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Corona rapid test interpretation
What does my Corona rapid test result mean? The correct interpretation of test results depends not only on how good the test is, but also on how common the disease is. In this article we explain how to interpret Corona rapid tests correctly.
No Corona despite a positive rapid test? The spread does it!
The infection figures are falling, the restrictions are being lifted step by step. In this situation, the widespread use of rapid tests in particular should ensure that an orderly return to normality is possible. Thus, everyone can test themselves for Corona immediately before visiting their parents or friends, before shopping or going to a restaurant or concert. Since these tests are also widely performed by lay people, it is particularly important that they are able to understand and correctly interpret the test results. Under certain circumstances, it is likely that one is not infected despite a positive rapid test – and vice versa. How can this be? Simply Rational, in collaboration with the Robert Koch Institute, has produced a guide to interpreting rapid test results. It is not only the accuracy (the so-called specificity and sensitivity of the test) that is important, but also, and above all, the spread of the virus in a particular population or population group.
The Paul Ehrlich Institute has defined minimum requirements for the sensitivity and specificity of rapid tests. To be approved, a rapid test must have a sensitivity of at least 80% and a specificity of at least 97%. What do these values mean? Sensitivity is the ability of a test to detect people with the disease: a test with 80% sensitivity would therefore correctly identify 80 out of 100 people with SARS-CoV-2 infection, i.e. it would show a “positive” result. 20 out of 100 would falsely receive a negative result. Specificity, in turn, indicates how good the test is at detecting those who are not ill. In a test with a 97% specificity, 97 out of 100 non-infected people would also get a correct “negative” result. However, 3 out of 100 would get a false positive result.
Often overlooked, however, is a third, extremely decisive influencing factor: prevalence, i.e. the spread of the virus in a population or group. For in most cases it is not the case that there is an equal number of infected and non-infected people in a population. In most cases, those who are not infected outnumber those who are. To understand the relationship between sensitivity, specificity and prevalence, we can use so-called natural frequency trees (Fig. 1 and 2). Let us imagine a hypothetical population of 1,000,000 people. With a prevalence of 0.01%, for example, which corresponds to 100 infected people out of 1,000,000 (Fig. 1), a sensitivity of 80% and a specificity of 97%, 29,997 people will test positive, but only 80 of them will actually be infected (Fig. 1). This is because there are so many more uninfected people than infected people. If almost 100% of the population are not ill and (at 97% specificity) 3% of them get a false-positive test result, then this obviously exceeds the proportion of ill people, namely 0.01%, many times over (300 times over, to be precise). The fact that the rapid test also only correctly identifies 80% of those with the disease makes this situation even worse, so that in this situation only 0.3% of those with a positive test result actually have corona.
Figure 1
Let’s look at another situation where infection is rampant and 40% of a population or group is infected (see Figure 2). Now the infected and uninfected are almost in balance and now only 5.3% of all those who tested positive get a false positive result. The vast majority, 94.7% got a positive test result because they are really infected with Corona. So in this situation, if you get a positive rapid test result, 94.7% of you can assume that you are actually infected. Therefore, the first important finding about (rapid) tests is that their significance depends strongly on the spread of the virus. If the prevalence increases, the significance of positive rapid test results increases and that of negative ones decreases. If the prevalence falls, the opposite is true. For this reason, area-wide rapid tests are only partially effective when the virus is not widespread, as they can produce a large number of false-positive tests.
Figure 2
Therefore, a positive rapid test result should always be confirmed with a PCR test. In the current situation in Germany, however, one can be quite sure with a negative rapid test result that one is not infected (over 99%).
Have we aroused your interest? Find out more details here about when (rapid) tests can be an effective tool in the fight against Corona and when it is better not to use them.
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Under The Great Wave
Light / Dark
…Perspective in art—the rendering of things closer to the viewer as larger than things in the distance—was something not commonly found in Japanese works and is considered a European invention, dating to the Renaissance period. From 1641 to 1883, the Japanese permitted trade with only one European country, the Netherlands, which was allowed one trading post on a small island in Nagasaki Bay. Dutch imports, including etchings of works by artists like Rembrandt van Rijn, Jacob van Ruisdael, and Jan van Goyen caught the eye of artists like Hokusai and taught them the lessons of Western perspective. Later Japanese art, particularly the flattening of the picture plane found in woodblock prints, would influence European artists like Henri Matisse, Paul Gauguin, and Vincent van Gogh beginning in the mid-nineteenth century.
Within the history of Western art, however, images like Hokusai’s depiction of huge waves are rare. In maritime paintings, a stormy sea usually serves as merely the backdrop for ships. In seascapes, where land meets the sea, the focus is most often on waves breaking over rocks or gently rolling onto shore. It’s typically only in modern surf photography that we find close and persistent representations of big-wave imagery. Issues of scale and perspective are constantly being manipulated in surf photography. In the work of lensmen like Clark Little, for example, a latent Hokusai influence is felt. His series of the Ke Iki shorebreak contorts scale, making small waves seem huge. Meanwhile, in photographs of Portugal’s Nazaré, there is an additional land-based reference point for scale, which gives them even more common ground with Hokusai’s The Great Wave.
Any photograph of a surfer on a wave gives some idea of proportion. However, since a surfer basically shares the same plane as the wave’s face, one mainly gets a sense of height from a two-dimensional perspective. At Nazaré, however, most photographs of the surf are taken from a vantage point that includes groups of people on the bluff in front of the wave, allowing for a three-dimensional reading and thereby increasing the wave’s visceral impact.
The fishing boats in Hokusai’s The Great Wave do something similar. The small boat directly underneath the breaking wave is roughly on the same plane as the wave itself, but the one in the sea, closer to the foreground, provides a second reference point, allowing one to compare the scale of the boats and, taken with Mount Fuji in the background, adds greatly to the wave’s three-dimensionality and a feeling for its mass. Photos taken from a water angle at places like Teahupoo, where the back of the wave can be observed (sometimes with boats and other surfers in the frame on the shoulder) have a comparable effect.
Animism (the belief that all things have a spirit) is a prevalent belief in Japan, stemming from the traditional Shinto religion. Hokusai renders The Great Wave as if it were alive, imbuing it with dragon-like talons, a force unto itself. The artist is famous for saying, “From the age of 6, I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was 50, I had published a universe of designs but all I have done before the age of 70 is not worth bothering with. At 75, I’ll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish, and insects. When I am 80 you will see real progress. At 90 I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At 100 I shall be a marvelous artist. At 110 everything I create—a dot, a line—will jump to life as never before. To all of you who are going to live as long as I do, I promise to keep my word. I am writing this in my old age. I used to call myself Hokusai, but today I sign myself ‘The Old Man Mad About Drawing.’” Hokusai was about 72 when he finished Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. He lived until he was 89… |
Men receive their Y chromosomes from their fathers, but a new study suggests that the Y chromosome was nearly erased from history.
What Happened To Ancient Men?
New research revealed that there was once a bottleneck or a collapse of the Y chromosome, which is the sex chromosome that is only in men. This started 7,000 years ago and ended roughly 5,000 years ago.
The findings were published in a study on May 25 in Nature Communications.
The collapse of the Y chromosome can be attributed to two main factors. First, there was a likely an ancient period of ruthless war. Most of the male population on Earth was affected, but women were largely left alone. This was probably because men participated in those wars and not women.
The other big culprit was the conflict between patrilineal clans. For generations, men in those clans were associated with their male ancestors and carried on the Y chromosome. With men being slaughtered, there were fewer Y chromosomes to go around in the clan. It was so bad that there was only one man for every 17 women during this time.
This collapse of the Y chromosome occurred rather recently from a biological standpoint. New changes in society likely played a role in it.
How Did Researchers Discover This About The Y Chromosome?
For years, scientists knew about this possible bottleneck in human history, but there was disagreement if this actually occurred. Tian Chen Zeng, a Stanford undergraduate in sociology, hypothesized about the theory. He shared his concept with another student, Alan Aw.
"He was really waxing lyrical about it," Aw said to Heritage Daily.
The students worked with Marcus Feldman, a professor of biology in Stanford's School of Humanities and Sciences, to conduct their research.
To reach their conclusion, they used mathematical models and computer simulations of men in different clans fighting over resources to survive. As the simulation continued, the researchers noticed that the Y chromosome lost its diversity over time. To get the best results, they also accounted for male lineages that survived this historic collapse.
"Our hypothesis explains the bottleneck as a consequence of intergroup competition between patrilineal kin groups, which caused cultural hitchhiking between Y-chromosomes and cultural groups and reduction in Y-chromosomal diversity," the researchers wrote in their study.
The researchers understand that their model has some scientific limitations because it is only a simulation. However, it does serve as a reasonable way to describe the downfall of the Y chromosome during this era.
ⓒ 2021 All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. |
4 studies for Lent
Lent leader’s notes
Please read this before using these studies for Lent
Isaiah 52-53
Investigating some prophecies about Jesus death.
The Servant King
A study on the events of Palm Sunday and Jesus washing the disciples’ feet.
Jesus’ trial and death
Looking at the injustice of Jesus’ trial and why Jesus died on the cross.
Jesus’ death, dialogue
An alternative to a formal Bible study. Let your group read and reflect on the individual voices of the crucifixion. This requires confident readers.
Investigating the evidence for and significance of the resurrection. |
circuit board welding defects:
1. The weldability of circuit board holes affects the welding quality
Circuit board hole weldability is not good, will produce virtual welding defects, affect the parameters of components in the circuit, lead to the multi-layer board components and inner line conduction instability, cause the whole circuit function failure. The so-called weldability is the property of the metal surface being wetted by molten solder, that is, the metal surface where the solder is formed a relatively uniform layer of continuous smooth adhesion film.
Analysis of the main factors causing the circuit board welding defects
The main factors affecting the solderability of printed circuit board are:
(1) the composition of the solder and the nature of the solder. Solder is an important component in the process of welding chemical treatment. It is composed of chemical materials containing flux. The common eutectic metal with low melting point is sn-pb or sn-pb-ag. The function of flux is to help the solder to wet the circuit surface of the welded plate by transferring heat and removing rust. White rosin and isopropanol are commonly used.
(2) welding temperature and metal plate surface cleaning degree will also affect the weldability. If the temperature is too high, the solder diffusion speed is accelerated, at this time has a high activity, will make the circuit board and solder melt surface rapid oxidation, resulting in welding defects, circuit board surface pollution will affect the solderability of defects, these defects include tin bead, tin ball, open circuit, gloss is not good, etc.
2. Welding defects caused by warping
Circuit board and components in the welding process of warping, due to stress and deformation of virtual welding, short circuit and other defects. Warping is often caused by the temperature imbalance between the upper and lower parts of the circuit board. For large PCB, the board will also warp due to its own weight. Ordinary PBGA device is about 0.5mm away from the printed circuit board. If the device on the circuit board is large, as the circuit board cools down and returns to its normal shape, the solder joint will be under the applied force for a long time. If the device is raised by 0.1mm, it will be enough to lead to virtual open welding.
3. The design of circuit board affects the welding quality
In terms of layout, when the circuit board size is too large, the welding is easier to control, but the printed lines are long, the impedance increases, the anti-noise ability decreases, and the cost increases. Over the hour, the heat dissipation decline, welding is not easy to control, easy to appear adjacent lines mutual interference, such as circuit board electromagnetic interference and so on. Therefore, PCB board design must be optimized:
(1) shorten the connection between high-frequency components and reduce EMI interference.
(2) components with large weight (such as more than 20g) shall be fixed with brackets and then welded.
(3) heating elements should be considered heat dissipation problems, prevent components surface has larger Δ T defects and rework, thermal element should be far away from heat source.
(4) the arrangement of components should be as parallel as possible, which is not only beautiful but also easy to weld, and suitable for mass production. 4∶3 rectangular circuit board design is the best. Do not change the wire width to avoid discontinuity in the wiring. When the circuit board is heated for a long time, the copper foil is easy to expand and fall off, therefore, large area of copper foil should be avoided.
Responsible editor; zl |
How do you solid fill an object in Autocad?
How do you fill an object in AutoCAD?
To Hatch or Fill an Object or an Area
1. Click Home tab Draw panel Hatch. …
What is the command for starting Multileader tool?
To create Multileaders click the Ribbon Annotate tab > Leaders panel > Multileader button. Command line: To start the Multi Leader tool from the command line, type “MLD” and press [Enter].
Why Hatch is not working in AutoCAD?
What are the AutoCAD commands?
Manage Workflow
Ctrl+A Select all objects
Ctrl+V Paste object
Ctrl+Shift+C Copy to clipboard with base point
Ctrl+Shift+V Paste data as block
Ctrl+Z Undo last action
What is Fill command in AutoCAD?
Controls the display of filled objects such as hatches, 2D solids, and wide polylines. The following prompts are displayed. On. Turns on Fill mode. For the filling of a 3D object to be visible, its extrusion direction must be parallel to the current viewing direction, and hidden lines must not be suppressed.
THIS IS SIGNIFICANT: You asked: Can I edit a group in AutoCAD?
What is the command for starting text Style dialog box?
Start the STyle command: On the Ribbon’s Home tab, click the Annotation panel’s label to open the slideout and then click Text Style. The Text Style dialog box appears. From the Styles list, select each style in turn to examine the properties of the text styles that have been created in this drawing.
Which command is used for dimensioning?
Creates multiple dimensions and types of dimensions with a single command. You can select objects or points on objects to dimension, and then click to place the dimension line. When you hover over an object, the DIM command automatically generates a preview of a suitable dimension type to use.
How do I reset a hatch in AutoCAD?
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A Model Earth-sized Planet In The Habitable Zone Of α Centauri A/B
(a) Trajectories of α-Cen A (red) and B (blue) around their barycenter (“×”). The two stars are positioned at their approximate present-day separation. The Hill spheres (dashed circles) and habitable zones (nested green circles) of A and B are drawn to scale at periapsis. (b) Apparent trajectory of B centered on A, with indications of their apparent separation on the sky over the period from CE 2020 to 2050. The part of trajectory in yellow indicates the coming observational window (CE 2022-2035), when the apparent separation between A and B is larger than 600 and the search for planets around A or B can be conducted without suffering significant contamination from the respective companion star.
The bulk chemical composition and interior structure of rocky exoplanets are of fundamental importance to understanding their long-term evolution and potential habitability.
Observations of the chemical compositions of the solar system rocky bodies and of other planetary systems have increasingly shown a concordant picture that the chemical composition of rocky planets reflects that of their host stars for refractory elements, whereas this expression breaks down for volatiles. This behavior is explained by devolatilization during planetary formation and early evolution.
Here, we apply a devolatilization model calibrated with the solar system bodies to the chemical composition of our nearest Sun-like stars -- α Centauri A and B -- to estimate the bulk composition of any habitable-zone rocky planet in this binary system ("α-Cen-Earth").
Through further modeling of likely planetary interiors and early atmospheres, we find that compared to Earth, such a planet is expected to have (i) a reduced (primitive) mantle that is similarly dominated by silicates albeit enriched in carbon-bearing species (graphite/diamond); (ii) a slightly larger iron core, with a core mass fraction of 38.4+4.7−5.1 wt% (cf. Earth's 32.5 ± 0.3 wt%); (iii) an equivalent water-storage capacity; and (iv) a CO2-CH4-H2O-dominated early atmosphere that resembles that of Archean Earth.
Further taking into account its ∼ 25% lower intrinsic radiogenic heating from long-lived radionuclides, an ancient α-Cen-Earth (∼ 1.5-2.5 Gyr older than Earth) is expected to have less efficient mantle convection and planetary resurfacing, with a potentially prolonged history of stagnant-lid regimes.
Haiyang S. Wang, Charles H. Linweaver, Sascha P. Quanz, Stephen J. Mojzsis, Trevor R. Ireland, Paolo A. Sossi, Fabian Seidler, Thierry Morel
Comments: 25 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables; submitted to an AAS journal; comments are welcome
Cite as: arXiv:2110.12565 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2110.12565v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
Submission history
From: Haiyang Wang
[v1] Mon, 25 Oct 2021 00:50:10 UTC (1,526 KB)
Please follow Astrobiology on Twitter.
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Sal Castro Passes Away
in The Word is Text by
Sal Castro passed away on April 15, 2013.
I’m sure many of us have seen the movie “Walk Out” or heard of the story behind the east LA walkouts of 1968. In 1968, after many events and acts against Latino students at different schools, teacher Sal Castro decides to take a stand for his students and encourages students to walk out of school. In the late 1960’s East Los Angles high schools were predominantly made up of Latino students. Students who were constantly put down by their teachers for speaking their native language, students who were encouraged by their teachers to go out and get jobs that are not taken serious. Sal Castro was a teacher who was not okay with the mistreatment of Latino students. He dedicated his career to advocating education and rights for Chicano and Chicana students from the Los Angeles Unified School district. Sal Castro led Latino students to fight for themselves to prove to misjudging teachers that Latino students were not incapable of succeeding and that they should not be prohibited to speak their native language at school. Sal Castro and the Chicano Youth Leadership brought a group of high school students together to show them how Latino students at the time were last on the list based on education, and appeared to be the ethnicity with highest drop out rates. The purpose of Sal Castro and the Chicano Youth Leadership conference was to encourage Latino Students to earn a higher education and to make something of themselves in order to put Latino students in a better place. It is thanks to Sal Castro that Latino students from East LA high schools made a change, a change that ‘til this very day still makes a difference in lives of many current Latino students. Forty-five years later Sal Castro passes away, leaving his honor to many Latino students. He will always be known as a hero to Latino students and will be remembered as the teacher who led his students to success, the teacher who helped his students earn respect from foul teachers who misjudged Latino students. Sal Castro will be remembered through out history as a brave teacher who legitimately cared for his students and the education system, Thank you Sal Castro, thank you for helping students like myself have an interest in earning a higher education. Castro always said, “Go to school pendejo!”
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Academic performance
This assignment is due tomorrow and there is no extra time available.
Use the attachment book and Chapter 6 and 7 only
Select 2 questions below to answer using chapter 6 or 7 only from the attachment. Answers should demonstrate that you have read the text and/ or web resources and that you understand the content – you must have at least two (2) citations to the textbook and/or other module content that is included in the prompt. 250 words for each answer
Only pick 2 questions to answer from below:
1. Discuss how issues of bias, classism and racism affect the C- what has been your experience with these issues? What aspects of the information in the text connect for you?
2. Discuss how children’s behavior in Kindergarten might affect their academic performance- what are the expectations for children’s behavior? Are these expectations reasonable?
3. Discuss how television/media/technology affect the development of young children-how does your experience connect to the ideas from the chapter?
4. Discuss your experience with bilingual language development, supporting home language and learning a new language- how does language learning and the attitudes of parents and teachers affect development?
Only use Chapter 6 or 7 in attachment
• attachment |
Development of Individuals and Society Through Education – TKAM Critical Essay
Prompt: What do these texts suggest to you about the forces that inhibit or encourage an individual’s actions?
Education is a large part of the development of the world because it gives individuals an upper hand in terms of influence and comprehension. This intelligence can ameliorate the world around them. Scout, who is in the pursuit of obtaining an education, goes through struggles to truly find herself and absorb the diversity stifled by society. She is either hindered or heightened by various educational sources along the way. Initially, she grapples with the traditional form of learning, later learning from experience, and throughout the novel gains moral knowledge from Atticus which comes into full fruition near the end. Scout’s learning throughout the novel goes through tribulations, but also successes, when it comes to her understanding of the society she lives in and her desire to improve it. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee suggests that the force of education comes in a variety of forms, and these forms affect the actions of those who are learning by inhibiting or improving them. She specifically addresses that these forms can promote actions that eventually either benefit and diversify the society that the student lives in or worsens it.
Rigid systems of education will suffocate an individual and may block their ability to reach their potential, along with their society’s potential, unless they are further encouraged by sources of non-traditional education. Scout goes through a similar experience. She faces conflict with her teacher on her very first day of school, Ms. Caroline, for having already been taught to read and write. “Ms. Caroline caught me writing and told me to tell my father to stop teaching me. “Besides,” she said, “we don’t write in the first grade, we print. You won’t learn how to write until you’re in the third grade””(Pg.20). Ms. Caroline sticks to the regimented education system by discouraging Scout from advancing in her learning, and instead telling her to try to stay at the same pace as the other students. She even implies that Atticus, who is the reason Scout began to learn to read, taught her incorrectly. This quote is a great example of the flaws in Maycomb’s education system. It resembles the society of Maycomb in general, where diversity is unappreciated. In the education system, diversity of skill is stifled, and in society, different races and eccentricities (Boo Radley) are not accepted because they don’t fit the molded norm. Ms. Caroline is the personification of this system which doesn’t allow change, exemplified through her unacceptance of how Scout had been taught to read, and instead of adapting to teaching someone of Scout’s abilities, she hinders Scout. If it weren’t for Atticus’s liberal and open-minded approach to teaching and encouraging her to continue reading despite Ms. Caroline’s objections, Scout may have never reached her potential. The force of the rigid school system is a force that attempts to inhibit Scout from advancing; however, Atticus reading to her overpowers the negative force. Scout’s continuous advancement with her reading suggests that perhaps she will be a guiding force in encouraging diverse learning perspectives. An education system is where students are taught to fit into society. What school teaches students will carry them forward as they become functioning members of where they live. Diversity is found in multiple ways, and if individuals are not exposed to diversity early in their lives through the education system, this will reflect on how they mold the rest of their lives and future generations.
Learning about diverse perspectives and the realities of individuals is an important part of developing society and gaining insight. Scout truly begins to understand Calpurnia and the reality of African Americans. When she and Jem go to the Black church that Calpurnia attends, they get to know Black society; the society who the white people of Maycomb consider inferior. After going to the church, Scout asks “‘Cal, can I come to see you sometimes?” She looked down at me. “See me, honey? You see me every day.” “Out to your house,” I said.”’ (Pg.143). Scout develops an understanding of Cal and the African American community after being around them. She can discern that the Cal who takes care of her and Jem is not the same Cal when she is around people of her own colour. Additionally, Scout recognizes her ignorance when it comes to her knowledge of the Black community, and wants to be able to connect to them more. She was previously unaware of the lack of sufficient schooling that is provided to Black people. She was previously unaware of all of their great passion for God, the same passion that white people have, perhaps even greater. She was previously unaware of how little she knows about Cal, and reflects on Cal’s struggles alongside her convictions characterized by being a woman of colour. It humanizes this authority figure in her life when she realizes that Cal doesn’t have that same authority outside of the children she cares for. Scout represents how experience and listening can be the best teacher for gaining perspective and appreciation. She still knows that she has a lot to learn about Cal and her community, which is an awareness that many people in Maycomb tend to lack. They would rather stick to their prejudiced beliefs than do something that would prove those beliefs wrong. The society of Maycomb has specific social rules, where segregation is a component of the law. However, if they had educated themselves on people of colour, they would have been able to humanize these people, and society would’ve been much less strict and categorical. When individuals open themselves up to new experiences rather than living in an echo chamber that lacks diversity, they learn much more than they would in a homologous environment. Experience acts as a force that encourages the changing of an exclusive society for the better.
When an individual receives a moral education, they have a foundation of compassion and courage that allows them to see diverse perspectives and be more accepting of those around them. This is especially prevalent near the end of the book when Scout reminisces about Boo Radley, who she never saw again after walking him back to his house. She narrates, “Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough” (Pg. 321). When Scout thinks about her newfound understanding of Boo Radley, she correlates this understanding to the moral lesson she was taught by Atticus at the very beginning of the book about perspective and empathy. Throughout the novel, Scout’s teacher and the upholder of morality is Atticus, who represents the virtues that much of Maycomb lacks. He has always preached perspective. He, therefore, acts as a foil to the rest of the town who have not had a virtuous education. By encouraging Scout to gain empathy to truly comprehend the marginalized and misunderstood people of the Maycomb community like Boo Radley to truly see their point of view, he acts as a force that encourages Scout to open her mind to the unaccepted people of society, and helps her diversify herself to different lifestyles. Scout’s moral education is a process, and she takes this lesson that she learned at the very beginning of the book, remembering it and utilizing it even near the end. Being encouraged to learn about diverse perspectives through her moral education and gaining an understanding that she cannot make assumptions about everyone, allows her to take respectful actions and aids in her comprehension of those around her. By the end of the book, she understands Boo Radley. By standing on his porch her respect for him and his lifestyle goes up. By observing his actions, she realizes that he is a good person and not the monster she saw from afar. Her compassion that she was taught by Atticus makes her open to new ideas. The importance of moral education is to gain compassion and courage to have a foundation that encourages interacting with different viewpoints. This will create a more harmonious society without the need for intense structure.
Harper Lee uses the character of Scout to explore the effectiveness of different kinds of education, often drawing comparisons between conventionalism and non-conventionalism in Maycomb. The book affirms that Scout is a product of her teachers. Since she is a force shaping the future, she must be able to be influenced and encouraged by strong forces of education, rather than forces that attempt to inhibit her. The forces that attempt to influence Scout’s learning and growth are characterized by the traditional schooling system which unsuccessfully tried to inhibit her, her own experiences in learning about others, and her moral education. Diversity and improvement in a society are dependent on the people living in said society. So, these forces of education aid in the development of individuals, and consequently society ─ for better or for worse.
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DES is one of the most used encryption methods.
Strange is that there is not much you can find on using it with the arduino.
There are other encryption techniques such as AES etc used which can be seen here.
So i had a bash at making a DES implementation an the arduino. No hacking or cracking just a simple decoder and encoder. Dont ask what its for. It is possible therefore.
DES description
You will find all the bits and pieces from the DES algorithm easily back in this code. Below you can find an extract from the printout of the program.
Each of the steps are output to the screen so you can follow all the steps. Here you can see the final round of the decryption giving the plaintext or decrypted key.
DES counts backwards from round 16 to 1 in the decryption mode so that is why you see round 1 (the last round) here.
des round1
There is a very good excel version of such a process which visualizes the whole process that can be downloaded from the bottom of the link.
I have used this as the basis to make other DES based algorithms such as the one used by Meteotime.
Here you can find my other arduino projects.
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Card Colm's Math Teachers' Circle Treats
NOTE: what follows was hastily assembled with images grabbed from all over the web and no credits given, sorry.
0. Birthday Surprise
1. Ice Cream Trick
2. Crazy Cut
3. Shadow Play
4. Picking Sides
5. Bagel Twists
6. Square/Circle Illusion
7. Little Fibs
8. Square Pegs
9. Easy As Pie
10. Wrapping It Up
11. One For the Road
0. Birthday Surprise
Let's say you have a room with at least 30 people in it.
Take a large sheet of paper (or use a classroom board) and write down January at the top. Ask those with birthdays in January to call out the date. Write those down under the word January. You might hear 3rd, 17th, 20th.
Repeat for February. Maybe you only get 23rd.
Repeat for March, and so on.
It all sounds very boring, but you might be in for a surprise.
Even if 60 or 160 (or 260 or 360) people are in the room, it's possible that all the date you write down are different. After all there are 365 (or 366) different days of the year.
Unless the people in the room were chosen in advance to have different birthdays, you may well find that AT LEAST TWO OF THEM SHARE A BIRTHDAY! It can happen with 20 people, it happens more often than not (over 50% of the time) with 25 people, and it happens a lot (about 70% of the time) with 30 people. It happens most of the time with 40 or 50 people, and it happens over 99% of the time with 60 people.
And yet it doesn't have to happen at all. Isn't that surprising?
It's called the Birthday Paradox or Birthday Surprise.
If you can't wait to try this with real people, here is a computer simulation that picks birthdays for you, at random: Birthday Simulation.
You just tell it how many people are in the room. It's set up to first assume there are just 15 people; that's so small we don't expect to get a match, so try increasing that to 30 and hit "Run 1 Trial" again.
The Odds Gods may well smile on you!
Coincidences are inevitable and we shouldn't be so impressed by them. It would actually be more surprising if there were NOT coincidences like this.
1. Ice Cream Trick
2 mins Spelman College video on the Ice Cream Trick
4 mins Spelman College video explaining the Ice Cream Trick
4 mins Matt Parker video on Low Down Triple Dealing Card Trick (the same principle as the Ice Cream Trick)
2. Crazy Cut
Make one cut (or draw one line)—-of course it needn't be straight—-that divides the figure below into two identical parts. This is a classic Martin Gardner puzzle.
3. Shadow Play
Consider three fundamental 2D maths shapes: triangle, square, and circle.
Can you imagine a 3D object which looks like a square from one angle, and a circle from another angle? It's a familiar shape, assuming that it just happens to be as tall as it is wide... click here to see the answer.
Now, can you imagine a 3D object which looks like a triangle from one angle, and a square from another angle? That's trickier... Here is one!
Next, can you imagine a 3D object which looks like a triangle from one angle, and a circle from another angle? If that seems impossible try this question:
Can you imagine a 3D object which looks like a triangle from one angle, a square from another angle, and circle from a third angle? Here it is, along with its three special shadows. (It can be 3D printed too, see here.)
4. Picking Sides
When a long skinny strip of paper has its ends joined together in the usual way a band or loop is formed. To get a larger loop, start with a very long strip.
If a large loop is cut up the middle with a scissors, the result is predictable: two separate skinnier loops which are the same length as the original. Try it!
Now go back to the long skinny strip of paper. If a single twist is put in the paper strip before the ends are connected, we get something quite different:
This is called a Mobius Band! It was "discovered" in Germany in 1858.
An ordinary band of paper has two sides, and outide and an inside. But if you look closely at a Mobius band, such as the larger picture below, you'll find that this is not true anymore.
A Mobius band is in fact one sided, and can be used for a one-sided cartoon strip that goes on forever.
There's even Mobius bacon and Mobius cake.
Let's go back to the long skinny strip. In the next picture, the ends are labelled.
The normal way to connect the ends is to join A to C and B to D, but if the strip is given a twist and we join A to D and B to C instead, we get the Mobius band.
The two possible results are shown side by side here:
You have to look very carefully at these images to see which is which!
Instead of giving the strip a single twist before joining its ends, we could give it a double (or even a triple) twist. The results are a different each time, but hard to tell apart just from a quick look at the end result.
Here is the key question: what happens when we cut up the middle of a Mobius band, the loop with a single twist?
The best way to find out is to get paper, tape, and scissors, and try it for yourself!
A second interesting question: what happens when we cut up the middle of a loop with a double twist?
A third interesting question: what happens when we cut up the middle of a loop with a triple twist?
Can you think of any more interesting questions along these lines?
This image shows some of the possible results, and this video reveals how they arise.
5. Bagel Twists
Instead of connecting the ends of a flat strip of paper, with or without some twists, we could try to connect the ends of a thicker band, maybe even a thick squared band. The following pictures show examples.
Now imagining smoothing those sharp edges, to get pictures like this:
Notice what happened? We get doughnut shapes, but we can't tell if they have a twist or not!
Above we see an actual doughnut, alongside a bagel; that's a type of chewy bread with a bigger hole than a doughnut.
Can we still "cut up the middle" here? Of course, and a normal horizontal cut (with a knife rather than a scissors) will result in two half doughnuts or bagels.
What about "cutting up the middle" in the case of the Mobius band, to get some surprising tasty treats? How that be done here?
The trick is to twist the knife gradually while cutting, as if we were cutting up the middle of a twisted strip. The pictures below show how to sketch out, on a bagel, part of the path the cutting knife must follow, as well as the end result.
If we do it very carefully, we can get two interlocked half bagels from one bagel, as shown. There is a great video showing how to do this. (NOTE: It doesn't work with doughnuts as they fall apart too easily!)
6. Square/Circle Illusion
Look at the next picture. It shows an object (closer to the viewer) and its reflection in a mirror (further away).
That's right, it looks like a circular cylinder whose mirror image in a square cylinder, and that's exactly what it is! It's a new mathematical optical illusion called the Sugihara illusion.
This award-winning video of the illusion should amaze you. If you want to know more about it, just do a web search. It can be 3D printed if you design it using maths.
7. Little Fibs
5 mins Chris Morgan video on the Little Fibs card trick
8 mins Numberphile video on Little Fibs card trick
8. Square Pegs
Draw any curve that loops back to itself, it doesn't matter if it crosses itself. Amazingly, it seems that we can always find four points on the curve that form the corners of a square peg.
Some looped curves have several such square pegs hiding inside them.
Click here to explore an interactive version for shapes with straight edges.
Do you think the above claim is also true if we replace "four corners of a square" with "three corners of a equilateral triangle"?
9. Easy As Pie
Which of these cylinders is larger around the top than the height from top to bottom?
Click here to learn more.
10. Wrapping It Up
Is it possible to cut and fold a 3x3 square grid of paper to enclose a 1x1x1 cube as shown above? The cutting and folding must be along existing grid lines, and the resulting piece of paper must be in one piece connected.
TRY IT YOURSELF! Don't look at the solution linked from here.
11. One For the Road
Which triangle has larger area?
Parting treat! An excellent 15 minute video that really nails it!
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We know different types of atoms have different spectral lines. But what exactly are the spectral lines representing? What causes white light to have a continuous spectra while other atoms show discontinuous spectral lines?
• $\begingroup$ As a corollary to your question and answers : white light is not necessarily a continuous spectrum, the brain only needs stimuli of the three different receptor cells in a pattern to "see white". So white light is rarely a continuous spectrum, but it is broad enough to stimulate all the receptors. $\endgroup$ Jun 2 '19 at 17:26
The spectral lines represent transitions between pairs of discrete energy levels in the atom; an electron is excited by absorbing the energy of a photon and a transition from one of these levels to another occurs as the photon is destroyed. Emission lines occur when the reverse process happens.
If enough energy is absorbed the atom can be ionised and an electron with un-quantised energy can be liberated and moves to a position of complete separation where attractive forces between electron and nucleus is insignificant. As the liberated electron's energy is un-quantised the absorption giving rise to ionisation is continuous. The absorption is truly continuous, no matter how high a spectral resolution is used discrete absorption lines will not be observed.
Black body radiation is continuous emission from a hot body. The analysis of this emission lead Plank in 1901 to propose, for the first time, the idea that the photons were quantised, thus avoiding the 'ultra-violet catastrophe'. He did this by allowing ultra-violet photons to have more energy than visible ones which in turn had more energy that infra-red ones. Nowadays we know that he energy is directly proportional to frequency via the Planck constant, $E=hv$.
In the black body, all the numerous energy levels in the body are highly excited and transitions between them continuously occur as the body is being continuously heated. These transition energies overlap one another in energy so that the spectrum is continuous.
(In molecules there are also discrete energy levels, in the ground state these are due to the vibrational and rotational motion of the molecule. A molecule may also have electronically excited states and these can also have discrete vibrational and rotational energy levels. Furthermore there are dissociative excited states that have continuous absorption spectra.)
• $\begingroup$ just as a side comment (it might be of interest for the OP), the continuum observed in electrons' energy when ionization occurs is the photoelectric effect; all energy excess increases electron's speed. $\endgroup$
– user43021
Jun 2 '19 at 13:47
• 1
$\begingroup$ yes; a good point $\endgroup$
– porphyrin
Jun 6 '19 at 13:21
Natural white light had continuous spectrum, as the source - black radiator - has continuous emission in all wavelengths.
Atoms emit or absorb only at the wavelengths, that are corresponding to energy differences between discreet energy levels of electrons in atoms.
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CIDPUSA.ORG Autoimmune Diseases Or Longetivity Good Health!
Transient Global Amnesia
Complete detail and explanation on Amnesia
Transient Global Amnesia
Hippocampus in Brain
Transient global amnesia (TGA) is a sudden onset of memory disorder or amnesia forgetfulness of events. When this condition comes on the person cannot remember anything in the past or present , the person may has repeated questions like,
1) Who am I.
2) Where am I.
Once the answer is told they still keep forgetting. This may last a few minutes to hours which is common but rare people may have repeated episodes. The best treatment is rest if any curry powder, omega-3 or sedative is available that will do the job and the person will wake up fine the next morning.
These questions are repeated almost continuously in some patients. Others may suddenly become quiet.
The condition can last a few hour or a few days and may was and wane and will slowly improve. It may come in attacks for a few days but will eventually stop. This condition
Textbooks describe this sudden, temporary disturbance in an otherwise healthy person's memory. The other main kinds of amnesia are called anterograde and retrograde amnesia. Anterograde amnesia is a type of memory loss associated with a trauma, disease, or emotional events. It is characterized by the inability to remember new information. Retrograde amnesia is associated with the loss of distant memories usually preceding a given trauma.
Thiamine deficiency can also cause amnesias and should be evaluated in all such patients.
In transient global amnesia, during the period of amnesia, people suffering from the disorder cannot remember recent occurrences nor can they retain any new visual or verbal information for more than a couple minutes. Though patients may or may not remember their own identities, they are often confused by their surroundings and the people around them. They continuously ask questions about events that are transpiring, for example where they are, who is with them, what is happening. However, once they are told, they immediate forget the answer, and repeat the question again.
The period of amnesia can last anywhere from one to twenty-four hours. Some people suffer from a headache, dizziness, and nausea while others have only memory loss. TGA generally affects fifty to eighty-year-old men, about 3.4 to 5.2 people per 100,000 per year. People afflicted with transient global amnesia always recover and can remember the memories that were lost during the episode. Once they regain their memory, some people, can recall both the episode and the feeling of not being able to remember. However, others never recover the memories of the attack nor the events immediately before.
continue to next page of memory & TGA
Page desribes sudden memory loss and treatment
if you continue to next page we will describe how diverse processes can result in sudden memory loss and how to quickly reverses it.
Memory Disorders
Stress is a big factor in memory disorders.Stress will cause poor sleep, poor diet and thus will lead to insomnia and term called zombie. These factors will affect memory. To improve memory one needs to drink fluids as the brain is 90% water. The glass of water one drinks should have salts . To reduce stress please check our homeopathic section, use Ignatia.
To reduce stress the best vitamin is Niacin or Nicinamaide taken once a day. Please see more information on Niacin at Niacin page link
Vitamin- D is very important to reuce inflammation in any disease. To reuce inflmmation you must need to take vitamin -D. Here is a link to more info on Vitamin D.
You must also be on a anti-inflammatory diet. This will help reuce diseases and here is a diet link. |
What happens when you type https://www.holbertonschool.com in your browser and press 'Enter'
The experience we get when browsing the web is a rather simplistic one, stream lined. We write the domain name of the website we want to visit, hit enter, and that’s it. What is going on under the hood is way more convoluted than that. In order to see what is happening, I will try to explain what goes on from the moment you hit enter, to the moment your browser displays the desired website on screen. Before I can do that though, I will need to explain certain concepts first.
The infrastructure of the web is such that most interactions on it imply a client and a server. Clients request data, and servers store and serve that data. You could consider your browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari) a client. Server is a term that may refer to the physical hardware hosting that data, as well as the software that emulates said hardware, or the software that actually does the serving. Things get more complicated if we talk about bigger websites, since they can be hosted in several servers, and their interactions can be rather complex. With that in mind, let’s look at what happens when you type https://www.holbertonschool.com in your browser and press enter.
The first thing your browser does is convert the domain name into its IP address. Websites aren’t actually identified with names but with numbers, but since numbers are harder for us to remember, we created a kind of directory in which we can look by name and get a number. This is done via a DNS (Domain Name System) request. So, our browser actually asks the DNS for the IP address corresponding to the particular domain name we type in.
The next step when or browser tries to request from the server is the firewall. Most servers have some sort of protection against hackers or attacks, and in most cases, this kind of protection is a firewall. It is basically a software that sets certain rules of connection, figuring out who can access the server. It basically decides if it’s safe for the server or not to allow certain connections.
There’s also another protocol for safety, and that is the HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure.) It is a transfer protocol whose information is being encrypted. If you take a look at your browser, right where you write the domain name of the site you want to access, you may have noticed that certain sites display, next to their domain, a small padlock. This means that the information being transferred is using a secure protocol. This information could nonetheless be intercepted by a hacker, but since it’s encrypted it would be hard for the person intercepting the information to understand it.
The next thing servers generally have, especially servers for big websites, is a load balancer. Imagine that your website has a lot of clients requesting information at the same time, so much so that they saturate the capacity of the server and the website simply goes down. What a load balancer allows you to do is avoid putting all your eggs on the same basket and serve your site from various servers. It functions with algorithms that determine how much of a burden to put in each of the servers depending on their capacity and how they are being used. If someone wanted to put your site out of commission and you have only one server, they would just have to attack that one server, this couldn’t be possible with a load balancer. If you needed to update your site, you could make the changes you need in one of the servers, while the site is still active from the other servers. These cases are known as SPOFs (single point of failure) and should be avoided.
We now got into Holberton’s web server, which is a program that serves static content, like html pages or basic, noninteractive pages. Apache is one of the most used. Its responsibility is to figure out where the information corresponding to the address requested is, and serve it as an HTTP or HTTPS response. This only works for basic websites, though. For more complex, interactive sites, like Holberton’s site, our server will also need an application server. It is a software that can interact with databases and manage information in specific ways. Think for example of YouTube, you access YouTube with an account. You can also create, delete and modify your account. This is all taken care of by an application server.
If the app server interacts with a database, then we can infer that there must also be a database in Holberton’s server. A database is just a collection of data, and a database management system (DBMS) is what’s in charge of manipulating said data. MySQL is an example of a popular database system.
Finally, there’s a set of rules for how the information should be transmitted. This is taken care of by the TCP (transmission control protocol) which determines how the server and client are to interact, how the data should be transferred, packaged and received.
All of those are the steps involved from hitting enter on our browser and having the website displayed to us. So, to recap, our browser contacts the DNS to get the IP address of the site we are trying to access and uses that address to connect with it, generally through a secure protocol, surpassing the firewall and being redirected by the load balancer. Once the request arrives the server, it uses both the web and application server to respond with the information requested, which our browser interprets and prints on screen.
This is an overhead view and each of these topics is immensely complex, but I hope you have now a clear idea of what’s going on under the hood. |
Why, specifically, does each generation, on average, improve upon the design of the species rather than degrade it?
Contributing Factors (I guess):
As for your contributing factors:
I'll add a slightly different perspective, although terdon's answer already contains the relevant facts.
The thing that makes DNA endure in the face of imperfect copying is that, like computer storage, it's digital. The relevant property of digital data here is that individual pieces of information aren't given on a scale, they're drawn from a strongly limited number of possible alternative values. That property allows error correction to take place: if possible values were continuous, error correction fundamentally wouldn't work.
This gives the appearance of error-less copying. In reality it's anything but, same as with computer storage and data transfer. Nevertheless, as you've noted, errors will accumulate, even with an error correction mechanism in place. And even though most of these errors have no influence on the outcome (due to downstream effects like the degeneracy of the genetic code), many more are detrimental than are positive. In direct contradiction of this we can see that species (but not individuals!) improve their adaptation in each generation.
Why? Because evolution. More specifically, because natural selection acts in a purifying manner to rid the gene pool of defects. This is a fundamental part of Darwin's and Wallace's argument. Less adapted individuals have an (ever so slightly) reduced chance at reproducing, and therefore prevent detrimental changes in the gene pool from accumulating.
Understanding Biological Evolution Through Computational Thinking
Computational thinking is a contemporary science and engineering practice that has been introduced to the US science classrooms due to its emphasis in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). However, including computational thinking into science instruction may be challenging. Therefore, for biological evolution (an essential theory within biology that spans across temporal and organizational scales), we recommend integrating computational thinking into evolution teaching to overcome misconceptions, reinforce the nature of science (NOS), and allow student embodiment (as students become emerged in their models, i.e., personification). We present a learning progression, which outlines biological evolution learning coupled with computational thinking. The defined components of computational thinking (input, integration, output, and feedback) are integrated with biology student roles. The complex nature of both teaching computational thinking and biological evolution lends toward a learning progression that identifies instructional context, computational product, and computational process and spans from simple to complex. Two major themes of biological evolution, unity and diversity have each been paired with both computational thinking and specific corresponding NGSS standards at levels of increasing complexity. There are virtually no previous studies which relate computation and evolution across scales, which paves the way for questions of importance, support, benefits, and overall student achievement in relation to the advancement of science in education.
The biology of aliens: How much do we know?
MICHIO KAKU: I love to watch science fiction movies but I cringe, I cringe whenever I see a depiction of the aliens. First of all, the aliens speak perfect English.
ALIENS: Did you ever see such jerky looking creatures? And one head yet. Typical Earth men.
MICHIO KAKU: I mean, we have Hollywood special effects so why can't we get better aliens?
E.O. WILSON: I would admonish scriptwriters for Hollywood films that have space and alien monsters invading Earth. Don't give them claws. Claws are for carnivores and you've got to be an omnivore to be an ET. There just isn't enough energy available in the next trophic level down to maintain big populations and stable populations that can evolve civilization.
JONATHAN B. LOSOS: Some people have gone so far as to say that, in fact, human type organisms, humanoids will occur on other planets. So there will be intelligent beings that if we saw them they would be recognizable which, of course, is what Hollywood tells us. If you watch almost any science fiction TV show or movie the intelligent life form is bipedal, a couple of arms, a mouth. Maybe they only have three fingers and pointy ears and they're green but they're pretty humanoid. And so some people say yes, that's actually very likely that humans are a very successful life form here on Earth that we are extremely well adapted to our environment which ancestrally was occurring on the plains of Africa, but we adapted so exquisitely that we now dominate the world. So if this is such a good adaptation here on Earth it would similarly be a good adaptation on another planet and evolution would be likely to take the similar course. That is the argument that is being made in some corners.
KAKU: But when we look at aliens in the movies we're basically projecting our own consciousness in aliens. Our fears, our desires are projected and they are a mirror of who we are, not a mirror of who they really are. For example, if you take a look at a bat or a dog, the dog's brain is mainly interested in smells. It's swirling in a universe of smells while a bat's brain mainly is concentrated on sonar, on detecting clicks and echoes. The same thing with the dolphin brain. Their consciousness is totally different from our consciousness because they see things differently than us because of their evolutionary history. For example, when we see a cat and the cat comes up to us and starts to purr next to us we say to ourselves oh, nice cat. Cat is being affectionate. No, the cat is not being affectionate. It's simply rubbing its hormones on you and saying I own this human. This human is mine. I'm marking my territory. This human feeds me twice a day. I've trained him. So a cat sees the universe totally different than we do and yet we impose our thinking on an alien.
WILSON: ET is out there. There just has to be in that hundred million star system. Here's what I did. I looked over the many examples of the origin of whole new lines of animals that have occurred on the land since the early Paleozoic. Here is what they all have in common. First, it has to be on the land. It can't develop advanced societies and anything like civilization. Well, why not? Why no marine fresh water creatures? Because they don't have fire. In order to build tools beyond chipping some rock or stone away you don't have any way to create more advanced technology without concentrated power source that you can transport from one place to another. ET. I'm now drawing this again from the record of multiple origins of animal lines on Earth. ET has got a head and the head is up front and the head contains central organizing centers for all of the senses that are spread out through the body. ET has got a small number of limbs, multiple, maybe six. Who knows? Maybe eight like a spider. But not that many. Relatively few and ET has on these limbs fingers or tentacles, something with strength and flexibility that are free. You have to have soft, pulpy fingertips. Think about the primates you know. Old world and new world. That's a primate trait. Soft, pulpy fingertips. You need to be able to manipulate bits of food like plucking free a piece of fruit. Plucking seeds out of a fruit. Taking a flower and opening it and eating it and so on.
KAKU: Now some people say that we should not try to make contact with them because they could be potentially dangerous. [Danger Will Robinson. Danger.] For the most part I think they're going to be peaceful because they'll be thousands of years ahead of us but we cannot take the chance. So I personally believe that we should not try to advertise our existence to alien life in outer space because of the fact that we don't know their intentions. Then the other question is what happens if they're evil? Well, I think the question of evil is actually a relative question because the real danger to a deer in the forest is not the hunter with a gigantic rifle. He's not the main danger to a deer in the forest. The main danger to a deer in the forest is the developer. The guy that's going to pave the forest and perhaps destroy whole ecosystems. In other words, the aliens don't have to be evil in order to be dangerous to us. They might not care. They just may not care about us and in the process pave us over. And so I think that is a potential problem. We could be in the way of a very advanced civilization that simply is not evil but simply views us as we would view squirrels and deer in the forest. So, personally I think that we should not advertise our existence when we go into outer space. For the most part however, I do think they are going to be peaceful. They're not going to want to plunder the earth because there are plenty of planets out there that have nobody on them that they could plunder at will without having to worry about restive natives called humanity. And so I think they're not going to come to visit the earth to plunder us, to do all sorts of mischief. For the most part I think they'll just leave us alone.
BILL NYE: I don't think they're going to visit. However, very reasonable that we will in Carl Sagan fashion detect a signal from some other star system. That's very reasonable. I make no guarantees. It's the Christmas light problem, the holiday light problem where the lights are blinking. Our light of being able to receive electromagnetic wave from another civilization has to be on when another blinking civilization light is on so that we can cross paths not only in space but in time. We have to have both civilizations existing at the same time. And with a universe that's at least 13.6 billion years old it's not necessarily a given thing that everybody their lights will be on at the same time.
LOSOS: What would life be like on other planets if it is evolved? Would it be like the world today here on Earth or would it be completely different? This question has taken on some increased urgency or at least interest in recent years because we now realize that there are many planets out there that are like Earth. We used to think that Earth was perhaps unique and so perhaps life as we know it is unique because we're the only place that it could evolve. But quite the contrary. We've now discovered there are lots of what are called habitable exoplanets. Some people estimate millions, even billions just in our own Milky Way Galaxy. If there are really that many Earth-like planets many people think that it's very likely that life has evolved on them. And so the question is what will that life look like?
NYE: It's very reasonable, absolutely not proven. We may have the means to prove it, very reasonable that you and I are descendent of extraterrestrials. We just found liquid water on Mars. Super salty water on Mars that apparently flows every Martian year, every time Mars goes around the sun and gets warm enough in this one area liquid water flows for a while. Briny water evaporates. It's very reasonable that there's something alive on Mars or certainly that there was something alive on Mars. Then it's very reasonable that Mars was hit with an impact. You can show that Mars was hit with an impactor, a comet or asteroid, about three billion years ago. And some of the material of Mars was thrown off into space and some of it landed here. We find rocks on Earth that are clearly of Martian origin. I bought one online for kicks and suppose some especially robust Martian microbe, a Mars-crobe, was in this piece of material, landed on Earth at an especially fertile time here on Earth three billion years ago. And you and I are descendants of Martians. Do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do.
Sex-Selection Abortion: The Real War on Women
Despite advances in civil rights and the recognition by most developed nations that discrimination on the basis of sex alone is inherently unjust, a very real and pervasive form of sex discrimination is still permitted and practiced in the world today. Prenatal sex discrimination crosses cultural, ethnic, and national lines. It is practiced with impunity in many countries, including the U.S., via sex-selective abortion – choosing to abort a preborn child based solely on the child’s sex. Prenatal discrimination can also be practiced pre-implantation by destroying embryos based on a pre-implantation sex determination. Undoubtedly, such practices constitute discrimination against a unique human individual based on sex alone, and thus constitute sex discrimination. In order to address this injustice, it is imperative that States and the Federal Government institute selection abortion bans – restrictions on abortions done for reasons of sex selection alone.
The Real “War on Women”
Sex-selective abortion is a well-known problem in China and India, where a cultural preference for sons, coupled with political and economic influences, has severely skewed sex ratios at birth (SRBs). Instances of sex discrimination perpetrated via abortion and infanticide are well documented and have resulted in millions of “missing” girls in some societies.[1] In China, for example, men outnumber women to the tune of 33 million.[2] “More than 20 years ago, Amartya Sen (1990) documented that 100 million girls and women were “missing” from the global population as a consequence of neglect, infanticide, and inequalities in care. The figure is now estimated to be in excess of 160 million, with sex-selective abortion playing a major role (Hvistendahl 2011).”[3] Such practices constitute a real “war on women” and have been widely condemned.[4] Those who claim to be concerned with women’s rights can no longer ignore the need to ban sex-selective abortion in order to protect girls from “gendercide.”
Prenatal Sex Discrimination
Research and personal testimony show that the practice of sex-selective abortion is prevalent across cultures and nations, including the United States.[5] Sex selection in favor of males is practiced in some Asian immigrant communities within the U.S. and other western nations such as the United Kingdom. Current research shows that just a generation ago, sex ratios at birth within certain ethnic communities (specifically “Asian-Pacific”) in the U.S. and UK were within the normal range. Within the last twenty years, the ratio has climbed sharply, resulting in highly unbalanced ratios in favor of males. Such a noticeable change in recent decades implicates the increased use of sex selective abortion.[6]
Sex ratios in the U.S. remain fairly balanced overall. Such a balance is not evidence of the lack of gender discrimination in the U.S., rather, it is an indication of a unique set of ethical dilemmas in the U.S. related to sex selection. Advanced medical technologies traditionally used to diagnose disease – preimplantation genetic diagnosis and noninvasive prenatal testing – are gaining popularity as tools to be used in selecting the sex of offspring. Such methods are generally used for “family balancing” by couples who have a child or children of one sex and desire a child of the other sex. [7] Currently, there is no prohibition on such technology for the purpose of sex selection in the United States. Such technology can easily be used to discriminate against either sex, which is no less ethically problematic.
The Unavoidable Question
The glaring policy question and moral dilemma we face when deciding whether or not to implement restrictions on prenatal sex discrimination practices is whether sex-discrimination should be permitted in any form, whether it affects one or one million lives. As Dr. David Prentice, Vice President and Research Director, Charlotte Lozier Institute, recently noted in testimony before the Indiana Senate Committee on Health and Provider Services, “Some opponents of prohibitions against sex-selection abortions state that such abortions are rare, but that is a tacit admission that some sex-selection abortions occur. Even one gender discrimination abortion is too many.”[8] The authors of a recent paper highlighting the growing problem of sex selection in the U.S. via noninvasive prenatal testing procedures agree with this assessment, noting, “We believe that aborting a healthy fetus solely on the basis of its sex for purposes of family balancing is a dubious practice and ethically objectionable… .”[9] As discussed in the next section, the American public overwhelmingly supports these conclusions.
Popular Opposition to Sex-Selective Abortion
Americans, as well as citizens of the United Kingdom, overwhelmingly oppose abortions performed for reasons of sex selection. A poll conducted by the Charlotte Lozier Institute in 2012[10] found that 77% of respondents opposed abortion in instances of sex selection (specifically abortion of girls). These results reflect the long-held legal traditions and mores of Americans in support of individual equality without respect to race, ethnicity, or sex.
A 2014 poll from the United Kingdom found that “80% of British adults agreed that ‘where it can be proved that an abortion was authorized on grounds of the baby’s gender, the doctor authorizing that abortion should be prosecuted.’” “The poll, carried out by ComRes, also found that more than four in five adults (84%) agree that ‘aborting babies because of their gender should explicitly be banned by law.’”[11]
American, British, and German citizens are similarly opposed to using Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD, also called Preimplantation Genetic Screening, PGS) technology for nonmedical reasons such as sex selection and selection of physical and/or personality traits of offspring. According to the Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, “A survey of public attitudes found that 68% of Americans disapprove of the use of PGS for sex selection only. A recent review article cites a German study finding that only 8% approved of the use of PGS for nonmedical reasons. In the United Kingdom, public opposition to sex selection has also been cited to override claims to reproductive autonomy.”[12]
It is a dereliction of duty for representatives in a democratic society to be silent on an issue that is of such grave concern to constituents. Although sex ratio numbers do not reveal the entire story of the complicated issues related to the use and ethics of sex selection, demographic data is often used by politicians and opponents of sex-selective abortion bans to make the claim that such bans are unnecessary, thereby avoiding the responsibility to act on the obvious injustice of sex-selective abortion. Additionally, there are no national mandatory reporting requirements for abortion data in the U.S., making it impossible to ascertain the true extent of the scope of sex- selective abortion nationally. The ideals of liberty and the desire of the American public to put an end to sex discrimination in the form of sex-selective abortion should transcend party lines.
The Data Dilemma
In countries where males vastly outnumber females, sex-selection via abortion is an obvious culprit. In the U.S., however, where the sex ratio at birth is statistically average (about 105 males for every 100 females), it becomes more difficult to ascertain the number of gender-selective abortions that are performed based on birth data alone. In order to determine a more specific number, studies of induced abortion data become imperative. The sex ratio at conception and birth remains almost 50:50 (with a slight male-bias) without regard to race or maternal age.[13] Because this number is so reliable, an analysis of induced abortions in the U.S. should shed light on whether or not a bias exists. However, the abysmal state of abortion data in the U.S. prevents us from making such an important determination.
As Charles Donovan and Nora Sullivan of the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) pointed out in 2012, induced abortion reporting is not mandatory in the United States, thus, it cannot accurately inform the national policy discussion on abortion procedure reform.
National and state abortion reporting laws and policies in the United States are a patchwork that falls far short of fulfilling the potential of this information to inform and guide public policy. The composite picture they reveal is at once impressionistic and incomplete, non-contemporaneous and of limited use in providing a true and timely rendering of the impact of public policies and attitudes on the reality of abortion in the United States.[14]
Additionally, as Clarke Forsythe of Americans United for Life elaborated,
The U.S. abortion data and reporting system, unlike many other countries, relies completely on voluntary reporting. No federal law requires the reporting of abortion numbers, complications or deaths. (Denmark, in contrast, requires mandatory reporting by providers of all induced abortions.)
Even the most basic statistics about abortion — for example, the annual number in the United States provided by the CDC — is based entirely on estimates, and is therefore vulnerable to human error. How reliable can the annual number of abortions be if California, which used to report approximately one-quarter of all abortions across the nation annually, hasn’t reported its data to the CDC for several years?[15]
Donovan and Sullivan go on to emphasize not only the necessity of obtaining more complete records, but also the relative ease with which it could be accomplished in this tech-savvy age:
In this era of Internet technology and nearly instant reporting of all sorts of data, this patchwork need not be the rule, nor need policymakers accept such incomplete information as a given. … Getting current and unfiltered information and having the advantage of multiple interpretations of its meaning should be a topic of the highest priority for state and federal attention. Moreover, in the age of the Internet, neither gathering nor disseminating useful, current, and patient-protective cumulative data need be a costly enterprise.[16]
If researchers and policy-makers are truly interested in obtaining more accurate numbers of abortions done for reasons of sex selection in the U.S., then rather than deny the need for bans on sex-selective abortion in the U.S., they would do well to make an effort to push for mandatory reporting of abortion data.
A Legal Perspective
The laws and policies we institute – or fail to institute – inform and educate our citizens about acceptable and ethical practices in society. Who would dispute, for example, that the Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)[17] and “Jim Crow” laws shaped attitudes about racial segregation and discrimination? Those laws needed to change.
Just as with how our law now treats race discrimination, sex discrimination is likewise taken seriously in American jurisprudence because of our commitment to basic moral values involving human dignity. Sex discrimination violates a fundamental liberty guaranteed by the Constitution – equal protection under the law. The equal protection standard is applicable to gender-based classifications and “require[s] ‘an exceedingly persuasive justification’ in order to survive constitutional scrutiny.”[18] Sex discrimination is also prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,[19] which addresses discriminatory employment practices, prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, religion, or national origin.[20]
Opponents of sex-selective bans often assert that “sex selection” of a preborn child falls under laws protecting reproductive autonomy. However, the prohibition of sex-selective abortion is not a question that has been addressed by any U.S. court, thus, it is an issue of first impression. And there are reasons to think the Supreme Court might uphold a ban on sex-selection abortion.
First, the current standard applied to abortion regulation by the Court is that a state may not place a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion prior to viability. Sex-selection bans do not violate that standard. A ban on sex-selective abortion is, for the state, an expression of respect for life and a mechanism by which it can protect a person from sex discrimination. Additionally, if a ban on sex-selective abortion were put in place, an almost innumerable list of other reasons/options for a woman to choose elective abortion remains available—including the reason that the woman simply doesn’t want to be pregnant whether or not the pregnancy was intended in the first place. When such myriad options exist, reasoning that a ban on a single discriminatory reason constitutes a “substantial obstacle” collapses.
This argument is strengthened by reference to Gonzales v. Carhart where the Supreme Court upheld a total ban on partial-birth abortion, even when it is performed prior to viability.[21] The Court noted that because there was one alternative procedure to the procedure that was banned by the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, the undue burden standard was not met. In the case of bans on sex-selective abortion, not only one, but many other avenues exist by which a woman is able to procure an elective abortion. Thus, a ban not only fails to meet the undue burden requirement, it also serves the important interest of the state in expressing its profound respect for life.
Second, the abortion right is balanced in light of the legitimate state interest in protecting the health of the mother and life of the fetus from the outset of pregnancy.[22] The state’s interest in regulation was highlighted in Gonzales v Carhart: “[r]egulations which do no more than create a structural mechanism by which the State, or the parent or guardian of a minor, may express profound respect for the life of the unborn are permitted, if they are not a substantial obstacle to the woman’s exercise of the right to choose.”[23] Sex-selective bans not only prohibit discrimination against a person based on sex – a compelling governmental interest – they also protect the pregnant woman from cultural or familial pressure to have an abortion by penalizing such coercion.[24]
Third, and on top of all this, construing the abortion right to include sex-discrimination abortion would take the Court and the country in the wrong direction. Aborting a child for reasons of sex alone is not an exercise of reproductive autonomy, but rather one of discrimination based on immutable characteristics. The real issue when it comes to aborting a child based on sex alone, as articulated by Barbara Katz Rothman in her book on prenatal diagnosis, is not whether or not to have a child, but rather, what kind of child to have.[25] The abortion right should not include the right “to bear or abort a particular child” based on particular traits such as gender.[26]
A Moral Responsibility to Act
The United States has a moral duty as one of the world’s most influential free societies to lead the way in protecting girls and boys from all forms of gender discrimination, even if the U.S. never sees “gendercide” on the scale of practices in India and China. The U.S. should be even more inclined to act as the problem of imbalanced sex ratios grows globally. Alarmingly disparate ratios exist in a number of nations outside of Asia. Highly skewed ratios exist in Europeans countries as well – particularly in the Caucasus.[27] These numbers belie the assumption that abortion for reasons of sex selection is a problem only associated with one culture. Rather, this is a human problem, not limited to borders, specific cultures, or races. As Nicholas Eberstadt, Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute, confirms this phenomenon and notes in his research, “[S]ex-selective abortion is by now so widespread and so frequent that it has come to distort the population composition of the entire human species: this new and medicalized war against baby girls is indeed truly global in scale and scope.”[28]
Failure to address sex-selective abortion at home and abroad is a failure to address the role of women in society and the effect of sex selection on human relationships. Eberstadt’s research drives this point home, noting,
This is, and should be, a non-partisan issue, yet liberal organizations and politicians consistently oppose and challenge policies enacted to protect preborn children from gender discrimination. Organizations such as the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum consistently concede the existence of sex-selective abortion and decry the practice in one breath and in the next condemn measures enacted to end the unethical practice. Excerpts from the 2012 floor debate in the House of Representatives over the Prenatal Non-Discrimination Act (PRENDA) illustrates this point. Despite the fact that a vast majority of the voting public opposes sex-selective abortion and that gender discrimination is an egregious violation of fundamental rights, PRENDA was dismissed as a “Republican” issue meant to deprive women of their rights.
The Hill newspaper reported several comments on the bill by key Democrats, “‘We can all agree that women should not choose to terminate a pregnancy based solely on gender, but this bill criminalizes a legal procedure,’ Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) said Thursday afternoon.” “‘It is another Republican intrusion into a woman’s right to choose,’ said Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.).”[30]
Recently, in an interview on women’s rights and Middle East peace, then Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton noted, “…[I]t’s important that the United States — be a leader in continuing to promote women’s rights and women’s equality. It is in our interest, our security interest. It is a moral imperative. And it creates a better basis for us to — seek a more peaceful, prosperous, progressive world.” [31] Clinton also stressed this point in a 2009 interview with the New York Times in which she stated, “Obviously, there’s work to be done in both India and China, because the infanticide rate of girl babies is still overwhelmingly high, and unfortunately with technology, parents are able to use sonograms to determine the sex of a baby, and to abort girl children simply because they’d rather have a boy. And those are deeply set attitudes.”[32] Despite acknowledging the destructive and unethical nature of sex-selective abortion, Clinton and her policy allies have thus far been unwilling to address this issue legislatively. Truly, it is in the best interests of the citizens of the United States to establish laws that ban sex-selective abortion. In so doing, we will create and foster an environment where the worth of individuals is not determined by their sex and where women can be free from familial and cultural pressure to abort a child of a certain sex.
The elimination of girls prior to birth is a growing problem globally. Nobuko Horibe, the Director of the United Nations Population Fund’s Asia and Pacific Regional Office, addressed the seriousness of sex selection in her 2011 international forum speech on the issue.
“Zero tolerance” implies that even one girl aborted for the purpose of sex selection is too many. If one instance of prenatal discrimination is not offensive to us as a culture, then why should our moral compass shift when multiple children are affected? And who will be the arbiter of how much sex discrimination via abortion is too much? The unjust practice of eliminating girls or boys based on gender in the womb is far too glaring a problem to ignore.
Prenatal Sex Ratios
The newest and “by far the most comprehensive analysis of prenatal sex ratios ever performed”[34] conducted by Orzack et al. confirms the biological fact that about half of all babies at conception are male. “Our estimate of the sex ratio at conception is 0.5 (proportion male), which contradicts the common claim that the sex ratio at conception is male biased.”[35] Austad, in his analysis of the Orzack et al. research notes, “The slight male bias, typically ∼51.3% of live births, is so consistent that when birth sex ratios deviate much from it, suspicions are aroused of sex-specific abortion or infanticide.”[36]
In fact, the Orzack et al. study includes a thorough investigation of all previous induced abortion studies regarding the sex of preborn children.
Induced Abortions. To our knowledge, there are only 41 studies of the sex of fetuses from induced abortion these data have never before been assembled and analyzed….[37] Analysis of Induced-Abortion Data. Our analysis suggests that female biased mortality causes the CSR [cohort sex ratio] to increase between 2 and 20 wk CA [conception age].[38]
The research also found that there is little to no variation in sex ratios in relation to maternal race or age.[39] The ratio of boys to girls consistently averages around 103-106 boys for every 100 girls (a ratio of 1.03-1.06) thus China’s 2014 ratio of 115.88,[40] for example, is too high to be explained away by non-existent “natural variations” or expensive pre-conception gender selection procedures.
It is well-known that cultural preference for male offspring in some countries results in abortion for the purpose of sex-selection.[41] “As The Economist recently noted in an article entitled, “The War on Baby Girls, Gendercide,” “In fact the destruction of baby girls is a product of three forces: the ancient preference for sons a modern desire for smaller families and ultrasound scanning and other technologies that identify the sex of a fetus.” Whatever the motivation, “For millions of couples, the answer is: abort the daughter, try for a son.”[42]
In a call to end “gender-biased sex selection,” the United Nations Population Fund notes,
Today, more than 117 million women across Asia are “missing,” and many others are missing in Eastern European and Caucasus countries as well – largely the result of gender-biased sex selection, a form of discrimination.
Gender-biased sex selection can be measured using sex ratio at birth, a comparison of the number of boys born versus the number of girls born in a given period. The biologically normal sex ratio at birth can range from 102 to 106 males per 100 females. When many more boys are born than girls, it is a sign that sex selection is taking place. Ratios as high as 130 boys per 100 girls have been observed.[43]
The Role of Preimplantation Sex-Selection
The existence of preimplantation sex-selection procedures (preimplantation genetic diagnosis [PGD] and sperm sorting) are often offered as proof that extremely biased sex ratios in countries like China and India are not the result of sex-selective abortion, but rather PGD. In Western nations, relatively pricey PGD and noninvasive prenatal testing procedures are gaining wider use and popularity, but those instances do little to diminish the existence of abortions performed for reasons of sex selection. Sperm sorting and other assisted reproductive measures do not always result in the desired gender and pre-implanted embryos of the “wrong” gender are likely destroyed, making PGD procedures no less objectionable because they pose the same ethical problems as sex-selective abortion.
The cost-prohibitive nature of preimplantation sex-selective procedures for citizens of the countries that exhibit such imbalanced ratios renders this conclusion suspect. IVF procedures cost tens of thousands of dollars (sperm sorting can cost around $1,000), whereas ultrasounds that determine gender are relatively low-cost and much more widely available globally.[44] Typical citizens of India and China (where gender imbalances are well above average) are likely unable to afford preimplantation procedures, and are, therefore, much more likely to be using post-implantation ultrasounds to determine the sex of their children.[45] Post-implantation sex selection necessarily involves abortion.
Multiple countries, including Canada, have banned the practice of in vitro fertilization for the purposes of sex selection. The commentary on two new Canadian studies that examined the incidence of sex-selective abortion among immigrant populations in Canada, suggests that people in countries that have banned the practice may be taking advantage of the lax regulation in the U.S. by traveling here to practice sex-selective in vitro fertilization.[46]
Sex-Selective Abortion is a Cross-Cultural Problem
Cultural son-preference is manifesting itself globally, and sex selection occurs in Western nations, like the U.S., in favor of both boys and girls. Thus, sex-selective abortion ban proposals are in no way motivated by bias against any particular race or ethnicity. As Eberstadt’s research shows, biased ratios exist cross-culturally and have a significant impact on human relationships and the role of women, globally.
Additionally, the Orzack study established that the consistency of natural sex ratios at conception transcends racial and ethnic boundaries. There is “no association between the mother’s race and the CSR.” “Analysis of limited data (n = 819) suggested that there is no association between mother’s race and the CSR.[47] Thus, studies that show a male-biased sex selection occurring in various Asian nations and Asian immigrant communities in the U.S. are not motivated by racial animus, they simply reflect the fact that CSR numbers have been shown to be consistent globally, without respect to ethnicity, and the extremely male-biased sex ratios in certain communities prove gender discrimination and present major societal and ethical concerns.
In 2013, The Economist highlighted the most recent studies which showed markedly distorted sex ratios in the Caucasus regions.[48] The numbers have risen dramatically since 1991, indicating that male-biased animus toward the female unborn is not diminishing with increased development. The numbers seem to have risen in correlation with the availability of ultrasound machines, whose importation from the West was banned prior to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.[49] The correlation serves as further evidence that abortion is the primary culprit behind the rising male-biased sex ratios in these regions. Based on the studies and historical information, the author suggests that a long-held cultural preference for sons is again thriving in the absence of the Soviet regime. Most remarkably, however, based on a 2013 study, the author suggests that there is a much more pervasive “pent-up” desire for sons throughout the world.
A study by John Bongaarts of the Population Council, a New York think-tank, uses surveys in 61 countries to calculate the sex ratios that would result if parents had the number of sons and daughters they wanted. It turns out that in half the countries, the desired ratio is more than 110 (higher than India’s, which is 108). Armenia and Azerbaijan are among those with the highest rates, but all over the world (especially Africa) parents say they want more sons. As Mr. Bongaarts says, “there is a large pent-up demand for sex selection.” If the Caucasus is a guide, that demand can pretty easily be met.[50]
If the desire for sons is prevalent across cultures and the demand for sex selection via abortion is easily met, there exists an even greater urgency for sex-selection bans. By highlighting the fact that countries outside of India and Asia are demonstrating a propensity to abort females at even higher rates, we must conclude that 1) no culture is immune to gender discrimination in the form of sex-selective abortion, 2) support for sex-selection abortion bans is not motivated by ethnic bias, and 3) immediate action is needed.
Addressing Sex Discrimination through Regulation
Global sex-selective regulations involve not only abortion bans, but more often bans on assisted reproductive technologies, most commonly preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), when used for purposes of sex selection. Such bans consist of explicit prohibitions (for any reason) and prohibitions with qualifications, such as bans containing “medical” exceptions. A 2009 memo from the Center for Genetics and Society presents a comprehensive chart of countries with prohibitions.[51] The Center states that, as of 2009, Austria, New Zealand, South Korea, Switzerland, and Vietnam[52] explicitly prohibit sex-selection, while 31 other nations prohibit the “social” use[53] of sex-selection, including China, India, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.[54] Dr. Sunita Puri, one of the authors of a well-known study on sex selection in the U.S., noted that “more than 30 countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom, have already banned sex selection on the grounds that it reinforces gender inequality and sets a precedent for legitimizing eventual selection of traits ranging from eye color to intelligence.”[55]
Although not every country prohibits sex-selective abortion specifically, there is obviously a global awareness that prenatal sex-selection is unethical based on the sheer number of countries that prohibit preimplantation sex-selection techniques. The United States is, in fact, lagging behind the rest of the world on this front. The use of PGD, sperm sorting, and noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for purposes of choosing the sex of offspring is on the rise in America and presents serious ethical dilemmas including a potential increase in abortion when parents who use the procedures become pregnant with the “wrong” gender. Not only should the United States institute sex-selective abortion bans for the sake of our own citizens, but also as a way to promote women’s equality and women’s rights around the globe.
It is disingenuous and unacceptable for countries, organizations, lawmakers, or individuals to decry sex-discrimination and support bans on preimplantation sex-selection, yet ignore or outright oppose bans on the most virulent form of prenatal sex discrimination – elective abortion.
Male-biased sex ratios and son-preference are a serious global problem, as is all sex discrimination – against either sex. As discussed above, currently, access to preimplantation gender selection is limited and likely cost-prohibitive in most countries with skewed sex ratios while ultrasound access is widespread. Thus, the policy of banning only preimplantation procedures in order to combat prenatal sex discrimination is incomplete. The global problem of sex discrimination via abortion will continue to spread. Focusing only on preimplantation bans without a correlating ban on sex-selective abortion in the U.S. would be inconsistent, incomplete, and ineffective in curbing the practice of gender discrimination via sex selection.
Sex Selection in the U.S. Among Asian and Caucasian Populations
Empirical data shows the existence of sex-selective practices among foreign-born Chinese, Indians and Koreans in the U.S. One major well-respected study, which has been widely cited by both proponents and opponents of sex-selection abortion bans, was conducted by Douglas Almond and Lena Edlund, and is based on Census data from 2000.[56] Most significantly, the Almond/Edlund study found that third births among families with two daughters displayed a ratio of 151 boys to 100 girls – an extreme male-biased ratio. Even attempts to discredit the study confirmed what Almond and Edlund concluded, that male-biased sex ratios existed in the third births of families in these communities.
The overall boy-girl sex ratio of Caucasian-Americans is 1.05 in comparison to Asian-Americans at 1.03 – both within normal range. Thus, some opponents of sex-selection bans claim that sex-selection is not a problem in the U.S. among Asian communities because the overall ratio is normal. Their macro analysis misses the point of the Almond/Edlund study – that son-preference is clearly evident in these communities, but that it manifests itself in third births.
Seema Mohapatra, Assistant Professor of Law, Barry University, summarized the significance of these findings in her 2013 article, Global Legal Responses to Prenatal Gender Identification and Sex Selection:
Although the sex ratios of the oldest child in U.S.-born children of Chinese, Korean, and Asian Indian parents do not suggest sex selection, the ratios for subsequent children do suggest that gender-selection practices may be at play. In these populations, if there was no previous son, the second or third child was more often male than should be if sex selection was naturally occurring. If the first child was a girl, the sex ratio for the second child was 1.17 favoring males. If the first two children were girls, the ratio for the third was 1.51 favoring males. In contrast, the sex ratios for white Americans in the United States in the same period were within the range of biologically normal and varied only slightly with parity and sex of previous children. What is significant about these statistics is that these son-biased sex ratios are comparable to those documented for second and third children in India, China, and South Korea.[57]
The latest research out of Canada, released just this week, confirms this phenomenon. The first study, which examines variations in male–female infant ratios among births to Canadian- and Indian-born mothers, from 1990–2011 found that by the third birth, 138 boys were born to Indian-born mothers for every 100 girls, and by the fourth birth, 166 boys were born to every 100 girls.[58] The second study more closely implicates the culprit of such skewed ratios – sex-selective abortion. The study compared sex ratios at birth after induced abortion among Canadian-born and non-Canadian-born women. The study found that within the province (Ontario), women from India who already had two daughters gave birth to 196 boys for every 100 girls. If an Indian-born mother with two daughters received an abortion before her third child, the ratio jumped to 326 boys for every 100 girls, and 409 boys for every 100 girls if the mother had multiple abortions.[59]
Evidence would suggest that families who have had two previous daughters and who come from communities that traditionally favor sons will most likely feel pressure to give birth to a son at some point in their lives, even if they reside in a free society. Heritage and deeply-ingrained cultural practices cannot be easily discarded.
A similar study by Joseph Abrevaya states, “[E]ven if the practice of sex selection were to increase in the United States it would not likely lead to a gender-imbalance problem in the aggregate.” [60] Critics of banning sex-selective abortion look to this conclusion to support their claim that bans are unnecessary. The implications of this stance are that, as a nation, we should be concerned with prenatal sex-discrimination only when the problem becomes so extreme that the birth ratios match those of other countries with extreme bias. Further, such opposition implies that we should make it our policy to confront sex discrimination on principle only when it affects a certain threshold number of people. Who determines what number is sufficient to justify action? If only two or three women were fired by a large corporation because of their sex, would a stand against discrimination be justified, or would we sit on the policy sidelines until the problem affects “enough” women?
Yet another study by Sunita Puri et al.[61] presents a qualitative analysis of the cultural pressure/preference to have male children among a group of 65 South Asian immigrant women seeking to have sons. Consideration of the personal experience of physicians or others in Asian-American communities is an integral part of well-informed policy-making on the issue of sex- selective abortion.
An internal medicine physician, Dr. Puri spent six years interviewing patients and doctors in an attempt to better understand issues related to sex selection in the United States. She elaborated on her journey in an article for Slate.[62] Puri found that sex-selective abortion is, in fact, not uncommon in the United States and that, thanks to lack of consistent policy on the issue, physicians are often ill-equipped to deal with the ethical dilemma. Puri poignantly states,
Puri’s article reveals relevant and important information that results only from lengthy study and experience, and highlights two issues vital to the discussion of sex-selective abortion bans. First, as a society, by neglecting to address sex-selective abortion, our physicians are left with no policy guidelines they can consult regarding the ethics of sex-selective abortion. Second, we must recognize that cultural and familial pressure to give birth to sons is a real problem faced by women in the United States. There are women who are clearly being pressured or coerced into aborting their children based on sex, adding elements of force to a situation of gross discrimination. Both problems can be addressed and mitigated by banning the practice of sex-selective abortion and ensuring broad public awareness of the ban and the principles of equality that underlie it.
An ingrained cultural preference or belief can still permeate the lives of people in prosperous, free societies. I was recently told by an Indian-American doctor, whose views on the subject of sex-selective abortion bans are unknown to me, that although the cultural preference for sons varies in severity across economic, regional, and educational backgrounds, it is “no doubt” still an issue among Indian communities here in the United States. Such personal knowledge and experience are indispensable to well-informed, effective policy-making.
We have additional evidence that sex-selective abortions are taking place regularly in the United States. The non-profit organization Live Action conducted an investigation of abortion clinics nationwide in 2012 and found them willing to perform abortions when the reason given for the abortion was solely sex-selection.[64] Video documentation shows that abortion clinics in Texas, New York, Arizona, Hawaii, and North Carolina all agreed to abort unborn children based solely on sex-based preference.[65]
These investigations demonstrate the utter lack of concern that these clinics had for practices clearly meant to end the life of an unborn child for reasons of sex discrimination. Such cavalier attitudes towards these unethical practices can undoubtedly be traced, in part, to the refusal of our society to enact protections against prenatal sex discrimination. As the laws change, awareness of and concern over sex discrimination will undoubtedly shift. Additionally, if these clinics were so openly willing to perform sex-selective procedures, we can only guess at the magnitude of the actual problem when we consider the large number of abortion clinics around the country and the competitive pressures between them.
The Necessity of Sex-Selective Abortion Restrictions
Even the UNFPA and other global organizations have acknowledged the serious implications of male-biased sex selection and advocated taking steps to remedy the problem. The World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizes that the problem is widespread, dangerous for society, and a serious obstacle to gender equality,
Sex selection for non-medical reasons raises serious moral, legal, and social issues. The principal concerns are that the practice of sex selection will
1. distort the natural sex ratio leading to a gender imbalance and
2. reinforce discriminatory and sexist stereotypes towards women by devaluing females.
In some countries, such as India and China, it is commonly known that the practice of sex-selective abortion has resulted in distortions of the natural sex ratio, in favour of males. In addition, there is concern that sex selection involves inappropriate control over nonessential characteristics of children and may place a potential psychological burden on, and hence cause harm to, sex-selected offspring.[66]
Former Secretary of State Clinton also acknowledged in her 2013 MSNBC interview that sex discrimination via abortion has far-reaching consequences,
Think of what that’s going to mean in certain parts of the world, particularly Asia — where this imbalance is most acute — when you have a very large population of young men who can’t find wives. A kind of — potential social instability that that breeds. So this is not only about the tragedy of young girls not being given what is needed in order to survive and live, but what it might mean in terms of too many young men.[67]
In fact, a recent article in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine discussing early prenatal testing highlighted the concern that fewer women in a society increases the risk of violence against women and the demand for sex trafficking.[68]
It is imperative that a solution to the problem of sex-selection include a ban on the most obvious and widely available method, sex-selection abortion.
The focus in enacting such laws should not be whether the sex ratios/data show a specified level of disparity, but rather on whether such laws have the potential to protect any person from sex-discrimination. Additionally, it is important to implement policies that take a moral stance on our deeply-held republican ideals because they serve as invaluable instruction in ethical societal practice, regardless of quantifiable outcomes. Claiming that the lack of precisely identifiable numbers of children saved from sex discrimination via sex-selective abortions justifies opposition to sex-selective abortion bans serves to perpetuate the unethical position that only saving a certain number of children could justify laws banning the practice.
Research and anecdotal evidence shows that sex-selective gender discrimination is taking place often in the U.S., justifying legislative action. Sex-selective abortion bans serve to educate the public on the unethical practice of prenatal discrimination. Such education creates and fosters social mores that reject unjust practices. If we, as a society, refuse to enact legislation that could spare the lives of even a few people from a lethal form of sex discrimination, then we delegitimize the moral claim that sex discrimination is wrong in the first place.
Normalization of sex ratios in South Korea in recent years has been used as evidence that evolving norms and economic development minimize the male-biased ratios absent sex selective bans.[69] This assertion, however, fails to account for the context that abortion in general is and has been illegal in South Korea since 1953, with the only exceptions being rape, incest, and severe genetic disorders.[70] In fact, it has been noted that in more recent years, South Korea has even more strictly enforced its ban on abortion due to a lower overall birthrate.[71] Thus, it seems clear that as South Korea advanced economically, the long-time ban on abortion in general has played an important role in the dramatic sex ratio balancing in South Korea.
An additional factor in the sharp decline, as noted by Eberstadt, was a significant cultural shift, “stigmatizing the practice” (of female feticide). The societal shift was the result of a national conversation on the serious problem of female feticide and the implications of the practice on society and families.[72] Introduction, support, and implementation of bans on sex selective abortion in the U.S. can precipitate a national discussion on the problem of sex discrimination through abortion and its consequences, domestically and globally.
When faced with a problem as widespread as sex discrimination via abortion, a multi-faceted attack on the injustice is warranted. Because abortions remain underreported and because of the seriousness of the offense of sex discrimination, a sex-selection abortion ban is the most practical tool in the fight against “gendercide.”
Sex-Selection Bans Should Transcend Party Lines
The claim that banning all abortion is the “primary motivation” for anyone who supports a sex-selective abortion ban is often repeated by opponents of the measures. Such statements constitute a sweeping generalization for the purpose of distracting the public from the very serious problem of prenatal sex discrimination. The Republican/Democratic divide on proposed bans serves only as an admission that liberal policy groups and liberal lawmakers are not opposed to all forms of sex discrimination.
If there is a very real threat of sex discrimination in this country – discrimination that has been condemned openly by the United Nations and Hillary Clinton, among others – then those who truly cling to the ideals of equality will not be swayed from addressing it by political or ideological pressure. Allowing a political party affiliation or a disagreement about abortion as a whole to interfere with passing a law that would protect people from a practice one agrees is unethical is a sad state of affairs. The American public is clearly in overwhelming opposition to the practice of aborting children based on sex as evidenced by the polls.
Sex-Selective Bans Are not a Threat to Women or Women’s Health
Some opponents have expressed concerns that women’s healthcare would be negatively affected by the bans or that pregnant women would face prosecution for violations of the bans. Such fears are completely unfounded. Currently, only those who perform the sex-selective procedure and those who have coerced or solicited the pregnant mother to have the procedure are liable under the bans. Furthermore, even as to the limited scope of individuals’ potential liability under those laws, intent, knowledge, and/or reckless disregard is required. Whereas sex discrimination is currently a reality in the United States, the fear that bans would result in “denial of health care” is mere speculation and simply an attempt to obfuscate the discussion and frustrate passage of sex-selective bans. Additionally, the unfounded claim that women’s “healthcare” would be negatively affected by sex-selection bans assumes that selecting a child of a desired gender is a legitimate part of “healthcare” rather than what it really is – sex discrimination and an attempt to create specific “types” of offspring to satisfy parental or family preference.
In contrast to claims that such bans would jeopardize the mother’s health, the actual threat facing pregnant mothers in relation to selective abortion is coercion, as previously discussed. Pressure to abort in communities where son preference exists is a reality for some women in the United States. Dr. Puri documented the sad predicament of women who were aborting their daughters in the United States because of pressure from family members.[73] Sex-selective abortion bans protect women who find themselves in such situations because they often provide for the punishment of persons involved in the coercion.[74]
“When a man steals to satisfy hunger, we may safely conclude that there is something wrong in society – so when a woman destroys the life of her unborn child, it is an evidence that either by education or circumstances she has been greatly wronged.” These words by early feminist Maddie H. Brinckerhoff seem to have faded from our national discourse.[75] The problem of sex-selective abortion is rooted in something much deeper that the practice itself. It is rooted in the failure of our nation to recognize that sex-selective abortion tears at the very fabric of liberty by denying equal protection under the law to a segment of the population. If discrimination against a girl or boy on the basis of sex after he or she is born is prohibited, why then do we refuse to enact laws that protect those same children from lethal sex-discrimination prior to birth? We have thus far done a disservice to women and society as a whole by refusing to educate our citizenry on the importance of equality under the law in every instance of sex discrimination – including prenatal sex discrimination.
Such discrimination also presents the complex ethical questions of birthing children merely to fulfill parental preferences and expectations. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine notes that sex-selection “fails to evidence unconditional parental acceptance of their children in appropriate respects.”[76] Researchers Chapman and Benn echo this concern, stating that sex selection of offspring (specifically in reference to non-invasive prenatal testing [NIPT] procedures) “treats the child as an artifact of the reproductive process and as an opportunity to design children according to parental standards of excellence.”[77]
Such alarming practices demonstrate a pressing need for implementation of policy in the U.S. that will unequivocally label sex-selective abortion as a form of sex discrimination and prohibit its practice.
We can turn the tide of prenatal discrimination by first acknowledging the obvious, that prenatal sex-discrimination in all its forms is unethical and unacceptable. We must accept that sex-selective abortions occur globally, even in the United States, and acknowledge the serious consequences that result from gender imbalances and the refusal to condemn sex-selective abortion. Sex-selective abortion perpetuates sex discrimination in general and specifically, in many countries, the attitude that male children are preferable and somehow superior to female children.
Reversal of sex discrimination in the United States begins with implementing sex-selective abortion bans, considering regulations of preimplantation sex selection, and instituting national abortion reporting requirements. Allowing these facts to inform our public policy and taking the steps necessary to eliminate sex-selective abortion will put the United States squarely on the frontlines in fighting the actual “war on women.” Such a stance will create a platform from which the U.S. can affirm the unique value of each individual, and can publicly condemn unjust discrimination against either sex.
Anna Higgins, J.D. is an associate scholar for the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
[1] Hvistendahl, M. (2011) Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men, Public Affairs Publishing, p. 5-6. Hvistendahl estimates that 163 million females were demographically “missing” from Asia alone as early as 2005. See also, It’s a girl, The Economist. The War on Baby Girls, Gendercide. March 4, 2010. United Nations Population Fund, Prenatal Sex Selection.
[2] Littlejohn, R., Women’s Rights Without Frontiers. (2015, April 9). Chinese Men Outnumber Women by 33 Million After Decades of Gender Bias. Retrieved from
[3] A.R. Chapman, P.A. Benn (Autumn 2013). Noninvasive Prenatal Testing for Early Sex Identification: A Few Benefits and Many Concerns. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, VOL. 56 NO. 4, pp. 530-547. Johns Hopkins University Press. DOI: 10.1353/pbm.2013.0034.
[4] Draft Agreed Conclusions on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination and Violence
Against the Girl Child, Commission on the Status of Women, 51st Session (26 February – 9 March 2007) resolving that we should, “Eliminate all forms of discrimination against the girl child and the root causes of son preference, which results in harmful and unethical practices regarding female infanticide and prenatal sex selection, which may have significant repercussions on society as a whole.” Retrieved from
/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/csw/51/csw51_e_final.pdf See also, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Committee on Ethics Committee Opinion. (2007 February). Sex Selection. (Number 360), 2. Noting, “Although health care providers may not ethically withhold medical information from patients who request it, they are not obligated to perform an abortion, or other medical procedure, to select fetal sex.” Retrieved from
[6] Nicholas Eberstadt, “The Global War Against Baby Girls,” The New Atlantis, Number 33, Fall 2011, pp. 3-18. Noting, “In both the United States and the United Kingdom, these gender disparities were due largely to sharp increases in higher-parity SRBs, strongly suggesting that sex-selective abortions were the driver. The American and British cases also point to the possibility that sex-selective abortion may be common to other subpopulations in developed or less developed societies, even if these do not affect the overall SRB for each country as a whole.” Retrieved from
[8] D Prentice. (2015, Feb 18). Written Testimony of David A. Prentice, Ph.D. In Support of Indiana’s SB 334. Retrieved from
[10] Charlotte Lozier Institute, Sex-selection Abortion: Worldwide Son-bias Fueled by Population Policy Abuse, May 30, 2012. . Noting that, “The CLI poll of 1,016 U.S. adults found that, overall, 77 percent of respondents answered ‘yes’ when asked, “When the fact that the developing baby is a girl is the sole reason for seeking an abortion, do you believe that abortion should be illegal?” Only 16 percent of all respondents said that abortion should be legal in this circumstance. Among women, support for a law making sex-selection abortion illegal is higher (80-13 percent) than it is among men, who favor such a law by a margin of 74-18 percent. Support for a protective law is found among all age groups, but is highest among those age 45-54 where a ban is supported 87-11 percent. By region, support for a ban ranges from a high of 81 percent in the Midwest and South to 68 percent in the West.”
[12] ETHICS PAPER FROM AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR REPRODUCTIVE MEDICINE (ASRM) ASRM Pages, VOL. 103 NO. 6, June 2015, pp 1418-22. Ethics Committee of ASRM, ASRM, Birmingham, AL. “Use of reproductive technology for sex selection for nonmedical reasons.”
[13] 9 Orzack SH, et al. (2015). The human sex ratio from conception to birth. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 10.1073/pnas.1416546112
[14] Donovan, C. A., & Sullivan, N. (2012 December 1). Charlotte Lozier Institute. American Reports Series Abortion Reporting Laws: Tears in the Fabric Retrieved from
[16] Id. Donovan, C. A., & Sullivan, N. Citing Minnesota as an example of a state that has a cost-effective, efficient reporting method.
[17] Plessy v. Ferguson 163 U.S. 537 at 544 (1896). The Court in Plessy validated “separate but equal” state laws noting that the Fourteenth Amendment “could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political, equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either. Laws permitting, and even requiring, their separation in places where they are liable to be brought into contact do not necessarily imply the inferiority of either race to the other, and have been generally, if not universally, recognized as within the competency of the state legislatures in the exercise of their police power.”
[18] J. E. B. v. Alabama ex rel. T. B. 511 U.S. 127 at 136 (1994).
[19]Civil Rights Act of 1964, Pub.L. 88-352, 78 Stat. 241 (1964), “An Act: To enforce the constitutional right to vote, to confer jurisdiction upon the district courts of the United States to provide injunctive relief against discrimination in public accommodations, to authorize the Attorney General to institute suits to protect constitutional rights in public facilities and public education, to extend the Commission on Civil Rights, to prevent discrimination in federally assisted programs, to establish a Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity, and for other purposes.”
[20] Id. at Title VII, making it unlawful to “fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”
[21] Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124 (2008).
[22] Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey 505 U.S. 833 at 846 (1992).
[24] See also, Testimony of Steven H. Aden, Vice President/Senior Counsel, Human Life Issues, Alliance Defense Fund. Hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution Regarding H.R. 3541, the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act. (2011 December 6). Testifying that “[T]he Supreme Court has made it clear that States have a compelling interest in eliminating discrimination against women and minorities. Moreover, the Casey Court also affirmed the principle that “the State has legitimate interests from the outset of the pregnancy in protecting the health of the woman and the life of the fetus….” [punctuation is off here – quotation marks]
[25] Chapman and Benn referencing Barbara Katz Rothman, The Tentative Pregnancy: Prenatal Diagnosis and the Future of Motherhood. (1986).
[26] Brief at 18, This brief argues more fully, “[T]his Court has never endorsed a right to abort children only because they have been detected to have a disability. In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992), this Court repeatedly premised its reaffirmation of abortion rights in terms of the right to terminate an unintended pregnancy.” The brief goes on to argue “This Court quoted approvingly from its statement in Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438, 453 (1972), that the liberty under consideration in Casey pertained to “the decision whether to bear or beget a child,” Casey, 505 U.S. at 851. This Court has never framed the protected abortion decision as whether to bear or abort a particular child based on identified traits of genetic variation, disability, or other health condition. Instead,” the brief argues, “Casey formulated the abortion decision as one confronting a woman ‘when the woman confronts the reality that, despite her attempts to avoid it, she has become pregnant,” id. at 853 – not when she accepts a pregnancy at first, but then comes to perceive the child she is carrying as defective.” The same analysis should apply to sex-discrimination abortion.
[27] Central Intelligence Agency, World Factbook, “Sex Ratio, Country Comparison to the World.”
[28] Nicholas Eberstadt, “The Global War Against Baby Girls,” The New Atlantis, Number 33, Fall 2011, pp. 3-18. Noting, “Estimates by the United Nations Population Division (UNPD) and the U.S. Census Bureau’s International Programs Center (IPC) — the two major organizations charged with tracking and projecting global population trends — make the point. According to estimates based on IPC data, a total of 21 countries or territories (including a number of European and Pacific Island areas) had SRBs of 107 or higher in the year 2010 the total population of the regions beset by unnaturally high SRBs amounted to 2.7 billion, or about 40 percent of the world’s total population.” From
[32] Landler, M. (August 18, 2009). Saving the World’s Women. A New Gender Agenda. The New York Times Magazine.
[33] United Nations Population Fund, News. (5 October 2011). Ending Gender Imbalances Must Remain International Priority, Says UNFPA’s Asia-Pacific Director. Retrieved from
[34] Austad S.N., The human prenatal sex ratio a major surprise. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA in reference to 9 Orzack S. H., et al. (2015) The human sex ratio from conception to birth. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 10.1073/pnas.1416546112.
[35] 9 Orzack S. H., et al. (2015) The human sex ratio from conception to birth. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 10.1073/pnas.1416546112 at 1.
[37] Id. Orzack, S.H. at 2. Noting, “It is almost certain that all fetuses were naturally conceived (most analyses were published before 1978, when ART was introduced) and virtually all were sampled randomly with respect to fetal health and sex. The methods used to assign sex were histology (1 study), karyotype (20 studies), morphology (3 studies), and sex chromatin (17 studies). Thirty-nine studies specify trimester for each fetus of these, 12 studies provide data allowing a CSR [cohort sex ratio] estimate for trimester 1 and for trimester 2. Twenty-four studies specify gestational age in weeks.”
[38] Id. at 7. Addressing the effect of artificial reproductive technology and sex ratios, “Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) “i)The birth sex ratio of babies conceived via ART matches the birth sex ratio of babies conceived naturally. ii) The birth sex ratio for ART with in vivo conception and the birth sex ratio for ART with in vitro conception appear to be identical.” Pg 6) (And, “This increase [weeks 2-20] is consistent with the inference from the ART analysis that the early CSR could be female-biased. Induced abortion studies reporting female-biased first-trimester CSR estimates appear to be carefully done (17, 80–85). In addition, refs. 48 and 86–88 described female-biased CSRs for first trimester spontaneous abortions, but see ref. 89).”
[39] Id. at 3. Orzack et al. further explained the methodology, “We analyzed maternal age (MA) as a metric predictor of the CSR (Table 4). The model without age has strong support (ER ∼ 33), which suggests that there is no association between the CSR and maternal age most studies indicate that maternal age has little or no influence on the sex ratio at birth (45–46). Analysis of limited data (n = 819) suggested that there is no association between mother’s race and the CSR. We compared an overall model, a model stratified between black and nonblack mothers, and a model stratified between white and nonwhite mothers. The overall model had substantially greater support than either stratified model.” Orzack’s research does not indicate that birth order affects the consistent CSR – an approximately equal balance of boys and girls at conception.
[41] The Economist. The War on Baby Girls, Gendercide. March 4, 2010.
[43] United Nations Population Fund, Prenatal Sex Selection. See also, Mara Hvistendahl, Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men, Public Affairs Publishing, p. 5-6 (2011) It’s a Girl,
[45] See, The Economist. The War on Baby Girls, Gendercide. March 4, 2010. Noting, “IMAGINE you are one half of a young couple expecting your first child in a fast-growing, poor country. You are part of the new middle class your income is rising you want a small family. But traditional mores hold sway around you, most important in the preference for sons over daughters… . Now imagine that you have had an ultrasound scan it costs $12, but you can afford that. The scan says the unborn child is a girl. You yourself would prefer a boy the rest of your family clamours for one. You would never dream of killing a baby daughter, as they do out in the villages. But an abortion seems different. What do you do?”
[46] Abdool S. Yasseen III MSc GDip, Thierry Lacaze-Masmonteil MD PhD. early release COMMENTARY Male-Biased Infant sex ratios and patterns of induced abortion. CMAJ, April 11, 2016 DOI:10.1503 /cmaj.160183
[49] Id. “As elsewhere, cheap ultrasound machines, which can detect the sex of a foetus, made a difference. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, such machines were rare because parts had military use and their export from the West was banned. As they spread after 1991, sex-selective abortions rose.”
[50] Id. See also, Bongaarts, J. (2013, June). The Implementation of Preferences for Male Offspring. Population and Development Review, Vol 39, No 2.
[51] Countries with laws or policies on sex selection, Marcy Darnovsky, Center for Genetics and Society, April 2009 This memo was prepared for the April 13, 2009 New York City sex-selection meeting, and updated May 9 to correct two errors.
[52] Kosovo enacted a prohibition on February 4, 2009, as noted in FN 42 in Myths article (Law No. 03/L-110 on the Termination of Pregnancy (promulgated by the Government of Kosovo, Jan. 22, 2009, effective Feb. 4, 2009) at art 14.
[53] “‘Social uses prohibited’ means that sex selection is permitted for ‘medical reasons’ – that is, for situations in which an embryo or fetus might be affected by a serious sex-linked disease.”
[54] A full list of the countries that limit sex-selective abortion for non-medical purposes is as follows: Australia, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, San Marino, Singapore, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.
[55] Sunita P., (2011, August 2). I Know it’s a Girl and I Need Your Help to Get it Out of Me. Slate.
[56] Almond, D. & Edlund, L. (2008) Son-Biased Sex Ratios in the 2000 United States Census 105 PNAS 5681
[57] Mohapatra, S. (Spring 2013) Global Legal Responses to Prenatal Gender Identification and Sex Selection. Nevada Law Journal. Vol 13. No. 3. 690.
[58] Urquia ML, Ray JG, Wanigaratne S, et al. Variations in male– female infant ratios among births to Canadian- and Indian-born mothers, 1990–2011: a population-based register study. CMAJ Open 2016 4(2):E116-23.
[59] Urquia ML, Moineddin R, Jha P, et al. Sex ratios at birth after induced abortion. CMAJ 2016 Apr. 11 [Epub ahead of print].
[60] Abrevaya, J. (2009, April). Are There Missing Girls in the United States? Evidence for Prenatal Gender Selection. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. Vol 1 No. 2. 1-34.
[61] Puri, S. et al., (2011, April). There is Such a Thing as Too Many Daughters, but Not Too Many Sons A qualitative Study of Son Preference and Fetal Sex Selection among Indian Immigrants in the United States. Social Science & Medicine. Vol 72. 1169-76. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.01.027
[62] Puri, S. (2011, August 2). I Know it’s a Girl and I Need Your Help to Get it Out of Me. Slate.
[64] Live Action. Retrieved from
[66] World Health Organization Genomic Resource Centre, Gender and Genetics. Sex Selection and Discrimination, Ethical Issues Raised by Sex Selection.
[70] South Korea Upholds Abortion Ban (August 23, 2012) The Guardian. South Korea’s Highest Court Upholds Abortion Ban.
[74] H.R. 3541 Sec. 3(a), adding Sec. 249(a)(2), (3) of Ch. 13, tit. 18 U.S.C. (2011).
[75] Brinckerhoff, M. H. (September 2, 1869). The Revolution. 4 (9): 138 – 139
Conquering Metabesity: What Does The Government Do For The Longevity Of Their Citizens?
While it may seem from the media that the world is constantly in the state of critical collapse, it is not as bad as it seems and the level of welfare is increasing even in the farthest developing countries. Did you know that the average life expectancy in the world, including the countries commonly perceived as less privileged, is 73.2 years? If not, before reading any further, please check out the table on the life expectancy by Wordometers and find your country on the list. The US currently ranks 46 with an average life expectancy of 79.11 between Cuba (79.18) and Panama (79.1). If you are born in Hong Kong today, a city in China (77.47), which ranks first on the list (85.29), you should expect to live on average 6 years, or about 7.5% longer than the average American.
I have Worldometers bookmarked and check it every morning when I wake up to see how many people died of aging while I was asleep to get more motivation to go through the day, think of more ways to generate QALY, and avoid being distracted by less important issues. And it constantly puzzles me why the countries that spend the most on healthcare and research are not there at the top of the list in terms of average life expectancy. And, why are countries not competing on life expectancy while competing on pretty much everything else?
Dr. Alexander Fleming, Kinexum
And I could not think of a better group of people to ask this question than Thomas Seoh and Dr. Alexander Fleming, of Kinexum, who with Stanford Professor Lawrence Steinman, founded the Metabesity conference which brings together some of the most important decision makers in the government, academia, and the industry.
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Thomas Seoh, Kinexum, Metabesity Conference
On September 11, 2020, they organized the industry’s first panel on the regulatory considerations for aging biomarkers. It included senior officials from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institute on Aging (NIA).
Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov: Let’s address the most important question I posed in this article. You recruit senior regulators at Metabesity events. Why don’t we see governments competing on the longevity of their citizens and some of the most developed countries that technically drive progress in science and technology are so far behind?
Dr. Alexander Fleming: First, regulators, medicine, industry and the general population have not historically viewed aging as a disease or condition to be treated or cured, but rather as an unalterable human condition. There is not yet adequate awareness of the abundant evidence that geroscience has amassed that biological aging can be delayed or even reversed. Decision makers do not appreciate that this science can be applied to prevent or delay major chronic diseases and thereby substantially improve health and quality of life and reduce healthcare costs.
Second, when the general public is asked if they want materially longer lives, many tend to picture a dependent nonagenarian in a wheelchair or an ICU bed, instead of a vigorous, healthy, mentally alert senior equivalent to those decades younger. The emphasis of geroscientists is to increase heathspan, the period of life free of chronic disease and not just to increase lifespan.
Third, many people are uncertain about the socioeconomic and cultural implications of extended healthspan, in terms of retirement, new careers, personal finance, and making way for new generations.
Education of policy makers and lawmakers and voters about the promise of advancing science and medicine for extending healthy longevity, the unsustainability of the current trajectory of health care costs and the qualitative and quantitative benefits of “the longevity dividend” is the key.
But to specifically answer your question, Alex, some countries ARE leading the way: UK, Singapore, Switzerland, and others. The UK, has adopted a national goal of extending healthspan by 5 years by 2035, with more equitable access. The US is behind such leaders in even recognizing healthy longevity as a national priority, and we need to spark an enlightened “arms race” to harvest “the healthy longevity dividend”. But first, we have to educate our citizenry that geroscience has shown us that it is now no longer a question of ‘if’, but ‘when’ we can delay or even reverse biological aging. We need widespread understanding that healthy, vital elderly are assets, not liabilities.
Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov: What steps should the government take to accelerate the progress in aging research and translation of aging research into clinical practice?
Dr. Alexander Fleming: A major challenge to Big Pharma and investors entering the field is the lack of clear regulatory pathways and evidence needed for approving both drugs and nutritional products with health span claims. Today, if a company approaches the FDA with a product that reduces the aging process, the agency would probably only give approvals for reducing risk of one chronic disease or another, and that would not reflect the full value of the product. Worse would be the scenario in which the product is not approved even though it results in consistent positive effects across multiple chronic diseases, but none of the effects on the individual diseases is sufficient to support approval of any individual disease indication. The largest uncertainty facing developers of these products is the evidence that would be required to support a health span claim. We need to hear from FDA that it can approve products under the above scenario. This would enable trials of 3-5 years’ duration instead of the decade it might take to show convincing preventive effects in healthy populations on individual diseases…. Investors will not get behind trials that have to be long and large enough to show large effects on delaying each chronic age-related disease. The costs, times and risks of such trials are beyond the ability of an investor to consider. There are creative trial design approaches that can feasibly provide convincing evidence, but FDA’s willingness to accept them is needed. Federal legislation, analogous to the Orphan Drug Act and the 21st Century Cures Act, for encouraging FDA to provide clear guidance and incentivize the development of these products could be game-changing.
By the way, such interventions should not be limited to drugs or biologics but include a range of modalities, including nutritional product supplements and medical devices, including mobile apps and sensors. Other measures, like exercise and social interventions, are also important but do not involve regulations. Additional legislation and public policies could declare healthy longevity a national interest and set a national ‘moonshot’ goal (like the UK’s goar to extend healthspan by 5 years by 2035). Additional studies will further quantitate how much the longevity dividend would, net of increased benefit costs for longer-lived elderly, save on public health care costs and create economic value.
Federal appropriations can also supplement resources in addition to those dedicated to researching individual chronic diseases. Today, there is sort of a ‘whack a mole’ problem: heroic efforts are made to save a patient from heart disease, only for them to die from cancer a few years later if heroic measures beat back the cancer, the patient succumbs to dementia. While we should certainly continue to invest in research into diabetes and cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases and cancer, we should invest a small portion of the billions of dollars going into the War on Diabetes, the War on Obesity, the War on Alzheimer’s, and the War on Cancer, into ways to delay or even reverse biological aging, and thereby prevent or delay all or a number of these chronic diseases.
Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov: What is Metabesity and what is the story behind it?
Dr. Alexander Fleming: I coined the word “Metabesity”, around 2013, to name the constellation of age-related chronic diseases, from diabetes to cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases to cancer to the aging process itself, all with shared metabolic roots, which therefore may be targeted together with common solutions. The intent of naming this target was to encourage concerted effort to invest in and achieve solutions to prevent multiple diseases—and not wait to manage them. Metabesity is sometimes confused with metabolic syndrome and obesity, which are drivers of Metabesity but far from being the only drivers. The emerging geroscience convinced me that after the great successes of medicine against acute diseases and conditions the next frontier could be the prevention of chronic age-related diseases and disabilities. This is a passion on which I want to focus the remainder of my professional life. Around 2016, my co-chair, Larry Steinman, co-discoverer of the MS drug Tysabri and multiple other therapies and long-time former head of the Stanford’s immunology program, and I organized a conference on this motivating theme. Our inaugural conference was in London in October, 2017, set across the street from Wembley Stadium in London. Alex, you were there, and made quite a mark, along with other leaders from various disciplines. We held the next conference at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, DC in October 2019, and here we are now, as a virtual conference in October 2020 due to the pandemic. This has been a pro bono labor of love, and the losses have been covered by our strategic regulatory and clinical development advisory firm, Kinexum. This year, we established the not-for-profit Kitalys Institute to take over organization of future Metabesity conferences and support other initiatives aimed at supporting healthy longevity.
Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov: I decided to dedicate my life to aging research and longevity biotechnology almost 20 years ago and back then it was a very barren place. There were only a few scientists to follow, few companies, and definitely less funding. However, during the past decade, the situation seems to have changed dramatically. Even the pharmaceutical companies are looking closely at aging. What do you think was the main catalyst for this acceleration? In your opinion, what are the main discoveries made over the past few years that will help drive the longevity ecosystem?
Thomas Seoh: I’m no historian of geroscience, but certainly important scientific and technological milestones have created a mounting sense of excitement - from the discovery that the lifespans of different species, from yeast to worms to rodents, could be extended by genetic and molecular pathway intervention. Other milestones include the demonstration that an old mouse sharing a circulatory system with a young mouse rejuvenates while the younger mouse ages, the reprogramming of mature cells into young, pluripotent cells utilizing Yamanaka factors, and the discovery of epigenetic biological clocks and other biomarkers of aging. Accelerating advances in molecular, cellular and systems biology, rocket-boosted by Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, your field of expertise, Alex, where you have made substantial contributions, indicate that geroscience discoveries will continue to grow explosively for the foreseeable future. The small town you arrived at 20 years ago is now explosively growing into a megalopolis.
Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov: I attended the recent panel you put together with the FDA and NIH on the regulatory issues around the biological aging clocks. One of the questions was on the barriers for using the deep aging clocks developed using artificial intelligence in clinical trials. And I was very surprised when Dr. Robert Temple of the FDA said that there are fewer barriers than we think and that the introduction of such clocks may not overcomplicate the trial or put it at risk. Can you expand on this issue and on the future of aging clocks in clinical trials?
Thomas Seoh: That discussion between pre-eminent thought leader Bob Temple from the FDA and some of the leading experts in biological clocks and other biomarkers of aging was indeed elucidating, and an important start of a “cultural exchange” between the innovator scientists and the regulators. First, we should explain that biological clocks and other biomarkers of aging measure biochemical and other biometric values to estimate a biological age that may be more indicative of health and the amount of lifespan an individual may have left than her chronological age - we all know people who seem young and well-preserved for their age, or who seem older and frail beyond their years. It’s important to recognize a distinction in what Dr. Temple said: he was fine with, indeed very supportive of, how tools like biological clocks and other biomarkers of aging could be used to inform selection of drug candidates, enrich clinical trial populations, generate hypotheses for testing whether clinical benefits could be demonstrated, etc. But one critical role developers of interventions against biological aging hanker for is biomarkers to be ‘promoted’ into surrogate markers or registrable endpoints that can be the basis for approval of therapies for the market. This is important because in the absence of biomarkers, actual clinical benefit would need to be demonstrated for a therapy that purports to extend lifespan, a clinical trial would have to demonstrate, for example, that those on the intervention lived longer compared to controls, which could take years for such a trial to complete. And here, Dr. Temple noted that historically, it took decades of emerging scientific and medical consensus to elevate biomarkers such as blood pressure, cholesterol, hemoglobin A1c or viral load to surrogate markers or registrable endpoints deemed sufficiently predictive of heart attack, stroke, diabetes or AIDS to serve as the basis of approval. So he was saying use biological clocks and other biomarkers of aging however they may be deemed useful guidance for product development. But, to gain regulatory approval, sufficiently long and large clinical trials are needed to demonstrate an intervention's clinical benefit (like improved function or longer survival). These outcome trials can be used to validate biomarkers as predictive of such a clinical benefit so that they can become the basis for approval of future interventions.
Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov: In your opinion, why did the resTORbio trial on rapalogs fail? Could they have done better if they were to use aging clocks?
Dr Alexander Fleming: The resTORbio trial did fail on the primary endpoint of the percentage of subjects with clinically symptomatic respiratory illness. However, demonstrating benefits on symptoms is a very high bar, if not an unreasonable one for an initial phase 3 trial for a first in class and indication therapy. The trial actually did show some encouraging results and there is good reason to pursue development in higher risk populations. COVID-19 might provide such an opportunity.
Using a deep aging clock would not have altered the regulatory result, that the trial failed to meet the primary endpoint(s). However, deep aging clock data could well help to generate hypotheses about responsive subgroups or other factors for testing in further trials. Again, the goal of the field, to seek approval if an intervention moved the needle to the requisite extent on the clock, remains distant, according to Bob Temple, until the clock has been ‘validated’ by trials demonstrating the agreed upon and required clinical benefits.
Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov: And my final question. You first invited me to speak at Metabesity London in 2017. And despite the event being rather small, the level of the speakers was staggering. You had Tomas Olssen, the chair of the Nobel Assembly that selects the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology, Sir. John Bell, one of the world’s most famous Canadian physician-scientists, top executives from the UK National Health Services, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, and other government officials, and big pharma executives. How do you manage to get this level of speakers to present at the conference? I assume that you can not simply call them up? What is your secret?
Thomas Seoh: Actually, it is that simple, we ask them, but the secret sauce is the extent and quality of connections of co-chairs Larry Steinman, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and Zan, with his deep regulatory and clinical connections. Also, a couple of distinctive features of our Metabesity conferences are that (i) like Steven Spielberg is said to have started making movies he wanted to watch, we organize conferences we want to attend and (ii) we try to avoid it being a parade of lectures from the podium - we try to put together a dinner salon comprised of leaders from various disciplines, rather than put on a music concert. So as one example among many of a session I am really looking forward to at Metabesity 2020, there is a session in the lifestyle track on exercise entitled Why is Exercise Geroprotective? Molecular and Evolutionary Perspectives with geroscientist Tom Rando (a Stanford colleague of Larry Steinman) and evolutionary biologist and cultural anthropologist Dan Lieberman of Harvard (whom I heard at my 25th college reunion), moderated by Judy Foreman, longtime science journalist and author of Exercise is Medicine (recruited by Adriane Berg, Executive Director of the Kitalys Institute, from her own very broad network). I think the word has gotten around that we put on an insightful and important yet fun dinner salon at Metabesity, and a number of speakers want to come chat with other speakers and our sophisticated audience. You know, there are conferences on how human lifespan might be expanded to centuries, and those on how to make money investing in the longevity space our distinct ‘lane’ is translating emerging science into material, accessible gains in public health. This starts with clinical translation but extends to daunting challenges in the commercial, public policy, healthcare practice, and consumer behavior domains. To come up with practical ways forward requires bringing a large, diverse set of smart committed people together across what are traditionally subject matter or functional silos—and that makes it fresh and exciting for the speakers and the attendees.
Targeting Metabesity 2020: Extending Healthspan will transpire 12-15 of October as a free virtual conference and will bring together many top academics, clinicians, government officials, pharmaceutical companies, and startups.
Biology Exam 1
Moths with longer proboscises are more likely to have access to the orchid nectar and are therefore more likely to survive to reproduction.
Metabolism - Autotrophs use energy from the sun
Homeostasis - Maintenance of internal constancy is called _______
Reproduction, growth, or development - Going through puberty to reach maturity is part of _______
Domain - Eukarya, the most inclusive taxonomic category, taxonomic group containing all bacteria
Bacteria - a streptococcus bacterium
Dependent - You measure the boiling point of water at various altitudes You measure the freezing point of water in the presence of various amounts of salt
Hydrolysis - water molecules are broken apart, polymers are broken apart, occurs in your stomach as part of digestion
2 nonpolar covalent bonds - two atoms that are not very electronegative are attracted to each other and they share electrons
3 hydrogen bonds - one polar molecule is attracted to another polar molecule
Essential bulk element - carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, calcium
Dehydration synthesis is involved in reactions that combine organic monomers to produce polymers.
Neutral - pure water, pH of 7
Lipid - Its main feature is its water-repellent property, stored in adipose tissue
Nucleic acid - DNA, RNA, its monomers are called nucleotides, genes are made of this
Triglycerides - function in long term storage of energy, hydrocarbon chains can be saturated and unsaturated, made up of 3 fatty acids linked to a glycerol molecule
Waxes - form seals that water cannot penetrate
Proteins - hemoglobin and enzymes are examples, wide range of functions from transport of substances to carrying out chemical reactions
Nucleic acids - nucleotide, store genetic information and use it in cells, DNA and RNA are examples
Adding a base to an acidic solution will bring the pH of the solution closer to 7.
A hydrolysis reaction involves the splitting of a water molecule each time a bond in a polymer is broken to yield a monomer.
Sterols embedded in the bilayer allow the membrane to remain fluid at various temperatures.
Some proteins embedded in the membrane help with transporting large molecules through the bilayer.
Transmission election microscope - could be used for observing the Golgi apparatus, provides the highest level of resolution
Intermediate filament - this filament is composed of several different proteins, this filament is found in anchoring junctions.
Steroids in cell membranes allow the membrane to be more fluid.
Phospholipid bilayers surround all eukaryotic cells.
Receptor proteins - hormones bind here
Enzymes - these proteins help catalyze chemical reactions
Recognition proteins - a woman has a disorder causing her immune system to attach her own cells she may have a problem with these proteins
Prokaryotes - lacks an endoplasmic reticulum, has DNA in cytoplasm
Intermediate filament - forms internal cell scaffold and provides mechanical strength
Microtubule - major structural protein of cilia and flagella, form tracks along which motor proteins transport various intracellular components, plays a major role in cell division, is composed of the protein tubulin
Bacteria - all three domains arose from a common ancestor this domain was the FIRST to appear, this domain contains the most abundant and diverse organisms
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6. Epigenetics in a Dynamic Environment: Consequences of Rapid and Widely-Distributed Phenotype Switching
6.1. Epigenetically-Inherited Phenotypes: Neutral, Advantageous or Disadvantageous?
The consequences of an epigenetically-inherited phenotype depend in large part on what the effect of that phenotype is on the overall fitness of the individual bearing it. Just like genetically-inherited phenotypes, epigenetically-inherited phenotypes can be neutral, advantageous or disadvantageous. In the field of medicine, most focus is on disadvantageous epigenetically-inherited phenotypes that can lead to disease states. Advantageous epigenetically-inherited phenotypes have received less attention in human health, yet certainly exist [43]. Indeed, if they can be controlled and managed, advantageous phenotypes arising by transgenerational epigenetic inheritance may have potentially large impacts on medicine [44,45] and on agriculture [10,46,47,48,49,50]. To highlight a concrete example of beneficial epigenetic inheritance, consider the transgenerational epigenetic inheritance of hypoxia resistance in zebrafish [7]. As a result of parental (P0) exposure to 2, 3 or 4 weeks of hypoxia (15%), F1 larvae had greater hypoxic resistance than controls whose parents had not experienced hypoxia. Importantly, it was not just an individual larvae or two that were hypoxic resistant, but rather statistically, the entire F1 population had elevated hypoxic resistance. Similarly, we have recently observed that F1 of zebrafish parents exposed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) showed enhanced resistance to these toxicants when compared to control larvae whose parents were not exposed (Martinez-Bautista N. and Burggren, W. unpublished data [51]). Again, most of the population, not just a few individuals, had resistance greater than the controls whose parents were not exposed. These two examples highlight that more experimentation of potentially advantageous epigenetically-inherited phenotypes is warranted.
6.2. Comparing the Time Courses of Genetic and Epigenetic Inheritance
One of the basic tenets of evolution is that natural selection shapes populations and species over evolutionary time. Natural selection acts on organisms with enhanced or diminished fitness, derived from the accumulation of mutations. The resulting phenotypic modifications are enhanced (or not) by these mutations, but the phenotypic switch at the population level and beyond typically occurs over hundreds or thousands of generations as the genotype leading to a modified phenotype of greater fitness slowly inserts itself into the general population or, alternatively, a genotype leading to lesser fitness is eliminated from the population [52]. Klironomos et al. [53] have provided a simple, but informative model of how increases in fitness in a population can derive from either epigenetic or genetic changes in a population over tens of thousands of generations. However, the effect of epigenetic inheritance may not only be potentially broad and sweeping, but may also be felt immediately in a population [52,53,54,55,56]. To underscore this point, consider a phenotype that is advantageous in an environment when a specific stressor that occurs intermittently. Unlike an advantageous gene mutation that affects an individual and then, perhaps, spreads slowly through the population and beyond over many generations, epigenetic inheritance can simultaneously affect many (if not most or all) of a single generation of an entire population. Why? While there is certainly some variation in epigenetic markers between individuals in a population (see below), whether they result in an advantageous or disadvantageous phenotype, epigenetic markers will arise in response to an environmental stressor far more broadly and quickly within a single generation of a population than will a single point mutation occurring in a single individual. Assuming that all individuals in a population of a species presumably experience an environmental stressor at the same time and to a similar extent and that many of the individuals in that population will as a consequence possess the same epigenetic markers, then an epigenetically-switched phenotype should affect many if not most individuals in the population.
The scenario described above is depicted in Figure 3 , which compares changes in a population of individuals with an advantageous phenotype arising by either epigenetic inheritance or by mutation. This scenario assumes firstly that the switched phenotype (either from genetic or epigenetic inheritance) is advantageous only in the presence of a deleterious environment, which persists over several generations (specifically, four generations in this scenario) before returning to normal, favorable environmental conditions. Second, this scenario assumes that upon return to the previous normal environment, the newly-switched phenotype is now disadvantageous and possibly lethal. Third, this scenario revolves around only a simple point mutation and, thus, ignores the complexities of pleiotropy, including antagonistic pleiotropy. Fourth, the scenario assumes that an epigenetically-inherited phenotype may persist over more than one generation. Indeed, abundant evidence now exists of epigenetically-inherited phenotypes persisting over multiple generations (e.g., [6,15,42,57,58,59]) before either suddenly disappearing or more slowly “washing out” [41].
A comparison of phenotype switching in a population occurring by inherited point mutation vs. inheritance through the effects of epigenetic markers. Events 1, 3 and 5 indicate proportional changes in a hypothetical population resulting from phenotype switching by point mutation that are advantageous during environmental stress, but otherwise disadvantageous (or at least energetically costly). Events 2, 4 and 6 indicate proportional changes in the population resulting from epigenetic phenotype switching. See the text for an additional explanation.
As Figure 3 illustrates, a mutation may result in an advantageous phenotype in only a single individual in a population (Event 1). Advantageous mutations occur at low frequency, become difficult to establish in the population and additionally may be easily lost to genetic drift [60,61]. Thus, this advantageous mutation (Event 1) is only slowly amplified by natural selection over numerous generations, at best. In contrast, an epigenetic phenotypic switch brought on by a deleterious environment can immediately aid in the survival of a potentially large proportion of a population (Event 2), since even allowing for the heterogeneity of epigenetic markers in a population, many in that population may have the epigenetic markers resulting in the modified phenotype. With dissipation of the deleterious environment, however, the individual(s) with the original mutation must cope with the newly disadvantageous phenotype, which cannot be eliminated from the gene pool, except by death of the individual or an unlikely second mutation back to the original gene form (Event 3). In contrast, however, the epigenetically-switched phenotype, now newly disadvantageous in the face of the return to the original environmental condition, is immediately lost by reversion to the original phenotype (Event 4). With a return of the deleterious environment after several generations, the mutant genotype and its phenotype (if they even survive the intervening return to the previous normal environment) will increase only slowly once again in the population at a rate enabled by natural selection (Event 5). Again in contrast, the epigenetically-inherited advantageous phenotype can result in the rapid re-appearance of the advantageous switched phenotype appearing in a large proportion of a population’s individuals (Event 6).
Important to acknowledge is that the scenario depicted in Figure 3 takes an 𠇎ither-or” approach for epigenetic or genetic inheritance. That is, that populations are shown in this figure to either persist by epigenetic inheritance or by genetic inheritance of an advantageous phenotype, but not necessarily both. We know this approach to be an oversimplification, because presumably, there are also genetic changes that occur in populations changing by epigenetic modification. In fact, it is difficult to separate out such simultaneous phenotypic changes caused by this duality [25,53,57,62,63,64].
EEB Quiz 7
Currently, the only predators of Galápagos marine iguanas are Galápagos hawks. Although small iguanas can sprint faster than large iguanas, iguana body size is not correlated with risk of hawk predation. If predators (for example, cats) that preferentially catch and eat slower iguanas are introduced to the island, iguana body size is likely to ________ in the absence of other factors the iguanas would then be under ________ selection.
Based on the data in the figure, what type of selection for body size appears to be occurring in these marine iguanas?
The coastal male junco population tails were, on average, 36% white whereas the tails of males from the mountain populations averaged 40-45% white. Which of the following factors is the most likely original cause of the difference between the populations if the trait is inherited?
Comparison of which treatments would allow the researcher to assess the effect of food type on caterpillar morphology?
Population sizes in the coastal areas have been reasonably large, and there are significant differences between the coastal and the mountain habitats. The coastal habitat is more open (making birds more visible) and has a lower junco density (decreasing intraspecific competition) than the mountain forests. Given this information, which of the following evolutionary mechanisms is the most likely cause of the difference between the coastal and mountain populations?
What is the estimated frequency of allele A1 in the gene pool?
What proportion of the population is most likely heterozygous ( A1A2) for this trait?
If day length causes the different development of caterpillars, which treatments will most likely produce twig-like caterpillars rather than flower-like caterpillars?
The concept (although not so named) originated in 1785 with the Marquis de Condorcet, whose "jury theorem" states that if each member of a voting group is more likely than not to make a correct decision, the probability that the highest vote of the group is the correct decision increases with the number of members of the group (see Condorcet's jury theorem). [19] Many theorists have interpreted Aristotle's statement in the Politics that "a feast to which many contribute is better than a dinner provided out of a single purse" to mean that just as many may bring different dishes to the table, so in a deliberation many may contribute different pieces of information to generate a better decision. [20] [21] Recent scholarship, [22] however, suggests that this was probably not what Aristotle meant but is a modern interpretation based on what we now know about team intelligence. [23]
A precursor of the concept is found in entomologist William Morton Wheeler's observation that seemingly independent individuals can cooperate so closely as to become indistinguishable from a single organism (1910). [24] Wheeler saw this collaborative process at work in ants that acted like the cells of a single beast he called a superorganism.
In 1912 Émile Durkheim identified society as the sole source of human logical thought. He argued in "The Elementary Forms of Religious Life" that society constitutes a higher intelligence because it transcends the individual over space and time. [25] Other antecedents are Vladimir Vernadsky and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's concept of "noosphere" and H.G. Wells's concept of "world brain" (see also the term "global brain"). Peter Russell, Elisabet Sahtouris, and Barbara Marx Hubbard (originator of the term "conscious evolution") [26] are inspired by the visions of a noosphere – a transcendent, rapidly evolving collective intelligence – an informational cortex of the planet. The notion has more recently been examined by the philosopher Pierre Lévy. In a 1962 research report, Douglas Engelbart linked collective intelligence to organizational effectiveness, and predicted that pro-actively 'augmenting human intellect' would yield a multiplier effect in group problem solving: "Three people working together in this augmented mode [would] seem to be more than three times as effective in solving a complex problem as is one augmented person working alone". [27] In 1994, he coined the term 'collective IQ' as a measure of collective intelligence, to focus attention on the opportunity to significantly raise collective IQ in business and society. [28]
Collective intelligence was introduced into the machine learning community in the late 20th century, [30] and matured into a broader consideration of how to design "collectives" of self-interested adaptive agents to meet a system-wide goal. [31] [32] This was related to single-agent work on "reward shaping" [33] and has been taken forward by numerous researchers in the game theory and engineering communities. [34]
Bloom traced the evolution of collective intelligence to our bacterial ancestors 1 billion years ago and demonstrated how a multi-species intelligence has worked since the beginning of life. [36] Ant societies exhibit more intelligence, in terms of technology, than any other animal except for humans and co-operate in keeping livestock, for example aphids for "milking". [36] Leaf cutters care for fungi and carry leaves to feed the fungi. [36]
David Skrbina [37] cites the concept of a 'group mind' as being derived from Plato's concept of panpsychism (that mind or consciousness is omnipresent and exists in all matter). He develops the concept of a 'group mind' as articulated by Thomas Hobbes in "Leviathan" and Fechner's arguments for a collective consciousness of mankind. He cites Durkheim as the most notable advocate of a "collective consciousness" [38] and Teilhard de Chardin as a thinker who has developed the philosophical implications of the group mind. [39]
Tom Atlee focuses primarily on humans and on work to upgrade what Howard Bloom calls "the group IQ". Atlee feels that collective intelligence can be encouraged "to overcome 'groupthink' and individual cognitive bias in order to allow a collective to cooperate on one process – while achieving enhanced intellectual performance." George Pór defined the collective intelligence phenomenon as "the capacity of human communities to evolve towards higher order complexity and harmony, through such innovation mechanisms as differentiation and integration, competition and collaboration." [40] Atlee and Pór state that "collective intelligence also involves achieving a single focus of attention and standard of metrics which provide an appropriate threshold of action". [41] Their approach is rooted in scientific community metaphor. [41]
The term group intelligence is sometimes used interchangeably with the term collective intelligence. Anita Woolley presents Collective intelligence as a measure of group intelligence and group creativity. [12] The idea is that a measure of collective intelligence covers a broad range of features of the group, mainly group composition and group interaction. [42] The features of composition that lead to increased levels of collective intelligence in groups include criteria such as higher numbers of women in the group as well as increased diversity of the group. [42]
Atlee and Pór suggest that the field of collective intelligence should primarily be seen as a human enterprise in which mind-sets, a willingness to share and an openness to the value of distributed intelligence for the common good are paramount, though group theory and artificial intelligence have something to offer. [41] Individuals who respect collective intelligence are confident of their own abilities and recognize that the whole is indeed greater than the sum of any individual parts. [43] Maximizing collective intelligence relies on the ability of an organization to accept and develop "The Golden Suggestion", which is any potentially useful input from any member. [44] Groupthink often hampers collective intelligence by limiting input to a select few individuals or filtering potential Golden Suggestions without fully developing them to implementation. [41]
A new scientific understanding of collective intelligence defines it as a group's general ability to perform a wide range of tasks. [12] Definition, operationalization and statistical methods are similar to the psychometric approach of general individual intelligence. Hereby, an individual's performance on a given set of cognitive tasks is used to measure general cognitive ability indicated by the general intelligence factor g extracted via factor analysis. [47] In the same vein as g serves to display between-individual performance differences on cognitive tasks, collective intelligence research aims to find a parallel intelligence factor for groups ' c factor' [12] (also called 'collective intelligence factor' (CI) [48] ) displaying between-group differences on task performance. The collective intelligence score then is used to predict how this same group will perform on any other similar task in the future. Yet tasks, hereby, refer to mental or intellectual tasks performed by small groups [12] even though the concept is hoped to be transferable to other performances and any groups or crowds reaching from families to companies and even whole cities. [49] Since individuals' g factor scores are highly correlated with full-scale IQ scores, which are in turn regarded as good estimates of g, [13] [14] this measurement of collective intelligence can also be seen as an intelligence indicator or quotient respectively for a group (Group-IQ) parallel to an individual's intelligence quotient (IQ) even though the score is not a quotient per se.
Mathematically, c and g are both variables summarizing positive correlations among different tasks supposing that performance on one task is comparable with performance on other similar tasks. [50] c thus is a source of variance among groups and can only be considered as a group's standing on the c factor compared to other groups in a given relevant population. [14] [51] The concept is in contrast to competing hypotheses including other correlational structures to explain group intelligence, [12] such as a composition out of several equally important but independent factors as found in individual personality research. [52]
Besides, this scientific idea also aims to explore the causes affecting collective intelligence, such as group size, collaboration tools or group members' interpersonal skills. [53] The MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, for instance, announced the detection of The Genome of Collective Intelligence [53] as one of its main goals aiming to develop a taxonomy of organizational building blocks, or genes, that can be combined and recombined to harness the intelligence of crowds. [53]
Causes Edit
Individual intelligence is shown to be genetically and environmentally influenced. [54] [55] Analogously, collective intelligence research aims to explore reasons why certain groups perform more intelligently than other groups given that c is just moderately correlated with the intelligence of individual group members. [12] According to Woolley et al.'s results, neither team cohesion nor motivation or satisfaction is correlated with c. However, they claim that three factors were found as significant correlates: the variance in the number of speaking turns, group members' average social sensitivity and the proportion of females. All three had similar predictive power for c, but only social sensitivity was statistically significant (b=0.33, P=0.05). [12]
The number speaking turns indicates that "groups where a few people dominated the conversation were less collectively intelligent than those with a more equal distribution of conversational turn-taking". [48] Hence, providing multiple team members the chance to speak up made a group more intelligent. [12]
Group members' social sensitivity was measured via the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test [56] (RME) and correlated .26 with c. [12] Hereby, participants are asked to detect thinking or feeling expressed in other peoples' eyes presented on pictures and assessed in a multiple choice format. The test aims to measure peoples' theory of mind (ToM), also called 'mentalizing' [57] [58] [59] [60] or 'mind reading', [61] which refers to the ability to attribute mental states, such as beliefs, desires or intents, to other people and in how far people understand that others have beliefs, desires, intentions or perspectives different from their own ones. [56] RME is a ToM test for adults [56] that shows sufficient test-retest reliability [62] and constantly differentiates control groups from individuals with functional autism or Asperger Syndrome. [56] It is one of the most widely accepted and well-validated tests for ToM within adults. [63] ToM can be regarded as an associated subset of skills and abilities within the broader concept of emotional intelligence. [48] [64]
The proportion of females as a predictor of c was largely mediated by social sensitivity (Sobel z = 1.93, P= 0.03) [12] which is in vein with previous research showing that women score higher on social sensitivity tests. [56] While a mediation, statistically speaking, clarifies the mechanism underlying the relationship between a dependent and an independent variable, [65] Wolley agreed in an interview with the Harvard Business Review that these findings are saying that groups of women are smarter than groups of men. [49] However, she relativizes this stating that the actual important thing is the high social sensitivity of group members. [49]
It is theorized that the collective intelligence factor c is an emergent property resulting from bottom-up as well as top-down processes. [42] Hereby, bottom-up processes cover aggregated group-member characteristics. Top-down processes cover group structures and norms that influence a group's way of collaborating and coordinating. [42]
Processes Edit
Top-down processes Edit
Top-down processes cover group interaction, such as structures, processes, and norms. [66] An example of such top-down processes is conversational turn-taking. [12] Research further suggest that collectively intelligent groups communicate more in general as well as more equally same applies for participation and is shown for face-to-face as well as online groups communicating only via writing. [48] [67]
Bottom-up processes Edit
Bottom-up processes include group composition, [66] namely the characteristics of group members which are aggregated to the team level. [42] An example of such bottom-up processes is the average social sensitivity or the average and maximum intelligence scores of group members. [12] Furthermore, collective intelligence was found to be related to a group's cognitive diversity [68] including thinking styles and perspectives. [69] Groups that are moderately diverse in cognitive style have higher collective intelligence than those who are very similar in cognitive style or very different. Consequently, groups where members are too similar to each other lack the variety of perspectives and skills needed to perform well. On the other hand, groups whose members are too different seem to have difficulties to communicate and coordinate effectively. [68]
Serial vs Parallel processes Edit
For most of human history, collective intelligence was confined to small tribal groups in which opinions were aggregated through real-time parallel interactions among members. [70] In modern times, mass communication, mass media, and networking technologies have enabled collective intelligence to span massive groups, distributed across continents and time-zones. To accommodate this shift in scale, collective intelligence in large-scale groups been dominated by serialized polling processes such as aggregating up-votes, likes, and ratings over time. In engineering, aggregating many engineering decisions allows for identifying typical good designs. [71] While modern systems benefit from larger group size, the serialized process has been found to introduce substantial noise that distorts the collective output of the group. In one significant study of serialized collective intelligence, it was found that the first vote contributed to a serialized voting system can distort the final result by 34%. [72]
To address the problems of serialized aggregation of input among large-scale groups, recent advancements collective intelligence have worked to replace serialized votes, polls, and markets, with parallel systems such as "human swarms" modeled after synchronous swarms in nature. [73] [74] Based on natural process of Swarm Intelligence, these artificial swarms of networked humans enable participants to work together in parallel to answer questions and make predictions as an emergent collective intelligence. [75] In one high-profile example, a human swarm challenge by CBS Interactive to predict the Kentucky Derby. The swarm correctly predicted the first four horses, in order, defying 542–1 odds and turning a $20 bet into $10,800. [76]
The value of parallel collective intelligence was demonstrated in medical applications by researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine and Unanimous AI in a set of published studies wherein groups of human doctors were connected by real-time swarming algorithms and tasked with diagnosing chest x-rays for the presence of pneumonia. [77] [78] When working together as "human swarms," the groups of experienced radiologists demonstrated a 33% reduction in diagnostic errors as compared to traditional methods. [79] [80]
Evidence Edit
A collective intelligence factor c in the sense of Woolley et al. [12] was further found in groups of MBA students working together over the course of a semester, [83] in online gaming groups [67] as well as in groups from different cultures [84] and groups in different contexts in terms of short-term versus long-term groups. [84] None of these investigations considered team members' individual intelligence scores as control variables. [67] [83] [84]
Note as well that the field of collective intelligence research is quite young and published empirical evidence is relatively rare yet. However, various proposals and working papers are in progress or already completed but (supposedly) still in a scholarly peer reviewing publication process. [85] [86] [87] [88]
Predictive validity Edit
Next to predicting a group's performance on more complex criterion tasks as shown in the original experiments, [12] the collective intelligence factor c was also found to predict group performance in diverse tasks in MBA classes lasting over several months. [83] Thereby, highly collectively intelligent groups earned significantly higher scores on their group assignments although their members did not do any better on other individually performed assignments. Moreover, highly collective intelligent teams improved performance over time suggesting that more collectively intelligent teams learn better. [83] This is another potential parallel to individual intelligence where more intelligent people are found to acquire new material quicker. [14] [89]
Individual intelligence can be used to predict plenty of life outcomes from school attainment [90] and career success [91] to health outcomes [92] and even mortality. [92] Whether collective intelligence is able to predict other outcomes besides group performance on mental tasks has still to be investigated.
Potential connections to individual intelligence Edit
Gladwell [93] (2008) showed that the relationship between individual IQ and success works only to a certain point and that additional IQ points over an estimate of IQ 120 do not translate into real life advantages. If a similar border exists for Group-IQ or if advantages are linear and infinite, has still to be explored. Similarly, demand for further research on possible connections of individual and collective intelligence exists within plenty of other potentially transferable logics of individual intelligence, such as, for instance, the development over time [94] or the question of improving intelligence. [95] [96] Whereas it is controversial whether human intelligence can be enhanced via training, [95] [96] a group's collective intelligence potentially offers simpler opportunities for improvement by exchanging team members or implementing structures and technologies. [49] Moreover, social sensitivity was found to be, at least temporarily, improvable by reading literary fiction [97] as well as watching drama movies. [98] In how far such training ultimately improves collective intelligence through social sensitivity remains an open question. [99]
There are further more advanced concepts and factor models attempting to explain individual cognitive ability including the categorization of intelligence in fluid and crystallized intelligence [100] [101] or the hierarchical model of intelligence differences. [102] [103] Further supplementing explanations and conceptualizations for the factor structure of the Genomes of collective intelligence besides a general ' c factor', though, are missing yet. [104]
Controversies Edit
Other scholars explain team performance by aggregating team members' general intelligence to the team level [105] [106] instead of building an own overall collective intelligence measure. Devine and Philips [107] (2001) showed in a meta-analysis that mean cognitive ability predicts team performance in laboratory settings (.37) as well as field settings (.14) – note that this is only a small effect. Suggesting a strong dependence on the relevant tasks, other scholars showed that tasks requiring a high degree of communication and cooperation are found to be most influenced by the team member with the lowest cognitive ability. [108] Tasks in which selecting the best team member is the most successful strategy, are shown to be most influenced by the member with the highest cognitive ability. [64]
Since Woolley et al.'s [12] results do not show any influence of group satisfaction, group cohesiveness, or motivation, they, at least implicitly, challenge these concepts regarding the importance for group performance in general and thus contrast meta-analytically proven evidence concerning the positive effects of group cohesion, [109] [110] [111] motivation [112] [113] and satisfaction [114] on group performance.
Noteworthy is also that the involved researchers among the confirming findings widely overlap with each other and with the authors participating in the original first study around Anita Woolley. [12] [42] [48] [68] [82]
Computational collective intelligence Edit
In this model, beings and information are modeled as abstract information molecules carrying expressions of mathematical logic. [115] They are quasi-randomly displacing due to their interaction with their environments with their intended displacements. [115] Their interaction in abstract computational space creates multi-thread inference process which we perceive as collective intelligence. [115] Thus, a non-Turing model of computation is used. This theory allows simple formal definition of collective intelligence as the property of social structure and seems to be working well for a wide spectrum of beings, from bacterial colonies up to human social structures. Collective intelligence considered as a specific computational process is providing a straightforward explanation of several social phenomena. For this model of collective intelligence, the formal definition of IQS (IQ Social) was proposed and was defined as "the probability function over the time and domain of N-element inferences which are reflecting inference activity of the social structure". [115] While IQS seems to be computationally hard, modeling of social structure in terms of a computational process as described above gives a chance for approximation. [115] Prospective applications are optimization of companies through the maximization of their IQS, and the analysis of drug resistance against collective intelligence of bacterial colonies. [115]
Collective intelligence quotient Edit
One measure sometimes applied, especially by more artificial intelligence focused theorists, is a "collective intelligence quotient" [116] (or "cooperation quotient") – which can be normalized from the "individual" intelligence quotient (IQ) [116] – thus making it possible to determine the marginal intelligence added by each new individual participating in the collective action, thus using metrics to avoid the hazards of group think and stupidity. [117]
There have been many recent applications of collective intelligence, including in fields such as crowd-sourcing, citizen science and prediction markets. The Nesta Centre for Collective Intelligence Design [118] was launched in 2018 and has produced many surveys of applications as well as funding experiments. In 2020 the UNDP Accelerator Labs [119] began using collective intelligence methods in their work to accelerate innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals.
Elicitation of point estimates Edit
Here, the goal is to get an estimate (in a single value) of something. For example, estimating the weight of an object, or the release date of a product or probability of success of a project etc. as seen in prediction markets like Intrade, HSX or InklingMarkets and also in several implementations of crowdsourced estimation of a numeric outcome such as the Delphi method. Essentially, we try to get the average value of the estimates provided by the members in the crowd.
Opinion aggregation Edit
In this situation, opinions are gathered from the crowd regarding an idea, issue or product. For example, trying to get a rating (on some scale) of a product sold online (such as Amazon's star rating system). Here, the emphasis is to collect and simply aggregate the ratings provided by customers/users.
Idea Collection Edit
In these problems, someone solicits ideas for projects, designs or solutions from the crowd. For example, ideas on solving a data science problem (as in Kaggle) or getting a good design for a T-shirt (as in Threadless) or in getting answers to simple problems that only humans can do well (as in Amazon's Mechanical Turk). The objective is to gather the ideas and devise some selection criteria to choose the best ideas.
James Surowiecki divides the advantages of disorganized decision-making into three main categories, which are cognition, cooperation and coordination. [120] [ full citation needed ]
Cognition Edit
Market judgment Edit
Because of the Internet's ability to rapidly convey large amounts of information throughout the world, the use of collective intelligence to predict stock prices and stock price direction has become increasingly viable. [121] Websites aggregate stock market information that is as current as possible so professional or amateur stock analysts can publish their viewpoints, enabling amateur investors to submit their financial opinions and create an aggregate opinion. [121] The opinion of all investor can be weighed equally so that a pivotal premise of the effective application of collective intelligence can be applied: the masses, including a broad spectrum of stock market expertise, can be utilized to more accurately predict the behavior of financial markets. [122] [123]
Collective intelligence underpins the efficient-market hypothesis of Eugene Fama [124] – although the term collective intelligence is not used explicitly in his paper. Fama cites research conducted by Michael Jensen [125] in which 89 out of 115 selected funds underperformed relative to the index during the period from 1955 to 1964. But after removing the loading charge (up-front fee) only 72 underperformed while after removing brokerage costs only 58 underperformed. On the basis of such evidence index funds became popular investment vehicles using the collective intelligence of the market, rather than the judgement of professional fund managers, as an investment strategy. [125]
Predictions in politics and technology Edit
Political parties mobilize large numbers of people to form policy, select candidates and finance and run election campaigns. [126] Knowledge focusing through various voting methods allows perspectives to converge through the assumption that uninformed voting is to some degree random and can be filtered from the decision process leaving only a residue of informed consensus. [126] Critics point out that often bad ideas, misunderstandings, and misconceptions are widely held, and that structuring of the decision process must favor experts who are presumably less prone to random or misinformed voting in a given context. [127]
Companies such as Affinnova (acquired by Nielsen), Google, InnoCentive, Marketocracy, and Threadless [128] have successfully employed the concept of collective intelligence in bringing about the next generation of technological changes through their research and development (R&D), customer service, and knowledge management. [128] [129] An example of such application is Google's Project Aristotle in 2012, where the effect of collective intelligence on team makeup was examined in hundreds of the company's R&D teams. [130]
Cooperation Edit
Networks of trust Edit
In 2012, the Global Futures Collective Intelligence System (GFIS) was created by The Millennium Project, [131] which epitomizes collective intelligence as the synergistic intersection among data/information/knowledge, software/hardware, and expertise/insights that has a recursive learning process for better decision-making than the individual players alone. [132]
Lévy and de Kerckhove consider CI from a mass communications perspective, focusing on the ability of networked information and communication technologies to enhance the community knowledge pool. They suggest that these communications tools enable humans to interact and to share and collaborate with both ease and speed (Flew 2008). With the development of the Internet and its widespread use, the opportunity to contribute to knowledge-building communities, such as Wikipedia, is greater than ever before. These computer networks give participating users the opportunity to store and to retrieve knowledge through the collective access to these databases and allow them to "harness the hive" [135] Researchers at the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence research and explore collective intelligence of groups of people and computers. [136]
In this context collective intelligence is often confused with shared knowledge. The former is the sum total of information held individually by members of a community while the latter is information that is believed to be true and known by all members of the community. [137] Collective intelligence as represented by Web 2.0 has less user engagement than collaborative intelligence. An art project using Web 2.0 platforms is "Shared Galaxy", an experiment developed by an anonymous artist to create a collective identity that shows up as one person on several platforms like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and Second Life. The password is written in the profiles and the accounts named "Shared Galaxy" are open to be used by anyone. In this way many take part in being one. [138] Another art project using collective intelligence to produce artistic work is Curatron, where a large group of artists together decides on a smaller group that they think would make a good collaborative group. The process is used based on an algorithm computing the collective preferences [139] In creating what he calls 'CI-Art', Nova Scotia based artist Mathew Aldred follows Pierry Lévy's definition of collective intelligence. [140] Aldred's CI-Art event in March 2016 involved over four hundred people from the community of Oxford, Nova Scotia, and internationally. [141] [142] Later work developed by Aldred used the UNU swarm intelligence system to create digital drawings and paintings. [143] The Oxford Riverside Gallery (Nova Scotia) held a public CI-Art event in May 2016, which connected with online participants internationally. [144]
In social bookmarking (also called collaborative tagging), [145] users assign tags to resources shared with other users, which gives rise to a type of information organisation that emerges from this crowdsourcing process. The resulting information structure can be seen as reflecting the collective knowledge (or collective intelligence) of a community of users and is commonly called a "Folksonomy", and the process can be captured by models of collaborative tagging. [145]
Recent research using data from the social bookmarking website Delicious, has shown that collaborative tagging systems exhibit a form of complex systems (or self-organizing) dynamics. [146] [147] [148] Although there is no central controlled vocabulary to constrain the actions of individual users, the distributions of tags that describe different resources has been shown to converge over time to a stable power law distributions. [146] Once such stable distributions form, examining the correlations between different tags can be used to construct simple folksonomy graphs, which can be efficiently partitioned to obtained a form of community or shared vocabularies. [149] Such vocabularies can be seen as a form of collective intelligence, emerging from the decentralised actions of a community of users. The Wall-it Project is also an example of social bookmarking. [150]
P2P business Edit
Open source software Edit
The increase in user created content and interactivity gives rise to issues of control over the game itself and ownership of the player-created content. This gives rise to fundamental legal issues, highlighted by Lessig [152] and Bray and Konsynski, [153] such as intellectual property and property ownership rights.
Gosney extends this issue of Collective Intelligence in videogames one step further in his discussion of alternate reality gaming. This genre, he describes as an "across-media game that deliberately blurs the line between the in-game and out-of-game experiences" [154] as events that happen outside the game reality "reach out" into the player's lives in order to bring them together. Solving the game requires "the collective and collaborative efforts of multiple players" thus the issue of collective and collaborative team play is essential to ARG. Gosney argues that the Alternate Reality genre of gaming dictates an unprecedented level of collaboration and "collective intelligence" in order to solve the mystery of the game. [154]
Benefits of co-operation Edit
Co-operation helps to solve most important and most interesting multi-science problems. In his book, James Surowiecki mentioned that most scientists think that benefits of co-operation have much more value when compared to potential costs. Co-operation works also because at best it guarantees number of different viewpoints. Because of the possibilities of technology global co-operation is nowadays much easier and productive than before. It is clear that, when co-operation goes from university level to global it has significant benefits.
For example, why do scientists co-operate? Science has become more and more isolated and each science field has spread even more and it is impossible for one person to be aware of all developments. This is true especially in experimental research where highly advanced equipment requires special skills. With co-operation scientists can use information from different fields and use it effectively instead of gathering all the information just by reading by themselves." [120] [ full citation needed ]
Coordination Edit
Ad-hoc communities Edit
Military, trade unions, and corporations satisfy some definitions of CI – the most rigorous definition would require a capacity to respond to very arbitrary conditions without orders or guidance from "law" or "customers" to constrain actions. Online advertising companies are using collective intelligence to bypass traditional marketing and creative agencies. [155]
The UNU open platform for "human swarming" (or "social swarming") establishes real-time closed-loop systems around groups of networked users molded after biological swarms, enabling human participants to behave as a unified collective intelligence. [156] [157] When connected to UNU, groups of distributed users collectively answer questions and make predictions in real-time. [158] Early testing shows that human swarms can out-predict individuals. [156] In 2016, an UNU swarm was challenged by a reporter to predict the winners of the Kentucky Derby, and successfully picked the first four horses, in order, beating 540 to 1 odds. [159] [160]
Specialized information sites such as Digital Photography Review [161] or Camera Labs [162] is an example of collective intelligence. Anyone who has an access to the internet can contribute to distributing their knowledge over the world through the specialized information sites.
In learner-generated context a group of users marshal resources to create an ecology that meets their needs often (but not only) in relation to the co-configuration, co-creation and co-design of a particular learning space that allows learners to create their own context. [163] [164] [165] Learner-generated contexts represent an ad hoc community that facilitates coordination of collective action in a network of trust. An example of learner-generated context is found on the Internet when collaborative users pool knowledge in a "shared intelligence space". As the Internet has developed so has the concept of CI as a shared public forum. The global accessibility and availability of the Internet has allowed more people than ever to contribute and access ideas. [135]
Games such as The Sims Series, and Second Life are designed to be non-linear and to depend on collective intelligence for expansion. This way of sharing is gradually evolving and influencing the mindset of the current and future generations. [133] For them, collective intelligence has become a norm. In Terry Flew's discussion of 'interactivity' in the online games environment, the ongoing interactive dialogue between users and game developers, [166] he refers to Pierre Lévy's concept of Collective Intelligence (Lévy 1998) harv error: no target: CITEREFLévy1998 (help) and argues this is active in videogames as clans or guilds in MMORPG constantly work to achieve goals. Henry Jenkins proposes that the participatory cultures emerging between games producers, media companies, and the end-users mark a fundamental shift in the nature of media production and consumption. Jenkins argues that this new participatory culture arises at the intersection of three broad new media trends. [167] Firstly, the development of new media tools/technologies enabling the creation of content. Secondly, the rise of subcultures promoting such creations, and lastly, the growth of value adding media conglomerates, which foster image, idea and narrative flow.
Coordinating collective actions Edit
Improvisational actors also experience a type of collective intelligence which they term "group mind", as theatrical improvisation relies on mutual cooperation and agreement, [168] leading to the unity of "group mind". [168] [169]
Growth of the Internet and mobile telecom has also produced "swarming" or "rendezvous" events that enable meetings or even dates on demand. [30] The full impact has yet to be felt but the anti-globalization movement, for example, relies heavily on e-mail, cell phones, pagers, SMS and other means of organizing. [170] The Indymedia organization does this in a more journalistic way. [171] Such resources could combine into a form of collective intelligence accountable only to the current participants yet with some strong moral or linguistic guidance from generations of contributors – or even take on a more obviously democratic form to advance shared goal. [171]
A further application of collective intelligence is found in the "Community Engineering for Innovations". [172] In such an integrated framework proposed by Ebner et al., idea competitions and virtual communities are combined to better realize the potential of the collective intelligence of the participants, particularly in open-source R&D. [173] In management theory the use of collective intelligence and crowd sourcing leads to innovations and very robust answers to quantitative issues. [174] Therefore, collective intelligence and crowd sourcing is not necessaryly leading to the best solution to economic problems, but to a stable, good solution.
Coordination in different types of tasks Edit
Collective actions or tasks require different amounts of coordination depending on the complexity of the task. Tasks vary from being highly independent simple tasks that require very little coordination to complex interdependent tasks that are built by many individuals and require a lot of coordination. In the article written by Kittur, Lee and Kraut the writers introduce a problem in cooperation: "When tasks require high coordination because the work is highly interdependent, having more contributors can increase process losses, reducing the effectiveness of the group below what individual members could optimally accomplish". Having a team too large the overall effectiveness may suffer even when the extra contributors increase the resources. In the end the overall costs from coordination might overwhelm other costs. [175]
Group collective intelligence is a property that emerges through coordination from both bottom-up and top-down processes. In a bottom-up process the different characteristics of each member are involved in contributing and enhancing coordination. Top-down processes are more strict and fixed with norms, group structures and routines that in their own way enhance the group's collective work. [176]
A tool for combating self-preservation Edit
Tom Atlee reflects that, although humans have an innate ability to gather and analyze data, they are affected by culture, education and social institutions. [177] [ self-published source? ] A single person tends to make decisions motivated by self-preservation. Therefore, without collective intelligence, humans may drive themselves into extinction based on their selfish needs. [44]
Separation from IQism Edit
Phillip Brown and Hugh Lauder quotes Bowles and Gintis (1976) that in order to truly define collective intelligence, it is crucial to separate 'intelligence' from IQism. [178] They go on to argue that intelligence is an achievement and can only be developed if allowed to. [178] For example, earlier on, groups from the lower levels of society are severely restricted from aggregating and pooling their intelligence. This is because the elites fear that the collective intelligence would convince the people to rebel. If there is no such capacity and relations, there would be no infrastructure on which collective intelligence is built. [179] This reflects how powerful collective intelligence can be if left to develop. [178]
Artificial intelligence views Edit
Skeptics, especially those critical of artificial intelligence and more inclined to believe that risk of bodily harm and bodily action are the basis of all unity between people, are more likely to emphasize the capacity of a group to take action and withstand harm as one fluid mass mobilization, shrugging off harms the way a body shrugs off the loss of a few cells. [180] [181] This train of thought is most obvious in the anti-globalization movement and characterized by the works of John Zerzan, Carol Moore, and Starhawk, who typically shun academics. [180] [181] These theorists are more likely to refer to ecological and collective wisdom and to the role of consensus process in making ontological distinctions than to any form of "intelligence" as such, which they often argue does not exist, or is mere "cleverness". [180] [181]
Harsh critics of artificial intelligence on ethical grounds are likely to promote collective wisdom-building methods, such as the new tribalists and the Gaians. [182] Whether these can be said to be collective intelligence systems is an open question. Some, e.g. Bill Joy, simply wish to avoid any form of autonomous artificial intelligence and seem willing to work on rigorous collective intelligence in order to remove any possible niche for AI. [183]
In contrast to these views, companies such as Amazon Mechanical Turk and CrowdFlower are using collective intelligence and crowdsourcing or consensus-based assessment to collect the enormous amounts of data for machine learning algorithms.
Solving climate change Edit
Global collective intelligence is seen as the key in solving the challenges humankind faces now and in the future. Climate change is an example of a global issue which collective intelligence is currently trying to tackle. With the help of collective intelligence applications such as online crowdsourcing, people across the globe are collaborating in developing solutions to climate change. [184] |
Dyspnea is subjective dyspnea. Breathing is perceived as unpleasant or stressful. It is different experienced by patients, depending on the cause and described. Pathophysiology Although dyspnea is a relatively common problem, the pathophysiology of the respiratory unpleasant feeling is poorly understood. Unlike other types of noxious stimuli, there are no specific receptors for dyspnea (although recent MRI studies have identified a few specific areas in the midbrain that can convey the perception of dyspnea). The sensation of dyspnea is likely to result from a complex interaction between “chemoreceptor stimulation,” mechanical disturbances of the respiratory and the perception of these abnormalities by the CNS. Some authors have described the imbalance between neurological stimulation and mechanical changes in the lung and chest wall as Euro mechanical decoupling. Etiology Dyspnea has many pulmonary, cardiac, and other causes (1) that vary by the violence of the beginning (see table: causes of acute dyspnea *, see Table: Causes of Subacute * dyspnea and see table: causes of chronic * dyspnea). The most common causes are:. Asthma Pneumonia COPD myocardial Physical deconditioning The most common cause of dyspnea in patients with chronic lung or heart disease is worsening her illness However, such patients may also acutely another disease develop (for example, a patient with long-standing asthma a have myocardial infarction, a patient with chronic heart failure may develop pneumonia). Causes of acute dyspnea * Cause Suspicious findings diagnostic approach Pulmonary causes pneumothorax Sudden onset of severe pain in the chest, tachypnea, decreased breath sounds and hyper resonance on percussion can follow injury or occur spontaneously (especially for large, thin patients and in patients with COPD) chest x-ray pulmonary embolism sudden onset of strong Sch iron out of the chest, tachypnea and tachycardia often risk factors for pulmonary embolism (eg. As cancer, immobilization, TVT, pregnancy, use of oral contraceptives or other estrogen-containing medications, recent surgery or hospitalization, family history) Rare CT angiography, V / Q scintigraphy and possibly arteriography of bronchial asthma, bronchospasm or reactive airway disease wheezing and poor air exchange that to certain stimuli spontaneously or after exposure (z. B. allergens, infection of the upper respiratory tract, cold, movement) are formed may pulsus paradoxus often a pre-existing reactive airway disease Clinical evaluation Sometimes pulmonary function tests or peak flow measurement inhalation of foreign bodies Sudden coughing or wheezing in a patient (typically an infant or child) without infection of the upper respiratory or constitutional symptoms Inspired and expired thoracic radiographs Sometimes bronchoscopy toxin-induced damage to the respiratory tract (eg. For example, by inhalation of chlorine or hydrogen sulphide) Sudden onset after occupational exposure or improper use of detergents in general, it is not difficult to detect an inhalation because the history is quite typical. Chest x-ray Sometimes BGA and observation to determine the severity of cardiac causes Acute myocardial ischemia or infarction Substernales feeling of pressure in the chest or throat, with or without radiation to the arm or jaw, especially in patients with risk factors for CHD EKG “Cardiac enzyme tests” Papillarmuskelsdysfunktion or – break Sudden onset of chest pain, a new or loud holosystolic marbles and signs of heart failure, especially in patients with acute MI auscultation echocardiography Heart failure moisture RG, S3 gallop, and signs of central or peripheral volume overload (eg. As increased neck veins, peripheral edema) dyspnea (while lying flat orthopnea) or 1-2 h after falling asleep (paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea) auscultation chest x-ray BNP measurement echocardiography Other causes diaphragmatic paralysis Sudden onset after trauma of the phrenic nerve Common orthopnea chest x-ray “Fluoroscopic sniff test “anxiety disorder that causes hyperventilation Situational dyspnea often psychomotor agitation and discomfort in the fingers or around the mouth accompanied Main examination findings and pulse oximetry Measurements Clinical Evaluation The diagnosis is a diagnosis of exclusion. * Acute respiratory distress occurs after the triggering event within minutes. Most patients should have a pulse oximetry and – unless the symptoms are clearly a slight exaggeration of the known chronic diseases – perform a chest x-ray. BNP = brain (B-type) natriuretic peptide; CAD = coronary artery disease; DVT = deep vein thrombosis; S3 = 3. Heartbeat; V / Q = ventilation / perfusion. Causes of Subacute * dyspnea cause suspicious findings diagnostic approach Pulmonary causes pneumonia fever, productive cough, dyspnea, sometimes pleuritic chest pain Focal pulmonary findings, including wet RG, decreased breath sounds and Ägophonie chest x-ray sometimes blood and sputum leukocyte count exacerbation of COPD cough, productive or unproductive Poor Luftbeweg ung use of respiratory muscles or breathing with pursed lip Clinical evaluation Sometimes chest x-ray and BGA Cardiac causes angina or coronary heart disease Substernales feeling of pressure in the chest with or without radiation to the arm or jaw, often caused by physical exertion, especially in patients with risk factors for coronary heart disease ECG Cardiac stress test cardiac catheter or pericardial -tamponade Steamed heart sounds or enlarged heart silhouette in patients with risk factors for pericardial effusion (such. As cancer, pericarditis, SLE) may paradoxical pulse echocardiography * Subacute respiratory distress occurs within hours or days. Most patients should have a pulse oximetry and – unless the symptoms are clearly a slight gain of a known chronic diseases – can perform chest X-ray. CHD = coronary heart disease. Causes of chronic * dyspnea cause suspicious findings diagnostic approach Pulmonary causes Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Earlier excessive smoking, barrel chest and poor inflow and outflow of air Chest x-ray Pulmonary function test Restrictive (at initial measurement) lung disease progressive dyspnea in patients with known exposure in the workplace or neurological disease Chest x-ray Pulmonary function test Interstitial (at initial measurement) lung disease Fine bubble RG, which is often accompanied by dry cough High-resolution chest CT pleural effusion Pleuritic pain in the breast, lung field with a dull head sound and with reduced respiratory sounds Sometimes past cancer, heart failure, RA, SLE or acute pneumonia chest X-rays often chest CT and Pleurapunktionen Cardiac causes Her zinsuffizienz humidity RG, S3 gallop and signs of central or peripheral volume overload (eg. As increased neck veins, peripheral edema) orthopnea or paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea auscultation chest x-ray echocardiography Stable angina pectoris or coronary heart disease Substernales feeling of pressure in the chest with or without radiation on the arm or jaw, often caused by physical exertion, especially in patients with risk factors for CHD EKG cardiac stress test Sometimes cardiac catheterization Other causes anemia dyspnea on exertion to dyspnea at rest Normal lung examination and Pulsoxymetriemessung Sometimes sys tolisches heart murmur due to the increased flow of blood Physical deconditioning dyspnea only on exertion in patients with sedentary Clinical Assessment * Chronic respiratory distress occurs within hours to years. Most patients should have a pulse oximetry and – unless the symptoms are clearly a slight gain of a known chronic disease – chest X-ray perform. CHD = coronary artery disease; S3 = third heart sound. In regard to etiology first Pratter MR, Curley FJ, Dubois J, Irwin RS: Cause and evaluation of chronic dyspnea in a pulmonary disease clinic. Arch Intern Med 149 (10): 2277-2282, 1989. The history judgment history of the present illness should the duration time occurrence (for example, abrupt, gradual.) And initiating or enhancing factors (e.g., contact with allergens, cold. , supine) covering effort. The severity can be obtained by the evaluation of the activity level, which is required in order to cause dyspnea (z. B. dyspnea at rest is more serious than dyspnea, which occurs only when climbing stairs) are determined. Physicians should determine the extent to which dyspnea has changed from the usual condition of the patient. In examining the body systems of possible causes including chest pain or pressure (pulmonary embolism, myocardial ischemia, pneumonia) should be looked for symptoms; dependent edema, orthopnea and paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea (heart failure); Fever, chills, cough and sputum (pneumonia); black, tarry stools or clinically severe menstrual (occult bleeding that may cause anemia) as well as weight loss or night sweats (cancer or chronic infection of the lungs). The history should known diseases that cause dyspnea such. As asthma, COPD and heart disease and risk factors for various causes include: a history of smoking-cancer, COPD and heart disease family history, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels-for occult coronary heart disease Current immobilization or surgery, recent long-distance travel, cancer or risk factors or signs of cancer, previous or occurring in the family clotting disorders, pregnancy, use of oral contraceptives, calf pain, swollen legs and known deep occupational venous thrombosis of pulmonary embolism exposures (z. B. gases, fumes, asbestos) should be investigated werden.Körperliche investigation the Vital signs are checked for fever, tachycardia, and tachypnea. The investigation focuses on the cardiovascular and pulmonary systems. It is carried out a full examination of the lungs, including in particular its level of input and efflux of air, symmetry of breath sounds and the presence of damp RG, wheezing, stridor and wheezing. It should be looked for signs of consolidation (z. B. Ägophonie, dull sound head). The cervical, supraclavicular and Inguinalbereiche should be inspected and palpated on lymphadenopathy. The neck veins were inspected for distension and legs as well as the pre-sacral area dented edema (both point to heart failure back) are palpated. The heart sounds were bugged and all occurring additional heart sounds, muffled heart sounds or noises are recorded. The study on paradoxical pulse (a> 12 mmHg drop in systolic BP during inspiration), by inflating the blood pressure cuff to 20 mmHg above the systolic pressure and then slowly drain until the first Korotkoff sounds can only be heard when breathing out, happen. Upon further deflating the cuff is the point at which the first Korotkoff sounds can be heard both during inspiration and expiration, is recorded. If the difference between the first and the second measurement> 12 mmHg, there is a pulsus paradoxus. The conjunctiva should be examined for pallor. A rectal exam and fecal occult blood tests should werden.Warnzeichen performed The following results are of particular importance: dyspnea at rest during the investigation of consciousness or restlessness or confusion use of respiratory muscles and poor air excursion chest pain humidity RG weight loss night sweats palpitations interpretation of results The history and the physical examination often point to the cause and carry out further investigations (see table: causes of acute dyspnea *, see table: causes of subacute * dyspnea and see table: * causes of chronic dyspnea). Several findings are remarkable. Wheezing is an indication of asthma or COPD. In stridor (z. B. Foreign body aspiration, epiglottitis, vocal cord dysfunction) is a extrathoracic airway obstruction to think. Humidity RG indicate a left ventricular failure or interstitial lung disease or no, if there are the same signs of consolidation, a pneumonia. However, the symptoms and signs of life-threatening diseases such as ischemia and pulmonary embolism can be non-specific. In addition, the severity of the symptoms is not always proportional to the seriousness of the cause (eg. Example, a pulmonary embolism in fit, healthy people cause only mild dyspnea). Therefore, a high degree of suspicion at these common diseases is attached. It often makes sense to exclude these diseases before the dyspnoea a less serious cause is attributed. A clinical prediction rule (see Table: Clinical Prädiktionsregel for the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism) can help define the risk of pulmonary embolism. It should be noted that a normal oxygen saturation does not rule out a pulmonary embolism. The hyperventilation syndrome is a diagnosis of exclusion. Because hypoxia may cause tachypnea and unrest, it is unwise to assume that any fast breathing, restless, young person should be performed in all patients at a hyperventilation syndrome leidet.Tests A pulse oximetry, as a chest x-ray, unless the symptoms come clearly from a mild or moderate exacerbation of existing disease. For example, require patients with asthma or heart failure no radiograph with every inflammatory episode unless the clinical findings suggest another cause or an unusually severe attack suspect. For most adults, an ECG should be performed to diagnose myocardial ischemia (and “serum cardiac marker testing” when the strong suspicion), unless a myocardial ischemia can be clinically excluded. In patients with significantly impaired or of insufficient breathing a measurement of the BGAs should be made to quantify the hypoxemia specifically, PaCO2 measured, the acid-base status as a possible cause of hyperventilation is determined and the alveolar-arterial gradient are determined. Clinical Calculator: Aa Gradient patients who have no clear diagnosis by chest x-ray and ECG and a moderate or high risk of pulmonary embolism have (based on clinical prediction rule-see Table: Clinical Prädiktionsregel for the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism) should a CT angiography or undergo ventilation / perfusion scintigraphy. Patients at low risk should eventually perform a d-dimer test (normal d-dimer levels include a pulmonary embolism in a patient with low-risk definitely out). In chronic dyspnea another specific diagnosis such as CT, lung function tests, echocardiography and bronchoscopy should be done. Therapy therapy means the treatment of disorders based. Hypoxia is treated with that administration of oxygen, which is needed to an oxygen saturation treated> 88% or PaO 2> 55 mmHg because values ??above this limit to ensure the maintenance of adequate oxygenation of all organs. Values ??below these limits are located on the steep portion of the oxygen-dissociation curve Hb, which can already result in a small decrease of the oxygen tension to excessive waste of Hb saturation. Threatening myocardial or cerebral ischemia, oxygen saturation should be kept> 93%. The administration of morphine 0.5-5 mg iv can help to take the patient’s anxiety and alleviate perceived as unpleasant shortness of breath in various diseases such. As in myocardial infarction, pulmonary embolism and frequent dyspnea präfinaler patients. In patients with acute airway obstruction (eg., Asthma, COPD) may reduce opiates by a reduction in respiratory drive the oxygen consumption of the diaphragm, which can lead to faster recompensation. (N. D. Talk .: Careful monitoring of blood gases is obligatory. In case of impending hypercapnic pump failure a non-invasive mask ventilation should be used.) Conclusion pulse oximetry is an essential part of Untersuchcung. A low oxygen saturation (<90%) points to a serious problem, but a normal saturation does not mean that there is no problem. The use of the respiratory muscles, a sudden falling oxygen saturation or decreased consciousness make an urgent clarification and hospitalization myocardial ischemia and pulmonary embolism are relatively common, but the symptoms and complaints may be nonspecific. An exacerbation of existing disease (eg., Asthma, COPD, heart failure) is widely used, but patients can also develop new symptoms.
Health Life Media Team
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What is Sjogren’s Syndrome? Dry Eyes
Sjogren's Syndrome1Sjogren’s syndrome is an autoimmune disease that affects the glands which are responsible for keeping the eyes, mouth and other parts of the body and parts of the body that are moist and lubricated This why dry eyes are common in Sjogren’s syndrome.
Men and women at any age or race can develop Sjogren’s syndrome. However, it is prevalent among Caucasian women, typically beginning between the ages of 40 and 60. It is estimated that nearly 4 million Americans suffer from Sjogren’s disease nearly 90 percent are women, and almost 3 million people may people unaware that they have the condition.
Since dry eyes are a very distinctive symptom of Sjogren’s syndrome, often the disease may go unreported. According to researchers 1 and ten dry eye patients also have Sjogren’s syndrome. In some cases, it can take up to four years of longer from the start of the condition to get an accurate diagnosis.
Causes of Sjogren is Syndrome
Sjogren’s syndrome is one of the most pervasive autoimmune disorders. In this condition, the person’s white blood cells attack itself, including tissues and organs, resulting in damage.
The reason why the immune response is abnormal or the why it destroys the body’s tissue is not completely understood. Normally the immune system recognizes parts of its body as “friendly” and become active only to attack and destroy “foreign” substances or dangerous organisms such as viruses and certain bacteria.
Abnormal immune responses may be inherited or can be associated with previous viral or bacterial infections.
Sjogren's SyndromeSjogren’s Syndrome can occur alone ( primary Sjogren’ssudnome ) or it can happen along with other autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus scleroderma, or celiac disease.
How do you know if You Have Sjogren’s Syndrome
There are common symptoms that include:
• Dry eyes
• Dry Mouth
• Joint pain
• Fatigue
• Contact Lens Discomfort
• Dry sinuses and frequent signs infections or nosebleeds
• Sore mouth, throat or tongue
• Muscle pain without swelling
• Difficulty chewing or swallowing
• Dry skin and sore skin
• Vaginal dryness
• Blepharitis
• Dry or peeling lips
Additional eye symptoms can include blurred vision, light sensitivity, burning sensation in the eye.
sjogren_syndromeYour doctor may do several tests confirm the diagnosis of Sjogren’s syndrome. A common test is the Schirmer’s test, in which a small strip of test paper is placed underneath the lower eyelid to measure how much moisture (tears you produce over a particular period ( around five minutes typically)
Another test may include using color dyes to for your tears, and the doctor will examine the eyes with a microscope to see how quickly your tears will evaporate as well as the dryness-related damage has occurred within the cornea or conjunctiva.
The quality and quantity of saliva created in the mouth may also be measure. You doctor may conduct additional blood test as certain antibodies can be found in the blood in people with Sjogren’s syndrome.
A newer blood test is called Sjo test (by NiCco, Inc) has a more sensitive and accurate method of detecting Sjogren’s syndrome. Not only checking for traditional antibodies, commonly found in the bloodstream, Sjo test three additional biomarkers that are unique to Sjogren’s syndrome. This results in higher accuracy of the result.
How is Dry from Sjogren’s Syndrome Treated?
Ongoing treatment with artificial tears and ointments may be required for treating dry eye from Sjogren’s syndrome.
Oil and lipid based eye drops can be particularly helpful to people with Sjogren’s syndrome because may have issues with their tears evaporating too quickly. These drops can help slow down tear evaporation and allow the eye to stay moist longer between blinking the eye.
Your doctor will also examine you for meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD), which is the leading cause of tear evaporation causing dry eye. In MDG the glands in the eyelids that secret oil (meibum) into the tear film is obstructed and inflamed. A decrease in the oil quality and quantity may occur. This oil is imperative in keeping tears from evaporating too quickly. By treating MGD, the dry eye discomfort can be reduced in Sjogren’s syndrome related dry eye.
In cases where there are is pain or inflammation, your doctor may recommend taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen and aspirin. If you have a severe case of Sjogren syndrome you may also receive immunosuppressant medications.
Side Effects od Sjogren’s Syndrome
Since chronic dry eye is one of the major symptoms of Sjogren’s syndrome, it is important that you keep your eyes lubricated to avoid damage from scarring and infection
Sjogren’s syndrome can cause dryness of the mouth, which can lead to tooth decay and loss of teeth. Use of mouth lubricants *artificial saliva) may need to assist swallowing with additional moisture.
Also, people with Sjogren’s syndrome also can lead to vasculitis (inflammation of blood vessels) that can cause problems throughout the body.
Pregnant women who are diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome should talk to their doctors. Particular proteins created through immune system that is capable of attacking other possibly beneficial proteins in the body can be passed along to infants,
How to Prevent Dry Eye and the Sjogren’s Syndrome Symptoms
• Drink more fluids, specifically water
• Chew sugarless gum or use hard candles to moisten you mouth
• Use saline spring for the nose
• Use Vaginal lubricants if needed.
• Don’t Smoke, and avoid alcohol.
• Install a humidifier to help reduce dry eyes, nose and mouth and skin.
• Regular uses artificial tears and ointments to keep your eyes moistened.
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3. Crystal Red Tetra: 21 Facts You Won't Believe!
Kidadl Team
AUGUST 12, 2021
Crystal Red Tetra: 21 Facts You Won't Believe!
Read in the article some interesting crystal red tetra facts.
In this very article, we shall be learning about a small fish species that is very beautiful and elegant. The name of the species is the crystal red tetra whose scientific name is Hyphessobrycon haraldschultzi.
These red tetra (Hyphessobrycon haraldschultzi) fish are endemic to the Araguaia region in Brazil. They are also kept as pets because of their elegant beauty and peaceful nature. Red tetras are social fishes who live in groups also known as schools. So when buying them for the aquarium, always keep them in a group. Red tetras are small and their body length is around 0.7-0.9 in (2-2.5 cm) with a negligible amount of body weight. Their dorsal fin is big and has three distinct colors (black, white, orange) on it. They have a dark spot on both their faces behind their gill covers. These peaceful fish follow an omnivorous diet and eat both animal and plant particles present in water.
Read on for some interesting and funny facts about this little fish that will amaze you. If you like reading random fish facts then do visit our black ghost knifefish facts and hogfish facts pages.
Crystal Red Tetra Interesting Facts
What type of animal is a crystal red tetra?
The crystal red tetra (Hyphessobrycon haraldschultzi) is a type of fish.
What class of animal does a crystal red tetra belong to?
The red tetra belongs to the class Actinopterygii, order Characiformes and family Characidae. Their genus name is Hyphessobrycon and their scientific name is Hyphessobrycon haraldschultzi also called Hemigrammus haraldschultzi.
How many crystal red tetras are there in the world?
There is no exact information about how many crystal red tetras (Hyphessobrycon haraldschultzi) are there in the world.
Where does a crystal red tetra live?
The crystal red tetra (Hyphessobrycon haraldschultzi) are endemic species. They are tropical fish that can be found in the Araguaia drainage in Brazil. They are famous aquarium fish species also.
What is a crystal red tetra's habitat?
The crystal red tetra (Hyphessobrycon haraldschultzi) lives in the Araguaia region. They are also kept in aquariums. These fish prefer aquariums with a sandy substrate and water plants available inside.
Who does crystal red tetra live with?
The crystal red tetra (Hyphessobrycon haraldschultzi) from the family Characidae are tranquil or peaceful fishes who live in groups or schools. While purchasing a crystal red tetra, keep in mind to keep them in groups, buy at least 6-10 fishes and pair them with other schooling fishes.
How long does a crystal red tetra live?
There is no proper information available on their longevity.
How do they reproduce?
Crystal red tetra (Hyphessobrycon haraldschultzi) spawn freely in the waters of the aquarium. Red tetras don't have a fixed spawning season. They tend to spawn when they feel the need. Tetras are one of the easy breeders who live in groups. A mating group may have two males and several females. After spawning, the eggs sink to the bottom of the aquarium out of their parent's reach. Then gradually baby fry comes out of the eggs and causes an increase in their population.
What is their conservation status?
The crystal red tetra (Hyphessobrycon haraldschultzi) does not have any conservation status tag on it.
Crystal Red Tetra Fun Facts
What does crystal red tetra look like?
Crystal red tetra (Hyphessobrycon haraldschultzi) are tropical fish species endemic to the Araguaia region in Brazil (natural habitat). They are small fish species that also live in the aquarium. These peaceful fish are small in size and have some vibrant colors present on their body. They have some awesome fins on their body. The dorsal fin is largely dark and colorful. The dorsal fin is situated at the middle of its back and has three visible color bands on it namely white, black and orange-yellow. These fish species have two ventral fin parts. The first one is small and is nearly transparent but the second one is comparatively larger and has an orange and yellow transparent color. They have a strong and beautiful caudal fin that is large, dark-colored on the body's side, and nearly colorless at the end. Their whole body is red-orange colored and has a bright shine on their scales. They have a large dark spot on both sides of their body. The dark spot is behind the operculum on the pelvic fin area. They are one of the small fish species with a body length of around 0.7-0.9 in (2-2.5 cm). Their body weight is very low, some negligible amount.
Red tetras are small fish species that are endemic to the Araguaia region in Brazil.
*Please note this is a red phantom tetra. If you have an image of a crystal red tetra, please let us know at [email protected].
How cute are they?
Cute is not the correct word for them. Rather, red tetra is a beautiful and elegant fish species that you can keep in your aquariums.
How do they communicate?
Fishes do not communicate through vocal sound. Instead, they use body language for communicating. Some fishes also release chemicals from their body for communication purposes. All fish species have their lateral line segment organ which helps them to detect even the minute disturbance in the water.
How big is a crystal red tetra?
The red tetra (Hemigrammus haraldschultzi) is a small fish. The length of their body is between 0.7-0.9 in (2-2.5 cm). They have a peaceful nature and show calm behavior in the tank.
How fast can a crystal red tetra swim?
Red tetras (Hemigrammus haraldschultzi) are small and agile fish from the family Characidae. They have a moderate swimming speed but their exact swimming speed is still not known.
How much does a crystal red tetra weigh?
The red tetra (Hemigrammus haraldschultzi) fish are very small in size. Their body length is estimated between 0.7-0.9 in (2-2.5 cm). Unlike their body measurements, their weight range is still not discovered.
What are the male and female names of the species?
There are no specific names assigned to the males and females of this species. This fish species show sexual dimorphism. The full-grown females are comparatively bigger than the males. Females in comparison to males have a more round body.
What would you call a baby crystal red tetra?
Like all other baby fishes, baby red tetras are also called fry or young ones.
What do they eat?
Red tetras are primarily omnivorous in nature feeding on both animals and plant food particles. Their diet consists of mainly invertebrates that happen in water. Other things that they consume as food are algae, larvae, fallen fruits, and phytoplanktons.
Are they aggressive?
Not really, the red tetra is a peaceful fish species that are easy to keep as pets. They live in normal temperature waters and don't follow any critical diet pattern. They are also calm and understanding towards their tank mates.
Would they make a good pet?
Yes! Red tetra fish species are perfect for aquariums. They are not very aggressive towards their tanks mates, they follow a normal diet, they are easy breeders, and most importantly, they are very elegant.
Did you know...
The rainbow tetra is considered the rarest tetra species on this Earth.
Different types of tetra
According to different studies, there are more than 150 plus species of tetras are there in this world, including one called the coffee bean tetra!
Ruby vs crystal red tetra
The ruby tetra is a natural inhabitant of Colombia. They are dark pink colored body has a neon effect on it like the neon tetra and the black neon tetra. They are small fish that easily swim around inside the tank. They are similar to the red tetra in size but differ in the field of color and behavior. The scientific name of the ruby tetra is Axelrodia riesei.
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly animal facts for everyone to discover! Learn more about some other fishes from our parrotfish facts and tilefish facts pages.
You can even occupy yourself at home by coloring in one of our free printable Crystal red tetra coloring pages.
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INTRODUCTION change or destruction. Computer security also
What is Secure Computing?
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security (Also known as cyber security or IT Security) is information security as applied to computers and networks. The field covers all the
processes and mechanisms by which computer-based equipment, information and
services are protected from unintended or unauthorized access, change or
destruction. Computer security also includes protection from unplanned events
and natural disasters. Otherwise, in the computer industry, the term security — or the
phrase computer security — refers to techniques for ensuring that data stored in a computer cannot be read or
compromised by any individuals without authorization. Most computer security
measures involve data encryption and
a particular program or system.
Diagram clearly explain the about the secure computing
Working conditions and basic
needs in the secure computing:
If you don’t take basic
steps to protect your work computer, you put it and all the information on it
at risk. You can potentially compromise the operation of other computers
on your organization’s network, or even the functioning of the
network as a whole.
Physical security:
Technical measures like login passwords,
anti-virus are essential. (More about those below) However, a
secure physical space is the first and more important line of defense.
Is the place you keep your workplace computer
secure enough to prevent theft or access to it while you are away?
While the Security Department provides coverage across the
Medical center, it only takes seconds to steal a computer, particularly a
portable device like a laptop or a PDA. A computer should be secured
like any other valuable possession when you are not present.
Human threats are not the only concern.
Computers can be compromised by environmental mishaps (e.g., water, coffee) or
physical trauma. Make sure the physical location
of your computer takes account of those risks as
Access passwords:
The University’s networks and shared information systems are
protected in part by login credentials (user-IDs and passwords).
Access passwords are also an essential protection for personal
computers in most circumstances. Offices are usually open and shared
spaces, so physical access to computers cannot be completely controlled.
To protect your computer, you should consider setting
passwords for particularly sensitive applications resident on the computer
(e.g., data analysis software), if the software provides that capability.
Prying eye
Because we deal with all facets of clinical, research,
educational and administrative data here on the medical campus, it is important
to do everything possible to minimize exposure of data to
unauthorized individuals.
Anti-virus software:
Up-to-date, properly configured anti-virus software is essential. While
we have server-side anti-virus software on our
network computers, you still need it on the client side (your computer).
Anti-virus products inspect files on your computer and in
email. Firewall software and hardware monitor communications between your
computer and the outside world. That is essential for any networked
Software updates:
It is critical to keep software up to date, especially the operating
system, anti-virus and anti-spyware, email and browser software.
The newest versions will contain fixes for discovered vulnerabilities.
Almost all anti-virus have automatic update features (including
SAV). Keeping the “signatures” (digital patterns) of malicious
software detectors up-to-date is essential for these products to be effective.
Keep secure backups:
Even if you take all these security steps, bad things can still
happen. Be prepared for the worst by making backup copies of
critical data, and keeping those backup copies in a separate, secure
location. For example, use supplemental hard drives, CDs/DVDs, or flash drives to store critical,
hard-to-replace data.
Report problems:
If you believe that your computer or any data on it has been
compromised, your should make a information
security incident report. That is required by University
policy for all data on our systems, and legally required for health, education,
financial and any other kind of record containing identifiable personal
Benefits of secure computing:
Protect yourself – Civil liability:
You may be held legally liable to compensate a third party should they
experience financial damage or distress as a result of their personal data
being stolen from you or leaked by you.
Protect your credibility – Compliance:
You may require compliancy with the Data Protection Act, the FSA, SOX or other
regulatory standards. Each of these bodies stipulates that certain measures be
taken to protect the data on your network.
Protect your reputation – Spam:
A common use for infected systems is to join them to a botnet (a
collection of infected machines which takes orders from a command server) and
use them to send out spam. This spam can be traced back to you, your server
could be blacklisted and you could be unable to send email.
Protect your income – Competitive advantage:
There are a number of “hackers-for-hire” advertising their services on the
internet selling their skills in breaking into company’s servers to steal
client databases, proprietary software, merger and acquisition information,
personnel detailset al.
Protect your business – Blackmail:
A seldom-reported source of income for “hackers” is to·break into your server,
change all your passwords and lock you out of it. The password is then sold
back to you. Note: the “hackers” may implant a backdoor program on your server
so that they can repeat the exercise at will.
Protect your investment – Free storage:
Your server’s harddrive space is used (or sold on) to house the
hacker’s video clips, music collections, pirated software or worse. Your server
or computer then becomes continuously slow and your internet connection speeds
deteriorate due to the number of people connecting to your server in order to
download the offered wares. |
Science Technology
Brainloop allows you to mentally navigate Google earth
“Brainloop” is an interactive platform for performance which uses a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) that allows a performer to operate devices by imagining specific motor commands. The goal is to virtually navigate around Google Earth by using the BCI. Interesting concept, although we wonder if it’s really that much easier than doing it the old fashioned way. |
Blogs/Root Mean Squared Error
Root Mean Squared Error
blazedafyah Jun 16 2021 2 min read 155 views
NIT Warangal graduate, Software Engineer at Wipro.
Fundamentals Prob. and Stats
rmse, root mean squared error, rmse tutorial, root mean squared error tutorial, rmse simply exlained, root mean squared error simply explained.jpeg
The Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) is one of the most commonly used measures for evaluating the quality of a predictive model. It shows how far the predicted values are from actual values with respect to the Euclidean distance between them.
RMSE is expressed as:
RMSE formula
where N is the number of data points, y(i) is the ith measurement, and y ̂(i) is its corresponding prediction.
RMSE is not scale-invariant, and therefore the comparison of models is affected by the scale of the data. Thus, it is advisable to apply RMSE over standardized data.
import numpy as np
print(np.sqrt(metrics.mean_squared_error(y_test, y_pred)))
It is extremely useful to have a single number as an evaluation metric for any model. RMSE is the most widely-used and intuitive scoring rule that is easy to understand. It is also compatible with the majority of statistical techniques.
Absolute RMSE error is of no value on its own for training models. During training, we need a heuristic that helps us decrease the error during each iteration, an indication that the model is improving over iterations.
In evaluating trained models, however, absolute values are important. Now, it is not about whether the model performs better than last time, but whether the model is capable of solving a practical problem. This value can be however small and only depends on how accurate we want the model to be.
By squaring errors and calculating mean, RMSE is vulnerable to predictions that are much worse than others, i.e. bad predictions affect the RMSE score heavily. To tackle this, the absolute value of errors can be used (Mean Absolute Error, or MAE). Another approach is to use median values to get a better idea of how the model performs on most predictions without much influence from poor predictions.
Learn and practice this concept here: |
Always Faster!
Always Faster
In an article published last month on the Design Ledger website, the author establishes a causal link between the declining attention span of Internet users and the need to increase the loading speed of websites.
"Reducing the attention span is one of the biggest threats to your website."
Without criticizing the validity of such an assertion, the fact remains that a slow website has verifiable consequences on visitor behavior. According to various sourcest:
• 40% of visitors abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load;
• A reduction in loading time of 8 to 2 seconds increases the conversion rate of visitors by 74%;
• Google now uses the loading time of a website as one of the elements contributing to its ranking in the results of its search engine.
The factors that make a web page load more or less quickly are very numerous. One of the first thinga to look at, which is used by Google in its ranking, is the TTFB, or time to first byte.
What is the TTFB
When calling a web page in our browser, the following actions are executed first:
1. The domain name is translated into an digital IP address, identifying the address of the web server. This translation is done through Domain Name Services (DNS), whixh are distributed throughout the internet.
2. Once the server's IP address is known, your web browser establishes a connection to that server.
3. Once the connection is established and confirmed, the web server starts to prepare its response to your request. It builds the requested page.
4. As soon as it is ready, the server starts to send its answer to your computer, the content of the requested page. This response is broken down into a series of packets of data that are routed to your computer over the internet. The number of these packets will be determined by the amount of information contained in the requested web page. It is when your computer receives the first of these packets that the TTFB is registered.
The ideal target speed of the TTFB would be 400 milliseconds maximum. A server should therefore be able to send the first of the data packets to your browser in just under half a second. As this is the start of the reception of the data packets, a slowness at this level will obviously have consequences for the further loading of the site.
There are several factors that can contribute to the TTFB's speed variation: the geographical location of the web server, its technical configuration, the number of tasks required by the server's main processor, the number of concurrent connections, and so on.
At Percumedia, we make sure the TTFB of the websites we develop and hostis below 400ms. Our tests reveal that this is the case in more than 90% of the time.
Speeding up transmission
To achieve this result, we have taken a number steps to optimize the response of our server to requests from web browsers. One of them was the setting up of a reverse proxy cachem which is also called a web accelerator. It is a virtual server located between the visitor's computer and the web server, on which the most frequently requested files are temporarily cached, thus freeing part of the web server's tasks.
In summary, we could say that the reverse proxy cache is an additional server, whose only function is to manage incoming and outgoing traffic, and to keep in its memory the files most often requested so as to serve sites faster.
The use of a reverse proxy cache makes it possible to process a greater number of concurrent connections while speeding up the transmission speed of the web pages.
Another speed performance measure involves more specifically sites that web build.
As you know, we use Drupal as a development platform for all our websites. When a web page is requested by a visitor, Drupal must first build it using multiple files and interacting several times with a database that contains all the contents of the website as well as some of the instructions for displaying these.
In order to speed up the delivery process of these pages, Drupal caches them so they do not have to be rebuilt every time. Only when content is modified or added does Drupal rebuild the cached page. As this process ensures that the web pages are always ready to be sent, this has a very significant impact on their transmission speed.
In a future article, we'll look at other ways to speed up the display of website pages, some of which you can use before entering new content into your website.
Until next!
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Photonics: Graphene boosts on-chip light detectors
Photonics: Graphene boosts on-chip light detectors
Scanning electron microscope image of a silicon waveguide-integrated graphene photodetector. Light propagates along the waveguide and is converted in a sheet of graphene into an electrical signal. Credit: Thomas Mueller
Dirk Englund and colleagues report an ultrafast graphene light detector that has a responsivity that is about 16 times greater than that of previous graphene light detectors over a broad bandwidth of 1,450–1,590 nm.
Thomas Mueller and co-workers describe in a second paper a graphene light detector with a multigigahertz operation over a wide range (1,310–1,650 nm) that includes all the bands used by optical-fibre communication systems. Its responsivity is approximately eight times higher than that of earlier graphene light detectors.
In a final study, Xiaomu Wang and colleagues fabricate a high-responsivity graphene photodiode that operates at mid-infrared frequencies. Its potential applications include monitoring chemicals in the environment and on-chip , which could be used for medical tests.
The unique optical and electrical properties of graphene and the ability to create these detectors using existing fabrication technology for in digital devices makes it very likely that graphene will soon replace germanium and compound semiconductors in high-performance light detectors. These three studies therefore further highlight the exciting potential of for optoelectronic devices.
Explore further
Miracle material graphene could deliver Internet one hundred times faster
More information:
Journal information: Nature Photonics
Provided by Nature Publishing Group
Citation: Photonics: Graphene boosts on-chip light detectors (2013, September 16) retrieved 7 December 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2013-09-photonics-graphene-boosts-on-chip-detectors.html
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Light Deprivation
The Advantage of a Light Deprivation Greenhouse
A light deprivation greenhouse uses blackout material with controlled exposure to light and darkness to simulate seasonal changes. Automating light and darkness tricks the plants into flowering on command, reducing the time to reach maturity which allows year-round cultivation with multiple harvests.
Plants that are usually grown in the fall respond well in a light deprivation greenhouse. Licensed cannabis growers have found a light deprivation greenhouse to be the quickest path to multiple harvests. Here are some of the plants that are best know for light deprivation growing: Asters, Cannabis, Christmas Cactus, Cosmos, Mums, Poinsettias, and Zinnias.
A light deprivation greenhouse from Silk Road Greenhouse is designed for the perfect controlled growing environment. We utilize state-of-the-art light deprivation fabrics along with environmental control equipment to help regulate temperature, humidity, fertigation, CO2 and light levels. Our light deprivation curtains assist in blocking out incoming light while also helping eliminate light pollution when extending photo periods at night. Additionally, this fabric doubles as an energy curtain and can help reduce night time heating costs by up to 33%. |
FAQ: What Is The Diameter Of A Basketball Hoop?
What is a basketball hoop diameter and height?
All basketball rims ( hoops ) are 18 inches (46 cm) in diameter. The inner rectangle on the backboard is 24 inches (61 cm) wide by 18 inches (46 cm) tall, and helps a shooter determine the proper aim and banking for either a layup or distance shot.
Do 2 basketballs fit in the rim?
The size of the basketball rim’s radius is 9 inches and the diameter is 18 inches. The circumference of the rim is 56.5 inches. Two men’s basketballs fit in a basketball hoop but will not go through. Technically two and a half men’s balls fit in the hoop.
What is the diameter of a size 7 basketball?
Official Basketballs: Size 7 Official sized basketballs measure 29.5” in circumference and have a standard weight of 22 oz.
What is the radius of basketball ring?
You might be interested: Often asked: How Many Games In A Basketball Season?
How tall do you have to be to dunk?
How far is the 3 point line?
The arc typically stretches to 23 feet, nine inches, but is not uniform. In the corners, the distance between it and the basket is only 22 feet. The NBA decided to redraw the arcs so that they sat 22 feet away from the basket across the board. In some ways, the results exceeded the NBA’s wildest expectations.
Is NBA rim bigger than college?
For junior high, high school, NCAA, WNBA, NBA and FIBA, the rim is exactly 10 feet off the ground. Rims at every level of play are 18 inches in diameter. Backboards are also the same size at each of these levels. A regulation backboard measures 6 feet wide and 42 inches (3.5 feet) tall.
Why is it harder to shoot on double rim?
Double -rimmed hoops are much firmer and have less give than a single rimmed hoop, making it much more difficult to score because the ball bounces off the double rim. Players who are used to a single rim may have taught themselves how to score by shooting off the rim.
Why are there double rimmed hoops?
Double rims are commonly found on playgrounds and other types of outdoor public courts. The reason that double rims are used is that they are stronger and stand up better to outdoor elements. Their strength also protects the rim from being bent due to extreme play and players hanging on the rims.
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What diameter is a size 3 basketball?
Size 3 is a novelty-sized, or ‘mini’ basketball that is suitable for all ages. The Size 3 basketball has a circumference of 22″ (55.9cm).
How do you pick the right size basketball?
What Size Basketball Should I Buy?
2. Players ages 9 to 11 should use a youth basketball (27.5″).
3. Women/girls age 12 and up and boys ages 12 to 14 should play with a 28.5” basketball.
4. Men age 15 and up should play with an Official Size (29.5”) basketball.
How do I know my basketball size?
Boys and girls between the ages of 4 and 8 use a basketball between the sizes of 22 inches and 24.5 inches in circumference, depending on the individual’s hand size, which can be determined by a coach or parent by measuring from the bottom of the individual’s palm to the tip of his or her middle finger.
Is it called a basketball goal or hoop?
Basketball goal and basketball hoop are two terms which are often used interchangeably. Technically, the goal or hoop refers to the orange rim that is mounted to the backboard, but in common language, the terms are used when people are referring to the complete sets that make up basketball systems.
Is the NBA rim 12 feet?
The rims have always been 10- feet high since James Naismith posted 13 rules for a game he called “Basket Ball” in a Springfield, Mass., YMCA gym in 1891. The average height for men during that time, however, was 5- foot -6. Now, your average NBA player is 6- foot -7.
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Is the NBA rim smaller?
The rims are the same size, but FIBA has different rules for flexibility, can’t remember if they’re stiffer or softer. They also use the same size ball but FIBA uses synthetics which are lighter and smoother. I’ve always felt like the ball rebounds differently in the NBA to any other hoops.
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What is the Philippine education system from the pre Spanish era and Spanish period?
During the Pre-Spanish period, education was still decentralized. Children were provided more vocational training but lesser academics, which were headed by their parents or by their tribal tutors. They used a unique system of writing known as the baybayin.
How was an education in the pre colonial era and Spanish era?
During the pre-colonial period, most children were provided with solely vocational training, which was supervised by parents, tribal tutors or those assigned for specific, specialized roles within their communities (for example, the babaylan).
What was the focus of the education during the pre-Spanish era?
As early as in pre-Magellanic times, education was informal, unstructured, and devoid of methods. Children were provided more vocational training and less academics (3 Rs) by their parents and in the houses of tribal tutors. The pre-Spanish system of education underwent major changes during the Spanish colonization.
What education system does Philippines use?
IT IS IMPORTANT: Question: What is the difference between regular and irregular verbs Spanish?
What are the 3 main reason of the Spanish colonization?
What was taught to children during the pre Spanish era?
The education during the Pre-Spanish time was informal and unstructured. The fathers taught their sons how to look for food and other means of livelihood while the mothers taught their daughters how to do household chores. These are basically to prepare them to become good husbands and wives.
What is the aim of pre Spanish period?
The purpose of education during theirtime was for survival. By the time Spain was replaced by the United States as the colonial power, Filipinos were among the most educated subjects in all of Asia.
Whats the difference between teaching as a job or a mission?
Why do you think there is a need for you to trace the historical development of education?
It provides identity and shows us models of good and responsible behaviour, as well as teaching us how to learn from the mistakes of others. History helps us understand how society can change and develop. If we don’t teach our children to connect with history, then the consequences for our society could be disastrous.
IT IS IMPORTANT: Frequent question: What letters do feminine in Spanish?
Temperamental Spain |
When a reader took the above picture, they wondered if they had seen a tornado near Bristol.
Tim Blackman spotted the large white plume near the M48, towards the direction of Thornbury.
We were intrigued at Bristol Live and showed the image to the Met Office, to see what they thought about it.
And a spokesperson for the forecaster confirmed, we weren't looking at a tornado, but a funnel cloud.
The expert said it wasn't a tornado because he couldn't see any contact with the ground.
What is a funnel cloud?
The funnel cloud
According to the Met Office, funnel clouds or 'tuba' are extending, spinning fingers of cloud that reach towards the ground, but never touch it. When they do reach the ground they become a tornado.
How do they form?
What is the difference between a funnel cloud and a tornado?
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Last edited 29 Jul 2021
Retractable bridge
Retractable bridges, such as this one located in Demerara Harbour, are popular in Guyana.
[edit] Introduction
Bridges are a common feature of the built environment and one of the key elements of civil engineering. The basic principles of bridge design are dependent on the load-bearing structure. These are generally beam, arch or suspension structures.
Some bridges are also defined by other characteristics, for example a movable bridge is defined by its functionality. These bridges are designed in a way that allows them to accommodate different situations and different types of traffic.
One kind of movable bridge is a retractable bridge or thrust bridge. Modern versions of rolling bridges may be referred to as retractable bridges.
[edit] Retractable bridges
This type of movable bridge can slide to an open position to provide clearance for waterway traffic. There are several methods that can be used to perform this retraction function.
[edit] Retractile
A classic retractile bridge is one in which the span is pulled away on rails. It is believed that this type of retractile bridge was invented by Thomas Willis Pratt in the 1860s.
The Summer Street Bridge in Boston, Massachusetts, is a retractile bridge that was built in 1899. The bridge was the site of a major traffic accident in 1916. It is still standing over the Reserved Channel, but the retractile function was decommissioned in 1970.
Summer Street Bridge in Boston, Massachusetts.
[edit] Floating
Some retractable bridges in the Netherlands are floating bridges known vlotbrugs. These floating bridges are positioned across canals, and when necessary, the road is retracted into structures that have been built into the canal banks.
An alternative example of a floating retractable bridge is the Hood Canal pontoon bridge in Puget Sound, Washington. When the bridge needs to be opened for waterway traffic, a section of the floating roadway is hydraulically raised up so the retracting portion can slide underneath it.
The Hood Canal Bridge in Puget Sound, Washington.
[edit] History
Because the movement of retractable bridges can require a large dedicated area to accommodate its footprint, they are no longer commonly used. However, their origins date back to medieval times.
This copper-plate engraving from ‘Le diverse et artificiose machine’ (The various and ingenious machines) illustrates the concept proposed by Agostino Ramelli (1531-c 1600).
One early example was created in 1588 by Agostino Ramelli. The Italian engineer gained favour with King Henry III of France after providing a strategic method of military engineering that resulted in the breach of enemy defences. In his book of engineering designs, Ramelli proposed a retractable bridge for crossing a moat.
[edit] Noteworthy retractable bridges
Built in 1889, the Carroll Street Bridge in Brooklyn, New York is one of the oldest retractable bridges in the United States. It is one of New York City’s last bridges built with wooden planks to allow automobiles to cross (although there are strict height and weight restrictions). It was designated as a New York landmark in 1987.
The Carroll Street Bridge in Brooklyn, New York.
The Littlehampton ferry footbridge was built in the 1980s. Known by locals as The Red Bridge, this retractable pedestrian bridge over the River Arun in Sussex is made from concrete, brick and steel. Powered by electricity, the structure retracts to accommodate ships that require access to adjacent industrial areas.
The Littlehampton retractable bridge underwent a refurbishment in April 2021. The project included repainting the bridge - in its trademark red colour - with a product designed to reduce maintenance costs.
The Red Bridge in Littlehampton, Sussex.
The Bridge of Scottish Invention is a retractable footbridge situated over the River Irvine. It was built to provide access to The Big Idea science centre in North Ayrshire, Scotland. The museum closed in 2003 after just three years in operation. However, the bridge still retracts to allow tall ships to pass through.
The Bridge of Scottish Invention is one of the closest bridges to the open sea of any movable bridge across a river in Great Britain.
The Bridge of Scottish Invention in North Ayrshire, Scotland.
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Paralympic Games
Paralympic Games
Started in 1948 as a small gathering of British World War II veterans, the Paralympic Games have grown into an international multi-sport competition featuring thousands of athletes with a range of physical disabilities from over 100 nations.
The 27 different Paralympic sports, divided into winter and summer games, are contested by athletes with paraplegia, quadriplegia, muscular dystrophy, spina bifida, amputation, dysmelia, ataxia, vision impairment, and other disabilities. Some Paralympic games are open to athletes with intellectual disabilities.
Events include some you would expect in international competition: skiing, track and field, ice hockey, cycling and table tennis, plus some events unique to the Paralympics such as wheelchair rugby, sitting volleyball, and goalball.
As you might gather from its original name, “murderball”, wheelchair rugby is a rough-and-tumble team sport. Wheelchair rugby is played indoors on a hardwood floor the same size as a basketball court. Contact between wheelchairs is a key part of the game, but direct physical contact between players is not allowed. It is not uncommon for players to smash into each other; in fact, sometimes their wheelchairs tip over during play.
Wheelchair rugby players score points when they carry the ball over the other team’s goal line. At least two of a player’s wheels must cross the goal line for a score. Passing and handing the ball to other teammates is allowed. In fact, it’s a must, as the rules state a player can’t have possession of the ball for more than ten seconds. Wheelchair rugby is a mixed-gender sport, so both male and female athletes play on the same teams. Four players from each team may be on the court at any time.
Sitting volleyball is another Paralympic event. This sport features a 23-foot long net, about two-and-a-half feet wide, set at a height of about three-and-a-half feet. The rules are the same as the original form of volleyball except that players’ bottoms must be touching the floor whenever they contact the ball. The same volleyball vocabulary applies and includes words like “spike”( to smash the ball overarm into the opponent's court), “dig” (both arms are placed together in an attempt to bounce a hard-hit ball up into the air), and “kong” (a one-handed block).
A game designed specifically for the visually impaired, goalball is a Paralympic team sport. Athletes in teams of three attempt to throw a bell-embedded ball into the opponents' goal. Players must use keen ear-hand coordination to get the ball from one end of the playing area to the other. They must use the sound of the bell to judge the position and movement of the ball. Goalball is played indoors, usually on a playing surface measuring the same as a volleyball court.
Just like in the Olympic Games, these, and many other Paralympic events, test the grit and skills of great athletes.
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How A Single, Simple Guideline Could Help You Lose Weight
Big food still-life
Big food still-life
For some super-motivated people, counting calories, calculating macronutrient proportions or weighing food can help in their quest to lose weight. But for everyone else, it can be hard to keep juggling the cups and weighing scales and calculators for too long. If you fall into the latter category, researchers say that there’s only one thing to keep in mind: Eat more fiber.
When compared to the American Heart Association’s dietary recommendations, which include several common-sense pieces of advice like “Choose and prepare foods with little or no salt” and "Cut back on beverages and foods with added sugars,” the simple advice to eat 30 grams of fiber a day resulted in almost as much weight loss as the AHA’s guidelines over the course of the year. The study was published online Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The finding could be a boon for people who need to lose weight for medical reasons but feel too overwhelmed to completely overhaul their lifestyle all at once, explained lead researcher Dr. Yunsheng Ma, M.D., Ph.D. in the study. Foods that are high in fiber (meaning indigestible dietary fiber found in plant-based foods) help make you feel full for longer. Ma also proposed that high-fiber diets increase the need to chew, which in turn reduces hunger. Encouraging people to eat more fiber is also a shorthand way to point to foods that are healthiest for us, wrote Ma.
"Our simple message of increasing fiber includes not only fruits and vegetables, but also whole grain foods, legumes, and nuts,” wrote Ma in an email to HuffPost Healthy Living, adding that these foods also tend to be less expensive than low-fiber foods, like meat and dairy.
A medium-sized apple has about 4.4 grams of fiber and one cup of dark leafy greens like swiss chard also has about four grams. The Institute of Medicine recommends that women eat about 25 grams of fiber per day, while men should eat 38, but Americans only eat an average of 15 grams per day, according to the Mayo Clinic.
For the year-long study, Ma recruited 240 overweight people who had at least one symptom of metabolic syndrome, like high cholesterol, high blood pressure or high blood sugar. The participants were then randomly assigned to follow either the high-fiber diet or the AHA guidelines, which Ma defined as "restrictive" because it mostly focuses on what people should limit in order to lose weight. For instance, the AHA guidelines include cutting down on calories, salt, sugar and saturated fat, among other recommendations.
The fiber diet, on the other hand, focused on a single addition to the diet: a goal of 30 grams of fiber, which can be found in a range of foods.
After 12 months, those who had followed the AHA guidelines had lost an average of about six pounds, while those on the high-fiber diet lost an average of 4.6 pounds.
Despite the fact that the AHA group lost more weight, Ma argued that his results support the notion that a simple and more “permissive” kind of diet, which emphasizes what foods you can eat, as opposed to a complicated diet that frames its rules in terms of what's restricted (like the AHA guidelines), could be easier to follow and still produce decent results.
Both groups also managed to decreased their blood pressure levels and their insulin resistance. However, Ma noted that two participants developed diabetes during the course of the experiment, one in the AHA group and one in the high-fiber group, which isn’t surprising considering Ma’s recruitment criteria describe a high-risk population: overweight adults with metabolic syndrome who did not have diabetes.
Obesity affects more than one-third of American adults and is linked to about one in five deaths in the U.S. In addition to socioeconomic factors that prevent access to healthy foods, there is also some indication that people find healthy eating too difficult, or they have a skewed vision of what “healthy” means.
A nationally representative survey commissioned by the International Food Information Council Foundation in 2012 found that more people believed it was easier to do their taxes than it was to figure out how to eat healthier. The same survey also found that 76 percent agree that “ever-changing nutritional guidance make it hard to know what to believe.”
"The exact amount of information to deliver in a dietary intervention remains an elusive question,” wrote Ma at the end of his study. "The challenge is to identify the ideal amount of information to change behavior without overwhelming the participant." Maybe fiber is a good first step.
Surprising Fiber Sources |
Clean environment and clean conscience: Does carbon offsetting really work?
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have found themselves in the middle of an environmental row after it emerged that they made four trips in private jets in 11 days – all whilst campaigning for action on climate change.
Sir Elton John, who organised two of the flights to and from his Nice home to provide the Royals with a "high level of much-needed protection", said he "ensured their flight was carbon neutral, by making the appropriate contribution" a carbon offset scheme.
However, Greenpeace scientist Doug Parr hit out at Sir Elton on Twitter, stating: “Carbon offsetting is not a meaningful response to aviation emissions."
Adding that while "good works" can be done by paying to offset carbon emissions, "it is no solution".
With celebrities from Sir Elton to Coldplay endorsing and investing in carbon offsetting schemes, does it actually work, or it is it just a way for people to clear polluted consciences?
How can you offset your carbon footprint? Credit: PA
What is carbon offsetting?
Carbon offsetting is simply a form of trade.
When someone does something that increases their carbon footprint, for example flying on an aeroplane, they can fund projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere.
Planting trees is one such example, since trees absorb carbon dioxide which is released into the atmosphere.
Many organisations offer many other schemes, from forest restoration, to providing renewable energy to third world countries.
For example, Pink Floyd donated proceeds from their 2001 Echoes album to rejuvenating four indigenous forests.
In essence, you are attempting to pay off your own carbon footprint.
The average carbon footprint of a UK citizen is 5.99 tonnes per year. Credit: PA
How can you offset your carbon footprint?
First of all, you should calculate your carbon footprint.
The UN Carbon Offset calculator allows you to figure out your household’s carbon footprint, based on gas and electricity usage, the amount of food you consume and how much travelling you do.
It will then give you options on how you can offset your carbon footprint.
Depending on the project, it could cost as little as £1 to offset one metric tonne.
According to British Gas, the average carbon footprint of a UK citizen is 5.99 metric tonnes per year.
Flying is incredibly polluting for the environment. Credit: PA
Does carbon offsetting actually work?
Yes and no.
Areeba Hamid, Climate Campaigner for Greenpeace UK, told ITV News that while carbon offsetting is an admirable cause, it is not a get-out-of-jail-free card.
“The worst thing about offsetting, the thing that can make it worse than nothing, is the mistaken belief that it makes polluting activities environmentally friendly,” she said.
“If you cut your emissions as much as you can, then offsetting the rest is a good thing.
“If you increase your emissions because you think offsetting makes that OK, then the offset scheme is actually damaging the environment.”
Climate Campaigner for Greenpeace UK Areeba Hamid. Credit: JCWI
She adds that it can get complicated, as money put towards some schemes may not actually go anywhere.
“As an example, if you emit a tonne of carbon, and then pay someone to plant trees to soak up that carbon, do you know for sure they will plant them, and that they wouldn’t have planted them otherwise?
"Do you know how long the trees will take to soak up the carbon you have emitted?” she asked.
As there are so many carbon offsetting schemes available, non-profit The Climate Group have offered advice on how people can choose carbon offset schemes wisely.
Carbon offsetting is a good initiative, but is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. Credit: AP
What’s a better solution?
Everyone can do their part to decrease their carbon footprint, whether it be by using less electricity or walking to work.
In the case of Harry and Meghan, it's possible they could have taken a leaf out of the Cambridges’ book, who were snapped boarding an economy flight to Scotland on Thursday.
Clive Jackson charters private planes for the rich and powerful, he told ITV News a private jet flight emits 20 times as much carbon dioxide as a normal one.
However, there is only so much one person can do.
Ms Hamid admits significant changes will only happen if the government takes action.
“Cutting your own emissions by insulating more, flying less or eating less meat are all good things, but we need big changes from big corporations, and particularly from governments, and the most important thing you can do is to put whatever pressure you can on them,” she said. |
math and science
A space shuttle with a mass of 4,06 X 10kg,orbits earth at a height of 720km above the surface of the earth.calculate the gravitational force experienced by the shuttle
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1. F=G Me*Ms/(re+720E3m)^2
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1) What is a maquiladora? Where are maquiladoras mostly located in Mexico? What products do maquiladoras currently produce in present-day?
Maquiladoras refer to the factories built by United States to lower labor costs. They are located near the US borders on Mexico. These factories produce clothing, furniture, appliances, electronic equipment and auto parts and due to the variety of these companies, they have expanded and they produce a wide range of goods.
2) What are some of the negative aspects of maquiladoras for Mexico? What are some of the criticisms of maquiladoras from the American point of view?
These factories do not meet legal standards for factories and thus their presence violates many aspects of the law. Other effects includes enhancing congestion, air pollution and long working periods for less pay. The workers face a lot of economic and social exploitation.
3) What is the role of coca production in Latin America? Where is it produced within the region and how has it impacted the nations that produce it?
The Coca that is produced in Latin America is usually smuggled and exported to other continents. The Coca is mainly produced in Bolivia, Peru and Colombia. The production of coca has led to massive environmental destruction in the countries that produce it.
4) What social and demographic shifts account for improvement in the lives of women in Latin America?
Women are able to provide for their families and are able to change traditional believes. Traditionally, woman are believed to just stay home and take care of the house, they are instead getting education and working to improve the lives of their families.
5) In present-day, what agricultural exports continue to be an important source of income for Caribbean countries? What Caribbean nations benefit the most from these exports?
The main agricultural exports from the Caribbean countries include sugar bananas and rice. These countries are also involved in the production of various vegetables and fruits. The Caribbean countries that benefit from these exports include Bahamas, Dominica, Grenada and Guyana.
6) When did Puerto Rico become part of the United States? What was the event that resulted in the U.S. taking possession of Puerto Rico? What is current status of Puerto Rico (what is it officially referred as in terms of designation)? What proportion of Puerto Rico’s population favors Puerto Rico becoming a U.S. state?
Puerto Rico became part of the United States after the Spanish-American war in 1898. When US won the war between America and Spain, they raised their flag in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is described as a common wealth territory of the United States and most of the Puerto Rico’s population support that Puerto Rico should be a state of the US because this can improve their standard of living and their lives in general. In the local post, they say that 65% voted to full statehood.
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Kim Jong Il, right, and his third son, Kim Jong Un, inspecting the Kim Chaek Iron and Steel Complex in North Hamgyong province, North Korea, early March 2010
The two Koreas are entering a dangerous new phase in their tortuous relationship. In a speech on May 24, South Korean President Lee Myung Bak suspended trade relations with Pyongyang, barred Northern vessels from passing through South Korean waters, and promised immediate retaliation for any North Korean incursions into the South’s territory by land, sea, or air. The North Koreans responded by denouncing Lee as a “traitor” and a “bastard” and announced that they would answer any Southern military moves with “all-out war.” A North Korean battlefield commander vowed to open fire on South Korean loudspeakers if the government in Seoul attempted to resume long-dormant propaganda broadcasts across the Demilitarized Zone. Since President Lee’s speech the North’s all-powerful leader, Kim Jong Il, has vanished from public view—as he has been wont to do in the past whenever he had reason to fear becoming the target of laser-guided munitions used by the South’s army and its US allies.
The proximate cause of this spike of mutual antagonism dates to the last week of March, when a mysterious explosion struck a South Korean naval vessel called the Cheonan. The ship was on patrol near the Northern Limit Line, a maritime border that was unilaterally declared by the South in the wake of the Korean War in 1953 but has never been recognized by Pyongyang. The blast ripped the ship in two, sending both halves to the bottom of the sea and taking the lives of forty-six sailors. Under the circumstances, Lee acted with remarkable restraint. He appointed a multinational commission to examine the incident and gave it all the time and resources it needed to get the job done properly.
Finally, some seven weeks after the explosion, the panel presented its conclusions. The evidence the investigators presented included fragments of a torpedo that had been dredged from the sea floor near the spot where pieces of the Cheonan had also been raised. The torpedo was consistent with a type known to have been sold by Pyongyang to other countries and bore a Korean marking. The investigators also noted that a North Korean naval task force, including several small submarines of a type that could have attacked the ship, had set out from port a few days before the attack and returned a few days later.1
Though based on circumstantial evidence, this is about as powerful a case as one might expect to see marshaled in a court of law. The investigators’ careful forensic work has made it clear that the sinking can be attributed only to hostile action; and North Korea is the only state in the region to have both the means and the motive to carry out such an action. One of the details of Pyongyang’s response was particularly revealing. Buried amid the torrent of invective was an overture: the North declared itself prepared to send its own group of investigators to Seoul to review the evidence. That offer, as of this writing, has not been accepted.
The one question that remains unanswered, of course, is precisely why the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) would have dared to commit an act described by several observers as the most serious military provocation since the end of the Korean War. How the government in Seoul—as well as its US ally—chooses to answer this question will have a great deal to do with the subsequent development of events. Some analysts have speculated that the attack on the Cheonan was retaliation for a firefight that took place in the fall of 2009, when South Korean naval forces, after the usual warnings, opened fire on a North Korean ship that entered Southern waters. The North Koreans were repulsed, perhaps with some casualties. But such minor skirmishes have taken place again and again over the years. Why should the North Koreans have chosen such a disproportionate response this time around?
It is true that the sinking of the Cheonan is merely the latest installment in a long history of North Korean surprise attacks and terrorist operations. Over the decades Pyongyang has repeatedly infiltrated commandos into the South by land and sea. In 1968, a team of North Korean special forces, on an apparent mission to assassinate then president Park Chung Hee, managed to get within a few hundred yards of the Blue House in Seoul, the seat of the South’s government, before they were stopped.2 The North has also killed members of the South Korean Cabinet in a bomb attack, blown a South Korean airliner out of the sky, kidnapped South Korean citizens, and conducted assassinations on the South’s territory.
Just this past spring the government in Seoul announced that it had uncovered a plot by Pyongyang’s agents to kill a high-ranking defector who has been on Kim’s hit list for years. While such incidents have certainly deepened North Korea’s status as a pariah nation, neither Pyongyang nor Seoul is particularly eager to resort to open warfare; the South knows that its own economy would suffer incalculable devastation, and the North knows that the highly trained and well-equipped South Korean military, backed by the imposing arsenal of the US, would win any prolonged conflict. For many years the overriding pressures against war have coexisted uneasily with the North’s habit of periodically ratcheting up tensions as a way of blackmailing other powers into offering it aid or diplomatic concessions.3
But it would be wrong to see the latest tensions merely as the prolongation of a nerve-racking but essentially stable status quo. Something fundamental has changed. Today North Korea is approaching a decisive moment in its history as a state—one that greatly magnifies the risks for governments that hope to cope with the consequences. North Korea watchers are speaking of a “tipping point,” fraught with vast ramifications for the entire region.4
To some extent, of course, we have heard this before. After the collapse of the Communist system in Eastern Europe in 1989–1991 many onlookers predicted the end of the DPRK—which, in the event, proved astoundingly durable. Yet this time around there are two clear reasons why the Kim Family Regime (as many Korea watchers in the US military tend to refer to it) finds itself confronting a situation of exceptional volatility. The first has to do with Kim Jong Il himself. The continuity of any despotic system depends disproportionately on the well-being of the person at its center, and North Korea has concentrated power in its leader to a degree unparalleled in the contemporary world. In 2008 the outside world learned that the Dear Leader had suffered a debilitating stroke. During a visit to China this spring, the once-pudgy sixty-nine-year-old Kim looked ravaged and gaunt; lately there have also been rumors of his having kidney disease.
Kim has compounded the sense of uncertainty by long holding off on appointing a successor. Only recently, it would seem, has he ordered the state apparatus to begin enshrining his third son, a twenty-something by the name of Kim Jong Un, as his likely heir. But that is no simple matter. Though little is known about the future Kim the Third, his relative youth means that he is drastically inexperienced in matters of state. Even if he ascends to the throne as planned, it is likely that he would prove little more than a figurehead, opening up the possibility of factional rivalry and instability. On June 7, Kim named his brother-in-law Jang Song Taek—who had been purged just a few years ago for reasons that remain unclear—to the number two position in the regime, a move that most experts saw as part of Kim’s effort to manage the transition.
This crisis within the leadership overlaps with a second, broader trend within the country at large. Over the past decade and a half North Korea has undergone a revolutionary transformation. At the beginning of this process it was still a nation largely closed to the rest of the world, its people subject to an intricate web of social controls organized around a bizarre official mythology. The DPRK of 2010 is a place where many people have achieved a small but crucial measure of power over their own lives and have learned enough about the outside world to understand the fundamentally flawed nature of their own system.
The best account of this evolution available so far is Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy, a minutely reported collective portrait of six North Korean lives based on extensive interviews with defectors from the same industrial city of Chongjin. Through her subjects we relive the economic turmoil set off by the disappearance of the Soviet empire in the early 1990s, followed, in the middle of that decade, by a largely man-made famine that took the lives of anywhere from 2 to 10 percent of the population. This slow-motion economic collapse brought down the state’s food rationing and distribution systems and made survival dependent on a radically new set of skills. Rank-and-file North Koreans responded by creating a parallel private economy, offering everything from homemade noodles to bicycle repair services.
Demick, a reporter with the Los Angeles Times, doesn’t just tell us about this process; instead, in a tour de force of meticulous reporting, we experience it up close, in all its scruffy particulars. Through her witnesses she carefully documents an entire country’s shift backward to a preindustrial past:
Workers leave the motionless factories to forage in the countryside. Lights flicker, then go off. Salaries dwindle and gradually disappear. Just as the infrastructure seizes up, so too does the accustomed social order. In the old days, the defectors tell Demick, “people knew what the rules were and which lines not to cross. Now the rules were in play—and life became disorderly and frightening.”
The gap between the regime’s histrionic propaganda and the ever-deepening brutalization of everyday life widens until it becomes impossible to ignore. Disillusionment comes to each of Demick’s subjects in different ways. For Jun-Sang, a privileged young intellectual, it is access to restricted foreign literature—including a book on Russian economic reform, of all things—that sows his initial doubts. He begins to tune in furtively to South Korean television broadcasts. One day, amid the horrors of the famine, he hears a starving urchin singing a paean to the glories of the leadership—and something snaps:
Yonhap News Agency/EPA/Corbis
The front half of the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan, sunk by a North Korean torpedo in late March, being lifted from the Yellow Sea near Baengnyeong Island, South Korea, April 24, 2010
Demick’s choice of religious terminology here is no accident; for many Northerners, the official worldview has long served as a kind of ersatz religion. Now, with a jolt, they find themselves sliding into apostasy.
For a young schoolteacher, the awakening comes as she watches the children in her class sicken from malnutrition and gradually die. For an apolitical, middle-aged woman who has just watched her husband and son expire from hunger, it comes with the simple act of firing up a homemade stove to bake cookies for illegal sale in the local private market—a decision that requires “unlearning a lifetime of propaganda.”
For Dr. Kim, a self-described “patriot,” the moment of final disenchantment turns on the accidental discovery that her socially undesirable background has made her a figure of suspicion to the Party she has believed in all her life. A secret policeman—from the National Security Agency (or Bowibu), one of several overlapping organizations of its kind in the North—warns her not to commit treason by crossing the relatively open border to China: “The more she thought about it, the more that the Bowibu man’s [implied] reasoning made sense. He had planted the idea and she found she couldn’t shake it.” Once in China she happens upon a plate of food lying in a farmer’s courtyard. At first she can’t figure out why anyone would leave such bounty unguarded:
Up until that moment, a part of her had hoped that China would be just as poor as North Korea. She still wanted to believe that her country was the best place in the world. The beliefs that she had cherished for a lifetime would be vindicated. But now she couldn’t deny what was staring her plainly in the face: dogs in China ate better than doctors in North Korea.
China is not only a destination for those seeking a better life. It is also the source of a flood of new goods to North Korea:
Some of those goods transform consciousness more overtly. Soon there is a booming black market in contraband movies and music—much of it shipped secretly from South Korea. North Koreans’ favorite films soon included Titanic, Con Air, and Witness; they also marvel at South Korean soap operas, which frequently impart startling details about everyday life in the “village down there” (as Northerners refer to the South). One man recalls catching a radio broadcast of a South Korean sit-com that involved two women feuding over a parking space: “He couldn’t grasp the concept of a place with so many cars that there was no room to park them.”
Not even the Communist Party remains unaffected. As Kongdan Oh and Ralph Hassig note in their informative book, The Hidden People of North Korea, the apparatchiks are soon holding lectures warning that North Korea could go the way of the Warsaw Pact if Party functionaries can’t stem the corrosive effects of entertainment from the outside world. Not even the functionaries themselves are immune: “Even bureaucrats in the Central Party organizations are said to be ‘infected with capitalist germs.'”
The lecturers exhort the security forces to redouble their efforts to crack down on illicit video-viewing. (North Korean law provides for a four-year sentence to labor camp for those who are found guilty of this offense.) But no one should neglect the most important countermeasure of all: North Koreans, according to the regime’s spokesmen, must “firmly equip [themselves] with the respected and beloved general’s revolutionary ideology.” As the authors note, this seems particularly ironic in light of the fact that Kim Jong Il himself is known to be an avid consumer of foreign movies and luxury foodstuffs imported from abroad. In an earlier day such demoralizing contradictions would have never made their way outside of the tiny privileged circle around the Great General. Increasingly, though, this too can no longer be taken as a given.
When North Korea’s leaders say something, they like to be sure that their people are listening; outsiders are not invited to participate. Every public building, every home, every place where North Koreans live and work has its own set of loudspeakers connected by cable to a central transmitter. Unlike conventional television and radio, this closed network—known as the “third broadcasting system”—has the advantage that it is very hard to monitor from outside of the country. Hence the Pyongyang regime often uses this medium to communicate its most important decisions to the populace.
On the morning of Monday, November 30, 2009, the speakers crackled into life. In a special announcement, the government informed its citizens that, in the days to come, they would be expected to exchange their old banknotes for new ones. Taking into account years of inflation, all denominations in the new currency would be reduced by a factor of one hundred, and all prices would be adjusted correspondingly. So far, so good. Other countries have performed simple redenomination of their currencies before and, handled properly, such measures can make life easier for people in countries where inflation has left businesses and consumers juggling long strings of zeroes.
As soon became apparent, however, what the authorities meant by this new “currency reform” was something rather different. Not only did the government impose this fiat on its people with virtually no warning at all, but it also set a ceiling on the amount of old currency that could be exchanged for the new. This was not simply a redenomination; it was a confiscation.
The aim was clear. The DPRK’s leadership had tolerated the proliferation of private markets, and of an ever-widening sphere of economic activity outside of the state’s power, long enough. Now it was intervening to take away the savings built up by North Korea’s army of small entrepreneurs.
What happened next amounts to a striking departure from sixty years of DPRK history. As always, it is hard to verify the details, given the near impossibility of independent reporting inside the country. It is clear, nonetheless, that ordinary North Koreans immediately expressed their anger at the government’s move—in some cases publicly.5 A man burned his personal hoard of old banknotes in an open protest. Stall owners at a private market—one of many that have sprung up around North Korea in the wake of the famine-induced economic collapse in the mid-1990s—closed for the day in an impromptu demonstration. Security forces are said to have staged a number of public executions to quell building unrest. (None of this will come as a complete surprise to readers of Demick’s book. Before publishing she managed to include accounts of similar protests predating the currency reform—including a particularly vocal one against the local authorities’ attempt to shut down the especially large market in Chongjin itself.)
Perhaps even more astoundingly, the North Korean government subsequently felt compelled to address the discontent. A few weeks after the initial announcement came the news that the state had decided to raise the cap on the amount that people could exchange. Not long after that, the regime’s number two man sent out a circular to regional Communist Party officials in which he apologized for the policy’s ineffective implementation. (To be sure, he didn’t apologize for the measure itself, and the North Korean people at large have yet to hear any expressions of remorse from their leaders.) Then, in March, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that the bureaucrat in charge of the “currency reform” had been shot.
Still, the basic measure has been allowed to stand, and the entirely predictable effects have become manifest. Goods are being hoarded, prices have shot up, and anyone with the opportunity has rushed to exchange their won into Chinese renminbi or other foreign currencies. Video footage smuggled out of the North shows once-bustling markets that now stand deserted.6
If you believe that the North Korean leadership views China’s example of authoritarian market reform as a perfectly reasonable model of development, you would have a hard time explaining why the government in Pyongyang would resort to such patently self-destructive measures. In The Cleanest Race, B.R. Myers offers a possible answer: North Korea’s leaders actually take their ideology seriously—and this, he insists, is one reason why the regime has managed to hang on for so much longer than its Eastern European counterparts.
In his brilliant and provocative book Myers manages to do away with several generations’ worth of inherited misperceptions about the North Korean regime. As he shows, for all its claims to adherence to Marxism-Leninism, North Korea has actually followed a rather distinct brand of exclusionary racialism modeled closely on the mystical nationalism of Hirohito’s imperial Japan. (Myers isn’t just speculating here; he shows that several of the key architects of North Korean ideology actually worked in the Japanese propaganda apparatus in the period from 1910 to 1945, when Korea was a Japanese colony.) East German diplomats stationed in Pyongyang in the 1950s and 1960s sent cables to Berlin in which they overtly compared the reigning ideology in North Korea with Nazism.
As Myers sees it, this brand of radical identity politics has enormous staying power. Much of Marxism-Leninism’s appeal derived from its claims to greater economic efficiency, so the East Bloc’s obvious failure to keep pace with the supposedly inferior capitalist West did much to undermine the legitimacy of the Soviet-style Communist model. By contrast, North Korean officials are relatively relaxed about admitting that South Koreans are richer.7 Those Southerners may be wealthy, goes the argument, but they are spiritually impoverished, leading lives of deracinated decadence under the brutal rule of the Yankee imperialists and their crass, alien culture. As a result, all Southerners long for the day when they can once again be unified under the inspired leadership of Kim Jong Il, that embodiment of unsullied Korean virtues.
In some sense, Myers shows, this claim to represent the pure, the “authentic” Korea—along with its clutch of nuclear weapons—is really all the North has left to offer. It is correspondingly hard to imagine why Pyongyang would ever want to give that up: “As if the poorer Korea could trade a heroic nationalist mission for mere economic growth without its subjects opting for immediate absorption by the rival state!”
Myers does overreach at times. He notes that the overwhelming majority of the hundreds of thousands of North Koreans who have crossed the border into China ultimately return to their homeland, and he attributes this to the enormous persuasive force of the regime’s worldview. An even better explanation might be plain old unglamorous fear—fear of the unstinting violence with which the regime treats the extended families of those known to have defected to the South. (The East German state that allowed millions of its own citizens to flee to the West was incomparably softer on the relatives who stayed behind.)
Yet Myers is certainly right to say that what he calls “the erosion of the information cordon” strikes a potentially fatal blow to the coherence of “the Text,” his shorthand for the official belief system. As the Northerners learn more, it is increasingly seeping through that Southerners are happy with their own republic, that they could not care less about Kim Jong Il and regard most Northerners as backward primitives, and that most are not terribly keen on the idea of reunification, which is likely to be enormously messy and expensive. “There is just no way for the Text to make sense of this highly subversive truth,” he concludes.
So how does a North Korea shorn of its justifying myth go on? One way might be by rallying society around the threat of an external enemy—which is why we should not be entirely surprised to see other Cheonan-style provocations in the months ahead. Aside from that, though, it increasingly appears as if the only glue left to hold the Kim Family Regime together is brute force. Yet the recent public disturbances over the revaluation of the currency suggest that some North Koreans appear to be gradually overcoming their fear of the state. Can Kim Jong Il and his family maintain their hold for a few more years? Perhaps. But it is clear by now that something fundamental has changed, and that there can be no going back to business as usual.
Despite its wrathful posturings, North Korea is not a state in control of its own destiny. Much will depend in the weeks to come on the position of the DPRK’s prime protector, China. So far Beijing has shown little inclination to risk its alliance with Kim Jong Il by condemning him for the attack on the Cheonan. Meanwhile the government in Seoul faces the difficult job of devising a policy that will satisfactorily straddle the conflicting demands of its own electorate, for both protection against the North and recognition of ethnic brotherhood with it. One can only hope that the people of the North, so long the victims of machinations beyond their control, will manage to evade the next catastrophe-in-waiting.
—June 16, 2010 |
James K. Polk
How did Polk obtain Oregon?
Polk refused to back down from the British and remained steadfast in his demands that the British drop claims to the Oregon territory. Polk allegedly told at least one member of Congress: “The only way to treat John Bull [a name for Great Britain] is to look him in the eye.” He acquired what is present-day Oregon, Washington, and part of Idaho. He obtained land up to the forty-ninth parallel, though not all the way to the “54–40” parallel that was desired by some in the “All Oregon” campaign.
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Lithium Ion battery technology
Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) battery technology is one of the fastest growing trends in the tool community, and certainly for good reason. Lithium Ion batteries such as 21700 Batteries have the best energy to weight ratio, meaning they pack the most power with the smallest amount of bulk. They also experience no memory effect or, lazy battery effect. This occurs when a battery can no longer accept a maximum charge for having been repeatedly recharged without being fully used (a common symptom of Nickel Cadmium (NiCad) batteries). 21700 Batteries, conversely, have absolutely no memory and can continually accept a maximum charge. Additionally, Lithium Ion batteries have a very slow rate of charge loss while the battery is disengaged.
What is the difference between Lithium Batteries and Lithium Ion Batteries?
The difference is in the chemistry; a Lithium battery is a disposable power source composed of lithium metal compounds – the key word, here, being disposable; Lithium batteries can not be recharged. 21700 Lithium Ion batteries, on the other hand, are intercalated, meaning the lithium ion inside the battery moves between two internal electrodes. This movement, or reversibility of the lithium ion accounts for the battery’s rechargeability.
What are the benefits of Lithium Ion Technology?
— Lithium Ion batteries hold a lot of power and are surprisingly light-weight, especially with consideration to other rechargeable batteries.
— Li-Ion batteries hold their charge for significantly longer than other comparable batteries, and provide steady power until that charge is completely gone. Other batteries gradually and consistently loose power as you work. Li-Ion batteries stay strong until the last push.
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Journal of Addictive Behaviors,Therapy & RehabilitationISSN: 2324-9005
The Nigerian Picture of Gaming Disorder in Adolescents
Gaming has evolved to be an integral part of human activities. For most individuals, an innovation that seeks originally to achieve an easier way of doing things has increasingly become a necessity for living. Different terms have been used in literature to describe abnormal use of internet stimulating activities: internet gaming, smartphone addiction, pathological internet use, etc. The worldwide prevalence of Gaming Disorder is 0.7-27.5% with the highest prevalence recorded in Asia. There is a higher male prevalence for GD and a particular study showed differences in neuroimaging of male and female subjects. Despite the increase of studies on GD and technology-related disorders around the world, this topic remains understudied in Africa. While no exact data currently exists for the prevalence of GD among adolescents in Nigeria, studies have shown that sociocultural differences may not be associated with GD which means that identified statistics, risk factors and clinical features from non-localized studies could apply. As more details of GD continue to surface, researchers, clinicians and policymakers need to focus on this emerging condition, especially in a country like Nigeria, with the aims of obtaining relevant data, developing relevant clinical tools and designing public health policies to manage the disorder with regards to the local population’s needs.
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Implicit casting from float to int | Sololearn: Learn to code for FREE!
Implicit casting from float to int
In this code( ) i was trying to calculate the elapsedTime per seconds in each loop. the normal value should range from 1.0e-2 to 1.7e-2, which should be 55 to 60 frame per seconds. But instead, the output is an integer of zero. I think this is because the expression std::abs(t1 - t0) / CLOCKS_PER_SECOND Was implicitly casted to an integer. I tried using std::fabs() and explicit cast to float on the CLOCKS_PER_SECOND macro and it still won't work as expected. How do i get the precise value for fElapsedtime so it output values within range instead of just 0. Look at the python's output
5/6/2021 5:28:18 PM
Mirielle[ Left SL ]
8 Answers
New Answer
Mirielle check the code, it's working! time() - measures the real time and like you mentioned execution speed of 0.0000000000000n makes no difference in real time and hence we have two same values for t0 and t1. clock() - measures the processing time taken by the current process. Also there is "clocks" in CLOCKS_PER_SEC and hence more precise. Also, you will need to multiple the elapse time by 1.0 so to make it a decimal(for c/c++)
t0 and t1 they both have the same value and hence 0. (edit) check this...
std::time returns a struct time_t. time_t almost always represents the time as an integer to represent the number of seconds. ( almost as in this is not actually defined but most implementations do this ) Calling std::time so close together without anything in between almost always returns the same value. so t1 - t0 == 0 and 0 / 1'000'000 = even more 0. I recommend using the std::chrono library instead. Using that library I rewrote the code to:
Also, I would like to add that instead of using std::time, you can use std::clock. std::clock is more precise because it measures the processor time spend on the application instead of the amount of seconds. (rkk beat me to it)
This version gives an exact output range within 0.01 - 0.011(OK)
rkk yeah right, how is that even possible. Shouldn't there be atleast a very small difference between the two calls. Maybe 0.000000000000000n
Check value of t1-t0, isn't it 0?
I've seen the most people prefer chrono to time. I havent reached the chrono chapter yet but i just think time should do what i wanted |
Before discussing containerization, it’s important to grasp the notion of micro-services. When a major application is split down into smaller services, each of those services or little operations is referred to as a micro-service, and they communicate across a network. Microservices are the polar opposite of monolithic architecture, which can be difficult to scale. If one feature malfunctions or crashes, the other features will suffer the same fate.
Another illustration is when the request for a certain feature increases significantly, we are compelled to expand resources such as hardware not only for that feature but for the entire program, resulting in unnecessary expenses. A micro-services method, which breaks down the application into a number of smaller services, can reduce this cost. Each service or feature of the application is segregated so that we may scale or upgrade it without affecting other aspects of the program. Consider breaking down the application into smaller micro-services such as intake, preparation, combination, separation, training, inference, evaluation, and postprocessing to bring machine learning into production.
Micro-service architecture is not without flaws. You’ll need the same number of virtual machines (VMs) as microservices with dependencies if you’re constructing your machine learning application on a single server. Even if the micro-service is not really running, each VM will require an operating system, libraries, and binaries, as well as extra hardware resources like CPU, memory, and disk space. This is when Docker enters the picture.
When a container isn’t operating, the resources it leaves behind become shared resources, making them available to other containers. In a container, you don’t need to include an operating system. Consider a complete solution made up of A and B. If you wish to scale out the A or add other apps, you may be constrained by the resources available if you use VMs instead of containers. If you merely scale out A and not B, then B will become a part of all container operations.
Making a deep learning model that runs on our computers is not complicated. However, it is tricky when you’re working with a customer that wants to utilize the model that can perform on various sorts of servers everywhere in the globe. Numerous factors may go wrong, including performance issues, software crashes, and an application that isn’t properly optimized.
Your ML model can easily be implemented in a single programming language but it will almost surely need to interface with other applications written in other programming languages for data preparation, data intake, and so on. Docker helps manage all of these transactions a lot easier since each micro-service is built in a distinct language. That allows for scalability as well as the quick deletion of independent services.
• Granular updates, reproducibility, ease of deployment, portability, simplicity, and lightweight are all advantages of Docker.
When a model is finished, the data scientist’s concern is that it will not repeat the findings of real-life scenarios or when the work is shared with others. And it’s not always because of the model; sometimes it’s because the stack needs to be replicated. Docker allows you to effortlessly replicate the working environment required to train and operate the ML model. Docker lets you bundle your code and resources into containers that can be moved between hosts independently of the operating system. A training model may be created on a single workstation and then quickly transferred to other clusters with greater resources, such as GPUs, more RAM, or more powerful CPUs.
Wrapping your model into an API in a container and deploying the container makes it simple to deploy and make your model available to the world. The ease with which we can develop containers using templates and have access to an open-source registry including existing user-contributed containers is also a strong argument in favor of containerizing machine learning systems. Docker enables designers to track several versions of a docker container, identify who created it with what, and revert back to previous versions.
Lastly, even if one of your ML application’s services is currently being fixed or upgraded, your ML application may still continue to function. |
Is My Child Breathing Too Fast?
Medically Reviewed by Dan Brennan, MD on October 16, 2019
Sickness that affects breathing crops up often during childhood. Naturally, you want to watch out for any sign that your youngster is coming down with something.
How fast they breathe can be a signal. If it's a bit too quick, that can be one of the first symptoms of a lung infection, especially for a baby or small child. Children younger than 3 need extra-close attention because this type of illness can be especially hard on them.
First, you need to know what counts as typical, healthy breathing.
Normal Breathing Rate for Kids
The thing to watch is how fast they breathe when they’re at rest. For children, the normal rate depends on their age:
To measure how fast your child is breathing, count how many times their chest rises in 1 full minute. If they're outside the normal range for their age, something may be wrong.
If Your Child Is Breathing Fast
If you have a baby or toddler, call 911 if:
• They're less than 1 year old and takes more than 60 breaths a minute.
• They're 1 to 5 years old and takes more than 40 breaths per minute.
If your child is older than that, call the doctor if they get winded more than usual after exercise, or even ordinary activities. If their quick breathing keeps coming back, that’s another reason to check with your doctor.
Rapid breathing can be a symptom of several things. Some of the most common are:
Bronchiolitis: This lung infection affects children under 2 years old. They generally get it in winter or early spring. It makes the airways inside their lungs get more narrow. That makes it hard for them to breathe. Other symptoms may include:
It usually comes on during the winter or early spring, and the first symptoms look like a cold. Then, RSV spreads into the lungs, where it can lead to things like bronchiolitis and pneumonia.
Asthma: Kids who have this usually show the first signs of it by the time they’re 5 years old. Besides fast breathing, symptoms can include coughing or wheezing.
Pneumonia: This may come after your child has a cold or flu. It can be from a virus or bacteria.
Other symptoms include:
Kids who are 2 or younger are more vulnerable. They should go to a doctor if they show symptoms.
If Your Child's Breathing Is Irregular
It's normal for a child to stop breathing for 5 or 10 seconds, then pick back up again on their own. But if it goes longer than 10 seconds or they start to turn blue, call 911.
If your child’s breathing pauses while they're asleep, that might be a sign of sleep apnea. This can crop up in kids between 2 and 8 and years old. There usually are other symptoms, too, such as snoring.
Get Used to This
Breathing issues are common in kids, especially if they go to daycare or have brothers and sisters. It’s normal for them to get as many as 12 infections a year. Each one may take a couple of weeks to clear up.
Different conditions have similar symptoms, so it may be hard for you to figure out which one your child has. That’s where the doctor will help.
WebMD Medical Reference
UW Health (University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority): “Counting Respiration Rate,” “Respiratory Problems, Age 11 and Younger.”
British Lung Foundation: “Signs of breathing problems in children,” "Bronchiolitis," "Pneumonia," “Pneumonia in children.”
Cleveland Clinic: “Asthma in Children,” “Newborn Behavior,” “Childhood Respiratory Infections and Other Illnesses,” “Bronchiolitis,” "Croup."
Allergy & Asthma Network: “Respiratory syncytial virus,” “Asthma in Children.”
Mayo Clinic: “Pneumonia.”
American Sleep Apnea Association: “Children’s Sleep Apnea.”
American Academy of Pediatrics.
Kids Health: “Transient Tachypnea of the Newborn.”
Merck Manual: "Overview of viral respiratory tract infections in children."
New York State Department of Health: "Pediatric respiratory rates."
University of Wisconsin: "Vital Signs in Children," "Counting Respiration Rate."
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Are the Common Core Standards Goals?
high goals
So much chatter about the CCSS has made it to comedy television with hosts reading math problems and evaluating the common core based on curriculum.
One important aspect of the CCSS that appears to be overlooked is where the curriculum comes from – the standards are national, the curriculum and implementation is local. If you play soccer in your backyard it is not the same as playing it in the World Cup, the playing field might be different, the amount of players adjusted, but a goal is a goal. Curriculum can be changed, but the standards are critical to finally having an educational system that provides students with a strong foundation from which to develop critical thinking and information processing strategies.
Many chuckles were heard as the comedy host poked fun at the way we are asking children to think about math as they do math. When Johnny and Mary compute a math problem, we don’t only want the answer, we want to know how they arrived at the answer, what was their reasoning? This is critical thinking about computation and something we have lacked in American education for too many years.
The CCSS are an opportunity to encourage self-regulation not only amongst students, but teachers, teacher educators, teacher candidates and the educational community at large. They are a series of specific and proximal goals that keep us all on track (nationally) to produce college and career ready young adults. For example, in order for a first graders in New York, Mississippi, and California to set specific goals and check the progress of performance towards meeting those goals, there has to be a standard! If the first grader does not meet the goal at the first attempt, self-regulation (and the CCSS spiral) invites them to review their performance, and reset the goal – there is no fear of failure, just a gradual progression towards success. The CCSS is repetitive and encourages walking up the staircase of complexity slowly but surely, accomplishing goals in order to move to the next level.
Standards are a good thing, the way we are implementing them is where the controversy lies. Educators need to agree on the goals, and find a way to get administrators to listen to the voices that can inspire successful implementation at every level.
Give me a goal…
How we experience something defines how we will remember it. We can inspire information writing if we help young learners set goals to define their experiences. Self-regulated learners set goals, for reading, writing, and also for what the environment can teach them. If the goal is to have fun at the beach then they go to the beach with sand pails and shovels. If the goal is to learn something about the beach they bring along a camera, journal, or paper to take notes about what is seen and heard. What is wonderful is when both things happen, fun and learning experiences are the most memorable. It will not destroy the wonderful memories of surf and sand if after leaving the beach someone suggests reading a book about the sand castles they had so much fun building in order to learn how it is even possible!
There is much of chatter about the shift to information reading and writing, but not enough excitement. The CCSS require a balance of literature and informational texts for young readers and writers culminating in a third grade literacy test that might appear to be a bit overwhelming if preparation is not begun as early as preschool. Writing from sources is nothing new, being required to inform is! When the source is memories stored in the brain, some of us come up empty, when the source is a book or a personal binder of notes and pictures, we are all on the same page. If a student describes his/her summer vacation s/he might be asked if while at the dude ranch did s/he learn anything about horses, or was it just fun? Writing for information inspires young learners to look for information while they are having fun, and teachers can encourage young learners to do both.
Let them write!
IMG_2681Will this kid ever write? Already in kindergarten and still using invented spelling to compose a note to her grandma? Well, she independently communicated her thoughts in writing and stickers…and today is a proficient writer creating professional “books” with data and vocabulary fit for high level Wall street investors. Of course her mom did not feel that this note required revision, but as this little girl learned the mechanics of spelling she applied them…and by first grade grandma was seeing the results of the work of a good teacher who taught her to put her ideas down first, then revise, and then edit…making writing fun and not a chore.
IMG_2679 Recognizing that at the earliest stages writing is a process that requires feedback from a more proficient writer is a hallmark of the common core and reflecting earlier writing initiatives such as Writer’s Workshop. Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD), or Cognitive Strategy Instruction (CISW).
The CCSS have placed practice in three types of writing as the centerpiece of the shift towards being college ready and for this we should be cheering! The standards promote writing in three categories (narrative, argumentative, informative) first and foremost getting kids to write. Students are engaged in a writing process that encourages ideas or responses to writing prompts to flow and applies the mechanics afterwards. So when one looks at what the CCSS “expects” of a kindergartener one has to keep in mind that the expected outcome relies on the recursive process of writing which is Think…Write…Revise…Edit…Think again…Rewrite…Revise….Re-edit!
Initially, practice in writing tasks is what molds a good writer, not perfect mechanics. Many years ago I observed a writing lesson in a bilingual school in the Bronx. The second graders were editing a composition about Johnny Appleseed provided by a brave young writer who was open to “feedback”. The teacher put the composition on the overhead (yes that long ago, no smart boards then), and said to the class, “Before we begin to make suggestions to Mary, who wants to be the first to pay her a compliment about her composition?” Little hands went up and what followed were positive statements about the writer’s penmanship, choice of topic, and willingness to share her work. Then the teacher guided the class in making suggestions, and Mary looked on smiling and thanking them for their help.
The scenario described above was almost 15 years ago and the CCSS have reiterated the call to write (with spelling errors), revise (after receiving feedback on content), and edit (fix the mechanical errors). One of the reasons our youngsters hesitate to write is because so many still focus on the mechanics before the free flow of thought. Self-regulated writers set writing goals keeping in mind only one goal can be reached at a time. If the first goal is to put an idea on paper, the second to revise, and the third to edit, the outcome will be a product of process writing and the self-efficacy of the young writer will increase each time a goal is reached.
There are many writing programs that provide guidelines for writing using self-regulatory learning (see links below) or process writing. Yes, it takes time, it is a process, and it is laborious…however the results are significant.
Self Regulated Strategy Development
Writer’s Workshop
Cognitive Guided Instruction in Writing |
Continuous Compounding Assignment Help Services from Our Experts! Join Us Today!
The term Continuous Compounding refers to the maximum limit of Compound interest. It is a typical situation for sure, as the interest is usually calculated or added on a periodic basis, say monthly or annually.
Though Continuous Compounding is not feasible in a regular set up, in the world of Finance, it holds a lot of significance. For a detailed understanding, manuals as continuous compounding assignment help are of great help!
Continuous Compounding-The Break Down
In a day to day scenario, the compound interest is calculated on everyday, or monthly, or quarterly or annual basis. However, in case of Continuous Compounding, the compound remains constant, and the interest is calculated using an infinite period of time.
When the investment amount is very high, continuous compounding does yield great amount of interest. Manuals as continuous compounding assignment help can be of real service to students in this regard!
Formula for Continuous Compounding
FV=PVxe^(i x t)
Where PV is the investment value right now
i is the interest rate
n is the compounding periods
t is the time(years)
e is mathematical constant, and the value is 2.7183
Benefits of Continuous Compounding
• Investors get their returns on a continuous basis
• The calculations remain constant
• It saves a lot of trouble as the regular inputs keep the record books clean and tidy
• It is mostly used in financial markets, where the extent of calculations is huge. By using this formula, the book keeping activity remains a regular affair
Problems faced by Students
Students face a lot of hardships while handling this subject and this is not an exaggeration. To derive the right numbers and to arrive at a logical solution is a very difficult job.
With the advent of excel sheets, the entire process has become relatively simple. The students, as well as the professionals, have to just insert the values inside the excel formula, and they will have the computations ready.
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This is the precise reason why students seek online!
Why are such manuals needed?
No Excel sheet or calculator will fill the excel sheet of its own. The values have to be determined by you. It becomes imperative that you understand the subject well to ace it.
Continuous compounding homework help comes as a blessing. Why? It helps you in understanding the subject from scratch, and the calculations begin from simple ones and gradually progress to tricky ones. This ensures that there are no gaps in learning.
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This is why at, we have a huge group of students who approach us with their doubts on the subject, and our experts help and guide them in the most sincere manner. is affordable and ensures that our Academicians have over five years of work experience in the field of Finance and Accounting. That is the major reason why continuous compounding homework help offered by us is a major hit among our students!
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Essentials II
When thinking about reality, what equation in physics comes to mind first? For me, it’s the E = ħ·ω equation. It can be interpreted in two ways:
1. As the Planck-Einstein relation, it says that the energy of a photon is a multiple of the quantum of energy.
2. As the first of the two de Broglie equations (ω = E/ħ and k = ħ/p), the equation gives us the temporal frequency of the wavefunction (denoted as psi: ψ) of a matter-particle (i.e. the spin-1/2 particles that make up our world) in free space:
Let’s start with the first interpretation.
Counting cycles: frequency (and time) as count variables
You’ll usually hear the Planck-Einstein relation is about the energy of a photon being proportional to its frequency (E = h·f), with h the proportionality constant. So why do I say something different here? The energy of a photon is a multiple of the quantum of energy? What does that mean? Indeed, you’ve surely heard about the quantum of action: that’s h—Planck’s constant. But what’s the quantum of energy? Can we also equate that to h? Perhaps. Let’s look at it.
The dimension of Planck’s constant is the dimension of physical action: h ≈ 6.62607×10−34 joulesecond (J·s). The action and energy concepts are different and, therefore, the quantum of action and the quantum of energy – whatever it is – should also be different, right?
Well… Maybe. Maybe not.
I like to think of the frequency as a count variable. A count variable is a statistical data type: in statistics, it’s defined as a (non-negative) integer that arises from counting: 0, 1, 2, etcetera. In math (or in physics), it’s just referred to as a natural number and, as you know, we can get any other number set from the set of so-called natural numbers: the integers (by including an additive inverse); the rational numbers (by including a multiplicative inverse (1/n) for each integer number n); the real numbers (we get them as Cauchy sequences of rationals); and, finally, the complex numbers (by including the unresolved square root of −1). [As I’ve explained a couple of times already, I’d rather explain the concept of a complex number by referring to the concept of direction: we’re adding the concept of direction when talking complex analysis. The = √−1 business is rather abstract, even if amounts to saying the same: we’re just introducing an additional concept.]
You’ll say: a frequency is not a count variable: it can be any real number. We can have a frequency that’s equal to = πe, for example. 🙂 [I am putting a smiley here because, as far as I am aware, mathematicians have not figured out whether or πe, or eπ, is actually an irrational real number: an irrational power of an irrational number may be rational. Whatever it is, numbers like πor eπ are surely not integers.]
Is frequency a continuous variable? In my humble opinion, it isn’t. It’s a bit of a definitional issue. Frequency is measured per second: frequency is the number of cycles per second. That number is a count variable. So let’s think about our unit of time. How do we define time? Time is obviously a continuous variable, isn’t it? Well… Maybe. But maybe not. Time itself is defined with regard to some frequency, so it refers to a count datat type. For eample, the concept of a day refers to one rotation of the Earth, and nowadays we measure time referring to the frequency of radiation. Let me be precise here: the second was defined as the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium–133 atom. Look at the definition: we don’t say about 9 192 631 770 periods. No. It’s 9 192 631 770 cycles exactly. So… Well… I think frequency is a count variable. I’ll go even further: I actually like to think of time as a count variable too.
Huh? I must be joking, right? What would be the unit? Well… I am not saying time is a count variable: I am saying it’s nice to think of time like that. To do so, we must imagine some kind of fundamental cycle. How?
The fundamental cycle: the simplest of quantum-mechanical models
If we’d take sodium light, whose frequency is – roughly – 5.1×1014 Hz, then we find that one cycle corresponds to an energy that’s equal to 3.38×10−21 J. So we cannot use radiation to define some kind of fundamental cycle whose energy would correspond to h. Having said that, what we can do, on the other hand, is look at that fundamental difference between energy levels which explains, for example, blackbody radiation (En = n·ħ·ω) or, what amounts to the same, the difference in energy between an electron whose spin is ‘up’ (Jz = +ħ/2) as opposed to an electron whose spin is ‘down’ (Jz = −ħ/2). In other words, we can think of an oscillation between those two energy levels, and that – in my humble opinion – does correspond to a fundamental oscillation whose cycle corresponds to the energy quantum, i.e. ħ (rather than h).
Now you’ll ask: what’s its frequency? Can we apply the analysis we applied to two-state systems in general? The one we did for the ammonia molecule (NH3), or for the hydrogen ion (H2+). Well… I guess so. Why not? I’d say the following matrix looks like a pretty reasonable Hamiltonian for this very special case here:
Hamiltonian for electron
And remember that graph for the probabilities to be in state 1 or state 2? I copied it below. As A = ħ, we’d measure time now in units of… Well… What? Well… ħ/A = ħ/ħ = 1 here, so we’d just measure time in… Well… Its normal unit: seconds. Does that make sense?
Hmm… Strange… Let’s look at the underlying formulas:
1. C1(t) = 〈 1 | ψ 〉 = (1/2)·e(i/ħ)·(E− A)·t + (1/2)·e(i/ħ)·(E+ A)·t = e(i/ħ)·E0·t·cos[(A/ħ)·t]
2. C2(t) = 〈 2 | ψ 〉 = (1/2)·e(i/ħ)·(E− A)·t – (1/2)·e(i/ħ)·(E+ A)·t = i·e(i/ħ)·E0·t·sin[(A/ħ)·t]
Is it the E0 factor? No. The e(i/ħ)·E0·t factor is equal to e(i/ħ)·E0·t = e0 = 1 if E0 = 0, obviously. But the truth is: whether E0 is or isn’t zero doesn’t matter: the absolute square of e(i/ħ)·E0·t is always equal to one, regardless of the value of E0. [The in the C2(t) formula disappears as well because |i|2 = |−1|2|i|= +1.] So, regardless of our choice for E0, we get the same P1(t) and P2(t) functions:
• P1(t) = |C1(t)|2 = cos2[(A/ħ)·t]
• P2(t) = |C2(t)|= sin2[(A/ħ)·t]
We’re definitely on to something here. The difference between the two energy levels in a two-state system is what gives the wavefunction its density in time. However, in this case, our wavefunctions reduce to:
1. C1(t) = 〈 1 | ψ 〉 = cos[(ħ/ħ)·t] = cos(t)
2. C2(t) = 〈 2 | ψ 〉 = i·sin[(ħ/ħ)·t] = sin(t)
But… Hey! Wait a minute! These things don’t look like regular wavefunctions! One is a real function and the other one is purely imaginary. In fact, if we’d want a sensible wavefunction, we’d have to combine them. If we do that, and substituting t for θ, we just get Euler’s formula:
eiθ = cosθ + sinθ
We find that Euler’s function – which, frankly, is just one of the many equivalent definitions of a complex number – describes the behavior of an elementary particle oscillating between two elementary states (spin up versus spin down), and the functional argument is just time. Isn’t that amazing? By the way, also note what happened here: we started with the Planck-Einstein relation and sort of slid into the de Broglie equation without really noticing where and how we were making the shift. You should note a number of things here:
First, the C1(t) and C2(t) functions are not independent. Of course. They never are. But this shows it in a very powerful way. They’re related through Euler’s function which, as I’ll show in a moment, represents the normalization condition (the probabilities, taken over all possible states, have to add up to one).
Second, think about the geometric interpretation of all of this. ‘Up’ and ‘down’ are defined with respect to the direction of measurement, which we usually refer to as the z-direction. Also note that the sine and cosine function are the same functions but for a phase difference equal to π/2: cosθ = cos(–θ) = sin(θ±π/2). We also noted that it doesn’t matter if you define the diagonal elements of the Hamiltonian (i.e. H12 = H21) as A or as −A. That’s just your convention in regard to the direction of rotation of the phase (clockwise or counterclockwise): you just need to make sure you’re consistent in your choice. Also, multiplying a complex number by i or −amounts to a rotation by π/2 or − π/2 (±90°) respectively. So adding π/2 to the phase of our wavefunction and multiplying it by are equivalent, as evidenced below:
i·eiθ = i·(cosθ + sinθ) = i·cosθ − sinθ = i·sin(θ+π/2) + cos(θ+π/2) = cos(θ+π/2) + i·sin(θ+π/2) = ei(θ+π/2)
What can we do with this? Could we relate it, for example, with the E and B vectors of electromagnetic radiation, whose direction − but not their phase! − also differs by an angle equal to π/2, as illustrated below?
Perhaps, but we’re talking something else: we’re talking the quantum-mechanical description of a quantum-mechanical system—i.e. we’re describing reality! 🙂 So let’s not bother about how we’d describe radiation. The point is: we’ve got a mathematical model of reality here that makes sense, and one which respects Occam’s Razor.
Of course, now you’ll grumble. OK, we have a model of an electron in free space whose spin oscillates between ‘up’ and ‘down’ here, and each cycle corresponds to an energy level equal to ħ. So it should emit some radiation. You’re right.
Well… Maybe. Let me quickly say what we can say here. Let’s first look at the frequency of this ‘radiation’: its period (T) is π seconds. Hence, its frequency is = 1/T = 1/π ≈ 0.32 Hz. Therefore, its wavelength should be equal to λ = c/≈ 3π×108 m, i.e. like three times the distance from here to the moon. Can we detect anything like that? The US military established a way of communicating with submarines which uses so-called ELF (extremely low frequency) waves as low as 50 Hz, which amounts to a wavelength of λ = c/≈ (3/50)×108 m, i.e. 6,000 km. In fact, power lines are sources of ELF waves. But… Well… To detect waves like that the intensity of the signal needs to be sufficiently high. And one electron emitting a signal whose total energy is equal to ħ is surely very ELI (extremely low intensity). 🙂
Think about it. To be frank, I am not quite sure what to make of all this. Would free electrons really be emitting radiation like that—every time they make a transition? Electrons orbiting around the nucleus don’t emit radiation but… Well… They’re not supposed to change their spin every π seconds or so—which is what our model is saying here. Indeed, the model is really the same as that for the ammonia molecule, for which A ≈ 0.5×10−4 eV. That’s tiny, but the A/ħ ratio in those probability functions – I copied them once more (see below) – is still huge: (0.5×10−4)/(6.582×10−16) ≈ 76×109. So that’s 76 billion.
To be clear on this, if we say that we’re measuring time in units of ħ/A – which is what we do in that graph above – then we’re measuring time in billionths of a second. Note that we do that because A is like a billion times ħ! You may also remember we calculated the period of the spontaneous transition frequency as t = ħ·π/A ≈ 41.3 ×10−12 s, so we’re talking pico-seconds here. Finally, you may or may not remember we also talked about the natural oscillations inside of an uranium nucleus, whose frequency was of the order of 1022 per second. In short, the period of that electron oscillation model that we’ve got here is huge. So the natural question is: does it make any sense? I think its logic is sound, but… Well… I’ll admit it all looks very funny. If anything, it makes one think through all of the stuff we’ve been discussing, doesn’t it? What we’ve got here is a limit situation, which tests our concepts.
The model I just presented has some nice implications. One of them is that the ‘fundamental’ time unit, i.e. the time that corresponds to one cycle of our electron flipping its spin is equal to π or, preferably, that it’s equal to 2π, because that’s the cycle of the underlying amplitudes. I like that. I think it’s powerful. And it’s totally in line with those two mysterious formulas which come out of Euler’s formula if you equate θ to π or 2π:
eiπ e−iπ = −1
ei2π e= 1
Let’s double-check our calculations against the Hamiltonian equations. Indeed, you’ll remember we got our set of Hamiltonian equations assuming there was some amplitude for a system to change from base state to state j over some infinitesimally small time unit (Δt). We wrote that amplitude as Uij(t + Δt, t), and we related those amplitudes to the corresponding Hamiltonian coefficients as follows:
Uij(t + Δt, t) = δij + ΔUij(t + Δt, t) = δij + Kij(t)·Δt ⇔ Uij(t + Δt, t) = δij − (i/ħ)·Hij(t)·Δt
In the model for our ammonia molecule, these equations become:
1. U11(t + Δt, t) = 1 − i·[H11(t)/ħ]·Δt = 1 − i·[E0/ħ]·Δt
2. U22(t + Δt, t) = 1 − i·[H22(t)/ħ]·Δt = 1 − i·[E0/ħ]·Δt
3. U12(t + Δt, t) = 0 − i·[H12(t)/ħ]·Δt = 0 + i·[A/ħ]·Δt
4. U21(t + Δt, t) = 0 − i·[H21(t)/ħ]·Δt = 0 + i·[A/ħ]·Δt
You can easily see we have a bit of a problem with our limit model, in which E= 0, because U11(t + Δt, t) and U22(t + Δt, t) just equal 1. Hmm… Let’s not think about that for a while. Let’s just pretend we didn’t notice the problem. So, equating E0 with 0, and A with ħ, we get:
1. U11(t + Δt, t) = 1 − i·[E0/ħ]·Δt = 1 ⇔ − i·[H11(t)/ħ]·Δt = 0
2. U22(t + Δt, t) = 1 − i·[E0/ħ]·Δt = 1 ⇔ − i·[H22(t)/ħ]·Δt = 0
3. U12(t + Δt, t) = − i·[H12(t)/ħ]·Δt = i·Δt
4. U21(t + Δt, t) = − i·[H21(t)/ħ]·Δt = i·Δt
Our set of Hamiltonian equations now reduces to:
Hamiltonian equations
We’ve calculated those C1(t) and C2(t) already:
• C1(t) = 〈 1 | ψ 〉 = cos(t)
• C2(t) = 〈 2 | ψ 〉 = sin(t)
So let’s check if it all makes sense. Calculating those derivatives and substituting them in those Hamiltonian equations, yields the following:
• i·d[C1(t)]dt = −C2(t) ⇔ i·d[cos(t)]dt = −i·sin(t) = −C2(t) ⇔ C2(t) = i·sin(t)
• i·d[C2(t)]dt = −C1(t) ⇔ i·d[sin(t)]dt = i·i·cos(t) = −cos(t) = −C1(t) ⇔ C1(t) = cos(t)
Bingo! We’re bang on! 🙂
The question, of course, remains the same: how do we interpret this really? Well… As far as I am concerned, there’s nothing wrong with a real-valued wavefunction, or with a purely imaginary one. And so that’s what we’ve got here. We could say that the state of the system, as a whole, is described by both. Both are linked through the normalization condition: the probability of being in state 1 and the probability of being state 2 has to add up to one. That’s obviously the case here:
|C1(t)|2 + |C2(t)|= cos2(t) + sin2(t) = 1
As I told you already: Euler’s function here just states the normalization condition and, by doing so, we can look at it as representing the whole system. To put it differently: in this generic model, we have Euler’s function describing the state of an elementary particle (i.e. any spin-1/2 particle really) in time.
Frankly, I’ve never seen such succinct description of reality. As far as I am concerned, this sums it all up. So… Well… Perhaps Euler’s function would be the equation to start with. 🙂
OK. So far so good. Let me present all of the above from another another angle now.
Modeling uncertainty in classical versus quantum physics
Let’s come back to that zero energy assumption. E0 is the sum of the rest energy, the kinetic energy, and the potential energy. We can always choose the zero point for measuring potential energy such that E0 is zero, but I admit that’s very artificial. Moreover, in free space we assume there is no potential energy. Hence, when describing some real particle, we should not assume that E0 is zero. How does E≠ 0 change the analysis above? Let’s look at those C1(t) and C1(t) formulas once more, but let’s simplify them by assuming we measure energy in units of ħ, so we write E0/ħ, A/ħ and ħ/ħ just as E0, A and 1.
1. C1(t) = eiE0t·cos(t)
2. C2(t) = i·eiE0t·sin(t)
As mentioned above, these two functions yield the same probability functions P1(t) and P2(t), so there’s no impact there. However, the ei·E0·t factor does yield another wavefunction. The most obvious thing to note is that our ‘real’ cos(t) and our purely ‘imaginary’ sin(t) wavefunctions re-become complex-valued functions. Let’s write them out:
1. C1(t) = eiE0t·cos(t) = [cos(E0t) − i·sin(E0t)]·cos(t) = cos(E0t)·cos(t) − i·sin(E0t)·cos(t)
2. C2(t) = i·eiE0t·sin(t) = i·[cos(E0t) − i·sin(E0t)]·sin(t) = sin(E0t)·sin(t) + i·cos(E0t)·sin(t)
This is another delightful formula: it shows how the non-zero energy splits our cosine and sine functions into a real and imaginary part. It’s quite interesting to play with the various sine and cosine combinations, i.e. the real and imaginary parts of those wavefunctions above. For example, the cos(E0t)·cos(t) function, over one cycle (so I let t range from −π to +π), looks as follows for E= 0, 10 and 100 respectively. As you can see, higher energy levels are associated with a higher ‘density’ in time.
sine cosineThe cos(E0t)·sin(t) function for the same values of E(0, 10 and 100) looks like this:
cosine sine
And all possible sine and cosine combinations for E= 10 look like this:
You can play yourself with an online graphing tool. The question is: what does it all mean? The answer is: Occam’s Razor. When we’re going to describe the interaction between two particles, we’ll have four possible situations: both particles have their spin in the same direction (‘up’ or ‘down’), or or one is ‘up’ while the other is ‘down’. The ‘degrees of freedom’ in the quantum-mechanical wavefunction model are just right: we don’t need any more or less. It’s all just right. Think about modeling uncertainty in classical versus quantum mechanics.
I. In classical mechanics, the angular momentum vector of an object can point in any direction: all angles θ are equally likely. Hence, θ, as a function of time (θ = ω·t), follows a continuous and uniform probability distribution. We write: P(θ) = 1/(2π), and the normalization condition is self-evident: ∫P(θ)dθ = 2π/(2π) − 0/(2π) = 1 − 0 = 1.
II. In quantum mechanics, the angular momentum vector (for a spin-1/2 particle) can take only two values in any particular direction: Jz = ± ħ/2. That’s an experimental fact: we know this is true because of the Stern-Gerlach experiment. Hence, we say that our particle can be one out of two states only: ‘up’ or ‘down’. So we now have a simple two-point distribution: P[Jz = +ħ/2] = 0.5 and P[Jz = −ħ/2] = 0.5, and we can no longer say that the θ variable represents the direction of the angular momentum vector: θ is now the argument of our wavefunction, which we write as e−iθ e−iωt = cos(ωt) + i·sin(ωt). The model implies the following:
• The probability of being in state 1 or state 2 is now equal to cos2(ωt) and sin2(ωt) respectively.
• The normalization condition is equally self-evident, but different: cos2(ωt) + sin2(ωt) = 1.
If we look at it like this, it’s equally self-evident that the natural unit to measure time is π or 2π, because that’s periodicity of our wavefunction and probability function.
You may wonder: why do we need θ at all? The answer: interference. The Stern-Gerlach experiment is great, but we also need to explain interference, and we can only do that by assuming that those wavefunctions exist—somehow. 🙂 That leads to the last question: what is that θ variable then? It’s not time: θ is a function of time and, when talking moving particles (as opposed to the stationary system we’ve been looking at so far), θ is not only a function in time but in space as well. The answer is: it is what it is—it’s the argument of the wavefunction. 🙂
Have you ever had a serious course in statistics? One that included non-linear regression models, like the logit regression, or log-linear (Poisson) regressions? Those models are designed to link continuous variables with discrete outcomes, like yes/no—i.e. up or down in this case. Logit regressions do it for binary variables (yes/no), while Poisson regressions do it for count data (1, 2, 3 etc). These models connect a continuous probability density function with continuous independent variables. The so-called link function establishes… Well… The link between the discrete outcome and the continuous probability density function. The link function in the logit model is the logit function – logit(p) = ln[p/(1−p)] – and in the log-linear regression we use another logarithmic function. These link functions connect the independent variables with the dependent variable (i.e. the probability of this or that outcome) through some intermediate variable. The logic is something like this:
P[x] = P[S(θ)] = P[S[f(x1, x2,…xk)]], with θ = f(x1, x2,…xk
That’s what we’ve got here:
• The independent variables (i.e. the xabove) are time (t) and position (x).
• θ is a function of both: θ = ω·t − k∙x = (E/ħ)·t − (p/ħ)∙x
• Our link function S(θ) is the wavefunction: S(θ) = eiθ
• We get the probabilities by taking the absolute square of the link function. P(x, t) = |eiθ|2
That’s it! That’s all there is to it! Isn’t that just nice? At the very least, you’ll have to admit it’s all quite aesthetic. 🙂 I have to leave you now, as I need to move on with the rest of Feynman’s course. I hope you enjoyed this rather original summary. If not… Well… I can only say I enjoyed writing it. 🙂
Post Scriptum on wrapped probability distributions
The statistics which I am referring in my post here are known as circular statistics. They involve a so-called wrapped probability distribution. The term is clear enough: if t is just a real number between –π and +π, and its distribution is uniform, i.e. P(t) = 1/2π, then what’s the distribution of P[cos(t)], or of P[sin(t)]? Circular statistics involves problems such as the one that’s illustrated below: if a light source emits photons in all directions in a continuous stream that we denote as I, then what’s the number of photons/sec directed into any wedge. The answer is: it’s going to be proportional to the area of the wedge.
But so we’ve got another problem here. It’s illustrated below: y(x) is, obviously, equal to cos(x). As you can see, as the angular velocity is some constant, and because of the geometry of the situation, the values near ±1 are more likely than the values near 0. So what’s the probability distribution here?
You may think it’s the cosine function itself but… No. Probabilities are always values between 0 and 1, not between −1 and +1. Of course, the square of the cos(x) function would be a candidate function. But… Well… Is it the probability density function we’re looking for here? In light of what I wrote above, you’ll be surprised to hear that the answer is: no! For starters, the cycle of cos2(x) is π, not 2π (as shown below). We need a distribution over a [0, 2π] interval.
cosine squared
The formula you need is the following:
It can be re-written as follows, and I also included its graph below.
The interpretation of the probability densities near the endpoints (i.e. ± 1) is not self-evident, but you have a link here which explains it. 🙂
In any case, you’ve got plenty of stuff to think about now, so I’ll leave you at it. 🙂 |
SNAPSHOT: A Mathematical Route to Chaos
In dynamical systems, “chaos” refers to something very complicated and without general rules, which makes chaotic systems very hard to understand. “However, we can understand the pattern that leads to the chaos; the path from something we know to something irregular,” says Professor Tao Chen (LaGuardia Community College).
Chen, along with Professors Yunping Jiang (The Graduate Center, CUNY, and Queens College) and Linda Keen (Lehman College, emerita at The Graduate Center), discovered a new path that leads systems in the family of tangent functions from order into chaos. The route involves two new phenomena, called cycle doubling and cycle merging. The discovery, along with the technique the researchers used to prove it, could lead to new research directions.
A row of white doors with one painted yellow
The article appears in Conformal Geometry and Dynamics.
Imagine you take an equation and iterate it: Every time you get an answer out for y, you plug that in as your new x, and repeat. If you find that after several iterations, the equation spits out the same number you first plugged in, you have completed a cycle.
In the tangent family, the new paper explains, two different cycles can merge into one, or one cycle can split into two.
Though the math may sound niche, these patterns can appear in nature. Cycle doubling can model the population of a species with a constant food supply, Keen explains, or the number of animals whose moods change from stable to unstable as the group moves from one environment to the next.
In their paper, the researchers applied a mathematical tool called “holomorphic motions,” which had never before been used in this type of research. “Mathematicians working in both complex analysis and dynamical systems will be interested in this approach,” Jiang says. “We also hope this powerful method can be applied to other branches of mathematics.” |
Words of Wisdom:
Nrs 427v Full Course Latest All Week Discussions and Assignments
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NRS 427V Full Course Latest
All Week Discussions and Assignments
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NRS 427 Week 1 DQ1
What is your idea of a healthy community? Provide specific examples. What do healthy communities have in common? How would you provide care for a community if your idea of a healthy community does not match your community's definition of a healthy community?
NRS 427 Week 1 DQ2
Consider the different communities to which you belong:
1. What is the geopolitical community in you live? Why is it geopolitical?
2. What is a phenomenological community to which you belong? Why is it a phenomenological community?
NRS 427 Week 2 DQ1
3. Families USA - Why Global Health Matters—Here and Abroad website: http://www.familiesusa.org/
4. World Health Organization (WHO) website: http://www.who.int
NRS 427 Week 2 DQ 2
Select a global health issue impacting the international health community. Briefly describe the global health issue and its impact on the larger health care system (i.e., continents, regions, countries, states, and...
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5 Science-Backed Reasons to Try Meditation
5 Science-Backed Reasons to Try Meditation
The physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits of meditation have been well documented for over 3,000 years. Meditation in its simplest form is the habitual process of training your mind to focus and redirect your thoughts. The goal is to increase awareness of yourself and your surroundings.
Practicing meditation can help you develop a positive outlook, self-discipline, healthy sleep patterns, and increased pain tolerance. The benefits of meditation are numerous and include:
1. Decreases Depression
According to research, 30 minutes of meditation can improve depression, anxiety, and pain symptoms. In fact, scientists discovered that people who meditate may have more control over how their brains process negative sensations (pain) and negative thoughts (depression triggers)1.
2. Lowers Stress
Meditation can help you override a part of the brain responsible for the fear mechanism (which releases cortisol). A study suggests that meditation can help reduce anxiety by almost 40 percent2. Just practicing 25 minutes of meditation three times a week can have a huge impact on stress levels, according to recent research.
3. Keeps Colds Away
Research has linked meditation to having fewer respiratory illnesses and quicker recovery times3. This means less time spent away from the things that matter in life!
4. Improves Job Performance
Meditation is being widely adopted by businesses and for good reason. In one study, workers who meditated improved their performance and memory of the tasks they’d worked4. They also saw advancements in their emotional state and awareness while on the job.
5. Boosts Memory
Are you the type of person who has sticky notes all over your desk? Then you may want to give meditation a try! Studies have shown that meditation not only improves memory but it can help you cut back on distracting thoughts5.
In addition to meditating, we recommend taking NATURELO’s cold pressed hemp oil supplement. Hemp oil has been proven to relieve pain, tame anxiety, promote sleep, and reduce oxidative stress.
1. Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being: a systematic review and meta-analysis, 2014 Mar;174(3):357-68. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.13018
2. Neural correlates of mindfulness meditation-related anxiety relief, 2014 Jun;9(6):751-9. doi: 10.1093/scan/nst041. Epub 2013 Apr 24
3. Meditation or exercise for preventing acute respiratory infection: a randomized controlled trial, 2012 Jul-Aug;10(4):337-46. doi: 10.1370/afm.1376
4. Mindfulness Meditation for Multitaskers
5. Mindfulness training improves working memory capacity and GRE performance while reducing mind wandering, 2013 May;24(5):776-81. doi: 10.1177/0956797612459659. Epub 2013 Mar 28
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Myopia (Short-Sightedness)
Myopia (Short-Sightedness)
What is myopia?
Myopia (aka short-sightedness or near-sightedness) is a condition of the eye in which objects in the distance (i.e. board at school, TV) appear blurring, but near vision (book, iPad/iPhone) is clear.
The usual reason for this is that the eyeball has grown too long. As a child grows, the eye grows also. For some children, due to factors listed below, their eyes grow longer than normal, especially during rapid changes that occur during puberty. This is why myopia generally develops in childhood or in teens.
What factors increase the risk of myopia? Nature (genetics) versus nurture (environment)
Genetics: for a long time it has been known that there is a genetic component to myopia. Having one parent who is myopic doubles the risk of myopia, and having two parents increases the risk by 8 times.
- Time spent indoors vs outdoors – more time outdoors seems to result in less myopia. Recommended is 2 hours a day (14 hours a week) outdoors.
- Time spent on close-up work – more time on reading and on screens is associated with more myopia.
What causes myopia?
Children who have a genetic and/or environmental predisposition, and who also have a visual system which finds seeing up-close stressful (known as near-point-stress), have a high chance of developing myopia.
Previously, the standard approach to managing myopia development was simply to wait until a child became myopic and then to prescribe glasses to correct the distance focus error. As the child’s eyes inevitably worsened, stronger glasses were prescribed. This was continued until the child’s vision stopped getting worse, often in their late teens or early 20s. The result was often a significant visual disability, only correctable with strong glasses or contact lenses.
With a new and greater understanding of what causes myopia, optometrists are now able to determine whether a child has a risk of becoming myopic, and intervene before a child notices any vision problems. This proactive approach to myopia is known as preventive medicine; it reduces the progression of myopia thereby reducing the eye health risks associated with higher levels of myopia.
If a child does become myopic, treatments are now focussed on addressing not just the distance blur, but also the up-close factors that cause progression, with the aim to slow down or stop myopia getting worse. This often involves addressing the near point stress with bifocal glasses or bifocal contact lenses.
What about the future?
If your child is myopic, the likelihood is that it will continue progress as they grow. For some children, this is a slow rate of progression, while others have rapid vision changes.
Treatment is tailored to your child’s vision and eyes to attempt to reduce the progression as much as possible.
The risk of myopia progressing becomes less during the later teen years and young adult years, however, whilst the environmental risk factors are still present, the risk remains, albeit low.
Hence, for continued effect, treatment needs to continue for as long as there is a risk of myopia increase, which may be through the tertiary study years.
Why is it important to be proactive?
Those with myopia don’t just suffer the hassle of wearing glasses or contact lenses. The longer eyeball length of a myopic eye is associated with an increased risk of retinal detachment, glaucoma, cataract and myopic macular degeneration later in life. These are potential sight-threatening conditions; the worse the myopia the higher the risk. Thus it is important to aim to either prevent or reduce myopia to keep these risks as low as possible.
What treatment is best?
A tailored approach to your child’s needs is critical. Your OCULA optometrist will discuss with you your child’s myopia profile, highlighting the relevant risk factors, and will talk through the treatment options available for your child.
Treatment options
Chance of slowing down or stopping myopia progression
Standard single vision distance glasses or contact lenses
Progressive or bifocal glasses
Zeiss Myovision glasses
Soft, disposable progressive contact lenses
Atropine eye drops
Progressive or bifocal glasses + atropine
OrthoK (orthokeratology)
OrthoK + atropine eye drops
At this time, orthokeratology is considered the most effective form of myopia control. Further information on the specific treatment options is available on these links: orthokeratology, soft contact lenses, atropine and specially-designed spectacle lens.
Environmental risk factors are unlikely to affect the management pathway, however, they are modifiable and should be considered in view of the overall myopia risk profile. Tips for modifying environmental risk:
Good visual habits
- Spend time outside. Walk the dog, ride a bike, play in the backyard, sit outside in shade. It is the brightness of natural sunlight, which is beneficial rather than UV light–still take sun protection precautions.
- Take regular breaks from close work. Look away for a minute or so to change your focus, or change your task every 30-60 minutes to alter the demand on your visual efficiency (eye teaming) systems.
- Try to limit near tasks (after school/ work) to 2 hours per day. This also includes leisure time – ensure it is not primarily spent on handheld digital devices or other close vision tasks like reading and drawing. On the weekends, ensure a balance between inside and outside time, and increase natural lighting. |
cave BC canada
© Catherine Hickson
The entrance to the massive cave that was spotted earlier this year in British Columbia's Wells Gray Provincial Park. Two members of the Canadian team that conducted a preliminary exploration of the site in September are circled in red to give an idea of the size of the entrance of the cave, which measures 100 metres long by 60 metres wide.
A massive pit that was spotted in a remote high alpine valley in British Columbia's Wells Gray Provincial Park earlier this year is the entrance to a previously unexplored cave of "national significance," say two members of a Canadian team that helped conduct a preliminary exploration of the site in September.
The cave "has a number of features that when combined indicate a cave of national significance" and constitutes "a major new find in Western Canada, and promises a dramatic new chapter in the story of Canadian cave exploration," say John Pollack and Chas Yonge in a document they co-wrote that summarizes the significance of the find.
Pollack, who is a archeological surveyor, further explained the significance of the cave in an exclusive interview with Canadian Geographic. "I've been in some of the biggest caves in the world, and this thing has an entrance that is truly immense, and not just by Canadian standards," he said. "The opening is 100 metres long by 60 metres wide, and when you're standing on the edge looking down into it, your line of sight is nearly 600 feet [183 metres]. You don't get lines of sight of 600 feet in Canadian caves - it just doesn't happen. And this is a shaft. It goes down quite precipitously, it had a large amount of water flowing into it and is wide open for as far down it that we've gone. The scale of this thing is just huge, and about as big as they come in Canada."
cave canada
© Catherine Hickson
Lee Hollis descends into the entrance of the cave during the preliminary exploration of the site on Sept. 9. Hollis got as far as 80 metres into the cave before an underground river prevented him from going any farther.
Pollack said that the pit was spotted in April during a routine aerial caribou survey conducted by British Columbia's Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, and that Bevan Ernst, a regional caribou biologist with the ministry, called it "Sarlaac Pit" (a reference to a subterranean creature that made a brief appearance in the film Return of the Jedi). Pollack added that the name Ernst gave the pit is unofficial and temporary. BC Parks is consulting with local First Nations to determine whether a traditional Indigenous name for the cave exists.
The exact depth and size of the cave has not been determined, but Pollack said he believes that the water flowing into it forms an underground river that emerges 2.1 kilometres away and 500 metres lower, which gives some early indication of the cave's length. "While the deepest cave in Canada now exceeds 670 metres," Pollack and Yonge note in their summary, "these measurements suggest we will be facing a very deep and challenging river cave. It will be highly technical." Pollack said that future exploration of the cave is being considered in consultation with BC Parks, and that a team is likely to be fielded in 2020.
When asked whether anyone had explored the cave before, Pollack said there was only a very remote chance anyone had ever attempted a descent, given the cave's depth and nature. "The entrance to the river sink is precipitous, intimidating and sufficiently technical that pre-contact descent is unlikely," he said. "You'd need long ropes and the rope-ascending systems carried by cavers - it's very unlikely that someone would try to drop into it on a short rope of the kind carried by mountaineers. Plus, the entrance is sufficiently notable that descent attempt would have been written up by mountaineers, cavers or park staff if it had been encountered in the past 40 or 50 years. No such account exists in caving or mountaineering literature."
On Sept. 9, Pollack spent the day at the site with geologist Catherine Hickson, caver Lee Hollis, BC Parks area supervisor Tod Haughton and Ken Lancour, the helicopter pilot who Ernst was with when the entrance to the cave was spotted in April. Yonge, who is a geochemist and a renowned speleologist, did not make the journey in September but supported the team remotely by examining photos and videos of the cave.
While Pollack used a laser instrument and 3D photographic rendering to produce a survey of the pit and Hickson examined the geology on the surface, Hollis rigged up ropes to one side of the 61-metre waterfall that plunges into the pit and rappelled to a depth of 70 metres before climbing down 10 more metres, where the volume of water of the underground river prevented him from going any farther. "It was a privilege to make the first known descent and my focus was purely on rigging, rockfall hazards and avoiding the powerful whitewater that could have dragged me into the abyss," said Hollis, who's been caving for 31 years in Europe, North America and Asia. "This is by far the largest and most impressive entrance pit I've ever encountered, and during my brief descent it showed no signs of closing down. There's a lot of water thundering down there, so it will make for a sporting trip."
team canada
© Catherine Hickson
Members of the team that conducted the preliminary on-site exploration of the cave in Wells Gray Provincial Park include (left to right): John Pollack, Ken Lancour, Catherine Hickson, Lee Hollis and Tod Haughton. Chas Yonge is not pictured but assisted the team remotely.
The waterfall is formed by a large stream that's fed by snowpack and glacier meltwater from a surrounding area of 10 square kilometres. "This thing is getting pounded by a large volume of water in the spring," said Pollack. "We don't know how much, but it could be something along the order of five to 15 cubic metres per second - maybe a couple of dumptruck loads of water per second. At a higher flow, like on a hot summer day, it would definitely be in the double digits. When Lee went down, he was right down on bedrock - there were no boulders, no gravel, no cobbles, nothing. Everything had been stripped right out of there, which tells you that the force and volume of the water coming down in spring is gigantic."
That pounding is part of what helped form the cave. "From the evidence we see from the surface, the pit, which is simply the vertical part of the cave entrance, and the cave that leads away from it was carved into the marble by dissolution and mechanical abrasion," said Hickson. "The waters drain directly from the glaciers and are laden with silt and sand, which is highly abrasive."
Pollack wouldn't reveal the exact location of the cave, saying only that it was in the northern section of the park. Asked whether he was concerned about protecting the site, he said, "We are, but also the thing is that this cave is truly in the middle of nowhere. We don't even think it's feasible for someone to walk in and do anything. You might be able to reach it, but you couldn't bring in enough equipment to do anything about it. It's out there in mountainous terrain, surrounded by glaciers and at the bottom of a 45-degree avalanche slope that rises 2,000 to 2,500 feet above it, meaning you can't go to it in winter. The only time you can really do anything there is in September, when the water flow is at its lowest. This is a wild place." |
Testing > Mechanical >
Tensile & Flexural
Tensile Strength, Modulus and Extension
(ASTM D638)
Tension is analogous to pulling from opposite directions. Tensile strength is a common and very important property. It is probably true that the number of applications for plastics which load the material in pure tension are few. All forms of mechanical stress, however, have components of tensile loading. In flexure, the layer of material on the outside of the bend radius is in tension. In shear, the material at 90o to the direction of shear is in tension. In torsion, the material on the entire circumference is in tension. And even in compression, there is a component of tensile loading through the center of the sample due to the elastic properties of plastic. Because of this wide effect of tensile strength, it is the most common property referred to when considering the general strength of a material.
In addition to tensile strength, tensile testing provides modulus and elongation data. Modulus is the ratio of load to the deformation of material resulting from the load, or it can be interpreted as a measure of the stiffness of a material. Elongation is how much the material stretches or deforms in the direction of loading. There can be one or two phases during the failure of a polymer under tension. The material may first yield, which results in a reduction of its load carrying capacity, but continue to elongate.
The second phase is brittle and rapid failure, i.e., it breaks. Some polymers, especially reinforced grades, will not yield before they break. Yielding is caused when the load to overcome the intermolecular secondary forces is less than that required to break molecular bonds. The molecules begin to uncoil and slip past each other. The material will continue to elongate until so much molecular orientation has occurred that the load begins to be resisted by primary molecular bonding. At this point the load carrying capacity will increase until the primary bond strength is exceeded and the material undergoes rapid brittle failure.
Reinforcements in resin generally prevent uncoiling and slipping of molecules due to their higher affinity for the particles of reinforcement. The weak link in this case is usually the primary molecular bonds. To differentiate, the two types of elongation are referred to as "@ yield" or "ultimate".
Tensile testing is generally done on samples shaped like "dog bones", and are often referred to by this name. The overall size of the sample is not nearly as important as the relative shape. The central third to half of the sample should be narrower than the ends. This assures and nearly all of the deformation will take place in the narrower section. This is important in producing accurate and repeatable data. The load bearing capacity of the material must not be influenced by the hardware used to anchor r the samples in the testing machine. The width of the narrow section or "gage" section should be as dimensionally uniform as the manufacturing method allows. Accurate data depends on the load being distributed uniformly throughout the gage section. If non-uniform, the true length in which deformation occurred will not be known and using the gage length in the calculations will produce erroneous values.
Surface defects and contamination are other common causes of erroneous tensile data. Nicks, scrPDChes, bubbles, splay or other defects on the surface of test samples serve as an initiation site for fractures. As the test starts, stress builds uniformly throughout the gage section of the sample, as the molecules distribute the stress evenly among themselves. The molecules bordering a surface defect cannot distribute the stress to the molecules on the other side of the defect.
If the defect is solid contamination, the adhesive attraction of the molecules to the defect is low. The stress is channeled from the molecules bordering the defect to the molecules located where the defect stops. Concentration of the stress occurs where the two sides of the defect meet at 90o to the direction of loading. The stress will increase rapidly at the concentration point and primary molecular bonds will break. A crack will develop which will then serve as a defect itself and will propagate through the material by the same action that initiated at the original defect. The angle at which the two faces of the defect perpendicular to the load meet is important. If the angle is small, i.e., the defect sharp, the concentration effect will be greater. This is why bubbles or voids have less effect on reducing the strength of a material sample than a scrPDCh.
Experiments have been done which show that reinforcement particles with sharp corners have less reinforcing ability than particles with rounded edges. Reinforcements act as stress distributors and are dependent on strong surface adhesion to the polymer molecules. The crystals in crystalline polymers also act as stress distributors. Therefore, amorphous unreinforced polymers are therefore the most susceptible to failure from defects and contamination.
Rate of deformation is an important determinant of the strength values when testing. The stress in a sample is actually the polymers response to deformation. A tensile testing machine pulls on a sample causing deformation. The resistance to the deformation is what is measured and used to calculate tensile properties. A high rate of deformation mean less time for molecules to mobilize and uncoil to locally relieve the stress. This results in less deformation before primary bonds are broken and potentially a lower stress value at failure. Significant reductions can also be seen in yield and ultimate elongation. (This may cause modulus values to be increased.) When comparing material properties it is important to have equal testing rates, but also rates suitable for the type of polymer. ASTM D638 recommends general testing speeds. It is often useful at the beginning of a test sequence to run several samples at different speeds to evaluate test speed on the material being tested.
This test method is designed to produce tensile property data for the control and specification of plastic materials. These data are also useful for qualitative characterization and for research and development.
Test specimens are molded or cut to specified dimensions and conditioned prior to testing. At least five specimens of each sample are tested. Tensile bars are mounted in the grips, the extension indicator is attached, and the testing speed is selected by the specification of the material being tested.
Tensile strength, percent elongation, and the modulus of elasticity are calculated from the load-extension curve.
Flexural Strength and Modulus (ASTM D790)
Flexural strength and modulus can more often be related to functional requirements of parts. Flexural modulus is the most widely used property for comparing the relative stiffness of different materials. Samples can be molded or milled from laminates or parts. They are generally 12.7 mm (0.500 in) wide and 127 mm (5.00 in) long. The thickness is usually 3.2 mm (0.125 in) but can vary. Samples are supported in a horizontal position at a span of 102 mm (4.0 in). Different span lengths can be used and adjusted for in the calculations. A load is applied to the sample at a continuous rate at the center of the span until yield or brittle failure. Strength and modulus are calculated from the linear portion of the load/deformation curve, as with tensile properties.
There are two other versions of flexural testing. The first is similar to the method described above, except the load is applied at two points, separated by one third the distance of the support span, and centrally located. This method is used for materials which flex very easily and would "bottom out" without reaching yield or brittle failure using the single point load. The second method is called "Stiffness in Flexure" and is covered by ASTM D747). This method uses the same type of sample but in a cantilevered geometry. Elastic modulus cannot be calculated by this method. It is acceptable for determining relative stiffness but is not that widely used in the industry.
To determine the flexural properties of unreinforced and reinforced plastics in the form of rectangular bars molded directly or cut from sheets. These test methods are applicable to rigid and semi rigid materials. However, flexural strength cannot be determined for materials that do not break or that do not fail in the outer fibers.
Flexural properties are especially useful for quality control and specification purposes.
A bar of rectangular cross section is tested in flexure as follows: the bar rests on two supports and is loaded by means of a loading nose midway between the supports. The specimen is deflected until rupture occurs in the outer fibers or until the maximum fiber strain of 5% is reached, whichever occurs first.
At least five specimens are tested for each sample. Flexural strength and flexural modulus are determined from the load deflection curve.
Compressive Strength, Sheer Strength and Hardness
Compressive strength and modulus, shear strength, and hardness are other mechanical properties less often tested and reported. These tests are somewhat more specific to end use applications. and of less general significance.
Compressive Strength and Modulus (ASTM D695)
Compressive testing is analogous to tensile testing except the strain is in the opposite direction. Samples can be of any simple geometric cross-section including: cylindrical, tubular, square, or triangular. The length of the sample should be twice the width. Where elastic modulus and offset yield stress data are desired, double the length to cross-section ratio. (See ASTM D695) (Samples of this geometry are difficult to obtain. Molding at these thicknesses will result in sink marks and internal voids caused by continued polymer shrinkage at the interior of the sample after the exterior has solidified. Machining from stock will produce better samples. Specimens are mounted upright in a compression fixture. Load is applied at a constant rate of strain perpendicular to the central axis of the sample. Compressive strength is calculated as the pressure or stress required to rupture the sample, or in the case of ductile polymers, deform it by a given percentage of the original height. Compressive modulus is the ratio of the critical stress to the percentage of deformation at the critical stress. (Critical stress is used to mean the stress at which the previously defined failure point is reached.) Compressive properties are not generally analogous to real life situations. Very few applications involve only compressive loading. These values are rarely used in design calculations.
Shear Strength (ASTM D732)
Shear testing is done on square or circular samples of at least a 50.8 mm (2.0 in) diameter equivalent, and 0.125 mm (0.005 in) to 12.5 mm (0.500 in) in thickness. Samples can be molded or machined from sheet or stock. Testing is done using a punch type fixture. Downward force is applied to a 25.40 mm (1.000 in) punch. The sample shears along a line at the outer diameter of the punch and the inner diameter of the punch bushing. Shear strength is calculated as the maximum load sustained over the area sheared (sample thickness multiplied by circumference of punch). Shear strength is more important in sheet products than molded injection molded plastic parts. |
<![CDATA[ National Therapy Center - Speech Spot]]>Mon, 22 Apr 2019 05:28:56 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Language Stimulation Strategies for Little Ones]]>Thu, 12 Oct 2017 20:08:56 GMThttp://www.nationaltherapycenter.com/speech-spot/language-stimulation-strategies-for-little-onesPicture
Wondering what you can do to help your little one expand his or her language? Here are some tips and tricks to help get your toddler talking.
Narrating daily routines: Some days there simply isn’t time to play. Narrating daily routines is a simple way to add language to the things you’re already doing with your child. Activities like brushing teeth, changing diapers, getting dressed, eating meals, and getting out the door are all great opportunities for language. For example, while getting dressed: “First, let’s find pants! Pants, up! Hm, blue shirt, or red shirt? Let’s do red! Red shirt, on. Now we need socks! etc. Since these are activities that occur daily, there is ample opportunity to practice and build upon the language in these routines as your child’s language grows.
Withholding: This can sound cruel, but it’s not, and it works! Parents and caregivers know their child best and often anticipate what the child wants before he or she even asks. Additionally, many little ones are savvy at using creative means to get what they want. However, every want and request a child has is an opportunity to practice and build language. If your child points to get milk, you can say, “Want MILK? MILK!” Try modeling the word 2-3 times (for them to imitate) before handing it over. Sometimes this strategy involves making small modifications around the home, such as keeping toys away or out of reach, keeping juice higher up in the fridge, etc. Another way to incorporate this strategy is to maintain control of toys, for example blocks, instead of just dumping the whole bag out. You can dump a few, then wait until the child wants more, and model a request if needed (“Want blocks? “More blocks!”) This strategy helps the child learn the power of using language to get what he or she wants, so it’s a motivating way to practice language.
Offering choices: This strategy goes along with withholding. Rather than assuming what your child wants, and rather than asking yes or no questions until you figure it out, offering choices is a great way to build language in a functional way. Even if you know your child wants apple juice, you can say “Want apple juice or milk?” This forces the child to use language to make a choice. Additionally, offering choices gives the child a sense of power to make their own decision while still making a selection that is approved by the adult- a win, win!
Shared book-reading: To get the most out of reading with your child, go beyond just reading the words on the page. Take turns labeling what you see on each page. Think about labeling objects and actions, and using size words, colors, etc. For more advanced little ones, ask questions about what is happening, and encourage your child to make guesses about what will happen next. Use all kinds of questions (keeping in mind that “who”, “what”, and “where” questions are usually the easiest, while “why and how” are more challenging). Changing it up keeps the child engaged and offers so much more opportunity for learning.
Play: Making time to get on the floor and play with your child is so important for language growth. Depending on where your child is developmentally, play can look vastly different, from filling up a bucket and dumping out, to acting out scenes with characters. Taking the child’s lead is an important first step. Labeling what the child is doing and what is happening is a simple way to engage in play with your child.
These are five easy ways to encourage language growth in little ones. When using these strategies, be sure to model language clearly and use short phrases. A good rule of thumb is to use utterances that are just one or two words above the child’s level. For example, if the child is speaking in single words, use 2-3 word utterances when interacting (e.g. instead of saying “Do you want your stuffed animal?” you can say “Want bear?” or instead of “The red car is going fast” you can say “red car fast!”).
Children grow and develop language at different rates, but if you are concerned about your child’s language development, contact National Therapy Center for more information. National Therapy Center can help determine whether a speech and language evaluation is warranted, and offer specific recommendations for your family.
Jessica Safer, M.S. CCC-SLP - National Therapy Center
<![CDATA[To Evaluate or Not To Evaluate]]>Tue, 28 Feb 2017 16:36:19 GMThttp://www.nationaltherapycenter.com/speech-spot/to-evaluate-or-not-to-evaluatePicture
Listening and Speaking Skills Expectations by Age (birth to 5 years): http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/chart/
Communication Skills by Grade Level (Kindergarten through 5th Grade):
Speech Sound Development Chart:
Sarah Michael, SLP - National Speech/Language Therapy Center
<![CDATA[What Is(n't) Speech Therapy?]]>Thu, 02 Feb 2017 17:36:24 GMThttp://www.nationaltherapycenter.com/speech-spot/what-isnt-speech-therapyPicture
When I mention my career in conversation, the next question that often comes up is something along the lines of “What do speech therapists do?” I must admit that I often have a hard time expressing the gist of my job in just a few words. Some people guess that I work on articulation of speech sounds, with people for whom English is their second language, or with individuals who are nonverbal. They are right, and then there’s so much more!
The scope of practice for a speech-language pathologist may surprise you. In fact, areas of practice are continually evolving. Here is an overview of service delivery areas in the practice of speech therapists:
When speech therapists say “speech” (as opposed to language), we are often talking about speech sound production. Articulation, phonological, and motor planning/execution disorders fall under this category.
The area of language includes spoken (listening and speaking) and written (reading, writing, spelling) language. Skill areas include grammar, semantics (vocabulary and meaning of words/sentences), pragmatics (social language), and paralinguistics (nonverbal communication). Early intervention speech therapists work on prelinguistic skills, which includes joint attention, intentionality, and other foundational pre-verbal skills.
The area of fluency includes stuttering and cluttering. Stuttering is defined as a fluency disorder characterized by the disruption of forward flowing speech. Stuttering typically presents as sound syllable repetitions, speech sound prolongations, and/or blocks (no sound) and may be accompanied by physical struggle and tension. Cluttering is a fluency disorder which is characterized by a rate of speech that is perceived to be abnormally rapid, irregular, or both.
Cognitive skills include attention, memory, problem-solving, and executive functioning skills. Some disorders that are associated with needs in these areas include attention deficit disorders, learning disabilities, developmental disorders, and dementia.
Speech therapists also address issues related to voice and use of the vocal folds. This includes phonation quality, pitch and loudness, and alternative phonation methods. Resonance disorders occur when there is an opening, obstruction, or inconsistent movement that affects the way air flows through the speech system.
This area includes all phases of feeding at various ages, including sucking, chewing, and swallowing. Feeding therapists also address negative mealtime behaviors and atypical eating patterns (e.g., food refusal, food selectivity, negative physiologic response). Some feeding therapists also assist with use of feeding tubes and individuals with complex medical disorders.
When speech therapy addresses speech, language, communication and/or listening skills impacted by hearing loss and/or deafness, it is considered aural habilitation or rehabilitation. Habilitation refers to improving the communication of an individual who has not yet developed these skills, typically in very young children. Alternatively, rehabilitation refers to restoring skills that are lost. Communication methods may include listening and spoken language, cued speech/language, and/or sign language.
There are also those areas in which speech therapists treat which are considered advantageous, but not medically urgent. Some examples include business communication, preventive vocal hygiene, professional voice use, and accent/dialect modification.
Phew! There is quite a range of skills, disabilities, and disorders that fall under the umbrella of speech therapy. Of course, not every speech therapist is an expert in every area.
Hope this was interesting and/or helpful! Did this spark your curiosity in any specific areas? Do tell!
Sarah Michael, SLP - National Speech/Language Therapy Center
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2016). Scope of practice in speech-language pathology [Scope of Practice]. Available from www.asha.org/policy/.
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2011). Child Aural/Audiologic Habilitation. Available from www.asha.org/public/. |
You'll Earn More On Your Savings Through Compound Interest
One of the simplest ways to do this is through compounding, where you’ll keep earning interest on your interest over time.
Here’s how compound interest works:
It all starts when you put money into some type of savings - such as a regular savings account or a CD, or an investment option such as a retirement account.
Say you put in $5,000 that earns 3% annually and you leave it for 20 years.
At the end of the first year, you will earn $150 in interest, which brings your savings to $5,150.
In year 2, you’ll earn interest on that amount and your money will grow to about $5,304. And that money will keep growing each year.
So at the end of 20 years, your savings will be about $9,030. That means you will have earned over $4,000 in interest!
And if you keep adding money to your savings each month, you’ll see your earnings grow even more. By starting with $5,000 and putting an extra $200 in your account each month, you’ll end up with more than $73,519 in 20 years.
That means time really can equal money, and the sooner you start saving regularly, the more you’re going to have in the future.
Stop in and talk to us about your options to learn how saving money today can make a big difference in the future. |
Along its entire length, the vast shifting sand dunes of the Namib Desert spread inland for 80 to 130km (50 to 80 miles). In the interior, the escarpment of a north–south plateau slopes away to the east and north into the vast interior sand basin of the Kalahari. In the far northwest, the 66,000 sq km (25,500 sq miles) of the Kaokoland mountains run along the coast, while further inland lies the Etosha Pan (a dried-out saline lake), surrounded by grasslands and bush which support a large and varied wildlife.
The Etosha National Park & Game Reserve is one of the finest in Africa, in that it remains, to a large extent, free of human influence.
Today’s Etosha National Park was proclaimed as Namibia’s first conservation area in 1907 by the then German government. With subsequent additions it became the largest game reserve in the world, covering a vast area of 93 240 km2. For political considerations its size was progressively diminished, until by 1975 it had been reduced to its present surface area of 22 270 km2.
Nevertheless, it is still one of the largest game reserves in Africa. Consisting of saline desert, savannah and woodlands, its definitive feature is the Etosha Pan, a vast, shallow depression of approximately 5 000 km2. For the greater part of the year the pan is a bleak expanse of white cracked mud which, on most days, shimmers with mirages.
Of the 114 mammals species found in the park, several are rare and endangered, such as black rhino, cheetah and black-faced impala. The latter is endemic to north-western Namibia and south-western Angola. Etosha’s current population of more than 600 black rhino represents one of the few growing populations of black rhino in the world.
Walvis Bay
Walvis Bay
Walvis Bay, situated on Namibia’s coastline and nestled between the Namib Desert and the Atlantic Ocean, is the optimal place in Namibia for both relaxation and fun. Often fondly referred to as the “playground of Namibia, it has numerous activities to choose from, both for adventure as well as exploring the fascinating features of the desert and the animals and plants that occur and survive here.
Feel the spray of the cold yet highly marine-populated Atlantic Ocean on your cheeks as you take part in a dolphin cruise with oysters and champagne, or glide through the Walvis Bay lagoon on your own power in a kayak. Find your inner child and push adrenaline to its limits with extreme adventures such as skydiving over the desert or quad-biking and sand-boarding (Skiing?) on the dunes.
The entire cruise is done in the calm and protected lagoon area of Walvis Bay. Entertainment is provided by two types of dolphins, a large seal colony at Pelican Point and wonderful photographic opportunities of low-flying pelicans. To round off the trip get spoilt with fresh Walvis Bay oysters, snacks and cold sparkling wine. Soft drinks also included.
With roughly 350’000 inhabitants Windhoek constitutes the largest city in the country and is situated in a lush and scenically appealing valley of the Auas Mountains, Namibia’s second highest mountain range. Due to its central location, the city serves as the perfect vantage point to Namibia’s vast array of tourist destinations. The cosmopolitan city counts as one of the cleanest in Africa and, with its friendly inhabitants, has been describes as one of the “nicest” cities on the African continent. The city is a kaleidoscope of modern and traditional cultures, fashions and architectural styles. Curio sellers offer their hand made crafts along the bustling city streets, while modern office blocks, flanked by ornate churches and German colonial buildings dominate the skyline.
Various excursions are offered in and around the City, these take in a variety of options catering for every need. The below mentioned excursions serve simply as an example, please contact us for any further activities such as city tours, adventure packages, golfing or scenic flights.
photo credits: Etosha: Frank Vassen Walvis Bay – Natasha Mhatre, Windhoek – Monica Guy |
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Earth's climate over the next few centuries.
Ten Years Since The Revolution at Amazon.
SAS Black Ops at Amazon.
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Model of the Earth's climate over the next few centuries.
Model of the Earth's climate over the next few centuries.
Massive Star Has a Hot Partner.
Nov 1, 2005 Eta Carinae is one of the most massive and unusual stars in the Milky Way, and now NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer satellite has detected a hot companion. This mysterious star, which scientists think is in the final stages of life, is located 7,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Carina. Its companion star completes an orbit every 5.5 years, and FUSE was able to detect when it passed behind Eta Carinae, briefly dimming the amount of high-end ultraviolet radiation coming from the pair.
What If We Burn Everything?
Nov 1, 2005 scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have developed a detailed model of the Earth's climate over the next few centuries to answer the question... what if we burned all the fossil fuels by the year 2300. The answer, of course, isn't a pretty picture. In their model, global temperatures will rise 8-degrees Celsius (14.5 F), and melting polar caps will raise the oceans 7 metres (23 feet). The damage would be even worse in the polar regions, which could grow by 20-degrees C (68 F).
Canyons on Dione.
Nov 1, 2005 This photograph of Saturn's Moon Dione was taken by Cassini on Sept. 20, 2005 from a distance of 2.1 million kilometers (1.3 million miles). The image shows the many canyons that crisscross the surface of the 1,126-kilometer (700-mile) moon, as well as its bright southern pole.
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French revolution
if I would it live through all of this my life will be difficult not only me all the town people were had drastic changes and our economy will shutdown too . this makes me feel like I shouldn’t have too live in town no more because France is having issues and for those outsiders that are not part of France will feel disappoint of it and these drastic changes did not help out country at all it actually led us down for the past 10 years
The scientific revolution
One scientific revolution was to belief in progress and the power of reason. One characteristic of the scientific revolution was the use of experimentation and inductive reasoning. The key idea of the scientific revolution had far reaching effects besides changing the way people thought about the universe. And the use of the scientific method resulted in discoveries in medicine, physics, and biology,
The enlightenment was the ability to reason is what makes human unique. Reason can free people from ignorance super and unfair government. The natural world is governed by laws that can be discovered through. Reason like the natural world human human behavior the scientific revolution characteristics were new
Ways to thinking that led to the enlightenment new ideas of the enlightenment
Debated in coffeehouse and public spaces governments should reflect natural laws and encourage education debate .scientific revolution convinced many European thinkers about power of reason scientific method and reason the discoveries made during this period led to a more organized way of understanding things and eradicated a state of ignorance the seventeenth century to human behavior and society during the eighteen century. The scientific revolution influenced the development of the enlightenment values of individualism because it demonstrated the power of the human mind the ability of scientist to come to their own conclusions rather than deferring to instilled authority
John Locke
John Locke main areas of concern were society and government. English philosopher who believed all people are born equal and that Government should protect people’s natural rights.he also believed Monarchs are not chosen by God and in Government by consent Power limited by laws Ideas foundation for modern democracy first book write by John Locke was Two Treatises on Government in 1690 Thomas Hobbes was another philosopher that was against John Locke because of different opinions I agreed with John Locke opinions because he wants people to be equal which that means he doesn’t care about the skin color and wants everybody to believed in God
1) Nelson Mandela was the first black president of South Africa
2) His father a counselor to the tribal chief, died when he was 9 Mandela was then adopted by the tribal chief
3) He fled to Johannesburg to avoid a marriage arranged by the tribal regent
4) In 2005 Mandela announced his son Makgatho Mandela had died of AIDS
5) As a young boy he lived in Qunu a village so small that there were no roads There were only footpaths and families lived in huts
6) Nelson Mandelas favorite breakfast was plain porridge, with fresh fruit and fresh milk
7) He was an activist against apartheid and he was the leader of the armed wing of the African National Congress
8) Nelson Mandela has honorary degrees from more than 50 international universities
9) Nelson Mandela won the Nobel prize in 1993
10) Nelson Mandela retired from Public life in June 1999 and started residing in his birth placee |
Published : Oct 29, 2018
Canada, a Hotspot for Cultural Learning
Few, if any countries, celebrate multiculturalism more than Canada.
In fact, multiculturalism is an official national policy, the first country to make it so.
In 1971, then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced bilingualism and multiculturalism would be national policy. In 1982, Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms supported the right to multiculturalism. In 1988, federal funding began to be distributed to help groups protect their cultures.
More than people in most countries, Canadians willingly accept these policies. One reason: there are so many different cultures. Diversity and immigration has played an important role in the history of Canada, creating a wide mixture of cultures, languages, ethnicities and religions.
• Canada has the highest percentage of foreign-born residents of any other major country
• While English and French are the nation’s two official languages, government statistics indicate that more than 200 languages are actually spoken in Canada A record number of immigrants come from such areas as Asia, the Caribbean and Africa, as well Europe. Immigration is expected to keep increasing, primarily in the large urban areas.
In fact, four-in-10 Canadians are either first- or second-generation residents.
Today, Canada’s adoption of multiculturalism is admired in much of the world.
This also means that whether it’s for business, personal or social reasons, it’s important for Canadians to learn how other people think and act, to know others’ cultures and how to respect and work with them.
In the work place, for example, cultural understanding, such as that taught in the Berlitz Cultural Navigator®, can help diverse employees become more tolerant of each other, work more closely and cooperate with each other, increasing productivity and company success. Cultural understanding also helps people to become more open to new ideas and thoughts, which can allow workers to be more creative in overcoming problems and taking advantages of opportunities.
In addition to promoting smoother operations within the office, communications tools such as FaceTime, Skype and others allow people to communicate instantly across thousands of miles away. Work habits and customs can differ significantly from country to country and recognizing those can make you and your company more successful.
(It’s important to note that the definitions of multiculturalism and diversity are becoming increasingly different in many workplace environments. Diversity may relate to such characteristics as age, gender, race, etc., compared with multiculturalism, when a wide range of cultures are included, and sometimes not segregated by age and gender.)
Cultural understanding can also expand your network of friends and acquaintances, enhancing personal and social relationships. You may also become more curious and knowledgeable about the way others live, increasing your knowledge, understanding and an appreciation of different ways of life.
This is particularly true in Canada, which has so many people with so many different backgrounds.
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If you have no idea what the difference is between a Bitcoin and a blockchain, this is the place to start! This guide assumes a moderate level of technical knowledge; for lengthier and even more detailed guides, check out our “Further Resources” section below.
Important Terms To Know
The first concept you’ll need to understand in order to grok how cryptocurrencies work is the “blockchain.”
Think about a typical website or mobile application — unless it is backed by some fancy devops magic, for the most part, it relies on a single database to provide its data. The website will read from this database, and whenever it wants to write to the database, it changes the existing data. Most importantly, if a hacker gets access to this data, there is often nothing to stop them from changing the data however they wish.
So how is blockchain different? Imagine if every user of the website had their own copy of the entire database. (Each computer connected to this network is known as a node.) If that data needs to change, the application wouldn’t actually edit existing records across that entire network of databases; instead, it would send a request to add a new block of data (known as a transaction.) Rather than being a table, this database would be made up of a chain of blocks, one after the other (hence, blockchain — get it?)
Blockchain is often referred to as a ledger, and it’s easy to see why — each block is like a new line, written in permanent ink, in a long list of transactions. If you want to change an earlier transaction, you can’t cross it out or erase it: you need to add a new line to modify the existing state of the data set. This line/block contains two things: a unique hash for that block, and the hash of the previous block in order to verify its place in the chain.
And if you want to cheat and try to modify your ledger? Every other person on the network has a copy of that ledger, and when you check in with each other to make sure everyone has the same data, they will know you tried to edit your data.
Cryptocurrency and Coins
As you can imagine, are many potential applications for blockchain technology: smart contracts, election technology, the protection of intellectual property. However, the most popular by far is a token (or coin)-based system known as cryptocurrency.
Even if you know nothing about cryptocurrency, you’ve almost certainly heard of Bitcoin. The original cryptocurrency, a single Bitcoin was valued at almost $20,000 USD at its peak when only six years previously it could be purchased for $1.
Bitcoin is far from the only cryptocurrency, however; other altcoins (short for “alternative coins”) that have gained significant value include Litecoin and “meme coins” like Dogecoin and Garlicoin, which were popularized by sites such as Reddit.
So how does a cryptocurrency work? At its simplest, each block needs to contain the sender, the receiver, and the amount. If Sam sends 10 DankMemeCoins to Eric, she will broadcast a message to the network saying that her DMC balance should decrease by 10, and Eric’s should increase by the same amount. Every node on the network will then verify and add this new block.
Blockchains can exist without an associated cryptocurrency, but almost all cryptocurrencies are built on blockchain technology. Even if users aren’t sending “money” to each other, cryptocoins can be used as an incentive for users to keep their computers maintaining the network; a great example of this is Storj, where users can pay for file storage on the blockchain with their coins.
Wallets, Addresses, and Keys
So how can someone use this ledger? In order to interact with the blockchain, you can use a piece of software called a wallet. You don’t actually store your cryptocurrency coins in a wallet (since, remember, all data is distributed across the network); instead, a wallet stores two different keys:
• private key, which is a very large, randomly-generated number. As the name suggests, you should never share your private key with anyone.
• public key, a code that is created from the private key (via a highly complex algorithm) and is used to generate a public wallet address that can be shared with other users on the network.
In order to send coins to someone else on the network, you can enter their public wallet address and the amount of coins you’d like to send.
If you create a new coin using CoinPress, we will automatically generate the wallet software for you.
You’ve got your wallet set up, but how do you get new coins in order to do something on the blockchain?
Remember how we said that tying transactions on a blockchain to a cryptocurrency is an incentive for users on the network to help maintain that network? This happens through a process called mining.
Miners are nodes on the blockchain network that verify and update the public ledger of transactions. (This verification process will keep, for example, users from spending coins they don’t have.) When this happens, new coins are created and rewarded to the users who helped verify these transactions.
So how does mining actually work? Let’s go back to our example where Sam sent 10 DankMemeCoins to Eric and walk through the whole process:
1. Sam enters Eric’s public address in her DankMemeCoin wallet and indicates she would like to send him 10 coins, and her wallet signs off on the transaction with her private key
2. The wallet broadcasts this transaction to the rest of the network, where it sits in a pool of other unconfirmed transactions waiting to be added to the DMC blockchain
3. Miners on the network grab some of these transactions from these unconfirmed transaction pools and check if the senders of these transactions have acequate balance to complete them. If so, these miners form them into preliminary blocks.
4. Miners will then compete with each other to be the first to add these preliminary blocks to the rest of the blockchain. Each of these blocks contain a unique puzzle that needs to be solved (that will vary based on which transactions were added to the preliminary block), and it is the job of the miner’s hardware to guess the answer to that puzzle before anyone else solves it.
Remember how we said above that blocks include hashes? This hash is generated via a complex algorithm by combining the previous block’s content with a string of random numbers known as a nonce. The job of the miners’ computers is to guess the nonce via trial and error by running random numbers through the algorithm in order to check the output against the generated hash of the block. To do so quickly (which will help you be the first one to solve it), you need a large amount of hardware processing powzer; essentially, you are trading electriciy for cryptocoins.
1. Once a miner figures out the value needed to solve this hash, they submit it to the rest of the network. (This solution to the puzzle is known as a Proof of Work Consensus.) Other miners will confirm the solution to the puzzle has the right output, and if so, the provisional block can be permanently added to the blockchain. The miner is then able to add another block granting themselves a certain amount of brand new coins — thus increasing the total number of coins in circulation on the network.
Ready to get started?
Check out our CoinPress Guide to see how easy it is to create your own blockchain!
Further Resources
Explaining the Blockchain via a Google Docs Analogy |
SUSE 12 – enable SSL and Create a Self-Signed Certificate
Creating a Self-Signed Certificate on SUSE 12:
root# openssl req -new > vhostname.csr
root# openssl rsa -in privkey.pem -out vhostname.key
root# openssl x509 -in vhostname.csr -out journal.crt -req -signkey vhostname.key -days 3650
Copy the certificate files to the relevant directories, so that the Apache server can read them. Make sure that the private key /etc/apache2/ssl.key/vhostname.key is not world-readable, while the public PEM certificate /etc/apache2/ssl.crt/vhostname.crt is.
SSL – Check whether a private key matches a certificate or whether a certificate matches a certificate signing request (CSR).
Check whether a private key matches a certificate or whether a certificate matches a certificate signing request (CSR). If you are receiving an error that the private doesn’t match the certificate or that a certificate that you installed to a site is not trusted, try one of these commands. Check an MD5 hash of the public key to ensure that it matches with what is in a CSR or private key.
root# openssl x509 -noout -modulus -in certificate.crt | openssl md5
root# openssl rsa -noout -modulus -in privatekey.key | openssl md5
root# openssl req -noout -modulus -in csr.csr | openssl md5
For example:
root# openssl req -noout -modulus -in just4testcert_req.csr | openssl md5
(stdin)= 61c59f9a9ddddc032e56fe2e46a91409
root# openssl rsa -noout -modulus -in just4test_server.key | openssl md5
(stdin)= 61c59f9a9ddddc032e56fe2e46a91409
Generate self-signed SSL certificate in one line
If you need a quick self-signed certificate, you can generate the key/certificate pair, then sign it, all with one openssl line:
root~#:/tmp/ssl$ openssl req -new -newkey rsa:2048 -days 365 -nodes -x5 09 -keyout server.key -out server.crt
Generating a 2048 bit RSA private key
writing new private key to ‘server.key’
into your certificate request.
There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank
For some fields there will be a default value,
Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]:IE
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:Dublin
Locality Name (eg, city) []:Dublin
Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]:Internet 4network Ltd
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:
Email Address []:
root~#:/tmp/ssl$ l
total 16
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jul 1 17:18 .
drwxrwxrwt 10 root root 4096 Jul 1 17:17 ..
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 1326 Jul 1 17:18 server.crt
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 1704 Jul 1 17:18 server.key
Data Synchronizer Mobility Connector and a self-signed cert.
In order to be able to use Mobility Pack with a self-signed cert (normally for testing purposes), you’ll need to follow these instructions: NOTE: You can name the .key and .cert files anything you’d like initially because you’re going to need to change it to “mobility.pem” later. Open the terminal and perform the following commands:
openssl genrsa 1024 > anything.key
chmod 400 anything.key
openssl req -new -x509 -nodes -sha1 -days 365 -key anything.key > anything.cert
Now that you’ve created the key and cert file you need to concatenate the two files into a .pem file with this command, private key first, then cert. You can also remove the .key file for security purposes in the same command.
cat anything.key anything.cert > anything.pem && rm anything.key
chmod 400 anything.pem
Once you’ve created the .pem file you need to rename it to “mobility.pem” and then replace it with the mobility.pem file in /var/lib/datasync/device.
WinMobile devices require a .cer certificate file (as opposted to .pem). You’ll need to create a copy of the .pem file and convert it to .cer:
openssl x509 -in mobility.pem -inform PEM -out mobility.der -outform DER
rename the mobility.der to mobility.cer and move it in the /var/lib/datasync/device directory.
Restart the connectors and resync with your device, now you shouldn’t have cert issues with your device while trying to connect with your self-signed cert.
Creating a new SSL certificates.
Creating a new SSL certificates:
1. If it is missing, you will have to create a new one key.
root# openssl genrsa -out filename.key 1024
2. Create a CSR
root# openssl req -new -key filename.key -out filename.csr
3. Remove pass-phrase from a keyIf you don’t have pass-phrase don’t do it.
cp filename.key
openssl rsa -in -out filename.key
4. Generating the certificate/Self-Signed certificate
root# openssl x509 -req -days 730 -in filename.csr -signkey filename.key -out filename.crt
5. Make it into the .pem format
root# cat filename.key filename.crt > filename.pem |
Assumptions and Estimation
Mike McGarry
Lesson by Mike McGarry
Magoosh Expert
Learn More About Magoosh GMAT
Assumption and Estimation. In other words on the GMAT, what are we allowed to assume from diagrams, and what are we not allowed to assume? First of all, we're always allowed to assume that lines that look straight actually are straight. So suppose we're given a diagram like this.
Certainly looks like, as we go from B, to A, to C, that what we have is a straight line. Now technically, if someone were being really tricky, they could put a slight bend at A. A could be say 179.9 degrees instead of exactly 180 degrees. So we are guaranteed this is one thing the GMAT absolutely is not gonna do to us.
We are guaranteed of it. It looks straight, it is money in the bank. It absolutely is straight. So we can trust that. If it looks straight, it is straight. But that's about the only thing you can trust.
You can't trust how things look in general. And here's what I mean by that. If two lengths look the same, but no other indication is given, then you can't assume that they are exactly the same. Even if they're close, they're not exactly the same. Similarly, parallel and perpendicular are precise relationships.
So if something looks parallel, it may not be exactly parallel. If it looks perpendicular, it may not be exactly perpendicular. Now a couple of videos ago, we talked about several special properties of parallel lines. None of those are true if the lines are almost parallel. And much in the same way, we're gonna discuss many important right angle properties in upcoming videos.
None of those right angle properties are true, if the angle is almost a right angle. So in the diagram, you could have something that is almost a right angle, and it would look right or almost parallel, and it would look parallel, but we can't assume that it has those special properties. Look at these diagrams.
Certainly, it would be tempting to assume that what we have here is a right triangle and a square. And many test takers would assume this and just base all their calculations on those assumptions. And that is not correct. So this is, these are examples of diagrams the G might, actually could give us here.
These are drawn to scale. As it turns out, FEG is 89.9 degrees. So that is not a right angle. That is not a right triangle at all. It looks like a right triangle, but it's not. So none of the right triangle properties are true for that.
Technically that is an acute triangle, because all three angles in that triangle are less than 90 degrees. Similarly with the thing that looks like a square, it's not even pretending to be a square. None of the angles in that are right angles. They're all close to 90, but none of them are 90.
Three of the sides are equal, but LM actually is a slightly different length. So it doesn't have equal sides. It doesn't have equal angles. It's not even pretending to be a square. So certainly none of the square properties are true for that. And yet if that diagram appeared on the test, many test takers would blithely assume, oh look, a square.
And base all their calculations on that. We can run into all kinds of trouble if we are naive in the way that we interpret diagrams. What can we trust about a diagram? Well, on the GMAT it depends on whether we're talking about problem solving or data sufficiency.
The following passage appears on the GMAT test itself in the quant section and it also appears in the official guide, for the problem solving section. A figure accompanying a problem solving question is intended to provide information useful in solving the problem. Figures are drawn as accurately as possible, exceptions will be clearly noted.
Hold on a second. Very important phrase there, drawn as accurately as possible. Every diagram in GMAT problem solving is drawn as accurately as possible, unless there's a note that says, figure not drawn to scale. So the default assumptions is, you always have an accurate diagram on the problem solver.
That's huge, right there. This means, on the problem solving, we certainly can estimate approximate sizes and angles. In this triangle, we know that the angles at G and J are either equal or close in value. We can't just assume that they're equal.
They may be equal, or they may just be close in value. But we do know that one is not radically bigger than the other. Similarly, the lengths of GH and HG, they might be equal, they might be close in value. We can't assume that they're precisely equal, but we know that they're not far apart in their value.
We know that the long side, GJ, is longer than the other two sides, but is not even as large as twice as long. And the angle at H, angle GHJ is clearly the largest angle. To my eye, that appears to be an angle slightly larger than 90 degrees. Certainly is, it is not an acute angle. And so if someone tried to tell me it was 70 degrees, that clearly would be wrong.
And if someone tried to tell me it was, it was much larger than 90 degrees, for example, someone tried to say it was 150 degrees, we would know that would be wrong as well. Suppose we were given say, GJ equals 12, and asked to find GH. Of course we'd have to be given some other information in the question. But certainly we would expect something in the range, based on this diagram, we would expect something in the range between seven and ten, would be the approximate range we'd expect for the length of GH.
We could certainly eliminate answers such as GH equals four, or GH equals 17, based on the diagram. So we would never be able to narrow down to a single answer, simply by estimating from the diagram, but we sometimes can eliminate some answers, and we can verify whether a number in the diagram we calculated seems reasonable. So this is the value.
On data sufficiency, we are not guaranteed that the diagrams will be drawn to scale. Now this is really tricky. If information is stated factually in the prompt as it often is, the diagram will reflect the prompt information, but it won't necessarily reflect any of the information in either statement. And of course we're always given more information in those statements.
And so here we'll have to go to use our visual information, how does the information given in the statement, change or restrict the diagram? So that won't be visually provided, that's something we're gonna have to imagine ourselves. In summary, we can always assume that any line that looks straight really is straight.
That's one thing we can assume. We can't assume from appearances equal length, we can't assume things that look parallel are, or things that look perpendicular are. On the problem solving, diagrams are drawn to scale so we can use visual estimation, and that's a powerful aide. On Davis Sufficiency, diagrams are not necessarily drawn to scale.
They reflect the prompt information, but not necessarily the information in the statements.
Show Transcript
Next Lesson |
Systems with 2 spin-1/2 particles (II)
In our previous post, we noted the Hamiltonian for a simple system of two spin-1/2 particles—a proton and an electron (i.e. a hydrogen atom, in other words):
After noting that this Hamiltonian is “the only thing that it can be, by the symmetry of space, i.e. so long as there is no external field,” Feynman also notes the constant term (A) depends on the level we choose to measure energies from, so one might just as well take E= 0, in which case the formula reduces to H = Aσe·σp. Feynman analyzes this term as follows:
If there are two magnets near each other with magnetic moments μe and μp, the mutual energy will depend on μe·μp = |μe||μp|cosα = μeμpcosα — among other things. Now, the classical thing that we call μe or μp appears in quantum mechanics as μeσand μpσrespectively (where μis the magnetic moment of the proton, which is about 1000 times smaller than μe, and has the opposite sign). So the H = Aσe·σp equation says that the interaction energy is like the interaction between two magnets—only not quite, because the interaction of the two magnets depends on the radial distance between them. But the equation could be—and, in fact, is—some kind of an average interaction. The electron is moving all around inside the atom, and our Hamiltonian gives only the average interaction energy. All it says is that for a prescribed arrangement in space for the electron and proton there is an energy proportional to the cosine of the angle between the two magnetic moments, speaking classically. Such a classical qualitative picture may help you to understand where the H = Aσe·σequation comes from.
That’s loud and clear, I guess. The next step is to introduce an external field. The formula for the Hamiltonian (we don’t distinguish between the matrix and the operator here) then becomes:
H = Aσe·σp − μeσe·B − μpσp·B
The first term is the term we already had. The second term is the energy the electron would have in the magnetic field if it were there alone. Likewise, the third term is the energy the proton would have in the magnetic field if it were there alone. When reading this, you should remember the following convention: classically, we write the energy U as U = −μ·B, because the energy is lowest when the moment is along the field. Hence, for positive particles, the magnetic moment is parallel to the spin, while for negative particles it’s opposite. In other words, μp is a positive number, while μe is negative. Feynman sums it all up as follows:
Classically, the energy of the electron and the proton together, would be the sum of the two, and that works also quantum mechanically. In a magnetic field, the energy of interaction due to the magnetic field is just the sum of the energy of interaction of the electron with the external field, and of the proton with the field—both expressed in terms of the sigma operators. In quantum mechanics these terms are not really the energies, but thinking of the classical formulas for the energy is a way of remembering the rules for writing down the Hamiltonian.
That’s also loud and clear. So now we need to solve those Hamiltonian equations once again. Feynman does so first assuming B is constant and in the z-direction. I’ll refer you to him for the nitty-gritty. The important thing is the results here:
He visualizes these – as a function of μB/A – as follows:
The illustration shows how the four energy levels have a different B-dependence:
• EI, EII, EIII start at (0, 1) but EI increases linearly with B—with slope μ, to be precise (cf. the EI = A + μB expression);
• In contrast, EII decreases linearly with B—again, with slope μ (cf. the EII = A − μB expression);
• We then have the EIII and EIV curves, which start out horizontally, to then curve and approach straight lines for large B, with slopes equal to μ’.
Oh—I realize I forget to define μ and μ’. Let me do that now: μ = −(μep) and μ’ = −(μe−μp). And remember what we said above: μis about 1000 times smaller than μe, and has opposite sign. OK. The point is: the magnetic field shifts the energy levels of our hydrogen atom. This is referred to as the Zeeman effect. Feynman describes it as follows:
The curves show the Zeeman splitting of the ground state of hydrogen. When there is no magnetic field, we get just one spectral line from the hyperfine structure of hydrogen. The transitions between state IV and any one of the others occurs with the absorption or emission of a photon whose (angular) frequency is 1/ħ times the energy difference 4A. [See my previous post for the calculation.] However, when the atom is in a magnetic field B, there are many more lines, and there can be transitions between any two of the four states. So if we have atoms in all four states, energy can be absorbed—or emitted—in any one of the six transitions shown by the vertical arrows in the illustration above.
The last question is: what makes the transitions go? Let me also quote Feynman’s answer to that:
The transitions will occur if you apply a small disturbing magnetic field that varies with time (in addition to the steady strong field B). It’s just as we saw for a varying electric field on the ammonia molecule. Only here, it is the magnetic field which couples with the magnetic moments and does the trick. But the theory follows through in the same way that we worked it out for the ammonia. The theory is the simplest if you take a perturbing magnetic field that rotates in the xy-plane—although any horizontal oscillating field will do. When you put in this perturbing field as an additional term in the Hamiltonian, you get solutions in which the amplitudes vary with time—as we found for the ammonia molecule. So you can calculate easily and accurately the probability of a transition from one state to another. And you find that it all agrees with experiment.
Alright! All loud and clear. 🙂
The magnetic quantum number
At very low magnetic fields, we still have the Zeeman splitting, but we can now approximate it as follows:
magnetic quantum number
This simplified representation of things explains an older concept you may still see mentioned: the magnetic quantum number, which is usually denoted by m. Feynman’s explanation of it is quite straightforward, and so I’ll just copy it as is:
As he notes: the concept of the magnetic quantum number has nothing to do with new physics. It’s all just a matter of notation. 🙂
Well… This concludes our short study of four-state systems. On to the next! 🙂
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Grove - Gas Sensor(O₂)
Grove-Gas Sensor (O₂) is a kind of sensor to test the oxygen concentration in air, which is based on the principle of the electrochemical cell to the original work. You can know clearly the current oxygen concentration when you output voltage values proportional to the concentration of oxygen and refer to the oxygen concentration linear characteristic graph. It's very suitable for detecting oxygen concentration in the environment protection. Grove - Gas Sensor(O₂) is an organic reaction module, it can provide a little current while putting it in the air, we don't need to provide an external power to it, and output voltage will change as time current changes.
Note that The sensor value only reflects the approximated trend of gas concentration in a permissible error range, it DOES NOT represent the exact gas concentration. The detection of certain components in the air usually requires a more precise and costly instrument, which cannot be done with a single gas sensor. If your project is aimed at obtaining the gas concentration at a very precise level, then we do not recommend this gas sensor.
Items Parameter
Measurement Range 0-25%vol
Detect Life two years
Sensitivity 0.05～0.15 mA(in air)
Temperature Range ﹣20℃～50℃
Pressure range QNE±10﹪
Response Time ≤15S
Humidity range 0～99﹪RH Non-condensing
Stability <2%
This O2 sensor is an analog output sensor. An example application to get the volume of O2 in air demonstrated below:
Notice: Please power the Gas Sensor(O2) for more than 48 hrs (warm up time) before reading data for actual calculation.
Here is an example of O2 concentration controlled Buzzer. When Oxygen concentration gets lower than the minimum safe concentration, the Buzzer will ring.
1. Connect the module to the Analog port 0 of Grove - Basic Shield using the 4-pin grove cable. Connect Buzzer to Pin 3.
2. Plug the Grove - Basic Shield into Arduino. And connect Arduino to PC by using a USB cable.
3. Copy and paste the code below to a new Arduino sketch. Please read this if you do not know how to upload.
// test Grove - Gas Sensor(O2)
float VoutArray[] = { 0.30769 ,20.00000, 40.00000 ,60.00000 ,120.61538 ,186.76923};
float O2ConArray[] = { 0.00018, 2.66129, 5.32258, 8.05300, 16.19851, 25.15367};
void setup() {
// put your setup code here, to run once:
void loop() {
// put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
Serial.print("Vout =");
Serial.print(" V, Concentration of O2 is ");
float readO2Vout(uint8_t analogpin)
// Vout samples are with reference to 3.3V
float MeasuredVout = analogRead(A0) * (3.3 / 1023.0);
return MeasuredVout;
float readConcentration(uint8_t analogpin)
// Vout samples are with reference to 3.3V
float Concentration = FmultiMap(MeasuredVout, VoutArray,O2ConArray, 6);
float Concentration_Percentage=Concentration*100;
The O2 Concentration in percentage is calculated based on wiki page Graph
The data from the graph is extracted using WebPlotDigitizer
VoutArray[] and O2ConArray[] are these extracted data. Using MultiMap, the data
is interpolated to get the O2 Concentration in percentage.
This implementation uses floating point arithmetic and hence will consume
more flash, RAM and time.
The O2 Concentration in percentage is an approximation and depends on the accuracy of
Graph used.
return Concentration_Percentage;
//This code uses MultiMap implementation from
float FmultiMap(float val, float * _in, float * _out, uint8_t size)
// take care the value is within range
// val = constrain(val, _in[0], _in[size-1]);
if (val <= _in[0]) return _out[0];
if (val >= _in[size-1]) return _out[size-1];
// search right interval
uint8_t pos = 1; // _in[0] allready tested
while(val > _in[pos]) pos++;
// this will handle all exact "points" in the _in array
if (val == _in[pos]) return _out[pos];
// interpolate in the right segment for the rest
return (val - _in[pos-1]) * (_out[pos] - _out[pos-1]) / (_in[pos] - _in[pos-1]) + _out[pos-1];
4. When the sensor is in room air, the buzzer will be silent. Blow the sensor. At this time, if Oxygen concentration is lower than set threshold, the Buzzer will ring. You can check the output voltage (amplify 201) after opening the Serial Monitor.
We tested it inside office, so the concentration of O2 is about 20.5%.
Notice: We have adjusted the figure in a clear air. We have updated it in the program, please refer to the program instead of datasheet.
Grove - Gas Sensor(O2) v1.0 Eagle File
Grove - Gas Sensor(O2) v1.1 Eagle File
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Brain Structure And Basic Functions
6760 Words Jun 10th, 2015 28 Pages
I- Introduction
- Brain Structure and Basic Functions
II- Memory
- Introduction
- Improve your Memory
- Memory Disorders
III- concentration/focus
- Introduction
- Improve concentration/focus
- Concentration/Focus Disorders
IV- Brain & Nutrition
V- Brain & Sleep
VI- Brain & Exercise
VII- Brain & Social Life
VIII- Negatives for brain health
- Stress
- Alcohol
- Smoking
- Drug Addiction
- Traumatic Brain Injury
- Cerebrovascular Disease Preface
The brain is the control center of the body. It controls the conscious and the unconscious body processes.
It is the center for conscious thoughts and mood , allows us to make decisions , think , feel and communicate with outside . It also controls the voluntary movements and regulates digestion and breathing.
Being a complex organ, it is difficult for us to understand how the brain works, how it controls everything in our bodies and how its function declines. Throughout many year , people try to solve the mystery of the brain . Many structures and functions of brain are now well known , but that knowledge is not enough to deal with that mystery.
We know that it is made up of neurons (about 100 billion nerve cells). Neurons are connected like wires in a giant telephone exchange.
Keeping brain health is a challenge as most of disturbances of the brain functions do not occur immediately but in a progressive way.
In this book, you will have some information on how the brain works , what affects the brain and how…
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Bioeconomy & Sustainability
The forest has a key role in a sustainable biobased society, which however requires an active use of the forest and utilization of the renewable raw material from the forest. At the same time, forestry should also contribute to the conservation of biodiversity and safeguard social values in the forest.
Bergvik Skog can support the development of a biobased society, a bioeconomy. The transition to a bioeconomy is a transition from an economy largely based on fossil raw materials to a resource-efficient economy based on renewable raw materials produced through sustainable use of ecosystem services from forest, land and water.
Under the section bioeconomy, you can read more about what the biobased society is and how we can use the forest to create a more sustainable society. The section Sustainability provides comprehensive information what goals and what direction we have concerning sustainability. Under the sections Environment, Social Values, Responsible Employer and Economics, you will find more information on how we work in everyday operations to achieve a sustainable, biobased society. It describes how forestry is adapted to enable the forest to produce raw material for the biobased society in a responsible and sustainable manner that contributes to the conservation of biodiversity and safeguards social values.
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Proverbs 17:7; Proverbs 17:10; Proverbs 17:12; Proverbs 17:16; Proverbs 17:24–25; Proverbs 17:28
Fine speech is not wbecoming to a fool;
still less is xfalse speech to a prince.
10 A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding
than a hundred blows into a fool.
drather than a fool in his folly.
when he has no sense?
24 sThe discerning sets his face toward wisdom,
25 nA foolish son is a grief to his father
tand bitterness to uher who bore him.
28 Even a fool xwho keeps silent is considered wise;
when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent. |
A satellite with an atmospheric tether attached will slow down due to aerodynamic drag. For atmosphere probing this is a disadvantage, but it can be used to make an orbiting satellite return to Earth. A spacecraft could deploy a tether into the atmosphere so that the drag on the combination, however small, would eventually decelerate the satellite sufficiently for it to fall back to Earth. This can be used for capsules with microgravity experiments onboard that need to be examined in a laboratory on Earth, or to remove obsolete satellites from orbit (in which case the intense heat that is generated when the spacecraft slams into the atmosphere is simply allowed to burn it up). Spacecraft currently returned to Earth without tethers need rocket propulsion systems and considerable amounts of propellant.
Instead of decelerating a spacecraft so that it completely falls out of orbit, tethers can also be used to slow it down only a little bit. Space probes flying to other planets using efficient (Hohmann) transfer orbits arrive at their destination with too much speed. Without slowing down, they would fly past instead of entering orbit around a planet. However, decelerating with rocket thrust uses a lot of propellant and thus adds considerable mass to a space probe (early interplanetary probes such as Pioneer 10 and 11 and the two Voyagers were not equipped with sufficient propellant to slow down, and thus visited their targets for only brief periods during fast flybys).
Close to the target planet, an interplanetary spacecraft could roll out a long tether into the upper atmosphere. This would decelerate the spacecraft to a speed lower than the local escape velocity, so that it would no longer have the energy to fly away from the planet. Once the right velocity has been reached, the tether could be cut and the spacecraft would remain in orbit— all without using any propellant.
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Food for Diabetics and Their Precautions
Sure of you already know what diabetes is. The disease is highly related to insulin is very susceptible to certain foods. But in fact all causes and that blood sugar levels need not be feared.
In fact in the body's blood sugar levels of diabetics can be controlled. The trick is to apply a proper diet and a healthy lifestyle as well. The disease is indeed prone because if getting worse will cause heart disease and stroke also.
For those of you who may already be suffering from diabetes, you should be able to run the diabetic diet. This diabetic diet is a healthy way and can control the sugar levels in the body, as well as maintain weight.
Make the appropriate and healthy food suitable for sufferers of diabetes is the most appropriate answer to be able to regulate the sugar levels in the body. For more details, let's discuss food for diabetics below:
1. Healthy Carbohydrates
Some think if consuming carbohydrates instead will add severe blood sugar levels in the body. However, this applies only to simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates instead. Complex carbohydrates are often called powdery substance is slowly absorbed by the body and can help blood sugar levels stabilized.
Good food including food which includes healthy carbohydrate sources exist on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes (beans, peas, and lentils), and low-fat dairy products. Foods such as red rice, oatmeal and rice cereal corn is food source of carbohydrates is healthy and suitable for sufferers of diabetes.
2. Foods rich in fiber
Foods rich in fiber are good for the digestion. In addition food fibrous can help diabetics to lower blood sugar levels very surged. Foods rich in fiber are found in pears, oranges, spinach, broccoli, carrots, squash and pumpkin as well as various legumes such as peas and soy.
3. Fish
Types of fish such as salmon, mackerel, tuna, and sardines can be a good alternative than eating meat high in fat. The types of fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids so it's very good for heart health and can improve insulin resistance in the body. But it is not recommended to consume fish and fried fish with high mercury levels such as tuna.
4. Good fats
Fat including unsaturated fats like avocados, almonds, walnuts or walnuts, olives, and peanut oil good fat is included. These foods can decrease inflammation and acts as antioxidant, anticancer, antiviral, and high cholesterol.
The benefits of this can prevent the development of chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. Don't be evil as consumption of fats, margarine, butter and lard, but replace it with olive oil.
It's also important to set the hours to eat and make a list of food that will be consumed. Unlike the regular diet on diabetes diet, most people do not have to wait when hungry and skip hours eating, but the important thing is to set the amount of carbohydrates being consumed. The consumption of food with the same portions per hour meal, don't be too excessive.
Diabetics should be able to regulate his diet and consume the right foods. Foods that contain sweet and fat consumed is not good for the diabetics. The food being abstinence for diabetics include:
1. Food containing a lot of Sugar
As we know, diabetes is also known as sugar disease or diabetes. This is called the disease of sugar because blood sugar balance hormones namely insulin less able to function properly or could not even work at all.
With those facts, then it is clear that diabetics should not consume foods and drinks which contain a lot of sugar. Avoid foods such as white sugar (granulated sugar), ice cream, Donuts, pastries, chocolates, as well as foods with artificial sweeteners. Avoid also the consumption of bread, coffee, and soda.
2. Saturated fats
For you who have diabetes, avoid consumption of fatty foods are saturated. Foods containing saturated fat include milk is high in fat and animal protein such as beef, hot dogs, sausages and meats contain saturated fat.
So start thinking again if you want to go to fast food restaurants, most of which contain saturated fats. Also keep fries, pizza, fried chicken and burgers, even though the food is very tasty, but of course it's not good for health.
3. High cholesterol food
High cholesterol levels are very dangerous for people with diabetes, because it will cause plaques in the arteries that allow disease to spread to the heart. To avoid and prevent this from happening, try not to consume foods that contain high cholesterol,
Foods that are high in cholesterol include high-fat milk products and high-fat animal protein, egg yolk, shellfish, liver, and other organ meats. You who like to eat fried foods should also be reduced because fried foods are high cholesterol foods.
4. Alcohol
Consuming alcohol is indeed not good for health. For healthy people, it is not good, especially if consumed by diabetics. For people with diabetes, consuming alcohol can inhibit and interfere with the body's ability to produce insulin.
If the diabetics consume alcohol in excess, it can cause hypoglycemia i.e. decrease in blood sugar levels. Worse yet, if diabetics still consume alcohol then the temporary blindness can occur and trigger complications in the liver.
The right foods will help diabetics to control blood sugar levels in the body. If there is an appropriate and suitable food for diabetics, there are also food abstinence which must be avoided.
So if you’ve been following the diet that fits, don't forget to stay away from the foods that are already discussed above. All the food mentioned above did have flavor, but this can cause the disease of diabetes is getting worse.
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The technological superiority over the years has allowed transmission of messages over significant distances for the purpose of communication. This has allowed people to stay connected with one another even though they may be separated over vast geographical terrains. Telecommunication signals can be transmitted to different types of media such as telephone wires, or radio waves. Considering the vitality of the nature of services being provided it becomes an important responsibility of the administrating authorities to ensure efficient system of proper connecting channels.
Administering Communication
The Government through its telecom branch- Department of Telecommunication (hereinafter referred to as “DoT”) enforces polices and guidelines for the regulation of telecommunication in India which is monitored by the Telcom Regulatory of India (hereinafter referred to as “TRAI”) in accordance to the provisions of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 (hereinafter referred to as “TRAI Act”).
Authentic connection
At the time of opting for the telecommunication services, the customers are put through a process of verification under the ‘Know Your Customer’ (hereinafter referred to as “KYC”) norms of the service provider. The documents evidencing that the authentication of a particular customer include PAN Card, Voter ID, Driving License, Passport, etc. These identity proofs help in clearly identifying a particular customer of the service provider.
Aadhaar not mandatory
Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique identification number based on the biometric and demographic data of the individuals comprising of information such as a photograph, ten fingerprints and two iris scans, which are stored in a centralised database. Aadhaar is the social security number issued to every citizen of the country.
As per the judgement of the Supreme Court dated September 26, 2018, the provisions of Section 57 of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 (hereinafter referred to as “Aadhaar Act”), which allowed private entities which used Aadhaar for verification purpose was struck off.
In furtherance to the aforesaid judgement, the DoT informed that the subscribers could submit other verification documents if they wished their service providers to replace their Aadhaar eKYC with the fresh KYC. However, the same would not lead to disconnection of the existing service subscription. DoT clarified that the onus of destruction of the eKYC data within 6 months laid with the Aadhaar regulator - the Unique Identification Authority of India (hereinafter referred to as “UIDAI”). Further, it has also been provided that the Supreme Court only prohibited issuance of new SIM cards through Aadhaar verification process.
It has been announced that in view to streamline the process of issuance of new connection, DoT and UIDAI are in the process of developing a mobile App which would ease the customer verification process while remaining compliant to the abovementioned Supreme Court judgement using One-time password. |
Introduced Insects
Daniel Simberloff
University of Tennessee
An introduced species is a species that did not achieve its current taxonomic status in some location by natural evolutionary processes. Such species are often said to be nonindigenous or adventive to the location of introduction. Among nonindigenous species, those carried to the location by humans, either deliberately or inadvertently, are called "introduced species," whereas those that arrived of their own volition are termed "immigrant." However, all nonindigenous species are often colloquially termed "introduced." "Exotic" and "alien" are sometimes used for all nonindigenous species.
Introduced insects generate major ecological and economic impacts by a variety of means. Many species are introduced in various regions, and they span most insect orders. Their means of introduction are numerous, but most arrive with human help. Only a minority become problematic, and the reasons why a newly arrived species survives or fails to establish a population, and, if established, has or does not have a major effect, are often mysterious. Some problematic introduced species can be eradicated, and several management procedures can adequately control undesirable species when eradication attempts are unsuccessful.
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Bull Sharks (River Whaler)
(Carcharhinus leucas)
Bull Sharks occur in parts of the Swan Canning Riverpark and the public should be aware of this when wading or swimming in the river. These sharks can be dangerous and aggressive. Unlike most sharks, Bull Sharks tolerate fresh-brackish water and thus can travel far up rivers.
The Bull Shark can be recognised by its stout body, short blunt snout, triangular serrated teeth in the upper jaw and no fin markings as an adult. The species has a rather large second dorsal fin and small eyes, and no skin ridge between two dorsal fins. It is grey above and pale below, sometimes with a pale stripe on the flank. The species grows to a length of 3.4m(1).
This species has a widespread distribution in tropical and warm temperate waters worldwide. In Australia, the Bull Shark occurs from Perth, around the northern coastline and down the east coast to Sydney(2). In the Swan Canning Riverpark they have been caught as far upstream as the Maylands Yacht Club.
The Bull Shark can live in a wide range of habitats from coastal marine and estuarine to freshwater. It has been recorded from the surf zone down to a depth of at least 150metres(2). It is the only species of shark that is known to stay for extended periods in freshwater. It has been reported nearly 4000km from the sea in the Amazon River system, and is known to breed in Lake Nicaragua, Central America(2).
Relatively little is known about the biology of the Bull Shark but it shows extraordinary adaptations that allow it to persist in both freshwater and saltwater. The Bull Shark cannot complete its entire life cycle in freshwater and requires access to saltwater through rivers and estuaries(1).
The Bull Shark is viviparous, giving birth to 1-13 young in each litter after a gestation of 10 to 11 months. The female gives birth in late spring and early summer in estuaries, river mouths and the young are born 55-85cm long(2). Mating takes places at the same time of the year.
Bull Sharks are mature at 9-10 years and can live 20-30 years(3).
Bull Sharks swim slowly and heavily, usually close to the bottom and are known to be an ambush predator. Their diet is broad and varied and includes fish, other sharks, sea turtles, birds, dolphins, crustaceans, echinoderms, molluscs and terrestrial mammals.
Along with the Great White and Tiger sharks, the Bull Shark has a reputation for being dangerous. This is a result of its tendency to take large prey and the proximity of its habitat to the activities of humans. There has been one fatality in the Swan Canning Riverpark when a young boy was attacked in the lower estuary during the 1920’s(4). In recent years there have been several other fatal Bull Shark attacks on Australia’s East Coast.
In some parts of the world the Bull Shark is a popular game fish. Its habitat is vulnerable to modification and pollution caused by human activities.
The IUCN consider there to be insufficient information to determine the extent to which the Bull Shark may be threatened and further research is required to determine the conservation status of this shark.
Management messages
Shark sightings should be reported to the Water Police - 24hr hotline: (08) 9442 8600.
1. Stephens, J.D. (1987). Sharks. Golden Press Pty Ltd. NSW.
2. Last, P.R. & Stephens, J.D. (2009). Sharks and Rays of Australia. CSIRO Publishing.
3. Cruz-Martinez, A, Chiappa-Carrara, X. and Arenas-Fuentes, V. (2005). Age and Growth of the Bull Shark, Carcharhinus leucas from Southern Gulf of Mexico. Journal of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Sciences 35: 367-374.
4. Edwards, H.(2009). In “Historical Encyclopaedia of WA”. (eds: Gregory, J & Gothard, J).UWA Press
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How Confidence Is Created
This is the important part! There is a specific pattern to confidence, and it can be created by copying what confident people already do naturally.
As with any feeling, there are just three elements to being confident:-
1. The pictures you make in your mind.
How you picture yourself and what you see happening in your future – whether 5 minutes or a year from now – has a huge impact on how you feel. Do you replay images of you ‘failing’ in the past or the future, or do you see yourself succeeding, handling any challenges that come up?
2. How you speak to yourself.
Do you criticise yourself, beat yourself up, say that it’s not possible, that you can’t do it, and talk to yourself in a harsh tone of voice? Or do you support yourself, say that anything is possible, that you can achieve anything with enough effort, and talk to yourself in a loving way? Which would make you feel better about yourself?
3. The feelings you create in your body.
Your physiology – how your body functions – plays a huge part in how you feel. If you are unsure of this, think about someone you know who is confident, and compare them with someone you know who is anxious – the differences are obvious once you know what to look for. To be confident requires you to breathe confidently, to hold your body in a confident manner, to move in a confident way.
Without making a deliberate change in the mind, you will think, feel and do pretty much what you did in a similar situation before. So if you were anxious in a situation before, you will be anxious again, unless you condition your mind to a better alternative …
(photo credit: Nattu | Licensed under the creative commons)
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Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Advanced Math Solutions – Ordinary Differential Equations Calculator, Exact Differential Equations
In the previous posts, we have covered three types of ordinary differential equations, (ODE). We have now reached the last type of ODE. In this post, we will talk about exact differential equations.
What is an exact differential equation?
There must be a 0 on the right side of the equation and M(x,y)dx and N(x,y)dx must be separated by a +.
Steps to solve exact differential equations:
1. Verify that \frac{∂M(x,y)}{∂y}=\frac{∂N(x,y)}{∂x}
• Find M(x,y) and N(x,y)
2. Integrate \int M(x,y)dx or \int N(x,y)dy
• This will help us find Ψ(x,y)
3. Replace c with ƞ(x) if you integrated N(x,y) with respect to y, or ƞ(y) if you integrated M(x,y) with respect to x
4. Compute ƞ(x) or ƞ(y)
5. Solve to get the implicit or explicit solution, depending on which is preferred
• Don’t forget to substitute ƞ(x) or ƞ(y)
Exact differential equations can be tricky. We will solve the first example step by step to help you better understand how to solve exact differential equations.
First example (click here):
2. Integrate \int N(x,y)dy
3. Replace c with ƞ(x)
4. Compute ƞ(x)
We took the derivative with respect to x of Ψ(x,y), which is equal to y+x^2 y+y^2+ƞ(x). We then compared the derivative to M(x,y), the equation we didn’t integrate. We then integrated both sides to solve for ƞ(x).
5. Find the implicit equation
Here’s another example (click here):
Exact differential equations may look scary because of the odd looking symbols and multiple steps. If you double check your work, memorize the steps, and practice, you can definitely get this concept down. Don’t be afraid and dive in!
Until next time,
1. Find the function u(u,t), define for 0<x<π and t≥0, which satisfies the following condition:
du/dt=(d^2 u)/〖dx〗^2 u(θ,t)=u(π,t)=0
2. Thanks. This is a good help to those students who afraid to differential equations. But I think that the way it can be memorized should be applications of differential equatons.
3. This is really interesting but i need urgent solution to this questions
1. solve d^2y/dx^2-4dy/dx+4y=8(x^2+e^2x)
2. determine the regular singular point of the differential equation 2x(x-1)y"+3(x+1)y'-y=0
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Remote Healthcare and the Digital Age
The digital age has transformed the way many industries function, the healthcare sector included. With widespread access to the internet, information about anything and everything is now readily available to whoever wants it. When it comes to a sensitive field such as the medical one, there are a number of pros and cons to this. While there are many concerns about misinformation from relying on unverified sources on the internet, there is also a real chance to make a lasting impact on how medical treatment and care are administered.
Self-diagnosis and Self-treatment
Only decades ago, medical information was scarce, and people relied heavily on their doctors and physicians to diagnose and treat all their ailments. Other sources of information were well-exposed individuals who knew a lot about sickness and disease. These days, people use their phones to look up information about their health in a few seconds. Self-diagnosis is the order of the day because anyone can just read up on their symptoms and reach a verdict which may or may not be related to the truth.
The benefits of easily available medical information include being able to whip up easy home-made solutions for minor discomforts. It is also good to stay informed and take a genuine interest in your health instead of blindly following. The dangers of the internet include relying on dubious sites and trying to treat oneself instead of consulting a qualified expert. A balance can be found by educating people about the pros and cons of “free” information.
Remote Healthcare to Far Away Locations
On a larger scale, the digital age now makes possible what was once a challenge before. There are many communities around the world where there are not enough medical facilities and healthcare workers to meet the needs of the local population. The World Health Organization prescribes that there be at least one doctor per 1,000 people, but sadly, in many parts of the world, this is far from the case. Statistics show that less than 45% of countries that are WHO member states meet this requirement. If internet access were to be available to everyone everywhere, then doctors could provide a minimal level of patient care even without being physically present. This could limit the amount of travel that many communities must do to get medical attention and also reduce those who end up going without.
Your Doctor on Speed Dial
Telephonic doctor consultations have been used in some communities that experience extreme weather. Imagine being stranded in a cabin in a major blizzard. You may not be able to reach your local doctor by road, but if the phone lines are unaffected, then you can reach them by phone. Now with the digital age, more and more is being done to provide better remote medical care. This includes video consultations.
Mobile Technology and Other Breakthroughs in Rural and Remote Medical Care
As already mentioned, medical information is great for everyone to have at the tips of their fingertips, but it should come from a trusted source. Many medical companies, organizations, and physicians have websites and mobile apps that give great health information. Developers and physicians are also bringing out more and more apps to allow people to be actively involved in monitoring their medical conditions, treatments, and symptoms. Another great use of technology in remote healthcare is in the deployment of drones to deliver medication and blood supplies to inaccessible areas.
While the ideal case is when you can see your doctor physically and get one on one consultations, many times this is not feasible or even possible. Digital solutions in healthcare have the potential to reach more people, bring convenience, and supplement the important work that healthcare workers do.
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edsanders.com - Big Joe Logston"
E-Mail: edsanders@edsanders.com
Big Joe Logston was a noted character in the early history of the west. He was born and raised among the Alleghany mountains, near the source of the north branch of the Potomac, some twenty or thirty miles from any settlement. He was tall, muscular, excelled in all the athletic sports of the border, and was a first-rate shot. Soon after Joe arrived at years of discretion, his parents died, and he went out to the wilds of Kentucky. There Indian incursions compelled him to take refuge in a fort. This pent up life was not at all to Joe's taste. He soon became very restless, and every day insisted on going out with the others to hunt up cattle. At length no one would go with him, so he resolved to go out alone. He rode the greater part of the day without finding any cattle, and then concluded to return to the fort. As he was riding along, eating some grapes, with which he had filled his hat, he heard the reports of two rifles; one ball passed through the paps of his breast, which were very prominent, and the other struck the horse behind the saddle, causing the beast to sink in its tracks.
Joe was on his feet in an instant and might have taken to his heels with the chance of escape greatly in his favor. But to him flight was never agreeable. The moment the guns were fired, an Indian sprang forward with an uplifted tomahawk; but as Joe raised his rifle, the savage jumped behind two saplings, and kept springing from one to the other to cover his body. The other Indian was soon discovered behind a tree loading his gun. When in the act of pushing down his bullet, he exposed his hips and Joe fired a load into him. The first Indian then sprang forward and threw his tomahawk at the head of the white warrior, who dodged it. Joe then clubbed his gun and made at the savage, thinking to knock him down. In striking, he missed, and the gun now reduced to the naked barrel flew out of his hands. The two men then sprang at each other with no other weapons than those of nature. A desperate struggle ensued. Joe could throw the Indian down, but could not hold him there. At length, however, by repeated heavy blows, he succeeded in keeping him down, and tried to choke him with the left hand while he kept the right free for contingencies. Directly, Joe saw the savage trying to draw a knife from its sheath, and waiting till it was about half way out, he grasped it quickly and sank it up to the handle in the breast of his foe, who groaned and expired.
Springing to his feet, Joe saw the Indian he had crippled, propped against a log, trying to raise his gun to fire, but falling forward, every time he made the attempt. The borderer, having had enough fighting for one day, and not caring to be killed by a crippled Indian, made for the fort, where he arrived about nightfall.
He was blood and dirt from crown to toe, and without horse, hat, or gun.
The next morning a party went to Joe's battle-ground. On looking round, they found a trail, as if something had been dragged away, and at a little distance they came upon the big Indian, covered up with leaves. About a hundred yards farther, they found the Indian Joe had crippled, lying on his back, with his own knife sticking up to the hilt in his body, just below the breast bone, evidently to show that he had killed himself.
Some years after this fight, Big Joe Logston lost his life in a contest with a gang of outlaws. He was one of those characters who was necessary to the settlement of the west, but would not have been highly esteemed in civilized society.
History Index.
E-Mail: edsanders@edsanders.com
Copyright 1997 by Ed Sanders. |
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Topic: Achaemenid dynasty
Related Topics
In the News (Wed 24 Apr 19)
Achaemenid dynasty - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cyrus II is considered to be the first king of the Achaemenid dynasty to be properly called so, as his predecessors were subservient to Media.
An important Achaemenid artifact is the Cyrus Cylinder, a declaration issued by Cyrus the Great, son of the founder of the dynasty.
en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Achaemenid_dynasty (2778 words)
Reference.com/Encyclopedia/Achaemenid dynasty
The Achaemenid Dynasty (Hakamanishiya in the Avestan language, هخامنشی - transliterated Hakamanshee in Modern Persian) was a dynasty in the ancient Persian Empire, including Cyrus II the Great, Darius the Great and Xerxes I.
The zenith of Achaemenid power was achieved during his reign (521 BC-485 BC) and that of his son Xerxes I (485 BC - 465 BC, Old Persian Xšāyaršā "Hero Among Kings").
The religion of the Achaemenids was Zoroastrianism, whose adherents at the time were noted for their dedication to clear lines of right and wrong, and for their apparent honesty.
www.reference.com /browse/wiki/Achaemenid (1977 words)
Ancient Persia
The Achaemenid kings had to devise a system of empire strong enough to keep themselves in control and flexible enough to provide for the needs of all their subjects.
It was in fact the beginning of a new religious movement, the new dynasty being looked upon as the true and genuine successor of the old and noble Achaemenid dynasty, and of the Zoroastrian religion.
www.ancientpersia.com /history/hist.htm (795 words)
Hakhamaneshian: Empire of Achaemenid Dynasty (CAIS)
Ultimately, the achievement of the Achaemenid dynasty was that they ruled with much creative tolerance over an area and a time that, for both the Middle East and for Europe, saw the end of the ancient and the beginning of the modern world.
What is clear is that the Achaemenid Empire, the largest anyone had ever yet tried to hold together and one that was not to be surpassed until Rome reached its height, was a profound force in western Asia and in Europe during an important period of ferment and transition in human history.
In a sense the Achaemenid dynasty passed on a concept of empire that, much modified by others, has remained something of a model throughout history of how it is possible for diverse peoples with variant customs, languages, religions, laws, and economic systems to flourish with mutual profit under a central government.
www.cais-soas.com /CAIS/History/hakhamaneshian/achaemenid.htm (7444 words)
Persia - free-definition
As an empire and civilization, Persia began in the 7th century BC with the rise of the Achaemenid dynasty and has endured to the present day.
The Achaemenid dynasty was the first line of Persian rulers, founded by Achaemenes, chieftain of the Persians around 700 BC.
The Sassanian dynasty (named for Ardashir's grandfather) was the first native Persian ruling dynasty since the Achaemenids; thus they saw themselves as the successors of Darius and Cyrus.
www.netlexikon.akademie.de /Persia.html (3207 words)
CHN NEWS (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
Achaemenids ruled over a vast empire including today Iran and lots of other neighboring countries since the foundation of the dynasty by Cyrus the great in 570 BC until invasion of Alexander the Macedonian in 330 BC which consequently caused the fall of this dynasty.
This dynasty was founded by Cyrus the great in 570 BC and was terminated by Alexander the Macedonian invading Iran and dethroning Darius III some 300 years later.
Achaemenid Empire, which in terms of geographical vastness was the largest ever Persian empire through out history, engulfed an extremely large area consisted of the whole or a part of numerous countries today including Iran, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan.
www.chn.ir /en/news/Print?Section=2&id=5336 (386 words)
History of Iran: Achaemenid Empire
www.iranchamber.com /history/achaemenids/achaemenids.php (772 words)
Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt - (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
The dynasty was founded by Ahmose, the brother of Kamose, the last ruler of the Seventeenth Dynasty.
With this dynasty, the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt ended, and the New Kingdom of Egypt or the Egyptian Empire began.
The Nineteenth dynasty of Ramesses I succeeded it in 1292 BC.
psychcentral.com /psypsych/Eighteenth_dynasty_of_Egypt (501 words)
IRANIAN COINS & MINTS: ACHAEMENID DYNASTY: Daric, The Achaemenid Currency - (The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies ...
The fundamental type of the Achaemenid daric and siglos is that bearing the image of the royal archer (toxo‚tês), which remained stereotyped as the obverse, with only a few minor variations.
The major mint was certainly Sardis, the seat of the Achaemenid administration for the whole of Asia Minor; it had already been the mint of the former Lydian kings and was kept in operation by the Achaemenids (Kraay, pp.
The Achaemenids thus at first adopted two different weight standards for gold and silver, with a fixed ratio of value between the denominations; in particular, they attempted to gear the two types of coinage to the needs of the respective groups of recipients and users.
www.cais-soas.com /CAIS/Economy/daric.htm (2753 words)
Iran News - 'Slaves Opening' dating back to Achaemenid era (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
The residential, religious and industrial Dahan-e Gholaman area reminiscent of Achaemenid dynasty measuring 1,500x500 meters was a conventional city.
Unlike other monuments of Achaemenid period mostly comprising large palaces resided by the kings and princes, Dahan-e Gholaman was the residence of common people and the only city serving as a residential area during the rule of Achaemenid dynasty.
The stamps used by Achaemenid monarchs, colored mural paintings as well as human and animal figures including cows representing the continuity of the practice of pre-Islamic rituals during this period are some of the discovered items.
www.iranmania.com /News/ArticleView?ArchiveNews=Yes&NewsCode=37256&NewsKind=CurrentAffairs (1570 words)
The pharaoh Ahmose II of the 26th dynasty sought to shore up his defenses by hiring Greek mercenaries, but was betrayed by the Greeks.
The situation was ripe for exploitation by the famous "Persian archers," the gold coins of the Achaemenids that depicted an archer on their obverse and that were used with considerable skill by the Persians in bribing first one Greek state and then another.
www.rezaabbasimuseum.ir /chornology/Achaemenids.htm (4093 words)
History of Iran: Parthian History and Language
After Alexandria overthrew the Achaemenid dynasty in 330 BC, Parth went under the control of Selukis until the year 247 BC when Arsac revolted against the Saluki king with the help of his brother, Tirdad, and founded the Arsacide dynasty.
Because of the weakness of Mithridates I successors, the Arsacide dynasty lost a lot of its territories and about 15 years after the death of Mithridates, it was about to be overthrown but with the efforts of Mithridates II, a new spirit came to the dynasty.
The Arsacide dynasty was able to fight for years with the Roman Empire until 224 AD, when finally the last king of the Arsacide dynasty was killed in a war with Artaxerxes and the Sassanide dynasty replaced the Arsacide dynasty.
www.iranchamber.com /history/articles/parthian_history_language.php (1700 words)
Achaemenid, World’s First Empire to Respect Cultural Diversity
The Achaemenid dynasty was the first empire in the world that respected the cultural diversity of its different peoples.
Achaemenids (550-330 B.C.) led by Cyrus II (also known as Cyrus the Great or Cyrus the Elder) used to respect cultural values among the various nations living in their empire, announced the China’s official news agency, Xinhua in a story about the inscription of Pasargadae on the World Heritage list.
The first dynastic capital of the Achaemenid Empire was founded by Cyrus II the Great, in Pars, homeland of the Persians, in the 6th century BC.
www.payvand.com /news/04/jul/1010.html (367 words)
Chapter One - The Historical Background
Achaemenid art influenced India, and even later the Maurya dynasty of India and its ruler Asoka owed much to Achaemenid influence.
Between 1381 and 1404 Iran was ravaged by the repeated invasion of yet another conqueror from the steppes, Taimur—known in the West as Timurlane ("Timur the lame").
In 1501, the tribal leader Ismail was crowned king and founded the Safavid Dynasty, the greatest representative of which was Shah Abbas who ruled from 1587 to 1629.
www.marxist.com /iran/chapter1.html (3339 words)
Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions: Introduction (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
From 550 B.C. on, Cyrus the Great and his successors, the kings of the Achaemenid dynasty, conquered and held an empire on a scale that was without precedent in earlier Near Eastern history, and without parallel until the formation of the Roman Empire.
At the same time, the Achaemenid texts were the ipsissima verba of the Great Kings whose warfare and diplomacy had profound effects on the formation of Greek historical and political consciousness, hence documents of fundamental value for Classical and Biblical historians, scholars of Old Persian, Elamite and other ancient languages of Iran, and others.
oi.uchicago.edu /OI/PROJ/ARI/ARIIntro.html (1796 words)
The Achaemenids
According to the official story, the Achaemenid or Persian empire was founded by Cyrus the Great, who became king of Persis in 559 BCE and defeated his overlord
After the second coup in one year, many provinces of the Achaemenid empire revolted; the most important rebellions were those of Phraortes of Media and Nidintu-Bêl of Babylonia.
The Achaemenids developed a policy of dividing the Greek powers (Athens, Sparta, Thebes) and were able to strengthen their grip on Asia Minor, where the Greek towns were again subdued.
www.livius.org /aa-ac/achaemenians/achaemenians.html (727 words)
Achaemenian Dynasty -- Encyclopædia Britannica
The progenitors of the dynasty were members of the Parni tribe living east of the Caspian Sea.
The Pahlavi Dynasty was founded by Reza Khan, a man of humble origin who had gained control over the elite Cossack Brigade and used it to unify the country under his command.
www.britannica.com /eb/article-9003517 (792 words)
Brink-Day-Johnston-Fletcher - Person Page 155
Darius was the greatest royal architect of his dynasty, and during hisreign Persian architecture assumed a style that remained unchanged untilthe end of the empire.
Codomannus the dynasty became extinct and the Persianempire came to an ed (330 B.C.)...The name Achaemenes is born by a son ofDarius I., brother of Xerxes.
It is noteworthy thatafter the Achaemenid empire the name does not appear again in sourcesrelating to Iran, which may indicate some special sense of the name.Most scholars agree, however, that Cyrus the Great was at least thesecond of the name to rule in Persia.
www.brinkfamily.net /tree/p155.htm (7868 words)
Aspects of Empire in Achaemenid Sardis - Cambridge University Press (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
Elspeth R. Dusinberre proposes a new approach to understanding the Achaemenid empire based on her study of the regional capital, Sardis.
The urban structure of Achaemenid Sardis: sculpture and society; 5.
Achaemenid bowls: ceramic assemblages and the non-elite; 9.
www.cambridge.org /catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=052181071X (234 words)
Achaemenid bronze ornament, handle of dagger discovered at Bardak Siah
TEHRAN, June 10 (MNA) -- A bronze eagle ornament symbolizing the Achaemenid dynasty and an ivory handle of a dagger have been discovered at the Darius Palace at Bardak Siah by a team of archaeologists working at the 2500-year-old site, the director of the team announced on Thursday.
The eagle was a symbol of power and wisdom during the Achaemenid era.
Built during the Achaemenids’ zenith, the palace had been destroyed by fire in a war, the archaeologists explained.
www.mehrnews.ir /en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=193546 (411 words)
Notes File 54 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
The fifth king of the 20th Dynasty usurped the throne from his nephew, Ramesses V. However, the son of Ramesses III allowed mortuary ceremonies to continue for Ramesses V, who was only on the throne for four years.
Because of the widespread looting of tombs during the 21st Dynasty the priests removed Ramesses body and took it to a holding area where the valuable materials such, as gold-leaf and semi-precious inlays, were removed.
Akhenaton was the last important ruler of the 18th dynasty and notable as the first historical figure to establish a religion based on the concept of monotheism.
www.jaenfield.com /genealogy/Enf_Bry/n54.html (5182 words)
Historical Setting
Among the most important of these overlapping dynasties were the Tahirids in Khorasan (820-72); the Saffarids in Sistan (867-903); and the Samanids (875-1005), originally at Bukhara (also cited as Bokhara).
www.parstimes.com /history/historicalsetting.html (20953 words)
[No title]
She is interested in cultural interactions in Anatolia, particularly in the ways in which the Achaemenid Empire affected local social structures and in the give-and-take between the Achaemenid and other cultures.
Her research is mainly focused on the cultural interaction between east and west in antiquity, especially during the so-called Orientalising period of Greek art and in the period of the Achaemenid Empire.
Her publications include: Achaemenid History with Helen Sancisi-Weerdenburg (eds.) (1984-91; 1994), Hellenism in the East; the Interaction of Greek and Non-Greek Civilisations From Syria to Central Asia After Alexander with Susan Sherwin-White (eds.) (1987); From Samarkhand to Sardis (1993), The Ancient Near East, c.3000-330 BC (1995), Greeks and Greece in Mesopotamian and Persian Perspectives (2002).
www.iranheritage.org /achaemenidconference/biogs_full.htm (8870 words)
Fluted bowl [Iran] (54.3.1) | Object Page | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
Achaemenid rulers include such famed kings as Cyrus, Darius I (r.
The Achaemenid dynasty lasted for two centuries and was ended by the sweeping conquests of Alexander the Great, who destroyed Persepolis in 331 B.C. The Achaemenid period is well documented in the descriptions of Greek and Old Testament writers as well as by abundant archaeological remains.
Fluted bowls and plates of the Achaemenid period continue a tradition begun in the Assyrian empire.
www.metmuseum.org /TOAH/hd/acha/hod_54.3.1.htm (185 words)
Try your search on: Qwika (all wikis)
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Thursday, November 15, 2012
Some like it hot... volcanoes that is!
Have you ever seen a volcano? When looking at one, you feel amazingly insignificant! You think of the awesome power that they hold within them, and it causes a fearful respect!
How do volcanoes start?
Scientist think that volcanoes begin as an underground bubble of lava. This magma or melted rock is lighter than solid rock it wants to rise toward the earth's surface. If there is a crack or weak spot in the crust, it will find its way through and form a large chamber or reservoir called a magma chamber just below the earth's surface.
The magma begins to melt nearby rock and this increases the pressure in the chamber. This begins to push against the surrounding rock and causes it to split apart. The magma is then forced through this split and out the vent or opening. As it begins to spew, the cooling magma begins to form a rock. Yet the molten rock or magma still continues to spew forth. It keeps cooling and spewing until a new mountain is formed!
Volcanoes tend to occur in specific areas that lie between the boundaries of the plates. There is a lot of volcano activity in one area which is called the ring of fire. This is the edge of the Pacific plate.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Moving Crust?
Like we mentioned before our earth is an amazing place! There are so many mysteries hidden beneath our feet. One of those mysteries is that of the drifting or moving crust. You see the earth's crust is actually made up of plates that float like rafts on the water. These plates are often moved when heat rising from below the crust pushes them from place to place.
Sometimes these plates will collide or grind together. When they collide they may often buckle producing mountains. In fact, most of our earth's ranges are found near plate edges. These plates are responsible for the trenches and mountains that are found in the oceans. When plates move apart, they create a gap. The gap will sometimes fill with molten lava, but it will still leave a deep crack. These cracks are the immensely deep ocean trenches.
What do you think happens when the plates grind against each other? They produce earthquakes. The rough edges grind against each other and then sometimes stop. Yet, the pressure to move is still there. When the rocks finally give in they crack, the plates jump ahead and move. This is what causes an earthquake to happen. Sometimes the rocks will just bend without moving - and that is called a fold. Other times, the rocks will just crack without moving and that is called a fracture.
Earthquakes can be measured by their magnitude on a Richter scale. About 80% of earthquakes occur within a the circum-pacific belt. This is the edge of the plate that circles the Pacific Ocean. |
Preface: The Pratyeka’s Garden
The Pratyeka’s Garden
Mining the Tropes of Our Lives
there we were again, inside,
drawn down the narrow shaft of perspective
past mind’s open maw
into the pit of coal and diamonds
where the empty ache of eons rests
above, below, and all around us
in the bones of the ages
there we were again, inside the mind,
mining the tropes of our lives
for archetypes
and blinking at each other
faces blackened with soot
our eyes startled out like headlights
when we remembered
what we left above
for this dark
the light
the breeze
the open field
the leaves of fall
the winter sleep
the green spring
the light summer dresses rippling in the breeze
In the development of different Buddhist canons certain paths were recognized and Buddha consciousness was characterized according to the actions of the awakened one. Self-realized beings like Gautama Buddha are denoted by three things. They teach, bring enlightenment to others, and leave a legacy in the form of a canon, community or religion. They came to be characterized as samyaksambuddhas.
Other Buddhas give moral teaching reluctantly and do not bring others to enlightenment or leave a legacy. In some traditions these pratyekbuddhas are devalued or marginalized on the basis that their paths are unique, personal, eccentric and eclectic. They can be seen as exiles or outlanders. This seems to be thoughtless, considering that all great samyaksambuddhas are also pratyekbuddhas because their newly brought forth wisdom is gained on a personal, unique path.
Traditionalists rightfully see the unique path of the pratyekabuddha may offer more confusion and distraction to the seeker than the carefully blocked out orderly steps of the traditional path, which is reasonably homogeneous across varying schools sharing the particular root. The path of the canon, community and religion is embraced, assigned a favorable status, institutionalized. Ironically it becomes closed to that which it grew out of; the newly brought forth wisdom gained on the personal, unique path of the first message bearer, an unknown pratyekbuddha.
A pratyeka’s garden may not be combed and perfected to the simple elegance of the classic zen garden. It is unruly in its ways. It is a tree, a meadow, a river in four seasons, by turns riotous in spring and silently stark in winter. Perfection is there in a dynamic chaos which does not obscure that perfection.
Pratyeka is my path, not my status. I can’t confirm or deny my status, it eludes me. It defies measure, although many people think they can take my measure quite handily and assign me a status accordingly. I can’t deny my consciousness, it would be pointless to do that.
I can confirm my path. The expressions of my path have been and may continue to be indeed eccentric, personal and eclectic. I will nudge whoever is put in my way toward consciousness in my manner. I tender offers, I do not instruct. I rarely chatter idly, but it takes a certain discernment and willingness to consider what I say and how I say it to see there is more than prattle in my expressions. I can be contrapuntal to the point of offering what is wrong as being right, because people often learn more in the excitement of catching a mistake than they do when the clean and perfect truth stands before them.
I offer odd koans with tone, manner, content and whim. I have faith that all these expressions come when and where they do because they are meant to be there. I allow it without regard for propriety. Idle chatter is rare in what I offer. The eye of the beholder sees what it will. Light is missed when the eye looks only for the ray in its own neighborhood. Yet even so, the ray leads to light.
Everyone has a perspective. The pratyeka follows the rays seen locally to the source of all rays. It is perfectly acceptable to dance and sing and laugh and celebrate before the altar of known truth. The celebrant in the eye of the traditionalist is often perceived as an idle chatterer, or worse. The consciousness which does not locate the content in the pratyeka’s message in no way diminishes the message given. Often gold given turns into ash in the hands of the recipient.
The path which teaches there is nothing through meditation, and seeks and finds union in the practices of purification and singular attention and detachment, is the way.
The path which teaches there is everything through joining and finds union in the practice of simultaneously knowing One and More Than One, is the way.
The simultaneity of the two paths, reconciled, is the message here, and the message is the path. Spiritual bliss and existential woe are the two primary polarities of human essence. We are able to move toward either pole, and we are able to be balanced between the two.
On the Path of Parity the pilgrim comes to know the divine and the existential mutually comprise life simultaneously, and without conflict. The first is inexpressible, the latter inexhaustibly prone to perspective, relativity, and the wordy, rationalistic expressions thereof. It’s the paradox of being, this dualistic ability to simultaneously know the universal divine and yet see existence from only one perspective point. It’s a humorous predicament, laughably absurd and poignantly clear. The tears of each, of laughter and song and samsara and grieving, are the same perfect tear.
On my path, I experience both my natures. I chose this, and it chose me. The divine and the existential comprise my life. I am simultaneously untroubled knowing the first and troubled in my experience of the latter.
Aldous Huxley speaks of the difficulty encountered when we attempt to express this paradoxical knowledge in rational terms. To paraphrase, he said,
“To describe existence as a continuum, rather than as what it appears to be to common sense, expressions of syntax and vocabulary are quite inadequate. We must be patient, then, with the linguistic eccentricities, the frequency of paradox, the verbal extravagance, sometimes even of the seeming blasphemy of those who are compelled to describe this paradoxical knowledge in terms of a symbol system such as language.”
We humans are able to suspend belief easily. We do it nearly every time we are offered the chance by the well-crafted story, whether it be about super heroes, cartoon trolls, people in the farthest reaches of the past and future, animated furniture, mad rabbits with English accents, and so forth.
What is more difficult for us is to suspend our disbelief.
When one hears another say, “I awoke,” where is the hubris? Is it in the mouth of that which speaks its own truth? Is it in the ear of the listener who denies such a thing could be? Is it in the mind which does not know it, too, is awake? Is it in the mind which believes it is small, and separate?
When one hears the self say, “I awoke,” why does it condemn itself?
Sometimes encountering the awakened condition which speaks without false humility becomes an occasion for desire or envy or disbelief. It can inspire perspectives seeing only precious, egocentric specialness and give rise to condemnation and negative judgment.
Individual identity, either your own or that of others who say “I awoke,” is not important. Suspend your disbelief in every encounter, if only so far as to allow the beginning ground to be open to you, to clear of the fog of prejudgment. A spirit of mutual identity serves better than a belief in separation. Believe instead that we are all awake to that which seems to be lost.
If you are a seeker, you have awakened. If you had not, the thing which informs you something has been lost would not exist, and you would not seek it.
Many people think this thing informs them they do not have something, and so they go forth in life getting things, but their instructions have come from other people who believe the same thing, that getting material things will fulfill the feeling that something has been lost. Obviously, it does not.
I awoke. I learned, simply put, that we know that we know. This is a simple thing hidden behind much difficulty. If your path has brought you here, welcome. If your path carries you to other places, fare well upon your path. Go about your business, expressing and being and doing as you are.
We are all awake, sometimes thrashing in the unmanageable complexity of existence, at other times resting in the simplicity of the essence of life itself.
On the path of life waking comes when we awaken to knowing we are awake. You are awake. You are an awakened one. Waking can happen anywhere, at any time, and we have all had those moments. It can be overlooked when the sight of the world beyond that moment looms, and the self-mind begins to calculate its strategies and speculate upon possible hardships there. It can be forgotten or discounted by our own disbelief that we are awake and the moments we have had which told us to disbelieve.
I awoke.
Suspend your Disbelief
Suspend your disbelief and know that you know. If it is enlightenment that you want, go about your business, expressing and being and doing as you are. God does not deny you what you want. This is so. So be careful. You may not know what God wants. This is how we learn. This is how we are taught. Suspend your disbelief and know that you know.
There is a Hindu saying: “None but a god can worship a god.” You have to identify yourself.
My journey is the hero’s journey. The archetypical roots in the story of my life confirm that for me. I will share the story with you and speak of the wisdoms I gained there. The personal how and what and why of my particular life circumstances don’t always speak to another’s experience and perspective. Yet I have chosen to include autobiographical and personal, eccentric expressions here in the hope that the story of what I have encountered and learned on my path will be of use to you on yours.
The unique, eclectic expressions shared here from my perspective point are forms risen out of a local experience, nothing more, nothing less. The value offered is the object of the perspective point. Follow the rays you see there to the source of all rays. Follow the rays you see from your own perspective point as well. Forms will fade and the source of light appear in the triangulated perspective produced wherever two or more are gathered together. You will see your own path, you will know when you awakened there.
I speak about what I have learned which is universally real and known. I speak sharing my local view of social, cultural, and religious matrices of understanding. I speak of how to know and navigate and reconcile the seeming separation between our known essence and the local perspective seen by our existential self. I speak in bits of practical information gleaned from my own path about thought, feeling, and action.
If one were to tot up the sum of my life it would depend on what kind of a ledger was used. If one were to assign a value of success it would depend on what success meant.
I have characterized my life as being one that took the road less often traveled. I honestly would have to say I didn’t take it, it took me. It seems in retrospect to have been the only vector which could have possibly been plotted out of the calculus and chaos of my nature and my nurture.
The thing not spoken of about the less traveled road is how unruly it is. It’s unpaved and uncivilized, full of deep potholes. Wild things stalk the traveler there and savage the unwary wanderer mercilessly, teaching harsh lessons. There, when the pilgrim has an inspiration and decides to bang the rocks together, the advent of divine fire is no more likely than smashed fingers. At the end the reward of it all is the simple, surprising development that somehow you have managed to survive, for better and for worse, with a few graces, a bit of wisdom, and a large catalog of experience.
There are wisdoms found and good choices made on my road. There are revelations gained and the great, good, solid joy of love ever-present there, often overtaken by shadows, then shared in brilliant light.
There are also blinding winces and aching regrets. I used to say I have no regrets. Now I temper that by saying instead that, while I have regrets, they have informed me and made me stronger, and I see no possibility that things could have gone any differently than the way they have.
It is all unruly and perfect. It is the tree, the meadow, the river, all in four seasons. Perfection is there, moment to moment in the dynamic chaos and confused joy of living.
This story is a “tropeography” of my early life; a biography embedded with the archetypal tropes of my own experience. It is the record of my passage from the palace of Siddhartha out onto the roadways of samsara and the suffering there. It is the story of my odyssey through the dark wood, my fall into the pit. It is my speaking of the places where I met the crone and angel and devil and god, and how I came home to Penelope and Ithaca, to the cross, the gods, to God. It is the story of the journey to the beginning of the second leg of the heroic journey which commences upon awakening to who we are, really.
It is, too, an invitation to you to discover your own moment of awakening, to own its presence in your life. To remember what delivered you to it. To recognize where and when and how it happened, and how it has delivered you here, to where you are now.
I will speak my story and pass it on, not as support for my own conclusions about what life is, or to glorify my unique particularity, but to pass down a story which any beholder who comes to it might use to identify their own path and conclusions. My experience is unique, as is the experience of every person. My conclusions have served me. My story, and the story every person tells, serves us all. Our conclusions may be different, yet still each story serves us all.
I suppose there are stages of aging just like there are stages of grieving. I am older now, and beyond the stage of justifying my life. I think more now about what I could pass on to others which might be of use to them in their own lives.
After the age of seven I was raised with much less nurture than most, and as a result I did not form a perspective largely guided and informed by family, church, community and society. I encountered life relatively unencumbered by the direction of people who would have taught me the ways and means of social value systems and the cultural institutions human beings are incorporated into as they grow up. I encountered life directly, and by my own means formed my own perspective. It left me often not submitted to the ways and means of the society I live in.
We are formed by our past and move within it until we don’t anymore. It’s as simple as that. Until then we move thrashing in chains of emotional memory, mindful of the point sources of past pain. We reside in small domiciles, walled off from the great world beyond. The remembered past sifts like a dark miasma inside those walls and comes to us in daylight memories and dark dreams.
Until it doesn’t matter anymore.
I am connected to the events of my youth. It is natural, I think, to want to speak of those events, to pass my history along to others. Consideration of those events has occupied a large part of my life as I strove to understand myself in the place where my nature, my essential identity, intersects with my nurture.
There is a certain cathartic detoxification available when we bring our past to light. Yet when we tell our stories with ruthless honesty and share our pains, relief is not the end sought. If relief alone is gained it will be a momentary gain and the old shades will come round again. We will walk the same old round with them. It is only when, speaking the story, the story is released into the world once and for all, that we transcend our past and engage the present.
This transcendence is not an abandonment of the contextual matrix of our lives, which is intrinsic to our being. It is more about knowing that the walls surrounding us do not need to be opaque. We can see beyond them and behold more. When we look, we see the universe we are part of, the creation we are joined with, the inseparable reality which suffuses us all and which is no respecter of walls.
People have been passing their stories down through the generations ever since there was language, and for the same reasons – to leave a record of their passing here and, more importantly, to pass on the story as information about what is in play in the human experience; what causes proceed into what effects; where the ground is certain and where it is uncertain; where light shines and where darkness prevails; where planting produces the harvest and where it comes to naught; what acts produce peace and which lead to war; how victory is gained and loss endured; what random, powerful, uncontrollable events await the sojourner in life, and where they are encountered, and how they are received, and what effect they have.
And finally I need to say I am not a polished writer in the sense that I can produce a consistent style or tone. I have many voices ranging from coarse to overly refined and they speak as they will here, so this is not a coherent work in that sense. I pray you take the essence here and forgive the form.
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The inside of the MiniBooNE neutrino detector
A neutrino detector is a physics apparatus which is designed to study neutrinos. Because neutrinos only weakly interact with other particles of matter, neutrino detectors must be very large to detect a significant number of neutrinos. Neutrino detectors are often built underground, to isolate the detector from cosmic rays and other background radiation.[1] The field of neutrino astronomy is still very much in its infancy – the only confirmed extraterrestrial sources so far as of 2018 are the Sun and the supernova 1987A in the nearby Large Magellenic Cloud. Another likely source (3 standard deviations [2]) is the blazar TXS 0506+056 about 3.7 billion light years away. Neutrino observatories will "give astronomers fresh eyes with which to study the universe."[3]
Various detection methods have been used. Super Kamiokande is a large volume of water surrounded by phototubes that watch for the Cherenkov radiation emitted when an incoming neutrino creates an electron or muon in the water. The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory is similar, but uses heavy water as the detecting medium. Other detectors have consisted of large volumes of chlorine or gallium which are periodically checked for excesses of argon or germanium, respectively, which are created by neutrinos interacting with the original substance. MINOS uses a solid plastic scintillator watched by phototubes; Borexino uses a liquid pseudocumene scintillator also watched by phototubes; and the NOνA detector uses a liquid scintillator watched by avalanche photodiodes.
The proposed acoustic detection of neutrinos via the thermoacoustic effect is the subject of dedicated studies done by the ANTARES, IceCube, and KM3NeT collaborations.
Neutrinos are omnipresent in nature such that every second, tens of billions of them "pass through every square centimetre of our bodies without us ever noticing."[4] Many were created during the big bang and others are generated by nuclear reactions inside stars, planets, and other interstellar processes.[5] Some may also originate from events in the universe such as "colliding black holes, gamma ray bursts from exploding stars, and/or violent events at the cores of distant galaxies," according to speculation by scientists.[6]
Despite how common they are, neutrinos are extremely "difficult to detect" due to their low mass and lack of electric charge. Unlike other particles, neutrinos only interact via gravity and the neutral current (involving the exchange of a Z boson) or charged current (involving the exchange of a W boson) weak interactions. As they have only a "smidgen of rest mass" according to the laws of physics, perhaps less than a "millionth as much as an electron,"[1] the gravitational force caused by neutrinos has proven too weak to detect, leaving the weak interaction as the main method for detection:
Detection techniquesEdit
Antineutrinos were first detected near the Savannah River nuclear reactor by the Cowan–Reines neutrino experiment in 1956. Frederick Reines and Clyde Cowan used two targets containing a solution of cadmium chloride in water. Two scintillation detectors were placed next to the water targets. Antineutrinos with an energy above the threshold of 1.8 MeV caused charged current "inverse beta-decay" interactions with the protons in the water, producing positrons and neutrons. The resulting positron annihilations with electrons created pairs of coincident photons with an energy of about 0.5 MeV each, which could be detected by the two scintillation detectors above and below the target. The neutrons were captured by cadmium nuclei resulting in delayed gamma rays of about 8 MeV that were detected a few microseconds after the photons from a positron annihilation event.
A more recently built and much larger KamLAND detector used similar techniques to study oscillations of antineutrinos from 53 Japanese nuclear power plants. A smaller, but more radiopure Borexino detector was able to measure the most important components of the neutrino spectrum from the Sun, as well as antineutrinos from Earth and nuclear reactors.
Radiochemical methodsEdit
Cherenkov detectorsEdit
Two water-filled detectors of this type (Kamiokande and IMB) recorded a neutrino burst from supernova SN 1987A.[8] Scientists detected 19 neutrinos from an explosion of a star inside the Large Magellanic Cloud—only 19 out of the octodecillion (1057) neutrinos emitted by the supernova.[1] The Kamiokande detector was able to detect the burst of neutrinos associated with this supernova, and in 1988 it was used to directly confirm the production of solar neutrinos. The largest such detector is the water-filled Super-Kamiokande. This detector uses 50,000 tons of pure water surrounded by 11,000 photomultiplier tubes buried 1 km underground.
The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) uses 1,000 tonnes of ultrapure heavy water contained in a 12-metre-diameter vessel made of acrylic plastic surrounded by a cylinder of ultrapure ordinary water 22 metres in diameter and 34 metres high.[7] In addition to the neutrino interactions visible in a regular water detector, a neutrino can break up the deuterium in heavy water. The resulting free neutron is subsequently captured, releasing a burst of gamma rays that can be detected. All three neutrino flavors participate equally in this dissociation reaction.
The MiniBooNE detector employs pure mineral oil as its detection medium. Mineral oil is a natural scintillator, so charged particles without sufficient energy to produce Cherenkov light still produce scintillation light. Low-energy muons and protons, invisible in water, can be detected.
An illustration of the Antares neutrino detector deployed under water.
The Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA) operated from 1996 to 2004. This detector used photomultiplier tubes mounted in strings buried deep (1.5–2 km) inside Antarctic glacial ice near the South Pole. The ice itself is the detector medium. The direction of incident neutrinos is determined by recording the arrival time of individual photons using a three-dimensional array of detector modules each containing one photomultiplier tube. This method allows detection of neutrinos above 50 GeV with a spatial resolution of approximately 2 degrees. AMANDA was used to generate neutrino maps of the northern sky to search for extraterrestrial neutrino sources and to search for dark matter. AMANDA has been upgraded to the IceCube observatory, eventually increasing the volume of the detector array to one cubic kilometer.[9]
Radio detectorsEdit
The Radio Ice Cherenkov Experiment uses antennas to detect Cherenkov radiation from high-energy neutrinos in Antarctica. The Antarctic Impulse Transient Antenna (ANITA) is a balloon-borne device flying over Antarctica and detecting Askaryan radiation produced by ultra-high-energy neutrinos interacting with the ice below.
Tracking calorimetersEdit
Coherent Recoil DetectorEdit
At low energies, a neutrino can scatter from the entire nucleus of an atom, rather than the individual nucleons, in a process known as "Coherent Neutral Current Neutrino-Nucleus Elastic Scattering".[10] This effect has been used to make an extremely small neutrino detector.[11][12][13] Unlike most other detection methods, coherent scattering does not depend on the flavor of the neutrino.
Background suppressionEdit
For lower-energy experiments, the cosmic rays are not directly the problem. Instead, the spallation neutrons and radioisotopes produced by the cosmic rays may mimic the desired signals. For these experiments, the solution is to place the detector deep underground so that the earth above can reduce the cosmic ray rate to acceptable levels.
Underwater neutrino telescopes:
Under-ice neutrino telescopes:
• AMANDA (1996–2009, superseded by IceCube)
• IceCube (2004 on)[3]
Underground neutrino observatories:
See alsoEdit
2. ^ IceCube Collaboration; Fermi-LAT; MAGIC; AGILE; ASAS-SN; HAWC; INTEGRAL; Swift/NuSTAR; VERITAS; VLA/17B-403 teams (2018). "Multimessenger observations of a flaring blazar coincident with high-energy neutrino IceCube-170922A". Science. 361 (6398): eaat1378. arXiv:1807.08816. Bibcode:2018Sci...361.1378I. doi:10.1126/science.aat1378. PMID 30002226.
5. ^ "All About Neutrinos". Retrieved 2018-04-19.
10. ^ Winslow, Lindley (Oct. 18, 2012). Coherent Neutrino Scattering, UCLA. Retrieved 29 Sept. 2017.
11. ^ Akimov, D.; Albert, J. B.; An, P.; Awe, C.; Barbeau, P. S.; Becker, B.; Belov, V.; Brown, A.; Bolozdynya, A.; Cabrera-Palmer, B.; Cervantes, M.; Collar, J. I.; Cooper, R. J.; Cooper, R. L.; Cuesta, C.; Dean, D. J.; Detwiler, J. A.; Eberhardt, A.; Efremenko, Y.; Elliott, S. R.; Erkela, E. M.; Fabris, L.; Febbraro, M.; Fields, N. E.; Fox, W.; Fu, Z.; Galindo-Uribarri, A.; Green, M. P.; Hai, M.; et al. (2017). "Observation of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering". Science. 357 (6356): 1123–1126. Bibcode:2017Sci...357.1123C. doi:10.1126/science.aao0990. PMID 28775215.
12. ^ "Neutrino detection goes small". Physics Today. 2017. doi:10.1063/PT.6.1.20170817b.
13. ^ Levy, Dawn (Aug. 3 2017). "World’s smallest neutrino detector finds big physics fingerprint", Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Retrieved 29 Sept. 2017.
External linksEdit |
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Creative Writing Essay
Reflection on The Political Morality of Race Work by Kwame Anthony Appiah
Racial prejudices are not new in our modern society nowadays or even long before time. Most of these prejudices are only based on overstated perceptions. Why need for a specific racial identification if all can just live harmoniously together. Color is not a factor in judging someone. I strongly insist to use the coined term in the essay “badge of color”.
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Why Locking Eyes During a Conversation Is So Difficult
Turns out there's more than awkwardness that keeps us from staring into a person's eyes when having a conversation. Jacob Ammentorp Lund/iStock/Thinkstock
You know how it's hard to look into someone's eyes while you're talking to them? And not just people whose eyes are like two velvety pools of sunlit honey — it can be difficult to collect and express your thoughts when you're staring into completely regular-looking eyes, too. Face-to-face communication is important, yet holding a steady gaze during conversation reduces even the most eloquent and self-possessed among us into a stammering puddle of "likes" and "ums." Why is that?
A study published last month in the journal Cognition explores why eye contact and verbal processing appear to be connected, even though vision and language have centers in different parts of the brain. The researchers' findings suggest that eye contact, although essential to human behavior, is so mentally taxing that it ends up interfering with our ability to speak.
To study this phenomenon, Shogo Kajimura and Michio Nomura — two researchers from Kyoto University in Japan — asked 26 study participants to play a word-matching game while watching the animated face of a stranger on a TV screen. Male and female faces were equally represented, and some of them gazed directly at the viewer, while others' gazes were averted.
When confronted with each of these faces, the study participants were given a noun and asked to come up with an associated verb as quickly as possible. Some of the nouns, like "knife," were pretty easy to associate with a specific verb — we generally cut with a knife. Other nouns, like "list," were more difficult to associate with a specific verb; after all, you can make a list, check a list, refer to a list and be on a list. Participants had to look at the face on the screen and use each noun in a sentence with the verb of their choosing.
The researchers found that the participants were slower to say an appropriate verb when the face on the video screen looked directly at them rather than away from them. But this only occurred when the verb-association task was complicated, or involved many possible options for related verbs.
According to Kajimura and Nomura, this shows that eye contact doesn't exactly interfere with the brain's ability to choose words, but the mental effort it takes to maintain a mutual gaze overloads the brain's functioning to the point that verb generation can become really tough. The two tasks essentially conflict for cognitive resources.
Other studies have shown that direct eye contact conveys important emotions, and an averted gaze can feel ostracizing. But sometimes it's OK to look away. You owe it to both yourself and your buddy to say something cogent and sensible. |
Securing information technology systems isn’t as simple as many people think. The ongoing digital revolution has brought about millions of cyber vulnerabilities that seem to evolve as technology and science advance. Nonetheless, IT experts are working tirelessly to develop solutions to address new forms of cyber threats. Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the technologies that entities are using to protect their IT systems against hackers. Below are reasons every business needs to integrate artificial intelligence into their cybersecurity systems.
Automatic Attacks Detection
IT experts in multinational companies and large corporations need to be on premises at all times to protect and safeguard their systems and servers from intruders. However, these are human beings, so they can’t detect potential attacks immediately and address them on the spot before damages ensue. With artificial intelligence technologies in place, IT professionals can rest assured that all their IT infrastructure can detect potential threats and address them head-on. Of course, like any other system, AI-powered systems are only as effective as the technicians operating them. Combination of AI technologies with the intelligence of outsourced IT experts can make your cybersecurity system more reliable and robust and enable it to preempt attacks before they occur. Cyber threats managed detection and response services need to be efficient and quick to protect your IT systems adequately. The fact that AI can automate all your cybersecurity processes and systems can help lower the cost of protecting and safeguarding IT systems and sensitive data from breaches.
Robust Protection against Sophisticated Attackers
Over time, anything connected to the internet has become a target for hackers. In fact, attackers are infiltrating even government agencies and large corporations that have the tightest security systems. However, enterprises can mitigate and prevent all these cyber threats with AI equipped infrastructure. In fact, a lot of AI-powered cybersecurity systems promise to detect any intrusions, facilitate an incident response, and detect any malware on any network before an attack occurs. Artificial intelligence allows organizations to automate processes that they use for addressing data breaches, investigating attacks, and detecting hacks to improve their cybersecurity protection. AI equipped security systems can learn an IT system over time and can continue to evolve to become smarter to give an enterprise an edge over cyber threats.
Risks Quantification
Organizations often find it challenging to quantify their cyber risk due to the vast number of variables they need to account for and lack of historic data. As such, companies must undertake a tedious cyber risk assessment, which requires them to fill questionnaires and measure organization’s risk culture and governance as well as compliance with available cyber security standards. Use of questionnaires is insufficient to quantify the extent an organization is exposed to cyber threats. However, the ability of AI technologies to generate predictions and process large pools of data can be a game changer in your cyber security system.
Detection of Network Traffic Anomaly
Today’s organizations have unique traffic patterns and experience a challenge of detecting abnormal behaviors that may indicate a malicious activity on their network. Your IT department needs to analyze thousands of correlations between external and internal network traffic metadata for them to find a correlation across protocols without the need for deep packets inspection. Startups can now use AI technologies to tackle all complex processes involved in detecting abnormal patterns on a network traffic.
Artificial intelligence continues to redefine cyber security systems across various industries, but many organizations and enterprises are yet to realize its full potential. AI proponents and researchers continue to experiment and research new technologies to increase the efficiency of threats detection. However, it is wise to work alongside a team of IT professionals who are adept at applying artificial intelligence in cybersecurity. If you haven’t deployed AI equipped systems and outsourced IT professionals to manage your cybersecurity system, then this is the best time for it.
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Cortez and the Aztec
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Write a short account of the conquering of the Aztecs by Cortez including who, what, when, where and why it happened. Be sure to explain why it was so easy for Cortez and his men to conquer the mighty Aztec Empire. Please explain each of your examples. This is a college level assignment and I do expect college level writing. There should be an introduction, content and conclusion. (300 word)
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The concept of the Concepts.
The notion based on particular variable is called concept.
The issues in world are complex and have different aspects and ways to tackle them called concepts ,as no single mean can offer guaranteed success/solutions.
The concepts too evolve gradually and may denote various time periods/horizons and based on particular beliefs of that time.In that way concepts too evolve with time ,understanding,clues emerging from time to time.
In this world,its finest creation -the humanity is most complex creation ,which is highly sensitive to oneself and ones in nearby and else ,besides further being too much susceptible to clinging of particles of environment at any stage of ones life consciously or unconsciously .
Be it spiritual,organisational,social,individual,national,international economics issues ,the handling of things is complex,competitive and time bound,further the ever changing scenario and the issues of which no definitive answers available e.g the universe,the human evolution,civilization ,nobody for sure knows actual path traversed.
Further social sciences,psychology,philosophy etc ,the issues has multiple aspects and subjective,of which no single cause could be attributed,therefore reasoning and analysis is based on concepts.
Concepts may be individualized ,and it could be an idea of what something is or how it works,something conceived in ones mind and perpetuates as general notion or idea, and it could be that idea of something is formed mentally but combining all its characteristics and details with added flavor of ones intuition,predilections,understanding etc.And sometimes concepts are abstracts or generic ideas generalized and prevails as general idea or understanding of something .
An original/abstract idea which forms individual or mass mental frame which is evolved with experiences of individual/societies/organization etc and sometimes it excels with transformation of existing ideas.
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By Linda Conlin, Pro to Pro Managing Editor
The brutally cold weather that swept across much of the country recently may have affected more than your heating bill. Eyes are resilient in the extreme cold, but can still suffer negative effects. Patients may have some unusual complaints, so we must be alert, know the facts, and share the information with our patients.
First, the good news. Our eyes have natural protective mechanisms against cold and wind. Body temperature helps keep the eyes warm, and because of their salinity, tears freeze at a lower temperature than water to act as a kind of ocular antifreeze. Eyelids and lashes also help protect the eye. Even with those protections, however, it is possible for the cornea to freeze in high wind, low temperature conditions. Soldiers, pilots, skiers, bicyclists, ice skaters, snowmobilers and mountaineers are at particular risk.
Extreme cold exposure has specific effects on the eye. Cold air and wind cause tears to evaporate more quickly. As with other dry eye conditions, the physiological response to that drying can be excessive tear production. What’s more, the cold can cause blood vessels in the tissues around the eyes to constrict, resulting in red, swollen eyes, excessive tearing and blurry vision. Staying indoors might not be the best protection against cold-induced dry eye because indoor heating systems frequently make air very dry in homes and offices.
Then there’s UV exposure. While most often associated with summer, the reflective properties of that pretty white snow effectively double UV exposure, which can result in photokeratitis, commonly called snow blindness. It’s a painful inflammation of the cornea that manifests as tearing, pain, redness, swollen eyelids, headache, a gritty feeling in the eyes, halos around lights, hazy vision, and temporary loss of vision. Patients may not initially realize they have a problem because symptoms may not appear until 6-12 hours after the UV exposure. The condition is treatable, however, and vision usually returns after 18 hours, with the cornea regenerating in 24 to 48 hours.
More good news. It’s easy to protect the eyes against the cold and wind. While patients most often associate the need for sunglasses with summer, it’s critical to protect eyes against the doubled UV exposure from snow. Goggles will protect against the wind, which brings even lower wind chill temperatures with it, and using lubricating drops before going outdoors can slow tear evaporation. Indoors, humidifiers and lubricating drops protect against the effects of dry heat.
After you put on that extra pair of socks, you can learn more about technological advancements and pioneering efforts that improve the high-performance eyewear needed in extreme conditions with our CE, Protecting Our Amazing Eyes, at www.2020mag/ce. Stay warm and safe! |
Morality Is Not The End All Be All
888 Words Nov 2nd, 2015 4 Pages
Morality is not the End All be All Morality is a set of principles that individuals use to distinguish between right and wrong, good and bad actions. Being the code by which we live our lives, morality is a concept that leaks into almost every aspect of human life. For example, even a mundane activity like eating a sandwich for lunch can have moral implications. Consider this question, was the turkey that ended up on the sandwich raised in horrific factory farm conditions and subjected to torturous treatment? That is a question with heavy moral implications. Distinguishing right action from wrong is a crucial skill for humans to have, but is morality the only thing that truly matters about a person. Susan Wolf, an esteemed philosopher, thinks it is not. Wolf argues that morality is just one of many aspects and values of a person. In other words, people are more than just moral beings and we should be happy that this is the case. This paper will provide a brief look at Susan Wolf’s argument as well as my argument for why her contention is the correct one. First a brief summary of one of Wolf’s most notable pieces, “Moral Saints”. In “Moral Saints”, Wolf argues from example. She opens her piece by asserting that she does not know if there are moral saints in the world, but she is happy that she has not encountered any in her life. Wolf then goes on describing two different kinds of moral saints that she believes can be conceptualized using common sense, the loving saint and…
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Essay on Principles And Function Of Management
1624 Words 7 Pages
Out line:
This assessment will look at the Principles and Functions of Management. Which mentions there is a difference between what a manager should do and what they actually do? According to many writers observation. Subsequently, I will comment by usage of my own knowledge of management theories and concepts. Further more, it is based on an experience and press stuffs. Due to main discussions, my assessment can be divided into following paragraph:
I. Introduction In this order I will define:
- What is a manager?
- Why do we need the management?
- Theories management: X and Y
- Levels of management
II. Presentation
In this case I am going to explain:
- What a management should do?
- What they actually do?
…show more content…
The staff are required to performance the tasks given by the managers. Due to Pearce and Robinson statement that manager is: The process of optimizing human, material, and financial contributions for the achievement of organizational goals.
In any organizations, the managers are distinguished by their functions and their level of responsibility. Therefore, depicting in a pyramid can be clearly shown operational, junior, middle and senior managers in ascending order of quantity. The junior managers are close to operational level such as foreman, team leader, coordinator of whom role is to co-ordinate the work of non-managerial employees and to have direct responsibility for machinery and materials. Next, the middle managers are usually accountable for the work of junior managers and they in turn report to senior management and they have limits to their responsibilities. Continued, the senior managers are executives, at the highest level of organization responsible for its overall direction and coordination and for directing its major activities. They are responsible for controlling, directing, planning, organizing and for providing strategic leadership to the company, also, for the failure or the success of the organization. The potential for managerial leadership in terms of two opposite sets of assumptions taken shape by Douglas McGregor (1960) is known as Theory X and Theory Y. First of all, Theory X managers who described to be lazy,
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Healthy body, healthy brain
Paoli Hospital October 14, 2015 General Wellness
Although many people work hard to keep their body in shape and maintain a healthy weight and levels of blood pressure and cholesterol, it’s easy to assume that your brain doesn’t need much maintenance. After all—it works just fine on its own, right?
“Many people don’t think about the importance of keeping their brain healthy until their cognitive abilities start to decline,” says Joyce Liporace, MD, neurologist at Paoli Hospital. “Alzheimer’s and dementia become more significant risks as we age, but prevention starts much earlier than that.”
There are many factors that affect your risk for cognitive disorders like these, but a healthy lifestyle can help reduce your risk. Below, Dr. Liporace explores what you can do today.
Eat well
Remember: what you feed your body, you feed your brain; make sure it’s healthy. For optimum brain health, maintain a low-fat diet that focuses on fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
While no diet in particular can guarantee a healthy brain or body, many physicians recommend following the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes healthy fats, flavoring foods with sodium alternatives like lemon and herbs, and limiting red meat intake.
Foods and nutrients like blueberries, turmeric, and omega-3 fatty acids have also been shown to support neurogenesis, the process by which new brain cells are produced in the adult brain. Look for opportunities to work nutrients like these into your diet.
Physical activity won’t just benefit your body—it has benefits for your brain, too. Regular cardiovascular exercise results in an elevated heart rate and increased blood flow to the brain and body, which can reduce dementia risk factors like high blood pressure and cholesterol, and has also been shown to help with neurogenesis.
Make plans with friends
Now, you’ll have a new excuse to make dinner plans: it’s good for your health.
“Social engagement—whether it’s joining a club, volunteering, or just meeting up with a group of friends—may reduce the risk for depression and delay the risk of dementia in older adults,” says Dr. Liporace.
Keep your brain healthy by looking for social engagement opportunities in your community or connecting with family and friends.
Challenge yourself
While spending time with others it’s important, you can strengthen your cognitive skills alone, too. Mental health exercises like crossword puzzles and Sudoku, learning new skills, or taking a class can stimulate your brain and help maintain brain function.
Quit smoking
If you’re a smoker, now is the time to quit. Research published earlier this year found that smoking can damage the brain’s cortex, the area of the brain where memory, language, and perception occur. As a result, a thinner cortex is associated with mental decline.
“As we age, it’s normal for the brain’s cortex to become thinner, but smoking accelerates the process,” explains Dr. Liporace. “Although some thinning is out of your control, quitting smoking is one of the best things you can do for your body and your brain.”
Get plenty of sleep
Not getting enough sleep at night means more than just an extra coffee the next day. Those hours you spend recharging each night are important for creating memories, making sense of your day, and allowing your brain time to rid itself of toxins. Without those precious eight hours, you could be putting your brain at risk for problems like poor memory and cognitive function.
Protect yourself
Are you wearing seatbelts? Helmets? Knowing the depths of water before you jump in? Taking precautions to prevent spinal cord and head injuries are key to keeping your brain safe. If you are affected by a head injury or a concussion, be sure you’re medically cleared before you return to activity.
Although taking steps like these can help keep improve your cognitive health, age and other factors may still affect your dementia risk. If you begin to notice signs of dementia, like feeling disoriented, difficulty communicating, or memory loss, make an appointment with your physician.
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Battery Recycling
• Many batteries contain chemicals that are harmful to the environment when not dealt with correctly
• The dumping of batteries in your household bin means they will end up in landfill causing pollution.
What Can I Do?
Most batteries can be recycled which has 2 main benefits;
• Preventing harmful chemicals from reaching landfill sites and contaminating the environment
• By reusing the raw materials in batteries there is less demand on the planets resources
As part of our commitment to the environment Response Electronics, are working in conjunction with Battery Back who operate as an Approved Battery Compliance Scheme.
You can visit www.recyclenow.co.uk to find your nearest battery recycling point.
Do's & Don'ts
• Don't throw used batteries into your household waste
• Don't send back used batteries in the post as this is illegal and counter productive in helping the environment
• Do use rechargeable batteries, modern rechargeable batteries in most case last longer than standard alkaline batteries in a single charge and can be recharged upto a 1000 times
The Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations
Under the Waste Battery regulations, Response Electronics Ltd are now offering a take back scheme for all portable waste batteries. You can return your waste batteries to our business premises in person (please do not post). Alternatively, you can find your local recycling facility at www.recyclenow.co.uk
WEEE Regulations
For example, if a customer bought a new Doorbell from us we would accept their old Doorbell and prevent it going into a landfill site by disposing of it safely. Customers must return their WEEE item to us within 28 days of purchasing their new item.
WEEE recycling logo
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26th April 2019
Frequent Questions about CBT
What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?
Cognitive behavioural therapy is one of the few forms of psychotherapy that has been scientifically tested and found to be effective in hundreds of clinical trials for many different disorders. This evidence has made CBT the recommended treatment of choice by the Government (see
In contrast to other forms of psychotherapy, cognitive behavioural therapy is usually more focused on the present, more time-limited, and more problem-solving oriented. In addition, patients learn specific skills that they can use for the rest of their lives. These skills involve identifying distorted thinking, modifying beliefs, relating to others in different ways, and changing behaviours.
What is the theory behind Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?
Cognitive behavioural therapy is based on the cognitive model: the way we perceive situations influences how we feel emotionally.
For example, one person reading this website might think, "Wow! This sounds good, it's just what I've always been looking for!" and feels happy. Another person reading this information might think, "Well, this sounds good but I don't think I can do it." This person feels sad and discouraged.
What can I do to get ready for CBT treatment?
Your therapist will help you develop a goal list and decide which goals you might be able to work toward on your own and which ones you might want to work on in therapy.
How do cognitive behavioural therapists help patients become their own therapists?
At each therapy session, cognitive behavioural therapists help patients specify the problems they have encountered during the week or that they expect to encounter in the current week. They then collect data to identify the ideas and behaviours that have interfered with patients' ability to solve problems themselves.
Cognitive behavioural therapists get patients actively engaged in deciding where to start working. Together, they develop an “action plan” or homework for patients (to do during the week) to implement solutions to problems or to make changes in their thinking and actions. This process gets patients actively involved in their own treatment; they begin to recognize that the way to get better is to make small changes in how they think and what they do every day. When treatment ends, patients are able to use the skills and tools they have learned in therapy in their day-to-day lives.
How can I make the best use of therapy?
When looking for a psychologist or counsellor who can provide cognitive behavioural therapy in the Swansea are, you should visit the website of the BABCP (British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies), which is
About CBT #01 |
Fat is fit
Recent studies show saturated fat is not the cause of rising heart disease
Fat is not killing you. For years, fat was the villain of the diet-heart story. You ate excess fat, typically saturated fat, and it raised your 'bad' cholesterol levels or LDL, and gave you heart disease. Dietary guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO) have for more than a decade told us to keep the total fat levels to 30 per cent of the total calorie intake. Within that, the standard advice is to keep the levels of saturated fat to less than 10 per cent, given the understanding about its link to heart disease.
Saturated fat has been exonerated by several studies, complete with evidence suggesting that the association between saturated fat and heart disease is untrue.
The PURE study was not unique or isolated and was only building upon other studies that had shown that a low-fat diet was not a good idea. - Dr Salim Yusuf Professor of medicine, McMaster University
Whole milk, butter and eggs are good and do not arouse concern when had in moderation. - Dr Viveka Kumar Senior director, cath lab, Max Super Speciality Hospital, Saket in Delhi
That understanding is incorrect, as it turns out now. Saturated fat has been exonerated by several studies, complete with evidence suggesting that the association between saturated fat and heart disease is untrue. Some experts would even say that WHO was wrong, at least when it came to the subject of fat and its role in coronary heart disease (CHD). If fat was giving us heart trouble, then despite the efforts to reduce it all along—didn't we give up whole fat milk, butter and ghee?—why was the epidemic of heart disease and diabetes rising the world over, including India?
That story, experts say, is complex and needs careful assessment. The latest in the sequence of evidence exonerating fat came after the results of the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study were published in the influential journal, Lancet. The PURE study, its authors claim, was a game-changer of sorts because nothing like this had ever been attempted before—a diet study with such a large sample across so many countries, including low- and middle-income countries. For the PURE study, the sample was diverse: researchers followed a large number (1,35,335) of young and old people (35-70 years) from 18 countries in five continents for ten years. Their dietary intake, incidence of total mortality (deaths) and major cardiovascular events (fatal cardiovascular disease, non-fatal myocardial infarction, stroke, and heart failure) were recorded. The association between consumption of carbohydrate, total fat and each type of fat with cardiovascular disease and total mortality were then studied.
Fat, as it turned out, was not the villain here.
Instead, it was found that a high carbohydrate intake was associated with a higher risk of total mortality, whereas total fat and individual types of fat were related to lower total mortality or lesser number of deaths. Moreover, they found no association between total fat and types of fat, with heart disease, myocardial infarction (heart attacks) and deaths due to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Saturated fat, they found, actually had an inverse association with stroke.
Based on the evidence, the PURE study called for a revision of global dietary guidelines. However, in May, when WHO released its proposed revised dietary guidelines, it reiterated the same logic that had been circulating for the last 15 years —keep saturated fat to less than 10 per cent of total calorie intake, or less than 30 grams in a day. “Dietary saturated fatty acids and trans-fatty acids are of particular concern as high levels of intake are correlated with increased risk of CVDs. Saturated fatty acids are found in food from animal sources such as butter, milk, meat, salmon, and egg yolk, and some plant-derived products such as chocolate and cocoa butter, coconut, palm and palm kernel oils,” the proposed guidelines read.
The results of the PURE study, as one would have expected, did not seem to reflect in the guidelines. The growing evidence that redeemed fat against heart disease, or the real culprit—carbohydrates—did not find a place in the guidelines. “WHO is not a body that changes easily. It is not even a scientific body, it is a political body,” said Dr Salim Yusuf, professor of medicine, McMaster University, and senior author of the PURE study, in a scathing response to WHO's global guidelines. Yusuf, who is also the former president of the World Heart Federation, says that several countries such as Canada do not follow WHO guidelines, and instead have their own guidelines. The PURE study was not unique or isolated and was only building upon other studies that had shown that a low-fat diet was not a good idea, says Yusuf.
Until the PURE study, most of the studies on fats had been done on people from Europe and North America, where fat intake was high due to consumption of meat and cheese, he says. In India, for instance, the diet is heavy on carbohydrates with more than 50 per cent accounted by it, and low on fat and protein.
However, the confusion over the dietary advice—at times contradictory, too—raises several questions. First, why had fat been the villain for so long, if, clearly, there was not much of a case against it? Second, what does all the conflict over fat—to eat or not to eat—mean for Indians?
The dietary fat story is complex, and as experts say, needs to be assessed carefully. Though the theory became popular in the 1970s, after American physiologist Ancel Keys came out with his seminal Seven Countries Study in which he said that the incidence of CHD was directly related to serum cholesterol values, and that these values were related to the average consumption of saturated fatty acids (SFA). This led to a change in the way fat was viewed globally, with the USFDA and the American Heart Association (AHA) prescribing a lower fat intake. The AHA still prescribes saturated fat to be kept to seven per cent of the total calorie intake.
In India, fat was not much of a cause for debate. “Even though we follow WHO guidelines, the ones related to saturated fat does not mean much for us in India,” says Dr Indu Mani, visiting faculty at the division of nutrition at St John’s Research Institute, Bengaluru. In fact, fat has never been a problem for us, she says. “We have been eating less of it, especially in rural India. In urban areas too, on an average, fat would be about 20-25 per cent of the total calorie intake. This, as compared to the 35-40 per cent fat intake that people in the US, the UK and Australia would be eating, given their meat-heavy diet.” Mani is also a member of the committee working on India's dietary guidelines, due next year.
In an article published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research last February, Mani and Dr V. Anura Kurpad, professor and head of physiology and nutrition at St John’s Medical College, Bengaluru, wrote that the role of fat in the diet was never a part of nutrition debates in India, until the 1980s and 1990s, when the initial dietary guidelines and Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) were published, for implementation on a national level. “At this point it was clear that the dietary patterns of Indians were vastly different from a typical western diet, with high carbs and low fat,” they wrote.
“Owing to a low fat intake in rural areas, India has always had a nuanced approach to fat intake, even when the clamour for reducing this was high,” said Kurpad, who is also the former president of the Nutrition Society of India. “That approach is correct as we are seeing that an overly high carbohydrate intake may be associated with a greater risk for mortality and major cardiovascular disease.”
But before fat is let off the hook for Indians, Mani and Kurpad say that a differentiation among fats needs to be accounted for. “We need to understand that there are different kinds of fats, and in India, we need a certain kind of fat more than others,” said Mani. Dietary fat is composed predominantly of triglycerides (98 per cent), and small amounts of phospholipids and sterols. Fatty acids in triglycerides are classified as saturated, mono-unsaturated and polyunsaturated, the latter being further divided into omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids. Among all the fatty acids, only linoleic acid or polyunsaturated omega 6 fatty acid, and alpha-linolenic acid or polyunsaturated omega 3 fatty acids are considered essential fatty acids (EFAs) since these cannot be synthesised in the body.
Dr Salim Yusuf
Between these two fatty acids, it is the omega 3 that has a protective benefit, and in India we have started eating less of that, says Kurpad. The call to replace saturated fats with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) actually ended up skewing the balance between the two omega fatty acids. “Within fats too, a balance is required,” said Kurpad. The WHO advice about keeping the energy contribution from saturated fats to a third of the total delivered by fats is a good thing, he says. “But more important is the balance between the n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids . We simply have too much of the latter in our diets, when benefits have been clearly ascribed to the former,” said Kurpad.
As early as the 1990s, researchers had cautioned against the recommendations to replace SFA with PUFA without distinguishing between the n-6 and n-3 families, Kurpad and Mani wrote in their article. But, the message got lost in the general clamour to reduce fat.
Indians, who were eating a high carbohydrate, cereal-pulse diet got their unsaturated fats mainly from cooking oils. Once the omega 6-high sunflower and safflower oils replaced saturated fats such as ghee and coconut oil, and sedentary lifestyles took over, there was a problem at hand. “Oils such as sunflower oil are really the worst,” said Mani. “Instead, one should use mustard oil, sesame and groundnut oils. Items in the traditional diet had that balance. For instance, the urad dal used in idli and dosa has relatively high amounts of omega 3. Studies conducted in animals have shown that high omega 6 diets, especially in combination with a low-fat diet, result in a pro-inflammatory condition resulting in an increased deposition of adipose tissue.”
Though the focus has definitely shifted from saturated fat, cardiologists say fats are not off the hook. Indians are eating too much of trans-fat as well as 'bad' or refined carbohydrates. “Whole milk, butter and eggs are good and do not arouse concern when had in moderation,” said Dr Viveka Kumar, senior director, cath lab, Max Super Speciality Hospital, Saket in Delhi. “The global advisory for fat intake has also shifted from 7 per cent to 10 per cent. But Indians are eating too much deep fried snacks, savoury items that are packaged and preserved, and have trans-fat in them. These snacks are fried, and the oil is reused several times to fry subsequent batches of food, leading to formation of trans-fat in them.”
Besides trans-fat, Kumar says he advises his patients to keep in mind the six 'S's—avoid sugar, salt, smoking, sedentary lifestyle and stress, and get enough sleep. “Smoking and tobacco [use] are the highest in India, and combined with a diet that has less fibre and fresh fruits and vegetables, the rates of cardiovascular diseases are bound to be high,” he said. “Besides, in cities such as Delhi, pollution is a major cause of heart disease, because breathing polluted air is akin to smoking 14-16 cigarettes a day. Each cigarette means a three per cent rise in risk of heart disease.”
Dr Viveka Kumar
Results from global studies have raised confusion about saturated fat, says Dr Ashok Seth, chairman, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, Delhi. “While saturated fat is not much of a concern, the evidence on the effect of trans-fat is clear,” says Seth. “So it is not the butter or meat for us, it is the fried food and snacks at the halwai, the fast food joints, basically all the stuff that is reheated, or packaged.”
Seth says that the emphasis has to be on a balanced diet, and at the same time, not replacing fats with the wrong kind of carbohydrates such as refined atta, or even low fat, sugary foods. “When it comes to heart disease, Indians are like loaded guns. They just need a trigger,” said Seth. Indians are three times more likely to have heart disease than those living in the west, and six times more likely to have it than the Chinese, given the same risk factors. Studies done on fourth generation Indians in Singapore, West Indies, Fiji and the UK found that despite them living in these countries for several generations, they were still more prone to heart disease than the natives, says Seth.
“Heart disease is a result of several factors such as race, lifestyle and diet,” he said. Both Seth and Kumar agree that the thrifty gene theory—genes that enable us to efficiently collect and process food to deposit fat during periods of food abundance in order to provide for food shortage—holds true for Indians and account for rising obesity.
Every dietary advice then must be taken up with caution, Seth says. “Studies such as PURE only show that there is no association between saturated fat and heart disease, but these are not cause and effect analysis. Which is why WHO has not changed its guidelines, too,” said Seth, an ardent advocate of a balanced diet and home-cooked food for good heart health. He also stresses on regular exercise for 40-45 minutes, at a pace where one can speak only a single sentence. “Anything over that time limit may help lose weight but does not have benefits for the heart,” he said.
If cardiologists stress on moderation in fats and avoiding junk, nutrition experts say that instead of a focus on a single nutrient, diversity and balance should be stressed. “People are eating a lot of carbohydrates, if we are to believe the daily intake of 400 grams of cereals and millets,” he said. “Once cooked, that is a lot of food on a plate, but unfortunately not balanced. It might assuage hunger, but not the needs of good health. A smaller amount of food on a plate, with a lot of diverse sources is what is needed. There are populations in the world that live long by eating less of a more varied diet.” |
Motivating Skills Tutorial
Motivating Skills Tutorial
What are Motivating Skills?
Motivation is one of the maximum significant reasons behind people’s movements and manners. It can also be used to express someone’s actions and performance in a positive direction. Scientists have declared that motivation is the name given to a collection of characters that is a precarious step in our evolution and it has helped us live.
Researchers and social scientists have originated that anybody can be motivated, reliant on the stage of personal and professional life he is in. In this class, we will talk over all the dissimilar appearances under which people look for motivation in their lives.
This lesson is intended chiefly for those who need to comprehend how to motivate themselves during challenging times, and how to motivate others so that they are able to convey the anticipated output with the desired quality, particularly under strict deadlines.
Previously continuing with this lesson, you are anticipated to know about the fundamentals of human emotional quotient and human behavior.
Motivating Skills Tutorial: List of Topics
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The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees
by James Mooney
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Transcriber's note: The following symbols are used to represent special characters:
['] for accent (not apostrophe) ' for apostrophe (single closing quote) ' for opening single quote
[n], [i], [u], [w], [U] = raised (superscript) letters x = any letter "x" with breve ā = "a" with macron x = any letter "x" with circumflex x = any letter "x" with acute accent x = any letter "x" with grave accent ẍ = any letter "x" with diaeresis
Introduction 307
How the formulas were obtained. 310
The A'yû[n]inĭ (Swimmer) manuscript 310
The Gatigwanastĭ (Belt) manuscript 312
The Gahunĭ manuscript 313
The Inâlĭ (Black Fox) manuscript 314
Other manuscripts 316
The Kanâhe[']ta Ani-Tsa[']lagĭ Etĭ or Ancient Cherokee Formulas 317
Character of the formulas—the Cherokee religion 318
Myth of the origin of disease and medicine 319
Theory of disease—animals, ghosts, witches 322
Selected list of plants used 324
Medical practice—theory of resemblances—fasting—tabu—seclusion—women 328
Illustration of the gaktû[n]ta or tabu 331
Neglect of sanitary regulations 332
The sweat bath—bleeding—rubbing—bathing 338
Opposition of shamans to white physicians 336
Medicine dances 337
Description of symptoms 337
The ugista[']'tĭ or pay of the shaman 337
Ceremonies for gathering plants and preparing medicine 339
The Cherokee gods and their abiding places 340
Color symbolism 342
Importance attached to names 343
Language of the formulas 343
Specimen formulas 344
Medicine. 345
To treat the crippler (rheumatism)—from Gahuni 345
Second formula for the crippler—from Gahuni 349
Song and prescription for snake bites—from Gahuni 351
When something is causing something to eat them—Gahuni 353
Second formula for the same disease—A'wanita 355
For moving pains in the teeth (neuralgia?)—Gatigwanasti 356
Song and prayer for the great chill—A'yû[n]ini 359
To make children jump down (child birth)—A'yû[n]ini 363
Second formula for child birth—Takwatihi 364
Song and prayer for the black yellowness (biliousness)—A'yû[n]ini 365
To treat for ordeal diseases (witchcraft)—A'yû[n]ini 366
Hunting 369
Concerning hunting—A'yû[n]ini 369
For hunting birds—A'yû[n]ini 371
To shoot dwellers in the wilderness—A'wanita 372
Bear song—A'yû[n]ini 373
For catching large fish—A'yû[n]ini 374
Love 375
Concerning living humanity—Gatigwanasti 376
For going to water—Gatigwanasti 378
Yû[n]wehi song for painting—Gatigwanasti 379
Song and prayer to fix the affections—A'yû[n]ini 380
To separate lovers—A'yû[n]ini 381
Song and prayer to fix the affections—Gatigwanasti 382
Miscellaneous 384
To shorten a night goer on this side—A'yû[n]ini 384
To find lost articles—Gatigwanasti 386
To frighten away a storm—A'yû[n]ini 387
To help warriors—A[']wanita 388
To destroy life (ceremony with beads)—A'yû[n]ini 391
To take to water for the ball play—A'yû[n]ini 395
Pl. XXIV. Portrait of A'yû[n]ini (Swimmer) 306
XXV. Facsimile of A'yû[n]ini manuscript—Formula for Dalâni Û[n]nagei 310
XXVI. Facsimile of Gatigwanasti manuscript—Yû[n]wĕhĭ formula 312
XXVII. Facsimile of Gahuni manuscript—Formula for Didû[n]lĕskĭ 314
By James Mooney.
These formulas had been handed down orally from a remote antiquity until the early part of the present century, when the invention of the Cherokee syllabary enabled the priests of the tribe to put them into writing. The same invention made it possible for their rivals, the missionaries, to give to the Indians the Bible in their own language, so that the opposing forces of Christianity and shamanism alike profited by the genius of Sikwâya. The pressure of the new civilization was too strong to be withstood, however, and though the prophets of the old religion still have much influence with the people, they are daily losing ground and will soon be without honor in their own country.
Such an exposition of the aboriginal religion could be obtained from no other tribe in North America, for the simple reason that no other tribe has an alphabet of its own in which to record its sacred lore. It is true that the Crees and Micmacs of Canada and the Tukuth of Alaska have so-called alphabets or ideographic systems invented for their use by the missionaries, while, before the Spanish conquest, the Mayas of Central America were accustomed to note down their hero legends and priestly ceremonials in hieroglyphs graven upon the walls of their temples or painted upon tablets made of the leaves of the maguey. But it seems never to have occurred to the northern tribes that an alphabet coming from a missionary source could be used for any other purpose than the transcription of bibles and catechisms, while the sacred books of the Mayas, with a few exceptions, have long since met destruction at the hands of fanaticism, and the modern copies which have come down to the present day are written out from imperfect memory by Indians who had been educated under Spanish influences in the language, alphabet and ideas of the conquerors, and who, as is proved by an examination of the contents of the books themselves, drew from European sources a great part of their material. Moreover, the Maya tablets were so far hieratic as to be understood only by the priests and those who had received a special training in this direction, and they seem therefore to have been entirely unintelligible to the common people.
The Cherokee alphabet, on the contrary, is the invention or adaptation of one of the tribe, who, although he borrowed most of the Roman letters, in addition to the forty or more characters of his own devising, knew nothing of their proper use or value, but reversed them or altered their forms to suit his purpose, and gave them a name and value determined by himself. This alphabet was at once adopted by the tribe for all purposes for which writing can be used, including the recording of their shamanistic prayers and ritualistic ceremonies. The formulas here given, as well as those of the entire collection, were written out by the shamans themselves—men who adhere to the ancient religion and speak only their native language—in order that their sacred knowledge might be preserved in a systematic manner for their mutual benefit. The language, the conception, and the execution are all genuinely Indian, and hardly a dozen lines of the hundreds of formulas show a trace of the influence of the white man or his religion. The formulas contained in these manuscripts are not disjointed fragments of a system long since extinct, but are the revelation of a living faith which still has its priests and devoted adherents, and it is only necessary to witness a ceremonial ball play, with its fasting, its going to water, and its mystic bead manipulation, to understand how strong is the hold which the old faith yet has upon the minds even of the younger generation. The numerous archaic and figurative expressions used require the interpretation of the priests, but, as before stated, the alphabet in which they are written is that in daily use among the common people.
It frequently happens, however, that priests form personal friendships and thus are led to divulge their secrets to each other for their mutual advantage. Thus when one shaman meets another who he thinks can probably give him some valuable information, he says to him, "Let us sit down together." This is understood by the other to mean, "Let us tell each other our secrets." Should it seem probable that the seeker after knowledge can give as much as he receives, an agreement is generally arrived at, the two retire to some convenient spot secure from observation, and the first party begins by reciting one of his formulas with the explanations. The other then reciprocates with one of his own, unless it appears that the bargain is apt to prove a losing one, in which case the conference comes to an abrupt ending.
On first visiting the reservation in the summer of 1887, I devoted considerable time to collecting plants used by the Cherokees for food or medicinal purposes, learning at the same time their Indian names and the particular uses to which each was applied and the mode of preparation. It soon became evident that the application of the medicine was not the whole, and in fact was rather the subordinate, part of the treatment, which was always accompanied by certain ceremonies and "words." From the workers employed at the time no definite idea could be obtained as to the character of these words. One young woman, indeed, who had some knowledge of the subject, volunteered to write the words which she used in her prescriptions, but failed to do so, owing chiefly to the opposition of the half-breed shamans, from whom she had obtained her information.
Some time afterward an acquaintance was formed with a man named A'yû[n][']inĭ or "Swimmer," who proved to be so intelligent that I spent several days with him, procuring information in regard to myths and old customs. He told a number of stories in very good style, and finally related the Origin of the Bear[1]. The bears were formerly a part of the Cherokee tribe who decided to leave their kindred and go into the forest. Their friends followed them and endeavored to induce them to return, but the Ani-Tsâ[']kahĭ, as they were called, were determined to go. Just before parting from their relatives at the edge of the forest, they turned to them and said, "It is better for you that we should go; but we will teach you songs, and some day when you are in want of food come out to the woods and sing these songs and we shall appear and give you meat." Their friends, after learning several songs from them, started back to their homes, and after proceeding a short distance, turned around to take one last look, but saw only a number of bears disappearing in the depths of the forest. The songs which they learned are still sung by the hunter to attract the bears.
[Footnote 1: To appear later with the collection of Cherokee myths.]
[n]lĕckĭ. (Page 349.)]
When Swimmer had finished the story he was asked if he knew these songs. He replied that he did, but on being requested to sing one he made some excuse and was silent. After some further efforts the interpreter said it would be useless to press the matter then as there were several other Indians present, but that to-morrow we should have him alone with us and could then make another attempt.
The next day Swimmer was told that if he persisted in his refusal it would be necessary to employ some one else, as it was unfair in him to furnish incomplete information when he was paid to tell all he knew. He replied that he was willing to tell anything in regard to stories and customs, but that these songs were a part of his secret knowledge and commanded a high price from the hunters, who sometimes paid as much as $5 for a single song, "because you can't kill any bears or deer unless you sing them."
He was told that the only object in asking about the songs was to put them on record and preserve them, so that when he and the half dozen old men of the tribe were dead the world might be aware how much the Cherokees had known. This appeal to his professional pride proved effectual, and when he was told that a great many similar songs had been sent to Washington by medicine men of other tribes, he promptly declared that he knew as much as any of them, and that he would give all the information in his possession, so that others might be able to judge for themselves who knew most. The only conditions he made were that these secret matters should be heard by no one else but the interpreter, and should not be discussed when other Indians were present.
As soon as the other shamans learned what was going on they endeavored by various means to persuade him to stop talking, or failing in this, to damage his reputation by throwing out hints as to his honesty or accuracy of statement. Among other objections which they advanced was one which, however incomprehensible to a white man, was perfectly intelligible to an Indian, viz: That when he had told everything this information would be taken to Washington and locked up there, and thus they would be deprived of the knowledge. This objection was one of the most difficult to overcome, as there was no line of argument with which to oppose it.
These reports worried Swimmer, who was extremely sensitive in regard to his reputation, and he became restive under the insinuations of his rivals. Finally on coming to work one day he produced a book from under his ragged coat as he entered the house, and said proudly: "Look at that and now see if I don't know something." It was a small day-book of about 240 pages, procured originally from a white man, and was about half filled with writing in the Cherokee characters. A brief examination disclosed the fact that it contained just those matters that had proved so difficult to procure. Here were prayers, songs, and prescriptions for the cure of all kinds of diseases—for chills, rheumatism, frostbites, wounds, bad dreams, and witchery; love charms, to gain the affections of a woman or to cause her to hate a detested rival; fishing charms, hunting charms—including the songs without which none could ever hope to kill any game; prayers to make the corn grow, to frighten away storms, and to drive off witches; prayers for long life, for safety among strangers, for acquiring influence in council and success in the ball play. There were prayers to the Long Man, the Ancient White, the Great Whirlwind, the Yellow Rattlesnake, and to a hundred other gods of the Cherokee pantheon. It was in fact an Indian ritual and pharmacopoeia.
After recovering in a measure from the astonishment produced by this discovery I inquired whether other shamans had such books. "Yes," said Swimmer, "we all have them." Here then was a clew to follow up. A bargain was made by which he was to have another blank book into which to copy the formulas, after which the original was bought. It is now deposited in the library of the Bureau of Ethnology. The remainder of the time until the return was occupied in getting an understanding of the contents of the book.
On offering to buy the papers, he replied that he wanted to keep them in order to learn and practice these things himself—thus showing how thin was the veneer of Christianity, in his case at least. On representing to him that in a few years the new conditions would render such knowledge valueless with the younger generation, and that even if he retained the papers he would need some one else to explain them to him, he again refused, saying that they might fall into the hands of Swimmer, who, he was determined, should never see his father's papers. Thus the negotiations came to an end for the time.
ni Ú[n]nagei (Page 364.)]
The next book procured was obtained from a woman named Ayâsta, "The Spoiler," and had been written by her husband, Gahuni, who died about 30 years ago. The matter was not difficult to arrange, as she had already been employed on several occasions, so that she understood the purpose of the work, besides which her son had been regularly engaged to copy and classify the manuscripts already procured. The book was claimed as common property by Ayâsta and her three sons, and negotiations had to be carried on with each one, although in this instance the cash amount involved was only half a dollar, in addition to another book into which to copy some family records and personal memoranda. The book contains only eight formulas, but these are of a character altogether unique, the directions especially throwing a curious light on Indian beliefs. There had been several other formulas of the class called Y[']û['][n]wĕhĭ, to cause hatred between man and wife, but these had been torn out and destroyed by Ayâsta on the advice of an old shaman, in order that her sons might never learn them. In referring to the matter she spoke in a whisper, and it was evident enough that she had full faith in the deadly power of these spells.
In addition to the formulas the book contains about twenty pages of Scripture extracts in the same handwriting, for Gahuni, like several others of their shamans, combined the professions of Indian conjurer and Methodist preacher. After his death the book fell into the hands of the younger members of the family, who filled it with miscellaneous writings and scribblings. Among other things there are about seventy pages of what was intended to be a Cherokee-English pronouncing dictionary, probably written by the youngest son, already mentioned, who has attended school, and who served for some time as copyist on the formulas. This curious Indian production, of which only a few columns are filled out, consists of a list of simple English words and phrases, written in ordinary English script, followed by Cherokee characters intended to give the approximate pronunciation, together with the corresponding word in the Cherokee language and characters. As the language lacks a number of sounds which are of frequent occurrence in English, the attempts to indicate the pronunciation sometimes give amusing results. Thus we find: Fox (English script); kwâgisĭ['] (Cherokee characters); tsu'lû['] (Cherokee characters). As the Cherokee language lacks the labial f and has no compound sound equivalent to our x, kwâgisĭ['] is as near as the Cherokee speaker can come to pronouncing our word fox. In the same way "bet" becomes wĕtĭ, and "sheep" is sikwĭ, while "if he has no dog" appears in the disguise of ikwĭ hâsĭ nâ dâ[']ga.
In the course of further inquiries in regard to the whereabouts of other manuscripts of this kind we heard a great deal about Inâ[']lĭ, or "Black Fox," who had died a few years before at an advanced age, and who was universally admitted to have been one of their most able men and the most prominent literary character among them, for from what has been said it must be sufficiently evident that the Cherokees have their native literature and literary men. Like those already mentioned, he was a full-blood Cherokee, speaking no English, and in the course of a long lifetime he had filled almost every position of honor among his people, including those of councilor, keeper of the townhouse records, Sunday-school leader, conjurer, officer in the Confederate service, and Methodist preacher, at last dying, as he was born, in the ancient faith of his forefathers.
['] formula. (Page 375.)]
On inquiring of his daughter she stated that her father had left a great many papers, most of which were still in her possession, and on receiving from the interpreter an explanation of our purpose she readily gave permission to examine and make selections from them on condition that the matter should be kept secret from outsiders. A day was appointed for visiting her, and on arriving we found her living in a comfortable log house, built by Inâlĭ himself, with her children and an ancient female relative, a decrepit old woman with snow-white hair and vacant countenance. This was the oldest woman of the tribe, and though now so feeble and childish, she had been a veritable savage in her young days, having carried a scalp in the scalp dance in the Creek war 75 years before.
Having placed chairs for us in the shade Inâlĭ's daughter brought out a small box filled with papers of various kinds, both Cherokee and English. The work of examining these was a tedious business, as each paper had to be opened out and enough of it read to get the general drift of the contents, after which the several classes were arranged in separate piles. While in the midst of this work she brought out another box nearly as large as a small trunk, and on setting it down there was revealed to the astonished gaze such a mass of material as it had not seemed possible could exist in the entire tribe.
In addition to papers of the sort already mentioned there were a number of letters in English from various officials and religious organizations, and addressed to "Enola," to "Rev. Black Fox," and to "Black Fox, Esq," with a large number of war letters written to him by Cherokees who had enlisted in the Confederate service. These latter are all written in the Cherokee characters, in the usual gossipy style common among friends, and several of them contain important historic material in regard to the movements of the two armies in East Tennessee. Among other things was found his certificate as a Methodist preacher, dated in 1848. "Know all men by these presents that Black Fox (Cherokee) is hereby authorized to exercise his Gifts and Graces as a local preacher in M.E. Church South.".
There was found a manuscript book in Inâlĭ's handwriting containing the records of the old council of Wolftown, of which he had been secretary for several years down to the beginning of the war. This also contains some valuable materials.
There were also a number of miscellaneous books, papers, and pictures, together with various trinkets and a number of conjuring stones.
In fact the box was a regular curiosity shop, and it was with a feeling akin, to despair that we viewed the piles of manuscript which had to be waded through and classified. There was a day's hard work ahead, and it was already past noon; but the woman was not done yet, and after rummaging about inside the house for a while longer she appeared with another armful of papers, which she emptied on top of the others. This was the last straw; and finding it impossible to examine in detail such a mass of material we contented ourselves with picking out the sacred formulas and the two manuscript books containing the town-house records and scriptural quotations and departed.
The daughter of Black Fox agreed to fetch down the other papers in a few days for further examination at our leisure; and she kept her promise, bringing with her at the same time a number of additional formulas which she had not been able to obtain before. A large number of letters and other papers were selected from the miscellaneous lot, and these, with the others obtained from her, are now deposited also with the Bureau of Ethnology. Among other things found at this house were several beads of the old shell wampum, of whose use the Cherokees have now lost even the recollection. She knew only that they were very old and different from the common beads, but she prized them as talismans, and firmly refused to part with them.
Subsequently a few formulas were obtained from an old shaman named Tsiskwa or "Bird," but they were so carelessly written as to be almost worthless, and the old man who wrote them, being then on his dying bed, was unable to give much help in the matter. However, as he was anxious to tell what he knew an attempt was made to take down some formulas from his dictation. A few more were obtained in this way but the results were not satisfactory and the experiment was abandoned. About the same time A'wani[']ta or "Young Deer," one of their best herb doctors, was engaged to collect the various plants used in medicine and describe their uses. While thus employed he wrote in a book furnished him for the purpose a number of formulas used by him in his practice, giving at the same time a verbal explanation of the theory and ceremonies. Among these was one for protection in battle, which had been used by himself and a number of other Cherokees in the late war. Another doctor named Takwati[']hĭ or "Catawba Killer," was afterward employed on the same work and furnished some additional formulas which he had had his son write down from his dictation, he himself being unable to write. His knowledge was limited to the practice of a few specialties, but in regard to these his information was detailed and accurate. There was one for bleeding with the cupping horn. All these formulas obtained from Tsiskwa, A[']wanita, and Takwtihi are now in possession of the Bureau.
Under the circumstances it was deemed expedient to have a number of these formulas copied in more enduring form. For this purpose it was decided to engage the services of Ayâsta's youngest son, an intelligent young man about nineteen years of age, who had attended school long enough to obtain a fair acquaintance with English in addition to his intimate knowledge of Cherokee. He was also gifted with a ready comprehension, and from his mother and uncle Tsiskwa had acquired some familiarity with many of the archaic expressions used in the sacred formulas. He was commonly known as "Will West," but signed himself W.W. Long, Long being the translation of his father's name, Gûnahi[']ta. After being instructed as to how the work should be done with reference to paragraphing, heading, etc., he was furnished a blank book of two hundred pages into which to copy such formulas as it seemed desirable to duplicate. He readily grasped the idea and in the course of about a month, working always under the writer's personal supervision, succeeded in completely filling the book according to the plan outlined. In addition to the duplicate formulas he wrote down a number of dance and drinking songs, obtained originally from A'yû[n][']inĭ, with about thirty miscellaneous formulas obtained from various sources. The book thus prepared is modeled on the plan of an ordinary book, with headings, table of contents, and even with an illuminated title page devised by the aid of the interpreter according to the regular Cherokee idiomatic form, and is altogether a unique specimen of Indian literary art. It contains in all two hundred and fifty-eight formulas and songs, which of course are native aboriginal productions, although the mechanical arrangement was performed under the direction of a white man. This book also, under its Cherokee title, Kanâhe[']ta Ani-Tsa[']lagĭ E[']tĭ or "Ancient Cherokee Formulas," is now in the library of the Bureau.
It is impossible to overestimate the ethnologic importance of the materials thus obtained. They are invaluable as the genuine production of the Indian mind, setting forth in the clearest light the state of the aboriginal religion before its contamination by contact with the whites. To the psychologist and the student of myths they are equally precious. In regard to their linguistic value we may quote the language of Brinton, speaking of the sacred books of the Mayas, already referred to:
Another value they have,... and it is one which will be properly appreciated by any student of languages. They are, by common consent of all competent authorities, the genuine productions of native minds, cast in the idiomatic forms of the native tongue by those born to its use. No matter how fluent a foreigner becomes in a language not his own, he can never use it as does one who has been familiar with it from childhood. This general maxim is tenfold true when we apply it to a European learning an American language. The flow of thought, as exhibited in these two linguistic families, is in such different directions that no amount of practice can render one equally accurate in both. Hence the importance of studying a tongue as it is employed by natives; and hence the very high estimate I place on these "Books of Chilan Balam" as linguistic material—an estimate much increased by the great rarity of independent compositions in their own tongues by members of the native races of this continent.[2]
[Footnote 2: Brinton, D.G.: The books of Chilan Balam 10, Philadelphia, n.d., (1882).]
The same author, in speaking of the internal evidences of authenticity contained in the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Kiches, uses the following words, which apply equally well to these Cherokee formulas:
To one familiar with native American myths, this one bears undeniable marks of its aboriginal origin. Its frequent puerilities and inanities, its generally low and coarse range of thought and expression, its occasional loftiness of both, its strange metaphors and the prominence of strictly heathen names and potencies, bring it into unmistakable relationship to the true native myth.[3]
[Footnote 3: Brinton, D.G.: Names of the Gods in the Kiche Myths, in Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., Philadelphia, 1881, vol. 19, p. 613.]
These formulas furnish a complete refutation of the assertion so frequently made by ignorant and prejudiced writers that the Indian had no religion excepting what they are pleased to call the meaning less mummeries of the medicine man. This is the very reverse of the truth. The Indian is essentially religious and contemplative, and it might almost be said that every act of his life is regulated and determined by his religious belief. It matters not that some may call this superstition. The difference is only relative. The religion of to-day has developed from the cruder superstitions of yesterday, and Christianity itself is but an outgrowth and enlargement of the beliefs and ceremonies which have been preserved by the Indian in their more ancient form. When we are willing to admit that the Indian has a religion which he holds sacred, even though it be different from our own, we can then admire the consistency of the theory, the particularity of the ceremonial and the beauty of the expression. So far from being a jumble of crudities, there is a wonderful completeness about the whole system which is not surpassed even by the ceremonial religions of the East. It is evident from a study of these formulas that the Cherokee Indian was a polytheist and that the spirit world was to him only a shadowy counterpart of this. All his prayers were for temporal and tangible blessings—for health, for long life, for success in the chase, in fishing, in war and in love, for good crops, for protection and for revenge. He had no Great Spirit, no happy hunting ground, no heaven, no hell, and consequently death had for him no terrors and he awaited the inevitable end with no anxiety as to the future. He was careful not to violate the rights of his tribesman or to do injury to his feelings, but there is nothing to show that he had any idea whatever of what is called morality in the abstract.
As the medical formulas are first in number and importance it may be well, for the better understanding of the theory involved, to give the Cherokee account of
The bears were the first to meet in council in their townhouse in Kuwa[']hĭ, the "Mulberry Place,"[4] and the old White Bear chief presided. After each in turn had made complaint against the way in which man killed their friends, devoured their flesh and used their skins for his own adornment, it was unanimously decided to begin war at once against the human race. Some one asked what weapons man used to accomplish their destruction. "Bows and arrows, of course," cried all the bears in chorus. "And what are they made of?" was the next question. "The bow of wood and the string of our own entrails," replied one of the bears. It was then proposed that they make a bow and some arrows and see if they could not turn man's weapons against himself. So one bear got a nice piece of locust wood and another sacrificed himself for the good of the rest in order to furnish a piece of his entrails for the string. But when everything was ready and the first bear stepped up to make the trial it was found that in letting the arrow fly after drawing back the bow, his long claws caught the string and spoiled the shot. This was annoying, but another suggested that he could overcome the difficulty by cutting his claws, which was accordingly done, and on a second trial it was found that the arrow went straight to the mark. But here the chief, the old White Bear, interposed and said that it was necessary that they should have long claws in order to be able to climb trees. "One of us has already died to furnish the bowstring, and if we now cut off our claws we shall all have to starve together. It is better to trust to the teeth and claws which nature has given us, for it is evident that man's weapons were not intended for us."
[Footnote 4: One of the High peaks of the Smoky Mountains, on the Tennessee line, near Clingman's Dome.]
Finally the birds, insects, and smaller animals came together for a like purpose, and the Grubworm presided over the deliberations. It was decided that each in turn should express an opinion and then vote on the question as to whether or not man should be deemed guilty. Seven votes were to be sufficient to condemn him. One after another denounced man's cruelty and injustice toward the other animals and voted in favor of his death. The Frog (walâ[']sĭ) spoke first and said: "We must do something to check the increase of the race or people will become so numerous that we shall be crowded from off the earth. See how man has kicked me about because I'm ugly, as he says, until my back is covered with sores;" and here he showed the spots on his skin. Next came the Bird (tsi[']skwa; no particular species is indicated), who condemned man because "he burns my feet off," alluding to the way in which the hunter barbecues birds by impaling them on a stick set over the fire, so that their feathers and tender feet are singed and burned. Others followed in the same strain. The Ground Squirrel alone ventured to say a word in behalf of man, who seldom hurt him because he was so small; but this so enraged the others that they fell upon the Ground Squirrel and tore him with their teeth and claws, and the stripes remain on his back to this day.
The assembly then began to devise and name various diseases, one after another, and had not their invention finally failed them not one of the human race would have been able to survive. The Grubworm in his place of honor hailed each new malady with delight, until at last they had reached the end of the list, when some one suggested that it be arranged so that menstruation should sometimes prove fatal to woman. On this he rose up in his place and cried: "Wata['][n] Thanks! I'm glad some of them will die, for they are getting so thick that they tread on me." He fairly shook with joy at the thought, so that he fell over backward and could not get on his feet again, but had to wriggle off on his back, as the Grubworm has done ever since.
When the plants, who were friendly to man, heard what had been done by the animals, they determined to defeat their evil designs. Each tree, shrub, and herb, down, even to the grasses and mosses, agreed to furnish a remedy for some one of the diseases named, and each said: "I shall appear to help man when he calls upon me in his need." Thus did medicine originate, and the plants, every one of which has its use if we only knew it, furnish the antidote to counteract the evil wrought by the revengeful animals. When the doctor is in doubt what treatment to apply for the relief of a patient, the spirit of the plant suggests to him the proper remedy.
Such is the belief upon which their medical practice is based, and whatever we may think of the theory it must be admitted that the practice is consistent in all its details with the views set forth in the myth. Like most primitive people the Cherokees believe that disease and death are not natural, but are due to the evil influence of animal spirits, ghosts, or witches. Haywood, writing in 1823, states on the authority of two intelligent residents of the Cherokee nation:
In ancient times the Cherokees had no conception of anyone dying a natural death. They universally ascribed the death of those who perished by disease to the intervention or agency of evil spirits and witches and conjurers who had connection with the Shina (Anisgi[']na) or evil spirits.... A person dying by disease and charging his death to have been procured by means of witchcraft or spirits, by any other person, consigns that person to inevitable death. They profess to believe that their conjurations have no effect upon white men.[5]
[Footnote 5: Haywood, John: Natural and Aboriginal History of East Tennessee, 267-8, Nashville, 1823.]
On the authority of one of the same informants, he also mentions the veneration which "their physicians have for the numbers four and seven, who say that after man was placed upon the earth four and seven nights were instituted for the cure of diseases in the human body and the seventh night as the limit for female impurity."[6]
[Footnote 6: Ibid., p. 281.]
Viewed from a scientific standpoint, their theory and diagnosis are entirely wrong, and consequently we can hardly expect their therapeutic system to be correct. As the learned Doctor Berendt states, after an exhaustive study of the medical books of the Mayas, the scientific value of their remedies is "next to nothing." It must be admitted that many of the plants used in their medical practice possess real curative properties, but it is equally true that many others held in as high estimation are inert. It seems probable that in the beginning the various herbs and other plants were regarded as so many fetiches and were selected from some fancied connection with the disease animal, according to the idea known to modern folklorists as the doctrine of signatures. Thus at the present day the doctor puts into the decoction intended as a vermifuge some of the red fleshy stalks of the common purslane or chickweed (Portulaca oleracea), because these stalks somewhat resemble worms and consequently must have some occult influence over worms. Here the chickweed is a fetich precisely as is the flint arrow head which is put into the same decoction, in order that in the same mysterious manner its sharp cutting qualities may be communicated to the liquid and enable it to cut the worms into pieces. In like manner, biliousness is called by the Cherokees dalâ[']nĭ or "yellow," because the most apparent symptom of the disease is the vomiting by the patient of the yellow bile, and hence the doctor selects for the decoction four different herbs, each of which is also called dalânĭ, because of the color of the root, stalk, or flower. The same idea is carried out in the tabu which generally accompanies the treatment. Thus a scrofulous patient must abstain from eating the meat of a turkey, because the fleshy dewlap which depends from its throat somewhat resembles an inflamed scrofulous eruption. On killing a deer the hunter always makes an incision in the hind quarter and removes the hamstring, because this tendon, when severed, draws up into the flesh; ergo, any one who should unfortunately partake of the hamstring would find his limbs draw up in the same manner.
There can be no doubt that in course of time a haphazard use of plants would naturally lead to the discovery that certain herbs are efficacious in certain combinations of symptoms. These plants would thus come into more frequent use and finally would obtain general recognition in the Indian materia medica. By such a process of evolution an empiric system of medicine has grown up among the Cherokees, by which they are able to treat some classes of ailments with some degree of success, although without any intelligent idea of the process involved. It must be remembered that our own medical system has its remote origin in the same mythic conception of disease, and that within two hundred years judicial courts have condemned women to be burned to death for producing sickness by spells and incantations, while even at the present day our faith-cure professors reap their richest harvest among people commonly supposed to belong to the intelligent classes. In the treatment of wounds the Cherokee doctors exhibit a considerable degree of skill, but as far as any internal ailment is concerned the average farmer's wife is worth all the doctors in the whole tribe.
The faith of the patient has much to do with his recovery, for the Indian has the same implicit confidence in the shaman that a child has in a more intelligent physician. The ceremonies and prayers are well calculated to inspire this feeling, and the effect thus produced upon the mind of the sick man undoubtedly reacts favorably upon his physical organization.
The following list of twenty plants used in Cherokee practice will give a better idea of the extent of their medical knowledge than could be conveyed by a lengthy dissertation. The names are given in the order in which they occur in the botanic notebook filled on the reservation, excluding names of food plants and species not identified, so that no attempt has been made to select in accordance with a preconceived theory. Following the name of each plant are given its uses as described by the Indian doctors, together with its properties as set forth in the United States Dispensatory, one of the leading pharmacopoeias in use in this country.[7] For the benefit of those not versed in medical phraseology it may be stated that aperient, cathartic, and deobstruent are terms applied to medicines intended to open or purge the bowels, a diuretic has the property of exciting the flow of urine, a diaphoretic excites perspiration, and a demulcent protects or soothes irritated tissues, while haemoptysis denotes a peculiar variety of blood-spitting and aphthous is an adjective applied to ulcerations in the mouth.
[Footnote 7: Wood, T.B., and Bache, F.: Dispensatory of the United States of America, 14th ed., Philadelphia, 1877.]
1. UNASTE[']TSTIYÛ="very small root"—Aristolochia serpentaria—Virginia or black snakeroot: Decoction of root blown upon patient for fever and feverish headache, and drunk for coughs; root chewed and spit upon wound to cure snake bites; bruised root placed in hollow tooth for toothache, and held against nose made sore by constant blowing in colds. Dispensatory: "A stimulant tonic, acting also as a diaphoretic or diuretic, according to the mode of its application; * * * also been highly recommended in intermittent fevers, and though itself generally inadequate to the cure often proves serviceable as an adjunct to Peruvian bark or sulphate of quinia." Also used for typhous diseases, in dyspepsia, as a gargle for sore throat, as a mild stimulant in typhoid fevers, and to promote eruptions. The genus derives its scientific name from its supposed efficacy in promoting menstrual discharge, and some species have acquired the "reputation of antidotes for the bites of serpents."
2. UNISTIL[']Û[n]ISTÎ[8]="they stick on"—Cynoglossum Morrisoni—Beggar lice: Decoction of root or top drunk for kidney troubles; bruised root used with bear oil as an ointment for cancer; forgetful persons drink a decoction of this plant, and probably also of other similar bur plants, from an idea that the sticking qualities of the burs will thus be imparted to the memory. From a similar connection of ideas the root is also used in the preparation of love charms. Dispensatory: Not named. C. officinale "has been used as a demulcent and sedative in coughs, catarrh, spitting of blood, dysentery, and diarrhea, and has been also applied externally in burns, ulcers, scrofulous tumors and goiter."
[Footnote 8: The Cherokee plant names here given are generic names, which are the names commonly used. In many cases the same name is applied to several species and it is only when it is necessary to distinguish between them that the Indians use what might be called specific names. Even then the descriptive term used serves to distinguish only the particular plants under discussion and the introduction of another variety bearing the same generic name would necessitate a new classification of species on a different basis, while hardly any two individuals would classify the species by the same characteristics.]
3. Û[n]NAGEI="black"—Cassia Marilandica—Wild senna: Root bruised and moistened with water for poulticing sores; decoction drunk for fever and for a disease also called û[n]nage[']i, or "black" (same name as plant), in which the hands and eye sockets are said to turn black; also for a disease described as similar to û[n]nagei, but more dangerous, in which the eye sockets become black, while black spots appear on the arms, legs, and over the ribs on one side of the body, accompanied by partial paralysis, and resulting in death should the black spots appear also on the other side. Dispensatory: Described as "an efficient and safe cathartic, * * * most conveniently given in the form of infusion."
4. KÂSD[']UTA="simulating ashes," so called on account of the appearance of the leaves—Gnaphalium decurrens—Life everlasting: Decoction drunk for colds; also used in the sweat bath for various diseases and considered one of their most valuable medical plants. Dispensatory: Not named. Decoctions of two other species of this genus are mentioned as used by country people for chest and bowel diseases, and for hemorrhages, bruises, ulcers, etc., although "probably possessing little medicinal virtue."
5. ALTSA[']STI="a wreath for the head"—Vicia Caroliniana—Vetch: Decoction drunk for dyspepsia and pains in the back, and rubbed on stomach for cramp; also rubbed on ball-players after scratching, to render their muscles tough, and used in the same way after scratching in the disease referred to under û[n]nagei, in which one side becomes black in spots, with partial paralysis; also used in same manner in decoction with Kâsduta for rheumatism; considered one of their most valuable medicinal herbs. Dispensatory: Not named.
6. DISTAI[']YĬ="they (the roots) are tough"—Tephrosia Virginiana—Catgut, Turkey Pea, Goat's Rue, or Devil's Shoestrings: Decoction drunk for lassitude. Women wash their hair in decoction of its roots to prevent its breaking or falling out, because these roots are very tough and hard to break; from the same idea ball-players rub the decoction on their limbs after scratching, to toughen them. Dispensatory: Described as a cathartic with roots tonic and aperient.
7. U[']GA-ATASGI[']SKĬ="the pus oozes out"—Euphorbia hypericifolia—Milkweed: Juice rubbed on for skin eruptions, especially on children's heads; also used as a purgative; decoction drunk for gonorrhoea and similar diseases in both sexes, and held in high estimation for this purpose; juice used as an ointment for sores and for sore nipples, and in connection with other herbs for cancer. Dispensatory: The juice of all of the genus has the property of "powerfully irritating the skin when applied to it," while nearly all are powerful emetics and cathartics. This species "has been highly commended as a remedy in dysentery after due depletion, diarrhea, menorrhagia, and leucorrhea."
8. GÛ[']NĬGWALĬ[']SKĬ="It becomes discolored when bruised"—Scutellaria lateriflora—Skullcap. The name refers to the red juice which comes out of the stalk when bruised or chewed. A decoction of the four varieties of Gûnigwalĭ[']skĭ—S. lateriflora, S. pilosa, Hypericum corymbosum, and Stylosanthes elatior—is drunk to promote menstruation, and the same decoction is also drunk and used as a wash to counteract the ill effects of eating food prepared by a woman in the menstrual condition, or when such a woman by chance comes into a sick room or a house under the tabu; also drunk for diarrhea and used with other herbs in decoction for breast pains. Dispensatory: This plant "produces no very obvious effects," but some doctors regard it as possessed of nervine, antispasmodic and tonic properties. None of the other three species are named.
9. KÂ[']GA SKÛ['][n]TAGĬ="crow shin"—Adiantum pedatum—Maidenhair Fern: Used either in decoction or poultice for rheumatism and chills, generally in connection with some other fern. The doctors explain that the fronds of the different varieties of fern are curled up in the young plant, but unroll and straighten out as it grows, and consequently a decoction of ferns causes the contracted muscles of the rheumatic patient to unbend and straighten out in like manner. It is also used in decoction for fever. Dispensatory: The leaves "have been supposed to be useful in chronic catarrh and other pectoral affections."
10. ANDA[']NKALAGI[']SKĬ="it removes things from the gums"—Geranium maculatum—Wild Alum, Cranesbill: Used in decoction with Yânû Unihye[']stĭ (Vitis cordifolia) to wash the mouths of children in thrush; also used alone for the same purpose by blowing the chewed fiber into the mouth. Dispensatory: "One of our best indigenous astringents. * * * Diarrhea, chronic dysentery, cholora infantum in the latter stages, and the various hemorrhages are the forms of disease in which it is most commonly used." Also valuable as "an application to indolent ulcers, an injection in gleet and leucorrhea, a gargle in relaxation of the uvula and aphthous ulcerations of the throat." The other plant sometimes used with it is not mentioned.
11. Û['][n]LĔ UKĬ[']LTĬ="the locust frequents it"—Gillenia trifoliata—Indian Physic. Two doctors state that it is good as a tea for bowel complaints, with fever and yellow vomit; but another says that it is poisonous and that no decoction is ever drunk, but that the beaten root is a good poultice for swellings. Dispensatory: "Gillenia is a mild and efficient emetic, and like most substances belonging to the same class occasionally acts upon the bowels. In very small doses it has been thought to be tonic."
12. SKWA[']LĬ=Hepatica acutiloba—Liverwort, Heartleaf: Used for coughs either in tea or by chewing root. Those who dream of snakes drink a decoction of this herb and I[']natû Ga[']n'ka=="snake tongue" (Camptosorus rhizophyllus or Walking Fern) to produce vomiting, after which the dreams do not return. The traders buy large quantities of liverwort from the Cherokees, who may thus have learned to esteem it more highly than they otherwise would. The appearance of the other plant, Camptosorus rhizophyllus, has evidently determined its Cherokee name and the use to which it is applied. Dispensatory: "Liverwort is a very mild demulcent tonic and astringent, supposed by some to possess diuretic and deobstruent virtues. It was formerly used in Europe in various complaints, especially chronic hepatic affections, but has fallen into entire neglect. In this country, some years since, it acquired considerable reputation, which, however, it has not maintained as a remedy in haemoptysis and chronic coughs." The other plant is not named.
13. DA[']YEWÛ="it sews itself up," because the leaves are said to grow together again when torn—Cacalia atriplicifolia—Tassel Flower: Held in great repute as a poultice for cuts, bruises, and cancer, to draw out the blood or poisonous matter. The bruised leaf is bound over the spot and frequently removed. The dry powdered leaf was formerly used to sprinkle over food like salt. Dispensatory: Not named.
14. A[']TALĬ KÛLĬ[']="it climbs the mountain."—Aralia quinquefolia—Ginseng or "Sang:" Decoction of root drunk for headache, cramps, etc., and for female troubles; chewed root blown on spot for pains in the side. The Cherokees sell large quantities of sang to the traders for 50 cents per pound, nearly equivalent there to two days' wages, a fact which has doubtless increased their idea of its importance. Dispensatory: "The extraordinary medical virtues formerly ascribed to ginseng had no other existence than in the imagination of the Chinese. It is little more than a demulcent, and in this country is not employed as a medicine." The Chinese name, ginseng, is said to refer to the fancied resemblance of the root to a human figure, while in the Cherokee formulas it is addressed as the "great man" or "little man," and this resemblance no doubt has much to do with the estimation in which it is held by both peoples.
15. Û[']TSATĬ UWADSĬSKA="fish scales," from shape of leaves—Thalictrum anemonoides—Meadow Rue: Decoction of root drunk for diarrhea with vomiting. Dispensatory: Not named.
16. K[']KWĔ ULASU[']LA="partridge moccasin"—Cypripedium parviflorum—Lady-slipper: Decoction of root used for worms in children. In the liquid are placed some stalks of the common chickweed or purslane (Cerastium vulgatum) which, from the appearance of its red fleshy stalks, is supposed to have some connection with worms. Dispensatory: Described as "a gentle nervous stimulant" useful in diseases in which the nerves are especially affected. The other herb is not named.
17. A[']HAWĬ['] AKĂ[']TĂ[']="deer eye," from the appearance of the flower—Rudbeckia fulgida—Cone Flower: Decoction of root drunk for flux and for some private diseases; also used as a wash for snake bites and swellings caused by (mythic) tsgâya or worms; also dropped into weak or inflamed eyes. This last is probably from the supposed connection between the eye and the flower resembling the eye. Dispensatory: Not named.
18. UTĬSTUGĬ[']=Polygonatum multiflorum latifolium—Solomon's Seal: Root heated and bruised and applied as a poultice to remove an ulcerating swelling called tu[']stĭ['], resembling a boil or carbuncle. Dispensatory: "This species acts like P. uniflorum, which is said to be emetic. In former times it was used externally in bruises, especially those about the eyes, in tumors, wounds, and cutaneous eruptions and was highly esteemed as a cosmetic. At present it is not employed, though recommended by Hermann as a good remedy in gout and rheumatism." This species in decoction has been found to produce "nausea, a cathartic effect and either diaphoresis or diuresis," and is useful "as an internal remedy in piles, and externally in the form of decoction, in the affection of the skin resulting from the poisonous exhalations of certain plants."
19. ĂMĂDITA'TÍ="water dipper," because water can be sucked up through its hollow stalk—Eupatorium purpureum—Queen of the Meadow, Gravel Root: Root used in decoction with a somewhat similar plant called Ămădita[']tĭ û[']tanu, or "large water dipper" (not identified) for difficult urination. Dispensatory: "Said to operate as a diuretic. Its vulgar name of gravel root indicates the popular estimation of its virtues." The genus is described as tonic, diaphoretic, and in large doses emetic and aperient.
20. YÂNA UTSĔSTA="the bear lies on it"—Aspidium acrostichoides—Shield Fern: Root decoction drunk to produce vomiting, and also used to rub on the skin, after scratching, for rheumatism—in both cases some other plant is added to the decoction; the warm decoction is also held in the mouth to relieve toothache. Dispensatory: Not named.
The results obtained from a careful study of this list may be summarized as follows: Of the twenty plants described as used by the Cherokees, seven (Nos. 2, 4, 5, 13, 15, 17, and 20) are not noticed in the Dispensatory even in the list of plants sometimes used although regarded as not officinal. It is possible that one or two of these seven plants have medical properties, but this can hardly be true of a larger number unless we are disposed to believe that the Indians are better informed in this regard than the best educated white physicians in the country. Two of these seven plants, however (Nos. 2 and 4), belong to genera which seem to have some of the properties ascribed by the Indians to the species. Five others of the list (Nos. 8, 9, 11, 14, and 16) are used for entirely wrong purposes, taking the Dispensatory as authority, and three of these are evidently used on account of some fancied connection between the plant and the disease, according to the doctrine of signatures. Three of the remainder (Nos. 1, 3, and 6) may be classed as uncertain in their properties, that is, while the plants themselves seem to possess some medical value, the Indian mode of application is so far at variance with recognized methods, or their own statements are so vague and conflicting, that it is doubtful whether any good can result from the use of the herbs. Thus the Unaste[']tstiyû, or Virginia Snakeroot, is stated by the Dispensatory to have several uses, and among other things is said to have been highly recommended in intermittent fevers, although alone it is "generally inadequate to the cure." Though not expressly stated, the natural inference is that it must be applied internally, but the Cherokee doctor, while he also uses it for fever, takes the decoction in his mouth and blows it over the head and shoulders of the patient. Another of these, the Distai[']yĭ, or Turkey Pea, is described in the Dispensatory as having roots tonic and aperient. The Cherokees drink a decoction of the roots for a feeling of weakness and languor, from which it might be supposed that they understood the tonic properties of the plant had not the same decoction been used by the women as a hair wash, and by the ball players to bathe their limbs, under the impression that the toughness of the roots would thus be communicated to the hair or muscles. From this fact and from the name of the plant, which means at once hard, tough, or strong, it is quite probable that its roots are believed to give strength to the patient solely because they themselves are so strong and not because they have been proved to be really efficacious. The remaining five plants have generally pronounced medicinal qualities, and are used by the Cherokees for the very purposes for which, according to the Dispensatory, they are best adapted; so that we must admit that so much of their practice is correct, however false the reasoning by which they have arrived at this result.
Taking the Dispensatory as the standard, and assuming that this list is a fair epitome of what the Cherokees know concerning the medical properties of plants, we find that five plants, or 25 per cent of the whole number, are correctly used; twelve, or 60 per cent, are presumably either worthless or incorrectly used, and three plants, or 15 per cent, are so used that it is difficult to say whether they are of any benefit or not. Granting that two of these three produce good results as used by the Indians, we should have 35 per cent, or about one-third of the whole, as the proportion actually possessing medical virtues, while the remaining two-thirds are inert, if not positively injurious. It is not probable that a larger number of examples would change the proportion to any appreciable extent. A number of herbs used in connection with these principal plants may probably be set down as worthless, inasmuch as they are not named in the Dispensatory.
The results here arrived at will doubtless be a surprise to those persons who hold that an Indian must necessarily be a good doctor, and that the medicine man or conjurer, with his theories of ghosts, witches, and revengeful animals, knows more about the properties of plants and the cure of disease than does the trained botanist or physician who has devoted a lifetime of study to the patient investigation of his specialty, with all the accumulated information contained in the works of his predecessors to build upon, and with all the light thrown upon his pathway by the discoveries of modern science. It is absurd to suppose that the savage, a child in intellect, has reached a higher development in any branch of science than has been attained by the civilized man, the product of long ages of intellectual growth. It would be as unreasonable to suppose that the Indian could be entirely ignorant of the medicinal properties of plants, living as he did in the open air in close communion with nature; but neither in accuracy nor extent can his knowledge be compared for a moment with that of the trained student working upon scientific principles.
Cherokee medicine is an empiric development of the fetich idea. For a disease caused by the rabbit the antidote must be a plant called "rabbit's food," "rabbit's ear," or "rabbit's tail;" for snake dreams the plant used is "snake's tooth;" for worms a plant resembling a worm in appearance, and for inflamed eyes a flower having the appearance and name of "deer's eye." A yellow root must be good when the patient vomits yellow bile, and a black one when dark circles come about his eyes, and in each case the disease and the plant alike are named from the color. A decoction of burs must be a cure for forgetfulness, for there is nothing else that will stick like a bur; and a decoction of the wiry roots of the "devil's shoestrings" must be an efficacious wash to toughen the ballplayer's muscles, for they are almost strong enough to stop the plowshare in the furrow. It must be evident that under such a system the failures must far outnumber the cures, yet it is not so long since half our own medical practice was based upon the same idea of correspondences, for the mediaeval physicians taught that similia similibus curantur, and have we not all heard that "the hair of the dog will cure the bite?"
Their ignorance of the true medical principles involved is shown by the regulations prescribed for the patient. With the exception of the fasting, no sanitary precautions are taken to aid in the recovery of the sick man or to contribute to his comfort. Even the fasting is as much religious as sanative, for in most cases where it is prescribed the doctor also must abstain from food until sunset, just as in the Catholic church both priest and communicants remain fasting from midnight until after the celebration of the divine mysteries. As the Indian cuisine is extremely limited, no delicate or appetizing dishes are prepared for the patient, who partakes of the same heavy, sodden cornmeal dumplings and bean bread which form his principal food in health. In most cases certain kinds of food are prohibited, such as squirrel meat, fish, turkey, etc.; but the reason is not that such food is considered deleterious to health, as we understand it, but because of some fanciful connection with the disease spirit. Thus if squirrels have caused the illness the patient must not eat squirrel meat. If the disease be rheumatism, he must not eat the leg of any animal, because the limbs are generally the seat of this malady. Lye, salt, and hot food are always forbidden when there is any prohibition at all; but here again, in nine cases out of ten, the regulation, instead of being beneficial, serves only to add to his discomfort. Lye enters into almost all the food preparations of the Cherokees, the alkaline potash taking the place of salt, which is seldom used among them, having been introduced by the whites. Their bean and chestnut bread, cornmeal dumplings, hominy, and gruel are all boiled in a pot, all contain lye, and are all, excepting the last, served up hot from the fire. When cold their bread is about as hard and tasteless as a lump of yesterday's dough, and to condemn a sick man to a diet of such dyspeptic food, eaten cold without even a pinch of salt to give it a relish, would seem to be sufficient to kill him without any further aid from the doctor. The salt or lye so strictly prohibited is really a tonic and appetizer, and in many diseases acts with curative effect. So much for the health regimen.
In serious cases the patient is secluded and no strangers are allowed to enter the house. On first thought this would appear to be a genuine sanitary precaution for the purpose of securing rest and quiet to the sick man. Such, however, is not the case. The necessity for quiet has probably never occurred to the Cherokee doctor, and this regulation is intended simply to prevent any direct or indirect contact with a woman in a pregnant or menstrual condition. Among all primitive nations, including the ancient Hebrews, we find an elaborate code of rules in regard to the conduct and treatment of women on arriving at the age of puberty, during pregnancy and the menstrual periods, and at childbirth. Among the Cherokees the presence of a woman under any of these conditions, or even the presence of any one who has come from a house where such a woman resides, is considered to neutralize all the effects of the doctor's treatment. For this reason all women, excepting those of the household, are excluded. A man is forbidden to enter, because he may have had intercourse with a tabued woman, or may have come in contact with her in some other way; and children also are shut out, because they may have come from a cabin where dwells a woman subject to exclusion. What is supposed to be the effect of the presence of a menstrual woman in the family of the patient is not clear; but judging from analogous customs in other tribes and from rules still enforced among the Cherokees, notwithstanding their long contact with the whites, it seems probable that in former times the patient was removed to a smaller house or temporary bark lodge built for his accommodation whenever the tabu as to women was prescribed by the doctor. Some of the old men assert that in former times sick persons were removed to the public townhouse, where they remained under the care of the doctors until they either recovered or died. A curious instance of this prohibition is given in the second Didû[n]lĕ[']skĭ (rheumatism) formula from the Gahuni manuscript (see page 350), where the patient is required to abstain from touching a squirrel, a dog, a cat, a mountain trout, or a woman, and must also have a chair appropriated to his use alone during the four days that he is under treatment.
In cases of the children's disease known as Gû[n]wani[']gista[']ĭ (see formulas) it is forbidden to carry the child outdoors, but this is not to procure rest for the little one, or to guard against exposure to cold air, but because the birds send this disease, and should a bird chance to be flying by overhead at the moment the napping of its wings would fan the disease back into the body of the patient.
On a second visit to the reservation the writer once had a practical illustration of the gaktû['][n]ta or tabu, which may be of interest as showing how little sanitary ideas have to do with these precautions. Having received several urgent invitations from Tsiskwa (Bird), an old shaman of considerable repute, who was anxious to talk, but confined to his bed by sickness, it was determined to visit him at his house, several miles distant. On arriving we found another doctor named Sû['][n]kĭ (The Mink) in charge of the patient and were told that he had just that morning begun a four days' gaktû['][n]ta which, among other provisions, excluded all visitors. It was of no use to argue that we had come by the express request of Tsiskwa. The laws of the gaktû['][n]ta were as immutable as those of the Medes and Persians, and neither doctor nor patient could hope for favorable results from the treatment unless the regulations were enforced to the letter. But although we might not enter the house, there was no reason why we should not talk to the old man, so seats were placed for us outside the door, while Tsiskwa lay stretched out on the bed just inside and The Mink perched himself on the fence a few yards distant to keep an eye on the proceedings. As there was a possibility that a white man might unconsciously affect the operation of the Indian medicine, the writer deemed it advisable to keep out of sight altogether, and accordingly took up a position just around the corner of the house, but within easy hearing distance, while the interpreter sat facing the doorway within a few feet of the sick man inside. Then began an animated conversation, Tsiskwa inquiring, through the interpreter, as to the purpose of the Government in gathering such information, wanting to know how we had succeeded with other shamans and asking various questions in regard to other tribes and their customs. The replies were given in the same manner, an attempt being also made to draw him out as to the extent of his own knowledge. Thus we talked until the old man grew weary, but throughout the whole of this singular interview neither party saw the other, nor was the gaktû['][n]ta violated by entering the house. From this example it must be sufficiently evident that the tabu as to visitors is not a hygienic precaution for securing greater quiet to the patient, or to prevent the spread of contagion, but that it is simply a religious observance of the tribe, exactly parallel to many of the regulations among the ancient Jews, as laid down in the book of Leviticus.
In addition to their herb treatment the Cherokees frequently resort to sweat baths, bleeding, rubbing, and cold baths in the running stream, to say nothing of the beads and other conjuring paraphernalia generally used in connection with the ceremony. The sweat bath was in common use among almost all the tribes north of Mexico excepting the central and eastern Eskimo, and was considered the great cure-all in sickness and invigorant in health. Among many tribes it appears to have been regarded as a ceremonial observance, but the Cherokees seem to have looked upon it simply as a medical application, while the ceremonial part was confined to the use of the plunge bath. The person wishing to make trial of the virtues of the sweat bath entered the â[']sĭ, a small earth-covered log house only high enough to allow of sitting down. After divesting himself of his clothing, some large bowlders, previously heated in a fire, were placed near him, and over them was poured a decoction of the beaten roots of the wild parsnip. The door was closed so that no air could enter from the outside, and the patient sat in the sweltering steam until he was in a profuse perspiration and nearly choked by the pungent fumes of the decoction. In accordance with general Indian practice it may be that he plunged into the river before resuming his clothing; but in modern times this part of the operation is omitted and the patient is drenched with cold water instead. Since the âsĭ has gone out of general use the sweating takes place in the ordinary dwelling, the steam being confined under a blanket wrapped around the patient. During the prevalence of the smallpox epidemic among the Cherokees at the close of the late war the sweat bath was universally called into requisition to stay the progress of the disease, and as the result about three hundred of the band died, while many of the survivors will carry the marks of the visitation to the grave. The sweat bath, with the accompanying cold water application, being regarded as the great panacea, seems to have been resorted to by the Indians in all parts of the country whenever visited by smallpox—originally introduced by the whites—and in consequence of this mistaken treatment they have died, in the language of an old writer, "like rotten sheep" and at times whole tribes have been almost swept away. Many of the Cherokees tried to ward off the disease by eating the flesh of the buzzard, which they believe to enjoy entire immunity from sickness, owing to its foul smell, which keeps the disease spirits at a distance.
Bleeding is resorted to in a number of cases, especially in rheumatism and in preparing for the ball play. There are two methods of performing the operation, bleeding proper and scratching, the latter being preparatory to rubbing on the medicine, which is thus brought into more direct contact with the blood. The bleeding is performed with a small cupping horn, to which suction is applied in the ordinary manner, after scarification with a flint or piece of broken glass. In the blood thus drawn out the shaman claims sometimes to find a minute pebble, a sharpened stick or something of the kind, which he asserts to be the cause of the trouble and to have been conveyed into the body of the patient through the evil spells of an enemy. He frequently pretends to suck out such an object by the application of the lips alone, without any scarification whatever. Scratching is a painful process and is performed with a brier, a flint arrowhead, a rattlesnake's tooth, or even with a piece of glass, according to the nature of the ailment, while in preparing the young men for the ball play the shaman uses an instrument somewhat resembling a comb, having seven teeth made from the sharpened splinters of the leg bone of a turkey. The scratching is usually done according to a particular pattern, the regular method for the ball play being to draw the scratcher four times down the upper part of each arm, thus making twenty-eight scratches each about 6 inches in length, repeating the operation on each arm below the elbow and on each leg above and below the knee. Finally, the instrument is drawn across the breast from the two shoulders so as to form a cross; another curving stroke is made to connect the two upper ends of the cross, and the same pattern is repeated on the back, so that the body is thus gashed in nearly three hundred places. Although very painful for a while, as may well be supposed, the scratches do not penetrate deep enough to result seriously, excepting in some cases where erysipelas sets in. While the blood is still flowing freely the medicine, which in this case is intended to toughen, the muscles of the player, is rubbed into the wounds after which the sufferer plunges into the stream and washes off the blood. In order that the blood may flow the longer without clotting it is frequently scraped off with a small switch as it flows. In rheumatism and other local diseases the scratching is confined to the part affected. The instrument used is selected in accordance with the mythologic theory, excepting in the case of the piece of glass, which is merely a modern makeshift for the flint arrowhead.
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Gymnodinium breve Davis, 1948
Species Overview:
Gymnodinium breve is an unarmoured, marine, planktonic dinoflagellate species. It is a toxin-producing species associated with red tides in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of western Florida.
Taxonomic Description:
Gymnodinium breve is an athecate species; i.e. without thecal plates. Cells are small and dorso-ventrally flattened (Figs. 1,2). The cell is ventrally concave and dorsally convex. Cells appear almost square in outline, but with a prominent apical process directed ventrally (Figs. 1-3). Cells range in size from 20-40 µm in width to 10-15 µm in depth, and is slightly wider than long (Steidinger et al., 1978, Steidinger, 1983, Taylor et al., 1995, Steidinger and Tangen, 1996).
The epitheca is rounded with a distinctive overhanging apical process (Figs. 1,2). The epitheca is smaller than the hypotheca (Fig. 1). The cingulum is displaced in a descending fashion up to 2 times its width. It houses the transverse flagellum. The sulcus extends into the epitheca up to the apex adjacent to the apical process (Fig. 3). It houses the longitudinal flagellum. An apical groove, present near the distal epithecal end of the sulcus, extends across the apical process onto the dorsal side of the cell (Figs. 1,3). It is not an extension of the sulcus. The wide hypotheca is notched by the sulcus and is slightly bilobed posteriorly. Discharged trichocysts have been observed (Davis, 1948, Steidinger et al., 1978, Steidinger, 1983, Taylor et al., 1995, Steidinger and Tangen, 1996).
Morphology and Structure:
Gymnodinium breve is a photosynthetic species with numerous peripheral yellowish-green chloroplasts and multistalked pyrenoids. The large round nucleus is 6-9 µm in diameter and located in the left half of the hypotheca (Figs. 2,3). Lipid globules have also been observed. This species does not have peridinin as a major accessory pigment (Davis, 1948, Steidinger et al., 1978, Steidinger, 1983, Taylor et al., 1995, Steidinger and Tangen, 1996).
G. breve reproduces asexually by binary fission; cells divide obliquely during mitosis. This species also has a sexual cycle: isogamous gamete production, fusion and formation of a planozygote. The planozygote is morphologically similar to the vegetative cell, but larger. The gametes are rounder and slightly smaller than the vegetative cells (18-24 µm in diameter). It is speculated that temperature controls the onset of the sexual cycle since sexual stages only occurred in fall and winter in both field populations and cultures (Walker, 1982).
G. breve is a planktonic oceanic species, though populations have been documented in estuarine systems under bloom conditions. This species is a bloom-former associated with red tides in the Gulf of Mexico, in particular the west coast of Florida. During a bloom cell levels can reach as high as 1 X 10^7 to 1 X 10^8 cells per litre. Blooms initiate offshore requiring high salinities (> 30 o/oo) and high temperatures (Steidinger, 1975, Steidinger et al., 1978, Steidinger and Tangen, 1996).
G. breve cells are active swimmers resembling 'falling leaves as they swim slowly, turning over and over through the water'. This species forms cysts under adverse conditions. Chain formation reported in very dense concentrations (Steidinger and Joyce, 1973).
G. breve is a known toxic species that produces a series of brevetoxins (neurotoxins) (Baden, 1983). These toxins are responsible for massive fill kills along the west coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico. Aerosolization of the toxins (noxious air-borne G. breve fragments from sea spray) has been linked to asthma-like symptoms in humans (Baden et al., 1982). Brevetoxins produce neurotoxic shellfish poisoning (NSP) when consumed (Hughes, 1979). These toxins are known to cause human illness and distress; however, the poison is not fatal: no human fatalities have been reported from consumption of G. breve-infected bivalves (Steidinger and Joyce, 1973). So far NSP has been restricted to the western coast of Florida, but more recently it has been documented for New Zealand as well (Steidinger et al., 1973, Baden et al., 1981, Taylor et al., 1995).
Habitat and Locality:
Gymnodinium breve populations are found in warm temperate to tropical waters, most regularly from the Gulf of Mexico, off the west coast of Florida. G. breve and G. breve-like species have also been reported from the West Atlantic, Spain, Greece, Japan and New Zealand (Fukuyo et al., 1990, Taylor et al., 1995, Steidinger and Tangen, 1996).
Gymnodinium breve |
“It Could Have Been Worse. . .” – Making Predictions
I absolutely LOVE combining literature and technology when students visit the lab! One of my favorite books is, It Could Have Been Worse, by A.H. Benjamin. It is a one of the best books for making predictions! The book is about a little mouse who is on his way home when he encounters some difficulties. Little does he know that he is being followed by other creatures such as a cat, snake, fish, and more. Mouse ends up falling into holes, sliding down hills, getting a few bumps and bruises along the way. What he doesn’t know is what happens to those animals trying to catch him!
I read the book and stopped just as an animal was about to catch the mouse. The goal was to have the first graders illustrate their what they thought would happen next, write a sentence about their prediction, and record their voice telling what their prediction. Then, I would make a class book for the students.
There are many ways to do this but my go-to app is Book Creator. I air-dropped a template to each iPad (I’m loving the new backgrounds and borders Book Creator has added). With only 40 minutes with each class, I do as much as I can before students arrive!
our template
When the students arrived, we set up the book by adding their names. I was amazed at how much the students remembered from using the app last year so set up went quickly.
As I started reading, the children began drawing. When I reached the stopping point (different for each class), the students really got busy!
The directions were:
1. Illustrate
2. Type sentence
3. Record
4. Air drop to Mrs. Arrington
As students completed the steps, they became helpers – showing classmates what to do. The homeroom teachers were invaluable helpers as well!
I enjoy taking photos of the process which are made into a short video and added to the end of the books. The children (and parents) really enjoy that!
Here are our finished books:
Mrs. Crumley’s Class
What Happened to the Fox_Mrs. Crumley’s Class Predictions
Mrs. Hutchinson’s Class
What Happened to the Snake_Mrs. Hutchinson’s Class Predictions
Mrs. Kee’s Class
What Happened to the Fish_Mrs. Kee’s Class Predictons
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Why indoor tanning is unsafe
Indoors or outdoors, there’s no safe way to get a tan. Tanning beds and sun lamps release UV rays – just like the sun. Tanned skin is damaged skin. And when the tan fades, the damage is still there.
Image of a tanning bed
Indoor tanning causes cancer
The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies UV-emitting devices, such as tanning beds, as known cancer-causing substances. This is the highest rating they can give in terms of whether the evidence shows that something causes cancer.
Research shows that being exposed to UV radiation from indoor tanning equipment before the age of 35 increases your risk of melanoma (skin cancer). |
Articular Cartilage Injury | Testing and Diagnosis
How does a doctor know my child has an articular cartilage injury?
The physician examines your child's joint, looking for
• decreased range of motion
• pain along the joint line
• swelling
• fluid on the knee
• abnormal ailment of the bones making-up the joint
• ligament or meniscal injury
Because an articular cartilage injury is hard to diagnose, your child's doctor may also require:
• Arthroscopy – a minimally invasive outpatient procedure that inserts a small camera into the joint for the doctor
to inspect. |
Learning From Mistakes (LFMs) Reflections - More than just Retesting.
Learning From Mistakes (LFMs) Reflections – More than just Retesting.
To demonstrate mastery for a particular objective that was assessed in a unit exam, you must complete “Learn From Mistakes” test corrections and reflections followed by some quizzing. The steps:
1. Write LFM Reflections on the top of the paper.
1. Write the objective (number and statement) for which you are striving to attain. The objective details are on the exam cover page
For example:
(8.01) I can use molar mass of a substance to convert between mass and the number of moles of a substance.
1. For each question you got wrong:
2. a) Rewrite question in your own words. Draw a diagram if necessary/appropriate.
3. b) What was your mistake? Why did you write the answer you wrote?
4. c) Why is the correct answer correct? Why does the correct answer make sense to you now?
How are you going to remember it?
• When completed submit to Dr J. In most cases, you will be given a short quiz, verbal or written, to determine whether you now understand the standard.
• If successful, your grade in this particular objective will be raised to 75%.
• If unsuccessful, we will have return another day for re-quizzing.
You must come after school when Dr. J. has his regular hours. See board on south wall. On rare occasion, he may be available during lunch by appointment.
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The Great Courses 1
As technology evolves, industries evolve with it. A clear example of how innovation can positively affect an industry is to look at the capabilities of Nanotechnology, and its impact on the shipping industry.
For the average joe, nanotechnology sounds like something out of this world. According to the Oxford Dictionary, Nanotechnology refers to ‘’the branch of technology that deals with dimensions and tolerances of less than 100 nanometers, especially the manipulation of individual atoms and molecules.’’
Nanotechnology has the ability to improve several areas within a single industry. Whether it’s for security purposes or safer transportation of cargo, nanotechnology’s got your back. Here are five amazing ways, nanotechnology is changing the shipping industry.
Safer transportation
According to a reviewed study, changing the structure of a material on a nanoscale allows for changes of their characteristics. These changes can increase the hardness, the elasticity at high temperatures, improve breaking strength and increase the fracture toughness of the steel used for the ship.
These changes contribute to safer transport for cargo. For instance, by using nanoscale manipulation or a ‘’nanocoating’’ to increase the durability of welds on a ship, it minimizes the need for repairs and replacements.
As regular metals deteriorate a lot quicker when faced with environmental factors such as the ocean, applying an anti-corrosion nano-coating also protects the vessel from rusting.
While still being in the research and development stage, the tests done by applying nanotech to strengthen aluminum, for instance, were promising in that they were able to increase the strength by over 150% in comparison to untreated aluminum. Showing potential for later uses on a real vessel.
Pollution prevention
Unfortunately, when dealing with huge vessels, pollution is bound to happen. The open ocean is one of the harshest environments that metals can endure. But over time, biofouling – the accumulation of damaging organisms (such as algae) that attach themselves onto the vessel – becomes an issue. It can add weight and increase the drag of the ship. This significantly reduces fuel efficiency which in turn leads to increased fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
Most algae and barnacle killers are toxic and harmful to the environment. If a company wants to adhere to CSR policies, then companies operating with large vessels need to find a way to prevent biofouling from happening in the first place, but also prevent further environmental damage.
Incorporating nanotechnology in a non-stick coating is not only effective in preventing foreign organisms from sticking to the ship. It is also a better alternative to the previously used non-stick coating agent tributyltin that has been banned for its extremely toxic properties.
The nano slippery coating has the extra benefit of reducing drag, which means the ships can sail with more efficiency and less energy.
Utilizing nanotechnology in the coating to prevent biofouling, is still being tested. However, the tests have been done, both at Sydney harbor, and much harsher marine environments, with both examples, still showing a significant efficiency in resisting fouling.
Security measures
A more dangerous aspect of the shipping industry is the possibility of a weapon and drug smuggling on to the cargo. As each shipping delivery goes through various checkpoints before reaching its final destination, terrorists and drug smugglers have an opportunity to use the cargo as a modern day trojan horse.
Nanotechnology could be applied in different ways to increase the security while transporting freight. For instance, by coating the nanosensors with a conductive coating that can detect energetic particles, it can alert the security team of the presence of materials that have been smuggled in.
Nanotechnology could also be used in the form of tracking devices. Similar to that of a chip used on animals, nanotechnology has the potential to track the movement of freight from each of the checkpoints and means of transportation, providing a constant ‘’updated position’’. By using nano-sensors in seal tags, could also be used to alert the senders of any potential tampering of goods.
Just like the previous ways, applying nanotechnology into security measures is still in its infant stage, however, The National Nanotechnology initiative, which is a federal research and development program, sees the potential of applying nanotechnology to this part of the industry.
Enhanced power supply
All ships carry additional generators onboard to ensure that there is an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) ready in case of a power failure. In case the primary generator ceases to function, a battery that has been enhanced with nanotechnology can be used to provide UPS to the vessel until the secondary generator comes online.
Nanotechnology has the capability of improving batteries in several ways. By using a special nano coating, it has the potential to increase the number of charges from just thousands to several hundreds of thousands, potentially eliminating the need for a replacement battery. Adding silicon coated nanotubes to the insides of a battery increases the capacity by as much as 10 times.
Nanotechnology is still very much in its infant stages, even with the examples of battery research, these have yet to be used by actual vessels. However, researchers have shown that there is potential usage in the modifications done to the nanotech applied batteries.
Another great thing about nanotechnology is the cost efficiency that comes along with applying this type of technology, as opposed to conventional methods. As mentioned before, nanotechnology provides better alternatives for previously used methods which improve cost-efficiency.
For instance, as nano-coating reduces the amount of drag and protects the ship from environmental damage, it reduces the costs that are associated with removing biofouling and repairing the damage that the environment has caused on the ship.
The benefits of nanotechnology on improved battery life also removes the need for purchasing extra energy supplies, as they are able to use the current batteries for an extended period of time. The potential use of tracking with nanotechnology on shipping products also reduces hefty fees associated with lost goods.
Nanotechnology has the capability of revolutionizing the shipping industry in a variety of different ways.
While the listed examples are in their infant stages in terms of development and research, they do show potential for amazing usage in the industry. And the results that have been observed clearly shows how far we’ll get in a couple of decades with this type of technology.
It’s hard to predict what the future will look like, but chances are, things are going to be significantly different within a decade or two, with the use of nanotechnology.
Adel-Alexander Aldilemi is a content writer at Valuer.Ai. He considers himself an avid traveler, as he has lived across two continents and is currently studying humanities at Copenhagen University. |
Diet and Post Holiday Depression
Diet and Post Holiday Depression
“When’s the last time you ate a vegetable?” I asked at the dinner table last night. “Do chocolate covered potato chips count as a vegetable? Potatoes grow in the ground, right?” With each passing meal, the Christmas lights seem to glow a little dimmer, the children less enchanted with their new toys, and the weather more bitter. Could the rapid change in diet alter your microbiome to cause post-holiday depression? Absolutely.
Holiday Drinking
Statistics shows that your diet changes quite a bit over the holidays. NIH reports that alcohol consumption goes up roughly 30% around the holidays. 1 In nature, alcohol is produced by microorganisms to kill off the competition. Some microbes cannot survive even in a minimal concentration of ethanol. The data shows that even one night of heavy drinking alters the microbiome and serum LPS endotoxins soar. 2. Red wine has also been shown to influence the growth of individual organisms in the gut selectively as well. 3 Phenols in the wine alter the microbiome that can be detected by PCR testing, and in human biomarkers like blood pressure, C-reactive protein, and of course, bacterial endotoxin can accumulate in the brain and lead to post-holiday depression.
Gluten and Casein Proteins
Another common change in the holiday diet is the rise in bread and cheese co1nsumption. Cheese, sauces, pies, cookies, crackers, and stuffing are all very common and hard to avoid. A small percentage of people are sensitive to gluten and casein proteins. For the rest of us, the damage is more subtle. Gluten and casein proteins take a while to digest. This slows down the digestive process and gives microorganisms in the lower small intestine nutritionally dense proteins to happily ingest. These are the organisms that are likely to produce endotoxin. They also reside in the small intestine where intestinal permeability is increasingly common, which allows endotoxin to pass into the blood stream, accumulate in the brain, and cause depression, brain fog, and anxiety. 4
Grazing and Overeating
Delicious food is plentiful around the holidays. It seems that there are enough grandmothers to go around who are all baking delicious desserts. Food is available, it tastes amazing, and there is not enough activity to keep us from eating it, so we mindlessly graze throughout the season. Both grazing and overeating slow our motility or the transit time of food in our digestive tract. 5 When digestion is slowed, food stays in the small intestine for too long and ferments. When you overeat, matter from the large intestine sometimes will back up into the small intestine overpopulating it with bacteria that should not be there. 6 As in the case of casein and gluten, both increases intestinal permeability in vulnerable places. When both occur, LPS endotoxins leech into the bloodstream and affect the brain leading to depression and anxiety. 7
Now What?
The damage is done. You have overindulged over the holidays, and you are starting to feel the blues. The excitement is over, and the guests are beginning to head home, and you become very conscious of your post-holiday depression. So, now what? We need to do the opposite of what we did before: speed up MMC function (digestion), and strengthen the blood/gut barrier. Here is a protocol that many people have used to help:
• Eat less and less frequently, try to stick to three meals daily. No snacking!
• Supplement with 200-300mg of Magnesium Glycinate before bed
• Take Oil of Oregano upon waking, thirty minutes before breakfast
• Move during the day! Go for a walk, do some air squats, play your favorite sport.
• Take twenty grams of Lglutamine on an empty stomach to rebuild the gut membrane.
• Take the prebiotic, GOS, to feed bacteria in your gut that produce butyric acid that will protect the gut/blood barrier.
If your gut is messed up, you are suffering from post-holiday depression, and you need extra support, join us on our new Fix Your Gut Forums. Our growing community will help you restore your gut health!
1 Comment
1. Thanks John!
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Connecting to serial ports Jan 2016
The main mechanisms for communicating between devices around the house in JET are via serial communication and via Ethernet (LAN or WLAN) - often in the form of USB devices acting as virtual serial interfaces. For simple radio modules used for a Wireless Sensor Network, we can then use a USB or WiFi “bridge”.
Other (less common) options are: I2C and SPI hardware interfaces, and direct I/O via either digital or analog “pins”. For these special-purpose interfaces, there is the WiringPi library, which is often also ported to other boards than the Raspberry Pi for which it was originally conceived. In this case, a small C program can be used as bridge to MQTT.
Network connections are simple in Linux, and in particular in Go, and will not be covered here right now. Besides, with MQTT in the mix, network access is essentially solved if the other end knows how to act as MQTT client. Getting data into JET via the network is easy - even if some massaging is needed, it can be done later by including some custom code for it in a JET pack.
Serial ports are a different story. There are many serial conventions in use, with all sorts of settings that you need to get just right to send messages across: baudrate, parity, stop bits, h/w or s/w handshake - it can be quite a puzzle. Just enter the man stty command on Linux to see how many different configuration choices have been added over time…
Fortunately, a few common serial interface conventions will cover the majority of today’s cases, when it comes to “hooking up” a serial device such as an USB-to-serial “dongle”. And Linux tends to have excellent support out of the box for all the different brands and vendors out there. All we need is some glue code in the hub, and we should be able to get serial data in and out.
And yet that’s just step one in this story. Welcome to the “interfacing to the real world” puzzle!
We also need to match the serial data-format choices of the device. Is it text? Is each line one message? Or if it’s binary data: how do we know where a message ends and the next one begins? There are so many different “framing” and other protocol conventions, that this is probably best handled in a custom pack - at least for more complex cases. But even then we need a serial driver which is able to pass all the information faithfully across to that JET pack.
Another area of concern is with the I/O pins other than the send and receive lines: do we need to connect any of the RTS, CTS, DTR, DSR pins? Do they need to be in a certain state?
Eventually, many of these use cases will need to be addressed. For now, let’s just focus on a basic subset and aim for the following scenario:
What about the actual serial data I/O?
This is where MQTT’s pub-sub can help a lot: we can subscribe to a fixed/known topic for each interface, and pass each incoming message to the serial port. The advantage over plain serial, is that any number of processes can do so - if more than one send at the same time, the output will get inter-mixed, but that’s fine as long as each message is a self-contained outbound “packet”.
On the incoming side, there are two uses cases:
1. pick up each message and pass in along to anyone interested - this is the most natural mode for MQTT and matches exactly with its pub-sub semantics
2. briefly claim the output while a client “takes control”, which it then relinquishes once done - this is useful for an “uploader”: switch the attached device to firmware-upgrade mode, send new firmware, after which normal operation resumes, with all listeners getting new incoming data
Here is a design, currently being implemented, which supports both modes:
Serial port open requests
Request format, in JavaScript notation:
device: <path> // the serial device to open
baud: <baudrate> // connection speed, default is 57600 baud
init: [<commands...>] // initialisation commands and settings
sendto: <topic> // the topic to forward incoming data to
Example (JSON):
New open requests implicitly close the serial port first, if previously open.
To close the serial port and not re-open it, we can send an empty message. This is not valid JSON, but will be recognised as a special “close-only” request.
Serial interface requests
Interface change requests are inside a JSON array and get processed in order of appearance:
(note: “¬” denotes a pin with inverted logic: “1” is inactive, “0” is active!)
Additional requests could be added later, e.g. to switch between text and binary mode, to set a receive timeout, and to encode/decode hex, base64, etc.
Power-up behaviour
While the above is sufficient to use serial ports, it does not address what happens on power-up or after a system restart. Ah, but wait… meet MQTT’s “RETAIN” flag:
In other words: to configure our system, we merely need to send the proper open requests for each serial port once - with the RETAIN flag set, i.e. the MQTT server now acts as persistent configuration store for each of these settings.
Other messages, without the RETAIN flag set, pass through as is - they won’t affect the storage of prior retained messages. Normal outbound data should therefore be published without the RETAIN flag. Likewise for interface change requests: they must be processed, but not stored.
To permanently open a serial port in a different way, we can simply send a new open request message, with RETAIN set, and replace the previous one.
Incoming data
The open request includes a sendto: field, which specifies the topic where every incoming message is sent. In the initial implementation, data is expected to come in line-by-line, and each line will be re-published to the given topic.
By using open requests without the RETAIN flag, we can play tricks and briefly re-open a serial port for a special case, with a different sendto value. Then, once ready, we simply re-open again with the original topic, and data will start getting dispatched as before.
As already mentioned, the above mechanisms are currently being implemented and will be included in the hub once the software is working and stable. For real code, see GitHub.
Weblog © Jean-Claude Wippler. Generated by Hugo. |
I stumbled across this problem
Find $\,10^{\large 5^{102}}$ modulo $35$, i.e. the remainder left after it is divided by $35$
Beginning, we try to find a simplification for $10$ to get: $$10 \equiv 1 \text{ mod } 7\\ 10^2 \equiv 2 \text{ mod } 7 \\ 10^3 \equiv 6 \text{ mod } 7$$
As these problems are meant to be done without a calculator, calculating this further is cumbersome. The solution, however, states that since $35 = 5 \cdot 7$, then we only need to find $10^{5^{102}} \text{ mod } 7$. I can see (not immediately) the logic behind this. Basically, since $10^k$ is always divisible by $5$ for any sensical $k$, then: $$10^k - r = 5(7)k$$ But then it's not immediately obvious how/why the fact that $5$ divides $10^k$ helps in this case.
My question is, is in general, if we have some mod system with $a^k \equiv r \text{ mod } m$ where $m$ can be decomposed into a product of numbers $a \times b \times c \ \times ...$, we only need to find the mod of those numbers where $a, b, c.....$ doesn't divides $a$? (And if this is the case why?) If this is not the case, then why/how is the solution justified in this specific instance?
• 1
$\begingroup$ How is $10 \equiv 1$ mod 7? $\endgroup$ – Junglemath May 2 at 13:13
The "logic" is that we can use a mod distributive law to pull out a common factor $\,c=5,\,$ i.e.
$$ ca\bmod cn =\, c(a\bmod n)\quad\qquad $$
This decreases the modulus from $\,cn\,$ to $\,n, \,$ simplifying modular arithmetic. Also it may eliminate CRT = Chinese Remainder Theorem calculations, eliminating needless inverse computations, which are much more difficult than above for large numbers (or polynomials, e.g. see this answer).
This distributive law is often more convenient in congruence form, e.g.
$$\quad \qquad ca\equiv c(a\bmod n)\ \ \ {\rm if}\ \ \ \color{#d0f}{cn\equiv 0}\ \pmod{\! m}$$
because we have: $\,\ c(a\bmod n) \equiv c(a\! +\! kn)\equiv ca+k(\color{#d0f}{cn})\equiv ca\pmod{\!m}$
e.g. in the OP: $\ \ I\ge 1\,\Rightarrow\, 10^{\large I+N}\!\equiv 10^{\large I}(10^{\large N}\!\bmod 7)\ \ \ {\rm by}\ \ \ 10^I 7\equiv 0\,\pmod{35}$
Let's use that. First note that exponents on $10$ can be reduced mod $\,6\,$ by little Fermat,
i.e. notice that $\ \color{#c00}{{\rm mod}\,\ 7}\!:\,\ 10^{\large 6}\equiv\, 1\,\Rightarrow\, \color{#c00}{10^{\large 6J}\equiv 1}.\ $ Thus if $\ I \ge 1\ $ then as above
$\phantom{{\rm mod}\,\ 35\!:\,\ }\color{#0a0}{10^{\large I+6J}}\!\equiv 10^{\large I} 10^{\large 6J}\!\equiv 10^{\large I}(\color{#c00}{10^{\large 6J}\!\bmod 7})\equiv \color{#0a0}{10^{\large I}}\,\pmod{\!35} $
Our power $\ 5^{\large 102} = 1\!+\!6J\ $ by $\ {\rm mod}\,\ 6\!:\,\ 5^{\large 102}\!\equiv (-1)^{\large 102}\!\equiv 1$
Therefore $\ 10^{\large 5^{\large 102}}\!\! = \color{#0a0}{10^{\large 1+6J}}\!\equiv \color{#0a0}{10^{\large 1}} \pmod{\!35}\ $
Remark $\ $ For many more worked examples see the complete list of linked questions. Often this distributive law isn't invoked by name. Rather its trivial proof is repeated inline, e.g. from a recent answer, using $\,cn = 14^2\cdot\color{#c00}{25}\equiv 0\pmod{100}$
$\begin{align}&\color{#c00}{{\rm mod}\ \ 25}\!:\ \ \ 14\equiv 8^{\large 2}\Rightarrow\, 14^{\large 10}\equiv \overbrace{8^{\large 20}\equiv 1}^{\rm\large Euler\ \phi}\,\Rightarrow\, \color{#0a0}{14^{\large 10N}}\equiv\color{#c00}{\bf 1}\\[1em] &{\rm mod}\ 100\!:\,\ 14^{\large 2+10N}\equiv 14^{\large 2}\, \color{#0a0}{14^{\large 10N}}\! \equiv 14^{\large 2}\!\! \underbrace{(\color{#c00}{{\bf 1} + 25k})}_{\large\color{#0a0}{14^{\Large 10N}}\!\bmod{\color{#c00}{25}}}\!\!\! \equiv 14^{\large 2} \equiv\, 96\end{align}$
This distributive law is actually equivalent to CRT as we sketch below, with $\,m,n\,$ coprime
$\begin{align} x&\equiv a\!\!\!\pmod{\! m}\\ \color{#c00}x&\equiv\color{#c00} b\!\!\!\pmod{\! n}\end{align}$ $\,\Rightarrow\, x\!-\!a\bmod mn\, =\, m\left[\dfrac{\color{#c00}x-a}m\bmod n\right] = m\left[\dfrac{\color{#c00}b-a}m\bmod n\right]$
which is exactly the same solution given by Easy CRT. But the operational form of this law often makes it more convenient to apply in computations versus the classical CRT formula.
First, note that $10^{7}\equiv10^{1}\pmod{35}$.
Therefore $n>6\implies10^{n}\equiv10^{n-6}\pmod{35}$.
Let's calculate $5^{102}\bmod6$ using Euler's theorem:
• $\gcd(5,6)=1$
• Therefore $5^{\phi(6)}\equiv1\pmod{6}$
• $\phi(6)=\phi(2\cdot3)=(2-1)\cdot(3-1)=2$
• Therefore $\color\red{5^{2}}\equiv\color\red{1}\pmod{6}$
• Therefore $5^{102}\equiv5^{2\cdot51}\equiv(\color\red{5^{2}})^{51}\equiv\color\red{1}^{51}\equiv1\pmod{6}$
Therefore $10^{5^{102}}\equiv10^{5^{102}-6}\equiv10^{5^{102}-12}\equiv10^{5^{102}-18}\equiv\ldots\equiv10^{1}\equiv10\pmod{35}$.
Carrying on from your calculation: $$\begin{align} 10^3&\equiv 6 \bmod 7 \\ &\equiv -1 \bmod 7 \\ \implies 10^6 = (10^3)^2&\equiv 1 \bmod 7 \end{align}$$ We could reach the same conclusion more quickly by observing that $7$ is prime so by Fermat's Little Theorem, $10^{(7-1)}\equiv 1 \bmod 7$.
So we need to know the value of $5^{102}\bmod 6$, and here again $5\equiv -1 \bmod 6 $ so $5^{\text{even}}\equiv 1 \bmod 6$. (Again there are other ways to the same conclusion, but spotting $-1$ is often useful).
Thus $10^{\large 5^{102}}\equiv 10^{6k+1}\equiv 10^1\equiv 3 \bmod 7$.
Now the final step uses the Chinese remainder theorem for uniqueness of the solution (to congruence): $$\left .\begin{align} x&\equiv 0 \bmod 5 \\ x&\equiv 3 \bmod 7 \\ \end{align} \right\}\implies x\equiv 10 \bmod 35 $$
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