stock as well, thus providing an incentive for careful management. Herders with a record of losing too many animals or failing to meet monthly or annual quotas were deprived of custody of the collective animals and were reassigned to other tasks. The moves of the herds and the herding camps were plotted on a map in the cooperative's headquarters, and officials of the cooperative--riding on motorcycles or jeeps, and on a more limited basis, airplanes--scouted for good pasture and then told the herding camps where to move next. Moves from one campsite to the next usually were made, using the cooperative's jeeps or trucks, and sometimes crossing the roadless steppes at night with uncanny accuracy. The cooperatives attempted, with mixed success, to grow hay and other fodder, which was stored at the winter campsites, some of which had barns and sheds to shelter animals. Herding camps were assigned to winter campsites, which often were provided with stocks of coal and sometimes with portable electric generators to provide power for lights and even television sets. Herders on the range used transistor radios to listen to weather reports and storm warnings.
The somon center became a miniature urban outpost, providing a meeting hall for regular assemblies of the cooperative, political rallies, plays, concerts, and films; for the administrative offices of the somon and the cooperative; for a clinic, or small hospital, and a veterinary clinic; for the motor pool and vehicle repair station; for shops, run by the state trading organization; for storage and processing facilities for food and wool; for a sports ground, and for a school with boarding facilities. The center kept in touch with the herding camps through radio telephones and motorcycle couriers, who, bearing messages, mail, and newspapers, usually visited the camps every three to five days. Like urban residents or state-sector employees, herders from cooperatives were eligible for annual vacations, often spent at the holiday camps or spas operated by aymag governments. The government and the party took care to recognize the value of the herders' work and devoted resources to improving their lives without demanding that they settle down in permanent dwellings. In this regard, Mongolian pastoralists were more fortunate than their counterparts in many countries in Asia and Africa. There, urbanbased governments attempted to force nomads to settle down and to abandon their migrations for what was thought of as a more modern and civilized way of life, but that usually proved detrimental to the livelihood of the nomads and to the national economy. The pastoral background of Mongolia's leaders and their understanding of the realities of the nomadic way of life produced policies designed to modernize, but not to destroy, an ancient and productive ecological system.
For modern Mongolians, the primary social units were based on occupation rather than locality. Employers, such as state-owned factories or government departments, commonly provided housing, meals in unit cafeterias, day-care facilities for workers' children, and sports and recreational activities. Trade unions in enterprises offered group holidays or week-long stays at special resorts or spas. Much emphasis was placed on the mutual ties and family-like relations among members of the collective. In cities fellow workers were guests and providers of gifts at weddings, and older members of work collectives often were described as taking a paternal or maternal interest in the performance of newly hired young workers. The process by which workers secured, or were assigned to, jobs was not clearly spelled out in Mongolian sources, but it evidently combined administrative direction with some degree of personal choice. The general shortage of labor meant that individuals had no problems finding jobs. However, the jobs they obtained may not have been those they most wanted. Although it was possible to change jobs or to be reassigned by the government, such changes were not common, and individuals usually expected to spend many years, if not their entire working lives, in one enterprise and one housing collective.
The organization of work units reflected Soviet models, and if there was a distinctively Mongolian character to such units, it was not captured in official accounts. As in the Soviet Union, there was a strong emphasis on the solidarity of the collective and its priority in the lives of the workers, as well as on the use of such managerial techniques as the designation of heroes of labor, the use of socialist emulation and socialist competition to spur production, and the promotion of "shock battalions" and "shock days" to meet or surpass quotas. These techniques were attempts to motivate a work force through the use of non-material incentives and through manipulation of group pressures. Students of Soviet and Chinese industrial relations refer to a distinctive pattern of "clientalist bureaucracy" and "neo-traditionalist" forms of patronage and dependency in the factories of those countries. Both the force of the Soviet example and inherited traditional Mongolian attitudes, toward hierarchy and broadly defined relations of subordination and dependence, made such patterns likely in Mongolia.
Source: U.S. Library of CongressCommon names: Texas Star Hibiscus
Botanical names: Hibiscus coccineus
This slender, multi-branched native perennial plant is an excellent choice for gardeners wanting to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. It likes wet areas and is perfect for streams, bogs and rain gardens and in ponds. It is a good choice to plant in the back or in the center of beds and let its dramatic blooms peek from behind.
Size: 4 to 7 feet tall and 2 to 3 feet wide
Flowers: crimson red or white “Alba” star shaped blooms up to 3 to 4 inches
Bloom time: June to October
Leaves: palmate, star-shaped and serrated; often mistaken for marijuana
Pests and Disease Problems: grasshoppers
Growing in North Texas
‘Texas Star’ can be planted in many soils, but they prefer a moist well drained soil. They bloom best in full sun and when watered consistently. They can even be grown within a backyard pond. The plants die down to the ground during winter, but return with sprouts in late spring. They grow very rapidly and do not require much care. To shape, lightly prune any leggy stalks in spring. Lightly mulch plants not in a pond in winter. Propagate by seed sown ¼ inch deep in early spring; if kept moist it will produce a plant which will bloom the first year. You can divide the clump in late winter and plant 2 to 3 feet apart with crowns 3 to 4 inches beneath the soil.
The Southern Gardener; “Hardy Hibiscus”; Dr. William C. Welch
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center; The University of Texas at Austin
Keywords (tags): tall accent; specimen; native; pond; bog; rain garden; nectarThe state recorded 202 cases, including 17 deaths, just two years ago, but 2014 is turning out to be virus-free, at least among humans.
Residents in Oakland County are being urged to protect themselves against the West Nile virus after it was found in a dead hawk.
Texas researchers have found a link between a warmer winter and higher infection rates the following summer.
A 10-year-old Michigan boy paralyzed last year after being bitten by a mosquito carrying the West Nile virus is a “walking miracle,” his mother said.
So far, the turkey is the first animal in the state to test positive this year for the disease.
According to the Centers of Disease Control, 202 cases of West Nile Virus were reported in Michigan last year, including 17 deaths, in what officials are calling the worst outbreak of the disease since 2003.
State health officials have announced that two more people have died in Michigan from the West Nile Virus, bringing this year’s total to 10.
Two more West Nile Virus brings Michigan to a total of eight deaths and 160 total cases this year.
Angela Minicuci with the Michigan Department of Community Health said a 75-year-old man died in Kent County, near Grand Rapids.
People celebrating Labor Day weekend outdoors in Michigan could be setting themselves up as the main course for feasting mosquitoes, including the species known to carry the West Nile virus.Descent with modification
We've defined evolution as descent with modification from a common ancestor, but exactly what has been modified? Evolution only occurs when there is a change in gene frequency within a population over time. These genetic differences are heritable and can be passed on to the next generation which is what really matters in evolution: long term change.
Compare these two examples of change in beetle populations. Which one is an example of evolution?
Which example illustrates descent with modification a change in gene frequency over time?
The difference in weight in example 1 came about because of environmental influences the low food supply not because of a change in the frequency of genes. Therefore, example 1 is not evolution. Because the small body size in this population was not genetically determined, this generation of small-bodied beetles will produce beetles that will grow to normal size if they have a normal food supply.
The changing color in example 2 is definitely evolution: these two generations of the same population are genetically different. But how did it happen?
View this article online at:
Understanding Evolution © 2015 by The University of California Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley, and the Regents of the University of CaliforniaInjuries are the result of not preparing the body for the action about to be undertaken. On the job, on the field or in daily life, the prevention of injuries means less time spent in pain and less money spent on expensive recovery treatments. Preventing injuries, no matter the life situation, involves careful preparation and a little extra time.
Sports Injury Prevention
The sports field is often the place where athletes push their bodies to the limit. Sports injuries can be prevented as long as the muscles are warmed up before the event and the body is kept in optimal shape. Also wearing the protective equipment proper for each sport will cut down on many such injuries. Helmets, mouth gurads, various body armor and protective eyeglass frames should always be considered for contact sports. Information on preventing sports injuries can be found on various online websites.
Preventing Injuries At Work
While many employers have Worker’s Compensation programs in place to ensure the medical care of employees hurt on the job, the cost of this insurance can hinder the financial stability of a company. No one wants to be hurt on the job and preventing work related injuries is simple when attention to detail is paid to safety in the workplace.
Recreational and Home Injury Prevention
Not all injuries occur on the sports field or on the job. Many injuries occur in the privacy of the home or while off playing a recreational sport with friends. Just because you are not a paid athlete does not mean you do not have to follow some of the same rules regarding physical activity. Life can be pain free with preparation.
Life without injuries is a life spent without pain. With more and more injuries occurring in young children, athletes and employees, prevention is the only solution. For more information on safely preventing all types of injuries the Government of British Columbia offers great tips.There is a new paper out suggesting that the Flores hominids, known as Hobbits, were “human endemic cretins.”From the abstract of this paper:
… We hypothesize that these individuals are myxoedematous endemic (ME) cretins, part of an inland population of (mostly unaffected) Homo sapiens. ME cretins are born without a functioning thyroid; their congenital hypothyroidism leads to severe dwarfism and reduced brain size, but less severe mental retardation and motor disability than neurological endemic cretins. We show that the fossils display many signs of congenital hypothyroidism, including enlarged pituitary fossa, and that distinctive primitive features of LB1 such as the double rooted lower premolar and the primitive wrist morphology are consistent with the hypothesis. We find that the null hypothesis (that LB1 is not a cretin) is rejected by the pituitary fossa size of LB1, and by multivariate analyses of cranial measures. We show that critical environmental factors were potentially present on Flores, how remains of cretins but not of unaffected individuals could be preserved in caves, and that extant oral traditions may provide a record of cretinism.
Across Africa, and to some extent Asia, existing large parks and preserves are being combined into very large parks in order to serve several important functions. One is to make the parks so large that there will be interior areas that are impractical for most poaching or other encroachment. Another is to allow movement of migratory animals into new areas when their populations grow (presumably with some degree of natural culling cycling the process down now and then). Another is to allow a park to always contain a minimal range of a certain habitat even when secular or long term climate variation reduces that habitat. Yet another may be to make the park more attractive to tourism.With animals like tigers, who have relatively low population densities, it is essential to have large contiguous areas in order to have a viable population size both for genetic diversity and to get past periods of decimation by periodic disease or starvation episodes. Continue reading →
In 1833, Darwin spent a fair amount of time on the East Coast of South America, including in the Pampas, where he had access to abundant fossil material. Here I’d like to examine his writings about some of the megafauna, including Toxodon, Mastodon, and horses, and his further considerations of biogeography and evolution. Continue reading →
Everyone knows about Darwin’s Finches, of the Galapagos Islands. But of course, Darwin made observations of birds throughout his travels on The Beagle. Here, I present a number of passages from The Voyage that include some of these observations. Continue reading →
Fallback foods are the foods that an organism eats when it can’t find the good stuff. It has been suggested that adaptive changes in fallback food strategies can leave a more distinct mark on the morphology of an organism, including in the fossil record, than changes in preferred food strategies. This assertion is based on work done by the Grants and others with Galapagos Island finches, by Richard Wrangham and me with hominids, and by Betsy Burr and me with rodents. Continue reading →
Charles Darwin wrote a book called Geological Observations on South America. Since Fitzroy needed to carry out intensive and extensive coastal mapping in South America, and Darwin was, at heart, a geologist more than anything else (at least during the Beagle’s voyage), this meant that Darwin would become the world’s expert on South American geology. Much of The Voyage is about his expeditions and observations. Part of this, of course, was figuring out the paleontology of the region. Continue reading →
When reading the Voyage, it is impossible to miss the observation that much of the time Darwin was engaged in adolescent boy behavior: Pulling the heads off insects, noting how long they would wiggle after cut in half, closely examining the ooze and guts, occupied much of his time. Obviously, careful observation and a strong stomach were not all that was required to think up Natural Selection and his other theories, or the Origin of Species would have been written dozens of times by dozens of grown up kids. Continue reading →
Proposals to give the latter part of the present geological period (the Holocene) a new name … the Anthropocene … are misguided, scientifically invalid, and obnoxious. However, there is a use for a term that is closely related to “Anthropocene” and I propose that we adopt that term instead. Continue reading →
The loss of sight in cave dwelling species is widely known. We presume that since sight in utter darkness has no fitness value, the mutation of a gene critical to the development of the sense of sight is not selected against. Over time, any population living in darkness will eventually experience experience such mutations, and these mutations can reach fixation. Continue reading →
Did humans wipe out the Pleistocene megafauna? This is a question that can be asked separately for each area of the world colonized by Homo sapiens. It is also a question that engenders sometimes heated debate. A new paper coming out in the Journal of Human Evolution concludes that many Pleistocene megafauna managed to go extinct by themselves, but that humans were not entirely uninvolved.
The end-Permian mass extinction event was the big daddy of all the known mass extinction events. Life on the planet Earth was almost entirely wiped out. A new paper explores the post-extinction recovery of ecological systems. Continue reading →
There is a discussion on the internet about Junk DNA, that includes a discussion at Sandwalk (Larry Moran’s blog) … I made a comment there about genome size that was responded to by T.R. Gregory. I started to write my response in Larry’s Little Box, but realized that it would not fit. So it is here: Continue reading →
Homo floresiensis more widely known as the “Hobbit,” may have had arms that were very different from those of modern humans.
A paper in the current issue of the Journal of Human Evolution explores the anatomy of H. floresiensis. To explore this we first have to understand the concept of “Humeral torsion.” Humeral torsion is the orientation of the humeral head relative to the mediolateral axis of the distal articular surface. Don’t bother reading that sentence again, I’ll explain it.
OK, so you are vacuuming the house, and along the way, you suck up a couple of spiders, some spier eggs, a beetle or two, and as the cat or dog walks by, you figure you’re probably sucking up some fleas and flea eggs, and so on and so forth.SO you know all these cooties are now in the vacuum cleaner bag. When you are done vacuuming, you put the vacuum cleaner away. The thought is in your brain… all these creepy crawlers are now going to slowly work their way out of the vacuum cleaner and go back to their crawly creepy business. But you stop yourself from thinking further about it and live your life in denial of what might be a horrific reality. Continue reading →
The Central African Rainforest (as distinct from the West African Rain Forest) spans an area from the Atlantic coast to nearly Lake Victoria in Uganda and Tanzania. In fairly recent times (the mid Holocene) this forest was probably continuous all the way to Victoria, and probably extended farther north and south than one might imagine from looking at its current distribution.Within the forest are major rivers, including the Congo. The Congo River is the only major river in the world that crosses the Equator twice. This trans-equatorial configuration guarantees that the rivers picks up rain from both of the equatorial rainy seasons, making it a huge and virtually uncrossable barrier for terrestrial mammals. During glaical periods, the forest is believed to have shrunk to either small refugia, or to have virtually disappeared entirely with only riverine forest remaining. Between the shrinkage of the forest and the major riverine barriers, terrestrial (non-flying, non-swimming) forest-dwelling animals that might have had a more continuous distribution would have been broken into many smaller units. Likely, many of these small populations would have gone extinct, but others may have changed over time such that when the forest was re-established, they may have constituted different subspecies or species. This breaking up and rejoining of the rain forest, over and over again, during the Pleistocene is thought to have caused much of the modern day variation we see among closely related forest species of primates, small carnivores, and forest ungulates such as duikers. Continue reading →
There seems to be some interesting things going on with the recently reported study of rates of evolution in humans. We are getting reports of a wide range of rather startling conclusions being touted by the researchers who wrote this paper. These conclusions typically come from press releases, and then are regurgitated by press outlets, then read and reported by bloggers, and so on. Here is, in toto, the press release from the University of Wisconsin, where John Hawks, one of the authors of the study, works. I reproduce the press release here without further comment. Continue reading →
Or, to be less crude, did modern humans, having already evolved in Africa, interbreed with the local Europeans who were Neanderthals, and if so, did they produce fertile offspring … and, did this happen in sufficient degree to have mattered at all to the genetics of later (but not necessarily living) people? Continue reading →
Repost from gregladen.comOne day, about six thousand years ago (or more like 15 thousand … the timing of this is disputed) a volcano in the vicinity of Mwea, Uganda blasted a huge volume of stuff into the air, covering the surrounding landscape and choking off most of the life forms living in a nearby lake. (A very nearby lake … the current configuration of the lake suggests that the volcano may have actually been beneath the lake at the time of the eruption). Continue reading →One pound of horse meat has about 603 calories. warhorses weigh between 800 and 2000 pounds, so the amount of calories would be anywhere between 482.400 and 1.206.000 calories. Since a grown man needs about 2500 calories a day, he can eat for another 192,6 to 482,4 days.
|Edit As has been remarked in the comments only part of the horse is edible. Apparently this could be about two-thirds of the meat in case of cows. I couldn't find any numbers for horses but since we're talking about warhorses who where not bred for eating the percentage would probably be lower. Keep in mind though that supposedly non-edible parts become very attractive as you get hungrier.|
Of course, provided he can keep the food good for so long. Since in ancient times the only place a 1000 man horse army trapped in a siege seems likely is the east, it is probably too hot for that. The only ways to keep food good in the warmer regions of the ancient world would be smoking or salting, but it's doubtful a besieged army has enough access to any of these to preserve a 1000 horses.
A horse should eat about 0,3 to 0,4 percent of it's body weight in grain, which is about 24 to 80 pounds per day, so 5 days of grain makes for 120 to 400 pounds. A male Roman citizen would eat about 4 modii of grain per month (source: my prof), making 36 liters of grain. 1 liter of (chicken*) grain weighs 690 grams, so 24,84 kilos or 54,763 pounds per month or 1,8254333 pounds per day. Thus the grain for his horse would keep him fed for 2-7 months.
I'd like to add that a desperate sally by heavy cavalry could be a much better option, and has proven succesfull in the past. An example:
"Eucratides led many wars with great courage, and, while weakened by them, was put under siege by Demetrius, king of the Indians. He made numerous sorties, and managed to vanquish 60,000 enemies with 300 soldiers, and thus liberated after four months, he put India under his rule" Justin XLI,6
*I had to weigh it myself, and i don't have any grain for horses. If anyone knows a better weight i'd be happy to recalculate (not really).view a plan
Kindergartners practice alphabetic principles here by writing group stories with Kidspiration
Computers & Internet, Language Arts
By – Nicole Oliver
Primary Subject – Language Arts
Secondary Subjects – Computers & Internet
Grade Level – K
- The contents that will be covered in this class are the alphabetic principles. Children will learn that sounds in words are based on the letters of the alphabet. They will also learn spelling of familiar words as well as reading some familiar words. Most of the children will already know some of this, but will get more comfortable with it. This will also help the children that are a little more behind the rest of the class.
- R.WS.00.03 – Understanding the alphabetic principle that sounds in words are expressed by the letters of the alphabet.
Learning Resources and Materials:
- Use of the school computer lab
- Kidspiration software
- Various age-appropriate books
- Pencils and paper
Development of Lesson:
- Start out by explaining the lesson while using examples of past lessons taught in the class. Play the favorite alphabet songs of the class (to get their attention) and review the alphabet and sounds each letter makes.
- Start out with the class as a whole, reading and reviewing the alphabet.
- Then put children into groups and assign helpers from 5th grade, one to a group. While in the groups, students can again go over sounds and also try to write a group story.
- Once this is done, take the class to the computer lab to use Kidspiration.
- The groups will take their story and add personal touches (with the help of the teacher and the 5th graders) and create their own story.
- Then have them read each story to the class, while having the children sound out the important words, make the sound of the word, and also establish which letter it is.
- Having the 5th grade helpers frees the teacher to go around to each group and each student to determine how well they are moving along. Also, assessing each group’s story will give me a better understanding of where they are in understanding the lesson.
- After the lesson is completed, assess each group based on their story. Assess each student individually by using a worksheet in which they will match certain letters to the picture of the sound it makes. If the student seems to be able to match each letter to the correct picture, that determines whether or not the student knows the benchmark well enough.
- To reflect on what the children learned, add part of this lesson to the children’s daily activities so that they can keep practicing. Also make sure to include some of this in the future curriculum, so the children can keep practicing. The letters, pictures and words should get harder as they learn more.
E-Mail Nicole!Around AD 1300, a new Muslim empire ruled by Turkish leaders called sultans was founded. At its largest extent, in 1700, it covered vast areas of Europe, Africa, and Asia. It lasted until the end of World War I (1918). Today’s republic of Turkey was founded in 1923.
The greatest of the Ottoman sultans was Suleiman the Magnificent. During his reign (1520–1566), the Ottoman Empire reached its greatest extent. He was also a poet and a patron of the arts, adorning Istanbul and other Ottoman cities with glittering mosques.
In 1453, after a siege during which its walls were pounded by a battery of cannons, Constantinople was captured by Sultan Muhammad II. Renamed Istanbul, the old capital of the Byzantine Empire then became the new capital of the expanding Ottoman Empire.
Janissaries were elite soldiers who started as non-Turkish Christian boys from the Balkans. They were trained in Istanbul, where they converted to Islam.Tessellations: An Application Of Simple Regular Polygons (SMILE)
Library Home || Full Table of Contents || Suggest a Link || Library Help
|Mary Racky, Kenwood School|
|A lesson designed to develop basic skills making and identifying homogeneous tessellations, both regular and semiregular. From the Patterns and Logic section of a collection of almost 200 single concept lessons by the Science and Mathematics Initiative for Learning Enhancement.|
|Levels:||Middle School (6-8), High School (9-12)|
|Resource Types:||Manipulatives, Lesson Plans and Activities|
|Math Topics:||Patterns/Relationships, Symmetry/Tessellations|
© 1994- Drexel University. All rights reserved.
The Math Forum is a research and educational enterprise of the Drexel University School of Education.What is Poison Ivy Rash?
Scientifically known as toxicodendron radicans is a poisonous plant found in North America. It produces urushiol, the compound responsible for the itching rash that a person acquires from the mere touch of poison ivy. This plant is found in 3 forms: a trailing vine, a shrub, and a vine that grows on trees. We usually see this plant in forests and open fields. People are still victimized by this plant and it’s because they couldn’t identify what a poison ivy looks like.
Here are the following distinct characteristics of poison ivy:
- They form in clusters of three leaflets
- Alternate leaf arrangement
- Lack of thorns
- Three leaflets grow with its own stalk
This wild plant is truly common that can cause an irritating allergic reaction. The urushiol is a toxic chemical with a mere small amount of exposure to a person can cause contact dermatitis- a rash that spreads all over the skin. This resin content can be transmitted by the fingers or animal fur and can remain dormant for months on clothing, shoes, and tools. Inhaling smoke from a burned poison ivy has a possibility of irritating a person’s eyes or nasal passages. But take note, poison ivy rash isn’t contagious. The fluid containing blister doesn’t contain urushiol and shall not spread the rash to another person.
Poison Ivy Rash Symptoms
The reaction from exposure and contact with poison ivy can either be irritant contact dermatitis or allergic contact dermatitis. The common signs and symptoms of poison ivy rash include:
- Red bumps that form a straight line or streaks, where the plant had contact with the skin
- Blisters and vesicles filled with fluid
The rash usually starts one or two days after contact, which may also take up to days. As the symptoms appear, they may continue to linger for many days up to 2 to 3 weeks due to the delay reaction from urushiols. This may also depend on the amount of the urushiols that a person has made contact with. Fortunately, the spreading of the rashes is not possible for it can only affect the local part inflicted with the resin urushiol.
Inhalation from the smoke from a burnt poison are rare instances but if it takes place: the eyes, airway, and lungs are affected. Complication shall arise when a person scratches the poison ivy rash with dirty nails. The condition may develop to secondary bacterial infection which will lead to blisters with pus drainage.
One should seek medical advice when the reaction has become severe and is widespread. If the rash affects sensitive areas of the body, seeing the doctor is needed. Development of oozing pus from blisters, high-grade fever, and a rash that takes more than weeks needs to be evaluated by a doctor.
Poison Ivy Rash Treatment
Education is truly important in order to avoid the distress of poison ivy rash. Prevention from poison ivy rash can be attained if one knows the source. Here are some facts that one should be aware of:
Identification of poison ivy
Know the appearance and the areas where we can find the wild plant.
When one is for a camping trip, due for hiking or activities outdoors, he or she should take precautions of the area. See to it that the area is free from wild plants that may be poison ivy.
Get rid of poison ivy
Some suburban homes may have wild plants that keep growing in the yard and may include poison ivy. Removal with the use of an herbicide is useful but should be done cautiously with heavy gloving and proper protection gears. Do not burn the plant for the possibility of emitting poisonous air.
Clean contaminated things
Since there is a possibility that your pet or some things may have gotten the resin urushiol, cleaning them is a must. Washing the clothing with detergent is necessary to avoid getting the resin. Bathe pets which are suspected to have made contact with the wild plant.
Wash skin with soap and water
Wash off the resin from skin with the use of soap as one got exposed to it. This can reduce the severity of the reaction but does not eliminate the possibility of a reaction.
Application of an over-the-counter barrier skin cream that contains bentoquatam (Ivy Block) is very useful. The component bentoquatam absorbs urushiol and prevents severe skin reaction.
As the condition has evolved to widespread rashes and large number of blisters, the doctor shall prescribe oral corticosteroids. As bacterial infection has developed at the site, oral antibiotics are recommended.
The reaction from the poison ivy would usually develop 12 to 48 hours after exposure and can last up to 8 weeks. This usually depends on the amount of the urushiol content exposed to a person. In severe cases, the rashes may flare up several days after exposure that may seem to be spreading.
The poison ivy rash is not contagious itself. But inanimate objects such as the clothing, shoes, tools and even pets can house the resin urushiol and transmit them to a person.
Relief from the rashes is the main aim for the treatment course. Home remedies are quite useful in the treating the rashes when the outbursts are not that severe:
- Corticosteroid creams are applied on the site 2 to 4 times a day
- Application of calamine lotion relieves the itchiness
- Oral antihistamine helps reduce itchiness and can facilitate rest
- Use of baking soda in a cool tub soak can relieve itchiness and the discomfort
- Compression of a wet cloth over the affected site promotes relief
- Oatmeal baths are said to promote relief from the discomfort
Some are proposed alternative medicines to control the symptoms of poison ivy rash:
- Bovine cartilage cream – has been found quite effective in clearing the poison ivy rash
- Deodorant – spraying a deodorant that contains aluminum chlorohydrate facilitates prevention of irritating the skin.
Poison Ivy Rash Pictures
Photos, Images and Pictures of Poison Ivy Rash…A small circle fits between two touching circles so that all three
circles touch each other and have a common tangent? What is the
exact radius of the smallest circle?
Two semicircle sit on the diameter of a semicircle centre O of
twice their radius. Lines through O divide the perimeter into two
parts. What can you say about the lengths of these two parts?
Ten squares form regular rings either with adjacent or opposite
vertices touching. Calculate the inner and outer radii of the rings
that surround the squares.
Two perpendicular lines are tangential to two identical circles that touch. What is the largest circle that can be placed in between the two lines and the two circles and how would you construct it?To graze or not to graze? Sheep, voles, forestry and nature conservation in the British uplands
Article first published online: 29 MAR 2006
Journal of Applied Ecology
Volume 43, Issue 3, pages 499–505, June 2006
How to Cite
EVANS, D. M., REDPATH, S. M., ELSTON, D. A., EVANS, S. A., MITCHELL, R. J. and DENNIS, P. (2006), To graze or not to graze? Sheep, voles, forestry and nature conservation in the British uplands. Journal of Applied Ecology, 43: 499–505. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2006.01158.x
- Issue published online: 29 MAR 2006
- Article first published online: 29 MAR 2006
- Received 2 August 2005; final copy received
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this practice originates from the early days of the web. “Click here” was an instruction to people who knew how to use a mouse on a computer, but were not yet familiar with the concept of links. Therefore, it was thought that the text of the link needed to literally instruct website visitors to click their mouse cursor directly there.
Today there is no doubt this is unnecessary as the concept of links is very well understood. In fact, there are some serious drawbacks to “click here” style link text, which we will get into soon. It’s actually questionable if this practice was ever needed in the first place. Accessibility expert Jakob Nielsen recommended against “click here” links as early as 1996!
Bad things that can happen with “click here”
Visual scanning of the page is foiled. Visitors to your website will scan down the page. Their eyes are naturally attracted to links as they stand out from the page and have an established significance. If your link just says “click here”, visitors may become frustrated. They are forced to spend extra time reading to understand the context of each link on the page to determine if it will take them closer to completing their goal on the website (such as finding out the per kilowatt hour price).
Screen reading software becomes less useful. A common task for screen reading software (used by site visitors with visual impairment or other disabilities) is to read a list of all links on a web page. If your link text for each link is simply “click here”, visitors using a screen reader will hear an unhelpful list of “click here, click here, click to learn more, click here, here, click to go to website”, etc.
Search engine optimization can be affected. One factor search engines use to organize and rank a page is by how other pages are related to that page. One part of this is the link text that the other pages use to link to the page. If the text is “click here”, search engines have a harder time understanding the relevance, which may cause the page to rank lower in search results. This is especially of practical concern if you are linking to other pages on your own website using “click here” link text. You aren’t doing yourself any favors in helping visitors find the destination page when using search engines.
Outdated language. Link text that says “click here” sounds outdated in a world where browsing from touch screen mobile devices (including some laptops) is common. For some visitors, it could even be confusing to be instructed to “click here” when they have no mouse to click with.
Redundancy and wasted space. Another pattern that emerges sometimes is having several sentences dedicated to describing a resource on another page and then also including a separate link with wording such as “visit the resource”. A better approach is to integrate the link directly into the description of the resource. Typically a good way to do this is by including the name of the resource at the beginning of the description and then using the name of the resource as your link text to direct people to that resource.
Best practices: what to use for link text instead
Generally, the advice of experts is simple when it comes to link text:
Use the minimum amount of words necessary to clearly explain where the link goes. It’s okay to use long phrases or even a sentence if needed. But try to avoid linking an entire paragraph as it can cause inconvenience for site visitors using a screenreader.
It’s also recommended that the link text begin with a keyword or the most important word. For example, instead of “John Smith Program 2021 Business Loan Application”, “Loan Application – Business – 2021 John Smith Program” puts the keyword “loan” first and the secondary keyword “application” right after it.
Following these practices means that the link will be easily scannable as your visitors scroll down your web page. It also means that visitors using a screenreader will have a clear idea of where each link goes, even out of context of the surrounding text.
In this blog post, I have been focused on “body text” — that is to say, the primary area of text on your web page, as opposed to header, sidebar, footer, and menu elements.
However, links don’t just appear in body text.
Dropdown menus, buttons, and footer links should all follow the same rule: the link text should clearly describe the link destination.The ICT Profile for Students web space was created mostly for teachers and students, but it is also useful for different contributors from the college network who can profit from a multitude of information and tools: general information on the ICT Profile, learning resources for students (and for us all!), testimonies and stories, pedagogical scenarios, Frequently Asked Questions, etc.
- Students find what they need to develop their ICT skills, but the many tutorials can also be used by anyone who wishes to improve their ICT and informational skills!
- Teachers benefit from a wealth of information on the integration and implementation of the ICT Profile in courses and in programs of study.
- College professionals, such as pedagogical counsellors, ICT counsellors and librarians, have access to information and resources to better support teachers and program teams.
- College administrators can learn about the ICT Profile for College Students, assess its relevance and inquire about ways to support its integration and implementation institutionally.
- As for the other players in the education network, this space will allow them to find out more on the ICT Profile, draw on the experiences of the college network, and eventually contribute to its development, or even propose activities to adapt to its environment.[Below is the original script. But a few changes may have been made during the recording of this audio podcast.]
Christmas trees are certainly green under all those baubles, lights and tinsel. But are they environmentally green? After all, cutting down a living tree for a few weeks of glory robs the planet of years worth of carbon dioxide absorbed within its growing trunk and needles.
But the alternative is a plastic tree made from oil and typically shipped from halfway around the world.
So which is better: wood or plastic?
Adding up all the carbon dioxide emitted in the manufacture of the fake tree and shipping it from China to the U.S. contributes only slightly more of the greenhouse gas than is absorbed in a year by the slowest growing trees. Fast-growing firs and pines suck up several times that amount of CO2 so cutting them down is bad.
But that's not the whole story. Real trees can be turned to mulch and when continuously grown and harvested sequester even more CO2 than a single tree living its full natural life in the wild. Plus, real trees are carbon neutral--cutting them down and disposing of them emits no more CO2 than they absorbed while growing--unlike the artificial trees that rely on fossil plankton.
Ultimately, a potted living tree is the greenest solution. They won't dry out in your living room and rather than spending an eternity in the local landfill, they can happily absorb planet-warming CO2 in your backyard.According to Einstein’s law of energy conservation energy can neither be created nor destroyed only converted from one form to another. This means that the only way to use the energy is to transform it.
Apply that to a vehicle taking energy from fuel and converting it to motion. That block of energy is then broken down into smaller blocks for movement forward and backward, heating and operating accessories.
One of the highlights of Future Propulsion Conference (2-3 March) still on Matthew Morris’s mind is a presentation given by one of the leading makers of construction vehicles & equipment on switching to zero emissions hydrogen.
Hydrogen is currently practically the only option for heavy-duty construction vehicles as pure electric does not provide enough energy and the load required would kill the batteries within a short period of time. Recharging would also be a problem for mining equipment working far underground -imagine the extension lead you would need for that!
Hydrogen is at least it is portable so you could have a tanker on site for refuelling. Out on the roads however, there is a very low number of hydrogen stations in the entire country where you can pull up and refuel.
Also the task of converting an ICE to run on hydrogen is very expensive, likewise developing biofuels from sustainable sources is also expensive.
It is for these reasons ICE will possibly never fully go away for this category of vehicles. As 2050 is the cut-off for zero emissions for HGVs and off-highway, one has to wonder if it is going to happen.
Meanwhile in automotive everyone is jumping on the electric bandwagon just at a time when encouragement for the consumer to adopt EVs is high but subsidies are much reduced. With plans to put in tens of thousands of charging stations in a bid to get more electrified cars on UK roads, the obvious big question is where is the power going to come from?Muscle deprogramming is simple in concept, but may be confusing in execution. Why? There are variations between individuals regarding the way their muscles respond and because the same individuals may respond differently on different days. The purpose of muscle deprogramming is generally to reduce or relax muscle activity levels to eliminate muscle pain, tension or discomfort. This now allows for an accurate examination of the relationship of the maxilla to the mandible with the muscles relaxed and the condyles in a fully seated position.1,2
Let's Talk About Muscle Deprogramming
The muscle that frequently prevents condylar seating is the lateral pterygoid – which is programmed to position the mandible to avoid pain and posterior interferences in the arc of closure. Deprogramming generally is done by placing something in the anterior that eliminates posterior occlusal contact like a Lucia jig, leaf gauge, bite plane, etc.3
This lack of posterior occlusal contact is now thought to allow the lateral pterygoid to release, since it no longer has to hold the mandible in an anterior or lateral position to avoid posterior tooth contacts. In addition, the contraction of the elevator muscles should aid in the stretching of the lateral pterygoids, as the elevator muscles want to seat the condyles when they contract.
All is simple and good, and most patients behave exactly as predicted – but some do not. What deprogramming can’t control is the other stimuli sent to the lateral pterygoid muscle. An example may be a nocturnal bruxer; they are sleeping comfortably, the teeth are apart, the pterygoids relaxed, they have an anterior bite plane in place but suddenly their sympathetic nervous system activates, arousing a cascade of events affecting their heart rate, brain activity and ultimately muscles. At that point the pterygoids go into hyper drive, moving the mandible, left, right, forward – even though the deprogrammer is in place. Several things could stimulate the sympathetic nervous system to start the cascade of events, airway issues, gastric reflux, emotional stress and other less clear possibilities.4
These patients typically do show signs or symptoms on their anterior teeth. These may include significant lingual wear of the maxillary anterior teeth, wear on the facial of mandibular anterior teeth and mobility or migration of the maxillary anteriors is a possibility.
The bruxing example is one example that could occur, and daytime bruxism is another. In these patients, deprogramming is very difficult, and in some, next to impossible. Most dentists have had a patient show up at the office who woke up that morning unable to bite on their back teeth even though they claim their bite was fine when they went to bed last night. In some, it even hurts to try and close on the back teeth. What is going on? Their lateral pterygoids are in spasm, stuck in a contracted state.
What Do We Do Now?
Your first thoughts are to make them an anterior deprogrammer to help the pterygoids release – but they already have one. Currently they are only touching their anterior teeth, and their anterior teeth are acting as a deprogrammer while there is no posterior contact. Why doesn’t the lack of posterior contact deprogram the lateral pterygoids? Because the signal they are getting to contract is overriding any mechanical deprogramming that would occur from a lack of posterior occlusion.
Interestingly enough, if you give the patient in this situation an Aqualizer, a posterior only appliance, it not only provides some comfort, but in a day or two their occlusion typically returns to normal as the pterygoids release and allow the mandible to retrude.
If these patients need significant dentistry, you have to be very careful. If you give them an anterior only appliance, such as an NTI or anterior bite plane for deprogramming, we expect their condyles to seat and their mandible to retrude. Instead they may end up contacting only their anterior teeth after removing the appliance one day, and only their posterior teeth after removing the appliance the next day.
One helpful aid for these patients is to have them keep a log. Every morning after they first remove the appliance, ask them to record where they feel the teeth hit first, front or back. If the posteriors hit first, the pterygoids probably released and are acting normally. If the next day the anterior teeth hit first, the pterygoids didn’t release with the deprogramming, they were stimulated to remain active. If you have a patient that has a log of multiple different answers (ie. out of 14 days, 10 times they were on their front teeth, and four times on their back teeth). Now you have a problem.
The temptation is to think that this patient needs you to build their intercuspal occlusion in a more forward position to accommodate the findings on the bite plane (ie. most of the time they were forward when they took the appliance out). But this has a problem. The other days they took the appliance out, the condyles were seated and they were on their back teeth. If you build their intercuspal occlusion in a forward position, now when the pterygoids release and the mandible goes back, you have no control over which teeth become posterior interferences and what they may do to those teeth.
The answer is that these unpredictable patients typically need their intercuspal occlusion created in a fully seated condylar position. Assuming they go there on the deprogrammer without pain, but then they need a tremendous amount of freedom to move forward while still maintaining posterior occlusal contacts before there anterior guidance takes over in essence, what may be thought of as a long centric.
Look at the Wear on the Patient's Teeth
These patients will typically show you evidence that they need this occlusion by the wear on their teeth. Heavy wear on first and second molars will show you they go back into a seated condylar position and parafunction there; heavy lingual wear on the maxillary anterior teeth and wear on the facial of mandibular teeth tells you they need greater anterior freedom of movement.
These are also patients where making your bite records using a flat deprogrammer such as a Lucia jig, or flat anterior stop has risks. This is due to the fact that it is very easy for them to bite forward on the deprogrammer and you perceive that as the position to build their intercuspal occlusion, when in reality, that may be showing you the position they need their anterior freedom of movement built to. My preference is to use a leaf gauge to make the bite record, assuring less risk of them posturing forward.5
Then make a custom incisal guide table from their mounted models using their existing pattern of wear to aid in setting up the anterior occlusal relationship and assuring adequate freedom of movement. Ultimately the provisional restoration becomes the testing ground to assure your anterior functional relationship is acceptable.
The good news is that this is not a large group of patients. In other words, most patients deprogram as expected, and the lateral pterygoids release as expected – but this patient, when encountered, is a difficult patient to manage, as their pterygoid activity can wreak havoc on restorative dentistry, especially on top of implants.
Lastly, if you are getting anterior points of contact frequently in normal patients after deprogramming, be aware of how you are getting the patient to close. For example, if you used an anterior bite plane, Lucia jig or any flat anterior stop, if you remove it and say bite, you may get a significant number of patients who close on their anterior teeth. If on the other hand you ask the patient to slide forward on the deprogrammer, then back, now try and squeeze on your back teeth, now open, remove the deprogrammer, and instruct them to let their jaw go back and close on your back teeth, you will find very few patients will posture forward.
- Angle Orthod. 1999 Apr;69(2):117-24; discussion 124-5. The use of a deprogramming appliance to obtain centric relation records. Karl PJ, Foley TF.
- Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop. 2006 May;129(5):619-30. Three-dimensional analysis of models articulated in the seated condylar position from a deprogrammed asymptomatic population: a prospective study. Part 1. Cordray FE.
- J Prosthet Dent. 1988 May;59(5):611-7. Simple application of anterior jig or leaf gauge in routine clinical practice. Carroll WJ, Woelfel JB, Huffman RW. Department of Restorative and Prosthetic Dentistry, Ohio State University, College of Dentistry, Columbus.
- Dent Clin North Am. 2012 Apr;56(2):387-413. doi: 10.1016/j.cden.2012.01.003. Sleep bruxism: a comprehensive overview for the dental clinician interested in sleep medicine.
Carra MC, Huynh N, Lavigne G.
- Eur J Prosthodont Restor Dent. 2004 Sep;12(3):125-8. Reliability of a measuring-procedure to locate a muscle-determined centric relation position. Zonnenberg AJ, Mulder J, Sulkers HR, Cabri R.A relatively new field on the rise, metabolomics is breaking ground identifying metabolites, giving a better understanding of what has happened and is happening within an organism. One roadblock to this research is the bottleneck of untargeted metabolites which all but prevents biological interpretation. However, thanks to a concerted effort among researchers, metabolomics is seeing gains in compound identification through improved reporting standards, better instrumentation, in silico advancements, and data interpretation guidelines.
Download this eBook from The Scientist to find out more about:
• Data Reduction Strategies
• Guidelines for Compound Identification
• Advancement of Databases and Libraries
• Untargeted Metabolomics Workflow
• Problems with Standards • Structural Elucidation Strategies
This free eBook was made possible by an educational grant from Thermo Fisher Scientific.Last Updated on December 12, 2021 by Carla Jonas
Estimated reading time: 28 minutes
100 billion pieces of clothing are produced worldwide each year and more than 15 million tons of used textile waste is generated in the United States alone. As a response to a trend-crazy world overwhelmed by the impacts of consumerism, slow fashion aims to refocus our energy towards shopping smarter, becoming more informed, and more mindful. Vivienne Westwood said it best: ‘Buy less, choose well, make it last.’ Simply put, slow fashion is a much-needed reaction to fast fashion.
Slow fashion is all about creating, as well as shopping for higher quality items that are designed to last. The growing movement encourages a variety of sustainable practices, including forming a connection with the environment and reducing toxins and waste. The principles of slow fashion include: sustainable materials, fewer collections, fair trade, minimizing waste, making great use of resources and transparency.
Familiar with the term ‘shopaholic’? In simple terms, a slow fashion convert is the exact opposite of that. Next, we’re tackling no less than 21 things you can do today to move from fast fashion to slow fashion. Every choice you make matters: from the clothes you pick to your earring types, shoes and bags. The good news is that everyone, regardless of budget, values and time constraints, can find ways to reduce their closet’s impact. Read on to find just what you can do – and how to do it – in simple, easy to-follow steps.
Slow Fashion – The Basics
Slow fashion is a concept that opposes fast fashion. The movement advocates for conscious production, distribution, as well as mindful consumerism, as a response to the fashion industry that is polluting and wasteful.
As opposed to fast fashion, slow fashion encourages initiatives to reduce the carbon footprint, child labor and other unethical industry practices. Moreover, sustainable fashion advocates for fair treatment, fair wages, good working conditions and fair trade. The use of sustainable and natural fabrics and conscious consumerism is encouraged.
Slow fashion garments predominantly come in natural and organic materials. The fabrics and the cuts are designed to last longer. In general, manufacturing slow fashion garments and accessories takes longer and the workers are paid fair wages, so the results are better quality-wise.
1. Treat Fashion Like Food to Avoid Waste and Toxins
We are what we eat – and we are what we wear. The easiest way to start on your slow fashion journey is to start thinking about your fashion choices the exact same way you think about your food choices and gain more information. Whether you are an avid label reader, eat exclusively organic or determined to shop smarter and aim for zero waste, the same principles apply to clothing. As a general rule, avoiding waste is imperative and just as important as making sure that you are not wrapping yourself in fabrics loaded with chemicals. Eco fashion respects ethical standards and uses mainly sustainable textiles. Here are some easy slow fashion principles and steps you can take in order to get you started:
- Read the labels in order to make sure they are of high quality, devoid of toxins (like synthetics, plastics and harmful dyes) and ideally organic.
- Similar to slow food, less means more when talking about slow fashion. This means fewer ingredients (instead of blends of 3+ fabrics) are preferable.
- Wasting food is definitely a no-go and so is wasting water. A single pair of jeans uses up to 10, 000 liters of water.
- Accept that just like good quality food, well-made clothes cost more.
2. Become a Smart Shopping Sherlock
Basically, when it comes to slow fashion, investigate before you buy. And not lightly so, but in true detective fashion – pun intended. Be smart about it and leave nothing to chance. Becoming a ‘Shopping Sherlock’ overnight might seem a tad overwhelming, but be patient. Always remember that it’s called ‘slow fashion’ for a reason, and that it because it takes time. Finding your go-to slow fashion brand might take a little time, but it is easily doable through social media.
- Connect with ethical fashion brands on social media, ask questions about their company and products, materials, sources, and production process.
- Read the About Us page of the fashion brands you are interested in. The more details they have about their commitment to slow fashion, the better.
- Dig deeper: Are they a trustworthy slow fashion brand? Where does the fabric come from? Are they actively against fast fashion? How do they place in terms of environmental performance? Where are the clothes made?
- Look up their certifications. Specifically, check whether the natural fabrics you intent on buying come with the GOTS certificate, which means they are monitored in every step of the full supply chain.
3. Ditch the ‘Barely Wear’ Culture and Save Big
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation released a report titled, A New Textile Economy, which details that the amount of clothing produced has doubled since the year 2000. On the other hand, clothing utilization, meaning the number of times a clothing item is worn, has decreased by 36% in the recent years, according to the same report. The cause of all of these: the opposite of slow fashion, aka the ‘barely wear’ culture (also accurately called ‘throwaway fashion’). These stats are significant, especially considering that the overwhelming majority of these throwaway clothes are simply discarded and just around 1% is actually recycled. The past decade has been especially worrisome. According to a 2015 study by the British charity Barnado’s, a woman wears a clothing item just seven times before throwing it away. And, sadly, things looked far more optimistic 6 years ago than they do today.
- Passive, yet important slow fashion action: simply continue wearing the clothes you own and don’t shop for something new.
- Do not throw anything away for 6 months – then reevaluate the items in your closet. If closet space is an issue for you, there’s always the option of renting a small, 5×5 self storage unit. It will pay off in the long run, as it allows you to hold on pieces of clothing you are not wearing right now, for one reason or another, but might need again in the future.
- Only depart with a high quality item (by donating it or selling it) if you haven’t worn it in the past 2 years.
4. Apply the 30 Wears Test for Easy Decisions
Here’s a trusted method that provides great results. Livia Firth, the founder of Eco Age (a company involved in accrediting brands for their sustainability and slow fashion practices) came up with ‘The 30 Wears Test’, a great resource for fashionistas. She created her #30 Wears campaign to stimulate fashion lovers to ditch impulse shopping and to only buy a piece if they know they will wear it.
- Before purchasing, ask yourself: ‘Will I wear this jacket or this pair of pearl earrings at least 30 times?’ If yes, head to checkout.
- If the answer is ‘no’, resist impulse shopping. No need to invest in items that won’t last longer than a season in your closet.
- Your number doesn’t have to be exactly 30. You are free to choose your standard as you see accordingly, depending on your lifestyle and needs. The only thing you really do need to do is, whether you’ve set your limit at 25 or 50: stick with it as an etalon for great style investments.
- Alternatively, you can opt for made to order clothing. You will be supporting local businesses and making sure the item you end up with will be worn 30+ times. Made to order clothes from the local seamstress might take more time to make, true. But you get to be involved in the design process, pick your fabrics and avoid overcomplicated supply chains.
5. Declutter & Create a Slow Fashion Capsule Wardrobe
Many over-consumerism issues start from a problem with a very simple solution: disorganization. In fact, 10% of women admit that they feel depressed every time they open doors of their wardrobe. At the same time, 57% of women believe that an organized closet makes it easier and quicker to find what they need. Moreover, 1 in 9 women are late for work because they are not able to find an outfit to wear. Curating a capsule wardrobe filled with quality staples is the obvious answer to these problems. Plus, capsule wardrobes are definitely in line with the cornerstones of slow fashion.
- Curate a color palette based on your personal style and stick to it.
- Select a base color (common options include black, grey, navy or beige) and build on that.
- Keep all your basics in neutral shades and add up to 3 accent colors and a few patterns if desired.
- Capsule wardrobes that follow slow fashion fundamentals are not large in number – so always choose quality before quantity.
- Only shop for sustainable textiles and versatile pieces you can wear in multiple combinations.
- Add a few carefully selected jewelry pieces and accessories – think versatility and timeless appeal before all.
6. Break up with Bad Influence(rs) to Achieve Your Goals
Decluttering is a big part of embarking on a slow fashion journey – but it doesn’t just refer to decluttering your closet. Fact is, a reorganization of your interests and actions is due – and that starts with a social media cleanup. Although we’d like to think that we aren’t influenced by, well, influencers (they call them so for a reason), the studies say otherwise. 55.2% of Gen Z respondents found their inspiration for their most recent online fashion purchase on social media. At the same time, 50.6% of Millennials are guilty of the same thing (Retail Wire). How to break up with the social media stars that simply aren’t the best slow fashion role models? See our list below.
- Unsubscribe from newsletters from influencers and brands that promote fast fashion. Doing so will save you money and hours of mindless scrolling and keep you on track with the slow fashion movement.
- Unfollow influencers who promote trends and fast fashion on social media. Most influencers promote clothes that are not made of sustainable textiles and that are trend-based.
- Identify your impulse shopping triggers and remove them (e.g.: watching clothing hauls on YouTube, following celebrities who wear a clothing item just once and so on).
- Find new sustainable fashion influencers to follow – ones that will inspire you to shop sustainably and ethically.
7. Stick to Natural Fabrics to Reduce Chemicals
Reality check: our cheap clothes are toxic. Toxicity depends on many factors – such as the dose of the chemicals used in the manufacturing process, the type of dyes and exposure period. A wide range of clothing items, starting with denim dyed with cancer-causing chemicals to clothes labeled ‘wrinkle-free’ or ‘waterproof’ are notoriously toxic. Basically, far from sustainable fashion – and far from ethical fashion. But unpleasant chemicals can be found in everything from cotton (which is highly sprayed with pesticides) to, obviously, synthetic fabrics like polyester, nylon, acrylic, rayon and lycra. In addition to releasing micro-plastics, oil based synthetic materials are not biodegradable. Before you purchase a new garment, make sure to get informed about ecotextiles and natural fabrics. Here are some good options you can start incorporating in your wardrobe today:
- Linen – As one of the oldest natural fabrics used in clothing, linen is natural, safe, supple enough for clothing and made out of the flax plant, which takes months to grow.
- Organic Cotton – Unlike cotton (over 90% of regular cotton is genetically modified), the organic variety is not sprayed with pesticides. This means you, the workers and the local vegetation and animals are protected. Sustainable fashion goals: check!
- Wool – Produced naturally by sheep, goats and alpacas, wool is a great alternative for fall and winter clothing.
- Peace Silk – As the more eco-friendly version of silk, this luscious fabric is the result of a slow, natural production possible with the help of silkworms.
- Hemp – Closely related to linen, hemp has been grown for thousands of years, and it’s currently used in combination with cotton for a softer feel.
- Leather – Long-lasting and flexible leather can be produced and processed in different ways, with the most sustainable option being used or upcycled or leather.
8. Opt for Timeless Jewelry: ‘No’ to Fads, Yes to Classics
Slow fashion is not just about your clothes – it also pertains to the accessories and the jewelry pieces you choose. Rule number one: choose made-to-last, eco friendly and sustainable fashion jewelry and accessories. Make quality based choices whenever you are shopping for something new. It is always better to own a few things that you actually wear than own a massive amount of jewelry you do not like. Avoid mass production items or companies that sell cheap items in large quantities and opt for higher quality pieces that last a long time. Poorly made, trendy jewelry that loses its luster after a few wears is definitely a thing of the past once you’re committed to the slow fashion path. Here are some of the basic steps you can take in this direction.
- Invest in wardrobe staples and pieces without an expiration date – think quality over quantity.
- Avoid shopping trends and fading jewelry trends.
- Opt for locally crafted jewelry pieces that use premium materials designed to last longer.
- Choose natural over faux. Switch imitation jewelry for fine jewelry featuring natural gemstones.
- Choose designs that can be worn with a wide range of outfits, such as gemstone or pearl jewelry. Opt for classic stud earrings like ethically sourced diamond or pearl earrings, sleek hoops, a classic pearl necklace and elegant pendants.
A classic pearl pendant will take you from brunch to the office to the cocktail party with ease. Versatile, timeless, and far more than a trend, pearl pendants featuring precious gems like Freshwater Pearls, Tahitian black gemstones, Akoya gems or mother of pearl are pieces worth investing in. Plus, due to their classic appeal, they simply never go out of style. Shop our collection of Pearl Pendants featuring natural cultured pearls, designed to stand the test of time.
9. Ditch Impulse Shopping for a Shift in Mindset
Resisting the urge to impulse buy is no easy task. After all, fast fashion is fun and appealing – and the fashion industry can be very persuasive. But, good news, there’s definitely a way to tackle our shopaholic tendencies. Whether buying for the new season, updating your jewelry box with pink gemstones bling or tying the knot and shopping for your entire wedding arsenal, the urge to impulse shop is strong. Shopping for a new piece of clothing weekly instead of investing in versatile pieces is a root cause of fast fashion. Data shows that the average shopper will make no less than 3 impulse purchases in 4 out of every 10 store visits they make. Verdict: not very slow fashion friendly. And even more staggering: consumers spend roughly $5,400 a year on impulse purchases (CNBC). Here are 3 trusted methods to combat your impulses and shop smarter:
- Set a limit, such as buying one item a month. Doing this will force you to make sure that you are buying the best possible item out there and invest time and thought before purchasing.
- Alternatively, set a rule of waiting 24 hours before actually buying an item you desire. Fast fashion fades – and so will your desire to opt for it.
- Another method to ditch impulse buying is to calculate the item’s value in time. For example, if you make $30 / hour after taxes, that wool sweater is costing you 6 hours of work (and you get to decide if it’s worth it or not).
FACT: In 1930, the average American woman owned a total of 9 outfits. These days, women own a total of around 30 outfits.Click to tweet
10. Take Care of Your Clothes to Make Them Last
One of the most important aspects of slow fashion is to make sure the garments you invest in will last for a long time. The fashion industry often makes sure that that won’t happen. But from religiously following the label instructions to natural ways to keep pests at bay, there is a wide range of methods and tips when it comes to making sure you’ll still be able to wear your favorite clothes in 5 years’ time. Here are a few of the sustainable fashion basics you can start applying today:
- Protect your clothes while cooking to avoid staining.
- Use a laundry bag for delicates to prevent potential damage.
- Always sort your laundry accordingly.
- Always make sure to respect the washing indications on the label.
- Wash clothes inside out to prevent distressing.
- Hang your clothes dry instead of using the tumble dryer.
- Natural fabrics (especially wool) attract moths, which you can combat by using cedar oil and lavender.
- Avoid over-washing – an essential slow fashion fundamental that is easy to do.
FACT: The average woman spends almost 400 hours a year shopping, which means 8.5 years spent shopping during a lifetime.Click to tweet
11. Slow Fashion: Thoughtful, Thrifting and Thriving
Big brands used to release 2 main collections every year: Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter. These days, the fashion industry is at an all time crazy peak. The facts: the big names are releasing a whopping 52 “micro-seasons” per year. In other words, we’re looking at one collection / week. Fact is, the fast fashion industry is designed to make you think you are out of style after just one week. Ephemeral trends are currently dictating purchasing habits. One of the easiest ways to refuse being part of the problem? Slow fashion solution: opting for second hand items and shopping at thrift stores. In with the old clothes, out with the new clothes! Going thrift shopping means you are actively keeping plastics out of landfills, as well as contributing to the decrease in demand for fast fashion.
- Go thrift shopping with a list in order to prevent impulse-buying and over-spending.
- Visit places like Vestiaire Collective, Tradesy or Rebelle for second hand designer fashion.
- Set a budget and don’t make excuses like ‘but it’s only $5!’. Buying items just because they are cheap is not in line with sustainable fashion principles.
- There’s a lot to choose from when thrift shopping, so prioritize quality natural fabrics and filling in the gaps in your wardrobe.
- A sustainable approach is to shop vintage leather in thrift stores instead of buying new and increasing demand.
12. Become a Renter, Not a Buyer
Overproduction is the root cause of many global issues. Poor working conditions, dismissal of fair trade practices, fair treatment and human rights, increased carbon footprint to mention a few. Plus, the issues of forced labor and child labor. As opposed to what you’d be advised when hunting for a home, when it comes to slow fashion or ethical fashion, it often makes sense to be a committed renter rather than a buyer. But how does this work and how often should you rent?
Becoming a renter will help in reducing the environmental impact of clothing production by up to 50%. That is a lot. Moreover, renting will allow you to save money and invest in what is essential. The bigger chunk of your budget should go into pieces you wear all the time instead of one-show ponies required exclusively for special occasions. Slow fashion and ethical fashion will definitely save you money.
- Figure out how many times you will be wearing a certain item you want to purchase.
- If the number is anywhere around 1-10 times, renting is the obvious solution.
- As a general slow fashion rule, aim to rent any piece you plan on wearing to a special occasion, such as a major milestone, anniversary or wedding. Investing money and closet space into an item that will sit and collect dust is not slow fashion-oriented.
- Opt for services like Renttherunway that allow you to still enjoy trendy designer rentals.
FACT: The average adult between the ages of 25-34 spends $161 per month on clothes, while adults aged 35-44 spend $209 per month.Click to tweet
13. Don’t Buy Anything for a Month and Set New Goals
Buying clothes is a hobby for many – after all, treating fashion as a hobby is one of the causes of excessive production. This next tip does not involve you taking action – quite the contrary. Fact is, when it comes to slow fashion, some of the most impactful measures you can take is to appreciate what you have and curb your
need wish for having more. As in more clothes. Or newer clothes. Or both. Here’s what you can do:
- Step one: don’t buy
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story of one girl and the struggles her and her family endured.Sets and Logic Teacher Resources
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Kindergarten: Operations and Algebraic Thinking K.OA.4
K - 2nd CCSS: Designed
Make addition a game with this basic 10-frame lesson, which includes a template for the cards used in an interactive math game. The cards are simple 10-frames, numbered 1-9, each with the corresponding boxes filled in. Partners take...
Kindergarten: Operations and Algebraic Thinking K.G.4
Pre-K - 1st CCSS: Designed
How do we sort shapes? Using an extensive collection of cut-out shapes, your young scholars challenge themselves to sort and organize based on various attributes. A template is provided with forty-nine shapes, which you cut out for...Honey bees and beekeeping
The Northern Territory (NT) has a small but important honey bee and beekeeping industry. Most honey produced is exported.
The main species used is the European honey bee, which has many wild colonies in the Top End.
These pages are for apiarists who want to know more about beekeeping, importing and exporting in the NT.
Last updated: 30 March 2016In his recent book From Sasanian Mandaeans to Ṣābians of the Marshes, Kevin T. van Bladel reopens old questions on the origins of Mandaeans and, armed with his characteristic erudition, fixes the topic on more secure historical and social footings. He has three major arguments: 1) the Mandaeans emerged as a distinct community in fifth-century Sasanian Persia not in the third century, as is widely assumed; 2) Mandaeans not only absorbed earlier teachings and texts from an earlier group called the Nazoreans, but they also distinguished themselves from a rival “sister” community called the Kentaeans; 3) The Sasanian emperors had a habit of pillaging pagan temples, which led to their decline and the emergence of Mandaeans, Kentaeans, and other types of “Syro-Mesopotamian” groups. Methodologically, van Bladel breaks with other scholars of Mandaeism by moving away from a “comparative religions” approach that approaches the emergence of Mandaeism through other “Syro-Mesopotamian” religions in favor of a historical approach that tracks the development of Mandaeism “with respect to larger social contexts situated in specific times” (4). Van Bladel thus works from within the Mandaean tradition and with a careful eye to external references to uniquely Mandaean ideas in order to tease out a reliable historical scaffolding for the emergence of Mandaeism.I noted the publication of the book here in 2016.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.Gothenburg, Sweden — A new type of nanocatalyst can result in the long-awaited commercial breakthrough for fuel cell cars. Research results from Chalmers University of Technology and Technical University of Denmark show that it is possible to significantly reduce the need for platinum, a precious and rare metal, by creating a nanoalloy using a new production technique. The technology is also well suited for mass production.
The principle: Nanoalloys of platinum and yttrium are created using sputtering in a vacuum chamber. This is done by directing plasma at a piece of platinum with small attached pieces of yttrium. The nanometre-thin alloy films effectively transform oxygen and protons into water. It is this reaction that causes the fuel cell to generate electricity.
„A nano solution is needed to mass-produce resource-efficient catalysts for fuel cells. With our method, only one tenth as much platinum is needed for the most demanding reactions. This can reduce the amount of platinum required for a fuel cell by about 70 per cent”, comments Björn Wickman, researcher at the Department of Physics at Chalmers.
To reduce the amount of platinum
If this level of efficiency is possible to achieve in a fuel cell, the amount of required platinum would be comparable to what is used in an ordinary car catalytic converter. “Hopefully, this will allow fuel cells to replace fossil fuels and also be a complement to battery-powered cars”, says Björn Wickman. Even though there have been fuel cell cars for about fifty years, advances have not led to a commercial breakthrough. The catalysts in today’s fuel cells require large amounts of platinum, which is one of the world’s most expensive metals.
Previous research has shown that it is possible to mix platinum with other metals, such as yttrium, to reduce the amount of platinum in a fuel cell. Even so, no one has yet managed to create alloys with these metals in nanoparticle form in a manner that can be used for large-scale production. The major problem has been that yttrium oxidizes instead of forming an alloy with the platinum.
Mass-produced fuel cell catalysts available
This problem has now been solved by Chalmers researchers by combining the metals in a vacuum chamber using a technique called sputtering. The result is a nanometre-thin film of the new alloy that allows mass-produced platinum and yttrium fuel cell catalysts. To use the new material, today’s fuel cells need to change slightly, but doing so creates incredible opportunities.
“When we can use our resources better, we save both the environment and lower costs. Fuel cells convert chemical energy into electrical energy using hydrogen and oxygen – with water as the only product. They have huge potential for sustainable energy solutions in transport, portable electronics and energy”, says Niklas Lindahl, researcher at the Department of Physics at Chalmers.
The results were recently published in the journal Advanced Materials Interfaces.
Author: Text: Mia Halleröd Palmgren
Source: Chalmers University of Technology and Technical University of DenmarkEnhancing adherence to medications
Medication is an essential tool in the clinician's armamentarium yet it is estimated that 50% of patients with a chronic health condition fail to adhere to prescribed treatments. This chapter outlines what we mean by adherence and the implications of nonadherence in chronic health conditions. Difficulties in measuring adherence are discussed, followed by a brief review of theoretical models used to explain nonadherence. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the major practical issues that affect patient adherence and strategies for clinical intervention.Psychologist Inna Fishman’s research indicates the presence of biological markers in the brain in children with autism.
By Jeff Ristine
Think of the brain as a complex transportation hub, a place where neural traffic heads off in any number of directions to make connections while processing something as simple as a mother’s smile.
Now consider the same center in a child with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). At a time different parts of the brain are supposed to be talking to each other or working together, this traffic—the communication between different regions of the brain—takes unexpected exits and detours for no apparent reason.
A team of San Diego State University researchers, studying MRI scans of school-age children’s brains, found just such unique patterns of neural communication involving the amygdala, the area of the brain responsible for processing social information. In children with ASDs, the amygdala connections with other parts of the brain proved to be weaker with some regions —and stronger with others—when compared with typically developing children of the same age.
A region of the brain showing marked differences connecting with the amygdala was the occipital cortex, located in the rear of the brain. It is involved in encoding facial expressions, gaze and other facial cues, said SDSU psychologist Inna Fishman, who led research.
The findings point to possible brain “markers” for autism spectrum disorders to further characterize the condition in biological and not just behavioral terms. Fishman said such markers could potentially become a tool in identifying autism in children with this developmental disorder, which can impair social communication and interaction.
“The patterns of amygdala connections are very unique in autism,” said Fishman. “What we found is not necessarily something I would predict. We measured connections of the amygdala with the entire brain, and the findings with the visual cortex kind of surprised me.”
Fishman, co-author Ralph-Axel Müller, along with colleagues contributing to the research, published their results in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
Fishman is founding director of the SDSU Center for Autism, an interdisciplinary group of researchers and clinical scientists from multiple SDSU colleges and departments. Müller is director of SDSU’s Brain Development Imaging Laboratories. The work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.
Results were based on brain imaging from 55 children, aged 7 to 17, identified with ASDs and compared with 55 typically developing children of the same age.
The functional MRI used in the research measures how brain activity changes over time—in this case, a period of six minutes. It provides a picture of ongoing communication between different brain regions, known as “functional connectivity,” showing how synchronized the amygdala’s activity is with other brain areas.
The MRIs revealed weaker connections between the amygdala and the occipital cortex, Fishman said. In addition, the MRIs showed that the expected strengthening of connections between amygdala and the frontal cortex that takes place during adolescence in typically developing youth was entirely absent in the ASD participants.
This absence of a continuing brain maturation associated with typical adolescence could contribute to the social communication difficulties experienced by those with ASDs as they reach their teenage years and young adulthood, Fishman said.
Fishman emphasized there may be some form of disrupted coordination between the amygdala and other points in the brain, though it’s not yet possible to say whether this causes any of the differences in social functioning seen in children with ASDs.
That’s partly because of the age of the children in the study. “Having scanned kids who are 10, 12 or 14 years old, and having found differences at this age doesn’t allow us to make inferences about what might have caused these differences to emerge in the first place,” she said. “By that point, the connections in the brain are formed and already quite established.”
As a follow-up, Fishman is studying brain connectivity and organization in toddlers and preschoolers with ASDs, when their autism symptoms first manifest. She hopes to learn more about whether the early behaviors seen in children with ASDs lead to the atypical connection patters or the other way around.
Overall, understanding the biology behind ASDs “brings us closer, incrementally” to improved clinical decisions concerning diagnosis or prognosis of ASDs, and possibly to more targeted, tailored interventions focusing on specific brain circuits based on the level of unique brain connections identified in the brain, Fishman said.Who gets arthritis? Doctor-diagnosed arthritis is more common in women (26%) than in men (18%). In some types, such as Rheumatoid arthritis, women far outnumber men. Nearly a third of US citizens are affected by osteoarthritis of the knee by age 70. ‘Arthritis in Knee’ is a debilitating form of arthritis. The knee may become affected by almost any form of arthritis. The word ‘arthritis’ refers to inflammation of the joints. Types of arthritis include those related to wear and tear of cartilage, such as osteoarthritis, to those associated with inflammation resulting from an overactive immune system. In view of the huge medical treatment cost, and a number of people affected globally, let us know Arthritis in Knee, causes, diagnosis, and learn some of the treatment options in Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, and Free Siddha Energy Remedies, without money and medicine.
- By conservative estimates, about 54 million adults have doctor-diagnosed arthritis
- Almost 300,000 babies and children have arthritis or a rheumatic condition
- The most common type of arthritis is osteoarthritis, which affects an estimated 31 million Americans
- The number of people expected to have doctor-diagnosed arthritis by the year 2040: more than 78 million
Almost two-thirds of adults in the U.S. with arthritis are of working age (18-64 years). Arthritis is much more common among people who have other chronic conditions:
- 49% of adults with heart disease have arthritis
- 47% of adults with diabetes have arthritis
- 31% of adults who are obese have arthritis
- Adult-onset Still’s disease
- Ankylosing Spondylitis
- Back Pain
- Behçet’s Disease
- Calcium Pyrophosphate Deposition Disease (CPPD)
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Chondromalacia Patella
- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
- Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
- Cryopyrin-Associated Periodic Syndromes (CAPS)
- Degenerative Disc Disease
- Developmental-Dysplasia of Hip
- Diffuse Idiopathic Skeletal Hyperostosis
- Familial Mediterranean Fever
- Fifth Disease
- Giant Cell Arteritis
- Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis
- Infectious Arthritis
- Inflammatory Arthritis
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease
- Juvenile Arthritis
- Juvenile Dermatomyositis (JD)
- Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA)
- Juvenile Scleroderma
- Kawasaki Disease
- Lupus in Children & Teens
- Lyme Disease
- Mixed Connective Tissue Disease
- Myositis (inc. Polymyositis, Dermatomyositis)
- Palindromic Rheumatism
- Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome
- Pediatric Rheumatic Diseases
- Pediatric SLE
- Polymyalgia Rheumatica
- Psoriatic Arthritis
- Raynaud’s Phenomenon
- Reactive Arthritis
- Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy
- Reiter’s Syndrome
- Rheumatic Fever
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Sjögren’s Disease
- Spinal Stenosis
- Systemic Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis
- Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
- Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in Children & Teens
- Systemic Sclerosis
- Temporal Arteritis
Arthritis in Knee Causes
It is not always certain why arthritis in knee develops. The knee may become affected by almost any form of arthritis, including those related to mechanical damage of the structures of the knee:
- Osteoarthritis, and
- Post-traumatic arthritis
There are various autoimmune forms of arthritis:
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Juvenile arthritis
- SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus) related arthritis
- Psoriatic arthritis, and
- Ankylosing spondylitis
Some arthritis due to infectious causes:
- Lyme disease-related arthritis
- Gouty arthritis
- Reactive arthritis
Osteoarthritis of the knee
The Arthritis in Knee is one of the joints most commonly affected by osteoarthritis. Cartilage in the knee may begin to break down after sustained stress, leaving the bones of the knee rubbing against each other and resulting in osteoarthritis.
Obesity is a known and very significant risk factor for the development of osteoarthritis. Risk increases proportionally to body weight. Obesity contributes to osteoarthritis (OA) development not only by increasing the mechanical stress exerted upon the knees when standing, but also leads to increased production of compounds that may cause joint inflammation.
Parity is associated with an increased risk of knee OA and the likelihood of knee replacement. The risk increases in proportion to the number of children the woman has birthed. This may be due to weight gain after pregnancy, or increased body weight and consequent joint stress during pregnancy.
Flat feet are a significant risk factor for the development of osteoarthritis. Additionally, structural deformities, advanced age, female sex, past joint trauma, genetic predisposition, and certain at-risk occupations may all contribute to the development of osteoarthritis in general.
Lyme disease-related Arthritis in Knee
Arthritis in Knee is often the first joint affected in Lyme disease.
SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus)
Arthritis is a common symptom of SLE. Arthritis is often symmetric and more often involves small joints. Though almost any joint may be affected, arthritis in knee and joints of the hands are most often involved in SLE. In larger joints, avascular necrosis is a possible complication, leading to further pain and disability.
These arthritides often present with lower limb oligoarthritis, including that of the knee.
Arthritis of a single joint of the lower extremities with rapid onset is highly suggestive of gouty arthritis. The knee may sometimes be affected. In cases of gouty arthritis of the knee, skin symptoms occur less often, however pain and swelling may be particularly intense.
RA most often first manifests as inflammation of the particular finger or toe joints, however, pain and swelling of larger joints, including the knees, may also be the first sign.
Arthritis in Knee diagnosis
Osteoarthritis of the knee
Diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis often entails a physical examination, assessment of symptoms and the patient’s medical history, but may also involve medical imaging and blood tests. Persistent knee pain, limited morning stiffness and reduced function, crepitus, restricted movement, and bony enlargement appear to be the most useful indications of knee osteoarthritis for diagnosis.
Standardized medical questionnaires like the Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) and short form KOOS JR or the Knee Injury and Osteopaedic Outcome Score (WOMAC) can also be used to diagnose and monitor the progression of knee osteoarthritis.
Arthritis in Knee management
A physician will recommend a treatment regimen based upon the severity of symptoms. General recommendations for the management of knee arthritis may include avoiding activities that aggravate the condition, and applying cold or warm packs and using ointments and creams to relieve symptoms.
Pharmaceutical management is usually dependent upon the nature of the underlying condition causing arthritis. Over-the-counter medications like:
- Acetaminophen (paracetamol)
- Naproxen, and
- Other NSAIDs are often used as first-line medical treatments for pain relief and/or managing inflammation.
- Corticosteroids may be injected directly into the joint cavity to provide more significant relief from inflammation, swelling, and pain.
Other medications used in the management of arthritis of the knee include:
- Disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs
- Viscosupplementation (including hyaluronic acid injections)
- Glucosamine, and
- Chondroitin sulfate
Hyaluronic acid is normally present in joints (including the knee), acting as a lubricant and providing shock absorption, among other functions. In osteoarthritis, there is a loss of articular hyaluronic acid activity, likely contributing to pain and stiffness associated with the condition.
Hyaluronic acid injections are an FDA-approved treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee and are sometimes also used for other joints. However, the merits of HA injections are still disputed.
HA injections are indicated when other medications fail to offer adequate symptom relief. Symptom relief associated with HA injections may last up to 2 years after injection. HA injections appear to offer significant pain relief to some patients, while others may see no benefits at all.
Supportive devices like knee braces can be used for symptom relief in osteoarthritis of the knee. Knee braces may, however, result in discomfort, skin irritation, swelling, and may not provide benefits to all. Using a cane, shock-absorbent footwear and inserts, elastic bandages, and knee sleeves may also be helpful for managing arthritis symptoms.
Braces may be especially effective when only one knee is affected. Shoe insoles that are fitted to correct flat feet provide significant relief to those with severely flat feet. However, it has been found that insoles used to correct medial knee osteoarthritis (the more common form) may not offer much pain relief.
Obesity is a known and very significant risk factor for the development of osteoarthritis. Furthermore, losing weight reduces mechanical stress acting upon the knees when standing, possibly reducing pain and improving function in knee osteoarthritis. However, it is necessary to ascertain whether the patient is actually overweight before committing to weight loss as a management technique.
Exercises can help increase the range of motion and flexibility as well as help strengthen the muscles in the leg. Physical therapy and exercise are often effective in reducing pain and improving function.
Surgical intervention may be undertaken if no other management technique yields adequate relief. These procedures may entail an Arthroscopy (seldom used for sole osteoarthritis), Osteotomy (performed only for unilateral early-stage osteoarthritis), or Arthroplasty.
Knee replacement is the most definitive treatment for Osteoarthritis-related symptoms and disability. It is a type of Arthroplasty and may involve either a partial or total replacement with a prosthesis.
Arthritis in Knee treatment – Alternative medicine
Alternative medicine interventions undertaken for pain relief for Arthritis in Knee include Acupuncture and Magnetic Pulse Therapy.
Arthritis in Knee treatment – Ayurveda
Hot water fermentation is the best therapy to relieve Arthritis pain, considering it soothes your joints and helps them function better. This is only recommended when the case is not severe.” Ayurveda is said to suggest some herbs that can help relieve joint pain, especially during winter.
Here are some herbs suggested by Ayurveda expert, Dr. Tyagi that you can try using at home in order to get some relief from the arthritis-related pain.
The Nirgundi plant is easily available and is known to reduce swelling as well as excessive pain. One can use the Nirgundi oil and apply it on joints, make a paste of the leaves and apply or also make a leaf decoction.
Ajwain acts as a natural aid to arthritis pain. All you need to do is to add a spoonful of carom seeds or Ajwain in a tub of hot water and soak your aching joints in the water and sit for 5-10 minutes; this will help ease swelling and pain. Another way is to crush these seeds and make a paste and apply it on the affected areas in order to alleviate the pain. Alternatively, you can drink Ajwain water every day.
Dashmool is not one ayurvedic herb but a mix of ten medicinal herbs that are used to cure a variety of ailments. Dashmula or Dahmool is effective in inflammatory conditions in the body or Vata Rog. Its anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, analgesic and sedative properties help cure joint pain. It is available in the form of oil and powder.
Shallaki herb is known to keep your joints strong and relieve them from any pain. It not only reduces the pain but also helps in diminishing the swelling and further increases mobility. Popularly known as Boswellia Serrata, Shallaki is also sometimes used by experts as a substitute for modern painkillers. It is available in the form of essential oil and powder.
Eucalyptus oil makes for the most common herbal treatment for arthritis. The eucalyptus plant leaves contain tannins that may be helpful in reducing swelling and the pain arthritis causes. The aroma of eucalyptus oil is said to have calmative effects on the brain, while the oil relieves you from the pain and swelling in the joints.
Yet another reason to store ginger in your kitchen cabinet. Ginger is known for its exceptional antiseptic properties that help reduce joint pain and swelling. It is also known to increase blood circulation, which brings heat and healing properties to the affected areas. You can drink ginger tea or apply the ginger paste on your joints and can also apply a good quality essential oil.
While these herbs may prove to bring a respite to arthritis pain, it is important to consult with your doctor before switching to these ayurvedic medicines.
Arthritis in Knee treatment – Homeopathy
Homeopathy treatment for arthritis is the best way to get a cure with no possibility of side effects. Arthritis Homeopathy treatment is a lasting cure compared to other treatment and also gives relief within a short period of time. Homeopathic treatment requires completing the doses of medicine as prescribed by the physician.
Arthritis in Knee treatment – Naturopathy
Here are some arthritis treatment tips from a few of our naturopathic doctors who have a lot of experience with how to relieve arthritis pain:
- Combating inflammation. Naturopathic medicine provides various anti-inflammatory supplements depending on the type of arthritis you’re suffering from. An anti-inflammatory diet along with acupuncture can also have a big impact on your arthritis.
- Physical activities that take the weight off the joints such as swimming, water walking, and water aerobics can help relieve arthritis.
- Natural remedies for arthritis pain. Some of the things you can do by yourself to treat arthritis are to exercise regularly and adopt a healthy diet with fewer processed foods. And although it’s not the first thing most people think of, meditation can go a long way to help you deal with the pain.
- Acupuncture for arthritis pain management. Acupuncture brings effective arthritis pain relief both in the short and long term.
Arthritis in Knee & Free Siddha Energy Remedies
1. Siddha preventive measures for Arthritis in Knee
Everybody must practice Siddha preventive measures, whether affected with knee arthritis or not, but they are the primary steps for switching on to any other Siddha energy remedies, and hence they are important. It helps in one’s capability, effectiveness, and productivity, decision making power, intellectuality and removing minor health problems. There are three types of preventive measures:
- Earthing – performed for earthing the negativity of our body
- Field Cleaning – cleans energy field (Aura) of our body
- Siddha Brain Exercise/Energizing – energizes our brain for proper functionality
Everybody’s tendency is to get attracted toward the word ‘free‘, however, don’t neglect even these Siddha preventive measures are free. Avail the benefits by practicing them sincerely, and regularly. For the ease of understanding Siddha preventive measures, please watch a video for a live demonstration.
2. Siddha Shaktidata Yog Arthritis in Knee
This unique Siddha Shaktidata Yog of Siddha Spirituality can solve the problems related to Arthritis in Knee with free Siddha energy remedies. There is no compulsion of training of ‘Swami Hardas Life System’ methods. This not only gives benefits to self but also it can be used for other affected persons, whether a person is in the same house, distantly available in the same city, same nation or maybe in any corner of the world, however, both the procedures have been explained here.
3. Siddha Kalyan Sadhana for Arthritis in Knee
Recite this Sadhana with a Sankalp “My problems of Arthritis in Knee are solved as early as possible and I should gain health”, which should be repeated in mind 3 – 3 times every after each stanza. Any person irrespective of caste, creed, religion, faith, sex, and age can recite this Sadhana for free, which should be repeated at least twice in a day. To know more, please click on this link.
4. CCPE products for Arthritis in Knee
These products work on the concepts of ‘Conceptual Creative Positive Energy’ (CCPE) within the provisions of ‘CCPE Life System’ and the theory of Quantum Technology to a certain extent. However, the products get activated only whenever touched by a human and then they become capable of solving the problem and achieving health. However, please use these products for solving problems of Arthritis in Knee as mentioned below:
CCPE Extractor: The CCPE Extractor should be gently moved over the Agya Chakra in a circular motion at least for 30 to 60 seconds, thereafter, follow the same process on the knee (s) for another 30 to 60 seconds, which will convert negativity into positivity. This is how the process for Arthritis in Knee finishes within almost 2 minutes.
CCPE Booster: Keep one Booster over the Agya Chakra and another one each over the knee (s) for 3 – 5 minutes. You may need to have 3 Boosters and the process would finish within almost 3 – 5 minutes, which establishes positivity. This is how the process for Arthritis in Knee finishes within almost 5 minutes.
In view of the above, I am confident that you have learned about Arthritis in Knee, types, causes, diagnosis, and learned some of the treatment options in Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, and free Siddha energy remedies. Now, you have become an all-rounder, hence its right time to use your acquired knowledge for solving related problems as per ‘Arthritis in Knee & free Siddha Energy Remedies’ for free.
The sufferers and also their family members know how critical and difficult life is with Arthritis in Knee! However, keep learning and practicing the free Siddha Energy Remedies, which would help guide how to solve problems of Arthritis in Knee, without money and medicines.
The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the concerned site owners. Siddha Spirituality For Health is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information on this article. However, it is advisable to consult a specialist in the concerned field before availing the benefits. Hence we do not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.Swift is a multi-paradigm, compiled programming language created by Apple Inc. for iOS and OS X development. Introduced at Apple's 2014 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Swift is designed to work with Apple's Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks and the large body of existing Objective-C code written for Apple products. Swift is intended to be more resilient to erroneous code ("safer") than Objective-C, and also more concise. It is built with the LLVM compiler framework included in Xcode 6, and uses the Objective-C runtime, allowing C, Objective-C, C++ and Swift code to run within a single program, but its proprietary nature may hinder Swift's adoption outside the Apple ecosystem.
Swift is a replacement for the Objective-C language that employs contemporary programming language theory concepts and strives to present a simpler syntax. During its introduction, it was described simply as "Objective-C without the C".Can Beginning ESL Students use Chromebooks?
Saturday, March 2, 2019
Session 5: 9:00 AM-9:50 AM, Room 23
Garden Grove Unified School District
Demonstration (1 hour)
Yes! Even Beginning ESL students can learn how to be successful using Chromebooks or Google apps. This presentation demonstrates how breaking down the steps to make a Gmail account, showing students Google apps and extensions, and the power of typing will allow them to be more tech savvy and successful for future college and career readiness. Don't let the level of English stop you from giving them more opportunities using technology on their own.
Category: BL, TI
- ABE: Adult Basic Education
- ASE: Adult Secondary Education
- CTE: Career Technical Education
- ESL: English as a Second Language
- BL: Blended/Online Learning
- DL: Distance Learning
- PAC: Program Administration and Coordination
- TI: Technology Integration in the Classroom99% of service providers report working with LGBTQ youth.
We believe that everyone has a role to play in addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth homelessness, and that we are all always learning and improving. The True Colors Inclusion Assessment was developed with those beliefs in mind. Our Inclusion Assessment enables service providers to assess their current level of LGBTQ-inclusive and affirming practices from a strengths-based perspective. The tool has been reviewed by service providers and LGBTQ young people with lived experience of homelessness.
Source: Serving Our Youth
26 Organizations Assessed
829 Providers Surveyed
879 Youth Surveyed
Inclusion requires buy-in at all levels of an organization.
The True Colors Inclusion Assessment is an eight-week process that focuses on strengthening programmatic and cultural aspects of the organization to better meet the needs of LGBTQ youth, creating a safer space for everyone. The process consists of three phases:
In the first phase of the assessment process, an organizational representative or committee uses the tool to assess the inclusivity of the organization’s policies, practices, physical space, and programs.
In the second phase, each employee completes an anonymous survey to assess their own individual practices, including their comfort and confidence levels in working with LGBTQ youth.
In the third and final phase of the Inclusion Assessment, young people who access services at the organization complete an anonymous survey to gauge their perceptions and experiences regarding LGBTQ inclusivity within the organization.
Following the completion of each phase, the True Colors Fund provides custom recommendations to guide the organization toward creating more inclusive and affirming programs, policies, and spaces. We offer technical assistance and support to organizations as they implement the recommendations.World History Reading List
Books on the 1200's & 1300's
Share with your history students the riches and grandeur of Africa in the 1200's & 1300's using some of these beautifully illustrated books, appropriate for all elementary grades.
European Culture comes next, with a variety of themes. Adam of the Road, Crispin: the Cross of Lead, & Otto of the Silver Hand are all huge favorites for elementary to upper elementary students.
And leave room for at least one of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Other topics include the Black Plague and the Reformation.
Mansa Musa: The Lion of Mali by Khephra Burns, illus. Leo & Diane Dillon. UE-JH
An advanced picture book tells of one of the great rulers of the empire of Mali. Mansa Musa amazed the countries of his day with his splendor and wealth. Beautiful illustrations.
The Spider Weaver: A Legend Of Kente Cloth by Margaret Musgrove & Julia Cairns. The Blue Sky Press, 2001. K-UE
The origins of Kente cloth is based in this legend, delightfully told and illustrated. (Note: The exact date of its origin is uncertain, ranging from the 11th to the 17th centuries. The book is placed here for ease of reference.)
Sundiata: Lion King of Mali by David Wisniewski. Clarion Books, 1992. E-UE
Predecessor to Mansa Musa, Sundiata overcame great odds to become king of the Malian empire. Picture book with magnificent paper cut illustrations.
14th Century Towns edited by John D. Clare.
Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray. E-UE
Newbery Award. An 11-year-old minstrel's son roams 13th century England in search of his father, allowing the reader to glimpse the way of life of long ago. Recommended.
The Apple and the Arrow by Mary & Conrad Buff. UE-JH
Newbery Honor. Do you vaguely remember the name William Tell and how shot an apple off someone's head? If you thought it was merely a fairy tale, this book will set the record straight! It is not only true (and that "someone" was his son), but part of the awe-inspiring actions of bravery that ultimately led to Switzerland's independence. Recommended.
Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess, Page by Richard Platt, illus. Christ Riddell. Candlewick Press, 1999. E-UE+
13th century life in a castle is "transcribed and illuminated" for the entertainment of the reader. Includes all pertinent aspects -- even the hunt, medical practices, and the dungeon. Recommended.
Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi. Hyperion. UE+
Newbery Award. Set in England's peasant revolt of 1381, the exciting adventures of the boy, Crispin, reveal the many injustices of feudalism. The sequel is Crispin at the Edge of the World
Crispin at the Edge of the World by Avi. Hyperion, 2006. UE+
Dick Whittington and His Cat by Marcia Brown. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1950. *K-E
Sequel to Crispin: The Cross of Lead (see above). This story did not have many happy moments, and ended without resolve (I assume to make way for a 3rd volume to the series). Be aware that it contains pagan elements and some disturbing violence and bloody descriptions.
Caldecott Honor. The setting of this fun fictional story gives a child a look at old London, especially as it relates to an orphan boy. Also presents trade in the far East. *Two-color illustrations may/may not hold enough interest for the K child.
The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli. UE+
With his father fighting for the king in Scotland, a nobleman's son faces challenges of his own. The story incorporates the Black Death and also portrays a castle under attack.
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz, illus. Robert Byrd. Candlewick Press, 2007. UE-JH
Originally written as a set of monologues for a school play, each short piece describes medieval times from the perspective of a youth from a different medieval social setting in England in 1255. All is interspersed with background pages & medieval-inspired illustrations. Nicely done!
The Hawk and the Dove: A Trilogy (includes The Hawk and the Dove, The Wounds of God, and The Long Fall) by Penelope Wilcock. Crossway Books. JH-HS
Monastic life in Britain. Not yet reviewed.
Marguerite Makes a Book by Bruce Robertson, illus. Kathryn Hewitt. Getty Publications, 1999. U-UE
Follow Marguerite as she collects animal skins, goose feathers, and various plants and stones for dyes to help her book-illustrator father complete a prayer book. What an entertaining way to learn about the art of illumination!
Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle. UE+
Motherless Otto was raised in a monastery, but life changed when he returned to the family castle in Germany. A rival baron captured and imprisoned him in this exciting adventure. One of the story's characters is Emperor Rudolph, king of Germany in 1273 and the first Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor. Recommended.
Canterbury Tales, adapted by Barbara Cohen. UE+
Selected tales told in modern English. Illustrated. Caution: Tales include spousal abuse and immorality.
Chanticleer and the Fox by Chaucer, illus. by Barbara Cooney. Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1958. E-UE+
A Chaucer story for all ages. Includes a lesson to be learned at the end. Fun!
Favorite Medieval Tales Mary Pope Osborne, illus. Troy Howell. Scholastic Press, 1998. UE+
A collection of the tales passed down through the years by Medieval minstrels & bards. Includes Beowulf, The Sword in the Stone, and The Song of Roland (Charlemagne). Includes historical notes in the back by both the author and illustrator.
A Selection from the Canterbury Tales retold by Selina
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came from Besso, who had helped Einstein get a job at the Swiss patent office. He later related how this unexpected turn had come about in a lecture he gave in Kyoto in 1922. “That was a very beautiful day when I visited him (Besso) and began to talk with him as follows: ‘I have recently had a question which was difficult for me to understand. So I came here today to bring with me a battle on the question.’ Trying a lot of discussions with him, I could suddenly comprehend the matter. Next day I visited him again and said to him without greeting “Thank you. I’ve completely solved the problem.”
It had become clear to Einstein during his exchange with Besso that the correlation of time at different spatial locations is not absolutely defined, and there must be some form of communication between these locations. This concept, of two dimensions working at the same time (or parallel universes) came to be. Five weeks after his conversation Einstein completed “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies”, in which he presented the special theory of relativity.
From his letters to Heinrich Zangger we are able to conclude that Einstein held a great deal of trust in Zangger’s friendship, and sought out his advice on a number of things in his life. “I was originally supposed to become an engineer, but the thought of having to expend my creative energy on things that make practical everyday life even more refined, with a loathsome capital gain as the goal, was unbearable to me.†– 1918. In 1911, Zangger was instrumental in getting Einstein appointed to hold a chair of theoretical physics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Later he wrote to Zangger, “The more success the quantum theory has, the sillier it looks.â€â€“ May 20,1912.
Zangger, Besso and their families assisted with, and offered to be intermediaries for, Einstein and his first family during their five-year separation (coinciding with World War I) while the family lived in Zurich and Einstein stayed in Berlin. They both participated in decisions as to the care of Einstein’s mother, and he once wrote to Zangger, “My mother has died.... We are all completely exhausted. One feels in one’s bones the significance of blood ties.†– March 1920.
The friends both also took care of Einstein’s first wife, Mileva Maric, and sons as they went through malnutrition, economical hard times, and physical and mental health problems. His youngest son, Edmund, was stricken with multiple physical ailments and ultimately was institutionalization for mental problems.
The pair also were support systems for Einstein as he courted his second wife, and cousin, Elsa Einstein, and wrote to his friend Besso, “The solitude and peace of mind are serving me quite well, not the least of which is due to the excellent and truly enjoyable relationship with my cousin; its stability will be guaranteed by the avoidance of marriage.†– February 12, 1915.
Scientific topics remained an important aspect of their exchanges in the following years, with Einstein reporting on progress in his work. Zangger invited Einstein to a conference he was organizing on the concept of probability. They shared their mutual dismay at the ravages of World War I, and addressed Einstein’s interventions on behalf of his friend Friedrich Adler, who was awaiting sentence in Vienna for the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Prime Minister, Count Karl Stürgkh.
Einstein kept his friends informed of his work over the years, and worked with them to help other Jewish scientists get out of Germany prior to and during World War II. From personal accounts released from his family only recently we are able to get to know more about Einstein the man as he shared with his friends his political views, his attacks by other scientists over his theories, and his distaste for the publicity he received.
In 1954, nearly 50 years after their discussion in the patent office, Einstein wrote to Besso: “I consider it quite possible that physics cannot be based on the field principle, i.e., on continuous structures. In that case, nothing remains of my entire castle in the air, gravitation theory included…”
On March 15, 1955, Michelangelo Besso died at his home in Geneva. In a letter to his friend’s family Einstein wrote, “Now Besso has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion” Einstein died only three weeks later, on April 18, 1955. Zaggner followed in 1957.
Einstein – The Friendship of Three Singular Men, Einstein and His Swiss Friends Besso and Zangger: http://www.jstor.org/pss/235463
Wikipedia – Michele Besso: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michele_Besso
Einstein – Quotes: http://einstein.biz/quotes
Einstein Paper Projects – http://www.einstein.caltech.edu/vol10_intro.htm
Reflections on Relativity – A Very Beautiful Day: http://www.mathpages.com/rr/s3-08/3-08.htm
Einstein, In His Own Words: ttp://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1211367,00.htmlOver the last century, nonnative earthworms have invaded forests of the Great Lakes region of North America. Although a growing body of scientific research has documented short-term changes associated with invasive earthworms, there is little research describing the effects of invasive earthworms over multiple decades. To investigate the long-term effects of invasive earthworms on forests, sites sampled in the past need to be classified as wormed or unwormed when originally sampled. However, this is often difficult to accomplish because field methods for sampling earthworms have only recently been developed, and the few historical permanent sites available for resampling largely do not have past information about earthworm presence or absence. Although historic sites lack data on invasive earthworm presence, many of these sites do have information about soil horizon thickness. Therefore, soil horizons can potentially be used as an indicator of the presence or absence of invasive earthworms. In this paper we developed a logistic regression generalized linear model to classify 40 sugar maple-basswood sites in the Chippewa National Forest of Northern Minnesota as wormed or unwormed (i.e., presence or relative absence of earthworms, respectively). A model using the thickness of the O horizon as a predictor variable correctly classified 93% of sites resampled in 2017 as wormed or unwormed. This result suggests we can predict which sugar maple-basswood stands in the Chippewa National Forest were wormed in the past. By comparing historic conditions to those present today, we can then analyze the long-term effects of invasive earthworms.
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Vol. 183 • No. 2Why is success deceptive and what does that have to do with robot brains, and more important, our current paradigm of innovation? Because nobody innovates in a vacuum, we can look at innovation as a network phenomenon. Network activity can take things that seem distant or unrelated and prove they belong together. Like dropping out of college to tinker in a garage and later running a billion-dollar company. Or vacuum tubes and computation.
“Nature has an evolutionary algorithm, and it depends on emergence.”
This is precisely what Kenneth Stanley and Joel Lehman, artificial intelligence (AI) researchers and authors of the book Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned
, wanted to understand when they invented the Novelty Search algorithm. If robots can stumble upon the right answer more effectively than working a plan, maybe there’s a lesson in there for ambitious human beings.
Nature has an evolutionary algorithm, and it depends on emergence. Nature is telling us that wild goose chases can be good or bad, depending on which scale you’re zoomed in on. It seeks novelty and will adapt and assimilate nearly everything in its path.
(time’s arrow), prevents us from mapping the great open search space that is the future. We only ge... Read more
Editor’s Note: This is an original draft of an article that was first published in
New Scientist entitled “One rule of life: Are we posted on the border of order?”.
It’s not the midges that were the problem, says Andrea Cavagna
, but the kids. You’d think his efforts to record the movements of midge swarms in the public parks of Rome near sunset would be fraught with risks of being eaten alive by the little beasts — but these were a non-biting variety. Keeping away the children who gathered to watch what these folks were up to with their video cameras, generators and thickets of cabling was another matter. That, and the problem of finding a parking space in central Rome.
It’s not easy, he realised, for a physicist to turn field biologist.
The reason why Cavagna, based at Sapienza University in Rome, and his colleagues went midge-hunting sounds strange, perhaps even bizarre. The researchers wanted to know if midges behave like magnets. More specifically, if they act like magnets close to the point where heat flips them between a magnetic and non-magnetic state: a so-called critical phase transition.
“It’s a delicate balance: you need stability, but also responsiveness.”
&nbs... Read moreAthanasius Kircher is one man to know. He was an erudite and the explorer of an entire gamut of academic disciplines. In short, he was one of the sharpest minds of the 17 th century and of all times who saw in the interior of the earth a sort of alchemical dance between the elements. In addition, the book includes detailed discussions about giants and other animals that live in the underground, including, of course, dragons.
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With his enormous range of scholarly pursuits the 17th-century polymath Athanasius Kircher has been hailed as the last Renaissance man and "the master of hundred arts". John Glassie looks at one of Kircher's great masterworks Mundus Subterraneus and how it was inspired by a subterranean adventure Kircher himself made into the bowl of Vesuvius. Kircher offered a lengthy discussion of people who lived in caves their societies and their economy. He reported on the remains of giants also mainly cave dwellers found in the ground.
And he went into detail on the kinds of lower animals who belong to the lower world including dragons. And these fires argue for deeper treasuries and storehouses of fire, in the very heart and inward bowels of the Earth. Hot baths, hot springs, and fountains are produced where underground water passageways come near or interconnect with the fire channels. Kircher's diagram showing the interconnectedness of fire inside the earth, featured in Mundus Subterraneus.
Kircher's diagram showing the interconnectedness of water inside the earth, featured in Mundus Subterraneus. Somewhere off the coast of Norway the actual site of a major whirlpool system called the Moskenstraumen, he declared, is a giant maelstrom through which the water enters the earth — as if passing through a great drain — and runs through it, cooling it down, providing it with nutriments in particulate form before being eliminated through a nether opening at the South Pole.
Kircher was about thirty five years old, and had been based at the flagship Jesuit college in Rome for about three of four years — attempting to decipher the hieroglyphics of the ancient Egyptians — when in he was assigned to accompany a young German prince on an extended visit to Malta. If he was initially upset about being dragged away with an immature prince to some rocks in the middle of the Mediterranean, his curiosity quickly kicked in.
He made magnetic and astronomical readings, and studied geological formations. There were four-hundred-foot cliffs, natural arches, and a place where the tides had carved human-looking shapes into the earth.
Diagram showing the sympathies between the macro and microcosm, featured in Mundus Subterraneus. After about a year, Kircher was finally allowed to return to Rome, but he took his time getting there and lingered in Sicily for a long while. And he wanted to look into stories about a type of fish that lived in the Straits of Messina, the body of water that flows between Sicily and Calabria on the Italian mainland. Kircher recalled that the earthquake began as he and some others crossed the straits in a boat.
There was only one way, in his view, to find out. Vesuvius at that time was merely smoking. But its first major eruption in centuries had occurred seven years earlier, in Perhaps the reason for leaving at that hour was to be able to see in the dark anything that might be molten. Or maybe the idea was to allow for a full day of exploration once they got there. When they finally reached the top, Kircher looked down into the crater.
And so I went down unto it. It was within this hollow mountain that Kircher really began to develop the theories he set down so many years later in Mundus Subterraneus, to envision what it might be like even deeper within the earth, and how the mountains and fires and rivers and oceans might somehow all be connected. Books link through to Amazon who will give us a small percentage of sale price ca. Discover more recommended books in our dedicated PDR Recommends section of the site.
Explore our selection of fine art prints, all custom made to the highest standards, framed or unframed, and shipped to your door.
Search The Public Domain Review. Published November 1, Portrait of Kircher at age 53 from Mundus Subterraneus Depiction of a Giant featured in Mundus Subterraneus. Depiction of a Dragon featured in Mundus Subterraneus. Illustration of Mount Etna, featured in Mundus Subterraneus. Public Domain Works Mundus Subterraneus. Internet Archive. Collected for the most part out of Kircher's Subterraneous World.
More Info and Buy. If You Liked This…. Find Out More. Prints for Your Walls Explore our selection of fine art prints, all custom made to the highest standards, framed or unframed, and shipped to your door.Developmental psychologists attribute great importance to the role of peers in the growth of social skills. In a series of studies, the effect of preschool experience on peer interactions was examined. Results suggest that exposure to peers on a daily basis in preschool led to increases in rates of dispensing positive and neutral behaviors and receiving neutral behaviors. The data support a mere-exposure theory of social interaction.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology
- Sociology and Political ScienceIn a study recently published in the journal Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry researchers questioned college students about their tuna consumption and their knowledge of possible mercury toxicity from eating too much of the tuna. Hair samples measuring mercury levels were taken.
High levels of methylmercury are capable of crossing the blood-brain-barrier and can affect not only cognitive function, but can affect cerebral development (especially in infants and children). Tuna contains methylmercury which is a substance that can accumulate in the body.
Symptoms of mercury poisoning include:
- Mood swings/irritability, overly emotional, etc.
- Tremors/muscle twitching
- Decreased cognitive function
Diseases/Disorders associated with mercury toxicity:
- Anxiety/Depressive disorders
Inorganic mercury compounds are released into the atmosphere from natural sources like volcanoes, fossil fuels, mining, etc. Some of these compounds settle into the ocean where they get converted into methylmercury. Sea creatures, like fish, naturally absorb these substances and this is how we are exposed to methylmercury. One of the most common exposures to mercury remains amalgam fillings, but we’ll save that article for another day.
54% of students surveyed reported eating tuna at least 3x/week. This could potentially exceed the maximum dose of methylmercury deemed safe by the EPA. 7% of the students reported eating more than 20 tuna meals each week! Hair analysis measuring mercury found that some of these students’ mercury levels were above what is considered a level of concern.
How much fish should I be eating?
The EPA has created guidelines to prevent you from being exposed to too many heavy metals. Following these recommendations will reduce your risk. Eating wild caught, not farm raised will also help to reduce these risks. Watch for labels like “Atlantic Salmon” if it doesn’t specifically say “wild caught” then it was farm-raised.
For an adult, 1 serving = 4oz which is about the size of the palm of your hand. Adults should eat 2-3 servings of the “best choice” fish each week. For children, 1 serving = 1oz at age 2 and increases with age to 4oz by age 11.
The answer is YES continue to eat fish! A diet high in fish can help to reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease, improve cholesterol levels (increasing the good HDL, and decreasing the bad LDL), and has been shown to decrease inflammation. Limit your tuna consumption, and follow the recommended guidelines provided in the chart below.
Tonight I’m grilling salmon and asparagus, topped with blended basil and olive oil with a side of couscous. Is it dinner time yet???
- Bernhoft RA. Mercury toxicity and treatment: a review of the literature. J Environ Public Health. 2012.
- Murata Y, Finkelstein DB, Lamborg CH, Finkelstein ME. Tuna consumption, mercury exposure, and knowledge about mercury exposure risk from tuna consumption in university students. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. 2019.
- Patrick Houssard et al. A Model of Mercury Distribution in Tuna from the Western and Central Pacific Ocean: Influence of Physiology, Ecology and Environmental Factors. Environmental Science & Technology, 2019
- Raphael A. Lavoie, Ariane Bouffard, Roxane Maranger, Marc Amyot. Mercury transport and human exposure from global marine fisheries. Scientific Reports, 2018; 8 (1)Sign In / Sign Out
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About Designing the Future
If you could create the Guide, what would be in it? What would be important elements to be included?
Can humans intentionally design the future? Up to now, Mother Nature has been the major designer of futures, and She has done an admirable job. If humans propose to take over this role, we might start by studying how Mother Nature does it. Sometimes Mother Nature just wipes out most of what is there and starts again (think extinctions). One of the most significant design moves Mother Nature ever made, from a human perspective, was the plague. The plague wiped out so many people that, given the labor shortage, serfs and peasants were no longer tied to one particular lord’s land and could demand higher wages or leave. Feudalism died, setting the stage for capitalism, and the modern world was born. A very ingenious design move indeed.
Today the modern world is, of course, imperiled by human interventions into Mother Nature’s business, something that should give future-designers some pause. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see what Mother Nature does, since we already have some clues that her next move could be pretty dramatic. The question is whether future-designers can beat her to it and do a better job. A cautionary note from an historical perspective, though: In history, people who have proposed and imposed utopias have often done more harm than Mother Nature’s disasters have in terms of human progress. (For example, compare Mother Nature’s death of feudalism and Hitler’s birth of Fascism).
In some sense, all human inventions across history – from cooking to washing machines to the Internet – are about designing the future. The washing machine freed half of humanity from domestic service to seek paid employment, with massive economic and social consequences. It is hard to tell what the consequences of the Internet will be, but the situation now is not looking too good. Such human inventions are nearly right up there with Mother Nature in terms of their impact.
Today’s designers of the future want to be more than inventors. The invention of washing machines was the result of an incremental process; its explicit goal was not freeing women to work outside the home and thereby undermine the status of men (since women who had their own income had a lot more options). The invention of the internet had the goal of improving and extending communication (aside from its military uses). We have yet to see if the internet and social media will, in the end, enhance communication or contribute to the destruction of truth and to outright warfare. As these and many other examples show, inventors often did not intend or desire the outcomes of their inventions. Designers of the future want more control.
Today’s designers of the future appear more interested in creating and manipulating entirely new social, economic, technological, or societal systems. They are concerned with a myriad of things that are much bigger than viruses or washing machines – things like double or triple bottom line business models, cyber cities, artificial intelligence, gamifying everyday life, and the approaching Singularity.
There is no doubt we can build systems and implement them. The U.S. Constitution was one such system. The thoughtful people who created the Constitution most certainly anticipated and helped design a future in this case. We are living in that future and to be honest, the results are a mixed bag, because humans and the systems of which they are a part never really behave as we would hope or predict. Nonetheless, it was a good try. We can applaud these designers as we try to navigate a future based on a present world the Constitution's authors never could have anticipated.
Given the fragility of such a great project as the Constitution, I fear modern designers of the future as much as I fear a future without them. After all, given what we have done to Mother Nature we do not want to be left to her vengeance unaided. But please, designers of the future, take small steps, tread lightly, don’t plan for utopias, send repair manuals with your systems along with emergency exits. Send, too, best wishes for those future people who will have to repair, replace, or regret what you have built. Good luck.
About Elisabteh R. Gee
Elisabeth R. Gee (formerly Hayes) is Arizona State University’s Delbert and Jewell Lewis Chair in reading and literacy, professor in Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, and affiliate faculty in the Department of English. Professor Gee is the current co-director of the Play2Connect project, focusing on intergenerational game play as a means of promoting learning and positive family relationships. Her recent research includes a study of Mexican-American families' use of digital media for learning and an investigation of game design as a means of promoting design thinking among children and families. Professor Gee was named a 2011 White House Champion of Change for her work on using games and digital media to engage girls in computing. She has authored and edited numerous publications, most recently including Families at Play (coauthored with Sinem Siyahhan), Re-Imagining Multiliteracies (co-edited with Frank Serafini), Learning in Video Game Affinity Spaces (co-edited with Sean Duncan), and Language and Learning in the Digital Age (coauthored with James Gee).发布时间：2016-05-17 来源：新东方在线 发布人：zolo
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write acomposition of no less than 150 words on the topic “Whether CollegeStudents Should Be Allowed to Get Married” and you’re your article onthe following outline.
1. Choose either of the two positions: College students should (not) be allowed to get married.
2. State your reasons for or against the issue
Should College Students Be Allowed to Get Married?
There isno denying the fact that it is a hotly debated topic today whethercollege students should be allowed to get married. Some time ago, theban was lifted by some universities on students getting married. Tothis people’s attitudes differ sharply. Some hold the positive view.They say that most college students are adults and that it is a basicright for those who have reached the appropriate ages to get married.Besides, they argue that with their biological and emotional needs met,these students will study better. The ban on this means a severeviolation of human rights.
Many others, however, hold the negative opposite view. Theyclaim that the university or college is a place to study instead of acommunity to lead family life. Allowing college students to get marriedwould adversely affect their study. For instance, they would spend toomuch time attending their family and love, unable to concentrate ontheir school work.
As far as I am concerned, Weighing the arguments of both sides, I believe that it is OK to allow college students to get married. Anyway,this is their freedom. Actually, we don’t have to worry too muchbecause facts have shown that most college students would choose not toget married in the face of such fierce competition and heavy schoolwork.
(或 As far as I am concerned, Weighing the arguments of both sides,I believe that college students should not be allowed to get married.Though mostly adults, they are actually immature psychologically. Theirwishes to get married are, more often than not, impulses. Besides, asstudents, they are not ready to support a family financially.Head of Music : Miss S Kaye firstname.lastname@example.org
Music is a universal language which gives pupils the opportunity to express themselves and be creative through a variety of musical genres.
Music teaches pupils to work collaboratively, develop confidence and high self-esteem. It encourages pupils to be sympathetic, sensitive and compassionate, whilst encouraging a love of music, engaging with music and appreciating music from a range of musical styles, genres and traditions.
Music forms a foundation for a fulfilling and interesting life. For some it is the beginning of a specialised career and for others it enriches their life as a leisure activity and promotes personal well-being.
All pupils have one lesson of Music each week and lasts approximately 55 minutes.
Lessons are entirely practical and involve developing the FOUR main areas of study, which are Performing, Composing, Listening and Evaluating.
Pupils are encouraged to understand the nature of music, communicate through creative music making and evaluate their learning to inform good practise.
Lessons focus on listening, singing, presenting class and group performances, creating music in groups (or using music technology), watching and listening to their own work and the work of others, by making observations about the different parts of their work. They suggest successes and suitable targets of improvement for future situations and development.
Pupils receive instrumental and vocal lessons through Musica Kirklees. Pupils are offered free taster lessons on various instruments and voice at various times during the school year.
Music staff and Instrument Lessons
We have one full time music class teacher, Miss S Kaye and 9 peripatetic staff from Musica Kirklees who offer lessons on the following:
|Mrs L Pearson||Piano and Keyboard|
|Mrs R O’Sullivan||Woodwind|
|Mr A Kingham||Brass|
|Mr J Hodgson||Drum Kit and Percussion|
|Mr M Crone||Electric and Bass Guitar|
|Miss H Roulson||Classical Guitar|
|Miss K Chappell||Upper Strings|
|Mrs J Worboys-Hodgson||Lower Strings|
|Miss E Cully||Voice|
Over 80 students have weekly lessons from Musica Kirklees and many more have private lessons.
An application form for pupils wishing to ‘learn to play’ can be acquired via the School Office, Music Teacher, or to download from the Musica website at www.musicakirklees.org
How is the Department Resourced?
A specialist music classroom equipped with
- Many Keyboards, 2 pianos, 1 Electric piano
- Electronic and acoustic drum kits
- Electric, acoustic and Bass Guitars
- A set of ukuleles
- A class set of African djembe drums
- Lots of classroom percussion instruments (xylophones, glockenspiels, various drums, hand held percussion instruments etc.)
There are 5 well equipped music practice rooms with additional space in the main teaching room that are used as rehearsal spaces during lessons and used to teach instrumental and vocal tuition by Muscia staff to individuals or small groups.
What is music?
Introduction to what music is and the key elements.
Vocal Samba – Creating word phrases which have different rhythmic patterns and organising them into a performance.
The Planets – organising sounds created through adjevtives.
Sansa Kroma – an arrangement of a short African song.
Introduction to Djembe drum techniques and musical notes, names, shapes and values. Performing using call and response and simple and multiple rhythmic patterns
Reading from simple notations, which includes simple time-signatures and dotted notes.
Signs and symbols
Film music – Identifying sound tracks and identifying musical features
Brass Bands – Recognising the sounds, instruments and layout.
The Orchestra and the different instrumental families – recognising visually and aurally. Instrumental knowledge.
To develop with an understanding the different periods
in the history of music (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modern) Composer’s name, Nationality, Musical Period, Dates and a popular piece of music.
Using the 5-finger keyboard technique to learn a variety of Keyboard melodies. An introduction to playing chords, combining melody and accompaniment
Exploring the style and the key features of African Music. Class performances of Call and Response and an African style piece using rhythms from the word phrases of a short African
Using and understanding notation.
Creating compositions that use melodic and rhythmic patterns and other key features within a given structure.
Understanding the conventions and context of the musical genre, ‘March’.
Performing a Marching song
Exploring the history and context of Samba music. This includes group and class performances and developing understanding of reading from more complex notations.
History and origins
Learning different drumming patterns and the purpose and function of the different parts of the drum kit.
The Percussion Party
A performance of a musical score Identifying musical signs and symbols
Reading from more complex notation
Class and group performances
Using a ‘musical futures’ approach the effects of Development in technology and Popular Music through the Decades (1960s -)
Working as part of a Band to organise performances of a selection of Rock and Pop songs.
A mixture of performance and composition using the 12 bar blues chord sequence, blue notes, walking bass line and improvisation.
Using music technology to create an authentic remix of a song.
Enrichment opportunities are offered for ALL pupils and are led by some of our visiting peripatetic staff from Muisca.
Monday – Pop Choir (Head of Music – Miss Kaye)
Tuesday – String Group (Miss K Chappel)
Wednesday – African Drumming (Mr J Hodgson)
Thursday – Windband (Mr A Kingham)
Rock Guitar Club – Mr M Crone
Ukelele Club (Miss H Roulson)
Practise facilities are in use most days with pupils using them to develop skills, prepare for both instrumental and vocal exams and/or to form a Band.
Performance opportunities are given and pupils are encouraged to take part in events in school and in the community. One of our first opportunities is our Showcase Evening in the Autumn Term.
Each year pupils perform at Kirkburton church where we hold our Carol Service.
Every Christmas Musica Kirklees’ Staff Orchestra and/or Staff Rock Band are invited to come and entertain pupils. These concerts are great fun and informative, with the ensembles playing diverse repertoire and introducing the different musical instruments together with giving our pupils access to high-quality live music.
Each term holds a Positive Awards Assembly where pupils are given the opportunity to perform.
Musical success of individual pupils and groups is celebrated regularly on our school website.
In June 2013 the school were very proud to present a production of Oliver which was one of its first scale productions in recent times. Many pupils from across the school worked for several months to put together a fantastic show. In June 2017 saw the production of Guys and Dolls which again involved many pupils and was a great success.
MUSIC MARK – School Member
For a 2nd year, Kirkburton are extremely proud recipients of the ABRSM Music Mark Award 2019-2020. This is awarded in recognition of a commitment to providing high quality music education for all children and young people (The UK Association for Music Education – Music Mark – supported by ABRSM)
Links with the community
In the past musical groups have entertained the older generation of the community, at an ‘Old Folks Treat’ at the Junction Pub and Fox Glove, with some festive favourites and opportunity for audience participation.
‘We will remember them’
For several years now, local schools have been represented at the Cenotaph in Kirkburton, for a service of remembrance. Children from Kirkburton and schools in the surrounding area respectfully present wreaths, read poems together with the Last Post and Reveille being played by the music teacher at the middle school.
At the centenary (2018) a group of pupils with their music teacher made a moving contribution in the school’s remembrance assembly sounding the Last Post and Reveille to mark the 2 minutes silence.
The music industry is part of the creative and cultural industries, represented by the Creative and Cultural Skills Sector Skills Council, which also includes craft; cultural heritage; literature; design; performing arts; and visual arts. The creative and cultural industries currently employ over half a million people.
The music industry includes trade associations, businesses and employers in recording/labels companies; music publishers; musical instruments; audio production and retail; live events and promotion; specialist music retailers; not‐for‐profit music organisation; as well as music education and training providers.
There are over 100,000 people working in the music industry within the wider creative and cultural sector, of which:
- 50,780 work in live performance
- 21,930 in production, retail and distribution of musical instrument /audio equipment
- 15,130 in retail and distribution of recordings
- 10,190 in recording
- 2,890 in composition of musical works and music publishing
- 1,300 in promotion, management and agency related activities
The music industry contributes £4.2 billion to the UK economy.
Jobs in the industry include: agent, artistic director, classical musician, composer, DJ, lighting technician, songwriter, manager, music and audio manufacturer, music conductor, music teacher, performer, publicity and promotions, singer, sound engineer.
- What is music?
- Vocal Samba
- Christmas music
Pupils learn about the different aspects of music and what it involves. The key element words are taught and the pupils take part in a selection of different activities to show their understanding of these.
Music literacy is introduced and pupils learn about different musical notes, shapes, values and their matching rest as well as developing an understanding of the different signs and symbols used in music. They perform simple and more complicated rhythms and show their understanding of how to read the notations and fit their part into a group performance.
Pupils are taught about pulse and rhythm and take part in class and group performances of a vocal samba. Pupils perform a class vocal samba and then work in small groups to create their own group performance. Later in the year, we continue to develop our rhythm skills, and pupils perform together as class, an instrumental Samba using suitable Percussion instruments.
During the festive period pupils learn the popular favourite ‘Jingle Bells’ on the keyboard at their own level. This part of their learning develops the reading of the notes on the stave, playing together as an ensemble and sharing solo/duet performances.
- The Planets
- Music Literacy
Pupils learn about The Planets suite by Gustave Holst. They will describe how music makes them feel, what it makes them think of and why. Pupils will work in groups to organise a composition to represent a Planet. This part of their learning allows them to use adjectives as a starting point. They will choose descriptive words to represent the planet and create suitable sounds using suitable instruments to represent the mood, feel and atmosphere of the planet. They will perform and evaluate their performances.
Developing knowledge and understanding of Music Literacy is continued and pupils are taught to compose a melody both as a class, in pairs or independently to be played by themselves on an instrument or by the teacher.
- Sansa Kroma
- The Orchestra
Pupils learn a short Folk song and organise a class performance of this. Using this model they then create their own group arrangement of the song using suitable instruments. Performances are filmed and shared for peer/self assessment and feedback is given.
A study of the different instrumental families and learning about the orchestra takes place during this term.
Learning is introduced by listening and recognising the music‘s genre and identifying its musical features. In this unit, pupils learn a selection of songs in an African style. They perform together, as a class, an African style piece using some African and non- African instruments and developing their skills in the reading of notation.
Pupils improvise both rhythmic and melodic ideas and work in groups to compose and organise their own version of African music. The performances are filmed and viewed for assessment purposes. Pupils will learn about the different instruments used, how they are played, what they are made from and where they come from. They will also learn about aspects of the African culture.
- Understanding the Conventions and context of the musical genre ‘March’
- Ceremonial music – composing a Fanfare (by chance)
Pupils listen to and recognise the sound of a March and identify its musical features. They sing a selection of march-type songs which includes understanding how a march starts and stops. They perform a rhythm piece as a class and in small groups in the style of a march showing understanding of march-type rhythms and more advanced notations. Pupils will develop their instrumental skills learn a marching melody on the keyboard which is performed as a class with opportunity being given for individuals to develop skills at their own level. They will also learn
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a coup resulting in a succession of military dictators.
History’s not so tidy that mistakes in the War on Terror are entirely analogous to those in Vietnam. The current war proceeded with an all-volunteer force, not a conscript-driven force. From October 2001 to the present, American military leadership, at every level, has been outstanding. The Bush administration’s big mistake was not clearly identifying the enemy. The Obama administration’s blunder was to set a deadline for withdrawal.
Wars are the most unpredictable of human endeavors, fraught with the unexpected and quite often, when strategically ill-conceived, much longer and bloodier than anticipated. That’s why over 2,000 years ago, Sun Tzu wrote, “War is a matter of vital importance; the province of life or death; the road to survival or ruin. It is mandatory that it be thoroughly studied.”What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
“My Good Customers and others will excuse my not promising to sell CHEAPER than can be bought elsewhere.”
William Palfrey frequently advertised in the Boston-Gazette and other newspapers printed in the city. His placed notices of various lengths, such as this list advertisement that extended for an entire column. As a preamble to this extensive account of his merchandise, Palfrey inserted much of the standard language and made several of the most common appeals. His method of advertising looked familiar to potential customers because Palfrey understood all the conventions of newspaper advertising in eighteenth-century America. Among those conventions, he made an appeal to price, promising that “he will sell at the very lowest Rates by Wholesale or Retail.”
That was not Palfrey’s last word, however, when it came to the price of his goods. He concluded his advertisement with a short paragraph that advised readers that “The above Goods will be sold as CHEAP as any of the same Quality in Town. My Good Customers and others will excuse my not promising to sell CHEAPER than can be bought of elsewhere; as such promises, though frequently made, are seldom comply’d with, and are only calculated to impose on Persons who are not well acquainted with the Quality of Goods.” In so doing, Palfrey echoed a sentiment that Gilbert Deblois had recently expressed in his advertisements. That other shopkeeper explained that he did not indicate prices of specific items in his advertisements because everyone knew that goods “differ so much in Quality.”
In making these observations, Palfrey and Deblois indicated that they were aware that potential customers, at least savvy ones, did not take all of the claims made in advertisements at face value. While recognizing that readers would naturally be suspicious of the appeals advanced in their own advertisements, both shopkeepers sought to turn such skepticism to their advantage. By acknowledging that there was room for subterfuge in advertising, especially that deception might be practiced by others, they encouraged readers to have greater trust in them to deal fairly. After all, when they admitted that they could not get away with pulling the wool over customers’ eyes that put the shopkeepers in the position of only being able to transact business as honest brokers.The large complex of the Franciscan monastery (Friars Minor) is located at the very beginning of the Placa and to the left of the Pile Gate. Spreading north along the walls as far as the tower Minceta, the lateral facade of the monastery church runs along the principle street of Dubrovnik. The monastery building was started in 1317. Some parts were destroyed and rebuilt several times. The large Franciscan church which was one of the richest in Dubrovnik at the time, was destroyed in the 1667 earthquake. The portal on the south wall is the only element of the former building which has been preserved.
The portal is believed to have been moved from the front to the lateral wall during the course of the 17th century restoration. It was the most monumental portal in Dubrovnik, according to the contract of 1498, and was carved in the local workshop owned by the brothers Leonard and Petar Petrovic. The figures of St.Jerome and St.John the Baptist are set above the door-posts with the Pietr in relief is represented in the central Gothic lunette. Above the lunette is the figure of the Father Creator.
The cloister was built by master Mihoje Brajkov of Bar in 1360. Framed by a colonnade of double hexaphoras with each having a completely different capital.
The Franciscan cloister is of late Romanesque design and considered one of the most valuable creations on the Croatian shores of the Adriatic.
In 1317 a pharmacy was founded in the monastery, the third oldest in the world and continues to function today. The monastery owns one of the richest libraries in Croatia, famous all over the world for its inventory. The collection has over 20,000 books, over 1200 of which are old manuscripts and 7 books of old church corals.This section is from the book "A Treatise On Architecture And Building Construction Vol2: Masonry. Carpentry. Joinery", by The Colliery Engineer Co. Also available from Amazon: A Treatise On Architecture And Building Construction.
157. Formerly, fireproof floors were almost exclusively made of concrete supported on brick arches sprung between the lower flanges of I beams, although in some cases corrugated-iron arches were substituted for the brick. The objections to these form's of construction are that the arches and the concrete are extremely heavy, the ceilings are not level, and the bottom flanges of the beams are unprotected. Consequently, a better form of construction was sought, and the brick and iron arch methods have been largely abandoned, flat arches of dense and porous tile being substituted, with much saving in weight and more complete protection of the steelwork. Considerable improvement has been made during the past 10 years in the design of tile-floor arches, and a number of systems have been introduced. In all cases, the inventor's efforts have been directed towards securing a light and economical floor, possessing sufficient strength and affording thorough fire protection.On this auspicious day, I want to talk about sickle cell anaemia. Now I know that there are 2 types of people reading this, the curious and the affected so while I’ll try to make this an interesting enough read for the curious, I’m definitely going to leave the affected with several tips also.
Basically, sickle cell anaemia happens when someone inherits the abnormal S hemoglobin from both of their parents. In other words, where the normal red blood cell looks like a capsule you take to get better or a round fried ball of unhealthy goodness, the sickled blood cell looks like a nail clipping.
As it is an anemia, a condition where there is not enough blood to carry oxygen round your body, people who’ve inherited this disease often find themselves experiencing symptoms such as shortness of breath, dizziness, and an inability to breathe.
When I was in secondary school, a sickle was defined as a tool used in farming for harvesting grain crops. And when I first heard about sickle cell anemia, I thought that something used in providing food could not be so bad. I shake my head at my 8 year old self.
The defining feature of this disease is basically that your body works against you. The sickled blood cell blocks the passageway to the organs it is meant to provide blood to. When one blood cell blocks the passageway, no other blood cell can enter. So they split apart and cause a lot of pain to the affected person. The affected person may find that their kidney, liver, brain and major body organ functionality is decreased. The affected person may also find themselves experiencing joint pain, leg cramps and multifarious infections among other things. That’s the most simplistic definition I can give to a sickle cell crisis.
Now that we’ve gotten a basic definition of what sickle cell anemia is and what a sickle cell crisis entails, let’s talk about living with it and managing it.
The key to managing sickle cell anaemia is to note that prevention is ALWAYS better than cure. Recognize your triggers for what they are, triggers which if not properly managed can lead to a sickle cell crisis lasting for a couple of hours to a lot of years.
A common trigger for females afflicted with sickle cell anemia is their menstruation. Do I need to define what menstruation is? Okay. Menstruation is your body’s way of reassuring you that you’re not about to embark on a 9 month journey. At least not yet. No cute kids in your 9 month future. Try again next month.
Still, menstruation involves shedding of blood from your uterine walls and can be slightly to curled- in- the- foetal- position-on- the- floor- painful. When a sickle cell affected female starts her menstrual cycle, she is shedding blood at an alarming rate. The rate of blood shed in women with sickle cell anaemia and women without it is like comparing Game of Thrones to How I Met Your Mother. Now, remember that an anaemia is when there is NOT ENOUGH blood in your body, so losing the blood you do have is definitely a trigger. In both sexes, too much exercise and stress are other known triggers.
Now that we’ve identified some triggers, let’s talk about managing them. First of all, HYDRATE. Drink water. Drink plenty of water. When you wake up, drink water, after you pee, drink water, make games out of drinking water. Have different colored water bottles. I know someone who never climbs up a staircase without a bottle of water in his hand. I know yet another person who has different colored water bottles, orange for the office, yellow for her car and white for home. Whatever it takes, ingest H2O at any and at all costs. Drinking water should be a lifestyle. Not only does it help to keep your blood circulating, it gives you clear skin, flushes out toxins from your body and mutes the effects of alcohol in your bloodstream.
Which brings me to my second point, limit your alcohol intake. And don’t smoke. Please. Narcotics are especially bad for anyone with sickle cell anaemia. So limit intake to the barest minimum or just quit as fast as you can before lung or liver function is compromised.
Exercise is good, it bolsters your health but be very careful not to exercise to the point where you’re gasping for air or become really tired. And when you’re exercising, HYDRATE!
Recognize that stress is the enemy. Manage your stress levels. You can work very effectively without stressing or worrying yourself. And since worry is stressful, STOP WORRYING!
Wash your hands before you eat. With soap and water. Wash under your nails, wash again if you don’t feel like all the dirt is gone. This is a lesson I learned in 2014 during the Ebola crisis. Regular hand washing prevents infection. Infection prevention is a very very very good thing. How many times did I emphasize the very?
Speaking of infection prevention, vegetables and fruit have to be part of your daily diet. Eat your vegetables. They are actually really delicious. Eat them with fries, eat them as salad, grow your own vegetables and be test subject zero for yourself, whatever you have to do to make fruit attractive enough to eat, do it. Take blood tonics and supplements after you come out of a sickness/crisis. They could be the major difference between going back to Egypt or proceeding to the Promised Land.
Okay, last but not least, SMILE and be happy. While you do have problems, the singular best way to counteract your problems is to focus on the things that bring you joy.
Kisses and hugs for the affected. Read up on sickle cell anemia if you want to know more, for the curious. Google is Your Friend. And not in the sarcastic way The Police is Your Friend has come to sound.
Also, please look at Stem Cell donation as a treatment. There is hope yet.
Now, let’s talk about why I wanted to talk about this today.
You all know I had 2 younger brothers right? Well, this lesson was sponsored by Nebolisa Anselm Ayalogu, whose death at the age of 12 from complications arising from sickle cell anaemia that lasted 4 years ensures that I will always remember to talk about this disease to as many people as I can. Know your genotype. Know your genotype and for the love of pancakes, please do not subject any child to living with sickle cell Anaemia.On May 28, a fire caused major damage to the historic Morgan Park Beverly Metra Rock Island station. According to Rock Island Director of Engineering Mike Tempinsky, officials believe that the cause of the fire was a garbage can adjacent to the station set ablaze by vandals.
“Structural engineers have assessed the severe damage from the fire at the 115th Street/Morgan Park Station and determined, unfortunately, the structure is damaged beyond repair,” officials said. “Metra is extremely disappointed that this building cannot be saved because we understand it has served as a community anchor for 125 years. However, we have no choice but to remove it and expect to do so shortly.” (Garmes, 6/27/17)
Located at 1982 W. 115th Street, the 125 year old station was designated as a historic landmark in 1995 by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks (CCL). At the July Commission on Chicago Landmarks commission meeting, Preservation Chicago requested that the to-be-constructed replacement station be modeled as closely as possible to the historic station house lost to fire. Hence, once a landmark, always a landmark.
The 91st, 95th, 99th, 107th and 111th Street stations were also landmarked in 1995. Originally part of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, the Morgan Park Station and other nearby stations were constructed in the late 19th and early 20th century and were generally built in a Colonial Revival Queen Anne and Richardsonian Romanesque architectural styles similar to the nearby residential homes.“Apatemyidae is an extinct family of placental mammals that took part in the first placental evolutionary radiation together with other early mammals such as the leptictids.”
As it turns out
shrews are less like moles in the large reptile tree (sorry, not yet updated) and more like members of the Apatemyidae, like Apatemys (Marsh 1872; Fig. 1), thought to have originated in the Paleocene and disappeared in the Eocene. Both are derived. At present they nest as sisters. Neither can be shown, at present, to be more primitive than the other.
Apatemys chardini (Eocene, 50-33 mya; Fig. 2) was a squirrel-lke arboreal herbivore with a massive skull. It had long slender fingers, a long flexible lumbar region, and a long gracile tail. From head to tail, the matrix scores for apatemyids and shrews are quite similar. It’s not just the dentition, which remains amazingly conservative in living shrews.
moles have a set of small procumbent anterior dentary teeth and the posterolateral premaxillary teeth are large and canine-like while the medial premaxillary teeth are small like typical incisors. Moles nest closer to Solenodon and rodents [and I need to update that webpage].
“Like most Paleocene mammals, the Apatemyids were small and presumably insectivorous. Size ranged from that of a dormouse to a large rat. The toes were slender and well clawed, and the family were probably mainly arboreal.The skull was fairly massive compared to the otherwise slender skeleton, and the front teeth were long and hooked, resembling those of the modern aye-aye and marsupial Dactylopsila, both whom make their living by gnawing off bark with their front teeth to get at grubs and maggots beneath.”
Evidently others have missed the shrew connection. Let me know of any literature that predates this blogpost. I’d like to promote it, if it’s out there.
The book ‘Evolution of Shrews’ reports,
“Shrews are among the most ancient of all living mammals. They are small and have rather unspecialized body plans, retained almost unchanged since they evolved about 45 million years ago. They appear to be extremely successful as a group in comparison to all other families of Insectivora: the living species of shrews represent approximately 80% of all insectivorans, which in turn make up some 10% of all mammmalian species extant today.”
The apatemyid connection described here
pushes the origin of shrews back another 5-10 million years. True shrews are not to be confused with elephant shrews. They are more closely related now, then what was recovered earlier, but more work needs to be done to figure this out precisely. Then I’ll update the cladogram.
Earlier I posted on Hyopsodus, the pre-dog, former condylarth. One the images appeared in editing, but did not appear in publication. I was not aware of this until today. The JPEG had a ‘bad marker’, whatever that is. Please let me know if you see a technical problem here. That Hyopsodus image has been repaired and is visible now.
Churchfield S 1990. The Natural History of Shrews online. Comstock Publishing; 1st edition (January 1990) Amazon link.
Multiple Authors 1998. Evolution of Shrews. Edited By: JM Wójcik and M Wolsan. Cornell Paperbacks. 458 pp. online.
Gingerich PD and Rose KD 1982. 1. Dentition of Clarkforkian Labidolemur kayi. Gingerich PD 1982. 2. Labidolemur and Apatemys from the early Wasatchian of the Clark’s Fork Basin, Wyoming. Studies on Paleocene and Early Eocene Apatemyidae (Mammalia, Insectivora). Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology. The University of Michigan. 26(4):49-69.
v. Koenigswald W, Schierning H-P 1987. The ecological niche of an extinct group of mammals, the early Tertiary apatemyids. Nature. 326 (6113): 595–597. doi:10.1038/326595a0.
Marsh OC 1872. Preliminary description of new Tertiary mammals. Part II. American Journal of Science 4(21):202-224.The changing face of cardiovascular disease 2000-2012: An analysis of the world health organisation global health estimates data.
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Int J Cardiol
MetadataShow full item record
The pattern and global burden of disease has evolved considerably over the last two decades, from primarily communicable, maternal, and perinatal causes to non-communicable disease (NCD). Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has become the single most important and largest cause of NCD deaths worldwide at over 50%. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 17.6 million people died of CVD worldwide in 2012. Proportionally, this accounts for an estimated 31.43% of global mortality, with ischaemic heart disease (IHD) accounting for approximately 7.4 million deaths, 13.2% of the total. IHD was also the greatest single cause of death in 2000, accounting for an estimated 6.0 million deaths. The global burden of CVD falls, principally, on the low and middle-income (LMI) countries, accounting for over 80% of CVD deaths. Individual populations face differing challenges and each population has unique health burdens, however, CVD remains one of the greatest health challenges both nationally and worldwide.
AuthorsMcAloon, CJ; Boylan, LM; Hamborg, T; Stallard, N; Osman, F; Lim, PB; Hayat, SA
- Population Health
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Williams, DM; Sheiham, A; Honkala, E (SAGE Publications, 2015-07-01)In the first chapter in Shulchan Aruch Admur discusses the detailed laws of Tikkun Chatzos. It is no longer accustomed amongst most Jewry to perform Tikkun Chatzos and hence the detailed laws written by Admur have been omitted from this chapter. Nevertheless parts of this Halacha have been brought for the reader to gain some general background of this tradition.
Awaking before midnight: [Although one may sleep until dawn, this is only the conduct of a Beinoni, however for] all G-d fearing Jews [which G-d touches their heart], it is proper to awaken by [midnight] and recite the Tikkun over the destruction of our temple and the exile of the Shechina, as during this period of time G-d also laments His destruction of the Temples [and for this reason ones prayer said at that time is accepted before G-d].
Having a rooster wake one up: It is proper to prepare a rooster to awaken one from his sleep by midnight emulating Rabbi Akiva who was accustomed to have a rooster even when traveling in order to wake him by midnight. If this is not possible then one should hire someone to wake him up.
The auspiciousness of this time: The auspiciousness of this time is elaborated on in the Zohar. As well the Talmud says that this is a time of appeasement above and that anyone who learns Torah at night the Shechina resides opposite him, and a “string of kindness” is drawn upon him for that day. One who does so is also called a servant of G-d. The auspiciousness of the time of midnight is applicable at all times and in all places.
The order of Tikkun Chatzos:
One would awaken close to midnight and sit barefoot near the Mezuzah of the doorpost. He places ash on his forehead in the area of the head Tefillin and then recites the paragraph of “Lasum Laavleiy Tziyon”. He is then to stand and recite the verses of “Hisnaariy Meiafar Kumiy”. After the Tikkun, if it is still before midnight, one should study Mishnayos as whoever studies codified laws is granted a portion in the world to come. After midnight he is to study passages from the Zohar which discuss the prayers recited during the Tikkun.
The custom today of Tikkun Chatzos:
It is no longer accustomed amongst most Jewry to perform Tikkun Chatzos. The current Chabad custom is not to say it. Nevertheless one is to perform the service of Tikkun Chatzos during his recital of Kerias Shema Sheal Hamita. Likewise if one is awake near Chatzos he should not go to sleep and is to rather use the auspicious time to learn Chassidus, or learn a Sicha or perform an accounting of the soul.
To Purchase this Sefer
Basra 1/2-3; Kama 1/8-9; Siddur; See Kaf Hachaim 1/7-24; Piskeiy Teshuvos 1/10-12
Siddur Hashkamas Haboker: “It is known the greatness of awaking by midnight which is an auspicious time above. One who is not able to awaken every night should at least do so the nights that he is able and thus be considered a servant of G-d. On a night that one is unable to awaken by midnight he should at least try to awake some time [Eizeh Shaah] prior to dawn”
Tikkun Chatzos used to be performed by the masses, including even the simple folk. [Reishis Chochma Shaar Hakedusha 7] As the generations progressed the amount of people who performed Tikkun Chatzos gradually decreased to the point that only those that are spiritually exceptional and righteous continued to perform it.
The justification for not performing Tikkun Chatzos: The Ashel Avraham [Butchach 1/2] writes that if waking up for Tikkun Chatzos will affect ones health [sleep schedule] then he is not to do so even if there is the slightest doubt that it may affect his ability to function and health. He thus justifies the practice of many that do no wake up for Tikkun Chatzos. The Nimukeiy Orach Chaim [1/1] takes the Ashel Avraham to task for giving such a wide spread allowance to anyone with the slightest doubt of a health hazard as in this path one will avoid fulfilling all Torah and Mitzvos that may somehow possibly affect his health. The Nimukeiy Orach Chaim hence suggests that if one is unable to awaken by Chatzos then he should stay awake until Chatzos and then perform the Tikkun.
The Chabad custom: In the Siddur, Admur writes that every person which the fear of heaven touches his heart is to remove the mask of shame and perform Tikkun Chatzos in public gatherings of ten people or less or even alone. This was practiced by many Chassidim in the times of Admur to perform Tikkun Chatzos with a Minyan in Shul. [Igros Kodesh Rayatz 8 p. 341] With the spread of Chassidism in the times of the Alter Rebbe the custom then spread to recite Tikkun Chatzos alone. [Likkutei Dibburim 3 p. 757] The custom then became not to do so every day. [Kuntrus Hatefilah 11 p. 24] The custom then became not to do so at all. [Sichas Kodesh 5711 p. 451 in answer to Rav Yitzchak Hutner; Rebbe Rashab in Toras Shalom p. 6 “today it is thought that Tikkun Chatzos is only to be performed by great Chassidim”] The Rebbe there stated that the fulfillment of Tikkun Chatzos is now done through learning Chassidus after Chatzos. The Rebbe once stated in Yechidus that one does not have to sleep before Chatzos and hence if he already recited Kerias Shema Sheal Hamita and it is near Chatzos, he should use his time to learn a Sicha or do a Cheshbon Nefesh. [See Toras Menachem 3 p. 357; Nimukeiy Orach Chaim ibid] To note however that the noted Chabad Posek Rav A”C Naah records in his Sefer Ketzos Hashulchan 1/2-3 the laws of Tikkun Chatzos and does not make mention of any change from the custom.
A Tradition from the Baal Shem Tov: It is said in the name of the Baal Shem Tov that he nullified the performance of Tikkun Chatzos from the common folk and instituted it be done only by distinguished individuals that truly lament the exile of the Shechina. In the writings found in “Geniza Charsanit” it is brought that the Baal Shem Tov already purified the first half of the night.
Basra 1/2
Basra 1/2
Basra 1/ 2, and Siddur.
Ruling of Admur in Kama: In the Mahadurah Kama the time of “midnight” is not mentioned, rather Admur says that it is proper for one to awaken before daybreak, and it is best to awaken at the end of any of the three Mishmaros to say the Tikkun, as at that time G-d remembers the destruction. [1/8] Thus there is an argument between the Kama and Basra as to when G-d remembers the destruction. At the times of the Shulchan Aruch they still did not know of the greatness and auspiciousness of the time of midnight which is based on mainly Kabalistic sources, and thus in the 1st edition of the Shulchan Aruch of Admur he does not make mention of midnight. However in the second edition which follows more the Kabalistic rulings it is mentioned that midnight is the proper time of awakening. [See Machatzis Hashekel 1/4; Piskeiy Teshuvos 581/2 regarding the time of Selichos].
Kama 1/8 regarding the time of the end of each Ashmura.
Basra 1/3
Basra 1/3
Basra 1/8
Basra 1/2
Kama 1/8 based on Shlah brought in M”A
To note however from Kama 1/8-9: “One should learn the Oral Torah at this time.” And “One who knows how to learn should not elongate the supplications, and instead should spend his time learning Torah, as learning Torah is greater than Iyun Tefilah.”
See Hiskashrus 256 and 601
Sichas Kodesh 5711 p. 451 in answer to Rav Yitzchak Hutner; Rebbe Rashab in Toras Shalom p. 6 “today it is thought that Tikkun Chatzos is only to be performed by great Chassidim”.
So is accepted amongst Chassidim. See Hiskashrus ibid
Sichas Kodesh 5711 p. 451 in answer to Rav Yitzchak Hutner
Toras Menachem 3 p. 357 brought in Hiskashrus 601INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT
Introduction: International business is concerned with the purchase and sale of goods and services across national boundaries. As such, the volume and direction of business transactions impacts directly upon world statistics for international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI). The pattern of international trade and investment is constantly changing and evolving. One noticeable change has been the growth of regionalism.
International Trade: The Theory Mercantilism: Mercantilism: Mercantilists saw trade as a zero sum game – a game such as beggar-my-neighbor. Where one players gains are anothers losses. A mercantilist nation was one that strove to maximize its exports and minimize its imports.
International Trade: The Theory Mercantilism: Mercantilism: The margin between the two – what would now be termed as a surplus on the current account of balance of payments – would be matched by the inflows of gold and foreign currency it received for its net exports and added to its reserves. The larger these reserves, the stronger the nation would feel in its dealings with the rest of the world.
International Trade: The Practice Trade Barriers and Protectionism Trade Barriers and Protectionism: The most commonly cited reasons for protectionism: 1- The need to protect a countrys infant industries: A third world country seeking to reduce its dependence on primary produce by a nurturing a manufacturing sector may feel a compelling need to protect its manufacturers from foreign competition while they are establishing themselves. But: once provided, it notoriously difficult to withdraw.
Trade Barriers and Protectionism 2- To protect domestic industries from unfair foreign competition: One common form of unfair competition is dumping. The practice of selling goods on export markets at less than on home markets. It is understandable if firms facing dumping by their overseas competitors react by calling for tariffs to be imposed to eliminate the prices differential.
Trade Barriers and Protectionism 3- Health/social reasons: For health reasons you cannot normally import fresh fruit into the USA or live animal from the UK. Firearms and drugs are also typically subject to strict import controls for reasons which have little or nothing to do with economics. But nonetheless reflect a form of protectionism.
Trade Barriers and Protectionism 4- Protection of local culture or national identity: The call for agricultural protection widely heard within western Europe since the establishment of the Common Agricultural Policy. Based on members desires to protect local culture. France sees trade barriers as a legitimate means of helping them to preserve their rural traditions.
Trade Barriers and Protectionism 5- Politics: Political reasons for not wishing to trade with particular countries include compliance with international sanctions. And a desire not to be reliant to overseas suppliers for strategically important goods such as defense equipment. Equally, countries may wish to grant preferential trading terms to a former colony/political ally.
Trade Barriers and Protectionism 6- Protection from cheap foreign labor: The argument has been used by labor unions in the USA, Who are concerned at the replacement of US-based plants with Mexico-based ones, In the aftermath of the formation of NAFTA.
Forms of Protectionism: 1- Tariffs: Taxes or duties typically levied on imports as they enter the country. 2- Import quotas: restrictions on the quantity of a good which may be imported, perhaps from specific countries. 3- Embargoes. 4- Export subsidies. 5- Foreign exchange controls. 6- Non-tariff barriers: such as laws and regulations e.g. product specifications or professional qualifications.
GATT and the World Trade Organization (WTO): The General Agreement for Tariff and Trade (GATT) was established in 1947, with 23 founder members. Then extended to include 100 countries. GATTs aim was to promote trade and reduce/eliminate tariffs. GATT three major rounds: 1- The Kennedy Round in the mid-1960s. 2- The Tokyo Round in the mid-1970s. Both 1 & 2 achieved tariff reduction of about 1/3.
GATT and the World Trade Organization (WTO): 3- The Uruguay Round in 1993: which concluded seven years of difficult negotiation. Initiated further cuts in import duties and other tariffs world-wide. It created a new framework for international trade under the aegis of the WTO. Also, Uruguay Round saw 125 countries agreed to an average of 1/3 reductions in tariffs (36% in the developed world and 24% in the LDCs.
Key Trading Principles under GATT and WTO 1- Restrictions on the use of quotas. 2- Allowing of retaliation against unfair trading practices. 3- A requirement to grant most favored nation concessions to all member countries. 4- Members not allowed to treat imported goods less favorably than domestic production (except GATS).
International Trade: The statistics Post World War Two The volume and value of world trade has increased dramatically over the half century since the establishment of GATT. For 50 years trade has been rising faster than the value of world output. Thereby, confirming the growing internationalization of business. The decision to export and import is made not by nations but by individual producers and consumers.
How Trade Affects Nations Economy There are 3 Main Issues: 1- Comparative advantages change over time, and may move for or against any individual nation. 2- Individual business will respond at differing rates to changes in market demand, and so the gains from trade which accrue to particular nations will reflect this speed of response. 3- The value added by trade in goods and services is unequal. Exporting commodities will generate lower returns than the exports of, say, consumer electronics, because the terms of trade are relatively poor.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Introduction: International trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) are closely interlinked. The common factor in both instances is the international / transnational corporation (TNC), because exporting / importing or investing overseas are: Simply alternative ways of internationalizing business.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Definition: The transnational corporation is defined as: Comprising parent enterprises and their foreign affiliates. A parent enterprise controls assets of another entity on other country usually via ownership of an equity stake. United Nations Commission for Trade And Development (UNCTAD) assumes a minimum equity stake of 10% as the threshold for control.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Statistics: Investing in foreign affiliates requires large amounts of capital, and so FDI tends to be concentrated in the hands of the largest companies. UNCTAD estimates that there are around 60,000 TNCs across the glob, but The 100 largest concerns account for US$ 4 trillions of sales, equivalent to 36% of total world sales by foreign affiliates.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Statistics: The total assets of these 100 companies are worth US$4 trillions, they have over 6 million foreign employees. And, only two of the top 100 are from developing countries.
The Worlds 20 Largest Non- Financial TNCs (1997) Table 2.4 (p.42) shows that: 1- The vast majority of corporations in the top 100 TNCs have parent enterprises in the Triad nations. 2- The average size of TNCs from developing countries is only $1.4 billion compared with $13.3 billion for the top 100 TNCs. 3- Four industries dominate the list – electronics and electrical components, petroleum, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and the automotive business.
The Worlds 20 Largest Non- Financial TNCs (1997) Table 2.4 (p.42) shows that: (continued) 4- The corporations ranked most highly in terms of the trans-nationality figures predominantly have parent enterprises in smaller industrialized countries. Such as: Netherlands and Switzerland (Nestle & Unilever). 5- Central European TNCs are still relatively small. 6- A large proportion of FDI flows are devoted to cross-boarder mergers and acquisition.
Reasons for FDI: 1- Increased profit. 2- New markets. 3- Protectionism. 4- Extending the product life cycle.
Reasons for FDI: 1- Increased profit: Commercial companies are always on the look-out for opportunities to raise profits. Either via cost reductions, higher sales volume or higher prices. 2- New markets: From an operational management prospective, it does not make sense to ship cars over huge distances, so Penetration of foreign markets requires the establishment of regional production facility.
Reasons for FDI: 3- Protectionism: Import restrictions may make it difficult for a company to gain a foothold in a foreign marketplace, and The only solution is to produce locally.
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never experienced a prolonged period without power, and have not had a reason to think about what to do and how to prepare for such an event. Most of us would be able to deal with a power outage of a few hours, but there’s a strong possibility that we need to be prepared for the power being shut off for an extended period of days.
Here are some practical steps you can take right now so you’ll be ready ahead of time when the power goes off.
- Always have a reliable generator by your side. A portable generator is fueled by gasoline or propane, and some models even allow you to switch between fuels. A portable generator can back up a few essentials or almost everything in your home, and should be chosen based on what items you need to power, your preferred fuel, and what features are important to you. A home standby generator must be professionally installed and is connected to your home’s propane or natural gas system, so it never needs to be refueled. When the power goes out, your home standby starts automatically, and when power is restored, it returns to standby.
- Make sure you can open your garage door manually. In case you need to leave your home or evacuate while the power is out, you’ll need to be able to get your vehicle out of the garage. Locate your owner’s manual or contact the manufacturer if necessary to get instructions, and practice opening it ahead of time to make sure you can do it successfully. It’s also important to keep plenty of gas in your vehicle’s fuel tank so you’ll be ready to go if you need to.
- If you own a backup generator, make sure it’s operational. It’s important to test your generator periodically to make sure it’s ready to safely provide a source of backup power for you. Don’t forget to review your owner’s manual to make sure you know how to operate your generator safely. If you plan to use a portable generator to back up your power during a Power Shutoff, make sure you have a supply of either gasoline or propane on hand. Check your owner’s manual to learn about the approximate runtime for a tank of fuel to determine how much fuel you should purchase.
- Put together an emergency supply kit. Make sure your first-aid kit is new or replenished with fresh supplies. You’ll also need flashlights, lanterns, a radio, extra batteries, a written out list of emergency phone numbers and contacts, non-perishable food, bottled water, supplies for your pets, and cash.
- Make sure you have backup charging methods for your phone. Purchase additional backup battery phone chargers for yourself and your family so you’ll be able to stay in touch with emergency contacts and reach out for help when you need it.
- Plan ahead for medical devices that rely on power and medications that need to be refrigerated. The medical needs of you and your family are top priority. Keep prescriptions together in an easily accessible location, and keep necessary medications on hand. If you have medications that require refrigeration, or medical devices that require power, secure an emergency plan for relocation or an alternative source of backup power. For emergency lifesaving medical devices, it’s important to follow the ADA Emergency Power Planning Factsheet and contact your local power company to inform them of your needs and discuss the available options.
Although power companies plan to send out an alert to customers when the power is about to be shut off, it may not always be possible depending on weather conditions. Since we’re based in California, all of us here at Champion Power Equipment are preparing our homes and families for this challenge right along with you. Our team is available to provide the support you need and answer your questions as you make plans to secure a safe source of backup power. If we take the time and make the effort now to prepare our homes and our families, we can face a Power Shutoff together with confidence and peace of mind. For more information and helpful resources, please visit calpowershutoff.championpowerequipment.com or the official California Public Safety Power Shutoff website at www.prepareforpowerdown.com.Ever since our species discovered the existence of other planets beyond Earth, the question of whether we are alone in this universe has intrigued scientists and philosophers.
Now, according to NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan: the first signs of alien life could be discovered by 2025, and additional evidence will be revealed in 20 to 30 years.
“Are we alone? The fundamental question drives so much of what we do at NASA, including the work we do in astrophysics…pushing beyond our solar system and out into the universe,” said Ellen Stofan.
Stofan and her colleagues explained why the next generation should expect to see profound advancements when it comes to interplanetary science.
“We’re on the verge of things that people have wondered about for millennia,” Stofan said Tuesday during a panel discussion on water in the universe. “Within all of our lifetimes we’re going to understand that there is life on other bodies in the solar system. We’re going to understand the implications of that for life here on Earth.”
While Stofan predicts mankind is likely not alone in the universe, she said she expects alien life won’t be “little green men.” “We are talking about little microbes,” she said.
Water is one of the necessary elements in NASA’s quest to find habitable planets and life forms beyond Earth. It’s been found in surprising places.
In our solar system there are 10 bodies, including the Earth, which appear to have oceans. This does not include Mars which appears to have once have had, and lost, an ocean but which could still sustain life in some form beneath the surface or could have had life once.
Beyond Earth, the closest body thought to have large amounts of liquid water is the dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt. The Dawn spacecraft is currently orbiting Ceres and more will be known soon but researchers believe that it is 25 percent water and that some of that water could exist in a liquid state.
Jupiters moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto are all thought to have some amount of liquid water. Europa is also thought to experience tidal heating compliments of its parent planet. Ganymede has its own magnetic field and could have several layers of ice and water beneath its surface.
Like Jupiter, Saturn has three moons which appear to have liquid water. Enceladus, Titan and Mimas all appear to have very deep oceans. All of them would, again, be buried beneath layers of ice but without a protective atmosphere or magnetic field those layers of ice could prove to be a useful shield against cosmic radiation for anything living in the water.
Finally there is Neptune’s moon Triton. Although it is very cold there appears to be a great deal of activity, including possible volcanic activity, beneath the surface.
Given the apparent abundance of water in our solar system and the Milky Way, and the possibility that life could even exist in conditions where water does not, aliens, it would seem, are just waiting to be discovered.
“It’s definitely not an if, it’s a when,” Jeffery Newmark, NASA’s interim director of heliophysics, said.
What about you? Do you think first contact with an alien lifeform is set to happen, or do you believe that nothing of the sort will ever happen, and that the only planet that contains intelligent lifeform out of all the galaxies in the universe happens to be good ol’ earth. Let’s just say that one comes into contact with an intelligent lifeform out there – what next? War to strip their planet of its minerals so that those on earth will be able to live comfortably all the more?GREEKS still consider Tuesday an unlucky day. May 29th 1453, was a Tuesday; the day that Constantinople, the place they called—and often still call—the queen of cities, or simply “the city” was overrun by the Ottoman forces that had bombarded its mighty walls for the past 40 days.
In the history of warfare, this was a watershed. It proved that gunpowder could batter down the strongest walls enough to let the attackers in; the age of immobile, iron-clad soldiers defending big stone fortresses was over. But far more was over than that.
The Byzantine defenders and their Venetian and Genoese allies had noticed portents since the lunar eclipse a week earlier. An icon of the Virgin Mary slipped from its platform as it was carried through the city; then a thunderstorm halted the procession. As dusk fell on May 28th, the Emperor Constantine warned his subjects they might have to sacrifice their lives for the faith, family, country and sovereign. The clergy—bitterly divided by doctrine, as Christianity's 400-year-old east-west schism deepened—put aside their differences to hold an evening service in Saint Sophia, the greatest church of eastern Christendom.
In the small hours next day, the final assault began, with a deafening noise of trumpets, drums and war-cries. The Genoese ran down to the sea after their commander was wounded; eventually a dozen Greek and Italian ships, laden with terrified refugees, reached the open sea. The besiegers—the irregular, ill-trained bashi-bazouks and the elite janissaries—poured in.
Smashing through the great bronze doors, they burst into the morning service at Saint Sophia. The worshippers were massacred or captured; many priests died by the altar. Later Sultan Mehmet, the impulsive 21-year-old who had flouted all his elders' advice in besieging the best-defended city in Europe, walked into the building and ordered an imam to claim it for the Muslim faith. But he stopped a soldier hacking at the marble pavings: looting—for one day, not the usual three—all right, but not vandalism.
Mehmet also took care to preserve intact the city's second most-important church, that of the Holy Apostles, and hand it to the Greek Orthodox patriarch. Though much misused by the temporal authorities, the patriarchate survived as an institution for administering the Greek and other Orthodox Christian communities in the new multinational empire. As a strange side-effect of the Muslim conquest, the doctrinal integrity of eastern Christendom was preserved: instead of the compromises with the Vatican that might otherwise have been inevitable, the patriarchate was able to hold to its view on the issues, such as the nature of the Trinity, that had led to so much bitter argument.
Nonetheless, the political capital of eastern Orthodoxy moved northwards to Russia, where patriots proclaimed that Moscow had become the third Rome after the conquest of Byzantium, which itself had been known as the new Rome.
The fall of Constantinople brought to a head many trends already under way. One was the slide of the Byzantine empire's power, as the loss of Anatolian lands left it short of revenue and recruits, and thus more dependent on fickle Italian allies; another the flight of Greek scholars (particularly brilliant in Byzantium's final years) to Italy, where they helped to stimulate the Renaissance.
Yet another was the emergent contest in south-eastern Europe between the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. The Turks were besieging Vienna in 1683 and repeatedly at war with Russia or Austria in the 130 years thereafter. They held southern Greece until 1832, today's Bulgaria, Romania, Bosnia and nominally Serbia until 1878, the lands south of these down to liberated Greece until 1913. Hence the Muslim pockets—Albania, Bosnia—that for most Europeans today are the only reminder that the country they see as a source of cheap, resented, migrant labour was once a mighty power in Europe.
But a part of Europe? Allied with Germany in the first world war, and therefore stripped of their remaining Middle Eastern empire, the Turks by 1922 were strong enough again to drive Greece's troops, and centuries of Greek society, from Anatolia. Old enmities were resharpened by the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus in 1974. If the European Union still hesitates, despite Turkey's decades inside NATO, about its wish for EU membership too, the real reasons lie centuries deep; not least in 1453.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline "The fall of Constantinople"Differences Between Will vs. Be Going to
When to use WILL
- Express future actions decided at the moment of speaking (Immediate Decisions)
I‘ll have salad now.
- Express a prediction based on personal opinions or experiences (Predictions without Evidence)
I think United will win the game.
- A future fact
The sun will rise tomorrow.
- To make a promise, an offer, a threat or refusal
I promise I won’t tell anyone you broke the window.
I‘ll take you to the airport tomorrow.
I‘ll tell your parents what you did.
No, I won’t cook your dinner, you can cook it yourself.
When to use BE GOING TO
- Express future plans decided before the moment of speaking (Prior Plans)
I’m going to visit my aunt next Friday.
- Express a prediction based on present evidence (Predictions with Evidence)
Look at those black clouds. It is going to rain.
- Something is about to happen
Get back! The bomb is going to explode.
Both Will and Be Going to can be used for making future predictions without having a real difference in meaning
I think it will be foggy tomorrow. = I think it is going to be foggy tomorrow.
Will vs. Be Going to | ImageFeb 22, 2019 - National Geographic Orion
Elephant Island. The name is synonymous with Sir Ernest Shackleton and one of the greatest survival stories of all time. Our ship anchors under the jagged ramparts of one of the most forbidding islands in the Antarctic—a single glance is enough to chill the marrow. The thought that 22 men spent an entire winter here hoping for rescue brings the nightmare prospect of either freezing or starving to death into stark reality.
We are at Lookout Point, a name from the 1820’s sealers: Look out for dangerous rocks and tide rips! Undaunted, we launch Zodiacs and explore up close, finding in a narrow, sheltered inlet a new species for us: the Macaroni penguin. Its crazy yellow eyebrows and stout red beak are features of this group called crested penguins. We all make it safely back on board, our chilled, thrilled shipmates jumping back onto the Marina Deck like lively red penguins. We are getting good at this amphibious lifestyle, but a hot drink and a warm lounge are precious luxuries.
The ship follows the southern shore of the island, passing the eastern tip where Shackleton’s three tiny whaleboats made their first precarious landing. This was their first contact with solid ground for 497 days: they spent 10 months with Endurance trapped in the frozen winter sea, four and a half months camping on sea-ice, still drifting north, and finally six horrendous days sailing and rowing before making landfall on Elephant Island. From this barren beach they moved to the only raised spit they could find to camp beyond the reach of the freezing surf. This headland was called Point Wild after Shackleton’s second-in-command, Frank Wild. Our Captain maneuvers gently into the bay to see if a Zodiac trip is feasible. But 45 knot winds and a freezing blizzard is Elephant Island’s emphatic answer, showing us just how wild Point Wild can be.
When Shackleton set off from here to seek a rescue ship, he left the remainder of the crew between a rock and a hard place. Their camp faced an implacable ocean, a sheer rock cliff on one side, and on the other a giant glacier with its own freezing katabatic winds. Just 20 minutes on deck, thinking about the second winter they endured here, left us with our own pinched faces and ice-cold hands.
As we pulled away to start our next leg to the east, we suddenly found ourselves among a jumping jamboree of feeding fin whales. Everywhere we looked whales were surfacing with bursting blows of spray and vapour, racing to and fro to gorge on a krill bonanza. The naturalists estimated 50-100 animals, including calves, at times racing under our bow, oblivious to our presence. The throng was intensified by a crowd of weaving albatrosses, petrels, prions, and storm-petrels all eager to join the feast. Fired by this exceptional event, we all descended on the back deck for our own feeding frenzy, falling remorselessly on a spread of ice cream, crumble, nuts, and nuggets as backup against our own heroic survival story. Heaven forbid we should have to row this ship to South Georgia…
Join us for updates, insider reports & special offers.Pichia pastoris expression system introduction
The expression system of Pichia pastoris is a rapidly developed and widely used eukaryotic expression system. It is a methanol nutrition yeast and have two Alcohol oxidase (AOX) coding genes AOX1 and AOX2. The two sequences are similar to each other, but the AOX1 gene is strictly regulated by methanol induction and regulation. When methanol is the only carbon source, the AOX1 promoter can be induced by methanol and initiate the expression of ethanol oxidase, which can be metabolized by methanol. The plasmid containing the AOX1 promoter can be used to promote the expression of the target gene which encoding foreign protein.
GS115: Both AOX1 and AOX2 gene could express AOX protein (Alcohol Oxidase), high methanol utilization, close to the wild type, belong to methanol rapid use type (Mut+).
KM71: Most AOX1 gene was knocked out, only AOX2 coding the AOX protein, the rate of using methanol is slow, belong to methanol slow use type (Muts).
different integration of the exogenous gene will cause different phenotypes of expression strains:
Common expression vectors and Tags
For extracellular expression proteins, besides the signal peptide carried by the vectors, there are following signal peptides to select.
The advantages of Pichia pastoris expression system
1. Contain aspecific powerful AOX(Alcohol oxidase gene) Promoter, the expression of the exogenous gene could be strictly regulated by methanol.
2. Low cost of culture, and easily separated products. The cost of the Pichia pastoris fermentation medium is reasonable, the general carbon source is glycerol, glucose, or methanol, the rest is an inorganic salt, there is no protein in the medium, beneficial to the separation and purification of the downstream products.
3. The genetic stability of the extraneous protein gene. Exogenous genes can be integrated into the genome of Pichia pastoris with high copies, the gene is hard to lose and be able to get high expression strains.
4. As a eukaryotic expression system, Pichia pastoris has all the subcellular structures of eukaryotes, could do post-translational modifications, such as glycosylation, fatty acylation, protein phosphorylation, etc.
Advantages of yeast expression system service in Leading Biology
1. Having a complete Pichia pastoris expression platform could design different experimental schemes according to customers requirements.
2. Having a high throughput screening platform could find the best expression conditions quickly and effectively;
3. Could do large-scale fermentation production.
Protein analysis and Codon optimization
Before project starts
Gene expression and purification
Fermentation and purification
Expression vector: pPIC3.5K (intracellular expression), target protein 32.49 kD (theoretical value)
Expression strain: GS115/KM71
Induction condition: Methanol concentration: 0.5%/1%, induction time 24h/48h/72h
Result analysis: From SDS-PAGE result, the expressions of target protein (40KDa after glycosylation) were observed, GS115-5#-24h, 0.5% methanol, GS115-2#-48h, 1% methanol, GS115-3#-48h, 1% methanol, KM71-1#-72h，1% methanol, each group could show significant band, indicate the target protein is successfully expressed.
Protein Expression in Bacteria
Unique Protein Production Service
Protein Expression in Cell-Free System
Rich in Disulfide Bond Protein Expression
Protein Expression in Mammalian Cells
Protein Expression in Baculovirus
Protein Expression in Yeast
Protein Expression in Bacillus subtilis
Protein Expression in E coli
Virus-like particles/Phage library expression system based
Cell-free expression system
Whole cell-based protein expression system
Why Leading Biology?
At Leading Biology, we custom protein purification design for every single protein to ensure the production and recovery rate as high as possible.
Working with us, you will get stability, and it means a reliable partner to help streamline your R&D process.
Working with us, you will get the guaranteed service to accommodate your requirements.
- Innovative configurations of chromatography columns custom tailored to each protein
- Vigorous quality control system to ensure the required quality and reproducibility
- Production capacity of up to tens of grams
- Flexible scale-up protein production
- Competitive price with fast turnaround time
Please obtain a quote before ordering, and refer to the quote number when you place an order.
Orders are typically confirmed within 12 hours.This morning the BLS released its monthly Employment Situation Summary, the first jobs report of this academic year. These reports are released on the first Friday of each month and they report U.S. labor market data for the previous month. During this year, we will follow monitor at least three data series from these reports. The first is the national unemployment rate, shown in the graph below. The graph goes back to 2006 which is prior to the Great Recession. Unemployment peaked in October 2009 at 10% but is now down to just 4.4 percent.
We will also watch to see how many new net jobs are created each month. For this, we watch the series called Total Nonfarm Employment. In August of this year, Nonfarm employment grew by 156,000 jobs. That is a lot of jobs, but not necessarily in comparison to more than 153 million total nonfarm jobs in the U.S. economy. In fact, this increase is below the average over the past five years (see graph below) of more than 200,000 per month.
Finally, we will often report the labor force participation rate (LFPR). This is the portion of the working age (non-institutionalized civilian) population that is either working or actively looking for work. It has become important recently, as more workers are retiring and opting to stay out of the labor force for other reasons. The graph below shows LFPR data since 2006.
You can see that the LFPR has been hovering below 63% for almost four years. This is very low by historical standards and you can see that it was 66.4% back in January of 2007. This difference represents millions of workers that are now out of the labor force.This is part one of a new weekly series focusing on recent advancements in the field of regenerative medicine.
The field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM) is a large and rapidly growing field that has implications for the field of longevity. Broadly, the field of TERM is working towards regenerating tissues for which the only current options are replacement through organ donations, autografts, or artificial materials, and the ability to manufacture tissues would dramatically increase their availability to patients. TERM as a field is targeting every type of tissue in the body, but individual lines of research focus on single tissues at a time, which is unlike typical longevity research.
While the potential to replace every tissue and organ in the body at will has obvious implications for longevity, that objective is an absolutely monumental task for a field that, while promising, is still unproven. Additionally, much of what we consider the self is housed in the brain – an organ that ages just like every other tissue in the body and cannot simply be replaced as a whole.
While this field is being applied to a wide range of diseases, current TERM treatments generally have many limitations in common. Most importantly for longevity, these treatments are not tolerated well in the elderly. Simpler cell therapies struggle to provide benefits when transplanted into an environment already damaged by age. Organ transplants, which are more complex, are extremely invasive procedures that are more difficult to recover from the older you are. Furthermore, an old organ transplanted into a young person may last decades longer than it would have otherwise, but a young organ transplanted into an older person will eventually catch up to the rest of its new body. The ultimate ceiling of TERM treatments is still likely limited by aging.
Common ground with longevity
Of course, this is not to say there is no place for TERM in longevity. It is still a radically different approach to medicine with the potential to add years to general human healthspan and decades for the individual patients who benefit the most. Regeneration is a key objective for both fields, of course, and much of what TERM researchers learn can be applied by longevity researchers and vice versa. The two are also highly complementary. Different tissues age at different rates for different individuals, and targeting the regeneration of specific tissues may prove to be beneficial, depending on the scenario.
There are also labs, researchers, and companies that straddle the line between both fields. Heart attack, osteoarthritis, chronic kidney disease, sarcopenia, and many other conditions are key targets of both fields. While the thymus is a key focus of some longevity-focused organizations, many other researchers are also trying to regenerate it using TERM technologies. Organ-on-a-chip technology can be used to test drug safety and effectiveness more cheaply, more quickly, and potentially more accurately than in animal models. This technology is being developed primarily by TERM researchers, but it will have major implications for longevity research, as the time it takes to conduct aging experiments is a crucial limiting factor. In a way, TERM is similar to gene therapy, immunotherapy, and artificial intelligence: their relevance to longevity depends on how they are applied.
The field of TERM aims to regenerate specific tissues and organs. While most, although not all, of these strategies do not modify aging, many of them overlap with longevity due to the various common objectives of the two fields. The knowledge and technologies developed by both fields are also highly complementary and can be applied to advance one another. In the coming weeks, we will zoom in on promising TERM strategies every Wednesday, highlighting promising developments in the regeneration of various tissues.
Chhetri, J. K., Barreto, P. D. S., Fougère, B., Rolland, Y., Vellas, B., Cesari, M. (2018). Chronic inflammation and sarcopenia: A regenerative cell therapy perspective. Experimental Gerontology, 103, 115-123.
Ahadi, S., Zhou, W., Rose, S. M. S., Sailani, M. R., Contrepois, K., Avina, M., … & Snyder, M. (2020). Personal aging markers and ageotypes revealed by deep longitudinal profiling. Nature Medicine, 26(1), 83-90.
Tajima, A., Pradhan, I., Geng, X., Massimo, T., Fan, Y. (2019). Construction of thymus organoids from decellularized thymus scaffolds. Methods in Molecular Biology, 1576, 33-42.
Ramadan, Q., Zourob, M. (2020). Organ-on-a-chip engineering: Toward bridging the gap between lab and industry. Biomicrofluidics, 14(4), 041501.How does Discoloration of lips Occur?
Actinic cheilitis is a condition of low oxygen circulation in blood vessel causing a change of color in lips.
Around 10 to 20% of actinic cheilitis cases lead to malignant carcinoma within 20 years of diagnosis.
- Medical assistance is required
- Skin biopsy and lab tests are required for diagnosis
- Can be both acute and chronic
- Takes few days to months for the symptoms to go away
In addition to discoloration, the lips also become dry and inflamed. It is commonly caused due to long term exposure to sunlight. The condition by itself is not threatening but it increases the risk of skin cancer.
Ages affected: Less than 14 years - common, 15 to 39 years - more common, above 40 years- most common.
Once lips get inflamed and discolored, it is safe to consult a doctor to make sure that it does not become a risk factor of skin cancer.
Painless, dry, cracking lips. Appearance of inflamed red or white patches mostly on the lower lip.
Self-care: Avoiding excessive exposure from sunlight. Using lip balms while going out in sunlight and using moisturizers.
Medications: Medications to kill the affected cells can be taken as per your doctor's prescription.
Specialist: If the condition prolongs, consult a doctor. Book an appointment with mfine to undergo world class treatment and to get rid of all your health disorders.Primary education is free, and adult illiteracy is virtually nonexistent. Education at all levels is first and foremost the responsibility of the cantons. Thus, Switzerland has 26 different systems based on differing education laws and varied cultural and linguistic needs. The cantons decide on the types of schools, length of study, teaching materials, and teachers' salaries. Education is compulsory in most cantons for nine years, and in a few for eight. An optional 10th year has been introduced in several cantons. Church schools in some cantons are tax supported. After primary school, students complete the compulsory portion of their education in various types of secondary Grade I schools, which emphasize vocational or academic subjects to varying degrees. Secondary Grade II schools, which are not compulsory, include trade and vocational preparatory schools and gymnasiums, which prepare students for the university and lead to the matura, or higher school-leaving certificate. As of 1999, public expenditure on education was estimated at 5.5% of GDP.
Switzerland has eight cantonal universities, including four in French-speaking areas and four in German-speaking ones. The universities' expenditures are largely financed by the cantons, with a 53% contribution from the Confederation. Approximately one-third of all higher-level educational funding goes to research and development. The largest universities are those of Zürich, Geneva, and Basel; others include those of Lausanne, Bern, Fribourg, and Neuchâtel. The Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, the Economics College at St. Gallen, and the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne are also important.
Switzerland has a large number of private schools attracting primarily foreign students. These schools, most of them located in the French-speaking cantons, are known for their high-quality education, of either the academic or "finishing school" variety.
In 1996, 477,643 students were enrolled in primary schools. In the same year, 559,924 students were enrolled in secondary schools, and 148,024 students attended tertiary institutions. The pupil-teacher ratio at the primary level was 14 to 1 in 1999. In the same year, 99% of primary-school-age children were enrolled in school, while 88% of those eligible attended secondary school.Due to the demands of growth and development, getting adequate protein is particularly important during infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Due to funding constraints, children at Odoi Atsem School were getting very little protein in their diets, impacting their ability to learn and their overall health. Our Protein Power project supplements their school lunches with eggs or fish to provide this important nutrient.
For many students at Nurturing Nations school, school lunch is the only meal they can count on receiving each day. However, one meal a day isn't always enough to keep the pangs of hunger at bay. Optimum learning occurs when bodily needs are taken care of, so our Breakfast Boost program allows our students to begin their day with a good meal so they can then focus on their studies and enjoy improved health.The 20th Century
By 1900 special police officers were named in the spring of the year and appointed at other times of peak activity during the year. This practice continued until well after World War II. Many local citizens acted in the capacity of local watchdog during the daytime working hours. Special police were paid substantial amounts of money through the years, particularly during periods when one policeman left and another was not yet hired. Palatine had special auxiliary police, called deputies, until 1979 when the unit was disbanded.
Henry C. Schroeder was the first official chief of police. Schroeder served as chief for two periods of time: 1910 to 1920 and 1928 to 1934. The first uniformed, salaried chief of police was Charles G. Folz, who was appointed in February 1942. His department had two policemen, Orville Helms and Oscar Weide. The fringe benefits of the job back in the forties was a lot different than today. In June 1943, the chief was allowed a two week vacation and officers one week. Leisure time was limited too, police got one day off every two weeks. By October 1946 the department had grown to four and in May of 1949 five.
Today, especially during the warm weather months, a common sight is a Palatine officer patrolling on one of the Department’s Harley Davidson motorcycles. The motorized age began for the police department in 1925 with the purchase of two motorcycles. In 1928 the Board decided to sell one motorcycle and pay the officers $15 a month to use their own cars. Officer today may upon occasion still use their own vehicles and be compensated for mileage; however, it is only for traveling to and from training.
Palatine’s police fleet today is made up of marked cars, SUV's, and mountain bicycles. Police drive many different makes and models, the most common being the Ford Explorer. The first Palatine police car was a two door, trunk-back Buick which cost $813 in 1938.
Communications took a giant step forward in 1948 when the police department acquired radio equipment. Officers today communicate via two-way mobile radio, portable radio, and laptops in the police vehicles. In 2000, the Police Department saw their communication capability take another giant leap when Northwest Central Dispatch and the member Departments realized digital radio trunking. Trunking gives the police the capability of securing individual channels for special and emergency use and permits multiple users to key their microphones at the same time, with the system’s internal controller providing a channel for the user.
As the Village of Palatine has grown from a sleepy, little town on the outskirts of the Chicago area to a major metropolitan suburb, the police department too has grown. In 1951 the department was made up of the chief, a captain, a lieutenant, a sergeant and six patrolmen. Today the department is composed of 145 employees: 108 sworn officers and 37 civilians.The Nagai coal-based thermal power plant located in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu was commissioned in August 2019. The…
The 2,000MW Lower Subansiri hydroelectric power project (LSHEP) is located on Subansiri River, which is on the border of India’s two north-eastern states, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. The project is being developed by the state-run National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC).
The construction of Lower Subansiri started in 2005 and was due to be completed in 2010. However, the project was delayed due to stiff opposition over its potential environmental impact.
In early 2013, the project was more than 50% complete, but the construction works were stalled for an indefinite period because of strong resistance. As a result, the target commissioning date of the project was pushed back to 2017.
The LSHEP will be the single largest hydroelectric plant in India when completed. The project is expected to be completed in 2023.
Controversy around the Lower Subansiri power project
Resistance to the ongoing hydroelectric project was shown in the form of a far-reaching anti-dam movement. It is alleged that the dam is located in a seismic zone and it is significantly under-designed to resist earthquakes. The fluctuation of water level in the river is also feared to affect the ecology in the lower Subansiri region in future.
The project displaced 38 families, but it is claimed that it will displace many more people residing downstream of the project because of ecological changes endangered by the project. The project is also alleged to affect cultivation and cattle graze in the downstream area.
In December 2012, NHPC set up an independent dam design review panel to facilitate the progress of the project while taking into account the issues advanced against the dam from different quarters.
Lower Subansiri power project background
The Lower Subansiri hydroelectric power project is being developed as part of India’s 50,000MW hydropower programme initiated in May 2003.
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) conducted pre-feasibility studies of 162 projects as part of the initiative, among which a total 5,600MW was planned on Subansiri River.
The Subansiri hydropower project was envisioned as a megaproject with three components, including the 2,000MW Upper Subansiri HEP, the 1,600MW Middle Subansiri HEP and the 2,000MW Lower Subansiri HEP.
The Lower Subansari HEP received clearance from the government in August 2003, following which NHPC started developing the project.
The cost of Lower Subansiri project was originally estimated to be INR62.85bn ($1.16bn) at 2002 price level but was since revised to INR106.6bn ($1.97bn) at 2010 price level. The project cost is expected to further go up because of the delay.
The project cost was met through 70% equity and 30% debt financing by the provision of a term loan. The central government is providing budgetary support as part of the equity component.
Lower Subansiri hydropower project design
The Lower Subansiri HEP is designed as a run-of-the-river power project on the lower reach of Subansiri River, a tributary of River Brahmaputra. River Subansiri flows from Arunachal Pradesh into Assam where it joins the Brahmaputra.
The LHSEP consists of a concrete gravity dam, which will be 116m high from the river bed level and 130m from the foundation. The length of the dam will be 284m. The gross storage capacity of the reservoir will be 1.37km3.
The powerhouse will be equipped with eight 250MW Francis turbines located on the surface on the left bank of the river. It will also have eight horseshoe-shaped headrace tunnels (diameter 9.5m and length varying from 608m to 1,168m), eight horseshoe-shaped surge tunnels (diameter
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their competitors? In fact, in February 2016, regulators banned Facebook's Free Basics app service in India based on "Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulations" and Facebook removed it.
Even Wikipedia has gotten into this space with its Wikipedia Zero. That project. by the Wikimedia Foundation, aims to provide access to Wikipedia free of charge on mobile phones, particularly in developing markets.
These kinds of projects rely on what is known as "zero-rating" which is toll-free data or sponsored data. For this to work, mobile network operators, mobile virtual network operators and Internet service providers have to NOT charge end customers for data used by specific applications or Internet services through their network.Software architecture is often defined as the structure or structures of a system. There’s been a lot of attempts to define architecture from a software perspective and lots of debates over the years. Rather than start from scratch, I thought it would be more helpful to highlight some of the more useful definitions that I’ve come across.
Kruchten, Booch, Bittner, and Reitman on Architecture
Philippe Kruchten, Grady Booch, Kurt Bittner, and Rich Reitman derived and refined a definition of architecture based on work by Mary Shaw and David Garlan (Shaw and Garlan 1996). Their definition is:
“Software architecture encompasses the set of significant decisions about the organization of a software system including:
- Selection of the structural elements and their interfaces by which the system is composed.
- Behavior as specified in collaboration among those elements.
- Composition of these structural and behavioral elements into larger subsystems.
- Architectural style that guides this organization.
Software architecture also involves functionality, usability, resilience, performance, reuse, comprehensibility, economic, and technology constraints, tradeoffs and aesthetic concerns.”
Fowler on Architecture
In Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture (Addison-Wesley Signature Series), Martin Fowler outlines some common recurring themes when explaining architecture:
- The highest-level breakdown of a system into its parts.
- The decisions that are hard to change.
- There are multiple architectures in a system.
- What is architecturally significant can change over a system’s lifetime.
- In the end, architecture breaks down to whatever the important stuff is.
Bass, Clements, Kazman on Architecture
In Software Architecture in Practice (2nd Edition) (SEI Series in Software Engineering), Bass, Clements, and Kazman define architecture like this:
The software architecture of a program or computing system is the structure or structures of the system, which comprise software elements, the externally visible properties of those elements, and the relationships among them. Architecture is concerned with the public side of interfaces; private details of elements – details having to do solely with internal implementation – are not architectural.
My Related PostsHow to write a paper in apa style
Writing style tips: writing a paper for scientific topics the american psychological association’s guidelines do not our easybib apa citation generator. “me, me, me”: how to talk about yourself in an apa style paper let’s go through several cases of how to write about yourself in an apa style paper. Apa style with citation to write the references by opening the datafile called katrinacit in your drpaper6 folder sample apa version 5 essay with table of.
The american psychological association format is a specific writing style that's used to cite references within the social sciences high school and college students. The apa style of writing learn how to use the turabian essay format from our professionals to be equipped with the best essay formatting skills turabian style. How to write an apa style paper when you are a student, and a professor gives you a writing assignment, there are always format style requirements to follow. How to write an interview in apa format include an in-text citation in apa style each time you use information from the how to write a job application essay.
By chelsea lee apa style has special formatting rules for the titles of the sources you use in your paper, such as the titles of books, articles, book chapters. The writing center at empire state college genesee valley center rochester, ny guide to writing research papers in the apa style this style sheet is intended only. Do you need to write an apa style paper but not sure where to begin here are some quick guidelines and tips to get you started on your paper.
Apa paper formatting & style guidelines your teacher may want you to format your paper using apa guidelines if you were told to create your citations in apa format. Are you struggling to write an essay for a psychology class discover great tips and basic rules that will help you write a winning apa format essay.
How to write a bibliography using apa reference writing a bibliography: apa the apa guidelines specify using sentence-style capitalization for the.
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- Resources for learning apa style, including online courses, free tutorials, the apa style blog, and how to cite sources and format papers from title page to reference.
- Sample for students 3 sample apa paper for students interested in learning apa style before getting started you will notice some things about this paper.
The american psychological association and formatting guidelines for scholarly writing to ensure a professional an essay that follows apa style. Writing an apa paper 1 running head: writing an apa report writing an apa style report author’s name california state university, northridge. We have pulled together a few tips on how to write a apa style essay for college with apa style referencing. Reflective essay in education, apa style (gibson) marginal annotations indicate apa-style formatting and effective writing apa intext citation style.The majority of over 540 AEG G bombers built were of G.IV type, powered by 194kW Mercedes D.IVa engines. G.IVs became operational in late 1916, remaining in service until the Armistice. Even with a warload twice that of the G.II it was not successful in terms of offensive capacity or performance and was often used in a photographic reconnaissance role or as a general combat aircraft.
| ENGINE||2 x 260hp Mercedes D.IVa|
| Take-off weight||3630 kg||8003 lb|
| Wingspan||18.4 m||60 ft 4 in|
| Length||9.7 m||32 ft 10 in|
| Height||3.9 m||13 ft 10 in|
| Max. speed||165 km/h||103 mph|
| Ceiling||4500 m||14750 ft|
| ARMAMENT||2 machine guns, 400kg of bombs|
|Paul Willson, 25.03.2015|
The only ARG IV leftv is in the possession of the Canadian War Museum. In fact it is the only surviving original German WW I bomber.
The AEG bombers were an attempt at producing a bomber that fell between single engined types and larger aircraft as built by Gotha and Zeppellin Straken. Whilst the range was limited to about 400 miles and therefore not suitable for bombing England they were used on both day and night missions on the Western, Italian and Balkan fronts. They were reportedly good at withstanding punishment and were pleasent to fly and lasted until the end of hostilities by which time they were obsolescent.
Do you have any comments about this aircraft?|Name: _________________________||Period: ___________________|
This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. An intellect knows multiple things by their difference and can compare them ______________.
(a) From direct experience.
(c) From others' experiences.
(d) From afar.
2. The Fourth Article is Whether We Can Understand Many Things at the Same Time. What does Aquinas say that the ability to distinguish two things involves?
(a) Knowing their difference.
(b) Having two things.
(c) Having two different things.
(d) Having intellect.
3. What is the First Article for Question LXIII: The Cause of the Virtues?
(a) Whether Virtue is Real.
(b) Whether Virtue is Found by Accident.
(c) Whether Virtue is in us by Nature.
(d) Whether Virtue Exists in Man.
4. The Fourth Article emphasizes the immaterial nature of ______________.
5. Aquinas explains that the human mind can discover a new __________.
Short Answer Questions
1. Appetites are ______.
2. In Chapter 19-21, the format resumes the structure of the questions with what?
3. How many articles are there for Question LXIV: On the Mean of Virtue?
4. How many articles are there in Question XIII: On Choice, Which is an Act of the Will in Relation to the Means to an End?
5. In Chapter XVII: That All Things are Directed to One End, Which is God, Aquinas teaches by what?
Short Essay Questions
1. What does Aquinas say about God being the end of things?
2. What does Aquinas say about the difference between irascible and concupiscence?
3. Can one person understand one and the same thing better than another can?
4. What is important about action?
5. What is the first question pertaining to the issue of law?
6. What is the purpose of an introduction to Saint Thomas Aquinas?
7. What does Aquinas say about choice and how it is an act of the will in relation to the means to an end?
8. What does Aquinas claim in Chapter XLVII That in this Life We Are Unable to See God in His Essence?
9. How does Aquinas see individuating qualities?
10. How does Aquinas respond in the First Article to the question of whether the intellectual and the soul are one and the same?
This section contains 771 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page)Patients who test negative for Lyme disease after a suspected tick bite could be suffering from a recently identified illness also spread by deer ticks, a team led by Massachusetts researchers reported Monday.
The paper describes two patients, one in Massachusetts and one in New Jersey, who were initially suspected of having another tick-borne disease but were instead found to have the new infection.
Published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the findings underscore the increasing importance for doctors to think about more than Lyme, the region’s most common tick-borne disease, when they see a patient who was or could have been bitten by a tick. The authors said the cases also may give a hint about why some patients who test negative for Lyme become sick with similar symptoms.
The new infection, caused by the bacterium Borrelia miyamotoi, is the fifth human disease known to be spread by blood-sucking deer ticks, which transmit disease largely in the spring and summer.
“The big message is everyone who gets tested for Lyme disease should get [tested] for all five,” said Sam R. Telford III, a professor at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine who studies tick-borne diseases and is one of the authors.
Telford said there are many unknowns about the disease, which he is calling b. miyamotoi disease, or BMD, including whether it can be a chronic infection. In all reported cases thus far, patients made a full recovery after being treated with antibiotics. The illness causes severe flu-like symptoms, and in at least one previously reported case in an elderly woman, caused confusion, weight loss, hearing problems, and a wobbly gait.
Researchers from Yale University, Tufts, and other institutions announced the first known US cases in January. The bacterium was known to exist in deer ticks for about a decade, but it was not believed to cause human illness until researchers last year linked it to 46 sick people in Russia, some with relapsing fevers.
Researchers now estimate that 1 percent of the population in areas where Lyme disease is widespread, such as Western Massachusetts and Cape Cod and the Islands, may have been exposed to the new bacterium, which can be transmitted by the tick when it is as small as a poppy seed. Lyme disease is thought to be 7 to 10 times more prevalent in these areas. It is unclear how many people who are exposed to the newly identified bacterium get sick.
The paper examined a 61-year-old man from Massachusetts’ South Coast and an 87-year-old from New Jersey. The 61-year-old went to Dr. Hanumara Ram Chowdri in New Bedford last August with an acute-onset fever, shaking chills, worsening headache, loss of appetite, and chest pain, among other symptoms. He was admitted to the hospital and did not recall having been bitten by a tick. Doctors believed he had anaplasmosis, another tick-borne bacterial disease, and began treating him with intravenous antibiotics. He eventually got better, yet not as fast as doctors would have expected if he had anaplasmosis. The New Jersey patient was also thought to have anaplasmosis.
Both patients’ blood was sent to Imugen Inc., a Norwood research and diagnostic lab that conducts testing for tick-borne diseases. It did not show anaplasmosis.
The physicians “were very surprised the patients did not have anaplasmosis; their clinical presentation seemed unequivocal,’’ said Victor P. Berardi, chief executive and senior scientist at Imugen and an author on the paper. His lab found the bacterium; Telford’s lab confirmed the diagnosis.
Peter Krause, senior research scientist at the Yale School of Public Health and School of Medicine who studies the organism, said the bacterium is a distant cousin to the Lyme bacterium. But unlike Lyme, the borrelia can cause a relapsing fever, meaning someone can get a fever, recover, and get it again if not treated. The bacterium is also different from Lyme in that adult females can pass the pathogen to the next generation. Deer ticks are always born uninfected with Lyme and get it from an animal host.Beth Daley can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org. Follow her @Globebethdaley.During a fishing excursion on Pocksha Pond in Lakeville in 1993, Nancy Yeatts spotted an active bald eagle’s nest — a find so rare that she returned to the spot for eight hours a day for almost a week to snap countless photos before reporting her discovery to the state.
“I was enthralled,” said Yeatts, Lakeville’s conservation agent.
It had only been four years earlier that state wildlife officials reported bald eagles were successfully breeding in Massachusetts, after the thenendangered species was reintroduced at Quabbin Reservoir in the central part of the state in 1982.
Since then, the eagle has flourished to the point that its status was reevaluated and changed from “endangered” to “threatened” in Massachusetts in 2011, after being removed from the federal endangered species list in 2007.
In a one-day survey conducted April 5, Massachusetts wildlife officials and 35 volunteers logged 30 active bald eagle nests across the state, including four along the Merrimack River, and others in communities including Arlington, Framingham, Carver, Middleborough, and Plymouth.
“That’s awesome,” said Joan Walsh, director of bird monitoring at the Massachusetts Audubon Society. “Prior to 1989, it had almost been 100 years before eagles bred here... In Massachusetts, we’re a small place, but we’ve done a great job of saving the landscape. I’m really proud of that number, and it’s going to grow.”
The nest survey, coordinated by the state’s Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, was only the second of its kind conducted in Massachusetts. Until 2011, MassWildlife conducted individual counts each winter, the last one yielding 104 bald eagles. As the eagle population grew, officials decided it would be more productive to count nests.
Since the survey last month, bird-watchers have reported other eagle and nest sightings to MassWildlife, including one nest in Stoneham. Agency officials said they are encouraged by the spotters’ reports, and expect the final number of nests this spring will surpass last year’s.
Although several local conservation agents said 30 active nests is an impressive number, the state lost two since last year, both of them in Lakeville. One nest was knocked down by strong winds in April, destroying an egg, while the other was abandoned by a pair of eagles, said Yeatts, the town’s conservation agent.
According to Yeatts, “2000 was the last year we had a nest with no baby eagles.” She added she is optimistic that eagles will breed again in Lakeville, which has a string of five connected ponds: Assawompset, Long, Pocksha, Great Quittacas, and Little Quittacas.
Primarily fish eaters, bald eagles prefer to live near open water. Yeatts said there are two pairs of bald eagles in the area that she hopes stick around.
“I can see an eagle every day of my life... and it’s wondrous every time; never changes,” she said. “Let’s cross our fingers that we have better nests next year.”
Along the Merrimack River, the presence of four pairs of nesting eagles is a testament to how far the river has come since its days of being contaminated by the mills and factories that it powered, said Caroly Shumway, executive director of the Merrimack River Watershed Council. She said eagle pairs have been spotted in Newburyport, Amesbury, Methuen, and Haverhill.
“The bald eagles are a symbol of the beauty and vitality of the river,” Shumway said. “The rivers are cleaner and the fish have come back. Where there are fish, there are eagles.”
‘Prior to 1989, it had almost been 100 years before eagles bred here... In Massachusetts, we’re a small place, but we’ve done a great job of saving the landscape.’
Cori Beckwith, Arlington’s conservation administrator, said now is a good time to spot eagles, particularly around Mystic Lake, where alewife herring are running.
“I’m thrilled to see them... It’s amazing for an urban area to get that,” Beckwith said. “It’s a testament to this concept of protecting corridors. Wildlife needs areas to meet their needs — nesting, food, to communicate — rather than having isolated little spots.”
Herring are also credited for the presence of bald eagles in Middleborough, said conservation agent Patricia J. Cassady. The area boasts one of the largest herring formations in the state, coming from the Atlantic Ocean to the Taunton River, the Nemasket River, and ultimately to Assawompset Pond.
“Everybody around here knows they’re flourishing,” she said.
Bald eagles have been wintering in Plymouth for about 10 years, but began to nest and rear their young there only during the past two years, said Casey Shetterly, project manager for the Nature Conservancy’s Southeastern Massachusetts office in Plymouth.
“To me, it speaks to the environmental health of the region,” she said. “We have a lot of mature forests, we have clean waters, large enough swaths of lands, and land that is connected so they can migrate and move around.”
Bald eagles, whose population declined at alarming rates nationwide starting in the 1950s and 1960s primarily due to the widespread use of the pesticide DDT, are the largest bird of prey native to the state, with a body length of about 3 feet and a wingspan of up to 7 feet.
They are born the size of a teacup, and can live up to 30 years, said Walsh, at Mass Audubon.
“It stands as one of the greatest conservation success stories in the world,” Walsh said.
“It was important to recover the bald eagle as a measure of national pride... It’s an amazing recovery and something we should all be proud of.”Katheleen Conti can be reached at kconti@globecom. Follow her
on Twitter @GlobeKConti.This term in Computing we are learning how to communicate safely on the Internet. The Internet is a part of everyday life for many people, so it's important that we learn how to use it safely and responsibly.
Remember to always ask permission from an adult before using the Internet and if you see anything online that upsets you or doesn't feel right - tell an adult straight away.
Today we are learning about the different ways we can communicate using the Internet. Below are a few links to help get you started:With all the changes in photography over past few years, traditional film-based photography skills, while not completely outdated, have taken second place to the digital revolution. New digital photography software has made it possible for artists to take pictures in any location and immediately upload them to a computer system, where more software makes it possible to manipulate the photos in an almost infinite number of ways.
Colleges now offer degrees specifically designed to build skills in digital photography that include courses in computer management of photography files as well as use of the equipment involved in taking good pictures, composition and lighting, and other effects.
How Much Do Digital Photographers Make?
Photographers do not earn as much as the median salary for all jobs, with recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data stating that median hourly rate for photographers was $14.00. However, this includes all photographers working in all conditions, and many of these employees may be only part-time or performing photography as a second job.
Photographers who have steady jobs with newspapers, for example, may earn more for their work than those who freelance. Photographers who have their own portrait studios may earn good salaries by targeting certain populations at certain times, such as bridal parties or other special events.
What Is Involved in Getting A Digital Photography Degree?
Technically, a degree is not required to be a photographer. A certain amount of artistic ability and study is necessary to make good photographs however, but these skills can often be acquired through practice.
Photographers who really want to advance their careers may choose to get a post-secondary degree in digital photography. This is usually a two-year degree path through a vocational school or a junior college, but some schools offer four-year degrees. A typical two-year digital photography curriculum includes courses in the history of photography, commercial photography principles, and imaging and studio practices, as well as business courses, lighting classes, and communication courses. A typical four-year curriculum adds the basic core classes common to all bachelor’s degrees as well as more extensive coursework in digital production and computer software as well as more art classes.
What Is the Job Outlook for Digital Photographers?
Photographers are expected to enjoy an overall job growth rate of 13 percent, about as fast as all occupations according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Job growth in this field is slowed somewhat due to the relative ease of taking digital photographs for the amateur.
Photography is a field in which a person can work as much or a little as he or she desires. If you seek a job with a media outlet, for example, you will probably have more or less regular assignments. On the other hand, if you choose to freelance, you can probably set your own hours but you will need to be active to discover photography opportunities. In fact, many freelancers actually work more hours than photographers who have “regular” jobs.
Digital photography also allows a great deal of photographic work to be done at home or in an office. Once the pictures are taken, the photographer’s job of “developing” the pictures and putting them into an acceptable media format begins. Many photographers offer digital “album” services that allow customers to view their pictures online, pick out their favorites, and have them downloaded into a format to share among family and friends. Wedding photographers, for example, often prepare online “albums” for purchase by the bride and groom that they can then share with their guests. Other digital photographers prepare slide shows for use at parties and other events with special effects and music to enhance the video presentation.
Digital photography can be an exciting and rewarding career for many people as a full or part time career, plus the skills learned may even save you a few bucks down the road!Table of Contents
What color are the human teeth? Most people would answer to that question promptly: White. Although this is the correct answer, it is often dependent on the subjective impression of the observer because teeth may be yellow, gray, blue, green, brown, black, red and even pink. We will discuss here all the possible reasons that can cause teeth stains to develop.
Teeth Stains and Discolorations
In its most general terms, any change in tooth color is different from the usual white color can be called staining or discoloration of the teeth. The color change can only partially or completely affect the tooth or the crown. The change of color may be permanent or temporary.
It can be caused from the outside, inside or by the interaction of external and internal factors. Therefore, we say that the causes of the teeth stains is divided into extrinsic (external), intrinsic (internal) and internalized causes. Color changes can affect the isolated individual tooth, but may include more teeth. Tooth color can be changed more during germination, and may change during the life.
Different teeth stains are described differently depending of the cause. However, for the patient the easiest way to describe the teeth stains is by self observation. This is why in this article we will describe teeth stains in such a way that will enable anyone to diagnose discoloration of their teeth. It should help you to narrow down the possible cause of teeth discoloration you may have.
Teeth stains are caused by consumption of the various types of drinks and food. Those stains are most often only temporary. Unless you had drank and eaten those kinds of food and drinks in large amounts and over a prolonged period of time. Here, we will focus only on the other types of teeth discoloration.
The enamel is usually gray or bluish-white, but is also translucent. Because of this property to let through the rays of light, the color of teeth depends not only on the color of the enamel but also the color of dentin beneath the enamel, which is pale yellow in color. This is most evident in the areas where the enamel is thin.
The white color is the default and normal color of intact and healthy teeth. Although permanent teeth are white, Their shades may vary from bluish-white to yellow-white. Milk teeth are usually lighter in color than permanent. Their color is white with a bluish outflow and chalky sheen.
On the teeth of the normal color it is possible to find larger or smaller areas of different shapes (dashes, dots, etc.) that are opaque white. Those are the hypomineralized areas of tooth enamel which are formed due to a smaller amount of minerals in those areas. They break the beams of light differently compared to normal enamel, which is up to 98 percent made up of inorganic substances.
Given the fact that these areas are white and have a chalky glow, creates a stark contrast with the surrounding parts of the teeth thus they usually appear darker than they are.
The causes hypomineralization may be different. Some are appearing during tooth development, and some after. Dental fluorosis which occurs due to excessive amounts of fluoride in water and food during the embryonic development of dental hard tissues may present the appearance of just such a whitish discoloration that are usually visible on the labial surfaces of the upper incisors.
Enamel is especially quickly worn out in people who suffer from dental erosion (regardless of its cause), in patients with bruxism (unconscious teeth grinding) and in individuals who have the inherent lower quality enamel (Amelogenesis imperfecta, dental fluorosis, etc.).
In view if this, consumed enamel can not be replaced, and the color changes are considered irreversible and can be masked only by developing appropriate dental cover or veneers.
In newborns with hemolytic anemia which is developed as a result of discrepancies in Rh factors of mother and child, comes to hemolysis of red blood cells of the fetus which are deposited in hard tissues.
By decomposition of red blood cells bilirubin and biliverdin are released, and become part of the structure of the teeth and therefore take on a yellowish color.
With dieing of the dental pulp the teeth can take on an amber color. Teeth may turn yellow due to deposits of plaque and tartar. In this case with proper and regular oral hygiene, ie removal of tartar, teeth can restore the natural color.
The use of dental preparations, such as eugenol can cause orange-yellow color of the teeth. The use of antibiotic preparations on the basis of tetracycline during pregnancy and during the period in which the teeth are developing is leading to a so-called tetracycline teeth that are distinguished by their golden color.
Therefore, the use of these types of antibiotics is not recommended (except in the case of life-threatening situations) during pregnancy nor in children with teeth under development.
The Gray Teeth
The products of degradation of proteins that were in the pulp tissue are than merged in the dentine tubules and color the teeth gray. Besides mentioned, bleeding from the pulp during endodontic treatment can cause gray teeth.
The blood that soaks hard dental tissue during endodontic treatment enters the dentinal tubules. In them, blood is being degraded which releases the iron. The iron than, in the presence of hydrogen sulfide, which is produced by bacteria, is converted into iron sulfide, which causes gray teeth.
Silver staining of teeth may appear on the teeth with amalgam fillings due to the migration of tin oxide or silver from amalgam and their deposition in dentinal tubules.
Hereditary abnormalities in creation of the dentin as dentinogenesis imperfecta can also be the cause of the gray discoloration of the teeth. In this case, staining of teeth is only one of the symptoms of the disorder that manifests itself in other organ systems also.
Blue and Green Teeth
Although green teeth are quite a rare finding, they can be found in children with neonatal hyperbilirubinemia, in children with the inherent reduced saliency of biliary tract and children with fetal erythroblastosis.
The Brown Teeth
Brownish color of teeth may indicate dental fluorosis or the use of antibiotics which are tetracycline-based during pregnancy and periods of tooth development.
Brown teeth that resembles color of white coffee can be found in patients with hereditary problems of creating dentin: dentinogenesis imperfecta.
Brown staining of teeth may be the result of sinter chromogenic bacteria, which can be found on all the teeth on which they form small dark islands. As colonies of these bacteria develop more, they cover the greater surface of the tooth.
What is not to be regarded as staining of teeth or even just aesthetic deficiency, but the reason for the prompt visit to the dentist is brown teeth as a result of caries. The color of dental caries can vary from little black dots on the tooth surface to major affected brown colored surfaces or dark brown in color, indicating the advanced caries lesions. Dental caries is the most common on the biting surfaces of the teeth, but can also occur in other parts of the tooth.
In addition, as previously mentioned, black can suggest the changes of the color of teeth caused by dental fluorosis.
Pink teeth can also be found with the living people. In this case, the individual teeth changed the color due to resorption of the root canal.
The causes of resorption can be teeth trauma, orthodontic treatment, excessive teeth whitening and certain oral surgical procedures. Absorption is usually painless or with mild symptoms of pulp pain. At a time when internal resorption affects hard dental tissues in the dental crown and when it has so much progressed to thin the layer of dentin, pulp begins to sift, and a tooth takes on a pink color.
Although our teeth are usually white in color, its hue may vary significantly and substantially affect the aesthetic effect created by our smile.
Teeth can change color throughout life and because of dental erosion and abrasion, long-term and excessive consumption of food and beverages that can stain your teeth.
That can happen also because of certain bad habits such as smoking, improper and irregular oral hygiene, certain dental procedures and the like.
In addition, we can be born with teeth whose color is not ideal. The causes for this may be different, from taking tetracycline antibiotics during pregnancy, the disorder in the creation of dental tissues, discrepancies Rh factors of mother and child to the excessive intake of fluoride.
Although the causes of teeth staining or discoloration of the teeth may be different, with the application of modern dental methods, it is generally possible to repair and improve the aesthetics of our teeth and smiles.Frequently Asked Questions and Promising Practices
II. Practices that May Benefit Students, Parents, and the School Community
13. Data gathering and evaluation - promising practices in Alternative Education
Data gathering and evaluation efforts are ongoing and transparent and provide students, parents, educators, and the community information to assess the effectiveness of the Alternative Education program/school. Data may include the program/school enrollment, average daily attendance, number of referrals, number of students on the waitlist, the number and percentage of students disaggregated by race/ethnicity, limited English proficient status, disability, and low-income status. Program data should also be shared on suspensions, grade retentions, dropping out, transfers back to the school of origin, transfers to another school, and performance/scores on the MCAS.
back to topTo fully understand why geopolitics are so important when it comes to climate change and to better understand how it can be fought, I will give in today’s article an overview of carbon dioxide emissions in the world.
Nearly half of the global emissions come from two countries, the United States and China. Far behind are the other biggest emitters like Russia, Japan or India. France is the 13th carbon dioxide emitter with around 400 millions metric tons of carbon dioxide.
On the left is a chart with a breakout by countries. With this, we can see that the United States and China are almost at the same level. And China is expected to emit more CO² than the United States in the very next years (normally 2009 according to the International Energy Agency).
As China and the USA are so important in that regard, I decided to have a look at both countries electricity and energy generation in order to see if they had common points. In fact, to my humble knowledge there are several ones :
- Coal predominance in electricity generation.
Half of the US electricity is generated by coal. Meanwhile, China consumes more coal than the USA, the European Union and Japan together and coal is responsible for 70 percent of electricity generation in the People’s Republic. This indeed raise several issues and global concerns as you will be able to read in the various links given below.
- Lack of energy efficiency.
This is mostly the case for China which is known for its very low energy efficiency, notably in its industry. In the meantime, the United States can also improve their energy efficiency in various sectors such as the automotive industry.
- Lack of clean energy sources.
Nuclear energy accounts for less than two percent in the electricity generation of China. Renewable energies have a small part of electricity generation. In the United States, 20 percent or so of total electricity is generated by nuclear. Renewables account for around 8 percent with hydropower alone for 5.6 percent.
One can hope that both countries will start any time soon to decrease their greenhouse gases emissions by working on their energy efficiency and by finding a solution on coal. These countries can use clean coal technologies, capture and stock the emitted carbon dioxide or also shift to a cleaner solution to produce energy.
Today’s article has been done by using many data sources. You will find the ones I used below :
Sources for the graph :
- United Nations
- International Energy Agency
- Le Figaro article : ” Climat, acte III, limiter le réchauffement ” on Monday April 30th, 2007
Related articles on Chinese coal :
- Le Monde article : ” Le charbon chinois, menace écologique majeure ” | link
- Courrier International article : ” Le charbon chinois enfume la planète ” | link
- New York Times article : ” Pollution From Chinese Coal Casts a Global Shadow ” | link
Additional data found on Wikipedia :Easter Day or Easter Sunday is the central religious feast in the Christian liturgical year that marks the end of Lent and is preceded by a 40-day period of fasting, penance, temperance and spiritual discipline. Also known as Resurrection Day or Resurrection Sunday, this day is observed to solemnize the rising of Christ from the dead, three days after he was crucified. This springtime festival is commemorated with great gusto with chocolate bunnies, marshmallow chicks, jellybean-filled Easter eggs, hot cross buns, and candles forming the major attractions of this festivity. Easter Day is mainly observed two days after Good Friday. Officially, Easter celebrations begin with Ash Wednesday and ends with Pentecost Sunday. However, Easter Sunday doesn't always fall in the same date. Wonder why?
Easter Day is primarily determined in respect to the vernal equinox, a day when both the day and the night are of equal duration. Due to its connection to the motions of the sun and the moon, Easter has been commonly observed as a ritual of the spring. The vernal equinox is that one time of the year when the sun passes the celestial equator and the length of the day and the night are almost equal. Easter usually falls on the first Sunday after first full moon following the spring equinox and it may occur 2 to37 days from the vernal equinox. This explains why the Easter Day usually ambles in the calendar.
Easter day usually fall on different dates, as they are determined after the Jewish Lunar Calendar. Hence, Easter is also known as moveable feast. Easter usually occurs anywhere between March 22 and April 25. The history of Easter dates back to 325 AD, to the period of Emperor Constantine. The Emperor in the Council of Nicaea issued the order that Easter should be celebrated on the first Sunday that falls after the full moon following the Spring Equinox. Hence, the feast came to be observed on the first Sunday after full moon or vernal equinox.
Easter this year falls on 31 March, 2013. The Easter celebrations start with Ash Wednesday on February 22 and conclude with the Easter feasting on Easter Sunday. Easter is truly the time to dig into all the lip-smacking treats, make interesting paper crafts, revel amidst the colorful spring blooms, and deck up your homes with beautiful decorations. Easter isn't just about rising of the Christ, but also marks the onset of spring and heralds new birth. If you are looking for best way to spread the Easter cheer, then there is no better way than indulging on sugar candies and decking up your homes with bunnies and eggs. The Easter Day may vary year after year, but the zeal and passion with which the festival is welcomed remains the same every year. So what are you waiting for? Get hold of eggs, bunnies, spring blooms and candies and bring in the Easter with a never before kind of an enthusiasm.
Easter 2013 Dates
Check out 2013 Easter dates in Western Christianity and
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great logotype design as the letters were assembled without much thought going into the designing. Purpose of the logo seemed to show the brand name rather than making any impression on the viewers.
1935 Landscape shape with colors
In 1935, the logo underwent first major designing changes. The new logo had colors introduced for the first time. The logo designers opted for a yellow background, while the letters Kodak were in red. Landscape shape of the logo gave it an impressive modern look as against a somewhat outdated classy look of the old design.
1960 Triangular shape
The Kodak company logo was transformed to a triangular shape from earlier landscape shape. Purpose of the new shape was to give a new and unique look to the emblem. The log retained red for the letters and yellow for the background.
1971 – Stylish changes
To keep pace with the new generation of the 70s, the logo designers redesigned the logo once again. This time, Kodak logo was in a square shape also called Box Shape. The logo was designed in the shape of a small red square with broad yellow boundaries. Inside the red square, the designers carved out a yellow arrow to make the logo stylish. The letters Kodak were in serif fonts.
1987 Fonts changed
While earlier Kodak logo continued in the 80s in its Box shape and red and yellow colors, the company made some changes in the fonts. Instead of earlier serif font, the new logo had letters Kodak designed in sans serif fonts to express the company well established business worldwide.
2006 Modern elegant look
The current Kodak logo got its look in 2006, when the company redesigned the Box logo. The new logo had no rectangular or square box. The existing logo features the company name in custom-made typeface. The letters Kodak are in red to express possession, love and life. The logo designers positioned the letters in yellow bars to give the logo a fresh simple look.
To conclude, Kodak logo has a long history with lots of changes made in its shape. Due to global reputation of the company, the logo is easily recognized as the symbol of quality and global business.
Also, have a look on history & evolution of popular logos.Utopia Public Lecture - The World in 2050
This is the third lecture in the Institute of Advanced Study's public lecture series on Utopia.
By 2050 the world's population will have risen to around 9 billion. There will be pressure on energy, resources and the environment. New technology (some as yet un-envisaged) could, if optimally applied, ensure a rising quality of life and a closing of the gap between the developing and developed world. But there is a growing gap between what science will allow us to do and what it's prudent or ethical actually to do. There are threats as well as opportunities and it's realistic to be a technological optimist while being an anxious pessimist about the actual political and social trends.
Martin Rees is Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Astronomer Royal. In 2005 he was appointed to the House of Lords and elected President of the Royal Society, a position he holds until December 2010. He is the author or co-author of more than 500 research papers, as well as seven books (five for general readership), and numerous magazine and newspaper articles on scientific and general subjects.
Contact email@example.com for more information about this event.Two language scholars from Uppsala University, along with an American colleague, have deciphered a hand-written manuscript from the 1730s. The manuscript turned out to be from the Oculists, a German secret society whose purpose included mapping the secret rituals of Masons.
"We didn't even know what language lay behind the cipher. After many experiments that did not yield any preferences for any particular language, we guessed German, since the bookmark Philipp in the book had German spelling and the book, as far as we know, comes from Germany," said Beáta Megyesi, a Language Technologist at Uppsala University, in a statement.
A further complication for the researchers was that the cipher is homophonic, meaning that each character can be coded with several different characters in the cipher.
"At first we thought it was the Latin letters that contained the message itself, not the abstract symbols, but this proved to be wrong. The Latin letters stand for spaces in the document, presumably to lead decoders astray," said Megyesi.
The manuscript, called "The Copiale Cipher," has 75 pages and contains 75,000 characters. Apart from what is the bookmark of the former owner ("Philipp 1866") and a note at the bottom of the last page ("Copiales3") the manuscript is entirely in code. The cipher used consists of 90 different characters ranging from Latin and Greek letters to diacritical signs and mystical symbols, so-called logograms.
The technique the scholars used to break the code involves comparing the most common combinations of characters in the coded document with the most commonly occurring character combinations in the underlying language.
Another discovery was the significance of the colon as a marker that the preceding character is to be repeated. The researchers were able to decipher the logograms last, once they had transcribed the entire document. They represent various roles and concepts in the secret society behind the manuscript. The deciphered text itself required only 16 pages.
The contents of the manuscript are now being studied by scholars from the fields of history of ideas and science of religion, as they reveal information about secret societies which were common in the 18th century and their influence on the French and American revolutions, for instance.
The research team has digitized, transcribed and decoded the entire manuscript. The contents have also been translated from German into English.BJU Life Science 2
In this biology worksheet, students locate and identify various vocabulary terms related to the life sciences. There are thirteen words located in the puzzle.
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Life-Size Printout: Adult, Modern Homo Sapiens
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Discovering DNA: The Recipe for Life
A pinch of adenine, a dash of thymine and ta-da, you have life! Well, it's not quite that simple, but through this series of activities and experiments young scientists learn about the structure of DNA and how it contains the recipe for...
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New Review The Search for the Earliest Life
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Why Do Honeybees Love Hexagons?
Float like a butterfly, think like a bee! Build a huge hive, hexagonally! Find out the reason that hexagons are the most efficient storage shape for the honeybees' honeycombs. This neat little video would be a sweet addition to your life...
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Origin and Evolution of Life, Part 2
In part two of the "Origin and Evolution of Life," our host looks to the hot geysers found in Yellowstone to show the type of environment primordial life may have evolved from. This leads to an explanation of how scientist Stanley Miller...
8 mins 9th - 12th ScienceIn this real numbers worksheet, students solve and complete 9 different multiple choice problems. First, they find the real number subset for the real numbers shown. Then, students determine which subset of real numbers that pi belongs to.
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Intro to Adding/Subtracting Rational Numbers
Masterminds get creative by translating a story into a math problem. The story is about Joe and his summer job. Learners will practice applying operations to rational numbers in order to figure out his daily profit over two weeks.
6th - 8th Math CCSS: Designed
Combine Opposite Rational Numbers on a Number Line
A review of rational numbers makes this video worth showing. Typically taught with integers, learners reason that fractions and decimals are rational and apply it to this standard. Students see a real-world example where money earned and...
3 mins 6th - 8th Math CCSS: DesignedObesity does not worsen asthma in patients with mild and moderate forms of the disease, but it reduces the response to medications, suggests a study conducted by National Jewish Health researchers.
E. Rand Sutherland, an associate professor of Medicine at National Jewish Health who led the study, said: "With both asthma and obesity on the rise in recent years, there has been much interest in the possible link between these two conditions."
He further said: "By studying a well characterized group of patients with asthma, we were able to determine that increased weight is not associated with more severe asthma. Although benefits can be obtained with weight loss in other diseases, these findings suggest that an improvement in asthma may not necessarily result from weight loss."
He added: "The findings also suggest that patients and physicians should be aware that obese asthma patients may not respond well to corticosteroids, the most successful controller medication for asthma, which can affect dosing decisions and choices of possible alternatives to steroids."
While earlier studies have linked obesity with asthma risk, the exact mechanism for these links has been unclear.
The researchers decided to examine the issue in a well-characterised group of 1,256 patients who had participated in NIH-sponsored studies.
They divided them into patients with a body mass index of less than 25 (lean) and greater than or equal to 25 (overweight and obese).
It was found that lean asthma patients had slightly greater forced expiratory volume in one second, or FEV1, and slightly greater ratio of FEV1 to forced vital capacity, both common measures of lung function.
They also found slightly greater use of rescue inhalers among overweight patients and slightly higher scores asthma-relate quality of life questionnaires.
"These differences were small and are unlikely to be of any real clinical significance," said Sutherland.
However, response to medications did show an effect of increased weight.
Among a subgroup of 183 people, lean patients taking inhaled corticosteroids alone showed a 55 percent greater reduction in exhaled nitric oxide-a measure of inflammation.
Lean patients taking a combination inhaled steroid and long-acting beta agonist increased their FEV1 by 80 more millilitres, while there were no differences between these patients in the number of asthma exacerbations.
"The data suggest overweight and obese people respond less well to controller medications for asthma than do their lean counterparts," said Sutherland.
The study appears in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.Is your green thumb starting to itch again? It might still be winter for another month, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t start preparing your yard for the coming season. In our latest WFAA segment, water expert Denise Hickey and horticulturalist Patrick Dickinson offered some simple prep steps you can take before the first day of spring.
5 Steps to Spring: WFAA February Segment
- Prune your perennials.
You can will want to prune the perennial plants in your yard before early March so you won’t accidentally cut new growth.
- Select a fertilizer if necessary.
Test your soil before buying fertilizer to see if you need any, and if so, what kind is best for your yard’s specific soil. This process only costs $10 through Texas A&M Agrilife and is well worth the money to make sure that you purchase the correct kind. Don’t fertilize yet, though. Fertilization before April can cause weeds to take root and encourage your grass to grow when it is still in danger of a late freeze.
- Consider pre-emergent protection.
Applying a pre-emergent seals the top layer of your soil against weeds and helps prevent the need for other chemical use to kill weeds later in the spring and summer. There are many kinds of pre-emergents, including both synthetic and organic options. The most important thing is to apply whichever brand you choose before the growth season and again in September before winter.
- Mulch and spread.
If you still have leaves on your yard, now is the perfect time to mulch them. Don’t trash or throw away what you can collect and use as mulch. Place the gathered leaves over your garden and landscape beds and then layer mulch over the top of them. The leaves will decay and along with the mulch will enrich your soil.
- Water wisely.
Until your grass begins to green, you do not need to water it. Once it does begin to green (after the last frost), limit watering to no more than an inch per week. When watering your grass, it is best to water less often, and irrigates using the cycle-soak method. This stimulates your lawn’s roots to grow deeper to withstand the hot, dry summer months.
It is also best to water in the morning, not between 10 am and p.m. when the sun evaporates the water. If in doubt about whether to water or wait, sign-up for WaterMyYard recommendations ortry using a moisture meter to determine if additional irrigation is needed.hey, i'm just trying to learn about special and general relativity and i figure a good place to start is with minkowski space since that is the basis of special relativity. I have a few questions though, i hope you forgive me because these questions will sound rather ignorant and silly i guess but please understand that i've never seen tensor calculus or anything like this before. The first thing i'm confused about is this concept of a Minkowski metric. You can see on page 3 of this pdf what i'm refering to exactly in the rest of this post: http://preposterousuniverse.com/grnotes/grtinypdf.pdf [Broken] I don't understand what this metric is... what is a metric? Or why is the signature of this metric (-1,1,1,1). So as you can see i have a total lack of basic understanding. Also, the dot product of this metric confuses me. The two vectors are A and B, which i gather are two fixed vectors in this minkowski space right... and the dot product is given as A. B = n(uv)A^uB^v = -A^0B^0 + A^1B^1 + A^2B^2+A^3B^3+A^4B^4 Well that's messy and i'm sorry, i hope you understand what i am trying to write there. I can see that signature in there with the (-,+,+,+,+) pattern, and if i'm not mistaken the negative term is the time coordinate right? I really need some help to understand the basics of this! It doesn't make sense why A.B equals NuvA^uB^v what does A^u and B^v mean anyway? Thankyou.The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) recently published a study entitled “China’s International Trade and Air Pollution in the United States.” The study reveals the effects of Chinese manufacturing for foreign consumption, both in the United States and in China, in terms of human health and the environment. China is the largest emitter of anthropogenic air pollutants worldwide, and a significant percentage of this pollution is linked to the manufacturing of goods for export. The study also shows that outsourcing manufacturing to China does not eliminate all of the environmental impacts of manufacturing for the United States. While air quality in the eastern parts of the United States has improved as manufacturing has been outsourced to China, air quality in the western United States has been affected at a net negative level. Strong westerly winds carry pollutants from China’s overall manufacturing activities to the western United States. This Chinese generated air pollution has increased the number of days of noncompliance with air quality standards in parts of the western United States.
The health impacts of the manufacturing pollution in China are also significant. It is projected that 500 million Chinese who live north of the Huai River will lose a collective 2.5 billion years of life expectancy due to outdoor air pollution.
The following statistics from the study show the percentage of the emissions generated in China that is associated with the production of goods for worldwide exports and for US exports.
Click here to read the full study.| Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer
by Dennis Baer
Having belatedly, come to the conclusion that sea plane hulls were not compatible with efficient airframe aerodynamics, the U.S. Navy added land based patrol aircraft to their air arm in early WWII. Before the war, the Army Air Corp had set Navy brassís teeth on edge by using their early Boeing B-17 bombers to demonstrate long range interception of inbound surface ships. The Navy had countered this threat to their monopoly on defending America's coasts by getting the War Department to ban any maritime patrols by Army bombers that were more than 100 miles from shore. This bit of foolishness was instantly forgotten when Nazi submarines began sinking Allied trans-Atlantic shipping in record numbers.
Being late to the party, the Navy had to accept Consolidated B-24 Liberators as patrol planes. The sleeker, easier to fly B-17s were all reserved for Army Air Corp use. Eager to reduce crew fatigue on long patrols, Consolidated was instructed to allocate three B-24s for conversion to Navy requirements. To ease control problems, Consolidated had already attempted to change the B-24's twin rudders to a single vertical fin. The first conversion, the XB-24K, done at the Consolidated San Diego plant used the tail from a Douglas B-23 Dragon. The results were unsatisfactory.
|The Ford Motor Company, which operated a huge B-24 license-production plant called Willow Run in Michigan, then transplanted a vertical fin from a C-54 transport onto one of their B-24s, creating the XB-24N. They also added a new custom built horizontal fin and replacing the nose turret with an ERCO 250 SH ball turret, which was more streamlined than the standard nose turret of production B-24s. It was superior enough to the standard B-24J that the Army ordered seven more pre-production YB-24Ns and inked an order for 5,168 B-24N bombers. Horrified that a mere car manufacturer might have upstaged them, Consolidated pulled strings to have this order canceled. Equally horrified that they might be forced to accept some of these planes instead of getting their own design, the Navy helped to kill the N-model.|
Changes from the B-24 included a single vertical fin and replacing the nose turret which was more streamlined than standard models. The forward fuselage was lengthened and there were changes in armament. The Privateer used the same wing and landing gear as the B-24.
Meanwhile, new fuselages were constructed for the Navy PB4Y-2s in San Diego. For the second time, the basic Liberator fuselage was lengthened (legendary founder of Consolidated, Ruben Fleet personally ordered the first B-24C and all subsequent Liberators to have the nose section lengthened 2 feet, 7 inches at company expense "to improve the appearance." He could have saved the effort; it was still a homely plane). The new fuselage was now a full 74 ft, 7 inches, 10 feet 5 inches longer than the first B-24A. The space was devoted to new electronics and a flight engineerís station. The first three Privateers (the initial name "Sea-Liberator" had been quickly dropped) flew with standard twin tails. When the new single tail was ready, it caused the Privateer to tower a hanger-roof-scraping 29 feet 1 5/8 inches off the floor.
A second dorsal turret was fitted with twin.50 caliber machine guns, as well as a pair of ERCO 250 THE turrets which replaced the two flexible, hand held guns of the Liberator's waist gunners. The Navy, in it's infinite wisdom, noted that the teardrop shaped waist turrets could be depressed downward to such a degree that the fields of fire from these guns converged at a point 30 feet below the belly of the plane. For this reason, no belly turret was fitted. How the waist gunners were suppose to stand in their turret blister and see to aim their guns under their feet without falling over was not explained.
The trademark of the Liberator family, the 110 foot long, twin spar Davis High Lift wing with it's massive Fowler flaps was unchanged. This was the secret to the long range and relatively high speed of the Liberator/Privateer family, and the reason the Privateer stayed on in squadron service long after the rival B-17 had been retired.
Four Pratt & Whitney R-1830-94 engines were retained although they were fitted with only a single stage supercharger. As low altitude patrol planes, the two stage supercharger was considered unnecessary. The oil cooler air inlets were moved to above and below the engine, eliminating the characteristic horizontal oval appearance of the engine cowl. Military and T.O. power was rated at 1,350 hp (1,000 kW) each. Later, when some survivors of Navy and Coast Guard service were modified for use as fire bombers, they were fitted with 1,700 hp (1,270 kW) Wright R-2600 engines.
The two distinguishing features between the B-24 and the Privateer were the tail configurations and the engine cowlings. Cowling configurations for the oil coolers differed depending on the engine installation.
Twelve.50 caliber Colt-Browning M2 machine guns were carried, all in powered turrets. This was sometimes augmented with one or two 20 mm nose cannons for strafing. Normal bomb load for a 1,300 mile radius patrol was 4,000 pounds of bombs, depth charges or mines. Some planes were also armed with one or two ASM-N-2 Bat anti-shipping glide bombs which was first used successfully during a raid against Japanese shipping in Valikpapan Harbor, Borneo in April of 1945.
Operationally, the classic use of patrol bombers is to hunt down and sink enemy ships. The Privateer stepped easily into this role, the way having been paved by years of anti-submarine and anti-ship operations in Navy PB4Y-1 Liberators and USAAF B-24s equipped with a series of radar sets collectively known as "Low Altitude Bombing" sets. By WWII standards, the Privateer was lavishly equipped with an electronic suite that could be customized on a mix and match basis so that Privateers could be airborne communication platforms, radar and radio station hunter/killers, anti shipping search and destroy units, weather reconnaissance planes or search and rescue units to locate downed airmen with their radio direction finders. If the situation demanded, they could even act as their own standoff anti radar jamming unit.
Patrol craft are not glamorous, like fighter planes, or vital to the troops on the ground like bombers, close support attack planes, or the cargo planes that keep them supplied. What the Privateer lacked in pizzazz, it more than made up for in versatility and practicality. The Navy wanted the seas swept clear of enemy transport, enemy radars, enemy radio navigation aids, and enemy scouting vessels. It wanted mines planted, submarines harassed or destroyed, communications augmented and weather information for 1,300 miles around the Privateer's base. No other aircraft was as capable of this as the Privateer.
The last Privateer was delivered in October of 1945. Of 739 airframes built, there may be two in flying condition today.
After WWII, Privateers were used as hurricane hunters and played a large role in Reserve squadrons, helping to keep up training for thousands of Naval Reservists. In 1950, numerous mothballed Privateers were recalled for service in Korea, where their air-to-surface radar was used to hunt down and destroy North Korean infiltrators along the coasts. They also flew dangerous nighttime Firefly missions to drop flares over embattled United Nations troops so that air support could continue around the clock.
The US Coast Guard removed the side and nose turrets and rebuilt the nose of the plane with a huge glazed observation dome.
Other Cold War missions included the theoretical deliver of nuclear weapons by Naval aircraft and an unspecified number of PB4Y-2s were modified to deliver second generation atomic bombs. Other airframes were optimized for Ferret missions to gather electronic intelligence. These are high value/high risk missions, often employing a long series of uncomfortable, tension filled runs aimed at approaching or penetrating enemy territory to eavesdrop on enemy radar signals or radio traffic. Most valuable for intelligence analysts is the air-to-ground and air-to-air communication between interceptor controllers and interceptor pilots. The easiest way to get this chatter is to provoke the enemy air defenses into launching an interception of your own aircraft. The hard part is getting away alive after they do. On April 8th, 1950 a Privateer from VP-26 was caught by Soviet MiGs over the Baltic Sea and destroyed with all crewmembers either killed in the crash or strafed to death. Apparently a number of the 38 Privateers seconded to the Nationalist Chinese Air Force suffered similar fates at the hands of the Red Chinese People's Army Air Force.
Other post war service included 22 Privateers provided to Aeronautique Navale for service with the French colonial forces in Vietnam. They were used as bombers until after Dien Bien Phu, with four lost in combat. Six were returned to U.S. service, the remaining twelve were flown to North Africa where they fought in Algeria and later during the Suez Incident. In 1961, the survivors were scrapped in favor of new Lockheed P2V Neptunes, a fate shared by most other Privateers.
The longest serving Navy Privateers were expended as a radio control target drones off Point Magu, California in the early 1960's. The last, flying under the call sign Opposite 31 and carrying the ironic nickname Lucky Pierre was shot down by an Bullpup missile with an experimental proximity fuse that turned the Bullpup into an air-to-air weapon. The relatively large warhead detonated over the back of the Privateer's wing, sparking a spectacular fireball of burning fuel and marking the end of the Privateer's military career.
A small number of ex-US Coast Guard search and rescue Privateers survived to become anti-forest fire water bombers. The Coasties had removed the side and nose turrets and rebuilt the nose of the plane with a huge glazed observation dome. After being sold off as surplus, civilian operators gave them new Wright R-2600 engines along with the installation of their borate/water slurry tanks. These were Super Privateers" and these planes soldiered on into the 1990's.
A modified Consolidated PB4Y was donated to the Yankee Air Force Museum in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The starboard turret is missing but Yankee Air Force Museum hopes to replicate the port side. |
|One of these planes (call sign "Tanker 125") was donated to the Yankee Air Force Museum in Ypsilanti, Michigan. You will note from the rear view that only one ERCO 250 THE turret is installed. Unfortunately, only this portside turret was available, the starboard one having been scrapped. Eventually, the museum hopes to build a "mirror image" starboard turret and fit it to this static display plane.|
|Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer|
|Wing span:||110 ft 0 in (33.53 m)|
|Length:||74 ft 7 in (22.73 m)|
|Height:||30 ft 1 in (9.17 m)|
|Empty:||37,485 lb (17,003 kg)|
|Max Gross:||65,000 lb (29,484 kg)|
|Maximum Speed:||237 mph (381 km/h) at 13,750 ft (4,190 m)|
|Cruise:||140 mph (225 km/h)|
|Service Ceiling:||20,700 ft (6,310 m)|
|Range:||2,800 miles (4,506 km)|
Four, Pratt & Whitney R-1830-94 Twin Wasp |
1,350 hp (1,007 kW), 14-cylinder radial, air cooled engines.
Twelve 0.50 machine guns (nose, turrets, waist and tail positions)|
Bomb load 12,800 lb (5,806 kg).
Return To Aircraft Index.
©Dennis Baer The Aviation History Online Museum.
All rights reserved.
Created March 3, 2008. Updated January 14, 2014.A giant African Rock Python was suspected of eating a calf and killing livestock in the area, so Nigerian locals made the decision to capture and kill the snake, hoping to stop the snake from consuming more of their valuable animals, as the snake was swollen and about one foot wide and ten feet long. But what they discovered, was quite the opposite.
The python, which is considered one of the largest snakes in the world, was filled with a dozen eggs. While the locals were in shock by the surprise eggs, they were excited about the rare delicacy that they discovered and proceeded to eat. Some of these snakes are known to produce 100 eggs at one time.
Instead of feeling sympathy for the mama snake that they killed, the Nigerian locals were pleased that they captured and killed the snake before she birthed more of the species. While the African Rock Python is not a venomous snake, it uses constriction, asphyxiation and crushing to capture and kill their prey. And if you aren’t convinced that the locals made the right decision to kill this snake, then you might be when you hear about a case that dates back to the 1950s when a human infant and an animal were allegedly found inside a 23-foot python. This large species usually sticks to consuming rodents, warthogs, antelopes, monkeys, fruit bats, crocodiles and monitor lizards but every now and then they take down larger animals and even humans. They’ve been known to eat lion, leopard and cheetah cubs.
Before being slaughtered in Malaysia in April, the longest ever captured python measuring at 26 feet long and 550 pounds laid a massive amount of eggs. It was surprisingly discovered on a construction site underneath a tree and a team of civil defense officers came out to capture it.
Evidently, the stress of being captured caused the snake to lay the eggs early and right before she was slaughtered the eggs made an appearance. We can only assume that those eggs were eaten by the locals as well, as they are considered a delicacy.
The African rock python is found in a variety of habitats, from forests to deserts, although they most often frequent areas surrounded by sources of water. Unlike most snakes, the African rock python female sticks around and protects her nest and sometimes even her hatchlings.
Not surprisingly, the python is widely feared, even though it seldom kills humans. It does face threats of habitat reduction and hunting, as was the issue in this case, although it is not considered to fall under the umbrella of endangered species. Often found throughout the whole of sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal east to Ethiopia and Somalia and south to Namibia and South Africa, the python is known to produce in the springtime. Based on how the locals react to the eggs, we can guess that they are on the hunt for the species after breeding time. Believe it or not, the babies are actually quite cute when they first hatch…Creating Applications with Mozilla
|resources:||Home Chapters Examples Figures Corrections Bugs Resources Mailing List Authors Reviews|
The Mozilla project was started in March 1998 with the goal of developing the successor to Netscape's Communicator 4.x browser suite. Today Mozilla is used by developers as a platform for creating applications that can be installed locally or run remotely over the Internet.
The difference between the Mozilla project's original goal of creating a browser suite and its current use as a cross-platform development framework is not as strange as it may sound at first. A web browser might not seem like an application development framework, but it is. Browsers allow people using any type of computer to access applications such as Yahoo! Mail to send and receive email, Amazon's book ordering service, or eBay's online auction house.
In the beginning, there were 3 front ends: Mac, Windows and Unix. Each took a suite of developers to maintain. Adding a new feature (even just a button) required 3 engineers to waste at least a day (more often a week) slaving away until the feature was complete. This had to change.
This quote is posted on mozilla.org and describes how the Netscape 4.x browsers required a different set of engineers to create and maintain the code for the user interface, even though the browser looked nearly identical on each different supported platform.
For a company committed to creating an application that runs on a wide range of different systems, using platform-specific code was a big waste of time. XPFE, Mozilla's cross-platform front end, was designed to solve this problem by enabling engineers to create one interface that would work on any operating system.
Perhaps the biggest advantage Mozilla has for a developer is that Mozilla-based applications are cross-platform, which means that these programs work the same on Windows as they do on Unix or the Mac OS. It's possible to have applications run across different platforms because Mozilla acts as an interpretation layer between the operating system and the application.
As long as Mozilla runs on a given computer, most Mozilla-based applications also run on that computer, regardless of what operating system it uses. Not all Mozilla applications are cross-platform however, since it is possible to create an application with platform-specific code that runs only on certain operating systems, like Camino (an ultra-fast browser that works only on Mac OS X).
The number of different operating system ports of Mozilla gives you an idea of the full range of Mozilla applications. Mozilla runs on Windows, Macintosh (Classic Mac and Mac OS X), and Linux, as well as most types of Unix, including Solaris, FreeBSD, HP-UX, and Irix. Porting projects are under way to bring Mozilla to BeOS, OS/2, Open VMS, Amiga, and other operating systems. More information about most projects is available at http://www.mozilla.org/ports/.
In this context, a front end is more than the look and feel of an application, since it also includes the functionality and structure of that application. For example, the Netscape 6.x and 7.x browser suites use XPFE to allow the creation of different themes, but the browser suites are created by using XPFE as well.
This new technology started out as a time-saving technique and turned into one of Mozilla's most powerful innovations. Mike Cornall, in an article published in LinuxToday, summarizes the history of XPFE well when he states, "The application platform capabilities of Mozilla came about through a happy coincidence of open source development, good design, and far-sighted developers who were paying attention."
Mozilla engineers were trying to create a more efficient process that would save them time and effort, but this technology had the unintended advantage of lowering the barriers to entry to application development. To better understand this happy coincidence and why it can be so useful for developers, it is necessary to take a closer look at what XPFE is made of.
Instead of using platform-specific code in languages like C or C++ to create an application, XPFE uses well-understood web standards that are platform-independent by design. Because the framework of XPFE is platform-independent, so are the applications created with it. Since the framework is also made up of some of the technologies used to create web pages, people familiar with creating a web page can learn how to use XPFE to create a cross-platform application.
Although HTML has been put to many different uses, it was originally designed as a simple system to link separate documents on the Internet. Later additions to the HTML standard have extended its functionality, but even these enhancements can't make it an appropriate language to use for developing applications. XUL is a language specifically designed for creating user interfaces, so it makes sense that XPFE is better suited for application development than is DHTML.
Since XUL is structurally similar to HTML, knowledge of building web pages will give you a boost in learning how to create Mozilla applications. Even if you never used HTML, XUL uses a straightforward collection of tags that makes it easy to become comfortable with it in a short period of time. Once you become accustomed to using XUL, you will be ready to start using XPFE to create your own applications.
At the Second Mozilla Developer Meeting, Rob Ginda, the creator of ChatZilla, led a discussion group about Mozilla as Platform. In this session, he listed all of the following components of a Mozilla application:
- XML-based User-interface Language (XUL)
- Used to create the structure and content of an application.
- Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
- Used to create the look and feel of an application.
- Cross-Platform Install (XPInstall)
- Used to package applications so they can be installed on any platform.
- eXtensible Binding Language (XBL)
- XUL Templates
- Used to create a framework for importing data into an application with a combination of RDF and XUL.
- Resource Description Framework (RDF)
- Used to store data and transmit information. Generally regarded as one of the most complicated aspects of XPFE.
- Document Type Definition (DTD)
- Used for localization and internationalization; more commonly referred to as L10N and I18N, respectively.
Some of these new technologies are in the process of becoming approved standards. For instance, in 2001, AOL submitted the XBL specification to the W3C on behalf of mozilla.org. Although the W3C has not endorsed or approved the submission, this is the first step that is required to make XBL an official standard. The CSS Working Group within the W3C will now have a chance to evaluate the X
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a National Park.
Over 100 years ago, Muir said in regards to the proposed damming, “That anyone would try to destroy Hetch Hetchy Valley seems incredible; but sad experience shows that there are people good enough and bad enough for anything. The proponents of the dam scheme bring forward a lot of bad arguments to prove that the only righteous thing to do with the people’s parks is to destroy them bit by bit as they are able. Their arguments are curiously like those of the devil, devised for the destruction of the first garden....”
Muir’s thoughts resound today with many who long for the restoration of the valley. But their argument actually mirrors another, eerily similar one; that of our reliance on fossil fuels for energy. At the expense of our natural wonders and beauties, and to the detriment of our health, we rely on outdated forms of energy. But the Catch-22 is that we need that energy. And as the world continues to grow in population and become more industrialized, we will need more energy sources. While wind, solar and water power are potential saviors of our reliance on fossil fuels, they are not realistic solutions – yet. So until they can be as efficient, available and reliable as fossil fuels, we will need to maintain our relationship with them, hopefully increasing their productivity along the way. Maybe in the future the residents of the San Francisco metropolitan will be able to take down the dam once they can offset its energy production, but will require another reliable and secure water source for 2.5-million people as well. Yosemite is a romantic reminder of our past, and the dam is an unpleasant reminder of our future in that progress and growth does not come for free.Though the planet-hunting Kepler Space Telescope isn’t functioning due to failing machines, its legacy still lives on through the thousands of photos it took, revealing new exoplanets. On Thursday April 17th, Kepler-186f was discovered.
And it’s currently the best candidate for a sister earth because:
- The planet’s radius is only 1.1 times the radius of earth, meaning it is most likely a rocky planet
- It’s located in the habitable zone of its star
- There might be water… which generally leads to life
Instead of orbiting a normal sized star similar to our own sun, Kepler-186f orbits a red dwarf. This means the habitable zone is much closer to the exoplanet’s parent star in relation to our sun’s habitable zone.
Now here is the downside. Kepler -186f is nearly 490 light years away from earth! Even if humans miraculously invented a method of transportation which allowed for travel at the speed of light (like in Star Trek and Star Wars), it would still take almost 500 years to reach the planet.
In short, our potential sister earth is far out of reach… Oh well!
Reminder, COSMOS is on FOX tonight at 9pm!
(Sources: NASA, Space.com)Did you know that insect pollinators generate one out of every three bites of food we eat?
Or that their worldwide economic value has been estimated at $229 billion CAD per year? Pollinators are critical to the health of our environment, our economy and ourselves.
We rely on the honeybee, which is not native, for much of the pollination of agricultural crops, but parasites and disease are making honeybees less reliable. In Canada there are thousands of species of native pollinators – including bees, flies, wasps, moths, butterflies and beetles – that help to pollinate crops and are responsible for pollinating almost all of the flowers in our forests, fields and tundra. But even our native pollinators are in trouble, and their global populations are declining due to habitat loss, pesticide use, climate change and disease.
To reverse the trend, we need to boost native (or wild) pollinator populations in two key ways – abundance and diversity. How can we do this? One way is to understand how Canadian farmers can support wild pollinators. Agricultural land – including woodlots, hedgerows and grassy field margins – provides pollinators with important food and nesting sites. This means restoring natural habitat on farms may be essential to maintain pollination services.
Unfortunately, little research has been done to understand how different habitat types impact pollinators in terms of abundance and diversity. That’s where the Norfolk County Pollinator Project comes in! By working collaboratively with farmers, the goal is to understand how to manage farmland to contribute both to sustainable agriculture and to healthy pollinator populations.
How does the project work?
The Norfolk County Pollinator Project is a collaborative study between Dr. Carolyn Callaghan, Senior Conservation Biologist at Canadian Wildlife Federation; Dr. Jeff Skevington, a world-renowned entomologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada; Dr. Nigel Raine, University of Guelph Professor and Rebanks Family Chair in Pollinator Conservation; along with participating farmers in Ontario’s Norfolk County.
To sample pollinator populations, thirty Malaise traps—large, tent-like structures designed to collect insects—were set in three different types of natural habitat on participating farms. They were emptied twice weekly throughout the summer of 2018, and CWF students then sorted through jars with thousands of insects to separate the bees and fly pollinators from other insects. The pollinators were then dried and pinned in summer 2019 and are now being identified and labelled at the species level. This process is painstaking and time-consuming, but it’s necessary to ensure the accuracy of the data.
To help automate and confirm species identifications, our collaborators at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada are continuously developing a Next-generation DNA sequencing system: DNA barcoding.
What is DNA barcoding?
DNA barcoding is an exciting avenue of research that ensures the accuracy of the data collected during the Norfolk County Pollinator Project. It analyzes the DNA of insect specimens that are difficult or impossible to identify by visual characteristics to make a precise species identification.
How does this work? If the species of a specimen can’t be determined by sight, then a short fragment of its DNA is sequenced to identify its building blocks, or DNA barcode. This is then compared to the DNA barcode of known specimens in a reference library. When the DNA of the sample matches the DNA of a known species, the specimen is accurately identified, and the validity of the data is ensured.
How is the project progressing?
Data from the first field season is currently being processed and added to the Canadian National Collection database for statistical analysis. Samm Reynolds is our new graduate student who will be diligently collecting and analyzing data. Khorshid Ghahari is our technician who has pinned and labelled the many thousands of samples.
In 2021, a second field season will be carried out. Its data will be processed using the same methods, including DNA barcoding, and added to the database. When the data from both seasons have been processed, a report of the findings will be published. The results are intended to inform government policy and help Canadian farmers support our all-important wild pollinators.
If you want to learn more about how you can help pollinators, visit HelpThePollinators.ca.
Contributor: Samm Reynolds, CWF Pollinator Field TechnicianBack in 1992, the National Institutes of Health funded research to see if changing people’s diets could help lower their blood pressure. They discovered that by choosing the right foods, people could lower systolic blood pressure (the first number) by 6 to 11 mmHg.
Healthy blood pressure levels are important. “High blood pressure puts you at risk for other conditions like stroke and heart disease,” Karen Ansel, a New York-based registered dietitian and author of “Healing Superfoods for Anti-Aging,” told TODAY.
What does the DASH diet stand for? The DASH diet stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. And as it turns out, the DASH diet brings other health benefits, too. It can help prevent osteoporosis, cancer, diabetes, kidney stones and depression.
What is the DASH diet? It’s a plant-focused eating plan — think fruits and veggies, low-fat and non-fat dairy, lean meats, fish, poultry, whole grains and heart-healthy fats. It limits red meat, salt, added sugars and fat.
How does the DASH diet work?
The typical American diet is high in processed foods, which are generally high in sodium. The DASH diet replaces processed foods with healthy, whole foods so sodium levels come down.
And it emphasizes high-calcium, high-potassium foods that help bring blood pressure down. “It’s high in the nutrients that support healthy blood pressure levels,” Samantha Cassetty, a registered dietitian based in New York City and the coauthor of “Sugar Shock,” told TODAY.
To eat in line with the DASH diet, you start with your daily calorie requirement. That number comes from your age, activity level and weight loss goals. Then, you eat servings from a range of food groups every day to meet that calorie target.
What does the research say about the DASH diet?
“This diet has more statistical evidence behind it than any other diet,” Ansel said. “There are dozens of studies showing what it can do for your health. There’s a lot of science behind it.”
The diet can:
- Lower your blood pressure. Five studies funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute found that the DASH diet lowered blood pressure and bad cholesterol.
- Reduce your heart failure risk. A 13-year study found the DASH diet lowered risk of heart failure.
- Cut your risk of diabetes. A study of more than 40,000 men found the DASH diet helped reduce diabetes risk.
- Help you maintain your weight. A 30-month study found that people who lost weight were more able to keep it off with the DASH diet.
- Reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke. A 24-year study found the DASH diet reduced risk of heart disease and stroke in women.
Is the DASH diet a good choice for you?
What are the DASH diet pros and cons? The DASH diet is a healthy eating plan for a lot of people. It’s a top choice for people who want to lower their blood pressure or reduce their risk of heart attack.
Two to three servings of dairy foods are built into the DASH diet menu plan, so it’s not a great choice for vegans, people who don’t like dairy, or people who avoid dairy foods for environmental reasons.
If you’re used to eating a lot of processed food or fast food, you may want to transition to the DASH diet gradually. “If you’re not used to fiber — if you don’t eat a lot of fruit, vegetables, beans and whole grains — you’re probably going to be pretty uncomfortable. Start slowly and give your digestive system and gut bacteria time to acclimate,” Ansel said.
With the DASH diet for beginners, you can start by adding more vegetables, switching to low-fat dairy foods and cutting back on meat.
The diet focuses on servings, so you’ll need to pay attention to serving sizes and keep track of what you’re eating, at least until you get accustomed to the plan. “If you want to follow it to a T, you have to stay on top of it,” Cassetty said. “Over time these things become more natural.”
This diet may not be appropriate for people with advanced kidney disease, according to Ansel, so those people should consult with their doctor before trying DASH.
What do you eat on the DASH diet?
With the DASH diet, what you eat is based on how many calories you should take in. According to the Mayo Clinic, for 2,000 calories a day, your DASH diet food list might include:
- 6 to 8 servings of grains, mostly whole grains
- 4 to 5 servings of vegetables
- 4 to 5 servings of fruit
- 2 to 3 servings of dairy
- 2 to 3 servings of fats and oils
- Up to 1 serving of lean meat, poultry or fish
- 4 to 5 servings a week of nuts, seeds and legumes
- Up to 5 servings of sweets a week
- No more than 1 alcoholic drink a day for women or 2 for men
What is not allowed on the DASH diet? It limits processed foods, fat, meat, added sugar, alcohol and sodium.
Sodium plays a big role in blood pressure control. So, there are two versions of the DASH diet. The standard version allows for up to 2,300 mg of sodium a day. The lower-sodium version limits it to 1,500 mg a day.
In a typical day, you might eat:
- Breakfast: Unsweetened oatmeal made with low-fat milk, nuts and fruit
- Lunch: Chilled tuna pasta salad made with broccoli, tomatoes, feta cheese and whole wheat pasta, plus a side of berries.
- Dinner: Grilled shrimp served with whole-wheat couscous, roasted cauliflower and a side salad
- Snack: 1 medium apple and a cappuccino (decaf if you prefer)
Can you lose weight on the DASH diet? The diet isn’t designed for weight loss, but by following it you can make healthier food choices. To follow the DASH diet for weight loss, you may need to limit your total calories.
The DASH diet is similar to:
Is the DASH diet effective long-term?
“It’s a really great pattern of eating and there are lots of foods to choose from. You could follow it for a long time,” Ansel said.
It’s proven to help lower blood pressure over the long term. It may also help prevent heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and osteoporosis. It could help you maintain a healthy weight over time.
Talk with your doctor before starting the DASH diet or any other diet — your doctor can recommend the best eating plan for you, based on your health needs.Seasonal Affective Disorder
What is S.A.D?
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) was formally recognised as a variant of depression in the 1980s, although The Royal College of Psychiatrists suggests that records of people suffering from low mood in the darker months go back as far as the 1800s.
It typically begins and ends at the same time each year and tends to deteriorate as the winter months progress. It affects an estimated 7% of the UK population every year, 6 – 35% of sufferers requiring hospitalisation at some point and many spending over 40% of the year struggling with significant symptoms of depression. Both children and adults can be affected and it can run in families. It affects women more frequently than men and is more prevalent in populations further from the equator.
- Difficulty waking in the morning / need for more sleep
- Decreased energy / feeling lethargic
- Craving carbohydrates (e.g. cakes, flours, jams, preserves,bread and potato products).
- Increased appetite and weight gain
- Difficulty concentrating
- Decreased libido
- Withdrawal from family, friends and previously enjoyed activities
- Depression / anxiety / irritability
- Physical symptoms (e.g. headaches, palpitations, aches and pains)
What causes SAD?
Research has not as yet uncovered the specific cause of SAD, however a variety of factors are thought to play a part:
- Biological Clock (circadian rhythm). The decrease in sunlight over the autumn and winter months may disrupt our internal clock, resulting in symptoms of depression
- Serotonin levels. Reduced sunlight may also cause a drop in serotonin levels. Serotonin is a natural brain chemical (neurotransmitter) which is important in regulating mood, appetite, and sleep.It makes us feel happy, motivated and enthusiastic and also supports memory, concentration and learning.
- Melatonin Levels. Reduced sunlight may also cause a reduction in melatonin, a hormone which is produced when it gets dark and makes us feel ready to sleep.
If lack of light was the only cause of SAD however, it is likely that we would see more people experiencing Seasonal Affective Disorder, so it is likely that other factors are involved.
How can Solution Focused Hypnotherapy help?
Solution focused hypnotherapy focuses on the thought process that cause or contribute to many conditions that affect our emotional wellbeing, including Seasonal Affective Disorder. This approach encourages people to think in new and more positive ways and in doing so can stimulate the production of serotonin, an important factor in the onset and subsequent management of this disorder. By means of imagery as well as suggestion, solution focused hypnotherapy helps people to change aspects of their behaviour and refocus their thoughts in more positive ways, creating a more relaxed and content state of mind. In doing so, it can help to counteract symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder.
Our brains have a tendency to refer to previous patterns of behavior – this is important for our survival but is not always helpful in non-life threatening situations. In addition, our subconscious mind, which is responsible for an estimated 95% of our behavior and thought processes, cannot tell the difference between imagination and reality. This means that if last winter we became depressed and withdrawn, when the nights start to draw in this year, our brains will refer back to this behavior pattern, decide that it worked (i.e. we survived) and will therefore do the same again unless challenged. As the winter approaches, we may well remember and remind ourselves consciously of what last winter was like and this then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Solution focused hypnotherapy works by rewriting the behaviourial patterns stored in our brains in a positive way.
Clients are often relieved to learn that there are different ways that the symptoms of SAD can be managed and actually enjoy the process which focuses on the positive aspects of living and moving forward, rather than focusing on the past and problems
When to see a doctor
Hypnotherapy is not a cure or replacement for medical intervention however and outcomes do vary. Medical advice should be sought if you feel down for days at a time, if your sleep patterns and appetite have changed or if you feel hopeless, think about suicide, or turn to alcohol for comfort or relaxation.
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We are wheelchair friendlyClimate change and drug trafficking [are] the two main threats to stability and global security
Danilo Medina, president of Republica Dominicana.
During his speech at the 73rd session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), President Danilo Medina described climate change and drug trafficking as the two main threats to stability and global security. In both cases, the consequences are thousands of families destroyed, collateral damage on all aspects of human development and overwhelmed states in the face of the magnitude of the challenge they face.
Between 1980 and 2012, disaster related losses amounted to USD3.87 trillion, globally, 87% due to weather extremes. According to Germanwatch, in the timeframe 1997-2016, 4 countries in Central America and the Caribbean are amongst the 10 countries in the world most affected by climate risks (Honduras, Haiti, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic), 3 are in the top 5 (Honduras, Haiti, Nicaragua). Studies looking at the short-term effects of storms in Central America found that major hurricanes decrease GDP growth by roughly 3-4% in up to 12 months after a hurricane strikes. And small states are particularly affected, with an average annual GDP loss from natural disasters and climate change of 16% in Latin America and the Caribbean and 11% of the population affected (vs. 2.5% GDP loss and 1% of population affected for larger countries).
The transport sector is particularly exposed and vulnerable to the impacts of natural disasters, and climate change is expected to exacerbate future risks. Transport infrastructure exhibits significant vulnerabilities to extreme weather – including coastal storms, landslides, inland flooding, and extreme temperatures, for example. Such events may disrupt and damage the vital connections that provide access to economic opportunities, to education, to healthcare, and facilitate social interaction. These impacts may fall most heavily on vulnerable populations, particularly in areas where the availability of alternative routes or other transport options is poor. Climate change is expected to cause local changes in average and extreme temperatures, as well as changes in rainfall patterns, duration, and intensity. These changes can damage or even destroy road, rail, port, and airport infrastructure. Furthermore, climate change social and economic impacts can change levels and patterns for transport demand. CEPAL, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, estimates that almost 7,000 km of the region’s roads would be damaged by a one-meter rise in sea level, the UNDP estimates that CARICOM members would lose almost 600 km of roads and every fourth airport.
Damaged transport assets represent a sizable portion of economic losses from natural disasters. Transport assets represent a large share of public assets and government budgets, and thus a large liability in case of disasters. Road networks are often entirely financed by the government and international aid. This means that when roads and bridges are damaged by floods or storms, governments bear the fiscal pressure to pay for the large costs of maintenance or reconstruction. In Belize for instance, the value of the road network represents 142 percent of the country’s GDP. In addition, transport networks typically offer low redundancy due to limited physical space, small populations, and limited financial resources. Damage to transport infrastructure can affect accessibility to essential services such as schools and hospitals, and create business interruptions for the tourism, fishery, or agriculture sectors, exacerbating long-term economic losses. Hurricane Mitch, which affected Nicaragua in 1988, caused heavy and long-lasting rainfall, which caused landslides and floods, leaving serious damage to the country’s road infrastructure. The road network of Nicaragua, in 1998 was 18,447 km, of them more than 3,000 km and more than 100 bridges were damaged or destroyed.
Transport sector plays a key role in ensuring the resilience of population and economies facing extreme weather events including climate change impacts. The transport sector plays a central role both in building countries’ resilience and in disaster response. Connectivity is crucial in the capability of a population and an economy to cope with and recover from the damages caused by hazards. In 2016, the hurricane Matthew in Haiti caused widespread infrastructure damage. Amongst others, it caused the important Ladigue Bridge to collapse, leaving 1.4 million people completely isolated and impairing the efforts to provide humanitarian assistance. To ensure that first aid and humanitarian resources can transit from capital cities to affected areas after a disaster has struck, resilient road infrastructure is vital.
Resilient transport interventions and policies can significantly reduce future losses in assets and well-being. In many countries, spending on transport infrastructure maintenance can prevent damage caused by frequent floods and storms, and thereby reduce user costs and repair needs. Appropriate transport asset management systems can save resources spent in rehabilitation and dedicate these to maintenance activities. Upgrading construction standards for critical bridges and culverts can reduce the impact from less frequent but higher impact events. Governments play an elementary role in increasing their countries’ absorptive and restorative capacities. Securing the resilience of infrastructure in the light of natural disasters and extreme weather events is sound economic decision-making. And the incorporation of resiliency from the planning stage onward is highly profitable, as each dollar invested in resiliency reduces losses by up to 4 dollars, while safeguarding food security and other social objectives of transportation.
This is why IDB has focused its 2018 Regional Policy Dialogue on Transportation systems resilience to climate change. For two days, ministers and deputy ministers from the Central America and Caribbean region met in Panama City, along with international experts and Bank’s specialists, to debate the challenges and policies options for tackling the climate change effects and build resilient transportation system, including the infrastructure and its related services.
Building Resilience: Integrating Climate and Disaster Risk into Development, 2013, World Bank
Germanwatch Climate Risk Index 2018
World Bank, “Understanding the Impact of Windstorms on Economic Activity from Night Lights
in Central America”, 2017
Here defined as countries with a population < 1.5 million that are not advanced market economies or high-income oil exporters
Average for 1950-2014, see IMF Policy Paper, ”Small states’ resilience to natural disasters and climate change”, 2016
CEPAL, “La economía del cambio climático en Centroamérica”, 2011
UNDP (Simpson et al.), “Quantification and Magnitude of Losses and Damages Resulting from the Impacts of Climate Change: Modelling the Transformational Impacts and Costs of Sea Level Rise in the Caribbean”, 2010
while power plants represent 14 percent of GDP and water supply and sanitation 25 percent.
UNDP, “Catalyzing Climate Finance. A Guidebook on Policy and Financing Options to Support Green, Low-Emission and Climate-Resilient Development”, 2011
Publicado originalmente en blogs.iadb.orgAt the Detroit Zoo
The dwarf caiman can be found inside the Holden Reptile Conservation Center, located near the middle of the Detroit Zoo. There, visitors can learn about the 61 different species (and approximately 131 individuals) of reptiles at the Zoo, approximately 52 percent of which are considered threatened or endangered in the wild.
Dwarf caimans are reddish brown on the top of their bodies and blotched with brown on their undersides, displaying distinct red blotches on the sides of their jaws. Their heads and snouts are squared with bony plates over their eyelids.
The sex of dwarf caiman hatchlings is determined by the incubation temperature of the eggs.
The dwarf caimans are the smallest of the crocodilian species.THE THIN LINE – Björn Persson (English)
Björn Persson is an internationally renowned photographer who has been nominated for numerous prestigious awards. THE THIN LINE is a tribute to the endangered animals of the world, some of which might be the last of their kind.
Africa’s wild animals have been living on our planet for more than 50 million years. Humans, on the other hand, took their first steps on earth approximately 200 000 years ago. During this relatively short coexistence, humans have caused the extinction of a wide variety of animal species, through both poaching and the destruction of vitally important natural areas. Not to mention the threat to animals created by global warming. The exhibition THE THIN LINE by photographer Björn Persson presents an eye-witness account of a magnificent and beautiful animal kingdom that hangs in the balance between survival and extinction.
Björn Persson is an internationally renowned photographer who has been nominated for numerous prestigious awards. For many years, he has travelled around different parts of the world with his camera. He has photographed many of Africa’s endangered animals, the disappearance of Antarctica’s ice masses and the melting habitat of the polar bear. Björn Persson empathetically documents wild animals in their natural environments, where they have lived for countless generations. His photographs are taken with a closeness and intimacy that result in striking portraits of wild animals that have a distinctly reduced chance of survival.
THE THIN LINE is a tribute to the endangered animals of the world, some of which might be the last of their kind. Björn Persson does not intend for his photography to create despair over the threats facing many of the world’s species. Rather, he aims to capture and showcase the incredible beauty of nature and therefore encourage social commitment to change. Ensuring the survival of endangered species is one of the most important issues in our world today.
The exhibition is produced by Dunkers kulturhus.Charles Francis Brush (March 17, 1849 – June 15, 1929) was a noted inventor and electrical engineer, and a leading citizen of Cleveland. He was also a wise and prophetic person. In the 1920s he recognized the implications of the uncontrolled growth of populations and predicted rather accurately the situation which confronts us today.
In the deed of gift that established the Foundation he states:
In my opinion the most urgent problem confronting the world today is the rapid increase of population which threatens to overcrowd the earth in the not distant future, with resultant shortage of food and lower standards of living, which must certainly lead to grave economic disturbances, famines and wars, and threaten civilization itself.
In establishing his foundation he did what he could when contraception was defined as “obscene and illegal” by the United States Congress.
Issues of population are fundamental to the wellbeing of humanity.
His stated intent in establishing the foundation was to honor his beloved son, Charles Francis Brush, Jr., who died on May twenty-ninth, 1927, and who was devoting his life to scientific research for the advancement of human knowledge. He endowed the foundation with $500,000 and directed the board of managers to use the income to finance efforts that would address these crucial population issues. Since the date of its founding in 1929, the Foundation has proudly pursued a single focus on population, family planning and reproductive health.
For further information on Charles F. Brush, his history and inventions see the chronology of his life and accomplishments, the materials prepared by Jeffrey La Favre, Ph.D., a comprehensive biography as part of a series on famous scientists at Clarkson College, and the Wikipedia entry.What causes ocean waves to form
How do waves arise?
Forces of nature
They splash calmly on the beach, gently rock a boat, but also capsize large ships and wash away entire beaches - waves are one of the pristine forces of nature and have a decisive impact on the image of our coasts.
Differences in pressure and air turbulence
First of all, the wind blows over the surface of the water and ripples it slightly. A small difference in air pressure in front of and behind the crest of the wave and an air vortex in the wave trough amplify these small waves until gravity begins to act on the wave, making the valleys rounder and the crests steeper.
In shallower water, the waves hit the bottom and break
If a certain value is exceeded, the combs become unstable and break, and the first foam crowns appear. The propagation speed of the wave movement is initially still small, but can eventually become greater than the speed of the wind, which results in longer swell waves. In shallower water, the waves come into contact with the ground and break because the circular path of the water particles is so severely hindered that the speed of the particles in the crest of the wave is higher than the speed of movement of the wave itself. as the water pours over the wave front, it is steeper and the waves are longer, the crest of the wave tumbles down in front of the wave and plunging lakes are created. Particularly dangerous waves can also be caused by seaquakes and submarine volcanic eruptions.
Deformations of the water surface
Waves are deformations of the water surface. The individual water particles move on a circular path, the diameter of which decreases towards the depth. At a depth that corresponds to half the wavelength, there is finally no more circular motion. A progressive deformation gives the viewer the impression of a directed movement of water.
The holiday magazine LAND & MEER (EUR 8.90) and the handy A5 brochure FAHRRAD-WANDERN-WALKING (EUR 8.90) can both be ordered free of charge HERE:LAND & SEA Shop
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- Is Suriya a good actorThe answer to this question is “black hair” and “white hair”.
The answer is both and is in this case, it is a direct descendant of the word “hair”.
The word “black” means “brown” and the word “-hair” is the root of the verb to be brown.
Thus, the word black refers to the brown part of the hair, and the other part of hair that is called white.
The answer for “white” is “brown”.
Hence, white hair is brown hair.
The answer for the answer to the second question is, “black hairdressers”.
So “black hairstylists” refers to both hair and black haired professionals.
This is the only word in the English language that has two meanings.
The word black is in the dictionary and is used to describe the brown parts of hair.
The term white is used when the hair is white and the hair part that is brown is called black.
This definition is also found in the Bible and is also in the Oxford English Dictionary.
When we look at the English word “brown”, we find that it refers to a part of skin that is very, very brown.
We use this word in all of our everyday speech.
The Oxford English dictionary defines brown as “having brownish, or blackish, texture”.
It also includes skin with brown spots, or spots that have some redness.
This means that brown skin is the skin that has dark brown skin pigment and is the same color as the skin of another human being.
This is not just skin, it’s skin that we see on our face and body.
We also use the word brown when we want to mean skin that contains brown pigment.
For example, when we use “brown eyes”, we mean that the eyes have brown eyes.
We also use “black eyes”, which is the word that refers to black skin.
The word “white”, on the other hand, is used in a very specific context.
It is used by a Christian to refer to white skin, which is white with black pigment.
The Bible describes white skin as “white as the moon and white as the stars in the sky”.
Therefore, when people use the term “white hairdurist”, they are referring to a white person that is black.
The reason is that the Bible refers to people with dark brown or black hair, while the term black hairstylist refers to those with brown hair and a white skin tone.
This article is part of our ongoing series on words that we use in the New Testament.
We will be posting more articles every week, so be sure to bookmark this page to get an idea of what we are covering.According to a recent review article3, fast food consumption has been increasing throughout the years in the United States, due to the increased need for convenience food. Since fast food typically contains more calories and offers less nutrients than food cooked at home, this rise in demand could clearly be contributing to the increased obesity rates. In fact, this review of sixteen studies found that there is an association between the amount of fast food consumed and an increased weight3.
In a CNN report analyzing a nationwide diet survey4, it was found that caloric intake has decreased slightly from the year 2003 to the year 2012, but that Americans are not actually eating healthier in order to accomplish this change. According to this survey, the amount of calories children consumed via produce increased only slightly from 47 to 63 in this time period. In addition, the fast food rates have remained virtually the same over these nine years. So, while total caloric intake decreased an average of 66 calories per day, Americans have a lot of room for improvement when it comes to healthy eating. The fact that fast food consumption has not significantly decreased shows that Americans may be unwilling to sacrifice convenience even if it costs them their health.
This nationwide survey also found that while the percentage of calories Americans get from eating at home has decreased from 95% in the 1960s to 68% in the 1990s, eating at home still contributes the majority of our calories. However, due to the convenience factor, many Americans are likely to just heat up prepackaged, frozen meals in the microwave, which usually means they are laden with calories, sodium, and fat, and are lacking vital nutrients.
So what can the average American do to maintain the convenience factor while reducing caloric consumption and increasing the consumption of whole foods? Contrary to popular belief, there are an abundance of quick and easy recipes that can be made at home that are also nutritious. Fruit smoothies, salads, quick stir fries, baked sweet potato wedges, chia seed puddings, and oatmeal are just a few meal ideas that are relatively simple to make and will offer a lot more nutrition for fewer calories than typical convenience foods, sans the artificial ingredients and preservatives. A quick google search can yield recipes for healthy versions of almost any of the typical calorie-laden favorites.
Additionally, meal prepping, or cooking you meals for the week in advance, can ensure that you have healthy meals on-hand when you’re busy and feeling pressed for time to cook throughout the week. Making all of your meals for the week on Sunday may seem time consuming, but it will actually save you time in the long run and guarantee that you have access to homemade, healthy meals anytime you need them!
For easy and convenient snacks, carry some fruit and nuts with you! They’re portable and require no prep ahead of time. Fruit is one of the best convenience foods, as it comes ready to eat (bananas even come in their own packaging: the peel!).
All it takes is a little extra thought, and Americans could be well on their way to living a healthier life.
What are some of your go-to easy, fast, and healthy meals? Share with us below! 🙂
“Eat Better, Feel Better.”
- Amidor, T. (2012, September 11). Convenience, Not Cost, Causes Weight Gain | Healthy Eats – Food Network Healthy Living Blog. Retrieved December 22, 2015, from http://blog.foodnetwork.com/healthyeats/2012/09/11/convenience-not-cost-causes-weight-gain/
- Hill, J. O., Wyatt, H. R., Reed, G. W., & Peters, J. C. (2003). Obesity and the environment: Where do we go from here? Science, 299, 853-855.
- Rosenheck, R. (2008). Fast food consumption and increased caloric intake: A systematic review of a trajectory towards weight gain and obesity risk. Obesity Reviews, 9, 535-547.
- Storrs, C. (2015, July 30). Americans cutting calories, but far from eating healthy – CNN.com. Retrieved January 14, 2016, from http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/30/health/americans-cutting-calories/Is your mouth often dry with little saliva? Does your mouth feel sticky or do you have any difficulty swallowing or chewing? Is your tongue dry or does it feel grooved?
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This article is part of a series of articles on how to preach written by Jess Hall, Jr. and originally published in The Firm Foundation.
It may not be fair, but in this day when preachers compete with media sound-bites polished by professionals to capture and keep attention, hearers decide within the sermon’s first three minutes whether to “switch channels” or whether they are interested in anything else that the preacher has to say. Preachers who want to be heard, and who care whether they are heard, will spend all of the time necessary to prepare an introduction that captures the hearers.
The purpose of the introduction is to create interest in the theme, prepare the hearers for what follows, and give the hearers a reason to listen to what the preacher has to say. In short, the introduction welds a connection between the text, the theme, the preacher, the hearers, and the occasion. It should convey a sense of urgency. It should persuade the hearers that what they are about to hear is crucial for their lives, now and forever. It should communicate a conviction based upon a “thus saith the Lord.” Like a camera lens, it should exclude everything from the picture except that on which it is focused – the theme. But how is this accomplished?
The first secret is careful preparation. A survey of top speakers revealed that the introduction of their presentations was the part most immutable, often written out, and all but memorized. As strange as it may seem, the sermon’s introduction, although spoken first, is prepared near the last. It is the theme (which is prepared first, see, Firm Foundation, October, 1996), and not the introduction, that controls the sermon’s direction. At least the main points that support the theme should be prepared before the introduction; otherwise, there is nothing to introduce.
Introductions should vary in form to avoid jaded hearers. The introduction’s form may be as diverse as a surprising statement, a provocative question, an apropos quotation, or a vivid word picture. The introduction’s content may recite a personal incident that relates to the text (done with care to avoid introducing the preacher instead of the subject), recount a real life story that illustrates the text or theme, relate a biblical story with a “you are there” approach, describe a contemporary problem and suggest that the text is the solution to that problem, repeat a current attention-getting news story that illustrates the theme or the problem to which the theme is addressed, or any number of others. Both the introduction’s form and content may be dictated by the theme. One common, but difficult type of introduction is the use of humor. Not only is humor difficult to handle well, it frequently has no relation, or only a forced relation, to the theme. Even more dangerous, not all of the hearers may see the humor.
The opening sentence should be addressed to the mind. The hearer should mentally respond, “That sounds interesting.” If the response is “ho-hum” or “so what,” the hearers are lost. The lead-in sentence in a newspaper article determines if it will be read; the lead-in sentence in a sermon determines if it will be heard.
The development of the introduction should be addressed to the heart. This is most critical; this is the primary point of failure. Failure here results in preaching just on a subject, rather than to living, feeling, needy people.
The transition from the introduction to the body stirs curiosity by promising something. For example, if the opening sentence is a surprising question, the transition promises an answer; if it states a problem, it promises a solution. The sermon must deliver whatever the transition promises, or the preacher loses credibility. The way some sermons begin, the hearers expect the preacher to descend from the pulpit with tables of stone. At the very least they expect lightning to flash and thunder to roll. If the sermon doesn’t deliver, or if the introduction doesn’t relate to the sermon, the sermon is like a dud firecracker – all spew and no pop!
The introduction should never belittle the hearers. The preacher owes the hearers, not vice versa. If the introduction puts down the hearers, expresses anger (either real or perceived) toward them, or otherwise demeans them, the preacher would do better to keep both his seat and his peace.
The introduction should not be trite, hackneyed, abstract, complex, or technical. The introduction should not focus on the theme by the process of elimination. For example, the introduction should not involve the reading of a lengthy passage, provide a long and tedious discussion of the passage, only to be followed by, “But I don’t want to discuss that. I want to focus your attention on three words in the fifth verse.” That type of introduction signals that the larger passage has little or nothing to do with the theme. Even if it got the hearers attention (which is not likely), it will as quickly be lost when the sermon shifts gears.
The presentation of the introduction begins before a word is spoken. Appropriate silence is to the sermon what “white space” is to the written word – it catches the attention of the hearer or reader. When you step into the pulpit, you should take a moment to permit the congregation to put down their hymnals, pick up their Bibles, adjust their bodies, and focus their eyes on you. Then, looking your hearers in the eye, present a well-prepared introduction. In only about three minutes, you will be well on the road to a successful sermon.
God's Plan of Salvation
You must hear the gospel and then understand and recognize that you are lost without Jesus Christ no matter who you are and no matter what your background is. The Bible tells us that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Before you can be saved, you must understand that you are lost and that the only way to be saved is by obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 1:8) Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6) “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
You must believe and have faith in God because “without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6) But neither belief alone nor faith alone is sufficient to save. (James 2:19; James 2:24; Matthew 7:21)
You must repent of your sins. (Acts 3:19) But repentance alone is not enough. The so-called “Sinner’s Prayer” that you hear so much about today from denominational preachers does not appear anywhere in the Bible. Indeed, nowhere in the Bible was anyone ever told to pray the “Sinner’s Prayer” to be saved. By contrast, there are numerous examples showing that prayer alone does not save. Saul, for example, prayed following his meeting with Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:11), but Saul was still in his sins when Ananias met him three days later (Acts 22:16). Cornelius prayed to God always, and yet there was something else he needed to do to be saved (Acts 10:2, 6, 33, 48). If prayer alone did not save Saul or Cornelius, prayer alone will not save you. You must obey the gospel. (2 Thess. 1:8)
You must confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. (Romans 10:9-10) Note that you do NOT need to make Jesus “Lord of your life.” Why? Because Jesus is already Lord of your life whether or not you have obeyed his gospel. Indeed, we obey him, not to make him Lord, but because he already is Lord. (Acts 2:36) Also, no one in the Bible was ever told to just “accept Jesus as your personal savior.” We must confess that Jesus is the Son of God, but, as with faith and repentance, confession alone does not save. (Matthew 7:21)
Having believed, repented, and confessed that Jesus is the Son of God, you must be baptized for the remission of your sins. (Acts 2:38) It is at this point (and not before) that your sins are forgiven. (Acts 22:16) It is impossible to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ without teaching the absolute necessity of baptism for salvation. (Acts 8:35-36; Romans 6:3-4; 1 Peter 3:21) Anyone who responds to the question in Acts 2:37 with an answer that contradicts Acts 2:38 is NOT proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ!
Once you are saved, God adds you to his church and writes your name in the Book of Life. (Acts 2:47; Philippians 4:3) To continue in God’s grace, you must continue to serve God faithfully until death. Unless they remain faithful, those who are in God’s grace will fall from grace, and those whose names are in the Book of Life will have their names blotted out of that book. (Revelation 2:10; Revelation 3:5; Galatians 5:4)- 2017年12月05日17:23 来源：小站整理
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The term "folk song" has been current for over a hundred years, but there is still a good deal of
disagreement as to what it actually means. The definition provided by the International Folk
Music Council states that folk music is the music of ordinary people, which is passed on from
person to person by being listened to rather than learned from the printed page. Other factors that
help shape a folk song include: continuity (many performances over a number of years); variation
(changes in words and melodies either through artistic interpretation or failure of memory); and
selection (the acceptance of a song by the community in which it evolves).
When songs have been subjected to these processes their origin is usually impossible to trace.
For instance, if a farm laborer were to make up a song and sing it to a-couple of friends who like it
and memorize it, possibly when the friends come to sing it themselves one of them might forget
some of the words and make up new ones to fill the gap, while the other, perhaps more artistic,
might add a few decorative touches to the tune and improve a couple of lines of text. If this
happened a few times there would be many different versions, the song's original composer would
be forgotten, and the song would become common property. This constant reshaping and
re-creation is the essence of folk music. Consequently, modem popular songs and other published
music, even though widely sung by people who are not professional musicians, are not considered
folk music. The music and words have been set by a printed or recorded source, limiting scope for
further artistic creation. These songs' origins cannot be disguised and therefore they belong
primarily to the composer and not to a community.
The ideal situation for the creation of folk music is an isolated rural community. In such a
setting folk songs and dances have a special purpose at every stage in a person's life, from
childhood to death. Epic tales of heroic deeds, seasonal songs relating to calendar events, and
occupational songs are also likely to be sung.
1. What does the passage mainly discuss?
(A) Themes commonly found in folk music
(B) Elements that define folk music
(C) Influences of folk music on popular music
(D) The standards of the International Folk Music Council
2. Which of the following statements about the term "folk song" is supported by the passage?
(A) It has been used for several centuries.
(B) The International Folk Music Council invented it.
(C) It is considered to be out-of-date.
(D) There is disagreement about its meaning.
3. The word "it" in line 8 refers to
4. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage as a characteristic of the typical folk
(A) It is constantly changing over time.
(B) It is passed on to other people by being performed.
(C) It contains complex musical structures.
(D) It appeals to many people.
5. The word "subjected" in line 9 is closest in meaning to
6. The author mentions the farm laborer and his friends (lines 10-14) in order to do which of the
(A) Explain how a folk song evolves over time
(B) Illustrate the importance of music to rural workers
(C) Show how subject matter is selected for a folk song
(D) Demonstrate how a community, chooses a folk song
7.According to the passage, why would the original composers of folk songs be forgotten?
(A)Audiences prefer songs composed by professional musicians.
(B) Singers dislike the decorative touches in folk song tunes.
(C) Numerous variations of folk songs come to exist at the same time.
(D) Folk songs are not considered an important form of music.
8. The word "essence" in line 16 is closest in meaning to
(A) basic nature
(B) growing importance
(C) full extent
(D) first phase
9. The author mentions that published music is not considered to be folk music because
(A) the original composer can be easily identified
(B) the songs attract only the young people in a community
(C) the songs are generally performed by professional singers
(D) the composers write the music in rural communitiesScience of IP: Making Sense of Ethernet Packets for Studio Video-Over-IP Networks
We just finished with our white paper and webinar on IT Essentials, a base-level overview for broadcasters new to IP and needing an elementary introduction. Now we move into more system-level architectures.
Video has been used in Ethernet environments for decades, with the most common means of transporting video being the Universal Datagram Packet (UDP). Since UDPs don’t require any direct connection management, they’re versatile for data such as essence video. But here’s the catch: UDPs are so common there’s no way to number them – and that’s a problem for video, which is played out according to a number of frames per second. It’s critical that these frames are in the correct order, and that’s where Real Time Protocol (RTP) comes in.
RTP is ideal for video because the videos can be time-stamped, which solves the vital task of sequencing the packets. Best of all, the timecode exists as an entirely separate data stream, rather than an actual marker placed on the video. That means we can finally ditch the old-school sync pulse that’s existed since the beginning of video.
The method used to time-stamp the RTP packets is Precision Time Protocol (PTP). The idea is that the transmitting device is responsible for reading the PTP packets that are on the network and stamping the RTP packets as they are emitted to the Ethernet network. In this manner, PTP packets serve as a synchronization source. PTP, as a pure Ethernet timing method, is the ideal synchronization centerpiece of the new SMPTE ST 2110 standard — itself built from the ground up on Ethernet.
But what about audio? In their wisdom, the SMPTE ST 2110 authors saw no need to re-invent the wheel and adopted the use of AES 67 audio. Since AES 67 also is based on time-stamped RTP packets, it’s nearly a perfect fit for video RTP packets. Because the audio stream address will only carry one to eight channels of audio at a time, it’s likely that most streams will carry multiple audio addresses to accommodate, for instance, a multi-channel group, a stereo group, and a language group, as well as compressed audio groups such as Dolby E or Dolby D.
Another data stream is ancillary data, traditionally carried within video vertical blanking interval lines 10-21. This stream carries closed-captioning, AFD, and a number of other data typically distributed by broadcast, cable, and satellite plants. Therefore, if the audio and video use RTP time-stamped data packets, it makes perfect sense for the ancillary data to do likewise.
Now our SMPTE ST 2110 soup contains PTP packets (2110-10), video RTP packets (2110-20), audio RTP packets (2110-30), and ancillary data RTP packets (2110-40), and it’s a tasty soup indeed. The next challenge – which we’ll address in a future post – is about putting it all together in a workable combination.
If you would like to know more 801-575-8801 Today!Medical acupuncture in the treatment of pain (Proceedings)
Medical Acupuncture and Chinese Acupuncture
1. Acupuncture is the act of placing a needle into the body at a specific point in order to get a desired effect.
2. Medical acupuncture is an evidence-based approach to acupuncture based on contemporary biomedical descriptions of scientifically based anatomy, physiology and pathology.
a. It is the integration of biomedical principles with Chinese medical traditions
b. Acupuncture has been evolving over the past 3000 years. Medical acupuncture is the next logical step in it’s evolution.
3. The oldest surviving text is from the Han Dynasty, over 2000 years ago
a. Unfortunately acupuncture was suppressed by both Chinese and colonial powers in the 1800
b. The focus was to “modernize” so the emphasis was on Western Medicine
c. In the 1940’s there was a lack of Western trained doctors after the occupation by Japan. Lay people called “Barefoot Doctors” were trained in the rudimentary skills of acupuncture.
d. In 1958, with the encouragement of Mao Tse-Tung, “Traditional” Chinese Medicine was born.
What are acupuncture points
1. Where nerve bundles penetrate fascia
2. Near major blood vessels that are surrounded by small nerve bundles
3. Where nerves enter or exit a muscle
4. Major Nerve trunks
5. Superficial Nerve trunks
6. Emergence of nerves through cranial foramina
7. Where there are mixed nerves (i.e. sensory, motor and autonomic)
8. Sites of nerve bifurcation
9. Periarticular structures
10. Cranial Sutures
1. Acupuncture relieves pain and restores physiologic homeostasis
a. You cannot acupuncture something in the “wrong direction”
2. Insertion of a needle leads to biomechanical coupling caused in part by surface tension in the tissue and by electrical affinity between the metal needle and the charges within the connective tissue
3. Frictional forces are generated when the acupuncturists rotates the needle. This rotation deforms the extracellular matrix.
a. This tugging (da chi in TCM) leads to a range of biomechanical and conformational cellular changes that alter the extracellular environment, leading to healing.
b. Microtrauma, neurovascular reactions, gene expression and protein synthesis occurs
c. Release of substance P and histamine
d. Stimulation of ascending influences on the CNS
e. Stimulation of descending changes via axon reflexes
4. Local effects of acupuncture
a. Capillary dilation and immune activation
b. Tissue repair activation
c. Local and supraspinal control
i. Reduction in inflammation
ii. Normalization of circulation
d. Functional MRI brain imaging allows detailed study of the supraspinal effects of acupuncture showing changes in key pain areas including the thalamus and anterior cingulate cortex.
6. Effects on muscle tissue
a. Muscle pain might be present for several reasons: acute trauma, chronic trauma, referred pain from viscera and related joints
b. Acupuncture lessens muscle pain and tension
7. Immunologic Effects
a. Micro trauma causes degranulation of mast cells
b. This activates portions of the blood coagulation system including Factor XII which subsequently activates the immune system
c. Mast cells release peptides which cause vascular dilation, and increased release of immune mediated cytokines.
d. After needle removal tissue repair begins coordinated by neurohumoral mechanisms
i. The inflammation activates the hypothalamus which in turn controls inflammation
e. Hypthalmic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis is stimulated from afferent somatic and vagal nerves, cognitive-emotional stimuli, chemosensory inputs and integration of all of these signals within the hypothalamus itself. This results in output through at least 5 efferent pathways
iii. Sympathetic Autonomic Neural Pathway
iv. Parasympathetic Autonomic Neural Pathway
v. Central Descending Pain Inhibition Pathway
Analgesia by means of spinal segmental approach
1. First, nerve roots supplying the nerve function to the painful area are selected
2. Points related to segmental innervations of skin, muscles, bones and viscera are selected
3. Homeostatic points related to autonomic function helps deactivate pain processing centers in the brain
Examples of treatable areas
1. GI problems including diarrhea, vomiting, colic, IBD
2. Skin issues including lick granulomas, allergies, and wound healing
3. Dental disease
4. Miscellaneous conditions such as KCS Asthma, Epilepsy
5. Musculoskeletal and Neurological conditions such as arthritis, IVDD, FCE, nerve injuries, back pain, lameness, laminitis, tendon injuries
Western Medicine is a must
1. Vital for proper diagnosis. Medical acupuncture is NOT based on diagnosis of problems via tongue and pulse. It requires lab work, rads and ultrasound
1. Clients are offered additional treatment options, with minimal side effects
2. Patients get better pain control, decreased healing times and the advantage of integrative medical treatments
3. Practitioner has additional source of income, clients and tools to treat medical issuesBeing a high school math teacher is a noble profession, one that requires a sense of humor, mathematical knowledge (naturally), excellent communication and listening skills, a rapport with students, and great patience. You may be excited about the prospect of getting the summer off of work and teachers certainly deserve it and have certainly earned the break. A high school teacher’s school year is packed full with planning classes, attending fieldtrips, grading papers, filling out forms, meeting deadlines for the school district and most importantly investing in kids’ lives.
The following are the steps to becoming a math teacher:
- Complete a bachelor’s degree.
Taking the necessary time to complete a bachelor’s degree in education, specializing in mathematics, is necessary in your goal of becoming a high school math teacher. You will learn how to teach math to younger students and also how to make lesson plans, how to traverse the wiley world of required high school math courses, and also earn the required hours of student teaching before you graduate.
One simple way to accomplish your goals of higher education is through online courses taken in the comfort of your own home and managed to fit into your personal schedule. This can be a very effective way to earn your degree while working a full-time job, if that is your desire.
If you have already earned a bachelor’s degree and have natural math skills, you may have the option of working in the classroom while you earn your education degree. Check with the education board in your state to see if this is a possibility for you.
- Get a masters degree.
State requirements vary, but you may need to earn a masters degree also in order to become a high school math teacher. Many top universities and higher learning institutions also have online courses to complete a masters degree in mathematics or a master of arts in teaching (MAT).
- Get a state teaching license.
In order to become a qualified math teacher, you need to get your credential including an “endorsement” in math. Part of the requirements for this certification is passing a state test, called the Praxis I and II, in the state which you will be working. And then you’re ready for the next step.
- Find a job.
Finding a job does not have to be burdensome any longer. With all information at our fingertips through the internet, schools and job sites can tell you every school in the nation that is looking for a math teacher. If you are looking for a position in your own town, stopping by the schools in person is a great way to make an impression and to see whether that school would be a good fit for you.
The Life of a High School Math Teacher
- A math teacher may teach as many as five or six classes each day.
- A math teacher may also have to supervise the lunch room, study hall, after-school programs, detention center or even a sport activity during the week.
- A math teacher must maintain classroom discipline even when students are resistant or being actively rebellious in class.
- A math teacher has a full day with very limited planning times.
- A math teacher’s planning period is packed with planning lessons, keeping grades and attendance current and filling out progress reports.
- A math teacher’s day does not end when school lets out. There is always more planning for the next day or grading papers and even extended learning courses to keep up with the latest teaching trends and motivational ideas to keep your students fully engaged.
As mentioned above, being a math teacher is not for the faint of heart, but is truly noble.This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2015) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, particularly for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep. However, it is also fed to smaller domesticated animals such as rabbits and guinea pigs. Even pigs may be fed hay, but they do not digest it as efficiently as herbivores.
Hay can be used as animal fodder when or where there is not enough pasture or rangeland on which to graze an animal, when grazing is not feasible due to weather (such as during the winter), or when lush pasture by itself would be too rich for the health of the animal. It is also fed when an animal is unable to access pasture, e.g. the animal is being kept in a stable or barn.
- 1 Composition
- 2 Feeding hay
- 3 Making and transporting hay
- 4 Modern mechanized techniques
- 5 Baling
- 6 Haystacks
- 7 Safety issues
- 8 Chemical composition of hay
- 9 See also
- 10 References
- 11 External links
Commonly used plants for hay include mixtures of grasses such as ryegrass (Lolium species), timothy, brome, fescue, Bermuda grass, orchard grass, and other species, depending on region. Hay may also include legumes, such as alfalfa (lucerne) and clovers (red, white and subterranean). Legumes in hay are ideally cut pre-bloom. Other pasture forbs are also sometimes a part of the mix, though these plants are not necessarily desired as certain forbs are toxic to some animals.
Oat, barley, and wheat plant materials are occasionally cut green and made into hay for animal fodder; however they are more usually used in the form of straw, a harvest byproduct where the stems and dead leaves are baled after the grain has been harvested and threshed. Straw is used mainly for animal bedding. Although straw is also used as fodder, particularly as a source of dietary fiber, it has lower nutritional value than hay.
It is the leaf and seed material in the hay that determines its quality, because they contain more of the nutrition value for the animal than the stems do. :194 Farmers try to harvest hay at the point when the seed heads are not quite ripe and the leaf is at its maximum when the grass is mowed in the field. The cut material is allowed to dry so that the bulk of the moisture is removed but the leafy material is still robust enough to be picked up from the ground by machinery and processed into storage in bales, stacks or pits. Methods of haymaking thus aim to minimize the shattering and falling away of the leaves during handling. :194
Hay is very sensitive to weather conditions, especially when it is harvested. In drought conditions, both seed and leaf production are stunted, making hay that has a high ratio of dry coarse stems that have very low nutritional values. If the weather is too wet, the cut hay may spoil in the field before it can be baled. Thus the biggest challenge and risk for farmers in producing hay crops is the weather, especially the weather of the particular few weeks when the plants are at the best age/maturity for hay. A lucky break in the weather often moves the haymaking tasks (such as mowing, tedding, and baling) to the top priority on the farm's to-do list. This is reflected in the idiom to make hay while the sun shines. Hay that was too wet at cutting may develop rot and mold after being baled, creating the potential for toxins to form in the feed, which could make the animals sick.
After harvest, hay also has to be stored in a manner to prevent it from getting wet. Mold and spoilage reduce nutritional value and may cause illness in animals. A symbiotic fungus in fescue may cause illness in horses and cattle.
The successful harvest of maximum yields of high-quality hay is entirely dependent on the coincident occurrence of optimum crop, field, and weather conditions. When this occurs, there may be a period of intense activity on the hay farm while harvest proceeds until weather conditions become unfavourable.
Hay or grass is the foundation of the diet for all grazing animals and can provide as much as 100% of the fodder required for an animal. Hay is usually fed to an animal in place of allowing the animal to graze on grasses in a pasture, particularly in the winter or during times when drought or other conditions make pasture unavailable. Animals that can eat hay vary in the types of grasses suitable for consumption, the ways they consume hay, and how they digest it. Therefore, different types of animals require hay that consists of similar plants to what they would eat while grazing, and likewise, plants that are toxic to an animal in pasture are also toxic if they are dried into hay.
Most animals are fed hay in two daily feedings, morning and evening. However, this schedule is more for the convenience of humans, as most grazing animals on pasture naturally consume fodder in multiple feedings throughout the day. Some animals, especially those being raised for meat, may be given enough hay that they simply are able to eat all day. Other animals, especially those that are ridden or driven as working animals, are only free to eat when not working, and may be given a more limited amount of hay to prevent them from getting too fat. The proper amount of hay and the type of hay required varies somewhat between different species. Some animals are also fed concentrated feeds such as grain or vitamin supplements in addition to hay. In most cases, hay or pasture forage must make up 50% or more of the diet by weight.
One of the most significant differences in hay digestion is between ruminant animals, such as cattle and sheep; and nonruminant, hindgut fermentors, such as horses. Both types of animals can digest cellulose in grass and hay, but do so by different mechanisms. Because of the four-chambered stomach of cattle, they are often able to break down older forage and have more tolerance of mold and changes in diet. The single-chambered stomach and cecum or "hindgut" of the horse uses bacterial processes to break down cellulose that are more sensitive to changes in feeds and the presence of mold or other toxins, requiring horses to be fed hay of a more consistent type and quality.
Different animals also use hay in different ways: cattle evolved to eat forages in relatively large quantities at a single feeding, and then, due to the process of rumination, take a considerable amount of time for their stomachs to digest food, often accomplished while the animal is lying down, at rest. Thus quantity of hay is important for cattle, who can effectively digest hay of low quality if fed in sufficient amounts. Sheep will eat between two and four percent of their body weight per day in dry feed, such as hay, and are very efficient at obtaining the most nutrition possible from three to five pounds per day of hay or other forage. They require three to four hours per day to eat enough hay to meet their nutritional requirements.
Unlike ruminants, horses digest food in small portions throughout the day, and can only use approximately 2.5% of their body weight in feed in any 24-hour period. They evolved to be continuously on the move while grazing, (covering up to 50 miles (80 km) per day in the wild) and their stomach digests food quite rapidly. Thus, they extract more nutrition out of smaller quantities of feed. However, when horses are fed low-quality hay, they may develop an unhealthy, obese, "hay belly" due to over-consumption of "empty" calories. If their type of feed is changed dramatically, or if they are fed moldy hay or hay containing toxic plants, they can become ill; colic is the leading cause of death in horses. Contaminated hay can also lead to respiratory problems in horses. Hay can be soaked in water, sprinkled with water or subjected to steaming to reduce dust.
Hay production and harvest, colloquially known as "making hay", "haymaking", or "doing hay", involves a multiple step process: cutting, drying or "curing", raking, processing, and storing. Hayfields do not have to be reseeded each year in the way that grain crops are, but regular fertilizing is usually desirable, and overseeding a field every few years helps increase yield.
Methods and the terminology to describe the steps of making hay have varied greatly throughout history, and many regional variations still exist today. However, whether done by hand or by modern mechanized equipment, tall grass and legumes at the proper stage of maturity must be cut, then allowed to dry (preferably by the sun), then raked into long, narrow piles known as windrows. Next, the cured hay is gathered up in some form (usually by some type of baling process) and placed for storage into a haystack or into a barn or shed to protect it from moisture and rot.
During the growing season, which is spring and early summer in temperate climates, grass grows at a fast pace. It is at its greatest nutritive value when all leaves are fully developed and seed or flower heads are just a bit short of full maturity. When growth is at a maximum in the pasture or field, if judged correctly, it is cut. Grass hay cut too early will not cure as easily due to high moisture content, plus it will produce a lower yield per acre than longer, more mature grass. But hay cut too late is coarser, lower in resale value and has lost some of its nutrients. There is usually about a two-week "window" of time in which grass is at its ideal stage for harvesting hay. The time for cutting alfalfa hay is ideally done when plants reach maximum height and are producing flower buds or just beginning to bloom, cutting during or after full bloom results in lower nutritional value of the hay.
Hay can be raked into rows as it is cut, then turned periodically to dry, particularly if a modern swather is used. Or, especially with older equipment or methods, the hay is cut and allowed to lie spread out in the field until it is dry, then raked into rows for processing into bales afterwards. During the drying period, which can take several days, the process is usually sped up by turning the cut hay over with a hay rake or spreading it out with a tedder. If it rains while the hay is drying, turning the windrow can also allow it to dry faster. However, turning the hay too often or too roughly can also cause drying leaf matter to fall off, reducing the nutrients available to animals. Drying can also be sped up by mechanized processes, such as use of a hay conditioner, or by use of chemicals sprayed onto the hay to speed evaporation of moisture, though these are more expensive techniques, not in general use except in areas where there is a combination of modern technology, high prices for hay, and too much rain for hay to dry properly.
Once hay is cut, dried and raked into windrows, it is usually gathered into bales or bundles, then hauled to a central location for storage. In some places, depending on geography, region, climate, and culture, hay is gathered loose and stacked without being baled first.
Hay must be fully dried when baled and kept dry in storage. If hay is baled while too moist or becomes wet while in storage, there is a significant risk of spontaneous combustion. Hay stored outside must be stacked in such a way that moisture contact is minimal. Some stacks are arranged in such a manner that the hay itself "sheds" water when it falls. Other methods of stacking use the first layers or bales of hay as a cover to protect the rest. To completely keep out moisture, outside haystacks can also be covered by tarps, and many round bales are partially wrapped in plastic as part of the baling process. Hay is also stored under a roof when resources permit. It is frequently placed inside sheds, or stacked inside of a barn. On the other hand, care must also be taken that hay is never exposed to any possible source of heat or flame, as dry hay and the dust it produces are highly flammable.
Early farmers noticed that growing fields produced more fodder in the spring than the animals could consume, and that cutting the grass in the summer, allowing it to dry and storing it for the winter provided their domesticated animals with better quality nutrition than simply allowing them to dig through snow in the winter to find dried grass. Therefore, some fields were "shut up" for hay.[ citation needed]
Up to the end of the 19th century, grass and legumes were not often grown together because crops were rotated.[ citation needed] However, by the 20th century, good forage management techniques demonstrated that highly productive pastures were a mix of grasses and legumes, so compromises were made when it was time to mow. Later still, some farmers grew crops, like straight alfalfa (lucerne), for special-purpose hay such as that fed to dairy cattle.
Much hay was originally cut by scythe by teams of workers, dried in the field and gathered loose on wagons. Later, haying would be done by horse-drawn implements such as mowers. With the invention of agricultural machinery such as the tractor and the baler, most hay production became mechanized by the 1930s.
After hay was cut and had dried, the hay was raked or rowed up by raking it into a linear heap
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, industrial automation, consumer electronics and other industries. SMT technology developed very rapidly, and in the 1980s, SMT technology has become the most popular new generation of electronic assembly technology.
Development of SMT Package Components
SMT package components are mainly surface mount components SMC, SMD, and SMB.
(1) SMC is developing toward miniaturization and large capacity. The latest SMC specification is 01005, in the volume miniaturization at the same time to the large capacity direction development.
(2) SMD is developing in the direction of small volume and multi-pins. SMD went from large volume, small pins to large volume, multi-pins directions development, now has begun from large volume, multi-pin direction to small volume, multi-pin direction, such as BGA to CSP direction development. The application of FC will be more and more.
(3) SMB is developing towards multi-layer, high density and high reliability. As electronic assembly moves toward higher density, many SMB board layer number has up to a dozen or even more, multi-layer flex SMB has also developed rapidly.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Surface Mount Technology (SMT)
With the development of social science technology, the continuous reconstruction and development of the microelectronics industry and computer technology, the SMD components in the electronic assembly have been widely used in the industry. Surface mount technology (SMT) is a PCB assembly technology, which means SMD components are installed directly on the surface of a printed circuit board at a specified location. No need for drilling too many holes in the PCB board. This characteristic determines the differences between the SMD and THT assembly parts, as well as the differences in the structure and performance of the process and equipment.
Now, surface mount technology is used in different fields, not only in investment electronic products but also in civil electronic products. Then why is SMT surface mount technology growing so fast? Here UETPCBA lists the following advantages of SMT.
Advantages of SMT Surface Mount Technology
- High assembly density: The size and volume occupied by an SMD electronic component are much smaller than that of a through-hole component. In general, the use of SMT surface mount technology can reduce the volume of electronic products by 40% ~ 60%, and the weight is reduced by 60%~80%. When double-sided assembly on the circuit board, the assembly density can reach 5.5 ~ 20 solder joints/cm.
- High reliability: Because the soldering surface mount components of high reliability, small and light, so the seismic capability is strong, and the connection is short and the delay is small, high-speed signal transmission can be realized and used in the electronic automatic production.
- Good high-frequency characteristics: Because the SMD components are firmly mounted, and the components are usually leadless or short leads, that surface mount technology can reduce the distribution parameters of the PCB and the RF interference, also reduce the influence of parasitic for inductance and capacitance, meanwhile the high-frequency characteristics of the circuit are improved.
- Reduce the production cost
- The area used by the printed circuit board is reduced, which is 1/12 of the through-hole technology.
- Less holes drilled on the printed circuit board, saving the cost of repair.
- The cost of circuit debugging is reduced as the frequency characteristic is improved,
- Packaging, transportation, and storage costs are reduced because SMD components are small in size and light in weight.
- The SMC and SMD assembly cost are cheaper than through-hole technology.
- Full-automatic to improve production efficiency: SMD components have more standard dimensions and higher soldering consistency. The SMT surface mount technology automatic assembly technology uses vacuum nozzles to absorb and release components, improving installation density and reliability. And small components and fine pitch QFP components are also used automatic SMT surface mount technology production, to achieve automatic production, greatly improve production efficiency.
However, there are some disadvantages in SMT production.
Disadvantages of SMT Surface Mount Technology
- The nominal values on the components are not clear, which makes maintenance difficult and requires special tools or equipment to inspect it.
- Easy to cause pin deformation and soldering failure for multi-pin QFP components;
- During the operation of the electronic equipment, the thermal expansion coefficient between the component and the printed circuit board is not consistent, lead to the solder joint fails due to the expansion stress of the solder joint.
- During the reflow process, the component will be heated, and the thermal stress of the component reduces the long-term reliability of the electronic product.
- It is easier to drop or damage the parts when soldering due tothe SMD components is small.
The Basic SMT process
- Solder Paste Printing: It is used to leak the solder paste onto the solder pad of PCB to prepare for the soldering.
- Component Placement: It is to accurately install the surface mount components on the fixed position of the PCB.
- Solidification: Its function is to melt the adhesive, so that the surface mount components and PCB board are firmly bonded together.
- Reflow Soldering: Its function is to melt the solder paste and make the surface mount components and PCB board firmly soldered together.
- Cleaning: ts function is to remove harmful soldering residues such as flux on the assembled PCB board.
- Inspection: ts function is to test the soldering quality and assembly quality of the assembled PCB board. The equipment used is magnifying glass, microscope, on-line tester (ICT), flying needle tester, automatic optical inspection (AOI), X-ray inspection system, function tester, etc.
Single-side PCB assembly
Incoming Material Inspection => Solder Paste Printing => Component Placement => Baking（solidification）=> Reflow Soldering =>Cleaning => Inspection => Repair
Single-side mixing assembly
Incoming Material Inspection => Solder Paste Printing => Component Placement => Baking（solidification）=> Reflow Soldering => Cleaning => DIP Insert => Wave Soldering => Cleaning => Inspection => Repair
Double-side PCB assembly
Incoming Material Inspection => Solder Paste Printing（A side）=> Component Placement => Baking（solidification）=> Reflow Soldering (A side） => Cleaning => Solder Paste Printing（B side）=> Component Placement => Baking（solidification）=> Reflow Soldering (B side） => Cleaning => Inspection => Repair
Double-side mixing assembly
A： Incoming Material Inspection => Solder Paste Printing（B side） => Component Placement => Baking（solidification）=> DIP Insert (A side)=> Wave Soldering => Cleaning => Inspection => Repair. SMD parts first and then DIP insert, suitable for SMD components more than DIP components
B：Incoming Material Inspection => DIP Insert (A side) => Solder Paste Printing（B side） => Component Placement => Baking（solidification） => Wave Soldering(A side) => Cleaning => Inspection => Repair. DIP parts first and then SMD parts, suitable for DIP components more than SMD components.
C：Incoming Material Inspection => Solder Paste Printing（A side） => Component Placement => Baking（solidification） => Reflow Soldering => DIP Insert => Solder Paste Printing（B side） => Component Placement => Baking（solidification） => Wave Soldering(A side) => Cleaning => Inspection => Repair. suitable for A side mixing technology，B side surface mount technology.
D：Incoming Material Inspection => Solder Paste Printing（B side） => Component Placement => Baking（solidification） => Solder Paste Printing（A side） => Component Placement => A Reflow Soldering(A side) => DIP Insert => Wave Soldering(B side) => Cleaning => Inspection => Repair. suitable for A side mixing technology，B side surface mount technology, first to double side SMD parts，then reflow soldering，DIP soldering，and wave soldering.
E：Incoming Material Inspection => Solder Paste Printing（B side）=> Component Placement => Baking（solidification） => Solder Paste Printing => Solder Paste Printing（A side） => Component Placement => Baking（solidification） =>Reflow Soldering ( A side）=> DIP Insert(B side) => Wave Soldering(B side)（If there are few DIP components, manual soldering can be used）=> Cleaning => Inspection => Repair. suitable for A side surface mount technology 、B side mixing technology.
SMT Assembly Service in UETPCBA
We offer all the advantages of turnkey PCB manufacturing and full turnkey PCB assembly (SMT assembly and THT assembly) service with fast turnaround times and an affordable budget.
Our primary mission is to continually provide high-quality PCB &PCB Assembly services that make us the best choice for your electronic manufacturing. If you have any SMT PCB assembly projects or turnkey PCB assembly projects please feel free to contact us at: firstname.lastname@example.org.… to try new things in new ways??
Probably most of you already heart about Sugata Mitra and his great experiments in India. What a smart idea to give children some computer, leave them with a question and see what will happen:
Sugata Mitra – Here a great TED talk:
As a result of his experiments over the last 10 years he developed a concept about how to set up his ideas of teaching and learning: SOLE
– Self Organized Learning Environment. You get ideas to set up a classroom, to give them good questions to inquire into, you get an idea of the role of the teacher and a student manager as well as some examples of results of the students.
The video and SOLE made me think a lot about Grade 5 (Exhibition) – Sharing the Planet. In German we decided as a team to integrate with Ecosystems, more or less like an own unit. From the beginning I felt hesitation. It’s so hard for me this time to make it meaningful for them. We decided it’s meaningful because Grade 5 haven’t done enough Science before they will move to middle school. Not a good reason in my opinion. The TuningIn was already quite difficult for me and for them as well. Most of them found questions but 2 students mentioned that they know already “everything”. A sign for me?
Again: How radical can I be? I’m tempted to just give them the laptops and few main questions (Lines of Inquiry) regarding ecosystems and follow the idea of a self organized learning environment. I could think about my students and even differentiate the questions depending on their level of German. Although I’m pretty sure that they are able to find answers anyways.
Must – question:
How does a ecosystem look like?! (FORM)
How does a ecosystem work?! (FUNCTION)
Answer at least one question:
How is it connected to other thing? (CONNECTION)
How does it change? (CHANGE)
Present the results which shows your understanding and which you can share with others.
But: Will it be more meaningful for the students? It might become more meaningful because they determine the way of learning, their interests and also pace of learning.
How much do I risk?
How much do I risk if I fail?
How can I explain and justify to my colleagues that I want to try new things in a new way?
Thanks to a train trip from Padova to Munich I had a lot of time to think … and I really would appreciate some thoughts from you! Thanks!
So I took the risk and it was a learning for me and for them. I showed them (Grade 5) the following picture:
After that they got clear instructions regarding building the groups, the inquiry questions, the links and search engines for information as well as the form of presentation.
They were able to describe that it is their responsibility to take over ownership about their learning.
I observed students who were able to build teams, to work in teams (3/4 of them) and it was a very positive and most of the time productive working atmosphere in the classroom.
The student manager took her job very serious. She documented the team work by taking pictures, how and where students were searching on the internet, how they took notes and what form of presentation they choose. Almost all students went to her if there was any issue. She also is producing a document which shows her reflection. I’ll use this document for reflection.
The students choose different kind of presentation forms which motivated them a lot.
I just had a quick reflection on the work starting with the following question:
Was there anything which was difficult during the inquiry? And actually the students confirmed my concerns and my observation:
It was difficult to find the information.
It was difficult to understand the information.
It was difficult to write the notes.
It was difficult to put the understanding in own words (verbal and non-verbal).
My outcome / questions are:
Reading comprehension is a very, very important skill. What are the reading strategies for reading on the internet? Are they different or the same?
At what age should students be able to search on the internet for information?
How does a good framework/scaffolding for becoming a good searcher look like? Does something like this exist already? When to start?
Anybody any experiences to share???
That is enough for the beginning. My mind goes crazy at the moment. On Wednesday I go a step back and I’ll give them a text on paper – let’s see what the outcome will be.As with any great system of operations or technique of processes, it advances and evolves on its own. Kaizen is one of those simple miracles that actually implements its own technique automatically. So what will be the state of Kaizen in 100 years?
As we all know, Kaizen is a Japanese word that means “change for better” or improvement. In 1950, there was a development of the quality circles which went on to become what we know of as the Toyota Production System (TPS). This system included the philosophy that continuous small improvements can add up to monumental benefits. These benefits include lower production costs, improvements in quality, and of course increased degree of customer satisfaction.
To answer our topic question, let’s start by breaking down the definition of waste.
Waste: To consume spend or employ uselessly or without adequate return.
When any attention is paid to detail and identifying where waste or muda (the Japanese word for waste) is originating from, improvements will follow. Waste happens when attention isn’t being paid to changes. We all know the old saying, “The only thing that stays the same is change.” That being said, steps in work processes can become obsolete and thus create waste and possibly an unsafe work environment.
Kaizen is now considered a philosophy and has its own set of tools to help achieve its primary objectives, which is to identify and eliminate waste in all areas of the production process.
Another consideration of this philosophy is to focus on the workers and workflow to ensure quality and safety as well. So special attention is made to making work processes easier to perform by restructuring these processes so that safety is increased and production is increased. With physical demands decreasing, more efficient work processes naturally occur.
Kaizen in 100 Years
With the onset of artificial intelligence rapidly advancing, it is a good bet that kaizen would be programmed as a characteristic that will seamlessly help create a better work environment globally. Kaizen now has a mind of its own.Like most people, Jovany Galarza has limited knowledge of his family's history. While he's aware of his more recent Mexican and Puerto Rican roots, it's the 59,900 years before that he's less sure of.
But the 15-year-old high school sophomore is about to gain some insight into his lineage now that he's involved in a five-year project started by National Geographic and IBM. Participants, not all of whom are students, will trace their ancestry back to Africa, where scientists say everyone originated.
Led by geneticist Spencer Wells, the Genographic Project will help scientists through the use of simple mouth swabs containing vital DNA.
On Tuesday, 750 DNA kits--at a cost of $100 each--were donated to five Chicago high schools, including Prosser Career Academy, 2148 N. Long Ave. The two sponsors donated an additional 250 kits to students overseas, including Prosser's sister school in Birmingham, England. Family Tree DNA, based in Houston, donated processing of the kits.
Once DNA is obtained and the samples analyzed, the results will be posted on the Internet. The process will take about eight weeks, and participating students will use that time to study human migratory patterns, incorporating those lessons into classes.
For Galarza, a student at Prosser, it's a chance to see his connection to the rest of the world. "With this project, we see that we're all brothers," he said.
Classmate Arielle Gonzalez, who is Mexican-American, said she's interested to know if her ancestors took a route similar to that of a Polish friend and her relatives.
"It might bring you closer to someone knowing you came through the same path," she said.
Brian McKay, a social studies and European history teacher at Prosser, said the Genographic Project will underscore some of his teachings on nationalism and imperialism.
"The message of the project is that we are more alike than different," he said.
Wells said he hopes it will give students a better understanding of their global ancestry.
"We are so diverse as a people, but we all spring from a common source," he said.
Scientists are hoping to gather data from the world's indigenous people as well as those who have migrated over generations to other parts of the globe.
When famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma heard of the Genographic Project, he immediately wanted to become involved. He called National Geographic and together they decided to donate kits to Chicago-area schools. A spokeswoman for National Geographic said they chose Chicago because of its ethnic diversity and its Sister Cities International program.
Ma, who visited Prosser with Wells on Tuesday, said he liked the idea of students learning about common ancestry.
"Besides being a musician, I'm also a human being," said Ma. "I finally realized this past year what my real passion is: people. Why do people do what we do? Why do people think differently? How are our habits formed?"
The cellist--who delighted students with a short performance--was eager to learn where his ancestors came from, so he, too, took a mouth swab. He learned that his relatives came from Africa through the Middle East and Asia.
He spoke about how classical music has many influences, specifically about how an African dance made its way through several countries before landing in a piece of music written by Johann Sebastian Bach.
"Nothing comes from one place," he said.
The Genographic Project has a mission similar to another Ma project, Silk Road Chicago, a yearlong celebration inspired by the art and culture of the historic Silk Road.
National Geographic and IBM have collected 185,000 DNA samples from people all over the world, including 20,000 from indigenous peoples.
When DNA is passed from one generation to the next, much of it changes, but some parts stay the same, "altered only occasionally by mutations which become genetic markers," according to National Geographic's Web site.
These markers allow scientists to trace thousands of generations, and because different populations carry distinct markers, scientists can tell which region of the world people's ancestors came from, the site said.
"It's a link between all cultures," said Prosser student Diamond Howard, 16. "It's like I'm related to everyone I know."
- - -
Where do samples go?
DNA of participants is processed at the Arizona Research Laboratories at the University of Arizona.
How long does it take?
Eight weeks to test, study and post results online.
No. Users can remove their profiles from the site.
Who can participate?
Members of the public can take part by buying kits and submitting their own cheek swab samples.
For more informationThe English playwright Thomas Heywood (c. 1573-1641) worked successfully in a wide range of dramatic forms. A competent craftsman, he lacked the brilliance of the greater Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists.
Thomas Heywood, in all probability the son of the clergyman Robert Heywood, was born in Lincolnshire. He attended Cambridge but left without a degree when his father died in 1593. He seems to have moved directly from Cambridge to London, where he soon became an actor and playwright. By 1598 he had done enough dramatic writing to impress a contemporary as one of the best comic writers of the time. Unfortunately, none of Heywood's plays from this early period of his career has survived.
Most of Heywood's significant literary activity was done between 1600 and 1620. In 1633, in the preface to his play The English Traveller (probably written about 1623), he claims to have had "either an entire hand, or at the least a main finger" in 220 plays. Because Heywood, like most of his fellow playwrights, had little interest in printing works written for stage production, it is impossible to identify more than a small fraction of this amazing output. The Four Prentices of London (ca. 1600), A Woman Killed with Kindness (1603), and The Rape of Lucrece (1608) are the most important surviving plays which can be assigned with confidence to his pen.
A Woman Killed with Kindness, one of the finest tragedies of the "bourgeois, " or "domestic, " type, is universally regarded as Heywood's masterpiece. Mistress Anne Frankford, a virtuous and happy middle-class wife, unaccountably surrenders her honor to Wendoll, a man whom Master Frankford had befriended and received as a guest in his house. Mistress Frankford's punishment, repentance, and deathbed reconciliation with her husband are skillfully presented. Heywood throughout preserves sympathy for his heroine without relaxing his high moral tone.
Heywood also produced a number of nondramatic works, including translations, poems, and pamphlets on various topics. The most notable of these nondramatic works is the Apology for Actors (ca. 1608; printed 1612), a well-informed response to the criticism frequently leveled against the drama. Like most apologists of the time, Heywood rests his defense on the neoclassic idea that art serves a moral function.
From the mid-1620s on, Heywood devoted himself more and more to nondramatic writing, although in his later years he did produce several lord mayor's pageants. His long and fruitful but unspectacular career came to an end sometime before Aug. 16, 1641, when he was buried in St. James's Church in the Clerkenwell section of London.
The standard biographical study of Heywood is Arthur Melville Clark, Thomas Heywood, Playwright and Miscellanist (1931), a detailed and judicious examination of the relatively meager documentary evidence about Heywood's life. Frederick S. Boas, Thomas Heywood (1950), is valuable but less comprehensive.
Baines, Barbara J. (Barbara Joan), Thomas Heywood, Boston: Twayne, 1984.
Boas, Frederick S. (Frederick Samuel), 1862-1957., Thomas Heywood, St. Clair Shores, Mich., Scholarly Press 1974; Folcroft, Pa. Folcroft Library Editions, 1974; New York: Phaeton Press, 1975; Norwood, Pa.: Norwood Editions, 1977.
McLuskie, Kathleen, Dekker and Heywood: professional dramatists, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993.
Wentworth, Michael D., Thomas Heywood, a reference guide, Boston, Mass.: G.K. Hall, 1986. □Support #TransWeek with some of our best books and most anticipated releases for 2018 that offer radical perspectives and open-ended explorations on issues facing transgender people in the past and present.
Does Gender Matter?
Heath Fogg Davis
“[T]he mainstream transgender civil rights strategy has focused on making it possible and easier for people to change the sex markers on their birth certificates, driver’s licenses, and passports in order to reflect their current or “lived” sex identity. This liberal correction has taken two forms: assimilation and accommodation. Both strategies appear to be a step in the right direction because they acknowledge that sex identity is a mutable characteristic that is personally changeable. However, neither assimilation nor accommodation solves the problem of sex-identity discrimination because they leave intact the source of sex-identity discrimination: bureaucratic sex classification itself.”
The Lives of Trans Men at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
“All too often, the assumption is made that LGBT individuals have sought community with others like them, and that LGBT history is, therefore, by definition, a community history. What, then, do we make of individuals like George Green…and Joe Monahan, who were seemingly content living far removed from other queer individuals (with the possible exception of their wives)? What do we make of people, like these individuals, who chose to live in rural communities, among people who were unaware of their “true sex” (or were simply too polite to ask)? …Their lives suggest that historians must develop new ways of conceptualizing the past and rely less heavily on the notion of an LGBT community.”
The Life and Death of Latisha King (March, 2018)
A Critical Phenomenology of Transphobia
The Life and Death of Latisha King examines a single incident, the shooting of 15-year-old Latisha King by 14-year-old Brandon McInerney in their junior high school classroom in Oxnard, California in 2008. The press coverage of the shooting, as well as the criminal trial that followed, referred to Latisha, assigned male at birth, as Larry. Unpacking the consequences of representing the victim as Larry, a gay boy, instead of Latisha, a trans girl, Gayle Salamon draws on the resources of feminist phenomenology to analyze what happened in the school and at the trial that followed.
Struggling for Ordinary (March, 2018)
Media and Transgender Belonging in Everyday Life
From television shows like Orange is the New Black and Transparent, to the real-life struggles of Caitlyn Jenner splashed across the headlines, transgender visibility is on the rise. But what was it like to live as a transgender person in a media environment before this transgender boom in television? While pop culture imaginations of transgender identity flourish and shape audience’s perceptions of trans identities, what does this new media visibility mean for transgender individuals themselves? Struggling for Ordinary engagingly answers these questions, offering a snapshot of how transgender individuals made their way toward a sense of ordinary life by integrating available media into their everyday experiences.
The Trans Generation (June, 2018)
How Trans Kids (and Their Parents) are Creating a Gender Revolution
Based on interviews with transgender kids, ranging in age from 4 to 20, and their parents, and over five years of research in the US and Canada, The Trans Generation offers a rare look into what it is like to grow up as a trans child. From daycare to birthday parties and from the playground to the school bathroom, Travers takes the reader inside the day-to-day realities of trans kids who regularly experience crisis as a result of the restrictive ways in which sex categories regulate their lives and put pressure on them to deny their internal sense of who they are in gendered terms.Health libraryBack to health library
When stomach pain is an emergency: True or false?
Most people get stomach pain from time to time. But when is it actually an emergency? And when is it safe to ride it out? Test your knowledge about bellyaches with this quick quiz.
True or false: Very bad stomach pain is always serious.
False. Although you should always seek medical care for severe stomach pain, it can be due to gas or cramps caused by viral gastroenteritis—what's sometimes called the stomach flu. On the other hand, life-threatening conditions, such as colon cancer or early appendicitis, may only cause mild pain.
True or false: Pain you feel in most of your belly is more likely to be an emergency than pain that's in just one spot.
False. Generalized pain—meaning you feel it in more than half your belly—is more likely a sign of indigestion, gas or a stomach virus. But localized pain—which you feel in only one area—is more commonly a sign of a problem in an organ, such as your appendix or gallbladder.
True or false: Appendicitis is always an emergency.
True. If not treated, appendicitis can cause a ruptured appendix, which is life-threatening. A common symptom is sudden abdominal pain. It usually begins near the belly button and then moves lower and to the right. It gets worse in a matter of hours and also worsens when you're moving around or taking deep breaths.
True or false: Cramplike pain is usually not serious.
True. This type of pain is likely due to gas or bloating. And it's often followed by diarrhea. Cramping is more worrisome if it lasts more than 24 hours or occurs with a fever. In that case, call your doctor or get medical care right away.
True or false: Upper abdominal pain can be a sign of a heart attack.
True. While chest pain and arm pain are well-known heart attack signs, pain in the upper abdomen, above the belly button, can signal a heart attack too. So can nausea and vomiting. Don't write off these symptoms, especially if you're at risk for a heart attack.
One common cause of stomach discomfort is acid reflux, also called heartburn. But it's often preventable, if you know what triggers it. This infographic can help.
Sources: American College of Emergency Physicians; National Institutes of HealthOrganic farming needs no artificial inputs of fertilisers and sprays to grow all the food we need. These harmful chemicals damage and degrade soil releasing carbon. All of earth’s soils have all the nutrients plants need to grow strong and healthy when soil is “alive”
At Hilltown Organics, fungi play a key role in growing all the range of crops on our challenging soils on the edge of Dartmoor. Fungi cycles nutrients, keeping carbon in the soil and holding onto precious moisture during dry periods. A single handful of “healthy” soil contains in excess of 500 species of fungi. Fungi dominate the total biomass due to their collective mass in a healthy soil. It is a network of cells living within and throughout all living landmasses on Earth and are able to breakdown rock particles with their strong acids releasing vital minerals for plants missing in today’s industrial food. Industrial farming with chemicals kill off ecosystems in soils so is dependant on adding further chemicals to keep their crops alive.
The mycelium of the soil fungi is a vast body in organic soils. If mycelium networks were unravelled, 8 miles of these cells would be found in a cubic inch of soil (Source: Mycelium Running). Fungi helps to increase nutrients available to plants, improve water efficiency, reduce erosion by acting as a cellular sponge, and promote root growth by adding oxygen to the soil and releasing nitrogen, phosphate, and other micronutrients. They also provide resistance to some plant pathogens unique to organic soils. Mycelium also has a “cushioning” effect able to resist a certain amount of compaction from agricultural equipment and is also an important food source for many beneficial soil invertebrates which will be food to support declining animal and bird populations further up the food chain.
COP26. Soil degradation is one of the big climate change drivers we don’t see being mentioned very much by governments and media, industrial agriculture has severely damaged soils with its chemicals over decades releasing its carbon once locked up as “humus” from precious organic matter built over centuries. Damaged humus is broken down and released as carbon gas. It has been very sad that world leaders have given soil barely any attention at COP26 with no agreements on mitigating soil damage, instead it has been a triumph for agrochemicals and fuel industry, which governments keep protecting such is their strong and powerful lobby.
What can we do as individuals? Get behind and support organic farmers who always put soil health first building soil fertility naturally. They are leading the way in sustainable food production and carbon sequestration. New tools on the market, refractometers, confirm that organic food contains greater amounts of trace minerals than industrial food due to the rich life in their soils. Brix measurements is a direct correlation between a plant’s Brix value and its taste, quality, and nutritional density.
One last fact. Fungi is important to our general health and wellbeing, not only do they provide plants with key nutrients but they also nourish our health. Getting out in nature, in the chemical-free meadows and woods helps get billions of fungi spores on our skin, hands and face, which are beneficial for us providing some skin care and protection from germs and pathogens.East India Company
Company flag after 1801
|Founded||31 December 1600|
|Defunct||1 June 1874|
Imperial entities of India
|Casa da Índia||1434–1833|
|Portuguese East India Company||1628–1633|
|East India Company||1612–1757|
|Company rule in India||1757–1858|
|British rule in Burma||1824–1948|
|Partition of India||
The East India Company (EIC), also known as the Honourable East India Company and informally as John Company was an English and later British joint-stock company, formed to pursue trade with the East Indies, but which ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and Qing China.
Originally chartered as the "Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies", the company rose to account for half of the world's trade, particularly trade in basic commodities that included cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, saltpetre, tea and opium. The company also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India.
The company received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth on 31 December 1600, making it the oldest among several similarly formed European East India Companies. Wealthy merchants and aristocrats owned the Company's shares. The government owned no shares and had only indirect control.
The company eventually came to rule large areas of India with its own private armies, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions. Company rule in India effectively began in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey and lasted until 1858 when, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Government of India Act 1858 led to the British Crown assuming direct control of India in the form of the new British Raj.
Despite frequent government intervention, the company had recurring problems with its finances. The company was dissolved in 1874 as a result of the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act passed one year earlier, as the Government of India Act had by then rendered it vestigial, powerless, and obsolete. The official government machinery of British India had assumed its governmental functions and absorbed its armies.
- 1 Founding
- 2 Foothold in India
- 3 Expansion
- 4 Forming a complete monopoly
- 5 Basis for the monopoly
- 6 Regulation of the company's affairs
- 6.1 Writers
- 6.2 Financial troubles
- 6.3 Regulating Acts of Parliament
- 6.3.1 East India Company Act 1773
- 6.3.2 East India Company Act 1784 (Pitt's India Act)
- 6.3.3 Act of 1786
- 6.3.4 East India Company Act 1793 (Charter Act)
- 6.3.5 East India Company Act 1813 (Charter Act)
- 6.3.6 Government of India Act 1833
- 6.3.7 English Education Act 1835
- 6.3.8 Government of India Act 1853
- 7 Indian Rebellion and disestablishment
- 8 Establishments in Britain
- 9 Legacy and criticisms
- 10 Flags
- 11 Coat of arms
- 12 Ships
- 13 Records
- 14 See also
- 15 Notes and references
- 16 Bibliography
- 17 External links
Soon after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, London merchants presented a petition to Queen Elizabeth I for permission to sail to the Indian Ocean. The permission was granted, and despite the defeat of the English Armada in 1589, on 10 April 1591 three ships sailed from Torbay around the Cape of Good Hope to the Arabian Sea on one of the earliest English overseas Indian expeditions. One of them, the Edward Bonventure, then sailed around Cape Comorin and on to the Malay Peninsula and subsequently returned to England in 1594.
In 1596, three more ships sailed east; however, these were all lost at sea. Three years later, on 22 September 1599, another group of merchants met and stated their intention "to venture in the pretended voyage to the East Indies (the which it may please the Lord to prosper), and the sums that they will adventure", committing £30,133. Two days later, on 24 September, "the Adventurers" reconvened and resolved to apply to the Queen for support of the project.
Although their first attempt had not been completely successful, they nonetheless sought the Queen's unofficial approval to continue, bought ships for their venture and increased their capital to £68,373. The Adventurers convened again a year later.
This time they succeeded, and on 31 December 1600, the Queen granted a Royal Charter to "George, Earl of Cumberland, and 215 Knights, Aldermen, and Burgesses" under the name, Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading with the East Indies. For a period of fifteen years the charter awarded the newly formed company a monopoly on trade with all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan. Sir James Lancaster commanded the first East India Company voyage in 1601 and returned in 1603. and in March 1604 Sir Henry Middleton commanded the second voyage. General William Keeling, a captain during the second voyage, led the third voyage from 1607 to 1610.
Initially, the company struggled in the spice trade because of the competition from the already well-established Dutch East India Company. The company opened a factory in Bantam on the first voyage and imports of pepper from Java were an important part of the company's trade for twenty years. The factory in Bantam was closed in 1683. During this time ships belonging to the company arriving in India docked at Surat, which was established as a trade transit point in 1608.
In the next two years, the company built its first factory in south India in the town of Machilipatnam on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. The high profits reported by the company after landing in India initially prompted King James I to grant subsidiary licences to other trading companies in England. But in 1609 he renewed the charter given to the company for an indefinite period, including a clause which specified that the charter would cease to be in force if the trade turned unprofitable for three consecutive years.
The company was led by one governor and 24 directors, who made up the Court of Directors.
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. As a consequence, these believable feelings of fear and disappointment become a part of the reality of the audience. It makes the readers sympathize with Huck and Jim in their misfortunes.
Thus, Twain applies various techniques in the language and speech of his characters including dialects, sarcasm, vernacular, flawed grammar, and descriptive imagery. The use of the local languages of the region along the Mississippi River reveals the regional, social, and educational distinction of the characters. Sarcasm becomes the tool of the representation of the problem of hypocrisy existing in the society. The vernacular of the personages contributes to the emergence of the racial issues.
The incorrect grammar emphasizes the vividness of the characters. Finally, the creation of pictures contributes to the establishment of the connections between the readers and Huck and Jim. All these methods make the audience sympathize with the characters. Therefore, these techniques are effective because they motivate the readers to have compassion for the characters.
Doyno, Victor A., and Victor Doyno. Writing “Huck Finn”: Mark Twain’s Creative Process. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.
Huber, Sophia. African American Vernacular English as a Literary Dialect: A Linguistic Approach. Vol. 6. Herbert Utz Verlag, 2018.
Trombley, Laura E. Skandera, and Michael J. Kiskis, eds. Constructing Mark Twain: New Directions in Scholarship. Vol. 1. University of Missouri Press, 2011.
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Spark Pub., 2014.
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The most common symptoms of bronchiectasis include:
The severity of symptoms can vary widely. Some people have only a few symptoms that don't appear often, while others have wide-ranging daily symptoms.
The symptoms tend to get worse if you develop an infection in your lungs.
Read more about the symptoms of bronchiectasis.
You should see your GP if you develop a persistent cough. While this may not be caused by bronchiectasis, it requires further investigation.
If your GP suspects you may have bronchiectasis, they'll refer you to a specialist in treating lung conditions (a respiratory consultant) for further tests.
Read more about diagnosing bronchiectasis.
The lungs are full of tiny branching airways known as bronchi. Oxygen travels through these airways, ends up in tiny sacs called alveoli, and from there is absorbed into the bloodstream.
The inside walls of the bronchi are coated with sticky mucus, which protects against damage from particles moving down into the lungs.
In bronchiectasis, one or more of the bronchi are abnormally widened. This means more mucus than usual gathers there, which makes the bronchi more vulnerable to infection.
If an infection does develop, the bronchi may be damaged again, so even more mucus gathers in them and the risk of infection increases further.
Over time, this cycle can cause gradually worsening damage to the lungs.
Bronchiectasis can develop if the tissue and muscles that surround the bronchi are damaged or destroyed.
There are many reasons why this may happen. The 3 most common causes in the UK are:
But in many cases, no obvious cause for the condition can be found. This is known as idiopathic bronchiectasis.
Read more about the causes of bronchiectasis.
Bronchiectasis is thought to be uncommon. It's estimated around 5 in every 1,000 adults in the UK have the condition.
It can affect anyone at any age, but symptoms don't usually develop until middle age.
The damage caused to the lungs by bronchiectasis is permanent, but treatment can help relieve your symptoms and stop the damage getting worse.
The main treatments include:
Surgery is usually only considered for bronchiectasis in rare cases where other treatments haven't been effective, the damage to your bronchi is confined to a small area, and you're in good general health.
Read more about the treatment of bronchiectasis.
Complications of bronchiectasis are rare, but they can be serious.
One of the most serious complications is coughing up large amounts of blood, caused by one of the blood vessels in the lungs splitting.
This can be life threatening and may require emergency surgery to treat it.
Read more about the complications of bronchiectasis.
The outlook for people with bronchiectasis is highly variable and often depends on the underlying cause.
Living with bronchiectasis can be stressful and frustrating, but most people with the condition have a normal life expectancy.
For people with very severe symptoms, however, bronchiectasis can be fatal if the lungs stop working properly.
Around 1,500 deaths reported in UK each year are thought to be caused by bronchiectasis.
Our guide to care and support explains your options and where you can get support.Most antibiotics in livestock farming are used in aquaculture, but significant amounts are also used in terrestrial livestock species, particularly in poultry and pigs.
Approximately 70% of antibiotics are used for non- therapeutic purposes, i.e. many antibiotics are used in sub- therapeutic doses and over prolonged periods, which leads to the development of genes that confer antimicrobial resistance to animal pathogens. These genes can subsequently be transferred to human pathogens and it is estimated that 75% of recently emerging diseases in humans are of animal origin.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) problems are further exacerbated by the fact that antibiotic resistance genes were found in bacteria long before antibiotics were ever used on super-pathogens in farm animals.
AMR is a worldwide problem, which clearly affects both animal and human health, and hence it is truly One Health issue.
Antimicrobial resistance and O’Neill’s Review
Recognising that the problem is severe and rapidly growing, the UK Government’s Department of Health and the Wellcome Trust commissioned a Review on Antimicrobial Resistance1 in July 2014. The aim of the review, chaired by macroeconomist Jim O’Neill, was to examine the growing threat of AMR from an economic perspective and to recommend solutions. The review was published on 19 May 2016.
According to the report, antimicrobial drugs are becoming less effective and the world is not developing enough new ones to keep up. Drug-resistant infections and super-pathogens could kill 10 million people a year by 2050 – the equivalent of one person every three seconds. The report concluded that a comprehensive global action plan is needed to highlight the problem.
The document sets out 10 areas to tackle antimicrobial resistance globally. Recommendations include targets set by individual countries for antibiotics use in agriculture, giving governments the flexibility to decide how they will reach lower levels. Quicker progress is needed on banning or restricting antibiotics that are vital for human health from being used in livestock farming.
The Review included eight thematic papers that address different aspects of the problem of AMR. These are as follows:
- Antimicrobial Resistance: Tackling a crisis for the health and wealth of nations (published in December 2014);
- Tackling a global health crisis: Initial steps (February 2015);
- Securing new drugs: The pipeline of antibiotics (May 2015);
- Rapid Diagnostics: Stopping unnecessary use of antibiotics (October 2015);
- Safe, secure and controlled: Managing the supply chain of antimicrobials (November 2015);
- Antimicrobials in agriculture and the environment: Reducing unnecessary use and waste, (December 2015);
- Vaccines and alternative approaches: Reducing our dependence on antimicrobials (February 2016);
- Infection prevention, control and surveillance: Limiting the development and spread of drug resistance (March 2016).
Use of antibiotics in livestock farming remains stubbornly high
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), however, recently published a report2 showing that the amount of antibiotics used in animal production is not reducing and that many European countries are failing to put an end to excessive overuse of antibiotics in farming. In fact, the use of antibiotics in livestock3 still remains more than twice as high as in humans.
The EMA data show that the average European level of antibiotic use in livestock is 152 mg/kg, over three times higher than suggested level at the O’Neill’s Review, who recommended that high-income countries should aim for a short-term target of 50 mg of antibiotic per kg of livestock1. Over 91% of European farm antibiotics were used for mass medication in feed or drinking water and a large proportion of this was for routine disease prevention in intensively farmed pigs and poultry.
In the 25 European countries which provided comparable data, sales of farm antibiotics per unit of livestock went down by just 2% in 2014 compared with 2013. If such a trend is maintained, it would take 65 years for Europe to reach the O’Neill’s target.
In 2014, overall use of the antibiotics classified as “critically important in human medicine” by the World Health Organization such as the antibiotic Colistin, which is used as a last-resort for treating infections in humans, increased to record levels.
These data indicate that the excessive use of antibiotics in intensive livestock farming is a direct consequence of the failure to ban routine preventative mass medication by most countries. It also confirms that reliance on voluntary approaches is not working.
The European Parliament has proposed a ban on all routine antibiotic use, but this has not yet been accepted by the Council of Ministers or the Commission. In January 2017, discussions are due to commence between the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers on future veterinary medicines legislation.
Very high levels of antibiotic-resistant pathogens are also present in meat
A recently commissioned study by the Alliance to Save our Antibiotics and carried out at Cambridge University, examined 189 pork and poultry meat samples of UK origin from the seven largest supermarkets in the UK. Resistance of E. coli isolates to a wide range of critically important antibiotics (CIAs) was tested.
High levels of resistance to CIAs were detected in chicken meat, with 24% of samples testing positive for ESBL E. coli (extended-spectrum beta-lactamase E. coli)4, a type of E. coli resistant to modern cephalosporins. This is four times higher compared with the levels found in a similar study in 2015, in which 6% of chicken meat tested positive for ESBL E. coli.
Over one-half of the E. coli samples from pork and poultry (51%) were resistant to Trimethoprim, which is used to treat over half of lower urinary-tract infections in humans and 19% of the E. coli samples were resistant to Gentamicin.
The findings provide evidence that the overuse of antibiotics used to mass medicate livestock is likely to be undermining the treatment of E. coli infections in humans, and highlight the need for an effective monitoring system and for improvements in antibiotic stewardship.
Antimicrobial resistance is truly One Health issue
One Health concept recognises that the health of people is connected to the health of animals and the environment. It has been described as “the collaborative effort of multiple disciplines – working locally, nationally and globally to attain optimal health for people, animals and our environment”5.
Excessive use of antimicrobials in intensive livestock farming is a global problem, which clearly affects both animal and human health. It is also clear that without a drastic reduction in the use of antibiotics in intensive livestock farming, we could be facing a grim post-antibiotic era, for the sake of producing cheap meat.
CABI also publishes a number of authoritative scientific information resources, including CAB Direct, Global Health Database, Animal Science Database and VetMed Resource, which all aim to cover veterinary and human antibiotic resistance comprehensively. At the time of writing, CAB Direct Database contains more than 10,800 references on antimicrobial resistance.
- 1. O’Neill J, 2016. Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, 2016. Tackling Drug-Resistant Infections Globally: final report and recommendations. London: HM Government and the Wellcome Trust.
- 2. European Medicines Agency, 2016. Sales of veterinary antimicrobial agents in 29 European countries in 2014, Sixth ESVAC report.
- 3. ECDC/EFSA/EMA, 2015. First joint report on the integrated analysis of the consumption of antimicrobial agents and occurrence of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria from humans and food-producing animals.
- 4. Holmes A, 2016. Report: Antibiotic-resistant E. coli on supermarket meat – a serious threat to human health. Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics.
- 5. AVMA, 2008. One health: A new professional imperative. One Health Initiative Task Force Final Report. Shaumburg IL, American Veterinary Medical Association.
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“Gender mainstreaming is important because both men and women have equal rights to have their voices heard”
CABI envisions a world in which women, youth, and marginalised communities are included and treated equally in agricultural production. In support of SDG5: Gender Equality, CABI is focused on empowering women in agriculture. As such, this year we welco…
11 December 2019In the real world, one mistake on a construction site can mean the end of someone’s life; there is no room to learn by trial and error. But using virtual reality, without doing anything other than slipping on a headset, companies can train their workers in safe job-site practices. Virtual Reality can submerge the users into an artificial world that feels real and three-dimensional, in this case simulating a construction site. This place for workers to practice working in a setting that may be dangerous or new is going to transform the construction industry.
In Laurie Cowin’s article “App Uses Virtual Reality to Address Fall Protection”, she outlines how useful virtual reality will be in preventing accidents on construction sites as well as help in the training of safe practices. The use of virtual reality could be a huge boost in on-site safety.Jaime N. Chavez, James Martinez and Rachel S. Pienta
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of story mapping on the reading comprehension scores, on-task behaviors, and attitudes of third- -grade students (N = 6) with ADHD. Students’ reading grade equivalencies were assessed before and after the study. The teacher-researcher compared two other achievement measures before and during story mapping to assess growth. The practical difference in scores as calculated with Cohen’s d revealed that story mapping was successful in improving students’ comprehension. On tests from the reading basal, students’ scores improved an average of 16.00%, while tests from a computerized reading program improved 20.00%. Students exhibited on-task behavior 79.33% of the time and positive attitudes 82.33% of the time during the intervention. The implications of this study are important in determining effective instructional strategies to promote the active engagement of students and combat the core symptoms of ADHD.|Language(s)||Irish, Scottish Gaelic|
|Region of origin||Western Scotland, Ireland|
|Variant form(s)||Corcoran, Cochran, Cocrane, Cocran, Cochren, Cockram, Cockran, Cockren, Cochern, Colqueran, Coughran, Cofran|
Cochrane is a surname with multiple independent origins, two Scottish and one Irish. One of the Scottish names derives from a place in Scotland; the Irish surname and the other Scottish surname are both anglicisations of surnames from the Irish language and Scottish Gaelic respectively.
The name Cochrane originates from a habitational name derived from the "Lowlands of Cochrane", near Paisley in Renfrewshire. The derivation of the place name is uncertain. One possibility is that it is derived from the Welsh coch meaning "red"; however this theory is not supported by the early spelling of the name Coueran. It is also possible the name is derived from the Welsh word "cywrain", which means "skilled". Early recorded bearers of the surname are Waldeve de Coueran in 1262; William de Coughran in 1296; and Robert de Cochrane in about 1360.
In Ireland the surname was adopted as an Anglicisation of the surnames Ó Cogaráin and Mac Cogaráin, meaning respectively the descendant or the son of Cogarán (probably a diminutive of cogar "confidant").
The surname is especially concentrated in England in the counties of Durham in the North of England and Kent in the south. In Scotland, Cochrane is found in high frequency in the counties of South Lanarkshire, West Lothian and in Renfrewshire. The surname is the 224th most common surname in Scotland, 957th most common in England and ranked in the top 100 surnames of a number of former British colonies. There are a number of spelling variations including Cochran, Cockren, and Coughran.
Together Scotland and England have the highest percentage of the Cochrane surname anywhere in the world. In Ireland, the surname Cochrane is especially concentrated in the northern province of Ulster where it was introduced by Protestant Scots settlers during the Plantation period of the 17th century. It was also adopted as an anglicisation by some Corcoran families.
In Northern Ireland, the surname Cochrane is concentrated in the counties of Antrim, Londonderry, Down and Tyrone. James Cochrane, an Ulsterman, was a 19th-century entrepreneur who helped the Irish whiskey Bushmills and the Old Bushmills Distillery gain worldwide popularity.
In the United States, the first Cochranes arrived amongst the Ulster-Scots immigrants to the British North American colonies of New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. Many Cochranes lived in Winedham New Hampshire. They eventually moved to Boston, and now some of them live in Reston, Virginia. Some of the earliest Cochranes in the United States came from County Antrim, Northern Ireland, in the early 18th century after obtaining a land grant from the Governor of Massachusetts. Later Cochranes would arrive from Scotland and England.
Virtute et labore, a Latin phrase meaning "by valour and exertion".
- Sir Alexander Inglis Cochrane, British 18th/19th century seaman
- Alexander Baillie-Cochrane, British Conservative Party (UK) politician
- Alun Cochrane, Scottish comedian
- Archibald Cochrane, 9th Earl of Dundonald, Scottish nobleman and inventor.
- Archibald Cochrane, Rear admiral in the Royal Navy
- Sir Archibald Douglas Cochrane, Unionist-Conservative and British Governor of Burma.
- Archie Cochrane, British physician and researcher, after whom the Cochrane Collaboration is named.
- Arthur Cochrane (officer of arms) (1872–1954),officer of arms at the College of Arms in London
- Arthur Cochrane (Royal Navy officer) (1824–1905)
- Arthur Ormiston Cochrane (1879–1926), Canadian politician
- Aaron Van Schaick Cochrane (1858–1943), US Representative from New York, nephew of Isaac Whitbeck Van Schaick
- Basil Cochrane
- Blake Cochrane (born 1991), Australian Paralympic swimmer
- Charles Norris Cochrane, (1889–1945), Canadian historian and philosopher
- Concepción Cochrane Blaquier, Argentine socialite, television personality, and fashion designer
- Dennis Cochrane, Canadian politician and civil servant
- Sir Desmond Cochrane (1918–79)
- Donald Cochrane (politician) (1904–1985), Australian politician
- Donald Cochrane (economist) (1917–1983), Australian econometrician
- Donald Alexander Cochrane, Canadian composer
- Douglas Cochrane, 12th Earl of Dundonald, Scottish representative peer and a British Army general
- Edward Cochrane (1834–1907), Canadian politician
- Edward L. Cochrane (1892–1959), US Navy officer and naval architect
- Elizabeth Jane Cochrane (Nellie Bly, 1864–1922), American journalist, writer and inventor
- Ethel Cochrane, Canadian Progressive Conservative senator.
- Francis Cochrane, Canadian Unionist-Conservative politician.
- Gordon Cochrane (1916–1994), RNZAF pilot during WWII.
- Harry Cochrane, Scottish football player
- Henry Clay Cochrane, US Marine Corps
- Lieutenant Hugh Stewart Cochrane. 86th (Royal County Down) Regiment of Foot. 1858. Recipient of Victoria Cross after Battle of Jhansi during the Indian Mutiny.
- Ian Cochrane, British novelist
- J. Harwood Cochrane, Virginia businessman and philanthropist
- John Cochrane, several people
- John Cochrane (chess player) (1798–1878), Scottish chess player
- John Cochrane (politician) (1813–1898), Congressman, Civil War Union general and New York State Attorney General, 1864–1865
- John Dundas Cochrane (1793–1825), British explorer and cousin of Admiral Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald
- John H. Cochrane (1957-), Economist
- John M. Cochrane (1859–1904), justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court
- Josephine Cochrane, American inventor
- Justin Cochrane, British football player
- Matthew Henry Cochrane, Canadian industrialist, livestock breeder, and politician
- Michael Cochrane, British actor
- Michael Cochrane, jazz pianist
- Mickey Cochrane, Hall of Fame baseball player
- Nathaniel Day Cochrane, British naval officer
- Nathan Cochrane, Australian journalist
- Neil Cochrane, football player
- Pauline Atherton Cochrane (born 1929), American librarian
- Ralph Cochrane, British RAF Air Chief Marshal WW2
- Robert Cochrane, architect to the court of King James III of Scotland
- Robert Cochrane, wiccan
- Rory Cochrane, American actor
- Ryan Cochrane, American soccer player
- Ryan Cochrane, Canadian swimmer
- Terry Cochrane, Northern Irish footballer
- Terry Cochrane, Canadian football player
- Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, 19th century Royal Navy Admiral and British Whig Party politician
- Thomas Cochrane, 1st Baron Cochrane of Cults, Scottish Conservative-Unionist. British Army general.
- Thomas John Cochrane 19th century Governor of Newfoundland
- Tom Cochrane, Canadian musician
- Vincent Cochrane (1916–1987), American mycologist
- William Cochrane, Scottish MP in the British Parliament
- William Cochrane, 1st Earl of Dundonald
- William Arthur Cochrane, Canadian physician, paediatrician, academic, and medical executive
- William Cochran (physicist) Scottish physicist
- Zefram Cochrane (fiction), inventor of the warp drive in the Star Trek universe
- Col. Cochrane, fictional character in Child's Play 3
- Cochrane Surname at Forebears
- "Cochrane Name Meaning and History". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 15 February 2009.
- Reaney, Percy Hilde; Wilson, Richard Middlewood (1991). A Dictionary of English Surnames (3rd ed.). London: Routledge. p. 695. ISBN 0-203-99355-1.
- Reaney, Percy Hilde; Wilson, Richard Middlewood (1991). A Dictionary of English Surnames (3rd ed.). London: Routledge. p. xlix. ISBN 0-203-99355-1.
- "Sloinne". www.sloinne.ie. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- Neafsey, Edward (2002). The Surnames of Ireland: Origins and Numbers of Selected Irish Surnames. Irish Root Cafe. p. 36. ISBN 0-940134-97-7.There will be a statewide referendum question on the ballot this fall – required every 20 years – asking New Yorkers whether we should call a state constitutional convention. Our Jacksonian forbearers, the 19th century leaders who provided us with this regular opportunity to review the fundamentals of our governance, proceeded with a profound faith in democracy. Theirs was a very American – a very New York – belief in the possibility for progress and improvement.
The decision to provide this opportunity was realized in practice. During the 19th century conventions were routinely called once in a generation – in 1801, 1821, 1846, 1867, and 1894 – to revise, renew, and reform the way New York State was governed. From any single value perspective, the results were not pristine, but each time a convention convened our forbearers were, in some measure, affirmed in their faith in democracy.
In the 20th century we had 3 conventions: in 1915 and 1938 called by the people, and 1967, called by the legislature. All did, or proposed, some good things. But then we stopped. The half century since our last convention is the longest without such a gathering in New York State history.
Politics in the 19th century was rough and tumble. Partisan behavior was rarely grounded in reasoned debate. Voter participation was higher than it is now, but not in referenda, especially New York referenda on constitutional change. Yet New York’s 19th century constitution-writers surely could not have imagined a world like ours, in which democracy is feared as much or more than it is embraced. A world in which voters at the polls are likely to express their rage as much as their reason, and are encouraged in this predisposition by billion dollar campaigns and skilled image manipulators. A world in which most know little of the design of intricately balanced polities. A world of political saviors, not political systems.
In a recent survey, only about a third of Americans agreed that “most people can be trusted.” In the same survey 40 percent said that they had lost faith in democracy. Another six percent said that they had never had such faith.
Loss in faith in democracy: at bottom, that is the key reason that calling a constitutional convention is opposed. Simply put, thoughtful people strongly committed to improving our institutions are immobilized by the risks they perceive embedded in a change process based upon popular action.
Thus fear displaces hope. Yet, trusting democracy is precisely what restoring faith in democracy requires.
The circumstances that faced New York in 1846, when the mandatory convention question was added to the state constitution, are eerily familiar: corruption in the legislature and the executive, economic development challenges, stark social and economic inequality, and burdensome debt. But that is just where we must start in contemporary New York. Additionally, we are heavily and inequitably taxed, suffer a dangerous and growing imbalance between executive and legislative power, have a judiciary and local government arrangements that cry out for reform, endure non-competitive gerrymandered legislative districts, finance public education in a problematic way, and are burdened with an abysmal processes for election administration.
The agenda to set governance right in New York is immense. State government in Albany routinely dodges these big questions. If we truly want to restructure and reform New York government, a convention is our only path.
The mandatory convention question that we will answer this year was added to our state constitution in 1846 to bypass entrenched state leaders, to return to the people the opportunity to implement needed reforms that the governor and legislature would not or could not make. In other words, it anticipated our current circumstance.
We must seize the opportunity this fall to commence New York’s neglected, centuries-long governance conversation, and reshape our state/local systems for our time.
We were bequeathed the opportunity to achieve excellence and renewal. Now we must demonstrate the will.Grenades have long been used in warfare across the world. However, their manufacture requires certain industrial materials and production lines.
In the closing stages of WWII, strategic bombing had decimated Japanese industrial infrastructure, leading to the development of a last-ditch weapon: the Type 4 grenade.
The Type 4 is also known as the “ceramic grenade” because it was made of porcelain or terracotta. These were materials which could be found at the end of the war when more traditional grenade materials were in short supply.
The Imperial Japanese Navy Technical Bureau came up with the idea for this new weapon. It was easy to make and cheaper to produce than traditional grenades at the time. This new weapon was to be used by the general populace of the country in the event of an Allied invasion.
To mass produce these grenades, kilns which were normally used…
View original post 652 more wordsLearning SQL is hard at even if you are an experienced programmer. You have to think in terms of relationships: what matches up with what and how do I aggregate correctly? It is even harder if you come across a SQL tutorial that looks trustworthy but is actually full of mistakes.
This week I got an email asking for help understanding two SQL examples from the Advanced SQL section of a seemingly normal SQL tutorial. The examples were around finding the Percent of Total and Cumulative Percent of Total.
I wrote this article to broadcast the issues I found and the correct answers to a greater audience. I hope this helps others who are on their journey to learning Data Science and Data Engineering.
The Resources Provided by the Tutorial in Question
The SQL tutorial provided a table:
The SQL tutorial provided a query on how to find the Percent of Total:
The SQL tutorial provided a query on how to find the Cumulative Percent of Total:
The Question I Received
“How does this work? I don’t understand WHERE a1.Sales <= a2.sales and I only see one table with two columns, so how do they get a2.Sales and a2.Name?”
I was a bit confused at first too because there are lots of problems with these exercises!
The First Issue: Use a Join
If you also were confused why there were two aliases but only one table, take a look at the code following the keyword FROM. You can see the table is referenced twice separated by a comma.
When you put two tables behind the word FROM it will create an INNER JOIN between them. In my opinion, this is bad practice. It is easier for everyone to understand if you use the standard syntax: INNER JOIN.
The Second Issue: Unused Code
In the Percent of Total query, there is a lot of unused code.
- There is nothing in the SELECT statement uses the alias ‘a2’
- There’s no apparent filtering purposes in the WHERE clause that explains the purpose of a2
You can achieve the same results with a simple SELECT/FROM query. See the image below on how to find the Percent of Total for each row:
The Third Issue: Cumulative Percent of Total Doesn’t Work
In the Cumulative Percent of Total query, this is where this confusing WHERE clause is actually used.
What they are trying to do is for each sales number match up all the sales numbers equal or lesser to it and also include any records that are themselves. Then aggregate.
The logic they were going for was this:
But the query they wrote allows both Stella and Jeff to match up with each other because they have the same sales amount. So they actually ended up with this:
So when you run the query exactly, it doesn’t print out the same numbers as Results section says it should.
The Fourth Issue: Redundant Code
If you didn’t catch the flawed logic right away and are wondering how that got past you, don’t worry it was hard to read in the first place because there was redundant code.
The section after OR is actually redundant:
- It is redundant since a1.Sales <= a2.Sales covers the a1.Sales=a2.Sales case
- Additionally if a1.Name=a2.Name, then the sales would already have matched up so the a1.Sales=a2.Sales case covers this
Take a look, it returns the same results when I comment out the redundant code:
Cumulative Percent of Total: The Answer
So how can we actually find the Cumulative Percent of Total? What we need is to label each record with a unique number that also reflects numerical order.
This way we can JOIN the table back to itself and eliminate the possibility of a ‘tie’ which was our third issue (above). We basically need a row number. There is a window function called ROW_NUMBER() which is supported in many versions of SQL.
But unfortunately the editor I’m using is a release of SQLite that doesn’t include window functions yet. So I just wrote them in, hope that is ok 🙂
To find the Cumulative Percent of Total, we need to JOIN the table to itself and find for each record all numbers that come before that record. Here is the JOIN I wrote to accomplish this. In case you are a visual learner, I printed out what the data looks like before I aggregate it. This is so you can see that each row accumulates the info of the ones before it.
Then I apply the SUM() aggregation function and use GROUP BY to bring us back to being at the name level.
Unfortunately, not everything on the internet is true even sometimes online tutorials! If something stumps you, don’t automatically assume that you are missing something. The tutorial may be wrong! Reach out to someone you trust (if I have time, I’m happy to help)! If all else fails, ask on StackOverflow. 🙂
Share this article with a friend who is studying for data projects or positions! If you have questions feel free to leave them in the comments & I will try to get back to you.
Thanks for reading!
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Lauren Bui 1E wrote:When drawing a lewis structure, how do you determine which atom goes in the center?
If you do not know the electronegativity, you can basically count how many bonds each atom can form and then decide. For example, H in CH4 can form 1 bond, so it's logical to put C in the center
This excerpt from the book helped me a bit figuring this out. "If there is doubt, a good rule of thumb for molecules other than compounds of hydrogen is to choose as the central atom the element with the lowest ionization energy. This arrangement often results in the lowest energy because an atom in the central posi- tion shares more of its electrons than does a terminal atom. Atoms with higher ionization energies are more reluctant to share and are more likely to hold on to their electrons as lone pairs.".
Arianna Perea 3H wrote:why is the central atom the one with the least electronegativity?
The least electronegative elements are in the center of lewis structures because an atom in the central position shares more of its electrons than does an atom on the sides of the central atom or the terminal position.
The central atoms should be the least electronegative atom. My TA also mentioned that if you have a molecule and its like one of an element and 4 of another then the central atom will probably be the element that only has one.
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Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guestA video game that teaches you how to code: The latest Fig. 1 video
Can video games be an effective teaching tool in the classroom? UC San Diego computer scientist Sarah Guthals believes they can be. With her startup ThoughtSTEM, she’s working with teachers to bring computer science into the K-12 curriculum.
This presentation is the latest in the Fig. 1 video series, created by UCOP Communications’ multimedia team in collaboration with Discovery Channel’s digital platforms. Each video features a UC researcher in science, technology, art or humanities explaining their work through engaging interviews and lively animation. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any episodes in this fascinating series.Historical fiction for kids doesn’t have to be dull. Picture this, it’s 1066, Edward the Confessor has just died and a power vacuum threatens the future of England. What happens next? Our historical fiction pack encourages children to think a little deeper, explore a variety of different possible outcomes and re-write history in any way that they wish. Through harking back to pivotal points in England’s history, children learn about the differences between the life that they know, and the life that their ancestors lived.
And the benefits don’t stop there. Featuring both independent and group activities and engaging writing tasks, teaching historical fiction has never been easier.
Click on the description below to find out more about the contents of this pack.
This pack contains:Also found in: Acronyms.
A pelvic examination is a routine procedure used to assess the well being of the female patients' lower genito-urinary tract. This is done as part of a usual health screening and prevention tool, and is an element of the total health care for the female patient.
Pelvic exams are useful as a screening tool for sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea, chlamydia, genital warts, herpes, and syphilis. In addition, exams detect some forms of cancer that may affect the genitalia. By analyzing the cervical region with a Papanicolaou or Pap smear, clinicians are able to look for signs of cervical cancer. The American Cancer Society and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend pelvic exams with Pap tests for women starting at age 18. It is also recommended that exams start earlier if the teenager requests oral contraception. Pap smears should continue once yearly for three years and at the physicians discretion following this time. Various groups differ in opinions on when to discontinue screening for cervical cancer, however, the United States Preventative Services Task Force recommends screening continue until age 65 if the patient has not had previous abnormal results. Women who have undergone a total hysterectomy for reasons other than cervical cancer do not need to be screened.
Pelvic examinations are safe procedures, thus no precautions are necessary.
The first part of the examination involves visual inspection and palpation of the external genital
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right now in education we do not take this idea seriously, in part because until recently we didn’t have the science or technology to do it. But we do now. So if you accept the idea of equal fit, then it means something radical for the future of education — it means we cannot accept a system based on averages; it means we cannot accept standardized curricular materials, or simplistic one-dimensional assessments, or fixed amounts of time for learning or one pathway to academic success.”
And now, he says, is the perfect time to focus on individual learning. Using the technology we have on hand, educators can easily create learning environments that are flexible. Language translation programs, for example, can help students — at any school — better sound out puzzling words as they read.
Professor Howard Gardner, one of Rose’s first professors at the Ed School, says, “Todd’s focus on what we know about the individual student and how we can mobilize pedagogical and curricular resources to meet the particular student is of fundamental importance. We are fortunate enough to live at the first time in human history [when] such individualized teaching and learning is not restricted to a tiny wealthy elite but can be distributed far more widely, if not universally.”
Rose says we have already seen how technology has helped scientists around the world understand the individual, leading to major breakthroughs in everything from cancer research to the treatment of diabetes.
“And this only happened after scientists broke through a mental barrier, ” Rose says, “after they recognized this one all-important fact: that you can’t understand individuals using group averages” because there is no average cancer, no average cell, no average genome.
So how do we, as a country entrenched in an education system that distributes standardized tests and groups students based on chronological age rather than rate of learning, break through its mental barriers and start to embrace — and demand — the science of the individual?
Well, if you’re Todd Rose, you start by turning to Hollywood.
“People in places like Hollywood, they’re used to thinking differently or being told they’re not good enough,” Rose says. “If you want to have a public that understands this new science and this new way of thinking about individuality, then it will require more than just the dissemination of information through usual channels. Instead, you have to get these ideas to permeate the culture — to change the way that people think about themselves and the people around them. To do that, I believe that you need to engage the storytellers in Hollywood because they are in the business of creating culture and changing social norms whether people realize it or not.”
Walter Haas, a founding director at Rose’s nonprofit, specializes in digital marketing and has worked on projects for Levi Strauss and Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign. He says getting the message to people is a first — and critical — step.
“Once you understand the world through the lens of the science of the individual, you can’t see it in any other way, ” he says. “Our goal is to simply allow more people to have that same moment of realization. We do not have the resources, frankly, or the patience to engage in a traditional policy lobbying effort. Instead, we plan to share this science-based idea in an accessible manner to stimulate ground-level demand for institutional reform.”
It’s the same approach, Rose says, that the Harvard Alcohol Project took in the 1980s, when it teamed up with every major movie studio and television network to help launch a new term into society that resulted in demand from the public: the designated driver. With the help of Hollywood, over the course of just four years, more than 160 popular movies and shows like Cheers and L.A. Law added designated drivers into scenes and drunk driving prevention into dialogue. PSAs flooded the market. The term “designated driver” even officially appeared in Webster’s Dictionary in 1991.
“It is such a terrific example of what is possible if you combine a good idea with a clever approach to getting it to the public, ”Rose says, noting that he is starting to team up with Hollywood in the same way.
His nonprofit is also creating partnerships with non-Hollywood groups that can also make a difference, like Teach For America, which places young teachers in high-needs schools, as well as influential companies that create tests for schools. They also plan on creating a free flexible digital textbook that will allow teachers to customize learning for each student.
Eventually, he says, “I want CEOs to say, ‘What’s our plan for this?’ I want schools to say, ‘Wow! We need to get our act together. This is the new thing.’”
The bottom line, Rose says, is that we all need to ask ourselves who we are supposed to be as a country.
“I’m incredibly grateful, even though it wasn’t easy, that I got a second chance, ” he says. “We need all of the potential we can possibly get. We need innovation and creativity. That’s where all of the jobs are. I keep thinking, this letting go of the average and instead focusing on the individual is just in our best interest.”Robert E. Lee and the Fall of the Confederacy, 1863-1865
by Ethan S. Rafuse
Rowman & Littlefield, 2008
Is it really possible there’s anything new to say about Robert E. Lee, who probably has had more written about him than any other Civil War military figure? Ethan Rafuse clearly thinks so, and in Robert E. Lee and the Fall of the Confederacy 1863-1865, he argues his case that “strategic and operational considerations properly led Lee to a preference for offensive operations throughout the war.” The question Rafuse seeks to answer, while simultaneously defending Lee’s military acumen from the slings and arrows thrown at it by some modern historians, is how the Gray Fox and the Army of Northern Virginia went from “that moment of triumph at Chancellorsville to complete defeat in 1865.”
Rafuse brings impeccable credentials to this quest. An associate professor of history at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., a disciple of the Herman Hattaway/Archer Jones school of Civil War military history, and a biographer of George B. McClellan and George G. Meade—two of Lee’s more notable opponents—Rafuse argues that, given the North’s overwhelming advantage in men and materiel, Lee’s only recourse was to pursue a “strategy of exhaustion.” This strategy, he writes, “seeks to destroy an enemy nation’s will or the resources that enable it to wage war over time.” Since the North’s resources were beyond Lee’s grasp, only its will to fight was “a viable target for Confederate military strategists.” According to Rafuse, that will could only be broken if the Confederacy made the restoration of the Union so costly in terms of Yankee lives as to be unacceptable to Northern society.
The heart of Rafuse’s book details how Lee sought to accomplish this task through a strategy of attack and maneuver in the open country of Northern Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Although historians may well be correct that the war was ultimately won on the battlefields of the West, Rafuse convincingly argues that Virginia and Richmond, the Confederate capital, were the psychological and, to a large extent, industrial underpinning of the would-be fledgling nation. Thus, without Lee’s “consistently inspired, driving leadership and brilliance at the operational and tactical levels of war it is difficult to see how the war in Virginia could have lasted as long as it did.”
But did Lee’s brilliance prolong the war long after any real chance for establishing a separate Confederate nation had evaporated? Rafuse doesn’t say, but given the political climate in Richmond, probably not. He is too good a historian, however, to argue that Lee alone was responsible for the Confederacy’s battlefield victories in the East. In the main, Lee used tactics that were neither novel nor unique. He followed traditional 19th-century military doctrine of keeping a firm base, using interior lines of communication and supply, and seeking to achieve strategic turning maneuvers as advocated by Swiss military strategist Baron Antoine Henri Jomini—tactics that were all taught at West Point. It was, however, Lee’s overwhelming confidence in the élan of the men he led and his seemingly instinctual understanding of the personalities of many of the Union generals he opposed that allowed him time and again to successfully break the dictum of another 19th-century military theorist, Dietrich Von Clausewitz of Germany. Von Clausewitz had warned against splitting a numerically inferior force in the face of the enemy, which Lee did notably at Chancellorsville.
Nor could Lee be solely responsible for the defeats suffered by the Army of Northern Virginia and the eventual fall of the Confederacy. As Maj. Gen. George E. Pickett wryly observed after the war, “The Union Army had something to do with it.” Rafuse gives surprisingly high marks to the generals Lee faced early in the war, principally for not making any catastrophic blunders that could have destroyed their armies. He also accuses the Lincoln administration of unwittingly aiding Lee—at least until March 1864, when Ulysses S. Grant took over as supreme commander of all Union forces.
It would be interesting to hear Rafuse and James McPherson debate the merits of Lincoln as commander in chief. Rafuse argues that Lincoln partly hamstrung the various commanders of the Army of the Potomac by forcing them to adopt an overland route to Richmond that protected Washington, D.C., a strategy that played to Lee’s tactical strengths. Rafuse contends that a Peninsula route along the James River—a strategy first proposed by McClellan and later modified and successfully used by Grant—would have enabled the Union to bring to bear its superiority in men and materiel, thus forcing Lee to adopt a defensive posture of siege warfare to protect Richmond. That strategy, Lee had maintained, would ultimately lead to defeat.
Rafuse has chosen only to examine Lee the tactician and not how the psychological makeup of Lee the warrior influenced his battlefield strategy. If he had, Rafuse might have discovered that this aristocratic scion of Virginia’s slave-holding planter class perhaps had other reasons than strategic necessity for holding onto the leash of the dogs of war so enthusiastically for so long. After all, it was Lee who supposedly said, “It is well that war is so terrible—lest we should grow too fond of it!” Perhaps, in the end, he had.Social Capital Over Time and Across Generations: A Data-Driven Learning Guide (ICPSR 339)
Principal Investigator(s): Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
Data-Driven Learning Guides are a collection of instructional exercises that can be used to enhance teaching of core concepts in the social sciences. This learning guide investigates time and generational trends in measures of social capital from 1972 to 2004. The term "social capital" is used to refer to connections among people and organizations. These social networks have important implications for social identity, emotional support, as well as the exchange of goods, services, and information. Research questions that can be explored using this guide include: what factors might account for changes in social capital over time, what are the consequences of high/low levels of social capital, under what conditions might high levels of social capital be detrimental, and low levels of social capital beneficial, whether all dimensions of social capital evolved similarly over time, and whether factors such as race, gender, and social class influence how much and what kind of social capital groups have. Crosstabulation and comparison of means are used in the analyses.
These data are not available from ICPSR. Users should consult the data owners directly for details on obtaining these resources.Really Simple Syndication
What is RSS?
RSS (or Really Simple Syndication) feeds are free content feeds from Web sites that contain article headlines, summaries and links back to full-text articles on the web.
What tools do I need to use RSS?
To start using RSS, you need a special news reader or aggregator that displays RSS content feeds from Web sites you select. There are many different news readers available, many of which are free of charge. Most are available as desktop software that you download and install on your computer. Several Web-based news readers are also available and many of the newer browsers include RSS features directly in the browser.
Once you have set up your news reader, you simply subscribe to the RSS content feeds you want.
What are the benefits of using RSS?
RSS is an easy way for you to be alerted when content that interests you appears on your favorite Web sites. Instead of visiting a particular Web site to browse for new articles and features, RSS automatically tells you when something new is posted online.
Copyright © 2016 IEPA.comThe task addressed in this section is the choice of reportable attributes that will form columns of a Consumer Report. Each of the quality characteristics mentioned in earlier sections will give rise to a number of such reportable attributes.
The attributes we seek to identify are descriptions of a system's performance in a given setup which allow the customer (the user of the evaluation) to make the decisions they require about a set of systems in a class. We have just seen how a combination of the requirements and task model can be used to give detailed requirements statements that can be based on measurement. Our task here is to decide what to consider when reporting the results of these tests to the user.
The choice of reportable attributes is driven by considering the requirements of the customer -- the user of the evaluation. In general, the customer and the end-user (the user of the system) may have different requirements, and they play distinct roles in the design of the evaluation. The customer's requirements may be based on the impact of the whole end-user/system setup that is being evaluated on wider tasks in a wider corporate setup. In the case of grammar checkers (which are relatively mass-market products commonly used by non-corporate writers) the customer and the end-user may often be the same person, but in principle the end-user who actually interacts with the system is a variable in the setup the customer is evaluating. Thus, arriving at a list of reportable attributes involves an analysis of the interaction of the product and the end-user in the immediate task, and of the place of this task and its outputs in the wider task that may interest the customer. We have already outlined a model of the immediate task, which is relevant both to this choice of attributes and to the development of test methods for the functional aspects of the systems. In this section, a further model, of customer types, is in theory called for.
In the case of grammar checkers, and particularly the functionality attributes we are currently concentrating on, we feel that customer and end-user perspectives are not likely to differ significantly. This is particularly true of the quality characteristic we are concentrating on in this report, functionality. Different characteristics, however, will be relevant to each role, and so we continue here as if our end-user model has no relation to our new customer model.
The customer must be analysed to find out how the functionality results ought to be reported, in terms of choice of reportable attributes, and perhaps what supplementary material, such as explanations of attribute choice and methods or case studies of typical users, should be supplied. Choice of attributes comes first, and derives from the researcher's knowledge about the system's performance on the task and the customer's requirements; how to describe them is secondary.
However, it should be remembered that the Consumer Report is a multi-user artefact, in that it contains information relevant to a number of different customer classes, and indeed end-user and writer classes in which customers may be interested. It relies on self-diagnosis by the customer in choosing which attributes to pay attention to, and how to combine the values for those attributes to form their own evaluation. Thus, our aim is to choose attributes that will support most evaluations of grammar checkers. In terms of the functionality aspects we are concentrating on, this means producing information that can be interpreted for a number of different end-user/writer types.
The customer can be expected to know and construct their own comparative evaluation on certain aspects of end-user, writer, and system compatibility, such as the target language of the system and the language in which its advice is couched. Accordingly, such system characteristics will be included as straightforward attributes that will appear in the report.
We have motivated the production of a taxonomy of errors that is at least notionally couched in terms close to the writer's sources of error. However, it was also designed at quite a detailed level to support the development of test material, and so may be too detailed to be used as a set of attributes for reporting functionality to the customer. We may want to talk about the functionality performance for particular types of error individually -- especially errors whose significance varies with writer or end-user classes. For other types, we may want to group a number together under a group attribute name. Our emphasis here is on NLP evaluation, and it is relatively clear that NLP, broadly conceived, is central to the functionality quality characteristic of grammar checkers. Given the mass-market nature of such tools, it is also clear that, whether the customer is the same as the end-user or not, it is likely that we will need to put a good deal of effort into finding ways of presenting and explaining the results of testing functionality in terms of attributes that are meaningful to the customer. Standard sets of examples and illustrations, and particularly case studies giving examples to allow a customer to diagnose their requirements, should be developed as part of our future work, and for anyone building on it, for example in a new language.
Thus, we have attributes based on error types and groups of error types. When we start to think about what sort of measure to use to convey performance on these errors, we encounter some complications that might lead us to convey some of the information not as measures (because they would be too complicated, or have too many dimensions) but as separate attributes, which might be grouped into aggregates or replicated individually for each error type attribute.
One such measure relates to precision/recall, which is a key property of this application, as in information retrieval, but here is complicated by the range of advice types. It is almost certainly not valuable to many customers to present measurements of recall separate from some consideration of precision (saying that a given system succeeds in all instances of it's/its confusion if in fact it flags all instances of either is likely to be misleading, even if the precision figures are given somewhere else). However, different end-users have different requirements and different interfaces may change the effect, as may customisability. An end-user who needs a lot of tutorial advice will not be benefitted by a high recall, low precision and poor advice type service, while they might be able to use the same recall and precision if the advice included enough information to let them make an accurate diagnosis.
Another such measure relates to the type of coverage a system has for a particular error type. Some systems may find only easily identified instances of an error type, but do that reliably. This may be of use to some users and not to others, who only make more complicated versions of the error. A measure that simply aggregates results of different levels of difficulty, with whatever weighting function, will not be able to support customer self-diagnosis on this dimension.
There is a case, therefore, for having separate attributes for noting false positive and coverage variability.Mac Keyboard Shortcuts and Their Windows Equivalents
If you are new to Mac OS X, it can be frustrating to learn some of the hot-keys that you were used to on Windows. While there isn't always an exact equivalent, there are a few shortcuts that are similar and will get you started.
In Windows Control-Alt-Delete will bring up the security window allowing you to change users and lock the computer, among other things. There are a few hot-keys on the Mac that can perform the same functions.
- Control-Command-Eject restarts the Mac
- Control-Option-Command-Eject shuts down the Mac immediately
- Shift-Command-Q logs you out so you can login as another account
Control-Shift-Escape pulls up the task manage on Windows and the equivalent on the Mac is the Force Quit menu. You access that with Command-Option-Escape.
You can put a snapshot of screen into your clipboard on Windows with the Print Screen button. Mac offers several hot-keys for screen shots:
- Shift-Command-3 takes a screen shot of the entire screen
- Shift-Command-4 takes a screen shot of an area
- Shift-Command-4-Space takes a screen shot of a specific window
The cursor changes to show you which screen shot type you'll be taking, and the shot it saved to your desktop.
File and Document Shortcuts
There are many shortcuts you can use to open, edit, manage and close documents and files in Windows and Macintosh.
- To open a file in Windows, you type Control-O, and on the Mac you hit Command-O.
- To open a new document hit Control-N or Command-N on a Mac.
- To select all the text on a page or document, you hit Control-A or Command-A on a Mac.
- Copy highlighted text with Control-C or Command-C on a Mac.
- Cut the highlighted text with Control-X or Command-X on a Mac.
- Paste the copied or cut text with Control-V or Command-V on a Mac.
- Paste special text with Control-Alt-V or Control-Command-V
- Print the current document with Control-P or Command-P on a Mac.
- Save the file or document with Control-S or Command-S on a Mac.
- Closing a window is slightly different on a Mac from Windows. On Windows, you close a file window with Alt-F4 and the equivalent on a Mac is Command-W. But that only closes the open window, not the entire app. If you need to close the entire app, you hit Command-Q.
Other Macintosh Shortcuts
You can learn other Mac shortcuts by going to the System Preferences, then Keyboard in the Shortcuts tab. My favorite hot-keys are Command-Q to quit apps and Command-W to close windows.
- How to Enable Parental Controls on a Mac
- How to Force Quit an App in Mac OS X
- How to Install Windows 8.1 on a MacThis view looks south from the confluence of the Clark Fork of the Columbia (lower center and right of center) with the Bitterroot River. The campsite of Travelers' Rest is at the mouth of the canyon on the north side of Lolo Peak. Lewis and his party followed the Indian road from there along the foot of the mountain to the confluence of the Bitterroot and the Clark Fork. On the horizon at upper right is the snow-covered Lolo Peak—actually two peaks on the same mountain. The nearer mountain, at right, for reasons uncertain, is today called Blue Mountain. Perhaps that was a synonym for "purple mountains' majesty" in the familiar patriotic hymn.
Inscribed on the land are the the two rivers' memories of their long-past meetings, channels long since abandoned amid the chaos of riverine dynamics. Cottonwood trees owe their lives to rivers. Since their seeds take root and thrive at the margins of a river's maximum seasonal width, their orderly rows record the ups and downs of water levels within that century. Having a life expectancy of 80 to 100 years, they are the continuous, sweet-scented mementos of only the past century.
Funded in part by a grant from the Montana Cultural Trust.While computers outperform humans in most mathematical tasks and can do complex calculations that people never could, there's one area where machines haven't quite achieved humanlike smarts: emotional intelligence. But now, a new computer program can recognize people's emotions based on how they type, paving the way for computers that could one day be smarter than humans — a concept called "the singularity."
In a new study, researchers asked a small group of people to type a block of sample text, and then analyzed the keystrokes and characteristics to see if they could identify any of seven different emotional states: joy, fear, anger, sadness, disgust, shame or guilt.
The emotions that the program recognized with the greatest degree of accuracy were joy (87 percent of the time) and anger (81 percent of the time). [7 Things That Will Make You Happy]
"If we could build any system that is intelligent enough to interact with humans that involves emotions — that is, it can detect user emotions and change its behavior accordingly — then using machines could be more effective and friendly," the researchers, from the Islamic University of Technology in Bangladesh, wrote in the study.
The researchers noted that emotion-detecting systems could be used in applications like online teaching: An emotionally intelligent online system could change its look, teaching style or the contents of its lectures to better adapt to a particular student's emotional state, they said.
In the first part of the study, 25 people, ages 15 to 40, retyped two paragraphs from Lewis Carroll's famous novel "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," and picked one of the emotions that they felt while they were typing: joy, fear, anger, sadness, disgust, shame, guilt, feeling neutral or tired. The last two options were added in case an individual did not identify with any of the original options.
In the second part of the study, the researchers used software that collected text samples from users, who were prompted every 30 minutes to enter their mental state, choosing from the following possibilities: joy, fear, anger, sadness, disgust, shame, guilt or none of the above.
In this part of the experiment, the text that the users typed did not come from a particular source assigned to them, but was collected during their regular computer use. The researchers used a special type of software that ran in the background to record all keys pressed by the users as well as the users' press and release times.
The researchers then extracted 19 keystroke attributes from the collected data. Some of the attributes included typing speed in 5-second intervals and the time elapsed between when a particular key was pressed and released.
To analyze the sample texts, the investigators used a standard database of words and sentences that were associated with the seven different emotional states.
The newly described emotion-detecting system "does not look like a breakthrough," Myounghoon Jeon, an assistant professor of applied cognitive science at Michigan Technological University who was not involved in the study, told Live Science. "But [the researchers'] effort to integrate the existing methods looks fair, positive and promising."
However, Jeon said the method of detecting emotions in text that was used in this study has some limitations. For instance, unlike speech-recognition technologies or devices used to detect facial expressions, it is based on something a person has to do, as told by someone else. Therefore, if a person is truly sad or angry, they may not be able or willing to type something they are told to type because of the emotions they are feeling.
Still, the new system could be a valuable tool for online counseling sessions, Jeon said. For example, in some cultures where online counseling is particularly popular, psychiatrists may be able to estimate a patient's internal state even without the person verbally articulating it them.
The study was published online July 3 in the journal Behavior & Information Technology.I planted 32 emerald-green arborvitaes between the end of August and early September. Plants range in height from 7 feet to 10 feet. They are turning brown quickly from the bottom up, with some browning throughout. I hit a layer of clay when I dig 12 inches. I mixed peat moss and pine bark mulch, and raised the trees 6 inches above the rest of the yard. I have been watering once a week and the soil stays moist. Am I watering too much? Plants get more shade than sun, but all trees get a few hours of sun. I don't know what to do and how to solve the problem.
-- James C., South River
There are several possible causes to the downfall of your arborvitaes. I believe soil conditions and lack of sunlight are leading to the problems with these trees. Arborvitaes grow best in full sun, and you have described your landscape as mostly shade with only a few hours of sun.
Shading and overcrowding of arborvitaes near other plants can prevent proper growth. I know from experience that even partial shading of arborvitaes from ornamental grasses caused browning in my yard. Once I moved the grasses, the arborvitaes recovered as they received the sunlight they needed.
You have described your soil as "clay" once you dig down 12 inches. South River can have heavy soils, with severe drainage problems. Although you did mix compost into the topsoil, I am concerned about the addition of pine bark mulch. This mulch should be used as a surface mulch only, not in the soil itself.
I am not sure of the amount of each that you have added to the mix, but if you've added too much bark mulch into the soil, you may have created soil conditions that rob plants of nitrogen as soil organisms break down large pieces of organic material in the soil.
In addition, you indicated that the plants were placed 6 inches above the surrounding landscape. If you plan to place a group of arborvitaes above the surrounding landscape, then you need to bring real soil up to the outward flare of the top of the roots. Covering roots with mulch or with soils that are high in pine bark could lead to desiccation and death of roots.
If you have a row of arborvitaes, it may be best to create a raised bed at least 1 foot above the surrounding area, and three feet to four feet wide. I created a similar bed in my yard, with a row of 14 arborvitaes that are all thriving. However, the plants in my yard are receiving full sun.
I have two large hydrangea shrubs that are healthy but did not produce flowers this year. What is the problem and how I can get these plants to flower next year?
-- Marie L., Freehold
There are many species of hydrangea available worldwide, but the most popular species in the United States is Hydrangea macrophylla, commonly known as bigleaf hydrangea. Most hydrangeas have beautiful, large and showy flowers that make a statement in almost any landscape setting.
Hydrangeas will grow best in a moist, well-drained soil and benefit from some shade, especially in warmer climates. Bigleaf, oakleaf (Hydrangea quercifolia) and smooth (Hydrangea arborescens) hydrangeas perform well on the edges of woods or on the north side of a house. Panicle hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata) tolerates more sun than other species.
There may be situations where you will have healthy vegetative growth and very little or no flowering on your hydrangea plant. There are a few reasons why this happens. Shade and improper pruning can apply to all hydrangeas, but weather-related damage to flower buds is more restricted to the bigleaf hydrangea.
Most hydrangeas benefit from some shade, but too much will reduce flowering. As mentioned, this is a major factor for the panicle hydrangea,which prefers full sun. Sunlight may change over time as nearby trees and shrubs grow and provide additional shade to the site. Over time, plants may have to be moved to provide adequate sunlight.
Improper pruning can influence the amount of flower development, too. Bigleaf and oakleaf hydrangeas flower on the previous year's growth, so if the plants are pruned in the fall, winter or spring, buds would be removed. Panicle and smooth hydrangea flower on current year's growth, so pruning in early summer would reduce or eliminate flower development in the same year.
The most common reason for little or no flowering in hydrangeas, primarily bigleaf hydrangea, is weather. Early fall freeze before the plant is completely dormant, extremely low winter temperatures or late spring freezes can damage the flower buds. The most common weather-related problem is the late spring freeze, which has been an issue over the past few years.
Branches may even die from these temperature changes. The plant will produce new buds from the base of the stem, but the stems will not likely produce flower buds later in the season.
Hydrangeas are wonderful plants as specimens or in a landscape border. Remember that it is important to provide the proper growing conditions for each species and protect them if possible to maximize flower production each year.
To learn more: Visit njaes.rutgers.edu or ifplantscouldtalk.rutgers.edu for gardening information and fact sheets. You can go to njaes.rutgers.edu/county/ for a listing of your local County Cooperative Extension garden help-line contacts throughout the state.
Bill Hlubik is a professor and agricultural and resource management agent for Rutgers Cooperative Extension-The New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, Rutgers University. He is also a host of the "If Plants Could Talk" television series on NJN Public Television.
Send your garden inquiries to Plant Talk, The Star-Ledger, 1 Star Ledger Plaza, Newark, N.J. 07102-1200 or email@example.com.The PBS Parents Guide to Children & Media is a resource for answering parents' questions about kids, media and the creative possibilities that exist between them. It's a place that invites you to bring both your curiosity and concern about what young people are seeing and hearing on TV, in movies, video games and on the Internet.
This site also concerns media literacy. To be media literate means to:
Media literacy also considers the power that electronic media have to shape both society and ourselves in profound ways. It is precisely because TV, radio, movies and the Internet are powerful and ever-present that they can mold our attitudes and influence our beliefs.
As much as you would like to keep your children away from aggressive advertisements, unsavory images, dim-witted programming and misleading news reports, you can't — not entirely, at least. The best you can do is help them become media literate by thinking on their own, staying informed and, ultimately, becoming the tellers of their own stories.
Shelley Pasnik is the Director of EDC’s Center for Children and Technology in New York. Committed to discovering ways media can support children's healthy development, she designs and implements research projects that investigate how technology can be used to support teaching and learning.
She has spent close to 20 years talking to parents, child and consumer advocates, business leaders, health experts, superintendents, scholars, government officials, and, as often as possible, children about the roles that media can and do play in young people's lives. She has collaborated with the US Department of Education, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Intel Foundation, the American Museum of Natural History, WGBH, Carnegie Hall, Thirteen/WNET, Global Kids, and IBM, among others..
You can contact Shelley Pasnik at firstname.lastname@example.org.
How children use media — TV, computers, video games and movies — has a lot to do with who they are. Although no two kids are exactly alike, children generally go through the same stages of development. Knowing what these stages are can help you encourage your child to use media in new and creative ways. This age-specific guide is designed to help you understand how to use media to encourage your child's creative, social, physical and intellectual development.
Just as your child grows — intellectually, emotionally and physically — so, too, does her ability to use media. This is true whether your child is 5 and starting to grasp that a story has a beginning, middle and end, or is 15 and mastering how to publish original stories on the Web.
Of course, your child's healthy development involves much more than learning how to use media. Your child has many needs, including your attention, your love, good food, time outside, captivating books and a television that has been turned off and left behind.
This section of The PBS Parents Guide to Children & Media draws upon resources created by well-respected organizations that study and care about kids: the National Network for Child Care, the Gisell Institute of Human Development, The Magic House in St. Louis and Bank Street College of Education.
Illustrations within the Children and Media section were created by Mary Veronica Sweeney.Hyaluronan (hyaluronic acid, hyaluronate or HA) is an anionic glycosaminoglycan (GAG) distributed widely throughout connective, epithelial, and neural tissues and most abundant in the extracellular matrix and skin. HA is unique among the GAGs in that it is not sulfated and is not found covalently attached to proteins as a proteoglycan. HA polymers are very large (they can reach molecular weights of 10 million Da) and can displace a large volume of water making them excellent lubricators and shock absorbers. Another unique feature of HA is that it is synthesized at the plasma membrane unlike other GAGs which are formed in the Golgi. HA is a polymer of the disaccharide unit D-glucuronic acid and D-N-acetylglucosamine, linked via alternating beta-1,4 and beta-1,3 glycosidic bonds (Toole 2000, 2004, Volpi et al. 2009).June 27, 2013
Spiral Galaxies Like The Milky Way Much Larger Than We Thought
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe OnlineHubble Space Telescope to determine that normal spiral galaxies are surrounded by halos of gas that can extend to over one million light-years in diameter. With this new estimate, it brings the Milky Way from just 100,000 light-years across to roughly 1,100,000 light-years.
The material for the galaxy halos was ejected from galaxies by exploding stars, or supernovae.
"This gas is stored and then recycled through an extended galaxy halo, falling back onto the galaxies to reinvigorate a new generation of star formation," said John Stocke of University of Colorado at Boulder's astrophysical and planetary sciences department.
"In many ways this is the'missing link' in galaxy evolution that we need to understand in detail in order to have a complete picture of the process."
The researchers determined that these clouds must contain almost as much mass as all the stars in their respective galaxies.
"This was a big surprise," said Stocke. "The new findings have significant consequences for how spiral galaxies change over time."
Stock and his colleagues discovered giant reservoirs of hot gas estimated to be millions of degrees Fahrenheit that were enshrouding the spiral galaxies and halos under study. The halos of the spiral galaxies were relatively cool by comparison.
Michael Shull, professor at CU-Boulder's Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, said it should be possible to confirm these early detections, elaborate on the results and scan other spiral galaxies in the universe.
"This gas is way too diffuse to allow its detection by direct imaging, so spectroscopy is the way to go," explained Stocke. CU-Boulder's James Green led the design team, which was built for NASA by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder.
The team had to use the Hubble's $70-million Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) for the study. Theoretical studies have shown in the past how spiral galaxies could possess about five times more
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Thoughts on life with a two year old from some familiar faces. What a typical day's like, what's to love, the challenging stuff, and musings in hindsight, from those who've been there.
What to do when it’s more than a cold … and how you’ll know.
Moving on from nappies
Tips on toilet training and why you should be guided by your child.
Warning signs and the importance of trusting your instincts.
Playing with others
Smoothing the waters … advice on helping your child play well with others.
Setting up a good relationship with food
Making food fun and enjoyable, and why this is so important.
Sleep from 1-3 years
Tips on daytime naps, quiet time and moving from cot to bed.
The conversation and creativity of a two year old
Tips to help your two year old become a confident and competent communicator.
The energy and excitement of a two year old
Running, jumping, spinning … why being on the move is such a great thing.Hereditary spherocytosis (HS) is a disorder of the red blood cell (RBC) membrane, characterized by abnormally fragile and spherical RBCs. It is the predominant cause of haemolytic anaemia in people of northern European descent. Owing to the increased rate of RBC synthesis that is characteristic of the condition, it may result in an increase in absorption of iron from the diet by the affected individual. Ultimately, pathological iron overload may develop. Fortunately, the condition responds well to surgical removal of the spleen (splenectomy). In this project, iron studies were performed on a set of spleen tissue samples obtained following routine splenectomy for HS. Cell architecture and level of deposition of haemosiderin, the distinctive form of iron found in iron-loaded tissues, were assessed. The tissue iron content was determined by AAS and ICP (mean value = 2276+/-507 mug g(-1) dry tissue, values reported for normal spleens range from 972+/-60 to 1345+/-190 pg g(-1)). Ion exchange chromatography was employed to separate the protein content of the tissue into four chromatographic bands, notionally transferrin, ferritin, haemprotein and haemosiderin, and these proteins quantified. Mossbauer spectroscopy identified the iron as Fe(III), predominantly in ferrihydrite (5Fe(2)O(3).9H(2)O) and haem environments within the tissue. Typical spectral parameters, recorded at 300 K, were: isomer shift and quadrupole splitting of 0.36 and 0.62 mm s(-1), respectively, (ferrihydrite) and 0.14 and 1.97 mm s(-1) (haem). The results indicate a condition corresponding to mild iron overload. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.The 2016 Arctic sea ice summertime minimum, reached on Sept. 10, is 911,000 square miles below the 1981-2010 average minimum sea ice extent, shown here as a gold line.Credits: NASA Goddard’s Scientific Visualization Studio/C. Starr
Arctic sea ice appeared to have reached its annual lowest extent on Sept. 10, NASA and the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado at Boulder reported today.
An analysis of satellite data showed that at 1.60 million square miles (4.14 million square kilometers), the 2016 Arctic sea ice minimum extent is effectively tied with 2007 for the second lowest yearly minimum in the satellite record. Since satellites began monitoring sea ice in 1978, researchers have observed a steep decline in the average extent of Arctic sea ice for every month of the year.
The sea ice cover of the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas helps regulate the planet’s temperature, influences the circulation of the atmosphere and ocean, and impacts Arctic communities and ecosystems. Arctic sea ice shrinks every year during the spring and summer until it reaches its minimum yearly extent. Sea ice regrows during the frigid fall and winter months, when the sun is below the horizon in the Arctic.
This summer, the melt of Arctic sea ice surprised scientists by changing pace several times. The melt season began with a record low yearly maximum extent in March and a rapid ice loss through May. But in June and July, low atmospheric pressures and cloudy skies slowed down the melt. Then, after two large storms went across the Arctic basin in August, sea ice melt picked up speed through early September.
In this animation, the Earth rotates slowly as the Arctic sea ice advances over time from March 24, 2016, to Sept. 10, 2016, when the sea ice reached its annual minimum extent. The 2016 Arctic minimum sea ice extent is the second lowest minimum extent on the satellite record.Credits: NASA Goddard’s Scientific Visualization Studio/C. Starr
“It’s pretty remarkable that this year’s sea ice minimum extent ended up the second lowest, after how the melt progressed in June and July,” said Walt Meier, a sea ice scientist with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “June and July are usually key months for melt because that’s when you have 24 hours a day of sunlight – and this year we lost melt momentum during those two months.”
But in August, two very strong cyclones crossed the Arctic Ocean along the Siberian coast. These storms didn’t have as much of an immediate impact on the sea ice as the great cyclone of 2012, but in late August and early September there was “a pretty fast ice loss in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas that might be a delayed effect from the storms,” Meier said.
Meier also said that decades ago, the melt season would slow down by the middle of August, when the sun starts setting in the Arctic.
“In the past, we had this remaining sea ice pack that was mostly thick, old ice. But now everything is more jumbled up, which makes it less resistant to melt, so even late in the season you can get weather conditions that give it a final kick,” Meier said.
Arctic sea ice cover has not fared well during other months of the year either. A recently published study that ranked 37 years of monthly sea ice extents in the Arctic and Antarctic found that there has not been a record high in Arctic sea ice extents in any month since 1986. During that same time period, there have been 75 new record lows.
These three figures, based on research by Claire Parkinson and Nicolo DiGirolamo, show sea-ice-extent rankings by year for each month, from January through December, over the period spanning from 1979 to 2015, for the Arctic (top), Antarctic (middle) and globally (bottom). In total, 444 months of average sea ice extent are represented in each graph. The darkest blue-colored squares represent a month where sea ice hit a record low extent compared to the previous months on record, while the lightest-colored squares stand for a month where sea ice extent hit a record high.Credits: NASA Earth Observatory/Joshua Stevens
“When you think of the temperature records, it’s common to hear the statement that even when temperatures are increasing, you do expect a record cold here or there every once in a while,” said Claire Parkinson, main author of the study and a senior climate scientist at Goddard. “To think that in this record of Arctic sea ice that goes back to the late 1970s, since 1986 there hasn’t been a single record high in any month of the year, and yet, over that same period, there have been 75 record lows. It’s just an incredible contrast.”
“It is definitely not just September that’s losing sea ice. The record makes it clear that the ice is not rebounding to where it used to be, even in the midst of the winter,” Parkinson said.
Parkinson’s analysis, which spans from 1979 to 2015 found that in the Antarctic, where the trends are toward more rather than less sea ice, there have only been six record monthly record lows after 1986, and 45 record highs.
“The Antarctic numbers are pretty amazing, except when you compare them with the Arctic’s, which are much more amazing,” Parkinson said.
See the full analysis at NSIDC’s Arctic Sea Ice News and Analysis page:http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/- The Empire Club of Canada Addresses (Toronto, Canada), 21 Mar 1912, p. 191-201
- Heaton, Ernest, Speaker
- Media Type
- Item Type
- Colonization in its narrower sense, defined as the peopling of the land. An intensely human subject, dividing itself into a number of sub-headings such as assisted emigration, restricted emigration, ready-made farms, model colonies, juvenile immigration, education and colonization, scientific publicity, town planning, etc. A suggestion for an association to be formed with a central office and a permanent staff, the object of this association being to collect data from Government reports and other sources, to issue bulletins from time to time to the press and to the public, and to publish a series of pamphlets dealing with the different subjects that come under the head of Colonization, so that they can be easily read and understood. The national character of such an association, in close touch with the Dominion and Provincial Governments, and the railway companies, and all those who are engaged in the colonization work or are in any way interested to be eligible as members. The question of assisted immigration. Several experiments in Canada that have been successful. The need for all the facts and figures and attending circumstances of the experiments which have been tried in the past in order for this subject to be a progressive one. The issue of restricted immigration. Face to face with the subject of Asiatic immigration. The need to deal with this issue with great wisdom and above all avoiding friction. The need to place both sides of the question in pamphlet form so that it can be read and understood by every one. The question of immigration from southern and eastern Europe, coming naturally out of the question of Asiatic immigration. This subject brought home to us by the rapid development of a foreign quarter in the city of Toronto. The complicated question of discrimination versus need for labour on the railways. The history of colonization replete with experiments in the formation of colonies, with explication. The speaker's wish to see a bill brought before parliament that no town may be laid out until the plan has been approved of by a selected committee of the province which would advise with a committee of the association which he is here defining. The subject of the gentleman colonist, which requires special treatment, with example. A number of questions that should be answered for the information of people in the old country, dealing with the training of boys that are sent over here. A word about the census of 1911. The exodus from Canada to the United States. How the association the speaker is advocating would not have lost sight of the facts of immigration and emigration between Canada and the United States. Some practical considerations for the speaker's suggestions.
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- 21 Mar 1912
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- Full Text
- SCIENTIFIC COLONIZATION--A SUGGESTION
An Address by MR. ERNEST HEATON, B.A., (Oxon), Editor of Heaton's Annual, before the Empire Club of Canada, March 21, 1912.
Mr. President and Gentlemen,-
Somebody asked me a few minutes ago what I was going to speak about; I told him Colonization, and he said, "you will be able to talk a lot without saying anything that they can catch on to." I hope, if I may use perhaps a vulgarism, that you will "catch on" to what I am going to say, because I have a suggestion to make which I believe to be of national importance.
I am going to speak to you today on Colonization in its narrower sense. In its wider sense it would include everything that comes under the head of the development of civilization in a new country. In the narrow sense it may be defined as the peopling of the land.' Some people I know look no further than the immigration returns. The increase of population affects their business. Beyond that population is a dry subject. Do you call it dry? Are you not interested in the upbuilding of a great nation, the tide of emigrants, the stories of romance, the struggles and the successes of individuals, who are going to make their way in this new country? It is an intensely human subject, and as we look closer we find that it divides itself into a number of subheadings such as assisted emigration, restricted emigration, ready-made farms, model colonies, juvenile immigration, education and colonization, scientific publicity, town planning, etc.
I shall touch shortly upon some of these heads, but first of all let me ask you to allow me to begin at the end, and explain what I am driving at. It will throw light upon my remarks as I make them. I want to draw your attention to the fact that many of our opinions are half-formed; the lessons to be learned from experience are not learned, and it is only natural that it should be so, because no method has been adopted to collect this information and put it in tangible form so that it will be ready for use by those who want it. The men who are engaged in the practical work of colonization have no time to attempt research, to worry through blue books and collect information from various countries.
As a remedy for this state of things I suggest that an association should be formed with a central office and a permanent staff, the object of this association being to collect data from Government reports and other sources, to issue bulletins from time to time to the press and to the public, and to publish a series of pamphlets dealing 'with the different subjects that come under the head of Colonization, so that they can be easily read and understood. A convention should be held every year where those who are interested in these subjects could meet together and hear and discuss papers.
It goes without saying that such an association must be national in character, in close touch with the Dominion and Provincial Governments, and the railway companies, and all those who are engaged in the colonization work or are in any, way interested should be eligible as members.
With this explanation let me touch upon some of the subheads which I have mentioned. Possibly the most important is the question of assisted immigration. As you are aware, attempts have been made in England on these lines by voluntary associations, and these efforts we have been obliged to curb, because they have been sending to us the unfit. On the other hand, in Canada several experiments have been successful. Some years ago a large loan was made to the Mennonites in this country in order to enable them to bring emigrants of their own persuasion to Canada; every cent of that money was returned, but it is, I think, plain to be seen from our dealings with these people, that they are exceptional, and that the same money, if lent to English people, might not have been returned.
Another experiment has lately been made a success in Winnipeg; some of you have heard of the Imperial Home Association which was suggested by Mr. Griffiths, a member of the English House of Commons. The object of this association is to lend money to workmen, especially in the city, to enable them to bring out their families to join them. I lately wrote to the secretary of the association in Winnipeg to get some information and found from their last report that 8o citizens guaranteed a total fund of $20,000 up to the amount of $250 each, and according to the last report of the Transportation Committee in October, 7911, transportation had been issued for 180 families, and of the total families assisted 18 had repaid their fares in full, 12 owed less than $2o, and 53 had reduced their loans to less than $5o. The secretary of the association told me that on the first of March about 1,200 people had been brought out, and 'that there was less than half a dozen doubtful repayments. I am informed that the whole expense of the association is met by the commissions that are paid by the transportation companies on the tickets sent out. The money that is advanced is not given direct to the applicant; the address of his family in England is obtained from him; the association buys the tickets and sends them direct to the family. Branches of this association have been formed in Toronto, Fort William, and other cities.
I take this subject first because it is a very important one, possibly the most important that we hate to deal with. It is only natural there should be other schemes adopted in other countries; a very successful scheme is now being carried out in Australia. The point I want to make is that this subject is a progressive one, and we cannot make progress until we have before us all the facts and all -the figures and all the attending circumstances of the experiments which have been tried in the past, and which now we have to unearth from government reports and by correspondence all over the world.
Take another subject, restricted immigration,-we are, apt to congratulate ourselves on the increasing immigration returns; it means prosperity to the country, and it means more business to every one of us either directly or indirectly: But there are some people who think that there is such a thing as national indigestion, that it is possible to get immigrants into this country more rapidly than we can properly absorb them. The shortage of cars, the shortage of clergy, and the shortage of school teachers, all point in this direction. What is the good of growing grain if we have not the cars to ship it out in to the market? Are we not in some danger, if in the development of this country we overrun the facilities we have for looking after our people? Is it not a rather dangerous thing to bring people into this country if we have no means of looking after their morals, for experience tells us that men are apt to deteriorate when they are brought face to face with nature isolated from civilizing influences. The annual influx into this country is over 350,000, and that is over five percent of the total population of Canada, whereas the proportion of immigration to population in the United States is less than one per cent.
We are face to face with the subject of Asiatic immigration, a very live subject at the present time. It has to be dealt with great wisdom and above all things we must avoid friction. This is a subject upon which a long address could be given to you; it is very important that at this time our opinions should not remain half-formed, and one thing that this association could do is to collect all the facts and figures in connection with Asiatic immigration, and place both sides of the question in pamphlet form so that it could be read and understood by every one.
Another question which naturally comes out of the question of Asiatic immigration, is that of immigration from southern and eastern Europe. This is brought home to us by the rapid development of a foreign quarter in the city of Toronto, and the number of Italians that we see in this country. Having in view that it is possible we may be getting too many people into this country, can we not discriminate? Do we want this kind of immigration? The question is somewhat complicated, for the railway companies are crying out for men; and we need these people to do the work that Canadians will not do in the building of the railways across this continent. Every year these questions become more difficult to deal with. We cannot sit still too long, or they will get beyond us, yet it would be unwise to take any action without a careful study of every point that has to be considered. Here again our association would serve a useful purpose in collecting all this information and in placing it in tangible form.
The history of colonization is replete with experiments in the formation of colonies. Some have been formed on a social basis, others on a religious basis, and others on a national basis. If the history of these experiments was preserved we should see fewer repetitions of failures. It is an interesting study. No person can cross this continent and look upon our boundless prairies without being impressed by the civilization that they imply and the responsibility that rests upon this present generation to impress upon these prairies as civilization that is based upon a sane and wise foundation; and yet at the present day all our young towns and cities are being sacrificed to a short-sighted real estate speculation. No attempt is being made to build up these cities on any pre-conceived plan. There is only one object in view, and that is to make the most money out of the sale of as much land as possible in a given area. Just the other day I was delighted to see that a bill has been introduced by the Alberta government imposing certain conditions on the subdivision of land for town lots. These conditions are designed to protect the public from unscrupulous real estate dealers. I would like to see them go a little farther. I would like to see a bill brought before Parliament that no town may be laid out until the plan has been approved of by a selected committee of the province which would advise with a committee of the association which I am defining.
We have lately heard lectures 'upon town planning in Toronto, and very interesting lectures they were, but today, so far as I am aware, nothing remains of these lectures" but the newspaper reports for which we have to hunt through the files of our newspaper offices. If there was any value in these lectures the whole lecture, or at any rate, a sufficient summary of them should be available for the men who are giving thought to this subject: If this association is formed, one of its duties should be to publish lectures of that kind, and have them available for the members of the association and for anybody else who wants them.
Another subject which requires especial treatment we may call, the gentleman colonist. In Great Britain people of the upper middle class gamble in the future of their sons; they give them a course of education designed to enable them to pass an examination for the army, the navy, the civil service, or possibly the church. If they fail in any of these directions, the British parent sends his boy over to Canada, or to some other country to farm, not because he has any taste for farming, or is able to make a living in that occupation, but because he has no idea what else to do with him. The British parent today has the notion that all he has to do is to buy for his' boy a ticket across the sea, and give him his blessing. Away he goes and the responsibility of the parent is done with.
Let me tell you of a case of this kind that lately came before me. I am constantly having young boys come to me with letters from the old country. In the last year, some fourteen or fifteen English boys have called 'upon me, all of them with one exception, came out to farm. They were dead set on farming, so, in co-operation with the Provincial Government, I secured for them as good, homes as I could find with Ontario farmers. today of all these boys only two are engaged in farming; one is reading for the church, four are in banks, and six are engaged in other occupations. One morning, a short time ago when I was very busy at my desk, I looked up and saw a little chap standing in front of me, evidently shy and nervous. He said, "Please, sir, my father sent me here to make a living." I said: "How are you going to do that?" He said, "I am going on a farm; here are these letters; would you place me on a farm, and in time buy me a farm?" I looked him over, he was a very nice gentlemanly boy but evidently delicate he had variegated socks and a scarf to match. I told him I was very busy, and before I could go into the matter I would like him to go and see Mr. James, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, and tell his story to him. As soon as he left the room I telephoned Mr. James and told him that I was sending him a boy, who would hell him his story. I thought that it would be a wicked thing to allow the lad to be put on an Ontario farm. He was not fit for it; he would be miserable there, and it would be a very cruel thing to do. I said, "You look him over, and let me know what you think about it." In an hour's time the telephone rang, and Mr. James said, "I entirely agree with you." "Well," I said, "what are we to do? He has only got seven dollars, and he is staying at--the Prince George. This won't last many hours. He will be on my shoulders very soon." Mr. James replied, "I can place that boy with a kind-hearted fruit farmer who will keep him for three weeks if he will do the chores round the farm; in the meantime you can communicate with his parents." I said, "Give me twenty-four hours; in the meantime do nothing." The next day a brilliant inspiration came over me. I telephoned the inspector of one of the banks--here and asked him if he wanted a bank clerk, that I had got a first rate chap here, only he had to take him off my hands at once because he had only seven dollars and had a bill to pay at the Prince George. That day he left by the seven o'clock train for Port Colborne with a salary of $300 a year. On the day he arrived and before he got this job I wrote to the father and gave him "Hail Columbia;" I told him that he had put upon me a most serious responsibility in connection with a father's most difficult problem, and I advised him to come out here himself and look over the country. He wrote to me in reply and said that he was very sorry, but it was not his fault. He did not know anything about the country or about the conditions in Ontario. In the meantime, of course, I had written again--and reported what I had done. The boy is now doing well. This is only one sample of cases that occur over and over again. There is an unnecessary waste of time and money prospects, and possibly life. I can enumerate I do not know how many instances, some most pathetic, and some that are very funny, but we can go on till Doomsday on that subject.
There are a number of questions that should be answered for the information of people in the old country, dealing with the training of these boys there, and how they are to be dealt with here. I would send these questions out to very carefully selected correspondents throughout this country and then publish a little pamphlet dealing exclusively with this class of immigrant, giving these answers and all other information which would be useful. I would make this pamphlet a part of the series of pamphlets to be issued by this association and distribute it broadcast in the old country. This would, I think, result in some changes in the system of English education. It would emphasize the importance of young men finishing their education in the country in which they are to make their living, and it would prevent the loss of time, money, and prospects which arises from this break in the continuity of the lives of young men of this class.
One word about the census of 1911. I know myself, as- a matter of fact, that the figures in Toronto are eight short, for nobody called at my house, but I do not think that accounts entirely for the shortage which we believe has occurred. I think possibly the explanation of this disappointment may be found in the last annual report of the Commissioner of Immigration of the' United States, which I have before me. There is ail ebb as well as a flow to the tide of immigration, just as' there is to the tides of the sea. In the year 1909-igio, the total immigration of Canada to the United States was 94 528, including 22,832 United States citizens, 44,340 Canadian citizens, and 27,356 other aliens. There is a note attached that these figures do not include aliens, arriving at Canadian seaports having United States destinations. In the same year there came to Canada from the United States. 116,377 people, leaving a total:;: net immigration from the United States of 22,000; we have been accustomed to see in our newspapers and government reports that the immigration from the United States in that year considerably exceeded 100,000. In the last ten years we have been living in a sort of fool's paradise-that the exodus from Canada to the United States had ceased; evidently it has done nothing of the kind. In the year 1910-1911 the total immigration to Canada from the United States was 119,753, and the total emigration from Canada to the United States was 105,502 leaving a net immigration into Canada from the United States of 14,000. Supposing this association which I am advocating had been formed and had been in operation, I think we should not have lost sight of these facts.
If time would permit we might continue this discussion almost indefinitely. We have only been able to treat with a few headings in a very scrappy way; but enough has been said, I think, to show the necessity of organization upon some such lines as I have suggested. It may be objected that this work should be left entirely to the Government. Surely this idea is now out of date. The tendency of the present day is for the Government to work through the people and to vitalize popular organizations. The best example of this is to be found in the Department of Agriculture both in the Dominion and Provincial Governments, and it is no reflection upon the Department which has charge of immigration and must decide its policy, to suggest that its usefulness could be extended in the same way.
Now, gentlemen, is this thing practical? Some one may say that we are all too busy in Canada making money for ourselves; there are not enough people who would be interested. All I can say is that my suggestion is along the lines of what has been done in other matters of public concern which are not so replete with human interest. A great advance has been made in penology by organization and annual conventions. We have an example in the Canadian Vorestry Association, which is working all the time and holds a successful convention every year. Churches and professional men in every line of business, work upon these lines. The difficulty, of course, lies in the start. In matters of this kind people are so apt to throw up theirs caps in applause and leave the next fellow to do the work. If a right start is' made, I am convinced that substantial aid will be given by both the Federal and Provincial Governments,* and all the railways will take a hand. With this nucleus, a sufficient sum could be raised by an active canvass for membership fees, which should not be confined to Canada.
The question of scientific colonization has been brought very close home to us by the appropriation of five million dollars for the development of Northern Ontario. Ordinary business instincts would impel us to see to it that there) is brought to bear upon this work all the wisdom and experience that has been gained during the last quarter of a century. In this connection the formation of an Association such as I have suggested becomes almost imperative; for the man who is appointed to administer this sum will not have the time to properly study the subject, and it will be necessary to make a radical change in the methods which are now adopted. We cannot allow a stream of immigration to scatter over the face of this northern country, dealing with the immigrant as we do now, on the principle of "root, hog or die." It will be necessary to select the kind of settler we want, and to direct the tide of immigrants into a few districts which have first been prepared with a systematic scheme of drainage and good roads. We shall have to consider carefully proposals for the preparation of homesteads in advance of settlement, adapting to local conditions the ideas embodied in the ready-made farms of the Canadian Pacific Railway which have been so successful in Alberta, and we must not lose the opportunity to build model towns
*NOTE--The Canadian Forestry Association receive annually from the Dominion Government $2,000, and $800 from the Governments of Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and New Brunswick. For the Commission of Conservation in 1912 the Dominion Government voted $50,000 to cover payment of the temporary staff, scientific investigations, and the miscellaneous expenses of the Conservation. In addition, the permanent staff comes under the Civil Service Act and the expenditure for 1912 under this head will be $18,382.20.
upon well-conceived plans. Let us hope that these districts will not be overburdened with the support of half-a-dozen churches where one will suffice. With the assistance of the Layman's Missionary Movement it might be possible to distribute the field, at any rate in the early stages of settlement, among the different religious bodies and thus we might secure the active assistance of these churches in the settlement of the country. It is reasonable to expect that it will be necessary to withstand political pressure from sections of the country where colonization districts are not established. It may even be necessary to restrict the flow of immigration so that we may keep pace with it in the preparations that we make. Here this Association will prove a useful buffer to the Government.
It is not necessary for me to commend this subject to the serious attention of the Empire Club. We meet here every week to consider questions affecting the welfare of our Empire. Nothing that we have ever discussed touches us so closely as this, and the responsibility is ours. We cannot put it off upon anybody else. The last generation in Ontario cleared the land with the axe. We have to use our brains to blaze the path through a forest of problems.Hot water cylinders don’t have to be a source of stress when it comes to managing your household expenses and energy output. With hot water accounting for a significant amount of energy used by the average household, there are a variety of ways in which you can optimise your hot water cylinder to ensure that you are keeping both prices and emissions as low as possible. Whether you plan to reduce your energy usage for financial reasons, environmental reasons or both, the tips below will help get you started.
Be aware of the types of hot water cylinders available
If you are in the market for hot water cylinders, one of the first steps to take in order to reduce energy usage down the track is to ensure that you are informed of the pros and cons of the variety of systems available to buy. While certain systems, such as electric systems, may save you money in the installation process, they often end up being more expensive due to their higher level of energy use. Gas and solar systems are usually the more effective choice for reducing both the financial and environmental impact of your energy use.
Adjust the temperature
Another step that can be taken towards reducing your hot water cylinder’s energy use is to adjust it’s set temperature. Your system tends to use more energy the higher the temperature is set. Turning the temperature down a degree are two is an easy and efficient way to help you save energy. Paired with insulated pipes, a slightly lower temperature will be unlikely to affect you and will ultimately allow you to reduce both what you are spending and what you are emitting.
Insulate your pipes
Insulating your pipes will assist your system in preserving heat that is otherwise wasted and will mean that you are able to turn your temperature down without sacrificing all of your shower’s warmth. Insulated pipes will also make it more likely that you won’t have to wait as long for your shower to heat up.
Maintain your system
It is important to check hot water cylinders regularly in order to ensure that they are working properly. Any failures in the system, such as leakages, can contribute significantly to higher energy use and will ultimately have a large impact on how much you end up spending.
Install a timer
A timer is a good option for your system if you are looking to limit the amount of hot water that is available to you at times when you do not need it. A timer can be used to switch off your system at night, during peak demand times, or at any other times you feel that your system will not be in use. This will ensure that excessive energy is not being unnecessarily wasted and is only utilised when it is needed.
Limit your household water usage
One of the easiest ways to keep your energy use down is to reduce the amount of hot water that your household uses. This can be achieved in a variety of ways such as installing more efficient shower heads and having shorter showers, refraining from leaving the tap running, or rinsing your dishes before they go into the dish washer.
It is possible to optimise hot water cylinders to ensure that they are using energy as effectively as possible. These 6 tips are just some of the methods that can be used to reduce both the financial and environmental consequences that may arise from ultimately unnecessary energy use.We have some great winter books for preschoolers that will help your child learn all about this cold winter season. In this article, we share the best winter books for kids — categorized by books for toddlers and preschoolers, ending with some fun activities you can do in the winter months at home. Let’s get into it!
Winter is such a great time to read when the air is crisp and cold, and you can cuddle up inside with a story. These winter books prepare children for the fun of making a snowman, how to spend your days when school is canceled due to snow, the downhill rides on the sled, and so many other adventurous activities in the snow. Through these stories, your preschoolers learn essential information about the cold winter season, how to prepare for it, and what animals do during these cold months.
Winter Books for Toddlers
Let’s start with the list of some winter books for toddlers.
Written and illustrated by: Jan Brett
The Mitten is one of the bestselling books of a modern classic. The story starts when Nicki embarks on a journey through woods in the winter. He accidentally drops his mitten on the snow, without realizing he carried it on his journey. The curious animals, a mole, a rabbit, and a badger all try their luck with it. The climax comes when a brown bear following a mouse tries to enter the mitten. Toddlers would enjoy the humor and charm of animals how they make room for each other.
Written by Jeffery Burton, Illustrated by Sanja Rescek
“The Itsy Bitsy Spider” the spider has become a snowman. This fun-filled book is a joyful children’s book about winter. It is a story about a snowman who gets out in the snow in a town.
He carries his journey through the city on a sled. There is snow falling from the sky. The beautiful snowflakes and their depiction would make the children fall in love with snowfall and snow
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centuries, not have heard as well as bats changes in the seals have of today. Over the centuries, occurred since: changes in the bats have occurred since: ; 1. the need to keep warm caused the fat of every seal to get 1. the need to feed at night thicker, caused the hearing sense of 2. more seals each generation every bat to increase, have had thicker fat, 2. more bats each generation have had better hearing, &n bsp; BECAUSE &n bsp; BECAUSE & nbsp; A. the seals wanted to adapt to their surroundings. A. the bats wanted to adapt to B. the offspring inherited a their surroundings. thicker layer of fat from their B. the offspring inherited parents. better hearing from their C. the few individuals that had parents. a thicker fat layer lived to C. the few individuals that had produce offspring. better hearing lived to produce offspring. &nbs p;After responding to the twelve two-tier test items, the students were presented with six lists of organisms. Each list contained four organisms, two of which appeared in the test as parallel test items (the other two organisms within each foursome were from version A of the Understanding Biological Change test). For three lists, the students were to rank the organisms on the basis of their relative "appeal," with the term left to the students' interpretation. On the other three lists, the students were to rank the sets of four organisms according to how "advanced" they felt the organisms were relative to each other. The intention of the ranking activity was to identify each student's disposition toward the organisms in the natural selection scenarios provided in the test items. There was some uncertainty about whether the Disney effect, if it in fact existed, could be attributed to an individual's affection for one organism over another or to the fact that the individual had a greater regard for one organism because it resided higher on the Great Chain of Being. The decision to ask for both "appeal" and "advancement" rankings was with the intention of investigating both possibilities.
Responses on the two-tier items were subjected to two different types of statistical analysis; the first was chi-square. Six separate tables were constructed, one for each pair of parallel test items. Student responses were considered correct when they selected the desired response on both tiers. Data were coded dichotomously, correct or incorrect. A total of 130 tests provided usable data. The frequencies in the 2 X 2 tables reflect how consistently the students responded to parallel items (Tables 1 & 2). Student responses were not randomly distributed: chi-squared values (df = 1) ranged from 27.607 to 57.767, all of which were significant (p <.001).
Table 1: Distribution of responses to parallel items on Understanding Biological Change test, version B (n = 130).
A Bullfrogs 0 1 TOTAL Sharks 0 50 15 65 1 7 58 65 TOTAL 57 73 130
B Butterflies 0 1 TOTAL Birds 0 31 9 40 1 21 69 90 TOTAL 52 78 130
C Evergreens 0 1 TOTAL Raccoon 0 55 22 77 s 1 8 45 53 TOTAL 63 67 130
D Bats 0 1 TOTAL Seals 0 40 15 55 1 14 61 75 TOTAL 54 76 130
E TB bacteria 0 1 TOTAL Locust 0 50 17 67 1 18 45 63 TOTAL 68 62 130
F Lizards 0 1 TOTAL Moths 0 16 6 22 1 16 92 108 TOTAL 32 98 130
The data indicate that students were fairly consistent in their success on parallel items (see Table 2). For the six pairs of parallel items, the number of students who responded correctly on one item but not on its partner ranged from 22 (16.9%) for item pairs A and F to 35 (26.9%) for item pair E. In other words, the pattern of student responses suggests the instrument was reliable since no fewer than 70% of responses to both items were both right or both wrong on parallel items. Statistics support the speculation about the instrument's quality: reliability for Version B of the Understanding Biological Change test, when calculated as a Spearman-Brown coefficient, was 0.835.
Table 2: Frequency of discrepant responses to parallel items on Understanding Biological Change test, version B (n = 130).
Parallel Frequency Percent items &nbs p; A 22 / 130 16.9% ; B 30 / 130 23.1% ; C 30 / 130 23.1% ; D 29 / 130 22.3% ; E 35 / 130 26.9% ; F 22 / 130 16.9% ; Totals 168 / 780 21.5%
Although the instrument proved to be highly reliable, the number of
students who had differential success on parallel items was substantial
(21.5%); subsequent analyses were based upon these particular responses.
For this analysis, the "appeal" and "advancement" rankings were used. Whenever
a student had selected the correct response on one item but not the other
in a parallel pair, the ranking of the organisms was tabulated. In spite
of the initial intention to keep "advancement" and "appeal" rankings separate,
the attenuated sample size precluded analysis. Consequently, the decision
was made to collapse rankings into relative "preference" and continue the
statistical analyses without maintaining the distinctions.
For all discrepant responses, the relative rankings for the organisms included in the particular items were examined. The organism receiving the higher ranking was considered "preferred," regardless of the difference in the values ascribed to the organisms. In other words, one organism was coded as preferred over the other if the ranking difference was small (2 versus 3) or large (1 versus 4). Because some students did not provide decipherable responses on the ranking section of the test, the sample size became reduced further.
The data were arranged into 2 X 2 tables and subjected to a chi-square analysis (see Figure 2). Recall that the Disney effect posits that students will be less likely to apply natural selection principles to organisms with which they have greater empathy. If a student expressed a preference for Organism #1, then the response on this pair of parallel items fell within the first row. Furthermore, if the Disney effect was at work, then the student would be more likely to NOT select the correct answer on the test item describing that organism (cell B). Likewise, should a student express a preference for Organism #2 and be subconsciously reluctant to employ natural selection to explain its evolution, that student's response would fall within cell C. If the Disney effect explains the discrepancy in individuals' responses, we would expect smaller frequencies for cells A and D and greater frequencies in cells B and C.
Figure 2: Frequency table template designed to investigate for the presence of the Disney effect.
Correct response ONLY on parallel ; test item that describes Organism #1 Organism #2 Preference for Organism #1 A B &n bsp; Preference for Organism #2 C D &n bsp;
The instrument retained its highly reliable nature with this group of students. The reliability, as calculated with KR-20, was 0.868 with a mean score of 6.985 and a standard deviation of 3.673. Because the Understanding Biological Change test (version B) had such high reliability, the frequency of inconsistent responses on parallel test items caused there to be fewer than thirty sets of responses for the chi-square analysis, as appears in Table 3. The chi-square values for the six tables ranged from 0.00 to 0.89 (df = 1). None of these values represents a statistical significance (p values from 0.344 to 1.00). These data do not support the existence of a Disney effect. The numbers indicate that the discrepancies in student responses cannot be explained by the relative preference the students ascribed to the organisms depicted in the test items.
Table 3: Cross-tabulations of contradictory responses on parallel items compared to preference rankings
Q1 Correct and answer only Q7 for shark frog Prefer shark 6 12 18 Prefer frog 1 2 3 7 14 21
chi-square = 0.000, p = 1.000, 1 d.f.
Q2 Correct and answer only Q8 for birds bflies Prefer birds 9 5 14 Prefer bflies 12 3 15 21 8 29
chi-square = 0.895, p = 0.344, 1 d.f.
Q3 Correct and answer only Q9 for rcoon evrgr Prefer rcoon 4 13 17 Prefer evrgr 3 9 12 7 22 29
chi-square = 0.008, p = 0.927, 1 d.f.
Q4 Correct and answer only Q10 for seals bats Prefer seals 10 9 19 Prefer bats 4 5 9 14 14 28
chi-square = 0.164, p = 0.686, 1 d.f.
Q5 Correct and answer only Q11 for locust TB Prefer locust 6 6 12 Prefer TB 12 9 21 18 15 22
chi-square = 0.157, p = 0.692, 1 d.f.
Q6 Correct and answer only Q12 for moth lizard Prefer moth 4 1 5 Prefer lizard 11 5 16 15 6 21
chi-square = 0.236, p = 0.627, 1 d.f.Because the data in the above analysis made use of only those student responses that were discrepant for parallel items, the number of samples available was considerably smaller than the size of the original pool of student responses. For this reason, paired t-test analyses were conducted. The number of correct responses for higher ranked organisms was compared to the number of correct responses for lower ranked organisms. Separate analyses were conducted for "appeal," "advancement," and "preferred" rankings. By tallying each student's correct answers according to the ranking of the organisms, the analyses were not restricted to include only discrepant responses on paired items. In other words, this type of analysis allowed the testing for the Disney effect across all six pairs of parallel items for each student.
The t-test results confirmed what had been revealed through the chi-square analysis. When correct responses on higher versus lower "appeal" organisms were compared, the mean difference was only 0.016 (t = 0.192, df = 128, p = 0.848). Comparisons of the number of correct responses on "advance" rankings also failed to be statistically significant (t = -0.491, df = 128, p = 0.624). Finally, after combining the two types of rankings into a super-category of "preference," the results were similarly unremarkable (t = -0.142, df = 128, p = 0.887).
College students enrolled in a general biology course took a two-tier test designed to assess conceptions of evolution by natural selection. Approximately 20% of students' responses were correct on only one of two parallel test items demonstrating a substantial number of students responding in a discrepant manner. It was hypothesized that the students might have responded differently on parallel items because of an intrinsic regard for the organisms depicted in the test items; this proposed factor was called the "Disney effect." The students were presented with lists of organisms and asked to rank their relative regard for the organisms. Rankings were converted to determine which organism for each pair of parallel items was preferred. Multiple statistical analyses failed to support the hypothesized existence of the Disney effect.
It is worth noting the limitations inherent in this study. While the investigation might have benefited with interviews of the students, there is no evidence that one-on-one conversations would have completely eliminated the possibility that the misunderstandings revealed through the two-tier test are attributable to semantics or language difficulties. Our confidence in the two-tier instrument is supported by the consistently high reliability coefficients associated with each administration of this test. Likewise, it would be brash to claim that the ranking task provided unequivocal data about the students' attitudes toward the organisms. At best, we were able to obtain a glimpse of their relative empathy toward organisms. Certainly we would prefer obtaining the "truth" in the college students' minds, but as all but the most deeply entrenched positivists have come to realize, objectively and absolutely measuring what people think and believe is a goal we are being forced to abandon. Nevertheless, we feel that the data and analyses presented here have the potential for shaping subsequent research and classroom practices.
The preference rankings failed to explain the discrepancies in students' responses. The data revealed that although approximately twenty percent of the responses were inconsistent (i.e., one item was correct while the other was incorrect), the rankings did not sufficiently explain the differences. The question of why one out of every five sets of responses to parallel items is not identical remains open and unanswered. At this stage, there is no clear explanation for the situation described here but this has not been a cause for discouragement. Duschl (1990) indicated that scientific knowledge is not merely a cumulative process. In reality, science is typified by "many instances of retrograde motion, stasis, and dead-end lines of inquiry. Theory building is more accurately described as an activity involving replacement and substitution than as an activity involving accretion and addition" (pp. 82-83). If we can be so bold as to suggest that this study contributes to theory about evolution education, then our findings represent a dead end, but an informative one.
For years biology educators intuited that students' religious beliefs interfere with efforts to help them learn about Darwin's theory. And even though it may appear sensible that a negative predisposition toward a science concept would serve as a barrier to students' conceptual understanding, evoluation education research has failed to support this view (cf. Bishop & Anderson, 1990). In a similar fashion, the results of this study are being offered to clarify what apparently does not influence students' response on natural selection test items. This information gives us the ability to state that "knowing what is not" is an improvement over "not knowing what is." No longer can science educators categorize students' apparent misunderstandings about natural selection as an artifact of an empathy with the organisms described in test items. This line of reasoning is no longer viable, indicating that subsequent research about how to overcome students' misconceptions about evolutionary mechanisms should be directed elsewhere.
In a subsequent study, the Understanding Biological Change test will be used before instruction on evolution to identify students who respond differentially to multiple parallel items. Those individuals will be interviewed before, during, and after the evolution instructional unit. Data from this study will allow the derivation of a more detailed picture of the development of students' understandings of evolution.
Bishop, B., & Anderson, C. W. (1990). Student conceptions of natural selection and its role in evolution. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 27, 415-427.
Bowler, P. J. (1983). Evolution: The history of an idea. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Brumby, M. (1979). Problems in learning the concept of natural selection. Journal of Biological Education, 13, 119-122.
Deadman, J. A., & Kelly, P. J. (1978). What do secondary school boys understand about evolution and heredity before they are taught the topics. Journal of Biological Education, 12, 7-15.
Demastes, S. S., Good, R. G., & Peebles, P. (1995). Students' conceptual ecologies and the process of conceptual change in evolution. Science Education, 79, 637-666.
Demastes, S. S., Good, R. G., & Peebles, P. (1996). Patterns of conceptual change in evolution. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 33, 407-431.
Demastes, S. S., Settlage, J., & Good, R. G. (1995). Students' conceptions of natural selection and its role in evolution: Cases of replication and comparison. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 32, 535-550.
Duschl, R. A. (1990). Restructuring science education: The importance of theories and their development. New York: Teachers College.
Gould, S. J. (1985). The flamingo's smile: Reflections in natural history. New York: W. W. Norton.
Halldén, O. (1988). The evolution of the species: Pupil perspectives and school perspectives. International Journal of Science Education, 10, 541-552.
Jensen, M. S., & Finley, F. N. (1995). Teaching evolution using historical arguments in a conceptual change strategy. Science Education, 79, 147-166.
Jensen, M. S., & Finley, F. N. (in press). Teaching evolution using historical arguments in a conceptual change strategy. Journal of Research in Science Teaching,
Jiménez, A. M. P. (1992). Thinking about theories or thinking with theories? A classroom study with natural selection. International Journal of Science Education, 14, 51-61.
Mayr, E. (1982). The growth of biological thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Settlage, J., & Odom, A. L. (1995). Natural selection conceptions assessment: Development of the two-tier test "Understanding Biological Change." Paper presentation at the National Association of Research in Science Teaching annual meeting, April 1995, San Francisco, CA.
Settlage, J. (1994). Conceptions of natural selection: A snapshot of the sense-making process. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 31, 449-457.
Tamir, P., & Zohar, A. (1991). Anthropomorphism and teleology in reasoning about biological phenomena. Journal of Biological Education, 75, 57-67.
Wandersee, J. H. (1985). Can the history of science help science educators anticipate students' misconceptions? Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 23, 581-597.
Appendix 1: The Great Chain of Being, after Charles Bonnet's mid-1700s ranking [excerpted from Bowler (1983)].
Highest Man Monkeys Ø Quadrupeds (Mammals) Bats Ostrich Ø Birds Aquatic Birds Flying Fish Ø Fish Eels Sea Serpents Ø Reptiles Slugs Shellfish Ø Insects Worms Polyps Ø Sensitive Plants Trees Shrubs Ø Herbs Lichens Ø Mold Minerals Earth Ø Water Air Lowest Ethereal Matter ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DIRECTIONS Each question on this test contains two parts. Your response to the first part involves selecting the option that best completes the phrase. These options are indicated with a 1 or a 2. The second part asks you to select the reason for the choice you made in the first part. After the word "BECAUSE"; you will find three choices marked with A, B or C. Choose the reason that best matches your understanding.
Your response to each item will consist of a two-part answer. On the blank next to each item, you are to write the number and letter that best matches your understanding of biological change.
The energy in almost every food chain can be traced back to:
1. the Sun
A. more animals belong to this group than to any other.
B. plants absorb their energy from the soil.
C. photosynthesis is the first step in most food chains.
Explanation: The Sun is the correct answer for the first part. Even
though reason A is a true statement, it is not the reason that best matches
the first half of the question. Reason B seems to match with the Sun, except
that soil provides minerals for plants, not energy. Therefore, the complete
correct response is 1C.
Modern-day sharks can swim at speeds up to 30 knots. Suppose their ancestors swam at a much slower speed. The ability to swim fast probably:
1. developed for all the sharks in a few generations,
2. involved an increase in the percentage of sharks that can swim faster,
A. there was first a random genetic change in a few individuals.
B. the more the sharks used their muscles, the faster they became.
C. the need to catch prey caused them to swim faster.
Birds with long legs can feed in watery regions much better than can birds without long legs. If a large population of birds without long legs were transported to a remote island covered with very little dry land and lots of marshes, swamps, and ponds:
1. some birds would live and some would die,
2. the birds would gradually develop long legs,
A. all of the birds' legs would slowly change so they would be better for feeding.
B. the few birds starting out with longer legs would survive to reproduce.
C. the legs of every bird would change in the same way since they are all related.
A population of raccoons exists in an area that has had several years of very cold winters. If the winters continue to be severe in the future, we would expect that:
1. most of the raccoons will be able to live through the winter,
2. many of the raccoons will live but some will freeze to death,
A. some individuals, by chance, have thicker fur than others.
B. the raccoons will adapt to the cold weather.
C. the need to survive the cold will cause the raccoons to develop thicker fur.
Seals that live in Alaska have a fat layer. Their ancestors may not have had fat as thick as it is today. Over the centuries, changes in the seals have occurred since:
1. the need to keep warm caused the fat of every seal to get thicker,
2. more seals each generation have had thicker fat,
A. the seals wanted to adapt to their surroundings.
B. the offspring inherited a thicker layer of fat from their parents.
C. the few individuals that had a thicker fat layer lived to produce offspring.
Many years ago, the spread of locusts was controlled with the chemical DDT. Recently, chemists have found that locusts do not seem to be harmed as much by DDT. The reason for this change is that:
1. a greater number of locusts each generation are unaffected by DDT,
2. over the years, all of the locusts gradually became less affected by DDT,
A. every generation, the individual locusts who survived DDT had offspring.
B. the need to survive caused the locusts to change.
C. the use of DDT led to a mutation of the DNA in the locusts.
A population of moths contains individuals that have either light or dark colored bodies. The forest where the moths live used to have trees with both light and dark trunks. Recently, a disease has wiped out all of the types of trees except those with the darkest trunks. The effect on the moths would be that every generation:
1. the light colored moths would develop slightly darker bodies,
2. there would be a greater proportion of dark moths in the population,
A. the moths would adapt to the change in the environment.
B. the need to survive would cause the moths to shift their color.
C. only those moths with dark bodies would escape predators and live to reproduce.
Bullfrogs can jump over 10 feet in a single hop. Suppose that the bullfrogs alive today had ancestors that could not jump as far. The ability to hop large distances probably:
1. developed for all the bullfrogs in a few generations,
2. involved an increase in the percentage of bullfrogs that could hop far,
A. the more that bullfrogs used their muscles, the further they could jump.
B. there was first a random genetic change in a few individuals.
C. the need to avoid predators caused them to jump further.
Butterflies with a long proboscis (feeding tube) can reach the nectar at the base of flowers better than can butterflies with shorter proboscis. Some flowers have shallow tubes with nectar at the bottom while other flowers have much deeper and narrower tubes. If a large population of butterflies with short proboscises were transported to a desert oasis covered entirely with plants whose flowers had very long tubes:
1. some butterflies would live and some would die,
2. the butterflies would gradually develop longer proboscises,
A. the few butterflies starting out with longer proboscises would survive to reproduce.
B. the proboscis of every butterfly would change in the same way since they are all related.
C. all of the butterflies' proboscises would slowly change so they would be better for reaching the nectar.
A population of evergreens exists in an area that has had several years of very hot and dry summers. If the summers continue to be severe in the future, we would expect that:
1. many of the evergreens will live but some will die because of the dryness,
2. most of the evergreens will be able to live through the summer,
A. the need to survive the summers will cause the evergreens to develop better ways to avoid drying out.
B. some individual evergreens have, by chance, better ways of conserving water.
C. the plants will adapt to the hot and dry weather.
Bats that feed at night have a very sophisticated sense of hearing. Their ancestors may not have heard as well as bats of today. Over the centuries, changes in the bats have occurred since:
1. the need to feed at night caused the hearing sense of every bat to increase,
2. more bats each generation have had better hearing,
A. the bats wanted to adapt to their surroundings.
B. the offspring inherited better hearing from their parents.
C. the few individuals that had better hearing lived to produce offspring.
Tuberculosis (TB) bacteria
Many years ago, bacteria that caused TB were controlled with a combination of three antibiotics. Recently, doctors have found that TB bacteria do not seem to be harmed as much by the three antibiotics. The reason for this change is that:
1. over the years, all of the bacteria gradually became less affected by penicillin,
2. a greater proportion of bacteria are unaffected by the penicillin each generation,
A. the need to survive caused the bacteria to change.
B. the use of antibiotics led to a mutation of the DNA in the bacteria.
C. every generation, the individual bacteria that survived the antibiotics reproduced.
A population of lizards contains individuals that have either solid green or green-striped bodies. The region where the lizards live used to have grass plants with both solid green and green-striped leaves. Recently, a disease has wiped out all of the types of grass except those with the solid green leaves. The effect on the lizards would be that every generation:
1. the green-striped lizards would develop slightly less striped bodies,
2. there would be a greater proportion of individuals with solid green bodies,
A. only those lizards with solid green bodies would escape predators and live to reproduce.
B. the lizards would adapt to the change in the environment.
C. the need to survive would cause lizards to change their body color.
To get back to the current issue of the EJSE, click here.
To get back to the EJSE's Archive page, click here.The Oregon Trail enters
Nebraska’s southern border with
just west of the small town of
Pioneers continued northwest from here to Rock Creek
Station and on to Fort Kearny where they connected
with the Platte
Great Platte River Road
stretches across the state and became the pioneers’ highway west.
The Platte River, sometimes described as “a mile
wide and an inch deep,” guided not only emigrants headed for Oregon, but
pioneers going to the California goldfields, Mormons heading for Utah, and
Pony Express riders who were carrying mail between St. Joseph, Missouri and
No other state, not even
Oregon, is more closely associated with
the Oregon Trail than is
Consider that many of the trail’s best-known
landmarks including Courthouse Rock, Jail Rock, Scotts Bluff, and Chimney
Rock are all within sight of the river. The trail through
Nebraska was generally considered the
easiest stretch of the 2,100-mile trip, at least until pioneers encountered
hills west of present-day North Platte.
The land was flat, water was readily available, and
food for livestock was generally plentiful near the river.
The terrain became more difficult once emigrants
passed west of the fork where the North and
South Platte meet.
Most pioneers continued for a distance along the
south bank of the South Platte
before crossing the river and heading north to navigate infamous California
A short distance north, the wagon trains encountered the
steep downhill grade of Windlass Hill leading to the fertile meadow at Ash
All these locations are accessible to
present-day adventurers who wish to follow the path blazed by emigrants who
settled the West. Interesting Oregon Trail locations in Nebraska (east to west) include:
1) Rock Creek Station - An important stop for Pony Express riders and
emigrants traveling the Oregon Trail is now part of a
Nebraska state historical
A visitor center with trail exhibits is beside an impressive
swale cut by pioneer wagons as they ascended a hill north of Rock Creek.
A reconstructed bridge, replica wagons, and
buildings are accessible by following a path to the bottom of the hill.
A pleasant state-operated campground is nearby.
View our video of Rock
(pronounced Carney) - A military post established in 1848 to protect
emigrants heading west to Oregon and
The fort was also a stop for Pony Express riders.
(spelled differently than the nearby town of
is part of a Nebraska
state historical park that includes an interpretive center, reconstructed
buildings, and replica Oregon Trail wagons.
View our video of Fort
3) California Hill - Perhaps the most impressive location along the entire
Hill represented the first major grade encountered by the emigrants on their
Crossing the South Platte west of the present-day
town of Ogallala,
the pioneers were required to navigate California Hill as they moved north
to the North Platte River.
The hill is a short distance north of U.S. Highway
30 alongside a rough gravel road, but the drive is certainly worth the
effort in order to walk along the impressive swale cut by wagons being
pulled up this 1 ½-mile long hill.
View our video of
4) Windlass Hill - North of California Hill,
Windlass Hill is a steep downgrade the wagon trains were required to
navigate in order to reach Ash Hollow and the North Platte.
Pioneers locked the wheels of their wagons to avoid
an out-of-control descent down the hillside.
A paved walking trail leads from a parking area to
the top of the hill where visitors gain an excellent view of the route of
the trail and the beautiful country the pioneers would find to the north.
5) Jail Rock and Courthouse Rock - Two famous
landmarks familiar to the pioneers are a short distance south of the
North Platte River
and easily visible to travelers driving along U.S. Highway 26.
A paved road in the small town of Bridgeport
leads south to the formations.
6) Chimney Rock - The most famous of the trail’s
landmarks has suffered erosion over the years and, as a result, is not quite
the majestic formation observed by the pioneers, but it is difficult not to
experience a thrill when it first comes into sight.
Highway 26 is on the south side of the river and
passes relatively close to Chimney Rock that is accessible by vehicle.
7) Scotts Bluff - Early wagon trains skirted the
imposing bluff by looping south through
Following the opening of Mitchell
Pass in 1850, wagons
moved single-file and cut deep ruts that remain visible to today’s visitors.
preserves the ruts and offers an excellent visitor center that interprets
the trail and the pass used by the pioneers.
A separate room contains numerous paintings of
William Henry Jackson.
Visitors can walk along the wagon ruts just west of
the visitor center.
Replica wagons are on the site.
A paved road leads to the top of the bluff where
outstanding views are available.
The Oregon Trail in Nebraska:
Following the Great Platte River RoadTwenty-five thousand ducklings can't be wrong.
That's how many baby ducks — give or take a flock — that Cliff Brown and his all-volunteer Maryland Wood Duck Initiative helped peck their way into the world. The network builds and manages 1,900 wood duck nesting boxes on 75 sites statewide.
Outdoors magazine Field & Stream calls Brown the "Nest Protector" and named him a finalist for its 2012 Hero of Conservation award. It has also given his group a $5,000 grant. The Rock Hall resident is featured in the October issue, and he and five other recipients will be honored Thursday at a reception at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington.
"He's the ultimate volunteer warrior. He generated his team from a foundation of one," said Paul Peditto, head of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources' wildlife and heritage program. "He got government involved. He got landowners involved. He got Scouts and school kids and wounded veterans involved."
Brown, 63, said the exposure he's getting from the Field & Stream honor will help with volunteer recruitment and the money will be used to buy more materials.
The wood duck is among the most colorful ducks in North America. The scientific name, Aix sponsa, means "waterbird in bridal dress." In the fall, the male develops green, blue and purple plumage with a white stripe that runs from the base of his bill to the back of his neck. He sports a cream-colored vest and a tie of white feathers around his neck. His eyes are red, and his red-and-white bill is black-tipped with a daub of yellow near its base. The hen is brown with cream-colored markings.
But wood ducks are in trouble. The Maryland population fell from a high of 52,964 in 1994 to a low of 8,944 in 2009. Federal surveys put the population this year at 11,933.
Hunting and development took their toll on the entire Atlantic population in the late 19th century. Federal hunting laws enacted in the early 20th century protected the remaining wood ducks, but little was done to save the ducks' prime habitat — wetlands and woodlands along waterways and lakes.
Starting in the 1930s, biologists began installing wooden nesting boxes — which simulate tree cavities — along the Maine-to-Florida migratory corridor.
Brown became interested in wood ducks in 1993, when he discovered three decrepit duck boxes on his property. A tinkerer by nature, he began experimenting to figure out how to make the boxes more inviting and better able to protect hens and their eggs from predators such as snakes and raccoons.
Brown, soft-spoken, with a wry sense of humor, said the simple part of the plan always has been "to make more ducks."
The best way to do that, he discovered, is counterintuitive: Instead of building massive wood duck box subdivisions, he spaced the boxes to give ducks more territory and reduce nest abandonment.
"It was an eight-year learning curve," he said.
DNR money allowed Brown to put into practice on a larger scale what he had learned. In 2005, he began recruiting people to build cedar nesting boxes and cone-shaped protective baffles and place them on poles in prime nesting areas. The volunteers monitor the progress of their ducks and clean and repair the boxes when the season is over.
Loch Raven and Liberty reservoirs in Baltimore County are home to more than 100 boxes. A similar number dot the Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary and Natural Area between Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties.
Brown's next step is to convert his knowledge into a "best practices" blueprint and video that can be downloaded by anyone interested in wood duck conservation. That library of information would make the organization "the 7-Eleven of wood ducks," he said, adding, "You just walk in and get what you need."
Brown's triumph, Peditto said, was persuading private landowners to embrace the program.
"When a landowner goes from no interest to placing boxes, to monitoring boxes, to raising ducklings, the next logical step is you have a landowner who wants to protect that wetland as a whole," Peditto said. "When you can get people excited about a species and they stay involved, that's a real feat."Individuals that hold a degree in the field of sociology are often excited to research information about the degree and a common question is, “how much does a sociologist make?” The field of sociology is a field which allows its professionals to make a difference in the lives of others on a daily basis. This particular field allows its employees to be a part of both the private and public sectors of any current job market. Sociology degree holders enjoy a wide variety of yearly salaries that are based on their experience, education and chosen specialty in the field of sociology.
How Much Does A Sociologist Make In Different Regions?
A sociologist’s yearly salary is directly correlated to their current location. Professionals in certain states are definitely making more in comparison to sociologists that are based in states that have a lower overall cost of living. As with any profession, the cost of living is directly correlated to the average person’s yearly salary.
Sociologists that live in states such as New York or California usually have a salary that is significantly greater than sociologists that are based in the Midwest or Southern states. This particular difference in salary can make almost no difference in a sociologist’s financial portfolio because of the fact that the living expenses in one state may greatly vary from the cost of living in another state.
With this said the benefits that can be reaped from a lower average annual salary can be greater than that of a professional’s higher salary in a more expensive state. Sociologists that choose to be employed at institutions that are further away from their current location often enjoy amenities and financial benefits in addition to their yearly annual pay. Employers are often eager to hire sociologists with the right set of knowledge, skills and experience in order to fulfill a need in another city that would require a sociologist to relocate from their current home. This opportunity can have great financial benefits because an employer will often offer to pay for moving costs as well as sign-on bonuses that are available upon acceptance of
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understanding), and Warm (accepting). It is a perspective and way of relating that is always effective – from a first “hello” through a marriage. It helps you to truly create Rapport with the ones you love (or want to).
Please leave me your thoughts. Share, like, tweet, and comment below.
Until next time…happy dating and relating!
Dr. Jeremy Nicholson
The Attraction Doctor
© 2011-2012 by Jeremy S. Nicholson, M.A., M.S.W., Ph.D. All rights reserved.Nycteris grandis grandis, the Large slit-faced bat, is native to south central Africa. It is a member of the family Nycteridae, which is characterized by a large, complex slit-like structure on the face above the nose. The function of this slit, which is surrounded by leaf-like foliations, is unknown. Slit-faced bats are primarily insectivorous, but may occasionally eat small vertebrates (such as frogs or mice) if given the opportunity. They sometimes catch their prey in the air, but frequently glean their prey from surfaces. Their large ears are apparently used to listen for prey-generated sounds (such as the sound of an insect landing on vegetation), which they use to help locate potential food items.
About the Species
This female specimen was collected in the Dzanga-Sangha Forest Reserve, Central African Republic on 9 July 1998 by D.P. Lunde. It was made available to The University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray CT Facility for scanning by Dr. Nancy Simmons of the American Museum of Natural History. Funding for scanning was provided by a National Science Foundation grant (DEB-9873663) to Dr. Simmons, and funding for scanning and image processing was provided by a National Science Foundation Digital Libraries Initiative grant to Dr. Timothy Rowe of The University of Texas at Austin.
About this Specimen
This specimen was scanned by Matthew Colbert on 15 January 2003 along the coronal axis for a total of 1161 slices. The specimen was mounted in florists foam for scanning. Each slice is 0.072 mm thick, with an interslice spacing of 0.072 mm and a field of reconstruction of 67.0 mm.EVENTS | VIEW CALENDAR
Pumping new life into an old problem
LA JOLLA, Calif.—One of the challenges in pharma in biotech is the frequency of instances in which we may have therapeutics that work against a particular ailment, but we don’t always know all that we should about the etiology of that ailment. As such, cures may work, but we don’t always know precisely why, and we may miss out on discovering and developing better and more targeted interventions.
And so it is with the cardiovascular system: We know a lot about it, but there’s still much we don’t know about precisely how the heart and blood vessels stay healthy in the first place. Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) are setting about trying to fill that knowledge gap, in that they have identified a protein, called GPR68, that senses blood flow and tells small blood vessels called arterioles when to dilate. The researchers believe medications that activate GPR68 could one day be useful to treat medical conditions, including ischemic stroke.
“It has been known for decades that blood vessels sense changes in blood flow rate, and this information is crucial in regulating blood vessel dilation and controlling vascular tone,” said Dr. Ardem Patapoutian, a TSRI professor, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and senior author of the study published recently in the journal Cell under the title “GPR68 Senses Flow and is Essential for Vascular Physiology.”
The knowledge that Patapoutian refers to is why there is a non-invasive clinical test called flow-mediated dilation (FMD) that helps physicians and others assess the health of the vascular system; a compromised FMD is a precursor to hypertension and atherosclerosis and other vascular diseases. And yet, “Despite the importance of this process, the molecules involved within arteries to sense blood flow have remained unknown,” Patapoutian noted.
Patapoutian and first author Dr. Jie Xu, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab and now an independent scientist at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF), led the project to find GPR68 and determine how it works. The team started by designing a machine that uses turbulent movement of liquid to stand in for blood flow in blood vessels. The researchers put this machine to work testing a series of cell lines, some of which had mutations that led to an overexpression of proteins potentially linked to pressure sensing. The researchers then performed a screen, knocking down the expression of different candidate genes and testing in each case if the gene is required for responding to the machine’s turbulent pressure.
The tests pointed the researchers to GPR68, which the authors showed works as a sensor of mechanical stimulation. Further experiments suggested that GPR68 is essential for FMD. “In a model organism, this protein is essential for sensing blood flow and the proper functioning of the vascular system,” explained Patapoutian.
When arterioles can’t dilate properly, the body has fewer options for lowering blood pressure in people with hypertension or getting blood through clogged vessels in cases of atherosclerosis.
“Future work will explore the role of GPR68 in clinically relevant cardiovascular diseases,” Patapoutian says. “We are also exploring the possibility of using small molecules to modulate the function of GPR68, as such molecules could be beneficial in the clinic.”
The study also included authors from GNF; the MITOVASC Institute; the Indiana University School of Medicine; and the University of California, San Diego.
In other recent cardiovascular news from TSRI, Dr. Velia Fowler, and her lab reported that a protein called myosin IIA contracts to give red blood cells their distinctive shape. The findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences under the title “Myosin IIA interacts with the spectrin-actin membrane skeleton to control red blood cell membrane curvature and deformability,” could shed light on sickle cell diseases and other disorders where red blood cells are deformed.
“Red blood cells have been studied for centuries, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions about how they adopt their shape,” said Alyson Smith, a graduate student at TSRI and co-first author of the study. “Our study adds an important piece to this puzzle.”
Fowler says, for example, that there might be a chance someday to inhibit myosin IIA in red blood cells and restore some of elasticity they lose in sickle cell anemia, letting them bend and fit through capillaries.
“Even just a small change in those sickle cells might be enough,” says Nowak, who served as study co-first author with Smith.
This view of red blood cell shape has sparked many new questions. The study suggests that cells use a process called phosphorylation to make the myosin IIA filaments on the cell membrane more stable—but how this process is controlled remains a mystery. Going forward, the researchers hope to learn more about what regulates myosin IIA’s activity in red blood cells and even other cell types, like neurons.Screen usage has become a major part of most people’s lives. Watching your favorite TV show, going to a movie premiere, working in a modern office, and texting your friends about dinner plans all involve using a screen, in some capacity. While there is nothing inherently wrong with using screens, doctors do warn people about the negative health effects that come with intense exposure to the bright lights that are oftentimes given off by them.
Follow some simple tips on taking breaks to keep your eyes healthy and reduce the pain associated with screen usage.
A simple, yet very effective, way to reduce screen-induced eye pain is to simply take breaks. You might be wondering how much are contacts when you should be measuring how often you use screens. After every hour or so of heavy screen usage you should try to take a five minute break to rest your eyes. Even if your eyes are not particularly tired, extended usage
Resting your eyes can be achieved by walking around, getting some fresh air outside, or simply shutting them. Give those Lens.com contacts a short break. One common mistake people trying to take a break from working will make is doing something else that involves a screen. For instance, taking a break from working on your essay to watch videos or check social media might clear your mind a bit but you are still exposing your eyes to screens. You would be surprised how much a difference just a few minutes of rest can make on your physical and mental alertness.The popular expression “Looking at things from 30,000 feet” implies the handicaps of missing the broad perspective. Another way to express the same thought would be “Looking at the big picture…” In the matter of Israel’s geologic features, we must back away from earth even more than 30,000 feet, perhaps by a factor of ten, to see what has transpired over the ages in the area of the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River, and the Dead Sea.
One of the most extraordinary geological features on Planet Earth runs the length of Israel’s eastern borders. This feature is the northern extension of the Great African Rift Valley. It is also called the Syrian-African rift. The northern section in Israel is called the Dead Sea Transform fault. On satellite photos this feature can be seen running the length of Israel. Over vast geologic time, our earth’s long-term crustal plate movements have resulted in changes barely noticeable over several decades, but enormously significant over the geologic long term. The changes result from slow convection currents in the upper mantle which have moved and reassembled the plates. We might regard this phenomenon as a divine recycling and reformation project.
In Africa and the mid-east, movements of the African plate and the Arabian plate have resulted in a variety of surface manifestations. In the Jordan Valley the plates are grinding past one another. Both are moving northward, but the Arabian plate is moving faster. These plate movements began in the Miocene epoch, several million years ago, and continue today. When the sudden release of enormous stresses in rocks at the plate boundaries causes an infrequent large movement, major earthquakes occur, such as one that struck in 749 AD. In the United States a similar boundary occurs at California’s San Andreas fault. Displacement there ranges from 160 to 350 miles along the horizontal plane. Over extended time frames (millions of years), the yearly movement averages 0.5 cm or less along both faults. At very widely spaced time intervals, great stress-relieving earthquakes have been known to displace plates horizontally up to 10 meters. Scientists fear both fault zones may be due for “the big one.”
In the case of the Dead Sea transform fault, there has been a displacement of 66 miles along the plate boundary. This can be seen clearly in satellite photographs along the boundary. Geologists have used their skills to detail events and time frames along this fault and describe the land’s resulting morphology. The subsidence of the Jordan Valley/Dead Sea area to far below sea level is also related to events along the rift. Displacements along the transform fault can only be explained in terms of time frames of millions of years.
What do we say, then, about the insistence of many people who claim the earth and its features are explained only in terms of a recent creation six to ten thousand years ago? Did God plant hundreds of “appearance of age” features on the earth just to make the earth look very old when it is really very young? Such a proposal does not seem reasonable. Many people in our congregations say it is a matter of doctrinal purity. I must emphatically object and state that truth is at stake, but doctrinal orthodoxy is not. There are many fine Christian theologians and Christian science scholars whose studies reveal the shortcomings of holding our Bible and our beliefs hostage to a young earth way of thinking.
The International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, a distinguished group of evangelical theologians, met in three summit conferences from 1977 to 1986. Their statements on this matter provide an important perspective for those wrestling with these issues:
It is sometimes argued that our exegesis should not be influenced by scientific observations. We believe this view is mistaken. While the Bible clearly gives more specific information about our relationship to God than one can possibly deduce from natural revelation, it does not necessarily follow that our understanding of the physical world, its origin, etc., will also be more clearly deduced from God’s revelation in His word than his revelation in His world. Since both are revelations from God, and therefore, give a unified story, it seems quite permissible to consider all of the evidence (scientific as well as biblical) to be significant to the degree that each revelation can be clearly interpreted.
We affirm that since God is the author of all truth, all truths, biblical and extra-biblical, are consistent and cohere, and that the Bible speaks truth when it touches on matters pertaining to nature, history, or anything else. We further affirm that in some cases extra-biblical data have value for clarifying what scripture teaches, and for prompting correction of faulty interpretations. We deny that extra-biblical views ever disprove the teaching of scripture or hold priority over it.
My personal prayer for the readers of this blog, and for all who have a vision of the triune God as Creator and the source of TRUTH, is that our personal beliefs will be congruent with what is TRUE.Some drugs are good
I won’t beat around the bush, I’ll get straight to the point. Every time I diagnose a patient with clinical anxiety or depression, I recommend medication as the first step of treatment after which I ask them if they have any questions regarding the medication. Invariably, I get asked if they will get ‘addicted’ to the medication.
Let us first understand what addiction is.
Addiction, or as we clinically like to call it, disorders of substance abuse is characterised by a number of behavioural, physical and thought disorders along with changes in the brain circuits and neurochemistry which occur on taking specific substances.
A specific neurochemical called dopamine is present in many areas of the brain. The release of dopamine in the midbrain is responsible for that feeling of happy high. Under normal circumstances, during any pleasurable activity, dopamine is released in pulses leading to a sense of joy and bliss.
Substances of abuse, release of large amounts of dopamine at a time giving a sense of high and then a sudden drop.
This extreme high followed by the extreme low is what leads to a craving for more drug. Also, with time, the receptors of dopamine become desensitised to the large amount of dopamine, no longer giving the same sense of high. So the amount of drug required to produce the same high goes on increasing.
Behaviourally, this is seen as-
- Craving for more and more drug.
- A progressive increase in the amount of drug consumed to produce the same effect.
- Physical / psychological withdrawal symptoms when the drug is not consumed.
- Denial that there is a drug problem.
- Unsuccessful attempts to cut down the drug use.
- A large amount of time is spent on obtaining the drug.
- Problems at work, in social relationships and overall functioning as a result of the drug.
- Continued use of the drug in spite of these problems.
As against this, symptoms of depression and anxiety are generally related to a deficiency in another neurochemical, serotonin, in certain areas of the brain. Drugs of abuse do not correct dopamine deficiency but instead release large amounts of it in a way that is not required.
But imbalance in serotonin produces symptoms like anxiety, panic, persistent sadness, loss of interests, changes in sleep, changes in appetite, negative ideas, suicidal thoughts, to name a few.
Antidepressant and anxiolytic medications act by producing and normalising serotonin in the brain so that the brain gets the amount it needs to function normally.
So, to answer the question, no, you won’t get ‘addicted’ to your medication.Reflecting on the written memory of Minas de Gerais author Carolina Maria de Jesus (1914-1977) requires care and effort. For someone that barely knows or has never heard of the author of the book Quarto de despejo–diário de uma favelada, published in August of 1960, we must start at the beginning. Carolina Maria de Jesus was born in Sacramento, a small city in the south of Minas Gerais, to a black family of the last enslaved generation of Africans and Afro-descendants brought against their will or born in Brazil. De Jesus herself called her grandfather, the nicknamed African Socrates, soldo do escravidao, not for his physical and mental characteristics, but for his adaptation to the system that would conform him to the demands of being black, poor, and born to illiterate parents.
Carolina Maria de Jesus would have had only to follow the path laid out for her by the Casa Grande and by powerful landowners, remnants of the bandeirante period and the bossism created by violence and rampant rural coronelismo. Formed of the same clay that made up the rest of her family, clay the color of bitita — a word derived from the word mbita, from the Mozambican language of Changana, meaning “clay pot,” and, as the Infopedia Dictionary of Portuguese puts it, the “singular feminine diminutive of this term results in the word ‘bitita." Thus, bitita (the author’s childhood nickname) refers to something of clay, ochre or black in color.
This enslaved ancestrality and the forced destiny of subservience, on the contrary, gave de Jesus courage and drive, beginning in the two years she spent frequenting a Spiritist high school. Determination and dreams beyond measure pushed the little black girl to exceed all imaginable, to do the unthinkable and the impossible — and in her persistence in learning to read, even as a little girl, she was deemed crazy. At a tender age, she was arrested and thrown in jail.
Carolina Maria de Jesus had her life journey associated with the question of social disorder because she did not accept for herself a life path directed by others. Her life as a manual laborer, from babysitter to domestic servant, from cook to factory worker, turned her into a pilgrim, taking long journeys by foot from city to city in search of bread and dignity.
In the big city, however, she found unanticipated pain and glory. In São Paulo’s 1940s to 1960s, she charted her existence as stark proof of her “change in function”: a poor little semiliterate black girl could never dare to become an intellectual. To write, even in old notebooks found in the trash, or in the newspapers, was something for the “lettered” or and learned (all male) academics. But de Jesus pushed her way in, doused in courage and daring, masterfully rewriting her own DNA. On the streets of the big city, she turned from an “exotic object,” spending cold nights in tenements and on the sidewalks beneath highway overpasses, to “out of order” — something to be thrown out, destined for the trash heap, for despejo.
From this impure mud she picked the most precious flower — her ideas and thoughts on Brazil’s underground, where the yell of the favela and its people echoed strongest. Quarto de despejo, her debut book, triggered a new schism in Brazilian intellectual life — one not felt since romanticism, one that would shake literature strong enough to cause a break with colonialism.
Her literature brought the gift of revolt and of revolution. The aesthetic was, from a conceptual standpoint, that of the canon being broken, akin to a useless bookbinding. Carolina de Jesus — not only with Quarto do despejo, but in her other works, even those yet unpublished — shook the ivory tower, that spearhead between the old and the new (modernizing but outdated on account of its conservatism) in our literature.
With her writing she imposed a new code of literary conduct: it is the woman of the people that writes, literarily, fable-ly, poetically, the anguish of the people. In this aesthetic scheme, she broke from the condition of “unlettered” to writer; from invisibility to fame. In Brazil, she would stand on par with Jorge Amado, Clarice Lispector, Dinah Silveira de Queiroz, Raquel de Queiroz. Internationally, she would break all possible and imaginable barriers. At the junction of these two standards, de Jesus became the new canon. Elitist rhetoric stood (and stands) in opposition to this new reality. Racially aggressive, her narrative is harrowing, discursive, modern at the same time that remains in touch with reality and lives within the changing anxieties of Brazilian national consciousness. In fiction, she speaks through her romances, especially in Pedaços da fome, in poetry, just remember the strength of O colono e o fazendeiro, in short stories, Onde estas Felicidade?
Carolina is the factor that breaks with the reining literary neocolonialism, active since Brazil’s Semana de Arte Moderna in 1922. Her legacy and increasing presence today testify to the force of nature in her written thought, which remains current and contemporary, subversive and revolutionary, rebranded as alternative, marginal, peripheral.
Born 105 years ago, de Jesus left with us much more than unpublished works, dreams, and resilience. Revisiting her work has become more and more urgent. Reading her is, to put it crudely, absolutely imperative. She is still muzzled by the threat of 1964. Her voice has been hushed in dungeons of national consciousness. Speaking of and reading de Jesus has become something dangerous, risky, threatening. Treating her as the author, thinker, and intellectual that she is has become a condemnation, an affront to the caste of the academic ivory tower of literature and learning.
This is a long and stony road. This is work that remains to be done — done with the same pain and suffering endured by the black current author Carolina Maria de Jesus.
Tom Farias is a journalist and writer. He is the author of Carolina, um biografia (Malê, 2018, 402 pp., illustrated).email@example.comGreen Iguana Head Bobbing
©1995 Melissa Kaplan
There are many reasons why green iguanas bob their heads.
Females bob to say:
Contrary to popular belief, females as well as males bob their heads. Males do it more frequently than do females, but bobbing itself cannot be used as a gender determinant. Bobbing can start at any age. As it is typically used in an aggressive way or to assert dominance, and it is generally executed by iguanas who are secure in their surroundings. Females generally bob in a rather jerky, erratic manner - it almost looks as if they are practicing, just learning how to bob. Females bob when irritated (generally at another iguana, less frequently at humans), such as when annoyed by the attentions of a male, or when warning another iguana away from their basking area.
Males have several different bobs. Male bobs are generally fluid, executed smoothly. Bobs are usually straight up and down; some may include side-to-side movement. The shudder-bob is a warning: the head is vibrated quickly in the up-down-sideways mode, the head kept raised upwards after the last movement. This is held for a moment or two, followed by an up-and-down bob. This bob is often addressed to the owner the first time the iguana sees the owner during the day or after a long separation and is delivered from a relaxed, laying down position rather than the raised and laterally compressed body position that typically accompanies the aggressive bobs.
Subordinate iguanas tend to bob more like females than males. Males who have been raised alone and who have not had access to their own reflection also often bob like females. After time, however, in the presence of other males or after several hours in front of a mirror, their bobs are executed in the male mode. Subordinate male iguanas, however, may maintain a low profile in the presence of dominant males by appearing as females, hence the quasi-female bobbing.
Rapid bobbing is usually be a warning or assertion ("This is MY area") to another iguana, a human, or the cat spied sitting on the fence across the yard. Slow bobbing may be a restrained statement of annoyance or warning by a subordinate iguana to a dominant iguana (or human or other creature). Some slow, deliberate bobs may be done when two iguanas encounter each other when they haven't yet had a chance to assess the other. In this case, it is a sort of guarded greeting and assertion ("I'll say 'Hello', but don't get any ideas about messing with me"). If this bob is accompanied by a raised laterally compressed body, there is more warning or defensiveness in the greeting than there is greeting.
Bobs, dewlap extensions, and posture provide the iguanas with a highly varied, often subtle vocabulary with which they communicate. It is up to us to learn to recognize the various combinations and analyze the context in which they are given in be able to begin to understand just what our iguanas are saying.
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The Paradox of Voluntary Slaveryby Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
William Blake, "Urizen in Chains," Plate 20 from The First Book of Urizen (1794). Department of Prints & Drawings, The British Museum.
The Prophet Elijah says a very strange thing to King Ahab (who was married to Queen Jezebel):
"You have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the LORD." (1 Kings 21:20).
What does he mean -- sell yourself? In ancient times, you might sell merchandise, crops, and land. But you could also voluntarily sell yourself as a slave to pay your debts. Ahab "sells himself to do evil" when he embraces Jezebel's Baal worship, but it comes at a cost -- and Ahab does not escape the final consequences of his evil.
We have similar idioms in modern English.
- "Selling one's soul to the devil," comes from European folklore, made popular by Christopher Marlow's play "Doctor Faustus" (about 1590), who makes a bargain with the devil.
- A congressman "sells out" when he compromises his principles so he can get his own legislation passed, be reelected, or refrain from acting properly to avoid offending a powerful patron.
- "I sold my soul to the company store," is a line from the Merle Travis song, "Sixteen Tons" (1946) about getting into debt you'll never be able to repay.
Selling oneself is a transactional concept. You do something that helps you now, but there is a cost to that decision. You do something crooked that makes you rich or helps you avoid taxes, but you lose something much more precious -- your integrity and righteousness. When you sell your soul, you sell yourself. You end up belonging to another. You are now enslaved, no longer free, forced to do another's bidding. Ahab (in our text) gambles by selling himself and loses big time.
This concept of enslavement by sin is found throughout the New Testament. Jesus says,
"Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin." (John 8:34)
"Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?" (Romans 6:16)
"Whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved." (2 Peter 2:19b)
Even those on the edges of the Christian faith, perhaps believers, can fall into "the snare of the devil, being captured by him to do his will" (2 Timothy 2:26).
The Patient Predator
Sometimes we underestimate the power of sin, and so we dabble in things that we know are wrong, being so naïve as to believe that there is no real cost, no downside to sinning so long as we don't get caught. We imagine that sin can't overpower a child of God.
God describes sin to Cain as a patient predator.
"Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it." (Genesis 4:7)
The idea here seems to be of a lion lying in wait, "lurking" (NRSV) just outside your door, waiting for you to let it in. Lions were loose in the land of Israel, dangerous to both man and beast. Peter says, "Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8).
Sin deceives. It doesn't look that bad. Just a little won't hurt you. But sin corrupts your soul. Peter says that sin "wages war against your soul" (1 Peter 2:11). Sin takes you onto the wrong path, the wide path that leads to destruction. Satan, disguises himself, but his real nature is as a thief who "comes only to steal and kill and destroy" (John 10:10a).
But sin doesn't have the final word, nor do we. Jesus does.
In the Old Testament, a close relative could redeem a relative who had become enslaved because of debt. This kinsman-redeemer could reclaim family property that had been sold. The kinsman-redeemer could pay a debt on behalf of his family members. In the Book of Ruth, Boaz is an example of such a kinsman-redeemer.
Jesus is our Kinsman-Redeemer. He humbles himself to become a man, born to a virgin in an obscure town in the hills of Judah (Philippians 2:6-8). And becoming a man, he becomes like us -- one of the human race. Yes, he is the Son of God, but he is also our Kinsman, our Brother.
"He had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people." (Hebrews 2:17)
The Ransom or Slave Price
But the cost to redeem us from our slavery is exceedingly great. The Greek word group lytroō relates to paying a ransom, especially for the manumission or freeing of slaves.
"You were ransomed... not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot." (1 Peter 1:18-19)
Jesus himself said,
"The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45)
You may have gotten yourself enslaved by dabbling with sin. Or maybe you were enslaved because the enemy who took advantage of you, capturing a weak and unsuspecting victim, and reduced you to fear, addiction, hopelessness -- to the place where you think you'll never be free again.
I have good news. The jailer is coming back to your cell, unlocking the door.
"You're free to go."
"How? Why?" you ask.
"Oh, someone came and paid your fine, made your bail. We can't hold you any longer."
"Who was it?"
"He says he is your brother."
You walk down the hall, and there he is waiting for you. And together you and Jesus walk out of that jail, that place of slavery
You have been tempted. Perhaps you have "sold yourself to do evil," like Ahab, I don't know. But now you are free! Jesus your Kinsman-Redeemer frees you!
Yes, you goof up. You may be tempted to ditch Jesus from time to time, and disappear for a few hours or a few days. But you know that this only leads to a renewal of your slavery. So you learn walk with Jesus at his pace. You know that by yourself, you're vulnerable, but with him at your side, you stay free.
We are freed because Jesus paid for our sins through his death on the cross on our behalf. But we stay free by walking with him.
"If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31-32)
The word "abide" (Greek menō) is key to our understanding of this verse. It is variously translated "abide" (ESV), "continue" (NRSV, KJV), and "hold to" (NIV). The root idea is "remain, stay."
God Our Fortress
God is our Shield, according to the Psalmist. He is our Fortress, our Hiding Place. By ourselves we are weak, vulnerable, subject to constant attack. But when stay or abide with Jesus, when we hang out with him we are safe. He is our Redeemer and Defender. And in him we find joy and peace.
Friend, if you've never asked Jesus to forgive your sins and be your Savior -- the one who saves or rescues you -- then now is the time. But if you know him, and have strayed outside the Fortress and have been wounded by sin, even taken prisoner again, call out to him, and he'll gladly rescue you afresh. He's already paid to set you free from slavery. He'll reassert that he has redeemed you, and you'll be free again.
Now, with Jesus at your side on this journey, he'll help you walk free. From one former slave to another, that, truly, is Good News!
The phrase occurs elsewhere in both 1 Kings 21:25 and 2 Kings 17:17.
The Hebrew word mākar used here means "to sell." It can also be used figuratively to mean "give oneself up to." William L. Holladay, A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, based on the Lexical work of Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans / Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1988), pp. 194-195; also in R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer, Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament ("TWOT"; Moody Press, 1980), #1194). The Lord sold his people into the power of their enemies when he became displeased with them (Deuteronomy 32:30; 28:68; Psalm 44:12; Isaiah 50:1; Ezekiel 30:12).
"Sixteen Tons" (1946) by Merle Travis, was also recorded by Tennessee Ernie Ford (1955) and others.
"Crouching" (ESV, NIV), "lurking" (NRSV), "lieth" (KJV) is the Qal stem of rābaṣ, "to lie down," used of people, domestic animals, birds, as well as predators (Genesis 49:9) (William White, TWOT #2109).
"Ransomed" in 1 Peter 1:18 is the Aorist passive of the verb lytroō, initially, "to free by paying a ransom, redeem" (BDAG 606, 1b). "Ransom" in Mark 10:45 is the noun lytron, "price of release, ransom (especially also the ransom money for the manumission of slaves)" (Walter Bauer and Frederick William Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature ("BDAG"; Third Edition; based on previous English editions by W.F. Arndt, F.W. Gingrich, and F.W. Danker; University of Chicago Press, 1957, 1979, 2000), 605).
"Set you free" (ESV, NIV), "make you free" (NRSV, KJV) is eleutheroō, "to cause someone to be freed from domination, free, set free" (BDAG 31).
Menō, "remain, stay," To continue in the same realm or sphere (BDAG 631, 1aβ).
In-depth Bible study books
You can purchase one of Dr. Wilson's complete Bible studies in PDF, Kindle, or paperback format.
- Apostle Paul: Passionate Discipleship
- Disciple's Guide to the Holy Spirit
- 1, 2, and 3 John
- 1 Peter
- 2 Peter & Jude
- 1 & 2 Thessalonians
- 1 & 2 Timothy
- 1 Corinthians
- 2 Corinthians
- Abraham, Faith of
- Christ Powered Life (Romans 5-8)
- Christmas Incarnation
- Colossians and Philemon
- David, Life of
- Glorious Kingdom, The
- Great Prayers of the Bible
- Jacob, Life of
- Jesus and the Kingdom of God
- JesusWalk: Beginning the Journey
- John's Gospel
- Lamb of God
- Listening for God's Voice
- Lord's Supper
- Luke's Gospel
- Moses the Reluctant Leader
- Names and Titles of God
- Names and Titles of Jesus
- Rebuild & Renew: Post-Exilic Books
- Resurrection and Easter Faith
- Sermon on the Mount
- Seven Last Words of ChristThe Focus of Regenerative Medicine
Injury and disease make our bodies do their best to heal and defend itself naturally. This power of the body to heal and defend itself, when harnessed and accelerated in a clinically relevant way, can help the body heal better.
The aim of regenerative medicine is to be able to help restore the structure and functions of tissues and organs that are damaged. If an organ is permanently damaged, then regenerative medicine is seeking to create solutions for these organs. Finding ways to cure untreatable injureis and disease is one focus of regenerative medicine.
In order to make treatment available for clinical use,
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Plant Biology, Issue 15, Annual Review, Aphids, Plant Virus, Potato Leaf Roll Virus, Microinjection TechniqueAlarming trends in youth substance abuse, specifically an increase in prescription drug misuse, point to a need for education and prevention materials. Drug overdose mortality rates for Kentucky quadrupled from 1999 to 2010, ranking third highest in the nation.
The NEA Health Information Network offers free resources to help educate young people about the abuse and proper use of prescription drugs:
• Rx for Understanding: Preventing Prescription Drug Abuse for grades 9-12. (The link is http://bit.ly/LUcYMX)
• Rx for Understanding: Be Smart about Prescription Drug Abuse for grades 5-8 (The link is http://bit.ly/1fzdXuJ)
• Rx for Understanding webinar Series (The link is http://bit.ly/N9EAid)New York City, which has one of the largest gaps between rich and poor in the country, has gone off the deep end with their liberal agenda and has declared a day in honor of a communist traitor who was convicted of stealing American nuclear secrets for the Soviets.
Ethel Rosenberg, who was famously executed for treason along with her husband in 1953, was honored by the City Council on what would have been her 100th birthday. September 28th is now known as “Ethel Rosenberg Day of Justice” in the Borough of Manhattan.
Rosenberg was convicted of helping the Soviet Union get critical atomic secrets–which ultimately helped them develop nuclear weapons and kickstart the Cold War.
Now, Rosenberg gets her own day in the borough of Manhattan–because of social justice, or something.
“A lot of hysteria was created around anti-communism and how we had to defend our country, and these two people were traitors and we rushed to judgment and they were executed,” explained Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Queens).
Manhattan President Gale Brewer echoed that sentiment, claiming that Rosenberg had been “demonstrating great bravery” in other events in her life, like a 1935 workers’ strike that she led.
While the exact information that Rosenberg and her husband passed back to the Soviets is unknown, Nikita Khrushchev, the former leader of the Soviet Union, wrote in his memoirs that they “had provided very significant help in accelerating the production of our atomic bomb.”
Rosenberg was an avowed Stalinist and traitorous spy–while reports vary on her level of involvement in the crime, it’s clear that she was certainly no victim of hysteria; she was rightfully convicted.
But, in a liberal world where actual national heroes like Thomas Jefferson are thrown under the bus for past infractions, it’s more troubling to see people convicted of being enemies of the United States getting lionized for actions that put the world at risk for decades.One of the most indispensable things about a great text editor for programming is the ability to quickly jump between matching parentheses. If you have a line like,
if (f(a) >= b(c, d(e*(f-g))))
it very convenient to place your cursor at, say, the second to last closing parenthesis, and have the editor show you where is the matching opening parenthesis. (In this example, it is the one just after b.)
For this problem, you should write a function that takes a string s like 'if (f(a) >= b(c, d(e*f(-g))))' and an integer n representing a character position within the string. Your function should return the index of the matching parenthesis.
>> s = 'if (f(a) >= b(c, d(e*f(-g))))';
>> find_matching_paren(s, 4)
>> find_matching_paren(s, 6)
>> find_matching_paren(s, 27)
You can assume that n will always be the position of either an open or closing parenthesis.
You can assume the string will always have balanced parentheses.
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Play games and win prizes!Learn moreLast week I encouraged you to thank a teacher. Hopefully, there was a teacher or other person in your life who taught you to love reading and/or writing.
You may remember a class that taught you things like: recognizing an author’s purpose; using context clues; seeing relationships/analogies; predicting outcomes, and more. You most likely did not appreciate learning them, but what you may or may not know is that you use those skills every day without the labels.
Think about times you have needed to evaluate a project in your home or work life. Our success often comes from learning to analyze well. Literacy weaves itself into our lives.
You may or may not remember learning about what is referred to as inferential comprehension which means understanding the author’s purpose, drawing conclusions, catching character formation, and anticipating outcome. It would be a funny world if you took everything literally and it could have some serious consequences.
Have you ever been given directions as you drive? They said, “Turn left.” To be sure you understood, you said, “Turn left?” to which they answered, “Right.” I long ago learned to say “correct” so the message didn’t get confusing and perhaps dangerous.
So you know you need more than literal interpretation to understand and you know you need more than interpreting through words, body language, etc. to see underlying meaning. The more challenging aspect of literacy is called critical evaluation, which doesn’t mean you criticize. It means as a reader you analyze ideas and information in the story or material and compare and contrast it to what you already know, and then you reason with it.
This skill can be lost if you don’t continue to work on it. It means you have to interact with the material and try to discover hidden meaning. You connect A with B and then to C, etc. Any symbol or logo needs this type of evaluation. Being literate also means choosing to make stereotypes diminish and vanish.
November is “Native American Month,” and since I belong to the Potawatomie nation, I am interested in learning about other Native American nations. American Indians are actually part of nations, though people often think of them as tribes or they lump all Native Americans together.
There are more than 500 “nations,” some on reservations, but most not. Each nation has its own history and traditions. People sometimes identify a craft with a nation, such as turquoise jewelry with the Navajo Nation.
Literacy helps us realize that a people are more than what they are known for, so I encourage you to read with children and for yourself and expand your understanding.
Each week during November I plan to share a few Native American books in each age category. The Newton Public Library’s Children’s Librarian gave me some good sources to check out. Like any list, it is overwhelming, so I can really only pick out a few and hope that you will read some books from the Native American perspective and learn some new things and get rid of some stereotypes.
Usually, when I say I am part Potawatomie, people are surprised because I don’t look that heritage. Then they often start treating me differently which in our day and age surprises me. Though we may look different or not, we all need to be proud of all of our heritages.
This week I’d like to highlight a few board books. Board books are for the very young reader and are sturdy so they can be handled, by little hands. They are usually beautifully illustrated and the words are impact information.
My very favorite one is Debby Slier’s “Cradle Me.” I fell in love with this one at the library. Each page has a photo of a Native baby sleeping, smiling, etc. and a blank line to write down that word in another language. The final pages identify the tribal nation from which each baby belongs.
Each of the books I list this month are written or illustrated by a Native author or illustrator, and in some way indicate specific Native American nations. Several other board books I find exciting are:
• “Baby Learns about Colors,” by Beverly Blacksheep. It is one of a series of eight bilingual books with Dine (Navajo) and English text that feature a baby girl, her growth, and things she learns in a tribally specific context. Other books in the series are “Baby Learns about Animals,” “Baby Learns about Seasons,” “Baby Learns about Senses,” “Baby Learns about Time,” “Baby Learns about Weather,” “Baby Learns to Count,” and “Baby’s First Laugh.”
• “I See Me,” by Margaret Manuel
• “Our Journey,” by Lyz Jaakola, illustrated by Karen Savage-Blue.
Enjoy investigating a new area with a child in your life.
Until next week — Christine PauleyOn October 13, 1992, the United States became the world’s first industrialized nation to ratify a treaty on climate change. The treaty committed its parties to the important, if awkwardly worded goal of preventing “dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.” In acknowledgment of the fact that America and its allies were largely responsible for the problem, the pact set a different standard for them; Europe, Japan, Australia, and the United States were supposed to “take the lead in combating climate change and the adverse effects thereof.” Signing the instrument of ratification for the treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, President George H. W. Bush noted the special responsibilities that the developed nations were taking on; they “must go further” than the others, he said, and offer detailed “programs and measures they will undertake to limit greenhouse emissions.”
The convention remains in effect, and for the past seventeen years the United States has insisted that it is living up to its terms. Under Bill Clinton, this claim was implausible; the U.S. took no meaningful action to reduce its emissions. Under George W. Bush, it became a bad joke. (When the Bush Administration wasn’t handing out tax breaks to fossil-fuel companies, it was muzzling climate scientists and storming out of international negotiations.) The election of Barack Obama seemed in this, as in so many other areas, to offer a fresh start. A few weeks after his victory, Obama vowed to open a “new chapter” on climate change. And yet, almost a year later, the United States is again—or, really, still—stuck in the same old pattern. We keep saying that we want to be marching at the front of the parade, and then hanging back with the tubas.
Last week at the United Nations, at what was billed as the highest-level meeting on climate change ever, there was general agreement about the approaching disaster. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that rising temperatures would “increase pressure on water, food, and land; reverse years of development gains; exacerbate poverty; destabilize fragile states; and topple governments.” President Oscar Arias Sánchez, of Costa Rica, described the session as taking place “on the brink of a precipice for our planet.” President Nicolas Sarkozy, of France, stated, “We are the very last generation that can take action.”
“If things go business as usual, we will not live,” President Mohamed Nasheed, of the low-lying Maldives, told the assembled delegates. “We will die. Our country will not exist.”
President Obama, too, was apocalyptic. “We risk consigning future generations to an irreversible catastrophe,” he said in the first of three U.N. addresses. He went on to list the various steps that his Administration has taken—setting new automobile-efficiency standards, investing billions of dollars in weatherizing homes and office buildings, establishing reporting rules for the nation’s largest greenhouse-gas emitters. “The developed nations that caused much of the damage to our climate over the last century still have a responsibility to lead,” he said, before adding, unconvincingly, “And we will continue to do so.”
What would it take for the United States actually to show leadership, instead of just talking about it? First, it would have to impose binding emissions limits of the sort that it has spent the last two decades evading. The Europeans, who are already operating under such constraints, have pledged to cut their emissions by twenty per cent by 2020, and have said that they would agree to a thirty-per-cent cut if other nations followed suit. The new Japanese Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has committed his country to cutting its emissions by twenty-five per cent. In the United States, a bill that would reduce emissions by seventeen per cent narrowly passed the House in June, only to become bogged down in the Senate; it is unclear if the bill will reach the Senate floor this year, or, if so, whether it has the votes to pass. (The United States is using a baseline year of 2005, while the Europeans and the Japanese are using 1990, which means that the proposed American cuts are significantly more modest than they sound.)
Meanwhile, a crucial deadline approaches. In December, many of the same players who met in New York last week will travel to Copenhagen to try to hash out a new international climate agreement. In contrast to the Kyoto Protocol, which was designed as a sort of warmup exercise (and which the United States never agreed to), this new treaty is supposed to be the real thing: a pact strong enough to avert, as Obama put it, “irreversible catastrophe.” Both China and India, which have long resisted emissions targets, have recently signalled a willingness to make a deal. If the American team shows up in Copenhagen with nothing to offer, though, it’s hard to imagine how such a deal could be struck. (Although China recently overtook the U.S. as the world’s largest CO2 producer on an annual basis, the U.S. remains far and away the largest source of cumulative emissions in the atmosphere.) As John Bruton, the European Union’s Ambassador to Washington, observed recently in the London Telegraph, “Is the U.S. Senate really expecting all the other countries to make a serious effort on climate change at the Copenhagen conference in the absence of a clear commitment from the United States?”
There is no reason to doubt Obama’s sincerity about climate change. In addition to the actions he mentioned at the U.N., his Administration has, most significantly, classified carbon dioxide as a pollutant, a move that could eventually lead to its regulation under the Clean Air Act. And the President is clearly frustrated by the stalemate in the Senate. But at this late date sincerity is not enough. When the President proposed that Congress take up a climate bill along with health-care legislation and, on top of that, regulatory reform, he made an enormous gamble. This gamble, at some point, could have been called bold; increasingly, it just seems naïve.
For the world to avoid “dangerous anthropogenic interference,” the United States is, finally, going to have to live up to the commitments it made under the Framework Convention. And, in order for this to happen, Obama is going to have to move climate change to the top of his agenda—quickly. As the President himself put it last week, “The time we have to reverse this tide is running out.” ♦I have recently moved to Herefordshire and found this "fossil" in a dry stone wall in my garden.
After some research via the web I think it might be a Stromatolite or a Jellyfish or?
Hi John -
Jellyfish are rarely preserved due to the fact their bodies are made up of soft tissue that breaks down quickly at or soon after the time of death. The fossil jellyfish I have seen have clear circular outline. If we consider modern jellyfish on beaches, the tentacles would shrivel first and are more likely to be hidden or tucked under the 'bell-shape'. The shape of the rock suggests some sort of concretion with early diagenetic changes [please see definition below]. The features that look like tentacles are probably due to some sort of percolation filtering through the sediment.
Diagenesis = changes to sediment after rock formation at temperatures and pressures less than that required for the formation of metamorphic rocks or melting [adapted from Wikipedia].
Concretions come in various shapes and forms, however, I am not familiar with this particular one. Perhaps you should take it to a natural history museum in Herefordshire as they may have something similar in their collections and can advise you further.
I hope this has helped a little - sorry I cannot be more helpful.
Thanks for your views.
I confess I was waiting to see what anybody else thought before posting myself.
I think there is a concretionary factor, but I can't help feeling the object in the middle (concretionary nucleus) is in fact a fossil. I am mindful of discoidal objects in the Precambrian faunas not far away (Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire & The Long Mynd in Shropshire, and some sites in Wales).
To quote from
"Reviewing the Ediacaran fossils of the Long Mynd, Shropshire"
by Alexander G. Liu1, 2011
"The biogenicity of various other discoidal
bumps and pits on numerous Longmyndian
bedding planes has been debated for many years."
A biogenic interpretation for Longmyndian
discoidal features is therefore preferred, and the
challenge is now to determine exactly what sort of
organisms are being preserved. Callow et al.
(2011) consider Salter’s “A. didymus” as most
likely to represent structures related to microbial
activity (cf. MISS; Noffke et al., 2001), while algal
or microbial vesicle affinities have been explored
for Beltanelliformis (summarised in McIlroy et al.,
2005). Intrites has been compared to protistan
organisms, while Medusinites aff. asteroides has
variously been discussed as a trace fossil (McIlroy
et al., 2005) and a polyp (Narbonne and Aitken,
1990). With so few distinguishing morphological
characteristics, elucidating the precise biological
affinities of small discoidal impressions will
continue to be difficult until we gain a better
understanding of both modern biology, and the
original depositional environments of these
Llangynog in particular contains a
fossil assemblage dominated by discoidal forms
(Cope and Bevins, 1993), though those Welsh
specimens constitute different taxa to those found
on the Long Mynd.
That paper is not a 5-minute read, but it is an interesting one (if you like such things!)
In a similar vein,
"CHARNWOOD FOREST’S PRECAMBRIAN FOSSILS:
What are we doing about them, and what are they?"
That shows pictures of recent finds, including discoidal objects (different to Long Mynd ones).
I am not saying your specimen is one of these Precambrian biogenic objects, but:
- it is a possibility
- it shows that such objects are subject to ongoing debate by current and experienced geologists.
There's a good chance other stones in the same wall(s) came from the same source. I wonder if any of them contain more such objects and/or other fossils (which might help associate/dissociate them with the Precambiran faunas)...
Please do take your specimen to the local natural history museum, and post back here about their comments!
I think this is an interesting find, and certainly warrants following-up.
Yes, it is tricky, especially as the rocks are in a wall and not in situ. Possibly worth exploring, 3D fossils are known from Herefordshire, but these are usually Silurian. This is very specialised, a key researcher in this field is Mark Sutton UCL :
David Riley and others from University of Leicester:
"We are dealing with three dimensional fossils preserved within a volcanic ash - think of it as a 425 million year old Pompeii."
Hope this provides a little more detail for you.
All best wishes,
Many thanks for all of your advice.
I will be sending the item to my local museum at Worcester.
The rest of the wall seems to be a jumble of corals and large brachiopods. My house is in Leominster, so I'm pretty confident these are not immediately local, but from within a 10 mile radius. I have attached a picture of representative sample.
Here are some closer pictures of the original stone - hopefully you can now see the depositional lines.
Interesting further photos, thanks. It has more 3D relief than I had envisaged.
So we do have a (loose) association with certain distinct macrofossils, which moves us away from a Precambrian fauna, statistically at any rate. Jellyfish, or jellyfish resting trace is still a possibility, IMO.
Can you tell if any of those tentacly bits are composed of sediment or of vein-like minerals (which would probably be whitish, perhaps calcite).
I'm more intrigued, and keen to hear what your local museum has to say.
I've had a look at the rock with a loupe and I think I can see some signs of mineralisation inside the raised blisters. Where they have been weathered in cross section I can see a series of rings. The crystals / grains are very small and appear as a lighter grey against the darker mass of the rock. They are also a lot softer - my finger nail will scratch through them, but I think this is probably more indicative of extreme weathering.
I have another picture showing the rock in cross section. It's interesting that the surface detail extends about 1cm downwards on both sides.
The rock is dense, hard and fine grained. I am assuming it is a Siltstone.
Curiouser and curiouser...
The depth to the bobbly patch in the middle is interesting. If it had had zero depth, some folks might have argued it was a sole markings of some sort (like flute casts), but the depth pretty much precludes that.
Strange that the rib thingys seem soft, yet are raised...
If the rib thingys are mineralized (and that is not clear), that might hint towards concretionary structure (along the lines of septarian nodule). But the pattern of the ribs doesn't look right for that, and it looks a tad biogenic to me.
Hi folks - now that we can see the 3D clearlly, tentatively, I think these features look like a trace fossil. You may find the following article of interest. Congratulations on an interesting find.
Revista Geológica de Chile 35 (2): 307-319. July, 2008
Depositional environment of Stelloglyphus llicoensis isp. nov.: a new radial trace fossil from the Neogene Ranquil Formation, south-central Chile
Ambiente depositacional de Stelloglyphus llicoensis isp. nov.: una nueva traza fósil radial de la Formación Ranquil (Neógena), centro-sur de Chile
Jacobus P. Le Roux1, Sven N. Nielsen2, Álvaro Henríquez1
Stelloglyphus llicoensis isp. nov. is a large radial, discoidal to ellipsoidal trace fossil with a central shaft and single to bifurcating branches radiating from different levels. A 30 m thick measured section of the Ranquil Formation at Punta Litre contains an associated trace fossil assemblage including Zoophycos, Chondrites, Phycosiphon, Nereites missouriensis, Lockeiasiliquaria, Psammichnites(?), Parataenidium,Ophiomorpha, and Rhizocorallium, some of which reworked the Stelloglyphus traces. The sedimentology, together with micro- and macrofossils and the associated trace fossil assemblage, suggest that the succession was deposited in an outer continental shelf to slope environment in subtropical to tropical waters.
I will show your image to a trace fossil specialist and see what they say.
All the best,Explore deep into the hidden wonders beneath the surface as cave expert Dr. Emil Silvestru takes you on an illuminating and educational journey through the mysterious world of caves. Discover the beautiful formations, thriving ecology, unique animals, and fragile balance of this little-seen ecosystem in caves from around the globe.
The Cave Book will teach you about:
A creationary model of how caves form
A history of how caves have been used by humans for shelter and worship
How old caves really are
The surprising world of Neanderthals and their connection to modern humans
How to make a stone axe and about early tools
Just how long it really takes for cave formations to form
Unusual animals that make caves their home
Examples of how connected caves are to mythology of many cultures
The Climate and geologic processes and features of caves and karst rocks
The process by which ice caves form
Exploration, hazards, and record-setting caves
How caves form, and features about and below the surface
Filled with beautiful and fascinating color photos of caves from around the world, The Cave Book is wonderful guide to this hidden world of wonders. Enjoy learning on your journey of exploration into these exciting and mysterious places underground!Handbook of Dietary and Nutritional Aspects of Bottle Feeding : 8
Üye Girişi yapın, temin süresi ve fiyatını size bildirelim.
Üye Girişi yapın, sizi bu ürün stoklarımıza girdiğinde bilgilendirelim.
Temin süremiz 65 - 45 iş günü
Yayıncı Wageningen Academic Publishers ( 07 / 2014 ) ISBN 9789086862238 | Ciltli | 17,14x23,5x2,54 cm. | İngilizce | 662 Sayfa | Türler Beslenme-Diyet
Newborn babies are usually fed via the breast which ensures optimal development and emotional mother-child bonding. However, in some circumstances breast feeding may be either inadequate or impractical. Historically, deficiencies in the provision of breast milk were addressed by wet-nurse feeding but this was superseded by the introduction of artificial milk feeds, i.e. formula or bottle feeds. This handbook covers formula feeds in the most comprehensive way. Each contribution starts with convenient summary points. Six parts give information about historical and international aspects (South American, African and Chinese perspectives), composition, microbiological and chemical contaminants, allergy and immunology, effects on physical development and metabolic responses, and effects on psychological and neurodevelopment. The 'Handbook of dietary and nutritional aspects of bottle feeding' is essential reading material for nutritionists, dieticians, paediatricians, midwives, pharmacologists, health care professionals, general practitioners and those interested in babies health in general.It is published by the decision of the Synaxis of the Primates.
1. Orthodox marriage
1) The institute of family is threatened today by such phenomena as secularization and moral relativism. The Orthodox Church asserts the sacral nature of marriage as her fundamental and indisputable doctrine. The free union of man and woman is an indispensable condition for marriage.
2) In the Orthodox Church, marriage is considered to be the oldest institution of divine law since it was instituted at the same time as the first human beings, Adam and Eve, were created (Gen. 2:23). Since its origin this union was not only the spiritual communion of the married couple – man and woman, but also assured the continuation of the human race. Blessed in Paradise, the marriage of man and woman became a holy mystery, which is mentioned in the New Testament in the story about Cana of Galilee, where Christ gave His first sign by turning water into wine thus revealing His glory (Jn. 2:11). The mystery of the indissoluble union of man and woman is the image of the unity of Christ and the Church (Eph. 5:32).
3) The Christ-centered nature of marriage explains why a bishop or a presbyter blesses this sacred union with a special prayer. In his letter to Polycarp of Smyrna, St. Ignatius the God-Bearer stressed that those who enter into the communion of marriage “must also have the bishop’s approval, so that their marriage may be according to God, and not after their own lust. Let everything be to the glory of God” (Poly. 5).The sacred nature of the God-established union and its lofty spiritual content explain the Apostle’s affirmation: Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure (Heb. 13:4). That is why the Orthodox Church condemned any defilement of its purity (Eph. 5:2-5, 1 Thes. 4:4, Heb. 13:4ff).
4) The union of man and woman in Christ constitutes ‘a small church, an image of the Church’. Clement of Alexandria affirms: “Who are the two or three gathered in the name of Christ in whose midst the Lord is? Does he not by the “three” mean husband, wife, and child?” (Stromata, 3.10, PG 8, 1169 В). Through God’s blessing, the union of man and woman is elevated, for communion is above individual existence as it introduces the spouses to a life in the image of the Kingdom of the Holy Trinity. A necessary condition for marriage is the faith in Jesus Christ to be shared by a bridal pair, husband and wife. The foundation of unity in marriage is unity in Christ, so that the marital love blessed by the Holy Spirit may reflect the love of Christ and His Church as a mystery of the Kingdom of God and the eternal life of humanity in the love of God.
5) The protection of the sacral nature of marriage has always been of crucial importance for the preservation of the family which reflects the communion of those tied by conjugal bonds both in the Church and in the whole society. Therefore, the communion accomplished in the sacrament of marriage is not simply a natural conventional relationship but a creative spiritual force realized in the sacred institution of the family. It is the only force that can ensure the protection and education of children both in the spiritual mission of the Church and in the life of society.
6) It was always with necessary strictness and proper pastoral sensibility, in the manner of St. Paul, Apostle of the Gentiles (Rom. 7:2-3; 1 Cor. 7:12-15, 39) that the Church treated both positive conditions (the difference of sexes, legal age, etc.) and impediments (kinship by blood and affinity, spiritual kinship, an already existing marriage, difference in religion, etc.) for the conclusion of a church marriage. Pastoral sensibility is necessary not only because the biblical tradition links marriage with mystery of the Church, but also because the church practice did not exclude certain principles of the Greek-Roman natural law, which stressed that the conjugal bonds between man and woman is “a communion of the divine and the human law” (Modestin) and are compatible with the sacred nature attributed by the Church to the mystery of marriage.
7) In today’s situation so unfavourable for the sacrament of marriage and the sacred institution of family, bishops and priests should actively develop pastoral work to protect the faithful by supporting them, asserting the institution of family on a solid foundation that cannot be destroyed either by rain or streams or winds, since this foundation is the rock which is Christ (cf. Mt. 7:25).
8) Marriage is the heart of the family, and the family is realization of marriage. In today’s world, a real threat to Orthodox Christians is constituted by the pressure to recognize new forms of cohabitation. The deepening crisis of marriage is a matter of profound concern for the Orthodox Church not only because of negative consequences for the whole society and a threat to internal family relationships, the principal victims of which are married couples and, in the first place, children because regrettably they usually begin to martyr innocently from their early childhood.
9) A civil marriage between a man and a woman registered in accordance with the law lacks the sacramental nature and as a legalized cohabitation differs from a marriage blessed by God and the Church. The members of the Church who contract a civil marriage should be treated with pastoral responsibility necessary to make these people become aware of the value of the sacrament of marriage and its blessing.
10) The Church does not deem it possible for her members to contract same-sex unions or enter into any other form of cohabitation except marriage. The Church exerts all possible pastoral efforts so that those of her members who enter into such unions may come to true repentance and love blessed by the Church.
11) The grave consequences brought about by the crisis of the institutions of marriage and family are expressed in the offensive growth in the number of divorces and abortions and in the increase of other problems of family life. These consequences constitute a great challenge to the mission of the Church in the modern world. Therefore, the pastors of the Church should exert all possible efforts to address these problems. The Orthodox Church with love calls upon her faithful, men and women and all people of good will, to safeguard the fidelity to the sacred nature of the family.
2. On impediments to marriage
1. Concerning the impediments to marriage due to kinship by blood, kinship by affinity and adoption and spiritual kinship, the prescriptions of canons (Canons 53 and 54 of the Council of Trullo) and the church practice derived from them are valid as applied today in the autocephalous Local Orthodox Churches and determined and described in their Statutes and respective decisions of their Synods.
2. A marriage that is not completely dissolved or annulled and a third marriage constitute an absolute impediment to the conclusion of marriage in conformance to the Orthodox canonical tradition which categorically rejects bigamy and the fourth marriage.
3. In accordance with the acribia of holy canons, the entering into a church marriage after monastic vows is forbidden (Canon 16 of the Fourth Ecumenical Council and Canon 44 of the Council of Trullo).
4. Priesthood constitutes an impediment to marriage in accordance with the canonical tradition in force (Canon 3 of the Council of Trullo).
5. Concerning mixed marriages of Orthodox Christians with non-Orthodox Christians or non-Christians:
a) The marriage of an Orthodox Christian with a non-Orthodox Christian is forbidden in accordance with the canonical acribia and is not celebrated in the Church (Canon 72 of the Council of Trullo). It can be blessed out of indulgence and love of man if the children from this marriage are to be baptized and raised in the Orthodox Church.
b) The marriage between Orthodox Christians and non-Christians is categorically forbidden in accordance with the canonical acribia.
6. The practice used in application of the church Tradition with regard to impediments to marriage should take into account the prescription of the state legislation in force without going beyond the limits of the church oikonomia.
7. The Holy Synod of each autocephalous Orthodox Church should practice church oikonomia in conformance with the principles established in church canons, in the spirit of pastoral discernment for the service of the salvation of man.
Chambésy, 27 January 2016You might think that your children are innocently building a city on Minecraft, trying to keep their Moshi Monster well fed or scoring a goal for their team in FiFA 16. They are doing these things, but all these games have the facility to allow players to connect with other players, these can be their friends or total strangers. Gaming is often primary-school-age children's first introduction to social media. It's important that you keep a close eye on what games they are joining and apply parental and privacy controls to stop in-game purchases and ensure that strangers can't make contact via the games. If these can't be applied, the games should be deleted.
Instagram is a photo-sharing chat site that lets you show off photos you've taken. You can limit who sees your photos to friends or turn off the privacy settings and let the whole world see what you're doing. Thirteen is the minimum age for users. Instagram doesn't ask users for their age, however, so many much younger children use it, often with their parent's consent. Even with strict privacy controls, kids can get hurt by this app. In a bid to maximise their Instagram friendship group they will probably accept their best friend's cousin's friends as friends. These people could be older than them and post content that is not appropriate for them to see. It's vital that you make your children aware of these risks and the importance of not posting potentially hurtful photos or comments themselves. Start your own Instagram account to keep track of what they are doing and ask to see their Instagram stream regularly to check it's all innocent.
Snapchat is a photo-sharing app similar to Instagram, but photos disappear a few seconds after they've been seen, so you don't have to worry about your pic coming back to haunt you when you're older and wiser. Viewers could still grab a quick screenshot, however, so you need to reinforce the need to never post anything potentially hurtful or offensive and to tell your child to tell you if anyone posts or says anything nasty about them so that steps can be taken to ensure this doesn't reoccur. The age limit is 13, but again there are no checks on this, so lots of younger kids use it.
You might have thought that YouTube was just a facility for viewing videos on the web and have set privacy controls to ensure your children don't watch anything inappropriate on it. Your kids can also create their very own channels, however, and post their own videos online. If they do this, you need to ensure that they know to only post appropriate videos, that their channel is kept private and that you keep an eye on who is commenting. Anything inappropriate should be bought to the attention of YouTube and you should explain to your child why the comment is wrong.
For more advice on keeping your children safe online visit Parentzone.
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Contact: Carmeyia Gillis
News Releases 2005
NOAA Home Page
NOAA Public Affairs
Today, NOAA unveiled the 2005 U.S. Spring Outlook for April through June. Of significance, one of the wettest winters on record has resulted in major reductions in the area and severity of drought in the Southwest and the Colorado River Basin – the first time this has occurred in five years. NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
“The same winter climate patterns that brought record rainfall and deadly mudslides to California have lessened drought conditions that have plagued portions of the Southwest since 1999," said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “However, one season of improvement does not bring complete drought relief.”
Short-term drought concerns have been alleviated in many areas of the Southwest especially southern California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. Preliminary data show the Southwest had its wettest September
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Viruses 2013, 5(8), 1948-1963; doi:10.3390/v5081948
Abstract: Multisystemic disease caused by Small Ruminant Lentiviruses (SRLV) in sheep and goats leads to production losses, to the detriment of animal health and welfare. This, together with the lack of treatments, has triggered interest in exploring different strategies of immunization to control the widely spread SRLV infection and, also, to provide a useful model for HIV vaccines. These strategies involve inactivated whole virus, subunit vaccines, DNA encoding viral proteins in the presence or absence of plasmids encoding immunological adjuvants and naturally or artificially attenuated viruses. In this review, we revisit, comprehensively, the immunization strategies against SRLV and analyze this double edged tool individually, as it may contribute to either controlling or enhancing virus replication and/or disease.
Small Ruminant Lentiviruses (SRLV) cause by far the most prevalent lentiviral infection in the world, affecting sheep and goats from Europe, America, Africa, Asia and Australia. SRLV include classical Visna/Maedi (VMV) and Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis (CAEV) viruses, a group of viruses showing one of the highest heterogeneity in terms of genetics, host range, immune activation and disease outcome. VMV and CAEV were originally believed to be specific to the sheep and goat species, respectively, but currently, several decades after their discovery, they are being considered as a single major group of viruses, SRLV, following HIV phylogenetic classification standards. So far, five genotypes have been described within SRLV, genotypes A and B, corresponding to VMV and CAEV prototypes, respectively, and genotypes C, D and E [2,3]. SRLV are closely related, not only from the genetic point of view. The natural transmission of SRLV between sheep and goats constitutes a unique feature among lentiviruses that points out the need to reconsider diagnostic, as well as vaccination strategies jointly, in order to gain sensitivity and protection against heterologous strains in both species.
Animals are mainly infected either by ingestion of infected colostrum/milk or by direct contact with infected animals through respiratory secretions. After cell infection, main targets (monocyte/ macrophage lineage) present viral antigens to the immune system, and antibodies may become readily detectable in serum one month after infection. These antibodies and other immune system effectors control viraemia transiently, until viral replication rebounds, associated with macrophage maturation and production of pro-inflammatory and pro-attractive cytokines that recruit T-cells to the replication site. This mechanism leads to the typical interstitial T-cell infiltration and follicular hyperplasia present in SRLV-associated lesions. In spite of the strong immune response elicited to control viral replication, the virus continues its spread. Infected macrophages trigger infiltrative and inflammatory processes that lead to multi-organ dysfunction. Thus, lesions present in affected tissues are considered to be immunomediated. Accordingly, immune responses against SRLV and, also, other lentiviruses constitute a double edge sword, since they may contribute to viral containment in long-term non-progressors or, rather, to lesion development in most of the animals. Immune correlates useful for distinguishing an effective immune response from a detrimental one need to be fully elucidated.
Icelandic researchers discovered the first lentivirus, VMV, and established the concept of “slow infections” and the VMV as the prototype agent for lentiviral infections, until the appearance of HIV [6,7]. Following discovery, VMV and, the whole SRLV group, together with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV), became useful for developing practical animal models for vaccination trials against lentiviral infections. Classically, FIV and HIV infect CD4+ T cells, causing their depletion and an acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), whereas individuals infected by EIAV and SRLV (which do not infect T-cells) have been considered for years non-immunodeficient. However, exhaustive research on HIV and FIV infections has led to the description of a mechanism inducing AIDS unrelated to CD4+ T-cell counts and involving anergy. In line with this, SRLV infection leads to IgG1 antibody response, Th1 impairment and diminished B7 molecule expression, likely contributing to the detected decreased proliferative responses and reduced delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) reactions [11,12]. This type of immunodeficiency could explain the elevated susceptibility of SRLV infected animals to other secondary infections.
Despite optimal research on immunology and vaccinology against lentiviral infections, no satisfactory treatment or vaccine inducing sterilizing immunity has been developed so far. Immunization trials against SRLV have included highly innovative and promising strategies, from live vaccines to DNA plasmid delivery using a gene gun, going through the infection with attenuated live vaccines.
Deviating immune response towards the Th1 profile appears to be essential for reaching a protection strong enough to ensure, if not sterilizing immunity, at least partial protection against lentiviral infections. Although neutralizing antibodies have been proposed as crucial in protection against HIV or SIV, studies on SRLV infection strongly suggest that SRLV-specific neutralizing antibodies are not protective. Rather, they could provide a marker for a Th2 non-protective response or, even, favor infection after exposure to experimental infection. Several issues are still to be solved in SRLV immunization, including viral heterogeneity, immune modulation by viral infection, detrimental immune responses or induction of long-lasting immunity, among others.
In this review, we aim to summarize the most relevant studies regarding SRLV immunization in the last few years, which have provided promising results in terms of effective immune activation and/or partial protection upon viral challenge.
2. Protein Vaccines
The vaccination history against SRLV begins with the first attempts using whole virus inactivated by different methods, such as heat, formalin or polyethyleneimine, and employed without adjuvant, with Freund incomplete adjuvant or with aluminum hydroxide to vaccinate sheep. These formulations induced the production of precipitating antibody against the virus, but did not correlate with protection against challenge. Instead, the high antibody production worsened lentivirus-induced arthritis.
Similar immunization experiments were performed using purified CAEV obtained from tissue culture, inactivated with formalin and formulated with Freund’s complete adjuvant, which resulted in more severe arthritis that developed more rapidly. The therapeutic potentialities of this formulation were also tested following intraarticular inoculation of inactivated CAEV into persistently infected goats that had developed the greatest carpal joint swelling. In spite of the huge antibody production in immunized animals, viral challenge exacerbated lentivirus-induced arthritis.
Following these experiments, SRLV recombinant proteins became available and were tested in adjuvant formulations. The objective was to provide viral protein to antigen presenting cells, which would present processed epitopes to CD4 T cells in the major histocompatibility (MHC) class II context, inducing antibody responses. Specifically, envelope protein from strain CAEV-63 was administered intramuscularly using immunostimulating complexes (ISCOM) and Quil A Saponin. Neutralizing antibody production was then evaluated in vitro against heterologous CAEV strains using sera from immunized animals. As expected, antibody production was high, and neutralizing antibodies against the heterologous strain were detected; but, protection against in vivo challenge was not assessed. In spite of the production of neutralizing antibodies, some animals centered the response against other non-neutralizing immunodominant epitopes, likely enhancing viral infection. This was the first attempt to potentiate protection against heterologous challenge, which is a key point when designing a vaccine against the highly heterogeneous SRLV group.
There is strong evidence that virus-specific CD4 T-cell responses are crucial to control persistent infections caused by lentiviruses. In order to better stimulate this cell subpopulation, Freund’s incomplete adjuvant (FIA) mixed with a synthetic peptide from CAEV-GAG protein encompassing a CD4 T-cell epitope was used to immunize three caprine leucocyte antigen (CLA)-haplotype defined groups of goats. T-cell proliferative responses were stronger in vaccinated animals, although they had a transiently higher proviral load compared to controls at early stages. No relationship was found between CLA and the ability to control virus replication or between viral load and production of IFN-γ or IL-4, but a clear correlation between viral load and expression of granulocyte-monocyte colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) was observed in the early phase of infection, when macrophage maturation occurs together with viral replication.
Overall, these studies point out that great care should be taken when designing vaccine candidates against lentiviruses. Indeed, SRLV might have developed a yet unknown strategy to manipulate the immunological response of CD4+ T-cells, either directly or by affecting the expression of immunomodulators in infected antigen-presenting cells, as already shown for macrophages [17,18]. Depending on these modulators, the expression of specific molecules on the surface of macrophages could affect permissiveness to certain strains, as suggested in recent studies.
3. Live Attenuated Vaccines
After the first discouraging trials with inactivated virus, live attenuated vaccines clearly stimulated vaccine research against SRLV in the 1990s. Attenuated virus vaccines have been assessed for the prevention of a wide range of viruses, such as influenza virus, SIV, EIAV, chicken pox or yellow fever viruses, leading to different degrees of protection. FIV vaccines based on modified attenuated live viruses induce moderate levels of cellular immunity and significant antibody responses, conferring increased protection rates, compared with subunit vaccines. Regarding EIAV, multiple immunization strategies have been explored, but among attenuated viruses, inactivated virus particles, protein subunits, DNA vaccines and live vectors, the highest level of protection has been reached when using attenuated viruses, likely due to the continuous antigen exposure and optimized maturation of the immune response. However, there has always been an inverse relationship between the level of protection and the level of attenuation, indicating that a minimal replication rate is needed for eliciting a protective immune response in these strategies. In line with this, an EIAV attenuated strain (DLV120) obtained by in vitro passages in donkey cells, which confers protection against EIAV challenge [25,26,27,28], has been extensively used in China with promising results. However, antigenic variation poses a major obstacle to lentivirus vaccine development, since ENV-based vaccines are highly effective, and there is an inverse correlation between the level of protection and the level of sequence variation (high in ENV sequences) between the challenge and the vaccine strains [29,30]. Thus, previous knowledge on circulating strains would be essential for designing an effective vaccine against EIAV.
The use of SRLV attenuated viruses obtained by deletion of selected genes, mainly vif, tat and dUTPase, also looks promising. The protective role these mutants play has been determined using conventional or DNA vaccination, which may prevent variation in infection efficacy and allows genetic manipulation to generate partially deleted retroviral genomes. In a series of studies, Harmache and his group demonstrated that vif- and tat-deleted genomes could be used as live attenuated vaccines. However the corresponding deletions affected the viral replication in different forms. The vif- deleted viruses were highly attenuated, whereas the tat-deleted ones were slightly attenuated. Immunization with vif-deleted viruses failed to protect goats against homologous pathogenic challenge, since arthritis was evident in spite of a significant antibody production. SRLV tat gene was found dispensable for viral replication, since persistent infection was achieved upon transfection with a tat-deleted CAEV Cork molecular clone in caprine cells. Furthermore, the induced seroconversion after in vivo direct inoculation of the tat-deleted proviral DNA, as well as the isolation of the virus, further confirmed persistent infection. Priming with the tat-deleted CAEV Cork molecular clone resulted in partial protection against CAEV Cork infection, as the challenge virus was undetectable in protected animals. However, this vaccine was still pathogenic, since histopathological changes were observed in joints from CAEV tat-immunized animals, suggesting the avoidance of its use in the field. However, it is not fully clear whether these mild lesions are reflecting virus-induced damage or, rather, if they may represent a curative transient inflammation towards recovery.
Icelandic researchers explored, subsequently, the use of a low pathogenic molecular clone, which differed only by 1% in nucleotide sequence from a highly pathogenic molecular clone, both obtained from Icelandic infected sheep using molecular biology engineering. Intratracheal inoculation with high doses (107 TCID50) of the low pathogenic clone induced low antibody titers, suggesting a Th1-biased response. Although the vaccine failed to protect sheep against intratracheal challenge with 103 TCID50 of the highly pathogenic molecular clone, decreased numbers of viral isolations and milder lesions were observed in immunized animals, suggesting a diminished viral load compared to controls. Furthermore, these experiments clearly confirmed the inverse correlation between the level of attenuation and the degree of protection.
Compared to wild-type viruses, dUTPase-deficient viruses have also shown an attenuated profile with similar delays between infection and seroconversion, similar frequencies of virus recovery from both blood-derived and mammary-derived macrophages, similar rates of divergence and similar organ distributions of viral RNAs, but milder severity in the mononuclear cell infiltrations of the synovia. However, no vaccination studies have been conducted with these artificially deleted mutants to explore if the level of attenuation is adequate.
This information encouraged the assessment of genotype E of SRLV with natural deletions in the dUTPase and tat genetic regions, as a candidate to protect against SRLV infections. Genotype E1 was firstly discovered in the Roccaverano goat breed from Piedmont (Italy) as a highly divergent SRLV. Analysis in vivo showed that although the virus does not cause detectable pathological signs; genotype E is prevalent and has been hiding from standard serological tests, due to its highly divergent structural proteins, and has also been inadvertently undetected by breeders and practitioners, due to the absence of symptoms. However, genotype E-specific serological tests have revealed 45% seropositivity in goats from the Sardinian island. Interestingly, genotype E1 (non-pathogenic) and B (highly pathogenic) co-infected goats do not show any clinical sign, suggesting a possible genotype E1-mediated natural protection against pathogenic strains. Interestingly, until these findings were published, the Roccaverano breed was believed resistant to CAEV infection, as proposed in other areas of the world with other indigenous breeds [38,40].
To determine if Roccaverano infection could protect from heterologous infection by immune mechanisms, goats were infected with Roccaverano (E1) and challenged with CAEV Cork (genotype B) strains. Animals infected with strain Roccaverano developed strong antibody and proliferative T-cell responses exclusively mounted against homologous antigens, arguing for a non-immune protective mechanism. However, the cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response of E1 infected animals was exclusively directed against heterologous-strain (B) infected cells and not against homologous-strain (E1) infected cells. This feature could explain both, the level of protection achieved and the lack of infiltrates in Roccaverano infected goats. Furthermore, infection with Roccaverano strain protected goats from CAEV Cork challenge in terms of proviral load, lesion development and transmission to the offspring. Although this may constitute a step forward in SRLV control, no sterilizing immunity was achieved, since CAEV Cork provirus was detectable in immunized animals. There are also some issues to be elucidated, for example, whether Roccaverano infection could protect against other genotype B strains or, even, against other genotypes.
4. Plasmid and Vaccinia Immunization Strategies
Plasmid DNA immunization induces both strong humoral and cellular immune responses against multiple infections in different hosts. Following DNA uptake, cells will transcribe and produce the encoded proteins. In this way, antigens are presented, mimicking natural mechanisms. The inoculated plasmids may also encode any interesting molecule that enhances or modulates the immune response. The efficiency of DNA uptake is critical to reach acceptable antigen levels for triggering an immune response. In this regard, different methods have been developed to improve transfection efficiency, based on the administration of DNA in the context of liposomes, cationic lipids, nanoparticles or gold beads.
Cheevers and collaborators obtained promising results by applying intradermal genetic immunization against SRLV using env- and tat-naked plasmids together with immunomodulatory plasmids encoding caprine IFN-γ. Firstly, they found that goats administered with pUC-CAEVenv plasmids mounted Th1 responses, validating this strategy against SRLV infection. In addition, they characterized immune responses to CAEV ENV antigen in terms of quality and quantity of antibody production or cytokines involved and, also, evaluated the possibility to redirect immune response by using immunomodulatory components, such as IFN-γ encoding plasmids. Goats primed with env plasmids and boosted with purified ENV in FIA did not develop severe arthritis after challenge with pathogenic CAEV Cork, whereas control groups showed evident lesions in carpal joints 428 days after boosting. In addition, antibody response was suppressed, and proviral load in prescapular lymph node, as well as virus recovery rates were decreased in vaccinated animals, suggesting suppression of viral replication. However, sterilizing immunity was not achieved, since vaccinated animals were not protected from infection, even though they were able to mount a defense against the challenge virus, a common finding in prime-boost vaccine trials.
Prompted by these quite encouraging results, different European research groups, including ours, began to explore the possibility of immunizing against VMV through gene delivery. Firstly, env from VMV strain Ev1 was administered in the presence of IFN-γ encoding plasmids to sheep in the vaginal mucosa using a gene gun. Specifically, DNA plasmids precipitated onto gold particles, individually or mixed, were bombarded through the vaginal mucosa. This strategy was undertaken to improve DNA uptake, since Langerhans cells of the sub-epithelium are supposed to be directly transfected upon gene gun delivery. Indeed, the amount of plasmid needed is significantly lower compared to naked DNA strategies. Following immunization, sheep developed a protective immune response in terms of isolation of the virus, proviral load in blood and the presence of challenge virus assessed by PCR. However, this protection against strain Ev1 was not long lasting, since two years post-challenge, the presence of challenge virus in immunized animals was evidenced by PCR/sequencing. Interestingly, this protection was inversely related to the production of neutralizing antibodies in the animals and was not related to the MHC antigens assessed (OLA DRB-I). Although association has been found between CLA-antigen and SRLV-arthritis susceptibility in Saanen goats [46,47], so far, no association between host genetics, MHC or CLA genotyping, and the capacity to restrict SRLV infection has been reported in immunization studies [16,45]. However, employing new generation sequencing, TMEM154, an ovine transmembrane protein, has been associated to reduced/increased susceptibility to SRLV infection, even though resistance was not complete [48,49]. In this context, a CCR5 deletion located in an intron that modifies the levels of protein expression has been related to reduced susceptibility to infection.
The env gene has demonstrated, so far, the ability to immunize sheep and goats and to confer partial protection against challenge with homologous virus. However, due to the hypervariability of this region, protection against relatively distant genotypes is still debatable. In addition, while involvement of antibodies in protection against other lentiviral infections, such as HIV, appears to be widely accepted, in SRLV infection, evidence for the contrary is accumulating. Therefore, a series of studies have been performed to test the efficacy of the gag gene (more conserved among strains) in search of immune responses correlating with protection, likely Th1. Together with plasmid inoculation, recombinant vaccinia virus or adenoviruses have been incorporated in prime/boost immunization strategies that would help to develop a strong antibody response.
In sheep, mucosal priming using plasmids conjugated with polyethylenimine particles (PEI) and boosting with modified vaccinia Ankara virus expressing SRLV gag and/or env resulted in the development of faint humoral and cellular responses against the challenge strain. Immunity was not sterilizing, and disease was not clearly prevented. Protection was achieved in terms of decreased proviral load in env-immunized animals. However, like in other studies describing protection, pathology was not reduced in the env-immunized animals. On the other hand, gag-immunized animals showed a reduced pathology score, likely reflecting the limited immune response elicited with this strategy.
Alternatively, when env and gag genes were delivered by epidermal bombardment using the same prime/boost strategy, cellular and humoral immune responses became stronger compared to that obtained with PEI administration and comparable to those obtained after gene gun delivery in vaginal mucosa. Particularly, postchallenge CTL responses were significantly increased in env- and gag-env-immunized groups. Challenge virus was detectable in almost all immunized animals, but gag and gag-env groups showed a decreased proviral load in blood and mediastinal lymph node, respectively. In terms of pathology, env groups showed an increased pathology score, and other groups did not differ from the control group. The pathology score observed after immunization could reflect the immune response activation or, rather, the pro-inflammatory processes occurring along viral infection. Which of these processes took place could not be elucidated in these experiments, due to the short period from challenge to slaughtering (at 84 days post-challenge) compared to other plasmid vaccination studies.
B7 costimulatory molecules expressed on the surface of antigen-presenting cells provide the essential second signal in the immunological synapsis for effective antigen presentation and proper T-cell clonal expansion [53,54]. Previous to their use as adjuvants in vaccination studies, we had shown that ovine B7 molecules are upregulated in infected asymptomatic animals, in contrast with clinically infected animals. These molecules may, thus, improve effective antigen presentation and prevent anergy development, which encouraged their use in the immunization inoculum. Accordingly, the most promising results within this series of prime/boost immunizations were obtained with the inclusion of plasmids encoding costimulatory molecules besides gag-env genes, all delivered by gene gun bombardment. Immune responses were similar in potency and quality in gag plus env-immunized groups, but inclusion of both B7 molecules (CD80 and CD86) empowered antibody production and anticipated CTL responses. Most importantly, the challenge virus was only detectable by sensitive PCR in half of the immunized animals that received both B7 molecules, it being the first study showing infection clearance. However, as highlighted before in plasmid immunization and, also, in vaccination studies with attenuated viruses, the pathology score was, again, increased in the most reactive groups, even those showing no detectable virus. This further supports the idea that SRLV-related lesions after stimulating the immune system should be carefully interpreted. Infiltration and inflammation detected in target tissues of immunized animals might reflect the immune response elicited by these animals, rather than tissue damage derived from viral infection. Unfortunately, whether these inflammatory signs would have eventually disappeared remains unknown, since pathology evaluation was, again, performed only 12 weeks after challenge.
One of the possible problems of the immunization protocols discussed so far may have been the limited number of booster immunizations involved. With this in mind, a strategy based on a combination of plasmid and protein delivery using the gag gene alone repeatedly during 2.5 years followed by a booster immunization with GAG precursor was implemented, inducing antibody and T-cell proliferative responses that failed to protect against challenge with pathogenic VMV. Strikingly, the virus was more easily isolated from vaccinated sheep compared to control animals, suggesting that immune responses induced by this vaccination strategy enhanced viral replication.
Besides the natural host, mice immunization models have also been investigated. The main limitation is murine resistance to SRLV infection, so that protection cannot be measured. Genetic immunization with plasmids was first described to direct the immune response towards a Th1 profile in mice, but extrapolation to larger animals may not always mirror this profile. Mice have been immunized with optimized plasmids for expression of p16, p25 or the entire GAG protein through injection of naked DNA. The vaccine candidate, based on p16 and p25, was able to enhance humoral responses, which, as shown by several groups, do not correlate with immune protection. Instead, immunization with the entire GAG protein did not result in production of antibodies, but unfortunately, cellular responses were not measured. Interestingly, elimination of inhibitory nucleotide sequences (INS) in the p16 nucleotide sequence slightly reduced protein expression in vitro, but induced higher antibody responses in vivo.
Overall, plasmid DNA immunization alone or in combination using prime/boost strategies induced competent Th1-biased immune responses together with the production of antibodies and conferred an ability to control homologous challenge in terms of viral load, but often without achieving sterilizing immunity. So far, antibody response has provided more disadvantages than benefits in controlling SRLV infection. Nevertheless, protection from inflammatory responses has not been achieved, and most short-term studies have been unable to discriminate between an effective immune response and virus-induced inflammation. In spite of the fruitful contributions yielded against homologous challenge, plasmid immunizations may still present some limitations, such as protection against heterologous challenge, an important feature when dealing with viruses subjected to high antigenic variation, even able to cross species barriers, such as SRLV.
Vaccinia recombinant viruses have also been used alone or in combination with other strategies as mentioned above. This model is especially recommended when antibody responses are needed and is currently being used in vaccination trials against HIV. The only study in which recombinant vaccinia expressing env from CAEV was assessed demonstrates Th-2 biased responses with high antibody production, even when IL-12 was included in the inoculum, but failed to protect against challenge, since lesions were as evident in vaccinated as in control animals.
Comparatively, plasmid DNA administration induced a Th1-biased response with the production of IgG2, suggesting that biasing to Th1 responses highly depends on the delivery type, rather than by providing Th1-immunomodulatory cytokines.
Another immunization approach is based on pseudotyped vectors, which result in the production of pseudovirions expressing the desired viral proteins, but being unable to generate progeny pseudovirions. Hence, this strategy uses only one cycle of infection, thus avoiding persistent infections. Pseudovirions contain normal GAG and POL structural proteins and may present a pantropic ENV, such as the vesicular stomatitis virus protein G (VSV-G) or a lentiviral ENV protein. In pseudovirions, the lentiviral genome has been either substituted by a marker gene or deleted to inactivate progeny formation. In this strategy, the viral antigen is exposed, and the immune response takes place, but is not exacerbated. In addition, the presentation pathways following the administration of the pseudoviruses mimic those conducted with natural live viruses, since directly transduced cells will process antigen endogenously, and single particles can be phagocytized and processed as an exogenous antigen, stimulating both cellular and humoral responses.
Using this methodology, a lentiviral DNA vaccine against HIV driven by LTR of CAEV has been applied, reaching high expression levels and inducing high IFN-γ responses in mice and macaques. Pseudovirions controlled by CAEV LTR do not require TAT transactivation and are not functional for integration mediated by HIV integrase, increasing vaccine safety and efficacy.
Pseudotyping other retroviruses, such as murine leukemia virus (MLV), with ENV from SRLV has been as frustrating as using VMV cores pseudotyped with VSV-G. However SRLV pseudotyped vectors have become available and could be explored [19,64,65] in future vaccination studies.
6. Alternative Immunity to Control SRLV
Innate immune response is gaining interest in the defense against lentiviral infections. Many research groups have centered their attention on restriction factors of the intrinsic immunity, able to directly recognize viral motifs and lead to their degradation. The most studied are the tripartite motif 5 (TRIM5) and apolipoprotein B mRNA-editing, enzyme-catalytic, polypeptide-like 3 (APOBEC3), which recognize viral p25 and viral RNA, respectively [66,67]. TRIM5-p25 heterodimers docked to the pre-integration complex likely suffer degradation by the proteasome thanks to TRIM5 polyubiquitination, thus diminishing the integration of retrotranscribed viral DNA into the host cell genome and, therefore, viral infection. APOBEC, instead, reacts with the nascent viral DNA after retrotranscription, by deaminating cytosines, hence causing detrimental mutations in the viral genome. However, a deaminase-independent mechanism of APOBEC3 restriction has been demonstrated in humans and mice. Both TRIM5 and APOBEC have been considered responsible for the maintenance of the species specific barrier, as well as for the determination of the permissiveness of a given cell type. Although human TRIM5 and APOBEC3 restrict HIV faintly, they restrict distant viruses such as EIAV efficiently. Thus, TRIM5 and APOBEC3 are more potent in restricting heterologous infection than infection caused by the lentivirus of the corresponding particular species. This is of particular interest in infections by SRLV that affect two different species. Lentiviruses have evolved in different ways to evade these restrictive pathways; for instance, the high variability present in particular sites of p25 could be a consequence of the selective pressure exerted by TRIM5 and the binomial Vif-APOBEC3 where the VIF protein present in all the lentiviruses, with the exception of EIAV, interacts with APOBEC molecules, thereby excluding APOBEC from the virion particle and evading restriction mechanisms.
So far, ovine and caprine TRIM5 have been described genetically, and some of their molecular species have shown the ability to restrict, in vitro, the infection by strain Ev1. In line with studies carried out against HIV using TRIM5 from rhesus monkeys, ovine TRIM5 is able to restrict HIV-2 incoming particles. These encouraging results may open new insights in lentiviral therapy using ovine or caprine molecules of the innate immunity against different lentiviruses, including SRLV.
Studies on small ruminant APOBEC have identified three genes that result in the translation of four proteins, Z1, Z2, Z3 and Z2-Z3, depending on their Zinc domain, responsible for the catalytic activity. SRLV Vif is promiscuous in excluding APOBEC from the virion particles, since it is able to bind APOBEC from different species. Studies are ongoing in our laboratory to gain knowledge on the contribution of APOBEC to SRLV infection.
Ovine or caprine molecules of the innate immunity may, thus, open new insights in lentiviral therapy and prophylaxis against SRLV.
7. Concluding Remarks
Valuable contributions have been made in the field of SRLV immunization in an attempt to design effective vaccination strategies against viral infections. So far, one of the most promising SRLV immunization studies is that conducted with the naturally attenuated Roccaverano E1 strain, leading to immunomediated protection against heterologous challenge with the pathogenic CAEV Cork strain. Furthermore, the use of SRLV such as env and/or gag in addition to costimulatory B7 gene-containing plasmids seems to be an attractive approach, at least to reach protection against homologous strains. This strategy could be adapted to pathogenic field strains. Although significant advances have been accomplished in SRLV immunization studies, there are still important questions to solve, such as identifying differences between inflammatory-to-curative and inflammatory-to-clinical responses, before an effective vaccine is considered applicable in field. Future trends involving pseudoviruses and particular innate immunity molecules may open new ways in defense against SRLV infections.
Funded by CICYT (AGL2010-22341-C04-01) and Gobierno de Navarra (IIQ14064.RI1). RR was funded by a CSIC JAE-Doc contract. We greatly acknowledge Gordon Harkiss and Barbara Blacklaws for help in carrying out immunization experiments and discussing immunization results.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
References and Notes
- Reina, R.; Berriatua, E.; Lujan, L.; Juste, R.; Sanchez, A.; de Andres, D.; Amorena, B. Prevention strategies against small ruminant lentiviruses: An update. Vet. J. 2009, 182, 31–37. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Shah, C.; Boni, J.; Huder, J.B.; Vogt, H.R.; Muhlherr, J.; Zanoni, R.; Miserez, R.; Lutz, H.; Schupbach, J. Phylogenetic analysis and reclassification of caprine and ovine lentiviruses based on 104 new isolates: Evidence for regular sheep-to-goat transmission and worldwide propagation through livestock trade. Virology 2004, 319, 12–26. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Grego, E.; Bertolotti, L.; Quasso, A.; Profiti, M.; Lacerenza, D.; Muz, D.; Rosati, S. Genetic characterization of small ruminant lentivirus in Italian mixed flocks: Evidence for a novel genotype circulating in a local goat population. J. Gen. Virol. 2007, 88, 3423–3427. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Peterhans, E.; Greenland, T.; Badiola, J.; Harkiss, G.; Bertoni, G.; Amorena, B.; Eliaszewicz, M.; Juste, R.A.; Kr
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very high risk of being born blind or deaf. Some may not be born this way, but later may develop the health conditions. The chihuahua may suffer from full deafness or partial deafness, skeletal problems, heart problems, and reproductive issues.
Breeding two Merle parents together should never be done, as the risks for the pups being born with these conditions are extremely high. So high that the kennel club has banned the registration of Merle chihuahuas. We highly dissuade the breeding of these types of chi’s together so as not to punish any dogs life in such a way.
Some suggest that breeding a solid colored Chihuahua’s with a merle have safe outcomes. Contrary to these suggestions, studies have shown that even when doing this, there are still a significant amount of pups born with these health problems. Some Merle chihuahuas however are lucky and live their entire life without suffering from any of these symptoms.
However some dog owners do love to own and care for disabled dogs. My faith in humanity is always restored when I see people posting pictures or videos of themselves loving their blind dogs.
Phantom Merle Chihuahua
Or also known as a cryptic merle, is a chihuahua that contains the merle gene but doesn’t show any signs of being a merle. The identifiable coating colorations and blue eyes may not occur in the chihuahua. Scientifically named an “atypical merle” the phantom merle is still able to produce merle pups.
We recommend if you’re a breeder to have your chihuahua tested to make sure that your chihuahua doesn’t have the hidden phantom Merle gene.
Buying a merle chihuahua
Regardless of the controversy and pitfalls involved with this style of chihuahua coating, buying one will set you back quite a pretty penny. Anywhere from $2,000-$10,000 everywhere you look. Not to mention the hidden health cost fees involved with owning one. If you do happen to find one for a few hundred dollars, you are either lucky or there may be something very wrong with the dog.
The coating on these chihuahuas are remarkably beautiful and the price tag is a direct relation to that. You may wish to inquire on the parents of the puppy to make sure both parents aren’t Merle, as the puppy runs a higher risk of health conditions.
Please be aware that these dogs suffer from many health conditions and if you do decide to purchase one, please take care of the health of the Chihuahua as responsibly as you can.
Merle chihuahua quick information
- Merle chihuahuas are not purebred and therefore may have a slightly different temperament.
- May suffer from ocular and auditory health problems.
- Price tag ranging from $2,000-$10,000.
- May be smaller or larger than a purebred due to cross breeding.
- The pigment modifier may chang the color of the coat (normally white or lighter colorations) and eyes (normally blue).
- The Merle gene is a dominant gene and not recessive.
- A chihuahua can have the Merle gene with no signs of being a merle also known as a “Phantom Merle”
- Many other breeds have the Merle gene including Dachshunds, Collies, Great Danes, American Pit Bull Terriers, and quite a number more.
- Unable to register a chihuahua with the Merle gene.
- Other specialty coatings that may be mixed with Merle are blue merle chihuahuas and brindle chihuahuas.
You may have heard the terms blue Chihuahua and/or merle Chihuahua, but have you wondered exactly what they mean. Chihuahuas come in virtually any color combination and a wide variety of patterns. Common colors are fawn, red, cream, chocolate, brown white and black.
What is a blue Chihuahua?
A blue Chihuahua is simply another color. Breeding one is difficult because you have to mix different colors including fawn and brown in hopes of getting one. The gene involved with the color is recessive, (a gene that gets trumped by a more dominant gene) so the chances are very low that a puppy may have the gene and chances are even lower than the puppy may have the full blue coat.
For these reasons the blue Chihuahua is rare and much sought after. They are known to have the same temperament and traits as any other Chihuahua.
The Merle Chihuahua
Although many describe “merle” as only a pattern, DNA testing identifies the “merle” gene but not the variety of colors and patterns seen in the coats of dogs with the gene. But unless you are talking to a geneticist, when people describe a dog as a merle they are referring to their coat pattern.
It is very common and popular in the Australian Shepherd breed and relatively common among Collies and Shelties. But there is some controversy among Chihuahua owners and breeders as to whether it is a risk for Chihuahuas.
At first glance the “merle” gene is dominant however, it is incompletely dominant. A dog that carries the double merle gene is not a pure-breed. The “double-merle” dog is mostly white with a few merle-colored spots. The only way you can produce a “double-merle” is by breeding together two merles. This statistically will produce a litter that is ¼ solid-colored, half will be simple merles and ¼ will be double-merles.
The merle gene not only alters the base coat color, but it also modifies eye color and coloring on the nose and paw pads. The merle gene occasionally changes the dark eyes to blue.
Health issues can occur when there are two copies of the merle gene. They have a higher risk of being deaf. Recent research indicates that the majority of health issues occur in dogs carrying both piebald (spotted with two colors, usually black & white) and the merle gene.
Dogs who are “double-merle” may be deaf or blind or both and can carry ocular defects in blue or colored eyes, causing blindness. Don’t shy away from getting a merle Chihuahua. Just be sure that if you get one from a breed that that breeder is a responsible one. A good breeder knows how to produce healthy merle Chihuahuas.
Deaf, blind, and deaf and blind dogs can have good lives when cared for properly. There are a variety of internet groups that are dedicated to supporting caregivers of such dogs.
Meet Remedy Jane
Meet my Remedy Jane, a blue merle Short-haired Chihuahua.
Mix merle chihuahua
Health Problems Associated with the Merle Allele
Both heterozygous merle (Mm) and homozygous double merle (MM) dogs may exhibit auditory and ophthalmic abnormalities including mild to severe deafness, increased intra ocular pressure, ametropia, microphthalmia and colobomas. The double merle genotype may also be associated with abnormalities of skeletal, cardiac and reproductive systems.
Due to the amount of colors and patterns occurring in the Chihuahua breed the ethical breeding of the merle pattern can be much more difficult than in other breeds who limit the allowed colors and patterns. The purpose of these guidelines is to give beginning tools to avoid or limit the production of hidden merles.
- Merle should never be bred to another merle. The purposeful production of double merle puppies is never ethical.
- If you suspect a dog MAY be a hidden or cryptic merle, it is essential that you have the genetic testing performed to be certain if the pattern is present. A hidden merle is a merle dog who does not exhibit the merle pattern because their coat color does not show the pattern. Merling is not normally shown in red, gold, fawn, or coat colors. Cryptic merles are dogs that are the appropriate coat color, but do not show any or very slight merling which causes them to appear as non merles. Breeding a dog to test whether or not he/she is a hidden or cryptic merle is not sufficient, as Chihuahuas often have small litters and may carry colors that would hide the merle in their offspring.
- Merle should not be purposefully crossed with colors or patterns that will create hidden merle puppies. This includes sable, cream, ee/recessive red, or brindle. It is important to note that not all adult “hidden merles” will have visual merling as puppies. Intentional breeding of merles to colors and patterns which produce merling greatly increases the risk of unintentional future merle to merle breedings, which is unethical.
- Many merle breeds limit the amount of white markings merles exhibit; at this time CCA recommends that we follow this tradition. In with tradition a merle should not be bred into lines that carry piebald (white dogs with spots) or extreme white spotting patterns (dogs that are mostly white with minimal spotting). Merles should be bred to dogs that have up to 33% (1/3) white coats, such as a typical irish markings pattern (typically a white collar, legs and tail tip). This arises from the recognition that the incidence of vision and hearing problems increase when white markings cover the eyes and/or ears. Scientific research has not been completed regarding merle pattern and white spotting present in a single although these patterns have been extensively studied separately. This area of the guidelines may be revised when research has been completed.
- The Merle pattern is best shown on a solid black or black and tan pointed dog. Chocolate or blue, with or without tan points, are another option to use in a breeding program.
- When registering puppy colors/patterns be sure to always include the merle markings even if they are just slightly present or are no longer visible. If genetic testing that a Chihuahua is a hidden merle, its registration should indicate “with merle markings”, although the markings may have never been visible or have faded/muted at the time of registration. The identification of the gene’s presence is the very purpose of testing.
- All merle should be CERF and BAER tested before being bred.
The guidelines above provide very basic information. To achieve a greater understanding of “color inheritance” genetics,the Chihuahua Club of America strongly recommends that breeders do further, in-depth research.
Who knew a dog could be blue? Have you ever seen a blue merle long hair Chihuahua? Or did you even know it existed?
Blue is one of the coat colors of a chi, but it can be challenging to breed. It can be hit and miss. To get a blue merle Chihuahua, different colors need to be mixed, and at best, you can hope the outcome is blue. The color of a dog’s coat is determined by a recessive gene making it difficult to predict the outcome.
What is a Merle Chihuahua?
Among dog enthusiasts, merle refers to the coat pattern of a dog. If a Chihuahua carries one merle gene, it is acceptable. But, a double merle Chihuahua indicates that the dog is not purebred. The merle gene alters the base coat color of a dog, and it also modifies eye color, nose coloring, and the coloring of paw pads.
The Health of Merle Chihuahuas
Though the merle coat is highly sought after, any variations such as red merle Chihuahuas and lavender merle Chihuahuas may have more health issues.
Merle is a gene modifier and, while producing a pretty coat, can be the culprit when it comes to some health issues. For that reason, two merles should never be bred.
The merle gene can cause deafness and blindness in dogs.
Is Merle a Natural Color?
Historically, merle Chihuahuas did not exist in the breed even though other dogs had merle coats. There is a debate about how the color was introduced in Chihuahuas. Some people say that the merle coat was a result of a genetic mutation that occurred naturally.
The alternate theory is that merle coats were introduced by breeding the Chihuahua with another dog breed, which already carried a merle gene.
The merle pattern happens because the gene causes a dilution of color. That means that darker spots will appear in some places, and it will be lighter in others. The color splotches will appear in different shapes and sizes. They can also occur in different colors, as in a silver merle Chihuahua or a chocolate merle Chihuahua.
Merle Chihuahuas did not appear until around 15 years ago, so it is a pretty new color, and they are sold as rare. But remember, even though these dogs are popular, they are not the breed standard, and they may have health problems.
More to Know about Merles
The merle gene comes from larger breeds. If you get a merle Chihuahua, he is likely to be larger than the breed standard.
Chocolate merle Chihuahuas and other merles may look pretty, but they are rare because they are not natural. Many reputable breeders will not sell merle coated Chihuahuas because of the controversy surrounding them.
When the merle gene lightens the coat, it also affects other things. The inside of the ears and the eyes may also lighten, causing the dog to be deaf and blind.
Caring for a Merle Chihuahua
If your Chi is in good health, there is not much more to caring for a Chi with a merle coat than any other Chihuahua.
Chihuahuas are confident and resilient dogs, but they can be temperamental if not correctly trained. Chihuahuas are small dogs, so they will be quite cautious, so they do not get hurt. They are protective of their bodies, so quick movements around them may scare them.
If you start training and socializing your Chi early, this will benefit them. Start training them when they are puppies, so that you can teach them to be calm. People must also act calmly around the Chihuahua, so that the dog also learns to be calm.
Take your pup on social outings early on, so he learns how to behave around various people and in various situations.
Love and Attention
Chihuahuas are affectionate and need to be shown love and affection in return. They love to be held and snuggled regularly. Everyone in the family needs to show affection, so that he is comfortable with everyone and not just one person.
Chis are great with older children who are calm and loving, but they may be afraid and become aggressive with younger children if they get scared.
Chihuahuas like to burrow when they snuggle. If you have blankets available, your merle Chihuahua may burrow under the blanket and snuggle in for a long winter’s nap.
Feeding Your Merle
The metabolism of a Chihuahua puppy is relatively high. You should always make sure there is food available, so your dog does not become hypoglycemic. You can feed your adult chi twice a day.
Sometimes, Chihuahuas will play with their food. They may also take food and hide it in the furniture or some other little nook.
Chihuahuas will work off their food when they exercise. They have a lot of energy, but they can get enough exercise in small spaces because of their size. Even if you do not take long family walks, the Chihuahua will typically be able to burn off calories.
Is a Merle Chihuahua for you?
Because there is a lot of controversy surrounding the merle coated Chihuahua, you need to make your own informed choice when it comes to getting a Chihuahua in a standard color or looking for one with a merle coat.
Ensure you understand that merles are not purebred (even if the breeder tells you it is) and that breeding two merles can mean trouble for the puppies.
The merle Chihuahua is beautiful, but you need to be aware of the greater possibility of health issues that can come along with the merle coat.
If you are undecided, a brindle Chihuahua also makes an excellent choice. This coat pattern is also rare and can be difficult to find, but it has been around for a long time. Both parents must carry the recessive brindle gene to get a brindle coat (striped like a tiger).
Whatever coat you choose, you are sure to end up with a loving and affectionate companion.
Stephanie was born and raised in Saskatchewan and currently lives in Alberta, Canada. She started her career as a school teacher twenty years ago and has taught English Language Arts to students in grades three through twelve. She is currently exploring her love of writing and exploring topics she is interested in while also learning more in her field of expertise. She is passionate about lifelong learning.
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The Merle Chihuahua. Why the controversy?
We have had some lovely photos of merle chihuahuas sent into the blog. They are such an unusual colour combination that we thought it would be good to look at the history of this pattern. Goodness me what a hotbed of intrigue we uncovered. Who knew that there was so much controversy over the merle chihuahua!
What does ‘merle’ mean?
Merle refers to the unusual colouring of the dog’s coat. Sometimes referred to as dappling. It is the result of a gene modifier that changes the pigmentation at the base of the coat. The result of this gene is the unusual light and dark patches. The chihuahua may also have blue eyes.
Why is a merle chihuahua controversial?
It has been suggested that the merle gene is not naturally present in a chihuahua so to produce this colour pattern there must have been some cross breeding back in the chihuahua’s blood line. The merle gene is naturally present in other dogs, like Great Danes and Collies.
The Kennel Club no longer allows the registration of the merle chihuahua although it has done in the past. Some argue that the merle pattern has been present in chihuahuas since the 1940s and the kennel club has been Ok with it for 70 years so to suddenly decide they are cross breeds now is a bit harsh.
Completely contrary to the above view others state that the merle chihuahua has only been around for 15 years and has been specifically bred to produce an unusual colour combination to appeal to buyers. They suggest that merle chihuahuas can be prone to specific health problems that are directly related to the merle gene.
Do merle chihuahuas have health problems?
There is some debate and opinions differ on this. Some suggest that the merle chihuahua will have health issues such as sight problems, hearing issues and possibly sperm deficiencies. Similar suggestions of ill health are associated with blue chihuahuas as well and it is suggested that you do not breed from two blues. Although the Kennel club does allow the registration of blues.
It is for reasons of health issues that the kennel club state that they do not allow the registration of merles. (Taken from their website)
‘’With effect 01 March 2009, the Kennel Club will no longer register puppies whelped from a merle parent, mated on or after this date. This is because the merle gene in this breed carries an increased risk of impaired hearing and sight problems.’’
Others suggest that there is no more risk in breeding merle chihuahuas than any other breed if it is done responsibly. That problems only start to occur when two merles are bred together (known as MM.) The feeling is that if the parent is healthy and only one parent is a merle (Mm) then you have no more risks than any other merle dog breeds.
Do you have a ghost merle?
It is possible to have a merle chihuahua and not know. If your chihuahua is light in colouring the light pigmentation that occurs with the merle gene will not show. These are called ghost or phantom merles.
Does my merle chihuahua need more attention?
If your puppy is healthy then no. If she has blue eyes there might be a sensitivity to bright sunlight. Some suggest that your merle chihuahua could be slightly larger than average.
Are merle chihuahuas rare?
Not especially, but there is always going to be breeders who jump on the popularity bandwagon and charge over the odds for this type of colour marking. If you are buying a merle do check the parents are not both merle and be aware that you won’t’ be able to register your dog. Similarly, some breeders go out of their way to suggest they are more responsible by not having merles in the bloodline.
However, the clampdown on this coat colour seems to continue and you are not allowed to show him at formal dog shows.
So, there you have it. You pay your money and take your choice.
We would love to have your opinions about merles, do you breed them or do you own one? Have they had health issues? Please leave your comments below.Washington State University, Pullman is nearing its $1 billion goal to raise new funding for research and operations through The Campaign for Washington State University. So far, the campaign has raised $900 million.
Washington State University molecular anthropologist Brian Kemp used genetic method to address classic questions about the entrance of humans into the Americas. Professor Kemp studied genetic information that extracted from the tooth of an adolescent girl, Naia, who fell into a sinkhole in the Yucatan 12,000 to 13,000 years ago. His discovery will help resolve a longstanding debate about the origins of the first inhabitants of the Americas and the possible connection between the first people and modern Native Americans.
A Washington State University researcher, Ming Xian, has been awarded $1.5 million from the National Institutes of Health for his research of hydrogen sulfide in treatments of heart disease, traumatic shock and blood loss, complications of diabetes and possibly even Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.
On May 2nd, 2013, a very important addition to the WSU Pullman campus was dedicated. The Veterinary and Biomedical Research Building (VMRB) is now the seventh connected building in the WSU Research and Educational Complex. This new building will foster research relating specifically to biomedical questions revolving around human and animal health.
This development has been under construction since August 2010 and is the most newly added member to the Research and Educational Complex on the WSU Pullman campus. This $96 million dollar investment by WSU will focus on many health issues including:
- Heart health: How, by uncovering the biophysical mechanisms of cardiac muscle contraction, new discoveries into cardiac function and disease can be revealed.
- Emotional health: How understanding the basis of emotions of companion and production animals can improve the lives of people with affective disorders.
- Sleep and circadian rhythms: How rhythms, dysrhythms, and circadian biology affect animal biology and can improve and inhibit daily functions in animals and people.
- Neurological diseases: How neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease, can be treated more effectively by discovering the underlying causes and subsequently creating treatments to repair the loss of functionality.
- Obesity and Diabetes: How obesity and diabetes can be prevented by studying and understanding the relationship between the consumption of food and how energy is consequently regulated into the body.
- Drug addiction: How the biological actions of commonly abused drugs can be used to reverse the destrctive nature of addiction and help prevent the relapses of drug users.
This research facility is operating east of the Martin Stadium entrance and south of the Beasley Coliseum parking lot. This building boasts 77,250 net square feet (128,000 gross square feet) of state-of-the-art space, highly suitable for biomedical research, health science teaching, and research programs. Also included in this structure is a vivarium (an indoor facility for safely housing animals and plants in their natural environments for humane scientific observation), which will allow for gene targeting of the animals and provide necessary quarantined space to guarantee uncontaminated research. These labs and offices were specifically designed with the Veterinary Medicine Department of Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience in mind.
On the subject of this exciting new development, WSU regent Scott Carson remarks, “This building is the beginning. It’s our opportunity to compete for those wonderful young people that will be coming here in the future - the researchers that will do wonderful work because of the collaborative environment that this represents.”
Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) is one of the top leaders in research benefiting to animal and human health and well being. In fact, solely during the 2006 fiscal year, the research faculty placed the CVM well into the top tier of all veterinary schools by working with over $12.5 million in competitively funded research.
Some of these specialized areas are:
*Food & water-borne diseases
*Cardiovascular medicine & physiology
*Immunology and infectious diseases
*Microbial genomics and proteomics
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Are you a lab supplier who is in need of information on life science research marketplaces, funding stats, and science product events in Washington?
Tags: 2014, 2013, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Washington, UW, University of Washington, WA, WSU, Biotechnology Calendar, Washington State University, Washington Life Science, 2013 schedule of Events, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Life Science Marketing, Biotech current events, Seattle, Front Line, Hutch, Pullman
Mycology is the branch of biology devoted to the study of fungi (mushrooms), which, we're increasingly learning, are truly astonishing in what they can do. With the support of a grant from the EPA, a team of Washington State University scientists is developing a mycofiltration system to purify storm water of bacteria before it re-enters the urban water supply. Professor Marc Beutel is an environmental engineer who has joined forces with renowned mycologist Paul Stamets of Fungi Perfecti, a research laboratory and retail company also in Washington State. Together they have completed the first phase of a study titled Mycofiltration Biotechnology for Pathogen Management, wherein they have successfully used fungi to create a "living net" to filter effluent bacteria. The project was funded by an EPA Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) award.
Tags: 2014, 2013, Washington, WashU, mycofiltration, WA, Northwest, WSU, Washington State University, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Biotechnology, biotech industry, Front Line event, Northeast Region, Pullman
The Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (WADDL) within the College of Veterinary Medicine at Washington State University in Pullman is one of an elite group of veterinary facilities that use sophisticated molecular tools to diagnose disease, with labs for bacteriology, parasitology, pathology, serology, and virology. One threat they've been keeping a particularly keen eye out for this summer is West Nile Virus, which they have in fact found in horses, and which led the State to issue warnings for both animals (to have them vaccinated) and humans (to take extra precautions). West Nile is transmitted from infected birds, through biting mosquitos, and on to larger warm-blooded creatures. Because this has been such a hot, dry summer across most of the U.S., birds and mosquitos are finding themselves more often sharing the same rare watering hole, which may be causing the rise in West Nile cases. West Nile is an example of a zoonotic disease, meaning that it can be transfered between species. The role of veterinary labs like WADDL in tracking and identifying cases of these diseases is doubly important, then, as they work to prevent epidemics in our animals as well as ourselves.
A few weeks ago the Food and Drug Administration announced a ban on the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in all baby bottles and plastic children's cups. BPA is an estrogen-mimicking molecule that can cause significant developmental problems in children. The federal ban comes on the heels of several state BPA bans, including one in Washington State.
Washington State Legislature recently approved $37 million for the completion of the new Biomedical and Health Sciences Building in Spokane. This new funding came from a combination of WSU capital financing and state bonds which will allow construction to finish in the fall of 2013.
When the information superhighway bypassed the local library and newsstand to bring electronic content directly to our laptops, we were told it was a great day for the environment. Think of all those trees that would no longer need to be cut down for paper! What we didn't think about (right away, at least, in all the giddiness of the moment), was that those massive computer servers had to exist somewhere in real space, and boy were they ever going to use a lot of energy. And all those computers downloading information were going to be a drain on some city's power supply too.MI9 - A History of the Secret Service for Escape and Evasion
During WWII, Allied fighters trapped behind enemy lines were helped to escape by MI9. This branch of military intelligence, made up of secret agents and resistance fighters, established clandestine escape routes that criss-crossed Nazi-occupied Europe. Often at great risk to themselves and their families, the members of MI9 helped soldiers and airmen to find their way home.
Central to its success were figures such as Airey Neave, Jimmy Langley, Sam Derry, and Mary Lindell – one of only a few women parachuted into enemy territory for MI9. This scintillating account combines escape and evasion tales with the previously untold stories behind the establishment of this much-neglected secret organisation.
Historian Dr Helen Fry has written over 25 books on the Second World War with particular reference to British intelligence, espionage, prisoners of war and the secret war. She has also written a number of books about the 10,000 Germans who fought for Britain in WWII. Her acclaimed book The Walls Have Ears became a bestseller and was in the Daily Mail’s Top 8 Books of the Year on War. Her latest book MI9: A History of the British Secret Service for Escape and Evasion has attracted widespread media attention. Helen has appeared in numerous TV documentaries as well as live BBC news interviews. She is an Ambassador for The Museum of Military Intelligence and President of the Friends of the National Archives. Image cr. Greg Morrison
Matthew Stadlen is a broadcaster, writer and regular How To Academy host. Previously he was an LBC presenter, wrote The Matthew Stadlen Interview for the Telegraph and presented the TV series Five Minutes With and On The Road With for the BBC. He is a birdwatcher and photographer, and his book How To See Birds is out now. Twitter: @matthewstadlenPurpose: The telomere length of somatic cells shortens with age and with other endogenous and exogenous pathogenic factors. However, the effects of radiation therapy on telomere DNA of non-cancer tissue have not been thoroughly investigated. This study analyzed the telomere length of inpatients with cancer treated with radiation therapy to see whether the telomere lengths change in response to therapeutic radiation. Materials and methods: Twenty-five patients were enrolled in the study. The patients had lung cancer, prostate cancer, thyroid cancer, hepatoma, or rectal cancer. They received radiation therapy with a dose range of 15-74 Gy. The telomere lengths and telomere length distribution in peripheral leukocytes were analyzed by using a Southern blot-based method. Results: The telomere length and the telomere length distribution of the peripheral leukocytes did not change after radiation therapy. However, there was a significant proportional decrease in the short telomere fraction (< 4.4 kb) per day and per Gy. Conclusions: This observation suggested that the telomere length distribution of peripheral leukocytes could be affected by radiation therapy, and that the effect of radiation tends to appear in cells with short telomeres. Radiation therapy-associated somatic telomere length change within a short range of time, about three months or shorter, can be detected by analyzing the mean telomere length and telomere length distribution.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Radiological and Ultrasound Technology
- Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imagingCore Math Skills Program
Grades: 3 - 12
This math program features hundreds of quick and easy-to-use activities sure to help students reach mastery levels! Designed to be used throughout the school year, this essential program supports focused and comprehensive instruction of 25 core math skills introduced in most 3rd grade texts and reviewed in 4th grade texts.
Includes two binders, organized for quick access to material, plus a whiteboard-ready resource CD with printable PDFs of all activity pages along with assessments and progress charts in Microsoft Excel®. 325 pages of practice activities, record keeping charts, scope & sequence chart, 25 tests, and answer key.
2 Binders & Resource CDThe Planet’s Health Is Essential to Prevent Infectious Disease
Monday, May 16, 2016
The Zika virus, now detected in 42 countries, is only the latest in a series of diseases establishing a new normal for pandemics. Sars ravaged South China in 2003, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) shocked the Middle East in 2012, and Ebola devastated west Africa in 2014. We have seen avian influenza emerge in new geographies alongside mosquito-borne viruses, such as Chikungunya. Over the past 50 years, more than 300 infectious pathogens have either newly developed or reemerged in places where they had never been seen before.
These trends raise questions: Why are infectious diseases occurring with such frequency? Why are pandemics the new normal? The increased rate of outbreak is typically framed as a failure of the health system. Indeed, that is a critical component. But the conditions that allow for outbreak in the first place are rooted in environmental change.
The environmental degradation of natural ecosystems has resulted in many negative outcomes, one of which is the outbreak of infectious disease. The vast majority of human infectious diseases, such as malaria, Zika, and HIV/Aids, originate in animals. When we disrupt the natural environment and habitat of animals, we are poking the beast, so to speak.
Take deforestation. Destroying the delicate balance of ecological conditions in forests increases contact between humans and potential reservoirs of disease in the animal population. Evidence shows that Ebola may have been spread to humans who came into contact with infected wildlife, enabled by widespread deforestation. The environment plays a critical role in serving as a buffer against infectious disease. A failure to recognise the value of this service that forests provide means that deforestation and infectious disease outbreaks are likely to continue at alarming rates.
- Health CareImagine a technology which lets you upload knowledge directly to your brain.
That sort of innovation, similar to what the fictional character Neo used in “The Matrix,” would make learning instantaneous and might even render traditional schools obsolete.
That’s a future that Dr. Matthew Phillips and his team of investigators from HRL’s Information & System Sciences Laboratory are aiming to achieve with new software that they claim can directly feed information into the human brain.
Currently in its initial stages, the technology aims to enable the mind to learn new skills in a relatively shorter amount of time.
“Our system is one of the first of its kind. It’s a brain stimulation system,” explained Phillips.
“The specific task we were looking at was piloting an aircraft, which requires a synergy of both cognitive and motor performance.”
In their study, they copied electric signals in the brain of a trained pilot and uploaded them into subjects who were learning to be pilots themselves via a computer flight simulator.
The research, published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, revealed that the participants who received brain stimulation via electrode-embedded head caps learned faster, improving their piloting abilities 33% better than a group without the head caps.
Phillips understands that people may think the technology is too far out.
“It sounds kind of sci-fi, but there’s large scientific basis for the development of our system,” he said.
He added: “When you learn something, your brain physically changes. Connections are made and strengthened in a process called neuro-plasticity.”
“It turns out that certain functions of the brain, like speech and memory, are located in very specific regions of the brain, about the size of your pinky.”
In the very near future, Phillips sees their brain stimulation technology being implemented for more common and useful tasks such as language learning, driving and even exams.Detecting and Treating Mesothelioma with Imaging and Diagnosis
Writer : Dr. Naskan
Detecting and Treating Mesothelioma with Imaging and Diagnostics, An overview of the diagnostic modalities and imaging findings for mesothelioma.
In 1909, just a few years after the invention of medical X-ray imaging, the term "mesothelioma" was coined. Numerous studies and thousands of autopsies later, the term was coined to describe the link between asbestos and cancer. In 1931, as X-ray technology advanced, the framework for diagnosing and understanding mesothelioma was established.
Cardiothoracic surgeon Sai Yendamuri, M.D., FACS, chair of the Department of Thoracic Surgery at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, said, "Mesothelioma is an unusual tumor, both in its genesis and its clinical presentation." He specializes in cancers of the chest, lungs, and esophagus, including mesothelioma. –
He warned that the disease can be difficult to identify.. X-rays, MRIs, CTs, and nuclear scans using positron emission tomography (PET) are the most commonly used imaging modalities for diagnosing mesothelioma today. Yendamuri explained that imaging is typically performed once symptoms are evident and before an invasive biopsy is performed.
The Use of Chest X-Rays in Diagnostic Procedures
If you have symptoms of mesothelioma or another disease affecting the heart or lungs, an x-ray may be the first imaging tool you use to look for a cause for concern. Chest X-rays may be used as an initial screening for those at risk of developing mesothelioma, such as factory or construction workers and veterans with significant asbestos exposure.
There are no specific radiographic findings for mesothelioma, and they can be seen in other diseases such as metastatic carcinoma, lymphoma or benign asbestos disease even under ideal circumstances. Radiographs may miss small malignant pleural effusions, but large pleural effusions can obscure thickening or masses in the pleural cavity.
As for the importance of an X-ray in the
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16, 17, 32:21, 27; Hosea 13:14; Amos 9:2; Jonah 2:2; Hab. 2:5.
2. "HELL" A WHOLLY UNSUITABLE TRANSLATION
The second major handicap to correct understanding is the popular misconception that Hell (one of the principal words by which she'ol is translated in the English versions) is commonly considered to be a place or state of fiery, endless, present torments for the wicked.
As mentioned, in a total of thirty-eight instances out of the sixty-five, in the Authorized Version she'ol is rendered either "the grave" or "the pit." Now, if she'ol were to signify the lake burning with fire and brimstone in which the wicked are generally believed writhing in endless conscious misery, then why should she'ol ever be rendered "grave," or "pit," which it is in more than half the passages? The question is pertinent, and the answer is simple and basic: In Old Testament times she'ol meant the unseen secret resting place of all the dead—not the place of torment for the wicked.
In the first occurrence of: she'ol (in Gen. 37:35, "For I will go down into the grave [she'ol] unto my son mourning"), the revisers in the Revised Version added a marginal note, "Heb. she'ol, the name of the abode of the dead, answering to the Greek hades, Acts 2:27." Certain texts seem to suggest this definition ("If I wait, the grave is mine house," Job 17:13), and it presents no difficulties if we do not take it to imply that the dead are living in she'ol, which is contrary to other plain texts describing the state of man in death.
3. "GRAVEDOM"—MOST SUITABLE RENDERING FOR "SHE'OL."
A careful examination of the sixty-five she'ol pas sages will show that the word "gravedom"*—not primarily the place of interment or the locality of departed spirits, but the condition of death or the death-state—offers the nearest suitable preponderant rendering. The insertion of "gravedom" for she'ol into the sixty-five texts where she'ol appears, would clarify the whole problem, and afford the nearest possible uniform meaning.
Thus harmony and consistency would result, and a semblance of order come out of much confusion. Added to this is the fact that the New Testament Greek hades, equivalent of the Hebrew she'ol, may likewise be consistently translated gravedom. This is further reason for approving this, term.
4. SUSPENSION OF LIFE IN "SHE'OL" AWAITING RESURRECTION
In the Pentateuch and throughout the subsequent books of the Old Testament, she'ol is set forth as the place or state of death, or the dead, where deepest darkness and silence obtains, and in which there is total absence of life in any form. In she'ol all human activities cease. It is the awesome terminus toward which all human life moves. The dead who are therein give no sign of life. In she'ol nothing is seen or heard. There is no thought or perception, no activity of- any kind. Good and bad alike are there—confined in darkness, with suspension of all life.
* Employed by such eminent scholars as Canon Henry Constable, Prof. E. W. Bullinger, Congregationalist Chaplain J. H. Pettingell, and many others, as will be seen in volume 2.
See Bullinger, A Critical Lexicon, art., "Hell," p. 368; also The Companion Bible, Appendix 35, p. 33.
In she'ol "there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom" (Eccl. 9:10). Each is wrapped in heavy, unconscious sleep, there to await the call of the Life-giver on the resurrection morn. Beyond any question she'ol is the place of death, darkness, and silence—gravedom. [Gen. 37:35; Job 14:12, 13; Ps. 6:5, 49:19; Eccl. 9:5-10; Isa. 38:18.] The fact is particularly impressive that she'ol, or gravedom, stands in complete contrast with the state of the living (Deut. 30:15, 19; 1 Sam. 2:6-9), and is never connected with the living except by contrast. As to its duration, the dominion of she'ol, or the grave, lasts until, and will end only with, the resurrection which is its only exit. "I will ransom them from the power of the grave [she'ol]; I will redeem them from death... ; O grave [she'ol], I will be thy destruction" (Hosea 13:14. Cf. Ps. 16:10 with Acts 2:27).
Man himself, as a person or individual, goes down into she'ol, the state of death, and remains in she'ol during the entire period of death. Here are confirmatory texts:
"As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave [she'ol] shall come up no more" (Job 7:9)—that is, not until the resurrection.
"They [the wicked] spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave [she'ol]" (Job 21:13).
"Like sheep they [the foolish] are laid in the grave [she'ol]; death shall feed on them" (Ps. 49:14).
5. DARKNESS OF "SHE'OL" DISSIPATED BY LIGHT OF RESURRECTION
The concept of death and she'ol as equivalents runs all through the Old Testament (Prov. 5:5; 7:27; Song of Solomon 8:6; Isa. 28:15; Hab. 2:5). Resurrection was understood and anticipated. But the sadness of the Old Testament Hebrew contemplation of entrance into the dark, silent, lifeless state of she'ol, gives way to the New Testament Christian emphasis on the exit from the grave under the gospel, where she'ol's dominion is broken and its rule abrogated by the triumphant resurrection of Christ from its power and domain. Job's words thus somberly tie she'ol, darkness, corruption, and the dust, together in "gravedom." "If I wait, the grave [she'ol] is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness. I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister. And where is now my hope?... They shall go down to the bars of the pit [she'ol], when our rest together is in the dust" (Job 17:13-16).
However, under the gospel, the exit from gravedom through the assurance of resurrection, becomes luminous and central. Thus sadness gives way to gladness.
6. "SHE'OL": PLACE OF DEATH, NOT LIFE
She'ol is therefore the place or state of death. Not once does the Old Testament speak of she'ol in connection with life. Only in the poetical imagery of Isaiah 14 are those in she'ol said to perform the acts of living beings, as will be noted in Part IV. She'ol is therefore invariably connected with death. Hannah the prophetess speaks of God as the One who "bringeth down to the grave [she'ol], and bringeth up" (1 Sam. 2:6). In other words, she'ol is clearly, and always, the place of death.
"What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave [she'ol]" (Ps. 89:48). "The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell [she'ol] gat hold upon me" (Ps. 116:3).
7. "SHE'OL" AND "DEATH" ARE FREQUENTLY SYNONYMOUS
She'ol and "death" are often equivalents. Proverbs speaks of the strange woman whose "feet go down to death [maweth]; her steps take hold on hell [she'ol]" (Prov. 5:5). "Her house is the way to hell [she'ol], going down to the chambers of death" (chap. 7:27). So, we repeat, she'ol and "death" are used in Holy Writ as synonyms. Thus: "We have made a covenant with death, and with hell [she'ol] are we at agreement" (Isa. 28:15). And Habakkuk describes the proud as one who "enlarges his desire as hell [she'ol], and is as death" (Hab. 2:5). This is invariable from the earliest book of the Old Testament through to its close.
We therefore rightly conclude that she'ol is the grave, or gravedom—the silent, invisible place to which God told sinful Adam he must go—"dust thou art, and unto dust shall thou return" (Gen. 3:19)—not to a land of living ghosts. That was the understanding that Job had of she'ol, or the grave, as noted:
"If I wait, the grave [she'ol] is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness. I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.... They shall go down to the bars of the pit [she'ol], when our rest together is in the dust" (Job 17:13-16).
[This article deals only with the term Sheol and therefore extracted from the original text is section "B. Origin of 'Gehenna' (Ge Hinnom) Symbol of Final Destruction" where Froom deals with that subject]
C. Three Supporting Citations Break Down Under Scrutiny
1. RECOURSE TO WEAK ARGUMENTS AN UNWORTHY PROCEDURE
It is regrettable to see how, when bereft of strong, clear, positive statements from the Word declaring Innate Immortality for all men—and deprived of clear-cut assurances of persisting, conscious existence of the soul (or spirit) follow ing the crisis called "death"—how many Immortal-Soulists grasp at certain hazy, disputed passages, parables, and figurative statements to sustain their views.
Such a procedure would almost appear to be an act of desperation that would be disdained as unworthy under virtually all other circumstances. Recourse to such doubtful evidence would seem to indicate an inherent weakness of their case. A dubious assortment of such props does not provide a trustworthy platform for a fundamental belief. It will not bear much weight or strain, and cannot endure close scrutiny. Nevertheless, draft upon such is frequently made.
We must not close this Old Testament survey without examining, briefly, a few such citations and contentions that are commonly invoked. Then we will look into the inevitable Saul and the witch of Endor episode—always brought forward from Old Testament annals as primary testimony.
Without direct proof of Innate Immortality, recourse is often had to indirect supports—some of them of rather strange character. Curious Old Testament citations are claimed by certain believers in the immortality of the soul to support the postulate of disembodied life after death. First, there is the case of the prophet Jonah in she'ol, in the belly of the great fish (Jonah 2). Second, there is Isaiah's parabolic taunting ode on the king of Babylon in she'ol (Isa. 14:4-11). And third, there are the parabolic dirges by Ezekiel on the fate of Pharaoh and other monarchs, likewise in she'ol (Eze. 31; 32). These will suffice.
2. JONAH NOT DEAD: SO CASE IS DISMISSED
As to the first episode, it can be dismissed with a couple of paragraphs—for the simple reason that Jonah was not dead, but living and conscious while in the "she'ol," or grave as it were, of the fish's belly. Consequently this dramatic episode can have no bearing on the question of consciousness in death. Jonah's recorded prayer, offered while in the belly of the fish, was this: "I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell [she'ol; or margin, "the grave"] cried I, and thou heard my voice" (Jonah 2:2). Jonah went down into "she'ol" he said, when he descended into the waters in this living "submarine," where none but dead men had ever been before. It seemed to him that he was practically dead. The darkness and horror of his extremity made it a veritable grave. So Jonah cried out as if he were already dead—and he surely would have been dead in that living tomb had not God heard and speedily delivered him. But to draw from this graphic narrative of life in extremity any valid conclusion as to man's continuing consciousness in death is reasoning from a totally false premise. The recital is not dealing with death. The case must consequently be dismissed forthwith, as the contention breaks down before it starts.
D. Isaiah's Parabolic Taunting Ode on King of Babylon
The taunting ode, or parable, of Isaiah 14:4-11, is like wise presumed by various Immortal-Soulists to teach that she'ol is a land of active ghost life, with ghostly memories and thoughts of life on earth. But in the narrative itself Isaiah twice plainly identifies she'ol with "the grave" (vs. 9, margin, and 11), while personifying for the moment the eerie shades of the dead as infused with life, in order to utter God's doom upon the tyrannical king of Babylon.
In the story conquered kings are parabolically represented as having thrones in she'ol, and sitting upon them as they had sat in the royal palaces from which they had been rudely ejected by the conquering arms of Nebuchadnezzar. And now, when the haughty king of Babylon, himself defeated and dead and descending to the grave, joins them in their dark domain, these departed monarchs are portrayed as rising up from their shadowy thrones to mock the fallen tyrant with feigned obeisance—but actually with insult and derision—just as in life they rendered him feigned homage.
1. PERSONIFIED TREES REJOICE OVER FALLEN MONARCH.
The whole earth rejoiced in Nebuchadnezzar's overthrow, and here the "she'ol-eans" rejoice over the downfall of this tyrannical king of Babylon, as the scene shifts from earth to she'ol, region of the dead. Even the fir trees and the cedars (v. 8) are introduced as uttering a derisive taunt over the fallen tyrant, and voicing their new security now that he is no more.
But this impressive parable was all in imagery—the inspired poet creating one of the classic odes of the Old Testament, to cast contempt upon the pride of Babylon, while its broad walls and mighty gates still stood imperiously on the plains of Chaldea. It was all in the striking figure of prosopopoeia, or personification, by which the dead are represented as speaking.
In the same passage the prophet makes the fir trees and cedars of Lebanon to speak (vs. 8-10)—thus to portray, through this literary device, how death will reduce the king of Babylon to the same level as his subjects, and become fellow prisoners in the realm of death.
Students of literature and language are well aware of the figure of prosopopoeia, or personification, wherein things are frequently represented as persons. In the Sacred Writings these include the members of the human body (Gen. 48:14; Ps. 35:10); animals (Gen. 9:5; Job 12:7); products of the earth (Nahum 1:4); inanimate things (Gen. 4:10); kingdoms, states, and countries (Ps. 45:12)—with human actions attributed to things (Gen. 18:20; Ps. 85:10).
2. PATHS OF GLORY LEAD BUT TO GRAVE
So this she'ol, to which these royal inhabitants were made to descend, was actually the silent grave (v. 11; v. 9, margin), or gravedom. And these kings are so represented under this figure of personification, thus to describe their real condition, and to say to the king of Babylon:
"Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave [she'ol}, and the noise of thy viols: the worm [rimmah, "maggot"] is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee" (Isa. 14:10, 11).
Thus in the mind and teaching of Isaiah she'ol was none other than the grave, the place where worms revel in their feast on the dead—worms being grossly material, not spiritual. No one was to assume that the characters portrayed actually acted or spoke as pictured. The term "proverb," u as here used, simply means a parabolic taunt (v. 4, "taunting speech," margin).
It was never Isaiah's purpose, in this impressive ode, to reveal the conditions of the death state. Rather, it was to fore cast in graphic pictorial language God's coming judgment upon Israel's great oppressor, and to show that the paths of cruel glory "lead but to the grave." Thus the second argument in behalf of conscious persistence of the soul after death like wise collapses.
E. Ezekiel's Parabolic Dirge Over Pharaoh of Egypt
The third plank in this wobbly platform of indirect evidence in behalf of Immortal-Soulism is this: In Ezekiel 31 and 32 a parabolic dirge of similar strain over Egypt proclaims the doom pronounced on Israel's foes—Egypt, Babylon, Assur, Elam, and Edom. The same figure of personification is employed in describing the overthrow of Pharaoh the oppressor. Here Pharaoh and his hosts, slain in battle against the king of Babylon, are portrayed in similar fashion. The "strong among the mighty" are represented as speaking from their graves in the midst of "hell" (she'dl), or gravedom, as he enters that dark domain to await his fate.
The Heb. mashal is rendered "proverb" nineteen times, and "parable" eighteen times in the Old Testament, "parable" being preferable here.
1. "SHE'OL" CONTRASTED WITH STATE OF LIVING
Thus she'ol—"the nether parts of the earth" (Eze. 32:18, 24), full of graves, and so the land and state of the dead—is contrasted with the land and state of the living. The victims of slaughter had "gone down" to she'ol with their "weapons of war," and with their swords laid "under their heads" (v. 27). And when Pharaoh, figuratively portrayed as lying among them, saw the "multitude" of his enemies that also were slain, he was "comforted" by the sight (vs. 31, 32). It is all highly figurative and impressive, and not at all literal. But prediction of bitter overthrow is spoken of the conqueror of Israel. Here is the dirge:
"Thus saith the Lord God; In the day when he went down to the grave [she'ol] I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed: and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him. I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell [she'ol] with them that descend into the pit [she'ol]: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth. They also went down into hell [she'ol] with him unto them that be slain with the sword; and they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen" (Eze. 31:15-17).
2. PARABOLIC SCOURGE NOT CONSTRUED LITERALLY
The portrayal was wholly parabolic, like Jotham's famous parable to Abimelech, making the trees elect a king over them, choosing a bramble, et cetera, in Judges 9:8-15. Then the imagery of the parable is openly applied: "This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord God" (Eze. 31:18). Then there follows, in chapter 32, an enumeration of the various forces of the slain that in life had caused such terror, but are now in she'ol (gravedom), "whose graves are set in the sides of the pit [she'ol]" (chap. 32:23)—their "princes" and mighty warriors "slain by the sword" (v. 29), which have "gone down to hell [she'ol, the grave] with their weapons of war" (v. 27).
It is to be noted that the three terms "grave," "hell," and "pit" in these verses are variant translations of the selfsame Hebrew word she'ol.
They are there simply personified as speaking "out of the midst of hell [she'ol]" (v. 21). But the parabolic dirge is not to be construed literally. She'ol is the place of the silence of death. But the parable had nothing to do with the intermediate state. The lesson was that, having raised up a heathen nation to chasten His own people because of their moral departures, when that instrument has executed His will, God will not allow it to go beyond His purpose, but will send retribution upon it for its own sins and cruelties.
Such literary devices are samples of testimony sometimes unworthily brought forward to bolster the theory of consciousness in death, and of the persistence of disembodied souls or spirits in the nether world. But these have no actual bearing on the question.
F. Saul Deceived by Necromancy of Medium of Endor
Turning from the figurative side, let us now examine a problem passage, constantly cited in support of Immortal-Soulism. Modern Spiritualism, or spiritism, is not new in its operations. Its ancient counterpart and forerunner had already made its tragic appearance back in ancient Israel's day, and before. But so grave was this corrupting and forbidden practice considered by God, and so sinister were its involvements, that under the theocracy those who sought out the practitioners of this evil art were to be "cut off," or excommunicated, from the commonwealth of Israel. So heinous was the fraudulency of this pretended communication with the dead regarded that the mediums, when apprehended, were to be summarily put to death by stoning. The solemn warning against necromancy or consulting with "familiar spirits," was written thus into law by Israel: "Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God" (Lev. 19:31).
1. EVIL SPIRITS PERSONATING THE DEAD
"Familiar spirits" were none other than "evil spirits," or demons—fallen angels personating the dead—appearing at the beck and call of a medium who had entered into sinister league with them. And here was the dread penalty then provided for such transgression, first for the seeker and then the medium:
"The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits,... I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people" (Lev. 20:6).
"A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones" (v. 27).13 That was the gravity of the evil traffic. Later, this further admonition was given by the prophet Isaiah:
"And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? For the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isa. 8:19, 20). This peeping and muttering refers to the incoherent incantations of the pagan mysteries, which they simulated. Such an inspired admonition surely constitutes a most solemn warning against all ancient or modern spiritism, and is an appeal to heed the declarations of the Word regarding the true nature and condition of man in death. And it should be added that the traditional belief that death is but life continuing on in spirit form, is the foundational basis of Spiritualism in its various forms, which has blighted the centuries, climaxing in these latter times.
2. SAUL'S RECOURSE TO FORBIDDEN CRAFT OF NECROMANCY
Nevertheless, the case of Saul and the witch of Endor is constantly and fervently invoked by those maintaining the continued consciousness of the dead. Let us therefore examine the circumstances of that dramatic episode. Israel's apostate King Saul, when the Lord refused to answer him, sought out "a woman [or medium] that hath a familiar spirit" (1 Sam. 28:7), to inquire of her. Here is the story:
Disguising himself to avoid recognition, Saul came to the woman, significantly under the suggestive shelter of "night," and asked her to bring up the prophet Samuel, who had been dead for some time, to elicit information from him (v. 8). After being assured by an oath that she would not be betrayed or harmed for cooperation (vs. 9, 10), she then brought up 13 Compare Deuteronomy 18:10-12 where witches and wizards, consulters with familiar spirits, or necromancers (i.e., seekers unto the dead) are declared to be an abomination unto the Lord. The modern counterpart is dealt with fully in the closing chapters of volume 2. (not down, or forth) "out of the earth" (v. 13)—allegedly some subterranean region—one of the "gods" in characteristic spirit manifestation, whom she described as an "old man," and "covered with a mantle" (v. 14).
This materialization took place in the questionable abode of a forbidden, outlawed sorceress, invoking the alleged "shade" of the old prophet said to be wearing a "mantle." (It might be asked, If it was Samuel's "spirit," supposed to be with God, why the mantle? If it was Samuel's body, up from the grave, would it not rather be with "graveclothes," as with Lazarus [John 11:44]?)
3. SAUL DECEIVED; SLAIN FOR HIS TRANSGRESSIONS
The record then states that Saul "perceived"—that is, understood indirectly, for he himself saw nothing—that it was "Samuel."
But this evil "spirit," impersonating Samuel, first chided Saul for disquieting him when the Lord had departed from the king. This alleged "spirit" then proceeded to predict Saul's defeat and death. Perhaps this "lying spirit" here gave a true message, as in the case of Ahab of old (2 Chron. 18:19-22). But the sad sequel was simply this: "So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it; and enquired not of the Lord: therefore he [the Lord] slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse" (1 Chron. 10:13, 14).
So back through the centuries this question of the nature and destiny of man, and purported communication with the "dead," has been a vital issue, constantly fraught with disaster for those disobeying the Word of God. Saul's act was a transgression, punishable with death. Why, then, is such testimony valid? But let us probe into this unsavoury episode a little deeper.
4. CRUX OF THE WHOLE PORTRAYAL
The crux of this whole occurrence hinges on whether this appearance, or materialization, was wrought by the power of God or was manoeuvred by Satan. If by Satan, we may well look for deception, for he began his duplicity back in Eden by asserting the Innate Immortality of man, and has ever since persisted in his trickery by tenaciously perpetuating his original contention wherever and whenever he can gain a foothold. Note the facts closely: Saul was violating God's express command by communicating with such a character and by engaging in a sinister practice sternly forbidden by God. He was deceived by this "familiar spirit" simulating Samuel, who first of all significantly put the medium on her guard as to the identity of Saul. And the appearance in the night, under the incantations of an abandoned woman, was that of "an old man" "with a mantle." It is to be particularly noted that Saul had to ask the medium, "What saw thou?" "What form is he of?" (1 Sam. 28:13, 14). Saul himself never saw the simulating spirit that was brought "up" through the agency of Satan. And while the appearance was actual, it was simply a manifestation of ancient necromancy, sorcery, witchcraft, spiritism. It was a gross deception, a simulation of Samuel by a depraved "spirit," palmed off on the desperate apostate king, and with fatal results.
5. CRUEL HOAX AND ITS MODERN COUNTERPART
One major difference between ancient and modern spiritism is that the medium of Endor then pretended to bring the spirits "up" from the lower regions. Now their present counterparts claim to bring them "down" from the upper spheres. How dare any firm believer in the Word of God presume to appeal to this episode of Saul and the witch of Endor to prove the continuing living existence, or immortality, of the soul—unless he is prepared to deny the express declarations of the Inspired Word, and to maintain that ancient necromancy and modern spiritism are a divine gift, and that the blasphemous pretensions and contradictions of such lying spirits are to be accepted instead of the verities of the Scriptures of truth?
The Word of God expressly declares that when a man dies "in that very day his thoughts perish" (Ps. 146:4). But fallen angels do have supernatural knowledge and mystifying malign powers. And they have uncanny powers of deception. Of these we are to beware. We trespass at our peril. Incidentally, the invoked "spirit" told Saul (through the medium), "Tomorrow shall thou and thy sons be with me" (1 Sam. 28:19). Might it not be pertinent to ask, Where was this rendezvous to be?—in the grave? or in Heaven, where the Immortal-Soulist would expect the Lord's prophet to be? or per chance in some kind of Purgatory or intermediate place? Where, we ask, and in what state? Further question: Do God's prophets and apostate kings go to the same place—if conscious?
6. GRANDEUR OF GOD'S WONDROUS PROVISION
In the face of such artificial negativisms, how comforting it is to have not only the clear, positive, consistent testimony of the Old Testament concerning the actual mortality of man, but the glorious assurance of immortality for the righteous as a gift from God through Christ, bestowed at His second advent and its attendant resurrection.
How good to know that in the interim of death man quietly sleeps until the great awakening. And finally, that the incorrigibly wicked will, after due and just punishment for their sins—and their rejection of the overtures and saving provisions of God—be ultimately and utterly destroyed, passing out of existence. The infinite love, righteousness, justice, grace, and mercy of God, as the wondrous hope of man, stand out in impressive grandeur all the way from Genesis to Malachi. The inspired testimony of the Word is consistent and satisfying—and, above all, authoritative and final. Happy the lot of all who put their trust in the revealed provisions of God. And all this is amplified and intensified in the New Testament portrayal…Most nuclear power plants—including all the reactors in the United States—use low-enriched uranium (LEU) as a fuel source. LEU and its waste products are not directly usable in nuclear weapons.
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While reprocessing nuclear waste to make new fuel sounds attractive—and is done in Japan, Britain, France, Russia, and elsewhere—the plutonium it produces is usable in nuclear weapons and vulnerable to theft, especially during transportation.
To help prevent nuclear terrorism, the United States should continue its ban on domestic reprocessing, and advocate against it abroad.- Systems Evaluation: Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
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- Provide consultation to parents, teachers, administrators, and others on topics such as learning styles and behavior modification techniques.
- Compile and interpret students' test results, along with information from teachers and parents, to diagnose conditions, and to help assess eligibility for special services.Did you know that the formula for the area of a triangle can be found by using the formula for the area of a parallelogram? In this tutorial, you'll see how it's done! Take a look!
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1. What happened?
On 11 March 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake occurred off the east coast of Japan, generating a tsunami that severely damaged coastal areas and resulted in 15 891 deaths and 2579 missing people. As a consequence of the tsunami, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS), located along the shoreline, lost its core cooling capacity which caused severe damage to the reactor’s core and led to a nuclear accident rated as Level 7 on the International Nuclear Events Scale (INES). Substantial amounts of radioactive materials (radionuclides) were released into the environment following explosions at the FDNPS on March 12, 14 and 15.
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People living in the vicinity of the FDNPS were exposed externally to irradiation from the radioactive cloud and ground deposits and internally from inhalation and ingestion of radionuclides. The main radionuclides to which individuals were exposed included iodine-131 (131I) and caesium-137 (137Cs). 131I has a radioactive half-life of eight days and can be inhaled with the air and ingested with contaminated food or water, mainly by consumption of contaminated milk and leafy vegetables. In the human body, iodine concentrates in the thyroid gland. Exposure to radioactive iodine is usually higher for children than for adults because of the size of their thyroid glands and the nature of their metabolism. 137Cs has a half-life of 30 years and this implies long term risk of exposure through ingestion and through exposure from ground deposition.
3. What levels of radiation have people been exposed to?
Doses of radiation have been estimated based on models and measurements for different representative groups of individuals of the Japanese population. The assessment of the doses included both external and internal (through inhalation of the radioactive plume and ingestion of radioactivity in food) exposure pathways. A large survey of the health of residents of Fukushima Prefecture, the Fukushima Health Management Survey, has estimated individual doses based on typical scenarios of evacuation and time spent indoors and outdoors. Based on this survey and the dose assessments done by WHO and by UNSCEAR, the average lifetime effective doses for adults in the Fukushima prefecture were estimated to be around 10 mSv or less, and about twice for 1-year old infants.
Preliminary dose estimation from the nuclear accident after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
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The doses incurred by workers were reported by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and by some of its contractors. According to TEPCO records, the average workers’ effective dose over the first 19 months after the accident was about 12 mSv. About 35% of the workforce received total doses of more than 10 mSv over that period, while 0.7% of the workforce received doses of more than 100 mSv. Based on the UNSCEAR assessment, 12 of the most exposed workers received thyroid doses in the range of 2 to 12 Gy, mostly from inhalation of 131I.
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There were public health consequences related to the response actions to the disaster, such as evacuation and relocation of people. These measures were taken based on radiation safety considerations and the massive damage to the infrastructure and facilities following the earthquake and tsunami. These measures
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. After his return to Victoria McIntyre telegraphed the Royal Society on 15 December 1864 that he had found "two trees marked L about 15 years old". He was subsequently appointed leader of a search expedition, but found no further trace of Leichhardt.
In 1869 the Government of Western Australia heard rumours of a place where the remains of horses and men killed by indigenous Australians could be seen. A search expedition was sent out under John Forrest, but nothing was found, and it was decided that the story might refer to the bones of horses left for dead at Poison Rock during Robert Austin's expedition of 1854.
The mystery of Leichhardt's fate remained in the minds of explorers for many years. During David Carnegie's expedition through the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts in 1896 he encountered some Aborigines who had among their possessions an iron tent peg, the lid of a tin matchbox and part of the ironwork of a saddle. Carnegie speculated that these were from Leichhardt's expedition. Except for a small brass plate that was found in 1900 bearing Leichhardt's name, "no artefacts with corroborated provenance have been able to shed light on Leichhardt's final expedition".
In 1975, a ranger named Zac Mathias exhibited photographs in Darwin of Aboriginal cave paintings that showed white men with an animal.
In 2006 Australian historians and scientists authenticated a tiny brass plate (15 cm × 2 cm or 5.91 in × 0.79 in) marked "LUDWIG LEICHHARDT 1848", discovered around 1900 by an Aboriginal stockman near Sturt Creek, between the Tanami and Great Sandy deserts, just inside Western Australia from the border with the Northern Territory. When found, the plate was attached to a partially burnt shotgun slung in a boab tree which was engraved with the initial "L". The plate is now part of the National Museum of Australia collection.
Before the nameplate was authenticated, historians could only speculate on the route Leichhardt had taken and how far he had journeyed before perishing. The location of the plate indicated that he made it at least two thirds of the way across the continent during his east-west crossing attempt. It also suggested that he was following a northern arc from Moreton Bay in Queensland to the Swan River in Western Australia, following the headwaters of rivers, rather than heading straight through the desert interior.
Aboriginal oral history
In 2003, a librarian found a letter in the NSW State Library that may shed light on Leichhardt's disappearance. Dated 2 April 1874, the letter, received by Sydney clergyman William Branwhite Clarke, was written by W. P. Gordon, a station owner from the Darling Downs who had met Leichhardt in the days before his party vanished. The letter relates how Gordon moved to Wallumbilla and how, after living there for more than 10 years, he had befriended the Wallumbilla tribe who in time came to openly share their stories and folklore with him. One detailed story referred to the death of a white man who was leading a party of mules and bullocks along the Maranoa River many years earlier. According to the Wallumbilla, a large group of Aboriginals had encircled the party and murdered everyone in it. It has been speculated that if the story was true, the expedition's belongings were likely traded widely after the massacre, explaining how items that could only have come from Leichhardt's expedition were found in the Gibson Desert and why the rifle butt with the brass plate was found some 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi) west of the Maranoa River.
The validity of all the claimed 'Leichhardt' relics and the various theories proposed is discussed in a 2013 book entitled Where is Dr Leichhardt?: the greatest mystery in Australian history.
Leichhardt's contribution to science, especially his successful expedition to Port Essington in 1845, was officially recognised. In 1847 the Geographical Society, Paris, awarded its annual prize for geographic discovery equally to Leichhardt and a French explorer, Rochet d'Héricourt; also in 1847, the Royal Geographical Society in London awarded Leichhardt its Patron's Medal; and Prussia recognised his achievement by granting him a king's pardon for having failed to return to Prussia when due to serve a period of compulsory military training. The Port Essington expedition was one of the longest land exploration journeys in Australia, and a useful one in the discovery of excellent pastoral country.
Leichhardt's accounts and collections were valued, and his observations are generally considered to be accurate. He is remembered as one of the most authoritative early recorders of Australia's environment and the best trained natural scientist to explore Australia to that time. Leichhardt left a record of his observations in Australia from 1842 to 1848 in diaries, letters, notebooks, sketch-books, maps, and in his published works.
A detailed map of Ludwig Leichhardt's route in Australia from Moreton Bay to Port Essington (1844 & 1845), from his Original Map, adjusted and drawn... by John Arrowsmith was ranked #8 in the 'Top 150: Documenting Queensland' exhibition when it toured to venues around Queensland from February 2009 to April 2010. The exhibition was part of Queensland State Archives' events and exhibition program which contributed to the state's Q150 celebrations, marking the 150th anniversary of the separation of Queensland from New South Wales.
Harsh criticism of Leichhardt's character was published some time after his disappearance and his reputation suffered badly. The fairness of this criticism continues to be debated. Leichhardt's failed attempt to make the first east–west crossing of the Australian continent may be compared with the Burke and Wills expedition of 1860–61, which succeeded in crossing from south to north, but failed to return. However, Leichhardt's success in making it to Port Essington in 1845 was a major achievement, which ranks him with other successful European explorers of Australia.
Australia has commemorated Ludwig Leichhardt through the use of his name in several places: Leichhardt, a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, and the surrounding Municipality of Leichhardt; Leichhardt, a suburb of Ipswich; the Leichhardt Highway and the Leichhardt River in Queensland; and the Division of Leichhardt in the Australian Parliament. The name of the eucalyptus tree species Corymbia leichhardtii commemorates Leichhardt.
On 23 October 1988, a monument was erected beside Leichhardt's blazed tree at Taroom by the local historical society and tourism association to celebrate Leichhardt's 175th birthday and the Bicentenary of Australia. The tree was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register in 1992.
In popular culture
Leichhardt's life inspired a range of "Lemurian" novels, starting with George Firth Scott's book The Last Lemurian (1898). His last expedition was the inspiration for the 1957 novel Voss by Patrick White.
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- Leichhardt, Ludwig (1847), Item 14: Autograph letter signed from Ludwig Leichhardt to Frederick Isaac, 10 October 1847, retrieved 5 April 2015
- Serle, Percival (1949). "Leichhardt, Ludwig". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson. Retrieved 11 September 2009.
- Stephens, Matthew (October 2007). "From Lost Property to Explorer's Relics: The Rediscovery of the Personal Library of Ludwig Leichhardt". Historical Records of Australian Science. 18 (2): 191–227. doi:10.1071/HR07008. ISSN 0727-3061.
- Lewis, Darrell (2006). "The Fate of Leichhardt". Historical Records of Australian Science. 17 (1): 1–30. doi:10.1071/HR05010. ISSN 0727-3061.
- Roderick, Colin: "Leichhardt, the dauntless explorer", North Ryde (Sydney): Angus & Robertson 1988, ISBN 0-207-15171-7
- Nicholls, Angus (2011). Discussion of Leichhardt's influence on Patrick White's novel Voss, ABC Radio National Book Show, 25 January
- Nicholls, Angus (2012). "The Core of this Dark Continent: Ludwig Leichhardt's Australian Explorations", in Transnational Networks: Germans in the British Empire 1670–1914, ed. John R. Davis, Stefan Manz and Margrit Schulte Beerbühl (Leiden: Brill).
- Nicholls, Angus (2013). "The Young Leichhardt's Diaries in the Context of his Australian Cultural Legacy", in Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Culture 7, no. 2, 541–59
- Nicholls, Angus (2015). "Leichhardt and Voss Revisited", in Patrick White Beyond the Grave: New Critical Perspectives, ed. Ian Henderson and Anouk Lang, London: Anthem Press, 35–66
- Boase, George Clement (1892).. In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 32. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- A complete written version of Leichhardt's expedition-
- Works by Ludwig Leichhardt at Project Gutenberg
- Works by Ludwig Leichhardt at Project Gutenberg Australia
- Works by or about Ludwig Leichhardt at Internet Archive
- Ludwig Leichhardt online collection – State Library of NSW
- Ludwig Leichhardt series, National Museum of Australia Audio on Demand: Papers presented to the Leichhardt symposium, National Museum of Australia, 15 June 2007
- New International Encyclopedia. 1905..
- Journal of an Overland Expedition in AustraliaGrowing herbs, whether inside or out, may be one of gardening’s most gratifying experiences. Because of their beauty and versatility, herbs may be grown amid vegetables, ornamentals or in a garden dedicated strictly to their kind. They may be nurtured in a sunny window box, strawberry pot, whiskey barrel or just about any container you choose. Situate your herbs for easy access: on the patio, deck, a sunny windowsill or in the kitchen garden. Herbs are relatively carefree and have a multitude of uses that include but are not limited to: culinary, aromatic, ornamental, medicinal and insect control.
Herb Growing Tips
Choose a full sun location, 4-6 hours per day is best. Herbs will grow in a shadier location, but plants will be weak and thin. Most herbs are not demanding of soil fertility. One thing that they will not tolerate, however, is wet or poorly drained soil, so be sure not to overwater your herbs.
Locate herbs in or near the kitchen for easy access when cooking. Be aware of the ultimate size, height and spread of the herbs that you plan to grow. If you take this into consideration you can assure room for the plants to reach their full potential. Position taller herbs to the back of the garden or container and shorter herbs to the front; this will allow for easier access and prevent shading.
Water pots before planting. Remove plants from their pots and loosen roots to stimulate new root growth. Place plants at the same soil depth that they were in the pot, or slightly higher to avoid rotting. Gently firm soil around each plant, water carefully and mulch if desired. Feed monthly with a mild, organic fertilizer such as Neptune’s Harvest Fish & Seaweed Fertilizer 3-2-1.
Some herbs, such as mints, have a tendency to be invasive and may take over an entire herb garden or even spread into the lawn or other parts of the landscaping. Sink aggressive potted herbs directly into the garden to minimize this overgrowth. Pull up pots each spring to replenish their soil, then sink the containers back into the garden for another season.
Growing herbs indoors is also quite simple. Choose herbs that will not get too large to handle inside. The same soil requirements apply for both indoor and outdoor planting. Select a south or west window to situate your plants so they receive adequate sunlight. It may be beneficial or necessary to supplement with artificial lighting during the winter months. Provide humidity by grouping plants together and misting daily. Another option is placing potted herbs on a humidity tray. Fertilize monthly with Neptune’s Harvest to provide the best nutrition.
Fresh herb leaves are ready to be harvested as soon as there is enough foliage to maintain the plant. Try to harvest in the morning, after the dew has dried but before the sun becomes too hot, using a sharp knife or scissors to make each cut. It is a good idea to harvest only what you plan to use at time of cutting, as herbs do not store well in the refrigerator. With most herbs it is beneficial to harvest before the plants go to flower, as the taste is better at this stage of growth. Rinse with cold water and pat dry before using.
If you have excess herbs, you may want to dry them for future use. After gently rinsing the harvested herbs, drain them on absorbent towels, tie in bunches and dry thoroughly by hanging bunches up in the sun just until all water evaporates from the surface of the herbs. Remove plants from sun and hang in a clean, dark, dry location with good air circulation for 1-2 weeks until herbs are completely dry and brittle. If not dried completely the herbs will become moldy in storage. Remove leaves from the stem and store them in an airtight container in a cool, dry, low light environment. Check container in a few days for condensation. If there is any moisture in the container you must start the drying process again, after checking carefully for any mold or mildew.
You can also dry herbs in a conventional or microwave oven. With a conventional oven, position clean herbs in a single layer on a shallow pan. Place baking pan in a 180°F oven for 2 to 4 hours. When using a microwave, place clean herbs in a single layer on a paper towel or plate. Cook herbs on high for 1 to 3 minutes, rotating the plate every 30 seconds or moving the leaves around on the plate until thoroughly dry. Store these herbs just as you would air-dried herbs.
Freezing herbs is also easy to accomplish. Wash herbs and blanch them in boiling water for one minute. Cool herbs very quickly in ice water then drain. Package herbs in airtight plastic bags and store in the freezer.
Herbs can be delightfully easy to grow and they are an even more delightful addition to salads, sauces, pastas, teas and many other treats you can enjoy year-round.On 5 Aug 1965, thousands of Pakistani soldiers crossed the Line of Control dressed as Kashmiri locals and tried to infiltrate into various areas within Kashmir. India retaliated against the attack in self-defence. The war ended after the signing of the Tashkent Declaration. It was during the war that Shastriji gave us the slogan 'Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan' launching a war against both external agression as well as the domestic food shortage.
Lal Bahadur Shastri took over as the Prime Minister on June 9, 1964. In his address to the Nation on June 11, Shastriji said: "Our way is straight and clear, the building up of a socialist democracy at home with freedom and prosperity for all.."
The first Prime Minister of Independent India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru passed away at the age of 74 on 27 May, 1964, bringing an end to one of the most illustrious chapters in the nation's history. He left behind a legacy of strong democratic institutions and a state based on the values of secularism and socialism.
Prime Minister Pandit Nehru inaugurated the Bhakra Nangal Dam. He said: "Bhakra, the new temple of resurgent India, is the symbol of India's progress." The dam revolutionised irrigation in northern India, thereby preparing the foundation for the Green Revolution, which removed India's foodgrain shortage.
The Congress met at Bhubaneshwar in 1964 under K Kamaraj. The Congress's commitment to socialistic ideals, which had been expressed during the Avadi and Nagpur sessions, was reiterated in Bhubaneshwar. However, Pandit Nehru suddenly fell ill during the deliberations at Bhubaneshwar.
The Congress's efforts at nation-building under the leadership of Pandit Nehru were recognised by the people as it was re-elected to power in the 1962 General Elections. The party won 361 seats out of a total of 494, the Communist Party of India was a distant second with a tally of 29.
The newly elected Congress president N Sanjeeva Reddy launched a spirited counter-attack against the Swatantra Party.'What has been said is merely the criticism of the Congress and some of its leaders. It is on this negative basis that this new party stands, with no foundation at all,' he said.
Besides the rise of Indira Gandhi, the other major fallout of the Nagpur session was the alienation of the free-market proponents within the Congress. The economic resolution passed at the session emphasised the Congress's committment towards land reforms and cooperative farming. Upset at this left-ward turn, C Rajagopalachari and N.G. Ranga left the Congress and formed the Swatantra Party.
First President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, on 4 February 1959 inagurated the Bhilai Steel Plant which was India's first and main producer of steel rails, wide steel plates and other steel products.
In 1959, Indira Gandhi was elected as the Congress president. She had already been an elected member of the CWC since 1955 but at Nagpur, the outgoing president U.N. Dhebar suggested her name. Lal Bahadur Shastri proposed her name in the CWC and Indiraji, then just 41 years of age, became the president of the Congress party.
The 'language question' featured prominently in the discussions during the Gauhati Session in 1958. The party resolution stated that all languages mentioned in Schedule VIII of the Constitution are national languages, which should all be encouraged equally. However, the resolution did stress that there was a need for a 'link language, which should not be a foreign language.The giant honey bee Apis dorsata is unusual in being able to forage during both the day and the night. To date, the extent of this unique nocturnal foraging behavior and the environmental factors correlating with it have not been deeply investigated. We conducted the first systematic investigation into the nocturnal behavior of A. dorsata in Southern India by tracking the daily and nightly foraging activity of A. dorsata colonies in an urban environment for 8 months, over multiple seasons and lunar cycles. We found strong evidence that A. dorsata can behave in a manner that is “cathemeral” (active over the entire diel cycle) when environmental illumination is sufficient for nocturnal flight. However, workers were not always active even when the environment should have been bright enough for them to forage, suggesting that their nocturnal foraging behavior was also affected by seasonal changes in resource availability. The foraging activity observed during the day versus twilight versus night differed between seasons; notably, nocturnal activity rates were higher than diurnal activity rates during the winter. We found that at our study site A. dorsata routinely exhibits both diurnal and crepuscular activity, foraging just as intensely during the short twilight hours as during the day. The high foraging activity observed during the twilight and nighttime hours shows that A. dorsata colonies can extend their foraging beyond the daylight hours and reveals that foraging during these dimly lit hours is an integral part of their foraging ecology. This evidence of the importance of nocturnal and crepuscular foraging by A. dorsata paves the way for future studies examining the role of this species in nocturnal pollination networks, the contribution of nocturnal foraging to colony-level nutrition and energy budget, and the evolution of this unusual behavior. Future work comparing nocturnal activity in light polluted urban environments versus unpolluted natural environments is particularly encouraged to determine the generalizability of these findings.
Citation: Young AM, Kodabalagi S, Brockmann A, Dyer FC (2021) A hard day’s night: Patterns in the diurnal and nocturnal foraging behavior of Apis dorsata across lunar cycles and seasons. PLoS ONE 16(10): e0258604. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258604
Editor: Wolfgang Blenau, Universitat Leipzig, GERMANY
Received: July 1, 2021; Accepted: September 30, 2021; Published: October 22, 2021
Copyright: © 2021 Young et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.
Funding: This study was funded by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-1848739 to AMY), a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide Fellowship jointly funded by the National Science Foundation and the Science and Engineering Research Board, administered by the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (DGE-1848739 to AMY), and a Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship jointly funded by the US Department of State and the Republic of India (2018/ST/89 to AMY). This work was also supported by the Department of Integrative Biology and the Meyer International Travel Grant from Michigan State University (to AMY). Research in AB’s lab is supported by institutional funding from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS-TIFR; 12P4167) and the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India, under project no. 12-R&D-TFR-5.04-0800. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Most animal species have evolved to be active only during limited periods of the 24-hour cycle (i.e., the diel cycle). Those periods of activity, often referred to as the species’ temporal niche, are usually tightly controlled by the endogenous circadian clock, which has been entrained by environmental cycles such as the light-dark cycle, temperature, humidity, etc. [1–3]. An animal’s temporal niche presumably evolved to maximize fitness; animals are generally both adapted and limited to their temporal niche through internal (e.g., anatomy, physiology, sensory and thermoregulatory capabilities [1, 2, 4]) and external (e.g., biotic and abiotic environmental conditions, predation [2, 5, 6]) factors. However, animals can sometimes extend or switch their temporal niche through changes in the oscillation of their circadian system, or through direct effects of environmental factors on activity (often referred to as ‘masking’), which occurs when environmental factors such as illumination or temperature inhibit or stimulate an animal’s behavior in a way that overrides their circadian clock [1–3, 7].
Although much work to date has studied temporal niches and temporal niche switching using mammalian species [2,5, 7, but see 3], these phenomena are found throughout the animal kingdom. In bees, for example, evidence that species are adapted to be active only during certain portions of the diel cycle are shown through adaptations in anatomy (e.g., body size, eye morphology and anatomy, ocelli size [8–12]) and physiology (e.g., visual sensitivity and resolution, spatial photon summation, thermoregulation [8, 12–15]). A notable exception to the general rule that animals are restricted to only one part of the daily light-dark cycle is the behavior of the giant honey bee, Apis dorsata. This species, which lives throughout tropical Asia, is highly unusual among bees in being able to actively fly and forage during the day as well as some nights [16, 17].
The ability of A. dorsata to extend its temporal niche into the night is likely due in part to traits associated with their large size. As the second largest honey bee species in body size, A. dorsata has correspondingly large eyes, as well as more and larger-sized ommatidia, which is correlated with better visual sensitivity in dim light [9, 11, 18]. However, large body size alone is not sufficient for nocturnal activity: the largest honey bee species, A. laboriosa, does not forage at night, though this might be due in part to the colder nocturnal temperatures it experiences living in higher altitudes [19–22]. The heads of Apis dorsata workers also have a raised vertex so their ocelli are more pronounced, improving their light sensitivity [23, 24], as larger, more pronounced ocelli are typically associated with dim-light species. There is also evidence that A. dorsata has neural circuitry in the optic lobes that perform photon summation across wide parts of their visual field, which improves light capture and would allow them to discriminate coarse images in moonlight even if the resolution of those images would be lower [13, 26]. None of these factors can fully explain their ability to fly at night, however, as the eyes of A. dorsata are thought to be much less sensitive than those of bee species that are specialized for crepuscular or nocturnal activity. Apart from vision, another way in which large body size could permit nocturnal activity in an endothermic insect like a honey bee would arise from the ability to maintain a higher body temperature, and thus sustain flight at lower ambient temperatures [27, 28]. However, A. dorsata has been shown to deviate from the expected size-related patterns in flight energetics and is actually less able to fly at low ambient temperatures than the smaller species A. cerana and A. mellifera. Taking all of this evidence into account, visual adaptations are likely to be the most important factor accounting for their ability to fly at night, even if puzzles remain about the visual adaptations that support nocturnal flight.
Behavioral evidence supports the hypothesis that some level of illumination is necessary for A. dorsata foragers to be nocturnally active. Reports show that worker bees can actively forage throughout the night if the moon is at least half full [11, 16]. Furthermore, in cities, A. dorsata may be capable of flying using artificial sky glow from city lights even when the moon is below the horizon. The nocturnal foraging behavior of A. dorsata might therefore be an example of positive light effects on activity, where the light available from the moon or artificial lights stimulate activity at a time the species would not otherwise be active. Regardless, this ability to be active during bright daylight hours as well as dim nighttime hours is impressive, as light intensity decreases by a factor of one million between a sunny day to a full moon night and is therefore even lower on nights when the moon is not full.
The ability of A. dorsata to fly during the night and during the day is all the more intriguing given that while all three closely related species belonging to the A. dorsata complex (A. dorsata dorsata, A. dorsata binghami (Sulawesi), and A. dorsata breviligula (Philippines)) can fly during the night, the even larger Himalayan giant honey bee A. laboriosa cannot, though as mentioned this is likely due in part to colder nighttime temperatures in its range [19–22, 24]. Indeed, all other species in the genus Apis, with the possible exception of the African bee A. mellifera adansonii, are strictly limited to diurnal activity. Given that body size and eye morphology alone cannot explain their nocturnal activity, what is it about the biology of A. dorsata that has led to the evolution of this ability? This question is challenging to answer because we lack basic information about the importance of nocturnal behavior in the foraging ecology of this species, and the environmental conditions that limit the ability to forage actively at night.
Regardless of the underlying mechanisms that permit crepuscular and nocturnal activity, it is likely that A. dorsata benefits from foraging in low light conditions. Nocturnal foraging by animals is often associated with reduced predation and reduced competition [26, 34–36]. There are also potential thermoregulatory advantages for night-active animals in warm locations such as the tropics, as the energy needed to reduce the risk of overheating is decreased [23, 37]. However, A. dorsata appears to have relatively low metabolic heat output in flight, so we would expect it to be disadvantageous at cooler nighttime temperatures [20, 29]. A particularly significant advantage of nocturnal activity for A. dorsata may be related to food gathering: by extending their diurnal activity into the night, they could prolong their ability to exploit flower species that offer pollen and nectar resources near sunset and sunrise, and gain access to an entirely new set of night-blooming floral resources [11, 38–40].
Here we present the first systematic investigation into the nocturnal behavior of A. dorsata. Over the course of eight months, we observed colonies of A. dorsata in Bangalore, India to examine how their diurnal and nocturnal behavior changed over the course of multiple seasons and lunar cycles. We paid particular attention to correlations between nocturnal activity and light availability, as well as between nocturnal activity and temperature, while also relating their behavior to expected resource availability in the surrounding environment. Our data reveal a rich picture of the environmental factors that influence this behavior.
We conducted our studies at a scientific research institute on the outskirts of a large city. The advantage of this study site was that we could work with colonies nesting on buildings, and thus could monitor foraging from multiple colonies at a close
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as saving for a car or house and have a detailed plan for obtaining your goals.
- Resist the urge. Curb impulse spending and you will be surprised to discover how much extra money you have.
- Budget. Get in the habit of setting a budget and living by it. There are several free online tools to help.
- Pay bills on time. Whether you set up auto pay with your bank or use your own system, make sure you get in the habit of paying all your bills on time each month.
- Track spending. Track where you spend your money so you know where your money goes each month. You can also discover unhealthy spending habits this way.
- Talk about it. If you are sharing finances with your parents, a partner, or a spouse, get in the habit of talking about finances to make sure you are both approaching spending and saving the same way and working toward the same goals.
- Build in rewards. Reward yourself for good financial habits by building special treats into your budget.
If you enjoyed this article, please bookmark it at del.icio.us »
If you enjoyed this article, please bookmark it at del.icio.us »Also known as Longma
- Chinese and Japanese (culture)
- Reptilian (attribute)
- Flying (attribute)
- Aquatic (attribute)
- Neutral (behaviour)
- Dragons (common type)
The Dragon-horse is a type of Dragon that had the forelegs of a horse instead of lizard-like arms. The Dragon-Horse acted as a messenger to the gods travelling between Heaven and Earth. The Dragon-horse was a symbol of balance.
The Dragon-Horse is also known as Longma combining the two words 'long' meaning Dragon and'ma' meaning horse. It was spotted in 741 C.E. by Taiping Yulan. He said that it had the body of a horse with blue and red scales and the mane of a dragon. It made the sound of a beautiful flute and could cover 300 miles. It was born from an ordinary horse who drank from the same river that it bathed in. The horse was born and grew up in water and thus grew scales.
The Longma was described by Kong Anguo's Shujing commentary (11th century):
“A dragon horse is the vital spirit of Heaven and Earth. As a being its shape consists of a horse's body, yet it has dragon scales. Therefore it is called 'dragon horse'. Its height is eight ch'ih five ts'un. A true dragon horse has wings at its sides and walks upon the water without sinking. If a holy man is on the throne it comes out of the midst of the Ming river, carrying a map on its back.”
( Visser 1913:58)
Dragon-Horse has been viewed 11697 times.
© Please mention mythicalcreatureslist.com when referencing this source.
© Copyright 2011 - 2014 MythBeasts Dragon-Horse
Background Illustrations (Left top-bottom, right top-bottom): Medusa by Gonzalo Ordonez, Loch Ness Monster by dyb,
Basilisk by JustMick, Shuck by Serphire, Ts Um A Kas - Illustration of a rock painting (from Dover publications).Apollo Astronauts Visited Craters of the Moon
You know that Apollo astronauts visited craters on the moon, but did you know that some of them also visited Craters of the Moon right here on earth?
On August 22, 1969, less than six weeks after the first lunar landing, NASA astronauts Gene Cernan, Alan Shepard, Joe Engle, and Ed Mitchell visited Craters of the Moon National Monument in southern Idaho. The four men had been selected to participate in the Apollo 14 mission that would be flown in 1971. All were superbly trained astronauts with a wealth of experience to call on. Cernan had, in fact, already paid an orbital visit to the moon. (He was the lunar module pilot of the Apollo 10 mission, the "dress rehearsal" for the Apollo 11 lunar landing.) None of the men was a trained geologist, though, and that was the rub.
Lunar rocks are very difficult and expensive to collect (only about 850 pounds have ever been brought back to earth), so it’s very important that lunar astronauts be able to recognize the most valuable specimens to collect. It’s also essential that astronauts be reasonably skilled at recognizing various volcanic features and forms they might encounter on the moon so they can describe them accurately to geologists back on earth.
To acquire and practice these essential skills, lunar astronauts need hands-on experience with volcanic landforms and rocks similar to those found on the lunar surface. The places best suited to that purpose have reasonably fresh volcanic deposits and a variety of volcanic landforms not badly weathered or obscured by vegetation. Hawaii and Iceland have volcanic landscapes like that, and both have been venues for astronaut training. Another wonderful place to get the job done is Crater of the Moon National Monument.
Proclaimed on May 2, 1924, and subsequently expanded half a dozen times, Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve (as the two-unit complex is now called) encompasses three major lava fields sprawling over hundreds of square miles of sparsely-vegetated terrain in southern Idaho’s great Snake River Plain. This volcanic landscape is replete with fissure vents, lava flows, lava lakes, spatter cones, cinder cones, cinder crags, cinder blocks, rafted blocks, lava tubes, explosion pits, subsidence craters, squeeze-ups, basalt mounds, and other volcanic features and forms resulting from eruptions that occurred over the last 15,000 years (including some as recently as 2,000 years ago). The volcanic fissures that contributed the lava are now dormant, but not extinct. This means that they could – at least in the span of another thousand years or so – erupt again.
The four astronauts did not have time to see much of the park during their brief visit on that long-ago August day, but you can rest assured they saw plenty of interesting volcanic features and measurably increased their store of relevant knowledge.
It’s hard to tell precisely how the Craters of the Moon visit contributed to the overall success of the Apollo 14 mission. While everyone knows that Apollo 14 had much better luck than the ill-fated Apollo 13 (and that Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard hit two golf balls on the moon with a makeshift club), the nuances of rock gathering and related geologic description for that particular mission haven’t been publicized much and don’t seem to relate clearly to the Craters of the Moon training. In any event, lunar terrain photography, including photos taken to document the rock sampling, undoubtedly had much greater scientific value than any personal observations the astronauts could have made.
In case you are interested, the more than 90 pounds of lunar rocks that Apollo 14 brought back were mostly breccias:
The Apollo 14 landing site was in the Fra Mauro formation, which is material ejected by the impact that produced the Imbrium Basin. As one would expect in a region formed by impact-basin debris, most of the 42 kilograms of rocks and soil collected on Apollo 14 are breccias (rocks that are composed of fragments of other, older rocks). The countless impacts that have sculpted the Moon's surface broke many rocks down into small fragments. The heat and pressure of such impacts can sometimes fuse these fragments into new rocks, called breccias. In some cases, the rock fragments that form a breccia are themselves breccias. Such rocks obviously have experienced complex histories with multiple generations of impact events.
Postscript: The four astronauts had careers that certainly did not move in lock step after the August 1969 park visit. Alan Shepard commanded the Apollo 14 mission and became the fifth person to walk on the moon. Ed Mitchell, whose only flight into space was as the lunar module pilot of Apollo 14, became the sixth person to walk on the moon and spent nine hours there. Gene Cernan went to the moon twice (Apollo missions 10 and 17), spent more time there than anyone else, and on December 17, 1972, became “the last man to walk on the moon” while serving as Apollo 17 commander. Joe Engle never did get to the moon, though he was an Apollo 14 backup lunar module pilot and was scheduled to go on Apollo 17 before he was replaced by NASA scientist Harrison Schmitt, who had been scheduled for Apollo 18 (cancelled due to budget cuts). In 1999, Cernan, Mitchell, and Engle all returned to Craters of the Moon to participate in the park’s 75th anniversary celebration. Alan Shepard might have been there too had he not died of leukemia in 1998.AS Barack Obama's new administration prepares to take power, we can but hope that 2009 will be the year the world gets serious about climate change. And not a moment too soon. Carbon emissions are growing faster than ever as the Earth's natural ability to absorb them is declining. Species are starting to go extinct as a result (see "Comment: Move over, polar bear").
It is a reflection of the parlous state of the planet that we report this week on technologies that not so long ago would have been dismissed as pie in the sky, even bonkers. Now they are increasingly seen as ways to repair the damage.
On page 34 we examine the growing interest in technologies that scrub carbon dioxide out of the air. A few years ago the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change dismissed talk of such "artificial trees" as impractical. Now...
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.Bromelain Enzyme Information
Bromelain, derived from the pineapple plant, is one of a group of proteolytic enzymes (enzymes capable of digesting protein). Bromelain is particularly useful for reducing muscle and tissue inflammation and as a digestive aid. Supplements are made from enzymes found in the pineapple stem.
Bromelain is believed to be an effective blood thinner and anti-inflammatory that works by breaking down fibrin, a blood-clotting protein that can impede good circulation and prevent tissues from draining properly. Bromelain also blocks the production of compounds that can cause swelling and pain. When inflammation is reduced, blood can move more easily to a traumatized area, alleviate pain, and help healing.Dosage
Determining the exact amount of bromelain to take is not an easy task. Bromelain is measured in MCUs (milk clotting units) or GDUs (gelatin dissolving units). One GDU equals approximately 1.5 MCU. Strong products contain at least 2,000 MCU (1,200 to 1,333 GDU) per gram (1,000 mg). A supplement containing 500 mg labeled 2,000 MCU per gram would have 1,000 MCU of activity. Some doctors recommend as much as 3,000 MCU taken three times per day for several days, followed by 2,000 MCU three times per day. Much of the research uses smaller amounts, more like the equivalent of approximately 500 MCU taken four times per day.by Zoran Sevarac
Published February 2011
: NetBeans Platform
The NetBeans Platform is a generic Java Swing application framework that provides GUI components and a module system for the development of custom desktop applications. The best known application on the NetBeans Platform is, of course, the NetBeans IDE, but there are also many other examples that can be seen at the NetBeans Platform Showcase.
Neuroph Studio is a Java neural network development environment built on top of the NetBeans Platform and Neuroph Framework. It is an IDE-like environment customized for neural network development. Neuroph Studio is a GUI that sits on top of Neuroph Framework. Neuroph Framework is a full-featured Java framework that provides classes for building neural networks.
In addition to providing easy-to-use neural network wizards and tools, Neuroph Studio also integrates basic Java development modules from the NetBeans IDE, so developers can create, test, and deploy various Java components based on neural networks in the same environment. Previously, developers usually needed two applications: one for neural network development and one for Java development.
Neural networks are artificial intelligence (machine learning technology) suitable for ill-defined problems, such as recognition, prediction, classification, and control. This article shows how to create some Java neural networks for classification. Note that Neuroph Studio also has support for image recognition, text character recognition, and handwritten letter recognition, which will be covered in future articles.
Note: If you want to install Neuroph Studio and Neuroph Framework so you can try the examples that are described in this article, download Neuroph Framework and Neuroph Studio (for Microsoft Windows, Linux, or Mac, depending on the operating system your system is running).
Before I show how to create and use neural networks for real-world problems, I'll first briefly explain what neural networks are and provide some general principles for how they work.
Neural networks are computational models inspired by the way the human brain works. Although they are very simplified models based on known principles about how the brain works, they exhibit some very interesting features, such as learning, generalization, and association capabilities. In addition, they are good at dealing with noisy or incomplete data.
Neural networks are graph-like structures that consist of a set of interconnected nodes called neurons. Each neuron has inputs through which it receives input from other neurons (connected to its inputs) and outputs through which it sends output to other neurons (connected to its outputs). The way in which the neurons are interconnected determines the type of neural network architecture.
In addition to the connection pattern among neurons, network behavior is determined by the processing inside the neurons and so-called connection weights. Connection weights are numerical values associated with connections among neurons, and by tweaking these values using an appropriate algorithm (called a learning rule), we can adjust the network behavior.
Typical neuron processing includes calculating the weighted sum of neuron inputs and connection weights and then feeding that value into some function (step, sigmoid, or tanh functions are commonly used). The output of that function represents the output of the neuron.
The Neuroph framework provides all of these neural network components out of the box, regardless of whether you want to create a common type of neural network or a custom neural network.
Neuroph Studio also provides samples that demonstrate the basic principles behind neural networks.
The basic neuron sample demonstrates the basic components and processing for a single neuron.
1. To open the basic neuron sample, in Neuroph Studio, select File >New Project > Samples > Neuroph > Basic Neuron Sample.
Figure 1. New Project for Basic Neuron Sample
This basic neuron model consists of the following components:
s = (x1*w1) + (x2*w2).
Figure 2. Basic Neuron Sample
2. Try to run this sample and play with the neuron by changing the input and weight values, and then click the Calculate output button.
During a learning procedure, a neuron's weights are automatically adjusted in order to get the desired behavior. These are the basic principles of how artificial neurons work, but there are many variations depending on the type of neural network.
One neural network type commonly used for many different types of problems is the multilayer perceptron (MLP) network. This network consists of several layers of neurons (at least three) where each neuron from one layer is connected to every neuron in the next layer. The common transfer function for this type of network is the so-called sigmoid function. The architecture of this type of network is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Architecture of a Multilayer Perceptron Network
This type of the network can be used for various machine learning tasks, such as recognition, prediction, approximation, and so on. Neuroph Studio provides a sample that shows how a multilayer perceptron network can be used for classification problems.
This sample shows how a multilayer perceptron network can be used to learn complex classification tasks.
1. To run the sample, in Neuroph Studio, select File > New Project > Samples > Neuroph > Multi Layer Perceptron Classification Sample, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4. Multilayer Perceptron Network Sample
2. Create a classification task by clicking the feature space (x1, x2).
Left-clicking creates red dots, and right-clicking creates blue dots. Each dot represents an item with two features (x1 and x2).
These items represent data that the neural network should learn in such a way that for a given input (x1 and x2), it can decide whether the input belongs to the blue class or the red class.
Figure 5. Data for the Sample Multilayer Perceptron Network
The number of input features corresponds to the number of input neurons in the neural network, while the number of classification classes usually corresponds to the output neurons. In this example, since we have only two classes, we are using only one output neuron, which should output zero for the blue class and one for the red class.
We also need to set the number of hidden neurons (and layers), which depends on the classification complexity. Hidden neurons are neurons between the input and output layer, and MLP networks may have one or more hidden layers.
3. In the corresponding field, enter the number of neurons that are in the hidden layers. Separate the numbers with a space.
For this simple example, five hidden neurons will suffice.
Besides the number of hidden neurons, we can set some learning parameters, such as Learning Rate, Momentum, Max Error, and Max Iterations, which are typical settings used for Backpropagation (the learning algorithm for MLP).
Leave these as the default values for now, but keep in mind that for different problems, some other values might give better results. These values are always in the range [0, 1].
4. Click the Train button.
The neural network is created and the learning process starts. After a while, you can see the result in the Multi Layer Perceptron Classification Sample tab, as shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6. Results for the Sample Multilayer Perceptron Network
Figure 6 shows how the neural network sees the given data and how it will interpret any other data fed into the neural network.
We can also see how the network learned the given data by looking at the Total Network Error Graph tab. This graph, which is shown in Figure 7, shows how the learning rule tweaked the network weights in order to minimize misclassification (network error).
Figure 7. Total Network Error Graph Tab
We can also look at the neural network itself in the MlpSampleNet1 tab, as shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8. Neural Network Shown in the MlpSampleNet1 Tab
Note that in this image, there are three neurons in the input layer and six in the hidden layer. One neuron in both layers is the bias neuron, which always outputs 1. The bias neuron provides additional internal input.
The preceding example is the simplest possible, and we don't need a neural network for it. However, we used this example just to show the basic principles when working with neural networks. Neural networks can actually do complex classifications, such as the one shown in Figure 9.
Figure 9. Example of a Complex Classification
You can experiment with different classification problems and learning settings to get a feel for how this works.
Once you train your neural network, you can serialize it as a Java class by clicking the Save button in Neuroph Studio. Then you can deploy it to your application by using Neuroph Framework. Here is the sample code:
// load serialized network from file NeuralNetwork nnet = NeuralNetwork.load("MySavedNeuralNetwork.nnet"); // set network input which we want to classify nnet.setInput(0.5, 0.9); // process input/calculate network nnet.calculate(); // get networkoutput/classification result double output = nnet.getOutput();
Note: You can create a Java project and run this code directly from Neuroph Studio, but you need to put a reference to the neuroph-2.5.jar file from your project to be able to use this code. The jar file is a Neuroph Framework class library and it is available, along with full Neuroph Framework documentation and source code, by downloading the neuroph-2.5b.zip file.
The previous examples were created using classification samples from Neuroph Studio. However, you can easily create and train custom neural networks using wizards. To create a neural network and teach the network a classification problem you perform the following tasks:
Here are the specific steps.
1. First, create a new Neuroph Studio project by selecting File > New Project > Neuroph > Neuroph Project.
Figure 10. Creating a New Neural Studio Project
2. Enter the name of your project and click Finish.
Figure 11. Specifying the Project Name
3. Create a multilayer perceptron neural network by selecting File > New File > Neuroph > Neural Network.
Figure 12. Creating a Multilayer Perceptron Network
4. Set the type of neural network to Multilayer Perceptron and enter a network name.
Figure 13. Setting the Network Type
You will be asked to set the network parameters.
5. Enter the network parameters values shown in Figure 14 and click Finish.
Figure 14. Setting the Network Parameters
This creates the neural network, as shown in the Figure 15.
Figure 15. Neural Network Is Created
6. Create the training set by selecting File > New File > Neuroph > Training Set.
Figure 16. Creating the Training Set
7. Specify the training set settings, as shown in the Figure 17.
For this example we'll use the Iris classification data set, which is well-known classification problem data set.
In short, we have four properties and three classes of iris flowers and the classification is a bit tricky. See this Wikipedia article for more details. Note that number of properties corresponds to the number of network inputs, while number of outputs corresponds to the classification classes.
Figure 17. Specifying the Training Set Settings
8. Import the iris data set from this normalized file, which uses tab-separated-values (TSV).
Here we use a normalized data set, which simply means that original values are scaled to the interval [0, 1].
Figure 18. Importing the Iris Data Set
The training set will look like this:
Figure 19. Example Training Set
9. To train the network, click the neural network to open it, select the Iris training set from the training sets list, and click the Train button.
10. Use the default learning parameters in the Set Learning Parameters dialog, and click the Train button.
Figure 20. Using the Default Learning Parameters
In the Total Network Error Graph tab, you can watch how the network error is minimized during the learning procedure.
Figure 21. Total Network Error Graph Tab
This article showed how to use Neuroph Studio along with Neuroph Framework to easily create Java neural networks. More details about neural network theory and practice are beyond the scope of this article, but several resources are provided in the See Also section.
It is very convenient to have an integrated neural network and Java development environment, and Neuroph Studio is the first application to provide this type of environment. Because Neuroph Studio is open source, it is very suitable for education and research, but it is also helpful for Java developers who want to use neural networks as part of their projects.
Zoran Sevarac is a teaching assistant at Belgrade University, Department for Software Engineering, and a researcher at the Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence at Belgrade University. He is also a member of GOAI Research Network. Through his research, he has been working on the development of a Java neural network framework, which was released as the open source project Neuroph. He holds a master's degree in Information Systems, and he is a Ph.D. candidate. He is also the founder of the local NetBeans community Net Beans User Group Serbia.Missouri was the trailhead state for the U.S. end of the Santa Fe Trail through most of the Trail’s history, and arguably benefited the most of any state from its existence. Missouri traders from the town of Franklin, like William Becknell, helped pioneer the Santa Fe Trail, dramatically expanding on the earlier efforts of small-time French and Spanish traders from the area.
In time, towns like Independence and Westport, Missouri, became major outfitting centers for Santa Fe trading caravans, and were entrepôts for the much-needed Mexican silver coins that flooded into the specie-poor republic from the New Mexican trade. Even Missouri’s official state animal, the mule, may have derived its widespread fame as a result of the superior mules that were acquired by traders and driven back across the Trail from New Mexico for the Missouri market.
Recognizing the vital role that the Santa Fe Trail would play in the destiny of Missouri and the nation at large, Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton prevailed on Congress in 1825 to appropriate money for a full survey of the road to Santa Fe, and treaties with Indian tribes to allow its passage through their lands.
Artist Charles Goslin’s painting on our Missouri River Outfitters chapter page illustrates the well-worn Santa Fe Trail ruts to the west of Independence, Missouri, made as wagons and carriages of every description “hit the trail” for Santa Fe.It is well known that exposure to asbestos or radon drastically increases the injurious effects of smoking. In the present study, led by Uppsala University, the scientists have investigated whether high blood levels of the environmental contaminant PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) reinforces the harmful effect of smoking.
The study was performed within the framework of the so-called PIVUS study, which comprehends some 1,000 70-year-old men and women in Uppsala. The results show that the risk of having died at the 8-year follow-up was 40 per cent higher for smokers with low levels of PCB in their blood compared with non-smokers. For smokers with high levels of PCB, the risk was fully 640 per cent higher.
Also in former smokers the risk of dying was considerably higher among those who had high levels of PCB in their blood compared with those who had low levels (370 per cent greater risk, compared with 20 per cent). On the other hand, no elevated mortality was found among those who had never smoked.
"These data show that exposure to PCB increases the risk dramatically in both smokers and former smokers. For non-smokers, no elevated risk was found, at any rate not after eight years. More studies are needed to clarify the risks for this group," says Lars Lind, professor of cardiovascular epidemiology at the Department of Medical Sciences, Uppsala University.
PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyls) are a group of environmental contaminants that were banned nearly 20 years ago. But since they accumulate in the food chain and remain in the human body for a very long time, high levels can still be found in a majority of the population in Sweden and most other industrialised countries. High levels of PCBs have previously been shown to be linked to poor heart function, and for a number of risk factors for heart problems, such as obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure.
- Tahira Jamil, Carla Kruk, Cajo J. F. ter Braak. A Unimodal Species Response Model Relating Traits to Environment with Application to Phytoplankton Communities. PLoS ONE, 2014; 9 (5): e97583 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0097583
Cite This Page:Lice may be very bothersome for those with lice on their scalp, facial hair, pubic region or on other areas of their body. They may cause itching and may even cause infection in some cases. Patients who have lice are encouraged to take the appropriate steps to treat the problem and prevent the spread of lice to others.
Lice cannot jump or fly, contrary to what some may believe, and may only be spread by close contact with others or by sharing personal items with somebody infested with lice.
To avoid spreading lice to others, inform close friends and family members that you have lice and avoid contact. If you are embarrassed at having lice, simply avoiding contact and keeping a safe distance from others should be helpful.
Pubic lice (crabs) may be spread through sexual contact with partners who have pubic lice. To reduce your risk of pubic lice, avoid sexual contact with people who you know have pubic lice. Reducing your number of sexual partners may also be helpful in reducing your risk of getting pubic lice.
Avoid Sharing Personal Items
Sharing clothing, bed sheets, hair brushes, hats and other personal items with others may spread lice. Children in preschool and elementary school commonly share hats and brushes with others, which is why lice is more common in young children. Laying your head where an individual with lice recently rested their own may spread lice as well. Speak with a physician for more information about which activities may spread lice.
Bathe regularly and practice good hygiene. Examine your children's scalps regularly to check for lice. Identifying lice before they spread to you or other members in the family may be helpful in preventing a household lice infestation.
Body lice live on clothing, so make sure that you wash your clothing in hot water. Change your clothes regularly, as body lice will usually go away on their own if you bathe regularly and do not wear clothing containing body lice.
If you or a family member has lice, apply medication and take the necessary precautions to avoid spreading lice to others. Talk to a physician for information regarding possible treatments and medications used to treat lice.
To learn more about lice, how to avoid lice and how to avoid spreading lice, consult a qualified physician in the area.Circumstellar Disks HD 141943 and HD 191089
The two panels at the top of this image reveal debris discs around young Sun-like stars. These were uncovered in archival images taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-object Spectrometer observed these discs in near-infrared in 2007. Astronomers blocked out the bright light from each star in order to analyse the faint light reflected off dust particles in the discs.
The illustration beneath each image depicts the orientation of the debris discs.
Astronomers retrieved these images from the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) and used more powerful image analysis techniques to search for planetary systems.
About the Image
|Release date:||25 April 2014, 17:57|
|Size:||2400 x 3000 px|
About the Object
|Name:||HD 141943, HD 191089|
|Type:||• Local Universe : Star : Circumstellar Material : Disk|
• X - Stars Images/Videos
Colours & filters
|1.1 μm||Hubble Space Telescope|
|1.6 μm||Hubble Space Telescope|The narrator explains how he would visit his friend Savka at the Dubrovsk allotments. The two men would go on fishing trips, talk to each other, and roam "carefree about the countryside." The narrator describes Savka as tall, handsome and about twenty-five years old. He notes that Savka was incredibly strong but also unbelievably lazy, as he had declined to work a steady job in order to support his old mother. Instead, the young man lived "like a bird" on his plot of land and spent his time in "motionless contemplation" of the surrounding countryside. The narrator describes the air of "serene, innate, almost artistic passion for living about his whole figure."
One evening in May, the narrator and Savka rest on a rug after a hard day's fishing. As darkness falls, the two men discuss bird migration before Savka mentions that he has invited a woman to visit him that night. The narrator recognizes the woman as Agafya, a young peasant girl married to a railway signalman named Yakov. The narrator warns Savka that he will "come to a bad end" because of all his affairs, but the young man insists that he does not care and that he cannot help it if women throw themselves at him. After watching the last sunlight fall away, the two men eat their supper. Savka explains that "the women" bring all of his food because they "pity" him. His dog starts growling at the sound of someone splashing across the river, heralding Agafya's arrival. Savka derides the young woman's excuses that her husband sent her and explains that "the gentleman" knows why she has come; he then offers her some vodka. Just as the narrator decides he should go for a walk, a nightingale starts to sing. Savka darts up and disappears into the darkness in pursuit of the bird. The narrator notes that his friend was an excellent hunter but that he wasted his talent on "mere tricks" such as catching birds with his hands.
The narrator and Agafya are left alone together. The man agrees not to tell anyone about what she has done but asks Agafya if she is afraid Yakov will find out. The young woman replies that she always makes sure to get home before her husband. As time passes, Agafya grows concerned that the last train will arrive and that her husband will find out she is missing. However, even when she hears the sound of the train in the distance, Agafya cannot bring herself to leave. Savka returns and explains how he failed to catch the nightingale. The narrator goes for a walk to give Agafya and his friend time alone together and muses on the fascination Savka exerts over women. When he returns, the narrator finds Agafya "intoxicated with the vodka [and] Savka's contemptuous caresses." He reminds the girl that she should leave, and Agafya jumps to her feet. The narrator leaves to sit in a hollow in the riverbank, looks at the stars, and listens to Yakov calling for his wife. He hears laughter coming from the allotments and realizes that Agafya is trying to forget about her predicament by spending a few happy hours with Savka.
The narrator is awoken the next morning by his friend, and the two men watch Agafya cross the stream to return home. Savka states callously that the girl will "get it good and proper" for being unfaithful to her husband. The dismayed narrator sees Agafya stumble across the field towards Yakov. He describes his friend's face as being "contorted with distaste and pity, as happens with people who watch animals being tortured." Suddenly, however, Agafya straightens up and strides courageously toward her husband to "face the music."
This story was published in the New Times in 1886, to the delight of the great novelist Dmitry Grigorovich. David Magarshack notes that Grigorovich praised Chekhov for the authenticity of his fiction and that the Grigorovich wrote to Chekhov, "Only a true artist could have written a story like Agafya not in a single word or movement does one feel that the story has been "made up"—everything in it is true, everything in it is just as it could have happened in real life." Grigorovich went on to compare Chekhov to both Tolstoy and Turgenev. Certainly, the young author merited this praise: his story displays many features of a great tale. Words are used minimally but to the greatest effect, from which the author crafts rich yet laconic descriptions. Chekhov's wonderfully subtle descriptions evoke mood as well as setting, while his characters are all the more real for being deftly sketched. For example, readers immediately grasp Savka's adolescent, capricious personality in the lines, "He was precipitated into activity when the spirit moved him catching a dog by the tail, tearing a kerchief off a woman's head, or jumping across a wide crack in the ground." We see by Savka's language—he refers to the narrator as "Sir" and tells Agafya, "I was beginning to think you wasn't coming tonight"—that he is not a member of the gentry, although the young man displays a natural refinement stemming from his affinity with nature.
Similarly, Chekhov describes the beauties of landscape and the natural world in brief but fertile prose. We read, "All that was left of the sunset was a pale crimson shaft of light, and even that was beginning to be overspread with flecks of cloud, as burning coal might be with ashes." The graceful pacing of Chekhov's prose gives it the lyricism of poetry. It is as though we are listening to a piece of music, while its harmonies and rhythms also evoke the musicality of nature. Birds twitter, insects chirrup, and a nightingale sings in the evening stillness. Chekhov treats every aspect of his tale with this type of sensitivity. The author even brings the coarser elements of Savka's affair with Agafya to life, while respecting both characters' inherent humanity. We thus read that Savka "despised women" but see also that this stems from a great desire to be left alone. As Leonard Woolf wrote in the New Statesman in 1917, Chekhov was an "unflinching realist" who nevertheless "picked up with the extreme tips of his fingers a little piece of real life, and then with minute care and skill pinned it by means of words into a book." The author's ability to be simultaneously candid and delicate with prose is revealed in his account of Agafya's adultery with Savka. We see that the narrator returns from his walk to find that "Agafya, intoxicated with the vodka, Savka's contemptuous caresses, and the closeness of the night, lay on the ground beside him, her face pressed to his knee." Chekhov thus treats his characters with great tenderness but does not refrain from recording the seedy, tragic, or pathetic elements of their existence.
Although Chekhov uses these same literary skills elsewhere, Agafya stands out from his other stories in one important respect. In contrast to many other tales where the ending is understated, Agafya ends on a powerful note of achievement. The young woman initially takes a slow and tortuous route back to confront her husband, but then she strides toward him with determination. Undeniably, Chekhov confounds our expectations with this sudden twist. However, because of the author's subtle feel for the motives of his characters—clearly, Agafya recognizes that she has already jeopardized her marriage and thus approaches her husband with complete abandon—this conclusion rings true. Chekhov leaves us to surmise what will happen next.From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A wedgie occurs when a person's underwear or other garments are wedged between the buttocks. While a wedgie can be created naturally, the term is usually associated with a prank or as a form of bullying. When a person is on the receiving end of a wedgie, their underwear is forcibly pulled up by a second person.
Wedgies are commonly featured in popular works, either as a form of low comedy or as
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Health care providers can help the family and caregivers learn about these differences.Delirium may affect physical health and communication.
Patients with delirium are:
They often need a longer hospital stay than patients without delirium.
The confused mental state of these patients may make them:
This makes it harder for health care providers to assess the patient's symptoms. The family may need to make decisions for the patient.
When the following symptoms occur suddenly, they may be signs of delirium:
Early symptoms of delirium are like symptoms of depression and dementia. Delirium that causes the patient to be inactive may appear to be depression. Delirium and dementia both cause problems with memory, thinking, and judgment. Dementia may be caused by a number of medical conditions, including Alzheimer disease. Differences in the symptoms of delirium and dementia include the following:
Older patients with cancer may have both dementia and delirium. This can make it hard for the doctor to diagnose the problem. If treatment for delirium is given and the symptoms continue, then the diagnosis is more likely dementia. Checking the patient's health and symptoms over time can help diagnose delirium and dementia.Physical exams and other laboratory tests are used to diagnose the causes of delirium.
Doctors will try to find the causes of delirium.
Both the causes and the symptoms of delirium may be treated. Treatment depends on the following:
Treating the causes of delirium usually includes the following:
In a terminally ill patient with delirium, the doctor may treat just the symptoms. The doctor will continue to watch the patient closely during treatment.Treatment without medicines can also help relieve symptoms.
Controlling the patient's surroundings may help with mild symptoms of delirium. The following may help:
Patients who may hurt themselves or others may need to have physical restraints.Treatment may include medicines.
Medicines may be used to treat the symptoms of delirium depending on the patient's condition and heart health. These medicines have serious side effects and the patient will be watched closely by a doctor. These medicines include the following:
When the symptoms of delirium are not relieved with standard treatments and the patient is near death, in pain, or has trouble breathing, other treatment may be needed. Sometimes medicines that will sedate (calm) the patient will be used. The family and the health care team will make this decision together.
The decision to use sedation for delirium may be guided by the following:
Use our clinical trial search to find NCI-supported cancer clinical trials that are accepting patients. You can search for trials based on the type of cancer, the age of the patient, and where the trials are being done. General information about clinical trials is also available.
Physician Data Query (PDQ) is the National Cancer Institute's (NCI's) comprehensive cancer information database. The PDQ database contains summaries of the latest published information on cancer prevention, detection, genetics, treatment, supportive care, and complementary and alternative medicine. Most summaries come in two versions. The health professional versions have detailed information written in technical language. The patient versions are written in easy-to-understand, nontechnical language. Both versions have cancer information that is accurate and up to date and most versions are also available in Spanish.
PDQ is a service of the NCI. The NCI is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIH is the federal government’s center of biomedical research. The PDQ summaries are based on an independent review of the medical literature. They are not policy statements of the NCI or the NIH.
This PDQ cancer information summary has current information about the causes and treatment of delirium. It is meant to inform and help patients, families, and caregivers. It does not give formal guidelines or recommendations for making decisions about health care.
Editorial Boards write the PDQ cancer information summaries and keep them up to date. These Boards are made up of experts in cancer treatment and other specialties related to cancer. The summaries are reviewed regularly and changes are made when there is new information. The date on each summary ("Date Last Modified") is the date of the most recent change.
The information in this patient summary was taken from the health professional version, which is reviewed regularly and updated as needed, by the PDQ Supportive and Palliative Care Editorial Board.
A clinical trial is a study to answer a scientific question, such as whether one treatment is better than another. Trials are based on past studies and what has been learned in the laboratory. Each trial answers certain scientific questions in order to find new and better ways to help cancer patients. During treatment clinical trials, information is collected about the effects of a new treatment and how well it works. If a clinical trial shows that a new treatment is better than one currently being used, the new treatment may become "standard." Patients may want to think about taking part in a clinical trial. Some clinical trials are open only to patients who have not started treatment.
Clinical trials are listed in PDQ and can be found online at NCI's website. Many cancer doctors who take part in clinical trials are also listed in PDQ. For more information, call the Cancer Information Service 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).
PDQ is a registered trademark. The content of PDQ documents can be used freely as text. It cannot be identified as an NCI PDQ cancer information summary unless the whole summary is shown and it is updated regularly. However, a user would be allowed to write a sentence such as “NCI’s PDQ cancer information summary about breast cancer prevention states the risks in the following way: [include excerpt from the summary].”
The best way to cite this PDQ summary is:
PDQ® Supportive and Palliative Care Editorial Board. PDQ Delirium. Bethesda, MD: National Cancer Institute. Updated <MM/DD/YYYY>. Available at: https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/side-effects/memory/delirium-pdq. Accessed <MM/DD/YYYY>. [PMID: 26389165]
Images in this summary are used with permission of the author(s), artist, and/or publisher for use in the PDQ summaries only. If you want to use an image from a PDQ summary and you are not using the whole summary, you must get permission from the owner. It cannot be given by the National Cancer Institute. Information about using the images in this summary, along with many other images related to cancer can be found in Visuals Online. Visuals Online is a collection of more than 2,000 scientific images.
The information in these summaries should not be used to make decisions about insurance reimbursement. More information on insurance coverage is available on Cancer.gov on the Managing Cancer Care page.
More information about contacting us or receiving help with the Cancer.gov website can be found on our Contact Us for Help page. Questions can also be submitted to Cancer.gov through the website’s E-mail Us.
Physicians version: CDR0000062772
Date last modified: 2016-03-09
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|Back to the Cancer.govToday I had the BEST misunderstanding in class.
Look at these 2 pictures in our book. We decided “Anna” on the left looks really hot (temperature, people!!), maybe stressed, possibly needing a drink of water. “Ben”, on the right, is clearly angry. (In fact, he reminds me of myself when our internet goes out and I’m interrupted in the middle of watching Grey’s Anatomy. Have you SEEN that show?! Man, it’s good! If I had no conviction for compassion I’d totally be Dr. Yang. She’s such a heartless witch and it. is. HI.larious.)
This unit was about making requests, offering suggestions, and…..whatever, stuff like that. Before we practice ourselves, the book gives examples and we have to decide which person, “Anna” or “Ben”, would be appropriate to say the phrase too. For example:
“Could I turn on the air conditioning for you?” – that one is clearly for “Anna”
“Would you like me to help you fix it?” – this one’s for “Ben”
Here’s a doozy: “Why don’t you take off some of your clothes?”….Now, this seems relatively reasonable for “Anna”. She’s wiping her forehead. Her face says, “Frick, it’s hot in here!” HOWEVER, she isn’t wearing her jacket/blazer anymore. What else is she supposed to take off exactly?!?! She’s already tried that one. Soooo………this is the 1st funny thing about class, to which my students got a good laugh.
I’m so glad there’s a 2nd misunderstanding, which revolves around this same phrase, to tell you about.
So then we practice using different phrases to ask for help and make requests…
Me: Kara, If you were “Anna” and needed to make a request, using “Could you please…”, what would you say?
Kara: Could you please give me a drink of water?
Me: Awesome, that’s a great idea! Ok, um, Vicky, if you were offering to do something for “Ben”, what would you say, using “Would you like me to…?”
Vicky: Would you like me to call IT?
Me: Yeah! Good one!….Mandy, what if “Ben” was making a request. What’s something he might ask for?
Mandy: Could you….Would you please…uh, um *scanning over page frantically, looking for something to say because she hasn’t been paying attention* Would you please take off some of your clothes?
Me: HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!! You want me to take off my clothes?! I will NOT! *jokingly pulling my cardigan together*
Class: LAUGHTER ALL AROUND!
Best part was, this all happened in my first class and I had to teach this same lesson 2 more times. Ooohh, it was good fun! I LOVE making my girls laugh!!Trophic structure and mercury distribution in a Gulf of St. Lawrence (Canada) food web using stable isotope analysis
Even at low concentrations in the environment, mercury has the potential to biomagnify in food chains and reaches levels of concern in apex predators. The aim of this study was to relate the transfer of total mercury (THg) and methylmercury (MeHg) in a Gulf of St. Lawrence food web to the trophic structure, from primary consumers to seabirds, using stable nitrogen (δ15N) and carbon (δ-3C) isotope analysis and physical environmental parameters. The energy reaching upper trophic level species was principally derived from pelagic primary production, with particulate organic matter (POM) at the base of the food chain. We developed a biomagnification factor (BMF) taking into account the various prey items consumed by a given predator using stable isotope mixing models. This BMF provides a more realistic estimation than when using a single prey. Lipid content, body weight, trophic level and benthic connection explained 77.4 and 80.7% of the variation in THg and MeHg concentrations, respectively in this food web. When other values were held constant, relationships with lipid and benthic connection were negative whereas relationships with trophic level and body weight were positive. Total Hg and MeHg biomagnified in this food web with biomagnification power values (slope of the relationship with δ15N) of 0.170 and 0.235, respectively on wet weight and 0.134 and 0.201, respectively on dry weight. Values of biomagnification power were greater for pelagic and benthopelagic species compared to benthic species whereas the opposite trend was observed for levels at the base of the food chain. This suggests that Hg would be readily bioavailable to organisms at the base of the benthic food chain, but trophic transfer would be more efficient in each trophic level of pelagic and benthopelagic food chains.
|Keywords||Biomagnification, Food web, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Mixing models, Seabirds, Stable isotopes, Total and methyl mercury, Trophic position|
|Journal||Science of the Total Environment|
Lavoie, R.A. (Raphael A.), Hebert, C.E, Rail, J.-F. (Jean-François), Braune, B.M, Yumvihoze, E. (Emmanuel), Hill, L.G. (Laura G.), & Lean, D.R.S. (David R.S.). (2010). Trophic structure and mercury distribution in a Gulf of St. Lawrence (Canada) food web using stable isotope analysis. Science of the Total Environment, 408(22), 5529–5539. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2010.07.053Proudly Supporting all Military Families with a Special Needs Dependent
Today is the day we remember and honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And for most Americans, this day, and Dr. King, are synonymous with Civil Rights. What many people may not realize is the contribution Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement played in the Disability Rights Movement. “[D]isability advocates saw the opportunity to join forces alongside other minority groups to demand equal treatment, equal access and equal opportunity for people with disabilities. The struggle for disability rights has followed a similar pattern to many other civil rights movements – challenging negative attitudes and stereotypes, rallying for political and institutional change, and lobbying for the self-determination of a minority community.” (Source: http://www.adl.org/education/curriculum_connections/fall_2005/fall_2005_lesson5_history.asp)
The changing landscape of Disability Rights in the 1960s meant the enactment of many federal laws and programs set to improve the lives of those with disabilities: updating social security regulations to include those under age 50, President Kennedy’s Panel on Mental Retardation, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, creation of Medicaid/Medicare, building codes demanding equal access for all persons, and many more. The changes didn’t stop in the 1970s: President Johnson had a panel on Mental Retardation, things that we take for granted like curb cutouts, handicap parking plaques, many state programs to help disabled adults live independently were developed across the country. (Source: http://isc.temple.edu/neighbor/ds/disabilityrightstimeline.htm)
So much progress and yet:
These are the BIG issues. Many of these, we feel, are out of our hands – out of our control. But, let me tell you, Friends, there are battles being waged every single day for our children’s rights. Every single day there are people who know better, who stay silent and are complicit in our struggles to ensure our children have the best quality medical care, education and chance at life that they can possibly have. And, to me, this is a scorched earth policy – you are either with me in supporting my son and helping us – or – you are against me.
I’m looking at you: IEP Admin team; special ed teachers who just pass kids on to get them out of your hair; insurance companies who continually refuse to cover medicines or tests that may help our children live the best quality of life possible; school boards who have a hands-off policy when it comes to educating the special ed children; family members who refuse to acknowledge our children for who they are, thus short-changing them out of relationships with you; “friends” who have dropped us along the way, because our children have too many issues to deal with; business and organizations who discriminate against the disabled – even subtly; politicians who try to balance the budget on the backs of those who have nothing left to give, who deny that there is a mental health problem of epic proportions in this country, who cut education programs and disability funding – and then complain when people have the need to go on public assistance. The list goes on and on. Unfortunately.
There comes a time when we – You and I – need to make a stand. If not for our own children, for the others. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr:
In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Kelly is a Navy wife and mother to three children; 16 year old NT, 6 and 5 year old boys on the spectrum; and, since life was getting a touch boring, she’s added a bun in the oven. Kelly has been featured in a collection of essays on special needs children entitled, “Wit and Wisdom From the Parents of Special Needs Children.” She can also be found at MyTidewaterMoms.com, and as a guest blogger throughout the blog-iverse. In her spare time, Kelly is the Blog Master for, and member of, the Military Special Needs Network Executive Board. You can contact her via email at KellyHafer@MilitarySpecialNeedsNetwork.com.
It's serious. It's sarcastic. It's sweet. It's sincere.
A site to discuss and learn about TRICARE Philippines Policies and Issues that are often times implemented in secret by the Defense Health Agency (DHA). Policies that result in payments at about 7.7% and 3.8% of what they should be or $328 per under 65 person instead of the expected $4,261 & $328 per over 65 person instead of the expected $8,650.
words and recipes from my kitchen to yours
LIFESTYLE - by Esther Herrero
living the saga called life....
Vet tech student. Student Naval Flight Officer. Professional napping dog.
finding contentment in the unexpected
Musings from an unsuspecting navy wife
Attempts at Adulthood
Bringing Community Resources Together to Support Families with Special Needs
This WordPress.com site is about the ups and downs of life and autism.
a fun site for inclusive wellness activities for kids of all abilities
Homeschooling, gardening, parenting, special needs, Buddhism, living, drinking, eating and loving.
Life Is Worth Living
...to a healthier, happier Family!The governance of Canada's massive Mackenzie River Basin holds enormous national but also global importance due to the watershed's impact on the Arctic Ocean, international migratory birds and climate stability, say experts convening a special forum on the topic.
"Relevant parties in western Canada have recognized the need for a multi-party transboundary agreement that will govern land and water management in the Mackenzie River watershed. Successful collaboration will effectively determine the management regime for a watershed covering 1.8 million square kilometers or about 20 percent of Canada — an area roughly three times the size of France — and include the country's vast oil sands," says University of California Prof. Henry Vaux, Chair of the Rosenberg Forum, which meets Sept. 5-7 at Vancouver's Simon Fraser University with the support of the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation.
The Forum's goals include identifying legal and scientific principles relevant to the processes leading ultimately to a coordinated basin-wide approach to management, as well as prioritizing knowledge gaps.
The Mackenzie is Canada's longest river — about 1,800 km — and pours a staggering 10.3 million liters (enough to fill four Olympic swimming pools) into the Arctic Ocean every second, along with 100 million tons of sediment per year. That's slightly more water than the St. Lawrence River discharges into the Atlantic, according to estimates.
The Mackenzie Basin includes three major lakes (Great Slave, Great Bear and Athabasca, which together contain almost 4,000 cubic km of water) and many major rivers, including the Peace, Athabasca, Liard, Hay, Peel, South Nahanni and Slave.
Complex challenges confront this immense territory rich in natural assets, which include intact forests, vital habitat for wildlife and for birds that migrate as far as South America, deep stores of trapped carbon, and vast deposits of oil, oil sands, natural gas and minerals.
A 2011 report published by the Gordon Foundation urges the federal government to work with jurisdictions in the basin to implement a world-class water monitoring program and support credible, independent water research.
Says Thomas S. Axworthy, President and CEO of the Toronto-based Gordon Foundation, "The starting point of good water policy is knowledge and the starting point of knowledge is to monitor on a regular basis the quality of water in the Mackenzie Basin — for the health of the North, Canada and the world."
Through bi-lateral and multi-lateral discussions, Canada's three westernmost provinces — British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan — its Yukon and Northwest Territories, and the federal government are seeking to set objectives for surface and groundwater quality and quantity, emergency notification requirements, information exchange protocols and dispute resolution processes.
"Anything less than a basin-wide program with strict water quality and quantity standards, backed by binding requirements for prior notification and consultation and dispute resolution, will squander an opportunity to finally give the Mackenzie Basin a governance regime that will protect it for future generations," adds J. Owen Saunders, adjunct law professor at the University of Calgary and former Executive Director of the Canadian Institute of Resources Law.
Says renowned Canadian water scientist James Bruce: "Development activity in British Columbia and Alberta is intensifying adverse impacts of climate change. Agreements must take into account the growing regional impacts of climate change and the need for an adaptive management strategy."
The refrigerator-like cooling effect of ice and annual snow cover in the northern Mackenzie basin plays a vital role in weather and climate patterns in Canada and throughout the northern hemisphere.
Rosenberg Forum panelist Prof. John Pomeroy of the University of Saskatchewan expects climate change to impact northern basin hydrology significantly by causing more precipitation in the form of rain and a shorter snow-cover period, reducing snow's beneficial insulating effect on permafrost. Those new conditions will also increase the prevalence of ice layers, which can increase spring runoff and streamflow but restrict grazing by caribou and muskox.
Expanding shrub cover in formerly open tundra is resulting in warmer air, soils and greater streamflow generation, he notes. The loss of spring snow cover and expansion of shrubs warm the northern air and cause changes in weather patterns and climate throughout the world.
Dr. Pomeroy notes that permafrost thaw in the southern Northwest Territories is causing the large-scale collapse of black spruce forests and increasing stream flow. Coincident with increased stream flow generation in the northern Mackenzie River Basin, climate warming is decreasing stream flow generation in the basin's south tributaries, due to declining mountain snowpack and increases in evaporation.
Trapped within the permafrost, meanwhile, are ancient stores of greenhouse gases, the release of which could transform the region from sink to a source of greenhouse gases.
When ice layers thaw, slumping of the land results in the discharge of sediments to rivers and allows perched ponds and lakes to drain. Tributary river courses and groundwater flows can alter, leaving spawning areas disrupted. Melting permafrost can also severely damage drainage facilities, roads, buildings, and pipelines.
The Mackenzie Delta — where the river meets the Arctic Ocean — is increasingly subject to storm surges from the Beaufort Sea and salt water intrusion due to three factors: reduced nearshore ice, sea levels rising at accelerated rates, and more frequent severe winter storms.
Ecosystems in this productive area will increasingly be affected, and buildings and infrastructure in low-lying areas will be flooded more frequently.
The Rosenberg Forum will also review studies that reveal the economic significance of the Basin, including one completed by researchers Mark Anielski and Sara Wilson in 2009 that estimated the 2005 market value of economic activities in the Mackenzie watershed at $41.9 billion.
At the time, the growing industrial footprint in the region covered about 25.6 million hectares, twice the combined area of Canada's maritime provinces New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
The researchers quoted a non-market value of the watershed (ecosystem goods and services provided by nature such as carbon storage, water filtration, water supply and 14 others) of almost $571 billion per year (2005), some 59% of which — $339 billion — was attributed to the storage and annual absorption of carbon by the basin's forests, peatlands, wetlands and tundra.
"If the environmental services of the basin were compromised, the loss would be very large," says Alberta-based water policy analyst Bob Sandford, who notes that climate change is occurring in the north at a rate three times that of the rest of Canada.
He and many scientific colleagues are expressing concern about persistent toxic compounds appearing in aquatic ecosystems of the Mackenzie River Basin, most derived from air pollution. Alberta's David Schindler and colleagues have shown that atmospheric emissions from oil sands developments are significant contributors to contamination of waters in the Mackenzie River Basin. These contaminants are transported by wind and deposited on snow, land and tree needles, eventually washing into rivers and lakes.
The Forum will consider recently announced Canadian government measures to monitor and mitigate oil sands-related pollution.
Objectives for the Rosenberg Forum:
To identify and summarize pertinent scientific principles and findings that should be acknowledged in processes leading to a Mackenzie River management agreement, as well as pertinent legal principles that may apply, and to address the following questions:
1. What is the state of scientific knowledge of the Mackenzie River Basin? What are the major scientific questions to be addressed to ensure that the waters and lands of the basin are managed in a way that protects their integrity? To what extent does scientific uncertainty need to be addressed and specifically acknowledged in any transboundary agreement? What does science tell us about the continental and global significance of the basin?
2. To what extent does indigenous knowledge supplement or reinforce typical western science or social science? To what extent does indigenous knowledge need to be acknowledged or incorporated in any agreement? Are there examples of transboundary agreements that rely upon indigenous knowledge?
3. Given prevailing levels of uncertainty, what should be the role of adaptive management in scoping and implementing any transboundary agreement? What are the positive and negative lessons learned from experience with adaptive management? Are there examples of transboundary agreements that rely on adaptive management?
4. Is it possible to revamp existing cooperative governance structures for the Mackenzie Basin so as to build upon rather than infringing upon the jurisdictions of the federal, provincial, territorial and indigenous governments? Are there examples where this has been successfully accomplished in a federal system? Are there examples of where it has been attempted but failed to work effectively?
5. Could an existing layer of government or a regional governmental entity be given regulatory authority related to the purely basin-level aspects of such overarching issues as climate change, cumulative environmental impacts, as well as transboundary indigenous treaties and governance agreements?
Wednesday, September 5th will be devoted to "fact finding." On that day, senior provincial and territorial officials as well as researchers working in the Mackenzie Basin have been invited to make presentations.
Thursday, September 6th and Friday, September 7th will be devoted to deliberations of the panel and the development of conclusions and recommendations.Editor's Note: This post was originally posted on the National Service Blog.
Cesar Chavez (1927 – 1993) was an American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist. His birthday, March 31st, is a state holiday in California and a number of other states and is also celebrated by many as a day to promote service to the community in honor of his life and work.
Most of the youth are of African American and Latino descent and often experience bullying at school. "I thought that teaching them about the Core Values of Cesar Chavez might help them realize that it is better to work together than against each other,” said Fortune.
When asked if they knew of Chavez, a few of the 5th graders raised their hands but many simply shook their heads no. After taking a quiz and learning more about Cesar Chavez, the young people began to notice a connection between themselves and his work.
“When they started going over the answers, the youth were really excited and asked lots of questions about the things that Cesar Chavez did for the community,” said Fortune. “They realized that he worked in communities that were similar to theirs.”
Fortune then introduced her students to Cesar Chavez’s core values. The group discussed how the values could be used in their after-school program and decided to focus on three values a week, beginning with Acceptance of All People, Celebrating Community, and Non-Violence. When asked why they selected those values, the youth conveyed a hope that these core values would help address the bullying problem.
“I have definitely noticed a change in the youth since we began the Cesar Chavez curriculum,” noted Fortune. “They have become kinder to one another and have been helpful around the school. I am grateful that I have this as a tool to strengthen my youth development skills.”
On January 12, 1990, shortly before the MLK Day holiday, Cesar Chavez said, “My friends, today we honor a giant among men: today we honor the reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King was a powerful figure of destiny, of courage, of sacrifice, and of vision. Few people in the long history of this nation can rival his accomplishment, his reason, or his selfless dedication to the cause of peace and social justice. Today we honor a wise teacher, an inspiring leader, and a true visionary, but to truly honor Dr. King we must do more than say words of praise. We must learn his lessons and put his views into practice, so that we may truly be free at last.”
You can serve on Cesar Chavez Day and honor Dr. King together, by making it part of the MLK 25 Challenge, an ongoing initiative to honor the 25th anniversary of the King Holiday.Brines produced by desalination processes such as reverse osmosis (RO), electrodialysis reversal
(EDR) and ion-exchange (IX) holds pollution potential for the water environment if not properly handled. These brines contain a high water content (95–98%) and chemicals that could possibly be recovered for reuse. Therefore, direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) which has the potential for water and chemical recovery from brines was investigated for water and chemical recovery from RO and EDR brines originating from difficult to treat petrochemical effluents. It was shown that water recoveries of between 70% and 80% could be obtained with membrane distillation (MD). Salt rejections of more than 99.5% were obtained. The quality of the treated brine is suitable for boiler feed make-up. However, fouling of the membranes took place at high water recovery similarly to as in the last modules in RO as a result of concentration polarisation and cleaning of the membranes with acid and salt/caustic solution almost restored condensate flux.The approach flow to a pump must be undisturbed and free from unequal velocity distributions,
unequal pressure distributions, entrained air or gas bubbles, vortices and excessive pre-swirl. A
reducer fitting is typically used in pump station pipe work to reduce the size of the suction pipe to
match the size of the pump suction end flange. Two types of reducer fittings are commonly
manufactured, namely: Eccentric Reducers and Concentric Reducers. Inlet pipework design
guidelines traditionally prescribe the use of eccentric reducers, with the flat side on top. This
prescription is to allow the transport of air through the fitting. The flow through an eccentric reducer
accelerates along the sloped side as the flow path narrows from below, thereby causing higher
velocities towards this sloped side. These flow conditions are contradictory to the recommended
pump inlet approach flow conditions and pump station failures have been recorded resulting from the
incorrect application of eccentric reducers.
Relationships exist to assess the hydraulic transportation of air through a pipe and these relationships
can be applied to calculate the ability to transport air through a concentric reducer. It is therefore
hypothesised that a correctly designed concentric reducer will not only provide a more uniform
pressure/velocity distribution in comparison to an eccentric reducer, but will allow any free air
to be hydraulically transported through the reducer to the pump.
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was utilised to assess the resulting velocity distributions
through various concentric and eccentric reducer geometries at various flow rates. Six concentric
reducers and six eccentric reducers were simulated with four inlet velocities. The resulting velocity distributions were recorded with scalar scenes and velocity probes at four positions spaced at a
distance of 1 x the downstream diameter starting at the downstream end of the reducer.
These velocity distributions were then compared to the pump inlet requirements typically used in the
industry. These requirements require the velocity variation along a line drawn through the centre of
the pipe to be less than 10% of the average velocity along that line and the velocity variation along a
circle within the pipe is less than 5% of the average velocity along the circle.
It was found that the eccentric reducers with angles of 15°, 20° and 30° and the concentric reducer
with an angle of 20° do not pass the requirements used in the assessment at all four velocities. From
these results it was highlighted that some of the standard eccentric reducer geometries (including
those specified by AWWA C208) do not pass the inlet requirements. It was then assessed if air can be
hydraulically transported through the concentric reducers utilising available hydraulic air transport
theory. Air can be hydraulically transported through all of the concentric reducers except for the 20°
reducer (the same size that failed the velocity distribution assessment) at 1m/s for the assessed
It was therefore shown that a correctly designed concentric reducer (angle less or equal to 15°)
will not only provide a more uniform pressure/velocity distribution in comparison to an
eccentric reducer, but will allow air to be hydraulically transported through the reducer to the
Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2015.Bronchitis Copd - Salt Therapy and Its European Well-Known Beneficial Effects inThe benefits of salt therapy (also called Halotherapy) or speleotherapy are well known and documented in Europe. Halotherapy uses dry aerosol micro particles of salt and minerals to treat respiratory diseases and seeks to replicate the conditions of speleotherapy (from Greek speleos=cave), a treatment that has been practiced in old salt mines of Eastern Europe since the early 19th century.
- The mid 18th Century a Polish health official Felix Botchkowski, noticed that the workers of salt mines did not get ill with lung diseases.
- He wrote a book about the effects of salt dust in His successor M.
- Poljakowski founded a Salt Spa in Velicko near Krakow, which is still in operation.
- During the Second World War salt mines were often used as bombproof shelters.
- After spending time there many people who suffered from asthma felt that their health had gotten better!
- Today there are many salt sanatoriums in Europe (Austria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia ').
The salt therapy was found to have beneficial effects in the treatment of: 'Asthma and Chronic Bronchitis 'COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) 'Allergic Rhinopathy or Hay Fever 'Cystic Fibrosis 'Sinusitis 'Ear Infections 'Smoking Cough 'Various acute or chronic respiratory disease 'Reduce snoring and activates better sleep by clearing the airway passages in oropharyngeal region 'Increased resistance to Cold & Flu by opening and clearing the nasal airway and improving the drainage of the sinuses 'Humidifies the bronchial secretions reducing broncho-spasm and facilitating elimination of the smoke residual tar, phlegm expel and other allergens 'Improves the quality of the indoor air by eliminating the dust, cigarette smoke, bad odours, mould and mites, having bactericide reduction properties. People always think that they know everything about everything; however, it should be known that no one is perfect in everything. There is never a limit to learning; even learning about Chronic Bronchitis Copd.
The Halotherapy belongs to the category of the physical therapies non-drug and non invasive treatments of diseases. In the former Soviet Union, medical researchers engaged in a concerted effort to develop physical therapies in order to avoid the costs and side effects of drug therapy as well as microbial and tumour resistance. Russia has become the world leader in developing and testing new and increasingly effective physical therapies. Many of the clinical trials have focused on Halotherapy as a treatment of asthma and chronic bronchitis and also very effective as a main or adjuvant therapy across the entire range of upper and lower respiratory tract diseases. The best way of gaining knowledge about Bronchitis Copd is by reading as much about it as possible. This can be best done through the Internet.
The salt therapy is a natural method of therapy and does not involve any risk and is finally adapted to the living space. However, this is NOT a substitute for medical treatment and should only be used as an adjuvant helping to improve the quality of patients' life, reducing the antibiotics and corticoids or steroids intake, reducing the rate of annual hospitalizations and decrease the frequency of respiratory diseases attacks. Never be reluctant to admit that you don't know. There is no one who knows everything. So if you don't know much about Bronchitis Copd, all that has to be done is to read up on it!
Ltiba Website: Www.Salinetherapy.Com +1 / 519.641.SALTNB: The author grants reprint permission to opt-in publications and websites so long as the copyright and by-line are included intact and the article is not used in spam. Variety is the spice of life. So we have added as much variety as possible to this matter on Asthma Chronic Bronchitis to make it's reading relevant, and interesting!
This salt therapy being very well known for its beneficial effects, a Romanian inventor put his mind at work and developed a device that is able to reproduce a speleotherapy micro environment in your home in an affordable and convenient way. Internationally recognized, with Gold and Silver medal at 'Salon International des Inventions', Geneva and 'World Exhibition of Innovation, Research and New Technology', Brussels, this Romanian invention brings new hopes in the natural treatment of chronic respiratory diseases..
The effectiveness of speleotherapy is not acknowledged in all countries of the world, but in countries like Romania (Praid, Tg.Ocna, Seiged, Sovata, Slanic, Ocna), Poland (Wieliczka), Germany (Teufelsh'hle), Austria (Hallen, Solzbad-Salzeman), Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Hungary, Russia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Nakhichevan mines in Azerbaijan, the salt aerosol plays an important role in the treatment of chronic respiratory diseases, working well with or without medical treatment and without any known side effects. Because of these, pregnant women with asthma or other respiratory diseases could use this therapy without any harm to the child. Very well known and appreciated in these middle-eastern European countries, this therapy is covered by the public health
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, along with an incredibly strong hull. Though they are sapient machines, the Reapers have habitable interiors that can transport a crew, either to help spread their indoctrinated slaves or to allow these slaves to tend to them—in truth it is probably a combination of both, and Reapers have been witnessed to possess Dragon's Teeth within their interior. Speculation in the Codex suggests that each individual Reaper has a massive element zero core (proven true on the Derelict Reaper found by Commander Shepard) which, coupled with the likely enormous quantities of energies at its disposal, allows it to generate the staggering mass effect field needed to land on a planet.
However, the Reapers are not invincible. When the Reapers go into states of hibernation between cycles, they are vulnerable. By taking refuge in dark space, the Reapers ensure they will not be discovered by accident and destroyed while they wait for their vanguard to open the Citadel mass relay. A concentrated effort by the fleets of organic races could also destroy a Reaper even if it is at full power: a single fleet managed to destroy Sovereign when its shields and weapons were disabled.
Aside from their formidable firepower and indoctrination, Reapers are also capable of mustering up their own ground forces to attack their enemies: Husks. Husks are aggressive, mindless drones, created from organic beings who are exposed to Reaper technology, such as Dragon's Teeth, resulting in their organic bodies being consumed by cybernetics. Husks are used as shock troops and swarm enemies in waves. Husks can be modified and combined to create Abominations, Scions, and Praetorians.
The Reapers have been around for billions of years—the derelict Reaper discovered by Commander Shepard was 37 million years old.
The cycle of extinction has been going on for as long if not longer, ever since the Reapers were created. They laid a trap for the races of the galaxy in the form of the mass relays, which offered instant transport around the galaxy (leading to the impressive Citadel), almost certainly better than the FTL technology the discoverers would possess. This channeled the development of the race's technology, possibly so that it was more likely to be usable by the Reapers when they returned, though it also causes the races to generally only develop tech that is significantly weaker than modern Reaper tech, as seen by Reapers being able to move twice the speed of any Alliance vessel. This path also made element zero-based weapons and armour technology more probable.
The Reapers created or enslaved the Keepers as guardians of the Citadel, and programmed them to maintain the Citadel while also preventing the residents from learning its secrets. When the vanguard left by the Reapers in the galaxy broadcasted a signal, the Keepers would activate the station's mass relay, bringing in the Reapers from dark space. As the Citadel would be the centre of galactic finance, information and society, the Reapers controlling it would allow them to find all worlds and settlements of the species there. They will also have control of the relay network from here.
After harvesting the galaxy, they remove all traces of their presence and go back to dark space.Cuba has a humid subtropical climate with no seasonal extremes, a favorable environment for bee hummingbirds. Bee hummingbirds prefer areas with the plant solandria grand flora, which provides their preferred source of nectar. Although bee hummingbirds may live at both high and low altitudes, they seem to prefer lowlands. They can be found in coastal and interior forests, in mountain valleys, swampy areas and gardens. (BirdLife International, 2003; Lack, 1973; Perrins and Middleton, 1989; Tyrrell, 1990)
Bee hummingbirds are the smallest birds in the world. They also spend a higher percentage of their lives flying than any other species. They are comparable in size to large bees. Female (Lack, 1973; Perrins and Middleton, 1989; Santana, 1991; Terres, 1982; Thomson, 1964; Tyrrell, 1990; Weekes, 2000)tend to be slightly larger than males. Males grow to be 5.51 cm long and weigh 1.95 g, on average, while females grow to be 6.12 cm long and weigh 2.6 g, on average. This small species is very compact and agile with an average wingspan of 3.25 cm. These birds have straight and rather short beaks when compared with other species of hummingbirds. Male can be distinguished by their bright colors and the iridescent feathers on their throats. They have specially adapted flight muscles, which make up 22 to 34 percent of their total body weight. (and other hummingbirds) are also equipped with a large keel and tapered wings, which aid in flying. As is common among other hummingbirds, their shoulder joints allow their wings to rotate 180 degrees and their small feet and legs can only be used for perching.
When first hatched, neware blind and nearly naked of plumage (feathers), but their growth is rapid. The young Bee Hummingbirds are fed by regurgitation for 20-40 days while the mother hovers over the nest. Hatchlings tend to leave the nest only after their wing feathers are fully-grown. This is about 22-24 days after hatching. The nestlings’ initial plumage closely resembles that of an adult Bee Hummingbird, with an exception to the dark colorations and the iridescent ornamentations. These characteristics are developed later in the life (decorative patterns) of the adult male (Terres 1982; Thomson 1964).
Breeding occurs at the end of the wet season and the beginning of the dry season when many trees and shrubs are flowering. Breeding corresponds with the flowering patterns of sloandria grand flora, the bird's preferred source of nectar. Mating in bee hummingbirds can occur on a perch or while hovering in the air.
Female bee hummingbirds typically lay 2 pea-sized eggs. The eggs are elliptical in shape and are white. Incubation lasts 14 to 23 days and the chicks fledge after 18 to 38 days. Females make their first attempt to breed when they are 1 year old. (Perrins and Middleton, 1989; Peters, 2000; Sibley and Ahlquist, 1990; Thomson, 1964; Weekes, 2000)
Bee hummingbirds are diurnal. Because of the climate they inhabit, they have no need to migrate long distances. They may make seasonal movements in response to the abundance and distribution of flowers. This species is capable of flying at speeds of 25 to 30 MPH.
Bee hummingbirds (like other hummingbirds) have unique flying skills. They are able to fly straight up, down, backwards and even upside down. They hover by moving their wings in a figure-eight pattern which allows them to remain stationary in the air.
Bee hummingbirds have adapted to the cool weather during the night by using torpor. During cold nights, their body temperature, which is normally 41 degrees C, falls to the air temperature around 30 degrees C. This allows them to conserve energy.
The tiny male birds establish feeding territories, where they aggressively chase other males, bumblebees and hawk moths that try to feed in their territory. Aerial flights and intimidating displays are used to defend the territories.
We do not have information on home range for this species at this time.
As with all members of the family Trochilidae, have evolved a unique tongue structure in order to more efficiently obtain nectar from flowers. Their tongue is long and protractile. The bill is also used to extract insects and spiders from within flowers. The birds hover in front of flowers while feeding. Because the hummingbird flowers have no perch, it is difficult for other birds and insects to exploit their nectar so bee hummingbirds have little competition for their food source. Bee hummingbirds consume their weight in nectar and insects each day. They prefer nectar with sucrose concentrations of 15 to 30 percent. Because of their fast metabolism, bee hummingbirds require a high nutrient intake and spend up to 15 percent of their time eating.
Anti-predator adaptations ininclude their maneuverability and speed. Bee hummingbirds, along with other hummingbirds, are the only birds capable of flying backwards and making immediate stops while flying in the air. They also perform a nuptial dive, which is made up of several downward dashes with intermittent pauses and is used to scare predators from their territory.
Bee hummingbirds have reportedly been caught and eaten by hawks (family Accipitridae), falcons (family Falconidae), kestrels (genus Falco), orioles (genus Icterus), frogs (order Anura), fish (class Actinopterygii) and tropical spiders (order Araneae). (Perrins and Middleton, 1989; Terres, 1982; Tyrrell, 1990; Weekes, 2000)
Bee hummingbirds are important for the pollination of various flowers in Cuba and Jamaica. Flowers such as solandria grand flora and the scarlet bush have evolved to make their nectar accessible only to this species. In these relationships, the birds and plants are codependent. (Perrins and Middleton, 1989; Weekes, 2000)
Bee hummingbirds, along with other species of hummingbird, are known for their grace and beauty. During the 19th century, stuffed hummingbirds were a status symbol worn on the hats of women. Farmers, scientists and tourists are often impressed by these tiny wonders of nature. Bee hummingbirds can be attracted to gardens with hummingbird flowers or hanging feeders of sugar water solution. Hummingbirds can also be important crop pollinators. (Terres, 1982)
There are no known adverse affects of bee hummingbirds on humans.
The first human threat to hummingbirds most likely occurred during the 19th century when stuffed hummingbirds were a status symbol worn on the hats of women. Today, the greatest threat to the survival of the species is the destruction of forests and replacement of other natural vegetation with crops. This has an impact on the availability of suitable nesting sites and nest construction materials.
In order to maintain the biodiversity of the West Indies, the government of Cuba is determined to keep its annual deforestation rate at a low 0.1 percent. In 1959, the revolutionary government took charge and the Reforestation Plan was enacted. Planting efforts increased from 50.8 million trees planted each year between 1960 and 1969 to 136.3 million between the years 1980 and 1988.
The wings of hummingbirds vibrate so rapidly that they create a humming sound. This is where the common name hummingbird originated.
When size is taken into account, the amount of energy required by a bee hummingbird each day is 10 times the amount spent by marathon runners.
Alaine Camfield (editor), Animal Diversity Web.
Adrienne Glick (author), Western Maryland College, Randall L. Morrison (editor), Western Maryland College.
living in the southern part of the New World. In other words, Central and South America.
uses sound to communicate
young are born in a relatively underdeveloped state; they are unable to feed or care for themselves or locomote independently for a period of time after birth/hatching. In birds, naked and helpless after hatching.
having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.
uses smells or other chemicals to communicate
to jointly display, usually with sounds, at the same time as two or more other individuals of the same or different species
the nearshore aquatic habitats near a coast, or shoreline.
humans benefit economically by promoting tourism that focuses on the appreciation of natural areas or animals. Ecotourism implies that there are existing programs that profit from the appreciation of natural areas or animals.
animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.
union of egg and spermatozoan
forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.
An animal that eats mainly plants or parts of plants.
fertilization takes place within the female's body
animals that live only on an island or set of islands.
offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).
having the capacity to move from one place to another.
the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.
an animal that mainly eats nectar from flowers
reproduction in which eggs are released by the female; development of offspring occurs outside the mother's body.
having more than one female as a mate at one time
rainforests, both temperate and tropical, are dominated by trees often forming a closed canopy with little light reaching the ground. Epiphytes and climbing plants are also abundant. Precipitation is typically not limiting, but may be somewhat seasonal.
breeding is confined to a particular season
reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female
living in residential areas on the outskirts of large cities or towns.
a wetland area that may be permanently or intermittently covered in water, often dominated by woody vegetation.
uses touch to communicate
Living on the ground.
defends an area within the home range, occupied by a single animals or group of animals of the same species and held through overt defense, display, or advertisement
the region of the earth that surrounds the equator, from 23.5 degrees north to 23.5 degrees south.
uses sight to communicate
BirdLife International, 2003. "BirdLife's online World Bird Database: the site for bird conservation" (On-line). Accessed January 19, 2004 at http://www.birdlife.org.
Harmer, S., A. Shipley. 1959. Birds. New York: Hafner Publishing Co..
Lack, D. 1971. Ecological Isolation in Birds. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Lack, D. 1973. The numbers of species of hummingbirds in the West Indies. Evolution, 27: 326-337.
Perrins, C., C. Middleton. 1989. Encyclopedia of Birds. NY: Facts on File.
Peters, S. 2000. Bumblebee Hummingbirds of Cuba. NY: Welschner Books Inc.
Santana, E. 1991. Nature conservation and development in Cuba. Conservation Biology, 5(1): 13-16.
Sibley, C., J. Ahlquist. 1990. Phylogeny and Classification of Birds. London: Yale University Press.
Terres, J. 1982. Hummingbird Family. NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
Thomson, A. 1964. Hummingbird. NY: McGraw-Hill Book Co.
Tyrrell, Q. 1990. Hummingbirds of the Caribbean. NY: Crown Publishers, Inc.
Weekes, W. 2000. "An Itty-Bitty Humdinger" (On-line). The World and I. Accessed January 19, 2004 at http://www.worldandi.com/specialreport/2000/july/Sa20985.htm.
Welty, J. 1975. The Life of Birds. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company.Explanation: If Scorpius looked this good to the unaided eye, humans might remember it better. Scorpius more typically appears as a few bright stars in a well-known but rarely pointed out zodiacal constellation. To get a spectacular image like this, though, one needs a good camera, color filters, and a digital image processor. To bring out detail, the above image not only involved long duration exposures taken in several colors, but one exposure in a very specific red color emitted by hydrogen. The resulting image shows many breathtaking features. Vertically across the image left is part of the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. Visible there are vast clouds of bright stars and long filaments of dark dust. Jutting out diagonally from the Milky Way in the image center are dark dust bands known as the Dark River. This river connects to several bright stars on the right that are part of Scorpius' head and claws, and include the bright star Antares. Above and right of Antares is an even brighter planet Jupiter. Numerous red emission nebulas and blue reflection nebulas are visible throughout the image. Scorpius appears prominently in southern skies after sunset during the middle of the year.
|<< Previous APOD||This Day in APOD||Next APOD >>|From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pluralis majestatis ("majestic plural") is the plural pronoun where it is used to refer to a single person holding a high office, such as a monarch, bishop, pope, or university rector. It is also called the "Royal 'we'" or the "Victorian 'we'." The more general word for the use of we to refer to oneself is nosism.
- On the Issue of the Basic Law of the State We, Qaboos bin Said, Sultan of Oman…
Famous examples of purported instances:
- We are not amused. — Queen Victoria (in at least one account of this quotation, though, she was not speaking for herself alone, but for the ladies of the court.)
- The abdication statement of Nicholas II of Russia uses the pluralis majestatis liberally, as in "In agreement with the Imperial Duma We have thought it well to renounce the Throne of the Russian Empire and to lay down the supreme power."
I invite you to look at our autism, and look at your grief, from our perspective:
This is what we hear when you mourn over our existence.
This is what we hear when you pray for a cure.
This is what we know, when you tell us of your fondest hopes and dreams for us: that your greatest wish is that one day we will cease to be, and strangers you can love will move in behind our faces.
But don't mourn for us. We are alive. We are real. And we're here waiting for you.
"King Jim" Sinclair went well beyond the Royal We in presuming to speak on behalf of all autistic children including those with Autism Disorder, some of whom lack his considerable intellectual and communication gifts. He also used his Royal Insight to tell parents of children newly diagnosed with autism what they were thinking and feeling in responding to the realities of their children's diagnoses. "We" were in fact mourning the child we should have had, wishing we could replace the people behind our children's faces with entirely new non-autistic people. Bad, bad parents, we should all be banished to the stocks. And if you can believe some of essays by parents of autistic children praising autism as a different perhaps better way of thinking and living, praising the joy of autism, it appears they at least heard the Royal message. Treatment bad, cure bad, ABA bad, autism good, autism joyful.
Of course no mention of Autism's Royal We would be adequate if it made no reference to another very high functioning autistic adult, diagnosed as an adult, who also uses the Royal We in her relentless anti-ABA campaigns before courts, Parliament and the media in Canada. In The Word Is Out About Autism, Canada In The Era Of Autism Advocacy Michelle Dawson also made extensive use of the Royal We, "Queen Michelle" told the Canadian Senate Standing Committee
on Social Affairs, Science, and Technology that:
There is no consideration of who autistics might be and what we might need. Either we are horribly sick or we aren’t, depending on what non-autistics need.
Either we are horribly sick or we aren’t, depending on what non-autistics need.
we are most reliably defined by our strengths, our innate autistic strengths, which exist in all autistics regardless of how our level of functioning is judged.
1. That this Committee, and the Senate as a whole, apologize to autistic Canadians, for using your power and resources to promote and distribute false and pejorative information about autistics which is likely to be damaging and dangerous to us.
3. That the above-mentioned final report make it clear that autism is not a mental illness; that autism is receiving a great deal of attention due to the efforts of autism advocates; and that this attention, because it arises from factually false and ethically indefensible portrayals of autistic people, has harmed and damaged us.
Mr. Mitchell challenged the assumption that the anti-cure ideologies of some autistic persons represented the views of all autistic persons and for that was decried as a "liar":
Mr. Mitchell is not the only autistic person who rejects the anti-cure ideologies of King Jim and Queen Michelle. There are in fact other high functioning autistic persons for whom they do not speak. And it is difficult to see how they speak at all on behalf of those autistic persons with whom they have very little in common.
People as eloquent as Jim Sinclair or as intelligent as Michelle Dawson do not share the same realities of life as a much lower functioning autistic person with limited communication skills and limited understanding of the world, someone like my son Conor. Like Ms Dawson I once worked for Canada Post, albeit as a lawyer. It can be a complex and challenging work environment regardless of one's position. To be a letter carrier or postal clerk requires signficant command of language. My son does not know what Canada Post is, he does not know what a PO Box or postal code is, or what it represents.
Jim Sinclair and Michelle Dawson are free, in democratic societies, to use the Royal We in presuming to speak on behalf of all persons with Autism. But my son Conor Doherty, diagnosed at age 2, with Autism Disorder, with profound developmental delays does not sit as a subject in their courts. If safe, effective, treatments and cures are found for him then I will not hesitate to seek their application for Conor's benefit, to improve his life, to help him experience life to the fullest.Text Structures: Time to write – pick your passion
Lesson 13 of 21
Objective: SWBAT choose a topic to use for our Text Structure writing product.
This is day thirteen of a four week unit where students will first become familiar with the five Text Structures, then identify each of them in new text, and finally apply each of them in their writing. In this phase of the unit, students have had exposure to the definition of Text Structures and have identified them within new text. Therefore, they are ready to write their own examples, which will be compiled into their very own “Scholastic News – Text Structures Edition” as a final product for the unit. After identifying each, this is the next stage of the scaffolding process: application.
Connection: I always start by connecting today’s lesson to something kids have previously learned so that it triggers their schema and background knowledge. Since they’ve been working on Text Structures for several weeks, I ask them to remind me what a Text Structure is, which is how the information within a written text is organized. I refer back to the anchor chart from the beginning of the unit to let the students know that throughout the week, they will be writing paragraphs using each of the structures around a theme of their choice.
Teaching Point: This is when I tell kids explicitly what we will be working on. I say, “The Scholastic News is a great resource to find information about important topics and examples of Text Structures and each of you will get to create your very own version of Scholastic News!” This would be most fun for kids to do with a topic they are very passionate about, which leads us to the active engagement.
Active Engagement: This is where students get to try out the strategy that we are working on. I ask students to think of a topic that they love and know a lot about that they would be able to write about in different ways. For example, I love to exercise and could write about many aspects of exercise. I give them two minutes of thinking time and then tell them to turn and talk with their carpet partners to share some ideas. Then I call on several students to share. Some topics that you can expect to hear are sports, school, vacations, food, candy, animals, etc.
Link to Ongoing Work: During this portion of the mini-lesson, I give the students a task that they will focus on during Independent Reading time. Now that they’ve decided on a topic, their job is to think of an idea to write about for each Text Structure, all related to their topic. For example, since my Scholastic News will be all about exercise, here are my paragraph ideas: Cause and Effect will be all about the benefits that you will find if you exercise on a regular basis. Compare and Contrast will explain the similarities and differences between yoga and kickboxing. Problem and Solution will be about the country’s obesity epidemic. Description will list features and characteristics of a gym or fitness center. Sequence will explain the steps to training for a marathon.
Transition Time: Every day after the mini-lesson, students get 5 minutes of Prep Time to choose new books (if needed), find a comfy spot, use the bathroom, and anything else they might need to do to prepare for 40 minutes of uninterrupted Independent Reading.
Guided Practice: Today, I would be conferencing with students right at their comfy spots and asking them to share their topic of choice. I will help them decide on paragraph ideas for each Text Structure (if needed) and make sure they are approved for the work that will follow in the next several lessons.
At the end of 40 minutes, I remind students that their job during reading time was choose a main topic and then decide on paragraph ideas for each Text Structure that are related to their topic. Once students gather at the carpet with their assignment, we share some of their ideas. I then tell them that we will continue our Text Structure work tomorrow. Reader’s Workshop has come to an end.Read the entire story by Robert Kunzig on National Geographic News.
An instrument near the summit of Mauna Loa in Hawaii has recorded a long-awaited climate milestone: the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere there has exceeded 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in 55 years of measurement—and probably more than 3 million years of Earth history.
The last time the concentration of Earth’s main greenhouse gas reached this mark, horses and camels lived in the high Arctic. Seas were at least 30 feet higher—at a level that today would inundate major cities around the world.
The planet was about 2 to 3 degrees Celsius (3.6 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer. But the Earth then was in the final stage of a prolonged greenhouse epoch, and CO2 concentrations were on their way down. This time, 400 ppm is a milepost on a far more rapid uphill climb toward an uncertain climate future.
Two independent teams of scientists measure CO2 on Mauna Loa: one from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the other from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The NOAA team posted word on its web site this morning before dawn Hawaii time: The daily average for May 9 was 400.03 ppm. The Scripps team later confirmed the milestone had been crossed.- Reference Search (databases)
- Pew Research Center: Criminal Justice (website)
- Public Policy Institute of California: Corrections (website)
1. Brainstorm your research questions and keywords
2. Find articles on your topic using the library databases
3. Find a book on your topic -- print or electronic
4. Find a useful website on your topic
5. Analyze your best source and use it to find additional sources
6. Document your sources: MLA citation
Draw a circle in the middle of a blank piece of paper. Inside the circle, put your idea for a paper topic
Brainstorm as many questions as you can about your topic. Try asking questions such as Why? Who? How? When? Where? In what ways?
|Look for broad questions that can be further divided into more narrow, specific questions. If you run out of ideas as a friend or classmate for help -- what questions do they have about your topic?||
Continue to narrow your topic by asking questions about culture, geography, demographics, time periods, and historical events.
Review your topic map. Which questions are you most interested in? Which are the best fit for your assignment? Highlight keywords and phrases you can use to search for information on this topic.
Source: UCLA Library Inquiry LabsDate: September 6, 2016
Source: Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum
Whooping cranes are changing migration patterns in response to climate and land use change, and these new patterns are being determined by the older, more experienced, members of the population.
Researchers from Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, the Goethe University Frankfurt, the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Maryland, and the International Crane Foundation investigated a behavior known as "shortstopping," which is the shortening of a migration route by shifting wintering grounds toward the breeding grounds.
Shortstopping can benefit migrating birds by decreasing the amount of energy that they use on long distance flights. They also can arrive at the breeding grounds earlier, which can be beneficial. This requires that the birds find suitable overwintering sites closer to breeding grounds, and due to climate and land use change, suitable sites can now be found at higher latitudes.
"Our results show that when migratory groups winter closer to the breeding grounds, the first groups to use these new sites include older birds. For each additional year of age of the oldest bird in the group, the distance between breeding and wintering grounds was reduced by 40 km, or almost 25 miles," said Claire Teitelbaum, a Senckenberg & Goethe University Frankfurt researcher, and lead author of the study. "We also found that site familiarity may be an important factor in where migratory groups short-stop. Older birds often chose overwintering sites which they were familiar with from previous migrations."
The population studied is a reintroduced population, established by the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership. In 2001, the Partnership began releasing captive-reared birds and teaching them to migrate using ultralight aircraft. The research results show that the shortstopping behavior has been developed by older birds but has then been passed to younger birds: In 2006, no 1-year-old birds shortstopped, but by 2015, 75 percent of them did so.An emerging body of research confirms practical wisdom from the field that center directors are the gatekeepers to quality. Through the teachers they hire, the administrative practices they put into place, and their ability to promote a shared vision, directors create professional environments that enable teachers to provide enriching learning environments for children. Recognizing the importance of program leadership, an increasing number of state initiatives are including a measure of administrative practices in their approaches to assessing and improving program quality across early learning settings. To help inform these initiatives, this research examined how administrative practices in Head Start programs are related to classroom quality. The research also looked at director qualifications in Head Start programs to understand how specific dimensions of director qualifications are related to the quality of Head Start administrative practices and the quality of the classroom learning environment.
McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership, "Head Start Administrative Practices, Director Qualifications, and Links
to Classroom Quality" (2010). McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership Publications. 20.a boyar family in Russia in the 15th through 17th centuries; major landowners.
Danila Andreevich Basman. Founder of the Basmanov family; died in captivity in Lithuania after 1514. He was the son of the boyar A. N. Pleshcheev.
Aleksei Danilovich Basmanov. The son of Danila Basman, he is first mentioned in the lists of the nobility in 1542. He was a prominent military figure and statesman, who particularly distinguished himself in the Kazan campaigns, in the repulsion of the attack of Crimean Tatars, and in the Livo-nian War.
A. D. Basmanov became an okol’nichii (a noble ranking below the boyars) in 1552 and a boyar in 1555 or 1556. He was favored by Ivan IV, and was an instigator of the oprichnina. He participated in Russian-Lithuanian, Russian-Swedish, and Russian-Danish negotiations. According to the testimony of A. M. Kurbskii, he was killed around 1570 by his own son Fedor on the tsar’s order.
Fedor Alekseevich Basmanov. First mentioned in the lists of the nobility in 1562, he was Ivan IV’s closest favorite during the years of the oprichnina. He became a boyar steward in 1567 and commander in chief of the oprichnina troops in the south in 1569. He died in exile around 1570. He was the father of Petr Fedorovich and Ivan Fedorovich Basmanov.
Petr Fedorovich Basmanov. First mentioned in the lists of the nobility in 1590, he was one of the persons closest to Boris Godunov. He became an okol’nichii in 1599, and a boyar in April or May 1605. After the death of Godunov, Basmanov betrayed Godunov’s son at the battle of Kromy (May 7, 1605), and subsequently became one of the most trusted friends of the False Dmitrii I. He was killed on May 17, 1606, during the insurrection in Moscow.
Ivan Fedorovich Basmanov. First mentioned in the lists of the nobility in 1590, he was a prominent statesman and military figure, becoming an okol’nichii in 1602. In September 1603, he was killed while suppressing a peasant revolt led by Khlopko.
The male line of the Basmanovs ended with the deaths of Petr Fedorovich and Ivan Fedorovich.
REFERENCEZimin, A. A. Oprichnina Ivana Groznogo. Moscow, 1964.
V. D. NAZAROVAbstractThe background aerosol conditions and the conditions contaminated with aerosol of antropogenic origin (Arctichaze) were investigated during two Arctic campaigns, the Arctic Study of Tropospheric Aerosols, Clouds andRadiation (ASTAR) in 2004 and Svalbard Experiment (SVALEX) in 2005, respectively. Results obtained byapplication of the two-stream inversion algorithm to the elastic lidar signals measured on two days representativefor each campaign are presented. The calculations were done using signals obtained by the nadir-looking AirborneMobile Aerosol Lidar (AMALi) probing lower troposphere from the AWI research aircraft Polar 2 overflying thestationary Koldewey Aerosol Raman Lidar (KARL) based at the AWI Koldewey Research Station in NyÅlesund, Svalbard. The method allowed independent retrieval of extinction and backscatter coefficientprofiles and lidar ratio profiles for each of the two days representative for both clean and polluted lowertroposphere in Arctic.
Helmholtz Research Programs > MARCOPOLI (2004-2008) > POL1-Processes and interactions in the polar climate systemAs Alexis de Tocqueville traveled through the young United States, he observed remarkable differences in parents’ relationships to their children compared to the families in his home country of France. In 1830s America, he saw less authority and tradition in the parent’s role, and a greater desire to develop the choices and opinions of the individual child. These more democratic familial arrangements, in Tocqueville’s mind, had significant effects on the larger American society.
Almost 200 years later, Tocqueville’s observations are now hallmarks of American parenting. Contemporary parenting advice-givers continue to be very interested in developing children’s self-esteem, uniqueness, and individuality.
And parents get the message. Studies have consistently demonstrated that American parents want independent children. Parents in the famous Middletown study in 1924 expressed discomfort with “strict obedience” and placed a higher value on qualities like independence, frankness, and tolerance. Throughout the twentieth century Tocqueville’s initial observations were confirmed: emphasis on qualities linked to the autonomy of the child came to outweigh the earlier emphasis on obedience to institutional and adult authority.
American parents want independent children.
Since 1986 the General Social Survey has asked Americans, “What is most important for a child to learn to prepare him or her for life?” For over 25 years, respondents have ranked “to think for him or herself” as their top priority by far (the other choices are to help others, to obey, to work hard, and to be well liked or popular). Sociologist Duane Alwin uses this and other data to demonstrate the steady decline of obedience as a desired quality for children in polling data through much of the twentieth century.
Some believe this increasing focus on our kids’ independence and autonomy has led to a narcissism epidemic among the so-called trophy generation. Perhaps that’s true. But interviews with parents around the country suggest that “thinking for yourself” means different things to different families.
In our interviews with 100 parents, we asked the same question about raising children from the General Social Survey, and had respondents rank their desired qualities for their kids from a list. The majority of all parents in the interview sample, regardless of education level, say “thinking for yourself” is the quality they most desire for their children; it is, by far, the highest ranking choice for all parents.
We then asked all the parents in our sample what, precisely, “thinking for yourself” means to them in order to investigate why most of them value it so highly. It is clear that for some parents (28 percent of the sample), the “think for yourself” ideal is an autonomous, fulfillment-seeking, “do whatever you want” approach. Their ideal of American individualism means expressing yourself and being happy. The individual child should be the arbiter of what this happiness is and how to achieve it.
But this was the minority view. Many other parents seem to have a different understanding of thinking for yourself.
The larger group of parents (72 percent) does not see the child as the final arbiter of good and bad or right and wrong, but rather perceives an external standard to which their children should conform. This majority falls into two related but slightly different categories
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Oct 15 text from different sheets in Excel, · Formula to extract numbers also works with Excel 20. Feb 20 · Cell B7= $ 3 I am looking to find my values that need to go in Sheet 1, B4, B6, in cells B2, B5, B3 B7. I want to copy get the value. Input of a value in a cell on one open Excel sheet update a value in a cell in a different sheet ( same Workbook) Hot Network Questions. Read or get Get Data from Worksheet Cell music to VBA in Excel – Solution( s) :.
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) before the cell address. Double- click the cell that contains the formula that you want to change. Microsoft Office Excel Tutorial. Excel; Office; Search Community member. To reference a cell range of cells in music another worksheet in the same workbook put the worksheet name followed by an exclamation mark (! Get value from excel cell in another sheet music. Change a cell reference to another cell reference.
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I want to convert that to a list of data in another excel file using a macro. the source data will always have the same format and filename, I am stuck on how to access the external excel file from my xlsm file with the code.AirCasting is a platform for recording, mapping, and sharing health and environmental data using your smartphone. Each AirCasting session lets you capture real-world measurements, annotate the data to tell your story, and share it via the CrowdMap.
Using the AirCasting Android app, AirCasters can record, map, and share:
- Sound levels recorded by their phone microphone;
- Temperature, humidity, and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations recorded by the Arduino-powered AirBeam2;
- Temperature, humidity, carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) gas concentrations recorded by the Arduino-powered AirCasting Air Monitor;
- Heart rate, heart rate variability, R to R, breathing rate, activity level, peak acceleration and core temperature measurements recorded by the Zephyr BioHarness 3; and
- Heart rate measurements recorded by the Zephyr HxM.
Using AirCasting Luminescence, these sensor streams can also be represented using LED lights.
To start recording, mapping, and sharing sound level data for your neighborhood, simply download the AirCasting app to your Android device and press record. Want to record Air Quality data? Buy an AirBeam2, download the AirCasting Air Monitor DIY guide, or build your own monitor and connect it to the AirCasting platform.
Who Uses AirCasting?
There are thousands of active changemakers currently using the AirCasting platform, including community-based organizations, schools, research institutions, and citizen scientists interested in health and environmental monitoring, electrical and mechanical engineering, design, rapid prototyping, and open source code. We are actively recruiting additional AirCasters to join our movement. We are seeking...
Instrument Makers interested in developing AirCasting compatible sensor packages for new environmental and physiological sensing applications. It's simple to connect your own custom-designed sensor package to the AirCasting app to display and record measurements in real-time.
Educators & Community Leaders interested in applying science, technology, engineering, art & design, and mathematics to address urgent environmental issues where they live. Schools and community organizations are the vital link between our technology and its application to real world problems.
Open Source Coders to push the limits of what’s possible with the AirCasting platform - gamify, add social networking layers, improve instrument performance & communications - the possibilities are truly endless. Because sharing information freely empowers communities to develop their own best solutions, everything we do, from hardware to software, is open source.
Citizen Scientists from around the world to take measurements, contribute to the crowdmap, and make change! We live in a world where expert knowledge is no longer the exclusive province of experts, where citizens, armed with affordable and accessible instruments, can make unprecedented contributions to scientific understanding.
ATTN Hardware DevelopersIt's simple to connect your own custom-designed sense device to the AirCasting app to display and record sensor measurements. Just do the following:
- Download the AirCasting Arduino sketch, which controls the sensors and sends data to the app via Bluetooth.
- Alter the Arduino sketch to communicate your sensor data.
- Use the AirCasting app to send your data to the AirCasting servers for display on the AirCasting website. Want to send the data to your own servers? Just specify the URL in the AirCasting app settings, “Menu” > “Settings” > “Backend settings”.
AirCasting is an open source project. The AirCasting app and website code is on GitHub as is the AirBeam2 Firmware and the electronic schematics for the AirBeam2. The STL files for 3D printing the AirBeam2 & LiteBeam enclosures can be downloaded from Shapeways.
How to Use the AirCasting Maps
The health and environmental data collected by AirCasters can be viewed via the AirCasting website’s “Maps” page. Along the upper right hand corner of the Maps page there are three tabs: “Fixed”, “Mobile”, and “CrowdMap”. Each of these tabs provides a unique way of viewing and exploring the AirCasting data.
The Fixed and Mobile tabs display data from individual AirCasting instruments that are either stationary (Fixed) or moving (Mobile). The data collected by AirCasters is organized into sessions, with each session representing a batch of measurements that we’re either collected in the same location (if it’s a Fixed session) or during a set period of time (if it’s a Mobile session). Measurements from Fixed sessions are available in real-time and updated every minute, whereas measurements from mobile sessions are available at the conclusion of a recording session.
To view a session, select a session from the “Sessions List” located on the left hand side of the page. A dot’s color corresponds to a measurement’s intensity at that location. Refer to the “Heat Legend” to identify the intensity range for a measurement. For example, a yellow dot corresponds to a sound level measurement between 61 and 70 decibels. Note that the relationship between measurement ranges and colors can be adjusted using the “Heat Legend” filter. Hover your mouse over a dot to generate a tooltip with the exact measurement. Filter the AirCasting Sessions list by “Parameter”, “Sensor”, “Location”, “Time Range”, “Tags”, or “Profile Names”. Click “submit” to refresh the Sessions list. To view multiple sessions at once, you must first select a “Parameter” and “Sensor”. To graph the measurements from a single session, toggle the “Sessions Graph” arrow at the bottom of the screen. Hover your mouse over the graph to see the corresponding location on the map along with the measurement for that time period. Zoom in on the graph by clicking and dragging with your mouse or clicking the time frame buttons at the top of the graph. When zoomed in, pan through the data using the slider at the bottom of the graph.
The CrowdMap tab displays AirCasting data from all Mobile sessions. Each square’s color corresponds to the average intensity of all the measurements recorded in that area. Click on a square to view the underlying data. Refer to the “Heat Legend” to identify the intensity range for a square. For example, an orange square corresponds to an average sound level between 71 and 80 decibels. If no colors are displayed, there’s no data in that area. Note that the relationship between measurement ranges and colors can be adjusted using the “Heat Legend” filter. By default, the CrowdMap displays PM2.5 data from the AirBeam2. To view data from other sensors, use the “Parameter” and “Sensor” filters. You can also filter the CrowdMap by “Location”, “Time Range”, “Tags”, or “Profile Names”. Increase the “CrowdMap Resolution” to display averages for smaller areas. Click “submit” to display your filter selections.
To get a better view of the map, hide page elements by toggling the arrow in the upper right hand corner. Generate and share a permalink using the permalink button in the upper right hand corner or simply copy and paste the address from the browser window.
AirCasting is a HabitatMap Project
HabitatMap is a non-profit environmental health justice organization whose goal is to raise awareness about the impact the environment has on human health. We build tools to support grassroots environmental organizing, including HabitatMap.org - our community mapping platform - and AirCasting.
Thanks!There are dozens of people who contributed time and effort to make AirCasting a reality. In particular, we'd like to thank Radosław Wieczorek and the Lunar Logic team for their work on the AirCasting software and Raymond Yap for prototyping AirCasting hardware and firmware.
The AirCasting platform and the AirBeam would not have been possible without the generous support of our funders and the partnerships they’ve enabled. Support for AirCasting and the AirBeam have been provided by: Lush Cosmetics Charity Pot, Knight Foundation through a partnership between HabitatMap and Sonoma Technology; the New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation through a partnership between HabitatMap and Newtown Creek Alliance and HabitatMap and UPROSE; the EPA through a partnership between HabitatMap and Sustainable South Bronx; the Hive Digital Media Learning Fund of the New York Community Trust through a partnership between HabitatMap and New York Hall of Science; the Mozilla Hive NYC Learning Network through a partnership between HabitatMap, Parsons the New School for Design, and New York Hall of Science; NIEHS, EPA, and HHS through a partnership between HabitatMap and researchers and engineers from New York University and Carnegie Mellon’s CREATE lab; New York State Pollution Prevention Institute through a partnership between HabitatMap and New York Hall of Science; the Grey Area Arts Foundation through a partnership between HabitatMap, Sonoma Technology, and AethLabs; and Google Earth Outreach.
Have Questions or Feedback? Contact Us
Contact us via email: email@example.com, or call: 347.410.9499.Examination Board: EDEXCEL
Exact Course Title: GCSE Mathematics
Why should I study Mathematics?
Your brain is a muscle; when it is used regularly it gets stronger and more efficient. Learning something new creates new connections in your brain, and repeatedly doing the same thing will increase the strength of that connection. Our brains are great at adapting existing knowledge and skills to a new purpose. Mathematics is all about logic and problem solving. When you boost your brain power in Mathematics you will get better at analysing and solving real life problems. You will learn to identify the best deals in shops, for a loan, mortgage or phone contract. You will know whether that bit of furniture will fit through a doorway and be able to calculate the number of tiles you should buy to cover your bathroom wall.
Employers know this! The reason that most jobs require a good pass in Mathematics is because employers want people working for them who can problem solve on the job. It does not necessarily mean you will be using the quadratic formula in your career, but the brain connections that you have made will be invaluable to the person offering you a job.
Mathematics is so important that all students will be expected to get a good pass in Mathematics (Grade 5 or better), or they will need to re-sit their GCSE during years 12 & 13.
What will I learn?
Mathematics is broken down into 6 units of study: Number, Algebra, Shape, Statistics, Ratio and Probability. Each of these will be covered throughout your GCSE.
What will be expected of me?
You will be expected to take notes in lessons, copy examples and to always write out the question and show your full working out. You will not be afraid to make mistakes, because we learn from our errors, but you will always be able to justify and explain where you got an answer from. Mathematics is not a subject where you should be guessing, it is the application of skills and knowledge to obtain a sensible answer.
What skills will I develop?
You will learn to give a rational and reasoned response to functional problems, to identify key words and recognise the best method to tackle a problem. You will memorise and use a range of formulae to solve complex problems, and will demonstrate or justify your methods.
How will I be assessed?
Students will sit 3 examinations at the end of the course, totalling 4 hours and 30 minutes. Two of the examinations will allow the use of a calculator, but paper 1 is a non-calculator paper.
Where will this qualification lead me?
Most college courses and apprenticeships require a good pass in Mathematics in order to get onto the course. Able students who achieve a grade 6 may wish to consider taking A-level mathematics. Good grades in Mathematics can lead to a variety of careers, including Science, Technology, Engineering and Accountancy.4.1. General information
In this Part types of works on repair of the V6 engines which are carried out directly on the car are described. In all described below operations on repair it is meant that the engine is established on the car.
The engine has V-a figurative arrangement of cylinders and 2 heads (on one on 3 cylinders), located at an angle 60 °. Both cam-shafts (on one in each head) have a drive from a gear belt. Adjustment of a tension of a belt is provided with a podpruzhinenny roller with the clown. Effort transfer from a cam-shaft on the valve is provided through the yokes established on rollers, and hydropushers. Valves self-regulating. On each cylinder it is provided 1 inlet the valve and 1 final. The crankshaft is cast from malleable cast iron. Covers of radical bearings of the crankshaft are cast in a uniform framework which fastens to a crankshaft case (the block of cylinders). The distributor of ignition has a drive from the spiral gear wheel dressed on a sock of the left cam-shaft. The leading gear wheel of the oil pump is dressed on a crankshaft sock.Dissocarpus biflorus var. biflorus F.Muell. APNI*
Synonyms: Sclerolaena biflora R.Br. APNI*
Bassia biflora (R.Br.) F.Muell. APNI*
Bassia biflora (R.Br.) F.Muell. var. biflora APNI*
Description: Spreading annual or short-lived perennial to c. 40 cm high, hairy; branches covered with woolly hairs.
Leaves semiterete, hairy, to c. 10 mm long.
Flowers 2–8 in axillary clusters, tomentose, fused only at their base when 2, fused more intimately as the number in the cluster increases; free portion 2–3 mm long; appendages usually absent. Various habitats.
Distribution and occurrence:
NSW subdivisions: NWP, SWP, NFWP, SFWP
Other Australian states: Qld Vic. S.A. N.T.
Text by S. W. L. Jacobs
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 1 (1990)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.THE CO HO
The Cơ Ho, K’Ho or Koho as they are known, still mainly speak their indigenous Môn-Khmer language despite the fact that their children are being schooled in Vietnamese. The Lạch people, a subgroup of the Cơ Ho are an indigenous group of Lâm Đồng. The name of the city Đà Lạt (Lâm Đồng’s capital) originated from Đà Lạch – which literally means ‘river of the Lạch people’. The Cơ Ho are known for making good coffee.
In August 2016 I first went to meet the Cơ Ho. Upon entering the village, I was amazed to see their strikingly colourful homes. The houses are painted in electric blues, greens and hot pink, reminiscent of Cuba and South America. Sadly most people from the Cơ Ho don’t wear traditional costumes anymore, unless it’s for a festival. Even then, most don’t even own them anymore. The Cơ Ho group possess an abundant source of folklore and arts. They are a very musical and poetic culture. They love writing lyrical poetry filled with emotion.Pigmentation/Sun Damaged Skin
Abnormal pigmentation is the over-production of melanin in the skin, causing an uneven darker colour compared to the surrounding skin. They can occur superficially in the epidermis or deep in the dermis. However, most pigmentation is a mixture of both. Superficial pigmentations are easier to reduce compared to deep ones.
There are many causes and types of pigmentation. In women, hormones may play a large role to abnormal pigmentation production while in men, ultraviolet B rays from the sun is responsible for a large amount of pigmentation aggravation. Pigmentation can also be congenital – individuals are born with it. It may also occur spontaneously without any known cause.
Treatment of choice depends on the depth of the pigmentation. Superficial pigmentations like freckles can be easily treated with Medical Peel with I2PL while deep pigmentations are better treated with Micro-Laser Peel. However, one must be careful with certain conditions like melasma where there is a risk of worsening in more aggressive treatments.
Topical treatments like topical hydroquinone and SkinLab’s Whitening Skincare will also help improve the outcome of these pigmentations. It is important to understand that the pigmentations can recur and even worsen in some occasions.
- Micro-Laser Peel
- Medical Peel with I2PL
- SkinLab Whitening Skincare or Anti-Aging Skincare RegimenThis week‘s feature is Carbon County, Pennsylvania as our TWIPA topic. Carbon County is located mid-point between the Wilkes Barre-Scranton area and Allentown, Pennsylvania. Physiographically it is split by two prominent geologically different settings, the Anthracite Uplands in the north and the Blue Mountain Section in the south which defines its borders with Lehigh and Northampton counties. The Lehigh River runs through the county and marks the general location of the Lehigh Indian path that connected the Shawnee towns at Wyoming on the North Branch Susquehanna with Nain at Bethlehem on the lower Lehigh River. Gnadenhutten (German translation “Cabins of Grace”), the Moravian Brethren mission located at the halfway point on the Lehigh path was founded in 1746. Today that place is called Lehighton and serves, would be white water buffs, with an exciting ride through the Lehigh gorge and its rapids.
The archaeological sites of Carbon County broadly represent the entire sequence of human habitation in the Commonwealth. Discoveries of Paleo-Indian fluted points and a sequence of Archaic sites have been reported at certain locations. One of these sites on Nesquehoning Creek yielded hints of Paleo-indian through Historic period artifacts. Test excavations at another site near Palmerton revealed a buried Archaic through Woodland sequence of occupations that archaeologists discovered beneath an old canal towpath. Much of the lithic material that these prehistoric tools were made from was mined on the high ridges around the Palmerton area and this lithic material was the preferred material for other sites in the county.
lithic materials from 36Cr39
In 1818, the town of Mauch Chunk, three miles upriver from Lehighton, was founded by Josiah White, an industrialist with interests in the coal and shipping business. Not surprising, the town eventually became known for its coal and railroad transportation. Then, more than a century later, an interesting turn of events brought notoriety of a different kind to this small town in rural Pennsylvania. In 1953 the town fathers of Mauch Chunk renamed the community after a prominent world renowned sports figure, Jim Thorpe.
Jacobus Franciscus Thorpe, one of two twin boys born around 1888 near Prague, Oklahoma, was a Native American of Sac, Fox and Irish heritage. His twin brother, Charlie died of pneumonia at the age of nine. His early education was obtained at the Sac and Fox Indian Agency School in Oklahoma but after his twin brother’s death Thorpe faced many challenges. After several runaway incidents his father sent Thorpe to Kansas where he enrolled at the Haskell Institute, a boarding school for Native American children. Following his mother’s death several years later he developed depression which led to arguments with his father. He had had enough. Thorpe moved on, and in 1904 he made amends with his father and decided to attend the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania where he was immediately recognized as someone having great athletic potential. He briefly attended the Carlisle Indian School but left when his father died. After a period of time he returned to the school where beginning in 1907 he excelled in sports, breaking many of the school’s track and field records. Not stopping there, he competed in baseball, football, lacrosse and ballroom dancing where he and his partner won the 1912 college championship. His athletic career, especially in football, stands as a testimony to his natural ability, tenacity and character.
Perhaps Jim Thorpe will remain best known for his Olympic record in the 1912 Summer Olympics held in Stockholm, Sweden where he won two gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon events. Two challenge prizes donated by Sweden’s King Gustav V and Russia’s Czar Nicholas II were also won by Jim Thorpe. Several sources have said that when these prizes were handed to Thorpe, King Gustav said “”You sir, are the greatest athlete in the world” to which Thorpe replied “Thanks King” (Berontas 1993).
Unfortunately, not all was glorious with Jim Thorpe’s Olympic career. Rules barred professional athletes from participating in amateur sports – the international Olympic Commission (IOC) notwithstanding. The rules seemingly lacked specificity in terms of when the rules actually ruled ……….. anyone, who in the remotest way participated in the Olympics,………. had professional status (accepted money, ……..participated against professional athletes ……….or were instructors (teachers)………..were not of amateur ranking. Many athletes who violated these rules just changed their names to avoid exposure and subsequent embarrassment. Not surprising, Jim Thorpe’s amateur status was revoked by the American Athletic Union (AAU) thereby placing him in a dubious position with the International Olympic Commission. Much to Thorpe’s chagrin, the IOC later agreed with the AAU and stripped Thorpe of his Olympic Gold. Jim Thorpe never lived to see his “Olympic Gold “reinstated in 1982 through the efforts of Robert Wheeler,his wife Florence Ridlon and U.S.Congress. Fortunately, though, he went on to enjoy an active professional career in baseball, football and basketball until his retirement from the sports world in 1922.
After Jim Thorpe retired from sports, life got tough. He struggled to support his family especially during the Great Depression. He had a number of movie roles as an extra playing in Westerns as the “Indian chief”. He also held short-lived jobs in the world of hard labor such as ditch digger, bouncer, security guard and for a brief period at the end of the Second World War, as a soldier in the Merchant marines. Later in life he drank heavily and by 1950 he developed cancer. Jim Thorpe died in 1953 after suffering a third heart attack. At his side was his wife, Patricia and others.
Thorpe’s third wife, Patricia, disenchanted over Oklahoma’s refusal to recognize Jim Thorpe’s accomplishments in the field of sports by not erecting a monument in his memory arranged with the Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk officials (these communities eventually merged) to rename the community in honor of her late husband, Jim Thorpe. Their principal motive to do this was to bring notoriety to the town thereby placing it firmly on the map as a point of national interest. His remains now rest in the town of Jim Thorpe.
In June 2010 a federal law suit was filed against the Borough of Jim Thorpe by Jim Thorpe’s his son, Jack under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) to have his father’s remains returned to Oklahoma where other family members are buried. The story ends here—for now.
1993 “Jim Thorpe, Sac and Fox Athlete”. Chelsea House Publications, London
For more information, visit PAarchaeology.state.pa.us or the Hall of Anthropology and Archaeology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania.I always loved Salvador Dali’s surrealism paintings. The first time I saw his paintings I was blown away by the level of detail and intricacy. Dali’s art draws us in and bring us to another reality or dream world - a world where our own laws of physics and gravity do not exist.
His paintings were often bizarre and striking at the same time, and had many symbolic references. I’m proud to say that Dali is one of my influences. I love to distort, abstract and surrealize the real world in my drawings and paintings, though I am certainly not the eccentric character he was.
In this article I will explore certain things about Salvador Dali’s life and career which we can apply to out own. How did Dali become so well known? What things can we learn from his life of controversy that we can we apply to our own art careers right now?
Dali Created Art From an Early Age
Salvador Dali was born in Figueres, Spain in 1904. Hi art career was cultivated at an early age, and he produced highly detailed drawings. His parents, realizing his talent, built him an art studio, and enrolled him in art school at the early age of 12. In 1922, Dalí attended an art school in Madrid, Spain (Academia de San Fernando), though he he was expelled after about a year for criticism of professors and inciting a riot. He enrolled again in 1926, but was again expelled just before graduating for rejection of his teachers.
After this, he made several visits to Paris, where he met Pablo Picasso, a painter whom he greatly admired. Dali also met the Spanish sculptor and painter Joan Miro, the poet Paul Eluard, and Rene Magritte. Up until this time his artworks were influenced by Cubism, Futurism, and Impressionism, but these artists compelled him to explore the new Surrealist movement.
Dali lived his art and did controversial things that brought attention to himself and his art
He seemed to love controversy. His public antics were often talked about more than his art. He was eccentric and did grandiose things to attract attention to himself and his art. At the London Surrealist exhibition (1936) Dali showed up in a diving suit. On another occasion he wore a glass case across his chest with a brassiere inside.
Undoubtedly, many people probably thought he was crazy, but the fact remains that it sparked conversation in the media – and the conversation was about him. Much of what he did, though controversial and outrageous, probably was partly responsible for propelling him to super stardom.
What can we learn fro Salvador Dali’s approach? Sometimes our art isn’t enough to get us noticed. We have to get out there and make an impact on the world. If we feel strongly about something, even if its not connected to our art, why not let our voice be known?
The media can be a powerful tool for artists, something I will be writing more about soon.
Controversy can propel artists to super stardom, but can sometimes destroy whole careers. We don’t have to be controversial like Dali, but there are many things we can do to catch the attention of the media. It can be as simple as creating art for a cause and contacting newspapers and television reporters. One idea that just popped into my head applies to nature artists. Standing up for various environmental issues may bring more credence to your work, and bring you exposure from various media sources.
At certain times Dali didn’t have time for self-promotion – so he allowed someone else to do the promotion for him.
Early in his career, he met and married Elena Dmitrievna Diakonova (Gala). Dali was so transfixed on his art at the time that he could not deal with art promotions, especially negotiation of contracts with galleries and dealers. So Gala took over these affairs for him, giving him creative freedom to focus on his artwork.
As for artists these days, there is certainly no need to take on all the tasks of promoting upon yourself. Enlist the help of your family and friends. Try to make certain connections who will help you do part of the promotional work. Learn all you can about art promotion, and everything that is involved – then apply them. There is a lot involved, and it does take time, but promoting your own art is a necessary part of an artist’s career.
I try my best to help you with that at Artpromotivate. Look forward to plenty more helpful tips in the coming weeks. If you have any questions, or have a certain art promotional resource to share, please let me know.
Have you been influenced by Salvador Dali?
Do you have any thoughts to share about his life and surrealist art? Please leave your comments below.Clarks Summit State Hospital
|Clarks Summit State Hospital|
|Established||Sept 29, 1938 (As a PA State Hospital)|
|Building Style||Cottage Plan|
|Peak Patient Population||1,046 in 1947|
Clarks Summit State Hospital originated in 1862 when citizens of Providence Township developed a poor farm. As the years passed, the mentally ill were also provided care at the facility. At a later date, the responsibility for the operation of the poor farm was assumed by the City of Scranton, the Borough of Dunmore, and eventually, Lackawanna County. On September 29, 1938 the state took control of the hospital as part of the "Full State Care Act". The legislature (Act #53) assumed responsibility for eight of the thirteen existing county public mental hospitals, the other five hospitals were closed.
By the early 1940's, the Hillside Home and Hillside Hospital were operational in buildings currently named Abington Hall and Newton Hall. The name was changed from Hillside Home and Hospital to Clarks Summit State Hospital on October 1, 1943, when the Department of Public Welfare, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, assumed the responsibility to operate and manage state mental hospitals.
By the mid 1950's Clarks Summit State Hospital was serving the residents of Lackawanna County and approximately 150 Luzerne County residents who were transferred in 1947 after the Ransom Home was destroyed by fire. The total hospital population at that time was 1,450 patients.
As newer types of psychotropic medications and other psychosocial rehabilitative approaches were found effective in the treatment of the mentally ill, the census of the hospital declined. The hospital was then assigned the responsibility for various other geographical areas in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Several new buildings were constructed: Hilltop East (originally a tuberculosis ward), Hilltop West (a geriatric building), a Recreation Hall, a Laundry Facility, and a Warehouse.
As the patient population declined, the hospital's Long Term Care Unit was closed in May 1998. Today the hospital has a bed capacity of 265, all of which are designated for adult psychiatric in-patient services.
Images of Clarks Summit State Hospital
Main Image Gallery: Clarks Summit State HospitalIn the 19th century, Friedrich Nietzsche argued that studying the history of great men is useful in that it inspires others to do great things like their heroes. In essence, good histories model noble behavior for later generations to emulate. Today, we like to think of history as more instructive than inspirational — at least our academic histories aim to be educational. The histories we see in movies and on TV, though, is more of the stirring sort. The new release Free State of Jones is a case in point.
The movie tells the story of Newt Knight, a farmer from Mississippi who lead a spontaneous revolt against the larger Confederate rebellion in 1864. Far from a pragmatic Unionist driven by a sense of nationalism, Knight’s a character who transcends the racism of his time and embraces equality between whites and former slaves — he’s a 21st century hero from the 19th century. He fights for a cause and not a political convenience. Knight is the Nietzschean ideal, inspiring and (unpretentiously) noble, and the film is suited to inspirational aims.
Many critics have faulted the film and its depiction of Knight for promoting the “white savior” trope. Here, the protagonist is the prototypical hero so often celebrated in our fictions and non-fictions. He’s the good white man who saves the day — and the former slaves who join him along the way. Vann R. Newkirk II called the picture’s portrayals “textbook examples of how not to have conversations about white privilege, ‘allyship,’ and black struggle.” It is surely that, but the movie seems to have less humbling and enlightening aims anyway. It’s an inspirational story intended for white audiences about liberality and leadership, and it tells us quite a lot about our time.
That a film starring a southern movie star repudiating the Confederacy on the merits of slavery is a mainstream offering is startling in itself. Ten or twenty years ago, it probably wouldn’t have been made. Indeed, it’s obvious predecessor, Glory, a notable film in the white savior genre, demonstrates the traditional good-Northern-hero version, which is more consistent within the trope. Nearly 30 years later, the Free State of Jones is reconstructing southern heroes in the same vein — even better, the hero here discovers his righteousness rather than his biases. Times have changed.
That it’s a true story offers something of theoretical value to white viewers — particularly southerners. Knight is someone they can aspire to emulate. They need not remain bound by the racist bigotry to which so many southerners cling. Instead, they can see themselves in the everyman hero of the movie (pure and successful, instead of conflicted or intolerant) and choose to do better than those around them. Indeed, they might be inspired to actively fight against racism in their society like Knight.
Of course, in embracing that mantle, there’s a danger that southerners can also conveniently excuse themselves from guilt or responsibility for generations of wrongdoing. Knight’s character is sure to stoke the “not-all-white-people” crowd and provide cover from acknowledging participation in the fruits of privilege. Again, though, that white southerners might want an anti-Confederate hero at all says something about today. We will have to see how the movie fares in the southern states to get any kind of handle on that. It would be quite something for them to even want to trade Robert E. Lee for Newt Knight though.
If this sounds like a new spin on the Civil War, it’s important to note in what ways it is not. Firstly, even our scholarly treatments of the Civil War do tend toward the white savior story. In most college US history classes, William Lloyd Garrison and Harriet Beecher Stowe feature far more prominently than Robert Morris or Solomon Northup (and probably even Frederick Douglass) in lectures on abolitionism. Racism still pervades the stories we tell about that, and in that sense Free State of Jones fits with the usual narrative. Freedom from slavery is still presented as something granted to black Americans, rather than earned or taken by them (even in partnership). That’s part of the appeal for white audiences, consciously or not: these stories are ones of white people being noble and righteous. It offers something great with which to identify.
If abolitionism is often the testament of the magnanimity and nobility of whites in our histories, the civil rights movement of the 20th century belongs to America’s black citizens, who were the agents standing in righteousness there. You’re likely to find Martin Luther King, John Lewis and Fannie Lou Hamer in US history textbooks covering the freedom movement, but a typical US history course wouldn’t mention white allies much, if at all — except John and Robert Kennedy in all their complicated squeamishness (and Lyndon Johnson and his unheroic pragmatism).
Therein lies a lot of the great divide in the US. For many Staters, the civil rights movement — and the Black Lives Movement — pits “us” against “them.” The heroes are black and the villains are white — or the heroes are white and the troublemakers are black (or other minorities). Either way, it’s a conflict between racial communities that our histories seem to encourage that segregates us.
The question the allure of Free State of Jones and its ilk suggests is: could relations be less antagonistic if white Americans had a savior to admire from the civil rights movement too? Do white people just need a white hero? Would that allow them to buy in more emphatically on
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speak. She may become adept at writing poetry and telling dirty jokes. She may even come to suppress the feline accent in her voice. Do not let her forget her native tongue. Chirp and hiss and growl and bleat. Purr so that she knows the song of her species.
3. Consider living in a familiar area – The cheetah’s natural range can be found in Africa and the Middle East. It is not the 10,000 lakes of Minnesota or Fort Greene, NY. Given the opportunity, the cheetah will seek out a savannah, sub-desert, or steppe with grass and vegetation sufficient enough to hide within. With her spotted coat, she will blend into this environment, and her heart will be at ease. No more curious stares. No more nakedness. She will cease to be a cheetah and ascend to a state of pure consciousness.
4. Prepare dishes from the cheetah’s culture – Food is the salve of the universe, and as such, there is no better way to welcome your cheetah than with her native fare. This may include freshly disposed hares, impalas, and gazelles. But be sure to take care in your preparation. The cheetah has exceedingly clean eating habits. Unlike man, she will not deign to eat offal or marrow or cracklings; carrion is an insult.
5. Remember: a cheetah is a cheetah – Repeat this to yourself: a cheetah is a cheetah. When you’re in the shower, driving to work, playing softball, chant this like a mantra. When instead of walking she prowls the streets beside you, remember. When she wears your clothes, when you clasp your mother’s pearls around her neck, remember: a cheetah is a cheetah. Despite your best intentions, this will always be true. Even if she wishes to be like you with all her feline heart, there on her body will be spots, there a striped tail, and on her face the black tear marks will never fade. With such differences between you, it will never be normal—a cheetah is a cheetah. But do not fret. This does not mean she won’t love you.
Sam Katz was born in Korea and grew up outside of Philadelphia. His short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Bluestem, Boston Literary Magazine, The Good Men Project, Grey Sparrow Journal, and Kartika Review. He earned an MFA from The New School, and now reads for One Story and teaches at La Salle University."And if the Almighty had not rescued us from Egypt, behold we, our children, and grandchildren would still be (meshu'badim) enslaved unto Pharaoh in Egypt!"Well the Pharaohs haven't ruled Egypt in a long time - and it is hard to visualize us Israelites as slaves unto Pharaoh forever! Plus we would have probably assimilated a LONG while ago into Egyptian society and been just poor old Egyptians just as the rest. To take the statement literally; I.e. That we would still be enslaved is hard to comprehend.
Clear your minds of the image of the "evil Pharaoh". Now go back to the time of Joseph and recall a kindlier, gentler Pharaoh. Now, if the Almighty had chosen, HE could have appointed a liberal-minded Pharaoh. THAT Pharaoh might have listened to Charlton Heston and willingly, or even joyfully released the Israelites from bondage!
Just as Tsar Nikolai I freed the serfs and Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, a generous Pharaoh could have Let HIS people go without a fight!
What would have been the upshot of such a kinder and gentler ruler? We would be singing "his" praises instead of God's praises!
Thus, Abarbanel homiletically reads meshu'badim in its alternate meaning - mortgaged or indebted or encumbered. Had GOD not forced the issue by bringing Pharaoh unwillingly to his knees we would be be indebted to PHARAOH and not to the Almighty.
Perhaps the most ennobling aspect of our liberation is that we became indentured to GOD HIMSELF. " Kee Lee B'nei Yisro'el Avadim.." The emancipation of other slave societies met with less success. Without Divine intervention and inspiration, "Up from Slavery" succeeded only for the very few idealists.
A sobering thought to precede our last three cups of rejoicing!|Home | About | Journals | Submit | Contact Us | Français|
Although there are many narrative reviews of many occupational health topics, there are few high‐quality systematic reviews, and no single and concise source of advice on how to undertake such reviews in the occupational setting.
A “review” is any attempt to synthesise the results and conclusions of two or more publications on a given topic. A “systematic review” aims to identify and appraise all the literature on a topic, ranking the credibility accorded to evidence depending on the likelihood of bias influencing data collection and interpretation. A meta‐analysis incorporates a specific statistical strategy to amass the results of several studies investigating a particular effect—for example, of exposure or intervention into a single estimate.
Systematic reviews provide the evidence‐based findings required for writing scientifically supportable practice guidelines that help to ensure that occupational health professionals and others practise in such a way as to ensure that workers have the best health outcomes. They also resolve uncertainty regarding the potential benefits or harm of workplace and clinical interventions, where there is conflicting research or opinion. Clearly written lay summaries of the main findings of systematic reviews provide employers with a sound evidence base for robust management policy and decisions, and promote good understanding of risks and safe practice among workers, with the intent of preventing ill health caused by work.
The systematic review process has clearly defined and interdependent phases.
Identify a topic where no systematic review has been or is being undertaken. To avoid duplication, search key databases for published or ongoing systematic reviews and contact appropriate experts. Assess the need for a review based on the practical significance to occupational health practitioners and employers and, most importantly, the potential to benefit a significant number of workers. Define clearly the target users of the review‐derived guidelines.1
Systematic evidence reviews frequently rely on the work of volunteers who undertake such commitments in addition to their often busy jobs. Performed properly, systematic reviews are demanding with respect to time and effort. Therefore, it is important to make the expected level of commitment explicit when approaching prospective research working group (RWG) members. Choose members who will really contribute and will do so consistently, especially when the going gets tough, to avoid placing unfair burdens on others. Provide each member with terms of reference to define their main responsibilities and a letter of appointment outlining the aims, projected duration of the project and key deliverables.
The RWG must have the right knowledge of and experience in the topic under review and relevant members must have and/or acquire and develop the appropriate competencies in systematic review methods (including critical appraisal skills, epidemiology and statistics).2,3,4 Choose members from different settings: occupational physicians and nurses, allied professionals (eg, clinicians from outside the occupational field, ergonomists, occupational hygienists, toxicologists and so on, as appropriate), workers and employers. These consumers are particularly helpful in determining topics for review, as referees during the editorial process2 and in drafting lay summary leaflets.
A large RWG will have a chairperson and a deputy responsible for leading the work. Choose the chairperson carefully, especially when managing a multidisciplinary group, some of whom will understandably have their own agenda. The chairperson should be someone who can command the respect of the group and whose decisions will be accepted as final, when necessary. Where resources permit, appoint a scientific secretary/information officer to search the literature systematically, acquire documents, manage the critical appraisal process, and draft the evidence review and the guidelines derived from the evidence. Appoint separately a meetings secretary responsible for arranging meetings and maintaining concise minutes and action points.
Invite all members to provide scoping questions, themes, project title, project aims and objectives, and proposed deliverables. Scoping the questions to which evidence‐based answers are needed requires a clear discussion of content. The whole RWG should agree on what should and what should not be included, based on the importance to target groups of workers, employers and health and/or safety professionals. The views and perspectives of healthcare consumers often differ from those of healthcare providers and researchers. Their involvement helps ensure that reviews address problems that are important to people.2
The RWG must be editorially independent from any organisation that contributes funds to the project, and conflicts of interest of RWG members must be recorded.1 Conflict of interest exists when an RWG member (or their institution) has financial or personal relationships that might inappropriately influence their action—for example, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria or reviewing papers where the member is an author or had taken part in the research contributing to the published paper. All RWG members and reviewers must confirm that they have read and understood an independence policy and disclose all relationships that could be viewed as a potential conflict of interest. Personal gifts or entertainment from companies or external contacts should not be accepted when representing the RWG.
Project management helps schedule the time needed to complete a review2 and deliver the project on time, to specification and within budget.5 A SMART plan (table 11)) can be used to identify the specific, measurable, agreed, realistic and timed objectives of the research project.5 Share the SMART plan with the RWG to gain alignment and commitment. Plan phases carefully, identify each strand of work and set realistic completion dates. Consider RWG members' constraints and resolve any conflict.5
Scope and plan the research appropriately, ensuring that the aims, design and methodology are justifiable, verifiable and scientifically valid.4 To conduct research to a lower standard may constitute misconduct.6 Specify the overall objectives of the systematic review, the scoping questions, the workers to whom the associated guidelines apply, the search strategy and the criteria for selecting the evidence.1 Supervision and checking are an integral part of the process.3 Send the protocol to external reviewers or an advisory committee for approval. The experts should also peer review the draft evidence report before publication.1,7
The method used for systematic reviews may be separated into three stages: ask, access and appraise. Decide the scoping questions to ask; access relevant studies in computerised search engines, using appropriate key words and free text; and appraise the relevance from relevant full papers to determine robustness and reliability.
Perform a comprehensive search to discover as many studies as possible and minimise selection bias. Using just one search engine is not considered adequate, since studies show that only 30%–80% of all known published randomised, controlled trials (RCTs) are identifiable using Medline.8 Since the overlap in journals covered by Medline and Embase is estimated to be 34%,8 use at least two search engines to ensure more comprehensive results. The search for papers published in peer‐reviewed journals may include personal bibliographies, internet searches, citation tracking and scanning of relevant journals. Narrative reviews, conference proceedings and textbooks, although excluded from contributing to the evidence, should be perused and included in the review process, since they may contain much information to identify references to original studies in peer‐reviewed journals that an RWG will want to review, which can be used to contribute to the evidence base.9 Ensure that the literature search is performed as defined in the scoping document and that studies are selected according to agreed inclusion and exclusion criteria. It may also be helpful to contact relevant research centres and experts in the field of the review in question. Contacts can provide important information on ongoing research and may be useful for involvement in peer review of the systematic review.9
The first task is to select those papers that potentially address the scoping questions. This is achieved by a double‐blind review of the abstracts of all papers identified by the search. If the abstract provides doubt that the article cannot definitely be rejected, the full text must be obtained. Retrieve these papers in full for an independent critical appraisal using at least two reviewers, who will ultimately agree on a rating of the strength of the evidence. Where reviewers disagree about the score of the paper or its relevance to the scope of this research, they should discuss it to reach resolution. Involve a third reviewer if resolution is not achieved. It is important to critically appraise all studies in a review even if there is no variability in the validity or result, since although the results may be consistent, all the studies may be flawed. Check for multiple publications based on the same data and cite only the most definitive results.7
Many scales and checklists have been used to assess the validity and quality of studies, but there is no gold standard method. Scales with multiple items and complex scoring systems take more time to complete than simple approaches and they have not been shown to provide more reliable assessments of validity. It is preferable to use simple approaches for assessing validity that can be fully reported.10 Assess each study for clinical importance, applicability, validity, study design, selection bias, confounding, blinding, data collection and classification of outcomes, measurement error, follow‐up, attrition bias and analysis.11
Clinical importance and applicability are determined by the magnitude of the estimate of effect and relevance of the outcomes measured.11 Applicability (external validity or generalisability) is the extent to which results of studies provide a correct basis for generalisation to other circumstances. Validity (internal validity) is the extent to which the study design (judged by hierarchy of evidence), conduct and analysis are likely to prevent systematic errors or bias. It implies that the differences observed between comparison groups may, apart from random error, be attributed to the intervention or exposure under investigation.
Randomisation in experimental studies—that is, RCTs—minimises differences between groups by allocating subjects with particular characteristics randomly to exposed and non‐exposed groups. However, observational (analytical) studies—that is, case–referent, cohort and cross‐sectional studies, and case series—are more common than RCTs in occupational health. Four sources of bias should be assessed when appraising the validity of observational studies: selection, performance, attrition and detection biases (table 22).10
Although RCTs and observational case–referent and cohort studies are similar in that they compare outcomes in groups, observational studies do not allocate individuals by chance12 and hence can cause selection bias wherein the subjects being studied are not truly representative of the target population. Observational studies only control or adjust for confounders that are known and measured, whereas large RCTs additionally control for those that are unknown and unmeasured.10 Reviewers must determine the important confounders and how effectively these were controlled.
To assess performance bias in observational studies, one must check that there were no differences in the exposure of the comparison groups to other factors, confounders and modifying effects12 that could affect outcomes, and the way in which exposures and health effects were measured or identified. One must also determine whether exposure was measured in a similar and unbiased way in the groups being compared. Measurements of exposure or health effect are subject to measurement error due to variability in measurements of the same quantity on the same individual.13 Several measurements of the same health effect in the same subject or of the same occupational exposures may not give the same results from one day to another, in different hands, with different equipment or at different centres. This may be because of natural variations in the subject and observer or variations in the measurement or identification process, or both.
Concerns about attrition bias are common to all studies and relate to the extent that all subjects in a study are accounted for in the results. Concerns about detection bias relate to the effectiveness of blinding in cohort studies and the case definition that is used in case–referent studies, since people are entered into studies based on a knowledge of the outcome of interest.
The reviewers should not only grade each paper with respect to quality, but should also provide summaries of the key findings that will appear in evidence tables, which will be the working data for writing evidence‐based recommendations. The reviewers must not simply cut and paste abstracts from Medline as the only source of data in evidence tables, since abstracts often do not highlight all important learnings or key words from a study. It is easy to cut and paste abstracts from Medline, whereas it takes longer to type the text manually; ensure that you receive what you need.
Avoid adhering rigidly to a hierarchy of evidence with the RCT at the pinnacle (see box), since this concept neglects methodological appropriateness.14 Adopt a balanced approach, recognising the strengths and limitations of well‐conducted observational studies.15 Hierarchy may be unhelpful when answers are needed to questions that, for scientific or practical reasons, cannot be studied by RCTs16 and when appraising the evidence for community health interventions.14 Other study designs and hierarchies are more appropriate to answer questions about aetiology, pathogenesis, disease frequency, diagnosis, prognosis and adverse effects,17,18 the areas most likely to be of interest in occupational health. Observational studies have proved essential in identifying unexpected and unpredictable adverse effects—for example, of smoking in lung cancer, and of asbestos in mesothelioma.18
Observational studies can be grouped hierarchically, with prospective cohort studies being more valid than retrospective studies using historical controls.7 Case–referent studies are more susceptible to bias and must be graded according to how well referents have been matched for confounding variables.
Since definitions of levels vary between hierarchies,17 avoid using numerical level alone to grade evidence. Hierarchies can produce anomalous rankings—for example, a statement about one intervention may be graded level 1 on the basis of a systematic review of a few small, poor‐quality RCTs, whereas a statement about another intervention may be graded level 2 on the basis of one large, well‐conducted, multicentre RCT.17 Use hierarchies that help the target reader understand the strength of evidence readily as well as those required as a matter of academic excellence.
Start by outlining the purpose and scope of the review. Describe the method including the search strategy—that is, inclusion and exclusion criteria, search words and phrases, search engines used, dates of the literature covered, the scoping questions asked, the occupational groups at risk, the number of abstracts discovered and papers reviewed, and so on. Focus on consistency and conciseness. If there are several authors, iron out style differences. Use print preview on the computer screen to check whether paragraphs are balanced. Never use a long word where a short one will do, and eliminate words that do not add to the meaning. Use active rather than passive verbs and avoid overusing noun forms of verbs. Omit redundant pairs—for example, “finish” implies “complete”, so the phrase “completely finish” is redundant.
Ensure that RWG members insert comments and track changes so that they are available for all to review. Use reference management software to simplify reordering and renumbering. Allow adequate time between writing and proofing to achieve distance from your work and have others from relevant stakeholder groups proof‐read the text.
Practitioners may not follow guidelines,19 therefore write recommendations based on the evidence in the review in a way that makes it more likely to be followed, providing solid take‐home messages. Make recommendations specific, unambiguous and easily identifiable and make an explicit link between the recommendations and the supporting evidence.1 The more precisely behaviours are specified, the more likely they are to be performed.20 Use precise behavioural terms—that is, specifying who, what, why, when, where and how to assist implementation.20 In a study of 10 national clinical guidelines, general practitioners followed guidelines on 67% of occasions when they were concrete and precise, and on 36% of occasions when they were vague and non‐specific.21 Recommendations were also adhered to more when the evidence was described clearly, in a straightforward and non‐conflicting manner.
Despite the high‐quality evidence underpinning the first clinical guideline from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, recommendations are not behaviourally specific and in the short form exceed 20 pages.20 For example, one recommendation states, “Cognitive behavioural therapy should be available as a treatment option for people with schizophrenia.”
To improve that specification of behaviour, Michie and Johnston recommend a more specific version:20
Include good practice points where there is no, nor is there likely to be, research evidence, based on the clinical experience of the RWG, legal requirement or other consensus.
In addition to the evidence review report and summaries of the evidence, publish in a peer‐reviewed journal so that the findings can be assessed by peers.3,4 Publish in a timely manner and present the results at scientific meetings,3 aiming for the results to appear in journals before they are reported in other media.6 Endeavour to ensure that the findings are reported in a balanced and understandable manner when presenting to the non‐medical press.4
Systematic reviews are sometimes criticised for not providing specific guidance, concluding that little evidence exists to answer the question,22 and for missing the opportunity to identify outstanding gaps in the evidence.23 Uncertainty often remains, and systematic reviews should acknowledge this, mapping the areas of doubt.14 Use the uncertainty to help clarify the options available to clinicians, workers and managers, and to stimulate more and better research to help resolve the uncertainty.24
Decide who will be credited with authorship early in the planning stages.3 This helps to avoid disputes over attribution of credit for the published review and for papers in peer‐reviewed journals. Authorship should be credited to those who made substantive intellectual contributions to the published study25—that is, (1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and (3) final approval of the version to be published.26
Contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship (eg, a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance or only general support) should be listed in the acknowledgments section and financial and material support should be acknowledged.3 Because readers may infer their endorsement of the data and conclusions, those cited must give written permission to be acknowledged.
There is moderate‐quality evidence that involving consumers in the development of patient information material results in material that is more relevant, readable and understandable to patients, without affecting their anxiety. This “consumer‐informed” material can also improve patients' knowledge.26 Write short executive summaries of the evidence involving the key target audiences. Start with the questions that each audience is likely to ask and summarise the evidence‐based answer for each question. Technical editing should be considered to ensure that the evidence statements from the report are properly reflected in the summaries.
Maintain complete and accurate records and retain them safely in a manner that permits a complete retrospective audit.3,4 Long‐term retention—for example, up to 15 years—of all records and primary outputs is recommended.6 Back up the data regularly, making duplicate copies on a disk and a hard copy of particularly important data,3 archiving older versions. Publication of the report does not negate the need to retain source data3 and notes of RWG meetings recording key decisions.
As with any product, it is important to be in touch with the specific consumers of each product—that is, the full systematic review and each of the associated guidelines for health professionals, employers, workers and their representatives—to determine whether it meets their needs and offers real practical assistance. Systematic reviews should be reviewed at least every five years, not only in light of new evidence but also to attend to consumer feedback as part of a programme of continual improvement. Questions that are useful to ask include
When using numerical scoring, it is useful to score between 1 and 6 rather than between 1 and 5 to avoid people choosing the easy option of the middle number rather than make a judgement.
We all rely on our colleagues volunteering to engage in undertaking systematic reviews to help us ensure that we practise in a way that is based on, though not dictated by, evidence. Few occupational health practitioners participate in systematic reviews. What can we do to engage, energise and enable more of our colleagues to add to our state of knowledge? Firstly, we must promote existing high‐quality practical reviews widely to demonstrate their value to key stakeholder groups, particularly employers and the government. This will help to win support, be it financial or other resources, for future projects. It is difficult to get employers to release talent in today's competitive world, unless there is a clear, tangible benefit beyond corporate social responsibility. Each one of us can be an ambassador for evidence‐based guidelines within our own spheres of influence, promoting the tangible benefits. We need better access to training in critical appraisal skills, ideally though accredited schemes.
Although evidence relating to the benefits and risks of healthcare interventions is essential for guiding practice, what is the true and wider impact of evidence‐based reviews? It would be beneficial to evaluate the impact of such reviews, including any cost benefit of implementing evidence‐based guidelines.
How can the process be made easier? An effective search requires the use of at least two search engines. Although this ensures that as much published work is discovered, there is considerable overlap that generates work in identifying and removing duplicate discoveries. A one‐stop shop, where one search engine could provide all the relevant published studies, would simplify and accelerate one important part of the process.
We need to conclude the debate regarding hierarchy of evidence. RCTs cannot be performed for many occupational health interventions. This means that there is very little level 1 evidence and therefore few grade A recommendations. Cohort, case–referent and cross‐sectional studies are natural experiments in which outcomes are measured in the real world.27 These are often more appropriate in the occupational setting, but they are scored as level 2 evidence and grade B or C recommendations. It would be helpful if current hierarchies of evidence were applied as they were intended—that is, to answer questions about the effectiveness of different treatments, and if consensus was reached for a different approach in domains such as public health and occupational health.
As more systematic reviews appear, and as the limitation of RCTs in an occupational setting is managed, practitioners both inside and outside the occupational field will become better informed and their practice will be more likely to provide better outcomes for the workers for whom they provide care.
Which statements are true and which are false?
I thank Mr Brian Kazer, Chief Executive, BOHRF, for his comments and for the SMART plan.
Competing interests: None declared.6. Ascaris Roundworms: 2,500 people per year
Ascaris roundworms are the most common parasitic worm infection to humans.
The eggs of these parasites are deposited in feces and soil, which can then transfer to plants. Humans who consume these plants will be infected. Roundworm lives in the small intestine. Infestation can compromise one’s health, which could be fatal.
Around 2,500 human deaths are reported every year.
6. Scorpions: 3,250 people per year
Scorpions, a predatory arachnid, have venomous stinger which they use to kill or paralyze their prey.
The two kinds of scorpions that could kill a human being due to their venom are the Israeli deathstalker and the Brazilian yellow scorpion. People with low immune system are vulnerable by its sting.
Scorpions kill around 3,250 people annually.During a physical examination, the veterinarian will use a stethoscope to listen for abnormal sounds in the chest. A heart murmur is one such abnormality that is fairly common in dogs and somewhat rare in cats. A murmur is an additional “swishing” sound that accompanies the normal heart beat. While no cause for panic, this finding does warrant further investigation to ensure that the heart is healthy.
The dog and cat heart is similar to a human heart in that it utilizes four “passive one-way” valves to regulate the direction of blood flow. The valves are located at the entrances and exits of the two ventricles, the largest two of the four chambers of the heart. They are “one-way” valves, such that they open when blood flows in one direction, but are pushed closed if the blood tries to move in the opposite direction. The valves are “passive” because they do not open and close by any other mechanism besides the force of the blood flow.
The ventricles (larger heart chambers) are surrounded by muscles that contract and relax changing the volume or capacity of the chamber or space therein. As the ventricle relaxes, the capacity increases and blood enters the chamber through the entrance valve. The exit valve is forced closed by the pressure of blood trying to flow into the ventricle through the exit. As the ventricle contracts, the volume of the chamber decreases. The entrance valve is then forced closed, and the exit valve opens to allow blood to flow out of the chamber. Every time the ventricles contract and relax, or “beat”, blood is pumped in one direction to the lungs, organs, and tissues of the body.
A heart murmur occurs when a valve fails to close or open completely. The sound is created by regurgitation – turbulence caused by blood flowing in the reverse direction – or from excessive pressure when blood is accelerated past a narrowly opened valve like water squirting through a pinched hose.
Murmurs are classified as systolic or diastolic – the turbulence occurring after the first beat sound or after the second beat sound – and graded according to the intensity or volume of the turbulence. Furthermore, the location of the murmur, or the loudest point on the chest where the murmur can be ausculted (heard with a stethoscope), can also help predict which heart valve is malfunctioning. Other descriptions of murmurs can include the pitch, the shape (variation in intensity), and the quality of the turbulence.
Heart murmurs may be congenital or acquired. Congenital murmurs exist from birth (although they may not be observed until later) and are evidence of a heart defect that occurred during development. This type of murmur may not be related to the valves at all, and instead may be caused by a small hole between the chambers of the heart where turbulence occurs. When mild and asymptomatic, the murmur is considered innocent or benign, and is not attributable to a pathological (harmful) heart condition. Congenital murmurs should be monitored for changes and reevaluated as necessary.
Acquired murmurs most often occur as a result of underlying or developing disease. Valvular disease and congestive heart failure are relatively common in aging dogs, and a murmur may be the first subtle evidence detected. Anemia is an easy to miss reason for an acquired murmur. The veterinarian may request a cardiac workup including radiographs, EKG, blood-chemistry profile, or an echocardiogram to determine a course of action. Many mild murmurs found in otherwise asymptomatic animals will require no treatment other than observation. Heart disease diagnosed and managed early in its progression carries a much better prognosis than after symptoms begin.
Heart murmurs are rare in cats, and cats with even serious heart disease do not necessarily acquire a murmur. For this reason, a murmur detected in a cat should be evaluated aggressively. A silent killer called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy will occasionally reveal itself with a heart murmur; there is otherwise rarely any warning of its impending threat.
Many pets live long and normal lives with heart murmurs. To be safe, any murmur should be thoroughly evaluated by a veterinarian.The “Carnivore Connection” hypothesizes that, during human evolution, a scarcity of dietary carbohydrate in diets with low plant : animal subsistence ratios led to insulin resistance providing a survival and reproductive advantage with selection of genes for insulin resistance. The selection pressure was relaxed at the beginning of the Agricultural Revolution when large quantities of cereals first entered human diets. The “Carnivore Connection” explains the high prevalence of intrinsic insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes in populations that transition rapidly from traditional diets with a low-glycemic load, to high-carbohydrate, high-glycemic index diets that characterize modern diets. Selection pressure has been relaxed longest in European populations, explaining a lower prevalence of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, despite recent exposure to famine and food scarcity. Increasing obesity and habitual consumption of high-glycemic-load diets worsens insulin resistance and increases the risk of type 2 diabetes in all populations.Indonesia has pledged one billion dollars to reduce their plastic waste by seventy per cent by 2025.
Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs, Luhat Binsar Pandjaitan, has announced up to one billion dollars will be pledged to reduce Indonesia’s plastic waste by seventy per cent over the next eight years. The announcement was made at the 2017 World Oceans Summit in Nusa Dua, Bali. Luhat confirmed that Indonesia will be focussing on plastic alternatives and education initiatives to achieve their goal. Their plan is part of the global UN Clean Seas campaign to reduce major marine waste sources by 2022.
According to a 2015 report in the journal Science, Indonesia is the second largest plastic polluter of the world’s oceans, second only to China. It is reported that up to ten million plastic bags are handed out free of charge each day in Indonesia and the World Bank estimates that each of Indonesia’s quarter of a million people produces 0.8 to 1 kilogram of plastic waste annually. These large volumes of plastic find their way easily into Indonesia’s watercourses and onto beaches, particularly during rainy season.
Indonesia is at the centre of the Coral Triangle and has high marine biodiversity. The abundance and variety of Indonesia’s marine life supports tourism, fisheries and provides food security for the inhabitants of its seventeen thousand islands. Plastic pollution not only damages the country’s reputation and value as a clean tourist destination but also has far-reaching consequences within the food chain.
Plastics degrade in the oceans over time into particles less than 1mm in size, termed microplastics. These tiny plastic particles enter the food chain and eventually find their way onto our dinner plates. Whilst we do not absorb all the plastic consumed, it accumulates in the body over time. There is growing concern about toxins within plastics leaching into the tissues of marine animals and into humans when eaten. The health risks of this are not yet fully understood.
Luhat’s ministry is meeting this month to formulate policies to reduce Indonesia’s plastic waste. Their initial plans include the use of biodegradable plastic alternatives, such as cassava and seaweed products, introducing education initiatives and a possible nationwide tax on the use of plastic bags. A trial tax for single-use plastic bags was carried out in twenty three Indonesian cities in 2016. Marine pollution decreased by up to fifty per cent that year but businesses and consumers were resistant to the tax.
Indonesia’s plans form part of the United Nations Clean Seas campaign. Nine other countries are involved in the campaign, including Uruguay who have pledged to tax single-use plastic bags and Costa Rica who have pledged to improve their waste management and education programmes. The Clean Seas campaign encourages businesses and governments to create waste management programs and plastic reduction policies. Individuals can get involved by committing to plastic reduction actions on the campaign website.
With the United Nation’s Environment suggesting the oceans will contain more plastic than fish by 2050, this campaign and Indonesia’s pledge may have come just in time.A common ADHD treatment is stimulant medication. Methylphenidate is popular, with trade names of Ritalin, Concerta, Daytrana, and Metadate. An amphetamine salt (trade name Adderall) is also used quite a bit.
Dosages are typically prescribed based on a child’s size. It is not uncommon for these dosages to be too high. Parents may notice a trade-off in symptoms, for example, when their child’s attention is improved but he is more physically agitated. This is one clue that the dosage may not be appropriate. Or, an “over-medicated” child might be sluggish, less creative, and (while medications are active in his system) lose his spunky personality. In other words, too much medication can smother the best parts of ADHD.
Stimulant medications take effect quickly. Within about 30 minutes, medication impacts thinking and behavior. Measuring the impact of stimulant medication has historically been difficult. Parents are left to their own observations, the hard-to-read self reports of their child, and input from teachers. With detailed behavior observations (such as how long a medication takes to act on the child, and what happens as the medication wears off), some gains can be made.
But, there is a better way to determine if a stimulant medication is effective. It’s called the Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA). It’s simple, short (about 20 minutes), and accurate. This test can be repeated time and again. A recommended use of TOVA is to compare a child’s “baseline” (performance without medication) against a medication trial. For example, baseline results can be compared for how a child does with 5mg methylphenidate. Since results are ready as soon as the test is finished, physicians and parents have real-time information to consider dosage or prescription adjustments.
A common finding from the TOVA test is that dosages are too high–meaning that unnecessary side effects can be reduced with the lessening of medication, while positive effects can remain. Test results can be very helpful for prescribing doctors. They also give parents clear directions on next steps in treatment and help with peace of mind.
The TOVA is also used as a standard part of ADHD assessments. From 2003 to 2007, there was a 22% increase in kids with parent-reported ADHD, according to the CDC. Research continues to find higher rates of ADHD. There is no single cause of ADHD, but some factors are known to contribute to it.(Trigonella foenum-graecum) Native to both
Europe and Asia. Both the seeds and tender sprouted leaves are eaten.
The seeds, which are flat, oblong, mustard brownish and about 3 mm long
with a deep furrow along their length, are an important component of
Indian curry powders, but should not be used with too much enthusiasm as
they have a bitter flavor. In Sri Lanka, a few fenugreek seeds are used
whole in certain dishes, in particular fish and seafood curries. When
soaked overnight the seed coat becomes soft and jelly-like, and in this
state is one of the chief ingredients of a paste of bitter herbs called
halba or hilbe, popular with people of Middle Eastern origin. The other
ingredients are fresh coriander herb, garlic, salt and lemon juice and a
small hot chili if liked. Once ground in a blender the vivid green,
viscous mass is used as a dip for flat loaves.
The young plants are used as a vegetable,
being harvested when about 20 cm high and tied in bundles like mint or
parsley. The stems can be quite tough so only the tender top portion is
used. It is recommended that home gardeners grow the seeds themselves
and harvest them when about half the size of the commercial plants in
order to enjoy them when tender. Cooked with potatoes or spinach they
add a pleasantly bitter tang. Raw, they make a flavorsome addition to
salads but
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of the path along which the plane should fly– made possible by such displays do improve navigation. But because the displays are ambiguous about whether the paths of two aircraft will collide, they can make it harder for pilots to detect and respond to unexpected hazards.
Making a Spatial Effort
Some psychologists have found that effective application of psychology requires full immersion in another discipline. Dan Montello holds a PhD in cognitive psychology but has spent the past 13 years working in the geography department at the University of California, Santa Barbara — the first 5 years of which, he says, effectively constituted a second PhD. That experience has made Montello aware of the difficulty, and the promises, of cross-disciplinary collaboration. The “intellectual and practical purposes” of designers and research psychologist are fundamentally different, he says: one group focuses on creating better designs, while the other focuses on improving the understanding of human behavior.
Despite such fundamental conflicts, Montello believes that further collaboration between psychologists and designers would be useful. In his own work in cognitive geography, Montello has studied how people perceive spatial representations of information, whether the content of that information is spatial in nature or not. In a recent study, he and his colleagues investigated so-called “point-display spatializations,” in which the similarity between two documents is represented by their spatial proximity. They found that the perceived similarity between two points could be affected by factors other than distance, such as clustering: Two points within the same cluster tend to be perceived as more similar than two points in different clusters, even if they are further apart. Such work has at least the potential to affect design practices.
As APS Past President Robert Bjork, University of California, Los Angeles, points out, one of the most valuable things that psychologists have to offer is, in some ways, the most basic: their use of sophisticated research designs to produce reliable insights into human behavior. The gradual permeation of psychological approaches into design suggests that the approaches and findings of research psychology are increasingly seen as essential to design’s future.
Improving Aircraft Safety
For the past three decades, Chris Wickens has been working to improve the display of visual information in airplane cockpits. As the head of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Aviation Research Laboratory, Wickens uses his background in cognitive psychology to design realistic experiments on how new technologies affect the performance of pilots.Wickens's research focuses on four main areas: the representation of three-dimensional reality in two-dimensional displays, the use of heads-up displays, the design of instrument panels, and the use of alerts and alarms. His work draws on current psychological research on attention and perception as well as on foundational works such as Richard Gregory's 1966 classic Eye and Brain.
Leave a comment below and continue the conversation.Ground raised by quake
Updated at 9:14 pm on 18 July 2009
A large area around the epicentre of a powerful earthquake in Fiordland on Wednesday night has risen by up to a metre.
GNS Science says this is a very significant movement.
Seismologist Bill Fry says the rise has been gradual.
"The ground now is in a different location that it was previously. It's moved differing amounts in different places - less than a metre.
"The earthquake started about 30 kilometres below the surface where the two plates are connecting... and as it was breaking, the ground was breaking upward and toward the south."
He says the breaking up of the ground stopped at a depth of 12km, so there is no surface rupture.
The quake is the largest recorded in the world so far this year.
Dr Fry says a GNS team is in the area looking at how the stress distribution has changed from the initial earthquake, and whether any more are likely.
There have been 16 aftershocks since the 7.8 magnitude quake occurred in Dusky Sound at 9.22pm on Wednesday, at a depth of 12km.
It was followed by another, magnitude 6.1, at 9.41pm, which was at a focal depth of 5km.
Dr Fry says the magnitude of the aftershocks is dropping and they're becoming less frequent.
The latest measured 4.9 on the Richter scale and hit at 1pm on Saturday.
It followed a magnitude 4.5 shock at 8.25am on Saturday, centred 80km west of Te Anau at a focal depth of 10km.
Another, measured at magnitude 5.1, occurred at 4.40am on Saturday, at a focal depth of 12km.
The Earthquake Commission says it has received more than 570 claims over damage caused by the massive quake.
Claims manager Lance Dixon says the commission is setting up a temporary office in Invercargill and hopes to have teams inspecting damaged properties by next Friday.
Previous big quakes
Magnitude 7.8 is the same force as the Hawke's Bay earthquake on 3 February, 1931, and the Murchison earthquake on 17 June, 1929.
The GeoNet website says the Wairarapa earthquake on 23 January, 1855, is the most severe to have been recorded in New Zealand.
Next story in National: RNZAF ends search for Kiribati ferry survivors
Copyright © 2009, Radio New ZealandLatest 109P/Swift-Tuttle Stories
Every year in August, the Perseid Meteor shower is visible to the naked eye and is a favorite for professional and amateur astronomers alike.
The Perseid meteor shower is peaking around August 12 through the 13th, but this year it will have to pierce through the sky against a full Moon.
Dr Brian Geoffrey Marsden passed away Thursday, Nov 18 at the age of 73 following a prolonged illness.
Perseid Meteor Shower: Afternoon Chat, Then Up All Night!
The annual Perseid meteor shower this week is predicted to be a grand event with peak viewing times Thursday night August 12 into the early pre-dawn hours Friday August 13.
You know it's a good night when a beautiful alignment of planets is the second best thing that's going to happen.
Splat! There goes another bug on the windshield.
Earth is entering a stream of dusty debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, the source of the annual Perseid meteor shower.
Mark your calendar: The 2008 Perseid meteor shower peaks on August 12th and it should be a good show.
Got a calendar? Circle this date: Sunday, August 12th. Next to the circle write "all night" and "Meteors!" Attach the above to your refrigerator in plain view so you won't miss the 2007 Perseid meteor shower.
Perseids Meteor Shower -- Like most meteor showers, the Perseids are caused by comet debris. As comets enter the inner solar system, they are warmed by the sun and peppered by the solar wind, which produces the familar tails that stretch across the night sky when a bright comet is close to Earth. Comet tails are made of tiny pieces of ice, dust, and rock which are spewed into interplanetary space as they bubble off the comet's nucleus. When Earth encounters these particles on its...
Leonids Meteor Shower -- The Leonids are a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Tempel-Tuttle. The meteor stream is viewable every year around November 17 and is thought to be comprised of particles ejected by the comet as it passes by the Sun. When the Earth moves through the meteor stream, the meteor shower is visible. The Leonids get their name from usually making their appearance in or near the constellation Leo. The Leonids are famous because their meteor showers,...
Comet Tempel-Tuttle -- Comet Tempel-Tuttle is an inherently faint and typically unspectacular comet that has only been observed on a few apparitions over the past 600 years. Its most recent apparition was in 1998, when it reached perihelion on February 28. As expected, it showed little activity, and only a small tail. However, further inspection shows that this comet is more interesting than the first glance suggests. Its orbit is oriented in such a way that the comet makes a...(RNS) Some called it “The Great War.” Others called it “The War to End All Wars.” History proves it was neither.
As the world marks the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I — a conflict that left 37 million dead or wounded and reshaped the global map — a number of scholars and authors are examining a facet of the war they say has been overlooked — the religious framework they say led to the conflict, affected its outcome and continues to impact global events today.
More than that, they argue, today’s religious and political realities — ongoing wars, disputed borders and hostile relationships — have their roots in the global conflict that began when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914.
“You can’t understand the war fully without investigating the religious dimensions of the war,” said Jonathan Ebel, an associate professor of religion at the University of Illinois whose “Faith in the Fight: The American Soldier in the Great War” has just been issued in paperback.
“I would be the first to tell you the Great War was not a war of religion, but I think a big part of people’s understanding of what they were doing in the war, or why the war made sense to them, comes from religion.”
“Faith in the Fight” explores how American soldiers, field nurses and doctors and other aid workers used their religious experience to face the war. Reading through letters, memoirs and other contemporary accounts, Ebel discovered that rather than disillusioning those who fought the war, it somehow reinforced their ties to religion.
“The experience might have been something that knocked people off their beliefs, made them question,” Ebel said. “But based on the material I was able to draw on, the war for many Americans was not a disillusioning experience. Rather, it confirmed the illusions — if you want to call them that — of why they entered the war.”
Ebel draws a line from the “masculine Christianity” of the early 20th century (evangelist Billy Sunday’s enormously popular revivals often included military recruiting tents) to the way combatants and support workers thought of the war. Soldiers scribbled lines of Scripture on their gas masks, marked their calendars with a cross for each day they survived combat, and opened the pages of the Stars and Stripes military newspaper to read poems comparing them to the heroes of the Old Testament.
“The culture of pre-war America gave America images, ideas and beliefs perfectly tailored to war,” he writes.
That is echoed on a global stage in “The Great and Holy War: How World War I Became a Religious Crusade” by Philip Jenkins, a professor of history and religion at Baylor University. The book pulls the lens back from individual Americans to highlight the religious imagery, rhetoric and symbolism used by all sides in the war to further their goals.
Several countries — especially Russia and Germany — saw the war as a fulfillment of their unique destinies as the kingdom of God. But Europe did not have room for so many countries with the same aspiration.
“You can toss a coin as to which country to blame, but their two clashing visions made war inevitable,” Jenkins said. “If you do not understand the messianic and apocalyptic imagery used by all sides, and how wide-ranging those images were among all classes, all groups, all nations, you cannot hope to understand the war.”
Jenkins gathers numerous examples of biblical images of angels, demons, apocalypse and righteousness and shows how both sides in the war used them to justify the fight and rally support at home. It is no wonder, he writes, that the war was frequently referred to as “apocalyptic,” or even as Armageddon, the final battle the New Testament says will restore a heavenly kingdom.
“I could almost rewrite my book in terms of angels,” he said, citing one of the most frequently used — and believed in — images of the war. The most famous example are the so-called “Angel of Mons” — ghost soldiers from the 15th-century Battle of Agincourt led by St. George who supposedly appeared on the the British lines in France.
But the ghost soldiers were the post-Mons invention of Welsh poet Arthur Machen. Yet when he pointed out they were a fiction, people accused him of suppressing the truth.
“You don’t get anything like that in World War II,” Jenkins said of the belief in angels on the battlefield. “In World War II, there were hundreds of depictions of angels, but they were all in films and books that were clearly fantasy and fiction. But the angel stories in World War I were taken seriously.”
But if the angels were fictions, the new realities established at the end of the war in 1918 were very real and still affect global religion and politics today, Jenkins writes. After the war, Jenkins said, Jews felt a more urgent need for a land of their own. The push for a Jewish homeland gained momentum and led to the establishment of Israel in 1948 — and to the conflicts between Israel and some of its neighbors today.
Adolf Hitler, too, latched on to the widespread humiliation that permeated a defeated Germany to establish his Third Reich, sowing the seeds for the Holocaust that would leave 6 million Jews (and millions of others) slaughtered.
Jenkins also traces the contemporary push for an Islamic caliphate — or Muslim kingdom — by contemporary groups such as The Islamic State and al-Qaida to World War I. In many ways, the Middle East map we know in 2014 has its origins in the aftermath of World War I.
“The end of the caliphate (after World War I) removed the certainty of faith and state for Muslims,” Jenkins said. “It was an uncharted wilderness. And what most of them have tried to figure out for the last 90 years is how do you live in that wilderness?”
He also tracks the rise of African Christianity to World War I, which he said exposed the previously isolated continent to new ideas and new faiths as they fought alongside or supported their European colonizers in the war.
“This was an era of mass movements, healings, religious risings, nationalist Christian restructuring, Marian visions,” Jenkins writes of Africa in 1918 and beyond. “When the newer churches write their history, they will give pride of place to those critical years after 1915, when believers tried to make sense of a world plunged into destructive insanity.”
KRE/AMB END WINSTONThe Return of the Thunderbird: Avian Mystery of the Black Forest
by Gerald Musinsky
"There are no more conspicuous creatures than birds... Certainly it is very rarely that a large and quite unknown bird is discovered." -- Bernard Heuvelmans
Once known as the Forbidden Land, the Pennsylvania Black Forest region encompasses Clinton, Potter, Lycoming, Tioga, Cameron, and McKean counties. Predominantly sparsely populated state forest and game lands, it has been haunted for centuries by giant aves known as "thunderbirds."
The earliest known account is that of Mrs. Elvira Ellis Coats, who claimed to have seen Thunderbirds in the 1840's (Lyman, Sr., Robert R. Amazing Indeed, Strange Events in the Black Forest vol 2. 94). But even now, people continue to claim having seen this mythical bird.
Inside the Black Forest. Click and drag photo to resize.
Before dusk in July, 1993, Shane Fisher, his mother and father, saw a very large bird flying above the trees on their property near Larry's Creek. "Looked just like a Piper Cub. You could hear the air rush through the wings," Shane Fisher said.
He described the bird as eagle-like with large black eyes, larger beak than an eagle, no light markings, and wings "wider than a cross bar on a telephone pole." His father thought it "had to be some kind of eagle" so he searched through a reference guide for birds of prey, but to no avail.
No hawk or eagle fit the description. Fisher's mother said it was "large enough to carry one of us away."
Early one April evening, Tammy Golder and her two year old son returned home on Beaver Lake Road. As she travelled a steep grade known as Frantz Hill a few miles east of Hughesville, her headlights revealed a very large bird.
"It jumped and circled over the hood, then hit the truck above the windshield on the passenger side and flew off! It wasn't a turkey or a vulture," she said. The bird left a dent the size of an apple in the cab roof. She was traveling about 40 mph when it hit the truck. She couldn't believe it survived and flew away.
In late September, 1992 as Kim Foley drove home late in the afternoon her two year old son, Jayson shouted, "Mommy, look at the puppy!"
What she saw was not a dog, but a large bird hunched over a deer carcass. "I expected to see a dog," she explained. "But it was a very big bird eating a dead deer. It was huge!" she said, "and dark brown, almost black, an ugly beak. Looked right at us in the car, it was that tall."
At the time of the sighting she was near Mt. Zion Church cemetery, south of a marsh near State Game Lands No. 252 and North White Deer Ridge in Lycoming County. Her sighting occurred where a bird of such dimensions would attract the least attention. No houses.
The former dental technician, admits she's not a bird expert but knew it was not an eagle after looking through a field guide. "More powerful, bigger chest and shoulders, and a big, ugly beak,... Something like this," she said pointing to Steller's sea eagle (Haliaeetus Pelagicus), "but not that one. It was much bigger."
Two weeks later near Hyner, in Clinton County, Dave Sims and children, Zach and Casey, saw a large bird. "It flew ahead of the truck and disappeared in the trees," he said. "I know the hawks around here, but I never saw this one before," Sims continued. "I've heard `thunderbird' stories but chalked that up to regional folklore. I don't know if this was or not, but it was a big, dark gray bird, and flew faster than 55 mph."
In June, Todd Hackenberg and Erin Goundie went crawfish hunting in Young Woman's Creek near North Bend. About 4:30 that afternoon while driving parallel to the creek, Goundie pointed to a large bird standing in the shallow water.
"Down from the spillway stood an awfully big, whitish bird," she said, "About five feet tall, had a long beak, thick legs as long as the stocky body. The neck was long. Not skinny, not thick. Didn't look like a bird that belonged around here, it was so big and strange." To get a better look, Hackenberg drove in reverse but lost sight of the bird in the trees.
"The wings were as wide as the creek. Two and half times longer than the body... held straight like an airplane when it flew off," Hackenberg said.
The shoreline is thickly wooded except at the clearing where the sighting occurred less than thirty feet from the observers. Hackenberg is familiar with hawks, vultures, and eagles, but Goundie is not. Both agree the bird was very large and very strange looking.
Later that summer Allison Stearn was hiking near Shingletown when she saw a bird she described, "like a small plane, dark brown or black, and maybe some yellow. I guess it could've been a Golden Eagle. Do they get that big? I mean, it was like an airplane."
On Thanksgiving Day 1989, Shannon Breiner saw what she thought was a deer on her grandmother's farm near Barbours. When she approached, the creature stood up on two legs and ran towards the swamp. Before it was out of sight, she saw it had no arms!
The creature was "a large eagle-like bird." Where she first spotted the bird she saw a mound of grass flattened in the center like a large ground nest. Breiner, a librarian at Pennsylvania State University is an avid raptor enthusiast. "Not a stork or heron, it had a shorter and thicker neck, and broad chest and shoulders. Not a frail bird," she said.
The area around Barbours (not far from Hughesville) has coniferous and deciduous forest, high elevations, swamp and farmland, and is sparsely populated. Ideal for a giant bird of prey.
While solo backpacking the Doughnut Hole Trail in Sproul State Forest in August 1977, Terry McCormick, a science teacher, saw what he thought "was an airplane in trouble because of how low and silent it flew, as if the engine had cut out." As he watched the plane fly near he realized "it was a bird and when it flapped its wings once and flew out of sight."
McCormick described it as dark brownish gray with a large beak and a straight leading wing edge. Certainly larger than any known eagle. "At least not one I've ever seen before," McCormick said before balking about its size. "How big is a Piper Cub? Because that's how big it looked," he said.
Driving through the Algerines, Russ Powers, Jr. and Denny Eckley stopped for deer crossing the road at Bear Run. As they watched, they saw a bird with wings that "spanned the forest road." The deer bolted into the surrounding woods, except the yearling that stood on the road. Out of nowhere the bird attacked, ripping the yearling's vital areas, and turned to look at them. It flew off struggling with its kill before disappearing above the trees.
Powers described the bird as having: "a longer and less hooked beak than an eagle, dark grayish brown plumage, thick legs, talons larger than a man's hand, and grayish legs." The head was flat with "feathers, like on a chick." The bird stood "eye level with us" and had wings as wide as the forest road, approximately 14-16 feet.
Later Powers and Eckley went to a library and found a photograph in what Powers thought might be The Guiness Book of World Records. The photo depicted a giant bird nailed to a barn wall with the caption "Thunderbird" greatly resembled what they saw.
Often people believe they have seen a particular photograph of a giant bird but cannot recall the source (Hall, Mark, Thunderbirds, 65-66) This mysterious photograph resurfaces from time to time in "thunderbird" lore and is an autonomous enigma.
In August, 1945, the school bus left Helen Erway off by Ole Bull 2 miles from home because the dirt road had been oiled. After walking near a stretch of pines along the road she saw a large shadow on the ground. Overhead was a very large bird. She feared being carried off, so she ran until a neighbor stopped and drove her home. "It was not an eagle. The wings were straight out. It made a high pitch noise. The shadow on the road was about 30 feet," she said recalling the incident.
Erway suffered severe nightmares and could not sleep or eat. Finally her parents took her to her grandmother, Marion Erway, an Indian "medicine woman", who told her she saw a Thunder Bird. That it was there to protect her because she was part Indian. Her grandmother said it was a magic moment and that Helen shouldn't be frightened.
Helen Erway also told of a "thunderbird" hovering over Delbert Schoonover, when he was bitten by a rattlesnake by the dam, until help arrived. Other loggers who came to assist him also saw the bird.
Contemporary "thunderbirds" are not limited to the scenic areas of the Keystone State. Significant sightings have occurred in Illinois, West Virginia, and other states across America. Not surprising since the Thunder Bird myth was as wide spread among the Native Americans.
The Thunder Bird is a nature spirit shared by most if not all Algonquian tribes (McClintock, Walter. "The Thunderbird Myth I" 170 and 16; also Alanson Skinner, "The Algonkin and The Thunderbird" 71-72).
According to Winnabego tradition, "Thunder is a spirit, and it is an emblem of war, it is winged, mighty and awful and it is called the Thunder Bird." (Curtis, Natalie, THE INDIANS BOOK: Song & Legends of the American Indian 252).
The Chippewa supreme bird had "eyes of fire, his glance was lightning, and the motions of his wings filled the air with thunder." (Emerson, Ellen Russell. Indian Myths 34). Concerning the origins of thunderstorms, "The Mandan supposed that it was because the thunderbird broke through the clouds (Hodge, Frederick Webb Handbook of American Indians (North of Mexico) 747)."
This colloquial nomenclature to identify a raptor larger than an eagle is presumably inappropriate since the Thunder Bird in the majority of Native American myths is benevolent toward humans. "Thunder Bird... was a friend of man... a willing protector;...also a teacher and, at times, a creator" (Wherry, Joseph E. Indian Myths of the West 59-60). "It was the Thunderbird who taught the Kwakiutl how to build houses." (Wherry 60-65).
An Assiniboin account claims, "...but the old Thunder, or big bird is wise and excellent, he never kills or injures anyone" (Judson, Katherine B. Myths and Legend of the Great Plains 48).
But a Comanche story differs, "...a hunter once shot a large bird...it was so large he was afraid to go near it alone..." (Judson, 47). The hunter believed he shot a Thunder Bird. When he returned with the Medicine Man and others from the village, the bird was gone, and the hunter was struck by lightning during the resulting storm. This tale implies another large bird, not a mythical deity, but an earthly creature, existed concurrently with early Native Americans.
Thunder Bird lore can be classified as a benevolent nature deity or a malicious predator; not a spirit but mortal and co-extant with the aboriginal inhabitants of pre-colonial North America. The non-spirit myth might lead to the conceivable origins of giant birds reported in more recent times.
Powerful enough to carry away full grown deer, the piasa was a bird of prey and in spite of its size, could quickly surprise a hunter and carry him off to devour him in its cave. Entire villages were decimated.
A painted rock once existed near present day Alton, Illinois honoring Chief Ouatago and his band of twenty braves who slew the beast and delivered the Illini from its grizzly depredations (Russell, John. "The Piasa, An Indian Tradition of the Illinois", The Piasa 11-19).
The Hu-huk (Hoh-hoq) was a mythical bird of prey among the Pawnee was said to devour hunters (Curtis 258). Described as cannibalistic it is similar in behavior to the piasa; having tasted human flesh preferred it to deer.
"According to Indian legends the thunderbird flew down, seized a victim by the shoulders, and carried the prey to a barren mountain top where it was devoured. First the belly was ripped open, while the victim was still alive, and then the insides were eaten. Lastly, it picked a hole in the skull and ate the brain.
The Indians said it was capable of carrying away deer or a man" (Lyman, Sr. Amazing Indeed 93). Lyman's "thunderbird" is unlikely the same Thunder Bird mentioned in the vast amount of Native American myths.
Other accounts of giant birds preying on humans in post-colonial times exist. Stories such as Marie Delex and Jemmie Kenny (Pouchet, F. The Universe 255), Landy Junkins ("A Modern Roc" St. Louis Globe Democrat, February 1895 7) and Marlon Lowe (The Daily Pantograph July 1977 A-3) which irritate ornithologists fearing unwarranted attacks on more familiar and endangered species.
But also, these tales appear to substantiate Indian accounts of immense avian carnivores lingering from a neolithic past which might still exist in the most remote parts of North America, like the Black Forest region of Pennsylvania.
Regional historian and folklorist, Robert Lyman, Sr. recorded "thunderbird flocks" were seen near Dent's Run in 1892, (94).
|.......Renovo River Area. Source: Mckittrick.com|
In April 1922, Hiram Crammer saw his first Thunderbird with a 35 foot wing spread at Hammersley Fork. In 1957 "thunderbirds" appeared regularly over Renovo, Westport, Shintown, and Hammersley Fork (Cranmer's letter-to-the-editor, FATE, August 1957, also Lyman 94).
Near Bush Dam in 1964, road workers watched a "thunderbird" carry off a fawn (Lyman 95). A couple saw a giant bird fly at the car. "She said the claw was at least 4 times as big as her hand, and its legs as large as her arm..."
"Thunderbirds" soared over Jersey Shore in 1970, with estimated 18 foot wings. A family saw a "gigantic winged creature... almost like an airplane" (96).
In 1971, two women saw a "'thunderbird' devouring a dead opossum, "...its wings covered the tops of four trees which was 18 feet" (97).
In 1892, a farmer in Centerville caught a bird eating a dead cow at the edge of his field. Former Potter County school superintendent, A. P. Akeley, saw the bird and said "its color was grey. It stood upright. He is not sure how tall it was, but certainly over 4 feet and perhaps as much as 6 feet" (Lyman 97).
Near Coudersport in 1940, Lyman Sr. sighted a huge bird "between 3 and 4 feet tall... like a very large vulture.... its wing spread was equal to the width of the road..." (97).
The number of giant birds sighted in Pennsylvania were numerous enough for Mark A. Hall to devote a chapter on "Pennsylvania Thunderbirds," in his book Natural Mysteries (67-82, also see Thunderbirds). He lists additional sightings at Jersey Shore, Oregon Hill, Sundlinerville, Cross Forks, by Lyman and others, and the last near Snow Shoe by Herb Nesman (Hall 77-78). Nesman also later revealed that he and several others had seen small flocks near Hammersley Fork in the 1940's and recalled Cranmer's theories about "thunderbirds" and the Eastern Condor (another regional avian myth).
After the Agnes [Hurricane] Flood of 1973, a Renovo librarian watched what appeared to be two airplanes dipping and diving in tight circles above Hyner. She realized "they were not airplanes, but birds the size of planes high in the air. No plane could fly like that," she said.
A woman in Hyner, while hanging the wash with her infant in a basket beside her, saw a bird bigger than an eagle overhead. She dropped the wash, grabbed the child, and rushed into the house. The bird flew within thirty feet of her home. She had never mentioned it before. Another reason for the dearth of contemporary reports: observer reluctance to speak.
Mike Floryshak, Sr. was near Huntsville in summer of 1973 when he saw an airplane flying across a field before he realized it was a bird "...gliding about six to ten feet above the ground beside the car. I didn't think it possible," he said, "the wings appeared to be twenty feet wide." It was "dirty brown," with a large beak and very level, stiff wings. The bird didn't flap but turned on edge and disappeared into woods bordering the farm.
Late one afternoon, Charlie Passell and others sighted a "thunderbird" west of Renovo in late May, 1964. The bird was spotted perched in a dead Hemlock tree at a strip mine near Bush dam. "Where the wing meets the body was thick, longer neck than a hawk's but not as long as a stork or crane, bigger beak than an eagle," he said. Passell heard of "thunderbirds" and figured "that's what we must've seen because it wasn't like any bird we were familiar with. Definitely no eagle. Larger than a buzzard, real large."
From his camp at Kettle Creek, Robert Lyman, Jr., son of the regional historian and folklorist, sighted "thunderbirds" over Rattle Snake Mountain in 1973. Too far to notice any distinctive markings, he used his forestry skills to estimate the size of the bird.
"Over the very tall mountain in front of the camp, I saw two huge birds, slow wing thrusts, I used my finger nail to triangulate the size. By knowing distance and height of the mountain I calculated the wing span between 14-15 feet."
Lyman's father recorded "thunderbird" reports from Hiram Cranmer, a central figure in "thunderbird" lore. Both men professed theories about the "thunderbird" and the "Eastern condor" (Gymnogyps pennsylvanianus). Lyman, Jr. regards the "thunderbird" and the "Eastern Condor" as being distinctly separate species aptly describing the Eastern condor as identical to the California condor (G. californianus) except for minor variation in plumage (G. pennsylvanianus is lighter, the head darker). [Gymnogyps fossil remains were found in Genesee County, NY, north of the Black Forest].
Regarding the "Thunderbird" photograph Lyman, Jr. commented, "I've seen that photograph Hi Cranmer claimed to have." Crystal, Lyman Jr.'s daughter, recalled the photograph, possibly in Ripley's Believe It or Not.
Because of the frequent sightings, Lyman, Sr. speculated the "thunderbird" home is in the Black Forest, "north of the Susquehanna River, between Pine Creek in the east and Kettle Creek in the west (97)." But sightings have occurred in Clearfield, Cameron and Centre counties, beyond Lyman's designated boundaries.
In Spring of 1977 two Curwensville school teachers, Debbie Wright and Sue Howell, while driving to Du Bois about 7:30 am were unsettled by a very large bird "wider than the car." It flew straight at them before it veered away.
The sighting occurred on Route 219 near Drocker's Woods about nine miles south of Du Bois, bordered by State Game Lands No. 87 and Moshannon State Forest. Sue Howell said, "It was big, black or very dark brown with a huge beak." Debbie Wright said, "It was horrible, big, black and ugly. I'll never forget that. It was frightening!"
A large, charcoal grey bird perched on a rock in the Susquehanna parallel Route 879 at Curwensville was seen twice by a Clearfield store clerk. She first saw the bird about 9:00 am in the early Autumn 1991 and in October 1992, near the same spot at 7:30 am while on the way to work.
The bird stood on one leg, head twisted around and the beak nuzzled over the shoulder. She said the legs were "thick like an ostrich and it appeared to be sleeping." It wasn't a Great Blue Heron.
Truck drivers on Boot Jack Hill, north of the Howell/Wright sighting, were "harassed by large dark birds resembling "big buzzards" over the last few years.
This extended range of recent sightings could indicate populations spreading into "thunderbird" territory, while strip-mining and developments force the bird into more populated areas. Eagles are not known as domiciles and rarely frequent the area. The observers are certain the birds sighted are strikingly larger than eagles.
How can an immense unknown avian species elude detection? If the "thunderbird" exists then why haven't people reported it?
People have. But the reports are denied and trained observers fail to investigate. Most reports come from people who live in the areas and have a greater chance of sighting the bird than infrequent visitors. To dismiss the reports as "too incredible" lacks scientific rigor.
The opinion that all witnesses are incapable of identifying eagles, hawks, or vultures is a false assumption. The most outstanding and condemning feature is the bird's tremendous size. Even skilled observers have difficulty accurately assessing the size of a bird in the air. An eagle in flight is an awe inspiring sight.
Witnesses agree their reports are fantastic and hard to believe yet attest that the extraordinary bird they saw cannot be a known species.
Another argument against the "thunderbird" as a "bona fide" species is that no bird with so wide a wingspan could dwell in the thick forests where it has been sighted. Yet, the world's two largest eagles, the Harpy (Harpyia harpyia) and the Monkey Eater (Pithecophaga jefferyi) live near rivers in dense tropical forests. Both prey on primates and have ten foot wingspans.
Like most tropical birds their plumage is colorful and they possess other features which rule out a several thousand mile periodic visit to scenic Pennsylvania. But is it unreasonable to consider a similar North American species?
Not unless one wonders how it was able to remain undiscovered for so long a time and still secreted from eyes of contemporary naturalists.
Early pioneers considered the "thunderbird" to be an eagle other than the Bald and Golden eagles already known, like Audubon's Great Washington Eagle. The Monkey Eater of the Philippines was only discovered by John Whitehead in 1896 (Heuvelmans, Bernard. On the Track of Unknown Animals, 20) while a year earlier a distant kin might have been nesting in Webster Springs ("A Modern Roc" St Louis Globe Democrat).
John Audobon, famed naturalist and artist, twice had sighted what he referred to as the Great Washington eagle (present day ornithologists claim is the juvenile of the Bald eagle) once near Alton, and the other time en route through northern Pennsylvania.
Also regional lore claims Mark Twain while writing on rock (in present day Ravensburg State Park) and Edgar Allen Poe (now Poe Valley) sighted immense black birds in Pennsylvania.
Collectively the sightings possess more common than contrary characteristics. To dismiss the reports as embellished tales, hoaxes and fabrications prejudges the issue. Native American accounts regarding mythic
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individual.
Is a learning disability a disability?
In 2017, the SSA created a new disability listing that recognizes learning disability as a disabling medical condition. … This listing covers dyslexia, dyscalculia (math difficulties), and other types of learning problems.
Is ADHD considered a disability?
Under both the ADA and another law known as the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, ADHD is considered a disability in the United States, but with strict stipulations. For instance, ADHD is considered a protected disability if it is severe and interferes with a person’s ability to work or participate in the public sector.
How do u know if u have a learning disability?
Your child might have a learning disorder if he or she: Doesn’t master skills in reading, spelling, writing or math at or near expected age and grade levels. Has difficulty understanding and following instructions. Has trouble remembering what someone just told him or her.
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Learning disabilities affect how a person learns to read, write, speak, and do math. They are caused by differences in the brain, most often in how it functions but also sometimes in its structure. These differences affect the way the brain processes information.
Can you outgrow learning disability?
Learning disabilities do not go away. Your brain will still work differently as an adult, but you will have learned many new skills and ways of getting around your difficulties. Adults with LD who find a career where they can use their strengths and get around their difficulties can be very successful.
What is the IQ of someone with a learning disability?
IQ measurement has traditionally been used to define severity: A person with an IQ of less than 20 would be described as having a profound learning disability. A person with an IQ of 20-34, a severe learning disability. … A person with an IQ of 50-70, mild learning disability.
What is a severe learning disability?
A severe learning disability will be identified at birth or in early childhood. Someone who has a severe learning disability will: have little or no speech. find it very difficult to learn new skills. need support with daily activities such as dressing, washing, eating and keeping safe.
Are you born with a learning disability?
A learning disability happens when a person’s brain development is affected, either before they’re born, during their birth or in early childhood. This can be caused by things such as: the mother becoming ill in pregnancy. problems during the birth that stop enough oxygen getting to the brain.
Is learning disability a lifelong condition?
A learning disability cannot be cured or fixed; it is a lifelong challenge. However, with appropriate support and intervention, people with learning disabilities can achieve success in school, at work, in relationships, and in the community.
Is a learning disability a mental illness?
What is the difference between a learning disability and a mental health problem? A learning disability is a permanent condition developing at the latest in early childhood, whereas mental illness (or a mental health problem) can develop at any time, and is not necessarily permanent.
What is a neurological learning disability?
Federal law states that a learning disability (LD) is a permanent neurological disorder that may be subtle to severe. It limits the brain’s ability to store, process, and produce information and affects a person’s ability to speak, listen, read, write, or do math.Being awake for 17 to 19 hours and driving makes you virtually legally drunk – it’s considered the same as having a blood alcohol content of 0.05 per cent (this is the drink drive limit in Scotland, in the UK and Ireland it’s 0.08 per cent), according to the University of New South Wales in Sydney.
During the festive period, we’re frequently warned about the dangers of drink driving – but not as much so about the dangers of ‘drowsy driving’.
But while you may be conscientious about making sure you’re sober before you get behind the wheel, many of us think nothing of driving after not getting enough shut eye.
Indeed, one in five fatal road crashes in the UK and Ireland are fatigue-related, according the Royal Society For The Prevention Of Accidents.
To show the effects sleep deprivation has, Dublin-based company Easca Mattress has created a game called Don’t Hit Deidre where you can test your reaction time. So try it for yourself – could you save the bunny?
Experts warn about the dangers of ‘drowsy driving’ – now a game can test your reaction time on the road
The game shows the dangers of so-called ‘drowsy driving’, using the national average stopping distance and thinking time, plus a multiplier to allow for sleep deprivation
Experts are urging people to think twice before getting behind the wheel after a bad night’s sleep this Christmas
SLEEP-RELATED CRASHES TEND TO BE HIGH SPEED
Fatigue is a major contributory factor in crashes in the UK, with too little sleep radically affecting driver attention, awareness, reaction time and ability to control the vehicle.
Peak times for fatigue-related crashes are within the hours of 2am and 6am and 2pm and 6pm when drivers are naturally more sleepy.
Drivers at 6am are 20 times more likely to fall asleep at the wheel than at 10am.
Crashes caused by drivers falling asleep typically involve vehicles running off the road or into the back of another vehicle. They tend to be high-speed crashes, because drivers do not brake before crashing, so the risk of death or serious injury is high.
At-work drivers are particularly at risk from tiredness, because they typically spend longer hours at the wheel, with four in ten tiredness-related crashes involved someone driving a commercial vehicle.
Male drivers are more involved in sleep-related crashes than females. Drivers under 30 are at higher risk than older drivers, and are most likely to crash due to tiredness in the early morning after little or no sleep.Реферат: The Snows Of Kilimanjaro Essay Research Paper
The Snows Of Kilimanjaro Essay, Research Paper
«The Snows of Kilimanjaro»
"?The Marvelous thing is that it?s painless,? he said.?That?s how you know when it starts?" (Hemingway 3). A dying man in the middle of the African Safari, is the concept of Ernest Hemingway?s, «The Snows of Kilimanjaro.» Hemingway, in this story more than any other of his works, used himself and his life experiences to create a great piece of literature.
After reading some Hemingway?s works it becomes apparent that he is writing about himself in many instances. Time and time again Hemingway uses his sense of adventure to make compelling stories. Hemingway, despite repeated attempts, could not enlist to fight in World War I. Few people are eager to go to war; Hemingway was disappointed when he could not. His passion for action was so strong, he was willing to risk dying for it. Soon after graduating high school, Hemingway volunteered to be an ambulance driver for the Red Cross. This took him to the Italian front. Not long after joining he was seriously injured by 200 steel pins that exploded from a mortar. He did not stop there. He climbed out of a trench in an open fire zone to rescue a wounded Italian soldier, for this he was awarded the Italian medal al Valore. This is courage, and yes, Hemingway had plenty of it. However it was Hemingway?s pure desire for action that drove him to such courageous feats. Hemingway never had a dull moment in his life. When a dull moment did arise, he attempted to kill it through his obsessive drinking. His reckless drinking lead to depression and high blood pressure which eventually contributed to his suicide. For a man that feared death and loneliness, which he made so clear in his stories, suicide would not be one?s first guess of how Hemingway might die. In «The Snows of Kilimanjaro» however, it was almost as if he was foreshadowing his own death.
Through Hemingway?s surroundings he develops the setting for his books. Hemingway lived in Key West and on the coast of Cuba. Here he was able to understand the hard life of a fisherman enough to write one of the most famous and award winning books ever written, The Old Man and the Sea. In much the same way that Hemingway learned about the fisherman, Hemingway used his safaris in Africa to transform his first hand experiences into «The Short Happy Life of Franics Macomber,» The Green Hills of Africa and «The Snows of Kilimanjaro.» «The Snows of Kilimanjaro» opens with the protagonist, Harry, dying of gangrene in the African safari, "?Don?t be silly. I?m dying now. Ask those bastards.? He looked over to where the huge, filthy birds sat" (Hemingway 4) Knowing he will be dead within a few days, dyeing; and while all this is happening he is thinking of his life as a whole, looking back upon it with his wife. Hemingway made this created this bold statement emphasizing «the spirit of nada, nothingness, that lurks behind the glories of fame and fate» (Bowen 14). He tied in multiple plot lines throughout the book by going back and forth between Harry?s death bed and his life that he accused was ruined by money and women. «He would never write the things he had saved to write? Well, he would not have to fail at trying to write them either.» (Hemingway 5) Throughout «The Snows of Kilimanjaro» Hemingway stays away from showing love, he made a wonderful life full of hate. He seemed to try to kill off everything meaningful in his life while talking to his wife. A fear of failure overwhelmed Hemingway. It seems that Harry?s thoughts could almost be the thoughts going through Hemingway?s own mind before he turned a gun on himself. Using his own firsthand experiences, Hemingway created a world many could not reach and an idea so few could touch.
Hemingway was inspired by what he saw, like many writers, but so few have written so directly about themselves. «You always said you loved Paris» (Hemingway 5). Harry?s wife tells him in «The Snows of Kilimanjaro.» Hemingway did to. It was also the birth place of his first child as well. Here like in so many cases throughout the short story Hemingway is writing about himself. Hemingway often said that «The Snows of Kilimanjaro» was his favorite accomplishment and that he had never written so closely about himself in any other of his writings. This is very evident throughout the book, a feeling that Harry is truly Hemingway is very clear from the first to the last page of «The Snows of Kilimanjaro.» Every time that Hemingway goes back in time in this story he is giving us view of the life he has lived. He blames everything and everyone for what he would have liked to do, or what he could have done, but didn?t. Throughout the novel Harry is clearly shown to be a writer by his constant regret of not finishing his work. Here Hemingway is once again referencing himself in his story. The vivid image that grows is so similar to Hemingway?s life, an almost concurrent biography of Hemingway could be written between the two characters. Harry?s character was so much like that Hemingway himself. His own experiences, feeling, and even personality in many ways were his own.
By capturing the essence of death and the meaning of life, Hemingway created one of his best works with «The Snows of Kilimanjaro.» He would never truly be able to write about death first hand, but virtually the entire plot surrounding this idea comes from Hemingway?s firsthand experiences. Hemingway?s incredible literary talent allowed him to express himself in ways few people can. Yet Hemingway didn?t use this talent to write about something he had seen pictures or read about. Hemingway wrote about what he saw with his very own eyes.
Hemingway, Ernest. The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories. Charles Scribner?s
Bowen Zack «On Hemingway» Blooms Major Short Story Writers. Pennsylvania:
Chelsea House Publishers, 1999
Gunton, Sharon «On The Snows of Kilimanjaro» Contemporary Literary Criticism:
Michigan: Gale Research Company, 1981We all know it shouldn’t happen, but it does. Reflect on your experiences of bullying and harassment in the workplace. Covers:
- To understand what is meant by bullying and harassment in the workplace,
- To understand how to use appropriate strategies to help deal with the situations of bullying and harassment,
- To understand policies and procedures that are in place to deal with bullying and harassment.
Refresher Skills Library Access
Advanced Job Seeking Library AccessBreast cancer can be defined as malignant or cancerous cells in the breast. The cells can also spread to the lymph nodes, part of the immune system in the body, and to the lung, liver, bone and brain, in which case it is referred to as metastatic breast cancer.
Breast cancer is commonly ‘staged’ from 0 to IV by doctors, who give the cancer a TNM score, which stands for Tumor, Node, Metastasis. A small tumor, no node involvement and no spread would be Stage 0, while a large tumor and node involvement might be a Stage III. Any metastasis or spread is a Stage IV.
Staging is important because it helps doctors decide the best treatments in each case. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network is a group of leading cancer care centers throughout the US which set guidelines to help doctors in all practices follow similar procedures that have been tried and tested in order to get the best outcome (prognosis) possible. Here are some inspiration quotes.Resilience seems to be just another fashion word that defines the need of renewed architecture projects and technology systems. However resilience is a holistic concept that demands and in-depth review of current standards of living as well as the built of new economic-financial codes under the framework of a strong political will. The capacity of changing a status quo that is not responsive is the challenge for facing uncertainty effectively.
Since the start of the modern era, cities become a factor of development but also of chaos. More and more people migrate to urban areas and is expected that 70% of the world population will live in cities by 2050 which create the ambitious goal for a modern way of living: an urban life that includes the benefits from nature. By the contrary of what we could imagine, it´s possible! Changing rural for urban life does not necessary means loosing the contact with nature and a clean environment. Is a matter of innovation and changing habits: vertical gardens, green roofs, parks, more walk able areas, plants turn to generators of electricity, transport powered by clean energies, solar, wind energy, urban farming, etc. All of the above are green pieces of an urban puzzle that boost resilience.
Climate change and their growing threats have exposure our weakness to face crisis and the lack of adaptation methods that encompasses a new normal of drought, floods and an unusual weather that affects crops, hence food habits. Emergency situations are not only a matter of humanitarian aid –that need to be reshaped according to the new reality- but of adaptation policies that are also an urgent matter, even if there results may not be perceived in the short term. Prevention measures are not a priority anymore but adaptation to make resilience a real goal; through strong innovate policies that could go in harmony with those adaptive policies.
To get to 100% resilient cities is paramount to be aware of the need of a systemic process in which all elements are of equal importance. There is one pillar that has a key role: innovation in technology and architecture in conjunction with the creativity of building new behavioural codes political and individually. Without innovation all sides of this revolutionary process means nothing if it is not combined with a strong political will and a smart distribution of resources.
In this process of adaptation, Education delivers “adaptive minds” able to become a catalyzer of changes by reforming the system into an holistic way. Therefore politics, economics, finances and civil society must joint together in an effort to change habits and boost creativity towards green minds.
To achieve those goals a reform of the entire system in a strategic plan in which political old codes are left aside and a new political class emerges to design with creativity and determination the path for a reformed system.
Being Green is not another fashion attitude but an essential pillar to become resilient towards the new challenges that the environment is posing. A change of mind is the password to start this creative process of living in “green code”.Until 1993 there were no US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)- approved drugs for MS. Recombinant interferon beta 1b (Betaseron®) became the first disease-modifying treatment available for the illness. Since then, five other FDA-approved drugs have become available for MS treatment. These include two forms of recombinant interferon beta 1a (Avonex®, Rebif®), glatiramer acetate (Copaxone®), mitoxantrone (Novantrone®), and natalizumab (Tysabri®). The interferons and glatiramer acetate work by modulating the immune system and lead to upregulation of the anti-inflammatory response and downregulation of the pro-inflammatory response in MS. Mitoxantrone is a chemotherapy agent that kills the T and B cells and temporarily halts the proinflammatory response. Natalizumab, a specific monoclonal antibody to alpha 1 integrin molecule (VLA-4), reduces the ability of activated T cells to cross the blood–brain barrier (BBB). All of these medications reduce disease activity in MS, although none is curative. Despite the availability of these six drugs, there remains a significant need for additional drugs for MS. The use of currently available drugs is limited in that all are available only as injections, are expensive, and can cause significant side effects. Therefore, there is considerable interest in the development of safe oral treatments for MS.
Lipoic acid (LA) is a naturally occurring antioxidant that is available as an over-the-counter dietary supplement in the US. LA as a therapy for diabetic neuropathy has been evaluated in several clinical trials.1–4 LA is available in oral as well as intravenous formulations in Germany for the treatment of diabetic neuropathy. LA has also been tested as an effective therapy for an animal model of MS, and a phase I trial of LA has been completed in MS.5,6 This article will review the current data that provide a rationale for assessing the efficacy of LA in MS. Biochemical Properties of Lipoic Acid
LA is an eight-carbon compound containing two sulfur atoms in a dithiolane ring structure (1.2-dithiolane-3-pentanoic acid; thioctic acid) (see Figure 1A).7 Originally thought to be a vitamin, it was later found that both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells are able to synthesize LA de novo. LA is readily absorbed from the diet, thereby making oral administration a viable therapeutic option. Commercially available LA is usually a racemic mixture of R enantiomer-α-LA and S-enantiomer of α-LA (rac-α-LA). LA can be administrated orally and intravenously and is rapidly absorbed and taken up by cells, where it is reduced to dihydrolipoic acid (DHLA), with which it forms a redox couple (see Figure 1B).
LA protects the cell from free radicals that result from intermediate metabolites or from the degradation of exogenous molecules and from heavy metals, thus functioning as a potent antioxidant. LA also has a significant role in cellular carbohydrate metabolism. In its R-form, LA serves as a co-factor for five mitochondrial proteins that have a central role in oxidative metabolism when covalently bound to a lysine residue (lipoamide; lipoyllysine); these five proteins are the acyltransferase component of the pyruvate complex, α-ketoglutarate, the branched-chain α-ketoacid dehydrogenase complexes, pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, and the glycine cleavage system. As an antioxidant, LA can be reduced to its redox partner, DHLA, which is a powerful reducing agent and important in the regeneration of endogenous antioxidants such as glutathione. Importantly, LA can act as a metal chelator, a scavenger of ROS, and is able to repair damage from oxidative stress. This antioxidant effect and role of LA in carbohydrate metabolism has made it a very appealing potential drug in diseases such as diabetic neuropathy, MS, and Alzheimer’s disease, where oxidative damage is presumed to play a pathogenic role.8,9
Multiple Sclerosis Is an Inflammatory Disease of the Central Nervous System
Inflammation due to a dysregulated immune system plays a pivotal role in MS pathogenesis. The etiology of this inflammatory response is unknown, but once activated the T and B cells, macrophages, adhesion molecules, and soluble mediators of inflammation such as cytokines play significant roles in causation and propagation of the disease.
Matrix Metalloproteinase-9, Adhesion Molecules, and Cytokines in Multiple Sclerosis
The transmigration of activated immune cells across the BBB plays a significant role in MS pathogenesis as it leads to the development of new inflammatory lesions in MS.10,11 Initially, activated T cells roll along the endothelial layer via reversible binding via selectins and their ligands. Pro-inflammatory T-cell cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interferon (IFN)-γ further induce the expression of cellular adhesion molecules on the endothelial cells, particularly ICAM-1 and VCAM-1, permitting a tight binding of the T cells to the endothelial cells via their ligands on the surface of T cells, lymphocyte-function-associated antigen (LFA)-1, and very late antigen (VLA)-4, respectively.12–15 Activated T cells produce a variety of chemokines, cytokines, and proteases that promote transmigration across the BBB. Chemokines such as macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1α and cytokines such as IFN-γ increase the avidity of T-cell binding to the endothelial cells and direct transendothelial migration of the T cells.16 MMPs are also produced by these activated pro-inflammatory T cells, particularly MMP-9, which enzymatically disrupt the subendothelial membrane and extracellular matrix components, allowing the ingress of T cells into the CNS parenchyma.17-21 Clinical trials have suggested that serum mean MMP-9 levels are increased in MS patients with clinical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) disease activity and that a shift in MMP-9/TIMP-1 balance toward proteolytic activity of MMP-9 could be relevant in MS immune dysregulation,22 whereas the MMP-9/TIMP-1 ratio in serum showed higher (p=0.04) values in stable relapsing–remitting MS (RRMS) than primary progressive (PP) but also in active patients, evaluated either clinically (p=0.006) or from the MRI (p<0.05), compared with inactive disease.23 In addition, increased serum levels of sICAM-1 have been associated with inflammatory disease activity and with the appearance of gadolinium enhancing lesions on brain MRI.24-26 Studies have shown that upregulated adhesion molecules in blood and serum could indicate ongoing inflammation in the CNS in MS subjects.27,28
The role of cytokines in MS pathogenesis is evident by correlations that exist between expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines during periods of clinical worsening and of regulatory cytokines during periods of clinical remission.29 Increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IFN-γ, and interleukin 2 (IL-2) have been found in the peripheral blood, CSF, and brain lesions of MS patients.30-35 Anti-inflammatory cytokines that include IL-4 and IL-10 are expressed during remission. Numerous reports document the association between these pro-inflammatory cytokines and disease activity, thus implicating them as mediators of immunopathogenesis in MS.30,31,33,36
Macrophages and Oxidative Injury in Multiple Sclerosis
In addition to the role of T and B cells in MS pathogenesis, activated macrophages and microglia also play a significant role in tissue destruction as well as repair.37 Macrophages produce pro-inflammatory enzymes such as proteases, lipases, and cytokines and special molecules such as osteopontin that destroy tissues in a variety of ways. In addition, macrophages are a source of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, thus causing oxidative damage.
Therapeutic agents that target adhesion molecules and MMP-9 may prove useful as treatments for MS and other neurological diseases in which migration of inflammatory cells plays a pathogenic role.38–43 A growing body of literature exists that demonstrates the ability of LA to reduce the expression of surface adhesion molecules on endothelial cells, suppress MMP-9 activity, and inhibit the trafficking of inflammatory cells across the BBB.5,6,44–46 Taken together, these data provide evidence for the further evaluation of LA as a therapeutic agent in MS. Animal Model of Multiple Sclerosis— Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis
As a widely used model of MS, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) has provided important insights into the immunopathogenesis of MS and led to the development of new therapeutic approaches for treating MS.43,47 EAE can be induced in a variety of animal species, including mice, rats, and rhesus macaques.48,49 EAE in Swiss/Jackson Laboratory (SJL) mice is characterized by an acute episode of paralysis followed by recovery and then spontaneous relapses of paralysis. This chronic relapsing model of EAE is similar to relapsing–remitting MS, which is the clinical pattern that is most frequently seen in patients at the time of their initial diagnosis.49 Secondary progressive MS is represented best by the C57BL/6 EAE model; this form of MS is seen in many patients following relapsing–remitting disease. EAE in C57BL/6 is characterized by acute paralysis from which mice do not recover followed by a slow clinical worsening without relapse. Similar to MS patients, histopathological examination of spinal cords from mice with EAE reveals multifocal areas of demyelination with axonal loss in the spinal cord associated with inflammatory infiltrates composed of lymphocytes and macrophages.49
Lipoic Acid and Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis
LA suppresses and treats EAE in the SJL mouse model.5 When administered prior to disease onset, LA successfully suppressed the clinical course of EAE in a dose-dependent fashion (25–50–100mg/kg/day), with complete suppression achieved at 100mg/kg/day over a 45-day treatment period. Importantly, when LA was administered after the onset of the disease, the clinical severity of EAE greatly diminished. Histopathological examination of spinal cords from mice that received LA revealed a significant reduction in inflammatory infiltrates and axonal damage. The ability of LA to suppress and treat EAE in a second mouse model (C57BL/6 mice immunized with MOG 35-55 peptide) and in a rat model of EAE has been confirmed by others.6,46
LA inhibits MMP-9 activity directly and at the level of transcription. Moreover, LA was shown to inhibit migration of the human Jurkat T cell line across an extracellular matrix barrier in vitro.45 In vitro, immunohistochemical staining of spinal cords from mice treated with LA revealed a reduction in the expression of adhesion molecules VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 from the surface of endothelial cells.44 Similar studies have demonstrated that LA reduces EAE in rats in part by reducing the permeability of the BBB and decreasing the migratory capacity of monocytes to enter the CNS.46 In addition, LA has also been reported to induce the generation of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) in human T-cells and natural killer (NK) cells in a concentration-dependent fashion.50,51 Pharmacological inhibitors of the EP2 and EP4 prostanoid receptors blocked the ability of LA to stimulate the generation of cAMP, suggesting that LA may be acting as an agonist of these G-protein coupled receptors. In the presence of LA, IL-12/IL-18-induced secretion of IFN-γ by NK cells was significantly decreased. In addition, using a lactate dehydrogenase release assay, it was demonstrated that pre-treatment with LA significantly diminished the ability of NK cells to lyse target K562 cells. It is thought that a subset of NK cells may contribute to the disease severity observed in MS. These findings suggest that LA may modulate the activation and function of NK cells and that in the presence of LA NK cells may become less pathogenic. Taken together, these data suggest that in addition to its direct effects on oxidative stress as an antioxidant, LA may have non-antioxidant properties that are therapeutic in EAE and MS.52 Clinical Trials
A single clinical trial of LA in MS patients has taken place.53 This was a placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized phase I trial that looked at the safety and tolerability of different doses of oral LA. In addition, this study explored the pharmacokinetics (PK) of LA and the effects of LA on serum immune markers, including MMP-9 and sICAM-1, after two weeks of LA administration. The study included 37 MS subjects who were randomly assigned to one of four groups: placebo, LA 600mg twice a day, LA 1,200mg once a day, or LA 1,200mg twice a day. Subjects received the study drug for 14 days. The PK sera were collected at eight time-points. The first blood draw was just before taking the first dose of the study drug, followed by collections at 15, 30, 60, 120, 180, and 240 minutes and 24 hours after ingestion of the first dose of study drug. Maximum serum concentration of LA (Cmax) correlated with dose and varied considerably among subjects. Subjects who took 1,200mg LA had substantially higher Cmax levels (range 0–19μg/ml) than those taking 600mg LA (range 0–3.7μg/ml).
Authors also explored the effects of LA Cmax on the levels of serum MMP-9. The baseline MMP-9 levels were obtained prior to patients receiving the study drug. Subsequent MMP-9 levels were measured at three additional time-points. These included 24 hours after the study initiation (visit three of study), at one week (visit four of study), and at the end of two weeks (visit five) of the study. The outcome measure was the mean change in MMP-9 levels compared with baseline and visits three, four, and five. A significant negative correlation between the LA Cmax values and the MMP-9 mean change (Kendall’s tau=0.263; p≤0.04) was observed.
The outcome measure was to evaluate the relationship between LA and serum sICAM-1 levels with the mean change between visits three, four, and five compared with baseline sICAM-1. Those subjects who took higher doses of LA showed the greatest decrease in sICAM-1 (Jonckheere-Terpstra test; p=0.03), suggesting a significant dose–response relationship between LA dose and the mean change in sICAM-1. Safety data revealed that high-dose LA was generally safe and well tolerated. Nausea, mild gastrointestinal discomfort, and strange odor in the urine were minor complaints of some subjects in the study. One subject developed a reversible disseminated maculopapular allergic rash with fever that required discontinuation of LA.
Since LA made by various manufacturers is available over the counter and drug manufacturing is not regulated by the FDA, it is critical that we have rigorous PK studies that validate various LA formulations. Yadav and colleagues have recently completed a detailed PK study looking at three different formulations of 1,200mg of oral LA that shows that there are differences in PK parameters of LA made by different manufacturers (unpublished data). This study shows that there remains considerable variability in the PK parameters between subjects (unpublished data). Thus, the single pubished clinical study on MS shows that high-dose oral LA is safe, reasonably tolerated, and capable of reducing serum MMP-9 and sICAM-1 levels.53 Whether similar results can be seen in subsequent studies needs to be determined. Based on EAE studies and the preliminary results from this clinical trial, LA appears to have a potential of a useful drug in treating MS.
Based on the EAE work, LA appears to be an effective anti-inflammatory therapeutic agent. A preliminary clinical trial in MS patients demonstrated that high-dose LA administration is safe. Larger phase II/IIIclinical trials are warranted to assess the clinical efficacy of LA in MS. Further studies to better understand the mechanism of action of LA are under way. The use of oral LA as a potential treatment for MS will be a major breakthrough in MS therapeutics.Confucius said that the health of a nation could be determined by the integrity of its homes. If we apply that standard, we’re in trouble.
Culturally, most Americans don’t even have homes anymore. They have houses, not homes. Homes are something that are made, not bought. And, homes, thus, require homemakers. That’s right, plural: homemakers. I’m not talking about just women. And, I’m not talking about Ozzie and Harriet stereotypical housewives.
Take back your home
Mainstream American culture views the household as a unit of consumption. A radical homemaker turns this conception upside down by restoring the household to a unit of production. This viewpoint empowers households to produce their own food, clothing, repairs, electricity, entertainment, preventative health-care and environmental resources.
Radical homemaking pulls the plug from an extractive economy, where corporate wealth is regarded as economic health, and re-plugs into a life-serving economy where people can live meaningful lives created by their own efforts.
And radical homemakers use life skills and relationship networks as a replacement for money. Planting a garden, growing beans, mending a shirt, butchering, repairing an appliance, cooking, canning, hunting, fishing, splitting wood, caring for children, milking a goat, tending bees, installing solar panels, mending a fence, and playing music make radical homemakers less dependent upon the ups and downs of an unstable economic climate.
In it together
Let’s remember that the household was not considered “a woman’s domain” until the Industrial Revolution. Prior to that time, both men and women lived on their homesteads and participated, conjointly, in living off their land.
But with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, men left home to work for wages. The more a man worked off premises, the more his family had to rely on commercial goods to replace what he would have produced, were he there. Over time, industrialization supplied most of the products that, earlier, the household would have made by hand. And, domesticity became another cog in the consumer wheel.
You know the rest of the story. Over time, a second family income was no longer an option. It was a necessity. So, women left the households, too. There was nobody home. And, homes morphed into houses – filled with consumer goods.
Gone were the men and women of yesteryear who had generated genuine self-determination in their households. Gone was the sense of pride in bread well-baked; meaning in a sonata well-played; sustenance in a hog well-dressed; or confidence in an herbal (medical) tincture well-made.
Everything became purchased, not produced. And, in more recent years, the quality of those purchased commodities declined, as well. Job outsourcing, pesticides, chemical toxins, cheap labor, GMOs and profit frenzies changed quality-based production into quantity-based manufacturing. And, lifestyles that were once earthy and meaningful gave way to stress disorders, antidepressants and obesity.
Everything old is new again
The good news is that we can do something about this. We can step off the treadmill and revision our domestic arrangements so that our homes can become productive again. Instead of just getting pulled along by the dominant paradigm’s ideas about how we should live, we can choose how to structure our lives. We can take a hard look at our priorities and decide if we are better off watching TV or tending a garden. Would a small flock of chickens work out in our backyard? What would it be like if everyone pitched in to prepare a fresh, wholesome home cooked meal? Most of us say we want our home to look as amazing as possible, but not everybody is prepared to do what it takes to achieve that. For example, in order to get the best outdoor area, you may want to go online to a website such as https://edendesignla.com to find a high-quality landscape architecture company. Instead, many of us don’t give the right amount of care to our home and it shows.
There might be a period of adjustment in the beginning. It means turning off the TV, cell phones, and Facebook and spending time with one another. But, once all of the players begin to enjoy companionship with one another, and recognize the mutual benefit in terms of health, personal economy, vitality and well-being, interest might grow.
There’s something about shifting from being a net consumer to a net producer that is very satisfying. And, there’s something truly magical about making a house a home.
–Dr. Sherry L. Ackerman, PhD., Transition VoiceAssociations to the word «Outer»
OUTER, adjective. Outside; external.
OUTER, adjective. Farther from the centre of the inside.
OUTER, noun. An outer part.
OUTER, noun. The part of a target which is beyond the circles surrounding the bullseye.
OUTER, noun. A shot which strikes the outer of a target.
OUTER, noun. (wholesale trade) the smallest single unit normally sold to retailers, usually equal to one retail display box.
OUTER, noun. Someone who admits to something publicly.
OUTER, noun. Someone who outs another.
OUTER, noun. One who puts out, ousts, or expels.
OUTER, noun. An ouster; dispossession.
OUTER BANKER, noun. A native or resident of the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
OUTER BANKS, proper noun. A long string of narrow barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina.
OUTER CLASS, noun. (programming) (object-oriented) A class that includes an inner class; for the inner class, this class appears to be the outer class.
OUTER CLASSES, noun. Plural of outer class
OUTER CORE, noun. Used other than as an idiom: see outer, core.
OUTER CORE, noun. (planetology) The hot liquid material
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, instead of learning how to build a house of blocks, would continue, through the influence of such imitation, to move his hand up and down in the same manner without being influenced by the fact that blocks other than the one in his hand are lying about. Kinesthetic imitation, if inherited, would reduce man's biological significance to something like that of mechanical toys in a child's world, capable only of performing the same jump in endless repetition. There is little probability, then, that such a function should be acquired during life. Kinesthetic excitation as a biological factor seems to be confined to serial motor activity, consisting in a succession of different acts; there, indeed, kinesthetic excitation is indispensable.
While the larger part, of the motor activity of an animal consists of reactions upon the objects of the environment, brings about, indeed, in the case of visual or auditory imitation, a duplication of an environmental phenomenon, there are also motor activities which do not seem to affect the objects of the environment at all, and directly, most certainly, do not affect them; which are confined to the inner world of the organism. Motor responses of this class are often called emotional reactions. There is an
( 202) enormous literature debating the question what the emotions are aside from these internal reactions of the organism, what they are as purely introspective phenomena. Let us be satisfied with the simple statement that in most, if not all, conditions of animal life which are called emotional, internal reactions occur; and let us, without entering into a discussion of introspective "emotions, " give a broad classification of them and a brief discussion of their biological significance.
In order to understand these internal reactions properly, we have to discuss not only muscular contraction, but also muscular relaxation, and to regard the latter as a factor as positive as the former. Lacking space, we cannot here, and need not for our present purpose, enter into a discussion of the physiological mechanism by which relaxation as well as contraction is brought about. Let us regard either simply as the motor response to a proper excitation of sensory points. We have then at once two large classes of internal reactions, according as relaxation or contraction of the internal organs dominates,—we say "dominates" as it is entirely possible that relaxation of some organs be accompanied by contraction in others. A subdivision of each of these classes is found by reference to the two classes of muscles in our body, the "organic" muscles which perform the mechanical work of our internal organs, and the skeletal muscles which control the position of the members of the body, relative to each other, and their motion. The important fact that in the large majority of all cases of reaction in the organic muscles reactions in the skeletal muscles occur simultaneously, is comprehensible enough. In general, whenever the skeletal muscles tend more than ordinarily to relax, the motion of the body will be unusually weak; and whenever the skeletal muscles tend more than ordinarily to contract,
(203) the motion of the body will be unusually vigorous. Thus we should obtain among those motor responses with which we are at present concerned, four main classes: (1) Relaxation of organic muscles combined with vigorous motion. (2) Contraction of organic muscles combined with vigorous motion. (3) Relaxation of organic muscles combined with weak motion. (4) Contraction of organic muscles combined with weak motion. It is to be understood, however, that in no case do we include all the organic muscles or all the possible motion of the members of the body. Let us see, now, to what extent this classification aids us in characterizing familiar types of emotional reaction in animals and in man.
Unusual contraction or relaxation of the organic muscles becomes apparent chiefly in the blood vessels, the heart, the stomach, the intestine, the bladder, and the skin. If the ring-shaped muscles of the smaller blood vessels relax, the vessels take up a larger amount of blood forced into them by the heart. The skin, containing innumerable small blood vessels, then looks red. Our first class, therefore, is illustrated by a person who looks red, whose skin is warm owing to the presence of a large quantity of warm blood, and whose motion is very vigorous. We recognize in him what we commonly call the emotion of joy or the emotion of anger. Whether we apply the one or the other name, depends on the special situation, which may call forth—so far as the skeletal muscles are concerned—either movements of dancing, shouting, clapping the hands, and the like, or movements of attack. That the sensory excitation caused by the situation affects not only the skeletal muscles, but also such muscles as those in the walls of the blood vessels, is, by the way, a good illustration of the fact which we have previously emphasized, namely, that our nervous system is one, in spite of the
(204) special physiological and anatomical names applied for various reasons to its parts. This unity of the nervous system can also be demonstrated by such a simple experiment as this. Address a person suddenly with the question, "Why do you blush?" The response will consist, of course, in words spoken; but in addition, frequently, the person will be observed to blush, although ordinarily stimulation of the auditory organ is not capable of causing a relaxation of the muscles in the blood vessels of the face.
The situation in question, in which we find that person who looks red, etc., probably causes activities of the skeletal muscles which are of a direct objective purpose, for example, running. But it causes also activities of the skeletal muscles which are of no direct purpose, for example, the tension of the facial muscles, the grinning, of a person in joy or rage, often represented by caricatures like Figure 50. Since all the muscular functions with which we are concerned at present, are inherited, not acquired by experience, we may ask how we can understand the evolution of such seemingly useless reflexes. That in anger, where an animal attacks another animal, or in joy, where an animal applies to good use an object which he has succeeded in obtaining, vigorous motion is biologically of great value, is self-evident. But of what use is grinning?
One answer to the question is this. In anger, grinning may mean simply getting ready to bite, for the mouth is
( 206) an important weapon of attack of animals and of primitive man; and in joy, since the most important article applied to good use is an article of food, grinning may mean simply getting ready to bite off and chew. But it may have still another biological meaning. It may be of indirect value by helping to bring about social interaction—positive or negative, friendly or hostile—through rendering the situation quickly understood by other members of the animal species.
Let us give further examples to illustrate the indirect, purely social, value of movements or attitudes. In an infant the stimulation of hunger may cause reflex movements of the hands upwards, with the result that the fingers get into the mouth and are sucked, or that the finger nails, when the hands are withdrawn, scratch the face. Although these results are directly without any value to the child, they are indirectly of the very greatest value, for their sight stimulates the parents to definite activities, for instance, to providing the necessary food for the baby. A mother describing these reactions would surely say that the baby is "so hungry that he tries to put his hands into his mouth," or "so angry at the delay of his dinner that he scratches himself." This social value s not the least significant explanation of the evolution of reflexes which are directly of little value. There is still left to explain why in situations of joy or anger the blood should rush into the skin. Perhaps this is merely a symptom of the unusually strong circulation of the blood through the whole body, useful for continued activity of the muscles which, for physiological reasons, would soon be incapacitated for work without being washed out constantly by the blood current. But the redness of the skin, just as the tension of the facial muscles, the grinning, has also an indirect value of much importance, a value for social interaction. A red-faced man in a given situation
( 207) causes the situation to impress other men in a way by no means identical with the way in which they are affected by the situation while the man in its center looks pale.
The second chess of these peculiar motor responses was distinguished by contraction of organic muscles combined with vigorous motion. We recognize the symptoms of what is called the emotion of fear. That the stomach, the intestine, the bladder, and other internal organs contract in a fearful situation, that the heart beats with unusual force, is a familiar fact. Contraction of the smaller blood vessels causes the blood to disappear from the skin and the latter to become pale. Contraction of the minute muscle fibers distributed all through the skin, gives it the appearance ordinarily called "goose flesh"; and where the skin is hairy, this contraction causes the hair to "stand on end. " The skin, having lost its blood, cools off, and this cooling in turn calls forth reflexly shivering, the ordinary physiological response to cooling of the skin. The vigorous motion, adapted to the particular situation, shows itself in the individual's running faster than he is ordinarily able to. Vigorous motion, however, is only one external symptom of an extraordinary tendency to contract. Some degrees further, and this tendency results in a cataleptic state, a continuous contraction of all muscles, making all motion impossible. One person or animal responds to a dangerous situation by running, another is "turned into stone."
If we now ask of what biological value these inherited reactions are, we find the answer very readily so far as the extraordinary tendency of the skeletal muscles to contract in response to a dangerous situation is concerned. The faster the animal runs away from the dangerous situation, the safer it is. On the other hand, if the muscular contraction progresses up to the cataleptic, perfectly
( 208) motionless, state of the body, the animal is again relatively safe in case the danger comes from another animal being in the neighborhood, owing to the fact that a motionless body is less readily perceived by the eye — not to speak at all of the ear—than a moving body. Many species of birds and small mammals can be observed to assume this motionless attitude when surprised by a man or a hostile animal, especially when the dangerous being is not yet so near that the exposed animal is within direct reach. Many a hunted animal escapes the hunter by this mode of reflex reaction.
Why the organic muscles should tend to contract, however, is less clear. Apparently, their contraction in a dangerous situation can be of no direct value. A certain amount of indirect value, on the other hand, with respect to social interaction, is obvious, especially when the exposed animal is in the cataleptic state. The skin having lost its blood, the exposed animal resembles more nearly a dead animal; and this resemblance may save it. For example, it is reported that certain bears will leave a seemingly dead man's body unmolested; not to reiterate the anecdotes of hunters who gave no attention to an animal whose possession they felt sure of, because it was already dead, but who discovered suddenly that it had run away. Even an animal being chased by another may appear more formidable than it really is, on account of its fur or feathers standing on end, or may retard the enemy by the ejection of disgusting substances.
Our third class of responses was distinguished by relaxation of organic muscles combined with weak motion. This is of all the four classes the least important one. We experience it after having eaten a hearty dinner,—but this is not everyone's habitual occupation. Of vast importance is the fourth class, distinguished by contraction of organic
(208) muscles combined with weak motion. It is exactly the opposite of the first class (joy) and is, indeed, the reaction to any kind of disappointment,—what we most commonly call the emotion of sorrow. We can at once derive the symptoms and comprehend the biological value of this reaction if we recall that in animal life and in the life of primitive man the most ordinary kind of disappointment consists in the want of food. Imagine a winter month: every article which might serve as food covered by snow and impossible to find, for weeks or longer, until the weather changes. An animal which, under these circumstances, would continue to run about for food, would soon fall dead from exhaustion. However adverse the situation, the body can survive living on the substances stored away in its own tissues, if it only consumes this limited supply economically. For this the first requirement is that all muscular activity be reduced to a minimum. Thus we understand why the nervous system in a disappointing situation, tends to leave the skeletal' muscles in a state of relaxation. A person in great sorrow is so far from being master of his skeletal muscles that he drops as if he were completely paralyzed, like Romeo in Friar Laurence's cell:
"Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love,
An hour but married, Tybalt murdered,
Doting like me, and like me banished,
Then mightst thou speak, then mightst thou tear thy hair,
And fall upon the ground, as I do now,
Taking the measure of an unmade grave."
A disappointed person looks like Figure 51 (the opposite of Figure 50), since the relaxation of the facial muscles causes the angles of the mouth to be pulled down by the weight of the lower jaw.
Why should the nervous system, in a disappointing situation, tend to cause contraction of the organic muscles? Recall the animal just spoken of, disappointed in its food supply. If it does not exercise its muscles, little or no heat is produced, for the skeletal muscles are, physiologically, the very furnaces of the body. If little heat is produced, the loss of heat must be safeguarded against. Thus the biological value of the contraction of the muscles in the walls of the blood vessels becomes evident. The
contraction of the vessels prevents the blood from circulating much in the periphery of the body where cooling mainly takes place. The cooling by the conduction of heat through the tissues covering the body is little to be feared as long as the warm blood is kept in the inner parts of the body and prevented from circulating through the periphery. The actual cooling of the skin, exciting the sensory points of the skin, causes the reflex and habitual response of the animal's seeking shelter, again reducing the loss of heat, of physiological energy. Thus contraction of the organic muscles keeps the animal alive until a change of the external conditions enables it to resume its ordinary manner of life.
Less plain than these reflexes seems the fact that often a disappointed person weeps. From our statements thus far one should rather expect a person in joy to weep, provided we derive weeping from an unusual
( 210) blood pressure in the lacrimal glands, an unusual fulness of the blood vessels owing to the relaxation of the organic muscles. Indeed, people weep when joy reaches a high degree. That people weep in disappointment becomes plain when we recall the generally accepted notion that weeping gives relief from excessive sorrow. Only we should rather say: when the nervous system, through normal exhaustion, commences to respond to the disappointing situation less excessively, then weeping occurs. The tears here are actually not a cause, but an effect of relief. The organic muscles, excessively contracted for some time, at the moment when exhaustion of the nervous system commences, relax completely and the blood pressure in the lacrimal glands suddenly rises far beyond the normal.
All these responses of the organic muscles, with or without simultaneous activities of the skeletal muscles, of which we have discussed here only those which can be most easily classified, are the result of nervous connections between certain sensory and certain motor points and group formation among these connections, inherited by each individual of the species. The extent to which they can be modified by experience is slight., almost zero. This is, perhaps, to be regretted, since in the life of modern civilized man they have largely lost the biological usefulness attributable to them under primitive conditions of social life. Nevertheless, however advanced the present evolution of man's nervous system, in his inability to control these responses by experience, man practically shares the fate of the animalsWith concern mounting that Nevada gold mines are belching clouds of toxic mercury downwind to neighboring states, officials are being urged to tighten regulations regarding the dangerous pollutant.
Environmentalists insist a stricter system to measure, monitor and reduce airborne discharge of mercury from mines must be put in place and say they're ready to force the issue.
"Your state is doing something of such scale that it's affecting health and quality of life in our state," said Justin Hayes of the Idaho Conservation League. The group, concerned over mercury-contaminated fish found in Idaho, has threatened to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over "excessive, unhealthy amounts" of mercury emissions from Nevada mines. "This is not a pressing health issue for the people in Reno. For the people in Idaho and Utah, this absolutely is a human health issue," Hayes said. "Nevada's at the point where they need to address this or they're going to lose control of this issue."
But officials from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, the EPA and mining industry representatives counter that a voluntary program launched in 2001 has significantly cut back on mercury emissions by the state's four largest gold mining companies. They say the program should soon be improved and likely will expand to other, smaller mining operations.
"I think it's been a tremendous success," said Leo Drozdoff, NDEP administrator. "There's a clear recognition that we want to reduce mercury emissions."
Substance poses risks
Nevada is the world's third-largest gold producer behind South Africa and Australia and in 2004, produced nearly 7 million ounces of gold worth more than $2.8 billion. With gold often comes mercury, which is naturally occurring in ore harvested from many Nevada mines. Mercury is released into the air during roasting or other refining processes used to extract gold.
Elemental mercury discharged from mine smokestacks can then settle over the landscape, entering streams and lakes. Through interaction with microbes and other chemical processes, elemental mercury can change into methylmercury, the organic form of the element that can easily enter the food chain and is particularly toxic. Readily absorbed by living tissues, methylmercury affects the central nervous system and in severe cases irreversibly damages the brain. Children and developing fetuses are especially sensitive to mercury's dangerous effects, which recent research suggests also include diminished intelligence and autism.
Nevada's neighbors are increasingly concerned over mercury being found in their states. In Idaho, health officials have issued fish consumption advisories because of mercury contamination at four popular fishing reservoirs, including Salmon Falls Creek Reservoir near the Nevada border. The fact mercury is showing up in Idaho's eating fish is of particular concern, said Hayes of the Idaho Conservation League.
"It's really a human health issue for us," Hayes said. "We're trying to get this mercury pollution stopped."
Early this year, federal researchers in Utah discovered in the Great Salt Lake some of the highest levels of mercury ever measured anywhere. Concentrations of methylmercury found in the lake's water were at levels 25 times those where fish consumption advisories are sometimes considered justified, according to the Associated Press. Mercury concentrations also were discovered in eared grebe, a bird that eats brine shrimp found in the lake.
Although there are no fish in the Great Salt Lake, its presence is still of profound concern, conservationists said. Millions of waterfowl that migrate through the area could be at risk of contamination as well as offer a means to pass mercury to people who might eat them, said Ivan Weber, a Salt Lake City environmentalist.
"To me, that's enough (for concern)," Weber said. "I think what we're looking at here is an immense concentrator of mercury. It's not a pretty picture."
Maunsel Pearce of the Great Salt Lake Alliance said the issue currently poses "more unanswered questions than facts," but that the threat posed by mercury pollution in Utah clearly warrants additional study.
Program shows results
The scope of mercury pollution associated with Nevada's gold mining industry wasn't discovered until the EPA changed rules in 1998 to add mercury to the list of toxic discharges required to be reported. When the first numbers were released in 2000, Nevada mines reported the release of 13,576 pounds in 1998. Those numbers have since been revised upward to an estimated 21,098 pounds, or more than 10 tons, to make Nevada the nation's No. 1 source of mercury emissions at the time.
One mine alone, Jerritt Canyon, 60 miles northwest of Elko, reported discharging nearly 8,000 pounds of mercury. "We were actually surprised to see these air emissions at the levels they were at," said Dave Jones, an associate director for the EPA. "We were surprised at the magnitude."
Following release of the 1998 data, EPA and NDEP officials met with representatives of the mining industry to discuss ways to reduce mercury emissions. Rather than adopt new Clean Air Act regulations -- a process officials agreed could take six years or more -- a voluntary program was agreed upon in 2001 that officials hoped could produce quicker results.
Participating were four mining companies operating seven mines that combined were responsible for more than 90 percent of mercury emissions from Nevada mines. The participating companies are Newmont Mining Corp., Barrick Gold Corp., Queenstake Resources Ltd. and Placer Dome Inc.
Through the installation of smokestack scrubbers and similar technology, the goal was to reduce the amount of mercury released into the environment by 50 percent within three years. That goal has in fact been surpassed, officials said.
From the more than 21,000 pounds the EPA said was released annually from 1998 to 2001, emissions in 2003 were cut to an estimated 5,396 pounds, a reduction of about 74 percent. "I'd say those are pretty fantastic results," said Russ Fields, president of the Nevada Mining Association. "What we've done is yielding results and they're positive results."
Numbers suspect? At least one Nevada environmental researcher isn't sure the estimates of mercury produced and released into the air by the state's gold mines are accurate.
While Nevada's voluntary program is definitely resulting in reduced mercury emissions, a stronger program is needed, said Glenn Miller, a professor of environmental sciences at University of Nevada, Reno. Miller is concerned much of the mercury being released into the environment isn't being measured.
Now preparing a final report on the emissions program expected to be released to the EPA later this month, Miller was surprised to learn the 1998 emissions estimate had been increased by the agency by almost 50 percent. That's a symptom of a problem, Miller said, adding that the latest EPA estimates may also be off, with some mines under-reporting mercury releases and others over-reporting.
"Right now, they're using very, very crude estimates and some mines don't measure anything at all," Miller said. "I don't know that (the numbers) are necessarily wrong, but they're suspect." Miller said it is critical the mines adopt a uniform system to measure how much mercury goes into the gold refining process, how much is recovered and how much is emitted into the air. The state also should regularly inspect mercury monitoring systems, he said.
"They need to require measurements that meet some kind of reliability standard," Miller said. "Once mercury is reliably measured, everything else will fall into place." Miller, who serves on the board of the conservationist Great Basin Mine Watch, insists the hazards presented by mercury make a strengthened regulatory program particularly important. "Mercury is probably one of the most insidious substances we release into the air," Miller said. "If we're going to measure anything, it should be mercury."
Fields, of the Nevada Mining Association, said mine operators will meet this month to discuss "technology transfer" possibilities that could reduce mercury emissions from mines not currently participating in the voluntary program.
Rick Sprott, director of the Utah Division of Air Quality, said officials there are concerned about mercury emissions from Nevada mines but are generally satisfied with steps now being taken to address the problem. "What EPA and the state of Nevada have done is the prudent thing to do," Sprott said. "It appears to us there's been a significant amount of progress made."
NDEP's Drozdoff said that since last November, officials have been discussing ways to improve the existing program and that some changes are likely, with draft recommendations expected by next October. "We're moving pretty fast," Drozdoff said. "Although the program has been a tremendous success, there are questions. It's not perfect."
Elemental mercury discharged from mine smokestacks can settle over the landscape, entering streams and lakes. Through interaction with microbes and other chemical processes, elemental mercury can change into methylmercury, the organic form of the element that can easily enter the food chain and is particularly toxic.
‘Politically, it's not something the state can afford to ignore. It's a serious problem that requires a serious solution. Are we going to wait for a downwind state's posse to come after us or are we going to take care of it ourselves?' --- ELYSSA ROSEN Executive Director, Great Basin Mine Watch
Mercury and the food chain
For most aquatic ecosystems, atmospheric deposition, both natural and human-related, is the primary source of mercury. Natural sources include outgassing from the oceans, volcanoes, and natural mercury deposits. Coal combustion, waste incineration, chloralkai production, and metal processing are the dominant human-related sources. Mining activity is under increasing scrutiny as a source of mercury. When mercury falls in rain or snow, it may flow into lakes and streams. Bacteria in soils and sediments convert mercury to methylmercury. In this form, it is taken up by tiny aquatic plants and animals. Fish eat these organisms and build up methylmercury in their bodies. As bigger fish eat smaller ones, the methylmercury is concentrated further up the food chain, ultimately reaching humans.
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.Botanists think that all modern citrus varieties descended from as few as four ancestral species. The evergreen trees are native to East Asia and Australia, where various forms have been cultivated for more than 4,000 years. Citrus first reached America in the 1500s, but was not grown widely in California until an ample supply of irrigation water was channeled to the Central Valley. In 2005, more than 270,000 acres in California were planted in citrus fruit.
Following is a guide to some of the common citrus varieties you’ll find at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. Citrus fruit is most plentiful at the market in the winter months. Click on the links below for more about specific varieties, growers, and recipes.
Oranges (Citrus sinensis): Oranges are thought to be a hybrid of pomelos and mandarins. Most oranges, such as the navel orange (with its distinctive “belly button” on the blossom end), are seasonally available late fall through early spring. Cara Cara is a variety of navel orange with salmon-colored flesh. Blood oranges have a deep red color, which is due to the presence of anthocynanins, plant pigments that have antioxidant properties. The thick-skinned temple orange is a cross between a tangerine and orange (“tangor”). Valencia oranges, the seeded variety that is popular for juicing, are generally available May through September, when other varieties are out of season at the farmers market. Some varieties, like the navel, are generally easy to peel by hand, while others are best cut with a knife. More about oranges >
Mandarins (Citrus reticulata): Certain varieties of mandarins are marketed as tangerines, but many people consider the two names synonymous. Satsuma mandarins have loose, leathery skin, while Clementines have thinner, tighter skin and few seeds. Pages are often called mandarins, but are actually a cross between a tangelo (a mandarin-grapefruit hybrid) and a Clementine. Kishus are tiny, sweet, seedless mandarins. Canned mandarins are usually bathed in lye after they are peeled to remove their membranes—a good reason to buy them fresh at the farmers market. More about mandarins >
Yuzu (Citrus ichangensis × C. reticulata): A cross between a mandarin and a papeda (a subgenus of Citrus) and with a flavor somewhere between a lemon and a grapefruit, this Japanese fruit is the basis of ponzu sauce. Yuzus are about the size of mandarins but with yellowish-green dimpled skin. The fruit is filled with large inedible seeds, so they’re generally only used for their juice and zest. The yuzu’s mild sourness adds a bright addition to a marinade or salad dressing. More about yuzus >
Citrons (Citrus medica): These look like huge, lumpy lemons and have a thick pith, sour pulp, and fragrant skin. Citron peels are often candied, and fingered citrons, also called “Buddha’s Hands,” are sometimes used as an offering on household altars. More about citrons >
Limes (Citrus hystrix, Citrus aurantifolia, Citrus latifolia): Limes have thin green (sometimes yellow) rinds and green flesh. Lime juice and zest are widely used in cooking and beverages. The common “bartender’s lime,” or Bearss lime, may be a hybrid of the Key lime and citron. Sweet limes (aka Palestine limes) resemble lemons and are less acidic. More about limes >
Lemons (Citrus limon): For thousands of years, lemons have been widely used medicinally and as an antiseptic. Lemon juice prevents oxidation of foods that brown after being peeled or sliced, such as apples, avocados, and bananas. A true lemon, Eureka is the most common variety. Meyer lemons are likely a hybrid of lemon and orange. They have a thinner skin and sweet-tart flesh, and are more perishable than other lemon varieties. Variegated lemons have green and yellow stripes, pink flesh, and a tangy flavor. More about lemons >
Grapefruits (Citrus paradise): Large with whitish or pink pulp, grapefruits are the result of a natural cross between sweet orange and pomelo. In America, grapefruits were popularized in the early 20th century as a “breakfast fruit,” even inspiring their own special spoon. Pink varieties, like Red Ruby or Rio Red, contain the pigment lycopene and are especially good for juicing. Besides the sour flavor in all citrus fruits (the result of citric acid), they contain a flavonoid, called naringin, that gives them a bitter flavor. Narigin and other organic compounds in grapefruits can also interact with certain drugs in the human body. Though sometimes called grapefruits, Oro Blancos and Cocktail “grapefruits” are crosses between a pomelo and a mandarin. More about grapefruit >
Pomelos/pummelos (Citrus maxima): With thick, soft rinds and juicy interiors, pomelos are the largest (and perhaps the oldest) of the cultivated citrus fruits. They are not particularly sweet, but don’t have the characteristic bitterness of grapefruits. Some varieties still have green skin when they are ripe. They are easy to peel and are best eaten by hand, rather than with a spoon. More about pomelos >
Kumquats: Not technically considered citrus fruits, kumquats’ genus, Fortunella, is sometimes listed a subgenus of Citrus. Kumquats are often eaten fresh, with their skin on. They have very sour flesh, but their rinds are sweet. More about kumquats >
Citrus fruits are available at Bernard Ranches, Blossom Bluff Orchards, Brokaw Nursery, Everything Under the Sun, Flying Disc Ranch, Frog Hollow Farm, Glashoff Farms, Hamada Farms, Olsen Organic Farm, Orangewood Farm, Rojas Family Farms, Tory Farms, Twin Girls Farm.
Thanks to former culinary intern Julia Allenby for her help with the guide.
CUESA (Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture) is dedicated to cultivating a sustainable food system through the operation of the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and its educational programs. Learn More »Banking On America
Banking On America
Across the country, states are considering proposals to move general revenue deposits out of the Wall Street banks that dominate the banking business today, and use them to capitalize a new local public structure with a mission to grow the local economy. A “Main Street Partnership Bank” would be modeled on the nearly 100-year-old public Bank of North Dakota (BND). This public policy innovation—also known as a Public Bank or State Bank—could contribute to the health of local community banks, state budgets and small business job growth in an era of rapid banking concentration, budget deficits and disinvestment on Main Street.
Partnership Banks can raise revenue for states without raising taxes, and increase loans to small businesses precisely when Wall Street banks have cut back on lending and raised public borrowing costs. A Partnership Bank would act as a “banker’s bank” to in-state community banks and provide the state government with both banking services at fair terms and an annual multi-million dollar dividend.
If modeled on the successful Bank of North Dakota, Partnership Banks in other states would:
- Generate new revenues for states directly, through annual bank dividend payments, and indirectly by creating jobs and spurring local economic growth. The table above shows projected dividends for established Partnership Banks in the states considering such proposals, based on BND’s 2009 dividend payment to North Dakota’s General Fund.
- Lower debt costs for local governments. Like the Bank of North Dakota, Partnership Banks can get access to low-cost funds from the regional Federal Home Loan Banks. The banks can pass savings on to local governments when they buy debt for infrastructure investments. The banks can also provide Letters of Credit for tax-exempt bonds at lower interest rates.
- Strengthen local banks even out credit cycles, and preserve real competition in local credit markets. There have been no bank failures in North Dakota during the financial crisis. BND’s charter is clear that its goal is to “be helpful to and to assist in the development of [North Dakota banks]... and not, in any manner, to destroy or to be harmful to existing financial institutions.” By purchasing local bank stock, partnering with them on large loans and providing other support, Partnership Banks would strengthen small banks in an era when federal policy encourages bank consolidation.
- Build up small businesses. Surveys by the Main Street Alliance in Oregon and Washington show at least 75 percent support among small business owners. In markets increasingly dominated by large corporations and the banks that fund them, Partnership Banks would increase lending capabilities at the smaller banks that provide the majority of small business loans in America.Public Affairs Officer
From U.S. 011-81-744-5657
First grade students collaborating with older students to write and create scripts with dialogue, role playing and just having fun!
First grade students measuring, estimating and exploring addition/subtraction concepts with different measuring tools like tape measures, rulers, etc.
First grader collecting soil samples for soil observations.
Learn-abration 2011 was held in February celebrating African-American history. Twenty-eight quest speakers had mini sessions for students in grades 2-8. Pictured here is a helmet similar to the one Carl Brashear, the first black Navy diver wore.
Seventh grade students interview an environmental scientist as part of their E-Cybermission project. The students had questions about how to save the coral reef and the scientist taught them about watersheds.
Fourth grade students design a rain gauge to determine how much rain may fall over a period of time.
Second grade students observe cells and groups of cells through the microscope and sketch what they see.
Third graders learn how to use pH strips to test water and other liquids. THey then graphed their findings and made observations about bases and acids.
Eigth grade students in Spanish 1 class design a Mexican arch when learning about the history of Spain.
Fourth grade students listen for the sounds of the ocean during a science study trip to the University of Guam Marine Lab.
Advanced band students learn from a visting band conductor and judge for the Tumon Band Festival. The festival featured published artists and award winning bands.
First grade students enjoyed exploring whether pushing and pulling with magnets were easier on different paths: straight, zig-zag or up mountains in the straight line. This hands on science was fun for all.
Kindergartners sample green eggs and ham during the Dr. Seuss week celebrating reading.Scientific Name(s): Berberis vulgaris L. and Mahonia aquifolium Nutt. Family: Berberidaceae
The fruits have been used in jams, jellies, and juices. Plant alkaloids have been found to be antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antidiarrheal. Berberine is a uterine stimulant.
Barberry berries and root bark have been used as a source of berberine. Daily doses of 2 g of the berries have been used, but there are no clinical studies to substantiate barberry's varied uses.
Barberry is contraindicated in patients with hypersensitivity to M. aquifolium.
Documented adverse effects (including uterine stimulant effects). Avoid use.
None well documented.
Hypersensitivity reactions (eg, burning, itching, redness) have occurred in some patients using topical dosage forms.
Symptoms of poisoning are characterized by lethargy, stupor and daze, vomiting and diarrhea, and nephritis. Barberry is contraindicated during lactation and pregnancy.
The barberry grows wild throughout Europe but has been naturalized to many regions of the eastern US. M. aquifolium is an evergreen shrub native to the northwestern US and Canada. Barberry grows to more than 10 feet with branched, spiny, holly-like leaves and is widely grown as an ornamental. Its yellow flowers bloom from May to June and develop into red to blue-black oblong berries. 3
The plant has a long history of use, dating back to the Middle Ages. Salishan native elders have used M. aquifolium to treat acne 4 and native American Indians utilized Mahonia berries to treat scurvy. 5 A decoction of the plant has been used to treat GI ailments and coughs. 3 The alkaloid berberine was included as an a
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reduced their number of transfusion units by at least half, compared with 0.9% of patients receiving placebo (p=0.0017). A secondary endpoint, which captured a rolling response over 12-week periods, provided the most useful measure of efficacy, since each patient’s disease is different and may respond in a different time and outside of the fixed observation period. Using this methodology, 70.5% of patients treated with luspatercept reduced their blood transfusions by at least one-third over any consecutive 12-week period, compared to 29.5% receiving placebo (odds ratio 5.79, p<0.0001). During any 24-week period, 41.1% of luspatercept-treated patients were able to reduce their treatment burden by more than a third compared to 2.7% of those receiving placebo (p<0.0001). Additional endpoints showed significant reductions in serum ferritin in patients treated with luspatercept compared with placebo.11
Luspatercept was well tolerated in this patient population. Adverse events (AEs) were generally mild to moderate and manageable, and did not require dose modifications or interruptions. Grade 3 or higher AEs were reported in 29.1% of patients receiving luspatercept and 15.6% of patients receiving placebo. Serious AEs were reported in 15.2% of patients receiving luspatercept and 5.5% of patients receiving placebo. No luspatercept-treated patients died due to treatment-related AEs.11
The presentation of the BELIEVE data was among the ‘Best of ASH’ selections, which are chosen from the thousands of meeting abstracts, and considered the biggest breakthroughs from the meeting’s scientific presentations. In a press release, lead investigator Maria Domenica Cappellini University of Milan – Fondazione IRCCS commented: ‘These findings from the BELIEVE study are exciting because they suggest that luspatercept may help patients reduce their dependence on red blood cell transfusions.’12
While research is ongoing into gene therapy that could ultimately result in a cure for beta thalassaemia,13 results of the BELIEVE study represent an important breakthrough that will significantly improve the quality of life of people living with this very demanding disease. The use of luspatercept will greatly reduce the transfusion burden of patients and reduce the complications that patients experience due to iron toxicity. Luspatercept has the potential to impact a range of diseases associated with chronic anaemia. The next step in the clinical development of luspatercept is a phase II clinical study (BEYOND; ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03342404)14 that will investigate the efficacy and safety of luspatercept in adults with non-transfusion dependent beta-thalassemia.
1. Taher AT, Weatherall DJ, Cappellini MD. Thalassaemia. Lancet. 2018;391:155–67.
2. Colah R, Gorakshakar A, Nadkarni A. Global burden, distribution and prevention of beta-thalassemias and hemoglobin E disorders. Expert Rev Hematol. 2010;3:103–17.
3. Engert A, Balduini C, Brand A, et al. The European Hematology Association Roadmap for European Hematology Research: a consensus document. Haematologica. 2016;101:115–208.
4. Vidja PJ, Vachhani JH, Sheikh SS, et al. Blood transfusion transmitted infections in multiple blood transfused patients of Beta thalassaemia. Indian J Hematol Blood Transfus. 2011;27:65–9.
5. Bonifazi F, Conte R, Baiardi P, et al. Pattern of complications and burden of disease in patients affected by beta thalassemia major. Curr Med Res Opin. 2017;33:1525–33.
6. Sheth S, Weiss M, Parisi M, Ni Q. Clinical and economic burden of transfusion-dependent β-thalassemia in adult patients in the United States. Blood. 2017;130:2095.
7. Chordiya K, Katewa V, Sharma P, et al. Quality of life (QoL) and the factors affecting it in transfusion-dependent thalassemic children. Indian J Pediatr. 2018; doi: 10.1007/s12098-018-2697-x. [Epub ahead of print].
8. Taher AT, Cappellini MD. How I manage medical complications of beta-thalassemia in adults. Blood. 2018;132:1781–91.
9. Suragani RN, Cadena SM, Cawley SM, et al. Transforming growth factor-beta superfamily ligand trap ACE-536 corrects anemia by promoting late-stage erythropoiesis. Nat Med. 2014;20:408–14.
10. Piga A, Perrotta S, Gamberini MR, et al. Luspatercept improves hemoglobin levels and blood transfusion requirements in a study of patients with beta-thalassemia. Blood. 2019; doi: 10.1182/blood-2018-10-879247. [Epub ahead of print].
11. Cappellini MD, Viprakasit V, Taher A, et al. The Believe Trial: Results of a phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of luspatercept in adult beta-thalassemia patients who require regular red blood cell (RBC) transfusions. Presented at the 60th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition in San Diego, CA, 1 December 2018. Abstract #163.
12. Accleleron. Celgene Corporation and Acceleron Pharma Announce Results of the Phase 3 BELIEVE Trial Evaluating Luspatercept in Adult Patients with Beta-Thalassemia at ASH 2018. Available at: http://investor.acceleronpharma.com/news-releases/news-release-details/celgene-corporation-and-acceleron-pharma-announce-results-phase (accessed 15 January 2019).
13. Thompson AA, Walters MC, Kwiatkowski J, et al. Gene Therapy in Patients with Transfusion-Dependent beta-Thalassemia. N Engl J Med. 2018;378:1479–93.
14. ClinicalTrials.gov. A Study to Determine the Efficacy and Safety of Luspatercept in Adults With Non Transfusion Dependent Beta (β)-Thalassemia (BEYOND).
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03342404. Available at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03342404 (accessed 17 January 2019).
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Get the latest clinical insights from touchONCOLOGYSign me up!Unit 4: Nationalism, Industrialism, and Imperialism
Lesson C: European Division of the African Continent
Activator: 19th Century Imperialism
Directions: Select each continent to preview some of the events from this time period.
Written Activity - Notebook
In your notebook, respond to the following questions:
- What patterns do you see emerging from these maps and the images?
- Which conclusions can you draw about how Europeans sought to increase their power and influence around the world? Explain.
- How do you think European influence around the world impacted non-European countries?Alfredo Moser’s invention is lighting up the world. In 2002, the Brazilian mechanic had a light-bulb moment and came up with a way of illuminating his house during the day without electricity – using nothing more than plastic bottles filled with water and a tiny bit of bleach.
In the last two years his innovation has spread throughout the world. It is expected to be in one million homes by early next year.
So how does it work? Simple refraction of sunlight, explains Moser, as he fills an empty two-litre plastic bottle.
“Add two capfuls of bleach to protect the water so it doesn’t turn green [with algae]. The cleaner the bottle, the better,” he adds.
Wrapping his face in a cloth he makes a hole in a roof tile with a drill. Then, from the bottom upwards, he pushes the bottle into the newly-made hole.
“You fix the bottle in with polyester resin. Even when it rains, the roof never leaks – not one drop.”
The inspiration for the “Moser lamp” came to him during one of the country’s frequent electricity blackouts in 2002. “The only places that had energy were the factories – not people’s houses,” he says, talking about the city where he lives, Uberaba, in southern Brazil.
The lamps work best with a black cap – a film case can also be used
“An engineer came and measured the light,” he says. “It depends on how strong the sun is but it’s more or less 40 to 60 watts,” he says.
While he does earn a few dollars installing them, it’s obvious from his simple house and his 1974 car that his invention hasn’t made him wealthy. What it has given him is a great sense of pride.
- The plastic bottles are up-cycled in the local community, so no energy is needed to gather, shred, manufacture and ship new bottles
- The carbon footprint of the manufacture of one incandescent bulb is 0.45kg CO2
- A 50 Watt light bulb running for 14 hours a day for a year has a carbon footprint of nearly 200kg CO2
- Moser lamps emit no CO2
Following the Moser method, MyShelter started making the lamps in June 2011. They now train people to create and install the bottles, in order to earn a small income.
In the Philippines, where a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line, and electricity is unusually expensive, the idea has really taken off, with Moser lamps now fitted in 140,000 homes.
The idea has also caught on in about 15 other countries, from India and Bangladesh, to Tanzania, Argentina and Fiji.
Read more : BBC World Service, Uberaba, BrazilA Strong Foundation
The Montessori Method is a child-centered, alternative educational method based on the child development theories originated by, Italian educator and doctor, Maria Montessori in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This method of education is characterized by emphasizing self-directed activity, on the part of the child, and clinical observation, on the part of the teacher.
The Montessori Method is based on:
The Absorbent Mind
Dr. Montessori observed that in the first six years of life a child possesses an “absorbent mind”. The mind is like a sponge absorbing knowledge quickly and effortlessly, from the experiences in his environment. It is the period in the child’s development that forms the foundation for later intellectual and psychological development. Today, neuroscientists call her observation “brain plasticity”.
The Sensitive Periods
Another observation of Dr. Montessori, which has been reinforced by modern research, is the importance of the sensitive periods for early learning. These are critical periods of intense fascination for learning a particular characteristic or skill, such as putting things in order, counting or reading. It is easier for the child to learn a particular skill during the corresponding sensitive period than at any other time in his life. The Montessori classroom takes advantage of this fact by allowing the child freedom to select activities which correspond to their own period of interest.
These periods are temporary. Once they pass they never return. This doesn’t mean that a child will never learn that skill, but learning after the sensitive period has passed will always be less easy.
The Prepared Environment
The Montessori classroom is commonly referred to as the “prepared environment”. This name reflects the care and attention that is given to creating a learning environment that will reinforce the children’s intellectual development and independence. In a Montessori classroom children are free to move about the classroom choosing work of their own choice and work at their own pace. They work with materials that are multi-sensory, sequential and self-correcting. As children use the materials over and over, they gradually build an in-depth understanding of the concepts and they are ready for the next level of work. The materials are designed to foster independence, develop a healthy self-concept, encourage thinking and provide an appreciation of nature and the world. The prepared environment includes the following five areas: Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, Mathematics and Culture.
The Montessori Teacher
The Montessori teacher, called a “Directress”, plays a very different role from traditionally trained teachers. The Montessori teacher’s role is that of facilitator and guide. She is a very good observer of individual interests and needs of each child, and her daily work proceeds from her observations. She is trained to recognize periods of readiness and encourages active, self-directed learning helping children move toward independence.
The Normalized Child
The child’s development of personality and social behavior is an essential aspect of Montessori education. Grace and courtesy lessons are a daily part of the Montessori curriculum. Children learn manners, respect for the environment and for others.
They also develop a sense of community and an eagerness to learn. When a child’s desire for concentrated work is satisfied, he appears more calm, content and responsible. This is what Maria Montessori referred to as “normalized”. Montessori’s unique focus on the development of each person as a complete human being provides a strong foundation for success in all areas of life.
Maria Montessori was born in 1870 in Chiaravalle, Italy. In 1896 Maria Montessori became the first woman physician in Italy. Her interest in children and education led her to open a children’s school in 1906 in the slums outside Rome. She saw the children’s almost effortless ability to absorb knowledge from their surroundings, as well as their tireless interest in manipulating materials. Every piece of equipment, every exercise, every lesson that was developed by Dr. Montessori was based on what she observed children to do “naturally” by themselves and unassisted by adults. Montessori put into practice her theory that children have a natural “tendency towards elevation,” and created an environment for self-education and self-realization, with remarkable success. She became internationally famous and schools using the Montessori Method now exist all over the world.
“The child has one intuitive aim: self-development. He wants to do and see and learn for himself, through his or her senses and not through the eyes of an adult.”- Dr. Maria MontessoriThe Microsoft.NET Micro Framework is a small and efficient.NET runtime environment used to run managed code on devices that are too small and resource constrained for Windows CE and the Compact Framework. Expert.NET Micro Framework will teach you everything you need to know to use the.NET Micro Framework to create effective embedded applications. It begins with the basics of accessing hardware and networking before delving deep into the less-known areas such as cryptography and globalization, and how to use technologies such as wireless communication that are not directly supported by the.NET Micro Framework. This book is a must if you want to get as much as possible out of the.NET Micro Framework to write powerful embedded applications. Expert.NET Micro Framework also describes how to use resources and write globalized and multilingual embedded applications. You will learn how to effectively use binary serialization to store data permanently in flash memory or exchange data with a PDA or PC. Topics like cryptography and encrypted data exchange with a.NET or Compact Framework application are covered.
Author: Jens KhnerLong-Term Studies Of COVID-19 Vaccines Hurt By Placebo Recipients Getting Immunized
Tens of thousands of people who volunteered to be in studies of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are still participating in follow-up research. But some key questions won't be easily answered, because many people who had been in the placebo group have now opted to take the vaccine.
Even so, there's valuable information to be had in the planned two-year follow-up studies. And that motivated Karen Mott, a 56-year-old job counselor who stuck with the continuing study.
"I've been taking prescription medicine for the last 25 years," she says, referring to antiseizure drugs she takes. In order to show those drugs worked, people previously volunteered to take them when they were still experimental, "so I felt it was my way of giving back."
Mott, who lives in the Overland Park, Kan., got a strong reaction to the second shot, so she correctly surmised she had received the Moderna vaccine, not the placebo. She was sad to read that one of the volunteers in the placebo group did die of COVID-19.
"I keep thinking about that. Why am I one of the lucky ones?" she says. "And I think that makes me feel like, I need to keep providing the information that we need."
So, when the clinic called her in January and offered to reveal her actual vaccine status it was an easy call for her. She agreed to keep participating in the two-year follow-up study.
Participants provide periodic nose swabs and saliva samples, to see if they've been infected. They also give blood so scientists can better understand how the vaccine is providing protection.
Mott was one of about 650 volunteers who took the experimental Moderna vaccine at a company called Johnson County Clinical Trials in Lenexa, Kan. Dr. Carlos Fierro, who runs the study there, says every participant was called back after the Food and Drug Administration authorized the vaccine.
"During that visit we discussed the options, which included staying in the study without the vaccine," he says, "and amazingly there were people — a couple of people — who chose that."
He suspects those individuals got spooked by rumors about the vaccine. But everybody else who had the placebo shot went ahead and got the actual vaccine. So now Fierro has essentially no comparison group left for the ongoing study.
"It's a loss from a scientific standpoint, but given the circumstances I think it's the right thing to do," he says.
People signing up for these studies were not promised special treatment, but once the FDA authorized the vaccines, their developers decided to offer the shots.
Dr. Steven Goodman, a clinical trials specialist at Stanford University, says losing those control groups makes it more difficult to answer some important questions about COVID-19 vaccines.
"We don't know how long protections lasts," he says. "We don't know efficacy against variants — for which we definitely need a good control arm — and we also don't know if there are any differences in any of these parameters by age or race or infirmity."
Scientists may be able to infer some of this, for example if it becomes evident that vaccinated people commonly fall ill after exposure to virus variants. Further safety information is also being collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the FDA, based on the experience of millions of people who have now taken the shots.
But clinical trials that include a placebo group are the surest and most definitive ways to gather information about vaccine effectiveness. "I think over time we'll get that data," Fierro says, even without a placebo group.
Scientists have already collected data from the vaccine studies that could help them identify how individuals' immune systems have responded to vaccination. That could eventually let them identify immune system features, called correlates of protection, that could strongly indicate vaccine effectiveness.
But because the best evidence comes from a controlled study, Goodman is thinking about how those could be conducted ethically, now that there are effective vaccines available.
One option is to identify people who are in groups that are not currently eligible for a vaccine, as is happening now with children. Another option is to conduct studies in other parts of the world, where vaccines simply aren't available. But that raises ethical issues, as well: Why not provide those countries vaccine, rather than recruiting them for a study?
"But the fact is we do have an unfair world and there are inequities in global health and financing," Goodman says. So, offering people a chance to participate in a study could be ethical. "The countries themselves may demand it," he says, as they work to understand the risks that virus variants pose to their populations.
Another option is to run a study in which all participants get vaccinated, but not right away. After two months, for example, people would get a second treatment – either the real vaccine if they originally got the placebo, or vice versa. One key here, Goodman says, is that nobody should know which was which. That way people wouldn't change their behavior, which itself could influence the outcome of a trial because people who know they are vaccinated might take greater risks.
The appearance of virus variants "may really scramble things up because there may be certain variants where the efficacy of all vaccines might be so low that we're basically back to zero," Goodman says. "We might have to go back to placebo-controlled trials. It's hard to know."
That's the worse-case scenario. The vaccines currently in use in the United States seem to work well against the variant first seen in the United Kingdom and appear to offer at least partial protection from the variant identified first in South Africa, but more evasive new variants could emerge in the months and years to come.
Fierro sees another possibility. Perhaps in a year or two the existing vaccines will have proven so effective that COVID-19 becomes not much more than a nuisance. Under those circumstances, the risk of participating in a study that has a placebo option would be low enough to be acceptable, say, for young people who have not yet been vaccinated.
You can contact NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris firstname.lastname@example.org.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.Separation Of Nickel From A Nickel Ore:
nickel ore processing highmetals kds technologies. the magnetic separation and re-election is usually secondary dressing method. flotation of sulfide copper-nickel ore, it UA UA UA UA US US US US US US US US authority US united states prior art keywords nickel copper matte solution separating prior art date legal status (the legal status is an assumption nickel processing nickel processing extraction and refining: the extraction of nickel from ore follows much the same route as copper, and indeed, in a number of cases, similar processes and equipment are used. the major differences in equipment are the use of higher-temperature refractories and the increased cooling required to accommodate the higher operating temperatures in nickel
Extraction Of Nickel Nickel Ore Mining Mining :
oct 16, 2019 extraction of nickel. this paper introduces the extraction of nickel process and characteristics of laterite nickel ore dressing, highlights the nickel ore crushing, washing in the nickel production process design.. description of nickel ore. the laterite nickel ore is complex in composition and can be roughly divided into two types: limonite type and silicon magnesium-nickel type.concentrating the nickel ores usually takes place close to the mine site, and involves chemical and physical processes to crush the ore and separate the nickel-bearing and gangue minerals. mining nickel directly is the obvious route to obtaining pure nickel, however, nickel can also be recovered as a byproduct of other metals.nickel ore is mainly divided into copper-nickel sulfide ore and nickel oxide ore, and their beneficiation and processing methods are completely different. the main method for beneficiation of copper-nickel sulfide ore is flotation, while magnetic separation and gravity separation are usually auxiliary beneficiation methods
Extraction Of Nickel From Garnierite Laterite Ore Using :
In this study, segregation roasting and magnetic separation are used to extract nickel from a garnierite laterite ore. the garnierite laterite ore containing 0.72% ni, 0.029% co, 8.65% fe, 29.66% mgo, and 37.86% Si was collected in the mojiang area of china. garnierite was the ni-bearing mineral; the other main minerals were potash feldspar, forsterite, tremolite, halloysite, quartz, and nickel ore separation. xinhai has manufactured nickel ore mining equipment for many years nickel ore copper sulfide nickel ore magnetic separating and gravity separating are the contact US nickel wikipedia nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number It is a silvery white lustrous nickelcobalt separation innovation metals corpmar 08, 2021 over the past few days nickel on the london metal exchange has fallen by 16% from $19,500 a ton to $16, largely because a chinese steel-making company unveiled plans to
Nickel Ore Subnautica Wiki Fandom:
nickel ore is a raw material that is found exclusively inthe lost riverand some parts of the inactive lava zone.it can be found as a large resource depositand as loose chunks of ore on the seabed. It is used to create several vehicle upgrades. uses in crafting 1.1 fabricator 1.2 modification station 1.3 vehicle upgrade console 1.4 neptune launch platform data bank entry gallery add a nickel ore can be divided into copper sulfide nickel ore and nickel oxide ore, flotation is the main beneficiation method when processing copper sulfide nickel ore, magnetic separating and gravity separating are the commonly auxiliary methods.the nickel-alloy awaruite found in chrysolite asbestos ore tailings is concentrated by magnetically separating the asbestos ore tailings to obtain a magnetically attracted, nickel-enriched fraction.
Nickel Ore Slideshare:
jan 28, 2016 ferro nickel ore- recent development in the extraction of nickel laterite ores is a particular grade of tropical deposits, typified by examples at acoje in the philippines. this ore is so rich in limonite that it is essentially similar to low-grade iron ore.the nickel ore separation category featured at alibaba.com comprises a variety of semi-automatic, automatic and manual versions that you can choose depending on your exact requirements. they are iso and CE certified and are highly sustainable.tecks cesl nickel process is a well developed hydrometallurgical technology which can unlock the nickel from disseminated sulphides and provide a reliable means of nickel production for future projects. cesl nickel process the cesl nickel process offers a method of unlocking the nickel from disseminated nickel sulphide ore bodies.
Extraction Of Nickel From Garnierite Laterite Ore Using :
enrichment, nickel ore is more silicon, more magnesium, lesser iron, higher nickel, and lower cobalt, which is called magnesium garnierite laterite ore. both ores, relative to nickel sulde deposits, are called nickel oxide ores 46. laterite nickel ore is the most abundant nickel ore resource in the world. the nickel in lateritesorting and dumping of waste rock at the shaft considerably reduces transportation costs of the upgraded nickel ore to the distant processing plant. In many instances, nickel mineral reserves that were previously uneconomic are now viable projects, which extend the life of the mine. tomra sorting solutions can help you sort the value out of nickel.after mining, nickel ores are further processed to upgrade their nickel contents from typical of the ores to concentrates with grades in the range 0%. concentration involves crushing the ore and separating nickel-bearing from other minerals using various physical and chemical processing methods.
The Best Way To Separate Copper And Nickel:
At the beginning, you need to prepare an ore composed of copper and nickel. then, find some equipment to crush and grind the ore, and separate out the worthless material by the method of flotation, which will leave you a concentrate that typically composed by 2%-10% nickel and 5%-20% copperabout 39% of these are mineral separator. wide variety of nickel ore mines options are available to you, such as none, egypt, and canada. you can also choose from energy saving, long service life, and high rigidity. As well as from mexico. there are 392 nickel ore mines suppliers, mainly located in asia.days ago the mgb said nickel ore and its by-products accounted for 51.8% or.48 billion. the volume of direct-shipping nickel ore the form in which the metal is exported for processing overseas rose 3.3% year on year to 333,962 metric tons meanwhile, production of mixed nickelcobalt sulfide fell 2.9% year on year to 49,647 mt.
Munali Nickel Mine S Game Changing Dense Media Separator :
munali nickel mines exciting relaunch of operations in april 2019 is the result of no less than $50 million of investment by consolidated nickel mines, and a culmination of almost four years of hard work and determination by the whole mabiza resources team. but modernisation and an emphasis on cutting-edge mining practices is central to At the processing plant, the ore slurry is fed into large autoclaves to undergo pressure acid leaching where it is heated and mixed with sulfuric acid. the leach discharge slurry from the autoclave passes through a counter-current decantation wash circuit to separate nickel and cobalt solution.the odysseus nickel mine is an underground mine located within the high-grade cosmos nickel operation in western australia which was acquired by australian nickel producer western areas from xstrata nickel australasia in 2015. the construction of the twin declines for the new underground mine was underway of september 2020.
Nickel Ore Ferroalloynet Com:
jun medium grade nickel ore transaction report on apr low grade nickel ore transaction report on apr oct low grade nickel ore transaction report on oct AM nickel ore vessel arrived at ningde port. mar nickel ore vessel arrived at bayuquan port. mar nickel ore vessel arrived at lianyungang portchinese buyers paid higher prices for nickel ore and nickel pig iron last week amid tight supply and costlier freight. prices for 1.5% nickel ore rose to new highs amid the uptrend. fastmarkets assessed the price of laterite ore with 1.5% Ni content, cif china at per tonne last friday february 26, up by per tonne nickel ore divides into copper sulfide and copper oxide ore the main process for copper sulfide is flotation magnetic and gravity separation is the subsidiary process.it is a high technological enterprise that integrated research manufacture, sales and service the company has multiple subsidiaries such as mineral processing research institute
Nickel Smelting Producing Metalpedia:
international nickel and sherritt gordon use a bulk cuni float pictured below, followed by selective flotation of the two elements into separate concentrates. other canadian producers leave separation to the smelters. flotation of a coppernickel ore containing pyrrhotite is as follows:ferronickel enrichment and extraction from nickel laterite ore were studied through reduction and magnetic separation. reduction experiments were performed using hydrogen and carbon monoxide as reductants at different temperatures magnetic separation of the reduced products was conducted using a slon-100 cycle pulsating magnetic separatorthe invention relates to a method for separating sodium and magnesium from laterite-nickel ore smelting primary wastewater, which comprises the following steps: concentrating magnesium sulfate-sodium sulfate primary wastewater generated by laterite-nickel ore smelting by evaporation until the magnesium ion concentration reaches moll, cooling the solution in a magnesium sulfate
A Look At Who Might Win A Giant Contract To Supply Tesla :
oct 20, 2020 nickel battery demand is forecast to increase by from 2019 to 2030. the demand surge will be for battery grade nickel sulphate best extracted from nickel sulphide ore.separation of iron, nickel, and cobalt from sulphated leach liquor of low nickel lateritic oxide ore. separation science and technology: vol. 39, no. pp. 29.sep 27, 2020 first, because laterite nickel ore has lower and variable concentrations of nickel, it takes a lot of energy to smelt it in fact, many times as much as smelting sulphide ore. this energy is
Nickel Official Feed The Beast Wiki:
jan 04, 2021 nickel is an element and a material added by various mods. vanilla embers extra bees factory tech gregtech 5.1 see also immersive engineering minechem mystical agriculture tech reborn thermal foundation thermal expansion As added by vanilla main article: nickel on the minecraft wiki As added by embers nickel spawns as an ore between and smelting the product waste issues issue: discarded slag from the smelter and other impure waste from the leaching and electrolysis processes. management: storage of waste in dumps and tailings ponds. issue: sulfur dioxide is a major air pollutant emitted in roasting, smelting,Pselaphochernes scorpioides, Compost Chernes
The cephalothorax and pedipalps are reddish-brownand the opisthosoma horny-brown; length of body: 1.5–2.0 mm.
Throughout most of Europe. In Britain scattered records have come from southern and central parts of England, one old record from Eire and one recently from Scotland. This species is probably more widespread throughout the country than the present records indicate. It favours rich decaying organic material and is often found in synanthropic habitats such as compost, manure and straw debris. Pselaphochernes scorpioides has also been found in leaf litter, dead wood and the nests of the red-ant Formica rufa. It is commonly phoretic on flies.
For more information see Mark Harvey, Pseudoscorpions of the World.
UK & Ireland Distribution Map
Should you wish to contact me:
Unless otherwise stated all images are Copyright of Gerald Legg, naturaimaging. If you would like to use any images, then high resolution ones can be obtained by contacting me.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.Around 1880 an indigenous Impressionism took shape in Belgium, drawing on the innovations of the realists. Realist plein-air landscape painters, for example, depicted the play of light and shade and showed a preference for bright colours. An important step was taken when Ensor introduced a clearly perceptible “poetry of light” into his “bourgeois interiors”. Henri De Braekeleer also experimented along similar lines. But it was when French artists began to exhibit in Belgium after 1886 with the group known as Les XX that Belgian Impressionism really made a breakthrough. This gained momentum the following year when Georges Seurat’s Un dimanche à la Grande Jatte was exhibited in Brussels. Thanks to this manifesto of neo-Impressionism, the technique of “Pointillism” was introduced to Belgium at an early date. But it was not until 1904 that the triumph of French Impressionism was confirmed during an exhibition of La Libre Esthétique, in which Belgium was represented by the Vie et Lumière group, founded in 1904, which introduced “Luminism” as a (late) Belgian current in Impressionism.A pareto chart is used to graphically summarize and display the relative importance of the differences between groups of data. The lengths of the bars represent frequency or cost (time or money), and are arranged with longest bars on the left and the shortest to the right. In this way the chart visually depicts which situations are more significant. Pareto Charts are used in cases: -When analyzing data about the frequency of problems or causes in a process. -When there are many problems or causes and you want to focus on the most significant. -When analyzing broad causes by looking at their specific components. -When communicating with others about your data.Ramadan expected to begin on May 6 in most Islamic nations
28 Apr 2019
Photo used for illustrative purposes. WAM
The International Astronomical Centre has predicted the start of the Holy Month of Ramadan on May 6 in most of the Islamic nations.
The sighting of the crescent moon would be impossible from East and Southeast Asia as well as Southern Europe and most of the Arab nations on Sunday (May 5), said Mohamed Shawkat, the Centre Director, affirming that it would be possible to sight the moon only with a telescope in the these regions on that day.
The sighting of the moon would be difficult in Western and South African countries and most of the US, while it would be relatively easier in Central America, he added.Heel pain is a very common complaint and an ailment that can be quite annoying. When you get out of bed in the morning and the first thing you notice when you put your feet on the floor is soreness in your heel, your day is already off to a less than pleasant start. Chronic foot issues, especially involving the heel (the calcaneus), can affect your lifestyle in many ways. Because it is painful to bear weight, the ability to do your job may be adversely affected and it is usually very challenging to participate in an active exercise program outside of the pool. This can lead to weight gain, increased stiffness, muscle weakness and generalized loss of well being. The Center for Disease Control recommends 10,000 steps per day for people over 60 years of age. That may be difficult if your heel hurts with each step so let’s look at some causes of heel pain and more importantly, ways to alleviate it.
Let’s explore some common causes of heel pain. The most common diagnosis is plantar fasciitis. The body has fascia throughout and it basically is a very tough connective tissue. In the mid foot, this fascia is very thick and supportive as it supports the longitudinal plantar arch in the foot, giving a spring like support to the multiple small bones in the foot and giving extra support to the muscular tissue as well. The foot has multiple arches but the plantar arch is large and the fascia here has to work extra hard to support this arch and the weight of your body. If you have a “high arch” or pes cavus, the plantar fascia may be a bit shortened and less flexible. If you have a “flat foot”, or pes planus, the plantar fascia may be somewhat lengthened or stretched out, therefore not able to give the arch the support that it needs. Couple this with wearing footwear that does not always properly support the arch (shoes such as flip flops or the cute dressy shoes that women love to wear), going barefoot much of the time or working on hard concrete floors in a standing position for the majority of the day can be very taxing on the plantar fascia. Another factor that may significantly contribute to heel and arch pain is chronic low back issues (more on that later).
The more tension that is placed on the plantar fascia, the more likely one is to develop a “heel spur”. A heel spur is a calcium deposit that lays down on the anterior portion of the calcaneus at the attachment of the plantar fascia in response to the additional pressure. These can enlarge over time requiring surgery to remove. You can also get some spurring that occurs in the posterior aspect of the calcaneus in response to shortening of the Achilles tendon. Spurs are generally indicative of a chronic long term problem and are more challenging to deal with as they may require more significant medical intervention such as surgical removal or cortisone injections. The posterior aspect of the calcaneus (
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Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
- The EGM is considered particularly high-risk in Kentucky.
- The gypsy moth prefers approximately 150 primary hosts but feeds on more than 300 species of trees and shrubs. Some of those include:
- Fruit trees
Source: the USDA
In research that could lead to better bioinsecticides to protect forests and orchards, Drs. Don Gammon and Nick Grishin of UT Southwestern have sequenced the genomes of the EGM and its even more destructive cousin, the Asian gypsy moth (AGM). Their work, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that the gypsy moth has the largest moth or butterfly genome (number of DNA base pairs) ever sequenced.
“The European gypsy moth has spread as far west as Minnesota and as far south as North Carolina. The rather slow spread – about 13 miles a year – is partly due to the fact that EGM females are flightless and must walk or be blown by the wind to disperse,” said Dr. Gammon, Assistant Professor of Microbiology and a W.W. Caruth, Jr. Scholar in Biomedical Research. “In contrast, females of the Asian gypsy moth subspecies, which inhabits Asia and eastern Russia, have larger, more developed wings and can fly.”
If the Asian gypsy moth were to become established in the United States, it would pose an even greater economic threat due to its ability to spread more swiftly, he added. To guard against that possibility, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has surveillance programs at several ports and regularly sprays virus-based bioinsecticides in endangered forests to kill gypsy moth caterpillars.
In addition to genome sequencing, the researchers conducted gene expression studies showing how the moths’ genes respond to viral infection to understand how viral bioinsecticides might be improved to control gypsy moth populations. Their findings could serve as a roadmap to the insects’ vulnerabilities, the researchers said. They also identified genetic differences between the EGM and AGM subspecies that likely contribute to variations in flight ability, chemical sensing, and pathogen interactions.
Dr. Gammon became interested in gypsy moths during his postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Dr. Craig Mello at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
In a 2014 study in the journal eLife, Dr. Gammon reported that gypsy moth cells are strikingly resistant to arboviruses that otherwise infect a wide range of fly, mosquito, and human cell types. Given the emerging threat of arboviruses such as Zika to human health, Dr. Gammon sought to understand the genetic reasons for gypsy moth cells’ resistance with the hope of uncovering novel strategies to block arbovirus infection in other species.
However, the gypsy moth genome had not been sequenced, a clear prerequisite for identifying moth-encoded antiviral factors. Shortly after being offered a faculty position at UT Southwestern in 2016, Dr. Gammon asked Dr. Grishin, Professor of Biophysics and Biochemistry and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator, if they could collaborate. At the time, Dr. Grishin’s group had just identified two new butterfly species and was sequencing the genomes of several others.
That collaboration led to today’s study, done with Kyoto Prize winner Dr. Daniel Janzen, a Professor of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania who is world-renowned for his expertise in evolutionary ecology. The Kyoto Prize is considered Japan’s highest private honor for global achievement in the winner’s field.
“Everyone in the Northeastern United States knows the European gypsy moth, or is at least familiar with the devastation its voraciously hungry caterpillar can cause to forests,” Dr. Gammon said.
Next steps should include functional studies to understand how the genes work, the researchers said.
“From a theoretical perspective, we would like to understand how biological diversity is generated via mechanisms of protein evolution,” said Dr. Grishin, who holds the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Chair in Biomedical Science and is a Virginia Murchison Linthicum Scholar in Biomedical Research.
Other UTSW authors on the study include Jing Zhang, a graduate student, and Dr. Qian Cong, a former graduate student, both in the Grishin laboratory, and Emily A. Rex, a research assistant in the Gammon laboratory.
The research received support from UT Southwestern’s Endowed Scholars Program, the National Institutes of Health, The Welch Foundation, and the HHMI.
A breeding experiment gone awry: Gypsy moths in North America
Étienne Léopold Trouvelot – an amateur butterfly and moth scientist – brought the EGMs from his native France to his home in Medford, Massachusetts, in the mid-1860s.
His goal was to crossbreed EGMs with the more delicate silkworm moths to produce a hardier silk producer that would inherit the EGM caterpillar trait of eating a broad range of plants.
According to the Smithsonian Institution’s gypsy moth page, at one time the amateur naturalist had more than a million larvae growing behind his house near what is now downtown Boston. In the late 1860s, some of the EGMs escaped and began feasting on the nearby woods. Since then, the EGM caterpillars have become major forest and orchard pests, defoliating millions of acres.
About UT Southwestern Medical Center
UT Southwestern, one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty has received six Nobel Prizes, and includes 22 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 17 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 15 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The faculty of more than 2,700 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide care in about 80 specialties to more than 105,000 hospitalized patients, nearly 370,000 emergency room cases, and oversee approximately 2.4 million outpatient visits a year.You might take your balance for granted, but as you get older it’s important to be aware of the risk of falling and the problems it might cause. From mid-life onwards, your risk of falling increases significantly, so that by age 65 about 30 per cent of people fall at least once a year and by the age of 80 this has risen to 50 per cent.
Many people will just need dusting off and after a quick check-up are sent home again. Other people find that their fall has resulted in serious injuries such as a broken hip which might lead to permanent disability or a loss of independence. Most of those who fall attribute their accident to a careless movement or ‘a bit of a trip’ over badly placed furniture, for example. But in the majority of cases there is a specific factor at work that is making them more vulnerable to falling.
It’s essential to examine the details of your fall, looking for clues with your doctor about the cause and, if necessary, carrying out tests and further investigations. You are likely to be asked what led up to the fall and whether you were feeling unwell. Were there symptoms such as dizziness, palpitations or blurred vision? Did you suddenly black out and crash to the ground? Or were you feeling fine until you lost your balance when the family dog accidentally bumped into you?
There is a long list of factors that can contribute to a fall. A common one is low blood pressure, especially when standing up suddenly. Abnormal heart rhythms can also cause falls because they disrupt the supply of oxygen to your brain. Other factors include poor vision, painful joints that limit movement, anaemia, weak muscles, a cluttered environment and badly fitting shoes.
If you have several falls, your doctor will probably want to carry out some blood tests and check your heart health. The GP may recommend a brain scan or you may be referred to the falls clinic at your local hospital where you will be carefully assessed by experts.
You can take a number of steps yourself to try to prevent falls. A diet rich in protein and Vitamin D will help keep your muscles and bones strong to hold you upright. Exercise is important to strengthen and control your muscles and joints. Try to stay well hydrated at all times but especially on hot days to avoid low blood pressure. Have your sight and hearing regularly tested, and wear spectacles and hearing aids if advised. Take a look at your home environment and make it safe. Your GP can check your medication to look for anything which might increase your risk of falls (a side effect of some drugs).
Q I keep forgetting to take my medicines, what can I do?
Dr Trisha says: The easiest way to remember your pills is to use a dosette box or pill organiser – a set of little plastic boxes handily labelled with each day of the week. At the start of every week, you fill these up with each day’s supply of medicine. Some boxes have several slots for different doses on any day. Ask your pharmacist about different systems.
Alternatively, some pharmacies will make up a whole tray or blister pack for the week. This service is especially useful if you care for someone who can’t fill out their own tray. Your GP can arrange this for you, and will also send your prescriptions direct to the pharmacy for this purpose.
- Dr Trisha writes a column every fortnight in Yours magazine. Ask Dr Trisha about your health problems by emailing firstname.lastname@example.org.Psoriasis is a skin condition that causes your skin to have dry thick patches of red skin covered with scales that are commonly located on elbows, knees, legs, lower back, scalp and feet. Psoriasis can be very painful and affect your ability to function. There are five type of psoriasis: plaque, guttate, pustular, inverse, anderythrodemic. Plaque Psoriasis is probably the most common; 80 percent of people who have psoriasis have this type. It consists of hard, red, patches covered with white scales. Guttate psoriasis is second most common, which consists of small, red spots on skin. Pustular psoriasis, which is usually located on feet, is very rare; it consists of raised, pus bumps on skin. Inverse occurs in the fold of skins. Erythrodermic is the least common, which can be cause by sunburn or medication
Psoriasis is caused when the life cycle of skin cells speeds up. Skin cells usually die and flake off, but this happens within days for people who have psoriasis. Psoriasis can be caused by a number of things like climate, stress, certain medication, and illnesses.
Psoriasis symptoms depend on the person. It could include red patches of skin covered with scales, small red spots, dry and cracked skin, burning sensation, swollen and stiff joints. Mild cases of psoriasis maybe irritating, but if it is severe it can be very serious and painful
There is no cure for psoriasis, but there is an array of treatments. Medication is usually the best treatment for psoriasis. There are many medications that can help treat this disease like anthralin, coal tar ointments, dovonex, or tazorac. This medication will help slow down the life cycle of skin cell. You could also apply fish oil supplements that might reduce the inflammation of psoriasis. Also reducing your consumption of foods with proteins like meat and dairy products can help since they increase inflammation.
There are no ways to prevent psoriasis, but you can try and reduce it by avoiding dry climate, avoid scratching and picking skin, and stress and anxiety.Pharaoh - the official title borne by the Egyptian kings down to the time when that country was conquered by the Greeks. (See EGYPT.) The name is a compound, as some think, of the words Ra, the "sun" or "sun-god," and the article phe, "the," prefixed; hence phera, "the sun," or "the sun-god." But others, perhaps more correctly, think the name derived from Perao, "the great house" = his majesty = in Turkish, "the Sublime Porte."
(1.) The Pharaoh who was on the throne when Abram went down into Egypt (Gen. 12:10-20) was probably one of the Hyksos, or "shepherd kings." The Egyptians called the nomad tribes of Syria Shasu, "plunderers," their king or chief Hyk, and hence the name of those invaders who conquered the native kings and established a strong government, with Zoan or Tanis as their capital. They were of Semitic origin, and of kindred blood accordingly with Abram. They were probably driven forward by the pressure of the Hittites. The name they bear on the monuments is "Mentiu."
(2.) The Pharaoh of Joseph's days (Gen. 41) was probably Apopi, or Apopis, the last of the Hyksos kings. To the old native Egyptians, who were an African race, shepherds were "an abomination;" but to the Hyksos kings these Asiatic shepherds who now appeared with Jacob at their head were congenial, and being akin to their own race, had a warm welcome (Gen. 47:5, 6). Some argue that Joseph came to Egypt in the reign of Thothmes III., long after the expulsion of the Hyksos, and that his influence is to be seen in the rise and progress of the religious revolution in the direction of monotheism which characterized the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The wife of Amenophis III., of that dynasty, was a Semite. Is this singular fact to be explained from the presence of some of Joseph's kindred at the Egyptian court? Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee: the land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell" (Gen. 47:5, 6).
(3.) The "new king who knew not Joseph" (Ex. 1:8-22) has been generally supposed to have been Aahmes I., or Amosis, as he is called by Josephus. Recent discoveries, however, have led to the conclusion that Seti was the "new king."
For about seventy years the Hebrews in Egypt were under the powerful protection of Joseph. After his death their condition was probably very slowly and gradually changed. The invaders, the Hyksos, who for some five centuries had been masters of Egypt, were driven out, and the old dynasty restored. The Israelites now began to be looked down upon. They began to be afflicted and tyrannized over. In process of time a change appears to have taken place in the government of Egypt. A new dynasty, the Nineteenth, as it is called, came into power under Seti I., who was its founder. He associated with him in his government his son, Rameses II., when he was yet young, probably ten or twelve years of age.
Note, Professor Maspero, keeper of the museum of Bulak, near Cairo, had his attention in 1870 directed to the fact that scarabs, i.e., stone and metal imitations of the beetle (symbols of immortality), originally worn as amulets by royal personages, which were evidently genuine relics of the time of the ancient Pharaohs, were being sold at Thebes and different places along the Nile. This led him to suspect that some hitherto undiscovered burial-place of the Pharaohs had been opened, and that these and other relics, now secretly sold, were a part of the treasure found there. For a long time he failed, with all his ingenuity, to find the source of these rare treasures. At length one of those in the secret volunteered to give information regarding this burial-place. The result was that a party was conducted in 1881 to Dier el-Bahari, near Thebes, when the wonderful discovery was made of thirty-six mummies of kings, queens, princes, and high priests hidden away in a cavern prepared for them, where they had lain undisturbed for thirty centuries. "The temple of Deir el-Bahari stands in the middle of a natural amphitheatre of cliffs, which is only one of a number of smaller amphitheatres into which the limestone mountains of the tombs are broken up. In the wall of rock separating this basin from the one next to it some ancient Egyptian engineers had constructed the hiding-place, whose secret had been kept for nearly three thousand years." The exploring party being guided to the place, found behind a great rock a shaft 6 feet square and about 40 feet deep, sunk into the limestone. At the bottom of this a passage led westward for 25 feet, and then turned sharply northward into the very heart of the mountain, where in a chamber 23 feet by 13, and 6 feet in height, they came upon the wonderful treasures of antiquity. The mummies were all carefully secured and brought down to Bulak, where they were deposited in the royal museum, which has now been removed to Ghizeh.
Among the most notable of the ancient kings of Egypt thus discovered were Thothmes III., Seti I., and Rameses II. Thothmes III. was the most distinguished monarch of the brilliant Eighteenth Dynasty. When this mummy was unwound "once more, after an interval of thirty-six centuries, human eyes gazed on the features of the man who had conquered Syria and Cyprus and Ethiopia, and had raised Egypt to the highest pinnacle of her power. The spectacle, however, was of brief duration. The remains proved to be in so fragile a state that there was only time to take a hasty photograph, and then the features crumbled to pieces and vanished like an apparition, and so passed away from human view for ever." "It seems strange that though the body of this man," who overran Palestine with his armies two hundred years before the birth of Moses, "mouldered to dust, the flowers with which it had been wreathed were so wonderfully preserved that even their colour could be distinguished" (Manning's Land of the Pharaohs).
Seti I. (his throne name Merenptah), the father of Rameses II., was a great and successful warrior, also a great builder. The mummy of this Pharaoh, when unrolled, brought to view "the most beautiful mummy head ever seen within the walls of the museum. The sculptors of Thebes and Abydos did not flatter this Pharaoh when they gave him that delicate, sweet, and smiling profile which is the admiration of travellers. After a lapse of thirty-two centuries, the mummy retains the same expression which characterized the features of the living man. Most remarkable of all, when compared with the mummy of Rameses II., is the striking resemblance between the father and the son. Seti I. is, as it were, the idealized type of Rameses II. He must have died at an advanced age. The head is shaven, the eyebrows are white, the condition of the body points to considerably more than threescore years of life, thus confirming the opinions of the learned, who have attributed a long reign to this king."
(4.) Rameses II., the son of Seti I., is probably the Pharaoh of the Oppression. During his forty years' residence at the court of Egypt, Moses must have known this ruler well. During his sojourn in Midian, however, Rameses died, after a reign of sixty-seven years, and his body embalmed and laid in the royal sepulchre in the Valley of the Tombs of Kings beside that of his father. Like the other mummies found hidden in the cave of Deir el-Bahari, it had been for some reason removed from its original tomb, and probably carried from place to place till finally deposited in the cave where it was so recently discovered.
In 1886, the mummy of this king, the "great Rameses," the "Sesostris" of the Greeks, was unwound, and showed the body of what must have been a robust old man. The features revealed to view are thus described by Maspero: "The head is long and small in proportion to the body. The top of the skull is quite bare. On the temple there are a few sparse hairs, but at the poll the hair is quite thick, forming smooth, straight locks about two inches in length. White at the time of death, they have been dyed a light yellow by the spices used in embalmment. The forehead is low and narrow; the brow-ridge prominent; the eye-brows are thick and white; the eyes are small and close together; the nose is long, thin, arched like the noses of the Bourbons; the temples are sunk; the cheek-bones very prominent; the ears round, standing far out from the head, and pierced, like those of a woman, for the wearing of earrings; the jaw-bone is massive and strong; the chin very prominent; the mouth small, but thick-lipped; the teeth worn and very brittle, but white and well preserved. The moustache and beard are thin. They seem to have been kept shaven during life, but were probably allowed to grow during the king's last illness, or they may have grown after death. The hairs are white, like those of the head and eyebrows, but are harsh and bristly, and a tenth of an inch in length. The skin is of an earthy-brown, streaked with black. Finally, it may be said, the face of the mummy gives a fair idea of the face of the living king. The expression is unintellectual, perhaps slightly animal; but even under the somewhat grotesque disguise of mummification there is plainly to be seen an air of sovereign majesty, of resolve, and of pride."
Both on his father's and his mother's side it has been pretty clearly shown that Rameses had Chaldean or Mesopotamian blood in his veins to such a degree that he might be called an Assyrian. This fact is thought to throw light on Isa. 52:4.
(5.) The Pharaoh of the Exodus was probably Menephtah I., the fourteenth and eldest surviving son of Rameses II. He resided at Zoan, where he had the various interviews with Moses and Aaron recorded in the book of Exodus. His mummy was not among those found at Deir el-Bahari. It is still a question, however, whether Seti II. or his father Menephtah was the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Some think the balance of evidence to be in favour of the former, whose reign it is known began peacefully, but came to a sudden and disastrous end. The "Harris papyrus," found at Medinet-Abou in Upper Egypt in 1856, a state document written by Rameses III., the second king of the Twentieth Dynasty, gives at length an account of a great exodus from Egypt, followed by wide-spread confusion and anarchy. This, there is great reason to believe, was the Hebrew exodus, with which the Nineteenth Dynasty of the Pharaohs came to an end. This period of anarchy was brought to a close by Setnekht, the founder of the Twentieth Dynasty.
"In the spring of 1896, Professor Flinders Petrie discovered, among the ruins of the temple of Menephtah at Thebes, a large granite stela, on which is engraved a hymn of victory commemorating the defeat of Libyan invaders who had overrun the Delta. At the end other victories of Menephtah are glanced at, and it is said that 'the Israelites (I-s-y-r-a-e-l-u) are minished (?) so that they have no seed.' Menephtah was son and successor of Rameses II., the builder of Pithom, and Egyptian scholars have long seen in him the Pharaoh of the Exodus. The Exodus is also placed in his reign by the Egyptian legend of the event preserved by the historian Manetho. In the inscription the name of the Israelites has no determinative of 'country' or 'district' attached to it, as is the case with all the other names (Canaan, Ashkelon, Gezer, Khar or Southern Palestine, etc.) mentioned along with it, and it would therefore appear that at the time the hymn was composed, the Israelites had already been lost to the sight of the Egyptians in the desert. At all events they must have had as yet no fixed home or district of their own. We may therefore see in the reference to them the Pharaoh's version of the Exodus, the disasters which befell the Egyptians being naturally passed over in silence, and only the destruction of the'men children' of the Israelites being recorded. The statement of the Egyptian poet is a remarkable parallel to Ex. 1:10-22."
(6.) The Pharaoh of 1 Kings 11:18-22.
(7.) So, king of Egypt (2 Kings 23:29, 30). (See NECHO.)
(8.) The Pharaoh of (1Ch 4:18 )
(9.) Pharaoh, whose daughter Solomon married (1Ki 3:1 7:8)
(10.) Pharaoh, in whom Hezekiah put his trust in his war against Sennacherib (2Ki 18:21)
(11.) The Pharaoh by whom Josiah was defeated and slain at Megiddo (2Ch 35:20-24 2Ki 23:29,30). (See (q.v.), 2 Kings 25:1-4; comp. Jer. 37:5-8; Ezek. 17:11-13. (See ZEDEKIAH.)
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Additional essential Bible study tools:A sudden traumatic event can shatter our lives: we may feel deeply confused and terrified by what we have experienced. In turn this can affect the way we feel about ourselves and other people. This profound effect on our lives can be alleviated by giving ourselves time to register and understand why and how we are in this disturbing state of being.
Talking through what has happened can help us to feel less out of control and distressed. Everyone’s experience of trauma is personal and particular. We may need to give voice to the specific way the trauma has affected us. Nonetheless there are feelings and thoughts that people in general experience after a traumatic event. For example: numbness, constantly returning to the traumatic event and experiencing it again and again; we may avoid anything related to the event. We may also feel exceptionally agitated or anxious; have outbursts of anger, be fearful of mixing with other people or of crowds of people. This disquiet can make us unable to sleep, feel dizzy, sick or in physical pain.
Through a process of counselling we can gradually regain our sense of control and a sense of completeness about our lives.Since the seventies of the 20st century mankind has slowly become aware that from the time of the industrial revolution
she has gained a large and potentially desastrous influence on the planet's climate.
The main source of trouble is the emission of greenhouse gases by burning fossile fuel reserves.
It is clear that our evergrowing hunger for energy has to be curbed and drastically too.
The world is looking towards its politicans to take measures, but as is common with politicians they are cautious and slow to act.
If change is to be effected, it has to come up from the bottom.
So what can the average world citizen do?
One thing is to take a look at your personal energy consumption and make cuts where they really count. This article helps in quantifying personal energy consumption. Compare the numbers with your personal situation and decide where to strike.
Energy is measured in various units: cubic meters of gas, kilowatthours electricity, liters gasoline, etc. That is confusing and therefore all energy numbers in this article are supplemented with conversions to the SI-unit Joule. One joule is the amount of energy used at 1 Watt power during 1 second of time. Numbers are listed in J (Joule), kJ( = kiloJoule = 1 thousand Joule), MJ (= MegaJoule = 1 million Joule), GJ (= GigaJoule = 1 billion Joule) or even PJ (= PetaJoule = 1 trillion Joule).
Energy consumption Netherlands
Here are the numbers for the total energy consumption in the Netherlands.
|Sector||energy in PJ|
|Other (incl. agriculture, government)||558|
Source: CBS (2008)
The numbers for industry, agriculture, government and the like show our indirect energy consumption:
the energy needed for production, transport and distribution of food that we eat and products that we use.
These numbers are hard to translate to ones personal situation because one person consumes more than the other.
Also a lot of what we produce is exported and many things that we consume are imported.
Here you must use common sense: How long do you let your electrical equipment last? Do you eat plenty of meat or are you a vegetarian? The numbers for housholds and traffic are easier to tackle.
The most important energy source for houses in the Netherlands is still natural gas.
Gas consumption is usually measured in cubic meters (m3).
One m3 aardgas yields 31.7 MJ energy.
In 2009, the average Dutch household used 1608 m3 gas (51 GJ) per year. Again on average this was split into heating 81%, warm water 15% and cooking 4%. The lionshare, heating, depends a lot on type of house, degree of insulation, personal warming behavior and severity of the winters. Here is a table of averages per type of house:
|House type||gas in m3||energy in GJ|
|Two onder one roof||1785||56.58|
Source: Nibud (2009)
The second major energy source is electricity.
Usually this is measured in kilowatthours (kWh).
One kWh electricity equals 3.6 MJ energy.
In 2009, the average Dutch household used 3430 kWh electricity (12.3 GJ) per year. Again on average this was split into washing and drying machines 21%, refrigerators 17%, lighting 16%, warm water 15%, other electric devices 31%. Electricity use depends mostly on the size of the household, so here is a table with averages for that:
|Number of persons||electricity in kWh||energy in GJ||energy / person|
Source: Nibud (2009)
People do not just use energy at home.
Another great consumer of energy is travel, either for business or recreation purposes.
About 45% of the total fuel consumption of traffic in the Netherlands comes from personal cars;
1% from motorcycles; the energy needed for trains is alsmost neglegible.
These numbers exclude ships and trips outside the country, which are significant.
Below are listed averages for different modes of transport. They can be used to compute one's own travel energy consumption and make comparisons.
The cruiseship Queen Elizabeth II is claimed to use 306 liters of diesel fuel (11143 MJ) per km at cruising speed. When fully loaded with 1777 passengers that is 6.27 MJ / km / person.
A jumbojet airplane cruising a long distance, say crossing the Atlantic ocean, uses 14.8 liters of kerosine / km, which is 520 MJ / km. Full loaded with 450 passengers that boils down to 1.15 MJ / km / person. On shorter flights the efficiency dramatically goes down, because of the higher relative proportion of the high energy required at takeoff to gain altitude.
Fuel consumption of cars depends heavily on size, engine power, speed, driving environment and driving behavior.
An "efficient" gasoline car uses about 0.08 liters of fuel (2.7 MJ) per km at highway speed.
With only one driver that is 2.7 MJ / km / person, fully loaded with 4 people that is 0.7 MJ / km / person.
Fuel consumption goes down a lot at lower speeds,
except in the city, where frequent short bursts of acceleration actually lower the efficiency about 20% - 25%.
Larger and heavier cars use more fuel, especially in the city.
A city bus uses more fuel, about 0.5 liters (18.2 MJ) per km, but as it can carry about 40 passengers, fully loaded it can achieve an efficiency of 0.455 MJ / km / person.
A train that drives 14 km between towns, accelerating from standstill to a top speed of 140 km / hour and breaking back to zero,
uses about 302 MJ, or 21.6 MJ / km.
During low hours it may have only 10 passengers, resulting in an efficiency of 2.16 MJ / km / person.
But fully loaded it has 372 passengers, for 0.058 MJ / km / person
and during peak hours it may be stuffed with 800, resulting in 0.027 MJ / km / person.
Intercity and long distance trains achieve higher efficiency because they do not need to accelarate so frequently. High speed trains are less efficient because of their higher speeds. A high speed train that accelerates to 300 km / hour and does not decelerate until it has covered 100 km, uses 6.96 GJ, or 23.2 MJ / km. Fully loaded with 377 passengers that comes down to 0.062 MJ / km / person.
Pedestrians and bicyclists use energy too, though not in the form of petrol but of food. A pedestrian walking at 4 km / hour uses about 0.3 MJ / km; a cyclist driving at 20 km / hour sitting straight up about 0.06 MJ / km. Cyclists can reach higher efficiency by driving racing bicycles (less drag from wheels and chain and also from air), lie-down bicycles (much less drag from air) or driving two-person bicycles.
The numbers above take only into account the fuel consumption to cover distance. If one also considers the energy needed to mine and refine fuel and materials, construction and maintenance of vehicles, energy costs for every mode go up (even pedestrians a little, who wear out their shoes).
- http://www.energiefeiten.nl/ A large and little ordered, but very informative list of energy facts (in Dutch)
- Tracking Transport Systems (2000). Thesis by Mirjam Bouwman about the energy cost of travel, including not only fuel consumption, but also the energy used in production and maintenance of the vehicles, smeared out over their lifetime.Latin Name: Lavandula angustifolia (aka L. Vera; L. officinalis)
Common Name: Lavender (aka True Lavender)
DESCRIPTION/HABITAT: True lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is one member of a genus of 39 species of flowering plants of the mint family (Labiatae) that are considered “lavenders” and it is important not to confuse “true” lavender with other members of the Lavandula genus as their actions and properties are distinctly different. The Lavandula genus includes annuals, woody perennials and small shrubs. Lavandula angustifolia is a small, evergreen woody herb reported by most sources to be native to southern Europe and the Mediterranean region, tropical areas of Africa, southern India, and the area around modern day Iraq. Today, it is in medicinal use by indigenous people in Mexico, outside its region of origin, where it is mixed with the native Heimia salicifolia together with Tagetes lucida, and Rosmarinus officinalis as a bathing preparation used to aid women who are infertile (Ratsch, C., The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants, Park Street Press, 1998, p. 267). It seems logical that the plant would have been introduced by invading Europeans who brought it with them.
Today, several species of lavender, including true lavender, grow wild in the alkaline soils of the mountainous regions of France. These types of poor soils produce the best plants for essential oil. The natural habitat of lavender is restricted to a relatively small area between 2,296 and 3,609 feet in the southern French Alps and this area is now the only source of true wild lavender (L. vera). The mountains around the French towns of Barles, Bayons and Barreme have long been important for the cultivation of lavender. The town of Digne-les-Bains is famous for its five day lavender festival, which draws members of the fragrance industry from all over the world. The area around Vaucluse also produces some fine lavender.
Lavender is commercially grown outside its native range in Europe, England, Australia, Russia, and America. Today, the major producers of the essential oil are in France, Bulgaria, Croatia and Russia. The French essential oils are generally regarded as the best.
Lavender flowers produce abundant nectar and yield a high quality honey which is sold and marketed worldwide and this enterprise also makes an important economic contribution to those areas where lavender is grown.
HISTORY: The name “lavender” is often said to come from the Latin word “lavare” meaning “to wash” because the Romans were known to use it in their baths. However, Sally Festing in The Story of Lavender (Festing, S., The Story of Lavender, Hyperion Books, 1985) suggests that the English name “lavender” most likely came from the Latin word “livendula” which means “bluish” and is the root of the word “livid”.
Lavender is one of the oldest medicinal herbs, having over 2500 years of recorded use. The Phoenicians and Egyptians had at least primitive methods of extracting the oil and used it in the mummification process. The lavender plant may have first been domesticated in Arabia well before the time of Jesus and was used there as an expectorant and antispasmodic. From Arabia, it was then carried by the Greeks and Romans, who used it to cure or ward off a host of illnesses. Eventually it reached France, Spain, Italy and England where it became well established as a remedy for stomach complaints and nervousness and as a cosmetic water to benefit the skin. It was used from very early times as a strewing herb for its deodorizing and disinfecting properties. It is also said to repel scorpions and is still used in parts of Europe for this purpose, where houses in the countryside will often have little bowls of lavender flowers resting on the window ledges. It was said to repel moths and to help prevent “mustiness” from mildew
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is necessary during early processing
for all social understanding, but need not be conscious or aversive.
This neural overlap can subsequently produce a variety of states
depending on the context and degree of common experience and
emotionality. We outline a framework for understanding the
interrelationship between neural and subjective overlap, andamong
empathic states, through a dynamic-systems view of how information is
processed in the brain and body."
|"Figure 1. The perception–action
model of empathy proposes that empathy and related phenomena are
one category of processes that rely on perception–action
mechanisms and exhibit self–other overlap at the neural level.
Motor actions, including automatic imitation, also rely on
this system (see Preston & de Waal, 2002b)."
ultimate and proximate bases
"Preston, Stephanie D. and de Waal, Frans B. M. (2000) Empathy: Its
ultimate and proximate bases.
The empathy literature is characterized by debate regarding the nature of the
phenomenon. We propose a unified theory of empathy, divided into ultimate and
proximate levels, grounded in the emotional link between individuals. On an
ultimate level, emotional linkage supports group alarm, vicariousness of
emotions, mother-infant responsiveness, and the modeling of competitors and
predators; these exist across species and greatly effect reproductive success.
Proximately, emotional linkage arises from a direct mapping of another's
behavioral state onto a subject's behavioral representations, which activate
responses in the subject. This ultimate and proximate account parsimoniously
explains different phylogenetic and ontogenetic levels of empathy."
||Implications for helping?
||Similar emotion is aroused in the subject as a
direct result of perceiving the emotion of the object.
Vicarious emotion, emotional transfer
||Subject feels "sorry for" the object as a result of
perceiving the distress of the object.
||Depends on the costs and benefits of the situation.
||Subject has a similar emotional state to an object
as a result of the accurate perception of the object's situation or
||Increasing with familiarity/similarity of object and
salience of display.
||Subject has represented the state of the object as a
result of the accurate perception of the object's situation or
predicament, without necessary state matching beyond the level of
||Partial, because it can be arrived at in a "top-down"
fashion, involving emotional circuits to a lesser extent.
||Likely, because it is more likely to be invoked for
||Actions taken to reduce the distress of an object.
TABLE 1: Usage
of terminology by most current researchers divided into main variables
Figure 1: In
order to unify the various perspectives, empathy needs to be
construed broadly to include all processes that rely on the emotional
linkage between individuals.a radio wave that propagates on or near the earth’s surface and is affected by the ground and the troposphere.
a radio wave that travels directly between a transmitting and a receiving aerial Compare sky wave
plural noun 1. Shipbuilding. hardwood timbers laid end-to-end to form an inclined track on which the keel of a ship can slide during launching.
noun, Electricity. 1. a lead from an electric apparatus to the earth or to a ground connection.
[ground-woo d] /ˈgraʊndˌwʊd/ noun, Papermaking. 1. that has been for making into pulp.
noun 1. wood pulp consisting of groundwood that has not been cooked or chemically treated, used for making newsprint and other poorer grades of paper.You sometimes hear that, even GDP grew in a period, unemployment actually increased because labour productivity grew so strongly during the period that fewer new workers were needed than the additional entrants into the workforce during the period. As a result, unemployment went up. Some see this as an argument against technological advance and attempts to achieve the highest possible rate of productivity growth.
It is certainly true that a lot of technological change may in short run throw some workers out of a job in a particular firm or industry. However, technological change will also create jobs in other firms and industries. It is easier to identify the short-term losers and, unfortunately, such identification seems to make for more sensational media stories. They are usually concentrated and more vocal than the diverse groups who gain jobs, especially when these gains may come gradually over time. The fact that there are some losers from technological change is no reason to resist it. However, there is an important role for government to play here in that appropriate transitional arrangements need to be available to enable the displaced workers to retrain or relocate to find gainful employment again elsewhere in the economy.
As a simple analogy, imagine an island economy where the inhabitants live on fish, coconut milk, fruit and nuts. They fish using spear, grow and gather coconuts and so no, and then they exchange ther products at going rates of barter system. Now suppose one morning the inhabitants wake up to find a few boats and fishing nets in good repair washed up on the beach. The inhabitants find out that using a boat to go out into deeper water and using a net, could catch a whole heap more fish in half the time. And some of them practise it. After a few days, the others in the fishing industry catch on to the fact that they are using outmoded technology and find they are being undercut by those using the new methods. The spear makers are also concerned at developments. WHAT DO THERE GROUPS DO? They immediately band together to decry the unfair practices of the few with the new technology and try to get the community's elder to ban it. They finally succeed and the boats and nets are immediately burned and things quickly return to the way they were before.
Given this outcome, the community is no worse off than before but it is no better off either.Think about what alternative actions could have been taken when the little island community found itself with the potentially very beneficial, but socially disruptive, new technology. What could have happened to the community's well-being?How could short-term transitional costs have been handled? What lessons does this parable teach us?
As a decision maker, we must be far-sighted, showing foresight and good judgement. We must not knuckle down on short pain as success never comes easy in life. As the saying goes 'No venture no gain', we have to really put some effort in something, with eternal perseverance, miracle is just a stone's throw away. Crisis, however, is an opportunity to make change. Genius or mediocrity. is up to you to choose.Trees play a vital role in our world. They produce oxygen, which allows people and animals to survive. They also provide habitat (places to live) and food for animals, birds, and bugs.
There are about 100,000 different species of trees in the world. The cold and high mountains in the Rocky Mountains create an environment in which not very many different kinds of trees are able to live. In fact only around 50 different species of trees are located here.
These trees in the Rockies do not live throughout the mountains at all elevations and aspects. Instead, certain types of trees tend to dominate at the different elevations because they are better adapted to live there. Conditions at the different elevations are quite different, for example the lower elevations are drier and the higher elevations receive much more snow and wind.
Common Trees of Rocky Mountains
Leaves: Nearly round with small teeth on the edges
Seeds: Very small, cottony seeds
Max Height: 80 feet
Aspens have some roots, called suckers, that don’t grow down, but grow sideways. New trees grow from these so that many Aspen are all connected below ground. This means that if you see a grove of Aspen on a hillside they could all be connected. Due to this, Aspen are among the largest organisms on Earth.
Leaves: 1-3 inches long, heart shaped with wavy edges
Seeds: Fluffy white seeds, like cotton
Fun Facts: This tree grows near water at lower elevations. The Cottonwood is a major food source for Rocky Mountain Beavers.
Needles: 1 inch long and flattish, green above with two white stripes on the bottom; they have a lemony smell when crushed
Max Height: 300 feet
Fun Facts: This tree can live for a long time – up to 500 years or even longer, making it among the oldest trees in the world.
Needles: only 1 inch long and bluish-green in color
Cone: 1 to 2 inches long
Max Height: 130 feet
Fun Facts: This tree grows at high elevations and has a very conical shape (it is straight up and down with a very narrow top and wider base). They can survive in very cold temperatures, down to negative sixty degrees!
The needles are four sided, which allows them to be rolled in your fingers (unlike fir needles which are flat and can not roll in your fingers).
Needles: 1 to 2 inches long in bundles of 2
Cone: 1 to 3 inches long; cones have sharp tips on the scales
Max Height: 100 feet
The Native Americans used to use the trunks from these trees to make their tipis since they are long, straight, and lightweight.
The cones are tightly sealed and only open after extreme heat, such as from a fire. After a fire hundreds of seeds will grow in the same area and form an even aged lodgepole pine forest.
Needles: 1 to 2 inches long and grow in pairs of two; green with a whitish band on the inside surface
Cone: 1 to 2 inches long
Max Height: 60 feet
Fun Facts: This is a small to moderate sized tree that grows at lower elevations.
The seeds inside of the cone are called pine nuts. Pine nuts are good to eat and were one of the main foods Native Americans ate.
Rocky Mountain Maple
Leaves: 1 to 4 inches with three lobes; coarsely serrated on the edge like the edge of a saw
Seeds: Light brown, v-shaped seeds that fly like little helicopters if caught in the wind
Fun Facts: This is a small tree that does not have just one main trunk. Rather it has many different small trunks together in a clump.
It is one of the first trees to begin growing in an area after a fire or other disturbance.
Leaves: Long and slender
Max Height: 75 feet
Fun Facts: There are over 300 species of willow in the world, some of which occur in the Rocky Mountains. Willows tend to grow near water, such as along rivers and streams.Why is Connecticut Called the “Nutmeg State”?
Technically, it’s not. Connecticut’s “official nickname”—there is such a thing—is the “Constitution State” because of historian John Fiske’s claim that the Fundamental Orders of 1638/1639 were the first written constitution in history.
But now to the issue at hand, the spiced sobriquet: Connecticut’s most popularly used unofficial nickname is that of the Nutmeg State. During the 18th and 19th centuries, several associations between the state and the spice emerged. Early sailors would bring the valuable seed back on their foreign voyages. Over time, Yankee peddlers developed a reputation for selling fake nutmegs made of carved wood.
The first recorded instance of this accusation was in a popular newspaper column of the mid-1800s, "The Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick, of Slickville," which appeared in the Novascotian and featured the wry observations of a character created by Thomas Haliburton. In a column entitled “The Preacher that Wandered from His Text,” Samuel Slick accuses a fictional Captain John Allspice of Nahant of having "carried a cargo once there of fifty barrels of nutmegs: well, he put half a bushel of good ones into each end of the barrel, and the rest he filled up with wooden ones, so like the real thing, no soul could tell the difference until HE BIT ONE WITH HIS TEETH, and that he never thought of doing, until he was first BIT HIMSELF. Well, its been a standing joke with them southerners agin us ever since.”
Later, it was suggested that it was the confused Southerners to blame for these mix-ups. In a 1980 issue of Connecticut Magazine, Elizabeth Abbe suggested that Southern customers were unaware that nutmeg had to be grated, and instead wrongly thought that the Yankee merchants were trying to scam them.
She writes, "unknowing buyers may have failed to grate nutmegs, thinking they had to be cracked like a walnut. Nutmegs are wood, and bounce when struck. If southern customers did not grate them, they may very well have accused the Yankees of selling useless ‘wooden’ nutmegs, unaware that they wear down to a pungent powder to season pies and breads.”
Finally, it’s possible that no one tried to sell wooden nutmegs and no one accused anyone of selling wooden nutmegs but that the term simply derived as reference to the fictional Samuel Slick column as shorthand for how shrewd Connecticut residents were—suggesting that, like Captain John Allspice, they would have attempted such a stunt.Violent rage results from the activation of dedicated neural circuitry that is on the lookout for existential threats to prehistoric lifestyles. Life in civilization is largely devoid of these threats, but this system is still in place, triggering what largely amounts to false alarms with alarming frequency.
We are all at the mercy of our evolutionary heritage. This is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the case of violent rage. Regardless of situation, in the modern world, responding with violent rage is almost never appropriate and almost always inadvisable. At best, it will get you jailed; at worst, it might well get you killed.
So why does it happen so often, and in response to seemingly trivial situations, given these stakes? Everyone is familiar with the frustrations of daily life that lead to these intense emotions such as road rage or when stuck in a long checkout line.
The reason is explored in “Why we snap” by Douglas Fields. Briefly, ancient circuitry in the hypothalamus is always on guard for trigger situations that correspond to prehistoric threats. Unless quenched by the prefrontal cortex, this dedicated sentinel system kicks in and produces a violent rage response to meet the threat. The book identifies 9 specific triggers that activate this system, although they arguably boil down to 3 existential threats in prehistoric life:
1) Existential threats to the (increasingly extended) physical self (attacks on oneself, mates, family, tribe)
2) Existential threats to the (increasingly extended) social self (insults against oneself, mates, family, tribe) and
3) Existential threats to the integrity of the territory that sustains these selves (being encroached on or being restrained from exploring one’s territory by others or having one’s resources taken from one’s territory).
Plausibly, these are not even independent – for instance, someone could interpret the territorial encroachment of a perceived inferior as an insult. Similarly, the withholding of resources, e.g. having a paper rejected despite an illustrious publication history could be taken as a personal insult.
Understood in this framework, deploying the “nuclear option” of violent rage so readily starts to make sense – the system thinks it is locked in a life and death struggle and goes all out, as those who could not best these situations perished from the earth long ago, along with their seed.
Of course, in the modern environment, almost none of these trigger situations still represent existential threats, even if they feel like it, such as being stuck at the post office.
In turn, maybe we need to start respecting the ancient circuitry that resides in all of us in order to make sense of seemingly irrational behavior, perhaps even incorporate our emerging understanding of these brain networks into public policy. In the case of violent rage, the stakes are high, namely preventing the disastrous outcomes of these behaviors that keep filling our prisons and that kill or maim the victims.
Read more: Unleashing the beast withinTAMIL Nadu is facing an unusual situation. The entire state has been badly affected by a severe drought the like of which has not been seen for over a hundred years. On account of the shortfall in rainfall, from both the South West and the North East monsoons, agriculture in Tamil Nadu has been badly hit. In particular, there has been neither a kuruvai crop (normally planted in mid June, harvested by October) nor a sambha crop (planted in August, harvested in January) of paddy in 2016 in the (Kaveri) delta region which includes the three districts of Thanjavur, Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur.
In districts where lift irrigation was used to raise crops, the water table has declined considerably. As a result, crops such as paddy, sugarcane, maize, ground nut and flowers have wilted and died for lack of water. Unable to bear the sight of their parched lands and wilted crops cultivated on the basis of money borrowed at high rates of interest, more than 200 peasants have committed suicide or died of shock and resultant heart failure. Agricultural labourers who depend on wage employment in crop cultivation for their livelihood are shocked and stunned by the crisis. They are in extreme poverty. The drinking water shortage has become very serious. In villages, town panchayats, municipalities and corporations, drinking water is supplied once in ten or even twenty days. The public distribution system, which should have provided succour to the people suffering loss of livelihoods and incomes, has been disrupted. For the last three months, the distribution of toor dal, urad dal and palm oil in ration shops as part of the scheme of special PDS has been stopped. Instead of 20 kilos of free rice, much less is being provided. In some ration shops, people are being compelled to take wheat instead of rice. In some districts, complaints have been received that no rice is being supplied.
The MNREGS is not being implemented properly in rural areas. There are wage arrears. Though the scheme is supposed to provide 100 days of employment, the days of employment have not gone past 45-50.
Even as the people of the state are reeling under the impact of the drought in many ways, the competition for power has reached its peak in the ruling party. Just as Emperor Nero was playing the fiddle when Rome was burning, the two factions, one led by Panneerselvam and the other by Palanisamy, are locked in a bitter fight to capture the leadership of the ruling party and of the government. Neither faction cares about the people. Sasikala, who is in prison having been sentenced to four years of imprisonment and debarred from contesting polls for ten years, is directing the Party and the government from inside the prison. Panneerselvam proclaims that he wishes to bring back the rule of Jayalalithaa, a person indicted by the Supreme Court for corruption. There has been such a terrible degeneration of politics in Tamil Nadu.
The DMK which is the party in the opposition behaved in an anti-democratic manner in the assembly session held on February 18. The DMK members behaved in an unacceptable manner in the assembly. The DMK leadership reckoned that, if the assembly is dissolved on account of violent incidents, their party can easily capture power very soon in the elections that will follow.
Though the entire state had been affected by drought, the AIADMK government announced the state as drought-hit only after several rounds of struggles by farmers’ organisations. The relief announced by the government is very meager and amounts to trying to satisfy the hunger of an elephant by giving it just one ear of corn.
The state government has sought Rs 39,000 crores from the centre as drought relief. While around 200 farmers have died either by suicide or from shock-induced heart attacks, the state government has sanctioned compensation only to 17 families. The government has announced that relief will be provided only to a maximum extent of five acres of crop cultivation. There is no difference of opinion between the Palanisamy and Panneerselvam factions in this regard.
In the name of implementing the Food Security Act in the state, the central government has divided the population into the two categories of priority and non-priority households, and reduced the supply of rice from the central pool. The drought affected state of Tamil Nadu is yet to receive financial assistance for drought relief. The demonetisation measure of the central government has affected all sections of the people in the state. The NEET examination for admission into medical colleges announced by the central government will severely affect the students of the state.
Against this background, campaigns were conducted in nine zones covering the entire state of Tamil Nadu by the Party with the slogan “Arise, Tamil Nadu”. The campaign which started on March 2 and ended on March 6 was carried out under the leadership of the state secretariat and state committee members. Prakash Karat took part in the public meeting held in Madurai on March 6 and Brinda Karat in the one held in Chennai on March 5. The campaign received broad popular support.
The issues of drought, the collapse of PDS, shortage of drinking water, unemployment, corruption and the NEET examination affecting students were explained to the people.
In the last twenty-five years, the natural resources of Tamil Nadu such as riverbed sand, mineral sand and granite are being plundered. The parties of DMK and AIADMK which have ruled the states in this period have been accomplices in the plunder.
The AIADMK ruled the state from 1991 to 1996 with Jayalalithaa as the leader. The Disproportionate Assets case against Jayalalithaa and three others pertained to the corrupt practices of that period. Indirakumari and Ponnusamy who were members of the cabinet under Jayalalithaa were convicted in corruption cases and went to jail.
A case of corruption was also filed against Selvaganapathy, who was then a minister in Jayalalithaa’s cabinet. While the case was in court, he joined the DMK and became a member of parliament. The Court where trial took place against him sentenced him to two years in jail. The appeal in this case is now pending in the courts.
In a statement released on the Supreme Court verdict in the Disproportionate Assets case against Jayalalithaa, Stalin had said: “The Supreme Court verdict is a very good lesson that those coming into politics must come with the mindset of serving the people and should not be greedy persons seeking to accumulate wealth through corruption. Political leaders should study the words of this judgment carefully to ensure the progress of the country and society in the future.”
This statement is welcome. But the DMK does not lag behind in involvement in corruption cases. The case against Dayanidhi Maran that he compelled the allocation of 400 telephone lines to SUN TV when he was a central minister is pending with the Courts.
When the Congress led alliance at the centre tried to conceal the massive corruption in 2G spectrum allocation, the investigation took place under the direct supervision of the Supreme Court. In the cases filed against A Raja of DMK who was then a central minister and Kanimozhi, member of parliament, arguments have been completed and judgment is awaited.
Ascension to power brings with it the possibility of corruption. Unless those coming into positions of power and their parties are firmly against corruption, it cannot be stopped or eliminated.
The CPI (M) has been continuously pointing out that the nexus of politicians, bureaucrats and corporate capital will remain a fount of corruption. The economic policy of neoliberalism has institutionalised corruption.
The plunder of granite, mineral sand and riverbed sand has been a continuing affair in Tamil Nadu. IAS officer Sahayam who investigated the granite scandal under the orders of Chennai High Court and submitted a report states in it that the government has suffered a loss of Rs 1,06,000 crores in the scam. His report also recommends that the CBI should inquire into this scam. But neither the ruling AIADMK nor the DMK leadership have taken note of this.
The Sahayam report has given details of the leases for granite mining awarded to contractors by the state governments between 1991 and 2014. Between 1991 and 2011, government orders have been issued sanctioning the lease of 175 granite quarries. Of these, 77 were issued between 2001 and 2006 when the AIADMK was in office. During the DMK rule from 2006 to 2011, 68 lease orders have been issued.
Everybody knows that in Tamil Nadu, irregularities are prevalent in the appointment to state government jobs, award of contracts, appointment of vice chancellors and so on. Such a situation has been created that, from the post of non meal scheme assistant to workers in the state bus transport organisations, no appointment will be made without money changing hands.
In the meeting of the Party state secretariat on March 10, the March 2-6 campaign was reviewed. The secretariat decided to conduct powerful campaigns and struggles at local levels on issues faced by the people including the impact of the drought.Lesson 15 The Nature of Memory
If memory, as a faculty of thought, pertains to mind, this is because souvenirs are thoughts that the subject posits as belonging to the past. Memory is exercised on the souvenir; it is its object. Yet memory is not just passive persistence. When the subject becomes aware of his past, he takes a distance and remembers. To remember is one of the mind’s particular intentional acts; it requires its own specific awareness so that the souvenir is distinguished from some weaker form of hallucination.
What is the significance of the souvenir’s position as reality? When a souvenir takes place I recognise a mental phenomenon taking place in the present, and yet I know it refers to a reality at once absent and belonging to the past. This supposes first of all that the souvenir has been fixed, then preserved, then recalled. What are the functions of memory? Is memory above all a conservation of the past? Is it essentially conservation or recollection of the past?
A. Time’s Imprint
Let us first consider the fixing of memories. Is it memory’s key event? To what extent are we aware of fixing a memory? Does fixing happen spontaneously or it is the result of a wilful effort?
Souvenirs fasten in several forms. When walking in the street I may cross someone; for a few seconds his face subsists in my mind, almost intact. After ten-odd seconds the image is gone and it is much more difficult to recall it. For a very brief moment an image accompanying a perception stuck to the mind. This phenomenon is called the remanence of perception, or immediate memory. It is a very slight fixing lasting only a brief moment. It can be likened to a very precise photograph of the stranger: his gait, his face, his clothes. Immediate memory is not hard to clarify. It comes together with perception in the uninterrupted flow of consciousness. We have already seen that in vigilance the mind is temporal, and this implies that perception and memory take place together. Were there no remanence of things perceived, then perception would have no stability, there would be no perceptive noema. The very dimension of perception includes memory; without memory there could be no perception.
Similarly, we experience that we can at will make an effort to fixate a piece of knowledge. Spontaneously we retain only a few figures: mostly, above six or eight we need to make an effort. This form of retention is the corollary of perception, its fleeting trace. Yet it is not enough to constitute a lasting memory. Can one therefore say that the retention of a memory requires an effort? In certain cases it does, notably when it comes to learning by heart. In the beginning one has to concentrate very hard; but after repeating again and again the same thing, one ends up retaining it. In order to memorise a partition for instance the musician repeats it until he no longer needs to make an effort in order to decipher it. The fingers go where they should, and it is then possible to omit all effort and lay one’s whole attention on the music; this way one’s interpretation can give music its soul. It is the interest one takes in an activity or a work which makes it effortless. We retain in depth whatever fascinates or enthrals us. We easily forget whatever exerts no attraction on our mind. The interest we take in anything depends on the quality of the pleasure and joy we get from it, because this quality that is joy spontaneously attracts the mind. Memory speedily obeys the heart, even though it is governed by intelligence. A sensitive keynote mobilises our attention and it is when our sensitivity is thus concentrated that retention is most efficient.
Retention can also be automatic to the point of becoming non-conscious. One has founded methods of learning on this principle. Hypnopaedia is a method using tape recording of say a text for listening during the night. This supposes that an automatic retention takes place unconsciously during sleep, and it seems to work moderately well. Putting a tape recorder beneath your pillow all night is said to help you learning because it enables an unconscious retention by memory. However this method is mechanical and unconscious, and therefore does not involve intelligence. Consequently it lacks liveliness and understanding.
Similarly the goal of commercial advertising is to condition the subconscious of the consumer so that he buy this or that goods. Think of the soporific music you hear in the background of super markets! No doubt it works, otherwise one would not invest such enormous sums in advertising. This method, like the one mentioned previously, has good results. Both generate unconscious retention, either in the form of knowledge, or in the form of an unconscious suggestion to desire.
The only intelligent retention is the one involving understanding; and the correlative of understanding is an attention given to the object. For instance if I have to learn a mathematics lesson, it is not hard for me to retain it if I have understood the reasoning. Intelligence is always there to make up for memory’s deficiencies, and help recover a logic which is absent when memory is purely mechanical. It is much harder for me to learn something by heart if I have not really understood it. Mechanical retention is not impossible, but it is very brittle and rather unintelligent. The intelligence of attention is the most important element involved in the fixation of a memory, when this memory pertains to knowledge.
There can be vigilance although understanding is partial. At life’s gravest moments, vigilance is extreme. What is then fixated is not easily forgotten. We then say that we have been “marked by an experience” or even that we are “haunted by memory”. There are images one wishes one could chase from one’s memory. However, this sort of fixation does not necessarily involve lucidity. That is why something experienced in duality and suffering marks you, like the wounds at the origin of emotional problems. Then we say that the past is present only as a trauma. It has not been wholly integrated by the subject’s consciousness, contrarily to what happens when experiences take place in full lucidity, without denial, flight or concealment.
Let us draw some conclusions. If there is such a thing as an unconscious fixation of memories, this means that unconscious memory extends well beyond conscious memory. Hence, according to Diderot, we would have an immense memory of which we are unaware. Similarly Bergson speaks of a total memory. The mind collects every instant of the past and integrates it to memory. Conscious experience takes place inside a field of consciousness enclosed by attention, but this field has margins. Retention in memory does not just involve attention and its limited lighting. It also includes material neglected by attention. Everything is there within us, we don’t forget anything we have experienced, everything appears to be preserved. Yet it is not easy to recall whatever was fixated in the past. It is not because you cannot remember something that the details of this experience have not been engraved in your memory. Dreaming sometimes reveals that some souvenirs one believed to be forgotten are still there. They manifest in striking images from the past. Hypnosis shows as well that it is possible, through suggestion, to have a person sunk in sleep, and recover elements in his memory which are unavailable to him in the waking state. The results obtained in hypnosis are sufficiently significant to show that the hypothesis of a memory retaining the totality of experience is not a gratuitous idea, but a reality. Our mind is active in perception beyond what we experience as our present activity. It retains all our impressions.
Voluntary fixation is possible only on the basis of a spontaneous fixation, one we also encounter in animals. While unconscious retention is automatic, voluntary fixation involves an intentional effort. This effort would not be sufficient on its own. Straining vigorously during learning yields only mediocre results. What is really efficient in learning is a sincere motivation of the learning mind. Motivation is more efficient because it rests on interest and because it is not imposed from outside. We can spend hours learning whatever fascinates us without finding it difficult. This interest does not derive just from the thing itself but pertains above all to our own desire, to our passion. Passion is the spiritual well which perpetually feeds our interest. It is the life and youth of the mind. An alert mind can take an interest in all things and consequently it can learn anything. Without this alertness what could it obtain? Alertness renews one’s interest in something, this interest takes the form of vigilant attention, attention perceives an order, put things in relation to one another and retains this order.
B. Saving Memories.
1) Now, in what sense can one speak of a conservation of memories? The most basic answer consists in using a simple model: a memory is preserved in the same manner as an imprint, which can be kept once it has been made in wax. Once the seal of the ring has been imprinted, it is enough to keep the wax in a box in order to keep the imprint. If we want to keep this analogy and interpret it from a materialistic standpoint, we will say that our senses are the wax, that experience is the ring and that the imprint is a kind of deposit somewhere in the brain. The brain would then be a sort of archive file with drawers or a filing cabinet. This is how the XIXth century used to view the different regions of memory. It is the sort of doctrine one found then in the theses of T. Ribot. One regarded this as proven because if one removed a section of the subject’s brain, he could no longer remember; whence the idea that the memory must have been located in the ablated section. Before Ribot, Descartes partly adhered to this doctrine: the “confuse sensations leave some of their traces in the brain and they remain there the entire life”. However, for the analogy to work we would have to consider that a “thing” called memory could be filed in another “thing” called brain, in a certain drawer that corresponds to it. But is a memory a thing? Would a memory not rather essentially be a moment of a mind’s consciousness? The brain itself, being as it were at the service of consciousness, can it be understood as a thing? The term conservation of a memory must be understood to have a very particular sense when we speak of the mind. One does not keep memories like one does postcards in a box. What does it mean to speak of the non-material conservation of the past?
2) A memory is inside consciousness itself. Memory is one of the attributes of consciousness and the entity which exercises the faculties of consciousness is the mind. The answer to the question “Where are memories kept?” is necessarily: in the mind. It is impossible to think of the self while omitting its conscious continuity, its memory, just as it is unthinkable to try to imagine waking consciousness without duration in time. Memory belongs to the very nature of the ego. Yet what is the relation between consciousness and what one presents as a container of memories, the brain? There must be some kind of relationship between consciousness and the world which takes place on the material plane via the brain. Any living being automatically records its past in the form of the memory of habit; this is the kind of memory which is pure and simple repetition. This blind and primitive memory accompanies the most immediate forms of consciousness that we find in life’s most elementary manifestations. Memory as habit is connected to the attention to life. However, in addition to this form of memory relating to a network of actions and reactions, there is another form of memory, memory as souvenirs found on the level of consciousness. Descartes is aware of it when writing: “ I admit of a double influence of memory”…”in addition to the memory depending on the body, I perceive another memory, truly intellectual which depends on the soul only.” What is characteristic of souvenirs is that they can be consciously identified as mine. All recollections are personal, there could not be an impersonal recollection. While physiological memory is a mere imprint made upon the body, the intellectual memory recognises the past. Habit is unconscious, true memory is conscious, it enables one to recognise it. A recollection, because it includes a very complex conscious continuity, could not be contained in images scattered in drawers. Memory makes sense only as a spiritual totality, the total history of the self from which it cannot be dissociated. A recollection must be preserved in the same way as the mind itself is preserved and not otherwise, and this conservation is reflected in the manner in which mind exists as continuous in duration.
What about this recollection-recipient then we call brain? What part can it play in recollecting? More specifically, what happens when a part of the brain is destroyed? Bergson understood this very well. If the brain is altered, then the organ coordinating action is altered, which entails that memory as habit, serving the needs of action and adaptation to life, is immediately altered. And it is here that one discovers the correlation between the two forms of memory. Memory as habit is connected with the field of action and therefore also to the field of vigilance. The recollection which resides in the mind is also in the subconscious. The conscious region is directly dependent on the subject’s adaptation to the world which takes place through habit. From there it results that if the souvenir is to be recalled it must necessarily journey through the subconscious layers of the mind and lean on memory as habit. When memory as habit is partially destroyed then the subject finds itself incapable of recalling the souvenir. If a sick person has lost his ability to consciously evoke a souvenir, this does not in itself entail that he has forgotten everything and kept nothing. He struggles to recover a name for instance, a word, but the mechanisms of recollection are no longer there; it looks like if had lost his memory. In fact in aphasic people who have lost the memory of articulate speech following a lesion in the brain in the area relating to language (left hemisphere) memory can be re-educated. One observes that the brain possesses an astonishing faculty called vicariance of functions. The right hemisphere can be substituted
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: design-based research (Barab & Squire, 2004; Brown, 1992;
Collins, Joseph & Bielaczyc, 2004) and rapid-prototyping (Tripp & Bichelmeyer, 1990).
While there is overlap between these two models, the main design principles fore-
grounded were: (1) get local stakeholders (educational researchers, teachers, students,
etc.) involved in the design process as “co-designers”; (2) use rapid prototyping in order
to get early and ongoing feedback from stakeholders (Tripp & Bichelmeyer, 1990); (3)
test the design decisions, learning goals, and hypotheses in natural settings (i.e., schools,
classrooms, and game or fieldtrip sites) across numerous iterative cycles with the aim of
developing domain specific understandings; and (4) use each iterations to modify the
design of the game/curriculum and the theoretical frameworks used to conceptualize the
learning that took place (or didn’t take place).
To date, the design of Dow Day includes three iterative design phases that looked
at the interplay between the core game design principles (e.g., role, challenge, resources),
student engagement, and students’ capacity to use historical empathy as part of the
inquiry process. The first and second iterations are briefly presented here in order to
contextualize the third iteration, which is the main focus of this article.
Phase One – Proof of Concept: The main goal of this iteration was to get
the mobile devices in the hands of students in order to see how they
responded to both the technology itself, the user interface and the game
content/challenges. One goal was to identify major flaws in the game
interface and make broad assessments related to student engagement and
historical reasoning. Changes were made at this point to make the game
play more intuitive, integrate more video, and reduce the amount of text.
7. A key consideration was looking at game flow and tracking students’
interest levels as the game unfolded.
Phase Two – Historical Thinking: This iteration looked more closely at
whether Dow Day might prove useful as a context/learning environment
for developing students’ historical inquiry skills. The focus here was to
look at students’ general engagement, but also their willingness to “dig
into” additional resources related to the event and/or historical time period
(e.g., to what extent would they be interested in reading additional
documents outside of the game?). This phase also began to explore the
students’ ability to critically analyze primary documents, use historical
empathy, and develop evidence-based arguments. The key results, which
align with previous research surrounding students’ use of heuristics and
historical empathy were: (1) students were interested in the central
historical problem and motivated to complete the game tasks; (2) by
completing the game activities students were able to recognize and explain
different perspectives surrounding the events, albeit at generalized levels;
(3) students exhibited limited understanding of how to critically use, read
and interpret historical evidence in order to develop historical arguments;
and (4) the students understanding of the historical context was not very
deep, which made it difficult for them to use historical empathy. When
used as a starting point for further questions, however, the game provided
a context for challenging students to think about how their own
perspective(s) shaped their inquiry and interpretations. It also provided a
context for students to explore some of the underlying ethical and moral
issues surrounding and the decisions that individuals and groups made.
Phase Three – Curriculum Integration: Based on findings from the second
iteration, the game was re-designed with the primary goal of encouraging
students to think more critically about the complexities of the time period,
the actors and their actions, and the consequences of these actions. The
changes for phase three were based on findings from phase two, and on
the research surrounding historical empathy and game-based learning. The
key changes included: (1) embedding the game into a larger inquiry unit;
(2) introducing additional contextual information related to the historical
time period and the chronology of events; (3) providing students with
additional resources/evidence representing a wider range of perspectives;
(4) building in more opportunities for students to formally report out their
findings and emergent thinking; (5) integrating instruction/scaffolding to
support students’ ability to analyze historical documents; and (6)
introducing additional contextual information related to the historical time
period and the historical actors.
Dow Day was developed, piloted, and implemented across the three design
iterations mentioned above, each involving a different group of high school students.
8. While I consulted with history teachers when developing the initial design, to date, I have
served as the lead facilitator during each of the interventions. The changes made to the
game and curriculum as a result of this current study, however, will be organized in a
way that will allow teachers to use them in their own classrooms. At that point the
research agenda and theoretical context will be expanding to look at ways that teachers
take up the materials and make use of them to meet their own local needs, perspective,
teaching style, etc.
The third iteration started with ten eleventh and twelfth-grade students from a
small alternative high school in a suburban school district. One of the students, however,
switched to a new school during the study, so data gathered about her was not analyzed
for this study. The nine students in the study included in the analysis include two African-
American students (the only two females), one Hispanic student, and six Caucasian
students. All of the students struggled in traditional school settings for a variety of
reasons. This was the case in History, where seven of the students failed at least one
semester of U.S. History. Only one student reported History as their favorite subject. Six
of the students agreed or strongly agreed that it was important to study history in school,
but only half of those thought that students should be required to pass a U.S. History
course in order to graduate.
The Game and Curriculum Intervention
The game itself, which takes approximately 1.5 hours to play, is designed to be
part of a larger inquiry-based unit. The broader curriculum contains additional resources
(primary and secondary documents) that support and expand what the students learn in
the game. For example, additional contextual information intended to deepen the
students’ understanding of the historical context and chronology. The curriculum utilizes
guide sheets to scaffold students’ analysis of the documents as evidence. The analysis
guides provide a simple framework for helping students practice using sourcing,
corroboration, and contextualization heuristics (Wineburg, 1991; Nokes, Dole, & Hacker,
During the unit, students: (1) read and analyze documents (newspaper articles,
photographs, charts, graphs, and video clips) that provide an initial contextual
understanding of the historical time period from both a local and national perspective; (2)
begin a journal of questions and thoughts that they will use throughout the unit; (3) travel
to the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus in order to play the game at the actual
location where various protest activities took place; (4) select and analyze additional
historical documents representing a range of perspectives; (5) write a newspaper article
based on the observations and interviews they conducted during the protests; and (6)
participate in a game critique session and make suggestions for how the game and
curriculum could be improved.
Data Sources and Analysis
Key data sources include the artifacts students created during the unit (e.g.,
photographs they took during the game/site visit, notes, and articles they wrote at the end
of the unit), pre- and post-surveys, pre- and post-historical inquiry tasks (e.g., asking
students to analyze an historical document), classroom and in-game discussions and
9. Students’ historical empathy was analyzed using the work of Jensen (2008),
Downey (1995), and Kohlmeier (2006). As such, I looked at the students’ ability to do
the following: (1) recognize that the past is different from the present; (2) understand the
context under which the historical events took place; (3) recognize that there are various
perspectives from the past; and (4) use historical evidence when making arguments
and/or writing their newspaper accounts. I also added a fifth component which looked for
students ability to recognize that their own perspective shapes(-ed) the way they look at
historical evidence and contexts. I attempted to track these identifiers over the course of
the unit in order to identify shifts in students’ ability to think more complexly about the
events and demonstrate historical empathy, especially in relation to particular design
elements. I followed a similar process in analyzing students’ engagement, but focused my
analysis on students’ self-assessments, time off task, increases and decreases in
participation and willingness to complete specific tasks, and the general thoroughness of
Dow Day: A Place-based Augmented Reality Game
The intent of this section of the paper is to provide readers with a sense of how
the game is played. Players start the game by receiving two primary documents. The first
is an excerpt from a newspaper that lists all of the interviews scheduled on campus on the
day the game takes place (October 18, 1967). Noticeably, Dow Chemical is only one of
many companies conducting interviews on campus that day. Why have they been singled
out? The second is a copy of the front page from the Daily Cardinal, a student paper that
highlights some of the key players and perspectives surrounding the planned protests.
The headlines of the paper read, “U Promises Crack-down On Dow Co. Obstructors,”
“SRP Defeats Dow Protest Proposal” and “U Activists Disagree On Demonstrations”
(The Daily Cardinal, 1967). Together, these documents are designed to provide a context
for the protests, create some initial entry points into the simulated time period, frame the
campus as a contested space, and introduce students to the idea that the anti-Dow protests
and the university’s official response were publicly and privately debated, multi-faceted,
and not inevitable. This last point is critical in that our pre-interviews showed that before
playing the game most students (even those who had previously studied the Vietnam War
in school) held solidly black-and-white views of the time period and anti-war protests in
After reading these documents players are given a GPS-equipped PDA with the
game already loaded and paused on the start-up screen. As soon as they tap the start
button players are presented with a brief introductory video and a one-paragraph
introductory text. The short video provides additional background on Dow Chemical and
highlights some of the events leading up to October 18th, including archival footage of
anti-Dow and pro-Dow protests that occurred on campus the day before. The video also
includes short interview clips introducing some of the key characters that players meet
later in the game including; the chief of the university police force, the chancellor, a Dow
Chemical supporter, and students opposed to Dow’s presence on campus. From a
narrative standpoint the goal is to draw players into the emotion surrounding the conflict,
reconfirm the multiple perspectives surrounding the event, and build-up initial suspense.
10. Figure 1. Screen Capture: Introductory Figure 2. Screen Capture: Game map
Upon exiting the introduction, a map of the campus appears on the player’s
screen. Players are informed that they are represented by a red triangle and told that the
people they are expected to interact with in the game are represented by yellow squares.
Finally, they are told that the things characters tell them in the game and the game objects
that appear on the map will provide clues for what steps or actions to take next. With that,
the players are given the green light to begin exploring the game space.
The first game character players see on their map is the editor of the newspaper
they work for. By walking to the square representing the editor’s location in the physical
world the players activate (or trigger) a virtual interview with him. The editor is a
fictitious character who introduces the players to their overall game task (conducting
interviews and writing an article in time for the evening paper) and gives them their first
quest or micro-challenge. Both of these are delivered via a text-based dialog box.
During their “conversation” with the editor he directs their attention across the
street to where one of the Dow Chemical recruiters is walking on his way to an interview.
The editor says:
Hey wait! See that guy across the street in Library Mall? No, the one
with the black overcoat. He is one of the Dow representatives. I ran into
him yesterday, but he did not have time for an interview. He is talking to
one of the reporters from the Daily Cardinal. Why don't you run over
there and see if you can get any information out of him. When you're
done don't forget to head up to the Chancellor's office. Hurry and we'll
see you later. Good Luck.
11. Interestingly, it is not uncommon for players to look across the street in an
attempt to see the recruiter, who of course, is not physically there. Instead, the recruiter is
represented on the game map as a new (and previously invisible) yellow square. As
players walk across the street to interview the recruiter, they see their own icon (the red
triangle) moving across the map in the same direction they are walking. Once the player
is within range of the recruiter (a pre-determined distance manually set by the game
designer), the player hears a chime and the interview dialog box appears along with a
picture of the recruiter. As before, after completing their interview the player’s screen
returns to the map view and several new locations/characters appear. The game proceeds
in this manner as players navigate the map based on the locations they want to visit and
the people they want to interview. Players are not required to take notes during the game
because all of the data (including photos, video, documents, and interviews) they gather
or unlock during the game is stored on the handheld and easily retrievable. Players can
also share content they gather in the game with other players by using the IR-beaming
capabilities built into the devices.
In addition to conducting virtual interviews the players can also gather virtual
documents (flyers, press releases, etc.) via the handheld computer and physical
documents that have been placed in physical locations around campus. The content in the
game consists mainly of primary documents and archival video and photos. Interview
text is built from original newspaper accounts, oral interviews, and official documents
released by the university, student groups, police agencies, and the state legislature. The
types of content players encounter in the game includes:
1) Game Map - The map helps establish a physical setting for the narrative and sets
the spatial boundaries of the game. As a game tool, it also helps players navigate
the physical game space (e.g., the map helps them identify key buildings
mentioned in the interviews and game documents).
2) Game Text – Text appears in the game as: (a) Interview text (pre-scripted virtual
interviews that players trigger during the game); (b) In-game directions (e.g.,
“enter the building and head down the hallway to your left”) that help guide
students actions; and (c) Descriptions. Descriptive text is primarily inserted into
the game as a narrative element when no video is available to communicate the
same idea. It might include something like, “As you walk into the building you
hear a loud commotion coming from the next hallway over.” It is also used (much
in the same way the text was used in early text-based games) to encourage players
to take certain actions without explicitly directing them to do so. In the example
above, after reading the text, players head around the corner in order to find out
what the commotion is all about.
3) Physical Environment and Spatial Layout - The physical world (e.g., buildings,
university students, sidewalks, hallways, spatial layout of buildings, etc.) is
important to the experience because it helps situate the story, provides continuity
between the past and the present, and increases the level of authenticity. Walking
in the physical world facilitates historical imagination by helping players imagine
how the place might have looked in 1968. In combination, the physical world not
12. only helps immerse players in the simulation, it also merges the simulated world
into the physical world and vice versa. (Holland, Squire, & Jenkins, 2003).
4) Real-World Text – This is part of the physical environment mentioned above, but
specifically refers to signage and other text posted around campus (e.g., names on
buildings, signs above office doors, etc.) that help players navigate the space. This
can provide additional content for understanding the nature of the protests and
adds to the authenticity of the game. Players also have the opportunity to
encounter four historical markers erected by the university that relate the specific
time period or concepts that appear in the game (e.g., there is a historical marker
related to anti-war protests on campus along the game route that many students
read that marks the death of a student that resulted from a bombing that took place
on the campus during the Vietnam War).
5) Photos, Video and Audio – The game takes advantage of multimedia capacities of
the handheld computers to represent the content across modes. There are photos
for each character the players interview and there are videos at a majority of the
locations that show players the events as they unfold in front of them. The video
is primarily archival footage that was shot in the same location where it appears in
the game. So, as players stand in the same hallway the protestors occupied in
attempt to disrupt the interviews, they watch footage of the hallway as it looked
when it was filled with protestors. Similarly, students stand at the front doors of
the same building when police arrive in riot gear and watch as the protestors are
6) Virtual Documents – These are documents delivered on the handheld computer.
They are usually handed to the player by a particular character in the game. For
example, if players decide to interview one particular protestor early on in the
game he hands them a flyer containing information about the protests. Like all of
the documents in the game, the flyer is a reproduction of an original document
from the time period.
7) Physical Documents – These are similar to the virtual documents, but they are left
for the players to encounter in the physical world. There are two times in the
game where students read actual hard copies of documents. One is a press release
from the chancellor of the university that players obtain in front of the
chancellor’s office when they attempt to interview him. The second is a map they
get when entering the building where the protests took place.
8) Informal Interactions with Non-Players – Occasionally, players will interact with
people who are not playing the game. These interactions include, people asking
questions about what the players are doing, players asking non-players for
directions to a particular campus building, students getting caught in hallways or
sidewalks just as classes are let out, and people discussing the content of the game
with students. This last example, while rare, can be especially rewarding because
it provides students with a first-person perspective on the events. In one case, a
13. group of students playing Dow Day came across two university students setting
up an anti-Iraq war display on campus. This impromptu meeting helped the
students raise questions about anti-Iraq War protests on campus and encouraged
them to make connections between current and historical events on campus.
As mentioned earlier, the players do not access the game content as if they were
simply taking a walking tour of the area. Instead, they access content as a reporter
charged with investigating the events as they unfold in real time. It is this combination of
media-rich, location-based content intertwined with the game structure that shapes
players’ experiences. Henry Jenkins (2003) uses the term “memorable moments” to
describe the logic by which games operate. Jenkins argues that aesthetically, games are
less about telling formal stories, and more about setting up interactions that result in
memorable moments for the player. The design attempts to facilitate these types of
experiences by using multimedia and place to link players with the past. For example,
allowing players to watch video footage of demonstrations that occurred in the same
location where they are standing, helps elicit emotional reactions from them. These
moments increase players’ role identity, make the game challenges and overall narrative
seem more authentic, and promote a sense of being there. (Squire, et al., 2007).
Findings and Discussion
By analyzing each of the students’ work across the unit, I was able to identify
some individual and collective patterns related to their engagement, ability to analyze
historical documents, and capacity to use historical empathy. I begin here by pulling
together some of the key themes that emerged. I then turn to individual cases as a way to
exemplify and contextualize my broad findings and introduce some additional themes
that impacted individual students’ capacity to use historical empathy.
Consistent with earlier iterations of the game, all nine of the students exhibited
and self-reported a high level of engagement when playing the game. Students mentioned
that the game was more “active”, “fun”, “interesting”, and “interactive” than the way they
usually studied history in school. A consistent theme was that students mentioned the
game-like qualities of the experience, including the role-based design, narrative structure,
and game-like challenges as being important to their experience. One student said,
“[playing the game] was a really good way to learn about the protests because it was very
engaging. I really enjoyed how it tried to pull you into the game as a person with a
specific role in the game. Getting to feel like you were really part of the event by having
a role in the game.” He added that, “it was a good way to learn because it lets you be
active in a game world and it’s not boring. You could explore it in the way you wanted
to”. Another student said that he “liked it better than reading out of a textbook or sitting
and listening to someone explain it. I was interacting with it, like I was a part of it.” Still
another student said that she liked “how it follows the story. It makes you want to go to
the next person to learn more about what it is and how they handle it.”
This does not mean that the students considered Dow Day to be in the same
14. league as commercial video games. Still, they described Dow Day as being game-like and
in some instances, discussed it using gaming terminology. In addition, for some of the
students, the game-like qualities of the experience amplified their interest. This might
suggest that taking on a role, completing quests or challenges, interacting with non-
playing characters (NPCs), and navigating a game space is a model and experience that
makes sense and resonates with some learners. It should be noted that eight of the nine
students considered themselves gamers with extensive experience playing video games.
The most common criticism of the game was that it included too much reading.
As part of their re-design plan three of the students suggested including more videos and
providing audio that read the text out loud. A couple of students also suggested that the
game interface should be changed, so that students could not skip through the readings so
easily. These suggestions, along with the students’ comments on surveys and during
interviews suggest that the students did not consistently read the game content during the
game. It is important to note, however, that all of the students returned to the game text
and videos in order to write their article. In this way, the initial game experience provided
a general context for the inquiry, introduced the students to the multiple perspectives
surrounding the events, and helped them generate micro-inquiry questions (via their
journaling and informal discussions). It also sparked their curiosity and engaged them on
an emotional level.
The increased motivational capital created opportunities for developing students’
historical empathy because it encouraged them to read and analyze a wider range of
primary and secondary resources, which in turn exposed them to more perspectives and
encouraged them to see the complexity within similar perspectives. This follows Brush
and Saye’s (2008) argument that problem-based learning “requires learners to remain
engaged in the problem for an extensive period of time, and to weigh competing
perspectives, or critically examine various points of view regarding the historical
problem.” Reading more was important because students encountered more perspectives
and detailed information about the context were more likely to develop nuanced views of
the events. They were also more likely to encounter and more points that that facilitated
cognitive dissonance. Both of these are related to Roger’s (as cited in Foster, 2001,
p.172) notion of “enabling knowledge”.
One design choice that worked to maintain students’ engagement and scaffold
their analysis and empathetic thinking was dividing the game into multiple parts. Each of
the parts was supplemented with a debriefing session (question and answer session /
discussion), journaling, and structured document analysis. This break allowed students an
opportunity to return to some of the material in order to dig in a bit more deeply. It also
provided an opportunity to analyze the historical evidence they gathered in the game.
This strategy seems to have worked on two levels: (1) it provided an opportunity to check
students’ understanding before they got too far along in the inquiry process, and (2) it
spread their interest in the game over a longer period of time. For example, a couple of
students commented that this approach kept them interested because they were eager to
interview more people in order to see how the events unfolded.
This strategy speaks to one of the challenges of game and curriculum design -
creating a flow that keeps students emotionally engaged while also challenging them to
think more deeply about the content and use the skills (i.e, historical empathy and
document analysis) that the game is built around. This also relates to Foster’s (2001)
15. suggestion that interventions should scaffold and guide students’ inquiry without
drowning them in information or limiting their ability to explore the problem space. In
this case, the game seems to have worked as an introductory experience that motivated
the students, albeit to different extents and for different reasons, to stay interested in
doing the difficult work of analyzing the documents that were the centerpiece of the post-
Historical Thinking / Historical Empathy
Overall, but to varying degrees, each of the students demonstrated some growth in
their capacity to analyze historical documents and use empathic thinking to make sense
of the historical content, actors, actions, and consequences. Consistent with previous
studies related to historical empathy, however, this depended on multiple variables,
including: the students’ past experiences and practice using historical heuristics to
analyze historical documents; their personal positions, perspectives and interests; and
their preconceptions and preexisting knowledge related to the time period under study
(Davis, Yeager, & Foster, 2001).
All of the students demonstrated an ability to identify various perspectives
surrounding the events. This was demonstrated in their discussions, journals, document
analyses, and final newspaper article. In addition, the students’ understanding of these
perspectives was strengthened as they came into contact with additional resources,
especially those that presented conflicting perspectives. For example, at the start of the
unit, most of the students talked about the participants as four distinct groups: students,
university officials, police, and Dow Chemical Co./Dow recruiters. By the end of the unit
each of the students demonstrated an awareness that these groups could be divided into
further sub-perspectives. For example, all of the students recognized that there was
disagreement within the student body as to whether or not to hold the protests. They also
recognized that there was disagreement amongst the protestors as to whether or not to use
more aggressive techniques to stop the interviews.
Students were also increasingly able to use critical reading skills in order to
analyze historical documents and accounts related to the events and showed increased
capacity to look for bias or point of view across and within documents. For example, on a
very basic level, all of the students made comments or wrote things that demonstrated
their awareness that a particular perspective someone held might impact the way they
perceived and subsequently reported on the events. Students also made attempts to
corroborate accounts and evidence across documents and used this technique to develop a
more nuanced view of the historical context and chronology. They also became more
capable of using evidence and counter-evidence to support their own arguments. This
increased capacity to use sourcing and corroboration heuristics was primarily a result of
the structured reading guides provided as part of the curriculum. It was also heightened
for those students who had more pieces of evidence available to them as a result of
reading and analyzing more historical documents.
None of these developments were dramatic or consistently exhibited or applied. In
addition, the students failed to make gains in some other key areas associated with
historical empathy. For example, there was little development in the students’ ability to
see the past as different from the present or recognize (at least without prompting) that
their own perspective and position impacted the way they interpreted the historical
16. events. All of the students also relied heavily on processing the events from a position
rooted in the present (Barton & Levtstik, 2004). Generally speaking, the students also
made little growth in their understanding of history as an interpretive act or explicitly
recognized that their conclusions were tenuous. While they recognized that different
historical actors could have different perspectives, they were less cognizant of the notion
that different historians could interpret the events differently. Even the students who
consistently referred to textbooks as biased or interpretative texts, inconsistently applied
an interpretivist epistemology to the tasks and problem at hand. Students were also not
explicitly aware of their own acts of interpretation. Most ironically perhaps, the students
did not recognize the game itself (at least not while playing it), as an historical
interpretation with its own inherent biases.
The task of writing a newspaper article was one strategy that helped separate
students from their own perspective and build evidence-based claims. The students were
more likely to rely on evidence and explore the events from multiple perspectives. This
came primarily as a result of students’ perception that the newspaper article had to be
“neutral”. One danger of this approach is that it can potentially guide students towards a
belief that newspapers and journalists are bearers of an “official” and non-interpretive
(i.e., “just the facts”) truth. I sought to address this by: (1) asking the students to produce
mock-ups of stories from multiple perspectives; (2) exposing them to multiple
interpretations of the events from different news sources, and (3) holding whole group
discussions about journalistic interpretation and bias.
While this was not related to my initial research questions, one theme that
emerged during the study was students’ interest in discussing and reflecting on the ethical
and moral positions at play. Initially these evolved from students’ own perspectives and
experiences. As the unit progressed and students analyzed more historical resources, their
ability to identify and extract the ethical issues at play increased. Their understanding of
these issues, however, mostly remained universalized or de-contextualized from the
specific historical context. Still, by the end of the unit most of the students saw the ethical
and moral issues in more complex ways.
The following student profiles are designed to exemplify and contextualize some of
the broader points made in the previous sections. The cases also highlight differences in
the way that students approached the historical problem and suggest some key design
elements that might be missing from the game/curriculum.
Student One: Kristin
Before the unit, Kristin stated that she found studying history in school boring and
not relevant to her life. She also listed History as her least favorite subject, in part
because her teachers traditionally relied on textbooks to teach. Kristin considered herself
a good reader and said that she read a lot outside of school, but was not interested in
reading books or watching television shows about history. She also did not play video
games outside of school. The most interesting aspect of the curriculum for Kristin was
watching archival video clips. She reported that the game content and game experience
engaged her and said that she liked role-playing as a journalist. She also said that the
game was easier to read and understand than a textbook and felt that she collected and
17. remembered a lot more information than if she had studied the content from a textbook.
Kristin completed all of the game tasks and the associated activities, but she reported
slightly lower interest in the game than other students. While she completed the article,
Kristin found it difficult to do so. She attributed part of this to not knowing how to write
a newspaper article and not feeling completely engaged in the activity. When given the
chance to write an opinion piece, however, Kristin found it easier to write the article. In
the end, she wrote an article that presented an interpretation of the events based on some
of the evidence she gathered, especially evidence gleaned from the virtual interviews and
video clips. She ended the article by stating her own opinion. While her work was more
thorough than any of the other students, by the end of the unit Kristin was saturated with
the experience, and ready to move onto something else.
In order track Kristin’s thinking during the unit I looked at her journal, her
document analysis sheets, and her final article. I also interviewed her at several points
and observed her conversations with classmates. Below are the notes that Kristin
recorded in her journal.
Notes From Part One:
I don’t understand why they are protesting. Where does this happen? UW-Madison. Who are the
people getting interviewed? What is Dow exactly offering? Jobs? Students don’t want Dow on campus.
Notes Form Part Two:
Protesting Dow. Who wants to come for job interviews? Dow makes stuff that kills people in wars.
People want them to come. My opinion is that they should be allowed to come. It’s as much their right
to be there as all of the other companies. If people don’t want them there they should just not interview
and maybe inform people with posters and flyers about what Dow is and why they don’t like them.
Obviously, if that many people protest no one would be interviewing for the job, so why make such a
big deal about it?
• It says that it is in fact students who are starting problems when they don’t let
people walk through the halls even when they are reminded the rules.
• No one talks about how Dow does other things besides napalm and how there
are other interviews for the government
• A UW student leader said sit-ins would stop if Dow left, but that’s not
happening. All of the students know they might be arrested. I still think it’s their
fault that things got violent.
• After seeing the violent videos I believe everyone is at fault. The police
shouldn’t have been beating people so terribly just because they wouldn’t move,
but the people should have listened to the authority members and walked out.
But, because people were so violent people were violent back to protect
• A police officer, very biased, said police tried defending themselves. The only
way to know is to see a video of when police entered. Who was violent first?
In an interview after the game Kristin explained her interpretation for why the
protests turned violent:
18. I think that the protestors have a right to express how they feel and speak
their mind, but I think that they over did it a lot and went too far with it.
But, I think that the police were too violent and they didn’t really need to
get that far. So, it’s hard to say who started it in the first place. When the
police first went in there some people were saying that the police started
getting violent first and then the police were saying that the kids were
violent first. So, it is really hard to say. My opinion at first was that the
students were doing the right thing, but after more information my opinion
changed and I kind of thought that the protesting wasn’t that necessary. I
feel like Dow has a right to be there, so they can’t really stop that from
Given her underdeveloped understanding of the time period and the specific
dynamics and circumstances on the UW-Madison campus it seems unreasonable that
Kristin would have developed a more nuanced interpretation of why the events turned
violent. However, she is beginning to ask questions about people’s motivations, point of
view, and actions. In addition, while drawing conclusions, Kristin recognizes these as
tentative and suggests that she needs more information in order to make a final
assessment of the situation. She also brings in evidence from the game text to support her
reasoning. For example, she quotes one of the student leaders and uses the video footage
as evidence. However, the only time that Kristin raises questions regarding someone’s
interpretation of the events is when she writes that the police officer was “very biased”.
Kristin seems to value eyewitness accounts over other evidence when developing
arguments. She also holds a relativist epistemology that suggests that history consists of
people’s opinions of what happened.
After the game, Kristin along with the other students were asked to choose
additional resources that interested them or got them closer to understanding why the
events turned violent. They were given access to ten documents (e.g., photos, newspaper
accounts, maps, flyers, official reports, meeting notes, video interviews, diaries, etc.)
each representing various perspectives, but were only required to select four. This
approach was aimed at increasing students’ choice and challenging them to prioritize
evidence and resources that would best help them develop some conclusions (Foster,
The first document that Kristin chose was a flyer put out by a group of students
attempting to organize a university-wide strike in response to the violence used against
the demonstrators. Kristin started her analysis by stating that the flyer is from the
Committee for Student Rights and suggests that they are in favor of going on strike. She
then suggested that the document was biased because “they don’t see the point of view
from Dow or from the people who work at the university.” She also noted that while it
does not have
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people love to
talk about the weather, if you hadn’t realised yet!
You can also ask another question, such as:
How was your day? How’s your day going? How was your weekend?
If you’re more
confident, or you know more about the person you’re talking to, you can go into more detail and ask them more specific questions. For example: How was your trip to Madrid last weekend? Did you watch the football last night? Is your brother visiting you next week, or is it the week after?
Now, you should know how to greet people, how to ask and answer how are you in different ways, and how to
continue the conversation.
Let’s see how you can put everything together.
5.Putting it All Together G: Hey, how are things? O: I’m good thanks, but a little tired today: busy at work. How about you? G: I’m well, but I’ve got a lot at work too. How was your trip to Madrid last weekend? O: Fantastic! It’s a really great city. What did you do last weekend? G: Nothing much, just relaxed on the beach! O: Very nice!
O: Hi, what’s new? G: Not much, you? O: Yeah, alright. G: You look a bit tired. O: Yeah, I didn’t sleep well last night. G: Oh no, why not? O: My neighbours had a big party and it was really loud. G: I hate it when people do that. O: Yeah, me too. Anyway, how’s your day going?
Now, it’s your turn to practice!
Imagine somebody asks how are you? Can you write down five possible things you could say? Pause the video and write down your answers now.
Ready? Let’s look. Of course, there are more than five possible answers. These are just suggestions:
I’m good. I’m pretty good. Not bad. A little bit tired. Great, thanks!
And what about different ways to ask how are you? What can you say? Pause the video and write down five different ways to ask this question.
OK? Again, these are just suggestions. There are many possibilities!
How’s it going? How’re you doing? What’s up? How’s life? How’re things?
And what do you do next? Do you stop talking? No; keep going! Ask a question or make a statement to continue the conversation.
Thanks for watching!Click the figure to expand.
It took a decade of deliberation, many hours of talks, and one late night huddled in a basement meeting room at the United Nations in New York, but in the early morning of Jan. 24, members of a working group set up to make recommendations to the U.N. General Assembly reached a consensus. They agreed to begin negotiating the first treaty that specifically addresses protection of marine life in an area that covers nearly half of the planet—those ocean waters beyond national jurisdiction.
This is a big moment for what are known as the high seas. These waters are filled with highly diverse marine life and provide critical pathways for shipping goods efficiently. And they produce oxygen that contributes to every second breath we take. But collectively we’ve done a poor job of protecting this huge region—the biggest biosphere on Earth—from the consequences of our harmful actions, including overfishing and habitat destruction. Human activities present the greatest threats to ocean life over the next 150 years. According to a study published in the journal Science, marine ecosystems are in decline and face possible mass extinction. The problems are stretching far beyond the coastlines and into deeper waters, well beyond nations’ exclusive economic zones.
Scientists have concluded that reserves are needed to build ocean resilience and keep these waters healthy. The more space these areas take up, the more marine life they can protect. And that helps maintain vibrantly diverse ecosystems throughout the world’s ocean. Right now, though, there is no way to create legally recognized, fully protected, and completely wild marine parks in these international waters.
The only part of the high seas where it is now possible to establish fully protected marine areas is in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica where countries are working to designate reserves in largely pristine waters such as the Ross Sea through the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. A new international agreement through the United Nations would create a way to set up fully protected marine parks in other international waters and to help rebuild and revitalize marine habitats and ecosystems everywhere.
The U.N. working group’s recommendation isn’t perfect. It should have included an aggressive timeline for adopting a new treaty in recognition of the urgent threats facing the ocean. Negotiators also will have to contend with procedural requirements before the talks can get underway. But what matters is that all 193 U.N. member States will realize a way forward.
Looking at the big picture, this decision marks a fundamental paradigm shift in development of international ocean law. For the first time, instead of negotiating a treaty to organize the extraction of marine life, the United Nations will negotiate a global treaty to keep it in the water and protected. And that is pretty amazing.Sepsis and septic shock are leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States and represent an increasing problem for patients, providers, and healthcare systems. Studies indicate that these conditions contribute to more than 20,000 deaths per day worldwide. Despite the emergence of newer microbiology technologies, blood cultures continue to be indispensable tests for the microbiology laboratory. Positive blood cultures are often a critical step in diagnosing sepsis and are required for downstream identification and susceptibility testing.
Significant advances have been made in automated blood culture systems, including the addition of enriched growth media, enhancements in automated agitation systems, and improved growth algorithms. Despite the progress, obtaining blood cultures before initiating anti-infective therapy and ensuring appropriate fill volumes of 20 mL to 40 mL of blood per venipuncture remain key factors in the successful detection of adult bacteremia. In some healthcare settings, anaerobic bacteremia has reemerged as a significant clinical problem, most likely due to more patients presenting to these institutions with complex underlying diseases.
Reaching Clinical Goals
Initiation of prompt, appropriate antimicrobial therapy in patients at risk for sepsis is a critical clinical goal, but doing so before culture collection may delay or prevent pathogen recovery. To address this issue, blood culture manufacturers have incorporated blood-broth ratios and/or proprietary antimicrobial removal systems into media to minimize the impact of antimicrobials and facilitate pathogen detection. For example, the BACTEC Plus (Becton Dickinson) and BacT/Alert (bioMérieux) are two frequently used aerobic blood culture media that incorporate the use of proprietary antimicrobial removal systems. The BACTEC medium uses proprietary resin beads, whereas the BacT/Alert medium uses Ecosorb (a blend of Fuller’s earth and activated charcoal) to neutralize the effects of antimicrobials in blood cultures submitted for laboratory testing.
Recent studies have assessed the implications of improved recovery using these media. One investigation reviewed data collected during a 9-month clinical study, focusing on the impact of prior antimicrobial exposure on bacterial recovery and time to detection. A notable difference was observed in the effectiveness of the blood culture systems tested, particularly when patients were on antimicrobial therapy at the time that blood culture specimens were collected. Future refinements to existing blood culture media will continue to improve the ability of blood culture tests to detect bloodstream infections despite the presence of previously prescribed antimicrobial agents.
Other variables—such as collection methods, contamination rates, time to incubation, and rapid, accurate reporting of positive blood cultures—can also influence the utility of blood culture testing. By adhering to best practices and actively monitoring quality assurance measures, hospitals and labs can feel confident that they’re optimizing their approach to supporting clinicians when diagnosing sepsis.
Angus DC, Linde-Zwirble WT, Lidicker J, et al. Epidemiology of severe sepsis in the United States: analysis of incidence, outcome, and associated costs of care. Crit Care Med. 2001;29:1303-1310.
Patel R, Vetter EA, Harmsen WS, Schleck CD, Fadel HJ, Cockerill FR III. Optimized pathogen detection with 30-compared to 20-milliliter blood culture draws. J ClinMicrobiol. 2011;49:4047-4051.
Bleck T, Carroll K, Kalil AC, et al. Guidelines for evaluation of new fever in critically ill adult patients: 2008 update from the American College of Critical Care Medicine and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Crit Care Med. 2008;36:1330-1349.
Weinstein MP, Doern GV. A critical appraisal of the role of the clinical microbiology laboratory in the diagnosis of bloodstream infections. J ClinMicrobiol. 2011;49:S26-S29.
Lassmann B, Gustafson DR, Wood CM, Rosenblatt JE. Reemergence of anaerobic bacteremia. Clin Infect Dis. 2007;44:895-900.
Dellinger RP, Levy MM, Rhodes A, et al; Surviving Sepsis Campaign: international guidelines for management of severe sepsis and septic shock, 2012. Intensive Care Med. 2013;39:165-228.
Zadroga R, Williams DN, Gottschall R, et al. Comparison of 2 blood culture media shows significant differences in bacterial recovery for patients on antimicrobial therapy. Clin Infect Dis. 2013;56:790-797.Variable flow hydraulic motors have been around for years but are finding new applications in the development of infinitivally variable drive systems for super energy efficient vehicles.
The variable displacement piston pump (also known as an axial piston pump or a bent-axis piston pump) is used to convert hydraulic flow in to mechanical energy (torque) and vice versa. This technique is commonly used in hydrostatic transmissions. Since the device would be used in both pump mode (converting torque to flow) and motor mode (converting flow to torque) a CFD consulting analysis was required for two sets of boundary conditions.
Our work developed optimized geometries for minimize pressure drop through the yoke while also ensuring acceptable stress levels within the casting.
Keywords: CFD, Pressure Drop, Steady State, Incompressible Flow, CFD, CFdesign, AutoDesk Simulation CFD, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Energy Efficient Vehicles, Variable Displacement Piston Pump, Axial Piston Pump, Bent-Axis Piston Pump, Hydrostatic Transmissions.A Brief History
Today’s Willard Munger State Trail runs along a section of what was once the Northern Pacific Railway’s (NP) main line linking the Twin Cities with Duluth and following the St. Louis River much of the way. The history of the route dates back to the days of the Civil War built by another railroad and later acquired by the NP at the turn of the century. On March 2, 1970, Burlington Northern was created through the merger of four primary railroads: the NP; Great Northern; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; and Spokane, Portland & Seattle. Because the NP and GN paralleled one another in several locations, the new mega railroad had superfluous trackage, including between Duluth and the Twin Cities. This led to BN abandoning the former NP grade during the 1970s, which then led to the creation of the Willard Munger State Trail.
The Northern Pacific Railway is noteworthy not only because it grew into one of the largest systems in the country, but also because the company was the first to establish transcontinental rail service between the Midwest and Puget Sound. The NP was created on July 2, 1864, by President Abraham Lincoln, who signed an act of Congress to create the Northern Pacific Railroad. However, lack of suitable financial support saw the project languish for a few years before it was acquired by Jay Cooke, a wealthy banker and investor. By 1873, the NP was opened from Duluth to Bismarck, Dakota Territory, as well as a stretch of unconnected trackage in the west from Kalama to Tacoma, Washington Territory. A decade earlier in 1863 what became its primarily link between the Twin Cities and Duluth was formed. Known as the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad, it was completed to Thompson (about 30 miles west of Duluth) along the NP’s main line by 1870, officially completed on August 1.
The LS&M and NP both fell into bankruptcy during the financial Panic of 1873. Each would eventually be reorganized, the former as the St. Paul & Duluth Railroad in 1877 and the latter as the Northern Pacific Railway in 1878. Through strong financial backing of East Coast businessmen, the NP was able to complete its transcontinental system to Portland, Oregon, by the summer of 1883. In the coming years, the NP reached Seattle, Tacoma, and several other points throughout the west.
Also known as the “Skally Line,” the St. Paul & Duluth (StP&D) grew slightly after 1880. During 1888, an updated route known as the Duluth Short Line Railway (leased to the StP&D after September 1, 1886) was opened between West Duluth and Carlton, Minnesota, and eliminated some steep grades and high, wooden trestles. This section is now part of the Willard Munger State Trail. (The original route was finally abandoned during the 1930s.) By the end of the 19th century, the StP&D had also acquired or built branches to Taylors Falls and Cloquet as well as to Grantsburg and Stillwater, Wisconsin. In 1900, the Northern Pacific formally acquired the StP&D, where it eventually became the 3rd Subdivision of the Lake Superior Division. In 1967, this was changed to the 3rd Subdivision of the St. Paul Division).
During its early years, the line moved a variety of freight, from forest products and agriculture to through-movements, less-than-carload, and various types of general merchandise. For many years the NP offered connecting passenger trains (#65 southbound and #66 northbound) from Duluth to the Twin Cities, where patrons could catch the road’s two popular transcontinental runs: the “North Coast Limited” and “Mainstreeter.” Also known as the “Twin Ports-Twin City Express,” the service was a standard, coach-only affair and required between four to six hours to complete the trip between the two cities. By the 1960s, the NP was scaling back all of its passenger services, which left only the Mainstreeter and North Coast Limited by the time Burlington Northern was created in 1970. Both trains would survive until the creation of Amtrak in the spring of 1971. As BN began streamlining operations, it saw the 142-mile Duluth–Twin Cities line, which was then referred to as the 2nd Subdivision of the Lake Division, as redundant and began abandoning the route during the mid-1970s.
Railroad attractions near the trail include the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad, Lake Superior Railroad Museum, and North Shore Scenic Railroad all located in Duluth. You can also check out the Duluth & Iron Range Depot Museum in Two Harbors (inside the restored DM&IR depot). The Jackson Street Roundhouse, Minnesota Streetcar Museum, Minnehaha Depot, and Milwaukee Road 4-8-4 #261 (a large, restored steam locomotive that regularly hosts excursions throughout the Midwest) are all located in the Twin Cities.Do you have Historical Photos of the Willard Munger State Trail (Hinckley-Duluth)?
Share with TrailLink!Very Young Learner First Lesson Problems and Solutions
Summary: How to start the new school year when teaching very young learners
Very young learner First lesson problems and solutions
Can’t understand complex instructions or games
The first thing to do is to find out which activities they are likely to know, e.g. games that are popular in that country or things they do in their standard kindergarten classes. Other activities you use should be explainable just with actions and be very simple. For example, rather than doing Simon Says just do mimes, maybe including shouting “Stop!” to freeze them every once in a while to make it more fun.
Some crying is almost inevitable, usually because there are unfamiliar people there but maybe because:
- They don’t know understand what they should do
- The other students know more than they do
- They don’t feel like they are getting enough attention
- Their favourite activity was missing or changed
- They are being asked to share when they don’t want to
- Their team is losing
- They don’t want to wait for their turn
or other things completely unrelated to your lesson like hunger or sleepiness.
The unfamiliar faces thing can be partially solved by allowing parents and other staff to stay in or near the door for the first couple of lessons, or by distracting them from people’s presence with something like a puppet, book, toy or song. Keeping activities very simple as suggested above stops tears due to confusion, and the other things can be completely avoided by careful planning to avoid those situations, e.g. no activities asking them to share and no using points in the first few classes. There will still probably be tears though! It is usually best to leave any crying kids to it after a few sympathetic words and gestures, but there be cultural, school or parental expectations of different reactions. If the tears get worse you could call in someone else to help, speak to them in L1, give them something to distract them, or introduce a sudden change in classroom activity to hopefully make them forget about their troubles.
Refusing to come into class
As with crying, it is often best to leave them to get over it in their own time. You can try to tempt them into the classroom in two contrasting ways – by doing something that takes over the whole classroom like running around in circles so they can easily be drawn into it and slip into the activity, or by doing something interesting in another part of the room that they can’t quite see or hear from where they are so they are drawn towards it. Some individual attention such as taking their hand to lead them in can sometimes help, and is worth repeating every once in a while as long as it doesn’t make them more nervous or shy.
Not taking part
The best solution to this is just to assume that about 50% of the class won’t be doing what you want them to at any one time and plan activities that work anyway. For example, plan to give blocks to every student starting with the ones that shout out the right answers but then moving onto others, including people who won’t even take the block by leaving it next to them.
It might seem bizarre that a class of three year olds can already have mixed levels, but ambitious parents and Playtime Disney means this is often the case. In these globalized times, you may also find that some of your students are bilingual or even know more English than they do the local language.
As suggested above for different reasons, avoiding teams, points and clear winners can help you combat one possible negative consequence of mixed levels. You should also plan to do activities where the students can respond in several ways, e.g. by shouting out the word once they see the picture, by shouting out the word you say and/ or by copying a mime you show them to represent the word. As many activities as possible should also be open ended, e.g. counting activities that start at “One” and can stop any time that they have heard a new number or two, flashcard activities that don’t require getting through the whole set, and picture books that you can skip pages of or change the order of. As is usually a good idea in very young learner classes anyway, dealing with mixed levels will also involve planning to cover a little bit of many different language points (e.g. one or two new animals, fruit, actions, numbers, colours and simple personal questions) rather than basing the whole lesson around one topic or language point.
You don’t know what they like and dislike yet
As well as doing lots of different language points as suggested above, your lesson plan should make it possible to abandon any activity as soon as it is obvious it isn’t working. This means that activities should stand alone rather than rely on the input from a previous activity to make them possible. Very young learners anyway rarely notice or appreciate clever links between different parts of the lesson and quick changes in activity, pace and content are likely to have more impact.
New activities rarely go down well the first time
The good news is that something not going down well in the first class doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t try again in a future lesson. However, the fact that new things rarely work well obviously makes for problems planning the first class. As mentioned above, it is usually possible to find out what things they are already familiar with, and things that are so simple that they hardly count as activities such as jumping around the room shouting “Jump jump jump” are almost always fun (for both those taking part and those sitting down watching). This is also yet another reason for having activities that are easily abandoned and lots of options on your lesson plan.
In the same class that some students are too shy to take part or even crying in, others (or even the same children a few minutes later) may be hanging on to the teacher’s leg, pushing the other children out of the way to take part, shouting out every word, running around while others are slowly walking or sitting down, and crying when the class finishes. The over-excitement could be caused by having more lively activities than their usual classes, by the novelty of speaking English, by finding the presence of a foreigner and/ or man hilarious, or by finding that the English they have learnt elsewhere does actually have a function. A bit of high spirits isn’t a problem if it doesn’t lead to bad behaviour or stop the other students having a fair chance to take part, but there are techniques for when it does become an issue. One is to plan cooler activities (the opposite of warmers) such as reading a book and doing mimes that can be used at any time during the lesson. The other is to think about some mild and easy to demonstrate punishments just in case things get out of hand.
They might not have learnt some social skills yet
In the most extreme cases an English class is sometimes the first time that a child has mixed with lots of other children of the same age, at least in a classroom setting. This means that they might be at least as freaked out by the other children as they are by the teacher or being without their parents! They might also not have social skills such as working together, taking turns, sharing and accepting an equal share – and in fact children under around four are unlikely to have these skills fully developed however long they have been trained to do so. Training in such skills (e.g. passing games and asking them to work in teams) can wait for future classes, so in the first class it is best not to rely on any of those things for the activity to work.
As I said above about activities that don’t work the first time you use them, new very young learner classes that don’t go well can often be completely different once they have got used to you, each other, being in a classroom and/ or the activities you ask them to do. First impressions also aren’t as important with this age range as they are with older students, and classes that start slowly or chaotically can often turn out to be the best ones by the end of the term or year.
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Latest from 'Teaching English'Read More »Breech Position and Breech Birth
What is breech position?
During most of pregnancy, there is enough room in the uterus for the baby (fetus) to change position. By 36 weeks of pregnancy, most babies turn into a head-down position. This is the normal and safest fetal position for birth.
There are three main breech positions:
- Frank breech. The buttocks are in place to come out first during delivery. The legs are straight up in front of the body, with the feet near the head. This is the most common type of breech position.
- Complete breech.The buttocks are down near the birth canal. The knees are bent, and the feet are near the buttocks.
- Footling breech. One leg or both legs are stretched out below the buttocks. The leg or legs are in place to come out first during delivery.
What causes breech position?
Most of the time, there is no clear reason why the baby did not turn head-down.
In some cases, breech position may be linked to early labor, twins or more, problems with the uterus, or problems with the baby.footnote 2
What are the signs that your baby is in breech position?
You probably won't be able to feel whether your baby is breech. But if you are 36 or more weeks pregnant and think you feel the baby's head pressing high up in your belly or you feel kicking in your lower belly, see your doctor for an exam.
How is a breech position diagnosed?
During a routine exam late in your pregnancy, your doctor will feel your upper and lower belly and may do a fetal ultrasound to find out if your baby is breech. Your doctor may also learn that your baby is breech when he or she checks your cervix.
How is breech position treated?
Sometimes a doctor can turn a baby from a breech position to a head-down position by using a procedure called an external cephalic version. (If you are using a midwife and your baby is in breech position, your midwife will refer you to a doctor for this procedure.) If the baby can be turned head-down before labor starts, you may be able to have a vaginal birth.
You also can ask your doctor if you can try certain positions at home that may help turn your baby. This is called postural management. There is no research to prove that this works, but it's not harmful. It may work for you.
It's normal to feel disappointed and worried about a breech pregnancy, especially if the doctor has tried to turn the baby without success. But most breech babies are healthy and don't have problems after birth. Talk to your doctor if you're concerned about your baby's health.
How is a breech baby delivered safely?
In most cases, a planned cesarean delivery (C-section) is safest for the baby. If your fetus is still in a breech position near your due date, your doctor will likely schedule a cesarean. If you are using a midwife, your midwife will refer you to a doctor for a scheduled C-section.
In rare cases, a cesarean breech birth may not be recommended or even possible. For instance, if a breech labor progresses too quickly, a vaginal birth may be the only option. During a twin birth in which the first twin is head-down and the second twin is breech, both babies may best be delivered vaginally.footnote 3
No matter what position a baby is in, every labor and delivery is unique. Even though you and your doctor have a birth plan for labor and delivery, plans can change. If something unexpected happens, your doctor may need to make some quick decisions to keep you and your baby safe.
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (2000, reaffirmed 2012). External cephalic version. ACOG Practice Bulletin No. 13. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 95(2): 1–7.
- Cunningham FG, et al. (2010). Breech presentation and delivery. In Williams Obstetrics, 23rd ed., pp. 527–543. New York: McGraw-Hill.
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (2006, reaffirmed 2012). Mode of term singleton breech delivery. ACOG Committee Opinion No. 340. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 108: 235–237.
Other Works Consulted
- Kish K (2013). Malpresentation and cord prolapse. In AH DeCherney et al., eds., Current Diagnosis and Treatment Obstetrics and Gynecology, 11th ed., pp. 317–333. New York: McGraw-Hill.
- Klatt TE, Cruikshank DP (2008). Breech, other malpresentations, and umbilical cord complications. In RS Gibbs et al., eds., Danforth's Obstetrics and Gynecology, 10th ed., pp. 400–416. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
Primary Medical Reviewer Sarah A. Marshall, MD - Family Medicine
Adam Husney, MD - Family Medicine
Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine
Specialist Medical Reviewer William M. Gilbert, MD - Maternal and Fetal Medicine
Current as ofNovember 21, 2017
Current as of: November 21, 2017Last week, a Muslim student was killed by a mob after posting allegedly “blasphemous” content on social media. His murder was the latest in a long line of religiously motivated attacks in Pakistan, many of which were inspired by the country’s strict blasphemy laws. Below, World Watch Monitor takes a look at the two major schools of Islamic thought in Pakistan and their impact on mainstream Muslim theology.
While 97 per cent of Pakistanis are Muslim, more than three quarters of them are Sunni, and their Shia neighbours sometimes complain of discrimination. Second only to the Shiite/Sunni divide, the divide within Sunni Islam – between the Barelvi and the Deobandi schools of Islam – forms a fault-line in public life in Pakistan. Most Pakistani Sunni Muslims are Barelvi, but Deobandis, who are considered more hard-line in their views and are few in number, have far greater influence in politics.
As adherents of the two schools fight for dominance of public and political life, non-Muslims such as Christians are further marginalised. Christians account for only 1.5 per cent of the population, i.e. roughly 3 to 5 million. A 2011 Pew survey found that only 16 per cent of Pakistanis had a positive view of Christians. Because most Pakistani Christians come from low socio-economic backgrounds, they are often subject to criminal violence, and are sometimes accused of committing blasphemy to settle personal scores.
It was primarily Deobandis who fought against the atheist Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Today, ideologically, most banned “terror” outfits in Pakistan belong to this school of thought. Barelvis, on the other hand, combine devotion to Muhammad with Sufi practices such as veneration of saints. Some Deobandi outfits have resorted to employing violence to assert their creed, and have been banned; they accuse Barelvis of committing extreme blasphemy (in Arabic, shirk) – the sin of idolatry or polytheism. For this reason, suicide bombers frequently attack the shrines of Sufi saints, believing Barelvis worship these saints along with Allah, and bow before their graves and supplicate them for help.
A most vocal advocate of blasphemy legislation was Dr. Sarfaraz Naeemi, a Barelvi scholar. A key figure behind the Tahafuz-e-Namoos-e-Risalat Mahaz (Front for the Protection of the Prophet’s Honour), he also criticised violence committed by the Taliban, and was killed by a suicide bomber from Tehreek-e-Taliban (the Pakistani Taliban) in 2009.
Dr Naeemi’s death, along with innumerable attacks on Barelvi shrines, formed part of a wave of terrorism against the Barelvis. However, although they favour non-violence, they claim that when the state will not act against blasphemers, they can take the law into their own hands.
A high-profile example of this was the 2011 assassination of the Governor of Punjab, Salmaan Taseer, by his own security guard, Mumtaz Qadri, who belonged to the Barelvi school of thought. Taseer had spoken about the misuse of the blasphemy laws and called for mercy for the Christian woman on death row, Asia Bibi.
Qadri, who was hanged hanged last year, is now hailed as the most celebrated martyr in recent Pakistani history. Thousands of people now visit his tomb and he has become the symbol of Barelvism, fêted by his admirers for dying for his love of Muhammad. The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is expecting to experience the fallout of ordering his execution in the 2018 general elections, bracing itself for voters who were sympathetic to his actions withdrawing their support.
In this religious and political landscape, Tahir Mehdi, a columnist and rights activist, says that while tolerance of Islamic extremist groups operating outside Pakistan is waning, internally the country’s blasphemy laws and their implementation are being used as a political tool to forcefully reshape political discourse.
“Pakistan has been soft on religious hardliner organisations in the past, as part of our foreign policy,” he says. “Those organisations used their hard-line views to commit terror activities. However, we have started experiencing a shift in the policy on these outfits and they are being pushed into the background. But at the same time, we have now started experiencing another internal challenge.”
Mehdi adds that Barelvism is having greater influence in internal political affairs. “Hence, the law of blasphemy is being used as a political tool to reshape political narrative,” he says.
In this politically volatile and charged scenario, any effort by to reform the blasphemy regime will be strongly resisted and result in a backlash against liberals. Last December the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights decided to bring to light a report from 1991 that called for a more precise definition of offences covered by the blasphemy laws because, in the words of the law and justice committee, “in its present form it was very generalised”.
The Senate Committee on Human Rights resolved in January to debate how to prevent the country’s blasphemy laws being misused. However, various quarters, including a leading body of Muslim clerics, opposed it, and the government abandoned the plan.- math library
- supported chips
IntroductionWelcome to the CC5X C compiler for the Microchip PICmicro family. The PIC microcontrollers are popular for cost critical applications. The CC5X C compiler was designed to enable best possible usage of the limited code and RAM space offered by PICmicro devices. The priority was not to provide full ANSI C support, but to generate compact and optimized code.
The PICmicro architecture is efficient compared to the load/store approach used by many other microcontrollers and microprocessors. However, the bit and page bit updating represent a challenge for the programmer when writing PICmicro application code. The CC5X compiler offers automatic updating of these bits, using advanced optimization to save code space compared to simpler compiler implementations.
Local variables are supported. The CC5X compiler performs a safe compression by checking the scope of the variables and reusing the RAM locations when possible. The limited RAM space is therefore used efficiently. Interrupt support can be tricky. The CC5X compiler allows every statement to be written in C code. The CC5X compiler can extend the call level restrictions by using GOTO statements when possible. This feature is almost required for the 12 bit core devices having 2 call levels only.
All midrange devices (PIC16/PIC12/PIC10) are supported through header files. The inline assembly capabilities allows existing assembly routines to be included in new C applications.
Version 1.0 of CC5X was released in April 1992 and was probably the first C compiler for PICmicros. The free compiler edition can be downloaded and tested.
Programming in C gives you the following advantages:
The CC5X compiler was written with code efficieny as the main goal.The American Arthritis Foundation has compiled 12 foods that help arthritis.
Arthritis is caused by inflammation of the joints for many reasons, the main symptoms are joint pain, swelling or stiffness, and the symptoms get worse as you age. Degenerative arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis are the most common. Gout, which increases uric acid levels in the blood, accumulates crystals in joints and surrounding areas, causing symptoms, is also a form of arthritis. Many patients wonder what food is good for arthritis. There is no particular diet to cure arthritis, but certain foods are known to help fight inflammation, strengthen bones, and improve human immunity. Studies have shown that eating a lot of dietary fiber in vegetables, fruits and whole grain nuts can help prevent degenerative arthritis and ease pain. Experts advise that adding joint-healthy foods together to a balanced diet can help alleviate arthritis symptoms rather than having to eat certain foods for arthritis. Of course, regular exercise and losing weight if you are overweight or obese.
1) Fish with high omega-3 fatty acids are recommended to consume at least 3 to 4 ounces of kerosene fish per week. Omega-3 fatty acids help prevent rheumatoid arthritis, prevent inflammation and damage to joints, and improve pain and stiff symptoms of joints. Fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids include salmon, tuna, mackerel and herring.
2) Beans such as soy bean curd and edamame are also known to be good for heart health. Soybeans are low in fat, high in protein and high in dietary fiber. Recommended for rheumatoid arthritis patients.
3) When selecting an oil, the extra virgin olive oil has rich in unsaturated fatty acids, which are beneficial to heart health, and contains an anti-inflammatory component similar to NSAIDs (non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory druggs) called 'oleocantal'. Besides extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil and safflower oils are also related to cardiovascular disease prevention, including lowering cholesterol. Avocado oil is high in unsaturated fatty acids, helping to lower bad cholesterol, while Honghua oil is rich in linoleic acid. Walnut oil contains 10 times more omega-3 fatty acids than olive oil.
4) Studies have reported that cherry cherries help reduce chronic inflammation and relieve pain. Several studies have also shown that cherries help reduce the relapse of severe pain. Studies show that the rich anthocyanins in cherries show an anti-inflammatory effect. Antocyanine is also found in other red or purplish fruits such as strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries.
5) In order to prevent dairy osteoporosis and degenerative arthritis, calcium and vitamin D intake should strengthen bones.Low-fat milk, yogurt, and cheese are foods rich in calcium and vitamin D. You should not only take calcium to strengthen your bones. Vitamin D is essential for calcium absorption and helps strengthen the immune system. Some foods that can take calcium if you eat dairy products are difficult to digest or prefer milk are spinach, kale, collared green, oak, soybeans, calcium-enhanced orange juice or oatmeal, and vitamin D can be taken through tuna, mackerel, salmon, vitamin D fortified orange juice, soy milk, egg yolk, etc.
6) It is rich in vitamin K and C, which is an antioxidant of broccoli, and contains Sulph
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Repricing On Health Insurance coverage Claims
Social well being, together with psychological and physical health, is likely one of the key facets to find out the general well-being of a person. The Youngsters’s Well being Insurance Program (CHIP) affords low-cost or no-value coverage for infants, kids and teenagers. However, for those who missed the Obamacare open enrollment interval, a short-term health policy can offer you some stage of coverage you within the meantime.
When you solely have your self to cowl, there isn’t any doubt that choosing a person health insurance plan is the correct decision to make. There are some wholesome issues for males that make sex after the age of 60 troublesome that are extra on the psychological stage than anything else.
Newest Information, Diets, Workouts, Wholesome Recipes
Making wholesome food choices just received easier. Brief time period plans provide a brief answer.
There’s some primary physiology that effects how stress impacts ones well being. It is more durable to outline mental well being than physical health, as a result of, in many cases, analysis is dependent upon the individual’s perception of their experience. Medical insurance is an effective method that will help you manage your well being care prices.
Within the strain of the instances, actually wholesome man should have don’t afraid of anything, to be calm when meeting problems. Psychological well being is as essential as bodily well being to a full, active way of life. EPO plans will be suited well to people who do not thoughts limiting themselves to providers within a community and who do not want to coordinate their care by way of a main care doctor.Microsoft has filed a new patent for developing an intelligent system that uses data generated by people to create chatbots of real people. It appears that the AI-powered chatbots could analyze voice data, electronic messages, social media posts, images, and other personal information to emulate people (via The Independent).
As pointed out in the documents, the company notes that it aims to create chatbots that would facilitate a simulated human-like conversation with people via text messages or voice commands. Interestingly, the technology will essentially analyze the pictures of people to create 2D or 3D images of specific people. The end product may feature almost identical characteristics and behavioral traits of people past or present.
In addition to this, users will be able to train the model to imitate their character. Imagine that their family/friends will be able to stay in touch and chat with them even after their death, and this proposed system could help preserve the memories of loved ones. The company’s patent explains this in a little further detail, saying that:
"The specific person [who the chat bot represents] may correspond to a past or present entity (or a version thereof), such as a friend, a relative, an acquaintance, a celebrity, a fictional character, a historical figure, a random entity, etc.," the patent reads. "The specific person may also correspond to oneself (e.g., the user creating/training the chat bot."
While the patent seems to be a bit of science fiction, the reality is that the patent seems to be in line with the idea of a television show Black Mirror. In one of its episodes titled "Be Right Back," a young woman uses a similar technology to communicate with her deceased husband via a chatbot.
Overall, it’s certainly an interesting technique; however, as this is just a patent right now, it should be worth noting that it might not even see the light of day. There are still a significant amount of questions that remain around Microsoft’s history with chatbots. We remind you that the company’s Zo chatbot made headlines back in 2016 on the internet for its bad comments about Windows 10. Similarly, another chatbot Zo was the talk of the internet for making some questionable claims about the Qur’an a couple of years ago.Lowering Your Risk Of Kidney Stones
Drink the recommended amount of fluid each day.
A low urine level can cause kidney stones, so drinking enough water or fluids is the first step in preventing kidney stones. A good amount of liquid to aim for each day is about 100oz or 3 liters. It’s also a good idea to make sure that most of the fluid you drink is water and replace fluids lost when sweating.
If you have a high sodium intake, you can benefit by lowering your sodium intake to the recommended level of fewer than 2,300 mg per day.
Fruits and vegetables are full of vitamins and minerals that can reduce your chance of developing a kidney stone. By eating 5 to 9 servings of fruit and vegetables per day, you can increase your potassium, fiber, magnesium, antioxidants, phytate, and citrate levels. Ultimately, this can help lower your risk.
Foods that contain high oxalate levels can increase your chance of kidney stones. Popular foods that contain high oxalate levels include spinach, rhubarb, and almonds. In addition, you can also eat calcium-rich foods with your meals to help control your oxalate levels.
Animal protein can increase your urine uric acid and lead to calcium oxalate or cystine stones. If you have a recurring stone, your doctor may ask you to eat less meat or to reduce meat consumption to once per day.
- Thiazide diuretics - lowers the urine calcium by allowing the kidney to put it back in the bloodstream.
- Potassium citrate - makes the urine less acidic or more alkaline which can help prevent kidney stones.
- Allopurinol - lowers the levels of uric acid in the urine and blood.
- Acetohydroxamic acid (AHA) - if you produce struvite or infection stones, AHA may be prescribed.
- Cystine-binding thiol drugs - If you suffer from cystine stones and lifestyle changes have been unsuccessful; you may be prescribed this medication.Unmanned Aviation (Paperback)
The term unmanned aerial vehicle or UAV came into general use in the early 1990s to describe robotic aircraft. Some are as large as a football field, others can take-off and land on one, and the smallest can easily fit inside the ball itself. These unique aircraft offer a means for man to fly missions in places that are too dull, dirty, or dangerous for manned aircraft, such as in combat today or over other planets tomorrow. In the recent international conflicts in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Eastern Europe, these devices have been used to great effect in the reconnaissance role and latterly to complement ground-attack fighters. In front-line combat situations, the use of these craft has played a vital part in reducing the fatalities of aircrew and the loss of sophisticated and expensive aircraft. Their future in the military role is now secure. However, very few people appreciate that development work on this concept started midway through the nineteenth century and well before man first took to the air. Developments took place during World War I, and various craft were used during World War II, but few of the military hierarchy were enthused, and many ingenious projects lay dormant. This is the story of how todayÕs ultra sophisticated UAVs such as Predator and Global Hawk, have taken nearly 150 years to evolve from mans first attempts to grasp the theory and practicalities of flight.The optical reproduction of an object, produced by a lens or mirror. A typical positive lens converges rays to form a “real” image that can be photographed. A negative lens spreads rays to form a “virtual” image that cannot be projected.
A ray of light that falls on the surface of a lens or any other object. The “angle of incidence” is the angle made by the ray with a perpendicular to the surface.
Pertains to two or more waves that do not have a fixed phase relationship with respect to one another.
Infrared (IR) radiation
Invisible electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths that lie within the range of 0.70 to 1000 micrometers. This region is often broken up into IR-A, IR-B, and IR-C.
Product of the exposure duration and radiance. Also known as pulsed radiance.
The magnitude of radiant energy.
A device that uses the principle of interference of electromagnetic waves for measurement purposes (e.g., to measure wavelength or temperature).
The viewing condition whereby the eye is exposed to all or part of a direct laser beam or a specular reflection.
A type of laser employing a very high discharge current, passing down a small bore to ionize a noble gas such as argon or krypton.
Radiation commonly associated with X-ray or other high energy electro-magnetic radiation that will cause DNA damage with no direct, immediate thermal effect. Contrasts with non-ionizing radiation of lasers.
Device that uses thin overlapping plates to change the diameter of a central opening and, therefore, to control the amount of light allowed through it. Enables users to adjust the diameter of a beam.
Radiant flux (radiant power) per unit area incident upon a given surface. Units
Watts per square centimeter. (Sometimes referred to as power density, although not exactly correct.)
Exposure to radiant energy, such as heat, X-rays, or light.
For custom quotes and more information about our laser technology services, please call, chat or submit our online form below.Thwart Stress Effects of Memory
Forced retrieval protects against stress-induced impairment of memory.
Posted December 29, 2016
It is well known that stress can impair memory. Everyone has had some experience of this kind. For a student suffering test anxiety, grades are likely to suffer. In high-stakes social or business interactions, the stress may well cause memory to fail us, as when presidential candidate Rick Perry forgot the name of the agency he wanted to abolish if elected, or when we forget a friend’s name in the process of making a social introduction. How does stress do this? Is there anything we can do about it?
First, we need to know what stressful events do to the body and brain. Brain freezes, like Perry's, probably occur because thinking can get so preoccupied with the stress-inducing stimuli that other thoughts cannot emerge. But other kinds of stress-induced memory impairment come from the well-known “fight or flight” response in which stress activates the release of adrenalin into the bloodstream. Adrenalin has many bodily effects that support fight or flight, such as raising heart rate and blood pressure, and increasing arousal perhaps to the point of anxiety and fear. The increased attentiveness may have a fleeting beneficial effect on memory, as has been demonstrated in laboratory experiments. But the other effects of adrenalin on anxiety and distress are likely to impair memory.
The other thing that happens during stress is the activation of the anterior pituitary gland’s release of ACTH, which in turn activates another part of the adrenal gland to dump cortisol into the bloodstream. In the short term, cortisol can have many beneficial effects for combatting stress, such as mobilizing white blood cells and enhancing the immune system. But cortisol binds to cells in the brain’s hippocampus, the area that converts new experiences into memory. This binding actually disrupts the memory-forming process. Ultimately, if stress continues, the synaptic regions deteriorate, making the impairment permanent.
The effects of both adrenaline and cortisol were revealed in an interesting study of mild social stress. Here, the focus was on a theory of how stress effects on memory might be thwarted by a learning technique called forced retrieval. Prior research with students, had shown, that the usual study technique of re-reading notes or text is not nearly as effective as requiring the learner to actively retrieve the information, as one might do, with flash cards, for example. Just a few months ago, I posted a blog on this forced retrieval phenomenon as a key element in “strategic studying.”
This new research was aimed at testing the possibility that forced retrieval might protect learners from the memory deficits caused by stress. In the study on the first day, 120 subjects studied a list of 30 nouns or images of nouns one at a time. Then, one half of the group restudied the items while the other half practiced retrieval by recalling as many items as they could (but without feedback telling them if they got it right). One the next day, half of each group were stressed by being required to solve hard math problems and by giving speeches in front of two judges and three peers. Then they were tested. Twenty minutes later they took a second test on items that had not been tested on the first test. The results revealed that retrieval practice yielded better results.
On the first test, we see that the stressed learners who just studied the items the day before had fewer of the items remembered on the first test given immediately after the stress. But there was no such effect on the stressed learners who used retrieval practice during the initial learning. This protective effect of retrieval practice was evident on the second test 25 minutes later. In fact, the retrieval practice effect was better than on the first test, even though different items were tested. You may have noticed that the stressed study group on the second test did worse than they did on the first test. This is attributed to a mild effect of adrenalin, which as mentioned above can have some benefit on memory. Adrenaline's action is immediate and is apparently swamped on the second test by the delayed release of cortisol, which shows up by the second test. Students might note that the magnitude of difference may appear small, but in percentage terms could equal to more than two letter grades (compare the two stressed groups on the delayed test).
To explain why forced retrieval works, the authors speculate that it provides better initial encoding. That is, the new information is registered more strongly if you make yourself try to retrieve it. This is consistent with the everyday experience that most of us have had wherein information that strongly grabs our attention is more likely to be remembered. Forced retrieval is a way to make ourselves pay better attention to what we are trying to lean.
Readers wanting to learn more about improving memory are urged to check out Memory Medic’s books, Memory Power 101 and Better Grades, Less Effort.
Klemm, W. R. (2016). Strategic studying. October 9, http://thankyoubrain.blogspot.com/2016/10/strategic-studying.html
Smith, Amy M. et al. (2016). Retrieval practice protects memory against acute stress. Science. 354 (6315), 1046-1047.Frequently Asked Questions
What is Ayurveda?
Ayurveda is the traditional Vedic science of health. The Sanskrit word literally translates to science ("veda") of life ("ayur".) Ayurveda is the oldest and most scientific forms of holistic healing; encouraging appropriate diet and regimen for each individual person according to time, place, and circumstance.
What is the goal of Ayurveda?
The goal of Ayurveda is to achieve balance (sama). There are three doshas (or combinations of elements) that constitute each individual; namely air (vata), fire (pitta), and earth (kapha). The knowledge gained from Ayurveda enables us to live in a state of balance and harmony by understanding how these three doshas are effected by certain foods, activities, etc.
Who can benefit from Ayurveda?
Everyone! The science of Ayurveda is very rational and scientific. It encourages the student to understand his/her body type as well as the effects that certain foods and activities have on the body. From that understanding, one can discern what is healthy or unhealthy for the individual. Once you understand the effects of elements on the body, the choice is yours.
How old is Ayurveda?
While there is much speculation on the "origin of Ayurveda," if one studies the original Sanskrit texts, the answer becomes quite clear. Ayurveda is a science of divine origin. The age, therefore, is much greater than any modern historian may calculate using their limited instruments. If you're interested in the history of Ayurveda, as accepted by authentic Vedic scholars, please inquire in your next session and we will be happy to discuss such topics.
Can Ayurveda be applied in the West?
Although Ayurveda is traditionally practiced in India, the principles of Ayurveda can be applied anywhere. This is the beauty of such a scientific practice. Once the student understands the fundamental elements of nature and the effects on his/her body, the environment in which one is living does not inhibit the ability to understand and apply Ayurveda.
What is Yoga?
Yoga is a Sanskrit term that literally translates to "union". The type of Yoga that we teach at Root and Branch is the physical practice of yoga poses called yoga asanas, as well as the practice of deep breathing known as pranayama. These practices improve the physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing of the practitioner.
What is the goal of Yoga?
As per the traditional textbook of Yoga asanas called Gheranda Samhita, the great sage Gheranda describes the benefits of Yoga as steadiness of body (sthira) and freedom from disease (a-rogyam).
Who can benefit from Yoga?
Yoga is meant for everyone; young, old, skinny, large, short, tall, man, or woman. There are thousands of yoga poses, each benefiting certain parts of the body, and a wise teacher will know what specific poses to teach to each individual. A yoga practice can and should evolve to meet the specific needs of the practitioner at every stage of his/her life. As we evolve, so should our practice.
When do you see the results of Yoga?
Unlike modern allopathic medicine, the results of yoga may take time. Also unlike modern allopathic medicine, the benefits that are experienced from practicing yoga are not paired with undesired and harmful side effects. Yoga heals and strengthens the body from the inside out. Therefore, once the benefits of yoga are achieved, they are sustained and long-lasting.UA researchers have discovered some of the changes in genes, physiology and behavior that enable a species to drastically change its lifestyle in the course of evolution.
For most of us, switching to a vegetarian diet might be a matter of a New Year’s resolution and a fair amount of willpower, but for an entire species, it’s a much more involved process — one that evolutionary biologists have struggled to understand for a long time.
Researchers at the University of Arizona have taken a peek behind the curtain of evolution to find out what happens when an insect species dramatically changes its way of life. The processes they discovered involve never-seen-before remodeling of genes, behaviors and diet. The results, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, or PNAS, are likely to make you ponder evolutionary questions next time you find a fruit fly floating in your glass of wine.
Herbivorous insect species make up half of all known insect species, but the switch from a non-plant diet to herbivory evolved in only one-third of living insect orders. That discrepancy has puzzled biologists for a long time.
“It implies that the transition to herbivory happened rarely, but when it happened, it turned out to be a major push for speciation spawning the evolution of a disproportionate number of species in that group,” said Benjamin Goldman-Huertas, a fifth-year doctoral candidate and National Science Foundation graduate research fellow in the UA’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and the lead author of the paper.
One of the possible answers is that plants are very difficult to colonize, said Noah Whiteman, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and senior author of the study. To ward off their predators, plants have evolved an arsenal of defenses, such as spines, tough outer “skin” or compounds that render their tissues indigestible, unpalatable or even fatally toxic to insects attempting to feed on them.
“Most plant-eating insects are parasites,” Whiteman explained. “They’re not like elephants roaming the savannah and ripping off leaves here and there. Insects have evolved ways to overcome those defenses but at the cost of becoming highly specialized. Many herbivorous insect species are extremely specialized, to the point where the animals have to spend their entire life cycle on their host plants.
“Switching from feeding on microbes, decaying meat or other insects to targeting plants requires ways to attract the insects to the plants, lay their eggs there and keep their larvae alive on the plant. We wanted to test the hypothesis that this transition required drastic changes in behavior, which in turn required remodeling of the genetic and neurological processes underlying those behaviors.”
To find answers, the authors studied the fly species Scaptomyza flava, a close relative of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Unlike their cousins, which often are seen hovering around the produce aisle, feasting on fruit that’s past its prime, Scaptomyza flies don’t wait that long. The females seek out healthy plants in the mustard family, pierce tiny holes into their leaves, drink the plant juice seeping into the wounds and deposit their eggs in the leaves. Upon hatching, the larvae munch their way through the leaves, making tiny tunnels as they go, and sometimes even kill the plant.
To study the flies’ responses in more detail, Goldman-Huertas collaborated with researchers in the group of John Hildebrand, a Regents’ Professor in the UA’s Department of Neuroscience, which allowed them to measure the electrical responses in the insects’ antennae generated by olfactory receptors when presenting the animals with various scents.
“It’s like recording from the population of receptor cells in your nose,” Hildebrand said. “We look for electrical signals indicating that the antennal receptor cells have recognized and responded to a certain scent stimulus. If we don’t see a signal, it means that the antenna doesn’t respond to that compound.”
Such neurological assays, combined with behavioral observations, revealed that the smell of yeast, which thrives on rotting fruit and acts a huge attractant to Drosophila, left Scaptomyza flies cold.
Conversely, “we found that Scaptomyza flava is very sensitive to the compound that is responsible for the scent of freshly cut grass, which is common in leafy plants,” Whiteman said.
Goldman-Huertas hypothesized that the olfactory genes that are involved in sniffing out yeast should be lost in Scaptomyza, and indeed, “we could not find many of them in any of the populations we tested,” he said.
According to Whiteman, the flies’ preference for compounds associated with yeast and alcoholic fermentation is considered a more ancestral state than Scaptomyza‘s preference for fresh plants.
“The fruit fly species floating in your wine glass really represent 100 million years of evolution because the sensory mechanisms are conserved in species that are attracted to wine,” he said.
To study the genetic basis of the flies’ food preferences, the researchers took advantage of Scaptomyza‘s close kinship with D. melanogaster, whose olfactory system is the most extensively studied of any animal.
“Scaptomyza is a very useful model to study genetic underpinnings because on the one hand, it is closely related to D. melanogaster, but on the other hand, it is evolutionary diverged,” Whiteman said. “In these flies, herbivory evolved in the last 20 million years at most. The changes are recent enough that we are able to detect them and compare them to non-herbivorous sister species like D. melanogaster.
“But loss of behaviors doesn’t make you go on to new feeding grounds, so some gain of function must have happened as well.”
Indeed, the team discovered a group of olfactory receptor genes that have undergone a disproportionately amount of sequence change.
“This suggests Darwinian evolution has changed the function of these genes,” Whiteman said.
“Understanding how these ecological changes can come about can have huge economic and health implications,” Goldman-Huertas said. “Scaptomyza flava is an emerging pest of canola in Europe and of mustard plants in New Zealand.
“Or take the Anopheles mosquitoes that spread malaria. How did they start feeding on humans? Or the Colorado potato beetle that originally fed on other related plants. How did that switch come about? How insects make decisions impacts the lives, health and wellbeing of people.
“We could only answer these questions because of UA’s culture of collaboration,” Goldman-Huertas added, “in particular the UA Center for Insect Science, which facilitated the collaboration between the departments of neuroscience and ecology and evolutionary biology through a seed grant.”
Additional funding for the study came from the NSF through Graduate Research Fellowships Program DGE-0646147, Integrative Graduate Education and research Traineeship DGE-0654435 and DEB-1256758; a UA Foundation Faculty Seed Grant; John Templeton Foundation Grant 41855; National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Excellence in Research and Teaching Fellowship K12-631 GM000708 PERT; and NIH Grant R01-DC-02751.
– By Daniel Stolte
*Source: The University of ArizonaMethamphetamine (meth) is one of the most destructive drugs ever created. It is cheap, easy to make and extremely addictive. Meth destroys teeth, faces, brains, families, lives and communities. Some users burn out gradually over time, whereas others seem to suddenly go up in smoke.
The number of burn injuries from meth manufacturing has been increasing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined that the majority of these injuries are people making their own drugs by cooking the necessary ingredients at home. Few people who cook meth at home are knowledgeable about chemistry and most are addicted to it.
Regulation of meth ingredients, such as ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, has made it more difficult for small drug operations to manufacture large amounts of the drug. However, making small batches of the drug can apparently be done with a handful of over-the-counter cold medication pills and a few other items that are readily available. This “shake and bake” method of preparing meth is causing many people to become badly burned, disfigured or killed.
It seems that the ingredients needed to make meth can be combined in a plastic soda bottle and shaken by hand rather quickly with no flame required. However, the formula is extremely explosive. The slightest error in technique can be fatal, or worse if innocent bystanders are in close proximity.
An estimated 486,000 people received specialized services annually at “burn centers” due to the severity of their burns. Up to 35 percent of burn patients seen in emergency rooms are meth positive and only 10 percent of them have health insurance. Seven burn units over six years were forced to shut down due to the high costs of caring for uninsured patients, but the seemingly unsustainable problem continues.
What these people endure is difficult to put into words. First, the excruciating pain from burn injuries and burn care alone involves unimaginable levels of pain. Meth withdrawal while hospitalized for burn treatment adds additional physical suffering. Psychologically, coping with permanent disfigurement and suicidal feelings from withdrawal makes the whole experience nearly unbearable.
A rudimentary internet search on meth burns reveals images and stories of human tragedy, often with children inadvertently harmed as well. Some burn victims have returned to use even after making it into recovery. Meth is a powerful and dangerous drug and one of the more difficult drugs to stop using because of the profound depression that accompanies withdrawal. However, research has shown that specialized behavioral treatment programs can be effective in ending active meth addiction.
The Sovereign Health Group is a leader in specialized residential treatment for those suffering from substance use disorders, including methamphetamine addiction, and co-occurring conditions. Sovereign Health of El Paso, Texas, provides safe and comfortable detoxification, intensive behavioral therapy and lifestyle management skills so that patients can transition from drug and alcohol use to mental and physical health. For more information about our programs, please call our 24/7 helpline.
Dana Connolly, Ph.D., is a senior staff writer for the Sovereign Health Group, where she translates current research into practical information. She earned her Ph.D. in research and theory development from New York University and has decades of experience in clinical care, medical research and health education. The Sovereign Health Group is a health information resource and Dr. Connolly helps to ensure excellence in our model. For more information and other inquiries about this article, contact the author at firstname.lastname@example.org.
Get the latest news on program developments, behavioral health news and company announcementsThe regeneration of bone that is capable of growth during the point of care in a hospital room is critical for a successful bone graft surgery. Approximately 83% of bone grafting uses autogenous grafts and 17% involve artificial substitutes. The medical technologies for the three elements of in-situ tissue engineering has proven to be predictably effective and safe. Here’s how medical technologies are combined to create a viable bone matrix for predictable bone regeneration.
Mesenchymal Stem Cells are first obtained using one of two technologies. The first technology is known as the Harvest Technologies System. It aspirates around 60 ml of autologous bone marrow from the posterior or anterior ilium. The aspirate is added to a transfer bag that contains four ml of ACDA anticoagulant. Then 60 ml of this mixture is transferred from the bag into a canister containing a floating shelf that separates osteoprogenitor cells from the bone marrow plasma.
The second technology is known as the Lenkbaar Marrow Marxman. It also aspirates bone marrow but has the capability of penetrating cortical surfaces where more mesenchymal stem cells reside. Only 10 ml of this material is needed.
Recombinant human Bone Morphogenetic Protein-2 (BMP-2) is known to be the signal for bone regeneration. It’s a protein that’s coded from chromosome 20 and separated from it by using restricted fragment enzymes. These enzymes are then attached to a plasmid, which is a bacterial extranuclear DNA ring. The injected plasmid is introduced into a Chinese Hamster Ovarian cell that produces a large amount of BMP-2 as well as hamster proteins.
Nanofiltration and electrophoresis are used to separate the human BMP-2, which is then freeze-dried for clinical use into a white crystallized powder. Before use, a dose of the freeze-dried crystals is placed in a pre-set package of sterile water. It’s then placed onto an acellular bovine collagen sponge for 15 minutes.
The viable bone matrix is derived from the stem cell plasma component which contains various cell adhesion molecules that will act as a scaffold where the unmineralized organic component of bone can be deposited. Freeze-dried cancellous allogeneic bone is also used to build the matrix for the in-situ bone tissue engineering.
During the bone repair surgery, the matrix is clotted with a mixture of calcium chloride into either recombinant human thrombin or lyophilized bovine thrombin. This clotting causes cell adhesion molecules to bind to the allogeneic bone surface and release various growth factors. A sponge that is wetted with this mixture is cut up by the surgeon into small squares. This is done to help create a space so that functional bone can fully grow, remodel, and fuse to be able to host bone for dental implants in the jaw.
In-situ bone tissue engineering is predictable for creating a viable bone matrix due to its sound wound healing and embryologic principles. The simplicity and safety are beneficial for both the surgeon and the healthcare system as a whole. Not only does it reduce operating and hospitalization time for graft delivery, but it also reduces the amount of pain and post-operative care for the patient.What Parents Need to Know About Student Loans
Sending a child off to college is a proud moment for any parent. But today’s college education comes with a hefty price tag. For many families, student loans are the only way to pay for higher education. And for parents, a lot has changed in the world of student loans since they were in school. If this is your first experience with student loans, or you simply need a refresher on how it works, here’s what parents need to know about student loans.
It All Starts with the FAFSA
Families hoping to receive any form of federal student aid must complete a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) every year. And it’s not just for student loans. The FAFSA is a must if you think your child may be eligible for grants or wants to pursue work-study opportunities.
The federal deadline to complete the FAFSA for the following academic year is usually June 30, but each school also has its own due dates. It’s best to check with the financial aid office so you don’t miss any criticaldeadlines.
Federal Student Loans Offer Options
You’ll find out what types of aid your child qualifies for after completing the FAFSA. If you find student loans are the best option, you’ll want to consider federal student loans first. These loans typically offer a grace period before payments are due, lower interest rates, better repayment terms and hardship options such as deferment and forbearance programs. Plus, they don’t require an established credit history or co-signer to obtain.
Be sure to talk with your college student about the responsibility these loans entail. Reinforce that they are not free money and that repayment begins soon after they graduate or stop going to school for any other reason. Encourage them to borrow and use student loans wisely.
Think Twice About Co-Signing
If your family doesn’t qualify for federal student aid, you may be considering private student loans. It’s important to note that these loans do not offer the same repayment, hardship or discharge options as federal student loans. These loans often require a parent (or someone else) to co-sign. This can cause financial strain on the co-signer if the student is ultimately unable to repay these loans. Be sure you understand what’s involved with being a co-signer before you make the decision.
Investigate Direct PLUS Loans
Direct PLUS Loans — often called Parent PLUS Loans — are available to eligible parents to pay for their children’s schooling at institutions participating in the Direct Loan Program. Provided by the U.S. Department of Education, the first step in obtaining a Parent PLUS loan is filling out the FAFSA. To qualify, you must: be the biological or adoptive parent of an undergraduate student at a participating school, not have an adverse credit history and meet the overall eligibility requirements for student aid.
Parent PLUS Loans are fixed-rate loans and offer many of the same advantages as other federal student loans. After completing the FAFSA, you may apply for a Parent PLUS Loan online.
Explore Less Expensive Options
If sending one or more children to a university will create financial hardship for the entire family, consider other alternatives. Community colleges are an affordable choice. Students can take transferable, pre-requisite courses much more affordably and save money while still living at home. Learn more about the financial benefits of community college.New figures suggesting that the number of women pursuing a career in engineering is in decline make worrying reading for the UK’s technology sector.
According to the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) annual workforce survey, despite a raft of initiatives designed to engage women (including the IET’s own young woman engineer of the year competition), progress in addressing industry’s gender imbalance appears to have stalled. Not only does the UK have the lowest proportion of female engineering professionals in the EU (just 8.7 per cent) but the IET points to decline in the number of female engineering technicians from five percent to three per cent since 2008.
Whatever the reasons for this, it certainly has little to do with any gender-based predisposition. In the world’s industrial superpower China, more than a third of the engineers are female, while here in the UK female students regularly outperform their male peers in STEM subjects at GCSE.
And yet in the UK, post GCSE, the gender imbalance starts to kick in. At A-Level STEM subjects are dominated by males: according to the latest figures from Engineering UK Just 22 percent of last year’s A -level physics students were female. In Higher education the gap widens further, with women making up just 12 per cent of those enrolling on engineering courses. While away from academia just four per cent of the UK engineering apprenticeships are female.
The reasons for this are complicated. It certainly seems that the pattern is set early and that the perception and engagement issues that industry continues to struggle with are at their most pronounced when it comes to young women. But it would also be naïve to suggest that misconceptions are the only problems and industry itself is completely free of sexism.
While the reasons for industry’s gender gap may be hard to fathom, one thing is certain: as the skills gap begins to bite, it’s vital that the UK capitalises on the skills of all of its available talent.
Failure to promote careers in engineering for women will mean that we will continue to miss out on 50 per cent of the available talent, an oversight which could have serious repercussions for society and the future strength of the economy.
What do you think could be done to encourage more women into engineering? Join the discussion and have your say on our new forums.Pillows are synonymous with comfort and relaxation. They are a cushion for the head and neck, providing support and a good night’s sleep.
However, in the past, pillows weren’t exactly the soft headrest they are today.
The history of the pillow dates back to around 7,000 BC in ancient Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq. These pillows were made of stone and obviously weren’t comfortable, although comfort wasn’t really their purpose.
The function of the stone pillow was to prevent insects from crawling into mouths, noses, and ears. With the high price of stone, they were used only by the wealthy citizens.
In ancient Egypt, the head was believed to be the seat of spiritual life and it had to be cherished.
Egyptian pillows were made of different materials, including marble, ivory, ceramic, stone and wood.
They also had a religious meaning, as the pillow was carved with images of the gods and placed under the heads of the deceased to keep bad spirits away.
The ancient Chinese civilization used different materials such as stone, wood, bamboo, bronze, porcelain, and jade decorated with pictures of humans, animals, and plants.
They believed that the materials of which the pillow was made could have health benefits for the person using it.
It was generally agreed that the jade pillow increased one’s intelligence. While the Chinese had the ability to make soft pillows, they believed they stole energy from the body while sleeping.
The Chinese supported the idea that hard pillows bring health and intellect.
The ancient Greeks and Romans left behind the idea of the traditional hard pillow and used cloth filled with materials such as cotton, reeds, or straw, while the wealthy used soft down feathers. These pillows were the antecedents of the type of pillows used today.
In the European Middle Ages, pillows were not particularly popular. The soft pillow was a status symbol and many people could not afford to use them.
King Henry VIII banned the use of soft pillows for anyone except pregnant women.
However, by the 16th century, the pillow were once more widespread, although the stuffing inside had to be regularly changed due to mold and vermin.
In the 19th century with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the pillow became common in almost every home.
During this time,the pillow became more affordable as they were mass produced due to the advancement of technology. In England, it was the Victorian era that turned these items into decorative elements for couches and chairs.
Modern soft pillows are made from various different materials. The outer cover is usually made of cotton or polyester, while the filling material can be natural, such as cotton, feather, or sheep wool.
Because of
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, Heather B. Cunningham, Lori Delale-O’Connor, and Erika Gold Kestenberg
Students need support, not punishment.
ONE TO GROW ON
88 Owning the Classroom Together
Carol Ann Tomlinson
Ask students how they can create a classroom that works for everyone.
ASCD POLICY PRIORITIES
90 The Fight for PD Funding
Educator advocates flexed their muscles to save the federal Title II program.
4 Readers React
89 Index to Advertisers
92 Tell Me About
Readers share their best-kept classroom management secrets.
95 ASCD Community in Action
96 Classroom Management from All Angles
EL ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
Circling Toward Healing and Learning
Rachel Dahill-Fuchel and Kevin Dahill-Fuchel
Restorative circles build relationships and equity in classrooms.
A Healthy Ecosystem for Classroom Management
Paul Emerich France
Teachers must provide structure while helping students develop autonomy, awareness, and self-regulation skills.
Video: Classroom Management Mis-steps and Lifesavers
Marilyn Swartz discusses common mistakes and best bets on creating a good learning environment.First COVID-19 vaccine doses were tested on eight healthy people. Moreover, it showed positive signs. Read ahead to know more. Also, find out what phase two testing be like and everything related to it.
Phase 1 Testing
The Moderna Vaccine is one of the under-development vaccines to protect against the coronavirus. Moreover, the virus has affected more than 4.7 million globally. Also, it has claimed 3,15,000 deaths around the world.
The response from the blood of eight tested individuals showed that those who received 100 micrograms dose and a 25 microgram dose had levels of protective antibodies. Furthermore, these antibodies killed the coronavirus to a considerable extent.
What Scientists Have To Say
The scientists said we might be close, but we are not there yet. Moreover, glitches can occur in between testing. Also, this was the first human trial. Therefore, it was safe observed testing.
The test was planned only for eight people. If it works out, then the scientists will have to test it on a larger group before distributing it to the mass population. It’s too early to say anything.
The researchers have to study the long term effect of the vaccine. Moreover, deciding the dose is also an important thing to consider.
Also Read: Trump Threatening Of China
Second Stage Of Testing
The vaccine has got the green light to start the second stage of human testing. The effectiveness and optimal dose of the vaccine elements will be determined in stage two. A 50 mcg dose instead of 250 mcg dose will be tested.
Reducing the dose needed to produce immunity can spare the amount of vaccine required in each shot. This will help to ensure the availability of vaccines for everyone.English - Vietnamese Dictionary
attribute /'ætribju:t/Concise Dictionary
- ngoại động từ
- cho là do, quy cho
- to attribute one's success to hard work: cho thành công là do sự cần cù
- to attribute a crime to somebody: quy tội cho ai
+a construct whereby objects or individuals can be distinguished
+an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of an entity
+attribute or credit to
+decide as to where something belongs in a scheme
Advanced English Dictionary
1 quality, character, characteristic, property, feature, trait, virtue:
It is surprising how soon historical personages become invested with romantic attributes.
2 ascribe, impute, assign, put down to, trace to, charge, credit:
The shrivelled arm of Richard the Third was attributed to witchcraft. To what do you attribute your interest in birds?
verb, nounCollocation Dictionary
+ verb [VN]
1 ~ sth to sth to say or believe that sth is the result of a particular thing: She attributes her success to hard work and a little luck.
2 ~ sth (to sb) to say or believe that sb is responsible for doing sth, especially for saying, writing or painting sth: The committee refused to attribute blame without further information. + This play is usually attributed to Shakespeare.
attribution noun [U]: The attribution of this painting to Rembrandt has never been questioned.
sth: Patience is one of the most important attributes in a teacher. + The most basic attribute of all animals is consciousness.
chief, great, key, main | desirable, essential, important, necessary, positive, useful
Patience is an essential attribute for a teacher.
| common | divine, human | cultural, personal, physical, social
Her physical attributes were much admired.
VERB + ATTRIBUTE
directly | solely | in large measure, largely, mainly | in part, partly
They claim that one intwenty deaths can be directlyattributed to air pollution.
be commonly/generally/usually/widely attributed to
The goals commonly attributed to management are status, power, salary and security.
Random quote: If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of.: Bruce LeeLatest queries: barred, cease, actively, theory, explained, idea, breathless, rebuses, breathe, del, protective, unhook, auditors, impudent, exhaust, enzyme, described, bel, censorship, attribute,From Purdue University:
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Yes, money can lead to happiness, but how much debt one has should also be considered in the money-happiness equation, according to a new a study from Purdue University.
“There has been a lot of research looking at whether and how income makes people happy in life, but few studies have examined whether debt can detract from happiness. We found that carrying student loan debt is almost as important as income in predicting financial worry and life satisfaction,” said Louis Tay, an assistant professor of psychological sciences, who studies the effects of income and money on happiness.
The study’s results are published in the Journal of Happiness Studies. The survey results are from the Gallup-Purdue Index, which provides a measure of how college graduates are doing on five key dimensions of well-being: purpose, social, physical, financial and community. Tay also is member of the committee evaluating results of the ongoing survey.
An online college alumni sample of 2,781 individuals from the United States was used in Tay’s study. On average, these individuals graduated from college in 2008 and had been paying student loans for at least seven years. In addition to demographic data, Tay’s analysis looked at the relationships between average household income, student loan amount, life satisfaction and financial worry.
“We always think about how much income you can earn, but the reality is you can’t guarantee what you will earn post-college,” Tay said. “There is a lot in the news about reducing, balancing or managing college student debt, and this study shows the burden it can take on one’s life for the long term.”
Personal and household debt is a concern for many Americans. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimates that household debt has increased from $8.29 trillion in 2004 to $12.29 trillion in 2016.
Tay said …- 500+ Experts Online to help you 24x7
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Research methodology is the important part of the thesis or dissertation which provide the entire process used for the collection of information and analysis of the same. Generally research is considered as the system approach or process for completion of certain topic or study on the basis of set pattern. With the clear evidence of research methodology effective structure of the dissertation or study can provided in order to attain the stated aim and objectives. The application or selection of most suitable method would contribute towards bringing the appropriate outcome for the investigation (Sam and Daniel, 2011). The section of research methodology provides the better idea to researcher that which methodology or technique is more suitable to derive the valid outcome along with the presence of several alternatives. In this manner, research methodology can be considered as the pathway to ensure systematic completion of the study by keeping into account selected research problem.
This third chapter of the thesis entails different aspects such as research design, approach, data collection methods and techniques applied for the analysis of data. However, every research or study is based on certain pattern so that section of research methodology provide evidence and detail description of the same. Furthermore, research methodology provides general explanation of methodology and offer the justification of the selected one (Saunders and et. al., 2009). Apart from this, some specific methods which are not related or specific towards the study are also described along with the rationale that why are not being selected. In addition to this, drawbacks and positive aspect associated with each research method is explained or described in clearer manner so as to present the outcome of the thesis in a more precise manner. On the current study of impact of brand awareness on purchase intention, following methodology have been used.
Data collection is the imperative part of research methodology in which researcher take decision to select the most suitable technique for collection of the information. Generally two types of information is collected such as primary and secondary. The primary data are collected first hand for the specific purpose of investigation whereas the secondary are collected from the existing material. The procedure of collection of primary data is time consuming as researcher need to arrange several thing to complete the same process (Marlow, 2010). There are several methods used for the collection of primary information such as questionnaire, interview, observation etc. Though, it is important to select the most suitable method for gathering the information in context of the current research aim. At this juncture, questionnaire and interview method both have been selected to meet the specific purpose of investigation. Apart from this, different sources such as journals, books and online articles are selected for the collection of information related to impact of brand awareness on purchase intention. It provides in-depth information related to the topic under investigation and assists researcher to meet the objective. Moreover, past research reports and other specific or relevant information has also been considered for the investigation (Singh, 2010).
Data collection holds much importance in the research proposal as that aids the researcher to grab appropriate data from the specific sources. With the help of data collection, researcher has enhanced the research procedure through focusing on diverse sources. In the present study, primary and secondary both the sources have been used in different contexts. In addition to the same, researcher is greatly focusing on primary sources because that allows use of accurate and relevant data. Use of primary and secondary sources both the sources seems to be helpful for the researcher in many ways. Under primary sources, researcher has ensured that appropriate participants are being involved in the research procedure to collect suitable data. On the other hand secondary sources are also used in the form of completing the section of literature review.
Secondary sources such as books, journals and articles are being used so that appropriateness of the content can be ascertained. Various previous literature are also used in the study for the purpose of finding out the concepts behind the subject matter. According to generalized context, secondary source includes data that is already published in books, newspapers, journals, magazines and online portals. Abundance of data is presented in such sources; hence that has been used in the research process. Hence, application of appropriate set of criteria is selected in the research study for the purpose of enhancing the levels of research validity and reliability. Further, these criteria are not limited to any specific credentials of the study; however it has chiefly contributed in developing the research area.
Moving on to primary sources, it can be said that researcher has conducted survey and questionnaire is being provided to the participants to collect suitable and valid data about the subject matter. Several questions are being included in the questionnaire and that is further given to 100 customers of event management industry. Apparently, customers are being selected as they have knowledge about exact aspects that changes their purchase decision. Regarding this, 5 mid-sized event management companies are being selected who are operating business in UK. Each entity is asked to collect data from 10 customers in terms of specific research procedure. Questionnaire has been distributed through e-mails; hence they are appropriately collected as well afterwards finishing the entire process.
Questionnaire includes both close ended and open ended questions as researcher aims to collect quantitative and qualitative data. At the same time, interview is also carried out for the purpose of collecting more information about the subject matter. Therefore, it can be said that in the present study, mixed methods have been used. Stating about interview, five structured interviews have been conducted with the marketing managers who are working in the mid-sized event based companies. Basically, the source has been used so as to identify the challenges that are faced by those companies at the time of developing effective sales strategies.
According to the interview method, Qualitative data have been generated through using statistical method and this is also useful for the purpose of arranging research aspects in appropriate manner. Interviews have been carried out at the office premises of each company during lunch time. This helped in saving time and other efforts as well; hence researcher ensured to use such method in suitable way. Therefore, on the basis of entire discussion it is clear that use of both the sources is quite useful in enhancing the validity and creditability of research procedure. Apparently, primary data collection method is divided into two groups such as Quantitative and Qualitative and in the subsequent study, both have been used together.
Quantitative is typically based on mathematical calculations in varied formats and it is typically used for the purpose of stating specific analysis and interpretation. Therefore, considering the same, correlation and regression, mean, mode and median are being calculated. On the contrary is Qualitative method which do not involve numbers or mathematical calculations as it is closely associated with other elements of the study which are non-quantifiable. Similarly, it also aims to ensure thorough understanding of the subject matter through focusing on interview and questionnaire with open-ended and close ended questions.
Research philosophy seems to be a specific aspect of the study in which scope, nature and development of knowledge is facilitated. The process appears to be thoughtful because it includes knowledge as a major dimension of completing the research study. This is also useful for the purpose of collecting valid and appropriate data regarding the subject matter. Including such thing will also aid the researcher to get answer of research question and at the same time, it also helps in creating new knowledge. Research philosophy section is based on several beliefs and assumptions and such things needs to be considered while formulating the research procedure. Research onion is developed which states that different tools and philosophies are being used to conduct the research procedure.
Each and every stage present in the research process is based on diverse assumptions about several sources which enhances the nature of knowledge. Therefore, considering the same it can be said that research philosophy is a vast subject that aids the investigator in using several aspects to reach towards the aim and objectives of the study. On general basis, it has many branches that are also related to varied concepts of discipline; therefore accordingly it contributes in amending the scope of the research study. The choice of a specific philosophy is impacted by practical implications and this also focuses on different facts and numbers which enhances the suitability and validity of the research procedure. The categories of research philosophy are Interpretivism, Positivism, Realism and Pragmatism.
Pragmatism research philosophy has many ways to interpret things and it is also useful in undertaking research aspects in suitable manner. Therefore, multiple realities can be applied in a single term of managing research contexts. According to this research philosophy, the most important dimension is research question which also aids in collecting data about the subject matter. It can also combine both positivist and interpretivism research philosophies within the scope of a single research. This also defines specific nature of the research question. It also seems to integrate many research approaches and research strategies within a single study.
On the other hand, next Positivism research philosophy is difficult to elaborate as there are varied different dimensions present between these settings. It is also based on the idea that the science is not the only way to learn about truth and numerous other ways can be used to evaluate truthful aspects. Therefore, according to general term, positivism adheres to emphasize only on factual knowledge that is gained through observation. In such studies, the role of researcher is limited to data collection; hence data interpretation is also managed through adopting objective approach. Henceforth, researcher can evaluate findings only through observing quantifiable data. Dependence on such thing also helps the researcher to conduct statistical analysis.
In addition to the same, Positivism is also related to empiricist view wherein knowledge is developed from human experience. It also has an ontological view which comprises of diverse observable elements that determines different aspects of the research study. Moreover, in positivism studies, researcher has the power to become independent as it hold promoting human interest into the study. On the basis of general overview, positivist studies adopt deductive approach wherein researcher is also required to concentrate on facts and real aspects. Therefore, summing up research philosophy, it can be articulated that there are no differences in the logic of inquiry that is held across sciences. Henceforth, researcher should aim to explain and predict through adopting such methods and it can also support research variables. At the same time, research should be empirically observable through human senses.
This also includes discussion about inductive reasoning that is specifically used to develop statement and at the same time it can also assist in testing research criteria during research process. Therefore, logical aspects should be used in this respect to judge the criteria of the research procedure. This also denotes a study that has direct relationship between diffusion of theoretical and conceptual aspects. According to generalized aspects, Positivism involves use of theoretical dimensions to develop hypothesis and that is further also tested while conducting the research process. It also relies on two distinct variables so as to showcase the interrelationship.
Realism is another category of research philosophy that relies on the idea of independence of reality that comes from human mind. It is also a branch of epistemology as it is based on the scientific approach assumption. At the same time, it leads to development of knowledge from several grounds; hence research validity can be specified accordingly.
In the present thesis, Interpretivism philosophy has been taken into account because it allows the researcher to interpret the elements of the study in suitable manner. It is also assumed that access to reality is acquired only through social constructions which also includes information about shared meanings and instruments. At the same time, it is also associated with philosophical position of idealism; hence it is used to group together different approaches that lie in the study. As per the philosophy, researcher can act as a social actor and that also allows in appreciating difference in people. Moreover, this is also been used in the present study because it usually focuses on meaning and it may also employ multiple methods. This is typically used for the purpose of reflecting different aspects of the research issue.
At the same time, it can be articulated that Interpretivist approach is based on naturalistic approach of data collection; hence for such purpose different primary and secondary methods are being considered in the research process. Secondary data is also used in the research study for the purpose of grabbing more data about the research process. In such studies, meanings are usually derived at the end of the research process; hence several variations are ought to be considered suitably. Researcher has used this philosophy because that is related to subjective nature of this approach. Primary data is also generated in this philosophy as that is heavily impacted by personal viewpoint and values. Hence, in such respect it is clear that reliability and representativeness of data is weakened in the research process up to a specific extent.
Therefore, in this context reliability and representativeness of data helps the researcher to collect valid and suitable information about the subject matter. It is also used since Interpretivism study is associated with high level of validity as data in such study is highly reliable and accurate. Up to maximum extent of the study, the philosophy can be used and this can also enhance creditability of the research procedure. While using the philosophy, researcher ensured that suitable sources are being used to get towards the depth of the study and this can also enhance the essence of research procedure. It has also allowed the researcher to make use of primary data so that accurate and suitable information can be applied in the research procedure. On generalized note, primary data enhances the validity of research process; hence that is also used in the research procedure. At the same time, it also allows researcher to do modifications in research procedure. Hence, in this facet researcher can enhance the creditability of the entire procedure.
Research philosophy is the most important part of the scientific study which usually do not focuses on any specific research area. There are three major categories of research approach such as deductive, inductive and abductive and all the three categories have different aspects to consider. The basic criteria that differentiates all the three categories is the relevance of hypothesis. Stating about the difference between inductive and deductive, it can be contended that deductive approach test the validity of assumptions; however on the other hand inductive approach contributes to develop new theories through general processes. The present thesis has been following deductive approach because it is associated with development of hypothesis through existing theory. Afterwards, research strategy is being designed to test the hypothesis.
Deductive also means reasoning from specific to general; hence that allows the researcher to enhance the validity of research aspects. If a causal relationship occurs between any case and theory; then it might develop true aspects which are useful to reach towards the defined aim and objectives. Similarly, a deductive design is also useful in testing if there is any relationship between general circumstances. It is effectively explained through focusing on hypothesis which is chiefly derived through the propositions of the theory. In other words, deductive approach is also used since it is concerned with producing specific conclusion from value propositions. In the present thesis, deductive approach is being selected because it initiates with expected pattern that can further be tested against observations.
Deductive research approach also aids in exploring a known theory which proves to be valid in various circumstances. Researcher used this approach as it follows the path of logical values that is highly integrated with each other. Chiefly, this reasoning starts with a theory and after that it leads to development of new hypothesis. Afterwards, this hypothesis is put to test through considering it with observations which lead to confirmation or rejection of the selected hypothesis. Therefore, it can be said that researcher has used this technique as it starts from reasoning which moves from general to specific.
The other category is inductive approach which starts with observation and wherein theories are proposed at the end of the research process. This is also useful process since it involves search pattern that comes from observation. Hence, after that explanations are developed through focusing on theoretical aspects. Theories as well as hypothesis is not required to develop in inductive studies especially at the start of the study. Therefore, in this context it is crucial for the researcher to lay emphasis on theoretical grounds to reach towards research questions and objectives. Specifically, this approach aims to develop meanings from the collected data which also aids in identifying patterns and relationships to emerge new research aspects with a theory.
At the same time, inductive approach is not useful in preventing the researcher from existing theory to formulate the research question to be explored. It is also based on learning from experience; hence in different studies, it is used accordingly. Therefore, it can be said that patterns, resemblances and regularities are observed at the time of reaching towards the conclusion. It begins with detailed observation of the world; therefore it focuses on moving abstract generalizations and ideas. While using such approach, researcher always develop empirical generalizations so as to identify preliminary relationships while proceeding for the research study. This does not require formulation of hypothesis at the initial stage of the research as investigator has not idea about the type and nature of the research findings.
This is the reason, inductive is being used as a phenomenon that describes the exact pattern of the research work. Therefore, it can be said that several patterns are required to be searched as researcher has to reach towards valid conclusion. Researcher has used this approach because inductive reasoning is based on learning from experience; hence varied new dimensions are being researched in the subsequent study. Similarly, patterns, resemblances and regularities in experience are being observed for the purpose of reaching towards valid conclusion. Researcher also defined that inductive reasoning starts with detailed observation of the world which moves from specific ideologies to generalized concepts. At the time of following inductive approach, researcher focused on empirical generalizations and according to that preliminary relationships are also identified through conducting progressive research.
In the study, hypothesis is not developed at the initial stage of the research as researcher was not sure about the type of the study. Thus, while carrying out the entire research work, focus is being laid on close observation for the purpose of building abstraction. This is also useful in terms of depicting suitable picture of research phenomenon. Inductive is also based on grounded theory; however it can be applied with both Qualitative and Quantitative research study. Selection of inductive approach has helped the researcher to comprehend the dynamics, robustness and resilience focus on individual behaviour. This is also useful in constructing alternative dimension for the study.
This is referred to be yet another most important consideration of a surveyor to generate liable information by analyzing the collected set of data. It is however referred to be a procedural method that uses some step-wise measures to analyze the collected information by the undertaken measures (Analysis, 2006). This involves inspection, improvement, transmutation and modeling of the gathered information to ultimately result into the disclosure of helpful data that suggests some refined conclusions at the end by together supporting the surveyor to undertake justified decisions at the end. This will in turn supports in the overall achievement of the study aims and objectives.Dissetation help service
It is hereby referred to be an important consideration for the data collected from various resources that involves both refined and unprocessed information. On whose basis, the investigator is required to complete the entire research work and at last generate effective consequences. It together reflects to be an elementary consideration of the surveyor with some prior stages of social research in an effective manner. This involves some ambitious yet essential steps like definition of research problems, development and implementation of an illustrated plan. This is done by together conceptualizing the undertaken methods as a way of testing them to lastly create a functional plan.
After the completion of all these procedures, there exists the tactic of data analysis to evaluate the assembled data accumulated from distinct sources. Once after the successful completion of the aforementioned phases to reach the tact of data analysis, it seems to be an effortless task for the researcher (Dudovskiy, 2016). However, the topic reflecting the tact of social research work usually splits the method of data analysis into three leading steps namely preparation of data by together describing the statistics and testing the same at the end of the analytical process. The first stage namely data preparation is usually done to arrange the collected set of information in an orderly manner.
This leads to the refinement of applicable data to be used for the continuation of the survey. Another tact called descriptive statistics means to description of the information that will be analyzed by the investigator to further proceed towards the last measure of inferential statistics. This is the stage where the researcher is almost done with the analysis of the information which is now ready to conclude effective results of evaluation. It is referred to be one of the most efficient method for the appraisal of the data collected from primary resources so as to judge the thoughts of the undertaken sample for the study.
Commonly, there exists two customary methods for the process of data analysis that involves qualitative and quantitative analysis. Both of these methods are referred to use district measures for the purpose of analyzing the collected set of data (Analysing Qualitative Research Data, 2017). It however depends upon the nature and type of the study where a qualitative research is apparent to supported by some methods called focused group interviews and experiments, etc., to analyze its amassed information where each one of them are based on some common practices. Whereas, to analyses the information concentrated in a quantitative study includes critical evaluation of the interpreted statistical data.
It holds more importance in the research study because it aids in analyzing the collected data and findings through suitable methods and this can also aid the researcher to specify which valid aspects are being considered in the research study. Moreover, in this context focus is also laid on adopting appropriate method so that suitable findings can be depicted accordingly. Data analysis is the most vital aspect of the study and use of Qualitative method ensures to depict all study facets. It also allows researcher to focus on all such materials that can enhance the validity and reliability of research procedure and findings can be suitably denoted through meeting all research dimensions.
Hence, specific set of techniques is being selected in the present work so as to ascertain the common themes associated with the patterns of sample group members in relation to the codes of research procedure. It also includes other non-quantifiable elements such as events, behaviour and activities which are suitably coded in the research procedure.
Will get back to you within 24 hoursThe SGRP is a set of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains collected from locations around the world that represents the natural variation present in this species in the wild.
By using SGRP populations in long-term selection experiments, we simulate ecologically relevant scenarios in the lab.
These experiments allow us to test hypotheses about:
physiological consequences of adaptation to stress
the origins and fates of adaptive alleles
the repeatability of evolution
advantages of recombination and outcrossing
the evolution of aging
photo: molly burke
experimental evolution in other systems
While we work with yeast, we collaborate with like-minded labs doing selection experiments with other organisms. We are involved in ongoing projects with Drosophila populations selected for physiological and fitness traits.
We use phenotype and genome data from these populations to investigate evolution in real time, and to assess the limits of what we can learn from these experiments.
Here we see Molly thinking hard about flies (photo cred: Steve Zylius)
the genetics and evolution of aging
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) present a promising method for identifying genetic variants relevant for human healthspan and age-related disease. But longevity GWAS in humans face a number of challenges, principally the absence of large and well-controlled case panels.
Carrying out longevity GWAS in laboratory experiments with model organisms can circumvent some of these challenges. Our goal is to better understand the genetics underlying longevity in multiple sexual species.
This figure shows a region of candidate SNPs on chromosome 2L associated with extreme longevity in Drosophila melangaster.
(published in 2014 in Genome Biology and Evolution)
studying complex traits with multiparent populations
In traditional QTL mapping, QTL are typically mapped to broad intervals containing many genes. Genome-wide association mapping takes advantage of historical recombination in natural populations and therefore has the potential for very high resolution. Unfortunately, this approach requires very large sample sizes and high-density SNP maps, and even so is prone to false-positives.
Multiparental populations (MPPs) present an ideological midway between tradional QTL mapping and GWAS, and they have become an important tool for basic genetics research. MPPs include the Drosophila Synthetic Reference Population, the Arabidopsis Multiparent Advanced Generation Inter-Cross (MAGIC) population, and the Collaborative Cross in mice.
The Burke lab works with a yeast MPP called the SGRP-4X.
We also work with collaborators using a Drosophila MPP called the DSPR.Our complex digestive system is host to millions of (mostly) beneficial bacteria, close to 400 varieties of bacteria line the stomach, intestines and colon.
These beneficial bacteria or probiotics are responsible for aiding digestion, combatting the “bad” bacteria we may ingest, forming enzymes, and supporting our immune systems.
Probiotics are said to be responsible for our “gut” health, those functions outlined above plus the prevention of diarrhea, yeast infections, irritable bowel syndrome and other digestive disorders.
Probiotics include many species and strains of Lactobacilli, and Bifidobacteria.
To ensure proper health and an abundance of healthy bacteria we should make an effort to consume foods that support or replace probiotics and prebiotics, the specialized plant fibers that feed and nourish probiotics.
In a simple analogy, think of probiotics as pets, and prebiotics as pet food.
Natural Sources of Probiotics
Many probiotics are found in fermented or “cultured” foods, the most common being yogurt and kefir.
In addition to yogurt, add sauerkraut, Miso soup, soft cheeses, kefir, sourdough breads and sour pickles to your diet.
While yogurt, kefir and sauerkraut are excellent sources of probiotics, you can only each so much of them.
Many people have difficulty eating fermented foods consistently, or they simply don't like the taste of them. An effective alternative is probiotic supplements.
When choosing a probiotic supplement, look for products that contain:
Natural Sources of Prebiotics
Prebiotics are not actually bacteria, they are food for the friendly bacteria.
Foods that contain prebiotics include bananas, onions, garlic, tomatoes, honey, oatmeal, whole grains and many kinds of beans.
Prebiotics also appear to assist in your body’s absorption of calcium and in the production of vitamin K.
Antibiotics and Gut Health...
Probiotics and prebiotics are generally naturally occurring and self sufficient, we rarely think of their role unless there is a digestive problem.
But one time that you should definitely take an active role in supplementing your probiotics and prebiotics is immediately after any course of prescribed oral or intravenous antibiotics.
This medical treatment can, and will, wipe out the beneficial bacteria and destroy your gut health!
Ensure that you take steps to replace both probiotics and prebiotics to restore and maintain your good health. - Like right away!
Health, Fitness, & Wellbeing Fanatic, Certified Nutritionist, Successful Leadership Coach, Author, Blogger, YouTuber, & Traveller Fun loving, Don't take life too serious, Meet new people everyday kind of guy! Personal growth and Development addict!The Snotbot is the brain child of Iain Kerr, CEO of Ocean Alliance, a non-profit dedicated to the conservation of whales and their environment. As a custom-built aerial platform, it is an ingenious way of adopting cutting edge technology to solve the problems the organization has met in its work to study and preserve our whales. DJI joined and filmed the Snotbot team's expedition to the Sea of Cortez where our Inspire 1 successfully aided the researchers in collecting samples that will let science take another step forward. This is the Snotbot story.
The drone, a whale's best friend
The usual way of collecting samples from wild whales involves using loud motor boats to track and chase the animals in order to get close enough to shoot them with a dart. Although collecting samples is essential, this method can be considered cruel considering that whales are sensitive to sound. The chase also introduces an element of stress that no creature wants to be exposed to.
By substituting motor boats with aerial platforms, researchers can easily survey a large area while positioned half a mile away from their subject. Maneuvering the drone above a whale as it surfaces, they're able to quickly collect snot and blow exhaled from its lungs. This new method for collecting samples is much less invasive to the whales and much quicker, so that researchers need just one day to collect the samples that would previously have taken a week and required a crew of more than ten people. Meanwhile, the whales are free to go about their day undisturbed by noise and stings.
The collected samples can be analyzed to see what virus and bacteria an individual whale is carrying, analyze their DNA, and detect toxins present in their system. They are also able to detect reproductive status by looking at hormones to determine reproductive cycles and stress levels that may be caused by external human and environmental factors.
Sea of Cortez
Sea of Cortez is the the Snotbot team's second expedition, with the objective of increasing snot sample size from 20 micro liters to 80 microliters so that more types analysis can be performed. A second objective is to use commercially available aircraft for collection. This way, the team is able to prove that the method is replicable and scalable, even by researchers without the resources or expertise to build custom aerial platforms.
“I believe the only way to keep our oceans healthy is for nonprofits and businesses to work together. I applaud DJI for taking a leadership position and developing machines that have capacity for good far beyond their original design.” — Iain Kerr, Snotbot Founder
Whale research sounds complicated, but adapting an Inspire 1 for this purpose is easy: just attach a couple of petri dishes on top of the aircraft body. The trick is in piloting the aircraft so that you pass over animal the exact moment it exhales, so that the liquid from the whale's blow is captured in the dishes. For the Phantom 4, a simple device made out of a stick and cloth is enough to capture snot and blow.
DJI's leading camera systems also provide opportunities for researchers to quickly capture valuable image-based data about their subjects. With the high-resolution photographs captured by the Phantom 4 and Inspire 1, researchers are able to identify specific individuals while tracking their growth and physical development over time.
Watch the DJI Story titled Snotbot: Pushing the Frontiers of Whale Research to learn more about how drones can be a whale's best friend:The origins of our reproductive lives are a mystery. Why are a quarter of a billion sperm cells needed to fertilize one egg? Are women really fertile for only a few days each month? How long should babies breastfeed?
In his new book How We Do It, Field Museum of Natural History curator Robert Martin draws on 40 years of research in biological anthropology to locate the roots of everything from our sex cells to the way we care for newborns. He examines the procreative history of humans, as well as that of our primate kin, to reveal what’s really natural when it comes to making and raising babies.
Matrin will be joined in conversation by Re:sound host Gwen Macsai.
For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit http://chicagohumanities.org/events/2013/animal/how-we-do-it (312) 494-9509(Last Updated on : 04/10/2019)
Ratnagiri Fort, also known as Ratnadurg Fort or Bhagawati Fort, is located 2 km away from Ratnagiri District
. It is an important structure of the district and a dominant tourist spot for housing the Bhagawati Temple inside the fort campus. Apart from the temple, there are a lighthouse, a pond, a well and a cave below the fort. The strongest bastion is Rede Buruj.
History of Ratnagiri Fort
The fort was built during Bahamani period
. In 1670 Shivaji Maharaj
won the fort from Adil Shah of Bijapur
. Shivaji further built protecting towers on two commanding points- one at the south and the other near the old court house. Later, Dhondu Bhaskar Pratinidhi did some minor repairs to the fort during Peshwa
regime. The fort was later won by the British in 1818. The temple of Bhagavati was renovated in 1950.
This article is a stub. You can enrich by adding more information to it. Send your Write Up to email@example.com
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as a dispersing agent, a delay agent, a quick setting agent, etc., are supplied to the branch pipe 116 from a tank 117 through a pipe 118 including a valve 118v. Where it is not desirable to simultaneously incorporate a plurality of types of additives, a plurality of independent tanks each containing an additive of one type may be installed. At the rear or righthand end is formed an exhaust port 109 to discharge kneaded compound into a receiver 120. The compound in the receiver is conveyed to a working station by a tank car, a pipe, a conveyor or the like.
The pressure applying chamber 106 is sealed and is supplied with pressurized air or water. When pulsating pressurized fluid is applied it is easy to remove the compound adhered to the resilient film 105. The pressure applying chambers 106 contain elastic tubes 108. The tubes 108 can be substituted by sponge rubber or a hair rock (a mixture of hairs of human or animals bonded by latex or an artificial resin binder and having a substantial elasticity). Although the pressure applying chamber 106 can be provided along the entire bottom length of the mixing chamber 110 it is advantageous to install a plurality of spaced apart pressure applying chambers 106 as shown in FIG. 22. This construction prevents the resilient film from excessively bulging into the mixing chamber to interfere with the operation of the screw mechanism 104.
Where the mixer shown in FIG. 22 is used to prepare such compounds as mortar or concrete a powder of cement is supplied to the mixing chamber 110 from a cement tank 102 through a metering device 112. An operation between sand hopper 101 and the cement tank 102 comprises a first step I, an operation between the cement tank 102 and the secondary water supply pipe 116 comprises a second step II and an operation between the pipe 116 and the discharge port 109 comprises a third step III. More particularly, to prepare mortar or cement, in the first step I a portion of water necessary to prepare the final compound is added to a mixture of sand and gravel through pipe 115 and the water content of the mixture is made to be uniform by the screw mechanism 104. Then, a measured quantity of cement is incorporated to the mixture to form stable shells of cement about respective sand particles in the second step II.
When preparing cement mortar, in the third step the secondary water is added through pipe 116 together with one or more desired additives. With the connection shown in FIG. 22, the additive is firstly admixed with a large quantity of the secondary water in pipe 116 so that even an additive having a high viscosity can be uniformly admixed.
Instead of using a single resilient tube 108 as shown in FIG. 23, a plurality of juxtaposed tubes 108 may be used as shown in FIG. 24. With this construction it is not necessary to construct the pressure applying chamber 106 to be sufficiently air tight. Furthermore, the tubes 108 which should be air tight would not be damaged by the friction caused by the screw mechanism 104. Where water is filled into the tubes 108, their internal pressure can readily be adjusted by merely changing the level of a water tank. For example, the water tank may be positioned at a position higher than that of the tubes 108 by 1.5 to 2 meters. It was found that this level of the water tank is sufficient to prepare satisfactory cement mortar or concrete.
As shown in FIG. 23 additional pressure applying chambers 126 each containing a resilient tube may be provided above the screw mechanism 104. The resilient tubes 128 not only assist the action of the resilient tube 108 at the bottom of the mixing chamber but also reinforce the U shaped resilient film 105, especially when it is more or less aged or elongated thus maintaining a desirable sealing relationship to the screw mechanism 104.
The discharge port 109 can be formed at one side of the mixing chamber 110 as shown in FIG. 22 because this construction can contain the compound throughout the entire length of the mixing chamber so that even when the compound has a considerably high fluidity the entire length of the mixing chamber can be efficiently utilized.
FIGS. 25 and 26 show modified mixers. Thus, while in FIG. 22, the mixing chamber 110 is made of a single integral member, in FIGS. 25 and 26 the mixing chamber 110 is made up of a plurality of sections. More particularly, in the example shown in FIG. 25, the mixing chamber 110 comprises a plurality of cascade connected sections 110a, 110b and 110c which are disposed at different levels. A sand tank 101, a water tank 121 and a first screw section 104a driven by a motor M1 are provided for the first section 110a. A water content measuring device 122 is provided for the sand tank 101 to measure the water content of the sand treated by the water remover A described above (FIG. 1) so as to control the quantity of water supplied from the water tank 121. The second section 110b comprises a second section 104b of the screw mechanism and a hopper 110e adapted to receive the mixture of sand and water from the first section 110a and a measured quantity of cement from the cement tank 102 via paddle wheel 112. The third section 110c is provided with a hopper 110d adapted to receive kneaded mixture from the second section 110b and secondary water from a water tank 123, and a discharge port 109 at the end of the third section and connected to a discharge pipe 124 for conveying the resulting compound to a receiver 120.
The section 104b of the screw mechanism is secured to a hollow tube comprising the second section, the hollow tube being rotated by a motor M2 through a pinion and a ring gear 134 secured to the tube. A horizontal shaft 135 extends through the third section 110c and is driven by a motor M3. The horizontal shaft 135 is provided with a plurality of paddles 136 which are set at a predetermined angle to assure uniform mixing.
In the modification shown in FIG. 26, the sections 110a, 110b and 110c are arranged coaxially to form a continuous mixing chamber. Sections 104a, 104b and 104c are mounted on a common shaft 140 driven by a motor M4 located at the lefthand end of the mixing chamber. The second and third sections 110b and 110c are rotated by motors M2 and M3 respectively in a direction opposite to that of the screw sections 104b and 104c for the purpose of improving the mixing efficiency. For the purpose of adding the secondary water at the same position as that shown in FIG. 25 the shaft 140, at least in the third section is made hollow to feed water from a water tank 133 through perforations 133a at one end of the third section 110c.
Although the multiple section construction of the mixing chamber shown in FIGS. 25 and 26 is more or less complicated, since the volume of the contents of respective sections vary by the ingredients added in respective sections it is possible to construct respective sections to contain contents of varying volume. Mixers of different types may be used as shown in respective sections.
Another example of the mixer utilized in this invention is illustrated in FIGS. 27 and 28. As shown, a mixing chamber has a U shaped sectional configuration and a length sufficient to complete the entire mixing and kneading operations. A horizontal rotatable shaft 159 extends through the mixing chamber 160 and is provided with a plurality of mixing members 158 which are arranged generally along a helix. The angles of inclination and the pitches of the respective mixing members are varied in accordance with the mixing steps. Sand with its water content has been adjusted by the water separator A described above is supplied to the lefthand end of the first section I by a belt conveyor 151. The primary water is added at substantially the same position through a water pipe 155. Coarse aggregate, i.e. gravel, is added from a gravel tank 155a at a joint between the first and second sections I and II while cement is added from a cement tank 155c adjacent the gravel tank 155a. The secondary water and the additive are incorporated at a joint between the second and third sections II and III through pipe 155b and 155d respectively. In addition to the mixing members 158 relatively small auxiliary mixing members 157 are also mounted on the portions of the shaft 159 in the first and second sections I and II. These auxiliary mixing members 157 incline in a direction opposite to that of the main mixing members 158. If the direction of the auxiliary mixing members is the same as that of the main mixing members the angle of inclination of the auxiliary mixing members is made to be larger than that of the main mixing members. The main and auxiliary mixing members are inclined and are arranged along continuous helical lines respectively. As shown in FIGS. 29, 30, 33 and 34, the main mixing members are separated more than 30° about the periphery of the rotating shaft 159 and constructed such that each main mixing member does not extend over an angle of at least 360°. As shown in FIGS. 29 and 30 the auxiliary mixing members 157 has a smaller height than the main mixing members 158 and in the case shown in FIG. 30 the auxiliary mixing members 157 are utilized to support the main mixing members 158.
As shown in FIGS. 33 and 34, both main and auxiliary mixing members 158 and 157 are secured to the rotating shaft 159 by means of suitable fasteners 156.
In the construction shown in FIGS. 27 through 34 the speed of moving the mixture toward the discharge opening 166 varies depending upon the angle of inclination of the mixing members 157 and 158 with respect to the rotating shaft 159 corresponding to the variation in the bulk of the mixed composition charged. Considering only the weight, the speed of movement is the minimum at the charging end, while it is the maximum at the discharge end, but in the method of this invention where the water content of the mixture varies the problem is not so simple. Thus, the volume varies between a case wherein sand having a relatively small quantity of water, e.g. 2-3% and a case wherein sand contains much more water. In a relatively dry mixture incorporated with cement which forms shells, its volume shows a maximum, whereas when water is added to increase the fluidity of the mixture the weight thereof increases but its volume decreases greatly. In the step shown in FIG. 27 in which the primary water is added to make uniform the surface water, the angle of inclination of the main mixing members 157 is made to be a standard whereas the auxiliary mixing members 157 are inclined in the opposite direction to realize a relatively slow feed speed. In the second step II, the angle of inclination of the main mixing members 158 is made relatively large as shown in FIG. 29 whereas the angle of inclination of the auxiliary mixing members 157 is made larger so as to obtain higher feed speed thus allowing an increase in the bulk in step II. In the step III, after incorporation of the secondary water the fluidity increases thus further decreasing the volume. For this reason, in step III, the angle of inclination of the main mixing members 158 is made to be standard to decrease the feed speed than that of section II. For the reason described above, with a mixing chamber 160 having a uniform cross-sectional area the mixture can be mixed together with a constant surface level irrespective in the variation of the bulk. At the discharge port 166, the surface level of the mixture decreases rapidly as the mixture is discharged so that it is advantageous to provide an auxiliary mixing member 157a at this portion to make as long as possible the stay time of the mixture at this portion. The compound discharged through the port 166 is received by the receiver 170, but the discharged mixture can be conveyed by a conduit or a pump.
While in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 27-30, the variation in the bulk is coped with by varying the angle of inclination of the mixing members 158, in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 31 and 32, the variation in the bulk is coped by varying the volume of the mixing chamber 160. More particularly, the height of the side walls 160d of the mixing chamber 160 at section II is increased to increase the volume thereof. Because in the step in which shells of cement are formed about sand particles and the quantity of water between the sand particles is very small, even when the volume of the mixture increases, its fluidity is small so that the variation of the bulk can be coped with by merely increasing the height of the side walls 160d. Even when the high side walls 160d are provided, the cross-sectional configuration of the mixing chamber 160 is generally U shaped so that transfer of the mixture can be performed efficiently by the inclined mixing members 158, and the portion of the mixture bulged upwardly in section II is subjected to efficient mixing operation. When the pitch of the mixing member in section II is suitably selected, efficient mixing and kneading of the mixture can be assured with a relatively short length of the section II.
The embodiments shown in FIGS. 27-30 are suitable for preparing a large quantity of cement mortar or cement compound of excellent characteristic.
To have better understanding of the invention the following Examples are given.
In this example the apparatus shown in FIG. 2 was used which is provided with a rotating disc 2 having a diameter of 400 mm and driven by motor 4 at a speed of 1100 rpm. Fine river sand containing 3.98% of water and having a fineness modulus (F.M.) of 1.28 mm, said F.M. is determined according to the equation ##EQU1## where Pn is weight percent of aggregate remaining in a mesh of 0.15, 0.3, 0.6, 1.2, 2.5 or 5.0 mm after meshing, the quantity of surface water varying from 4% to 25% was supplied to the rotating disc 2 to cause the sand particles to collide upon the impact plate 6. The rate of supply of the water containing sand to the hopper 1 was varied in a range of 50 to 160 Kg/min. and the water content of the sand conveyed by the conveyor 11 was measured to be 9.4-10.1% showing that the quantity of the surface water is substantially constant.
Where the speed of the rotating disc 2 was increased to 5000 rpm the quantity of the surface water was measured to be 6.06-6.38% which shows that the quantity of the surface water was substantially reduced than that when the rotating disc was rotated at a lower speed and the variation in the quantity of the surface water is much smaller.
With the same apparatus utilized in Example 1, sand particles of medium size and containing 2.25% of water and having F.M. of 2.28 mm was treated in the same manner. In this example, however, water was added to the sand at the exit of the hopper 1 at a rate of 4l/min. When the rotating disc 2 was rotated at a speed of 1100 rpm the water content of the treated sand was 4.7-5.3% showing that the quantity of the surface water has been decreased because the treated sand had a larger particle size. However, it was found that the range in which the quantity of the surface water varies has been narrowed. In contrast, when the speed of the rotating disc 2 was increased to 5,000 rpm the quantity of the surface water varied in a narrower range of 4.33 to 4.85%.
Coarse sand produced from a different origin from that utilized in Example 1 and having a water content of 3.31% and F.M. of 2.96 mm was treated in the same manner as in Example 2. More particularly, when the rotating disc 2 was rotated at a relatively low speed of 1100 rpm, the quantity of the surface water was 3.3-4.2% whereas at a higher rotating speed of 5000 rpm, the quantity of the surface water was 3.2 to 3.52% showing a narrower range.
In this example, the apparatus shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 was used in which the rotating disc 2 having a diameter of 450 mm was rotated by motor 4 at a speed of 1250 rpm. Medium size sand river having a water content of 2.25% and F.M. of 3.27% was caused to collide against the impact plate 6. Water containing sand was fed into the hopper 1 at a rate of 25 m3 /hour. 5-40 l/min. of water was sprinkled onto the sand while it is being conveyed by conveyor 30. The treated sand collected in the bottom portion of the receptacle 9 was conveyed by the conveyor 11. The conveyed sand was sampled at each minute to measure the water content of the treated sand. The water content measured was in a range of 8.79-8.93% and it was found that the quantity of the surface water was substantially constant, i.e. from 6.54 to 6.58%. The quantity of the recovered sand after the treatment was 24.1 m3 /hour, showing a high yield of 96.2%. Not recovered quantity consisted essentially of mud.
When the speed of the rotating disc 2 was increased to 1500 rpm the water content of the treated sand was 6.92-7.04% (the quantity of the surface water is 4.66-4.77%). At a higher speed of 1750 rpm, the water content of the treated sand was 5.79-5.88% (the quantity of the surface water was 3.53-3.62%). Thus, in each case the quantity of the surface water was reduced and is substantially constant. The quantity of the treated and recovered sand was 24.28 m3 /hour for 1500 rpm, and 24.52 m3 /hour for 1750 rpm.
The same apparatus utilized in Example 4 was used to treat medium size sea sand having a water content of 2.46%, a salt content of 0.33% and F.M. of 2.62%. In this example, 30 l/min. of water was added to the sand while it is being conveyed by the conveyor.
In this Example, when the rotating disc was rotated at a lower speed, the water content of the treated sand was 8.56-8.71% (the quantity of the surface water was 6.40-6.55%). Even with the same rotation speed of the disc, since the sand is coarse, its quantity of surface water has been decreased. Although the treated sand still contains 0.03% of salt, it can be used for preparing green mortar or green concrete because of the formation of the cement shells, and the quantity of the recovered sand was 23.8 m3 /hour.
When the rotating disc 2 was rotated at a speed of 1500 rpm the water content of the treated sand was 6.76-6.83% (the quantity of the surface water was 4.30-4.37%) whereas when the speed of the rotating disc was increased to 1750 rpm, the water content of the treated sand was 5.51-5.58% (the quantity of the surface water was 3.05-3.12, which shows that the variation in the water quantity is also small. The salt contents were 0.028% and 0.027% for 1500 rpm and 1750 rpm respectively and such salt containing sand could be used to prepare a concrete compound.
To remove salt it is necessary to use clean water of a quantity at least equal to that of sea sand so that to remove salt from 25 m3 of sea sand it is necessary to use 25-80 m3 of clean water. In contrast, according to this example the quantity of water added to the sea sand is only 30 l/min., or 1.8 m3 /hour.
When salt is removed by sprinkling water onto sea sand, the salt is not removed uniformly. For example, even through the average quantity of the remaining water is 0.03%, it varies between 0.002 and 0.150% meaning that a considerable quantity of washed water contained more than 0.04% of the remaining salt which is the permissible upper limit. According to this example, when water is added to the sea sand being conveyed by the conveyor at a rate of only 30 l/min., since the separation of water is efficiently performed by the impact force, the quantity of the remaining salt is only 0.007-0.038%.
Fine particles of a slag pulverized by water and having F.M. of 2.53 mm and containing 2.90% of water was treated in the same manner as in Example 4.
More particularly, when water is removed at the rotating speed of 1250 rpm of the disc 2, the water content of the slag particles was 8.99-9.27% (the quantity of the surface water was 6.09-6.37%) whereas at the speed of 1750 rpm, the water content was decreased to 6.19-6.28% (the quantity of the surface water was 4.29-4.38%) and the quantity recovered sand was 24.0 m3, 24.3 m3 and 24.51 m3 at the speeds of 1250, 1500 and 1750 rpm respectively.
In this example, the apparatus shown in FIGS. 6-9 was used. Coal dust having a particle size of 0.15-5 mm and containing 3-15% of the surface water was treated by the apparatus. The feed speed was selected in a range of from 80 to 200 Kg/min.
The rotating member 52 was provided with vanes having a length of 250 mm between the axis and the outer end and the rotating member was rotated at a speed of 1500 rpm to remove water from the coal dust. After treatment, the coal dust contained 4.2-4.3% of the surface water showing uniform water removal. Mud on the particles of the coal dust was also efficiently separated.
In this example, the apparatus shown in FIGS. 10, 11 and 12 was used to remove water from blast furnace slag containing 20.5-57.5% of the surface water.
The rotating member 52 had a radius of 300 mm and rotated at a speed of 2000 rpm. The treated slag contained 12-15% of the surface water. The particle size of the slag was larger than 0.1 mm which can be classified.
The apparatus shown in FIGS. 6-9 was used, and in this example mineral particles having a oil content of 28-46% and a grain size of less than 3 mm was preheated to about 80° C. and then supplied to the hopper 1.
The rotating member 52 was provided with blades having a length of 250 mm between the axis and the ends of the blades. The rotating body was rotated at a speed of 1850 rpm, and the impact plate 60a was heated to about 60° C. After the treatment, the quantity of oil remaining on the mineral particles was 4.8-5.3% slowing substantially uniform removal of oil.
According to a prior art method of removing oil contained in mineral particles, the oil was removed by evaporation. To this end it has been necessary to heat the particles at a high temperature of 500° C. for a considerable period while agitating. Furthermore it is necessary to recover evaporated oil by condensation which requires an expensive equipment. In contrast, the apparatus of this invention is simple in construction, consumes less operating energy.
The following examples show use of the fine particles removed with water by the method and apparatus described above.
To prepare cement mortar according to a conventional method, nearly perfectly dried medium size river sand, water and 956 Kg of cement were used at a C/S ratio of 1:1 and at a W/C ratio of 35%. 765 Kg of a lignin sulphonic acid type dispersing agent was added and the mixture was kneaded. The resulting mixture evolved a considerable number of air bubbles and had a fluidity of 42 sec. when measured with a J funnel which have 6.5 cm in diameter of feed side, 45 cm in height and 1.0 cm in diameter of discharge side. The percentage of breezing after 3 hours was 6%. The product molded with this mortar had a compression strength of 375 Kg/cm2, 489 Kg/cm2 and 563 Kg/cm2 respectively after 3, 7 and 28 days. The coefficient of variation after 28 days was 15.3%.
The same sand was dehydrated according to the process of Example 4 by using the apparatus shown in FIG. 4. When the rotating disc was rotated at a speed of 1750 rpm, the quantity of the surface water after the treatment was 3.53%. Cement, water (total water minus the remaining water and a dispersion agent were added to the treated sand in quantities to obtain the same W/S and W/C ratios described above. After kneading for two minutes, a cement mortar was obtained having a fluidity of 13 seconds when measured with a J funnel and the percentage of breezing of 0.5% after 3 hours. Products molded with this mortar had a compression strength of 532 Kg/cm2, 698 Kg/cm2 and 790 Kg/cm2 respectively after 3, 7 and 28 days, the variation coefficient being 4.8%.
The water content of the same medium size sand was reduced at a rotating speed of 1750 rpm of the rotating disc to adjust the quantity of the surface water to 3.53%. After uniformly incorporating 16.47% of primary water to the sand thus treated a quantity of cement sufficient to obtain a ratio C/S=1:1 and the mixture was admixed to form cement shells having a W/C ratio of 20% about the sand particles. After adding 15% of the secondary water and 0.8% of a dispersing agent the mixture was kneaded to obtain cement mortar having a fluidity of 19 sec., and zero breezing percentage after 3 hours. The compression strength of the products molded with this mortar was 619 Kg/cm2, 739 Kg/cm2 and 855 Kg/cm2 respectively after 3, 7 and 28 days, the variation coefficient being 2.2%. When compared with products prepared by the prior method, the products according to this invention has higher compression strength and is more stable.
The same quantity of the same sand as that of Example 10 but not dehydrated according to the method of this invention, 347 Kg of cement, 3.5 Kg of a dispersing agent and water were mixed together to obtain mortar having ratios C/S=1:2, C/G=1:3.6 and W/C=42% to prepare mortar having a slump value of 2.1 cm and appreciable breezing and air bubbles. The compressive strength of the products molded with this mortar was 208 Kg/cm2, 284 Kg/cm2 and 334 Kg/cm2 respectively after 3, 7 and 28 days, the variation coefficient being 17.4%.
Similar mortar was prepared except that the surface water has been reduced to 3.53%. The mortar, less than 2.5 minutes after kneading, had a slump value of 8.2 cm and showed certain segregation and breezing. The products molded with this mortar had a compression strength of 274 Kg/cm2, 348 Kg/cm2 and 482 Kg/cm2 after 3, 7 and 28 days respectively and a variation coefficient of 8.2% showing increase in the strength by 50% and uniform quality.
6.47% of the primary water was added to the same river said adjusted its quantity of the surface water to 3.53% and the same quantity as above described of sand was added to form cement shells whose W/C content was 20%. Thereafter gravel, 22% of the secondary water and 1% of a dispersing agent based on the quantity of cement were incorporated and kneaded together to obtain a concrete compound having a slump value of 11.6 cm. The product molded with this concrete compound had a compression strength of 308 Kg/cm2, 382 Kg/cm2 and 513 Kg/cm2 respectively after 3, 7 and 28 days and a variation coefficient of 5.1% showing an increase of 50% of the compression strength and uniformity of the products.
To a concrete compound having the same formulation as that of Example 11 was added with 1.5% by volume of steel fibers. In this example, the sand was not dehydrated according to the method of this invention. The resulting concrete compound had a slump value of 1.5 cm and showed large segregation and breezing. The bending strength of the concrete product molded with this concrete compound was 58 Kg/cm2 after 28 days.
In contrast, similar concrete compound utilizing the same sand dehydrated by the method of this invention had a slump value of 7.4 cm immediately after the kneading and showed a slight segregation and breezing. But a concrete product molded with this concrete composition showed a bending stength of 75 Kg/cm2 after 28 days.
A concrete compound utilizing dehydrated sand particles formed with cement shells having a ratio of W/C of about 20% and incorporated with the steel fibers had a slump value of 12.8 cm, and showed no breezing. The concrete product molded with this concrete compound had a bending strength of 92 Kg/cm2 after 28 days.
The same river sand as that used in Examples 10-12 was used. 350 Kg of cement, 1120 Kg of sand, 700 Kg of a coarse aggregate, and 10.5 Kg of a quick setting agent were admixed under dry state. The resulting mixture was conveyed by high pressure air to a working station where water was added in an amount to obtain a W/C ratio of 50%. The resulting concrete compound was blasted against a vertical wall through a blasting nozzle. The quantity of rebound was 35%. When blasted against the wall of a tunnel, the quantity of dust generated was about 750 CPM. 28 days after blasting the concrete had a compression strength of 232 Kg/cm2 and a variation coefficient of 14.5%.
The concrete compound having the same composition as in Examples 10-12 except that the quantity of the surface water was adjusted to be 3.53% was prepared and the concrete compound was blasted under the same conditions, and it was found that the quantity of rebound was 18% and the quantity of dust generated was 340 CPM. The blasted concrete had a compression strength of 363 Kg/cm2 after 28 days and a variation coefficient of 5.3%.
The same sand adjusted its surface water to be 3.53% and a quantity of cement were mixed together to form cement shells having a W/C ratio of 20%. Then a quantity of water to ensure a ratio W/C=34.2% and 0.6% based on the weight of cement, of a dispersing agent were added to prepare a mortar having a high fluidity. The mortar was conveyed under pressure through a pipe. Another dry compound was prepared having ratios C/S=1:3.01 and S/A (A represent a coarse aggregate) of 56% and conveyed under pressure through another pipe. The two compounds were admixed at the working station at a ratio of 1:1.75 by volume together with a suitable quantity of a quick setting agent. The concrete composition suitable for blasting had a ratio W/C of 42% and contained 352 Kg of cement, and blasted against a wall. The amount of rebound at the time of blasting was 8.9% the quantity of dust generated was 72 CPM. The compression strength of the blasted concrete after 28 days was 542 Kg/cm2 and the variation coefficient was 3.2%. The compression strength was increased by 100% and the variation coefficient was reduced to 1/5 when compared with conventional concrete compound.
In this example the water remover A shown in FIG. 16 was combined with the mixer B shown in FIG. 27. A medium size river sand (containing 23% of water and a quantity of surface water of 3-27%) and having F.M. of 2.1 was treated by the water remover A.
The rotating member 77 was provided with vanes 79 having a length of 225 mm and rotated at a speed of 1250 rpm. The water containing sand was supplied to the hopper 1 at a rate of 50-120 Kg/min. The sand in the hopper 85 contained 6.7-6.9% of the surface water, and that in the hopper 86 contained 6.4-6.8% of the surface water. The quantity of the surface water of the sand contained in the hopper 86 corresponds to that of the medium size sand.
Where the speed of the rotating member was increased to 1500 rpm, the water content of the sand in the hopper 85 was 5.6-5.9%, that of the sand in the hopper 86 was 5.2-5.4%. When the speed is increased further to 1750 rpm the water content of the sand in the hopper 85 was 3.9-4.2% and that of the said in the hopper 86 was 4.1-4.3% showing substantially equal water content.
Cement, water and 1% of a dispersing agent, based on the volume of cement were added to the sand thus treated to obtain ratios of C/S-1:2 and W/C=43%. The quantity of water added corresponds to the difference between the added water and the surface water. The kneaded mixture had such fluidity that the shearing strength Fo of 1.54 g/cm2, a relative viscosity coefficient λ of 0.86 g/sec. cm4, a relative closure coefficient ΔFo of 0.0034 g/cm4 and a gregation and breezing of 0.05%. The compression strength of a molded product utilizing the mortar thus prepare had a compression strength of 438-452 Kg/cm2 (average 447 Kg/cm2) and 521-545 Kg/cm2 (average 534 Kg/cm2) after 7 and 28 days respectively. Although a little gregation and breezing were noted, the product had uniform strength.
In addition to the kneading operation in which all quantity of water is added at a time, another process was also performed which includes the shell forming step and water was added in two stages. More particularly, preliminary water was added through pipe 155 to ensure surface water of 10%, then a quantity of Portland cement was added to obtain a ratio W/C of 20%. Finally, 153 Kg of the secondary water ad 1% based on the volume of the cement of a dispersing agent were incorporated to prepare cement mortar having ratios S/C=2 and W/C=43%. The fluidity of the mortar was such that the initial shear strength Fo of 2.63 g/cm3, a relative viscosity coefficient λ of 1.08 g.sec/cm4 and a relative closing coefficient ΔFo of 0.0072 g/cm4. No segregation and breezing was noted. The molded product had a compression strength of 521-545 Kg/cm2 (average 535 Kg/cm2) and 628-656 Kg/cm2 (average 642 Kg/cm2) after 7 and 28 days respectively.
A portion of piled up sand, 285 Kg of water, 664 Kg of cement were admixed and kneaded to obtain a mortar having Fo of 0.74 g/cm3, λ of 1.37 g.sec/cm4, ΔFo of 0.014 g/cm4, and a segregation and breezing of 1.4%. The product molded with this mortar had a compression strength of 268-367 Kg/cm2 (average 332 Kg/cm2) and 353-501 Kg/cm2 (average 397 Kg/cm2) respectively after 7 and 28 days. Thus the mechanical strength is substantially lower and varies variously.
A mixer A shown in FIGS. 6 to 9 was used for dehydration. Fine water containing sand (the quantity of the surface water of 3 to 27%, percentage of water absorption of 2.8%, and F.M. of 1.93) was supplied to the upper portion of the hopper 51 and water was sprinkled onto the sand at a rate of 30 l/min. while the sand is being conveyed. The rotating member 52 was rotated at a speed of 1500 rpm to project the sand at a rate of 360-450 Kg/min. The quantity of water remaining on the sand particles after the dehydration treatment was 8.3-8.5% showing a small variation. This means that even when the rotating speed is varied more or less, it is possible to adjust the quantity of the surface water as desired.
Cement gravel and water were added to the dehydrated sand in such amounts to obtain ratios S/C=1:2, S/G=38.5% and W/C=43%. 1.2% based on the volume of the cement of a dispersing agent was added and then kneaded. The resulting concrete had an excellent fluidity and a slump value of 15.6 and only a slight segregation and breezing were noted. The product molded with this concrete compound had an average compression strength of 285 Kg/cm2 and 412 Kg/cm2 after 7 and 28 days respectively, the variation coefficient thereof being 8.8%.
Where the mixer shown in FIG. 27 was used, the primary water was added to the treated sand to adjust its surface water to be 10%, 1150 Kg of gravel and a powder of Portland cement were then added to adjust the ratio W/C to be 20%. Then 83 Kg of the secondary water and 1.2% based on the volume of the cement of a dispersing agent were added to obtain a concrete compound having ratios S/C=2, S/A=38.5, and W/C=43% and a high fluidity of 17.2 cm in terms of the slump value. The product molded with this concrete compound had an average compression strength of 351 Kg/cm2 after 7 days
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the country's ongoing tradition of Celtic art, most Irish manuscript illustrators used abstract Celtic designs, rather than figurative imagery preferred by Continental artists.
“Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whom the Lord has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the Lord has commanded.” And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work. And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning, so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing, and said to Moses, “The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do.”... Share Your Faith Products
Romanesque architecture had to cope with the growing number of pilgrims visiting the sites of holy relics across Europe. In France/Spain, for instance, massive archways were built to cope with the huge devout crowds on the El Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela (1075-1211) in Galicia, northwestern Spain, where the remains of the apostle Saint James are reportedly interred. Other Romanesque churches on the route included St Etienne Pilgrimage Church (1063, Nevers), and Saint-Sernin Pilgrimage Church (1120, Toulouse). Share Your Faith Products
Designed by Sir Christopher Wren, St Paul's is a Church of England cathedral which stands on the site of the original church, founded in 604. The seat of the Bishop of London, the cathedral was constructed as part of the major rebuilding program overseen by Wren, following the Great Fire of London. Its 365-foot high dome is one of the best-known sights of London. Christian Wall Art
Mosaic art was the most important feature of Byzantine art for almost a thousand years: comparable with sculpture in Ancient Greece, the painted panel of the Northern Renaissance, or the altarpiece in 16th century Venice. Shimmering in the candlelight and sometimes decorated in gold leaf, these exquisite glass jigsaws were governed by rigid rules as to colour, size and composition, mosaics had two key aims: to beautify the house of the Lord (and overawe the spectator), and to educate illiterate worshippers in the Gospel story. The individual mosaic pieces (tesserae) were often deliberately set unevenly, to create movement of light and colour.
Huram also made the pails, the shovels and the bowls. So Huram finished doing the work which he performed for King Solomon in the house of God: the two pillars, the bowls and the two capitals on top of the pillars, and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on top of the pillars, and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on the pillars.read more. Christian Canvas Art
Marriage Bible verses give you the opportunity to share your thoughts and emotions, even when other sentiments may fall short. There are times when only a carefully chosen piece of scripture will suffice, and now you don't have to peruse the Bible on your own to find the right words. You can use these Bible verses about marriage and love to express the joy, gratitude and happiness that you feel toward your significant other while paying tribute to your faith. Here are some of the most treasured Bible verses about love, marriage and relationships that you can incorporate into your wedding day. Christian Gifts
The most famous Romanesque churches and religious buildings include: Cluny Church II (981, Burgundy); Monastery Church of S. Pedro de Roda (1022, Catalonia); Abbey Church of St Michael, Hildesheim (1033, Germany); Ely Cathedral (1080, England); Pisa Cathedral (after 1083, Italy); La Grand Chartreuse Abbey (1084, Grenoble); Durham Cathedral (after 1093, England); Speyer Cathedral (1106, Germany); Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy (1120, France); Baptistery of St Giovanni, Florence (1128, Italy); Cluny Church III (1130, France); Mainz Cathedral (1137, Germany); Krak des Chevaliers (after 1142, Homs, Syria); Abbey Church of Fontenay (1147, France); Worms Cathedral (1200, Germany); and the Church of the Madeleine (1215, Vezelay). Share Your Faith Products
In addition, there are numerous expressionist works by the French Catholic painter Georges Rouault, notably his series of The Holy Face, the Crucifixion and Christ Mocked, which make him one of the most important Christian artists of the 20th century. A similar accolade could be bestowed on the Russian fantasy painter Marc Chagall, whose imaginative Jewish art and scenes from the Old Testament were followed later by his series on religious themes - The Bible Message - now on display at the Cimiez Museum, in Nice. Chagall also produced a number of stained-glass designs for the cathedrals of Metz (1968), and Reims (1974), as well as the Hadassah Synagogue near Jerusalem. In addition, he was noted for the tapestry art that he designed for the Knesset.
A devout Catholic, the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens became the most influential exponent of Counter-Reformation painting in Northern Europe. Famous for his large-scale religious and history paintings, full of sensuous colour and drama, he socialized in the leading circles of European society as both an artist and diplomat. Despite the distance separating Rubens from the ordinary churchgoer, some of his Catholic pictures, like the celebrated triptych Descent from the Cross (Rubens) (1612), are intensely moving, and his impact on later painters was enormous. See also: Samson and Delilah (1610). Christian Canvas Art
A Psalm for giving thanks. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations....
“See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you:... Christian Canvas Art
Now King Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tyre. He was a widow's son from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze; and he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill for doing any work in bronze So he came to King Solomon and performed all his work. He fashioned the two pillars of bronze; eighteen cubits was the height of one pillar, and a line of twelve cubits measured the circumference of both. read more.
During the development of Christian art in the Byzantine Empire (see Byzantine art), a more abstract aesthetic replaced the naturalism previously established in Hellenistic art. This new style was hieratic, meaning its primary purpose was to convey religious meaning rather than accurately render objects and people. Realistic perspective, proportions, light and color were ignored in favor of geometric simplification of forms, reverse perspective and standardized conventions to portray individuals and events. The controversy over the use of graven images, the interpretation of the Second Commandment, and the crisis of Byzantine Iconoclasm led to a standardization of religious imagery within the Eastern Orthodoxy. Share Your Faith Products
A Christian wall decal from Divine Walls is the perfect gift. We offer over 600 uniquely crafted and beautiful designs on our site. Select the perfect size, color, and verse for your home, office, or church. A Divine Walls decal is easily removed and will not cause damage to your home. If you can't find what you are looking for, try our custom design service. Christian Canvas Art
"You shall make two cherubim of gold, make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat. "Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat at its two ends. "The cherubim shall have their wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings and facing one another; the faces of the cherubim are to be turned toward the mercy seat.read more. Christian Canvas Art
This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.... Share Your Faith Products
Ephesians 5:25-33: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,..." Christian Wall Art
The Bible has a lot to say about the bonds of love and devotion. Bible verses about love speak of the perfect love that everyone should have toward their friends, family and mankind, not to mention the Lord. However, Bible verses about love also offer a revealing look at the strength and hope that romantic love can provide. It can be difficult to put your feelings for one another into words, but these Bible verses about love seem to capture its essence just right.
Gothic art, too, was all about Christian architecture. It was indebted to a revival of science and mathematics, notably Euclidian geometry. While the Romanesque was noted for its massiveness of scale, thick walls, narrow windows and dim interiors, Gothic architecture dazzled with its soaring vaults, huge stained glass windows and spacious, well-lit interiors. Using pointed arches to spread the weight of the ceiling, and revolutionary flying buttresses to support the walls, it allowed architects to create a church which fully reflected the glory of God. The Gothic style first appeared in the Abbey Church of Saint-Denis, near Paris (begun 1140), and within less than a century had revolutionized cathedral design across Europe. For the ultimate expression of religious Gothic architecture, see: Sainte Chapelle (1241-48) in Paris.
A third type of Christian art which appeared in Ireland during the Middle Ages was High Cross Sculpture (c.750-1150 CE). Consisting of different-sized monuments, all based on the standard design of the Celtic-Cross. Decorated either with abstract patterns or narrative scenes from the bible (rarely both), these monuments constitute the most important set of free-standing sculpture produced between the fall of Rome (c.450) and the start of the Italian Renaissance (c.1400). Christian Wall Art
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. Then the word of the Lord came to me:... Christian Wall ArtDuring the dark gloomy winter both our mood and immunity often suffer and you may feel like hibernating rather than embracing life to the full. Lucinda Miller, Founder of NatureDoc tells us why the ‘Sunshine Vitamin’ is so important for alleviating the winter blues.
During the winter months we don’t get much exposure to sunshine in the UK, and sun is needed for us to synthesise an important vitamin called Vitamin D. This amazing vitamin helps build healthy bones, regulates our immunity, supports inflammatory conditions and is also critical for keeping us in a good mood and can help with learning and attention. Without enough vitamin D, children can develop Rickets (bendy bones) and adults can start to get brittle bones which can lead to osteoporosis. Coughs, colds and ear infections may take longer to get over if you have a shortfall in Vitamin D. Pain and autoimmune conditions can also be exacerbated if you are running low in your Vitamin D stores. Seasonal depression can sometimes be lifted when we have the right amount of vitamin D, and that’s why we usually feel better in the summer or after a winter break in the sun.
Vitamin D also has an important interaction with our gut microbiome and is now known to help create a healthier more diverse bacteria in the gut. This has a knock on effect on how efficiently we build our mood hormones (neurotransmitters) like serotonin for a positive cheery outlook and good sleep; GABA to keep us cool, calm and collected; Norepinephrine to help stress response; Dopamine for motivation; and Acetyl-Choline which gives us a good memory and helps us learn.
Some people find it easier to synthesise vitamin D from the sunshine than others. Skin colour is a factor and so is genetics. If you have darker skin and your family tends to be deficient in vitamin D, then you may need more than the average person; and this is where it is best to take professional advice.
You can get vitamin D from some of the foods you eat, and these include oily fish like salmon, mackerel and sardines as well as seafood like prawns. You can also find some in eggs and organic milk, as well as meat from grass fed animals. There is a little in shiitake mushrooms too. Many plant-based “milk” alternatives are enriched with vitamin D, but this is usually in the form of vitamin D2 which is much harder to absorb than the natural D3 from the sun or food.
Because it’s hard to get enough through diet, the UK government encourages everyone to boost up their vitamin D intake throughout the winter from October to March through supplementation. Luckily these are usually easy to take – simple sprays or drops with specific dosing variations for each age group.
So if you are feeling a little blue this time of the year and need a little boost, try adding some wonder foods to your diet and speak to your GP or a naturopath about Vitamin D supplements.
Why not try Lucinda’s Vitamin D boosting recipe? Aromatic Lemony Fish Pie
Lucinda Miller is the founder of NatureDoc which offers UK-wide clinics specialising in women’s and children’s nutrition.
She also runs an online health shop www.naturedoc.shop which stocks a large range of vitamin D supplements.
PHE publishes new advice on vitamin D https://www.gov.uk/government/news/phe-publishes-new-advice-on-vitamin-d
Vitamin D and Otitis Media https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11882-019-0866-2
Vitamin D and microbiota: Two sides of the same coin in the immunomodulatory aspects https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31877495
The Effect of Various Doses of Oral Vitamin D3 Supplementation on Gut Microbiota in Healthy Adults: A Randomized, Double-blinded, Dose-response Study https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31892611
Vitamin D is a potential antidepressant in psychiatric outpatients https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30336806
Low vitamin D is associated with negative and depressive symptoms in psychotic disorders. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27595553During the early nineteenth century, and particularly after the War of 1812, American culture was significantly changed. These years saw quick financial and regional development; the expansion of majority rule legislative issues; the spread of zealous revivalism; the ascent of the country’s first work and change developments; the development of urban areas and modern lifestyles; radical moves in the parts and status of ladies; and developing sectional clashes that would bring the nation to the edge of common war.
All through the Western world, the culmination of the Napoleonic Wars conveyed an end to the time of worldwide war and transformation and the beginning of another period of fast financial development. For Americans, the culmination of the War of 1812 unbridled the quick development of urban areas and industry and a torrent of extension westward. The years after the war likewise denoted an outstanding development of majority rule government in American legislative issues. Property capabilities for voting and office holding were canceled; voters started straightforwardly to choose presidential balloters, state judges, and governors and voting cooperation soar (Boyer 120). Moreover, the before the wartime saw an extraordinary surge in aggregate exertions to enhance society through change. Exceptional fights tried to illegal liquor, ensure women’s’ rights, and abrogate subjection.
The half-century or somewhere in the vicinity after the Civil War was a time of exceptionally fast monetary development in the United States. Genuine horrible residential item (GDP) increased more than seven times somewhere around 1865 and 1920 and true for every capita item multiplied. As the much higher development rates of aggregate contrasted with for every capita GDP propose, the economy stretched more by including new inputs than it did by expanding profit. All things considered, the rate of increment in for every capita item was higher than any other time before in U.S. history, and aggregate variable gainfulness developed from a list estimation of 51.0 in 1889, the first year for which figures are accessible, to 81.2 in 1920 (Ayers 70). These profit figures, besides, significantly disparage the degree of innovative advancement. Since they are computed as residuals, they do not catch upgrades exemplified in capital or different inputs to the production.
Around 1865 and 1920, the United States turned into the world’s heading mechanical entrepreneur country. There was nothing unavoidable about this improvement. Two main deterrents obstructed the route, each of them emerging from private enterprise itself: (1) a developing working population which progressively demanded imparting the products of the soil of modern production and (2) rival among existing firms, started throughout the years 1790-1865, developed great. Amid the most punctual periods of industrialization, as we saw above, “American industry was described by neighborhood [miniature] syndications ensured from rivalry with one another by high transportation costs. By 1850, the normal mechanical plant in the nation utilized just seven specialists (Berkin 94). After a year, “more than a large portion of all British mechanical undertakings had five or fewer representatives.” At mid-century, the inward American market for producers was still littler than that of the British. In no true sense was there much rivalry between two of the main modern nations of the world.
Albeit numerous variables helped the far-reaching development of the period, including high rates of movement and a generous climb in the investment funds rate, maybe the most essential was the extension and change of the country’s transportation and interchanges system. This advancement allowed the bottomless agrarian and mineral assets of the western parts of the nation to be brought into productive production (Ayers 94). It additionally helped the ascent of for every capita wage, most clearly by making it conceivable to adventure economies of scale and to amass production in zones of the nation that for one reason or an alternate had a relative point of interest. Amid this period, industry got to be both all the more provincially particular and progressively ruled by substantial scale undertakings.
During the first a large portion of the nineteenth century, reformers propelled uncommon crusades to diminish drinking, create jails, make state funded schools, teach the hard of hearing and the visually impaired, cancel servitude, and stretch out equivalent rights to ladies. Expanding neediness, disorder, brutality, and bad habit urged endeavors to change American culture. In this, as well, did the beliefs honored in the Declaration of Independence, the reasoning of the Enlightenment, and liberal and zealous religion (Ayers, Lewis, David and Jean 81). Change advanced through three stages. The primary stage looked to induce Americans to lead all the more Godly day by day lives. Moral reformers combat irreverence and Sabbath-breaking, assaulted prostitution, conveyed religious tracts and endeavored to check the utilization of hard alcohol. Social reformers looked to take care of the issues of wrongdoing and lack of education by making detainment facilities, government funded schools, and shelters for the hard of hearing, the visually impaired, and the rationally sick. Radical reformers looked to abrogate bondage and dispose of racial and sex segregation and make perfect groups as models for a superior world.
Taking everything into account, Americans have constantly respected ambitious people, yet amid the years 1865-1920 this state of mind was more serious than at practically whatever another time in U.S. history. This was a period when the extension of the railroad system and the joining of western terrains and assets into the national economy made gigantic open doors for a benefit, and Americans reacted with eagerness. Agriculturists moved out onto the new western terrains opened for settlement, miners hunt down gold or other significant minerals, designers protected a great many new innovative thoughts, businessmen typified these plans in new companies and stretched the extent of existing ventures, and lenders discovered better approaches to take care of businesses developing demand for stores.
- Ayers, Edward L, Lewis L. Gould, David M. Oshinsky, and Jean R. Soderlund. American Passages: A History of the United States. Belmont CA [etc.: Wadsworth, 2005. Print.
- Ayers, Edward L. American Passages: A History of the United States. Boston, MA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.
- Berkin, Carol. Making America: A History of the United States. Boston: Wadsworth, 2012. Print.
- Boyer, Paul S. The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.Would you possibly have a look at my blog or my Prezi course output, and reflect on your opinions relating to the content of the course?
I have recently taken part in a course about Conceptions of Curriculum, Philosophy and Assessment as part of the Graduate Diploma in Professional Inquiry at Queen’s University, Kingston Ontario.
Throughout the course I was exposed to many different historical developments relating to curriculum. There are 5 main conceptions of curriculum which link to different styles of assessment as well as being rooted in different educational philosophies, historically.
- rooted in the idea that students should first know who they are and are based on personal liberation through character development
- progressive philosophy base including existentialism and reconstructionism
- organic curriculum design
- rich assessment tasks are transdisciplinary
- a movement towards social reform to better society as students become agents of change
- pragmatic philosophical base leading to reconstructionism
- the curriculum is based on the needs of society and on social problems
- assessment does not focus on subject content, instead on social issues; students are encouraged to invent new ways of thinking and assessment by challenging their mindsets
technology * recently considered interconnected with others in todays day and age
- seeks to make learning efficient through the presentation of data; there is little focus on the learner, more on the information being presented
- perennialism philosophical base
- learners are guided through a carefully sequenced set of curriculum guidelines
- straight-forward assessment with output from the course content through short answers or essays
- rooted in historical and scholarly ideas and is best for learning the large questions that drive academic proficiency in the core subjects
- traditional philosophy of essentialism, idealism and realism
- curriculum focuses on single subject design
- assessment uses large scale testing through forms like multiple choice and short answer
- identifies the interactive relationship between the goals of learning and cognitive process one takes to meet the learning objectives; aims to sharpen students intellectual process.
- philosophies of perennialism and realism
- curriculum is derived from scientific evidence about how students can best learn
- performance based assessment give students the opportunity to demonstrate their extensive or elaborate thought process to meet their final product
This is only a rough outline of the ideas that are displayed in a Prezi I made for the course. Would you have a look and let me know how you feel about the different curriculum conceptions, or which one relates to your teaching practice now?
In my particular context of practice I use more of a humanistic approach to learning in my primary classroom of 7-8 year olds. However, I have found that after reflecting on on my learning about conceptions of curriculum for the past few months, I noticed significant overlaps in teaching pedagogy. I am interested in learning more about how I can use the best teaching practices for my context.21st Century Basic Skills Library: Level 1
The 21st Century Basic Skills readers support the development of reading skills as they introduce students to vocabulary and content they will use for a lifetime. Let your young readers discover the joy of reading for information as they build reading fluency.
- Reinforced book (9781634707695): 8.25 x 8.25, 24 pages, © 2016
- Paperback (9781634707732): 8.25 x 8.25, 24 pages, © 2016
- Hosted ebook (9781634707756): 8.25 x 8.25, 24 pages, © 2016
- Subject: Language Arts, Natural Sciences, Social Studies
- Series: 21st Century Basic Skills Library
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East Australia and Queensland
"From the beginning to the middle ofthe 19th century, Silver Oak was planted in many countries with subtropical or tropical high altitude climates as this species not only grows well but also is highly compatible with other plants. Mainly planted as shade tree in tea and coffee plantations. Trees reach heights of up to 30 m with diameters up to 80 cm. Silver Oak was imported to India in the thirties often past century and today Mainly grows there in the lower Himalayan regions as well as in the hilly parts of southern India, i.e. in an altitude between 600 to 1,800 m. Popular tree for parks and avenues in India and most of the veneers are manufactured in that country."
Up to now, Silver Oak has been used as veneer almost exclusively in India by their native board industry as decorative surface veneer. In the rest of the world Silver Oak is hardhr known at all as veneers. Other usage known is for parquet, light construction wood and for minor carpentry work.April 3, 2019 —
Last year, teachers in eight states across the country staged large-scale walkouts. The first strike in 2019 came in mid-January, when teachers in Los Angeles, California – the second-largest school district in the country – added their voices to the chorus of demonstrating teachers. The walk-out in Los Angeles marks the first time in 30 years that teachers there have gone on strike.
In past years, teacher demands typically focused on better pay and benefits. What sets the current wave of protests apart is the added focus on how years of lean school budgets is affecting students. Teachers are pointing out the many ways in which budget cuts have impacted public school education: larger class sizes, reduced educational resources, fewer members of support staff such as counselors, librarians, and school nurses, and outdated facilities. In Oklahoma, for example, teaching materials are badly damaged and outdated, school heating systems have stopped working, and many districts have had to shorten their weeks to four days because they cannot fund a full week of school.
In some strikes, like the one in Los Angeles, teachers are also protesting the growth of charter schools. Approximately one student out of every five attends a charter school in the district, and Los Angeles currently has the largest number of charter schools in the nation. Union leaders and other critics argue that charter schools enroll smaller percentages of students with disabilities, students from low-income families, and English-language learners. They also contend that charters pull resources away from other public schools in the district, making the impact of funding cuts even worse.
Despite the inconvenience of school closures and the added expenses of missed work and extra child care, many Los Angeles parents express strong support for striking teachers. Some even chose to keep their children home on days when schools were open. According to a national poll conducted last year, two-thirds of parents polled said that they believe teachers are underpaid. Another study released last year indicates that the shortage of qualified public school teachers, particularly in the fields of mathematics, science, and special education, is leading some districts to relax their standards in order fill the gaps, which could adversely affect the quality of education for years to come.
Six Democratic members of the Senate are showing their support for teacher demands by offering additional funding for public education. The “Smaller Class Sizes for Students and Educators Act,” introduced on February 27, 2019, calls for $2 billion in federal funding to reduce class sizes nationally for kindergarten through third grade. Federal funding for public schools, however, generally accounts for less than ten percent of total school budgets. Therefore, real increases in funding must come from the states.
So far, support for the concerns of teachers has not translated into votes for additional education funding at the state level. Last year, voters in Colorado, Missouri, Utah, and Oklahoma rejected measures that would have raised public school funding. With negotiations continuing in many districts across the country, strikes will likely be a tool to continue raising awareness. Teachers are no longer willing to stay silent about the decline they see in the quality of public school education.
This article originally appeared in the April 6, 2019 issue of Wide Angle, our regular newsletter designed, we hope, to inform rather than inflame. Each edition brings you original articles by Common Ground Solutions, a quiz, and a round-up of news items — from across the political spectrum — that we think are worth reading. We make a special effort to cover good work being done to bridge political divides, and to offer constructive information on ways our readers can engage in the political process and make a difference on issues that matter to them.
Sign up below to receive future issues.The future of military combat is going high-tech as scientists create an Internet of Things for combat gear embedded with biometric wearables to help soldiers identify the enemy, perform better in battle, and access devices and weapons systems using speedy edge computing.
Recently, the United States Army Research Lab awarded $25 million to the Alliance for Internet of Battlefield Things Research on Evolving Intelligent Goal-driven Networks (IoBT REIGN) to develop new predictive battlefield analytics.
Researchers say one key element of healthy IoBT/IoMT is a strong edge architecture that uses biometrics, environmental sensors, and other connected devices to send and receive data quickly, allowing military personnel to respond to potentially dangerous situations on the battlefield.
What is the Internet of Military/Battlefield Things (IoMT IoBT)?
The Internet of Things has strong military applications, connecting ships, planes, tanks, drones, soldiers, and operating bases in a cohesive network that increases situational awareness, risk assessment, and response time.
It will also produce a huge amount of data.
“The Internet of Battlefield Things (IoBT) involves the full realization of pervasive sensing, pervasive computing, and pervasive communication, leading to an unprecedented scale of information produced by the networked sensors and computing units,” says new research entitled “Context Aware Ubiquitous Biometrics in Edge of Military Things” in IEEE Cloud Computing.
“Integrating signals from a diverse and dynamic set of sensors, including static ground sensors and soldiers worn sensors, represents one among the several critical challenges facing the implementation of IoT solutions on a battlefield,” the authors say.
In the Internet of Military Things (IoMT) or Internet of Battlefield Things (IoBT), the sensing and computing devices worn by soldiers and embedded in their combat suits, helmets, weapons systems, and other equipment are capable of acquiring a variety of static and dynamic biometrics such as their face, iris, periocular space, fingerprints, heart rate, gait, gestures, and facial expressions.
In the video above, engineering simulation firm ANSYS, which was awarded a $413,624 federal contract this year from the U.S. Army Contracting Command for the upgrade and maintenance of Enterprise Level Fluent software, illustrates how the IoT-connected soldier functions on the battlefield.
“Such devices may also be capable of collecting operational context data. These data collectively can be used to perform context-adaptive authentication in-the-wild and continuous monitoring of soldier’s psychophysical condition in a dedicated edge computing architecture,” write researchers Aniello Castiglione and Michele Nappi of the University of Salerno, Kim-Kwan Raymond Choo of the University of Texas San Antonio, and Stefano Ricciardi of the University of Molise.
Why edge computing is critical to IoMT/IoBT
The key to a sound edge architecture is split-second timing. The number of connected sensors and the huge amount of data that must be processed can quickly overload the system.
That’s why the researchers recommend an architecture equipped with intelligent data filters, edge device regulation, and network infrastructure upgrades to increase maximum bandwidth.
“IoBT involves the full realization of pervasive sensing, pervasive computing, and pervasive communication, leading to an unprecedented scale of information produced by the networked sensors and computing units. Integrating signals from a diverse and dynamic set of sensors, including static ground sensors and soldiers worn sensors, represents one among the several critical challenges facing the implementation of IoT solutions on a battlefield,” write the authors.
Identifying the enemy
In asymmetric warfare, it isn’t always easy to identify enemy combatants. They can appear as civilians or access restricted military bases with a stolen badge.
Now, sensors can scan irises, fingerprints, and other biometric data to identify individuals who might pose a danger. Edge computing allows, for example, fingerprints from a weapon or bomb to be uploaded to the network and used to identify a combatant instantly. It can also confirm the identity of a target so a sniper can take him out.
“The overall amount of information gathered by a wide set of heterogeneous Internet-connected devices deployed on the future battlefield could possibly make the difference in terms of strategical advantage.”
“A context-based paradigm has been proposed for improving person authentication accuracy by means of a single identifier, such as facial, gait, fingerprint, gestures, as well as by exploiting multiple biometrics. Other known applications include activity recognition and user’s behavior analysis aimed at enhancing the quality of the services provided by a network of devices located in the surrounding environment,” the authors write.
Monitoring soldiers’ physical and mental state
Biometrics aren’t just limited to identifying combatants. Sensors embedded in military uniforms and helmets can send information to a command center about a soldier’s physical condition, helping him or her survive otherwise lethal enemy attacks.
For example, pilots under g-force conditions or soldiers exposed to toxic chemicals can receive assistance.
“Context-aware biometrics may contribute to fully realize the IoBT potential by augmenting the available information exchanged among the various kinds of devices with supplementary physical (heart rate, body temperature or thermal distribution, etc.), and behavioral (body dynamic patterns, speech patterns, etc.) user data, useful for inferring physiological and emotional conditions of soldiers on the field which could be valuable for critical situation evaluation, and decisional activity,” say the authors.
Syncing soldiers with weapons systems and other devices
Edge computing can help soldiers gain access to vehicles and weapons systems as well as monitor battlefield conditions through, for example, connected drones.
“Context information may also be valuable to achieve performance optimization and operational adaptation of biometric systems implementing ubiquitous user authentication/monitoring on mobile hardware architectures (in IoMT and IoBT devices that can function as a smart and mobile cyberweapon). In this scenario, context data may also include information about the surrounding environment or terrain, lighting conditions, soldier physical status (e.g., collected via sensors embedded in the combat suit), and ongoing activity (in motion or at rest, such as a sniper quietly waiting for a target to present itself), and so on,” the authors say.
Research related to biometrics in the Computer Society Digital Library:
- Defensive Biometrics
- Situational Awareness through Biometrics
- Continuous Authentication Using Behavioral Biometrics
- Biometrics in Identity Management Systems
About Lori Cameron
Lori Cameron is Senior Writer for IEEE Computer Society publications and digital media platforms with over 20 years of technical writing experience. She is a part-time English professor and winner of two 2018 LA Press Club Awards. Contact her at firstname.lastname@example.org. Follow her on LinkedIn.Generally we use both ‘it is I’ and ‘it’s me’ to introduce ourselves. The only difference is that ‘it’s me’ is more common and casual whereas ‘it is I’ is just formal, and will sound outdated. We are hearing ‘it’s me’ more often in our day-to-day conversations. Some people are of the opinion that in academic sense, ‘it is me’ is not grammatically correct, but is spoken frequently by most English speakers.
Most grammar style books suggest that when a pronoun follows a linking verb, such as ‘is,’ the pronoun should be in the subject case. It’s also called the ‘nominative.’ Now it is correct to say, ‘It is I’:
Who called Nancy? It was she.
Who told you about the accident? It was I.
Who settled the bitter argument between the passengers? It must have been they.
Who takes care of the lawn? It is we.
Now you might be wondering if all these statements are grammatically correct. Yes, they are! That’s traditional grammar and these rules are being followed for ages. During the course of the eighteenth century, the rule relating to pronouns was that – a pronoun in the nominative case (subject
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the long-term sustainability of our national fisheries, we have launched this initiative to prove Indonesia's commitment to protect our marine biodiversity and ensure the long-term sustainable use of sharks and rays well into the future," said Saad.
Agus Dermawan, the Director of the Ministry's Marine Conservation Directorate said,"Although we must be mindful of the fact that many of our coastal fishing communities derive significant income from shark and ray fisheries, there is a growing awareness in our country of the important ecological role that sharks play in maintaining healthy fish stocks and especially in the tremendous economic potential of shark and manta-focused marine tourism. We now know, for instance, that a living manta ray is worth up to US $1.9 million to our economy over the course of its lifetime, compared to a value of only $40-200 for its meat and gill-rakers."
A recent study of global manta tourism conducted by the NGOs WildAid, Shark Savers and Manta Trust showed that Indonesia ranks second globally as a manta tourism destination, with an estimated direct economic benefit of over US $15 million to the Indonesian economy annually. "We believe there is still tremendous untapped potential to expand shark and ray tourism in Indonesia, but we need to act now to manage and recover these populations,' said Mr. Dermawan.
Conservation groups working with the Ministry are delighted by the new focus on deriving economic value from living elasmobranchs, and have pledged their strong support to local and national government agencies working on a more sustainable future for Indonesia's sharks and rays.
The new walking shark from Halmahera can serve as an excellent ambassador to call public attention to the fact that most sharks are harmless to humans and are worthy of our conservation attention at a time when their populations are extremely threatened by overfishing," said Ketut Sarjana Putra, executive country director of Conservation International Indonesia. "We are very pleased with the commitment of the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries to sustainably manage our country's tremendous national marine heritage."
Available content for media (***Please Provide Image Credits***)
Allen GR, Erdmann MV and CL Dudgeon (2013). Hemiscyllium halmahera, a new species of Bamboo Shark (Hemiscyllidae) from Indonesia. Aqua, International Journal of Ichthyology. 19(3): 123-136.
For more information contact:
Emmeline Johansen, Regional Communications Manager, Asia Pacific Field Division, Conservation International | Mobile +64 4 277 793 401 | Email firstname.lastname@example.org
Mr. Agus Dermawan, Director, Marine Conservation Directorate, Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries | Email: email@example.com
Fahmi, Senior Elasmobranch Researcher, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI)| Email: firstname.lastname@example.org
Ketut Sarjana Putra, Executive Country Director, Conservation International Indonesia
Note to editors:
About Conservation International (CI) –
Building upon a strong foundation of science, partnership and field demonstration, CI empowers societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature and its global biodiversity to promote the long-term well-being of people. Founded in 1987 and marking its 25th anniversary in 2012, CI is headquartered in the Washington, D.C. area. CI employs 900 staff in nearly 30 countries on four continents and works with more than 1,000 partners around the world. For more information, please see www.conservation.org
or visit us on Facebook
Fast Facts on Hemiscyllium halmahera:
- First photographed by divers in 2008, the ninth known species of Hemiscyllium epaulette shark, Hemiscyllium halmahera, has recently been described in honor of its type locality off the island of Halmahera in North Maluku Province, Indonesia. Also known as a "walking shark" due to its peculiar habit of "walking" across the bottom using its pectoral and pelvic fins while foraging at night for small fishes and benthic invertebrates, this particular species is known only from the islands off the west coast of Halmahera (including Ternate and Tidore) around to Weda Bay in the south of Halmahera.
- This beautiful new endemic species has a light brown background color with leopard-like dark brown spots alternating with scattered white spots. Unlike its closest relatives H. freycineti and H. galei (both from West Papua), it has relatively few spots on the snout and has a distinctive pair of dark brown spots on the underside of the head.
- Like its relatives, H. halmahera is generally small and slender (maximum length of only 70-80cm) and lays small egg cases under coral ledges. The baby sharks hatch at approximately 15cm length and generally lead a sedentary life with very limited dispersal. Because of this, each of the 9 known species of walking shark have very restricted ranges that moreover do not cross deep water. For instance, H. halmahera is found only on Halmahera, H. freycineti is found only in Raja Ampat, and H. galei only in Cendrawasih Bay in West Papua.
- At the present time, six of the nine walking shark species have been recorded from Indonesian waters, including H. halmahera, H. freycineti, H. henryi, H. galei, H. trispeculare, and H. strahani. All of the walking sharks are typically favorites with divers, many of whom count a nighttime encounter with a walking shark amongst the highlights of their dive trip. The regency governments around Halmahera are now actively promoting marine tourism to this area, and the discovery of this new species of walking shark should help draw diver interest to this mega-diverse but largely undiscovered region.Transparent proxies via Squid.
Posted by Steve on Tue 4 Jan 2005 at 16:12
If you've setup a Linux machine as a gateway, standing between you and the internet then you have a lot of options for tweaking it. One of the most common things to setup is transparent proxying via squid.
If you've followed the previous guide on setting up a Linux gateway you will have one machine with two network interfaces, one for internal use (eth0) and one which is publically connected to the internet (eth1).
This gateway machine has a collection of firewall rules which:
- Allow machines "behind" it to make outgoing connections.
- Prevent incoming connections from the internet.
If we wish to setup a transparent proxy server to cache web pages - which would speed up browsing for those machines behind the gateway we need to do two things:
- Install a caching proxy server
- Add some rules to our gateway to seemlessly allow our machines to use it.
The first is simple. As root run:
apt-get install squid
This will install the Squid caching proxy server. This is configured by the file /etc/squid/squid.conf and we will need to make several changes to it.
First of all we need to tell it that we only wish it to listen on the internal interface. Remember that this gateway machine has two networking interfaces, one for the internal LAN and one for the internet.
Pick the one which is internal and add it to the configuration file as follows:
http_port 127.0.0.1:8080 http_port 192.168.1.1:8080
(In my case the internal address is 192.168.1.1, allowing the server to listen on the "loopback" address of 127.0.0.1 is a good idea too, and will be required later).
As well as that we'll need to tell the server what it's hostname is, and which email address is in charge of it for error display, etc:
visible_hostname gateway.my.flat cache_mgr firstname.lastname@example.org
We also need to add the support for the transparent proxying we will be using:
httpd_accel_host virtual httpd_accel_port 80 httpd_accel_with_proxy on httpd_accel_uses_host_header on
The only remaining thing we need to do is to tell Squid which networks are allowed to connect to our proxy server, without this it will refuse all incoming requests.
For a network which is 192.168.1.x internally the following will be fine:
# INSERT YOUR OWN RULE(S) HERE TO ALLOW ACCESS FROM YOUR CLIENTS # Example rule allowing access from your local networks. Adapt # to list your (internal) IP networks from where browsing should # be allowed acl our_networks src 192.168.1.0/24 http_access allow our_networks http_access allow localhost # And finally deny all other access to this proxy http_access deny all
If you're using a different network internally then you will need to adjust the addresses appropriately.
That's all the squid setup complete, so now we restart it:
Now we have a caching proxy server - which you is listening on 192.168.1.1:8080. If you were to enter that into your browser you should see it working - but what we are going to do next is make it transparent.
Nobody behind the gateway should need to do anything, instead it should just magically work (tm ;)
The way we do that is to add a rule to the firewal, which will redirect outgoing requests to the web (port 80) to instead go via the proxy server we've setup on the gateway machine on port 8080.
Add the following towards the end of your firewall rules:
# Transparent proxying iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 8080
This says that anything coming from the internal interface (eth0) which has a destination port of 80 (web) should be redirected to the new squid installation we've made on port 8080.
Reload your firewall and you should have it in place.
To test it you simply need to watch the squid logfile as you browse the web from another machine.
On the gateway machine you can run:
tail -f /var/log/squid/access.log
If you see something like the following when you surf the web on a machine upon your LAN you know it worked:
1104854410.086 159 192.168.1.50 TCP_MISS/302 469 GET http://www.google.com/ - DIRECT/18.104.22.168 text/html 1104854410.217 128 192.168.1.50 TCP_MISS/200 1459 GET http://www.google.co.uk / - DIRECT/22.214.171.124 text/html 1104854410.397 180 192.168.1.50 TCP_MISS/200 9022 GET http://www.google.co.uk /intl/en_uk/images/logo.gif - DIRECT/126.96.36.199 image/gif 1104854415.196 200 192.168.1.50 TCP_MISS/200 1459 GET http://www.google.co.uk / - DIRECT/188.8.131.52 text/html 1104854415.271 74 192.168.1.50 TCP_REFRESH_HIT/304 235 GET http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/images/logo.gif - DIRECT/184.108.40.206 text/htmlHow to Create a View in SQL for HTML5and CSS3 Programming
The query that converts a birthday into a formatted age in SQL is admittedly complex for HTML5 programming. Normally, you'll have this query predefined in your PHP code so that you don't have to think about it anymore. If you have MySQL 5.0 or later, though, you have access to a wonderful tool called the VIEW. A view is something like a virtual table.
The best way to understand a view is to see a sample of it in action. Take a look at this SQL code:
CREATE VIEW heroAgeView AS SELECT name as 'hero', CONCAT( YEAR(FROM_DAYS(DATEDIFF(NOW(), birthday))),'years, ', MONTH(FROM_DAYS(DATEDIFF(NOW(), birthday))),'months' ) AS 'age' FROM hero;
If you look closely, it's exactly the same query used to generate the age from the birth date, just with a CREATEVIEW statement added. When you run this code, nothing overt happens, but the database stores the query as a view called heroView.
This code doesn't look really fancy, but look at the output. It's just like you had a table with all the information you wanted, but now the data is guaranteed to be in a decent format.
After you create a view, you can use it in subsequent SELECT statements as if it were a table! Here are a couple of important things to know about views:
They aren't stored in the database. The view isn't really data; it's just a predefined query. It looks and feels like a table, but it's created in real time from the tables.
You can't write to a view. Because views don't contain data (they reflect data from other tables), you can't write directly to them. You don't use the INSERT or UPDATE commands on views, as you do ordinary tables.
They're a relatively new feature of MySQL. Useful as they are, views weren't added to MySQL until Version 5.0. If your server uses an earlier version, you'll have to do some workarounds.
You can treat views as tables in SELECT statements. You can build SELECT statements using views as if they were regular tables.
Some database packages make it appear as though you can update a view, but that's really an illusion. Such programs reverse-engineer views to update each table. This approach is far from foolproof, and you should probably avoid it.Make a little luck and review the numbers one to 46 with this St. Patrick's Day connect-the-dots worksheet; on the way to counting to 100!
Practice color and number recognition while working on his fine-motor skills with this worksheet, which challenges him to match colors with numbers.
Like color by number? Try color by letter instead and help your preschooler practice learning the alphabet!
Here's a fun way to teach kids their colors and boost fine motor skills to boot--a fun rainbow color by number sheet!Code Sets GuidelinesA range of guidelines have been developed to assist with the coding of various data collections.
Accurate coding of data collections is vital to ensure high quality usable data. A range of guidelines to assist the coding of data collections have been produced. The following guidelines have been produced:
Ethnic Group Prioritisation
The Ethnic Group Codes page on Education Counts includes a section on how to convert multiple ethnic groups into a single ethnic group (prioritisation).
Reducing Iwi Coding Problems
Analysis of Iwi data in previous education collections has identified some areas where Iwi names may have been incorrectly coded. The aim of this sheet is to reduce the number of coding errors by highlighting the problem areas, and providing the recommended code to use.Definition of Lamin A
Lamin A: Abbreviated LMNA. A gene on chromosome 1 that encodes a protein which is a key component of the membrane surrounding the cell nucleus.
Mutations in the LMNA gene are responsible for a number of genetic disorders including:
Last Editorial Review: 6/14/2012
Medical Dictionary Definitions A - Z
Search Medical DictionaryScientists have announced this week that within two years a shampoo or a hair cream will be available that could restore gray hair to their original natural color. A research team led by Dr. Bruno Bernard, head of the hair biology research team at beauty firm L'Oreal in Paris, pointed out that they may come up with a product that will be capable enough to wash the grey out of your hair.
According to Dr. Bernard, hair turns gray when melanocytes, cells that are producing pigments, die or no longer work in a proper way. In other words, as a person becomes older, the dark color starts fading away because melanocytes, which are found in every follicle from which hair grows, gradually start to switch off and die. However, Dr. Bernard also highlighted the fact that such cells often survive long after people go grey.
The scientists have revealed that an enzyme called TRP-2 is responsible for protecting the melanocytes that give the skin its color. They are now planning to conduct more studies hoping that they will be able to mimic the enzyme's action on hair follicles, re-awaken the cells, stimulate the hair to return to its original color, maintain the hair colour for a longer time, or even reverse the process.
The scientists believe that it may be possible to incorporate the TRP-2 enzyme in a shampoo, hair conditioner or hair cream and then activate melanocytes that no longer work. In a statement, they said that as long as a few melanocytes are still alive, the whitening process could be reversed by re-awakening or reactivating these cells. "The hair whitening process is slow and progressive, so we can prevent it," stated Dr. Bernard.
Angela Marshall, an image consultant and the owner of Appearance Management in Surrey said that the news are very exciting and that the new product could be revolutionary and save a lot of people, both male and female, a lot of money and worry. Marshall explained that so many people have their hair colored and then concerned about the color they have used. However, at the same time she was a little skeptical, noting that the treatment may not be beneficial for every person.
"It could be problematic for people with very dark hair as their eyebrows would probably still go gray and then their colorings would not match well. So treatment would probably be better for people with blonde hair where there would not be such a stark contrast," she said.
Experts say that such treatments will be mostly welcomed by individuals, who are suffering from premature graying of their hair. Among some of the causes of premature graying of hair are:
Genetics: if one or both of parents have gray hair at a young age, chances are even that their offspring will have it as well.
Some health conditions like thyroid disease, pernicious anemia and vitiligo also contribute to graying of hair.
Deficiency in folic also is linked to gray hair.
Non-healthy dietary habits.
Sometimes the strong chemicals that are present in some shampoos also lead to the graying of hair. In effect the above findings of a natural enzyme to prevent the inactivity of the hair pigment cells may come as a great relief to millions of people all across the world.
© 2012 eNotAlone.comLegrand, the hero, is similar to other Poe characters; he is well educated, possessed of excellent reasoning powers, somewhat reclusive, formerly wealthy, and known for his mental instability. Like Dupin, the hero of Poe’s later detective stories, Legrand’s actions puzzle other characters, especially the narrator friend, with whom the reader tends to identify. Combining two such characters with a puzzling situation became a formula for Poe in creating suspenseful stories.
The structuring of “The Gold-Bug” in two parts is also typical of Poe. Suspense builds in the first part because neither the narrator nor the reader understands Legrand’s actions. The quotation used as a head note implies that Legrand may indeed be mad. When his actions lead to the discovery of the treasure, one mystery is solved. A major question remains: How did Legrand know where to look? In the second half of the story, Legrand explains the reasoning that led to such success. Again, suspense builds as he gives his detailed explanation, which by the end of the story ties up all loose ends. Regardless of whether he guesses the answers, the reader is treated to mystery and suspense in a well-wrought tale in which the hero accomplishes his goal.
In addition to suspense, “The Gold-Bug” includes a touch of humor, principally achieved by the incongruity between the elevated language (used by many Poe characters) of Legrand and the narrator and the dialect of...
(The entire section is 418 words.)The new Green Touch Consortium, spearheaded by Alcatel-Lucent, is an example of teamwork at its finest. Launched this week, the consortium of chip makers, telecom operators and universities (AT&T, CEA-LETI, China Mobile, Freescale Semiconductor, Samsung, The French National Institution of Technology, Portugal Telecom, Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, among others), has the admirable goal of cutting power consumption in the telecommunications industry by a factor of 1,000.
Over the next five years, the Green Touch Consortium plans to essentially reinvent the telecommunications infrastructure so that both wired and wireless network gear is more efficient. If all goes as planned, the new network gear will be able to run for three years on the power that systems now use in a single day. Eventually, power consumption could be cute even further—networks can theoretically cut power use by a factor of 10,000.
Of course, the companies involved aren't participating solely for the sake of the planet. By cutting down on energy consumption of cell phone base stations, telecoms can expect to save significant amounts of cash. And it will still be a long time before any new power systems are deployed—typically, it can take 5 to 10 years after a lab demonstrates a technology. But as smartphones and computers gobble up video, images, and music at increasingly fast speeds, a more efficient communications system will become necessary for the survival of our data-happy way of life.Snowdrop flower bulbs (Galanthus) are grown in both cold winter regions and moderate winters, but keep in mind they truly dislike warm winters. So, if you live in Southern California, Florida or other hot climates, you will have to pass on having the snowdrop flower in your garden.
Information about Snowdrops Bulbs
Snowdrop flower bulbs are small bulbs that are often sold “in the green” or undried. They can very easily dry out, so they won’t be happy sitting around for weeks on end waiting for you get around to planting them. You will want to purchase your snowdrop bulbs and plant them immediately after you receive them.
Snowdrops don’t often multiply from seed in a garden, but they will multiply by offsets. Offsets are new bulbs that grow attached to the mother bulb. After a couple of years, the clump of bulbs can be quite dense. If you wait until the flowers fade but the leaves are still green and vigorous, you can easily increase your planting. Simply dig up the clump, separate the bulbs and immediately replant them in the new spaces that you already prepared.
If rainfall is lacking, make sure you water the bulbs until their leaves turn yellow and the snowdrops are dormant.
Where to Plant Snowdrops Bulbs
Even though they are dormant or asleep underground during summer months, snowdrops do enjoy the summer shade.
You should pick a site with moist but well-drained soil somewhere under a tree or shrub. Even the shady side of your house would do well for them.
Snowdrops flower early in the year so you should plant them where you can easily see them. The edge of a path works well or even someplace visible from a window would work. Plant snowdrops in groups of 10 or 25 or more which will help in making a good display.
Snowdrop flower bulbs are dormant by late spring, and will rest underground until next year. In the summer, you need to be careful because you might mistakenly think that bare ground means nothing is planted there and accidentally dig up your snowdrops while planting your annuals, harming bulbs along the way and disturbing their rest.
To avoid any accidental disturbance, you can try planting ferns or hosta next to the snowdrops in late spring. The summer growth from these plants will conceal the bare spaces over the dormant snowdrop bulbs.
When to Plant Snowdrops
The best time when to plant snowdrops is in the early fall. You will need to be quick in buying them, as they will only be available from your local nursery or mail order company for a short period of time in the autumn, due to the fact that they are sold as undried bulbs that do not store well.
Steps for Planting Snowdrop Flower Bulbs
To plant snowdrops:
- Loosen the soil and add compost or dried manure and 5-10-10 granular fertilizer.
- Mix the soil until everything blends together, with no clumps of compost or manure or fertilizer.
- Plant the snowdrops with the skinny nose up and flat base of the bulb down into the soil.
- Set the bulbs 5 inches to base, which amounts to only a couple of inches of soil above the bulbs.
Remember, you can use snowdrops as cut flowers; they just aren’t very tall. Use a small vase and put the vase on a small mirror for a nice display. Using this information about snowdrops, you can enjoy these petite pretties year after year.To sign up to the Graham Hancock newsletter mailing list, please click here.
Observations by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity have revealed areas with gravel and pebbles that are characteristic of a former riverbed. Researchers, including members of the Niels Bohr Institute, have analysed their shapes and sizes and the rounded pebbles clearly show that there has been flowing water on Mars. The results are published in the scientific journal, Science.
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Dedicated Servers and Cloud Servers by Gigenet. Invert Colour Scheme / DefaultHarvard Team develops theoretical model of changes of mechanical properties of silicon under lithiation
1 August 2012
Although silicon is a promising high-energy-density material for Li-ion batteries, its lithiation leads to very large deformation and drastic changes in mechanical properties, ranging from brittleness of pure crystalline Si to an amorphous material that can sustain large inelastic deformation in the lithiated form. This behavior—typical during the electrochemical cycling of high-capacity electrodes—leads to challenges in the theoretical treatment of the material properties and in the application of the material in batteries.
A team at Harvard University has now used first-principles calculations of the atomic-scale structural and electronic properties of a model amorphous silicon (a-Si) structure to provide a detailed picture of the origin of the changes in mechanical properties of silicon under lithiation. In a paper in the ACS journal Nano Letters, they report that their theoretical model is in excellent quantitative agreement with experimental measurements of lithiation-induced stress on a Si thin film.
The large amount of absorption of Li by Si results in a large volumetric expansion and severe structural changes. The lithiation-induced stress and fracture often lead to the loss of active materials and rapid decay of capacity, which limit its commercialization. This mode of failure can be mitigated by manipulating the structural optimization and deformation patterns of nanostructured Si anodes. Examples include nanowires, thin films, hollow nanoparticles, carbon−silicon composites, and coated-hollow structures. Recent experiments and theories show evidence that the large deformation of lithiated silicon can be accommodated by inelastic flow, which may avert fracture of nanostructured silicon. To develop feasible nanostructured anodes, it is crucial to understand the lithiation, deformation, and stresses from a fundamental perspective.
Since the chemical interaction between Li and Si is local, first-principles quantum mechanical calculations can capture the microscopic mechanism of the lithiation reaction. The local chemical effects lead to the macroscopic mechanical behavior, such as flow of lithiated silicon. Lithiation and flow are both non-equilibrium processes. We extend the continuum theory of plasticity and formulate a yield condition by placing driving forces for lithiation and flow on the same footing. In situ experimental measurements of the stress evolution in an a-Si thin film during a lithiation and delithiation cycle serve both as the motivation for the theoretical work as well as a detailed quantitative test of the theory.—Zhao et al.
In their paper, they note that the lithiation of silicon provides a useful model system to study the interplay of local chemical reactions and macroscopic mechanical deformation. The essence of their results is that the chemical reaction promotes mechanical flow, enabling the material to flow at a lower level of stress.
Kejie Zhao, Georgios A. Tritsaris, Matt Pharr, Wei L. Wang, Onyekwelu Okeke, Zhigang Suo, Joost J. Vlassak, and Efthimios Kaxiras (2012) Reactive Flow in Silicon Electrodes Assisted by the Insertion of Lithium. Nano Letters doi: 10.1021/nl302261w
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Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Harvard Team develops theoretical model of changes of mechanical properties of silicon under lithiation:Hyperemesis GravidarumHow can nausea and vomiting become so severe?
Hyperemesis gravidarum is a severe form of morning sickness, with unrelenting, excessive pregnancy-related nausea and/or vomiting that prevents adequate intake of food and fluids. Hyperemesis is considered a rare complication of pregnancy but, because nausea and vomiting during pregnancy exist on a continuum, there is no clear boundary between common morning sickness and hyperemesis. Estimates of the percentage of pregnant women afflicted range from 0.3% to 2%.
The cause of HG is unknown. The leading theories speculate that it is an adverse reaction to the hormonal changes of pregnancy. In particular Hyperemesis may be due to raised levels of beta HCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin) as it is more common in multiple pregnancies and in gestational trophoblastic disease.
Additional theories point to high levels of estrogen and progesterone, which may also be to blame for hypersalivation; decreased gastric motility (slowed emptying of the stomach and intestines); immune response to fragments of chorionic villi that enter the maternal bloodstream; or immune response to the "foreign" fetus.
Historically, HG has been blamed upon a psychological condition of the pregnant women. Medical professionals believed it was a reaction to an unwanted pregnancy or some other emotional or psychological problem. This theory has been disproved, but unfortunately some medical professionals espouse this view and fail to give patients the care they need.
When HG is severe and/or inadequately treated, it may result in:
- loss of 5% or more of pre-pregnancy body weight
- dehydration and ketosis
- nutritional deficiencies
- metabolic imbalances
- difficulty with daily activities
- altered sense of taste
- sensitivity of the brain to motion
- food leaving the stomach more slowly
- rapidly changing hormone levels during pregnancy
- stomach contents moving back up from the stomach
- physical and emotional stress of pregnancy on the body
Some women with HG lose as much as 20% of their body weight. Many sufferers of HG are extremely sensitive to odors in their environment; certain smells may exacerbate symptoms. This is known as hyperolfaction. Ptyalism, or hypersalivation, is another symptom experienced by some, but not all, women suffering from HG.
As compared to morning sickness, HG tends to begin somewhat earlier in the pregnancy and last significantly longer. While most women will experience near-complete relief of morning sickness symptoms near the beginning of their second trimester, some sufferers of HG will experience severe symptoms until delivery.
Comments: Hyperemesis Gravidarum
Comments 1 to 24 of about 52.
Read the full article on wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperemesis_gravidarum
1 2 NextTammySA
825 days ago.
Thank you all so much for sharing your experiences.I don't know if I have hg although my doc thinks I might.Here I am feeling sorry for myself because I vomit over 10 time a day most days ( that means heave until all that comes up is bile, spit and sometimes blood ), salivate constantly, have acid reflux, frequent severe diarrhea,painful bloating and water retention and am so tired that I could sleep constantly and this has been going on since before my pregnancy was confirmed at 4 and a half weeks.However, you guys have made me feel thankful for the positives that some days are better than others, that I am gaining weight,that the meds although I can't take them and drive do have some effect,that I haven't passed out or had to go into hospital,that my baby seems to be doing just fine and that finally now in my 10 th week I think that it may be starting to get slightly better.So thank you for helping me see the brighter side and for making me realise that I am not alone. SweetUdha
906 days ago.
I cried reading all the posts here. When I was pregnant with my first child, I had HG which started as early as 4 wks. It lasted till the day I gave birth. I was so depressed. I vomitted 40x a day, I lost weight, I couldnt eat and I couldnt drink. Everything came out..I couldnt function at work, at home..I took unpaid leave, slept in the toilet, wasted time in Sick bay... Admitted to hospital and put on drips. I totally understand how it felt. I couldnt imagine how i went thru it all.. I gave birth at 38 wks to a small but healthy baby..Now 3 yrs later,Im pregnant again, 8 wks now... This time it isnt that bad. I can eat and it stays in the stomach. I do vomit at times but this experience is definately better than the first. This time I only get depressed juggling with a 3yr old craving for attention and my morning sickness. I am so tired always... I neglected her and I am so unhappy and depressed. Though this is just mng sickness, how can I get to be myself and do things I should do? :-( wilson2013
906 days ago.
i have only been pregnant 6 weeks so far Hyperemesis Gravidarum has been kicking my butt. Have already been to hospital once cause started voimting blood. But still having a hard time keepin anything down and dealing with heartburn and throat burning still. I was giving zoflan to help but doesnt seem to be and is really hard to keep down any food. is there anything i can do to feel even alittle better. Plus keep waking up in middle of night feeling like i cant breath. Any advise would help racemom84
1186 days ago.
Hello everyone. I am 16 weeks pregnant and have hg. It's been hell.... I finally got my picc line taken out but now I'm having problems with my acid reflux. I take meds for it and still have not been able to keep the nausea away because of it. I'm having problems gaining weight just like I did with my first child. Any suggestions? firstname.lastname@example.org
1205 days ago.
Hello everyone. I am 8.wks with twins. Ive been diagnosed with hg and its been hell ever since.My arms are bruised from nurses poking new iv lines everyday. Soon ill be getting a picc line for that. Im taking gravol, zofran, and zantac for acid reflux. My have no more energy, even bathing has become a chore. I havent eaten in 6 days and lost 11lbs in 2wks. Does this hell ever end? Also, any suggestions on food i can try? Saltines dont stay down. wombforjoy
1210 days ago.
Im a little over 4 weeks into my third pregnancy. My first pregnancy, I had severe HG from the beginning all the way through delivery of my son. I was admitted and given a feeding tube through my nose. Then eventually I was given a zofran pump, which did help me gain weight and I didn't throw up quite as much each day. Some of the doctors did try to encourage me to terminate pregnancy but that wasn't an option for us. I am so thankful that it wasn't because I gave birth to a healthy little boy. All my pregnancies are high risk, so Im at the MFM clinic every week (sometimes twice) and I give myself blood thinner shots everyday. We are going to try to wait until after my first trimester to see if I need a zofran pump this time. I know that I am in for a long nine months, but I am just grateful to experience a baby growing inside of me again and consider it a true joy! :) I'll be praying for all you mommas dealing with HG! taniamommyx3
1219 days ago.
I wanted to let you all know I am on my 3rd pregnancy and I dont have MS nearly as bad as my 2nd pregnancy. I only gained 5 pounds my 2nd pregnancy, was hospitalized 4 times and had my soon 4 weeks early. But he is an angel and a blessing and it makes me so sad a woman would terminate due to MS/HG. I went through hell and back but its so worth it. I would never judge anyone so please dont think I am. Just know it DOES end, you DO feel better and you can have more babies without HG. it may be a hard, even almost impossible 9 months but your bodies are made to do this and you both will make it through. My son was a preemie but you would never know after just a few months. he even scored a 9/10 on his Apgar! luoja
1286 days ago.
HG is absolute hell on your body mind and spirit! This is my 3rd HG pregnancy and it will be my last. It started at 6 weeks and I am currently 16 weeks. i hope it slows down soon or disappears altogether. denise1987*pink*
1302 days ago.
,ugh hg go away! im sick of being sick all the time avoided hospital so far been on the anti sickness tablets and off work from week 6 now nearly 14 weeks of course my boss assumes im putting this on or saying its worse than it already is grrrrrr why do be have to judge when they have no idea what your going through LoobieLou2011
1341 days ago.
this is my first pregnancy and im at 20 weeks now. been suffering with HG since week 5. its awful but i am fighting through it because im excited to becoming a mother :). 3-4-me
1403 days ago.
Hi ladie. I've had HG with all 3 pregnancies, my 2nd was by far the worst. Now my 3rd, I have lost 16 lbs in 8 weeks, weight loss is finally slowing down. I'm currently taking 8mg zofran twice a day and had a picc line inserted in my arm for nightly fluids. I can't even begin to tell you how much the iv fluid helps. I have more energy and don't throw up nearly as much. If you do have HG, talk to your dr about a picc line and see if it'll help. It was tough decision for me to get it but, really worth it! I hope you get some relief! ladiebug2663
1444 days ago.
I have severe HD. In the beginning around 4 months pregnant i ended up in the ER 12 times in 45 days for IV fluids and Zofran. Finally i have
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" within the Five-Year Plans, were the opportunities to use assets being purchased as collateral for loans on those same assets [Hattori, 1997, 464]. This version of the leveraged buyout, when used in tandem with considerable foreign investments [Yoo and Moon, 1999, 265], meant that the chaebol were in some cases able to control domestic subsidiaries with small amounts of domestic capital. Only 14% of the funding behind Hyundai Cement, for example, came from Korea itself; the controlling family contributed only a portion of this total [Hattori, 1997, 464n]. By the 1980s, South Korea was "the fourth most heavily indebted nation in the developing world" [Yoo and Moon, 1999, 271].
With so much of the Korean economy dependent upon foreign capital and leverage, it should come as no surprise that when the Asian financial panic took hold in 1997, Korea was hurt badly. Foreign investors, no longer confident in the ability of the chaebol to drive consistent growth and aware of the South Korean government's failure to prevent the chaebol from competing with one another [Hattori, 1997, 475f; Levander, 2001, R34], have begun to leave Korea and move their investments elsewhere [Yoo and Moon, 1999, 272].
The Future of the Korean Miracle
Excessive expansion, government intervention, and bad financing all falling at the heart of the crisis, South Korea must determine how to overcome current instability without erasing half a century of growth [Yoo and Moon, 1999, 275]. Government intervention may be credited with much of South Korea's development up until now, but it also must share much of the blame for the shortcomings of the system. It is clear from the cases of Taiwan [Hattori, 1997, 476] and Hong Kong (prior to the Chinese takeover) that government intervention in a developing economy is not a prerequisite for growth.
Yet while the Korean government's interference in the economy may be blamed for many of the nation's problems, it also shares credit for the country's rapid growth. One might assume that an efficient market would eventually bring development to less-developed countries like postwar South Korea, but the rate of growth may be spurred by government intervention. In essence, the government's intervention pushed South Korea's production point much closer to its production-possibilities frontier than almost any other under-developed nation over the same period. Yet it also appears inevitable that the damage caused by the financial crisis will force South Korea to give up some of those gains before the situation is resolved.
The oversight laziness created by the government's extraordinarily liberal debt-financing policies, coupled with the unusual relationship between the economic and political sectors in South Korea (sometimes called "crony capitalism"), cast suspicion on the efficiency (and, thus, the effectiveness) of the Korean system. While South Koreans are probably better off than they would have been without the chaebol system, they were living atop an economic fault line that was destined to shift. South Korea should provide yet another warning sign to those who fail to believe that managed economies are bound to experience failure.
Future study in this field should include empirical study of the relationship between government intervention and an industry's growth, comparisons among similar economies that have taken different paths toward growth, and predictive models for the recovery of the Asian economies. The incredible growth and spectacular failure of these economies is worth understanding for any number of reasons, not the least of which is that much of the world lags behind these developing economies -- and thus could benefit from guidance in the path toward sustainable growth.
Burton, John (2000), "South Korean Banks Blacklist 29 Companies," Financial Times, November 4, p. 22 (retrieved via Lexis-Nexis).
Burton, John (2001), "Principles Seem Lost in South Korean Bail-Out Plan," Financial Times, January 17, p. 30 (retrieved via Lexis-Nexis).
Chang, Chan Sup, and Chang, Nahn Joo (1994), The Korean Management System. Westport, CT: Quorum Books.
Choi, Hae Won (2001), "As Two South Korean Banks Head Into Merger, Analysts Worry About Government's Role, Layoffs," Wall Street Journal, February 9, p. C10.
Financial Times (2000), "Sinking Chaebol," November 9, p. 30 (retrieved via Lexis-Nexis).
Frank, Robert (2001), "Bankruptcy Struggle at Thai Firm Shows Why Asia Still Lags," Wall Street Journal, February 12, p. A1.
Gul, Ferdinand A., and Kealey, Burch T. (1999), "Chaebol, Investment Opportunity Set and Corporate Debt and Dividend Policies of Korean Companies," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, 13: 401-416.
Hattori, Tamio (1997), "Chaebol-Style Enterprise Development in Korea," The Developing Economies, 35: 458-477.
Levander, Michelle (2001), "Giant Steps," Wall Street Journal, February 12, p. R34.
Melloan, George (2001), "Benign Neglect of Japan Has Merits, and Risks," Wall Street Journal, February 13, p. A27.
Phillips, Michael M. (2001), "Can Bush Charm Japan Into Economic Growth?" Wall Street Journal, February 12, p. A1.
Yoo, Jang-Hee, and Moon, Chul Woo (1999), "Korean Financial Crisis During 1997-1998: Causes and Challenges," Journal of Asian Economics, 10: 263-277.March 2, 2017, by Emma Sturgis – Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is an extremely common psychological problem, especially among soldiers returning home from combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. PTSD is a direct result of the trauma that soldiers experience in battle, causing sudden frightening and uncontrollable flashbacks of their traumatic battle experiences. These flashbacks can occur at any time, in any situation and can cause severe mental and emotional anguish. It is estimated that 1 in 8 soldiers returning from combat missions will be diagnosed with PTSD, but the sad fact is that most PTSD sufferers never seek treatment, choosing instead to suffer in silence.
PTSD results in high rates of depression, substance abuse and addiction (especially to prescription opiates), and suicide. For this reason, it is important for former soldiers suffering from PTSD to find safe and effective coping methods.
Yoga and Mindfulness Meditation
Victims of PTSD experience a kind of locking up or freezing of their nervous system. They relive the traumatic experience over and over again in flashbacks and dreams, becoming unable to relax or sleep. Therapists have found that the practice of yoga and mindfulness meditation can help unfreeze the nervous system, allowing thoughts and feelings to flow freely again. Through the daily practice of yoga and meditation, PTSD sufferers will regain control of their minds without the harmful side effects of psychotropic medications.
Service animals are helpful to people who are trying to cope with PTSD in a number of ways. Service animals have a calming and soothing effect on those who work with them. This naturally increases the serotonin levels in the brain. Service animals may also lower a person’s blood pressure and relieve the sense of social isolation that returning service people often feel.
Seek Professional Counseling Services
PTSD has a high comorbidity with other psychological and neurological disorders, including TBI, drug addiction, and depression. Because of this fact, it is important to seek professional psychological service, like those offered at Comprehensive Behavioral Health Associates Inc. When you seek the services of a licensed psychotherapist, you will receive an evaluation that can identify any possible comorbid conditions that may be driving you to substance abuse and other self-destructive behaviors. Based on their findings, your therapist will implement a treatment plan that will help relieve your PTSD symptoms and help you deal with the underlying trauma in the most effective ways known to medical science.
When you are trying to cope with PTSD it is essential that you act quickly and seek treatment as soon as possible. When you suffer from PTSD, it is very easy to fall into self-destructive patterns of behavior. Before this happens to you, it is important to seek help from a licensed therapist. A therapist may recommend a number of different approaches to coping with PTSD symptoms including yoga, meditation, a service animal, group therapy and medical treatment. The good news is that there are many ways to cope with PTSD symptoms that are available to you.This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
[*] 38. The following are General Rules of Declension:— [*] a. The Vocative is always the same as the Nominative, except in the singular of nouns and adjectives in -us of the second declension, which have -e in the vocative. It is not included in the paradigms, unless it differs from the nominative. [*] b. In neuters the Nominative and Accusative are always alike, and in the plural end in -ă. [*] c. The Accusative singular of all masculines and feminines ends in -m; the Accusative plural in -s. [*] d. In the last three declensions (and in a few cases in the others) the Dative singular ends in -ī. [*] e. The Dative and Ablative plural are always alike. [*] f. The Genitive plural always ends in -um. [*] g. Final -i, -o, -u of inflection are always long; final -a is short, except in the Ablative singular of the first declension; final -e is long in the first and fifth declensions, short in the second and third. Final -is and -us are long in plural cases.In my quest to find some simple, effective presentation graphics I found some interesting research by Dr Richard Mayer and his principles of Multimedia Learning.
He found that audiences are more immersed in a presentation delivered with both pictures and words. However, these principles also highlight the need for:
Redundancy – effectiveness is reduced when the audience sees and hears the same message.
Coherency – holding the attention of the audience is improved with focused cues to key material.
At Black Isle, we teach that the brain can only ‘think about’ one thing at a time – either what it is hearing or what it is seeing. This is scientifically proven. Take these scenarios as examples:
1. You are admiring a view. I’m saying short bursts of comments about the view, pointing things out. You will think about what is being said as you look to see them in the view. No problem.
2. You are reading a newspaper, and I start to tell you what I think about the article while you try to read. That will annoy you.
Another way of putting it:
3. You are watching a thrilling tennis game, and I start telling you about the player’s girlfriend and what she said to my friend when they met last Christmas. You will probably tell me to shut up.
4. You are watching a thrilling tennis game and I say things like “Great shot …what a volley… how did he get that?”.
Examples 1 & 4 work because the visual is being used actively.
The moral of the story is that visual aids and words can be used together but visuals should complement or emphasise the spoken presentation not distract from it. Without the presence of the speaker, pauses, and Tell & Show the ideas cannot develop.
Read our previous blog: Never Ask Your Audience to Multi-task.Many clients have misconceptions about the amount of calories they expend. They are usually surprised and discouraged to learn a typical exercise session, for a person of average fitness, burns only about 300 calories. Weight loss is simple, really. You need to burn more calories than you eat.
Calorie expenditure has 3 components:
- Resting metabolic rate
- Energy expended with exercise
- The type of food you are consuming
Heavier people expend more calories with exertion than lighter people because they have to work harder to move and exercise... Fit people have to work longer, harder and work out more often to expend a lot of calories.
That is why the formula is diet AND exercise. Not just one or the other.The AJ26 engines—modified and tested in the U.S.—originally were designed for the massive Soviet rockets meant to take cosmonauts to the moon during the late 1960s.
The massive explosion of the Russian Moon rocket dashed the Russian bid for the Moon. Faulty AJ26 engines … the same used on the Antares booster … most likely caused the Russian Moon rocket explosion. [my comment]
In 2012, SpaceX’s billionaire founder and CEO, Elon Musk, called the Antares rocket “a punchline to a joke” because of the Russian engines. SpaceX, by contrast, makes its own rocket parts.
“I mean they start with engines that were literally made in the ’60s and, like, packed away in Siberia somewhere,” Musk said in an interview with Wired magazine.Recent developments in Crypto-Zoology
|“||Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence||”|
Crypto-zoology is most commonly associated with tabloid favourites such as the Yeti/Bigfoot/Sasquatch, the Loch Ness Monster and the interesting Belgian. As such, many people have dismissed the discipline as nonsense, and yet within the last twenty years, largely unheralded by the press, crypto-zoologists have uncovered several important new species and three entirely new classes of vertebrates (Avian-mammals, Avian-reptiles and Repto-mammals.)
Previously unknown Mammals
Among the smallest of all mammals the Pygmy Giraffe lives in the lush grasslands of the Okavango delta, Botswana. Standing a mere five inches tall, the pygmy giraffe uses its long neck to reach the very tips of the grass plants, where the most succulent seeds are unavailable to other pygmy African mammals such as the micro-buffalo and the pico-kudu.
Pygmy Giraffes have leathery lips and tongues to allow them to deal with the toughest of vegetation. They also have unique, paisley markings that allow them to hide among crowds of hippy tourists when threatened by meerkats.
It is unknown whether the Pygmy Giraffe is endangered as they have proven to be unusually difficult to count. However, most authorities agree that the pre-colonial population density of 25 per square metre is far higher than at the present day.
Few people would choose to ride the sabre-toothed donkey were it to make an appearance on the beach, and they would be right to be nervous. Though superficially similar to the standard donkey, the sabre-tooth can be easily distinguished by an expert by a small white patch on the tip of each ear, and by fourteen inch tusks protruding from both top and bottom jaws.
Like rodents, sabre-toothed donkeys have uncapped roots to their teeth, allowing them to grow throughout their lives. This ensures that the sabre-tooth may lose a tooth during the intense rutting season, and yet live to re-grow the tooth for the following year. In captivity, however, without veterinary dental treatment, the bottom incisors are prone to grow in a curve, eventually drilling into the top of the skull and killing the sabre-tooth.
In the spring, the cuckoo-kangaroo flies to a well-watered territory that is often thousands of miles from its own. Here it waits patiently in a gum-tree, looking for a suitable host-marsupial. When the host has been identified, the cuckoo-kangaroo will patiently follow until the animal rests before laying a single egg in the host’s pouch.
Once the egg hatches, the young cuckoo-kangaroo will swiftly evict any ‘siblings’ before settling down to literally suck its ‘mother’ dry. When the host-mother dies (usually after four or five weeks) the Joey will eat the internal organs before emerging as a fully fledged adult.
Rhode Island Ridgeback
The Rhode Island Ridgeback (Canis Cluckensis) has been found in both North America and Zimbabwe suggesting that at one point this stunning avian-mammal must have had a much wider range. Farmers on both sides of the Atlantic have learned to value the Rhode Island Ridgeback both for its faithful stock-guarding abilities and for its welcome egg-production.
The remaining wild populations have been little studied but breeding appears to begin at around four years of age (common in Rhode Island) and the bitch generally produces a clutch of around six eggs. Both parents then take turns sitting on the eggs and hunting the savannah, running down herds of groundworms, or pecking among the dry grass for nutritious seeds.
After six weeks the puppies are ready to take their first and only flight. One by one, the young stand on the edge of the nest, flapping their paws before plummeting through the acacia thorn that has protected them since hatching. About sixty percent of the puppies survive this brutal initiation into the adult world after which they begin to associate themselves into a juvenile pack. Soon after their first corn-hunt begins in earnest.
The Walrot (or Carpenter's Parrot) is an Arctic avian-mammal that survives despite one of the largest commutes in the Animal Kingdom. Unlike most Arctic and Antarctic species, the Walrot has not adapted to ground nesting, and thus one parent must tend the nest (typically in a North African Jacaranda tree) while the other hunts for food in the waters around Greenland. The hunting parent is reputed to eat three to four times its own body-weight of crustaceans before attempting to fly home. Once the returning Walrot regains its nest it has, of course, consumed 80% of the calories which it had so carefully accrued. It regurgitates what is left in its stomach along with one of its kidneys - a process which crypto-zoologists have christened uber-barfing. The other parent departs while the exhausted returnee begins a long wait until it too can return to the pristine Greenland waters.
Inuit tradition insists that a boy must wear a necklace of Walrot tusks before being initiated into the tribe as a fully fledged man. The usual Inuit mode of hunting is to scout out a particularly abundant source of shellfish and simply wait until the Walrot is too heavy to take off. Once one Walrot has been caught and detusked, the entrails are stretched out across the rocks to attract more Walrot which are, of course, notoriously cannibalistic.
Ethiopian Eagle Hound
The fastest of all flightless avian-mammals, the Ethiopian Eagle-Hound (Canis Aquila) has a razor-sharp beak and even sharper eye-sight. The eagle-hound is a lone hunter mostly found on the rocky fringes of the Ethiopian highlands. Though opportunistic its favourite prey is people and the Eagle-hound will hide in a cave or thicket until a herd of Afar tribesmen come into view. It then accelerates from a standing start to forty miles an hour in less than fifteen second, heading directly for the centre of the herd. Once the tribesmen have been panicked the Eagle-hound selects a young, preferably lame individual which it will swiftly despatch with a single flick of its wickedly curved beak, before then selecting another victim which it will chase down and kill in a similar manner. The second victim is consumed in its entirety before the smaller prey tribesman is dragged back to its lair where it will feed the eagle-hounds hungry puppies, and its bones will provide stimulus material for the pups' artistic development.
The Penger had barely been discovered before its population went into a steep decline due to persecution from man. Many Penger are dug out of their setts and forced to fight terriers for the amusement of passing scientists. The scientists have found Penger-baiting not only passes long Winter months snowed-in at research stations, but provides a lucrative side-line in on-line betting. At the same time the Penger is blamed by Antarctic fishermen for passing Tuberculosis to herring. Despite evidence that Penger populations are easily inoculated with baited fish, the British Antarctic Territories government has recently launched a plan to gas the remaining population, as it is thought that this will be "more of a laugh".
There are at least three different sub-species of Penger, the Rock-hopper Penger which nests along the Arctic shore, the Jackass Penger (Pengerium Knoxvillus), and the Emperor Penger which marches almost eighty miles inland to nest on the howling ice-plains in an apparently suicidal attempt to gain sympathy and/or a movie-contract.
There are now known to be a minimum of 400,000 species of mammalian finch occupying various ecological niches around the world, many of which can only be distinguished by experts, or their mothers. Of these species perhaps the two best loved are the Dog finch and Reynard's finch, both of which inhabit the islands of Indonesia.
Under most threat is the Reynard's finch, hunted for its feathers by local tribesmen and, unaccountably, by mounted British tourists to the accompaniment of bugle calls and shouts of "Tally-ho".
The Dog finch is small enough to fit easily into the palm of a hand, or into one's mouth. At one point flocks of millions could be seen stripping the fields of Indonesia bare of grain. Now, however, the Dog finch may well be extinct in the wild and is seen only in captivity where it is kept for its tuneful woof and its piquant taste.
The swamps of Vietnam are not short of unpleasant surprises for the unwary tourist; poisonous spiders, giant constricting snakes, bad exchange rates, but those unwary enough to swim in the warm, murky waters of the Mekong headlands would do well to avoid the Snapping-Duck.
Hatching after a mere four-day incubation, Snapping-Ducklings subsist on insects and other Snapping-Ducklings for the first two years of their lives. However, as adolescence approaches swarms of Snapping-Ducklings congregate on the river bank, waiting seemingly un-breathing, for a chance victim. The slightest vibration in the water may draw the attention of part of the swarm who launch themselves into the water with a blood-curdling quacking, biting at every movement. A single droplet of blood will draw in the rest of the swarm and the victim, no matter its size, will be reduced to a skeleton in moments.
It has been suggested that the one factor holding back the success of the Snapping-Duck is its sheer aggression. As swarms near a hundred it is inevitable the one Snapping-Duck will inadvertently bite another, causing a swarm attack in which eventually the entire swarm will eat itself.
Haunting the bayou of Louisiana, the Parragator is also an ambush predator. Flocks of Parragagators of anywhere up to six thousand have been seen blackening the skies above the Sabine River, and local farmers know to their cost to keep stock indoors during the Autumn when the Parragator's natural prey, muskrat, are scarce. Louisiana folklore abounds in stories of entire herds of cattle being eaten in the course of an afternoon, and more than one ranching family has disappeared during the Parragator mating-season.
During the day, most Parragators are active hunters but there is some evidence to show that small numbers of Parragators have adapted their behaviour to hunt in the dusk and early evening. These almost-nocturnal Parragator have abandoned the flocking instinct to seek out individual prey which the approach from behind, biting off a rear-foot with jaws that can deliver a crunching 5,000 lbf (22 kN) bite. Rather than attempt to eat the animal, the single Parragator merely licks up the blood, occassionally biting off another limb until the victim collapses, at which point its Carrotid artery is severed and the Parragator will feast until it can drink no more. These so-called 'Vampire'- Parragators are objects of great fear in the backwaters of Baton Rouge.
The Apache have long told of a fearsome, if slow moving, hunter of the Chaco canyon, but until 2006 this was dismissed as "just another peyote-fuelled red-skin hallucination". However, naturalists hoping to photograph a Mountain lion left remote cameras along a three-mile ridge and revealed this single image to the world.
Taken at the height of midday, the image appears to show the Toryote in the act of hunting, though this cannot be confirmed. Apache legend insists that the Toryote lives underground for many years, emerging only after intense rainfall to eat its fill of jack-rabbits and mate before returning to the soil to lay eggs. A spokesman for the Jicarilla Apache said "Naʼisha Ypenta, nagai a acharin."iPS cell-derived inner ear cells may improve congenital hearing lossA Japanese research group has successfully grafted human iPS cell-derived inner ear cells that express human-derived proteins into the inner ears of embryonic mice. Hereditary hearing loss accounts for about half of all congenital hearing loss cases, and this work is a major contribution toward research that targets the embryonic inner ear.
With an incidence frequency of one per 500 to 1,000 newborns, congenital hearing loss is the most frequently occurring congenital disease, and approximately half of all congenital hearing loss cases are hereditary. Treatment for this kind of hearing loss includes cochlear implants and hearing aids, but there is no fundamental therapy.
In human hereditary hearing loss, deafness has already occurred by birth. It is therefore considered that treatment during the fetal stage would be most effective. The GJB6 gene encodes the CONNEXIN 30 protein, which is essential in hearing development, and a deficiency of the gene results in the second most common disease among cases of hereditary hearing loss that have no other disease in the inner ear.
In previous work, Dr. Ryosei Minoda, head of the Department of Otolaryngology at Kumamoto General Hospital, reported that hearing loss was restored by gene therapy to the inner ear of Connexin 30 deficient fetal mice. The current research team, which includes Dr. Minoda and Dr. Hiroki Takeda of Kumamoto University, and several researchers from Keio University, have successfully grafted human iPS-derived cells into the inner ear of embryonic mice, a feat with a high level of technical difficulty.
[Method and Results]
First, the research team succeeded in efficiently inducing inner ear cells expressing inner ear specific proteins, such as CONNEXIN 26, CONNEXIN 30, and PENDRIN, from human iPS cells. They then transplanted progenitors of the inner ear cells into the inner ear of embryonic normal and Connexin 30 knockout mice using glass tubes with optimized tip sizes. The transplanted cells grafted to various sites throughout the inner ear in both groups. However, the Connexin 30 knockout mice had more grafted cells than the normal mice, and some of the grafted cells were found to express CONNEXIN 30.
The fact that Connexin 30 knockout mice had a higher number of grafted cells than normal mice, and that some of the grafted cells expressed CONNEXIN 30 is a very important finding when considering cell transplantation as a treatment for hereditary hearing loss caused by CONNEXIN deficiency. Cell transplantation can compensate for missing CONNEXIN and may improve hearing loss by adding properly functioning CONNEXIN proteins. Future work will attempt to increase the number of grafted cells and improve hearing ability. The prevention of hearing loss is an exciting prospect.
Furthermore, this study revealed that cells derived from humans can be grafted into the heterozygous inner ear of mouse embryos. This adds the possibility of in vivo experiments on therapeutic effects using human-derived cells in the mouse embryo. It is thought that this line of research can greatly contribute to the development of a fundamental treatment for hereditary hearing loss and inner ear development research.
This research result was posted online in the journal "Scientific Reports" on 31st January 2018.
Engraftment of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived Progenitors in the Inner Ear of Prenatal Mice
Hiroki Takeda, Makoto Hosoya, Masato Fujioka, Chika Saegusa, Tsubasa Saeki, Toru Miwa, Hideyuki Okano & Ryosei Minoda
Differentiation induction and cell transplantation of human iPS-derived cells
By efficiently differentiating inner ear cells from human iPS cells, it was possible to produce a large number of target cells and a large number of protein expressions unique to inner ear cells other than CONNEXIN. Furthermore, transplantation into the inner ears of embryonic mice was successful.
Connexin 30 knockout mouse and cochlea after cell transplantation
Gene knockout mice lacking the CONNEXIN 30 protein experience hearing loss due to sensory cells dysfunction as the ion potential of the sensory cells inside the inner ear decreases after birth. In this study, human iPS cells-derived cells were transplanted into Connexin 30 knockout mice during the embryonic stage. The transplanted cells were engrafted in the treated inner ear and some cells began expressing CONNEXIN 30 after seven days had passed.
CREDIT: Dr. Takeda, et al. Scientific Reports 2018
USAGE RESTRICTIONS: These images may only be used in conjunction with the accompanying release, or stories written about the work described in the release with reference to the original work.To make a wooden snowman:
Cut pattern from 3/4" pine if the snowman will be standing or 1/2" plywood if you are making a snowman that will hang.
For the base of a standing snowman, cut a piece of plywood about 10 1/2" by 4" to be the base. Sand all pieces
Using carbon paper, transfer the lines of the pattern on to the wood. Paint with your choice of acrylic paint.
A fabric scarf can be tied around the snowman's neck instead of painted on.
The tree outline can be painted and teeny green bows added with hot glue instead of painting the greenery.
A hole could be drilled under his eyes and a small carrot nose added rather than painted.
Greenery can be added to his hat.
Use blush or a pale pink for the snowman's cheeks.
If hanging, when finished drill a hole in the top of the head. String the wire through it and loop the wire.You are that, Tat Tvam Asi (in Sanskrit language).
This is the famous saying from a very old text in India called the Upanishads. Actually this is from one of the oldest called THE Chandogya Upanishad from the Vedic period about 3-4000 years ago. There are no authors of the 108 Upanishads texts known, yet the Upanishads are seen as one of the most important scriptures of human kind and have inspired many philosophers and thinkers.
What keeps us from not recognizing that?
Some people say : Make no distinction…The moment you make an distinction,..you are lost and far removed from Oneness.
Maya – the great illusion…
The Ultimate reality is the pond
Where you see your face swimming in when you look in it.
Mevlana Jakaluddin Rumi says:
A secret turning in us
Makes the universe turn
Head unaware of feet
And feet head. Neither cares
They keep turning
Ignorance of our mind…
What is real? It cannot be grasped with the logical mind
The eyes see something different
The brain computes the image.
Or like on scientist said: “Oh I do not want to turn around because I am afraid there is a soup of electrons and turning behind me.”
Things are definitely not the way they seem to be.
Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi the famous Sufi poet says
Our eyes do not see you but we have this excuse:
Eyes See surface not reality
Though we keep hoping
In this lovely place
The Inner Being and the Outer are identical.
The Upanishads and the famous saying You are that
Or Thou art that tries to describe this very well.
It says literally ‘That thou are’..
Thou are That
Thou is It is the innermost Self, stripped of all egoistic tendencies. It is Ātman
The Ātman or the innermost core of our self seems of ur Inner being has no individuality. Yet it is the same as Brahman in the Infinite Cosmos.
That is the the Brahman which is the common Reality behind everything in the cosmos is the same as the essential Divinity, the Greater Inner Being named Atman, within you.
We seem to be identifying two things: one that is unlimited and unconditioned, and one that is limited and conditioned.
That these two are the same is the content of the statement
Tat Tvam Asi (in Sanskrit language).
You are THAT. Thou art THAT
Again in other words
Brahman, The Absolute consciousness is the ultimate, both transcendent and immanent, the sum total of all that ever is, was, or shall be. It is the All That Is.
The word Atman means the immortal perfect Spirit of any living creature us, but also plants or animals.
This is expressed in the Upanishadic by unknown Seer:
Atman The Inner and Brahman The Outer are One and the same is one of the greatest contributions made to the thought of the world
Jesus Christ said in Philippi C 34
If you are not making below to above or left to right or behind to the front you cannot move into the kingdom
This piece of food cannot be eaten
Nor this bit of wisdom found by looking
There is a secret core in everyone
Not even Gabriel can know by trying to know.
And the great word surrendering: PAUSE
As Sogyal Rinpoche the Tibetan master says in his book
Glimpse after Glimpse (by the way one of my all time favourite books)
Or as Rumi said
The center clears Knowing comes
The body is not singular like a corpse
But singular like a salt grain
Still in the side of the mountain
In one version of the meeting, Rumi was riding his donkey through the marketplace, when a man stepped in front of him and shouted, “Who is greater – Muhammad or Bestami?” In the exchange that followed Rumi became so overwhelmed by the presence before him that he fainted and fell from his donkey.
As the relationship matured between Shams and Rumi, they became inseparable, spending months together beyond human needs, relating together in mystical conversation – called “sobhet”. During this period Rumi’s disciples were all but forgotten by their teacher. They became deeply displeased and extremely jealous. Shams sensed trouble from this quarter, and felt that he needed to disappear from time to time – for his own safety and Rumi’s too. It is reported that during one of these disappearances, Rumi’s poetry writing and mystic whirling began.
After things would cool down, Shams would reappear and the episodes of being lost in each other’s company would resume. On one of these reappearances, Shams and Rumi fell at each other’s feet upon seeing each other. This was a telling moment in their relationship – remembering that the first time they met; Rumi fell in a faint at Shams feet. This time they bowed down to each other. What had begun as a master/disciple relationship had dissolved into pure loving friendship.
One winter night Shams, who was living with Rumi and his household, answered a knock at the back door. Shams disappeared, never to be seen again.
This disappearance caused in Rumi what may be called a spiritual implosion, an event in which, in the absence of the beloved, the lover falls “into himself” and disappears into his own emptiness.
Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi writes about The Beloved
One day you will take me completely out of my self
I ll do what the angels cannot do
Your eyelash will write on my cheek
The poem that hasn’t been thought of
Water from your spring
What was in that candles light
That opened and consumed me so quickly
Come back my friend, The form of your love
Is not a crated form
Nothing can help me but tht beauty
There was a dawn I remember
When my soul heard something
From your soul. I drank water
From your spring and felt
Translated by Coleman Barks who is seen asone of the best translator of the works of Rumi.“A survey of young people aged 15 to 35 revealed yesterday that many of them, nearly seven in 10, have been on the receiving end of cyberbullying” (Move To Keep Gen Y-ired Safe, Mr. Kenny Chee).
The report “Move To Keep Gen Y-ired Safe” (February 18, 2011) by Mr. Kenny Chee presents positive developments undertaken by the Media Development Authority (MDA) to raise awareness on cyberbullying and cyberwellness, as well as the former’s corresponding ramifications. Given the proliferation of Internet activity and its accessibility, additional measures should be instituted to emphasise the importance of respectful and appropriate Web or social media usage. Even though the new initiative has introduced calls for the harmonisation of efforts between parents and institutions, the administration must be cognisant that addressing cyberbullying goes beyond mere awareness, and should include endeavours to reinforce the training of educators, the providence of proper counselling channels, interactive engagement of students et cetera.
Cyberbullying presents genuine challenges and dangers because they are often difficult to track, and victims themselves might not be aware of the nature of the malicious intents, or how to seek assistance whenever necessary. Detriments of cyberbullying are significant and extensive: their unchecked propagation can be psychologically-draining for students on the receiving end, the veiled attacks can be immensely personal and hateful, and victims might lose focus on school and life in general given the relentless barrage of assorted insinuations.
School-based solutions must be conceptualised on a case-by-case basis, targeted specifically based on the target audience’s age-groups, web navigation or comprehension abilities, so on and so forth. Hands-on approaches can be catered to younger children – with more interesting material and innovative education pedagogies – to capture their attentions and maintain interest so as to share information about cyberwellness, and how they can learn to be responsible Internet contributor-users. Knowledge can be transferred in a more straightforward manner given their relatively younger age and comparative receptivity. When it comes to older students, schools and their teachers must be careful not to resort to pedantic and antiquated methodologies, expecting to feed their students with page after page of notes to inculcate the values
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is not the effect, or its magnitude, but rather the form of the course of earthly events, that is, the way in which the effect occurs, whether naturally or supernaturally; and that for God no distinction of easy and difficult is to be thought of. But as regards the mystery of supernatural influences, thus deliberately to conceal the importance of such an occurrence is still less proper.
* That is to say, he does not incorporate belief in miracles into his maxims (either of theoretical or practical reason), though, indeed, he does not impugn their possibility or reality.
** It is a common subterfuge of those who deceive the gullible with magic arts, or at least who want to render such people credulous in general, to appeal to the scientists’ confession of their ignorance. After all, they say, we do not know the cause of gravity, of magnetic force, and the like! Yet we are acquainted with the laws of these [phenomena] with sufficient thoroughness [to know] within definite limits the conditions under which alone certain effects occur; and this suffices both for an assured rational use of these forces and for the explanation of their manifestations, secundum quid, downwards to the use of these laws in the ordering of experiences thereunder, though not indeed simpliciter and upwards, to the comprehension of the very causes of the forces which operate according to these laws.
From this an inner phenomenon of the human mind becomes comprehensible – why so-called natural wonders, i.e., sufficiently attested, though irrational appearances, or unexpected qualities of things emerging and not conforming to laws of nature previously known, are eagerly seized upon and exhilarate the spirit so long as they are still held to be natural; whereas the spirit is dejected by the announcement of a real miracle. For the first opens up the prospect of a new acquisition for the nourishment of reason; that is, it awakens the hope of discovering new laws of nature: the second, in contrast, arouses the fear that confidence shall be lost in what has been hitherto accepted as known. For when reason is severed from the laws of experience it is of no use whatsoever in such a bewitched world, not even, in such a world, for moral application toward fulfilment of duty; for we no longer know whether, without our being aware, changes may not be occurring, through miracles, among our moral incentives, changes regarding which no one can decide whether they should be ascribed to ourselves or to another, inscrutable cause.
The combat which every morally well-disposed man must sustain in this life, under the leadership of the good principle, against the attacks of the evil principle, can procure him, however much he exerts himself, no greater advantage than freedom from the sovereignty of evil. To become free, “to be freed from bondage under the law of sin, to live for righteousness” – this is the highest prize he can win. He continues to be exposed, none the less, to the assaults of the evil principle; and in order to assert his freedom, which is perpetually being attacked, he must ever remain armed for the fray.
Now man is in this perilous state through his own fault; hence he is bound at the very least to strive with all his might to extricate himself from it. But how? That is the question. When he looks around for the causes and circumstances which expose him to this danger and keep him in it, he can easily convince himself that he is subject to these not because of his own gross nature, so far as he is here a separate individual, but because of mankind to whom he is related and bound. It is not at the instigation of the former that what should properly be called the passions, which cause such havoc in his original good predisposition, are aroused. His needs are but few and his frame of mind in providing for them is temperate and tranquil. He is poor (or considers himself so) only in his anxiety lest other men consider him poor and despise him on that account. Envy, the lust for power, greed, and the malignant inclinations bound up with these, besiege his nature, contented within itself, as soon as he is among men. And it is not even necessary to assume that these are men sunk in evil and examples to lead him astray; it suffices that they are at hand, that they surround him, and that they are men, for them mutually to corrupt each other’s predispositions and make one another evil. If no means could be discovered for the forming of an alliance uniquely designed as a protection against this evil and for the furtherance of goodness in man – of a society, enduring, ever extending itself, aiming solely at the maintenance of morality, and counteracting evil with united forces – this association with others would keep man, however much, as a single individual, he may have done to throw off the sovereignty of evil, incessantly in danger of falling back under its dominion. As far as we can see, therefore, the sovereignty of the good principle is attainable, so far as men can work toward it, only through the establishment and spread of a society in accordance with, and for the sake of, the laws of virtue, a society whose task and duty it is rationally to impress these laws in all their scope upon the entire human race. For only thus can we hope for a victory of the good over the evil principle. In addition to prescribing laws to each individual, morally legislative reason also unfurls a banner of virtue as a rallying point for all who love the good, that they may gather beneath it and thus at the very start gain the upper hand over the evil which is attacking them without rest.
A union of men under merely moral laws, patterned on the above idea, may be called an ethical, and so far as these laws are public, an ethico-civil (in contrast to a juridico-civil) society or an ethical commonwealth. It can exist in the midst of a political commonwealth and may even be made up of all its members; (indeed, unless it is based upon such a commonwealth it can never be brought into existence by man). It has, however, a special and unique principle of union (virtue), and hence a form and constitution, which fundamentally distinguish it from the political commonwealth.
At the same time there is a certain analogy between them, regarded as two commonwealths, in view of which the former may also be called an ethical state, i.e., a kingdom of virtue (of the good principle). The idea of such a state possesses a thoroughly well-grounded objective reality in human reason (in man’s duty to join such a state), even though, subjectively, we can never hope that man’s good will will lead mankind to decide to work with unanimity towards this goal.
A juridico-civil (political) state is the relation of men to each other in which they all alike stand socially under public juridical laws (which are, as a class, laws of coercion). An ethico-civil state is that in which they are united under non-coercive laws, i.e., laws of virtue alone.
Now just as the rightful (but not therefore always righteous), i.e., the juridical, state of Nature is opposed to the first, the ethical state of Nature is distinguished from the second. In both, each individual prescribes the law for himself, and there is no external law to which he, along with all others, recognizes himself to be subject. In both, each individual is his own judge, and there exists no powerful public authority to determine with legal power according to laws, what is each man’s duty in every situation that arises, and to bring about the universal performance of duty.
In an already existing political commonwealth all the political citizens, as such, are in an ethical state of nature and are entitled to remain therein; for it would be a contradiction (in adjecto) for the political commonwealth to compel its citizens to enter into an ethical commonwealth, since the very concept of the latter involves freedom from coercion. Every political commonwealth may indeed wish to be possessed of a sovereignty, according to laws of virtue, over the spirits [of its citizens]; for then, when its methods of compulsion do not avail (for the human judge cannot penetrate into the depths of other men) their dispositions to virtue would bring about what was required. But woe to the legislator who wishes to establish through force a polity directed to ethical ends! For in so doing he would not merely achieve the very opposite of an ethical polity but also undermine his political state and make it insecure. The citizen of the political commonwealth remains therefore, so far as its legislative function is concerned, completely free to enter with his fellow-citizens into an ethical union in addition [to the political] or to remain in this kind of state of nature, as he may wish. Only so far as an ethical commonwealth must rest on public laws and possess a constitution based on these laws are those who freely pledge themselves to enter into this ethical state bound, not indeed] to accept orders from the political power as to how they shall or shall not fashion this ethical constitution internally, but to agree to limitations, namely, to the condition that this constitution shall contain nothing which contradicts the duty of its members as citizens of the state – although when the ethical pledge is of the genuine sort the political limitation need cause no anxiety.
Further, because the duties of virtue apply to the entire human race, the concept of an ethical commonwealth is extended ideally to the whole of mankind, and thereby distinguishes itself from the concept of a political commonwealth. Hence even a large number of men united in that purpose can be called not the ethical commonwealth itself but only a particular society which strives towards harmony with all men (yes, finally with all rational beings) in order to form an absolute ethical whole of which every partial society is only a representation or schema; for each of these societies in turn, in its relation to others of the same kind, can be represented as in the ethical state of nature and subject to all the defects thereof. (This is precisely the situation with separate political states which are not united through a public international law.)
Just as the juridical state of nature is one of war of every man against every other, so too is the ethical state of nature one in which the good principle, which resides in each man, is continually attacked by the evil which is found in him and also in everyone else. Men (as was noted above) mutually corrupt one another’s moral predispositions; despite the good will of each individual, yet, because they lack a principle which unites them, they recede, through their dissensions, from the common goal of goodness and, just as though they were instruments of evil, expose one another to the risk of falling once again under the sovereignty of the evil principle. Again, just as the state of a lawless external (brutish) freedom and independence from coercive laws is a state of injustice and of war, each against each, which a man ought to leave in order to enter into a politico-civil state*: so is the ethical state of nature one of open conflict between principles of virtue and a state of inner immorality which the natural man ought to bestir himself to leave as soon as possible.
Now here we have a duty which is sui generis, not of men toward men, but of the human race toward itself. For the species of rational beings is objectively, in the idea of reason, destined for a social goal, namely, the promotion of the highest as a social good. But because the highest moral good cannot be achieved merely by the exertions of the single individual toward his own moral perfection, but requires rather a union of such individuals into a whole toward the same goal – into a system of well- disposed men, in which and through whose unity alone the highest moral good can come to pass – the idea of such a whole, as a universal republic based on laws of virtue, is an idea completely distinguished from all moral laws (which concern what we know to lie in our own power); since it involves working toward a whole regarding which we do not know whether, as such, it lies in our power or not. Hence this duty is distinguished from all others both in kind and in principle. We can already foresee that this duty will require the presupposition of another idea, namely, that of a higher moral Being through whose universal dispensation the forces of separate individuals, insufficient in themselves, are united for a common end. First of all, however, we must follow up the clue of that moral need [for social union] and see whither this will lead us.
If an ethical commonwealth is to come into being, all single individuals must be subject to a public legislation, and all the laws which bind them must be capable of being regarded as commands of a common law-giver. Now if the commonwealth to be established is to be juridical, the mass of people uniting itself into a whole would itself have to be the law giver (of constitutional laws), because legislation proceeds from the principle of limiting the freedom of each to those conditions under which it can be consistent with the freedom of everyone else according to a common law,* and because, as a result, the general will sets up an external legal control. But if the commonwealth is to be ethical, the people, as a people, cannot itself be regarded as the law-giver. For in such a commonwealth all the laws are expressly designed to promote the morality of actions (which is something inner, and hence cannot be subject to public human laws) whereas, in contrast, these public laws – and this would go to constitute a juridical commonwealth – are directed only toward the legality of actions, which meets the eye, and not toward (inner) morality, which alone is in question here. There must therefore be someone other than the populace capable of being specified as the public law-giver for an ethical commonwealth. And yet, ethical laws cannot be thought of as emanating originally merely from the will of this superior being (as statutes, which, had he not first commanded them, would perhaps not be binding), for then they would not be ethical laws and the duty proper to them would not be the free duty of virtue but the coercive duty of law. Hence only he can be thought of as highest law-giver of an ethical commonwealth with respect to whom all true duties, hence also the ethical,** must be represented as at the same time his commands; he must therefore also be “one who knows the heart,” in order to see into the innermost parts of the disposition of each individual and, as is necessary in every commonwealth, to bring it about that each receives whatever his actions are worth. But this is the concept of God as moral ruler of the world. Hence an ethical commonwealth can be thought of only as a people under divine commands, i.e., as a people of God, and indeed under laws of virtue.
We might indeed conceive of a people of God under statutory laws, under such laws that obedience to them would concern not the morality but merely the legality of acts. This would be a juridical commonwealth, of which, indeed, God would be the lawgiver (hence the constitution of this state would be theocratic); but men, as priests receiving His behests from Him directly, would build up an aristocratic government. Such a constitution, however, whose existence and form rest wholly on an historical basis, cannot settle the problem of the morally-legislative reason, the solution of which alone we are to effect; as an institution under politico- civil laws, whose lawgiver, though God, is yet external, it will come under review in the historical section. Here we have to do only with an institution whose laws are purely inward – a republic under laws of virtue, i.e., a people of God “zealous of good works.”
To such a people of God we can oppose the idea of a rabble of the evil principle, the union of those who side with it for the propagation of evil, and whose interest it is to prevent the realization of that other union – although here again the principle which combats virtuous dispositions lies in our very selves and is represented only figuratively as an external power.
The sublime, yet never wholly attainable, idea of an ethical commonwealth dwindles markedly under men’s hands. It becomes an institution which, at best capable of representing only the pure form of such a commonwealth, is, by the conditions of sensuous human nature, greatly circumscribed in its means for establishing such a whole. How indeed can one expect something perfectly straight to be framed out of such crooked wood?
To found a moral people of God is therefore a task whose consummation can be looked for not from men but only from God Himself. Yet man is not entitled on this account to be idle in this business and to let Providence rule, as though each could apply himself exclusively to his own private moral affairs and relinquish to a higher wisdom all the affairs of the human race (as regards its moral destiny). Rather must man proceed as though everything depended upon him; only on this condition dare he hope that higher wisdom will grant the completion of his well-intentioned endeavors.
The wish of all well-disposed people is, therefore, “that the kingdom of God come, that His will be done on earth.” But what preparations must they now make that it shall come to pass? An ethical commonwealth under divine moral legislation is a church which, so far as it is not an object of possible experience, is called the church invisible (a mere idea of the union of all the righteous under direct and moral divine world-government, and idea serving all as the archetype of what is to be established by men. The visible church is the actual union of men into a whole which harmonizes with that ideal. So far as each separate society maintains, under public laws, an order among its members (in the relation of those who obey its laws to those who direct their obedience) the group, united into a whole (the church), is a congregation under authorities, who (called teachers or shepherds of souls) merely administer the affairs of the invisible supreme head thereof. In this function they are all called servants of the church,) just as, in the political commonwealth, the visible overlord occasionally calls himself the highest servant of the state even though he recognizes no single individual over him (and ordinarily not even the people as a whole). The true (visible) church is that which exhibits the moral kingdom of God on earth So far as it can be brought to pass by men. The requirements upon, and hence the tokens of, the true church are the following:
1. Universality, and hence its numerical oneness; for which it must possess this characteristic, that, although divided and at variance in unessential opinions, it is none the less, with respect to its fundamental intention, founded upon such basic principles as must necessarily lead to a general unification in a single church (thus, no sectarian divisions).
2. Its nature (quality); i.e., purity, union under no motivating forces other than moral ones (purified of the stupidity of superstition and the madness of fanaticism).
3. Its relation under the principle of freedom; both the internal relation of its members to one another, and the external relation of the church to political power – both relations as in a republic (hence neither a hierarchy, nor an illuminatism, which is a kind of democracy through special inspiration, where the inspiration of one man can differ from that of another, according to the whim of each).
4. Its modality, the unchangeableness of its constitution, yet with the reservation that incidental regulations, concerning merely its administration, may be changed according to time and circumstance; to this end, however, it must already contain within itself a priori (in the idea of its purpose) settled principles. (Thus [it operates] under primordial laws, once [for all] laid down, as it were out of a book of laws, for guidance; not under arbitrary symbols which, since they lack authenticity, are fortuitous, exposed to contradiction, and changeable.)
An ethical commonwealth, then, in the form of a church, i.e., as a mere representative of a city of God, really has, as regards its basic principles, nothing resembling a political constitution. For its constitution is neither monarchical (under a pope or patriarch), nor aristocratic (under bishops and prelates), nor democratic (as of sectarian illuminati). It could best of all be likened to that of a household (family) under a common, though invisible, moral Father, whose holy Son, knowing His will and yet standing in blood relation with all members of the household, takes His place in making His will better known to them; these accordingly honor the Father in him and so enter with one another into a voluntary, universal, and enduring union of hearts.
Pure religious faith alone can found a universal church; for only [such] rational faith can be believed in and shared by everyone, whereas an historical faith, grounded solely on facts, can extend its influence no further than tidings of it can reach, subject to circumstances of time and place and dependent upon the capacity [of men] to judge the credibility of such tidings. Yet, by reason of a peculiar weakness of human nature, pure faith can never be relied on as much as it deserves, that is, a church cannot be established on it alone.
Men are conscious of their inability to know supersensible things; and although they allow all honor to be paid to faith in such things (as the faith which must be universally convincing to them), they are yet not easily convinced that steadfast diligence in morally good life-conduct is all that God requires of men, to be subjects in His kingdom and well-pleasing to Him. They cannot well think of their obligation except as an obligation to some service or other which they must offer to God – wherein what matters is not so much the inner moral worth of the actions as the fact that they are offered to God – to the end that, however morally indifferent men may be in themselves, they may at least please God through passive obedience. It does not enter their heads that when they fulfil their duties to men (themselves and others) they are, by these very acts, performing God’s commands and are therefore in all their actions and abstentions, so far as these concern morality, perpetually in the service of God, and that it is absolutely impossible to serve God more directly in any other way (since they can affect and have an influence upon earthly beings alone, and not upon God). Because each great worldly lord stands in special need of being honored by his subjects and glorified through protestations of submissiveness, without which he cannot expect from them as much compliance with his behests as he requires to be able to rule them, and since, in addition, however gifted with reason a man may be, he always finds an immediate satisfaction in attestations of honor, we treat duty, so far as it is also a divine command, as the prosecution of a transaction with God, not with man. Thus arises the concept of a religion of divine worship instead of the concept of a religion purely moral.
Since all religion consists in this, that in all our duties we look upon God as the lawgiver universally to be honored, the determining of religion, so far as the conformity of our attitude with it is concerned, hinges upon knowing how God wishes to be honored (and obeyed). Now a divine legislative will commands either through laws in themselves merely statutory or through purely moral laws. As to the latter, each individual can know of himself, through his own reason, the will of God which lies at the basis of his religion; for the concept of the Deity really arises solely from consciousness of these laws and from the need of reason to postulate a might which can procure for these laws, as their final end, all the results conformable to them and possible in a world. The concept of a divine will, determined according to pure moral laws alone, allows us to think of only one religion which is purely moral, as it did of only one God. But if we admit statutory laws of such a will and make religion consist of our obedience to them, knowledge of such laws is possible not through our own reason alone but only through revelation, which, be it given publicly or to each individual in secret, would have to be an historical and not a pure rational faith in order to be propagated among men by tradition or writ. And even admitting divine statutory laws (laws which do not in themselves appear to us as obligatory but can be known as such only when taken as the revelation of God’s will), pure moral legislation, through which the will of God is primordially engraved in our hearts, is not only the ineluctable condition of all true religion whatsoever but is also that which really constitutes such religion; statutory religion can merely comprise the means to its furtherance and spread.
If, then, the question: How does God wish to be honored? is to be answered in a way universally valid for each man, regarded merely as man, there can be no doubt that the legislation of His will ought to be solely moral; for statutory legislation (which presupposes a revelation) can be regarded merely as contingent and as something which never has applied or can apply to every man, hence as not binding upon all men universally. Thus, “not they who say Lord! Lord! but they who do the will of God,” they who seek to become well-pleasing to Him not by praising Him (or His envoy, as a being of divine origin) according to revealed concepts which not every man can have, but by a good course of life, regarding which everyone knows His will – these are they who offer Him the true veneration which He desires.
But when we regard ourselves as obliged to behave not merely as men but also as citizens in a divine state on earth, and to work for the existence of such a union, under the name of a church, then the question: How does God wish to be honored in a church (as a congregation of God)? appears to be unanswerable by reason alone and to require statutory legislation of which we become cognizant only through revelation, i.e., an historical faith which, in contradistinction to pure religious faith, we can call ecclesiastical faith.
For pure religious faith is concerned only with what constitutes the essence of reverence for God, namely, obedience, ensuing from the moral disposition, to all duties as His commands; a church, on the other hand, as the union of many men with such dispositions into a moral commonwealth, requires a public covenant, a certain ecclesiastical form dependent upon the conditions of experience. This form is in itself contingent and manifold, and therefore cannot be apprehended as duty without divine statutory laws. But the determination of this form must not be regarded forthwith as the concern of the divine Lawgiver; rather are we justified in assuming that it is the divine will that we should ourselves carry into effect the rational idea of such a commonwealth and that, although men may have tried many a type of church with unhappy result, yet on no account should they cease to strive after this goal, with new attempts if necessary, avoiding so far as possible the mistakes of the earlier ones – inasmuch as this task, which is for them a duty as well, is entirely committed to them alone. We therefore have no reason straightway to take the laws constituting the basis and form of any church as divine statutory laws; rather is it presumptuous to declare them to be such, in order to save ourselves the trouble of still further improving the church’s form, and it is a usurpation of higher authority to seek, under pretense of a divine commission, to lay a yoke upon the multitude by means of ecclesiastical dogmas. Yet it would be as great self-conceit to deny peremptorily that the way in which a church is organized may perhaps be a special divine arrangement, if, so far as we can see, it is completely harmonious with the moral religion – and if, in addition, we cannot conceive how it could have appeared all at once without the requisite initiatory progress of the public in religious conceptions.
In the indecision over the problem of whether God or men themselves should found a church, there is evidenced man’s propensity to a religion of divine worship (cultus) and – since such a religion rests upon arbitrary precepts – to belief in divine statutory laws, on the assumption that some divine legislation, not to be discovered through reason but calling for revelation, must supplement the best life-conduct (conduct which man is always free to adopt under the guidance of the pure moral religion). Herein consideration is given to the veneration of the Highest Being directly (and not by way of that obedience to His laws which is already prescribed to us by reason). Thus it happens that men will regard neither union into a church, nor agreement with respect to the form which it is to take, nor yet public institutions, as in themselves necessary for the promotion of the moral element in religion, but only, as they say, for the service of their God, through ceremonies, confessions of faith in revealed laws, and observance of the ordinances requisite to the form of the church (which is itself, after all, only a means). All these observances are at bottom morally indifferent actions; yet, just because they are to be performed merely for His sake, they are held to be all the more pleasing to Him. In men’s striving towards an ethical commonwealth, ecclesiastical faith thus naturally precedes pure religious faith; temples (buildings consecrated to the public worship of God) were before churches (meeting-places for the instruction and quickening of moral dispositions), priests (consecrated stewards of pious rites) before divines (teachers of the purely moral religion); and for the most part they still are first in the rank and value ascribed to them by the great mass of people. Since, then, it remains true once for all that a statutory ecclesiastical faith is associated with pure religious faith as its vehicle and as the means of public union of men for its promotion, one must grant that the preservation of pure religious faith unchanged, its propagation in the same form everywhere, and even a respect for the revelation assumed therein, can hardly be provided for adequately through tradition, but only through scripture; which, again, as a revelation to contemporaries and posterity, must itself be an object of esteem, for the necessities of men require this in order that they may be sure of their duty in divine service. A holy book arouses the greatest respect even among those (indeed, most of all among those) who do not read it, or at least those who can form no coherent religious concept therefrom; and the most sophistical reasoning avails nothing in the face of the decisive assertion, which beats down every objection: Thus it is written. It is for this reason that the passages in it which are to lay down an article of faith are called simply texts. The appointed expositors of such a scripture are themselves, by virtue of their occupation, like unto consecrated persons; and history proves that it has never been possible to destroy a faith grounded in scripture, even with the most devastating revolutions in the state, whereas the faith established upon tradition and ancient public observances has promptly met its downfall when the state was overthrown. How fortunate,* when such a book, fallen into men’s hands, contains, along with its statutes, or laws of faith, the purest moral doctrine of religion in its completeness – a doctrine which can be brought into perfect harmony with such statutes ([which serve] as vehicles for its introduction). In this event, both because of the end thereby to be attained and because of the difficulty of rendering intelligible according to natural laws the origin of such enlightenment of the human race as proceeds from it, such a book can command an esteem like that accorded to revelation.
And now a few words touching this concept of a belief in revelation.
There is only one (true) religion; but there can be faiths of several kinds. We can say further that even in the various churches, severed from one another by reason of the diversity of their modes of belief, one and the same true religion can yet be found.
It is therefore more fitting (as it is more customary in actual practice) to say: This man is of this or that faith (Jewish, Mohammed, Christian, Catholic, Lutheran), than: He is of this or that religion. The second expression ought in justice never to be used in addressing the general public (in catechisms and sermons), for it is too learned and unintelligible for them; indeed, the more modern languages possess no word of equivalent meaning. The common man always takes it to mean his ecclesiastical faith, which appeals to his senses, whereas religion is hidden within and has to do with moral dispositions.
One does too great honor to most people by saying of them: They profess this or that religion. For they know none and desire none – statutory ecclesiastical faith is all that they understand by the word. The so-called religious wars which have so often shaken the world and bespattered it with blood, have never been anything but wrangles over ecclesiastical faith; and the oppressed have complained not that they were hindered from adhering to their religion (for no external power can do this) but that they were not permitted publicly to observe their ecclesiastical faith.
Now when, as usually happens, a church proclaims itself to be the one church universal (even though it is based upon faith in a special revelation, which, being historical, can never be required of everyone), he who refuses to acknowledge its (peculiar) ecclesiastical faith is called by it an unbeliever and is hated wholeheartedly; he who diverges therefrom only in part (in non-essentials) is called heterodox and is at least shunned as a source of infection. But he who avows [allegiance to] this church and yet diverges from it on essentials of its faith (namely, regarding the practices connected with it), is called, especially if he spreads abroad his false belief, a heretic,* and, as a rebel, such a man is held more culpable than a foreign foe, is expelled from the church with an anathema (like that which the Romans pronounced on him who crossed the Rubicon against the Senate’s will) and is given over to all the gods of hell. The exclusive correctness of belief in matters of ecclesiastical faith claimed by the church’s teachers or heads is called orthodoxy. This could be sub-divided into despotic (brutal) or liberal orthodoxy.
If a church which claims that its ecclesiastical faith is universally binding is called a catholic church, and if that which protests against such claims on the part of others (even though oftentimes it would gladly advance similar claims itself, if it could) is called a protestant church, an alert observer will come upon many laudable examples of Protestant Catholics and, on the other hand, still more examples, and offensive ones, of arch-catholic Protestants: the first, men of a cast of mind (even though it is not that of their church) leading to self-expansion; to which the second, with their circumscribed cast of mind, stand in sharp contrast – not at all to their own advantage.
We have noted that a church dispenses with the most important mark of truth, namely, a rightful claim to universality, when it bases itself upon a revealed faith. For such a faith, being historical (even though it be far more widely disseminated and more completely secured for remotest posterity through the agency of scripture) can never be universally communicated so as to produce conviction. Yet, because of the natural need and desire of all men for something sensibly tenable, and for a confirmation of some sort from experience of the highest concepts and grounds of reason (a need which really must be taken into account when the universal dissemination of a faith is contemplated), some historical ecclesiastical faith or other, usually to be found at hand, must be utilized.
If such an empirical faith, which chance, it would seem, has tossed into our hands, is to be united with the basis of a moral faith (be the first an end or merely a means), an exposition of the revelation which has come into our possession is required, that is, a thorough-going interpretation of it in a sense agreeing with the universal practical rules of a religion of pure reason. For the theoretical part of ecclesiastical faith cannot interest us morally if it does not conduce to the performance of all human duties as divine commands (that which constitutes the essence of all religion). Frequently this interpretation may, in the light of the text (of the revelation), appear forced – it may often really be forced; and yet if the text can possibly support it, it must be preferred to a literal interpretation which either contains nothing at all [helpful] to morality or else actually works counter to moral incentives.
We shall find, too, that this has always been done with all types of faith, old and new, some of them recorded in holy books, and that wise and thoughtful teachers of the people kept on interpreting them until, gradually, they brought them, as regards their essential content, into line with the universal moral dogmas. The moral philosophers among the Greeks, and later among the Romans, did exactly this with the fabulous accounts of the gods. They were able in the end to interpret the grossest polytheism as mere symbolic representation of the attributes of the single divine Being, and to supply the various wicked actions [of the gods] and the wild yet lovely fancies of the poets with a mystical meaning which made a popular faith (which it would have been very inadvisable to destroy, since atheism, still more dangerous to the state, might perhaps have resulted) approach a moral doctrine intelligible to all men and wholly salutary. The later Judaism, and even Christianity itself, consist of such interpretations, often very forced, but in both instances for ends unquestionably good and needful for all men. The Mohammedans (as Reland shows) know very well how to ascribe a spiritual meaning to the description of their paradise, which is dedicated to sensuality of every kind; the Indians do exactly the same thing in the interpretation of their Vedas, at least for the enlightened portion of their people.
That this can be done without ever and again offending greatly against the literal meaning of the popular faith is due to the fact that, earlier by far than this faith, the predisposition to the moral religion lay hidden in human reason; and though its first rude manifestations took the form merely of practices of divine worship, and for this very purpose gave rise to those alleged revelations, yet these manifestations have infused even into the myths, though unintentionally, something from the nature of their supersensible origin. Nor can we charge such interpretations with dishonesty, provided we are not disposed to assert that the meaning which we ascribe to the symbols of the popular faith, even to the holy books, is exactly as intended by them, but rather allow this question to be left undecided and merely admit the possibility that their authors may be so understood. For the final purpose even of reading these holy scriptures, or of investigating their content, is to make men better; the historical element, which contributes nothing to this end, is something which is in itself quite indifferent, and we can do with
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risks and options, check out the Mayo Clinic site linked above.A portrait of John Montresor, by John Singleton Copley, circa 1771
22 April 1736|
|Died||26 June 1799(aged 63)|
|Allegiance||Kingdom of Great Britain|
|Service/branch||Corps of Engineers|
|Unit||48th Regiment of Foot|
|Battles/wars||French and Indian War (Braddock expedition, Siege of Louisbourg, Siege of Quebec), Pontiac's Rebellion, American Revolutionary War (Battles of Lexington and Concord, Battle of Long Island, Battle of Brandywine)|
|Relations||James Gabriel Montresor (father), Susanna Haswell Rowson (cousin), Robert Haswell (cousin), Samuel Auchmuty (brother-in-law)|
Born in Gibraltar 22 April 1736 to British military engineer James Gabriel Montresor and his first wife, Mary Haswell, John Montresor spent his early life there (and presumably on Minorca, where his father was briefly stationed). He was in England between 1746 and 1750, attending Westminster School. He learned the principles of engineering from his father, and in his later teens served as assistant engineer to his father at Gibraltar.
French and Indian Wars
In 1754, he accompanied his father to America, and served as an ensign in the 48th Regiment of Foot on the expedition to Fort Duquesne, also performing as a supernumerary engineer. In the defeat that followed he was wounded, but survived to learn of his promotion to lieutenant days before the battle. He remained in America, serving along the Mohawk River and at Fort Edward, then accompanying British forces to Halifax. In 1758, he was commissioned a practicing engineer in the Corps of Engineers, and as such was present at the siege of Louisbourg, and later, at that of Quebec, there drawing one of the last known portraits of General Wolfe, who died in the deciding battle.
With the defeat of the French, Montresor was sent to neighboring villages and as far afield as Cape Breton, using the language of his Huguenot ancestors to elicit oaths of allegiance. He was also twice sent overland from Quebec to Boston with dispatches, on one of these journeys, in a mid-winter blizzard, being reduced to eating belt and shoe leather in order to avoid starvation. He also, during this period, performed various surveys and prepared maps of Acadia, the Saint Lawrence River, and of his route along the Kennebec River. (The journal of this last expedition through the wilds of Maine would fall into enemy hands in the American Revolution, and was used as a guide by Benedict Arnold in his expedition against Quebec.)
During Pontiac's Rebellion, he carried dispatches and led troops to besieged Fort Detroit. He designed and built fortifications on the Niagara River at Fort Niagara and Fort Erie as well as a series of blockhouses and an early gravity railroad along the Niagara Portage between 1762 and 1764.
Stationed at Fort George (the former site of Fort William Henry) in 1765, he witnessed rioting in Albany and New York City in response to the Stamp Act, and in the same year was promoted to captain lieutenant, and engineer extraordinary, as well as barrackmaster for ordnance in North America. Over the next several years, he surveyed the boundary between New York and New Jersey, and he repaired or constructed barracks and fortifications in Boston, New York City, the Bahamas, and Philadelphia, where he would build a fortification on Mud Island. During this period he also took a six-month leave in England, and spent time on Bermuda. He also purchased an island in New York Harbor which would be called Montresor's Island (now Randall's Island).
He was in Boston at the outset of the American Revolutionary War, and marched with Percy to relieve the British troops returning from Concord. He was appointed chief engineer in America and captain in late 1775. He was present at the Battle of Long Island the next year, and was present at the execution of Nathan Hale on 22 September 1776. It is said that he kindly sheltered Hale in his office, giving him pen and paper to write final letters to his family, and that the execution moved him deeply. He was sent to the rebel lines under flag of truce to report the event, and he conveyed Hale's last words to William Hull. Having been superseded as chief engineer, he was placed as aide-de-camp on the staff of General William Howe, but was later reinstated as chief engineer. On 13 January 1777 his home on Montresor's Island was burned.
In 1777 he was involved in the military campaigns in New Jersey, and present at the action at Quibbleton. He also participated at Brandywine later that year, and accompanied the army to Philadelphia where he launched the attack that destroyed his own Mud Island defences. He directed the construction of new defences for the city, and along with John André, he was one of the planners of the lavish ball, the Mischianza, given in Philadelphia in honor of General Howe. Again superseded in his role as chief engineer, he returned to England and, in March 1779 resigned from the army, bringing to an end over two decades of American service, all reported in journals (although many of these were lost).
Retirement and death
In England, he was called before Parliament to testify on the conduct of the war, and on several occasions required to support his expenditures during his various campaigns (for which he is said to have been imprisoned at one point). He purchased an estate at Belmont, Kent, had a residence at Portland Place, London, and he served as director of the French Hospital. He toured Europe in 1785 and 1786, visiting France, Germany and Switzerland. In his later years, his accounts came under scrutiny, and much of his property was seized by the state to recover disallowed expenses. He died in Maidstone prison, where he was incarcerated apparently in connection with his outstanding debts, on 26 June 1799.
Montresor's romantic life has been the subject of much writing. He married at New York 1 March 1764, Frances Tucker, who was born in New York, 23 April 1744, daughter of Thomas Tucker of Bermuda, stepdaughter of Reverend Samuel Auchmuty and half-sister of General Sir Samuel Auchmuty. She returned to England with her husband, and survived him, dying 28 June 1828, at Rose Hill, Kent. By her, he had, with others, General Sir Henry Tucker Montresor, General Sir Thomas Gage Montresor, and Mary Lucy Montresor, who became the first wife of General Sir Frederick William Mulcaster (half-brother of Capt Sir William Howe Mulcaster).
In addition to these relationships, he also had other more irregular connections. A surviving letter from Detroit, 1763, mentions the death of an apparent mistress, "poor Nancy", and that he had been "on the Common" since. Likewise, he made a small grant for the support of the child of the daughter of a local English farmer, of which John was the father.
Finally, his name appears broadly as the father of Frances, second wife of Ethan Allen. Born to a Mohawk Valley woman on (Ethan Allen would later record) 4 April 1760, Frances was adopted by her mother's later companion, Crean Brush, one-time secretary of the Assembly of the Colony of New York. As to her paternity, when her daughter Frances "Fanny" Allen entered Hôtel-Dieu in 1808, her mother's maiden name was recorded as Montresor. Her tombstone names her Montezuma, while an 1858 history written using family information calls her Frances Montuzan, relating that her father was a British colonel killed in the French and Indian War. Popular opinion makes John Montresor the father of Frances, due in no small part to his role in a popular best-selling novel of the time.
John Montresor has gained a certain notoriety beyond his historical role due to the writings of his first-cousin Susanna Haswell Rowson. One of the main characters in her popular novel Charlotte Temple, named John Montraville, was based, at least in part, on Montresor. In the sequel, Lucy Temple, Charlotte's Daughter, Montraville is even said to have lived at Portland Place, once Montresor's residence. In the original novel, Montraville seduces the title character, an innocent English schoolgirl, and induces her to run away to America. He then abandons her, destitute and pregnant, to die in childbirth. Some authors have taken this to be a verbatim account of an event in Montresor's life, with only the name changed (the author subtitles the work, "A Tale of Truth"), while others see in it a fictionalized account of the circumstances surrounding the birth of the future Frances Allen. However, the tale also bears strong similarity to one told of General John Burgoyne, and it seems likely that the author had broader inspiration for her tale.
- Severance, Frank H. (1902). "The Achievements of Captain John Montresor". In Buffalo Historical Society. Buffalo Historical Society Publications. Buffalo, NY: Bigelow Brothers. p. 15. Retrieved August 14, 2015.
||This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. (August 2015)|
- Finigan, H.: "Montresor Papers on microfilm" David Library of the American Revolution, Washington's Crossing, PA
- Skull, G. D., The Montresor Journals, Collections of the New York Historical Society for the Year 1881.
- Lee, Sidney, ed. (1894). "Montresor, John". Dictionary of National Biography 38. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 328–329.
- "John Montrésor" Dictionary of American Biography XIII, 101-102.
- Montrésor, Frank Montrésor, "Memoirs of the Montresors", mss. 1941, Library of Congress.
- Montrésor, F. M., "Captain John Montrésor in Canada", Canadian Historical Review, vol. 5 (1924), pp. 336–340.
- Montresor pedigree, Proceedings of the Huguenot Society of London, 1917, facing p. 293, along with "Notes and Jottings in connection with the Montresor Pedigree", ibid, pp. 293–300.
Family & Fiction
- Montresor, F. M., "Who was Ethan Allen's wife?", New York Historical and Biographical Record, vol. 75 (1944), pp. 29–30.
- Buehner, Terry L., Green Mountain Women, thesis, University of Vermont, 1992, pp. 113–139.
- Hall, Benjamin H., History of Eastern Vermont, (New York: Appleton & Co) 1858, pp. 604.
- Parker, Patricia L., Susanna Rowson, (Boston: Twayne) 1986
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Montresor.|
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- Biography, Copley portraits of John Montresor and of Frances Tucker Montresor, and a Montresor map at First Foot Guards site
- Montresor mapUroscopy is the historic medical practice of visually examining a patient's urine for pus, blood, or other symptoms of disease. It dates back to ancient Egypt, Babylon, and India. It was particularly emphasized in Byzantine medicine.
By modern medical standards, uroscopy is considered to be a very limited means of obtaining evidence for the correct diagnosis of a patient's condition. In addition, many of the assumptions made by ancient physicians regarding uroscopy have proved to be quite incorrect and unscientific. However, visual examination of a patient's urine may provide preliminary evidence for a diagnosis, but is generally limited to conditions that affect the urinary system such as infection turbidity or blood infection or haemorrhage.
How Uroscopy Flask is Used
A uroscopy flask is a piece of glass that is circular at the bottom, while there is a thin neck at the top, and on top of that neck there is an opening for urine. In order for a doctor to examine a patients urine one would have to urinate into a uroscopy flask. A uroscopy flask is a glass bottle that must be transparent. If there is any color to the uroscopy flask, diagnosis could be wrong. In the process of uroscopy, color is very crucial to find diseases. If the uroscopy flask has a tint of color, the doctor may not be able effectively diagnose the patient. The glass must also have an even thickness throughout the flask. If the top is very thin glass and the bottom is thick glass, then the impurities in the top may look different from the top and bottom. While in all actuality they could be the very same impurities. The impurities in urine have varying shapes, uneven glass will corrupt the diagnosis.
The uroscopy wheel is a diagram that linked the color of urine to a particular disease. It usually has twenty different uroscopy flasks with urine of different colors aligned around the border of the circle. Each flask has a line that connects it to a summary of a particular disease. This allowed doctors to have a quick reference guide to twenty different types of urine.
Temperature When Testing
The temperature at which the urine is examined is a very important factor to consider in the process of uroscopy. When a patient urinates, the urine will be warm, so it is necessary for it to stay warm for proper evaluation. The external temperature should be the same as the internal temperature. When the temperature of urine goes down the bubbles in it will change. Some of them will disappear, but some will remain. With the temperature decrease particles and impurities will be more difficult to evaluate. They will move toward the middle of the flask, then sink to the bottom. They will all mix, making it more difficult to see the impurities.
Another problem with urine cooling is that it would become thicker. The longer that it had to cool down the more likely it was that the crystals in the it would bond together, causing it to thicken. This could lead to a false diagnosis, that is why doctors usually inspected the urine quickly.
Richard Bright in the 19th century A.D. invented a technique that allowed doctors to examine a patients urine effectively after the temperature had dropped. The process involved heating water, then inserting the uroscopy flask containing cooled urine. This would heat the urine causing the crystals that formed during loss of temperature to break down. As a result the urine will become thin again. This process is very effective, but a doctor should “also be careful not to shake them much before you inspect them for you will move the particles and destroy the bubbles and dilute the deposits and confuse the situation,” (The Late Greco-Roman and Byzantine Contribution to the Evolution of Laboratory Examinations of Bodily Excrement. Part1: Urine, Sperm, Menses and Stools, Pavlos C. Goudas).
Lighting When Testing
Since identifying the color of the urine is essential for a proper diagnosis, the lighting is crucial. This is a very complicated step in the uroscopy test. The doctor must not visually examine the urine in an overly lit location, because it will make the urine seem too bright. He can not examine the urine in a poorly lit location, because he will not be able to properly see the urine. So, he must examine the urine in both conditions. This is done to offset the effects of not enough light and too much light. After he examines in both conditions the doctor must use his best judgment, to make a diagnosis.
Common Diseases Found
Disease in which the pancreas does not function properly. Victims of this disease will have high glucose blood sugar. Victims may suffer from: cardiovascular disease (doubled risk), chronic kidney disease (it is the main cause for dialysis in developed world adults), retinal damage which can lead to blindness and is the most significant cause of adult blindness in the non-elderly in the developed world, nerve damage, erectile dysfunction, to gangrene with risk of amputation of toes, feet, and even legs.
Doctors would test by tasting the urine. A sweet taste meant the patient had diabetes.
Yellowish discoloration of the whites of the eyes, skin, and mucous membranes caused by deposition of bilirubine in these tissues. It occurs as a symptom of various diseases, such as hepatitis, that affect the processing of bile. Also called icterus.
Doctors would test by using their vision. If the urine had a brownish tint then the patient would most likely have jaundice.
The kidneys are supposed to filter wastes (especially urea) from the blood and excrete them, along with water, as urine. When they are not performing this task the patient is suffering from kidney disease. The medical field that studies the kidneys and diseases affecting the kidney is called nephrology, from the Ancient Greek name for kidney.
Doctors would test urine using a visual examination. If the urine was red and/or foamy the patient was suffering from kidney disease.
Tumors of urinary tract
When a patient develops an uncontrolled, abnormal, circumscribed growth of cells in the urinary tract.
Doctors would test urine by using a visual examination. If the urine had blood in it the patient was suffering from tumors in the urinary tract.
Importance of uroscopy
Uroscopy was important to the Roman and Byzantine eras, because it allowed doctors to diagnose patients without technology. This was an era in which there was no microscope, stethoscope, or even thermometers. All that was needed was a uroscopy wheel, uroscopy flask, and an experienced doctor to be able to give a diagnosis. It was a very simple procedure that a doctor could determine a patients problem by simply tasting and/or looking at their urine.
Uroscopy was also necessary, because the Hippocratic Oath did not allow doctors to perform any type of surgery. It stated “I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest...” (Hippocratic Oath). Doctors needed a different way to find out the problems with their patients. That is when the uroscopy test became involved. It followed the Hippocratic Oath and was a very effective test for that particular time period.
Uromancy is a form of divination whose origins begun with uroscopy. It is performed by reading the bubbles in urine that form when urinating in a pot. In uromancy, it is said that the examination of urine does not only give indications of a person's health, but also foretells the future.
|This article does not cite any references or sources. (May 2007)|
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Uroscopy.|Marie de France
Marie de France was a medieval poet who was probably born in France and lived in England during the late 12th century, most famous as the author of the earliest surviving Breton lais. Her poems were written in Old French.
|This article on an author is a stub. You can help Wikiquote by expanding it.|
- Si est del riche orguillus:
Ja del povre n'avra merci
Pur sa pleinte ne pur sun cri;
Mes se cil s'en peüst vengier,
Dunc le verreit l'um suzpleier.
- It is likewise with the proud, rich man: he will never have mercy on the poor man because of his hue or his cry, but if the poor man could wreak vengeance on him, then you would see the rich man bow.
- Fables, no. 10, "The Fox and the Eagle", line 18; cited from Mary Lou Martin (trans.) The Fables of Marie de France (Birmingham, Alabama: Summa, 1984) pp. 54-6. Translation from the same source, p. 55.
Quotations in Old French are cited from Marie de France (ed. Alfred Ewart) Lais (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1960); English quotations from Glyn S. Burgess and Keith Busby (trans.) The Lais of Marie de France (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986), to which page numbers also refer.
- Mes ki ne mustre s'enferté
A peine en peot aver santé:
Amur est plaie dedenz cors,
E si ne piert nïent defors.
Ceo est un mal que lunges tient,
Pur ceo que de nature vient.
- But he who does not let his infirmity be known can scarcely expect to receive a cure. Love is an invisible wound within the body, and, since it has its source in nature, it is a long-lasting ill.
- "Guigemar", line 481; p. 49.
- Amur n'est pruz se n'est egals.
- Love is not honourable, unless it is based on equality.
- "Equitan", line 137; p. 58.
- Ki divers cunte veut traitier,
Diversement deit comencier
E parler si rainablement
K'il seit pleisibles a la gent.
- Anyone who intends to present a new story must approach the problem in a new way and speak so persuasively that the tale brings pleasure to people.
- "Milun", line 1; p. 97.
- Tutes les dames de une tere
Vendreit il meuz d'amer requere
Quë un fol de sun pan tolir;
Kar cil volt an eire ferir.
- It would be less dangerous for a man to court every lady in an entire land than for a lady to remove a single besotted lover from her skirts, for he will immediately attempt to strike back.
- "Chaitivel", line 19; p. 105.
- D'euls deus fu il tut autresi
Cume del chevrefoil esteit
Ki a la codre se perneit:
Quant il s'i est laciez e pris
Ensemble poënt bien durer;
Mes ki puis les volt deservrer,
Li codres muert hastivement
E li chevrefoil ensement.
"Bele amie, si est de nus:
Ne vus sanz mei, ne mei sanz vus!"
- The two of them resembled the honeysuckle which clings to the hazel branch: when it has wound itself round and attached itself to the hazel, the two can survive together: but if anyone should then attempt to separate them, the hazel quickly dies, as does the honeysuckle. "Sweet love, so it is with us: without me you cannot survive, nor I without you."
- "Chevrefoil", line 74; p. 110.REACH Learning Resource Center
Since joining the CLC early in the 2008-2009 academic year, Julie concentrated her efforts on finding a means to assess her students' growth in skills related to critical thinking. In her own words:
I have created critical thinking assessment tools focused on both the tutor and the student. The assessment tools consist of a rubric to help the tutor measure the students' critical thinking progress and an evaluation form given to the student to evaluate the overall tutoring session. The rubric will be used to measure students' level of questioning and problem-solving skills in addition to Intellectual Autonomy (thinking independently) and Intellectual Perseverance (working through difficult problems). A survey is also given to the student at the end of the semester, allowing them to measure the extent to which the tutor encouraged them to think for themselves, to stay motivated, and to gather important information. Through the use of the rubric, the tutors will have developed and enhanced their own ability to foster critical thinking in others.
By designing a rubric tool that gauges the progressive growth of a student's ability to demonstrate the Intellectual Traits of Intellectual Autonomy and Intellectual Perseverance, Julie has incorporated key aspects of the Paul-Elder framework for critical thinking into her work with students receiving academic tutoring.For the next few months, baby rattlesnakes pose a risk to humans because they can't announce their presence as easily as their adult counterparts.
They are harder to see, and less likely to warn before they do strike. When the snakes are first born, they don’t yet have a rattle. It doesn’t develop until they’ve shed their skin a few times, says Keith Boesen is the director of the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center. Even when they do develop a rattle, it doesn’t sound like the rattle that desert dwellers are conditioned to react to, he says.
That means sometimes people don’t even know when a baby snake bites them.
“Some of these snakes are actually very small, so they don’t have the power behind them to inflict a lot of pain, but they can inflict a great deal of damage with the venom that they’ll introduce to your body," Boesen says. "So you may not feel it right away, or you may feel it and look down and not be able to see it right away because either it was so small or the environment you were in camouflaged it that well that we’ve had people that didn’t know they were bit but they knew something happened."
The Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center is in Tucson, based in the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy.It handles calls for all Arizona residents except those who live in Maricopa County. (The center is staffed 24-hours a day, reachable at 1-800-222-1222.)
The people who staff the phone line know the signs and subsequent symptoms of a snake bite, Boesen says, even if the caller doesn’t have a lot of information about what happened.
“We provide just as much information as we do help for those who have been exposed to something. We are an emergency service, but we are capable of answering questions as well. So never feel that calling us would be an inconvenience to us, that’s exactly why we’re here," Boesen says.
The poison center will typically ask a person who suspects they’ve been bitten to describe what they were doing and what symptoms they’re having. Boesen says anyone who is certain they’ve been bit by a snake should go immediately to the hospital.
The trained staffers on the poison control line can also help throughout the treatment process, because the poison center has doctors available to talk directly to other medical professionals.
“Throughout the Arizona area there are many hospitals or many clinics, etc., that don’t always see snake envenomation patients on a regular basis. There can be difficulties that can be related to snake envenomations whether they be low blood pressure, anaphylaxis, things like that that sometimes need some additional individuals that have experience with that," says Peter Chase, an emergency doctor and medical toxicologist who works at the poison center.
The Center handles 200 to 300 calls a year with questions about snake bites, and of those calls, 150 to 200 are actually bites, Boesen says.
“During August and September we can average almost one a day. So a significant number of our bites come in during that two-month period of time," he says.Athlete's Foot is a condition where the foot is dry and cracked, which can be mildly painful. It was named athlete's foot because it was common in people who play sports or do exercise. The infection can be spread to other areas of the body, such as the armpits, knees and elbows.
Symptoms[change | change source]
References[change | change source]
- Gupta AK, Skinner AR, Cooper EA (2003). "Interdigital tinea pedis (dermatophytosis simplex and complex) and treatment with ciclopirox 0.77% gel". Int. J. Dermatol. 42 (Suppl 1): 23–7..
- Guttman, C (2003). "Secondary bacterial infection often accompanies interdigital tinea pedis". Dermatol Times 4: S12..SALT CREEK, TX
SALT CREEK, TEXAS. Salt Creek was near the North Wichita River, presumably near its confluence with Salt Creek, in southeast Cottle County. The town was in existence by the late 1880s before the county organized and was settled near the Salt Creek crossing of a buffalo road from Henrietta. Names of early settlers included McGuire, Permenter, Simpson, and Day. The original name of the settlement was Zury, although a school established in 1891 took the title of Salt Creek. A post office was established by Richard V. Work at Zury on October 2, 1889, although Work changed its name to Cottle in April of 1980. Within a year O. J. Combest opened a general store. After the new town of Paducah became the county seat in 1892, the Cottle community became known as Salt Creek. The post office was discontinued and moved to Paducah in October of 1900. The rural settlement kept its identity through the late 1940s, although 1980 county maps gave no indication of its location.
Ed Ellsworth Bartholomew, The Encyclopedia of Texas Ghost Towns (Fort Davis, Texas, 1982). Carmen Taylor Bennett, Our Roots Grow Deep: A History of Cottle County (Floydada, Texas: Blanco Offset Printing, 1970).
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.Charles G. Davis, "SALT CREEK, TX," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hvs10), accessed August 30, 2015. Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.Fossils from two human ancestors suggest diversity in gait, stance
PORTLAND, Ore. — The simple act of walking continues to take strange detours among ancient human ancestors.
To wit, 1.5 million-year-old footprints excavated in Africa, initially thought to reflect a thoroughly modern walking style, were instead made by individuals that walked differently than people today do, researchers reported April 13 at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. And findings presented April 12 at the meeting revealed the surprisingly apelike qualities of foot fossils from a 2 million-year-old species that some researchers regard as the root of the Homo genus.
These reports come on the heels of evidence that a previously unknown member of the human evolutionary family 3.4 million years ago possessed a gorillalike grasping big toe and an ungainly stride (SN Online: 3/28/12).
Depth measurements of the African footprints, discovered at Kenya’s Ileret site, differ at 10 landmarks from the footprints of people who live in that area today, said graduate student Kevin Hatala of George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
“We can infer that the ancient Ileret individuals had a normal, functional gait, but they may have walked differently than we do,” Hatala said. For now, it’s uncertain just how these hominids walked and whether they belonged to Homo erectus, a possibly direct human ancestor, or to the side-branch species Paranthropus boisei.
Technologies that produce 3D images of footprints preserved in different types of soil should soon yield insights into how hominids walked at Ileret and at other ancient sites, commented graduate student Sarita Morse of the University of Liverpool in England.
Hatala and his colleagues compared five preserved Ileret footprints to those of 38 Daasanach herders in Kenya, none of whom wear shoes. Participants walked across a pressure pad before walking across moistened Ileret soil that approximated the conditions under which the ancient footprints were made. Pressure measurements at 10 spots across the bottom of the foot closely corresponded to depth measurements at the same spots on volunteers’ footprints.
Disparities in depth measurements between Daasanach and ancient Ileret footprints signaled that the hominids walked unlike people today do.
Other comparisons to Daasanach footprints indicated that two sets of Ileret tracks were made by individuals who were walking, not running, and who stood about 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighed 110 pounds. That’s in the general size range of Daasanach people today.
Meanwhile, new analyses of foot bones from two partial Australopithecus sediba skeletons, excavated in South Africa (SN: 5/8/10, p. 14), show that this hominid had an upwardly curved, mobile mid-foot built for tree-climbing, reported anthropologist Jeremy DeSilva of Boston University. Previous work had identified thin, apelike heels combined with humanlike ankles and arches in these fossil skeletons.
“This is a really weird foot,” DeSilva said. “Diversity in upright stances must have extended for a long time during hominid evolution.”
J. DeSilva et al. The primitive aspects of the foot and ankle of Australopithecus sediba. American Association of Physical Anthropologists meeting, Portland, Ore., April 12, 2012. Abstract available: [Go to]
K. Hatala et al. An experimentally based interpretation of 1.5-million-year-old fossil hominin footprints: implications for the evolution of human foot function. American Association of Physical Anthropologists meeting, Portland, Ore., April 13, 2012. Abstract available: [Go to]
B. Bower. New ancestor grasped at walking. Science News Online, March 28, 2012. [Go to]
B. Bower. Partial skeletons may represent new hominid. Science News, Vo. 177, May 8, 2010, p. 14. Available online: [Go to]
B. Bower. Modern feet step back 1.5 million years. Science News, Vol. 175, March 28, 2009, p. 14. Available online: [Go to]
Lee R. Berger’s site on Australopithecus sediba: [Go to]
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History site describing the Ileret footprints: [Go to]• Chelated iron is simply iron(fe) that has undergone chelation, a chemical process that firmly binds the iron (fe) molecule to another substance such as amino acid.
• This forms a more stable ring shape molecule that are easier for plants to absorb.
Why iron (fe) is required by plants?
• For formation of chlorophyll in plant cell (that gives plant its green colour).
• As an activator for respiration and photosynthesis.
Symptom of iron(fe) deficiency in plants
• The leaf tissue turn yellow but the vein remains green.
• In severe cases the entire leaf can turn yellow
Nitrogen deficiency can also cause the entire leaf turn yellow, so how to determine the actual problem?
• Iron (fe) deficiency shows symptom on the new growth (young Leaf) towards the shoot. Only on a very severe case then the edge of older leaf can turn brown, so it affect from top downward.
• Nitrogen deficiencies affects older leaf first then move upward.
Why iron deficiencies occur?
• Where soil are highly alkali or water used for watering is too alkali.
• High pH ties up iron (fe) by the soil
• High soil temperature
• High light intensity
• High level of Manganese (Mn) in the soils can block the uptake of iron (fe). Too much iron in the soil can also cause deficiency of Mn.A year and a half ago, two other experienced teachers and I gave a workshop about teaching geometry. Many of the participants wanted to know how we handled homework. We wanted to have them do geometry activities but decided to allot some time to homework since that was their concern. The other presenters and I decided that the three of us would each get a minute to explain how we managed homework. We did not consult each other beforehand but the three of us were on the same page about virtually everything regarding teaching and learning geoemtry, so we assumed we would support each other on this issue.
It would be hard to find three more different responses than the three we gave. Our descriptions of how we handle homework make the Tea Party and the current administration look like they are in agreement on almost every issue. Each of us had arrived at very different conclusions based on our years of experience.
Having said that, I think I will contribute my thoughts on the subject. I tried a lot of things and all approaches had flaws. I eventually came to several conclusions about homework:
- Homework is necessary. Students need time, on their own, to wrestle with mathematical ideas, to put them into perspective, connect them to other ideas and to practice. Some of this can happen in a class, but it is the rare students indeed who is able to make connections and internalize concepts in one class period.
- It needs to be done on a regular basis, so students come to class knowing more than they did when they left class the day before. Otherswise there in not much progress happening.
- It needs to involve reading and learning from reading. A students who can not read text, study an example, and determine meaning, is not an independent learner and will be forever limited in his or her ablilty to further advance his or her education.
- Students need incentives to do homework in mathematics even though they know it is helpful and important. They are human and they are immature. Given the choice, they will usually do something that is more social or more to their own interests than doing the problems that the teacher requires that they do. Even my best students, when homework was not required, spent their time doing the Chem assignment or writing the history paper that was due tomorrow, instead of the math, if they could put it off for another day. "Never put off until tomorrow what you can just as well do the day after tomorrow." --Mark Twain
- Homework is a learning experience, not an assessment activity. As such, it should not be graded. It should be evaluated in proportion to the effort that went into it, not in proportion to the number of correct answers.
- Students need feedback with regard to the correctness of their work.
- My time, both in and out of class, is better spent writing interesting problems, asking good questions, and writing appropriate assessments than it is spent grading homework.
So, after many iterations, I devised a plan that worked tolerably well for me. Here it is:
When students enter the class, they are provided with solutions to the homework that is due. Sometimes this was done by displaying them on the screen in the
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For many though gambling can become a habit that leads to significant problems in their wellbeing, relationships, employment and more. Problematic gambling behaviours can lead to significant negative consequences in the short and long term.
Many people feel embarrassed that the gambling has become problematic, some people report that they didn't realise until it was too late or that they believed they can solve the issue quickly.
The worksheets included are also included individually below, in case you would like to print extra copies:
Access, Time and Money worksheet
What Will I Gain worksheet
Building a Support Network worksheet
BigDeal is a great service offering all kinds of helpful information about gambling, you can also access support from them too free of charge.
Gamblers Anonymous provide support groups for anyone wanting to stop gambling. Visit their page to find a group near you.
NHS information page provides information about problem gambling.Artificial learning ability is definitely an escalating niche of examine, one who assurances to be really essential in our society in the future. Already computers as well as their related software program have already been accustomed to handle an awesome selection of responsibilities just like conversation acknowledgement, vocabulary translation, design evaluation, and making decisions. They are also capable of foretell and identify circumstances that we might confront down the road.
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The aim of unnatural cleverness should be to make it possible for products to complete for a level that may be even more comparable to or greater compared to a persons mental faculties. It is meant to replace the human mind using a equipment which will operation and comprehend challenging duties, in a lot exactly the same way that this brain does. Unlike human intellect, unnatural knowledge will not make use of feelings,recollection and opinions, or any other forms of human contemplating. Instead it relies solely on firmly computer and logic plans.
Experts feel that man made intellect will substitute some of the most respected pc functions inside of a variety of yrs. Some examples are dialog reputation, presentation activity, written text handling, impression digesting, making decisions, purely natural expressions finalizing, and a lot of other places. Experts in computer scientific research forecast that machine learning will entirely revolutionize the area in the next 10 years. Machine mastering requires the coaching of units to accomplish supplied duties. Experts think that in a ten years, appliance discovering will be so superior which it are able to surpass the most brilliant man in chess,football and checkers, and many other activities.
Experts are cautious even so, and say that although these predictions may be a fact for any forseeable future, it is far from likely that synthetic knowledge will absolutely control all functions in the next time all over. This is due to it is not adequate for products just to be capable to execute one duties they need to also be able to learn from other faults and transform their program code if necessary. Also, these algorithms need to keep reliable and reliable to ensure all units can consistently provide top quality providers. While it could be feasible for a machine to completely dominate a large provider, enterprises have to continue to be stored up to date while using most advanced technology.
Experts totally agree that as synthetic learning ability grows more prevalent down the road, we will see a substantial increase in decision-creating capability. We have to also take care not to give personal computers and robots the sole chance to make crucial choices, nevertheless. Humans need to still need a large role in the operation as a way for the units to be more effective.
Experts believe near future man-made learning ability will not likely only improve all facets of our learning ability, but it will also maximize man learning ability tenfold. To make better actions, unnatural intelligence applications will be able to use men and women his or her method of obtaining info. Therefore, we as human beings will employ these selection-producing equipment to settle concerns, enhance work productivity, and save money. Experts feel that as man made intellect grows more prevalent in the society, we will begin to see technologies appear that could create new sectors. Experts concur that on condition that human being valuations keep on being universal and reliable, we will continue to succeed for a world.
Currently, businesses for exampleGoogle and Facebook, and Amazon have all recently designed man-made learning ability software programs. Experts believe that at some point, it will be easy to regulate your the television, world wide web, along with other personalized technological innovations with your personal neurological power. The truth is, we already have some applications in today’s society running on AI systems. For instance, personal-operating motor vehicles use complex algorithms to strong the autos in visitors, steering clear of mishaps and human people.
Experts totally agree that people are simply at the beginning of the growth of expression manufactured cleverness. Additionally, they foretell that artificial smart products will exceed our abilities in every sphere of life inside the up coming a decade. Experts concur that while artificial intellect equipment may very well be just the thing for specified duties for example finishing complex activities or driving a vehicle, they will not be as productive as humans on the subject of very creative pastimes, dialect, and believed. Experts also agree once this equipment is programmed with specific goals and objectives, they might in no way opt to get a distinct way. Ultimately, professionals are worried that in case we do not handle AI machines, they will often turn out to be intense and have over the world.
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Driving questions: How/why does keeping homes warm impact the temperature of Earth’s atmosphere? How can we decrease this impact yet keep our homes warm and cozy?
Middle and high school students identify visible and invisible products of fuel combustion, then safely investigate heat transfer phenomena involving convection, conduction, and radiation. They figure out how heat moves in and around buildings and test strategies to slow undesired heat transfer. Then they design, insulate and tighten up miniature model homes, testing their designs as part of the engineering process. The class applies their learning to analyze real buildings that they live and work in. Students leave with strategies to hold heat in buildings and a deep understanding of why conserving heat makes a difference to Earth’s climate.
- NGSS Standards Addressed
MS-ESS3-5 Earth & Human Activity: Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperature over the past century.
MS-PS3-3 Energy: Apply scientific principles to design, construct, and test a device that either minimizes or maximizes thermal energy transfer.
MS-PS3-4 Energy: Plan an investigation to determine the relationships among the energy transferred, the type of matter, the mass, and the change in the average kinetic energy of the particles as measured by the temperature of the sample.
MS-ETS1-1 Engineering Design: Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.
MS-ETS1-2 Engineering Design: Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
MS-ETS1-4 Engineering Design: Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.
- Heat TransferTips On Helping Eliviate Your Acid Reflux Symptoms
How is acid reflux disease defined? Are available food items that have a tendency to trigger it? There are lots of stuff that can exacerbate your symptoms. What things can eliminate your symptoms? By learning the solutions to these questions, start experiencing relief. Start finding the answers to all of your queries about acid reflux disease with this article.
You may need to improve your diet should you suffer from acid reflux disorder disease. Sugary and processed food increase the volume of acid which is manufactured in your stomach, the reason behind acid reflux disease. Vegatables and fruits are great foods to enjoy that do not cause or worsen acid reflux disease.
Drink before rather than during meals. This can significantly help you manage hunger pains, simply because you are likely thirsty as an alternative to hungry. Your stomach won’t become distended when you drink between meals.
Those people who are overweight use a higher chance of getting acid reflux disorder as opposed to others. This is due to stomach pressure. The surplus weight of the overweight person adds more pressure on the stomach, relaxing the muscles from the lower sphincter in the esophagus, creating acid reflux disease. Fat in your body also can interrupt normal digestion. A bit weight-loss can greatly assist in preventing acid reflux disorder.
For those who have been having any acid reflux disorder symptoms over a long length of time, be sure that you go in to be noticed by a doctor. You may be thinking that this condition is not that serious, but should it be not treated it can cause more serious medical issues, including ulcers and gastritis.
Some trigger foods cause acid reflux disorder. You ought to avoid fat and greasy foods, tomatoes, chocolate, coffee and alcohol. Additionally, citrus fruit, tomatoes along with other foods having a top level of acidity could cause problems. Food triggers vary, which means you could possibly consume a few of them. Avoid each one of these in order to be in the safe side.When you have excess fat in the abdominal area, it acid reflux may cause anyone to experience acid reflux. Simply because there is extra pressure within the abdominal area. The most effective way to reduce these symptoms will be so that you can attempt to get a few of the extra weight off.
Acid reflux disorder could be devastating in your life. Not only is definitely the pain from heartburn a concern, but the possibility of contracting gastroesophageal reflux disease is incredibly high. If left untreated, you might develop cancer from the esophagus. If you feel, you might have issues with acid reflux, you should go to the doctor soon.
If you are overweight, your recurring acid reflux disorder problem may be a result of your excess weight. Focus on losing some weight inside your midsection to minimize pressure on your stomach and then make digestion easier. It is possible to improve your fitness by doing a little abs and adopting a healthier diet.
You might need to alter your diet if you suffer from acid reflux disease. Sugary and refined food increase the level of acid that is certainly created in your stomach, the cause of acid reflux disorder disease. Vegatables and fruits are great foods to enjoy which do not cause or worsen acid reflux disorder.
Individuals who are overweight use a higher potential for getting acid reflux than others. This is a result of stomach pressure. The excess weight of any overweight person adds more pressure to the stomach, relaxing the muscles in the lower sphincter from the esophagus, creating acid reflux disease. Fat in your body can also interrupt normal digestion. Just a little weight-loss can greatly assist in preventing acid reflux disorder.
Remember to keep gravity under consideration. Remember that acid has been held down, then when you position your body in many ways where down isn’t towards your feet, problems will ensue. Keep your head up and your stomach uncompressed, then you certainly will be able to find relief from acid reflux disorder the entire day.
When you are a smoker, consider quitting. If you smoke, nicotine stimulates producing stomach acid, exacerbating the trouble. But, you should not quit at one time. Carrying this out may stress our bodies, making acid reflux disease worse. Try to quit slowly.
If you have been taking antacids over an extended length of time, then chances are you have acid reflux. While it will not hurt anyone to take tums once in a while, continuing for taking them once the problem could be much more serious is actually a mistake. Go view a doctor when you have had symptoms for a long time.
Since you now have learned about acid reflux, it can be time to put your knowledge to get results for you. You must figure out what is causing your symptoms and what you can do to get rid of them. Use the great knowledge provided here so that you can dramatically enhance your acid reflux disease symptomsThis volume, including sixteen contributions, analyses ancient and medieval theories of intentionality in various contexts: perception, imagination, and intellectual thinking. It sheds new light on classical theories and examines neglected sources, both Greek and Latin.
Though the two-world interpretation of Plato's metaphysics is no longer uncontested the question of the expendability of the physical world still predominates current discussions. Against this tendency the article suggests that Plato neither intended to dispose of sensory evidence altogether nor to locate the Forms in a separate realm of pure understanding. The Forms should rather be understood as the ideal principles determining the proper function of each entity. Such a 'functional view' of the Forms is discussed explicitly in Book (...) X of the Republic, but it can easily be extended to account for Plato's use of the Forms elsewhere. (shrink)
Plato is commonly credited with a much more enlightened view concerning the equality of women and their political rights than Aristotle. This is due to the fact that he acknowledges, in the Republic, the possibility that women possess abilities that are equal to those of men and therefore assigns to them the same functions in the state. Plato’s principle of equality is, however, limited to the women of the upper classes in the Republic, and it is, at least in part, (...) a consequence of the separation of the classes. Because these conditions no longer obtain in the “second-best state” designed in the Laws, women are assigned, there, a much inferior role. In the Timaeus, women are treated not only as the weaker but also as the decadent form of humankind in the cycle of births and rebirths. Plato’s views on the worth of women change, if not with time, then with context.Aristotle throughout supports the traditional view on the exclusion of women from politics and public life. He does so because he ascribes to women only a limited form of practical rationality. Though he ascribes to women the status of citizens, he regards them as citizens that stand in need of a permanent rule by their male superiors, in public as well as in the family. Aristotle never questions whether the same kind education would lead to the intellectual equality of men and women. The rigidity of Aristotle’s position in that respect seems to be based on a kind of “conservative naturalism.” He accepts as constituted by nature the social conditions that are observable throughout the world as he knew it. This not only explains his view on the natural inferiority of women, but also his justification of slavery as a natural institution. (shrink)
In his attempt to redirect philosophy, Rorty recruits some allies to his cause. The present paper contains a critical discussion of his attempt to interpret heidegger and davidson as holding an "above battle" position in the realism/anti-Realism controversy. Although neither heidegger nor davidson fit into the regular mold of either position, Neither does rorty's nietzschean portrait of heidegger nor his pragmatist one of davidson do justice to those two philosophers but, Rather, Betray the "textualist's" hand.
The philosophers and scholars of the Hellenistic world laid the foundations upon which the Western tradition based analytical grammar, linguistics, philosophy of language, and other disciplines probing the nature and origin of human communication. Building on the pioneering work of Plato and Aristotle, these thinkers developed a wide range of theories about the nature and origin of language which reflected broader philosophical commitments. In this collection of nine essays, a team of distinguished scholars examines the philosophies of language developed by, (...) among others, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, the Stoics, and Lucretius. They probe the early thinkers' philosophical adequacy and their impact on later theorists. With discussions ranging from the Stoics on the origin of language to the theories of language in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the collection will be of interest to students of philosophy and of language in the classical period and beyond. (shrink)
THE CLAIM that even Plato could not say everything at once nor could have thought or worked out everything at once is, of course, a platitude. It is generally acknowledged that there is development in Plato's thought. But what the development is, is still a much fought-over question. For in spite of all scholarly efforts this intriguing question cannot be regarded as settled in a satisfactory way. This is due not only to the fact that we all look at Plato (...) through different eyes. There are just too many unknowns: We do not know when the dialogues were written nor in what order. We do not know what Plato himself regarded as the result of each of the dialogues nor how they are supposed to hang together. We do not know to what extent Plato himself is in agreement with what he lets Socrates say--or any of his partners. Nor do we always know what, precisely, the text itself says. And we do not know when Plato put the dialogues into the form in which they have come down to us. (shrink)
There are three versions of determinist conceptions that Aristotle was the first to address and work out in detail: logical/semantical determinism of ‘future truth’ concerning propositions about contingent events in the future in De interpretatione 9 ; physical determinism in the sense that there are no uncaused events, a point that he addresses in his Physics; ethical determinism in the sense that the actions of human beings are determined by psychological preconditions that Aristotle addresses in his ethical works, most of (...) all concerning the questions whether human actions are determined by their character—and in what sense our actions are ‘up to us’. Despite the fact that Aristotle discovered these different versions of determinism, he clearly did not regard them as reasons for denying that there are contingent events in the world or that humans are responsible for their own actions. After a brief introduction of these three different forms of deterministic assumption and their background in Aristotle’s philosophy, it will be shown why and in what sense Aristotle is to be regarded as the father of a ‘benign’ form of determinism. (shrink)
Despite the fact that the theory of Forms is regarded as the hallmark of Plato’s philosophy, it has remained remarkably elusive, because it is more hinted at than explained in his dialogues. Given the uncertainty concerning the nature and extension of the Forms, this article makes no pretense to coming up with solutions to all problems that have occupied scholars since antiquity. It aims to elucidate only two aspects of that theory: the indication in certain dialogues that the Forms are (...) what in modern parlance are called functions or purposes, and the indication in other dialogues that such functions rely on harmonious structures. (shrink)
The article purports to show that the preference of theôria in Nicomachean Ethics X 7–8 does not represent Aristotle's definitive conception of the best form of life, because it is compatible neither with his overall conception of happiness in the EN nor with its political framework. The critical chapters rather recall an early contribution of Aristotle's to a controversy on the best form of life in the Academy, attested to in Politics VII 2–3; its central point is resolved in Politics (...) VII 13–15 in a sketch of the life of leisure that combines both politics and philosophy. (shrink)
Some contemporary philosophers of action have contended that the intentions, decisions, and actions of collective social agency are reducible to those of the individuals involved. This contention is based on two assumptions: that collective agency would require super-minds, and that actions presuppose causes that move our bodies. The problem of how to account for collective action had not been regarded as a problem in the history of philosophy earlier.The explanation of why ancient Greek philosophers did not see joint agency as (...) a problem is not, as sometimes assumed, that they had no, or only a weak, sense of individuality. Nor is it because they simply overlooked the difference between individual and collective agency. It is, rather, as Aristotle’s conception of humans as ‘social’ or ‘political’ animals indicates, that the aims and ends of actions, and the means to bring them about by acting together, is the result of practice from early on. Without the acquisition of language and moral habituation humans would not become humans. There is, then, a shared understanding about common agency from infancy on. Individuals may disagree about some particular aim and action, and act only because it is a decision of the majority. But no super-minds are required to explain the communality of wishes. That Aristotle ignored the fact that all motion starts in individual bodies is explained by the difference between motions and actions: moves that are not determined by their ends are mere motions, not actions. So what moves an individual body can be the wish to bring about a joint action with another person or with a collective of persons. (shrink)LIGHT READING: Discover The Surprisingly Frilly Silk Lamps of Early Modernism
Despite what some historians would have you believe, the 20th-century Modern movement was not a uniform style of all-white walls, utilitarianism, and exposed light bulbs. Between 1900 and 1939, the period when Modernism crystallized, a ubiquitous oddity stands out: simple decorative lamps incorporating shades of lustrous silk. Some perceived these lamps — predominant in but not exclusive to Vienna — as old-fashioned and in opposition to Modernism’s avant-garde ideals. But they broke tradition in their own way through their use of plain white silk — no patterns or decoration — which imbued them with sensuality, the fabric gently diffusing the intense light of the bulb so that, instead of harsh illumination and shadows, they gave out a soft, homogeneous glow that went beyond the merely functional to create a mood.
As is apparent from German-language publications of the time (for example Innen-Dekoration or Das Interieur, both founded in 1900), the extensive use of silk lamps in Viennese interiors was not uniform, nor did it respond to a clear manifesto or predefined style. Schematically, two main approaches can be identified. On the one hand, the fashionable and exquisite style of the Wiener Werkstätte — a cooperative, in operation from 1903 to 1932, that was founded by the designer and painter Koloman Moser, the architect Josef Hoffmann, and the industrialist and arts patron Fritz Wärndorfer — which strove to achieve a Gesamtkunstwerk of everyday objects in the home and produced some of the most stunning silk lamps of the time. The Werkstätte proposed numerous models in their extensive catalogue of household objects, which were also available in their shops, and Hoffmann himself used Werkstätte lamps in many of his interiors, such as the writing room at the Sanatorium Purkersdorf just outside Vienna (1904–05) or the salons of his most ambitious work, the Palais Stoclet in Brussels (1905–11).
Then there was the approach adopted, around 1910, by a group of architects of which Josef Frank (who was also a member of the Wiener Werkstätte), Oskar Strnad, and Hugo Gorge were the most prominent members, and which took to heart some of the ideas put forward by Adolf Loos. Openly opposed to the creative universe of Hoffmann and the Wiener Werkstätte, which he regularly attacked in print, Loos proposed instead a subjective attitude of renewal that defended the autonomy of the inhabitant against the tyranny imposed by styles and ornament, as set forth in his famous 1910 lecture Ornament und Verbrechen (Ornament and Crime). For this group, the silk lamp wasn’t just a stylistic anachronism or a mere fad, but part of a more human-centered approach to Modern design that rejected functionalist ideals in favor of what would come to be called Wiener Wohnkultur (Viennese culture of living). Frank, for example, eschewed the use of tubular-steel furniture, which to him merely represented a modern version of an overly prescriptive bourgeois style. The use of silk lamps and other artistically valuable textiles preserved the old ideal of home as a site of enlightenment and refuge, connecting with the pre-industrial world, but without, however, the slightest desire for historicism. Through his writings, designs, and interiors, Frank proposed a methodology based on the essential conditions of living, giving priority to the physical and emotional well-being of the inhabitant. His stance towards modernity could be defined as a domestic resistance to the radical renewal proposed by those who sought to invent a new Modern style. Similarly, Strnad and Gorge explored the symbolic dimension of these design objects, connecting them to the uncertain and not immediately perceptible emotional world. While this affect-driven perspective helps us understand the particularities of a distinct Viennese sensibility founded on a longstanding sense of tactile pleasure (something that a material like silk amply provides), it also invites us to reconsider these lamps as exemplary of a reaction to a functionalist strand of Modernism that was not, despite the claims made for it by its advocates, inevitable or self-evident.
At the dawn of the 20th century, a new attitude towards interior lighting emerged. Whereas, in the 19th century, both electric and oil lamps had been regarded as an integral decorative and expressive part of any interior, lighting was becoming ever more standardized: reduced to mere technical considerations, it came to occupy a paradoxical position between the austerity of social-housing projects and the luxurious salons of the haute bourgeoisie, and as such was a vessel for the inherent contradictions of the period. Most Modern architecture was designed for sunlight — to be lived in (and photographed) by day. But what of the night? Some Modernist masters, such as Le Corbusier, tended towards a minimalist approach: his 1925 Villa La Roche in Paris, for example, had very little fixed lighting when first completed. While stumbling through the dark house at night cannot have been an amusing experience for its owner Raoul La Roche, he nonetheless seems to have been remarkably indulgent towards the inflexibility of Le Corbusier’s machine à habiter ideal, which presumably, compelled by the rationalist approach, reserved the night for sleeping and little else. But only a decade earlier, in 1912, the same Le Corbusier — then still known as Charles-Édouard Jeanneret — had used silk lamps, wallpaper, and all sorts of textiles for the interior of his first solo building, the Maison Blanche, also known as the Villa Jeanneret-Perret, the house he designed for his parents in his hometown of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. The evolution in Le Corbusier’s choice of lighting suggests a move towards the radical and the avant-garde, reinforcing the illusion of a historical rupture with which the Modern movement is assimilated. In contrast, the use of silk lamps in the Viennese context offers an alternative narrative, contradicting an ideology in which comfort and Gemütlichkeit seemed no longer to have any place.
In 1907, the artists of the Wiener Werkstätte designed the Cabaret Fledermaus in the heart of Vienna, one of the cooperative’s most famous projects. The cabaret closed in 1913, but among the records that remain of it is a detailed sketch by Le Corbusier, which he drew from memory: in it, and in surviving photographs, we can identify rectangular silver wall and table lamps covered with a fine and almost translucent silk. Just a year later, Loos used a very similar design for the wall lamps at the American Bar in Vienna, and they would become a common sight in many of the city’s apartments and villas. Silk’s lightness and sophisticated appearance belie the simplicity of the objects themselves — generally just a brass foot with a rod of some sort to carry the bulb. But there is something uniquely beautiful in the tension between the cold metal, the warm light, and the fragile fabric. These silk lamps are just one example of the specific way in which the Wiener Werkstätte determined the taste and direction of early Modernism in Austria and beyond, even if its influence on interwar Europe is often overshadowed in historical accounts by the more imposing vision of the Bauhaus and its ilk.
What should modern lamps look like? That was the rhetorical question Strnad asked in his famous 1914 lecture, Vom Licht, vom Besteck und Geschirr, von den Stoffen und den Teppichen, also auch vom Ornament (On Light, on Cutlery and Crockery, on Fabrics and Carpets, so also on Ornament). While Strnad failed to offer an answer, many later representative figures of the Modern movement tried. Le Corbusier, Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, et al. all made attempts to integrate simple lighting systems into their interiors with varying degrees of success, to a man favoring a decidedly industrial aesthetic. In this context, we can read silk lamps as a subtle rebuke to the fetishization of the Modern lamp as a standardized object, a pushback against the puritanical homogenization of interiors — and by extension their inhabitants — that such an approach implied. While Strnad never specified what a modern lamp should be, his lecture does clarify what it shouldn’t: “Then such atrocities arise, which our industry considers the latest creations in the field of ‘modern,’” he declaimed, railing against the industrial aesthetic in lighting design. Nor did he fully endorse silk lamps, describing their use as “a feminine gesture.”
Though Strnad didn’t employ silk lamps as often as Frank or Gorge, all three shared a similar understanding of textiles as an essential part of a more human, intimate approach to designing interiors of cosmopolitan comfort. Frank, in his 1934 article “Rooms and Furnishings” (originally published as “Rum och inredning” in the Swedish Handicraft Association’s magazine Form), explained his interior design choices — which included, of course, lamps — in terms of their enigmatic quality:
Everything that can arouse our interest (and that should be every object in our home, otherwise they do not serve to express a personal relationship and remain dead) must in some way be a mystery to us, must conceal something secretive, that we cannot get to the bottom of. Every work of art is puzzle. This can only apply to a useful object because of its shape, the technique used to make it, its construction, ornamentation, or origin, as it is the product of a process of thought that is for us unfamiliar and unfathomable. That is why we have a particular fondness for strange objects.
Gorge went furthest in exploring the metaphysical qualities of silk lamps, studying their symbolic implications and enigmatic effects. Sometimes they are subtly incorporated into the composition of the room, at others they forcefully stand out, flaunting their graceful and decorative attitude. In many cases, their small proportions reinforce their otherworldly appearance, such as Gorge’s 1924 nightstand lamp that mimics the form and mobility of handheld candelabra and oil lamps, gesturing towards a more inclusive, humanistic Modernism that doesn’t sacrifice warmth or comfort — a celebration of the objet-sentiment (sentiment object) that Le Corbusier would come to deride (and to which he preferred the objet-outil (tool object)). As historian Christopher Long put it, when analyzing Frank’s ideas, “A reading lamp for a home not only illuminates, but through its design, material, and construction also brings joy and solace,” unlike the industrial workplace lamp, which was merely required to provide sufficient light for the task at hand.
In its day, the silk-lamp typology raised more questions than it provided answers, yet through its contradiction it continues to elucidate specific conditions of Modern architecture and design history. Transcending mere technical function, the Viennese silk lamp, through its enigmatic and expressive grace, challenges the dominant narrative of austerity that historians generally ascribe to the period. The fact that fabric lampshades are ubiquitous today reminds us of the timeless properties of flexible textiles. With its uniquely playful character and lustrous texture, silk successfully served to materialize the formal and expressive fantasies of the Wiener Werkstätte, while at the same time helping Frank, Gorge, and Strnad formulate a distinctly moderate reaction to the needs of their time and assert their rejection of the industrial aesthetic. It can also be read as demonstrative of their desire to ensure that fragile connection with one’s own home that Henri Focillon so deftly encapsulated in his poetic text Éloge des lampes (In Praise of Lamps, first published posthumously in 1945): “Le soleil est un chef-d’œuvre public. Ma lampe, ce trésor, n’appartient qu’a moi” (“The sun is a public masterpiece. My lamp, this little treasure, belongs only to me”). It is in the solitude of the night that these creations unveil their true magic, demonstrating silk’s ability to render harsh electric light naturalistic, as well its power to conjure up the mysterious and the unknown.
Text by Adrián Prieto.
Adrián Prieto is an architectural historian, writer, and creator based in Vienna. He is currently working on a PhD exploring the cross-cultural relationships within Modern architecture and design.
Taken from PIN-UP 28, Spring Summer 2020.The energetics of uniquely human subsistence strategies.
The suite of derived human traits, including enlarged brains, elevated fertility rates, and long developmental periods and life spans, imposes extraordinarily high energetic costs relative to other great apes. How do human subsistence strategies accommodate our expanded energy budgets? We found that relative to other great apes, human hunter-gatherers and subsistence farmers spend more energy but less time on subsistence, acquire substantially more energy per hour, and achieve similar energy efficiencies. These findings revise our understanding of human energetic evolution by indicating that humans afford expanded energy budgets primarily by increasing rates of energy acquisition, not through energy-saving adaptations such as economical bipedalism or sophisticated tool use that decrease subsistence costs and improve the energetic efficiency of subsistence. We argue that the time saved by human subsistence strategies provides more leisure time for social interaction and social learning in central-place locations and would have been critical for cumulative cultural evolution.
Kraft, TS; Venkataraman, VV; Wallace, IJ; Crittenden, AN; Holowka, NB; Stieglitz, J; Harris, J; Raichlen, DA; Wood, B; Gurven, M; Pontzer, H
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Digital Object Identifier (DOI)After tools to create paintings, sculptures, and sketches came into use, some artists – like the late Robert Smithson – still chose to create massive artistic marvels using natural elements. Earthwork, as it is commonly known, consists of large scale artwork that is set in nature and composed of the elements.
The Spiral Jetty, located at Rozel Point in Great Salt Lake, Utah is the defining earthwork of Smithson. In 1970, he used “mud, precipitated salt crystals, and rocks” to create a 1,500 foot long, 15 foot wide water coil.
Any challenges the artist was confronted with when creating the Spiral Jetty may be comparable to the work that is going into conserving the art. As nature continues to recreate this work of art, the importance of documenting this earthwork is ever more important.
How Is The Spiral Jetty Being Preserved?
Both nature and man have made quite the impact on the Spiral Jetty. In recent years, because of drought, the earthwork has emerged from its safe home underwater. Smithson was said to have been, “fascinated by the concept of entropy…” and may have even “…welcomed this transformation.” However, less appealing are the man made changes that occur when visitors, who have access to the site, walk away with rock souvenirs.
Today, the Dia Center for the Arts, which acquired the Spiral Jetty from the Robert Smithson Estate in 1999, is partnering up with the Getty Conservation Institute to document the earthwork regularly. Only time will tell if there will need to be conservation efforts to keep the Spiral Jetty constructed in the way Smithson intended it.
The preservation efforts are inexpensive and consist of a disposable latex weather balloon, which monitors the vast creation from above. The images, captured with a Canon point and shoot camera, help conservationists see how the work of art is changing over the years. These photographs will be useful in continuing to weigh options as to how they may best preserve, and possibly restore the piece.
Why Is It Important To Preserve Earthwork?
As nature and people threaten the structure, there may come a day when portions of Smithson’s Spiral Jetty needs to be rebuilt. Though many of the existing earthworks were created to withstand the elements, they may need to be touched up and monitored to ensure they last for years to come.
For the sake of preservation, it is important to be mindful of how both art and nature impacts the world around us. One reason why earthwork captivates us is because these pieces are subject to the elements. This means they are always changing and reshaping, to create a unique type of art. When merging man’s abilities with the natural world, it is important to maintain man’s hard work and nature’s creativity.
Read more Segmation blog posts about art beyond the canvas:
Be an Artist in 2 minutes with Segmation SegPlay® PC (see more details here)Mark Futato—the Robert L. Maclellan Professor of Old Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary—has written a fantastic introduction on Hebrew accents. You’ve gone through the Hebrew grammars, but you still don’t know what those little lines are. But aside from a few grammars, you probably haven’t read more than a few sentences on the accent marks. Futato’s book is not an extensive, in-depth treatment of Hebrew accents. Instead, as an introduction, it will teach you enough to “eliminate perplexity and make interpretive friends of the accents” (14).
Chapter one introduces the three jobs of the accents:
- They show where the stress falls on a word.
- They provide insight into the sense of the text (think punctuation and syntax).
- They show how the text was to be chanted.
Futato surveys the first and third jobs in this chapter. He looks at fifteen different symbols related to word stress (which helps with pronunciation). Futato ends with four miscellaneous symbols that, while not accents, are related to the accent system.
Chapters two–four cover the accents in twenty-one of the Old Testament books (Psalms, Job, and Proverbs are covered in chapter five). Chapter two covers disjunctive accents, which Futato divides into four groups. The first two groups, the major disjunctive accents, are so important that Futato writes, “If the only thing you learn about the Hebrew accents is how these major disjunctive accents work, your ability to read the Hebrew Bible will be significantly enhanced” (36). Futato provides examples for each of the eighteen major and
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to the ecliptic. “It sparked this memory,” Brown says. “I had seen these objects before.” It turns out that, since 2002, five of these highly inclined Kuiper belt objects have been discovered, and their origins are largely unexplained. “Not only are they there, but they are in exactly the places we predicted,” Brown says. “That is when I realized that this is not just an interesting and good idea—this is actually real.”
Sheppard, who with Trujillo had also suspected an unseen planet, says Batygin and Brown “took our result to the next level. …They got deep into the dynamics, something that Chad and I aren’t really good with. That’s why I think this is exciting.”
Others, like planetary scientist Dave Jewitt, who discovered the Kuiper belt, are more cautious. The 0.007% chance that the clustering of the six objects is coincidental gives the planet claim a statistical significance of 3.8 sigma—beyond the 3-sigma threshold typically required to be taken seriously, but short of the 5 sigma that is sometimes used in fields like particle physics. That worries Jewitt, who has seen plenty of 3-sigma results disappear before. By reducing the dozen objects examined by Sheppard and Trujillo to six for their analysis, Batygin and Brown weakened their claim, he says. “I worry that the finding of a single new object that is not in the group would destroy the whole edifice,” says Jewitt, who is at UC Los Angeles. “It’s a game of sticks with only six sticks.”
At first blush, another potential problem comes from NASA’s Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), a satellite that completed an all-sky survey looking for the heat of brown dwarfs—or giant planets. It ruled out the existence of a Saturn-or-larger planet as far out as 10,000 AU, according to a 2013 study by Kevin Luhman, an astronomer at Pennsylvania State University, University Park. But Luhman notes that if Planet X is Neptune-sized or smaller, as Batygin and Brown say, WISE would have missed it. He says there is a slim chance of detection in another WISE data set at longer wavelengths—sensitive to cooler radiation—which was collected for 20% of the sky. Luhman is now analyzing those data.
Even if Batygin and Brown can convince other astronomers that Planet X exists, they face another challenge: explaining how it ended up so far from the sun. At such distances, the protoplanetary disk of dust and gas was likely to have been too thin to fuel planet growth. And even if Planet X did get a foothold as a planetesimal, it would have moved too slowly in its vast, lazy orbit to hoover up enough material to become a giant.
Instead, Batygin and Brown propose that Planet X formed much closer to the sun, alongside Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Computer models have shown that the early solar system was a tumultuous billiards table, with dozens or even hundreds of planetary building blocks the size of Earth bouncing around. Another embryonic giant planet could easily have formed there, only to be booted outward by a gravitational kick from another gas giant.
It’s harder to explain why Planet X didn’t either loop back around to where it started or leave the solar system entirely. But Batygin says that residual gas in the protoplanetary disk might have exerted enough drag to slow the planet just enough for it to settle into a distant orbit and remain in the solar system. That could have happened if the ejection took place when the solar system was between 3 million and 10 million years old, he says, before all the gas in the disk was lost into space.
Hal Levison, a planetary dynamicist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, agrees that something has to be creating the orbital alignment Batygin and Brown have detected. But he says the origin story they have developed for Planet X and their special pleading for a gas-slowed ejection add up to “a low-probability event.” Other researchers are more positive. The proposed scenario is plausible, Laughlin says. “Usually things like this are wrong, but I’m really excited about this one,” he says. “It’s better than a coin flip.”
All this means that Planet X will remain in limbo until it is actually found.
Astronomers have some good ideas about where to look, but spotting the new planet won’t be easy. Because objects in highly elliptical orbits move fastest when they are close to the sun, Planet X spends very little time at 200 AU. And if it were there right now, Brown says, it would be so bright that astronomers probably would have already spotted it.
Instead, Planet X is likely to spend most of its time near aphelion, slowly trotting along at distances between 600 and 1200 AU. Most telescopes capable of seeing a dim object at such distances, such as the Hubble Space Telescope or the 10-meter Keck telescopes in Hawaii, have extremely tiny fields of view. It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack by peering through a drinking straw.
One telescope can help: Subaru, an 8-meter telescope in Hawaii that is owned by Japan. It has enough light-gathering area to detect such a faint object, coupled with a huge field of view—75 times larger than that of a Keck telescope. That allows astronomers to scan large swaths of the sky each night. Batygin and Brown are using Subaru to look for Planet X—and they are coordinating their efforts with their erstwhile competitors, Sheppard and Trujillo, who have also joined the hunt with Subaru. Brown says it will take about 5 years for the two teams to search most of the area where Planet X could be lurking.
If the search pans out, what should the new member of the sun’s family be called? Brown says it’s too early to worry about that and scrupulously avoids offering up suggestions. For now, he and Batygin are calling it Planet Nine (and, for the past year, informally, Planet Phattie—1990s slang for “cool”). Brown notes that neither Uranus nor Neptune—the two planets discovered in modern times—ended up being named by their discoverers, and he thinks that that’s probably a good thing. It’s bigger than any one person, he says: “It’s kind of like finding a new continent on Earth.”
He is sure, however, that Planet X—unlike Pluto—deserves to be called a planet. Something the size of Neptune in the solar system? Don’t even ask. “No one would argue this one, not even me.”CTE Hope Resource Documents
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative brain disease found in athletes participating in high-contact sports, military veterans, domestic abuse victims, and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma. We have created many resource documents that may be helpful in understanding the effects of CTE. Click each link below to view the resource document.
- WHAT IS CHRONIC TRAUMATIC ENCEPHALOPATHY?
- WHAT IS A TBI?
- WHAT IS A CONCUSSION?
- HOW DO I MANAGE A CONCUSSION?
- POST-CONCUSSION SYNDROME (PCS)
- THE BRAIN-GUT AXIS
- FUNCTIONAL NEUROLOGY – DOCTOR LIST
- WHY DOES CTE HOPE SUPPORT ATHLETES ONLY PLAY FLAG FOOTBALL UNTIL THE AGE OF 14?
- BRAIN INJURIES AND MENTAL FATIGUE
- BRAIN INJURIES AND DEPRESSION
- BRAIN INJURIES AND ANXIETY
Below are several documents, articles, videos, and websites that we believe contain valuable information related to brain trauma and CTE. Check out our ‘Management and Treatment‘ page to learn about Functional Neurology and review our mental health resources. If you don’t find what you’re looking for in our Resource Library, please contact us so that we can help find the information you seek.
- -Website: United States Brain Injury Alliance
- -Website: National Association of State Head Injury Administrators (NASHIA)
- -Video: Cervical Spine, Headaches, and Brain Injury
- -Fast Facts: Brain Injury and Opioid Abuse
- -Football CTE Diagnosis by College
- -The Simplified Guide to the Gut-Brain Axis – How the Gut and The Brain Talk to Each Other
- -Research Study: A Review of Traumatic Brain Injury and the Gut Microbiome: Insights into Novel Mechanisms of Secondary Brain Injury and Promising Targets for Neuroprotection
- -Research Study: The gut-brain connection
- -Article: What we do and don’t know about gut health
- -Research Study: Sport-Related Concussion in Children and Adolescents
- -Research Study: Elevations in MicroRNA Biomarkers in Serum Are Associated with Measures of Concussion, Neurocognitive Function and Subconcussive Trauma over a single NCAA Division I Season in Collegiate Football Players
- -Article: When a Friend Said ‘Quit Using Your Brain Injury as an Excuse‘
- -Article: How to Remain Calm and Cool During the Holidays
- -Article: How to cope with the loss of a loved one during the holiday season, according to experts
- -Article: A Global Public Health Epidemic Going Completely Untreated: Intimate Partner Violence
- -Fact Sheet: Answering Questions About CTE: Information for Healthcare Providers
- -Article: A Patient’s Guide to Brain Disease
- -Article: Five New Answers about the Link between Football, CTE, and DementiaThis is a great question! After all, Americans mostly speak English. We’ve all heard about the original 13 colonies and how the British came to set up shop in the new continent. But the story goes a little deeper than that. Let’s look at some of the powers that had their hands in the American pie.
To start, there were a bunch of failed colonies along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts by the English, Spanish, and French early on (include Scandinavian Vikings if we really want to go back). The Portuguese and the Basques were also frequent visitors along the Atlantic in the 1500s and before, though they didn’t stop to settle.
- the first to establish permanent colonies in the U.S. (not the continent, though)
- had two main original settlements that grew and expanded out of New England and Chesapeake Bay
- at first, were mostly groups like the Puritans seeking more religious freedom, or poor servants and farmers mostly from England
- some colonies got lots of Irish-Scots settlers and expanded west into Native American territory, others got many more diverse settlers
- we all know about the Atlantic slave trade
The main thing to think about with the British is that their culture, language, and society were the most influential early on in American history which is why the states maintained the English language and other cultural influences from the British after so long.
- established some of the first settlements still inhabited in the U.S., including the oldest at St. Augustine, FL
- owned huge expanses of land in North America, including a portion of the Deep South and the whole western half of the current United States (mostly Luisiana or Alta California), even some areas of Canada, not to mention some territories like Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands
- they either lost or gave up a lot of this land to England or the U.S. over the centuries
- states Oregon, Montana, Nevada, California, New Mexico, Colorado, and Florida names all come from Spanish words, literature, or colonies
Spain had a pretty big cultural impact on the Gulf Coast and the American Southwest. Many place names (Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Antonio, Santa Fe, etc.), lots of architecture, and cultural events come from Spanish and Mexican traditions.
- had lots of colonies spread out through the central U.S. and east Canada
- had lots of fights against England and confusing conflicts and alliances with Native Americans, they later gave up most their land to the English or Americans
France also had a big impact on place names (New Orleans, Des Moines, St. Louis, Eau Claire, Vermont) and cultural events, such as Mardi Gras and Cajun culture in Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.
- set up colonies mostly in present-day New York and New Jersey
- the British took over their main city, New Amsterdam, and changed it to New York, but Dutch culture stuck around in those rural areas for centuries after
The Dutch paved the initial way for America’s biggest and most iconic city. Some of its boroughs and surrounding towns are even named in honor of the Dutch (Brooklyn or Breuckelen, Staten Island or Staaten Eylandt, Harlem or Haarlem).
- made a small colony that only lasted 17 years before being sucked into New Netherland
- the Bronx (after Bronck’s River) is named after a Swedish captain
Sweden’s colony was short-lived, but they introduced the first log cabins and some of the oldest churches to the future nation.
Also, let’s not forget Russia who colonized Alaska. The U.S. later purchased it, though, and most of the Russians left.
As you can see, there were a lot more European powers that settled the U.S. other than the English. Despite the obvious impact of the British here in the States, we also had a few other countries reaching in for a chance to colonize the future U.S.A.
P.S. I know that the Native Americans were already on the continent, and the colonial powers took these lands away from them. This includes First Nations in Alaska and Polynesians in Hawaii, among others. This answer is just to focus on the aspect of European colonial and cultural influence in the U.S., not to focus on the destructive aspect of their settlement in the region.
Check out these resources and other articles here on CultSurf!
Colonial History of the United States: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_history_of_the_United_States#Russian_colonies
First Arrivals of Europeans to Settle the U.S.: http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/settlement/text1/text1read.htm
Origins of New York City Borough Names: https://www.amny.com/news/nyc-boroughs-names-1-32096222/How can active front end drives reduce operating and capital costs for data centres?
The energy consumed by a data center is by far the largest contributing element in its day to day operating expenses.
Cooling accounts for an average 40% of that energy, depending on the geographical location. Data Center cooling applications, such as fans, pumps and compressors, rely on motors. And in most cases, they run at partial loads well below the peak load they are sized for.
Using variable speed drives (VSDs) to match the motor speed to the actual load required can achieve typical energy savings of 20 to 60%.
That is, however, only part of the energy-saving story. Because while VSDs optimise the use of energy for cooling, they can adversely affect network power quality, resulting in significant energy losses.
This is because standard VSDs, with a 6-pulse rectifier, significantly distort the current and voltage waveform, giving rise to harmonics — a form of electromagnetic pollution. The presence of harmonics in a power network is measured as a percentage value known as the total harmonic distortion (THD), which is the relationship between all the current or voltage harmonics and the fundamental current or voltage. Where no voltage or current harmonics are present, the THD is 0%.
The higher the harmonic current content (THDi), the higher the losses in the power network. For example, a 40% THDi results in 16% higher losses than a network with no harmonics, which translates to increased energy costs. And it also requires the electrical system to be dimensioned to carry the excess current.
To cope with harmonics, data centers often use active power filters at the building transformer. But they only deal with the issue on the way from the building input towards the utility, not inside the building.
A better solution could be to use VSDs that incorporate active front end (AFE) technology, as they can mitigate harmonics to an absolute minimum. VSDs with AFE not only optimise the efficiency of the cooling process, but they also help make the overall power network more efficient. The result is cheaper electricity bills.
According to various recent studies, a single minute of downtime can cost a data center over $8,000 in lost income. Therefore, it is vital to consider the impact that the increased current has on the risk of failure for critical network assets such as transformers, backup generators and cables.
Any malfunction or failure has an immediate cost in terms of lost revenue, as the data center cannot deliver the services that customers are paying for. There are also increased operating costs for frequent servicing and maintenance of over-stressed equipment. But the long-term cost of poor reliability is the potential damage to the data center's reputation.
It may not be immediately apparent how VSDs can impact the capital costs of a data center. The situation becomes more evident when you consider that the electrical systems are accountable for between 30 to 40% of the entire project cost.
Using VSDs with AFE technology means that the vital electrical assets will not have to be over-sized to accommodate the potentially harmful effects of harmonics. Instead, they can be optimised to match the actual load more closely, and therefore their capital cost is lower.
This ‘right-sizing' effect ripples through the data center. For example, with VSDs with AFE, cable size can be reduced by about 10% compared with using standard 6-pulse VSDs. Furthermore, distribution transformer size is reduced by 20%, generator size is reduced by 50%, while switchgear and circuit breaker size is down by 10 – 30%.‘Ugly countess’ in famous Flemish painting almost certainly turns out to be a transvestite | interior
The painting is known as The ugly countess, portrait of a woman with a bald head and wrinkled skin. But did the Flemish painter Quinten Massijs paint a woman in 1513? More than five centuries later, the work has been reassessed: it is almost certainly a transvestite.
No, she’s not the prettiest of moms, with her crooked face, receding hairline and wrinkled chest. Massijs (1466-1530) produced an oil portrait of an aristocratic old lady. The work got the name Portrait of a grotesque womancommonly called The ugly countess. She was given this “title” after her image was found to be the inspiration for Sir John Tenniel 150 years ago. He did the illustrations for Alice in Wonderland and his drawing of the Countess in this world-famous book bears an eerie resemblance to Massijs’ special wife.
It hangs in the National Gallery in London and is popular among visitors for its striking appearance. Massijs painted many religious images, but according to Renaissance scholar Emma Capron, the Flemings also loved carnival. Capron is the curator of the exhibition The Ugly Duchess: Beauty and Satire in the Renaissancewhich opened last week at the National Gallery.
She is almost certainly a he
Capri says in The Guardian that Massijs did not paint a woman, but a man disguised as a woman. A transvestite. “Yes, she is almost certainly a he. This corresponds to the image that Massijs was interested in carnival, the party where sometimes men also dress up as women. The work is probably based on a fantastical figure. The face and the shoulders are very masculine, unlike the breasts.This breast was almost certainly born out of Massijs’ fantasy.
Until now, there was the theory that the old woman suffered from a disease that affected her bones. Doctors thought it was Paget’s disease, an inflammation that causes bones to become deformed. In 2008, Michael Baum, a former professor of surgery at a University of London, concluded that the naughty countess did indeed suffer from the aforementioned disease, which, among other things, caused her nose to stick up and also deformed her chin, forehead and collarbones...
Capron disagrees. “I don’t think it’s Paget or any other disease. I also have my doubts as to whether the portrait is based on a particular individual. It’s the world upside down, men pretending to be prestigious women. I see it mainly as a satirical work. This was not unusual in the Renaissance.”
Art historian Frans Henk Hoekstra says carnival and other “silly” subjects are common in 16th-century Flemish art. “I don’t immediately know of any examples of men dressed as women. Dressing up also happens, whether it has to do with our current definition of cross-dressing, I dare not say. ”If the portrait of Massijs were to be of a man, then according to Hoekstra there must be a source that makes this plausible.. “Anyone can say anything about art. After all, there are many problems in art history to which we have yet to find answers.
The exhibition, with the ugly countess as its radiant center, runs until June 11.
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“Infuriatingly humble social media ninja. Devoted travel junkie. Student. Avid internet lover.”SDG #9 – Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
In this 10-minute video made available from the SDG Academy, Jeffery Sachs looks at universal access to innovative and resilient infrastructure and it’s importance in sustainable development.
A healthy environment and a strong economy go hand-in-hand. Green infrastructure, including water and wastewater systems, clean energy, climate resilient and adaptive infrastructure protects the natural environment, strengthens the health of communities, supports economic growth, and improves the quality of life.
Globally, labour forces face a rapidly changing economy that will have a profound impact on the nature of work and jobs of the future1. To be equipped for this change, there is a critical need for societies to rethink approaches to learning, the way they conduct work, and training approaches1. Inclusive and sustainable industrialization, together with innovation and infrastructure, can unleash dynamic and competitive economic forces that generate employment and income. They play a key role in introducing and promoting new technologies, facilitating international trade, and enabling the efficient use of resources. However, the world still has a long way to go to fully realize this potential. Least developed countries, in particular, need to accelerate the development of their manufacturing sector if they are to meet the 2030 target, and scale up investment in scientific research and innovation2.
Innovation and technological progress are key to finding lasting solutions to both economic and environmental challenges, such as increased resource and energy-efficiency. Globally, investments in research and development (R&D) as a proportion of gross national product (GDP) increased from 1.5% in 2000 to 1.7% in 2015 and remained almost unchanged in 2017. It was however, less than 1% in developing regions2.
In terms of communications infrastructure, more than half of the world’s population is now online and almost the entire world population lives in an area covered by a mobile network2. It is estimated that in 2019, 96.5% of the world’s population was covered by at least a 2G network2. For Canada, basic infrastructure that most Canadians take for granted are missing in many Indigenous communities1. In 2020, nearly 97% of Canada’s population had internet access, 7% more than the global average2. However, of the over 1 million people in Canada that do not have internet access, more than 75% are Indigenous households3.
The coronavirus pandemic has revealed the urgent need for inclusive and resilient infrastructure. The Asian Development Bank notes that critical infrastructure in the region remains far from adequate in many countries, despite the rapid economic growth and development the region has experienced over the past decade. The Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific highlights that making infrastructure resilient to disasters and climate change will require an additional investment of $434 billion per year2. This sum may need to be even greater in some subregions, such as the Pacific small island developing states.
- In 2018, 96% of the world’s population lived within reach of a mobile-cellular signal, and 90% of people could access the Internet through a third generation (3G) or higher-quality network;
- 16% of the global population does not have access to mobile broadband networks;
- The global share of manufacturing value added in GDP increased from 15.2% in 2005 to 16.3% in 2017, driven by the fast growth of manufacturing in Asia;
- Least developed countries have immense potential for industrialization in food and beverages (agro-industry), textiles and garments, with good prospects for sustained employment generation and higher productivity;
- In 2019, the amount of new renewable power capacity (excluding large hydro) was the highest ever, at 184 gigawatts, 20GW more than in 2018. This included 118GW of new solar systems, and 61GW of wind turbines;
- Capacity investment in solar slipped 3% to $131.1 billion in 2019, while wind climbed 6% to $138.2 billion, the first time that wind has outweighed solar in terms of dollars committed since 2010;
- Developing countries continued to outpace developed economies in renewables investment. In 2019, they committed $152.2 billion, compared to $130 billion for developed countries.
Why it Matters
Why should I care about ensuring innovative and resilient industry and infrastructure for all?
Inclusive and sustainable industrialization, together with innovation and infrastructure, can stimulate competitive economic forces that generate employment and income. The price of inaction is steep. Ending poverty would be more difficult, given the industry’s role as a core driver of the global development agenda to eradicate poverty and advance sustainable development. Failing to improve infra¬structure and promote technological innovation could translate into poor health care, inadequate sanitation, and limited access to education.
Targets and Indicators for Canada
Below is Canada’s approach to measuring progress on SDG #9 – Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure. Note the targets and indicators chosen.
- United Nations. (2021). The Sustainable Development Goal Report, 2020. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.
- Global Affairs Canada. (2018). Canada’s Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: voluntary national review. ↵
- United Nations. (2021). Sustainable Development Goals. ↵
- RBC. (2021). Thought Leadership: Building Bandwidth ↵
- Statistics Canada. (2021). The Canadian Indicator Framework for the Sustainable Development Goals - 2021 ↵Varroa, Varroa destructor Anderson and Trueman (Arachnida: Acari: Varroidae)
Varroa destructor (Anderson and Trueman), is the world's most devastating pest of Western honey bees, Apis mellifera Linnaeus (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Although the Varroa complex includes multiple species, Varroa destructor is the species responsible for the vast majority of the damage attributed to mites from this genus. Until 2000, it was believed that Varroa jacobsoni Oudemans was the mite responsible for widespread honey bee colony losses. However, taxonomic work published in 2000 (Anderson and Trueman 2000) indicated that a previously-unidentified species of Varroa (Varroa destructor) was responsible for the damage, while Varroa jacobsoni was shown to be only moderately harmful to western honey bees. This publication is limited to Varroa destructor.
Varroa are ectoparasites that feed on the fat bodies of immature and adult honey bees. Apis mellifera, the Western honey bee, is not the mite's natural host. In fact, the mite is native to Asia where it parasitizes another cavity-dwelling honey bee, Apis cerana Fabricius (the eastern or Asian honey bee). Apis cerana is believed to have some natural defenses against the mite and consequently rarely is affected negatively by the mite. Only when colonies of Apis mellifera were brought to Asia did people begin to realize how devastating the mites could be. Varroa's host shift did not occur instantly, as evidence suggests that it may have taken 50–100 years (Webster and Delaplane 2001). Since that time, the mite has spread around the world and has become nearly cosmopolitan in distribution. Those countries not hosting Varroa maintain strict quarantine procedures to lessen the chance of an accidental importation of the mite.
The adult female mites are reddish-brown to dark brown and oval in shape, measuring 1.00 to 1.77 mm long and 1.50 to 1.99 mm wide. Their curved bodies fit into the abdominal folds of the adult bee and are held there by the shape and arrangement of ventral setae. This protects them from the bee's normal cleaning habits. Adult males are yellowish with light tan legs and spherical body shape measuring 0.75 to 0.98 mm long and 0.70 to 0.88 wide. The male chelicerae are modified for transferring sperm.
The eggs are oval in shape and white in color, and are laid singly on a cell wall. Eggs are approximately 0.30 mm long and 0.23 mm wide. Eggs generally cannot be seen by the unaided eye.
Male and female protonymphs are indistinguishable without dissection. Protonymphs have eight legs, pointed chelicerae (mouthparts) and are a transparent white color. The body appears circular, as they do not develop the oval shape until the deuteronymph stage. After the protonymph molts, the mite becomes a deuteronymph which resembles the adults with a reduction in setae. The mite will molt once again, into the final adult stage.
Although Varroa destructor is a natural parasite of the Asian honey bee, most of its biology has been determined using the Western honey bee due to the mite's importance as an economic pest on this honey bee species. With that in mind, most of the following discussion will relate to Varroa's presence on Western honey bees rather than on Asian honey bees.
Adult female Varroa can be found either on adult or immature honey bees. They must, however, reproduce on honey bee brood (developing larvae or pupae). Immature Varroa can be found only on capped brood and male Varroa will never leave these brood cells.
Although small, a Varroa female is one of the largest ectoparasites known when considered in relation to its host. Because Varroa-associated damage is caused by female mites, the remaining discussion of the life cycle will proceed from the female Varroa's perspective.
Adult females undergo two phases in their life cycle, the phoretic and reproductive phases. During the phoretic phase, female Varroa feed on adult bees and are passed from bee to bee as bees walk past one another in the colony. During phoresy, the female Varroa live on adult bees and usually can be found between the abdominal segments of the bees. Varroa puncture the soft tissue between the segments and feed on bee fat bodies through the punctures.
Anatomically, female Varroa are well-adapted bee parasites. Their flattened shape allows them to fit between the abdominal segments. Furthermore, they have claws that allow them to grasp the bee and ventral setae that allow them to remain attached to the bee. The mite's cuticle has a chemical pattern similar to that of the bee's, possibly allowing it to escape notice while on the bee. Additionally, the cuticle is highly-sclerotized, thus occasionally protecting it from bee aggression.
Phoretic Varroa also can be passed between colonies when infested bees drift into another colony. This happens frequently in managed honey bee situations where individual bee colonies are located within meters of one another. It is common for bees in this situation to return (drift) to the wrong colony. Interestingly, it has been shown that bees from colonies heavily infested with Varroa drift more than bees from uninfested colonies (Schmid-Hempel 1998). Varroa passing within a colony from bee-to-bee and between colonies by drifting demonstrate that the mites are transmitted horizontally.
Varroa also may pass between colonies in other ways. First, beekeepers often aid weak colonies by adding bees or brood from a healthier colony, and this practice helps spreads the mite. Second, beekeepers may transport colonies from one area to another, facilitating the spread of Varroa regionally. Third, individual colonies may swarm, moving to a new location and spreading Varroa simultaneously. Finally, mites may spread between colonies as bees from the colonies rob (steal honey from) one another. It is common for strong colonies to rob weaker colonies in periods of nectar scarcity. Mites pass easily from bee to bee in these instances. All of these methods have contributed to Varroa's global distribution as a honey bee pest.
The phoretic period of the mite appears to contribute to the mite's reproductive ability. Although mites artificially transferred to brood cells immediately after they mature are able to reproduce, their reproductive rate is lower than that of mites undergoing a phoretic period. The phoretic period may last 4.5 to 11 days when brood is present in the hive or as long as five to six months during the winter when no brood is present in the hive. Consequently, female mites living when brood is present in the colony have an average life expectancy of 27 days, yet in the absence of brood, they may live for many months.
In order to reproduce, phoretic mites must enter bee brood cells. Honey bees construct a waxy matrix in which they form hexagonal compartments or cells. Queen bees oviposit in these cells, and three days later a bee larva emerges from the egg and begins to develop. Once the larva reaches a certain age, worker bees in the colony construct a waxy capping over the entrance to the cell. The larva develops into a prepupa and then a pupa under the capping. After an egg is oviposited, an adult worker, drone, or queen bee emerges from the cell 21, 24, or 16 days later (aged respectively).
Varroa females must enter a brood cell before the bees seal it. In Western honey bee colonies, they may enter either a worker or drone cell, but mites are more attracted to drone brood. A mite that is ready to reproduce will leave the adult bee on which it is feeding and crawl down the wall of the cell to the honey bee larva at the bottom of the cell. At this point, the female mite is referred to as a foundress mite. Only larvae ready to be capped are attractive to the mite. After crawling under the larva, the female mite will submerge itself in the brood food under the larva where it will remain until the cell is capped by other worker bees. While submerged, the mite erects its peretrimes which serve as breathing tubes, allowing the mite to breathe while it is submerged.
Once worker bees have capped the cell, the larva consumes the remaining brood food, thus freeing the mite. The freed mite climbs onto the larva and begins feeding. The mite defecates on the upper part of the cell wall while feeding on the bee. Shortly thereafter, the mite lays its first egg on the surface of the cell wall. The egg is unfertilized and will develop into a male mite. Subsequent fertilized eggs are oviposited by the female mite toward the back of the cell approximately every 25 to 30 hours. These hatch into female mites.
The newly-emerged protonymphs join their mother on the ventral side of the developing bee pupa around the bee's 5th abdominal segment. Here, the mother and offspring alternate between periods of feeding on the bee and defecation on the base of the cell. The developing protonymphs molt into deutonymphs and then into adult mites. The entire process from egg to adult mite takes six to seven days for both sexes of the mite.
Unless more than one foundress enters the cell prior to capping, mite offspring are forced to mate with their siblings. When male Varroa undergo their final molt, their piercing mouthparts change into hollow tubes. The male mite uses this structure to transfer packets of sperm to openings in the female, at the base of her third pair of legs. Although the adult female Varroa can infest and reproduce in more than one cell, it mates only in the cell in which it was born. Shortly after mating, the sperm transport system of the female Varroa degenerates, thus prohibiting future matings.
Considering mortality in brood cells and improper mating, the average foundress mite produces about one offspring per worker cell she enters, and about two offspring per drone cell. Drones take longer to develop so more mites are produced in drone cells. Therefore, in the average temperate climate, mite populations can increase 12-fold in colonies having brood half of the year and 800-fold in colonies having brood year-round. This makes the mite very difficult to control, especially in warmer climates where colonies maintain brood year-round.
Varroa have affected the apiculture industry negatively in every country that it has been introduced. Individuals reporting the effects of Varroa after they arrived in the US stated that honey bee colonies would not survive unless beekeepers intervened with a chemical treatment (Webster and Delaplane 2001).
Accurate estimates of the effect of Varroa on the apiculture industry are hard to find, but it is safe to assume that the mites have killed hundreds of thousands of colonies worldwide, resulting in billions of dollars of economic loss. Varroa have caused beekeeper production costs to rise, thus lowering the profit margin in beekeeping.
Varroa also have affected the feral (wild) population of bees in many areas. Since feral colonies were not managed for Varroa and the colonies were left unprotected, the loss of feral colonies quickly resulted as Varroa continued to spread. On the other hand, feral colonies that survived Varroa infestations have slowly developed resistance mechanisms that have allowed them to persist in the presence of the mite. This did not happen with managed colonies because beekeepers started treating chemically for Varroa almost instantly, thus
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. 14-27).
V. GO WHEN GOD SENDS, AND TRUST HIS POWER AND WORD (vv. 28-30).
Worksheet Questions –
The Pharoah has rejected the word of the Lord and that of Moses. The people are frustrated, angry with Moses; for their extra labor due to having to get straw themselves. The LORD appears to Moses again for assurance, and to tell him that it is time to begin.
1. God tells Moses that ” _________ you shall see what I will do to Pharoah.” (v. 1)
2. The Pharoah will come to a place where he will gladly send the Israelites on their way, even drive them out. True False (v. 1)
3. Several times in this chapter God uses the phrase ___ ______ _______ ___________.
4. The name “LORD” is used in the following places in Genesis (v. 2)
(A.) Genesis 4:26 (B.) Genesis 9:26 (C.) Genesis 12:8 (D.) All these and more.
5. Abraham knew God by the name of LORD (Jehovah, YaHWeH). True False (v. 3)
6. Possibly, the best understanding of “but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them” is (v. 3)
(A.) a contradiction of Scripture (B.) it cannot be understood
(C.) God likes to confuse things (D.) they had not witnessed His work as was about to happen.
7. There is an established ______________ for the people of Israel in the land of ____________. (vv. 4-5)
8. God tells Moses to share with the people of Israel, ” I am ____ ________ _______ _______ ” (vv. 6-9)
9. Moses is relunctant to return to Pharoah’s presence due to the unbelief of his people [Israel]. True False (vv. 10-13).
10. Moses and Aaron are the sons of ______________ and ________________. (vv. 14-27).
11. The LORD reminds Moses again of who He is and that He is able to use him to ___________ to Pharoah. (vv. 28-30)
-Tim A. BlankenshipScience, Technology, Engineering, & Math Studies
Join us in celebrating a virtual afterschool science, technology, engineering and math demonstrations presented by local vendors.
Celebrating Lights On Afterschool Program Virtually
In every new generation, children are given the greatest test of facing the
unknown head-on and are expected to overcome the adversities that come with it. In
the 1930’s, children grew up quickly and at times sacrificed their own education to help
their families make it through the Great Depression. In the 1940’s, they faced a
devastating world war. They waved goodbye to their fathers going off to war, and
watched as their mothers took over the labrous jobs once held by men. The end of this
war sparked the Cold War; children were hiding under their desks hoping that it would
be enough to save them from a nuclear attack, a practice that they became well
Now, in 2020, children are facing yet another challenge, a challenge that impacts
all of us one way or another. This year’s global pandemic has pushed us all to new
limits; it’s forced us to make adjustments such as wearing face masks in public and
ensuring we maintain a safe distance from others. Luxuries that were once taken for
granted, including movie theaters, dining halls and parks, are now closed or restricted.
While we strive to find solutions for those that have become financially at-risk due to
unemployment, those being treated and/or hospitalized for COVID-19, and those that
are still vulnerable to the virus- we must not forget about the children.
There have been creative strategies put in place to continue educating young
students. Some have included a full transition to remote learning, others have combined
remote and limited in-person lessons, and still others have decided to fully return to
traditional learning in the classroom. Regardless of the game plan- educators, parents,
and most importantly children have had to adjust to new norms.
It has become overwhelming for parents to juggle work, family, life events, and
now help their kids get a grasp on a whole new schooling system. As we have seen so
many others sacrifice to follow the call to action in the past, from the Volunteers of
America during the Great Depression, to The American Red Cross through World War 2
and beyond- Today, our invaluable volunteers are stepping up when families need it
most. Basic necessities of these times like access to computers, internet, and learning
resources are missing in many homes, and our program strives to fill that gap.
The Lights on Afterschool Event, hosted in collaboration with the Afterschool
Alliance, The Boys & Girls Club of the Big Bend, and STEMS4Girls, is a STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) expo and demonstration that will engage
students, parents, and community members with STEM presentations and activities. On
October 22, at 3:30 pm, the celebration for afterschool programs will kick-off with an
opening ceremony featuring keynote speaker Brenda Williams, Executive Director of
Tallahassee Housing Authority.
We could not be more thankful for all the collaboration and assistance in making
this event come to life. This will be a community based experience with vendors from
throughout Tallahassee set to provide age appropriate STEM-related demonstrations.
We are also thankful for funding assistance from The Leon County CARES Human
Services Grant Assistance Program, as well as community donations provided by
Publix, Sam’s Club, Winn Dixie and Walmart.
Our kids won’t wait around for change or for life to get easier, their resilience and
determination are more impressive than ever. They will continue to push past all
hurdles, and it’s our duty to help them in the right direction- toward a successful and
Please visit http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/loa.cfm for more information
about this nationwide event, being held for the 21 st year in a row! visit our website at
https://stems4girlsfl.org/community-engagement to donate and/or support our cause -
all children have a right to high quality STEM afterschool programs.
The STEMS4Girls Community Engagement Program
is a great way for us to expand our reach by partnering with other nonprofit organizations to be vendors or exhibitors at community events or to encourage relevant organizations to facilitate STEM4Girls program needs.
Through collaborative partnerships with local organizations and agencies, we intend to expose girls to a wide range of STEM related education and careers during early childhood. What motivates us is to give them the skills and tool to engage in science and technology throughout their education. We pride ourselves in our “we-come-to-you” approach, in that we travel to underprivileged communities rather than them coming to us, eliminating the transportation barrier that would otherwise exist.
STEMS4Girls, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization. Copyright © 2020 STEMS4GIRLS - All Rights Reserved.
A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE WITHIN THE STATE. REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE. 1 800 HELP FLA (435-7352)"If all people start boycotting such weddings, it would definitely help eliminate child marriage.
People are needed during a marriage ceremony: a priest to perform the religious rites, musical band to play the music, cook to prepare the food for the guests and guests to give their blessings to the newlyweds.
I took a group of women with me and visited the parents of a 16-year-old girl whose marriage was fixed before she was of the legally appropriate age. Her parents shouted at us saying that they were in-charge of their daughter’s future. Her parents said that they had done it before and the wedding was attended by many people. They didn’t see anything wrong in such unions.
I told them that girls may die when they are married off early, when they are still children. It is extremely physically taxing for them. But the parents were not willing to listen. They said that if girls get old, parents would need to pay more dowry and gold to the husband’s family.
We spoke to other people in the village so that no one would attend the wedding ceremony. We took more people with us when we visited [the family] a second time. We did not move from the house until her parents agreed with our reasons. We spoke to the girl as well and found out that she is interested in finishing her studies. We checked again later, and her parents had called off the marriage, and the girl is continuing with her studies.
I saved a life from getting destroyed… Sensitization is the key to reducing such cases.
Women’s groups are important avenues from which one can derive energy and support to carry on. The training I received from Pragya helped me build my skills in counselling and provide support to women and girls in my village.”
Malti Tudu is a member of one of the 100 Women Peer Groups set up across five rural Indian states, which more than 2,800 rural women and girls have joined. They are part of a grassroots mobilization effort within a comprehensive violence prevention project for ethnic minority women, supported by the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women managed by UN Women on behalf of the UN system. Ms. Tudu belongs to a tribal community of which 74.1% of women and girls are married before age 18, compared with 42.6% from other communities. Ms. Tudu has intervened in three cases of child marriage and was able to prevent two of them. Her story highlights efforts of individuals and collectives to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 5 on gender equality and women’s empowerment, which includes ending all forms of violence against women, including child marriage, as well as the SDG 10 which focuses on ending inequalities, including based on sex, ethnicity or other status.
National Family Health Survey (2015-16)Major floods hit the Greek island of Crete on February 24 and 25, 2019, after heavy rainfall descended on the island for the second time in just 10 days. At least one person lost its life on February 24 and four more a week ago.
Between February 1 and 26, a meteorological station of the National Observatory of Athens located in Askifou, Chania recorded 1 202 mm (47.32 inches) of rain, breaking a pan-European monthly rainfall record in a residential area. The previous record was set in Grøndalen, Norway in 1989 with 1 190 mm (46.85 inches).
Askifou recorded astonishing 309 mm (12.16 inches) of rain from midnight to the afternoon of February 25. More than 250 mm (9.84 inches) of rain was recorded elsewhere in the prefecture.
From Saturday morning, February 23 until Tuesday morning, February 26, the area of Sembronas in Chania registered 496 mm (19.52 inches) of rain, which is 40.9% of its average annual rainfall.
The latest storm, named Oceanis by Meteo Greece, caused floods and landslides, forcing numerous high-water rescues across the island and closure of schools and roads.
A 111-year-old historic bridge on Keritis river, Chania collapsed and the event was recorded on video:
Exceptionally thick hail accumulations were recorded on the national road from Rethymnon to Heraklion:
Featured image credit: Πάμε ΡέθυμνοThe Collapse of St. Mark’s Bell Tower
July 14, 1902 is a sad date for the city of Venice. On that day, the Saint Mark’s Bell tower, one of the world’s oldest bell towers, collapsed.
As luck would have it, there were no victims in that tragic event. However, when workers removed the rubble, they found a small victim, the custodian’s cat!
Among the ruins of the bell tower, they also found nearly intact a bronze statue by Jacopo Sansovino depicting Mercury: the right arm was broken and without four fingers.
Moreover, they found a fragment of a Murano Glass chalice dating back to 1500, richly decorated with polychrome enamels depicting allegorical motifs of plants and animals, currently kept in the island of Murano’s Glass Museum.
The collapse of St. Mark’s Bell Tower was a tragedy for Venetians, because it was a symbol, a flag, a piece of soul of the entire Venetian population, built in the heart of the city as a testimony of a story of life and art.
The rubble of the tower was thrown into the sea, about five miles from the Venice Lido. One brick, surrounded by laurel branches, was engraved with the date “July 14, 1902”.
“It was like watching a funeral procession,” the chronicles of the time said.
A little girl named Gigeta, on the boat with Giacomo Boni, a government official, threw the engraved brick into the sea. During the return trip, Boni noticed that Gigeta held her fist closed: the child had kept a piece of brick of the bell tower.
For those who want to know more, here is an historic video (in italian): http://youtu.be/5Iw-GaudomMHypo Thermosol Graft Preservation
Hypo Thermosol Graft: The proper clinical preservation of the hair follicle tissue is a crucial factor in successful hair transplant. Hair transplant often takes an average of 6 to 8 hours, leaving the extracted follicles outside the body for long duration of time. The follicles are very sensitive without proper blood supply.
Since 2013, Hypo thermosol FRS has been used as a storage solution, instead of the normal saline solution used to store hair grafts during hair transplant.
With the new refrigerant storage medium designed to maintain the vitality of the extracted grafts by providing maximum storage temperatures at 2-8 ° C, sensitivity of the molecular cells is reduced. By providing an appropriate pH, supporting osmosis, energy substrates, and ionic concentrations to balance cells at low temperatures, this method is a lot more effective than others in promoting cell survival.
Hypo thermosol Graft Method
This method has been used to preserve cells, tissues, and organs (such as the heart and kidney) in abnormal conditions (transferred from one body to another) and has been widely used in maintaining hair follicles in hair transplantation. Damage to grafts leads to cell death, especially when saline solutions are used as a storage solution, so hypo thermosol has been used as a more effective solution to keep grafts alive as long as possible.
While there are many studies and views on the mechanism of maintaining grafts extracted outside the body, experts and surgeons have adopted different ways to store grafts. For years, the experts have been carrying out important studies in this field and we have concluded that the ideal methods to store grafts are by using Hypo Thermosol.Fracking Increases Oklahoma Earthquakes from Two a Year to Two a Day
Earthquakes continue to rattle the frack-happy state of Oklahoma. The Sooner State has jumped from two earthquakes a year to roughly two a day, with scientists once again pinning the recent uptick on fracking.
Oklahoma Sees 2800% Increase in Earthquakes over 5 Years, Likely Due to Fracking http://t.co/RVK8ujqitp http://t.co/P81G6yZNsF— Wes Annac (@Wes Annac)1442839586.0
Scientists have identified that the injection of wastewater byproducts into deep underground disposal wells from fracking operations are very likely triggering the major increase of seismic activity in the central U.S. state.
Oklahoma, which is not near any major fault lines, has felt 585 earthquakes that were a 3.0-magnitude or greater in 2014—three times the 180 quakes felt by California last year, the AFP reported. Last month alone, Oklahoma experienced more than 600 quakes that could shake homes and cars, with the town of Crescent hit hardest with a 4.5 whammy, the AFP said.
"It's completely unprecedented," George Choy, a seismologist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), told AFP about the spate of recent tremors.
"What's at risk is that when you put water into the ground, it's never going to come back out. You're putting it in places it has never been before," Choy told AFP.
Oklahoma has about 4,500 disposal wells. Last week, the state's public utilities commission shut two wells and slowed the disposal volume of three more, a local news station reported, after a series of earthquakes, including a 4.1, hit the city of Cushing, which holds one of the largest crude oil storage facilities in the world.
Photo credit: NewsOK
The energy industry is, in a word, everything for Oklahoma. The state is one of the top natural gas-producing states in the nation. One-quarter of all jobs are either directly or indirectly tied to the energy industry.
The scientific evidence, however, continues to mount against the oil and gas sector. Oklahoma has seen a 50 percent increase of quakes the last two years, according to the USGS.
"We are the only state where once this problem came up, we just kept going [with fracking]," Johnson Bridgwater, the executive director of the Oklahoma chapter of the Sierra Club, told the AFP. "We want public safety to come first, rather than treating this state as a giant lab."
Even pro-business state Gov. Mary Fallin changed her tune about the link between fracking and earthquakes for the first time at the state Capitol last month.
"I think we all know now that there is a direct correlation between the increase of earthquakes that we've seen in Oklahoma [and] disposal wells," Fallin said.
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Chief Joseph surrenders. Federal troops force about 750 Nez Percé led by Chief Joseph from their ancestral lands. He leads his people on a long trek across the Rockies toward Canada, has many encounters with U.S. troops, and forty miles from the safety of the border, Chief Joseph surrenders, saying, “I will fight no more forever.”
National railroad strike spurred by workers in West Virginia and Pennsylvania shuts down railroads for a week, until federal troops restore order after firing on strikers, killing several.
6.3 million immigrants enter the United States.
Terence Powderly heads the Knights of Labor, a workers’ organization promoting a cooperative commonwealth in opposition to the industrial system, turning it into a powerful social and political force.
Jim Crow era begins as the State of Tennessee becomes the first to pass laws that segregate railroad passengers by race. Soon other Southern states follow.
Chinese Exclusion Act prohibits immigration from China, denies citizenship to Chinese already in America.
Standard Oil Trust formed.
Haymarket Riot in Chicago. Police fire on a group of strikers, killing four and wounding others. Three days later at a rally in Haymarket Square organized by the Knights of Labor, an unknown person throws a bomb into a group of policeman, killing several and causing general mayhem that results in the deaths of more strikers.
Samuel Gompers founds the American Federation of Labor, focused on organizing skilled workers into craft unions.
The Dawes Severalty Act divides communal tribal land, giving the right to petition for citizenship to those Indians who accept the individual land allotment of 160 acres; successfully undermined Native American sovereignty.
The Interstate Commerce Act creates the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate railroad rates, setting a precedent as the first action by the federal government to regulate business.
The Forest Management Act gives the federal government authority over forest reserves (which are first created in 1891).
Edward Bellamy, an American socialist, publishes his popular and influential utopian novel Looking Backward, 2000-1887, which predicts that in the year 2000, all industries will be owned by the government and all wealth will be distributed equally among the citizens.
Jane Addams founds Hull House in Chicago, launching the settlement house movement.
Ghost Dance Movement: Wounded Knee Marks End of Indian Resistance. 500 U.S. troops massacre 350 Sioux men, women, and children in South Dakota in the last major confrontation between the U.S. Army and the Plains Indians.
The Sherman Antitrust Act declares illegal “every contract, combination…or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce.” A vague and weak law, but a first effort at restraining the power of monopolies and trusts.
Yosemite National Park is established, the second national park after Yellowstone (1872).
Approximately 4 million immigrants enter the U.S.
Steelworkers striking at Andrew Carnegie’s Homestead, Pennsylvania steel mill clash with private Pinkerton guards, with casualties on both sides. The 5-month strike ends with the firing of union leaders and workers returning to their 12-hour shifts.
Creation of Peoples Party (the Populists), by the Farmers’ Alliance, the Knights of Labor, the National Colored Farmers’ Alliance, and others. The Omaha Platform articulates the goals of this protest movement.
African-American journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett writes passionately against lynching and founds anti-lynching societies and grassroots efforts to end racial discrimination in major cities.
Anti-Saloon League founded.
Stock market panic precipitates most severe economic depression of the 19th century, which lasts until 1896.
Coxey’s Army of unemployed workers from Ohio marches on Washington, DC, to protest the lack of work and call for public assistance.
National railroad strike inspired by workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company protesting 25% wage cuts, and led by Eugene V. Debs’ American Railway Union, is broken only by federal troops called out by President Grover Cleveland; seven strikers are killed.
Booker T. Washington, the educator and founder of Tuskegee Institute, is launched into national prominence as an African American leader with his speech at the Atlanta Exposition, in which he proposes that black civil rights and social equality are not as important as the economic advancement of African Americans in the South.
Coney Island opens.
In Plessy vs. Ferguson, the Supreme Court upholds segregation.
Creation of the National Consumers’ League.
8.8 million immigrants enter the U.S.
A 5-month-long strike by 145,000 anthracite coal miners causes the price of coal to skyrocket and forces the closing of schools around the country, prompting President Theodore Roosevelt to intercede. Workers gain pay raises, but the union fails to gain recognition from mine owners.
Muckraking journalist Lincoln Steffens’ magazine series “The Shame of the Cities”reveals widespread urban political corruption.
Journalist Ida Tarbell publishes her expose of the Standard Oil Company.
President Theodore Roosevelt creates the U.S. Forest Service.
Upton Sinclair publishes The Jungle, leading to the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded by liberal whites and African Americans to promote racial justice and civil rights. The director of publications is W. E. B. Du Bois, African American scholar.
Charles B. Davenport opens the Eugenics Record Office in Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., which serves as a national resource for local eugenics organizations.
Society of American Indians is founded by Dr. Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa, a former student at Dartmouth College) and others, the first Indian rights organization created by and for Indians.
The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) has 250,000 members, the largest women’s organization in U.S. history to date.
Triangle Shirtwaist fire.
Frederick W. Taylor publishes The Principles of Scientific Management, expounding the virtues of centralized factory planning, systematic analysis of jobs, detailed supervision of workers, and accompanying wage incentives.
5.7 million immigrants enter the U.S.
Democrat Woodrow Wilson elected president over Republican William Howard Taft, Progressive Theodore Roosevelt, and Socialist Eugene V. Debs.
U.S. Children’s Bureau established.
Passage of the Graduated Income Tax, the first income tax in U.S. history.
The Federal Reserve Act brings order and federal oversight to the nation’s banking system.
Federal Trade Commission created, further extending federal government regulation of the economy.
The Clayton Anti-Trust Act strengthens regulation of business and exempts labor unions from being considered illegal “in restraint of trade.”
State militia and striking coal miners seeking recognition for the United Mine Workers clash at a Colorado mine owned by John D. Rockefeller. Twenty-one persons die in the Ludlow Massacre, including women and children who are burned to death when soldiers set fire to tents; strike lasts a month before federal troops restore order.
Feminist Margaret Sanger publishes The Woman Rebel, a magazine about contraception, which coins the term “birth control.” To escape prosecution for distributing information about the use of contraceptive measures, she flees to England. The American Birth Control League is founded in 1921 and later becomes Planned Parenthood.
World War One breaks out in Europe.
Nearly half a million African Americans leave the rural South and settle in the North.
Establishment of the National Park Service.
U.S. enters World War One. The Espionage Act allows the federal government to suppress antiwar sentiment; the Sedition Act of 1918 outlaws dissenting speech.
Race riots in many U.S. cities. Twenty-six race riots occur in U.S., some involving soldiers returning from the war. Major riots in Chicago and Washington, DC leave scores dead.
Millions of workers strike. A year of major domestic unrest sees strikes ranging from Boston policemen to steelworkers and coal miners, over issues of shorter hours, higher wages, and union recognition. More than 4 million workers are off the job at some point because of strikes or lock-outs.
Ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, outlawing the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages, ushers in the era of Prohibition. Prohibition is repealed in 1933 by the Twenty-First Amendment.
In the Red Scare through early 1920, thousands of radicals are arrested and nearly 900 deported, all on scant evidence of “revolutionary activity.”
Ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment guarantees women the right to vote, the culmination of a national movement that began in 1848.
The census reveals rural-to-urban shift: For the first time, more than half of Americans live in towns and cities with a population greater than 2,500.
The Immigration Act sets first quotas, a maximum of 375,000 immigrants annually.
The Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act appropriates federal funds to promote women’s and prenatal health, one of the first pieces of national social welfare legislation.
Resurgence of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan, not just in the South but also in the North, in opposition to foreign immigration, Catholics, and Jews as well as racial equality.
Johnson-Reed Immigration Act sets annual quotas at 2% of each nationality’s foreign-born count in the 1890 census (except Canada and Mexico); maximum immigration cut to 164,000 in any given year.
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters is founded by A. Phillip Randolph, and becomes a key black union and spearhead of civil rights organizing.
Alain Locke, et al. publish The New Negro, announcing the Harlem Renaissance.
The Scopes Trial pits religious fundamentalism against modernity.
Henry F. Perkins, zoology professor at the University of Vermont, organizes the Eugenics Survey of Vermont, which results in the passage of a “voluntary” sterilization law in Vermont in 1931 (one of 33 states to do so).Emigration from Liverpool in 1859
The Government Medical Inspector's Office at Liverpool. The Illustrated London News, 6 July 1850. GGA Image ID #
The official returns of the emigration from Liverpool during the year just closed have now been completed at the government office; and although, on comparison with the year preceding, the numbers in the aggregate do not appear to vary very materially, the variation in the tide of emigration to the different countries has been most marked.
The total number of passengers, "under the act," who have taken their departure from the Mersey during the twelve months just elapsed have numbered (inclusive of cabin passengers) 68,035, against 70,486 in 1858, being a decrease of 2,441.
During the past year, to the United States, 168 ships, of 286,960 tons, sailed, with 1,561 cabin and 47,137 steerage passengers, "under the act," against, in 1858, 167 ships, of 256,556 tons, with 1,446 cabin and 43,180 steerage passengers, being a falling off of about 300.
In "short ships," not "under the act," or submitted to government inspection, 143 vessels sailed in 1859, with 5,203 cabin and 2,283 steerage passengers. These "short ships" include all travelers by the Cunard, Canadian, and African mail steamers, etc.
To Canada, the departures numbered only three vessels "under the act," of 2,859 tons, with 544 steerage passengers, against, in 1858, 7 ships of 8,027 tons, with 12 cabin and 1,934 steerage passengers. However, in 1859, "short ships" carried to the Canadian provinces 1,958 cabin and 2,118 steerage passengers.
To the Australian colonies, the greatest falling off has been exhibited, scarcely more than two-thirds the number of emigrants having left the Mersey during the past year. Fifty-two ships, of 72,189 tons, sailed to Victoria, with 508 cabin and 9,883 steerage passengers against, in 1858, 66 ships, of 90,888 tons, with 690 cabin and 15,662 steerage passengers.
To Melbourne, 18 "short ships" took their departure with 32 cabin and 333 steerage passengers.
To New South Wales 9 ships, of 10,154 tons, saled, with 4
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for a missing length on a right triangle!LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s 10 hottest years on record have all occurred since 2002, in a sign of the effects of climate change, a report by the UK Met Office published on Wednesday shows.
FILE PHOTO: A festival goer relaxes in the sun during Glastonbury Festival at Worthy farm in Somerset, Britain June 27, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File Photo
On Monday, the UK’s national weather service confirmed that Britain’s highest ever temperature of 38.7 Celsius (101.7 Fahrenheit) in Cambridge on July 25 during a heatwave which gripped Europe.
Climate scientists have said such heatwaves are becoming more frequent as a result of global warming from greenhouse gas emissions.
In a report published in the International Journal of Climatology, the Met Office extended its temperature records for Britain by 26 years back to 1884.
Analysing that data, it found that the warmest year on record in Britain was 2014; followed by 2006, 2011, 2007, 2017, 2003, 2018, 2004, 2002, and 2005.
“Looking back further into the UK’s weather reveals a very interesting timeline with the top ten warmest years at the most recent end, since 2002,” said Mark McCarthy, the head of the Met Office’s National Climate Information Center.
“Notably, 1892 is the coldest year in the series, when the average temperature was just over seven degrees. By contrast 2014, which was the warmest year in the series, saw an average temperature approaching 10 degrees Celsius,” he added.
The top 10 coldest years in order were 1892, 1888, 1885, 1963, 1919, 1886, 1917, 1909, 1887, and 1962.
The report also said that although last year was the most significant snowfall since 2010, snow events have generally declined since the 1960s.
Over the past decade, summers have been 13% wetter and winters have been 12% wetter than in the period 1961-1990.
The average sea level around Britain was also the highest on record in 2015 and 2018 since records from 1901.
Commenting on the Met Office report, scientists said it was a sign of the “new normal”.
“With global emissions of greenhouse gases on the rise, the UK will continue to get warmer and wetter as global warming accelerates. The science of climate change is now clear,” said Michael Byrne, lecturer in Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of St Andrews.
Worldwide, average temperatures have risen 1 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels since the mid-1800s.
Governments have agreed to limit temperature rises to within 2C this century but current emissions cut pledges are not enough and put the world on course for a 3-5C rise.
Reporting by Nina Chestney; editing by David EvansRules, QScript Macros and When To Use Them
A Rule is essentially a set of instructions about how to manipulate a particular output (see Rules for more detail). At its simplest, it may be something like automatically shading some cells. However, rules can be used to do much more complex things, such as estimating advanced statistical models.
Irrespective of precisely what a rule does, its endpoint is always the same: the specific outputs that that the rule has been applied to are altered in some way.
QScript is used to automate things. For example, it may be used to:
- Automatically create lots of tables.
- Automatically create new variables that represent top 2 box scores.
Sometimes QScript is even used to automate the application of a rule. For example, Regression - Driver (Importance) Analysis - Shapley uses a QScript to automatically create new questions and variables in the data and then uses a rule to appropriately analyse this data.
Note that while a QScript can use a rule, the reverse is not possible (i.e., a rule cannot run a QScript).
When and when not to use them
In general, rules should only be used when there is no other way to achieve the same outcome. For example, a rule should never be used to compute a top 2 box score, as there are lots of other ways to do the same thing in Q. And, these other ways are generally better in that a rule merely modifies the output, whereas the other methods are tightly integrated into everything in Q (e.g., if you compute a top 2 box score by dragging and dropping, but when you update your data file the labels have changed, Q will alert you to the problem; by contrast, if you use a rule that is simply adding the 4th and 5th columns of a table you may never notice that the analysis is broken).
In general, QScript should only be used when you are trying to automate something. Basic data manipulation, such as modifying a specific variable or updating data files, is generally more speedily and accurately performed using in-built tools in Q. This is even the case for power users,
Comparison to SPSS and Excel
The relationship between rules and QScripts is essentially the same as the relationship between conditional formatting and macros in Excel (i.e., where conditional formatting is a type of rule and Excel Macros perform the same role as QScript Macros).
When working in SPSS, just about all syntax corresponds to things that are done in QScript or via the menus in Q (i.e., although there are some equivalents to rules in SPSS, such as the highlighting of cells in tables when significant, they are used by very few users of SPSS and even rarer still are controlled via SPSS Syntax). Whereas an expert SPSS user will tend to make much use of syntax in SPSS, the same user will generally be more efficient if using no QScript (i.e., QScript is only for very advanced things, and it is a mistake to think that because you are a wiz in syntax in SPSS that you should use QScript for the same things).Report of General Monthly Meeting
Desmond Tutu and the Rainbow Nation
A talk given by Richard Costard on 14th February 2017
After an exasperating few moments trying to get the technology to work a ray of South African sunshine was shed on a cold grey Littleton Hall where Richard Costard gave an interesting and illustrated talk on how the Rainbow Nation came into being. Starting with the words of Martin Luther King we were reminded that it is not only South Africa that suffered from apartheid. It still exists in Palestine/Israel, America/Mexico and in many other countries.
The South African situation started with the Battle of Blood River which took place on 16th December 1838 when surviving white Dutch settlers made a covenant with God that they would take the Zulu land and convert the population to Christianity. The Dutch Reform Church told them that “all black skinned people were cursed” because they came from the seed of Caanan. So started the division of the black and white races in South Africa.
In 1910 the first Prime Minister was Louis Botha. He decreed that “there was no place for blacks”, even Jan Smuts who was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman who was Cambridge educated and was very deprecating about the blacks. The Dutch Reform Church in 1948 decided that “because of God’s curse on Ham’s son Caanan” all his tribe would be slaves, so apartheid was God’s will, therefore the races must be kept apart and mixed marriage banned.
When David Malan became Prime Minister he introduced the Pass Laws which caused much grief as all blacks had to carry their Pass Books at all times. He also divided the country into designated areas, the worst for the blacks and the best for whites. But the white population realized they could not do without the labour. A picture of a divided bathing beach was shown. We also saw pictures of the Sharpeville massacre which took place because of the pass laws. 69 people were killed.
Desmond Tutu was born in 1931. He wanted to be a Doctor but his family couldn’t afford the training, so he followed his Father’s footsteps and became a teacher. He resigned in protest due to the poor educational opportunities for blacks. However he continued his studies in Theology and was ordained a priest in 1961 following his mentor Trevor Huddleston. When he first met Huddleston he was amazed to see that Huddleston doffed his hat to Tutu’s Mother, which unheard of in a white man. Huddleston gave Tutu the book “Cry the Beloved Country” which made a huge impression on him. When asked why he took up the ministry he said that “God just grabbed me by the scruff of the neck” “religion is not just for Sundays.”
Tutu came to study in London at Kings College where he received his BA and Masters Degree in Theology. While working in London he loved to stop a Policeman and ask the time of day. He would never have dared to do so in South Africa. He returned to Africa and went to work in Lesotho where he had to ride a pony – he got very sore.
During the 1970s he became more involved in Soweto and appealed to the Government to revoke the Pass Laws. After the riots against the compulsory use of Africaans in schools he supported the economic boycott of South Africa.
Tutu tried to prevent the brutal practice of necklacing mostly conducted by black on black and criticized some of the anti apartheid groups. He told them he would leave South Africa if it went on. He was briefly jailed and had his passport removed, but his international reputation saved him from the worst.
In 1983 Tutu helped to fight for constitutional changes. In 1990 he was by his friend Mandela’s side when was released from Prison. He coined the phrase Rainbow Nation after the first South African democratic election in 1994. “ We must all be brothers and sisters on a rainbow bridge”. He also set up the truth and reconciliation committee.
Tutu is now retired having been awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1984. He was also made Emeritus Arch Bishop of Cape Town. When asked what was the best thing about retiring which he did in 2011 he said” Leah his wife was the best decision of his life and now he had time to give her hot chocolate in bed every morning.The Physical Education Program at Wells Middle School strives to have a positive impact on all. This will be done through:
- The continued improvement of motor skills as developmentally appropriate for the early adolescent;
- The ongoing assessment of individual fitness levels;
- The realization that personal and social responsibility are vital components of human relations.
We believe that all students have the ability to accept physical activity as an important part of life. Fitness, self-awareness, weight control and stress management are understood as benefits of physical activity. Students will be encouraged to demonstrate leadership, respect and problem solving through participation in organized games and activities. Middle School Physical Education must be appropriate for the distinct developmental level of early adolescence.
Detailed information about the Physical Education program can be found in the Curriculum Guide (page 11 & 12).The theme for Catholic Schools Week this year is Catholic Schools: Learning with Pope Francis to Care for Our Common Home. It is hoped that this theme will help schools to gain an understanding of the Pope’s encyclical letter Laudato Si’. Parish communities are also invited to contribute through reflection, prayer and continued practical support. Catholic schools can play an essential role in shaping the future of our planet by working together to care for our common home. Our world is a gift from God and we are called to act as both stewards and protectors during our time here. It is our responsibility to care for our world and make it a better place for the next generation. Through the encyclical letter Laudato Si’, Pope Francis reminds us of the necessity and importance of caring for our common home.Synchronous Data Link Control (SDLC) is generally discipline for serial-by-bit information transmission over channel of data communication. Whether switched or non-switched, physical communication channel is always considered to be constant once it is been established or developed. Communication channel over this transition channel is basically assumed to be not permanent. On this communication channel, there are basically three different types of transmission state that can be present or exist.
SDLC might exist in one of these transmission states as given below :
Let us understand in detail :
- Transient State –
This state usually arises when station is preparing itself to transfer and not yet reached steady state. This state also follows the poll of secondary station and come before the actual transfer of control data or information. This state also exists before and after initial transmission and also after each line turnaround.
- Idle State –
The circuit is basically considered to be in Idle state by secondary station just after 15 or more consecutive logic 1s that must have been received. There is also no transmission of control information or data during this state. A link connection configuration that is being used is required to determine and identify the particular link station action in this state as given below :
Link Connection Primary Link Station Secondary Link Station Half-duplex point-to-point Carrier off Carrier off Duplex point-to-point AIl 1’s AIl 1’s Half-duplex multipoint Carrier off Carrier off Duplex multipoint AIl 1’s Carrier off
- Active State –
It is a non-idle, non-transient state. In this state, there is possibility of transmission of control information and data. This state basically presents whether primary or one of the secondary stations is transferring information or control signals. In the following figure, it is clear that there is no exchange of information or data, but the line is held in this state.
Attention reader! Don’t stop learning now. Get hold of all the important CS Theory concepts for SDE interviews with the CS Theory Course at a student-friendly price and become industry ready.
- Transmission Modes in Computer Networks (Simplex, Half-Duplex and Full-Duplex)
- Types of Transmission Media
- Difference between Serial and Parallel Transmission
- Difference between Simplex, Half duplex and Full Duplex Transmission Modes
- Difference between Synchronous and Asynchronous Transmission
- Difference between Terrestrial Microwave and Satellite Microwave Transmission System
- What is MTU(Maximum Transmission Unit)?
- Types of Transmission Technology
- Synchronous Data Link Control (SDLC) Loop Operation
- SDLC Types and Topologies
- Derivative Protocols used in SDLC
- Basic Frame Structure of SDLC
- Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol States
- PPP Automaton States
- Packet flow in different Network
- Working Of Different layers in Computer Network
- How world-wide-web (www) is different from the Internet?
- Different Ways to Prepare an IT Network for IoT
- Different versions of Bluetooth
- Different types of CAPTCHAs
If you like GeeksforGeeks and would like to contribute, you can also write an article using contribute.geeksforgeeks.org or mail your article to email@example.com. See your article appearing on the GeeksforGeeks main page and help other Geeks.
Please Improve this article if you find anything incorrect by clicking on the "Improve Article" button below.Computer expertise combines the hardware of computer systems and computer-managed units with software—operating methods, authoring instruments, knowledgeable systems, and courseware—to assist coaching expertise. Technical School Packages – Receive school credit toward this program for finishing an accredited Orange Technical College or Osceola Technical Faculty program. Subplans embody Pc Assist and Information Know-how. The Pre-Professional Science concentration is designed to provide the information and abilities in biology, chemistry, arithmetic, and physics that type the muse vital for completion of a baccalaureate degree program in Life Sciences.
Students who select to enroll in a doctoral program in computers and know-how can expect their courses to be grounded in analysis. The data and laptop know-how program supplies a variety of experiences in, and other than, the expertise areas that put together you to work in the subject.
This area takes the dry codes of laptop programming and turns them into stunning and engaging visible masterpieces. Combines principle with subject experience for students to gain enhancement of laptop abilities via a pc-related job experience. While some schools provide their pc info expertise online applications completely online, others supply hybrid choices, which allow students to mix on-line studying with conventional classroom experiences.
A pc community architect career usually contains working with the group’s Chief Technology Officer to decide the best wants for a future network. Creating specific diagnostic, repair, installation, community and programming expertise. School college students may need the chance to make use of information gained from the diploma programme in an precise world setting.
Designed to offer college students with technical talents in the areas of network administration and help, this system covers numerous community media varieties, topologies, protocols and requirements. This program focuses on the design of technological info systems, including computing techniques, as solutions to enterprise and communications support needs.The Illuminationist solution was further developed and elaborated by Mulla Sadra. According to Sohravardi, Tusi, and Mulla Sadra, God’s knowledge should not be conceived as forms inscribed in the divine essence, as it appears to be for Farabi and Ibn Sina. Sohravardi and Tusi sometimes write of God’s knowledge of things as if it is identical with the things themselves. When Ghazali issued his Takfir (declaring one an apostate) of Ibn Sina and his followers in his book The Incoherence of the Philosophers, the three main issues for which he condemned philosophy for its incompatibility with religious belief were: (1) the doctrine of the eternal past of the material world; (2) the doctrine of the limitations of divine knowledge; and (3) the denial of the corporeal resurrection. Here, I would like to focus on the second of these issues.
According to the Muslim philosophers (by “the philosophers” Ghazali meant Farabi, Ibn Sina, and their followers, and this usage was continued in later texts in the Islamic world), knowledge can be divided into two kinds: (a) ‘ilm al-huduri or knowledge by presence, and (b) ‘ilm al-husuli or knowledge that is acquired, by which is meant representational knowledge, that is, knowledge acquired of things in the external world through their representation by concepts. Knowledge by presence was understood to be the direct acquaintance that a knowing subject has of its own essence and states. In order to know anything about the objects outside the self, concepts are needed. In perception, for example, if one touches a piece of brocade and feels the roughness of the cloth, the feeling of the cloth makes an impression on the mind. This impression is a concept; and the concept represents the cloth. In conceptual representation, the form of the cloth or some aspect thereof, in this case its roughness, is transferred from the cloth to the mind. The material of the cloth does not enter into the mind, which is immaterial, but the intellectual form of the brocade’s roughness is both in the mind and in the cloth. It is through such intellectual forms that the knower and the known are united.
When “the philosophers” came to consider divine knowledge, they supposed that God has knowledge of His own essence and attributes through knowledge by presence. As for God’s knowledge of His creatures, that would have to be by representational or conceptual knowledge, ‘ilm al-husuli. The crucial passage in this regard is in Book Eight, Chapter Six of the Metaphysics of Ibn Sina’s The Healing (Al-Shifa’). (Curiously, Ibn Sina’s major work on philosophy is called The Healing, while his major work on medicine is called The Law.) Ibn Sina writes: “He [God] would thus apprehend particular things inasmuch as they are universal – I mean, inasmuch as they have attributes.”
This did not satisfy Ghazali, who argued that if God’s knowledge extends to things outside Himself, the philosophers’ doctrine of divine simplicity would be compromised, and if, like Ibn Sina, it was claimed that God’s knowledge of things is due to their universal attributes within Him, then divine knowledge would not reach to the particular things themselves. Ghazali ends his discussion with the triumphant claim that from the dilemma he has posed for the philosophers, “there is no escape.”
An escape, however, was found by Shaikh Ishraq, Shihab al-Din Yahya Sohravardi, known as al-maqtul, the one who was killed. Sohravardi accepts many of the criticisms of Ibn Sina’s view of God’s knowledge issued by Ghazali. His solution to the problem is the claim that God’s knowledge is not representational. God does not know particular things because of the presence of abstract forms in the divine mind, or because of such forms in the intellects that proceed from Him by emanation. God’s knowledge of all things, Sohravardi claimed, is knowledge by presence. God is called “the Light of lights” (Nur al-anwar), and just as light illumines itself, God knows His own essence. His knowledge of particular things consists in their being illuminated by the divine light. There is no barrier or veil between God and things so that He should need some intellectual form to convey their knowledge to Him.
The solution formulated by Sohravardi to the problem of divine knowledge of particulars shares several important features with the solution of Khwajah Nasir al-Din Tusi. Indeed, Sohravardi and Tusi appear to be in agreement on so many important points that Mulla Sadra thought Tusi took his solution from Sohravardi, although Tusi retained the idea that God’s knowledge of things is through the mediation of the intellects.
The Illuminationist solution was further developed and elaborated by Mulla Sadra. According to Sohravardi, Tusi, and Mulla Sadra, God’s knowledge should not be conceived as forms inscribed in the divine essence, as it appears to be for Farabi and Ibn Sina. Sohravardi and Tusi sometimes write of God’s knowledge of things as if it is identical with the things themselves. If that were so, Mulla Sadra argues, there would be change in God’s knowledge, since He has knowledge of changing things. In his Wisdom of the Throne, Mulla Sadra claims that God’s knowledge of particular material things consists in the immediate presence to God of their primordial essential realities, which are immaterial, to which the material particulars themselves are related like a shadow is related to its source. Here, Mulla Sadra takes a peripatetic view of the issue. In the Asfar, however, he offers a detailed account of the main solutions to the problem proposed by others, and he ultimately defends an idea like Sohravardi’s, that God knows particulars by presence.
According to Ibn Sina, knowledge consists of the presence of an immaterial thing for an immaterial thing; while for Sohravardi and Mulla Sadra (in the Asfar), knowledge is the presence of anything for an immaterial thing. The effect of the cause that grants it existence is present to its cause. All particular existents have been granted their existence by God, and so all particular existents are present to God in divine knowledge by presence. Indeed, according to Mulla Sadra’s final view, acquired knowledge is denied for God altogether, for the introduction of forms in a divine “mind” would violate the doctrine of divine simplicity. God’s knowledge of all things is through knowledge by presence.
Hajj Muhammad Legenhausen teaches at the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute in Qom, Iran. His blog can be accessed at http://peacethroughunderstanding.blogspot.com.The Early Literacy Center at MCPL Wausau is an enclosed area of the children's department specially designed for children 0-5 years old!
"Early literacy" is a term for what children know about language before learning how to read. This includes what letters look and sound like, recognizing rhyming words, knowing how a book works and recognizing that printed text has meaning. These concepts are learned by talking, singing, reading, writing and playing.
The library's Early Literacy Center has a direct focus on these skills. The center offers special book collections, rotating themes, a cozy reading nook and specialized activities to help parents teach their children -- including a magnetic wall, flannel boards, puzzles and more.
The Early Literacy Center was made possible by the following generous donors: the Marathon County Public Library Foundation, the Wausau Early Birds Rotary Club, and the Community Foundation of Northcentral Wisconsin.Recently the Center for Disease Control (CDC), American College of Physicians (ACP) and the United States Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommended routine HIV testing for all adults and teenagers. This is a major change from the previous testing recommendations which encouraged routine testing for at-risk individuals only. However, there are many barriers to implementation of these new recommendations. The biggest barrier, which spans all aspects of the testing procedure, is lack of awareness. In general, we need greater HIV advocacy in order to increase awareness and information about this epidemic.
Stigmas about HIV/AIDS
HIV was first discovered in the 1980s amid rising fears about this mysterious and rapidly spreading disease. Because the earliest cases were documented in gay men, the disease was first termed Gay Related Immune Deficiency or “GRID”. The term AIDS was coined in 1982, and implemented in 1984. HIV/AIDS is also associated with drug addiction, promiscuity and prostitution; all of which are sensitive and emotional topics for many people. This complicates how society perceives HIV/AIDS positive individuals. During the early 80s and 90s, HIV positive individuals were discriminated against and shunned from society, friends, and even from their own families. Today, we know so much more about HIV, including how it is caused, how it is spread, and how to manage it. It is clear that one does not have to fall into a high risk group to contract HIV. However, the fear and stigma surrounding the disease still handicaps many people from educating themselves, and getting tested. This constitutes a major barrier to the fight against HIV/AIDS propagation in the United States.
The only way to reduce the fears and stigmas associated with HIV/AIDS is to encourage open conversations about the disease to enlighten people and eliminate any biases. It will be important to break down the fear-based stigmas about HIV/AIDS and to encourage AIDS education. We also need to encourage the protection of human rights for HIV positive individuals. Unfortunately, public opinion is not an easy thing to change, but small victories are helping to make progress.
Lack of education
Many people, both clinicians and the general public alike, believe HIV is not an immediate concern. This is due to the fact that most of the general public believes they are at low or no risk. Also, most clinicians are not HIV specialists. Therefore, the majority of people do not keep up to date about the latest information regarding HIV and AIDS. This unfortunately means that most people do not even know about the new recommendations for HIV testing. This, of course, presents a huge barrier for implementing these regulations. In order for HIV testing to be effective as a preventative measure, everyone needs to be aware of the recommendations, and how to apply these recommendations to themselves.
This widespread lack of awareness of general HIV knowledge and the new testing recommendations can only be remedied by increased advocacy. There are many HIV advocacy groups such as Medwiser, which seek to educate the public about HIV and how to protect themselves. With reduced stigmas about HIV and with increased media attention on the HIV epidemic, people will begin to educate themselves. It is also important to have teachers, doctors, and peers as role models for AIDS education so that waves of understanding are created instead of clouds of fear and judgment. AIDS education will be most useful when introduced at a young age, during health and sex education classes.
There should also be specialized education programs geared towards health care providers. Clinicians are authoritative figures for patients seeking information about HIV/AIDS. They are the people who should be upholding the testing recommendations. Clinicians need to be educated on the new recommendations, the importance of HIV testing, and the rules and regulations for implementing testing. They should also be aware of the newest HIV treatments and strategies to reduce HIV transmission. Each state has its own laws about HIV testing and should therefore take the initiative to educate the clinicians in their area about these laws. The laws need to be clearly explained, and this information should be dispersed to all health care centers in the state. Many states have completely adopted the recommendations of the CDC, which helps to clear some confusion. However, not enough health care providers are aware of the new testing recommendations, procedures, and regulations. More effort is required to help spread the word.
Many health care providers have cost concerns which also poses a barrier to HIV testing. Many fear that the testing procedures will not be covered by insurance companies and think that the burden of increased HIV diagnoses will be too much for our health care systems. However, since the USPSTF has also recommended routine testing with a grade “A” rating, it is likely that insurance companies will alter their policies to cover HIV testing. Additionally, starting in 2014, under the Affordable Care Act, insurers will not be able to alter policy coverage due to a pre-existing condition. These adjustments help alleviate concerns about the cost of routine HIV testing.
In addition, cost analyses have shown that the cost of routine testing and earlier diagnosis is much more cost effective than at-risk testing and late diagnosis. Remember that the 20-25% of people who do not know they are HIV-positive account for 49% of all HIV transmissions. Early detection could reduce both of these numbers, thereby reducing the amount of people requiring treatment for HIV/AIDS.
Improving infrastructure for testing
It is important that infrastructure be improved in order to help alleviate gaps in education and financing This will help reduce stigma and improve linkage to care. Systems such as HATS, the HIV/AIDS test screening software, were developed to assist patients and providers in implementing testing on a larger scale. Similarly, technology can be used to help overcome barriers in education addressing both the need for testing while helping to reduce the stigma associated with the disease.Acne is a multifactorial, complex hormonal and inflammatory condition. It requires treatment which focuses on internal and external factors.
4 secrets to managing acne internally
1. Toxins Fuel Acne
Many acne patients have genetic polymorphisms (SNP’s) that prevent efficient liver detoxification and stop the liver from removing toxins from the body as efficiently as other people. Toxins that can accumulate in the body include metabolic end products, microorganisms, contaminants, pollutants, pesticides, food preservatives, drugs and alcohol. It's possible to help the body detox more efficiently by:
a) Avoiding toxins in our food, water, environment, beauty and personal care.
b) Supporting our liver by drinking warm water with the lemon first thing every morning. Lemon stimulates bile production, and bile releases toxins from our body and stimulates our bowels.
c) Support movement of lymph by exercising daily – a 30 minute walk per day will suffice!
2. Stress makes Acne Worse
Stress triggers 3 hormone pathways that can cause acne. Learning to manage stress and increasing stress resilience, physically and mentally, is crucial for getting rid of acne for good. Some ideas for building stress resilience include:
a) Exercising and sleeping sufficiently
b) Changing our perceptions and reactions to stress
c) Being grateful – research has shown that 21 days of writing 3 things that you're grateful for daily, transitions the nervous system from fight and flight to rest and digest. The body can only heal when we're in our rest and digest mode.
d) Meditation – my favourite is The Morning Meditation by Joe Dispenza
e) Nourish the adrenals by drinking Holy Basil Tea daily - yum yum!
3. Unhealthy gut = unhealthy skin
Over 100 trillion microbes live in our gut and on our skin, and play vital roles in our health and skin integrity. Research has shown that around 90% of all diseases can be traced back to the gut and microbiome. If you're experiencing bloating, indigestion, constipation, diarrhoea, stomach aches, and appetite fluctuations - it's a sign there is inflammation in your gut and a disparity between your beneficial bacteria and your pathogenic bacteria. What causes this disparity? Sugar; stress; toxins; alcohol; pathogens; food sensitivities, drugs; antibiotics and radiation.
How do we start healing the gut?
a) Avoid Sugar
b) Eat Whole foods
c) Kill Pathogens – must do appropriate testing with a qualified practitioner.
d) Heal the gut lining properly with a qualified practitioner.
4. Insulin dis-regulation causes acne
Acne used to be called by doctors “Diabetes of the Skin” because high insulin levels in the blood increase our androgens (male hormones) which increase acne on our face and body. Insulin is a hormone that acts like a key that opens the channel in our cell that allows glucose to enter. When we're insulin resistant, glucose cannot enter the cell and the pancreas sends out more and more insulin. The higher the insulin the higher the androgens increase – the more acne we endure.
How do we balance insulin?
a) Eliminate refined sugar from the diet
b) Eat some sort of protein food first thing in the morning after your lemon water. For example a boiled egg.
4 secrets to managing acne externally
Be mindful that acne is an inflamed, barrier disordered skin. Avoid further skin exposure to procedures that cause inflammation to create a temporary result. Forced exfoliation and products high in acids weaken the skin by lowering nutrient levels, reducing hydration and increasing the propensity for pigmentation and sun damage.
1. Use clean products with transparent info about formulations backed by clinically proven science.
2. Use active topical ingredients that target and activate repair in the skin. FYI - My favourite for acne are: niacinamide, zinc, chlorella and laminaria digitata.
3. Moisturise – when the skin lacks moisture – the enzymes (the messengers) in the skin do not work effectively, which prevents the healing process and increases our skin problems.
4. See a naturopathic skin therapist (our Emily!) for a proper skin analysis and skin prescription.The UK CPI measure of inflation rose from 2.7% to 2.8%. The old rate RPI, which includes the cost of council tax and mortgage interest payments rose to 4.6%. Many feel this RPI measure is a more accurate reflection of individual living costs. On this basis real interest rates are quite low. – only 5.25% – 4.6% = 0.65%. Therefore it is quite possible that interest rates could rise significantly to reduce consumer spending. Those with mortgages could see a significant increase in their cost of living.
However although many people’s cost of living is rising by 4.6% or greater, wages are rising comparatively slowly as they are based on the more conservative CPI measure of inflation. Thus rising interest rates would squeeze household’s disposable income further.
Recently the governor of the Bank of England admitted they had helped to cause a consumer boom in the UK. He said low interest rates had been necessary to stave off a global slowdown. However it had the unfortunate side effect of boosting consumer spending and causing a house price boom.
This suggests the limitations of Monetary policy in dealing with various objectives at the same time.ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning hunters that deer carrying tuberculosis can transmit the disease to humans.
According to the CDC, the report stems from a 2017 Michigan case where a 77-year-old regular hunter who had no exposure to people or countries with tuberculosis was diagnosed with the disease.
The report states the man, who had been a hunter for 20 years, was exposed to Mycobacterium bovis – a bacteria found in deer, cattle, bison and elk – which can spread to humans and cause tuberculosis.
Doctors believe the bacteria was inhaled during the removal of diseased portions of the deer when field-dressing deer carcasses.
The CDC said those in Michigan who submit deer heads that test positive for the bacteria could be at a higher risk for infection.
They also advise screening for tuberculosis.
Hunters are advised to wear protective gear while field dressing.
- Scattered showers continue Thursday evening
- Rockford homeless shelter founder retires
- Discarded mail contained no Wisconsin ballots, officials say
- Amazon reveals over 19,000 workers got COVID-19
- Circuit Court Judge rules in favor of the IHSAYou are what you eat, right? Yes, it’s true that if you eat a diet high in bad fats and high in cholesterol (like that burger you at last weekend, oops!) then you are at a higher risk of being overweight. But when it comes to other parts of your health— like your vision— how much of an impact does your diet have? Let’s take a closer look.
In an article published by The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition last summer, it said that a diet high in starchy and sugary foods could increase your chances of getting macular degeneration— an eye disease that can cause vision loss or impairment. In the study, it said that the frequent spike in blood sugar is what had the most influence on the development of macular degeneration. The same study also indicated that people who ate a healthy diet that was s rich in antioxidants were less likely to get macular degeneration.
Your eyes are exposed to a variety of different environmental factors each day which can contribute to a variety of different eye diseases and problems. Studies show that people who eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables— especially leafy greens— that contain nutrients like zeaxanthin have more protection against oxidative changes to the retina. If you aren’t already eating enough leafy greens, try adding a spinach salad to your dinner plate every night or try making a green smoothie for breakfast each morning.
As previously mentioned, antioxidants are good at protecting your eyes against macular degeneration, but did you know that they are also good at healing your eyes as well? Plus, antioxidants may be in some of your favorite foods like dark chocolate, berries, and even some nuts!
To learn more about how you can take better care of your vision or to schedule an appointment, contact our Papale Eye Center office at 413.782-0030.What is OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software?
OCR software is used to recognize printed or written text characters. OCR software has been around for several decades and focuses primarily on converting text on a scanned page to machine-readable information.
Many OCR software vendors have expanded their core recognition capability to provide conversion of scanned documents into editable Word documents or conversion to searchable PDFs. OCR is different from data extraction, which involves locating specific data on a page.
OCR Software vs Data Extraction
OCR software is used to convert images of documents into text while advanced capture solutions are designed to reliably classify documents, and locate, extract and verify data.
Before and After OCR Software
Let’s look at an image of a document before OCR software is used to convert it
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of the Runbook Designer Design workspace with the name New Runbook. Right-click the New Runbook tab to select Rename.
What is runbook used for?
Runbooks are a set of standardized written procedures for completing repetitive information technology (IT) processes within a company. They are part of IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) protocols, which incorporate information from IT processes, such as knowledge management and problem management.
What is the difference between runbook and sop?
While you can use the broader term SOP as meaning higher-order guidance, playbooks and runbooks lay out the response to particular incidents or specify how to perform any routine duty, such as deploying a new container instance on the cloud or running an infrastructure backup.
What is the difference between a runbook and a playbook?
Enterprises uses two terms — playbook and runbook — to refer to documents that define key processes. In general, business professionals use the term playbook, while IT staff use runbook. Each term denotes subtle differences, although the underlying adherence to process remains identical.
Is runbook one word?
standardize. new constructions. FWIW, I would go with two words: “run book.”
What is operational runbook?
Operations runbooks, often simply called runbooks, are a set of standardized documents, references, and procedures used to describe common IT tasks. Runbooks are created for the purpose of walking someone through the steps necessary for accomplishing a specific task or troubleshooting a particular issue.
What is SAP runbook?
Runbook is the integrated and guaranteed SAP solution that carries out all operational controls within your objectives for risk management. It has a highly safe control mechanism and records all risk-related decisions at every operational level.
What is correct RBA?
Explanation. RBA, which stands for “run book automation,” is a technology for automating IT operations management. By defining operations-management processes in a workflow and coordinating various operations-management tools, RBA automates the execution of the operations-management processes.
What is the role of RBA?
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is Australia’s central bank and derives its functions and powers from the Reserve Bank Act 1959. Its duty is to contribute to the stability of the currency, full employment, and the economic prosperity and welfare of the Australian people.
Who controls RBA?
The Bank is a body corporate wholly owned by the Commonwealth of Australia. For more information see about the RBA.
Who does RBA regulate?
3. The RBA’s role is focused on the objectives of monetary policy, overall financial system stability and regulation of the payments system. It has no obligation to protect the interests of bank depositors and will not supervise any individual financial institutions.
Who sets the interest rate?
In the U.S., interest rates are determined by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which consists of seven governors of the Federal Reserve Board and five Federal Reserve Bank presidents.
What are the 4 factors that influence interest rates?
Demand for and supply of money, government borrowing, inflation, Central Bank’s monetary policy objectives affect the interest rates.
What is interest amount formula?
The interest rate for a given amount on simple interest can be calculated by the following formula, Interest Rate = (Simple Interest × 100)/(Principal × Time) The interest rate for a given amount on compound interest can be calculated by the following formula, Compound Interest Rate = P (1+i) t – P.
What leads to increase in interest rates?
Interest rate levels are a factor of the supply and demand of credit: an increase in the demand for money or credit will raise interest rates, while a decrease in the demand for credit will decrease them.
What are the 3 main factors that affect interest rates?
Three factors that determine what your interest rate will be
- Credit score. Your credit score is a three-digit number that generally carries the most weight when it comes to determining your individual creditworthiness. …
- Loan-to-value ratio. …
What are the 5 factors that influence interest rates?
Top 12 Factors that Determine Interest Rate
- Credit Score. The higher your credit score, the lower the rate.
- Credit History. …
- Employment Type and Income. …
- Loan Size. …
- Loan-to-Value (LTV) …
- Loan Type. …
- Length of Term. …
- Payment Frequency.Published on 13th November, 2021, in Economic Times.
Most Indians are familiar with Raja Ram Mohan Roy and his Brahmo Samaj and link it with the 19th Century Hindu reformation. But very few know about Sahajanand Swami or the reforms instituted by his Swaminarayan sampradaya, even though both men lived in the same period of history. This may be because Sahajanand Swami was a wandering ascetic who used the traditional model of the temple for reform, while Roy was an English-speaking philosopher-aristocrat, who was influenced by European Enlightenment ideals.
Brahmo movement connected with the educated elite of Bengal, while Sahajanand Swami connection was with landowning Patel communities in rural Gujarat, who were politically powerful but economically and educationally backward. Brahmo Samaj had maximum impact in the early stages of the Indian National Movement, influencing Indians who preferred abstract philosophy to Hindu idolatry. But today, few remember the Brahmo Samaj, and how it was opposed by forces who coined the word Hindutva in the late 19th Century. But a lot of people are familiar with the many grand Hindu temples built by the Swaminarayan community around the world. These temples serve as Hindu cultural centres for the diaspora. Unlike traditional temples, they engage with communities actively, deploying donations and volunteers for social service. Not surprisingly, the Swaminarayan community is an integral part of the Hindutva project. Even the Ram Janmabhoomi temple built in Ayodhya shows the influence of the distinct Swaminarayan temple architecture. All things thanks to the lineage of hereditary and non-hereditary teachers, monks and administrators established by Sahajanand Swami, still guided by his writings in Sanskrit and discourses in Gujarati.
Sahajanand Swami saw religion as a tool for social reform. He challenged the traditional rituals involving blood-sacrifice and offering of alcohol to village goddesses. He distanced himself from the traditional sensuality of bhakti tradition and preferred the more ascetic form of devotion, which is why celibate monks continue to hold privileged positions in the religious order he established. He valued women’s education and was against female infanticide and dowry. He tried to reform even caste Hinduism, within the construct of Hinduism, promoting vegetarians and doctrines of purity.
Philosophically, the Swaminarayan community is linked to the Vedanta via the Bhagavata Purana, hence is essentially Vaishnav. It has a distinct theology (darshan) based on the connection of the divine (Parabrahma/Purushottama/Narayana) and the divine-on-earth (Aksharbrahma/Nara) and its manifestation in the form of a guru. The other Vaishnav community in Gujarat is that of the Vallabhacharya Pushtimarga sampradaya centred around the Nathdwara temple of Shrinathji near Udaipur, Rajasthan. But while the latter enshrines the deity in domeless temples known as havelis, Swami Narayana temples, with their massive domes (shikhara), enshrine the image of the guru, who is seen as a form of God, alongside images of various avatars of Vishnu, such as Nar-Narayana, Krishna and Ram. In havelis, the goddess is represented only symbolically. In Swaminarayan temples one finds images of Radha, Sita, and Lakshmi, but they are often interpreted as a visual representation of the devotee, a reminder of the community’s ascetic tilt.
Traditionally, Gujarat’s agricultural, pastoral, tribal and warrior communities followed Tantrik rituals based on Shiva-Shakti worship. Mercantile communities preferred the ancient Jain and the medieval Pushtimarga bhakti paths. In the 19th century, as Mughal and Maratha rule waned and landowning communities faced the brunt of brutal taxation under the newly rising British Raj, people were forced to migrate to cities to work in the new industries being set up in Surat and Ahmedabad. Some even considered migrating overseas. But this was dangerous as traditionally, those who crossed the sea were excommunicated and risked loss of caste. Both Raja Ram Mohan Roy, and Mahatma Gandhi, suffered on this account. Desperate for livelihood, however, many from Gujarat took indentured labour opportunities in East Africa in the 19th Century. When forced to leave African nations by dictators such as Idi Amin in the 1970s, many migrated to Europe and America. There they thrived establishing retail and motel chains. But they refused to give up their culture – the language, the food, the faith, and the ritual practices.
The Swaminarayan monastic order has reached out to these diaspora communities over the past fifty years, providing for their religious and cultural needs. The majestic temples in Africa, Europe, America and Australia, visited by world leaders, are an indicator of the community’s prosperity and power. They have helped these communities from Gujarat very visibly anchor their faith in foreign lands with pride. And in doing so, Swaminarayan temples have become visual anchors of Hinduism globally and are now silently shaping the destiny of contemporary Indian politics.DualSMS - SMS Gateway for the Whole World.
An SMS gateway allows a computer to send or receive Short Message Service (SMS) transmissions to or from a telecommunications network. Most messages are eventually routed into the mobile phone networks.. The SMS Gateway translates the message sent, and makes it compatible for delivery over the network to be able to reach the recipient.
In the old days, SMS Gateways were physical pieces of hardware with SIM cards and radios in them. Each was individually connected to mobile phone networks to send text messages.
Nowadays, most SMS Gateways route SMS text messages to the telco networks via an SMPP interface that networks expose, either directly or via an aggregator that sells messages to multiple networks.
SMPP stands for Short Message Peer-to-Peer and is a protocol for exchanging SMS messages between Short Message Service Centers (SMSCs) and/or External Short Messaging Entities (ESMEs).
Computers can interact with SMS Gateways in multiple ways:
* Through a REST API, where software developers send and receive SMS text messages over HTTP to the REST API.
*Using a Web Page or Software, where customers upload their messages and list of phone numbers
We accept cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin and EthereumWhy is Freshman
Composition the one course required by almost every discipline at every
university? Why is writing so important? Is texting writing? What about when we
update our Facebook pages? Our work in this course will involve engaging
questions exactly like these. We will explore the role writing plays not only
in academic studies but also in our lives outside of school—the ways writing
shapes how we perceive and construct the world. We will examine rhetorical
strategies (audience, context, use of language, etc.) as they are used in the
multitude of texts that we are exposed to every day, focusing particularly on
issues that are relevant to you at this very particular time and in this place.
In class, we will discuss current events on a regular basis, and our texts will
include selected short stories, electronic texts, advertisements, as well as
academic essays (all of which will be available online or as handouts).
You will write
three short (3-4 page) papers, and the semester will culminate with a formal
research project for which you will produce a research paper (6-8 pages) and a
Powerpoint presentation. Each final paper will be the result of revisions, a
required component of all formal papers.
You will also keep a journal and freewrite frequently throughout the
completion of this course will result in an understanding of the rhetorical
situation surrounding various writing tasks: how to use writing to clarify and
articulate your thoughts in ways that are appropriate in specific situations
and for particular audiences. You will also become accustomed to, if not
comfortable with, the writing process—and work towards identifying a specific
process of writing that works for you.
- Hacker, Diana. A
Pocket Style Manual,5th
ed. New York, Bedford: 2009, ISBN-13: 978-0312593247
(can be bought from UHM’sAs a leading educator, Frontier Nursing University strongly advocates for nurse practitioners and the important role they play in improving access to healthcare. According to the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), there are currently 234,000 nurse practitioners in the United States and that number is projected to grow to 244,000 by 2025. Several studies show that patient satisfaction and health outcomes under nurse practitioner care can be better in specific instances than care provided by physicians, particularly in rural areas.
This is important as we face a health care professional shortage. The Health Resources and Service Administration predicts a shortage of 23,640 primary care physicians by 2025. While the number of nurse practitioners will increase by 2025, the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that the number of nurse practitioners in rural areas is decreasing while the number of people living in rural areas remains steady at about 19 percent of the U.S. population.
Educate Nurse Practitioners in Their Communities
Nurse practitioners in primary care do not replace physicians, but studies have shown that nurse practitioners can manage 80 to 90 percent of care provided by primary care physicians (Rohrer, et. al. 2013). Therefore, it is important that nurse practitioners – particularly in rural and underserved areas – be educated in their home communities if they wish.
Nurse practitioners are more likely to stay and practice in their home community if they are educated there, and their patients are more likely to seek their care because they know and trust them. Frontier Nursing University is working to increase not only the number of nurse practitioners, but also diversity among those who provide care in rural and underserved areas through our distance education model.
Nurse Practitioners Should Advocate on Important Issues
It is also important that nurse practitioners get involved with their state advance practice groups and advocacy efforts. Only 24 states have full scope practice for nurse practitioners (AANP, 2017). This is legislation we can work together to change. Our elected representatives need to hear our voices and understand that we need to practice at the highest extent of our education and licenses. There are fewer nurse practitioners in states with restricted practice, and health outcomes are worse in those states.
Additionally, nurse practitioners should be reimbursed for their work. Medicare reimbursement remains at 85 percent of physicians’ fee schedules. Medicaid, the top payer in many areas, varies by state, and some states do not recognize nurse practitioners as primary care providers (National Governors Association, 2012).
Nurse Practitioners Improve Quality and Efficiency of Care
When nurse practitioners have their own panel of patients, the result is a more efficient practice and better continuity of care. While some providers may not allow nurse practitioners to have their own panels, we encourage nurse practitioners to ask.
We also recommend that health care providers and management teams provide nurse practitioners with the necessary resources and support to deliver care using their advanced practice skills. This includes a commitment to diversity in the health care organization. A racially and ethnically diverse workforce that represents the patient population leads to better health outcomes, better patient satisfaction and better use of services.
Diversity, teamwork and a shared vision of care creates a supportive work environment and that has a positive effect on healthcare outcomes. Patients come back, they get well, and by increasing access to care, nurse practitioners make a significant difference in their communities.
- American Association of Nurse Practitioner (2017) NP Fact Sheet https://www.aanp.org/all-about-nps/np-fact-sheet
- US Census Bureau (2015) Statistical abstract of the United States. Washington, DC; Author
- Institute of Medicine, 2010
- US Department of Health and Human Services (2016) National and Regional Projections of Supply and Demand for Primary Care Practitioners: 2013-2025. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 2002
- National Governors Association (2012) The Role of the Nurse Practitioners in Meeting Increasing Demand for Primary Care. Retrieved https://www.nga.org/cms/home/nga-center-for-best-practices/center-publications/page-health-publications/col2-content/main-content-list/the-role-of-nurse-practitioners.html
- Hansen-Turton Poghosyan,l. & Carthon, J. (2017) The untapped Potential of Nurse Practitioner Workforce in Reducing Health Disparities. Policy, Politics & Nursing Practice 2017, Vol. 18 (2) 84-94
- Rohrer, J. E., K. B. Angstman, G. M. Garrison, J. L. Pecina, J. A. Maxson. (2013) Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants Are Complements to Family Medicine Physicians. Population Health Management 16(4):242-45Alternatives for Google Reader, as of March 16, 2013
Adobe on Wednesday announced and simultaneously executed its decision to shut down its BrowserLab service, used by many for testing content across multiple desktop platforms. The company pointed its customers to two alternatives: BrowserStack and Sauce Labs.
BrowserLab offered cross-browser testing by producing screenshots of websites from various browsers across Windows and OS X platforms. It was very useful for developers looking to support as many different users as possible.
In a nutshell, Curiosity drilled into a rock to examine it chemically, and found evidence of clay minerals, which form in water. We’ve seen this before on Mars, but another important aspect of this is that it looks like the water that formed these minerals was neutral, not too strongly acidic or basic. Other places on Mars have chemistry that would be hostile to life as we know it, containing molecules like perchlorates that are very reactive with organic molecules; that it; destroying them. Curiosity also found the presence of sulfur, phosphorus, and carbon, all necessary ingredients to make life as we know it.
To be clear, Curiosity did not find evidence of life! It has been looking for organic compounds but has not yet found them.
Sickness being attributed to wind turbines is more likely to have been caused by people getting alarmed at the health warnings circulated by activists, an Australian study has found.
Complaints of illness were far more prevalent in communities targeted by anti-windfarm groups, said the report’s author, Simon Chapman, professor of public health at Sydney University. His report concludes that illnesses being blamed on windfarms are more than likely caused by the psychological effect of suggestions that the turbines make people ill, rather than by the turbines themselves.Table of Contents
In general, whenever it seems we are discussing or reading about diamond cuts and styles in their historical context, the subject usually covers pretty much the same few coveted antique styles, like for example the antique Old Mine Cut, a cut most associated with the antique cushion brilliants styles of yesteryears.
If we dare dig a bit deeper, we will get the usual historical progression starting with ancient point and table cuts (~12th Century), a style which remained a favorite while continuously evolving through the centuries until the development of the antique brilliant cuts (Old Mine Cuts 17-19th Centuries), moving into the rounded Old European Cuts (19-20th Centuries) and finally to present day modern round brilliants (e.g. triple-X – triple-0 Ideal and H&A).
Between the beginnings and the development of the standard brilliant style we have centuries of very slow advancements in faceting styles, ability/techniques and knowledge before cutters started understanding the role of lights within diamond lapidary works.
One of the more unrecognized factors but a crucial advancement was the initial occurrence when cutters realized they are able to split a main facet (usually a four sided polygon) by polishing two neighboring triangular facets on the junctions separating each main facet. The antique diamonds featured in this article are such surviving specimens.
The quiet precursor to the 58 facet standard brilliant style
Double cuts, Old English Stars and sometimes referred to as Mazarin’s (fig 1) started to appear around the first decades of the 17th Century.
Such are considered the next stage in the natural evolution of the old single cut (8 crown & pavilion facets). At that time in history, diamond optical capabilities were still unknown so light dispersion and reflections were not cutters objectives.
Figure 1 – Old English Star vs. Old English Square
The initial splitting of the 8 single cut facets occurred primarily on the crown sections of the diamonds (*sometimes later cutters added facets to the pavilion section). By further polishing the junctions separating each of the 8 (single cut) facets from table to girdle created for the first time a new octagonal shaped table…, and so the triangular star facet was born. (See fig 2 )
I am envisioning such faceting occurred after cutters were able to notice a plurality of surface reflections as the crown section was interacting with lights. More sparkle, more attention – and so more facets were required.
* Not to be confused with the Old English Square which I will elaborate more in a continued article.
Figure 2 – How star facets were born – 17th Century
When a Crown was a Crown
It was surprising to learn that historical diamond cutters initially considered the top part of the diamond as its crowning glory, evidence shows that the first attempts to further subdivide main facets was conducted to the crown part of the diamond. Ironically in those days, the crown section was identified as “bezel”. The usage of the word crown came at a much later stage.
The Old English Star diamonds pictured in this article all possess eight singular main facets on their pavilions (fig 3 & fig 3a). Could it have occurred that cutters saw something we modern age cutters didn’t have a chance to?
I sometimes really wonder.
Today I am at peace with myself that the number of facets are much less important if and when the diamond is cut proportionally to embrace its interaction with lights. The general or more common belief that more facets equals higher brilliance and fire is simply an erred assumption.
Figure 3 – Crown & pavilion views – pavilions posses single facets from girdle to culet
Figure 3A – Pavilion views from another direction
A Star Facet is Born
For some reason, the double cut went mostly unnoticed through the majority of diamond cut history but especially during the last two decades when antique cuts grew and still are growing in popularity and demand.
Documented from as early as 1620’s, adding triangular facets to the old single cut crown faceting created a visual impact fueling a necessity to further explore and discover the optical wonders diamond material displays when it meets with any source of light.. which were quite limited throughout history. The star facet was born. (See fig 4)
Figure 4 – A Star facet is born (encircled blue)
All this occurred well before the discovery that the pavilion section of the diamond is primarily responsible for its optical capabilities. This will allow us to move into our next antique style we will be covering which is also considered part of the double cut family…, most probably a natural evolution from the Old English Star to the slightly more advanced Old English Square (see fig 1).
To be continued…In April of 1863, Sam Houston filed his last will and testament. The hero of San Jacinto would be dead within four months. The American Civil War, a conflict Sam had worked hard to prevent, had raged for two years with no end in sight.
Two years earlier, Texas Governor and staunch Unionist, Sam Houston had defiantly refused to pledge loyalty to the newly-created Confederate States of America, and was removed from office. Exiled and out of the spotlight (and out of favor with many of his former friends) the man who had served the United States, the Republic of Texas, and the Lone Star state, now had time to ponder the inevitable and plan accordingly.
Sam’s last Will and Testament is more than a legal instrument, the disposition of assets and the like. The document also reflects his values and beliefs. There’s no need for me to summarize nor explain its contents (it gives too much away!), except to say that Sam was a man of his time and his words reflect that era.
This hand-written copy of Houston’s Last Will and Testament found its way into the Texas General Land Office Archives ten years after his death, as evidence for a previous land claim. Now it’s ours to read, learn, and reflect on a remarkable life.
As always, your comments are warmly welcomed.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.Wireless charging provides a convenient, safe, and dependable way to charge and power millions of electrical devices at home, or at work. By removing physical connectors and cables, wireless charging provides many effectual, cost and safety advantages over the traditional charging cable.
Wireless charging uses electromagnetic fields to safely transfer power from a transmitting source to a receiving device for the purposes of charging a battery. And of course, there is no physical connection. Wireless transmission is useful to power electrical devices where interconnecting wires are inconvenient, hazardous, or are not possible.
How does wireless charging work? To start, voltage is converted into high frequency alternating current (AC). The alternating current is sent to the transmitter coil by the transmitter circuit. The alternating current then induces a time varying magnetic field in the transmitter coil. Alternating current flowing within the transmitter coil induces a magnetic field which extends to the receiver coil. The magnetic field generates current within the receiver coil of the device.
The process whereby energy is transmitted between the transmitter and receiver coil is also referred to as magnetic or resonant coupling and is achieved by both coils resonating at the same frequency. The current flowing within the receiver coil is converted into direct current (DC) by the receiver circuit, which can then be used to charge the battery.
WattUp is an incredible wireless charging technology that is capable of transmitting power to mobile devices using the same radio bands as WiFi routers, without the use of cables or even charging mats.
The technology was developed by California-based Energous, and is set to be incorporated into a range of household appliances from China-based Haier.
Energous and Haier are working together to install WattUp technology in household appliances. These appliances can then be used to wirelessly charge people’s mobile devices as they move around their home. Devices equipped with the WattUp wireless charging technology can transmit 4 Watts of power over a radius of 15 feet.
A Far Field transmitter can be implanted into the bezel of a TV, sound bar or can be mounted on the wall or ceiling. This design enables maximum coverage and allows meshed-network coverage where multiple transmitters are linked together to cover larger spaces.
Haier has already introduced a combination of a cordless blender, cordless rice cooker and an inductive power source for integration into kitchen furniture. These products, which are labeled “wuwei” (without a tail), have been well received by the Chinese market.
A power transmitter (induction coil) is built into a kitchen counter top and the blender is placed on the coil.
New specifications will define the interface between kitchen appliances and inductive power sources which will spur a whole new class of cordless appliances. Rather than using a conventional wall power outlet, these appliances need an inductive power source to be powered.
In the new specifications, almost any kitchen appliance can be made cordless. Power requirements may vary from the 100W range for simple juicers to 1.5 – 2.4 kW1 for heating appliances.
Inductive power sources can stand alone or integrated in kitchen counter tops to power cordless appliances. Traditional inductive cookware will generally not work with these power sources. These power sources can also be integrated into kitchen or dining tables, thus enabling completely new tasks that were not previously feasible, such as keeping food or drinks warm, toasting bread, or making coffee. Controls will be on the appliance not the induction cooktop. This specification will prevent unsafe situations.
For women, the Everpurse Mini is doing it all as a full wallet and a phone charger. As it stands, many people have one pocket dedicated to their phones and another to their wallets. Now, Everpurse will help free up some room by being an all-in-one solution.
There are phone cases that can hold various cards like a wallet, but there are no wallets, cases or phone chargers on the market that look and work as good as this one. The case needs to be charged before leaving the house. After that, the phone can be slotted in and charged continuously. The Everpurse mini can charge a phone up to three times, so there’s never a worry of running out of power.
Most of us keep their mobile phone constantly at hand. Therefore, furniture that charges our devices for us means no more leaving our phones next to an outlet, where we might miss an important call or text. With a piece like the Ikea RIGGAD wireless charging work lamp sitting right on the desk, busy smartphone owners can just set their device on the indicated spot to recharge.
For the men, Bosch has tools that utilize wireless charging without cables or contacts. In future, such chargers will be installed in workbenches and vehicles without any cables being visible. These tools will enable maximum productivity, as the power tool is always ready to use and the charging is integrated into the work process. The system will resist water, dust and dirt.
The Bosch system will charge your tools while driving, meaning you can work uninterrupted for longer because your cordless tool is continually charged by being placed on the charging station. Bosch’s new batteries can be charged by placing the tool on the charger. Do this whenever you put the tool down and the battery will undergo charging whenever the tool is not being used.
Imagine your smartphone charging without you having to actively think about it. It is always charged—without any further actions. Thanks to the new andi product line, which is made in Germany, you can enjoy a new kind of freedom. You can easily use andi anywhere in your home or at the office or even at the hotel, when you travel. andi is the perfect upgrade for your mobile life, holding your smartphone securely and allowing you to keep it in view anytime.
How long have we wished that all those appliance wires could be eliminated rather than intermingled as we bake or cook? Well, our wishes have come true. No matter what the device, industry, or application, we see the physical wire connection required for powering or charging devices disappear. Wireless charging for electronics delivers a number of benefits over traditional cable connectors—some of which aren’t immediately obvious but will become so in the near future.
Len Calderone – Contributing Editor
Len contributes to this publication on a regular basis. Past articles can be found with an Article Search and his profile on our Associates Page
He also writes short stores that always have a surprise ending. These can be found at https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Megalen.The menstrual cycle is the regular natural change that occurs in the female reproductive system (specifically the uterus and ovaries) that makes pregnancy possible. The cycle is required for the production of ova, and for the preparation of the womb for pregnancy.
The average menstrual cycle lasts 28 days, but it can range from 21 to 40 days. The first day of bleeding is counted as day one. Bleeding usually lasts three to five days. In a 28-day cycle, ovulation typically occurs on day 14. The lining of the uterus thickens in preparation for a fertilized egg. If no fertilized egg arrives, the uterine lining breaks down and sheds through the vagina.
This shedding is called menstruation. A woman is most fertile during ovulation. This is the time when pregnancy can occur. Women can become pregnant if sperm are present in their vagina at the right time (before, during, or after ovulation). The egg and sperm must join within 12 to 24 hours for conception to occur.
What hormones are involved in the menstrual cycle?
Hormones are involved in the menstrual cycle. The main hormone involved in the menstrual cycle is estrogen. Estrogen levels rise and fall during the menstrual cycle. Estrogen levels are highest during ovulation. Progesterone is another hormone that is involved in the menstrual cycle. Progesterone levels rise after ovulation and help to prepare the lining of the uterus for pregnancy.
The menstrual cycle is a woman’s natural way of getting pregnant. Every month, the ovaries release an egg that travels down the fallopian tube to the uterus. If the egg is not fertilized by a sperm, it dissolves and is shed with the lining of the uterus during menstruation.
If fertilization does occur, implantation of the embryo in the lining of the uterus takes place and pregnancy begins.
The menstrual cycle is controlled by hormones. The two main hormones are estrogen and progesterone.
The menstrual cycle starts on the first day of a woman’s period and ends when the next period begins. There are several phases in each cycle, including the ovulation phase. Ovulation is the release of an egg from one of the ovaries.
The phases of the menstrual cycle
The menstrual cycle is divided into four phases: the follicular phase, ovulation, the luteal phase, and menstruation. During the follicular phase, which begins on the first day of your period, the lining of your uterus starts to thicken in preparation for a fertilized egg. Your body also starts to produce more estrogen. This increase in estrogen stimulates the growth of follicles in your ovaries. Each of these follicles contains an egg.
One or two weeks after your period starts, you reach ovulation. This is when one of the eggs in your ovaries is released and begins its journey down the fallopian tubes toward the uterus. Along the way, it may be fertilized by sperm. If this happens, pregnancy can occur. The luteal phase begins immediately after ovulation and lasts about two weeks.
The menstrual cycle is a natural process that happens in the female body. The average length of the cycle is 28 days, but it can range from 21 to 35 days. The cycle begins on the first day of a woman’s period and ends on the first day of her next period.
Ovulation is when a mature egg is released from the ovary. The egg then travels down the fallopian tube where it can be fertilized by sperm. If the egg is not fertilized, it will dissolve and be absorbed into the lining of the uterus.
How does ovulation work?
The luteal phase menstrual cycle is a natural process that occurs in the female reproductive system. The cycle is controlled by hormones and typically lasts for 28 days, from the first day of menstruation to the first day of the next period. Ovulation usually occurs around day 14 of the cycle, when an egg is released from one of the ovaries. The egg then travels down the fallopian tube, where it may be fertilized by sperm. If fertilization does not occur, the egg is shed during menstruation.
The menstrual cycle is a vital process for the female body. It is a natural and essential part of a woman’s reproductive health. The menstrual cycle occurs when the ovaries release an egg, which travels down the fallopian tube to the uterus. If the egg is not fertilized, it breaks down and sheds through the vaginal opening. The shedding of the uterine lining is called menstruation.
The menstrual cycle is controlled by hormones that are produced by the ovaries and the pituitary gland. The length of the menstrual cycle varies from woman to woman, but it typically lasts between 21 and 35 days. The first day of bleeding is considered day one of the cycle. Bleeding usually lasts for three to five days, but it can vary from woman to woman. Some women experience cramping during menstruation, while others do not.Purpose: Different approaches have been proposed to diagnose femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) condition and hip instability. It is still debatable which test is the most effective to make a correct diagnosis. The true mechanics of the hip during particular physical examination manoeuvres is unknown. Methods: Eight fresh frozen hips were passively taken through 3 different commonly used positions for FAI diagnosis and hip instability: 90° Flexion-Adduction-Internal Rotation, Hyperextension-Adduction-External Rotation and Hyperextension-Neutral-External Rotation. Kinematics and anatomical data were acquired by an optoelectronic system. The contact areas between acetabulum and femoral head were analysed to determine whether these tests are able to localize regions of the hip that may give patients pain. Results: In the hip positions where the femur was in Hyperextension-External Rotation, the contact area was mainly concentrated in the posterosuperior area of the acetabulum, while during 90° Flexion-Adduction-Internal Rotation position, there was a wider distribution of contact, not specific to the anterolateral acetabulum. Conclusions: The results confirm the ability of the Hyperextension-External Rotation tests to particularly analyse the posterior region of the acetabulum. Placing the hip in 90° of Flexion-Adduction-Internal Rotation allows for testing a wider zone of the acetabulum and is not specific to abutment of the femoral head-neck region against the anterolateral acetabulum.
- Contact areas
- Physical examination
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Orthopedics and Sports MedicineThe Republic of Texas existed from March 2, 1836 until February 19, 1846 and during most of that time it boasted its own navy with a history as colorful as its government. As Texas settlers, unhappy with the Mexican government, prepared to go to war for independence from Mexico, officials of the interim government realized ships would be needed to keep Mexico from blockading the Texas coast and to keep supplies coming from New Orleans to support the army. Historians estimate that three-fourths of the troops, supplies, and money needed for the rebellion came via shipboard from the port at New Orleans.
The provisional government in November 1835 passed a bill providing for the purchase of four schooners and they issued letters of marque to privateers authorizing them to defend the Texas coast until the navy ships could be put into service. On January 5, 1836, the Texas Navy became a reality with the purchase of a former privateer rechristened the Liberty. The Invincible, a schooner built originally for the slave trade, was commissioned a few days later and the Independence, a former United States revenue cutter, which had been used to enforce customs regulations and catch smugglers, became the third purchase. Finally, the Brutus completed the Texas naval fleet. Immediately, the little band of ships sailing the Gulf of Mexico kept General Santa Anna’s army from receiving supplies, forcing it to forage for food as it marched across Texas. The ships also captured Mexican fishing vessels, sending their supplies to the volunteer Texas army.
After Texas won independence from Mexico in the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21st, the Liberty escorted the ship carrying the
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Morton, William B. A. E. W. A. G. "Mourt's Relation." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 17 Nov 2020. Web. 04 Dec 2020.Haptic feedback is the use of touch to communicate with users. Most people are familiar with the vibration in a mobile phone or the rumble in a game controller – but haptic feedback is much more than that.
Human beings have five senses, but electronic devices communicate with us using predominantly just two: sight and hearing.
Haptic feedback (often shortened to just haptics) changes this by simulating the sense of touch. Not only can you touch a computer or other device, but the computer can touch you back.
Haptic feedback is a mode of communication rather than a specific technology or application. It’s nothing less than an entirely new way for machines and humans to communicate.
Haptic feedback (sometimes described as ‘force feedback’) first entered game controllers in the late 1990s and is ubiquitous today.
What is haptic feedback on my Android phone?
Simply put, haptic feedback (commonly referred to as haptics) is the use of touch feedback to the end user. You know how your Android phone vibrates a tiny bit when you tap one of the navigation buttons? That’s haptics at work.
Do you use haptic feedback?
Haptic feedback is the use of touch to communicate with users. Most people are familiar with the vibration in a mobile phone or the rumble in a game controller – but haptic feedback is much more than that. … Haptic feedback is a mode of communication rather than a specific technology or application.
What is the difference between haptic and tactile?
Tactile Feedback is a type of Haptic Feedback. Haptic feedback is generally divided into two different classes: Tacticle and Kinesthetic. The difference between the two is quite complex, but at a high level: Kinesthetic: The things you feel from sensors in your muscles, joints, tendons.
What is haptic feedback on iPhone?
When you feel things like taps, vibration, and even pressing and releasing sensations when you tap an app icon or app feature/setting from your iPhone, that’s haptics! The Taptic Engine, a tiny motorized actuator inside your iPhone, powers haptic feedback.
ULTIMATELY, HAPTIC FEEDBACK IS A TOOL FOR PRODUCT DESIGNERS.
I could give many more examples (education and training, industrial, medical, smart home…). The real point, though, is that haptic feedback is best understood as a new tool in the hands of product designers, whatever sector they are in and whatever they are trying to communicate.
Haptic feedback in VR increases users’ sense of presence and agency.
Haptic feedback is a tool that both enhances audio-visual communication and opens up the possibility of creating new products and markets. It’s a tool we are only just starting to understand the capabilities of, with a language we are still writing the dictionary for.
Hope This Helps!
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Information Brought To You By Biovolt Corporation.With Apple iPad Pro 11 featuring LiDAR Scanner, 3D sensing has gotten richer, more granular. Time of Flight (ToF) comes with indirect ToF and direct ToF...
Apple has sparked a race to use LiDAR scanners. Apple built one into its iPad Pro 11, and now it seems everyone wants one in their products.
Apple’s maneuver and the popular response to it have had repercussions throughout the electronics industry. IC and sensor suppliers are reevaluating their product roadmaps; a few have already altered their business models.
But what exactly is a “LiDAR scanner”? Apple adopted the term to describe a new sensor that measures depth — in other words, it’s a sensor that detects objects in three dimensions.
“LiDAR” in tablets and smartphones is, in general, “just a sub-category from 3D sensing,” explained Pierre Cambou, principal analyst in the photonics and display division at Yole Développement.
Many system designers — whether developing self-driving cars, smartphones or tablets — have been exploring ways to add “depth” information to pixels and colors captured by 2-D image sensors. LiDARs are being adopted by the automotive industry to detect and map distances of objects around highly automated vehicles, for example.
Apple’s newly introduced iPad Pro 11 is using a LiDAR scanner to offer more professional-looking augmented reality. It is designed for Apple’s ARkit3.5 development kit.
What makes this LiDAR scanner significant — and why other mobile device vendors, including Huawei and Vivo, appear going after it — is a specific technology used inside the unit to sense and measure depth.
Different options for 3D sensing
There are several technology options available for system designers to do 3D sensing. They include stereo vision, structured light, and time of flight (ToF). To make things even more complicated, ToF now comes in two flavors: indirect time of flight (iToF) and direct time of flight (dToF). iToF measures the phase shift, while dToF measures the direct time of flight.
Apple’s iPhone X offers Face ID by using structured light. Its depth estimation works by having an IR emitter send out 30,000 dots arranged in a regular pattern. Theses dots are invisible to people, but not to the IR camera, so that the camera reads the deformities in the pattern as it is reflected off surfaces at various depths.
With the rollout of the iPad Pro 11, 3D sensing has gotten richer and more granular with the adoption of a direct time-of-flight sensor. To date, Apple’s iPad Pro is the only consumer product leveraging dToF. Many smartphone vendors have been already using iToF for taking better pictures (ToF can blur backgrounds in photos), but not dToF.
The structured light method provides high depth accuracy, but its downside is its complex post-processing necessary to calculate the depth from the pattern matching.
In contrast, the advantage of the dTOF method is its ability to offer simple post processing. Its challenge, though, has been believed to be that it requires photodetectors with high sensitivity (such as single-photon avalanche diodes) and a large form factor in order to measure the time-of-flight with a small number of incident photons in a single measurement.
Thus far, among the 3D imaging methods, the iTOF method has been most common. It provides high depth accuracy, simple post processing, and high spatial resolution using small photodetectors that are widely used in 2D image sensors.
Nonetheless, for 3D sensing, Apple chose the less traveled road. The company opted for structured light for face ID. It is now using dToF for AR.
So, here are the questions everyone in the 3D sensing world is asking: What is dToF? What are its building blocks? And who made them?
A teardown by System Plus Consulting, a division of Yole Développement, showed details inside Apple iPad Pro 11’s 3D sensing module.
In EE Times’ interview, Sylvain Hallereau, senior technology and cost analyst at System Plus, explained that iPad Pro 11’s “LiDAR scanner” consists of an emitter — a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) from Lumentum, and a receptor — near infrared (NIR) CMOS image sensor that does direct measurement of time of flight, developed by Sony.
SPAD array NIR CMOS image sensor from Sony
This teardown’s cross-section of Sony’s CMOS image sensor was revealing to experts who follow the development of photonics. That includes Yole’s Cambou, who in a recent blog wrote that what “looked somewhat similar to an old indirect Time-of-Flight (iToF) design with 10 micron pixels” turned out to be “the first ever consumer CMOS Image Sensor (CIS) product with in-pixel connection — and, yes, it is a single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) array.”
The “in-pixel connection” is an important qualifier. Sony integrated the NIR CMOS image sensor with SPAD using 3D stacking for ToF sensors for the first time. In-pixel connection made it possible to put the CMOS image sensor together with the logic wafer. With the logic die integrated, the image sensor can do simple calculations of distance between the iPad and objects, Hallereau explained.
Sony has elbowed its way into the dToF segment by developing this new generation SPAD array NIR CMOS image sensor featuring 10 µm size pixels and a resolution of 30 kilopixel.
However, this isn’t just a Sony technological feat. It’s also about Sony’s business transformation.
The Japanese CMOS image sensor (CIS) behemoth traditionally did more imaging than sensing. But as Cambou tells it, “A year ago, Sony renamed its semiconductor division ‘Imaging & Sensing.’ Then it made two separate moves. The first was the supply of iToF sensors to Huawei and Samsung, generating in the order of $300 million in 2019. The second was this design win of dToF sensors for Apple iPads.”
Cambou suspects that dToF sensors could eventually end up in iPhones. In his analysis, “Sony’s sensing revenues will probably exceed $1 billion in 2020 out of a business just surpassing the $10 billion landmark. This successful transition from imaging to sensing has been instrumental to Sony’s continuous strength in the CIS market. It will be a building block for the prosperous future of the division.”
VCSEL from Lumentum
In addition to the CIS from Sony, the LiDAR is equipped with a VCSEL from Lumentum. The laser is designed with multiple electrodes connected separately to the emitter array.
Taha Ayari, technology & cost analyst at System Plus, focused his attention on a new processing step, called mesa contact, added by Lumentum in its VCSEL. A VCSEL emits light from the wafer surface. Fine-tuning emission requires power management and the application of different controls to emitter arrays. Ayari believes Lumentum has added this processing step to enhance wafer probe testing.
To generate the pulse and drive the VCSEL power and beam shape, the emitter uses a driver IC from Texas Instruments. The IC uses wafer-level chip-scale packaging (WLCSP), five-sides molded.
Finally, a new diffractive optical element (DOE) from Himax perches atop the VCSEL to generate the dot pattern, according to System Plus.
In the following pages, we share several slides created by System Plus, which illustrate what the teardown disclosed, while adding a few slides that put the LiDAR market in perspectives.By: Katie Lopez
Children need to explore and to discover. This is how you innovate; you fail your way to your answer. “Scientists fail all the time; we just brand it differently. We call it ‘data’, said Ainissa Ramirez.
Students at every age should be encouraged to think deeply so that they have the chance to become the innovators, educators, and leaders who can solve the most pressing challenges facing our future. STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math) inspires students to think more broadly and to solve problems with a hands-on approach. By introducing students to STEAM at a young age, it cultivates progress from project-based learning through collaborative exploration, to problem-based learning which focuses on real-world problems, and ultimately to place-based learning where students learn by doing.
I (and my school) have developed some practices and partnerships that have been helpful for facilitating this growth through STEAM across age groups (including young learners), and they’ve taken some creative shapes.
Designing a Powerful STEAM Program
At the Village School, we believe our role as educators is to inspire students to actively discover and persevere. We work to build a curriculum that is forward-thinking and not resting on conventional tradition from the past. With STEAM integrated into everyday learning, students will be able to enter a variety of different fields with confidence and experience in nontraditional thinking. This starts as early as preschool—for example, like in typical preschool craft projects, where students are actively applying crucial innovation and engineering tactics all while introducing them to processes like questioning and intuitive creativity. This approach helps create a new type of educational culture where kids from the earliest ages are encouraged to take risks and try out their ideas.
STEAM is at its fullest teaching potential when departments collaborate and approach a lesson from multiple perspectives to develop the “bigger picture,” like connecting individual puzzle pieces. Project-based learning plays a major role in the visual art classroom. Projects are a great way to involve students with hands-on learning and connect identity, style, and creativity within any topic.
One lesson, in particular, that I enjoy teaching is the study of an artist named Alexis Arnold. Arnold uses science to crystallize library books (and other ready-made materials), permanently immortalizing classic literature. Another collaboration I’ve developed is with the chemistry teacher to teach proper safety procedures with the chemicals, and the study of the chemical change through super saturated solutions. I also join with the English Department to align with their literature unit on the Holocaust (the study of the Nazis and how books were burned to erase history). In this way, students explore how art, science, and literature can all interconnect with one another to form a bigger, broader understanding of how what they learn separately in all of their classes come together to form the whole student learning experience.
Furthermore, in visual art, critique is a very important tool, which can also be a great way to develop communication and collaboration skills. Students must first observe a work of art and know how to recognize important context clues and technical mistakes and come to a conclusion after analyzing. Students at any grade level have the ability to ask questions of each other, about the artwork they “read”, the features they observe, and the conclusions they draw from their artwork or art history research, and in doing so they can learn how to accept criticism from peers, collaborate with others, and more importantly to give credit to others when credit is due. They also learn to negotiate and explain their own needs, to discern what others need and view things from others’ perspectives, reaching mutually beneficial resolutions.
Ways to Enhance STEAM Programs
Our school has developed several programs for encouraging cross-curricular STEAM learning. A few of those include our open house for STEAM Day, our collaboration with MIT, and our Creative Tech Club.
Every year on National STEAM Day, Village hosts an open house for the community to come participate in activities and see our Pre-K2 through high school-level student’s STEAM-inspired projects. This year our kindergartners created the “Vehicles of the Future” and our elementary students created 3D story maps and then coded a bot to travel through their stories. The goal of this interactive day is to invite the community to partake in our hands-on program and showcase our student’s diligence and innovative ideas at all ages.
Additionally, we enhance our STEAM program in ways that grant our globally-minded students the opportunities to collaborate not only in the community, but throughout the world. Our program offers a unique collaboration with The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) which includes a series of in-school challenges that focus on the juncture between the five STEAM disciplines, including bioengineering, robotics, and computer coding. This provides our students with opportunities to learn directly from researchers at one of the world’s leading STEAM institutions.
Students also have the opportunity to further collaborate with MIT in the Creative Tech Club. In this club, students turn everyday objects into touch pads and combine them with Internet technologies to create art and solve engineering challenges. The club encourages students to think of themselves as makers and agents of change, and reaffirms the “Maker’s Mindset,” that everyone is creative, inventive, and imaginative.
Given the importance of creativity and innovation for the future, it’s important to ensure that the arts provide students opportunities to use their knowledge and skills in ways that are practical and applicable to the real world, at all ages. Every child isn’t inclined to grow up to become a scientist, engineer, or designer, but it’s important every child grows up knowing how to think like one. With STEAM education, schools need to make sure students are ready for many of the challenges they will face, and to create an environment where “Every Student Succeeds” is not just an aspiration.
For more, see:
- How to Teach STEM Without Being an Engineer
- Odyssey STEM: First to Combine Big Picture Learning and altSchool
Katie Lopez is the Visual Art Coordinator at The Village School in Houston, TX, where STEAM has been the center of their curriculum since opening in 1966.
Stay in-the-know with innovations in learning by signing up for the weekly Smart Update.Want to find out what your public IP address is? At any given time you can easily check it using HostGator’s IP address tool, or one of a variety of other websites. Calling it a “public” IP address isn’t just talk—it really is easily accessible information.
On the one hand, it’s nice to know that it’s easy to learn your current IP address any time you need to know it. On the other, in an era with lots of online privacy issues, knowing your IP address is readily available to so many sources may be concerning. You may wonder who else can find this information, and what they can do with it.
If you’re worried about how IP address tracking works and what it means for you from a privacy perspective, we’ve collected all the most important details you need on the topic.
What is an IP Address?
To start, you need to know what an IP address is. IP stands for internet protocol, which is the set of processes that dictate how information is shared across the web. If you’ve ever wondered how one machine knows how to connect to another and what information to share with it, all internet-connected devices use the internet protocol for that. That, in a nutshell, is how IP addresses work.
Devices that use the internet are all programmed to follow the internet protocol so they know how to interact with each other and keep the internet functioning the way we need it to. For different machines and networks to effectively communicate with each other via the internet protocol, they need a way to identify one another. For that, each device has an IP address.
In most cases, IP addresses are a string of numbers separated by periods. If you used HostGator’s tool to learn what yours is, you probably saw an IP address that fits this description and looked something like: 188.8.131.52.
That’s your network’s address. Anytime you send an email or visit a website, that’s how the machines your network communicates with will see you. And that last part is what makes some people uncomfortable. What exactly do we mean when we say that other devices and networks can see you (or at least your IP)?
How Are IP Addresses Tracked?
Every time two devices connect to one another using the internet protocol, they have to acknowledge each other. In internet parlance, this is generally described as “shaking hands.” Your IP address needs to let the device at the other IP address know where to send the information that’s being requested. That hand shake is how IP addresses are tracked.
For example, when you’re trying to visit a website, your network sends out an information packet that includes your IP address and port number. Then the server that hosts the website you’re seeking accepts the packet, learns what network is asking for access, and knows where to send back its response in the form of all the files that make up the website.
That website and the server it’s on now know your IP address has visited. And your internet service provider (ISP) also has a record of that visit. In most cases, that’s where the tracking stops. A random person curious about your internet history won’t be able to find out what websites you’ve visited just based on knowing your IP address.
But ISPs keep a record of IP address activity, which means that, in rare cases, they can share that information with others. And while your IP address only provides limited information to the servers your network communicates with, it does give them some data about you.
3 Reasons to Track an IP Address
Why does anyone have to track your IP address to begin with? Why can’t you just browse the internet in peace with total privacy? For the most part, your IP address’s activity is your business alone, assuming no one’s looking over your shoulder or checking the browser history on your device.
But there are three main instances where that information will be used or accessed by a third party.
1. Legal Concerns
IP addresses are how we as a society identify people who commit illegal activities online in order to hold them accountable. This ranges from small offenses to large.
When someone downloads media or software illegally, the company that holds the copyright can find out and track the action to a particular IP address. They don’t know right away it’s you, but they can find out which ISP owns the address and send them a threat to pass along to you. Because your ISP has a record of which IP address was assigned to you at a given time and the activity tied to it, they’ll know who to blame for the offense.
IP addresses are also used in identifying the offenders behind spam and phishing emails. Email clients and email marketing software platforms keep a record of which email addresses look like spam based on the content of the email and subject line, as well as when recipients click on that “mark as spam” button. While they don’t have the power to find the individuals behind the email address, they can add the IP address it came from to a blacklist to keep the emails from that address from reaching people’s inboxes in the future.
While that’s a useful tactic to protect all of our inboxes from the thousands of spam emails that go out on a regular basis, it can have an unintended side effect. Because ISPs generally provide customers with dynamic IP addresses, meaning they change regularly over time, there’s always a risk that someone with a newly assigned IP address will be stuck with the consequences of the behavior of the guy who had it last week. It doesn’t happen often though, and it’s a problem easily fixed by changing your IP address.
And of course, there’s the occasional bigger criminal offense that triggers use of an IP address to identify someone. If a person sells or distributes something illegal online or talks about committing a crime on an online platform, law enforcement can demand their personal information from your ISP. Again, as with these other cases, a cop or lawyer won’t be able to tell just from your IP address who you are or where to find you. They’ll have to take the extra step of going through your ISP. But if someone’s suspected of a serious enough crime, ISPs are likely to cooperate and hand over that information.
It’s worth noting here that while tracking an IP address linked to illegal activity can eventually lead to someone learning the name and address of the person behind the computer, it’s not information your ISP will hand out lightly. Most internet service providers have strict privacy rules they abide by, so the average person asking for information is unlikely to be successful. But a law enforcement representative or copyright lawyer that comes equipped with evidence will be treated differently.
In some legal cases, an IP address can be tracked back to a specific individual. When it comes to marketing uses though, IP tracking is more anonymized than that. Marketing and analytics software includes the capability to track the location data of IP addresses and provide that data to website owners.
So when your IP address contacts a server to access a specific website, the website can track where the visitor is coming from. In real time, that information can be used to personalize the page you see. For example, when you visit the website of a national movie theater chain, often the page will automatically detect where you’re coming from and provide showtimes for the closest theater location.
In addition, that information will be saved and provided to the website owner through tools like Google Analytics. They won’t know your name and home address or anything like that, but they’ll be able to see that they got a website visitor from your city.
If you see ads for websites you’ve visited before following you around the web, that’s the result of cookies tracking your internet activity. While your IP address provides information about your location, it’s the cookies that provide websites and advertisers with more details about your specific online behaviors.
3. Scam Detection
Consumers aren’t the only ones who have to worry about online scammers. Many credit card companies and eCommerce businesses now use security software to help spot purchases that are likely fraudulent. If someone makes a large purchase, the software can flag it to be reviewed before it goes through. If the purchase is coming from a different location than where the credit card owner lives, they may check with the owner before processing it.
This is another case where IP address tracking won’t point anyone back to you as an individual, but can help companies learn valuable information about you based on location. The fact that IP addresses provide generalized location data (usually based on where your ISP is located) can help protect you, your credit card company, and the vendors you do business with from costly fraudulent purchases.
IP Address Information: What Can Someone Learn?
In most cases, the information someone can learn based on your IP address is limited. They can find out your city, your zip code (or one nearby), and the area code associated with the area. They can see what internet provider you use, and whether the IP address is on any blacklists.
In order to gain any more personal details than that, they would need to go through your ISP, which is only likely to provide your details if a lawyer or law enforcement agent provides them with evidence your IP address was linked to a crime. So most people don’t have to worry about their IP address leading any online strangers to your location.
How Can I Keep My IP Address from Being Tracked?
We’ve established that people generally won’t be able to find out personal details about you from your IP address beyond your general location. But if you’re uncomfortable with them even knowing that much about you, or if you don’t like the idea of your internet activity being traceable back to you, you have some options for shielding your IP address.
Invest in a VPN Service.
A virtual private network (VPN) is a paid service that will mask your IP address when browsing the web. It encrypts all your internet activity and shields sites from recognizing your geographic location. A VPN service comes in handy for anyone concerned about internet privacy, or those looking to get around geographic restrictions for accessing a website.
A VPN can ensure your personal data stays secure when you’re using public WiFi networks, such as at coffee shops or the airport. It can also keep your general geographic location hidden, if you’re worried about stalkers or just want that extra level of security when browsing on a search engine. And it can ensure you’re still able to watch your favorite show on Netflix, even when you’re traveling out of the country.
Use a free proxy server.
VPNs don’t come for free, so if you want some level of protection from IP website tracking, but don’t want to spend any money, another option is a proxy server. A proxy server obscures your IP address by using a middleman IP it shows up as instead. It’s not as secure as a VPN, since it doesn’t provide encryption for your data, but it does keep your IP address from being accessible to your average website user.
Set up Tor.
Tor is a free, open-source browser add-on that will bounce your internet connection off several different nodes each time you access a website to make your original IP address nearly impossible to trace. It’s not quite as secure as a VPN, as you’d expect from a free service, but it provides an extra level of encryption and anonymity.
IP Tracking (Usually) Won’t Hurt You
Privacy concerns in the internet era are absolutely real and valid. But IP tracking is fairly low on the list of things you should be worried about. The generalized geographic information people and websites can access via your IP address usually isn’t enough to do you any real harm. There are more important cybersecurity issues to keep an eye out for, such as whether the websites you visit use https—meaning they offer the proper encryption to keep your data safe— and knowing how to spot phishing emails.
Understanding how IP addresses work makes you a more informed internet user. But it’s one aspect of using the internet that shouldn’t keep you up at night.
Kristen Hicks is an Austin-based freelance content writer and lifelong learner with an ongoing curiosity to learn new things. She uses that curiosity, combined with her experience as a freelance business owner, to write about subjects valuable to small business owners on the HostGator blog. You can find her on Twitter at @atxcopywriter.An area which surrounds the Rhine River, one of Germany's most vital waterways, the Rhineland is renowned for its agricultural and industrial wealth. The Rhur Valley in the North is one of the world's most heavily industrialized areas and the vineyards of Mosel in the South have produced wines that are internationally acclaimed. The "Romantic Rhineland" has been immortalized in numerous ancient folk songs and fables. The region was occupied by the Romans, who founded many of the region's beautiful and historic cities as Roman settlements. After the fall of the Roman Empire, barbarian tribes conquered the German provinces and the Franks dominated the Rhineland. Nevertheless, the Rhineland was again brought under Germanic rule when Charlemagne, the greatest of the medieval kings, brought the barbarian tribes under the central order of the Holy Roman Empire.
Charlemagne, who has become a legendary figure because of his physical strength and courageous spirit, chose the city of Aachen as his capital and his chapel still remains there. The course of Rhineland history was changed dramatically when the Rhineland became an integral part of the German nation in the 19th century. The different principalities of the Rhineland were eventually united under the name "Reinprovinz" after the Congress Of Vienna in 1815. At the same time, the various German states began to move toward the creation of a modern, powerful and united German nation. After the Revolutions of 1848, and the rise of Otto von Bismarck, the "iron chancellor", Germany expanded territorially, developed its economy, and emerged as a great world power. German Unification was proclaimed in 1871, by which time Germany had attained roughly the size and boundaries it would have in the 20th century.
- ^ Swyrich, Archive materialsInsurance Marketplace, Inc Blog
Do you know where the food that you eat and the clothing that you wear come from? Most of them come from agriculture that hones the traditions and values of the people, particularly the Americans. In this article, you’ll be provided with information about how agriculture works, the available framing types, and agriculture in the U.S.
What is Agriculture?
Agriculture is the art and discipline of farming that involves crop growing and nurturing of animals to provide, food, products like tobacco, leather goods, textiles, apparel, and many others. As the basis of all civilizations, it also includes fishing and forestry. In the United States, it’s one of the leading industries that contribute billions of dollars to gross domestic product or GDP.
Two Types of Agriculture
Industrialized Agriculture: This is a type of farming that involves producing large quantities of crops and livestock through technologically advanced techniques for trade. The sole purpose of this type of agriculture is to feed the people, and most of the goods are being distributed across the globe. Modern techniques such as utilizing chemical fertilizers are being added as inorganic nutrients to boost yield and plant size. Another part of the methods involves using pesticides to prevent pests from harming or consuming crops.
Subsistence Agriculture: This one still exists today. Subsistence agriculture is when a farmer, living on a small land, farms to feed his household. In other words, it is a type of farming that can guarantee the survival of the individual family. Some individual farmers earn income by selling the excess food made locally to other individuals or families. Most individual producers utilize hand tools and simple equipment to work the land. Some individual farmers have animals to help them.
Modern Agriculture in the United States
Common hobby farms, small-scale farming, large commercial agribusiness comprise modern agriculture in the United States. Most of the techniques being utilized include using large irrigation schemes, adding chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and employing large machines that can function quickly to deal with thousands of acres of cropland. Due to the demand for farming equipment, the need for fossil fuels is also increasing. This impacts the price of goods. Their price swings as the price of oil changes.
One More Thing Before You Go
Whether you run industrialized agriculture or subsistence agriculture, you can have the means to earn money and support your family. Now, to protect your business, it’s essential to obtain a business insurance plan to guarantee your future and have a meaningful life.
At Insurance Marketplace, Inc., we put our clients first by offering them policies that they can afford. Having insurance is a necessity nowadays and we're here to help you out. Learn more about our products and services by calling our agency at (541) 779-0177. You can also request a free quote by CLICKING HERE.Following a cable fault, standard procedure is detecting the location of the fault, traditionally using methods such as Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) or a Thumper Test. Limitations with TDR include the inability to consistently locate high impedance faults, while the Thumper Test places a large amount of energy on the cable, potentially stressing the cable and causing further damage.
LIVE HV has developed and begun to utilise Partial Discharge (PD) techniques, which alleviate the limitations of traditional methods. This method produces consistently accurate fault locations while causing no further harm to the cable.
At lower voltages the fault location on a cable will begin to arc. This arc behaves in a similar way to Partial Discharge (PD). Through the application of PD location techniques, the location of the failure on the cable can be quickly and accurately determined without further damaging the cable.Opioid Crisis Plagues Rural America
BLOG – Addiction typically begins with a legitimate injury or pain that is then rectified by a dosage of painkillers provided by a physician. Once the patient has used the prescribed medications, they are often unintentionally addicted to the substances. When their supply ultimately diminishes, they begin controlling their withdrawal symptoms with a cheaper street opiate like heroin.
According to the CDC, opioid overdoses accounted for more than 33,000 deaths in 2015 and 56,000 in 2016. The United States holds only 5 percent of the world’s population but consumes over 80 percent of the world’s opioids according to NCBI. With numbers this high and this staggering, there is no denying it anymore: prescription drug abuse and addiction have reached epidemic proportions.
Facts About Opioid Crisis in Rural America
The rate of overdoses in rural America, as described by the CDC, has far surpassed the overdoses accounted for in urban America. Death rates for unintentional deaths like drug overdoses and vehicle crashes are 50 percent higher in rural areas than urban neighborhoods. From 1999 to 2015, the opioid death rates in rural areas among 18-25-year-olds have quadrupled.
Rural areas and the close-knit relationships that come with smaller populations provide a perfect storm for people to become addicted to opioids. Some researchers believe that economic, environmental, and social factors leave rural America at risk for addiction. After the 2008 recession, rural America didn’t recover quickly, losing jobs and population numbers. This is what ultimately left people in a situation conducive to using prescription opioids to self-medicate symptoms of distress related to economic and physical stress.
Due to specific jobs prevalent in rural cities like farming and manufacturing, these communities tend to have high injury rates. This leads to more pain and in turn more medication. Opioids have been a key part of rural doctors’ pain management tools for their patients. Jack Westfall, a physician/researcher at the University of Colorado, says that there is a lack of treatment options available in rural areas. Alternatives for pain treatment, like physical therapy or massage therapy, are either not available or not retained.
A study done by the University of Michigan found that the rate of babies born with opioid withdrawal symptoms is rising much faster in rural areas than in urban America. The researchers found that the rate of newborns in rural communities diagnosed with neonatal abstinence syndrome (a side effect of being born addicted to opioids) was nearly 80 percent higher than the rate of babies born drug addicted in urban parts of the country. The study says that from 2012-2013, rural infants accounted for 21 percent of all infants born drug addicted in the US.
Resources Available for Rural Addicts
Telemedicine, or telehealth, works to improve access to treatment by allowing patients to consult with their provider remotely through video conferencing. One study found that the more times a patient attended sessions via telemedicine technology, the more likely they were to stay on an opioid treatment plan. This type of meeting helped patients access their providers more regularly to discuss medical issues.
Telemedicine also presents particular obstacles, however. At this time, providers are required by law to see their patients for an initial in-person physical assessment before prescribing controlled medication like Suboxone, which is an opioid used to help wean people off of other illicit forms of the drug. This type of treatment allows addicts to avoid withdrawal symptoms while promoting long-term recovery. Medication-assisted drug treatment is limited in rural areas, which forces addicts to drive many hours to and from clinics to get medications. However, with the use of Suboxone and regular telemedicine sessions, addicts are getting clean.
Children have access to substance abuse counseling at a young age. Adolescents and teens are among the most vulnerable populations for drug abuse. Early intervention with substance abuse counseling has decreased opiate use by 45 percent in the last five years among school-aged children. With the help of teachers, administrators, and school counselors, they work together to ensure that students receive the education and tools they need to lead healthy lives.
Challenges of Patient Care to Rural Areas
There are many challenging aspects to treating rural patients. Distance away from treatment centers is one of the biggest. Since rural communities typically have smaller populations, there are often fewer treatment centers close by; it doesn’t make sense to build large hospitals in these communities financially, or logistically. Public transportation is typically lacking in rural areas, so people who need help with opioid addiction may not seek it out due to the distance and the travel inconveniences involved.
Another pressing issue for the treatment of addicts is that lack of nurses and physicians available with appropriate training. The general shortage of educated health care workers across America is magnified in rural areas where they have less access to a health care education system. Even though the field of nursing is one of the fastest growing professions, there is still a large shortage of registered nurses. For example, in 2008 there were 2.6 million nursing jobs in the United States. Now there are 3.2 million nursing jobs with a shortage of 200,000 nurses. Many rural areas lack clinics with available drug treatment options, as well as a shortage of physicians who prescribe opioid alternative treatments.
Social stigmas and a lack of privacy are another challenge of opioid-based patient care in rural communities. Since the population numbers in
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for the detection of DNA damage at the level of individual cell6. The comet assay under alkaline conditions (pH>13) can detect DNA damage, i.e. single strand breakage or DNA cross-links and incomplete excision repair even7. DNA lesions have been detected by inducing chemical mutagens using Comet assay. Fishes are generally used as toxicity indicators. Many authors advise fish as the best animal model for these studies8, 9.
The present study is made to know the effect of these common agents in particular with reference to artificial food color Allura red AC (E 129) (FD & C # 40) - orange / red food dye on DNA damage using Cat Fish Clarias batrachus as model organism.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Healthy specimens of Clarius batrachus were bought from Ranipettai. Fishes of same age and size which hatched from the same lot of eggs were collected and were transported to the Environmental Biotechnology laboratory for acclimatization. And experiment was conducted in CO2 & Green Technology Center of VIT University1.
Acclimatization was done by stocking fishes in a rectangular cement tank (4m x 6m x 3m), which was soap washed, disinfected with potassium permanganate and thoroughly rinsed thrice former to filling with water. Fish were acclimatized to laboratory condition for a night, before being used for experiments. No symptoms of disease were noticed during succeeding periods. During adaptation, the stock was maintained at normal temperature and fed once daily with fish food (In the form of balls). Water was regularly changed for every 24hours and well aerated in order to reduce any accumulation of excretory products and to make sure whether there is sufficient oxygen supply to fish. Feeding was stopped for 48 hours before the experiments were started so as to keep the experimental animals in same metabolic condition1.
The glass-aquaria of 50 L capacity which were cleaned, was filled with clean water were used for genotoxical studies. 1g/L i.e. 1g of Allura red AC (E 129) (FD & C # 40) - orange / red food dye was dissolved in 1 liter of water and was used in the present study. A control (50 fish) without Allura red AC (E129) was maintained simultaneously. Experiment was conducted for 35 days. 5 fishes were randomly selected from control and experimental aquaria at regular intervals (weekly) i.e. (7, 14, 21, 28, and 35 days) and blood was collected for genotoxicological studies.
Collection of blood
Blood was drawn from the caudal vein by using plastic disposable syringe fitted with 22 gauge needle which was already moisture with heparin,(Beparin, heparin sodium, IP 2000 IU ml-1, derived from intestinal mucosa containing 0.15 percentage w/v cholesterol IP preservative) an anticoagulant. Blood collected from treatment and control was expelled into the separate heparinized centrifuge tubes and was placed immediately in the refrigerated condition. This blood sample was used for determination of all the parameters5.
Two drop of blood sample was taken from catfish and a smear was made on glass slide. The slide was then fixed with methanol for 15 minutes and air dried. The next day it was stained with 15% giemsa solution for 10 minutes and then the slide was dehydrated in alcohol and cleaned in xylene. Slides were mounted in DPX for observing under the microscope1.
Single cell gel electrophoresis (Comet assay)
The glass slide was dipped in 1% normal melting agar for first layer and allowed for getting set for 5min at 4oC. Fish blood (containing cells) was added to 80µl of 0.65% low melting agar in PBS (Dissolve the following in 800ml distilled water. NaCl -8g, KCl-0.2g, Na2HPO4 -1.44g, KH2PO4 -0.24g, Adjust pH to 7.4. Adjust volume to 1L with additional distilled water. Sterilize by autoclaving). This was transferred to the slide to produce the final layer. After solidification of agar the slide was kept in the cold lyses solution (2.5M of NaCl, 100mM of EDTA, 10mM of Tris-HCl, pH-10, 1% of sodium sarcosinate, 1% of Triton X-100, 10% of DMSO, pH 10) at 4oC overnight in dark. The slide were taken gently and placed in horizontal gel box containing electrophoresis buffer (1mM of Na2EDTA, 300mM of NaoH, and adjust pH to 13) for about 20 minutes. The electrophoresis was performed in cold water bath. After electrophoresis the slide was washed three times in neutralization buffer (Tris-HCl buffer of pH 7.5). Then the slide was being photographed using gel documentation1.
The statistical analysis was made individually on each sample and the mean value of five individual observations were taken for each observation.
The results of the present study showed that the food color Allura Red AC (E129) (FD&C Red #40) - orange / red food dye is even potential enough to induce cancer on a long term exposure.
The thorough examination of the blood smears showed the evidences of micronuclei in treated fish (cat fish) (Fig 1).
Fig 1. Micronuclei test result of the exposed test organism Cat fish Clarias batrachus
Single cell gel electrophoresis
The test showed remarkable results as there was significant DNA damage in the blood cells. The level of damage was differing from week to week based on the time of exposure. The pictures below depict the level of damage in regular time intervals.
7th day 14th day 28th day 35thday
Fig 2: Pictures of single cell gel electrophoresis test taken in weekly intervals Clarias batrachus
Food colors or additives are widely used in edible items mostly, by manufacturers to make it look fresher and to make it more appetizing. Though it succeeds in playing its role well it causes major damages in the DNA3. The results of present study prove the above fact to be evident. Since both the genotoxicological studies i.e. micronucleus test and single cell gel electrophoresis (COMET) assay had given positive results. It is advisable to reduce the intake of these kinds of food additives in our day to day lives. The basic concept of the comet assay is that the presence of single strand break DNA fragments and moves them from the nucleoid core towards the anode, thus resulting in 'Comet' formation11. It is a very sensitive test and helps in getting remarkable results in relative studies.
Food additives like Allura Red AC (E129) (FD&C Red #40) - orange / red dye used in food items might make the food more appealing and could taste better but its exclusive property of causing DNA damage should be taken into consideration and should be banned from usage for human welfare.Timur Devleti parası üzerindeki İkonografi, Göktürk Runik harflerindendir ve ANT yani BARIŞ olarak okunur. Türk Budizminde Buddha'nın Üç Mücevheri, Türk Osmanlı Döneminde ÇİNTEMANi adı ile devam eder. Nuray Bilgili.. Silver dirham. Timurid dynasty. Herat, Afghanistan, no date, ca. CE 1390-1402.
Folio from a Divan (collected poems) by Hafiz (d. 1390); recto: text, Poem of wisdom of love, beauty, and celebration of time; verso: illustration and text, Feast of 'id Calligrapher: Sultan Muhammad Nur Artist: Shaykhzade Medium: Opaque watercolor, ink and gold on paper Dimensions: H x W: 30 x 18.9 cm (11 13/16 x 7 7/16 in) Type: Manuscript Origin: Herat, Afghanistan Topic: music, Safavid period (1501 - 1722), eating, celebration, poem, courtier, garden…
One of the five stories related in Nizami's Khamsa (Five Tales) concerns the love affair between the Iranian king Khusrau and the Armenian princess Shirin. This beautifully-detailed painting captures the moment when Khusrau first catches sight of Shirin, bathing in a stream
Herat, Afghanistan Herat dates back to the Avestan times and was traditionally known for its wine. The city has a number of historic sites. During the Middle Ages Herat became one of the important cities of Khorasan, as it was known as the Pearl of Khorasan.
Persian miniature: National Art Treasure The art of Persian miniature dates back to the Mongol and Timurid periods (13th - 16th Century) when Mongolian rulers of Iran instilled the cult of Chinese painting and brought with them a great number of Chinese artisans. Later Iranian artists brought innovations in this art and expand it through establishing several schools such as Shiraz school, Herat school, Tabriz school, Qazvin school and Isfahan school. #iFilm
Herat, Afghanistan: Herat dates back to the Avestan times and was traditionally known for its wine. The city has a number of historic sites. During the Middle Ages Herat became one of the important cities of Khorasan, as it was known as the Pearl of KhorasanDesign and simulate electronic circuits!
All joking aside, this time you are going to remember how electronic circuits work.
“I stumbled upon some serious gold” – GeekBeat.tv
“A fully realized circuit simulator” – EDA360 Insider
Construct any circuit, faucet play button, and watch dynamic voltage and present animations. This provides you perception into circuit operation like no equation does. Whereas simulation is working, regulate circuit parameters with analog knob, and the circuit responds to your moves in actual time. That you may even generate an arbitrary enter sign together with your finger!
That’s interactivity and innovation that you would be able to’t to find in absolute best SPICE instruments for PC like Multisim, LTspice, OrCad or PSpice (trademarks belong to their respective owners).
EveryCircuit is not just an eye candy. Under the hood it packs custom-built simulation engine optimized for interactive mobile use, serious numerical methods, and reasonable instrument fashions. Briefly, Ohm’s legislation, Kirchhoff’s present and voltage regulations, nonlinear semiconductor instrument equations, and the entire just right stuff is there.
Rising library of elements provides you freedom to design any analog or digital circuit from a easy voltage divider to transistor-stage masterpiece.
Schematic editor options computerized wire routing, and minimalistic user interface. No nonsense, less tapping, extra productiveness.
Simplicity, innovation, and energy, mixed with mobility, make EveryCircuit vital accomplice for highschool science and physics college students, electrical engineering faculty college students, breadboard and printed circuit board (PCB) fanatics, and ham radio hobbyists.
+ Animations of voltage waveforms and current flows
+ Analog control knob adjusts circuit parameters
+ Automatic wire routing
+ Seamless DC and transient simulation
+ Single play/pause button controls simulation
+ Saving and loading of circuit schematic
+ Cellular simulation engine constructed from ground-up
+ Shake the phone to kick-start oscillators
+ Intuitive user interface
+ No Ads
+ Sources, sign turbines
+ Resistors, capacitors, inductors
+ Switches, SPST, SPDT
+ Diodes, Zener diodes, light emitting diodes (LED)
+ MOS transistors (MOSFET)
+ Bipolar junction transistors (BJT)
+ Ideal operational amplifier (opamp)
+ Digital logic gates, AND, OR, NOT, NAND, NOR, XOR, XNOR
What’s in this version : (Updated : Nov 17, 2014)
Push button NC (normally closed)
Push button NO (normally open)
Added contact resistance to relayGoal Setting for 2013-2014
Setting a meaningful goal is one of your most important first steps at the beginning of the school year. This student learning target guide helps illustrate the steps and associated resources to support you in setting a goal that will matter for your specific classroom. As you begin setting goals you will consider four key questions:
(1) What should my students know?
(2) How will I measure success?
(3) What are they able to do now?
(4) How will I monitor progress?
After you examine the standards and end of year assessment guides that help you answer the first and second question, a set of specific assessment resources is available to support your work to answer the final two questions.
Past assessment results allow educators to answer "What are students able to do now?" Looking back at how students performed in previous years can help teachers understand what students already know coming into the school year. Specific resources that may help you include:
- Field test results from spring 2013 (available to schools in early September) will help in understanding how students performed against Common Core aligned assessment items
- Estimated value-added targets (available in September) will be helpful sources of information to understand students' performance levels.
- Visit LEAPdata to access your students' historical test results. Teachers can build rosters of their students, making LEAPdata a valuable source of information for setting goals and other instructional planning. Ask a school administrator about how best to access this information.
- Use the results from Explore, Plan, and ACT tests, which are available in hard copy or on CD at each school, to set goals for students that will ensure they are ready for college or a professional career.
Sample assessment items that align to future tests can help to clarify what a student will be expected to do at the end of this school year and define "How will I monitor progress?" These resources include:
Access the EAGLE
item bank to create tests, view test reports, and adjust instruction accordingly to meet student needs. EAGLE currently contains items aligned to the Common Core State Standards, and additional items will continue to be added in the coming months.
- Your students also can use Louisiana PASS to take practice tests in science, social studies, and English writing.
- Sample unit plans also include sample assessments and tasks that can help teachers get an initial sense of where their students are against the rigor required from the new standards.
- Additional sample LEAP/iLEAP tests for math and ELA will be released in the fall.
For more guidance on planning 2013-2014, review the recently released Back-to-School Teacher Guide that integrates resources found in the Teacher Toolbox. This guide gives direction on standards and assessments, setting student learning targets, and planning for instruction at the year and unit levels.I think the FCC has to look back at how Broadband proliferation occurred from its beginnings to understand how to move it forward today. By researching and studying The Cable Communications Act of 1984, the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992,, and the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the federal arm of our telecommunications regulatory system can learn valuable lessons about hoping to create a (well oiled infrastructure) with plenty of competition.
The Cable Act of 1984 created the linear programming we have come to enjoy, and at the same time, hate to pay for. In essence, the act created content, the crux of the now issue; how to share it with everyone at a reasonable price. The Consumer Protection and Competition Act held that companies could not hold customers hostage for programming, in that programming tiers must be created to allow a choice on what consumers must pay to receive, and that any competitor could challenge an incumbent operator.
While they can be somewhat expensive, tiers are what consumers must pay extra to obtain for their favorite programs, while accepting many others they do not want. Competition in wire-line overbuilds never really materialized to any significant degree due to the high cost of infrastructure build-outs, programming, and overhead. DBS came along with the answer to that problem with terrestrial Satellite programming that consequently filled the gap of the underserved while creating the only programming competition wire-line operators have seen to date.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 created, more than anything else, the sharing of networks by incumbent phone companies. They had to sell their network connections to competitors thereby creating competition in the local and long distance markets. Now that land-line communications has been replaced by a mobile industry, the ATT’s, and Verizon’s are finally upgrading their networks to enter the Broadband and Content arenas. However, this is proliferating at a woefully slow pace without a significant dent in the overall market.
Fast forward to today, and due to years of deregulation, you have a closed infrastructure consisting of a few large operators, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable with the ATT’s and Verizon with both comprising an insignificant market share of wire-line competition in the highly populated suburban areas. But you can’t blame cable companies for taking steps to eliminate competition and protect their territories; Wall Street demands it.
To solve the problem the FCC will have to look at (network sharing), and with a current closed network which is under built to handle a shared capacity, or more significantly, their current customer demands. Maybe the FCC can look at a Broadband (Super Highway), like our Interstate Highway System, making a pipeline to share with all competitors, but who would build it out, and at what cost. A competitive infrastructure is the right solution.UN Security Council to consider climate change peacekeeping - Special meeting to discuss 'green helmets' force to intervene in conflicts caused by rising seas levels and shrinking resources
A special meeting of the United Nations security council is due to consider whether to expand its mission to keep the peace in an era of climate change.
Small island states, which could disappear beneath rising seas, are pushing the security council to intervene to combat the threat to their existence.
There has been talk, meanwhile, of a new environmental peacekeeping force – green helmets – which could step into conflicts caused by shrinking resources.
The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, is expected to address the meeting on Wednesday.
But Germany, which called the meeting, has warned it is premature to expect the council to take the plunge into green peacemaking or even adopt climate change as one of its key areas of concern.
"It is too early to seriously think about council action on climate change. This is clearly not on the agenda," Germany's ambassador to the UN, Peter Wittig, wrote in the Huffington Post.
"A good first step would be to acknowledge the realities of climate change and its inherent implications to international peace and security," he wrote.
Bringing the security council up to speed on climate change could be a challenge, however.
The Pentagon and other military establishments have long recognised climate change as a "threat multiplier" with the potential to escalate existing conflicts,and create new disputes as food, water, and arable land become increasingly scarce.
Wittig seems to agree, noting that UN peacekeepers have long intervened in areas beyond traditional conflicts.
"Repainting blue helmets into green might be a strong signal - but would dealing with the consequences of climate change - say in precarious regions - be really very different from the tasks the blue helmets already perform today?" he wrote.
In an official "Concept Note" ahead of the meeting, Germany said the security council needed to draw up scenarios for dealing with the affects of extreme temperatures and rising seas. How would the UN deal with climate refugees? How would it prevent conflicts in those parts of Africa and Asiawhich could face food shortages?
But there is a deep divide over whether the security council should even consider climate change as a security issue.
China, for example, argues that the security council should leave climate change to the experts.
However,small island states in the Pacific, which face an existential threat due to climate change, have been pushing the council to act for years.
"The security council should join the general assembly in recognising climate change as a threat to international peace and security. It is a threat as great as nuclear proliferation or global terrorism," Marcus Stephen, the president of Nauru, wrote in a piece in the New York Times.
"Second,a special representative on climate and security should be appointed. Third, we must assess whether the United Nations system is itself capable of responding to a crisis of this magnitude."
That remains an open question.
Wednesday's meeting arrives at a time of growing doubt about whether the UN is equipped to deal with climate change. Last month's climate talks in Bonn produced little progress in key areas.
Meanwhile, Ban has been refocusing his attention from climate change to sustainable development.
The security council has also been stalled in its efforts to deal with the threats posed by climate change.
Its first attempt was at a meeting in 2007 convened by Britain. But the effort swiftly exposed the deep divisions of the common problem.
Small island states, which could disappear entirely beneath rising seas, were anxious for the security council to intervene, saying the threat they faced was as severe as war.
But China and other countries resisted, arguing the security council should stick to maintaining the peace.
Ban Ki-moon ends hands-on involvement in climate change talks - UN secretary general will redirect efforts to making more immediate gains in clean energy and sustainable development
Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general who made global warming his personal mission, is ending his hands-on involvement with international climate change negotiations, the Guardian has learned.
In a strategic shift, Ban will redirect his efforts from trying to encourage movement in the international climate change negotiations to a broader agenda of promoting clean energy and sustainable development, senior UN officials said.
The officials said the change in focus reflected Ban's realisation, after his deep involvement with the failed Copenhagen summit in 2009, that world leaders are not prepared to come together in a sweeping agreement on global warming – at least not for the next few years.
"It is very evident that there will not be a single grand deal at any point in the near future," said Robert Orr, UN assistant secretary general for strategic planning and a key adviser to Ban.
The view from UN headquarters will likely dismay developing countries who fought hard at Copenhagen and last year's summit at Cancún for countries to renew their commitments to the Kyoto protocol in just that type of grand deal.
UN officials say Ban will no longer be deeply involved in the negotiations leading up to the next big UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, meeting at Durban in December 2011.
"He will continue to encourage leaders to aim for a higher level of ambition but there will need to be less day-to-day stuff," said one UN official. "The negotiations are very important, but it is the big-picture issues that he needs to be more engaged with."
"Because the circumstances have changed, the nature of his engagement is changing," Orr said. "The relative balance of his time is shifting towards getting it done on the ground out there."
UN officials, and those who closely track climate change negotiations, insist that Ban has not lessened his commitment to finding a solution to climate change. Ban has called global warming "the greatest collective challenge we face as a human family".
"His heart is still there, and he does want to make a breakthrough in his tenure, but this might provide a better platform in the near future," said one UN official.
However, they say he now believes there are more immediate gains to be made in mobilising international finance to support a green economy in developing countries than in trying to persuade world leaders to commit to deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
Others inside the UN system as well as in world capitals have been circling towards a similar conclusion as Ban: that gains in clean energy technology and energy efficiency could do more in the near future to reduce emissions. They could then drive the overarching deal that the UN still sees as necessary.
"The idea that the world will gather together and parcel out emissions cuts among the various nations is probably a non-starter at this point," said Reid Detchon, vice-president for energy and climate at the United Nations Foundation, a Washington thinktank. "Whether it is in 2012 or 2013, the political consensus does not exist for a top-down approach."
In operational terms, Ban's climate change advisory team, which grew to about a dozen people ahead of the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009, has shrunk to less than five people.
Meanwhile, he is in the course of expanding his advisory team on sustainable development to about a dozen people ahead of the Rio meeting.
"The things that are moving faster are the investments in renewable energy, the kind of actual investments and changes on the ground that will make a difference," said Tariq Banuri, director of the division of sustainable development at the UN's department of economic and social affairs. "There should be enough forums to accelerate and support those – some may have to wait for climate negotiations and some may not."
Ban still believes an international agreement on climate change is essential, Orr said. "The sails haven't been trimmed. We are still going in the same direction, but we will have to tack back and forth between the multilateral negotiating process and national realities on the ground."
The strategic shift by the UN secretary general in some ways mirrors thinking in Washington, where environmentalists are looking at how to many progress on climate change without votes in Congress or the regulatory help of the Environment Protection Agency (EPA).
In the case of the UN, however, Ban's decision is not a product of failure. The climate negotiations at Cancún produced modest progress on some of the essential pre-conditions to a global deal, such as climate finance and forest preservation.
The first public indication of a shift in direction was delivered in a speech to the UN general assembly on 14 January, in which Ban ranked sustainable development as the lead item on his agenda for 2011, ahead of climate change, human rights, security and humanitarian aid for Haiti.
But UN officials and others who closely follow climate diplomacy say the UN chief had been considering how best to move forward on climate change at least since the failure of the Copenhagen summit.
Ban has said repeatedly he sees climate change as the challenge of the generation. He staked his reputation as secretary general on gathering world leaders at Copenhagen, arguing that environment ministers and bureaucrats could not hope to command the authority to sign on to agreements that would essentially require the rewiring of their entire economy.
The hands-on approach worked in 2007 when Ban stepped in to prevent a collapse of the Bali summit over George Bush's refusal to agree to emissions cuts.
But the elevated hopes for reaching a final deal at Copenhagen resulted instead in acrimony and a tentative last-minute understanding among the big polluters that was not fully endorsed by the 190 countries in the UN negotiating process.
"The phase the negotiations are going into now is one more of rule-making, rather than heads-of-state engagement," said Jennifer Morgan, who directs the climate and energy programme at the World Resources Institute in Washington. "It is just in a different phase than it was before, and the fact that Cancún was the moderate success that it was allows it to carry on the process in the way that it normally does with ministers and officials."Huitzilopochtli's name is a combination of two Nahuatl (or Aztecan) words, huitzilin, meaning hummingbird, and opochtli, which means left the god's name translates literally as "Hummingbird on the Left." This resulted in Huitzilopochtli often being depicted as a blue- or green-colored hummingbird or as a warrior whose armor and helmet were made of hummingbird features. But Aztecs also believed dead warriors were reincarnated as hummingbirds and they called the south the left side of the world. So, translated another way, Huitzilopochtli's name means "Resuscitated Warrior of the South." The Aztecs believed their sun god, who was said to be in constant struggle with darkness, required blood from a human heart as nourishment to ensure his survival. To feed their god, the people of the sun offered up their own in the form of human sacrifice.|Cyprus Table of Contents
In early 1979, President Kyprianou was persuaded by his political advisers to resume talks with Denktas, and Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, then undersecretary general of the UN, called the two to a meeting in Nicosia in June. The two intercommunal negotiators, Minister to the President George Ioannides for the Greek Cypriots and Üit Süleyman Onan for the Turkish Cypriots, pursued talks aiming at a communiqué stating the broad agenda for further talks. This process stalled temporarily when Greek Cypriots sought to give the Varosha issue priority above all other issues. On May 18 and 19, the two leaders held a second summit that led to the successful conclusion of a ten-point agreement that called for a resumption of talks on all territorial and constitutional issues; placed priority on reaching agreement on the resettlement of Varosha; stated the parties' commitment to abstain from actions that could jeopardize the talks; and, envisaged the demilitarization of Cyprus. The agreement also repeated past statements about guarantees against union with any other country, partition, or secession. The ten points were largely a tactical means to secure further negotiations and did not resolve any substantive issues. One more meeting was held in June 1979, but the talks were then suspended until August 1980.
The UN-established common ground on which the talks resumed was a four-part agenda addressing, on a rotating basis, the resettlement of Varosha under UN auspices, initial practical measures to promote good will, constitutional issues, and territorial issues. The talks, conducted in Cyprus under the chairmanship of the UN secretary general's Special Representative on Cyprus, Ambassador Hugo Gobbi, continued without a major breakthrough and were temporarily suspended for the spring 1981 parliamentary elections on both sides of the island. In August and October 1981, the two sides made substantive presentations, which were welcomed as signs of commitment to compromise, but which also revealed the serious gap in the two sides' concepts of a solution.
The Turkish Cypriot proposal, submitted in August 1981, named four fundamental principles: a bicommunaand bizonal federal republic shall be established, but the two federated states will not form a unitary state; the Turkish Cypriot community will be regarded as an equal cofounder with the Greek Cypriot community and all government institutions will be staffed on a fifty-fifty ratio; the federal or central government will not be so strong as to imperil the independence of its component states; and the three freedoms of movement property, and settlement, will be restricted as set out by the 1977 guidelines. The proposal identified as "federal matters" six functions, including foreign affairs; foreign financial affairs; tourism and information; posts and telecommunications; federal health and veterinarian services; and, standards of weights and measures, patents, copyrights, and trademarks. The Turkish Cypriots also submitted two maps, one defining a proposed boundary line between the two federated states and one focused on Varosha in particular. The Turkish Cypriot proposal treated the federal concept narrowly, limiting federal authority.
The Greek Cypriots submitted their proposal on October 1, 1981. It contrasted sharply with the Turkish Cypriot proposal, with a heavy emphasis on the unity of the island and the powers of the federal republic. The plan's six principles included the indivisibility of the territory of the federal republic; the federal republic as sole subject of international law, to the exclusion of the provinces; and the use of the federal legislative and executive powers to ensure Cyprus's economic reintegration. The Turkish Cypriots considered this proposal merely an elaboration of a 1977 Greek Cypriot plan.
Despite the failure to make headway on the core political issues, this phase had one notable achievement: the agreement on terms of reference for a Committee on Missing Persons, consisting of representatives of the two communities and an international participant designated by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The committee's first meeting was held on July 14, 1981. The committed met sporadically throughout the 1980s, and new proposals to invigorate its work were discussed in early 1990. The work of the committee was hampered by sensitivity about exchanges of dossiers and information. Sensitivity areas included security matters and religious questions, such as whether graves should be disturbed.
By late 1981, UN officials and other supporters of the settlement process had concluded that the talks needed new stimulus. Secretary General Waldheim issued an evaluation of the negotiations in November, in what he called a "determined effort to lend structure and substance" to the negotiating process. The evaluation identified major points of "coincidence and equidistance" in the two sides' positions and proposed that the contemplated republic's executive authority be exercised by a federal council composed of six ministerial functions, corresponding roughly to the narrow Turkish Cypriot concept. Waldheim also suggested a bicameral legislature, provincial chambers, and a territorial compromise in which the Greek Cypriot side would administer at least 70 percent of the island.
The settlement process in the early 1980s was affected by the need for President Kyprianou to establish his credibility and demonstrate his loyalty to the national cause after the death of the charismatic Makarios. To many observers, it appeared that Kyprianou had less room for maneuver and was less inclined, by political preference or capability, to put forth new strategic positions. The election of a socialist government in Athens in October 1981 may also have affected the attitudes of the parties; Greek Cypriots welcomed Greek prime minister Andreas Papandreou's desire to "internationalize" the Cyprus problem, which effectively gave Greek Cypriots some breathing room in the intercommunal process. Meanwhile, the Turkish Cypriot leaders were developing new formulas and concepts of their own, and generally disapproved of efforts to internationalize the issue.
On November 15, 1983, after months of speculation, Rauf Denkta declared Turkish Cypriot statehood, on the basis of the universal right to self-determination. His proclamation, which cited the United States Declaration of Independence, declared the establishment of the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" ("TRNC"). The move was not intended to block progress toward creating a federal republic, Denktas said. Rather, the assertion of the political identity and equality of the Turkish Cypriots would, in his view, enhance prospects for a new relationship between the two sides of the island. He also pledged that the new state would not join any other state, meaning Turkey.
The move was widely condemned by Western powers and the UN. The secretary general considered the declaration contrary to past Security Council resolutions and at odds with the high-level agreements of 1977 and 1979. The United States urged nonrecognition of the entity and joined a nearly unanimous Security Council resolution (541) which called for reversal of the declaration. (Jordan voted no; Pakistan abstained.)
More about the Government and Politics of Cyprus.
Source: U.S. Library of CongressRemember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895?
This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, Kansas, USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.
8th Grade Final Exam: Salina, KS – 1895
Grammar (Time, one hour)
1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.
3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of ‘lie,”play,’ and ‘run.’
5. Define case; illustrate each case.
6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
7 – 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.
Arithmetic (Time,1 hour 15 minutes)
1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. Deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. Wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 lbs. For tare?
4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000.. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. Coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft.. Long at $20 per metre?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt
U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)
1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.
Orthography (Time, one hour)
1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals.
4. Give four substitutes for caret ‘u.’
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final ‘e.’ Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis-mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences
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century ideological and political split, pitting Capitalism, with Natural Selection as its raison d’etre (Spencer, 1984), against Communism, which made Cooperation and Mutual Aid its sources of inspiration (Adams, 2016). The problem of how heart rate is controlled was equally controversial, with psychologists favoring cortical control pitted against physiologists presenting data that challenged that view.
Darwin considered the problems of instinctive behavior and heart rate control to be connected. Through discussing them in the new evolutionary light of natural selection, he questioned why heart rate and emotions, positive and negative, can be influenced both by conscious will and unconscious physiological mechanisms. The idea that man’s emotions might not be controlled by higher order consciousness – his God-given superior human intellect and will – the very things that were believed to separate him from inferior species – was blasphemous and unthinkable to religious Victorian England. Darwin did his best to walk the line between what he believed, what his data showed, and what his audience did not want to hear. And, he left it to his followers to sort out the reality.
While this dichotomy had a profound effect upon political debate, we limit our review to the theoretical scientific story, which we follow separately and chronologically for each dilemma. In Part 1, we present Darwin’s thoughts on instincts, along with competing scientific evidence that emerged from the study of instincts over the ensuing 160 years. In Part 2, we follow Darwin’s discussions on peripheral control of heart rate and review the various competing theories and evidence that emerged through the present. In Part 3, we first critically review John Bowlby’s prevailing behavioral construct of attachment and discuss why the construct is not useful in fully understanding, assessing and treating emotional behavior. Following this, we critically review evolutionary game theory and discuss why it does not fully address fundamental problems identified by Darwin. We explain why polyvagal theory provides a partial explanation for the problem of peripheral control of rate, but does not provide an adequate mechanism or theory of change. We also review the authors’ calming cycle theory, which provides a novel explanation for how socioemotional behavior is governed in an interpersonal co-regulatory manner via bottom-up sub-cortical Pavlovian conditioning and visceral/autonomic learning mechanisms, along with evidence that supports this new theory. Finally, we review the authors’ theoretical construct of emotional connection and explain why it is different from attachment, why it has more predictive value and is more useful in assessing and treating behaviors of infants and mothers, and the data from recent clinical trials that supports the construct.
Part 1: Darwin’s Social Instinct Dilemma
Throughout his writings, Darwin searched for a rationale to explain the evolution of “social instincts” in light of his Principle of Natural Selection (Darwin, 1859). He argued that humans with superior intellect, who exhibit competitive characteristics attuned to and advantageous for their specific environment, will most likely survive, reproduce, and pass on their genes. Because of this, subsequent generations are more likely to possess those advantageous characteristics. Herbert Spencer popularized this idea with the phrase “survival of the fittest,” partly based on the Lamarckian belief that struggle for survival led to traits that could be inherited.
In his first book, Darwin used the term instinct or innate behavior 152 times and acknowledged that instincts presented a challenge to his theory. He asked, “Can instincts be acquired and modified through natural selection?” (Darwin, 1859). Without offering a definition for instinct, he acknowledged:
An action, which we ourselves should require experience to enable us to perform, when performed by an animal, more especially by a very young one, without any experience, and when performed by many individuals in the same way, without their knowing for what purpose it is performed, is usually said to be instinctive (Darwin, 1859).
An action repeated over and over can become a habit that is performed without thinking, but Darwin argued that such action (habit) is different from an instinct. Citing multiple examples from the animal world, Darwin concluded:
“ … metaphysicians have compared instinct with habit. This comparison gives, I think, a remarkably accurate notion of the frame of mind under which an instinctive action is performed, but not of its origin” (Darwin, 1859).
A decade later and with evolved thinking, Darwin distanced himself from Spencer’s “survival of the fittest” sentiments in The Descent of Man (Darwin, 1871) by acknowledging that widely exhibited traits like cooperation, empathy, reciprocity and altruism are sometimes crucial to a species’ ability to survive. Such traits, he mused, could be an after-effect of a group of behaviors underlying instincts. “The aid which we feel impelled to give to the helpless,” he wrote, “is mainly an incidental result of the instinct of sympathy, which was originally acquired as part of the social instincts, but [this instinct was] subsequently rendered … more tender and more widely diffused” (Darwin, 1871).
Nonetheless, this reasoning did not resolve the dilemma for Darwin. He wrote, “It is extremely doubtful whether the offspring of the more sympathetic and benevolent parents, or of those which were the most faithful to their comrades, would be reared in greater number than the children of selfish and treacherous parents of the same tribe” (Darwin, 1871). Darwin argued that genes of cooperative altruistic humans, if passed on, would ultimately weaken and degrade the species. To support his argument, he pointed to the practice of animal husbandry, which had over thousands of years improved the quality of livestock by culling out inferior and weak individuals, without regard to their suffering. Only humans, he complained, protect and nurture their weak and infirm.
Darwin wrote extensively about emotional expression in both humans and animals. He incorporated contemporary insights from natural observations to frame the problem of instincts within his first two principles of emotional expression and behavioral habits (Darwin, 1872). His description of emotional instinct was closely tied to observations in the postnatal period and was partially inspired by the behavior of his own first-born child. He concluded that behaviors could not be the result of habits, noting, “The far greater number of the movements of expression, and all the more important ones, are, as we have seen, innate or inherited; and such cannot be said to depend on the will [i.e., cognition] of the individual” (Darwin, 1872).
Darwin summarized all emotional expressions in animals and humans with three general principles [reviewed in-depth by Hess and Thibault (2009)]. First, the principle of serviceable habits stated that certain useful habitual emotional expressions or “instincts” are acquired over time through experience by the species and are genetically inherited by offspring [a view previously developed by Lamarck (1809)]. Darwin insisted, however, that emotional behaviors had evolved, as many emotional behaviors that were functional in the past or characteristic of lower animals were no longer present in humans. Second, the principle of antithesis asserted that some emotional expressions are simply the opposite of serviceable ones and that these become traits, in addition to physiological and psychological states. Over time, certain emotional expressions became habitualized or ritualized in order to act out an emotion, as occurs in courtship or fighting. Third, the principle of the direct action of the excited nervous system on the body stated that some emotional expressions are universal and are directly associated with an underlying emotional state. For example, Darwin described laughter as quasi-convulsive movement that discharges an overflow of nervous energy induced by either physical or psychological tension.
These three principles laid a groundwork for the scientific investigation into emotions and emotional behavior that influenced multiple new scientific fields; genetics, electrophysiology, cognitive neuroscience, neurology, psychology, ethology, endocrinology and computer science, to name a few (Figure 1) (Pagel, 2009). Darwin’s insights and theories permitted researchers to make new inferences about human behaviors, such as learning mechanisms, memory, emotions, and social interactions, based on animal and human observations and experiments. In this respect, Darwin’s collective writings, rather than resolving the dilemma of instincts, have served as source documents that have encouraged ongoing scientific investigations into emotions and instincts.
Figure 1. Search by subject area completed in November 2008 by Mark Pagel on the ISI Web of Science data base as showing partial list (∼40,000) of scientific papers that include the term “natural selection” in their title, abstract or key words. Reprinted with permission from Springer Nature (Pagel, 2009). Note that the subject area “Genetics and Heredity” generated the largest number of published papers. Epigenetics does not appear on the list. By contrast, a 2019 search for the words “natural selection” and “genetics” on PubMed returned over 7,000 papers, whereas a search for “natural selection” and “epigenetics” returned only 65 papers.
Attempts to Resolve the Social Instinct Dilemma
Prior to Darwin, instinctive behavior was largely explained through the nativism teachings of Plato and Descartes, which assumed that a God or a similar being, or a process, placed innate ideas and principles in the human mind. In the decades following Darwin, such behavior was being studied by a rapidly growing number of entomologists and ethologists who were cataloging instinctive behaviors.
Entomologist Jean Henri Fabre (1823–1915) spent his life observing the behavior of insects. He considered instinct to be any behavior that did not require cognition or consciousness to perform. The American amateur zoologist and ethologist Charles O. Whitman (1842–1910) revolutionized thinking about the physiological mechanisms by which hormones influence behavior and launched the field of behavioral endocrinology (Marler, 2005). But it was C. Lloyd Morgan (1852–1936), more than any other theorist, who tried to resolve the confusion over natural selection and inherited habit (Morgan, 1896).
Morgan drew heavily on the experimental work of physiologist Charles S. Sherrington (1857–1952), who demonstrated that complex reflex responses could still be elicited in animals with their cerebrum removed. Morgan argued strenuously that instincts at birth are subconscious reflexes that lay in the inherited arrangement of neural connections found in the lower brain centers (Morgan, 1912). However, under intense resistance from researchers who were focused on reflexes that require higher-order consciousness, Morgan agreed to a definition of reflex that included both subconscious and conscious actions. Thus, Morgan’s ultimate explanation, which formed the theoretical foundation of Neo-Darwinism in the twentieth century, left the definition of reflex broad enough to be confusing and therefore Darwin’s dilemma of instincts unresolved (Richards, 1977).
Two other researchers who focused on conscious behaviors were German physician and physiologist Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (1832–1920) and psychologist Edward Titchener (1867–1927), who helped found a new independent field of Experimental Psychology. Together, they developed the concept of Structuralism to analyze the adult mind as the total sum of experience from birth to the present. Titchener’s method for analysis focused on introspection via self-reports of sensations, views, feelings and emotions to establish the simplest definable emotional components of one’s life, so that they may be reconstructed and more fully understood (Gozli and Deng, 2018).
Among the researchers invigorated by Darwin’s ideas about natural selection and cognition was the German neurologist Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919), whose “biogenetic” principle played a major role in the thinking of Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), both in the formation of psychoanalytic theory in general, and its metapsychology in particular (Makari, 2008).
Freud incorporated aspects of Darwin’s ideas about survival and emotional behavior into his concepts of psychoanalysis. For instance, Darwin’s first principle of the expression of emotions, especially his definition of instinct as “inherited learning,” had a clear continuation in Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. It posits that a specific state of mind is associated with a habit or movement, and can be repressed by will. This repression of instinctive or innate feelings, mind over body, is a hallmark of psychoanalytic theory and psychopathology.
Freud accepted that natural selection is genetic in nature, yet postulated that instinct and emotion can be understood by examining the mind. Thus, Freud failed to address the philosophical dilemmas that natural selection posed for Darwin. Freud adopted much of Haeckel’s theory and the ideas and methods of Titchener, which emphasized introspection, self-reflections and hypnosis as the gateways to understanding emotional behavior (Ritvo, 1974).
At the turn of the twentieth century the argument was largely dominated by Neo-Darwinists, who accepted Darwin’s evolutionary theory of natural selection without resolving the theoretical dilemmas it posed. Ethologists, meanwhile, were busy cataloging the developmental aspects of perinatal parent/infant instinctive emotional behaviors in animals and insects. Aspects of behavior in humans were being explored by psychologists, who were split between those who were influenced by the psychodynamic approach of Freud and those following a new school of Behaviorism. Both groups were increasingly interested in abnormal emotional behaviors that deviated from normal instinctive behaviors soon after birth and the relationship between these early abnormal behaviors and emotional problems later in life.
Meanwhile, Freud’s proposed genetic basis for instinctive behavior was generally accepted in the field of psychology as the key to understanding neuroses. The scientific climate in the late 1800’s formed a strong base for Freud’s theoretical thinking and for the growth of psychoanalysis, but advances in biology were beginning to challenge the basis for this synthesis at the beginning of the twentieth century (Hofer, 2014). Calls for scientifically testable hypotheses in psychology began to grow. Even Freud recognized the problem, writing in 1925, “There is no more urgent need in psychology than for a securely founded theory of the instincts” (Freud, 1925).
This search was already well underway. V. M. Bekhterev (1857–1927) was the first to employ the use of experimental methods to study the central nervous system in psychology. His research on associated responses became highly influential in a new branch of psychology called behaviorism (later the basis of Reflexology, Gestalt Psychology). John B. Watson (1878–1958), an early proponent of behaviorism, attempted to make psychology scientifically relevant and acceptable, adding his voice to a growing chorus of basic researchers criticizing Freud’s nebulous and metaphoric ideas about “consciousness.”
“The position is taken here that the behavior of man and the behavior of animals must be considered on the same plane; as being equally essential to a general understanding of behavior. It can dispense with consciousness in a psychological sense…the findings of psychology become the functional correlates of structure and lend themselves to explanation in physico-chemical terms” (Watson, 1913).
Parting completely from Darwin and Freud, Watson proposed that nothing is instinctual in the infant. Rather, Watson stated that everything is built into a child through the interaction with his environment. Impressed with Pavlov’s early work on learning, he incorporated a highly simplified version of Pavlov’s principles of the conditional reflex and autonomic conditioning into his behaviorism concepts and experiments.
By the 1940s, however, two other American behaviorists, B. F. Skinner (1904–1990) and Edward Lee Thorndike (1874–1949), were modifying the ideas of Watson and embracing Konorski’s cognitive learning mechanism. Skinner believed that Pavlovian conditioning reflex was too simplistic to explain complex human behavior. He looked for the causes of an action and its consequences, calling his cognitive learning approach operant conditioning (i.e., changing behavior by following a desired response with reinforcement) (Skinner, 1988). This method followed Thorndike’s Law of Effect, which states behavior that is reinforced tends to be repeated and, that behavior not reinforced tends to be extinguished.
Despite the growing emphasis on a cognitive and mechanistic view of human behavior among psychologists, ethologists continued to study instinctive behavior in the animal world between 1900 and 1950. American experimental psychologist and behavior scientist Wallace Craig (1876–1954) studied the way innate and learned emotional behavioral tendencies are integrated with evolutionary, motivational, experiential, social and ecological degrees of freedom, and how vocal and social behaviors are organized (Craig, 1922). The work of Dutch biologist Nikolaas Tinbergen (1907–1988) (Tinbergen, 1951) and Austrian biologists Konrad Lorenz (1903–1989) and Karl von Frisch (1888–1982) combined laboratory and field science with other disciplines, such as neuroanatomy, ecology, and evolutionary biology, to study aggression, “nurture” and “bonding” in animals. Tinbergen did not venture into theoretical matters, but instead focused his efforts on standardizing the study of instincts in the field. His methods continue to be the gold standard for fully explaining behavior (Bateson and Laland, 2013).
Lorenz, on the other hand, theorized prolifically. He gained acclaim and popularity for his theory on the evolution of instinctive animal communication, based on his observations of fixed action patterns of geese and their ability to bond to humans after birth. Lorenz popularized the notion of imprinting, whereby a newly hatched chick forms what he termed an “attachment” to the person caring for it and follows it around. From his observations, Lorenz concluded that the attachment phenomenon provided compelling evidence that social instincts are not learned through experience. Rather, he concluded disturbingly, they are inherited, genetic and decadent (Kalikow, 1983).
The research of ethologist Lorenz and the beliefs of Freudian psychologists produced a similar consensus that instincts are inherited, genetic in origin, and more or less fixed at birth. These theories and ideas collectively formed the foundational principles of the new interdisciplinary field of neuroscience, which was bringing together the fields of Physiology, Behavioral Psychology and Genetics, among others. A general excitement abounded at the mid-point of the twentieth century that Darwin’s dilemmas could finally be explained and resolved through increasingly reductive brain and gene research.
It was at this time and in this theoretical climate that British psychiatrist and researcher, John Bowlby (1907–1990) set out to find a testable hypothesis to Freud’s ideas on instincts. He did so by compiling theories and research that prevailed at the time. Mary Ainsworth, Bowlby’s protégé, explained his goal in 1969:
“[Bowlby] proposes to replace Freudian instinct theory with a set of propositions, testable through research, more closely in line with present-day knowledge, while at the same time respecting the many psychoanalytic contributions to understanding human experience and behavior which are not tied inextricably to an antiquated instinct model” (Ainsworth, 1969).
It is difficult to follow Bowlby’s theory and the arguments supporting it, mainly because the theory is not a tightly articulated or consistent theory but a wide-ranging and sometimes contradictory amalgamation of theories from various fields. Nonetheless, in Part 2 of his first book (Bowlby, 1969), Bowlby claims that he has created a new comprehensive explanation for instinctive behavior:
“A long-awaited theoretical breakthrough has been achieved by analytical biology and control theory, which together have elucidated the basic principles that underlie adaptive, goal-directed behavior. Exploiting this breakthrough have been three empirically based sciences: ethology, experimental psychology, and neurophysiology.”
Bowlby stated that his new Attachment Theory was built upon the Neo-Darwinist genetic theory of natural selection and Freud’s drive theory. Citing Williams (1972), Weiner (1948), Skinner (1938), Lorenz (1937), Hinde (1970) and various cognitive scientists and their research, Bowlby proposed that behavioral systems are individual and self-controlled through feedback loops in a hierarchical top-down manner in ways that promote and satisfy the individual’s needs and survival instincts. Thus, Bowlby places his work solidly within the Darwinian orthodox theoretical mainstream without offering any new insights on the two dilemmas discussed here.
Bowlby did part slightly from Freud on instinctive behavior, postulating that rather than inheriting the instinct itself one inherits a “potential” for the instinct. In the end, however, Bowlby, like Darwin before him, did not offer a definition of instinctive behavior, but rather offered a description of it. Bowlby’s ideas about early infancy and early childhood, as well as the research they stimulated, were soon criticized as lacking rigorous scientific validation (Mercer, 2011) or theoretical rigor (Lehrman, 1953). Despite these shortcomings, however, Bowlby’s description of behavior associated with the Attachment construct and Ainsworth’s behavioral coding system (Crittenden, 2017) remain the standards by which psychologists assess and treat behavior.
In the late 1960’s and 1970’s, influenced by a group of child development researchers at Harvard University, Colwyn Trevarthen (born 1931) developed the theory of “innate intersubjectivity” (Trevarthen and Aitken, 2001) to explain the emergence and development of active “self-and-other” awareness in infancy. Intersubjectivity theory proposes that “the infant is born with awareness specifically receptive to subjective states in other persons,” and that a human individual “grows in active engagement with an environment of human factors – organic at first, then psychological or inter-mental.” The terms “innate” and “organic” are not clearly defined and no pre-natal learning mechanism is proposed. Thus, intersubjectivity theory focuses on the psychological mechanisms associated with social development following birth, leaving the dilemma of instincts unresolved.
Contemporaneous with, yet completely separate from Bowlby’s work in the 1970’s, American psychiatrist Martha G. Welch reported anecdotal evidence that contradicted accepted theories on instinctive behavior. Welch treated autistic children and their families with an intervention that involved regular and repeated physical “co-calming” sessions, primarily between mothers and children (Welch, 1988). The hallmark of the intervention was that the treatment method led to profound phenotypical changes, from maladaptive avoidant behavior to adaptive approach behavior in both the child and mother, sometimes following a single calming session (Welch et al., 2006).
Welch’s work came to the attention of Nobel Laureate Niko Tinbergen, who had called in his Nobel speech for young clinicians and scientists to take a new look at autism. After visiting Welch’s treatment center and observing phenotypical behavioral changes in autistic children and their mothers, Tinbergen became convinced that Welch had discovered a therapeutic breakthrough. For the last ten years of his life, he and his wife helped promote Welch’s discovery (Welch, 1983). But, by the late 1990’s, it became clear that Welch’s insights were not going to change the treatment of emotional disorders without providing rigorous scientific evidence to support her method, including a biological mechanism and a theory of change to support the behavioral changes observed using her treatment method.
From the late 1940s to the present, various developmental psychobiologists sought scientific explanations for ontological questions surrounding prenatal, perinatal and early childhood development and emotional behavior by combining biological psychology, neuroscience and many other areas of biology. Of this group, Myron A. Hofer, was one of the most influential. An early proponent of Bowlby, Hofer came to realize that it was not possible to generate testable hypotheses within Bowlby’s theoretical construct of attachment as a unique motivational system (Hofer, 2006). Instead, Hofer and his colleagues focused their research on the basic biological components underlying mother/infant behaviors, such as sleep, feeding, thermoregulation, attention, and on Michael M. Myers’ work on the specific relationship between behavior and cardiovascular function (Myers, 1992).
Hofer posited that within normal mother–infant interactions there are three main categories of “hidden regulators” associated with the caregiver: behavioral-sensorimotor, thermal-metabolic and nutrient-interoceptive (Hofer, 1994). Using animal models to study specific maternal stimulations, he found that warmth, milk and touch had immediate regulatory effects on various physiological activity, including heart rate (Hofer, 2006). Hofer theorized that these hidden regulators form the biological basis of Bowlby’s “internal working model” of attachment. These regulatory interactions become associated with physical and psychological events (Hofer, 2006), an idea similar to Darwin’s first principle on the expression of emotions (see above). Hofer’s data pointed to autonomic regulation embedded in social interactions between mother and infant, with mother regulating infant and, in turn, infant regulating mother, especially with regard to eliciting maternal behaviors. In experiments involving what he termed “social entrainment of biologic rhythms,” Hofer suggested Pavlovian learning could be at work (Hofer, 1984). He postulated that disruption of this mother-infant regulation through social separation can have profound lasting negative impact on various functions of the autonomic nervous system, including heart rate, and that such events can negatively impact physiology throughout the life span.
Yet another group of scientists, evolutionary biologists (Payne and Wagner, 2018), were beginning to reveal intriguing new statistical facts about Darwin’s social instincts. Applying new mathematical models in the 1960’s, William Donald Hamilton (1936–2000) proposed a genetic basis for cooperation and altruism that supported Darwin’s theories, based upon the concept of inclusive fitness. Also building on new mathematical breakthroughs, evolutionary game theory originated in 1973, when John Maynard Smith (1920–2004), and George R. Price (1992–1975) proposed mathematical criteria that can be used to analyze and predict contests and competing strategies first identified in animals by ethologists Lorenz and Tinbergen (see above) (Maynard-Smith and Price, 1973). The theory proposed a basis for social instincts in Darwinian evolution by applying game theory to evolving populations in biology (Nowak and Sigmund, 2005).
Today, evolutionary game theory is of interest to economists, anthropologists, and philosophers and to sociobiologists, such as E. O. Wilson (see above). An offshoot of evolutionary game theory, indirect reciprocity theory proposes an explanation of altruistic, cooperative interactions in human populations (Nowak and Sigmund, 2005). This theoretical work has advanced the understanding of certain aspects of human behavior by going beyond the rational, touching on the subconscious and proposing various cognition-based mechanisms that drive emotions, especially with respect to cooperation (Wang et al., 2017; Xia et al., 2017). In that sense, evolutionary game theory ends up supporting Darwin’s theories of natural selection and instincts and falls in line with traditional views on the origin of emotions. While solving certain aspects of social instincts, evolutionary game theory falls short of producing a simple testable hypothesis that can account for epigenetic factors influencing instinctive behavior in the perinatal period. See more on this point in Part 3 below.
About the same time, however, ethologists were accumulating new evidence that suggested evolution might be occurring at the group level, and that social instincts play a key role. Gradually, a new group calling themselves sociobiologists (Wilson, 2008b) began to challenge Darwin’s natural selection theory. In 1966, Suzanne Batra (born 1937) introduced the term eusocial (meaning “good” social) to describe the nesting behavior of certain species of bees. Batra observed that these bees, males and females alike, displayed social stratification that included cooperative, altruistic behavior during various brood raising tasks within the colony, and that these behaviors gave the group an advantage over competing groups. About the same time, E. O. Wilson (1929) mounted a formidable challenge to the prevailing belief that all behavior was genetic, based on observed altruistic behavior of ants. Wilson theorized that evolution actually tends to favor epigenetic environmental factors and traits, such as empathy, altruism and cooperation, over individual traits. Starting in 1994, E. O. Wilson, together with David Sloan Wilson (born 1949) and Elliot Sober (born 1948), began proposing that amplification of social instincts through small mutations in polymorphisms or alleles (which importantly have to do with how the young are cared for) has given certain species, including homo sapiens, a phenotypical competitive survival advantage (Sober and Wilson, 1998; Wilson, 2008a).
Due largely to advances in research technology, there was tremendous growth in scientific knowledge about the structure and function of genes during the second half of the twentieth century, thus promising new ways to test genetic theories. Solving the structure of DNA in 1953 by James Watson (1928) and Francis Crick (1916–2004), opened a new era in gene research, and with it predictions that breakthrough treatments of emotional disorders were imminent. This excitement gained even more intensity in the early 1960’s, when the description of nerve signals and synaptic transmission by Julius Axelrod led to a rapid acceleration of biochemical brain research on the effects of psychotropic agents on brain chemistry. Then, with development of DNA sequencing in 1977 by Frederick Sanger (1918–2013), excitement spread to the business world, which quickly monetized these discoveries. By 2000, however, the search for simple genetic explanations and/or brain mechanisms for emotional disorders, such as autism, began to stall as genetic makeup by itself could not account for behavioral variance and anomalies. The stall was driven in large part by a growing body of science that showed epigenetic factors, such as plasticity, played an important role in the etiology and regulation of emotional disorders (Agrawal, 2001; Gardener et al., 2011; Turecki and Meaney, 2016).
Aside from the excitement generated by the new genetic findings, research was revealing ways that genes can be modified behaviorally through experience. In his 1972 essay titled “Ethology,” Tinbergen summarized a large number of studies that demonstrate ways in which innate behavior that is not changed by cognitive learning interacts with environmental experience to produce structured patterns of instinctive behavior (Tinbergen, 1972). Gilbert Gottlieb (1929–2006) showed that transgenerationally recurring prenatal sensory experiences are critical to learning during the prenatal and postnatal periods of development (Blumberg, 2017; Lickliter, 2017). Gottlieb’s theory of probabilistic epigenesis, which states that there is no predetermined path to trait development, was the first serious challenge to both the Darwinian and Neo-Darwinian theories of natural selection (Gottlieb, 2002).
The first two decades of the current century have witnessed a sea change in the science of behavior, how the body communicates with and influences cognition and how the brain processes communications from the body to produce behaviors. Neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux popularized the term “Social Brain” (LeDoux, 1996) and identified two integrated sensory pathways to the amygdala, one fast and subcortical and the other slow and cortical (LeDoux and Brown, 2017). Neurobiologist Antonio Damasio mapped the neural systems that underlie emotion, decision-making, memory, language and consciousness. His somatic marker hypothesis (Damasio, 1996) describes how the biological underpinnings of emotions influence both positive and negative decision-making, often subconsciously. Many have worked to merge the latest findings in evolutionary biology as first noted by Darwin, with developmental biology (Kutschera and Niklas, 2004), as well as attachment theory (Lickliter, 2008). This new “evo-devo” field builds on work of SG Mivart (1827–1900), who was one of the first to recognize the limited role of natural selection (Chhetri, 2014). To explain how species evolved from one another, Mivart ceded natural selection as an environmental and efficient cause, but he proposed that instincts within the individual organisms are a formal “cause.”
The even newer field of eco-evo-devo adds ecological considerations. This field examines the developmental processes of two organisms in symbiotic relationship to each other to uncover the ways that animal bodies evolved and function (Figure 2). This new field is studying genetic and environmental mechanisms that underlie the development of social and cognitive competencies, as well as the epigenetic (gene–environment interactions) processes that adapt these competencies to local conditions (Lickliter, 2017) (Figure 3).
Figure 2. Growing awareness of beneficial symbiosis of organisms to result in an organism’s phenotype. Reprinted with permission from Springer Nature (Gilbert et al., 2015).
Figure 3. Solitary and gregarious morphs of the desert locust. This dramatic and rapidly produced difference in both appearance and behavior is triggered by increased social stimulation. Reprinted with permission from AAAS (Anstey et al., 2009).
Another relatively recent scientific breakthrough that has raised appreciation for the power of body functions to shape emotional behavior and cognition is the mapping of the human microbiome. Gut microbiota have been found to have significant effects on cardiac modulation (Polsinelli et al., 2017), mood regulation (Vitetta et al., 2014), immunologic, hormonal and metabolic homeostasis (Lach et al., 2018) and early infant development (de Weerth, 2017). At the same time, gut-brain vagal stimulation was introduced to remediate a wide range of medical, psychiatric and emotional disorders, including autism (Engineer et al., 2017) and G.I. disorders (Bonaz et al., 2018). In animal models of sepsis, the vagus nerve has been proposed to play a crucial role in the regulation of the immune response (Matteoli and Boeckxstaens, 2013). Gut vagal afferents differentially modulate learned fear and innate anxiety, adding further weight to theories emphasizing an important role of afferent visceral signals in the regulation of emotional behavior (Klarer et al., 2014). While microbiome research has shifted attention of science and the public to peripheral influences on behavior and health, for the most part microbiome and vagal signaling findings are still being interpreted within the orthodox theoretical brain-centric self-regulation paradigm that has prevailed since Darwin (Foster et al., 2017).
Since 2000, the ability to examine instincts, or innate behaviors, in humans has grown rapidly, due to several converging factors. Rising premature birth rates coupled with improved survival, now account for one out of ten births in the United States (Ambrose et al., 2015). The maternal separation required by intensive hospitalized care, along with the long-term emotional, behavioral and developmental consequences of these early births (Agrawal et al., 2018), have created opportunities for researchers to test theories about perinatal mother-infant innate behavioral mechanisms in a highly controlled environment. Yet, despite recent growth and diversity in scientific findings, the main medical assumptions that determine how socioemotional behavior is viewed or treated have evolved very little over the past 160 years. Innate behaviors are still regarded as individual and genetic in origin and therefore resistant to change. When symptomatic emotional behavior arises, it is often regarded as psychological in origin and is assessed within Bowlby’s attachment construct and theory (Perry et al., 2017; Mikulincer and Shaver, 2018). The strategies for remediating symptomatic behavior involve various cognitive learning therapies and/or drug therapies targeting the brain. This current thinking and strategy, however, is increasingly criticized as not meeting growing worldwide mental health problems (Patel et al., 2018). Attempts to link Attachment phenotypes to physiology have failed thus far (Barazzone et al., 2018). And, attempts to exploit brain mechanisms using pharmaceuticals and conventional behavioral interventions have proved costly and/or when effective, not scalable (Timlin et al., 2014; Feliu-Soler et al., 2018).
To summarize, there has been a vast amount of research in the past century increasing scientific knowledge about the brain and genes, accompanied by many medical and scientific “reductionist” breakthroughs. Multiple attempts to revise, repackage or reinterpret Darwin’s original conclusions about instincts, based upon the assumptions that he himself was not entirely satisfied with, have yet to produce a simple testable hypothesis when it comes to the emotional behaviors that arise between mother and infant in the perinatal period.
Part 2: Darwin’s Control of Heart Rate Dilemma
While it was known since antiquity that heart rate could be inhibited or even stopped by stimulating the peripheral pneumogastric or vagus nerve without conscious input (Hoff, 1940), the phenomenon was a curiosity to physicians and physiologists. Descartes was among the many prominent scientists who offered theories on peripheral and central inhibition of the heart (Stuart et al., 2014), but the mechanism(s) were not yet understood (Hoff, 1936). This presented a particular problem for Darwin’s theory of natural selection, which favors the behaviors of intellectually superior individuals. If evolution is influenced by conscious mechanisms, what is the role of peripheral and unconscious mechanisms? Darwin was greatly puzzled by the power of the unconscious actions of social instincts, especially in the newborn infant. He stated:
“Reflex actions, in the strict sense of the term, are due to the excitement of a peripheral nerve, which transmits its influence to certain nerve cells, and these in their turn excite certain muscles or glands into action; and all this may take place without any sensation or consciousness on our part …” (Darwin, 1872).
The idea that something other than the individual’s higher cognitive mechanisms could influence behavior, however, more or less preoccupied Darwin’s thinking. He wrote, “when movements, associated through habit with certain states of the mind, are partially repressed by the will, the strictly involuntary muscles, as well as those which are least under the separate control of the will, are liable still to act” (Darwin, 1872).
Darwin could not provide answers to the dilemma of peripheral control of heart rate with any certainty and concluded his thinking with a challenge to physiologists. “From these several causes, we may conclude that the philosophy of our subject [i.e., the expression of emotions in man and animals] has well deserved the attention which it has already received from several excellent observers, and that it deserves still further attention, especially from any able physiologist (Darwin, 1872).
Attempts to Resolve Control of Heart Rate Dilemma
Prior to the publishing of Darwin’s theory of natural selection in 1859, the understanding of heart rate control had advanced significantly, particularly with the work on vagal inhibition by the Weber brothers (Ernst, Wilhelm, and Eduard) and the discovery of vagal arrest by Claude Bernard (Hoff, 1940) in the
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, baggies filled with white powder, marijuana cigarettes/joints, alcoholic beverages)
- Finding empty alcoholic beverage containers
- Chapped or burned lips
- Smelling substances in and around the person (e.g., smell of smoke in room, car, etc.)
- Changes in behavior (e.g., more secretive, increase in conflicts with adults and other authority figures, ignoring personal hygiene, declining grades)
- Changes in mood (more withdrawn, depressed, anxious, restless)
- Stealing and lying (e.g., money missing from family members, prized possessions disappearing from home)
In some cases, adolescents exhibit more extreme signs, which may include:
- Suicidal thoughts and behavior (sometimes people who are struggling with substance use become desperate and in that desperation become actively suicidal)
- Increased conflicts and extreme aggressiveness (chemical changes occurring within the brain as a result of substance use may be responsible)
- Sudden health crises (e.g., seizures, convulsions, vomiting, sweating, paranoia, and psychotic episodes)
- Arrests, fights, sexual assaults
- Check either your state or county department of mental (or behavioral) health website for the locations and contact information of licensed treatment facilities. Usually, programs catering specifically to adolescents and their families are identified.
- The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) maintains an online list of all the treatment providers in the United States. Their link is findtreatment.samhsa.gov. They may also be reached at 1-800-662-HELP.
- The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) offers lots of free information about drugs, abuse, and treatment. Their link is www.drugabuse.gov. Follow the link for “parents and teachers” to get specific information that may help dealing with a teenager.Monday, September 30, 2019
Many religions of the world have eight elements in common. The elements are a belief system, community, central myths, ritual, ethics, characteristic emotional experiences, material expression, and sacredness. These elements help shape religions and the people who believe in them. In this paper I discuss how these elements are similar or how they differ in each of a few of indigenous religions. Unique in their own way there are numerous religious traditions, some of the religion traditions include: Buddhism ââ¬â this is a means of existing based on the experience of Siddhartha Gautama, Christianity ââ¬â earthââ¬â¢s largest belief, foundation of Jesus Christ teachings, Hinduism ââ¬â collection of faiths, embedded in the religious thoughts of India. Islam ââ¬â discovered by the Prophet Muhammad. These religious traditions along with numerous others vary from each other, but they serve the same purpose. A relationship with the divine is essential in all beliefs of religion without communication and connection with the divine, the challenges, tribulations and experiences encountered daily becomes difficult to handle because the testing of his or her faith and being disobedient to the word of God. The relationship as well as the fellowship with the divine helps him or her to walk in the light and to live in total honesty toward God as well as with each other, without the consistent relationship and fellowship it causes he or she to be out of character and have broken fellowship with the divine. Sacred time is the ââ¬Å"time of eternityâ⬠(Molloy, 2010, p. 43). The schedule or activities that he or she encounters daily is determine by the effective use of the clock throughout our lives. Within the religious sector sacred time for numerous religions is valued in different ways. Sacred time allows the believer to come in contact with his or her thought of being set apart. Religion provides an individual the sense of purpose for living and security. The belief in a higher power provides comfort to a human. The knowledge of how we began tells us the reason why we are here and where we are going. This knowledge or awareness is often the driving force behind theà belief of one God, a supreme being, or some call it the sacred. Let us have a look at Christianity and its teachings, and how the Christians are organized. During this process one will see the relationship between Christianity and other religions. The origin of each of the tales in these special books is determined to have begun with a prophet who communicated directly with God. Some of the stories appear to have a mythical origin. For example, in the Bible, Jesus (May peace and blessings be upon him) is believed to have died and risen from the dead again. References Molloy, M.. (2010). Experiencing the worldââ¬â¢s religions: Traditions, challenge, and change. Retrieved from Molloy, M., REL/133 website.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Health and Safety play a very important role in the workplace today. Many organizations take the responsibility of their employeesââ¬â¢ safety and health seriously due to the various affects that could stem from a lack of providing a safe work environment. During the 20th century our nation has become a world leader in setting an example for the world involving the workers right to a safe and healthy environment. Because of the various laws and research conducted in the United States, there have been countless number of accidents that have been prevented and thousands of lives saved because of awareness. I, being a Safety Coordinator and a workplace accident survivor, know firsthand the importance of safety in the workplace and the negative outcome for employees and organizations that do not practice a safe work environment. I would like to take this time to give a little information on my personal experience on workplace accidents and the importance of safety in that environment. In 2007 I was employed as a bridge carpenter working for a large construction company in Biloxi, MS. As a bridge carpenter is was exposed to many dangerous and high risk situations that put my life at risk on an everyday basis. I felt this company actually cared about the safety of their employees. We were provided with every piece of safety equipment that was needed to perform our job as safely as possible. The equipment was fairly new and OSHA approved. If it was found to be inadequate, it was immediately removed out of service and either fixed or replaced. Not to mention every morning we conducted toolbox safety meeting and equipment inspections. This particular day of my near fatal accident, we were setting rebar cages for columns maybe 30 to 40 feet in height. It was my responsibility to climb the cage, after it was set on the footer with a crane, to unhook the rigging from the crane. I had all the proper PPE (personal protective equipment) on and the cage had been secured at th e bottom by come along rigging devices. As I climbed the cage and Unhooked the rigging from the crane, the cage began to sway from side to side. Before I could start my descent, the cage and myself still attached to it with three different positioning, fell in the water, which by the way was the Gulf of Mexico. As my feet touched the bottom I began to panic and fight to free myself by unhooking myself from the cage. Several of my co workers jumped in the water to rescue me, but they were unable to locate my body. But they were able to locate the cage I was attached to. Thanks to quick thinking they were able to hook the crane cables back to the cage and hoist the cage and I out of the water successfully. But by this time I was not breathing and had no pulse. They lowered me on a crew boat and began to perform CPR. The CPR was unsuccessful so they began to take me to the dock where the ambulance was awaiting my arrival. During the time of the boat ride, I suddenly began to cough up water and slowly came to my senses. I was taken to the hospital and was blessed that I did not sustain any major injuries. During the accident investigation it was found that the cage we were setting was not the correct one for that particular footing and one of the come along holding it in place was functioning properly to catch the cage as it began to fall. This is when I actually began to take workplace safety seriously and start my career in that field. During the course of this paper it is my intent to present key components of workplace safety and health and provide new insight and personal experience that has and will affect my career and personal life and lives of those around me. The Role of Safety and Health in the Workplace Workplace safety is the practice of an employer using preventative measures to prevent hazards to the employeesââ¬â¢ health and personal safety. This practice includes creating plans and procedures for employees and managers in the workplace. In addition, workplace safety involves creating policies and keeping emergency materials available for employee and manager use while at a work site. Workplace safety has caused strikes, contract negotiations and concerns among the different labor unions. These groups have negotiated union contracts and initiated lawsuits on behalf of workers who have an unsafe workplace. The Union Auto Workers created ââ¬Å"Workersââ¬â¢ Memorial Dayâ⬠as a day to honor workers who are killed on the job in the United States. David Micheals, the new head of OSHA, made this profound statement ââ¬Å"these catastrophic events are powerful reminders of the risks faced by workers across the country every day. Fourteen workers die on the job each day, far from the headlines, often noted only by their families, friends, and co-workers.â⬠(Markowitz & Rosner, 2011, p.26) Manufacturing jobs are heavily mentioned on this day due to the dangers of operating machinery or equipment. Workplace safety in many businesses requires additional training for the employees and management. This can include a lecture by an expert, hand-on training or a tour of the grounds and materials. For example, an employee whose job requires the use of a machine is not only trained to use the machine, but he is typically trained on how to operate machinery to avoid injury, dismemberment or death. The employee can also be trained on what to do if a co-worker injures herself on the job. As I stated in the introduction of this paper, I know firsthand the importance of safety and health in the workplace. By understanding the role of workplace safety and its history, employers and employees are able to apply these safety concepts to their everyday work related routines. I have learned that workplace safety and health reach far beyond the OSHA Act of 1970. Safety involves adopting a way of thinking and a way of functioning in all environments. Organizations such as unions have fought for workers right to a safety and healthy work environment. The campaigns they have fought so diligently to win have proven to be effective in fighting diseases like tuberculosis, typhoid, and smallpox that not only for the workplace but also for the general public. (Markowitz & Rosner, 2011, p.27) Occupational Safety and Health Administration In 1970 Congress passed into law The Occupational Safety and Health Act which formed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or (OSHA). This act ââ¬Å"declared that every worker is entitled to safe and healthful working conditions, and that employers are responsible for work being free from all recognized hazardsââ¬.(Silverstein, 2008, p.416) Even forty years later, many people still do not believe that OSHA is up holding the standard in workplace safety and health for which it was designed to do. Today a worker still becomes injured or sick from a dangerous job every 2.5 seconds plus a worker dies from a workplace injury or illness every 8 minutes. The National Institute for Occupational Safety, also known as NIOSH, has authority for workplace safety and health matters at federal workplace locations. In the federal workplace environment, NIOSH has an enforcement authority that corresponds to the authority OSHA exercises over workplaces operated by private sector emplo yers. In some instances, state-run programs supersede OSHA authority, and the Occupational and Safety and Health Act of 1970 encourages the development and operation by individual states of workplace safety and health programs. However, to qualify for this exemption to OSHA authority, a state-run program must establish standards and enforcement criteria that match or exceed the effectiveness of the federal OSHA program. As of April 2010, 26 states and U.S. territories have such programs in place with 23 of those 26 covering state and local government workplaces as well as workplaces operated by private sector employers. The Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 established mandatory health and safety standards and directed the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and the Secretary of Labor to create improved health and safety standards to protect the health and welfare of coal miners in the U.S. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) established a national minimum wage, guaranteed time-and-a-half for overtime in certain types of jobs, and prohibited employers from hiring minors. Today the FLSA helps to enforce and protect the rights and wages of non-exempt employees. I do not have much experience working directly with OSHA but as an OSHA outreach trainer, I have become accustom to understand the importance and impact they can and do have in a workplace environment. Working as a safety coordinator for several different contractors has given me an insight as to how some organizations adhere to OSHA regulations and how other organizations do not. With this insight and from knowledge gained from this course, I see that we still need stay focused on continuous safety awareness and to ensure OSHA enforces the laws and regulations for violators. By understanding the history and the need for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in our society, I have a greater enthusiasm to perform my job functions as a safety coordinator at a higher level and expect the people around me to adhere to the same level of faithfulness. Safety Issues In The Workplace Safety issues are an important topic in todayââ¬â¢s workplace, especially with the rise in accidents in places of work and business. Accidents may often be small, but they can also lead to life-altering results such as mutilation and even death. The most common type of safety issue in workplaces relates to tripping and falling, however, there are many other causes to be considered. An organization with a superior policy for dealing with safety issues should be considering topics such as ergonomics and the arrangement of the space so that the tasks best fit the people who complete them. In this discussion the focus will be on three in particular which are repetitive stress injuries, workplace stress, and substance abuse. In todayââ¬â¢s society, there are many jobs that require sitting at a work station all day. Employees that perform these types of jobs run a higher risk of being injured by chronic and repetitive motion task, like typing on a keyboard, eyestrains, lifting or mov ement injuries, poor ergonomics or workstation accidents. (Lowe, 2012, p.104) Majority of musculoskeletal injuries and pain affecting office workers are a result of sitting for long periods in the same position performing the same or repetitive motions. I have learned that the key to prevention and treatment of these problems is reducing muscle and tendon overuse. A great method to reduce these injuries from happening would be massage therapy. Massage therapy allows the tendons to release pressure that has built up throughout the day or work hours. Another treatment method would be employees do daily stretches at their workstation. When I began working as a carpenter, every morning we would start the day out by doing a series of stretches to loosen our muscle the same way an individual would if they were preparing to exercise. Work related stress is another major safety issue that affects the workplace. Workplace stressors like interpersonal conflict and work overload can have a profound effect on the health of an organizationââ¬â¢s employees. ââ¬Å"Findings indicate that work overload and interpersonal conflict mediate the impact of role stress on emotional exhaustion, job attitudes, and behaviors.â⬠(Boles, Jaramillo, Mulki, 2011, p.329) Interpersonal conflict happens due to the negative social interactions between co-workers in the workplace. Also interpersonal conflict is one of the most important stressors at work due to the effect it has on employeesââ¬â¢ emotions and their ability to work as a team. Work overload is the employeesââ¬â¢ perception that the job is placing excessive work demands on them. In todayââ¬â¢s workforce employees are pressured to deliver greater output while using fewer resources. Overloaded individuals often experience feelings of impatience and being rushed, which in turn affects the quality of their interactions with co-workers. ââ¬Å"Because of rising unemployment rates, layoff survivors are more likely to experience larger workloads because they now perform both their former workload and that of those who left.â⬠(Boles, Jaramillo, Mulki, 2011, p.329) From my experience interpersonal conflict and work overload can have a big impact on the health of all employees with no regard to title, pay grade, or seniority. These stressors can cause emotional, mental, and physical health issues for all they affect. Through newly found knowledge, I have gained a greater understanding of the effects that workplace stress can have on an organizationââ¬â¢s employees and how they interact with one another. Organizations can counteract these stressors by providing additional support to individuals who are being affected by these workplace stressors and conducting workload/interpersonal conflict evaluations bi annually. ââ¬Å"Handling problems of substance use and abuse at work are some of the most challenging issue s confronting employers.â⬠(Dwoskin, 2012, p. 32) The law requires employers to provide a safe, healthy and productive work environment to employees, but it also requires employers accommodate the needs of substance abusing employees. This could cause a conflict, because the substance abusing employees may be causing the health and safety issues in the workplace. Employers have the right to insist on a drug and alcohol free workplace and to take disciplinary action against individuals who violate the zero tolerance rules. Under the law ââ¬Å"employers may hold alcoholics and recovering addicts to the same performance standards as other employees.â⬠(Dwoskin, 2012, p.32) This means that employees that abuse drugs and alcohol may be discharged or held to disciplinary action based on tardiness, absenteeism, and poor job performance. But on the other hand, the ADA says they cannot be discriminated against if they are found to be disabled. The ADA defines discrimination as ââ¬Å"not making reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified individual with a disabilityâ⬠(Dwoskin, 2012, p.34) During the course of my research of this particular issue, I learned effect that substance abuse in the workplace can have on the safety of that individual and the people around them. I also learned that in certain situations that a person abusing drugs and alcohol can be protected by the ADA if they are found to be disabled and the employer must accommodate their disability in the workplace. I have known several instances where employees have failed random drug screens and have been able to keep their jobs. But in those instances the employer required the employee to seek professional help in dealing with their addiction. Safety Programs ââ¬Å"A safety program can best be described as a dynamic set of intervention activities implemented at a worksite where the aim is to prevent incidents and accidents at the workplaceâ⬠(Bjerkan, Olsen, Naevestad, 2009, p.391) These safety programs are usually comprised of activities such as safety training, equipment and housekeeping inspections, safety meetings, and safe behavior observations. There are five key components to a properly structured safety incentive program. The first component involves using an entire campaign to promote your program by building teamwork thru interaction with the employees. The next component is establishing an award vehicle that should be handed out weekly. The third component states to award employees with merchandise rather than money. Usually when employees receive money as a reward they tend to forget the reward and wee the money went to. But when an employee is rewarded with merchandise, they can recall how they received it and this enco urages them to win again. The fourth component says to promote the program using items such as posters, caps, balloons, newsletters, flyers, parties, and company drawings. The last component states to make everyone a winner. It might seem to cost more, but it will pay off in the long run by promoting the idea that everyone that practices safety in the workplace is a winner. Wellness is a lifestyle that encourages good physical and mental health. It is a balanced lifestyle that includes an emphasis on the body, mind and spirit. Wellness Programs were created to encourage all faculty, staff, and retirees to live healthier lifestyles and create a culture of health throughout the organization. Workplace wellness includes organizational policies designed to facilitate employee health including allowing flex time for exercise, providing on-site kitchen and eating areas, offering healthy food options in vending machines, holding ââ¬Å"walk and talkâ⬠meetings, and offering financial and other incentives for pa rticipation, among many other options. In the course of researching safety programs, I have learned new techniques that will enhance my knowledge in designing safety programs in the future. Working of several different companies has allowed me to be exposed to different types of safety incentive programs. I have seen what does work and also what does not work. During the course of this paper it was my intention to present key components of workplace safety and health and provide new insight and personal experience that has and will affect my career and personal life and lives of those around me. By exploring the role of safety and health in the workplace I have gained greater understanding of its history. I can now assist employers and employees to apply these safety concepts to their everyday work related routines. In researching OSHA, I discovered a greater knowledge of the importance of the OSHA Act of 1970 and the administrative offices that have developed from the Act. Offices such as OSHA and NIOSH were established to up hold the laws and standards set by the OSHA Act in the workplace. My knowledge has grown during the development of this paper which has allowed me to view different aspects of safety and health that I previously did not have knowledge of. References Dwoskin, L.L. (2012). Substance Abuse in the Workplace: ADA and FMLA Issues to Consider, Part II. Employee Benefit Plan Review, 66(8), 32-38 Jaramillo, F., Mulki, J., & Boles, J. S. (2011). WORKPLACE STRESSORS, JOB ATTITUDE, AND JOB BEHAVIORS: IS INTERPERSONAL CONFLICT THE MISSING LINK? Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 31(3), 339-356 Lowe, W. (2012). Keying Into Office Worker Injuries. Massage & Bodywork, 27(4), 104-107 Markowitz, G., & Rosner, D. (20110. FROM THE TRIANGLE FIRE TO THE BP EXPLOSION: A Short History of the Century-Long Movement for Safety and Health. New Labor Forum (Murphy Institute), 20(1), 26-32. Doi10.4179/NLF.201.0000005 Moran, R.E. (2012). WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH: Better OSHA Guidance Needed On Safety Incentive Programs. GAO Reports, 1-46 Olsen, E., Bjerkan, A., & Naevestad, T. (2009). Modeling the effects of a large-scale safety Culture programme: a combined qualitative and quantitative approach. Journal Of Risk research, 12 Silverstein, M. (2008). Getting Home Safe and Sound: Occupational Safety and Health Administration at 38: American Journal Of Public Health, 98(3), 416-423 Stanley, J. (2012). Oshaââ¬â¢s Warning on Safety Incentive Programs Are Wide of the Mark. EHS Today; Vol. 5 Issue 10, p. 63-64
Saturday, September 28, 2019
An Analysis of the Characters of Liliana Hecker's Short Story The Stolen Party The characters in the short story, The Stolen Party demonstrate striking differences in their values and beliefs. Each character displays unique traits. It is these unique traits, which illustrate different aspects of society. Each character then, represents a portion of the values and beliefs of todays society. Rosaura is the main character of this writing. The story revolves around her from start to finish. Rosaura is an inexperienced young girl. This story opens with an argument between Rosaura and her mother. Rosaura wants to go to Lucianas birthday party. Luciana is in a wealthy family so Rosauras mother disapproves of her daughters attending the party. In the first few sentences the author makes it evident that Rosaura is financially challenged. Rosauras mother says, I dont like you going because it is a rich peoples party. This one sentence already tells me that they are probably not very wealthy. In addition Rosaura is an inexperienced young girl. She is not tarnished by the belief that everyone should be judged according to his or her financial worth. She, unlike her mother, judges people by who they are and not by how much money they have. When Rosauras mother states, you should not fart higher than your own ass she shows that she feels below those who are wealthy. Rosauras argum ent shows that she does not feel bound by her financial status. Her financial state isnt even an issue to her. She says that she wants to go because she is a friend of Luciana and because she was invited. The author also demonstrates Rosauras openness in the first few paragraphs of the story. Since Rosaura is only nine years old she has no prior experience of prejudice. She does not realize that her mother might be right about her assumption that not everyone will accept her at the party and treat her with the same respect. The author begins the story by demonstrating how much Rosauras mother loathes the rich. Her disapproval of her daughters attending the birthday party, expresses some hidden anger and maybe even jealousy towards those who are wealthy. Rosauras mother feels lower than Luceanas family. She feels that a persons financial status determines whom a person can associate with. The author eventually reveals that Rosauras mother is a maid. Because her job does not pay very high wages she feels inferior to Lucianas family. Her feelings of hostility toward the wealthy might come from years of prejudice. Rosauras mother constantly feels bound by her financial situation. Rosauras mother does not want her daughter going to the party because she is the daughter of humble maid. She feels that her daughter will not be looked upon as an equal, no matter what. Rosauras mother states, That ones not your friend. You know what you are to them? The maids daughter, thats what. But no matter how strongly Ros auras mother feels about this, she is willing to let her daughter go to the party. This demonstrates the unconditional love she has for her daughter. There are some characters in this story that are not developed as well as Rosaura and her mother. One of these characters is Luciana. Luciana is very similar to Rosaura in that she sees everyone as an equal. She does not consider Rosaura to be different from any of her other friends. She never considers Rosauras financial situation to be important. She treats Rosaura like all of her other friends. Another character, which is not covered in depth, is Lucianas cousin. She is brought into this story through an argument with Rosaura. Lucianas cousin doesnt know Rosaura but she feels inclined to start an argument with her anyway. Lucianas cousin begins to question Rosaura. She questions the fact that Rosaura is a friend of Luciana. Lucianas cousin seems to think that she is better than Rosaura. This shows the reader the first clues that Rosauras mother could have been right about wealthy people not accepting Rosaura. Another character that is only introduced briefly is the magician. The author does not get into his personality or values but it is made clear that he sees all of the children as equal. The last character that is introduced is Senora Ines. Once again the author does not develop her in depth. The author places her in the story in order to demonstrate the prejudice, which Rosauras mother had described. Senora Ines offers Rosaura money at the end of the party rather than a small gift. This demonstrates to Rosaura that she is, in fact, looked upon as being different from the other children. Each character in this story demonstrates an aspect of society today. Rosaura signifies the unsuspecting poor child. She represents the fact that a person usually does not develop stereotypes until they have experienced many of the aspects of life. Rosauras mother is placed in the story to illustrate another fact about todays society. Rosauras mother demonstrates that society influences the way a person thinks. She shows that from years of experience she has developed a pattern of stereotyping wealthy people. Luciana represents the wealthy part of society that does not see less fortunate people as being different. She, like Rosaura, does not stereotype people because of their financial worth. Lucianas cousin, on the other hand, demonstrates that part of the wealthy population that feels superior to the financially challenged. The magician in this story represents someone like a priest or a charity worker. He sees all of the kids at the party as equals. He is willing to let any of t hem participate in his magic. Senora Ines plays the part of society that feels obligated to offer charity to those who are less fortunate. The author not only writes a very interesting story but also provides an important message regarding society. People are too concerned with money in todays society. If we could all remain innocent (such as Rosaura and Luciana) and never become prejudice towards others the world would be a better place. Everyone would be judged according to who they are and not by what they posses.
Friday, September 27, 2019
Perfection Era - Research Paper Example Given such statement, women was regarded to be the light of every home. Each woman sees to it that their time is primarily devoted to their families and that culture made them the greatest possesion of every home. Thus, relative to this, it also shows that women is knowledgeable, skillfull and dedicated enough to do whatever task is attended to her which therefore confides that such notion can never be set aside and women can strike to deliver great changes. Consequently there was a paradigm shift on this as women started to make their own marks in the industry. One of which is in the world of literary arts. Not only that women excelled as novelists of their time but also women took efforts in teaching and nurturing in the academe of literary arts. This urgency stirred the liberate side of women as they can expressly divulge themselves through the novels, journals and articles that they write. Thus, it also restrained them due to the demands of their responsibilites for their familit ies alongside with the duties that their careers expects from them. They have to balance both responsibilities unto their hands which gave them extra challenge as they face their lives. Likewise, as women slowly unfolds diversities and starting to make a difference, abolitionists also quirked their thirst for accomplishing better. During the second great awakening, abolitionists did end the slavery days of the slaves. Social, political and religous concerns were brought up in a more provocative manner. They took a stand to voice out and fight for what they believe is in the realms of being humane and rightful. Pervertively, such actions also triggered social problems that somewhat worsen the situation due to the abrupt provocative fight of abolitionists. One evident example of the role of the second great awakening in the accompishments made by women and abolitionists is this, ââ¬Å"1834 had been the year of the Lane debates and the Lane rebels much discussed in the abolitionist pr ess. Mob violence against abolitionist speakers and literature was everywhere. In August 1835, Angelina GrimkAà © addressed the Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women at the Hall, while a mob stoned the windows. That night, mob arsonists burned the brand new Hall to the ground. I started out by saying that I would discuss the role of Seneca County in these movements, and here we are dwelling upon the southerners, Sarah and Angelina GrimkAà © and the burning of Pennsylvania Hall in Philadelphia in 1838â⬠( Second Great Awakening n.d.). This shows that the awakening aggrevated the rallying emotions of the people. What seemed to be the exuding genuises of the abolitionists somehow thwart the opinion of the resisters. We can now therefore conclude that women and abolitionists are seemingly quiet at first but when time gave them the chance to be heard everything turned upsidedown. Thus, its a good way of promoting equality and equilibrium in the society. One cannot truly say tha t a specific gender or group is superior than the other. We are made equally therefore we should all be treated with equal chances. With what happened in the second awakening it opened the avenue for more democratic state of the people. From the slightest thing up to the most
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Webmonkey 2 - Essay Example The weightage given to each of the respective users mentioned above would be such that the portal would be accessed 85% by students, mainly current students. Then around 14% of the siteââ¬â¢s usage would be by the course instructors and facilitators and lastly the parents of prospective students may access the site for information acquisition. This last accessing of the website would be about 1% of the siteââ¬â¢s total access. The students would attempt to pursue information regarding the structure of programs and their respective course outlines. The details regarding the credit structure of the courses and their prospective time tables can also be pursued by prospective students. The current students would attempt to pursue their existing course enrollment possibilities by searching the list of courses there are eligible to take or those which are being offered to them. Moreover, the learning portal for the enrolled courses and the access to the virtual library would also be via the proposed system. The financial profile of the current students as well as their fee payment history would also be maintained as part of the current user profile menu and can be accessed whenever required by the students. The BSITM proposed website would be accessible to the students who have passed out. The history of their study tenure, the issuance of transcript and online library access would be available to such students. The Instructors would be handling the lecture disposition and assignment/quiz postings by students on the BSITM portal. The Instructors may even become a part of the online group discussions regarding their active courses. Other websites having similar domain topics like BSITM need to be evaluated for architectural strength. This would eventually create proper awareness of what other websites are up to. Browsing already done work often results in better thought streaming and enables generation of even better thoughts for
Business Law & Ethics - Assignment Example They also argue that the design of cyberspace disqualifies notice of prevailing law that is critical to the legitimacy of the law. On the contrary, cyberspace members are much better sanctioned than territorial watchdogs to formulate wide-ranging legal policies that would grant appropriate notice to cyberspace members and internalise the expenditures of cyberspace transactions. The regulation cynics assume from these claims that national regulators must ââ¬Å"defer to the self-regulatory efforts of Cyberspace participantsâ⬠(Thierer & Crew 2003: 31). This paper will challenge the cynicââ¬â¢s claims and their assumptions, or more specifically, this paper will argue that the law of nations applies to the Internet. The cynics have three obvious mistakes. First, they overemphasise the dissimilarities between cyberspace activities and other transnational activities. Both entail individuals in actual space in one national jurisdiction negotiating with individuals in actual space in another national jurisdiction in a manner that at times brings about actual-world damages. Second, the cynics do not address the delineation between mandatory laws and default laws. Their absolute normative argument that self-regulation should be granted to cyberspace makes sense in relation to default laws that, theoretically, private factions can adjust to suit their needs (Spinello 2002). On the contrary, it makes much less logic in relation to regulatory or mandatory laws that, for protective justifications or in order to safeguard intermediaries, set restrictions on ââ¬Ëprivate legal orderingââ¬â¢ (Spinello 2002: 101). Lastly, the cynics undervalue the capability of established legal instruments and technology to lighten the regulatory difficulties caused by cyberspace. Cyberspace activities do not naturally permit any more respect by territorial regulators, and are not considerably less opposed to the instruments of
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Business law - Essay Example In public law, the government may either be implicated openly or not. Law is referred to as a private law when the government is not implicated in any way. This paper describes the differences and comparison between private law and public law. Differences between public law and private law There are a lot of differences between private law and public law. It is important to posit that all the descriptions established to define private law leaves out the government. The government is only involved in private law as an intermediary, negotiator, or the judge. The role of the government in public law differs from that of private law. In public law, the government is involved in a case as both the judge and the either complainant or the accused (Kelsen, 2009). There are other significant dissimilarities. Private law is essentially and fundamentally centralized rules and regulations. In contrast, public law is created and implemented by the government. Whereas private law may be similar in many regions, public law only has jurisdiction within the country it was created. However, there are some few private laws that do not fall under centralized rules and regulations on the basis of business. The statutes under public laws and regulations obligatory and compulsory hence are ought to be obeyed by individuals of the particular country they were created. They are also under the prudence of institutions in leadership in a country. According to Kelsen (2009, p. 202), ââ¬Å"As a rule private law provisions are at the disposal of parties and can be derogated from, amended or waived by mutual contractual agreementsââ¬. In private law, conformity and obedience of the law is imposed by the acts of the judiciary against an individual or institution. The government and top government officials are mandated by the law of the land to subject directives or ruling as well as give executive directives and instantaneously certify or warrant conformity. These executive directions a re mostly implemented by the law enforcers (Kleinmann, 2005). Conformity of executive directives can also be warranted through fines devoid of the acquisition of an order from the judiciary. In elucidating the differences between private and public law, it is important to differentiate between the conventional parts of private law and those of public law. In public law, conventional parts of the rules and regulations include rules and regulations of the constitution, executive rules, rules and regulations governing levies and tariffs, institutional rules, and rules on delinquency, and social security.
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spring/summer crop of a susceptible vegetable.
It’s also important to plant the plot densely: nematodes don’t travel far looking for roots to invade and you’ll want the entire site entirely dominated by marigold roots.
This will give the nematodes little choice. In the absence of any other food source, the hungry nematodes will have to migrate to and move into marigold roots where toxins inside will kill them before they can reproduce.
The following growing season, therefore, you will be able to grow plants susceptible to nematodes with little risk of damage, since the marigold cover crop will have reduced the numbers of nematodes so thoroughly there won’t be enough left to do any major damage.
But I repeat, do you really want to apply such a drastic treatment (imagine, an entire season without vegetables!) if you’re not even sure you have a nematode problem?!
But Marigolds Do Repel Pests, Right?
It is a common belief among gardeners that plants that smell strange to us will repel pests. And crushed marigold foliage certainly has an odd smell. Thus, people claim marigolds will repel a whole host of vegetable garden pests: cabbage worm, carrot fly, slugs, even cats! But this seems to be a case of wishful thinking. When you dig a bit into scientific studies on the subject, in general the presence of marigolds either has no effect on pests or slightly increases predation.
Marigolds Can Still Be Useful
Even if we remove nematode-toxicity and pest repellency from the equation, though, marigolds still have their use in companion planting.
First of all, their flowers help attract pollinating insects to the garden and that’s always a good thing. Most of us grow vegetables that need insect pollination, like cucumbers and squash, so any plant that brings in more bees, hoverflies, etc. are going to helpful.
Also, marigolds make a good trap crop for certain garden pests. They are highly susceptible to spider mites, aphids* and thrips, for example. Thus, if you interplant them with your vegetables, there is a very good chance that when pests attack, they’ll settle on the marigolds first. If so, it is, of course, important to pull out and destroy the marigolds before the pest population moves onto your vegetables.
*Amazingly, many companion planting sites claim marigolds repel aphids, yet when you grow them, they’re one of the most commonly affected plants!
So, marigolds are indeed the vegetable gardener’s friend… just not in the way you may have thought.Most of us are familiar with the much-maligned Western diet and its mainstay of processed food products found in the middle aisles of the grocery store. Some of us beeline for the salty chips and others for the sugar-packed cereals. But we are not the only ones eating junk food. An awful lot of crops grown in the developed world eat a botanical version of this diet—main courses of conventional fertilizers with pesticide sides.
It’s undeniable that crops raised on fertilizers have produced historical yields. After all, the key ingredients of most fertilizers—nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K)—make plants grow faster and bigger. And popular insecticides and herbicides knock back plant enemies. From 1960 to 2000, a time when the world’s population doubled, global grain production rose even more quickly. It tripled.1
But there is a trade-off. High-yielding crops raised on a steady diet of fertilizers appear to have lower levels of certain minerals and nutrients. The diet our crops eat influences what gets into our food, and what we get—or don’t get—out of these foods when we eat them.
Agronomists who analyzed archived wheat samples collected from 1873 to 1995 found significant declines in iron and zinc.2 A 2009 study of nutrient levels in United States crops concluded that there was strong evidence for 5 to 40 percent declines in the mineral content of fruits and vegetables over the previous 50 to 70 years.3
There are multiple factors at play in declining nutrient levels. Among them is the trend in plant breeding for larger seed, grain, fruit, or vegetable size. Picture a big russet potato next to a small fingerling potato, both grown in the same soil and containing the same total amount of iron. Thanks to modern breeding techniques, the larger russet can contain less iron per unit of biomass than the smaller fingerling, making the russet less nutrient-dense.
Modern agriculture also influences phytochemical levels in food. These powerful bioactive compounds made by plants confer innumerable health benefits to themselves and the people who eat them. In general, the closer a crop type is to its wild ancestor, the higher its phytochemical levels.4 Yet NPK fertilizers translate into lower phytochemical levels. When plants grow explosively they tend to cut back on making phytochemicals.
We end up with big fat high-yielding crops that look good on the outside but are poor in minerals on the inside.
Central to the problem of declining mineral and phytochemical levels is what goes on in the out-of-sight world of a plant’s roots. From our human perch we marvel at what we think a plant’s life consists of—growing. The gnarly seed that sprouts into a soft green thing and the sapling that becomes a behemoth, understandably, catch our eye.
But the things that fuel plant growth on today’s farms, chiefly NPK fertilizers, are not the same things that plants need to stave off disease, heal from injuries, and fend off pests and pathogens. In other words, our big human brains have long, and erroneously, conflated plant growth with plant health. And herein lies a pickle for modern agriculture.
The recipe for plant health is complex. It goes considerably beyond the simple mix of N, P, and K that plants need to grow. Obtaining the dizzying number of ingredients in this recipe largely falls to the root microbiome—the vast menagerie of beneficial microbes, particularly bacteria and fungi, that swath and shield a plant’s roots. The root microbiome delivers many of its metabolites to a plant’s roots as well as minerals, other nutrients, and beneficial compounds found in the soil. This whole package bolsters the health of plants in myriad ways. Conveniently for the botanical host, the root microbiome also specializes in delivering the N, P, and K that they need to grow.
Reciprocity keeps symbioses humming along. In other words—no one, or at least very few, gets a free lunch. A plant host won’t hand over its goods unless it receives what it needs from its root microbiome and vice versa. And plants have the right infrastructure to support such exchanges. Roots are not simply sucking straws. They deliver their goods to the root microbiome through pumping exudates—a homemade brew of carbohydrates, phytochemicals, and other edibles—into the soil.
Exudates anchor a plant’s symbiotic relationship with its root microbiome. And the amount of energy a plant dedicates to producing and handing out these nutritional goodies—sometimes more than a third of the carbon that a plant captures through photosynthesis—attests to the exudates’ significance.5 This is why plants won’t make them, or hand them over, without a compelling reason.
A plant that feeds its root microbiome ample exudates is a plant that receives N, P, and K plus the health-promoting goods of the root microbiome in return. Among these goods are those that perform chemical signaling at the heart of crosstalk between a plant and its root microbiome. This, along with some exposure to pests and pathogens, tees up plants to make phytochemicals.
But when crops gorge on free NPK fertilizers it monkey-wrenches the symbiotic way of life for plant and root microbiome alike. Nothing, not even a brainless plant, is going to expend a third of its energy on something that can be had for free. And so their green bodies crank down exudate production. The consequence? A root microbiome that produces fewer metabolites beneficial to plants. A fertilizer-fed plant may not need N, P, and K deliveries from its root microbiome, but in forgoing these things it loses out on the other things that the root microbiome delivers that foster plant health.
So we end up with big fat high-yielding crops that look good on the outside but are poor in minerals and phytochemicals on the inside. This state of affairs is a calamity for a plant. A shuttered, starving root microbiome is the great undoing of the botanical worlds’ strategy for coupling a just-right rate of growth with a formidable built-in arsenal and pharmacy.
Standing around on top of the ground trying to get your arms around this colossal problem is futile. We need to go underground, to a wild and alive place beneath our feet called the rhizosphere (“rhizo” is from the Greek rhiza meaning “root”) to understand the intertwined story of plant growth and plant health from a plant’s-eye view.
The halo-like zone of the rhizosphere extends from a few millimeters to a centimeter or so around every single root and root hair. This special place is where you’ll find the root microbiome. The rhizosphere contains more life per unit area than anywhere else in the soil; some think more than anywhere else on the planet.
There is a simple reason the rhizosphere is the site of an incredible amount of activity. Plants use one of the oldest tricks in life’s playbook—free food—to ensure that the rhizosphere remains a bustling biological bazaar. People do this too. Are you the one who brings donuts to attract co-workers to early-morning meetings or the person who shows up to get one?
The purpose of the free food that plants provide is to recruit beneficial microbes into the rhizosphere. And guess who comes to lap up the phytochemicals and other edibles? Hungry bacteria, fungi, and other microbes with near-insatiable appetites for exudates, especially carbohydrates, which give them a ready-to-go energy source.
Soils rich in organic matter are like human diets rich in fiber. Each is an important food source for the root and gut microbiomes, respectively.
In addition to exudates, microbes in the rhizosphere also eat organic matter in the soil, transforming it into nutrients and compounds that plants need. But before organic matter gets to plants, it has to get to the soil and go through a lot of other organisms. Think of all the leaves that plants drop on top of the soil each fall. Larger forms of soil life, like liver-colored earthworms and arthropods sporting oversized mandibles, take the first run at breaking down organic matter. They chomp, chew, shred, and slice it into smaller pieces, which in one way or another puts food on the plates of smaller soil dwellers all the way down the line to the tiniest creatures on Earth—the microbes. This eat and be-eaten world turns decay into renewal. And microbes have the honor of carrying the baton of organic matter over the last hurdle in the race around the wheel of life.
Soils rich in organic matter are like human diets rich in fiber. Each is an important food source for the root and gut microbiomes, respectively. So long as a supply of organic matter replenishes the soil, it powers the cycle of eating, pooping, and dying among soil life that supports the entire botanical world. Microbe-manure in the soil is laden with N, P, and K. And dead microbes are an especially rich source of readily available nitrogen.
But N, P, and K are just the growth-fueling nutrients. A well-fed root microbiome also gives crops what a fertilizer and pesticide diet can never deliver—the full complement of essential minerals and a dazzling array of microbial metabolites and other compounds critical to the overall health of their green bodies.
So what can an organic-matter-chowing, exudate-chugging root microbiome do for its plant host? Plenty. Mycorrhizal fungi are a good place to start. When well-fed, they not only mine the minerals out of rocks, they bring them right to a plant’s doorstep, and in some cases right inside a plant’s green body. Among these minerals are those for which agronomists have documented declines in crops over time.
The minerals considered essential to plant health as well as our own number roughly a dozen or so. They do an enormous number of things in plants. The familiar ones, like zinc and iron, help build a plant’s fruits and vegetables. The not-so-familiar tongue-twisting mouthful, molybdenum, helps plants use nitrogen and turn sunlight into carbohydrates.
For a variety of reasons, however, plant roots generally need help to take up sufficient amounts of minerals. Mycorrhizal fungi assist them. Such fungi can double or triple a plant’s nutrient uptake per unit root length.6 The root-like hyphae of fungi act as long-distance conduits, that, in effect, extend a plant’s roots. One end connects to a root, the other to a store of minerals often beyond the physical reach of roots.
Tinkering with time-tested arrangements turns plants into botanical slackers.
But keeping in step with the no-free lunch rule, these fungi will only fetch and deliver a steady supply of minerals so long as a plant hands over nourishing exudates. So when plants get NPK for free from fertilizers, they pump out far fewer exudates, and mycorrhizal fungi dial down mineral and phosphorous deliveries to almost nothing. The pesticide handmaidens that accompany NPK fertilizers can also interfere with nutrient delivery and scramble chemical signaling between mycorrhizal fungi and their plant host.
When all is well in the rhizosphere, however, the root microbiome can do transformative work. Certain beneficial bacteria will eat tryptophan, an amino acid in root exudates, and return it to the plant as indole-3-acetic acid, one of the botanical world’s most important growth hormones. As a result, roots grow longer, lateral roots develop, and more root hairs sprout. With a more extensive root system, plants can absorb more nutrients and pump more exudates into the soil to recruit more helpful microbes that can make more indole-3-acetic acid. It’s a classic positive feedback loop.7
Perhaps most striking, plants can enlist their root microbiome to beat back pathogens like the widespread Pseudomonas syringae. This pathogenic bacterium can infest plant leaves, stems, buds, and flowers, causing a nasty infection and a lot of sick plants. When P. syringae shows up, a plant sends a chemical message down to its roots. Root cells release malic acid, which acts like a shepherd’s whistle. The bacterium Bacillus subtilis comes running and starts to colonize the roots. This signals the plant to get busy making phytochemicals and other defensive compounds to repel P. syringae. It doesn’t stop there. B. subtilis also induces plants to shut down the tiny openings on leaf surfaces, called stomata, which prevents more P. syringae from slithering into the botanical castle.8
As you can see, the rhizosphere is the place for microbes and plants to carry on the nutrient transfers and chemical signaling that forms the foundation for their symbiotic relationship. Plants are not giving away the farm. They get a lot in return.
Recall that plants expend a substantial amount of energy to make their exudate brews of sugars, vitamins, organic acids, and phytochemicals. Although expensive, the payoff is impressive, particularly in terms of phytochemicals. A single plant may contain hundreds to thousands of different kinds. One of the best-studied groups of phytochemicals, the polyphenols, has more than 8,000 different types.9
Spurred into action through chemical signaling from the root microbiome and direct attacks of pests, a plant switches on its phytochemical factories to re-stock its on-board arsenal and pharmacy. This can endow plants—crops, to put a fine point on it—with a built-in health plan. Some phytochemicals, like the glucosinolates found in the cabbage family, transform into a “mustard oil bomb” upon an ill-placed chomp from an insect herbivore. A mouthful of this noxious mess and the offender succumbs or hotfoots it to a different plant. Another group, the benzoxazinoids, perform complex signaling that grass family species like corn, wheat, and rye use to repel microbial pathogens.
Ever wonder why beta-carotene is in your sunscreen? It’s a type of phytochemical that protects plants from ultraviolet radiation. Another kind, flavonoids, attract the kinds of bacteria that live in or on plant roots and convert gaseous nitrogen into a form that plants can use. If released in root exudates, other types of flavonoids can, with a little help from the root microbiome, solubilize iron, copper, and zinc in the rhizosphere. This allows plants to slurp up these vital minerals.
Long before agrochemical companies existed, the botanical world relied on the phytochemicals it churned out to remain healthy. Couple their internal chemical factories with cultivating a root microbiome and you have the secret weapon that helped plants conquer the continents over the past 450 million years. Tinkering with these time-tested and co-evolved arrangements, however, can turn plants into botanical slackers.
A plant satiated on NPK fertilizers reaches for the exudate tap with leafy hands and turns it down to a trickle. Crops can get by without help from their microbial friends once the growth-spurring nutrients from a farmer start coursing through their green bodies. And once agrochemical poisons beat back pests and pathogens, plants idle their marvelous phytochemical factories. Why produce an energetically expensive mustard oil bomb if there are no herbivores around?
This situation spurs plants to make fewer defensive phytochemicals, as well as those that serve as nutrients bound for the bustling rhizosphere. These events translate into less food for the root microbiome. As it begins to starve, the supply of plant health-promoting metabolites it previously delivered to its plant host plummets, and their once vibrant chemical chatter falls quiet. This cements the negative feedback that begins with raising crops on a junk-food diet. A plant’s roots go from being a vital, two-way trade zone to one-way straws sucking up fertilizers.
Loading up soils with copious amounts of nitrogen fertilizer also has another downside. Faced with an all-you-can-eat buffet, that’s exactly what a plant’s green body sets out to do. They shunt a good deal of the energy they make through photosynthesis to building biomass, shortchanging themselves on the energy they need to make phytochemicals.10 Ramping down phytochemical production depletes a plant’s homemade arsenal and pharmacy, making them as vulnerable as a sick animal within sight of a predator. And so we swoop in—dousing couch-potato crops and soils with poisons to do what plant phytochemicals and root microbiomes have done for millions of years.
Anne Biklé is a biologist and gardener and David R. Montgomery is Dean’s professor of geomorphology at the University of Washington and a MacArthur Fellow. They are co-authors of The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health. Follow them on Twitter @dig2grow, or visit their Website, www.dig2grow.com.
This article first appeared online in our “Adaptation” issue in March, 2016.
1. Bourne, J.K. The End of Plenty: The Race to Feed a Crowded World W.W. Norton, New York, NY (2015).
2. Garvin, D.F. Historical shifts in the seed mineral micronutrient concentration of U.S. hard red winter wheat germplasm. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 86, 2213-2220 (2006).
3. Davis, D.R. Declining fruit and vegetable nutrient composition: What is the evidence? Horticultural Science 44, 15-19 (2009).
4. Robinson, J. Eating on the Wild Side Little Brown and Company, Boston, MA (2013).
5. van Dam, N.M. & Bouwmeester, H.J. Metabolomics in the rhizosphere: Tapping into belowground chemical communication. Trends in Plant Science 21, 256-265 (2016).
6. McNear Jr., D.H. The rhizosphere—roots, soil and everything in between. Nature Education Knowledge 4(3):1 (2013).
7. Idris, E.E., Iglesias, D.J., Talon, M., & Borriss, R. Tryptophan-dependent production of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) affects level of plant growth promotion by Bacillus amyloliquefaciens FZB42. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions 20, 619–626 (2007).
8. Rudrappa, T., Czymmek, K.J., Pare, P.W., & Bais, H.P. Root-secreted malic acid recruits beneficial soil bacteria. Plant Physiology 148, 1547-1556 (2008).
9. Pandey, K.B. & Rizvi, S.I. Plant polyphenols as dietary antioxidants in human health and disease. Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity 2, 270-278 (2009).
10. Baranski, M., et al. Higher antioxidant and lower cadmium concentrations and lower incidence of pesticide residues in organically grown crops: a systematic literature review and meta-analyses. British Journal of Nutrition 112, 794-811 (2014).
The lead photo is courtesy of Anna Fox/Flickr.When people entertain transporting to the past, 19th-century Berlin, say, they don’t often imagine a dramatic shift in smellscape. The inhabitants talk differently. Their fashion looks strange. But what do those streets smell like? Suddenly, it hits you—a texture of reality carried by a strong whiff of … horse manure. It may very well be that, among all your sense organs, your nose would register the starkest change.
Even so, it’s a tricky thing to pin down smellscapes of the past. Smells are notoriously fickle. They are not suited for permanent capture or easily imagined. Odors are caused by airborne compounds emanating from materials. The moment you open a perfume bottle it releases the very volatiles of which it is composed. (A museum of historical perfumes would come to a foreseeable end if it adopted an open-bottle policy.) That’s why the sensory recreation of history presents an intriguing scientific challenge1: How do we know whether we’ve succeeded?
That’s a question with which the minds behind “Odeuropa” will have to grapple. Launching this January, it is a $3.3 million, three-year, multinational project on the collection and recreation of smells in 16th- to early 20th-century Europe that will marry historical and literary analysis with machine learning and chemistry. The project is pioneering and also, in a year of COVID-19 induced anosmia with sensory-deprived lockdowns, timely.2 We became aware of our need for environmental stimulation—and the undervalued power of smell.
The difficulty is that descriptions of past scents are people’s stated impressions. Labels express conceptualizations. They are not the same as perceptions. They also may not tell us specifically what materials were present. As horticulturalists know, a rose by any other name consists of hundreds of different volatiles and miscellaneous fragrant notes. The smells of Bulgarian roses are not the same as the roses in Kew Garden London.
Smell can enhance the feeling of visiting the past.
Descriptions of odor also are culturally mediated. A 2016 study showed that even French and Franco-Canadians today may not agree in their experience and evaluation of the same odor3: For the French, for example, wintergreen was rated much less pleasantly than for French-Canadians. “In France, wintergreen is used more in medicinal products than in Canada, where it is found more in candy,” a press release for the study stated. “Anise was rated similarly in two cultures but was described more often as ‘licorice’ in Quebec and as ‘anise’ in France.” Intricate cross-cultural differences make for intriguing anecdotes. But they are hard to document.
That’s part of the reason why history is built on preserving enduring visual and tactile artifacts, such as paintings, writings, architectural sites, or simply stones and bones. What’s missing is the material sensation of immediate reality that only direct sensory contact seems to provide. It is no coincidence that signs reading, “Please, don’t touch the artifacts (no, seriously, don’t do it),” are plastered around museums. Yet we deprive ourselves of connecting with humanity’s past by focusing on materials stripped of their sensory dimensions.
Odeuropa opens up a new sensory experience of history. The researchers will create a catalog of past scents by digging through 250,000 images and thousands of texts (in seven languages), ranging from medical descriptions of smells in textbooks to labels of fragrances in novels or magazines. Machine learning will help to cross-analyze the plethora of descriptions, contexts, and occurrence of odor names (such as tobacco, lavender, and probably horse manure). This catalog serves as the conceptual basis for perfumers and chemists to create fragrant molecules fitting 120 of these descriptors.
Such recreation poses an experimental challenge that is worth following over the next couple of years. Previous experimental recreations of past scents involved the synthesis of similar compounds (if you have their chemical structure and qualitative descriptors—for example of preserved rare samples). Or it might involve blending currently available compounds into mixtures that resemble a specific description of a historical smell.
Developing a better sense of the past and its loss may help us preserve and enrich the sensory present.
How to design a museum of scents? Part of the answer already exists. Mandy Aftel, a natural perfumer and author of the 2014 book Fragrant, curates in Berkeley, California, a library of curious scents. The New York Times said the place “manages to contain the olfactory history of the world: hundreds of natural essences, raw ingredients and antique tinctures gathered from every corner of the globe, and all available for visitors to smell.” Odeuropa identifies an omission that it aims to rectify: the increasing absence of material presence that smells seem to convey. Smells may seem intangible and immaterial to many people. But what is the last thing that people give away of their beloved departed? Their clothes, carrying the last intimate trace of a person’s being: their scent.
Part of the Odeuropa team is a research project called Smell of Heritage, carried out by Cecilia Bembibre, a doctoral student in heritage science at University College London. Heritage scientists look to come up with new ways to study materials and collections that make up cultural heritage, as well as how the environment interacts with it. Bembibre, for example, analyzes and archives culturally essential aromas. “In the heritage context,” the Smell of Heritage website states, “experiencing what the world smelled like in the past enriches our knowledge of it, and, because of the unique relation between odors and memories, allows us to engage with our history in a more emotional way.”
Preservationists ignored this for a long time. “A tradition of denigration of the sense of smell can be traced back to the Enlightenment,” the preservationist-artist Jorge Otero-Pailos wrote in a 2016 paper, “and there is still surprisingly little serious research on a topic that, on the face of things, might be central to the discipline.”4
Anyone living abroad traveling back home can tell you that each culture, every area, all localities have their unique smellscape: the particular foods and spices (street vendors, bakeries, family recipes), and the various kinds of industrial fumes or plant emanations. I really know I am back in Germany, not when the plane has landed (or I hear the announcement in its unmistakably staccato melody), but when I pass the scent of dusty cold cigarette smoke at Frankfurt airport’s train station.
We should not forget about our desire to sensually experience.
Otero-Pailos’ preservationist art captures and illuminates this sort of experience. On his website, Otero-Pailos writes, “I gravitate towards monuments, the objects that entire cultures latch onto in order to transition into new phases, to remember, to celebrate, to come together.” By preserving smells in architectural sites, his work creates a platform to investigate the environmental and cultural history of buildings as active and abandoned social sites.
Such research helps uncover and evaluate the impact of the world’s changing materiality on society. Fish or meat markets and olfactorily rich gardens have vanished (when have you last experienced a rose that actually carries a deep rose smell?). They made way for shops selling electronics and bubble tea. Smells present sensory witnesses of the materials in our environment. Policies often originate in these environmental signals instead of abstract societal models. You may have escaped some stinks of the past, but you are benefitting from their consequences. For example, according to the historian Melanie Kiechle, fears of industrial fumes and stench in late 19th-century America prompted countermeasures.5 One was creating a green lung at the heart of a densely populated metropolis—marking Central Park’s birth in Manhattan.
The historian and author of Smell in the Eighteenth Century William Tullett, also part of the Odeuropa project, highlights the importance of thinking about authenticity in both its sensory and historical expression. With historic spaces, smell can help lend a sense of authenticity to the experience of being there. It enhances the feeling of visiting the past, and thereby a more enduring appreciation for it. Can we experience these smells just as our historical predecessors did? That might be a stretch. A Parisian in the 18th century won’t share the same judgment of the fumes of rotten fish with the same foreign fascination as our weary time traveler. That is the inherent cognitive challenge of smell—a challenge that now presents an opportunity for sensory exploration.
There is a wondrous irony that smell, the sense associated with memory (and Proust’s overexposed madeleine), has been sidelined in our recollections of history. Our autobiographical memories are filled with vivid smell episodes—the dust-rubber cloud in my father’s garage, the bittersweet whiff of that cheap perfume of your teenage crush... The sense of smell also poses interesting neuroscientific puzzles here. It is the only sense that bypasses the thalamus and has almost immediate access to the core cortex—including the hypothalamus, involved in the processing of new memories and associative learning. How the brain makes sense of scents has only recently garnered proper attention. How the brain makes memories with scent now makes for the next neural frontier.6
Developing a better sense of the past and its loss may help us preserve and enrich the sensory present. Modern life, in the 21st century, has a different sense of materiality than in the past—including the past of the previous centuries (like the foul and fragrant richness of 18th-century France7). Even the lost scents of the past few decades (that alienating static smell sitting in the corridors of the bureaus of socialist East Berlin). Cityscapes became increasingly homogeneous in their sensory appeal. Today, we find the increased presence of the same shops, products, and foods almost everywhere. This homogenization has also affected our habits as travelers and somewhat dulled our sense of curiosity.
Our qualitative associations with food and drink have also changed. Some of these developments resulted from food shortages during and after the two World Wars. The impact of the industrial flavor and cosmetic industries in our daily life, with its ongoing de-scenting and re-scenting of commercial products, created a unique sensory environment for modern humans. (Many children don’t know the flavor of freshly pressed orange juice and have come to associate orange with its extracted counterfeit. The same holds for vanilla and other products.)
These developments were not malicious in origin, as people skeptical of the chemical sciences may think. The work of the historian Nadia Berenstein captures the industrialization of our food products during the 20th century. It often originated in economic necessity: Producers of ersatz coffee, from malt barley, for example, tasked researchers like Tadeus Reichstein, a Swiss chemist and Nobel laureate who identified nearly 30 coffee aroma components with his colleague Hermann Staudinger, with making malt coffee smell like real coffee.
Our biosphere is in flux, too, and with it the richness of our sensory heritage. Consider the challenge of climate change with a diminishing species diversity (flowers and many other organic life forms). Smells, once lost, are impossible to recover—unless we try to preserve them. Perhaps the last expedition with a 19th-century Alexander von Humboldt flair is Givaudan’s “Scent Trek.” One of the two largest commercial fragrance producers, Givaudan, sends out researchers to capture the scent “headspace” of rare or less widespread flowers—like the plants Biangai dancers in Papua New Guinea use for decoration—as inspiration for new fragrances. (Such is the value of new scents to the multi-billion-dollar enterprise of commercial fragrance production today!)
The historical conservation of smell visualizes (for lack of a better term) our need to directly experience and engage with the changes in our history’s materiality. In a world accelerating the digitization of knowledge and the virtual documentation of other people’s lives, we should not forget about our desire to sensually experience. It’s vital, for me at least. Things like virtual reality, which can persuasively simulate visual, auditory, and even tactile sensations, won’t feel convincing enough without also incorporating smell, the next and perhaps ultimate frontier, given how difficult it is to substitute. A fan of the outdoors like me wants to get a whiff of the horse poop.
1. Barwich, A.-S. & Rodriguez, M. Fashion fades, Chanel No. 5 remains: Epistemology between style and technology. History of Science and Humanities 43, 367-384 (2020).
2. Barwich, A.S. Going viral: What COVID-19-related loss of smell reveals about how the mind works. Statnews.com (2020).
3. Ferdenzi, C., et al. Individual differences in verbal and non-verbal affective responses to smells: Influence of odor label across cultures. Chemical Senses 42, 37-46 (2017).
4. Jasper, A. & Otero-Pailos, J. Smell and preservation. Future Anterior 13, 3-7 (2016).
5. Kiechle, M.A. An Olfactory History of Nineteenth-Century Urban America University of Washington Press, Seattle, WA (2019).
6. Shepherd, G. Neurogastronomy Columbia University Press, New York, NY (2011).
7. Scott, J.W. Olfactory Vigilance. The New York Times (1986).
Lead image: Just dance / ShutterstockRemember the old joke about goldfish memory? Not too long ago, it was thought that a goldfish had a 3-second long-term memory (This has since been disputed). The joke centers around a conversation that occurs as two goldfish are swimming around their bowl:
Goldfish 1: oooh look, a castle.
Goldfish 2: what’s a castle?
Goldfish 1: dunno, why d’ya ask?
Goldfish 2: ask what?
Goldfish 1: hey look, a castle.
During the 1980s, cognitive load theory was born from the extensive research produced by John Sweller in the area of problem solving. We won’t get into the nuts and bolts of the cognitive load research here, but you are welcome to read Sweller as well as the duo of Richard Mayer and Roxana Moreno. Overall, the theory of cognitive load suggests that learning happens best under conditions that are beneficial to the human’s own cognitive structure. Yes, cognitive load can be an “individual thing,” but there still are common techniques that we, as instructional designers, can use across the board. One simple method is allowing the learner to self-pace so that they can digest the information within their own cognitive structure. Most of us look at memory using three easy terms: Short-term, long-term and working. The cognitive load theory looks into memory as intrinsic extraneous and germane.
Extraneous cognitive load refers to the way information or tasks are presented to a learner. This is short term memory. Obviously, this can be altered depending upon how one presents the material. It is up to the instructional designer to alter extraneous cognitive load so that the intrinsic won’t be overloaded. Things like unnecessary information, animations or images that don’t line up with the instruction, too much information or poorly designed training may cause an overload in the working memory and will negatively affect the learner’s storage of information.The intrinsic cognitive load refers to the effort that it takes to understand a certain topic. This is working memory, where content is being learned. The content is the content…it cannot be altered. The best example of this is a mathematical formula or, perhaps, music.
Speaking of storing information, germane cognitive load refers to the work put into creating a permanent store of knowledge, or a schema. Yes, this is long term memory and it can be altered as well. Germane cognitive load contributes to learning in that it can affect the other two elements. For example, as instructional designers we may request prerequisite knowledge from the learner to place them in beginner, intermediate or advanced academic levels. However, it is tapping into one’s long-term memory storage. This may create “extra information” that would contribute to extraneous cognitive load.
As you can see, managing cognitive load is like a high-wire act. You have to put the right information out there in such a way that it reduces extraneous cognitive load, which will allow the information to be processed in such a way so that the intrinsic and germane loads can facilitate schema acquisition. Now if you understood what I just said, and you began reading this article as a novice, bravo! You’ve just witnessed cognitive load!
Excuse the pun, but it’s a “no-brainer” that extraneous and intrinsic loads need to be reduced in order for the learner to absorb, because the long-term memory is waiting to take it all in. Yes, we want to maximize the germane!
So here are some things to remember (or put aside and go back to later so you don’t experience intrinsic load):
- Use audio, when available, to reduce working memory. Having people read contributes to intrinsic load.
- Now that you’re using audio, reduce text
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of years. Which is why helium is such a finite resource on our planet. We can and do mine the tiny helium pockets in the Earth's crust. However, when formed in the upper mantle, helium is released by volcanic activity and lost into the atmosphere.
From there, it's so light that it escapes Earth's gravity with ease. Thus, each time we deploy the stuff in party balloons or industrial applications, a little more is permanently lost to space.
The Discovery of Helium
Here's a cool story for you. Helium was discovered in stars back in the 1800s with the use of a spectrometer. This is a tool which diffracts light, enabling the observer to measure the optical properties of any substance, near or distant.
A spectrometer exploits the fact that electrons have specific energies which differ according to their orbital. When an electron relaxes to a lower orbital it emits light which shows up as an emission spectrum.
Conversely, when an electron is excited to a higher orbital it absorbs light which shows up on the absorption spectrum.
As you can see below, different elements have different optical fingerprints, allowing us to identify them even from vast distances across space.
Prior to 1868, astronomers observed the sun during an eclipse and saw the spectral fingerprint of hydrogen, as well as a second unknown element, assumed to be sodium.
When the French astronomer, Pierre Janssen, made his own observations during an eclipse in India, he found the yellow line didn't match up with the wavelength of sodium. He went ahead an invented the spectrohelioscope, allowing him to take repeat measurements without the need for an eclipse, and confirmed the spectral fingerprint of helium—not sodium—coming from the sun.
In the same year in England, the astronomer Joseph Lockyer was working on the very same incongruity, and came to the same conclusion that the second solar element was helium. It was a complete fluke that their letters, which stated identical findings, reached the French Academy of Sciences within a couple of hours of each other. The previously unknown element they discovered was named helium, after the Greek god of the sun, Helios.
Fellow scientists showed a healthy scepticism about the findings and gave Lockyer and Janssen a hard time about it. But by 1881, the mysterious element helium was discovered in lava thrown up by an erupting Mount Vesuvius and the naysayers moved on hurriedly with their day.
What is Helium Used For?
Helium is mined from the Earth's crust for a range of applications. It's lighter than air—which makes it ideal for inflating air ships, blimps and balloons. This gives it a reputation for fun and games, however huffing on helium gas is ill-advised as it can cut off the oxygen supply to the brain, cause embolisms, and burst the lungs to cause haemorrhage, especially when taken direct from a pressurised tank.
Why does helium make your voice go high? Helium molecules have less mass than the oxygen and nitrogen in the air, so sound waves travel through them three times faster to give you the voice of a chipmunk. The opposite effect occurs when inhaling sulphur hexachloride, which is denser than air.
In deep sea diving, a mixture of 8:2 helium and oxygen is optimal for the pressurised conditions. And helium-neon gas lasers are used to scan barcodes in supermarket checkouts.
The Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland uses helium to cool and strengthen its electromagnets to -271°C. These magnets keep the beams of particles on track as they race around the collision course at close to the speed of light.
A new use for helium is a helium-ion microscope (HIM) that gives better image resolution than even a scanning electron microscope (SEM). It's also valuable as a recyclable cooling agent for super-magnets in MRI machines, and is used in space programs to displace liquid fuel in rocket tanks.
Is Helium Renewable?
We're due to run out of helium on Earth in the next two decades. This is problematic because many of the existing medical and industrial applications have no viable alternatives.
But here's the bright side. As you now know, the moon lacks a protective magnetic field and has been bombarded with helium-3 solar winds for billions of years.
There are an estimated 1.1 million tonnes of helium in shallow pockets just under the surface of the moon. And because helium is such a light element, that's even more than it sounds.
With the sufficient investment, scientists believe we could tap into the vast quantities of extra-terrestrial helium for use on Earth (as well as other soon-to-be colonised planets). So how can we tap that resource and get the helium to where we need it?
Besides existing applications, helium could be extremely valuable as a source of nuclear power. To appreciate this, we need to know the difference between nuclear fission vs nuclear fusion, and the benefits and risks of each technology...
Nuclear Fission vs Nuclear Fusion
All commercial nuclear power plants use nuclear fission to split apart heavy isotopes like uranium or plutonium. The reaction generates heat which is turned into electricity.
However, nuclear fission comes with its drawbacks. Accidents like those at Three Mile Island (1979), Chernobyl (1986), and Fukushima (2011) reveal the serious and long term dangers of accidentally releasing large amounts of radiation into the environment.
What's more, the heavy elements required for nuclear fission are finite and non-renewable. They also produce radioactive nuclear waste as a by-product, even without the meltdowns.
In contrast, the dream of nuclear fusion has far greater appeal. And while we can't do it yet, it's a serious area of research among many nations, some of which have banded together for an international solution.
As opposed to splitting heavy atoms, fusion combines light atoms in high energy collisions, releasing large amounts of energy as a result. Not only is it more efficient than fission, but it's sustainable and produces virtually no radioactive waste.
Most nuclear research is geared toward the fusion of hydrogen isotopes (namely deuterium and radioactive tritium). The former is abundant in water and the latter is produced by the neutron bombardment of lithium. But the nuclear fusion scenario becomes even more attractive when you bring the non-radioactive isotope, helium-3, to the table.
There are a couple of problems we need to overcome before we can perform helium fusion for energy. First, getting two protons to fuse together (regardless of whether you're using hydrogen or helium isotopes) takes an awful lot of energy. It happens easily inside stars—but then they are giant balls of gas burning at millions of degrees Celsius.
Fortunately, physicists are making astonishing advances on this front. In 2016, Germany switched on its Wendelstein 7-X stellarator for the first time, creating temperatures up to 80,000,000°C to generate hydrogen plasma. Further development is ongoing to create an environment for higher temperatures and longer discharges, to reach the goal of net power generation, making nuclear fusion a reality.
In 2017, construction of the multi-billion-dollar International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France reached the halfway point, on track for completion in 2025. ITER is a partnership of 35 countries which promises to be the first fusion device to create net energy.
Once we crack this nut, nuclear fusion with helium will be within our reach. That is, if you consider the moon within our reach. And China certainly does.
Mining The Moon for Helium
Nuclear fusion is longer an impossible dream. Now the only problem with the helium plan is sourcing the actual helium itself.
On the moon, helium-3 gas exists in vast quantities in the top few metres of the surface, making it a relatively easy operation to mine. The helium could be extracted by heating the lunar dust to 600°C before bringing it back to Earth, where it could power the entire planet for the next 200 years.
A fully-loaded space shuttle could carry 25 tonnes of helium, which is enough to power the US for one year. This puts its value at $3 billion per tonne, making the whole moon mining escapade look very attractive in economic terms, if not logistical ones. And this is why helium could be our saviour.
China's Lunar Exploration Program, called Chang'e, is the most advanced project working towards mining the moon, targeting both titanium and helium resources. Named for the Chinese moon goddess, Chang'e runs an ongoing series of robotic missions that includes lunar orbiters, landers, rovers, and sample return spacecraft.
Chang'e intends to land crew on the moon's south pole by 2030. It has also revealed plans to build a sustained human outpost for mining operations, which would arguably lend China economic supremacy if breakthroughs in nuclear fusion are secured.
Meanwhile, American, Russian, and Indian scientists have urged governments to plan for lunar mining. And while some governments have toyed with the notion, there's little tangible progress to date. Perhaps the (as yet) unfinished nuclear fusion capacity makes lunar mining too speculative to attract serious funding.
Nonetheless, as peak oil, resource depletion, and climate change rage on, there has never been more urgency to find new, alternative clean energy sources like helium.Show All Answers
Geocaching is a modern treasure hunt using a phone app or a GPS device to find containers or “caches” hidden all over the world--including in South Fayette Township parks.
Geocaches come in all shapes and sizes. They can be as small as a pencil eraser and as large as a Tupperware container. They are categorized by size. We recommend starting with a “regular” sized cache.
Geocaches contain a waterproof container holding a logbook or sheet, and if size permits, small trinkets.
Geocaches are hidden all over the world - from deep forest to urban areas. They are hidden in or under objects, but they are never buried.
South Fayette Township parks are home to seven geocaches.Art and history in Silos.
The monastery of Silos dates from the 7th century, although its most important part was built in the 11th century.
The building is located on the site known as the Tabladillo valley. It is thought to have been founded in around the 7th century. In the year 1088 a Romanesque temple was consecrated which was subsequently replaced by another Neoclassical temple designed by Ventura Rodríguez. The cloister, which has been conserved, is Romanesque, with a square floor plan and two floors of arcades. The capitals in the lower cloister are profusely decorated with symbols such as dragons, centaurs, lattices, mermaids, etc. The corners of the cloister are decorated with large reliefs depicting scenes from the life of Christ. The monastery also has an important archive containing fragments from the 10th century Beatus, a page from the Oña Bible, other fragments of Visigoth manuscripts, and musical fragments from some twenty codices in Aquitaine notation.FOR YOUR SKIN
What is rosacea?
Rosacea is a very common skin disease that is characterized by persistent facial redness. It is a chronic and often progressive skin condition that rarely resolves completely. Rosacea tends to flare in cycles, which means it may flare and improve in response to certain triggers. Rosacea often begins as a tendency to flush easily. As the condition progresses, individuals may develop redness to the center of their face, acne-like bumps, telangiectasias (tiny blood vessels), skin swelling, and/or enlarged oil glands.
Who develops rosacea?
Rosacea may occur in both men and women of any ethnic background, though fair-skinned female adults between the ages 30-60 are most commonly affected.
What causes rosacea?
Although the exact cause of rosacea is unknown, there are numerous triggers that when avoided, may decrease flares in some people. Common flares are: hot or spicy foods or drinks, alcohol, extreme temperatures, sun exposure, vigorous exercise and stress.
Can rosacea affect my health?
About 50% of people with rosacea develop ocular rosacea which causes redness, itching or burning of the eyes. Rarely, ocular rosacea may affect vision.
What treatments are available for rosacea?
Although there is no known cure for rosacea, there are numerous treatments that can significantly decrease the severity and frequency of rosacea flares. Treatment options include both prescription medications and in-office treatments. Sun protection is vital to slow down progression of the condition. Make an appointment today!A standard bar graph shows the frequency of multiple items by representing each item as a bar on the graph, with the length of the bar representing the frequency. When each item has two different measurable categories, such as how each fiscal quarter might have "income" and "expenses," you need a double bar graph to accurately represent the data. Excel 2010 has a comprehensive charts system that you can manipulate to create a double bar chart if your data is in the correct format.
Open a new Excel 2010 document.
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Enter the names of the items you want on your double bar chart, starting in cell B1 and continuing to the right of that cell. These headers will become the labels printed at the base of each of the bar sets on the graph.
Type the names of the two categories that the double bar graph will track into cells A2 and A3. These labels will be located to the right of the bar graph. Each of these two categories will be assigned a color bar, which will appear next to each of the items on the graph.
Input your numerical data into the cells, starting with cell B2 and continuing down and to the right. When you're done entering information, select cell A1 and hold down the mouse button. Move the mouse to the bottom-right cell and release the button.
Select the "Insert" tab at the top of the screen. Click the "Bar" button located in the "Charts" area of the ribbon. Choose any of the "Clustered" bar chart options, as opposed to the "Stacked" options. Your double bar chart will appear on the spreadsheet.
Compare more than two categories by simply adding another row to the table. The bars in the graph will still group together based on which column heading they represent.Diet sodas are well-known refreshments all over the world, particularly among individuals who try hard to lower their sugar or calorie consumption.
Rather than sugar, artificial sweeteners, for example, aspartame, cyclamates, saccharin, acesulfame-k, or sucralose, are used to make diet sodas taste better.
Pretty much every well known sugar-concentrated drink available has a “light” or a “diet” version — Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Pepsi Max, Sprite Zero, and so on.
Diet soft drinks were first known during the 1950s for people with diabetes, however, they were later advertised to the ones attempting to control their weight or diminish their sugar consumption.
Despite being liberated from sugar and calories, the wellbeing impacts of diet drinks and fake sugars are questionable.
Green tea, fruit juices, and coconut water are all healthy drinks perfect for midday sipping. However, when you’re looking for a beverage with a touch of caffeine to give you a lift for the afternoon, you may want to have a glass of diet soda, trusting it to be a better choice than regular coffee or sweet colas.
Truly, diet soft drink has zero calories. Also, indeed, it’s an inexpensive and tasty way to get your caffeine fix. Be that as it may, the health impacts related to its consumption are more serious than you might suspect. Severe headaches, strong cravings, and more are the consequences of drinking diet soft drinks regularly. Here are a few realities that may settle on you and you may reevaluate your beverage of decision.
You must be wondering is diet soda bad for you. So, we decided to break the silence and discuss, is diet soda good or bad for your health.
Is diet soda good or bad for your health?
1. Artificial sweeteners may cause severe headaches
Many diet sodas are often improved in taste by adding aspartame, an artificial sweetener that is better than sugar. New flavors of Diet Coke, some of which were introduced in 2018 are improved with “Ace K,” a controversial sweetener that tastes 200 times better than normal refined sugar. A few studies have linked the artificial sweeteners in diet soft drinks to migraines, proposing they may trigger the pain.
What’s more, contemplates have likewise demonstrated that individuals who devour nourishments with artificial sugars are bound to disregard more advantageous food choices for other misleadingly enhanced food and are twice as liable to be heftily contrasted with individuals who didn’t drink diet soda.
2. Diet soda may cause you a low bone density
If you are wondering is diet soda bad for you, you are not entirely wrong. In a recent report, it was inferred that women who drank diet soft drinks had significantly lower bone mineral density than the ones who avoided it. Low bone mineral thickness can set you up for osteoporosis, a sickness that makes bones weak.
Change the diet soda from your diet for healthy foods Brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes, both of which keep your bones healthy and strong.
3. Diet soda may affect your kidney health
Drinking diet soda has been linked to an increased danger of chronic kidney disease. This is one of the major diet soda health risks which one can suffer from.
A recent study connected the diet plans of 15,368 people and found that the danger of treating end-stage kidney disease increased with the number of glasses of diet soft drink consumed every week.
Compared with those who consumed less than one glass per week, people who drank more than seven glasses of diet soda per week had nearly double the risk of developing severe kidney disease.
A recommended cause for kidney disease is the high phosphorus content of soda, which may increase the acid load on the kidneys.
However, it has likewise been proposed that people consuming high measures of diet soft drinks may undergo kidney diseases also because for other poor dietary and lifestyle factors that may also contribute to the development of kidney disease.
Interestingly, studies researching the impacts of diet soft drinks on the advancement of kidney stones have discovered mixed outcomes.
One study noticed that diet soft drink consumers have a somewhat increased danger of kidney stones but however the danger was much smaller than the danger related to drinking regular soda. Furthermore, this examination has not been supported by other research.
Another investigation revealed that the high citrate and malate substance of some diet soft drinks may help treat kidney stones, especially in individuals with low urine pH and uric acid stones.
4. Drinking diet soda may put you at higher risk for high blood pressure level
Is diet soda bad for health? Well, yes, it really is bad for your health.
Diet soda consumers are more likely to encounter hypertension than the ones who stay away from the refreshment, as per a study out of Brazil. Teenagers from 20 state-funded schools were examined to analyze the correlation between diet soda consumption and high blood pressure and high blood pressure.
Researchers were able to conclude that teenagers who drank diet soft drinks had a higher risk of high blood pressure level than the ones who drank non-diet sodas or no soft drink by any means.
Thus even if you enjoy consuming foods like bananas and pistachios, which helps you to lower your blood pressure level, the best bait is to not have diet sodas at all.
5. Diet sodas may cause diabetes
In a study published by the Canadian Science journal, it was revealed that aspartame, the counterfeit sugar utilized in many diet sodas, diminishes the action of specific enzymes in your gut. The decrease in proteins and enzymes can prompt metabolic disorder, a “cluster of conditions” that can cause weight fluctuations, heart disease, stroke, and even death.
Diet sodas expand your danger of metabolic syndrome by over 30% and, as indicated by a study published by the American Diabetes Association, is connected to the danger of Type 2 diabetes.
Diet soda Vs Regular soda study
Although both the two beverages have a considerable number of cons, diet soft drink wins this battle by the smallest of margins. Drinking a lot of regular soda has shown to lead to weight gain and a variety of long health conditions and switching to a diet can help cut calories and shed pounds.
Regardless of whether you choose to drink a diet or normal soda, neither should be consumed in huge quantities. The most advantageous refreshment out there is still water, so making water your beverage of choice is the best option.‘Mighty’ Manganese as may be called for various health benefits which manganese provides to the body. It was found in late 1930 that manganese is important for human body. Later studies established health benefits of manganese for growth, bone development, functioning of reproductive and nervous system.
Human body contains only about 10-20 mg of manganese distributed in body tissues. Mitochondria the energy centre of the cell has high concentration of manganese. Our diet may contain adequate manganese; however our intestine is able to absorb only a fraction of it in blood. Hence it is stored in tissues of liver, kidney, blood and pancreas.
Health benefits of Manganese
What are the health benefits of manganese? Manganese may be trace mineral required for body, however it has medicinal benefits on disease like allergy, asthma, diabetes, heart diseases, osteoporosis, Arthritis, multiple sclerosis, learning disabilities, Schizophrenics, etc. Health benefits of manganese are many and deficiency of manganese may result in bone malformation, infertility, weakness. Some of the health benefits of manganese are listed below:
Manganese functions as Enzyme activator: We may eat a lot of nutrients, however they are of no use if we are not able to utilize them. Body contains many enzymes which has diverse functions in body, including metabolism of nutrients. Manganese is important component of this enzyme system. Various health benefits of manganese are outcome of this key function of manganese. Manganese activates the enzymes responsible for Metabolism of carbohydrates, fats and proteins and utilization of several key nutrients including biotin, thiamin, ascorbic acid, and choline. Manganese participates in production of sex hormones and maintaining reproductive health. It also activates enzyme required for formation of bone. Manganese is thought to be involved in production of thyroxine hormone in thyroid glands. It is also essential for proper iron metabolism, thereby helping to prevent anemia. Manganese is further involved in blood clotting, increasing effectiveness of vitamin E and Vitamin B1 and absorption of calcium.
Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the body. Around half of the magnesium in body is found in bone, while remaining is predominantly found in body tissues and organs including liver, brain and kidney. Only 1% of magnesium is found in blood.
Magnesium is part of over 300 biochemical reactions in body and is essential for good health. Magnesium is vital for normal muscle and nerve function. Magnesium is often regarded as balm or smoothie material, due to its ability to relax muscles and nerves. Magnesium also plays important role in prevention of hypertension, regulating blood sugar.
Sources of magnesium
Chlorophyll molecule in green vegetables contains magnesium. Thus green vegetables such as spinach are good sources of magnesium. Legumes, nuts and seeds, and whole unrefined grains are also good sources of magnesium. Magnesium is also found in water, especially hard water.
Copper is the third most prevalent mineral in the body. The first conclusive evidence to show that copper was an essential element, emerged from studies of E. B. Hart and his associates in 1928.
There is approximately 75-150 mg of copper in human body. Newborn infants have higher concentration of copper in body than adults. The liver, brain, kidney, hearth and hair have relatively higher concentration. In body copper is a constituent of several enzymes and is found in combination with several proteins in the blood. In order to enjoy health benefits of copper, it must be included in diet of an individual. Copper is mostly absorbed at the level of duodenum in the intestine. Approximately one third of copper in diet is absorbed, excess copper is excreted in bile.
Sources of Copper:
The health benefits of copper are crucial for healthy existence, as it enables normal metabolic process in association with amino acids and vitamins. Copper cannot be produced within the body and hence body needs to rely on dietary sources for copper. Molluscs, oysters and shellfish are rich sources of copper, as are betel leaves, arecanuts and other nuts. Copper is present in various food sources such as liver, meat, seafood, beans, whole grains soy flour, wheat bran, almonds, avocados, barley, garlic, nuts, oats, beets and lentils. Drinking water also provides human body with Copper.
Chromium is present in traces in all organic matter and is one of the essential minerals for human body. Chromium levels are higher in infants than in adults. The total body content of chromium in adults is about 5-10 mg. Chromium is present throughout our body, however concentrated in the liver, kidney, spleen, bone, brain and muscle. Chromium plays important role in body functions. Taken in the right quantity, chromium has immense health benefits. Chromium is need for maintenance of proper sugar and fat metabolism.
Sources of chromium:
Some of the sources of chromium are brewer’s yeast, meat, potatos, cheese, whole grain breads and cereals, fresh fruits and vegetables. Betel nut leaves, green mangoes, bottle gourd, arecanuts, cashew nuts, almonds, walnuts are rich sources of chromium. Body also receives chromium by drinking hard water which contains chromium salts. Modern cooking in stainless steel utensils adds chromium in foods.
Chromium supplements are available in various forms including chromium picolinate, niacin-bound chromium (also called chromium polynicotinate), and chromium-enriched yeast. Brewer's yeast is considered the most biologically active and absorbable form of chromium. Chromium picolinate and polynicotinate are widely available dietary supplements marketed for many afflictions, and gaining popularity among those seeking a weight-loss program
Human body requires more calcium than any other mineral. Body of infant at birth contains about 30 gram of calcium, while adult human body contains more than 1 kg of calcium, most of which is found in bones and teeth. Calcium is responsible for strength and rigidity of bones and teeth. About 1% of calcium in body is present in blood, muscles and nerves, which is essential in regulating physiological functions. Calcium is responsible for muscle movement and transfer of electrical signal through nerves from brain to various body parts. Calcium is required by blood vessels for circulation of blood in body and release of various hormones and enzymes that affect almost every function in the human body. Calcium plays pivotal role in many physiological activities like blood clotting, nerve conduction, muscle contraction, regulation of enzyme activity, and cell membrane function.
When dietary intake of calcium is too low to maintain normal blood levels of calcium, the body will draw on calcium stores in the bones to maintain normal blood concentrations, which, after many years, can lead to osteoporosis.
Boron was considered to be an essential mineral for plants as far back as 1910. Its exact role in human nutrition is not well documented. Boron has important influence metabolism of essential minerals like calcium and magnesium. Boron is concentrated in the bone, spleen, and thyroid, thus suggesting potential role of boron in body functions like bone and hormone metabolism. According to the USDA, boron is a trace mineral that helps bones develop and grow normally. In body, boron is found only in combination with other chemicals. More of the intake of boron through the diet is absorbed from intestine. Excess boron is excreted from urine.
Sources of boron:
Fruits and vegetables, especially apples, pears, and carrots are good food sources of boron. Dried fruits, nuts, dark green leafy vegetables, applesauce, grape juice, and cooked dried beans and peas, Meat and fish are poor dietary sources of boron. Dried prunes are a good source of boron.
Deficiency of Boron:
Deficiency symptoms of boron are not fully understood. Deficiency in boron has been shown to contribute to abnormal embryo development, decreased sperm count, Ovarian deterioration, and damage in reproductive function. Boron deficiency have also shown decrease in electrical activity in the brain, Sub optimal mineral metabolism, poor manual dexterity, impaired hand-eye coordination in various control group studies. A severe deficiency of boron with the body may be partially responsible for tumours, cysts and other abnormal growth.Issue 20: Links between the maltreatment of girls & later victimization or use of violence
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS: A PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE
1 in 3 Canadian women will experience at least one incident of physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.1
Violence against women and girls is a global public health issue and a significant violation of human rights. Approximately one third of Canadian women will first experience abuse in childhood.2 Many of these women will continue to experience violence across the life course; some will use violence in subsequent peer, intimate, or family relationships.3 Multiple experiences of violence can result in negative health outcomes that accumulate over time.4 Exploring how trajectories of violence may unfold for women and girls is critical to improving prevention efforts. This newsletter provides an overview of the literature linking early experiences of violence to later use or revictimization.
Using the term “revictimization”
The link between early and later experiences of victimization is commonly referred to as revictimization. We use this term for readability; however, we recognize not all experiencing violence identify with or use the term “victim”.
FUNDAMENTALS TO REMEMBER
IDENTITY IS COMPLEX
VIOLENCE AS A CONTINUUM
CONTEXT IS KEY
Women and girls affected by
Women and girls are diverse and
Violence occurs in many forms.
Violence and violence causing
REVICTIMIZATION ACROSS THE LIFE COURSE
Revictimization can occur within the same life stage or across life stages and involves more than one perpetrator:
- Victimization during childhood and victimization during adolescence or adulthood
- Victimization during adolescence and victimization during adulthood
- Victimizations during childhood, adolescence or adulthood
|Revictimization:||The experience of victimization at two different life
stages or during the same life stage, by more than one
|Multiple experiences of victimization by the same
perpetrator during one life stage or across life stages.
|Poly-victimization:||Experiencing more than one type of victimization during
one life stage (e.g. sexual, physical and emotional abuse
Repeated victimization and poly-victimization are distinct from, but can be involved in, revictimization. For example, a girl may experience emotional and physical abuse (i.e. poly-victimization) throughout her childhood from a caregiver (i.e. repeated victimization) and later as a teen experience bullying by a peer (i.e. revictimization), and then as an adult experience intimate partner violence (i.e. revictimization) in the form of sexual and physical abuse (i.e. poly-victimization) multiple times (i.e. repeated victimization).
UNDERSTANDING VIOLENCE AND HEALTH FROM A LIFE COURSE PERSPECTIVE
According to the life course perspective:5
- Individual lives are characterized by a series of pathways or trajectories that span from early or later life.
- Examining experiences of violence at only one point in time ignores previous experiences.
- Previous experiences impact current vulnerabilities to abuse or use of violence as well as current and long-term health outcomes.
- The cumulative impact of violence on health is shaped by social, economic, environmental, and cultural factors (i.e. the social determinants of health) that work across multiple levels (e.g. individual, interpersonal, community, societal).
THE IMPACT OF VIOLENCE ON THE HEALTH OF WOMEN AND GIRLS
The health consequences of any experience of violence can be severe. When violence is experienced across the life course, its impacts can accumulate over time. Adaptations that help girls and women survive violence may compromise their later functioning and well-being in other contexts (e.g. dissociation). As a result, women and girls can become increasingly vulnerable to poor health outcomes. Many outcomes are shared with different forms of victimization, but some are particularly prevalent or intensified for women and girls who have been revictimized (e.g. post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, poor physical health, alcohol/substance use). While the consequences of victimization for health are often similar across life stages, some are specific to or begin to emerge at certain time points. For example, the consequences of child or adolescent victimization appear as chronic disease, disorders, or pain in adulthood. The use of violence, particularly in childhood and adolescence, is also associated with adverse health outcomes for girls, such as the development of mental health difficulties.
The health consequences of violence against women and girlsa
|Poor self-reported physical
health and quality of life
High medication use
Injuries (e.g. cuts, bruises,
sprains, broken or fractured
Chronic pelvic pain
Sexually transmitted infections
Increased rates of
Irritable bowel syndrome
gynecological health problems
Traumatic brain injury
|Posttraumatic stress disorder
Obsessive compulsive disorder
Affect regulation difficulties
Anger management problems
Poor self-rated mental wellness
High-risk sexual behaviours
|Difficulty forming or
Perpetration of abuse
Vulnerable to later
Frequent relationship conflict
|aBolded outcomes are unique to adulthood. Italicized outcomes are unique to childhood and adolescence.
(M. Bair-Merritt et al., 2006; J. C. Campbell, 2002; Chen et al., 2010; Cook et al., 2011; Devries et al., 2013, 2014; Elliott, Alexander, Pierce, Aspelmeier, & Richmond, 2009; Lagdon et al., 2014; Maniglio, 2009; Norman et al., 2012; Richmond, Elliott, Pierce, & Alexander, 2008; Trevillion et al., 2012; Turner, Finkelhor, & Ormrod, 2006; Wood & Sommers, 2011)15
RISK FACTORS FOR THE REVICTIMIZATION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS
Individual risk factors
Characteristics of abuse
Interpersonal risk factors
Community risk factors
Societal risk factors
Childhood sexual abuse
|Recency of abuse
Type of contact (abuse
= greatest risk of
risk if family member)
Change in caregivers
of family member
Presence of physical
abuse or neglect
Mental health problems
(e.g. violence, bullying)
Structural violence (e.g.
that promote rigid,
of masculinity and
femininity, and that
support the use of
violence against women.
RISK FACTORS FOR THE USE OF VIOLENCE BY WOMEN AND GIRLS
Most theories of revictimization focus on how early victimization alters psychological and psychosocial adjustment, abilities to recognize risk, and expectations of adult relationships. These alterations may then increase vulnerability to later victimization. Vulnerability to victimization can also result from interpersonal, community, and societal factors.
Discussing vulnerability for revictimization must not be interpreted as suggesting in any way that girls and women are responsible for the abuse they experience. Rather, explanations of vulnerability help to inform safety planning, effective supports, and prevention.
Many theories linking victimization to later use of violence draw attention to these factors and how they interact. According to the feminist ecological model, for example, girls exposed to family violence, negative peer influences at school or neighbourhood gangs, and who have limited resources and face racial oppression as a result of social inequalities in society may have an increased likelihood of engaging in aggressive behaviour. Still, more work is needed on how pathways to violence may be unique for women and girls relative to men and boys.
While many multi-level factors contribute to the victimization of women and girls, it is important to remember that women and girls are targeted because of their sex. Institutional practices and social norms have historically maintained unequal power relations between men and women, which can perpetuate or promote violence against women and girls. In other words, because of their unequal position in society, women and girls face increased vulnerability to violence.
Theories Linking Victimization to Later Use of Violence
Revictimization theoretical model
Emotional avoidance theory
Steel & Herlitz model
Ecological approach to revictimization
|Lifetime victimization and aggression model
Social learning theory
Feminist ecological model
Typology of female perpetrators of intimate partner
Social information processing model
|*For a detailed summary of each theory, please click here and see Table 6 (p. 14), Table 7 (p. 15) and Table 8 (p.17).|
REVIEWING THE EVIDENCE: REVICTIMIZATION
The evidence presented here is not intended to suggest that all women who experience violence early in their lives will have subsequent experiences of victimization as they age. It should be interpreted within the larger social context affecting women and girls’ vulnerability to violence (e.g. gender-based inequalities, structural violence). While many factors may increase vulnerability to victimization and revictimization, those who victimize others remain responsible for their actions.
The evidence consistently indicates that women who experience any form of childhood violence are more likely to be victimized again in childhood, adolescence, and/or adulthood.
Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies find links between childhood maltreatment and:
- maltreatment later in childhood
- sexual assault in adolescence/adulthood
- physical assault in adolescence/adulthood
- dating or intimate partner violence in adolescence/adulthood
- peer victimization (e.g. bullying) in childhood and adolescence
- abuse or aggression from siblings in childhood and adolescence
Adolescence and young adulthood appear to be key life stages for revictimization to occur. For example, significant relationships have been found between victimization in childhood or adolescence and victimization during the first or second year of post-secondary study.9 Bullying victimization prior to age 15 also increases the risk of experiencing physical partner violence, sexual violence, aggression from peers, and/or criminal violence by age 21.10
Girls who experience sexual abuse in childhood are 7 times more likely to be revictimized one year later and 2 to 3 times more likely to be revictimized in adolescence and/or adulthood compared to girls who have not been abused.6 Women victimized as children are 6 times more likely to be revictimized in adulthood compared to women never victimized as children.7
30% of female first-year students report some form of sexual violence prior to starting university; 41% of these women experience sexual revictimization while in university.8
Child maltreatment: includes all forms of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and psychological abuse directed toward a child as well as neglect of a child and exposure to intimate partner violence.
Sexual violence: any sexual act committed against a person without their freely given consent. This includes physical and verbal coercion as well as noncontact acts of a sexual nature. Sexual violence can occur in partner and non-partner relationships.
Intimate partner violence (IPV): refers to a range
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William H Whyte, urban transport systems must help cities assert themselves as good places to live.- cheapest and simplest technique
- an analytical method used in Clinical Toxicology
- commonly used in screening blood (serum) for TDM (Therapeutic Drug Monitoring) and as a primary screening procedure of abused drugs and their metabolines in the urine.
- it is the first homogenous assay to be widely used.
- the separation using antibody specificity (antigen binding).
- measurement of enzyme-substrate reactions using visible spectroscopy, and standard curve.
- produces reliable results
- the test utilizes antibodies that are enzyme linked and react only with the specific substance in the sample(urine or blood) is positive with the particular drug being tested.
Components of the Assay & Principle:
- drug in the specimen (urine/serum)
- Ab -- Antibody
- Ag -- Antigen
- enzyme labeled antigen
- enzyme bound to drug
- reagent enzyme Ag
- Ag being measured competes for the Ab binding sites with the antigen that has been labeled with an enzyme ---->the antibody reagent blocks any enzymatic activity when it is bound with the reagent enzyme Ag complex (thus preventing the formation of the product with a substrate) ----> then the free Ag-enzyme complexes compete with the Ag (in the sample) ----> forming a color change which are proportional to the concentration of the Ag present in the tested sample.
References: Clinical Laboratory Diagnosis by Henry et. al.for National Geographic News
Despite financial uncertainties and legal challenges, Florida officials are proceeding with a U.S. $1.34-billion plan to restore the Everglades to something approaching its natural state.
The plan, to be decided by September, would see the state buy farmland, some of which would be converted into reservoirs, which would filter pollutants from water before it flows into the vast, troubled wetland.
The purchase would encompass 180,000 acres (73,000 hectares) that the United States Sugar Corporation has used for decades to grow sugarcane in South Florida. (See "Everglades Rescue 'Out on a Limb' Without Federal Aid" [July 3, 2008].)
Opponents of the Everglades plan, including sugarcane company Florida Crystals, say the deal would further strain government budgets already stressed by the recession and give an unfair subsidy to U.S. Sugar.
The Everglades, a UN World Heritage wilderness, includes Everglades National Park and thousands of miles of adjacent wetlands, mangrove swamps, and islands home to many species found nowhere else, some of them endangered.
The Everglades ecosystem has suffered from human activities over the past century, including agricultural pollution and drainage. Canals were dug decades ago to siphon water for rapidly growing cities and to create land suitable for development.
Florida officials want to use part of the U.S. Sugar property to build reservoirs to purify water before releasing it into the Everglades. Another sizable chunk of the land could be leased to agribusinesses for farming.
If the state does not buy the land, many conservationists say, the Everglades could be doomed.
"The purchase is more than important," said Tom Van Lent, senior scientist for the Everglades Foundation in Miami. "It's absolutely essential."
But even with the support of Florida Governor Charlie Crist, who helped craft the deal with U.S. Sugar last summer, the deal faces hurdles.
For starters, the current sluggish economy has choked tax revenues and made it difficult and expensive to borrow money.
SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITESAvoiding abandon-ware: getting to grips with the open development method
by Paul Anderson on 2 June 2009, last updated
Open source is more than a style of licence. While it’s true that the formal Open Source Initiative (OSI) definition lists a number of licences and distribution-related points, the big picture summary on the OSI’s homepage paints a rather different picture:
‘Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process.’
This definition puts a different slant on the distinction between open source and proprietary (or closed source) software. By highlighting the social manner in which software is actually created (the involvement of a wide range of people, including software developers, researchers and users, and the public way in which they work) it moves the focus away from licensing and distribution. As open source becomes increasingly popular, with more and more people wanting to label their software as open source, this distinction is important. It is becoming necessary to return to the founding principles of open source in order to explain the original vision more completely.
Introducing the Open Development Method (ODM)
Open development is an emerging term used to describe the community-led development model found within many successful free and open source software projects.
The term open development method (ODM), or sometimes community-led development, has been coined to describe this collaborative way of working1. In this model, there is primary emphasis on collaboration and the role of a community. Gianugo Rabellino, former CEO of SourceSense, a leading European open source services company says: ‘To me, open development really is what open source [has always] been. So, open source was intended as a development methodology, as a way to build artefacts, which happen to be software, in a collaborative way which is based on transparency, on meritocracy and on neutrality [over ownership] and you need all of them.’
In fact, some researchers argue that open source projects can be placed on a continuum that stretches between ‘fully open’ and ‘fully closed’, based on an evaluation of the project’s management and governance styles and an appraisal of the ‘openness’ of the project itself rather than the software produced (Capra and Wasserman, 2008). ODM-based projects sit at one end of this.
This view is backed up by practitioners actually working on open source software, some of whom argue that a distinction between what are loosely called ‘open source’ and ‘open development’ projects is beginning to emerge. Developers involved in the former remain focused on licensing and distribution issues, while in the latter it is the processes of the project that matter. Justin Erenkrantz, fomer President of the Apache Software Foundation2, says: ‘You are really starting to see perhaps not a split but kind of two camps: you have the open source but on the other hand you have the open development.’
Justin cites the fact that all the work takes place in public as being the important distinction. He says: ‘What we are seeing is some projects and entities who are saying here is the source code, it is under Apache licence or GPL or whatever, but the decisions about how the code got to that state are behind some wall – it is not in public.’ This, he argues, is detrimental to the process of coding. Although the end product might be formally classed as open source, it is not a good way to develop sustainable products. He says: ‘You can use it and you have all the rights, but what you don’t have as a developer is an understanding of how the code got that way. So you run into some bug and you say, “Why is the code this way?” There is no historical context or archiving or rationale.’
For Gianugo, this public way of working means that ODM represents a re-balance of the power between developers and users. He says: ‘I am not going to collaborate on something that I don’t feel any sense of belonging to … There is no open development if I cannot influence and have my say in what we do and what we are trying to build. That is not open development, that is free labour!’
Ross Gardler, fomer Manager of OSS Watch3, believes that ODM can be formalised by looking at a number of key attributes that characterise an open development community, namely:
- a deep level of user engagement: if you don’t have users then there is no point having a project.
- transparency: being open in what the community is undertaking and the way decisions are made.
- collaboration: a means of working within a diverse group of people, something that the Internet has obviously made easier.
- agility: once work begins and there is a serious engagement with users, ideas and plans may need to change.
- sustainability: having the capacity to keep developing an application solution over the necessary period of time.
- tools: wikis, bug- and version-trackers and email lists to support the development of the community and keep track of intellectual property rights, if relevant.
For Gianugo, agility is an interesting issue with regard to open development. He thinks that on the surface it does not look as though agile development methods and open development work together very well. He says: ‘If you think that one of the key ideas of agile is the unity of time and location – you need to be in the same place at the same time and doing a lot of discussion face-to-face – and then you have open development which is based on asynchronous, distributed working, etc., then it looks like oil and water – they don’t mix.’ He says this is an ongoing issue for developers and that SourceSense is working to find a set of common practices that might make open source more agile and agile development methods more open.
ODM and the Apache Software Foundation (ASF)
Many people cite the importance of the ASF to the emergence of the open development method and Gianugo, an Apache member, concurs. He says: ‘I believe that Apache is a sort of poster-child when it comes to open development, but this is not to say that there are not other organisations doing it - for example, Eclipse, and Mozilla to some extent. But if you look at Apache, what we want is really durable communities because we know that durable communities will keep on producing code.’ He likens these communities to diverse ecosystems whose survival is in part guaranteed by the very diversity of developers, service providers, technical writers, users and researchers involved in a typical, large Apache project.
Justin Erenkrantz traces the beginnings of the ODM back to the earliest days of the Apache webserver, which was to become the foundation’s first open source product. An early webserver being built at the National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA) in Illinois was left unsupported when the staff moved to Netscape and the server’s technical users were left stranded. Informally, a group of concerned users started to share problems and fix bugs by email. Justin recalls: ‘They started trading patches and stuff. Independently all these guys were trying to maintain this kind of ball of mud. So they said let’s work together so that we can make something better than each one of us individually could make on our own.’ Making decisions and documenting them in public became a very important part of this ethos, as the developers wanted to make sure that the same thing could never happen again.
Education and the ODM
What are the implications of the ODM for higher and further education? At first it may seem that its most likely impact would be on the way in which e-learning, research and business systems software is developed. But the ODM way of working can be expanded beyond software. Juan Mateos Garcia and W. Edward Steinmueller, from the Science and Technology Policy Research Unit at Sussex University (SPRU) at the time of writing, note that: ‘The broader relevance … is the possibility that it might be a model that is applicable to a much broader range of activities involving the creation of common or public information goods’ (Garcia and Steinmueller, 2003). They argue that the Internet provides the capability to assemble large virtual communities that can support collective endeavour and that these endeavours need not be limited to software. They suggest different ways in which open development methods can be used for collective authoring, research projects and collaborative collection of information. This takes open source beyond the crafting and distribution of code and into the realms of new ways to undertake innovation.
For Gianugo, the ODM presents a significant challenge to education, which he argues is in danger of missing out on the opportunities offered by the open development method. He agrees that this goes far beyond the way in which software is developed for research, e-learning or administration projects. It also has implications for the ways in which universities create new knowledge.
A new research model
Gianugo points out that the existing research model of dissemination through peer- reviewed journal-paper publication (and academic reward schemes based on these outputs) may need to be reviewed in the light of recent developments. He says: ‘The problem is that this research model is clearly colliding with what the collaboration world is telling us. There is a risk of becoming less relevant.’ Universities have to do much more to encourage reach-out from their research work, to engage the wider public and, most importantly, to allow others to build on what they have achieved. Continuing with traditional communication routes means that important research material may not see the light of day, experimental data may not be shared and software projects might become what he calls ‘abandon-ware’. This is especially true of research projects that make use of code, which should be developed using the same development environments and source code versioning systems as open source code anyway. It is a short step to opening this up to others. He says: ‘I can’t imagine anyone doing any serious [software engineering] work without software configuration, versioning tools and so forth and so at that point, since you need it anyway, why not do it using the open methods?’
A way forward?
For Gianugo, there is merit in exploring ways in which experimental data and early research results could be shared before formal publication. If this is seen as a bridge too far, then he suggests that institutions experiment with an internal community of researchers that uses the open development method. He goes further, though, arguing that this needs to be tackled strategically and that the way in which academic reward is distributed needs to be rethought. There should be more interest in widening the peer-review process to reach out from the university world. He says: ‘On the strategic side, if the whole rating system, star ratings, is broken, well let’s fix it. The Internet is paving the way for an entirely new recognition system, an entirely new ranking system. I don’t see why the Internet shouldn’t be harvested to sort of rate whether a researcher is doing a good job in terms of out-reach.’
Gianugo also argues that researchers need to make more use of the tools and techniques that are now common in open source development. He says: ‘Forums, mailing lists, the whole idea is that here is the source code, here is the repository, so everything goes there and by the way here is a Wiki attached to it and a mailing list. It doesn’t really matter if no one subscribes to it [at first], but eventually there will be someone willing to do that and I would say education needs to make more use of these tools.’ Andrew Savory, former Open Source Manager for the LiMo Foundation4, warns, however, that the quality of this kind of support infrastructure has to be high. He says: ‘I’ve worked in some environments where the checklist had been done - licence, wikis, mailing lists, code repository, issue tracker – but the infrastructure put in place was simply not up to scratch. This can kill a community before it has a chance to start!’5
Towards a long-term solution
Introducing the ODM to the education world may, however, be a significant challenge. Andrew advises that education needs to understand the benefits and drawbacks of the ODM and to work hard to determine when and where it’s most appropriate to use it. He also notes that: ‘It takes a particular type of person, and not everyone can cope well with the mindset required.’ Gianugo thinks that this will require long-term thinking and he argues that the key might be to focus efforts on training the next generation of researchers and education-based code developers in the new techniques. He cites the Google Summer of Code initiative as one example to follow.
The Open Development Method offers a new way of developing both software and other knowledge-related products. Its focus on openness and community should chime with the general ethos of education and it presents a significant opportunity to develop more sustainable knowledge products and avoid ‘abandon-ware’. But changing the requisite educational working practices is a long-term process that requires commitment and planning. Even when education really wants to change it will need help in understanding the lessons learned from open source software development. It appears that the challenge is as much to the open source community to offer this kind of help as it is to education itself to change.
CAPRA, E. & WASSERMAN, A. (2008) A Framework for Evaluating Managerial Styles in Open Source Projects. IN RUSSO, B. (Ed.) Open Source Development, Communities and Quality. Milano, Italy, Springer.
GARCIA, J. & STEINMUELLER, E. (2003) The Open Source Way of Working: a New Paradigm for the Division of Labour in Software Development. SPRU Electronic Working Paper Series. University of Sussex.
Related information from OSS Watch:
- Meritocrats, cluebats and the open development method: an interview with Justin Erenkrantz
- From a trickle to a flood: building wide open communities in open source - Community and Open Source Development Workshop, Oxford, 20 October 2008
- Roles in open source projects
- Sustainable open source
- A guide to participating in an open source software community
- Community source vs open source
This document is © Intelligent Content 2009.
Open Development Method or Community-led development should not be confused with the Community Source Development model (a specialised solution commonly found in HE, in which an initially closed group of universities collaborate on a software application and then choose to open it up at a later point). ↩
Justin was the President of the Apache Software Foundation when this document was written in 2009. ↩
Ross was the Manager of OSS Watch when this document was written in 2009. ↩
Andrew was the Open Source Manager for the LiMo Foundation when this document was written in 2009. ↩
Readers who are interested in a ‘warts and all’ story of open development based on an educational institution are referred to JÄRVENSIVU, J. & MIKKONEN, T. (2008) Forging a community - Not: Experiences on establishing an open source project. IN RUSSO, B. (Ed.) Open Source Development, Communities and quality. Milano, Italy, Springer. ↩Architect Gary Chang is one of the approximately 7 million Hong Kong inhabitants living in a small 30 square meters apartment behind one of the concrete facades of a recognizable Hong Kong skyscraper. While many Hong Kong inhabitants more or less share the way they furnish their shoebox apartments (as seen in Michael Wolf’s photo book ‘Hong Kong Inside’), Chang has a different approach. He has found the ultimate solution for the lack of space in his small apartment and has created an interior which enables him to transform his 30 square meters flat into a multi-use apartment consisting of 24 rooms. Chang uses flexible moving walls to continuously change the forms and spaces within his house. This way his bedroom can be converted into a kitchen and his living room transforms into an office. All walls can be slided away and behind each wall a new space occurs. Chang has created himself a micro palace containing a living room, guest room, a luxury bath room, a stand alone bar, a generous kitchen and lots of storage space. The occasion for his design lies in Chang’s incredible collection of CDs, which is a result of Chang’s refusal to switch to MP3s.
The real reason behind Chang’s effort lies in the incredible lack of space for housing in the city of Hong Kong. Looking at the Hong Kong land-use statistics only 25% of the city’s land is built-up area. Within this 25% only 3.6% of the land is used for housing, either public and private. While, on the other hand, 3.7% of land is used for roads. In regard to high density living, Chang argues that the real solution must not be found within the architecture and interior design of housing, but rather in the way people live together in the public areas. That’s the real living room of Hong Kong.
—Photo: New York TimesPre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, has been added to existing strategies to prevent HIV infection. PrEP requires a person who is HIV-negative to take a pill daily to reduce their risk of HIV infection. Studies have shown that PrEP reduces risk of infection in men who have sex with men as well as in heterosexual men and women.
Daily PrEP, with regular condom use and other HIV prevention methods, reduces HIV infection risk by up to 90%.
In July 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the combination of FTC-TDF, or Truvada®, for use as PrEP among sexually active adults at risk for HIV infection.
This video from whatisprep.org does a great job explaining what PrEP is and how it works:It sounds like you're new to Prolog. If so, welcome! Let's analyze this.
This unfortunately-named function has two clauses. Prolog looks at the clauses in order to see which one applies. When it finds one that matches, it tries to perform it. If there's a failure somewhere in performing it, it will back up and try the next option. Where precisely these choice points are varies depending on the program; in this program, the only one will be at the clause level, deciding which rule to use.
One way of looking at the first rule is that it is saying "A list with one element, regardless of what that element is, is related to the empty list." Looking at
append([_], ), if we had
X = [foo] and
Y =, it would hold, because
[foo] is a one-item list and
is the empty list. This rule is good Prolog style, because it will work regardless of instantiation: we could supply the left or the right or neither, it doesn't matter.
The second clause is also quite simple. It says that the left argument and the right argument are related if they both start with the same item, and if the rest of the lists are also related by this same predicate. In other words, if I have two lists
Y such that
append(X, Y) is true, then
append([H|X], [H|Y]) is also true. It doesn't matter what H is and it doesn't matter what X and Y are, except insofar as would be implied by
Thinking logically, if I know that any one-item list is related to the empty list, and any list is related to a list that starts with the same item and otherwise is the same, the only kinds of lists that can be so related are lists where every item is the same, except the left list has one more item in it at the end which is not present on the right. So [1,2,3,4] is related to [1,2,3], but so is [1,2,3,foo] and [1,2,3].
Procedurally, let's look at what happens as this predicate is processed with this set of arguments:
The first rule won't match on [1,2,3]. So we must look at the second rule:
append([1|[2,3]], [1|X]) :- append([2,3], X).
We can repeat:
append([2|], [2|Y]) :- append(, Y).
Now the first rule does match:
So putting it all together:
append([1,2,3], [1|X]) implies
append([2,3], X=[2|Y]) implies
so Y =
so X =
so the right side is [1,2].
A Prolog trace will show you basically the same information:
?- trace, append([1,2,3], X).
Call: (7) append([1, 2, 3], _G1633)? creep
Call: (8) append([2, 3], _G1752)? creep
Call: (9) append(, _G1755)? creep
Exit: (9) append(, )? creep
Exit: (8) append([2, 3], )? creep
Exit: (7) append([1, 2, 3], [1, 2])? creep
What makes this Prolog code confusing is that it doesn't look like you've told Prolog how to do anything. And it's true, you haven't, but by specifying what is true logically, Prolog is able to figure it out by itself. This is pretty clever code. If this were Haskell, we'd be talking about the built-in function
init, which returns all of the list but the last item.
Hope this helps!Florida: Drowning in Climate Change Denial
Posted April 5, 2012
Bordered by water on three sides, Florida is arguably one of the states most vulnerable to climate change. Over 14 million people (75 percent of the state’s population) live in coastal counties, and Miami ranks first in the world in terms of total assets at risk to a 100-year coastal flood event. Hotter temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, more powerful tropical storms, and rising sea levels will threaten communities across the state.
Having grown up in Florida, it’s all too easy for me to imagine how these impacts will affect people’s lives. My grandparents’ house on the Gulf coast could be flooded more frequently. The well my parents use to pump drinking water from the Floridan aquifer could soon run dry. And the beautiful wetlands and coastal mangroves I’ve enjoyed my whole life could be lost to sea level rise.
Alligator Creek near Punta Gorda, FL – photo credit flickr user Seamoor
These are just a few of the possible impacts. Here’s the bigger picture:
- By 2070, nearly 5 million people and $3.5 trillion in assets could be flooded by a 100-year coastal flood in the Miami area alone.
- Sea level rise of a little more than 2 feet would place 9 percent of the state’s current land area underwater at high tide (over 99 percent of Monroe County and nearly 70 percent of Miami-Dade County)—an area with a population of 1.5 million.
- The bread-and-butter tourism industry could lose $40 billion annually by 2050 and $167 billion annually by 2100 if no action is taken.
- Greater evaporative losses from surface water reservoirs would affect water availability.
- Drought events could contribute to saltwater intrusion into coastal freshwater aquifers, contaminating drinking water supplies.
Given the enormous risks to the people, economy, and resources of Florida, you would think that state agencies would be busy developing plans and policies to reduce vulnerabilities. Think again.
According to a new NRDC report released today, Florida lags far behind other states in preparing for climate change impacts. Under former Governor Charlie Crist, the state seemed well on its way to getting ready—statewide greenhouse gas pollution reduction goals were set, and the Florida Energy and Climate Commission was established to implement actions to reduce emissions of global warming pollution and prepare for climate impacts.
However, under the administration of current Governor Rick Scott (who doesn’t believe in man-made climate change), the commission has been abolished and state agencies are doing very little to prepare for climate change. Thankfully, regional groups like the South Florida Water Management District and the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact are acting and taking leadership. Cities like Miami also are preparing for climate change (as detailed in our Thirsty for Answers report).
But state agencies play an instrumental role in prioritizing and supporting statewide planning. They still need to do their part and prepare for the looming impacts of climate change—our health, livelihoods, communities, and future generations depend on it.
Comments are closed for this post.American Rights at Work have a handy two-pager that explains what unions do. We condensed it a little bit. Keep it in your pocket and use it to argue with that biased relative at the dinner table.
Unions are democratic organizations whose leaders and rules are chosen by members.
A union is an organization of two or more employees who band together to bargain with their employer over hours, pay and working conditions.
Leaders are elected. Members draft and ratify constitutions that guide the union.
Unions represent all employees whether they pay dues or not.
Unions are required by law to represent the interests of all employees whether they pay union dues or not. They bargain with employers over contracts to establish pay, benefits and working conditions. They represent employees in disciplinary processes, lobby for laws that help working families and offer member benefits and fellowship. Union members help each other and their communities.
Unions are needed now more than ever.
If it weren't for unions, there would be no minimum wage, no eight-hour work day, no child labor laws, no health and safety standards, and no weekends. Extremist anti-worker politicians and powerful corporations are trying to roll back those standards and destroy Social Security and Medicare. Unions are the only group standing between them and workers.
No country has a middle class that doesn't have unions. Unions raise wages, benefits and standards for all workers in an industry.
Without unions, employees have no rights in the workplace.
Without a union, employees have no rights in U.S. workplaces unless they belong to a class protected by equal opportunity laws or labor laws. In most states, employers can fire workers because they don't like the color of their eyes.
Collective bargaining brings fairness to the workplace.
Collective bargaining agreements are legally enforceable contracts to which employers and employees agree. They are intended to create a fair workplace by setting clear expectations for employees.
Collective bargaining agreements typically contain a clause requiring an employer to show “just cause” for disciplining and/or firing an employee. They make sure employees have a due process to defend themselves against unfair accusations by an employer.
Bad trade deals, not unions, are hurting American companies.
Bad trade deals hurt the American auto industry by giving foreign competitors an unfair advantage over U.S.-made vehicles. For example, Toyota was near bankruptcy after World War II, but the U.S. government rescued it by buying military vehicles for the Korean War effort.
Some of the country’s most successful companies have a union workforce, including: Southwest Airlines, AT&T, Costco, and UPS.
Unions raise productivity on average by up to 24 percent in manufacturing, 16 percent in hospitals, and 38 percent in construction. Union workers also have higher professional standards because they train workers.
Unions prevent jobs from going overseas.
Many collective bargaining agreements contain specific provisions that restrict the amount of work employers can outsource, helping to protect American jobs.
No worker is ever forced to join a union.
It has long been illegal to require and employee to join a union as a condition of employment. Workers may be charged a fee for union services even if they aren't members because unions are required to represent all employees and because employers are forbidden to discriminate against non-union members.
No Rights At Work laws let government interfere with the freedom of employers and workers to bargain with each other.
These laws force employers to treat all employees the same, and they force unions to represent all members. But they allow freeloaders to take advantage of unions by not paying for the services and benefits they receive. No Rights At Work laws are aimed at destroying unions and lowering workers' living standards.
Unions are always under attack by extremist CEOs and wealthy people.
The anti-union rhetoric you hear from extreme anti-worker politicians was bought and paid for by billionaires like the Koch brothers, Dick DeVos and the Wal-Mart heirs. They have a vast network of front groups, think tanks and paid media shills (like Glenn Beck) to smear unions.Video:Create a Family Disaster Planwith Dr. Mona Khanna
Everyone hopes a real emergency will never happen. Get tips on developing a disaster plan for your family and find out how you can be prepared..See Transcript
Transcript:Create a Family Disaster Plan
Why Create a Family Disaster Plan?If anything is predictable, it's that life is unpredictable. Natural disasters or unspeakable tragedies like 9-11 are never part of the plan, but they're not always avoidable. The very nature of a disaster is that it strikes quickly. If a major emergency occurs where you live, you may have to get by without water and electricity for days. Stores may be closed. You may even have to evacuate. Planning ahead can ensure that you and your family make it through a difficult time safe and sound.
What Type of Disaster Should You Plan For?The starting point for an emergency plan is to first think about the disasters that are most likely to happen where you live. If your home is far from the ocean, tsunamis aren't a threat, but you might face a higher risk from tornadoes. You can check with your local Red Cross chapter to find out what type of disasters are most likely to occur in your area.
Create a Family Disaster PlanThe next step is to sit down with your family to create a plan. Start by setting up two meeting places. The first should be near your home. The other should be outside your neighborhood, in case disaster hits while everyone is out and it's impossible to get home. It's also important to have an out-of-state contact that family members can call so you can keep track of each other if you become separated.
Disaster Plan HardwareThe next step is to make sure you everyone knows how to turn off your gas and water. Then, check to make sure you have a fire extinguisher.
Disaster Plan SuppliesSupplies are also critically important. Start with at least one gallon of water per person per day at a minimum, plus plenty of canned and dried foods that don't need to be cooked. Don't forget the manual can opener. To start a basic store of supplies, plan to have enough water and food on hand for every member of your family for about 72 hours.
Other Essentials for a Family Disaster PlanSome other essentials are a battery-powered radio and a flashlight, plus extra batteries, a first aid kit, and sanitary supplies like toilet paper, soap, and plastic bags for waste of all kinds. Don't forget about jackets and extra blankets if you live in a place where it gets cold in the winter. You should also think about other supplies your family might need - baby food and diapers if you have an infant, for example, or pet food if you have a cat or dog.
Keeping your children as happy and distracted as possible will help everyone cope better so books and games are a good idea, too.
Disaster Plan Emergency Evacuation KitMake sure to create an additional kit for your car, in case you need to leave quickly in an emergency situation. Once everything is in place, don't forget to practice the disaster plan with the whole family every six months so everyone remembers what to do in case of a real emergency.
Of course none of these things will prevent disaster from striking. But they can make a huge difference in how well your family weathers an emergency if something does happen where you live. Hopefully, you'll never have to put your plan to use. Even so, you'll probably sleep a little better at night knowing that you've done what you can to prepare.
I'm Dr. Mona Khanna, About Health."Ever come across a recipe for tomatillo wine?" Greg Cook, Fargo, North Dakota
The common tomatillo (Physalis philadelphica), also known as the Mexican groundcherry, husk-tomato and strawberry tomato, is related to the grape or prairie groundcherry (Physalis viscosa), the longleaf groundcherry (Physalis virginiana), and Wright or sharpleaf groundcherry (Physalis wrightii). Erect, bushy, or sprawling plants with drooping, bell-shaped, yellow to cream-colored flowers and berries completely enclosed in loose papery husks (actually, an enlarged calyx). There are numerous similar groundcherry species and varieties native to Central and Southern United States, Mexico, and Central America. The common tomatillo can be weedy in crop fields, but is typically not considered a weed in natural habitats. Tomatillo is cultivated for its edible fruits, but has escaped cultivation in some areas. It was introduced from Mexico.
Mature berries are yellowish to orange or purple, enclosed in pendant papery husks which are loose, ovoid, 15-35 mm long, 10-ribbed, angled to rounded. Berries disperse enclosed in the husks. Seeds are numerous, yellowish, round to kidney-shaped, flattened, minutely pitted, 2 mm long. Berries of the grape groundcherry are sticky and typically purple at maturity. Tomatillo berries are light green in color, turning yellow and then orange to purple with splitting husks at maturity.
Soak the grain overnight. When ready to make wine, pour boiling water over raisins (or sultanas or currants) and let soak about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, drain grain. Remove husks and wash and chop tomatillos. Mix grain, raisins, balm leaves and stalks, chopped tomatillos, and the peels of the citrus fruit (careful to remove all white pith) and pass through a mincer. Place minced ingredients in nylon straining bag in primary. Add sugar and tannin. Add 3-1/2 qts boiling water and stir well to dissolve sugar. Cover and allow to cool one hour. Add crushed Campden tablet and juice of citrus fruit. Wait 12 hours and add yeast nutrient and pectic enzyme, stirring to mix. Wait additional 12 hours and add yeast. Ferment seven days, gently squeezing bag of minced ingredients 2-3 times a day. Remove bag and allow to drip drain, then squeeze well but not too firmly. Pour all liquid into secondary and top up with water to within 2-1/2 inches of airlock. Rack after 3 weeks, then again every month until wine clears and no additional deposits form during two-week period. Bottle and allow to age 9-12 months. [Author's own recipe]
My thanks to Greg Cook of Fargo, North Dakota for this request.Voices of young people with a history of specific language impairment (SLI) in the first year of post-16 education
Palikara, Olympia, Lindsay, Geoff and Dockrell, Julie E.. (2009) Voices of young people with a history of specific language impairment (SLI) in the first year of post-16 education. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, Vol.44 (No.1). pp. 56-78. ISSN 1368-2822Full text not available from this repository.
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13682820801949032
Background: Giving young people more and better opportunities to have their voices heard is a key feature of current educational policy and research internationally and in the UK.
Aims: To examine the views of young people with a history of specific language impairment (SLI) as they entered post-16 education.
Methods & Procedures: A total of 54 students identified as having SLI at 8 years of age were followed up through primary and secondary school to post
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fig.) one who is hollow, deceitful.
Malay—cf. kabok, a goblet.
KAPUA, a cloud, a bank of clouds: Te kapu tu noa ai! ka riro au i te ia—M. M., 23: A tangohia atu ana aia e nga kapua ki runga ki te rangi—A. H. M., i. 47. Cf. pua, foaming, breaking; to roll or wrap up.
Whaka-KAPUA, misty; in the distance.
Hawaiian—opua, narrow pointed clouds, hanging in the horizon; clouds of a singular shape arising out of the sea: Nana aku la oia i ke kuku o na opua; He saw the long clouds standing erect. (b.) A bunch, a collection, as of bushes, leaves, &c. Cf. opu, to swell up, to be full, as the belly of a fat person.
Tongan—cf. kakabu, foggy; fog or mist.
Ext. Poly.: Fiji—cf. kabu, foggy, fog or mist.
Malay—cf. kabut, fog.
KAPUI, to tie up the fronds of the kiekie, to preserve the fruit.
KAPUIPUI, to burn weeds, &c., in heaps.
KAPUKA, the name of a tree (Bot. Griselinia littoralis). 2. A handful of potatoes. [See Kapunga under Kapu.]
KAPUNGA. [See under Kapu.]
KAPURA (kòpura), fire: A i te pou kapura i te po hei whakamarama i a ratou—Eko., xiii. 21. Cf. màpura, fire; purapura, seed; ura, to glow; wera, heat, &c.
KAPURANGA, to dawn.
Samoan—cf. pula, to shine; to be yellow; pulapula, to shine a little, as the eyes, recovering from sickness; pulapulàlàgoto, to shine, as the setting sun.
Tahitian—cf. pura, a spark of fire; a flash of light or fire; to flash, blaze; purara, dispersion; faapurara, to scatter; haa-pura, to make the sparks fly; opurapura, to be flashing obscurely, as fire.
Tongan—cf. bulobula, seed; the seed cuttings of yams.
Marquesan—cf. pupua, phosphorescent.
Paumotan—cf. puro, phosphorescent; purara, to divulge, to blaze abroad.
Mangaian—cf. pura, sparks; to shine, to glow. Ext. Poly.: Bolangitam—cf. pura, fire.
Aneityum—(in = nom. pref.) incap, or incop, fire; incopre, flame.
KAPURANGA. [See uder Kapu.]
KAPURANGI, rubbish, weeds.
KARA, an old man. Cf. karaua, an old man. 2. A secret plan, a conspiracy.
KARA (Moriori), aromatic.
KAKARA, an odour, a smell; savoury, odoriferous: Tena rawa te tiere te haere na, ara te kakara o te tawhiri—P. M., 189: Tena te kakara o Tutunui—Prov.
Samoan—alala (alalà), to smell of hot pork or fish. Cf. sasala, to be diffused, as an odour.
Hawaiian — aala, an odour, fragrant: Ka lala aala o Ukulonuku; The fragrant branch of Ukulonuku; (b.) to emit a perfume, to be fragrant. Ala, to anoint, to dress a sore or limb; (b.) spicy, perfumed: Honi aku i kea la o ke mauu; Smell the sweet scent of the grass. Cf. alahii, the bastard sandal-wood; wahieala, sandal-wood; laauala, sandal-wood; Kena aku la o Kamehameha i kona poe kanaka eimi i ka laau-ala; Kamehameha sent his men to look for sandal-wood.
Rarotongan—kakara, savour, savouriness, savoury: Kua tuku atura aia i taua kai kakara ra; And he gave him the savoury food.
Tahitian—aara, the sweet or fragrant scent of herbs; odoriferous, as herbs.
Tongan—kakala, odoriferous, sweet of scent; (b.) any and every sweet flower; (c.) a wreath, a garland; (d.) sharp, pungent to the taste; fakakakala, to scent oil with leaves, &c.
Marquesan—kakaa (kakaà), sweet scented, pleasant to the smell.
Mangarevan—kakara, odorous; karakara, to smell good and savoury.
Mangaian—kakara, sweet-smelling, odorous; E maire e kakara tuputupu; Abundance of sweet-smelling myrtle.
KARA (obs.), to call. 2. A salutation; properly to one of higher rank: E kara!
KARANGA, to call: Ka karanga, a ka kore ia e whakao mai ki a koe, ka moimoi—P. M., 28. Cf. karangatà, to remain silent when called. 2. To shout, to call out: Katahi tona whaea ka karanga atu—P. M., 14. 3. To call for, by other means than by the voice: Katahi ka tahu ahi a Ngatoro ki Maketu hei karanga mo nga teina—P. M., 94.
KARANGARANGA, to call frequently: Kei te karangaranga te tangata ra i te rangi—P. M., 74.
Samoan—‘alaga, to shout out, to call out; a shout; O la‘u ‘alaga na oo i ona fofoga; My cry entered into his ears. (b.) To proclaim a king or chief on his accession to the title; ‘alalaga, to cry out, as many persons: Ua latou ‘alalaga ai, a e le tali atu o ia; They cry out, and no one listens. Fa‘a-‘ala, to give the first speech at a fono (a council: fonò, to shout); fa‘a-‘ala‘ala, to talk sarcastically, to mock; sarcastic.
Tahitian—ara, to importune the gods and make much of them, by presents, &c, to gain their countenance in war; araa, a messenger sent before a chief and company to give information of their approach; or to give notice of the approach of some feast or religious ceremony; arara (ararà), hoarse through calling.
Hawaiian—alala, to cry, as the young of animals; a crying, weeping, bleating; (b.) a species of raven, so named from its cry; alana, a crying, the voice of suffering or complaint; (b.) a present made by a chief to a priest to procure his prayers; a present made to a god; (b.) a sacrifice; to offer a sacrifice; ho-alala and hoo-alala, to make one cry out. Cf. alanakuni, an offering to procure the death of page 128 a sorcerer; kala, a public crier; to proclaim, to invite, to publish; kalaau, to call, to call aloud; kalalau, to call, as one person to another.
Tongan—kalaga, to shout, to exclaim; a shout, exclamation. Cf. gala, to cry, to raise the voice above others; kalagaaki, to be shouted; to be proclaimed; fekalagaaki, to shout one to another; talaga, to converse over.
Rarotongan—karanga, to say, to speak: Kua karanga atura aia, ‘I na, kua ruaine au;’ And he said, ‘Behold, I now am old.’
Mangarevan—karaga, cries, calling out; menace in war; (b.) a song; (c.) to gesticulate; (d.) a far-off noise at night. Cf. karài, to announce; to affirm.
Futuna—kalaga, a great cry to warn one.
Ext. Poly.: Malay — cf. garang, loud or sonorous; garangan, a loud noise, roaring.
Fiji—cf. karakaraivisà, a harsh or grating sound.
KARA (karà) basaltic stone. Cf. karawhiu, to whirl round. [See Tongan.]
Tahitian—ara, a kind of hard black stone. Cf. aràhuepine, a very hard stone.
Hawaiian—ala, a rounded smooth stone, a waterworn pebble. Cf. alamea, the name of a kind of hard stone from volcanoes, out of which stone axes were made; alamole, a kind of stone.
Tongan — cf. kalamu, to buzz along like a stone from a sling. [See Mu.]
Mangarevan—kara, a round heavy stone, like a ball.
KARAE (kàrae), the name of a bird: Uahatia taku manu i te rangi, he toroa, he karae, he taiko—P. M., 30.
KARAHA (kàraha), a calabash with a wide mouth; a bowl: Haria mai te honu i te karaha nei—MSS. Cf. raha, open, extended.
KARAHO (kàraho), the floor or platform of a canoe: Katahi ka haere i te po ki raro o te karaho o te waka—A. H. M. iii. 6.
KARAHU (kàrahu), a native oven.
KARAHUE, the name of a shell-fish.
KARAKA, the name of a tree (Bot. Corynocarpus lævigata): Te kiore, me te pukeko, me te karaka—P. M., 111.
Mangaian—cf. karaka, the name of a tree.
Ext. Poly.: Fiji—cf. qalaka (nggalaka) the name of a tree, bearing edible fruit.
KARAKAHIA, the name of a bird, the White-winged Duck (Orn. Nyroca australis).
KARAKAPE, to lift up embers or hot stones with two sticks used as tongs. Cf. kape, to pick out; karà, a kind of stone. [For comparatives, see Kape, and Kara.]
KARAKIA, an invocation; a prayer; a charm; a recitation; to repeat an incantation or conduct a religious service: Koia a Tawhaki i kiia ai he atua, a i karakia atu ai te iwi ki a ia—A. H. M., i. 47: Katahi ka karakiatia e ia ki a Titikura, ka ora kotoa ona tangata—P. M., 58: Ka whakahua i tana karakia mo te ehunga i te wai—P. M., 111. Cf. kara, to call; karanga, to shout.
Tahitian—cf. ara, to importune the gods, and make much of them by presents, &c., to gain their countenance in war.
Hawaiian—cf. alana (M. L. = karanga), a present made by a chief to a priest to procure his prayers; a present made to a god; a sacrifice; to offer a sacrifice; a crying out, the voice of suffering or complaint; kala, a public crier; to proclaim.
Tongan—cf. gala, to cry, to raise the voice above that of others.
Mangaian—karakia, invocations, charms, prayers.
KARAMATA, the head of a tree. Cf. karaua, the head (of the body); mata, the point, tip; kàmata, the end of a branch or leaf; the top of a tree. [For comparatives, see Mata.]
KARAMEA, red ochre.
Hawaiian—cf. alamea, a kind of hard stone from volcanoes, out of which stone axes were made.
Tahitian—araea, red earth; (b.) red crockery-ware; (c.) reddish colour.
Marquesan — kaaea (kaàea), red earth; (b.) reddish, fire - coloured.
Mangarevan — kakaraea (kakaraèa), ochre, yellow clay burnt to redness. Cf. karamea, part of the liver; karameaporotu, good (said of things only).
KARAMIHA (Moriori), a song, chant.
KARAMU (karamù), the name of a shrub (Bot. Coprosma robusta, C. arborea, and C. lucida). This was a sacred plant used in invocations, &c., especially at the sprinkling of water in the (so-called) Native “baptismal” ceremony. [See Iriiri, and Tua.] In the Chatham Islands the Coprosma baueriana is called Karamù.
KARAMUIMUI, to swarm upon: A tau mai ana te tini o te ngaro ki te karamuimui i a au—P. M., 14. Cf. mui, to swarm round, to infest; tamuimui, to crowd around. [For comparatives, see Mui.]
KARANGARANGA, an attendant. Cf. karangata, men; ranga, a company of persons.
KARANGATA (karangatà), to be mute when addressed, to remain silent when called. Cf. karanga, to call.
KARANGATA (Moriori), men. Cf. tangata, a human being; ngata, a man.
KARANGI (kàrangi), restless, unsettled. Cf. harangi, unsettled; hikirangi, to be unsettled; rangi, the sky [used as rewa: see Rewa]; wairangi, foolish; porangi, hurried, demented.
Whaka-KARANGIRANGI, to provoke.
KARANGU (karangù), the name of a shrub (Bot. Coprosma fœtidissima, and C. lucida).
KARAPA (kàrapa), squinting. 2. To flash; flashing: Ki te mea ka uira karapa aua kura whero—A. H. M., v. 42. [For comparatives, see Rarapa.] 3. A species of eel.
KARAPETAPETAU, to flap, as a fish out of water. Cf. kapekapeta, to flap, to flutter, to writhe; kapekapetau, quick; petapeta, rags. 2. To wag, as the tongue.
Whaka-KARAPETAPETAU, to cause to flap or wag.
KARAPI (kàrapi), sticks used in building, to hold reeds or rushes in place. Cf. karapiti, to pinch in; to put or fasten side by side; kapiti, a cleft, a crevice.
KARAPITI, to put or fasten together side by side: A karapitia ana e ia te waewae o Parama ki te taiepa—Tau., xxii. 25. Cf. apiti, to place side by side; kapiti, to be close together; karatiti, to faste with pegs. 2. To pinch between two bodies: Karapitia iho e koe oku waewae ki te rakau—Hopa, xiii. 27.page 129
KARAPIPITI (karapìpiti), laid close beside one another.
Mangarevan—cf. karapihi, the suckers of the octopus.
Ext. Poly.: Tagal—cf. calapit, close together. [For other comparatives, see Apiti.]
KARAPOTI, to surround, to hedge in, inclose: Ko te ope ra kua karapoti iho—A. H. M., v. 19: Ka karapotia te whare e nga tangata o te pa—Ken., xix. 4. 2. A blockade, a starving out. Also, harapoti: Ka harapotia a ratou taua rua i te one—A. H. M., v. 19. 3. To surround, as with the coil of a snake: Ka karapoti te hiku o te waero ka mau a Ruru—A. H. M., ii. 27.
KARARA-HUA-RAU (myth.) [See Ngarara.]
KARAREHE, a dog: a quadruped: Ka aranga, tenei ko ‘Te mau a te kararehe’—A. H. M., iii. 10: Te kararehe, me te mea ngokingoki, me te kirehe o te whenua — Ken., i. 24. Cf. karehe, to run; kìrehe, a dog; kuri, a dog.
KARAREHE (myth.) [See Mau-o-te-Karerehe.]
KARARI, the name of a small fish.
KARATI, the name of a fish, the Schnapper (Ich. Pagrus unicolor).
KARATITI, to fasten with pins or pegs. Cf. titi, a peg or pin; to stick in as a peg; kàrapi, sticks used in building, to hold reeds or rushes in place.
KARAU (kàrau), a dredge, a grapnel. Cf. karo, to pick out of a hole; rau, to catch in a net; rarau, to lay hold of; rou, a long stick used to reach anything with [see Mangarevan]. 2. A comb for the hair: Homai ra taku heru, taku karau—A. H. M., i. 50. Cf. heru, a comb; haro, to scrape. 3. The gauge for the meshes of a net. 4. A trap, made of loops of harakeke (flax, Phormium) to catch birds that burrow in the ground. Cf. karapiti, to pinch.
Tahitian—arau, the two wings of a large fishing-net; (b.) a mode of fishing; (c.) long, crooked, and bad, as a tree; long, as a wave of the sea.
Tongan—cf. palau, to scratch;
Mangarevan—karou, a hook, a clasp, a fork for reaching down fruit.
Mangaian—cf. karau, a land-crab.
Ext. Poly.: Java—cf. garu, a harrow, a comb; to scratch; karau, to pull a rope, to haul. [For probable comparatives, see Rou.]
KARAUA, an old man. Cf. kara, an old man; koroua, an old man. 2. The head of a person. Cf. karu, the head.
Tahitian—araua, a good pilot, one who knows well how to manage a boat or canoe in dangerous and difficult places; oroua, decrepit through age.
KARAURIA (Moriori), an oyster.
KARAWA, a mother; a dam of animals. 2. A garden bed.
KARAWAI, the small freshwater Cray-fish. In North Island, Paranephrops planifrons; in South Island P. setosus. 2. Dressed flax placed in water for dyeing purposes.
KARAWAKA, measles: Na ratou nga mate nei te Rewharewha me te karawaka—A. H. M., v. 35. 2. The name of a small fish.
KARAWARAWA (kàrawarawa), a weal, the mark of a stripe: He karawarawa mo te karawarawa.—Eko., xxi. 25. Cf. kare, the lash of a whip; karawhiu, a flail; to swing round.
Tahitian—arava, a stripe; a contusion; aravarava, stripes. Cf. irava, a stripe, streak, or layer.
KARAWHIU, to whirl, to swing round; a flail. Cf. whiu, to whip, throw, fling; porowhiu, to throw; kowhiuwhiu, to fan, winnow.
KARE, a ripple: I haere mai koe i te kare taiuru? i te kare tai-roto? —MSS. Cf. pokare, to be agitated, as a liquid. 2. The lash of a whip. Cf. karawarawa, the mark of a whip, a weal.
KAREKARE, surf; the break on a bar: Ka riro ki te tai karekare—G. P., 59. 2. To be agitated.
Whaka-KAREKARE, to agitate; to shake up.
Samoan—‘a‘ale, a driving in war, a rout; (b.) prompt, doing with despatch.
Hawaiian—ale, a billow, a wave in motion: A hele hoi maluna o na ale kiekie o ke kai; And goes upon the high waves of the sea. Aleale, to make into waves; to stir up, as water: to trouble, to toss about, as restless waves; a moving, swelling, as of waves: Kalaia ka ipu i ke kai aleale; Fashioned was the bowl for the rough sea. Hoo-aleale, and ho-aleale, to stir up, as water; A hoaleale i ka wai; And troubled the water. Cf. poale, to drink in; waialeale, to ripple, to disturb, as the surface of water.
Tahitian—are, a wave or billow of the sea: To mau are e to mau uru ra; All your waves and billows. Areare, sickness, qualmishness, as in sea-sickness. Cf. arefatumoana, a heavy rolling swell of the sea; arematua, a wave that has been long in forming; arepu, to disturb the water, as fish do in swimming; aretea, the white waves of an agitated sea; mataare, the crests of waves; toare, to be in commotion, as the sea; farefare, hollow, as an empty stomach; pufarefare, a hollowness; a breaking wave, such as bends over, hangs, and then breaks; tafare, a hollow place in the rocks; a hollow wave of the sea.
Tongan—cf. kale, to run fast; faka-kakale, to run to and fro; faka-kalekale, to run in confusion, as when affrighted [See Samoan].
Mangaian—kare, the surf, breaking water; a billow: Te nunga koe i te uru o te kare i tai, è! Thy path is on the foaming crest of the billow.
Mangarevan—kare, the surface of the sea, or of water. Cf. kore, the sea agitated by the passage of fish; aka-karekarevai, to gargle the mouth with water.
Marquesan—kaekae, the surface of the water. Cf. haehae, the hollow of a wave.
Paumotan—kare, a wave, billow.
Ext. Poly.: Fiji—cf. kerekere, to break, as water over a reef; to boil, as boiling water.
KAREAO, the name of a climbing plant, the Supple - jack (Bot. Rhipogonum scandens): Katahi ka tikina he kareao i te ngahere—P. M., 151.
KAREAOPIRITA, the same as kareao.
KAREAREA, the name of a bird, the Sparrow-Hawk (Orn. Hieracidea novæ-zelandiæ). Also kaeaea, and kaiaia (kaiaià). Cf. karewarewa, the Bush-Hawk.page 130
KARE-A-ROTO, a darling, an object of loving devotion: Ara ko te kare-a-roto tenei—P. M., 131.
KAREHE, to run. Cf. karere, a messenger; kararehe, a dog; a quadruped; kirehe, a dog; kuri, a dog; rere, to run.
Tongan—cf. kale, to run fast; kakale, to run to and fro; to run swiftly.
Samoan—cf. ‘a‘ale, a rout, a driving in war.
KAREHU (kàrehu), a spade. (For kaheru.)
KAREI, the sap-wood of a tree.
KAREKO, to slip. (Or karengo.)
KAREKO (or karengo,) the name of an edible seaweed growing on stones (Laminaria sp.): Me te kareko (he taru tupu i runga i te kohatu, a ka tae ki to toru ka kiia he kapiti)—A. H. M., i. 123.
KAREMU (kàremu), the plug in the bottom of a canoe: Ka tae ki waho ki te moana, ka unuhia te karemu—A. H. M., iii. 15.
KARENUKU (myth.), the wife of Hema and Pupu-mai-nono. She was the mother of Tawhaki and Karihi—A. H. M., i. 121. [See Tawhaki.]
KARENUKU, KARERANGI, (myth.,) names of goddesses seen floating on the waters of the
Deluge, by the survivors on the raft or ark of safety—A. H. M., i. 175. [See Tuputupu-whenua.]
KARENGO (or kareko,) to slip.
KARENGO (or kareko,) the name of an edible seaweed (Alg. Laminaria sp.): Ka waiho i reira tana tama a Matangi-a-whiowhio, tana kai he karengo—A. H. M., iii. 62.
KAREPO, the name of a marine plant, a seagrass.
KARERARERA (kàrerarera), the name of a waterplant.
KARERE, a messenger: Ki te mea ka tonoa atu he karere ki Tutanekai—P. M., 129. Cf. rere, to run; karehe, to run; kararehe, a dog.
Tahitian—arere, a messenger; one appointed as the king's messenger: E pau va arere; Let the period of the messengers cease. Faa-arere, to procure or cause a messenger to be sent. Cf. rere, to fly or leap; rereatua, a person running between two armies to endeavour to make peace.
Samoan—cf. ‘a‘ale, prompt, doing with despatch.
Hawaiian—alele, (also elele,) a messenger of a chief; to act as a messenger; (b.) to act as a spy; to look or examine into the condition of another. Cf. lele, to fly, jump, leap.
Rarotongan — karere, a messenger: I te rima o te karere ra; By the hand of the messenger.
Mangarevan—kerere, a messenger; to send a messenger; an envoy, ambassador.
Paumotan—karere, a herald, envoy; to delegate, to assign.
KARETO (kàreto), to be untied, unfastened.
KARETU (kàretu), the name of a fragrant grass (Bot. Hierochloe redolens): Homai ki au etehi karetu nei—Wohl. Trans., vii. 51.
Tahitian — aretu, a species of grass for thatching houses.
KAREWA (kàrewa), a float, a buoy. Cf. rewa, to float; korewa, drifting about; morewa, afloat. [For comparatives, see Rewa.]
KAREWAREWA, the name of a bird, the Bush Hawk (Orn. Hieracidea ferox): Ka tangi te karewarewa ki waenga o te rangi pai, he ua apopo—Prov. Cf. karearea, the sparrowhawk.
Tahitian—cf. arevareva, the name of a large spotted bird, said formerly to be inspired at times by the god Manutea.
Ext. Poly.: Aneityum—cf. karevareva, a species of small owl.
KARI, an isolated wood, a clump of trees.
KARI, to dig for. Cf. karituangi, to dig deep; tukari, to dig and throw up into hillocks; waikari, a ditch; keri, to dig; kauhuri, to dig; to turn over the soil. 2. To rush along violently, as wind. Cf. keri, to rush violently along, as wind. 3. Bruised, maimed; indented by a blow: Ka oti te upoko te kari rawa ki te patu—A. H. M., iii. 7.
KAKARI, to be urgent, to be importunate. 2. To wrestle, to quarrel. 3. To fight; a fight: Ka kakari raua, ka werohia a Raki e Takaroa—A. H. M., i. 22.
KAKARITANGA, a valley.
KARIKARI, to strip off. 2. A notch cut in a tree for climbing purposes.
Whaka-KARIKARI, to notch.
Tahitian—ari, to scoop out the earth from a hole with both hands; (b.) empty, as the stomach; waste, as the land forsaken by its inhabitants; frightful, as a place in battle; (c.) a wave or billow. [See Kare.] Cf. areta, a person who seizes his prey in war.
Hawaiian—cf. ali, a scar on the cheek; aliali, to be rough with scars; eli, to dig the ground.
Mangarevan—cf. kari, a cicatrice, a scar; an inflammation; karia! rush! mount! leap up!
Ext. Poly.: Aneityum—cf. acale, to scoop; to throw as with a spade.
Fiji—cf. kari, to scrape.
Kayan—cf. kuali, to dig.
Malay—cf. gali, to dig; karis, a dagger, a kris.
Kisa—cf. kalis, a dagger.
Tagal—cf. kalis, a sword.
KARIHI (myth.), the brother of Tawhaki, the famous demi-god. Karihi was the son of Hema and Karenuku, (or of Pupu-mai-nono, or of Urutonga). Karihi accompanied his brother on the expedition for the slaughter of the Ponaturi, and the revenge for the death of Hema. When Tangotango, the Heavenly Maiden, left her husband Tawhaki, and took their child Arahuta away with them, Karihi accompanied his brother on his journey toward the skies in search of the lost ones. Coming to the dwelling of the blind old goddess Matakerepo, she directed their way to the vine which hung down from Heaven, and which they must ascend. A great gust of wind seized Karihi, who was blown back again to earth; but Tawhaki ascended safely and pursued his way alone. Karihi returned to his own dwelling. In Hawaii, Karihi is called Alihi, and is represented as accompanying Tawhaki (Kahai) on the journey to revenge their father's death. In the pedigree called the Ulu Genealogy, Tawhaki (Kahai) is said to be the son of Hema and Hinauluohia; Hema being the son of Kaitangata (Aikanaka) and Hina. In Tahiti, page 131 we find that Tawhaki (Tavai) and Karihi (Arii) were the sons of Hema (Oema), and that they both went down to Hawaiki (Havaii = Spirit-world) to seek their father. They saw the old blind goddess counting her taro, as in the New Zealand legend. They brought back the bones of Hema. When Karihi is mentioned in Rarotongan myth he is called Arii, which would apparently show (from the lost k) that they had received this story in the Hervey Islands from Tahitian sources. The Samoan tale calls Karihi Alise; and he accompanies Tafa‘i (Tawhaki) to Heaven in his brother's journey to woo Sina. He returned safely to the earth. (Samoan legend called “O le Gafa o le La,” or The Genealogy of the Sun—Pratt.) [See P. M., 36, et seq.; A. H. M. i. 59; M. and S., 255; Forn., ii. 16. See also under Tawhaki, Ponaturi, &c.]
KARIHI, the stone of a fruit; the kernel. 2. The weight attached to the lower edge of a drag-net: He tangata hoki te karihi o tana kupenga—P. M., 141.
Tahitian—arihi, the ropes that are fixed to a fishing-net: the upper one to which the raai or corks is fixed is called arihi-i-nia; and that to which the stones are fixed is called arihi-i-raro. Figuratively, the word was extensively used: arihi-i-nia were prayers used in time of war; the arihi-i-raro being those who stirred up the people to vigilance and activity, the chief priests, and other leading chiefs.
Hawaiian—alihi, the lines of a fish-net; (b.) the cords holding the sinkers of a net; (c.) the upper part of a calabash strap; (d.) to be ready to work for the sake of gain, but at other times absent; (e.) unwillingly. Cf. alihilele, the name of a drag-net; alihilani, the horizon.
KARIKA (myth.), a brother of Hatupatu. 2. A chief of Raumati's party killed by Hatupatu—P. M., 123. [See Hatupatu.]
KARIOI, to loiter, to be idle; idle. Cf. tarioi, to loiter; tatari, to wait.
Tahitian—Arioi, the name of a remarkable fraternity in the Society Islands. They were a semi-religious, semi-profligate band of persons, recruited from all ranks, but principally from that of the nobles, and comprising both sexes. They wandered from one place to another reciting old poems, and giving recitations, &c., of an historical character, thus becoming the vehicles of much traditional lore. Their festivals were scenes of the most abandoned lewdness and vice; the whole settlement for the time of their visit being given up to profligacy. The women who joined the society had to take an oath to destroy all progeny, and thus not to encumber their movements with the care of children. The Uritoy, of the Caroline Islands, are supposed to be a branch of this ancient organisation.
Mangarevan—karioi, lust, lewdness: E hare no te karioi, a house used for immoral purposes; aka-karioi, luxurious, debauched.
Paumotan—karioi, immodest, indecent; a rake, a debauchee; (b.) softness, slackness.
KARIPI, steep, precipitous. Cf. koripi, to cut; ripi, to cut, to gash; horipi, to slit.
KARIRI, to sail together in a fleet.
KARITO (kàrito), the bulrush, or raupo (Bot. Typha angustifolia).
KARITUANGI, to dig deep. Cf. kari, to dig; keri, to dig. [For
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For instance, the first case in your data may count as 2 cases and the second one as.5 cases. These numbers, the case weights, are contained in a weight variable. Running
WEIGHT BY [...] tells SPSS to treat the values of some weight variable as the active case weights. Note that the status bar informs you whether weighting is in effect or not.
SPSS Weight - Basic Use
SPLIT FILE and
WEIGHT has three main commands.
WEIGHT BY [...].switches a weight variable on. If a weight variable is already in effect, it can be used for setting a different variable as the active case weights.
SHOW WEIGHT.shows which variable is currently used as the weight variable.
WEIGHT OFF.switches the case weights off. After doing so, every case counts as a single case again.
SPSS Weight - Caveats
- In contrast to
FILTER, the active weight variable is saved with the data. So when you start SPSS and open a data file, a weight variable may already be in effect.
- An active weight variable does not only affect the output that's generated. Some data modifications are also influenced by case weights (most notably
- Some users inspect which weight variable is in effect from the menu. When seeing current status: Weight cases (...), they agree with that and click. However, this turns the weight variable off.
Why Would you Weight Cases?
The main scenarios in which you'll want to weight your cases are the following:
- Your sample is not representative for the population you're investigating. For example, you may know that 50% of your target population consist of females but you have 80% females in your sample. In this case you can weight down these 80% of females to 50% of your sample by assigning case weights of.625 to them. Similarly, you can weight up the 20% male respondents to 50% of your sample as well by using weights of 2.5.
Note that these weights don't correspond to the numbers of observations actually made. In this scenario, weights typically have a mean of 1 so the weighted sample size is exactly equal to the unweighted sample size. We'll demonstrate this scenario with the example below.
- In some cases you only have aggregated data. A typical example is a contingency table ("crosstab") presented in a book or article. In this case, case weights will al be positive integers. In this case, weights correspond to the numbers of observations that were actually made.
- You may trick SPSS by using weights in some cases but this is beyond the scope of this tutorial.
SPSS Weight - Example
“We held a small survey on income. Unfortunately, 80% of our respondents are female while this is 50% of our target population. That is, our sample is not representative for our population because female respondents are overrepresented.”
Running the syntax below creates these data and computes mean incomes for male, female and all respondents.
data list free / case_weight gender income.
2.5, 0, 2200, 2.5, 0, 2000, 0.625, 1, 2700, 0.625, 1, 2300, 0.625, 1, 2400, 0.625, 1, 2700, 0.625, 1, 2400, 0.625, 1, 2300, 0.625, 1, 2500, 0.625, 1, 2200
value labels gender 0 'Male' 1 'Female'.
*2. Unweighted mean incomes.
means income by gender.
Biased Estimate for Unweighted CasesFemale respondents overrepresented and having higher incomes
Note in the screenshot above that female respondents have higher average incomes and are overrepresented as well. The result of this is that the estimated mean income for the entire target population (
€ 2370,-) is biased upwards. We can correct this by weighting our respondents as described earlier. The syntax below demonstrates how to do so.
weight by case_weight.
means income by gender.
*4. Switch off weight and do quick check on it.
Unbiased Estimate for Weighted CasesFemales and males equally represented when weight in effect
In the screenshot above, first take a look at the sample sizes. They're now equal for females and males, thus rendering the sample representative of the target population with regard to gender. Also note that the total sample size is still
10. This is because the average case weight is exactly one. Second, the estimated mean income for our target population is now
€ 2268,75-. This is because we correct for the aforementioned upwards bias by weighting.Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Cigarette smoking has reached an all-time low among U.S. adults -- 14 percent -- according to new data released by the U.S. government.
Experts and researchers say the new data is proof that efforts to decrease the rates of smoking in the United States have been successful, but they say there is still much more work to be done.
An estimated 34 million adults in the United States smoked cigarettes either every day or some days in 2017, which is down from 15.5 percent of adults in 2016 and 67 percent fewer since 1965, according to data released by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute.
The most dramatic cigarette usage decline was among adults aged 18 to 24 years -- 10.4 percent in 2017 compared with 13 percent in 2016. In all, tobacco usage for this age group was 18.3 percent, including e-cigarettes at 2.8 percent
The data were based on 26,742 adults 18 and older. Current cigarette users were defined as those who reported having smoke 100 or more cigarettes during their lifetime and every day or some days during the time of the survey.
"This new all-time low in cigarette smoking among U.S. adults is a tremendous public health accomplishment -- and it demonstrates the importance of continued proven strategies to reduce smoking," Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the CDC, said in a statement. "Despite this progress, work remains to reduce the harmful health effects of tobacco use."
Total tobacco usage, including cigars, e-cigarettes, hookah/water pipes/pipes and smokeless tobacco, reached 19.3 percent -- or 47 million people.
The highest usage of any tobacco product was among people with annual household incomes under $35,000 at 26 percent, followed by people living with a disability at 25.0 percent, adults living in the Midwest at 23.5 percent and in the South at 20.8 percent, people who were divorced, separate or widowed at 23.1 percent, people with a General Education Development certificate at 42.6 percent, and American Indian and Alaska natives at 29.8 percent.
White people's usage was 21.4 percent and black adults use was at 20.1 percent, with 24.8 percent of men and 14.2 percent of women smoking.
Tobacco usage disparity was more than double among those with serious psychological distress at 40.8 -- percent compared with those without at 18.5 percent.
Adults' cigarette usage has been surveyed since 1965 but usage of other tobacco products began more recently, according to a CDC press release.
Cigarettes were the most commonly used product followed by cigars at 14 percent folowed by cigarillos or filtered little cigars at 3.8 percent, e-cigarettes at 2.8 percent, smokeless tobacco at 1 percent, and pipes, water pipes or hookahs at 1 percent.
Among all tobacco users, 19 percent reported use of two or more tobacco products. Cigarettes and e-cigarettes were the most common combinations.
"The continued drop in adult smoking rates to historic lows is encouraging and the FDA is committed to accelerating declines in smoking and shifting the trajectory of tobacco-related disease and death through our comprehensive approach to tobacco and nicotine regulation," Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the FDA commissioner said.
Gottlieb also said they are "working to protect kids from the dangers of tobacco product use, including e-cigarettes."
Adolescents were not surveyed, but the CDC last year reported 7.6 percent of high school students and 2.1 percent of middle school students smoked cigarettes. But 3.3 percent of middle schoolers and 11.7 percent in high school used electronic cigarettes last year.
"For more than half a century, cigarette smoking has been the leading cause of cancer mortality in the United States," said Dr. Norman E. Sharpless, the National Cancer Institute director. "Eliminating smoking in America would, over time, eliminate about one-third of all cancer deaths. "The persistent disparities in adult smoking prevalence described in this report emphasize the need for further research to accelerate reductions in tobacco use among all Americans."Plato’s argument about the value and nature of rhetoric
Similar to the other ancient philosophers, Plato remains a virtue based eudemonistic thought of ethics. As many defined that Rhetoric is the art of discourse. It is believed to be the important element to keep writer or speaker to reach the purpose of inform, persuade, and motivate with particular audience. In addition, rhetoric has played a crucial role in the Western tradition in the past many decades. Plato is one of the people that made huge contributions on rhetoric has played a crucial role in the Western tradition in the past many decade. Truth and justice are the ultimately goals which Plato has his faith on. To be specific, Plato rhetoric requires addressing a right purpose of using in order to win the soul through discourse.
For Plato, the goal is to instruct, rather than just to persuade. Persuasion without the end goal of sharping the variance between evil and good is problematic for Plato. Plato disagrees which regards to the value of art in human society. The philosopher concerned with the artist’s ability to have significant impact on others. He holds radically different notions of reality. As a result, Plato is antagonistic towards the function of rhetoric in his dialogue Gorgias and ambivalent. Plato concerned with the pursuit of truth. Nevertheless, in Plato’s dialogues he views rhetoric as a way to misrepresent truth as he states in his criticism of the sophists.
Plato acknowledges that the rhetoric has sort function of persuasion. Rhetoric is turned into a tool to express social or political message that are determined by philosophy. To Plato, rhetoric was not only a decently neutral set of skills in writing and speaking; but also, it is the part of conventional ethical and political values in the most of the time.
Rhetoric, it value and purpose is the dialogue's subject from the beginning. In Phaedrus stages, Plato’s opposition to rhetoric presents his attitude of the value and purpose—philosophical. According Plato’s philosophical rhetoric perspective, he requires the expert artist to know the truth about the subject of his discourse. He focuses on specifying the procedures of dielectric. By taking the actions of collection and division, it allows the expert artist to obtain appreciate knowledge. This is vitally important in Plato’s argument.
In the Phaedrus, Plato tries to make his argument to adopt philosophical value. Plato aims to beat the rhetoricians at the polemical suggestion of the dialogue. As the matter of fact, Plato has adopted a strategy that suits the nature of the audience that being addressed.Plato treats poetry, eros and healings as arising from beneficial art. From Plato’s perspective, it was no contradiction. For us, there may be the means of controlling eros for educational purposes.
In addition, Plato brings in the conception of psychology. It is the one of the crucial innovations to traditional rhetoric in the Phaedrus. In this sense, he defines rhetoric as the soul moving power of discourse. He sought to make his rhetoric capable of reliably persuading any of anything-- rhetorical psychology. The psychological conception is brought up.
Therefore, persuasion is not just the matter of words, phrases, sentences. It in terms of soul natural capacities of desire, it gives a bit more erotic power of persuasion. In addition, Plato pointed rhetoric has…“Many gallant deeds are performed in the face of the enemy, but it requires a very special brand of courage for a man to subject his own body repeatedly to maximum stress and physical danger in order to enable others to be treated and protected…”
Often risking his life during his experiments, Edgar Pask is one of the most extraordinary figures in anaesthesia.
Born in Derby in 1912, Pask trained at Downing College Cambridge (gaining a First in Natural Sciences) and the London Hospital where he graduated in 1937 in medicine and surgery. By 1940 he had become the House Anaesthetist at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford and was junior assistant to Prof Robert Macintosh. Pask joined the RAF in 1941 and was sent to its research centre in Farnborough, where he devised some of his most famous and dangerous experiments.
One of his most risky tests was experimenting to see the maximum height that RAF crews could survive if bailing out. He used a mixture of gases with a progressively low level of oxygen (<7%) and built a parachute harness and scaffold to replicate the conditions for an air crew at high altitude. Pask tested on himself for the majority of these experiments, though all subjects in these tests suffered profound hypoxia. In conditions simulating 35-40,000 feet Pask lost consciousness, his muscles began twitching and he had severe problems breathing, yet survived.
He also designed immersion suits for use by Merchant Ship Fighter Units in the North Atlantic. Without them, any pilots that had landed in the water could only survive a few minutes before succumbing to exposure. To test his design, Pask parachuted into the sea north of Shetland. He found that the suit was too hot, though the experiment had to be stopped before the spectators froze to death!
Pask’s most famous experiments were to do with lifejackets. Though the original design used by the military did keep unconscious men afloat, it didn’t keep their heads out of the water and often turned them face-down. In order to test new designs, Pask was anaesthetised with ether, sometimes for several hours and to the point of apnoea having also been pharmacologically paralysed, and put into a pool whilst wearing the lifejacket. Designs were tested in both fresh and salt water, and to replicate rough weather, the team used a pool at Elstree Studios.
In 1944 Edgar Pask was awarded the OBE in recognition of his work. He continued to work in anaesthetics after the war as a Professor and Head of Department until his death in 1966 aged just 53.
In tribute, the AAGBI founded the Pask Certificate of Honour in 1975 to recognise those who had acted with gallantry or given distinguished service. The first award was given to Pask’s wife and the most recent, awarded in 2012, were given to 140 Regular and Reserve Defence Anaesthetists from the Royal Navy, RAF and RAMC who have served in Afghanistan.Any medical condition that makes it difficult to breathe–especially asthma–has the potential to be absolutely terrifying. Its onset can be sudden and potentially lethal, and it can severely limit your enjoyment of life if you allow it to. This article can aid you in understanding the reasons why some people suffer from asthma attacks and pinpoint ways you can handle the stress that comes with them.
Do you know what sub-type of asthma you’re plagued with? Learning about your type of asthma will help you manage its impact on your life. Asthma caused by exercise can be treated easily if you carry an inhaler when you go to the gym. Knowing the patterns of your symptoms will help you avoid crises.
If asthma is something that you are afflicted with, then don’t smoke or immediately quit. Smoking isn’t healthy for anyone, but if you are afflicted with asthma, preventing oxygen from getting to your lungs is just begging for an attack.
Cigarette smoke and asthma do not mix. If you don’t smoke, don’t start. If you do smoke, stop. Avoid vapors and chemical fumes from cigarettes. This can trigger an unstoppable asthma attack. Leave a room if people smoke, or ask them to stop.
If you have asthma and cannot get health insurance, see a social worker. Asthma patients need their medications, and a social worker might be able to hook you up with programs to help you such as clinics and programs through pharmaceutical companies.
You may want to consider purchasing a dehumidifier for your home if you suffer from asthma. When you use a dehumidifier, it will reduce the amount of dust mites. This will reduce asthma attacks. Dehumidifiers cause the air in your home to become dry, which means less humidity.
There are certain types of household cleaning products that can trigger asthma attacks, and using multiple products is particularly dangerous. Try to use organic based cleaning products that are not harmful to asthma sufferers.
If you have asthma, you should get a flu shot once per year. Avoid these infections by making sure your and your child’s vaccines are up to date.
Mold and mildew grow in a home due to the humidity that creates a friendly environment for them. Protect yourself against allergens, dust mites and fungus to avoid exacerbating your asthma symptoms. It is best if you keep the air in your home as dry as possible. During the winter, you can use a dehumidifier to control humidity when using a heater, and an air conditioner during the summer will help keep your home dry.
When taking asthma medications on a plane trip, bring written medical prescriptions provided by your doctor. Having proof in writing from a doctor that states the item is a medical necessity can eliminate security hassles.
Keep in mind that mopping your floors with a wet mop will cause less asthma problems than sweeping will. Sweeping sends dust and dander back into the air and could trigger an asthma attack. Dusting can actually just move the dust around, sending particles into the air, and into your lungs triggering an asthma attack, so try wiping things down with a damp cloth to minimize the amount of allergens you are exposed to.
Avoiding smoke is one of the best asthma-prevention tips out there. Smoke can cause you to have an asthma attack. Stay away from chemical fumes, vapors, and cigarette smoke at all times. All of these air-borne pollutants can greatly increase your asthma symptoms. If there are smokers around you, you may want to ask them if they will smoke in another area.
Untreated or unmanaged, this condition can turn fatal. If you heed the advice that this article shared with you, not only will your asthma be better managed, you will also have a greater breath capacity and a more active lifestyle.
Act now and visit us at our online office < a href= http://partymanshop.com/en/coffeeflavour-amaretto-30-ml-444.html> Click here.A fusion gene is a process of forming a hybrid gene from two separated genes. Such fusion results from translocation, interstitial deletion, and/or chromosomal inversion. This demonstration shows a resulting hybrid gene built from a set of input genes and gives insight into the types of mutations associated with the hybrid gene.
The Gene Fusion graph uses BioCircus.js
|Query Date||TCGA(No of Instances)||COSMIC (No of Instances)||Links (owl:sameAs)||Novel Outcome|Because of their role as pedagogical tools directed at students and the general public, educational films have often been the subject of controversy, especially when they tackle fraught social issues from a particular point of view. While it might seem like the debate on gun control, mass shootings and police violence has only recently mushroomed to extraordinary proportions — at least as far as its coverage in the print, broadcast and electronic press is concerned — the issue has a much longer history, including in documentaries and non-theatrical films.
One such film that originated as a TV documentary special on NBC, but whose inclusion in the Internet Archive’s educational films collection indicates its distribution in the K-12 and college film circuit, bears the rather poignant title A Shooting Gallery called America (1975).
The early 1970s were a period fraught with debate about gun control, especially after the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy.
Interestingly enough, a pamphlet issued the previous year by the National Coalition to Ban Handguns had the exact same title, providing evidence of a coordinated campaign for gun control that deployed statistics, testimonies and visual materials calculated to have an emotional impact.
The program caused as polarized a response in 1975 as one would expect a similar broadcast to cause today. NBC received thousands of letters from supporters of both sides of the debate (starting before the program had even been broadcast!) with arguments that have remained almost constant to the present day.
Said one: “We can give you our opinion of your Sunday, March 2nd special ‘Shooting Gallery Called America.’ It stank.
“We found it nothing more than a rehash of the same tired old theme: blame the instrument, not the criminal.”
Another read: “I would like to commend NBC for its coverage of the gun problems in this country. The special, A Shooting Gallery Called America, was very informative. I would like to see it again.”
Producer Lucy Jarvis who would go on to direct many similar documentaries on social causes, later recalled the storm of controversy unleashed by this special:
“People knew we were doing it, and we began to get lots of mail,” she said. ” Probably they were alerted by a national organization. Because there was such an emotional reaction, I didn’t want the program to go until I was doubly sure that everything was checked out.”
As a result the airing date was pushed back on two occasions.
The statistics presented by the journalists — number of handguns and rifles, number of victims in shooting crimes and accidents — have only gotten worse with the passage of four decades. But the visual vocabulary established by documentaries like this one, from footage of shooting ranges to interviews at gun shows on the one hand and with families of victims of gun violence on the other, will be more than familiar to viewers of cable and network news in 2016.
As a recent article revisiting the program and its reception forty years ago put it in a rather rhetorical fashion: “Why has nothing changed in 40 years?”I’ve known that I wanted to be a biologist since I was 11 years old.
As a young girl, some of my fondest memories were the summers my family would go camping. I loved being in the woods. I loved connecting with nature and wildlife.
Many years later, I’m now on a team of dedicated wildlife scientists in Canada, working to develop long-term solutions for some of the most serious and complex environmental issues of our time.
One of these very important issues is the state of Canada’s pollinators.
Canada’s Pollinators are in Jeopardy
Pollinators — such as bees, butterflies and many others species — face real and serious problems including habitat loss, pesticide use and climate change. Insect pollinators are declining around the world.. Without pollinators, our food system will suffer. We all need insect pollinators to thrive. But here at the Canadian Wildlife Federation, we are trying to give them a fighting chance.
How Are We Helping Pollinators?
Learning more. Research. Research. Research. We need to learn more about pollinators, how they’re coping in their current environments and what habitat improvements will help the most. We are initiating scientific research, in collaboration with one of the world’s leading entomologists Jeff Skevington, to determine what farmland habitats are optimal for insect pollinator abundance and diversity. The knowledge generated from this research will inform farmers on what habitats pollinators need to provide pollination services to their crops.
Savvy Consumers. Alongside research, a goal that we are working hard to develop, are markets for ‘pollinator-friendly’ foods and products. This approach is the most efficient way to make change quickly. When concerned consumers make choices about the food they buy in order to support sustainable farming, real change can happen.
This work will support wild pollinators which play an important role in food production.
In the end, I wanted to write this: Thank you for your outstanding support of Canada’s environment and the plants and animals that call it home…especially our incredibly hardworking pollinators. Together, we can revolutionize how our food is grown for environmentally sustainable farming, food security, and biodiversity conservation. This is not only possible; it is essential.What do stock trading and conflict early warning systems have in common? Interestingly, both rely heavily on mathematical patterns of recognition. According to Joseph Bock, Director of Graduate Studies at the Eck Institute of Global Health at the University of Notre Dame, scholars such as Phil Schrodt have been applying the mathematics of stock trading to detect and identify conflict before it happens. This pattern recognition is part of a process that enables local citizens, NGOs, and humanitarian workers to use cell phones, radio, and online forums to help detect and prevent religious, ethnic, and politically motivated violence. A few weeks ago, Prof. Bock came to the World Bank to talk about his new book, The Technology of Nonviolence, where he discussed the use of social media and other forms of technology to both detect and respond to outbreaks of deadly conflict.
Among many tools that enable gathering of project beneficiaries’ concerns and solving them are Grievance Redress Mechanisms (GRMs). Although the mechanisms themselves are not new, World Bank teams are increasingly encouraged to systematically include GRMs in their projects to increase beneficiaries’ participation, solve project-related disputes and ensure that projects achieve their intended results. As such, GRMs have been a topic of debate among World Bank staff. GRMs are also called dispute resolution and conflict management/resolution mechanisms and they are considered to be one of several social accountability mechanisms. The topic is, therefore, not only timely at the World Bank but should also be of interest to development practitioners generally.
These are some of the views and reports relevant to our readers that caught our attention this week.
"Mobile Technologies for Conflict Management: Online Dispute Resolution, Governance, Participation edited by Marta Poblet is now available online and soon in print.
Contributing authors are some of the best writers and thinkers on Online Dispute Resolution (ODR), mobile technologies and dispute resolution and in the world today, including Ethan Katsh, Daniel Rainey, Jeffrey Aresty, Colin Rule, Chittu Nagarajan, Michael Best and Ken Banks. All of them are close friends. Ethan and Colin, it can be said, created the theory and practice ODR and way back in 2004 in Melbourne, encouraged me to pursue what at the time was to many a mad idea – the use of mobiles for conflict transformation." READ MOREI recently saw a clip from “The West Wing” where a group of researchers debated the inherent bias of maps. I had never given the idea much thought. I think very few of us do. We are so use to maps being the way they are, and we are schooled into thinking that maps are displayed in the most logical way. However, there are some built in biases. A Mercator Projection map makes Iceland almost as big as African, when it is really a fraction of the size. But I won’t go into those details. Suffice to say that due to my interest in astronomy and general science, the debate got me thinking.
Why is a globe set up the way it is, with north at the top? Why are all depictions of the solar system displayed as if the system were resting on a table? The same is true for the galaxy, and why is that? In our natural world we think of the sun as rising and setting. But if we look at a table top depiction the sun would revolve around our sides. Of course in space there is no up or down, though we have to orient ourselves in some fashion. But why is north up, south down, east and west side-to-side, when we think of the sun as coming up? It is an accepted cognitive dissonance.
Perhaps the ease of identifying the North Pole causes it to have prominence, and that is why it is at the top of the map and the top of the globe. But finding the South Pole is just as easy. Pick up a compass. The needle points both ways. Just ignore which end is painted red. Look up at the night sky. Polaris points out the North Pole, more or less. Using the Southern Cross, Alpha and Beta Centauri and a bright star called Achemar, one can locate the South Pole with as much accuracy as Polaris points out the North.
In our natural lives we use phrases like ‘the wheel of life’ and ‘as the heavens wheel overhead.’ With the exception of some mechanics shops, most of the wheels I see are vertical, not horizontal. It seems to me when depicting the world we would think about it as we experience it, with the sun coming up and setting. Globes would be on their sides, so-to-speak, with the equator at the base. Similarly, as our solar system’s plane of the ecliptic is roughly on the galaxy’s ecliptic, we would think of the center of the galaxy, the center of the heavens as overhead, the Earth’s system being but a spoke in the great wheel of the heavens.
In these modern times such depictions, especially in science-based tv programming, would be easy and a bit more natural. The only question then becomes, where is the top of the map? Does it face East or West? While sunsets can be beautiful things, since the dawn of humanity, sunrises have been the most important. When Helios chases away Selene, the Titan God of the Moon, and brings light and warmth all our night terrors fade. We equate, and rightly so, light with life. It is simple. The East where the sun appears to rise is far more important than the West where things go to end.
The next time you use a map or globe, give it some thought. Put the East at the top, following the sun’s path over head, with the center of the galaxy above you. Just remember that North is to the left.When children are born, they are like a blank sheet of paper which is gradually filled with all the information they take from the world. Children are sort of sponges that absorb all the information the surrounds them.
There are critical periods of learning, where children are more sensitive to some sort of information. In other words, they learn something faster and deeper. These critical periods are ideal for exposing the children to that certain sort of information especially. For example, the visual system develops during the first months since birth. Is in this moment when babies get most part of the information needed to successfully develop their visual system.
And the way children learn is by playing. Playing plays an important role in a child’s learning process, as it helps the child’s brain develop.
Children’s brains are very plastic and malleable and exposed to the correct stimuli, their learning process can be much improved. There are certain kinds of toys that help shape the personality of a child.
How do good toys help shape who a child becomes?
Children are curious and in a constant learning process. Absolutely everything in their surroundings is new for them during the first years of life. Every new sound, color or object they find is a source of information with them.
It is essential for kids to successfully develop their cognitive system correctly. This is the capacity for processing information, reasoning, expressing and identifying emotions, etc.
There are some toys that help boost this cognitive development.
Help to learn by avoiding stereotyped toys
There is no such thing as being born with stereotypes in mind. As it has been previously stated, kids are born as a blank sheet of paper that is being filled as the kid starts learning new things. Through toys, children are taught since an early age that there are two different roles in society, and which one they have to adopt. Many of the psychological problems they might later experience in life start with the social conditioning through toys, which is why multicultural toys are increasing.
Studies on the regard have shown “girl toys” to encourage attractiveness and domestic skills, while “boy toys” were considerably more aggressive and competitive. This might seem something harmless, but the toys we give to children at an early age have a huge impact on who they will become and the vision of the world they are forming.
Neutral toys to help development during the first years. Depending on age, children have different needs. We have divided the first year into two phases.
- From 0 to 6 months: This Is a sensory-motor phase, so children need toys with plenty of sensory stimuli. Moreover, they are developing their visual system, so colors are very important.
Example: Bright Starts 5-in-1 Your Way Ball Play Gym, R1 255 https://www.takealot.com/
- From 6 to 12 months: At this stage, children are improving their hand functioning, so it’s important to give them cause-and-effect toys. For example, a book that allows them to turn the pages themselves.
Example: Melissa & Doug Pound & Roll Tower, R320 http://www.brightbeans.co.za/
This toy is especially good for developing hand motricity as it is a very interactive toy where children must fit toys of different sizes and shapes into the tower.Posted on: 8 December 2016
So much is going on with you during pregnancy that you may not be thinking about teeth – not even yours, much less your baby's. However, good oral hygiene improves you and your baby's health. What's more, certain conditions can develop because of your pregnancy. Take care of your teeth while you're pregnant, and help develop your baby's teeth as well.
Importance of Standard Dental Care
Standard dental care is not only safe, it's recommended to promote overall good health. This includes deep cleaning because it helps you avoid oral infections and gum disease. Indeed, gum disease can lead to premature low birth weight babies. The bacteria can travel from your mouth, through the blood stream and all the way to the uterus. The bacteria can even trigger premature labor.
General Dental Procedures
You should postpone cosmetic procedures such as teeth whitening until after birth. However, it's safe to have your cavities filled or crowns implanted during pregnancy. Most typical medications used during routine dental work are safe for developing fetuses. What's more, according to the Mayo Clinic, a single diagnostic X-ray won't be detrimental to the baby. Nonetheless, only get an X-ray for emergency procedures – postpone your annual exam until after giving birth.
Pregnancy-Related Dental Conditions
Your pregnancy can exacerbate or create new dental issues. Many pregnant women experience increased tooth decay. One reason for this is succumbing to cravings, especially for sugary or carbohydrate-rich snacks. Good dental hygiene – brushing and flossing – is the recommended counteraction. If morning sickness is the culprit, make sure you rinse with water after every episode. Likewise, switch to bland toothpaste to avoid triggering nausea.
Because of hormonal changes, you can also be more prone to gingivitis. This results in swollen and tender gums which can bleed when you floss. Be gentle in how you care for your teeth. However, you should also talk to your dentist about getting an extra cleaning to prevent gingivitis.
Eating Right for the Baby's Teeth
You've probably done a lot of research about what you can and cannot eat. You surely also know that a healthy diet is essential in promoting health in your unborn child. That said, your baby's teeth begin developing three months into your pregnancy. Your diet should include milk and other dairy products such as yogurt and cheese. Dairy products are an ideal source of the minerals that help develop the baby's teeth and gums.
Talk to a dentist like Paul Dona DDS about your pregnancy to get personalized advice for promoting good oral health.ShareDiscuss the following questions with your classmates:
• Do you think there is more or less immigration to the United States now than in the past?
• Have the countries of origin of the immigrants changed over the years?
• Do you think people’s reasons for immigrating to the United States are the same today as they were in the past?
• Have people from your country immigrated to the United States? If so, how many? Why?
Read through the sentences, trying to imagine which words would fit in the blanks. Then listen to a dictation of the full sentences, and write the missing words in the blanks.
1. Throughout history, people have moved, or__________________,
to new countries to live.
2. ____________________________________ can take many forms:
those that are characterized by a shortage of rain or food are called and, respectively.
3. Sometimes people immigrate to a new country to escape political
or religious___________________.
4. Rather than immigrants, the early___________________ from
Great Britain considered themselves___________________ ; they
had left home to settle new land for the mother country.
5. The so-called Great Immigration, which can be divided into three
__________________, or time periods, began about 1830 and
lasted till about 1930.
6. The Industrial Revolution, which began in the nineteenth century, caused as
machines replaced workers.
7. The__________________ of farmland in Europe caused many peo
ple to immigrate to the United States, where farmland was more abundant.
8. Land in the United States was plentiful and available when the
country was__________________ westward. In fact, the U. S. government offered free public land to_________________ in 1862.
9. The__________________ of the Irish potato crop in the middle of
the nineteenth century caused widespread starvation.
10. The Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II contributed
to the noticeable___________________ in immigration after 1930.
11. The first law that__________________ the number of immigrants
coming from a certain part of the world was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
12. It is important to note that in 1965 strict___________________
based on nationality were eliminated.
13. At the end of the 1940s, immigration began to increase again and
has, in general, risen___________________ since then.
14. Will the__________________ continue for non-Europeans to
immigrate to the United States?
15. The U. S. immigration laws of today in general require that new
immigrants have the___________________ necessary to succeed in
the United States because industry no longer requires large numbers of workers.
Follow-up: Check the spelling of the dictated words with your teacher.
Discuss the meanings of these words and any other unfamiliar words
in the sentences.
Using the photographs and the vocabulary exercise as a starting point, write three questions that you think will be answered in the lecture.
Examples: • Is immigration to the United States increasing or
• How many immigrants return to their countries of origin after a short time?
Follow-up: After you have written your questions, share them with your teacher and your classmates.
In dates, teens and tens (1815 and 1850, for example] are sometimes confused in listening. For teens, as in 1815, both syllables of 15 (FIF TEEN) are stressed, with heavier stress on the second syllable. For tens, as in 185
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270
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soccer, roller derby, and tennis. On-site showers and lockers are available, and a large outdoor pool, also named after Cass, is connected to the complex. It is adjacent to Malcolm X Park and the city of Boston’s Shelburne Youth Center. A Bluebikes bicycle stop is right outside the main entrance.
Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists
300 Walnut Ave.
Dedicated to the celebration, exhibition, and collection of black visual arts worldwide, this museum presents a wide range of historical and contemporary exhibitions in many media, including painting, sculpture, graphics, photography, and the decorative arts. Check out the burial chamber of King Aspelta, who governed ancient Nubia and Egypt during the 25th Dynasty. Outside, visitors can see the monumental sculpture Eternal Presence, commissioned by the museum and created by the late Roxbury native John Wilson, a CFA professor emeritus, who taught at BU from 1964 to 1986. The imposing bronze head celebrates human creativity and spirituality. Wilson drew upon various traditions, including the Olmec heads of ancient Mexico and contemplative Buddhas. Installed in 1987, it represents the NCAAA’s commitment to excellence in contemporary artistic expression for the black world. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 1 to 5 pm; admission is $5 for adults, $4 for students and seniors, and free for children under age 12. Group tours are available upon request. Currently on Walnut Avenue, it’s expected to move soon to Tremont Crossing, at the corner of Tremont Street and Melnea Cass Boulevard.
Bully Boy Distillers
44 Cedric St.
Cofounded by brothers Dave and Will Willis, this distillery has launched six award-winning spirits offered in their tasting room, along with several other unique cocktails. Try the New Deal, a concoction of American straight whiskey, lemon almond orgeat, maple syrup, and black walnut, or one of the classics like the Espresso Martini, which includes coffee, vodka, vanilla, and chocolate milk. You can even have food delivered to the bar to enjoy with your drink. (Bully Boy doesn’t sell food.) The distillery also offers tours of its facilities for $10 (for those 21+ only) in addition to cocktail classes, where you can learn the basics of bartending from Bully Boy’s lead bartenders.
Haley House Bakery Café
12 Dade St.
This café, an extension of the nonprofit Haley House, offers a menu of wholesome dishes and a mission of benefiting the well-being of its community. In addition to serving coffee and fresh food, the café holds cooking classes for locals and volunteer gardening opportunities. The café had humble beginnings. In 1996, Haley House launched a bakery training program to help individuals learn practical employment skills and stop cycling in and out of prison. The program was a success. In a little over a decade, it outgrew its space, which led to the opening of the Haley House Bakery Café in 2005. Now, 15 years later, it continues to serve the community by providing employment opportunities for those who face difficulties finding traditional employment, a youth cooking program, and a gardening space where volunteers can help care for and harvest the fresh produce for the café.
The city’s largest park, spread over parts of Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, and Dorchester, Franklin Park is considered the crown jewel of the Emerald Necklace, a series of nine connected parks, six of them designed by noted 19th-century landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted ( best known for his work creating New York City’s Central Park). Established in 1885, Franklin Park was designated a Boston Landmark in 1980. The park comprises 485 acres and includes Franklin Park Zoo, the William J. Devine Golf Course, an 18-hole public golf course (the second oldest in the country), athletic courts and fields, an open-air public performance space, a woodland reserve, old stone ruins, ponds, picnic areas, and playgrounds. The community-based group Franklin Park Coalition works to engage all park users and community members through advocacy, programs, and restoration. Find directions here.
Franklin Park Zoo
One Franklin Park Rd., Dorchester
Although the address of the 72-acre Franklin Park Zoo, nestled inside Franklin Park, is officially Dorchester, it’s included here because the park encompasses parts of Roxbury and Jamaica Plain. The zoo is home to more than 220 species of animals in a variety of habitats, including an Outback Trail with kangaroos, kookaburras, emus, and cockatoos, a savannah with Masai giraffe, and Serengeti Crossing, four acres of grassland and wooded hills where a number of Grant’s zebras, ostriches, and wildebeests roam. There’s also a Children’s Zoo (ducks, prairie dogs, red pandas), a seasonal Butterfly Landing, a carousel, train rides, and snack bars. Opened in 1912, Franklin Park Zoo today is operated by Zoo New England, a private nonprofit committed to conservation. This popular, family-friendly destination attracts approximately 400,000 visitors a year.
Getting there: Take a Green Line trolley inbound to Park Street/Downtown Crossing, then an Orange Line train to either Ruggles or Roxbury Crossing. Or take the Silver Line SL5 from Downtown Crossing to Nubian Station.
Click on the points in the map above for more information on the places listed in our guide to Roxbury.Natural water purification
The cellar has a plant-based system for purifying its waste water. It consists of a tank planted with reeds that filter and purify the water. A natural environment has been created, providing a home for animals such as frogs, hedgehogs and birds. Water is becoming an important resource, and we use our purified water for irrigation. It’s interesting to note that, in the beginning, the reeds wouldn’t grow. We didn’t know why, but we installed some cameras and these gave us the answer: they were being stolen by magpies.Posted on 2014 / 8 / 1,
- A check for (amount of money): She gave me a check for $50.
- A demand for something: There wasn’t enough demand for the product.
- A need for something: In the class, a real need for discipline is evident.
- A reason for doing something: I have a reason for doing that.
- A rise in something: A rise in prices has occurred.
- A fall in something: A fall in prices affected the employees.
- A decrease in something: We have seen decreases in production levels.
- A cause of something: She is the cause of all his problems.
- A photograph or a picture of something or someone: He took a picture of the girl.
- The damage to something: I did a lot of damage to my car.
- An invitation to an activity: We were invited to their wedding.
- A reaction to something: Her reaction to his behavior was funny.
- A solution to a problem: He provided the solution to our issue.
- An attitude to something: Your attitude to your problems is lousy.
- A relationship with someone or something: The relationship with my dog is fun.
- A connection with someone or something: His connection with the city is limited.
- A contact with someone or something: Have you had contact with Sarah?
- A connection between two things: There is no connection between the two ideas.
- A relationship between two things: The relationship between the two is strong.
- A contact between two things: There is little contact between the two parents.
- A difference between two things: There is no difference between those two colors.
- In a garden
- In a room
- In the sea
- In a river
- In a row
- In a queue
- Stay in Taiwan
- Work in Taipei
- In April
- In 2014
- In a few weeks
- In a few hours
- At the bus-stop
- At the door
- At the top
- At the bottom
- At the back of the class
- At the front of class
- At the cinema
- At work
- At 10:30
- At two pm
- On the table
- On the desk
- On Maui
- On Green Island
- On the left
- One the right
- On Monday
- On Tuesday
- On Halloween
- On October 29th
- Go to work
- Drive to Las Vegas
- For three weeks
- For many months
- While I was watching TV
- While I lived in New York
- During class
- During my vacation
- 房間的角落為「in the corner of a room」，街道的角落為「at the corner of a street」。
- 建築物的前方以「in the front of buildings」表達，後方以「at the back of buildings」表達。
- 一張紙的正面以「on the front of a piece of paper」表達，背面以「on the back of a piece of paper」表達。
|At first||By accident||For now||From now on||Under age||Without fail|
|At least||By far||For instance||From then on||Under control||Without notice|
|At most||By all means||For example||From bad to worse||Under the impression||Without exception|
|At times||By heart||For sale||From my point of view||Under guarantee||Without someone’s consent|
|At any rate||By chance||For a while||From what I understand||Under the influence of||Without success|
|At last||By and by||For the moment||From personal experience||Under obligation||Without warning|
|At the latest||By the way||For ages||Under suspicion|
|At once||By the time||For a change||Under his thumb|
|At short notice||By no means||For better or worse||Under discussion|
|At an advantage||By name||Under consideration|
|At a disadvantage||By sight|
|At risk||By now|
|At a profit||By then|
|At a loss|
本篇文章改編自美國中北大學寫作中心（North Central University Writing Center）的〈修改草稿風格〉（Revising the Draft for Style）一節。Photos of Lakes Before and After Algal Blooms
Nutrient pollution from a variety of sources can turn waters green with algae. Algal blooms hurt wildlife, spoil recreation, and can be toxic to people and animals. The photos below show lakes and ponds around the country that have been affected by algal blooms.
- Harlem Meer, New York
- Lake Hodges, California
- Lake Erie, Ohio
- Shelburne Pond, Vermont
- Cushwa Basin, Maryland
- Oneida Lake, New York
*All photos used with permission from the photographer or through a Creative Commons license.
New Yorkers and tourists love Harlem Meer for catch-and-release fishing and waterside strolling, but summertime algal blooms can kill off the fish and cause a stink that drives people away. Wildlife like herons and turtles are also harmed by these blooms.
Lake Hodges is a reservoir in southern California used for drinking water and irrigation as well as recreation like fishing, boating and hiking. Algal blooms here have not only spoiled outdoor activities but at times have caused local utilities to stop drawing water until the algae clears.
Lake Erie is the warmest and shallowest of the Great Lakes, which makes it susceptible to algal blooms. It is also a source of tap water to the region. In 2014, a toxic algal bloom in the lake's western basin forced Toledo, Ohio, to issue an advisory to over half a million people, telling them to avoid all contact with their tap water.
Shelburne Pond is just 10 miles from Burlington, Vermont, and is used for fishing, boating and hiking. Excess nutrients in the pond cause algal blooms that deter people from enjoying this scenic waterbody.
Cushwa Basin, in Williamsport, Maryland, greets hikers, joggers and cyclists along the C & O Canal Towpath. Bad odors produced by algal blooms drive people away and keep them from enjoying views of the historic barn and other nearby landmarks.
Oneida Lake is a popular vacation spot in New York. Toxic algal blooms, which can cause skin and eye irritation to people and kill dogs, have closed beaches here to swimmers and boaters, disrupting tourism and hurting local businesses. Some years, beaches on Oneida Lake have been closed for all but just a handful of days due to algal blooms.Kids love delicious food. It’s as simple as that. Healthy food? It’s a cooperative effort between schools and parents. We’re here to help out both by providing healthy and delicious food. There have been changes to the guidelines that schools have to follow in regards to school meals. Let’s look at two quotes that were featured in a national periodical regarding these very guidelines.
“Other than mandating more fruits and vegetables, the new regulations haven’t really changed anything except force manufacturers to re-engineer products” so they meet the guidelines but not children’s taste expectations, said Bertrand Weber, director of culinary and nutrition services at the Minneapolis Public Schools. “Now kids get whole grain doughnuts — whoop-de-do.”
The point Mr. Weber makes is absolutely true and at Fresh Start Meals we strive to go beyond the minimum guidelines. We offer Fresh, Healthy and Smart meals that are beneficial to the growth and development of your students/children that are, simultaneously, delicious as well! Meeting guidelines can’t be the standard when it comes to our children. Re-engineering something to meet a guideline isn’t beneficial to anyone. The mission has to be there from the start and Fresh Start Meals is all about it’s mission.
“We have to educate the kids about healthy eating,” she said. “If a kid wasn’t reading at grade level we would work harder to get them to read at grade level, but with food we’ve somehow abdicated that part of their education.”
Another great quote! Isn’t this absolutely true?! The incredible part regarding this point is that a correlation exists between nutrition and academic performance. Many studies have shown that sugary, fatty and salty processed foods can, in fact, inhibit academic performance. It makes sense, too, when you consider that when we eat heavy and processed meals we tend to feel tired and unmotivated. Again, we make great efforts to offer healthy and nutritious meals to ensure this very thing is avoided. Our bakeries prepare fresh bread as needed, our ingredients are carefully selected and taste is always considered so that we can meet our goals when it comes to delivering a fresh, nutritious and delicious meal. We offer field trips of our facilities as well so that students and faculty and see the wonderful process behind the creation of the meals they enjoy every day. That’s how confident we are about our goals and mission. If you are interested in a field trip for your class or in acquiring our services please contact us via our contact page above.How to harmonize the major scale?
When harmonizing a scale, we are simply building chords using the notes it contains. This is also referred as using chord scales.
Knowing how to build chords from a scale makes it possible to better understand most chord progressions and is a powerful tool for songwriting and soloing.
Typically, when harmonizing a scale, we stack thirds on top of one another. Here are the chords it creates for each major scale.
Harmonizing the Minor Scale
The minor scale can also be harmonized. In fact, it’s derived from the major scale. When looking at the chart below you can quickly understand the relation between the two. To get the minor scale chords you need to look at the 6thdegree of the major scale as the starting point. This is called the relative minor.
Why it matters?
Being able to quickly identify any chords from a scale is a powerful skill that helps you understand the structure of a song and how you can play solos on any progression. Knowing this will help you write songs and play with others. Most popular music never shifts keys and uses exclusively chords from a harmonized scale.
Also, if you ever went to a jazz or jam concert, you might have heard the band leader giving the band numbers instead of chord names. For example, a 12-bar blues can generally be referred as a I-IV-V.
Harmonizing the Major Scale Adding the 7th
When we continue to add thirds we basically come up with seventh chords. Here are the resulting chords.
How to make chords from a scale?
To harmonize a scale we stack thirds on top of one another using the notes from the scale. This creates major and minor chords depending on the different degrees. Note that the 2nd 3rd and 6th degree are always minor. Also the 7th degree creates a diminished chord which is generally left unused in most popular music context because of its ambiguous sound.
Look at the chart below to get a better understanding of this.
The different chords are often referred to by their numeral numbers using roman annotations. This makes it easy for a whole band to quickly understand where the progression is heading. When writing a chord progression roman numbers are usually used and the capitalized numbers are major and the small numbers are minor (ex.: I=major ii=minor).
Exercise 1: Harmonizing the E Major Scale Across the Neck
A great way to get a feeling of how the chords move through the scale is to play them going up the neck. In this example, we use the E Major and go up playing barre chords with the roots on the 6th string.
Exercise 2: Harmonizing the C Major Using Open Chords
Now for a more practical example here is how you can harmonize the C Major scale using mostly open chords. This example is more natural and is closer to chord changes you could use for writing songs. If you can, I recommend you to take some time to try finding the open chords for any key (without looking at the chart above).
Exercise 3: Harmonizing the Major Scale Using 7th Chords
I feel like being able to easily understand a chord progression or build chords from a scale is a very important skill to have even for a hobbyist. I hope you enjoyed this article and feel free to let me know what you think.In the Research 101 blog series, we have discussed how clinical trials are designed and the strengths and weaknesses of these designs. One factor that can affect the usefulness of a study, regardless of the strength of the design, is its generalizability.
So, what is Generalizability? Very simply, generalizability is a measure of how useful the results of a study are for a broader group of people or situations. If the results of a study are broadly applicable to many different types of people or situations, the study is said to have good generalizability. If the results can only be applied to a very narrow population or in a very specific situation, the results have poor generalizability.
This concept is especially important for individuals living with hydrocephalus because there are so many different causes of hydrocephalus, comorbidities, and secondary complications. In many studies, the study participants represent a very specific group of hydrocephalus patients. Examples are studies that include only X-linked hydrocephalus patients or patients with post-hemorrhagic hydrocephalus. These populations are unique in many ways and therefore, depending on the specifics of the study, the results may not apply to other patient groups. Likewise, a study looking at long term cognitive outcomes in shunted patients may not be applicable to patients with an endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV).
What limits the generalizability of a research project and how can you tell if the results of a study apply to you? Let’s work through a study to find out.
What are we studying?
We want to know if brisk walking lower blood sugar levels.
What is the study design?
It is easy to get male and female college students to participate in research studies. So, the researchers randomly assign students at the local college to Group A or Group B and take a baseline blood sugar measurement. Group A will briskly walk for 30 minutes every day for five weeks. Group B will be asked to continue their normal activities. At the end of the experiment, researchers will measure blood sugar levels again. This is a well-designed prospective, randomized control trial.
At the end of the five weeks, researchers conclude that brisk walking significantly lowers blood sugar levels.
How Generalizable are these Results?
The generalizability of this study is limited by the characteristics of the study participants. Remember our study population was made up of male and female college students. Most college students are between the ages of 18-22 years old, so it may be reasonable to generalize the results to other young adults assuming a large sample size and diversity among participants. Things get trickier, however, if one would like to generalize the results to senior citizens. There are a lot of factors that make college students different from seniors including differences in baseline activity, blood pressure, baseline blood sugar levels, and what each may consider a ‘brisk’ walking pace. These differences may limit the generalizability of the study to older populations, or, in other words, the results may not apply to older adults.
The specific intervention being tested can also limit how generalizable a study is. In this example, study participants were asked to walk ‘briskly.’ Would the results have been different if the participants had been asked to run, or swim, or lift weights?
The Take Away
When you read a research paper, pay close attention to (1) who was included in study group, (2) who was excluded from the study group, and (3) the details and timing of any interventions. Then decide if the characteristics of the group are similar to your specific experience. If your case is reflected in the study group characteristics, the study results are likely applicable to you. But remember, every case is unique and group averages may not mirror your experience.Keywords: stirring, mixing, biomixing, Brownian motion.
Abstract: As fish or other bodies move through a fluid, they stir their
surroundings. This can be beneficial to some fish, since the plankton
they eat depends on a well-stirred medium to feed on nutrients.
Bacterial colonies also stir their environment, and this is even more
crucial for them since at small scales there is no turbulence to help
mixing. It has even been suggested that the total biomass in theFind United States 1847 10¢ Washington to fit your budget
Stamp Market Tips by Henry Gitner and Rick Miller
Classic stamps lie near the heart of U.S. stamp collecting. A good place to start or to finish is at the beginning.
The first U.S. general-issue postage stamps were issued July 1, 1847: a 5¢ red brown Benjamin Franklin stamp (Scott 1) and a 10¢ black George Washington stamp (2). The stamps honor the nation’s first postmaster general and first president, respectively.
These two 1847 stamps hold their value through market fluctuations and through thick times and thin.
The 2020 Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps and Covers values a four-margin example of the 10¢ George Washington stamp in used condition at $775.
Examples in the grade of very fine bring prices ranging to full Scott catalog value up to a nice premium above catalog value, depending on the desirability of the cancellation and the balance of the margins.
Also the Scott U.S. Specialized catalog offers a fairly lengthy list of color, type and location cancellations that bring additional premiums.
Even examples in lower grades or with minor faults sell for a surprising percentage of Scott catalog value.
Determine what you can afford and buy the best example you can find that fits in your stamp collecting budget.
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World StampsAug 8, 2020, 6 PMIn recent years, there has been significant progress in the development of innovative light fixture options available to indoor gardeners. When choosing an appropriate fixture for your indoor garden, there are a few aspects you need to consider to obtain desirable results, such as light spectrum, photometric output and cooling options.
If these aspects take priority in your lighting design decisions, you can achieve significant improvements in the areas of yield and electrical usage efficiency. Here is a brief overview of some lighting design options available to modern gardeners.
The light spectrum that your lighting system produces drastically affects the quality and quantity of the plants you’re growing. For example, when you’re flowering a photoperiod cultivar that requires large amounts of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), the light spectrum produced by a high pressure sodium (HPS) lamp or a ceramic metal-halide (CMH) lamp will consistently produce high-yielding results. Both of these types of lamps incorporate a significant amount of red and green colors in their light output, efficiently driving photosynthesis in flowering plants.
When using HPS bulbs, I recommend selecting the newer, double-ended (DE) bulb designs, as they provide a significant advantage in efficiency over the older, mogul-based designs, producing about 1.28 times more usable light than mogul-based HPS lamps with the same power input. On the other hand, CMH lamps are being adopted by many gardeners due to their low heat output and high-yielding results, but there seems to be prevailing reliability issues with the ballasts used to drive them, and replacing the ballasts is expensive.
Looking to the future, with regards to spectral output capabilities and efficiency, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) may be the next-level solution. That being said, further testing is needed to determine the most economical fixture design and best-practice techniques for successfully incorporating these lamps within an indoor agriculture facility. I believe horticultural LED fixtures are still in the early stages of development, but with more research, these lights could become a cost-effective solution for reliably growing top-quality, high-yielding indoor plants.
The photometric design of a lamp fixture determines how the light is delivered to the plant canopy by shaping the distribution of brightness over a defined target area. By changing the shape and the angles of the reflective or refractive surfaces within the fixture, light can be directed to specific locations on the plant canopy.
Most indoor growers prefer a uniform light distribution over the desired canopy area, and fixtures that have significant hot spots (bright spots) are typically avoided, as the canopy quickly becomes uneven, which either makes more work for the gardener, or creates yield inefficiencies due to shading or light burn.
Assuming the fixture can provide uniform light distribution, light-on-target efficiency should be the next most important factor in selecting the appropriate grow lights. A reflector that minimizes the amount of light wasted on walls or the floor by directing the light to a defined target area provides the best results.
For a garden to operate successfully, temperature control is an absolute necessity. The amount of light needed to produce high-yielding plants generates a lot of heat that must either be removed from the space or cooled.
Some fixtures are equipped with built-in duct connections, allowing for strings of lights to be connected in a series. Fans are then used to remove as much of the heat produced as possible. However, depending on how well-insulated the ductwork and light fixtures are, this will typically only account for 20-30% of the total heat generated by the lamps. The remainder of the heat needs to be cooled by air-conditioning equipment.
For any reasonably lit indoor garden, standard air-conditioning systems intended for human comfort are insufficient. However, multiple options exist for extending your cooling capability, including residential-style split units used to supplement household AC, but the most energy-efficient heat removal methods use industrial-process cooling techniques, incorporating liquid-based cooling technologies to provide the most efficient environmental control.
Fixtures that incorporate on-board, liquid-based cooling features have been on the market for quite some time now in an attempt to increase the efficiency of indoor garden cooling mechanisms. Some designs pass liquid in a sheath over the bulb to remove the heat, but this has the negative side effect of altering the spectral output of the bulb and lowering the amount of light delivered to the plant canopy.
Newer fixtures use liquid-based heat exchangers and fans to cool the heat generated without passing water or cold air directly over the bulb, leaving the spectrum and light output intact while still removing the excess heat before it enters the growth chamber. With these modifications, built-in, liquid-based cooling features are now a viable option for indoor gardening.
How to Choose the Right Grow Lights
Choosing a lighting design may seem difficult with all of the options available on the market today. The most practical approach is to pick the most efficient, reliable and proven technology available in your price range.
Over the last 20 years, indoor gardeners have proven that the HPS spectrum is a great light source for plants, and with the development of the more efficient double-ended bulb, it is currently among the most reliable and cost-effective light sources for gardens of any size. There are now several fixtures available that incorporate the double-ended HPS bulb, so let photometric output—how much light is reaching the plants—be the next guiding factor.
Look for a fixture that provides the most light-on-target while minimizing hot spots. Some fixtures are designed for use in greenhouses, while others are designed for use indoors. Fixtures designed for greenhouse applications have a small reflector that casts a wide light spread, displaying less efficient light delivery to the canopy under indoor-only growth conditions while providing fewer options for cooling methods.
Newer fixtures created for indoor-specific applications are designed to efficiently deliver light to the canopy, minimizing light waste while also incorporating various methods for effectively cooling the heat produced by the bulb.
Finally, look for fixtures that provide liquid-cooling technologies. Liquid-cooling technology is frequently used in high-heat environments, and I believe the additional efficiency and control options you’ll experience using liquid-cooling are unmatched.
No matter how big or how small, indoor gardens are driven by efficiency. Whether you’re a hobby grower interested in alleviating costs, or you’re running a large production facility and are looking to improve your bottom line, your lighting design is the key to success. Choose wisely and you will soon be producing larger crops while spending less money on electricity and labor.IT decision-makers from all industries agree: the biggest cyber security risk is human error. There is only so much that anti-virus solutions can do when users don’t know how vulnerable they are. Thus, solutions must be human-focused, and organizations need to invest in training programs to combat cyber illiteracy and educate employees on the types of risks and attacks they need to be aware of and how to react when threats arise.
Learn more from this Computing Research study of over 150 IT decision-makers about how they’re approaching cybersecurity awareness training. You’ll discover strategies and best practices and gain an understanding of today’s training landscape.Surah Fatiha and the Concept of Tawheed.
Extracted from “Tafsir Surat al-Fatiha awr ta’mire-shakhsiyyat”, pp71-73
Translated by M. Iqtedar.
From the dawn of humanity, people have been the victims of a variety of errors in matters of belief which is often due to ignorance in the following fundamental truths:
- Tawhid (belief in the oneness or unity of Allah)
- Risalah (belief in the Messengers of Allah)
- Akhirah (belief in life after death)
Prophets and Messengers were sent to people in every age so that they might be granted true knowledge and tread the path of truth. Without contemplating Tawhid, man could not have known his true origins and state. Without contemplating Risalah, man could not have based his life and deeds on the correct way and without contemplating Akhirah, man could not have understood the repercussions of his life and the necessity to live it in the correct manner. As it were, the knowledge of these three truths was so important that without it the beginning of human existence, its purpose and consequences would all have remained unknown and hidden. Human intellect has been engaged in conjecture and forming opinions with reference to these very three very concepts, whereby various philosophies, notions, conceptions and religious faiths have sprung into being.
The first three verses of Surat al-Fatiha clearly rectify the aspect of faith in human existence. It throws light upon the three concepts mentioned above, since in reality these concepts form the basis of man’s complete faith structure.
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds
The first ayah of Surah al-Fatiha not only states the tenet of Tawhid but is itself a solid proof of Tawhid. Here two things have been confirmed about Allah subhanahu wata'ala; His deservedness of praise, since He alone is befitting and worthy of praise, and the
Providence of all, as He alone is the Sovereign and Cherisher of all of creation.
AI-Hamd (all due praise) means to describe one's virtues and is a recognition of excellence and worship has been made the most dignified form of praise. In reality, there is only a minority who are even worthy of ordinary praise, so can it can never be possible for anyone to be worthy of the most dignified and exalted form of praise being worship. That is why the Divine Essence, which is befitting of complete praise, is the only entity entitled to be worshipped and contemplation of this is called Tawhid.
The same ayah also mentions Allah’s providence over all of creation. The significance of the Creator, Sovereign and Cherisher of the Universe is contained in Rabbil-alamin (Lord of the Worlds). This quality lays the foundation of Tawhid, since it is this Being which is the creator of everyone, the Sovereign of man’s existence, He who holds the power over life and death and is responsible for man’s sustenance. In response the submissive, humble forehead of man can only bow down with gratefulness and gratitude before Him and none else. The very first words of Surat al-Fatiha acquaints man with this reality, so that he may not think that his life came into being of its own accord. Rather he should know that Allah is responsible for exalting him and Allah alone has conferred upon him the honorable robe of existence. Thus man should be grateful to Him under all circumstances and keep up the supplicatory prostration in His Court.
The Holy Qur'an, in another place, has used this very proof in support of the concept of Tawhid. The command of Allah, the Most High, in the Qur'an is:
"O Mankind! Call to mind the Grace of Allah unto you!
Is there a Creator, other than Allah to give you sustenance from Heaven or Earth?
There is no God but He. How then are you deluded away from the truth?"
(Surah Fatir 35:3)
This splendid reasoning has been presented through mention of Allah's own khaliqiyyah (act of creation), His providence, His favors and kindness and is contained in the first ayah of Surah al-Fatiha. In another place, it is commanded:
"O you people! Adore your Guardian Lord, who created you, and those who came before you. That you may have the chance to learn righteousness. Who has made the Earth a resting place for you. And the Heavens your canopy; And sent down rain from the
Heavens; And brought forth therewith fruits for your sustenance. So set not up rivals for Allah when you know (the truth)."
(Surat al-Baqarah 2:21-22)
In these ayahs, Allah Ta’ala's khaliqiyyah, providence and blessings have been established as evidence of Tawhid. The contemplation of this aspect perfects a person's faith that the sole Originator and Sovereign of all of creation is the Glorious Lord. All types of phenomena of existence, for example the moon, sun, stars, fire, air, water, earth, stones, animals, humans and Angels, who have been worshipped through the ages in various ways, are all the originations, makings and cultivations of Allah Ta 'ala. That is why none of them is fit to be even conceived of as a deity. As there is only one Creator, Sovereign and Cherisher, so there is only one who is worthy of worship and it is He and none but He. Surah al-Fatiha's first statement that "Allah is the Lord of everyone and all the Universes are his Creation and marbub (subject to his Lordship)" unveils the reality that no existence in worldly life can be more prosperous than his Divine essence. This crown is only befitting for the Lord of the Worlds and for noone else but Him.
(for futher reading you are highly recommended to read the full tafseer of Surah-AL-Fatiha by Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri)Do your gums bleed when you brush or floss your teeth?
Bleeding gums are a common indicator of the presence of gum disease. Gum disease, or periodontal disease, is a growing oral health concern that affects millions of Americans. Bleeding gums can also be caused for other reasons such as pregnancy, aggressive flossing and brushing, dentures that do not fit correctly and certain medications. If your gums bleed on a regular basis, do not ignore them. Let your dentist know if your frequently experience bleeding of the gums as soon as possible.
Gum pain, sore gums, and gums that bleed are often present in patients who have gingivitis, an early stage of gum disease. At this stage, it is easily reverse if treatment is sought out promptly. At-home oral care, routine visits to the dentist for cleanings, and early diagnosis are the best ways to avoid secondary damage caused by gum disease.
Gum disease is a progressive bacterial infection that will worsen if left untreated. As disease-causing bacteria multiply they begin to form pockets in the gums and eventually spread to the bloodstream. Dentists commonly associate the presence of periodontal disease with a full range of oral and systemic health conditions.
Dunnellon, FL dentist Dr. Carter Perkins offers comprehensive periodontal therapy for the treatment of gum disease. Dr. Perkins has over 25 years of experience helping patients restore the health of their gums and teeth. Dr. Perkins takes a uniquely comprehensive approach to dental care. Every oral health exam will review the whole oral cavity for more thorough evaluation and targeted treatment for your dental health concerns.
Oral Health & Gum Disease
Healthy gums play an important role in your overall oral health. Gums help to stabilize teeth and protect the root structure from damage or sensitivity. Twice daily brushing and flossing and regular six-month visits to the dentist office can help keep your gums clean and healthy.
Patients with gum disease are more susceptible to:
- Chronic halitosis
- Bleeding gums
- Swollen, painful gums
- Receding gum line
- Shifting of teeth
- Tooth loss
- Bone deterioration
- Jaw recession
Systemic Health & Gum Disease
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indrical round aquariums of large volumes are also rare. Round aquariums are often sold without a lid. Choosing it, you must not be mistaken with the size. The inside diameter of the lid must match the top outside diameter of the can.
Best Aquarium Fish To Keep in Bowl
Round aquariums are still made of glass as well. The material is traditional, perfectly mastered, however, heavy and fragile. A glass aquarium of 5 liters, with a wall thickness of up to 3 mm, can even weigh up to 1.5 kg without water and soil, and a 30-liter one with walls at least 5 mm thick can “stretch” all 3 kg. And if with water and everything else, then its weight can reach up to 50 kg. It is very difficult to accidentally drop such a massive object. Still, glass remains a very fragile material, and this argument often does not sound in its favor.
Nowadays, when traditional materials are increasingly being replaced by new ones with similar properties, plastic aquariums are replacing glass spheres. A plastic, or rather, acrylic container with the same transparency is much lighter. It is impossible to break it by accident. This aquarium is easier to handle and maintain. However, the new material has its drawbacks.
When cleaning the inner surface from algal fouling, do not use a scraper, as scratches will appear, which will never be on the glass.
How to choose?
When choosing an aquarium-sphere, first of all, it is necessary to take into account its harmony in the interior. Using a variety of color schemes, it can be placed in a room made in almost any style. Lighting, colored stones and artificial plants in your aquarium design will help you align your aquarium with the overall design. So, for historical and ethnic interiors, a spherical aquarium of large volumes, at least 20 liters, with natural soil of coarse sand and pebbles and real plants is more suitable.
Aquariums devoid of fish, but with lush vegetation will look beautiful. Modern styles (loft, minimalism, postmodernism, techno and hi-tech) will require an appropriate design of the sphere. It is better if it is small, with a minimum of decor. In some cases, decorative stones of a certain color are suitable. Plants in such a container may be superfluous.
How to equip?
It is much easier to start an aquarium with ready-made equipment. Such ponds are manufactured by some companies specializing in aquarium equipment. Aquariums are sold with lighting and a waterfall (an original way to combine aeration and filtration systems).
Lighting a round aquarium is one of the design challenges. It is impossible to use an ordinary lamp due to its rather large dimensions, and the use of a table lamp, although convenient, is not always aesthetically pleasing.
As already noted, the decor of a round aquarium is a very responsible matter. Therefore, its equipment must be approached with all care, spheres with inappropriate accessories look rather ridiculous. In such an aquarium, colored soil and artificial plants will not be superfluous, because its main task is to emphasize the style of the room, and for this you often have to sacrifice the comfort of the inhabitants.
There is also such a solution as a sphere in which not only inhabitants are absent, but also water. In this case, colored stones and artificial plants perform decorative functions. Often, an ordinary houseplant is placed in such containers. Of course, such a decorative element of the interior cannot be called a full-fledged aquarium. In the second half of the 20th century, in modern interiors, they began to install round reservoirs with colored stones instead of soil, completely devoid of vegetation, with one fish of bright colors, also performing purely decorative functions.
To choose a good round aquarium, you should pay attention to the products of popular manufacturers:
- The German company Tetra is considered a pioneer in the aquarium industry. Produces many varieties of round aquariums, which are equipped with all the necessary equipment. Popular models with LED-backlights are equipped with all the necessary accessories and are inexpensive.
- Aquael produces elegant round aquariums. Lighting and filter are built into the cover. The fish are fed through an opening with a valve. The cost of the products of the Polish manufacturer depends on the volume and the level of equipment of the aquariums. Quality always matches the price.
Choosing a high-quality aquarium, you can significantly expand the possibilities of its design and create optimal conditions for aquatic life.
In round aquariums, you will need to install the following equipment:
- Compressor. They saturate the water with oxygen. Power depends on the parameters of the tank.
- Heater. It will be needed if the reservoir is in a cold room and thermophilic fish species live in it.
- Backlit lid. Solves the issue of illumination and fish safety. If it is absent, many novice aquarists will place the container closer to the window. It should be noted that direct sunlight is very harmful, as it provokes the rapid development of algae.
- Bottom filter. Such a reservoir is simply necessary. The appearance resembles a pancake. Equipped with a pump on a leg, which is hidden behind the aquarium decor. Power is selected based on the capacity of the container. The larger the volume, the more carefully the filter is selected. It is better to take with a small margin of power so that the equipment works longer.
On a note! When using a bottom filter, sand cannot be used as soil, as it will quickly clog the filtering equipment.
Advantages and disadvantages
Before opting for a round aquarium for the interior of the room, it is recommended to get acquainted with its pros and cons.
- Round tanks are cheaper in price than similar rectangular tanks of the same size.
- The design of spherical home ponds is presented in a large assortment.
- Thanks to their rounded shape, they are compact and take up less space.
- Easier to move from place to place with an easy grip.
- The rounded shape is easier to clean from fish waste.
- In the interior of the room, office they look stylish and elegant.
- In a non-standard model of a home reservoir, you can arrange an original water landscape.
- Round aquariums are very cramped for many types of fish.
- It is impossible to place a complete filtering system. This limits the number of fish species allowed for keeping.
- The flask narrows upward, air exchange is impaired, you will have to change the water more often.
- It is absolutely impossible to keep marine fish species in them, because it is almost impossible to maintain the required indicators of salt water.
- The spherical shape of the walls distorts perception, which negatively affects the fish.
- Plants are much more difficult to place.
However, these shortcomings do not frighten aquarists. They manage to successfully keep aquarium fish in round forms for many years.
Rules for arranging an aquarium
In order to properly equip a tank with rounded walls, you need to know what equipment will help to establish a favorable microclimate in it, which aquatic inhabitants will not be uncomfortable in such conditions.
In Soviet times, round aquariums were more affordable than rectangular ones. When wonderful specimens of home rectangular reservoirs appeared on the free sale, the annoying spherical ones were forgotten. Today, the fashion for round aquariums is back.
How to care
Do not expect plants to clear the soil. They will not cope with such a task. Twice a month it is necessary to change the water, siphon the bottom, clean the walls. A complete water change will not have to be done often, every 1-2 years, so as not to disturb the established biological balance.
Round aquarium: pros and cons, design, choice of plants and fish
Decorative fish give a lot of positive emotions. The process of observing their life is calming, peaceful. A properly selected round aquarium will organically fit into the interior and become a comfortable home for its inhabitants. But for this it is important to know by what rules to populate fish in a spherical reservoir.
The design of a round aquarium has its own specifics due to the fact that the bottom is limited in area.
You must adhere to the following rules:
- The thickness of the soil should be 40-50 mm.
- It is advisable to use decorative stones that will allow you to disguise items of equipment.
- When picking up a pebble, it is necessary to trace how it looks through the spherical walls. The lens effect distorts the outlines of stones.
- It will not work to place large decor items.
We will have to abandon large dilapidated castles and sunken ships, place a minimum of decorative elements. The advantage of decorating a round aquarium is that it is the spherical shape that makes it possible to demonstrate the beauty of the underwater world, revealing its secrets in detail.Coast Penstemon is an upright species of penstemon, with one to several slender stems rising from a woody base up to 70 cm in height. You can find it growing in meadows, open forest settings and along streams at low to mid-elevations.
As with most penstemons, the leaves are opposite on the stems. The leaves of Coast Penstemon are all found on the stems. They have short petioles at the bottom, while those above may be sessile or clasping. The lower leaves may be as long as 90 mm. The leaves may be almost entire to very serrate, lanceolate to elliptic or heart-shaped.
The Coast Penstemon typically has a single, tight cluster of flowers at the tip of the flowering stem. However, there may be as many as five well-spaced verticillasters present. The sepals are narrow to ovate, with the margins very finely haired. The corolla is a short tube at the base of the flower which expands greatly to a longer, wider tube. The flowers are strongly two-lipped, to 25 mm long. The flower color is purple to blue.
Coast Penstemon is found along the coast from southern Alaska through British Columbia and Washington to northwest Oregon. On Vancouver Island, it may be found up to elevations of 1500 meters.
On the west coast of Vancouver Island, you will see it at sea level just about every spot you take a look for it, it is very prolific and quite beautiful to observe.
Firsts peoples used this plant as a poultice for wounds, burns and other infection-prone injuries, it was used internally for menstrual pains and was used as an eyewash. Today it is mostly just an ornamental flower.There are some people who try and avoid carrots because they have heard that they are not good for their eye health. However, your Miami Eye doctor will confirm that this couldn’t be further from the truth. Carrots actually contain beta-carotene and provide a source of Vitamin A, which are both crucial to the human body. Eating carrots is not going to cause harm to your eyes, but it won’t particularly help them as well. While many people believe that carrots can hurt their eyesight, there are also a large number of people who believe that carrots will improve their eyesight. The next time you are buying groceries or making a plate of food, don’t feel bad about getting a helping of carrots. You can always ask your Miami eye doctors to confirm anything you have heard about your eyes that you aren’t sure of.
If you are someone who thinks that eating carrots will prevent the need for wearing eyeglasses in Miami Beach, then you need to learn more about carrots and what they actually do for your body.
If reading facts about carrots has not changed your opinion on them, then you should try speaking with your doctor in Miami Beach about them the next time you are in for an appointment. They will be able to explain to you in more detail how carrots are good for your health and won’t damage your eyes. You should definitely not be avoiding carrots because you think they are harmful to your health or eyes in any way, because this simply is not true. Before you believe everything you read or are told, be sure to check your facts with reputable sources of information–such as doctors who specialize in certain parts of the human body.The deaths of thousands of birds in the southwestern U.S. have sparked concern from scientists. This phenomenon has been described as a national tragedy by ornithologists, who suggest that it could be related to the climate crisis. The species of birds affected include flycatchers, warblers and swallows. Bird carcasses have been spotted in numerous places, including New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Arizona and Nebraska.
According to Martha Desmond, a biology professor at New Mexico State University (NMSU), many of the cases show signs of starvation. The carcasses have little remaining fat reserves, and many of the birds appear to have nose-dived into the ground mid-flight.
“I collected over a dozen in just a two-mile stretch in front of my house,” Desmond said. “To see this and to be picking up these carcasses and realizing how widespread this is, is personally devastating. To see this many individuals and species dying is a national tragedy.”
Many of the birds belonged to a group of long-distance migrants that fly from Alaska and Canada to Central and South America. These birds travel long journeys and have to make several landings for food before they proceed. However, the recent fires across the western states might have made it difficult for the birds to follow their regular route. If the birds moved farther inland to the Chihuahuan desert, they likely struggled to find food and water, leading to starvation. At the same time, the southwestern states have experienced drier conditions than usual, which might have reduced the number of insects on which the birds could feed.
Scientists have also discussed the possibility that the wildfires and their accompanying smoke may have harmed the birds’ lungs.
“It could be a combination of things. It could be something that’s still completely unknown to us,” said Allison Salas, graduate student at NMSU. “The fact that we’re finding hundreds of these birds dying, just kind of falling out of the sky is extremely alarming. … The volume of carcasses that we have found has literally given me chills.”
Via The Guardian
Image via Florian HahnHaving gotten through season 1 of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, I have been inspired by the concept of an ‘invisible building.’ In other words, I love the idea of a closed system underground structure. Granted, such systems also exist in such games as Fallout 3, but Dollhouse coined the phrase ‘invisible building’ and made it seem more like a paradise than a containment facility (okay, so it showed both sides of the coin…)
This inspiration led to my recent wiki-pedition about closed systems and renewable energy, i.e. solar, geothermal, wind, biomass, biofuels, nuclear power, and others. What I find fascinating about these various systems is the concept of a 0- energy space (or a space that gains rather than spends energy, as exhibited by Team Germany in the Solar Decathlon). I think that, by combining these energy resources with an underground structure and clever architectural planning (building or converting abandoned spaces) one could make some amazing ‘invisible’ buildings that pay for their own energy, and perhaps, in time, for their own construction costs.
What this led to think about more, however, was the idea of a vehicle as a closed system. What if cars, motorbikes, planes, trains, what have you- could use some of the above systems for their own energy refueling? I mean, ideas of biofuel and solar power being used in cars are not new, but what about wind and hydro electric power? I suppose my query is one of scale: that is, what if the systems currently used to harness wind and hydroelectric power were scaled down to be used in a moving closed system instead of a stationary one? What if a car’s movement helped fuel a car?
Fish, for example, move about, generating oxygen by passing water through their gills. Why can’t cars do the same thing with fuel (or at least electricity)? Why not have a moving system that feeds not only on solar energy and biomass but also on micro-windfarms and micro-dams? I mean, granted the systems in question would provide very little energy, but the constant motion of a vehicle would reduce the variability of water intake/wind intake that often plagues the stationary systems. On that kind of note, could not the very act of falling be used to provide some sort of energy?
What got me to wondering about vehicles on an energy saving level was the idea of transport. Right now, building in spaces with resources that one orders still requires a lot of energy, a lot of carbon. It also deals those darned shipping costs. But what if travelling did not cost so much? Wouldn’t that reduce the price of construction? Would that also reduce the price of fuel, and of the vehicle itself (over time)?
To answer my last question, water intake systems come with a cost. The passage of material through a ‘pipe’ system leaves residue, and overtime, even the energy saving systems of a vehicle would lose their functionality.
Still, having a world (or even a place in the world) where building and travelling actually paid for themselves, would be incredible – and could help direct money into more leisurely areas.Alliaria meanings in Urdu
Alliaria meanings in Urdu is الیلیریہ Alliaria in Urdu. More meanings of alliaria, it's definitions, example sentences, related words, idioms and quotations.
Please find 1 English and definitions related to the word Alliaria.
- (noun) : a genus of herbs of the family Cruciferae; have broad leaves and white flowers and long siliques
What are the meanings of Alliaria in Urdu?
Meanings of the word Alliaria in Urdu are. To understand how would you translate the word Alliaria in Urdu, you can take help from words closely related to Alliaria or it’s Urdu translations. Some of these words can also be considered Alliaria synonyms. In case you want even more details, you can also consider checking out all of the definitions of the word Alliaria. If there is a match we also include idioms & quotations that either use this word or its translations in them or use any of the related words in English or Urdu translations. These idioms or quotations can also be taken as a literary example of how to use Alliaria in a sentence. If you have trouble reading in Urdu we have also provided these meanings in Roman Urdu.
We have tried our level best to provide you as much detail on how to say Alliaria in Urdu as possible so you could understand its correct English to Urdu translation. We encourage everyone to contribute in adding more meanings to MeaningIn Dictionary by adding English to Urdu translations, Urdu to Roman Urdu transliterations and Urdu to English Translations. This will improve our English to Urdu Dictionary, Urdu to English dictionary, English to Urdu Idioms translation and Urdu to English Idioms translations. Although we have added all of the meanings of Alliaria with utmost care but there could be human errors in the translation. So if you encounter any problem in our translation service please feel free to correct it at the spot. All you have to do is to click here and submit your correction.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What do you mean by alliaria?
Whats the definition of alliaria?
Definition of the alliaria are
- a genus of herbs of the family Cruciferae; have broad leaves and white flowers and long siliquesSubmandibular sialadenitis is a condition in which the submandibular gland, one of the major salivary glands, gets inflamed. This inflammation can be acute or chronic. Acute infection is usually bacterial in nature, while chronic inflammation is usually related to calculi formation and reduced saliva, due to various causes.
The Ayurvedic treatment of submandibular sialadenitis is aimed at controlling the infection, dissolving small calculi, inducing normal flow of saliva and preventing complications like abscess. Medicines like Sukshma-Triphala, Triphala-Guggulu, Panch-Tikta-Ghrut-Guggulu and Gandhak-Rasayan are used to treat infection and inflammation in the salivary, submandibular gland. Medicines like Maha-Manjishthadi-Qadha, Saarivadi-Churna, Punarnavadi-Guggulu, Manjishtha (Rubia cordifolia), Saariva (Hemidesmus indicus), Punarnava (Boerhaavia diffusa), Haridra (Curcuma longa), Daruharidra (Berberis aristata), Deodar (Cedrus deodara), Nimba (Azadirachta indica), Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum), Khadeer (Acacia catechu), Bhrungraj (Eclipta alba), Guggulu (Commiphora mukul) and Shallaki (Boswelia serrata) can also be used to reduce inflammation.
Medicines like Gokshuradi-Guggulu, Chandraprabha-Vati, Yava-Kshar, Mulak-Kshar, Shankh-Vati, Pashanbhed (Bergenia lingulata), Kali-Musli (Curculigo orchioides), Ikshumool (Saceharum officinarum), Apamarga (Achyranthus aspera), Sahinjan (Moringa pterygosperma) and Kutki (Picrorrhiza kurroa) are used to dissolve small calculi and help in the normal flow of saliva.
Local applications can be made in the form of ointments containing Manjishtha, Saariva, Haridra, Daruharidra, Chandan and Mandukparni (Centella asiatica). This helps in early resolution of swelling and inflammation, and prevents the formation of abscess or fistula.
Acute symptoms of this condition usually resolve within a few days to a few weeks. Chronic sialadenitis may have a relapsing and remitting course. Ayurvedic medicines like Kanchnaar-Guggulu and Sukshma-Triphala help in resolving the chronic condition and preventing recurrence. Other associated conditions like Sjogren syndrome need to be treated with appropriate medicines. Adequate oral intake of fluids is an important part of the management of this condition.Human Rights in A Developing Society
The concept of human rights has assumed importance globally during the past few decades. Ever since the proclamation of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the term human rights has gained currency and has become a crucial elements of philosophical, social and political debates. While there is increasingly widespread concern for universal respect and observance for human rights, gross violation of internationally recognised norms continue unabated in almost all parts of the globe. Countless people around the world suffer from hunger, disease and lack of opportunity, and they are being denied the enjoyment of the most basic economic, social and cultural rights. In a developing society like India, where around fifty percent of the population is living below the poverty line and around seventy percent of the population is illiterate and a large number of men and women are living a life of degradation and destitution, misery and suffering, this subject assumes much greater importance. A number of the fundamentals human rights and freedoms enshrined in the Indian Constitution have remained in the Indian Constitution have remained on paper and this compels many to rethink about India’s commitment and seriousness for these issues. There is a wide gap between rhetoric and reality and sometimes human rights appear more or less a myth in India. Against this background, this anthology of articles contributed by renowned academicians, jurists, and experienced administrators embodies critical analysis of various aspects of human rights, both in theoretical and practical terms, and makes valuable suggestions for uplifting human rights awareness in India. tHe volume contains in-depth and illuminating discussions on wide ranging issues and areas of human rights, viz., public law of human rights, impact of globalization on human rights, police and human rights, human rights, and self descriptive communities, human rights and empowerment, child labour and human rights, constitutional position of human rights and tribal developmet and human rights.
Guaranteed Safe Checkout- How do you disinfect with hydrogen peroxide?
- Is hydrogen peroxide a good germ killer?
- Why is 70% alcohol a better disinfectant than 95 alcohol?
- What happens when you mix bleach with hydrogen peroxide?
- Does peroxide clean better than bleach?
- How does hydrogen peroxide kill bacteria?
- How do you make homemade disinfectant spray?
- Does washing clothes kill norovirus?
- What is the difference between rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide?
- How do I disinfect my house after norovirus?
- Is it OK to mix rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide?
- What should you not mix with hydrogen peroxide?
- Is rubbing alcohol the same as hand sanitizer?
- How do you dilute hydrogen peroxide to clean?
- Can hydrogen peroxide be used as an antibacterial?
- What kills norovirus besides bleach?
- Do you need to rinse off hydrogen peroxide?
- How long does it take for hydrogen peroxide to kill norovirus?
How do you disinfect with hydrogen peroxide?
To use as a disinfectant, spray it on the surface, allow the bubbles to subside, then air dry or wipe dry with a clean cloth.
You can also soak items like your toothbrush, retainer or thermometer in the peroxide to disinfect them.
Hydrogen peroxide can also be used in the laundry room..
Is hydrogen peroxide a good germ killer?
According to the CDC, hydrogen peroxide is effective at removing microorganisms, including bacteria, yeasts, fungi, viruses, and spores, making it a good choice for cleaning your bathroom.
Why is 70% alcohol a better disinfectant than 95 alcohol?
Ethanol 95% offers the same benefits as Isopropyl Alcohol 99%. … A 70% solution of Ethyl Alcohol 95% kills organisms by denaturing their proteins and dissolving their lipids and is effective against most bacteria, fungi and many viruses, but is ineffective against bacterial spores.
What happens when you mix bleach with hydrogen peroxide?
Bleach plus hydrogen peroxide creates oxygen gas so violently, it can cause an explosion. “One should not mix household cleaners as a general rule,” Langerman says. “You do not necessarily make a strong cleaner by mixing two cleaners together.”
Does peroxide clean better than bleach?
Hydrogen peroxide in the 3 percent strength commonly sold in drug stores can make an effective alternative to chlorine bleach. For instance: Fill a spray bottle with hydrogen peroxide and spray it onto your shower walls, counters, refrigerator, lunch boxes and other surfaces. Wipe clean with a paper towel.
How does hydrogen peroxide kill bacteria?
Hydrogen peroxide has been used as an antiseptic since the 1920s because it kills bacteria cells by destroying their cell walls. This process is called oxidation because the compound’s oxygen atoms are incredibly reactive, and they attract, or steal, electrons.
How do you make homemade disinfectant spray?
Gather the ingredients:1 1/4 cups water.1/4 cup white vinegar.1/4 cup (60% + alcohol content) vodka or Everclear (excellent germ-killing properties – you can substitute rubbing alcohol, but it will have a more medicinal scent)15 drops essential oil – peppermint + lemon OR lavender + lemon are great in this recipe.More items…•
Does washing clothes kill norovirus?
Norovirus is spread fecally — in the poop — and that means it can get into laundry. Studies show that fecal matter spreads even in ordinary laundry, so if someone is sick, it’s important to use very hot water and bleach to destroy virus that could be on any clothing, sheets or towels.
What is the difference between rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide?
The bottom line. Rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide both kill most bacteria, viruses, and fungi. In general, rubbing alcohol is better at killing germs on your hands, as it’s gentler on your skin than hydrogen peroxide.
How do I disinfect my house after norovirus?
Put on rubber or disposable gloves, and wipe the entire area with paper towels, then disinfect the area using a bleach-based household cleaner as directed on the product label. Leave the bleach disinfectant on the affected area for at least five minutes then clean the entire area again with soap and hot water.
Is it OK to mix rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide?
Pour the isopropyl alcohol into the clean container. Mix in the hydrogen peroxide. It kills bacteria that can get into the bottles or the sanitizer as you make it. Take extra care with this step, since hydrogen peroxide may irritate your skin.
What should you not mix with hydrogen peroxide?
Hydrogen peroxide + vinegar While these two chemicals can be used in succession as a cleaning duo, do not mix them together. “Combining these two creates peracetic acid or corrosive acid, an irritant that, in high concentrations, can harm the skin, eyes, throat, nose, and lungs,” says Bock.
Is rubbing alcohol the same as hand sanitizer?
Hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol or contains a “persistent antiseptic” should be used. Alcohol rubs kill many different kinds of bacteria, including antibiotic resistant bacteria and TB bacteria. … Alcohol rub sanitizers kill most bacteria, and fungi, and stop some viruses.
How do you dilute hydrogen peroxide to clean?
Mix a solution of one teaspoon hydrogen peroxide in one gallon of room-temperature water.
Can hydrogen peroxide be used as an antibacterial?
Antibacterial – Hydrogen peroxide has been used as an antiseptic since the 1920s because it kills bacteria cells by destroying their cell walls. … Kills mold & mildew – The effervescent nature of hydrogen peroxide makes it more effective than chlorine bleach at reaching and killing mold on porous surfaces.
What kills norovirus besides bleach?
Norovirus is enclosed by a structure known as a capsid. Alcohol cannot get through it, which is why alcohol-based hand sanitizers do not kill norovirus. “It’s resistant to many common disinfectants,” Hall said. CDC recommends using bleach to kill it, including chlorine bleach or hydrogen peroxide.
Do you need to rinse off hydrogen peroxide?
If you get hydrogen peroxide on your skin, be sure to rinse the area thoroughly with water. You may need to rinse for up to 20 minutes if it gets in your eyes. For bleaching skin, an older study reported that you need a concentration of between 20 and 30 percent.
How long does it take for hydrogen peroxide to kill norovirus?
According to the CDC, a concentration of 3% hydrogen peroxide can inactivate rhinovirus — the respiratory virus that primarily causes the common cold — within eight minutes.Singing in India
In India, group singing is the most popular of all arts-related participatory activities. It’s a group activity that seems to stand better than others and there might be a good reason why. Singing has more effects than other art-related activities. It has become pretty obvious that the singing has its own perks. Globally people are now moreover attracted to the karaoke singing, many of it cannot even tune in properly. Singing has now been an attraction point for most of the pubs, restaurants, etc. People would pay a hefty amount just to stand in the crowd and watch other singing or would sit idle in front of the TV while munching on snacks. Of course, we could see a lot of singers competing on the stage, or people really drawn to the karaoke, or we might also see people singing in their bathrooms or in the car while they’re driving. Does singing really make us happy?
Affects of singing
In this blog, we will find out how singing affects our mood, our mind, our emotions, and general health. Specifically, group singing has proven to be a good way to ease our stress and uplifts our mood. Singing has been a hotspot for researches ever since they discovered that it affects our nervous system.
The effects on singing on a living system have been fairly documented. Some might not agree with the fact, researchers have proved that in animals, especially in songbirds; where when male songbirds sing to female songbirds. It directly affects the male pleasure center in the brain. Similar effects have been studied in the human brain too, songs have a similar effect when a person is addicted to drugs. But there’s a monition. These studies are restricted to group singing, both in animals and humans.
Psychological Effects of Singing
The connections between songs and happiness are mainly related to the neurological function rather than the physiology of a being. One cannot measure the number of hormones released, thus it makes hard for the researchers to work upon. Singing has always been modified from generation to generation, especially speaking of group singing, in which one has to learn the song, read the lyrics, understanding the tune. While learning, and being at the utmost concentration level, one develops a zone in which he/she doesn’t care about their routine problems, and is stress-free. Learning new things has always been a good way to keep our brain active, hence it keeps us away from depression, anxiety. Thus, it has proven to be best in elderly people, especially to those groups who have been affected by neurological disorders, and hence singing has helped them to manage the disease, and in some cases, it turns out that it might recall some of their beautiful life events, and help them to regain their memory back, maybe for a short time.
But why do we need to go for a group singing, when we could simply belt out a tone, and be happy?
Effects of group singing
The effect of a group singing has a similar effect as exercising, wherein when you do properly when your breathing is controlled, and when you “lift up” your voice, it automatically increases the blood circulation and increases the production of hormones responsible to make us feel good. The effect of belting a tone is also good, but when in a choir group, the amount of endorphins released is way more than singing all alone.
Moreover, research from the University of Frankfurt, suggested that singing boost our immune system as well. Thus, singing in a group not only helps us to ease our stress but also helps us build social interactions. Most of the depressed, stressed-out people aren’t capable enough to speak in person or to make new connections. Singing in a choir group help them out easily, and have been proven to manage their anxiety/depression easily than relying their entire life on the meds.
With music being a natural therapy, we could eventually help those in need and providing them to open-up easily and interact more socially.The noun haughtiness is the state of being extremely unfriendly or unreasonable, showing the attitude of being superior.
Synonyms are arrogant, assumptive, cavalier, or bumptious.
The word origins from 1550s, before that it was used as haughtness borrowed from haught. Originally it comes from the Old French adjective haut meaning “high”. It developed to having a high estimation of yourself. It was compared to a queen riding on a horse with her chin upturned and paying no attention to the individuals below her.
He is known for always showing haughtiness to his office mates.
She always walks with total confidence, arrogance and haughtiness.
There’s something about her haughtiness, it’s pure so she might just be pretending to be one or she’s born with it.With the spread of coronavirus far and wide, the death rate and active cases have also increased tremendously. The virus had originated in the city of Wuhan at the end of December 2019, and since then, it has spread in the whole world like the fire of forest.
– As per the reports of 31st August 2020, 25.1M coronavirus cases and 844K deaths because of the COVID-19 have been reported around the globe.
World Health Organization (WHO) declared the virus as the deadliest pandemic of all time. Scientists, healthcare researchers, and a qualified team of doctors altogether are working for the preparation of the vaccines.
– Vaccine and cure for the coronavirus are in the development process, but coronavirus is constantly spreading!
Healthcare researchers and scientists are working on more than 165 vaccines to find a cure for COVID-19. Currently, around 30 vaccines are under the testing phase that is including the human trial as well.
Although the researchers believe that the early results are promising and can last longer in the treatment of coronavirus, still there are a lot of things that could go wrong with the coronavirus vaccine and scientists fear that as well. Let us have a look;
People might not take the vaccine:
One of the biggest doubts in the preparation of the COVID-19 vaccine is from the people. A survey was conducted in America, showing that almost 50% of the people are not planning to take the vaccine whenever it would be available.
As per the situation of the spreading of the virus, it is very important to get every person vaccinated so he must not get the virus. Getting a complete approval from the higher authorities and recommendations can make the people aware of the importance of getting vaccinated.
Immunity might not last:
Content writing asked in the press release, after having the vaccine, what is the guarantee of having a naturally long-lasting immune system? People are having the doubts of losing their immunity and they believe that injecting the vaccine will make them lose their natural immunity, as the virus has been the deadliest. So, they won’t be able to survive minor diseases like malaria and diarrhea.
Scientists are also doubtful of how the vaccine would turn out for the immune system of humans. The reports were published which showed that people who recovered from coronavirus had very few antibodies and low immune systems. What would be the result if the vaccine would be given to recovered people?
The response of the immunity:
Scientists now also fear the response of the immune system because it varies from person to person and on medical history as well. There would be different responses from every other immune system.
The recent trial of the vaccine is focusing keenly on the response of the immune system. It is revolving around the performance of antibodies in both, the ones who are recovered from the coronavirus and the ones who have not been exposed to coronavirus till now. The human trial is found to be satisfactory but there is no guarantee of how long it would work!
Will the vaccine works or not:
The greatest fear which lies in the development of a vaccine is either it would work or not. There are patients with different medical histories and they have been exposed to other diseases that are not similar to coronavirus. Will this vaccine work for them?
The virus is communicable and dangerous as well with new symptoms varying from person to person and his medical condition. Drug companies including Pfizer and Moderna are also trying to prepare the safest and effective vaccine by using the processes of the past vaccines for pandemics like Spanish flu.
The vaccine may turn out to be 50% effective:
Another thing which can be wrong is that the vaccine may turn out only 50% effective. Scientists also doubt that it possibly may not work as a complete barrier from the virus. The vaccines are feared to work promisingly only in the beginning.
The outcomes of the vaccine are still unknown and anything can go wrong with a coronavirus vaccine. The list of doubts for the
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, strengthening their interconnections, and protecting them from damage. There are multiple mechanisms at play here, but some are becoming more well-understood than others.
For example, a number of animal studies, including the featured rodent study, have demonstrated that during exercise, the animals' nerve cells release proteins known as neurotrophic factors. One in particular, called brain-derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF, activates brain stem cells to convert into new neurons. BDNF also triggers numerous other chemicals that promote neural health. Further, exercise provides protective effects to your brain through:
- The production of nerve-protecting compounds
- Greater blood flow to your brain
- Improved development and survival of neurons
- Decreased risk of heart and blood vessel diseases
- Altering the way damaging proteins reside inside your brain, which appears to slow the development of Alzheimer's disease. In animal studies, significantly fewer damaging plaques and fewer bits of beta-amyloid peptides, associated with Alzheimer's, were found in mice that exercised
The Mechanism that Rejuvenates Your Brain Tissue
The featured New York Times article focuses on the rejuvenating effect of BDNF, and there's good reason for that. While scientists are not able to directly observe these effects in human brains, they have found that humans tend to have higher levels of BDNF in their bloodstream after working out, so there's reason to believe the effects found in animal research are also applicable to humans.
Growing evidence indicates that both fasting and exercise trigger genes and growth factors that recycle and rejuvenate your brain and muscle tissues. These growth factors include BDNF, as just mentioned, and muscle regulatory factors, or MRFs. These growth factors signal brain stem cells and muscle satellite cells to convert into new neurons and new muscle cells respectively. Interestingly enough, BDNF also expresses itself in the neuro-muscular system where it protects neuro-motors from degradation. (The neuromotor is the most critical element in your muscle. Without the neuromotor, your muscle is like an engine without ignition. Neuro-motor degradation is part of the process that explains age-related muscle atrophy.)
So BDNF is actively involved in both your muscles and your brain, and this cross-connection, if you will, appears to be a major part of the explanation for why a physical workout can have such a beneficial impact on your brain tissue. It, quite literally, helps prevent, and even reverse, brain decay as much as it prevents and reverses age-related muscle decay.
This also helps explain why exercise while fasting can help keep your brain, neuro-motors, and muscle fibers biologically young. For more information on how to incorporate fasting into your exercise routine for maximum benefits, please see this previous article by fitness expert Ori Hofmekler.
Other Brain-Influencing Mechanisms Triggered by Exercise
Researchers at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago have also discovered a couple of other mechanism that helps explain why exercise is so good for your brain.
It appears that exercise lowers the activity of bone-morphogenetic protein or BMP, which slows the production of new brain cells. At the same time, exercise increases Noggin, a brain protein that acts as a BMP antagonist. The more Noggin present in your brain, the less BMP activity there is, and the more stem cell divisions and neurogenesis (production of new brain cells) takes place.
According to a 2009 PLoS One studyiii:
"Exposure to exercise or to environmental enrichment increases the generation of new neurons in the adult hippocampus and promotes certain kinds of learning and memory. While the precise role of neurogenesis in cognition has been debated intensely, comparatively few studies have addressed the mechanisms linking environmental exposures to cellular and behavioral outcomes. Here we show that bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling mediates the effects of exercise on neurogenesis and cognition in the adult hippocampus. Elective exercise reduces levels of hippocampal BMP signaling before and during its promotion of neurogenesis and learning...
[R]educed BMP signaling is required for environmental effects on neurogenesis and learning... [T]hese observations show that BMP signaling is a fundamental mechanism linking environmental exposure with changes in cognitive function and cellular properties in the hippocampus."
Exercise and Emotional States
In addition to all of this, we can find further clues by looking at research on exercise for the treatment of depression. It works primarily by helping to normalize your insulin levels, while also boosting endorphin production—the "feel good" hormones in your brain. As Dr. James S. Gordon, MD, a world-renowned expert in using mind-body medicine to heal depression has said:
"What we're finding in the research on physical exercise is that exercise is at least as good as antidepressants for helping people who are depressed… physical exercise changes the level of serotonin in your brain. And it increases your endorphin levels, your "feel good hormones."
And also—and these are amazing studies—exercise can increase the number of cells in your brain, in the region of the brain called the hippocampus. These studies were first done on animals, and they're very important because sometimes in depression, there are fewer of those cells in the hippocampus. But you can actually change your brain with exercise. So it's got to be part of everybody's treatment, everybody's plan."
Nutrition and Brain Health
Another factor that cannot be overlooked is your diet. Foods have an immense impact on your body and your brain, and eating whole foods as described in my nutrition plan will best support your mental and physical health. Just like exercise, avoiding sugar (particularly fructose) and grains will help normalize your insulin levels. This is an important aspect, as sugar causes chronic inflammation that disrupts your body's normal immune function and can wreak havoc on your brain.
But sugar also suppresses BDNF, which is important for proper memory function, and appears to play a significant role in depression as well. At least we know that BDNF levels tend to be critically low in people with depression, and some animal models have suggested low BDNF levels may actually be causative.
So, when you consider all of these inter-connected metabolic pathways that are all affected by diet and exercise, it becomes rather easy to see why a low-sugar diet in combination with regular exercise can have such profoundly beneficial effects on memory and mental health!
Aim for a Well-Rounded Fitness Program
Ideally, to truly optimize your health, you'll want to strive for a varied and well-rounded fitness program that incorporates a variety of exercises. As a general rule, as soon as an exercise becomes easy to complete, you need to increase the intensity and/or try another exercise to keep challenging your body. I recommend incorporating the following types of exercise into your program:http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2012/05/18/exercise-benefits-brain-health.aspx?e_cid=20120518_DNL_art_1
- High-Intensity Interval (Anaerobic) Training: This is when you alternate short bursts of high-intensity exercise with gentle recovery periods.
- Strength Training: Rounding out your exercise program with a 1-set strength training routine will ensure that you're really optimizing the possible health benefits of a regular exercise program. You can also "up" the intensity by slowing it down. For more information about using super slow weight training as a form of high intensity interval exercise, please see my interview with Dr. Doug McGuff.
- Core Exercises: Your body has 29 core muscles located mostly in your back, abdomen and pelvis. This group of muscles provides the foundation for movement throughout your entire body, and strengthening them can help protect and support your back, make your spine and body less prone to injury and help you gain greater balance and stability.You need enough repetitions to exhaust your muscles. The weight should be heavy enough that this can be done in fewer than 12 repetitions, yet light enough to do a minimum of four repetitions. It is also important NOT to exercise the same muscle groups every day. They need at least two days of rest to recover, repair and rebuild. Exercise programs like Pilates and yoga are also great for strengthening your core muscles, as are specific exercises you can learn from a personal trainer.
- Stretching: My favorite type of stretching is active isolated stretches developed by Aaron Mattes. With Active Isolated Stretching, you hold each stretch for only two seconds, which works with your body's natural physiological makeup to improve circulation and increase the elasticity of muscle joints. This technique also allows your body to repair itself and prepare for daily activity. You can also use devices like the Power Plate to help you stretch.ExxonMobil Doesn't Want Girls to Be Intimidated by Engineering
Be an Engineer
In 2014, ExxonMobil launched "Be an Engineer" – a program that highlights real-life engineers who have created some of the world’s greatest technical achievements. The program is also designed to encourage students to choose engineer-related careers. To date, “Be an Engineer” has been awarded several awards and has garnered more than 17 million online engagements.
Introduce a Girl to Engineering
As part of its “Be an Engineer” effort, ExxonMobil has launched its 13th annual Introduce a Girl to Engineering program which hopes to reach more than 2,000 middle school girls throughout the country. The program is one of ExxonMobil’s numerous initiatives to attract younger people to STEM careers – especially girls and underrepresented minorities The company has partnered with Girl Day, an initiative started by Discover E, to show the collaborative and impactful work of engineers.
Students at eleven ExxonMobil and XTO Energy sites will have the opportunity to participate in a plethora of hands-on activities which are meant to spark curiosity and interest in STEM careers. Students will partake in a large range of activities including using 3D imaging technology to search for oil and natural gas, water purification experiments, and exploring both the science and chemistry used in everyday commodity products. Through all these activities, ExxonMobil will guide students to help sharpen their STEM skills. Since the pilot of the program, 11,000 students have taken part in company facility activities and classroom demonstrations.
By 2018, overall employment is projected to grow nearly 10 percent while STEM-related jobs are expected to grow by 17 percent. Through programs such as “Introduce a Girl to Engineering,” companies are filling the crucial need of the growing STEM sector by providing young people with meaningful work and competitive salaries.Lustig, N. 2012. Cash Transfers and Poverty in Latin America. GREAT Insights, Volume 1, Issue 3. May 2012. Maastricht: ECDPM
Although in Latin America cash transfers (also called Social Assistance) are still much smaller in scale than in advanced countries, in the last fifteen years they have become quite widespread. At the end of last decade, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico and Peru spent 4.2, 3.0, 2.2, 0.8 and 0.4 % of GDP, respectively, on cash transfer programs.(1) How much is extreme poverty reduced by cash transfers in Latin America?(2)
Standard benefit incidence analysis shows that cash transfers can reduce extreme poverty significantly especially if the per beneficiary transfer is of a certain magnitude and the coverage of the poor is large. Figure 1 shows the decline in pre-transfers extreme poverty caused by transfers, as measured by the percentage change in the headcount ratio between pre-transfers and post-transfers income. The pre-transfers and post-transfers incidence of extreme poverty is shown in Table 1. Extreme poverty here is defined as the proportion of individuals whose income falls below the international poverty line of US$2.50 per day in purchasing power parity.(3) Note that, for simplicity, poverty, extreme poverty and indigence are used interchangeably.
Comparing cash transfer programmes in Latin America
Flagship cash transfer programs such as Bolsa Familia in Brazil, Oportunidades in Mexico, Jefes y Jefas in Argentina, Bono Juancito Pinto in Bolivia and Juntos in Peru have become household names in their respective countries.(4) In the case of Bolsa Familia and Oportunidades, they have gained international recognition as well. Except for Oportunidades in Mexico, these are neither the only cash transfer programs nor necessarily the largest in terms of resources.
Argentina’s largest program is the Pension Moratorium (2.3% of GDP)—a special non-contributory pension that increased the proportion of women in retirement age who receive a pension by almost 30 percentage points (more than 90 % of women of eligible age now receive a pension). In Brazil, the largest is the Special Circumstances Pension (2.3% of GDP), a transfer designed to support, for example, widows and workers who become disabled (resources spent on Bolsa Familia equal 0.4%). In Bolivia, Renta Dignidad—a universal minimum pension—is the largest (1.4% of GDP). In Peru, food transfer programs cost 0.2% of GDP–twice as much as Juntos.
Although Argentina and Mexico are similar in terms of per capita GDP (measured in purchasing power parity the latter was around 14,000 dollars per year), Argentina spends more on cash transfers (3.0 % versus.75 % of GDP) and a larger percentage of the extreme poor are transfer beneficiaries in Argentina than in Mexico (92.5 versus 66.8 %). Unsurprisingly, transfers in Argentina reduce extreme poverty by a considerably larger amount. This is true, however, in the short-run. Since the pension moratorium program may incentivize informality, the formal social security system could face sustainability issues in the future. Also, public revenues in Argentina have been particularly high due to the commodity boom. The government may be unable to support generous cash transfers under more adverse conditions.
Interestingly, although Brazil spends the most on cash transfers of all five countries (4.2 % of GDP), the extent of poverty reduction is smaller than in Argentina because the share of transfers going to the poor is smaller in Brazil: 10 % versus 36 % in Argentina. In Brazil, the largest cash transfer—the Special Circumstances Pension—is not a program targeted to the poor.
Although Bolivia spends almost three times as much as Mexico on transfers as a share of GDP, Bolivia’s GDP is lower so the per capita transfers are smaller than in Mexico. However, what makes Bolivia’s redistributive machine less effective is that more than 60 % of the benefits of its largest transfer program —Renta Dignidad, a non-contributory universal pension (1.4 percent of GDP)—go to the nonpoor; meanwhile, only 43 % of the extreme poor are beneficiaries of any of Bolivia’s flagship transfer programs. Bolivia’s emphasis on more universal transfers (as opposed to targeted transfers) substantially diminishes its capacity to reduce extreme poverty through transfers.
Peru spends a fifth of Bolivia in transfers as a share of GDP, but because the transfers are better targeted to the poor and the coverage of the extreme poor is higher, the reduction in extreme poverty in Peru exceeds Bolivia’s. The poor in Peru receive 47 % of the benefits while the poor in Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil receive 38, 36, 32 and 10 % of transfers, respectively. In Peru, 58 % of the poor receive transfers while in Bolivia only 43 % do.
For cash transfers to significantly reduce extreme poverty:
i. The transfers per beneficiary have to be of an order of magnitude not too distant from the average poverty gap (i.e., the difference between the poverty line and the per poor person income/consumption).
ii. The existing range of transfer programs must be designed and implemented in such a way as to cover as close to the universe of the extreme poor as possible.
These conditions imply that indicators such as the share of transfers as a proportion to GDP or the percentage of benefits going to the poor, by themselves, can be misleading.
If poorer countries such as Bolivia have large transfer programs but that are not targeted to the poor–everything else equal (e.g., the resources as a share of GDP allocated to the cash transfer)–they will reduce poverty by less. This is one of the important disadvantages of universal programs versus targeted ones. When resources are scarce universal programs get stretched too thinly.
On the other hand, even if programs are well targeted but the government devotes a small amount of resources to cash transfers, the reduction in poverty will be small as well. This is the case of Peru and—to a lesser extent—Mexico. This happens because–with very limited budgets–either the transfer per beneficiary is too small (compared to the poverty gap), a sizeable proportion of the extreme poor can’t be covered by the programs, or because of both.
Coverage may be limited not because of budget constraints only, however. If the targeting criteria/mechanisms of cash transfer programs leave out important sections of the poor (for example, the indigent in urban areas or living in nonpoor regions, single persons without children, or the temporary unemployed), a significant proportion of the extreme poor are likely to be left uncovered by design. This situation can happen even in countries with programs whose scale is similar to the number of people living in extreme poverty. For example, Bolsa Familia in Brazil (which covers around 11 million households) and Oportunidades in Mexico report having 11 and 5 million households as beneficiaries, respectively, figures that are similar to the countries’ population in extreme poverty. However, in both countries the proportion of indigent not covered by any of the existing cash transfer programs is close to one third.(5)
Of course, to reduce poverty on a permanent basis, transfers have to be designed in such a way that households are not incentivized to increase fertility or work less. If existing programs have negative effects on adult labor supply or crowd-out private transfers, for example, in the medium-term the poor may become even poorer. Also, if anti-poverty programs do not emphasize improving the human capital of poor children or empower adults to become more self-reliant, they will not address the more fundamental causes of poverty. In contrast, when cash transfer programs are designed so that opportunities for poor children get more equalized and adults learn how to improve their livelihoods on a more permanent basis, poverty reduction policies can also be good for economic growth.
This article is an (adapted) excerpt of the relevant section in Lustig, Nora, coordinator, 2012. “Fiscal Policy and Income Redistri- bution in Latin America: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom,” Argentina: Carola Pessino; Bolivia: George Gray Molina, Wilson Jimenez, Veronica Paz and Ernesto Yañez; Brazil: Claudiney Pereira and Sean Higgins; Mexico: John Scott; Peru: Miguel Jaramillo. Tulane University, Economics Department, Working Paper 1202, New Orleans, Louisiana.
This article was published in GREAT Insights Volume 1, Issue 3 (May 2012)
1. By definition, these cash transfers exclude contributory pensions funded through a formal social security system but include non-contributory pensions funded by government tax revenues.
2. This poverty line is close to the median of national poverty lines in middle-income Latin America.
3. This poverty line is close to the median of national poverty lines in middle-income Latin America. Extreme poor and poor are used interchangeably.
4. The most important cash transfer programmes in Argentina include: Asignacion Universal Por Hijo, Jefes y Jefas, Familias, Food program, Pension Moratorium (non-contributory pensions), Scholarships and Unemployment Insurance. In Bolivia: Bono Juancito Pinto, Renta Dignidad (previously known as Bonosol), PAN and School Feeding. In Brazil: Beneficio de Prestacao Continuada (BPC), Bolsa Familia, Special Circumstances Pension, and Unemployment Benefits. In Mexico: Oportunidades (previously known as Progresa), Procampo and Adultos Mayores. In Peru: Juntos and food transfers. For a detailed description see Lustig, coord., 2012.
5. The number of beneficiaries in Brazil and Mexico is similar to the population living in extreme poverty.A Commodore 128
|Manufacturer:||Commodore Business Machines|
|Year Introduced:||January 1985|
|Clock Speed:||2 MHz|
|Memory Size:||128 KB in two 64KB banks|
|CPU:||MOS 8502, Zilog Z80|
|Operating System:||BASIC, CP/M|
The Commodore 128 was featured as a 3 in 1 computer. The CPU could run at 2MHz, and address 128KB of RAM. This was largely taken from the 'B' line of computers that Commodore sold in Europe. The Commodore 128 could also emulate in hardware a Commodore 64. As such it could use all of the peripherals from the Commodore 64. Lastly the 128 had a Zilog z80 coprocessor and could run CP/M. Along with the 1571 floppy drive, it could even share data with a variety of other CP/M machines.
For the most part, people used the Commodore 128's as Commodore 64's, as few vendors felt the need to write for the 128, when the 64 emulation was so good, they could keep selling to all segments. However there were special versions of Geos, and some Infocom games that took advantage of the higher resolutions & memory that were available to the 128.
The machine would run at 2MHz in C128 8502 mode, and 4MHz in Z80 mode, although effectively 2MHz there as well due to wait states to give video access to system bus. In C64 compatibility mode the 8502 dropped down to 1MHz.
The Commodore 128 was replaced by the Amiga line of computers.Endangered species and spaces
May 29, 2017
The delays currently facing two major city projects because of endangered species could be the tip of the iceberg given the massive declines in mammal, bird and other vertebrates displaced by human activity and especially global climate change. Provincial authorities are allowing the public to comment on the city’s request for an exemption from the Endangered Species Act for the Confederation Park sport fields proposals, and that opportunity may also eventually occur over a multi-million dollar road extension from the Ancaster business park.
The Cormorant Road extension has already been determined to affect the habitat of two rare birds – the Eastern Meadowlark and the Bobolink – and an assessment of possible use by bats along the path of the latter project is expected to take place this summer. When approved by council in 2014 this 700 metres of road construction was already priced at $4.5 million.
Originally the responsibility of Valeri Business Park who own most of the land crossed by the road, the extension is now being funded by the city with a ten percent contribution from the landowner. It will also extend water and sewer services to the very edge of the city’s urban boundary adjacent to the Ancaster Fair Grounds although it isn’t clear who this will benefit.
From roads to subdivisions to sporting facilities, municipalities like Hamilton have generally been able to assume that additional consumption of both foodlands and natural areas can continue with minimal legal consequences because of wildlife presence. But both federal and provincial legislation are formally committed to protecting endangered wildlife and their habitat, and the numbers of threatened species is rapidly increasing.
Late last year, for example, “a comprehensive report by the World Wildlife Federation and the Zoological Society of London found that wild animal populations dropped by 58 per cent between 1970 and 2012, and will likely reach a 67 per cent drop by 2020 if nothing is done to prevent the decline.” Multiple causes were identified including loss of habitat, pollution, invasive species and climate change.
Another study calculated that “humans have destroyed a tenth of Earth’s remaining wilderness in the last 25 years” – an area equivalent to two Alaskas. A third recent investigation focused specifically on North America combined information from dozens of government, academic and environmental agencies and concluded that 1.5 billion birds have been lost. It listed 86 species “that are threatened by plummeting populations, habitat destruction and climate change” with 22 of those having “already lost at least half of their population since 1970”.
Even well-known and recently abundant species like Monarch Butterflies are now listed as endangered in Canada. So far Monarchs haven’t been allocated that status in Ontario so are not yet covered by the provincial rules affecting bats and other designated species.
The former campgrounds at Confederation Park which were naturalized as part of the compensation for the Red Hill Parkway have been one of the areas in the city where Monarchs have hung on, although in diminishing numbers. The city’s plans would clear most of this area for a cricket pitch, a dozen pickle ball courts, and a 320 space parking lot accessed by a new entrance off the North Service Road.
The presence of nesting and hibernation areas for bats has triggered the city’s application for an exemption under the Endangered Species Act – which requires convincing the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry that an “overall benefit” to the affected species can be achieved through city actions.
“Providing an overall benefit to a protected species under the ESA involves undertaking actions to improve circumstances for the species in Ontario,” states the notice posted on the environmental registry and open for public comment until June 2. “Overall benefit is more than ‘no net loss’ or an exchange of ‘like for like’. Overall benefit is grounded in the protection and recovery of the species at risk and must include more than mitigation measures or ‘replacing’ what is lost.”
The posting suggests options could include abandoning or redesigning the Confederation Park plans or developing alternative habitat. But the actual permit application and the city plans are not included with the registry posting. Ministry staff say that can only be obtained from the city.This is a Clilstore unit. You can.
Growing up in Taiwan as the daughter of a calligrapher, one of my most treasured memories was my mother showing me the beauty, the shape and the form of Chinese characters. Ever since then, I was fascinated by this incredible language.
0:28 But to an outsider, it seems to be as impenetrable as the Great Wall of China. Over the past few years, I've been wondering if I can break down this wall, so anyone who wants to understand and appreciate the beauty of this sophisticated language could do so. I started thinking about how a new, fast method of learning Chinese might be useful.
0:53 Since the age of five, I started to learn how to draw every single stroke for each character in the correct sequence. I learned new characters every day during the course of the next 15 years. Since we only have five minutes, it's better that we have a fast and simpler way. A Chinese scholar would understand 20,000 characters. You only need 1,000 to understand the basic literacy. The top 200 will allow you to comprehend 40 percent of basic literature -- enough to read road signs, restaurant menus, to understand the basic idea of the web pages or the newspapers. Today I'm going to start with eight to show you how the method works. You are ready?
1:42 Open your mouth as wide as possible until it's square. You get a mouth. This is a person going for a walk. Person. If the shape of the fire is a person with two arms on both sides, as if she was yelling frantically, "Help! I'm on fire!" -- This symbol actually is originally from the shape of the flame, but I like to think that way. Whichever works for you. This is a tree. Tree. This is a mountain. The sun. The moon. The symbol of the door looks like a pair of saloon doors in the wild west.
2:40 I call these eight characters radicals. They are the building blocks for you to create lots more characters. A person. If someone walks behind, that is "to follow." As the old saying goes, two is company, three is a crowd. If a person stretched their arms wide, this person is saying, "It was this big." The person inside the mouth, the person is trapped. He's a prisoner, just like Jonah inside the whale. One tree is a tree. Two trees together, we have the woods. Three trees together, we create the forest. Put a plank underneath the tree, we have the foundation. Put a mouth on the top of the tree, that's "idiot." (Laughter) Easy to remember, since a talking tree is pretty idiotic. Remember fire? Two fires together, I get really hot. Three fires together, that's a lot of flames. Set the fire underneath the two trees, it's burning. For us, the sun is the source of prosperity. Two suns together, prosperous. Three together, that's sparkles. Put the sun and the moon shining together, it's brightness. It also means tomorrow, after a day and a night. The sun is coming up above the horizon. Sunrise. A door. Put a plank inside the door, it's a door bolt. Put a mouth inside the door, asking questions. Knock knock. Is anyone home? This person is sneaking out of a door, escaping, evading. On the left, we have a woman. Two women together, they have an argument. (Laughter) Three women together, be careful, it's adultery.
4:43 So we have gone through almost 30 characters. By using this method, the first eight radicals will allow you to build 32. The next group of eight characters will build an extra 32. So with very little effort, you will be able to learn a couple hundred characters, which is the same as a Chinese eight-year-old. So after we know the characters, we start building phrases. For example, the mountain and the fire together, we have fire mountain. It's a volcano. We know Japan is the land of the rising sun. This is a sun placed with the origin, because Japan lies to the east of China. So a sun, origin together, we build Japan. A person behind Japan, what do we get? A Japanese person.
5:32 The character on the left is two mountains stacked on top of each other. In ancient China, that means in exile, because Chinese emperors, they put their political enemies in exile beyond mountains. Nowadays, exile has turned into getting out. A mouth which tells you where to get out is an exit.
5:55 This is a slide to remind me that I should stop talking and get off of the stage. Thank you.
Short url: http://multidict.net/cs/2442Important events from Indian history that happened on 13 January – Birthdays, Death anniversaries and other events which affected India’s future
13 January – Birthdays
- Rakesh Sharma – Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma was commissioned in the Indian Air Force in 1970. While in service, he flew several aircrafts in his training and swiftly rose through ranks to become a squadron leader. Sharma was chosen to be a part of a joint space program between ISRO and Soviet Intercosmos program. He became the first and the only Indian citizen who flew into space aboard the Soviet rocket Suyoz-T11. Rakesh Sharma was born on 13th January, 1949 in Patiala, Punjab. He was an alumnus of National Defense Academy.
- Shivkumar Sharma – Shivkumar Sharma is an iconic santoor player which is a folk musical instrument. His father Uma Dutt Sharma was an accomplished singer and he started training shivkumar in vocals and table at an early age of 5. He gave his first public performance at the age of 17 in Mumbai. He now plays with his son Rahul who decided to continue the family tradition.
13 January – Death anniversaries
- Madan Puri – This Indian actor was part of Indian cinema (Bollywood) during the 60s and 70s and predominantly portrayed negative characters like his younger sibling Amrish Puri. He died of a heart attack at the age of 69 in Mumbai.
- Rusi Surti – He was an Indian cricketer who represented Indian in 26 Test matches between 1960 and 69. He was a left arm medium pace bowler and a lower order batsman. He scored 688 runs at an average of 45.50 in test matches and became first ever Indian to score a half century and bag five wicket haul in the same test match.
- Mavelikara Krishnakutty Nair – He was Carnatic Mridangam player and a student of Palani Subramaniam Pillai. In the early days, Nair was a regular feature at All India Radio (AIR). He was awarded Padma Shri for his contributions to the Carnatic music.Bangladesh has a diverse culture.The culture involve with architecture,dance,literature,music,painting and clothing.Bangladesh have three primary religion,Islam,Buddhism and Hinduism.Now i am going to describe about some traditional festival held in Bangladesh.
The first day of bangla new year is called pahala baishakh.Bengali celebrate this day to mark the beginning of the 1st day of Bengal new year.This day is celebrated with traditional festivities across the country.The rural people arrange Baishakhi Mela on this day.Shopkeepers open halkhata and offer sweets to their customers and clients.The day has a special attraction for the town people.They rise early in the morning.They put their best dress that is pyjama and Punjabi.Thy take panta rice with dried pepper.Thy pass the Hool day in great joy and forget the suffering of life for the time being.In town different organizations arrange various kind of cultural function.Phala Baishakh has a great significance.It reflects our age old tradition and culture.It bears the testimony to the fact that we have a culture of our own.It us the manifestation of our cultural hertiage.
Village fair On the occasion of the Nabanna Festival a fir was held under the age old banyan tree situated in Bangladesh village area.There were shops of different types.There were wooden toys,clay dolls,balloons and food items etc.In the shops.There were also seesaw,merry-go-round,rope dancing there.
Traditional music The music of Bangladesh divided into three categories.Classical,folk and modern.Now a days modern music are become more popular.Vocal and instrumental music are also popular.Flute is a popular and traditional instrument.Here the three hero's of banglasong.
classical music:Robindro nath tagore Kazi nazrul islam:Nazrul geeti Hason raja:Folk music
The EID Festivals and the CHRISTMAS day:The Muslim have to EID festivals.Likewise the Christians have Christmas festival,Yester,Sunday etc.On the occasion of EID-ul-Fitr the Muslim by new dress.The Christan's buy new dress on the occasion of Christmas day.On the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr the Muslims present gift to the dear and nears ones.In the same manner the Christians also exchange gift among their kith and kin.On the day of EID-ul-fitr the Muslims Put on new dress,go to the Eidgah,say their prayers,exchange greetings and embrace each other.They visit there house of relative.The Muslim women clean the house,decorate the house and prepare various items of sweets.They also prepare delicious dishes.The Christan women also do same things.The Muslim also invite there relative on their house.The Muslim women's are also waring (mahendi) in there hand to make red design.The Muslim family get together to mark the Eid-day.Actually there are many other similarity.
Bangladeshi cultural Food:
Traditionality is popular term in Bangladesh.Traditionality is also flow in food culture.Korma,Rezala,Bhoona and Masala Gosht,Chicken,Mutton,Beef,Fish and prawns.chicken Afghani,Chicken Bangladeshi,Chicken Kasmini,chicken tikka,Boti kabab,Shutli kabab and variety of fish curries are the traditional cultural food.
All popular drinks are soft drinks in Bangladeshi culture.Many of them are made by sweet and milk.Sweet is also very popular food in Bangladesh.
Is a very popular drinks in Bangladesh.Its made by mixed with milk.sugger,ice.
Green coconut water is also very popular,International soft drinks like Pepsi,Cocola is popular
:Mango,coconut,Jack fruts,Lichees,Bnanas,papayas,watermillon,pineapples are very popular fruits in Bangladesh.Common Raven (Corvus corax)
Description: The Common Raven, the largest of the passerines (perching birds), is found across all of the United States and most of Canada. The raven is all black, has a 4 ft wingspan and is over two feet from head to tail. The sexes are generally alike, although females may be smaller. The raven is often misidentified as a crow - a closely related bird.
Mass: 689 to 1625 g; avg. 1157 g
Length: 43 cm (24 in)
Wingspan: 1.3 m (48 in)
What is the difference between a crow and a raven?
Ravens are uncommon in populated urban areas. If you see a "really big crow" in the city, the chances are good that it really is a crow and not a raven.
Common ravens have a well-developed ruff of feathers on the throat, which are called 'hackles' (see photo).
Ravens soar more than crows. If you see a "crow" soaring for more than a few seconds, take another look - it might be a raven. Common Ravens can do a somersault in flight and even fly upside down. Ravens are longer necked in flight than crows.
Raven wings are shaped differently than are crow wings, with longer primaries ("fingers") with more slotting between them.
Ravens have wedge-shaped tails and crows have fan-shaped tails (view drawing).
Calls: The common raven makes a variety of calls including these sounds: "croooaaak", "cr-r-ruck", "tok", and "wonk-wonk" The typical crow call is a loud "caw". The call is often vocalized in a repeating series - "caw caw caw ".
Range / Habitat: Ravens and crows can be found in a variety of different habitats, though they generally prefer open and partially open areas. They are commonly found on tidal flats, in agricultural fields and orchards, riparian forests (forests along the edge of a lake or stream), on savannas, and in suburban areas. They avoid dense forests, where they are more vulnerable to predators. Typically, you will not find ravens and crows in the same area.
The Common Raven is one of the most widespread birds in the state of Washington. Ravens can survive equally well in dense forests, alpine parkland, and sagebrush areas, though they are rare or absent in most cities (though apparently now breeding in Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC).
Click the range map to learn more about the distribution of Common Ravens in Washington.
Diet: Ravens like
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the credit crisis, etc.), safety-net clinics have consistently engaged with innovative care delivery models such as chronic disease management and service integration. They have also embraced new technologies, including telemedicine and mobile health units, to better serve target populations and reduce health care costs.
The design of the physical environment plays an important role in improving health care quality, work efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. Safety-net clinic design can have a substantial impact on the effectiveness of innovative care delivery models, but guidelines are limited. To contribute to a better understanding of the topic, this white paper seeks to identify key characteristics of the physical environment design for new care delivery models and to provide preliminary design recommendations.- The prehistoric period (3rd and 2nd millennia bce)
- Early Hinduism (2nd century bce–4th century ce)
- Hinduism under Islam (11th–19th century)
- Vedic religion
- Epics and Puranas
- Vaishnavism and Shaivism
- Sacrifice and worship
- Ritual and social status
The character and position of the Vedic god Rudra—called Shiva, “the Auspicious One,” when this aspect of his ambivalent nature is emphasized—remain clearly evident in some of the important features of the great god Shiva, who together with Vishnu came to dominate Hinduism. Major groups such as the Lingayats of southern India and the Kashmiri Shaivas contributed the theological principles of Shaivism, and Shaiva worship became a complex amalgam of pan-Indian Shaiva philosophy and local or folk worship.
In the minds of the ancient Hindus, Shiva was the divine representative of the uncultivated, dangerous, and unpredictable aspects of nature. Shiva’s character lent itself to being split into partial manifestations—each said to represent only an aspect of him—as well as to assimilating powers from other deities. Already in the Rigveda, appeals to him for help in case of disaster—of which he might be the originator—were combined with the confirmation of his great power. In the course of the Vedic period, Shiva—originally a ritual and conceptual outsider, yet a mighty god whose benevolent aspects were readily emphasized—gradually gained access to the circle of prominent gods who preside over various spheres of human interest. Many characteristics of the Vedic Prajapati, the creator; of Indra, the god of rain and of the thunderbolt; and of Agni, the Vedic god of fire, have been integrated into the figure of Shiva.
In those circles that produced the Shvetashvatara Upanishad (c. 400 bce), Shiva rose to the highest rank. Its author proposed a way of escape from samsara, proclaiming Shiva the sole eternal Lord. Rudra-Shiva developed into an ambivalent and many-sided lord and master. His many manifestations, however, were active among humankind: as Pashupati (“Lord of Cattle”), he took over the fetters of the Vedic Varuna; as Aghora (“To Whom Nothing Is Horrible”), he showed the uncanny traits of his nature (evil, death, punishment) and also their opposites.
Like Vishnu, Shiva is held by devotees to be the entire universe, yet he is worshipped in various manifestations and in hundreds of local temples. Although it is not always clear whether Shiva is invoked as a great god of frightful aspect, capable of conquering demonic power, or as the boon-giving lord and protector, Hindus continue to invoke him in magical rites.
Shiva reconciles in his person semantically opposite though complementary aspects: he is both terrifying and mild, destroyer and restorer, eternal rest and ceaseless activity. These seeming contradictions make him a paradoxical figure, transcending humanity and assuming a mysterious sublimity of his own. From the standpoint of his devotees, his character is so complicated and his interests are so widely divergent as to seem incomprehensible. Yet, although Brahman philosophers like to emphasize his ascetic aspects and the ritualists of the Tantric tradition his sexuality, the seemingly opposite strands of his nature are generally accepted as two sides of one character.
Shiva temporarily interrupts his austerity and asceticism (tapas) to marry Parvati, and he combines the roles of lover and ascetic to such a degree that his wife must be an ascetic (yogi) when he devotes himself to austerities and a loving companion when he is in his erotic mode. This dual character finds its explanation in the ancient belief that, by his very chastity, an ascetic accumulates (sexual) power that can be discharged suddenly and completely, resulting in the fecundation of the soil. Various mythical tales reveal that both chastity and the loss of chastity are necessary for fertility and the intermittent process of regeneration in nature. The erotic and creative experiences portrayed in these narratives are a familiar feature in Hinduism, and they counterbalance the Hindu bent for asceticism. Such sexuality, while rather idyllic in Krishna, assumes a mystical aspect in Shiva, which is why the devotee can see in him the realization of the possibilities of both the ascetic life and the householder state. His marriage with Parvati is then a model of conjugal love, the divine prototype of human marriage, sanctifying the forces that carry on the human race.
Shiva’s many poses express various aspects of his nature. The cosmic dancer, he is the originator of the eternal rhythm of the universe, dancing through its creation and destruction. He also catches, in his thickly matted hair, the waters of the heavenly Ganges River, which destroy all sin. He wears in his headdress the crescent moon, which drips the nectar of everlasting life.
Shiva is the master of both tandava, the fierce, violent dance that gives rise to energy, and lasya, the gentle, lyric dance representing tenderness and grace. Holding a drum upon which he beats the rhythm of creation, he dances within a circle of flames that depicts the arc of dissolution. He holds up the palm of one hand in a gesture of protection; with another he points to his foot to indicate the refuge of his followers. The image of the dancing Shiva is said by Shaivites to portray five cosmic activities: creation, maintenance, destruction, concealing his true form from adversaries, and, finally, the grace through which he saves his devotees. The outer form of the dance, however, is only one aspect of the divine flow of energy; followers of Shiva say that the dance is in the heart of every devotee.
Yet while the dancing Shiva is an important and popular representation, the abstract form of Shiva is perhaps the most commonly seen portrayal throughout India. Shiva is depicted as a conical shaft (lingam) of fire within a womb (yoni), illustrating the creative powers of Shiva and Parvati. In temples the lingam, which literally means “distinguishing symbol,” is an upright structure that is often made of stone. It is placed in a stone yoni that represents both the womb and the abode of all creation. The union between the lingam and the yoni serves as a reminder that male and female forces are united in generating the universe.
Shiva also represents the unpredictability of divinity. He is the hunter who slays and skins his prey and dances a wild dance while covered with its hide. Far from society and the ordered world, he sits on the inaccessible Himalayan plateau of Mount Kailasa, an austere ascetic, averse to love, who burns Kama, the god of love, to ashes with a glance from the third eye—the eye of insight beyond duality—in the middle of his forehead. And at the end of the eon, he will dance the universe to destruction. He is nevertheless invoked as Shiva, Shambhu, Shankara (“Benignant” and “Beneficent”), for the god that can strike down can also spare. Snakes seek his company and twine themselves around his body. He wears a necklace of skulls. He sits in meditation, with his hair braided like a hermit’s, his body smeared white with ashes. These ashes recall the burning pyres on which the sannyasis (renouncers) take leave of the social order of the world and set out on a lonely course toward release, carrying with them a human skull.
Shiva’s consort is Parvati (“Daughter of the Mountain [Himalaya]”), a goddess who is an auspicious and powerful wife. She is also personified as the Goddess (Devi), Mother (Amba), black and destructive (Kali), fierce (Chandika), and inaccessible (Durga). As Shiva’s female counterpart, she inherits some of Shiva’s more fearful aspects. She comes to be regarded as the power (shakti) of Shiva, without which Shiva is helpless. Shakti is in turn personified in the form of many different goddesses, often said to be aspects of her.
Narratives of culture heroes
A culture hero can easily be assimilated to a god by identifying him with an incarnation of a god. Thus, great religious teachers are considered manifestations of the god of their devotional preaching, and stories of their lives have become part of a very rich storehouse of narratives. Practically gods on earth, these ascetics, according to mythology, have amassed tremendous powers that they do not hesitate to use. The sage Kapila, meditating in the netherworld, burned to ashes 60,000 princes who had dug their way to him. Another sage, Bhagiratha, brought the Ganges River down from heaven to sanctify their ashes and, in the process, created the ocean. Agastya, revered as the Brahman who brought Sanskrit-speaking civilization to South India, drank and digested the ocean. When the Vindhya mountain range would not stop growing, Agastya crossed it to the south and commanded it to cease growing until his return; he still has not returned. Vishvamitra, a king who became a Brahman, created a new universe with its own galaxies to spite the gods.
Moving from myth to hagiography (biography of venerated persons), there are also stories told of the great teachers, and every founder of a sect is soon deified as an incarnation of a god: the philosopher Shankara (c. 788–820) as an incarnation of Shiva; the religious leader Ramanuja (d. 1137) as that of Ananta, the sacred serpent of Vishnu; and the Bengal teacher Chaitanya (1485–1533) simultaneously as that of Krishna and his beloved Radha.
Myths of holy rivers and holy places
Of particular sanctity in India are the rivers, among which the Ganges stands first. This river, personified as a goddess, originally flowed only in heaven until she was brought down by Bhagiratha to purify the ashes of his ancestors. She came down reluctantly, cascading first on the head of Shiva in order to break her fall, which would have shattered the Earth. Confluences are particularly holy, and the confluence of the Ganges with the Yamuna at Allahabad is the most sacred spot in India. Another river of importance is the Sarasvati, which loses itself in desert; it was personified as a goddess of eloquence and learning.
All major and many minor temples and sanctuaries have their own myths of how they were founded and what miracles were wrought there. The same is true of famous places of pilgrimage, usually at sacred spots near and in rivers; important among these are Vrindavana (Brindaban) on the Yamuna, which is held to be the scene of the youthful adventures of Krishna and the cowherd wives. Another such centre with its own myths is Gaya, especially sacred for the funerary rites that are held there. And there is no spot in Varanasi (Benares), along the Ganges, that is without its own mythical history. Srirangam, a temple town set in an island in the Kaveri River in Tamil Nadu, is considered to be heaven on earth (bhuloka vaikuntham). There are also many places sacred to followers of Vishnu, Shiva, or other deities.Kryptor FPGA, sometimes just called Kryptor, is a compact Intel/Altera MAX10 FPGA development board mostly designed for encryption, and acting as a dedicated Hardware Security Module (HSM) with a custom soft-core from Skudo OÜ. But obviously, you could also use the FPGA board for other purposes.
Hardware encryption can be quite more secure than software-based encryption with reduced attack surfaces, especially since data processing can be done in the FPGA RAM. The HSM can be used to encrypt files, videos, emails, IoT messages, etc… from various hardware platforms including Arduino and Raspberry Pi boards. Contrary to closed-sourced commercial solutions, the soft-core is open-source and as such can be verified by third parties to make sure there aren’t any backdoors or security flaws.
Kryptor FPGA specifications:
- FPGA – Intel/Altera MAX10 8K LE ( 10M08DAF256C8G) FPGA @ 100 MHz with 8000 logic elements (LE), 1376 Kb flash, 378 Kb total RAM, up to 250 GPIOs
- Host interface – SPI (preferred) up to 100 Kbps, I2C, or UART
- Security features
- Duplication protection – Anti-piracy duplication protection via chip ID (soft-cores are encrypted and cannot be executed on a different physical PCB)
- Encryption speed – Camellia symmetric encryption speed of up to 108 Mbps on a single core (but note the SPI link speed limit of 100 Kbps)
- Power Supply – 5V
- Power Consumption – 58 mAh (FPGA idle) to 64 mAh (FPGA encrypting)
- Dimensions – 31.2 x 22.8 mm
That’s it for the hardware. Implemented in Verilog, the HSM soft-core supports the following encryption features:
- Key-agreement scheme: Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman / Curve25519 (ECDH)
- Symmetric key block cipher: Camellia; up to four symmetric keys can be stored
- Asymmetric encryption: ECC25519; up to four asymmetric keys can be stored
- Cryptographic hash function: Skein
- True random number generator (TRNG): With ring oscillators as the source of entropy (FIGARO)
The company can also update the code to support additional functions such as Ed25519, AES256, SHA512, or Keccak, etc for legacy applications upon request.
The company also provides a Raspberry Pi API library, a Linux Command Line Interface (CLI), and an Arduino library to control the board from a host connected over SPI, I2C, or UART.
I could not find a link to the tools, libraries, and soft-core yet, but the company will make those open-source, and you’ll eventually be able to download those from the company’s website. Note that since some/most governments have strict regulations with regards to importing and exporting devices with data encryption capabilities, the HSM soft-core will be pre-installed on the board.
In the table above, SKUDO compares the Kryptor with other open-source hardware FPGA boards that were previously launched on Crowd Supply including iCEBreaker FPGA, TinyFPGA BX, and the NiteFury boards. None of those boards were specifically designed with encryption in mind, but the comparison still gives an idea of the differences between the boards.
You can get a SKUDO Kryptor FPGA board on Crowd Supply for a $129 reward that also includes a small breadboard and jumper wires. Shipping is free to the US, but adds $10 to the rest of the world, and the project should be completed by the end of February 2022. You may see an FPGA adapter in the list of rewards, but the company says it is not needed to flash the HSM soft-core.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.April A to Z is an interesting time.These last three posts (today, tomorrow, and Sunday) are on topics I would probably teach first (or at least close to the beginning) if I were teaching a course on statistics. But since we have to go in alphabetical order - that's part of the fun and challenge - I'm finally getting to some of the basic concepts of statistics.
As with necessary and sufficient conditions, independent and dependent variables are often difficult topics for people. I remember doing well in my 6th grade science fair mostly (I think) because I was able to correctly state my independent and dependent variable. I can't take credit for that - my mom, one of the most logical people I know, taught me the difference.
In research language, the independent variable is the causal variable. It's what you think causes your outcome. In an experiment, where you can control what happens to your participants, it is the variable you manipulate to see how it affects the outcome.
In statistics, the term can be used a bit more broadly. Your x, used to signify the independent variable, is what you think affects your outcome; you conduct statistics to measure and understand that effect. Some statisticians will refer to their x as the independent variable whether they can manipulate it or not. Others will reserve "independent" only for manipulated variables, and will use the broader term, "predictor variable" to refer to variables they think affects the outcome but that they can't necessarily manipulate. And in some analyses, like correlation, we will often arbitrarily define one variable as x, since the equation for correlation uses the symbols x and y.
In our caffeine study, our x variable is caffeine. Specifically, it is a two-level variable - the experimental group received caffeine and the control group did not. I don't have to use just two levels - I could have more if I'd like. I've set it up as an experiment, where I can directly control the independent variable.
But I could just as easily set it up as a non-experiment. For example, I could have people come into the lab and have them sit in a waiting room with a coffee maker. While they're waiting for the study to start, I could encourage them to have a cup (or more) of coffee. I could then measure the amount of caffeine they had (based on the number of cups of coffee they consumed) and see if that affects test score. Now, you'd have stronger evidence for the effect of caffeine if you did an experiment, but caffeine is still your x variable (statistically, at the very least) even in this example.|Address||P.O. Box 219 Batavia, IL 60510|
The solid form of carbon dioxide is called “dry ice” because it does not melt, as ordinary ice does, but rather goes directly from a solid to a gas—it sublimes. The liquid form of dry ice is not stable at “ordinary” pressures and temperatures (atmospheric conditions). If dry ice is allowed to sublime in a closed system, however, the pressure will increase to a point where the liquid form of carbon dioxide can be seen.What is the Blue-winged Olive fly?
The first mention of Blue-winged Olive as common name may be in Frederick Halford's Dry Fly Entomology (1897). Halford's Blue-winged Olives were identified as members of the genus Ephemerella. Both Alfred Ronald's Fly-Fisher's Entomology (1837) and Mary Orvis Marbury's Favorite Flies and Their Histories (1892) do not refer to any flies as Blue-winged Olives. There is ample evidence in fly fishing literature that what are now called Blue-winged Olives were once called Olive Duns, Blue Duns, Iron-blue Duns, Olive Quills, etc.
Blue-winged Olive flies is a type of Dry fly, Nymph, Emerger and they imitate mayflies. Blue-winged Olive flies is a collective term used by anglers in fly fishing to identify a broad array of mayflies having olive, olive-brown bodies and bluish wings in their adult form. Sometimes referred to as BWO, a wide array of artificial flies are tied to imitate adult, nymphal and emerging stages of the aquatic insect. While the family Baetidae probably has the most species identified as blue-winged olives, another mayfly family Ephemerellidae also contains some. Blue-winged olive mayflies are an important food source in most trout streams, thus their widespread imitation by fly tiers.
Swisher and Richards' Selective Trout (1971) gives the following description:
For the fly-fisherman, it will be much more practical to cover the numerous Blue-wing Olives as one group. In general this group can be divided into two fairly distinct color types. This holds true not only for duns but also for nymphs and spinners. Most duns fall into either the light-gray wing--olive body or medium gray-olive brown body classification. Nymphs are generally brown or olive brown, while spinners are medium or dark brown.
Blue Winged Olive Materials
- Hook: Daiichi 1100 or Tiemco TMC 100 size 14-18.
- Thread: 70 Denier Olive Ultra Thread.
- Wings: Dun Hackle Tips.
- Tail: Coq de Leon Hackle Fibers or Dun Hackle Fibers.
- Abdomen: Nature's Spirit Fine Natural Dubbing Blue Winged Olive.
- Hackle: Dun Neck or Saddle Hackle.Introduction to Business Law of Managers
Business law can be defined as the law that applies on business entities such as corporations and partnership. It deals with the start up of new business and the problems that takes place in current businesses while deal with government, public and other companies. Business law involves variety of legal regulations, including intellectual property, bankruptcy, tax law, real estate, employment law and others (Paulo, 2011). It provides more efficient transactions and benefits the whole economy. Business law is categorized into two different areas i.e. regulations of commercial transactions by the laws of contract and other related areas and the system of commercial bodies by the laws of partnership, company, bankruptcy and agency. This report is prepared to analyze alternative dispute resolution practices of mediation and arbitration and key strategies of a successful to both domestic and cross-cultural negotiations. Here in the report legal regulations surrounding the development, sunning and dissolution of enterprise is discussed.
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) practices of mediation and arbitration
ADR is a term that involves arbitration, mediation and other techniques used to resolve disputes other than by litigation. It refers to the means of settling clash outer of the courtroom. These techniques help to resolve disputes quickly, privately and cheaply than conventional litigation. In the modern era, people prefer ADR approaches as these methods are more focused as well as more creative than lawsuit (Miller, 2011). It is less time consuming, less expensive and free from technicalities in case of conducting cases in legal courts. The use of arbitration and mediation is increased due to boost in the cost of legal proceedings. The different technique that can be use by senior manager and junior employee to resolve their disputes are enumerated below:
Arbitration: This technique of ADR looks likes the traditional litigation in which unbiased third party hears the arguments of disputants and imposed a binding and a final decision that is enforceable by court (Dow, 2000). It is the process of hearing and determining of a dispute among parties by person selected by them. In this technique, disputant mutually decides who will hear their case and this method is less formal than in court of law. This technique has long been used in labor management disputes. A new form of arbitration has emerged which is known as court-annexed arbitration. The final decisions in this method may be either binding or non-binding, depends upon the terms of arbitration. The binding decisions derived from arbitration carry the same significance as a judgment of court (Abbasi, 2009). The main object behind this technique is to obtain the fair resolution of arguments by an impartial tribunal without needless expenses and delay
Under the given scenario of senior manager and a junior employee, both the parties can use arbitration to resolve their disputes. In this technique, one of the party either junior employee or senior manager can begins the process of arbitration and can appoint arbitrator. If one party does not corporate in the process than in that case other can move toward chief justice officer for selection of an arbitrator (Bhattacharyya, 2010). Both the parties will show their facts and evidence to selected arbitrator and discuss with them on their issues. This will help arbitrator to identify the reason behind their dispute and will assist them to recognize effective solution that can be apply by parties to resolve their disputes. This process will be less consuming and will be less expensive for senior manager and junior employee and will assist in development of healthy relationship (Houghton, 2012).
Mediation: It is also known as conciliation that provides a forum in which disputes of parties can be resolved with the help of third party. This technique aims to help disputants to reach a solution. Mediation is a deliberate process of dispute resolution in which all parties consent to participate to work toward a mutually agreeable resolution in a good faith. In this technique, parties are not legally bound to resolve their disputes (Birds, 2007). Mediator in this method of ADR simply facilitates the process of negotiation. The job of mediator is to keep the parties talking and to help them to move through more difficult point of contention. This technique is different from arbitration as there is no official decision maker. In the process of mediation both the parties are bought together at specific location in which parties gives short presentation to the facilitator about their issues. The purpose of behind this is that mediator has clear idea about their problem. Both the parties split into two rooms after presentation and mediator hoes back in the room and personally discuss with them (Sarkar, 2010). The facilitator collects their feedback and offer settlement that can be use parties to resolve their disputes.
In the given scenario, junior employee and senior manager can also use mediation in order to resolve their disputes. They can select a mediator who is completely aware about their issues. The facilitator will brought them together at a specific location and will discuss with them about the reason of disputes (Kennedy, 2008). Junior employee and senior manager will give their short representation which helps facilitator to have clear idea about disputes. After this, parties will move in separate rooms and the mediator will go and personally discuss with them. The facilitator will identify their responses and will offer settlement decisions. There will be no binding on parties to accept the decision of mediator. Hence use of this technique will help senior manager and junior employee to resolve their disputes and to develop healthy relationship (Ashraf, 2012).
Domestic and cross culture negotiation
The process through which people settle their differences is known as negotiation. This aims to achieve possible outcomes for their position and avoid arguments. There are different styles of negotiation that are shaped by culture, political system, geography and history of each country. The cross cultural negotiation becomes more complex in the present era and complications in it are growing exponentially (Edwards and Wolfe, 2006). Negotiation at domestic level is simple as compare to international level. It is essential to understand the culture of different nation in which company operate their business. The key strategies for successful domestic and cross cultural negotiation are enumerated below:
Don't Stereotype: This strategy can also use by parties which states that making assumption about position, needs and goals of other sides can create barriers and distrust among parties (Singh, 2009). Both the parties are required to treat each other with respect as it will help to build trust among them. They are required to understand the values, beliefs and norms of each other independently. This strategy can be use at both domestic as well as cross cultural negotiation.
Use simple and accessible language: The process of negotiation is highly interactive in which one person communicates with another. The main key factor to become successful negotiator is effective communication (Mahmood, 2012). The parties are required to use common, simple and accessible language that can be understandable by both the parties. The use of this strategy will help people to understand culture of each other and to effectively carry out business operations at both domestic and international level.
Learn the other side's culture: The contracting parties are required to learn and understand the culture of each other. This will helps to develop trust and credibility that will help parties to select right type of strategies and tactics during the course of negotiation (Wyatt, 2012). In addition to this, learning of other side culture will help to gain loyalty and will create trust among each other. The use of this strategy can be beneficial at domestic as well as cross culture negotiation. Learning of other side culture will assist in development of healthy relationship. The use of this tactic will helps to effectively carry out business operations and will eliminate chances of disputes (Fox, 2009).
Find ways to bridge the culture gap: It can also use by parties in successful negotiation and to effectively carry out business operations. In this strategy, parties can use inclusive culture in which elements of both culture will involve. This approach can be use by parties when parties will unable to find out common ground (Haapio and Siedel, 2012). It can be use at domestic as well as cross cultural negotiation in effective manner. This strategy will assist in development of healthy relationship and will helps to build trust among each other.
Maintain personal integrity, build solid relations and converse concessions: Apart from above discussed strategies, this can also use for successful negotiation. It is important that parties should maintain personal integrity as they should know about each other. This will help people to feel comfortable during the process of negotiation (Pickup, 2004). In addition to this, honestly will help to build trust and will develop healthy relationship among parties. They are also requires to develop good relationship in business as it will help to offer more value in term of revenue in long run. The use of this tactic will assist in creation of loyalty among parties and will build trust among them. In addition to this, credibility is also required for effective negotiation. This strategy can also be use for domestic and cross cultural negotiation successfully (Gale, 2007).
Business law is developed to effectively deal with creation of new business and the problems that takes place in current trade practices. This law applies to business entities such as corporations and partnership. The legal constitutes for start up of a business in context of a partnership and a company is enumerated below:
Partnership is a business organization where two or more individuals come together to manage and operate commercial activities. In such form of business are partners are equally and personally liable for debts and obligations. It can be said to an arrangement where parties mutually agreed to cooperate to advance their common interest (Schaffer, 2009). Each member provides financial or any other material contribution as their capital. They have unlimited liability towards obligation of business which can be altered with act of “Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2000.
Partnership act, 1890
As per act of partnership in UK it is an agreement which subsists between parties to carry on common business with the objective to earn profit. It is a form of business association which automatically arises when people come together for to run a business with the view of profit. According to act minimum 2 partners are required and as per updated Act there is no maximum limit for partners (Adrian, 2010). It is a legal agreement which can be oral or written. Provision of partnership act is applied unless it is intentionally excluded by partners. All members are entitled to participate in managerial activities and get and equal share of profit. Their agreement comes to end in the event of death of partners. It can be altered if there is predetermined clause prior to the death. General decisions of business are taken by majority but in special cases unanimous support is required (Shaw and Shaw, 2010).
As per partnership act, 1980 there is requirement of creation conjecture linked to indemnity of liability. Entire members under partnership agreement are jointly and severally liable for the act of other members. If any offence is done under ordinary course of business it will create obligation for whole firm. According to law all partners should behave responsibly and in utmost good faith (Paulo, 2010). Their duties are inclusion of work with honesty, not to make secret profit and they are restricted to get engages in such activities which will harm image of business. None of the partner can get expelled unless there is unanimity for this.
Advantages of partnership
Decision making: The power of decision making in partnership is shared by all partners in business and they help each other when they required. This form of business helps to get creative ideas that can be use for expansion of business operations and solve trade problems (Goel, 2006).
Shared responsibility: The responsibility in partnership is shared by all partners for management and running of business in effective manner. In this form of business, partners share in each task and take equal responsibility. In addition to this, it allows associates to make most of their business. The responsibly is shared by each partner as per their skills and abilities which helps them to achieve their goals and objectives (Bagley, 2012).
Capital: The fund is raised by all partners in this of form of business and if number of partners is higher, then more money can be generated which will assist in good start of business. It provides better flexibility and more potential for growth and profits which is shared by business partners (Zeiba, 2009).
Flexibility: There are fewer regulations in form partnership than company. It is more flexible than other form of business as partners run trade operations without any interference of shareholders (Bhattacharyya, 2010).
Disadvantages of partnership
Profit sharing: Profit is equally shared by partners in partnership which is not fair. The partner who invest large amount of fund in this form of business get similar as the another partner who invest small quantity of capital. All partners may not put equal efforts for management of business and hence equal distribution of profits may lead to inconsistency (Goel, 2006).
Disagreement: The disagreement among partners can be danger for business in partnership. All people have different ideas which can lead to disagreement or disputes among partners which can impact on business operations.
Taxation: On the basis of self assessment on each year, partners are obligatory to pay tax equal to sole trader. It is one of the biggest disadvantages of partnership. Partners are required to pay more tax as compared to company and therefore client can register business as company on the ground of taxation as it will be more profitable for them (Bagley, 2012).
Hence from the above discussion it can be stated that client can consider advantages and disadvantages of partnership business as well as the legal constituents of this form of business while he create a new business with his formal colleague.
Companies Act 2006
The Companies Act 2006 provides a complete code of company law for the UK and it is the primary source of law. The act contains various provisions which affect the creation of company. It codifies certain present common law principles and those are related with duties of directors. The formation procedure of company is modernized that helps integration over internet. The constitutional document of formation of company involves Article of Association (AOA) and Memorandum of Association (MOA). There two are the main document in company formation (Haapio and Siedel, 2012). The new model of articles developed under the act for private companies and it can also be adopted by existing companies as it better reflects the way they operate their business.
The act states the capacity of parties will be unlimited and this removes the requirement of extreme long clause in MOA. In order to execute documents by directors on behalf of the whole company, the formalities regarding deed is modified in the Companies Act 2006. The deed can be executed by simple signature (Edwards and Wolfe, 2006). The need for an authorized share capital for formation of company will be eradicated. Further companies are able to change their share capital without order to court. The uncertainty in law in relation to non-cash asset by a company to their shareholders also address by the act. This also enables shareholders meetings to be held more quickly. The act also enables companies to communicate electronically and it permits auditors to limit their liabilities for claim in negligence as well as breach of trust (Kennedy, 2008).
Advantages of company
- Taxation and tax advantages: The limited companies pay tax only on their profits. A person is recommended to pay at minimum wage level if he runs a limited company.
- Ownership and control: Directors are termed as shareholders of company in case of limited company. The ownership as well as control remains in the hands of directors which help them too take quick decisions (Ashraf, 2012).
- Limited liability: Financial security that comes with business is also an advantage of a limited company. The shareholders of company will only be liable to pay debts as per the level of their investment in the company which provides satisfied feel of security.
- Employee shareholders: The employees can also become shareholder of company in some circumstances. The position of shareholder can be provided to employees as a reward which will provide higher level of satisfaction and motivate them for higher level of performance (Houghton, 2012).
Disadvantages of company
- Restricted capital rising: The dispute among directors and shareholders can also take place regarding ideas as what is good for business of company.
- Dilution powers: There is restriction for private limited company regarding issues of capital through sales of shares (Schaffer, 2009).
- Complex accounts: There are complex and restrictive rules and regulations regarding accounts and booking of company. The business can be time consuming and costly in case of limited company.
From the above report it can be concluded that business law provides more efficient transactions and benefits the whole economy. It deals with formation of new business and involves different areas such as property, employment law, sales, agency bailment etc. There are Alternative Dispute Resolution techniques such as arbitration and mediation that can be use by disputants in order to resolve their clash. In addition to this, there are different key strategies that can be use for domestic and cross cultural negotiations. Further parties are required to consider legal constituents as well as advantages and disadvantages of company and partnership while they start up a new business. This will help them to successfully create a business and to attain their objectives.
- Abbasi, Z. M., 2009. Legal analysis of Agency Theory: an inquiry into the nature of corporation. International Journal of Law and Management. 51(6).
- Ashraf, T., 2012. Directors' duties with a particular focus on the Companies Act 2006. International Journal of Law and Management. 54(2).
- Bagley, E. C., 2012. Managers and the Legal Environment: Strategies for the 21st Century. Cengage Learning.
- Bhattacharyya, K. D., 2010. Cross-Cultural Management: Text And Cases. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd..
- Birds, J., 2007. The Companies Act 2006 – revolution or evolution?
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Oxford and University College London have found that drinking between 14-21 units of alcohol per week -- the equivalent of a medium glass of wine each night, plus a little more on the weekends, according to CNN -- can result in hippocampal atrophy, a form of brain damage that affects memory and spatial navigation. This is a startling finding, since current federal guidelines say that drinking even more than this amount is safe for some consumers.
“Our findings…call into question the current US guidelines, which suggest that up to 24.5 units a week is safe for men, as we found increased odds of hippocampal atrophy at just 14-21 units a week, and we found no support for a protective effect of light consumption on brain structure,” the researchers said.
Causes brain damage
The study used data that measured weekly alcohol intake and cognitive performance over the course of 30 years for approximately 550 healthy men and women who took part in the Whitehall II study, with the researchers adjusting for factors like age, sex, education, social class, physical and social activity, smoking, stroke risk, and medical history.
Over the study period, the researchers found that higher consumption of alcohol was associated with higher incidences of hippocampal atrophy, decreased language skills, and poorer white matter integrity, which is essential for the brain to process information.
While the heaviest drinkers had the greatest risks in all of these cases, the researchers say that even moderate drinkers were causing lasting damage to their brain function; participants who drank moderately were found to be at three times the risk of hippocampal atrophy when compared to light drinkers or those who abstained from alcohol.
"Normal" habits could be harmful
While the study is only observational and cannot produce any firm conclusions about cause and effect, the researchers say they also found no protective effect of light drinking on brain structure. In a linked editorial, neuropsychiatrist Killian Welch said the findings “strengthen the argument that drinking habits many regard as normal have adverse consequences for health.”
“We all use rationalizations to justify persistence with behaviours not in our long term interest. With publication of this paper, justification of moderate drinking on the grounds of brain health becomes a little harder,” he said.
The full study has been published in The BMJ.
Keep an eye on your inbox, the lastest consumer news is on it's way!Be afraid, friends, for science has given us a new way in which to circumvent some of the strongest encryption algorithms used to protect our data -- and no, it's not some super secret government method, either. Researchers from Tel Aviv University and the Weizmann Institute of Science discovered that they could steal even the largest, most secure RSA 4,096-bit encryption keys simply by listening to a laptop as it decrypts data.
To accomplish the trick, the researchers used a microphone to record the noises made by the computer, then ran that audio through filters to isolate the vibrations made by the electronic internals during the decryption process. With that accomplished, some cryptanalysis revealed the encryption key in around an hour. Because the vibrations in question are so small, however, you need to have a high-powered mic or be recording them from close proximity. The researchers found that by using a highly sensitive parabolic microphone, they could record what they needed from around 13 feet away, but could also get the required audio by placing a regular smartphone within a foot of the laptop. Additionally, it turns out they could get the same information from certain computers by recording their electrical ground potential as it fluctuates during the decryption process.
Of course, the researchers only cracked one kind of RSA encryption, but they said that there's no reason why the same method wouldn't work on others -- they'd just have to start all over to identify the specific sounds produced by each new encryption software. Guess this just goes to prove that while digital security is great, but it can be rendered useless without its physical counterpart. So, should you be among the tin-foil hat crowd convinced that everyone around you is a potential spy, waiting to steal your data, you're welcome for this newest bit of food for your paranoid thoughts.The most common side-effect of cancer chemotherapy is peripheral neuropathy, a condition where nerves of the periphery, distant from the brain, are damaged. Such a neuropathy, causing numbness, hearing loss or a dramatic change in reflexes, can reduce the post-chemotherapy quality of life in cancer patients. In this interview, SelectScience® speaks with Dr. M. Eileen Dolan, Professor at the University of Chicago, who studies how genetics plays a role in predicting which patients are at greatest risk of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy.
“I’m most interested in individuals that are young adults or children, who receive chemotherapy, and have a life ahead of them. They deal with very serious side-effects of chemotherapy such as peripheral neuropathy, hearing loss or tinnitus,” says Dr. Dolan, who began her career by studying chemotherapy resistance before she began focusing on how genes can shape one’s response and toxicity to chemo medications. “Pharmacogenomics is a component of personalized medicine where the role of genetics is considered in identifying patients who are more likely to either respond positively to drugs or be at risk for a very serious toxicity.”
Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy occurs in about 30% of all cancer patients and, in many cases, is permanent. Young adults who have undergone cancer chemotherapy start experiencing symptoms of neuropathy within months of their treatment. Dr. Dolan’s lab studies the genetic variants that predispose patients to neuronal toxicity caused by chemotherapy medications such as cisplatin, vincristine and paclitaxel. “We functionally validate these genes and the genetic variants identified from clinical studies by using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neurons,” explains Dr. Dolan. “We then use siRNA to knockdown genes in the iPSC-derived neurons to determine if genetic knockdown affects the neuron’s sensitivity to chemotherapy.”
Neurons are imaged live on the IncuCyte imager as they get exposed to chemotherapy treatments and are then analyzed for neurite outgrowth. (Image courtesy of the Dolan lab)
In this in vitro model of neuropathy in the Dolan lab, iPSC-derived neurons are plated and form neurites within a few hours. The team exposes these neurons, sometimes with genetic knockdowns, to mechanistically different types of chemotherapies and then evaluates the changes in neurite outgrowth. “The inhibition of neurite outgrowth is generally dose-dependent – the higher the dose of chemo, the more inhibition of neurite outgrowth you get. Also, there appear to be differences between mechanistically different chemotherapy agents. Some medications cause damage to the cells through apoptosis, while some others cause no damage to the health of the cell but exhibit a dramatic inhibition of neurite outgrowth,” says Dr. Dolan.
To understand neuropathy in iPSC-derived neurons, it is imperative to continually capture the neurons’ response to chemo treatments over time. Dr. Dolan’s team relies on live cell imaging for this information. “We set up the experiment in the IncuCyte and the images of neurons are taken. We not only get a dose response to chemotherapy but a time response as well,” notes Dr. Dolan. “This system also allows us to identify differences in the rate of neurite outgrowth upon chemotherapeutic treatment in the presence and absence of certain genes.”
“I love the amount of data that is generated over a few days,” says Dr. Dolan, commenting on her IncuCyte live cell imaging set-up. The mass of data obtained from this continuous live imaging then undergoes data analysis to look for signs of neuronal damage. “We can not only measure the length of the neurite, but can also measure the amount of branching and the thickness of the neurite. We look at a series of different morphological characteristics and try to identify what different changes are occurring as a result of exposure to different chemotherapeutic agents,” Dr. Dolan explains.
The significance of working with iPSCs is a strong potential for translational applications. “The plan in the future is to use patient-derived neurons and compare them with controls so we can unequivocally show that there are differences in neuronal morphologies between the two when you apply chemotherapy,” says Dr. Dolan. “Our hope is to use our data in a preclinical setting to screen new drugs and develop better treatments for cancer and prevent some of the debilitating side-effects of chemotherapy.”
Learn more about the IncuCyte Live Cell Analysis System
Dr. M. Eileen Dolan (center), Professor at the University of Chicago, with her lab members that work with neurons, Shannon Delaney (left) and Claudia Wing.A Student's Guide to Online Education, Part 2
Time Management (Juggling Act)
A combination of self-knowledge, repetition, planning and communicating, time management is reportedly the number one problem of online students.
Recognizing Personal, Financial & Social Requirements
Self-knowledge is an online student’s greatest asset. Things offering the most satisfaction and one’s physical limitations play an important role in everyday choices and decision making. A good understanding of them is the best way to achieve a healthy balance without letting any of the balls drop.
Driving motivators can be divided up into three groups of values, starting with the things that provide personal inward satisfaction and serve to make people happy with being the person they are. The second set of values revolves around a person’s salary, which provides people with the lifestyle they’re comfortable living with shelter, clothes and other amenities.
However, personal satisfaction and money are not the only motivators. People also need to feel connected. The third group of values revolves around the things that save a person from social isolation, such as religion and family. A clear understanding of these values will provide a good understanding of individual long term goals, making a student’s workload easier with the satisfaction of caring about it.
Developing a Routine
When organizing a schedule around three different responsibilities, the first step is to have a clear understanding of goals and expectations for each one. The second is to predict the routine cycles of each one in order to avoid over scheduling. Knowing that September is a very school intensive month will prevent the frustration of organizing an event at home or work when already stretched too thin.
Marking off segments of time for specific routine tasks, the final step is repetition. Stable schedules and good study habits are created by closely followed routines that ingrain habitual daily actions.
Designated time for studying should be set during the morning when things are usually quietest or right after getting home from work as a way to unwind. A single three credit class is a nine hour time commitment. One credit hour equates to a three hour time commitment, one for instruction and two for preparation. Three hours of exhausted studying equates to one hour of studying when not already drained from the day. For this reason, late night studying is best to be avoided despite the quiet time of day.
Planning Ahead & For Today
Every student should own a long-term planner that contains the due dates for homework, projects, research papers and exams. It should also include any important work related deadlines and events as well as any home responsibilities, such as birthdays and celebrations. Simplifying a long term schedule into daily tasks is a good way to keep priorities in focus while not getting overwhelmed with everything else in between. Daily schedules are best made from lists that recognize and organize the most imminent things to see accomplished.
The necessary requirements of every daily routine include two segmented slots of time for review and quiet. Daily review is important simply because consistent contact with the material cuts down on future studying requirements. Helping to ward off feeling overwhelmed, at least an hour of scheduled quiet time is a necessary aspect of any day. It allows people to catch up on email, return any messages and work on projects. Also, taking a step back can help create a fresh perspective on other obligations.
While juggling the responsibilities of multiple demands, support is very important from all ends, especially at home and in the workplace. The key to a good support network is good communication. Communicating with family members and co-workers is essential to overall understanding and maintaining a healthy relationship with each place.
In the workplace, a shared utility calendar is the most useful tool in maintaining a schedule and communicating availability to co-workers, saving everyone time when planning events. Talking with co-workers about overlapping hours and shared tasks can also be helpful when things start piling up. By helping them out when the pressure’s on, they should be happy to return the favor during exam week.
Basically functioning as two different locations, home can be the most difficult setting to manage and is usually where arguments begin. Support from family members is very important to any student’s motivation. The best way to keep it in tact and avoid arguments is by keeping different responsibilities in their separate places. Constant communication and updates are essential to this process. It does not have to be verbal communication. Leaving signs around the house and on doors is an excellent and non-confrontational way to keep family members informed and protect study time from accidentally getting mistaken as relaxation time.
The snowball effect is the introduction to a student’s burn out, bringing with it added pressure, stress and a sense of hopelessness. As with any snowball, this effect is created by the continual piling up of missed and overdue assignments combined with the stress approaching deadlines. However, abominable snow monster are easy prevented by completing assignments when assigned from the very beginning.
Gathering required course materials ahead of time is the first step in deterring what could become a continuously mounting ball of work, which leaves students in constant state of playing catch-up. This snowball can eventually lead to skipping entire discussions. It always starts with one, being late on one discussion question. The more missed, the easier it is to justify skipping them completely.
Procrastination leads to a snowball effect, which in turn leads to a potential burnout. The snowball effect brings with it continuous stress and late nights with little sleep. Burnouts are made of exhaustion: mental exhaustion from looming amounts of work, physical exhaustion from inadequate sleep and emotional exhaustion from feeling overwhelmed.
Being overwhelmed and being helpless are separated by a very thin line based solely on perspective. They can eventually become one and the same, leading a person to apathy and to being numb. Numb individuals are not good students. They are not good employees. Failing classes and losing jobs, victims of burnout are haunted by a negative perspective that can destroy an individual’s relationships and health.
Keep an eye on humor. Laughter is always the first victim of stress and will disappear long before an official burnout begins. Stress also has a nasty habit of tightening flexible schedules, adding constraining conflict and burden to daily routines. Scheduled breaks are a good way to keep routines in perspective. For this reason, lunch and study breaks are an excellent and necessary defense against unhealthy levels of stress.
Continued on Page 3
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- Vet Tech & Animal CareGPs should offer tests for sickle cell and thalassaemia to pregnant women when they first present, after UK research showed that less than 5 per cent of women are being screened by antenatal services.
The findings renew calls for GPs to become more involved in maternity care, and coincide with the DoH pledge to recruit 4,000 extra midwives to relieve pressure on maternity services.
Sickle cell and thalassaemia screening should be offered to women before 10 weeks' pregnancy. But research on 1,441 pregnancies taken from 25 general practices has shown that just 4.4 per cent of women were screened before the tenth week of pregnancy.
This is despite 74 per cent of women having their pregnancy confirmed by their GP before 10 weeks' gestation.
Lead researcher Dr Theresa Marteau, from King's College, London, said: 'A way to improve screening rates is for GPs to offer the blood tests as pregnancy is confirmed in primary care.
'GPs could also offer the tests to women before they become pregnant so that they can identify if they are carriers of sickle cell or thalassaemia.'
Dr Sarah Jarvis, RCGP spokeswoman for women's health and a GP in west London, said: 'There would need to be extra funding in place for this and a change in national policy.'
Dr Alison Streetly, director of the NHS Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Screening Programme, called for better communication between GPs and maternity services.
'This means either providing screening in primary care or minimising the delay between primary care and seeing a midwife,' she said.
Comment below and tell us what you think|The Two Babylons
The Two Developments Historically and Prophetically Considered
Hitherto we have considered the history of the Two Babylons chiefly in detail. Now we are to view them as organised systems. The idolatrous system of the ancient Babylon assumed different phases in different periods of its history. In the prophetic description of the modern Babylon, there is evidently also a development of different powers at different times. Do these two developments bear any typical relation to each other? Yes, they do. When we bring the religious history of the ancient Babylonian Paganism to bear on the prophetic symbols that shadow forth the organised working of idolatry in Rome, it will be found that it casts as much light on this view of the subject as on that which has hitherto engaged our attention. The powers of iniquity at work in the modern Babylon are specifically described in chapters 12 and 13 of the Revelation; and they are as follows:—I. The Great Red Dragon; II. The Beast that comes up out of the sea; III. The Beast that ascendeth out of the earth; and IV. The Image of the Beast. In all these respects it will be found, on inquiry, that, in regard to succession and order of development, the Paganism of the Old Testament Babylon was the exact type of the Paganism of the new.
I. The Great Red Dragon
This formidable enemy of the truth is particularly described in Revelation 12:3—"And there appeared another wonder in heaven, a great red dragon." It is admitted on all hands that this is the first grand enemy that in Gospel times assaulted the Christian Church. If the terms in which it is described, and the deeds attributed to it, are considered, it will be found that there is a great analogy between it and the first enemy of all, that appeared against the ancient Church of God soon after the Flood. The term dragon, according to the associations currently connected with it, is somewhat apt to mislead the reader, by recalling to his mind the fabulous dragons of the Dark Ages, equipped with wings.
At the time this Divine description was given, the term dragon had no such meaning among either profane or sacred writers. "The dragon of the Greeks," says Pausanias, "was only a large snake"; and the context shows that this is the very case here; for what in the third verse is called a "dragon," in the fourteenth is simply described as a "serpent." Then the word rendered "Red" properly means "Fiery"; so that the "Red Dragon" signifies the "Fiery Serpent" or "Serpent of Fire." Exactly so does it appear to have been in the first form of idolatry, that, under the patronage of Nimrod, appeared in the ancient world. The "Serpent of Fire" in the plains of Shinar seems to have been the grand object of worship. There is the strongest evidence that apostacy among the sons of Noah began in fire-worship, and that in connection with the symbol of the serpent.
We have seen already, on different occasions, that fire was worshipped as the enlightener and the purifier. Now, it was thus at the very beginning; for Nimrod is singled out by the voice of antiquity as commencing this fire-worship. The identity of Nimrod and Ninus has already been proved; and under the name of Ninus, also, he is represented as originating the same practice. In a fragment of Apollodorus it is said that "Ninus taught the Assyrians to worship fire." The sun, as the great source of light and heat, was worshipped under the name of Baal. Now, the fact that the sun, under that name, was worshipped in the earliest ages of the world, shows the audacious character of these first beginnings of apostacy. Men have spoken as if the worship of the sun and of the heavenly bodies was a very excusable thing, into which the human race might very readily and very innocently fall.
But how stands the fact? According to the primitive language of mankind, the sun was called "Shemesh"—that is, "the Servant"—that name, no doubt, being divinely given, to keep the world in mind of the great truth that, however glorious was the orb of day, it was, after all, the appointed Minister of the bounty of the great unseen Creator to His creatures upon earth. Men knew this, and yet with the full knowledge of it, they put the servant in the place of the Master; and called the sun Baal—that is, the Lord—and worshipped him accordingly. What a meaning, then, in the saying of Paul, that, "when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God"; but "changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is God over all, blessed for ever."
The beginning, then, of sun-worship, and of the worship of the host of heaven, was a sin against the light—a presumptuous, heaven-daring sin. As the sun in the heavens was the great object of worship, so fire was worshipped as its earthly representative. To this primeval fire-worship Vitruvius alludes when he says that "men were first formed into states and communities by meeting around fires." And this is exactly in conformity with what we have already seen in regard to Phoroneus, whom we have identified with Nimrod, that while he was said to be the "inventor of fire," he was also regarded as the first that "gathered mankind into communities."
Along with the sun, as the great fire-god, and, in due time, identified with him, was the serpent worshipped. "In the mythology of the primitive world," says Owen, "the serpent is universally the symbol of the sun." In Egypt, one of the commonest symbols of the sun, or sun-god, is a disc with a serpent around it. The original reason of that identification seems just to have been that, as the sun was the great enlightener of the physical world, so the serpent was held to have been the great enlightener of the spiritual, by giving mankind the "knowledge of good and evil." This, of course, implies tremendous depravity on the part of the ring-leaders in such a system, considering the period when it began; but such appears to have been the real meaning of the identification.
At all events, we have evidence, both Scriptural and profane, for the fact, that the worship of the serpent began side by side with the worship of fire and the sun. The inspired statement of Paul seems decisive on the subject. It was, he says, "when men knew God, but glorified Him not as God," that they changed the glory of God, not only into an image made like to corruptible man, but into the likeness of "creeping things"—that is, of serpents (Rom 1:23). With this profane history exactly coincides. Of profane writers, Sanchuniathon, the Phoenician, who is believed to have lived about the time of Joshua, says—"Thoth first attributed something of the divine nature to the serpent and the serpent tribe, in which he was followed by the Phoenicians and Egyptians. For this animal was esteemed by him to be the most spiritual of all the reptiles, and of a FIERY nature, inasmuch as it exhibits an incredible celerity, moving by its spirit, without either hands or feet...Moreover, it is long-lived, and has the quality of RENEWING ITS YOUTH...as Thoth has laid down in the sacred books; upon which accounts this animal is introduced in the sacred rites and Mysteries."
Now, Thoth, it will be remembered, was the counsellor of Thamus, that is, Nimrod. From this statement, then, we are led to the conclusion that serpent-worship was a part of the primeval apostacy of Nimrod. The "FIERY NATURE" of the serpent, alluded to in the above extract, is continually celebrated by the heathen poets. Thus Virgil, "availing himself," as the author of Pompeii remarks, "of the divine nature attributed to serpents," describes the sacred serpent that came from the tomb of Anchises, when his son Aeneas had been sacrificing before it, in such terms as illustrate at once the language of the Phoenician, and the "Fiery
Serpent" of the passage before us:—
"Scarce had he finished, when, with speckled pride,
A serpent from the tomb began to glide;
His hugy bulk on seven high volumes rolled,
Blue was his breadth of back, but streaked with scaly gold.
Thus, riding on his curls, he seemed to pass
A rolling fire along, and singe the grass."
It is not wonderful, then, the fire-worship and serpent-worship should be conjoined. The serpent, also, as "renewing its youth" every year, was plausibly represented to those who wished an excuse for idolatry as a meet emblem of the sun, the great regenerator, who every year regenerates and renews the face of nature, and who, when deified, was worshipped as the grand Regenerator of the souls of men.
In the chapter under consideration, the "great fiery serpent" is represented with all the emblems of royalty. All its heads are encircled with "crowns or diadems"; and so in Egypt, the serpent of fire, or serpent of the sun, in Greek was called the Basilisk, that is, the "royal serpent," to identify it with Moloch, which name, while it recalls the ideas both of fire and blood, properly signifies "the King." The Basilisk was always, among the Egyptians, and among many nations besides, regarded as "the very type of majesty and dominion." As such, its image was worn affixed to the head-dress of the Egyptian monarchs; and it was not lawful for any one else to wear it. The sun identified with this serpent was called "P'ouro," which signifies at one "the Fire" and "the King," and from this very name the epithet "Purros," the "Fiery," is given to the "Great seven-crowned serpent" of our text. *
* The word Purros in the text does not exclude the idea of "Red," for the sun-god was painted red to identify him with Moloch, at once the god of fire and god of blood.—(WILKINSON). The primary leading idea, however, is that of Fire.
Thus was the Sun, the Great Fire-god, identified with the Serpent. But he had also a human representative, and that was Tammuz, for whom the daughters of Israel lamented, in other words Nimrod. We have already seen the identity of Nimrod and Zoroaster. Now, Zoroaster was not only the head of the Chaldean Mysteries, but, as all admit, the head of the fire-worshippers.(see note below) The title given to Nimrod, as the first of the Babylonian kings, by Berosus, indicates the same thing. That title is Alorus, that is, "the god of fire." As Nimrod, "the god of fire," was Molk-Gheber, or, "the Mighty king," inasmuch as he was the first who was called Moloch, or King, and the first who began to be "mighty" (Gheber) on the earth, we see at once how it was that the "passing through the fire to Moloch" originated, and how the god of fire among the Romans came to be called "Mulkiber." *
* Commonly spelled Mulciber (OVID, Art. Am.); but the Roman c was hard. From the epithet "Gheber," the Parsees, or fire-worshippers of India, are still called "Guebres."
It was only after his death, however, that he appears to have been deified. Then, retrospectively, he was worshipped as the child of the Sun, or the Sun incarnate. In his own life-time, however, he set up no higher pretensions than that of being Bol-Khan, or Priest of Baal, from which the other name of the Roman fire-god Vulcan is evidently derived. Everything in the history of Vulcan exactly agrees with that of Nimrod. Vulcan was "the most ugly and deformed" of all the gods. Nimrod, over all the world, is represented with the features and complexion of a negro. Though Vulcan was so ugly, that when he sought a wife, "all the beautiful goddesses rejected him with horror"; yet "Destiny, the irrevocable, interposed, and pronounced the decree, by which [Venus] the most beautiful of the goddesses, was united to the most unsightly of the gods." So, in spite of the black and Cushite features of Nimrod, he had for his queen Semiramis, the most beautiful of women. The wife of Vulcan was noted for her infidelities and licentiousness; the wife of Nimrod was the very same. * Vulcan was the head and chief of the Cyclops, that is, "the kings of flame." **
* Nimrod, as universal king, was Khuk-hold, "King of the world." As such, the emblem of his power was the bull's horns. Hence the origin of the Cuckhold's horns.
** Kuclops, from Khuk, "king," and Lohb, "flame." The image of the great god was represented with three eyes—one in the forehead; hence the story of the Cyclops with the one eye in the forehead.
Nimrod was the head of the fire-worshippers. Vulcan was the forger of the thunderbolts by which such havoc was made among the enemies of the gods. Ninus, or Nimrod, in his wars with the king of Bactria, seems to have carried on the conflict in a similar way. From Arnobius we learn, that when the Assyrians under Ninus made war against the Bactrians, the warfare was waged not only by the sword and bodily strength, but by magic and by means derived from the secret instructions of the Chaldeans.
When it is known that the historical Cyclops are, by the historian Castor, traced up to the very time of Saturn or Belus, the first king of Babylon, and when we learn that Jupiter (who was worshipped in the very same character as Ninus, "the child"), when fighting against the Titans, "received from the Cyclops aid" by means of "dazzling lightnings and thunders," we may have some pretty clear idea of the magic arts derived from the Chaldean Mysteries, which Ninus employed against the Bactrian king. There is evidence that, down to a late period, the priests of the Chaldean Mysteries knew the composition of the formidable Greek fire, which burned under water, and the secret of which has been lost; and there can be little doubt that Nimrod, in erecting his power, availed himself of such or similar scientific secrets, which he and his associates alone possessed.
In these, and other respects yet to be noticed, there is an exact coincidence between Vulcan, the god of fire of the Romans, and Nimrod, the fire-god of Babylon. In the case of the classic Vulcan, it is only in his character of the fire-god as a physical agent that he is popularly represented. But it was in his spiritual aspects, in cleansing and regenerating the souls of men, that the fire-worship told most effectually on the world. The power, the popularity, and skill of Nimrod, as well as the seductive nature of the system itself, enabled him to spread the delusive doctrine far and wide, as he was represented under the well-known name of Phaethon, (see note below) as on the point of "setting the whole world on fire," or (without the poetical metaphor) of involving all mankind in the guilt of fire-worship.
The extraordinary prevalence of the worship of the fire-god in the early ages of the world, is proved by legends found over all the earth, and by facts in almost every clime. Thus, in Mexico, the natives relate, that in primeval times, just after the first age, the world was burnt up with fire. As their history, like the Egyptian, was written in Hieroglyphics, it is plain that this must be symbolically understood. In India, they have a legend to the very same effect, though somewhat varied in its form. The Brahmins say that, in a very remote period of the past, one of the gods shone with such insufferable splendour, "inflicting distress on the universe by his effulgent beams, brighter than a thousand worlds," * that, unless another more potent god had interposed and cut off his head, the result would have been most disastrous.
* SKANDA PURAN, and PADMA PURAN, apud KENNEDY'S Hindoo Mythology, p. 275. In the myth, this divinity is represented as the fifth head of Brahma; but as this head is represented as having gained the knowledge that made him so insufferably proud by perusing the Vedas produced by the other four heads of Brahma, that shows that he must have been regarded as having a distinct individuality.
In the Druidic Triads of the old British Bards, there is distinct reference to the same event. They say that in primeval times a "tempest of fire arose, which split the earth asunder to the great deep," from which none escaped but "the select company shut up together in the enclosure with the strong door," with the great "patriarch distinguished for his integrity," that is evidently with Shem, the leader of the faithful—who preserved their "integrity" when so many made shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. These stories all point to one and the same period, and they show how powerful had been this form of apostacy. The Papal purgatory and the fires of St. John's Eve, which we have already considered, and many other fables or practices still extant, are just so many relics of the same ancient superstition.
It will be observed, however, that the Great Red Dragon, or Great Fiery Serpent, is represented as standing before the Woman with the crown of twelve stars, that is, the true Church of God, "To devour her child as soon as it should be born." Now, this is in exact accordance with the character of the Great Head of the system of fire-worship. Nimrod, as the representative of the devouring fire to which human victims, and especially children, were offered in sacrifice, was regarded as the great child-devourer. Though, at his first deification, he was set up himself as Ninus, or the child, yet, as the first of mankind that was deified, he was, of course, the actual father of all the Babylonian gods; and, therefore, in that character he was afterwards universally regarded. *
* Phaethon, though the child of the sun, is also called the Father of the gods. (LACTANTIUS, De Falsa Religione) In Egypt, too, Vulcan was the Father of the gods. (AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS)
As the Father of the gods, he was, as we have seen, called Kronos; and every one knows that the classical story of Kronos was just this, that, "he devoured his sons as soon as they were born." Such is the analogy between type and antitype. This legend has a further and deeper meaning; but, as applied to Nimrod, or "The Horned One," it just refers to the fact, that, as the representative of Moloch or Baal, infants were the most acceptable offerings at his altar. We have ample and melancholy evidence on this subject from the records of antiquity. "The Phenicians," says Eusebius, "every year sacrificed their beloved and onlybegotten children to Kronos or Saturn, and the Rhodians also often did the same."
Diodorus Siculus states that the Carthaginians, on one occasion, when besieged by the Sicilians, and sore pressed, in order to rectify, as they supposed, their error in having somewhat departed from the ancient custom of Carthage, in this respect, hastily "chose out two hundred of the noblest of their children, and publicly sacrificed them" to this god. There is reason to believe that the same practice obtained in our own land in the times of the Druids. We know that they offered human sacrifices to their bloody gods. We have evidence that they made "their children pass through the fire to Moloch," and that makes it highly probable that they also offered them in sacrifice; for, from Jeremiah 32:35, compared with Jeremiah 19:5, we find that these two things were parts of one and the same system.
The god whom the Druids worshipped was Baal, as the blazing Baal-fires show, and the last-cited passage proves that children were offered in sacrifice to Baal. When "the fruit of the body" was thus offered, it was "for the sin of the soul." And it was a principle of the Mosaic law, a principle no doubt derived from the patriarchal faith, that the priest must partake of whatever was offered as a sin-offering (Num 18:9,10). Hence, the priests of Nimrod or Baal were necessarily required to eat of the human sacrifices; and thus it has come to pass that "Cahna-Bal," * the "Priest of Baal," is the established word in our own tongue for a devourer of human flesh. **
* The word Cahna is the
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(hardware), and the software behind the screen was as important as the physical form. Object and interface were, and are, essential design elements in the complete experience of using a computer. The GRiD Compass was originally intended for business users in need of a mobile and responsive computer that would allow them to work more easily while traveling. Weighing in at a little over ten pounds (lightweight for its time), powerful, with a large, readable screen for its size, and designed for ease of use, the GRiD was sought out by NASA for use on its missions. Although created for a broad audience, the GRiD’s physical and interactive design was well suited to the specialized work of space missions, and it was included on shuttle flights into the 1990s. As Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum prepares for the renovation of our home in the Andrew Carnegie Mansion, we look forward to the chance to show our GRiD Compass prototype as an example of innovative design in our new collections galleries, scheduled to open in 2013.The eMMC (embedded MultiMediaCard) drive a compact and reliable storage medium, and it's widely used in different electronic devices. Our main motive is to provide a comprehensive guide on effectively formatting an eMMC drive. After completely reading this article, you'll understand the formatting process for eMMC drives. EaseUS will provide step-by-step instructions to format eMMC through Linux or Windows.
So, let's learn all about the eMMC Drive formatting process on Windows and Linux.
|💻Supported System||Windows, Linux|
✔️Windows format tool: EaseUS Partition Master
✔️Linux tool: fdisk
1️⃣Format eMMC on Windows - Easy
2️⃣Format eMMC on Linux - Difficult
Understanding the format of an eMMC drive is essential as it enables users to manage their storage and optimize device performance effectively. The two most commonly used formats for eMMC drives are EXT4 and FAT format.
1. EXT4 Format: EXT4 is a widely adopted file system format for eMMC drives in various operating systems, including Linux. It offers robustness, reliability, and support for larger file sizes and partitions, making it ideal for devices that handle significant data volumes, such as smartphones and embedded systems. The EXT4 format ensures efficient data management and can handle frequent read and write operations effectively.
2. FAT Format: The FAT (File Allocation Table) format is another widely compatible file system for eMMC drives. It is compatible with multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, and embedded systems. The FAT format is suitable for simpler devices and ensures ease of data interchange between different devices. However, compared to EXT4, it might have limitations regarding file size support and system management capabilities.
It's important to choose the appropriate format based on the specific requirements of the device and its intended usage.
- For instance, if you are looking for a reliable and robust file system with larger file support and better performance, EXT4 would be the preferred choice. On the other hand, if cross-platform compatibility and simplicity are more essential, the FAT format may be a suitable option.
Whether you are using Windows or Linux system, we'll guide you through the formatting process on both platforms in this section. Let's begin by looking at how to format an eMMC drive on Windows.
To format an eMMC drive on Windows, we recommend downloading the "EaseUS Partition Master Free" tool. EaseUS Partition Master is a user-friendly disk management software that allows you to perform various tasks, including formatting, resizing, and moving partitions. This tool lets users quickly and easily format their eMMC drive to the EXT4 or FAT format.
With a user-friendly interface for easy navigation, even if you are new to a PC. You can format eMMC drive quickly and easily. Follow the steps to format an eMMC drive on Windows using EaseUS Partition Master:
Step 1. Launch EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the partition on your external hard drive/USB/SD card which you want to format and choose the "Format" option.
Step 2. Assign a new partition label, file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4/exFAT), and cluster size to the selected partition, then click "OK".
Step 3. In the Warning window, click "Yes" to continue.
Step 4. Click the "Execute 1 Task(s)" button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click "Apply" to start formatting your external hard drive/USB/SD card.
We highly recommend EaseUS Partition Master for its user-friendly interface and comprehensive disk management capabilities. Download EaseUS Partition Master now, and perform routine tasks easily by enjoying its various useful and incredible features!
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fdisk is a command line partition editor to help you manage and control drives. A series of steps are required to utilize the 8GB eMMC storage as a writable volume in Linux. Firstly, you'll need to remove the existing partitions. After that, you can create a new partition, format it, and mount it. Here's a step-by-step guide to achieving this:
- This section gives the full procedure for using the built-in 8GB eMMC storage as a writable volume in Linux. If you just want to learn about formatting with fdisk please see the command guide on another page: Use Fdisk Format Partition in Linux
Step 1. Begin by deleting the existing partitions. Open a terminal and enter the following command:
sudo fdisk /dev/mmcblk1
Step 2. Use the 'p' key to list all existing partitions, then use the 'd' key followed by a partition number to delete each partition. Confirm each deletion and use the 'w' key to save the changes.
Step 3. Next, create a new partition. In the same terminal, enter the following command:
sudo fdisk /dev/mmcblk1
Step 4. Use the 'n' key to create a new partition, accept all the default settings, and then use the 'w' key to save the changes.
Step 5. Now, format the newly created partition to the desired file system (in this case, we'll use ext4). Enter the following command:
sudo mkfs.ext4 -L "emmc" /dev/mmcblk1p1
Step 6. Create a mount point directory for the eMMC storage:
sudo mkdir /emmc
Step 7. Finally, mount the formatted partition to the newly created directory:
sudo mount /dev/mmcblk1p1 /emmc
Following these steps will allow you to use the eMMC storage as a writable volume in Linux on your Orange Pi Plus. If this tutorial helps you to format eMMC drive successfully, you can also click the button and share it with others in need.
In this article, we explored the two most commonly used formats for eMMC drives: EXT4 and FAT format, understanding their advantages and use cases. To perform eMMC drive formatting, we offered step-by-step instructions for both Windows and Linux users. On Windows, we recommended using "EaseUS Partition Master," a user-friendly disk management tool capable of efficiently formatting eMMC drives to the desired EXT4 or FAT format.
We provided detailed steps for Linux users to format the eMMC drive manually, ensuring that the Orange Pi Plus users could utilize their eMMC storage effectively.
FAQs About How to Format eMMC Drive
If you have further questions or queries about formatting eMMC drives, the below FAQs may help you.
1. Can I replace eMMC with SSD?
Yes, in some cases, it is possible to replace the eMMC storage with an SSD in certain devices. However, this is a complex process and requires technical expertise. Not all devices support SSD upgrades, so checking your device's specifications and compatibility is essential before attempting any changes.
2. Does Raspberry Pi have eMMC?
The standard Raspberry Pi models do not have built-in eMMC storage. Instead, they use microSD cards for storage. However, some Raspberry Pi models, like the Raspberry Pi Compute Module, offer options for eMMC storage.
3. How to partition eMMC?
To partition an eMMC drive, use disk management tools like "fdisk" on Linux or "EaseUS Partition Master" on Windows. These tools let you create, delete, or format partitions on the eMMC drive to organize and optimize your storage.
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I love that the changes you make with EaseUS Partition Master Free aren't immediately applied to the disks. It makes it way easier to play out what will happen after you've made all the changes. I also think the overall look and feel of EaseUS Partition Master Free makes whatever you're doing with your computer's partitions easy. Read More
Partition Master Free can Resize, Move, Merge, Migrate, and Copy disks or partitions; convert to local, change label, defragment, check and explore partition; and much more. A premium upgrade adds free tech support and the ability to resize dynamic volumes. Read More
It won't hot image your drives or align them, but since it's coupled with a partition manager, it allows you do perform many tasks at once, instead of just cloning drives. You can move partitions around, resize them, defragment, and more, along with the other tools you'd expect from a cloning tool. Read MoreWhat is a cookie?
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See how to disable or delete cookies in your browser:Scientists and researchers use a diverse range of instrumentation and laboratory equipment in various scientific fields and industries, from chemistry, biology, and engineering to biotechnology, biopharmaceuticals, and more.
These pieces of equipment are crucial for conducting experiments and research and are used to measure, analyze, and manipulate various samples. In many cases, lab equipment accounts for some of the most significant investments a company will make in its lab and operations. Thus, proper maintenance and management of your investment should be a top priority.
Like all machinery, lab equipment requires regular maintenance to ensure it functions properly and safely. With properly working equipment, reliable data and accurate results can be generated, leading to wasted effort, time, and money.
Practicing proper equipment maintenance procedures, scheduling, and record-keeping is essential to protect your research and equipment investments. Taking care of your instruments ensures proper functionality and increases the span of the equipment’s useful lifecycle.
This article overviews equipment maintenance and how to maintain lab instruments and instrumentation. With diligent equipment care, you can improve quality control, meet industry quality assurance standards and extend the lifespan of your laboratory’s old and new equipment.
Laboratory equipment maintenance refers to the activities performed to ensure your equipment is in good working condition and operating safely. This includes regular equipment calibration, cleaning, lubrication, inspection, testing, and more.
On the other hand, laboratory equipment management refers to the overall management and oversight of your laboratory equipment. This includes maintaining inventory, tracking equipment usage and maintenance schedules, coordinating repairs and replacements, and ensuring compliance with regulations and safety guidelines.
Equipment management also includes ensuring that the equipment is appropriately allocated and utilized, budgeting for equipment purchases and upgrades, and identifying and addressing any equipment-related issues.
Simply put, lab equipment maintenance focuses on the upkeep of the equipment, while lab equipment management focuses on the bigger picture. Both are important for maintaining the integrity and safety of a laboratory, but they have different focuses and responsibilities.
Lab managers often rely on LIMS, or Laboratory Information Management Systems, to manage equipment and ensure operations run smoothly. With LIMS, you can automate the calibrating, maintaining, and monitoring of your equipment. This guarantees that your equipment is running at optimal performance and saves you time and effort by eliminating the need for manual tracking.
A good LIMS can also help you avoid common headaches that come with managing lab equipment. For example, it can automatically schedule regular maintenance checks, track inventory and usage, and provide real-time performance data.
This allows you to focus on your research while the system takes care of the tedious equipment management tasks. Generally speaking, investing in a LIMS can be a smart move for any lab looking to streamline its operations and improve its equipment’s lifespan.
Equipment maintenance is essential for several reasons: it leads to increased uptime, more working hours, and fewer repair costs, ultimately resulting in increased revenue. Improperly maintaining your equipment can result in operational inefficiencies that negatively impact run time, decrease output, and increase costs.
When equipment is well-maintained, it runs more efficiently, regardless of the type of machine. For example, clogged air filters can make the mechanisms of a piece of equipment work harder for the same results. Dirty oil doesn’t lubricate as well as clean oil, worn belts slip, and hoses develop leaks, resulting in increased fluid usage.
In the lab, you might experience one of your centrifuges breaking down. If it is not regularly cleaned and maintained, small particles and debris can build up in the machine over time. This can cause the centrifuge to vibrate excessively during use, potentially leading to mechanical failure. Furthermore, if the seals and gaskets on the centrifuge are not regularly checked and replaced as needed, they can become worn and damaged, allowing fluids to leak out of the machine.
Not only is the centrifuge damaged, but the lab technician using the equipment will also find themselves in a hazardous safety situation. Regular cleaning, inspection, and replacement of broken or damaged seals and gaskets would have prevented the breakdown and potentially led to increased uptime and improved efficiency, which means more hours of operation and better performance during those hours.
More uptime and better efficiency can lead to increased revenue and reduced operating costs, including the cost of running equipment, replacing or repairing parts, or potentially losing productivity to unexpected downtime. These savings can make a significant impact on a business’s bottom line. The difference is even more substantial if a company uses a large amount of equipment.
While some experts may disagree about how many different types of maintenance there are, it’s possible to categorize maintenance into a few common types. These can include:
There may be troubleshooting and maintenance issues your laboratory staff can tackle in-house that include simple preventative maintenance procedures. However, more complicated equipment maintenance procedures and repairs will most likely require the help of a certified technician, whether they work for a third-party or for the equipment’s manufacturer.
Preventive maintenance (PM) is scheduled in advance and aims to prevent equipment failures before they occur. This includes regular inspections, cleaning, and replacement of worn or damaged parts. The goal of preventive maintenance is to extend the life of the equipment and minimize downtime.
It is often planned and scheduled at regular intervals, from weekly to monthly to annually. By performing preventive maintenance, equipment can be kept in good working condition, in turn improving productivity and reducing repair costs.
Predictive maintenance (PdM) uses data and analytics to predict when equipment will fail. This allows for repairs or replacements to be made before a failure occurs.
Predictive maintenance uses tools like sensors and monitoring devices to collect data on equipment performance, which is then analyzed to identify potential issues. PdM can help determine which equipment should receive maintenance before it breaks down, reducing downtime and repair costs.
Corrective maintenance (CM) is used to fix equipment that has already broken down or is not functioning correctly and is typically unplanned. It includes repairs, troubleshooting, disassembly, adjustment, replacement, and realignment.
This type of maintenance is often performed due to equipment failure or when an unexpected breakdown occurs, either due to a lack of a maintenance plan or because a piece of equipment fails before its scheduled inspection or maintenance. It is more expensive than preventive maintenance.
Some labs often rely on CM more than any other type of equipment maintenance. However, solely relying on corrective maintenance instead of a balance of preventive and corrective maintenance has drawbacks.
While corrective maintenance can be effective for quickly fixing equipment that has easily accessible and replaceable parts, it can also lead to unexpected and costly downtime. It is generally recommended that 80% of maintenance efforts focus on preventive measures and 20% focus on corrective actions.
Condition-based maintenance (CBM) is based on the equipment’s condition, using data and monitoring to determine when exactly care is going to be needed, and is similar to predictive maintenance. However, it doesn’t rely on scheduled maintenance. Instead, it uses monitoring and data to identify when equipment is likely to fail and schedule maintenance at that time.
While condition-based and predictive maintenance are often compared due to some similarities, there are some key distinctions between the two. Specifically, the method of measurement that is used.
Predictive maintenance involves using specific formulas and sensor readings (such as temperature, vibration, and noise) to determine when maintenance is needed. Maintenance tasks are then executed based on the analysis of these parameters, making predictive maintenance more of an exact form of care as it anticipates future maintenance requirements.
On the other hand, condition-based maintenance relies solely on real-time sensor readings. Once a reading exceeds an established threshold, maintenance personnel are dispatched to address the issue. This approach means that lab equipment maintenance is only performed when necessary, unlike predictive maintenance, which anticipates future maintenance requirements.
Run-to-failure maintenance (RTF) is the opposite of preventive maintenance and involves waiting for equipment to fail before performing any repairs or replacement. It is a deliberate and considered strategy designed to minimize total maintenance costs.
The run-to-fail method involves having spare parts and personnel readily available to replace failed components and ensure equipment availability. This approach should not be mistaken for reactive maintenance, as a deliberate plan is in place to allow the asset to operate until failure. This strategy is helpful for any equipment that does not pose a safety hazard in the case of failure or breakdown and does not considerably impact production when it breaks down.
RTF is not usually recommended, as it increases the chance of equipment failure and downtime (in fact, it almost bets on failure happening), and it can be more expensive and time-consuming in the long run.
Repairs and maintenance are both essential for equipment to function optimally. However, there are some differences between these two terms.
Repairs are actions taken to restore the proper functionality of the equipment. They are meant to bring something broken back to optimal working conditions. The extent of repairs needed depends on the type of equipment failure that has occurred. Some repairs can be more expensive than others, and the cost will depend on the root cause of the failure.
There are two main types of failure: complete and partial. Complete failure refers to situations where the equipment is entirely unavailable for use and cannot fulfill its intended purpose until it is repaired. A total failure generally leads to unplanned downtime and emergency maintenance, which can be costly.
Partial failure refers to situations where the equipment is still functional to some degree, but it is either unsafe or not working as effectively as it should. It is generally recommended to resolve partial failures as quickly as possible, as doing so will prevent the failure from leading to a complete breakdown at an inconvenient time.
In contrast, maintenance preserves equipment’s functionality, performance, and safety over its lifetime. The primary objective of maintenance is to prevent major or unplanned repairs from occurring by keeping assets in good working condition. Preventative maintenance is performed regularly to ensure that equipment remains in optimal condition, as many equipment failures can be prevented through regular equipment maintenance.
There are often different maintenance procedures for different pieces of equipment. These can be based on the exact type of the instrument and its usage. The procedure can include cleaning, lubrication, inspection, testing, calibration, and more.
The manufacturer will often include or provide recommendations for maintaining the equipment. However, each piece of equipment should have a detailed maintenance schedule in place, and these schedules should be followed and recorded to ensure regular maintenance is performed. This can include a set of instructions or steps that are followed to perform maintenance on a specific piece of equipment.
The different types of maintenance procedure documentation varies and can be as simple as a checklist of tasks to be performed or as complex as a detailed process with troubleshooting steps and diagrams. This can include:
Whatever form of documentation you have access to should outline the tasks that need to be done, the tools and materials required, and any safety precautions that need to be taken. It should be designed to ensure that the maintenance is performed correctly and efficiently, to prolong the equipment’s life, and prevent breakdowns.
Equipment maintenance schedules outline when and how often equipment should be inspected, maintained, and repaired. They ensure equipment is kept in good working condition and minimize potential equipment failures and unexpected downtime. These schedules can vary depending on the type of equipment, how it is used, and the environment in which it operates.
There are several factors to consider when setting up equipment maintenance schedules, including:
Consider these factors when you create a maintenance schedule. It should include the type of maintenance required, the frequency, and the person or team responsible for performing the maintenance. The program should also have a plan for addressing any issues that arise between scheduled maintenance.
Equipment maintenance schedules are not set in stone, however. They should be reviewed periodically and updated as necessary to account for changes in equipment usage, age, or environmental factors.
Keeping detailed records and logs of the maintenance performed on an instrument is an essential step to properly maintaining equipment. You will want to include any repairs or issues that arise, calibration and testing results, and additional information regarding replacement parts or upgrades made to the equipment. Assigning responsibility to a specific individual or team for maintaining equipment maintenance logs can help ensure they are accurate and up-to-date.
These records allow for a clear understanding of your equipment’s maintenance history and identify patterns or issues that may need to be addressed. Well-kept records can be used as a reference in case of equipment failure.
For example, keeping track of calibration and testing results can provide valuable information about the equipment’s performance over time. This information can be used to detect any changes in performance, which indicates a problem that needs to be addressed. Records of repairs and issues that arise can be used to identify common problems and track the repairs’ effectiveness.
Moreover, keeping detailed records of equipment upgrades and replacements can be helpful in understanding the equipment’s maintenance history, providing information on how often parts are replaced, how long they last, and even identifying whether the equipment is reaching the end of its useful life.
Having maintenance records on hand can also be beneficial in case of equipment failure. If properly documented, the record or records will provide valuable information for the technician working on the equipment. Records can also be used to demonstrate that the equipment was properly maintained, which is vital in the case of warranty or insurance claims.
Establishing a system for keeping and updating these records regularly is also essential. A robust LIMS can help you with your record keeping. However, other methods exist for keeping and maintaining maintenance records for all your equipment. These can include:
Laboratory equipment is essential for conducting experiments and research in various fields. But regular maintenance and general care are necessary to keep the equipment functioning correctly and safely.
Regular maintenance can also prevent costly repairs and replacements.
By taking care of the instruments you use, you can ensure you’re generating accurate and reliable results during R&D and creating a safe, effective, high-quality product during production.
Looking to add refurbished or new equipment to your laboratory? Is maintenance a significant concern of yours? Lease with Excedr. Annual service contracts and renewals can be pretty expensive. These costs will add up and often blindside lab managers and scientists.
Our leasing program reduces the upfront costs of service contracts by including equipment service coverage with each operating lease. This consists of a preventative maintenance program and covers repairs without additional cost to you, making it easier for you to create and stick to the manufacturer’s instructions and standard operating procedures for equipment care.
Frequently asked questions we receive about maintaining lab equipment properly.
It ensures accurate and reliable results, prolongs the lifespan of the equipment, prevents equipment breakdowns and downtime, maintains equipment safety and reduces the risk of accidents, and meets regulatory and quality control requirements.
As a general rule, it is recommended to have the equipment serviced and maintained annually or as the manufacturer recommends. Some equipment may need more frequent servicing and maintenance, while others may need less. Establishing a regular maintenance schedule is important to ensure optimal performance and safety of the equipment.
Review the manufacturer’s recommendations and establish a calibration schedule. Determine the frequency of calibration based on the equipment’s usage, manufacturer’s advice, and regulatory requirements and perform regular checks.
A maintenance schedule establishes the recommended frequency of maintenance and servicing for each piece of equipment in the lab. It is set to ensure that equipment is properly maintained and functioning correctly and to prevent potential equipment failures and downtime.
There are several methods for keeping detailed records, including spreadsheets, database software, paper records, digital file storage, and regular reviews. The best solution will depend on your specific needs and preferences. Using a combination of methods or a robust LIMS ensures your equipment records are accurate, up-to-date, and easily accessible.
Common issues can include calibration errors, mechanical failure, software errors, power issues, contamination, and incompatible components. To address these issues, create a comprehensive equipment maintenance plan that includes regular calibration, inspection, cleanings, and software updates.
Preventing equipment breakdowns involves scheduling regular preventative maintenance, training users to use and handle the equipment properly, and using high-quality components, such as those recommended by the manufacturer. It is also important to regularly clean your equipment.
Similar to preventing equipment breakdowns, you can ensure your instruments run efficiently by scheduling regular preventative maintenance and adequately cleaning the machinery. Additionally, ensure the equipment is used and stored in appropriate environmental conditions, regularly calibrated, protected against power surges or fluctuations, and routinely upgraded when new software is available.
Check with the manufacturer if they have a network of authorized technicians that can provide maintenance and repair services, search online using directories, websites, and forums for equipment maintenance, or ask for recommendations from colleagues and other professionals.
You can use several factors when determining if it’s time to replace a piece of equipment. These include age, performance, maintenance cost, availability of replacement parts, technological advancements, safety concerns, and compliance requirements. These factors can help you determine whether it is time to replace an instrument.
You will want to first identify the problem. This might involve listing all possible explanations for the breakdown, after which you should try to collect as much data as possible. This can help you eliminate possible answers and identify the issue. After identifying the cause, you should contact an authorized and certified technician or speak with the manufacturer. Depending on your service coverage, you can ask the manufacturer to provide a replacement instrument during repairs.Bible capturing young readers' interest
Susan Cox checks 6-year-old Stephanie Brandon’s recitation of “The Lord’s Prayer” at Medina First United Methodist Church in Tennessee.
Soon after retired schoolteacher Shirley Barber taught the first-grade Sunday school class at St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Memphis, Tenn., she recommended the church begin presenting Bibles to first-graders, rather than waiting until the children reached third grade.
The children's ministry team agreed and chose Adventure Bible [Zondervan], a New International Version divided into books, chapters and verses that use language familiar to children. Miles Masters, son of the children's ministry director, Beth Masters, was in the second group of younger children receiving Bibles.
"He really reads it!" she says. "It's fascinating to see how much more interested he is in reading his Bible than (were) children who received (it) in third grade."
As more children are learning to read earlier, some United Methodist congregations are presenting Bibles and introducing youngsters to the biblical text at an earlier age.
Barber, who distributes early-reader Bibles to the children she teaches at St. Luke's, believes, "Children are ready to be exposed to the Bible before third grade. That's my passion."
At West Bethel United Methodist Church in Cedar, Minn., first-graders, who are starting to read, help the younger ones through the Bible story during Sunday school, says Amber Brown, volunteer children's ministry director.
The church, which averages 60 people in worship, now presents second-graders with The Children's New Revised Standard Version Bible [Abingdon Press]. It also has the biblical text in books, chapters and verses as well as summaries of familiar stories.
West Bethel teachers and parents led by Karen Evenson, a Christian educator and student assistant to the pastor, designed their own curriculum. The team brainstormed themes to emphasize more familiarity with the Bible, correlate with the sermons and be important to young families. The team encourages families to bring parents and children together to discuss the Bible stories both have heard. Sunday school attendance has grown and is more consistent.
"At the beginning of every session, children find where the scripture is," Evenson says. "The kids are excited!"
"Parents were impressed that their children could summarize the story and repeat it back," Brown adds.
The Bible stories are written to be told and shared, says Melanie Gordon, director of Ministry with children for the General Board of Discipleship. "For very young children, it's more important to know what the story means in the way we live our lives."
When adults are concerned about children reading the more graphic parts of the Bible, Gordon advises, "Know where the scary parts are. Read ahead and understand that some stories are not nearly as scary as we think they are for children. Know your children — that's the key."
At St. Luke's, Barber tucks copies of the King James Version of "The Lord's Prayer" in the backs of the Bibles she distributes so children can participate in the worship liturgy.
|Children add beads to their CLIPS key chains as they successfully memorize prayers and scriptures at First United Methodist Church in Medina, Tenn.
Medina (Tenn.) First United Methodist Church developed CLIPS (Children Learning Important Prayers and Scriptures), an at-home program in which 3- to 12-year-olds memorize scriptures, prayers, the books of the Bible and even the Apostles' Creed.
Children recite age-appropriate memory work to volunteer listeners between Sunday school and worship, explains Rebecca Brandon, who chairs Medina First's children's ministry team. As youngsters learn the items, they earn beads for a key chain.
"I love that my daughter is learning things that we use in the church service along with information about the Bible itself," says Medina member Traci Tate.
"Children should be familiar with passages that really sustain us," Gordon agrees. "'The Lord's Prayer,' for instance, is sustaining for children and adults through their lifespan."
This article first appeared in the July/August edition of The Interpreter Magazine.
For a list of Bibles and other children's ministry resources recommended by Melanie Gordon, director of children's ministries for the General Board of Discipleship, visit ministrywithchildren.wordpress.com/elementary.
RELATED ARTICLES AND RESOURCES
Ministry with children blog www.ministrywithchildren.wordpress.com
General Board of Discipleship children’s ministries, www.gbod.org/childrenOn Thanksgiving Day, stunning food spreads may look very different from table to table. As Americans incorporate their diverse backgrounds into Thanksgiving celebrations, each table reflects that unique family background. Turkeys may be seasoned with mole sauce (a Mexican tradition), zaatar and sumac (Middle Eastern staples), or seasoned like pork (Puerto Rico's famous pavochon). Other Thanksgiving spreads may opt to skip the turkey entirely and instead serve Peking duck or tandoori chicken, as Chinese and South Asian families respectively include for their celebrations.
While Thanksgiving turkeys (and other holiday table staples) may vary across households, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has simple steps to food safety no matter your tradition. Food safety is particularly important for people living with kidney disease since your kidneys do not work as well as they should, and you may have a weakened immune system as a result. This is especially true if you are living with a kidney transplant because the immunosuppressant (antirejection) medicines you take actively work to suppress your immune system so that your body does not reject your new kidney, leaving you vulnerable to infections. A weakened immune system makes it harder for your body to fight off infections, which can lead to more serious, and sometimes deadly, effects of foodborne illness.
Take a look at our four food safety tips to ensure your loved ones remain safe from foodborne illness this year.
1. Clean – Start with clean hands, utensils and surfaces. Wash them throughout and after food preparation to ensure bacteria do not spread.
2. Separate – Keep raw meat and poultry separate from cooked foods or other foods.
3. Cook – Always cook food to a safe minimum internal temperature as measured by a food thermometer to ensure harmful bacteria has been killed.
4. Chill – Keep perishable foods at a safe temperature below 40°F. Follow the two-hour rule and do not leave perishable foods at room temperature for more than two hours (or one hour if exposed to temperatures above 90°F). Plan to use or freeze leftovers within four days, and reheat to 165°F
Don't forget raw poultry must be cooked to a safe internal temperature of 165°F and checked with a food thermometer for safety! Consult USDA's safe internal temperature graphic to keep your Thanksgiving meal staples safe to eat.
Find more food safety tips specifically for those living with kidney disease on Kidney Kitchen® and additional information for handling food safely on the FSIS website.
Make more than you could possibly eat in one sitting? Be sure to review our tips for safely handling your Thanksgiving leftovers.
Food Safety Specialists are here for you
Need more information about Thanksgiving leftovers or preparing your Thanksgiving meal? Call the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 888-MPHotline (888-674-6854) to talk to a food safety specialist, email email@example.com or chat live at ask.usda.gov from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday. If you need help on Thanksgiving Day, the Meat and Poultry Hotline is available from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET.
You can also visit FoodSafety.gov to learn more about how to safely select, thaw and prepare a turkey. For more Thanksgiving food safety tips, follow FSIS on Twitter @USDAFoodSafety or on Facebook at Facebook.com/FoodSafety.gov.Piles of crabs have been washing up on England beaches along the rocky Thanet Coast in recent days, a phenomenon that has puzzled scientists for the past few years.
"It's been a phenomenon for probably a third year in a row," Tony Child, Thanet Coast project manager, told LiveScience. He estimated about 25,000 of the dead velvet swimming crabs (Necora puber) were in piles this year, where birds are now ferociously feeding on their carcasses.
Last year, about 40,000 of the crabs washed ashore on the Thanet Coast, which is a long coastline of chalk reefs in Kent, England. This year, more starfish also washed ashore.
The velvet swimming crab has bright red eyes, with a coat of fine hair on its shell giving it a velvety texture. The crabs come closer to shore at this time of year, Child said, where they feed on the seaweed.
In the past, environmental scientists ran tests to check for disease or other physiological problems with the crabs, coming up empty-handed. But Child said every year the die-offs have occurred after there was snow on the beaches. The meltwater causes temperatures near shore to drop, and Child said the deaths must be linked to hypothermia.
"I don't really know the cause but it seems to be cold-related," Child said.
Reports of the crabs washing ashore began around Christmas, but it wasn't until the recent few days that they've been piling ashore. The crabs will remain on the beach, where they'll be feasted on by birds and otherwise decay and enter back into the system's life cycle.
The crab deaths come on the heels of other bizarre animal deaths, including thousands of blackbirds that reportedly fell out of the skies in Arkansas on New Year's Eve, leading to speculation that booming fireworks disoriented them and caused them to collide with buildings.
Then on Tuesday, about 500 birds were found dead in Louisiana. Then more dead birds were reported in Sweden, and masses of dead fish have washed ashore in several countries.
- Top 10 Unexplained Phenomena
- Rumor or Reality: The Creatures of Cryptozoology
- Birds Falling from the Sky and Other Bizarre Animal Deaths
You can follow LiveScience Managing Editor Jeanna Bryner on Twitter @jeannabryner.
Live Science newsletter
Stay up to date on the latest science news by signing up for our Essentials newsletter.
Jeanna served as editor-in-chief of Live Science. Previously, she was an assistant editor at Scholastic's Science World magazine. Jeanna has an English degree from Salisbury University, a master's degree in biogeochemistry and environmental sciences from the University of Maryland, and a graduate science journalism degree from New York University. She has worked as a biologist in Florida, where she monitored wetlands and did field surveys for endangered species. She also received an ocean sciences journalism fellowship from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.Nanjō Shichirō Gorō ［南条七郎五郎］ (1265–1280): The fifth son of Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō, the steward of Ueno Village in Fuji District of Suruga Province, Japan, and a younger brother of Nanjō Tokimitsu. His mother was a daughter of Matsuno Rokurō Saemon. He was the youngest of Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō’s five sons and four daughters. His father, Hyōe Shichirō, died before he was born, in the third month of 1265. On the fifteenth day of the sixth month, 1280, he and his elder brother Tokimitsu visited Nichiren at Minobu. Because of Shichirō Gorō’s pure faith and fine character, Nichiren was optimistic about his future. Shichirō Gorō died suddenly, however, on the fifth day of the ninth month, 1280, at age sixteen. From letters sent by Nichiren to Tokimitsu and his mother, it is clear that Nichiren was greatly disappointed and grieved by his death.As bicycles resurface in popularity amongst the health-conscious population, it also brings an increasing number of accidents, resulting in some of the most common bicycle accident Injuries.
Bicycle riders are prone to severe injuries in the event of an accident because of a lack of protective measures.
A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that, in the United States alone, nearly 1,000 bicyclists die each year, with over 130,000 facing injuries.
Bicycle Accident Statistics in California
Bicycles are quite famous around California. It ranks as the third most bike-friendly state in the United States. California is home to 14.5 percent of the nation’s bike riders. Unfortunately, the growing popularity of bicycles also poses threats as California ranks first in total bike accident fatalities nationwide (also due
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Agric.
For. Meteor., 47(2-4), 339-347, Sep. 1989.
Recounts a first-hand impression of forest clearing in the Amazon Forest,
and challenges climate modelers to describe the consequences of this change.
Critically reviews past climate modeling studies to examine this question. An
adequate treatment of interception losses depends on a realistic description of
incident solar radiation during rainfall and of the local structure of
convective rainfall. Data from the Amazon have helped to diagnose model defects.
"Cloud Overlap Statistics," L. Tian (Dept. Meteor., Penn. State
Univ., University Park PA 16802), J.A. Curry, J. Geophys. Res., 94(D7),
9925-9935, July 20, 1989.
Uses the U.S. Air Force 3-D Nephanalysis (3DNEPH) to analyze the vertical
distribution of clouds and cloud overlap statistics during January 1979 over the
north Atlantic Ocean. Three cloud overlap assumptions were tested: maximum,
minimum and random overlap. Results indicate that, while random overlap performs
reasonably well on the average, the systematic bias (which depends on grid
resolution) and random discrepancies could result in significant errors when
this approximation is used in general circulation modeling and cloud
"The Development of a Two-Dimensional Global Tropospheric Model--1.
The Model Transport," A.M. Hough (Environ. & Med. Sci. Div., Harwell
Lab., Didcot, Oxfordshire, UK), ibid., 1235-1261.
Develops a two-dimensional meridional (pole to pole) model of the global
troposphere which uses an effective stream function and diffusion tensor, both
derived from a three-dimensional general circulation model, to describe model
transport. Model results for halocarbons and 85Kr agree well with measurements
made near the surface of the earth over a wide range of latitudes. Suggests that
model development could be extended to study global tropospheric chemical
Guide to Publishers
Index of AbbreviationsTutorial: Make a Straight Forward Sandbox w/ Doors
Geek Baby loves to play in sandboxes. We’ve taken her to a few local and not-as-local parks and she’s had a blast. When she visited the beach for the first time, she didn’t want to leave! She had a bucket in one hand and a shovel in the other and she had the time of her life filling and unfilling that bucket. We knew we wanted to make her a sandbox. That being said, we didn’t want to reinvent the wheel, so we searched around for existing tutorials that contained the ‘bones’ of what we wanted to make. We found this awesome How To from Modern Parents, Messy Kids and then put our own spin on it.
First off, let me dispel some myths.
- Any task that requires cutting wood, power tools and math can seem, well, overwhelming. That being said, you can typically find a tutorial or how to that will give you a straight forward, step-by-step approach. Don’t be afraid to mess up. If you cut the wood to the wrong measurements, either change your final measurements OR get a new piece of wood! If you’ve never used a power tool before, talk to someone at your local hardware store and they will be more than happy to walk through the motions with you. Most important, though, is to not be afraid to try. If you feel this is too big of a task for you alone, ask for help. When I decided Geek Baby needed a sandbox, we made it happen, even though we’d never fabricated anything like this before. And, just in case we were in over our heads, we had my grandpa there to assist and make sure no one lost a finger.
What you’ll need:
These are the materials we purchased. We bought everything at Lowe’s.
- Four (4) 12″ x 6′ pieces of wood (We bought two 12″ by 12′ and cut them in half.)
- Four (4) 4″ x 4″ x2′ pieces of wood (We bought a 4″ by 4″ by 8′ and cut it into four pieces.)
- Two (2) 3′ 1.5″ x 6′ pieces of plywood (We bought an 8′ x 10′ piece of 1/2″ thick plywood to have some left over for seats.)
- Six (6) 2″ x 2″ x 6′ pieces of wood. (We bought two bundles of them, which were located near the plywood)
- Four (4) corner pieces of plywood, 12″ wide (optional)
- Two (2) long pieces of L-shaped molding (optional – to cover the rough edge of the corner seats)
- Forty (40) or so 3″ Wood Screws
- Twenty (2) or so 1″ Wood Screws
- Twenty-four (24) 1/2″ Wood Screws
- Wood Glue (to stabilize and attach the wood pieces together.)
- One (1) Roll of Landscaping Fabric (a semi-permeable barrier)
- Thirty-five (35) bags of 50lb play sand
- Exterior Latex Paint, Latex Paint brushes
- Water Sealant Wood Stain, Oil Paint brushes (optional, but recommended)
- Two (2) Door Handles
- Four (4) Large Entry Door Hinges (must fit 2″ x 2″ wood)
- 18oz Container of Cinnamon (optional, but recommended)
These are the tools we used. We also purchased these tools at Lowe’s and Home Depot, although not recently.
- Power drill
- Circular saw
- Small hand saw or hacksaw
- Shovel or post hole digger
- Staple gun
- Saw horses
- Rake (optional)
Have a little one who loves to play in the sand? Are you a work-at-home parent without the extra time to make a trip to a local park? Want to entice your kids to play outside more? This is a great, straight forward family DIY project!
First Step — Clear the Land: Figure out where you are going to place your sandbox and clear out that land. We knew we wanted to make a 6′ square, but also had to account for the doors opening and closing. Once you’ve cleared the land, you can use your shovel or post hole digger to dig the 4 holes needed at each corner for your 4″ x 4″ pieces of wood. These are your support beams and are super important for the stability of your sandbox.
Second Step (Optional) — Cut the Wood: If you had most of your wood pieces cut at your hardware store, which I recommend, than you can start building your structure right away. Otherwise, cut all your wood pieces to spec first using the tools mentioned. To cut the wood to size, you’ll want to get your saw horses and circular saw ready.
Third Step (Optional) — Stain the Wood: Stain all the wood with water sealant wood stain, unless the wood is going to be painted with exterior latex paint. You don’t need to double up. I coated all the exposed pieces of wood with water sealant wood stain to ensure it will last long enough to be used for many more years to come! Make sure you use an oil paint brush for this job.
Fourth Step — Paint the Doors: When choosing a paint for the sandbox doors, I think an exterior latex paint is your best bet. And, of course, you can get it in ANY color you want. TARDIS blue, perhaps? Command gold? Geek Baby choose the color we used. She seems to love teal! I recommend a double coat of paint. For the doors, we only bought a pint of exterior latex semi-gloss paint. After two coats each, we still had paint left over. Check out the photo below. Geek Baby was supervising.
Fifth Step — Build the Frame, Add the Beams: The four 12″ x 6′ pieces of wood need to be attached with the 3″ wood screws. Once it is all lined up and level, you screw them together. When that initial 6′ square frame in done, you use the 3″ screws to attach your support beams to the inside corner of your 6′ square frame. I recommend moving the newly built 6′ square over to it’s final resting place, so to speak, so you can insert the support beams into their freshly dug holes prior to screwing them into place. This is where the handy dandy sledgehammer comes into play! Take a look at Geek Dad — he is the Superman of DIY projects!
NOTE: If you want to add seats, this is where you would do it. Take your triangles and glue them into place on top of the 4″ x 4″ support beams. Use 3″ wood screws to add further support to these seats. They will be tremendously stable. They hold up my husband, who is over 200 pounds.
Sixth Step — The Barrier: Next, roll out that semi-permeable barrier I mentioned in the things needed list. We found the roll of landscaping fabric in the garden section of Lowe’s. You have to buy the entire roll, but I’m sure you can find a use for the rest of it. Or, freecycle it!
Get your staple gun and go to town! You want to make sure it is VERY secure, so staple the fabric to the 6′ square frame…and then staple it a few more times for good measure.
NOTE: There are a few reasons this is important.
- You want to keep weeds from growing in and through your sandbox.
- By purchasing this specific material, your sandbox will still be able to drain water, when it rains.
Seventh Step — Prep the Doors: Once you’ve completed all of these other steps, you are ready to get the doors ready to be attached. Take your 2″ x 2″ pieces of wood and make a frame that is the same size as the outer dimensions of your door. You’ll use your 3″ wood screws for this. Once your frame is complete, you’ll sit this down on a flat surface and put wood glue on the top of the frame. You’ll then take your door piece and lay it on top of the frame, paint side up, using your 1″ wood screws to make sure it is tightly secured to the frame. Repeat this process for the second door. Between the wood glue and the screws, it should be more than secure!
Eighth Step — Attach Doors: Once your doors are complete, you can attach them to the sandbox. Make sure you get large hinges that fit your 2″ x 2″ wood door frame. You’ll use the 1/2″ wood screws for this part of the project. Attach your handles, as well. We attached the handles once the doors were attached, just to get an idea of where it would be best to place the handles, but you can attach them before, as well.
Ninth Step — Fill with Sand: Once your sandbox is complete, now comes the fun part – fill it with over 1500 pounds of sand! We bought the play sand available at Lowe’s and Home Depot. It’s not outside with the garden and landscaping materials, but inside with the construction materials. Be very cautious about how much of this sand you buy at one time. Many vehicles have load limits. This may take a few trips if you don’t have a heavy duty vehicle.
NOTE: Add cinnamon to your sand to keep bugs away! We added 18 ounces of cinnamon to our 1500+ pounds of sand and haven’t had any bug problems. Make sure to mix in cinnamon well. I recommend using a rake to even out the sand and mix in cinnamon.
Tenth Step — Add Geek Baby and Accessories: You’ve finished this awesome DIY project, so now you get to reap the benefits — a super happy geek baby!
And, you’re done! The result is a beautifully functional sandbox for your geek baby and their friends. We’ve been using this sandbox for over a month now and our little one adores it. And, we love that we can close the doors! As always, we recommend supervision while your little one is playing in their sandbox. Also, if you add the seats, always check underneath the seats for spiders, scorpions, snakes, etc.
If you have any question, leave them in the comments section. And thanks for checking out my tutorial!If you press the same mouse button more than once in quick succession without moving the mouse, Emacs generates special repeat mouse events for the second and subsequent presses.
The most common repeat events are double-click events. Emacs generates a double-click event when you click a button twice; the event happens when you release the button (as is normal for all click events).
The event type of a double-click event contains the prefix
‘double-’. Thus, a double click on the second mouse button with
<meta> held down comes to the Lisp program as
M-double-mouse-2. If a double-click event has no binding, the
binding of the corresponding ordinary click event is used to execute
it. Thus, you need not pay attention to the double click feature
unless you really want to.
When the user performs a double click, Emacs generates first an ordinary click event, and then a double-click event. Therefore, you must design the command binding of the double click event to assume that the single-click command has already run. It must produce the desired results of a double click, starting from the results of a single click.
This is convenient, if the meaning of a double click somehow “builds on” the meaning of a single click—which is recommended user interface design practice for double clicks.
If you click a button, then press it down again and start moving the mouse with the button held down, then you get a double-drag event when you ultimately release the button. Its event type contains ‘double-drag’ instead of just ‘drag’. If a double-drag event has no binding, Emacs looks for an alternate binding as if the event were an ordinary drag.
Before the double-click or double-drag event, Emacs generates a double-down event when the user presses the button down for the second time. Its event type contains ‘double-down’ instead of just ‘down’. If a double-down event has no binding, Emacs looks for an alternate binding as if the event were an ordinary button-down event. If it finds no binding that way either, the double-down event is ignored.
To summarize, when you click a button and then press it again right away, Emacs generates a down event and a click event for the first click, a double-down event when you press the button again, and finally either a double-click or a double-drag event.
If you click a button twice and then press it again, all in quick succession, Emacs generates a triple-down event, followed by either a triple-click or a triple-drag. The event types of these events contain ‘triple’ instead of ‘double’. If any triple event has no binding, Emacs uses the binding that it would use for the corresponding double event.
If you click a button three or more times and then press it again, the events for the presses beyond the third are all triple events. Emacs does not have separate event types for quadruple, quintuple, etc. events. However, you can look at the event list to find out precisely how many times the button was pressed.
This function returns the number of consecutive button presses that led up to event. If event is a double-down, double-click or double-drag event, the value is 2. If event is a triple event, the value is 3 or greater. If event is an ordinary mouse event (not a repeat event), the value is 1.
To generate repeat events, successive mouse button presses must be at approximately the same screen position. The value of
double-click-fuzzspecifies the maximum number of pixels the mouse may be moved (horizontally or vertically) between two successive clicks to make a double-click.
This variable is also the threshold for motion of the mouse to count as a drag.
To generate repeat events, the number of milliseconds between successive button presses must be less than the value of
nildisables multi-click detection entirely. Setting it to
tremoves the time limit; Emacs then detects multi-clicks by position only.White Pine. Pinus Strobus.
- Eastern White Pine is a naturally pale wood, but it absorbs stain readily so a wide variety of finish tones from light to dark can be achieved with a Pine floor. Browse our wide board pine gallery to see some of these variations.
- Wide plank pine floors are a classic choice for farmhouse, cottage, and historic interiors.
- Pine is a softwood and part of its charm is that it develops a patina of wear over time. Traditional wide plank pine is one of our best selling floors, especially popular because it quickly develops an "aged" look. If you do not find wear charming, you should consider a harder wood or think about installing pine in lower traffic areas, such as second floor rooms.
- Eastern White Pine played an interesting role in American history. Because it grows so tall, it has historically been used for the masts of ships. When an act ordering American colonists to reserve their tallest White Pines for the masts of British naval vessels was enforced in New Hampshire, it outraged colonists. Though forbidden to cut “any pine tree of the growth of 12 inches of diameter,” it became unfashionable to have floor boards in one's home that were less than 12 inches wide. In 1772 a sawmill owner in Weare, New Hampshire was arrested and fined when white pine logs with the king’s broad arrow mark were found at his mill. He and a group of about 40 townspeople rioted, attacking the sheriff and his deputy and literally running them out of town in what became known as the Pine Tree Riot. This act of rebellion against British authority was an inspiration for the Boston Tea Party that took place the following year.
- To make our tongue and groove wide pine floors, our foresters hand select second and third growth pine logs that are predominantly 12 feet or longer and which display even growth and live red knots. This ensures all knotty pine is structurally sound. We source our flooring quality pine logs from the historic Myers Pond and Yale University Forests, and we harvest only during the cold winter months to ensure the best color retention.
Have questions about White Pine or any other wide plank floor? Call us between 7:30-4pm EST or email anytime for help.January 17 2012
Government is increasingly micromanaging food producers in the name of promoting better health, particularly among children. These efforts range from prohibiting certain foods on the school lunch line, to banning toys in happy meals, to telling food manufacturers what products they can and cannot advertize.
Cereal companies appear to be a new target for more regulations and mandates. A November 2011 report released by an environmental advocacy organization warned parents of the presence of sugar in cereal. This report generated a number of dramatic headlines about children’s poor nutrition, but ignored the real facts about trends in childhood obesity and the governments’ limited ability to influence how Americans eat.
Reasonable parents understand it is their responsibility—not governments’—to make healthy choices for their children. And parents have more choices than ever before because cereal companies have responded to a variety of health concerns and dietary restrictions. When it comes to cereals, parents can now select gluten and nut-free cereals, as well as those with reduced fat, sugar and carbohydrates. In other words, parents have plenty of healthy options for their children.
Government has no business targeting one type of ingredient, or one industry, for regulation. Such efforts are bound to fail and are an inappropriate government intrusion into americans’ private lives.|History of Neoplatonism||Later Influences||Glossary||Books||Links|
Plotinus distinguished two phases in the emanation process, refering to the Self-Creation of Intelligence (Nous), and on a lower degree Soul. These are Procession (prohodos), a formless infinite stream of life flowing forth from the One; and Reversion (epistrophe), whereby the emanated entity turns back, contemplates the One, and so receives form and order.
Plotinus related this also in terms of Aristotle's theory of cognition, with with Procession corresponding say to the power of sight when it is still groping for vision, and Reversion to the same power actualised by the contemplation of the object.
Plotinus' successors interpreted this somewhat more elaborately. An anonymous commentator on Plato's Parmenides, who would seem to belong to the School of Porphyry (although whether or not he actually was Porphyry is more dubious, although still possible), recognised in Plotinus' account of the emanation of the Nous a phase of Rest prior to Procession and Reversion, during which the Nous is identical with the Primal One.
Such a telescoping of the hypostases and identification of the Nous with the One was unacceptable to later Neoplatonists. However, both Iamblichus and Proclus still agreed with the commentator in dividing emanation into three phases, those of Abiding, or immanence in the Cause, Procession from that Cause, and Reversion back upon it.
This triad was also no longer applied simply to the emanation of one Hypostasis from another, but thanks to the principle of correspondence became a universal law inherent in the structure of everything that exists. It is equated with the Plotinian triad (also adopted and modified by Gnosticism) of Being, Life and Intelligence, the Chaldaean triad of Existence, Power and Intelligence, the Aristotelian triad of Substance, Potentiality and Actuality, Plato's Philebus' triad of Limit, Unlimited and the Mixture of the two, and the mythological triad (as interpreted through the Orphic poemms and the Chaldean Oracles) of Cronos, Rhea and Zeus.
reference: R. T. Wallis, Neoplatonism, pp.66, 97, 99, 132-3
images not loading? | error messages? | broken links? | suggestions? | criticism?What is Laparoscopic Surgery?
Today, laparoscopic surgery is a widely accepted surgical technique that uses small incisions and long pencil-like instruments to perform operations with a camera. As the incisions are much smaller than their open counterparts, recovery is faster and post-operative pain is typically less. Procedures such as hernia repairs, gastric bypass, bowel resection, and organ removal are now routinely carried out laparoscopically.
Minimizing Physiological Stress
Laparoscopic approaches avoid large incisions on the skin and abdominal wall. These techniques avoid having the intestines exposed to the room air during surgery. While not fully understood, laparoscopic approaches cause less systemic inflammation and post-operative intestinal scar tissue.
Laparoscopic surgery has successfully replaced open surgery as the preferred treatment option for issues such as bariatric surgery and gallbladder removal. In fact this surgery can now be performed as an outpatient operation. The treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease is now carried out using minimally invasive techniques. Laparoscopic fundoplication offers the advantage of faster recovery and quicker return to oral ingestion of food. Laparoscopic surgery for weight loss has caught on in a big way. Laparoscopy has advanced sufficiently to the extent that it can be repeated for a patient who has undergone a previous laparoscopic operation. However, care needs to be taken than organs do not get injured and to this end the entry site may have to be different and an alternate entry technique may have to be used. The risk to benefit ratio of laparoscopic surgery is improving continuously in favor of benefits.
Historical Perspective for Minimally Invasive Surgery
There is general consensus amongst medical historians that the first credibly recorded instances of endoscopy can be credited to the Arabian physician Albukasim (936-1013 A.D). Seven more centuries were to pass before any further developments in endoscopy. In 1805, physician Phillip Bozzini used an illuminated light chamber, a tube, and mirrors for reflection in order to explore the human urethra. He was able to view the urinary bladder and to visualize stones and neoplasms.
Georg Kelling of Dresden, in present-day Germany, first used laparoscopes to view the peritoneal cavities of live dogs. Stockholm - born physician Hans Christian Jakobaeus was the first person to make use of a laparoscope on multiple human patients. He viewed different pathologies and he described conditions such as cirrhosis of the liver, metastatic cancer, and tuberculosis peritonitis.
The growth of laparoscopy was dependent on developments in sources of light that did not cause burns and lenses that magnified and increased the field of view. For example, in 1929, the introduction of a new lens system that permitted oblique (135°) viewing helped popularize laparoscopy in Europe. The advent of the dual trocar technique at around the same time gave a further fillip to diagnostic laparoscopy. The method enabled surgeons to both visualize the abdominal cavity and simultaneously to pass instruments into the cavities.
Optics and Laparoscopy
Advances in photography, optics, lighting, and access to the abdominal cavity have defined the development of modern laparoscopy as we know it today. The technique of "cold light" fiberglass illumination introduced by a team of French scientists in 1952 improved safety by eliminating the risk of intraperitoneal burns and electrical faults that took place when using intra-abdominal sources of light. The “cold light” came from an intense proximal light source outside of the abdominal cavity along a
quartz rod to the distal end of an endoscope and it was intense enough to permit photographs to be taken. The advent of flexible fiber-optic instruments can be traced to this development. The 60s and 70s saw gynecologic practitioners making wide use of laparoscopic techniques. German engineer and gynecologist Kurt Semm is credited with having contributed the maximum to developments in interventional minimally invasive surgical technique. An automatic insufflation device designed by Dr. Semm in 1977 enabled surgeons to monitor both gas flow and intra-abdominal pressure.
Dr. Semm also developed techniques for knot tying and developed instruments that could execute the required maneuvers. He helped popularize procedures such as laparoscopic lysis of omental adhesions, bowel suturing, and tumor biopsy and staging. In 1981, Dr. Semm performed the first laparoscopic appendectomy.
How Have Visual Tubes Evolved?
Laparoscopic visual tools have evolved from endoscopy of which there is documented evidence that it was used as far back as 1806 to examine the canals and cavities of the human body. The first attempt at laparoscopic examination of the peritoneal cavity was carried out in 1901 and the procedure was termed “Celioscopy.”
The Laparoscope as an Instrument
The black circular adapter shows where a video camera is hooked up to the laparoscope. Just to the right an angled tip of a 5mm scope can be seen. Laparoscopic scopes now encompass a wide variety of different technologies. In their simplest form, they can be seen as simple long tubes with a lens system that allows for a camera and a light source.
Laparoscopic techniques continued to develop and by 1930s, doctors were performing diagnostic biopsies of abdominal organs under direct visualization. The seventies saw laparoscopic techniques being commonly used by gynecologists. However, its spread in general surgical practice was limited because it did not facilitate complex surgical procedures because of the limited field of view and the fact that the surgeon’s hands were occupied in holding the laparoscope.
Thus, the year 1986 marks a watershed event in the evolution of laparoscopic surgery because it was in this year that the video computer chip was developed. This development enabled surgeons to project magnified images onto television screens and it paved the way for newer and more complex applications of laparoscopy. We can consider the year 1987 to be the year which truly heralded the arrival of laparoscopic surgery. This is because it was in this year that the first laparoscopic cholecystectomy or gallbladder removal was first performed.
Surgical Dogma and Laparoscopy
However in general surgeons were loath to accept laparoscopy as a genuinely useful form of surgery that needed further investigation and support. The reasons for this are not very clear but not having a clear field of vision during laparoscopy and surgical dogma that had existed for centuries are some of the reasons that slowed down the acceptance of this surgical technique.
Limitation of Depth of Field and 2D View
Also, one of the chief hindrances to the development of laparoscopic surgeries is that unlike open surgeries the field available to the surgeon is two dimensional. This makes it difficult to acquire a perception of the depth and the surgeon has to proceed with extreme caution. The issue can be further compounded if there is a lack of illumination and vision is restricted.
Internal bleeding due to errors in depth perception can also be hard to control. In the late eighties and early 1990s, gynecology was performing laparoscopy on a basis more common than general surgery. However, in 1987 a laparoscopically performed cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal) gained much approval and by 1992 more than half of the over one-half million cholecystectomies done in the United States were being performed laparoscopically.
These were the early surgical experiences with laparoscopy that helped surgeons understand and appreciate the potential benefits of laparoscopy such as a reduction in hemorrhaging so that the need for blood transfusion is reduced; incisions are smaller so that recovery time is short and there is less post-operative scarring; less pain so that less pain medication is required; less chance of internal organs being exposed to contaminants.
Laparoscopic approaches are now available for most abdominal operations in the proper context. Intestine connections can even be hand-sewn using laparoscopic surgery.Results 1 - 1 of 1
Refined by:Sites and Collection: Civil War Maps Remove Subject: Mississippi River Remove Location: Fort Jackson Remove
Plan of Fort Jackson, showing the effect of the bombardment by the U.S. mortar flotilla and gunboats, April 18th to 24th 1862 : flag officer D.G. Farragut commanding fleet, Com. D.D. Porter...
Annotated in pencil on verso: Plan of Fort Jackson. [1862?]. From the Joseph R. Hawley papers in LC Manuscript Division. LC Civil War maps (2nd ed.) 237 Includes explanatory note. Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. LC copy 3 imperfect: Torn at upper edge.
- Contributor: Hergesheimer, E.
- Original Format: Maps
- Date: 1862It’s important to learn how to avoid track cycling crashes if you plan on participating in this high speed event. Track cycling involves closed courses for cyclists to race at high speeds using specialized cycling bicycles. Due to the high speeds of the cyclists, injuries are likely to occur if proper safety is not practiced. Proper safety includes paying attention to your surroundings, having the proper bike, and practicing proper cycling etiquette.
- Use the correct cycling bike. Not just any bike will do when participating in track cycling. You must use the correct cycling bike on cycling tracks to decrease the risk of injury to yourself and others. Never use a mountain bike or other bikes not suited for this high speed sport.
- Always being aware of your surroundings. While on the track, always take note to where other cyclists are on the track. Stay very aware on the track to avoid crashing into other cyclists and to reduce the risk of an unexpected event on the track.
- Practice proper etiquette on the track. Track cycling involves practicing an certain etiquette to keep all cyclists safe. This etiquette includes not cutting other cyclists off, swerving all over the track, and making unexpected movements while on the track. This etiquette is in place for everyone’s safety.
Because track cycling is considered to be a somewhat dangerous sport, it’s important to learn how to avoid track cycling crashes. While crashes can’t completely be avoided, you can decrease your risk for being involved in a track cycling crash.
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This plan of Berkshire County captures a much larger area than the county represents today. In 1777, Berkshire County extended from Westfield and Colrain in the east to Egremont and "West Hoosuck" (later Williamstown) in the west. This plan lists landowners by family name, acres owned, the date of purchase, and previous owner. The plan also details the acreage available in unnamed towns, areas identified as either 'unappropriated land' or 'province land.'Abdominal aortic aneurysms are often found during an examination for another reason. For example, during a routine exam, your doctor may feel a pulsating bulge in your abdomen, though it's unlikely your doctor will be able to hear signs of an aneurysm through a stethoscope. Aortic aneurysms are often found during routine medical tests, such as a chest X-ray or ultrasound of the heart or abdomen, sometimes ordered for a different reason.
If your doctor suspects that you have an aortic aneurysm, specialized tests can confirm it. These tests might include:
- Abdominal ultrasound. This exam can help diagnose an abdominal aortic aneurysm. During this painless exam, you lie on your back on an examination table and a small amount of warm gel is applied to your abdomen. The gel helps eliminate the formation of air pockets between your body and the instrument the technician uses to see your aorta, called a transducer. The technician presses the transducer against your skin over your abdomen, moving from one area to another. The transducer sends images to a computer screen that the technician monitors to check for a potential aneurysm.
- Computerized tomography (CT) scan. This painless test can provide your doctor with clear images of your aorta. During a CT scan, you lie on a table inside a doughnut-shaped machine called a gantry. Detectors inside the gantry measure the radiation that has passed through your body and converts it into electrical signals. A computer gathers these signals and assigns them a color ranging from black to white, depending on signal intensity. The computer then assembles the images and displays them on a computer monitor.
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI is another painless imaging test. Most MRI machines contain a large magnet shaped like a doughnut or tunnel. You lie on a movable table that slides into the tunnel. The magnetic field aligns atomic particles in some of your cells. When radio waves are broadcast toward these aligned particles, they produce signals that vary according to the type of tissue they are. Your doctor can use the images produced by the signals to see if you have an aneurysm.
Regular screening for people at risk of abdominal aortic aneurysms
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that men ages 65 to 75 who have ever smoked should have a one-time screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm using abdominal ultrasound. People older than age 60 with a family history of abdominal aortic aneurysm or other risk factors should talk with their doctors about whether to have a screening ultrasound.
Mar. 22, 2013
- Aneurysm. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/arm/printall-index.html. Accessed Feb. 15, 2013.
- Aortic aneurysms. The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. http://www.sts.org/patient-information/aneurysm-surgery/aortic-aneurysms. Accessed Feb. 15, 2013.
- Aortic aneurysms. The Merck Manuals: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/print/cardiovascular_disorders/diseases_of_the_aorta_and_its_branches/aortic_aneurysms.html. Accessed Feb. 16, 2013.
- Screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm. U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/uspsaneu.htm. Accessed Feb. 16, 2013.
- Lewiss RE, et al. Vascular abdominal emergencies. Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America. 2011;29:253.
- Papadakis MA, et al. Current Medical Diagnosis & Treatment 2013. 52nd ed. New York, N.Y.: The McGraw-Hill Companies; 2013. http://www.accessmedicine.com/resourceTOC.aspx?resourceID=1. Accessed Feb. 16, 2013.
- Lederle FA, et al. Long-term comparison of endovascular and open repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm. New England Journal of Medicine. 2012;367:1988.
- U.S. News best hospitals 2012-2013: Top-Ranked Hospitals for Cardiology & Heart Surgery. http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/rankings/cardiology-and-heart-surgery. Accessed Feb. 16, 2013.
You Are... The Campaign for Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a not-for-profit organization. Make a difference today.Data from U.S. poison control centers revealed an average of 160 cases of "malicious" use of pharmaceuticals in children younger than 7 annually over a nine-year period, Shan Yin, MD, MPH, of Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center in Denver, reported online in the Journal of Pediatrics.
The most commonly used drugs were analgesics, stimulants/street drugs, sedatives/hypnotics/antipsychotics, and cough and cold preparations.
About half of the cases (51.1%) involved a sedating agent.
Moderate or major outcomes -- or death -- occurred in 13.8% of cases.
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eth not that partners should be set up with Him; but He forgiveth anything else, to whom He pleaseth; to set up partners with Allah is to devise a sin Most heinous indeed," (4:48). Also 4:116
- The people of the Book ask thee to cause a book to descend to them from heaven: Indeed they asked Moses for an even greater (miracle), for they said: "Show us Allah in public," but they were dazed for their presumption, with thunder and lightning. Yet they worshipped the calf even after clear signs had come to them; even so we forgave them; and gave Moses manifest proofs of authority," (4:153).
- Are Allah's decrees changed or not?
- "Rejected were the messengers before thee: with patience and constancy they bore their rejection and their wrongs, until Our aid did reach them: there is none that can alter the words (and decrees) of Allah. Already hast thou received some account of those messengers," (6:34).
- "The word of thy Lord doth find its fulfillment in truth and in justice: None can change His words: for He is the one who heareth and knoweth all, (6:115).
- None of Our revelations do We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, but We substitute something better or similar: Knowest thou not that Allah Hath power over all things?" (2:106).
- When We substitute one revelation for another,- and Allah knows best what He reveals (in stages),- they say, "Thou art but a forger": but most of them understand not," (16:101).
- Was Pharaoh killed or not killed by drowning?
- "We took the Children of Israel across the sea: Pharaoh and his hosts followed them in insolence and spite. At length, when overwhelmed with the flood, he said: "I believe that there is no god except Him Whom the Children of Israel believe in: I am of those who submit (to Allah in Islam). (It was said to him): "Ah now!- But a little while before, wast thou in rebellion!- and thou didst mischief (and violence)! This day shall We save thee in the body, that thou mayest be a sign to those who come after thee! but verily, many among mankind are heedless of Our Signs!" (10:90-92).
- Moses said, "Thou knowest well that these things have been sent down by none but the Lord of the heavens and the earth as eye-opening evidence: and I consider thee indeed, O Pharaoh, to be one doomed to destruction!" So he resolved to remove them from the face of the earth: but We did drown him and all who were with him," (17:102-103).
- Is wine consumption good or bad?
- O ye who believe! Intoxicants and gambling, (dedication of) stones, and (divination by) arrows, are an abomination,--of Satan's handwork: eschew such (abomination), that ye may prosper," (5:90).
- (Here is) a Parable of the Garden which the righteous are promised: in it are rivers of water incorruptible; rivers of milk of which the taste never changes; rivers of wine, a joy to those who drink; and rivers of honey pure and clear. In it there are for them all kinds of fruits; and Grace from their Lord. (Can those in such Bliss) be compared to such as shall dwell for ever in the Fire, and be given, to drink, boiling water, so that it cuts up their bowels (to pieces)?" (47:15).
- Truly the Righteous will be in Bliss: On Thrones (of Dignity) will they command a sight (of all things): Thou wilt recognize in their faces the beaming brightness of Bliss. Their thirst will be slaked with Pure Wine sealed," (83:22-25).
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15% Discount off of Logos Bible Program.
CARM highly recommends using the Logos Bible Research Program. It is what we use. It is the best in the world. Just go to http://www.logos.com/carm. Use the coupon code of CARM6.The Log College was the first American Presbyterian theological seminary in North America, located in what is now Warminster, Pennsylvania. It was founded by William Tennent and his son Gilbert Tennent and operated from 1726 or 1727 until William Tennent's death in 1746. Founded at a time when there were few college educated ministers in North America, the Log College had no charter and was purely a private institution. It was a "remarkable institution organized at the Forks of the Neshaminy in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, by the Reverend William Tennent to which on its removal to land given him on the York Road near Hartsville in the same county, the name 'Log College' was scoffingly given."
The Log College was about 20 feet long and 20 feet wide. It was very plain according to George Whitefield's journal. In 1739 the Presbyterian Synod of Philadelphia, at that time the only Presbyterian Synod in North America, passed a rule prohibiting ministers from American colleges or seminaries, except for those from Harvard or Yale, in effect banning the Log College's graduates. This rule led to pressure to charter new colleges and eventually led to the formation of Princeton University.
The number of graduates is unknown, but is thought to be about 18 or 20. All of the graduates were adherents of the New Side in the Old Side-New Side Controversy.
Relationship to Princeton University
There are many connections between the Log College and Princeton, but it is not accurate to say that the Log College was an antecedent of the College of New Jersey (which changed its name to Princeton University in 1896). From its inception, under the guidance of Presbyterian minister Jonathan Dickinson, Princeton focused on a broad range of the liberal arts and sciences, in contrast to the Log College's explicit preparation for the ministry. A closer connection has often been proposed, perhaps in an effort to claim an earlier founding date for Princeton. However, soon after Princeton was founded, a number of Log College men joined their New Side brethren from Yale and Harvard in support of the new venture. Six months after the granting of Princeton's charter in October 1746, and shortly before classes started in May 1747, Log College alumni Samuel Blair, Samuel Finley, and William Tennent, Jr., along with adherents Gilbert Tennent and Richard Treat, accepted election as Princeton trustees. Finley later became the fifth President of Princeton University.
- Princeton University History extract from Leitch
- Warminster Township history
- Symmes, Frank Rosebrook (1904). History of the Old Tennent Church. G.W. Burroughs, printer. p. 472.
- Murphy, Thomas (1889). The Presbytery of the log college: or, the cradle of the Presbyterian Church in America. Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work. p. 526.
- Alexander, Archibald (1845). The Log College: biographical sketches of William Tennent and his students, together with an account of the revivals under their ministries. Princeton. p. 272.
- Collins, Varnum Lansing (1914). Princeton. Oxford University Press. pp. 5–7.
- Tennent, Mary (1971). Light in Darkness: The Story of William Tennent and the Log College. Greensboro Printing Company. pp. 46–50.
- Leitch, Alexander (1978). A Princeton Companion. Princeton University Press. Retrieved 11 April 2010.Brussels, 22 June 2004
European-funded research projects to reduce aircraft noise and fuel consumption are now running at full speed. Included is one of Europe’s largest-ever noise-reduction research ventures, known as SILENCE(R). A consortium of 51 companies is testing new technologies to reduce aircraft noise by up to 6 decibels (dB) by 2008, with the EU contributing half the funding for SILENCE(R), with a total budget over €110 million. Other significant initiatives include FRIENDCOPTER, to reduce helicopter engine and rotor-blade noise; TANGO, to create lighter aircraft structures; EEFAE, to build aero-engines that reduce fuel consumption and emissions; and AWIATOR, to decrease aircraft structural weight, reduce noise and improve performance.
European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin said: “Through EU funding and co-operation within the “Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe” (ACARE) technology platform, Europe’s key aircraft manufacturers, research institutes, universities and small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are working together to create cheaper, cleaner and quieter aircraft. These projects will help minimise the environmental downside of increased air traffic, while also helping to maintain the competitiveness of the European aerospace industry.”
Technology helping to cut aircraft noise
Noise is now considered a serious health hazard, not just a nuisance, with a third of Europeans experiencing noise levels that disturb sleep. Current research programmes expect a reduction in noise (by 10dB) to halve jet noise within the next decade.
The four-year SILENCE(R) project is assessing noise reduction technologies based on cost, weight and performance. These tests include low-noise fans, novel intake liners, bypass and hot-stream liners, nozzle jet noise suppressers, active control techniques and airframe noise reduction technologies.
The FRIENDCOPTER project aims to provide engine and cabin noise reduction, low-noise flight procedures, noise-absorbing engine inlets, methods to identify cabin noise leaks, control technology to reduce rotor noise, vibration and fuel consumption and a model rotor for testing in a wind tunnel at Mach speed.
Lighter and cleaner aircraft set to take off
The TANGO project aims to achieve a 20% reduction in weight and cost in current aircraft structures and manufacturing processes to improve competitiveness. Four aircraft sections (including a lateral wing box, centre wing box, fuselage section and advanced metallic fuselage section) are being tested to help improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.
The five-year EEFAE project, involving all major European aero-engine companies and a number of universities, will build and test aero-engine technologies to reduce fuel consumption, emissions and costs and also improve reliability. It will test technologies for use in new three-shaft engines, a geared turbofan engine and inter-cooled recuperative aero engine, to be available for use from 2008 to 2015.
By integrating advanced technologies into new fixed-wing configurations, the AWIATOR project expects to improve aircraft efficiency by improving performance and making them lighter.
It is estimated more than 500 researchers from all member states are working on these projects.
For further information:June 26th, 2003, 05:41 AM
functions and arguments in C programming
I am so confused. I have learnt the basic of C programming, however, my basic is too basic that I don't see myself doing anything.
I am hoping that someone can give me a good explaination of how functions and arguments work.
All I know is writing my big chunck of codes in my main() function.
I dont know how to declare the different types of functions (what arguments to include in them, in what format) on the top of my main file.
What I mean is, if I have an array in my main, int array, then I have a function that need to call it, says, my_function( <what to include in the parameters>); and there are various kind of things such as pointer to the array, etc...how do I get my functions right?
I have read the book by Kernighan & Ritchie, but it's too complicated for me to understand.
If someone can give me a hand or refer me to some good references it would be great.
June 26th, 2003, 06:51 AM
You need to look at the problem from the angle of what do you want your programme to do?, and then break it down into smaller pieces these will form your function calls. In the case of an array the name of the array is a pointer to the array start, you can pass this name into the functions parameter list
for(int i =0;i<100 i++)
the best way to learn is via having a go at a problem and using the help files etc. There is also a lot of info on the net.
June 26th, 2003, 08:57 AM
I also read K&R at first, but that was their first edition which contained syntax that's no longer used, especially in how functions were written. I haven't looked at their second edition (stamped "ANSI C" over the cover), so I don't know if they changed over to the current standard or not.
Do you have a background in other programming languages that use functions or procedures? If so, then you should already have the basic idea of what to use functions for. In case you don't have that basic idea, I'll briefly describe what functions are used for. If there's something more specific that you don't understand, then ask about it.
1. Use functions to handle operations that are done more than a few times. For example, if you need to convert between degrees and radians, then you would want to write a function to perform that conversion rather than have to rewrite that formula every single time you use it.
2. Use functions to carve the overall program up into smaller, more manageable and more comprehensible chunks. This is also called the "divide and conquer" approach and is a part of structured programming.
Other languages differentiate between functions (which return a value) and procedures (which don't). In C, there are only functions, but the ones declared as void don't return a value.
The syntax for a function header is:
The return-type is any valid data type, including the special type void (which is kind of like the zero in our numbering system). If you leave this out of the header, the compiler will assume that the return type is int, but it should also warn you (but usually won't -- it assumes that you're a C programmer so you should know what you're doing).
The function-name is any valid identifier. C/UNIX folk tradition calls for using the names foo and foobar in examples.
The parameter-list is a list of parameters separated by commas. The syntax for a list of two parameters is:
data-type param1, data-type param2
If there are no parameters, then the keyword void is used or else the parentheses are left empty (I prefer to write void); eg:
Please note that the parentheses MUST be used even then there are no parameters.
The syntax of a function definition is:
The function-header is as defined above.
The function-body consists of data definitions and standard C statements, just as you would write them in the main() function. The variables the function-body may use are the parameters in the parameter list, local variables defined within the function-body, and "global" variables that have file scope.
If the function's return data-type is not void, then the last statement executed in the function must be a return statement. This defines the value that the function returns, so the value in the return statement must match the function's data-type. If the function's data type is void, then the return statement is not required, but it IS required for any and all other data types.
To call a function, simply use its name in a statement followed by parentheses and parameter list. The number and data types of the parameters must match the parameter list declared in the function header. Parentheses MUST be used, or else you end up telling the compiler to do something completely different.
Before a function can be called, it must have been declared earlier in the file. This is done by either placing the function before any calls to it to by using a function prototype. A function prototype is simply a function header followed by a semi-colon; eg:
char foo(int x);
Function prototypes are placed either near the top of the file or in a header file that the source file includes. The standard library header files that you include in your program contain function prototypes among other declarations.
The parameters you pass to a function are all "call by value", which means that the parameters are evaluated and their value is what is sent to the function. This means that if the function changes them in any way, those changes do NOT affect the variables used in the function call. Eg, a function to swap two values:
would fail to change x and y. To cause the change to a parameter to be applied to the variable used in the function call, you need to pass the address of that variable and the function must be written to expect an address. This is done with pointers; eg:
void swap(int a, int b)
temp = a;
a = b;
b = temp;
// function call
In this case, the values of x and y would have been swapped.
void swap(int *a, int *b)
temp = *a;
*a = *b;
*b = temp;
// function call
There are two ways to pass an array to a function:
These two parameter lists are equivalent because an array name is a pointer. Please note that you do not need to include the number of elements in the array, since a would be treated as a pointer anyway.
void foo(int a);
void foobar(int *a);
I hope that helps. If you have more specific questions, ask.
Last edited by dwise1_aol; June 26th, 2003 at 09:03 AM.
June 28th, 2003, 12:10 AM
You guys are great.
I have figured out how to do it.
And my sorting is running well, :) Hooray...Skip to Main Content
Summary form only given. Efficient broadcasting protocol design is an important issue in mobile ad hoc networks, because the broadcasting technique has been widely used in various applications involving route searching and message distribution. A problem with the original broadcasting protocol flooding is the excessive retransmissions that cause packet collisions and lead to bandwidth reduction. Various improved techniques have been proposed in the literature to alleviate this problem, while most of them are designed for networks with static topology, and their performance is often compared by means of numerical simulations. Recently, we have constructed mathematical models for several broadcasting protocols in one-dimensional and two-dimensional topology, and have proposed the close-form expressions to clearly reveal some new relationships between performance metrics and network parameters. In another recent contribution, we have also taken a preliminary step to address the mobility issue. That is, we intend to improve the existing broadcasting protocols, which do not perform very well under highly-mobile situations. Our proposed mobility-sensitive mechanisms adaptively increase broadcast redundancy when the nodal mobility is detected. Neighbor information, instead of location information, is employed in one of our algorithms, which has been shown preferable in ad hoc networks when node locations are not available. As a third research effort we have carried out, we recently focus on the design of broadcasting protocols with a specific application: route searching. In on-demand ad hoc routing protocols, route searching is an essential part in network layer to establish a path between a pair of nodes that wish to exchange information. Based on the observation that unnecessary retransmissions can be further reduced by combining various broadcasting protocols with some specific features of route searching, we propose a method to reduce redundancy after the required route is found. The simulations have shown the efficiency of this technique on improving protocol performance in terms of the decreased number of nodes that receive the broadcasted packet.Roundworms don't actually need to mate to reproduce. When they do mate, though, the consequences can be deadly.
Scientists believe human brain development is the result of genetic mutations that occurred millions of years ago.
Without cracking eggs open, how can you tell which egg is cooked and which is raw?
Were the eggs we buy in the supermarket once embryos?
Were you ever curious how does an egg white turn into an opaque gel?
Ever wonder what a light bulb and a egg have in common?
Did you know that crocodiles call from inside their eggs with a 'cheep' sound shortly before they hatch?
Have you heard of the cicada killer wasp? It's a cool name, but the bug itself is quite cruel.
According to a study, the longer it takes a woman to get pregnant, the greater her chances of having a boy.
A female wasp stings a spider in her own web, temporarily paralyzing her. Then the wasp lays an egg on the spider’s abdomen. The paralysis wears off, and the spider gets up and goes about her business as usual.Prior to World War II, only three women achieved the German qualification for teaching at a university, the Habilitation in the field of physics: Lise Meitner, Hertha Sponer, and Hedwig Kohn. All three ultimately fled Nazi Germany.
Hedwig Kohn was one of the early women pioneers in physics, not only in Germany. She was born on April 5, 1887 in Breslau (today Wroc?aw, Poland), the daughter of Georg Kohn (1850–1932), a wholesale merchant of fine cloth, and Helene Hancke (1859–1926), a member of a well-established Breslau family. Hedwig entered the university there as an auditor in 1907, a year before women were officially allowed to matriculate, and obtained a doctorate in physics in 1913.
Her advisor was Otto Lummer, famous for precision radiation measurements that contributed to the formulation of Planck’s radiation law, who appointed her to the position of Assistant in 1914. During World War I she took on a large share of the teaching and also the advising of doctoral students, in spite of her youth, even receiving a medal for this service after the war. She remained in Breslau and, after years of teaching and research, was given the Habilitation at the university there in 1930. By 1940 she had guided the work of eight doctoral students.
In 1933, she was removed from her university position because she was Jewish. Research contracts were found to tide her over, while she occupied a small back room in the Physics Institute where students and colleagues nevertheless managed to find her. In 1935, American financing allowed her a three-month stay in the Licht-Klimatisches Observatorium in Arosa, Switzerland, measuring ultra-violet light intensity from the sun. However, no permanent job developed from this visit. After the Kristallnacht (November 9, 1938), it was clear that emigration was urgently necessary, but how? The rules of the game were clear: Without a job offer somewhere, she could not escape from Nazi Germany.
Although a good and respected physicist, she was neither internationally famous nor a professor. The hurdles to her obtaining a job offer in America or elsewhere were clearly defined: an acute lack of university positions in western countries, due to the Great Depression; being foreign, even German; not being prominent or personally known abroad; being no longer young and—being a woman. In some cases, antisemitism may have been a further, usually unspoken and thus undocumented, factor. After 1938, to obtain a visa for the U.S. to work in a teaching position, the applicant must have been employed in a teaching position within the last two years for a duration of at least two years. Since she had been barred from teaching since 1933, such a visa was unattainable for her. Fortunately, this restriction was dropped in 1940. Even so, employment for two years had to be guaranteed.
Efforts to help Hedwig Kohn’s immigration were initiated in November 1938 by Rudolf Ladenburg (1882–1952). As a young lecturer in Breslau, Ladenburg had directed the doctoral research of Kohn, although officially she was Otto Lummer’s student. Ladenburg was now a highly respected physicist at Princeton University. Stimulated by Ladenburg, the International Federation of University Women (IFUW) and the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning (SPSL), in London were able to mediate a job for Hedwig Kohn at the University of Aberdeen for the winter of 1939.
Notice of the granting of the visa reached her in the middle of August 1939, but before she could depart, war had broken out. England immediately instituted a flat visa cancellation for all “enemy aliens.” There followed an exchange of at least seventy letters involving Hedwig Kohn, Rudolf Ladenburg, Max Born, Lise Meitner and Hertha Sponer, representatives of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), the Swedish and British branches of the IFUW, and, crucially, several women’s colleges and one university in the U.S. The tediously achieved result was, finally, offers of three consecutive one-year positions, each at a women’s college: the Women’s College of the University of North Carolina, Sweetbriar College, Virginia, and Wellesley College, Massachussetts. These sufficed for the promise of a visa for the U.S., which in turn led to a visa to go to Sweden in July, 1940, which she did immediately. The physicists and the women saved her life. Her only brother, Kurt (b. 1885), a judge, was deported to Kovno in November 1941 and murdered.
The remaining hurdle was to get from Stockholm to Greensboro, North Carolina, in the middle of a war, with the Atlantic a battleground. She left Stockholm on October 12, 1940 and traveled on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok, reaching the U.S. two months later, seriously ill. By January, 1941, after a recuperative stay with James Franck in Chicago and then with Hertha Sponer in Durham, North Carolina, she was able to report for work at the Women’s College in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Hedwig Kohn spent a year and a half in Greensboro and threw herself into the new environment and new tasks with a calm and persistent optimism and good humor. She went on to the prearranged position at Wellesley, where she became a highly regarded professor, won a college research award, and stayed until her retirement in 1952. While at Wellesley, she set up a modest research laboratory for flame spectroscopy, but though it served for introducing students to research, no publications came from this period. In 1952 she was awarded a pension and the title of professor emerita by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany.
After retirement, Kohn was able to pursue independent research as a Research Associate at Duke University for twelve more years, until shortly before her death in 1964. During this time, she directed the research of two Ph.D. students and recruited two postdoctoral fellows to work with her on flame spectroscopy, measuring absorption features and concentrations of mostly atomic species in flames. This research, a continuation of what she had done from 1912–1933, experienced a renaissance in the 1960s in the framework of combustion science and plasma physics.
In both the earlier and later periods of her work, she worked in the field of quantitative measurement of the intensity of radiation, and contributed to atomic and molecular spectroscopy, mostly in work involving quantitative measurements of luminosity or temperature. She wrote several chapters, amounting to over two hundred pages, in a leading physics textbook, Mueller-Pouillets Lehrbuch der Physik, 1929. These became the basis of her Habilitation. The paper reporting her doctoral work was still being cited through the 1970s. Her earlier work resulted in fourteen respected publications and one patent. Seven publications resulted from the later research period at Duke. Her textbook contributions on radiometry, the measurement of the intensity of visible light radiation and the temperature of flames remained the standard introduction to the field until well into the 1960s.
Mueller-Pouillets Lehrbuch der Physik. (II. Auflage), unter Mitwirkung zahlreicher Gelehrter herausgegeben von A. Eucken, O. Lummer (+), E. Waetzmann. In fuenf Baenden: I. Mechanik und Akustik; II. Lehre von der strahlenden Energie (Optik); III. Waermelehre; IV. Elektizitaet und Magnetismus; V. Physik der Erde und des Kosmos (einschl. Relativitaetstheorie). Braunschweig: 1925-1929. Band II, Zweite Hälfte, Erster Teil (Volume II, 2. half, 1. part), volume editor Karl W. Meissner: 1929; Kohn, Hedwig. In Band II, Chapter 22, “Photometrie.” 1104–1320; Chapter 25, “Temperaturbestimmung auf Grund von Strahlungsmessungen.” 1428–1469; Chapter 26, “Ziele und Grenzen der Lichttechnik.” 1470–1482.
Winnewisser, Brenda P. “The Emigration of Hedwig Kohn, Physicist, 1940.” Österreichische Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftgeschichte. (1998): 41–58.
Winnewisser, Brenda P. “Hedwig Kohn —eine Physikerin des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts.” Physik Journal. (2003): November, 51–57.
Additional material on Hedwig Kohn can be found in the archives of:
University of Wrocław.
American Association of University Women.
Society for the Preservation of Science and Learning, Bodleian Library, Oxford.
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Greensboro, North Carolina.
Lise Meitner Collection in the Churchill Archives Center, Churchill College, Cambridge.
Wellesley College; the Berlin Office of Restitution (Wiedergutmachungsamt, Berlin).
How to cite this page
Winnewisser, Brenda P.. "Hedwig Kohn." Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. 1 March 2009. Jewish Women's Archive. (Viewed on November 26, 2014) <http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/kohn-hedwig>.How to Conjugate Vos
See also Spanish Grammar
In Argentina and some other Latin American countries, people use the pronoun vos in place of tú.
Vos is not the same as vosotros (which is used in Spain). In grammatical terms, vos is an informal second-person singular pronoun. Vosotros is an informal second-person plural pronoun.
More simply, vos replaces tú (in Argentina, Uruguay, etc.) while vosotros replaces ustedes (in informal conversation in Spain).
For example, in Argentina you will be asked the question “¿De dónde sos (vos)? instead of “¿De dónde eres (tú)?”. Both questions mean “Where are you from?” The difference is that the first one uses vos and the second uses tú.
The use of vos is called voseo.
Rules for Conjugating Vos
Verbs are easily conjugated when using vos. To conjugate verbs in the present:
-ar verbs: drop ar and add ás to the stem
-er verbs: drop er and add és to the stem
-ir verbs: drop ir and add ís to the stem
Vos hablás (you speak)
Vos comés (you eat)
Vos decís (you say)
Note that the stem is regular. For example:
Vos tenés (you have)
Tú tienes (you have)
The only irregular verbs are ser (sos), ir (vas) and haber (has).
Vos sos (you are)
Vos vas (you go)
To conjugate verbs in the command form:
-ar verbs: drop r and add á to the stem
-er verbs: drop r and add é to the stem
-ir verbs: drop r and add í to the stem
Miráme (look at me)
Comé mucho (eat lots)
Vení acá (come here)
Decíme la verdad (tell me the truth)
All other verb conjugations (preterite, imperfect, future, etc.) are identical to tú.
¿Qué hiciste vos? (what did you do?)
¿Qué hiciste tú? (what did you do?)
¿Dónde irás vos? (where will you go?)
¿Dónde irás tú? (where will you go?)
When using vos, make the following replacements:
Use con vos instead of contigo
Use a vos instead of a ti"It's the nature of urban management in China that you go into a city and there are eight-lane roads that end in a field."
This is the year China finally became an urban nation. In April the census revealed that 49.7% of its 1.34bn population was living in cities, compared with around a fifth as economic reforms got off the ground in 1982.
By now, China's urbanites outnumber their country cousins.
"The process they have been going through over three decades took four or five decades in Japan and [South] Korea and 100 years in the west
It is not only the extraordinary speed that is "unprecedented and unparalleled",
"It represents the most managed process of urbanisation in human history.
The state is involved in every way. It manages the building of new cities. It regulates the housing of internally displaced people. It responds actively and sometimes oppressively to new waves of squatters."
The new five-year plan pushes urbanisation even further, as the government seeks to raise living standards and promote development in the poorer central and western regions
By 2025, 350 million more people will have moved to cities; more than the population of the US.
2030 the urban population will top 1 billion.
There will be 221 cities with more than 1 million inhabitants; Europe currently has 35.
The number of new skyscrapers could equate to 10 New York cities.
The impact will be felt worldwide: in prices for commodities such as steel and copper, and in greenhouse gas emissions.In 1981, Morton Grove, Illinois became the first town in the U.S. to pass a flat out ban on the possession of handguns within the town limits by anyone except police and active duty military during the performance of their official duties. In response, the town of Kennesaw, Georgia passed a gun law of their own in March of 1982. The Kennesaw law was almost the exact opposite to the Morton Grove ordinance. Rather than banning handgun possession, Kennesaw required every head-of-household to keep at least one firearm and appropriate ammunition in their home – with exemptions for those who had religious or philosophical objections to maintaining or using weapons. In other words, gun ownership was mandatory except for people who didn’t want to own a gun.
Kennesaw and Morton Grove weren’t really a fair comparison when the experiment started. Kennesaw was pretty rural while Morton Grove was solidly suburban. Kennesaw had a population of only about 5500 while Morton Grove was closer to 23,000. And Kennesaw had a per capita crime rate significantly higher than the national average while Morton Grove enjoyed a relatively low crime rate.
Morton Grove’s relatively low crime rate went up by over 15% immediately after enactment of the ban (12% more than surrounding areas) and has held pretty steady at just a tad below the national average ever since. There has been no statistical indication of the handgun ban having any positive effect.
Kennesaw is a different story though. In 1982, the year the firearms requirement was enacted, Kennesaw realized a 74% reduction in crime against persons over the previous year. That rate then dropped 45% between 1982 and 1983. In fairness, statistics showing percentage increases or decreases in crime can be very misleading especially when crime numbers and the population are both low to begin with.
After 25 years, Kennesaw and Morton Grove stand out as proof positive that the only gun control laws with any hope of reducing crime are laws which empower the law-abiding people rather than disarming them.Violence against women and girls
Levels of rape and other sexual violence against women and girls remained high. Most rapes were committed against minors.
There was slow progress in establishing a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a Special Tribunal within the Burundian justice system to investigate Burundi's violent history and to prosecute, if established, crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. However, national consultations started in July and finished in December. A network of international and national civil society organizations was closely monitoring the process. Participation was reportedly high in certain provinces.
Independent National Human Rights Commission
Progress towards the creation of an Independent National Human Rights Commission remained slow, with a new draft law emerging in late 2009.
Refugees and asylum-seekers
Between January and September, 29,052 Burundian refugees returned, principally from Tanzania, of whom 20,758 were refugees who had fled in 1972.
In October, the authorities began deporting up to 400 Rwandan asylum-seekers from the northern province of Kirundo, before reversing their position to make individual assessments of these cases. The refugees stated that they were fleeing unfair trials before the Rwandan gacaca courts and violence in the south of Rwanda.
Land disputes were commonplace and sometimes resulted in violent confrontations between people, including killings. Disputes were most widespread in the south
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, it is necessary to conform to the team (preferably interdisciplinary, with extensive knowledge in the subject) and assign a controller, which will lead the team through all the steps for applying the tool. Step 1: Establish the Problem The team must first determine the problem and write it on a consensual basis. It is advisable to raise the issue as a question (eg., Que expect from a strategic planning office?, Como can build a business?). Step 2: Collect data Collect data through any methodology that it considers appropriate (eg., direct observation, interviews, brainstorming, etc.). Step 3: the information gathered in step 2 in a Post-it in one sentence that has a clear and obvious meaning.
It is recommended that the sentences have a noun and a verb and is registered in large letters and dark. Do this activity until you have covered all the information gathered. According to the literature, an affinity diagram "typical" is from 40 to 60 elements while not unusual to have 100 to 200 ideas. Step 4: Group the Post it in similar groups All Post-it should be placed on a board so they are visible to all team members.Did You know?
Mushrooms are neither fruit nor vegetables. Technically mushrooms aren’t even plants. They are a special type of fungus.
Now shake that thought off and focus on the good:
Sunshine in a Βite | Vitamin D
Just like you and me, mushrooms have the wonderous ability to create Vitamin D when exposed to the sun. They transform the ultraviolet light from the sun into the vitamin and continue to do so even after they have been harvested. Studies suggest that mushrooms can offer as much Vitamin D as your beloved supplements but it is recommended to leave them out to soak up some sunshine (unwrapped) for 30 minutes before consuming. Keep in mind that you can eat them raw but cooking has no effect on the vitamin levels Such an easy going fungus.
They are so Heavy Metal | Vegan Iron
If you’ve been diagnosed with iron deficiency, a.k.a anemia or if you are looking for vegan iron rich sources to add to your daily diet,here you go! You’ll get 0.5 mg of iron in every 100 grams of white mushrooms.
Rag & Bones | Magnesium
Magnesium keeps your bones strong. It assures the strength and firmness of your sceleton and makes your teeth harder by helping with the absorption and metabolism of calcium.
Bloody Heroes | Potassium
They are rich in Potassium, which helps to regulate your body fluids and helps to control blood pressure. In fact, most mushrooms contain more potassium than a banana! Who knew?
Brought to you by a vegan who doesn’t even like mushrooms!It is roughly estimated that between 72,000 and 144,000 belugas live in Canadian waters. These animals are distributed in the western Arctic, high Arctic, eastern Arctic and in the St. Lawrence Estuary. The various populations of belugas are distinguished on the basis of their summer distribution and, for some populations, by measurable differences in genetic and chemical analyses. An aerial survey conducted in the Canadian high Arctic in August 1996 estimated that there are just over 21,000 Eastern High Arctic-Baffin Bay belugas. This Eastern High Arctic/Baffin Bay population lives in the eastern Canadian high Arctic regions of Lancaster Sound, Barrow Strait, Peel Sound and Baffin Bay during the summer, when the water is open. In the fall, these whales migrate to wintering areas either in the North Water polynya, in the northern end of Baffin Bay, or along the west coast of Greenland.
The beluga, meaning "white whale" in Russian, is a sociable and melodic animal. Beluga whales are born with brown or slate-grey colouring and turn completely white once they reach sexual maturity. Their average birth weight is 78 kilograms, and as they grow to adult sizes, their colour changes from brown to bluish-grey, gradually lightening to white when the whales reach six years of age. Mature males weigh between 450 to 1000 kilograms, and females range from 250 to 700 kilograms. These medium-sized whales average 3.5 metres in length for females, and 3.6 to 4 metres in length for males. In the wild, belugas can live for 75 years or more. Males reach sexual maturity at 12 to 14 years, while females become sexually mature from 8 to 14 years of age.
The Beluga Whale
A species in need of your help in Newfoundland and Labrador
There are seven distinct populations of beluga whales in Canada: Eastern High Arctic-Baffin Bay, Southeast Baffin Island-Cumberland Sound, Ungava Bay, St. Lawrence River, Western Hudson Bay, Eastern Hudson Bay and Beaufort Sea-Arctic Ocean. Individuals from any of these populations of beluga whales may visit Newfoundland and Labrador waters at some point.
All of the beluga whale populations have been assessed by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) as Threatened, Endangered or Special Concern. The St. Lawrence River beluga Whale population has also been listed as Threatened under Schedule 1 of the national Species at Risk Act (SARA) and other populations are under consideration for listing.
Regulations respecting the beluga whales can be found in the federal Marine Mammal Regulations made pursuant to the Fisheries Act. Aside from the already-listed St. Lawrence population, if other populations of the beluga whale are listed under SARA, they will be given additional protection. Under SARA, recovery strategies followed by action plans are required for species listed as extirpated, endangered and threatened, and management plans are required for species listed as special concern.
The beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) is a toothed whale and belongs to the family Monodontidae. It derives its name from the Russian word “blukha” which means “white.” This whale is also known as the “white whale” in English, “qilalgaq” in Inuktitut, Invuialuktan and Inuinactun dialects and “siqsuaq” in the Inupiat dialect.
Belugas have the following characteristics and distinguishing features:
- Adults range in total length from 2.6 to 4.5 m and can weigh up to 1900 kg.
- Adult females are about 80% the length of males; newborn calves are about half the length of their mothers.
- Adults are white in colour; newborns are born a dark grey and lighten as they mature.
- Belugas lack a dorsal fin, possibly an adaptation to ice-filled waters of the Arctic.
Beluga whales have a circumpolar distribution and are found in the Arctic as far as 82°N latitude, in the Pacific sub-Arctic south to 60°N (Alaska) and in the St. Lawrence Estuary as far south as 47°N latitude. A total of 22 populations have recently been identified, seven of which are present in Canadian waters during at least part of the year.
Beluga whales have been sighted in the waters around Newfoundland and Labrador; these sightings have usually been lone animals (often juveniles), but also rarely groups of hundreds. Genetics testing for some of these beluga whales have shown them to belong to several populations; although to date none have been from the nearby Gulf of St. Lawrence population.
Habitat and Life History
The beluga whale frequents different habitats depending on the season and progression of ice breakup and freeze. Typically, in the late spring, they congregate along ice edges, penetrate leads and may appear in river estuaries. During the summer, they are found along the coastline and in shallow waters. They also frequent specific river estuaries, which may serve as molting sites or as shelter from predators such as killer whales. In late summer or early fall, they leave the estuarine areas for deeper waters, possibly to feed intensively. From there, beluga whales migrate to offshore winter areas, sometimes over long distances. In late winter to early spring, mating occurs, although very little is known about the breeding behaviour of beluga whales. Females become sexually mature between six and seven years. Gestation takes about 13 to 14.5 months. The lactation period is estimated to be 20 to 32 months. The lifespan of the beluga whale can reach 35 to 40 years.
Beluga whales feed on small fish and crustaceans. Their diet includes Arctic cod, turbot, Arctic char, capelin, and sand lance. They also feed on shrimp, squid, mollusks and marine worms.
Beluga whales are vulnerable to predation by polar bears (Ursus maritimus) when they are near ice and killer whales (Orcinus orca). Their propensity to return to the same estuaries year after year makes them vulnerable to human hunting, disturbance and pollution from agricultural and industrial runoff. Other threats or potential threats that may affect beluga whales include noise and disturbance resulting from increased vessel traffic and competition with commercial fisheries.
Section 32(1) of the Species at Risk Act (SARA) states that
“no person shall kill, harm, harass, capture or take an individual of a wildlife species that is listed as an extirpated species, an endangered species or a threatened species.”
Text sources: Richard 2001: COSEWIC Status Report 2004
Please report all beluga whale sightings in Newfoundland and Labrador: email@example.com
For more information about aquatic species at risk:
© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada
Cat no.: Fs114-20/2010E
- Date modified:Note: this is written from the perspective of dog breeder hobbyists. While the same ethical principles apply to a hobby breeder's management of a breeding program for dogs or cats, there are some differences in dog and cat breeding practices, such as the appropriate times to breed, that are specific to each species.
Hobby Breeders are dedicated to the preservation of a particular breed of dog or cat.
We do not mass-produce animals. We do not breed our female animals at every estrus throughout their lives. We rarely make any profit from breeding a litter of kittens or puppies. Hobby breeders do not “make a living” from their endeavors and very few even derive a significant portion of their income from breeding their animals. Our litters do not buy us fancy boats or exotic vacations. We feel we've done well if a litter “pays for itself,” and occasionally there's a bit left over to buy new equipment or even attend a competition we would have skipped otherwise. There's nothing wrong with a breeder making a profit, of course, but it isn't the primary goal.
We test our potential breeding animals for known adverse conditions they might pass on to their offspring, to the extent that tests are available (DNA and other laboratory analyses, x-rays, physical exams by veterinarians with expertise in a condition). Some tests must be repeated annually to determine whether a late-developing condition has appeared. Even conditions that may not affect the animal's suitability as a pet and its quality of life are of concern to the breeder.
While tests do not yet exist for every condition in every breed, we support research to find a means of identifying heritable adverse conditions within our breeds so we can reduce occurrences in our litters. The same adverse conditions sometimes found in purebred dogs and cats are also present in mixed-breed animals if the ancestors had them. The breeding of purebreds does not create “genetic defects” and the crossing of breeds within a species does not eliminate them. Hobby Breeders are knowledgeable about their breed's health issues and take responsibility to breed away from them.
Purebred breeders carefully select breeding animals for traits established by a “breed standard” adopted by a national parent club for that breed and endorsed by a national registry organization. Physical appearance, temperament, and health and longevity of parents and ancestors are taken into consideration when planning a breeding. Breeders research the pedigree and health clearances of potential mates – hobby breeders do not mate just any two animals that happen to be of the same breed.
When a litter is produced, it is carefully raised in an appropriate physical environment. Veterinary care, socialization, exercise, good nutrition, and training are essential elements of raising a healthy litter. Hobby breeders generally sell pets with a requirement that those not of breeding quality will be spayed or neutered (S/N) by their new owners when they reach an appropriate age. Healthy pets must reach a certain level of physical maturity before they can safely be altered - juvenile S/N can interfere with the normal growth of a pet and predispose it to abnormal bone development, incontinence, and illnesses including certain cancers in later life.
Hobby breeders often keep one or more of the puppies in a litter that has the potential to grow into a future show prospect and/or compete in performance activities appropriate to the breed. Many dog breeds were developed specifically to perform work such as herding and hunting, and their ability to do this is demonstrated in field trials governed by the registry organizations and by actually working at this job with owners who hunt or keep livestock.
A Hobby Breeder's next generation can't be determined immediately, and those that appear to have potential for future breeding are raised by the breeder for several months, or placed with other knowledgeable breeders, so structure and temperament can be assessed and health clearances begun. In some breeds, exams can't determine the absence or presence or degree of a potentially adverse health condition until the animal is fully mature – and this can be at least two years in some breeds. Thus, Hobby Breeders often have adult intact animals that have not been, and may never be used for breeding. Many Hobby Breeders don't consider using an animal for breeding, regardless of its pedigree and health clearances, unless it can demonstrate its superior quality in the show ring and/or performance arena, or by “doing its job” in real-life conditions.
Most Hobby Breeders belong to clubs on a local or national level that have a Code of Ethics whose provisions they follow. Typical elements include:
Puppies are sold directly to carefully screened buyers, not through brokers or pet stores.
Pet-quality animals will be sold with spay/neuter contracts, and on limited registration or without registration until evidence of S/N is provided to the breeder.
Puppies/kittens will have age-appropriate immunizations and other veterinary care before they are transferred to a new owner.
Buyers will be given documentation including the pedigree, health history, and instructions for care and training of their new companion; the breeder will assist the buyer in dealing with problem behavior, health care issues, and other concerns that may arise.
Throughout the pet's lifetime, the breeder will accept the return of the pet they bred or assist in re-homing it if the owner cannot keep it – for any reason.
Hobby Breeders do not want their puppies/kittens in homes where they won't be good companions because of size, personality, physical requirements, and other breed traits, so we screen potential buyers and offer continuing support to those we sell to. We do not want the pets we produce to be given to shelters or rescue organizations because there wasn't a good match between breed and buyer, or because the buyer's circumstances change due to illness, relocation, divorce, or any lifestyle factor that may affect their ability to keep a pet. Many of us volunteer at our local animal shelters, foster and re-home pets for our breed's rescue group, or contribute financial support to these efforts.
We value our animals. They are not neglected or abused, or allowed to be a nuisance to our neighbors or a danger to our communities. Just as people who ski, sail, or play golf may make substantial investments in order to enjoy their hobby, we have chosen to raise and show our dogs and cats because of the enjoyment they give us and our commitment to their well-being and the continuation of quality in their particular breed.
Copyright © 2009 Elaine Hanson
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Prothrombin is a glycoprotein that is vital during blood clotting and it is a carbohydrate-protein compound present in blood plasma. They can be converted to thrombin and this can transform fibrinogen into fibrin. Coagulation is a process whereby fibrin and platelets form clots. In standard circumstances it is only during bleeding that fibrin and blood clots are produced. There is also a tendency for prolonged bleeding if there is a deficiency in prothrombin, this is commonly referred to as hypoprothrombinemia.
Human prothrombin IgG/IgM ELISA kit is designed for in-vitro quantitative analysis of IgG and IgM autoantibodies to prothrombin in human serum and plasma. This assay has a minimum analytical sensitivity limit of 1.0 U/ml.
The minimum detection sensitivity level of human prothrombin IgG and IgM autoantibodies using this human prothrombin IgG/IgM ELISA kit was 1.0 U/ml. The dynamic assay range for this kit is 6.3 – 100.0 U/ml.
- Different anticoagulant and immunological properties of anti-prothrombin antibodies in patients with antiphospholipid antibodies. Thromb Haemost. (1997) 77 (3): 486-91. Galli M., et al.
- Utility of antiphosphatidylserine/prothrombin and IgA antiphospholipid assays in systemic lupus erythematosus. J Rheumatol. (2013) 40 (3): 282-6. Akhter E., et al.
- Detection of antiphosphatidylserine/prothrombin antibodies and their potential diagnostic value. Clin Dev Immunol. (2013) 2013: 724592. Žigon P., et al.
- The clinical significance of anti-prothrombin antibodies for risk assessment of thromboembolism in patients with lupus anticoagulant. Thromb Res. (2007) 120 (2): 295-302. Sailer T., et al.
- Validation of a commercially available kit to detect anti-phosphatidylserine/prothrombin antibodies in a cohort of systemic lupus erythematosus patients. Thromb Res. (2014) 133 (3): 451-4. Sciascia S., et al.
- Full Name: Prothrombin Ab IgG / IgM ELISA Kit
- Reactivity: Human
- Sample Type: Serum, Plasma
- Sensitivity: 1.0 U/mlTips for finding & citing literature
Finding Citations at ESF/SU:
The first three search tools are interdisciplinary SUMMIT databases. Go to the databases main menu under “research tools” at http://libwww.syr.edu/ to find the databases alphabetized by name.
Academic OneFile (limit to articles with full text AND refereed publications)
ProQuest (limit to full text AND scholarly journals including peer-reviewed)
Wilson Full Text (limit to full text AND peer-reviewed)
Another SUMMIT database, Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory, allows the user to enter a journal title to get a link to detailed information on that publication, including whether it is refereed. The advanced search in Ulrich’s also allows searching by subject or keyword, with an optional limit for “refereed,” to display lists of publications.
Other good sources available free on the Internet:
Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com/) is a search engine for scholarly publications from peer-reviewed journals, professional societies, books, theses, and other sources.
Highwire Press (http://highwire.stanford.edu/) offers free articles in biological, physical and social sciences and medicine. The site includes a search engine. Highwire has also put together a webliography of links to other large archives of scientific resources (highwire.stanford.edu/lists/largest.dtl).
Public Library of Science (www.plos.org/ or available through our library catalog—search “PLOS” as a keyword), is a nonprofit scientific/medical organization making articles available free.
BioMed Central (www.biomedcentral.com/) publishes a number of journals that are available as open access, including Environmental Health and the Journal of Biology. Others are available free to registered users.
OAIster --pronounced “oyster”— (http://www.oaister.org/) indexes over three million digitized resources worldwide and can be limited to text, images, audio, or video files.
The Directory of Open Access Journals (www.doaj.org/) includes articles from more than 700 titles from around the world. Syracuse University is adding these to the e-journal list linked from the SUMMIT database home page, so you can search for specific titles or browse topics. Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics, Fishery Bulletin, Journal of Construction Education, and Biopolicy Journal are just a few of the titles included.
Scitopia (http://www.scitopia.org/scitopia/) is a federated (“one-stop shopping”) search portal for publications of a number of professional societies in the areas of science and technology. Over three million documents, including patents and government publications, can be found here.
Not “open access” (available free to anyone), but available through the SUMMIT system : Knovel: Answers for Science and Engineering. This database includes over 500 books online, with more added each month (for some titles, not every chapter may be available electronically). Book 24x7 ITPRO Collection, CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, and Gale Virtual Reference Library are other sources of reliable information available within the SUMMIT database collection.
Finding an article once you have a citation:
also: writing_tips.htm#Advice on Literature Reviews
On inaccuracy in citations:
Todd, Peter A. Darren C. J. Yeo, Daiqin Li and Richard J. Ladle. P. A. Todd. 2007. Citing Practices in Ecology: Can we believe our own words? Oikos 116: 1599-1601 PDF
And other aspects of scientific integrity:
Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. 1995. On Being A Scientist: Responsible Conduct In Research. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C. HTML PDF (purchase download copy)
Help with statistics:http://eeb.bio.utk.edu/weltzin/GenEcol03/Stats/stats.htm
also: Calculating Detectable Differences
Help withposter presentations:
Beth A. Fischer, B.A. & M.J. Zigmond. 1999. Attending Professional Meetings Successfully. University of Pittsburgh. PDF.
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
All Rights Reserved.
Last updated 03/28/11 § firstname.lastname@example.orgWollaton Hall was built between 1580 and 1588 for Sir Francis Willoughby and is believed to be designed by the Elizabethan architect, Robert Smythson, who was the architect of Hardwick Hall. The style is Elizabethan with early Jacobean elements. The floor plan has been said to derive from Serlio's drawing (in Book III of his Five Books of Architecture) of Giuliano da Majano's Villa Poggio Reale near Naples of the late fifteenth century, with elevations derived from Hans Vredeman de Vries. The architectural historian Mark Girouard has suggested that the design is in fact derived from Nikolaus de Lyra's reconstruction, and Josephus's description, of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, with a more direct inspiration being the mid-sixteenth century Mount Edgcumbe in Cornwall, which Smythson knew. The building is of Ancaster stone from Lincolnshire, and is said to have been paid for with coal from the Wollaton pits owned by Willoughby. Cassandra Willoughby, Duchess of Chandos recorded in 1702 that the master masons, and some of the statuary, were brought from Italy. The decorative but ludicrous gondola mooring rings carved in stone on the exterior walls offer some evidence of this, as do other architectural features. There are also obvious French and Dutch influences.
The building consists of a high central hall, surrounded by four towers. Unfortunately, a fire caused damage to Smythson's interior decoration of some of the ground floor rooms, but little structural damage occurred. Remodelling was carried out by Wyattville in 1801 and continued intermittently until the 1830s.
The gallery of the main hall contains Nottinghamshire's oldest pipe organ, thought to date from the end of the seventeenth century, possibly by the builder Gerard Smith. It is still blown by hand. Paintings on the ceilings and one wall are attributed to Antonio Verrio or his assistant Laguerre. Directly over the main hall is a 'prospect room', from which there are extensive views of the Park. Beneath the hall are many cellars and passages, and a well and associated reservoir tank, in which some accounts report that an admiral of the Willoughby family took a daily bath.
The Willoughbys were noted for the number of explorers they produced, most famously Sir Hugh Willoughby who died in the Arctic in 1554 attempting a North East passage to Cathay. Willoughby's Land is named after him.
Wollaton Hall in the snowfall of Winter
In 1881, the house was still owned by the head of the Willoughby family, Digby Willoughby, 9th Baron Middleton, but by then it was "too near the smoke and busy activity of a large manufacturing town... now only removed from the borough by a narrow slip of country", so that the previous head of the family, Henry Willoughby, 8th Baron Middleton, had begun to let the house to tenants and in 1881 it was vacant.
The hall reopened in April 2007 after being closed for refurbishment. The prospect room at the top of the house, and the kitchens in the basement, were opened up for the public to visit, though this must be done on one of the escorted tours. The latter can be booked on the day, last about an hour, and a small charge is made.
In 2011, key scenes from the Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises were filmed outside Wollaton Hall. The Hall was featured as the latest Wayne Manor.
Thanks for all for the nice comments! Just now i noticed that I just "talked" about the original building and didn't about the MOC!
The creation was built on a BPs area 96x96 (without gardens).
Its very simple, raraly used SNOT... just some brackets here n there. Its made of around 40 modular parts. Imagine a set of 40 pieces... this is a MOC with 40 modular parts. Used the modular building technic for the connections... technic bricks connected with pins technic on the horizontal and a base of plates above tiles on vertical. The most difficult to do was find the right places to "break" de modular parts (its a 96x96 but not 9 BPs 32x32, there are a lot of 16x32 in different directions).
Sorry for my english but my language is the portuguese.
Quoting --R.K. Blast--
Wow! Brilliant work! I visited there last summer with my girlfriend and this is a spectacular recreation. Well done.
Thanks... but its faraway of my goal! I want to build another floor as the original building but for that I need to enlarge all the house... and hundreds of DG windows! Anyway by now is closer of the original than on this pic.CONTACT: GARY GALLUZZO
300 Plaza Centre One
Iowa City IA 52242
(319) 384-0009; fax (319) 384-0024
Release: Aug. 28, 2002
Biologist Conducts Research On Origins Of 'Red Tide'
A University of Iowa researcher is studying a phenomenon that may help scientists
to better understand the cause of the ecologically and financially costly
"red tide" that periodically kills millions of fish along the U.S.
Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
Debashish Bhattacharya, assistant professor of biological sciences in the
University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, whose work is published
in the Aug. 9 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, says his goal is to explain the origin of the cell component called
a "plastid," responsible for photosynthesis in marine algae.
"The dinoflagellates, or marine plankton, are one of the most economically
important single-celled organisms because of the toxic red tides that they
cause resulting in fish and shellfish mortality. Our work lays the foundation
for understanding the basic biology of these species," he says.
Red tide is a natural phenomenon that results from massive blooms of tiny,
single-celled algae called Karenia brevis, usually found in warm salt water.
Bhattacharya notes that algae, as primary producers in the food chain, are
critical to maintaining life on Earth, and the plastid, in turn, is the cell
organelle responsible for algae photosynthesis. As a result, the question
of plastid origin is an important problem in evolutionary biology, Bhattacharya's
primary field of research.
"We show in this paper that the dinoflagellate plastid originates from
a so-called tertiary endosymbiosis in which the dinoflagellate 'host' cell
has stolen its photosynthetic ability from another algal group, the haptophytes,"
he says. "My lab is interested in how endosymbiosis has driven the origin
and diversification of the huge diversity of photosynthetic eukaryotes (single-celled
organisms) on our planet. We believe that endosymbiosis is one of the most
important evolutionary forces in the history of the Earth."
Bhattacharya says that his laboratory has the best phylogenetic resources
to unravel the evolutionary history of these algae. He adds that his group
recently was awarded a $790,000 grant from the National Science Foundation
and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to generate a genomic database for
the toxic dinoflagelate Alexandrium tamarense. He says the database will be
valuable to a large number of scientists working on the evolution and basic
biology of various algae.A lot of times we are used to holding our pee for too long, whether it’s due to daily activities, the work load of the day, or simply to avoid public restrooms. These and other factors raise the odds of developing urinary infections, but it’s possible to have an infection if you present:
It’s important to treat urinary infections so they don’t damage the kidneys. Urinary tract infections are diseases that can be treated in time, and with the right treatment they can be prevented from ever occurring again.
Nyvu Retard is prescribed for the cavity disinfection of the urinary tract when there is infection caused by sensible organisms such as E Coli, Klebsiella, and enterococcus, Enterobacteriaceae, Proteus and Staphylococcus. In acute and chronic urinary infections: Pyelitis, cystitis, pyelonephritis.
Thi content is of informactive nature, and does not substitute a doctor’s consult.The following multi-part series is taken from a paper we published last year in the free, on-line journal Energies. You may access the entire PDF here. All references can be found in the pdf. Part 1 can be found here. Part 2 can be found here.
In this final installment of the Minimum EROI series we calculate the minimum EROI required from our energy sources to support the current transportation infrastructure of the U.S.
5. Toward a more Comprehensive EROI: A first Estimate of the Downstream Costs associated with Refining, Transporting and Using Oil in the U.S.
If we extend the energy cost of obtaining a fuel from the wellhead towards the final consumer the energy delivered goes down and the energy cost of getting it to that point goes up, both reducing the EROI. This begins the analysis of what might be the minimum EROI required in society. We do this by taking the standard EROI (i.e. EROImm; about 10:1) for oil and then include in the denominator the energy requirements to get fuel to the point of use (i.e. EROIpou) and the energy required to use it, generating an EROIext, i.e. extended EROI. In this analysis we assume the energy costs are paid for in oil.
5.1. Calculating EROI at the point of use
Refinery losses and costs: Oil refineries use roughly 10 percent of the energy in fuel to refine it to the form that we use. In addition about 17 percent of the material in a barrel of crude oil ends up as other petroleum products, not fuel. So for every 100 barrels coming into a refinery only about 73 barrels leaves as usable fuel. Natural gas does not need such extensive refining although an unknown amount needs to be used to separate the gas into its various components and a great deal, perhaps as much as 25 percent, is lost through pipeline leaks and to maintain pipeline pressure. Coal is usually burned to make electricity at an average efficiency of 35 – 40 percent. However the product, electricity, has at least a factor of three higher quality so that we do not count as costs the inefficiency of that process. What this means, however, is that oil resources that have an EROI of 1.1 MJ returned per MJ invested at the wellhead cannot provide energy profits for a society because at least 1.27 MJ of crude oil is required to deliver that one MJ to society as a fuel.
Transportation costs: Oil weighs roughly 0.136 tons per barrel. Transportation by truck uses about 3400 BTU/ton-mile or 3.58 MJ per ton-mile. Transportation by fuel pipeline requires 500 BTU/ton-mile or 0.52 MJ per ton-mile. We assume that the average distance that oil moves from port or oil field to market is about 600 miles. Thus a barrel of oil, with about 6.2 GJ of contained chemical energy, requires on average about 600 miles of travel x 0.136 tons per barrel x 3.58 MJ per ton-mile = 292 MJ per barrel spent on transport, or about 5% of the total energy content of a barrel of oil to move it to where it is used (Table 1). If the oil is moved by pipeline (the more usual case), this percentage becomes about 1%. We assume that coal moves an average of 1500 miles, mostly by train at roughly 1720 BTU per ton mile or about 1.81 MJ per ton-mile, so that the energy cost to move a ton of bituminous coal with about 32 GJ/Ton to its average destination is 1500 miles x 1.81 MJ per ton-mile = 2715 MJ per ton, or 2.715 GJ per ton of coal, which is about 8 percent of it’s energy content (Table 1). Line losses, if shipped as electricity, are roughly similar. So adding between 1 and 8 percent of the energy value of fuels for delivery costs does not seem unreasonable. We assume that these costs would decrease all EROIs by a conservative 5 percent (or 3 percent of crude oil in the ground) to get it to the user, in other words the fuel must have an EROI of at least 1.05: 1 to account for delivery of that fuel.
Thus we find that our EROIpou is about 40 percent (17 percent non fuel loss, plus 10 percent to run the refinery, plus 10 percent extraction, plus about 3 percent transportation loss) less than the EROImm indicating that at least for oil one needs an EROI at the mine mouth of roughly 1.4 to get that energy to the point of final use.
5.2. Extended EROI: Calculating EROI at the point of use for oil correcting for the energy required for creating and maintaining infrastructure
We must remember that usually what we want is energy services, not energy itself, which usually has little intrinsic economic utility, e.g. for most oil we want kilometers driven, not just the fuel that does that. That means that we need to count in our equation not just the “upstream” energy cost of finding and producing the fuels themselves but all of the “downstream” energy required to deliver the service (in this case transportation), i.e. 1) building and maintaining vehicles, 2) making and maintaining the roads used, 3) incorporating the depreciation of vehicles, 4) incorporating the cost of insurance, 5) etc. All of these things are as necessary to drive that mile as the gasoline itself, at least in modern society. For the same reason businesses pay some 45 or 50 cents per mile when a personal car is used for business, not just the 10 cents or so per mile that the gasoline costs. So in some sense the dollar required for delivering the service (a mile driven) is some 4 to 5 times the direct fuel costs, and this does not include the taxes used to maintain most of the roads and bridges. Now many of these costs, especially insurance, use less energy per dollar spent than fuel itself and also less than that for constructing or repairing automobiles or roads, although this is certainly not the case with the money used to deliver the fuel itself used in these operations.
On the other hand the energy intensity of one dollar’s worth of fuel is some 8 times greater than that for one dollar’s worth of infrastructural costs. Table 2 gives our estimates of the energy cost of creating and maintaining the entire infrastructure necessary to use all of the transportation fuel consumed in the US. The energy intensities are rough estimates of the energy used to undertake any economic activity derived from the national mean ratio of GDP to energy (about 8.7 MJ/dollar), the Carnegie-Mellon energy calculator web site and from Robert Herendeen (personal communication). Specifically Herendeen estimates for 2005 that heavy construction uses about 14 MJ per dollar. In the 1970s insurance and other financial services had about half (7) the energy intensities as heavy industry.
Our calculation, then, of adding in the energy costs of getting the oil in the ground to the consumer in a usable from (40 percent) plus the pro-rated energy cost of the infrastructure necessary to use the fuel (24 percent) is 64 percent of the initial oil in the ground (Table 3). Thus
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Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia (DVD), sometimes referred to as “childhood apraxia of speech,” is a type of DCD that can cause speech and language impairments. The key difficulties include:
- controlling the speech organs
- making speech sounds
- sequencing sounds within a word or forming words into sentences
- controlling breathing
- suppressing salivation and phonation when talking or singing
- slow language development
Research has found that children with DCD and normal language skills still experience learning difficulties despite relative strengths in language. This means that for a student with DCD, her working memory abilities determine her learning difficulties. Any strength in language that she has is not able to sufficiently support her learning.
When the issue is raised, the child’s doctor is likely to make a referral to a physiotherapist and/or occupational therapist to help in the diagnosis of DCD, and may involve educational, clinical or neuropsychologists in the assessment of associated problems.
The two main questions to be answered when assessing a child with possible DCD are, first, does he or she have significant coordination difficulties compatible with DCD and, second, is there an underlying neurological or physical disorder? An underlying neurological or medical disorder should always be considered and excluded.
Assessments for DCD typically require a developmental history, detailing ages at which significant developmental milestones occurred (e.g., crawling, walking, etc.). Motor skills screening includes activities designed to indicate DCD (e.g., variations on walking activities, touch sensitivity, physical sequencing, and balancing). Screening tests that can be used to assess DCD include:
- Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency
- Movement Assessment Battery for Children
- Peabody Developmental Motor Scales
- Test of Gross Motor Development
Therapists use a range of activities to assess the youngster's level of ability in certain crucial areas (e.g., body awareness, cerebral integration, kinesthetic awareness, limb girdle stability, and motor skills).
In general, therapists use two main methods of treatment: process orientated and task orientated. Process‐orientated therapy concentrates on developing sensory modalities involved in motor performance (e.g., the sensory integration approach). The task‐orientated approach aims to improve specific tasks through practice.
Other approaches have focused on improving the child’s self‐esteem rather than the core problems of coordination. Some clinics offer transitional programs to help kids with DCD meet the increasing physical and educational demands when moving from primary to secondary education.
Although kids with DCD usually benefit from physical therapies, many receive as much benefit from psychological support to help them develop compensatory strategies, and cope with their motor impairment and loss of self‐esteem.
Although there is currently no cure for DCD, early intervention may help to reduce the physical, emotional, and social consequences that are often associated with this condition. Without intervention, Asperger’s kids with DCD will continue to exhibit poor motor skills – and show deficits in other areas as well. These young people can - and do - learn to perform certain motor tasks, but they have difficulty when faced with new, age-appropriate ones and are at risk for secondary difficulties that result from their motor challenges. Also, it is important to note that kids with DCD often experience considerable difficulties at school; therefore, it is necessary for parents to educate their child’s teachers about this disorder.
The Aspergers Comprehensive HandbookPhage Paradigm in Development of Targeted Medications
Auburn University, US
Keywords: phage display
Abstract:Genetically driven phage nanobiotechnology has allowed development of libraries of diverse nanostructures expressed on the phage surface providing a rich resource of diagnostic, detection and pharmaceutical probes. Phage engineering, which is based on natural mechanisms of selection, amplification and self-assembly, allows directed nano-fabrication of bioselective materials with possible applications in gene/drug-delivery, biosensors, nanoelectronics, biosorbents, and other areas of medicine and technology. In particular, landscape phage expressing tumor-specific peptides fused to all copies of the major coat protein pVIII can be converted easily into gene-encapsulating particles or drug-loaded vesicles that acquire the ability to recognize the same receptors, cells, tissues and organs that have been used for selection of the precisely targeted phage. The merge of phage display technology with nanotechnology during the last several years is very promising and has already shown its vitality and productivity contributing vigorously to different areas of medicine and technology, such as medical diagnostics and monitoring, molecular imaging, targeted drug and gene delivery, vaccine development, as well as bone and tissue repair. This presentation focuses on the progress made in the development of these new nanomaterials and discusses the prospects of using phage as a bioselectable molecular recognition interface in medical and technical devices based on the experience of the author in this area.COLD TRAIL: A special report.; Congo Not Alone in Ending Massacre Inquiry
Published: May 7, 1998
(Page 2 of 3)
The United Nations refused some demands, like the budget for Congolese ''counterparts,'' but gave in to others, including the requirement that investigators be accompanied by local officials, and the time frame. The Government insisted on including the killings inside Rwanda, diplomats said, to lessen any suggestion of their culpability by comparing the number of Hutu victims to the half million Tutsi and moderate Hutu killed in Rwanda's civil war.
With each new concession, the Congolese raised the stakes.
They staged street protests, which were announced on the state radio, against the United Nations team in Kinshasa; they accused investigators of maintaining close ties to the political opposition; they issued new restrictions about where investigators could go.
The First Stalemate
Town in the West Becomes the Focus
In this growing confrontation between the Government and the United Nations, access to Mbandaka, in the west, quickly became the prize.
Accounts by foreign journalists and local witnesses had established that on May 13, just four days before Mr. Kabila's forces captured Kinshasa, rebel troops in Mbandaka had massacred at least 200 unarmed Rwandan Hutu.
The United Nations focused on Mbandaka because the late date of the killings meant that evidence was likely to be freshest there.
But for the Congolese, an investigation in Mbandaka, hard by the western border, was particularly threatening. Killings in the east, near Rwanda, could perhaps be written off as random acts of overzealous or vengeful Tutsi soldiers. But for Hutu refugees to be tracked down and killed at the opposite end of this huge country, when Mr. Kabila's victory in the war was already assured, would strongly suggest deliberate extermination.
Months of haggling between the United Nations and the Government followed, marked by warnings, particularly from European donors, that reconstruction aid for Congo would be jeopardized if the investigation were blocked. The first major donors' conference for Congo was scheduled to be held in Brussels in early December 1997.
Fed up with the delays, in early October Secretary General Annan withdrew the mission's leaders and spread word that a decision to pull out altogether was close.
Mr. Richardson, the United Nations envoy, began a high-profile effort to save the inquiry. His involvement dated back to the early allegations of massacres involving Mr. Kabila's troops in the spring of 1997, when he engaged in shuttle diplomacy between Mobutu and Mr. Kabila.
Mr. Richardson's diplomacy soon fell into a pattern: Congolese officials stubbornly blocked the investigators, repeatedly bringing the mission to the brink of withdrawal. Mr. Richardson and other senior American diplomats then issued public warnings to the Government that aid depended on the mission's successful conclusion. Mr. Kabila then pledged cooperation.
Simultaneously, according to Congolese and United Nations officials and American diplomats, Washington was applying strong pressure on Mr. Annan to maintain the inquiry.
Conflicting Signals From Washington
But even as Washington publicly insisted on Mr. Kabila's cooperation, American and British diplomats had quietly begun to argue for separating the outcome of the investigation from international aid.
Beginning early last summer, in numerous briefings with American journalists, senior American diplomats alternately expressed concerns that Mr. Kabila was too weak to incur the wrath of its Rwandan allies by allowing the investigation, or that the focus of international efforts should instead be on bringing stability to the region.
For years, the United States had supported Mobutu, but had concluded that his rule had grown too corrupt and that Congo had become a potential source of instability.
Thus Washington had provided vital, if discreet, political support to Mr. Kabila's rebellion, and rushed to embrace Mr. Kabila once he took power, calling the stability of Congo and its new Government ''the key to stability in all of Central Africa.''
At the United States Embassy in Kinshasa, meanwhile, diplomats were bending over backward to shift the blame for the investigators' troubles to the United Nations. A senior diplomat in Kinshasa, for example, castigated the team for its rejection of the Government's insistence that their inquiry be carried out only in the east.
''When are these people going to stop complaining and just get down to work,'' one American diplomat said last fall.
Asked in October why Washington seemed to be growing increasingly frustrated with the investigators, the diplomat said, ''We will not hitch the fortunes of this entire nation to an investigation into the fate of a bunch of Rwandan refugees, many of whom were themselves killers.''
But Mr. Richardson said the United States policy was that Mr. Kabila had to account for the massacres. ''It was not simply to prop him up politically so that he could get international aid,'' he said.
So on Oct. 23, Mr. Richardson returned to Congo to salvage the mission, and after direct talks with Mr. Kabila announced a ''breakthrough'' that led several days later to the return of the team's leaders and a resumption of the inquiry.
The Second Stalemate
An Angry Welcome, Carefully StagedThis weekend we are celebrating Veterans Day, a day on which we honor all American veterans of all wars. On Nov. 11, 1918, at 11 a.m., the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the Armistice was signed which ended World War I. One elderly man being interviewed about that day in 1918 said, “Celebrating the end of the fighting, we felt sure that there would never be another war.”
As we pay tribute to the men and women of our armed forces, we still dream of the day when the people of our world shall live together in peace and wars will be no more.
Years ago a boy in Russia buried a little green stick on the bank of the Volga River. Running home, he told his little brother what he had done. “It has a great secret on it,” he said. “When men know the secret on my little green stick they will not quarrel or be angry with one another again.”
Leo Tolstoy wanted to know the answer. All along the river he searched for the little green stick his brother had buried. He never found it, but for the rest of his life he tried to guess the secret.
Down through the centuries many people have looked for an answer. War and peace stands out as the greatest challenge of our day. The secret on the little green stick—what was it?
In South America there are two countries that are side by side of each other. Argentina lies along the Atlantic; Chile lies along the Pacific. Between the two tower the Andes Mountains.
Years ago war broke out between the two nations over a boundary dispute. You see the Andes are covered with snow the year round. It is almost impossible to tell where the boundary of one country ends and the other begins. Each country thought the worst of the other.
Bishop Benavente of Argentina felt the war was wrong. Fighting and killing was evil even with wicked people, but the people of Chile were their friends.
On Easter Sunday the people crowded the churches. The bishop preached as he had never preached before. Everyone said he seemed inspired of God. Indeed, he was. God was speaking through him to the people.
As a result the rulers of the two countries placed the dispute before the king of England for arbitration. His envoys examined the boundary and found that each country was partly right and each was partly wrong. A new boundary was drawn and peace was restored. What a lesson the two countries had learned. From their guns and cannons they molded a statue of Christ twenty-six feet high.
Today The Christ of the Andes stands at the top of the mountain range on a granite hemisphere. The left hand supports a cross and the right hand is raised in benediction over the two countries.
Engraved at the base of the monument are these words: “Sooner shall these mountains crumble into dust than the people of Argentina and Chile break the peace sworn at the feet of Christ the Redeemer.” Rev. Nichols is Minister Emeritus of First Christian Church, Temple, where he was senior minister for 23 years. He writes a religious column for several newspapers.Tutorials/Dynamic Range Compression
From Bjoern Hassler
1 Theory
The whole subject of dynamic range compression, as well as limiting, is vast, and detailed discussions can be found easily with google. The aim of the present article is to give a nuts-and-bolts introduction, aimed at practical use, and bypassing some of the subtler points.
(Note that 'dynamic range compression' has nothing to do with 'bitrate' compression.)
1.1 The Bascis
You will have recorded your signal to a reference level, typically -12dB (or -20dB), i.e. your signal has some headroom, with the typical signal level peaking around -12dB. Often, you maintain this headroom throughout the edit ('mix to -12dB'). For theatrical sound (cinema, DVD, etc) you might leave your audio like this.
However, for online delivery, particularly of speech-based audio, you want your audio to be as loud as possible: Your listeners listen to your mp3 on the train, and the output of their mp3 player might not go high enough to make the audio intelligible. Same for poor speakers on laptops etc. More generally, you might want to even out differences in volume.
Radio broadcasts also have dynamic range compression applied, so that listeners get consistent high volume.
1.2 Normalisation
So say your input signal looks like this:
There might be some peaks above -12dB, but let's assume that the signal peaks at -12dB for the sake of argument.
The one thing that you should do in any case, is to normalise. The following diagram shows the orignal signal (dashed blue), and the normalised signal. The signal is simply scaled. As this is a basic operation, it should work well even in basic audio editors.
If for some reason you can't apply Dynamic Range Compression (see below), you might want to scale down some of the peaks, and then normalise again. If you have the option, you want to normalise to 0dB.
1.3 Dynamic Range Compression
Roughly speaking, the 'dynamic range' of your signal is the difference between the quieter passages ('whispering' in a movie) and the louder passages ('explosions' in a movie). For theatrical sound, with good speakers, you want a large dynamic range. For online video and audio, you want a smaller dynamic range. 'Dynamic Range Compression' turns large dynamic ranges into smaller dynamic ranges.
A dynamic range compressor will have (some of the) these settings: threshold, ratio, attack, decay, knee, gain.
The threshold is the dB value, above which the compression is applied. To determine the threshold, you play back your audio, and look at the level meters. What is the typical value? Often this will be -12dB and -20dB. For very quietly recorded audio it can be lower. Just read it off the level meter. That's your threshold.
The 'ratio' is the amount by which the audio is compressed. A typical ratio for moderate compression is 1:4. The following diagram shows 1:4 compression with -12dB threshold applied to the signal.
The quieter passages aren't affected, but louder passages (or peaks) are reduced.
Attack, decay, knee: If your compressor has a speech setting, it will probably work for you. You'll still need to adjust the threshold, but you're probably ok with the default settings for the other parameters. If you need to select items manually: For speech compression, you want a short attack time (1-10ms), and a slow decay time (100ms-1s). For knee, you can use the default setting.
Note: Compression is a subtle process, and you should use the best compression software you have access to.
1.4 Dynamic Range Compression with autogain
After compression, your signal has a headroom. In our example, this is 9dB (i.e. 3/4 of 12dB). You then want to normalise again, to remove that headroom. This is shown in the next diagram.
Your compressor might have a gain setting, that allows gain to be applied after compression. It might have an auto-gain setting, that automatically normalises the signal after compression. If you have this setting, turn it on.
Your audio is now ready for web export!
2 More theory anybody?
You can have a look at these three (overlapping) articles, to find out more about dynamic range compression:
3 Hardware compression
Sometimes your signal may already be compressed. Some devices have got hardware compression built in, and you might want to check that you're not overcompressing your signal.
If you are doing a live broadcast, e.g. live streaming, you'll also want to use a hardware compressor, so that the audio level is high enough for the live audience. Ideally, you'd record the uncompressed signal for archive and post-processing, while you'd apply good compression for the live audience.
4 Recipes
Work in progress.
4.1 Final Cut Pro
- Import DV file as usual (or, for audio only, import the aiff or wav file)
- Look at audio portion
- highlight and alt-L to unlink channels
- delete one channel (if you don't need it!)
- double click clip and pan the audio to centre (pan=0)
- apply Compressor/Limiter (~ -12dB, 1:4)
- Mark > Audio Peaks > Mark
- Wait. Only few audio peaks should show
- Reduce levels by -1dB (drag red line with apple key pressed)
- Use shift-m and alt-m to jump between markers to check that levels are no longer distorting
- Export to QuickTime, either a full quality 'quicktime movie', or, if audio only, select 'aiff' as format, and choose 44.1kHz, 16 bit, mono as output
- Outside FCP, compress to mp3, 32kbps, mono.
4.2 Soundtrack
4.3 Audacity (1.3.4)
5 Links and tools
- Not open source, but free (adware) and cross platform http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator (Haven't tested this yet.)Learn How To Juggle
Learning to juggle is fun, challenging, and doesn't even need expensive equipment. While the best way to learn is to be taught by a juggler, these step-by-step directions can get you started.
What you'll need: You can learn with just about any ball sized objects that you can catch in your hand. Balls that bounce or roll away (like tennis balls) can be challenging and frustrating. Most juggling teachers prefer bean bags for beginners.
If you want to start slow or are teaching younger students (under 12) try starting with these Warm Up Exercises.
Watch the animation to the right to get a general idea. Diagrams to go with the directions below are coming soon!
Learn How to Juggle
A Step by Step Guide to Juggling 3 Balls
Step 1. Start by holding just one ball. Cradle it in your palm with your elbows at your sides and relax. This is going to be fun!
Toss the ball gently and watch it fall to the floor.
Now, the most important step!
Bend over and pick it up!
If you aren’t afraid to pick it up and try again you have what it takes to become a great juggler!
Go to Step 2.
Step 2. One Ball
With your hands about waist level and keeping your elbows at your sides, use a scooping motion to toss the ball gently from one hand to the other. Keep your palms up as your hand goes down, then up to toss the ball. The ball should go about as high as your forehead in an arc as wide as your body. As the ball goes from hand to hand it should travel in the path of a sideways figure 8 -always releasing in the middle and catching on the outside. This is the basic cascade pattern.
Keep throwing from hand to hand, letting your fingers close around the ball after each catch, even after this becomes boring. You are teaching your muscles to make each throw the same until this becomes second nature.
Step 3. The Exchange
With a ball in each hand, throw one across just like before, then just as it begins to fall, throw the second ball in an arc right back to the first hand. If you do it right you can count a steady rhythm of throw-throw-catch-catch and the balls will have switched hands (if you have different colored balls you can check).
If it didn’t work (most of you won’t succeed at first) here are some pointers: if the balls collided, remember to scoop each toss -the balls should draw an imaginary “X” in front of you. Also notice that the balls don’t go around in circles, so if you’re passing one ball underneath you’ll get stuck when it’s time to add the third ball.
When you get it to work, keep practicing until it’s comfortable, then practice starting with your opposite hand first. If you throw the balls just right you can catch them without letting your elbows leave your sides to reach forward.
Try to do the exchange ten times in a row (alternating right-left and left-right) before moving to the next step.
Step 4. Preparing for Three
To start with three, you’ll need to hold two balls in one hand. Hold one in your palm, then extend your thumb and first two fingers to grab the second. You should be able to throw the one in your fingers while holding the one in your palm. Also try catching a ball that’s already holding one (using the same fingers). This will be an important skill when you want to stop juggling.
Before moving on, here is an exercise to help visualize what’s coming next. First stand against a table or sit on the floor with a ball in each hand and a ball on the surface in front of you. Set the ball in your right hand down in front of your left hand then pick up the ball to the right. Now set the ball in your left hand down in front of your right hand and pick up the ball on the left. Now start with the right hand again and keep repeating. This is no-gravity juggling using the table in place of the air. Notice that there is just one ball in the air that you simply exchange with the ones in your hands- right, left, right, left, and so on.
Step 5. The Third Toss
The goal this time is to do two exchanges in a row.
Take three balls with two in one hand, one in the other. If you are left handed you will probably want to start with two in your left hand.
Throw the first ball from the hand holding two in an arc just like before
As it begins to fall, throw the ball from the opposite hand and catch the first in your empty hand (so far it’s just like before)
Now, as the second ball heads to the first hand, throw the third ball across in time to catch the second ball
Finally catch the third ball in your fingers triumphantly!
Study the diagrams to help you visualize it then give it a try!
This step will take a bit of patience but it’s worth it. The little bit of effort will separate you from the masses who gave up after a few half hearted attempts. Every time you pick them up to try again is a success in itself. When you have succeeded in catching all three, arrange the balls so you always start with two in the same hand.
When juggling, your hands go up and down alternately. Pretend you’re lifting weights alternating right and left just bending at the elbows. Now change the movement into circles (like spinning jump ropes in double-dutch, but in reverse). Practice this for a while to get used to the motion.
A common problem is that the third ball goes too far forward and just out of reach. As you concentrate on the first two balls in the air, you panic and fling the third ball just to get rid of it. To fix this try not to throw the third ball until after you’ve caught the first. Hold onto it until you need to catch the second ball, then you will have more control to throw where you want (to fly up but not away).
The ideal juggling pattern stays in one plane. That is, the balls don’t travel forward or back, just up and down, left and right.
Step 6. Juggling
Now it’s just a matter of keeping it going. Try adding a fourth throw or a fifth keeping a steady rhythm alternating hands. Simply continue exchanging the ball in the air with one in your hands.
At this stage it is helpful to practice standing over a bed. It cuts down on bending over for all the drops (there will be many) and helps prevent you from throwing too far in front of you. Also take occasional breaks to let all the new information sink in. Your brain and muscles are learning a new skill, and in time you won’t need to think about it anymore.
Keep track of how many catches you can make before stopping. A run of 6 catches in a row means you’re officially a juggler. Congratulate yourself when you can make 10 catches and stop without dropping. Then go for 25, or even 100!
So you want to get fancy with throws under the leg or behind the back? Simply repeat the learning process with one ball again, but doing your trick throw. The practice the exchange with two ball so you can do your trick throw as the first or second toss. Finally try throwing the trick into the middle of your juggling pattern. It usually helps to make the throw just before the trick a little higher to give you more time.
Final Words of Wisdom:
It’s nice if you can catch a bad throw, but it’s better to aim your throws to where your hands already are. Practice at least a little every day for steady improvement -keep your balls in plain view to remind you. Find some friends that you can juggle with or even teach. Good luck and don’t give up!The North American region, which is comprised of the United States of America and Canada, represents nearly 25 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP). Many opportunities exist to transition to more sustainable consumption and production patterns and a range of efforts have been undertaken in the region, such as voluntary labeling programs, regulatory policies, and consumer information campaigns.
Furthermore, a growing movement of civil society organizations (CSOs), including public-interest organizations, academic researchers, and community groups, are working to advance sustainability at the local, regional, national, and global levels.
A number of labeling programs have been developed in North America covering a range of commercial products. Canada’s Ecologo, for example, covers more than 150 product categories, including cleansers, building supplies, and office supplies. Green Seal, another North American eco-labeling system that is based in the U.S., meets the internationally recognized ISO 14024 requirements. The U.S. Organic Foods Production Act certifies organic farming for than 40 private organizations and state agencies and continues to develop and implement standards for agricultural products to assure consumer products meet consistent standards. Other successful programs in the region include Energy Star, a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE), which provides information to consumers on the energy efficiency of a range of appliances, and Walmart’s Sustainable Product Index, which aims to accelerate the adoption of best practices among Walmart’s suppliers as well as provide customers with the information they need to assess products’ sustainability.
North America is notable for its use of partnerships to promote sustainable consumption and production efforts. The U.S. Green Building Council, for example, developed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification program for buildings through an open, consensus-based process that engaged multiple stakeholders. The resulting LEED certification program provides a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions. The North American Sustainable Consumption Alliance (NASCA) is another example of a strategic partnership of people and organizations that are working to promote more sustainable consumption patterns in North America. NASCA members share the common goal of encouraging individuals, businesses, institutions and governments to reduce their impact on the environment and society by changing how they consume materials and resources. Other notable initiatives that aim to facilitate collaborative efforts on sustainable consumption and production include the Citizens’ Network for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative (SCORAI).
Launched in 2003, the Marrakech Process is a global and informal multi-stakeholder platform that supports the implementation of projects and strategies on sustainable consumption and production and the elaboration of a Global Framework for Action on SCP, commonly known as the 10-Year Framework on Programmes on SCP (10 YFP). To provide regional contributions to this global process, two regional workshops have been organized since 2008. The first North American Workshop on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) was held in 2008 in Washington, D.C. with the support of the UNEP’s Regional Office for North America (RONA) and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). The second regional workshop, which was held in Ottawa in 2011, focused on green buildings.
The workshops served to facilitate a multi‐stakeholder dialogue on sustainable consumption and production initiatives in North America. The first workshop set out to define a vision on concepts and principles for SCP in North America, and allowed for open and constructive discussions on objectives, values, benefits, and means for achieving action in this region. The second workshop focused on green building as a high‐leverage option to help transform production and consumption patterns for sustainability. The meeting provided a useful forum through which to engage the green building communities in both Canada and the United States and foster collaboration and knowledge sharing on building design. The meeting also helped initiate discussions with the American and the Canadian governments on the importance of managing and assessing data on life cycle emissions and energy usage. The final report for the first workshop can be found here, and the final report for the second workshop can be located here.There were ancient writings that noted a liquid much like balsamic called Saba, which came from the Greco, Roman, and Egyptian periods.
Originally Saba was made from Trebbiano and Lambrusco grapes but did include other types of grapes from the region. The grapes were cooked until the liquid became thick and reduced to less than 50%. The Saba was primarily used for sweetening just about anything. It was used with meats dried or cooked, wild bird and game, grain dishes, berries, and as a sweetener with other liquids to drink.
At some point Saba became a lost art as war and other cultural influences became more prevalent. Historical evidence seems to indicate the first signs of aged balsamic vinegar began around 1000 AD. It was valued as a prized possession and a special gift just as well-aged balsamic vinegar is today. It was also used in ancient times as a disinfectant and as a perfect elixir for external and internal use. (It is still used today as a digestive.)
The basic process is simple. The grapes are harvested and then cooked down to a "must" (thick almost syrupy liquid) in copper cauldrons. It is then barreled, and here in lies the real secrets of the closely guarded family recipes. It is the type of wood, the aging and transferring of vinegar from barrel to barrel that makes the difference between balsamic vinegars.
Only certain woods like oak, cherry, chestnut, mulberry, acacia, juniper, and ash are used for the barrels. In the beginning there is a mother sauce from which all aged balsamic vinegar begin. A barrel is never completely emptied. There is always a percentage that is left in the original barrel as new balsamic is added to continue the aging process for the newly added younger balsamic vinegar.
Each barrel has a hole to allow for evaporation and for air so that time, change in weather, heat, and cold of the season can work its miracle in the aging and acetification process (the mellowing of the sharp acidic taste). On average the balsamic stays in each barrel for at least a year although that may be part of each families secret recipe. Some balsamic vinegar may remain in some barrels a little longer in the later years to produce heavier notes of certain wooden barrels.
How long it stays in each barrel before being transferred to another barrel and what percentage remains in the original barrel is what gives each balsamic its distinct flavors. We do know that the longer the balsamic stays in the barrel the thicker and sweeter it becomes picking up the nuances of the various woods in the barrels.
The heavier vinegar taste of young balsamic vinegar gives way to a sweeter, syrupy-smooth viscosity. Just a tiny drop of well-aged balsamic vinegar fills the mouth with flavors that are deep and full of mystery that is almost indescribable. It's a taste that should be enjoyed slowly and remembered for the moment.
Points to Remember
Remember that excellent quality aged balsamic vinegar (12 years and older) should not be governed by price. Like a fine wine know the producer of the balsamic vinegar and their reputation, its origins, type of grapes used, any additives such as sugar, is it aged in wood or stainless steel barrels and for how long, any certifications or awards, and age of the balsamic vinegar.
Last but not least on this little check list: does it meet and adhere to the demanding guidelines set by the Consorzio established in the mid-1970's. (The governing body that oversees the production of and sets the quality standards by which all traditional balsamic vinegars are measured) in Modena, Italy.
There is one final misconception regarding balsamic vinegar. Unlike wine, which can age and the complexities change in a bottle; balsamic vinegar stops its aging process. There are no further nuances to pick up from the mother-balsamic vinegar or from the wooden barrels it was stored in. Once it is removed from the barrel and sealed in a glass bottle it will keep for years but will no longer continue the aging process.
Where Can You Purchase Saba online?
You can find classic Saba at ClubSauce.com
A final note
Keep in mind that there are a number of less expensive aged balsamic vinegars on the market that are quite good just as there are a number of less expensive wines. It is a matter of taste and how you plan to use it. Many younger balsamic vinegars are excellent for cooking and salads, older balsamic vinegars for finishing dishes, and well aged balsamic vinegars from twelve years to 150 years for desserts, aperitifs, digestives and for the shear extravagance and pleasure of enjoying a luxurious flavor that only a few have ever had a chance to experience.
This article was written by Jules Silver, webmaster of ClubSauce.com."A Massachusetts Institute of Technology task force report called yesterday for the United States to create a few centralized storage sites for spent nuclear reactor fuel in the next decades, while researching new reactor designs that could reduce the challenges of permanent geological burial of nuclear wastes.
The report, 'The Future of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle,' co-chaired by MIT professors Mujid Kazimi, Ernest Moniz and Charles Forsberg, also concludes that worldwide supplies of uranium will be sufficient to serve a tenfold increase in light water reactors, each operating for 60 years. 'There is no shortage of uranium resources that might constrain future commitments to build new nuclear plants for at least much of this century,' the report says.
That judgment leads to another: that the United States and other countries should continue to rely for decades on the 'once through' open fuel cycle with light water reactors. That would allow time for more research on 'fast' reactor designs whose operation generates new fuel and becomes self-sustaining."
Peter Behr reports for ClimateWire September 17, 2010.Suppose you have a front-wheel-drive vehicle and you’re looking to fit a set of winter tires. Also, let’s assume that two of those tires have much more tread depth than the other two. On which end of the car do you install the better rubber?
According to the CBC, a woman in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada (that’s my town!) ran into just this problem, complete with conflicting advice from two repair shops: One said putting the fresher rubber up front is safer as the vehicle is front-wheel drive, while the other said giving the rear more grip is the best course of action to reduce the chance of a spin out.
Which one is correct?
The vehicle in question, owned by Susan Hachey, is a 10-year-old Toyota Echo. She bought two brand-new winter tires and had them fitted to the Echo by Costco, along with two older tires she already owned.
Later, she went to her local Toyota dealership for an oil change. CBC explains:
“As they were doing the oil change they came out and told me the mechanic was recommending the tires with the better tread be put on the front because it was a front-wheel drive,” she said.
So she went back to Costco and asked them to make the change.
“The guy at the counter said, ‘Well no. It’s a safety issue. The tires with the better tread go on the back,”‘ she said.
She pointed out her car was front-wheel drive, but the technician told her it didn’t matter because the tires with the better tread always go on the back.
“Living where we live and considering that we have winter every year, I couldn’t believe I was getting conflicting information from two reputable organizations,” Hachey said.
As it turns out, the Costco technicians are correct, at least according to Popular Mechanics:
The truth: Rear tires provide stability, and without stability, steering or braking on a wet or even damp surface might cause a spin. If you have new tires up front, they will easily disperse water while the half-worn rears will go surfing: The water will literally lift the worn rear tires off the road. If you’re in a slight corner or on a crowned road, the car will spin out so fast you won’t be able to say, “Oh, fudge!”
There
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Act 5, Scene.1: Quomodo’s shop
Shortyard enters with Quomodo’s legal papers, which he has acquired by cheating Sim out of his entire inheritance. The legal papers include the conveyance on Easy’s property to the ‘citizens’ (subsequently transferred to Quomodo and Sim) as well as the preliminary bonds made by ‘Blastfield’ and Easy.
Thomasine and Easy enter, now married. Easy accuses Shortyard (whom he sarcastically refers to as ‘Blastfiled’) of swindling him out of his lands (Thomasine has apparently informed him of all details of Quomodo’s scheme). He threatens to haul Shortyard before the courts and have his ears cut off (a common punishment). Shortyard defends himself by saying he has cheated Sim Quomodo in order to help Easy reclaim his lands. He offers Easy all of Quomodo’s papers. Easy takes the papers, but says that he still intends to have his revenge. He orders a pair Officers to arrest Shortyard. The Officers arrest Shortyard and carry him off.
Quomodo enters. He does not realize that his wife has re-married, and is still under the impression that she is profoundly grieved by his death. Still disguised as a Beadle, he approaches Thomasine to request payment for his services at the funeral. Thomasine pays him and has him sign a memorandum certifying that he has been paid all that he is owed. To surprise his wife and reveal his true identity, he signs his real name, “Ephestian Quomodo” to the memorandum. (The memorandum states that Easy no longer owes Quomodo anything).
Easy enters. When Quomodo hears Easy and Thomasine referring to each other as ‘husband’ and ‘wife’, he goes berserk and reveals his true identity. Thomasine receives him coolly, and denies that he is actually her husband. Quomodo storms out, threatening to bring the matter before a judge.
Act 5, Scene 2: A London street
Lethe has been caught with a harlot and arrested by two officers. He begs them to take a bribe and let him free because it is his wedding day (a lie). Rearage and Susan (Quomodo’s daughter) watch as Lethe is carried off. Susan says it is now obvious that Lethe is a “base slave” while Rearage is a “true gentleman”. They plan to get married immediately.
Act 5, Scene 3: A judge’s house
Easy and Thomasine talk with the judge. Two officers hold Shortyard and Falselight in custody. Easy tells the judge that the plaintiff (Quomodo) is an odious schemer, one way or the other — they can’t even be sure if he is the real Quomodo, and if he is, then he is guilty of an outrageous deception. Quomodo insists that he is Quomodo, that Thomasine is his wife and that Shortyard and Falselight are wrongfully bound. To see if he is the real Quomodo, the judge asks Quomodo if he is an infamous cheater; Quomodo says he is not. The judge asks if he is the man who cheated Easy out of his lands; Quomodo says he is not. The judge says that, if these answers are true, then he cannot be the real Quomodo, and must be whipped as a counterfeit. To avoid a whipping, Quomodo admits that he cheated Easy out of his lands. Satisfied with this confession, the judge decides that he must be the real Quomodo.
Quomodo believes that he will still be able to get away with Easy’s lands now that his identity has been re-established. This hope is quickly dashed: Easy produces the memorandum with Quomodo’s signature, which certifies that he no longer owes Quomodo anything. Shortyard tells how he cheated Sim out of his entire inheritance and transferred all of Quomodo’s legal documents back to Easy.
Officers bring in Lethe and the Harlot, followed by Rearage and Susan. The officer tells the judge that Lethe has been caught with a Harlot — on the day of his wedding! The judge says that, if he prefers his Harlot to his wife, then he ought to marry the Harlot. The Country Wench interjects to say that Lethe has vowed to marry her (a lie). In order to deflect blame for pandering from himself, Hellgill backs up the Wench’s story, and adds a few details of his own. He says that Lethe promised to marry the Country Wench before seducing her, but changed his mind afterward. The judge decides to punish Lethe and force him to marry the Country Wench. Lethe protests that he has a prospective bride — Susan Quomodo — already waiting for him. Salewood reveals that this is a lie by announcing that Susan and Rearage have recently been married.
Lethe reveals himself to his mother and begs for her forgiveness. Mother Gruel is amazed at how thoroughly the city has corrupted her son. The judge rules that the ruined Quomodo is his “own affliction,” and does not need to be punished any further; Shortyard and Falselight are banished forever.
- ^ Paster ed., Introduction p. 1
- Middleton, Thomas: Michaelmas Term, ed. by Gail Kern Paster; 2000, Manchester University Press and Room 400.
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Like many polytheistic religions (e.g. those of ancient Greece and Rome), Shinto gods live among humans and have direct impact on their daily lives. While their personalities are mostly similar to humans, they possess two aspects known as Ara and Nigi (荒・和): when they are worshiped they will protect people and grant them blessings (ご利益 gorieki), but when angry they will create disasters and curses (祟 tatari). In some cases the Ara and Nigi aspects of a god are so different in appearance and behaviour that they are named or worshipped separately. A shrine (神社 jinja) is a place for gods to occupy in order to interact with humans, which can vary in size from a small box or shelf (found in many homes) to an entire building and grounds.
- 1 Types of Gods
- 2 Gods in Touhou
- 3 Characters under this Bestiary
- 4 See Also
- 5 References
Types of Gods
- Main article: Dragon
Dragons (竜 ryuu) are reptilian creatures viewed as gods in some cultures, and monsters in others.
Yaoyorozu no Kami
- Main article: Yaoyorozu no Kami
Yaoyorozu no Kami (八百万の神, Lit. "Eight Million Gods") is the term in Shinto that is used to refer to gods in general. It also refers to the idea of "believing in Shinto faith".
While conventionally translated as "Eight Million Gods", it uses the older Japanese meaning of "eight" (八 hachi, ya) as "myriad"; i.e. the number of gods is actually uncountably large.
- Main article: Arahitogami
Arahitogami (現人神, "living god") are humans who become gods while still alive, thus being both at once.
- Main article: Yatagarasu
- Main article: Divine spirit
Divine spirits (神霊 shinrei) are the spirits of humans who ascended to godhood before or after their death.
Gods in Touhou
The majority of gods in the Touhou Project are drawn from or based on the Shinto religion. However, the Buddhist god Bishamonten is confirmed to exist, implying that the other gods of his pantheon exist as well. Possibly gods from other religions also exist; Seiga Kaku has made a dismissive reference to Jesus Christ, though his divinity was not confirmed.
The Shinto Gods in Touhou
Shinto Gods in the Touhou Project are "born" from faith and derive their power from it. Note that being "born" can also refer to ascension to godhood, such as the case of Mizue no Uranoshimako, a human who became a god after his death. As they are born from human belief they share some similarities to youkai, and some youkai have argued that the two are practically the same. However, they have many differences, and for the most part can be considered two different "species". Unlike youkai, gods are not generally born from fear; thus they do not do things like attacking humans by default, but instead seek out faith, typically in the form of worship.
Faith from either humans or youkai is valid, and is described by Kanako in Reimu's Mountain of Faith A ending as a reverence towards existence, a fear of retribution for one's actions, and the will to enrich one's life, spirit, and body, but it doesn't really have to be that serious. Worship and faith can be as simple as just celebrating with your god.
Shinto gods may split their spirits and manifest where ever called on, enabling them to be in many places at once to serve their worshippers; this doesn't diminish the power of the god in any way, as each split part of the same god would have the same amount of power as the original. Certain individuals, such as Watatsuki no Yorihime and shrine maidens like Reimu Hakurei and Sanae Kochiya can directly call upon the gods to enter their bodies. Most gods interact with the physical world entirely in this manner. Some gods have physical bodies which allow them to act independently without being called upon, such as Kanako and Suwako (and likely Hina Kagiyama, Minoriko Aki, and Shizuha Aki), but this does not prevent them from splitting their spirit or being invoked in the normal ways.
The Shinto gods are well-acknowledged in Gensokyo and by the denizens of the Lunar Capital (according to Kanako, many of whom have actually been the original gods from relevant mythology, such as Sagume Kishin, as well as Lord Tsukuyomi and his sister). However, in the outside world, faith has instead been placed on various things such as friendship and news. Thus, like youkai, it is difficult for some gods such as Kanako Yasaka and Suwako Moriya to survive in the outside world as their faith dies out. Presumably more well-known Shinto gods such as Amaterasu still have plenty of faith to go around in the outside world, as there is nothing to indicate their existence is under threat any time soon; in particular, the god Ame-no-Torifune even had a space station dedicated to him.
Of note is that loss of faith for a god means a loss of their ability to manifest their power. For a god, losing all their power is equivalent to death (with the exception of arahitogami, who would continue to exist as normal humans).
The Buddhist Gods in Touhou
Much like how in real life Buddhist and Shinto gods were de facto seen as part of a single system due to the honji suijaku dogma, the Buddhist gods in Touhou don't seem to function differently from their Shinto peers.
Okina Matara is based on Matara-jin (摩多羅神), a god historically venerated mostly by the Tendai Buddhism sect. However, like many other medieval Japanese gods, Matara-jin was neither purely Buddhist nor purely Shinto, and arose from of syncretic traditions combining elements from many religions.
Characters under this Bestiary
Gods not original to Touhou
- Yatagarasu (Swallowed by Utsuho)
- Sokotsutsu no Onomikoto
- Nakatsutsu no Onomikoto
- Uwatsutsu no Onomikoto
- Kanayamahiko no Mikoto
- Ishikori-dome no Mikoto
- Amenouzume no Mikoto
- Amaterasu Oomikami
- Tsukuyomi no Mikoto (?)
- Taisui Xingjun
- Sendai Shirou
- Ten Desires Youmu route
- Silent Sinner in Blue Chapter 17. "You can't fight gods and youkai the same way."
- Mountain of Faith Kanako's profile. "Actually, to play together was what gods wished for." "This was exactly the kind of faith Kanako was wishing for."; Reimu A ending. "There's no difference between faith and the ability to share a nice drink together like this.
- Silent Sinner in Blue, chapter 6
- Mountain of Faith Reimu B Ending. In the outside world, people's faith in gods was weakened by the appearance of bad cults and religions. However, all gods benefit from all faith in them. Even though faith and entreatment are different things. Humans, in their independence, lost the need for faith. Actually, that's not true. Even now, they have faith deep within their hearts. People believe in the news, brands, companies, and friends. The object of their faith has merely shifted closer. If you're a god who wishes to regain faith from humans... try setting your pride aside and being friendly with them.
- Mountain of Faith Sanae Kochiya's profile. "When people lose faith in gods, the gods lose their power. They can't manifest their divine virtues. This is the same as death, for a god.Last month, Dana Milbank wrote for the Washington Post that President Trump’s proposed wall along the Mexico–US border was “medieval.” “It’s true,” Trump responded later the same day, “because [a wall] worked then and it works even better now.” CNN’s Jake Tapper mocked Trump’s response on his newscast with a cartoon depicting the president as a medieval European king.
Take it from a professor of medieval literature: calling things you don’t like ‘medieval’ is inaccurate and unhelpful. It’s inaccurate, because we don’t live in the Middle Ages. The things that most anger, disgust, or offend us are relatively new in the grand scheme of history. And it’s unhelpful, because the ‘medieval’ label reinforces our overconfidence in ourselves and our modernity. That attitude goes all the way back to the Enlightenment in the 18th century. Not coincidentally, the Enlightenment is the movement that cemented the idea of the Middle Ages as a distinctive—and distinctly regrettable—period of European history, spanning roughly the 5th to the 15th centuries. [read more]
Vox 25 February 2019There is still a debate whether talents other than math and language are indeed types of intelligence or just skills.
What do you think?
Recognizing multiple intelligence can be particularly useful if you are a special education teaching assistant on a teach abroad program.
For more information on courses and internships for special education assistants abroad have a look here:
Using Multiple Intelligence on teach abroad programs
Howard Earl Gardner an American psychologist and the founder of applied psychology identified 9 different types of intelligence.
What other scientists thought were just soft-skills, such as interpersonal skills, Gardener realized were types of intelligence. Just as being a math genius gives you the ability to understand the world, so does being “people smart” give you that very same ability, just from a different perspective.
Imagine a learning environment which focused on learning techniques which recognized each of these 9 different types of intelligence. This would drastically enhance impact on a teach abroad program. These are the 9 different types of intelligence that Gardner identified:
- Naturalist (nature smart)
- Musical (sound smart)
- Logical-mathematical (number/reasoning smart)
- Existential (life smart)
- Interpersonal (people smart)
- Bodily-kinesthetic (body smart)
- Linguistic (word smart)
- Intra-personal (self smart)
- Spatial (picture smart)
Multiple Intelligence – Naturalist nature smart
Being a naturalist or nature smart means an individual is sensative to nature and the world. Naturalist intelligence deals with sensing patterns and making connections between elements in nature. Children possessing enhanced levels of “nature smarts” may be very interested in human behaviors, or the behaviors, habits, or habitats of other species. They may have a strong affinity to the outside world or to specific animals, and these interests often begin at an early age. Children possessing naturalistic intelligence may enjoy subjects, shows, and stories that deal with animals or natural phenomena, or they may show extensive interest in subjects like biology, zoology, botany, geology, meteorology, paleontology, or astronomy.
Children displaying “nature smarts” are often keenly aware of their surroundings and changes in their environments, even if these shifts are subtle. This awareness is due to their highly-developed levels of sensory perception. Their heightened senses may help them notice similarities, differences, and changes in their surroundings more rapidly than others do. Individuals with “nature smarts” may be able to categorize or catalog things quite easily. They often like to collect, classify, or read about things from nature for example rocks, fossils, butterflies, feathers, shells.
The combination and interplay of specific cognitive or mental constructs that may differentiate “nature smarts” from other intelligences include:
- Attribute Orientation – the ability to find common traits or commonalities among things, items, or arrays
- Categorization – the ability to identify categories by attribute or characteristic
- Hierarchical Reasoning – the ability to rank or order items by significance or relationship
- Schematic Memory – the ability to internalize and recall information by attribute category or hierarchical classification
- Natural orientation – the ability to identify with living organisms and their environments (this ability can offer changed or unique perspectives or encourage empathetic understanding)
People who excel in this intelligence typically are interested in growing plants, taking care of animals or studying animals or plants. Zookeepers, biologists, gardeners, and veterinarians are among those that Gardner sees as having high naturalist intelligence.
For more detailed information on teaching strategies for natural intelligence have a look at:
Teaching Strategies for Naturalist Intelligence
by Thomas Armstrong
Bringing the natural world into classroom learning.
Most of classroom instruction takes place inside of a school building. For children who learn best through nature, this arrangement cuts them off from their most valued source of learning. There are two primary solutions to this dilemma. First, more learning needs to take place for these kids outside in natural settings. Second, more of the natural world needs to be brought into the classroom and other areas of the school building, so that naturalistically inclined students might have greater access to developing their naturalist intelligence while inside of the school building. The strategies that have been selected for inclusion here are all drawn from one or both of these approaches.
Multiple Intelligence – Musical (sound smart)
Musical intelligence is the capacity to discern pitch, rhythm, timbre, and tone. This intelligence enables a person to recognize, create, reproduce, and reflect on music, as demonstrated by composers, conductors, musicians, vocalist, and sensitive listeners. Interestingly, there is often an affective connection between music and the emotions; and mathematical and musical intelligences may share common thinking processes. Young adults with this kind of intelligence are usually singing or drumming to themselves from a very early age and they are usually quite aware of sounds others may miss.
How to recognize if a child is music smart:
- Is it easier for a child to remember things when they are sung to a tune?
- Is it easier to concentrate when there’s music on in the background?
- Do they have a sharp ear for the multitude of sounds in any given environment?
- Are rhythms and melodies something they pick up easily?
- Is there any interest in learning to play an instrument?
As you might imagine, music-smart learners are particularly attuned to patterns, rhythms, melodies and song. This has broad implications, and goes far beyond playing a musical instrument.
Having a strong musical intelligence does not necessarily mean becoming a musician. This intelligence also extends to having a keen ear for the patterns and sounds of an environment for example, people who enjoy identifying birds and other animals based on their sounds. Poets and writers love the rhythm and song of well-crafted sentences, and experience how the musical elements of great writing influence the nuanced meanings of poems and stories.
Music-smart learners often retain new information more easily by turning facts into songs. Many people find it more natural to study or concentrate when there is music on in the background.
People who are music smart live and breathe music. This may happen in many different ways. Some people enjoy many different types of music, can understand musical notation, can critique types of music and talk about music in an in-depth manner. Some like to create new instruments or learn to play a variety of instruments. Some create their own lyrics and sing solos or sing in choirs. Like all of the intelligences, there are many different ways to be music smart and someone who may not be a good singer might be a great composer. Someone who loves music, may like to dance to express the feelings that music cause but might not be able to play an instrument.
Children who are music smart could grow up to be musicians, music critics, composers, singers, sound engineers, producers, instrument makers, conductors, band or choir teachers, storytellers, poets, song or jingle writers, radio.
Multiple Intelligence -Logical-mathematical (number/reasoning smart)
This multiple intelligence is strongly correlated with the traditional definition of IQ. Logical-mathematical multiple intelligence learners quantify or conceptualize information in order to process it. These individuals naturally excel in mathematics, chess, computer programming, reasoning capabilities, abstract patterns of recognition, scientific thinking and investigation, and the ability to perform complex calculations. While you are working on a teach abraod program when presented with a challenge in a weaker area of intelligence, encourage children to think about activities or ways that can link these weak areas to their strongest intelligences.
Logical-mathematical intelligence is the ability to calculate, quantify, consider propositions and hypotheses, and carry out complete mathematical operations. It enables people to perceive relationships and connections and to use abstract, symbolic thought; sequential reasoning skills; and inductive and deductive thinking patterns. Logical intelligence is usually well developed in mathematicians, scientists, and detectives. Young adults with lots of logical intelligence are interested in patterns, categories, and relationships. They are drawn to arithmetic problems, strategy games and experiments.
Multiple Intelligence -Existential (life smart)
Existential intelligence is the label Howard Gardner gave to students who think philosophically. Existential intelligence involves an individual’s ability to use collective values and intuition to understand others and the world around them. People who excel in this intelligence typically are able to see the big picture. Philosophers, theologians and life coaches are among those that Gardner sees as having high existential intelligence.
Multiple Intelligence -Interpersonal (people smart)
Children who have this intelligence are good with people and understand what others want and need. These children can often read and understand body language and be persuasive and bring people to consensus. If you have several close friends and like to work on group projects or participate in group sports. Then you are more than likely people smart. Individuals who are people smart will be highly valued on teach abroad programs and would naturally demonstrate intercultural intelligence.
People smart people generally get along with others because they are in tune with others and their thoughts and feelings. They like to be around people in social settings, club, or sports activities. They aren’t afraid to share their opinions and work with people to get everyone on the same page. Because they can work with people and understand their motives and desires and how to communicate with them, people smart individuals often make great leaders. They also may find themselves helping others with their problems a great characterisic for anyone wishing to teach abroad as a special education assistant.
Multiple Intelligence -Bodily-kinesthetic (body smart)
Do you remember that student in class who was always drumming their hands on the desk, fidgeting in the chair, and grabbing any excuse that came along to get up and DO something? This is called Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence, or, more simply, Body Smart.
Some of us are wired to move, whether with our whole bodies in dance or athletics or with our hands in jewelry-design, engine repair, or brain surgery! When we, as educators, welcome and appreciate this, it allows these brilliant children to grow and develop their amazing gifts.
With that in mind, let’s take a peek into this Body Smart Intelligence
People who have ability in this area are very aware of—and are very much in control of—their movements. They are able to use their bodies in ways that make the rest of us scratch our heads. Athletes (everyone from synchronized swimmers to marathon runners), woodworkers, dancers, mechanics, sculptors, jewelers, body builders, cake decorators, calligraphers, joggers, bicyclists, and more are intelligent in this way...Both large and small motor skills fit within this area.
Some of the characteristics of this intelligence are:
- Need to move in order to listen
- Is a kinesthetic or tactile learner
- Always physically in motion, even while standing still
- Develops abilities in handcrafts and other small motor skill activities
- Experiences a physical sensation which directs in problem solving
- Learns from fiddling with stuff, i.e. disassemble, reassemble
- Enjoys athletic competition
- Loves activities that engage the large muscle groups, like running, etc.
If children are strong in this intelligence, you need to make time in your schedule for movement and activity! Really. Get everyone up off the chairs and play a game of tag. Run around, literally. Go for a bike ride. Fly a kite. Whatever kind of physical activity is enjoyable and appropriate.
Multiple Intelligence -Linguistic (word smart)
- If a person likes words and language and are a good listener,
- If a person likes to read, to spell, to tell stories, and to tell jokes,
- If a person likes to journal, to listen to audiobooks, and to talk about books
They are word smart.
People who are word smart love language. They may be a strong speller. They may love to read. They may love to write. Someone who is word smart might not necessarily be able to read really fast or spell really well but he/she can spin a really good story. There are many different ways to be word smart and someone who is word smart won’t necessarily be good in every aspect of this intelligence.
Children who are word smart might grow up to be writers, journalists, comedians, politicians, speechwriters, teachers, librarians, proofreaders, publicist/public relations specialists, radio or television announcers, and storytellers.
Multiple Intelligence -Intra-personal (self smart)
Does a child enjoy doing things on their own? Do they spend a fair amount of time thinking and reflecting on there own feelings and actions, or those of other people? Are they drawn to creative forms of self-expression? The word ‘intrapersonal’ means “within oneself, on the inside”.
Self-smart learners have a strong awareness of their own thoughts, feelings, ideas, motivations and goals. They are reflective individuals interested in personal expression. Although intrapersonal learners are very empathetic, they don’t always express it and are often more comfortable working on their own.
Self-smart people are skilled at identifying their own strengths and weaknesses. They enjoy planning and setting goals, and often need time to be alone to process their experiences and/or for creative expression.
For teaching tips for children who are self smart have a look at this video:
Multiple Intelligence -Spatial (picture smart)
Picture Smart people notice color and patterns and may doodle a lot. They may express themselves in artistic mediums instead of solely in words. They may think better when they are drawing out their thoughts and feelings.
They may be artists, sculptors, painters, illustrators, computer animators, art teachers, graphic artists, photographers, movie producers, or any kind of designer (interior, landscape, fashion etc.).
Of course accurately matching and facilitating an appropriate learning style with a child’s particular intelligence will greatly enhance their learning experience and knowledge retention!
According to an article in education degree there are 7 different learning styles if you can accurately match these learning styles with a individuals unique intelligence you will significantly improve knowledge retention and the learning experience for the individual.
Find more detailed information on the 7 different learning styles here:
Seven Different Types of Learning Styles you can use on teach abroad programs
1.) Visual Learners.
Students who are natural visual learners will be better taught with as many pictures and imagery for explanation of concepts. If you are teaching them geography, be sure to include plenty of maps. The same approach is true for history teachers. There are so many artistic depictions of all eras in human history, you shouldn’t have a problem adding some visual elements to any kind of lecture or presentation.
2.) Aural Learners.
Learners who respond primarily to sound can be challenging for teachers who aren’t teaching a lesson about music. But there are techniques you can use to stimulate students who respond to sound, if you do your homework.
These students are ones who know how to sing, play in the school band, or have their own musical hobbies. Music is also known to illicit strong emotional feelings and responses from these types of students. Music they associate with events and times of their lives can sweep them back into their minds, where they will almost re-live the times and places they relate to the sounds they are hearing.
3.) Verbal Learners.
Verbal instruction, as well as writing activities inspire these students to absorb information most effectively. Students with strong verbal learning skills often become journalists, other types of writers, public speakers, and teachers themselves.
That’s why activities where these students get a chance to speak or present can be effective in bringing out their natural ability to verbalize information and give them confidence. Experts recommend many types of techniques for these students, that even include others who may not be as verbally inclined.
4.) Physical Learners.
Have you ever noticed people, or your students, who use their hands more than usual when they speak? They seem like they’re always in motion, and always have some form of physical movement like a conductor with their words.
These individuals are physical learners, and they express themselves in the same way. These types of learners respond to words that incite feeling and physical activity. They want to understand what it feels like to go through the motions of what they are learning.
There are many ways you can create physical exercises to help these types of students learn. Not only can you create activities where they are physically moving. But, you can use objects, like puzzles or other small objects to get them engaged with their learning.
5.) Logical Learners.
These learners are the ones who are always making lists, getting organized, and trying to find the link between one piece of the puzzle and another. Logical learners are a natural fit for mathematics, science, and other logic based subjects in school.
When you are teaching these learners, they can be great leaders or naturally take on a project manager type role in lab assignments, thanks to their want to put things in a neat, orderly way. These students can also be challenged to think from different points of view. They are naturals at seeking facts, and can often be found winning matches in chess club or outperforming their opponents in debate or math tournaments.
6.) Social Learners.
Social learners are natural group workers, and are the kinds of students who seem to be everywhere in school – at all the extracurricular activities, sports, band, debate, and socializing with teachers and students throughout the day.
7.) Solitary Learners.
Some people think that solitary learners are shy or sometimes rude because they often keep to themselves. They may come across as introverted, compared to the other different types of learners in the classroom.
These learners are also very concerned with goals and outcomes in curriculum. So be ready to explain exactly what they can expect to achieve in your class.
In summary if are able to identify a child’s particular intelligence and can then match this with the relevant learning style you can greatly improve their learning experience. This is a particularly useful skill for people interested in supporting special education.
You can find information on 12 ways to teach using multiple intelligence by Kim Haynes here:
And if you would like to find out which intelligence best suits you take this survey J|Aircraft-based augmentation system|
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|No properties link to this page.|In nature, nothing goes to waste. Fallen leaves, half eaten fruits, dead animals – each of these are raw materials which get composted, returning their nutrients back to the soil. However, we have interrupted this natural cyclical process and instead created landfills and waste incinerators, both of which convert precious resources into pollution.
IMPACTS OF WASTE MISMANAGEMENT ON HUMAN HEALTH
75% of the municipal garbage in India is dumped in landfills or in unoccupied lands. The mountains of garbage that we have created in our towns and cities are ticking time bombs. As the food waste lying in landfills and garbage dumps keeps decomposing; methane, a greenhouse gas that is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide is released. Burning of garbage in landfills and every nook and corner of our towns and cities is the third biggest cause of greenhouse gas emissions in India releasing poisonous gases like carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide and particulate matter into the air and worsening our air pollution woes. Indians breathe the worst air in the world. 14 of the world’s most polluted cities are in India. The World Health Organisation has highlighted that air pollution is responsible for causing:
- 24% of all adult deaths due to heart disease
- 43% from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- 29% from lung cancer
Please see this film – ‘Air Pollution and Our Waste’ to understand:
- What happens to our waste when we put it in a plastic bag and give it away?
- What we as individuals and communities can do to reduce the garbage mess in our cities and improve the quality of the air that we breathe?
The answer lies in accepting the simple fact that ‘our waste is our responsibility’.
WASTE SEGREGATION – KEY TO EFFECTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
When we mix food waste with recyclables, plastic and electronic waste items; the whole mix gets contaminated. E-waste in the form of old batteries, bulbs, wires and mobile phones accounts for almost 40% of the lead and 70% of the heavy metals found in landfills. Leachate from the rotting garbage containing these heavy metals and toxins ends up getting absorbed in our soil and flowing into our water bodies contaminating the food we eat and the water we drink. Waste workers and rag pickers who try to make a living by retrieving the dry recyclables out of the mixed garbage in our landfill sites, risk their health and life by working in such a toxic environment.
Instead, if segregated at source correctly, each of the items in our dustbin can be either returned to nature as nutrient rich compost that replenishes our degraded soil or
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not all animals that we find in Singapore are this adaptive. Singapore mainland doesn’t have ideal habitats, for example, for the Asian small-clawed otters to thrive – they need shallower waters, mangrove habitats, estuarine habitats, so it is important that we preserve some existing forests, mangrove areas.Dr. Amy Zalman is CEO of Prescient, a Washington, DC–based foresight consultancy. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Culture, Communications, and Technology Program at Georgetown University.
In order to develop plans and recommend actions in support of strategic goals, national security professionals need the ability to anticipate the impacts of change in their external environment. The planner’s task is complicated by the fact that from the vantage of the present, there are many possible impacts of change. In a laboratory, variables can be titrated precisely and outcomes predicted; in the national security environment, variables are dynamic and complex, and outcomes are the product of emergent interactions among people, institutions, and systems. The exact path of these interactions is inherently nonlinear and difficult to predict.
The national security strategist is thus also in need of specialized thinking skills to help him or her mentally model uncertainty and grasp the nonlinear and complex pathways of change. These thinking skills do not come naturally to the modern American military education system, which valorizes an Enlightenment-inspired scientific approach and has historically focused on teaching critical thinking skills. Such skills are valuable when a problem is well defined and it is possible to identify its component parts, evaluate evidence, and generate solutions. However, they are not sufficiently robust to address situations that are as ambiguous, loosely bounded, and complex as the possible futures of national security.
In contexts of uncertainty, another set of skills—those contained in the strategic foresight toolkit—is required. Arguably, this requirement is especially vital today: technological advancements and their unevenly distributed but powerful effects, climate change, and social change are unfolding at a challenging pace in our interconnected global system. Black swans, cascading problems, and uncertainty stemming from interconnections abound. The stakes are high for anticipating and planning effectively for the potential impacts of change.
By way of example, imagine you are a strategist in the 1970s seeking to understand the implications of the newly created Internet. Its early architects did not view Internet protocols as a potential locus of national security threat because they assumed that small communities of mutually trustworthy academics would be the most likely users of the future Internet. Critical thinking would not assist you in generating scenarios of the possible futures of the Internet, let alone conceiving of it as the foundational infrastructure of future human institutions. In open-ended situations such as the future of a new technology or institution, systems thinking and frameworks to help structure imaginative and expansive exploration of the implications of change are required. Strategic foresight supplies these frameworks.
This article makes a two-pronged argument. First, strategic foresight, a discipline I describe in more detail, provides the vitally needed mindsets and frameworks required to plan in uncertainty.1 Strategic foresight should be taught and used more widely in the national security space. Second, where foresight is being taught and used (it has recently had an upswing in interest), there are opportunities to improve its application and better serve planning staffs and decisionmakers.
What Is Strategic Foresight?
Strategic foresight is an interdisciplinary domain that draws on cybernetics and systems thinking, management sciences, sociology, data science, cognitive psychology, and creative thinking, among others. Anticipatory thinking to support decisionmaking is its essence. The individual who invests time in learning how to think like a futurist emerges with an appreciation for the cognitive barriers faced by the human brain when it attempts to envision the future and will be well-practiced in holistic, synthetic, analytic, and creative ways of thinking. Organizations that adopt foresight practices to help them identify trends at an early stage and adapt or innovate to leverage those trends are in stronger competitive positions than those that do not. This value is demonstrable: A recently completed longitudinal study of large European firms demonstrated that those incorporating foresight into their strategic planning realized significant gains in both profit and market capitalization over the long term.2 Management science has revealed that systematically scanning the peripheral environment for weak signals of change can help people and institutions prepare for otherwise unexpected events.3
Foresight is not an unknown quantity in the U.S. national security space, yet it has waxed and waned as a discipline of interest. Following sustained enthusiasm from the end of World War II through the early 1990s, interest languished as the dramatic events of the moment—the fallout from the demise of the Soviet Union, the 9/11 attacks, the 2008 financial crisis—took center stage. Recently, strategic foresight has reappeared on the radar. The growing number of conference sessions, professional education opportunities, and pursuits such as science fiction writing contests designed to trigger creative thinking about the future attest to this rise in interest. This is all good news, and, hopefully, leaders in all relevant institutions will continue to grow their support for fostering successors who are skilled at thinking both systematically and creatively about how to envision an uncertain future.
Yet enthusiastic support, while necessary, is not sufficient to create a future-minded national security workforce. It is possible to use strategic foresight well or badly. In the national security community today, there is room for improvement. Strategic foresight activities are often brought into classrooms and conference rooms in ways that are superficial. A quick exercise in scenario-building, for example, may give participants the satisfaction that they have engaged in strategic foresight. But when conducted superficially, such activities typically become exercises in reinforcing rather than challenging preexisting ideas about what the future will be like. To be clear, superficiality is never intentional. Instead, urgent pressure to produce activities leads course or activity facilitators to using frameworks and ideas that are the easiest to access instead of those that are the most appropriate. Popular ideas and activities circulate through the national security educational community uncritically, so that rough usage in one place is replicated in another, and it is difficult to get new thinking in the door.
As the history of national security community engagement with foresight demonstrates, thinking creatively about the future is a cultural challenge. Large bureaucracies, such as the Department of Defense, are often resistant to change and to reckoning with the fact that conditions for success in the future may be different from those of today. Institutional proclivities can shape and constrain the imagination that is required to develop insights into the future of a profoundly complex, changing, and uncertain world.
To take one example, futurism is frequently presented in mainstream culture as primarily associated with technological innovation. This is a narrow use of the strategic foresight skillset; technology is only one of the drivers of complex social events such as war. When they assume, rather than interrogate, a high-tech future, military participants in strategic foresight foreclose the opportunity to identify signals of change and development across the spectrum of human activity. This has in the past led to institutional blindness to signals of change in societies that might produce low-tech, asymmetric approaches to armed conflict. One of the key tenets of foresight is that it is imperative to explore not only the most likely future but also a range of possible futures. It is in this arena where potential black swans lurk.
The popular premise that future wars will take place in megacities (with more than 10 million inhabitants) offers another example of how a selective use of the tools of strategic foresight can narrow strategic vision precisely where it would be useful to expand it. The war-in-megacities scenario is grounded in trend information related to the urban growth. By some accounts, there will be at least 50 such cities by 2050.4 So it is reasonable to project that at some point, warfighters will probably engage in a megacity. However, strategists who halt their exploration of the future with scenarios based on the extrapolations of current trends alone are underutilizing the tools of strategic foresight. To use the foresight toolkit more comprehensively and effectively, planners will also think deeply and creatively about the possible, a much wider and more complex world of potential than that of simply the probable. This is not easy; it takes intellectual rigor and self-knowledge to explore trends that may violate one’s institutional worldview. How could a war unfold in a nonurban area, especially in a world that is primarily urban? What assumptions are held today about what a city is and looks like? Will other emergent realities—for example, about the way people communicate and work or about how climate change and weather evolve—change the ways that cities develop in the future?
Venturing answers, however exploratory, to questions that probe beyond the boundaries of current expectations could help reduce strategic surprise in the future and prompt innovative thinking in advance of the unexpected. Strategic foresight offers compelling frameworks for asking these sorts of questions, and the frameworks themselves are not fancy or difficult to understand. This is all the more reason why advancing the understanding of strategic foresight as a discipline and a strategy support tool is not only a good idea but also a clear and simple route to creating opportunities for asking difficult questions about the potential future at a time when such questions are critical.
Strategic foresight functions best as a normal, integrated element of an organization’s planning cycle. This cycle will typically include horizon scanning (also called environmental scanning) for early indicators of change, the integration of early signals into existing forecasts, impact assessments, and a decisionmaking process that uses insights of foresight to inform action.
Historically notable examples demonstrate the power of this activity. The most famous example is likely that of Royal Dutch Shell—a common tool in the foresight kit because of its pioneering use of scenarios. The oil industry historically forecast its future needs on the presumption of steadily growing demand and opportunities to locate supply. In the 1970s, Royal Dutch Shell recognized that geopolitical developments (such as the newly formed Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) could lead to a serious disruption in oil supply, transforming what was heretofore a buyer’s market into a seller’s market. As a result of its readiness to take this scenario seriously, the company was prepared for the 1973 oil embargo and recovered with greater speed than its industry peers.5
In the United States, the coordinated effort to prepare for potential disruptions related to the Y2K “bug” offers a powerful example of the role strategic foresight can play in raising awareness and addressing potential crises. In 1998, the World Future Society (formerly a nonprofit organization for futurists) began working with the White House, United Nations coordination groups, and others to anticipate and address potential Y2K issues in the United States. Most of their efforts were in “real-time networking and swift decisionmaking,” but the group also raised awareness in a 1998 conference on the consequences that could unfold without further attention.6 Failures of foresight are similarly dramatic, as the many well-known anecdotes of corporations and retailers that failed to recognize the potential impacts of technological and cultural trends, such as online shopping or streaming video, attest.
In the spirit of supporting this capacity, the remainder of this article offers a brief account of the role that foresight has played in military planning, followed by recommendations for advancing its implementation in military education today.
The history of foresight in the U.S. national security environment is offered here to rebut the pervasive idea among national security professionals that the United States cannot be good at long-term strategy or planning. (This idea is often justified by reference to the United States as a young country, as compared to China, a country perceived to be strong at long-term planning because it has a long history and a centrally controlled government.) This is clearly a discussion that deserves its own time and place; what can be stated here is that military futurists have played a critical role in creating some of the foundational techniques and ideas of foresight, which offer an alternative history of successful and thoughtful exploration of potential futures. It also helps to press into relief some of the cultural tendencies that might have helped planners in the past but that might be hindrances today.
A quick survey of the history of strategic foresight as a coherent management planning discipline often begins with the example of the U.S. Air Force. After World War II, under the direction of Secretary Harold “Hap” Arnold, the Service took the first steps to connect U.S. military planning with long-term scientific and technological developments. In order to organize resources and investments, Arnold commissioned a major study titled Toward New Horizons that projected future technology needs for the Air Force. The planning momentum was maintained by standing up the Research and Development Corporation, known today as RAND, which became the military’s go-to think tank for long-term questions and also the home of some of the country’s most prominent futurists during the Cold War.
This story of foresight’s foundations in the United States encapsulates the spirit of the American brand of foresight: a triumphal and empowered energy, a focus on technology as the key critical driver of future events, and a positivist outlook of the future as knowable and manageable. In the ensuing decades, this foundational vision of the postwar American future infused planning activities and also a particularly American mindset about how to think about “the future” in the abstract.
In the 1970s, the ideas of previously obscure futurists gained popularity, most notably as a result of Alvin Toffler’s bestselling book, Future Shock. These ideas trickled into the executive offices of both government leaders and major corporations. Long-range planning and the basic tenets of foresight were accompanied by a spirit of openness and an exploratory readiness to consider the potential that more than one future might emerge. At the same time, voices of warning also called on political and military leaders to adapt U.S. planning processes to a world that was becoming more complex and interconnected. Projects such as the Department of Defense Office of Net Assessment, which was established in 1973 to assess the impact of converging macro-trends, were attuned to the need to assess complex environments.
Some of the most forceful notes of warning can be found in a 1987 volume titled Creating Strategic Vision: Long-Range Planning for National Security.7 This compilation of essays outlining the various techniques of strategic foresight was offered as an antidote to the “pragmatic, fragmented, short-term” tendencies that were presumed to characterize the American way of leadership.8 Much of this critique from a generation ago about the short-term nature of U.S. strategy has become dogma today. When I introduced the work to a cohort of flag officers in an advanced training course recently, they readily warmed to the thesis that the United States is inherently poor at long-term thinking and needs to do a better job.
Also, in the late 1980s, the U.S. Army War College introduced a new course titled Futures: Creating Strategic Visions.9 The goal of the course was to provide promising future leaders with the creative thinking skills required to envision and communicate alternative futures in an executive setting. Alternative futures, in this context, refers to a practice of indicating that more than one future is possible and that one’s own present-day decisions help to shape the future. The course was notable for stressing creativity as a teachable skill and for proposing that the future may unfold in many possible ways.
And there the enthusiasm stops. There is little documentary evidence in the 1990s of the creative, open-ended energy that suffused futures work in the 1980s. Indeed, the signs point in the opposite direction. The 2004 Strategic Leadership Primer published by the Department of Command, Leadership, and Management of the Army War College, while retaining the language of strategic vision and the future, presents the concept quite differently than it had in the 1980s.10 Drawing grimly on President George W. Bush’s 2004 remarks that the Nation’s “terrorist enemies have a vision,” the document calls for a countervailing one: an overarching summation of what “ought to be,” subject to the ends-ways-means logic of strategy creation and capable of being summarized in a pithy image or phrase—vision, in other words, as a tagline. Little could be further from the late 1980s promotion of strategic vision as an empowering, adaptive capacity to think creatively and imagine alternative futures.
A decade later, as the mood of crisis that permeated the “hot” years of the war on terror waned, foresight activities once again emerged into national security and Federal Government consciousness. Today, we can find a Federal Foresight community of interest sharing activities across the government in the shape of formal educational opportunities, such as the Army War College futures seminar titled What Kind of Army Does the Nation Need in 2035 and Beyond; the commitment to develop an entire course on foresight at the Army Command and General Staff College; and hands-on long-term planning experiments such as the Air University’s Blue Horizons program.11 Beyond formal education, there are forums such as the periodic conferences and online community of the Mad Scientists, sponsored by the Army Training and Doctrine Command, and various think tank conferences and events. This upsurge of interest, coupled with forays in different areas of the military into more wargaming, red-teaming, and activities structured according to design theory, suggest that this is a favorable moment to advocate on behalf of not simply quantity, but also higher quality. Here are five recommendations for its achievement.
Five Recommendations to Maximize the Benefits of Foresight
Embrace Analytic Holism. The U.S. military typically privileges technological innovations as the key driver of the future, which reflects a deeply embedded tendency in American culture and history. This is problematic in several directions, all of which distort the ability to accurately assess the evidence about potential contexts of future conflict.
First, technological change does not take place in a vacuum, but at the intersection of other human institutions and drivers of change. While there is a need for pure technological forecasting in weapons development and other related areas, this work will not generate scenarios of potential future conflict. It will only produce scenarios of future weapons systems and other related technologies.
Analytic holism is a concise directive reminding participants in futures work to keep a wide range of drivers of change in mind. A traditional place to start is with the drivers encapsulated in the acronym STEEP—society, technology, environment, economics, politics. There are others, of course: cultures, demographics, media, and legal systems, to take a few obvious examples.
Change in a complex, open system, such as the international system, will occur at the intersection of developments in these areas. War and conflict, as quintessentially social events, are always shaped by developments in these areas, even when technology on the battlefield is of the essence. If planners do not look at their surrounding environment as holistically as they possibly can, they risk not seeing or recognizing signals that are eminently available for analysis and thus losing the opportunity to consider how to avoid being surprised by them. One sobering example from this century should be the social media sophistication of the planners of the al Qaeda attacks in 2001. If the national security community had been better prepared to see how, in the 1980s and 1990s, satellite television and the advent of the Internet affected social interactions around the world, it could have reduced the unwarranted surprise that “low-tech” cultures could use new media in sophisticated ways.
An even more sophisticated step in this arena will be for strategic foresight projects to start acknowledging the fundamental transformations in the global economic, political, and social systems being wrought by the ongoing evolution of digital technologies. As many commentators have noted, all of humanity is in the first stages of a new era grounded in digital infrastructure.12 When technological innovations on this scale become ubiquitous and accepted, they actually become less notable in themselves as features of our world. Take, for example, electricity. Although not everyone has electricity, its ubiquity is a critical explanandum of human behavior. The world is on the way to a digital ubiquity (even though not everyone will have access to digital tools), and it is at the point of ubiquity that nontechnological drivers of change become vitally important to explore in order to posit potential future environments.
Rather than highlighting technological drivers of change and treating other drivers as “soft” or less real, strategic foresight project leaders should frame explorations of the future holistically and with a strong eye to ways in which people, collectively and individually, drive emergent and unexpected system behavior. This nuanced approach can improve the accuracy of insights into potential futures and potential surprises, even in high-tech battle space environments.
Adopt a Shared Lexicon Across the Government. Foresight terminology can be confusing. Not only does it present a number of terms of art that are also present in our everyday language (such as foresight, uncertainty, and prediction), but there also are differences among futurists and other disciplines in the ways they use these same words. While I might use the word predict in a loose and general sense to indicate my effort to explain my subjectively developed insights into how the future might unfold (“Here’s how I predict the long-term impacts of negotiations over the Arctic on both trade and culture,” for example), many practitioners in the strategic foresight community use the concept of prediction to refer to the narrow capacity to identify exactly what will happen, to a degree that is typically available only under strictly controlled experimental conditions. To add to this difficulty, many terms are somewhat similar in everyday usage (“forecasting the weather” and “predicting the weather” point to the same general idea for most purposes). Similar lexical and conceptual confusion abounds in the national security community and between different projects.
A clear and relatively simple route to orienting defense practitioners around foresight work will be by developing an authoritative lexicon and educating people across the government to use it as a reference. Other dictionaries of terms have been created—most notably by the government of Singapore, whose civil service does use the lexicon—and these and many other resources are available on the Internet for anyone’s reference.13 However, as a glance at the Singapore lexicon shows, such dictionaries are reflections of the context and priorities of their governments. A U.S. lexicon may share terminology as it is used by futurists around the world, but it will be a more authoritative resource for American professionals if it is composed with the United States in mind. Such a project will engender other benefits as well; it will create a clear point of reference for developing institutional knowledge across Services and agencies and, simplest of all, the introduction of conceptual clarity into the disparate activities by different actors.
“Get on the Balcony.” The title of this recommendation borrows from the advice offered in the 1990s by management strategists Ronald Heifetz and Donald Laurie to corporations facing emerging business conditions requiring novel forms of behavior and new ways of defining and achieving success.14 Heifetz and Laurie suggest that rather than offering solutions in such situations, leaders should galvanize adaptation to these new conditions by safely exposing employees to the challenges facing them and supporting the development of new behavioral models.
To this end, Heifetz and Laurie encouraged leaders to learn not only to view their organizations from the “field of play,” where they are a part of the day-to-day work of their team, but also to “get on the balcony.” From the rafters, high above the game itself, leaders can see not only competitors and the dynamics of doing business side by side with their colleagues but also the larger dynamics of the system—how different parts of the organization work together, and how they interact and intersect with the world beyond. Observations made from the balcony can provide powerful insights into the dynamics of the wider system and introduce opportunities to find “leverage points... to intervene” in the system, as the esteemed systems thinker Donella Meadows characterized the opportunity.15 Strategic foresight education and activities offer an appropriate venue for this exploratory way of seeing the world. First, holistic vision and systems thinking are intrinsic to foresight; only by seeking signals of potential change throughout the system, and beyond one’s typical domain, will one find the potential surprises and opportunities that offer competitive advantage.
This recommendation is especially salient for leaders in the U.S. national security community seeking to grapple with how to influence future events in the emerging and not yet fully understood geopolitical circumstances of the 21st century and beyond. In a rough analogy to the sports teams that serve as models for adaptive leadership in Heifetz and Laurie’s work, institutions whose work is national defense tend to the see the world in terms of opposing teams. This is reasonable; it is their job. The field of play is the space from which members of the institution seek to see threats and potential adversaries.
When the world and national situations are in flux, however, this view will not provide a sufficiently comprehensive view of the evolving system—in this case, the global geopolitical, economic, and social systems. Leaders who can “get on the balcony” to view the larger context of change will see the system from an unusual vantage point that highlights flows, connections, and feedback loops not only beyond but also between parts of the U.S. defense establishment and other actors, whether these are militaries, corporations, global nonprofits, or any of the other institutional actors who make up the world.
Incorporate Complexity Thinking into Foresight Activities. Foresight and the study of complex systems arose from similar and even intertwined conceptual movements in the 20th century, and both futurists and complexity scientists draw inspiration from some of the same people—for example, Jay Forrester and Donella Meadows (and others), whose research used computer modeling in the 1970s to explore the intricate relationships between such large-scale systems as human societies and the planet’s ecological systems. The interdisciplinary science that emerged in the late 1970s recognized that some systems cannot be reduced to their component parts but rather are the result of small, simple actions whose interactions can produce intricate collective behavior of the systems as a whole.
Despite these early connections with foresight, the potential contributions of complexity thinking to more effective foresight work are too often given short shrift in contemporary education and activities in the defense context. The technical specificity of terminology used by complexity thinkers, such as complexity and uncertainty, are instead reduced to brisk contextual commentary that is presented as self-evident: the world is more complex and uncertain than in the past. Once past these observations, military foresight classes and seminars typically return to the comfortably reductionist space of a future battlefield projected as more or less walled off from the other systems with which it interacts. This means that the fullest spectrum of potential scenarios that could be explored as elements of future conflict is left unexplored, since war, as a social institution, resides and interacts with other systems.
Incorporating instruction in complexity thinking could produce nuanced scenarios of possible futures and therefore result in higher quality planning. While this is not the place to elaborate in depth on complexity thinking and complex systems, we can note that a deep dive into the conceptual lexicon of complex systems, applied to the global system, can help strategists and planners to visualize the potential actions of militaries (as systems), as the porous systems they are, and to map their interactions both in and out of wars in relation to these systems. Such an activity in the runup to the second Gulf War would have usefully mapped the potential interactions of the military, industrial, national, and social systems that could be expected to interact in the case of a war.
Start Early to Build a Culture of Adaptive Leaders. This recommendation could not be simpler. Foresight mindsets and tools are too important to leave until the last moment, when a Servicemember or civilian equivalent has already become a flag officer, which is when many are first exposed to them. Foresight, in one sense, is a habit of mind, a way of seeing the world in such a way that we question our assumptions, view events holistically, and seek out the interconnections between them. These are all the kinds of habits of mind required to be the adaptive, agile thinkers who will be needed in the future. Developing an educational “ladder” that begins with habits of mind that prepare emerging leaders to think like futurists, and that continue to advanced opportunities to apply thinking skills to the open-ended challenges of the future, has the potential to advance the overall strategic capacity of the military.
There could not be a more auspicious time to institutionalize more deliberate, speculative, and imaginative approaches to thinking about potential futures of violent conflict and its management, prevention, and resolution. The world appears to be at a pivotal moment, and the need for excellent leadership on the world stage is strong. Societies worldwide are just beginning to experience the transformational effects of the shift from an industrial to a digital world and are as dramatically on the brink of the potent effects of climate change, demographic shifts, and cultural swings. There can be little doubt that emerging environments producing social stress, violent conflict, or significant displacement will have novel characteristics and the potential to look quite different from those for which the military typically prepares. In light of the acknowledged need for an increasingly adaptive and future-focused force, it is important to encourage the burgeoning interest in the future. Yet how this future focus is encouraged and what activities are undertaken to explore it are just as important. In this realm, there is currently room for more reflection and improvement. JFQ
1 Strategic foresight has many names. It is also referred to as futures work, futures studies, futurism, and simply foresight. Several of these terms will be used within this article.
2 René Rohrbeck and Menes Etingue Kum, “Corporate Foresight and Its Impact on Firm Performance: A Longitudinal Analysis,” Technological Forecasting and Social Change 129 (2018), 105–116, available at <www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162517302287?via%3Dihub>.
3 George Day and Paul J.H. Schoemaker, “Scanning the Periphery,” Harvard Business Review (November 2005), 135–148.
4 Daniel Hoornweg and Kevin Pope, Socioeconomic Pathways and Regional Distribution of the World’s 101 Largest Cities, Working Paper No. 4 (Toronto: Global Cities Institute, 2014), available at <http://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/672989_62cfa13ec4ba47788f78ad660489a2fa.pdf>.
5 See Pierre Wack, “Scenarios: Uncharted Waters Ahead,” Harvard Business Review (September–October 1985), 73–89.
6 Author correspondence with Kenneth Hunter, former member of the board of directors, World Future Society, May 12, 2015. Also see Jeff Minerd, “Y2K: Scenarios and Strategies,” The Futurist 33 (April 1999), 34–37.
7 Perry M. Smith et al., Creating Strategic Vision: Long-Range Planning for National Security (Washington, DC: NDU Press, 1987).
8 Newt Gingrich, “Introduction,” in Smith, Creating Strategic Vision, xvii.
9 The course is fully described by its instructor, Charles W. Taylor, in his report Creating Strategic Visions (Carlisle Barracks, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 1990).
10 Stephen A. Shambach, ed., Strategic Leadership Primer, 2nd ed. (Carlisle Barracks, PA: Department of Command, Leadership, and Management, U.S. Army War College, 2004).
11 For the purposes of full disclosure, I am one of the directors of the course at the Army Command and General Staff College. Separately, the activities of the Federal Foresight community of interest is available at <https://ffcoi.org>.
12 See, for example, Kevin Kelly, The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future (New York: Penguin, 2017); or Klaus Schwab, The Fourth Industrial Revolution (New York: Currency Books, 2017).
13 Foresight: A Glossary (Singapore: Centre for Strategic Futures and Civil Service College, n.d.), available at <www.csf.gov.sg/docs/default-source/default-document-library/csf-csc_foresight—a-glossary.pdf>.
14 Ronald Heifetz and Donald Laurie, “The Work of Leadership,” Harvard Business Review (January–February 1997), 124–134.
15 Donella Meadows, Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in the System (Hartford, VT: Sustainability Institute, 1999), available at <http://donellameadows.org/wp-content/userfiles/Leverage_Points.pdf>.What is Network Security?
Corporate network security is a term that describes measures taken to ensure the safety and privacy of company data and information. It encompasses the protection of devices, technologies, processes, locations and employees. Good network security ensures that proprietary data and information is protected physically and digitally from hacking and cyber threats.
How to Keep Your Corporate Network Secure
Network security is important when employees work remotely, particularly if they need access to the corporate intranet. Here are things to consider when designing a network security system:
- Employee education: Employees must understand the processes involved in keeping data and information secure. This includes the personal and corporate legal ramifications if security is breached.
- Social engineering: In the context of network securiy, social engineering involves human interaction and psychological manipulation to trick users into making security errors or giving away sensitive information, for example passwords.
- Physical security: Devices (laptops, tablets, smart phones, flash drives) containing proprietary company information should never be left in an unsecure or easily accessible location.
- Remote Locations: Security measures may need to vary for remote employees who work at another office, at home, another city in the same country or abroad.
- Data access: How do employees access data and information? Do they take copies when at work? If accessed remotely can they see just the data they need or all company data?
- Device ownership: Who owns the devices use for company work? In the event of a data breach could you recall all devices immediately for investigation? If employee-owned, do you have an agreement to this?
- Device security: Do devices use meet company security standards for antivirus and antimalware? Are they ever left unattended at home or in a public place? How easy would it be to get access if someone were in physical possesion of the devices?
- Phishing: This involves tricking a user into clicking a malicious link, which installs malware or freezers the device. Users are then forced to reveal login information to unfreeze. Can lead to the theft of or unlimited access to company data.
- Malware: Malicious software including viruses, ransomware and spyware. Typically, they exploit security vulnerabilities to spread themselves across computers and networks to damage or allow unauthorised access to data and information.
- Wireless Network Security: Wireless security prevents unauthorised access over wireless netoworks, such as WiFi networks. Devices operated over an unsecured WiFi network may be accessible. Excellent WiFi security addresses many of the other considerations.
VPN for Better WiFi Network Security
VPN (Virtual Private Network) technology allows remote employees to access company data safely, even over an unsecured WiFi.An inclusive education for Persons with Disability, (PWDs) continue to be a barrier in developing the innate potentials of these groups in society.
Though the country, had scattered and a few specilised institutions for Persons with Disability, a more inclusive educational system as stipulated in the Act, 2006 Act 715, according to Mrs Hannah Awadzi, the Executive Director of the Special Mothers Project, an NGO for such persons must be given utmost attention.
She told the GNA in an interview that, “We need full inclusion in our education system to give meaning to the Act”.
The challenges facing persons with Disabilities bordered on accessibility to educational infrastructure, appropriate tutors and learning materials, among others.
Meanwhile, Reverend Professor John Frank Eshun, the Vice Chancellor of the Takoradi Technical University has appealed to the government and corporate organisations to support the university in their committed cause of providing an inclusive educational environment for persons with disability.
The University, he said, currently has over 40 deaf students pursuing various programmes and that the university had plans to employ more intepreters to meet the special needs of such students.
The Vice Chancellor was appreciative of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission and the Minister of education for recognizing the contributions of the school to give meaning to the lives of persons with Disabilities.
The University, a pioneer in inclusive education, has graduated a substantial number of them since the effective implementation of the policy.
A total of 26 disabled students made up of 19 deaf students, 11 physically challenged graduated recently.
In all, a total of 124 challenged persons had passed through the institutions since the establishment of the disability support unit in 2017 making it the highest across all universities in Ghana.It’s 2021 and crypto is getting all the headlines. So what is cryptocurrency? Do you need it? Should you buy it?
Check out this article on Bitcoins too.
What is Cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency is a form of exchange, just like the naira, or dollar, but what makes it different is that it is digital in nature. However, unlike the Naira/Dollar or other world currencies, there is no central authority that manages and maintains the value of a cryptocurrency. Instead, these tasks are broadly distributed among a cryptocurrency’s users via the internet.
As Wikipedia puts it,
“A cryptocurrency, crypto currency or crypto is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange wherein individual coin ownership records are stored in a ledger existing in a form of computerized database using strong cryptography to secure transaction records, to control the creation of additional coins, and to verify the transfer of coin ownership.”
The most popular form of crypto is Bitcoin. But there are other coins just as important, such as Etherum, Litecoin, Polkadot, XRP and so on.
What can I use it for?
You can use crypto to buy regular goods and services, although many people invest in cryptocurrencies as they would in other assets, like stocks or precious metals. I do however, have a few friends who regularly buy stuff using coins, and it has become an interesting trend to follow.
Though gettiing more popular daily, crypto is still a long way from being globally accepted but some websites now accept crypto as opposed to the usual credit cards, and now Payments giant PayPal recently announced the launch of a new service that will allow customers to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency from their PayPal accounts – which is great news!
Ok, I get it now. But How does it work?
Cryptocurrencies are exchanged from person to person on the web without a middleman, like a bank or government. It’s like the wild, wild west of the digital world. There’s no marshal to uphold the law, which is one of the reasons the Nigerian government banned it.
Cryptocurrencies operate on what is called blockchain technology. It’s a public record of all of the transactions that have ever happened in a given cryptocurrency.
“Imagine a book where you write down everything you spend money on each day,” says Buchi Okoro, CEO and co-founder of African cryptocurrency exchange Quidax. “Each page is similar to a block, and the entire book, a group of pages, is a blockchain.”
Using Crypto securely for transactions
Using crypto securely to make transactions depends on the purpose itself. For example, Crypto Debit card, BitPay works if you want to spend crypto where they don’t accept it directly. But if the person or retailer accepts cryptocurrency, you’ll need a cryptocurrency wallet, which is a software program that interacts with the blockchain and allows users to send and receive cryptocurrency.
In order
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Weightage given to the contributions/achievements of boys/girls, men/women or both
- Are marginalized groups and their cultures and lifestyles represented?
- Are prejudices mentioned?
- Does the narrative speak only of a particular caste and class?
- Who takes the decision in the area of food, education, all money matters, health, occupation and any other?
- Does the theme reflect diverse areas of contributions of women substantially or in a tokenistic manner?
- How are women reflected in different domains of society in relation to family, school, workplace and society?
- Distribution of workload by gender in a framework of fairness
- Who performs productive activities related to production of goods and services for income generation?
- Who performs activities related to collection of water, nursing, child care, fetching fuel wood and all activities related to household chores?
- Who performs community activities – welfare related, organizing meetings, marriage, funeral, religious activities, neighbourhood meetings, any other? Who takes the initiative in such activities? Men/women/both
- Who are shown as agents of change?
4. scientific attitude/temper
5. scientific achievements
- Who is active (the ‘protagonist’) in the visuals? Who is passive (the ‘receiver’) in the visuals?
- Do the exercises explore issues related to gender, class, and caste?
- Do the exercises attempt to question power relations?
- Do they help children to connect with their lived realities?
- Do they promote critical thinking and problem solving skills?
These are questions that every teacher can ask of the textbook they are expected to use in their classroom. It would be even better if they offered their students the opportunity to discuss these questions, and present their views on the same. It can be a rich exchange and through this even a dull textbook could become a beneficial aid to learning. Teachers are often exceptionally creative when faced with scarce resources, and it is possible for them to support students in reading against the grain.
If students are not used to having the opportunity to participate in such discussions, they might need some orientation or training. The glossary provided in the NCERT report can be a good starting point even if it is not the most well-articulated one. It defines gender, gender bias, gender inclusive, gender neutral and gender stereotyping in the following manner:
Gender – is a social construct. It refers to social differences between men and women which are conceived, enacted and learnt within a complex of relationships. They vary between societies and cultures and change over time. Gender is cultural specific variable. Gender is used to analyze the roles, responsibilities, constraints, opportunities and needs of women and men in any given social context.
Gender Bias – invisiblization/underrepresentation of girls’ and women’s contributions in textual materials and in schooling processes.
Gender Inclusive – it includes activities performed by both sexes.
Gender Neutral – text mainly representing the natural habitat. Does not aim at either men or women and assumes to affect both sexes equally. Treats women, men, girls and boys as they were part of one homogenous group. Gender neutral policies do not challenge existing gender division of resources and responsibility. Avoids references to masculinity and femininity and their social and cultural associations.
Gender Stereotyping – is the assignment of roles, tasks and responsibilities to a particular gender on the basis of pre-conceived prejudices and impact of socialization processes. Gender stereotyping is portrayed in different forms of media such as films, audio visuals and audios, conversation, jokes or books, of women and men occupying social roles according to a traditional gender role or division of labour.
What are the other resources that teachers can consult if they want to use gender as a critical lens for classroom enquiry? The Central Board of Secondary Education, an autonomous organization under the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, has published on its website a well-intentioned document called ‘Checklist for Gender Sensitivity in Schools’. It can be viewed as a useful framework enumerating “gender sensitive parameters which should be followed to promote gender sensitivity in classroom transaction and extra-curricular activities.”
This ambitious checklist sets for itself the task of identifying “the specific standards that schools should conform to in order to build and support an environment, system and processes that are sensitive towards the requirements of students of both the genders.” It covers various aspects of life at school, using the following sub-headings: School Vision, School Mission, School Management, School Infrastructure and Utilities, School Administration, Curricular Approach, Textual Material, Pedagogical Practices, Co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, School Uniform, School Transport, School Support Mechanisms (Clinic/Infirmary/Counseling Services), and Gender Based Violence.
The section on ‘textual material’ poses the following questions:
- Does the textual content reflect a gender sensitive approach?
- Is there any bias reflected towards a gender in any of the textual contents?
- Is there equal weightage for both genders in the selection of content?
- Are there any guidelines to the content developers with regard to gender sensitivity?
- Is the language used by the content developers gender sensitive or does it show any gender bias?
- Do the images, pictures or visuals used in the textual content indicate any bias towards a gender?
- Is there adequate representation of women in the texts of history, science, technology, mathematics, language and literature?
- Are there any statements or inputs that provoke gender bias/demean either gender in the content?
- Are there guidelines to publishers of textual materials with regard to gender sensitivity?
- Is there any mechanism to vet the content published by the private agencies with regard to gender sensitivity?
- Are there any anecdotes, incidents, events and descriptions in any of the textual materials that directly or indirectly suggest bias to a gender?
- Is the language used in textbooks gender neutral?
While the NCERT report does recommend devoting more attention to the issues and concerns of transgender children, the problem with this checklist is that it assumes “two genders,” and does not make explicit how ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ can be connected but are not the same. This distinction can be tricky to understand and explain. Many theorists have worked on this subject, but if you are looking for a resource that is accessible yet not too jargon-heavy, go for Marina Watanabe’s video ‘What’s the Difference Between Sex and Gender?’ published on everydayfeminism.com in June 2015.
Excerpt from the transcript of Marina Watanabe’s video at http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/06/difference-sex-and-gender/
When we talk about a person’s sex we normally use it to refer to their biology. It’s a two-category or a binary system based on a person’s genitalia, chromosomes, and hormones that classifies people as either male or female. It’s also the social, the legal, and the medical classifications of one’s body that’s assigned at birth.
Gender is how someone identifies, and it’s something that’s ascribed to each of us at birth in relation to our bodies. When you’re born you have no say in what gender you’ll be raised as. Basically, if you have a penis you’re a boy, and if you have a vagina you’re a girl. If you’re born intersex, like one out of every 2,000 people, meaning your genitalia is ambiguous or doesn’t fit the traditional definition of what we consider male or female, then immediate emergency surgery is usually performed to make your body fit one of these definitions.
However, gender is much more than that. Gender is a social category. It contains the roles, dress, behaviour, and expression expected of a person based on an arbitrary category given to them at birth. For example, the idea that women are nurturing and compassionate, whereas men are stoic and unemotional.
When we think of gender and sex, we normally think of sex as purely biological and gender as something that’s social, but even when you look at biological sex it’s not necessarily something that’s natural or essentialist. Physical characteristics like genitalia and chromosomes exist, but sex as a category is a social construction.
For example, the ancient Greeks only had a one-sex system. They viewed women as inside-out men. Flash forward to today, where doctors are slowly beginning to change their views about sex and gender and they’re starting to view intersex as a third category of classification. Because why should we force an unnecessary and irreversible surgery on intersex babies to make them conform to an inaccurate two-sex system when we can just let them figure it out as they grow up?
Also, for a system that is supposedly based on biology, it only takes a very surface level view of sex. Most of the doctors will just be like, “Hey, you have a penis. You must be a boy,” instead of taking a deeper look at chromosomal makeup. There are a lot of sex chromosome disorders that can happen that might not even be readily apparent by just looking at physical characteristics of someone’s body.
How is all this information relevant to school teachers? When will they teach their own subject if they spend time unravelling these complex ideas with students? Despite caricatures in popular culture of teachers as uninspired, burnt-out creatures who care only about passing or failing a student, I like to think that most teachers do want all their students, regardless of their sexual or gender identity, to feel safe and valued. If they see a relationship between approaching textbooks in a gender-sensitive manner and combating gender-based violence, I think they will gradually become open to interrogating and transforming their classroom practices.
Look at the Report of the Committee on Amendments to Criminal Law constituted on December 23, 2012, shortly after the ‘Nirbhaya’ rape case in Delhi, to “look into possible amendments of the criminal law to provide for quicker trial and enhanced punishment for criminals committing sexual assault of extreme nature against women.” The report submitted by Justice J.S. Verma, Justice Leila Seth and Gopal Subramanium in December 2013, has a chapter titled ‘Education and Perception Reform’, which recommends “stripping out the language of sexism from books/materials, eliminating different lessons for girls and boys (i.e., sewing v/s sports).”
It also talks about school as “an important area where ‘femininity’ and ‘masculinity’ is attributed,” and also “where violence is perpetrated on boys who do not conform to dominant forms of masculinity and on girls who are not sufficiently modest and retiring in their feminine demeanour. ” This articulation seems more perceptive, inclusive and nuanced than the NCERT evaluation tool as well as the CBSE checklist. It goes on to argue for the need “to promote alternate forms of masculine expression and encourage expression and engagement with emotions of anger, frustration and other intense feelings,” and for “constructing tenderness and caring as legitimate emotions across all sectors of society.”
In countries like India, where the textbook occupies a central place in the classroom, it is imperative that we put more thought and care into developing them. If we do not have a say in creating them, we can use our agency in the classroom to build critical awareness towards biases in these texts, and to fill in gaps using supplementary material. A publication that can serve as an effective guide for textbook writers creating new material and teachers using/adapting existing material is Promoting Gender Equality Through Textbooks: A methodological guide published by UNESCO in 2014. It draws on research conducted in Cameroon, Togo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, within the framework of the International Network for Research into Gendered Representations in Textbooks.
In this UNESCO guide, authors Carole Brugeilles and Sylvie Cromer write, “Under a quality education policy, the textbook is understood as an educational tool of prime importance, being instrumental to culture, to educational attainment and to in-service teacher training.” They also refer to the textbook as “a tool for social change because it disseminates universal values,” and make a case for textbooks “to be covered by policies which respect and include the rights of girls and women for their full enjoyment of a good-quality education.” After celebrating 70 years of freedom, this is something India should certainly aspire for and work towards.
Box with Story
The Writing Center of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill provides a few examples of how one can gradually learn to replace gendered language with gender-neutral language.
|Gendered noun||Gender-neutral noun|
|mankind||people, human beings, humanity|
|man-made||machine-made, synthetic, artificial|
|the common man||the average person|
|chairman||chair, chairperson, coordinator, head|
|steward, stewardess||flight attendant|
|Sir (in “Dear Sir,” etc.)||Dear Sir or Madam, Dear Editor, To Whom it May Concern|
The author is an educator with experience in teacher training and curriculum development. He writes on gender, and is also part of the UN Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development’s Working Group on Youth and Gender Equality. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org or tweet to him @chintan_connect
Which book to go b(u)y?
Contention and Competition
Let’s exercise some thought!Virginia had 20 mass shootings in 2022. How do survivors deal with the psychological aftermath?
It’s been nearly six months since a man shot and killed six of his colleagues at a Chesapeake Walmart. The store reopened in mid-April. Dr. Laura Wilson talks about the aftermath of this kind of event for survivors and the broader community.
The Gun Violence Archive counted 646 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2022, 20 of those events were in Virginia. How do survivors deal with the psychological effects of mass shootings? Laura Wilson, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Mary Washington, studies how trauma affects survivors. She said that people’s reactions to mass shootings are as unique as they are.
TRANSCRIPT OF VIDEO
KEYRIS MANZANARES: Dr. Laura Wilson, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Mary Washington, says that people's reactions after a mass shooting are as unique as they are.
LAURA WILSON: We find that a lot of people are actually surprisingly resilient. Some people experience very little fluctuation in their functioning.
KEYRIS MANZANARES: But people who are physically injured often have more long-term mental health issues.
LAURA WILSON: It's fairly typical for someone who has been directly impacted to have at a minimum, short-term issues. That could be difficulties sleeping. They might have some survivor guilt. They might also have some anger and some frustration, depending on the nature of the shooting, but then that can also translate into long-term issues like depression and PTSD.
KEYRIS MANZANARES: When it comes to workplace mass shootings like we saw at the Chesapeake Walmart, Dr. Wilson says survivors tend to feel more survivor's guilt.
LAURA WILSON: A survivor might say, "I knew this person and I maybe could've done something. I maybe could've predicted this was going to occur." Sometimes, it might lead to more anger, because maybe they feel like the place of employment could have stopped it.
KEYRIS MANZANARES: The community also feels an impact, because of the news they see about mass shootings on social media.
LAURA WILSON: We see that a lot of individuals are live streaming events. They're tweeting as things are happening. They're texting family members. There's more video footage than ever before of people hiding or fighting back during mass shootings, and it's giving people a front row seat to the horror.An MSO can identify and correct a misdiagnosis before it leads to unnecessary surgery, complications, and wasted time and healthcare spending.
A study1 by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and CRICO2 found that diagnostic errors accounted for one in three medical errors that caused serious harm, and 64% of those errors led to death or permanent disability.
The researchers identified three categories of diagnostic errors that accounted for a majority of diagnostic error claims and payouts, and the top health issues within each category, which accounted for approximately 50% of serious harms:
• Vascular: stroke, venous and arterial thromboembolism, heart attack, and aortic aneurysm and dissection
• Infections: sepsis, pneumonia, meningitis/encephalitis, and spinal abscess
• Cancer: lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancer, and melanoma
Obtaining a medical second opinion significantly lowers your risk of misdiagnosis. The WorldCare Medical Second Opinion Service provides valuable guidance and empathetic support when you need it most. Specialist teams with The WorldCare Consortium® will carefully review your case and provide you and your physician with an evidence-based diagnostic opinion and recommendations to support treatment plan decisions.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths, and an estimated 236,740 individuals in the U.S. will be diagnosed with the disease in 2022, according to the American Cancer Society. Awareness and early detection are essential for the best outcomes.
Test your knowledge about lung cancer by answering these questions.
1. Who is most at risk for developing lung cancer?
A. Older adults are at the highest risk, as most cases occur in individuals over the age of 65. The average age of diagnosis is 70 years, with few cases diagnosed before age 45.
2. How can you prevent lung cancer?
A. If you smoke, quitting is one of the best ways to prevent lung cancer. Patients who are ready to quit should talk to their doctors about resources to help.
3. What are the symptoms of lung cancer?
A. Individuals with lung cancer may experience a wide range of symptoms, or may have no symptoms at all. The most common symptoms include:
• Persistent cough
• Coughing up blood or phlegm
• Chest pain
• Shortness of breath
• Unexplained weight loss
4. Is lung cancer more common in men or women?
A. While lung cancer is more common in men, the gender gap is closing. In fact, lung cancer kills more women than any other cancer —more than breast, ovarian and cervical cancers combined.
5. Can non-smokers develop lung cancer?
A. Yes, lung cancer in never-smokers is the seventh leading cause of cancer-related death in the U.S.
6. Who should be screened for lung cancer?
A. The USPSTF recommends annual screening for lung cancer with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) in adults aged 50 to 80 years who have a 20 pack-year smoking history AND currently smoke or have quit within the past 15 years. Screening should be discontinued once a person has not smoked for 15 years or develops a health problem that substantially limits life expectancy or the ability or willingness to have curative lung surgery.
7. What are the different types of screenings for lung cancer?
A. There is one approved test for lung cancer screening: the low-dose computed tomography (CT) scan, which provides a detailed image of the lungs and uses only about one-third the radiation dose of a full-dose CT scan.
8. What are the different stages of lung cancer?
A. Stage I: When the cancer is confined to the place in the lung where it originated
Stage II/III (sic): When the cancer grows and spreads to the lymph nodes or other structures in the chest
Stage IV: When the tumor has spread to other locations in the body, such as the brain, bones or liver
9. How is lung cancer treated?
A. Depending on the stage of the lung cancer, its location in the body and the patient’s health status, the course of treatment may differ. Options may include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapies, and/or immunotherapy.
10. What are the benefits of being treated by a multidisciplinary team?
A. Multidisciplinary input on how to best treat and care for a patient with lung cancer is essential to ensure that providers are diagnosing, treating and supporting patients as effectively as possible.
You can read more in-depth responses from consortium member Massachusetts General Hospital physicians here.
Sources: Massachusetts General Hospital and American Lung Association
Individuals with Alzheimer’s disease acquired more mutations in neurons compared to people without Alzheimer’s disease, and the extra changes disabled genes essential for healthy brain function, according to a recent study led by investigators from Boston Children’s Hospital.
The researchers analyzed whole-genome sequencing data from neurons in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus brain areas of people who had and did not have Alzheimer’s disease. They found more mutations and abnormal mutation patterns caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS), free radicals that can oxidize and damage DNA, in neurons from people with Alzheimer’s.
The finding may tie in with previous knowledge on Alzheimer’s disease processes, such as the accumulation of amyloid-beta and tau proteins, which can both encourage ROS production, and the abnormal activation of immune cells in the brain, called microglia, that attack connections between neurons and cause oxidative damage to DNA.
The study was published in Nature. You might be tempted to think that antioxidants could be a potential treatment strategy. However, scientists will need to conduct more research to answer key questions on the underlying mechanisms that cause oxidation of the genome, inflammation and over-activated immune responses in the brain.
Pulmonary hypertension is a rare type of high blood pressure that affects arteries in the lungs and heart. It occurs four times more often in women than men. As there is no cure, and it can be fatal, many patients with pulmonary hypertension eventually need a lung transplant.
Researchers from UCLA Health hunted for the gene that plays a role in the development of pulmonary hypertension by silencing genes in mice, one by one, in the Y chromosome. (Men have one X and one Y chromosome; women have two X chromosomes). The scientists identified the gene Uty was responsible for halting an inflammatory pathway associated with pulmonary hypertension.
Next, the researchers modeled pulmonary hypertension in female rats and treated them with an experimental drug, AMG-487. It successfully prevented the development of pulmonary hypertension by blocking inflammation. The researchers now plan to study the drug in human clinical trials.
The study was published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.Yoga for Weight Loss - Surya Namaskar DVD
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Obesity is a public health problem and is a major risk factor for numerous conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and osteoarthritis. Obesity occurs as the result of imbalance between the food energy intake and the energy expenditure of the body.
Yoga helps to reduce weight though the adoption of a healthy life style that includes aspects of dietary control along with the various Yoga techniques that are designed to burn up the excess calories and redistribute body fat in a healthy manner. Yoga also helps correct the numerous psychological conditions that may be causing the excessive weight gain such as depression.
This presentation deals with Surya Namaskar, an important Yogic practice for the neuron-endocrine system along with the important Asanas, Pranayamas, Kriyas and relaxation practices that can help reduce appetite, improve digestion, speed up metabolism and produce psychosomatic relaxation.
SECTION 1: Jattis – Basic Warning Up practices practices done from standing, sitting and lying down positions.
SECTION 2: Aruna Surya Namaskar: The Sun Salutation
SECTION 3: Practices done from standing: Hastha Kona Kriya, Trikona Asana, Uddiyana Bandha and Agnisara Kriya.
SECTION 4: Practices Done from Sitting: Vajra Asana, Danda Kriya, Vakra Asana, Ardha Matsyendra Asana, Ushtra Asana and Pachimottana Asana.
SECTION 5: Practices Done from Lying Down: Pavan Mukta Kriya, Eka Pada Uttanpada Asana, Dwi Pada Uttanpada Asana, Shirasa Uttana Asana, Jatara Parivritta Asana, Nava Asana, Bhujanga Asana and Dhanur Asana,
SECTION 6: Topsy Truvy Practices: Sarvanga Asana, Janu Sirasa in Sarvanga Asana and Hala Asana
SECTION 7: Pranayamas For Weight Reduction: Surya Nadi Pranayama, Kukkriya Pranayama, Sheetali Pranayama and Kavi Pranayama.
SECTION 8: Yogic Relaxation: Kaya Kriya
SECTION 9: Schedules for Weight Reduction.
Presented by Yogacharya Dr.Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani, Ananda AshramThe SCA is composed of a diverse population. We have different experiences, we have different beliefs, and we have different backgrounds, and we are all committed to valuing the worth of all individuals and promoting a safe and respectful environment. We want to work together to explore our histories, our passions, and our hobbies.
But, how can we do that when our opinions differ?
One way is by engaging in dialogue instead of debate.
Dialogue allows us to converse with others and seek common understanding when opinions differ and tensions are high. Dialogue helps us navigate moments of tension and disagreement and mediates us forward to a place of renewed connection.
In order to engage in dialogue, we need to be able to recognize the differences between dialogue and debate.
What are the characteristics of dialogue and debate?
Dialogue is a conversation or exchange of ideas where the representative parties are aimed at a collaborative resolution to their conflict. The focus is on listening without judgement, sharing ideas, developing a common understanding, respecting others’ experiences and emotions, and discovering new solutions. Dialogue invites inquiry.
Debate is a formal or public argument between opposing parties who are convinced their side is right and the other is wrong. The focus is on finding flaws, making counterarguments, critiquing the other side, defending strongly held convictions, and winning. “Debate involves a countering of the other position without focusing on feelings or relationship and often belittles or deprecates the other person…. Debate implies a conclusion” that chooses only one side (link).
Dialogue is collaborative.
Debate is oppositional.
|assumes there is a right answer, and I have it.||assumes that many people have pieces|
of the answer and that together, they can
craft a solution.
|is combative – participants attempt to|
prove the other side wrong.
|is collaborative – participants work|
together toward common understanding.
|is about winning.||is about exploring common good.|
|entails listening to find flaws and|
make counter arguments.
|entails listening to understand and find|
meaning and agreement.
|I defend my assumptions as truth.||I reveal my assumptions for reevaluation.|
|I critique the other side’s position.||I re-examine all positions|
|I defend my own views against those|
|I admit that others’ thinking can improve|
|I search for weaknesses in others’|
|I search for strength and value in other’s|
|I seek a conclusion or vote that ratifies|
|I discover new options.|
When we are conversing in SCA spaces, we need to be mindful of whether or not we are engaging in debate or dialogue.
Recognizing the characteristics of dialogue and debate will allow us to self-reflect and adjust so that we can stay in a place of dialogue. It can also help us identify when the person we’re talking to is focused on debate and allow us to choose whether to try to foster a dialogue or to step away from the conversation.
Engaging in dialogue is one way that we can foster a diverse, respectful, and inclusive environment in the SCA.
Links and Resources:
- United States Institute of Peace Infographic
- University of Washington Infographic
- Yale University Infographic
- Diversity Awareness Partnership Lesson: The difference between debate and dialogue
- Great Place to Work: The difference between debate, discussion, and dialogue
Want to read more about the SCA’s policies and resources related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion? Check out the DEI Resources page and the document library.From its early roots in the Bronx to its current status as a worldwide cultural movement, hip-hop has never lost its street-level sensibility. When writing songs, rappers and lyricists trade in the currency of credibility, constantly dropping the names of street corners, city neighborhoods, even specific buildings and housing projects to connect listeners with the urban environment.
Hip-hop is often about place. And, according to architect Michael Ford, it is place—often poorly designed, underfunded, and cut off from the rest of the city through bad urban planning and structural racism—that birthed the genre. Ford, who has been tapped to design the forthcoming Universal Hip-Hop Museum in the Bronx, has helped coin the term “hip-hop architecture,” popularizing the concept as a lens for looking at the intersections of culture and the built environment.
But it’s not just about looking back at the ways urban planning and housing policy created the environment for new forms of music; it’s how the ethics and ethos of hip-hop can help inspire new solutions for designing our cities.
“I’m looking at the intersection of architecture and hip-hop,” Ford says. “I use hip-hop to look at the impact architecture has had on the community, and the impact my profession has made. Architecture has shaped communities, but we can go back and reclaim them, and reconnect those that have been lost to things such as freeways.”
Ford, who wrote a thesis about the subject, Cultural Innovation, Hip-Hop Inspired Architecture and Design, while studying at the University of Detroit Mercy in 2005, believes this is a perfect example of the power of narrative. Historical discourse often pushes the idea that the “black ghetto” exists because of the cultural behaviors of its occupants. Exploring and exposing the conscious and subconscious efforts of past members of his profession to shape these spaces, and the effects those decisions have, can inform and inspire more community-oriented design in the future. During a summer when Ford and his business partner, Tiffany Brown, have been teaching camps across the country, spreading his message of design and community engagement, Curbed spoke to Brown how architecture and hip-hop and intertwined.
The Beginning: Moses, Le Corbusier, and Structural Racism
Ford can talk all day about hip-hop, how it started in the Bronx and at 1520 Sedgewick Avenue. But ask him who the godfather of hip-hop is, and he won’t say Grandmaster Flash or Kool Herc. He says it’s Le Corbusier. Of course, he doesn’t mean that literally. But the famed French modernist did create the architectural blueprints for the buildings that would become the cradle of the art form.
“This is not a means of taking credit away from the brothers and sisters who actually created hip-hop, but a method to make a sustaining narrative which links the built environment and hip-hop culture based on historical facts,” he said during a presentation in Austin. “And, to be honest, it’s a subtle jab at modernism and those celebrated as the standard bearers of our profession.”
Corbusier’s famous towers-in-the-park concept—a series of soaring high-rises interspersed with parks—aimed to bring “democracy and equality through the built environment.” He thought “good” or “enlightened” buildings would create good and enlightened citizens. Officials in Paris “thought his idea were crazy,” and never implemented Corbusier’s plans.
New York, and its infamous master-builder Robert Moses, had no such reservations, replicating parts of Corbusier’s plan as part of the massive slum-clearance and housing project programs he oversaw in the ‘60s and ‘70s. But, in what Ford calls “a terrible early example of sampling,” Moses borrowed part of Corbusier’s plan—the tall, narrow towers, and dense living conditions—but didn’t include all the amenities and park spaces Corbusier envisioned. The housing projects he created, an architectural sample, then became the standard for public housing across the country.
The construction of these dense towers, and the concurrent freeway construction that cut neighborhoods off from one another, created the spaces that birthed the different elements of hip-hop; DJing, MCing, B-boying, and graffiti. Areas choked of private spaces and arts funding, where creative youth congregated in public parks, towers and basketball courts, and created a cross-pollination of culture.
“People criticized Corbusier’s plans, saying they would ‘create a culture that begs for creativity,’” says Ford. “I call it a prediction of hip-hop culture, almost 50 years before it was born.
These towers had perverse impacts on their residents, says Ford. The physical environments had psychological effects. And it wasn’t just the landscape; social priorities and lack of funding for education or the arts also had a huge impact.
The Project: The Hip-Hop Museum
While Ford and others have published essays and research looking at the historical connections between hip-hop and architecture, he’s also trying to practice a new type of architecture influenced by the cultural movement.
The most high-profile example is his Universal Hip-Hop Museum, a forthcoming cultural institution in the Bronx that not only seeks to share the artform, be inspired by it as well. Instead of a traditional design brief and community feedback loop, the museum’s look was designed in part by a “cypher,” a term that references a freestyle rap battle, and has the support of rap legends such as Kurtis Blow and the Sugar Hill Gang.
Set to open in 2019 or 2020, the museum will also embody hip-hop’s focus on community. Thanks to funding from Microsoft, the initiative will also build a portable museum that, starting later this year, will travel between major cities in the years leading up to the permanent museum’s opening. A truck-like portable space, which Ford has nicknamed “Optimus Prime,” will travel to Detroit, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and New York, not only allowing fans to visit the museum in their hometown, but also to contribute. In a hip-hop spin on StoryCorps, visitors will be able to add their stories, including text and images, and tag them to a specific place, creating a map of hip-hop’s influence across different parts of the country.
“We wanted to figure out a way to make the museum accessible to people around the country,” says Ford. “It’s like mapping a phenomenon. It allows the pioneers of hip hop to tell their own story, it allows architects, designers and urban planners to fuse their culture with their practice and it allows the community to effectively engage in the design process of developments in their neighborhood. ”
The Vision: Architecture that reflects the community
Ford has described hip-hop as the “post-occupancy report of Modernism.” Referencing the term architects, designers and engineers typically use for their account of mistakes and success after a project is finished, Ford feels the lyrics and language of hip-hop, and the visceral descriptions of the urban environment, can teach his profession important lessons.
Creating spaces for and by the community matters. Using hip-hop as a connector, narrative, and frame of reference can get more people, especially people of color, engaged in shaping and designing their environments, a form of self-empowerment that seems perfectly aligned with the genre’s message. Only three percent of architects in the United States are African-American, says Ford. He wants to see more kids follow President Obama’s suggestion and become literal architects of change.
“Will hip-hop architecture allow minority students and young practitioners to make immediate contributions to the field of architecture, instantly raising the visibility of minority practitioners as a whole? “ says Ford. “I hope that the hip-hop generation will champion this new vernacular, and rely on our love for hip-hop coupled with our architectural knowledge, to build our communities and increase the number of minority practitioners.”
Ford wants students to realize hip-hop isn’t just what’s on the radio, and that there are African-American designers, architects, and urban planners.
The Music: A hip-hop playlist about the environment and architecture
Consider this the playlist to Ford’s work. Curbed asked the architect to name some of the songs he feels showcase the relationship between hip-hop and architecture; we included a few below, which he recently played during a lecture.
KRS One - R.E.A.L.I.T.Y. - "Rhymes Equal Actual Life in The Youth"
“I used this song to describe hip-hop lyrics' are reflections of real life in urban communities. If you want to hear a critique of the environment from which the music is made, listen to the music.”
Grandmaster Flash and Furious Five, “The Message”
“This song describes the urban reality of urban renewal.”
Snoop Dog, “Life in The Projects”
“Describes the dismal environments resulting from the modernist vision, Towers in a Park. The monotonous superblocks failed to provide the lush green environments once envisioned by Le Corbusier.”
Ain't no trees, the grass ain't green, And when I say it's all bad, you know what I mean
Wu-Tang Clan, "S.O.S."
“Wu-Tang member Street Life’s contribution to ‘S.O.S” reveals a deep frustration and level of tension between public housing authorities, architects and the tenants about the cyclical fostering and implementation of injustices upon African-American communities.
Street chronicle, wise words by the abdominal
High honorable, rap quotable phenomenal
Seniority kid, I speak for the minority
Ghetto poverty f*** the housing authority
The West Coast All-Stars, "We’re All in the Same Gang"
“In the song "We're All in The Same Gang", produced by Dr. Dre in 1990, featuring the top hip hop artists and rappers from the West Coast. Shock G eludes to John B Calhoun's research during his verse below. Sociologist John B. Calhoun studied the behavior of lab mice under conditions of overcrowding and controlled resources. People eventually made parallels between the activities of his study subjects to humans, some predicting that overcrowding was in the future for the human race, and based on his research, violence, amongst other things, was an inevitable part of that future if we don't change the way we design our cities.
I’m in a rage. Oh Yea? Why is that G?
Because other races, they say we act like rats in a cage.
I tried to argue, but check it, every night in the news, We prove them suckers right and I got the blues
Nas, "I Can"
“Nas told your hip hoppers they can be whomever they want to be, including an architect.”
Be, B-Boys and girls, listen up
You can be anything in the world, in God we trust
An architect, doctor, maybe an actress
But nothing comes easy it takes much practice« PreviousContinue »
for four weeks by Archbishop Hervey, took its name from the macerias or banks which Count Erlebald had constructed around it. It is impossible to say whether this enclosure should be called a castle or a town, but in idea it was certainly a castle, since it was an enclosure formed for private, not for public interests.
Whether these first private castles were provided with towers we have no evidence either to prove or to disprove. No instance occurs from which we can conclude that they possessed any kind of citadel, before the middle of the 10th century. But before the century is far advanced, we hear of towers in connection with the great towns, which, whether they were originally mural towers or not, are evidently private strongholds, and may justly be called keeps. The earliest instance known to the writer is in 924, when the tower
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So, let’s help you make the best long-term decisions.
What Is Tooth Resorption?
Tooth resorption is the loss of tooth structure. This can take place when the body removes tissue containing minerals. Tooth structure can be partially broken down or in some cases, the whole tooth might resorb.
Is Internal and External Resorption the Same?
Do you know your teeth are made of multiple layers? We’re going to discuss the external & internal layer for now.
Let’s look at the two types of tooth resorption relating to these layers.
This is the absorption of the dentine into the tooth’s canal. The outcome is an inflamed tooth. The tooth will be brittle or hollow as the structure changes into inflamed cells.
How to Tell If It’s Internal Resorption
The first sign of internal resorption is a discoloration of the tooth. The tooth will begin to develop a slight pink shade. The reason for the change in color is the inflammation of the inner tissue. The tooth will be sensitive & painful. Have you ever experienced a stabbing pain when eating ice cream? This is the type of sensitivity we’re talking about.
Causes of Internal Resorption
The breakdown of internal tooth structure can be a result of many different treatments or effects:
- Trauma: Injury to the tooth such as a hard knock.
- Bacteria/decay: If bacteria is left on the tooth structure it can penetrate into the pulp causing inflammation.
- Application of certain chemicals: Extreme heat or exposure to certain chemicals such as specific bleach products, can cause the breakdown of tooth structure.
External resorption can affect the gum & outer layer or cementum of the tooth. This will cause a brittle, inflamed tooth.
How to Tell If It’s External Resorption
It can be difficult to distinguish between the two types of tooth breakdown as they might have similar symptoms.
External resorption might also show slight tooth discoloration but will not be as noticeable as internal resorption. The tooth & gum area will be inflamed and painful. Your tooth might be heat and cold sensitive.
Causes of External Resorption
So how does this happen?
- Gum disease: Bacterial infection in the gum area can cause inflammation & eventually external resorption.
- Braces: A change in the structure of the teeth can cause gums & teeth to get inflamed so even having braces can lead to this.
- Chemicals: Chemicals applied to the tooth & gum area can cause resorption of the tooth’s outer layer.
Either type of resorption can result in further problems such as:
- Loss of bone around the tooth.
- Loss of tooth structure.
- Severe infection.
- Incorrect alignment of the jawline.
Treatments for Resorption
Is there any good news? Yes. Resorption can be treated if diagnosed early enough and can include:
- Root canal treatment.
- Gum surgery.
- Gum reconstruction with a laser.
The bad news is if the tooth isn’t treated soon enough your dentist will have no other option than to extract it.
Can Тоотх Resorption Be Prevented?
There is more good news coming your way. You can prevent tooth resorption in a few different ways:
- Sport & teeth: Wear mouth guards to protect your teeth from injury when playing sports.
- Bite plate: Prevent erosion & inflammation if you’re a grinder by wearing a bite plate.
- Hygiene: Don’t underestimate the benefits of following a good oral hygiene routine daily. Include floss & the correct brushing techniques.
- Love your dentist: Despite the daunting thought of getting oral examinations to make an effort to go for yearly check-ups and visit your oral hygienist to remove any plaque build-up.
The old saying prevention is better than cure can’t be any truer when it comes to your teeth. Do you want to avoid serious dental conditions? Your regular check-ups aren’t an option anymore. It’s a necessity.
Author: Peter Mayhew
Peter is a dental hygienist in the city of Chicago, IL. In his free time he likes to write blogs and product reviews on anything dental health related.April 1921, Burning by IRA of The College, Rosscarbery, Co.Cork, reputedly the lineal successor of a famous school established in the sixth century by Saint Fachtna and Derry House Rosscarbery, House of Alexander Sullivan, Kings Counsel and Last Serjeant-at-Law Only Barrister Who Could Be Obtained to Defend Sir Roger Casement 1916
From James S. Donnelly, Junior, Big House Burnings, Co. Cork.
Though their initial plan for a full-scale assault against the Rosscarbery police barracks was derailed, members of the West Cork Brigade mounted another and this time successful effort at the end ofMarch 1921. Bombs and fire destroyed the ground-floor rooms of the barracks before its defenders surrendered with heavy casualties two dead and nine more wounded. Adjacent to the barracks, and almost in the centre of the town, stood that venerable and Protestant institution called “The College” (figure 3), which was directed byMrs. Zoe Louise Becher, wife of the Rev. Harry Becher, the Anglican rector of Rosscarbery.1 Reputedly the lineal successor of a famous school established in the sixth century by Saint Fachtna, foundress of the diocese of Ross, the college had served “for a long time past”as a Protestant academy, and in 1921 it had perhaps forty students from well-to-do families. After the Rosscarbery RIC barracks had been blown apart, rumours spread that the crown forces were about to occupy the college; the IRA promptly intervened and burned it down on 2 April. About a week later, the Volunteers pressed their advantage, returned to Rosscarbery, and torched Derry House purchased two years earlier by the prominent barrister Alexander Sullivan. As His Majesty’s first serjeant-at-law for the British administration in Ireland, Sullivan was highly unpopular. In fact, he had been the target of an attempted assassination in January 1920 while working as a crown prosecutor in County Kerry. He was widely known for his denunciations of both the Sinn Féin party and republican violence. The destruction of Sullivan’s mansion removed one of the few remaining Big Houses in or very near the town was potential accommodation for police or soldiers.
The College is mentioned in the 1840s letters of Dealy, (Daly) Bantry shipowner and timber merchant, trade is bad and only for a loan from friends could he afford to send his boys to the college.
Private. I wrote you some disponding letters in April last. at that time I was hard pressed to meet some bills – and I was preparing to remove my boys from Rosscarbery School (Diocesan Secondary School) which would have been a severe blow to your aunt. but thank Providence I met more kind and good friends and if I can rub over another season I am in hopes that I will not owe any a man a shilling particularly if I can effect good sales & to encourage which I am offering goods on low terms. The fisheries have nearly failed here as yet this season & I hold a large stock of salt __ has improved the English market & I am a considerable holder.
William Wood Wolfe (1871-1960), Magistrate,, 1905, The Bridge, Skibbereen, eldest surviving son of William John (1836-1894), farmed 500 acres shopkeeper, ed St. Faughnans, Rosscarbery, Methodist, agnostic in 1911 census later became Catholic, brother of Jasper Wolfe Crown His mother described his wife, a Catholic as a ‘low wretched barmaid Skibbereen UDC, only Non-Catholic to chair UDC in 1910, listed 1913 at Snugville, Skibbereen, listed 1921. Received IRA threats to withdraw just before Truce in July 1921.
Sergeant Sullivan’s mother was Donovan perhaps linked to the area his father was from Bantry.
Alexander Sullivan, seen standing, Kings Counsel and Last Serjeant-at-Law Only Barrister Who Could Be Obtained to Defend Sir Roger Casement 1916. Note women facing Judges. First women to be allowed by special dispensation to be part of a legal team in their case that of defending solicitor Gavan Duffy.
In July 1916, during his appeal against his death sentence for his role in the Easter Rising, Roger Casement wrote to his family, asking, “Who was the painter in the jury box?”
The painter was a rather unlikely presence: Sir John Lavery, born into a Catholic family in Belfast, was renowned for his portraits of English high society, and his studio had been visited by royalty. He had been invited to record the appeal trial by the presiding judge, Sir Charles Darling, a former client of his. Yet, as Casement noted, the painter “came perilously near aiding and comforting” the prisoner in the way he “eyed Mr Justice Darling’s delivery” of the verdict confirming the death sentence. Casement also noted that Lavery’s wife, Hazel, looked “very sad” at the same moment. The uneasy relationship between Lavery’s position as part of the imperial artistic establishment and his growing sympathies with Irish nationalism would produce a painting at once monumental and hard to place.
Lavery’s record of this moment in history is literally the work of an insider: it is possible only because Lavery was respectable enough to be given privileged access to the trial. Lavery later claimed that Darling had commissioned the work. Yet the result is not the grand image of imperial justice that might have been intended. The conventions of the genre are honoured in the large scale – three metres wide and two metres high – and the meticulous portraits of dozens of individuals. A sense of dramatic moment is created by the slanting light and by the clock that approaches the fatal hour of 12.
But the judges are almost statuesque. All the animation is given to Casement’s defence counsel. And the centre of the picture is occupied by Casement himself, who seems simple and human amid the pomp. He looks not at his judges but at the viewer. This is to be the judgment not of a mere court but of history. Courtesy Irish Times.Any communication channel through which any kind of information, news, entertainment,
education, data, promotional messages etc. can be disseminated is called media.
Mass media refers to communication devices, which can be used to communicate and interact
with a large number of audiences in different languages. Be it the pictorial messages of the
early ages, or the high-technology media that are available today, mass media has become an
inseparable part of our lives. Media can be broadly classified as:
• Print Media (newspapers, magazines, books and Brochures, Billboards, etc.)
• Electronic Media (news websites, social networking sites, mass SMS schemes, television,
internet, radio, cinema etc.)
• New Age Media (Mobile Phones, Computers, Internet, Electronic Books)
Where Media is Misleading? – Threat to Internal Security
• Indian media does not have a wider perspective of India’s national security issues.
• Indian media is in no mood to apply brakes or observe self-restraint on its wayward and
insensitive treatment of national security issues.
• Indian media’s (especially electronic media) analysis and over-analysis of national security
issues by groups of former diplomats, generals and academia’s arm chair strategists distort
national security perspectives. All these gentlemen can only draw on their outdated
experience and none of them are privy to latest inputs. Also in many cases, reticence is
their first casualty after retirement.
• Indian TV anchors discussing national security issues do not have the political and strategic
maturity to discuss national security issues as their Western counter-parts do.
• Indian TV debates on national security issues tend to cut out development of contrary
views and perspectives by imposing commercial breaks, or go hectoring themselves.
For a country like India, the backbone of its democracy and the propagator of its national
interests remains the access to information and expression. It helps citizens to make
responsible and objective choices, to promote accountability by its officials, to provide solutions
to conflict resolution, and also to encourage diverse views of its diverse people. This access of
information has allowed the Indian media to play the role of watchdog that holds the
Government accountable in all its activities, and also functions as the only mode of expression
for its people.
The role of media in a democracy like India, therefore, can be summed up as to:
• Inform and educate people objectively, impartially and in an unbiased manner about
security threats and challenges
• Unbiased reporting with the restraints of self regulations
• Promotion of the principles of healthy democracy
• Respect for the Constitutional Provisions
• To build a bridge between people and governments at the national level
• Uphold fairness, justice, national unity and international cooperation
• Inform, educate, entertain, publicize and most importantly correct the excesses in any
• Highlight the trouble spots in the society and press the government and public to devise
suitable mechanisms to eliminate them
• Shape the perceptions of government, influence public opinion, promote democracy, good
governance as well as influence peoples’ behavior and support people- oriented policies
Following the globalization, the responsibilities of media have also widened. It has to play a role
for preserving and pursuing the national interests of the state and highlighting its perspective
along with the global issues. It has to examine the conduct of international relations and again
to highlight the trouble spot at global level in lieu of global security.
“The internet is the largest experiment involving anarchy in history. (…) It is a source for
tremendous good and potentially dreadful evil, and we are only just beginning to witness its
impact on the world stage.”
- Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google and Jared Cohen,
Director, Google IdeasTraunstein is a small, typically German town. It is located in Bavaria – a region where people like to sit together over a beer and tell stories.
A citizen of Traunstein, Sepp Häusler, has spent his entire professional life there since the beginning of his gardening apprenticeship in 1960 until his retirement in 2011. That means 51 years of insights into the transformation of funeral and cemetery culture.
Now he sits in the hall restaurant “Haidforst” in Traunstein together with 100 mostly older, but also some younger people, and tells how the processes and rituals used to be and recounts many personal memories and stories.
Theme of today’s narrative café: the local forest cemetery.
Narrative cafes: adult education for all
“Narrative café” is the name of a method in adult education that conveys history that people have experienced in the most authentic and realistic way possible.
Narrative cafés were created in the 1980s in the larger cities and have become a popular form in Germany, and the method is widely used in local adult education. The learning is mostly about – as in Traunstein example – the lived history. The method is used primarily for the education of seniors, in intergenerational learning and also in work with the mentally ill, disabled or disadvantaged people.
A feature of narrative cafés is the low threshold to participate, the casual get-together, which is directed by a moderator and is on a certain theme. Usually, relevant objects can also be brought to the cafés to be shown while talking.
For organiser Silvia Nett-Kleyboldt, manager of the local Catholic training centre (Katholisches Bildungswerk), these evenings are more than just a nice get-together. According to her, the storytellers feel appreciated and the audience receive an enriching experience through shared memories and get new insights into life and the world as they used to be.
“This is a chance, especially for younger people, to hear stories from the mouths of contemporary witnesses. It is ‘history from below’, subjective, individually presented, contemplative and humorous. It also promotes cohesion in the social space. People get to know each other and their history better, and that creates an identity for their own homeland.”
Every evening of narrative café, a specific new topic is chosen from city life: the police, fitness centres, the city council, the local economy and many, many more things.
In each case, a moderator presides over the evening, during which three to five guest witnesses tell their stories. Often, the evening is further relaxed by folk music.
The whole series in Traunstein, which has existed since 2012, bears the title “I like to remember that …”
Silvia Nett-Kleybold, also a trained trainer for biography work, says that people prefer to look back on positive events in history, funny circumstances or interesting developments which are still relevant.
Storytelling in in hard covers
Passing on experiences and keeping them alive was also the aim of a model project in Austria.
The Adult Education Centre (Bildungswerk) in Salzburg did not want to let the lived history and the subjective memories of local people over 80 years of age get lost. In each community, the Bildungswerk interviewed at least two people of each birth cohort before 1933.
The stories were then not presented in a café, but published in a book called “That was our time! One generation… remembers “.
In 2017, two volumes were published. Each life story is portrayed in a personal narrative style on two or three pages. The book is not just a local historical treasure trove, but also a readable insight into the everyday world of the time.
Do you want people to know more about their town, neighbours history, and themselves? Start a narrative café!CLANTON – Alabama residents are encouraged to be aware and prepared for the 2018 hurricane season. Days before the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season, Alabama experienced subtropical storm Alberto resulting in heavy rainfall across the state. Preparing for tropical weather is essential. Hurricanes cause heavy rains, strong winds, floods, and coastal storm surges.
“Alabama is part of the Gulf Coast states and hurricanes are a significant threat to our state,” Alabama EMA Director Brian E. Hastings said. “If we are to build a culture of preparedness, it must start with individuals and our families in their homes. When disaster strikes, the true first responders are our citizens at the scene. Our citizens set the initial conditions for follow-on response and recovery. If our citizens are prepared, they can help themselves and assist others in need. The resiliency of our communities is a reflection of the strength and preparedness of our citizens and families.”
Here are some basic preparedness tips for Alabamians preparing for hurricane season:
• Know where to go. If you are ordered to evacuate, know the local hurricane evacuation route(s) to take and have a plan for where you can stay. Contact your local emergency management agency for more information.
• Put together a go-bag: disaster supply kit, including a flashlight, batteries, cash, first aid supplies, medications, and copies of your critical information if you need to evacuate
• If you are not in an area that is advised to evacuate and you decide to stay in your home, plan for adequate supplies in case you lose power and water for several days and you are not able to leave due to flooding or blocked roads.
• Make (and practice) a family emergency communication plan.
• Have a method to receive emergency notifications.
Residents are encouraged to contact their county emergency management agencies for local hurricane preparedness information. A contact list of all county EMA agencies can be found here: https://ema.alabama.gov/county-ema-directory/.
The National Weather Service is also a great source for watches, warnings and advisories for all severe weather in Alabama.
Weather Forecast Office Mobile
Weather Forecast Office Birmingham
Weather Forecast Office Tallahassee
Weather Forecast Office Huntsville
For more hurricane preparedness tips, visit Alabama EMA online at http://www.ema.alabama.gov, or on Twitter or Facebook at @AlabamaEMA.
The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, with the peak occurring between mid-August and late October.The variety of Picudo olive, produces mixed-use olives, are used for the production of oil and table olives. Originally from Córdoba, more specifically from Baena, its cultivation is mainly in the provinces of Córdoba, Jaén, Granada and Málaga. The Picudo olive tree has about 35,000 hectares of cultivation, being a variety with significant extension, of a similar magnitude to varieties such as the Verdial olive, Manzanilla Cacereña and Hojiblanca.
Curiosities: The olive variety “ Picudo “, is named after the shape of the olive, curved, pointed and with a pronounced nipple. Its cultivation is carried out together with other varieties, helping in pollination. Its proportion is lower than other varieties, highlighting its presence in Baena. The Picudo variety is included within the protected designation of origin”Baena”and”Priego de Córdoba”.
Synonyms or names that the Picudo olive variety receives
In Hinojosa del Duque (Córdoba), the Picudo olive tree is known as “Enough”.
The locality of Cabra (Córdoba), call the olive Picudo as “Carrasqueño de Lucena”.
Villa del Río (Córdoba), Picudo is known as “Castúo“.
For the people of Montoro (Córdoba), the synonym of Picudo is “Paseto“.
The farmers of Écija (Sevilla) and Puente Genil (Córdoba), call the olive variety Picudo, “Picudo Blanco”.
It is also known by the name of”Carrasqueño de Córdoba”.
Features of the Picudo Olive Tree
Although the Olive Picudo is not an expanding variety, it is prized for producing oils of good organoleptic characteristics.
Productivity: the Picudo olive tree, is entered into production early and productivity is high.
Regularity of bearing: The variety of Olive Picudo is of alternating production (vecera).
Flowering: Picudo variety, is of medium flowering. Its pollen has a high germination capacity, Picudo being a very suitable variety as a pollinator.
Vigor and bearing of the tree: the Picudo olive tree has very strong vigor and is open bearing.
Leaf: The variety of olive Picudo has the large and long large leaf.
Diseases: The Picudo olive tree has good adaptation to limestone soils and excess moisture. It is a variety of medium cold resistance, sensitive to Repilo and Verticillium. Very sensitive to Leprosy and Tuberculosis.
Multiplication: The Picudo plant is easy to multiply thanks to its high rooting capacity.
Picudo Olives, morphological characteristics
Picudo olives have good characteristics for the production of oil. The beet olives have been traditionally used as table olives, with good appreciation.
Maturation: The Picudo olive tree is a late ripening variety.
Size: Olives Picudo are of size large.
Shape: Picudo olives are elliptical and asymmetrical.
Skin color: The Picudo olive, has maturity black color.
It has abundant lenticels of small size.
Pulp: Picudo olives have a high pulp / bone ratio, around 8.
Peduncle: The peduncle of the Picudo olive is medium size.
Yield: Picudo olives have a high fat yield. With around 20% oil, its yield is slightly lower than Picual.
Collection: Picudo has high resistance to detachment, an aspect that makes mechanized collection difficult.
Uses: The Picudo olive is mainly used for oil production. However, its large size and good pulp/bone ratio make it also appreciated as a table olive.
Taste: The Extra Virgin Olive Oil has excellent characteristics, tends a pleasant aroma with notes of apple and almond. It is a very popular oil in the denomination of origin Baena and Priego de Córdoba.
Properties: Picudo oil, is not very stable, with a medium-low content of oleic acid (64%). It could be compared in stability with Arbequina or Hojiblanca, resulting in a less stable oil obtained from Manzanilla Cacereña varieties, Verdial or Cornicabra.
Advantages: Picudo oil is highly valued for its quality. Produces high-fat olives. Rustic variety, adapted to limestone soils.
Disadvantages: little regular production, olive with high resistance to detachment, very sensitive to tuberculosis.
We have translated the information on our website from Spanish to English. Note that some words may have seen their meaning altered during their translation.The impact of the false reporting of the 1925 Scopes trial still impacts the Darwinian evolution debate today. Here are a few of the nine lies documented at Mencken’s Mendacity at the Scopes Trial:
First, Mencken lied about the key point at issue in the Scopes Trial, which was not whether the theory of evolution could be taught in Tennessee’s public high schools, but whether the evolution of man from “lower animals” could be taught as a scientific theory to high school students, in a state where a solid majority of parents in the state of Tennessee opposed the teaching of such a theory to their children, on both moral and religious grounds.
Second, Mencken lied by omission, by failing to mention that Hunter’s Civic Biology, a pro-evolution science textbook that was cited at the trial, and which high school teachers in the state of Tennessee were actually required to use at the time, endorsed both racism and eugenics: it taught the the Caucasoid race was “the highest” races, described people with mental handicaps and genetic deformities as “true parasites“, and highly commended the practice of eugenics.
Third, Mencken mis-represented the religious views of William Jennings Bryan, depicting him as a Biblical literalist and a “fundamentalist pope,” when Bryan’s own writings showed that he was a Presbyterian of fairly liberal views, who believed in an old Earth, and who was open to the possibility that plants and animals had evolved by Darwinian natural selection, making an exception only for man.
Fourth, Mencken mendaciously attributed to Bryan the statement that man is not a mammal, when Bryan said nothing of the sort. What Bryan did object to was the portrayal of man in Hunter’s Civic Biology as an unexceptional mammal, “so indistinguishable among the mammals that they leave him there with thirty-four hundred and ninety-nine other [species of] mammals.”
Fifth, Mencken consistently portrayed Bryan as a petty, hate-filled character when others who were present, including Scopes himself, testified to his magnanimity, affability and pleasant personality.As the final echoes of Bauhaus and the avant-garde movements were sounding, Europe witnessed the emergence of the so-called New Typography, initiated by Jan Tschichold with the publication of his 1928 book of the same name. Adopting a san-serif typeface, rational design, asymmetrical composition and formal construction based on geometry were put forward as the emblems of modernity.
Meanwhile, in Spain, Esteban Trochut, who ran a prestigious printing house in Barcelona, and his son Joan published ADAM (Documentary Archive of Modern Art) in Spanish and French. The aim of this publication was to present typography as a creative element for printers. Its pages featured gorgeous compositions made up solely and exclusively of typographic elements, intended to provide a source of inspiration for printing house workers.
After a necessary hiatus due to the Civil War, they took up the task again with a new series of publications, this time titled NOVADAM. The second issue, published in 1942, featured the Super Veloz typeface, a typographic system devised by Joan Trochut. It was made up of three collections of modules plus another three 72- and 36-point supplements. They provided an almost infinite number of possible combinations, making it possible to create not only letters, but also drawings and illustrations.
Although it is a construction system based on movable type and follows a modular logic, the results obtained using Super Veloz do not have a geometric appearance, due to the calligraphic elements used. At the time, it was an extremely novel typeface, a breath of fresh air, whose great versatility represented a break with the excessive monotony and rigidity prevailing in Spanish and European typography at the time.
Its forerunner was Figuras Geométricas, a modular typeface inspired by Paul Renner’s Futura Schmuck, which was made up of basic shapes – circle, triangle and square – and their respective subdivisions. Fundición Tipográfica José Iranzo, a type foundry, produced the typeface in the 1930s, with Esteban Trochut providing technical advice. Joan Trochut would later design the Bisonte typeface for the same foundry, as well as Juventud for Richard Gans.
By Roberto Gamonal ArroyoThis blog post co-written by Bruce Nilles and Mary Anne Hitt, Director and Deputy Director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign.
We’ve just learned that the clock has started ticking on more than 80 new mountaintop removal coal mining permits in Appalachia. We are told that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may start approving these permits within the next month — or even sooner. All this is according to a timeline set in an agreement between the EPA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of Interior.
According to that agreement, once the Army Corps has handed over all pertinent information about the permits, EPA will have 60 days to decide which permits concern the agency, and all the rest will be allowed to go forward. That 60-day countdown has now begun.
If you’ll remember, early in the Obama Administration, EPA announced it would be reviewing all mountaintop removal mining permits before approving any — a sign of what we thought was perhaps the beginning of the end for the destructive practice that levels mountain peaks, poisons drinking water and destroys communities.
But now, the floodgates could potentially be opened wide for extensive new mountaintop removal operations. The EPA will be making decisions on dozens of permits as soon as mid-September, and letting the permits go forward would set a very dangerous precedent.
If these new permits for mountaintop removal coal mining are approved, the Obama Administration will be lighting the fuse for a new round of blasting, flooding, and water contamination for the communities of Appalachia. Hundreds more permits currently hang in the balance, as does the fate of hundreds of miles of streams and more than 60,000 acres of diverse hardwood forests — see a full list of pending permits here.
The Clean Water Act was intended to prevent the destruction that has gone on for far too long. By allowing these permits to go forward, President Obama is sending a signal that his commitment to science, the letter of the law, and balancing economic growth with good environmental stewardship does not apply to Appalachia.
Scientists have long pointed out that once these streams are buried and ecosystems destroyed, they will never fully recover. Entire communities have been permanently displaced by mines the size of Manhattan.
There is too much at stake in Appalachia to approve any more mountaintop removal coal mines. To date, mining companies have buried close to 2,000 miles of Appalachian streams beneath piles of toxic waste and debris.
Using waste material to fill waterways was prohibited by the Clean Water Act until 2002 when the Bush administration changed the rules. Using the so-called “Fill Rule,” the Bush administration opened waters throughout Appalachia, and across the country, to serve as potential dumping grounds for heavy industry.
The problem is that EPA can approve these permits because they are still under rules lingering from the Bush Administration. The Obama Administration, however, can change these rules through the proper channels, stopping the destruction.
To truly end this most destructive form of mining, the Obama Administration must act decisively to change the rule that allows companies to dump waste into streams and valleys and call it “fill material.”
The clock is ticking, but President Obama still has a chance to end mountaintop removal coal mining. You can help by contacting the White House today.What is EMP-Environmental Management Plan?
An Environmental Management Plan (EMP) can be defined as “an environmental management tool used to ensure that undue or reasonably avoidable adverse impacts of the construction, operation and decommissioning of a project are prevented; and that the positive benefits of the projects are enhanced.
What is the purpose of EMP?
An EMP is a site or project specific plan developed to ensure that appropriate environmental management practices are followed during a project’s construction and/or operation. the implementation of a project’s EIA including its conditions of approval or consent.
What is objective of EMP?
- Definition of the environmental management objectives to be realized during the life of a project (i.e. pre-construction, construction, operation and/or decommissioning phases) in order to enhance benefits and minimize adverse environmental impacts.
- Description of the detailed actions needed to achieve these objectives, including how they will be achieved, by whom, by when, with what resources, with what monitoring/verification, and to what target or performance level. Mechanisms must also be provided to address changes in the project implementation, emergencies or unexpected events, and the associated approval processes.
- Clarification of institutional structures, roles, communication and reporting processes required as part of the implementation of the EMP.
- Description of the link between the EMP and associated legislated requirements.
- Description of requirements for record keeping, reporting, review, auditing and updating of the EMP.
What is the Framework of EMP?
Why GSCS for EMP?
- A young and energetic team of professionals
- Highly experienced
- International Accepted
- Defined & Agreed Project Timescales
- Fixed Cost & Competitive Quotations
For more information about EMP, please contact us by phone or email at firstname.lastname@example.org. We will be pleased to assist youYes, Trout have teeth. Large trout have strong jaws and can easily bite aggressively and draw blood. Smaller trout have teeth but usually small enough not to worry about. So don’t haphazardly stick your fingers into a trouts mouth. If you trout is over 16 inches you should think about using hemostats to remove a fly.
Unlike many species of fish, trout have vomerine teeth which grow on the roof of the upper jaw. These teeth are used to hold and move food down the throat of a trout. A quick way to identify a Salmon from a Trout is the number of vomerine teeth. Salmon will have a single row versus Trout which have two rows.
One of the memories I have that demonstrates that trout have teeth was at out local Cabelas. Our Cabelas is one of those monster buildings, with displays, rivers and mountains.
The trout ponds inside have some brown tout approaching 26 inches. Perodically during the day the store folks feed the fish. The trout appeared to be so what trained, they knew that the guy in the green shirt on the opposite side was there to provide WORMS.
A small crowd gathered to watch the “worm toss”, the store worker must have thought he’d show off a little and have one of those big browns eat a worm from his fingers.
You guessed it, a larger brown decided to nose out of the water to grab onto the workers fingers holding the worms. After hearing him cuss and bandage his fingers, I definitely had my answer to the question “Do Trout Have Teeth?” ins these fish.By 1864, Federal control of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia was viewed as necessary to a Union victory because of the Valley's configuration and its economic potential to the Confederate war effort. The Valley's alignment from southwest to northeast made it an excellent Confederate avenue of approach, threatening Federal resources in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and of course, Washington, D.C., itself. The excellent road system, including the hard-surface Valley Pike (US 11), allowed rapid movement into vulnerable Federal areas. The Valley had seen little warfare since General Stonewall Jackson's brilliant 1862 campaign had secured it as a supply base for the Confederates. The area had continued to produce a large portion of the food required by Lee's army in eastern Virginia as well as that needed in other parts of the Confederacy. Unfettered access to the Valley put the produce of nearby parts of Maryland and Pennsylvania within Confederate reach as well.
General Ulysses S. Grant therefore included the Valley as a part of his strategic planning for Federal forces in the spring of 1864. Operations there would protect the strategic flank of the Army of the Potomac as it operated against Lee in eastern Virginia while also making better use of the Federal troops scattered about the area. Success would end the Valley as a threat and would deny its resources to the hardpressed Lee.
Grant's careful plans were thwarted by a Confederate victory at New Market on 15 May and the defeat of a second Federal force at Lynchburg on 18 June. Those reverses created the opportunity for General Jubal Early, who had rushed his corps to meet the Federal threat at Lynchburg, to go on the offensive. Early's famous raid on Washington climaxed with his withdrawal back into Virginia on 14 July. His spectacular enterprise had diverted the XIX (19th) Corps from joining Grant against Lee at Petersburg. A second corps, the VI (6th) had been pulled out of the Petersburg lines and rushed north to protect the Capital. These Federal units pursued Early as far as Snicker's Gap and then broke contact preparatory to rejoining Grant in eastern Virginia.
But the Federal forces remaining in the Valley were unable to contain Early. He defeated General George R. Crook at Kernstown in late July and went on a rampage against Federal logistics facilities in Martinsburg, W.Va., and along the Potomac River. On 30 August, Confederate cavalry destroyed part of Chambersburg, Pa., in retaliation for damage done by Federal troops in Lexington, Va., the previous June.
Early's dominance of the lower Valley was the last straw for Grant. In early August, he directed the consolidation of Federal forces in the Maryland, West Virginia, and northern Virginia areas into a new Middle Military Division and placed General Philip H. Sheridan in command. The VI and XIX Corps were returned to the Valley as part of this force. Units previously assigned to the area were consolidated into an VIII (8th) Corps. The local cavalry division was joined by two horse divisions from the Army of the Potomac to create a cavalry corps for this powerful new force. Sheridan was instructed by Grant to end Confederate military power in the Valley and to destroy the Valley as an economic asset: "It is desirable that nothing should be left to invite the enemy to return. Take all provisions, forage and stock... such as cannot be consumed, destroy... If the war is to last another year, we want the Shenandoah Valley to remain a barren waste."
Early and Sheridan sparred with each other for nearly a month. Sheridan was under orders to have no more disasters such as those experienced earlier in the year. At the same time, he labored under the assumption that Early enjoyed greater strength than he actually had. Ironically, Early was hampered by Lee's underestimation of Sheridan's strength, which resulted in Lee's recalling General Joseph B. Kershaw's Division to Richmond on 16 September after a month of no decision in the Valley.
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are created industrially by adding hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils with the aim of making them more solid, and thus less oily. Trans fats are also known as partially hydrogenated oils. According to the American Heart Association, restaurants and companies use trans fats because the ingredient is inexpensive and convenient. Trans fat products last a long time, make foods tasty, and are often used to deep-fry foods. But since the health risks of trans fats have become more publicized, many food companies and restaurants have removed the use of trans fats from their products.
A Difficult Road For Popcorn Makers?
But the question on the minds of many: will our favorite popcorn snacks survive the FDA ban?
For years microwave popcorn makers have used partially hydrogenated oils for their high melting point. Trans fats are able to keep solid until the popcorn bag is heated in the microwave, so a shelf-stored popcorn bag isn't dripping with liquid oil. Pop Secret still has about 4.5 and 5 grams of trans fat per serving.
It may be difficult to achieve, but it is possible for microwave popcorn makers to change their ways. Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn, for example, removed trans fat from its products a while ago. But the endeavor consisted of four years to research and develop a trans fat free oil, and then an additional two years to change the product line. “We’ve mastered it, and I’m not going to tell you how we did it,” Pamela Newell, senior director of product development at ConAgra, told Reuters. She mentioned it was an expensive process.
But if popcorn makers choose to go down the healthy route, their sales could possibly grow. Since the health risks of trans fat have been publicized in 2005, consumers have been searching for healthier alternatives for most products, leading to a decrease in the use of trans fat. According to ConAgra’s consumer food annual report, the manufacturer's food sales rose by 8 percent in 2013, partially due to Redenbacher’s improvements. Food manufacturers have 60 days to comment on the FDA proposal, and to estimate how long it will take for them to re-develop their products. Other popular foods that contain trans fat include doughnuts, frozen pizza, coffee creamers, and canned frosting.
Homemade Stove Top Popcorn
Now that we know trans fats are bad enough for the FDA to ban them, there are plenty of healthy alternatives to microwave popcorn. It’s much cheaper and just as easy to purchase plain popcorn kernels from the store and cook them on the stovetop with just a little bit of olive oil.
Popcorn itself, before the additives, is already quite healthy. it’s full of fiber and antioxidants, and if you cook it plain on the stove top without drenching it in salt and butter, you have a highly healthy snack. All you need is extra-virgin olive oil, one-fourth of a cup of popcorn kernels, a sprinkle of salt, and in five minutes you have a fiber-filled snack without the artificial flavoring, high sodium, and trans fats in the packaged kind. You can experiment with different flavors by adding spices or seasoning such as cumin, cinnamon, garlic powder, or even Old Bay seasoning.
“Stovetop popcorn … tastes good in the way that real food tastes good,” Gilad Edelman writes on Slate.- Cosmetic Dentistry: Before and After Pictures
- Teeth Whitening Secrets Slideshow Pictures
- Take the Dental Health Quiz
- Patient Comments: Dental Injuries - Describe Your Experience
- Find a local Doctor in your town
- Dental injury facts
- What are common causes of dental injuries?
- How is a tooth fracture treated?
- What are treatment options for a serious tooth fracture?
- What is the treatment for a chipped tooth?
- How is a fracture of the enamel and dentin treated?
- What are first aid tips for knocked out teeth?
- What is the treatment for a displaced tooth?
- Is it possible to prevent dental injuries?
Quick GuideDental Health: 19 Habits That Wreck Your Teeth
How is a tooth fracture treated?
Tooth fractures can range from minor (involving chipping of the outer tooth layers called enamel and dentin) to severe (involving vertical, diagonal, or horizontal fractures of the tooth and/or root). Enamel and dentin are the two outer protective layers of the tooth. The enamel is the outermost white hard surface. The dentin is a yellow layer lying just beneath the enamel. Enamel and dentin both serve to protect the inner living tooth tissue called the pulp. The portion of the tooth that is visible in the mouth is called the crown and is only a part of the entire tooth structure. The remaining portion of the tooth is buried in the bone and is called the root. Different tests are performed in the mouth to determine if a tooth fracture is present. In some instances, dental X-rays can help to diagnose, locate, and measure the extent of tooth fractures.
What are treatment options for a serious tooth fracture?
A serious fracture is one that exposes both the dentin and the pulp tissue and should be treated promptly. Serious fractures may make the tooth displaced and loose, and cause the gums to bleed. To prevent the loose tooth from falling out completely, the dentist can splint the loose tooth by bonding it to the adjacent teeth to help stabilize it while the underlying bone and gums heal. Because of the high risk of pulp infection after the exposure of the pulp to the oral environment, a root canal procedure may need to be performed during the first visit. Alternatively, the dentist may elect to only apply a sedative dressing on the splinted tooth to help calm the tooth pain. The tooth will then be reevaluated in two to four weeks to determine if a root canal procedure is necessary. If the tooth appears to have recovered and is stable in the mouth, the splint is removed at that time and a filling or crown is placed to restore the fractured tooth. The tooth may still require periodic monitoring over time (months to a year) to determine if any further treatment will be needed.
The most serious injuries involve vertical, diagonal, or horizontal fractures of the tooth roots. In most instances, a fracture of the tooth root leaves the injured tooth very loose and unable to be restored with dental work, thus necessitating tooth extraction. The extracted tooth is often replaced with a removable plate containing a false tooth as a temporary measure until a more definite plan for tooth replacement is made. There are some specific instances where teeth with horizontal fractures near the tip of the root may not need extraction. Root canal treatment for the injured tooth may be required in the future if symptoms of pulp death and tooth infection appear. Periodic dental X-rays of the fractured tooth are performed to monitor it closely.Definition of abreaction
n. - See Catharsis, below.
The word "abreaction" uses 10 letters: A A B C E I N O R T.
No direct anagrams for abreaction found in this word list.
Words formed by adding one letter before or after abreaction (in bold), or to aabceinort in any order:
b - bicarbonate s - abreactions
Words within abreaction
not shown as it has more than seven letters.
List all words starting with abreaction, words containing abreaction or words ending with abreaction
All words formed from abreaction by changing one letter
Other words with the same letter pairs: ab br re ea ac ct ti io on
Browse words starting with abreaction by next letter
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Some random words: ruanaNASA Langley 2001 American Meteorological Society Tip Sheet
NASA Langley researchers will report on new atmospheric science research at the annual American Meteorological Society meeting in Albuquerque, N.M. from Jan. 14-19, 2001 (Sunday-Friday). Details of scheduled papers and poster sessions follow:
Studying the Tropical Radiation Energy Budget
Radiation observations from the top of the atmosphere collected from 1985 to 1999 during the NASA Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) are used to study the climate variability of the tropical radiation budget. Presented by Takmeng Wong.
Tuesday, Jan. 16, Poster Session 1, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Since climate is so closely related to the surface radiation budget, scientists can classify a regions climate by the amounts of incoming shortwave radiation and outgoing longwave radiation. Presented by Anne Wilber.
Wednesday, Jan. 17, Session 11, 1:30 p.m.
Variations in Earths Radiation
Changes in weather and climate parameters throughout a year can influence outgoing longwave radiation and reflected solar radiation. Presented by Kathryn Bush.
Wednesday, Jan. 17, Session 11, 1:45 p.m.
Increased Aircraft Traffic May Impact Climate Change
Contrails or condensation trails formed in the wake of high-altitude aircraft can generate cirrus clouds. Data indicate that these clouds can alter the radiation budget in the same way as natural cirrus clouds. Patrick Minnis will present current contrail effects and future impacts on climate change. Wednesday, Jan. 17, Session 11, 4 p.m.
Studying Fires in the African Congo and Canada
Large biomass burning events can impact the amount of solar radiation that reaches the Earths surface through aerosol or cloud cover. Scientists studied the 1986 fire season in the Republic of Congo and a large boreal forest fire during 1989 in Manitoba, Canada, to determine the effects of smoke on solar radiation. Presented by Paul Stackhouse.
Thursday, Jan. 18, Joint Session 1, 9:45 a.m.
The Effects of Smoke from Boreal Forest Fires
Using satellite retrievals and surface observations, scientists determined the direct effects of smoke from the 1989 fire in Manitoba, Canada, on solar radiation of the region. Presented by Stephen Cox. Thursday, Jan. 18, Joint Session 1, 11:30 a.m.
Understanding Cloud Properties Over Oceans
A method using microwave, visible, and infrared wavelengths was applied to data to determine cloud and atmospheric properties. Presented by Shu-Peng Ho.
Monday, Jan. 15, Session 2, 4:45 p.m.
The Triana spacecraft will measure the total irradiance from the Earth in the shortwave, near infrared, and longwave ranges. Presented by G. Louis Smith.
Wednesday, Jan. 17, Session 5, 4:30 p.m.
Water Amounts over Arctic Regions
Researchers are using ground-based thermal microwave and infrared measurements to estimate column water amounts over arctic regions. Presented by Bing Lin.
Tuesday, Jan. 16, Session 6, 4:30 p.m.
Changes in Surface Radiation
Scientists are developing surface radiation flux climatology from observations of Earths clouds, surface, temperature and humidity. Presented by J. Colleen Mikovitz.
Tuesday, Jan. 16, Poster Session 1, 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.
Improved Retrieval Method
The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) III will retrieve vertical profiles of water vapor concentration in the atmosphere. Presented by Er-Woon Chiou.
Wednesday, Jan. 17, Session 8, 4:30 p.m.
Long-Term Surface Flux Measurements
This is an overview of the uncertainties and quality control issues relating to the usefulness of surface flux measurements for climate questions. Presented by Marc Chiacchio.
Thursday, Jan. 18, Session 12, 3:45 p.m.
Time Series of Radiation Measurements Available
Fifteen years of monthly averaged outgoing longwave radiation and reflected shortwave radiation is available on the web for use by the scientific community. Details presented by T. Dale Bess.
Tuesday, Jan. 16, Poster Session 1, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
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NASA Official Responsible for Content:
Christopher P. Rink
Robert D. AllenNEH supports research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities by funding top-rated competitive, peer-reviewed proposals examined by panels of independent, external reviewers. At an annual cost of about 50 cents per capita, NEH brings high-quality historical and cultural experiences to large and diverse audiences in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and five territories.
WHAT DO WE DO?
NEH is about the democratization of ideas, providing broad and equal access to advances in knowledge and to the nation’s rich cultural heritage. In 2010 alone, NEH-supported state humanities councils put on 17,700 reading and discussion programs, 5,700 literacy programs, 5,800 speakers bureau presentations, 5,800 conferences, 2,300 Chautauqua events, 7,120 media programs, and 7,600 technology, preservation, and local history events. The 56 councils also sponsored 4,600 exhibitions.
WHAT ROLE DO WE PLAY IN THE AMERICAN QUALITY OF LIFE?
Over the past 46 years, NEH has played an essential role in advancing the nation’s understanding and appreciation of the humanities. With NEH support, scholars and cultural organizations have:
- Undertaken research leading to the publication of more than 7,000 books,16 of which have won Pulitzer Prizes, including James McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom, and 20 of which have received Bancroft prizes.
- Produced major reference works such as the highly acclaimed Dictionary of American Regional English and the authoritative Autobiography of Mark Twain.
- Supported archaeological excavations leading to the discovery of the original fort at Jamestown, the tomb of King Midas, and a lost language of the North coast of Peru.
- Edited and begun to digitize the papers of George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower, and nine other presidents, as well as eminent figures including Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, Martin Luther King, Jr., George Marshall, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Albert Einstein and Jonas Salk.
- Mounted major exhibitions that have traveled the country, including the blockbuster Treasures of Tutankhamen seen by five million people and the recent Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul.
- Digitized millions of newspaper pages from the earliest days of the republic, thereby preserving and making accessible to the public the “first rough draft” of history. Chronicling America, a partnership between NEH and the Library of Congress, is digitizing millions of pages taken from newspapers dating back to the early Republic, making it possible to search the pages online — for any word or phrase — at no charge.
- Trained 95,598 teachers and professors on topics such as Congress and American History and Shakespeare in the Classroom. NEH-supported seminars, institutes, and workshops give teachers the opportunity to refresh and deepen their knowledge about the humanities through intense study. In the past three years, more than 2,600 college professors and 7,000 high-school teachers have participated in NEH-supported programs, to the benefit of more than one million students.
- Played a pivotal role in the creation of a new branch of scholarship, the digital humanities. These investments make it possible for scholars to analyze very large numbers of documents and materials from diverse sources and disciplines.
- Supported films, grounded in scholarly research, that bring history alive. For example, twenty million Americans watched Ken Burns’ seven-part The War (2007), and teachers made extensive use of The Buddha (2010). NEH also funds hundreds of exhibitions that make the wonders of our own culture and heritage — and those of others as well — accessible to the American public. Traveling shows such as Lincoln: the Constitution, and the Civil War have reached hundreds of museums across the country.
- Generated more than $1.66 billion in support for the humanities through NEH’s challenge grants, which require recipients to raise $3 or $4 in outside funds for every federal dollar they receive.Your Twelfth Grader Should Be Able To...
• Explain the reasons for U.S. involvement in other regions of the world after 1898, and how war, economics, and politics influenced the nature of the interactions over time, e.g., origins and evolution of U.S./Russian relations.
• Give an example of how domestic policy influences foreign policy or vice versa, e.g., the Cold War and McCarthyism.
• Analyze a newspaper story reporting abuses of civil rights and use it to explain the historical developments of civil rights legislation in the United States.
• Imagine the life of a young adult in civilizations on a given continent at any time, e.g., the Western Roman Empire, Mesoamerica, Andean South America, China, India, Japan, the Ottoman Empire, Nazi Germany, or the Soviet Union.
• Describe the society in which great political thinkers such as Hammurabi, Justinian, John Locke, and Thomas Jefferson lived and explain how it influenced their political ideas.
• Locate places on a world map that receive coverage in the media, describe the natural environment of the places and the ways political, cultural, and economic characteristics reflect the influence of climate, landforms, and ecosystems.
• Draw a map of the world from memory and use it to explain relationships of global trading partners and cultural exchange between selected countries.
• Identify bias in media releases that report on political parties, including third parties and special interest groups, and explain how this can influence public opinion.
• Consider the way his or her life as an American citizen in a constitutional system of government would differ if living in a country with a different form of government.
• Interact with groups in a socially responsible way.
• Use technology to gather information and interpret a particular point of view.
• Explain his or her role in decision-making processes related to spending money, allocating time, and being sensitive to other cultures and belief systems.
• Participate in formal and informal groups such as soccer leagues, student government, church groups, or other student organizations, and apply conflict resolution strategies when necessary.
• Explain how economic decisions he or she makes reflect the basic principles of the U.S. free enterprise system.
• Apply economic principles to decisions about personal property acquisition, e.g., make responsible purchases, understand how scarcity affects value, manage accounts in a financial institution, and understand how to evaluate economic activity.
Texas Social Studies Frameworks, Chapter 8A bank [bæŋk] is a business that provides banking services for profit. Traditional banking services include receiving deposits of money, lending money, and processing transactions. Some banks (called Banks of Issue) issue banknotes as legal tender. Many banks offer ancillary financial services to make additional profit; for example: selling insurance products, investment products, or stock broking. Traditionally, a bank generates profits from transaction fees on financial services and from the interest it charges for lending. In recent history, with historically low interest rates limiting banks' ability to earn money by lending deposited funds, much of a bank's income is provided by overdraft fees and riskier investments.
In most jurisdictions the business of banking is regulated and banks require permission to trade. Authorization to trade is granted by bank regulatory authorities and provide rights to conduct the most fundamental banking services such as accepting deposits and making loans. There are also financial institutions that provide banking services without meeting the legal definition of a bank.
Banks have a long history, and have influenced economies and politics for centuries. The development of central banks, responsible for the monetary policy of their country and with supervisory powers over banks, ensures that financial institutions do not behave recklessly or fraudulently. In most countries, the central bank is state-owned and has a minimal degree of autonomy to allow for the possibility of government intervention in monetary policy.
While commercial banks serve individuals and businesses, facilitating the flow of money and thus supporting economic transactions, the central bank's function is to maintain economic stability by storing and regulating the flow of money, much as various organs in the human body regulate the production and flow of blood, including the production and flow of red and white blood cells, to support the health of the body as a whole. Historically, the body of human society has suffered ill-health, as has its economic system, including the collapse of several banking systems. As humankind develops greater maturity and a peaceful world of harmony and co-prosperity is established, the economic system, including the banking system, will enjoy greater health.
The history of banking is closely related to the history of money. As monetary payments became important, people looked for ways to safely store their money. As trade grew, merchants looked for ways of borrowing money to fund expeditions.
The first banks were probably the religious temples of the ancient world. In them was stored gold in the form of easy-to-carry compressed plates. Their owners justly felt that temples were the safest places to store their gold as they were constantly attended and well built and were sacred, thus deterring would-be thieves. There are extant records of loans from the eighteenth century B.C.E. in Babylon that were made by temple priests to merchants.
Ancient Greece holds further evidence of banking. Greek temples, as well as private and civic entities, conducted financial transactions such as loans, deposits, currency exchange, and validation of coinage. There is evidence too of credit, whereby in return for a payment from a client, a moneylender in one Greek port would write a credit note for the client who could "cash" the note in another city, saving the client the danger of carting coinage with him on his journey.
Ancient Rome perfected the administrative aspect of banking and saw greater regulation of financial institutions and financial practices. Charging interest on loans and paying interest on deposits became more highly developed and competitive.
Most early religious systems in the ancient Middle East, and the secular codes arising from them, did not forbid usury. These societies regarded inanimate matter as alive, like plants, animals, and people, and capable of reproducing itself. Hence if you lent 'food money', or monetary tokens of any kind, it was legitimate to charge interest. Food money in the shape of olives, dates, seeds, or animals was lent out as early as c. 5000 B.C.E., if not earlier. Among the Mesopotamians, Hittites, Phoenicians, and Egyptians, interest was legal and often fixed by the state.
However, the Jews took a different view of the matter. The Torah and later sections of the Hebrew Bible criticize interest-taking, but interpretations of the Biblical prohibition vary. One common understanding is that Jews are forbidden to charge interest upon loans made to other Jews, but allowed to charge interest on transactions with non-Jews, or Gentiles. However, the Hebrew Bible itself gives numerous examples where this provision was evaded. Johnson holds that the Hebrew Bible treats the lending as philanthropy in a poor community whose aim was collective survival, but which is not obliged to be charitable towards outsiders.
The ascent of Christianity in Rome and its influence restricted banking, as the charging of interest was seen as immoral. Jews were ostracized from most professions by local rulers, the Church and the guilds, were pushed into marginal occupations considered socially inferior, such as tax and rent collecting and moneylending, while the provision of financial services was increasingly demanded by the expansion of European trade and commerce.
Medieval trade fairs, such as the one in Hamburg, contributed to the growth of banking in a curious way: moneychangers issued documents redeemable at other fairs, in exchange for hard currency. These documents could be cashed at another fair in a different country or at a future fair in the same location. If redeemable at a future date, they would often be discounted by an amount comparable to a rate of interest. Eventually, these documents evolved into bills of exchange, which could be redeemed at any office of the issuing banker. These bills made it possible to transfer large sums of money without the complications of hauling large chests of gold and hiring armed guards to protect the gold from thieves.
The Templars' wide flung, large land holdings across Europe emerged in the 1100-1300 time frame as the beginning of Europe-wide banking, as their practice was to take in local currency, for which a demand note would be given that would be good at any of their castles across Europe, allowing movement of money without the usual risk of robbery while traveling.
Ironically, the papal bankers were the most successful of the Western world. When Pope John XXII (born Jacques d'Euse (1249 - 1334) was crowned in Lyon in 1316, he set up residency in Avignon. The accompanying growth of Italian banking in France was the start of the Lombard moneychangers in Europe, who moved from city to city along the busy pilgrim routes important for trade. Key cities in this period were Cahors, the birthplace of Pope John XXII, and Figeac. Perhaps it was because of these origins that the term Lombard is synonymous with Cahorsin in medieval Europe, and means 'pawnbroker'.
The Rothschild family organized similar banks across Europe, particularly in Germany and Britain. The Rothschild bank dealt in bills of exchange and made various kinds of loans.
Modern Western economic and financial history is usually traced back to the coffee houses of London. Coffeehouse proprietors overheard many conversations about business and even made modest investments themselves. They came up with the idea of producing lists of share prices or shipping data. The weekly published lists of the London coffee houses (simply pasted to the door) made it possible for the first time to compare the relative success (and liquidity) of bankers and investment opportunities. This was much more efficient than word of mouth. These lists were most notably Jonathan's Coffee-House and Edward Lloyd's. In 1698 John Castaing, began publishing a twice weekly newsletter of share and commodity prices, which he sold at Jonathan's, and which led to the London Stock Exchange. Lloyd's list led to the establishment of the famous insurance exchange Lloyds of London and the Lloyd's Register of Shipping.
The London Royal Exchange was established in 1565. At that time moneychangers were already called bankers, though the term "bank" usually referred to their offices, and did not carry the meaning it does today. There was also a hierarchical order among professionals; at the top were the bankers who did business with heads of state, next were the city exchanges, and at the bottom were the pawn shops or "Lombard"'s. Most European cities today have a Lombard street where the pawn shop was located.
After the siege of Antwerp trade moved to Amsterdam. In 1609 the Amsterdamsche Wisselbank (Amsterdam Exchange Bank) was founded which made Amsterdam the financial centre of the world until the Industrial Revolution.
Banking offices were usually located near centers of trade, and in the late seventeenth century, the largest centers for commerce were the ports of Amsterdam, London, and Hamburg. Individuals could participate in the lucrative East India trade by purchasing bills of credit from these banks, but the price they received for commodities was dependent on the ships returning (which often did not happen on time) and on the cargo they carried (which often was not according to plan). The commodities market was very volatile for this reason, and also because of the many wars that led to cargo seizures and loss of ships.
Around the time of Adam Smith (1776) there was a massive growth in the banking industry. Within the new system of ownership and investment, moneyholders were able to reduce the State's intervention in economic affairs, remove barriers to competition, and, in general, allow anyone willing to work hard enough—and who also has access to capital—to become a capitalist. It was not until over 100 years after Adam Smith, however, that US companies began to apply his policies in large scale and shift the financial power from England to America.
By the early 1900s New York City was beginning to emerge as a world financial center. Companies and individuals acquired large investments in (other) companies in the US and Europe, resulting in the first true market integration. This comparatively high level of market integration proved especially beneficial when World War I came—both sides in the conflict sought funds from the United States, by issuing new securities and selling existing holdings, though the Allied Powers raised by far the larger amounts. Being a lender to the world resulted in the largest growth of a financial economy to that point.
The stock market crash of 1929 was a global event—markets crashed everywhere, all at the same time, and the volume of foreign selling orders was high. The Great Depression followed, and the banks were blamed for it, although the evidence has never been strong to connect the speculative activities of the banks during the 1920s with either the crash or the subsequent depression of the 1930s. Nonetheless, there were three prominent results from these events that had great effect on American banking. The first was the passage of the Banking Act of 1933 that provided for the Federal Deposit Insurance system and the Glass–Steagall provisions that completely separated commercial banking and securities activities. Second was the depression itself, which led in the end to World War II and a 30-year period in which banking was confined to basic, slow-growing deposit taking and loan making within a limited local market only. And third was the rising importance of the government in deciding financial matters, especially during the post-war recovery period. As a consequence, there was comparatively little for banks or securities firms to do from the early 1930s until the early 1960s.
In the 1970s, a number of smaller crashes tied to the policies put in place following the depression, resulted in deregulation and privatization of government-owned enterprises in the 1980s, indicating that governments of industrial countries around the world found private-sector solutions to problems of economic growth and development preferable to state-operated, semi-socialist programs. This spurred a trend that was already prevalent in the business sector, large companies becoming global and dealing with customers, suppliers, manufacturing, and information centers all over the world.
Global banking and capital market services proliferated during the 1980s and 1990s as a result of a great increase in demand from companies, governments, and financial institutions, but also because financial market conditions were buoyant and, on the whole, bullish. Interest rates in the United States declined from about 15 percent for two-year U.S. Treasury notes to about 5 percent during the 20-year period, and financial assets grew then at a rate approximately twice the rate of the world economy.
Such growth rate would have been lower were it not for the profound effects of the internationalization of financial markets especially U.S. Foreign investments, particularly from Japan, who not only provided the funds to corporations in the U.S., but also helped finance the federal government; thus, transforming the U.S. stock market by far into the largest in the world.
Nevertheless, the dominance of U.S. financial markets has been disappearing and there has been an increasing interest in foreign stocks. The extraordinary growth of foreign financial markets results from both large increases in the pool of savings in foreign countries, such as Japan, and, especially, the deregulation of foreign financial markets, which has enabled them to expand their activities. Thus, American corporations and banks have started seeking investment opportunities abroad, prompting the development in the U.S. of mutual funds specializing in trading in foreign stock markets.
Such growing internationalization and opportunity in financial services has entirely changed the competitive landscape, as now many banks have demonstrated a preference for the “universal banking” model so prevalent in Europe. Universal banks are free to engage in all forms of financial services, make investments in client companies, and function as much as possible as a “one-stop” supplier of both retail and wholesale financial services.
This growth and opportunity also led to an unexpected outcome: entrance into the market of other financial intermediaries, or "nonbanks." Large corporate players were beginning to find their way into the financial service community, offering competition to established banks. The main services offered included insurances, pension, mutual, money market and hedge funds, loans and credits and securities. Hence, the distinction between different financial institutions is diminishing.
Although the type of services offered by a bank depends upon the type of bank and the country, services provided usually include:
Financial transactions can be performed through many different channels:
Banks' activities can be characterized as retail banking, dealing directly with individuals and small businesses, and investment banking, relating to activities on the financial markets. Most banks are profit-making, private enterprises. However, some are owned by government, or are non-profit making.
In some jurisdictions retail and investment activities are, or have been, separated by law.
Central banks are non-commercial bodies or government agencies often charged with controlling interest rates and money supply across the whole economy. They act as Lender of last resort in event of a crisis.
A bank raises funds by attracting deposits, borrowing money in the inter-bank market, or issuing financial instruments in the money market or a capital market. The bank then lends out most of these funds to borrowers.
However, it would not be prudent for a bank to lend out all of its balance sheet. It must keep a certain proportion of its funds in reserve so that it can repay depositors who withdraw their deposits. Bank reserves are typically kept in the form of a deposit with a central bank. This behavior is called fractional-reserve banking and it is a central issue of monetary policy. Some governments (or their central banks) restrict the proportion of a bank's balance sheet that can be lent out, and use this as a tool for controlling the money supply. Even where the reserve ratio is not controlled by the government, a minimum figure will still be set by regulatory authorities as part of bank regulation.
Banks are susceptible to many forms of risk which have triggered occasional systemic crises. Risks include liquidity risk (the risk that many depositors will request withdrawals beyond available funds), credit risk (the risk that those that owe money to the bank will not repay), and interest rate risk (the risk that the bank will become unprofitable if rising interest rates force it to pay relatively more on its deposits than it receives on its loans), among others.
Banking crises have developed many times throughout history when one or more risks materialize for a banking sector as a whole. Prominent examples include the U.S. Savings and Loan crisis in 1980s and early 1990s, the Japanese banking crisis during the 1990s, the bank run that occurred during the Great Depression, and the recent liquidation by the central Bank of Nigeria, where about 25 banks were liquidated.
The combination of the instability of banks as well as their important facilitating role in the economy led to banking being thoroughly regulated. The amount of capital a bank is required to hold is a function of the amount and quality of its assets. Major banks are subject to the Basel Capital Accord promulgated by the Bank for International Settlements. In addition, banks are usually required to purchase deposit insurance to make sure smaller investors are not wiped out in the event of a bank failure.
Another reason banks are thoroughly regulated is that ultimately, no government can allow the banking system to fail. There is almost always a lender of last resort—in the event of a liquidity crisis (where short term obligations exceed short term assets) some element of government will step in to lend banks enough money to avoid bankruptcy.
Large banks in the United States are some of the most profitable corporations, especially relative to the small market shares they have. This amount is even higher if one counts the credit divisions of companies like Ford, which are responsible for a large proportion of those companies' profits.
In the United States banks have taken many measures to ensure that they remain profitable while responding to ever-changing market conditions. First, this includes the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which allows banks again to merge with investment and insurance houses. Merging banking, investment, and insurance functions allows traditional banks to respond to increasing consumer demands for "one-stop shopping" by enabling cross-selling of products (which, the banks hope, will also increase profitability). Second, they have moved toward risk-based pricing on loans, which means charging higher interest rates for those people who they deem more risky to default on loans. This dramatically helps to offset the losses from bad loans, lowers the price of loans to those who have better credit histories, and extends credit products to high risk customers who would have been denied credit under the previous system. Third, they have sought to increase the methods of payment processing available to the general public and business clients. These products include debit cards, pre-paid cards, smart-cards, and credit cards. These products make it easier for consumers to conveniently make transactions and smooth their consumption over time (in some countries with under-developed financial systems, it is still common to deal strictly in cash, including carrying suitcases filled with cash to purchase a home). However, with convenience there is also increased risk that consumers will mis-manage their financial resources and accumulate excessive debt. Banks make money from card products through interest payments and fees charged to consumers and companies that accept the cards.
The banks' main obstacles to increasing profits are existing regulatory burdens, new government regulation, and increasing competition from non-traditional financial institutions.
In United States history, the National Bank was a major political issue during the presidency of Andrew Jackson (1829–1837). Jackson fought against the bank as a symbol of greed and profit-mongering, antithetical to the democratic ideals of the United States.
Many people consider that various banking policies take advantage of customers. Specific concerns are policies that permit banks to hold deposited funds for several days, to apply withdrawals before deposits or from greatest to least, which is most likely to cause the greatest overdraft, that allow backdating funds transfers and fee assessments, and that authorize electronic funds transfers despite an overdraft.
In response to the perceived greed and socially-irresponsible all-for-the-profit attitude of banks, in the last few decades a new type of banks called ethical banks have emerged, which only make social-responsible investments (for instance, no investment in the arms industry) and are transparent in all its operations.
In the U.S., credit unions have also gained popularity as an alternative financial resource for many consumers. Also, in various European countries, cooperative banks are regularly gaining market share in retail banking.
New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:
Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.A mineral is a naturally occurring solid with a well-defined chemical composition and a definite atomic structure that has been formed by geological processes. Water, although it occurs naturally, is a liquid and, therefore, is not a mineral. Ice, on the other hand, when it forms in nature (not in your refrigerator), is a mineral. In fact, it is the most common mineral on the Earth’s surface.
A rock is an aggregate of mineral grains. A rock can be composed of several different minerals (e.g., granite, which contains the minerals quartz, orthoclase, and albite) or a single mineral (e.g., sandstone, which contains grains of only quartz).
A gem is a material that has been cut, polished or otherwise modified for decorative purposes. Most gems are fashioned from minerals (e.g., diamond, corundum, beryl), but they are often given different gem variety names depending on their colors ( e
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350 mg per day for men over age 30 and 265 mg per day for women over age 30. To increase your dietary magnesium:
- Have an ounce of almonds or cashews every day. This will add about 75 mg of magnesium to your daily intake. Better still, try an ounce of pumpkin seeds, which have twice as much magnesium.
- Add a half-cup of cooked spinach. Best known for its iron content, spinach has 75 mg of magnesium as well. Swiss chard has a similar amount.
- Switch to quinoa, instead of rice or pasta. A half-cup of cooked quinoa has about 90 mg of magnesium.
- Replace refined foods. In general, eating more foods with whole grains, nuts and seeds, beans, and green vegetables—the richest sources of magnesium—will boost your intake of magnesium and other vitamins and minerals.
- Consider supplementing. A magnesium supplement or a multivitamin with magnesium can help ensure that you get enough each day.
(Magnes Res 2010;23:158–68)
Maureen Williams, ND, received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and her Doctorate of Naturopathic Medicine from Bastyr University in Seattle, WA. She has a private practice on Cortes Island in British Columbia, Canada, and has done extensive work with traditional herbal medicine in Guatemala and Honduras. Dr. Williams is a regular contributor to Healthnotes Newswire.|About this Recording
8.559192 - COWELL: Quartet / Violin Suite / Songs / Piano Pieces / Polyphonica / Irish Suite
Henry Cowell (1897-1965): Instrumental, Chamber and Vocal Music • 1
Henry Cowell was one of the remarkable figures in American music. A startlingly innovative composer, an inimitable piano virtuoso, the founder of institutions that propelled American composition to world stature, a brilliant writer, teacher and lecturer, Cowell almost singlehandedly laid the foundations for American compositional life.
Henry Cowell was born in 1897 in Menlo Park, California, to an Irish emigré father and a spunky Midwestern woman, both of them anarchist writers. After his parents divorced, his mother tried to support herself and the boy, but as she became desperately ill, they sank into poverty. Henry, whose formal schooling had ended at the third grade, eked out a living for them, selling wildflowers door to door, herding cows, and cleaning a schoolhouse. Then a Stanford University professor discovered that the bedraggled twelve-yearold had an immense vocabulary, knowledge staggering in its breadth, including a deep command of botany, and gigantic musical gifts, but he could barely spell. Arrangements were made for Cowell to study English at Stanford and music at the University of California, Berkeley, where the brilliant Charles Seeger guided the young man’s unorthodox musical beliefs. Soon Cowell was performing his music in the San Francisco Bay area.
After military service in World War I, Cowell’s career bolted forward. His trademark was the “tonecluster,” or harmony of seconds (adjacent keys on the piano). Although tone-clusters can occasionally be found in keyboard music of earlier centuries, Cowell’s often dominated a whole piece and required performance by the forearm, the flat of the hand, or the side of the fist. Drawn to the spectacle of a pianist performing with his forearms, or, later, plucking, strumming, and stroking the piano strings, sarcastic journalists made him an international sensation. While few of them recognised the musical basis of Cowell’s techniques, even his vociferous opponents acknowledged his integrity. Professional admirers included Schnabel, Berg, and Bartók (who solicited Cowell’s permission to use tone-clusters in his own music). Yet while Cowell’s piano works revealed new vistas of sound, his advanced ideas always coexisted with a traditional melodiousness, stemming from his love of folklore, that renders even his most “experimental” music immediately accessible. The piano pieces recorded here suggest both the breadth of Cowell’s pianistic style, and his devotion to his Irish heritage.
Deep Color (1938), one of his last “radical” piano pieces, represents the deep purple of Irish valleys. In The Fairy Answer (ca. 1929) direct playing on the strings evokes an ancient tale related by Cowell: “There is in Kildare a glen where,...if one plays music at one end, the fairies themselves will answer with their own music at the other.” Although it might sound like an echo, “the fairy music... is never just the same as the music to which it responds”. Tiger (1928-9) may be Cowell’s most dissonant work; like Deep Color, it uses immense tone-clusters, though to entirely different ends. Tiger was first published in the USSR in 1929, when he was the first American composer to visit the young country.
Cowell, guided by an unfailing faith in his instincts about sound, cultivated a multiplicity of compositional approaches. Many piano pieces, for example, are conventionally played but make other novel demands. Fabric (1920) is a polyrhythmic study employing an unusual notation system described in New Musical Resources, the forward-looking treatise that Cowell drafted when about twenty years old. In the Suite for Violin and Piano (1925) he fused the tone-cluster with the language of the baroque suite.
Until the mid-1930s, Cowell divided his time between the east and west coasts, toured Europe and America, and worked indefatigably for American composers. In 1925 he created the California Society for New Music; in 1927 he founded New Music, a quarterly publication of new compositions from the United States, Latin America, and Europe that was virtually the only outlet for American modernism. In 1928, Cowell, Varèse, and others formed the Pan American Association of Composers to foster inter-American relations through concerts here and abroad. Then a Guggenheim Fellowship brought Cowell to Germany to study non- Western music at the University of Berlin’s phenomenal archive of recorded world music. His deep belief in the unity of world musical cultures became the thread connecting his diverse activities.
Gradually Cowell turned from writing piano music to ensemble music. Polyphonica (1930), a study in dissonant counterpoint, was first performed in New York in 1932, conducted by Nicolas Slonimsky. (It is scored for twelve players, as heard here, or for orchestra.) Another fascinating piece of this period is the Irish Suite, an arrangement of three “string piano” pieces as a concerto, which Cowell first played in Boston with Slonimsky’s orchestra in 1929. Although Cowell often denied that his pieces were illustrative, he related the Irish legends to which the titles allude:
“The Banshee is an Irish family ghost who comes and wails at the time of a death in the family. The Leprechaun is a gnome who is a cobbler for fairy shoes, and even when not seen, he may be heard tapping them together, and sawing his fairy leather.” Concerning The Fairy Bells: “If you walk out into the Irish mountains, and get lost in the fog there, you will be guided by a faroff sound; and although you may think it is sheep bells, you will find that there are no sheep in the mountains there, — so what could it be but the fairies?”
Unfortunately, performance instructions for the solo part of The Leprechaun have disappeared, and much of the solo part is indicated only as rhythms that organized a wealth of unusual pianistic techniques. For what probably was the first performance in almost sixty years, Cheryl Seltzer reconstructed the piano part, using descriptions of Cowell’s techniques and implements (darning egg, pencils, metallic objects) from his 1929 programme note, press accounts, and recollections of Nicolas Slonimsky.
Cowell’s frequent lecture-recitals were noted for his wry wit, which is heard in the Three Anti-Modernist Songs, composed in 1938 to newspaper poems republished in Slonimsky’s Music Since 1900. These delightful parodies came at a most difficult time for Cowell, however. Because of hysteria about sexual offences in California, a morals infraction brought him a fifteen-year term in San Quentin prison. Characteristically optimistic, he used his time to develop an extensive music education programme for the inmates. After serving four years, he was paroled in 1940 to the supervision of Percy Grainger, the celebrated Australian pianist-composer, who lived just outside New York City. Two years later, he married an old friend, the folksong collector Sidney Hawkins Robertson. When he was offered a wartime job, Sidney Cowell undertook to win him a pardon, which succeeded when the prosecutor told the California governor that an injustice had been committed. Now able to travel freely, Cowell worked at the Office of War Information, creating music programmes to be beamed overseas. He was uniquely suited for the job. He had spent much of the previous twenty years studying and lecturing on non-Western music. His pioneering work, which became widely disseminated through radio programmes and recordings of his Music of the World’s Peoples series, did much to increase public appreciation of the diversity of world music. His influence can be felt today in the powerful position of cross-cultural composition.
The Cowells lived in Manhattan and in the Catskill Mountains about two hours north of New York City. Among their frequent collaborations, their biography of Charles Ives remains a classic. After the war, he resumed teaching at the New School, where he had initiated the music programme in the 1920s, and later joined the faculties of Columbia University and The Peabody Conservatory. His many students over the years included John Cage and Lou Harrison, whose unusual methods of sound production can be traced in part to Cowell.
While Cowell’s later works seem more conservative, his undying instinct for fresh thinking can be heard in the Quartet for Flute, Oboe, Cello, and Harpsichord, written for the harpsichordist Sylvia Marlowe in 1954. As in the much earlier Suite for Violin and Piano, Cowell availed himself of a baroque aesthetic, approaching it with his quiet wit and melodious heart.
Although Cowell’s health deteriorated in the last decade of his life, he and his wife made a round-theworld journey so that he could finally hear Asian music in its natural setting. He died in December 1965, working on his twenty-first symphony on his deathbed.
Close the windowWhat is a Presentation?
The formal presentation of information is divided into two broad categories: Presentation Skills and Personal Presentation.
These two aspects are interwoven and can be described as the preparation, presentation and practice of verbal and non-verbal communication.
This article describes what a presentation is and defines some of the key terms associated with presentation skills.
Many people feel terrified when asked to make their first public talk. Some of these initial fears can be reduced by good preparation that also lays the groundwork for making an effective presentation.
A Presentation Is...
A presentation is a means of communication that can be adapted to various speaking situations, such as talking to a group, addressing a meeting or briefing a team.
A presentation can also be used as a broad term that encompasses other ‘speaking engagements’ such as making a speech at a wedding, or getting a point across in a video conference.
To be effective, step-by-step preparation and the method and means of presenting the information should be carefully considered.
A presentation requires you to get a message across to the listeners and will often contain a 'persuasive' element. It may, for example, be a talk about the positive work of your organisation, what you could offer an employer, or why you should receive additional funding for a project.
The Key Elements of a Presentation
Making a presentation is a way of communicating your thoughts and ideas to an audience and many of our articles on communication are also relevant here, see: What is Communication? for more.
Consider the following key components of a presentation:
Ask yourself the following questions to develop a full understanding of the context of the presentation.
When and where will you deliver your presentation?
There is a world of difference between a small room with natural light and an informal setting, and a huge lecture room, lit with stage lights. The two require quite different presentations, and different techniques.
Will it be in a setting you are familiar with, or somewhere new?
If somewhere new, it would be worth trying to visit it in advance, or at least arriving early, to familiarise yourself with the room.
Will the presentation be within a formal or less formal setting?
A work setting will, more or less by definition, be more formal, but there are also various degrees of formality within that.
Will the presentation be to a small group or a large crowd?
Are you already familiar with the audience?
With a new audience, you will have to build rapport quickly and effectively, to get them on your side.
What equipment and technology will be available to you, and what will you be expected to use?
In particular, you will need to ask about microphones and whether you will be expected to stand in one place, or move around.
What is the audience expecting to learn from you and your presentation?
Check how you will be ‘billed’ to give you clues as to what information needs to be included in your presentation.
All these aspects will change the presentation. For more on this, see our page on Deciding the Presentation Method.
The role of the presenter is to communicate with the audience and control the presentation.
Remember, though, that this may also include handing over the control to your audience, especially if you want some kind of interaction.
You may wish to have a look at our page on Facilitation Skills for more.
The audience receives the presenter’s message(s).
However, this reception will be filtered through and affected by such things as the listener’s own experience, knowledge and personal sense of values.
See our page: Barriers to Effective Communication to learn why communication can fail.
The message or messages are delivered by the presenter to the audience.
The message is delivered not just by the spoken word (verbal communication) but can be augmented by techniques such as voice projection, body language, gestures, eye contact (non-verbal communication), and visual aids.
The message will also be affected by the audience’s expectations. For example, if you have been billed as speaking on one particular topic, and you choose to speak on another, the audience is unlikely to take your message on board even if you present very well. They will judge your presentation a failure, because you have not met their expectations.
The audience’s reaction and therefore the success of the presentation will largely depend upon whether you, as presenter, effectively communicated your message, and whether it met their expectations.
As a presenter, you don’t control the audience’s expectations. What you can do is find out what they have been told about you by the conference organisers, and what they are expecting to hear. Only if you know that can you be confident of delivering something that will meet expectations.
See our page: Effective Speaking for more information.
How will the presentation be delivered?
Presentations are usually delivered direct to an audience. However, there may be occasions where they are delivered from a distance over the Internet using video conferencing systems, such as Skype.
It is also important to remember that if your talk is recorded and posted on the internet, then people may be able to access it for several years. This will mean that your contemporaneous references should be kept to a minimum.
Many factors can influence the effectiveness of how your message is communicated to the audience.
For example background noise or other distractions, an overly warm or cool room, or the time of day and state of audience alertness can all influence your audience’s level of concentration.
As presenter, you have to be prepared to cope with any such problems and try to keep your audience focussed on your message.
Our page: Barriers to Communication explains these factors in more depth.
Continue to read through our Presentation Skills articles for an overview of how to prepare and structure a presentation, and how to manage notes and/or illustrations at any speaking event.Hypertension is the term used to describe high blood pressure. Hypertension is the most common cardiovascular disease. When blood pressure is too high, the heart has to work harder. High blood pressure causes strokes and heart attacks and can damage blood vessels, the brain, eyes, and kidneys.
People with blood pressure readings of 140/90 or higher, taken at least two different
times, are said to have high blood pressure. Normal blood pressure is lower than 120/80
What is Pre-Hypertension?
Pre-hypertension is a warning sign you may get hypertension in the future. People with blood pressure readings slightly higher than 120/80 have pre-hypertension. Those with pre-hypertension are at higher risk for damage to arteries and the heart, brain and kidneys. The only treatment for pre-hypertension is diet and exercise.
The good news is that you can prevent hypertension or reverse pre-hypertension. Improving your diet and being more active can help you manage pre-hypertension.
Reducing hypertension risk
- Lose weight if you are overweight. If you are overweight and have pre-hypertension, modest weight loss can prevent hypertension.
- Exercise regularly. Aerobic exercise, like brisk walking, can help to lower blood pressure. Studies suggest aerobic exercise can have a greater impact on blood pressure than other types of non-medical therapy. Exercise can help blood vessels function better by widening them.
- Eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish and low-fat dairy. The DASH diet can help lower or prevent high blood pressure.
- Eat less salt. A low sodium diet can prevent high blood pressure. Aim for less than 2,300 milligrams
of sodium per day (about 1 teaspoon of table salt). Read Nutrition Facts Labels for
sodium content of packaged, processed foods.
Some groups should limit sodium to less than 1,500 milligrams per day.
- Eat foods low in saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol. These foods can provide excess calories and may lead to obesity and heart disease.
- Drink alcohol in moderation. Excess alcohol can increase blood pressure. Limit alcohol to no more than two drinks a day for men, and one drink a day for women.
High blood pressure risk factors
Experts do not know exactly what causes high blood pressure for most people, but certain risk factors are linked to the condition. Some people are at increased risk for high blood pressure.
These factors increase high blood pressure risk:
- A family history of high blood pressure, heart disease, or diabetes
- Age over 55
- Excess body weight
- Physical inactivity
- Excessive alcohol use
- Diet high in saturated fat or salt
For more information on healthy living and hypertension, contact your local county extension office.Taj Mahal Lost World – Hindi Documentary Download
Language: Hindi – English
The Taj Mahal Persian for Crown of Palaces) is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the south bank of the Yamuna river in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan (reigned 1628–1658), to house the tomb of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The tomb is the centrepiece of a 42-acre complex, which includes a mosque and a guest house, and is set in formal gardens bounded on three sides by a crenellated wall. Construction of the mausoleum was essentially completed in 1643 but work continued on other phases of the project for another 10 years. The Taj Mahal complex is believed to have been completed in its entirety in 1653 at a cost estimated at the time to be around 32 million rupees, which in 2015 would be approximately 52.8 billion rupees (US$827 million). The construction project employed some 20,000 artisans under the guidance of a board of architects led by the court architect to the emperor, Ustad Ahmad Lahauri.
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taj mahal documentary in hindi, taj mahal documentary discovery channel in hindi, taj mahal documentary youtube, taj mahal documentary national geographic, secret of taj mahal in hindi story, national geographic taj mahal documentary in hindi, secret of taj mahal national geographic in hindi, hidden secrets of taj mahalGerrymandering is a form of redistricting in which electoral district or constituency boundaries are manipulated for an electoral advantage. You can read the rest of the Wikipedia article here. Or you can play the Redistricting Game by the University of Southern California’s Game Innovation Lab – another perfect example of how the simulational nature of digital games enables them to explain complex political processes like no other medium. And this is finallycomes to politicians' attention:
The Redistricting Game, playable online, was recently shown to members of Congress by Rep. John Tanner (D-TN). Tanner realizes that his colleagues are unlikely to be swayed from the practice, which is less politely known as gerrymandering. The Tennessee Democrat told NPR’s Andrea Seabrook:You’re asking people - and I realize this - to give up an awful lot of power.Seabrook added:Maybe if voters play The Redistricting Game and have fun gaming the system themselves, they’ll see how the system is gaming them and then maybe they’ll demand change.
The game allows to you to enact different forms of gerrymandering (The Fundamentals, Partisan Gerrymander, Bipartisan Gerrymander, Voting Rights Act, Reform) in a basic or advanced setting. To ensure that the perceived information really gets across the game sets the mechanics in a real-world context by providing background information and quotes for every form of redistricting as well as links to websites and reports dealing with the issue – a crucial yet sometimes neglected component of every serious game. As Norm Ornstein from American Enterprise Institute explains of the game's website:
"It is not easy to make the redistricting process understandable -- and near-miraculous to be able to do so in a highly entertaining way. But that is just what The Redistricting Game does, to the gratitude of all who want Americans to understand how this process is working, and why it needs real reform."
This high-profile political example is another step towards the realisation of the full potential of digital games and its accompanying enhancement of public valuation. Maybe it can also serve as an inspiration for campaigning games which not only can explain complicated issues and policies in an easily accesible way but also reach a young, rather unpolitical demographic in a more effective (and cheaper) way than traditional media.Protein, Carbs & Fat, Check – But What About Fibre?
Chances are, you have an above average understanding of nutrition, and you eat well. You know how to count calories, count macro nutrients, and plan your meals accordingly. However, when focus is put entirely into protein, carbs, and fat, some other very important nutrients can get left out. In this particular instance, I am referring to dietary fibre (or “fiber” for the American audience).
What is Dietary Fibre?
Technically speaking, dietary fibre are types of carbohydrates. However, they do not act in the same way as the carbohydrates that we normally think of. This is because unlike regular carbohydrates, these contain complex bonds that cannot be broken by our human digestive machinery. Dietary fibre can be divided into two major categories, soluble fibre and insoluble fibre.
Soluble fibre can be found within the cells of plants. Some examples include gums, mucilage, and pectins. Good sources include vegetables, fruits, oats, psyllium, and beans. Although we cannot digest these compounds directly, the microbes within our large intestines are able to make use of this type of fibre and can convert them into a whole range of useful products that are beneficial to our overall health.
Found in plant cell walls, examples of insoluble fibre include cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. Good sources of these compounds include the skin and bran of fruits, seeds, whole grains, and vegetables. Insoluble fibre is difficult to digest, even by our gut microbes, and pass through largely undigested. This may sound pointless, but it adds bulk to our stools to prevent constipation and possibly even colon cancer.
Benefits of Dietary Fibre
Now that we know what fibre is, let’s take a closer look at the specific benefits of consuming dietary fibre.
Dietary fibre has been found to be effective as a weight loss aid. There are a few different theories as to the way this works. The most obvious one is that despite being quite bulky, fibre does not actually provide a lot of calories. This means that it can help to keep you satisfied even though you are eating fewer calories. Additionaly, it has been postulated that fibre may actually inhibit the absorption of calorie containing nutrients in the small intestine. Although these two properties may be detrimental to bodybuilders during the bulking phase, they can be very helpful in the cutting phase, and of course for anyone else simply looking to shed a few kilos.
Dietary fibre adds bulk to stools and makes them softer. This means that they are able to pass quickly through the digestive system, preventing constipation, increasing the ease of defecation by preventing straining, and hence preventing haemorrhoids. The rapid transit of faeces also may reduce the likelihood of colon cancer. This is because toxins and other cancer causing agents also pass through much quicker and have less time to cause damage.
Bodybuilders often regard insulin as a highly anabolic hormone and increasing insulin sensitivity may have benefits for muscle building. There is evidence to suggest that the consumption of dietary fibre can help to increase insulin sensitivity. However, it is also known that fibre slows glucose absorption and blunts insulin spikes. With this knowledge at hand, it would be wise not to consume fibre at times where insulin spikes are wanted. This includes immediately post workout, as well as times when creatine is taken. Instead, fibre should be reserved for other times of the day.
Maintaining heart health means a longer life with more time to do what we want to do. Consuming healthy amounts of fibre can also help to improve cardiovascular health. This is because soluble fibre is known to bind with bile acids (which are made from cholesterol). This may reduce the levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) and total cholesterol in our blood, which are significant risk factors for heart disease. This is particularly important for the older bodybuilders out there, but even the younger ones should really start to build good habits as early as possible.
Side Effects of Dietary Fibre
It should be mentioned that although fibre has many benefits, care should be taken when increasing the amount of fibre in your diet. Some people do not tolerate large, rapid increases in fibre intake, and may experience gastrointestinal upset. Symptoms include flatulence, constipation, or diarrhoea. It is therefore recommended that fibre intake is increased gradually over a period of a few weeks until you hit your target values. In addition to this, excess fibre intake can also be problematic. Other than gastrointestinal distress, it may result in the malabsorption of other nutrients, particularly micronutrients.
Recommended Fibre Intake
Now that you know the benefits of a diet rich in fibre, you may be curious as to what the recommended fibre intake is. The American Institute of Medicine recommends that for adult men, 38 g fibre is to be consumed per day, while the figure is 25 g for adult women. Quite shockingly, this figure is often not reached by the majority of people living in the developed world because of the consumption of overly process foods, and simply because they overlook fibre as a valuable component of their diet. Knowing this, it may be a good idea to start counting your fibre along with your other macronutrients.In Durban, South Africa, thousands are currently gathered at the International AIDS Conference to share, learn, teach, and advocate for ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. This global goal, advanced in 2014 by UNAIDS, is now supported by all major players in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
According to UNAIDS, a necessary condition to accomplish this goal is to expand antiretroviral treatment (ART) coverage of those infected with HIV from its current level of around 40 percent to 81 percent by 2020. This coverage could be achieved if 90 percent of people infected with HIV know their status, and 90 percent of those individuals then start treatment. As I’ve discussed before, these targets set in UNAIDS’ “90-90-90” campaign are ambitious, especially given that the need for treatment continues to climb as donor commitments for AIDS decline.
New research by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’s Global Burden of Disease group in The Lancet HIV this week brings new information to this conversation. The study estimates AIDS treatment coverage, new HIV infections, and AIDS deaths in every country. This is the first time in decades that any independent party has attempted to compete with UNAIDS’ own estimates for these same indicators. (Competing estimates were compared in an annex of Confronting AIDS, 1997.) All of us interested in the progress of the epidemic should be fascinated to see how well the two sets of estimates agree—and where they differ. Even more important is whether the prospects for ending the AIDS epidemic appear different from the two perspectives.
The short answer is that IHME’s estimates suggest a smaller role for treatment in reducing new infections and thus a greater need to improve the quality of all prevention interventions.
Let’s take a closer look…
For countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Figure 1 compares the most recent UNAIDS’ estimates of new infections, deaths and treatment coverage (panel A) with those just released by IHME (panel B). In each panel, a country’s infection rate is represented by a green circle and its death rate by a red “x”. These rates are calculated per 100 people living with HIV and plotted against that country’s ART coverage rate (horizontal axis of both panels).
Figure 1: Comparison of UNAIDS’ and IHME’s estimated new HIV infections and annual AIDS deaths in Africa, as associated with treatment coverage
As expected, the death rates (red x’s) in both panels show a strong negative association between –treatment coverage and mortality, confirming that expanding treatment prevents deaths. Although the association starts out strongly negative at low coverage levels, it flattens as coverage approaches 60 percent, which suggests diminishing benefits of treatment coverage on mortality rates. This could be because higher coverage rates recruit people who have less motivation to adhere or because lowered HIV mortality rates begin to compete with mortality from other causes. Thus a conservative projection to UNAIDS’ 81 percent coverage target would be little further reduction in mortality, as illustrated by the horizontal dashed red lines in the two panels.
What about the association of treatment coverage with new infections? It is well-established that assiduous adherence to ART can suppress HIV to undetectable levels, thereby preventing transmission of the virus from an infected person to an uninfected sex partner. (See discussion of HPTN 052 here.) However, whether a country’s AIDS treatment expansion would cause a reduction in new infections at the population level is harder to establish. The US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Response (PEPFAR) and other donors are funding three expensive long-running trials to test this hypothesis. In the meantime, if we are to believe the negative slopes of the regression lines fitted to the infection rates (green lines) in Figure 1, the answer is affirmative. In other words, despite the fact that many AIDS patients who are on treatment do not have a suppressed viral load—and can therefore still infect others—and that some people on treatment might engage in risky sexual behaviors thinking they cannot pass on the virus, the negative association between treatment and new infections suggests that, on average, countries with higher treatment coverage have indeed experienced lower infection rates at the population level. Furthermore, the data shows no sign of diminishing prevention benefits at higher coverage levels. Therefore, a conservative projection to the 81 percent coverage target is that countries will push their rates of new infection lower than have ever been observed in Africa (as illustrated by the dashed green lines).
But will that be enough? To put an end to the AIDS epidemic, the number of new infections must be pushed even lower than the AIDS mortality rate, a milestone projected by UNAIDS that I have dubbed the “AIDS transition” and PEPFAR has called “epidemic control”. The figure shows that simply increasing treatment coverage and waiting for the projected infection reductions will still leave a substantial gap between new infections and AIDS-related deaths. At the target coverage of 81 percent, UNAIDS estimates (panel A) suggest a gap between the two rates of 1.3 percent, meaning the number of people living with AIDS would grow at 1.3 percent per year. According to IHME (panel B), the gap would be nearly twice as large, with the number living with AIDS growing at 2.3 percent per year.
IHME’s estimates are more pessimistic than UNAIDS’ in other ways. According to IHME, there are slightly more AIDS deaths and a great many more new infections in these African countries. Globally, IHME estimates a total of 2.5 million new infections, nearly 20 percent more than the total new infections estimated by UNAIDS. Moreover, while the two institutions agree on the beneficial association of treatment coverage with mortality (similarly sloped red lines), IHME is less optimistic than UNAIDS regarding the beneficial association between treatment coverage and new infections (steeper green line in panel A than in panel B).
Of course, it’s always dangerous to project the future from mere associations. And AIDS advocates have every reason to be dissatisfied with projecting these historical associations to the future with higher coverage rates. One reasons for greater optimism is that, if expanded treatment coverage were associated with 90 percent viral suppression, as specified by the third “90” in UNAIDS’ “90-90-90”, both mortality and new infections would be reduced so that the dashed segments of the red and green trend lines in the figures would slant down towards the abscissa. Another reason is that improved coverage and effectiveness of non-treatment interventions, such as couple testing and, for particularly vulnerable, disempowered groups, PrEP, can reduce new infections at any level of treatment coverage.
To achieve the AIDS transition, we should heed UNAIDS latest call to put a quarter of HIV/AIDS spending on HIV prevention, so that the gap between new infections and mortality is closed and the HIV/AIDS burden finally begins to shrink.
Note on the methods: The lines fitted to the scatter plots in Figure 1 are constructed from the regressions presented below. While the quadratic term is statistically significant in both equations with deaths as the dependent variable, equations (1) and (4), that term is not statistically significant in the equations explaining new infections. Therefore, in the figure I used equations (3) and (6) to summarize the associations between new infections and ART coverage.
Table 1: Estimated regressions used to trace the trend lines in Figure 1 Panel (a) uses columns (1) and (3). Panel (b) uses columns (4) and (6).
The observations used to estimate the four equations include all the countries in the respective data bases except the smallest ones, where the UNAIDS and IHME estimates might be less reliable. Cape Verde and Mauritius are omitted from both the UNAIDS and the IHME samples. From the IHME sample are also omitted Gambia, Mauritania, Sao Tome and Principe, Comoros, Djibouti, and Equatorial Guinea.Cross-posted on Storm Water Solutions. Read original post here.
Without proper maintenance, any type of infrastructure can lose functionality and ultimately fail. As more communities move towards adopting green infrastructure as a cost-effective approach to manage polluted runoff, it is critical that local governments address barriers to operations and maintenance. Despite the benefits of green infrastructure, operations and maintenance has been repeatedly raised as a technical barrier to adoption of green infrastructure and remains a concern for many local governments in the Chesapeake Bay region and across the country.
American Rivers and Green for All collaborated to develop two companion reports exploring different elements of operations and maintenance of green infrastructure in the region. The Staying Green: Strategies to Improve Operations and Maintenance of Green Infrastructure in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed report highlights existing information related to costs of green infrastructure maintenance, identifies the significant barriers to effective operations and maintenance of these practices, recommends strategies to improve operations and maintenance, and provides resources and case studies that local governments can use as models. The companion report, Staying Green and Growing Jobs: Green Infrastructure Operations and Maintenance as Career Pathway Stepping Stones, assesses existing and potential occupations in green infrastructure operations and maintenance, highlights existing workforce development programs that can provide models for local governments or community organizations, and recommends strategies to improve career opportunities and job quality in the field of green infrastructure operations and maintenance.
Click here for copies of the reports.Discovering an idea on your engineering undertaking requires you to establish the wants of yourself, another particular person, or a group of people. Organizations who want to use insights because the platform for natural development require a process that’s each scalable and repeatable so that it might probably grow to be routinized inside the organization with predictable lengthy-term results. I dare to share my definition of Design by utilizing simply two words and to expound my principle about the elements which make Design possible. A good definition is one which summarizes the essence of the idea by utilizing just a few phrases. In such circumstances, the customer can attraction to the agreements that were made in the course of the definition part.
Use your insights as the gas for ideation however rephrase them to be actionable for the creative course of rephrasing them as How would possibly we?” statements. Within the latter case, the contribution of the creative factor to the overall design derives from the added worth that the design contributes to the functional options of the item. Perception definition takes work; it is a talent that requires creativity, persistence and deep thinking to craft. What constitutes the creative value of a design shouldn’t be prone to an exhaustive definition. There isn’t a pressure concerned for either the buyer or vendor, and it is not a lot like promoting as it’s taking somebody from one point to a different in a logical determination-making process. Henderson (1996) has argued that instructional design is in regards to the creation of cultural identification and can’t be culturally impartial.
In rejecting the enchantment, the Supreme Court referred to Directive ninety eight/seventy one/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the legal safety of designs, which gives for the coexistence of design and copyright protection. With a design definition is fairly broad, the design has a myriad of specifications that professionals of their fields, and but there may be one institution that may gather all of the manifesto of the design as a whole, although it doesn’t imply we do not discover the colleges that initiated the delivery of designers. The above assertion clearly displays that culture performs an vital position in our every day lives. In response to Henderson (as cited in McLoughlin & Oliver, 2000), Educational design cannot and does not, exist exterior of a consideration of culture”.
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children at risk of being drawn into terrorism and challenge extremist ideas which can be used to legitimise terrorism and are shared by terrorist groups. Prevent awareness training will be a key part of this.
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UFT.org Home > What I Do: Robert Otero, audiologist
An educational audiologist serving District 75 and community schools in Brooklyn, Robert Otero ensures all students can hear their teachers loud and clear.
What does an audiologist do?
Audiology is a profession that specializes in trying to prevent, identify and treat hearing loss. It’s now a doctoral-mandated profession, so I have what’s called an Au.D., a doctorate in audiology. As an educational audiologist, I have the responsibility of ensuring that hearing-impaired children have the appropriate hearing assistive technology for progress and success in an academic setting. We try to eliminate the disadvantage of not being able to hear the teacher as clearly as other students do.
How do you do that?
I initially observe a hearing-impaired student in an academic setting and then make a decision as to what I believe is the best form of hearing assistive technology to enable that student to overcome the noise, distance and poor acoustics that make it hard for the student to hear the teacher’s voice. For a student with minimal hearing loss, I may suggest a sound-field speaker or a receiver that uses a headset where the student can control the volume. For more moderate and severe hearing loss, I have to take into account the need for hearing aids or in the case of profound hearing loss, whether the child has received cochlear implants. We have access to hearing assistive technology for all different degrees of hearing loss.
What’s rewarding about your job?
Seeing children light up when I fit them with the appropriate hearing device. They’re typically trying to read a teacher’s lips and fill in the blanks and make an effort to hear that they’re not even aware of, and they’re missing out on a lot. Struggling to hear is quite a drain on the nervous system. Then they have to go home and essentially teach themselves. I’m trying to make it as easy for them as I had it in school: I just had to listen to the teacher.
What’s a typical day like for you?
I have about 110 students on my caseload, and I try to see each of them once a month at minimum. On a typical day, I’m visiting four or five schools in downtown Brooklyn, meeting with students, cleaning their equipment and doing listening checks using what we call a “stetheset.” It’s similar to the stethoscope that a doctor uses, but instead of a cup on the end to hear a heartbeat, it’s got something to plug a hearing aid into so I can hear exactly what a student’s hearing. I also provide students with batteries and wipes for their equipment and teach them to clean and maintain it themselves.
Do you provide equipment for students to help them hear better?
Yes, we provide the equipment mandated on the student’s IEP. This equipment is for the academic setting only and stays in the school building. If students come with their own private equipment, we put an FM receiver on it that picks up the teacher’s microphone. But sometimes there are lapses in insurance, and students lose or break their equipment frequently. Rather than waiting two months for insurance to approve private hearing aids, we sometimes fit them with DOE hearing aids. In some cases, parents who pay out of pocket for hearing aids don’t want to run the risk of their kids losing them at school, so they request that we provide equipment. They take their “home ears” off when they get to school and put their “school ears” on.
What’s the process of fitting a student for a receiver and headset?
First I’ll sit in the classroom and see how a student performs. If a child is really energetic, for example, certain equipment may not be ideal. I’ll look at the IEP to see if they get occupational or physical therapy, because they might require further assistance removing the equipment and changing the batteries. When we fit hearing aids, we have to obtain ear mold impressions. That involves ensuring the ear is clear of wax, placing a silicone material into a syringe and squeezing it into the ear canal. I wait three to five minutes for it to dry and send it to a company that turns the casting into a rubber ear mold that hopefully fits the child perfectly. We refit every eight months or so.
How have you seen hearing assistive technology change over time?
I’ve been an audiologist for 18 years now, and I’ve seen hearing aids come from being analog aids that our grandparents used to wear, where the audiologist would adjust it with a screwdriver, to the current state of technology. Now it’s all digital and you need a computer to program the hearing aid. Initially, digital hearing aids were programmed with cables, and students might pull on the wires and become disconnected. Now everything, including receivers and headsets, is smaller, wireless and programmed through a streaming device.
— As told to reporter Rachel Nobel
What is your favorite movie about a teacher?
Dead Poets Society
Stand and Deliver
Mr. Holland's Opus
Total votes: 175HATTIESBURG, MS (WDAM) - This is a news release from the University of Southern Mississippi
As temperatures rise throughout the long, hot days of summer in South Mississippi, so too does the presence of mosquitoes. And with that pesky insect comes the threat of West Nile Virus.
The mosquito-transmitted disease has been on the upswing nationwide over the past several years. It is estimated that the virus has killed more than 1,500 people and infected more than 50,000 Americans in the last 15 years.
Researchers at The University of Southern Mississippi have joined forces with physicians at Methodist Rehab Center and University Medical Center in Jackson on a project that unites lab-conducted research with health care providers who work with patients on a daily basis. Through the newly formed West Nile Virus Research Network, researchers and health care professional strive to better understand the link between certain mosquitoes and the deadly virus.
The connection between the mosquito and West Nile virus is widely documented and cases of the virus have been reported in every U.S. state. But researchers still aren't exactly sure how the virus causes brain and spinal cord infections in humans and animals.
Dr. Fengwei Bai, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Southern Miss, is leading a research team to study the mechanics of West Nile virus as it relates to animals and working hard to develop a proven treatment for the virus. The ultimate objective is to develop a successful vaccine.
"My goal is to work on the animal model here at the lab at USM and have the animal research facility, so we handle real viruses for research," said Bai.
Bai is widely known as one of the nation's leading West Nile virus researchers. His expertise in the field helped lead to the formation of the West Nile Virus Research Network – the first of its kind in the U.S.
Graduate student Amber Paul has spent years studying these conditions from both labs and class settings, but found it fascinating to meet people who have been infected with the virus.
"I was able to meet patients in November of last year who had been infected with West Nile Virus, and it was eye-opening to see the types of implications that come with the disease," said Paul. "It sort of makes you appreciate the bench work when you can interact with patients who suffer from these types of problems."
The research network is designed as a three year project, but participants hope their partnership will continue in the future, as they are closer than ever to developing a vaccine.GMC stands for General Motors Truck Company. It once was the GMC Division of General Motors LLC as part of the American automobile company. The organization was founded in 1911 by William C. Durant. They have their headquarters in Detroit, Michigan.
GMC’s primary focus is to produce sport utility vehicles and trucks. They sell military vehicles, pickup trucks, commercial trucks, vans, buses, and SUVs worldwide under the supervision of General Motors. They combine intuitive technologies with premium materials to create vehicles that allow consumers to experience a high end of amenities, design and performance.
William C. Durant founded General Motors in 1908. At the time, it was meant to be a holding company for his Buick line. Just a year later, GM acquired the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company from Pontiac, Michigan.
The Rapid Motor Vehicle Company was created in 1901. The founder of that company was Max Grabowsky and his team developed many of the first commercial trucks on the market. These trucks used a one-cylinder engine.
In that same year, GM also acquired the Reliance Motor Car Company, which was another independent automaker. In 1911, Reliance and Rapid merged together to form the General Motors Truck Company, otherwise referred to as GMC Truck.
This truck line first made its appearance at the New York International Auto Show. In that first year, 22,000 trucks were manufactured, but GMC only contributed 372 of them.
GMC ran three separate manufacturing locations within the United States. They were located in Oakland, California, Saint Louis, Missouri, and Pontiac, Michigan.
A GMC truck drove from Seattle in 1916, to New York City. The journey took 30 days. Ten years later, in 1926, they attempted a similar feat. This time the trip was from New York to San Francisco. It only took five days plus an additional 30 minutes to accomplish.
In the midst of World War II, the company manufactured 600,000 trucks for the United States Armed Forces.
GM purchased most of the Yellow Coach in 1925. They were a bus manufacturer from Chicago and found by John D. Hertz. Once they bought the rest of the shares in 1943, they renamed the company GM Truck and Coach Division.
They produced interurban coaches through 1980, plus transit buses until 1987. In addition, they eventually withdrew because the market became too competitive. Then, they sold the company to the Transportation Manufacturing Corporation and Motor Coach Industries of Canada.
In 1927, the company released their T-Series vehicles, and the first GMC truck was born. These early GMC models used Pontiac engines, and these early models from GMC history used Pontiac engines until 1932. The larger, one- or two-ton vehicles used the more efficient and powerful Buick 6-cylinder valve-in-head engines instead.
The company built a new assembly plant in Pontiac, Michigan. At the time, it became the largest plant dedicated to trucks in the world.
By 1931, GMC took control of all the Buick 6-cylinder engine production. At the time, Buick had only been using straight 8s.
In the 1930s, GMC produced 21 truck trailer chassis. They even started making fifth-wheel couplers. During 1936, the company released 15 new models. This included panel trucks with Oldsmobile engines and ½-ton pickup trucks. This is also when the Suburban Carryall vehicle first hit production. At the time, it had a two-door design with three available bench seats.
In 1946, they released their E series. It featured both light and medium-duty trucks. They looked a lot like the company’s earlier models. At the time, they had 48 varieties that offered up to 55,000 pounds GVWR. Then, in 1949, the H Series took over with all redesigned chassis and new cabs. Overall, they improved appearance, durability, handling, ride, and driver comfort. This pushed their lineup to 75 models.
Starting in 1957, four-wheel-drive became available on some of the lighter duty truck models. They also pioneered the use of front and rear air suspension. By 1960, most of the GMC models were powered by the GMC V or V12 engine, while the Detroit Diesel 6V-71 was used in the majority of heavier models. By 1968, the company ranked third for United States truck sales, which was a landmark year in GMC truck history.
By 1970, lots of changes were occurring. The new Rallywagon and Vandura were released. On top of that, Cummins diesel engines became available for most HD conventional cab designs. The company also released the Allison AT540, which was a four-speed automatic transmission featuring a torque converter. They used it in school buses and medium-duty vehicles.
By 1975, the full-size light truck sales began to plummet in response to the worldwide fuel shortage. It didn’t last long though; by 1979, they were again in third for United States truck sales.
In 1981, GM created The General Motors Truck & Bus Group. It included three organizations: Detroit Diesel Allison Division, Bedford Commercial Vehicle of the United Kingdom, and GM Truck & Bus Vehicle Operation. A year later, GMC made their way into the compact truck market with their S-15 pickups.
They also entered into the mid-size van category with their Safari in 1985. They had cargo and passenger varieties for sale, with engine options of a 2.5-liter L4 or 4.3-liter V6. A year later, GM created a joint venture with Volvo to produce and market some heavy-duty trucks.
In 1991, GMC sold more than 3,000 light military trucks. They were either ambulance military or troop carriers.
In 2000, the company released the GMC Envoy which was a more luxurious and upscale version of their Jimmy model. By 2001, it was powered by their newest Vortec 4.2-inline 6-cylinder engine.
After racking up more than 100 years in the automobile business, GMC has proven they provide motor vehicles that excel in quality, carrying capability, reliability, styling, comfort, economy, and performance.
Past GMC vehicles are collectible and often appear at antique truck shows. GM also displays several of the vehicles in their Heritage Fleet and at several vehicle shows.
In 2002, the released their book titled, “GMC: The First 100 Years.” It offered a complete history of this automaker. Today, they offer several light-duty trucks, vans, and SUVs. They’ve also produced many heavy-duty trucks, ambulances, military vehicles, motorhomes, transit buses and fire trucks.
From 2008 through 2013, they produced the GMC Yukon Hybrid. This eight-passenger SUV combined the use of an electric motor with their V8 engine producing 332 horsepower. Driving on the electric power up to 30 mph was possible.
Then, in 2016, GM produced 700 hybrid pickup trucks. This included 200 GMC Sierra, while the rest were Chevrolet Silverados. They performed market tests on them, but only in California. They featured the GM eAssist mild hybrid system. This operates by using the alternator as a motor for the start-stop feature and acceleration.
While there aren’t currently any Top Picks for the company from the IIHS, several of their SUV models feature decent ratings. The trucks also tend to fair on average as far as safety ratings are concerned.
In addition, the NHTSA ranked ten of their 2018 models with a five-star overall safety rating.
GMC Safety comes with a variety of advanced technologies that keep drivers and passengers safe on the road. The Forward Collision Alert uses radar and cameras to detect how far the vehicles are in front of you. Then, visual and audible signals alert the driver if a collision appears imminent. With Forward Automatic Braking, crash severity is limited because the vehicle applies the brakes when the driver doesn’t take action before a crash occurs. With Front Pedestrian Braking, the system detects when someone walks in front of the vehicle. Then, it alerts the driver and applies the brakes when necessary.
Some safety features are part of the vehicle’s design as well. The Safety Alert Seat vibrates to alert the driver of a possible collision. In addition, there are numerous airbags throughout the lineup to protect the body and head in the event of a crash. The company offers driver and passenger front and side airbags standard, but there’s also available driver knee and seat mounted center airbags as well.
Parking safety features include the Automatic Parking Assist, Front and Rear Park Assist, and Rear Park Assist. With the Rear Cross Traffic Alert, drivers receive a warning if vehicles approach while backing up. They also offer the Lane Keep Assist with Lane Departure Warning. This helps drivers that veer out of the lane unintentionally. Through the use of a camera which reads the lines on the road, drivers are alerted when they are drifting over the line without using a turn signal. If the driver doesn’t respond to the alert, gentle steering is provided to guide the vehicle back into its place.
Other safety features include Following Distance Indicator, Adaptive Cruise Control, Active Tow, Teen Driver settings, and OnStar.
Most statistics don’t separate GMC from GM as far as their rankings are concerned. With that in mind, Wards Auto rated GM far below industry average when it came to recall rates. In fact, they came in 6th place out of 18 total manufacturers evaluated. They did, however, rank above industry average when it came to the percentage of recalled vehicles with consequences that could cause a fire, accident, crash, injury, or death. Their rate was 90.1% which placed them at 12 out of 18 automakers.
The good news about the statistics is that GM initiated almost 54% of their own recalls instead of the NHTSA. That placed them higher than the industry average of 46%.
In 2016, the company recalled over four million vehicles, with the majority of them in the United States. It was to fix an airbag software defect that was linked to a death. Vehicles involved included 2014-2017 Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac, and Buick models.
In extreme cases, the diagnostic module, which senses the state of the vehicle, went into a test mode. When this occurred, the front airbags wouldn’t inflate and the seat belts failed as well.
Consumer Reports did rank GMC separate from the other companies, so it’s easier to see an accurate picture of what people think. Overall, customer satisfaction was rated relatively high, but predicted reliability was on the low side.
J.D. Power ranked the 2018 GMC Sierra 2500HD for Best Performance and Design in the large heavy-duty pickup truck category.
Consumer Reports also ranks automakers by overall cost to maintain and repair. GMC ranked extremely low for the 3-year average cost which came out to just $70. In fact, that placed them as one of the most cost-effective in the study. After a 10-year period, that average becomes $520, which set the automaker in the middle of the rankings.
Throughout the years of GMC production, the brand has been the recipient of many awards. Here are some of their most recent, prestigious accolades.
GMC partnered with Amazon to ensure that drivers receive packages even when they aren’t at home. GMC owners with the Connected Access services have their packaged delivered to their vehicle instead. All that’s required is a 2015 model vehicle or newer with an active plan. The driver also needs to be an Amazon Prime member and located within a participating zip code.
The service gives the delivery driver access to the vehicle or cargo area while it’s parked. This allows for packages to no longer sit on the porch waiting to be stolen or subject to weather conditions.
Users simply download the Amazon Key app on a smartphone, then link that program to their GMC and Amazon accounts. Then, when a purchase is made, the user simply needs to select the “In-car” delivery option at checkout.
When the package is scheduled for delivery, Amazon sends a notification to the user with a four-hour time slot. The vehicle must be parked within two blocks of the address the driver selects. When the driver arrives, they request a remote unlock of the vehicle and GMC Connect Services allows them in. When the delivery is complete, the vehicle locks itself back up again and a final notification is sent to the user.
During the 1920s, Chevrolet and GMC trucks shared a lot of similarities. They were built on some of the same platforms and used a lot of similar body sheet work. The only things that were different were the grilles and nameplates.
At the time, GMC mainly marketed their line to businesses and commercial customers while Chevy focuses on private ownership. In addition, Chevy vehicles have only ever been sold through a Chevrolet dealership whereas GMC trucks have been made available through Cadillac and Buick locations in the past.
Chevrolet and GMC trucks are identical from a mechanical standpoint. The difference is that GMC is more of a premium offering over the Chevy brand, especially when it comes to the Denali series.
GMC participates in manufacturing trucks and SUVs since 1902. They continue to evolve and offer more fuel-efficient vehicles. Their highest-volume vehicle is the Sierra pickup, often hailed as the most powerful light-duty pickup truck on the market.
Currently, the company is located in Detroit, Michigan. Mary Teresa Barra is the CEO and Chairman of the General Motors Company. She’s held that position since 2014 and is the first female CEO of any major automaker.
The company uses several GM production facilities to build GMC vehicles. In Wentzville, Missouri, they produce the GMC Savana. The GMC Sierra is produced in Flint, Michigan alongside the Silverado. In Arlington, Texas, they manufacture the GMC Yukon with the Tahoe and Suburban. At the Fort Wayne, Indiana production facility, the GMC Sierra Extended and Regular Cab truck makes its way down the line with the Chevrolet Silverado. At the production facility in Lansing, Michigan, the GMC Acadia is assembled next to the Chevy Traverse and Buick Enclave.
The only production facilities outside the United States that GMC uses from GM are located in Canada and Mexico.
In 2017, GMC’s parent brand GM sold 9,600,000 vehicles. GMC supplied a record-breaking sales year with a three percent increase over 2016. On top of that, they increased their average transaction price from $32,600 in 2007 to $43,800 by 2017. This is the highest average selling price in the brand’s history.
Denali accounts for a third of the GMC vehicles sold in the United States. December 2017 was its best-selling month with almost 40% of the sales.
General Motors is the American multinational automaker from Detroit, Michigan that oversees GMC production. They sell vehicles in 35 countries and is an automotive group founded by William C. Durant, the same founder of GMC. They’ve been the largest automaker from 1931 through 2007.
Current automotive brands include Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, Wuling, and Holden. Former brands include McLaughlin, Daewoo, Oakland, Hummer, Oldsmobile, Saturn, Saab, Opel, and Vauxhall.
They’ve also participated in other ventures, outside of the automotive world. These included Euclid and Terex, maker of construction vehicles, Electro-Motive Diesel, a diesel engine manufacturer, and Detroit Diesel, also a diesel engine producer. Some other business ventures that have been under the GM brand include Allison, Frigidaire, New Departure, Delco Electronics, ACDelco, GMAC, General Aviation and North American Aviation, GM Defense, and Electronic Data Systems.
The GMC logo uses the initials from its parent, General Motors Company. It might be one of the simplest car logos around, but it’s recognized globally. Looking at the logo, it’s easy to remember that this company creates some of the best trucks and SUVs on the market. Many people agree that while the logo is simple, it’s also a representative of tough and durable.
Rich Latek is the United States Marketing Director for GMC. He aided the company through their broadest advertising campaign rollout in 15 years during 2015. It was GM’s effort of raising awareness for the truck and SUV brand by building on its reputation for craftsmanship.
The new ad campaigns focused on appealing to the emotional side of consumers. The long-running campaign used the “We Are Professional Grade” tagline.
What’s unique about this series of ads is that they didn’t highlight the amenities or utility of the brand. The first commercial asked if people wanted to live an adequate life. Then, they asserted that GMC owners prefer to live their lives “like a boss, like a rebel, like a standard-bearer, like a pro.”
Another popular ad in the series, titled, “Dad Like a Pro, “featured a younger boy mimicking his father. It showcased the boy using a ride-on version of a Sierra Denali crew cab. The ad debuted on Father’s Day during the U.S. Open golf tournament and was cast with a real father and son team.
There was another commercial which used the phrase, “Third Row Like a Pro” to showcase the seven-person capacity of the Acadia crossover. These ads added humanity to the brand and connected with consumers on a deeper, more emotional level.
Will Arnett, a famous actor, has been the long-standing voice in the GMC commercials. He’s most recognized for saying, “It’s not more than you need, just more than you’re used to” in the ads. At one time, Arnett planned to be the voice of K.I.T.T. in a sequel to the 1980s series Knight Rider. Because the show used a Ford Mustang, GM requested that Arnett pull back from the project. Arnett agreed and turned the role over to Val Kilmer instead.
The General Motors Heritage Center is located in Sterling Height, Michigan. It’s the location that showcases numerous GM vehicles, including several GMC-branded. They also have a corporate conferencing center and special events venue. Their collection includes historical literature and artifacts that document the history of the brand. The center measures 81,000 square-feet and displays more than 165 vehicles.
While the museum isn’t open for public visits, it’s easily reserved for special events, meetings, conferences, and group tours. A few of the GMC vehicles on display include the 1945 Tanker, 1951 Canopy Express, and the 1956 GMC Suburban Express.
The Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. also has a 1949 GMC Pickup Truck on display. It was owned by Ira Wertman who was a farmer from Andreas, Pennsylvania. He grew vegetables and fruits and then took them with him in his truck to sell to the coal miners in Allentown. The museum describes the history of pickup trucks and how they offered aid to many activities. The previous pickup trucks looked like modified automobiles, but after the war, it shows how trucks became more powerful, larger, and able to carry more significant loads.
At the International Towing Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee, there’s also a 1958 GMC Truck on display. In addition, they feature several other GM vehicles such as the 1948 COE Chevrolet.
GMC Financial offers consumers the ability to pay for GMC trucks on sale. They provide unique solutions for consumers looking to invest in a GMC for lease. All financing on GMC trucks for sale goes through GM Financial, located in Fort Worth, Texas.
GMC offers several discount incentives, more than most automakers. The GM Family First program is for employees and their immediate family members. The Supplier Discount takes the price down for employees of supplier companies. There’s also a dealership employee discount, valid for any GM dealership employee. Outside of employees, there are also incentives for military members or veterans, educators, college students or graduates, and first responders.
There are also several GMC Protection Plans available to consumers. These include GAP Protection to cover the financing in case of a complete loss. Other plans include Tire and Wheel Protection, Appearance Guard, a Pre-Paid Maintenance Plan, XS Wear Lease Protection, and Advanced Lease Protection.
When consumers purchase a GMC for sale or lease a new vehicle, there’s a warranty placed on the vehicle. These all run through the financial department as well. The powertrain comes with a 5-year/60,000-mile warranty. During that time, consumers have access to transportation if the vehicle needs repairs. They also include Roadside Assistance during this time. In addition, there is a bumper-to-bumper and corrosion warranty for 3-years/36,000 miles. There is even a rust protection warranty for 6-years/100,000 miles. The guarantees include two maintenance visits on all new vehicles.
Most GMC dealerships exist on their own, apart from other GM brands. When looking for a GMC dealer, it helps to know what to look for. While the GMC deals might be the same from varying locations, the service and support consumers receive isn’t. That’s why it’s helpful to look for a dealer that’s been given awards from the company.
The GM Mark of Excellence Award is one to look for. This prestigious honor is presented to the top-performing dealers in the country. To win it, they must exceed divisional sales and rate high in customer satisfaction as well as dealer maintenance and service. Another place to look is the J.D. Power Dealer of Excellence listing. While there are several GM dealers listed there currently, none of the GMC locations made the rankings.
Dealerships also offer My GMC Rewards to consumers. The reward program helps drivers earn rewards for oil changes, tune-ups, and the purchase of Connected Services or OnStar plans. Then, the points can be spent on parts or accessories like a tonneau cover.
They also offer service and maintenance from certified experts. They know the GMC vehicles better than anyone and are equipped to handle simple tasks like oil changes all the way through a full engine replacement. They’re provided the latest diagnostic equipment to ensure that all vehicles run at their best. With the OnStar Advanced Diagnostics, the experts inform drivers of the vehicle’s health status. Their myGMC mobile app also provides real-time diagnostic information on the key systems.
1 – By 1912, the newly created GMC division of GM produced 20,000 vehicles.
2 – Jessica Alba was known for going out in town in her GMC Yukon. This American actress spoke highly of the full-size SUV saying that it had room for the whole family, shopping, and dogs.
3 – GMC is known for creating some of the world’s first electric vehicles. From 1912 through 1917, they used single-digit model names that denoted the load capacity, between one-half-ton through 12 tons.
4 – GMC has been successful in the Middle East, but that’s the only region outside of North America that the brand is sold.
5 – The GMC Suburban was the first SUV from the brand. Its released was in 1937 and it was also known as the Yukon XL. Other SUVs followed, such as the Sierra in 1962 and the Jimmy in 1970.
Is GMC a Chevy? They are both automakers part of the GM Company. They are mainly identical, but Chevrolet sells more vehicles. The difference between the two companies is that GMC only manufacturers trucks, vans, and SUVs. There are also slight differences in the emblems, grilles, visuals, and interiors. Overall, the GMC brand comes more equipped and is considered more luxurious.
Which is better GMC or Chevy? They are mainly identical and created of the same materials. The only difference that matters is that the GMC brand tends to have more equipment inside the cabin than a Chevy would. This makes them better equipped, but also raises the price slightly.
Where are GMCs made? They utilize several GM plants in North America for production. There are five in the United States located in Michigan, Missouri, Texas, and Indiana. They also have an additional plant in Mexico and one in Canada.
Does GMC make cars? No. GMC only manufacturers vans, trucks, and SUVs. Chevrolet is the brand which produces passenger cars.
What does GMC stand for? Currently, it stands for General Motors Company, which is a division of GM. At one time, it might have been used to represent the Grabowsky Motor Company instead.
At Autowise, we envision ourselves as not just a automobile blog or an automobile news website, instead we see our website as a platform to connect all automobile enthusiast and provide them with all the information they need.
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© Copyright 2010 - 2018 AutoWise. All rights reserved.The Internet has grown beyond a network of laptops, PCs, and large servers: it also connects millions of small embedded devices. This new trend is called the Internet of Things, or IoT in short, and it enables many new and exciting applications. At the same time, IoT also comes with a number of risks related to information security. The lack of security, however, cannot be tolerated in certain applications of IoT, including connected vehicles and smart factories. In those applications, security failures may lead to substantial physical damage or monetary loss. Therefore, one of the biggest challenges today, which hinders the application of IoT technologies in certain application areas, is the lack of security guarantees.
In the CrySyS Lab, one of our main research topic is the design and development of security enhancing technologies for IoT systems. We believe this will enable the use of IoT in a wider range of applications. However, securing IoT systems is challenging, because IoT devices have resource constraints and they may not be capable of running traditional security mechanisms. Another problem is that typical IoT systems contain a large number of those devices, which makes the management of security on them a serious practical issue. On the other hand, in typical application environments, IoT devices are not directly connected to the Internet, but they are using gateway devices. Gateways usually have more resources and they may be physically better protected, so they can perform security functions to protect themselves and they can monitor the operation of those simpler IoT devices that they serve. Therefore, placing IoT devices behind gateways and protecting the gateways from cyber attacks seems to be a technically feasible, scalable, and cost efficient approach to increase the security of IoT systems.
Gateways directly face the Internet and they may be subject to various attacks, so it is important to implement strong security mechanisms on them. The following is a list of mechanisms that we believe to be essential for securing the operation of IoT gateway devices:
Hardware root of trust: While gateways can be physically better protected than IoT devices themselves, they are still not strongly tamper resistant, as providing real tamper resistance for the entire device would be too expensive. This means that attackers with physical access to the gateway can compomise it. Therefore, it is important that the gateway has at least some tamper resistant module inside that can withstand physical attacks and that can serve as a root of trust for other security functions listed below. Such a tamper resistant module can be used to store sensitive cyrptographic secrets (e.g., the private key used to authenticate the device) to which access is strictly controlled.
Verified boot process: It must be ensured that after a reset, the gateway boots into a secure state. This can be achieved by digitally signing the software layers loaded during the boot process, and enforcing each layer to verify the digital signature on the next layer before it is loaded and executed. If verification fails, the boot process is halted. The public signature verification keys needed for this can be stored inside the software layers themsleves, as the signature on a software layer also protects the integrity of the key stored in it. The very first bootloader component must be stored in and executed from unmodifiable ROM memory and it must use a public signature verification key that is stored in physically write-protected memory (e.g., a one-time programmable memory where to key is written during device initialization in a secure environment) or whose protection can be traced backed to the hardware root of trust. All these mechanisms ensure that the code loaded and executed after reset cannot be modified on the gateway, not even if the gateway is compromised at run-time and executes malicious code.
Security hardened firmware/OS: The firmware/OS running on the device must be hardened by disabling unused services and enabling available protection mechanisms that are optional and not used by default. Hardening reduces the attack surface and makes the gateway more resistant to typical known attacks.
Trusted execution environment: It is desirable to execute sensitive security functions in a trusted execution environment (TEE), which we can better trust for behaving correctly and protecting sensitive secrets (e.g., shared symmetric keys and private signature generating keys) during computations than does the main firmware/OS itself. Such a TEE could be provided by a security co-processor to which sensitive operations can be delegated, but this approach may be too expensive in practice. A more cost efficient solution is a software based TEE with some hardware support such as ARM’s TrustZone technology.
Run-time firmware/OS integrity monitoring: While the verified boot process ensures that the gateway boots into a known good state after reset, it does not prevent compromising the device at run-time by exploiting some software vulnerability. This may happen despite firmware/OS hardening, because hardening is just a best-effort approach, and it cannot eliminate the entire attack surface. Hence, it is useful to periodically check the integrity of the firmware/OS and identify malicious components, suspicious network connections, or any other anomaly that may indicate a run-time compromise. However, this integrity verification should not be performed by the firmware/OS itself, as it may be already compromised and the result of the check may not be reliable. Instead, integrity verification must be performed by a trusted application running in the TEE and having access to the entire memory of the firmware/OS. Yet, integrity verification itself is far from trivial, even if it executes in a trusted execution environment. The integrity verification code may extract the list of the currently running processes and compare that to a whitelist, or it can even check if the processes in memory have the right hash values and they did not contain any potentially malicious additional code. If a compromise is detected, the gateway can be forced to reboot and get back to a known good state.
Remote attestation of state: Run-time integrity checking can be triggered by an on-board secure timer (or watchdog mechanism), or it can be invoked remotely by an operator. In the latter case, it may make sense to send a response to the caller informing him/her about the result of the integrity verification procedure. In order to avoid that a compromised device can falsify the response, it should be digitally signed. So essentially, the trusted integrity verification application running in the TEE
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Other scenic and sought-out interpretive trails can be found at Lake Warren
, Huntington Beach
, Edisto Beach
, and Myrtle Beach
Search the parks below to find an interpretive trail in a park near you.New Zealand's largest glaciers are retreating fast in the face of global warming and could disappear altogether, scientists said yesterday.
A report by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) said the volume of ice in New Zealand's Southern Alps had shrunk almost 11 percent in the past 30 years.
More than 90 percent of this loss was because the 12 largest glaciers in the mountain range were melting due to rising temperatures, NIWA said.
The glaciers have passed a threshold, causing the ice to collapse and creating large lakes at their base, the report said.
"The 12 big glaciers with these pro-glacial lakes have passed a tipping point," NIWA's principal scientist Jim Salinger said.
"It is not yet clear whether the glaciers will disappear completely with future warming, but they are set to shrink further as they adjust to today's climate," he said. "And it is already clear that they will not return to their earlier lengths without extraordinary cooling of the climate, because the large lakes now block their advance."
Tasman Glacier, the longest in New Zealand, is now about 23km long. A 5km lake has formed at its base in the past 30 years. In the 1880s, the glacier was 28km long.
But increased rainfall on the western side of the Alps has meant the results for smaller glaciers on that side are mixed, NIWA said.
These ice sheets advanced during most of the 1980s and 1990s amid periods of higher rainfall.
But the Franz Josef glacier, is still much shorter than in 1900 and has retreated about 230m since 2000, Salinger said.Does the Constitution Follow the Flag?: The Evolution of Territoriality in American Law
Oxford University Press, 2009, 328 pages
Reviewed by John Parry
Law depends on the existence of a sovereign government with power over a defined territorial space. Most of the time, this assumption functions as an unacknowledged baseline. As with many assumptions, however, a closer look reveals enormous complexity. The twentieth century, for example, witnessed the rise of international human rights law, a body of rules that claims to reach across territorial boundaries and into sovereign spaces. During the same period, U.S. courts repeatedly confronted questions about how U.S. law applies to conduct that takes place outside of the United States but that has effects in the United States or affects U.S. interests. More generally, assessing the importance of territory for sovereignty, legal regulation, and conflict-of-laws purposes was critically important throughout the last century. That importance has only increased with the new century and the strains created by the U.S. response to terrorism, especially as the Supreme Court vacillates between traditional and cosmopolitan views of sovereignty and territory in cases like Munaf v. Geren and Boumediene v. Bush. As territorial issues retain and even increase their importance, the need to understand their scope and interrelationships also becomes more and more compelling.
Kal Raustiala admirably fulfills this need with Does the Constitution Follow the Flag?: The Evolution of Territoriality in American Law. The book is both a historical survey of the law relating to territoriality and an effort to provide organizing concepts for thinking about the forces that shape its meaning and significance over time. Importantly, Raustiala eschews the easy claim that territory and territorial borders are no longer important in an age of globalization. Territoriality, in his account, continues to be “the organizing principle of modern government.” At the same time, however, he also makes clear that it is not static. To the contrary, because territoriality functions “to manage, minimize, or sometimes capitalize on legal differences,” it is necessarily dynamic. The great strength of Raustiala’s study is the way in which he analyzes and explains this dynamism.
Drawing on the insights of writers such as Gerald Neuman, in Strangers to the Constitution and Alex Aleinikoff, in Semblances of Sovereignty, Raustiala explores the links between the emergence of the United States as a world power and changing notions of territoriality in U.S. law. From a broad perspective, this connection might seem obvious, but Raustiala hones in on the details. He provides careful readings of cases and legal developments and meticulously places them into historical and political context. Among the topics that he addresses are the Insular Cases, antitrust law, overseas federal courts (such as consular courts and the United States District Court for China), status of forces agreements (SOFAs), and the legal and territorial status of the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base. Under Raustiala’s illuminating analysis, these conceivably disparate topics are revealed to be the doctrinal manifestations of the shifting principles and interests that territoriality reflects.
For example, Chapter Four begins by narrating the efforts of the executive branch and federal courts to determine the extent to which federal antitrust law applies to actions that take place overseas but have effects in the United States. Raustiala situates this discussion against the decline of traditional colony-based imperialism and the move to indirect control over dependent states, the rise of the progressive movement, and the beginnings of the modern regulatory state. He then broadens his focus to consider the rise of the “effects test” in U.S. and international law and the ways in which this approach began to apply outside of the context of antitrust law. Significantly, all of this analysis also provides traction for insights into the changes in ideas about territoriality that took place during the early- and mid-twentieth century.
The next chapter turns to regulation of the military. Raustiala moves from war crimes, to SOFAs, to the rights of military spouses overseas, and then to the United States Court for Berlin, before finishing with the implications of these issues for U.S. efforts to combat international crime. The centerpiece of the chapter is an extended assessment of the transformative case on extraterritoriality and the Constitution—Reid v. Covert—and its still-developing impact on later occurrences and topics. Other chapters exhibit similar combinations of broad coverage and detailed analysis.
Does the Constitution Follow the Flag? will take its place alongside Peter Spiro’s Beyond Citizenship: American Identity After Globalization and Antony Anghie’sImperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law as essential recent reading for anyone interested in contemporary approaches to and understandings of territory, citizenship, and sovereignty. While Spiro advances what could be called a cosmopolitan theory of citizenship and Anghie draws on post-colonial studies for his critique of the structure of modern international law, Raustiala gestures toward a theory of constitutional geography and a twenty-first century approach to the relationship between sovereignty and territory. To that end, the concluding chapter pulls together the various threads of Raustiala’s analysis and underscores his call for “much greater attention to the past, present, and future of territoriality.” With this synthesis accomplished, he suggests the existence of “a powerful disjuncture between the Westphalian doctrines of the past that were revived to bolster the Bush administration’s policies in the war on terror and the common understanding of American constitutionalism that the twentieth century has forged.” He also signals his sympathy for the argument that “geographic or citizenship distinctions simply have no real place in the interpretation of constitutional rights.”
If I have any criticism of the book, it is that Raustiala does not develop his own theory of territoriality and rights beyond this point. Such a theory would not just choose sides in a debate between traditional doctrines and contemporary understandings but would also examine that disjuncture more critically, explain how legal decision makers might remove geography and citizenship from constitutional analysis, and assess what the consequences of such a development might be. In the end, however, it is almost certainly an indication of Does the Constitution Follow the Flag?’s success that it not only informs and enlightens but also whets the reader’s appetite for more of Raustiala’s thoughts on these issues.
* Professor of Law, Lewis & Clark Law School.
1. 553 U.S. 674 (2008).
2. 553 U.S. 723 (2008).
3. Kal Raustiala, Does the Constitution Follow the Flag?: The Evolution of Territoriality in American Law (2009).
4. Id. at 7–8.
5. Id. at 5.
6. Id. at 7.
7. E.g., id. at 242, 238 n.36 (citing Gerald L. Neuman, Strangers to the Constitution: Immigrants, Borders, and Fundamental Law (1996)).
8. E.g., id. at 255 n.71, 268 n.58 (citing T. Alexander Aleinikoff, Semblances of Sovereignty: The Constitution, the State, and American Citizenship (2002)).
9. The leading Insular Cases include Balzac v. Porto Rico, 258 U.S. 298 (1922); Dorr v. United States, 195 U.S. 138 (1904); Hawaii v. Mankichi, 190 U.S. 197 (1903); and Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U.S.244 (1901).
10. 354 U.S. 1 (1957).
11. Peter J. Spiro, Beyond Citizenship: American Identity After Globalization (2008).
12. Antony Anghie, Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law (2004).
13. Raustiala, supra note 3, at 225.
14. Id. at 247.
15. Id. at 246.Wadjet, The Serpent Goddess
by Catherine C. Harris
When I started looking for information on Wadjet, I ran into the fact that she is not a well-known goddess, and while I could find some information on her, much of it was a repetitive. Digging deeper, I found some fascinating facts and quite a few contradictions.
Some of the problem in finding information about Wadjet lies in the fact that, while she is one goddess, she has many names. Wadjet, Edjo, Udjo, and Buto are only a few of the names by which she was known. The spelling of her name seems to depend upon who was presenting the information about her and which area of Egypt the exploration was taking place.
Most popular information about Wadjet lists her primarily as a snake-headed protector of Lower Egypt, the delta region. However, the ancient people of northern area worshiped Wadjet as a vulture Goddess. Wadjet was revered as the goddess of childbirth, and protector of children, and in later years she became the protector of kings. Wadjets role was often seen as a forceful defender, while her sister, Nekhebet, was seen as the motherly defender. This contrast provided the counterpoint seen in many of the Egyptian deities. The symbol of justice, time, heaven and hell, Wadjet is one of the oldest Egyptian goddesses.
Often shown as a cobra, or as the head of the cobra, Wadjet can be seen rearing from the forehead of the rulers. Evidence of her protection is most notable upon the funerary mask of Tutankhamen. Occasionally, she has been shown in the guise of her "eye of divine vengeance" role, as a lioness. In later years, the royal crowns were often decorated with two or more depictions of cobras in deference to her role as protector.
While Wadjet was sometimes depicted as the lioness-headed goddess, she was often seen in the image of a mongoose, represented on the funeral urns of ancient Egypt. The mongoose was revered as her sacred animal. Along with the shrew mouse, they were mummified and entombed in statuettes of the goddess. It is believed that the mongoose, and the shrew mouse were representative of the day and night cycle. The mongoose representing daylight, and the nocturnal shrew mouse representing night.
Many Egyptian deities were associated with specific hours, days, and months, and Wadjet was no different. Her time was considered to be the fifth hour of the fifth day of the month, or lunar cycle. Interestingly enough, December 25th, on the Egyptian calendar, was considered to be the "going forth of the Goddess, while April 21st was her feast day. The many days when Wadjet is honored culminate during her month, Epipi, the harvest or summer month. This corresponds to mid-May through mid-June on the Gregorian calendar.
Legend has it that Wadjet was the daughter of Atum, the first god of the Universe. He created her as his eye. Her purpose was to search the Universe for his lost sons, Tefnut and Shu. Wadjet did find his sons, and Atum was so happy to see them that he cried. It is said that those tears made humans. As a reward, Atum placed Wadjet upon his head in the form of a cobra. There she would be feared and respected by all the gods and men.
In the modern world, Wadjet has once again surfaced as the goddess of an intriguing game that allows the players to explore ancient Egypt. The game is introduced, Your destination is the Valley of the Kings where you will experience a world of burning desert heat and blinding sandstorms. You will know the intrigue, the secrets, and the dangers that lie in every step through the dark corridors of the ancient tombs, as you search for the stolen treasures of the Pharaoh. But beware, the cobra goddess Wadjet has guarded the royal kings and their treasures for over 3000 years. She awaits your intrusion. This interpretation of the goddess holds true to the images we see of her throughout ancient history.
A fascinating goddess, Wadjets many roles and depictions make learning about her a delightful treasure hunt. Sorting through the many names, and images, could take a life time of study to fully understand the role she played in ancient Egyptian religious life.
Who are we?
Tour Egypt aims to offer the ultimate Egyptian adventure and intimate knowledge about the country. We offer this unique experience in two ways, the first one is by organizing a tour and coming to Egypt for a visit, whether alone or in a group, and living it firsthand. The second way to experience Egypt is from the comfort of your own home: online.A new computer simulation is showing Earth’s magnetosphere in amazing detail – and it looks a lot like a huge pile of tangled spaghetti (with the Earth as a meatball). Or perhaps a cosmic version of modern art.
The magnetosphere is formed by the Sun’s magnetic field interacting with Earth’s own magnetic field. When charged particles from a solar storm, also known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), impact our magnetic field, the results can be spectacular, from powerful electrical currents in the atmosphere to beautiful aurorae at high altitudes. Space physicists are using the new simulations to better understand the nature of our magnetosphere and what happens when it becomes extremely tangled.
Using a Cray XT5 Jaguar supercomputer, the physicists can better predict the effects of space weather, such as solar storms, before they actually hit our planet. According to Homa Karimabadi, a space physicist at the University of California-San Diego (UCSD), “When a storm goes off on the sun, we can’t really predict the extent of damage that it will cause here on Earth. It is critical that we develop this predictive capability.” He adds: “With petascale computing we can now perform 3D global particle simulations of the magnetosphere that treat the ions as particles, but the electrons are kept as a fluid. It is now possible to address these problems at a resolution that was well out of reach until recently.”
It helps that the radiation from solar storms can take 1-5 days to reach Earth, providing some lead time to assess the impact and any potential damage.
The previous studies were done using the Cray XT5 system known as Kraken; with the new Cray XT5 Jaguar supercomputer, they can perform simulations three times as large. The earlier simulations contained a “resolution” of about 1 billion individual particles, while the new ones contain about 3.2 trillion, a major improvement.
So next time you are eating that big plate of spaghetti, look up – the universe has its own recipes as well.
The original press release from Oak Ridge National Laboratory is here.In "Troy Town," Dante Gabriel Rossetti tells the story of Helen, queen of Sparta, who desperately longs for love. She offers a carved cup to Venus, goddess of love and beauty and pleads for the love of a man. In her prayers, Helen, who compares her breasts to apples, reminds the goddess of a time when Venus, too, desperately coveted something. At one time, Venus competed with Hera and Athena for the golden apples from the Tree of Life. Paris, Prince of Troy, offered them in return for a favor from the goddess he chose, and he selected Venus's gift. Perhaps reminded of her own desire, she sees in Helen's heart something that suited her mood and vocation as a goddess, Venus decided to grant Helen's wish. At her behest, Cupid struck Paris with love's arrow, and with that first fateful moment when
Paris turned upon his bed,
(O Troy Town!)
Turned upon his bed and said,
Dead at heart with the heart's desire, —
"Oh to clasp her golden head!"
(O Troy's down,
Tall Troy's on fire!)
Troy's fate was sealed.
1. Rossetti constantly brings up apples, referring to the golden apples of life that began the Trojan War (when Paris chose to give the apples to Venus rather than Hera or Athena), and comparing Helen's breasts to "apples sweet". Apples traditionally symbolized temptation or the downfall of Adam and Eve, possibly drawing a parallel between the fall from grace and the fall of Troy. What else could apples symbolize?
2. The refrain of "O Troy Town" and "O Troy's down, Tall Troy's on fire!" brings to mind the call and response structure inherent in the music of plantation slaves in America. Was this similarity intentional, and if so, what message was Rossetti attempting to communicate?
3. Poets commonly wrote on the theme of love surpassing death, and the insignificance of death if one has experienced true love. Rossetti described the first moment of Paris' love with the slightly ominous line "Dead at heart with the heart's desire." Why did he choose to connect the terms of love and death negatively, despite the poetic themes to the contrary?
Last modified 11 October 2004Vermont Newsguyby Jon Margolis
Vermont Dams and Dam SafetyApril 17, 2015
There used to be a dam right over there, Clark Amadon said, pointing to where the rapids begin, where one of the concrete abutments remained visible.
This was on Cox Brook, not far upstream from where it empties into the Dog River across Route 12 in Northfield Falls. The dam was built in the 1920s, he said, and dismantled in 2007, thanks in part to the efforts of Trout Unlimited and its Vermont Council, which Amadon chairs.
There are two advantages to removing a dam. One, Amadon noted, is that a river and its tributaries comprise a natural system, and getting rid of dams "keeps the systems open" which keeps them healthier.
The other is that a dam taken out by engineers who plan the job will not break apart when no one is watching, possibly destroying property and maybe even someone's life downstream. No, this does not appear imminent. No Vermont town is in danger of becoming the next Johnstown, PA, where 2,209 people were killed when a dam 14 miles up the Little Conemaugh River gave way in 1899. The big Vermont dams, the ones holding back large impoundments on major rivers, are regularly inspected and effectively maintained.
Vermont has a dam safety law, noted Steve Bushman, the dam safety engineer for the Department of Environment Conservation, adding that if his Department "felt a dam was in imminent danger of failure, we could implement an unsafe dam procedure. We haven't done that for quite a while."
But if a mega-tragedy from a breached dam is highly improbable, a smaller but still damaging and perhaps fatal flood is, if not exactly likely, enough of a threat to worry civil engineers.
"There have been quite a few" damaging floods caused by breached dams just in the Northeastern United States in recent years, said Jessica Louisos, a civil engineer with the Waterbury firm Milone & MacBroom and a co-author of a report on Vermont dams by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). In 2005, a dam in Fort Ann, N.Y., gave way, causing substantial property damage. In 1996, a New Hampshire motorist was drowned by flooding caused by a breached dam.
As far as engineers know, Vermont dams are safe. But they readily admit there is much that they do not know, and Louisos said 'the lack of information poses a risk." Nobody knows for sure how many dams are in the state. The ASCE report counted 1,219 in the'state inventory" 198 of which, or 16 percent, "are classified as high significant-hazard-potential." (The big hydro dams are regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or the state Public Service Board, and are not part of the state inventory).
That classification does not mean that they are in danger of failing. It means that if they did fail, the resulting flood would seriously endanger life or property. But 39 of those dams, Bushman said, have been "identified (as being) in poor condition, and need to be corrected before they get to that unsafe level. For most part they are not being ignored. They"re being looked at by engineers."
In all, found the ASCE report, 126 dams, most of them considered "low-hazard." are in poor condition. Neither Bushman nor Louisos doubt that there are some small dams that are not part of the state inventory. They suspect that there might be dams whose existence is unknown either to state officials or to the owners of the property where the dams were built years ago, perhaps in forests or fields not visited in decades. The ASCE report said "many small, privately owned dams are not listed in the state inventory." Furthermore, Louisos said, dams behind which sit less than 500 cubic feet of impounded waters, "are not on the inspection list."
Bushman said the high-hazard dams are inspected annually and the significant-hazard dams at least every five years. His goal is to inspect the low-hazard dams at least every ten years, but acknowledged that he and his one colleague " even with one part-time summer assistant " are behind schedule, and that some low-hazard dams have never been inspected.
To the dismay of dam safety experts, Gov. Peter Shumlin's proposed Fiscal Year 2016 budget calls for a small decrease in spending on dam safety. A bill (H. 37) now under consideration by the House Fish and Wildlife Committee would not add funding, but it would require dam owners to register dams and pay an annual fee to fund the state dam inspection program.
Its sponsor, Committee Chair David Deen, a Putney Democrat, does not expect the measure to pass both houses this year. More than half of Vermont dams are privately owned, according to the ASCE report. Their owners are responsible for them, meaning they would be liable for any damages caused by their dam's failure. These land-owners, says the report, 'tend to have limited willingness to invest in maintenance and repairs."
Dams, of course, do a lot of good. They create cheap and clean electricity, help irrigate crops, and create impoundments (lakes) where people love to swim, fish, boat, or simply enjoy the view.
But dams also do a lot of harm. As Clark Amadon put it, there is an "inherent disconnect" between dams and rivers. A dam invades the natural processes of a stream. Not only does it keep some fish from getting to their spawning beds, it alters "in most cases, degrades " the distribution of sediment, woody debris, and insect life that make a river"well, a river, as opposed to an artificial system created by human beings.
That helps explain the growing dam-removal sentiment around the country. It has already had some impact in Vermont, where only one dam has been erected in recent years while ten -- including the one on Cox Brook " have been torn down.
As more are likely to be in coming years. To begin with, it's cheaper to remove a dam than to repair it. The ASCE report said removing all the dams in poor condition would cost $22 million, less than the $35 million it would cost to repair them.
The engineers and anglers (openly) and state natural resources officials (less openly) both favor getting rid of dams that no longer serve their original purpose, whether that be hydro power or irrigation. There is some opposition, both from landowners and from residents who simply want things to stay as they are, but for now, the momentum seems to be on the side of the dam removers.
Some of whom, like Trout Unlimited, are anglers, who may hope that they will catch more fish if the dams are taken away. But Amadon, an outreach counselor for the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation, said the fish themselves are not the focus. Habitat is. As much as possible, he said, a river should be restored to its natural state for the sake of restoring the river to its natural state. The fish, then, "will take care of themselves." he said.
Besides, he said, in many cases a landowner can have a dam removed without paying for it. Removing the Cox Brook dam, he said, was financed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service as part of its effort to protect and restore native brook trout fisheries throughout the Northeast. The Dog River, he pointed out, is one of only two in Vermont (the Battenkill is the other) managed as a wild trout fishery, with no stocking.
But even elsewhere, he said, the federal and state governments, with some help from volunteer organizations, would pay for most if not all dam removal. And a removed dam, unable to be breached, can do no harm.
Is this any way to elect a Governor?December 30, 2014
On January 8, the second Thursday of the New Year, the Vermont General Assembly, aka the Legislature, is scheduled to perform an unusual and somewhat mysterious act:
It will elect the governor.
Unusual and mysterious, but by no means unprecedented. The legislature has performed this task 23 times since Vermont became a state in 1793, most recently in 2011, when it did what it is likely to do this time: choose Peter Shumlin to be the governor for the next two years.
Then as now, Shumlin got more votes than any other candidate in the previous November's election. Then as now, he didn't get a majority, and according to Vermont's Constitution, when no candidate for governor (or lieutenant governor or Treasurer) gets a majority of the popular vote, the Legislature makes the final decision.
And the Legislature has been given this responsibility, this decisive role, this awesome power, because"because"well, no one is quite sure what's supposed to follow "because" here.
As the King of Siam might have told Anna, "is a puzzlement."
"No records were kept of the 1777 Constitutional Convention at Windsor." noted retired State Archivist Gregory Sanford. "So we are all left to speculate."
As Sanford noted, holding constitutional conventions behind closed doors and with no official transcript of the proceedings was not unusual in the late 18th Century. Some ten years later, the federal constitutional convention in Philadelphia was also held in camera (not on camera; photography was just being invented) and with no official account of the event, a policy, Sanford suspects, "inherited from England's concept of parliamentary privilege."
(A challenge, one would think, to advocates of interpreting the U.S. Constitution according to the "original intent" of its drafters. Without knowing what they said, knowing their intent would seem difficult if not impossible).
That 1777 Constitution was not for the State of Vermont. There was no such thing. It was for the Republic of Vermont. That constitution actually referred to Vermont as a state, but it was not recognized as one by Congress until 1791. After Vermont was admitted into the Union, the constitution was re-written in 1793, with that peculiar provision for choosing a governor transplanted into the new version.
Peculiar does not mean unique, at least not quite. Right now, one other state has a similar provision for selecting a governor if no candidate gets a popular majority. That state is Mississippi, not one most Vermonters consider similar to their own.
The Mississippi system is not identical, though. Down there, only the House of Representatives makes the final choice between the two top vote-getters, by "viva voce vote, which shall be recorded in the journal, in such manner as to show for whom each member voted."
In Vermont, both houses, "by a joint ballot." (the Senate and House meeting as one) choose any one of the three leading candidates, and they do it by secret ballot. Legislators may " but need not " disclose for whom they voted.
As for where the 1777 Vermont drafters got the idea for this provision, the answer seems to be: Pennsylvania.
Such at least is the plausible assessment of Eric Davis, the emeritus professor of political science at Middlebury College.
"Needing a constitution for the new republic, and not wanting to write one from scratch, they looked at the new post-independence constitution of Pennsylvania and decided to copy many of its provisions." Davis said.
Though the precise motivations of the constitution-drafters in both states are lost in the mists of time, Sanford and Davis suggest two likely explanations.
One is that political parties had not yet developed. Ambitious, prominent (and usually wealthy) men (the non-men in those days couldn't vote, much less run and serve) would simply put themselves forward as candidates So it was common to have more than two major candidates for governor, making it less likely that one of them would get a majority.
The second reason was, as Davis noted, that in the late 18th Century, "Americans were very skeptical about executive power. Executives were seen as carrying with them the potential of tyranny. The Pennsylvania-Vermont system of having the legislature elect the governor was thought to prevent a tyrannical executive from getting elected through demagogic appeals."
No wonder. Back in those days, "executive" was all but synonymous with "royal." The executives with whom 18th Century Americans were familiar were kings (or, between 1558 and 1603, a Queen, Elizabeth I). They ruled by divine right, and though, at least in England, their power was no longer absolute, it was considerable, and not infrequently tyrannical.
That fear of "demagogic appeals" indicates that the original drafters also feared too much democracy. That fear was also widespread in 18th Century America. In the 1789 Federal Constitution, U.S. Senators were elected by their state legislatures, not directly by the people. The Founders created a far more elitist version of democracy than the one Americans currently enjoy (and complain about).In most states, men (and usually only white men) could vote only if they had a certain amount of property.
Not in Vermont. Those guys in Windsor did not copy the Pennsylvania constitution word for word. The took out the property qualification. In Vermont, even the destitute could vote, and "at least in theory " so could the non-whites.
But that may have only enhanced the concern over demagoguery. Sanford said he suspected that Vermont's founders "had great faith in representative democracy, as opposed to pure majoritarian democracy." That could explain, he said, why 'they created a unicameral legislature with the representatives kept close to the people by, among other means, annual election."
As the two party system evolved in Vermont and elsewhere, fewer elections were won by mere pluralities. When that does happen, most states just stick with the plurality winner. But Georgia and Louisiana hold runoff elections if no candidate for governor or U.S. Senator gets a majority of the popular vote. And as a residue of the days when the Deep South was solidly Democratic and victory in that primary was 'tantamount" (a word almost never used in any other context) to winning in November, eight states (including Georgia and Louisiana) hold runoff elections if no one wins a majority in the primary. North Carolina and South Dakota hold primary runoffs, too, but only if no candidate breaks a 35 percent threshold.
Vermonters could, of course, amend their constitution. But that's not easy. It's probably harder than in any other state. The process can begin only once every four years, and it can only begin in the Legislature, where the Senate must pass a proposed amendment by a two-thirds majority, and the house concur by a simple majority.
Then both houses in the next Legislature (after an election) have to re-pass the amendment, by a simple majority in both houses this time, before it goes to the voters in a referendum.
No surprise, then, that amendments are rare.
In modern times, the Legislature has always chosen the gubernatorial candidate with the statewide plurality. The last time it did not was in 1853, which was, politically speaking, in another world. In almost every case in which there was no a majority winner, the runner-up has effectively dropped out and urged the lawmakers to choose the top vote-getter.
Republican Scott Milne has not, and continues to hope that the legislators will make him governor. Because plurality winner Shumlin is a Democrat, as are most legislators, and because he got the most votes, he is widely expected to prevail on January 8. But Milne's perseverance has treated (or subjected") Vermonters to another political theory debate.
Milne and his supporters argue that representatives ought to represent " to vote for the candidate who carried their districts. Shumlin and his supporters point out that more Vermonters chose him than any other candidate.
Obviously, legislators ought to take into account the wishes of their constituents. There is a powerful incentive for them to do so; elected official who regularly ignore the wishes of their constituents are likely to find themselves un-elected ere long.
But the governor does not govern one House or Senate district. He governs the whole state, making it appropriate for lawmakers to consider carefully who won the statewide plurality.
Then there is the argument that legislators ought to use their own judgment and vote for the candidate they think will do the best job. This point of view was most famously and most eloquently expressed around the time Vermont's constitution writers met in Windsor by the conservative Anglo-Irish political philosopher Edmund Burke.
A representative, Burke wrote, owes his constituents "his unbiased opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience,....Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion"
Once chosen, Burke said, the representative "is not member of Bristol, but he is a member of Parliament"
He meant Bristol in southwestern England, not the smaller one in Addison County. But the point holds, and the likelihood is that come January 8, the winners will be Edmund Burke and Peter Shumlin.
Does Vermont Really Need a Lt. Governor?October 30, 2014
Three questions and answers about Vermont's lieutenant governor:
#1 - Who will it be
Incumbent Republican Phil Scott, Progressive/Democrat Dean Corren, or " theoretical possibility " Liberty Union's Marina Brown.
#2 - What does Vermont's lieutenant governor do
Not much. He or she becomes acting governor when the governor is out of state, presides over the Senate (voting only if the vote will be decisive), and serves on the Senate's Committee on Committees.
Oh, and imprudent though it is to say, waits around for the governor to die, resign in disgrace, or decide to leave public life and seek inner peace in a monastery or the wilderness.
#3 - Does Vermont need a lieutenant governor
Obviously not. Five states, including neighboring New Hampshire and nearby Maine, manage just fine without one. In both those states, the Senate President becomes governor should the office become vacant. In Oregon, West Virginia, and Wyoming, the Secretary of State takes over.
And in Tennessee and West Virginia the president (called'speaker" in Tennessee) of the State Senate is the lieutenant governor.
In fact, if the state did abolish the office " unlikely a prospect though that may be " Vermonters would hardly notice. In an age of cell phones and the Internet, the governor can govern from afar. Any senator can preside over the chamber (in only about half the states does the lieutenant governor play that role), and there are various mechanism for finding that decisive vote or creating a Committee on Committees comprised solely of senators.
If Vermont got rid of its lieutenant governor, the state would save a little (very little) money, free up a spacious office on the first floor of the Statehouse, and have one less line on the ballot every two years.
Needless to say, this is not about to happen. And there are problems in systems that lack a lieutenant governor. New Jersey did not have one in 2004 when Gov. Jim McGreevey was forced to resign. As the Constitution then provided, Senate President Richard Codey (a Democrat like McGreevey) became acting governor.
But he also continued on as senate president, so he was "convening legislation in the morning and signing bills in the afternoon." said Julia Hirst, the Executive Director of the National Lieutenant Governors Association, creating constitutional complications. Two years later, New Jersey adopted a constitutional amendment creating a lieutenant governor.
In New Hampshire, though, the senate president has to leave the legislature on becoming acting governor. And Mane's constitution calls for holding a new election soon after the senate president fills a gubernatorial vacancy.
Another reason people would hardly notice the absence of a lieutenant governor is that Vermont's "lite gov." as the often is often called, is very weak.
No, that's not a condemnation of Phil Scott. It's a description of the office as designed by the Constitution. In some states, said Julia Hirst, either the constitution or statute grants the lieutenant governor "a dual duty, head of an agency, or a cabinet slot, or chair of a commission." Vermont's, she said, is one of the few states in which the lite gov has no role except"lite gov.
Not that lite govs in the other states are always considered necessary, either. In Rhode Island in 2010
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refuse your write up. Communication must be correct in tone and style of expression, spelling, grammar, format, contents, statistical information, stress-unstressed, etc. there should not be any inaccurate statements in the message. Efforts must be made to avoid errors in spellings, punctuations, etc. the incorrect written documents lower the readers’ confidence in the writer. In the same way, the incorrect statements and other miscellaneous errors of the speaker lower the listeners’ confidence in him and it may tarnish his image and reliability too. When communication receiver finds one error he suspects that there can also be other errors in the message. Therefore, he starts searching for other mistakes automatically. The subject matter of communication must be correct or accurate. The manner in which the message is transmitted must be absolutely correct. Accuracy in writing can be achieved by careful checking and editing. Correctness demands accurate figures, because decisions may go wrong if wrong figures are given. Over writings, erasures, strikeovers, wrong spellings, faulty grammar, poor sentence construction etc may distract the readers and lead to misunderstanding. Written communication clearly means making others to understand. Therefore, it is essential that the sender should verify the correctness of the information before transmitting it to the receiver. And before accepting the information for important decision-making, the receiver should clarify his doubts regarding the accuracy and correctness of the message. Continuity: As far as possible the writer should avoid jargon. Jargon is a language that is special to science, commerce, technology, trade, and profession. In writing, the jargon should not be incorporated as this could make the writing confusing and unclear. Brevity or use of fewer words brings about continuity and grace in your writing. The effect of good writing depends on its style and continuity of subject till the conclusion. If one takes care to be precise, correct, and clear in writing and if the continuity is maintained throughout writing, the desired effect from the reader is achieved.
Effective verbal communication Pronunciation All the language units must be pronounced properly and clearly. The message cannot be intelligible without proper articulation of sounds. Sometimes, it happens that a person who is able to articulate a sound properly is unable to pronounce the words correctly. The words in English language must be stressed on the exact syllables. Clarity, Conciseness and Completeness It is essential that the message should be brief and concise, but complete in every aspect. The brevity should not be achieved at the cost of clarity and completeness. Too much talking may lead to misunderstanding and over communication, but too little talking can lead to partial understanding and under communication. Vocabulary The communicator must have a good vocabulary. He should us choicest words to convey correct meaning. It the person who communicates orally has inadequate vocabulary; the listener will receive incorrect and confused meaning. Self-confidence If the communicator lacks self-confidence, it is likely that he will not be able to impress the message on the listener. He must have a sufficient knowledge of the subject on which he has to talk. Secondly, he must plan his message carefully before imparting it to the receiver. The logical sequence of various ideas in the message is an outcome of organizing and planning the message. Adequate planning, preparation, and organization of the message help the speaker to raise his morale and self-confidence. Pitch There are three patterns 1) rising pitch, 2) falling pitch and 3) dividing pitch. It is essential to use the correct pitch of sound. The variations in the pitch sounds can help the speaker to create interest and hold the attention of the listeners. Tone and style The message must make appeal not only to the intellect but also to the heart of the listener. The words impart the intended meaning when they arte spoken with the tone
and style that suit the occasion. The tone of the voice gives the listener an idea about the feeling associated with the words. The art of Written communication A person, who aspires to get mastery over the techniques of written communication, must keep his writing tools in enough practice. The action-oriented people may have the ability to get the things done, but they may find it difficult to put their thoughts in written words, because they occupy themselves in their selected activates rather than in practicing writing skills. Such a person may have the ability to think logically and clearly and he may express his thinking through oral communication. He may organize, analyze and evaluate the ideas of his own and those of others too, and he may really deserve to acquire the mastery of written media, but he would certainly require some of his devotion, time and practice to acquire writing skills. Everybody possesses the tools of the written media, but they have to learn to make effective use of their priceless possession. All the individuals in the field of business, industry, science, and education use the tools of written media. These tools of written media are as follows: • • • • • Memory Imaginative power Power of observation and study Units of language like words, phrases, sentences, etc Ability of thinking
• Ability of collecting and analyzing information • Ability of writing A good writer is an artist who knows how to write a specific message effectively by making use of the above tools. He must keep his tools in good working order. It usually takes years of struggle and hard work to learn and master the art of writing. Besides reading, a good writer should try to find a world of information with an inquiring mind and discerning eye. He can learn a great deal by putting up question on the subject he wishes to write. The main purpose of written communication is to move, motivate, and mould the minds and behavior of the people. So it is necessity for the communicator to study the minds of people he wish to target through his writing. It must be remembered that the art and skill of writing depends on the competence and knowledge of the communicator. Besides all this, the communicator should prevent his feelings from
dictating his thinking and should organize his thoughts, which are based on factual information. Effective listening skills Listening skills What are three types of effective listening? 1. Paraphrasing To paraphrase, one simply rewords what another individual has said. For example, the speaker might say, ``She was foolish to quit her job.'' The listener might respond, ``I hear you saying that you believe she shouldn't have quit.'' What has occurred is paraphrasing where the listener has clarified what the speaker has said. 2. Open questions An open question explores a person's statement without requiring a simple ``yes'' or ``no'' answer. The basic difference between an open question and a closed question is what they provide the person being asked. When you are asked an open question it helps you think more about an issue. A closed question will not do that. It may force you to answer before you are ready, or require a ``yes'' or ``no'' answer that doesn't allow more thinking about the issue. Closed questions close the door on further thought, while open questions open the door. For example, the speaker might say, ``I don't like my job.'' The listener might respond, ``What about your job don't you like?'' or, ``Tell me more about your feelings regarding your job.'' 3. Feeling Reflection. Feeling reflection is a response in which you express a feeling or emotion you have experienced in reference to a particular statement. For example, the speaker might say, ``I get sick of working so much overtime!'' The listener might respond, ``I hear you feeling angry and resentful at being asked to work so much overtime.'' Feeling reflections are perhaps the most difficult active listening responses to make. Not only do you actively listen to what is being said but also you actively listen for what is being felt. When you make a feeling reflection, you are reflecting back what you hear of another's feelings. It is similar to paraphrasing; however, you repeat what you heard them feeling instead of what you heard them saying. To understand what individuals are feeling, you must listen to their words, to their tone of voice, and watch their body signals. By observing all three you can begin to guess their feelings.
How can listening skills be improved? Listen carefully so that you will be able to understand, comprehend, and evaluate. Careful listening will require a conscious effort on your part. You must be aware of the verbal and nonverbal messages (reading between the lines).
• • • • • • • •
Be mentally and physically prepared to listen. Put other thoughts out of your mind. Your attention will be diverted from listening if you try to think of answers in advance. You can't hear if YOU do all the talking. Don't talk too much. Think about the topic in advance, if possible. Be prepared to listen. Listen with empathy. See the situation from the other's point of view. Try to put yourself in their shoes. Be courteous; don't interrupt. Take notes if you worry about forgetting a particular point. Avoid stereotyping individuals by making assumptions about how you expect them to act. This will bias your listening. Listen to how something is said. Be alert for what is left unsaid. Make certain everyone involved gets an opportunity to voice their opinions. Don't let one person dominate the conversation. Face those you are talking with, lean slightly forward, and make eye contact. Use body to show your interest, concern.
The receiver should carefully listen to the message to feel the pulse of the sender, to understand the mood and reactions and to create a congenial atmosphere for listening, which allows freedom of expression the speaker. Lack of good listening can create the embarrassing situations, which result in the lack of co-ordination and mutual understanding. A manager, who listens to the employees, gives them an opportunity to vent out their emotions. Effective listening also helps the managers to get the constructive suggestions fro the employees. There is greater harmony and cohesion if the sender and the receiver listen to each other messages effectively. It can raise their morale and create togetherness. Some Do’s for the Listeners 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Keep quiet while listening. Focus on what the speaker says rather than on his/her looks. Control and screen out the distractions. Show interest in the speaker. Be friendly and patient towards the speaker Listen first and take notes afterwards.
7. Look for the main theme and main ideas. 8. Let the speaker finish whatever he has to say without interrupting him. 9. Find an area of interest in the speech; look interested in the speech and act interested in listening. 10.Try to repeat the key-ideas during the slow and long speeches. 11.Avoid pondering on a single point. 12.Keep your mind open to every subject and speaker. 13.Choose a quiet place to listen, if possible. 14.Arrive early at the place of a seminar, lecture, and meeting. 15.Empathize with the speaker and try to understand his opinions, views and values. 16.Try to probe the emotions and feelings of the speaker. 17.Seek out difficult speech presentations to challenge your listening skills. 18.Observe the non-verbal signals, the body movements, facial expressions and gestures. 19.Try to look into the eyes of the speaker. 20.Try to relate the speaker’s message with your personal experience 21.Try to evaluate the speaker’s message objectively. 22.Try to enrich your vocabulary so that you may understand the exact shade of meaning conveyed by the words of the speaker 23.Accept criticism without losing your temper. 24.Communicate feedback to the speaker. Ask questions which may encourage the speaker. 25.Remember that God has given you two ears and one tongue! Reading skills Strategies to activate your prior knowledge: Brainstorming: Examine the title of the selection you are about to read List all the information that comes to mind about this title Use these pieces of information to recall and understand the material Use this knowledge to reframe or reorder what you know, or to note what you disagree with, for further research Group discussions: Group discussions in and out of class will help you to discover what you bring to your reading, what your fellow students bring, as well as shared experiences. If you find they have new background information, ask for more information from them.
Overviews: Discussing information about the selection or assignment prior to reading must take place. This may take the form of class discussions, printed previews, photographs, outlines, or films. Spend enough time before the students begin the assignment to insure understanding of it. Vocabulary Previews: Unfamiliar key words need to be taught to students before reading so that new words, background information, and comprehension can improve together. List all words in the assignment that may be important for students to understand. Arrange words to show the relationships to the learning task. Add words students probably already understand to connect relationships between what is known and the unknown. Share information with students. Verbally quiz them on the information before assigned reading begins. Structural Organizers: Before reading an assignment, basic frameworks, which are included in the text, should be pointed out such as cause-effect or problem-solution. It can be beneficial to call attention to specific plans of paragraph or text organization such as signal words, main idea sentences, highlighted phrases, headings, and subtitles. A review of skimming techniques might also be appropriate as these various areas are covered. A Purpose for Reading: When students have a purpose for reading a selection, they find that purpose not only directs their reading towards a goal, but also helps to focus their attention. Purposes may come from teacher directed questions, questions from class discussions or brainstorming, or from the individual student. Along with the question, it is a good idea to pose predictions of the outcome and problems, which need to be solved. The student or the teacher may generate these, but the teacher should use these to guide students in the needed direction for the assigned selection. Author Consideration: Depending upon the content area, a discussion of the author of the particular work can be helpful to the understanding of it. What is the author trying to say? What are his point of view and his reason for writing the particular work?
Layered Reading In addition to using your subconscious mental radar, you can read books more selectively by using a layered reading approach. Here are four phases that commonly show up in layered reading strategies: Overview: Look over the entire book at the rate of 1 second per page to determine its organization, structure, and tone. Try to finish the overview in 5 minutes. • Preview: Should you decide to read further, preview the first chapter at the rate of 4 seconds per page. Pay particular attention to beginnings and endings such as the introduction and conclusion, and the first sentences of paragraphs and sections. Mark key sections with Post-it tabs or a yellow marker. • Read: If any part of the chapter warrants closer attention, go back and read it at whatever speed seems appropriate. • Review: As discussed in the following section on memory, doing short reviews periodically after reading new ideas can significantly increase the amount of detailed information that makes it into long-term memory. There are several advantages to having seen every page of a document. It partially eliminates the intimidation of the unknown. It is also much easier to comprehend material at rapid speeds when your eyes have already seen the material twice, even if only briefly. And lastly, your right brain is a lot happier about the whole situation because it has at least some idea of the context or overall picture in which the material is being presented. Saying that someone has one reading speed is like having a car that only goes one speed. Different material calls for different speeds. Layered reading is about being flexible in the strategy you use to extract useful ideas from written material. Here are some additional suggestions for reading more selectively: Focus on key words and ignore filler words. As discussed in the previous chapter, most of the meaning in sentences is transferred by a few key words. Many times it is unnecessary to read all the "is's" and "the's.” • Skip what you already know. As you transfer more and more knowledge from an area into long-term memory, the sections you can skip will become larger and thus accelerate your journey along the compound learning curve. • Skip material that doesn't apply to you. • Skip material that seems particularly confusing and come back to it if necessary after reading other sections. Books are linear while their subject matter is often
multi-dimensional. "Nothing we use or hear or touch can be expressed in words that equal what we are given by the senses." It may be far easier to understand the material in light of information that follows. Giving your subconscious time to incubate the material might help as well. Purpose Reading is purposeful. The way you read something will depend on your purpose. You read different texts in different ways. In everyday life, you usually know why you are reading, you have a question, and you read to find the answer. You usually know your way around your favorite newspaper, so if you want to know the sports results, you go straight to the correct page, or if you want to know what is on television tonight, you go straight to the television page. You do not start on the first page. When you read a novel, it is different. You start at the beginning and slowly move towards the end. In academic reading, you need to be flexible when you read - you may need to read quickly to find relevant sections, then read carefully when you have found what you want. General efficient reading strategies such as scanning to find the book or chapter, skimming to get the gist and careful reading of important passages are necessary as well as learning about how texts are structured in your subject.
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Get the full title to continue reading from where you left off, or restart the preview.Humans have observed killer whales for centuries. A killer whale image was found carved into a rock in northern Norway and is estimated to be some 9,000 years old, making it the earliest known depiction of a cetacean.
Some human cultures have long been fascinated by killer whales, but until recently their lives were shrouded in misinformation — in the past, this has led to the persecution of these whales.
A few cultures respected killer whales, yet much of the ancient world did not. During the first century A.D., a Roman scholar named Pliny the Elder wrote that killer whales "cannot be properly depicted or described except as an enormous mass of flesh armed with savage teeth".
In 1835, R. Hamilton wrote that the killer whale "...has the character of being exceedingly voracious and warlike. It devours an immense number of fishes of all sizes...when pressed by hunger, it is said to throw itself on every thing it meets with...".
Many civilization envisioned killer whales as terrifying threats to humans, with a 1973 U.S. Navy diving manual warning that killed whales "…will attack human beings at every opportunity".
Killer whales have never been consistently exploited on a large-scale basis. They have been hunted on a small scale for their meat, hides, blubber, and internal organs (which are processed into fertilizer and used as bait).
Before 1981, nearly 6,000 killer whales were taken by Japanese, Norwegian, and Soviet whalers.
As Arctic ice dissipates in areas due to climate change, native Inuits around eastern Greenland have started to hunt killer whales in greater numbers. In some seasons, up to 35 to 40 have been reportedly killed for their meat and whale skin (called mukluk), which is sold at local markets.
Tribes native to the Pacific Northwest incorporate killer whales into art and myth.
The International Whaling Commision (IWC).
In general, killer whales have never been a primary commercial whaling target.
In 1946, 14 countries signed the International Whaling Convention for the regulation of whaling, forming the International Whaling Commission (IWC). The goal of the IWC is to manage whale stocks as a resource.
The IWC monitors whale populations through scientific advisory groups and coordinates and funds a variety of whale research.
In 1986, the IWC declared a moratorium on commercial whaling. The moratorium — which is still in effect — allows for the possibility of regulatory commercial whaling in the future.
Traditionally the IWC's focus has been on whales that have been harvested in large numbers, such as the baleen whales and the sperm whale. While the IWC does not manage populations of small whales such as dolphins, the IWC Scientific Committee studies various populations of small whales and provides advice on them.
Confrontations with Fishermen
In some areas, killer whales feed in connection with fishing operations, "stealing" fish from the fishermen. They eat fish from commercial longlines in New Zealand, Alaska, and Brazil. In Brazil, observers reported that more than 50% of the daily swordfish catch may be eaten by killer whales, and that occasionally the whales eat the entire catch.
Some fishermen blame the destruction of millions of dollars of equipment and fish loss on killer whales, and on rare occasions some have taken to shooting killer whales. Recently, researchers have attempted to develop non-lethal killer whale deterrents, including acoustic harassment devices, electric currents, sparker devices (emits a flash of light to startle whales), rubber bullets, bubble screens, chemicals such as lithium chloride ether (to induce nausea) and reducing the sounds caused by the fishing operations. None of these deterrents have been very effective.
Fishermen shooting killer whales is believed to be one of the contributing factors to the unusually high mortality experienced by one pod off Prince William Sound — whales known for their habit of taking black cod off long-lines.
Both natural toxins and human-made toxins can harm killer whales.
Chemicals that are used on land enter waterways through runoff and eventually end up in the oceans as pollution.
Industrial pollutants are introduced to the marine environment through mining operations, agriculture, pulp mills, and other coastal industrial development.
Household and garden pesticides can enter waterways through sewers and storm drains.
Some pollutants enter the ocean food chain and become concentrated in the bodies of killer whales and other marine predators.
Some of these pollutants (which may not be harmful in small quantities) are stored in an animal's body tissues after they are ingested. Prey animals that contain such toxins in their bodies pass the toxins on to animals higher in the food chain. Pollutants can become concentrated and reach dangerous levels in the bodies of large predators such as killer whales.
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are a group of environmental pollutants that include PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), DDTs (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) and PBDEs (Polybrominated diphenyl ethers) from flame retardants. When ingested, POPs are not metabolized or eliminated. These fat-soluble molecules accumulate in fats, such as blubber and only enter the bodies of killer whales through their diet. Use and production of PCBs and DDTs in the United Stated were banned in the 1970s, but these POPs continue to be widely used around the world and all POPs persist in the environment. POPs can reduce reproductive capability and may be one factor in the decline of the Southern Resident killer whale population.
Scientists analyzed blubber biopsy samples from killer whales of the eastern North Pacific Ocean. Experts haven't yet defined a "toxic threshold" of PCBs for killer whales, but they do know at what concentrations these pollutants adversely affect harbor seals. PCB concentrations in most of the killer whale blubber samples surpassed these dangerous levels.
PCB concentration increases with age in male killer whales and in sexually immature females. On the other hand, reproductively active female killer whales showed lower PCB levels than did adult males or sexually immature females. A mother killer whale transfers PCBs to her calf as the calf develops and also through fat-rich milk as the calf nurses.
Transient whales were more contaminated than resident whales, probably due to differences in diet. Marine mammals (the preferred prey of transient killer whales) have higher PCB levels than do fish (which make up the diet of resident whales).
Up to 1,000 new chemicals enter the environment every year, so many other understudied or unknown chemicals could be affecting marine life including polychlorinated paraffins (PCPs), polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs), polychlorinated terphenyls (PCTs), personal care products like shampoo and pharmaceuticals such as synthetic estrogens and steroids.
Oil spills can have long-term effects on killer whale populations. Populations of a resident and a transient pod inhabiting Alaskan waters near the site of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill experienced major declines in the year following the spill and have failed to recover to pre-spill. Oil spills especially threaten transient killer whale populations since they may hunt prey animals sickened by exposure to the spill. Killer whales may not be able to detect oil due to poor olfaction.
Limited Food Availability
A key reason that the endangered Southern Resident killer whale population has not recovered is likely due to declines in populations of their main prey, Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), from overfishing by humans and habitat destruction. Northern Residents have also recently experienced a higher mortality rate that is probably linked to a reduction in Chinook salmon availability.
Whale watching expeditions bring people close to wild whales and help people learn about them. In British Columbia and the state of Washington, killer whales are the most popular cetacean of commercial whale watching companies.
Higher concentrations and closer proximity of boats can force whales away from their traditional habitats and reduce a killer whale's echolocation abilities when hunting for prey.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries has developed "Marine Wildlife Viewing Guidelines" to protect marine animals. Among other recommendations, the guidelines instruct whale watchers to keep their distance. Impeding the whales' right of way is not allowed. Chasing, harassing, touching, and feeding animals also are prohibited.
Tours to watch whales in the wild are increasing in popularity around the world.
IUCN / The World Conservation Union
IUCN/The World Conservation Union is a worldwide conservation organization. It links together government agencies, non-government agencies, and independent states to encourage a worldwide approach to conservation.
The IUCN's Red List is a system for assessing an animal's relative risk of extinction. Its goal is to categorize and raise global awareness of species that face a high risk of extinction. The killer whale is categorized as "data deficient." There is inadequate information to make a direct, or indirect, assessment of the species risk of extinction based on its distribution and/or population status.
The U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) of 1972 made it illegal to hunt or harass marine mammals in the U.S.
The primary objective of the MMPA is to maintain the health and stability of the marine ecosystem and to obtain and maintain an optimum sustainable population of marine mammals.
According to the MMPA, all whales in U.S. waters (baleen and toothed) are under the jurisdiction of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The MMPA does allow for certain exceptions: native subsistence hunting; taking marine mammals for research, education, and public display; and taking restricted numbers of marine mammals incidentally in the course of fishing operations.
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) conserves endangered species and their ecosystems. A species is considered endangered if it is in danger of extinction.
As defined in the ESA, a protected "species" may be a species, a subspecies, or a distinct population segment (DPS).
In 2005, the Southern Resident killer whales of the eastern Pacific Ocean were listed as an endangered DPS under the ESA. The population was estimated at 200 whales in the late 1800s and currently stands at about 85 whales. This DPS faces risks including vessel traffic, toxic chemicals and competition for food, especially salmon. The small DPS is also susceptible to potential catastrophic risks, such as disease or oil spills.
NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) share responsibility for implementing the ESA.
The Convention in International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) is an international treaty developed in 1973 to regulate trade in certain wildlife species. Killer whales are listed under CITES Appendix II: species that are not necessarily now threatened with extinction, but that may become so unless trade is closely controlled.
In Canada, the Species at Risk Act (SARA) became law in 2003. A main purpose of SARA is "to proved for the recovery of wildlife species that are extirpated, endangered or threatened as a result of human activity".
Under SARA, the "West Coast transient" population of killer whales was listed as "Threatened" and issued a recovery strategy to deal with dangers that includes bioaccumulation of toxins in prey items and physical and acoustic disturbances.
The non-profit SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund works on behalf of wildlife and habitats worldwide. The goal of the Fund is to encourage sustainable solutions by supporting critical conservation initiatives worldwide.
The SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund supported a study on killer whale energetics to help determine how whales have solved the complex bioenergetic relationships of energy intake and expenditure and what impact they are eventually having on their system. The study measured the metabolic rates of killer whales at SeaWorld. This data was then used to estimate energy needs of the whales in the wild.
By assessing the metabolic rate of captive killer whales and relating it to heart rate, the study can be used to evaluate metabolic expenditures of free-ranging whales and ultimately apply this information to the conservation and protection of wild whales, such as the endangered population of Southern Resident killer whales.
Scientists all over the world continue to study the abundance, biology, reproduction, migration, and behavior of killer whales.
Marine Zoological Parks
SeaWorld trainers and veterinarians perform regular health exams on the killer whales to monitor and maintain their health.
In the protected environment of a marine zoological park, scientists can examine aspects of killer whale biology that are different or impossible to study in the wild.
The unique opportunity to observe and learn directly from live animals increases the body of scientific knowledge and enhances public awareness and appreciation for wildlife.
Up until the 1970s, killer whales were mainly regarded as a nuisance animal. Attitudes began to change dramatically, mainly due to displays at marine life parks that allowed people to learn about and appreciate killer whales like never before. Killer whales provide the opportunity for zoological parks and aquariums to play a unique and unrivaled role in marine mammal education and conservation.
Marine mammals spend much of their time underwater, making it difficult to observe and quantify certain aspects of their lives. Studying killer whales nursing behaviors in the wild, for example, would require either close, limited observations from a vessel or underwater viewing by humans, either of which would likely cause alterations to the behaviors under investigation.
The study of captive cetacean populations in controlled research settings has provided fundamental information on many species-specific aspects of their biology. Observing cetaceans in marine life parks allow for long-term, fine-scale studies that would be difficult to achieve in the ocean and such studies add to our overall knowledge of cetaceans and supplement fragmented information from observations in the wild.
A contribution to our understanding of the basic physiological processes in killer whales has been derived from captive populations including adaptations to diving, auditory detection, echolocation and learning, reproductive physiology, growth and development, metabolic and energy requirements, health status, immune system function, and genetics.
The utility of these captive studies for health assessment and conservation strategies for free-ranging cetacean populations requires that captive populations are healthy and thriving. In the killer whale and other delphinids, commonly used population health indicators are reproductive success and age-specific survivorship patterns. Recent analysis of captive bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) populations, a species closely related to killer whales, demonstrated that reproductive success and survivorship patterns are comparable to or exceed those experienced by their wild counterparts. As such, these captive populations can provide models for understanding geriatric changes and impacts of unique age or event-specific physiologic stressors to wild populations.Hopeless, hopeless nerds know all about the RFCs (Request For Comments) documents that the Internet Engineering Task Force has been publishing for decades. It’s in these technical documents that the internals of the Internet – all of its collected technologies – are first proposed and circulated, including a whole bunch of proposals that were conceived and written less as serious proposals than as humorous exercises in communications engineering.
One such RFC published in 1990 was RFC 1149, which proposed a means to carry internet traffic (IP traffic) over carrier pigeon. The protocol was called IPoAC – Internet Protocol over Avian Carrier, and it proposed a means to deliver data formatted for the internet over not data cable but by way of pigeon. The general idea was to take data stored on storage devices, attach them to homing sewer falcons and let them fly to their destinations. IPoAC warned about high levels of data loss inherent in its design.
Fast forward nineteen years. Today, we find that wags in South Africa, fed up with slow aDSL connections in their neighborhoods have in fact utilized IPoAC to successfully upload 4GB of data to a destination using homing pigeons – and that the scheme worked faster than the DSL connection in question. Surely much of this success is owed to the advent of lightweight and tiny smart card storage devices – suitable for pigeon feet where the floppies of 1990 would not be.
Worthy of applause, to be sure – but with the caveat that if telcos or ISPs get new network expansion ideas from the experiment, it’s our own fault for publicizing it.Fiber is a very important part of our diets and helps to prevent constipation and keep our guts healthy. Without fiber our food would not be able to move through the intestines and we would have many problems with our bowels and tummies. On the other hand if you have too much fiber and not enough water then things will start to get bunged up and you'll run into problems that way too. The key is to balance your diet for optimum health.
To promote the health benefits of fiber the nation decided that February should be National Fiber Month. For the entire month it is all about promoting fiber and how you can get the right balance in your diet without going overboard. If you're having a healthy diet full of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and plenty of water then you should be having enough fiber to keep your gut healthy. However, if you're a fan of the junk food you might find that you do get tummy problems from time to time and these are things that you can do to prevent those issues in the future.
Take a look through this article to find the best foods to eat for fiber and how much you should be eating per day. You'll also find some great item (that I've tried and tested) to help combat constipation - if you've ever had bad constipation then you'll know how much these softeners mean to you.
Photo Credit: Catch A Rainbow, Allposters.Seasonally-flooded wetlands occur throughout the world and provide important foraging, resting, and breeding habitat for a broad array of organisms. This review summarizes our current understanding of vertebrate community composition at seasonal forest pools in the northeastern United States. These wetlands typically have hydroperiods that range from temporarily flooded to intermittently exposed, which reduces densities of many potential predators (e.g., fish). Current research has shown that pool hydroperiod, canopy closure, vegetation structure within pools, presence of potential predators, and landscape structure surrounding pools are the key factors determining vertebrate diversity at seasonal forest pools. Of 25 species of amphibians in the region, frogs (10 of 12 species) are more likely to breed in seasonal forest pools than salamanders (6 of 13 species). Seven of 10 amphibian species that breed in seasonal forest pools are state-listed as threatened or endangered. Among 27 species of reptiles, 3 of 15 species of snakes, and 6 of 12 species of turtles utilize seasonal pools during at least one stage of their annual cycle. Seasonal forest pools are important foraging and basking habitat for three species of turtles listed as threatened or endangered. Compared to other vertebrate taxa, most species of mammals are habitat generalists, with 50 of 63 mammal species potentially foraging at seasonal pools during part of their annual cycle. Chiroptera (bats; all 9 species) are believed to actively forage at seasonal pools and some Insectivora, particularly Sorex palustris Richardson and S. fumeus (Miller) and Condylura cristata (L.), are detected regularly at seasonal pools. Breeding birds are less likely to utilize seasonal pools than other vertebrate taxa, although 92 of 233 species might forage or breed near seasonal pools. Several species of Anatidae, Rallidae, and some Passeriformes use seasonally flooded pools. All vertebrates that use seasonal forest pools use other habitats during some stage in their life cycle; thus gaining a clear understanding of their habitat requirements is critical to their long-term persistence.
Keywords: Amphibian - Birds - Community composition - Forest - Mammals - Occurrence - Reptiles - New England - Seasonal pools|Follett, Ronald - Ron|
Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/16/2005
Publication Date: 5/30/2005
Citation: Follett, R.F., Schuman, G.E. Grazing land contributions to carbon sequestration. pp. 265-277. In: D.A. McGilloway (ed). Grassland: A global resource. XX Int'l. Grassland Congress, 25 June-1 July, 2005, Dublin, Irelad. Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen, The Netherlands. Interpretive Summary: On a global basis, grazing lands sequester substantial amounts of SOC annually. With improved management the potential to sequester carbon on many of these lands can be greatly enhanced. Improved soil C sequestration on grazing lands is an important strategy to assist in mitigating the greenhouse effect. Policies and programs that encourage the conservation of current grazing lands and conversion of marginally productive croplands to perennial vegetation are critical to the implementation of strategies to sequester soil carbon. Additionally, efforts to increase SOC sequestration in grazing lands worldwide will have important co-benefits to the environment.
Technical Abstract: The objectives of this paper were to provide an overview of: (a) the influence of climatic factors and management practices on rates and processes of carbon (C) accumulation and on long-term sequestration; (b) the potential contribution that grazing lands can make to C sequestration and soil C storage; and (c) issues and a current perspective of grazing lands in carbon credit trading. The paper provides information about processes of soil C accumulation and the influence of climate and management as well as its long-term retention.June Mathis, original name June Beulah Hughes (born June 30, 1892?, Leadville, Colo., U.S.—died June 26, 1927, New York, N.Y.) American scriptwriter, who helped establish the primacy of the script in American silent films.
June Hughes adopted her stepfather’s surname, Mathis. After a brief career as a stage actress and scriptwriting work on several films in 1917, Mathis was hired in 1918 by Metro (later Metro-G
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small aircraft. Only one of the
four missiles London saw that day caused any casualties, but a
steady stream of V-1s causing severe damage and casualties fell on
London in coming months. At times, nearly 100 bombs fell each day.
Many German buzz bombs never reached their targets because of
primitive guidance systems or because they were destroyed in flight
by anti-aircraft fire or intercepting Allied fighters.
1949 Jun 13, Vietnam state was
established at Saigon with Bao Dai as chief of state. Installed by
the French, Bao Dai entered Saigon to rule Vietnam.
(TOH, 1982, p.1949)(SFC, 8/2/97, p.A21)(HN,
1951 Jun 13, U.N. troops seized
Pyongyang, North Korea.
1953 Jun 13, Gustavo Rojas
Pinilla (1900-1975), a former army general, began serving president
of Colombia and continued to 1957. Under his term the police were
put under the charge of the defense ministry.
1956 Jun 13, The 74-year
British occupation of the Suez Canal ended. The last British troops
left the Canal base.
(EWH, 1968, p.1241)(PC, 1992 ed, p.953)
1957 Jun 13, The Mayflower 2, a
replica of the ship that brought the Pilgrims to America in 1620,
arrived at Plymouth, Mass., after a nearly two-month journey from
England. Britain had built the vessel and sailed it to the US as a
gift of friendship. In 2017 it went into drydock for a $7.5 million
makeover in time for 2020 festivities marking the 400th anniversary
of the Pilgrim landing.
(AP, 6/13/07)(SFC, 11/24/17, p.A10)
1966 Jun 13, The Supreme Court
issued its landmark Miranda vs. Arizona decision, ruling that
criminal suspects must be informed of their constitutional rights
prior to questioning by police. The conviction of Ernesto Miranda
for rape and kidnapping was overturned because his confession was
not voluntarily given.
(AP, 6/13/97)(SFC, 9/12/02, p.A26)
1967 Jun 13, President Johnson
nominated Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first
black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
1968 Jun 13, Johnny Cash
performed a live concert at California’s Folsom Prison. Applause
from the inmates was dubbed into his "At Folsom Prison" album.
(WSJ, 11/26/97, p.CA4)(Econ, 9/18/04, p.88)
1968 Jun 13, US Supreme Court
Chief Justice Earl Warren (1891-1974) submitted his resignation to
1970 Jun 13, Beatles' "Let It
Be," album went #1 & stayed #1 for 4 weeks.
1971 Jun 13, The Broderick
nonuplets were born in Sydney, Australia. None of the five boys (two
stillborn) and four girls live for more than six days.
1971 Jun 13, The New York Times
began to publish the Pentagon Papers leaked to it by Daniel
Ellsberg. The papers were a secret official history of the Vietnam
War in 47 volumes that were highly classified. The Nixon
administration went to court to stop publication. A legal battle
ensued for 16 days and the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the
government failed to make its case for prior restraint and
publication was resumed. In 1996 the book, "The Day the Presses
Stopped" by David Rudenstine, was published and tells the whole
(SFC, 6/10/96, p.A21)(SFEC, 12/8/96, p.A14)
1973 Jun 13, Jonas Aistis
(b.1904), Lithuanian born poet, died in Washington, DC.
1976 Jun 13, Don Bolles,
Arizona Republic investigative reporter, died as a result of
injuries suffered when a bomb blew up his car 11 days earlier. He
had been working on an alleged Mafia story at the time of his death.
1977 Jun 13, James Earl Ray,
the convicted assassin of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King
Junior, was recaptured following his escape three days earlier from
a Tennessee prison.
1978 Jun 13, Israelis withdrew
the last of their invading forces from Lebanon.
1979 Jun 13, Sioux Indians were
awarded $105 million in compensation for the U.S. seizure in 1877 of
their Black Hills in South Dakota.
1979 Jun 13, Ahmed Zahir
(b.1946), Afghanistan pop star, was killed in a car crash. His death
is believed to have been arranged by Hafizullah Amin.
1981 Jun 13, Tom Snyder
interviewed Charles Manson on "Tomorrow."
1981 Jun 13, A scare occurred
during a parade in London when a teenager fired six blank shots at
Queen Elizabeth II.
1982 Jun 13, King Khalid of
Saudi Arabia died at the age of 69; he was succeeded by a half
brother, Crown Prince Fahd.
(WSJ, 1/9/96, p.A-10)(AP, 6/13/02)
1983 Jun 13, The US space probe
Pioneer 10, launched in 1972, became the first spacecraft to leave
the solar system as it crossed the orbit of Neptune.
(AP, 6/13/97)(HN, 6/13/98)
1986 Jun 13, Benny Goodman
(77), the clarinet-playing "King of Swing," died in NYC.
1987 Jun 13, The last regularly
scheduled episode of "A Prairie Home Companion," starring humorist
Garrison Keillor, was broadcast from the old World Theater in St.
1988 Jun 13, A US federal jury
found cigarette manufacturer Liggett Group liable in the lung-cancer
death of New Jersey resident Rose Cipollone, but innocent of
misrepresenting the risks of smoking. An appeals court later
overturned the jury's award of $400,000 and ordered a new trial; the
family dropped the lawsuit in 1992.
1989 Jun 13, The Detroit
Pistons won their first National Basketball Association title,
sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers in four games.
1990 Jun 13, Secretary of State
James A. Baker the Third, testifying before the House Foreign
Affairs Committee, urged Israel to accept a US plan for peace talks.
Baker gave out the telephone number for the White House switchboard,
telling the Israelis publicly, "When you’re serious about this, call
1990 Jun 13, East German border
guards and demolition experts from the Bundeswehr started the
official demolition of the Berlin Wall.
1991 Jun 13, Revising a policy
with roots to the McCarthy era, the Bush administration agreed to
remove almost all 250,000 names on a secret list of unacceptable
1991 Jun 13, The US Supreme
Court ruled a jailed suspect represented by a lawyer in one criminal
case sometimes may be questioned by police about another crime
without the lawyer present.
1991 Jun 13, Tragedy struck the
first round of the US Open golf tournament when lightning struck and
killed a spectator.
1992 Jun 13, Democrat Bill
Clinton stirred controversy during an appearance before the Rainbow
Coalition by criticizing rap singer Sister Souljah for making
remarks that he said were "filled with hatred" toward whites.
1993 Jun 13, Vijay Singh of
Fiji Island won the Buick Classic Tournament at the Westchester
Country Club in Harrison, New York.
1993 Jun 13, Astronaut Donald
K. "Deke" Slayton died in League City, Texas, at age 69.
1993 Jun 13, Canada's
Progressive Conservative Party chose Defense Minister Kim Campbell
to succeed Brian Mulroney as prime minister; she was the first woman
to hold the post.
1994 Jun 13, A jury in
Anchorage, Alaska blamed recklessness by Exxon Corp. and Capt.
Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of
the nation's worst oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages.
1994 Jun 13, O.J. Simpson was
questioned for several hours by Los Angeles police following the
slashing deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole, and Ronald Goldman.
1994 Jun 13, The Lithuanian
Ambassador to Italy, Stasys Lozoraitis Jr., died.
(Dr, 7/96, V1#1, p.4)
1995 Jun 13, President Clinton
proposed a ten-year plan for balancing the federal budget, saying in
a televised address his proposal would cut spending by $1.1
1995 Jun 13, France announced
it would abandon its 1992 moratorium on nuclear testing and conduct
eight more tests between September and May.
1996 Jun 13, Bill Clinton, in a
speech endorsing a national effort against teen pregnancy, said:
"The other thing we have to do is to take seriously the role in this
problem of...older men who prey on underage women...There are
consequences to decisions and...one way or the other, people always
wind up being held accountable."
1996 Jun 13, The US Supreme
Court ruled against racial gerrymandering. It was a reminder that
states cannot use race as the main factor in redistricting. The
ruling struck down four black and Hispanic districts in North
Carolina and Texas. The Supreme Court placed greater limits on
congressional districts intentionally drawn to get more minorities
elected to Congress.
(WSJ, 6/14/96, p.A3)(AP, 6/13/97)
1996 Jun 13, Arizona Governor
Fife Symington was indicted on charges of making false statement to
financial institutions and using his office to free himself from a
$10 mil loan guarantee.
(SFC, 6/14/96, p. A3)
1996 Jun 13, A federal grand
jury indicted Sun-Diamond Growers of California on charges of
illegal gifts to former agricultural Secretary Mike Espy and
improper campaign contributions to Espy’s brother Henry. The giant
agricultural cooperative and its officers have contributed more than
$200,000 to California Gov. Wilson’s state and federal campaigns
since 1989. Richard Douglas, former VP of Sun-Diamond Growers was
convicted in 1997 of offering gratuities to Michael Espy in 1993 but
was acquitted of making illegal contributions to Espy’s brother.
(SFC, 6/14/96, p. A8)(SFC, 6/16/96,
p.B2)(SFC,11/26/97, p.A7)(WSJ, 11/26/97, p.A1)
1996 Jun 13, In Idaho Angie
Dodge (19) was found stabbed and cut 14 times and left half naked in
her Idaho Falls apartment. In 2019 DNA evidence led to the arrest of
1996 Jun 13, The 81-day-old
Freemen standoff ended as 16 remaining members of the
anti-government group surrendered to the FBI and left their Montana
ranch. Five Freemen were found guilty in 1998 for various crimes
linked to armed robbery and possession of firearms. Four militants
were convicted in 1998 for plotting to defraud banks. Jurors
deadlocked on six defendants.
(SFC, 6/14/96, p.A1)(AP, 6/13/97)(SFC, 4/1/98,
p.A2)(WSJ, 7/9/98, p.A1)
1996 Jun 13, The First
Missionary Baptist Church in Enid, Oklahoma was burned in what
appeared to be another race-related attack.
(SFC, 6/14/96, p. A3)
1996 Jun 13, In Austria about
$150 billion is deposited in 26 million numbered accounts in the
country of 7.5 million people. Many of the accounts are attributed
to new Russian immigrants and gangs. The state prosecutor, Wolfgang
Mekis, was put behind bars for trying to extort $600,000 from
Valentina Hummelbrunner, the onetime receptionist of former Soviet
Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko.
(SFC, 6/13/96, p.C2)
1996 Jun 13, A Washington Times
report said that Chinese M-11 missiles have been deployed in
Pakistan in the last few months.
(WSJ, 6/13/96, p.A1,4)
1996 Jun 13, A new report in
Nature announced that guinea pigs are on a distant branch from
rodents and deserve a class of their own.
(SFC, 6/13/96, p.A13)
1996 Jun 13, A Burundi army
report claimed that 50 Hutu rebels were killed in an attack on a
(SFC, 6/14/96, p. A16)
1996 Jun 13, Guatemala ratified
a UN pact on tribal peoples. The pact calls for respect of its
indigenous people, the Mayans, and consultation with them on
decisions affecting their economic and social development.
(SFC, 6/14/96, p. A16)
1996 Jun 13, An Indonesian
DC-10 skidded of a runway at the Fukuoka airport in Japan and burst
into flames. 3 people were killed, but 270 others were able to flee
the burning jet.
(SFC, 6/13/96, p.C3)
1996 Jun 13, In Indonesia the
Supreme Court restored a ban on the magazine Tempo for publishing
stories critical of the government.
(SFC, 6/14/96, p. A17)
1996 Jun 13, A report from
Kuching, Malaysia, told of Borneo’s 2nd high tech plant being cut
out of the tropical rain forest.
(WSJ, 6/13/96, p.A6)
1997 Jun 13, The Chicago Bulls
captured their fifth professional basketball championship in seven
years with a 90-86 victory over the Utah Jazz in Game 6 of the NBA
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.B1)(AP, 6/13/98)
1997 Jun 13, A jury voted
unanimously to give Timothy McVeigh the death penalty for his role
in the Oklahoma City bombing.
1997 Jun 13, In Bangladesh a
ferry on the Dhanu River northeast of Dhaka capsized in a whirlpool
and at least 50 people were drowned.
(SFEC, 6/15/97, p.D3)
1997 Jun 13, The leaders of
France, Germany and Canada insisted that Romania and Slovenia be
allowed to join NATO next month.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A12)
1997 Jun 13, In India a fire in
a New Delhi theater killed 60 and injured over 200 people.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A12)
1997 Jun 13, Under pressure it
was announced that Turkey’s PM Erbakan, leader of the Welfare Party,
would turn his post over to Tansu Ciller, who would lead until
elections Jun 18. Turkey’s first Islamist-led government was ejected
after it began investigating links between the army and organized
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A12)(SFC, 11/26/98, p.B2)(Econ,
1998 Jun 13, President Clinton
visited Thurston High School in Springfield, Ore., where two
students were killed and 22 others wounded the previous month.
1998 Jun 13, Civil rights
leaders and politicians called for an end to racial violence as
hundreds of mourners gathered in Jasper, Texas, for the funeral of
James Byrd Jr., a black man who police said was brutally killed by
1998 Jun 13, It was reported
that in Madagascar a grasshopper swarm, 7 miles long, had spread
into the capital city of Antananarivo.
(SFC, 6/13/98, p.A7)
1998 Jun 13, It was reported
that the Old World Screwworm had broken out in Iraq, Kuwait and
Bahrain. 19 people were reported infected by the disease in which
carnivorous larvae hatch from eggs laid in broken skin.
(SFC, 6/13/98, p.A7)
1998 Jun 13, In London Reg
Smythe, creator of the Andy Capp comic strip, died at age 81.
(SFC, 6/16/98, p.A22)
1998 Jun 13, In Israel Nissim
Aloni, playwright, died at age 72. His work included "Most Cruel the
King" (1953); "The Emperor’s New Clothes" (1961), "The American
Princess" (1963); "The Revolution and the Chicken" (1964); "The
Bride and the Butterfly Hunter" (1967); "Napoleon, Dead or Alive"
(1970); and "The Gypsies of Jaffa" (1971).
(SFC, 6/16/98, p.A22)
1998 Jun 13, In Bihar state,
India, Brij Bihari Prasad, a former state minister in the Rashtriya
Janata Party, was killed along with his guard.
(SFC, 6/16/98, p.A12)
1999 Jun 13, In Belgium the
center-left coalition of Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene suffered a
major defeat in national elections to the Conservatives. The
coalition looked to keep 66 of the legislature's 150 seats.
(SFC, 6/14/99, p.a14)(WSJ, 6/14/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 13, In Britain the
Conservative Party under William Hague won 36 seats while the Labor
Party won 29 for the European Parliament.
(SFC, 6/16/99, p.B2)
1999 Jun 13, In Iraq it was
announced that a new decree by Saddam Hussein would imprison
citizens over 18 caught begging in public places.
(SFC, 6/15/99, p.C5)
1999 Jun 13, In Israel Prime
Minister Netanyahu told his ministers to bring in some 2,500 to
3,000 Jews from the Quara region of Ethiopia.
(SFC, 6/15/99, p.C5)
1999 Jun 13, NATO soldiers shot
dead two armed men as peacekeepers tried to contain new violence in
Kosovo; Russian troops, meanwhile, blocked British troops from
entering the airport in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo.
1999 Jun 13, North Korea agreed
to talk to UN military officers in an attempt to resolve the naval
confrontations with South Korea.
(SFC, 6/14/99, p.A13)
1999 Jun 13, Pakistan accused
India of using chemical weapons in its Kashmir offensive, as India
claimed to have captured a key mountain peak.
(WSJ, 6/14/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 13, In South Africa
Pres. Mandela welcomed visiting Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy as his
last official guest. Khadafy was on his first foreign tour since
sanctions were lifted in April.
(SFC, 6/14/99, p.A13)
2000 Jun 13, The MacArthur
Foundation awarded "genius grants" to 25 people.
(WSJ, 6/14/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 13, In Argentina Pres.
Fernando de la Rua apologized for his country’s role in providing
sanctuary to Nazis after WW II.
(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 13, In Chile the
military agreed to search for the remains of the 1,200 dissidents
who disappeared between 1973-1990 under Gen. Pinochet.
(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A16)
2000 Jun 13, In Italy the
government pardoned Mehmet Ali Agca (42), the man who wounded Pope
John Paul II in 1981. Agca was flown to Turkey to finish serving 8
years for the 1979 murder of a newspaper editor.
(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 13, Pres. Kim Jong Il
of North Korea met with Pres. Kim Dae Jung of South Korea in the 1st
meeting ever between leaders of the 2 countries. They agreed to try
to satisfy their people’s desire for reconciliation. Border
loudspeakers that blasted insults at South Korea were shut off.
(SFC, 6/13/00, p.A10)(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A1)(SFC,
2000 Jun 13, In Nigeria a
national strike ended after the government agreed to a substantial
reduction in the 50% increase to fuel prices.
(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 13, In Russia Vladimir
Gusinsky, head of Media-Most, was arrested on charges of swindling
and grand larceny.
(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A12)(WSJ, 6/14/00, p.A1)
2001 Jun 13, Pres. Bush met
behind closed doors with NATO leaders in Brussels, Belgium, and
pitched his missile shield plan with mixed response.
(SFC, 6/14/01, p.A1)(AP, 6/13/02)
2001 Jun 13, The US House voted
(422-2) to forbid foreign oil companies doing business in Sudan from
selling securities in the US.
(SFC, 6/14/01, p.C3)
2001 Jun 13, Kraft Foods went
public in the NY Stock Exchange.
(WSJ, 4/16/03, p.C1)
2001 Jun 13, SF police shot and
killed Idriss Stelley (23) at the Sony Metreon complex. Stelley was
suffering a mental breakdown and had cut an officer with a knife.
Officers fired over 20 shots and wounded one of their men.
(SFC, 6/20/01, p.A16)(SFC, 12/5/06, p.A1)
2001 Jun 13, Israel eased
travel restrictions into the West Bank and Gaza as the armistice
went into effect. Under the agreement Israel had 48 hours to pull
tanks and troops back and Palestinians were due to start arresting
militants planning attacks.
(SFC, 6/14/01, p.A14)
2001 Jun 13, In the USA Virgin
Islands police Corporal Wendell Williams (49) disappeared after
ending his midnight shift. On Feb 10, 2012, a team of 70 police
officers arrested five suspects in the case, including one in
Georgia with the help of federal agents.
2001 Jun 13, In Zimbabwe the
government increase gas prices by over 70% and labor unions
threatened to shut down the economy.
(SFC, 6/14/01, p.C3)
2002 Jun 13, The Detroit Red
Wings won the Stanley Cup 4 games to 1 over the Carolina Hurricanes.
(WSJ, 6/14/02, p.A1)
2002 Jun 13, Pres. Bush met
with Saudi Prince Saud al-Faisal and indicated that he would support
the creation of a Palestinian state.
(SFC, 6/14/02, p.15)
2002 Jun 13, A federal judge
blocked SC Gov. Jim Hodges' suit to block a plutonium shipment from
Rocky Flats in Colorado to the Savannah River Site nuclear facility
(SFC, 6/14/02, p.A3,E6)
2002 Jun 13, US Catholic
Bishops in Texas opened a 2-day summit on clerical sex abuse. 3 men
and a woman told how their lives had been devastated by abuse and
subsequent ill treatment by the church.
(WSJ, 6/14/02, p.A1)(AP, 6/13/04)
2002 Jun 13, Afghanistan's
interim leader Hamid Karzai won endorsement from about two-thirds of
delegates at the Loya Jirga grand assembly, making him the most
likely candidate to win the presidency.
(Reuters, 6/13/02)(SFC, 6/14/02, p.A10)
2002 Jun 13, Brazil said it
will draw down $10 billion in approved IMF credit, tighten fiscal
policy and buy back $3 billion in foreign debt. The currency soared
and settled at 2.71 to the dollar.
(WSJ, 6/14/02, p.A1)
2002 Jun 13, In Whistler,
British Columbia, G-8 foreign ministers of the world's leading
nations backed a Middle East peace conference, vowed to keep up
pressure on India and Pakistan to step back from the brink over
Kashmir, and maintained a united front against terrorism as they
wrapped up a two-day.
2002 Jun 13, G-7 ministers
agreed to give grants between 18-21% of all disbursements within the
World Bank's financing arm for poor countries.
(WSJ, 6/14/02, p.C10)
2002 Jun 13, In China at least
223 were reported dead and 320,000 homeless from Xinjiang to Hubei
provinces following weekend rains and flooding.
(SFC, 6/14/02, p.A16)
2002 Jun 13, In Indonesia
suspected rebels shot and killed a politician in troubled Aceh
province, the second parliamentarian murdered this week.
2002 Jun 13, Exit polls showed
South Korea's conservative opposition party swept most key local
government elections, winning a crucial test of the public mood
ahead of December's presidential election. The Grand National Party
(GNP) won a majority of races in 11 of 16 districts in a crushing
defeat for Pres. Kim Dae Jung.
(Reuters, 6/13/02)(SFC, 6/14/02, p.A14)
2002 Jun 13, A US military
vehicle in South Korea ran over 2 girls (14), Shim Mi-son and Shin
Hyo-sun. A military jury later cleared Sgt. Fernando Nino of
negligent homicide charges. Driver Sgt. Mark Walker was acquitted
(SFC, 8/1/02, p.A15)(SFC, 11/21/02, p.A17)(SFC,
2002 Jun 13, The U.N. World
Food Summit in Rome ended much as it began, with criticism about the
proliferation of biotech crops and complaints that too little has
been done to end world hunger.
2003 Jun 13, Philip Giordano,
former 3-term mayor of Waterbury, Conn., was sentenced to 37 years
in federal prison for having oral sex with 2 young girls while in
(SFC, 6/14/03, p.A3)
2003 Jun 13, Richard Armitage,
Deputy Sec. of State, told Bob Woodward about CIA operative Valerie
Plame. Woodward testified to this in 2007 during the Scooter Libby
(SFC, 2/13/07, p.A3)
2003 Jun 13, Wisconsin state
officials reported that probable 18 cases of monkeypox all came from
one prairie dog.
(SFC, 6/14/03, p.A6)
2003 Jun 13, Scientists
reported that the new hydrogen fuel cell technology could lead to
greater destruction of the ozone layer that protects Earth from
cancer-causing ultraviolet rays.
2003 Jun 13, Belgium's foreign
minister said the country has already amended its war crimes laws to
avoid politically inspired lawsuits against US officials.
2003 Jun 13-14, Czechs voted in
a two-day referendum on whether their country of 10 million should
join the European Union. They voted overwhelmingly to join the
European Union. 77.33% of voters approved the measure, while 22.67
voted no. Turnout was 55.21 percent.
(AP, 6/13/03)(AP, 6/14/03)(AP, 6/15/03)
2003 Jun 13, European Union
delegates agreed on a draft constitution that details how the
coalition of nations will be run as it adds new members and evolves
into what many hope will be a world power to rival the United
2003 Jun 13, In Iran
anti-government demonstrations took place for the third night in
2003 Jun 13, US forces killed
27 Iraqi fighters in a ground and air pursuit after the Iraqis
attacked an American tank patrol north of Baghdad, bringing the
opposition death toll in four days of skirmishes to about 100. Five
Iraqi civilians were shot by American troops who apparently mistook
them for militants fleeing after attacking a US tank patrol.
Hundreds of pro-cleric militants and security forces in Tehran
clashed with Iranians throughout the capital.
(AP, 6/13/03)(AP, 6/14/03)(AP, 6/13/08)
2003 Jun 13, Israel decided to
target top Hamas leaders, including founder Sheik Ahmed, saying it
would strike political as well as military leaders who targeted
Israel with terrorism. An Israeli helicopter attack killed one Hamas
member and injured 22 Palestinians including 8 children.
(SFC, 6/14/03, p.A1)(AP, 6/13/08)
2003 Jun 13, In Thailand Narong
Penaman (44) was arrested with as much as 66 pounds of radioactive
cesium-137 for sale.
(SFC, 6/14/03, p.A3)
2004 Jun 13, Former President
George H.W. Bush celebrated his 80th birthday with a 13,000-foot
parachute jump over his presidential library in College Station,
2004 Jun 13, It was reported
that a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon a day helped to reduce glucose,
fat and cholesterol levels by a s much as 30%.
(SSFC, 6/13/04, Par p.8)
2004 Jun 13, Robert Lees,
former screenwriter, was decapitated at his Hollywood home. Keven
Lee Graff (27) was later charged with Lees’ murder and that of a
(SFC, 7/29/04, p.B3)
2004 Jun 13, Author and
academic Stuart Hampshire, a former chairman of the department of
philosophy at Princeton University who argued that philosophy must
be studied within the context of other disciplines, died in Oxford,
England. His books included "The Freedom of the Individual."
2004 Jun 13, EU balloting,
begun June 10, ended. Some 150 million Europeans cast ballots across
25 member nations of the expanded European Union. Turnout was 45.3
(AP, 6/14/04)(Econ, 6/19/04, p.49)
2004 Jun 13, A suicide attacker
detonated a car bomb near a U.S. military camp in Baghdad, killing
at least 12 people, and wounding 13. Gunmen killed a senior
Education Ministry official in the second assassination of a
government figure in as many days.
2004 Jun 13, Pakistani troops
ended a major operation to flush out al-Qaida suspects and their
local supporters from hide-outs in a remote region near Afghanistan.
72 people died, including 17 security personnel.
2004 Jun 13, Philippine air
force troops clashed with communist guerrillas camped out on a farm
near Manila and 3 rebels were killed.
2004 Jun 13, The race for
Serbia's top job produced no outright winner, but left the two top
contenders, nationalist Tomislav Nikolic and reformist Boris Tadic,
to face each other in a second round of voting in two weeks.
(AP, 6/14/04)(Econ, 6/19/04, p.53)
2004 Jun 13, Saudi Arabia held
a 3-day “national dialogue" in Medina on how women’s lives could be
improved. On Jun 15, recommendations (19) were given to Crown Prince
(Econ, 6/19/04, p.26)
2004 Jun 13, In South Korea
more than 9,000 activists shouting "No to globalization!" marched
through downtown Seoul to protest a meeting of the World Economic
2004 Jun 13, The UN Conference
on Trade and Development opened in San Paulo, Brazil. This marked
its 11th forum over a 40 year history. The so-called Group of 77
developing nations actually has 132 member nations.
2005 Jun 13, The US Senate
apologized for blocking anti-lynching legislation in the early 20th
century, when mob violence against blacks was commonplace.
2005 Jun 13, The Supreme Court
warned prosecutors to use care in striking minorities from juries,
siding with black murder suspects in Texas and California who
contended their juries had been unfairly stacked with whites.
2005 Jun 13, California Gov.
Schwarzenegger called for a special election on his initiatives to
change state government.
(SFC, 6/14/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 13, A jury in Santa
Maria, Calif., acquitted Michael Jackson of molesting a 13-year-old
cancer survivor at his Neverland ranch. The pop music star was found
not guilty of child molestation, conspiracy and other counts.
(AP, 6/14/05)(AP, 6/13/06)
2005 Jun 13, Leonard Pickell,
former president of the James Beard Foundation, was sentenced 1 to 3
years in prison in NY state for stealing over a $1.1 million from
(SFC, 6/14/05, p.A2)
2005 Jun 13, Philip Purcell
announced that he would resign as CEO and Chairman of the Board at
Morgan Stanley. He was forced out with a golden parachute valued at
$113.7 million. Purcell had orchestrated the 1997 merger between
Dean Witter and Morgan Stanley. In 2007 Patricia Beard authored
“Blue Blood & Mutiny: The Fight for the soul of Morgan Stanley."
2005 Jun 13, Scientists
reported the discovery of an Earthlike planet orbiting the star
Gliese 876, which is about 15 light-years from Earth. The planet was
2 million miles from its star and surface temperatures were
estimated at 400-700 degrees.
(SFC, 6/14/05, p.A3)
2005 Jun 13, Australia and
Pakistan signed a new counter-terrorism pact during a visit by
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
2005 Jun 13, Australia handed
East Timor the base at Moleana, a tiny town near the border with
Indonesia, signaling the end of a six-year mission that heralded a
controversial new era of regional intervention in East Timor.
2005 Jun 13, Burundi began
forced repatriation of thousands of Rwandan refugees, who feared
reprisals at home. The UN condemned the action.
(WSJ, 6/14/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 13, Ethiopia's main
opposition leader was freed from house arrest after the country's
main political parties agreed to work together for peace after 10
days of political unrest left at least 37 people dead.
2005 Jun 13, In Ethiopia police
shot and killed an opposition politician, prompting the arrest of
six officers, as the government rejected an opposition offer to
renew a peace deal.
2005 Jun 13, The Paris Air Show
opened. The Russian Lavochkin Association demonstrated a new escape
pod for people trapped in tall, burning buildings.
(Econ, 6/11/05, p.60)(Econ, 6/25/05, p.81)
2005 Jun 13, In India officials
said at least 275 people have died from sunstroke and dehydration in
northern India and neighboring Nepal and Bangladesh so far this
summer, as high temperatures sweep the region ahead of the monsoon.
2005 Jun 13, Iraqi insurgent
commanders "apparently came face to face" with four American
officials during meetings on June 3 and June 13 at a summer villa
near Balad, about 25 miles north of Baghdad.
2005 Jun 13, In Iraq 4 suicide
car bombings and other insurgent attacks killed 10 people, and at
least 16 Iraqis were wounded after militants opened fire on
authorities trying to evacuate the injured from one of the blasts.
2005 Jun 13, Israel was elected
one of 21 vice-presidents of the next UN General Assembly session.
2005 Jun 13, In Italy a
Vatican-backed voter boycott helped defeat efforts to ease
restrictions on assisted procreation and embryo research.
2005 Jun 13, In Kashmir a bomb
hidden in a pickup truck exploded in the bustling town of Pulwama,
killing 15 people, including the suspected attacker, and injuring at
least 60 others.
2005 Jun 13, In Kyrgyzstan
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from concept date
Foetus (or foetus): Newly defined unborn human anyone
Abortion: Interrupted physiological condition that grades in foetal loss
Miscarriage/Spontaneous abortion: When a fetus is unproductively expelled out of the womb
Last Menstrual Period (LMP): The most basic day of the woman's later emission period formerly perception of pregnancy
Estimated Date of Delivery (EDD): 40 weeks (280 days) from LMP
Detection and MonitoringPost ads:
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While disturbance of unit of time menstruum is the with the sole purpose manifest indication of pregnancy, pregnancy is unchangeable by medical institution bodily fluid and piss tests presently after organic process.
EDD does not bestow an precise due twenty-four hours of offset (more than 90% of births materialize on dates opposite than the EDD). Other methods specified as ultrasound or ultrasound can back in bigger calculation of the due day of the month.
As the vertebrate is record allergic to miscarriage during the first trimester, a expectant female is considered outright attention. By the 2d period of pregnancy, the maternity is more apparent and craniate bosom pulsate and crusade can be consistently monitored. The 3rd academic term of maternity is the closing period of ontogenesis and enlargement consequential in the foetus' outset. It besides indicates the foetus' capability for inessential its word gleefully or not, beforehand commencement. Babies whelped inwardly 37 weeks of the LMP are well thought out premature and require specific caution and observance to guarantee their life. It has likewise been determined that later pregnancies final for a shorter duration than the opening one.Post ads:
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Pregnancy is a marvelous method of photocopy that requires meticulousness and observation to guarantee victorious starting time. Understanding the diverse jargon and developments enable the parents to be resourcefully braced for the baby's accomplishment.Amateur golfers are often asked to teach the golf swing to friends, spouses or youngsters in the family. The basic fundamentals of golf are not difficult to explain to a beginner, but not everyone makes a good teacher. Some highly skilled golfers are "naturals" at the game but may not be able to articulate how they swing so effectively. Just as with any other kind of instruction, teaching golf requires advance preparation on the part of the teacher.
Consider the person you're teaching. You wouldn't approach teaching a 6-year-old the same way you would a 26-year-old. The younger the pupil, the more simplified the lessons must be with less golfing jargon such as "swing arc" or "trajectory."
Rehearse your lessons in advance. Make sure you understand the fundamental elements of the golf swing yourself so you can communicate them to your pupil. Consider writing down an informal lesson plan that starts with the very basics, such as grip and stance, and works up to more advanced concepts such as weight shift and the transition from the top of the swing.
Let the person you're teaching take a number of practice swings until the club feels more comfortable in his hands. When you first put a practice ball down for him to hit, recommend that he takes only a one-quarter swing to start, so he gets the positive reinforcement of hitting the ball. When he begins to make consistent contact with the ball, move up to half then three-quarter swings.
Pick out study guides -- books and videos -- to reinforce the training you're giving your pupil. Although videos allow her to see the actual swing in full speed and slow motion, books such as "Good Golf Made Easy" with clearly written instructions and color pictures of the club and body positions during the swing are valuable as well.
Demonstrate each technique you're teaching. Some aspects of the golf swing are difficult to put into words, but if your pupil sees you execute them -- preferably several times -- he'll learn by emulating you.
Schedule regular teaching and practice sessions. If you go weeks between lessons your pupil may forget what she learned in the prior session. Make sure she goes to the practice range between lessons to work on what she's learned.In his attack on Browning, Grubach claims that:
There are "eyewitnesses" who claimed that Jews were murdered en masse in "electrocution chambers" at Belzec, and not with the use of "gas chambers."However, the only 'eyewitness' that Grubach discusses was never even present at Belzec:
In February 1944, the New York Times published a false eyewitness report of "electrocution chambers" at Belzec. Here is what is stated: "A young Polish Jew who escaped from a mass execution in Poland with the aid of false identification papers repeated today a story that the Germans operated an 'execution factory' in old Russian fortifications in eastern Poland. The Jews were forced naked onto a metal platform operated as a hydraulic elevator which lowered them into a huge vat filled with water up the victims' necks, he said. They were electrocuted by current through the water. The elevator then lifted the bodies to a crematorium above, the youth said."The youth in Grubach's account only witnessed a deportation. His account of 'electrocution chambers' is pure hearsay. We are not even told the names or roles of the individuals from whom the youth heard the story. Grubach, incredibly, asserts that Browning should have given this hearsay account more credibility than the accounts of German perpetrators:
The article concludes: "The youth said he personally had seen trainloads of Jews leave Rawna Luska in eastern Poland in the morning for the crematorium at near-by Beljec [sic] and return empty in the evening. He was told the rest of the story, he said, by individuals who escaped after actually being taken inside the factory. The fortifications, he added, were built by the Russians after they occupied eastern Poland." [my emphasis - JH]
The reader should ask himself why Browning ignored mentioning these "electrocution chamber" reports in his books and essays. If the "evidence" that "proves" that Jews were electrocuted en masse is bogus, isn't it also possible that the "evidence" that "proves" that Jews were murdered in "gas chambers" is also bogus, or at least very suspect?Grubach does the same in his attack on the Sobibor historiography. He starts again by falsely presenting hearsay as an eyewitness account of gassing:
Indeed, it could be argued that the false "eyewitnesses" to the "electrocution chambers" are more "credible" than Browning's "eyewitnesses" to the "carbon monoxide chambers." Browning himself wrote: "Historians almost invariably prefer contemporary documents to after-the-fact testimony." 29
After all, the "eyewitnesses" to the "electrocution chambers" were contemporary "observers" of the bogus "electrocution chambers." They were not prisoners in a 1960s, years- after-the-fact trial who-for legal/tactical reasons-were coerced into giving testimony claiming they witnessed gas chambers.
Sobibor eyewitness Hella Fellenbaum-Weiss told the story of how Jews on their way to Sobibor were gassed with chlorine. We let her pick up her story here: "The arrival of another convoy distressed me in the same way. It was thought to come from Lvov, but nobody knows for sure. Prisoners were sobbing and told us a dreadful tale: they had been gassed on the way with chlorine, but some survived. The bodies of the dead were green and their skin peeled off."This is a hearsay account of a gassing that did not even occur at Sobibor itself, yet Grubach claims that Arad should have given it the same credibility as the account of Fuchs, who actually installed the gasoline engine at Sobibor:
So, once again, here we have another problem. The official story coming from Raul Hilberg asserts that a diesel engine supplied the deadly gas used to commit mass murder. Nevertheless, Holocaust expert Arad cites the testimony of a German official who claimed that a benzene engine was used. Yet, other Sobibor "eyewitnesses" say the murder weapon was chlorine, not diesel or benzene engine exhaust. The chlorine gas story has clearly been quietly abandoned and the "engine exhaust" story is now the "official truth." But did the Germans use a diesel or benzene engine?Grubach then, unbelievably, asserts:
At this point the hardcore believer in the Sobibor gas chambers should ask himself this question: if the story of Jews being gassed with chlorine at Sobibor is false, isn't it also possible that the story of Jews being gassed with some type of engine exhaust is also untrue?The only thing that any sane person reading Grubach's bullshit will be asking is: why has this imbecile insulted my intelligence by assuming I cannot tell the difference between a hearsay testimony about killing methods and a genuine eyewitness account of the murder weapon?Japanese beetles were introduced to the U.S. via iris roots that were imported from Japan in 1916. Since that time they have been a pest problem growing each year to the point that today they are a major pest problem in the Midwest.
A few years ago, I did not know what a Japanese beetle looked like. Now I know that the iridescent metallic copper green beetle is pretty to look at but a menace anywhere it lands. It has a non-discriminating diet that feeds on over 270 varieties of plants, trees, seemingly anything that’s green and growing. There are some plants that it prefers and will fly for miles to find them. It especially like to skeletonize the leaves of brambles (raspberries, blackberries, etc.) roses, fruit trees, lindens, maples, gray birch, poplars, hazelnut etc. They love my purple plum tree, or should I call it purple lace tree. I use it as the “sacrificial attractant” so that they stay away from the raspberries. If you shake the tree, a swarm of beetles will disperse and land in my raspberry patch to continue the mating and feeding frenzy therefore, I leave the tree alone.
The beetle’s grubs are also lawn pests and feed on turf roots. One year in June, there were mounds of emerging adult Japanese beetles on the soggy greens of the golf course. It made golfing difficult since they would crunch under your feet as your walked and dispersed in the air when disturbed, landing in your hair, on your face, not to mention ricoquette the golf ball which did not help my golf score.
In areas where you can spray your shrubs and perennials, carbaryl (Sevin) is recommended. Be aware that Sevin is toxic to bees. Other suggested chemicals are Orthene (acephate), Tempo (cyfluthrin) and Merit(Imidacloprid) which is a systemic and should be applied early in the season so the plant can absorb it. Always read the label before using any chemicals.
The USDA has done some research and found milky spore disease, (Bacillus popilliae, Dutky), commercially available as Merit), to be an effective biological grub control but it needs 2-3 years to build up in the soil to work. Use it only if the grubs are a turf problem.
Trapping the beetle with an attractant will bring more beetles into your area causing more damage. So, unless you can find someone to put up a trap in their yard, forget about it.
One way, to capture these beetles is to put some alcohol or soapy water in a jar, place the jar underneath the plant and knock off the beetles into the jar covering the top. Once trapped, they drown in the solution. This safe, chemical free method seems to be an effective, yet a labor intensive job. Birds, toads, moles, shrews and skunks will eat a large number of adult beetles and grubs but seemingly not enough.
more info on Japaness beetles http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2001.htmlHigh-Speed Experimental Fly Vehicles
Civil high-speed transportation has always been hampered by the lack of range potential or a too high fuel consumption stemming from a too low cruise efficiency. Indeed, looking into the performance of classically designed high-speed vehicles, their performances drop nearly linearly with flight Mach number. Over the last years, however, radical new vehicle concepts were proposed and conceived having a strong potential to alter this trend. This innovative approach is based upon a well elaborated integration of a highly efficient propulsion unit with a high-lifting vehicle concept. The realization of both a high propulsive and aerodynamic efficiency is based upon the minimization of kinetic jet losses while striving to the best uniformity but minimal induced velocity for lift creation.
Performing a test flight will be the only and ultimate proof to demonstrate the technical feasibility of these new promising high-speed concepts versus their potential in range and cruise. This would result into a major breakthrough in high-speed flight and create a new era of conceptual vehicle designs.
At present, the promised performances can only be demonstrated by numerical simulations or partly experimentally. As high-speed tunnels are intrinsically limited in size or test duration, it is nearly impossible to fit even modest vehicle planform completely into a tunnel (Fig. 2). Therefore experiments are limited either to the internal propulsive flowpath with combustion but without the presence of high-lifting surfaces, or to complete small-scaled aero-models but without the presence of a combusting propulsion unit. Though numerical simulations are less restrictive in geometrical size, they struggle however with accumulated uncertainties in their modelling of turbulence, chemistry and combustion making complete Nose-to-Tail predictions (Fig. 3) unverified without an in-flight validation. As a consequence, the obtained technology developments are now limited to a technology readiness level of TRL=4 (components validated in laboratory).
The HEXAFLY project aims to achieve a first maturation and a proof of concept to experimentally fly-test these radically new conceptual designs accompanied with several breakthrough technologies on board of a high-speed vehicle. This approach would increase drastically the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) up to 6 (System demonstrated in relevant environment).
The emerging technologies and breakthrough methodologies strongly depending on experimental flight testing at high speed can be grouped around the 6 major axes of HEXAFLY:
- High-Speed Vehicle Concepts to assess the overall vehicle performance in terms of cruise-efficiency, range potential, aero-propulsive balance, aero-thermal-structural integration, etc...
- High-Speed Aerodynamics to assess e.g. compressibility effects on transition, aerodynamic vehicle shapes with high L/D, stability, etc…
- High-Speed Propulsion to evaluate the performances of high-speed propulsive devices such as intakes, air-breathing engines (ABE), nozzles (SERN) including phenomena such as high-speed combustion, injection-mixing processes, etc…
- High-Temperature Materials and Structures to flight test under realistic conditions high temperature lightweight materials, active/passive cooling concepts, reusability aspects in terms oxidation, fatigue, etc…
- High-Speed Flight Control requiring real-time testing of GNC (Guidance Navigation Control) in combination with HMS/FDI technologies (Health Monitoring Systems/ Fault Detection and Isolation)
- High-Speed Environmental Impact focusing on reduction techniques for sonic boom and sensitivities of high-altitude emissions of H20, CO2, NOx on the stratosphere.
To mature this experimental flight testing, a scientific mission profile will be defined followed by a proof-of-concept based upon:
- a preliminary design of a high-speed experimental flight vehicle covering the 6 major axes
- selection and integration of the ground-tested technologies developed within LAPCAT I & II, ATLLAS I & II and other national programs
- identification of the most promising flight platform(s)
allowing to address following items:
- identification of potential technological barriers to be covered in a follow-up project
- assessment of the overall ROM-costs to work the project out in a follow-up project
- the progress and potential of technology development at a higher TRL
The vehicle design will be the main driver and challenge in this project. The prime objectives of this experimental high-speed cruise vehicle shall aim for
- an integrated conceptual design demonstrating a combined propulsive and aerodynamic efficiency
- a positive aero-propulsive balance at a cruise Mach number of 7 to 8 in a controlled way
- making optimal use of advanced high-temperature materials and/or structures
- an evaluation of the sonic boom impact by deploying dedicated ground measurement equipment Once conceived, the level of acceleration from Mach 5 up to a cruise speed of Mach 8 can be determined.
The level of complexity and the number of technologies to be potentially integrated largely depends on the affordable size of the flight vehicle. The presently available ground facilities within Europe limit the size to ~1.5m length whereas ~4.5m seems to be an affordable upper limit stemming from presently on-going flight experiments in the US and Russia. Though a larger scale can accommodate a higher density of technology and measurements points, the smaller scale will excel in terms of a lower complexity, weight, size and cost. Therefore, a trade-off is necessary to actually evaluate how the above listed objectives can be realized within an achievable technical and financial scope. Therefore, HEXAFLY is a necessary step prior to embarking onto a larger experimental flight project by identifying, sorting out and alleviating any potential technological risk upfront.
This will require a:
- definition of one preliminary experimental flight vehicle layout but scaled at a small (~1.5m) and a larger scale based upon the available aero- and propulsive databases of the Mach 8 vehicle concept investigated within the LAPCAT II project
- definition of flying test-beds to perform the job: i.e. ground-launched (e.g. sounding rockets) and/or air-launched boosters (e.g. Raduga-D2 booster released from Tu-22 supersonic aircraft):
- sounding rockets for both scales
- air-launched only for the largest scale
- identification of existing flight experimental configurations as a building platform for partly or full integration of a pre-defined vehicle concept
- evaluating how far ground-test results can or need to be extrapolated towards real flight conditions by means of numerical tools and/or ground facilities, e.g. wall temperature effects, scaling…
The databases, simulation tools and methodologies developed within LAPCAT I & II and ATLLAS I & II will be fully exploited to achieve the above listed requirements and to highlight potential technological hurdles. Furthermore, the two proposed scales for the very same vehicle geometry allow assessing the increased density of gauges and inclusion of additional new technologies on the largest vehicle scale versus the technical and financial risks.
Besides the vehicle and platform definition, the suitability of the launch site and test range need to be assessed in terms of potential limitations on the mission and scientific objectives, i.e. flight corridors, TTC (telemetry, tracking and command), safety aspects (termination) and recovery. In a first step, test ranges within Europe and Russia will be favoured. The Andoya test range in Norway, the Esrange and the NEAT range in Sweden are equipped and suitable for ground-launched flight tests in Europe. For air-launch ranges however, no sufficient downrange capability is available within Europe whereas Russia can open some of its test ranges to Europe for experimental flight tests as formerly done for NASA and now for France.
All of the above investigations shall be performed in enough depth to evaluate the ROM-costs for the two flight vehicle scales, their integration and the corresponding launch methodologies. The outcome will provide an overview of the most promising routes towards high-speed flight testing in function of size, complexity and cost. Equipped with these results, the European community on high-speed aircraft will be further aligned and able to profile themselves uniformly towards any international collaboration on flight testing as promoted by the European Commission, in particular Russia, Japan and Australia.Purple tang or Yellowtail tang (Zebrasoma xanthurum) is a species of reef
surgeonfish in the family Acanthuridae.
tangs grow to a maximum length of near 9.8 in. Their bodies are purple in color
with a yellow tail. The heads of purple tangs are covered with black spots, and
black horizontal lines run down the sides of the bodies of some specimens. The
center of their bodies are sometimes a darker color of purple relative to the
rest of their bodies. On most specimens, the tips of their pectoral fins are
all members of the genus Zebrasoma, purple tangs have large dorsal and anal
fins and an extended snout that is used to forage for algae within rocks. When
the dorsal and anal fins are fully extended, the fish looks like a disk.
typical of all surgeonfish, purple tangs have a sharp spines on each side of
their caudal peduncle, which are used for defense.
diet consists of meaty foods, as well as herbivorous marine seaweed and algae.Yakushi-ji Temple is located in Nishinokyo in Nara City, Nara Prefecture, and one of two head temples of the Hossou religious sect. The principal image of Buddha is Yakushinyorai. Yakushi-ji Temple is the first temple of the Yakushi Pilgrimage of 49 Temples in Western Japan. The temple is also one of the Seven Great Temples of Nara. It was built by the Emperor Tenmu in 680.
Tou-tou or the East Pagoda, towering inside the temple complex, is 33.6m in height. The pagoda is believed to have been renovated in 730 to make it a good counterpart to the West Pagoda. This was done when the capital was relocated to Heijyou-kyo and the whole temple was moved to the capital. The East Pagoda has been designated as a National Treasure. The most notable feature of the East Pagoda is that, although it has three stories, its three additional lean-to roofs called mokoshi, make it look as if it has six stories. On the upper part of the tower, there is an openwork ornament called Suien (the Water Flame). There 24 heavenly beings were carved, some of which are playing flutes or planting flower seeds and some offering prayers. Suien is a charm to protect the pagoda from fire.
The East Pagoda of Yakushi-ji Temple is the only structure that has survived intact for a very long period of time, since the original foundation of the temple.
In the south of the center of Nara City, Nara is the area developed around the Gankou-ji Temple, an area vibrant with old houses and temples. This area is called Nara-machi and it is the oldest town in Nara. Nara-machi is designated and preserved as an Area of Traditional Buildings.
The town escaped the fires of the Second World War and it carefully preserves its landscape and old, charming buildings, which were built during the end of the Edo and Meiji periods.
Nara-machi was initially developed as a suburb with some significant temples in the northeast area of Heijyou-kyou. Heijyou-kyou had been the capital city of Japan from 710 to 794. When the capital was transferred to Nagaoka-kyou, Heijyou-kyou declined, but the temples remained and the people who worked for those temples continued to live in the area around Toudai-ji Temple and Koufuku-ji Temple. The residents eventually developed it into a merchant district called a “gou”.
Within Nara-machi, is Nara-machi Shiryoukan, a museum of Nara-Machi’s history, which exhibits such items as the daily utensils used in the old times. Another notable building is Nara-machi Koushi-no-ie, a lattice-worked building that has a traditional building layout with a small frontage and deep interior. Walking through the buildings and the streets, visitors can enjoy the appearance of the city as it was originally.
On top of Mount Torigata in Asuka-mura, Nara, sits Asukaniimasu Shrine.
Asukaniimasu Shrine traces its origins to the mythological age when Ookuninushi-no-kami dedicated the spirit of Kanayaruno-mikoto, a guardian god of the Imperial Family, to Ikazuchinoka mountain. This is considered to be one of the holy mountains to which a god might descend. In 829, as directed by an oracle, the spirit of Kanayaruno-mikoto was transferred to Mount Torigata.
The shrine was burned down in 1725 and its structure was restored to its current state in 1781 by Uemura Ietoshi, the head of the Takatoshi Clan.
On the first Sunday of every February, an event called The Onda Festival takes place at the shrine to pray for a rich harvest and family prosperity. The festival is a religious ritual that represents life and it is one of the “Three Unusual Festivals” in Western Japan.
At the beginning of the performance, two men wearing masks of Tengu, the mythological goblin, and Okina, an old man, both holding a bamboo stick called “sasara”, begin chasing the audience around- adults and children alike, and whacking them on the behind. Once the men come back to the stage in front of the shrine, they perform the ritual of the rice harvest including prowling the rice paddy and planting rice. This is followed by the wedding of Tengu and Otafuku, representing a woman.
The Katsuragi-mitoshi Shrine is located in Gose City, Nara, and it honors Mount Mitoshi, a beautiful mountain located right behind it. Its deity is known to govern harvests and guard rice grown in the alluvial fan at the foot of Mount Kongou.
The deity Mitoshi was said to have been first named at the Toshigoi Festival, which is held in the Imperial Court in February, to pray for rich harvests.
Katsuragi-mitoshi Shrine was one of the shrines where the Kamo family held religious rituals for generations. There are three such shrines in Gose: Takakamo Shrine, also known as Kamigamosha (Upper Kamo Shrine), Kamotsubajin Shrine, also known as Shimogamosha (Downtown Kamo Shrine) and Katsuragi-mitoshi Shrine, also called Nakagamosha (Middle Kamo Shrine), or Nakagamo-san - affectionately.
The current main building is painted vermillion and it was transferred from the Kasuga Taish Shrine.
During the first three days of the New Year, to invoke good health, visitors to the shrine receive mochi rice cakes called “otoshidama” which have been blessed by the deity Mitoshi.
The current New Year’s customs of presenting mochi rice cakes to a household shrine and giving “otoshidama” (now, with small amount of cash inside) to children are said to be based on rituals from the Katsuragi-mitoshi Shrine.
Todai-ji Temple Nigatsu-do is located inside the vast Todai-ji Temple complex in Nara City, Nara Prefecture, just north of Hokke-do. Since it is highly significant historically,
it was designated as a national treasure in 2005.
Formally named Kannon-do, it became known as Nigatsu-do (hall of the second month) because it holds the Shuuni-e religious ceremony every February of the lunar calendar.
The temple was built in 752 and the first Shuuni-e was celebrated the same year, an annual tradition that has continued until now without interruption.
In 1667, Nigatsu-do was destroyed by a fire caused by Otaimatsu, a fire-carrying ritual that is part of the Shuuni-e ceremony. Two years later, it was restored to what it is today.
The principal images of Budda are two statues: Oogannon and Kogannon, both of which are Juuichimen Kannon, or eleven-headed gods. These Buddha statues are not shown to the public.
Nigatsu-do is an impressive and serene presence that enchants visitors with its more than 1200 years history.
The Todai-ji Temple Omizutori or Water Drawing Ceremony is one of the rituals that takes place during Shuuni-e religious services at Nigatsu-do, located inside the Todai-ji Temple complex. Because it is regarded as the most significant, the Omizutori ceremony has become almost synonymous with the Shuuni-e services. These are held for two weeks, beginning with the first day of March.
Shuuni-e is formally called “Juuichimen-keka-hou” (which, translated literally, means eleven headed repentance). It is a memorial service in which priests at the Todai-ji temple forgive people’s sins and pray to Juichimen Kannon, the eleven-headed goddess and principal image of Budda at Nigatsu-do for the nation’s peace and prosperity.
Shuuni-e is said to have been started by a Priest named Jichu in Februrary of 752. This is even prior to Daibutsu Kaigen, another well known ceremony at the Todaiji-Temple that was first held in April of the same year. Since then, it has been continued for more than 1,200 years without any interruption.
In the Omizutori ceremony, priests scoop up sacred water from the Wakasai Well at midnight on March 12th and present it to the Kannon. The other famous ceremony is Otaimatsu in which priests carry burning torches and run through the balcony of Nigatsu-do.
Omizutoi is also a ceremony to bring Spring to the people of Nara. By the time the ceremony is finished, the cherry trees have begun to blossom and Spring has arrived.
The Kofuku-ji Temple, located in Nobori Ooji-cho, Nara City, Nara Prefecture, is a head temple of the Hosso-shu Buddhism sect and it was a private temple of the Fujiwara Clan. The principal image of the Buddha is Shakanyorai. The temple is 9th in sequence of the 33-temple Kannon pilgrimage and 4th of the 49-temple Yakushi Pilgrimage in Western Japan.
Koufuku-ji Temple was originally built in 669 by the wife of Fujiwara Kamatari under the name of Yamanashi-dera in Yamashina-ku, Kyoto City. It was transferred by Fujiwarano Fuhito to its present location and renamed Koufuku-ji.
Ooyu-ya is a medieval style bathhouse standing in the east of the Gojyuuno-to, or Five-story Pagoda. It is not known in which year the bathhouse was built, however, the current building was reportedly restored in 1426. It is now designated as a national important cultural property.
The bathhouse is 7 meters wide north to south and 7 meters wide east to west with a Hongawara tile roof. The west side of the bathhouse has the Irimoya roof style and the east side has the Kirimoya roof style. Inside the bathhouse are two gigantic iron pots that are used to make steam for a steam bath.
After the Middle Ages, the bathhouse was also used as a meeting place for public uprisings.
The bathhouse is tremendously valuable as an example of bathhouse architecture from the Middle Ages.
Sairinji Temple is a Shingon sect temple located in Furuichi, Habikino City, Osaka Pref. The principal image is the standing statue of Yakushi Nyorai. According to the temple record, it originates in Kogenji Temple established by the Kawachi no Fumi clan, the descendents of a Confucian scholar Wang In of Baekje.
The excavated tiles and other items indicate that the temple was established at some time during the Asuka period (the late 6th C. to the early 8th C.). The foundation stone of a pagoda placed in the garden of the temple is nearly 2 m tall and over 27 tons in weight. It is the largest foundation stone of a pagoda identified with the Asuka period. The formal seven buildings had been completed by 679 and it is confirmed that those buildings had existed until 743. Most of the buildings and the pagoda were destroyed by the battles in the Warring States period (1493-1573) and Haibutsu Kishaku (the anti-Buddhism movement) in the Meiji period (1868-1912).
As one of the Kawachi Asuka Shichifukujin (Seven Gods of Good Fortune) temples, Sairinji Temple worships the deity Ebisu, who wears the Kazaori Eboshi (a tall hat) and the Kariginu (hunting garment) with holding a fishing rod and a red sea bream. Sairinji is a temple with a long history since the ancient times.Agricultural risk poses a significant challenge for Malawi, in terms of both its food security and its overall economic development. Looking at two studies conducted in 2014 and 2015 in collaboration with the Government of Malawi, a 2015 World Bank Agricultural Global Practice Note examines the major risks facing Malawian agriculture, how those risks could hurt both individuals and the country as a whole, and what potential steps could be taken to better guard against agricultural losses.
According to the report, 80 percent of Malawians live in rural areas and 78 percent are employed in the agricultural sector, making agriculture a primary source of employment and income for a majority of the country. Droughts, pests, and disease pose the most significant risks to Malawi’s agricultural sector; in recent decades, droughts have been particularly prevalent. The report estimates that agricultural losses due to production risks (including pests, disease, and weather-related shocks) averaged US$149 million per year from 1980 and 2012.
Price volatility forms another important source of risk, particularly for vital crops like maize, tobacco, and cotton. The report finds that cotton prices tend to fluctuate based on global price movements, while maize and tobacco prices respond more strongly to domestic market price movements and policies. Regardless of whether they stem from global or domestic markets, however, price fluctuations make it more difficult for producers to plan what and how much to plant and make it less likely for producers to invest in improved crops, agricultural techniques, and export opportunities.
Agricultural losses have clear implications for individual households and for the country as a whole. With nearly 3 million households engaged in farming, agricultural losses equal lower food security and higher poverty. During the country’s last severe drought in 2005, 40 percent of Malawi’s population needed emergency food aid. Crops like maize and cassava tend to suffer greater losses when shocks occur; for example the 2005 drought led to a 50 percent loss in maize value. At the same time, other crops like tobacco and tea suffer losses more frequently. Such losses – whether they are greater in magnitude or greater in frequency – can have significant negative impacts on rural households’ income levels and food security.
The same 2005 drought resulted in a loss of nearly US$900 million, or 24 percent of the country’s total agricultural production value based on the 2006-2008 average. This is costly for the Government of Malawi as well as for the people of Malawi. The government allocates 10 percent of its national budget to agriculture, as recommended by the CAADP, meaning that it spends approximately US$250 million on agriculture annually. Thus, a loss in the agricultural sector equates to a loss of public investments.
The report finds that in its efforts to deal with agricultural risks and losses, the Government of Malawi tends to favor risk management over risk mitigation. In other words, policies tend to respond after a shock has already taken place, rather than plan ahead before a shock occurs to reduce potential losses. Reallocating government funds to risk mitigation strategies could prove more cost-effective and successful in preventing agricultural loss. The report highlights three broad strategies to increase risk mitigation interventions.
First, steps must be taken to understand and address why farmers tend not to adopt improved agricultural practices, particularly pest and disease management strategies. A lack of market access, affordable inputs, and extension services all reduce farmers’ incentives to invest in practices that will take their agricultural production beyond the subsistence level. Another challenge is gender disparity in agricultural and financial decision-making; female farmers may not have the power to adopt new technologies, even if they were so inclined. These constraints can be addressed by establishing best practices for agricultural extension services and pest and disease management, disseminating messages regarding improved agricultural practices via mass media accessible to both men and women, implementing surveillance and reporting programs for crop and livestock disease outbreaks, and designing risk mitigation projects that also provide farmers with increased access to reliable markets, processing activities, and export opportunities.
Second, food security policies must be based on clearly established rules and priorities, and government agencies must work more closely to coordinate long-term development goals. Malawi currently has in place several policies that have served to distort markets, increase price volatility, reduce incentives to invest in agriculture; these include maize export restrictions and import taxes on inputs. Both food security policies and agricultural trade policies need to be made more transparent and predictable, and reliable information regarding prices, stocks, and production needs to be made more accessible to farmers. In addition, the activities of Malawi
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should consider what this might actually mean for the people involved, not forgetting that the motives of Google, Facebook and co are clearly not completely altruistic.
Will access to the internet transform lives and livelihoods? While services such as mobile banking system M-Pesa have allowed cash transfers to flow more smoothly and cheaply in developing countries, and initiatives such as UK charity Practical Action’s Practical Answers has shared huge amounts of technical knowledge around access to energy, fresh water and sanitation, the impact of the internet where it does reach has been relatively limited.
The work of Claire Mercer, for example, has shown that the great hope pinned on enhanced internet access in rural Tanzania to reshape the population as knowledge-seeking, market-interacting, productive citizens has largely been misplaced. In reality, rural Africans more or less use the internet for the same purposes as everyone else: keeping in touch with people, keeping up to date, and entertaining themselves.
Apart from the odd exception, epitomised by the founders of Silicon Valley success stories, the internet tends not to virtually ignite some hitherto hidden entrepreneurial spark in all of us. Usually, it just allows us to use Google and Facebook.
Sweating the small stuff
There is also a long history of massive technocratic projects failing to deliver development. Bill Gates has been an especially vocal critic of Project Loon, arguing that internet access is no good if people have no access to basic medicine or functional health systems: the medical divide trumps the digital divide.
While the internet has a role in health, for example by virtually connecting primary healthcare centres, research centres and schools, Gates has questioned the long-term commitment of Google’s involvement in developing country projects. The success of massive projects is rooted in the sustainability of the smallest component – and that requires commitment and a large chequebook. Laptops need power, data needs bandwidth, users need relevant information in their local language. The global power of the internet can fade into the ether as a result of the tiniest failing of local infrastructure.
In it for the long haul
We might roll our eyes at Facebook’s attempts to set itself up as the saviour of the developing world but long-term commitment to these initiatives might just be more important than its motivations for starting them in the first place.
Google and Facebook clearly have a vested interest in more users, denser networks and more data to mine. It is also true that quite a lot of recent news stories about these companies have not been positive in terms of how and why data is mined, stored and shared. Bill Gates has questioned Google’s motives, and the moral authority of the work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gives him some right to do so. However, his model of massive philanthrocapitalism bridging divides is not the only approach in town.
If companies are making tentative steps to build infrastructure and access in developing countries because they smell a potential profit, is that such a bad thing? The rapid adoption, sustainability and ultimately local innovation surrounding mobile phones in Africa was built around initial state and donor investment and subsequent private profit from providing an affordable service that meets a need.
Meaningful transformation depends on results in many areas: infrastructure, institutions, markets, knowledge, values. We need to build relationships between the state, the private sector and civil society. It is not balloons in the stratosphere that bring real change but a recognition that if we want the internet to work for the poorest members of society, we have to commit to hard work on the ground.I chose to research the use of videos as supplementary material in education to support my internship project of creating videos to support student homework completion. When I started my research, I struggled with finding articles on this subject because there hasn’t been much research done on this topic. I was able to find articles on similar topics that applied to what I wanted my peers to understand about using this technology to assist their students.
Some reoccurring themes that I noticed when I was researching using videos to support learning when applied to completing homework were that short videos are better than longer ones due to the attention span of the audience. Student need to be able to use the technology proficiently if they are to be successful in using it and they also need to be aware that the videos are available. Students who intend to continue to college should have experience using technology such as this as it is being used more and more in that venue. Also, this technology will not be helpful to all students since learning styles vary among them.
A new idea that occurred to me as I was researching this topic is that it is possible to allow students to create their own “study” video to use with homework. This would be really good since it allows the students to take ownership of using it since they created it. If students were to be challenged by the teacher that “the best video” will be displayed for the class to use for homework, this would also give the teacher another way to assess student understanding.
Carvalho, A. A. A., Cruz, S., & Moura, A. (2008). Pedagogical Potentialities of Podcasts in Learning: reactions from K-12 to university students in Portugal. International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP).
Though this research article focused on audio podcasts rather than video, there was information in this that is useful to keep in mind when considering method of delivery for the mini-lessons I want to instruction my peers in making. One thing that keeps coming to mind is that not all student like podcasts (in this case audio) which brings up the question of did the students prefer to read the material or because of inability to focus on the audio material. My inclination is towards learning preference, though there is the question of comfort level with the technology. It is important to remember that in for the blended classroom, especially, podcasts are not intended to replace reading or participation in the classroom.
The main focus of this article was to see how students use videos in instruction and how the subjects of the study felt about the recorded lecture videos used in this study. The study identified 3 categories of videos: demonstrative, narrative, and recorded lectures. The study found that how effective the videos are depend a lot on how the student value the material within the video and the learning style of the viewer. This article is helpful as it offers categories of videos; which allow me to explain what types of videos might be most useful for each subject area.
The main focus of this research paper was to look at whether using podcasts (I believe this can also apply to online videos) is truly beneficial to students. The research studied whether students would use recorded lectures to learn material shared in class. The research found that many students liked having the recorded lectures to use for the purposes of reviewing material for tests and knowledge sake.
The authors of this paper focus on what is emerging in the online environment in the way of streaming video (and audio) and how they are used for education. They also outline the benefits and drawbacks of using streaming video in the blended classroom. I particularly like the idea that information is “pulled” to the learner when they are ready for it and not pushed to them from the instructor. Much of this information is such that I can share with my colleagues.
The use of audio podcasts as discussed in this research article can be applied, in part, to video podcasts as well. The article states barriers to audio podcasts that can be applied to video, namely unfamiliarity with the technology, technical problems accessing the casts, and not seeing the relevance for the learning for the student. Problems for teachers are unfamiliarity with the technology, cannot see the relevance of podcasts for their subject area, and lack of time to create videos. Some of these problems I foresaw when I undertook this project specifically lack of relevance and lack of understanding of the technology. I’m planning on focusing on these problems.
This particular article was more of a study in the theoretical use of videos in the classroom. The article starts by stating that since, in 2005, the technology was still in its infancy, research was limited. It goes on to discuss a conceptual framework used to evaluate the benefits of video in instruction called the Three I’s Framework which considers Image, Interactivity, and Integration within the context of instruction. The article continues the discussion with identifying video instruction with constructivist theory and then exploring 6 characteristics of a good video: Active, Constructive and Individual, Collaborative and Conversation, Contextual, Guided, and Emotionally Involving and Motivating. The article concludes by saying you do not have to include all characteristics of a good video in a particular lesson in order to have a meaningful and constructive video.
Though this research article focuses on student generated videos, there is still usable information that includes allowing students to create videos that can be used by the current class and possibly future classes to support learning in the classroom. The article states that allowing students to create videos in the classroom allows them to present information in a unique way. Creating videos also allows students to develop relevant skills in technical literacy. The conclusion is that videos allow for authentic learning for the students. I can use this article to suggest another way teachers can use videos in the classroom. This can be done by allowing groups of students to create videos of the day’s learning that can be uploaded to the LMS so that students can then use them to study and reference later. These videos could possibly hold more relevance to the students than teacher created ones.
The this research article is of an older nature there was information in here that I felt were quite useful and some that just support what is already known such as the fact that it helps students whether they are in a traditional classroom or an online environment. At the time of this article, online video material was primarily being sent via mail in the form of a CD-ROM or video tape. The article sited that as this technology became easier to get and use, streaming videos would be more prevalent and easier to access. The article also gave discussion to the bandwidth and system requirements of the technology. The author also discussed how students learn better by doing and that videos allow for students to visually see how something is done.
The author of this research paper stated that the 3 ways to use videos (podcasts) in the classroom is to a) duplicate instruction done in the classroom as a backup for reviewing for assessments; b) to share additional information with the student that is supplemental in nature; and c) to introduce students to new information or prepare the learner for learning that will be covered in the next class period. Though this article was intended for an older group of students (college level) another piece of information can be pulled from this article: students need to start learning to use this technology at earlier ages so that they are prepared when and if they go on to higher education (whether it’s training, tech school, or college).
As I read this research article, I found that I had an appreciation for the terminology shared in within it. We, as teachers, often refer to the strategies we use in the classroom as our teaching toolbox. This article refers to the use of technology and the Internet as our electronic delivery toolkit. I love this term and I will introduce it to my peers to use when I do my PD. As I continued to read, the author referred to the use of Web 2.0 tools in the classroom for collaboration, personalization, and productivity as Pedagogy 2,0. When creating videos to use in the classroom, we as teachers need to build with the concepts of good teaching in mind. Al in all, this article held a lot of information that can be used in the information sheet for my peers.
This research article took me longer to read because I had to read and digest and read again to get all I could out of it. The author starts by discussing the fact that there was, at the time, little evidence-based educational literature to support the use of streaming video in the classroom. She does site, once again, the importance of using short segments to maximize what viewers get from view time. The article defines exactly what streaming video is, discussing the difference between multi-casting and uni-casting videos. She goes on to talk about the different ways that streaming video can be accessed from the Internet without going to the hosting site, including how I’m doing it by embedding it on the LMS, and then the students access it from their PC. She mentions that the sky is the limit as there are innovations “around the corner”. I know for myself, I can view the videos I create on my smart phone.
Simo, P., Fernandez, V., Algaba, I., Salan, N., Enache, M., Albareda-Sambola, M., … & Rajadell, M. (2010). Video stream and teaching channels: quantitative analysis of the use of low-cost educational videos on the web. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2(2), 2937-2941.
The authors of this article explore the ways to create low cost streaming videos and how they are used. It is stated that streaming videos can be categorized into 3 major categories: demonstration videos, narrative videos, and lecture videos. Of the 3 categories, the author cites that the demonstration video are a really good tool to sue in order to allow and improve learning. This idea supports the way I’m hoping the videos will be used as a result of my professional development program.
The information shared in this article is similar in many ways to other articles cited in this paper, such as videos should be shown in short segments and that streaming video can be played directly from the internet without the need to download it. The author is very careful to break down streaming into simple terms that even the most technologically challenged reader would understand. In this paper the information I found most of note is that the audience of the videos should not be passively watching the videos but they should be expected to interact in some way to the video such as answering questions though out or identifying what they should get out of it. Another useful point made in this article is the discussion of how steaming could work in the classroom and how to make streaming happen in the classroom.
This article discusses the benefits of allowing students to create videos for learning. In the article the author states that creating videos involves “critical thinking, general observation, analysis, and perspective-making skills.” Student gains an appreciation for literature and other ways of expressing themselves. They also give positively in a learning community and society and have the ability to recognize the importance of learning. Once a teacher realizes how easy it is to create videos, they will be willing to allow students to create videos as well.
The author of the article shares how video streaming is helpful in learning. She discusses its uses in distance learning, home schooling, and public education. She goes further to discuss how it can be used by both the teachers and the students and sites examples of uses for students. Though I haven’t really considered this aspect of video streaming, she also shares why streaming is a better choice that using DVD’s or Video Tapes.
In this article, the authors focus on using video and audio ‘casts to support literacy and comprehension. The article suggests that teachers create videos or audio cast read alouds for students that have comprehension issues. This supports the students learning and scaffolds the learning as the students gain these very important skills. This article is a good one to refer the Reading Coaches and ELA teachers to for further information.
This article was really exciting for me because it looks at an evolution of video used to support instruction. The teachers in this article started out looking for a way to support students who had to leave early from school due to sporting events. They were able to flip the classroom in order to energize learning in the classroom. At this time I do not see ADMS moving to the flipped classroom but I can see the benefit of using mini-lessons to support homework time through reading this article. One of the really important notes that I read in this article is that the videos need to be short (less than 10 minutes, closer to 5).
This article explores the actual usage of videos in the classroom and the attention span of students based on grade (K-7 versus 8-up). Students in grades up to 7th can usually handle videos between 5 and 7 minutes but then must “digest” the information and rest. Older students can handle longer videos around 12 to 15 minutes in length. The article cautions against using whole videos rather than segmented videos since whole videos tend to cover more information than what the teacher really needs to cover. This information is good for teachers who want to simply share videos from United Streaming (Discovery Ed) rather than creating a new video.
This journal article looks at the use of video to support learning in the classroom. In a traditional classroom, we use the term “classroom toolbox” to classify the strategies and methods we use to teach our students. Pedagogy 2.0 is coined in this article to define the use of Web 2.0 tools that can be used in the classroom for collaboration, personalization, and productivity. One important point brought up in this article the Net Generation have been connected to the technology throughout their developmental growth and expect that their learning will be interactive as well. It is also important that videos are built on good practices in active learning.
This article was based on students creating videos but there was some good advice. The first thing that some creating a video needs to remember is that just like a lesson, there should be a clear beginning, middle, and conclusion. The article when on to discuss that, when possible, a video producer should edit their videos. Again, like in other articles, time was brought up as an important factor. Finally, the title of the video should be meaningful and eye-catching.The Dukkan (or Htukkan) temple stands on a hill, 30 feet high, having a flat surface like that of a drum. King Minphalaung built the pagoda in 1571 A.D. Like the Shitthaung and the Andaw shrines, Dukkanthein was built of hewn sandstones and layers of bricks over the roof. It measures 190 feet from north to south and 200 feet from east to west. It is reached by stone stairways, 8′ broad, situated on the east and south. These stairways measuring 106 feet are built of massive stonewalls on the north, east and south. The west one which is slightly convex is connected to an oblong chamber. The temple entrance on the east side, closer to the south-east corner, leads to a long vaulted passage which spirals up in two tiers till it reaches the central chamber. The superstructure, a bell-shaped dome on receding terraces, is similar to the one on Shitthaung, but here a tall square arch is provided on the east side to admit light into the central chamber. The inner chambers and passages of the temple are constructed with well fitting and cemented stones. The pagoda is well-known for the stone sculptures in the vaulted passages, especially the figures of seated ladies, with different styles of coiffure, in the manner of offering lotus buds to the Buddha. Traditionally it is said that there are sixty-four kinds of hairstyle and all the figures are of the wives of noblemen. Besides, on both sides of the entire passage, niches of 1½ feet broad, 1 foot deep, and 2 feet high are dug at regular intervals of 20 feet in the wall and each contains a stone image of the Buddha in sitting posture. There are one hundred and forty-six niches along the passage.Summer is here, so get active outdoors.
Now that the weather is beautiful and blissful, I hope that you’re finding it easier to get outside and be more active. It’s always a good time to increase your exercise and activity. More physical activity will help your muscles, blood, heart and lungs and pretty much everything in your body.
I find that getting outside to exercise is so much better than going to the gym. Exercising in nature has benefits that go above and beyond the benefits you gain by exercising indoors. Being in and interacting with natural environments has positive benefits. It reduces stress and increases the ability to cope with stress, while reducing mental fatigue and improving concentration, and it can even help with depression.
Get Active Outdoors
Here are some health benefits from being in nature:
Vitamin D has a wide range of health benefits. It also helps boost our immune systems. We all need just 10-15 minutes of sunlight per day for our bodies to produce the proper levels of vitamin D. Get outside and treat yourself to some vitamin D.
Being in nature can increase sleep quality. This is partly due to stress reduction, but also because exposure to sunlight during the day can increase your melatonin production at night. Melatonin is needed to regulate your sleep cycle.
Getting outside usually involves some level of exercise, even if it’s just a short walk. Even 15-30 minutes of exercise each day has long term benefits for your mind and body, and decreases your risk of diseases such as diabetes, arthritis, and heart disease.
Boosts Mental Health
It turns out that the great outdoors benefit more than your physical health. Nature is also connected to better mental health as well as a greater sense of mental well-being. The positive effects of outdoor time create a natural, feel-good vibe that lasts with participants long after they return indoors. Just by getting out into nature for your workout, you can improve your focus and self-esteem.
Exercising outdoors provides an opportunity to be physically active in a constantly changing environment. Walking, hiking or running on terrain that is constantly changing teaches the body how to adapt to a changing environment. In addition, a constantly changing surface can enhance the strength of your connective tissue, which may help you avoid certain injuries. The more challenging the terrain, the harder the body has to work to sustain an efficient work ratio. Outdoor workouts give you the best of both worlds—fresh air, sunshine and being closer to nature.
If you can get outside by all means get out there.
About the Author
Tammy Wilson is die-hard health and fitness guru, and her energy is absolutely contagious. Her areas of expertise include cellular health and personal training, and she is also a competitive dancer, model, actor, and loving mother of three. Tammy is known as fierce and fearless and each day sets out to inspire everyone to live […]Read Bio Read PostsBy Aurora Alemendral, July 1, 2014
Tricycles form the bulk of public transportation in the Philippines.
There are 3.5 million tricycles in the Philippines, and they’re mostly
ridden by adults. Conventional motorbikes with metal passenger sidecars
welded to their sides, the trikes are one of the many quirky aspects of
public life here that delight tourists and, for locals, provide the bulk
of public transportation in provincial cities across the country.
They’re also loud and dirty, roaring through the streets and spewing
black smoke from rattling tailpipes. But the ubiquitous Manilan tricycle
may soon get a makeover. In March the Philippine government, in
partnership with the Asian Development Bank
(ADB) and backed by Meralco, the country’s electricity monopoly,
announced the first stages of a 505.6 million pesos ($11 million) project that would put 100,000 electric tricycles on the streets of Manila and other provinces by 2017.
With silent, no-emission engines, the fleet of e-bikes would cut down
on noise pollution and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into
the atmosphere by an estimated 260,000 tons per year.
According to an
ADB study, electric-powered tricycles would also reduce dependence on
foreign fuel and cut operating costs for tricycle drivers by up to 60
percent. With strong government backing and eager private-sector
support, the program could turn the Philippines into a regional hub for
electric public transportation.
The proposal seems like a solid win for the environment, and an
opportunity for the country to poise itself as a leader in sustainable
transport. But the project has some detractors, including what would
seem like some natural allies: environmentalists.
Red Constantino, executive director for the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities,
says the e-tricycle program “sustains the prevailing chaos rather than
helping rationalize transport in the country.” Tricycles are
single-serving public transport, inefficiently carrying one passenger
from door to door, and money would be better spent supporting larger
vehicles that can transport people en masse, like buses or the country’s
What’s more, the Philippines already has some of the highest
electricity-usage rates in Asia, and Constantino points out that energy
crises have become common in parts of the country. Pouring resources
into an EV program could make the problem even worse, and distract from
the more fundamental challenge of creating stable sources of renewable
The electric tricycles will run on rechargeable lithium ion batteries,
the same technology that powers smart phones and laptops, which, as any
aging-iPhone owner knows, gets sluggish after just a few years.
Currently there’s no viable aftercare support for lithium ion batteries
in the Philippines, nor in Europe, Japan or the United States.
Constantino says to suggest that the Philippines will simply come up
with a system to address the long-term shortfalls of battery technology
“is just silly.”
Advocates say the new e-trikes will cut down on pollution, but they may cause other problems.
He’s also wary of some details of the project’s implementation. For
instance, rather than working directly with tricycle drivers and fleet
owners, the ADB project will collaborate with local government units,
not known for their squeaky-clean reputations. Subsidized credit also
distorts the market for electric vehicles, and imposing a single
electric tricycle design — irrespective of terrain, road quality or
passenger demand — across the vastly varying landscape of the
Philippines doesn’t make sense.
In essence, Constantino worries that what could be hailed as an
innovative leap forward in sustainable transport might actually be
greenwashing. “Just because it’s electric it doesn’t mean it has to be
supported,” he says.
While the Philippine government and the division of the ADB in charge
of the program are pushing electric trikes, Ko Sakamoto, a transport
economist for the ADB has a more tempered view of what the e-bikes can
do for the region. “We’d like to avoid the notion that e-vehicles are
the solution to everything,” says Sakamoto.
Supporting cleaner energy is part of the ADB’s sustainable transport
goals, according to Sakamoto. However, he says, “We do not advocate as
an institution one energy type over another.” He points out
alternatives, like Thailand’s tuktuks, some of which have switched to
clean natural gas, a cheaper technology than electric engines.
Electric tricycles may contribute to solving certain problems like air
pollution and climate change, but could inadvertently make other
problems worse, like congestion. “There needs to be a fundamental change
in the way cities are built,” Sakamoto says. Which means planning
cities that reduce the need for unnecessary transport — two-hour-long
commutes, for example — and shifting to more sustainable modes of
transport, like biking and walking.
“The project is still in its early stages, and we don’t want to
overstate the possibility,” Sakamoto says. Despite the draw of the
quick-fix and the enthusiasm in some circles for e-bikes, at most they
are one piece of a longer climb to making Manila’s transportation
infrastructure genuinely clean and sustainable.posted on Mar, 21 2012 @ 06:44 PM
I'd like some background of where this image comes from, there could be several explanations to describe what is going on, two of which I think I can
help to explain.
One, Could be simply the solar wind imaged from the side, it is obviously only going to approach half of the moon.
Two, maybe more obscure is the lunar makeup differs from the side that faces us from the other side. This occurred when the moon (and earth) were
young, and closer together, pulling (I'm speculating here) the materials that show up more in x-ray than the composition of the other side, mostly
the large dark mare we see, which is geologically different than vast regions on the other side due to the greater tidal forces at play then. The
gravitational pull from the earth surfaced more of the molten minerals to the side facing us.
it simply states it is the sunlit side. With more digging I
can find the spectrographic images that show the difference from side to side I was speaking of in my second hypothesis.If you have recently been through a significant amount of flooding, and you have trees on your property, there are specific reasons why checking them after a flood is so important. In many areas of the country, places where drought has been the primary concern, there seems to be a shift in the other direction where concerns about water damage to trees is becoming the primary focus. In this article, we will look at why checking your trees after flooding is absolutely imperative, and what you need to look for to make sure that they are healthy and safe.
Problems Created By Drought Conditions
One of the main concerns has to do with the drought conditions which precipitated the flooding that is now occurring. The trees had become very weak, and now with the heavy growth and new branches that many have grown, it is recommended that reducing some of the canopy by pruning the trees should be done as soon as possible. The drought has created a perfect storm for trees to have limb breakage, something that will be much more common due to this dramatic change. There are many trees right now, some of which may be on your property that could prove to be hazardous, and there are certain things to look for when assessing the condition of your trees right now.
Significant Damage From Flooding
Some of the problems caused by extreme flooding, especially trees that are adjacent to rivers, was the removal of soil near the roots and the peeling of the bark from the trees which can lead to significant problems. In other scenarios, where the ground is simply saturated with no damage to the tree, they may begin to lean in one direction or the other, causing a hazardous condition. A certified arborist should be brought into assess the condition of the tree, and how much danger it may pose. They may determine that too much soil has been removed from the roots causing destabilization, or too much has been pushed underneath the tree, later leading to root rot. Other unusual signs to look for are the premature coloring of the leaves.
How To Resolve These Issues
To resolve these issues, there are a few things that can be done. If excessive amounts of dirt have been removed from the roots, this should be replaced. If too much soil is now under the tree, it may affect the critical root systems, which could end up killing the tree several years down the road. This should be removed if possible, and it is also recommended that the soil be aerated and fertilized so as to compensate for the damage that has been done. It is important to get the roots back down to grade so that they do not smother which can cause the tree to die. This is why it is recommended that any damage be resolved as quickly as possible, or it could lead to a situation where the tree must be removed.
To prevent the possibility of a tree becoming hazardous, primarily as a result of broken limbs falling down, or perhaps the entire tree becoming uprooted, these safety measures need to be implemented to restore damage done by flooding to get the tree back to normal. If breakage does begin to occur, with limbs falling off on their own, it is definitely time to consider the best safety options. To prevent the early removal of any trees on your property that have been damaged by flooding, use these strategies to resolve the issues and potentially help your tree survive this type of trauma.The cuirass and tassets
The cuirass for this armour was made in a number of sections - a single back-plate and a breast-plate formed in three pieces. A single lame formed the rear skirt and in front a curved and dished lame swept outwards from the waisting below the peascod shaped lower section. Fig. 1 shows the single back-plate being polished -
- and in Fig. 2 the back-plate is seen together with the rear skirt.
The next image ( Fig. 3 ) shows the sections that form the breast-plate prior to assembly.
In the next image ( Fig. 4 ) the cuirass is assembled and on the mannequin ready for fitting the tassets.
As the century progressed the tassets became wider at the hips and were constructed of a large number of lames giving a greater degree of flexibility. Indeed in some armours the long laminated tassets extended down to the poleyns, taking the place of the cuisse. The tassets in this armour are each made up of seven overlapping lames and Fig. 5 shows the piece prior to assembly.
When making a piece that is formed from a relatively large number of similar looking lames it is always helpful to number them on the back to ensure they are assembled in the right order. Fig. 6 shows the inside of one of the lames -
- and in Fig. 7 the strapwork is in place ready for attaching the pieces to the front skirt of the cuirass.
The last image on this page ( Fig. 8 ) shows the tassets attached by their buckles to the front of the cuirass.
The rest of this armour will be a complete new build and on the next page I will be making the cuisse and poleyn.
Back to the start of this project.‘Monster Quest' comes to Eagle, Colorado 2008
Cable television film crew creates a documentary about “bigfoot” in Colorado
Wednesday, November 5, 2008 -- It was mere coincidence that the production crew from the History Channel's “Monster Quest” series set up in Eagle on Halloween. But it was an appropriate day to investigate monsters.
Photo: Bill Heicher checks the track impression left after more than 800 pounds of weight was piled on the machine. Eric Eves holds back to the top of the contraption, while cameraman Jim Tittle captures the moment. Photo by Kathy Heicher -->
And that was exactly the purpose of the visit: Production of a documentary piece investigating the possibility of a sasquatch or bigfoot presence in Colorado. Rumors of huge, “monkey-men” creatures have been reported since the late 1800s. The sasquatch or bigfoot became more famous in the early 1950s, following publication of an out-of-focus photo of a huge, ape-like creature.
Minneapolis-based producer Liz Pollock and her crew were drawn to Eagle by a couple of incidents reported in the spring of 2000. Within a three week period that year, two fishermen reported separate instances of finding huge, human-like footprints (18-20 inches long) alongside the Eagle River. One sighting was below Gypsum, and the second was just above Eagle. At the time, wildlife experts and law enforcement officers filed reports and studied the photos, but couldn't explain what had made the tracks.
The popular Monster Quest show is a documentary television series that examines monster sightings around the world. Each episode is a mix of scientific examination evidence, eyewitness reports, and observations from informed skeptics. It's a science known as “cryptozoology” — the study of animals that fall outside of contemporary zoological catalogs.
“Our main goal is to keep it as credible as possible,” says Pollock, “We try to get unbiased experts to look at people's physical evidence.” The documentary, tentatively slated to run this spring, will mark the first time a Monster Quest bigfoot story has centered on Colorado.
Pollack's research turned up 100 reported bigfoot “encounters” (including track sightings and vocalizations as well as physical sightings) reported in the state.
The completed program will include a mix of interviews, a scientific experiment (more on that later), and an “expedition.” Pollack said that the approximate 15 full days of filming will include a couple of days on horseback and two days of helicopter flights over the Pikes Peak area (where the most recent sasquatch sighting was reported) with a representative of the Colorado Bigfoot Organization.
Informed skeptics' and the scientific method
The Eagle segment features a scientific experiment; and interviews with several locals who were involved in the track sightings.
Pollack tapped retired Division of Wildlife Officer Bill Heicher as the program's “informed skeptic.” A wildlife biologist, Heicher makes it clear he's not a bigfoot believer.
“If bigfoot were out there, somebody would have found signs, like scat, or fur samples that could be used for DNA tests,” he says. Still, after talking with one of the men who found the tracks eight years ago, and examining the photographs, Heicher says he can't explain what left the track near the river.
“I don't think it was human. I ruled out wildlife tracks. I don't know what it was,” said Heicher.
Bill Kaufman, now a captain with the Eagle County Sheriff's Office, was one of the officers who looked into the incident at the time. Pollock's crew filmed Kaufman discussing what he described as a credible witness, and the mysterious tracks. Kaufman is not a bigfoot believer, but he noted law enforcement officers at the time could not determine what animal made the large, human- like tracks. Although the hind feet of bears make somewhat human-like tracks, the size was way beyond any local bear track.
“I can't explain it. The track was bigger than what I can explain. It's that simple,” Kaufman says.
The Monster Quest crew, in an effort to get a feel for the size of a creature that would leave footprints the length and depth of those found in 2008, decided to organize an experiment. A hinged plywood “sasquatch machine” was constructed and equipped with the molds of sasquatch footprints. The contraption was set up near the Eagle River. Cameraman Jim Tittle captured the action as Heicher and volunteer Eric Eves loaded sandbags onto the machine, then checked the depth of the resulting footprint. The conclusion: Well over 800 pounds of weight was needed to leave a track in the hard-packed gravel bed. That's considerably bigger than any local bear or moose.
Putting it all together
The film crew also spent some time at the Eagle County Historical Society Museum in Chambers Park. Historical archives include persistent reports of mysterious ape-like creatures encountered in the woods. A report in an 1881 Leadville newspaper told of local residents seeing a “man with long arms and a long shaggy fur covered body in the Lake Creek area.” (Lake Creek is a common stream name in Colorado, and the Eagle Valley does have a Lake Creek.)
A tale of Leadville-area miners encountering a strange, hairy, man-like creature with extraordinarily long arms is chronicled in Percy Eberhardt's book “Treasure Tales of the Rockies.” The Monster Quest crew plans to film a reenactment of that story.
Historically, a story about a sasquatch-like creature in the Pearl Creek area of Camp Hale circulates ever couple of decades or so. The accounts, typically of the friend-of-a-friend-told-me variety, typically involve the sighting of a huge, shadowy form in the trees,
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So how we meet in the middle was what I wanted to explore.
The research I then presented was on how art materials and the creative process can act as the meeting ground for all those parts of the selves to coexist. Art-making can be the way that we can embrace two ways of knowing.
This concept, whether by chance or through social change, became the theme of “mending what is broken between us” not just in terms of our own personal struggles, but as a dialogue around reconciliation. I met with other indigenous art therapists across Canada to create a circle and dialogue that can work towards decolonizing our practice so that Indigenous people have a culturally safe place to explore themselves and have access to culturally appropriate tools—tools that may blend therapy techniques with cultural knowledge.
But decolonization rarely occurs on just one level; it has to be all levels and in this sense also involves creating a space within the profession to educate others on the impacts of multigenerational trauma and colonization on wellness so that relationships can be built to better service communities. This entails changing curriculum in our programs and educating service providers, policy makers, associations and orders and others.
Through building a community of Indigenous art therapists and allies, we are taking the steps to make change and by using our gifts of blending the creative process with psychology to “mend what was broken between us”.The Lord of the Rings was in 1997 voted the 20th Century’s greatest work of literature in the English language. Marking 25 years since Tolkien’s death, this important biographical appreciation of his life explores the man and his work.
Tolkien: Man and Myth takes a controversial approach to Tolkien’s imaginative literature. Unlike the conventional view that his fantasy writing was an escape from reality, Pearce argues that Tolkien saw his great epics about Middle-earth as a leap into reality. Understanding Tolkien’s view of life, faith and the supernatural is crucial to fully appreciating the deep levels of meaning in his three major works: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.
J. R. R. Tolkien had no more than seven books published during his lifetime and yet he is a towering literary figure around the world. Tolkien: Man and Myth considers him in the context of his time and also his beliefs. It examines his influence upon other story tellers such as C. S. Lewis and the influence upon him of the writers group called the Inklings. Here is a valuable book for all the many fans of ‘the Century’s most popular writer’.
- ‘This fine apologia will certainly shift to some degree our polarised view of Ronald Tolkien… Pearce writes beautifully and with great depth… Even Germaine Greer, the great Tolkien-basher, might have second thoughts after reading him.’Ronald Blythe in‘The Tablet’I have seen here that I should discharge myself electrically before touching the RPi? The presenter suggests a bare metal water pipe. I don't have this at hand. Are there other ways I can discharge myself? What does it mean to discharge myself?
closed as off-topic by Milliways, techraf, joan, Aurora0001, Darth Vader♦ Feb 18 '18 at 18:55
This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:
- "This question does not appear to be specific to the Raspberry Pi within the scope defined in the help center." – Milliways, techraf, joan, Aurora0001, Darth Vader
All surfaces can build up a charge, in theory, either negative or positive. The science of electricity is the opposites of these charges will follow path of least resistance to the other charges, until they meet each other in equilibrium.
These static electric charges can build up strong enough to a point where they 'arc' like a spark across the air. The sensitive components in a micro integrated circuit will be rated for lower voltages to power and operate. When you arc a spark across these components, like when you get static shock touching a door, this spark can generate Thousands of volts (but low current), but enough power though to arc a spark across an integrated circuit and fry part of its core circuitry.
When these charges joint together they produce energy: light, thermal, electric current... A lightning bolt in the sky is produced by the same effect of these different charges coming together instantaneously, moving tons of energy.
To discharge yourself, you can touch a good electrical conductor like a metal of sufficient size to offset the charge built up in your body. Preferably something connected to a ground is ideal, like a desktop computer case should be grounded. You can discharge by rubbing your hands on that, like the bare metal, in the back of the casing. Plugged in should ensure it's grounded. A good computer service technician will have a static discharging wristband, a metal piece makes contact with his skin, channeling the charge out the wristbands conductive wire, that is tied to a static free mat that dissipates these charges and is wired to the Ground wall socket via grounding adapter that eventually finds its way to the ground (Earth).
The Earth is like a giant electromagnet, and all negative charge wants to travel through a conductive medium (path of least resistance) to join the positive in the Earth. These charges can become 'disconnected' and 'puddle' up on surfaces, like door knobs, people, static filled balloons stuck to walls... etc.
Water pipes are recommended because they are usually connected to the same metal structure as Protective Earth in your electric socket, so touching them sets you to the same potential as grounded electronic appliances. However, most USB power supplies are isolated, not grounded, so the effect is not as direct for a USB-powered RPi, but it still helps. Isolated electronics tend to settle close to protective earth potential due to leaks in power supplies.
Touching isolated metal objects won't help, unless they are very large.
In the absence of accessible ground potential, two things help a lot:
Moisture. Static electricity only tends to build up when the air is dry. A few shots from a water sprayer in the room where you will work (especially around the place you will sit) eliminate the problem almost entirely. Don't spray water on electronics though!
Touching ground first. Make a habit of touching the grounded parts of your RPi (e.g. USB connectors) before touching anything else. This way, the ESD will dissipate without having any semiconductor parts in its way, and will do no harm.
Looking for something that is grounded, metal case of an electronics device is usually grounded. Be careful if you are on carpet or any other surface that builds up static.
Also, you should try to avoid touching the actual components even after doing this. grab the board by the edges.3rd Grade Worksheets
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“CO2 restriction policies in Spain have an impact on the economy, in other words, making it lean more towards an economy of services. The weight of the industry and energy sectors is reduced, and this is due to the fact that there is a change in production and consumption patterns resulting from CO2 which will come at a price”, Mikel González-Eguino, author of the study and researcher for BC3 explains to SINC.
The study, which is published in the journal Investigación Económica also indicates that these policies encourage a minor change in consumption patterns. “The creation of a tax on CO2 may cause emissions to reduce, and change the habits related to large-scale energy consumption”, states the expert.
The investigation follows an economic analysis model called “general equilibrium”, which makes it possible to analyse the effects of global policies such as those for reducing CO2. The research data come from the National Institute of Statistics (INE in Spanish) and from the energy balances of the European Union (EU) statistics agency EUROSTAT.
What are the costs of the emission of GHGs?
The methodology responds to questions such as: What are the general costs of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) for different degrees of reduction of emissions and different speeds of reduction?
“We analyse the targeting (emission reduction objective) and the timing, in other words, the extent to which this objective progresses or is delayed in time”, points out the investigator. In this sense, the impact of the timing of CO2 reduction is determined by technological evolution.
“The conclusion is that if technology evolves following the current trend the best option is above all to reduce emissions rather than postpone it in time because the difference in costs is relatively insignificant. However, if technology evolves in a more radical way and in the short-term, for example, with new batteries to produce electric cars that are much cheaper than the current ones or substantial advances arise in renewable energy to replace other technology, it would be more profitable to delay the reduction of emissions.
Policies for reducing emissions in Spain
In the Kyoto Protocol Spain committed to increase its emissions by no more than 15% compared to the levels in 1990. This objective was extended through the National Allocation Plan (2008-2012) to 24% through by counting carbon sinks (2%) and the purchase of credits in the market of rights (7%).
In 2007 emissions exceeded 50% and positioned Spain as one of the European countries furthest from meeting its objectives. Even though this trend started to reverse in 2006 (the economy grew by 4% and emissions fell by 4%), it was the economic crisis (2008-2009) which forced a reduction in emissions.
Mikel González-Eguino, “Economic impact of Post-Kyoto scenarios in Spain” INVESTIGACION ECONOMICA 69 (271): 139 January/March 2010.When he entered his hotel room in Sochi, journalist Kevin Bishop discovered that while his room lacked a floor, there was a highly-visible photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Missing floors were only one of several problems that plagued the Sochi games. Olympics attendees arrived to find half-built rooms, undrinkable water, and unfinished lobbies. Although these problems may seem trivial, the Olympics have helped reveal not only Putin’s role as a leader, but also Russia’s current position in the world. The image revealed is not a positive one.
Sochi’s failure has been striking. First, the games were plagued by budgetary excess. The Sochi organizers spent around $50 billion on the games, over four times the amount spent on the last Vancouver Winter Olympics. The International Olympics Committee estimates that a third of this money has been stolen. Former presidential candidate and organizer of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics Mitt Romney described the Sochi games as “an unsavory vanity project.” He assailed a process that spent $50 billion on sports when, in his opinion, only $2-3 billion is necessary; he suggested the other $40 billion or so could be donated or used to fight poverty. It is ironic that the biggest recent spenders on the Olympics have been China and Russia, both countries with about 13% poverty.
Second, the Russian government has pursued many alarming policies that have marred the games’ image. From disagreements about LGBT issues, to the failure to erect livable hotels, to the killing of all stray dogs, the Sochi Olympics represents how backwards and misguided Putin’s leadership is. Russia’s new anti-gay laws, championed by Putin, continue to elicit widespread condemnation on the world stage. This issue has only received more attention as the games have neared.
Putin hasn’t only targeted homosexuals. Shortly before the games, Putin ordered that all stray dogs be killed in the Sochi area, stoking international protests. The New York Times reported that local Russian animal rights activists are working to save these dogs, highlighting the conflict between the Russian leader and his civilians. Under Putin’s leadership, Russia has reversed many of its democratic reforms. The 2011 Democracy Index, a service that ranks countries by their democratic merits, placed Russia at #117 and classified the nation as an authoritarian regime. The games’ main objective should be to lovingly host and welcome all countries of the world in the name of sport. A leader that openly targets homosexuals and orders the massacre of stray dogs is clearly not upholding the “Olympic spirit.”
Perhaps Russia simply isn’t capable of hosting massive events. The games’ failures shed light on Russians’ day to day difficulties. Putin chose to publicize Sochi as a resort, yet problems like undrinkable water, sewage holes in the street and unfinished lobbies populate the 2014 games. However, are these problems aren’t limited to the games but rather reflect wider problems within Russia. Russians are responding to the trending idea of an Olympic failure with the term zloradstvo, or “malicious glee.” Russians believe that the western response to these #SochiProblems are primarily due to a subconscious belief of superiority. While this is true, examples of poor living standards leads to a Russia that needs fixing. This sheds light on Russia’s failures as a country and proves that the Sochi games are not showcasing Russia’s resurgence as a country.
Putin’s failures are not limited to the domestic sphere. The Olympic games were created to bring nations together and ease global tensions, yet it is clear that, in Sochi, this has not been accomplished. In fact, the 2014 Sochi Olympics, in its failures, has highlighted many burgeoning conflicts between the rest of the world and Russia. This seemingly echoes many Cold War era tensions.
Putin wanted Sochi to be a “symbol of international recognition and a crowning moment for Vladimir Putin.” As the Opening Ceremonies began and the Olympic torch was lit, Putin wanted to send a loud message that would reverberate across capitals around the world: Russia is back. Using the Olympics to send this type of message is not without precedent. Worldwide propaganda of a leader only inflate the leader’s ego and, more dangerously, increase a regime’s legitimacy.
Putin’s international power is unfortunately larger than many would like to believe. Conflicts in Ukraine reflect a Cold War dynamic; echoing conflicts between the United States and Russia from the 1950s to the 1990s, so Russia is now battling the European Union for Ukraine’s alliance. Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych now refuses to sign an expected agreement moving towards alignment with the EU. The refusal of this deal strengthens ties with Russia and Putin, and it is likely that a closer relationship with Russia will endanger Ukraine by signifying a move towards authoritarianism, according to PBS. More than 50% of Ukraine would like to ally more with the EU due to the attraction of a more democratic system. The battle between Russia and the European Union is characterized by Putin’s desire to create a “Euroasian Union”. While Putin does not use bombs and tanks to create allegiances, he does tempt Ukraine with money, trade agreements, and promised military support.
Putin’s plans not only include expanding alliances with White Russia, four countries surrounding Russia that live in its influence, but also reaching out to the Middle East. Echoing its Cold War past, Putin’s Russia is providing military aid to Egypt, Syria and Iran, according to The Canada Free Press. In comparison with the United States’ policies towards the Middle East, which the article explains to be a series of failures to manage crises after crises, Russia is creating alliances and support within the Middle East. As Russia expands its influence, the United States should be worried. Putin has few qualms about opposing American diplomatic initiatives, which was evident when he vocalized his opposition to American sanctions on Iran. The Canada Free Press’s Ali Sharnoby even states that Russia views the United States as “the largest source of global instability”. This renewed international tension, especially when viewed in contrast to the Olympian ideal of world harmony, revives worries that the Cold War is not truly over. By seeking to extend Russia’s influence abroad using many Soviet-era tactics, Putin has escalated global tensions to a dangerous level.
Russia initially bid for the Olympic games by promising a beautiful resort-like town, groundbreaking renewable energy initiatives, and a transparent spending process. The country has not lived up to its promises. One promise we are left with is that Putin will certainly be active in expanding his sphere of influence in coming years. A cold Winter Olympics is only the beginning of the next chapter of the Cold War.Propaganda Handout - Lawton Public Schools
... History of propaganda
In late Latin, propaganda meant "things to be
propagated". In 1622, shortly after the start of the
Thirty Years' War, Pope Gregory XV founded the
Congregatio de Propaganda Fide ("Congregation
for Propagating the Faith"), a committee of
Cardinals with the duty of overseeing the
... Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire was a pioneer of public
relations in 18th Century England.
However Edward Bernays, a nephew and student of
Sigmund Freud, is generally regarded today as the
Course: Public Relations: The Profession and Practice
... relations. At the end of the 19th century,
changes in social and economic
conditions mandated new relations
between industry and the public.
The Industrial Revolution brought about a
change in how products were made—from
using hand tools at home to using
machine and power tools in a factory.
There w...
... credibility aids persuasion, but not for most
• Bandwagon…group experiments…when
one person is ganged up on in terms of and
idea..they will change their view
Sample Thesis Statements
... enculturation of American culture, which has now spread to a media globalization through establishing who we
are as Americans and then contrasting it.
2. The media emits a distorted image of women’s beauty and health and creates an unrealistic figure for women to
live up to. In my paper I will exami...
the journal of historical research
... Social cognitive theories suggest that people have inherent biases in the way they perceive
the world and these biases can be used to manipulate them. For example, people tend to
believe that people's misfortune (e.g., poverty) is a result of the person and downplay external
factors (e.g., being bor...
Bending the Truth? Propaganda in Media and
... media assigned since the previous quiz.
Expectations: Attendance and participation at all class meetings is mandatory. Students
are expected to have completed assigned readings and watched assigned media prior to
class. We deal with materials that some will—and perhaps should—find deeply
Propositions: OUP Handbook of Propaganda Studies, Auerbach and
... particular techniques of propagation can be studied with variable results.
5. Any given practice of propaganda must be understood in relation to culturally
specific proximate institutions, such as education, religion, public diplomacy,
advertising, and literature.
6. Propaganda changes according to...
... information, propaganda in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to
influence an audience. Propaganda uses psychological techniques which are
designed to fool the public because they appeal to people's emotions and impulses
rather than their reason. It is designed to short circuit thi...
World War I and the rise of the propaganda
... equally fatuous when they tell us that our war of all wars is
With all the sophistication of a modern advertising agency,
stainless and thrillingly achieving for good?"
the CPI examined the different ways that information
The CPI did not limit its promotional efforts to the writflowed to the populatio...
... • Surely, all people have become victims of deliberate
• Some believe that propaganda helps to set up an
organized and disciplined society.
• But Propaganda is trying to create confusion among
... propaganda.” When existing loyalties, customs, and institutions are attacked, there is controversy. In a
democratic system, propaganda replaces violence and censorship as a method of bringing about
change. All this may be granted, and yet the question can be raised whether the word “propaganda”
... Source: Black, Jay. 2001. Semantics and Ethics of Propaganda.
Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 16(2&3), 121–137
Propaganda Module week 1
... Adorno states that in his analysis of the individual, Freud identified a
“willingness to yield unquestioningly to powerful outside, collective agencies’
(p.134). Freud tries to find out which psychological forces result in the
“transformation of individuals into a mass”. (p.135). “For the fascist
Unifying America: The Use of American
... however, the world does not function this way. There are millions of contrasting
viewpoints and opinions; propaganda works by narrowing that number down. If the
propagandist can bring a majority of people within the same belief system then they have
done their job effectively, since a majority opini...
British Propaganda: An Analytical Evaluation of British Goals
... British government effectively used white or direct propaganda as a chief home front tactic.
The second tactic that was employed in British home front propaganda was the use of
emotional propaganda. This tactic calls upon the source to use people’s emotions like fear,
hate, love and hope as a vehicl...
Propaganda - Net Texts
... some Spanish language speaking countries, particularly in the Southern Cone, the word "propaganda" usually refers
to the most common manipulative media — "advertising".
In English, "propaganda" was originally a neutral term used to describe the dissemination of information in favor of
any given caus...
Edward Louis James Bernays (/bərˈneɪz/; German: [bɛɐ̯ˈnaɪs]; November 22, 1891 − March 9, 1995) was an Austrian-American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda, referred to in his obituary as ""the father of public relations"". He combined the ideas of Gustave Le Bon and Wilfred Trotter on crowd psychology with the psychoanalytical ideas of his uncle, Sigmund Freud.He felt this manipulation was necessary in society, which he regarded as irrational and dangerous as a result of the ""herd instinct"" that Trotter had described. Adam Curtis's award-winning 2002 documentary for the BBC, The Century of the Self, pinpoints Bernays as the originator of modern public relations, and Bernays was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine.WORDPRESSED CLASSIC BOOKS ON SULU
- Report on Sulu Moros.Written by Lt. E.L. Smith, Intelligence Officer, Philippine Islands, USA. September 23, 1908. Classic Book Sectioin. Sulu Online Library 2015
- Studies in Moro History, Law and Religion.The book consists of original studies and translations from Moro Jawi texts made by Dr. Najeeb M. Saleeby
- Sulu Archipelago and its Peoples.The Author, Dr. SIXTO Y. OROSA was a District Health Officer, Sulu Supervising Physician at the Sulu Public Hospital and United States Quarantine Officer for the Port of Jolo, Sulu, P. I.
- The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes.The Project Gutenberg EBook WordPressed by Sulu Online Library
- The Gardens of the Sun A Naturalist’s Journal on the Mountains and in the Forests and Swamps in Borneo and the Sulu Archipelago
- The History of Sulu.Author: Dr. Najeeb Saleeby, a Christian who lived among the Moros in Mindanao and Sulu.
- The Isles of Fear.By Katherine Mayo.Published 1925, New York. Classic Book Section: Sulu Online Library 2015
- The Philippine Islands.A Political, Geographical, Ethnographical, Social and Commercial History of the Philippine Archipelago Embracing the Whole Period of Spanish Rule With an Account of the Succeeding American Insular Government. Author: John Foreman. Published MCMVI, London.For the past 20 years, an infectious cancer has been killing wild Tasmanian devils, creating a massive challenge for conservationists. But new research, published today in Nature Communications, suggests that devils are evolving rapidly in response to their highly lethal transmissible cancer and that they could ultimately save themselves.
Cancer is usually a disease that arises and dies with its host. In vertebrates, only two known types – Canine Transmissible Venereal Cancer in dogs and Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) – have taken the extraordinary evolutionary step of becoming transmissible. These cancers can grow not just within their host but can spread to other individuals. Because the cancer cells are all descendants of one mutant cell, the cancer is effectively immortal.
To grow in the new host, the tumour cell must evade detection and rejection by the immune system. Both the devil and dog transmissible cancers have sophisticated mechanisms for hiding from the host’s immune system. Our research suggests that the devil is nevertheless evolving resistance to the disease.
The Tasmanian devil is too important to lose – and this would seem careless following the extinction of the thylacine, the world’s largest marsupial predator, in the 1930s. Since the thylacine’s extinction, devils have stepped up to the role of top marsupial predator, keeping numbers of destructive feral cats at bay in Tasmania. With the decline of the devils, invasive species have become more active.
Since it was first detected in northeastern Tasmania in the mid-1990s, DFTD has spread slowly southward and westward. It will reach all parts of Tasmania within a few years; only the far northwest coast and parts of the southwest are still disease-free.
DFTD kills most devils at sexual maturity. Before the disease arrived, most devils produced three litters over their lifetime. Most now raise only one.
The cascading effects of the loss of Tasmania’s top predator on the rest of the ecosystem could lead to loss of further species. Already, feral cats have increased activity and small mammals on which cats prey have declined.
Evolution in action
Our research has been a truly international effort. We used data collected by Menna Jones at the University of Tasmania since 1999. This archive of tissue samples now represents one of the best resources globally for studying evolution of an emerging infectious disease in wildlife.
Andrew Storfer at Washington State University and Paul Hohenlohe at the University of Idaho compared the frequency of genes in devils in regions before DFTD arrived to devils 8-16 years after DFTD arrived.
We identified significant changes in two small regions in the DNA samples of devils from regions with DFTD. Five of seven genes in the two regions were related to cancer or immune function in other mammals, suggesting that Tasmanian devils are indeed evolving resistance to DFTD. Evolution is often thought of as a slow process, but these changes have occurred in as few as 4–8 generations of devils since disease outbreak.
Devils are surviving at our long-term sites, despite models that predicted extinction. Previously, studies have shown that devils with lower rates of DFTD showed specific changes in their immune response. Our genetic results might explain why.
New infectious diseases put strong pressure on their hosts to evolve, leading to rapid changes in resistance or tolerance. Rapid evolution requires pre-existing genetic variation. Our results are surprising because Tasmanian devils have low levels of genetic diversity.
Evolution doesn’t just act on the devils; it also also acts on the disease. The disease evolves to not kill the host before it can spread to another host, but also to overcome the host’s defences. Over the long term, pathogen (the cause of the disease) and host usually evolve to live together as rabbits and Myxoma virus have evolved together.
Our results suggest that devils in the wild may save themselves through evolution. However, it is essential for managers to develop strategies that help the devils do so. For example, releasing fully susceptible devils that have had no exposure to the disease into populations where resistance is developing is likely to be counterproductive.
DFTD presents a unique opportunity to study the early stages of the evolution of a new disease and transmissible cancer with its animal host. Ultimately, through future research, we may understand how cancers can become transmissible and how their hosts respond.En español | Like an extra glass of wine or potato chips, you can now add “hotel hot tub” to the list of things you used to enjoy — and now wonder if you shouldn’t. This is thanks to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released today showing that hotel hot tubs and pools account for 1 in 3 swimming-related disease outbreaks.
Of all the disease-causing germs spread in treated water, the big one is the Crypto parasite, which was responsible for 89 percent of the 24,453 illnesses caused by infection tracked from 2000 to 2014. And while hotel pools and hot tubs were the top source of it, the spread of Crypto isn’t necessarily the proprietor’s fault.
That's because this kind of parasite is tough enough to survive even in properly maintained pools. Crypto spreads when someone who is sick with the parasite has diarrhea in the pool and other swimmers swallow the contaminated water. Swimmers and parents of young swimmers, the agency advises, play an essential role in preventing Crypto outbreaks.
“Swallowing just a mouthful of water with Crypto in it can make otherwise healthy kids and adults sick for weeks with watery diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea and vomiting,” said Michele Hlavsa, chief of CDC’s Healthy Swimming Program. “Chlorine cannot kill Crypto quickly. We need to keep it out of the water in the first place. Don’t go into the water, and don’t let your kids go into the water, if sick with diarrhea.”
The other two illness-causing bacteria in pools do have something to do with maintenance. One of them, Legionella, which causes severe pneumonia and symptoms similar to the flu, is more likely to make people over age 50 sick, as well as those who are current or former smokers, or those with a weakened immune system.
Along with Legionella, the bacteria Pseudomonas, which causes a skin irritation known as hot-tub rash as well as swimmer’s ear, thrives in slimy areas of a pool or water playground. The slime, called biofilm, protects them from disinfectants. The key to preventing diseases from these two germs, the CDC says, is for a hotel, along with any public or private pool operators, to make sure their disinfectant levels prevent bacteria — and the slime it creates — from growing in the first place.
Especially if you’re over age 50, the agency recommends that you let your doctor know about any possible exposures to Legionella, including recent use of a hot tub, if you come down with anything resembling flu symptoms this summer.Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
1th July 2017
There are many games as a sport that are played by humans. A game evolved in primitive man as his movements evolved and sophisticated. Therefore, a game primitive man played was primitive.
Primitive man played a game instinctively and, as intellect evolved knowledge in primitive man, he came to know that he played a game. This indicates that a game was being played instinctively, even though he did not know that he was playing a game.
Later, as knowledge evolved further in primitive man, he came to know how to play a game. This indicates that a game was being played the way it was meant to play, meaning instinctively, even though primitive man did not know how to play a game.
Similarly, as evolution progressed knowledge further, primitive man came to know that he was playing a game with others as well, even though he was playing with others instinctively before he came to know that he was playing with others.
This progression of evolution indicates that primitive man did not play. It indicates that playing evolved to man though it appears now to modern man that he knows how to play and how to play with others.
In modern games plenty of ways how to play a game are taught. So too the opponents are taught how to play a game. Both the opponents do not, however, have the same teachers to teach them how to play.
Neither do the teachers teach their respective teams how to play every moment of the game. This is impossible because the entire movements involved in the game from the start to the finish are not known with certainty either to the teachers or to the players.
Similarly, neither the movement of the game in every moment nor the movement of an individual player in each moment of the game is known by the teacher or by the individual player himself.
More importantly, if the game involves many individuals as players, it is impossible for the teacher and the players to know every movement of the game with certainty from start to finish, and also the movement of each player in every moment of the game.
This signifies that any game goes the way it is meant to go, due to the intelligence present in every moment of life that expresses as evolution and sophistication.
This also signifies that everyone’s life is like a game and goes the way it is meant to go, due to the intelligence present in every moment of life that expresses as evolution and sophistication, and not due to the intellect present in man.
The enlightened have rightly pointed out that what is meant to happen will happen and no force on earth can stop it from happening and also that what is not meant to happen will not happen and no force on earth can make it happen.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2017
The entire population, from kings to paupers, from those in education to those not, from the young to the old in every generation that has ever been enjoys a game. There are no exceptions. Everyone has, does and will play for that enjoyment. There may, of course, be experiences of disappointment in the playing, but the game goes on. Life expresses itself fully in the game, whatever the outcome: the winner or the loser, albeit illusory. Understanding this is enlightenment, for life is the game.
Julian Capper, U.K
German Translator’s Note:
The games man plays are very sophisticated in modern man, such as the entire life and in every detail has sophisticated very much and will further sophisticate itself. There are simple games, such as easy board games for children, and there are highly evolved and complex games, chess for example. Even chess is now played by children as well and adults like it because of its unpredictably and complexity, too. The chess player thinks, that he can predict what will happen, and this is known as the skill of the chess player, however, in the same manner as life is unpredictable, the chess-game too is unpredictable. Not very long ago in the history of mankind, computers began to play chess, too. And they play even better than humans today. Such is the evolution of games in life. That life is a game too is conveyed in this article by Dr. Shankar. So, while playing we can begin to understand life deeply.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.|시간 제한||메모리 제한||제출||정답||맞은 사람||정답 비율|
|1 초||128 MB||0||0||0||0.000%|
Phil is trying to solve a series of puzzles in which he must fill in blanks in a sentence with number words to make true statements. Being a programmer, you think you can write a program to find possible solutions. An example of a puzzle:
There are ___ Os and ___ Ts in this sentence.
One possible solution would be to put "two" in the first blank and "five" in the second blank. Note that "one" would not work in the first blank because the word "one" has one "O" in it; i.e., the words put in the blanks are part of the puzzle. Also note that grammar is not considered.
Input to this problem will begin with a line containing a single integer D (1 ≤ D ≤ 100) indicating the number of data sets. Each data set will consist of a single line, which will be the puzzle to solve. Each puzzle will be 1–100 characters (inclusive) and will contain 1-4 positive assertions (inclusive) of the following variety:
sthe blank should be filled in with the number of all instances (upper and lowercase) of the indicated letter C in the puzzle
___ lettersthe blank should be filled in with the number of letters in the puzzle
___ vowelsthe blank should be filled in with the number of vowels in the puzzle; for the purposes of this problem only the letters A, E, I, O, or U are considered to be vowels
___ consonantsthe blank should be filled in with the number of consonants in the puzzle
Note that the blanks above consist of three underscore characters ("
_") in a row, and that the literal words "letters", "vowels", and "consonants" are always in lowercase. Any underscore characters appearing in the puzzles will be part of a blank.
For each data set output the number of possible correct solutions. All number words
|
385
| 217
|
and US national security.
Recommendations on the Roles of the Department of Defense
The Deputy Secretary of Defense should:
- Establish a DOD-wide coordinating policy board for climate change impacts on national security. This board’s function should include:
– A coordinating role on climate change information from the strategic and operational perspective. This would include assessing implications for the force structure, deployment options, etc.
– Compiling and assessing climate change effects information across the geographic combatant commands to identify implications for regional stability and the development of global and regional foreign military assistance programs.
– DOD’s interagency representative for climate change adaptation matters.
– Serving as the focal point for information, web-enabled, that can be accessed by other Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) offices as well as the Joint Staff, Services, and combatant commands.
- Expand the authorities of the Operational Energy Plans and Program Office to include operational climate change issues.
- Direct the establishment of a program of climate change adaptation pilot projects in concert with related programs at USAID and other agencies to identify, solicit, and fund pilot projects focused on specific adaptation sectors and locales (e.g., management of regions or villages in Africa and Central Asia). Examples of pilot projects and suggested activities might include, but not limited, to:- Embrace and augment the World Climate Research Program Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) for one of the sub-regions in Africa. Apply CORDEX in concert with an assessment activity similar to the Prediction of Regional Scenarios and Uncertainties for Defining European Climate Change Risks and Effects (PRUDENCE) project.
– Extend the observational, modeling, and synthesis assessment capabilities applied today in the United States in the Upper Colorado River Basin to a priority water resource district in Africa, perhaps linked to the Nile Basin Initiative.
– Apply coastal hot spot pilot projects focused on offering local-scale risk assessment and planning for integrated sea level and storm impacts on the coupled water-energy-waste resources and physical infrastructures for megacities such as Lagos, Karachi, and Dahka.
– Engage the United States Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) international research programs, DOD commands and their in-country security partners, and international aid agencies such as USAID in identifying opportunities to share climate change-related information and bringing more visibility into stakeholder’s activities.
– Focus on near-term, achievable, and measurable goals to develop and demonstrate end-to-end threads of core information systems while incrementally building in-country capacity and competence.
Office of the Secretary of Defense, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and the Director, Joint Staff should direct development of a DOD strategic roadmap for climate change-related efforts that builds on the framework laid out in the US Navy Climate Change Roadmap to:
- Ensure that the guidance to the combatant commanders, once signed, is considered to be adequate by the Services and combatant commands for translating the broad-level guidance offered in the Quadrennial Defense Review into actionable requirements.
- Direct the combatant commands missions include non-combat support to address serious climate change-induced US national security vulnerabilities.
The Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Installations and Environment should assemble an inventory of critical facilities and infrastructure to include an assessment of vulnerability to climate change effects and the means to adapt.
The Director, Joint Staff should:
- Create a holistic approach to climate change, integrating efforts of its relevant directorates: J2 (Intelligence), J4 (Logistics), J5 (Strategic Plans and Policy), and J8 (Force Structure, Resources, and Assessment Directorate).
- Require that climate change and disaster risk reduction be integrated into training and exercises.
The Secretaries, Chiefs of the Services, and heads of defense agencies should:
- Better integrate climate change and disaster risk reduction considerations into exercises, training, and educational materials.
- Establish metrics focused on risk reduction to minimize the impact of climate change on military and support operations, forces, programs, and facilities.
- Develop guidance to ensure climate change resilience in DOD project design standards for facilities and installations, with emphasis on the elements related to energy intensive and water intensive uses.
The Secretaries and Chiefs of the Services should:
- Assess the Services’ engineering organizations and the cost-benefits of using them in assisting climate change adaptation.
- Utilize military to military engagement opportunities with coalition partners to enhance resilience to climate change impacts and disaster risk reduction capacities. In so doing, they should expand consideration of roles for the National Guard and reserves. (For example, knowledge of traditionally non-military skills needed to respond to climate change threats is often found in the reserves.)
- Examine tasking authorities for domestic and international response to natural disaster or other disaster risk response situations. For example, the National Guard could bring important assets to an international disaster, as it already does in responding to domestic disasters.
United States Northern Command, with support from the Navy and Coast Guard, should identify the assets that will be needed to operate in the Arctic to include communication assets, personnel training, ice breakers, and other equipment.
The geographic combatant commands should:
- Identify early warning indicators for those areas critical to DOD’s mission set.
- Incorporate the guidance from the Quadrennial Defense Review and DOD Strategic Guidance on energy, security, and climate change into theater campaign plans.
- Create a demand signal by articulating the need to understand the implications of climate change and resource scarcities in their region to support their campaign plans.
- Include in their theater campaign plans energy, food, water, and disaster risk reduction strategies and plans for reducing vulnerabilities within their respective areas of responsibility.
- Harness more systematically resources beyond the traditional combatant command structure, to include the National Guard, and its State Partnership Program, service engineering units such as the US Army Corps of Engineers and Naval Facilities Command, and OSD-led programs such as the Defense Environmental International Cooperation Program and the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program.
- Conduct systematic regional or even more localized impact assessments to identify trends and where their resources should be focused. To this end, should request that the CIA Climate Change and Security Center provide a report on climate change effects and hot spots in their respective areas of responsibility. Programs such as DOD’s Climate Change and African Stability Project (Minerva Initiative) could also be utilized in such undertakings.
- Include as a Tier 1 objective enhancing the capacity of host nation militaries and civil response readiness groups to plan for, and respond to, natural disasters (e.g., floods, coastal storm surges, and droughts).
- Integrate into their humanitarian assistance/disaster relief and other exercise plans additional climate change-related aspects. These exercises should include interagency activity.
- Promote the concept of coordinated management of shared natural resources like water.January 21, 2013
Temperature Rising: How High Could the Tide Go?
Researchers from Columbia University recently surveyed an ancient shoreline in South Africa that was seven miles inland and 64 feet above the current sea level. A growing body of evidence about ancient sea level fluctuations and past climate changes is alarming scientists to the potential degree of modern sea level rise as a result of climate change caused by human greenhouse gas emissions. Past research has indicated that a warming of the earth’s climate by only a couple degrees Fahrenheit can cause global sea level to rise by about 25 to 30 feet over time. However, experts predict that the earth’s climate may warm by as much as four to five degrees in the coming century, likely causing a very large increase in sea level that threatens to cause a humanitarian crisis lasting possibly hundreds of years.The Orion Nebula (M42) is the most observed emission nebula in the sky, a spectacular stellar birthplace located some 1,500 light-years away in the belt of the most famous constellation of the winter evening sky. It is often photographed by amateur astronomers — so much so that we are almost numbed by seeing too many images of it.
This image, however, is different. Check out the superb detail in this shot by northern California astrophotographer Tony Hallas, a longtime friend and contributing editor of the magazine.
This may be the Orion Nebula shot to end Orion Nebula shots. To achieve a relatively wide field and superb, intricate nebular detail, Tony used a Takahashi 130 at f/7 and stitched a two-frame mosaic, shooting in January 2014 from Foresthill, California. He used an SBIG STX-16803 CCD camera, Astrodon Gen II filters, and a series of stacked exposures.
For full data, see Tony’s website link here:The Java EE platform includes several technologies and APIs that extend its functionality. These technologies allow applications to access a wide range of services in a uniform manner. These technologies are explained in greater detail in Chapter 28, Transactions and Chapter 29, Resource Connections, as well as Chapter 30, Java Message Service Concepts, Chapter 31, Java Message Service Examples, and Chapter 32, Advanced Bean Validation Concepts and Examples.
The following topics are addressed here:
In a Java EE application, a transaction is a series of actions that must all complete successfully, or else all the changes in each action are backed out. Transactions end in either a commit or a rollback.
The Java Transaction API (JTA) allows applications to access transactions in a manner that is independent of specific implementations. JTA specifies standard Java interfaces between a transaction manager and the parties involved in a distributed transaction system: the transactional application, the Java EE server, and the manager that controls access to the shared resources affected by the transactions.
The JTA defines the UserTransaction interface that applications use to start, commit, or abort transactions. Application components get a UserTransaction object through a JNDI lookup by using the name java:comp/UserTransaction or by requesting injection of a UserTransaction object. An application server uses a number of JTA-defined interfaces to communicate with a transaction manager; a transaction manager uses JTA-defined interfaces to interact with a resource manager.
See Chapter 28, Transactions for a more detailed explanation. The JTA 1.1 specification is available at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javaee/tech/jta-138684.html.
A resource is a program object that provides connections to such systems as database servers and messaging systems.
The Java EE Connector Architecture enables Java EE components to interact with enterprise information systems (EISs) and EISs to interact with Java EE components. EIS software includes such kinds of systems as enterprise resource planning (ERP), mainframe transaction processing, and nonrelational databases. Connector architecture simplifies the integration of diverse EISs. Each EIS requires only one implementation of the Connector architecture. Because it adheres to the Connector specification, an implementation is portable across all compliant Java EE servers.
The specification defines the contracts for an application server as well as for resource adapters, which are system-level software drivers for specific EIS resources. These standard contracts provide pluggability between application servers and EISs. The Java EE Connector Architecture 1.6 specification defines new system contracts such as Generic Work Context and Security Inflow. The Java EE Connector Architecture 1.6 specification is available at http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=322.
A resource adapter is a Java EE component that implements the Connector architecture for a specific EIS. A resource adapter can choose to support the following levels of transactions:
NoTransaction: No transaction support is provided.
LocalTransaction: Resource manager local transactions are supported.
XATransaction: The resource adapter supports the XA distributed transaction processing model and the JTA XATransaction interface.
See Chapter 29, Resource Connections for a more detailed explanation of resource adapters.
To store, organize, and retrieve data, most applications use relational databases. Java EE applications access relational databases through the JDBC API.
A JDBC resource, or data source, provides applications with a means of connecting to a database. Typically, a JDBC resource is created for each database accessed by the applications deployed in a domain. Transactional access to JDBC resources is available from servlets, JavaServer Faces pages, and enterprise beans. The connection pooling and distributed transaction features are intended for use by JDBC drivers to coordinate with an application server. For more information, see DataSource Objects and Connection Pools.
Messaging is a method of communication between software components or applications. A messaging system is a peer-to-peer facility: A messaging client can send messages to, and receive messages from, any other client. Each client connects to a messaging agent that provides facilities for creating, sending, receiving, and reading messages.
The Java Message Service (JMS) API allows applications to create, send, receive, and read messages. It defines a common set of interfaces and associated semantics that allow programs written in the Java programming language to communicate with other messaging implementations.
The JMS API minimizes the set of concepts a programmer must learn in order to use messaging products but provides enough features to support sophisticated messaging applications. It also strives to maximize the portability of JMS applications across JMS providers in the same messaging domain.The Bergthal Mennonite Church and settlement established in 1875 is located in Barton County on land obtained through the Homestead Act and the Santa Fe Railroad. One group lived for a while in a village, the Dundee colony, as they were accustomed to in Russian Poland. They first met in schoolhouses and had 75 members in the newly organized church. During the pioneer days a considerable number joined the local Swedenborg Church. Common names were Schmidt, Unruh, Dirks, and Siebert. The ministers who served included Abraham Siebert, Jacob Koehn, Tobias Dirks, Peter Dirks, J. B. Schmidt, and J. E. Kaufman. In 1897 the congregation built a wooden church, which was replaced in 1915 by a large brick structure with bell tower. Sunday school was organized in 1885, followed by such organizations as mission and Christian Endeavor societies, choirs, and Bible school. The congregation joined the Western District Conference in 1886. In 1953 the membership was 223. In 2008 the membership was 75.
Attendance declined after 2000, with Sunday attendance dropping to an average of 14 by early 2013. A closing service was planned for late May, 2013. Plans were to raze the building, and to erect a monument at the nearby cemetery remembering the pioneer community. Lynn Schlosser was the part time pastor in 2013.
"Sprouts." Western District Conference (30 April 2013). Web. 3 May 2013. http://mennowdc.org/sprouts-april-30-2013/.
Thacker, Susan. "Landmark Bergthal Mennonite Church closing its doors." Great Bend Tribune (2 May 2013). Web. 3 May 2013. http://www.gbtribune.com/section/1/article/52552/.
Additional Information
Address: SW 110 Avenue and SW 30 Road, Pawnee Rock, Kansas
|Date Published||May 2013|
Cite This Article
Krahn, Cornelius and Sam Steiner. "Bergthal Mennonite Church (Pawnee Rock, Kansas, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. May 2013. Web. 30 Jun 2015. http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Bergthal_Mennonite_Church_(Pawnee_Rock,_Kansas,_USA)&oldid=91056.
Krahn, Cornelius and Sam Steiner. (May 2013). Bergthal Mennonite Church (Pawnee Rock, Kansas, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 30 June 2015, from http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Bergthal_Mennonite_Church_(Pawnee_Rock,_Kansas,_USA)&oldid=91056.
Herald Press website.
©1996-2015 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Trout Lily - Erythronium umbilicatum
These members of the lily family are true spring ephemerals. Though perennial in their growth habit, they emerge with their two speckled leaves in very early spring, send their single flower bud up just a few days later, bloom, and then essentially disappear for another year. If pollinated, the small capsule will remain above ground until the seeds are dispersed, but that is all that remains. The leaves shrivel and die back to the ground.
When present, the 6 inch narrow fleshy leaves are distinctive. Like our native trilliums, they are dark green and covered by maroon-colored splotches. I suspect these plants produce side bulbs like other lilies over time and slowly spread outward, but they are slow to reproduce. It takes several years for young plants to flower and set seed.
The plants above were photographed on Saturday, February 22. The peak of blooming often occurs in mid-February to early March, depending on the winter temperatures that precede it. The single lemon yellow flower stands less than 6 inches above the ground and only opens on days with sufficient sunlight. The buds remain closed on extremely cloudy days and close up in the evening. Individual flowers may open on several consecutive days. They are pollinated by bees.
The spectacle at Wolf Creek Preseve is one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the Deep South and everyone that loves wildflowers should add it to their list of places to visit. I made the 550-mile round trip from my home in Pinellas and it was one of the most worthwhile days I've ever spent. Trout lilies are not a landscape plant unless you can meet their exacting requirements. NEVER dig plants from the wild. A few native nurseries offer plants that are nursery propagated. I tried this once and they failed miserably in my central Florida landscape. From now on, I will be content to visit them in the wild.If you experience engine trouble, you take your car to a mechanic. If your pipes leak, you call a plumber. And if you fracture a leg, the usual course of action is to visit a doctor. But unlike other things that may break in life, bones begin healing on their own before you even set foot in a waiting room.
The human body possesses amazing healing powers that enable it to bounce back from a vast array of illnesses and injuries. Sometimes broken bones can heal so thoroughly within a few months that even an x-ray can't determine the original fracture line.
Doctors often play a vital, sometimes lifesaving, role in a bone's healing process. But, these experts basically help the body heal itself. Doctors provide optimal conditions for bone repair and healing to take place. The rest is up to your cells.
But how does this amazing biological process work? How can a fractured limb grow back to its former strength? To understand, you first have to take a closer look at just what bones are made of and how alive they really are.Rome's Falling Arches
The landmarks that define this legendary city are in serious disrepair, the victims of monumental neglect, shrinking budgets and the wear and tear of Mother Nature and heavy-heeled visitors.
Rome's troubles exceed those found in many other archeologically rich locations because its historic center is not a roped-off museum but a vibrant, congested urban nucleus. People live and work among the ruins. The Circus Maximus, where charioteers once rumbled, is a park for dog-walkers and picnickers. Motor scooters zip under 2,000-year-old arches and cars jostle for space on imperial promenades. It's not unusual for Romans to have archeological digs in their backyards.
"Rome is still a living place," Bonnie Burnham, president of the nonprofit World Monuments Fund, said during a recent mission to the Italian capital. Preserving its heritage "presents a special set of contemporary needs and pressures" because of the coexistence of the modern and the ancient.
The Italian government is halfway through a vast, year-long engineering assessment of hundreds of archeological sites in the Eternal City, studying their condition and determining where the most urgent repair work should be done. Visitors to some of the sites could be in danger, officials say.
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- Russian historian slams Putin
- WaPo chastised for ignoring Venona Papers in obit for Allen Weinstein
- In gay marriage decision, Supreme Court turns to historians for insight
- Sam Haselby argues religion trumps politics in his new bookClick on the image to open a larger version in a new window.
If you are interested in using this image, please consult Acknowledging the Website.
Johann Moritz Rugendas, Voyage Pittoresque dans le Bresil. Traduit de l'Allemand (Paris, 1835; also published in same year in German). Reprinted in Viagem Pitoresca Através do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, 1972; images shown on this website), and in color from original water colors, in Viagem Pitoresca Através do Brasil (Editora Itatiaia Limitada, Editora da Universidade de Sao Paulo, 1989) [NOTE: both 1835 French and German original editions were published in black/white].
Caption, "marché aux Negres" (slave market); shows men, women, and children awaiting sale; some cooking food over open fire. Daniel Mannix, Black Cargoes (New York, 1962; after p. 146), erroneously captions this illustration as "A slave market in Martinique, early nineteenth century." For an analysis of Rugendas' drawings, as these were informed by his anti-slavery views, see Robert W. Slenes, African Abrahams, Lucretias and Men of Sorrows: Allegory and Allusion in the Brazilian Anti-slavery Lithographs (1827-1835) of Johann Moritz Rugendas (Slavery & Abolition, vol. 23, pp. 147-168).Lesson Plan 1
I. Overview of the Lesson
October 2, 2013
2 days to complete (including homework)
8, Science, Liquids solids and gases; How atoms move inside solids
II. Big Idea
Matter has observable, physical properties and the potential to mix and form new materials
III. Essential Questions
What happens to the atoms inside of solids when you heat or cool them?
IV. Pennsylvania State Standards
S8.A.3.2.3: Given a model showing simple cause and effect relationships in a natural system, predict results that can be used to test
V. General Objective
Particles are always in motion with the smallest motion in solids progressing to the largest motion in gases.
VI. Behavioral Objective
Use models and patterns to make predictions, draw inferences, or explain scientific and technological concepts.
VII. Instructional Materials
2. Projector for computer
4. Ball and ring designed specifically for this experiment* (enough for groups of three)
5. Safety Goggles
6. Bunsen burner
7. Cups of room temperature water
8. 2 jars of pickles
a. that have been previously opened then tightly closed again and left inside a refrigerator over night
9. Worksheets for project homework
*Available at Flynn Scientific (AP9031)
IX. Instructional Procedures
The solid explained in this is metal. Metal is composed of individual atoms instead of molecules like in water. Understand how atoms in a solid spread apart when heated and get closer together when cooled.
How students can use the concepts of expanding and contracting solids in the real world. Bringing in a pickle jar that is left over night in the refrigerator will be very hard for the students to open because the lid has contracted around the jar, but when heated the lid will come off of the jar easily. Students at this level (Formal Operations) should be able to create hypothesis and logically think about why and how this happens using the experiment. (Wadsworth, Ch. 6) Ask them if they know of any other examples of this.
1. Go over previous lessons of liquids
2. Explain the vocabulary
3. Bring in 2 pickle jars that have been stored in a refrigerator and have students try to open it
4. Ask them how they think they can get the lids off
5. Put the lid of the jar under warm water and take off the lid
6. Ask the students why they think the lid was able to come off after being put under the warm water
a. The expansion of the metal lid as it got warm
7. Go over particle rules for solids and show the power point http://www.middleschoolchemistry.com/multimedia/chapter1/lesson4#particles_of_a_solid (ending at comparing solids and liquids)
8. Explain the safety of using the lab materials
9. Explain the Lab experiment:
a. Students will get into groups of 3
b. Each groups should have a Bunsen burner, metal ball and ring, and a container of room temperature water
c. Students will first try to fit the metal ball through the ring without heating it first
i. Result: Will fit through
d. Ask the students why this is:
i. The atoms are slow moving and are attracted to each other
e. Then they will carefully place the metal ball above the flame for 1-2 minutes
f. Try to fit the ball through the ring again
i. Result: Will not fit
g. Ask the students why the ball will no longer fit
i. The atoms have sped up and lost their tight attraction so the metal ball expanded
h. Place the metal ball into the cool water for a 10-15 seconds to cool it down
i. Try to place the ball through the ring again
i. Result: Will fit through
ii. Students by this time should understand why it goes through again
10. Show Video of what happened inside the metal ball http://www.middleschoolchemistry.com/multimedia/chapter1/lesson4#heating_cooling_metal_ball
11. Give students the worksheet to hand in as homework
12. Go over answers the next day
E. Summary and Closure
This is a hands on, real world activity that every student will be able to experience. The multimedia clips will help the students visualize what’s going on with the atoms inside of a solid. This is designed to help those who are either visual or hands on learners or both. This lab experiment does work with actual fire so students will be able to work with real lab equipment and get a feel for what basic science labs are like.
Worksheets and lesson from Middle School Chemistry
Name _______________________ Date ________________________
Explain it With Atoms & molecules
After you watch the molecular model animations of liquids and solids, answer the questions below.
1. How is the motion of the atoms in solid metal different from the motion of the molecules in liquid water?
2. What is it about atoms and molecules in liquids and solids that keep them close to one another even though they are moving?
• At room-temperature the metal ball fit through the ring. What happened when your teacher tried to push the heated ball through the ring?
• What happened to the atoms in the heated metal ball so that it didn’t fit through the ring?
5. After the ball was cooled by putting it in the water, why do you think it fit through the ring again?
Explain it With Atoms & molecules
saw in the animation that atoms in a solid move faster and get
slightly further apart when heated. You also saw that they
slow down and get slightly closer together when cooled. Use
this information to make your own drawing on the molecular
level of the metal ball.
6. Draw a model of the atoms in the metal ball at room-temperature and after it has been heated. Use circles and motion lines to show the speed and spacing of the atoms in the room-temperature ball. Include captions like “atoms faster and further apart” or “atoms slower and closer together” to describe your drawings
Chapter 1, Lesson 4 Activity Sheet Answers
• When the ball was heated it did not fit through the ring.
• Heating makes the atoms in the metal move faster. The extra speed of the atoms competes with their attractions for one another and causes them to move slightly further apart. Since the atoms move further apart, the size (volume) of the metal ball increases a little and will not fit through the ring.
makes the atoms in the metal move more slowly. When they move
more slowly, their attractions for one another are able to bring
them slightly closer together. Since the atoms come closer
together, the size (volume) of the metal ball decreases a little
and will fit through the ring again.
6. Atoms drawn faster and further apartIn September 1841, Abraham Lincoln encountered a group of chained slaves (called a “coffle”) from Kentucky being taken down the Ohio River on a steamboat –victims of the domestic slave trade. The sight affected Lincoln deeply, although he described its impact in quite different ways in two letters separated by more than a decade. Lincoln’s correspondents, Mary and Joshua Speed, were siblings, and Joshua Speed was Lincoln’s closest friend.
Abraham Lincoln to Mary Speed, September 27, 1841
“By the way, a fine example was presented on board the boat for contemplating the effect of condition upon human happiness. A gentleman had purchased twelve negroes in different parts of Kentucky and was taking them to a farm in the South. They were chained six and six together. A small iron clevis was around the left wrist of each, and this fastened to the main chain by a shorter one at a convenient distance from, the others; so that the negroes were strung together precisely like so many fish upon a trot-line. In this condition they were being separated forever from the scenes of their childhood, their friends, their fathers and mothers, and brothers and sisters, and many of them, from their wives and children, and going into perpetual slavery where the lash of the master is proverbially more ruthless and unrelenting than any other where; and yet amid all these distressing circumstances, as we would think them, they were the most cheerful and apparantly happy creatures on board. One, whose offence for which he had been sold was an over-fondness for his wife, played the fiddle almost continually; and the others danced, sung, cracked jokes, and played various games with cards from day to day. How true it is that “God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb,” or in other words, that He renders the worst of human conditions tolerable, while He permits the best, to be nothing better than tolerable.”
Abraham Lincoln to Joshua Speed, August 24, 1855
“You suggest that in political action now, you and I would differ. I suppose we would; not quite as much, however, as you may think. You know I dislike slavery; and you fully admit the abstract wrong of it. So far there is no cause of difference. But you say that sooner than yield your legal right to the slave—especially at the bidding of those who are not themselves interested, you would see the Union dissolved. I am not aware that any one is bidding you to yield that right; very certainly I am not. I leave that matter entirely to yourself. I also acknowledge your rights and my obligations, under the constitution, in regard to your slaves. I confess I hate to see the poor creatures hunted down, and caught, and carried back to their stripes, and unrewarded toils; but I bite my lip and keep quiet. In 1841 you and I had together a tedious low-water trip, on a Steam Boat from Louisville to St. Louis. You may remember, as I well do, that from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio there were, on board, ten or a dozen slaves, shackled together with irons. That sight was a continual torment to me; and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio, or any other slave-border. It is hardly fair for you to assume, that I have no interest in a thing which has, and continually exercises, the power of making me miserable. You ought rather to appreciate how much the great body of the Northern people do crucify their feelings, in order to maintain their loyalty to the constitution and the Union.”
Historian Eric Foner calls the first letter (to Mary Speed), “oddly dispassionate” and suggests that Lincoln had to grow a great deal before he discovered the “violation of rights” illustrated by the scene of the chained slaves (see Foner, The Fiery Trial (2010), pp. 11-12). Do you agree? Does this exchange primarily illustrate Lincoln’s growth on the question of slavery’s evil?O & C Timber Debate Dates Back to 1937
Seeking to spur Western development, the government had granted 3.7 million acres of land in 1866 to railroads in exchange for building a line between Portland and California. The companies, in theory, would sell the land for funding. As Americans began to perceive the nation’s vast natural resources were limited, interest in conservation grew, as did concern over heavily subsidizing railroad companies. The federal government reacted in 1937 by reclaiming the 2.6 million acres to be managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Reflecting the political climate of the Great Depression, the government stipulated that the BLM assured “permanent forest production…with the principle of sustained yield,” and share triple the standard timber-sale receipts with counties containing the land. Reduced federal harvests and receipts in recent years have challenged communities in O&C counties accustomed to large federal payments. Timber interests and conservationists differ today on how to simultaneously protect the forests and bolster the economies of the O&C counties. Sources: “O&C Sustained Yield Act: The Land, The Law, The Legacy 1937 – 1987.” US Department of the Interior - Bureau of Land Management, 1987. Print; Rice, Nathan. "Seeking balance in Oregon's Timber Country." High Country News. Web. 12 Aug. 2013. <http://www.hcn.org/issues/45.7/seeking-balance-in-oregons-timber-country/article_view?b_start:int=1>.Child Poverty and Intergenerational Mobility
Publication Date: December 2009
Findings are based on a working paper by Robert Wagmiller and Robert Adelman, Childhood and Intergenerational Poverty: The Long-term Consequences of Growing Up Poor commissioned by NCCP. This brief is designed to be a companion piece to this document. The analysis uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), a longitudinal data set that follows children as they advance through childhood and into adulthood, and employs a strategy developed by Grieger, Danziger, and Schoeni* to construct poverty indicators comparable to official Census Bureau estimates. In this analysis, childhood refers to the years between birth and age 15; the paper provides more details about findings, data sources and methodology.
* Grieger, Lloyd D.; Danziger, Sheldon; Schoeni, Robert F. 2007. Estimating and Benchmarking the Trend in the Poverty Rate from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Ann Arbor, MI: PSID Technical Series Paper #07-03.
The promise of the American Dream is that in our society, anyone can succeed with hard work and persistence. Even in the current economic downturn, the majority of Americans (72 percent) believe that it is possible to start out poor, work hard, and become wealthy.1 But does this promise hold true for America’s children? How common is it for people who spend part of their childhood living in poverty to experience poverty as adults? How does this vary by how much time children spend living in poverty? And does it vary by race?
Economic mobility, the ability to move up or down the economic ladder during one’s lifetime and across generations, is central to the ideal of the American Dream. But recent research finds that there are limitations to mobility in the United States.2 For example, one study of families across generations finds that one’s economic position is strongly influenced by that of one’s parents: 42 percent of children born to parents in the bottom fifth of the economic distribution remain in the bottom as adults and another 23 percent rise only to the second fifth, while 39 percent of children born to parents at the top of the income distribution remain at the top, with another 23 percent moving to the second fifth.3
This paper focuses on the lower end of the earnings spectrum and highlights findings from a working paper commissioned by the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP). In particular, we report how common it is for children to experience poverty throughout the course of childhood – defined as the years from birth to age 15 – and how that relates to the likelihood that they will be poor in young and middle adulthood.4
How many children live in poverty today?
Figure 1: Poor children in the United States, by race/ethnicity, 2007
Today, 18 percent of children in the United States live in poverty (13 million children), a figure that is expected to rise given the current economic downturn.6 For 2009, the federal poverty level is $22,050 for a family of four. Research shows that, on average, families need an income of about twice that to cover their basic expenses; under this measure, 39 percent of children live in lowincome families.7
Although the analysis in this brief includes only white children and African-American children (due to data constraints), Latino children represent the largest group of poor children.
Child poverty and economic hardship can have significant consequences for children’s development and life chances. Growing up in poverty can be harmful to children’s cognitive development and ability to succeed in school, to their social and emotional well-being, and to their health. Children who experience hardship when they are young and children who live in persistent and severe poverty are at the greatest risk. Moreover, child poverty costs our society an estimated $500 billion a year in lost productivity and increased spending on health care and the criminal justice system.5
We find that although only a small share of children experience persistent, chronic poverty, children who do are much more likely to be poor as adults. We also find that African-American children are more likely than white children to experience poverty, and even when they spend similar amounts of time living in poverty during childhood, they are more likely to be poor as adults. We conclude by making policy recommendations for improving the life chances of children who grow up in poverty by both increasing family income in the short-term and mitigating the impact of poverty on child outcomes.
How common is it for children to experience poverty at some point during their childhood?
About a third of children experience poverty at some point during childhood; most of these children do not experience chronic, persistent poverty.8
Figure 2: Time children spent living in poverty from birth to age 15: Children born between 1970 and 1990
- 35 percent of children (born between 1970 and 1990) had experienced poverty by the time they reached age 15.
- Of children who experienced poverty, most (69 percent) were poor for less than half of their childhood.
- A small portion of children who experienced poverty lived in persistent poverty: one in 10 children spent at least half of their childhood living in poverty and 6 percent of children were poor for three quarters or more of those years.
African-American children are significantly more
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15-room house at 311 South “C” Street was constructed in 1862, during Virginia City’s mining heyday, and may originally have been built for him as a private residence. But by 1880, Chapin House had been converted into a boarding house, with a Mrs. Cavanaugh acting as the proprietor.
Meanwhile, back east, one of Chapin’s sisters had married a Wheaton, and was living in Norton, Massachusetts. Samuel was apparently her favorite brother. In 1884, Samuel and his wife retired and moved back to Massachusetts to live with the sister. There, he would serve as a Trustee of Wheaton College from 1889-1890.
By now 78 years old, Chapin conceived the notion of revisiting “scenes of his early life,” and eagerly joined a group of fellow pioneers for a trip back to California. It would be his last big adventure.
Chapin died suddenly of a heart attack while in San Bernardino, California on April 17, 1890. Stopping there with his fellow pioneers on their way to San Francisco, Chapin had just finished delivering a rousing address to the crowd at a reception. The last words to fall from his lips were: “God bless the noble State and the dear people of California!”
Chapin’s body was placed in an “elegant coffin,” said to be identical to the one in which General Grant had been buried. It lay in state briefly in San Bernardino, with solemnities conducted by the Native Sons of the Golden West and the San Bernardino Pioneers, before being loaded on a train for return to Boston. Both Chapin Hall at Wheaton College and Chapin Street in Alameda, California would later be named in his honor.
As for Chapin House, it continues to keep its silent vigil, looking down over the town of Virginia City from its lofty perch on “C” Street.
And here’s the last, fun snippet to this story: boardinghouse-keeper Mrs. Cavanaugh — or perhaps even Samuel himself — may not entirely have vacated the premises. Visitors have been said to “complain of an uneasy feeling,” as if there’s a ghost in the house!
Like to read more silver mining history from the Comstock Era in nearby Alpine County?Rosetta’s scientific imaging system OSIRIS is slowly but surely resolving comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in its narrow angle camera (NAC), giving the first tantalising hints of its shape.
The comet covers about four pixels in this image, which was taken on 28 June from a distance of about 86 000 km. The accompanying movie, comprising 36 images taken with the NAC on 27-28 June, shows the comet nucleus spinning with a rotation period of 12.4 hours.
The comet appears – as expected – rather fuzzy from this distance and seemingly covers a slightly larger area than two by two pixels. This is due to the physical effects of the way light is spread inside the imaging system, and is not associated with the comet displaying a coma, for example.
These imaging effects won’t be noticeable once Rosetta is closer to the comet and able to capture the high-resolution images we have all been anticipating. Indeed, there isn’t long to wait before we see what these four pixels are hiding: within the next two weeks the comet will cover an area of 20 x 20 pixels in the NAC.
Today, 3 July, Rosetta is at a distance of about 43 000 kilometres from comet 67P/C-G, and by the end of the weekend will be less than 36 000 km – equivalent to the altitude that geostationary satellites orbit Earth.
Yesterday Rosetta completed the fifth in a series of ten rendezvous manoeuvres required to ensure the spacecraft’s arrival at the comet on 6 August.Two IB educators, Maria Hersey and Lisa Nicholson, recently developed four new workshops in a series called ‘What is an IB education?’ Here, they discuss the workshops as tools for teachers, whether you work in an IB World School or not and no matter which programme you teach.
Q: Is there always more to learn about an IB education?
Maria: Yes! In developing these new workshops, we found that inquiry, conceptual understanding and international-mindedness remain important pillars for educational change in the future. We also found that IB standards and practices really do support good educational pedagogy and philosophy. We used theory and practice to answer, “What does an IB education look like in a classroom?” and “how do I make that happen?”
Q: How does knowing more about an IB education support teachers?
Maria: The more teachers understand what’s happening in their classrooms, the easier it is for them to discuss what evidence-based practice looks like and how teaching and learning are changing. Teachers are the “way into” the IB for many parents. The more parents understand, the more comfortable and supportive they become.
Q: What drove your development focus?
Lisa: One challenge for us was to think beyond each programme and look at the big question: What does an IB education mean? In these workshops, you will explore this question in depth—through your own programme experience and with peers from all four programmes—to help expand your thinking and change your perspective.
Q: Is there an optimal time in your career to explore the meaning of an IB education?
Lisa: It doesn’t matter whether you are an IB educator or not. If you simply want to become a better teacher and one of your goals is to look further into inquiry-based practices, these are good workshops to attend. They go beyond the IB in every instance because the IB is pedagogically sound and comprises best teaching practices. This assures an exciting starting point for everyone in the room.
Q: Can you briefly summarize what each workshop offers?
Lisa: Our workshop named Approaches to Learning looks at what it means to actually teach a skill. What does a skill-equipped student look like? How do I know whether a student has learned a skill? How do students know when they’ve learned a skill? It’s about creating a new awareness in your students.
Many things happen in a classroom, but it’s all useless unless there’s meaning from the student’s perspective. How do we make meaning in terms of perspective and communication? This workshop offers learning activities and engagements around five or six skills and a skill bank of activities to help you build certain skills.
Maria: Conversations about interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary and disciplinary learning inspired the workshop called Beyond the Disciplines. How can educators bring these three worlds together and pull strengths from each? What does such learning look like in and outside the classroom? This workshop encourages you to help students identify a way of knowing that is comfortable for them. The emphasis is on perspective-taking and student engagement.
Investigating Inquiry blends research and application. Why is inquiry essential? What does it look like and how do you and your students engage in it? How does inquiry look across different age levels? We create an inquiry-based learning environment by providing frameworks and then allowing you time to reflect.
Lisa: Living and learning globally is about what it means to be part of the world and how to develop global competence in students. We anchor each engagement in a series of IB command terms—such as ‘identify’ and ‘justify’—so that you can be mindful of the terms in your practice back home.
Maria: Local and global connections are central—so is considering different perspectives and applying the attributes of the learner profile. Classroom discussion might include ‘how do you react when you have contact with what goes against your belief and value system?’
Q: Anything to add about developing these workshops?
Maria: We looked at educational frameworks from Australia, the UK, the US, and OECD. All the pieces started to fit within each workshop to encourage connections—a learning process you can share with your students.Choose your favourite workshop and register today for a location near you!Like a phoenix, Rwanda is fast rising towards a future that is inclusive, innovative and self-reliant. It is in this vein that last year, the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) began drafting a law seeking to regulate the country’s use of genetically modified organisms if and when it adopts their use. This policy framework would guide the import, distribution, and cultivation of genetically modified crops in the country. Not many Rwandans are excited about the prospects of GMOs, even as a measure to ensure food security in the region, as the Ministry of Agriculture says.
While some groups’ sentiments are around the long-term effects of consuming genetically modified foods, many are more concerned, and legitimately so, about the politics of this industry given that only a handful of multinationals control the production of genetically modified seeds across the globe. With its current clean slate – no GM crop has been introduced into the country yet – the government must take a critical look at both sides of this passionate debate before deciding which side it will fare on.
Agriculture biotechnology is a broad term used to describe techniques such as genetic engineering, tissue culture, and molecular markers, employed to impart resistance (pests, drought or flood resistance) to plants, animals, and organisms; or sometimes to improve nutrient quality as is the case with genetically modified sorghum and golden rice, which are enhanced with high content of vitamin A, iron and zinc. Around the world, GM crops are grown by approximately 18 million farmers and imported or researched in more than 75 countries.
The world population is projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, with Africa accounting for more than half of this population. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) says the world will need 60% more food than it currently produces to feed its new entrants. Yet, arguments that the growing of genetically modified crops will help solve its food security challenge isn’t rooted in reality.
“GMOs aren’t silver bullets to tackling food security; it is only one tool in a breeder’s toolbox,” says Modesta Abugu, a Programme Assistant at the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB), a pro-GMO organization with chapters across Africa. Nonetheless, GM crops have been credited with increased food production and reduced losses from pest attacks and adverse weather conditions.
Read more at TechcabalAvailable to Therapist Resources Subscribers Subscribe here
Format for tutorials
Each week I will introduce a new topic - see below - with links to relevant information
Each week's topic will include suggestions for practical activities to promote active engagement and stimulate discussion on the TOMT&T Facebook group
Before you start
1 Sitting for working at a table
The child who has difficulty sitting erect and relatively still with ease and comfort when engaged in table top activities
To get you thinking
The pictures below illustrate sitting postures often seen in children with movement difficulties and problems with sitting and working at a table. Based on your current understanding of postural and motor control, what assumptions would you make about the reason for the slumped posture?
2 Drawing abilities in reception class - Available 5 May 2019
A child's reception class teacher is concerned that her drawings are immature and lack detail. The child herself does not like drawing, says that it is boring.
A T-I-E analysis of drawing to identify the movement and graphomotor abilities needed for drawing and role of motivation and experience.
A collaborative drawing session to identify abilities and engagement
Assessment of shoulder control for drawing - flexibility, strength and endurance
Assessment of pencil grip and finger movements for drawing
Activities for improving shoulder/elbow control for drawing long lines in different directionsDifferent milk products require milk of different composition for their optimal processing and production. Selection has been proposed as a method to alter the composition of milk to meet these optimal processing requirements through breeding. By applying a milk processing sector model to data on 5,797 mixed breed animals, estimated milk product yields for whole milk powder, skim milk powder, butter and cheese were produced. Estimated breeding values (EBVs) for these milk products can be used directly in index rankings, creating a greater flexibility in breeding programs than currently exists. Keywords: milk products, breeding values, dairy, New Zealand
Proceedings of the World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, Volume Electronic Poster Session - Biology & Species - Bovine (dairy) 1,, 243, 2018
|Download Full PDF||BibTEX Citation||Endnote Citation||Search the Proceedings|
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.SharelinesCarsharing can create fast and flexible mobility options for diverse users in dense areas.
Worldwide growth in automobile ownership has triggered many ideas for reducing car use. Most popular of course are plans to expand and improve public transit. The array of alternatives is far wider, however. One that I find potentially plausible and promising is the idea of pooling cars.
It’s an idea that has been tried, especially in Europe, and has sometimes proved successful. Simply put, carsharing is organized short-term car rental, aimed at increasing an individual car’s use while promoting transit riding. Shared vehicles provide a community resource at transit stations, neighborhoods, campuses, employment centers, resorts, etc., offering enhanced accessibility where public transit service is unavailable.
Carsharing organizations (CSOs) have emerged, some acquiring fleets of low-emission, energy-efficient cars that they offer on a membership basis. Because the CSOs are responsible for car maintenance, there’s an incentive for them to perform repairs properly, thus helping reduce pollution and energy consumption. Their members profit by gaining use of a car without bearing the full costs of ownership. Transit operators benefit by tapping an expanded market. Motorists benefit from fewer cars on the road, and employers from less demand for parking spaces. (For example, Lufthansa Airlines installed a short-term rental scheme in 1993 for its employees at Munich and Frankfurt airports and averted over $20 million in parking infrastructure costs.) Carsharing appears to be a win-win strategy.
A scenario for successful carsharing in the US might read like this: Mary rides the train on leaving work at the end of the day. Arriving at a station close to home, she uses her “smart card” to rent a shared-use vehicle, then drives the rest of the way home. She uses the car during the evening and drives back to her station in the morning, where she leaves the car. Someone else will use the car during the day, perhaps to get to work or run errands. Meanwhile, Mary rides the train to a stop near her work where she rents another vehicle and drives to her office. This vehicle could then be used by her colleagues for personal and business errands throughout the day.
Both vehicles in this example spend less time idly parked than would a private vehicle used by one person for commuting and errands. By carsharing, travelers can easily use a variety of transportation modes, including public transit. They also forgo responsibility for insurance, maintenance, and parking.
An International Happening
Over the past decade, carsharing has become more common, especially in Europe and North America. There are many ways to implement carsharing, but most efforts involve only a few vehicles shared by a group of individuals. Cars are typically deployed from a neighborhood lot or transit station, and the majority of programs still manage their services and operations manually: users place a reservation with a human operator, get the vehicle key from a self- service key box, and record mileage and use-data themselves.
Most carsharing efforts are in Europe and remain small. One of the earliest, the Sefage cooperative, begun in Zurich in 1948, provided use of cars to those who could not afford them. Several other experiments were attempted during the next thirty years, including one in Sweden that began as an experiment in 1983 and lasted until 1998. Though small (35 households shared 5 cars), this program inspired many current Swedish CSOs.
Other successful carsharing groups got started in the late 1980s in Europe. Today there are approximately 200 CSOs in 450 cities throughout Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Great Britain, and Italy. These organizations collectively claim a membership of over 130,000.
The two oldest and largest CSOs are Mobility CarSharing Switzerland, with 1,200 cars, and Stadtauto Drive of Germany, with approximately 300 cars. The Swiss program, begun in 1987, now operates in 800 locations in over 300 communities, with more than 27,000 members. Stadtauto Drive began operations in 1988 and now has approximately 7,000 members.
These two organizations, founded a year apart, evolved independently. Mobility CarSharing Switzerland sprang from a grassroots effort. In contrast, Stadtauto Drive began as a university research project to demonstrate that carsharing could be a viable transportation alternative for Germany. These two are recognized worldwide as modern pioneers of carsharing. Both CSOs grew about 50 percent per year until 1996, and Mobility CarSharing Switzerland continues to grow about 25 percent per year. Stadtauto Drive’s growth rate has slowed more substantially, however.
Stadtauto Drive management attributes the slow growth to several factors. Some members have moved from the inner city to the countryside where access to carsharing and public transit is limited. Others, who use the cars on only rare occasions, find the yearly membership fees too costly and switch to traditional auto rentals. Other members find they require vehicles so often that the effort to reserve shared-use cars becomes too great a burden. Many of them buy private cars and leave the CSO.
As carsharing programs expand beyond 100 vehicles, manually operated systems become expensive and inconvenient, subject to mistakes in reservations, access, and billing. They also become more vulnerable to vandalism and theft. As a result, some CSOs are pressured to enlarge even further and generate revenue to pay for new communication and reservation technologies.
Recently, both Stadtauto Drive and Mobility CarSharing Switzerland have started modernizing, moving from manual “key box” operations to a system of smart cards for automating reservations, accessing vehicle keys, securing vehicles from theft, and billing. The shift to smart cards simplifies vehicle access for customers and eases administration and management of large systems.
In addition to advanced carsharing technologies, large European CSOs are developing a range of new services, including partnerships with transit agencies, car-leasing programs, car rental companies, and taxis. These partnerships include business and marketing collaborations and, in many cases, smart-card technology. The alliances promise many benefits and possibilities for CSOs, as seen in the Swiss Zuger Pass Plus program, which bundles carsharing, public transit, car rental, taxi, and bicycle rentals into a sort of frequent-flyer program. Another Swiss program, Easy-Ride, connects practically every public transportation company in Switzerland, including rail, bus, taxi, carsharing, and car rental. Smart cards simplify ticketing and marketing and encourage travelers to use several transport modes.
Developments in Asia
In recent years carsharing experiments have cropped up in Singapore and Japan. The high cost of owning a car in Singapore may be a reason that within a few weeks of its announcement, 150 people signed up to participate in a carsharing program that had room for only 80. Present participants live in a large, high-rise development and share four cars. Two other condominium complexes are testing their own programs, with one car for every forty residents.
In October 1997, the Honda Motor Company launched a test carsharing system, called the Intelligent Community Vehicle System, in Motegi, Japan. Participants have access to four types of electric vehicles at several sites. Using a smart card, participants can reserve, unlock, and start the vehicles, eliminating the need for ignition keys. Fees can be automatically deducted from participants’ accounts. Other high-tech attributes of this system include global positioning for up-to-the-minute monitoring of vehicle location, platooning technologies that allow a worker driving a lead car to collect unoccupied vehicles and guide them to a port, an auto-driving function so cars can conveniently meet users, and an autocharging system that instructs the vehicles to dock at a charging terminal when batteries are low.
Sharing Cars in North America
Two formal carsharing projects were undertaken in the US in the 1980s. Researchers at Purdue University conducted a field test that offered short-term rentals of minicars as well as a special-purpose fleet of large sedans and trucks. The study found that the minicars were used for 75 percent of participating households’ vehicle miles of travel, while the special-purpose fleet was used 35 percent of the time it was available.
STAR, or Short-Term Auto Rental, began operating as a private carsharing enterprise in 1983 at a large (9,000 resident) apartment complex in San Francisco. STAR kept its rental rates low to discourage auto ownership, and it saved money by buying used economy-class vehicles. At its peak the company maintained a fleet of 51 vehicles and had a membership of 350. However, the operation failed halfway through its planned three-year program.
The primary problem was the low and erratic income of many of the tenants, some of them students sharing apartments and not listed on the rental lease, and many not credit-worthy. STAR’s pricing structure, which encouraged long-term as well as short-term rentals, also invited problems such as long-distance towing charges incurred when the older vehicles broke down far from San Francisco.
I know about nine carsharing organizations in North America, five of them in Canada. All are small, and none yet uses smart technologies. Four are run for profit; the others are nonprofits. At present, a smart carsharing demonstration program in northern California (known as CarLink) is testing and evaluating several state-of-the-art communication and reservation technologies. The CarLink field test, which is currently being conducted in the Dublin-Pleasanton region of northern California, is cosponsored by the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis and its partners—the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART), American Honda Motor Company, Caltrans, UC’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Teletrac (a company that provides vehicle tracking technologies), and INVERS (which developed a key management system). Approximately sixty participants use smart keys and an Internet reservation system to share twelve Hondas fueled by compressed natural gas (CNG). The cars are based at the Dublin-Pleasanton BART Station and at LLNL, about fifteen miles away. Three different types of participants pay different rates.
Homeside users drive a CarLink vehicle between the BAR T station and home each day, keeping the car overnight and on weekends for personal use. They pay a $200 monthly fee, which includes a tank of CNG fuel, insurance, and maintenance costs. Workside commuters take BART to the Dublin-Pleasanton station and drive a CarLink vehicle to and from LLNL. Their $60 monthly fee, again for fuel, insurance, and maintenance, can be shared with coworkers by carpooling. Day users pick up a CarLink vehicle at either BART or LLNL and use it for business trips or personal errands during the day for $1.50 per hour plus $.10 per mile.
In southern California, a similar demonstration program (called Intellishare) employs electric vehicles, smart cards, and on-board computer automatic-vehicle-location technologies. Carsharing programs using smart technologies are potentially more convenient and reliable, which could make them attractive to users and increase the likelihood of their use and success.
What Have We Learned?
To date, all noncorporate carsharing organizations in Europe began as small local operations, usually with government funding and inspired by ideological concerns about car dependence and negative effects of cars on urban settlements.
One study concluded that new start-up CSOs are likely to succeed if they remain self-organizing and local for a long time. Recent history suggests it is difficult to transform a small, often neighborhood-based, grassroots CSO into an economically viable business. Many have miscalculated the number of vehicles needed, placed too great an emphasis on advanced technology, or expended funds for marketing with little return. In Europe, many of the failed organizations have merged or been acquired by larger European CSOs.
Several surveys of carsharing users have been conducted in Europe, and although most were limited to simple questionnaires among small sample populations, they do provide useful insight. A survey in Switzerland and Germany found users were between 25 and 40 years of age with an above-average education, were likely to be male, earned a below-average income, and were sensitive to environmental and traffic problems.
Another European study surveyed individuals who had not participated in carsharing. The principle reasons for not joining were the unprofessional image of many CSOs, an insufficient variety of products and services, higher costs than transit, a system that was “complicated, impractical, and time consuming,” and vehicles not readily available near home.
In Europe, the model CSO is one whose vehicles are used intensively by customers who drive infrequently for relatively short distances. While CSOs require frequent use to keep prices low, they are most economical for drivers who use cars sparingly. Stadtauto Drive reports that their vehicles average 21,250 miles per year, compared to 9,060 miles of the average German car. Trips tend to be short: 77 percent less than 24 hours, and 56 percent ranging between 12 and 62 miles. Average occupancy of a Stadtauto Drive vehicle is two persons, compared to the German average of 1.3. Individual members drive less than half the mileage of the average private car driver.
Another study of Mobility Carsharing Switzerland found the trip expenses of early members were reduced by $1,700 annually, and that carsharing is cost-effective for users who drive less than 5,630 miles per year. Car mileage for individuals who had owned private vehicles was reduced 33 to 50 percent after they joined the CSO. Most members increased their public transportation use. (Differences in land use and transit use patterns indicate that such a dramatic reduction in car usage is probably much greater in Europe than we could expect in North America.)
CSOs are more likely to be economically successful where they provide a dense network and variety of vehicles, serve a diverse mix of users, create joint-marketing partnerships with other transit companies, offer flexible yet simple rate systems, and provide for easy emergency access to taxis and long-term car rentals. They are most likely to thrive where environmental consciousness is high, driving disincentives such as high parking costs and traffic congestion are pervasive, car-ownership costs are high, and alternative modes of transportation are easily accessible.
CSOs may be precursors of a new kind of mobility-service company. As car ownership proliferates and vehicles become more modular and specialized, entrepreneurial companies may see an opportunity to offer full transport services at work sites, transit stations, shopping centers, and in neighborhoods, based on partnership-management strategies. Carsharing organizations could lead the way to a whole new range of transportation options for many.
Susan Shaheen, “CarLink: A Smart Carsharing System,” Intellimotion, v. 8, no. 1, pp. 1-3 and 13, 1999.
Susan Shaheen, Daniel Sperling, and Victoria Nerenberg, “Smart CarLinking in the San Francisco Bay Area: A Market Evaluation,” ITS America Eighth Annual Meeting, May, 1998. UCD-ITS-IP-98-2.
Conrad Wagner and Susan Shaheen, “Car Sharing and Mobility Management: Facing New Challenges with Technology and Innovative Business Planning,” World Transportation Policy and Practice, v. 4, no. 2, pp. 39-43, 1998. UCD-ITS-RP-98-11.River Conon History
Thanks to Andrew Graham-Stewart for permission to reprint this chapter from his book "The Salmon Rivers of the North Highlands and the Outer Hebrides" which provides a fascinating account of the River Conon's history:
Lower Strathconon, now an open and serene landscape of rolling farm and parkland, used to have a very different appearance. Before it was drained in the 18th and 19th centuries, most of this terrain was bleak marsh and bog; the latter played a critical part in one of the most decisive battles of the clan era.
In 1491 the MacKenzie army of some 800 men were heavily outnumbered by over 2000 MacDonalds at the Battle of the Park (Blar na Pairc) near Contin. The MacKenzies, who were on home territory, cunningly lured the Macdonalds into a quagmire; as they wallowed and floundered in the peat, thousands of arrows rained down on them, before the MacKenzie line moved in to finish the slaughter. A few MacDonalds managed to flee towards the River Conon. As the river was in spate, they asked an old woman the location of the ford. Intentionally she misled them, and they attempted to cross at the wrong point; many were drowned, and those who desperately clung to the bank had their hands severed by the sickles of the old lady and her associates. No more than 200 MacDonalds survived to return to the Western Isles, and they never threatened the MacKenzies again.
The Conon system, by far the largest north of the Great Glen, drains 400 square miles of Ross-shire’s high mountains and moorland. Bordered in broad-brush terms by the Beauly to the south, the Ewe to the west and the Carron to the north, it is supplied by a fan-like formation of four main tributaries, each between 20 and 30 miles long; they are in clock-wise order the Orrin, the Meig, the Bran and the Blackwater. The Conon itself has a course of some 12 miles from the Conon Falls, initially Highland in character before flowing through the rich pastures and arable fields to its mouth at the southern end of the Cromarty Firth by Dingwall.
The Conon was a very important source of wealth for the MacKenzies. An apocryphal story that another strain of MacKenzies (of Conan Estate) lost their netting rights in a gambling episode in the 1700s has no basis in fact. The estuary salmon netting was highly lucrative, and remained so over the centuries; the Cromarty Firth, completely protected from the open sea, is an ideal netting location. By the 19th century there was a profusion of nets up and down the firth, supplemented by in-river nets and cruives (fixed salmon traps). Between 1828 and 1837 a long legal battle was waged by Cromarty Estate against the use of stake nets by two other proprietors with land adjoining the firth. In 1838 the court found in favour of the Estate, with the estuary defined as extending as far the mouth of the firth at the Sutors, inside which the use of fixed engine nets was prohibited. This was reconfirmed by the Byelaw of 1865.
By the latter part of the 19th century, as salmon angling became more valuable, the cruives at Brahan on the lower Conon became extremely contentious. Those fish not trapped in the boxes were netted below and escapement above was thought to be minimal. In 1890 a consortium of river proprietors, wishing to maximise escapement, leased the Brahan cruives and net fishing. For the next few years there was no exploitation at this location, allowing stocks the opportunity to recover. However on the face of it the main beneficiaries were the net and coble operators in the firth. The district’s netting catch increased steadily from 8,000 in 1892 to 27,200 in 1895. In the latter year the total for the rods including the neighbouring Alness amounted to only 800.
Evidently the intensity and productivity of the nets dismayed the river proprietors, and by 1901 the cruives were functioning again. According to Calderwood (1909), as well as the cruives, "27 shots (ie nets) are fished here in three and a quarter miles of water" and "it will be readily understood that a very complete control over all ascending fish can be exercised and, except during floods or the weekly close times, fish have a poor chance of reaching the upper waters". The efficiency of the nets was beginning to have a marked impact on stocks, as in 1907 their catch was reduced to little more than 4,000; this included "150 clean fish at the first sweep" on opening day (February 11).
Within a decade the decline in stocks was "serious", threatening the viability of rod-fishings, and the river proprietors decided to act. Sir John Stirling and Lord Roberts amongst others joined forces with the Sellar family (who had the Findhorn Bay nets) and the Lovats on the Beauly to form the Moray Firth Salmon Fishing Company in 1920. They bought up most of the area’s coastal nets including those in the Conon estuary and firth, so that they could be properly regulated and operated to achieve a balance; once stocks built up after a period of little if any netting effort, the company would reactivate their operations to exploit the better numbers. This was the pattern for four decades or so before it adopted a more business-like approach. As salmon stocks started to dwindle in the 1980s, so once again the company reduced the intensity of its operations; between 1977 and 1986 its annual average catch within the firth was 502 salmon and 1478 grilse. The company’s rights in the Cromarty Firth were acquired and mothballed by the Atlantic Salmon Conservation Trust in 1991.
In terms of angling the Conon was historically very much a spring fishery, with fresh fish in the lower reaches from opening day (February 11); incidentally there seems to be some confusion as to when and by whose authority the opening moved to January 26. The main runs of salmon were in March and April. Prior to 1939 the lower Brahan beat (above the tidal stretch) would typically catch 150 by the end of March, and 300 by the end of April; between 1898 and 1900, before the nets were brought under some control, Brahan Castle averaged only 96 up to the end of April. Up until the 1940s Fairburn Estate, with the right bank for some four miles upstream from the mouth of the Orrin, hardly fished after the end of June, and thus in most years no more than three grilse were recorded!
The Blackwater tributary, which joins the left bank of the Conon from the northwest some five miles up from the mouth, was also a superb spring fishery; the short Middle beat (below Rogie Falls) could easily produce 500 fish by the end of June.
The system was first tapped for electricity in the 1920s when a small power station was built to harness the potential of the Falls of Conon. Then between 1946 and 1961 the whole of the catchment was exploited in the most ambitious and comprehensive hydro-electric scheme in the north. In three separate stages- the Fannich Scheme, the Glascarnoch-Luichart-Torr Achilty Scheme and the Orrin Scheme- the Conon catchment was transformed with seven main dams, 20 miles of tunnels, 15 miles of aqueducts and seven power stations.
Thereafter the character of the system was fundamentally altered. Both the Conon and the Blackwater used to be wilder and less predictable in the spring. There were major floods in 1892 and 1922. There were also four big damaging floods between 1962 and 1989- after the harnessing of the system- before lessons were learned. In the 1962 flood the Marybank to Moy Bridge road was beneath 16 feet of water. The main stem of the Conon now carries far more water on an annual basis than previously, as it receives great volumes from outwith its own catchment- the headwaters of the Carron, the Blackwater and the Orrin. Since 1989 there have been no further floods, as more water is released on a regular basis from Loch Luichart, and consequently there is enough spare capacity to hold back flood waters when required.
As the scheme developed, the Hydro-Board bought all the salmon fishing rights (including the valuable Brahan Castle fishings, held for generations by the Seaforth family)- with one notable exception: the late Sir John Stirling refused to sell the Fairburn beats, despite the threat of compulsory purchase, as he believed that in due course the fishings would actually improve downstream of the dams.
During the 1950s the Hydro-Board put into place an extensive programme of works designed to mitigate for the loss of spawning grounds and natural flows. This "compensation package" included numerous fish-lifts within dams, a large capacity hatchery and guaranteed compensation flows (the Conon no longer becomes unfishably low in summer). New fish-ladders were installed- most notably at the Conon Falls; prior to this the falls had never been surmountable, although their blasting had been considered on several occasions since the late 19th century. With these falls circumvented, salmon had access for the first time ever to the River Bran (the largest tributary) and a vast area of virgin spawning territory. There were considerable teething problems with the downstream migration of smolts, but these have now been resolved and the Bran is already making a considerable contribution to the system's smolt-producing capacity.
The Blackwater was also radically affected by the Hydro scheme. Its headwaters were dammed and piped across to the Conon. Most of the spawning burns and habitat were lost, and consequently the two dams were constructed without fish-passes. By way of further compensation a large fish trap was built on the Upper Blackwater; this was designed to capture the entire run of adult salmon returning to the Blackwater, and these fish are indeed trapped each year as broodstock for the hatchery.
Whilst the importance of the Blackwater as a fishery has greatly diminished, it is still a vital nursery area; in fact two thirds of the River Conon's annual rod catch is now landed below the junction with the Blackwater. It is probably fair to say that the tributaries have borne the brunt of the effects of the Hydro schemes. The Meig, which flows from the west parallel to the Bran and joins the Conon below the falls, and the Orrin are no longer so accessible to adult salmon.
The Orrin, the lowest tributary (two miles up from the mouth), was another excellent spring fishery; the Falls pool was, by virtue of a separate royal charter to Fairburn Estate, extensively netted and in some years it yielded 1000 salmon, with fish taken as early as opening day. The Orrin was impounded prior to the 1959 season; that year the nets took 87 and the rods three, and the following year they had one and one respectively. The reason for this dramatic decline was the amount of dirt and silt being washed downstream from the works above. The tributary was then restocked, but the outbreak of UDN in 1967 meant that it was the early 1970s before adult numbers recovered, with the net taking an average of 111 salmon and 239 grilse between 1973 and 1982. Fish began to use the four Borland passes
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strong facility for writing programmatic music, as well as an operetta entitled The Two Poets. His output during the 1880s and 1890s included a good share of concert music, including a symphony, but he also played violin in theater orchestras. In 1888 became the conductor at the Globe Theater, where his music for a stage production of Richard III won over the public and critics alike. His overture to Richard III quickly took on a life of its own in the concert hall, which heralded the public acceptance of his symphony as well. The dances from a score he wrote for a production of Henry VIII also became extremely popular and established German's reputation for writing orchestral music utilizing traditional old English dance elements. German continued writing for the concert hall in the 1890s, but it was his theatrical work that attracted an ever wider following, culminating with his incidental music for English Nell, a play by Anthony Hope, the author best remembered for the novel The Prisoner of Zenda. After the death of Sir Arthur Sullivan in 1900, German was commissioned to complete Sullivan's score for the operetta The Emerald Isle, which became a major hit. Soon after, he wrote his most enduring work, Merrie England, a lushly tuneful light opera. Steeped in English myth and German's deliberately archaic, old English style, Merrie England was a huge hit and seemed to establish German as the successor to Sullivan, but his follow-up work, A Princess of Kensington, wasn't nearly as well received. During a break from the theater, he wrote his one enduring concert work, the Welsh Rhapsody, and a series of settings for Kipling's Just So Stories. He enjoyed one more great theatrical success, Tom Jones, which he brought to America (where he also conducted his Welsh Rhapsody with the New York Symphony Orchestra). After the failure of the operetta Fallen Faeries (co-authored with W.S. Gilbert), however, German abandoned his career as a composer, apart from pieces written for the 1911 coronation of King George V, one concert work, a set of dances, for the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1919, and one final orchestral piece, The Willow Song.
From 1911 onward, he busied himself primarily with preparing the published scores of his works, conducting concerts, walking and bicycling around the countryside, and following the cricket matches. His knighthood was awarded in 1928, and he received a medal from the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1934. German's closest peer as a composer was Sullivan, and much as the latter's concert works fell into neglect after his death, German's concert music (apart from the Welsh Rhapsody) has been forgotten, but his incidental music has its admirers. Merrie England is a staple of British amateur opera companies and was recorded by EMI in 1960.This project goes over the build of an emergency Straw Style Survival Water Filter. This water filter is small, lightweight and ideal for an SHTF scenario or hiking/camping. Very effective for purifying rain or tap water or removing disease causing water contaminants. With regular maintenance the filter should last for years.
The materials needed to make this water filter are turkey baster, cotton balls, coffee filters,activated carbon. All these materials can be purchased from your local store or aquarium supply stores. The activated carbon is rated to last for five months if used regularly.
Start by taking a cotton ball and push it down the turkey baster.
Rinse the activated carbon by running it through tap water before putting them over the cotton balls.
Pour the rinsed activated carbon all the way to the top of the pipe and put two more cotton balls at the top.
Now take some coffee filter paper and slide it over the top of the cotton balls and tie it down using a twist tie or rubber band so that the whole thing wont slip out when you are using it. If you don’t have the cotton balls available, you can always just ball up some pieces of coffee filter paper and put them on either end of the activated carbon in between.
An alternative way of using this is to cut the top of the poultry baster and and put it on the top of the straw. Take the dirty water and manually filter it through the straw.
Once the material inside the filter gets saturated water moves pretty thoroughly through the straw. The cotton balls in the paper will get dirty pretty quick up here capturing most of the dirt but you can just pull those out periodically and add new ones.
- How to Heat your Home or Garage for Free by building Solar Air Heating Collectors that uses no electricity or batteriesSolar heat collectors are a good supplemental heating source that can provide homeowners with free heat for their home when the sun is shining. Solar collectors are a box like structure that capture the energy from the sun and convert it into usable energy for heating purposes. Inside the collector solar energy is simply converted into usable thermal energy. On the front side of the solar collectors. a clear panel or glazing material typically polycarbonate sheeting, single pane glass,double pane glass face towards the sun and allow the sunlight into the collector box. On the inside of the collector box is a heat exchanger or a absorber. The heat exchanger or absorber is responsible for transferring the heat of the sun into a usable thermal heat source. The heat exchanger is suspended or attached inside the collector box and should be coated flat black with a high heat temperature resistant paint. The flat black paint helps to absorb the heat energy from the sun. It is very important to utilize a flat finish black paint inside the collector box. If the paint has a reflective coating, it will reflect the sun back outside of the collector, which results in lost potential energy. It assists with the entrapment of that heat energy rather than reflecting it away from the collector. Once the sunlight has penetrated the collector box through the glazing, the heat exchanger material and the flat black paint will absorb that heat and begin to warm the air inside the collector. As the air inside the collector and around the absorber warms, it will expand and rise. The expansion of warm air will naturally create a convection current. As the air inside the collector rises, it will continue to pick up heat through friction with the absorber. The air passing over and through the absorber is given more opportunity to gain heat by rubbing against that surface which is being heated by the sun. Now that the air is warm and picking up heat and needs a way to move through the collector box, we install two vents on the backside of the solar collector facing towards the room or space that we want to heat. Through the vent at the top of the collector, the heated air moves into the home, the vent at the bottom allows the cooler air to return back to the the collector. Having a return event at the bottom and a supplier event at the top of the solar collector allows natural convection process. The air inside the collector is picking up heat from the absorber and is naturally wanting to rise up and out of the collector. A natural force of air rising will induce a convection current, which will pull cooler return air from the room or condition space into the bottom of the collector box. The collector creates a convection current inside the room.It removes cooler dense air from the bottom of the room and takes it through the collector where it is warm, and then exhausts the heated air out of the supply duct back into the room. This project goes over the build of an entirely self contained Solar Air Heater using no grid power whatsoever. The unit draws the cold air from the room and exhausts hot air into the room using a 2 5V DC brushless 7 vane case fans. This fans are powered by a 16 Watt Amorphous solar panel. Both the intake and exhaust pipes ore of 5 inch diameter. 9 rows of 17 soda pop cans, a total of 153 355ml soda cans are used for the collector. The aluminum pop cans are painted with a flat black paint to ensure all sunlight is absorbed and not reflected. Also there is a five inch intake and exhaust manifold at the bottom and top of the unit. This ensures that all air travels through the interior of the aluminum cans. To maximize the heat transfer from the sun to air within a given space, we need to build a better heat exchanger. Solar air heating systems use air as the working fluid for absorbing and transferring solar energy. Transferring heat from one place to another by definition is a heat exchanger. When the sun heats the metal, the hot metal heats the air circulating over the metal of the heat exchanger. The job is to capture radiation from the sun and transfer this thermal energy to air via conduction heat transfer. Heat transfer output depends on the rise in temperature and the airflow. In order to minimize heat loss through the plexiglass, we keep the absorber temperature as low as usually possible. The cooler the absorber runs, the less heat will be lost out of the glass. A way to keep the absorber cooler while extracting the same amount of energy from the sun is to increase the airflow. To improve conduction heat transfer without significantly reducing airflow, we disturb the airflow within the solar air tubes. Four holes are put in some of the soda cans to create a baffle that increase the turbulence.These baffle cans are placed evenly across the tubes to distribute the airflow. We place the first baffle cans on the second row from the bottom with the intention of disturbing the airflow early. The second baffle will be located in the 10th can. In order to stack the empty cans, we make an assembly tray "V" shaped support structure using leftover baseboard. The cans are glued together using PL Premium construction adhesive that is water resistant, non shrinking and paintable. The soda cans are positioned on the loading tray and slowly rotated to evenly distribute the construction adhesive. The "V" channel made from baseboards holds the cans perfectly straight. The box for the Solar air heater is made of 5052 aluminum alloy sheets. The dimension of the box are 91 inches tall and 24 inches wide. We use a one inch flange and a metal bending brake to bend the aluminum to make the sides of the box. The top and bottom caps are bend to fit on the top and bottom of the box. When manufacturing the bottom caps, the distance between the bends is decreased by one millimeter to allow the caps to fit inside the solar air box to facilitate drainage. Next step is securing the aluminum box top and bottom.The procedure involves using a smaller diameter drill bit as a pilot and then drilling to final size for the rivet only after the two pieces are mated together. The pieces being held together via cleco fasteners. The function of the cleco is to temporarily hold material in the exact position during the manufacturing process. Two five inches holes are cut at both top and bottom on the box to install the plenums. The intake and the exhaust pipes for the two solar air heaters are manufactured from a single piece of five inch HVAC plenum. These are inserted and secured into the holes using construction adhesive. The back of the box is insulated using two sheets of half inch foam sheet. One sheet of half inch foam is installed on the sides. A pneumatic air file is used to cut the sheets. We install a snap action thermostat in the interior of the exhaust manifold, constantly monitoring the temperature of the air being brought into the dwelling. The intake and exhaust manifolds need to ensure that all air travel through the interior of the cans therefore it is important to have a good seal to each can. This also means that the manifold itself needs to seal well against the interior of the heat box. Nine holes are cut on a two sheets of half inch plywood to make the intake and the exhaust manifolds. These manifolds are secured in place against the cans using PL construction adhesives. The solar air tubes are held tight inside the box using two 1/16th half inch 6063 aluminum extrudes. These lightly applying pressure on the cans holding them firmly against the back of the heat chamber. Three separate coats of high heat black rest-o-leum paint are applied to the box, all within 60 minutes of each other. Clear silicon adhesive will be the primary method of adhering the Plexiglas to the solar air heater. After precisely positioning the glass on top of the heat chamber, I used a 1/8 inch pilot drill to go through the plexiglass. One full tube of silicone is used around the perimeter prior to laying the glass down. We install 2 16 Watt Sailflo Duct Exhaust fans with a capacity of moving 141 CFM (Cubic Feet per Minute) for air. These are powered by a small solar panel. One blowing air into the chamber and one sucking air out. This helps to overcome the additional internal airflow resistance built into the design. The completed solar air collector is installed outside facing south to maximize the exposure to the sun. Once the solar air collector is installed outside, we take the temperature rise between the incoming and outgoing air while moving 141 cubic feet of air per minute from the fans. The calculate the amount of heat transfer we multiply the CFM and Temperature rise with a factor of 1.08. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6YanwREcLx7h747VhKjJLClqvBmy5cF5
- DIY Video: How to build a Copper Coil Ammo Box Off Grid Water Heater.Also works as a Space Heater
- How to build an DIY 12 V Portable Water Pump Box with filtration system for Outdoor Survival / RVThis project goes into the build of an offgrid portable water pump and filtration system that can turn any water from your creek,lake,river into safe and clean drinking water. This 12V portable system can be powered by solar or from your car directly and is ideal for camping, RV or outdoor survival enthusiasts. This system enables them to pump water from a fresh water source, filter and then store or use in case of emergency survival situation. The materials you need to build this portable filtration system are as follows. A tactix storage box to lodge the water pump,inlet and outlet hoses, an inline water filter or twin carbon 0.5micron filter, pex pipe, garden hose pipes, 12mill barb strainer,rocker switch,12V Shurflo water pump with the flow rate of 11 litres per minute, 50 amp Anderson plug and 10m heavy duty wire,basic tools such as wire cutters, long nose pliers, solder. The first step is completing the wiring for the water pump inside the tactix tool box. The rocker switch, the Anderson plug and a 7.5 Amp inline fuse are wired. The 12V rocker toggle switch is mounted at the center of the box lid. The power input plug or the Anderson plug is mounted to the left of the switch. This input plug connects to the car battery or a solar battery. The positive red wires from the switch is connected to the Anderson plug through an inline fuse.The negative black wire from the plug goes straight to the switch. The remaining wires from the switch is then connected to the water pump which will be installed later. The wires are covered with corrugated split tubing to ensure that it is protected and safe. The filter strainer is installed on the inlet side of the pump using an elbow, thread tapes. The strainer will filter out any unwanted debris before it goes to the pump. Couple of holes are drilled into to the side of the box where the inlet and the outlet hoses will connect the water pump. The male fitting are attached to the holes before the pump is installed. The pump is placed inside the box and mounted securely in such a way that the elbows are facing towards the two holes for the exterior hoses that was just made at the side of the box. Once the pump is mounted,we connect the red and black wires coming from the switch to the positive and negative connections of the pump. The wires are once again covered with corrugated split tubing for safety. To connect the pump with the hose outlets, we measure the distance between the outlets and the pump and connect two pex pipes. Heat was applied to the pipe for bending and moulding them to connect the outlets. The 10 metre 50 Amp Anderson plug extension heavy duty cable wire is connected to the power source.Here the power draw is from a car battery. The other end is connected the input anderson plug on the top side of the box. The inlet hose with the strainer attached is placed sitting midway into the water source.The other end of the hose is connected to the intake pipe coming from the pump inside the box. The The other hose is connected to the outlet pipe coming from the water pump inside the box. At the end of the hose, we connect an inline water filter or a twin carbon filter. The carbon filter ensures that there is no sediments or debris inside the water and also helps to eliminate bacteria and other contaminants. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLiTn8YacWoTwo page paper addressing the mise en scene of the film
Elements for analyzing mise en scene
Identify the components of the shot, but explaining the meaning or significance behind those components and connecting the shot to the themes of the film
1. Dominant: Where is the eye attracted first? Why?
2. Lighting key: High key? Low key? High contrast? Some combination of these?
3. Shot and camera proxemics: What type of shot? How far away is the camera from the action?
4. Angle: Is the viewer (through the eye of the camera) looking up or down on the subject? Or is the camera neutral (eye level)?
5. Color values: What is the dominant color? Are there contrasting foils? Is there color symbolism?
6. Lens/filter/stock: How do these distort or comment on the
7. Subsidiary contrasts: What are the main eye-stops after taking in the dominant?
8. Density: How much visual information is packed into the image? Is the texture stark, moderate, or highly detailed?
9. Composition: How is the two-dimensional space segmented and organized? What is the underlying design?
10. Form: Open or closed? Does the image suggest a window that arbitrarily isolates a fragment of the scene? Or a proscenium arch, in which the visual elements are carefully arranged and held in balance?
11. Framing: Tight or loose? Do characters have little to no room to move, or can they move freely without impediments?
12. Depth: On how many planes is the image composed? Does the background or foreground comment in any way on the midground?
13. Character placement: What part of the framed space do the characters occupy? Center? Top? Bottom? Edges? Why?
14. Staging positions: Which way do the characters look vis-à-vis the camera?
15. Character proxemics: How much space is between the
What are the 4 distinct formal elements that make up a film’s mise en scene?
• staging of the action
• physical setting and decor
• the manner in which these materials are framed
• the manner in which they are photographedUpgrade to remove ads
Topic 2: Fundamentals of Information Security
Terms in this set (35)
What is Vulnerability?
-a flaw, bug or misconfiguration that a cyber actor can exploit to gain unauthorised access to your network and information.
-to protect business from attackers exploiting vulnerabilities in your network or systems:
>Know vulnerabilities (Assessment)
>Know the impact of vulnerabilities (Analysis)
>Minimise vulnerabilities (Management)
-Assessment: Review of network or systems for unusual configurations.
-Analysis: getting a thorough understanding (what happens) of the impact and mitigation techniques (what can be done) for vulnerabilities identified.
-Management: a program to ensure vulnerabilities in business systems are identified. Then appropriate mitigation can be applied based on risk level, quickly.
What is 'the cyber threat'?
-cyber intrusions are the biggest threat faced by Australian ICT systems, and is usually aimed at businesses, where information, intellectual property, scientific data, government documents and more are stolen.
>Catch (malicious software with whitelisting)
>Patch (operating system and applications)
>Match (the right people with the right privileges)
How does computer use at home, be dangerous?
-Software not updated
-Anti-Virus not installed
-Irresponsible online presence
-Opening or answering of unsolicited emails or phone calls
-Data not backed up
-Illegitimate software installed
-Weak passwords and/or usage of similar passwords for different accounts
-Device gets lost
What threat do wireless networks pose?
-are used because they are cheap and easy to set up and meet employee demands.
-Problems to consider:
>Free WiFi zones
>Wireless and Fixed hybrids
>Defualt setting enabled
>Authentication not used
What is cloud computing?
-the access to network storage and applications, which have the potential to help businesses leverage modern technologies via internet connectivity.
-offers significant computing capability, storage and economy of scale, via 3rd party vendors, that is not cheap for small businesses.
what considerations must be made about cloud computing?
>business functionality must be maintained
>data must be protected from unauthorised access by other parties
>data must be protected from being misused by other customers
>security incidents must be dealt with, quickly.
what is email filtering?
-used to enforce policy (only as good as the policy)
>prevent delivery of emails of an executable nature, which may cause non-security conscious individuals to double click them.
>prevent emails with executable files disguised as other files (e.g. renamed as txt)
-attackers usually try to bypass executable filters.
How can you prepare for cyber incidents?
-Can be costly for staff and resources. Businesses can be impacted:
>Service unavailablity and lost productivity
>Damage to agency reputation and trust
>Lost or stolen information that could harm Australia's economic well being, national security or the privilege of Australian people
> Staff time and costs associated with restoring systems to a trusted state.
-must be reported and resolved in an efficient and timely manner. The severity, scope, damage or cost of a cyber incident increases with every hour it remains unresolved.
What are questions we ask when preparing for cyber incidents?
>What are our legislative requirements and obligations for incident reporting?
>Are procedures in place to provide information and reporting to relevant parties during an incident?
>Do we have a business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan and have these plans been regularly tested?
>Do we have an up-to-date and regularly tested incident reporting plan?
>Have we identified critical systems?
>Do we have processes in place to detect when an incident may have occurred?
>How easily and quickly can we access resource key to mitigating an incident?
>Do we have up-to-date after hours contact list for key personnel and external stakeholder?
>Do we have the ability to identify and isolate an affected workstation or system?
What threats do small businesses face, and how can do reduce these threats?
>Wireless internet vulnerabilities
>Phishing and Spear Phishing (more personalised)
>Anti virus and malware tools
What are some codes of ethics?
-a collection of principles that are intended to guide decision-making by members of an organisation professional association.
-if something is legal it can still be unethical.
What are the general frameworks for ethical issues?
1. recognise the issue
2. get the facts
3. evaluate alternatives
4. make a decision and test it
5. Act and reflect on the outcome a decision
How does ethics and business relate?
How does ethics and IS relate?
4 categories of ethical issues:
what is the general approach used by IS professionals when making ethical decisions?
-ethical claims should be discussed rationally.
-ethical choices cannot be avoided.
-ethical reflection should begin with the assumption that all the IS design and implementation involves value choices (e.g. legalism: legal does not equal ethical).
What is the right to privacy and what threats are posed?
-refers to the concept that one's personal information is protected from public scrutiny.
-Not absolute, must be balanced against the needs of society.
-Public's right takes precedence over the individual's right.
>data aggregators (people who summarise data), digital dossiers (information left when browsing), and profiling (extrapolating information based on certain traits or tendencies online).
> personal information in databases
>info on bulletin boards/newsgroups
>social network sites.
How can we protect privacy?
-protecting an organisation's guidelines with respect to protecting the privacy of customers, clients and employees.
-2 models of informed consent:
>Opt Out: allows the company to collect personal information until the customer specifically requests that the data not be collected.
>Opt In: means that the organisation are prohibited from collecting any personal information unless the customer specifically authorises it (preferred).
-International aspects of privacy: international organisations and governments face when information spans countries and jurisdiction.
What are the Australian Privacy Principles?
-Consideration of personal information:
1. open and transparent management of personal information.
2. Anonymity and Pseudonymity
-Collection of Personal Information:
3. collection of solicited personal information.
4. unsolicited personal information
5. Notification of the collection of personal information.
-Dealing with personal information:
6. use and disclosure of personal information.
7. Direct marketing
8. cross border disclosure of personal information.
9. adoption, use or disclosure of government related identifiers.
-Integrity of personal information:
10. quality of personal information
11. security of personal information
12. access to personal information
13. correction of personal information
How do Information Security Breaches occur?
Occurs when one or more people:
-gain unauthorised access or use of a computer system.
-copy or modify data and/or programs in the system, or disclose the system.
-destroy hardware, software, data, or deny access to a system.
What are Botnet breaches occur?
-successful attacks on a system.
-malicious code first infects vulnerable computers.
-armies of compromised computers.
-programmed to attack other computers.
What are some consequences of breaches to a companies information systems?
-exposure of confidential business data
-disruption of business activities
-reduced marketplace credibility
-may breach laws
-direct financial loss
what are information resources?
-electronic information assets (databases)
-paper documents (signed contracts)
-software (company applications)
-physical computing assets (PCs)
-information services (telemarketing division).
What is the RITE model?
Responsibility, Integrity, Trust, Ethicality
What are threats, controls and vulnerabilities?
-Threat: possible attack on a target (information resources) which might cause a loss of Confidentiality, Integrity or Availability of data; either delibrately or accidentally.
-Control: used to reduce the strength of threats, that are either preventative, detective or corrective.
-Vulnerability: weaknesses in existing controls, that can be exploited.
What is Information security risk?
-The probability (likelihood) that a threat will attack a target, combined with the impact that it will have on the target.
>technical capability is readily available, cheaply
>probability of detection is low
>consequences are fairly trivial, or unlikely to be applied
>attackers finds the anticipated gains to be substantially greater than what was invested
What Information Security Threat Models, based on?
-based on classifications:
>delibrate or accidental
>Loss of CIA
>destruction, modification and disclosure
What are some Security Threat Models?
What is Interruption?
What is Interception?
What is Modification?
What is Fabrication?
What are Information Security Control Models?
What are some types of controls?
What is a hybrid control model?
What is the multi-level control model?
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Tiếp xúc bệnh nhânWe’ve Got A Mining Problem
And it’s getting worse.
The negative effects of mining are well known:
- loss of biodiversity
- soil erosion
- fauna displacement
- contamination of water and soil
- air pollutants
- carbon emissions
- and consumption of valuable finite resources.
Lesser-known effects include the formation of sinkholes, significant use of water resources, dammed rivers and ponded waters, wastewater disposal issues, acid mine drainage, endangerment to staff in terms of physical risk, health implications, and the effects of long term exposure to chemicals and toxins, and then, of course, there are the hazardous materials we don’t see dumped underground including heavy metals, radioactive wastes, acidic water, chemicals, that all create direct harmful effects on the health of the population living around the mining site.
But Do We Need To Mine?
Yes… For now.
Mined materials sustain the development of our standard of living and are necessary for almost everything. Importantly, they are also needed for our societies to transition into green economies. Romco recycles some of these elements: aluminium and copper. They are indispensable for things like:
- electric vehicles
- expansion of the grid
- sustainable housing
- renewable energy
- and replacing plastics as they are phased out.
The physical, electrical, thermal, lightweight, formable and corrosion-resistant properties of aluminium have made it one of the most important and versatile metals in the world. We need a lot of it now, and we are going to need a lot more of it in the future.
So, How Much Do We Mine?
More than ever, and at an increasing pace…
Across the world, UN data shows that not only do we extract more almost every year, but the rate of extraction of material resources is also increasing.
Figure 1. World total extraction of physical materials used by the world economy, calculated using weight in metric tons. Chart is by MaterialFlows.net. Amounts shown are based on the Global Material Flows Database of the UN International Resource Panel. Non-metallic minerals include many types of materials including sand, gravel and stone, as well as minerals such as salt, gypsum and lithium.
What About Aluminium?
More than 160 million metric tons of bauxite are mined each year. The production of aluminium has doubled over the past 25 years and is expected to grow a further 50 percent by 2050.
That sounds alarming in environmental terms, but aluminium is not just simply ‘mined’. It’s a three-stage process that requires much more than the mining of bauxite — but also the extraction of alumina from the bauxite via electrolysis, and the smelting of that alumina into aluminium (with high heat furnaces) to be ready for manufacturing. All of this uses an incredible amount of power.
How Much Power Does Aluminium Production Use?
A lot. More than 3% of the world’s total power consumption, or more than 621 billion kilowatt-hours per year. That’s more than Italy and Frances power bill combined, or all of the world’s data centres put together. It’s a huge energy bill that is responsible for more than 2% of man-made GHG emissions. That’s more than the entire aviation industry.
How Is That Power Generated?
Coal. Dirty Coal.
Over 61% of primary aluminium is produced with the highest GHG emitting fossil fuel on the planet; coal. More than 70% of the world’s aluminium primary production uses some form of high CO2 emitting fossil fuels.
All of this is on top of mining the bauxite.
We Need More Aluminium, But We Need To Clean It Up. How?
The best way to clean up the devastating effects of aluminium is to reduce coal-powered production.
Where Do We Start?
Mining shouldn’t even be considered until recycling is at full capacity. And it’s not. It’s available, with large amounts of scrap dumped in developing nations irresponsibly by the West for example.
Recycling is urban mining, not destructive environmental mining:
- Uses 95% less power than primary production
- Emits 95% less CO2 than primary production
- Clears 7.26 cubic metres of landfill per tonne
- 100% quality with no loss of properties in smelting
- Permanently available resource, with savings every loop
Where Are The Gaps?
We know that only 13% of all recyclable goods are salvaged from landfills in places like Nigeria.
We also know relatively no metal recycling is happening on the continent compared to the rest of the world:
Despite a population of over 1.2 billion, representing nearly a fifth of the people of the world, recycling is heavily under-represented with less than 3% of global scrap metal recycling happening on the continent.
Some Big Industry Changes Are Also Underway:
1. There will be a price on carbon through:
- Governmental Regulation
- Procurement choices
- Carbon border adjustment taxes
- Emissions trading
- All of the above
2. Aluminium will be classified by carbon content on the London Metals Exchange (LME)
The LME outlined a plan in August 2020 to phase in carbon declarations. This is big, and has huge ramifications. High carbon aluminium, like the stuff produced with energy made from coal, represents over 70% of the current market. Low/zero carbon aluminium includes what we produce at Romco: recycled aluminium.
3. The green value of aluminium will be certified by third parties
Low/zero carbon aluminium will become certified as premium, avoiding costly carbon tariffs, regulations, consumer pressure and more. Lower cost (both financially and environmentally) = higher demand.
4. Low / zero carbon aluminium will be at the front of the queue
- Apple has committed to zero mining for their products; they want to make their products off only recycled goods.
- Nestlé, large aluminium buyers for food and beverage containers, announced a commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050.
- Multiple automotive manufacturers, including Nissan, have set the goal to achieve carbon neutrality across operations and the life cycle of their products by 2050.
5. Low carbon aluminium classification will create a lucrative market of its own
Some infrastructure projects limit aluminium tendering because of the heavy environmental cost. New low/zero carbon classifications will allow the sourcing of low carbon aluminium for large governmental and private projects
Where Does Romco Stand?
Romco are a market-based solution that’s ahead of environmental policy, governmental regulation, carbon pricing, sustainability targets, and circular economic principles.
Romco are building a systematic, scalable recycling model, thriving in emerging markets, committed to reducing the environmental impact of raw materials mining — one of the most important things we can do in the 21st century.
That’s why we are growing ambitiously, right now — increasing our production capacity ten-fold over the past 18 months. There’s much more to do, but not too soon.
What About Africa?
There is currently a focus on the industrialisation of Africa; a great race to mine Africa into an economic power.
An article on The Sino–European race for Africa׳s minerals: When two quarrel a third rejoices states:
“The dawn of the 21st century has brought about a new scramble for mineral resources on African soil. China׳s rising wealth levels and the country׳s growing demand for mineral commodities combined with Europe׳s eagerness to maintain its traditional sphere of influence and secure the continent׳s need for resource imports from Africa have added up to an international race for Africa׳s minerals.”
With this rise, Africa has the opportunity to meet that challenge by becoming a powerhouse in sustainability. A cleantech revolution on the continent is already underway, with renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure projects, and recycling at its heart. We are proud to be a part of that. Africa’s population is expected to grow 800 million by 2040 (according to the IEA), a rise equivalent to the populations of the US and Europe combined, totalling more than 2 billion people.
Investment in renewables needs to meet this extraordinary growth or the world will never reach its climate ambitions.
We’ve planned a total of 7 recycling facilities over the next 5 years.
Across all 7 plants, we envisage recycling over 100,000 mt of aluminium (and other non-ferrous metals) a year, growing Romco into one of the largest recyclers in the region, and a major world supplier of low carbon aluminium. For Romco there’s only one way to measure that… environmentally:
We Have A Problem, But We Have Solutions
Without ambitious investment in sustainable businesses, Africa’s economic growth will be marked by loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, fauna displacement, deforestation, contamination of water and soil… All the negative effects of mining without any of the mitigations.
That’s where Romco and like-minded organisations are focused — mitigation — on the reduction of air pollutants, carbon emissions, toxins, and consumption of valuable finite resources. The amelioration of an irresponsible 20th-century resource management philosophy by creating a truly circular and sustainable economy.
It’s a big problem, but we’re working on it.
We believe that we have absolutely everything we need to create a cleaner, greener, more livable world — if we all work together. Sign up below for more information on what we’re up to, and the broader impacts on irresponsible resource management across the globe.Thinking about skipping the gym today? Think again! It’s not just your biceps that will miss out if you skip a gym session— so will your brain. Neuroscientists have shown that regular exercise supports brain function, a positive mood, and cognitive health.
Big muscles and attractive looks are some of the important goals we strive for when we are physically active. We make time for the gym, eat clean and constantly look in the mirror to get a glimpse of our transforming body. But what happens to the aspects that a mirror cannot show? Let’s look at a few absolute certainties that we can expect with an active lifestyle.
Fact #1: DEMENTIA FIGHTER
In a study conducted at the University of British Columbia, researchers found that regular aerobic exercise, the kind that gets your heart and your sweat glands pumping, appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning. This could prevent dementia which is detected every four seconds globally! Researchers estimate that by the year 2050, more than 115 million people will have dementia worldwide. So, if you want to protect yourself or you loved ones, exercise at least 30 minutes to the point of sweating every day!
Fact #2: MOOD BOOSTER
The American Psychological Association examined the “mood-enhancement effect” of exercise and found that working out can lift your spirits in as little as five minutes — meaning a short stroll outside can be just what you need to cure a bout of the blues. Even more importantly, regular exercise can help combat Alzheimer’s disease and anxiety. A 2014 study published in “Lancet Neurology” reports that the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease might be reduced through improved access to education and the use of effective methods targeted at reducing the prevalence of vascular risk factors, which include regular physical activity.
Fact #3: DEPRESSION CURE
Do you know that scientists are predicting an upcoming epidemic of depression? More than 350 million people suffer from
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position of unquestioning leaders who will tell and show everyone exactly how to play, which paths to walk and how to resist the hostile world around them. They carefully take care of all their (toys, clothes). If you try to select it, you can get it “for nuts”.
In adolescence, states of dysphoria come to the fore, manifested not only by malicious irritability, but also by apathy, idleness, and deepened gloom. Such a teenager can sit with a gloomy look for a long time, and then an affective discharge sets in. And the outbreak will occur due to the slightest infringement of the interests of the epileptoid.
In affect, such a person is able to hit an elderly woman in the face with a boot, to lower a baby who has stuck out his tongue down the stairs. But he will unleash his anger only on those who cannot fight back. This is the "petty" side of the epileptoid nature. In adolescence, a sexual desire awakens with force, which throughout life will remain associated with sadistic or masochistic inclinations.
For example, one 38-year-old patient of the epileptoid type said that, as a 12-year-old teenager, he found himself in the same compartment with a pretty adult woman. Her close presence so stirred up the boy's fantasies that he tried to hide his erection all the way. All the way he lay on the top bunk facing the wall, imagining what he could do to this lady if they were alone. Fortunately, the fantasies of the 12-year-old neighbor in the compartment remained unknown to his fellow traveler.
No shame and no conscience
Among epileptoids, there are adolescents prone to masochistic manifestations, loving to self-mutilate, experiencing incomparable pleasure from burns, injections or bites.
The stage of separation is difficult for them, in some cases it can reach a complete break with loved ones. In general, they can experience an extreme degree of anger towards their relatives. Conflicting with parents, epileptoid adolescents can "hold on" to the attachment of grandparents to them, they are driven by the desire to inherit material wealth.
And in general, if an epileptoid sees some benefit for himself, he is ready for a variety of ways of servility. Such people feel great in a highly regulated regime, where they will try to please their superiors and gain privileges for themselves. The junior in rank or rank next to the epileptoids will not be good, they will be forever urged and humiliated. Quite often there is a craving for gambling epileptoids, rooted in their thirst for enrichment at any cost.
A 45-year-old man of epileptoid type came to me for personal therapy. The reason for the appeal was a divorce from his wife, who said in parting something like "until you work on your character, you will always step on the same rake." Gradually starting to "dig up" the history of their relationship, I began to understand what ultimately did not suit my wife. One day, a husband, having quarreled with his superiors, broke a shop window, and they had to flee from the police. Another time, when they were resting at a resort, he beat up a minibus driver. At the same time, the man was stingy, the money he earned was mainly spent on his audio equipment (he was very fond of music), and he gave crumbs to his wife for housekeeping.
One of the features of the epileptoid type is its "purity". It is often found without admixtures of other types of character traits. Even with good social adaptation, the life of an epileptoid is often filled with all kinds of excesses, which makes this personality type one of the most difficult.Ocean pollution is an amalgamation of trash and chemicals, and a majority of these come from various land sources that are blown or washed into the ocean. It poses a severe threat to the environment and the well-being of coral reefs. Ocean pollution is growing at a concerning rate and killing millions of water species.
This pollution comes primarily from human activities that include dumping farms or fertilizer and chemical waste into the water that choke the ocean life. There has been increased accumulation of harmful chemicals like phosphorus and nitrogen that promotes the development of algal blooms, elements that can be threatening to the presence of both animals and humans.
Marine waste is a combination of various manufactured products which mostly include plastic that is dumped into the ocean. Storm winds, littering, and inadequate waste management contribute to the combination of the waste. 80% of ocean waste comes from various land sources.
1. Plastic is Taking Over the Ocean
A common type of land waste that ends up in the water bodies includes beverage bottles, carry bags, cigarette butts, food wrappers, fishing gear, and bottle caps. Plastic has especially become a dangerous pollutant as it takes years to decompose. In fact, a standard plastic bottle can stay in water for around 450 years. The adverse impact of plastic waste on the environment has been vast.
It has killed wildlife both above and under the water. Millions of sea birds and turtles die every year due to plastic waste choking their digestive tracts. Thousands of marine animals get tangled in plastic debris and other waste materials and get injured. 60 to 90% of ocean waste is encompassed by plastic waste, and by 2050 the amount of plastic will surpass the number of fish in the oceans.Family Resource Center
What is a Family Resource Center?
The primary goal of a center is to remove nonacademic barriers to learning as a means to enhance student academic success.
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To enhance students' ability to succeed in school by developing and sustaining partnerships that promote: Early learning and successful transition to school;Academic achievement and well-being; and Graduation and transition into adult life.On Christmas morning small children (and perhaps some not so small) will be waking up early to see what Father Christmas has brought them. Squeals of laughter and joy will ring around the house as they drag bleary eyed parents out of bed to watch them unwrap their presents. There is nothing quite like the sense of wonder, joy and eager anticipation of a small child on Christmas morning. Parents too (once awake), begin to enjoy the festivities, as they relax with family and friends throughout the day, celebrating with the traditional slices of turkey, Christmas pudding and cake. Perhaps this little introduction seems a little ‘rose-tinted’ and ‘sugar coated’ conveniently turning a blind eye to the sadness that some feel at Christmas and over-looking much of the world’s present suffering, but then, our society often promotes Christmas somewhat nostalgically as a ‘time-out’ – a time to escape the bleakness of the present, and to affectionately remember past joys combined with dreams of a better future. Perhaps the greatest examples of this, this Christmas, have been the television commercials for John Lewis and Sainsbury’s. The first encourages us to celebrate the innocence of childhood and cherish the wonderful imagination of a small boy. The second most poignantly encourages us to reflect upon the essential goodness of the human spirit, which overcomes adversity and even war as epitomised in the ‘Christmas Day truce’ of soldiers during the First World War. Not only do these commercials convey a sense of nostalgia, they use ‘Christmas’ to help lift our spirits and encourage us to think positively about who we are, our place in the world and what sort of world and values we aspire to (hopefully celebrated and endorsed by a suitable purchase from their respective stores).
Many no doubt, will treat ‘Christmas in Church’ nostalgically too – as simply another aspect of the traditional Christmas designed to lift our spirits and promote the concept of ‘peace on earth and goodwill to all men’. They would be surprised then to discover that it’s perfectly possible to celebrate Christmas without really understanding it. The Bible is perfectly clear about this; “the light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not understood it”(John 1.4). Christmas is about “the true light” stepping into the world, but the “world did not receive him” (John 1.11). The Christian knows that Christmas isn’t simply about little boys and girls being ‘good’, it’s about putting one’s faith in Jesus Christ who died precisely because none of us could ever be quite good enough. Yes the world can be very dark at times. How strange then, that so many should perhaps turn their backs on the one who is able to transform its nature and fill it with light and life! If we really want to be able to celebrate Christmas, then we need to look past all the sugar coated nostalgia and tinsel and start to really unwrap the true meaning of Christmas as found in the person of Jesus Christ. That will make those presents a real joy and a morning worth getting up for! Wake up! It’s Christmas!
“To all those who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” John 1.12One of the most classic Southern Gothic novels, To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee from a little girl Scout's perspective, tells the story of the struggles for justice in an Alabama town during the Great Depression. Scout's dad, Atticus, defends a black man against a white girl’s accusation of sexual assault and faces disapproval from the whole town. Through Scout’s perspective, we see, in a sense, how everyone around her are "mockingbirds"—all innocent but affected by the deep-rooted injustices in society.
On the surface level, Tom Robinson, as a black man, is a definite "mockingbird" who is incarcerated and eventually shot due to societal prejudices. Robinson gets accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, and is sent to trial. However, during the trial, it is discovered that Mayella’s bruise was on her right eye so the person who attacked her must have used their left hand, yet Tom’s left hand is useless. All Tom ever did was slightly push Mayella to stop her from kissing him. It was clear to all that Tom had nothing to do with Mayella’s bruises during the trial but Tom is still sent to prison, and shot. Despite Atticus’s clear evidence and reasoning that Tom was innocent, the community still chooses to believe the white man Bob Ewell.
Although white, Scout and her family are all "mockingbirds" who are judged by the community due to their unpopular belief in racial equality. At school, Scout’s classmate, Cecil Jacobs, yells, “My folks said your daddy was a disgrace an’ that n****** oughta hang from the water-tank!” (131). Scout’s dad, Atticus, simply wants to defend an innocent Black man; there is nothing wrong about defending an innocent man, but the whole of Maycomb County goes against them, purely because Tom is Black. Atticus even receives several death threats and attacks from white men disapproving of his choices. While Scout and Jem could have been enjoying their childhood innocence, they have to confront attacks from the community for their father’s choices.
Digging deeper, in a sense the whole white community is also a "mockingbird" due to their lack of knowledge of what is right and wrong, leading them to follow the evils of power dynamics. Nearly the whole community supports Bob instead of Tom despite clear evidence suggesting otherwise. However, the white community is still innocent in a sense as the issue of racism is not in their hands to control. They were born, taught, and raised to tout white supremacy; this has been going on for generations and generations.
Throughout the book, Scout narrates all the events surrounding Tom Robinson’s unfortunate death, which shows the entrenched racial prejudices in society, thereby implying the difficulty of going against racial norms. Everyone in this book were "mockingbirds" in some ways, either by being who they are, supporting equality, or following the habits of their ancestors. What To Kill a Mockingbird reveals is a need for education on justice and a change in society so that one day nobody will be judged purely by their identity.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Harper Perennial, 2005. Buy the book here and help support Stone Soup in the process!
Leave a ReplyCOLUMBIA, Mo. — Cats often get a bad rap for being cold, calculating, and not as loyal to their owners as dogs. While all of that may or may not be true depending on who you ask, a new study is proclaiming it’s time for the scientific community to start focusing more on our feline friends. Veterinary medicine expert Leslie Lyons of the Department of Veterinary Medicine & Surgery at the University of Missouri says cats should be the subject of far more genetic research. Why? The feline genome is actually quite similar to the human genome.
“Using cats in research is really overlooked, since people don’t realize the advantages,” says Lyons in a media release. “The dog or mouse genome have rearranged chromosomes that are quite different than humans, but the domestic cat has genes that are about the same size as humans, as well as a genome that, like humans, is very organized and conserved.”
Exploring ‘genetic dark matter’ in cats
According to Prof. Lyons, cats can help scientists form a better understanding of humans’ genetic “dark matter.”
Genetic dark matter makes up roughly 95 percent of human DNA, but is largely seen as nothing more than genetic “filler” by scientists. However, approximately 10 percent of the noncoding regions within the dark matter of the genome are conserved across mammals. This indicates that dark matter indeed serves a role, and an important one at that – we just haven’t figured out what that role is just yet.
Cats, meanwhile, often suffer from genetic diseases related to dysfunction of their genetic dark matter. In Prof. Lyons’ view, this makes felines an ideal model for studying genetic dark matter.
“As we discover that perhaps animals have more similar spacing between genes and the genes are in the same order, maybe that will help us to decipher what’s going on with humans,” Prof. Lyons adds. “Working with a primate is on the expensive side, but a cat’s affordability and docile nature make them one of the most feasible animals to work with to understand the human genome.”
Felines may reveal how to treat genetic diseases
Mankind’s ability to clone cats and make transgenic cats also plays into this. The first cat clone, named Cc (copycat), was created in 2001. The cell donor that Cc was copied from was a typical calico cat with black, orange, and white fur. Cc, though, didn’t have any orange fur. This defied Mendel’s laws and other basic genetic principles. This suggests that there is much about the cat genome that modern science has yet to understand.
Finally, study authors add that cats may prove very helpful in creating precision medicine for genetic diseases. This approach entails fixing genes as opposed to addressing symptoms. For instance, some feline breeds are prone to the genetic illness known as polycystic kidney disease. Well, polycystic kidney disease can also be diagnosed in humans. Theoretically, if precision medicine can one day treat this disease in a cat, it may be able to help humans as well.
“So, if you and your cat walk in the vet’s door and there is not a trauma, there is not a feeding problem, there might be a genetic problem with the cat. Vets could sequence the genes and potentially more quickly find the cause of what’s going on and then develop a treatment that is more appropriate than just treating the symptoms,” Prof. Lyons concludes. “We can provide a more tailored healthcare program for our pets, and more funding would put all the different pieces into place.”
The study is published in Trends in Genetics.FREIBURG, Germany — A significant portion of the American population can trace at least part of their ancestry back to Germany. In the 19th century, millions of people from southwest Germany emigrated to the U.S., partially because of political turmoil: wars, revolutions, and a century of poverty. But a new study leads scientists to believe that climate change motivated a major portion of this segment to move to America, too.
It’s estimated that 5 million Germans moved to America in the 19th century. Modern Germany wasn’t officially founded as one country until the 1830s, and many in the area wanted to escape violence and political persecution. But researchers from the University of Freiburg say the 19th century was also known as the Little Ice Age in Europe, because of glacial advances in the Alps, and several unusually cold winters and cool summers. The century also saw several extreme weather events such as droughts and floods, and the authors believe those events played a significant role in immigration.
“Overall, we found that climate indirectly explains up to 20-30% of migration from Southwest Germany to North America in the 19th century,” says Rüdiger Glaser, lead author of the study and a professor at the university, in a news release. “The chain of effects is clearly visible: poor climate conditions lead to low crop yields, rising cereal prices and finally emigration. But it is only one piece of the puzzle.”
The research team compared official migration statistics and population data with weather data, harvest yields, and the prices of cereal grains during this time, focusing on the region that is now the state of Baden-Württemberg, where many of the migrants, including Charles Pfizer of pharmaceutical fortune and fame, came from.
The researchers found that the first major wave of immigration from this state came around 1816, dubbed the “year without summer” because of declining temperatures in the region. These low temperatures are believed to be the result of the eruption of Mt. Tambora in Indonesia, which spewed huge amounts of volcanic ash gases into the atmosphere, affecting the climate worldwide.
While climate analyses explained other waves of migration from the German state, it didn’t appear to be as large of a factor driving the biggest wave from Germany between 1850 and 1855. The climate did lead to low harvest numbers around this time, while other factors, such as France banning food exports, drove up food prices. The German government even paid some of its poorest Baden residents to leave the country to save on welfare and lower the risk of popular uprisings.
“Migration in the 19th century was a complex process influenced by multiple factors. Lack of economic perspectives, social pressure, population development, religious and political disputes, warfare, family ties and the promotion of emigration from different sides influenced people’s decision to leave their home country,” says Glaser. “Nevertheless, we see clearly that climate was a major factor.”
The full study was published on Nov. 21, 2017 in Climate of the Past, an interactive, open-access journal of the European Geosciences Union.Wealth: let us heed the words of the wise
If you still believe that the pursuit of material wealth should be our guiding light, both as individuals and as a nation, then you are putting yourself up against some of history’s most enlightened thinkers. This week I take you on a little tour of what the good and the great of this world had to say on the subject of wealth.
Jesus Christ was known not to mince his words when it came to the rich. He said, famously: “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” Elsewhere, he recommended: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.”
The Prophet Muhammad also told his people that the poor would enter the kingdom of Heaven before the rich did. He exhorted Muslims to be generous with their wealth and give a regular proportion of their income away to the poor. Thus almsgiving (zakat) became one of the five pillars of Islam. Muslims were urged not to hoard their money, nor develop a compulsive rivalry to acquire more than anyone else.
Even after becoming the most powerful man in Arabia, Muhammad himself always lived a simple and frugal life. He hated luxury, and never had more than one set of clothes at a time. He spurned the urging of some his followers to wear rich ceremonial dress; when he received gifts, he gave them away to the poor.
In the sixth century before Christ, there was born a prince in a kingdom in the foothills of the Himalayas. His name was Siddhartha, and in his youthful years he was surrounded by every conceivable luxury. He is said to have had three palaces built for him, one for each season of the year in that tropical region.
But Prince Siddhartha could not find peace in worldly amusements. At the age of twenty-nine, we are told that he renounced his kingdom, put on the robes of a wandering ascetic, and walked out, never to return. He went on to become Lord Buddha, founder of a faith that now has several hundred million followers all over the world.
Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, was of similar ilk. Trained to be a businessman by his father, he would often annoy him by using money given to him to buy goods to feed the hungry instead. He, too, renounced worldly ways and began to travel around northern India and beyond, becoming famous in the process. During his travels, the story is told that he preferred once to eat at the house of a poor labourer rather than attend a feast held by a rich banker. When confronted by the banker, Nanak is said to have demonstrated to him that his bread contained only blood, while the bread of the poor man contained milk. The poor man had earned his food by honest hard work; the rich man had exercised harshness, cruelty and greed in acquiring his wealth.
We must ask ourselves: why is that the founders of all the world’s religions have the same message about wealth? Why is it that the enlightened not only spurn all the wealth given to them, but also warn us against running in the rat race of chasing after riches all our lives? It is because they could see something that we cannot: that the pursuit of material possessions and the pursuit of self-realisation and fulfilment are not compatible activities. Jesus put it thus: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
But perhaps, reader, being of the modern world, you are wary of religion and religious leaders? Would you wish to look elsewhere for your wisdom? Philosophers, perhaps? Here is Plato, the famous Greek thinker: “To be at once exceedingly wealthy and good is impossible.” Or maybe we can go to a different time and place, and visit Kahlil Gibran, the Middle East’s best-known visionary and poet, who wrote: “Money! The source of insincere love; the spring of false light and fortune; the well of poisoned water, the desperation of old age!”
Or it may be that you are a man or woman of science, reader? Would you care to listen to one whose wisdom is grounded in the laboratory, not in the fanciful realm of words and notions? How about Albert Einstein, arguably the most famous physicist of all time, and Time magazine’s ‘Man of the Twentieth Century’? Here’s what he thought: “Money only appeals to selfishness and always tempts its owners irresistibly to abuse it…it is at last beginning to be realised that great wealth is not necessary for a happy and satisfactory life.”
The problem with money is that it takes away perspective and flattens us to a single dimension. Once we begin to love money for its own sake, we close our spirit to higher things. Such a love is a low and primitive vice. Our national obsession with money, profit and affluence, far from fuelling our economic development, is the reason we are nowhere today. It is a sign of spiritual disease.
When we pile our lives high with possessions, and fill our heads with formalities and fashion, ostentation and empty show, we are putting a crown of thorns onto our heads. We make our lives cumbersome and unmanageable. We place anxiety and worry into our existence. The true treasures given to us are forever lost, hidden by the silken and seductive veil of wealth.
At a time when our leaders are all declaring their wealth, we need more than ever to be attuned to the timeless thinking of the ages. I fear our emphasis on material gain has gone so far in Kenya that we will view this exercise in a peculiarly warped way: rather than see it as a necessary stock-take to facilitate future auditing, we will see it as an exhibition, a parading of riches and, by implication, of success. Let us keep our eyes wide open and see that those who devote themselves to mindless accumulation are the problem, not the solution. Our leaders would do well to heed the words of an unknown wit: “The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money.”
What of us, the common Kenyans? I do not for a moment advocate that we all need to be poor in order to be fulfilled, that we must purge our lives of all our belongings and give the evil banknotes away in a frenzy of generosity. Not at all. There is a balance to life and a way of leading it that brings both material gain and peace of mind. More on that next week, in the final part in this series of articles on wealth.
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- Why do we still tolerate bullies in our organizations?March 19, 2023The City of Halifax has responded to First Nations protests by putting a shroud over the statue of Edward Cornwallis, the city's founder.
It seems the Mi'kmaq people still hold a grudge over Cornwallis' 1749 "scalping proclamation" by which he offered a bounty for anyone killing a Mi'kmaq. Fair enough, I suppose.
In fact, Cornwallis was a son-of-a-bitch, through and through. From Wiki:
Cornwallis played an important role in suppressing the Jacobite rising of 1745. He fought for the victorious British soldiers at the Battle of Culloden and then led a regiment of 320 men north for the Pacification of the Scottish Highlands. The Duke of Cumberland ordered him to "plunder, burn and destroy through all the west part of Invernesshire called Lochaber." Cumberland added: "You have positive orders to bring no more prisoners to the camp." Cornwallis's campaign was later described as one of unrestrained violence. Cornwallis ordered his men to chase off livestock, destroy crops and food stores. Cornwallis's soldiers used rape and mass murder to intimidate Jacobites from further rebellion.
While I agree with you, Mound, I see a problem. There are a lot of statues of prominent people with a dirty past. There could be a lot of statues to tear down. It's not a matter of rewriting history but writing all of it including the ugly stuff.
Maybe a bronze plaque could be mounted next to Cornwallis detailing what he did to the Mi'kmaq.
And the Scot's, given that it is Halifax, Nova Scotia,
And in broad detail.
Indeed, Jay, those of us of Scots or partial Scots descent and with some knowledge of what Cornwallis inflicted on the highland Scots after Culloden, how his forces slaughtered men, women and children, should join the Mi'kmaq in demanding this stain be erased. Let's never forget that it was the Scots who were so instrumental in creating Canada. There's a reason why Canada is sometimes called Scotland's revenge on England.
.. this'stuff' gets complicated..
some of it historical, other aspects hysterical..
the 'old snots' or old stock may take offense
and we never know what may set Ezra Levant Inc off
or dear departed monarchists Stevie/Ray/Laureen Harper et al
and then we have evangel migrants like Kenney or Scheer
and their underwear is so clean n tight it must truly hurt their shriveled junk
i often suggest folks watch Last of the Mohicans.. if they missed it
Louis L'Amour.. one of my fave authors.. always said
he wished he wrote more of his books, set in Canada eh..
He thought it was the real frontier.. wilder, crazier, bigger.. stunning..
The absurdity of colonialism.. is rep'd best by Monty Python..
but the atrocity thereof.. must never be trivialized..
So called 'civilized' colonial societies.. were fine with murder & mayhem
with eliminating peoples.. as if they were pests or bothersome.. trash
.. thus we still get fringe freaks.. proud boys.. kkk.. jason kenney's
short pants Harper hangovers
a la Peter MacKay, Kellie Leitch n Peter Kent, Rob Anders
Closeted.. even cloistered like Tom Flanagan or Rona Ambrose & rodeo boy
yet also paid (with pension) public servant panderers of racism
Considering the devastation to peoples and land and waters and species and the planet in general of their policies there is not a single pink ( my native brothers tell me i am not white....you are pink) person worthy of any sort of statuary in the last 150 years in Canada.
Scrap the scum.
Canada was a self regulating ecosystem with people integrated with in it for thousands of years. Now, no matter what your origin, it is emburdened with a collection of half-baked failing policies imposed from the "old country" which will never work out in the long run.
We are a long way down a very wrong road.
Mike, it's fair to say that Canada has inherited its modes of organization - industrial, economic, political and social - from times past and lands distant. That's manifest from our head of state all the way to the gowns barristers wear to appear in superior courts. We followed Britain's model of industrialism before integrating our manufacturing base with the American model. Our House of Commons mirrors Westminster. Our social structures were implanted by the French, the Brits and then the United Empire Loyalists who populated Ontario. A lot of our policy and thinking and ways were adopted without much thought for how they served a nation state such as Canada that was so distinct from any European nation, even from the US. The trick is to separate the wheat from the chaff and not allow our nation to bog down in the clutter.
That statue has been a point of contention for quite some time here in NS. Years in fact. We also have Cornwallis Street in Halifax, the abandoned Cornwallis naval base in Annapolis County, once a huge training establishment in WW2, and the Cornwallis River running through part of the Annapolis Valley, while the grand old Cornwallis Hotel lies in Kentville. Probably a bunch of places I either cannot remember or haven't heard of. All need renaming, while the statue needs to removed and melted down. Of course, if that really seems likely, some historical art expert will surface and rabbit on about historical significance of the statue itself, not the man himself. There's always some well-meaning dolt anxious to preserve things not worth preserving. Lookit all those protected houses. Historical significance. Gronk to most of them, they've been rebuilt and aren't original anyway, not like those piles of ancient stones called castles in the UK.
The demonstrators were warning on Wednesday they were going to pull the statue off its pedestal this past Saturday, but the establishment harumphed at that. Civic workers stuck a black tarp over it while the mayor of Halifax waffled on as he generally does when H-hour happens on any real issue. The Mi'kmaq were mollified until the dignitaries left, then swapped the black tarp for a bright orange one. Good one.
Natal Day, the annual civic holiday, is coming up on August 7, and the ultimatum is clear. Years of jawboning have got nowhere, as is typical in this fair land of ours where everyone sets up committees, both federal and provincial on anything controversial, receives a report from some lot of poor bastards who attempted to produce quality, and then dusts off a piece of shelving to store it with not a shred of evidence that anyone plans to do anything about it. That's Canadian compromise for you. Complete inaction and hope those pesky people causing the "problem du jour" go home, forget about it, get sozzled and have a barbecue. The dauphin's parliamentary committees on assisted dying and electoral reform got this treatment too.
So the Mi'kmaq are going to do something if the authorities won't. Halifax has to present them a plan by August 7 or else. So naturally, everyone else has gone back to sleep in the meantime.
Two weeks ago when the Mi'kmaq were having a ceremony at the statue, and the racist Canadian Forces Proud Boys came and had a sniff around and chucked the demonstrators flowers in the garbage, while letting the indigenous folks there know they were a defeated people and should get over it - the white man rules line. Then they went for beers. After the usual pronouncements that their conduct was unbecoming by the Admiral of the East Coast fleet, itself a collection of old barges in constant need of maintenance, and then a stronger message arrived from the Head of the Defence Staff, Vance. Since then, all has gone quiet. Yup, very Canadian. So that's all right then. Just like your average twat thinks Khadr shouldn't get compensation because they cannot be bothered to educate themselves, 78% or so of the knuckleheads we call fellow citizens that is, what's the likelihood anybody in the NS establishment will pay the slightest bit of attention to what the Mi'kmaq have said? C'mon, you know the answer - diddly squat.
There may be some ructions on August 7, I hope so. The only way anything will happen, because if you just natter, the establishment will natter back at you for ever. Cynical? You bet I am. Sardonic in tone? Well, how should I be?
Get rid of it. Then come to southern Ontario...get the Confederate flags off of apartment windows, and out of the windows of large pick-ups driving by my place in Brant's Ford. I guess you can't legislate racism away- but we sure can make it 'uncomfortable' for them.
(Sardonicism works, really well.)
Post a CommentHow close did Taiwan come to developing a nuclear weapons capability? Recent scholarship has painted a much clearer picture of Taiwan’s interest in developing such a capability, as well as U.S. efforts to prevent Taiwan from reaching that point. A recent monograph by David Albright and Andrea Stricker helps illuminate some aspects of Taiwan’s program, as well as the U.S. reaction. In association with this, the National Security Archive has collected a trove of unclassified documents from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, detailing the U.S. response to Taiwan’s program.
Taiwan’s interest in nuclear weapons stemmed from an acute sense of vulnerability. Although the United States held an overwhelming military advantage over China, that military advantage would not hold forever, and it left Taiwan at the mercy of Washington’s generosity. When the PRC tested a nuclear weapon in 1964, it became apparent to Taipei that a deterrent relationship of the sort that held in Europe might make the U.S. think twice about coming to Taiwan’s aid in war.
This logic was not lost on the United States, which began to worry about the program in the mid-1960s. Taiwan attempted and failed to acquire a nuclear reactor from West Germany, later successfully purchasing a Canadian reactor. Later, Taiwan pursued reprocessing capabilities, to the alarm of the U.S. State Department. Along the way, Taiwan undertook some clandestine activities, including hiding equipment designed to produce heavy water.
Taiwan took active steps to deny that it was working on a nuclear program, likely understanding that the United States would react poorly. The United States was not faintly unclear about this point, but it did not challenge Taiwan’s program in multilateral fora. Taipei sought the ability to produce device without having any specific intent to produce device. This meant that Taiwan would have the requisite materials, engineering know-how, and physical plant necessary to build a device within the time frame of a few months, presumably too short for either Beijing or Washington to stop the effort.
The situation came to a head in January 1988, when the United States exfiltrated a Taiwanese scientist who had been providing intelligence on the nuclear program. U.S. officials believed that Chang Hsien-yi had provided sufficiently specific information that it would be possible for Taiwanese intelligence to identify him, which would have led to a prosecution that would have embarrassed both sides. Word of Taiwan’s program broke into the media, including attention from The New York Times. Under pressure, Taiwan turned over its heavy water and some other equipment that it could use to support a nuclear program. By late 1988 the United States no longer had significant concerns about Taiwan’s nuclear program.
Long story short, Taiwan was keeping its options open, and keeping its options open meant keeping the United States at arms length with respect to nuclear capabilities. But the United States handled the situation delicately. The State Department wished to avoid a situation in which Taiwan would be publicly embarrassed, or would have to privately come clean to U.S. officials. The U.S. successfully prevented what might have become a major breach of the international non-proliferation regime.
Of course, some could argue that Taiwan should have gone nuclear then; some would argue that Taiwan still should go nuclear now. That would have been very bad for the international non-proliferation regime, but may have reduced the overall chance of war with the PRC, and ensured Taiwan’s independence. While U.S. non-proliferation sentiments with respect to Taiwan are genuine, ending the Republic of China’s program also kept Taipei dependent for its security on Washington, a situation which today seems just a trifle tenuous.
The views expressed here are his personal views and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Defense, the U.S. Army, the Army War College, or any other department or agency of the U.S. government.First Woman To Become a Trained Doctor in 1849
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- D-day, 6 June 1944(noun)
- date of the Allied landing in France, World War IILiving in the Soviet Republic of Belorussia during World War II, Tuvia, Asael and Zus Bielski saved more than twelve-hundred of their fellow Jews from perishing in the Holocaust, yet their story has largely gone untold. The Bielski's built an elaborate village in the woods, from which they rescued Jews and mounted guerilla attacks against the Nazis. Their forest haven included a gun workshop, a bakery, a synagogue, a communal bath and even a theater company. Containing interviews with Bielski Brigade survivors in the United States, Israel and Great Britain, we proudly pay tribute to three of the greatest unsung heroes of the Holocaust.
The true story behind Edward Zwick's Defiance
is laid out in this brisk, straight-to-the-point account of the Bielski brothers, the leaders of a large, organized Jewish resistance effort during World War II. Escaped Jews from the ghettoes of Eastern Europe joined together in the woods under the leadership of Tuvia, Zus, and Asael Bielski, and for over two years they created their own hidden society of approximately 1200 people. This History Channel installment gathers together survivors of the partisan movement to tell stories, some of which are incredibly moving, such as the escape of Mike Stoll and his sister Bella from a train headed to a concentration camp. Another survivor recalls escaping the horror of the ghetto and coming upon the Bielskis in their forest enclave, where Jews were no longer under the heel of the enemy: "The whole camp was… something of a dream." The documentary's brevity means we don't get much depth on how the Bielski partisans actually survived from day to day, although a couple of the interviewees are frank about what they had to do to keep going. But this is balanced by the value of actually hearing the voices and seeing the faces of those who were there; when one woman sings a song of the camp, the decades suddenly collapse. As a companion piece to Defiance
, it suggests the Zwick film was faithful to the facts, and to this story of heroism under terrible circumstances. --Robert HortonThis learning process involves a fascinating experience in which our western assumptions are revealed to us and thwarted when we examine various facets of the belief systems and traditions of non-western societies. After we try to understand other cultures on their own terms, we face the question of the degree to which observers can be judgmental about other cultures and life ways. We also question how our understanding of those cultures should shape the perspectives and policies of officials and academics who are members of western governments that seek to influence or change the life ways of people in other regions of the world.
Margaret Mead in Samoa, 1926
Required Texts, Films and Related Materials
Napoleon Chagnon, Yanomamo: The Last Days of Eden (1992, Harcourt).
Margaret Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa (1975, William Morrow & Company).
Lila Abu-Lughod, Writing Women's Worlds: Bedouin Stories (1993, University of California Press).
Additional readings will be placed on reserve, distributed in class, or will be available on the course web page, including recent controversies concerning studies of the Yanomamo people and earlier controversies concerning Margaret Mead's studies of Samoan culture.
North American shaman
The Kawelka: Ongka's Big Moka (Disappearing World Series, Granada Films, 1991), exploring a ceremony among a modern-day Papua New Guinea people in which gifts of pigs, exotic birds, money, and automobiles are given by one group to another to gain social prestige. Note how the Kawelka people have retained their cultural traditions and incorporated European goods and currency into those traditions.
The Witch Hunt (Time/Life Films, 1995), exploring the persecution of persons for alleged acts of witchcraft in European history. Note the differences between the folk religions practiced by the persons whom are persecuted, and the re-definition of their beliefs and practices by those who persecute them.
Warriors of the Amazon (NOVA Films & WGBH Educational Foundation, 1996), exploring the religious beliefs and social alliances of the Yanomami.
The Ax Fight (Documentary Educational Resources, 1980). A four-part analysis by Chagnon and Timothy Asch of a fight in a Yanomamo Indian village between local descent groups. Includes an unedited record of the event; a slow-motion replay of the fight; a discussion of the kinship structure of the fight; and an edited version.
The Language You Cry In (California Newsreel, 1999). This film explores linguistic evidence linking persons in the present-day Gullah culture of coastal Georgia with the Mende culture of 18th century Sierra Leone through the history of a song containing Mende words.
Anthropology on Trial (Time-Life Video, 1984). Examines the field of anthropology from the point of view of those who have been studied. Visits Papua New Guinea, which was originally studied by Margaret Mead, and explores the peopleís reactions to the anthropologistís conclusions about their culture.
The Merchants of Cool (PBS, 2001). Explores the culture in which today's American teenager is growing up and how they've come to view themselves and their parents.
Course Requirements and Policies
There will be two in-class, midterm examinations and an in-class, final examination. All exams are closed book. The exams will be composed of multiple choice and/or short answer questions. They will not be cumulative. However, basic questions from earlier portions of the class may appear on any exam. The first exam will count for 30% of your grade, the second for 30%, and the final for 40%.
When taking exams, you will be responsible for knowing the concepts and terms discussed in the assigned chapters of each of the books listed above, in the films shown in class, and in the topics covered in lectures, handouts, and web page summaries.
Your regular attendance and active participation are of central importance for this course to provide you with both a fun and satisfying educational experience.
Maintained by Chris FennellRita Grant is the certified lymphedema therapist at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center.
Question: What is lymphedema?
Answer: Lymphedema is chronic swelling in the body (usually an arm or a leg) due to an accumulation of lymph fluid in the tissue spaces as a result of damage to the lymphatic system. The lymphatic system is an important part of the circulatory system because it collects fluids from the tissues and blood centrally. It removes impurities as bacteria and produces lymphocytes (disease fighting cells for the immune system). With damage to the lymphatic system, swelling develops with protein rich fluid causing a stagnant environment of bacteria and increased potential for infection. Lyphedema is initially mild and reversible. If the condition of swelling and inflammation persists, the protein rich fluid thickens and becomes fibrotic (hardened) and then moderate to severe lymphedema has developed.
Question: Who is at risk for lymphedema?
Answer: People are at risk for primary or secondary lymphedema. Primary lymphedema is malformation of the lymphatic vessels or lymph nodes and can be present at birth, puberty, at an early onset (before 35 years) or a late onset (after 35 years).
Most commonly, people have secondary lymphedema. Secondary lymphedema can occur after surgical removal of the lymph nodes or other obstructive factors including scaring from infection or radiation therapy. Examples of secondary lymphedema are breast cancer patients with axillary node dissections who develop arm lymphedema. Other examples of secondary lymphedema include lipolympedema, filiarises, and phlebolympedema, which involve venous insufficiency and damaged valves. Venous insufficiency is not true lymphedema, but is treated similar to lymphedema.
Question: What can physical therapy do to improve symptoms of lymphedema?
Answer: A comprehensive treatment program that would improve symptoms of lymphedema may include:
- evaluation by a certified lymphedema therapist to determine the proper course of treatment
- a comprehensive lymphedema program will include education on skin care and skin care precautions to decrease the possibility of infections
- lymphatic drainage which is a noninvasive therapy technique to remove excess fluid from the lymphatic capillaries and out of the limb
- compression bandaging of the arm or leg to provide a firm non- elastic support to promote lymphatic pumping during muscle contraction
- sequential pumping to maximize the swelling reduction
- referral with compression garments.Greenhouse Heating and Cooling
The main goal of greenhouse gardening is to provide a controlled environment for the plants you are growing. Many people only consider how to get heat into the greenhouse but in warm months and sunny days, your greenhouse requires a source for cool air intake too.
How do I heat my greenhouse?
In a moderate climate, the best choice for keeping a greenhouse above freezing is a small electric heater.
For larger greenhouses or small greenhouses in cold climates or those requiring a hot house environment, we would recommend high capacity electric, propane or Natural gas heaters. The capacity is dictated by the cold outside temperature at night and your desired night time minimum temperature in winter and the surface area square footage of the greenhouse and the glazing. We have a formula that provides the heating requirements for your greenhouse. Contact one of our greenhouse experts today to talk about your growing needs.
For Orchid Growers – backup generators are common or gas heating in the event of power outages. Portable camping heaters are also used in the event of power outages.
How can I incorporate solar heating in my greenhouse?
- Thermal heat syncs such as black barrels filled with water are commonly used to heat a greenhouse.
- Solar panels would provide some energy in a warm climate but would not provide the amount of electricity needed to heat a greenhouse in a cold climate.
- Energy curtains are often used to retain heat generated in the day and reduce the volume of the greenhouse needed to be heated. This increases energy efficiency by heating only the space in use.
- Some greenhouse gardeners like to create different temperate zones in their greenhouse and will use energy blankets or plastic partitions to create the temperature differences. It is important to note that we do offer greenhouses with built in partition walls as an added feature.
What about In-Floor or Radiant Heating in my greenhouse?
In-floor heating is not recommended as the only source of heat as it will cause roots to burn. The radiant heat from baseboards is ideal as forced air isn’t as natural for plants.
Is Geothermal a good idea?
Geothermal heating is a great option although it tends to be quite expensive and practical only if it is tied to another project or meant for commercial purposes.
How do I cool down my greenhouse?
Passive ventilation is still the most popular form of cooling as it is the most natural and gentle for your plants. This is achieved through automatic ridge vents and optional side venting. Relying on convection, the hot air will naturally rise out and lower cooler air can be drawn through the lower openings.
For larger greenhouses or hotter climates, a forced ventilation system may be necessary to ensure the greenhouse does not over heat. This will usually include a combination of exhaust fan, motorized intake shutters and thermostat, providing a more controlled environment. When choosing a forced ventilation system, plan on relying on it for most of spring, summer, and fall. You can use your passive ventilation methods with your vents. This means a less extreme temperature fluctuation and is better for your plants.
What about a shade system?
Diffusing harsh sunlight will also minimize heat build-up and harmful rays. Many plastic coverings act as a built in shade system. With a glass greenhouse, some form of shading will be required if there is not adequate natural shade available. Many greenhouse owners still use whitewash to diffuse the sun or ask us about our various shade cloth options.
Air circulation is important
It is more important than most people realize. Every greenhouse needs to have a circulating fan moving air at all times. Although the idea is basic, the principle is critical. Plants need fresh air for a healthy root system and a constant flow of air prevents pockets of warm or cool air staying in corners. It will regulate temperatures and increase efficiency in the greenhouse. This will also prevent mold from forming on walls or plant containers as condensation is less likely to settle especially in a structure like ours that is so well sealed for inclement weather.
Create a micro weather system for the best results!
Place your heater on the floor pointing into greenhouse closest to the door (the source of heat loss). Put a circulating fan on bench level pointing up and towards the door. This will create a circular motion of needed air for your plants and increase efficiency in the greenhouse. If you have a larger greenhouse, a few small Caframo circulating fans will be your best friend. Talk to us about your circulation and ventilation needs!With flu cases on rise, it's not too late to take precaution
Immunization is especially important for high-risk groups
Updated 8:50 pm, Friday, December 13, 2013
While we are on track to see the peak of this year's flu season in January, at Texas Children's Hospital and across our medical community we have seen a dramatic increase in flu cases recently.
In fact, our hospital, like many others in Houston, is dealing with a significant number of children being hospitalized with the flu.
While much is unpredictable about the flu season, we do know that each year, numerous children are hospitalized and some die from this vaccine-preventable disease. Indeed, three children have already died this year in the United States due to influenza. Sadly, last year 169 infants and children died from the disease - the largest number of influenza pediatric deaths ever recorded except for the 2009 pandemic.
With any disease that can be prevented by vaccination, such as influenza, getting immunized is key. I have seen far too many cases of innocent children and young people who have suffered needlessly from this infection that could have been prevented. It is imperative that everyone older than 6 months be immunized against influenza. This vaccine can reduce illness, doctors' visits, hospitalizations and even deaths. Thus far, flu season in Texas has reached moderate activity, so much more illness will occur in unvaccinated children.
Influenza, most commonly referred to as the flu, is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza virus. Flu symptoms can include high fever, sore throat and cough, stuffy or runny nose, muscle aches and fatigue. Children also can experience vomiting or diarrhea. After receiving the vaccine, it takes a full 14 days to be protected, so the sooner you receive the vaccine, the better protected you will be.
Although we have been offering flu vaccines since August, the flu epidemic usually lasts through February, so there is still time to protect yourself and your loved ones.
The influenza vaccine is vital for everyone but especially important for the most vulnerable groups of our population - the elderly, pregnant women and children under 2 years of age. These groups are at a much higher risk of developing severe disease and complications.
If children under the age of 2 become infected, they have a significantly greater chance of being hospitalized. Younger children also are more susceptible to the flu than older children because infants who are younger than 6 months cannot be vaccinated. The only way to protect these babies is to ensure that everyone around them, and anyone who comes in contact with them, including parents, siblings, grandparents, babysitters and nannies, has received the flu vaccine.
While the national rate of pregnant women who have received the vaccine has increased over the past few years to 51 percent, there are still soon-to-be moms who are not protecting themselves and their unborn babies against influenza.
There are many myths surrounding the flu. Many people believe that the vaccine will not protect them against the flu or, worse, believe that the flu vaccine actually causes them to get the disease. This is simply impossible. Because the flu vaccine is not a living virus, there is no way that it can cause influenza. When people who get their flu vaccine experience cold-like symptoms in the days following their vaccination, they are often mislabeling these symptoms as the flu rather than another respiratory virus that is not vaccine-preventable.
As you enjoy the holiday season with your loved ones, make sure that you are doing your part to ring in the New Year in a healthy way. Get vaccinated today to protect yourself as well as your loved ones, neighbors and co-workers against the flu.
To do your part, practice good hand hygiene by washing your hands or using waterless hand sanitizer often. Also, if you are ill, stay home from work as this will help prevent the spread of the flu virus to those around you.
Baker is a pediatric infectious disease specialist and the executive director of the Center for Vaccine Awareness and Research at Texas Children's Hospital. Baker, also a professor of pediatrics, molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, is immediate past chair of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.Sept. 18, 2006 | Interactive Supercomputing has developed Star-P technical computing software for high-performance computers based on the new Dual-core Intel Xeon 5100 processors. Star-P is the world’s first interactive parallel computing platform, which allows scientists, engineers, and other researchers to code algorithms and models on their desktops using familiar mathematical software packages such as MathWorks’ MATLAB and run them instantly andinteractively on parallel servers. Star-P eliminates the need to reprogram the applications in C, FORTRAN, or MPI languages to run on parallel computers, which typically takes months to years to complete for complex and computationally intensive problems. The Intel Xeon 5100 is designed to deliver more computing power at less cost, with 80 percent higher performance coupled with 35 percent less power consumption than previous Xeon chips.
Vendor: Interactive Supercomputing
Product: Star-P technical computing software
For more information: www.interactivesupercomputing.comForest cover in India
Forest cover in India
According to the Indian Statistical Report, 2011, the following is the statewise distribution of forests in India.
|Observed trend||Description of figure||Comments|
|Data obtained from India Statistical Report, 2011, Chapter 33 (Table 33.1 - Forest Cover Estimates). All percentages are based on 32,87,263 sq. km as total area of India.|| This figure shows the increase in estimated forest area of India as a percentage of the total area of the country. On superficial examination, this figure shows that the area under forests in India has increased drastically since 1999. However, not only is it important to note that the percentage increase in the last three decades has only been 1.5%, but also that two extrinsic factors may affect the trend:
Without further analysis, it would be difficult to gauge the impact of these factors on the observed trend.
| Percentage of area of each state covered by various kinds of forests. Each row is a different state while each column represents a particular type of forest. Green represents areas with high cover of the particular type of forest while black indicates very little area, as a percentage of the total area of the state.
All data was obtained from Indian Statistical Report 2011, Table 33.2. Clustering was done using hierarchical clustering in R. Most of the data for mangroves was missing in Table 33.2.
|As you can see, states with the most forest cover lie in the North-East. Most of the forests are moderately dense forests, as defined by Indian Forest Survey, 2009. Kerala, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Goa also have a fair bit of forest cover. Karnataka and Kerala need to have more forest cover than what they currently have since they are highly biodiverse regions. Similarly, large states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, West Bengal etc. have very little forest cover.|
|Area in square kilometres. Data was obtained from India Statistical Report, 2011 - Table 33.6. Data in Table 33.6 is from the year 2006. Area for Andaman and Nicobar Islands is not included. Those islands have a total of 1546 sq. km designated as wildlife sanctuaries.|| One can make out quite easily that some states have large tracts of land designated for wildlife. Most of these states tend to be large (Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh) or remote (Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh) or have some special land forms (Gujarat, Rajasthan). Many North Indian states - Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana - need to increase their sizes of protected areas, however, this may not be possible given the intense population pressure and increased need for agricultural and industrial productivity.
However, superficial appearances can be deceptive. One might think that the states with the largest size are doing a lot for wildlife conservation. However, the next figure, which compares area under wildlife sanctuaries to the total area of the state shows a different picture!
|Figure shows percent area of each state in India under wildlife sanctuaries. Numbers on top of each bar is the actual percentage. Data was obtained from India Statistical Report, 2011 - Table 33.6. and Table 33.2. Data in Table 33.6 is from the year 2006, which was the latest data available for India Statistical Report.||It turns out the biggest states are the biggest culprits. Not only is the forest area low in large states as shown above, but also the biggest states in India have less than 5% of their area under wildlife sanctuaries!|
- ^ Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, India (Chapter 33 - Environment and Forests)
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Share this page:Naturally, being a business that is environmentally friendly is something everyone wants to do, but let’s face it, everyone is in business to make money so if there isn’t a return on investment sometimes the investment takes a second place to other things.
The reality is with tax revenues down in most cities and states they are looking for ways to replace those lost revenues. One quick way is to look at the city’s sewer and water departments and raise rates on both. To some degree rate increases are understandable when as with lower tax revenues they have less money to spend on maintaining or upgrading their sewer and water plants. By raising the usage rate they can offset lower operating budgets with increased rates. I would be surprised if anyone reading this article has not read in their local papers about rate increase for water and sewer and in some cases double digit increases over multiple years.
In some cases rather than increasing the rates they go to the companies and businesses that are using and sending the dirtiest water to the sewer plants and make it mandatory that those companies clean their waste water to a defined level before sending their waste water to the sewer plant. Now it’s easier to clean the waste water and the operating costs to do so go down. In turn if companies don’t comply they are faced with surcharges or penalties. These charges once again make up for lower city operating budgets.
In that a vehicle washes heartbeat is water, washes have to address treating and cleaning their waste water so that the water can be reused throughout the wash to include re-mixing chemicals. Without truly achieving a restoration of water and re-using 90 to 95 percent of the water, a reclaim system should not be purchased. To achieve maximum return on investment today and into the future a system needs to truly restore the waste water for use throughout the wash.
Marketing opportunities and drought survival
In years past vehicle washes weren’t too interested in telling the public that they reused the water because the consumers felt they were getting their vehicles washed with dirty water, and they were. In some systems sold yet today the water comes out a brown or grey color because the chemicals haven’t been removed in the treatment process.
Today with the advancements in using natural bacteria to consume chemicals from the waste water like sewer treatment plants operate a vehicle wash can feel comfortable in advertising that they are washing the consumers’ vehicles with clean restored water.
With water being the lifeblood of the vehicle wash industry, a waste water treatment system that truly restores the water is a must have to ensure the wash stays open in drought periods but also to reduce water and sewer bills which add to the profitability of the wash.A rubber ball and a lump of putty have equal mass. They arethrown with equal speed against a wall. The ball bounces back withnearly the same speed with which it hit. The putty sticks to thewall. Which object experiences the great momentum change?
a) the ball
b) the putty
c) both experience the same momentum change
A person now attempts to knock down a large wooden bowling pinby throwing a ball at it. The person has two balls of equal sizeand mass, one made of rubber and the other of putty. The rubberball bounces back, while the ball of putty sticks to the pin. Whichball is most likely to topple the bowling pin?
a) the rubber ball
b) the ball of putty
c) makes no differenceWorking with ESL Writers in Your Classes: Resources for Instructors
How do writers develop advanced academic literacy in another language? Below are some readings and websites that explain how and describe how you, as their instructor, can help. Also check out our blog, WAC@Illinois, for posts about working with ESL writers.
Ferris, D. (2006). Myth 5: Students must learn to correct all their writing errors. In J. Reid (Ed.), Writing myths (pp. 90-114). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Although this chapter is for writing teachers, it highlights three key findings from research that is relevant to all university instructors: 1) learning a second language takes years, 2) error-free papers are not a reasonable goal for a single course; and 3) even teachers’ and students’ “best efforts” at error correction will not yield error-free papers. Ferris then describes what writing teachers can do, and the first few strategies she lists apply to all university instructors. This chapter may be available on our e-reserves page under WAC—Prior.
Hafernik, J. J., & Wiant, F. M. (2012). Integrating multilingual students into college classrooms: Practical advice for faculty. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
A joint effort by an applied linguist and a writing researcher at University of San Francisco, this book dispels myths about multilingual students, describes ways to create inclusive classrooms that promote students’ language learning, and presents strategies for helping students succeed at listening, speaking, reading, and writing tasks and at group work. It also includes sample grading rubrics.
Matsuda, P. K., & Cox, M.(2004). Reading an ESL writer’s text.In S. Bruce & B. Rafoth (Eds.), ESL writers: A guide for writing center tutors (pp. 39-47). Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.
Written for writing tutors but applicable to anyone working with ESL student writers, this chapter describes different stances readers might take toward ESL writers’ texts-- and provides strategies for reading beyond error. This chapter may be available on our e-reserves page under WAC—Prior.
Paltridge, B., & Starfield, S. (2007). Thesis and dissertation writing in a second language: A handbook for supervisors. London and New York: Routledge.
This book provides guidance to those in any discipline who mentor multilingual writers or who are facilitating writing groups. Covering topics such as research proposals, introductions, literature reviews, and results chapters, it often focuses on linguistic features common to different sections of research-writing. Each chapter includes tasks that a supervisor can ask the student to complete or reflect on. There's also an extensive annotated bibliography of resources for students.
Reid, J., & Kroll, B. (1995). Designing and assessing effective classroom writing assignments for NES and ESL students. Journal of Second Language Writing, 4 (1), 17-41.
This article provides guidelines for designing assignments and gives examples of successful and unsuccessful assignment prompts in different disciplines.
Zamel, V., & Spack, R. (Eds.). (2004). Crossing the curriculum: Multilingual learners in college classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
This edited collection explores multilingual students’ and instructors’ perspectives. Part I contains essays by ESOL and writing researchers who have conducted longitudinal studies of students; Part II, essays written by two multilingual learners looking back on their college experiences; and Part III, essays by faculty in several fields (e.g., philosophy, nursing, literature, Asian American Studies) describing the evolution of their classroom practices.
Zamel, V., & Spack, R. (2006). Teaching multilingual learners across the curriculum. Journal of Basic Writing, 25 (2), 126-152.
This article presents accounts from undergraduate students and instructors; shows how language is acquired through engagement in disciplinary content; and argues that strategies for supporting multilingual learners, especially those involving writing, can raise standards and benefit all students.
Zawacki, T. M., Hajabbasi, E., Habib, A., Antram, A., & Das, A. (2007). Valuing written accents: Non-native students talk about identity, academic writing, and meeting teachers' expectations (2nd ed). Fairfax, VA: Diversity Research Group, George Mason University.
A team of writing researchers at George Mason University interviewed 26 multilingual writers about their writing experiences at GMU. This monograph interweaves the project’s findings with student profiles. The team also produced a website that summarizes its findings and provides quotations from students.
Many faculty development centers have resources for instructors on working with ESL writers. Here are some of our favorites:
Faculty Resources, University of Toronto: Detailed suggestions for teaching multilingual students and grading writing.
Faculty Resources, OCAD University, Toronto: An online booklet with information on topics such as creating a “participatory classroom,” designing accessible lectures, supporting ESL writers, and plagiarism. Students’ and faculty’s stories are incorporated throughout.
Faculty Resources, University of Minnesota: Detailed suggestions for responding to different aspects of ESL students’ writing—e.g., grammar, logical development, critical thinking, use of evidence.
Faculty Resources, University of Hawaii at Mānoa: Two bulletins for faculty discuss ESL students’ writing. “Writing Matters 4” addresses how interventions at different parts of the course can help students improve their written accuracy. “Writing Matters 6” focuses on errors and plagiarism.
Below are some handouts from our workshop, “Working with ESL Student Writers in Your Classes.”
Sample background questions: As we discuss in WAC@Illinois, we think that asking everyone these questions will give you a sense of the varied multilingual and multiliterate backgrounds of students in your class.
Responding to writing: This handout, which we use in Writing Across the Curriculum seminars, explains general principles for responding to writing. It applies to “native English speakers” and ESL students alike.
Working with error: This handout shows you some ways to comment on errors in students’ writing and lists resources you can give students for developing editing skills.
In addition to the suggestions listed on the “Working with error” handout, the writing centers below have a variety of resources for students.I've just reviewed Boffinology: The real stories behind our greatest scientific discoveries by Justin Pollard. It's a collection of short, snappy tales from the history of science, from the invention of Velcro to Einstein turning down the position of President of Israel.
It's an enjoyable read that emphasises the human side of science and technology through the ages (my review is here). Most of the stories have been told before, however. From the ancient world, for example, Archimedes, Hero of Alexandria and Thales of Miletus are all rather predictably featured.
But jumping ahead a millennium and a half, I was happy to see a short description of one of my favourite historical inventions, Agostino Ramelli's 16th-century revolving bookcase.
I came across this intriguing contraption when I was researching Decoding the Heavens, because like the Antikythera mechanism, the bookcase makes use of epicyclic gearing. This type of gearing is quite hard to get your head around without a diagram but basically it involves gear trains riding around on other wheels, so you get one set of circles imposed on another.
The Antikythera mechanism, which dates from the 1st or 2nd century BC, is by far the oldest known example of epicyclic gearing. Its creator used the technique to model the varying motion of the Moon, and perhaps also the Sun and the planets. The same principle was used in astronomical clocks in Europe from the 14th century onwards.
Ramelli used the gearing for a quite different purpose, however. His invention carries books.
An Italian military engineer, Ramelli worked for rich and powerful patrons in France, including King Henry III. His major surviving work, called "The Various and Ingenious Machines of Agostino Ramelli", was published in 1588. His machines include water pumps, bolt cutters, siege engines and portable bridges. But there are also several household gadgets, including the revolving bookcase.
Such bookcases did already exist but they rotated about a vertical axis, like a merry-go-round or "lazy susan". Ramelli's rotated about a horizontal axis, like a water wheel. Of course such a device would normally tip all of the books onto the floor as it turned, which is where the epicyclic gearing came in. Epicyclic gear trains caused each shelf to make one counter-rotation for each full turn of the bookcase, keeping them at the same angle - about 45 degrees - with respect to the floor, and ensuring that the books stayed safely in position. (The top image, taken from Ramelli's 1588 publication, shows a cross-section of this gearing.)
Ramelli wrote about his device: "This is a beautiful and ingenious machine, very useful and convenient for anyone who takes pleasure in study, especially those who are indisposed and tormented by gout. For with this machine a man can see and turn through a large number of books without moving from one spot."
Ramelli's invention took up a lot less floor space than a conventional revolving bookcase. But the complex gearing involved was hardly practical. As later scholars pointed out, it would have been much easier to hang the shelves independently of the main wheel, so gravity would keep them at the proper angle.
Historian Bert Hall, now at the University of Toronto in Canada, published an analysis of the bookcase back in 1970 (Technology and Culture, vol 11, pp 389-400). He says that Ramelli often used complex gearing to perform tasks that could have been achieved more easily using other means. The inventor didn't really expect such devices to be used, says Hall. He was simply showing off his virtuosity, "just as we today would expect an artist to demonstrate a particular personal ‘style' in his paintings". Hall suggests that Ramelli may even have conceived the whole bookcase simply to demonstrate his knowledge of epicyclic gearing.
But besides showing off the potential of this gearing technique, Ramelli's device also has a peculiarly modern significance that Hall, writing in 1970, could not have realised.
The bookwheel allowed a scholar to work on several open texts simultaneously, flipping quickly from one to another without losing his or her place (see second image, taken from an 18th century publication). So Ramelli's invention foreshadowed the concept of cycling through various texts or windows of information. Of course this principle pretty much defines the way we now access and work with information, from the ability to flip between different tabs on our computer screens to the hypertext links between pages on the world wide web.
In Boffinology, Pollard even describes the bookcase as a "wooden world wide web". He says: "The ability to read many texts at once and jump between them was a novelty and Ramelli's machine might be claimed an even more distant predecessor of hypertext than Vannevar Bush's Memex machine."
Actually, scholars were reading several texts at once for a long time before Ramelli. But he may well have been the first to develop a piece of technology specifically to enable such parallel study.
What Pollard doesn't mention is that (like the Memex machine) Ramelli's device was never built. Indeed as the Dead Media Archive puts it, the bookwheel is a fascinating example of a medium that was dead even when it was alive: "It was influential without ever actually existing."Definitions for munseeˈmʌn si
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Select another language:International Child Soldier Day (February 12, 2014)
On the occasion of International Child Soldier Day, France would like to reaffirm its commitment to the protection of children in armed conflict.
Despite the international community’s commitment, there are still almost 300,000 child soldiers around the world, notably in Syria, the Central African Republic and South Sudan. Mobilization efforts to combat this scourge, which, according to the Statute of the International Criminal Court, constitutes a war crime, must continue.
The protection of children in armed conflict is a priority of our diplomatic action. We are mobilized in support of the universal ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict. Together with UNICEF, France also organized the Paris Conference in 2007 that led to the adoption of the “Principles and Commitments to combat the unlawful recruitment or use of children by armed groups.”
On the ground, France is involved in improving the protection and the sustainable reintegration of child soldiers. We have been conducting a program in the Great Lakes region and in Central Africa since 2008 that has reached 13,000 children, including 2,000 child soldiers. In Mali and the Central African Republic, French forces are extending their full cooperation to UNICEF
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carries some racist beliefs held by many at the time.” According to the authors, Babe had used the N word and frequently belittled African Americans. Babe’s teacher is later quoted reflecting on her student, saying Babe, “really did hate blacks in those days. I think she went out of her way to antagonize them, and, truly, to hurt them.”
Stokes’ and Pickett’s teammate wasn’t the only one who made them feel unwelcome. When the 1932 Olympic team arrived in Denver for a special dinner at the Brown Palace Hotel, Stokes and Pickett were forced to enter through a side entrance and eat dinner in the back kitchen with the hotel staff. At the same time, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), an organization founded in 1910, was never mentioned in Stokes’ school classes, but sent a message to Avery Brundage, the head of American Olympic Committee, requesting fair treatment of Black athletes. According to the authors of Olympic Pride, American Justice, he never responded.
Top image: Louise Stokes, top row, three from left. Getty Images
Remaining images: Boston Globe
Stokes and Pickett had no doubts they would run the 400m and 100m relays at the Games in Los Angeles. Their qualifying times were ironclad. Until they weren’t.
Stokes and Pickett had clocked impressive times but they were benched for both events. Instead, a runner who logged a slower qualifying time and another who didn’t even qualify for the relay final at all replaced them in the 400m relay. One of those runners was Mary Carew, a white runner from Medford, Massachusetts, just 12 miles from Stokes’ hometown. Carew, who referred to Stokes as “Stokesy,” and Stokes, were longtime track rivals.
The relay team won gold, but Olympians Stokes and Pickett went home empty-handed.
“As strange as it may sound, mostly all of the information [about my mother] comes from family members and other people,” Stokes’ son, Wilfred Fraser Jr., tells METER. “My mother talked a little bit about [the Olympics] but not that much. I’m assuming now, after all these years, it’s because of the hurt and pain she went through and didn’t want to keep reliving it every time someone asked her.”
Years after the Games’ snub, Stokes would say, “A pretty fast stunt was pulled,” according to Olympic Pride, American Justice. She added, “I felt bad, but I tried not to show it. I tried to keep it out of my mind and not to study it. I couldn’t get an ulcer over it.”
Thomas, of the Smithsonian, says, “One of the persistent myths about sports is that all that matters is your athletic ability.” He acknowledges how we assume sport is an equal playing field, but, he says, “Time and time again it’s been shown that that is simply not true. Sometimes it’s your race, class, or gender that limits your opportunities.”
However, Thomas goes on to say that for the Black community, sports have been incredibly important. “They’ve been a place where African Americans can say, ‘Look at what happens when you give us a chance to compete on terms of equality.’ They can use sports as a metaphor for what African Americans can achieve if you open all the other doors to society.”
Looking Ahead to ’36
If you were in Malden when Stokes returned home after the 1932 Games, you’d never have known she didn’t race. Her hometown treated her like a gold medalist. Given a chance, she might have been.
As the Nazis rose to power in Germany, there were rumblings of whether the United States would even attend the Olympic Games in 1936 in Berlin. Stokes trained through the murmurs and attended the Trials in Rhode Island, not far from her hometown. She didn’t race as well at these Trials, but she secured a spot on the squad: Stokes was Berlin-bound.
Travel wasn’t cheap, but the city of Malden couldn’t bear to see its hometown hero miss the boat to Germany. “It was the city who helped her raise the money,” Fraser says. Her local church covered Stokes’ railway fare from Boston to New York City. Then, Malden Mayor, John Devir and Quaine raised $75 for Stokes’ additional expenses and stashed away $105 for a homecoming. Still without enough for a ticket, Stokes was about to board the ship in New York, when her $500 fare came through.
In Nazi, Germany, Jesse Owens wowed even Adolf Hitler. But once again, Stokes was benched. Pickett, who also made the team, was able to compete this time but ended up injuring her ankle in the semi-finals and could not continue running in the Games.
Later, according to Olympic Pride, American Justice, Stokes would say, “I was a cute little girl that didn’t know anything. It was a lot of fun, traveling around Europe was a beautiful time… But when we [the Black girls on the American Olympic teams] went out to run, we found other runners in our place. We just had to stand there, and I felt terrible.”
Welcoming a Hometown Hero
When Stokes, whose team won gold, returned to Malden after a second Olympic Games during which she was again sidelined, her hometown of 58,000 people greeted her with an Olympian’s welcome. “They had a ticket-day parade for her,” Stokes’ son, Fraser says. “She represented Malden and went to the Olympics.”
A blurb in The Boston Globe on September 11, 1936 was headlined, “Malden Welcomes Louise Stokes Home.” It read, in part, “Miss Louise Stokes was tendered a welcome-home reception this afternoon on her return from the Olympic Games. Although Miss Stokes was a member of the Olympic team, she did not compete in the relay race in Berlin.”
A Profound Legacy
Slowly and certainly overdue, Stokes’ story of athletic prowess and injustice is coming to light.
In 1980, the field house at Roosevelt Park in Malden was dedicated to the sprinter until 18 years later, when the park closed to become the site of a new elementary school. In 1987, a statue of Stokes on the starting blocks was erected in the Malden High School courtyard.
According to a 2000 article published in The Boston Globe, titled “Stokes: Nowhere Fast,” a childhood neighbor of Stokes, Bill Mini, who watched Stokes run along the railroad tracks and would later become a teacher at the high school, spearheaded the courtyard tribute.
Since then, Stokes’ story has been featured in several publications and books, as well as a documentary. “I’m happy, very ecstatic that she’s getting the recognition for herself and the 1932 and 1936 teams,” her son, Fraser, says. “I’ll do all I can to help push it along.”
Stokes, whose married name was Fraser, never saw these recognitions. She died in 1978, at the age of 64, just three years after she retired from her position as a clerk for the Massachusetts Department of Corporations and Taxation.
“All my mother wanted to do was run,” Fraser says. “She wanted to be treated fairly, but that didn’t happen. I think she’d be a little shy or even embarrassed by all of the attention [now]. She wouldn’t have been used to that.”
Shortly after Stokes retired from elite running after the 1936 Olympics, Black women began to dominate the sport of track and field, thanks largely to the programs at Tuskegee University and Tennessee State University. The Tuskegee women, for example, won 14 national championships in the late ’30s, ’40s, and early ’50s. Something Stokes would have been proud to see.
“That shift in women’s track and field is part of the larger story that Louise Stokes’ story helps us understand,” Thomas, of the Smithsonian, says. “When you struggle and fight for what’s right, you might not get it. But what you’re doing makes it easier for the next generation.
As we think about the subsequent generation – Tennessee and Tuskegee – that success was not possible without the sacrifices from those like Louise [Stokes] and Tidye [Pickett].”
Thomas goes on to make an important point: the history books, and society at large, celebrate the stories of those who were given opportunities to succeed. “Unfortunately, the stories of the people who made sacrifices, who were denied the right to compete themselves, are often forgotten,” he says. “Sometimes we forget who made the sacrifices along the way.”
Stokes was fast and she remained fast. She never lacked pace. What she lacked was opportunity.
Stokes’ son, Fraser, reflects on a time when he was 13 or 14 years old, when he was one of the fastest kids in the neighborhood. “I was racing against my mother down in the park,” he says. “She hiked up her skirt, she was wearing hush puppies [shoes] and someone said, “Go!” She beat me. Twice.”
* * *
Ramirez and her running crew of women – mostly women of color – remember Stokes and recognize how she paved the way for runners like her. Ramirez and her TrailblazHERs co-founders love to tell the story of Stokes when they hit the path along the Malden River.
“Thank you,” Ramirez says to the memory of Stokes. “Thank you for setting the tone of what we’re supposed to reach. We’re going to pick up where you left off.”- Trending Categories
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How to Perform an F-Test in Python
Statisticians use F-test to check whether the two datasets have the same variance or not. F-test is named after Sir Ronald Fisher. To use the F-Test, we make two hypotheses, a null hypothesis, and one alternate hypothesis. Then we select any of these two hypotheses approved by the F-Test.
Variance is a data distribution metric to tell the data deviation from the mean. The higher values show more dispersion than the smaller values.
In this article, you will learn how to perform an F-Test in Python programming Language with its use cases.
F -Test Process
The process to perform the F-Test is as follows −
To begin with, define the null and alternate hypotheses.
Null Hypothesis or H0: σ12 = σ22 (the variances of the population are equal)
Alternate Hypothesis or H1: σ12 ≠ σ22 (the variances of the populations are unequal)
Choose the statistic for testing.
Calculate the degrees of freedom for the populations. For instance, if m and n are population shapes, the degree of freedom is denoted as (df1) = m–1 and (df2) = n – 1 respectively.
Now find the F value from the F-table.
At last, divide the value of alpha by 2 for two-tailed tests to calculate the critical value.
Thus, we define the F value using the degrees of freedom of the populations. We read the df1 in the first row while df2 in the first column.
There are various F Tables for unique kinds of degrees of freedom. We compare the F statistic from step 2 with the critical value calculated in step 4. Then we can reject the null hypothesis if the critical value is lesser than the F statistic. On the contrary, we can accept the null hypothesis when the critical value is greater than the F statistic at some significant level.
We make some assumptions before performing the F-Test based on the dataset.
The data population follows the normal distribution i.e. it fits the bell curve.
Samples are non-correlated to each other i.e. no multicollinearity in the population.
Apart from these assumptions, we should also consider the following key points while performing the F-Test −
The maximum variance value should be in the numerator to perform the right-tailed test.
Determine the critical value after dividing alpha by 2 in the case of the two-tailed test.
Check if you have variance or standard deviations.
If you do not have degrees of freedom in the F Table, then go with the maximum value as the critical value.
F-Test in Python
x : quantiles q : lower or upper tail probability dfn, dfd shape parameters loc :location parameter scale : scale parameter (default=1) size : random variate shape moments : [‘mvsk’] letters, specifying which moments to compute
In this method, user must pass the f_value and iterable length of each array into the scipy.stats.f.cdf() and subtract it with 1 to perform the F-test.
First, import the NumPy and Scipy.stats libraries for the operation.
Then create two lists of randomly chosen values with two different variable names and convert them into NumPy arrays and calculate the variance of each array using Numpy.
Define a function to calculate the F-score where at first we divide the variances of arrays with a degree of freedom as 1.
Then calculated the iterable length of each array and pass the f-value (ratio of variances), and the lengths into the CDF function, and subtracted this from 1 to calculate the p-value.
Finally, p_value and f_value are returned by the function.
import numpy as np import scipy.stats # Create data group1 = [0.28, 0.2, 0.26, 0.28, 0.5] group2 = [0.2, 0.23, 0.26, 0.21, 0.23] # Converting the list to an array x = np.array(group1) y = np.array(group2) # Calculate the variance of each group print(np.var(group1), np.var(group2)) def f_test(group1, group2): f = np.var(group1, ddof=1)/np.var(group2, ddof=1) nun = x.size-1 dun = y.size-1 p_value = 1-scipy.stats.f.cdf(f, nun, dun) return f, p_value # perform F-test f_test(x, y)
Variances: 0.010464 0.00042400000000000017
You can observe that the F test value is 4.38712, and the respective p-value equals 0.019127.
We will abandon the null hypothesis since the p-value is less than.05. Thus, we can say that these two populations do not have equal variances.
After reading this article, you now know how you can use F-Test to check if the two samples belong to the populations having the same variances. You have learned about the F-test process, assumptions, and Python implementation. Let us summarize the article with a few takeaways −
The F test tells you if the two populations have equal variances.
Calculate the degrees of freedom and calculate the critical value.
Find the F-statistic from the F-Table and compare it with the crucial value calculated in the previous step.
Accept or reject the null hypothesis based on the critical value and F-statistic comparison.
Kickstart Your Career
Get certified by completing the courseGet StartedRapid technological development has enabled widespread digitization of organizational structures, helping to create a more sustainable and efficient enterprise supply chain. During the last two decades, ongoing investment and adoption of new technology have allowed organizations to upskill their workforce, build effective communication channels, and create a more interactive virtual workplace.
While newer software tools and digital resources have witnessed broader appeal within private industries, other sectors with less digital involvement and inadequate financial investment have seen slower levels of technological adoption, despite Artificial Intelligence (AI) being a strong driver of change and forward-looking development.
Traditionally, the education sector, and more importantly, the classroom setting have seen slower use of technology. However, following the pandemic, educators and teachers have realized the scale of opportunities that come with using technology as a way to make lessons more intriguing, manage their planning structures, and help create a more engaging classroom experience.
The Rise of EdTech
The virtual and digital classroom has moved beyond traditional tools – Google Teams and Zoom – and has started to embrace the continuous development of newer, more advanced software tools that can help students and educators improve their performance within the classroom.
The establishment of edtech or educational technology has allowed big-tech companies and other household names to develop a range of digital services focused on improving the overall classroom setting and the teaching experience.
Generally speaking, edtech refers to the use of software and hardware components, and collaborating this with in-person teaching to create a more digital learning environment for students. Edtech encompasses a variety of tools and resources and is focused on providing real-time solutions for educators, enabling them with more efficient and optimum teaching experiences.
While the development, and more importantly adoption of these technological tools have been typically slow, better access to the Internet of Things (IoT), and Software as a Service (SaaS) have made edtech tools more attractive for educators and private investors.
Research by McKinsey and Company, a global consulting firm, estimates that venture capital investment in the global edtech sector will reach more than $20.8 billion in 2021, a representation of 40 times more than the amount invested eleven years earlier in 2010.
Do you know which under-the-radar stocks the top hedge funds and institutional investors are investing in right now? Click here to find out.
Was it perhaps not for the pandemic that helped fast-track this development, educational technology has now become an integral part of the classroom setting, whether this is for the facilitation of in-person or virtual teaching.
EdTech Tools For The Digital Classroom
As technology begins to play a more important role in the classroom, educators will continuously look to adopt more advanced tools that will improve their lessons, further enhance student interactions and engagements, and assist with the management of course materials and lesson planning.
In-Class Lesson Planning Software
The first, and perhaps most important category is the use of software to enable more effective and engaging classroom lessons and the presentation of course materials.
This platform enables teachers to create a digital playbook and utilize lesson templates to create more compelling presentations. PlanBoard is a popular platform for various grades and levels and can be directly linked with U.S. state and Canadian curriculum standards.
The interactive platform allows for easy use and lesson planning and can be used both online and offline. The media function allows teachers to upload new content, and use this within their lessons. With PlanBoard, educators have access to analytical tools as well, helping to track student progression and performance.
Nearpod can be used in different classes and lessons, especially for teachers with younger students who require intuitive lesson planning. This platform allows teachers to create more interactive and engaging lessons with the use of available templates and other multimedia materials.
One of the most attractive features of Nearpod is that teachers can make lessons available for students to download onto their mobile devices. The platform is free to use, and students can use the application both online and offline. This application is suitable for a variety of classes, and teachers can use the materials available on the platform to craft more lively, fun, and interesting lessons for students.
Next on the list is Mentimeter, a free platform that provides near-endless opportunities for teachers. With Mentimeter, teachers can further streamline their lesson planning, and use Educational templates to create more interactive lessons.
Mentimeter comes with a variety of features, such as the Quiz Questions, which allows students to submit anonymous real-time answers. This feature is most suitable in big classes, either at the university level or even in situations where students are less confident to give responses in a classroom setting. Overall, Mentimeter can help teachers build more robust lessons, and create straightforward activities that will keep students at any level engaged.
The following category looks at various platforms that allow teachers to plan, organize, and execute their lessons better. This software helps to keep all of their important information in one place.
With Additio, educators can keep better track of student attendance, class activities, and weekly planners. The platform helps to centralize critical organizational and classroom management, enabling more engagement between teachers and students beyond the classroom.
Additio allows teachers to build a weekly or monthly calendar, and include other records, such as attendance, observations, important notes, and extra curricular activities. More than this, the platform is available to students, meaning they can access important information and resources at any given time.
Additionally, the platform acts as a communication portal between teachers, students, and parents. With this, both students and parents can contact teachers, and teachers can also track any student’s progress. While it takes a bit of time to get used to the interface, Additio is a valuable tool for effective classroom management.
Another classroom management platform, that is both desktop and mobile-friendly is Socrative Teacher. This platform can be used across various teaching levels, from primary school to high school, and is even used in the corporate environment.
With Socrative Teacher, educators can design their classroom management around their needs, while also making the process a lot more enjoyable with games, and a range of available templates.
For in-class use, there are options to create custom quizzes, and the backend allows teachers to review student reports with infographics and other visualizations. Socrative Teacher makes learning and understanding data more fun and interactive and is available for free to students.
Teachers with multiple classes and students can use Attendance to keep better track of which students have been attending class and create a report that measures their performance that can later be used to help assess student behavior and forward-looking guidance.
With Attendance, teachers can create custom lists for different classes, which can then be used to keep track of individual student classwork, studies, projects, and assignments. The platform implements easy-to-use prompts and tools for teachers, allowing them to keep better track of student records, and to help verify student reports more effectively.
One of the downsides of this platform is that managing various students and classes all at once can feel somewhat overwhelming in the beginning. Additionally, teachers need to constantly keep track of different projects and information on the platform to ensure they use the data more effectively and to their best advantage.
Perhaps less organizational, and more focused on providing teachers an effective and safe way to stay connected with parents. This platform aims to eliminate any potential communication barriers, allowing teachers the ability to directly contact parents and provide them with the necessary student performance reporting.
You can think of Classtree as the classroom version of Messenger of iMessage, as it has a one-on-one chat portal, but also provides additional features that can help teachers and parents have better control over student performance.
As a stand-alone communication platform, Classtree comes with all the bells and whistles. Teachers can send parents surveys and attendance records of their students. Additionally, they can have better analytical data to create student reports, all the while being able to directly share this information with parents.
Student-Teacher Collaboration Software
The final category focuses on bringing students and teachers closer together, both in terms of in-class and virtual learning. This software enables teachers to give students more freedom to interact and engage with lessons through technology such as pop quizzes, videos, and presentations.
Instead of handing out individual question papers, teachers can now allow students to answer questions using Slido. The platform gives teachers the ability to share an event code with students, which they can access through their web browsers. Teachers can then provide questions and possible answers, which students can respond to using the platform.
This platform helps to make presentations a lot more interactive for students of any age, as results or answers are displayed in real-time. Teachers can remove results, and statements or answers that receive multiple upvotes will move to the top of the list quickly.
Slido can also be used in a university setting, or even corporate training, as presenters can set up polls and surveys, which can then be answered by attendees. Through this, presenters, and more importantly, educators can have an active and visual presentation of student queries, questions, and answers.
Moodle is a more robust software platform that houses several collaboration tools and features geared at educators across various education levels. One of the significant features of Moodle is that it allows for the mass integration of multiple students, and educators can include projects, assignments, and peer and self-assessments.
Moodle is free to use for both students and educators and is available on Open Source. Additionally, Moodle allows educators to customize the platform to their needs. While there are a lot of intricacies, and it takes a bit of time to get the hang of everything, Moodle provides efficient classroom management and collaboration for educators.
Explain Everything Whiteboard
Educators who want to have more control and versatility in their classroom management can leverage Explain Everything Whiteboard to interact with students, collaborate on projects, and provide students with an open communication portal.
While the platform is mainly used to create an interactive interface, whereby students and teachers can write and share notes, create images, and share other media, Explain Everything Whiteboard also allows teachers to access student records and share important resources via the platform.
This creative collaboration tool allows for better attendance during online lectures and classes. Educators can record their videos or lessons, which can then be shared with students. The platform also features built-in voice chat and video link sharing.
Why Is Edtech Important For The Classroom?
Edtech enables educators, schools, and universities to address issues of accessibility. With the necessary edtech software, educators can ensure that educational materials and resources are more widely available to all students, regardless of socio and economic background.
Following the pandemic, educational technology has become increasingly important for teachers and educators, to provide students with valuable classroom experiences, despite having to conduct classes virtually.
The pandemic allowed for the widespread deployment of educational technology. The World Bank estimates that “Learning Poverty” in low-income countries could potentially rise from 53 percent to more than 63 percent due to the limited availability of technological resources, school closures, and minimal intervention that promotes the adoption of edtech software.
Learning loss isn’t only present in low-income countries, and there are multiple instances where a lack of critical resources, especially technology, can directly make an impact on the classroom experience for students.
One research study found that roughly 86 percent of eighth-grade teachers have agreed that integrating some technology into lessons and presentations is important, and directly contributes to the learning experience.
Even more, a different study found that 90 percent of teachers and educators believe that with the use of technology and software, they can further expand their lessons, and enable a more collaborative classroom.
While there are still a lot of obstacles that may hinder the successful application of edtech, it remains a critical component for the advancement of student-teacher engagement and collaboration, but more importantly, helps to optimize classroom management, and ensures greater autonomy for teachers.St. Francis Xavier, Jesuit, Apostle of the Indies, Patron of the Missions
One change of plans…
Forged in the fire of the Spiritual Exercises given to him by a master and friend, Fr. Francisco de Jasso (1506-1552) – or Francis Xavier, as he would be remembered – was a different man from the young aristocrat who had set off to Paris to study. The son of the king’s privy counselor, born in the castle of Javier (Xavier, in the Basque language), young Francis had had other plans. He had dreamed of worldly success, and looked on his new college roommate, the fellow Basque Iñigo – or Ignatius – López de Loyola with some degree of scorn. When Ignatius spoke to Francis and their third roommate, Peter Faber, about following the Lord, Peter listened, but Francis responded sarcastically, a protective wall around his heart.
Yet something in Ignatius was truer and simpler than that wall of defense. It took time, but the words of the gospel spoken through his roommate penetrated Francis’ heart: “What does it profit a man….?” The defenses crumbled, and the nobleman from a mighty castle was conquered. He became a priest, taking vows with Ignatius, Peter and four others – the nucleus of what would become the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits. After vows came the Exercises, where he learned to listen to God. His dross purified, he was ready. For what? Anything at all.
…and then another
What came, came almost by chance. The King of Portugal asked for two Jesuits for the Portugese colonies in India, where reports of the colonists’ lives were less than edifying. Ignatius chose Simon Rodriguez and Nicholas Bobadilla, but as their departure drew near, Bobadilla fell ill. Ignatius called Francis: Fr. Bobadilla can’t go, he explained, will you go in his place? “Of course, right away!” Francis replied. He meant that literally. He bid farewell to the friend who had become as a father to him. Pausing for only a day to repair an old pair of pants, he departed.
After a 13-month voyage, Francis landed in Goa in 1542. The nobleman had become a missionary thousands of miles from his brothers. He began ministering to the sick and to uncatechized children. From there he went to India, to pearl fishermen who had been baptized but had never received pastoral care. Soon people from other towns came asking for baptism. In Travancore, he baptized 10,000 people in a month, until his arm went numb and he lost his voice from the amount of instruction he gave.
After providing for the care of these people and for the education of a native clergy, Francis sailed to present-day Indonesia. There he met a Japanese man, Anjiro, who came to him for counsel and accepted baptism. Through this catechumen, Francis discovered a land of “wholly reasonable people” who could be open to the gospel. In 1549, Francis sailed for Japan, where he spent a year studying the difficult language. He never mastered it, yet he planted the seed of a small local church that would take deep root, producing hundreds of martyrs in the coming persecution.
Francis dreamed further. “How can Christianity be true if China had never heard of it?,” the Japanese asked him. He understood where he needed to go. He never arrived, however. In 1552, on Shangchuan Island, off the coast of China, the 46 year-old Francis Xavier fell ill and died
A beloved son and father
Letters between Europe and Asia took a year to arrive, so when Ignatius wrote recalling Fr. Francis to Europe six months later, he did not know that Francis had died. He would hear of his exploits only piecemeal. But he had letters full of the deep communion that bound Francis to his brother Jesuits and to his spiritual father. He had been half a world away, yet they had been one. That unity had been the fire behind the 30,000 baptisms attributed to Francis Xavier, the unending travels and exhausting labor.
“Entirely yours, without my being able to forget you, ever at any time, Ignatius,” Ignatius had signed one of his letters before sending it on a voyage around the world. The missionary, who surely felt his distance from his brothers, confessed to reading these words in tears. “Dear father of my soul … while kneeling on the ground I write this … [I ask] you to commend me earnestly to our Lord in your … prayers, that he may grant me to know his holy will … and grace to fulfill it perfectly.” Francis Xavier remained in that holy will. It made him a beloved son, and a father to tens of thousands.Alternative medicine is a term used to describe medical practices that are not part of conventional western medicine. These practices are often rooted in traditions from different cultures and can range from herbal medicine to acupuncture and meditation. For those seeking a more natural and holistic approach to health and wellness, alternative medicine can be an attractive option.
This article is for anyone interested in learning more about alternative medicine and how it can be used to complement traditional healthcare. We’ll explore its history, benefits, drawbacks, and controversies. We’ll also share personal stories of individuals who have successfully used alternative medicine to treat or manage health conditions.
II. The History of Alternative Medicine and What it Means Today
Alternative medicine has ancient roots, with traditional healing practices developed in different cultures around the world. From Ayurveda and Chinese medicine to Native American and African traditions, these practices were the primary healthcare methods for centuries.
Today, alternative medicine has evolved to encompass a wide variety of therapies and practices. It is defined as a complementary approach to conventional medicine that can be used in conjunction with or as an alternative to it. Alternative medicine aims to treat the whole person, not just the symptoms, and focuses on prevention and self-care.
Alternative medicine is used in healthcare today to manage many conditions, including chronic pain, anxiety, depression, and digestive disorders. It can include therapies such as chiropractic, massage, and acupuncture as well as herbs, vitamins, and supplements.
III. The Benefits and Drawbacks of Alternative Medicine
Alternative medicine has many potential benefits. For those seeking a natural approach to healthcare, it can be a way to avoid the side effects and risks associated with conventional medicine. It can also be more affordable, with many alternative therapies covered by insurance or offered at a lower cost than traditional medical treatments. Additionally, alternative medicine can help patients feel more empowered and in control of their healthcare decisions.
However, there are also drawbacks and risks associated with alternative medicine. Some therapies may have little to no scientific evidence supporting their effectiveness or safety. Alternative medicine may also involve the use of certain products or practices that could interact negatively with conventional medical treatments, or that may be contraindicated for certain conditions or populations.
It is also important to note that alternative medicine should not be seen as a replacement for traditional medical care. In some cases, combining alternative medicine with conventional treatment can be beneficial, but it is important to consult with a healthcare professional before starting any new therapy or treatment.
IV. The Top Alternative Medicine Practices You Should Know About
Some of the most popular alternative medicine practices include:
1. Herbal Medicine
Herbal medicine involves using plants and plant extracts to treat a variety of conditions. These can be taken in the form of teas, tinctures, capsules, or topical applications. Some commonly used herbs include echinacea for immune support, ginger for nausea, and valerian root for insomnia.
Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medicine technique that involves the use of small needles to stimulate certain points on the body. It is used for a variety of conditions, including chronic pain, arthritis, and anxiety.
Chiropractic involves the manipulation of the spine to treat conditions such as back pain, neck pain, and headaches. Practitioners of chiropractic believe that misalignments in the spine can affect the nervous system and other systems of the body.
Massage involves applying pressure to the muscles and soft tissues of the body to relieve tension, pain, and stress. It can be used for relaxation as well as for therapeutic purposes.
Meditation involves focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity to achieve a state of mental clarity and relaxation. It has been shown to be effective for reducing anxiety, depression, and stress.
V. The Scientific Evidence Behind Alternative Medicine
Scientific research is an important part of evaluating the effectiveness and safety of alternative medicine practices. While some therapies have been supported by scientific studies, others have limited or no evidence to support their use.
For example, the use of acupuncture for certain conditions such as chronic pain and headaches has been shown to be effective in many studies. Similarly, some herbs such as St. John’s Wort have been shown to be effective for treating depression. However, other practices such as homeopathy and energy healing have been found to have little scientific support.
It is important to note that scientific research is an ongoing process, and many alternative medicine practices have not yet been thoroughly studied. More research is needed in order to fully understand the benefits and risks of these practices.
VI. How to Incorporate Alternative Medicine into Your Healthcare Routine
If you are interested in using alternative medicine as a complementary approach to traditional healthcare, there are several things you can do.
First, it is important to talk to a healthcare professional before starting any new therapy or treatment, especially if you are currently taking medications or have a chronic health condition. A healthcare professional can help you determine which therapies may be most beneficial for your specific needs and can also help you understand the potential risks and benefits of each therapy.
It is also important to find the right practitioner for your needs. Look for practitioners who are licensed or certified in their specific practice, and who have experience working with patients with your specific condition. You should also ask about the cost of treatment and whether it is covered by insurance.
In addition to using alternative medicine therapies, you can also incorporate healthy lifestyle practices into your routine. This can include things like exercise, healthy eating, stress management techniques, and getting enough sleep.
VII. Personal Stories of Alternative Medicine Success
Real-life accounts of individuals who have successfully used alternative medicine to treat or manage health conditions can be reassuring for those considering these practices. For example, some people have found relief from chronic pain through chiropractic treatments, while others have found stress relief through meditation or acupuncture.
It is important to note that personal stories are not a substitute for scientific evidence, and what works for one person may not work for another. However, hearing about other people’s experiences can be helpful in determining whether alternative medicine is worth exploring further.
VIII. The Controversy Surrounding Alternative Medicine
Alternative medicine has long been the subject of controversy and skepticism. Some critics argue that it lacks scientific evidence and may even be harmful. Others argue that it is a valuable complement to traditional medicine and can offer many benefits.
One of the main concerns surrounding alternative medicine is safety. Because many therapies are not regulated by the FDA, there may be a risk of contamination or other safety concerns associated with certain products or practices. Additionally, some therapies may be contraindicated for certain conditions or populations, making it important to consult with a healthcare professional before starting any new therapy or treatment.
Another concern is the potential for harm if alternative medicine is used in place of conventional medical care. For example, using herbal medicine to treat a serious infection instead of antibiotics could lead to serious health consequences.
Alternative medicine can offer a natural and complementary approach to healthcare, but it is important to understand the potential benefits and risks associated with different therapies. Scientific evidence is a key factor in evaluating the effectiveness and safety of these practices, and it is important to consult with a healthcare professional before starting any new therapy or treatment. Combining alternative medicine with healthy lifestyle practices can also lead to optimal health and wellness.HANDWRITING RELEVANT TODAY?
The relevance of handwriting is being questioned very often
these days, and quite a few of us have started believing that in today’s
hi-tech era handwriting is not important anymore. This is far from being true.
Based on the scientific studies we can identify several reasons to support the
importance of Handwriting.
While a certain segment advocated against the use of the cursive
style of writing, several experts in their study indicated that cursive writing
helps children with dyslexia and improves their memory. Some experts also said
that contents in c
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in large part the basis of the Constitution.
Though Randolph introduced the highly centralized Virginia Plan, he fluctuated between the Federalist and Antifederalist points of view. He sat on the Committee of Detail that prepared a draft of the Constitution, but by the time the document was adopted, Randolph declined to sign. He felt it was not sufficiently republican, and he was especially wary of creating a one-man executive. He preferred a three-man council since he regarded "a unity in the Executive" to be the "foetus of monarchy." In a Letter... on the Federal Constitution, dated October 10, 1787, Randolph explained at length his objections to the Constitution. The old Articles of Confederation were inadequate, he agreed, but the proposed new plan of union contained too many flaws. Randolph was a strong advocate of the process of amendment. He feared that if the Constitution were submitted for ratification without leaving the states the opportunity to amend it, the document might be rejected and thus close off any hope of another plan of union. However, he hoped that amendments would be permitted and second convention called to incorporate the changes.
By the time of the Virginia convention for ratification, Randolph supported the Constitution and worked to win his state's approval of it. He stated his reason for his switch: "The accession of eight states reduced our deliberations to the single question of Union or no Union."
Under President Washington, Edmund Randolph became Attorney General of the United States. After Thomas Jefferson resigned as Secretary of State, Randolph assumed that post for the years 1794-95. During the Jefferson-Hamilton conflict he tried to remain unaligned. After retiring from politics in 1795, Randolph resumed his law practice and was regarded as a leading figure in the legal community. During his retirement he wrote a history of Virginia. When Aaron Burr went on trial for treason in 1807, Edmund Randolph acted as his senior counsel. In 1813, at age 60 and suffering from paralysis, Randolph died while visiting Nathaniel Burwell at Carter Hall. His body is buried in the graveyard of the nearby chapel.
Image: Courtesy of National Archives, Records of Exposition, Anniversary, and Memorial Commissions (148-CCD-40)
The eldest of six children from his father's second marriage, George Washington was born into the landed gentry in 1732 at Wakefield Plantation, VA. Until reaching 16 years of age, he lived there and at other plantations along the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers, including the one that later became known as Mount Vernon. His education was rudimentary, probably being obtained from tutors but possibly also from private schools, and he learned surveying. After he lost his father when he was 11 years old, his half-brother Lawrence, who had served in the Royal Navy, acted as his mentor. As a result, the youth acquired an interest in pursuing a naval career, but his mother discouraged him from doing so.
At the age of 16, in 1748, Washington joined a surveying party sent out to the Shenandoah Valley by Lord Fairfax, a land baron. For the next few years, Washington conducted surveys in Virginia and present West Virginia and gained a lifetime interest in the West. In 1751-52 he also accompanied Lawrence on a visit he made to Barbados, West Indies, for health reasons just before his death.
The next year, Washington began his military career when the royal governor appointed him to an adjutantship in the militia, as a major. That same year, as a gubernatorial emissary, accompanied by a guide, he traveled to Fort Le Boeuf, PA, in the Ohio River Valley, and delivered to French authorities an ultimatum to cease fortification and settlement in English territory. During the trip, he tried to better British relations with various Indian tribes.
In 1754, winning the rank of lieutenant colonel and then colonel in the militia, Washington led a force that sought to challenge French control of the Ohio River Valley, but met defeat at Fort Necessity, PA - an event that helped trigger the French and Indian War (1754-63). Late in 1754, irked by the dilution of his rank because of the pending arrival of British regulars, he resigned his commission. That same year, he leased Mount Vernon, which he was to inherit in 1761.
In 1755 Washington reentered military service with the courtesy title of colonel, as an aide to Gen. Edward Braddock, and barely escaped death when the French defeated the general's forces in the Battle of the Monongahela, PA. As a reward for his bravery, Washington rewon his colonelcy and command of the Virginia militia forces, charged with defending the colony's frontier. Because of the shortage of men and equipment, he found the assignment challenging. Late in 1758 or early in 1759, disillusioned over governmental neglect of the militia and irritated at not rising in rank, he resigned and headed back to Mount Vernon.
Washington then wed Martha Dandridge Custis, a wealthy widow and mother of two children. The marriage produced no offspring, but Washington reared those of his wife as his own. During the period 1759-74, he managed his plantations and sat in the Virginia House of Burgesses. He supported the initial protests against British policies; took an active part in the nonimportation movement in Virginia; and, in time, particularly because of his military experience, became a Whig leader.
By the 1770s, relations of the colony with the mother country had become strained. Measured in his behavior but strongly sympathetic to the Whig position and resentful of British restrictions and commercial exploitation, Washington represented Virginia at the First and Second Continental Congresses. In 1775, after the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord, Congress appointed him as commander in chief of the Continental Army. Overcoming severe obstacles, especially in supply, he eventually fashioned a well-trained and disciplined fighting force.
The strategy Washington evolved consisted of continual harassment of British forces while avoiding general actions. Although his troops yielded much ground and lost a number of battles, they persevered even during the dark winters at Valley Forge, PA, and Morristown, NJ. Finally, with the aid of the French fleet and army, he won a climactic victory at the Battle of Yorktown, VA, in 1781.
During the next 2 years, while still commanding the agitated Continental Army, which was underpaid and poorly supplied, Washington denounced proposals that the military take over the government, including one that planned to appoint him as king, but supported army petitions to the Continental Congress for proper compensation. Once the Treaty of Paris (1783) was signed, he resigned his commission and returned once again to Mount Vernon. His wartime financial sacrifices and long absence, as well as generous loans to friends, had severely impaired his extensive fortune, which consisted mainly of his plantations, slaves, and landholdings in the West. At this point, however, he was to have little time to repair his finances, for his retirement was brief.
Dissatisfied with national progress under the Articles of Confederation, Washington advocated a stronger central government. He hosted the Mount Vernon Conference (1785) at his estate after its initial meetings in Alexandria, though he apparently did not directly participate in the discussions. Despite his sympathy with the goals of the Annapolis Convention (1786), he did not attend. But, the following year, encouraged by many of his friends, he presided over the Constitutional Convention, whose success was immeasurably influenced by his presence and dignity. Following ratification of the new instrument of government in 1788, the electoral college unanimously chose him as the first President.
The next year, after a triumphal journey from Mount Vernon to New York City, Washington took the oath of office at Federal Hall. During his two precedent-setting terms, he governed with dignity as well as restraint. He also provided the stability and authority the emergent nation so sorely needed, gave substance to the Constitution, and reconciled competing factions and divergent policies within the government and his administration. Although not averse to exercising presidential power, he respected the role of Congress and did not infringe upon its prerogatives. He also tried to maintain harmony between his Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, whose differences typified evolving party divisions from which Washington kept aloof.
Yet, usually leaning upon Hamilton for advice, Washington supported his plan for the assumption of state debts, concurred in the constitutionality of the bill establishing the Bank of the United States, and favored enactment of tariffs by Congress to provide federal revenue and protect domestic manufacturers.
Washington took various other steps to strengthen governmental authority, including suppression of the Whisky Rebellion (1794). To unify the country, he toured the Northeast in 1789 and the South in 1791. During his tenure, the government moved from New York to Philadelphia in 1790, he superintended planning for relocation to the District of Columbia, and he laid the cornerstone of the Capitol (1793).
In foreign affairs, despite opposition from the Senate, Washington exerted dominance. He fostered United States interests on the North American continent by treaties with Britain and Spain. Yet, until the nation was stronger, he insisted on the maintenance of neutrality. For example, when the French Revolution created war between France and Britain, he ignored the remonstrances of pro-French Jefferson and pro-English Hamilton.
Although many people encouraged Washington to seek a third term, he was weary of politics and refused to do so. In his "Farewell Address" (1796), he urged his countrymen to forswear party spirit and sectional differences and to avoid entanglement in the wars and domestic policies of other nations.
Washington enjoyed only a few years of retirement at Mount Vernon. Even then, demonstrating his continued willingness to make sacrifices for his country in 1798 when the nation was on the verge of war with France he agreed to command the army, though his services were not ultimately required. He died at the age of 67 in 1799. In his will, he emancipated his slaves.
Image: Courtesy of National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
George Wythe, the second of Thomas and Margaret Wythe's three children, was born in 1726 on his family's plantation on the Back River in Elizabeth City County, VA. Both parents died when Wythe was young, and he grew up under the guardianship of his older brother, Thomas. Though Wythe was to become an eminent jurist and teacher, he received very little formal education. He learned Latin and Greek from his well-educated mother, and he probably attended for a time a grammar school operated by the College of William and Mary.
Wythe's brother later sent him to Prince George County to read law under an uncle. In 1746, at age 20, he joined the bar, moved to Spotsylvania County, and became associated with a lawyer there. In 1747 he married his partner's sister, Ann Lewis, but she died the next year. In 1754 Lt. Gov. Robert Dinwiddie appointed him as acting colonial attorney general, a position that he held for only a few months. The next year, Wythe's brother died and he inherited the family estate. He chose, however, to live in Williamsburg in the house that his new father-in-law, an architect, designed and built for him and his wife, Elizabeth Taliaferro. They married in 1755, and their only child died in infancy.
At Williamsburg, Wythe immersed himself in further study of the classics and the law and achieved accreditation by the colonial supreme court. He served in the House of Burgesses from the mid-1750s until 1775, first as delegate and after 1769 as clerk. In 1768 he became mayor of Williamsburg, and the next year he sat on the board of visitors of the College of William and Mary. During these years he also directed the legal studies of young scholars, notably Thomas Jefferson. Wythe and Jefferson maintained a lifelong friendship, first as mentor and pupil and later as political allies.
Wythe first exhibited revolutionary leanings in 1764 when Parliament hinted to the colonies that it might impose a stamp tax. By then an experienced legislator, he drafted for the House of Burgesses a remonstrance to Parliament so strident that his fellow delegates modified it before adoption. Wythe was one of the first to express the concept of separate nationhood for the colonies within the British empire.
When war broke out, Wythe volunteered for the army but was sent to the Continental Congress. Although present from 1775 through 1776, Wythe exerted little influence and signed the Declaration of Independence after the formal signing in August 1776. That same year, Wythe, Jefferson, and Edmund Pendleton undertook a 3-year project to revise Virginia's legal code. In 1777 Wythe also presided as speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates.
An appointment as one of the three judges of the newly created Virginia high court of chancery followed in 1778. For 28 years, during 13 of which he was the only chancellor, Wythe charted the course of Virginia jurisprudence. In addition, he was an ex officio member of the state superior court.
Wythe's real love was teaching. In 1779 Jefferson and other officials of the College of William and Mary created the first chair of law in a U.S. institution of higher learning and appointed Wythe to fill it. In that position, he educated America's earliest college-trained lawyers, among them John Marshall and James Monroe. In 1787 he attended the Constitutional Convention but played an insignificant role. He left the proceedings early and did not sign the Constitution. The following year, however, he was one of the Federalist leaders at the Virginia ratifying convention. There he presided over the Committee of the Whole and offered the resolution for ratification.
In 1791, the year after Wythe resigned his professorship, his chancery duties caused him to move to Richmond, the state capital. He was reluctant to give up his teaching, however, and opened a private law school. One of his last and most promising pupils was young Henry Clay.
In 1806, in his eightieth year, Wythe died at Richmond under mysterious circumstances, probably of poison administered by his grandnephew and heir, George Wythe Sweeney. Reflecting a lifelong aversion to slavery, Wythe emancipated his slaves in his will. His grave is in the yard of St. John's Episcopal Church in Richmond.Contact lens, thin artificial lens worn on the surface of the eye to correct refractive defects of vision. The first contact lens, made of glass, was developed by Adolf Fick in 1887 to correct irregular astigmatism. The early lenses, however, were uncomfortable and could not be worn for long. Until the development of optical instruments that could measure the curvature of the cornea (the transparent surface of the eye that covers the iris and the pupil), the contact lens was made by taking an impression of the eye and fashioning a lens on a mold.
Contact lenses most effectively neutralize visual defects arising from irregular curvatures of the cornea. They are the preferred treatment for some varieties of astigmatism and aphakia (absence of the eye’s crystalline lens). They also can be functionally and cosmetically appealing substitutes for eyeglasses to treat myopia (nearsightedness) and other visual defects.
In the mid-1900s, plastic-based contact lenses were designed that rested on a cushion of tears on the cornea, covering the area over the iris and pupil. These older hard-plastic contact lenses had a limited wearing time because of potential irritation of the cornea, and they required a period of adaptation when first worn. Both front and back surfaces of the hard contact lens are spherically curved, altering refractive properties by changing the shape of the tear film on the eye’s surface, which conforms to the curve of the rear surface of the contact lens, and by a difference in curvature between the two surfaces of the lens itself. In the 1970s, gas-permeable rigid contact lenses were developed that allowed much more oxygen to pass through to the corneal surface, thus increasing comfort and wear time.
Also in the 1970s, larger “soft” lenses, made from a water-absorbing plastic gel for greater flexibility, were introduced. Soft contact lenses are usually comfortable because they allow oxygen to penetrate to the eye’s surface. Their large size makes them more difficult to lose than hard lenses. Their delicacy, however, makes them more subject to damage, and, as with all contact lenses, they require careful maintenance. They are less effective than hard lenses in treating astigmatism, because they reflect the underlying corneal curvature more closely. In 2005 hybrid lenses were developed that are gas-permeable and rigid and surrounded by a soft ring. These lenses provide the comfort of a soft lens with the visual sharpness of a hard lens.
Contact lenses have particular advantages in treating certain defects that can be corrected only partially by prescription eyeglasses; for example, contact lenses avoid the distortion of size that occurs with thick corrective lenses. However, most contact lenses cannot be worn overnight, as this significantly increases the risk of serious corneal infections.
Contact lenses can also be used in certain situations to protect the corneal surface during healing and to relieve discomfort derived from corneal surface problems.The adage, “Put your thinking caps on,” might evoke visions of an elementary classroom, where a teacher has just admonished cherubic little learners about to embark on a particularly difficult academic adventure.
In today’s high-stakes world, where we all need to think, learn or act quickly, the adage still rings true: Mastering a new task, skill or information often takes the right environment, mindset, sharp focus and lots of hard work, repetition and time.
Yet, in some time-sensitive or high-pressure situations, a big boost in learning ability and speed from that proverbial thinking cap would not only be welcome, but critical.
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, biomedical engineer Justin Williams is leading an effort to do just that.
With up to $9.85 million in funding from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) he and neuroscience experts from around the country will develop a low-cost, easy-to-use system—think “learning goggles”—that aims to accelerate learning by stimulating nerves in the head and neck to boost neural activity in the brain.
The system will be particularly useful for military personnel, whose safety and our national security depends on their ability to quickly master new skills or digest vast quantities of important information.
The concept is rooted in a promising new area of research, called targeted neuroplasticity training, in which activating peripheral nerves—those outside of the brain and spinal cord—can promote and strengthen connections of neurons in the brain.
Acupuncturists have known for centuries that the face and head are excellent places to stimulate peripheral nerves. For example, the auricular vagus nerve is located just below the skin and runs past the tragus—the little “flap” on your outer ear—and down through the neck.
Stimulating nerves such as the vagus can boost brain chemicals such as acetylcholine, dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. During learning, those chemicals, known as neuromodulators, regulate changes in the connections between neurons in the brain—and brain function improves. In recent experiments, other researchers in the field demonstrated that stimulating the vagus nerve while an animal was learning a basic task dramatically increased the speed at which the animal learned the task. “It seemed to work, whether it was a motor task, memory, auditory task, or something else,” says Williams, the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in biomedical engineering and neurological surgery and chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UW-Madison.
Williams himself is among the nation’s leaders in neural interface technology research and optimization; in 2009, for example, Time magazine included him on its top-50 best inventions list for developing a “thinking cap”: a brain-computer interface that allows paralyzed or “locked-in” people to type and send a tweet using only their thoughts.
With the DARPA funding, he and his collaborators initially will leverage their combined expertise to develop ways to discover, measure, monitor and optimize the brain’s response during targeted neuroplasticity training.
Ultimately, they hope to use that knowledge to eventually develop a non-invasive, user-friendly technology that simultaneously delivers a stimulus, monitors neural response, and dramatically accelerates learning. “Can we optimize the production of neurotransmitters at the right time and in the right place in the brain during a task to enhance learning?” asks Williams.
Beyond military applications, the technology also might be useful, in controlled environments, for people who have learning disorders, or who are afflicted with diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Williams’ collaborators at UW-Madison include Samuel Poore, an assistant professor of surgery; Zhenqiang (Jack) Ma, a professor of electrical and computer engineering; and Aaron Suminski, a senior scientist in neurological surgery and biomedical engineering. Collaborators from around the country include David McCormick, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at Yale University/University of Oregon; Matthew McGinley, an assistant professor of neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine; Robert Froemke an assistant professor in otolaryngology and neuroscience and physiology at New York University; Kip Ludwig, associate director of the Mayo Clinic Neural Engineering Laboratories; and Kendall Lee, director of the Mayo Clinic Neural Engineering Laboratories.
Author: Renee MeillerThe development of low-cost carbon nanotubes is presented in this work. In the present work, various types of carbon nanotubes are synthesised in hot-wall chemical vapour deposition (CVD) reactors using different temperatures and carbon sources (hydrocarbons). Growth rates were continuously monitored using an electronic microbalance coupled to the reactors. The obtained products are characterised by Raman spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The data from the deposition process and the characteristics of the developed materials are discussed in detail. The kinetic data are compared with those attained by employing conventional catalysts. Furthermore, techniques of semi-industrial CNT functionalisation are developed in this study and results on their effectiveness on the synthesis of resin-based nanocomposites are presented.Binswanger’s disease is a type of vascular dementia that is caused by microscopic damage within the deep layers of the brain’s white matter. It is secondary to atherosclerosis, also known as hardening of the arteries, characterized by thickening and narrowing of the arteries, which provide blood supply to the subcortical areas of the brain. As the blood vessels become narrow, the blood supply to the brain tissues decreases leading to degeneration of the brain tissues. Binswanger’s disease usually affects during the fourth decade of life and the condition worsens with increasing age. The symptoms of Binswanger’s disease are usually noted between the ages of 54 to 66 years of age, with the earliest signs being mental deterioration.
It was first described in 1894 by Otto Binswanger and was later renamed by Alois Alzheimer as “Binswanger’s disease” in 1902. Further studies and most of the modern day discoveries were made by Olszewski in 1962.
Binswanger’s disease is also known by the following terminologies:
- Multi-infarct dementia, Binswanger type.
- Binswanger encephalopathy.
- Subcortical dementia.
- Vascular dementia, Binswanger type.
- Subcortical ischemic vascular disease.
- Subcortical arteriosclerotic encephalopathy, SAE.
Symptoms of Binswanger’s Disease
The symptoms of Binswanger’s disease are due to disruption of the subcortical neural areas. The most commonly encountered symptoms include psychomotor slowness. Symptoms related to cognitive functioning includes:
- Short term memory loss and mental deterioration.
- Mood disorder including apathy, depression and irritability.
- Difficulty with organization and regulation of attention.
- Inability to act or make appropriate decision.
- Behavioural issues.
Other symptoms of Binswanger’s disease include:
- Speech difficulties.
- Language issues.
- Unsteady balance and gait.
- Frequent falls and clumsiness.
- Changes in personality.
- Urinary disturbances such as uncontrollable bladder.
- Transient ischemic attack.
- Muscle ataxia.
- Slow movements.
- Postural changes.
- Frequent episodes of fainting.
Patients affected by Binswanger’s disease often have difficulty in carrying out daily activities such as management of daily finances, driving, cooking etc.
Epidemiology of Binswanger’s Disease
Binswanger’s disease affects both males and females equally. It is commonly seen in individuals above 50 years of age.
Prognosis of Binswanger’s Disease
Binswanger’s disease is a progressive disease with no cure at present. The symptoms of Binswanger’s disease may appear suddenly or gradually and there after progress in a step wise manner. It is one of the most severe forms of vascular dementia associated with severe impairment. Binswanger’s disease is often accompanied by Alzheimer’s disease. It may be associated with other diseases such as dementia with Lewy bodies, frontotemporal degeneration, normal pressure hydrocephalus etc.
Causes and Risk Factors for Binswanger’s Disease
Binswanger disease is primarily caused by atherosclerosis, thromboembolism and disorders in the blood vessels that supply the deep tissues of the brain. Other predisposing risk factors of Binswanger’s disease include elevated cholesterol levels, heart disorders, diabetes, elevated blood pressure and history of smoking. Certain rare hereditary diseases such as cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) may also lead to Binswanger’s disease. Binswanger’s disease is not a specific disease. It is a clinical syndrome of a vascular dementia with multiple causes.
Diagnosis of Binswanger’s Disease
Diagnosis of Binswanger’s disease is done after obtaining a detailed case history followed by clinical examination. Investigative studies such as CT scan, MRI and proton MR spectrography are done as confirmatory tests. CT scan and MRI of brain show a characteristic pattern of Binswanger’s disease damages to brain tissue. Indicative signs include presence of infarction, lesions, loss of intensity of central white matter, enlargement of ventricles and leukoaraiosis. Leukoaraiosis or LA is an imaging finding of the white matter that is commonly found in imagining tests of patients with Binswanger’s disease. This finding is found in other neurological conditions as well and thus cannot be taken as a confirmatory sign. A Mini Mental Test (MMT) is usually done for assessment of cognitive impairment and vascular dementia. The condition is best diagnosed by a team of experts which includes experienced neurologist and psychiatrist to have in depth understanding of the condition and thus can rule out other neurological or psychological conditions.
Treatment of Binswanger’s Disease
Binswanger’s disease does not have a specific treatment. The current treatment modality is symptomatic management of the condition. The most accepted treatment modality for Binswanger’s disease includes management of vascular risk factors that promotes poor perfusion in the brain. This includes management of the underlying issues such as diabetes and hypertension to limit progression of atherosclerosis, which in turn will slow down the progression of Binswanger’s disease. Oral medications may be prescribed based on the symptoms demonstrated by the patient. Binswanger’s disease patients with anxiety and depression may require anti-depressant medication such as SSRI (serotonin specific reuptake inhibitors) such as sertraline or citalopram. In patients with agitation issues and disruptive behavior, antipsychotic drugs such as risperidone and olanzapine may be prescribed. A number of drugs trials have been carried out, which have shown that the drug Memantine provides significant improvement in cognition and provides stabilization of global functioning and behavior. It has been noticed that medications for Alzheimer’s disease such as Aricept (donepezil) helps in management of Binswanger’s disease. In case of psychological issues, behavioral counseling and psychiatric consultation may be recommended.
Treatment of hypertension involves prescription of anti-hypertensive drugs. Antiplatelet drugs or warfarin may be used to control thromboembolisms and statin therapy may be recommended for management of hypercholesterolemia.
Prevention of Binswanger’s Disease
The only precautionary methods that can be taken to prevent development of Binswanger’s syndrome is following a healthy lifestyle and seek early treatment for controlling conditions such as hypertension and diabetes to avoid development of atherosclerosis. Behavior such as following a healthy diet, maintaining regular sleep/wake up schedule, regular exercising, limiting alcohol intake and smoking help in slowing down the progression of Binswanger’s disease.
Binswanger’s disease is a vascular dementia secondary to arteriosclerosis of the blood vessels that supply the brain leading to degeneration of the brain tissues. Binswanger’s disease affects male and females equally and usually occurs above 50 years of age. Being a very rare disease not much is known about this condition. A large number of researches are being conducted by the National Institute of Neurological Disorder and Stroke (NINDS) to study and understand Binswanger’s disease better. Binswanger disease may be associated with other conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, frontotemporal degeneration, and normal pressure hydrocephalus. Binswanger’s disease is caused due to presence of underlying issues such as hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, arteriosclerosis and thromboembolism, which limits the blood supply to the structures of the brain. Unhealthy lifestyle such as smoking and alcohol consumption can also lead to Binswanger’s disease. It can also be caused due to genetic inheritance and hereditary conditions such as CADASIL. Binswanger’s disease does not have a specific cure and the only way to prevent this condition is to follow a healthy lifestyle to avoid development of known risk factors.Elephant poaching levels are the worst in a decade and recorded ivory seizures are at their highest levels since 1989, according to a report published today by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The findings, largely based on information submitted by governments, will be presented and discussed at the 62nd meeting of the CITES Standing Committee to be held in Geneva from 23 to 27 July 2012.
The report analyses data from the CITES programme on Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE), IUCN’s data on the status of elephant populations, the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) managed by TRAFFIC, and the CITES trade database managed by the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). These authoritative sources of information have shown a very close correspondence between trends in elephant poaching and trends in large-scale ivory seizures, detecting essentially the same patterns at different points in the illegal ivory trade chain.
“We need to enhance our collective efforts across range, transit and consumer states to reverse the current disturbing trends in elephant poaching and ivory smuggling," says Mr John E. Scanlon, CITES Secretary-General, commenting on the report. "While being essential, enforcement efforts to stop wildlife crime must not just result in seizures – they must result in prosecutions, convictions and strong penalties to stop the flow of contraband. The whole ‘enforcement chain’ must work together.”
According to ETIS data, three of the five years in which the greatest volumes of ivory were seized globally occurred in 2009, 2010 and 2011. In 2011 alone, there were 14 large-scale ivory seizures—a double-digit figure for the first time in 23 years, when ETIS records were first compiled. They totalled an estimated 24.3 tonnes of ivory; more than in any previous year. Large-scale ivory seizures (those involving >800 kg of ivory in a single transaction), typically indicate the participation of organised crime.
China and Thailand are the two primary destinations for illegal ivory consignments exported from Africa according to the seizure data. Seizures of large ivory consignments in Malaysia, the Philippines and Viet Nam since 2009, were believed to be in transit to China and Thailand. Some African and Asian countries have made significant efforts to enhance enforcement. For example, China conducted earlier this year a major operation which resulted in the seizure of 1,366.3 kg of ivory and the arrest of 13 suspects. Most of the ivory smuggling containers leave the African continent through Indian Ocean seaports in East African countries, primarily Kenya and the United Republic of Tanzania.
“Evidence is steadily mounting which shows that African elephants are facing their most serious crisis since international commercial trade in ivory was generally prohibited under CITES in 1989,” said Tom Milliken, TRAFFIC’s Elephant and Rhino Programme Leader and the Director of ETIS.
These findings are matched by data on poaching levels in Africa from the CITES MIKE programme. MIKE has documented a steady increase in levels of elephant poaching across the continent since 2005, with the levels in 2011 being the highest since monitoring began in 2002. Poaching levels are increasing in all countries where African elephants occur, and may be leading to dramatic declines in some populations, but particularly in Central African countries, where poaching levels are highest. This was brought to international attention earlier this year by the killing of hundreds of elephants in Bouba Ndjida National Park in Cameroon.
“The MIKE analysis shows poaching to be highest where human livelihoods are most insecure and where governance and law enforcement are weakest," said Julian Blanc, who coordinates the MIKE programme. "It also suggests that poaching is driven by demand for ivory in East Asia. The number of African elephants poached in 2011 alone could well run into the tens of thousands.”
Information collected by IUCN corroborates the MIKE findings that poaching is an immediate danger to elephant populations across the continent. There are disturbing indications that the illegal killing of elephants has increased in recent years in Asia too, although data are hard to obtain.
“There is a pressing need for governments and other stakeholders involved with wildlife conservation to properly assess the amount of Asian elephant ivory that is entering trade,” said Simon Hedges, Co-chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Asian Elephant Specialist Group.
An additional pressure on Asian elephants, also apparently increasing, is the illegal international commercial trade in live wild elephants for the circus trade in China and the tourist trade in Thailand.
The critical situation in Africa demonstrates the urgent need to implement the African Elephant Action Plan, which was created by all African elephant range States under the auspices of CITES in 2010. The plan envisages investing USD 100 million over three years into elephant conservation efforts, and an African Elephant Fund was launched in August 2011 at the 61st meeting of the CITES Standing Committee.
“Having sustainable elephant populations in Africa will require a shared vision and a highly strategic and collaborative investment of time and resources along the entire ivory supply chain," said Holly Dublin, Chair of the IUCN/SSC African Elephant Specialist Group, at a recent African elephant range States meeting. "Without this we will all lose what we cherish the most – the icons of Africa – our elephants.”
At the international level, creative and innovative responses to this crisis are required. The use of modern traceability systems, including DNA forensics in cases of wildlife trafficking has already proven to be very effective. DNA evidence has been used successfully in a number of rhinoceros-related cases in South Africa and it is routinely forming a part of numerous criminal investigations. In any case, enforcement efforts to stop wildlife crime must be coordinated. This is why the work of the recently-established International Consortium to Combat Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) is essential to support and coordinate enforcement actions across international borders.
For more information please contact:
Juan Carlos Vasquez, CITES Communication and Outreach Officer at +41 22 917 8156 or firstname.lastname@example.org
Lynne Labanne, Marketing and Communications Officer, Global Species Programme, IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), Tel. +41 22 999 0153; e. Lynne.Labanne@iucn.orgLittle is known about the black bear population in Yellowstone or whether it has been affected by the increase in grizzly bear numbers and distribution since the 1970s. Black bears are commonly observed in the park, especially on the northern range and in the Bechler area of the park. Black bears have few natural predators, although both cubs and adults are occasionally killed by their own kind or by the other large carnivores with which they compete for food—wolves, cougars, and grizzly bears. Vehicle collisions (average = 1 per year) and removals of nuisance bears (average = 1 every 5 years) are not common either. Most black bear mortality in the park is likely attributed to old age or other natural causes. Outside the park, some black bears are killed during state regulated hunting seasons. As their access to human foods has been reduced, human injuries from black bears in the park have decreased from an average of 45 per year during the 1930s–1960s to approximately one injury every five years since 1980. Black bears are occasionally radio-collared for management and scientific reasons, with the latter focusing on research on habitat selection and multi-carnivore interactions.Each year, nearly 44 million adults in America experience mental health concerns ranging from anxiety and depression to post-traumatic stress and suicidal thoughts. May is designated as National Mental Health Awareness Month, a call for helping those living with mental health conditions to get the resources and acceptance they need. Older Americans in particular are vulnerable to unrecognized and untreated forms of mental illness.
Depression is the most common mental health condition among America’s seniors. Other prevalent cognitive and emotional health problems among the elderly include dementia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and social phobia. More serious diagnoses such as schizophrenia and personality disorders persistently diminish the quality of life and daily functioning for seniors. Depressed seniors or those dealing with emotional concerns neglect eating well, getting regular exercise, maintaining the home and interacting socially.
Older adults often face a number of life stressors that heighten psychological distress. Many seniors experience chronic pain, restricted mobility, bereavement, loneliness and a loss of independence — all which can impact mental and emotional health. Countless older military veterans carry post-war wounds to their psychological health. In addition, medical conditions such as diabetes and heart disease can worsen depression and other mental health disabilities in seniors.
Warning signs of mental illness are not always easy to detect. The following behaviors are signals that something may be amiss with one’s mental well-being:
- Ongoing sadness or feeling blue
- Extreme mood swings including euphoric highs
- Intense worry or fear
- Uncontrolled, compulsive actions
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