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Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto American Indian woman Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto Chapter 7 Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto, Barbareño Chumash Elder, shares her family's stories about the Lone Woman. My mother, Mary J. Yee, was the last fluent speaker of the Barbareño Chumash language. She was raised by her grandmother, Luisa Ygnacio. Luisa had brief contact with the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island when she was brought to Santa Barbara. Luisa’s first husband was a Chumash man named Policarpio, who had been raised in the household of the last chief of Santa Cruz Island. Policarpio and Luisa were married in 1851 at Mission Santa Barbara. Policarpio was a fisherman and sea otter hunter who accompanied George Nidever to San Nicolas Island in 1853. He was part of the crew who met the Lone Woman and returned with her to the mainland. My mother said that Luisa had met the Lone Woman but could not understand her because they spoke completely different languages. My grandmother told my mother that she felt sorry for the Lone Woman because she probably hoped she was going to see her friends and relatives who had left the island eighteen years earlier. Luisa believed that if the Lone Woman had been allowed to live with other Indians and eat the native foods that she would not have died so soon after being taken off the island. Luisa’s husband, Policarpio, brought back from San Nicolas Island two small, feathered capes and a fishhook that belonged to the Lone Woman. Unfortunately, Luisa did not save these items. Some of my family’s stories were written down in the early 1900s by anthropologist John P. Harrington, who interviewed my great-grandmother Luisa Ygnacio in 1913–1914. Harrington later worked with Luisa’s daughter (my grandmother), Lucrecia Ygnacio Garcia, and my mother, Mary Yee. My mother told him the stories she had learned from her grandmother, Luisa. One of these stories was about how the Lone Woman lost her son (or perhaps children) who remained with her on the island. Luisa said that the son (or children) had been killed when they were offshore fishing in a boat that was attacked by a whale. It seems that Luisa likely learned this story from her late husband, Policarpio. Last updated: February 25, 2020
Solar System: By the Numbers HMH. Jun. 2020. 40p. Tr $14.99. ISBN 9781328850973; pap. $5.99. ISBN 9781328850980. Gr 2-5–Jenkins uses inviting, colorful, and clearly labeled infographics to examine planets, asteroids, comets, moons, weather, gravity, space exploration, and more as he introduces readers to our solar system’s place in the universe, the changes that have occurred over time, and the possibility that there is life beyond Earth. Jenkins shares compelling information about what is currently known while also delving into the likelihood of discovering new knowledge. One infographic shows the number of moons that orbit the outer planets and explains: “New moons are frequently discovered, so these numbers will probably change.” Similar notes mention that data about the number of dwarf planets, comets, and new space explorations could change. Many fascinating facts are presented about solar system weather (rain and snow, maximum wind speeds, and average temperatures on various planets), existing oceans, the dangers that asteroids and comets cause when they crash into Earth, the number of times astronauts have visited places in the solar system, and different animals that have traveled on space missions. VERDICT This book is truly a visual and informational feast. While it is an excellent addition to science units on astronomy, it is also a useful mentor text for developing graphic literacy. Recommended for enjoyable reading, browsing, and discussing. Be the first reader to comment. Comment Policy: • Don't use obscene, profane, or vulgar language. As low as $12/month
sightlossAN alarming case of unregulated stem cell treatment for macular degeneration in the US went wrong recently, causing blindness and leading to increased interest in the disease. What is macular degeneration? Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is a degenerative retinal eye disease that causes progressive loss of central vision. It affects the macula, the part of the retina that enables our most acute and detailed vision for tasks such as reading, driving, recognising faces and watching television. Is there anything that makes you more likely to get it? According to the World Health Organisation the only established modifiable risk factor is smoking. People who smoke more than double their risk of developing AMD. Apart from quitting smoking, can you do anything to prevent it? Various studies indicate a link between eating a healthy diet rich in antioxidants, particularly carotenoids, lutein, zeaxanthin, beta-carotene and vitamins C and E in reduced risk of macular degeneration. Experts believe they can have a positive effect as they work to neutralise potentially cell-damaging molecules called ‘free radicals’ which are thought to harm the eye’s lens and macular. What are the treatment options? The stem cell treatment we mentioned earlier is experimental and has not been FDA approved, so is risky. But there are other approved options such as anti-angiogenic drugs, laser therapy and surgery. The earlier you get a diagnosis of AMD, the greater the chance that treatment will help, so make sure you visit the optician every year if you’re over 65 and that your eye test includes testing for AMD. Specsavers Opticas are currently offering free eye tests. Visit to find your nearest store and book.
Maritime History of the Great Lakes ERIE BELLE’s Last Ball: Schooner Days CCLXI (261) Toronto Telegram (Toronto, ON), 10 Oct 1936 Full Text ERIE BELLE's Last Ball Schooner Days CCLXI (261) WHEN the Erie Belle lay up in the Northern docks near the old, Queen's Wharf here one winter at the close of the nineteenth century, it looked very much as if her end and the century's were going to coincide. By this time the little golden bells at her trucks, which once made music as she curtsied to the sea, had long lost their tongues. Her bridal robe of white which had clothed her from waterline to fore-top — even her anchor stocks and lower foremast had been white — had vanished beneath successive coats of coal dust, grain dust, iron ore dust, harbor grime, and blistered black paint. The sky blue riband, which once girdled her at the deck level, and terminated in graceful scrolls around the three big golden bells depicted across her transom, had vanished. A lead-color stripe now marked her humped covering board and matched the lead-color paint of her underbody below the black upperworks. Her port quarter had sagged until the yawlboat davit on the taffrail on that side was two feet lower than the starboard one. Still she crossed three yards on her stout tree-like foremast, relics of the days when she was known as a "barque." Topgallant and royal yards had gone, but what she had left, the fore yard and upper and lower topsail yards, qualified her to boast, if she felt like boasting, that she was the last of the square-riggers. She also retained the quintupled headstays which had entitled her to distinction as the only vessel with five jibs. The point, and the naming of these quints had been good for an argument in every waterfront bar in the thirty years of the Erie Belle's existence. She had gravitated to Lake Ontario after ranging the Great Lakes. On Lake Ontario the coal trade was the only thing left for her, and the Erie Belle could no longer carry coal profitably. The rate had dropped to twenty cents a ton and 550 tons was all she could stagger under now. The time had been when she could walk away with two hundred more. One hundred and ten dollars a trip, from Oswego to the Toronto Waterworks, would not pay the wages of four men, a captain, mate and cook, and the tug-bills at each end, to say nothing of the groceries. It looked as though the Erie Bell's was through. But Capt. Donald Manson, nicknamed Roaring Daniel by generation of lake sailors, last square-bearded master of the last square-rigger was not through. He had sailed out of Port Hope for fifty years, seen the lumber trade come and the grain trade go, and the coal trade follow. Steam he had no use for. Nor square sails either, for like most lake sailors he preferred fore-and-afters. There were always dozens of schooners on the lakes for, every "barque" or "brig," even when the square-riggers were in their prime. Roaring Daniel accepted the double-topsail yards of the Erie Belle, as he accepted her five jibs and her drooped quarter. They were all in her, long before he got her in her. declining years, and he wasn't going to let them beat him. Nor the vanishing coal trade either. While the Erie Belle floated he would make her sail, and find something for her to do. A big plant had been established at Schlosser Dock, near Niagara Falls, N.Y., first of a flock of industries to disfigure the natural beauties of the Niagara gorge. Roaring Daniel pondered the possibilities. There was lots of pulpwood in New Brunswick. He had learned that when he was trading from Port Hope to Quebec with the Caroline Marsh, with cargoes of staves, when both he and she forty years younger. Poor old Carrie! She had laid her bones on the beach at Oswego, in 1891, but he was still going strong. Why not take the Erie Belle to New Brunswick, load her with pulpwood, bring her home, and sell it at Niagara Falls? She'd carry three hundred and fifty cords, maybe more. Say three hundred and fifty. If it could be bought at $2.50 a cord and sold at $5 there would be $2.50 a cord "freight" or profit. Why, that would be—and the stub of a lead-pencil played tricks with $875, and whispered that even if it wasn't all profit it was as much as eight loads of coal up Lake Ontario would yield — if he could get them — and they wouldn't be all profit either, nor, anything like it. She had gone in the hole last year on coal cargoes … So the Erie Belle fitted out for her twenty-seventh season. Capt. Manson brought up with him from Port Hope for the purpose Slabline Charley, the only man left in these parts who knew how to fit out a square-rigger. On the Toronto waterfront they picked up a gang of old fore-and-afters, and soon had all the patched and coal-dusty canvas bent, including the square upper and lower topsails, with their tangle of braces, lifts, ties, buntlines, clew-garnets, brails, slablines, downhaulers, head-ropes, foot-ropes, stirrups, flemish-horses, and the whole menagerie of their gear; to say nothing of the five jibs with their disputed names and double sheets. Soon after the spring ice left the Bay the Erie Belle spread her dusky wings and followed it. Capt. Manson was enterprising. He knew he would need ballast in the boisterous Gulf of St. Lawrence, before he could load his cargo, so he first put into Oswego, at the foot of the lake, and got them to dump five cars of coal into the Erie Belle's hatches. Though the coal was cheap quality, the investment in 250 tons of it made an enormous gap in the Erie Belle's bank credit. Still, coal was always money, whether on the trestle or in the hold, and salable anywhere, any time. The cargo just brought the Erie Belle down to good sailing lines, but left her light enough to run all the rapids of the St. Lawrence except the last ones, at Lachine. Here the canal lock dropped her neatly down to Montreal, and the river current carried her in short order to Quebec. She was thus well on her way in the first fortnight. At Quebec the first snag was struck. The harbor office or the customs wouldn't give her a clearance for the Lower Gulf because she had no freshwater tanks. All her life the Erie Belle had dipped overside all the fresh water she wanted for her crew — sometimes too much. A scuttle-butt at the galley door had been the only container required, because there was "always lots more where that came from," as we say on the lakes. But below Quebec, with the tide making the river water brackish, and the Atlantic Ocean ahead, it was different. So Daniel had to purchase two large empty rum puncheons and fill them before getting his clearance, and while the crew approved heartily of the improved flavor of their drinking water his billfold looked thin and weak after the subtraction of another $25. For, of course, the cheapest kind of empty barrel was priceless on the Quebec waterfront when it was learned that someone had to have it. However, the old "barque"—she was really a three-masted topsail schooner — ploughed on down the river and down the gulf, and, Daniel being a good navigator, made the mouth of the Mirimichi in New Brunswick with part of the first month still ahead of her. After some exploration he located the Snowball Pulp Mills, arranged to buy 350 cords of pulpwood, and hauled alongside the company's wharf. They took off the hatches and began to hoist the coal out by the horse-and-bucket method, which prevailed at that time even at the Toronto Waterworks. "Wot's that?" inquired a mill foreman, as the first bucket was dumped. "Oh," said Daniel, "that's a bit of ballast I threw in. I was thinking maybe I could make a deal with your boss to take it in part trade for the cargo I'm to load." "But wot is it?" asked the foreman. "Coal, you color-blind omadhaun, A-l American coal, grand stuff for the furnaces of your mill." "Coal? What's that? And what for would we buy ballast to burn when we're busy night and day burning up the slabs and sawdust as it is to get rid of them?" "Well," said Daniel, patiently, "you try a scuttleful of this coal in your stove. I suppose you don't know what a scuttle is? Well, bring a pail and fill it and take it home and burn it and tell me what you think of it." Next morning the foreman came around early. "You're right," said he, "the stuff does burn. At any rate it gets red hot like any other stone, when you heat it up. But nobody in this country would buy it when they can get all the slabs and edgings they "can burn for the hauling. And the boss says, captain, you can't leave it on the wharf you know. You'll have to haul it away from here because it's against the law to dump ballast into the water." Then Roaring Daniel roared louder than all the lions when Ahasuerus was living forever, but it was no good. He had to pay for the cartage and storage of the coal and agree to pay more to an agent to sell it for him if, as, and when he could. Meantime he had been told where he could load the pulp. It was a couple of miles away, up a tidal creek, and thither the Erie Belle was hauled, by the slew and heavy process of warping, her crew running lines from bank to bank and heaving them in by walking the capstan round. When she got there they found that there was only seven feet depth in the creek even at high water. As she was drawing four feet light, with her centre board up, and would load down eleven or twelve feet with a full cargo, it meant she would stay there for all time. Daniel roared again and they found him another berth, and the Erie Belle had to warp back into it. And after the first month was gone and second had commenced to go she was piled with pulpwood to the height of the upper deadeyes and the "XII." draught mark on the sternpost was wet. She was never built to load to twelve feet, but the hogging of her quarter through the process of age made her long in the legs. So Daniel prepared to sail home. And then what happened? Next week, gentle reader, will try to tell. "In reading the article about vessels in The Telegram on Saturday last, and noticing the name of the Wanderer, owned by Captain Wright, Port Hope, Ont., I decided to drop you a line," says friend Albert Hacker. "About two years ago my sister died, who was Mrs. George Wright, and in looking over some papers left behind, I found a list of many vessels that sailed out of Port Hope from April 1st, 1874, to Dec. 30th, 1875. My sister's husband owned and sailed the tug Albert Wright, and his business was to tow in the many vessels sailing out of that port at that time. The Albert Wright was built by my father, the late Henry Hacker, who carried on a large shipbuilding business in that town for nearly 50 years; he also built, or re-built, all the vessels sailing out of Port Hope, among which was the Wanderer. "The following are the names of the vessels sailing out of Port Hope from April 1st. 1874, to Dec. 30th, 1875, as per this book: GaribaldiGrace MurrayH. M. Carter Great WesternTranchmontagneS. Neelon D. FreemanE. K. HartH.P. Murray AuroraWandererMinnie Blakely Caroline MarshJ. A. MacdonaldOctavia North StarRockawayH. Butler Two BrothersS. EdsallMary Ann Lydon MariaEnterpriseVilie de Mar AnnetteP. BennettLive Oak CavalierE. W. RathburnAriel Annie CraigEliza WhiteFlora Carveth British QueenC. GearingBermuda Lady MacdonaldAnnie MinnesJ. R. Benson J. StevensonAcaciaVienna Queen of the NorthGovernorN. Hunter Olive BranchActiveTwilight Eliza QuinlanLewis RossKate W. T. GreenwoodForest QueenMary Grover CorisandeJenny LindFlorence AlbatrosS. & J. CollierCaledonia GladstoneMagdalaElsie Stewart Thanks, friend Albert. Many of these vessels I knew and some are new to me. We'll have something more about several of them soon. The Erie Belle about 1898. Snider, C. H. J. Media Type Item Type Date of Publication 10 Oct 1936 Language of Item Geographic Coverage • New Brunswick, Canada Latitude: 47.08341 Longitude: -65.36543 • Ontario, Canada Latitude: 43.9446826314544 Longitude: -78.2924133007812 • Quebec, Canada Latitude: 46.82011 Longitude: -71.20799 • Ontario, Canada Latitude: 43.65011 Longitude: -79.3829 Maritime History of the Great Lakes WWW address Powered by / Alimenté par VITA Toolkit ERIE BELLE’s Last Ball: Schooner Days CCLXI (261)
Definitions for "Immunomodulator" An herb that supports the action of the immune system (e.g., astragalus, echinacea, garlic, lomatium, Oregon grape, osha). A treatment that may help rebuild a damaged immune system. A type of medication, sometimes also known as Chemotherapy medication, that suppresses certain specific parts of the immune system to achieve disease control. Such medications are typically used in treating autoimmune diseases, cancer and organ transplant rejection. a substance that stimulates or represses an immune response A substance that alters the body’s immune response. an agent or process capable of modifying or influencing the function of the immune system. Immune modulators include cytokines (e.g., IL-2, gamma interferon) and broad-acting agents. See also immunotherapy.
My previous article described the basic theory behind follicular growth.With that basic theory we can look at what is can happen when hormones and receptors don’t work properly. The following information comes from the article “The reproductive phenotype in polycystic ovary syndrome” by R Jeffrey Chang.I have changed some of the wording to simplify concepts, but if you want to read the article the in its’ originality go to: 1) Follicles Unable to Fully Mature. Normal follicle development involves pre-antral growth of the primordial follicle (containing an immature oocyte surrounded by a single layer of flat granulosa cells) to the more advanced stages of primary and secondary follicle development.During the transition between stages there is an increasing oocyte maturity and greater numbers of granulosa cells. In PCOS, normal follicular growth occurs up to the mid-antral stage of development, after which maturation ceases and the follicles begin to degenerate as granulosa cells die and dwindle in number. As the follicle starts to die, there is progressive accumulation of follicular fluid that results in the expansion of it. As the follicle enlarges, the granulosa cell layer of the follicle becomes progressively degenerative while the entire structure collects fluid and appears as a thin-walled cyst. Despite these degenerative changes, granulosa cells remain active and produce significant steroids (ie: fluids) until they eventual die. The theca cell layer that surrounds the follicle is considerably larger than that found in normal follicles and is responsible for increased androgen production, which results in more fluid to collect in the follicle. Why PCOS follicles cannot fully mature and cells starts die is not completely understood.It could be related to improper signaling of cellular death or receptors for follicular growth are missing or not functioning. 2) Too Many Pre-antral and Antral Follicles Another distinction of PCO is the increase in the numbers of growing pre-antral and antral follicles compared with those of the normal ovary. Little is known of the process that leads to multiple follicle recruitment. Whether the ovaries are endowed with a greater number of follicles, whether the rate of entry into the growing pool is increased or whether the rate of programmed cell death is decelerated has not been determined. Recent studies have suggested that anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) might be, in part, responsible for the increased follicle population in PCO. AMH, an exclusive product of granulosa cells of growing pre-antral and small-antral follicles, seems to control the advancement of follicle maturation.Its expression in growing pre-antral follicles of PCO is decreased compared with that of normal ovaries, resulting in less signaling to stop the advancement of too many follicles.Interestingly, women with PCOS have circulating AMH levels that are elevated compared with those of normal women; however, this might reflect the increased numbers of growing pre-antral and small-antral follicle population in PCO. 3.Problems with Androgens A.Defective Theca Cells Currently, evidence suggests that theca cells of women with PCOS have a defect and produce excessive amounts of androgens. Theca cells have been found to over produce ovarian androgens due to increased enzyme activities compared with theca cells from normal women.These results are consistent with studies in women with PCOS that demonstrated enhanced responsiveness to key androgen enzymes to stimulation by FSH/LH.Furthermore, it has been shown that, in PCOS, the response to human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) was far more sensitive compared with normal women following suppression of FSH/LH by a GnRH agonists. This finding supports the idea that there is an abnormality in theca cells producing excessive amounts of androgens. B.Too Much LH Studies have shown women with PCOS that LH-induced theca cells produce androgens in equal amount to the secretion of LH.Research has found elevated LH levels positively correlate with increased circulating testosterone. In addition, in women who have PCOS and are treated with GnRH agonists, elevated LH levels are reduced or eliminated with a corresponding reduction in circulating androgen levels and hair growth.Increased secretion of LH might thus be pivotal in amplifying the production of excess androgen. C.Normal LH, Excessive Androgens and Insulin In some women with PCOS, serum LH levels are normal, which suggests that other factors can contribute to excessive androgen production. The most notable of these factors is insulin. Receptors for insulin have been localized to the theca cells in both normal women and patients with PCOS, plus insulin appears to active receptors in the ovary, besides the follicle.Studies of normal human theca tissue have demonstrated that insulin is capable of enhancing androgen production in response to LH as well as independently stimulating androgen production from other parts of the ovary. In theca cells from women with PCOS, insulin was shown to aggressively increase androgen production. Hyperinsulinemia is, nevertheless, linked to hyperandrogenemia in women with PCOS. In such women, hyperinsulinemia (induced either directly or indirectly) has not been associated with increases in serum androgen levels.The reduction of hyperinsulinemia in women with PCOS who are treated with insulin-lowering drugs is, however, associated with significant decreases of serum androgen levels without corresponding changes in LH levels; this observation indirectly suggests a role for insulin in LH-stimulated androgen synthesis.
Llansteffan Castle Llansteffan castle sits on a much older Neolithic promontory fort, proving Llansteffan has been inhabited, and perhaps of strategic importance, since the New Stone Age. The hill's summit can only be reached from one side, and the hill where the castle/fort stands commands the entrance to the River Towy (unlike today, the hill would have been stripped of trees to make foot soldiers vulnerable to attack by archers). The original earthworks can still be seen and were used as part of the modern castle's defence system--the castle proper rests within the earthwork rings. Llansteffan castle was built by the Normans after 1100 as part of their invasion of Wales. The castle was captured by Rhys ap Gruffydd in 1146 against the forces of Maurice FitzGerald and his brother William FitzGerald, Lord of Llanstephan and Lord of Emlyn respectively and effectively the leaders of the Norman settlers of the region. The castle was later retaken by the Normans. Llywelyn the Great recaptured the castle for the Welsh in 1215. The castle was taken and captured by the forces of Owain Glyndwr and held until 1403 when it was taken back by Englishman Sir John Pennes, who was shortly himself captured but back in charge of the castle by 1408. It is rumoured that a secret passage leads from the castle to the nearby Plas Mansion. As castles go, Llansteffan Castle is fairly simple and somewhat minor, and there is extensive damage done to all sections. Nevertheless, its worth a visit for the magnificent views over the Towy estuary. Llansteffan Castle marble_gold Llansteffan Castle castle-back Llansteffan Castle Steffan-Castle
Creatine has long been associated with strength training, but could endurance athletes benefit from this supplement too? Creatine offers both benefits and disadvantages for cyclists. For more information on nutrition check out Ask A Cycling Coach Ep 250 What is Creatine? Creatine is an organic compound derived from three amino acids and stored in your muscles as creatine phosphate. The phosphate part is essential because it plays a role in regenerating adenosine triphosphate (ATP). As a cyclist, you can think of ATP as the source of your endurance. ATP is the molecule that fuels your cells by breaking one of its three phosphate bonds, which is then converted to adenosine diphosphate (ADP). You have a limited supply of ATP, but the good news is that your body recharges it. One of the ways it does this is by transferring phosphate from creatine phosphate to ADP. So creatine effectively enhances your ability to use ATP for a slightly longer time. Ways to Get Creatine Your body naturally makes creatine on its own. In general, most people carry about 120g of it in their bodies. In addition to what you usually create, you can ingest small amounts of creatine by eating meat. Red meat, pork, poultry, and fish are the most abundant natural sources. Another way to increase creatine is through supplementation. Most supplements come in the form of creatine monohydrate powder and provide a convenient way to up your intake. Most brands recommend a loading of up to 20g per day, then reducing that amount after a week. It is important to remember that people react to supplementation differently. Creatine supplementation for one cyclist, may not work for you. A good rule of thumb is to make sure your diet is healthy and balanced before adding supplementation. In addition to this, if you compete in events, you’ll want to find a supplement that has been certified by the NSF International or Informed Sport. Benefits of Creatine for Cyclists Since it helps recharge your ATP stores, is there a benefit in supplementing creatine for cyclists? It depends on your goals. Creatine’s effects are measurable, but they occur in an extremely rapid timeframe. That means it can work well for some things and not so well for others. Several studies have concluded that creatine supplementation is effective at increasing muscle mass and strength through resistance training. Specifically, when strength training with 3-5 sets of 5-10 reps. So if you are focusing on weightlifting during the offseason, creatine might be the right choice for you. Another way it can help is by improving a single maximal sprint effort. This means that cyclists that put in one short and massive effort could benefit. These groups would include track sprinters and gravity riders. In spite of the short power benefit, there are some downsides that you should consider as well. Downsides of Creatine for Cyclists Generally considered a safe supplement, creatine for cyclists offers little upside and a noteworthy drawback. The biggest downside to creatine supplementation is weight gain. Most studies observed weight increases ranging from 1-6 pounds compared to the placebo group. The increased weight usually cancels out the gains in sprint power. This is especially true when the efforts are longer or head uphill. Additionally, creatine does not improve sprint performance at the end of endurance cycling exercise. In that case, the supplement wouldn’t help a sprint finish at the end of a road race or crit. A 2018 study found that loading creatine and carbohydrates had no significant effect on time trial performance. Lastly, there is little benefit in taking creatine to reduce muscle damage or soreness. So, if you want to increase your muscle mass and strength, creatine may be right for you. Especially if the weight gain won’t affect your performance. For most, creatine for cyclists offers little rewards with a significant downside. However, as with many supplements, the effects of creatine can vary greatly from person to person. Subscribe to the PodcastTry TrainerRoad Share this Post Jesse Fortson
Mosiah 7-10: “In the Strength of the Lord” (April 27-May 3) Zeniff was an inspiring leader with righteous goals, but he allowed his idealism to blind him to risks that he should have taken more seriously. Two generations later, Zeniff’s grandson, King Limhi, provided steady leadership to his people during a period of captivity. Eventually, they were found and led to safety by a search party from Zarahemla, led by a man named Ammon. This week, we are studying two chapters about King Limhi and Ammon (Mosiah 7-8) and then rewinding to hear the story of Zeniff (Mosiah 9-10). Here are some of the major themes from those chapters: Limhi and Ammon Leave a Reply You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change ) Google photo Twitter picture Facebook photo Connecting to %s Create a website or blog at Up ↑ %d bloggers like this:
I am trying to learn data analysis and machine learning by trying out some problems. I found a competition "House prices" which is actually a playground competition. Since I am very new to this field, I got confused after exploring the data. The data has 81 columns out of which 1 is the target column which is the house value. This data contains multiple columns where majority of values are "NaN". When I ran: nulls = data.isnull().sum() nulls[nulls > 0] This shows the columns with missing values: LotFrontage 259 Alley 1369 MasVnrType 8 MasVnrArea 8 BsmtQual 37 BsmtCond 37 BsmtExposure 38 BsmtFinType1 37 BsmtFinType2 38 Electrical 1 FireplaceQu 690 GarageType 81 GarageYrBlt 81 GarageFinish 81 GarageQual 81 GarageCond 81 PoolQC 1453 Fence 1179 MiscFeature 1406 At this point I am totally lost and I don't know how to get rid of these "NaN" values. Any help would be appreciated. You can use the DataFrame.fillna function to fill the NaN values in your data. For example, assuming your data is in a DataFrame called df, df.fillna(0, inplace=True) will replace the missing values with the constant value 0. You can also do more clever things, such as replacing the missing values with the mean of that column: df.fillna(df.mean(), inplace=True) or take the last value seen for a column: df.fillna(method='ffill', inplace=True) Filling the NaN values is called imputation. Try a range of different imputation methods and see which ones work best for your data. \| improve this answer \| \| • $\begingroup$ Thanks for the response. The dataset also consists of string values. I think df.fillna() will work on float or integer values. Any pointers on converting string values to numeric values? $\endgroup$ – Ahmed Dhanani Dec 26 '16 at 13:07 • 1 $\begingroup$ Ah, I had assumed the data was numeric for some reason. By string values, do you mean categorical data i.e. strings from a particular set of values? Then, you can use scikit-learn's LabelEncoder. Natural language, on the other hand, is more difficult to deal with. Bag-of-words is probably the easiest to think about, but have a look at these options. $\endgroup$ – timleathart Dec 26 '16 at 22:01 # Taking care of missing data from sklearn.preprocessing import Imputer imputer = imputer.fit(X[:, 1:3]) suppose the name of my array is $X$ and I want to take care of missing data in columns indexed $1$ and $2$ by replacing it with mean. Imputer is a great class to do this from sklearn library \| improve this answer \| \| Your Answer
Why was it not enough for Zacchaeus that Jesus came into his house? Why did Zacchaes feel that he needed to pay back everything and 'reverse' his sins? Luke 19:8 Clarify Share Report Asked January 30 2014 Mini Cosima Conen Mini Sung Park Father to 4 Boys & "Assiduous Contemplater" of the Word I think the question, "Why was it not enough..." presumes that Zacchaeus had to do certain things to receive forgiveness/salvation. The passage seems to show that Zacchaeus' regeneration seems to take place from the moment he felt the need to see Jesus even by climbing up the sycamore tree, which is an undignified act of a grown man. Jesus had to notice the changing of Zacchaeus' heart and told him, "I must stay at your house today". Notice Zacchaeus "came down and received him JOYFULLY" (v. 6) a clear sign of a changed heart. So when Zacchaeus declared that he would give half of his possessions and repay fourfold to those whom he defrauded, it was the fruit of his faith rather than the prerequisite. Neither charity nor honest living, as declared by Zacchaeus, is enough to earn salvation but only by repentance and faith in Christ alone. January 30 2014 1 response Vote Up Share Report Add your Answer All answers are REVIEWED and MODERATED. Please ensure your answer MEETS all our guidelines. What makes a good answer? ▼ 1. Adhere to the eBible Statement of Faith. 2. Your answer should be complete and stand-alone. 5. For more info see The Complete Guide to eBible 1. 4000 characters remaining
As the Volvo Ocean Race six boats approached 3°N of the Equator on Leg 6, they all launched drifter buoys into the Ocean to capture a range of data that will help scientists understand how our Oceans function. We currently have very little scientific information from some of the Oceans the boats pass through, particularly in equatorial regions. The information is being used by the U.S-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) so scientists have a better understanding of those weather patterns and also the impacts of climate change. Following Turn the Tide on Plastic’s deployment of the buoy, skipper Dee Caffari said: “Deploying these drifter buoys forms an important part of the Scientific Programme. “The probe activates once it hits the water transmitting data on swell, wind strength, currents and sea temperature and contributes to our better understanding of how our blue planet impacts upon weather patterns.” Oceans are the big “weather machines” of the planet with water temperature influencing whether or not a hurricane will form and how strong and persistent it will be. Anne-Cecile Turner, Sustainability Programme Leader for the Volvo Ocean Race, said: “If you’ve ever checked the weather forecast then you’re one of millions of people who benefits from drifter buoys and the information they gather. “Our boats are passing through parts of our Oceans about which we have very little data so through our Science Programme, the Volvo Ocean Race is contributing to an expansion of that data knowledge. “Globally, our seas are being affected by a range of impacts from ocean acidification, temperature rise and plastic pollution. Through the Race we are raising awareness about the issues and exploring the solutions to these problems with a focus on plastic pollution.” Drifting buoys are the primary source of information on surface temperature and provide the best coverage, compared to other systems, to help understand more about the oceans. The data is transmitted in near-real time, via iridium satellite, to improve marine forecasts and is especially valuable in predicting rapidly intensifying storms that could otherwise catch seafarers off-guard. The raw data, collected by the Volvo Ocean Race drifter buoys, is made available, open source, online through the operations centre of the Global Drifter Programme, housed at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami. During four of the Volvo Ocean Race legs, a total of 28 drifter buoys from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration drifter program are being deployed by each of the vessels, at crucial oceanic regions to measure sea surface temperature and ocean current velocities. Rick Lumpkin, director of the Global Drifter Program at NOAA, said: “The Volvo Ocean Race is providing NOAA with invaluable data from some of the world’s most isolated places which is helping improve our oceanographic knowledge. “This will be used by a range of experts around the world to better understand the oceans and any changes to weather patterns.”
If traveling to the southern USA, the Caribbean, and South American countries over semester break, be prepared for the risk of Zika infection in both males and females. Facts about Zika: • Zika primarily spreads through infected mosquitoes. • You can get Zika through sex. • The best way to prevent Zika is to prevent mosquito bites. • New research suggests that Zika can be spread by sweat and tears.
#27 A look into the future It is the year 2528. Earth was so full of people that we built around the earth. We call this the earth shell. It is on the edge of the breathable atmosphere. All the materials we used were salvaged from material rich planets and space debree. We built a litteral shell around the earth where 30 billion people can live in. Only the elite 5 billion people can go to earth. The earths eco system is now controled from different stations on the earth shell, making the planet have the perfect heat or cold for that area. We started building on the earth shell as soon as we could safely travel and haul materials trough the universe, wich was is 2064. The first cargoshuttle was launched to start on the first buildings in space. Every government soon caught up and before you knew it earts shell was complete in 2144. In 80 years we made a suitable place for people to live in for over 30 bilion people. Because you can live anywhere in the shell. The shell is 1 kilometer wide, wich makes it easy to make rooms for everyone. In the shell is an ecosystem that is replicated from earth. And all our water is caught from space and waterhaulers. Waterhaulers take massive amounts of water from other planets and bring them to the earth shell. We figured out how to travel faster then the speed of light so traveling does not take very long. Something that is 300 lightyears away can be reached in 20 minutes. Wich makes it easy to reach other stations that are placed in outer space. These stations are used for scanning planets and meteors. They scan them for minerals and other usefull material. We will get orders to get the stuff we need to get and we get paid. Everyone one the earth shell has agreed to pay with a different kind of money. We do not have any physical money, that would take to many recourses. When we are born we get a chip implanted in our arm wich makes us a citizen of the earth shell. But the chip also allows us to store our currency. We call our currency shells because the place we live in is called earths shell. Our waste is used in our biosystem for fertilizer. And our fruits and vegitables are made in many greenrooms to sustain 35 billion people so there is never any major hunger on the earth shell. The governments are devided in 50 pieces on the earth shell. But there is only 1 government left on earth. They are called the elite government plan or EGP for short. The EGP decides what happens on the earth shell. And on earth researchers plan their plans and make new things. On earth it is like paradise now. No pollution. As cars are forbidden and used in the making of the earth shell. There are still some cars. But they float between the magnetic field of the earth and earths shell. And they are only for the people that can afford them. If you are born on earth you are most likely more lucky then if you are born on earths shell. On earth you can live like an earthling. And you can go cycling in the mountains or walk in a forest. This is not possible on the earth shell. Well… you can do some things like cycling. But it would never be anything like on earth. But it does not matter where you are born. You can look at earth from the earth shell and hear stories about how great it is there. You would want to go there when you grow up and work hard to get a place on earth. This is how they select the elite. You go trough a program when you are 15. If you are gifted, have a special ability or have worked your ass off to master a skill, you have a good chance of being accepted in the EGP. There are only 25.000 people accepted to earth each year. And only the best of the best are sellected to breath earths atmosphere. You can try your whole life to get to earth. So the hardest workers will get rewarded by going to earth for the rest of their life. The avarage age people become in this year is 125. But when people reach 100 they would still look fairly young. This is all because the food we produce is modified slightly to help people enjoy their lives longer. In 200 years it is expected that we can live until we are 175. When you are born on earth you have to prove that you are worthy of staying on earth. You have 25 years to show off your skill. Otherwise you are deported to the earth shell and you would be given a good life there. Nevertheless most newborns on earth show promise trough genetics. The total count of the humans is 35 bilion now. We are planning to expand our race into the galaxy by making massive eco systems in space. Enormous cubes with a diameter of 500km by 500km. They would be like mini earths. With the same systems as the earth shell. If you have any more questions on how the universe works now, i would be glad to tell you in another mail. But for now i have to get back to my research. Time traveling is not an easy task when it’s incomplete. 3 thoughts on “#27 A look into the future Leave a Reply WordPress.com Logo Google photo Twitter picture Facebook photo Connecting to %s
Rio Norte From OpenGeofiction Encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search River-system of Latina The Rio Norte (northern river) is the greatest, but not the longest river in Latina. The river flow roughly in north to southern direction over 700 km and mounded in Latina (Cidudad) in the sea. His first part in the north is a long valley. Then the river flow through the canyon of the Porta Ferra and along the city of Mendoza. In Latina (Cidudad) he is broad nearly 2 km. At his side run the motorway # 4 from Latina (Cidudad) and the hi-speed-railway line # 4, both from Latina (Cidudad) to the northern frontier. North of the Porta Ferra are only two greater rivers, which flow in the river Norte, both near Applegarden in short distance north of the Porta Ferra - the Rio Esquedra (left river) from the west and the Rio Derecha (right river) from the east. South of Porta Ferra the Montes Griseldis in the west makes the watershed to the Rio Guimbras. This mountains are too the boundary between the provinces of Rio Norte and Guimbras. From the Rio Norte to the Montes Griseldis only are 20 to 35 km, so at the western side of Rio Norte only the Rio Mendoza has place for his valley. Most of water to the Rio Norte becomes the river from the eastern side. The watershed to the east are the Sierra Grande, the Great Range. From north to the south this rivers are: • Rio San Giovanni with Rio Once • Rio Bravo, runing through Givullion and Lupo Blanco and taking the water from the seas in Mil Ojes. At Guvillion is only a small range, that divided the Rio Bravo from Rio San Giovanni - from river to river are only 5 km. • Rio Oriente, the greatest river, that flow in the Rio Norte. Three rivers come together in Topahappan and from there it is the Rio Oriente. Greatest river flowing in the Rio Oriente is the Rio Schnewittchen, flowing throgh Gentofte and near Schneewittchen in the Rio Oriente • Rio Henares with the Rio Forlan South of the Rio Henares and the Rio Schneewittchen is the watershed to the Rio Saguset, which flow at Saguset in the sea. This watershed is not hight and at some places undefined in the great plain of Llanura los Gauados.
Our History: Communion Tokens Our History: Communion Tokens Ken Rae, our Church Historian, has been working over the last few years to document more about the Old Kirk and it’s history. Many of you reading this will be aware that, in common with the other Reformed Churches, the Church of Scotland recognises two Sacraments; Baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Communion). In the Old Kirk our practice has been to hold Communion services quarterly (d.v.) and you may recall that prior to these services your district Elder would visit and deliver your “Communion Cards”. This led to the belief that these cards were a necessary requirement for entrance to the service. The Church of Scotland require various statistics to be gathered annually and in practical terms they were a means to determine how many members attended communion over the year. Some years ago the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland decreed that the issue of communion cards was no longer required and as a result many churches, including our own ceased to do so. Historically however the issuing of a paper based notification in the form of a card was not the first style of such reminders and the reason for their issue was for a somewhat different purpose rather that statistically. It was John Calvin in the late 16th century who saw the usefulness of using lead tokens as proof that people had been properly instructed prior to coming to the Lord’s Table. The French Reformed Church was the first to put Calvin’s suggestion into practice and it later spread to Scotland probably by John Knox and others who had observed the practice on their visits to the Continent. As well as indicating the communicants’ right to partake in the Lord’s Supper it is likely that the tokens also served to safeguard the Reformed churches from spies at a time when church meetings were illegal. The Scots who came in large numbers to Ireland in the 17th century brought with them not only their own ministers but the use of tokens as a means of regulating communion. The earliest tokens were made of lead but others were of tin, brass or white metal usually by a local blacksmith or silversmith. The tokens generally either bear the initials of the church or of the minister or some other unique feature. Good examples of communion tokens from Presbyterian churches in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Australia have survived. Communion tokens were commonly used in Presbyterian churches across the world from the Reformation through to the nineteenth century. Anyone attending church who was in possession of a token was known to have proved their spiritual fitness to attend communion. In Lasswade, Midlothian, in 1710, those that were given tokens were “…fund weill instructit in the Belief, the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Command”. Those about to take communion were seated at a table which was separated by a wooden paling from the rest of the church. The table was guarded by two elders who were responsible for ensuring that only those with a token were allowed to sit there. When a large number of people attended, there could be more than one sitting at the table. Tokens were stamped with the number of the “sitting” the member was required to attend, and the sittings could be linked to the social status of the communicant. Those of the “lower orders” could have to attend in the “wee sma’ hours” whereas those considered more respectable attended later in the day. The earliest tokens were usually made of lead, copper or tin, and cast in a mould or struck with a punch in a variety of shapes and sizes. The collection in Dunblane Museum has many rectangular, square and circular tokens but there are also more unusual shapes such as hexagonal, oval or heart-shaped. Early tokens tend to be plain with very little information on them but a date and initials representing either the minister or the parish name. Later tokens started to show their connection with the communion when biblical texts started to appear on them such as “Do this in remembrance of me” and “Let a man examine himself”. Symbols including the vine, lily, sun, fish etc. also began to appear. The supply of tokens was the responsibility of the minister acting in conjunction with the Kirk Session. Tokens were made for use in one church and not intended to circulate. (ref the information for this article was obtained from the Dunblane Museum webpage) Old Kirk
"African-Americans read their own collective experience into the agony and exaltation of Jesus. The story of the Christ child, blessed by God yet born in the shadow of poverty and violence, was their story. Jesus' humble birth in antiquity signified the humble origins of African peoples in modernity. In his impoverished entry into the world, Jesus turned the tables on earthly valuations. Fulfilling the promise of the oracle that celebrates his advent in a stable, the hills of the privileged and the valleys of the humble are inverted, marking the beginning of a new era." Allen Dwight Callahan, "The Talking Book: African-Americans and the Bible" Abraham Lincoln marshaled the power of the Declaration of Independence to challenge slavery, and every year the Christmas story overturns our daily understandings of power and privilege. A newborn king and savior appears among us, born to a most unlikely family, in a most unlikely venue, in the least promising of circumstances. Callahan's remarkable book, published this year by Yale University Press, describes the rich and intense relationship between the Bible and the African-American imagination. But even more powerfully, it suggests — without making the case directly — that the reading of the Christian tradition offered by African-Americans is as close as any to the authentic meaning of Christianity. A Harvard-trained New Testament scholar and ordained Baptist minister, Callahan traces the role of "the talking book" (the phrase belongs to Henry Louis Gates Jr., lead editor of The Norton Anthology of African-American Literature) from slavery to civil rights and from Gospel music to hip-hop. Callahan makes his case in the book's first sentences: "African-Americans are the children of slavery in America. And the Bible, as no other book, is the book of slavery's children." It is hard, I think, for anyone nurtured in the Christian or Jewish traditions to dispute Callahan's claim that the Bible "privileges those without privilege and honors those without honor" and that it has a "penchant for bringing peripheral people to the center of history." "The God of holy scripture has made slaves no less than their masters in the divine image and likeness," Callahan writes. "The Apostle Paul had declared that master and slave were equal in God's sight. And in the book of Exodus, God had freed the ancient Hebrews from bondage in Egypt; the liberation of slaves had been God's will. These were ideas at least as revolutionary as any Jeffersonian proposition." All this might sound odd to members of two groups. Some on the left see religion as an "opiate of the masses" that offers the oppressed "pie in the sky when you die," in the words of the old song, by way of diverting them from rebellion against this world's injustices. Many on the right see Christianity demanding allegiance to conservatism, and there are a few who can't seem to distinguish between the scriptures and any given year's Republican Party platform. Callahan is alive to the fact that the Scriptures and the meaning of Christ's story have always been contested. Elijah Muhammad of the Black Muslims called the Bible "a Poison Book." Slave owners emphasized biblical passages calling upon slaves to submit to their masters. "According to the testimony of slaves themselves," Callahan writes, "obedience was the first commandment of the Christianity preached to them." Yet the Bible's subversive message could not be successfully blocked. Frederick Douglass, the ex-slave and abolitionist giant, spoke of two religions called Christianity, "the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land" and "the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ." Many years later, W.E.B. DuBois, a founder of the NAACP, called Jesus "the greatest of religious rebels." And no story has played as large a role in African-American faith as Exodus. Introducing Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963 to a Jewish audience as a modern prophet, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, declared: "The exodus began but is far from having been completed. In fact, it was easier for the children of Israel to cross the Red Sea than for a Negro to cross certain university campuses." Callahan cites the words of an old Negro spiritual: Poor little Jesus boy Made him to be born in a manger. World treated him so mean Treat me mean, too. The poor, the outcasts, the slaves: If Jesus spoke to anyone, it was to them, and they have responded to him through the centuries. The African-American religious tradition is a blessing to all because it requires us to remember that Jesus of Nazareth really did revolutionize the world. Dionne is a columnist for the Washington Post. (postchat@aol.com)
Home » History » Who Was Aleister Crowley…Occultist, Satanist, and British Spy? by Lochlan McClelland An otherwise auspicious birth in 1875 brought forth into the world Aleister Crowley who defied all acceptable standards of his time. His arrogance matched his defiance and bordered on grandiose. He founded the religion of Thelema, practiced sex magic, and may have worked as a double agent for the British. Based on the legends about Crowley, it would be easy to sum him up as the perverse, drug-addicted, satanic, wickedest man in the world. However, it seems that he was much more than any one of those things. Exactly who was Aleister Crowley – the person who could evoke respect and devotion in some people but disgust, hatred, and fear in others? Aleister Crowley during his days at Cambridge Aleister Crowley during his days at Cambridge. Source: Mike McClaughry. Early Years Edward Alexander Crowley, better known as Aleister, was born in Warwickshire, England, on October 12, 1875. His parents were Edward and Emily Crowley, both devout Christians. His father was a preacher and raised Aleister as a Christian. In fact, Edward read to him and his mother from the Bible every day after breakfast. Thus, from a young age, Aleister was admittedly a Christian as well. Although Crowley adored his father, his relationship with his mother was difficult at best. She was exceedingly strict in a puritanical sense and called him “The Beast” whenever she was unhappy with his behavior. But he appeared to revel in this association rather than resent it. In fact, later in life, Crowley would refer to himself as “The Great Beast 666.” After his father died of tongue cancer, Crowley, only 11 years old at the time, found his oppressive home too much. He strayed from his Christian path beginning with rebellious behavior at his conservative Christian school. Around the age of 16, he began an intense spiral into deviancy. To affirm his explicit defiance, young Crowley was intimate with the maid at his house on his mother’s own bed. After the maid’s termination, this woman worked as a prostitute and became a raging homeless alcoholic. There is also an unsubstantiated claim that she ended up as a victim of Jack the Ripper. (Erkan). Aleister’s Large Inheritance Aleister’s father spent much of his time preaching the Bible to whoever would listen, but he was also a certified engineer. Edward had inherited a fortune from his father’s (Aleister’s grandfather) lucrative family-owned brewing company. The company, Crowley’s Alton Ales, has since closed its doors, but the bottles from its lager of years gone-by fetch a pretty penny on the antiques’ market. Edward saved his money in a trust for Aleister that he could access once he reached the age of twenty-one. Some sources say that the amount was £30,000, while others say it was £50,000 or even £100,000. His family’s network and wealth granted Aleister membership into some of London’s most exclusive fraternal clubs. By most standards, his inheritance should have been enough to set Aleister up for life. However, due to his lavish travel and spending, he exhausted the money before he was fifty. In 1899, Crowley moved to Scotland where he felt a deep spiritual connection to the place. He bought the Boleskine House on the famous lake, Loch Ness, to perform ceremonies in which he would summon angels. Although the house was only in his possession for fifteen years, it was a site of much of his writing. Esoteric Organizations Ordo Templis Orientis (O.T.O), originally began as an offshoot of Freemasonry. Although Crowley was not the founder, as many people think, the group admitted him in 1910. He subsequently held a number of high ranking positions throughout his life. Crowley’s ideas highly influenced the direction of the organization, and within two years, they elected him to control the English and Irish chapters. Crowley compiled his esoteric research and beliefs into a number of books that the clergy of the O.T.O. revered as a godsend. During his time in organizations like the O.T.O. and Order of the Golden Dawn, Crowley encountered much dissension. Part of his difficulty resulted from his arrogance and personality stemming from his need to demonstrate his defiance. However, his divergent libertine philosophies about homosexuality and morality were unacceptable for many people at the time. Additional issues about unfair promotions by senior members also proved problematic, and when he divulged the secrets of the Golden Dawn, they were outraged. Crowley also created a religion that he called Thelema. His brainchild, The Book of the Law, served as its holy text. The primary message of the writing is, Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. According to Crowley, this means that when a person acts in alignment with his true self or his true will, his expression in the world will be love and peace. Unfortunately, many people interpreted this to mean anything goes. He added, “Love is the law,” “Love under will.” Symbol of Thelema Crowley’s symbol of Thelema. Public domain. Crowley’s Thelema was an amalgamation of deep eastern philosophy blended with the magic of the Qabbalah and other western concepts. He also incorporated ideas from Tantric sex regarding altered states of consciousness and the use of an array of psychedelic drugs and sex for enlightenment. Family and Works While Crowley did lead a morally divergent lifestyle, some say that he was not all bad. One good thing he did was save his wife from an arranged marriage. Rose Edith Kelly was supposed to marry another man when Crowley asked her to elope. However, it soon became far more than a marriage of convenience when he fell in love with her. Both of them shared a fascination with the occult. They even honeymooned in Cairo and spent their wedding night in the King’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid. This marriage was, however, not a happy one. Although Rose gave Aleister two children, their oldest died of typhoid. Deeply affected, Crowley blamed Rose. Subsequently, the couple divorced in 1909 and she suffered severe bouts of alcoholism. Crowley with ex-wife Rose and daughter. Crowley with his ex-wife Rose and their daughter in 1910. Public domain. Although one might classify Crowley’s family life as turbulent, he wrote copiously during that time period and beyond. Most of his works are undoubtedly masterful. He crafted numerous books on various topics and complex alliteration and rhythmic patterns in his poetry. Additionally, he left behind many letters and journals. Scholars of Thelema still study these texts for meaning in the present day. Abbey of Thelema In 1920, the same year Hitler founded the Nazi party and a year after Mussolini established the Fascist party, Crowley rented a house in Cefalù on the island of Sicily in Italy. The old house perched on the side of a mountain in the middle of a grove of olives and offered a quiet and peaceful setting. Crowley turned the house into the Abbey of Thelema, where he and his disciples could practice yoga, meditation, sex magick, and other rituals. Images of the fresco Crowley painted at the Abbey of Thelema Crowley painted the inside of the temple area of the Abbey of Thelema. Few images remain. CC2.0 Inventati. Three years later, Mussolini kicked them out of the country for their occult activities and rumors that they had performed blood sacrifices (later, a woman would testify that they had killed a cat once during a ritual). The woman responsible for the immediate exposé had gone to the Abbey with her husband although she hated Crowley. After her husband died there from drinking contaminated river water, she told the media a variety of slanderous stories. One of those was that her husband died because he was forced to drink cat blood. Worldwide newspapers caught the sensational news and spread the tales of his “evil.” This coverage laid the foundation for many of the myths and rumors that would later spring up about Crowley’s avant-garde behavior. Aleister Crowley the Spy? Throughout his life, people accused Crowley of working for a number of government agencies. This would have explained why he constantly traveled to so many countries and why certain diplomats attended some of his hasheesh orgies. During some of his trips, at least on the surface, he was accomplishing many things. When he camped out on Esopus Island on the Hudson River, he meditated and translated the Tao Te Ching. At other times, he practiced the occult, yoga, and sex magic. Other trips involved mountain climbing. According to Richard Spence’s extensive research into the subject of Aleister Crowley’s connection to government intelligence agencies, Crowley worked as a double agent during WWI for the British government. This leads many people to theorize that he continued his deep undercover role for much of his life. Thus, his time spent in Russia may have been operational. His time in the U.S. may have been instrumental in pulling the U.S. into the war for the British. It seems that he may have also made connections with German spies in the U.S. Likewise, the pro-Irish/anti-British articles and propaganda that Crowley wrote may have helped Crowley secure Germany’s trust during WWII. The following image is an extract from a document that Mike McClaughry (here’s his blog) acquired from the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. An intelligence officer at Westpoint, New York, drafted the report to Director of Military Intelligence in Washington in 1918 “after a US probe for German spies,” c. 1916. Report indicating the Aleister Crowley may have been a double agent. This extract of a report drafted after an investigation into possible German spies suggests that Crowley may have been working as a double agent. Source: Mike McClaughry. The Nazi Connection As a result of Crowley’s vocal political views and publicity stunts, rumors spread purporting his ties to the Nazis. Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler’s Deputy Führer, was the second-highest-ranking Nazi in history. He possessed an active interest in clairvoyance and the occult, and even his colleagues thought of him as odd. In March 1941, he entered a cockpit and flew a solo mission without warning to the United Kingdom. Running out of fuel over Scotland, he ditched his Messerschmitt Bf 110 by way of a parachute and was subsequently captured. There are many theories and some claim that he wanted to make peace with Britain, but no one really knows for sure why he would undertake such a strange stunt. It is curious though that “Rudolf Hess later admitted in all seriousness that ‘the idea has been inspired in him in a dream by supernatural force'” (Booth). During this time, Crowley was living in London, and when the Blitz began, he moved down to Torquay, a seaside town on England’s coast. In 1939 when the Second World War broke out, he contacted the Naval Intelligence Division offering his services. Supposedly they denied his proposal, but throughout the war, people saw him in the presence of Britain’s senior intelligence community. Some even claim that he gave Churchill the “V for Victory” idea (Booth). This, of course, has never been substantiated. Some speculate that Crowley had been in contact with him for some time prior to this event. Many conspiracy theories exist. Could Crowley have prompted and negotiated a defection by Rudolph Hess? Did he somehow hex the man? Although Crowley was not officially in Scotland at the time, it is not impossible that Hess may have thought that he was. On the other hand, perhaps Hess was simply forced to land out of necessity. Analysis of the wreck did show a virtually empty fuel tank. The Mountaineer Although his occult activities dominated his image, Aleister Crowley had many other interests. Mountain climbing became a hobby during his time at Cambridge, and throughout his life, he summited a surprising number of perilous peaks. In fact, he was so enthralled by the hobby that between 1894 and 1898, he holidayed to the alps every year to climb. He was also an original member of the Scottish Mountaineering Club. During his life, Crowley climbed K2, the Bernese Alps, and the Monch, just to name a few. He even climbed the Eiger solo. Crowley K2 Mountaineering expedition K2 expedition of 1902. (L) Crowley wearing hat at basecamp. (R) Crowley, middle row right. Public domain. The Kanchenjunga Expedition of 1905 was also an unfortunate circumstance that permanently damaged his reputation in the climbing community. Kanchenjunga in the early 20th century was the Everest of its time. The peak was not reached until 1955, but in 1905, Crowley was offered the position of sole leader for an expedition to break the altitude record. Crowley was a stubborn and cruel leader by all accounts. Forcing the team to push regardless of poor weather, half the team chose to attempt a descent. Due to the poor weather, they had become entrenched and were crushed by an avalanche. When the others rushed to help those trapped under the snow, Aleister refused to assist them. The whole expedition was called off and the next day Crowley left on his own. He gave up climbing that day. In addition to climbing, Crowley was an avid chess player. At one point he was the captain of the Cambridge University Chess Team and even considered becoming a professional player for a time. A Poorly Ending Who was Aleister Crowley? Have we misunderstood him, or was he just that complex? Although incredibly perverse and often outrageous, he was a strangely prolific individual. It appears that he used “The Beast” persona to symbolize his anti-Christian philosophy as the antithesis to Christ. However, it is likely that his view of the biblical Satan differed from his own view of what he called “Satan.” His occult persuasion involved a combination of Paganism and eastern philosophy more so than satanism. In fact, he may be responsible for the Pagan revival. Many people would say that his writings attest to his extremely high level of intelligence. His impact on culture is undeniable, whether it be the myriad of rock and heavy metal bands from Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin or cultural revolutions like the hippie movement. Some organizations today still use parts or all aspects of the teachings Crowley left behind. A conspiratorial spy narrative will continue to be one of the most mysterious aspects of Aleister Crowley’s life. With a combination of political intrigue and mastery in the occult, he was in many ways like the Rasputin equivalent of his day. Nonetheless, drug addictions led to his ruin. This shocking man of the 19th century died a pauper, alone in a halfway house in 1947. The cause of death was a combination of ailments from a lifetime of drug abuse and chronic untreated diseases. The week after his death, Time Magazine published a short commentary about him. We leave you with an excerpt: “He became a fat, olive-skinned man with heavy jowls and mean little eyes which made him look like a stockbroker when the market is bad. He was crushed to hear himself described one day as a ‘harmless old gentleman.'” Encyclopedia Britannica. “Aleister Crowley \| Biography, Teachings, Reputation, & Facts.” 2017. Erkan. “The Most 10 Of Everything.” The Most 10 Of Everything, April 9, 2018. Maier Files Series. “ Did Crowley Interrogate Rudolf Hess? \| Maier Files Series.” 2019. Spence, Richard B. Secret Agent 666: Aleister Crowley, British Intelligence and the Occult. Port Townsend, Wa: Feral House, 2008. Amazon affiliate link above. Time Magazine. “Rascal’s Regress.” December 15, 1947 issue. Whyte, William. “The Great Beast 666: Who Was Aleister Crowley?” National Trust. 2019. Share Your Thoughts Related Posts
Ketogenic diet wards off flu, study finds The ketogenic diet has gained immense popularity over the past years because it helps lose weight speedily, with a wide range of health benefits. Similar to the Atkins diet, the ketogenic diet may not only help people shed off extra pounds but also boosting the immune system and warding off flu. A team of researchers at New Yale University has found that the ketogenic diet can protect from influenza infection in mice. Feeding mice infected with influenza with a high-fat and low-carbohydrate diet has led to a higher survival rate compared to those placed on a high-carbohydrate diet. The research is published in the 15th Nov 2019 edition of the journal Science Immunology. Ketogenic diet. Image Credit: SewCream / Shutterstock Ketogenic diet. Image Credit: SewCream / Shutterstock Keto diet suppresses the inflammatory response The body’s immune responses to infections are shaped by many extrinsic factors, such as social interactions, weather, and diet. In this case, feeding mice with a keto diet confers protection in the context of lethal influenza infection. The ketogenic diet, wherein people only eat foods like meat, poultry, fish, and non-starchy vegetables, activates a subset of T cells in the lungs, which was not previously tied to the immune system’s response to the influenza virus. As a result, there is heightened production of mucus from airway cells, which can effectively trap the virus. “This was a totally unexpected finding,” Akiko Iwasaki, Professor of Immunobiology and Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, said. Targeting inflammasomes They found that the ketogenic diet, otherwise known as keto, stimulated the release immune system cells to produce mucus in the lung linings and trapped the virus before it can cause infection. The diet was effective in suppressing the formation of inflammasomes, an immune system receptor that triggers an inflammatory response. Mice fed a ketogenic diet and infected with the influenza virus had a higher survival rate than those fed with a high-carbohydrate diet. They found that the keto diet stimulated the production of gamma delta T cells, which are types of immune system cells that produce mucus in the cell linings of the lings. On the other hand, a high-carb diet did not produce the same results. The study shows that the way the body burns fat to produce ketones can boost the immune system to fight flu infection. However, health experts suggest that while the results are interesting and promising, they are not particularly transferable to humans due to metabolic differences. Further research is needed to determine if the ketogenic diet can ward off flu in humans. Fighting influenza The respiratory influenza A virus (IAV) infections are major causes of human illness and mortality, causing more than 20,000 deaths each year in the United States. Usually, normal therapeutic approaches are used as a treatment of flu. However, the best way to prevent getting the flu is by boosting one’s immune system. Still, health experts say that aside from boosting the immune response, one way to prevent getting the flu or curb severe complications is to get the flu vaccine. What is the ketogenic diet? The ketogenic diet is a type of eating pattern wherein people consume a high-fat and low-carbohydrate diet. Though the diet is very restrictive in terms of consuming carbohydrates and sugar, there are still lots of food choices you can select from. The ketogenic diet is a low-carbohydrate diet, wherein the only recommended amount of carbs is less than 20 mg per day. The major idea is to restrict carbs, eat moderate amounts of protein, and eat lots of fat. This way, you will be in a state of ketosis, wherein the body uses the fats in the body as an energy source, hence, losing fat fast and quick. In keto, you should steer clear from foods high in sugar, grains, and starches. You are also not allowed to eat some types of vegetables and fruits, root vegetables, condiments that contain sugar, diet products, low-fat products, unhealthy fats like processed vegetable oils, sugar-free diet foods, alcohol, beans, tofu, and legumes, among others. You should avoid pasta, rice, grains, and potatoes. Journal reference: Ketogenic diet activates protective γδ T cell responses against influenza virus infection Emily L. Goldberg, Ryan D. Molony, Eriko Kudo, Sviatoslav Sidorov, Yong Kong, Vishwa Deep Dixit and Akiko Iwasaki, Science Immunology 15 Nov 2019: Vol. 4, Issue 41, eaav2026 DOI: 10.1126/sciimmunol.aav2026, Angela Betsaida B. Laguipo Written by Angela Betsaida B. Laguipo • APA Laguipo, Angela. (2019, November 19). Ketogenic diet wards off flu, study finds. News-Medical. Retrieved on June 06, 2020 from • MLA Laguipo, Angela. "Ketogenic diet wards off flu, study finds". News-Medical. 06 June 2020. <>. • Chicago Laguipo, Angela. "Ketogenic diet wards off flu, study finds". News-Medical. (accessed June 06, 2020). • Harvard Laguipo, Angela. 2019. Ketogenic diet wards off flu, study finds. News-Medical, viewed 06 June 2020, You might also like... × New strategy promotes healthy lifestyle behaviors in obese, overweight women
Chemistry magnetic susceptibility. Write Abstract-Do (1) state the general name of the method and the objective (2) cite the final results (3) draw a general conclusion, Introduction, Results (calculations,tables,etc.), Discussion The discussion should begin with a restatement of overall objective of the experiment. This should be followed by a statement reporting the major values calculated from the data. Finally, the discussion should include the interpretation of the results, assessment of error, limitations of the method, and suggestions for improvement. Are the results expected? Why or why not? How do your results compare with known or literature values? In addition, include in the discussion answers to any questions which were presented in the lab procedure itself.
Find a Lawyer Artificial Intelligence: regulatory approaches in the UAE and abroad Published: March 2020 Artificial Intelligence Although there is a fair degree of debate as to what Artificial intelligence (more commonly referred to as ‘AI’) is and what it is not, the term is broadly used to refer to machines that incorporate some degree of human cognitive ability. AI systems are not created equal and they range from simple recruitment applications and chatbots to systems that possess ‘machine learning’ capabilities. The latter type is, as the name suggests, able to ‘learn’ on their own (using the data set fed into it) and thereby make accurate predictions and decisions. Some are even more complex and use ‘deep learning’ algorithms; i.e. algorithms that broadly mimic the information processing patterns found in the human brain, to make sense of new information they receive by comparing it to a known object. Ridesharing apps like Uber and Careem use deep learning to calculate your route and trip fare; Tesla relies on a model of machine learning (that is not supervised by humans) to drive its auto-pilot features; and Netflix and Amazon use behavioural algorithms to predict which movies and television series you are likely to enjoy, and what products you are likely to be interested in based on your previous selections and purchases. Although discourse on AI has been around for at least 60 years with numerous waves of development and excitement having each fizzled out, the field has taken the spotlight yet again more recently, except this time the latest wave of advances in AI promises to fundamentally change many aspects of our lives (more than the just the pure convenience factor brought about by the likes of Siri and Alexia). Consider for example, a use case of AI in the field of robotics which allows 68 billion dots binding DNA molecules to be imaged and ‘read’ in two minutes, thereby allowing every child to be tested for every possible genetic disease. All this and further progress (albeit at an accelerating pace) has been made possible as a result of the convergence of significantly faster, cheaper and on-demand (cloud based) computing processing power, coupled with an ever-increasing generation and availability of vast data sets (which AI systems rely on to ‘learn’ and develop). Should we regulate AI, and if so, how? Safety and Liability There is ongoing debate as to whether AI should be regulated and, if so, whether entirely new or separate legal systems and concepts would need to be developed (including whether new classes of liability that sit somewhere between personal liability and corporate liability should be created, and whether the burden of proof should be adapted or reversed) to address any safety issues posed by AI. Such risks may arise from defects in the AI system or code which result in, for example, an autonomous vehicle not recognising a pedestrian and as a result causing injury or death. Who should bear liability in such a case; the AI system driving the autonomous vehicle or the person who wrote the algorithm or code for the underlying software? Existing concepts such as reasonable foreseeability, intent and standard of care may not be appropriate for such systems which (at least for now) lack the entire spectrum of human cognitive ability and emotions. Most regulators around the globe have thus far avoided implementing blanket AI regulations which cover all industries, for fear that such an approach may stifle innovation, particularly given the relative infancy of AI technology and its rapidly evolving nature. Although existing regulatory frameworks may not be entirely adequate to address novel risks inherent in AI, they provide a good foundation (at least for the level of AI that is generally available today) and can be amended and enhanced as appropriate to address AI specific risks. This approach has also been favoured by the UK House of Lords in its report titled ‘AI in the UK: Ready, Willing, and Able‘, as well as the European Union’s recently released White Paper on Artificial Intelligence, which among other things, sets out potential amendments and enhancements to existing EU legislation to address AI specific risks. Industry specific regulations (such as the Abu Dhabi Department of Health’s Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Healthcare Sector) appear to be more appropriate as they present an agile and evidenced based approach to regulation, allowing specific risks to be addressed quickly without the unintended consequences inherent in more broad based law. As the pace of technological innovation increases exponentially and real risks (as opposed to theoretical ones) emerge, laws will need to continue to evolve (albeit much more quickly than we are accustomed to) and more industry specific regulations are likely to be enacted (or enhanced) as new AI use cases and associated risks crystallise. It is worth noting that existing regulations, such as those relating to product liability, also indirectly apply to AI just as they would to any other product that malfunctions or is defective. Consider for example: • Article 316 of the Civil Code which provides that ‘any person who has things under his control which require special care in order to prevent their causing damage, or mechanical equipment, shall be liable for any harm done by such things or equipment…’; and • the Consumer Protection Law which prescribes penalties for (among other things) displaying, offering, promoting or advertising goods or services which cause damage to consumers, and, extends liability (by virtue of the definition of a ‘provider’) to the local agents and distributors as well as the manufacturer, whether based in the UAE or abroad (and not just to the entity that had direct contact with the consumer). Although strict liability applies in product defect matters, proving causation may be challenging where an incorrect algorithm (as in the autonomous vehicle example above) gives rise to the harm, particularly in circumstances where the algorithm is embedded in a black box system that is not explainable (see below), and even more so where the algorithm is developed further by the machine learning process. Further, as discussed in our previous article titled ‘Connected Cars, Autonomous Vehicle and Legal Potholes‘, delineating responsibility between the various parties involved in the development of AI products and services can be difficult, especially where the damage arises due to a malfunction or failure in more than one component simultaneously. In this regard, Article 291 of the UAE Civil Code currently provides ‘If a number of persons are responsible for a harmful act, each of them shall be liable in proportion to his share in it, and the judge may make an order against them in equal shares or by way of joint or several liability’. In practice, apportioning liability between a number of actors where such complex systems are involved, may prove to be rather challenging. On the other hand, the EU White Paper proposes that, in cases of ‘significant harm’, strict liability should apply to the person who: (a) benefits most economically from the AI system; and (b) has the most control over the risk associated with it. Again, determining who benefits most economically and who has the most control, is unlikely to be a simple exercise. Privacy, discrimination and biased data Although a small number of jurisdictions have enacted specific legislation (such as the Algorithmic Accountability Act in the US) mandating large technology companies to monitor and assess the accuracy, bias, privacy, accountability and cybersecurity of their AI products, the international trend has been for regulators and other organisations (including the UAE’s Ministry of AI and Smart Dubai) to take a soft approach to regulation, mostly in the form of non-binding guidelines that are intended to foster development and uptake of AI in an ethical, transparent and responsible manner whilst minimising pitfalls such as discrimination and algorithmic bias. Although discrimination currently occurs even without the use of AI, the concern with algorithmic bias is that it would ingrain human bias and discrimination in ‘black box’ systems which are not able to detect in themselves such bias (let alone fix it), and as a result, risk perpetuating discrimination and inequality, particularly in the absence of human oversight. Note that the UAE Federal Law Combating Discrimination and Hatred would also indirectly apply to AI systems (including AI powered recruitment systems) that provide outcomes which discriminate against an individual on specified grounds. In the absence of a legal regime where AI systems are granted separate legal personality and responsibility, it is the developers, distributors and utilisers of AI systems who remain liable for any breach of laws or losses arising from the use of such systems. For example, if a company were to deploy an AI staff recruiting system whose algorithm or data sets are discriminatory against women (because the data sets were from past job applications where the human assessors rejected candidates based on their gender), the company would be liable for the discrimination exhibited by the AI application. Additionally, Article 38(1) of the proposed new DIFC Data Protection Law (which is undergoing consultation and yet to be enacted) provides ‘the Data Subject shall have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated Processing, including Profiling, which produces legal effects concerning him or her or significantly affects him or her’. Examples of such an automated decision may include online credit applications or online recruitment tools, where there is no element of human intervention. How to mitigate legal risks associated with the deployment of Artificial Intelligence Accordingly, companies looking to deploy AI tools and applications need to: 1. obtain contractual warranties from the vendor that the AI system complies with all applicable laws and ethical use of AI guidelines. Even though guidelines may not currently be binding as law, they may form the basis of any future laws; 2. ensure legal requirements and ethics are embedded in the AI tools and systems ‘by design’. For example, by ensuring that the AI algorithm is understandable and its decisions are explainable (reasons can be provided for a given input), noting that ‘deep learning’ systems may not be explainable, even to their developers; 3. employ diverse teams (in terms of age, gender, skill etc.) to help guard against the production of biased data sets; 4. ensure the data set used is unbiased and reflective of the population, that it is not unfair to use the data even if the data is so reflective, and that the data is only used for ethical ends; and 5. for companies established in the DIFC, provide a right to data subjects to object to decisions based solely on automated processing (including profiling) which significantly affects him or her. For further information, please contact Haroun Khwaja (
Taking the Next Steps CHZ Technologies plans to bring its Thermolyzer technology to the United States within the next two years. The company is working with ORNL on a lab-size (2.5 to 4-ton) Thermolyzer that will be optimized for composites. “They have lots of different materials that that they want to work with and test,” says Ludwig. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been watching these experiments closely. Violent hurricanes over the last few years have left about 800,000 boats damaged or destroyed, and there are very few places to dispose of them. Since most have composite hulls and interior cabins, the Thermolyzer process might offer a solution. “The fact that the boats have some metal and wood doesn’t matter; we could end up processing that and recover the glass or carbon fiber that’s used and keep it out of the landfills,” says Ludwig. CHZ is getting ready to supply a Thermolyzer to a plant in Youngstown, Ohio, as well. “We have a relationship with Youngstown State University, which has a renewable recycling curriculum,” says Ludwig. “We would like to put in an R&D center to do the testing near the university. It could be a place where we can train young men and women who are going into the recycling industry.” The power industry has expressed interest, too. Utilities not only have end-of-life wind blades that they need to dispose of, but also electric poles that contain toxic chemicals. The Thermolyzer could reduce the poles to a renewable natural gas and biochar. With further research, the gas could be converted into other products, such as green ammonia or liquid fuels. There would be enough gas produced not only to power the recycling process, but also to help generate additional electricity. (Recycling composites takes more energy, so there’s no excess gas produced. For other materials, however, the Thermolyzer requires about 20% of the produced gas to run, leaving the remaining 80% for other uses.) Ludwig says that as power companies convert their coal plants to natural gas, they could build a Thermolyzer on the plant property. The utilities could use it to keep their wind blades out of landfills and to create useful chemicals and gas from the poles, railroad ties, tires and plastics (even those from the ocean, which can’t normally be recycled). They’d be able to create an income stream by bringing in other materials, including composites, to be recycled as well.
Environment: Invisible Killer Among modern technology's more unwelcome gifts is a man-made surplus of carbon monoxide, a toxic gas that cannot be seen or smelled. One way CO is formed is by burning any substance that contains carbon—fuel oil, for example, or tobacco. As a byproduct of the incomplete combustion of gasoline, CO is a prime ingredient of auto exhaust, which is the main source of air pollution in big cities. Scientists have known for a long time that in large amounts the gas severely impairs the ability of the blood's hemoglobin to carry oxygen from lungs to tissues. The result is a loss of... Want the full story? Subscribe Now Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber
By Nick Zuroski, Contributing Writer With COVID-19 consuming political journalism on all fronts, it’s easy to forget about the countless other humanitarian crises unfolding across the globe. Take China’s Xinjiang province, for example. Since spring of 2017, the Chinese government has forced around one million Muslim Turkic minorities such as Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Hui into “re-education” centers in Western Xinjiang province as part of a mass ideological and behavioral indoctrination campaign. China developed this policy under the guise of countering Islamic radicalization, but recent reporting shows that the internment centers seek to socially rewire Muslim minorities and erase their culture, replacing it with loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party. In addition to the internment, China has encouraged the migration of Han Chinese citizens in order to favorably shift the region’s demographics. This oppressive campaign undermines freedom of religious practice, cultural expression, and individual privacy in the world’s most populous nation and second-largest economy. In response to the vicious cycle of authoritarian surveillance, identity-based internment, and forced labor facing Xinjiang’s Uyghur and Muslim Turkic population, the United States should restore its refugee cap for fiscal year 2021 to 2019’s 30,000 limit to admit 12,000 of Xinjiang’s persecuted. The repressive policy in Xinjiang developed from a history of social unrest and authoritarian Chinese government control in the region. Uyghur communities declared independence in the Qing province of Xinjiang as the Republic of East Turkestan in 1933, but the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) assumed full authority over the region after the 1949 Communist revolution. Unrest in Xinjiang sparked in the 1990s following the fall of the Soviet Union and establishment of independent Central Asian Muslim states, such as Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Uyghur communities in Xinjiang held demonstrations calling for independence, the majority of which were peaceful. While the demonstrations did turn violent in a few cases, like the 2009 Urumqi riots that killed 200 Han Chinese and 2014 Luntai county bombings that killed fifty people, CCP police brutality contributed to the violence of such episodes. According to academic Kilic Kanat, this violence came in the form of excessive force in the Urumqi riots and subsequent roundups and forced disappearances. The CCP used these events to justify its gradual undercutting of Uyghur civil liberties. Research conducted by The Brookings Institution notes that the Chinese government started to closely target Uyghur religious practices around 2014. Such policies involved banning of fasting for Ramadan and wearing religious clothing, restricting pilgrimages to Mecca, and even forbidding certain names because of their association with Islam. This monitoring involves tracking supposed “suspicious” activities like unregulated text messages, religious registrations, passport applications, and simply asking for others to pray. The persecution that Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Hui experience through the CCP’s digital surveillance of Xinjiang’s Muslim residents constitutes unjust profiling of religious and cultural traits. The November 2019 leak of government documents to international journalists revealed that starting in 2017, the CCP has been using an intelligence tool known as the Integrated Joint Operations Platform to screen Xinjiang’s Muslim population for internment. This monitoring involves tracking supposed “suspicious” activities like unregulated text messages, religious registrations, passport applications, and simply asking for others to pray. The documents even note that the government targets minorities who do not exhibit suspicious behavior, meaning that the campaign attacks innocent ethnic minorities solely on the basis of religion and culture. An additional government document leaked in early 2020 called the Karakax List corroborates this religious and cultural targeting, with the CCP using “frequent worship at a Mosque” and attendance of religious funerals as grounds for internment. Xinjiang’s government established legal authority for the surveillance and restriction of these activities in March 2017 with the passing of the “Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Regulation on Anti-Extremism” law, adding a revision in 2018 that formally allowed internment and “re-education” even though the camps had been in operation for several months. The environment within the internment camps is a harrowing experience that equates to a gross violation of individual liberties and rule of law. The leaked government documents outline full control over detainees’ schedules and living conditions, forcing repentance and confessions for “criminal and dangerous nature of past activity,” and erasure of cultural practices like language and religion. Detainees can leave the centers only after four Communist Party committees have seen evidence that they have transformed. They also face a harsh punishment-and-reward system based on “compliance with discipline” and “ideological transformation” that can limit outside contact with family members during internment. Journalistic reporting of Kazakh detainee, Omir Bekali, states that center officials forced him to stand at a wall for five hours at a time and deprived him of food for 24 hours. Finally, the strict Chinese government control over ex-detainees shows that the United States should actively protect the liberties of those released from internment by the CCP. Ex-detainee accounts, like that of Mayila Yakufu, show that the Chinese government closely monitors ex-detainee finances to imprison them for dubious charges like “funding terrorism” should they send money to relatives abroad. The CCP’s destruction of mosques and banning of traditional Hui religious clothing in Gansu province in April 2019 indicates that the government plans to expand its repressive policy and feels emboldened from its ongoing internment. Research by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute reveals that between 2017 and 2019, the Chinese government coerced tens of thousands of Uyghur detainees to participate in forced labor programs by threatening to send them back to detention centers. Admitting 12,000 Xinjiang Muslim minority refugees by raising the refugee cap from 18,000 to 30,000 is both urgent and realistic as a policy response. The U.S. government admitted 30,000 refugees in fiscal year 2019, meeting its cap for the period. In fiscal years 2017 and 2018, the United States set much higher respective caps at 50,000 and 45,000. The campaign against Xinjiang’s Muslim minority population is widespread race and religion-based persecution, which establishes eligibility for refugee status under U.S. law. Furthermore, the United States received 4,900 refugees from Burma in fiscal year 2019, showing that there is precedent for accepting thousands of Asian refugees based on cultural genocide. The December 2019 House approval of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act is a first step in condemning China’s wrongful action, but the U.S. must now implement refugee policy that directly protects the lives and liberties of Chinese Muslim minorities. Though 12,000 Muslim Turkic minority refugees is a small share of Xinjiang’s Muslim minority population of approximately ten million, the protection of more than 10,000 lives outweighs the protection of zero. Nick Zuroski is a first-year graduate student pursuing an M.A. in International Affairs at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Nick is concentrating in international law and organizations and is currently a Policy and Research Intern at the US-ASEAN Business Council. He can be contacted at
By , February 15th, 2016 Anatomy of the Eye The next structure we encounter is the crystalline lens. The lens is responsible for focusing light onto the retina. It changes shape slightly to allow us to change focus between objects that are near and those that are far. As we age, the lens becomes less flexible and able to “accommodate” or change focus. This is called presbyopia. When a patient becomes presbyopic, they will often need to wear reading glasses or switch to bifocals. Eventually, the lens loses its original clarity and can become yellowish or cloudy. This is called a cataract and degrades the quality of the image focused on the retina. When the cataract becomes dense enough to interfere with vision, it can be replaced with a clear artificial lens implant during cataract surgery. Next in our voyage through the eye is the vitreous. This is a jelly-like substance that fills the body of the eye. It is normally clear. In early life, it is firmly attached to the retina behind it. With age, the vitreous becomes more water-like and may detach from the retina. Often, little clumps or strands of the jelly form and cast shadows, which are perceived as “floaters.” While frequently benign, sometimes floaters can be a sign of a more serious condition such as a retinal tear or detachment and should be investigated with a thorough ophthalmologic examination (see retinal detachment). Retinal Layers Optic Nerve The optic nerve is the structure which takes the information from the retina as electrical signals and delivers it to the brain, where this information is interpreted as a visual image. The optic nerve consists of a bundle of about one million nerve fibers. The position in the back of the eye where the nerve enters the globe corresponds to the “blind spot” since there are no rods or cones in this location. Normally, a person does not notice this blind spot since rapid movements of the eye and processing in the brain compensate for this absent information. In glaucoma, the nerve becomes damaged often due to high pressure within the eye. About ICON Eyecare ICON Eyecare is a leading surgical and medical eye care provider based out of Denver, CO. Since 1999, ICON has been building a Center of Ophthalmology Excellence empowered by an expert team of board certified physician specialists, the most advanced laser technology and a culture of quality and extraordinary patient care. In coordination with referring optometrists and physicians, ICON Eyecare specializes in treating patients with cataracts, advanced forms of glaucoma and other age and disease related conditions, while providing innovative options for patients seeking LASIK and cosmetic eye procedures. With 14 patient care centers located in Colorado and Texas, ICON Eyecare is expanding within the broader western U.S. region. For more information, please call (720) 524-1001, or visit iconeyecare.com. Follow by Email Schedule Your VIP Consultation. Preferred Communication: Live Chat
From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core Jump to: navigation, search Isidore of Seville, unofficial patron saint of the Internet. A saint (from the Latin sanctus) in Christianity is a human being who has answered the call to holiness. The term is used differently by various denominations. In high-church contexts, such as Roman Catholicism or Anglo-Catholicism, a Saint is generally one to whom has been attributed (and who has generally demonstrated) a high level of holiness and sanctity. In this use, a saint is therefore not simply a believer, but one who has been unusually transformed. On the other hand, many denominations, notably in Protestantism, emphasise the traditional New Testament meaning of the word, preferring to write saint (lower case) to refer to any believer, in continuity with the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Several denominations venerate the dead saints, while others vehemently reject this. Some make a distinction between a "Romish" and a "Patristic" doctrine concerning the invocation of saints, permitting the latter. The use of the term saint is not exclusive to Christianity. In most religious cultures, there are people who have been recognised within that culture as having fulfilled the highest aspirations of religious teaching. In English, the term saint is often used to translate this idea from many world religions. Template:/box-footer Selected picture Intercession of Charles Borromeo supported by the Virgin Mary - Detail Rottmayr Fresco - Karlskirche - Vienna.JPG Credit: Johann Michael Rottmayr Intercession of Saint Charles Borromeo supported by the Virgin Mary (1714), Ceiling paintings made by Johann Michael Rottmayr (1654-1730) for the Karlskirche, Vienna. Did you know... Selected biography Constantine the Great, mosaic in Hagia Sophia, c. 1000 Saint Constantine (27 February c. 272 – 22 May 337), commonly known in English as Constantine I, Constantine the Great, was Roman Emperor from 306, and the undisputed holder of that office from 324 until his death in 337. Best known for being the first Christian Roman Emperor, Constantine reversed the persecutions of his predecessor, Diocletian, and issued (with his co-emperor Licinius) the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious toleration throughout the empire. The Byzantine liturgical calendar, observed by the Eastern Orthodox Church and some Churches in union with Rome, lists both Constantine and his mother Helena as saints. In the West, he is revered under the title "The Great" for his contributions to Christianity. Constantine also transformed the ancient Greek colony of Byzantium into a new imperial residence, Constantinople, which would remain the capital of the Byzantine Empire for over a thousand years. He is a saint or among Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and other Christians. Template:/box-header Template:/Categories Template:/box-footer The Saints Wikiproject aims primarily at standardizing the articles about people venerated by some Christians as saints or the blessed and ensuring quality articles. If there is an interest in including saints from religions other than Christianity, please propose those changes on our talk page. Template:/box-footer Template:/box-header Saints: Saint Michael - Saint Gabriel - Mary - Saint Joseph - John the Baptist - Saint Stephen - Saint Peter - Saint Paul Traditions: Calendar of saints - Hagiography - List of saints - Symbology of the Saints Theology: Communion of Saints - Intercession of saints - Martyrs - Patron saint Roman Catholicism: Congregation for the Causes of Saints - Servant of God - Venerable - Beatification - Canonization Template:/box-footer Template:/box-header To do {{Wikipedia:WikiProject Saints/to do}} Template:/box-footer The following Wikimedia sister projects provide more on this subject: Wikibooks Wikimedia Commons Wikinews Wikiquote Wikisource Wikiversity Wiktionary Books Media News Quotations Texts Learning resources Definitions Purge server cache
The parasitic wasp is the smallest flying creature in the world with a length of approximately 0.1mm-0.17mm and a weight of only 0.000025 grams. It typically serves as a biological crop protector by killing the eggs from which harmful caterpillars grow. The wasp is technically a parasitoid because while parasites live off the expense of their host without actually killing it, parasitoids almost always kill their host. It is known that these insects are "hitchhikers" and often ride on the faces of butterflies and larger insects to travel. More Info:
Drought leaves parts of Somalia at risk of famine Sunday 15/01/2017 Drought represents threat of different magnitude "The level of humanitarian suffering in this country triggered by projected conflict, seasonal shocks and disease outbreaks are typically hard to bear, but the impact of this drought represents a threat of a different scale and magnitude," said Peter de Clercq of the agency UNOCHA. "Expanding drought conditions have left hundreds of thousands of Somalis facing severe food and water shortages. Overall, some five million people are in need of humanitarian assistance," said de Clercq. The humanitarian community in Somalia is seeking $864-million (800 million euros) for its operations in 2017, to "avert catastrophe" from the drought. Famine early warning system FEWSNET warned Monday that if 2017 rains were again poor in Somalia -- as forecast -- "famine would be expected." Nairobi, East Africa's economic hub, is under strict water rationing for four months, when the next rainy season is expected to start.
Mice Given Gene From Human Brains Turn Out To Be Super-Smart It's a bit like the 1990s cartoon series "Pinky and the Brain," only the genius mice in this story aren't make-believe. An international team of researchers have created unusually intelligent mice by giving them the human version of Foxp2, a gene that's common to both humans and mice. The brainy rodents proved their extra cognitive oomph by navigating a maze significantly faster than ordinary mice. But don't worry--scientists aren't about to unleash hordes of mutant mice into our cupboards. The goal of the research--which was conducted at MIT and several European universities--was to gain a better understanding of Foxp2. The gene is known to play a key role in human learning and language. “This really is an important brick in the wall saying that the form of the gene that might have allowed us to speak may have something to do with a special kind of learning, which takes us from having to make conscious associations in order to act to a nearly automatic-pilot way of acting based on the cues around us,” study co-author Ann Graybiel, a neuroscientist at MIT and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, said in a written statement. For the study, hundreds of mice genetically engineered to carry the human version of the gene were run through mazes to find food, Reuters reported. The researchers then compared the performance of the genetically modified mice to that of a control group of regular mice. What did the researchers find? When the maze was set up with visual and sensory cues hinting at where the food was, the modified mice learned to navigate the maze in around eight days compared to 12 days for the control mice, New Scientist reported. When the maze was set up where the mice could only use one of the cues (visual or sensory), the modified mice were no faster than the control mice. "In the end, after lots and lots of practice, the mice with the humanized gene and the mice that were wild type controls (litter-mates) performed equally well," Graybiel told The Huffington Post in an email. "In most ways, these little mice were pretty normal. They were at their super best (relative to the wild-type controls) just when they were faced with being able to solve a puzzle in two different ways, and what they could do faster was to build a habit or way of acting faster." As for the significance of the finding, Graybiel stressed the connection between the gene and the specialized kind of learning it seems to promote. "No one knows how a child can learn to speak, but if we somehow think that part of of human language learning is helped by being able to make associations rapidly and easily, between things in the world and sounds corresponding to those objects, then this gene might help with that process," Graybiel said in the email. "But the leap from learning how to run the maze to learning to speak is a huge one." The study was published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on September 15, 2014. Mice With Bioengineered Human Hair Implants
Low communication latency is why 5G will be radically different from today’s mobile networks. Just about everything you hear about 5G points out how its higher data speeds will let you download videos or update your apps much more quickly. Well, whoop-de-do. Faster data is helpful, but a different 5G benefit could actually be a bigger deal: reducing network communication delays called latency. Latency is the time it takes to get a response to information sent — for example, the lag between the moment you try to shoot a space invader and the moment the internet server hosting the game tells your app whether you succeeded. AT&T CTO Andre Feutsch speaks of the company’s 5G plans in September. Lower latency could help 5G deliver mobile networks that let us do entirely new things, not just modestly improve what we’re already doing now. Possibilities include multiplayer mobile gaming, factory robots, self-driving cars and other tasks demanding quick response — all areas where today’s 4G networks struggle or can’t manage at all. “Latency is really going to open up new real-time experiences we’ve never had before,” said AT&T Chief Technology Officer Andre Feutsch. Well, at least it will if it works as promised. The 5G hype has been heavy for years, the truly low 5G latencies won’t arrive until 2020 — and really, how many years have we been hearing about how telemedicine will let surgeons operate on patients in a different time zone? So sure, some skepticism is in order. But latency profoundly important, and improving it changes how everything works, so don’t dismiss the 5G’s low latency. Think of how much faster hard drives are than mainframe-era reels of magnetic tape, or how flash memory drives now are replacing pokey hard drives in laptops. When we eliminate delays from a system, it can mean changes like getting eggs on demand from Amazon instead of having to wait for the weekend shopping trip. What’s low latency good for? Factory automation is a favorite example of low-latency advantages. Feutsch sees 5G connecting robots so they can coordinate their actions and avoid running into each other. 5G also could let robots communicate wirelessly instead of with network cables, untethering them so a factory can rapidly switch manufacturing jobs. Drones could get better, too. 5G enables fast links to base stations so computing smarts can be on the ground — for example for object recognition to aid navigation. Without having to carry as powerful a computer and the battery needed to run it, a drone can fly longer when delivering packages or have more power carry a better but heavier camera. Of course, you’ll need a 5G network handy, which could be a problem in rural areas where 5G networks aren’t likely to arrive for years. 5G could also help gamers, in particular those outside and away from home broadband connections. “Action multiplayer games such as Fortnite need a low latency to deliver a good multiplayer experience. Historically, mobile network latencies have been too poor to support action multiplayer gaming well,” said OpenSignal analyst Ian Fogg. That’s changing with today’s 4G, “and as 5G new radio networks launch, latencies will improve even more significantly.” Another way gaming could benefit is similar to the drone example. With 5G, game consoles could rely on fast links to central servers with most of the computing horsepower. “Processing can be done in the cloud because of the high throughput and and low latency,” said Dan Mondor, chief executive of Inseego, the company formerly named Novatel that’s building the wireless network equipment for Verizon’s early 5G broadband service. (Well not quite 5G, since Verizon this year is actually using technology similar to 5G but not the true standard itself, but the point still stands.) Video chat and even plain old web browsing will benefit, Fogg added. Loading websites requires lots of round-trip communication exchanges between a browser and the servers hosting websites, so low latency can make websites snappier. How about self-driving cars? Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication is another latency-sensitive technology. It’s not certain yet whether 5G will play a role there, but some think it will, including Jane Rygaard. She’s head of 5G marketing for Nokia, one of the world’s biggest makers of the mobile network equipment in the cell towers that connect your phone to the internet. 5G could help one car learn from others ahead on the road about potholes or braking. That information would be important to self-driving cars. Key to V2V is an idea called edge computing that goes hand in hand with 5G. The idea is to move computing smarts from the central servers out to the 5G base stations. That’ll mean a faster response time for processing tasks like figuring out which cars nearby need to know about a problem and which aren’t affected. Alex Williamson “We need the network to be so good that we can leave space for the IT application to actually run,” Rygaard said. Augmented reality stands to benefit from 5G, too. A low-latency connection can deliver the necessary imagery nearly instantly as you move your phone or headset around, so an AR app doesn’t have to deliver all the possible imagery for an AR scene in advance. Oh, and there’s that remote surgery idea. It’ll be a long time before people trust robot surgeons commanded by distant humans, Rygaard said. But there are other places for remote-control operators who need real-time interaction — a robot crawling around the radioactive Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster site, perhaps, or examining a possible bomb. And there’s more to medicine than surgery. Verizon is excited about 5G-linked virtual reality headsets that let a remote physical therapist perform cooperative ball-bouncing exercises with patients. 5G delivering the goods There’s evidence 5G is getting the promised low latency links. “We are between 1 to 2 milliseconds,” Rygaard said of Nokia’s tests of latency between phones and cell towers. A millisecond is a thousandth of a second, about the time a baseball is in contact with a bat that’s hitting it. There will be other delays in the system, such as software actually doing something with the data that’s traversing the network, but the 5G fundamentals appear to be in place. “We’re seeing the very low single digit milliseconds,” Feutsch said. That’s more than the 1-millisecond latency goal 5G proponents have sought for years, but it also includes communications deeper into the network, not just between a phone and cell tower. And it’s a big improvement over today’s 4G networks with latencies more than 10 times slower, according to real-world measurements from mobile analytics company OpenSignal. On top of that, future versions of 5G will be able to guarantee that latency. “In a 5G network, I can determine I want 2 milliseconds, and it should be able to give me 2 milliseconds every single time,” Rygaard said. That guarantee doesn’t matter much for watching streaming video from a sports game, but it does when you have two factory robots working in sync, she said. Not so fast, 5G fans Not everyone is so optimistic, though. “Even if I reduce the latency to 1 millisecond, that only gets you to the base station. For most normal things you’re doing on the phone, it’s got to go to the cloud anyway,” so latency will still be a problem, said Linley Group analyst Linley Gwennap. You can cache some data and do some processing in base stations themselves, but you can’t put all the data and software from all the data centers operated by Google, Netflix, Facebook and others. And self-driving cars with 5G? “Ridiculous,” Gwennap said. There will be lots of areas with no 5G network coverage, he said, and “if my car is on Verizon and yours is on AT&T it’s not going to be instantaneous anyway,” he said. OK, so maybe the hype is getting ahead of the reality. The 5G standards for ultra-low latency are still being hammered out and that technology likely won’t arrive until 2020, Mobile Ecosystem analyst Mark Lowenstein said. “We’re in a particular period of pre-5G hype cycle, where a dose of reality is needed,” he said in an October report. 5G really will be different from 4G today, but it’ll arrive only gradually and in phases. So don’t expect the self-driving cars or 5G robots quite yet. “Patience and a long view will be needed.” Source: CNET.com
• Geoffrey Wade Why is the Cost of Poor Leadership Underestimated? Updated: Dec 4, 2018 To answer this question I’ll talk briefly about statistics. I’ll keep it simple. And for the non-mathematically inclined I assure you it’s necessary to dispel a common misconception about the spread of low and average leader performance. Leadership Performance Follows a Paretian Distribution The ‘Bell Curve,’ in the image below, represents a ‘Normal Distribution’. It is a sample with an arithmetic average and an equal or symmetric distribution above and below average. This model assumes that there are groups of people one standard deviation above and below the mean. We call these low or high performing and each group makes up around 16% of the population. There will also be a very small number of people two standard deviations above the average. Typically we call these ‘hyper performing’ and they make up between two and three percent of the sample population. But human performance research across a range of sporting, business, government and political professions shows 94% of groups fall into what is called a ‘Power Law,’ ‘Paretian Curve,’ or ‘Long Tail’ distribution (O’Boyle Jr. and Aguinis 2011 and 2012). We’ve found the same in our work modelling experts and expertise. As roles and competencies shift towards greater levels of complexity and information density - like leadership - the result is a shift towards Paretian performance distributions. In the Paretian Curve statistical model there are a small number of people who are ‘hyper performing,’ a broad swath of people who are ‘average performing’ and a smaller number of people who are ‘low performing.’ It has very different characteristics from the Bell Curve. It essentially accounts for a much wider variation in performance among the population. In the Power Curve most people fall below the mean. Roughly 10% of the population are far, i.e. more than two standard deviations, above the average, a large population are below average, and a small group are far below average. So the concept of ‘average’ becomes meaningless and the familiar Pareto 80:20 rule gives us the long tail image. Paretian Distributions Have Profound Enterprise Consequences The Paretian Curve Implications for the Enterprise Cost of Poor Leadership Nobel Laureate P. W. Anderson, in 1997, said, “Much of the real world is controlled as much by the ‘long tails’ of distributions as means or averages: by the exceptional, not the commonplace. We need to free ourselves from ‘average’ thinking.” The recognition that around 95% of leadership performance follows a Pareto distribution appears to be a much deeper insight than you might realise. There are two components to this. One is the step size of the potential performance improvement. Two is that the bulk of the population can improve. Paretian performance distribution is significant concept. The Bell Curve performance distribution sets expectations that moving from average to high leadership performance delivers one standard deviation improvement. Likewise moving from poor to high leadership performance delivers two standard deviations in performance improvement. But our experience with clients has mostly been the Paretian Curve prediction. Namely a shift from average to high leadership performance results in two to three standard deviations improvement. While moving from poor to high leadership performance yields between four and ten standard deviations of performance improvement. What Does it Mean for the Cost of Poor Leadership? Whatever the cost per individual leader, the Paretian distribution increases the total organisation cost by six times that of a Normal (Bell) performance distribution. I invite you to begin to perceive that there is the potential for leadership performance improvement to deliver far more significant business outcomes than the expectations you’d have if you’ve been using the prevailing Bell curve belief set. Effective leadership performance improvement project ROI’s can run well into the triple digit digit percentages. By definition low performance is two standard deviations or more below high performance. With a Bell Curve spread of leadership performance you’d normally expect around 16% of managers to be low performing. With a Paretian Curve performance spread the difference between the hyper performers and average performers is more than two standard deviations. So, even the average performers are low performing. With a Paretian distribution you expect 80% managers to be poor performing relative to the hyper performers. The Paretian spread of leadership performance has profound enterprise implications. Whatever the cost per poor leader, the Paretian distribution increases the total organisational cost by large multiples. #poorleadership, #performanceimprovement, #leadershipperformance, • Facebook • LinkedIn Onirik World Group Pty Ltd \| ABN: 98 084 721 335 \| +61 (0)7 3555 7515 Level 54, 111 Eagle Street, Brisbane, Australia Copyright 2020 Onirik World Group Pty Ltd \| All Rights Reserved
Queensland Law Society Wellbeing: The power of “No” There are many reasons why we may struggle with the idea of saying “no” to a request from others, both those which are brought to us directly, as well as the pleas and demands that we believe require us to “read between the lines”. So why do we keep hearing ourselves say “yes”, even though all we can think of is a loud and clear “No”? Maybe you want to avoid conflict and believe that denying someone what they want may upset them or spark an argument. Maybe you believe that saying “no” is uncaring, rude or even selfish; an inappropriate thing to do in an important professional or personal relationship. If it is not guilt or the fear of risking a friendship, it may also be fuelled by a perfectionistic notion that you can or should do it all, or an ego-driven desire to feel needed by others. However, saying “yes” to everything is stressful, can bring you to the verge of burn-out, and the ongoing demands on your energy levels will be detrimental to your long-term health and wellbeing. Protecting your boundaries by saying “no” when required can also develop your own self-respect as well those around you. It is also important to remember that saying “yes” to everything also means that you will be unable to commit to more meaningful, personally fulfilling or other valuable opportunities. Here are some tips and strategies to say “no” in difficult situations: • Check-in with yourself and identify your biggest fear in the situation. For example, could this be caused by a fear that other people will think negatively of you? Are you holding on to unhelpful beliefs which you have learned earlier in your life, eg the perception that saying “no” is impolite or may cause others to disapprove of you? Ask yourself how realistic this is, how much a negative reaction would impact you, and how you could deal with it. Also, what would you advise a good friend in your situation? • Offer an alternative. If you are not able or willing to do what someone has asked of you but would like to offer them something else instead, consider if there are other options which you would feel comfortable with. Examples may be: • “Given my current workload, I won’t be able to finalise the whole report until Friday, but could I provide you with an outline highlighting key points. Would that help?” • “Unfortunately, I am not available to help out at the day of the party, but I could assist in the preparation by sending out the invites for you.” • Give the other person a choice. Put the questions back to the person asking by reframing or modifying the request in a way that makes it possible for you to be helpful while protecting your limits, eg: • "I'm happy to do X, Y, and Z; however, I would need five days, rather than two, to give these tasks the justice they deserve. Alternatively, I could focus on one of the items in order to meet your initial timeframe. How would you like me to prioritise the tasks?" • Do not make excuses. Regardless if you can suggest other options or have to decline a request completely, it is most helpful in the long run to do so without excessive apologising or providing all sort of reasons - including made-up ones - as to why you have to turn down the request. Excuses can allow other people to modify their request so that your excuse doesn’t justify your polite refusal – but more importantly, they make you look and feel uncomfortable and inauthentic. • Stay firm. There is no need to be defensive. Always be polite and sympathetic, but stand your ground and communicate clearly. This will send a strong signal to the party that you won’t be pressured into submission. For more suggestions on different techniques to build healthy boundaries and say “no”, have a look here. If you would like to learn more, don’t hesitate to reach out to the QLS Solicitor Support service on ethics@qls.com.au or p. 3842 5843 to speak to someone in a judgement-free and supportive environment. Rebecca Niebler 5 May 2020
It Doesn't ALWAYS Depend I often hear coaches say, "It depends" when asked about exercise programming. According to them, "There's no black and white in strength and conditioning." This isn't wrong, just incomplete. Why? Because there's plenty of black and white when it comes to programming, and they're called principles. What's a principle, anyway? It's a fundamental truth that acts as the groundwork for a system of belief or behavior. So, by definition, if something is a principle, it's by nature black or white. The gray area, the "it depends" part, is found in the application of those principles. Principles are universal, but there are many methods that allow us to use the principles. It's the application of the methods that apply to the individual. But don't confuse black-and-white with one-size-fits-all. That's not what they are. The principles are black and white, but the details are the gray areas in-between. Here's a list (in no particular order) of the principles that'll help you design your strength training program. They're interrelated, and no matter what your strength training goal is they can help you build a lifelong foundation for it. 1 – The basics are principles, not exercises. When many trainers talk about "sticking to the basics," they've usually got a list of certain exercises they're referring to. And they'll often judge whether a training program is good or bad based on what they deem as the basics. They're basically "exercise memorizers" who put methods before principles because they've got a fanaticism about certain movements, or because of some allegiance to a given training method. When we embrace the reality that a good training program isn't determined by the exercises it incorporates, but how training principles are used, we see that unless you're competing in a powerlifting or a weightlifting-oriented sport, there's no particular exercise that any athlete or gym-goer must do in order to improve. There are only training principles that must be followed, and there's a wide variety of applications and variations they can use to achieve their goals. There are no basic exercises, just basic principles. I classify exercises as either more or less complex, but how I go about using exercises comes down to how I apply basic principles of training – specificity, individuality, progressive overload and variation. Strength programming is really a process of decision making. And the ability to make smart programming decisions doesn't come from following trends or memorizing training models and methods from a given organization, athlete, or well-known coach. It comes from having expertise in analyzing exercises and training models based on the universal principles of training and biomechanics. It's these principles that dictate the exercises that should be included and how they're applied in a training program... because exercises are just methods that allow us to apply principles. A great coach today will have the same foundational qualities as a great trainer will have 10, 20, 50 and 100-plus years from now. The universal principles of training and biomechanics never go out-of-date. 2 – It's about becoming a stronger athlete, NOT becoming a weightlifter. A great deal of strength training info comes from the powerlifting and Olympic lifting world, meaning it's more geared toward competitive lifters. The problem is, there's a difference between people who are in the gym to become weightlifters and people who are there to become strong athletes. Not to mention, not every good athlete is a good lifter, and not every gym stud is a good athlete. Sure, field, court, and combat athletes, as well as athletic-minded folks, can take some wisdom from weightlifting sports, but they don't need to learn or practice the sports-specific skills required to be a master weightlifter. They need only to possess basic competence in a variety of lifts in order to use them in a way that's safe and helps them to improve their overall strength and muscle. 3 – Maximize functional capacity. Strength training is about building a more coordinated body that's more capable of producing, reducing, and controlling force in order to better perform a variety of movements, and be more resistant to injury when doing so. The term "functional" is a buzzword but think of it differently here. It applies to something having a special task or purpose. So, functional capacity is your range of ability. Having higher functional capacity means you can perform a broader range of specific tasks. That said, strength is domain/task specific. The further an exercise gets away from replicating the specific force-generation and neuromuscular coordination patterns of a given movement, the less directly it carries over to improving the force-generation and neuromuscular coordination of that specific movement. This means field, court, and combat athletes, as well as lifters, should incorporate a wide variety of exercises to help them improve their functional capacity (their range of ability) by developing strength in various movement patterns, directions, and body positions. Bench Press 4 – Take a mixed-training approach. A program needs to incorporate compound exercises, cross-body exercises and isolation exercises. Why? Because each offer different benefits. More specifically, each type benefits certain interdependent components of strength and functional capacity that the other category of exercise may miss. Remember, if you can perform a broader range of specific tasks, you possess a higher functional capacity. This relationship is crucial because as an athlete or lifter, you don't want your body to be merely more adapted to a limited number of gym-based exercise movements; you want your body to be more adaptable so that you can successfully take on a variety of physical demands. And building a stronger body that can also get things done requires several strength training components because no single type of resistance exercise will address all demands. Muscles (and other body structures) respond to how they're loaded. They adapt. Different load placement and body position during an exercise changes the force generation and neuromuscular coordination demands of the exercise. Cross-body exercises demand a different type load placement and body position than compound exercises. Isolation exercises fill in the gaps. So, it makes sense that taking a mixed-training approach to strength programming will provide a more comprehensive, and therefore effective, training stimulus than you'd get by using only one training method. 5 – Think of how exercises put force across joints and tissues. We get stronger by creating mechanical tension across tissues and joints by overloading them through movements, which we call resistance exercises. This is strength training. That said, when you think less about memorizing what certain athletes and coaches say about exercises, and instead analyze exercises based on how they put force across tissues and joints, you'll see that just because you're moving through the full range of motion it doesn't mean you're training or getting stronger through that entire range. This is what I call the "full range of motion myth." Example: Horizontal pressing exercises like bench press and push-ups effectively strengthen the muscles responsible for the motion of horizontal shoulder adduction when your arm is out to the side (when the pecs are in their mid to lengthened range), but they don't strengthen this action in the ranges of motion when your arm is in front of or across your torso (when your pecs are in their shortened range). This is because, at the top of each rep, you're no longer working against a force that's pulling your arms apart (into horizontal shoulder adduction). So, although horizontal pressing strengthens you in the horizontal shoulder adduction, they only do so for PART of your available range of motion because they don't load this action in the ranges when your arm is in front of your torso. Another thing you'll see when you go from memorizing exercises to analyzing exercises based up how they put force across tissues and joints is that multi-joint exercises leave a lot of joint movements untrained. Example: Compound and cross-body exercises train the hamstrings with movements that originate at the hip joint (deadlifts, single-leg Romanian deadlifts, etc.) but neglect to train the hamstrings with a movement that originates at the knee joint (knee flexion). And research shows that not only do knee flexion exercises activate the hamstrings differently, but incorporating knee flexion exercises can improve performance and reduce hamstring injuries. And that's where the next principle comes in. 6 – Use isolation exercises to train in ranges missed by multi-joint exercises. When it comes to the goal of increasing your overall strength and functional capacity, the smarter way to use isolation exercises is to train in ranges of motion and movements missed by the multi-joint (compound and cross-body) exercises. For specific examples of isolation exercises, see The Isolation Exercise Checklist and The Missing Lower-Body Exercises for Strength. 7 – Minimize redundancy, maximize efficiency. Doing a different exercise variation for a given movement pattern or muscle group doesn't necessarily put force across tissues and joints (strengthen you) in a different manner. This means many exercise variations are redundant. For example: Squats, deadlifts, lunges and certain variations of those exercises do a great job of loading the glutes when they're closer to a lengthened (stretched) range, but they don't do a great job of loading the glutes when they're in their shortened range. In other words, squats, deadlifts, and lunges create the most load on the glutes when your hips are flexed (at the bottom), but these exercises place very little load on the glutes, so they don't do a great job of strengthening you when your hips are in extension. If you've already done squats and lunges in a workout, you're better off doing an exercise that loads your glutes mostly from their mid to shortened ranges instead of doing another exercise that mostly loads the glutes when they're stretched. Another example: Horizontal pressing exercises like bench press, dumbbell bench press, push-ups, and dumbbell flyes strengthen the muscles responsible for horizontal shoulder adduction when your arm is out to the side (when the pecs are in their mid to lengthened range). So they're basically the same exercise when it comes to how they load your pecs... making them redundant. Once you've done one of these exercises in your workout, instead of doing another one of them, you're better off doing CABLE flyes because they aren't redundant to any of the other horizontal shoulder adduction movements since they load the pecs in a different manner than flyes would with dumbbells. Redundancy is okay when you're trying to emphasize some aspect of your training for whatever reason. However, when you're trying to build overall strength in a wide range of movements to improve overall functional capacity, avoiding redundant exercises is a solid programming strategy for improving the productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness of your workouts. 8 – Train movements AND muscles! Strength and conditioning has gone from viewing muscles purely in isolation to recognizing more integrated movement patterns that show how these muscles create coordinated movement. As a result, some trainers now say to "train movements, not muscles" to direct people away from isolation exercises. But as we know now, redundancy comes from following the "train movements, not muscles" mantra because it repeatedly loads the same areas and ranges of motion while failing to load others. Not good. Isolation exercises are needed to train in the movements and ranges of motion missed by the multi-joint exercises. So saying "train movements, not muscles" is like saying eat vegetables not fruits. Avoiding one or the other will leave your diet deficient. Similarly, a strength training program that exclusively focuses on either multi-joint or isolation exercises will leave potential strength gains untapped since each method offers unique benefits others lack. In contrast, a training program that combines both multi-joint and isolation movements will help you get better results by improving your overall strength and functional capacity. 9 – Build full range strength. We now know that some strength exercises only train the mid to shortened ranges of motion, while others mainly train the mid to lengthened range. Since strength adaptions are joint-position specific, the flipside to minimizing redundancy is to make sure to train both ends of the range of motion to ensure you strengthen as much of the active range of motion you can move through at each joint. Think about it this way: Weightlifting and powerlifting are about mastering a limited number of movements and positions in order to gain strength in them. But the principles I'm recommending are about exposing yourself to a wider variety of movements and positions so you're stronger in more ways and therefore capable of functioning at a higher level in any environment... not merely competition. This is what increasing functional capacity is all about! Functional capacity is about building a stronger, more adaptable body that's not limited to the competition lifts, though they have their value as well. 10 – Fit exercises to individuals, not individuals to exercises. No single exercise variation is a perfect fit for every body. This should be obvious given the natural variation in the ways people move. So you must choose the particular exercise variations that best fit how you move and what you need. In the case of the deadlift, it's smartest to choose the variation that fits you, rather than trying to fit yourself to a specific type of deadlift. Depending on your individual ability, you can probably use several deadlift variations and styles, whereas other people are more limited in the options that they can use safely. Some exercises aren't right for some people. We all move a bit differently, based on our unique skeletal framework and proportions. In addition, injury, loss of cartilage, and natural degenerative processes in joints (like arthritis) can influence how we move. That's why it's smartest to adapt exercises based on your ability. Also, train based on your ability, not your age, since there are lots of variations in the capability and training level among people of the same age group. 11 – Use the two C's when selecting exercises. Most everyone does pushing exercises, pulling exercises, lower-body exercises, and core exercises. So there's absolutely nothing individualized about that aspect of strength training. That said, much of what IS individualized (unique to you) – at least, what should be anyway – comes down to what exercises you DON'T do based on your structure, current ability, and medical profile. So how do you know what to not do? These two simple criteria will help you figure it out: 1. Comfort: The movement is pain free, feels natural, works within your current physiology, and so on. 2. Control: You can execute the standard movement technique and body positioning of the exercise. When I talk about discomfort, I'm not talking about the sensation associated with muscle fatigue or "feeling the burn." Rather, I'm talking about aches and pains that exist outside the gym or flare up when you perform certain movements. To allow for comfort and control, you may need to modify (shorten) the range of motion or adjust the hand or foot placement of a particular exercise to fit your current ability and honor the standard joint alignment cues involved in the exercise. For example, when squatting, you display good knee and spinal alignment throughout and use smooth, deliberate movement. And in some cases, you may just have to avoid certain exercises and emphasize other options. 12 – Do more volume on your weaker side. Cross-body and single-leg training force you to place more focus on one side of your body at a time. The general rule of thumb to follow, which has some research behind it, is to use more training volume on the weaker side if there's a 15% (or more) strength difference. Just start each set with the weaker side, and do one extra set on the weaker side. Now, this isn't about attempting to offset physical biases which are adaptions that come from years of playing certain sports. This is simply working to increase your overall functional capacity by improving the strength and coordination of a weaker, less-coordinated side. 13 – Try to get 1% better each workout. You can't continue to get stronger without creating some type of progressive overload. The principle of overload dictates that the training stress – based on frequency, intensity, and type of exercise as well as recovery processes – should exceed the training stress experienced during the previous workout. (1) A realistic way to gradually keep improving your strength is try to do 1% more than you did the previous week or workout. The most straight-forward way to accomplish this is by gradually using heavier loads or performing more reps with the same load, during the duration of each workout program. 14 – Create stress without distress. The best ability in training is the availability to do it in the first place. So, although you want to train hard, you also want to do it in a way that allows you to continue training. All training is a stress to the body. This stress causes the body to adapt by becoming stronger, bigger, and fitter in order to accommodate the stress with more efficiency... and to better tolerate it while reducing the chance of injury. Smart, individualized training is about applying enough stress to the body to make it adapt without applying too much stress (distress) and overloading the tissues to the point where they can become damaged. When there's injury, your tolerance to stress becomes severely reduced and you're much more likely to create distress (instead of stress), which may make things worse. That said, increase load and volume carefully around injured areas. Be especially careful with movements and positions that were part of the previous injury. Don't neglect injured areas; building strength around an injured joint is important since specific training of injured areas helps prevent future injuries. (2) Distress can also come from total training load, which is emerging in the research as a risk factor for injury. (3) This involves a decrease in the body's ability to repair and to positively respond to stress, which can lead to overtraining, boredom, and reductions in performance and energy. You need to avoid the exhaustion stage where you're doing more in your training than your body can handle. So planned rest days throughout a training week, along with incorporating rest or active rest weeks (consisting of lower demand activities) between several weeks of hard training, can help in avoiding too much overload or stress. 15 – Follow the principle of specificity. Your goals should determine the exercises you emphasize in your workout routine. If you want to become more explosive (improve movement speed), use some explosive exercises. If you want to improve max strength, incorporate some training with heavier loads (closer to your 1RM). If you want to improve your rotational ability for a rotary-oriented sport, regularly use a variety of rotational exercises at various speeds and loads. When designing your own strength training program, if you follow the principle of specificity – along with the other principles provided here – you won't go wrong with your exercise applications. Closing Comments Use these principles to build the foundation of your strength training program. You'll achieve the things that matter most to you, keep things as simple as possible, and avoid getting bogged down with details that are unimportant. Related: 7 Principles of Exercise Selection Related: 6 Lifting Principles You Can't Ignore 1. Clayton, Drake, Larkin, Linkul, Martino, Nutting, Tumminello. (2015). Foundations of Fitness Programming, Why Was the FFP Developed? (pg.5). National Strength and Conditioning Association 2. Leppänen, M, Aaltonen, S, Parkkari, J, Heinonen, A, and Kujala, UM. Interventions to prevent sports related injuries: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Sports Medicine44(4): 473-486, 2014. 3. Jones, CM, Griffiths, PC, and Mellalieu, SD. Training load and fatigue marker associations with injury and illness: A systematic review of longitudinal studies. Sports Medicine 47(5): 943-974, 2016.
Sendai earthquake M 9.0 earthquake of Honshu, Japan disrupted normal life along the entire E and NE coastal regions of Japan. The question being asked is â€œ how safe are the geothermal power plants (GPP) in and around Sendai ?â€Â when the all the four Fukushima nuclear reactors ( ~ 4600 MWe generating capacity) yielded affecting a large number of people in the region. Nothing happened to the 4 GPPs located on either side of Sendai.Â There are 8 GPPs located around Sendai region- 4 plants north of Sendai, 1 located south of Sendai and the remaining three located along the western coast, just opposite to Sendai region. 198 MWe of power is being generated by these power plants. Â The power plants tripped immediately after the earthquake for couple of hours and resumed their normal capacity generation later. Hachijojima GPP, located in an island, south of the epicenter region has not been damaged and started functioning after a short break. That is geothermal!!!
Wednesday, July 31, 2013 Red-backed Jumping Spider The picture on Friday's blog is a facial view of a spider showing two big eyes like headlights, two smaller eyes to the side (turn indicators?) and four small eyes across the top. Taken with my pocket Lumix, the picture lacks the clarity of the big league photographers but I suspect some of you recognized it as a spider. The blue-green structures are the chelicerae, hollow mouth parts which connect the venom glands to the fangs at the tips. Kevin Firth emailed within 4 hours with an ID as a jumping spider of the genus Phidippus. I was amazed because spiders are tough except some of the more distinctive species. I have contacted a lot of entomologists over the last few years, and even they sometimes ask if I know a "good spider expert." Some species can be narrowed down by their web construction, habitat and body shape. My specimen jumps dramatically, which is how I spotted it in Brian Edmond's dense prairie plantings. The final ID as red-backed jumping spider, Phidippus clarus, was made from browsing through jumping spiders in Bugguide, and comparing each with my full body photograph. There is a lot of information on P. clarus on the web, particularly on Wikipedia. Some of it is highly technical but there is also a lot of gee-whiz facts. • Those big eyes really work. Their vision exceeds that of a cat and is 10 times greater than the dragonfly which is the most acute of all the insects. • Their powerful back two sets of legs allow them to jump 50 times their length, the equivalent of my jumping 250 feet. • Males compete for the largest females which then produce the largest number of offspring. "When P. clarus males compete for females, the winners are those that produce the most vibrations on the surface and those that are largest. Contests between females involve less displaying, and physical fights between females are more likely to end in injury or death. " Mating rituals are complex and the average female produces 135 eggs in her sac. • They hunt by sitting at the top of vegetation and pouncing down on their unsuspecting prey. They, or their egg sacs, are placed sometimes in agricultural settings to feed on plant pests. All spiders have silk glands which we associate with webs but some have adapted them to other uses. The jumping spiders make silk shelters for protection of their eggs and a safer place to hang out while they are molting. You can see a video of male and female P. clarus on this link. Arachnophobes beware. An extensive collection of jumping spider videos can be found at this Dick Walton Natural History Services link.
Since you read this, you’re have probably bought a Raspberry Pi and are eager to get it up and running. We have tried to make a very simple step-by-step guide below to help you succeed. What do you need? On our table we have the following items to bring our empty Raspberry to life: 1. One Raspberry Pi 2 Model B 2. One micro USB power adapter for powering the Raspberry. Most standard 5 volt smartphone chargers would do. Ideally it should have capacity for 1.8 A or more. 3. One MicroSD card (8GB recommended) and USB adapter for copying files to the card from you laptop. 4. One USB keyboard 5. One USB mouse 6. One HDMI cable to plug your Raspberry into your TV or computer screen 7. One laptop (in our case a Macbook Pro) Start by downloading the operating system to your MicroSD card Make sure your MicroSD card in empty and formatted as FAT32. Download the zip-file containing the operating system Noobs from this link (from and save it to your laptop’s hard drive. Unzip all the files and copy them to your MicroSD card. Plugging in your MicroSD into your Raspberry to start up Before plugging in your Raspberry to your power adapter, insert your MicroSD card, plug in your keyboard, mouse, and connect the HDMI cable between your Raspberry and your TV or screen. Install the operating system Now, plug in the power adapter and you should see the boot-up screen. Click the check box for Raspian and click install. Then click Yes. The process of installing the operating system takes a while. Be patient, it’s worth it! Setting up the basics From here we set the time and location. Click on the menu in the upper left corner and select Preferences->Raspberry Pi Configuration. If you select the tab Localisation, you can set your locale and timezone. If you plug in an ethernet cable between your internet router and your Raspberry, you automatically get the correct time each time the Raspberry boots up. Having your Raspberry connected to the internet also enables you to get software updates and browse the internet from your Raspberry. Where to go from here? From here the possibilities are almost endless of what you can do with your Raspberry. We know, it feels a bit overwhelming. You can use it to create computer games, connect a camera module or have it be the brain in your home built drone. To get inspiration and guidelines, check out the project tutorials at or follow our future posts as we build a system for monitoring and controlling your home in the spirit of Internet of Things. Setting up your Raspberry Pi for the first time E-postadressen publiceras inte. Obligatoriska fält är märkta *
The above objectives will be met within the Timescales laid out in my Action plan My business will be a car showroom which will be located near the Tooting Broadway. I will open my car showroom in Richmond because in London Central there is too much car business which can affect my business that is why I choose to open it there so I can make more sales according to London. I will be selling cars and the internal and the external extras for the cars.Source: www.maps.Google. We Will Write a Custom Case Study Specifically For You For Only $13.90/page! order now co.ukMarketing TheoryThe aim of this section is to apply a theory to this relevant peace of coursework.Marketing DefinitionIn general, marketing activities are all those associated with identifying the particular wants and needs of a target market of customers, and then going about satisfying those customers better than the competitors. This involves doing market research on customers, analyzing their needs, and then making strategic decisions about product design, pricing, promotion and distribution.There are activities for marketing which ensure that customers get what they want, how much they want, where they want and when they want. They also ensure customers that they get it at the right price. Other activities are:* Deciding what services and products should be provided at what price* To decide what products and services should be provided at what price* Informing the customers through advertising and promotion.* Identifying the size and the wants and needs for customers.* Deciding which markets should be served* Getting the goods to the customersThe Marketing Mix (The four P’s)The full range of activities that may be used by a business to market its products is called the marketing Mix (also known as the four P’s. The Marketing Mix refers to the 4 P’s. These include:Product: The products or services that may be used by a business to market its productsPlace: How the product is distributed, where it can be broughtPrice: The price at which the product will be soldPromotion: How to sell the product including advertising, other publicity, discounts, special offers, point of sale displays and direct marketing* ProductEvery business has to decide what product or what product range they are going to sell. A further decision is what quality of product they would like to make and sell how it is to be packaged and what name to give the product. They also have to decide whether to attempt to brand the product.BrandingWith branding a product the product appears different from its competitors. A good example is the one of Cola. There are Coca-Cola, Virgin Cola, Pepsi Cola and Classic Cola, encourage brand loyalty, to ensure that consumers will continue to purchase it in preference to competitors’ brandsMethods of product differentiation are used to convince consumers that a product is different from those of its competitors. The methods used are:1. Attractive packagingA company may use unique colours, containers and/or designs to ensure that its product will be easily recognised by the consumer.2. BrandingBranding is the way a product is given a unique name and image, for example, Levi Strauss and Nike. Think of some other brand names that you know.3. AdvertisingAdvertising will remind the consumer of the product’s benefits. Advertising campaigns aim to highlight the differentiation, such as tastier, more fun, better service.4. PromotionThe company may ask consumers to collect a certain number of labels of the product to qualify for a prize, or to qualify for a competition. Promotion includes competitions, collecting tokens and special events; they create hype and excitement around a product.* PricingPrice is the money paid when goods and services are exchanged. Businesses have to decide the price of their product.There are different ways in which businesses price their products. Here are the five ways.Competition Based PricingIn this way firms base their prices according to the prices changed by their competitors.Cost Plus PricingThis is where a price is fixed by adding a per cent profit margin to the cost of production. For instance a CD costs ï¿½6 to produce and add a 100% mark up to sell it at ï¿½12.Creaming or SkimmingCreaming or Skimming is where selling a product initially at a high price, sacrificing high sales in order to earn high profits. This way is often used by electrical products such as DVD players or video recorders. E.g. Recordable DVD Players at the moment are selling for ï¿½1000 plus. This will fall as demand increases.Prestige pricingThis way refers to the practice of setting a high price for a product. This is done in order to evoke perceptions of prestige and quality with the product or service. Penetration PricingThis is the opposite of price skimming and occurs when a business sets a low price in order to gain a good market share quickly. It is used when a new product is brought onto the market or when a manufacturer is trying to break into an existing or an established market. Once market share has been won, the price can be increased to gain larger profits.* PlaceThe place is that part where goods are going to be sold. It depends on the nature of the goods. Most goods are sold to the general public either in showrooms or in shops. But there are also some other places where goods can be sold. Some examples are* Wholesalers* Direct Sales* The Internet* Mail Order* Telephone Sales* Door-to-Door Selling through Agents (Avon Cosmetics)* Exhibitions (e.g. Ideal Home Exhibition, Motor Shows)* PromotionPromotion is the part of the marketing mix where the decision is made how a product should be marketed and sold. Promotion is itself a mix of lots of methods. The main methods are:* Advertising on TV, Radio, Internet or posters* Sales Promotion-Discounts, Free Offers, Competitions, Demonstrations Coupons and Displays* Direct Marketing – through personally addressed mailing, telephone sales, teletext and email.* Sponsorship- Person or an Event* Personal Selling- through Sales Representatives (who are mainly used for selling to business) also trade fairs, exhibitions and party sales.* After Sales service and customer care-designed to build up customers loyalty so that they keep coming up.* Public Relations (PR)- Promotion of a positive image about a product or a business through giving information about the product to the general public, other businesses or to the press. Definitions of market research:Research that gathers and analyzes information about the moving of good or services from producer to consumerResearch is split into two types:Field Research – service, value-added custom research firm founded in 1945 by Mervin Field. We offer expertise in questionnaire design, survey data collection and specialized capabilities such as analysis for legal cases, expert testimony in court, and Hispanic and Asian-language interviewing.Desk research – refers to the identification and analysis of information that hasalready been compiled and published in some form or other. This type of informationis known as “secondary” because it already exists as opposed to “primary” whichwould require a survey or research study to produce new data. Typically, examiningwhat is already available is the first step in any marketing research process and hasobvious economic benefits. Marketing desk research is usually undertaken for the following two reasons:ï¿½ To examine a market into which a business is considering entering;ï¿½ To continuously monitor the markets in which a business is already operating.Whatever the reason, it will be necessary to:ï¿½ understand the current state of the industry or productï¿½ examine and identify actual and potential marketsï¿½ identify and monitor competitors and customersï¿½ explore promotional methods( pdf)Market SegmentationMarket Segmentation – identification of portion of the market that are different from one another. Segmentation allows the firm to better satisfy the needs of its potentials customers.Types of SegmentsJust as you can divide an orange up into segments you can divide the population as a whole into many different groups of people or segments that have something in common. Segmenting the market makes it easier to identify groups of people with the same consumer needs and wants. Marketers therefore look for categories they can use to divide up the population.There are five commonly used categories:* Age* Gender* Culture* Income* LifestyleAge: The population can be divided by age in years (e. g. 0-16, 17-25) or by the stage of life reached (e.g. schoolchild, teenager). For example, a pensioner will have similar needs to those of other pensioners but different needs from those of a teenager. Gender: Products may be targeted at a specific gender group. For instance, cosmetics have been traditionally targeted at women while DIY has been targeted at men.Culture: People’s needs and wants as consumers will vary according to their religion, language, social customs, dietary habits and ethnic background. In the UK businesses provide for a wide range of different cultures. There are magazines and newspapers in many different languages and Halal butchers in areas with large Muslim populations. Income: The population can be segmented according to annual salary (e.g. ï¿½15,000, ï¿½30,000 etc.), or type of job and social class. Establishing a group’s disposable income is important so that products can be targeted to the relevant income group. This is called a socio-economic segment. The socio-economic groups A, B, C1, C2, D and E describe how much the head of the household earns.Lifestyle: People are grouped according to the way they lead their lives and the attitudes they share. For example, young professionals may drive a sports car because of the image they want to project. Married parents might want the same things, but have to provide for their children, which is a large extra cost. They will need a family car to suit their lifestyle.(Source:www. research – The process of systematic gathering, recording and analyzing of data about customers, competitors and the market. Market research can help create a business plan, launch a new product or service, fine tune existing products and services, expand into new markets etc. It can be used to determine which portion of the population will purchase the product/service, based on variables like age, gender, location and income level. It can be found out what market characteristics your target market has. With market research, companies can learn more about current and potential customers.(Source: are four main categories that you need to find out about:CompetitorsAlternative suppliers of the products or servicesConsumersThe people who will use your products or servicesCostsYour costs of starting and running the businessCustomersThe people who will buy from you(Source: Mr. Sood and internet)The other method and the most usual method of market segmentation is done through the socio- economic grouping. The population is been divided by this method accorded to their occupation (i.e. Job) or of the household’s head’s occupation (such as the father or mother of the family). The table below illustrates this method.Social gradeSocial statusHead of household’sOccupationAUpper middle classHigher managerial, administrative or professional such as doctors, lawyers and company directors.BMiddleIntermediate managerial, administrative or professional such as teachers, nurses and managers. C1LowerMiddle classSupervisory or clerical and junior managerial, administrative or professional such as a shop assistant, clerks and police constables.C2Skilledworking classSkilled manual workers such as carpenters, cooks and train drivers.DWorking classSemi-skilled and unskilled manual workers such as fitters and storekeepers.EThe poorestin societyState pensioners or widows, casual or lower grade workers, or long-term unemployed.Source AndertonLifestyleSecondary research – when a project requires a summary or collection of existing data. Other secondary research available includes:* Telephone directories* Yellow pages* Internet* Newspapers and* Magazines* Trade magazines and trade journals* Statistical reports including census reportsMarket ResearchThis means to find out the information for the following;CostsHow much it will cost to start a business or running a businessCompetitorsThe suppliers of your business product or servicesConsumersThe people who will use your products or servicesCustomersThe people who will purchase your product from you.Source: GCSE Business Studies for EdexelSecondary ResearchA big deal of research for the consumer is done through the reports in the libraries, trade associations and university research bodies. It sometimes involves irrational dislikes, likes and preferences of your “end-users.”Other secondary search is shown as follows;* Telephone directories, E.g. Yellow pages Etc. * House reports from the company* Internet* Magazines* Rations reports of the businessesThese are available from the reference of the business which comes from the sections of the major libraries which should be quickly assessed.Advantages and disadvantages of Secondary researchAdvantagesDisadvantagesCheapProbably out of dateLess time ConsumingMay not meet your needs of researchInformation readily available through internet, library & own businessThe right questions might not be askedHas been interpreted by someone elseHas been collected by someone else that yourselfSource: GCSE Business Studies for EdexelPrimary researchWhen you have found out all you can through internal and secondary research you will need to prepare to find the missing information. Primary research can be carried out face to face, over the telephone or by post or over the internet.SurveysTo use a questionnaire is the most common form of survey. A questionnaire includes a list of questionnaire for the customers to fill in for the help of improvement of your business. This can be carried out in the streets, can be carried out in relatives, by post or by email.Advantages of questionnairesDisadvantagesThe business can decide which questions it wants to askThey often do not allow people to express their own opinions of what they think should happenEveryone is asked the same questionsThey are brief and impersonalIt is easy to analyse the replies using information TechnologyThere is a very low return rate for postal and newspaper questionnaires. They are quite expensive and time-consumingInterviewsThis is done to know what the customer wants which is part of the primary research. For example if the public wants a product such as soap powder, that had been placed in their home for them to try out. The interviewer has a set of ready-prepared questions to ask the interviewer, many of which will be open questions to allow them to express their own opinion which will help the interviewer make the interview easier. Advantages and disadvantages of interviewsAdvantages of interviewDisadvantages of interviewIt is easier to obtain detailed information about the person’s viewsInterviews are an expensive way of gathering information, because they are time- consuming to conduct.If any of the questions are difficult to understand, the interviewer can explain themThe interviewer may have to travel some distance between one interview and the next, taking up time and costing money.If the interview is in the person’s home, packaging can also be shown and the person’s views recorded.Source taken from GCSE Business Studies for EdexelObservationIt means when market researchers watch and react to the organization’s service of the product.Advantages and disadvantages of ObservationAdvantagesDisadvantagesGather more than normal information of the peopleIt would go expensive as too many people are neededObservation influenced by the beliefs of the observerHypothesisI am going to carry out a piece of research which is called field research. This means a questionnaire, which I am going to give out in the public to people who are happy to respond. The public is a part of the social economic group. It won’t really to have the same number of female and male to respond to my questionnaire. It will help me more to create my marketing plan according to the responds.According to my questionnaire, I think that I will probably get most of the following results:* The people I am going to ask, they would be in the age range of 18-25. That I because they have a new license and want to buy a car* Students earn money, so they would pay me enough money for a car. The most of the people who responded to my questionnaire was males.Most of the people I asked, they had a driving license of 3-8 years.The age range of most of the people was 17-25. This is as I predictedSports cars are most liked by the people I asked. So I will try to keep most of the cars sports.Most of the people preferred automatic gearbox. Probably the ones who want to buy a family car. I will try also keep cars with and automatic gearbox.Mercedes-Benz is being preferred by most of the people. It is a German car. I will try to keep most of the cars in my showroom which are made in Germany.Most of the people saw their last car advert on the T. V. It is expensive to do, but it will help me creating my marketing plan.Almost all of them had the same choice.33% of 100% are ready to spend ï¿½5,000-7,999. This is the same as I expectedMost of the people I asked, they earn ï¿½10,000+ per annum. This will give me an advantage as they would be ready to spend ï¿½5,000-7,999 on a car. As I expected, 66 percent of a hundred want to have air conditioner as their internal extra. This will help me to plan what cars most people would like E.g. With air conditioner obviously.Most of the people would like to have Alloy wheels as their external extra. It is the same as I predictedCheap car insurance is something everyone wants. So I would try to offer that kind of service. But they would have to agree to the policy.Most of the people like to read The guardian. I will try to advertise in that.Most of the people, 60 percent bought their last car from a showroom. This is an advantage for me as I am going to open a car showroom.EvaluationIn this section I will determine whether my marketing plan and research meet specified criteria such as effectiveness.The Strengths of my business were to create a survey with the suitable questions and to find people that were suited to answer the questionnaire. Most of the results I got from the questionnaire were like I predicted. An example would be the question ‘What local newspaper do you read?’ which was answered with 40% for the Guardian (s. right). The Weaknesses of my business were that I used some questions in my questionnaire that were irrelevant and useless. An example for this is the question ‘What internal extras do you look for?’ (s. right) which was not a well asked question because the results show that everyone I asked gave the same answer that was ‘Air Conditioning’. An explanation for this is that I did not have enough time to do my survey, because I had to proceed with my marketing plan.The Opportunities of my business are that if my business successes in the future I will be able to increase the products and services I can offer. in the future I can also sell products like Alloy Wheels or Air Conditioning systems because these products were most preferred by the people I asked (s. right). I can also offer BOGOFs (Buy one, get one free) with smaller products that I will sell in my shop.The Threats of my business are that because of the leaflets I am going to produce, people might through them on the streets. That could be a big disadvantage because this can produce more pollution. This could also lead to higher council taxes because the council would have to arrange more people for cleaning the roads and thus they would have to pay more money to them. If the council raises the taxes I would have less money to spend on my marketing campaign. This could also have an effect on global warming because it is not guaranteed that the material of the leaflets will be recycled.BOGOFs (Buy one, get one free) with smaller products that I will sell in my shop E.g. steering cover and a perfume tree etc.The Threats of my business are that because of the leaflets I am going to produce, people might Throw them on the streets. That could be a big disadvantage because this can cause more pollution which can lead to higher council taxes. That is because the council would have to have more workers to clean the streets which means they have to pay more money to the workers. If the council increases the taxes, then I would have less money to spend on my marketing campaign which would have a link to global warming because I will not be sure whether my leaflets are comfortably recycled or not. And if the customers throw my leaflets on the streets without looking at them, I would have to pa y more tax and I would have to pay more money making new leaflets for my adverts. If I advertise on The Guardian I won’t be sure whether the people will buy the Guardian or not, but according to the questionnaire, most of the people chose Guardian so let’s hope for the best.Marketing PlanI will come up with a marketing plan for my car showroom, based on the research I have carried out. I need to know my target market, which is very important in deciding upon my marketing Plan. For this I created the research to get a successful marketing plan.With the result I got from my research I know what product I am going to sell, which will be Volkswagen and Vauxhall cars (s. chart right) and that I will target on people aged 25-35 who are in socio-economic class A and B. Advertising my businessTo find the best place, where I should advertise my business, I asked in my questionnaire “Where did you buy your last car from?” The outcome was that about 40% of the people I asked bought their last car from the Internet. This result is telling me clearly that I should use the Internet for advertisement to get the most effective and successful advertising. I would create my own website for my business to sell my cars. This has also other benefits like, that they can contact me easier by e-mailing.After the Internet I could also use magazines for advertising, because 25% of the people I asked bought their last car from a magazine or local newspaper. To advertise in a local newspaper I first need to find out, what local newspapers are read most. In my questionnaire I asked this question. The result was (as shown on the left), that the most frequently read newspaper is the Guardian. This result tells me clearly that advertising in the Guardian would be the most effective and successful way apart from the Internet.LeafletsThis method is going to be easy and cheap. This is very helpful because almost everybody gets to see it.The followings are the details of a firm that will print leaflets for my business. Best Printing Limited2nd Floor145-157 St. John StreetLondonEC1V [email protected] following are the prices listed offered to me to print leaflets.Source: http://www. chose this company because it gave me a wide range of options of what type of leaflets I want to print. It also is cheap as I have a small business. Another benefit is that I can order leaflets online. I will be ordering 5,000 leaflets for my business as I think it should be enough to cover the whole area. This will cost me ï¿½115,00 for the leaflets as you can see above. These leaflets will be in the size of A5.I have to use attractive colour in my leaflets, so that it will catch the reader’s eye. I will also put offers on the leaflets. For example “The first 5 buyers will get ï¿½500 free tuning on their new car.”The GuardianDetails of contacting The Guardian:119 Farmingdon Road, London0208 585 343 will also advertise in a newspaper. To help myself on which newspaper to advertise in, I asked the following question in my questionnaire “What local newspaper do you read?” As you can see at right, most of the people like to read The Guardian. That is why I will be advertising in this newspaper.I will be planning to advertise on one whole page including 4 offer and description lines, and I will include one picture of a Mercedes-Benz. The prices for advertising in The Guardian are:One picture: ï¿½25One line: ï¿½12This will cost me:ï¿½25+(ï¿½12*4)= ï¿½73This price is for one advertisementTrade description Act 1968It was accomplished in 1968, which makes it a criminal offence for traders to make false statements about the goods they sell. This means, for example, that it is illegal to say that goods can do something they cannot, such as say that a black and white printer can print good colour printouts. Also, it is illegal to say that goods include ingredients that they do notSo I will have to be careful with what I sell and what the thing does. Sex discrimination act 1975.This is a another legal constraint, but this relates to the gender. This act in 1975 and 1986 has been made to protect men and women to be discriminated on the grounds of the gender. According to this law I will not be allowed to have one gender privileging with any fields of service, prices or anything else like that.Effects on Environment and SocietyProducing leaflets will be a bad point of my advertising.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009 C Language Gotchas C Language Gotchas This document describes some easy-to-make mistakes in C. 1. Character Data 1.1 <ctype.h> And Character Types The char data type might, in any implementation, be signed or unsigned. However, the functions defined in <ctype.h> don't automatically work well with this: the standard says: In all cases the argument is an int, the value of which shall be representable as an unsigned char or shall be equal to the value of EOF. This means that if you write code like this, then you run the risk of passing illegal values to the ctype functions: size_t count_whitespace(const char s) { const char t = s; while(isspace(t)) / possibly t < 0 / return t - s; One approach would be to pass all your character strings around explicitly using unsigned characters. But this is inconvenient when you have to interwork with other functions that haven't been designed with this approach in mind - for example the string handling functions found in the standard library. The approach I adopt is to use an explicit cast. The above example would thus become: size_t count_whitespace(const char s) { const char t = s; while(isspace((unsigned char)t)) return t - s; There are a couple of other points worth making here: • If you assign a character picked out of a string to an integer variable, the cast should be applied at that point, not just before passing the character to a ctype function. • You can see the idea that you're supposed to use the unsigned representation of characters surface in the definition of functions such as strcmp and memcmp, which are defined as interpreting the characters they compare as unsigned char values. 1.2 And Character Types Characters obtained directly from stdio functions such as getc don't require casting before being used in a function, as the return value is either an unsigned char converted to an int, or EOF. Characters returned from stdio functions are usually assigned to int variables, not char or unsigned char variables, since if you do the latter you can no longer correctly check for EOF. Consider for example this code: char c; c = getchar(); while(c != EOF) { c = getchar(); The loop may never terminate: if char is an unsigned type then EOF will be converted to some positive value. On systems with where char is signed, there is a more subtle bug. Suppose for example that EOF is -1 - then if character 255 is read it will be converted to the value -1 and terminate the input prematurely. The conventional way to write this code is: int c; c = getchar(); while(c != EOF) { c = getchar(); There is still a problem. Although EOF is guaranteed to be negative, and thus distinct from the value of any unsigned char, it is not guaranteed to be different from any such value when converted to an int. This is never a problem on many common systems; but it is at least a theoretical possibility permitted by the C standard. Imagine for instance a 16-bit word-addressed machine with a compiler that didn't try to pack multiple characters to the word but instead made char and int identical types. Then we would have (int)(unsigned char)65535 == -1. (There are certainly word-addressed machines. The second half of the condition might be a reasonable design decision for a compiler vendor with customers who weren't very interested in text processing). You might feel that you would be in good company if you ignored systems where the natural character and integer types were the same size, but this article would certainly be incomplete if it did so. To work correctly on such systems, the proper way to write the above loop would be: int c; c = getchar(); while(!feof(stdin) && !ferror(stdin)) { c = getchar(); You should be careful to consider the effect of end of file or error on any tests you make on these values. Consider this loop, intended to scan all characters up to the next whitespace character received: int c; c = getchar(); while(!isspace(c)) { c = getchar(); If EOF is returned before any whitespace is detected then this loop may never terminate (since it is not a whitespace character). A better way to write this would be: int c; c = getchar(); while(!feof(stdin) && !ferror(stdin) && !isspace(c)) { c = getchar(); Finally, it is worth noting that although EOF is usually -1, all the standard promises is that it is a negative integral constant with type int. 2. printf Format Strings Conversions contained in printf format strings require specific types to appear in the argument list: for example %d requires an int argument, and %.s requires an int followed by a character pointer. Unfortunately, the nature of the printf interface is such that the compiler can only do very limited type-checking, and is forbidden from doing the implicit conversion to the correct type that ordinary function calls have in C. If you have something like, say, a pid_t object, and want to print out its numeric value, then the temptation is to just write %d and rely on the fact that pid_t objects do indeed often promote to a type compatible with int. For example, on my system, gcc compiles this without complaint, and it runs fine: #include <stdio.h> #include <unistd.h> int main(void) { printf("$=%d\n", getpid()); return 0; But such facts are rarely guaranteed, and may not be true on some other system that your code will one day be ported to. My usual approach is to cast explicitly to the widest available type of the appropriate signedness, and used the correct conversion specification for the resulting type. For example: printf("$ = %ld\n", (long)getpid()); This points up a possible problem: what if PIDs are bigger than longs? Of course this problem was here in the previous version - only worse, as the problem was with the (potentially) smaller type. Answers might be: • Use a pair of macros; but this make the code hard to read, and therefore hard to maintain. • Use intmax_t; but this relies on a C99 implementation, or an implementation that supports this type as an extension, which may limit portability. • Use long long; but this relies on a C99 implementation, or an implementation that supports this type as an extension, which may limit portability, and there's no sure guarantee that the type you're trying to print won't be even wider than long long. • Ignore the problem and hope that nobody ever violates your assumptions (but this might not even be safe with PIDs, never mind any other data type). Increasingly risky as 64-bit machines become more widespread. 2.1 %.s And Pointer Differences A common idiom used to print a substring delimited by two character pointers is to use %.s with the "." part being satisfied by the difference of the two pointers. This, for example, compiles without complaint on my system: #include <stdio.h> void t(const char p1, const char p2) { printf("%.s\n", p2 - p1, p1); But the pointer difference actually has type ptrdiff_t, not the int that printf will be expecting. On a machine with 64-bit pointers but 32-bit ints, this becomes a serious problem; a compiler than can check the format strings would, hopefully, at least produce a warning. The correct way to write this is to explicitly cast the pointer difference to an int: printf("%.s\n", (int)(p2 - p1), p1); This points up the other problem with this approach - what if the pointer difference is so large that it won't fit an int (which might be as small as 16 bits)? This problem was always there; it's just that it was less noticeable before. Answers might be: • Check that the pointer difference is in range before casting it. • Limit your strings to a suitable size earlier in the code. • Ignore the problem, and assume that available memory will limit your strings to a suitable size (which is not a bad bet when int and the machine's address space are both 32 bits, but falls over if you port to machines with larger address spaces or smaller ints.) Increasingly risky as 64-bit machines become more widespread. 2.2 Format String Vulnerabilities A "format string vulnerability" is where the programmer passes a user-supplied string to some function (typically e.g. printf and syslog) that will then interpret it in a way that can potentially be exploited to trick the program into doing something the author didn't intend. In some programs this is just a bug, but if the program runs with more privilege than the user than it becomes a security hole. For example, suppose that the program has read some data from the user into the buffer somevar and now wants to print it out. The wrong way to do it would be: A hostile user can choose the string they send in such a way as to extract information from the program or even to modify its data and internal workings. (Ask Google about "exploiting format string vulnerabilities" for more information about this. The point of this document is to teach you how not to be vulnerable to these exploits, not to teach you how to construct them.) The correct way to do what the programmer usually intends in this situation is: printf("%s", somevar); fputs(somevar, stdout); 3. Unbounded String Operations Functions such as strcpy, strcat and sprintf have a well-known misfeature: they don't bound the size of the resulting string, which means that whatever buffer has been allocated for the result can be overrun if some check is not made. Formally, overrunning the buffer just results in undefined behaviour. This might just make a program unreliable, but it might also be a security hole. Various solutions exist. • Explicitly check that the result string will fit prior to the operation. If it doesn't, don't perform the operation but instead signal an error somehow. Example: if(strlen(buffer) + strlen(str) >= sizeof buffer) return -1; strcat(buffer, str); (This assumes that buffer is an array, not a char . If it is just a pointer, sizeof will return the wrong value, and you must find the size some other way.) • Use snprintf instead of sprintf. This ensures that only a buffer of known size will be updated, and returns the number of characters (excluding the terminating 0) that would be required. The disadvantage is that you have to rely on having C99 or a C library which supports snprintf as an extension. Another worry with snprintf is that not every implementation chooses the same conventions for the return value: some old versions return -1 on overflow instead of the number of characters that would have been written if space were available. See also http://www.unixpapa.com/incnote/stdio.html. • Use strncpy instead of strcpy. However, you should be aware of two things; firstly strncpy does not guarantee to null-terminate the result if it is too long, merely to truncate it; and secondly that if there is space for a terminator, it fills up the rest of the buffer with 0s, not just the one byte that is necessary. To use this function safely, it is therefore necessary to explicitly set the last byte of the buffer to 0 after calling it; for example: strncpy(buffer, str, sizeof buffer); buffer[sizeof buffer - 1] = 0; The same warning regarding sizeof as above applies. • Use strncat instead of strcat. Be careful: the size parameter is the number of characters to copy, not the buffer size; and a 0 character is always appended. So there must be enough space in the buffer for the original string, the number of characters specified, and the terminator. For example: strncat(buffer, str, sizeof buffer - strlen(buffer) - 1); • Use strlcpy and strlcat instead of strcpy and strcat. Unfortunately these functions are not yet defined in any standard. • Dynamically allocate sufficient memory for all result strings, rather than relying on fixed-size buffers and bound checking. The downside of this is that you then have much more memory allocation to worry about, and (particularly for sprintf) it can be tiresome to calculate all the lengths in advance. Example: if(!(buffer = malloc(strlen(s1) + strlen(s2) + 1))) return -1; /* malloc failed / strcpy(buffer, s1); strcat(buffer, s2); • Use a string handling library which does most of the memory allocation work for you behind the scenes. 4. Type Assumptions 4.1 time_t It's fairly common practice, especially in programs written under some variant of UNIX, to assume that time_t is a count of non-leap seconds from the start of 1970. In fact the C standard doesn't guarantee this - it only guarantees that it be an arithmetic type (which includes float and double). It doesn't guarantee that it has a resolution of seconds, nor even that it increases with time. Even some UNIX standards don't guarantee a starting point of 1970. The answer to this is to avoid making any unguaranteed assumptions about time_t. This might be quite hard work, as the functions defined by the C standard are not powerful enough for many applications. Also, there's quite a bit of code available for free that already assumes the traditional UNIX time_t, and if you want to use it, that means you need a matching time representation. One answer is to define your own time type, which you can guarantee to have the required representation, and use conversion functions to convert between your type and the system's time_t. On most (all?) UNIX systems, and anything that has a compatible time_t, this type can be a synonym for time_t and the conversion functions need do nothing. On other systems the type should be defined as a suitable integer type, and the conversion functions depend on what the system's time_t is like. If you define your type as long, then, since that type may be only 32 bits wide, your program may stop working in 2038. Another alternative is not to care and declare that your program will never work on systems with unusual time representations. But you may come to regret doing this. 5. Null Pointer Constants The comp.lang.c FAQ has an entire section on null pointers. There are some points worth making here, though. The standard says: An integral constant expression with the value 0, or such an expression cast to void , is called a null pointer constant. If a null pointer constant is assigned to or compared for equality to a pointer, the constant is converted to a pointer of that type. Such a pointer, called a null pointer, is guaranteed to compared unequal to a pointer to any object or function. Firstly, despite the name a "null pointer constant" need not actually be a null pointer according to the definition above; it will only become one in a context where a pointer is expected. For instance outside a pointer context the constant 0 has type int despite being a "null pointer constant". This matters when the programmer knows that a pointer is expected but the compiler does not. Variadic functions are one situation in which this case arises. Consider this code fragment: printf("%p\n", 0); %p expects a pointer argument (specifically void ) but the compiler does not know this - it is worked out at runtime instead. Consequently the argument is not converted to a pointer at all (despite technically being a null pointer constant) and so the wrong type of argument is passed. The resulting behaviour is undefined (it might crash, for instance). The correct way to write this is to use an explicit cast: printf("%p\n", (void )0); Secondly, NULL is guaranteed only to be a null pointer constant - not necessarily to be a null pointer. Again, this does matter. Consider this code fragment: printf("%p\n", NULL); If NULL is defined as 0, as is legitimate, then this is no more correct than the original version. If you want to use NULL then you must still cast it: printf("%p\n", (void )NULL); You might reasonably wonder what the point of NULL is in that case. I generally do not use it in my own code, but some people like it - it makes it clearer that a null pointer is intended. Thirdly, only constants are null pointer constants. (The name makes more sense here.) A variable that happens to have the value 0 might not become a null pointer when converted to an appropriate pointer type. So this fragment: int x = 0; printf("%p\n", (void )x); ...might perfectly legitimately produce different output to the previous examples. Finally, beware of using the word "null" to describe things other than null pointers or null pointer constants in the context of C; it can lead to confusion. I use "character 0" or '\0' instead of "the null character" or "NUL", and "the empty string" instead "the null string". This is a point about human language rather than what you write in a C program, though. 6. I/O Error Checking There are a few points worth making regarding checking for I/O errors. Firstly, a common mistake is to fail to close output streams before calling exit. Consider for instance this program: #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> int main(void) { if(printf("Hello, world\n") < 0) { perror("writing to stdout"); This program correctly checks for an error when calling printf; however if standard output is buffered then the greeting will not actually be written until the stream is closed by exit. If the write succeeds all is well, but if it fails, then there is no way for the C library to report the failure. This applies when main returns, as well as when exit is called. The library could change the successful termination indication to a failed termination indication in this situation. However, the standard does not require this and most existing C libraries do not do it, so although it would be a good idea if they did, we can't rely on it as application authors. One possible corrected version of the program is therefore this: #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> int main(void) { \|\| fclose(stdout) < 0) { perror("writing to stdout"); Secondly, it is worth re-iterating here the point about EOF made in section 1.2 above; it is possible that some valid character may compare equal to EOF, so calls to getc, getchar, fgetc, putc, putchar and fputc must use explicit calls to ferror and (for the read functions) feof to check for an error or the end of the file, rather than checking the return value. ungetc doesn't set the error indicator even when it fails, so it's not possible to reliably check for errors unless you know that the argument isn't equal to EOF. On the other hand, the standard says "one character of pushback is guaranteed", so this shouldn't be an issue if you only ever push at most one character back before reading again. These issues are only a practical problem when the char and int types have the same representation, but portable code cannot assume that they do not. Finally, the error returns from the various <stdio.h> functions are completely inconsistent. The table below summarizes: Function Successful Return Error Return fclose zero EOF (negative) fflush zero EOF (negative) fgetc character read use ferror/feof fgetpos zero nonzero fgets pointer to array null pointer fprintf number of characters (non-negative) negative fputc character written use ferror fputs non-negative EOF (negative) fopen pointer to stream null pointer fread elements read elements read freopen pointer to stream null pointer fscanf number of conversions (non-negative) EOF or not all conversions fseek zero [1] nonzero fsetpos zero nonzero ftell file position -1L fwrite elements written elements written getc character read use ferror/feof getchar character read use ferror/feof gets never use this function printf number of characters (non-negative) negative putc character written use ferror puts non-negative EOF (negative) remove zero nonzero rename zero nonzero setvbuf zero nonzero scanf number of conversions (non-negative) EOF or not all conversions snprintf number of characters that would be written (non-negative) [2] negative sprintf number of characters (non-negative) negative sscanf number of conversions (non-negative) EOF or not all conversions tmpfile pointer to stream null pointer tmpnam non-null pointer null pointer ungetc character pushed back EOF (see above) vfprintf number of characters (non-negative) negative vfscanf number of conversions (non-negative) EOF or not all conversions vprintf number of characters (non-negative) negative vscanf number of conversions (non-negative) EOF or not all conversions vsnprintf number of characters that would be written (non-negative) [2] negative vsprintf number of characters (non-negative) negative [1] the standard text is "The fseek function returns nonzero only for a request that cannot be satisfied.", which seems unambiguous but is oddly different in style from most of the other return value specifications. [2] early versions of Glibc had a broken implementation of snprintf and vsnprintf: they would return -1 on overflow rather than the number of characters that would be written. Broken versions of these functions are quite common, especially in older C libraries. Quite a few of the examples here focus on variadic functions. In particular they look at printf - but this is just because that is one of the more complex variadic functions that C programmers usually encounter. The underlying problem is that C's compile-time type checking mechanisms do not apply in the case of variadic functions. The same problems occur with unprototyped functions. However, it is usually reasonable to regard these as obsolete and always avoid them. The one exception is for code that must be portable to very old machines; personally I take the view that this consideration only ever applies to code necessary to bring up a modern compiler targetted on such machines. It would be useful to do away with these problems even in the context of variadic functions, though. There is some hope. In the case of functions with the same interface as printf, scanf or strftime, GNU C can be told to do type checking based on the format string. Obviously this doesn't help for variadic functions with different requirements, though. execlp and similar functions in UNIX could have compile-time type checking in the same way (a common bug is to fail to make the terminating null pointer actually a null pointer) but gcc does not currently support this. Even if it did, though, building knowledge of each special format into the compiler is not a very general solution. It's not clear how this would be sensibly fixed without very radical changes to C. Copyright © 2001, 2002, 2007 Richard Kettlewell. Please send feedback to richard+cfu@@sfere.greenend.org.uk. Please link to this document as http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/2001/02/cfu.html, rather than copying it (or linking to any other URL that might happen to produce it.) No comments:
The art of creating and repairing threads on fasteners, and holes to take those fasteners. Threading refers to a spiral-inclined plane that wraps around bolts and screws, and also the matching feature on the inside of a hole, or nut. Threads are cut into hard materials like metals (steel, aluminium, brass, iron, etc) as well as some items like wood and plastics. Threads are rarely installed into items like bone or soft woods, instead a metal insert is often used. Threading is NOT the word for corkscrews or ice spikes - they are more like nails that happen to follow a curve. The difference is that a corkscrew does not have a center core/shaft. There are many (so many) thread systems. Metric threads are noted as M followed by a number which is the diameter, and then a thread count. eg M6 x 1.0 means 6mm external diameter, and 1 thread per millimetre (ie one full rotation advances the fastener 1 millimetre) Imperial/Standard/SAE threads are described with a diameter in inches, followed by a thread count in inches (or TPI) eg 1/4-20 is a quarter of an inch across, and takes 20 full turns to advance one inch. There are also different thread forms, including triangular, buttress, acme, whitworth, etc. Tools for creating threads are known as taps for inside holes, or [dies] for external threads like on a bolt. Each tap and die can only cut one thread type+size so they're often sold in sets. Further reading
6 Scary Things You Need to Know about Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), Just In Time for Halloween For many of us, the end of October means apple cider, pumpkin carving, and trick-or-treating. But this year, the most frightening thing that fall has brought isn’t Halloween…it’s the dramatically worsened air quality after several months of sustained wildfires. The continuing wildfires in California have sparked widespread concern about air quality in general, and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in particular. Depending on monitoring and management packages, buildings might not be providing much more than false sense of security, which is more haunting than a haunted house. In the worst cases, poor IAQ can cause long term health problems for building residents. Additionally, misconceptions about IAQ might make it difficult to know where to start making constructive changes in your building. It pays to be aware of common dangers and misconceptions about IAQ, in order to create the best case: a truly safe facility with organization-wide awareness of pitfalls, up-to-date technology, and, of course, excellent IAQ! Read on for the spookiest facts about IAQ that you should know. 1. Indoor air pollution is one of the top environmental dangers When it comes to air pollution, many of us immediately think of car exhaust fumes and the above-mentioned wildfires, among others. Building owners, managers, and residents alike may consider indoor air to be way cleaner than outdoor air. It’s only natural; when it’s smoky and hazy outside, it makes good sense to run for the nearest air-conditioned building for relief. This assumption ignores the most simple and obvious of facts: indoor air is actually much more dangerous than outdoor air. The United States EPA has ranked indoor air quality as one of the top five environmental risks to public health, stating that it is five times dirtier than outside air, and in some cases, one hundred times greater. Although IAQ can suffer more due to location (homes near wildfires, for example), no building is entirely immune. This is due to lower quality building materials, paint, flame retardants, poor ventilation, chemical cleaning products, chemical air fresheners, organic matter, and outdoor pollutants that make their way inside. It’s a spooky thought, but remember that forewarned is forearmed! With awareness comes the power to make positive change. While indoor air pollution is a big problem, many of the following facts point to specific issues that can be targeted in order to make poor IAQ a ghost of the past. 2. IAQ can be negatively affected by external factors Because IAQ deals with indoor air, it is easy to forget that it can be affected by what is happening outside of the building. The California fires are a relevant example. Unless a building is hermetically sealed, there’s no way to prevent outside air from getting inside. Additionally, building inhabitants and users bring in pollutants on their clothing. These factors can have a cumulative negative effect on IAQ. In closed buildings with reduced airflow and poor ventilation, pollutants build up over time, which compounds their negative effects on building inhabitants. Though the fires in California are almost all contained, it is likely that they will recur next summer and beyond. Fires and other catastrophic events are just the tip of the iceberg. Everyday, run-of-the-mill pollution has the ability to upset the delicate balance of a building’s IAQ. This means that building managers and owners need to be proactive about creating strategies that address what to do with toxins once they’re in the building, not just focus on keeping them out. 3. Poor IAQ is bad news for children and the elderly, and those with asthma The very young, the elderly, and those with respiratory conditions are among those who are most vulnerable to poor IAQ. When it comes to indoor pollutants, secondhand smoke is one of the top offenders, not to mention the hundreds of harmful chemicals that are released through air fresheners, building materials, cleaning products, solvents, and paint. All of these chemicals have been proven to worsen certain respiratory conditions, as well as to have a negative effect on the development of babies and children. A recent study found that these chemicals interact with ozone to form carcinogenic formaldehyde, which can cause airflow limitation, and exacerbate respiratory sensitivity in those with conditions such as asthma. The elderly, who spend the majority of their days inside, whether at home or in senior centers, are the most affected by poor IAQ. Whatever is inside these buildings, whether it be chemicals, smoke particles, or fungus, the elderly average the most exposure. Because of the high occurrence of immune sensitivity among this group, such exposure can lead to serious long-term health problems. 4. Air-conditioning and fans can make IAQ even worse Depending on the configuration of your building’s air conditioning, running these units can bump air quality from mediocre to poor. Some air conditioning units don’t purify outside air before bringing it into the AC system, meaning that countless outdoor pollutants are making their way into the building under the guise of cooling it down…now that’s a scary Halloween costume! Likewise, fans positioned to draw cool air from outside into the building can inadvertently suck in pollutants. If a building’s monitoring systems don’t react quickly enough to these outside pollutants, the air-conditioning system can distribute them throughout the building before anything can be done to fix the problem. For example, in areas with persistent fires or other sustained outdoor pollution, smoke and toxic particles enter a building. An HVAC system that isn’t sensitive enough will not be able to stop the distribution of particles throughout the building. This is doubly bad–first, because of the distribution, and second, because the air conditioning itself will intensify the negative effects of the smoke. The cold, dry air will allow the particles to spread even faster, while creating additional irritation in the lungs of building inhabitants. 5. Some air cleaners generate ozone A good solution to this can be to integrate an air cleaner into your HVAC. Air cleaners are intended to filter out particulate and gaseous matter from the building’s air. However, not all air cleaners are created equal, and some may actually cause more harm than good. Certain air cleaners are actually ozone generators, which use UV light or an electrical discharge in order to intentionally produce ozone. Ozone is ineffective at removing most indoor air contaminants when used at levels that do not exceed public health standards. Moreseo, the resulting ozone can act as a lung irritant, causing chest pain, coughing, shortness of breath, and lowered immunity. The fact of the matter is that exposure to ozone can have both short- and long-term negative health effects. Air cleaners should be chosen carefully, so that they do not create more problems than they correct. 6. IAQ can be affected from a distance There is no safe way to estimate how far pollutants can spread. This means that, even if your building is miles away from a fire, chemical spill, or other potentially harmful event, it could still suffer some of the consequences of pollution. So even if your building is constructed with non-toxic materials, uses eco-friendly cleaning supplies, and checks routinely for pollutants such as funguses and molds, it is still a good idea to stay on top of preventative methods. Depending on your building’s needs, these might include keeping building managers up to date on best-practices in the event of pollution events; ensuring your systems are operating optimally; monitoring your building’s IAQ data to ensure that you have and understand the reliable baseline; and making sure the entire organization is on the same page with regards to best practices. All of these issues are ghoulish enough to cause real fright, but a combination of the proper HVAC systems, as well as effective preparation, can eliminate most, if not all, of them. There are a variety of proactive steps building owners and managers can take to ensure excellent IAQ and a safe and productive work environment. The best strategies are: • Remove sources of contaminants where possible (for example: building materials, cleaning chemicals, toxic air fresheners). • Improve ventilation (to ensure that dangerous build-up is not occurring. • Optimize your HVAC (make sure your building’s HVAC sensors are sensitive enough to handle monitoring for potential pollutants and polluting events. Install retrofits where necessary). • Make sure owners, managers, and building users are all up to speed on best practices. Originally published on Senseware.com. Leave a Reply WordPress.com Logo Google photo Twitter picture Facebook photo Connecting to %s
The System Of Competition And Antitrust Laws And Policies In The United States For years and centuries, the developed world sought to make its economy fair, competitive, and just for each and every market player. Dozens of laws were passed in the United States to further fair, balanced, and competitive business practices. The history of competitive policies and antitrust practices in the United States has dates back to the Sherman Antitrust Act passed in 1890. Its main purpose was to prevent large organizations from conquering a greater share of markets at the expense of smaller businesses. With time, a separate system of laws was enforced, with the goal of securing American markets from unfair imbalances. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of these laws and policies leaves some room for improvements. The complexities of the legal process, the permissiveness of the existing laws in relation to naturally growing monopolies, as well as the rise of the new knowledge-based economy reduce the effectiveness of the existing antitrust regime and call for the need to pass new laws and regulations in this field. The system of competition and antitrust laws and policies in the United States is rather complex. According to Fox (1997), the American antitrust system is designed primarily to protect consumer wellbeing, welfare, and right to use the advantages of fair competition. Here, consumer wellbeing and welfare are interpreted as the right to choose the most suitable option among a variety of products and purchase them at the most reasonable price (Fox, 1997). As such, the fairness of business practices is interpreted in light of the impacts they have on consumer welfare. Antitrust policies in the U.S. are only indirectly related to the importance of business efficiency, since competitive markets are automatically assumed to be efficient (Fox, 1997). From the Sherman Act of 1890 until present, the United States has been trying hard to create and advance an image of an ideally competitive market. The country has accomplished quite a lot in its striving to protect consumers from the undesirable effects of unfair business practices, but the complexity of the antitrust system and its relative weakness in the face of the new knowledge economy cannot be ignored. One of the chief causes of ineffectiveness in antitrust policies and business laws in the United States is an extremely complex system of enforcement and litigation. The competition policy in the U.S. is being enforced by numerous agencies and responsible bodies. At the federal level, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice are collectively responsible for enforcing fair and just business practices (Fox, 1997). Because the policies and principles followed by the agencies are not always congruent, businesses in the United States often face difficulties with using the existing laws and regulations to defend their practices (Fox, 1997). Meanwhile, state courts and numerous industry organizations seek to ensure their participation in the antitrust system, and the effects they have on businesses can be quite controversial. Consequently, businesses often have to float among various perspectives and emphases on the antitrust laws, as well as the policies and priorities used by the respective agencies to protect their interests. According to McConnell, Brue and Flynn (2012), the policies and laws promoting fair business practices in the U.S. have been only partially effective. The antitrust policy has failed to restrict the growth of monopolies that result from the natural expansion of firms (McConnell et al., 2012). The policy has been quite successful in managing and preventing abusive and predatory behaviors among monopolies, but due to the complex legal process, many of these efforts have been slowed down (McConnell et al., 2012). The most effective the laws and policies have been in preventing tying contracts and price fixing (McConnell et al., 2012). Not surprisingly, many monopolies in the United States enjoy a strong market position. The current law in the U.S. treats monopoly as unfair or discriminating, only if it occupies more than two-thirds of the market and uses unacceptable practices and behaviors to achieve its dominant position (McConnell et al., 2012). In the past years, U.S. courts have become much more tolerant to businesses' aggressive behaviors in the market (Fox, 1997). Therefore, businesses are allowed to use practices and make steps that exclude their potential and real competitors from the market, without fearing that their behaviors will be interpreted as predatory. Only in case of predatory pricing, tying contracts with penalty clauses for switching to a different supplier, direct injures to competitors, and acquisition of a direct rival, U.S. law can limit businesses' practices and decisions (Fox, 1997). In the age of information and knowledge technologies, these problems become even more complicated. In 1998, a federal lawsuit was filed against Microsoft for violating the fundamental provisions of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The government decided that Microsoft had acted illegally and inappropriately, trying to sustain its monopoly over the operational systems market (McConnell et al., 2012). The case became a turning point in the evolution of the new economy, which has three distinct characteristics. First, computer software manufacturing is one of the central elements of a robust economy (Posner, 2000). Second, Internet-based businesses continue to emerge (Posner, 2000). Third, communications services and equipment providers support both the development of computer software and the growth of Internet-based businesses (Posner, 2000). On the one hand, the new economy is focused on producing and delivering intellectual content, whereas all principal antitrust laws and competition regulations have been designed to support traditional industries. On the other hand, the knowledge economy is too innovative and fast to allow businesses using their legal advantage in courts: the legal process is simply too slow to satisfy the competitive needs of the new-economy businesses (Posner, 2000). All these difficulties impede the successful implementation of antitrust laws in the U.S. and call for the development of new legal frameworks that will guarantee fair and competitive business practices in all sectors of the national economy. In conclusion, the United States has developed a whole set of laws to ensure the fairness and competitiveness of business practices. Since the Sherman Act of 1890 and until present, fair competition remains one of the top legal and social priorities in the U.S. However, all these laws have been only partially effective. The system of enforcement and litigation is quite complex. Numerous agencies are responsible for enforcing antitrust policies with diverse goals and priorities. The rise of the knowledge-based economy challenges established beliefs about competition. All these problems call for the need to develop new legal frameworks that will create an atmosphere of fairness and equal business opportunities in all sectors of the national economy. Fox, E.M. (1997). US and EU competition law: A comparison. Institute for International Economics. Retrieved from McConnell, C., Brue, S. & Flynn, S. (2012). Macroeconomics. McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Posner, R. (2000). Antitrust in the new economy. Silicon Flatirons Center. Retrieved from
Linking inventors to industry No matter what path you choose to commercialize or sell an idea, it is important to show that you have invested a small amount in the project yourself, to professionally develop it. This is why protecting and designing is product are so important prior to marketing. In this section we will explore how to sell an idea through licensing. The other route to market your idea is through self-manufacturing. For more info on launching a new product independently, see Business start-Up Once the product has been designed and protected, it is now time to put some personal effort. The key to success is persistence, perseverance, research and preparation. The aim is to put your new product idea in front of relevant industry and get their interest. In the following section we will explain how a licensing agreement work and techniques on how to sell an idea effectively. Selling Ideas through Licensing Licensing agreement: A licensing agreement for a new product idea is a contract between yourself, as the inventor (licensor), and companies (licensee), where you grant them the rights to produce and sell goods, apply a brand name or trademark, use patented technology owned by the licensor, to manufacture, distribute and advertise your product as their own, while you receive a percentage of the royalties. Request a Free Inventors Guide: Patent Advice/How to Patent an Idea Confidentiality Agreements The "Inventing for Profit" Guide Idea Submission Forms News & Updates on Innovation Fields marked with an * are required Request a Free Inventors Guide: Help Text An exclusive license means that no person or company other than the named licensee has the rights to produce your product. A sole license, this is typically understood to mean that the licence is exclusive, except that you (licensor) also reserves full rights to produce your product. A non-exclusive license grants to the licensee the right to use the intellectual property, but means that you remains free to exploit the Intellectual Property and you can produce your product. Licensing agreements to sell ideas contain several terms and conditions dependent onthose negotiated between the inventor and the individual company or companies.These terms can include the following: The most common form of payment, irrelevant of the advance, is to be paid by royalties. Royalties are a percentage of the wholesale price and not the profit, therefore your royalty is usually paid for by the consumer as they are built into the retail price. Some companies will allow for minimum royalties to be paid to you, regardless of actual sales. This way, you will always receive an income from the product even if it is not on the shelf! It is sometimes possible to allow for any future modifications or improvements that are made to the product by the company to also be included as part of the agreement. This means that the future improved products, or subsidiary products, that are derived from your concept, are also held under the same agreement, meaning a continued royalty to you for selling the original idea. This can increase the longevity of the license and your payments. This defines the locations, countries, or group of countries in which the licensing agreement is upheld. If the company to whom you are looking to license only has a US presence then you may look to only obtain a US license with them. Structuring the sale of your idea in this fashion meansthat you can license the product abroad without any conflict. If licensing to an international company, they may require an international license or may specify particular countries in which they wish to distribute the product. How Does an Inventor get Compensated for Selling Ideas via Licensing? An advance payment can be provided. Future legal fees and Intellectual Property advice can be covered. What are the benefits of a licensing agreement? Protection: Innovate can help to protect your idea prior to approaching companies when selling an idea. If your product and/or is patentable, then companies will expect these applications to have been filed prior to disclosure. We can help with patent searching, patents application, trademark searching and trademark application to ensure that your product has the best available protection with which to license your product. Designs: licensees will expect at least a basic level of design work to have been completed prior to licensing. The more work that is put in at this stage then the greater the chances of licensing the product and the higher reward that is likely to be offered. The more development that can be completed at this stage, the greater your chance of success at market. Innovate can help to visualize your product idea, taking into consideration manufacturing feasibility and materials, to help better represent your idea to industry and show a dedicated investment in the project.Presentation: as part of the design and development, Innovate can help prepare presentation material for pitching your product idea. This allows you to professionally present your designs and helps the product or business idea to sell itself.Prototypes: when licensing, prototypes are not always a necessity; however some companies may ask for one. Request a Free Inventors guide: The "Inventing for Profit" Guide Patent Advice/How to Patent an Idea Confidentiality Agreements Idea Submission Forms News & Updates on Innovation Fields marked with an * are required Request a Free Inventors Guide: Help Text
(Arctic Sea Ice Minimum Week) Greenland and The Future of Humanity Screen Shot 2018-09-08 at 11.18.52 PMThe once “unthinkable” has happen. The 2-3 million year old “Last Ice On Earth”, as it was called, has melted, re-formed, melted, and finally reformed again. This photo is of that ice during the last melt where it had turned into a “rubble” of ice bergs, etc. Yes, the title is dramatic. But what is happening is also dramatic. Once the Arctic Sea Ice and its rich harvest saved the flagging species Homo Sapien in North America. Salmon and Shelter were the two saving “S”s for our species at one point. This gave rise to new technologies unseen before. The hand-driven atlatl spear-throwing technique gave way to the bow-and-arrow. Fishing with hook and sinew, and fish ponds. That was +50,000 years ago. Screen Shot 2018-09-09 at 11.23.28 AM Screen Shot 2018-09-08 at 11.10.04 PMSo far, overall melting on the Greenland Ice Sheet has tracked at a slightly above average pace. Surface melting has been slightly below average in the northwest and far southern coastal areas, and slightly above average in the central southern region. A small area of significantly higher-than-average melting has occurred along the northeast coast, where some melt ponds have formed. You will here a lot about this in the coming Fall. This is what Greenland looks like now. I know. I flew over it last week from Iceland. One meteorologist described the loss of this ice as “scary”. Others said it could force scientists to revise their theories about which part of the Arctic will withstand global-warming the longest. But abnormal temperature spikes in February and earlier this month have left it vulnerable to winds, which have pushed the ice further away from the coast than at any time since satellite records began in the 1970s. How this plays out with the Arctic Vortex collapse later this Winter is of deep concern for any human. But perhaps it takes drama and deep concern to stir the heart of woman… What’s Happening to Our Weather? The Answers Lie in The Arctic Screen Shot 2018-09-09 at 1.22.05 PMDr. Helen Czerski, second from left, with her scientist colleagues from the Oden (“Oðin” under Swedish flag), pictured on their first day on the ice of the 2018-2019 season. Photo credit: Helen Czerski. Screen Shot 2018-09-09 at 1.20.47 PMThe Oden disembarks supplies and scientific equipment. 2 Replies to “(Arctic Sea Ice Minimum Week) Greenland and The Future of Humanity” 1. nshroeder, I am sorry it has taken so long to get back to you. Thank you for the links to Greenhouse effects. Some commentary have just become active on my site. I have not tried to defend any one theory of global warming or climate change. What I do know from both personal and scientific experience is that of the Arctic Sea Ice: I know it is seasonal. I know there is less of it than, say 10 years ago. I know that many small communities of Inuit and Inupiat depend on it, as do their food staples, the fish, the polar bear, the reindeer herds they tend, the caribou. Is it a linear decline? No. Is it important. Yes. As the authors of the “Nature Communication” justified, the data to support the hypothesis that annual melting of the Kara and Barents Sea regions of the Arctic Sea Ice has a profound effect on the weather systems of Earth. In particular, the annual collapse of the Arctic Vortex. A vortex that surpresses cold fronts from inundating the East Coast of the US. With its collapse, so to the East Coast weather has become detrimental and costly. And more, that over the past 4-5 years I have been using their thesis through two US Presidential administrations, this has more that been proven to be a viable thesis. My predictions, based on their thesis, for the severe East and Southeast regions of the US have all – unfortunately – born fruit. As you are aware of the idea that CO2 was a ‘greenhouse gas’, did you know also it was the original thesis of a moderate and prominent Republican scientist working out of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea in the 1950’s? He documented for President D. Eisenhower the relationship he observed between a small rise (at that time) in Earth’s surface temperature and human use of coal and oil and production of CO2. These observations were confirmed during that Republican administration at Ames Airfield, later to become NASA-Ames. I was a punk kid then, so I must use others’ insight in the 1950’s. Why do I say Republican or Democrat? To emphasis that the concept of global warming and climate change is independent of geopolitical affiliation. But again: (1) Arctic Sea Ice Minimum was something I learned from being a volunteer superforecaster in GJP, and from those gaining that DARPA-funded research, (2) That specific regional increases in melting and warming of the Arctic Sea surface in the Kara and Barents Seas have a profound effect on Arctic or Polar Vortex Collapse, and (3) that collapse leads to horrendous, detrimental weather on the East Coast. The West Coast has not had that, in contrast. Most weather changes here have been short-term, unrelated to the global warming trend in the East. This too, is well-documented. All the best! 1. What’s all interesting? I am sorry, but I am reading the reports by AIP on the new levels of Scientific and Energy funding just signed into law by President Trump that rejects his own proposals! I find that alone..staggering! Don’t you? I am taking comments on the allocation of our American taxpayer money and for what. If you might move on, please read those article. Much of what the US Congress see as important is funding alternative energy sources. How much and why you might ask? Hashing over old topics? Please… Leave a Reply WordPress.com Logo Google photo Twitter picture Facebook photo Connecting to %s
Novel 3-D Computer Model Can Help Predict Pathogens’ Roles in Cancer By Samuel Lopez, Staff Writer; images contributed by Emine Guven-Maiorov, Ph.D. Figure with an example of the team's 3-D modeling approach 3-D visualization of an H. pylori protein mimicking a human interface. (Left) PPI between human proteins INAR1 and IFNA2. (Center) The team’s HPI model of the H. pylori protein gGT interacting with INAR1. (Right) Superimposed view of the PPI and HPI illustrating how gGT almost perfectly mimics the interface on IFNA2 to bind to INAR1. To understand how bacterial and viral infections contribute to human cancers, four NCI at Frederick scientists turned not to the lab bench, but to a computer. The team has created the world’s first—and currently, only—3-D computational approach for studying interactions between pathogen proteins and human proteins based on a molecular adaptation known as interface mimicry. Invading bacteria and viruses produce proteins that bind with host proteins, causing the activation or inhibition of certain functions in the host’s cells that, in extreme cases, can lead to disorders, chronic diseases, or cancers. Well-known examples include the human papillomaviruses implicated in cervical cancer, as well as Kaposi’s sarcoma–associated herpesvirus, which has been linked to Kaposi’s sarcoma and primary effusion lymphoma. One of the more effective ways that pathogens—especially those associated with cancer—achieve such host–pathogen interactions (HPIs) is through molecular mimicry, in which their proteins “hijack” the appearance of host proteins and use the disguise to avoid the host’s defenses. Interface mimicry, the process by which a pathogen protein copies a host protein’s binding sites, is one type of molecular mimicry. In their study, the scientists used computer models to examine and predict interface-mimicking HPIs between human proteins and proteins belonging to Helicobacter pylori, a type of gastrointestinal bacteria that has infected over half of the global human population and is associated with gastric cancer. The researchers believe that their novel approach is highly useful because interface mimicry is one of the most common and efficient forms of pathogenic “hijacking.” The approach can also provide a more detailed perspective than models of larger-scale molecular mimicries, such as structural and sequence mimicry. “Global structural and sequence similarity is much rarer than interface similarity,” said study author Emine Guven-Maiorov, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow in the Cancer and Inflammation Program, Center for Cancer Research. “Therefore, interface-based methods would enrich the HPI data more.” To determine the interface HPIs between H. pylori and human proteins, Guven-Maiorov and her peers studied the 3-D structures of thousands of interface interactions between human proteins, then individually aligned 10 H. pylori proteins with thousands of individual human interfaces to locate interactions that resembled those between the human proteins. Subsequent examinations and validations narrowed the number of matches and eliminated false positives. From there, the team used the 3-D HPI models to evaluate how H. pylori contributes to gastric cancer. They found that some HPIs block immune cell activation, helping the infection to persist and making it more difficult for the immune system to destroy precancerous cells. Other HPIs increase inflammation, grant H. pylori–infected cells resistance to apoptosis, and increase the infected cells’ capacity to spread to other locations. The data also allowed them to examine how the HPIs disrupt or shut down the normal protein–protein interactions (PPIs) in the host, which can contribute to cancer by removing the natural functions required to keep cells healthy and/or dispose of unhealthy ones. In total, the information from the 3-D HPI and PPI models can be used to inform further studies and experimental therapies against H. pylori–associated cancer. “If we know exactly which host proteins and pathways the pathogen attacks, we can develop small-molecule inhibitors against the interfaces to prevent HPIs,” said Guven-Maiorov. “However, it should be kept in mind that the same inhibitor may abolish both the endogenous host PPI and the exogenous HPI, since their interfaces are very similar.” The combined information is also useful for examining HPIs and PPIs on a larger scale. After they had assessed the models, the team integrated all of the 3-D interaction structures into a structural superorganism network—a “web” of all possible HPIs and PPIs that can be used to visualize the effects of all HPIs at once, giving a complete picture of how each interaction affects others. “Constructing the structural network allows us to determine whether the pathogen targets the hub proteins—proteins that interact with many other proteins—in the network,” said Guven-Maiorov. She and her fellow scientists learned that multiple H. pylori proteins target hub proteins, making it harder to treat H. pylori–associated cancer by targeting only certain HPIs. However, according to Guven-Maiorov, future studies may help to overcome that hurdle. “As more HPIs are identified with either experimental or computational techniques, we will have a better understanding of the infectious strategies of pathogens, which will allow [the development of] more efficient therapeutics,” she said. While that is a promising direction for gastric cancer research, Guven-Maiorov and her collaborators believe that their 3-D computational approach shows promise for more than just H. pylori studies. Results from investigations of other microbial species have proven their approach’s usefulness in modeling other HPIs, and the team is currently planning more studies that will use the approach. “Our approach can be applied to any pathogenic and commensal proteins, from bacterial, viral, or yeast species,” Guven-Maiorov said. The authors’ structural superorganism network for H. pylori proteins (blue) and human proteins (gray). Human PPIs are shown by black lines, while HPIs are shown by red lines. (Left) H. pylori proteins target the highly connected parts of the human PPI network. (Right) A structural HPI network with the PPIs removed, showing how multiple H. pylori proteins target the same pathway.
China enters an era with a civil code Huo Zhengxin Editor's Note: The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has changed the lives of everyone around the world and may even change the global landscape. While Western countries are still struggling with COVID-19, China has started its economic recovery. Here is the fifth piece in our "China In Focus" series during the Two Sessions annual meeting. Huo Zhengxin is a professor of law at the China University of Political Science and Law. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN. China's National People's Congress (NPC) started its annual session on Friday in Beijing. Under the agenda of the session, the long-expected draft civil code will be submitted for final deliberation. Thus, if adopted as scheduled, China will enter an era with a civil code. Dubbed as "an encyclopedia on social life" and a "civil constitution of modern society", a civil code is a wide-ranging legislative package that aims to provide a systematic legal protection of private rights including, inter alia, those related to property, contracts, personality, inheritance, marriage and family. Therefore, the adoption of China's civil code represents a milestone for both the protection of human rights and the promotion of rule of law in China. Moreover, a civil code, to a considerable degree, is the reflection of a national spirit as well as a symbol of a glorious age for a nation. For example, the French Civil Code of 1804 embodied a legacy of the Napoleonic era, the German Civil Code of 1896 grew out of a desire for a truly national law that would override the often conflicting customs and codes of the various German territories, and the Japanese Civil Code of 1898 was the result of various movements for modernization following the Meiji Restoration. For this reason, enacting a civil code has become a dream of China since the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) when the country had suffered a series of humiliating defeats caused by Western powers. Before its fall in 1912, the Qing Dynasty drafted a civil code governing property, civil procedure, and commerce, and the subsequent Nationalist Government ultimately enacted it in some form. The quest for a comprehensive civil code in the modern-day People's Republic dates back to the earliest days of its founding, but has been hampered over the decades by some other priorities. In 1978, China implemented the reform and opening-up policies. In order to build a market-oriented economy, a modern civil law system is indispensable. Given that China during that time lacked the political, social and economic narrative to nurture a comprehensive civil code, the Chinese national legislature decided to enact a series of separate civil law statutes. A large number of statutes that fall within the scope of civil law were promulgated since the late 1970s till the end of the 20th century, laying a cornerstone for a socialist civil law system. In 2001, the Standing Committee of the NPC formulated a plan to draft the civil code. A draft civil code was submitted to the Standing Committee of the NPC for the first reading in December 2002, but then shelved for its complexity and difference of opinions over it. The third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) opens in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 22, 2020. /Xinhua Nonetheless, a number of separate civil law statutes were either enacted or substantively revised over the past decade, laying groundwork for a future civil code. After the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), this long standing effort was back on track under the new leadership's push to establish rule of law across the country. In October 2014, at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, the Party made a decision to compile a civil code as one of the major measures to advance the rule of law. Against such a background, China is embarking on an ambitious effort to enact a new, unified civil code, scheduled for completion by 2020. In March 2015, the NPC ratified the general provisions of the civil code, making the first significant stride toward enacting a unified civil code. Starting in August 2018, six draft parts were reviewed in different NPC Standing Committee sessions. In December 2019, a complete draft civil code was unveiled. Then the draft was posted online to solicit public opinions. After receiving more than 114,000 pieces of advice and suggestions, the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the NPC proceeded to prepare a final draft civil code and decided to submit it to the NPC for deliberation on December 28. On April 21, the Committee of Constitution and Law of the NPC held a conference to finalize the draft, suggesting that China's journey to enacting a civil code of its own is approaching its ultimate destination. The final draft of China's Civil Code contains seven books, with headings that are indicative of their respective scope: "General Provisions" (Book One), "Property" (Book Two), "Contract" (Book Three), "Personality Rights" (Book Four), "Marriage and Family" (Book Five), "Succession" (Book Six), "Tort Liability" (Book Seven) and "Supplementary Provisions." Containing 1,260 articles, the Civil Code is the most extensive legislation in China, as well as the only legislation officially called a "code." The adoption of the civil code by the NPC, undoubtedly, is a historic event. As a declaration of Chinese civil rights, the civil code spells out the boundary between government and markets and that between the public power and private rights, which will establish a strong legal foundation for social stability and economic prosperity. Moreover, enacting the civil code labelled as "the basic law of a market economy" manifests the resolution of the Chinese leadership to deepen the reform and to open the door wider to the outside world. In a broader context, the birth of the long-expected civil code fulfills the dreams of generations of Chinese people since the second half of the 19th century. In this respect, China's entry into an era with a civil code represents the great revival of the Chinese nation in the 21st century.
Surprising hearing talents in cormorants Credit: CC0 Public Domain Many aquatic animals like frogs and turtles spend a big part of their lives under water and have adapted to this condition in various ways, one being that they have excellent hearing under water. A new study shows that the same goes for a diving bird, the great cormorant. This is surprising because the great cormorant spends most of its time out of the water. It is the first time we see such extensive adaptations in an animal that does not spend most of its time under water, says biologist Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard, of University of Southern Denmark. Human noise is a problem for animals at sea Researchers are increasingly paying attention to the living conditions of animals living in or near the oceans. Oceans are no longer the quiet habitats they used to be. Human activities produce noise—examples are ship traffic, fishing and windmill constructions, and this noise may pose a threat to the oceans' animals. "We need more knowledge about how are affected by this noise—does it impair their hearing or their hunting and fishing abilities? We have studied the effect on whales for some time now, but we don't know very much about diving . There are many vulnerable animal species living or foraging at sea, that may be negatively affected by ," says Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard. Listening for fish? "Even though the great cormorant is not an aquatic animal, it does frequently visit the water columns, so it makes sense that it, too, has adapted its ears for hearing under water," Christensen-Dalsgaard says about the new study. Whereas the great cormorant spends about 30 seconds foraging under water in active pursuit of prey, approximately 150 other species of diving birds spend up to several minutes in pursuit of fish and squid. Foraging under water is challenging for the sensory apparatus of the birds, however, and for most birds, their visual acuity under water is no better than that of humans. So, the birds may use other sensory modalities. We know very little about birds' hearing under water Apart from a few behavioral studies, the hearing of birds under water is unknown. Previously, researchers from University of Southern Denmark, have documented that great cormorants and gentoo penguins respond to sound under water, but this is the first study of the physiology of underwater hearing in any bird. The study shows that the cormorant ear has been specialized for underwater hearing. How was the study done? To study hearing of the cormorant in air and under water the scientists measured auditory evoked responses and neural activity in response to airborne and underwater sound in anesthetized birds. The neural responses to airborne and underwater sounds were measured using electrodes under the skin. In this way, the scientists could measure hearing thresholds to sound in air and under water. Thresholds in water and air proved to be similar, with almost the same sensitivity to sound pressure in the two media. This is surprising, because similar sound pressures in air and water means that the threshold sound intensity (the energy radiated by the sound wave) is much lower in water, so the ear is more sensitive to underwater than to airborne sound. The cost: Stiffer and heavier eardrums "We found anatomical changes in the ear structures compared to terrestrial birds. These changes may explain the good sensitivity to underwater sound. The adaptations also may provide better protection of the eardrums from the pressure," says Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard. But there is—as always in nature—a cost to these benefits: Their hearing in air is not as sensitive as in many other birds. Their eardrums are stiffer and heavier. How has the ear adapted? The cormorant eardrum shows large vibrations in response to underwater sound, so the sensitivity likely is mediated by the eardrum and middle ear. Underwater eardrum vibrations and anatomical features of the cormorant ear are similar to features found in turtles and aquatic frogs, that also appear to be specialized for underwater hearing. The data suggest convergent modifications of the tympanic ear in these three distantly related species, and similar modifications may be found in other diving birds. Explore further Researchers prove cormorants can hear under water More information: Ole Næsbye Larsen et al, Amphibious hearing in a diving bird, the great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis), The Journal of Experimental Biology (2020). DOI: 10.1242/jeb.217265 Journal information: Journal of Experimental Biology Citation: Surprising hearing talents in cormorants (2020, April 1) retrieved 7 June 2020 from https://phys.org/news/2020-04-talents-cormorants.html Feedback to editors User comments
Why people mismanage credit-card debt Alex Verkhivker \| Sep 06, 2017 Sections Economics Consumer-finance experts usually advise people with balances on multiple credit cards to pay off the card with the highest interest rate first. However, relatively few people do that, and research suggests why. According to University of Nottingham’s John Gathergood and Jörg Weber, Chicago Booth’s Neale Mahoney, and University of Warwick’s Neil Stewart, consumers try to manage multiple debts at once rather than pay off the most expensive one. That flawed approach can be costly. The most cost-effective thing people with two or more credit-card balances can do is to first make the minimum payment on each, then repay as much as possible on the card with the highest interest rate. Only after paying off the highest-rate card in full should they pay down the lower-rate cards. This minimizes overall interest payments and maximizes debt reduction. Where credit is due Consumers carrying balances on two credit cards with varying interest rates tend to pay off the cards more evenly than is optimal. The researchers looked at 100,000 individuals in the United Kingdom who held a revolving balance on two credit cards over a two-year span. The average difference in interest rates between the two cards was 6 percentage points. On average, the amount people paid monthly toward their higher-interest card was £259, only marginally more than the £230 paid toward the other card. The researchers calculate that, after paying the minimums, individuals should have allocated 97 percent of the remaining payments to the higher-interest card, although in practice they actually allocated 51.5 percent to that card. Gathergood, Mahoney, Stewart, and Weber consider a number of explanations, including that people could be repaying the credit card with the highest capacity, the highest balance, or the lowest balance. They pit these explanations against their own theory, “balance matching,” in which payments are proportionate to overall amounts owed. Using statistical approaches, the researchers find that it’s far more likely that people were engaging in balance matching. “Consistent with the balance matching results, the machine learning models confirm that balances are hugely important for predicting behavior,” they write. The other explanations predict people should concentrate on repaying a single credit card, but the data suggest people instead juggle multiple debts—focusing on high balances rather than high interest rates.
Asses the reasons why chartism failed In Hendrik Brouwer, a commander of marked ability who subsequently became Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, made a discovery. Darling Asses the reasons why chartism failed of New South Wales. High Commissionership of the Pacific established. Chartists after took different routes. Defeat of Referendum on increased powers for Commonwealth. Hunt, Modern Britain, Longmans, Sturt discovers the Darling. A company of Amsterdam merchants fitted out a fleet of four ships, placed them under Cornelius Houtman's direction, and sent them on a voyage to the spice islands. Early experiments with electrical circuits were surpassed by line-of-sight visual codes "tachygraphy": Order in Council discontinuing transportation to Australia. The story of the Spanish voyage is this. The Peel Web Helena; 'albeit,' he recorded as a marvellous thing, 'in the year of our Lord there arrived the ship called the LORENZO, being wonderful sore sea-beaten, the eighth of October, which was accounted as a miracle for that the like had not been seen before. Firearms Glossary ] Also, part of the exterior nomenclature of artillery cannon or main gun tube, a cover for the chamber situated between the muzzle and breechblock for the attachment of the recoil system slides and recuperators; see GUN MOUNT, ARTY. He was one of those Spaniards who believed that there was a Great Southern Continent which, from the vicinity of the Solomons, 'sretcheth to the Straits of Magellan. Bourke's grazing licences policy. They had stolen the very ship in which they sailed, and had committed such offences as would have justified the Spaniards, if they had been Asses the reasons why chartism failed, in giving each of them sufficient rope with a noose at the end of it, and sufficient yard-arm accommodation, to end their most nefarious courses. One of the officers on this second expedition of Alvaro was Pedro Fernandez de Quiros. The movement drew attention to social problems and the need to tackle them. Ex-Chartists moved into socialism or into, or back into trade unionism. Chartism was fundamental to the development of a distinctive culture among working people especially in the industrial areas of Lancashire and Yorkshire. The first woman to be certified as a telegrapher was Sarah G. The great Governor-General died inthe year after Tasman's second voyage. Their mercantile marine was numerous, and was manned by bold and skilful sailors. Just as significant campaigns are incorporated into the uniform [v: It will be seen that neither the Portuguese sailing round the Cape into the Indian Ocean, nor the Spaniards sailing round South America into the Pacific, would be likely to see the coasts of Australia unless they were blown very far out of their true course, or unless curiosity led them to undertake extensive voyages of exploration. Columbus was now dead, but Spain had other gallant navigators in her service. General MacArthur lands in the Philippines. Guadalcanal on 1st Mar Div SSI] of the affected units, so inspired phrases become part of the insignia and history of affected units, creating a mark of distinction, officially known as a "special designation". When their explorers crossed the narrow isthmus of Panama they saw before them an ocean hitherto unknown to Europeans. This yacht, which was commanded by Willem Jansz, was actually in Torres Strait in Marcha few weeks before Torres sailed through it. Nov 18, · Chartism and the Chartists were made to look ridiculous after Kennington Common and the failure of the Land Plan. The changing sociology of England after railways fragmented the ‘unity’ of the working classes. Chartism tore itself apart. The fact that Chartism did not achieve the ‘six point’ does not mean that it achieved nothing. Why Did the Second Crusade Fail Why did the Second Crusade Fail? There are a number of reasons why the Second Crusade did not succeed. Asses the Reasons Why Chartism Failed In my opinion, the most important factor in the failure of the Second Crusade was the poor leadership of both Louis VII and Conrad III. Asses the Reasons Why Chartism Failed Essay Assess the reasons why Chartism failed Chartism was the largest protest movement by working class people that Britain has ever seen, Chartist wanted a host of reforms which were highlighted in the Peoples Charter, which is were the Chartist name derives itself from. Basic reasons for the failure of Chartism. The main problem was how to achieve a revolutionary goal by constitutional means. It failed to obtain parliamentary support for the Charter.; The middle-classes either ignored, shunned or condemned Chartism. There were a whole variety of reasons why Chartism failed and all these factors played a part in its failure. The upper and middle classes were opposed to any kind of violent working class uprising. One of the main reasons for the popularity of Chartism was the economic recession. Asses the reasons why chartism failed Rated 5/5 based on 2 review COMBAT MilTerms: B
Great Awakening 910 Words4 Pages The Great Awakening was when religion was sweeping throughout New England with more conversions and church membership. This spiritual awakening took place from 1735 up until 1745. (Brief Outline Notes on the Great Awakening, 1735-45 ) Most of this had taken place within the American Colonies, especially New England.(McCormick, pars. 9) . The Great Awakening had many causes, however the consequences benefitted many. Many people were moving farther and farther away from religion, the Great Awakening was a revitalization that had tried to change that. There was a huge decline in church membership and the church wanted people to get back to god. As well as the Enlightenment, this was a time period where many people were using reason to receive their answers. Instead of relying on the church for answers they used science and math (Brief Outline Notes on the Great Awakening, 1735-45 ).In 1688, the Church of English became the primary religion of the country. Many other religions were infact repressed. Basically, people were becoming bored of the religion and it just became a past time for them. They didn`t worship god from their heart. This led to the decline of attendance in church, memberships were decreasing as the years passed by (Great Awakening). To create change in such phenomenons, many minsters such as Thomas Foxcroft gave sermons outside. People were actually eager to see him, he was infact received by the chuches of Galatia. He presented something that didn`t drone on and bore the people. He noticed that people didn`t really know much about Christ, so he decided to pass it on. Another minister named Jonathan Edwards, gave such passionate sermons that it brought many peoples attention... ... middle of paper ... ...e General Conference of Methodism, expulsion from the society was an effect from slave holding (Lecture 4). A loss of power of the Ministers and clergy was an effect of the Great Awakening. The Ministers and the Clergy were not able to control the direction of religious life. This led to a religion to being a choice instead of being forced to be something you don`t care much for. More people enjoyed the sermons and actually felt good about it as well. This was an end to theocracy and a beginning to democracy (Lecture 4). Great Awakening was time period where many of the people received more choices. A time where religion was revitalized. This time was very prosperous for many people especially the colonies. Increase in religion, education,understanding of equality, and a beginning to democracy were many of the effects from the Great Awakening. More about Great Awakening Open Document
How to stop walking and talking in your sleep We’ve all heard stories about people walking and talking in their sleep – but is it really that common? It was recently estimated that in fact around 15% of adults in the UK regularly sleepwalk, while just 5% are estimated to talk in their sleep. If you or a family member are impacted by either condition, you’ll already know that it can be pretty disruptive. Here we investigate their causes and what you can do to stop them. What is sleep walking? Known medically as somnambulism, sleep walking is simply when someone decides to walk or move around while still asleep. It’s much more likely to happen within the first three hours of sleeping and is usually pretty harmless, lasting just a few minutes. Most will sleep walk around their room before climbing back into bed. For some people, however, it can be a little more dangerous and involve them trying to go downstairs or even leave their house. How can you tell if you’re sleep walking? Sleep walkers tend to wake up and have no recollection of their night time adventures. Your friends and family, on the other hand, will be able to tell as you’ll be unresponsive and have a glazed expression as you wander around your home. Why do people sleep walk? It’s not known exactly why people sleep walk, however, it’s thought to be linked to several things. These include your genetics — sleep walking typically runs in families — as well as your stress levels and sleeping patterns. It can also be triggered by certain medications, especially those designed to make you feel drowsy. Sleep walking is most common in young kids but usually something they’ll grow out of by the time they reach their teens. It can additionally be related to other sleep issues such as sleep talking, night terrors and insomnia. How can I stop sleep walking? There’s no fixed way of preventing sleep walking but there are a few things you can do to reduce the risk of it happening: Stick to a regular sleep pattern — Having an irregular sleep cycle is known to trigger sleep walking. Try to go to bed at the same time every day and get at least seven hours sleep. Don’t go to bed stressed — Stress and anxiety can trigger sleep walking so you should try to do something relaxing before you go to bed. Avoid drinking or taking certain medications before bed — Drugs that can affect how you sleep (such as caffeine or sleeping pills) have been thought to be linked to rates of sleep walking. What is sleep talking? Sleep talking (known medically as somniloquy) is again pretty self-explanatory. We’ve probably nearly all spoken in our sleep at some point in our lives, however, for some people it can be a regular occurrence. It’s seen more in children, with studies showing that nearly 50% of kids talk in their sleep. One of the biggest worries people have about sleep talking is that you’ll say something you shouldn’t. Typically, though, what people say when they’re asleep has nothing to do with what they’re thinking about. More often than not, it’s just noises like laughter or whispering rather than actual words. What causes sleep talking? When you’re sleeping, the part of your brain that controls sleep is normally asleep too. However, as we sleep in cycles that last from one to three hours each, the speech part of your brain can sometimes be switched on in between and cause you to talk. There are several factors that are thought to make you more likely to sleep talk, including lack of sleep, stress, anxiety, drugs and alcohol or if you have a fever. Just like sleep walking, sleep talking can be connected to other sleep disorders, too. How can you stop sleep talking? There’s no real way to completely prevent yourself from talking in your sleep, but there are a few things you can do to help lower your chances. De-stress before bed — As sleep talking has links to stress, you should make sure you’re calm before getting into bed. Avoid looking at screens and try soothing activities like meditation or reading. Get plenty of sleep each night — Irregular sleep can trigger talking so stick to a good routine and make sure you get enough sleep every night. Avoid drinking caffeine or alcohol directly before bed — Sleep talking has been known to be aggravated by caffeine, alcohol and other drugs so it’s best to avoid consuming them in the hours leading up to bedtime. Keep a sleep diary — While you won’t know yourself if you’ve been talking in your sleep, your bed partner (if you have one) will and they can make a note of it in a diary. This can then be used to help you understand why you might sleep talk more on certain days and monitor the triggers. Writing Diary Tea Snacks How to wake and stop a sleepwalker: Do’s and Don’ts Do: try and guide them gently back to their bed. Try not to touch the sleepwalker too much as this could startle them. Gently turn him or her to the direction of their bed and walk behind or next to them until they get back under the covers. Don’t: leave them to their own devices. While it may seem like the easier option to just leave the sleepwalker to their own devices, this increases the risk of them hurting themselves and others – some sleepwalkers have even been known to get behind the wheel of a car! Do: try and wake them up from afar. Sleepwalkers have been known to attack those who try and wake them, so it’s safer to attempt to wake them up with loud noises from a few feet away. Although this may startle them, it’s better than shaking them awake at close range. Our quality of sleep can be affected by many things, from our mental health through to our age. The number one way to give yourself the best shot at a dreamy night’s sleep is to make sure you’re sleeping in a bed with a good mattress and soft bedding that’ll keep you comfortable, supported and warm. Bensons for Beds Leave a comment
Historian Charles “Chuck” Fithian will present a program titled “An Unsurpassed Soldiery: The Delaware Regiment During the American Revolution, 1776-1783” at 10:30 a.m. June 1 at the Delaware Public Archives, 121 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. N, Dover. During the American Revolution, the Delaware Regiment established a record for military discipline, efficiency and dependability on the battlefield. The regiment’s characteristics and combat prowess in many ways reflected developments within the Continental Army as that force became the professionalized military organization Washington sought to create during the course of the war. Questions such as who composed the enlisted ranks; where did the officers come from; how were the soldiers trained; were African Americans, Native Americans and women present; how did all these change over time (if they did at all); and how did Delaware veterans fare after the war remain unanswered. Fithian’s research is attempting to answer those and other questions about the regiment’s history. This presentation will offer some of the preliminary findings of this study and will describe some of the distinctive features of the Delaware Regiment and its service during the War for American Independence. Fithian serves as an instructor of anthropology and archaeology at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. For 28 years, Fithian served as the curator of archaeology with the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs. In this position, he was responsible for the curation of the archaeological collections of Delaware while directing archaeological and historical research projects, including the research and conservation for the British warship DeBraak. He has also conducted extensive research on 17th century Delaware and the War of 1812. The program will last about one hour. For more, call 744-5047 or email thomas.summers@delaware.gov.
Compare system efficiency between Dynamatic® adjustable speed drives and Variable Frequency Drives In the mid ‘80’s it became a common practice in the electrical equipment industry to replace Eddy Current Drives with variable frequency drives (VFD’s). Whether or not variable frequency drives were any more capable or reliable in the application usually did not enter into the discussion. Most often the single justification for the VFD use is efficiency. VFD drive manufacturers claim their drives are 95% efficient and provide payback charts showing a rapid investment return. The problem is the fact that is there is much more to the story. The untold story is about system efficiency, the difference between the power put into a process and the power that is delivered to a load. VFD drive manufacturers typically gloss over this. After thorough testing across multiple applications, the results achieved are very different than stated by the VFD Companies. Request a Quote Technical Assistance When you look at all the facts, Eddy Current comes out on top. Eddy Current systems actually have better system efficiency than VFDs above 82% of base speed. Only Eddy Current Adjustable Speed Drives deliver TRUE efficiency Eddy Current Drives utilize a DC magnetic field to link two members, one on the input shaft and one on the output shaft. Increasing the DC Current to the coil increases the coupling of the two members thus delivering more torque to the load. A tachometer is used to control the velocity and torque. Eddy Current losses in efficiency are as follows: • AC Motor – Equal to nameplate rating as motor is running across the line. This is true for both power factor and efficiency. • DC Control – Typically 2% or less. • Slip – Reduction in speed is dissipated in the drum and rotor (the coupled members). It reduces efficiency in proportion to reduction in speed. The bottom line is that it is best to run an Eddy Current device at or near rated speed. Typically 82 – 100 % is recommended to optimize efficiency. Variable Frequency Drives dramatically lower the overall system efficiency VFD controls motor speed by varying the effective voltage and frequency applied to the stator of a standard AC Induction motor. We use the term effective because the applied voltage is actually a high frequency square wave, pulse width modulated (PWM) waveform that switches from bus voltage, typically 650VDC or more to 0V, thousands of times per second. This alters the effective base speed of motor, allowing variable speed operation. It also presents several negative effects both in harmonics and mechanically A standard AC motor has a published efficiency and power factor. They are quite high, typically above 90%, but only for a sinusoidal excitation at rated frequency. On a VFD the losses are higher and the power factor is lower. These values are not widely known or published. VFD losses in efficiency are as follows: • IR losses – Heating is the largest loss caused by resistance to current flow in the motor winding and rotor bars. It is proportional to the square of the current flow. • Eddy Current Losses – Losses caused by unintended current flow in the rotor and the stator. These are limited by laminations in the stator and rotor. They are proportional to current flow and increase with slip. • Hysteresis losses – Heating created by reversing the magnetic polarity of the iron in the rotor and stator. This increases with slip. All of the losses above become a larger percentage of output horsepower as speed is reduced. In addition there are two other issues associated with VFD’s: • Power Factor – VFD’s are advertised to present a power factor of near unity to the line. While true, the motor still operates with a lagging current. This is extra power that the utility would have to generate if the motor were across the line. Hence, utilities charge a power factor penalty as they only measure watts. With the VFD generating this extra current, the extra is retrieved from the line. Instead of a power factor penalty, you are forced to pay for the power up front. In addition, the power factor degrades dramatically with speed reduction, approaching 75% at half speed. • Slip Losses – A little known fact is that an AC Induction motor is a magnetic clutch operating at a slip (against a rotating field). The slip increases under increased load, considerably more at low speeds. At a PWM equivalent base speed of 100 RPM the motor would operate at 50 RPM if its rated slip were 50 RPM (a 1750 RPM motor). Thus, torque boost (increase in voltage) is used to start under load. This slip is a loss that becomes a higher percentage of output as speed is reduced. If torque boost is used, the losses are higher still. The bottom line is that an AC motor is quite efficient at rated speed and voltage, but the losses build as a percentage of output as speed is reduced. The power factor enters the efficiency equation and the control losses add in as well. These dramatically lower the system efficiency. dynamatic logo white-small World’s Leading Manufacturer Contact Us
• Steve 'Want To' > 'Need To' Updated: May 30 Every time someone says that we ‘need to’ do something it has a rational basis, but the evidence is that we often reject these logical arguments in favour of maintaining our existing habits. At an individual level common ‘you need to’ suggestions would be; drink less, exercise more, stop smoking, recycle more, eat less red meat, use your car less, the list goes on. Often ‘need to’ leads to positive intentions, but we know that these intentions generally fail. To illustrate this, many years ago, I became involved in a Smoking Cessation service and even then the ‘golden rule’ was to ask if people had considered stopping smoking. If they hadn’t then there wasn’t any point in continuing to support them. You’d be wasting your time and resources. Essentially, if there wasn’t even the smallest desire to want to give up then all the support in the world wouldn’t help. Even with the desire to give up, it takes eight attempts on average to kick the habit. Historical Example of ‘Want to’ Change History shows that when there is a desire to ‘want to’ change, it’s a completely different matter. The Wright Brothers are a perfect historical example. Two brothers who ran a bicycle repair shop, with limited finances, and no higher education, but who shared a passion for flying. It was this desire to fly that created their breakthrough, solving one of the most complex issues of the time ahead of better educated and better resourced individuals and teams. It's All About People Organisations are just collections of lots of people, so to effect change, a groundswell of people who ‘want to’ change is needed before any change can be achieved and sustained. Despite this, many organisations still pursue the ‘need to’ change approach. When this happens, much of the change effort is focused on persuasion. At best this leads to compliance rather than desire, leading to mediocre results. We have hundreds of examples of projects like this, missing huge opportunities for beneficial outcomes. Occasionally, we’ve come across changes where the persuasion has worked, but these all relate to intuitive technology that made something easier to do with minimum effort. This is why, in all our work, we focus on helping others to find the desirable vision that can add energy and pace to their changes and deliver sustainable outcomes for organisations. To illustrate how desire can play an important part in making positive changes we will use two stories that typify the ‘want to’ v ‘need to’ approaches and outcomes. In both stories, the strategic drivers were about finance. ‘Need to’ Change Story The first is a medium sized organisation with around 4000 staff. It was seeking to make savings of roughly 5-10% of turnover, driven by challenges in the sector. Leadership had just completed their annual strategy process and wanted to outline the strategy and engage with staff. They setup multiple sessions in a large venue to ensure everyone had the opportunity to be involved. Many staff were excited about this new approach and booked on one of the events. The CEO stood proudly and opened the session and within a few minutes outlined the key strategic objective for the organisation, ‘we need to make efficiencies and save £X million’. Enthusiasm dropped immediately and staff became increasingly subdued as they explored how they could achieve this. A governance structure was then established and some ideas were developed and supported, however it became clear that few ideas were being suggested and that the organisation would struggle to achieve their strategic target. In the absence of sufficient progress or ideas to tackle the strategic objective, more and more ideas from senior management were being developed and implemented top-down. Over time greater controls, stronger processes and more detailed analysis were introduced, all seeking to provide the Board with reassurance. These activities took over from those that could have helped; staff engagement, devolved decision making, communications, solution development and design etc. The result was that although some savings from efficiencies were made, the organisation only achieved around 30% of the objective. ‘Want to’ Change Story Contrast this with three organisations working together in a new service area (Adolescent Mental Health Services), where relationships and trust hadn’t been established. Their big challenge was to manage a new service budget that had been transferred to them, but where service demand was growing at 8% per annum. Any overspend against the agreed budget would have to be taken from other existing services. The organisation Boards were concerned, but reassured by a plan to invest upstream in services to reduce demand. This plan would take roughly a year to take full effect, leaving the organisations with a financial risk. At the time many adolescents were admitted to services miles from home leading to longer stays and poorer outcomes. It was agreed that some benefit may come from reviewing part of the service identified as a key leverage point, bed management. A series of workshops were arranged to engage with staff in the bed management functions. As staff in different organisations didn’t know or trust each other, early workshops were difficult. One element they all agreed was that the level of admissions to distant units were too high and the impact on young people and families was significant, with some families unable to travel and visit, often due to time and costs involved. This detachment often impacted on the mental health of young people, leaving them feeling even more isolated, just at a time when they were at their most vulnerable. From this burning platform came a unified desire to tackle this, through aligning services and overcoming rivalries. Within a few weeks the vision they created changed to a full integration of the bed management functions as it was felt such it would be better able to reduce distant admissions. Although, this integration would likely change their jobs and perhaps even their work base, the desire to make a difference was stronger than these fears. The regular workshops then started to focus on structures, processes and working arrangements and with us as independent coordination they began working through the design of the new integrated function. When, months later, they were ready to start putting the new structures and processes in place, they discovered that the number of distant admissions had dropped by 75%. A huge step forward. This was achieved without having changed a single structure or process. What had happened was that behaviours had changed. Through the process of building relationships, designing the new function, and a desire to ensure that families and young people didn’t experience the impact of isolation when they most needed to be together. Behaviours changed as people had started to have very different conversations, developed innovative solutions to prevent distant admissions and were challenging previous habits. In the two years following, the impact of the integrated bed management and upstream investments, distant admissions fell further to 93% of the original level and demand fell by 32% overall, highlighting the sustainability of changes driven by desirable visions. These two stories illustrate the huge differences in the outcome from changes driven by either a ‘want to’ or ‘need to’ perspective. One driving change from compliance and the other from commitment. There were many opportunities in the first story to tap into similar emotive issues, however due to the way the change was presented and how people experienced the change process they never felt ownership or desire to be involved in the change. In our experience, ’need to’ change achieves mediocre at best, and ‘want to’ desirable change generally over achieves. Like us, you may have been trained in the classic scientific management informed approaches driven top down and reliant on persuading staff that they ‘need to’ change. It’s a world of tussling with resistance to change, it’s energy sapping. It’s challenging to let go of how we’ve been trained make the shift to engaging, helping staff to build their own future and generating their desire to change. Not only is it rewarding, but it’s also easier. All the work is at the beginning, describing the ambition in a way that engages. The work is then the development of relationships and supporting people to build their future. Once they’ve done this, they then need leadership to maintain an environment that is psychologically safe for people to explore and learn, to keep up with the pace and remove the blockers that might slow them down. The work we do with Clients not only helps people to create their desirable vision, but also the wider environment that generates fast organisation outcomes. It is one of seven enablers we identified within complex changes that had energy and pace. StrengthscopeMaster Logo.png • LinkedIn Social Icon • Twitter Social Icon
19 July Veni grant for Jochem Bernink: Sweeping up asthma with brush cells Back to news Jochem Bernink, from the group of Hans Clevers has been awarded a Veni grant from the Dutch research organization NWO. Using this grant, he will investigate which cells in the epithelium of the respiratory tract react to allergens and thereby activate the immune system. Thanks to the Veni grant he can continue this research for three years. Allergic asthma Allergic asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects 1 out of 10 children and 1 out of 12 adults. The disease causes severe tightening of the chest and shortness of breath due to an excessive mucus production, swelling and cramps in the muscles around the respiratory tract. Until now, most of the treatments are focused on repressing the hypersensitive immune reactions, thereby focusing on controlling the symptoms and not addressing their cause. The immune cells are the driving force behind many of the symptoms of asthma, but the cells in of the respiratory tract epithelium, the inner lining of the respiratory tract, are usually in contact with the inhaled allergens. The interaction between the respiratory tract epithelium and the immune cells normally ensures that the respiratory tract is protected from pathogens, but in persons with asthma this interaction is disturbed and severe immune reactions are induced by harmless substances, such as mites and pollen. Brush cells Bernink will use the Veni grant to investigate which cells in the respiratory tract recognize the allergens and activate the immune systems. He will focus on a specific type of epithelial cell, the brush cell. The specific function of this cell is so far unknown, but they have chemo-sensory and cytokine-excretion properties, that enable them to scan the inhaled air for pathogens and activate immune cells. These properties make the brush cells good candidates for those cells that initiate the immune reaction. Using organoids, mini organs that can be cultured in the lab, Bernink will assess which signals are recognized by the brush cells, and how the brush cells can subsequently activate immune cells. Bernink: “In the future, we can hopefully use the acquired knowledge from this research to develop new treatments against the cause instead of the symptoms of asthma.” Jochem Bernink is a post-doctoral researcher in the group of Hans Clevers. * The banner image shows two brush cells that are connected to each other in green.
What’s “Optimal” About Frustration? What’s “Optimal” About Frustration? “Dear Dr. Hanson, When the baby cries we pick her up, but our parents say she’s manipulating us and she’ll never learn to live without us if we keep getting her. We’re worried she will be traumatized — and our parents worry she’ll become a spoiled brat. How much frustration is OK for a kid? How do children get ‘spoiled?'” Your parents are expressing versions of a widespread theory of childrearing. For example, their parents may have read it in such places as the U.S. Children’s Bureau pamphlet, Infant Care (1924), which told mothers not to pick up their baby between feeding because he might learn that ‘crying will get him what he wants, sufficient to make a spoiled, fussy baby, and a household tyrant whose continual demands make a slave of the mother.’ The most sophisticated version of this theory has been developed in psychoanalysis and is called “optimal frustration.” In my opinion, much psychoanalytic thought is very useful, but this theory is both wrong and potentially damaging to children. Because we base our actions toward children on ideas about their nature and needs, it is important to examine this notion of “optimal frustration.” This column completes the series I have been writing on how best to deal with the wants of children. The theory of optimal frustration has these main points: • Children, especially young ones, have fundamental tendencies toward being dependent, selfish, and irrational. • The child must be forced through frustration to develop: a sense of self separate from caregivers; control of emotions and impulses; respect for others; adaptation to reality; and the skills of independent living. • While caregivers should be sensitive and nurturing (that’s the “optimal” part), frustration is the necessary and primary pathway through which children build the cognitive and affective structures of the self. The case against “optimal frustration” The case against “optimal frustration” is that: • Frustration has many negative effects. • Children develop optimally when they are mainly gratified, not frustrated. • The idea of “optimal frustration” can serve purposes which harm kids. • “Optimal frustration” is poorly defined. • There is little scientific evidence for the purported benefits of frustration. The negative effects of frustration Frustration has many well-documented negative effects. First, the aim which is blocked is usually developmentally positive, so that an opportunity for growth is lost when it is frustrated. Second, kids learn skills through pursuing their aims; when that pursuit is stymied, no skill is learned. Third, each incident of frustration is a bit of evidence to a child that “I cannot influence things to get what I want, grownups get in the way and don’t care about what I want, and wanting anything hurts.” Fourth, frustration is usually upsetting, so each episode of frustration adds one more bit of hurt, sadness, or anger to the individual’s “affective core.” Children grow best without frustration The overwhelming research evidence is that children separate from parents, develop sturdy egos, master their impulses, acquire skills, and grow morally when they are raised by sensitive caregivers who gratify, not frustrate, most of their wishes most of the time. The child develops as a self and adapts to reality largely through processes which have nothing to do with frustration, including modeling, play, physical maturation, language development, problem-solving, direct instruction, and responses to various tangible and intangible rewards. Frustration is neither the necessary nor the primary path of self development. A discriminatory pretext There is a long history of groups — women, Jews, and African-Americans among them — being oppressed in part through seemingly benign doctrines. For example, until quite recently, a prevailing notion was that women should be protected from the world of commerce and the burdens of the vote “for their own good.” The theory of “optimal frustration” says not just that frustration does occur but that it should, it must occur. Can we imagine a similar idea applied publicly to any group besides children in America today? It would be like saying that thwarting the aims of Latinos is necessary in order to build their character. Kids are often a royal pain, and it is so tempting in the heat of things to grab some beguiling idea “for their own good” which lets us off the hook. “Optimal frustration” can be the rationale for less than optimal care of children, and even neglect and mistreatment. It is a seductively dangerous notion. An ill-defined concept with unproven claims The purported benefits of “optimal frustration” would have to be well-defined and well-researched to outweigh the proven costs of frustration. Yet they are neither. “Frustration” is not clearly defined in a scientific sense, nor are the conditions required for it to be optimal. Additionally, I am unaware of any research which establishes that frustration per se is the central factor in the development of ego, self-structure, independence, or competence in children. It has been established that frustration is toxic to children. By analogy, toxic substances are prescribed in medicine only when dosages can be related to diagnoses with great precision. The greatest moral imperative of the physician is ‘to do no harm.’ Anyone who advocates the ‘optimal’ administration of something (frustration) known to be subjectively painful and developmentally hazardous, especially to dependent and vulnerable children, must bear a burden of clarity and evidence which as yet the proponents of optimal frustration have not shouldered. On this foundation of sand is based a doctrine which has widely influenced psychotherapeutic technique, professional advice to parents, and parental practices for much of this century. The narrow role of frustration Parents do need to control their children and thwart their wishes numerous times each day. Not because frustration is good for kids, but simply because kids often want things that are not good for themselves or for other people. Not exercising appropriate control or not communicating reasonable achievement expectations can lead to children who are “spoiled.” But it’s not the absence of frustration which leads to “spoiling.” Frustration is an unfortunate side-effect, not a desirable goal in itself. Second, children do need to learn that life is difficult. But even the most nurtured kids experience many moments each day when they get bumped and bruised physically and emotionally. Grownups don’t need to add any extra! Experience with adversity can provide opportunities for children to learn ways to cope when difficulties appear again. But that learning occurs best when the immediate situation, and the child’s history, contain mainly nurturing, gratifying, and fulfilling elements. Therefore, parents should try to keep frustration at a minimum, and explain and soothe as best possible when it can’t be avoided. That is how frustration is optimal.
Bhidyamana, Bhidyamāna: 1 definition Languages of India and abroad Sanskrit-English dictionary [«previous (B) next»] — Bhidyamana in Sanskrit glossary Bhidyamāna (भिद्यमान).—mfn. (-naḥ-nā-naṃ) 1. Being divided, pierced, broken, &c. 2. Being separated or distinguished. E. bhid to break, pass. v., śānac aff. context information Discover the meaning of bhidyamana in the context of Sanskrit from relevant books on Exotic India See also (Relevant definitions) Relevant text Like what you read? Consider supporting this website:
Dipin, Dīpin: 4 definitions Languages of India and abroad Pali-English dictionary Source: Sutta: The Pali Text Society's Pali-English Dictionary Dīpin, (Sk. dvīpin) a panther, leopard, tiger Vin.I, 186 dīpicamma a leopard skin=Sk. dvīpicarman); A.III, 101; J.I, 342; II, 44, 110; IV, 475; V, 408; VI, 538. dīpi-rājā king of the panthers Vism.270.—f. dīpinī Miln.363, 368; DhA.I, 48. (Page 324) Pali book cover context information Discover the meaning of dipin in the context of Pali from relevant books on Exotic India Sanskrit-English dictionary Source: DDSA: The practical Sanskrit-English dictionary Dīpin (दीपिन्).—a. 1) Inflaming, kindling; राकानिशेव पूर्णेन्दुमुखी कन्दर्पदीपिनी (rākāniśeva pūrṇendumukhī kandarpadīpinī) Ks.82.29. 2) Illuminating. 3) Shining, bright. Dīpin (दीपिन्):—[from dīp] mfn. kindling, inflaming, exciting (ifc. [Kathāsaritsāgara lxxxii, 29]) context information Discover the meaning of dipin in the context of Sanskrit from relevant books on Exotic India See also (Relevant definitions) Relevant text Like what you read? Consider supporting this website:
Feb. 2. God Plagues Egypt Ex. 7:14-10:29 The Egyptians were a religious people. The problem was that they worshipped the wrong gods instead of the true God. Because of Pharaoh’s refusal to grant the request of Moses and Aaron, God sent a series of plagues against him and his people. These plagues attacked the deity of those so-called gods. Among the gods that the Egyptians worshipped was the Nile River. After the second meeting with Pharaoh, God instructed Moses to return to the king and inform him that he would strike the waters of the river and all of the other rivers, streams, ponds and other water containers and turn the water into blood. This bloody water continued for seven days before clearing. Because of the bloody water all of the fish died and the waters stank. Pharaoh still would not let the Israelites go. The next plague that the Lord used against Pharaoh was frogs coming out of the river—another affront to their river god. Frogs invaded the houses and everything in them. This was too much for Pharaoh. Or was it? He called Moses and asked that they entreat the Lord to take the frogs away and, “I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to the Lord.” In order to further show the power of God, Moses allowed Pharaoh to set the time for the frogs’ removal. He said, “Tomorrow.” Accordingly, the frogs died the next day and the land stank again. “But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not heed them…” Lice were and still are an abomination to people. The Egyptian priests kept themselves clean and shaven to prevent lice infestations from defiling their idol worship. Imagine how the people felt when the dust of the ground was turned into lice. The magicians had been able through some means to imitate the first two plagues, but failed to duplicate the lice. They stated to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” Again he refused to let the people go. The fourth plague to happen to Egypt was an invasion of flies. One fly can be a major annoyance, but imagine swarms of them everywhere with no way of escaping or destroying them. Again, Pharaoh relented and said that the people could go sacrifice, but to stay in the land. Moses pointed out that would not be acceptable because, “we would be sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God.” The animals that the Israelites would be sacrificing were considered sacred by the Egyptians. Pharaoh then said, “I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only you shall not go very far away. Intercede for me.” As before, when the plague was lifted, Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go. God was a long way from being finished with Pharaoh. He knew that it would take much hardship for the king to let the Israelites go. As has been stated earlier, the Egyptians worshipped their cattle. The fifth plague showed God’s power over this object of their worship. He sent a fatal disease upon the cattle that killed vast numbers of them. Not one of the cattle of the Hebrews died. That also showed the power of God that He could be selective of what died and what lived. “But the heart of Pharaoh became hard, and he did not let the people go.” God instructed Moses to take ashes from a furnace and scatter them toward heaven. They became fine dust that settled upon the Egyptians and caused boils to break out on them. That sixth plague of ulcerous sores formed on man and beast, but still did not convince Pharaoh to free the Israelites. For the seventh plague, God sent a giant hail storm upon the land. The people had an option that would prevent damage to themselves and to their cattle. Moses instructed them to bring everything inside with them and they would be protected. Everything and everybody left outside would be subject to the storm. Also the land of Goshen would be spared. The hailstorm and its destruction really got Pharaoh’s attention. He called for Moses and said, “I have sinned this time. The Lord is righteous, and my people and I are wicked.” After the hail stopped, he again refused to release the children of Israel. Locusts are destructive creatures. Before sending the eighth plague, Moses informed Pharaoh, that God would send locusts to cover the land and eat everything that the hail had not destroyed. At that point, Pharaoh’s servants confronted him. They stated, “How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?” Pharaoh proposed to allow only the men to, “Go, serve the Lord your God.” Moses refused to go without everyone and their flocks and herds. He and Aaron were then driven out of Pharaoh’s presence. After the locusts came, Pharaoh again stated that he had, “sinned against the Lord your God and against you.” At his pleading, Moses asked God to remove the locusts from the land. Once they were gone, Pharaoh did not free the Israelites. God sent a ninth plague against Pharaoh. Darkness so thick that it could be felt was sent over Egypt for three days. This was an affront to their sun god, Ra. Again, the land of Goshen was spared. They had light. The king again tried to compromise with God and Moses. He offered to let everyone go, but leave their cattle behind. With Moses’ refusal before him, Pharaoh said, “Get away from me! Take heed to yourself and see my face no more! For in the day you see my face you shall die!”
The Good Samaritan \| Aimé Morot (1880) The Good Samaritan The religious of Jesus day, that is, the fundamental Jewish establishment, were so hard headed that Jesus in answering the question, "Who is my neighbor?" had to turn the turn the table in his answer. The story begins with a man, beaten, robbed (even of his clothing) and left for dead while on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho. This man we can be pretty sure was Jew. Into the story enter three people, each of whom come upon the dying man. The first to come along was a Jewish Priest who seeing the man crossed to the other side of the path before passing by. The second to come along was a Levite, a man who assisted the priest in Temple worship. He to saw the dying man, crossed to the other side and passed on by. The third to come by was a hated Samaritan. When coming upon the man and seeing him, passion welled up in him. He dressed the man"s wounds with oil and wine. Placed him on his own donkey and brought the man to an inn. To the innkeeper he said, "Here"s some money. Look after him. When I return I will reimburse for any extra expense you may have." After telling the story Jesus turns to the Jewish lawyer who posed the question and asks, "Who was the neighbor?" To which the lawyer could only reply, "The one who showed mercy." To the lawyer Jesus replies, "Go and do likewise." Today, Jesus would tell the same story a bit different. The man asking the question would a person seeking to justify himself, perhaps a self-righteous Christian. The man robbed and beaten would undoubtedly be someone of Christian religious bearing. The priest, rather than Jewish would be a well-respected Christian pastor or priest, the Levite would be a politician, and the hated Samaritan, a dreaded Muslim or illegal immigrant. If Jesus were telling the story today, the one posing the question would for sure be one who wants to control borders. Yet, if Jesus were telling the story today, the answer would still be, "The neighbor is the one who showed mercy." And Jesus would still say, "Go and do likewise." © Frank A. Mills 2018 Main Index \| Categories: Broken Grace \| Open Theology \| Christianity
Colonial days come alive at Raynham Hall Excited children and adults travelled back to the 1700’s on Sunday, courtesy of Raynham Hall Museum. Museum staff and Huntington Militia volunteers joined together to create a family friendly, hands-on Sixth Annual Colonial Day celebration that everyone appeared to want to be part of. Perhaps the two most excited visitors were six-year-old Jaxson Weiss and his younger sister, Charlotte, who arrived wearing colonial costumes. Their mother, Julie, smiled and said, “Jaxson would wear his costume to school every day if he could.” Raynham Hall is known as a museum, but the moment you walk in the door you find yourself inside a restored colonial home complete with charming Victorian accents. The house was once owned by Robert Townsend, a merchant during the Revolutionary War, who was also a spy for George Washington. To bring the colonial spy experience to life, Claire Bellerjeau, the museum’s education director, gathered visitors around a long table in the kitchen. There, she presented hands-on spy games that directly related to the various ways spies passed along secret information during the Revolutionary War. Bellerjeau said she was also thrilled to give visitors the opportunity to hold a colonial block of tea. In the 1700’s, tea was condensed into a block the size of a large candy bar, which made it easier to ship and store. Bellerjeau said she is passionate about hands-on activities that bring history alive. “That way, people feel as if they’re part of history. It isn’t just in a book,” she explained. “We’re always researching here at the museum. There’s always something new.” In another room, Michael Goudket, an educator at Raynham as well as a member of the Huntington Militia, was dressed as Townsend. He played an early version of the harp for visitors and later, using a skit format, acted out what it was like running a store in the 1700s. He also shared how Townsend passed secret information on to Washington by listening to and watching what was going on around him. “Robert Townsend had to be brave to be a spy in those days,” Goudket said. “That’s what this house is about. It’s what I try to teach children when they come here. If they believe in something, they have to be brave and they can be as brave as they need to be.” Upstairs in the museum, two girls marveled at an old-style dollhouse. “The dollhouse is like an old house,” Giuliana Rampulla. 9, said. “It’s nice to see what kids liked to play with.” “I liked the dolls laying in the beds,” added her seven-year-old sister, Marisa, “and the babies in the little cribs.” Outside, members of the Huntington Militia, wearing period costumes, invited visitors to make their own woolen dolls, watch a cooking demonstration over an open fire, even try on traditional colonial outfits and take photos. There was also a leather worker, a weaver, and a colonial wife presenting original pamphlets with fables and alphabet lessons. However, all activities came to a halt when the militia began their musket demonstration. Then it was time for the children to participate. Carrying wooden rods they tried to perfect “make believe musket drills.” During all these activities, Theresa Skvarla, director of public relations at Raynham, beamed as she watched history come to life. It was her hope, she said, that the children would relate what they learned to their lives today. During the Revolutionary war, British troops knocked on the doors of people living on Long Island, Skvarla said. The British soldiers insisted on living in those homes along with the families, who were required to feed the troops and care for them. “Can you imagine soldiers taking over your home while you still live there?” Skvarla asked.
Definitions for "Scar Tissue" The body tissue remaining after a wound has healed. Usually stronger than the original tissues, but less able to carry out the jobs that the original tissues were designed for. Tissue formed in the body's attempt to cover raw or exposed areas a mark remaining after the healing of a wound or other morbid process.
One map made of three sheets of paper – Find of the Week Often when people hear the word “map” they imagine a large rectangular piece of paper with the United States of America drawn in bright colors. Or perhaps, a person might think of using an internet browser to look up directions from one place to another. In most cases, however, people usually think of maps of fitting within a square or rectangle. Our third “Find of the Week” demonstrates how a map does not always fit inside of a rectangular piece of paper. This map, titled “Map of Portland Texas in San Patricio County”, is from the Green Maps Collection and is made three separate parts glue together. This map is, of course, not a finished product, but rather one step in the process of creating a complete and up-to-date map. Especially before the ability to use computers for creating maps, it was very common for maps to be updated just as this map has been with several additional sheets of paper.
Create entry Python vs. lua Python lua + Add column Preference 75% votes 25% votes Website python.org lua.org Unicode Yes No Interpreter Yes Yes Description a widely used general-purpose, high-level programming language. Lua is a powerful, fast, lightweight, embeddable scripting language. Brand ? Tag OOP Programming Language Multi-user system Yes ? Pingback Yes ? Extension/Plug-in Yes Yes Image processing engin PILlow gnuplot Operating system Programming language Multilingual content Yes Yes Database model ? Transactions Yes ? Energy consumption ★★★☆☆ ★★★★☆ Price rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ WYSIWYG-Editor Yes ? Multiple projects Yes Yes Standard compliance Yes ? Map and reduce Yes ? Atomicity Conditional ? Horizontal scalable Yes ? Template language ? Target audience Framework ? Design pattern ? Development principles ? Difficulty level Version number 3.5.2 5.3.1 Adobe Flash Support Yes ? Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) Yes ? Infrared Port No ? Machine Code Generation No Yes Release Date February 1991 1993 Documentation level ★★★★★ ★★★★★ Multi tasking Yes Yes RESTful Yes Yes Code Generation Yes Yes Dynamic typing Yes Yes Value size max. 3 B ? Programming paradigm Comments Yes Yes Scripting language support Free to use Yes Yes Frontend ? Backend ? Active Yes Yes Supported VCS Database Connection Pooling Yes ? Creation Date 1989 ? Community Driven Good Good REPL Yes Yes Reliability ★★★★☆ ★★★★★ Versioning Good ? Data encryption Conditional ? API Good Good Compiled language Conditional Conditional Embeddable Yes Yes Compiler No Yes API comprehensibility ★★★★☆ ★★★★★ Jobs Oportunities ★★★★☆ ★★★★☆ Implementation flexibility (100% global votes) (57% global votes) Out-of-the-box functionality (100% global votes) (50% global votes) Control structures Yes ? Annotation Support Yes ? Realtime Yes ? Community feedback ★★★★★ ★★★★★ Malicious Injection Prevention Yes Yes Copy, Cut and Paste Support Yes Yes Free for commercial use Yes Yes Duck typing Yes Yes Useless No No Realtime Server Push Yes ? Easy of Use Yes Yes Latest Standard 2017 17ᵗʰ May 2020 JVM Yes Yes CLR Yes No Open Source Yes Yes Nested Comments Yes Yes Type inference Yes No IntelliSense Yes Yes Websocket Support Yes Yes Maven support No ? Events Support Yes Yes Lambda Expressions Yes Yes Properties Yes Yes Partial Classes No No Unsafe code support No Yes Value types creation No No Value type variables passing as reference No ? Method signatures passing as parameter Yes ? Safe casting Yes No Runtime Generic Support Yes No Runtime dynamic types Yes Yes Closures Yes Yes Delegates Yes ? iOS Development Support Yes Yes Native asynchronous operators await/async Yes No Perfomance ★★★☆☆ ★★★★☆ I like it Yes Yes Debug Mode Yes Yes Static Typing No No Autocomplete Code Yes Yes Dependency Injection Yes ? Symbols Yes ? Supported from Google Yes No Makes you angry Yes ? Easy to Learn Yes Yes Creates a slew of inefficient Javascript No ? Extensibility Yes Yes Unit Testing Yes Yes Ajax No ? GUI Yes ? Macro System Yes No Higher Kinded Types No ? Pattern Matching Yes Yes Object Oriented Models Yes Yes Mobile ready Yes ? Operating system server Package Manager Yes Yes Makes developer create a slew of inefficient Javascript No ? Easy Setup Yes Yes Jquery Yes No jQuery Support Yes ? Optional Static Type Yes Yes Supports Plugins Yes ? Vertically Scalable Yes ? Android App Yes Yes Full-Stack Yes ? User-friendly Yes Yes Internationalization Yes Yes Heroku Support Yes ? Framework specific vocabulary No ? Easy to Config Yes Yes Can you modify it freely to make it better Yes Yes JIT Compiler Yes Yes Type Safety No ? Self Server Yes ? Will get you a job Yes No Is reliable and secure Yes Yes Text-based Yes Yes Scalability Yes Yes Ability to link to external programs and systems Yes Yes Bytecode Generation Yes Yes Official IDE Support Yes Yes Amount of letters 6 3 Use components elsewhere? Yes Yes Can function without AJAX Yes Yes Concurrency Yes Yes Dynamic Language Yes Yes Meta Object Protocol Yes ? Enterprise Yes ? Namespaces Yes Yes Currying Yes ? Android Development Support Yes Yes 3rd Party Lib Support Yes Yes MVC Yes Yes Stability 100 100 Developed for Human Yes Yes Exist In The Future Yes Yes Windows Development Support Yes No Written By Monkeys No No javascript compiler Yes Yes Is VsChart totally worthless? Yes Yes Manual Memory Management Yes ? Garbage Collection Yes Yes fappable No Yes Yes Yes Smells like chips No ? Windows support Yes Yes Increase Stress Levels No Yes Inheritance Yes Yes State of the art technology Yes ? deprecated No No C++ power Yes Yes Awesome Yes ? Makes your hair fall No Yes Bullshit No ? Looks good on resumé Yes Yes Status 2017 ? Proves You Can Code? Yes Yes Does your mom understand it No No High peformance Yes Yes Make life easier Yes Yes Can be developed from linux Yes Yes Starts with A No ? elegant Yes Yes Doesn't Suck Yes Yes Write Less, Do More Yes Yes Makes You Wanna Puke No ? Does it hate you? No No Internal DSLs Yes ? Do I Like it Yes Yes Funny No No Command-line console Yes Yes Brutality 0 ? can make u rich Yes ? Better than Node.js Yes Yes German No ? Easy to learn Yes Yes Stupid No ? Integrated Debugger Yes ? WTF is this? No ? annnet Yes ? Simple Yes Yes This is getting out of hand. No ? Can make a cup of coffee No Yes template metaprogramming Yes Yes true modules Yes ? Was it worth reading till end? Yes Yes Is Better Than ASP .NET MVC Yes Yes Can create an OS in it It sucks No No something Yes ? Hard to learn No ? Could be used also in a computer? Yes ? Actually works Yes Yes Impresses your boss Yes Yes Can teleport an unicorn in your room Yes ? is from microsoft No No Beauty 10 ? wtf/minute 2 ? Makes you insane No No :( No ? has pointers No No Hakuna matata Yes ? Modify Code in Runtime Yes ? Can be used to invoke demons Yes Yes The Cow likes it Yes Yes is a language? Yes Yes Recomended by Morgan Freeman? No ? Hello World! Yes Yes Can it print 39? Yes Yes Best language ever? Yes Yes Makes you a racist? No No Drive a Maserati? Yes ? Sometimes I like to imagine that I'm a banana No ? Banana Support No ? Should I learnd It? Yes Yes 360 noscope triple headshot API Yes ? Multiple Inheritance Yes ? Multiple Dispatch No ? Makes you wanna have sex? Yes Yes smart Yes ? Did you get here? No ? 4+2 6 6 Are you still reading? Yes Yes Allow you to use the Force Yes ? ; drop table users; Yes ? Threadsafe No Yes Stolen No No Vendor Lock-In Yes ? Will it degrade your intelligence No No Does it Collect Garbage? Yes Yes Brazil Yes ? Spelled with 2 letters No ? Power Level 11 W ? Suitable for Desktop App Development Yes ? Suitable for Shell Scripting Yes ? Suitable for Mobile Development Yes Yes Allows Spaghetti code Yes Yes >implyingprogramming approved Yes ? dafuq!!! did i just read all this bullshit No ? can donald trump build a wall using this ? Yes Yes Is this chart bullshit ? Yes Yes Makes you beleive, you can fly Yes ? Cures Cancer Yes ? Can be used for sexual satisfaction Yes ? McDonalds Approved No ? Faster than Taylor Swift Yes ? Votes For Trump No No How long it takes to learn? 1 d 10 m Drink? No ? Stupidity No ? Are you a programmer? Yes Yes Batmobile Support? Yes ? Can be written with a bottle of vodka No Yes Has a secret cow level? No ? Anthropomorphism Yes ? Algological API No ? Uses Nazi symbol for logo No No Simple to understand Yes ? Is groovy? Yes ? Actually makes no logical sense No ? Machine learning Yes ? Better than Kotlin No ? Believes the World Is Flat Yes No Trump approved No ? Sexy? Yes Yes Will Help Trump Make America Great Again No No intellij idea native support No ? is it used to troll vschart? Yes Yes 69 No ? Fast to develop Yes Yes Approved by gay community Yes Yes Fun to work with Yes Yes Is Quantum 1.34 kHz ? Trackback ? Yes Revision control ? Yes Application startup time ? 4 s Wizard ? No HTML syntax ? Yes Syntax Highlighting ? Yes Data types ? Browser support ? Sexiness ? 100 Magic ? Yes Compiler Plugin Architecture ? No Supported by Microsoft ? Yes Responsive Website ? Yes HTML Binding ? Yes Fully OO ? No wtf mode ? Yes Named Fred ? No Smokes Crack ? Yes WillGetYouLaid ? No Actual chances of getting laid regardless ? Yes Will make your wiener twitch ? Yes :) ? Yes Bootstrap ? No Used by Chuck Norris ? Yes Did I waste my time going down all these options?! ? Yes are you stupid ? Yes Popularity ? 27 Influenced ? A lisp? ? No Is it Lisp? ? No Is a bird? ? No This site is useless ? Yes Feeling Special ? Yes Has vagina? ? Yes You also wasted time on this? ? Yes Almost Godly in Power ? Yes Did Microsoft declare it "the standard"? ? No Yes or No? ? Yes Does it poop in your fridge? ? No Cyka Blyat? ? Yes Is this fun or what? ? Yes Keyboard support ? Yes Do we love it cos it's special ? Yes Is it the definition of Awesome? ? Yes Does it give you LÖVE? ? Yes Is used by new millennial programmers? ? No Walter La Ganga ? 1 W What programming languages does it rely on? ? Yes Would vote for Trump ? Yes Is also a music note? ? No Makes you horny? ? Yes Is Literal Garbage ? No Harambe loves it? ? Yes Is pepe a hate symbol? ? No Can make you look smart ? Yes Reads naturally ? Yes Chance of something useful after this point ? -100 Annie are you okay? ? No Never gonna let you down ? No Is the best choice ? Yes Mid or Feed ? Yes + Add row ++ Python lua • vsChart is like a wiki Just click a data cell to edit it. 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A Delightful Place Rises Many years before man existed paradise was already here. It is now called Florianópolis, and still maintains the same fascination that struck its first inhabitants and visitors. After the ocean covered all the valleys of the uneven land, twenty close-knit islands remained. Nature moved mountains of sand before uniting them to form Santa Catarina Island 20 million years ago. It was like painting a picture surrounded by the sea. Several layers of sand were deposited between the islands like a brush passing on a painting, until a final sketch was defined. The details came afterwards. Beaches, seashores, and swamps surrounded 172 km of borders. Trees with twisted bushes covered the sandy spaces with green. Two bays of quiet and warm waters separated island and continent. Even a few mistakes contributed to the enrichment of the painter’s work. Some small and more distant islands were not covered with sand and remained around the large island, like pearls in a necklace. And it was by accident, like errant strokes of the brush, that two precious lakes were formed: Lagoa da Conceicão and Lagoa do Peri. In a place like this, one should not be surprised by the continuing work of Mother Nature. Several lakes show up with the rain, disappear during dryer weather, then appear again. There are several dunes that are here today, only to move elsewhere tomorrow. Some resist the wind and are covered by amazingly resistant plants, creating new or already existent sandbanks. There are lakes still being formed, as in Ponta das Canas and Daniela Beaches, indicating that the sedimentation process is still unfinished and that the Island has not yet reached its final form. Physical and Geographic Aspects Santa Catarina Island is separated from the continent by a canal less than one km wide and 30 meters deep. It is the narrowest point between firm ground and the 431 square km surrounded by the sea, a piece of land running north-south, 54 km long and 19 km wide. This land, parallel to the continent, inspired the Carijós Indians, its first inhabitants, to give the island the name of Meiembipe, which means “mountain along the canal.” The highest places in town coincide with the main islands from the united archipelago: the Ribeirão da Ilha Hill (south), 540 meters high, and the Ratones Hill (north), 525 meters high. Certainly its natural resources attracted the first inhabitants to the island. Namely, its rich food offerings and peasant, mesoteric climate (temperatures between 3 and 40 C with annual average around 20 C). Although the beaches are the most important tourist aspects in town, they are not the only options in Florianópolis. When travelling by car or by bus, one can encounter several pleasant surprises. If one considers the size of its territory, the island has tremendous biodiversity. What is most astonishing is the fact that everything is so close—the danger of putting its ecological treasures at risk is a reality. Even the urban areas reveal treasures, like the Itacorubi Swamp and the forest around the Hospital de Caridade. In the past, the town had a larger area occupied by four swamps. The Itacorubi Swamp is the most altered, and the swamp at Ratones is the most preserved; the one at Rio Tavares is the largest, and the one at Saco Grande is the smallest. The muddy land is the nursery, the protection and the food source for several animal species. It works like a biological filter, keeping impurities present in the water (?do you mean impurities away from the water?), and protecting against erosion and floods around several rivers. What happened to the native forest is no different. The destruction of two types of vegetations – Litorânia and Atlantic Forest – contributed to the loss of the island’s original soil coverage. On the smaller islands that surround the main island, much is still preserved. There are still 30 environments of Atlantic Forest and what is left from the Continental Platform. Arvoredo Island is the largest and is situated on a conversation area, together with Deserta Island. Campeche, to the south, can be easily visited, as well as the islands situated at the two bays: Anhatomirim, Ratones Grande, Ratones Pequeno, do Large, and das Flechas, among others. The dunes make up another important ecological system that deserves care, because they originate the sandbanks. The dunes largest area is located between Lago da Conceicao and Joaquina Beach (east). It covers 5.6 square km, and is considered the geological model for environmental studies. Three different types of dunes can be found: fixed (or sandbanks), totally covered with vegetation; semi-fixed, partially covered with vegetation; and mobile, without vegetation. Several additional dunes appear among the primary dunes during the rainy season, and disappear when it stops raining. However, the preservation of the permanent lakes is what matters most to environmentalists. From pre-history to today, much information about the settlement of Florianópolis has been lost. It is known that settlement occurred very slowly because the area was initially used only as a resting harbor for navigators travelling to the Rio da Prata region. For at least 4,500 years, the place was inhabited by Indians. It is not known when the Europeans arrived. History books tell us that the discovery of the island was done from a distance, without landing, by the Portuguese explorer André Goncalves, in 1502, or by Goncalo Coelho, in 1503. Portugal’s apathy towards their lands in southern Brazil led the Spanish to invest heavily in conquering the South Atlantic. In 1526 Sebastião Caboto arrived adn replaced the Portuguese name for Santa Catarina Island. Since then, and until the arrival of the colonial expedition of Francisco Dias Velho from São Paulo State in 1675, several fruitless colonization attempts were made. Indian Inhabitants Old inscriptions and “sambaquis” (piles of shells mixed with other objects) are signs of pre-historic life on Santa Catarina Island. They were probably left by nomads that passed through the island long before the first steady inhabitants, the Carijós Indians. On the coast of Campeche Island (south) are 73 of the more than 100 rocks marked with strange inscriptions and spread throughout the island. Among more than 50 sambaquis, the oldest one is about 4,500 years old and was found at Pântano do Sul Beach. The origin of the Carijós Indians is a sad story. They may have descended from pre-historic people or may have migrated from the region that today is Paraguay. In the sixteenth century, they started to peacefully share what they had with the European travellers. They were hospitable Indians from the “Tupiguarani”nation, and used to live in villages of 30 to 80 houses supported by wood stakes and covered with palm tree leaves. They slashed canoes on “garapuvu” trees, and transformed rocks, clay, and vegetable fibers into useful tools. However, during the sixteenth century the Europeans began to capture and enslave the Indians. When they were not sold as merchandise in São Vicente, São Paulo state, or in “Bahia de Todos os Santos”, they died of diseases brought over by the white man. The official settlement of Santa Catarina Island started in 1673. It began with the agricultural enterprise of Francisco Dias Velho, who sent one of his sons along with indians and “mamelucos” to the island. In 1675, he himself came from São Paulo to look after his business. He brought his wife, his other sons, an aggregated family, two priests from the “Companhia de Jesus,” and 500 more indoctrinated Indians. He built a chapel consecrated to “Our Lady of Desterro,” where the cathedral is found today. In the fight to defend his land and his family, Dias Velho’s life came to a tragic end. Historians disagree about the year of his death (possibly 1687, 1688, or 1692). Some report that a Dutch ship coming from Peru with silver was attacked and defeated with guns and bullets by Dias Velho, who then kept the shipment. This version has the pirates returning a year later for retaliation, not only recovering their shipment but also killing Dias Velho and sexually abusing his three daughters. Perhaps as a result of this, the family of the founder and all their companions returned to São Paulo. After the tragic death of Dias Velho, the population of Santa Catarina Island decreased drastically. In the beginning of the seventeenth century, there were little more than 20 residents, most of them coming from São Francisco do Sul to occupy the regions of Our Lady of Necessities (Nossa Senhora das Necessidades) in Santo Antônio de Lisboa. Worrying about the extinction of their domain, in 1714 the Portuguese elevated Santa Catarina Island to the level of parish, naming it “Our Lady of Destoerro” (Nossa Senhora do Desterro”), after the existing chapel. In 1726, in another effort to rebuild the population started by Dias Velho, the parish was transformed into a municipal district. The Immigrants from Azores Constant earthquakes and the overpopulation of the Madeira Island and of the nine island that form the Archipelago of Acores stimulated the arrival of about 6,000 immigrants to the “Desterro” and to the Santa Catarina coast between 1747 and 1756. The immigration was part of Portugal’s political strategy to take over the American territory. Therefore, the transformation of the Santa Catarina Captaincy into a military center and operational base to occupy the southern part of Brazil was dependent on a sufficient population. The first immigrants settled near the church, on a street adequately named “dos Ilhéus”. Inland, the first immigration village was founded in 1750 with two other parishes (São Miguel and Nossa Senhora do Posário da Enseada do Brito) and was named “Our Lady da Conceicaão da Lagoa” (Nossa Senhora da conceicão da Lagoa). In 1755, two more parishes were founded: “Nossa Senhora das Necessidades”, inland, and “Santo Antônio de Lisboa”, on the Island. Because entrance to the country was difficult, the urban center developed near the continent. Whales Hunt Subsistence agriculture was the first activity developed by the immigrants. They dedicated themselves to producing cassava, both for their own use and to sell it abroad. Many four mills and sugarcane alembics were built and spread around the island. The immigrants also continued fishing. During the second half of the seventeenth century, the Portuguese Crown allowed them to hunt whales, and activity that came easily because they were used to sea fishing. However, it was the North American and English investors who really took advantage of the fishing industry. Because almost all of the production was exported to Portugal, the city itself gained little in exchange. The largest impact on the local economy was caused by the necessity to supply the foreign whale hunters with substinance products like water, clothes, and food. Besides the whale hunters, the militaries (a more powerful category) also needed several supplies. They too provided an important push to the local economy. A small commercial business, selling food and handcraft products made by the local inhabitants, started to grow near the harbor. Observing Distinguished Visitors Soon however, whale hunting began to decline due to the near extinction of the animals as well as to the substitution of oil (the main by-product of whale hunting) with kerosene. Although the activity was not economically profitable, it was practiced until the middle of XIX century on the east side of the state. Since 1987, however, it has been prohibited by federal law. As a result, the remaining whales started to increase in number again. Currently, they can be found at several beaches, like Pantano do Sul (south of the island) and Ponta do Papagaio (south of the city of Florianópolis). These are the best places to watch the animals between July and October, when the whales arrive at the Island from the South Pole looking for warmer waters to reproduce. If you want to whale-watch, it is important to call first, because the animals move very quickly from one place to another. The telephone number to call is 9973 0977, the Baleia Franca project. You will be told where to observe the whales from the beach using binoculars. The name Florianopolis In 1832, Desterro assumed the title of capital of Santa Catarina. The name was changed to Florianópolis in October, 1894. This controversial name, given in honor of Floriano Peixoto, is disliked by some inhabitants even today. To end the Federalist Revolution that attempted to depose him from the presidency, Floriano Peixoto ordered the execution of those revolutionaries considered enemies of the Republic. More than a hundred people were shot at Anhatomirim Island. After the last naval battle in April, 1894, the capital of the state returned to the “Florianistas” domain (also named legalists). The victory against the federalists increased the prestige of the Santa Catarina republicans before the “Iron Marshal,” as Floriano Peixoto was known. In order to honor the marshal, the winners changed the name “Desterro” to his name, who ironically transformed the place into a death stage during the early years of the disturbed republic. The Spanish Invasion The army displayed by the Portuguese was not strong enough to avoid the Spanish invasion of 1777. More than a hundred ships and 15.000 Spanish soldiers dominated the Island through the Canasvieiras bay. After sinking their ships the invaders took three days to conquer the fort of São José da Ponta Grossa. After having canceled the crossed opened fire defense system, the Spanish did not have problems to occupy Desterro, and after a war assembly, the Portuguese decided to give the Island to the enemy fleet captain. A year later they took over Desterro by the São Ildefonso Pact. In this pact the agreement was to return the place, considering that foreign ships would not be allowed to use the island as a base. The exclusivity belonged to Spanish ships. Santa Cruz de Anhatomirim The construction of the largest fort in southern Brazil, built first to protect Destorro, took five years. Santa Cruz was built on Anhoatormirim Island, at the entrance of the north bay, and was completed in 1744. Within its 2,678 square meters, 57 cannons were installed. After one and a half centuries, during the Federalist Revolution of 1894, political opponents of Floriano Peixoto were commonly arrested or executed here. After the times of terror and reform passed, the rare beauty of the captain’s two-story colonial house remained. This house, delimited by majestic portico and characterized by its oriental design, served as the gunpowder and the troops’ headquarters. Lime and wood, as well as marble brought from Portugal, were used in the construction. Currently Santa Cruz de Anhatomirim is under the care of Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC). There are a number of ways to visit the fort. You can rent a boat in the north beaches or take a schooner that leaves from either the north shore bay piers or from under Hercilio Luz Bridge. Visiting hours can be obtained at the Support Extension Department at UFSC by calling 331-9344. Tourism and Industry Tourism, a fundamental activity in the summer, generates millions of Reais in the city each year. The industrial sector focuses on civil construction, editorial and graphic areas, and in the manufacture of electric, electronic, and communication goods. The current growth of the electric, electronic, computer, and communication industries was stimulated in 1991, when the governor created the computing area in Saco Grande district. These non-polluting activities have little negative impact on the environment. Work Market The informal work market has grown in Florianópolis as it has around the rest of Brazil. It is comprised of the street market workers that populate the streets of the city all year round and by those who take advantage of the tourism during the summer. This includes the street peddlers, the homeowners who rent their houses and apartments, and the people who spend the day on the beach waiting for those who want to have a ride on jet skis, canoes, banana boats, bikes, schooners, or sandboards.Tourism, a fundamental activity in the summer, generates millions of Reais in the city each year. The industrial sector focuses on civil construction, editorial and graphic areas, and in the manufacture of electric, electronic, and communication goods. Even though the fishing sector has only a minor impact on the economy of the city, it a very important activity from a social standpoint. It includes the individual fishermen that are losing space in the market due to both the growth of industrial fishing and to their own gradual extinction as new generations are choosing other activities. To overcome the crisis, many fishermen have dedicated themselves to the breeding of oysters and mussels in a partnership with the Breeding Laboratory of Shellfish of UFSC. Selling their products mainly in the local market, these breeders are located in the communities of Santo Antonio de Lisboa and Sambaqui (north bay) and Ribeirão da II, Costeira do Ribeirão and Caieira da Barra Sul (South Bay). Florianópolis Today According to the UN, the almost 350,000 people that live in Florianópolis have the best quality of life in the country. In Florianópolis, all the facilities of a cosmopolitan city and the peculiarities of a provincial town live in harmony. Many trails leading to isolated communities can only be reached by foot or by boat, as contrasted with highway SC401. Indifferent to the rigors of modern life and to the contrasts of the city, many just want to enjoy the natural beauties of this island with more than 40 beaches. In the summer, Florianópolis is transformed by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of tourists. The population almost triples during this season. During the 1998 season almost half a million tourists arrived on the island—63.5% from other parts of Brazil, and 36.5% from abroad. Among the Brazilian tourists, 43& were from Rio Grande do Sul state (“gaúchos”), 20% from São Paulo state (“paulistas”), 15% from Paraná state (“paranaenses”), and 7.5% were from Rio de Janeiro state (“cariocas”). Regarding visitors from abroad, the tourists from Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Chile comprise 84.5% of the foreigners visiting the island. The city of Florianópolis occupies part of the island and an area of the continent. In the city there is one car for every three inhabitants, as well as a variety of other facilities and services that provide for all needs. It is possible to arrive or leave the island by car, airplane, or boat. By car, bus, or truck one can reach the island only by crossing the Pedro Ivo Campos Bridge, and leave by crossing the Colombo Salles Bridge. The Hercílio Luz Bridge, often called the “postcard of the city,” has been closed to traffic since 1991. The sea is explored by fishermen and navigators and by private tourism companies. Planes cross the sky, landing and taking off from the International Hercílio Luz Airport, 12 kilometers from downtown.
Star Particle Jets, Tachyons and the Event Is it possible that Tachyons are the KEY TO THE EVENT? Yes, the best guess about the “energetic particles” referred to as being pivotal to the raising of frequencies is that they are Tachyons. After reviewing the article on Wikipedia about Tachyons, it is necessary to depart from the idea of an imaginary particle and focus on one that can and does exist. The platinum group of elements has been extensively researched for their ability to become superconductive when forced into circuit, that is the idea of being mechanically deformed so that their end valances actually connect to form an energetic circuit, a loop. This image of a star with jets of particles shooting from its poles is from an unknown source. There is much experimental work regarding this, and one of the key discoveries is that these elements are quite common in their monoatomic form, unlike the metallic form we usually think of when referring to these elements. In fact they are common enough that all life incorporates them into each cell and the glial cells in particular host them in significant numbers where they are used to bathe the synaptic gaps with a fluid that generates a superconductive field around the synapse. Based on the carbon reduction of brain tissue in laboratories, the brain of a pig contains a significant amount of iridium and rhodium, which is important because these elements have no role in construction of brain tissue. They are not structural elements so they must be there for a different reason, namely to create the high frequency field needed by the mind/brain to manage the body and its connection to the high frequency long term information storage in the DNA, and in humans it goes beyond that to what is referred to as the “soul”. Today there is substantial interest in using Tachyons to assist the body in healing and balancing itself in the turmoil of an environment filled with toxic elements and fields of energy. If, as the article in Wikipedia suggests, Tachyons are extremely high speed particles similar to cosmic rays or neutrinos, their utility in healing would be negative instead of positive. Being “faster than light” may not be true at all, in the sense that they travel through space like bullets faster than the speed of light. What is most likely is that “tachyons” are actually related to ORMES, White Gold, the Philosophers Stone and other Ormus minerals being tested and used to heal around the world. Faster than light is a term not necessarily incorrect for Tachyons if they are related to the platinum group of elements. The quality of these elements to be able to use quantum teleportation is the basis of their being able to appear to travel faster than light. This is because they enter a state of disconnection from materiality when in the superconductive state, losing their gravitational attraction and become their own “portals” able to jump through time and space. Of course this begs the question of “where do they come from?”, a question that has the rather weird answer: “from anywhere they are in the superconductive state” Now the better answer is to postulate that these elements are being ejected from stars in the superconductive state, and in such quantity that they have accumulated throughout the universe as “highly energetic particles” over the entire span of the universe existence, or at least since it became complex enough to have the platinum group of metals being formed in stars. In this case the “tachyons” would be everywhere and nowhere at the same time. If this seems odd and contradictory, then you need to think about the effect of their being their own time and space “portals” able to connect to anyplace that seems attractive to them wherein they simply jump through the void to that attractive place and time. Realistically, most tachyons are probably coming from nearby, especially since they are likely related to the Ormus elements and are pervasive in the environment. The Tachyons created by stars are another matter entirely. It is logical to assume that these elements are activated, meaning that the end valances are connected and they are in a superconductive state, since this state would need to be involved in a collision for it to end, so when they enter it they remain in that state. When will these Tachyons reach “critical mass”, the condition where their presence as superconductive portals extends beyond their small presence at the molecular level and into the space around them? This question is not far fetched at all. In fact the spiritual body is based on just that condition, a situation in which the super conductive field created by the presence of the Elements of Life in the body is able to move out of the body and into the external realms surrounding the planet. Indeed, the potential for our galaxy to become a sentient body with its own field of consciousness just like the ones that engulf the embodied souls of living beings is not so difficult to imagine. Is this situation the Event? Will all spiritual beings be able to function as part of this single body of consciousness at that point? This would be consistent with what we know about the creation and explains much about what is being said about the Event. Dane Arr August 8, 2018 Leave a Reply
Sexual Harassment In the current political forum and corporate world, sexual harassment has become a heated issue. The federal courts of the United States have addressed the pressing issue of this violation and are forcing corporations to assume responsibility for the actions of their employees by the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission. In Code 29 of the Code of Federal Regulation, it states that in cases involving employees, An employer may be responsible for the acts of employees, with respect to sexual harassment of employees in the workplace, where the employer, its agents, or supervisory employees knows, or should have known, of the conduct and fails to take appropriate corrective action. In reviewing these cases, the Commission will consider the extent of the employer’s control and any other legal responsibility, which the employer may have with respect to the conduct of such non-employees. (O’Donohue, 1997, p. 43) Harassment in the workplace causes hostility and tension. These attributes are not conducive to a worker-friendly atmosphere. According to research by the American Psychological Association, “Many women who have been harassed on the job report a cornucopia of symptoms similar to other forms of severe stress” (Petrocelli, 1997, p.87). These include problems ranging from depression, insecurity, and lethargy to headaches and decreased job satisfaction and productivity. Therefore, employers must prevent and enforce “sexual harassment” so that they will be better able to prevent further instances of the offense. Its occurrence decreases productivity and warrants unnecessary debt. What is sexual harassment? The ambiguity of words allows for many interpretations of “sexual harassment”, but the United States Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) defines sexual harassment in the 29th Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) #1604.11(a) when: 1. We Will Write a Custom Essay Specifically For You For Only $13.90/page! order now Conduct and/or comments are understood to be sexual in nature 2. Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual, or 3. Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment. (MacKinnon, 1990, pp. 67-68) Defining “sexual in nature” “Sexual harassment encompasses a wide range of conduct, from offensive sexual innuendoes all the way to borderline cases of rape” (MacKinnon, 1990, p.92). It is hard for the courts to draw the fine line where actions become offensive and sexual in nature. Such conduct, however, needs not be restricted to any physical harassment. Verbal assaults and visual degradation also carry substance in the definition of sexual harassment (O’Donohue, 1997). Verbal sexual harassment includes crude sexual jokes, sexual requests or favors, and references to the physical attributes of the victim. If these assaults are unwarranted and unwanted, they constitute sexual harassment. Harassment can be any derogatory action or comment (Petrocelli, 1997). Another offense that can be included into the realm of sexual harassment is visual insult. Any pictures, gestures, or looks that are sexually explicit fall into this category. Written notes or letters to a colleague with sexual content or nature also constitute a violation of the 29th code of the Code of Federal Regulations imposed by the EEOC. (MacKinnon, 1990) “Hostile working environment” vs. “quid pro quo” demand When cases of sexual harassment first appeared in the courts, only cases of quid pro quo were recognized. These instances of the offense threaten the employment of the victim if they are unwilling to submit to sexual requests. This type of harassment usually occurs when the offender is in a superior position than that of the victim. “Almost 2/3 of sexual harassment complaints were brought against a woman’s immediate supervisor or another person with greater power” (Petrocelli, 1997, p.121). The harasser explicitly explains or implies that refusal of compliance will result in job-loss. This request need not be sexual intercourse. A more recent recognition of sexual harassment is those cases causing a hostile working environment. While it can be associated with quid pro quo offenses, it stands alone as a justifiable claim. In this type of harassment, the conduct is so severe or pervasive that it changes the very conditions of employment, making the work environment hostile. For example, an employee arrives at work one morning to find that someone has left suggestive literature on her desk. If this behavior occurs for a prolonged period, the harasser has created a hostile working environment. Why employers should not accept responsibility Those critics, many of whom are employers, that feel they should not bear the burden of their employees’ actions will say that it is the responsibility of the worker to act maturely in the workplace. If employers are not personally responsible for the harassment, why should they have to suffer as well? An employer may be the supervisor of his or her employees, but how would it be possible to oversee every action, word, and gesture communicated among employees? The responsibility of employees’ actions is their own. Each worker is a mature adult, expected to behave properly. Why employers must assume responsibility Should a whole corporation suffer for the careless actions of one employee? Yes. The most obvious reason for companies to assume responsibility for the actions of their employees is that they are legally required to do so. No one is above the law. Just as parents must care for their children, corporations must also hold the best interests of their employees in mind and in policy. In addition to this legal obligation, sexual harassment decreases revenue. By both lowering productivity and producing expenses, sexual harassment is a burden to businesses. Even if the offense is settled informally, the harasser took time away from work to commit the crime. According the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, “Sexual harassment costs a typical Fortune 500 company $6.7 million per year in absenteeism, low productivity, and employee turnover” (MacKinnon, 1990, p.27). Therefore, his or her efficiency is affected. Court actions follow any situation that cannot be informally resolved. “Mitsubishi Motors Manufacturing recently agreed to pay $34 million to women who worked at its plant in Normal, Illinois for failing to step in and stop the widespread sexual harassment they endured for years at the company” (Petrocelli, 1997, p.96). That is an unnecessary debt to accept as a result of negligence. Final thoughts Employers cannot avoid the issue of sexual harassment. They must take the proper steps in helping to prevent any further abuse of power in the sexual context. Time and money are not expendable commodities in the corporate forum. If businesses wish to continue to thrive they must face up to reality and address the issue of sexual harassment. Women are not able to work in a good environment and thus it affects their productivity. Less productivity equals less revenue, and that is certainly something corporations cannot deal with. With corporations such as Mitsubishi suffering extreme debts, the Chairman of the EEOC, Paul M. Igasaki, gives warning to all other businesses. “Other companies should take heed . . . The key to success in this area is having a credible policy which takes decisive, fair, and timely corrective action long before a situation gets out of hand” (O’Donohue, 1997, p. 47).
Category: lossless Zya* & Element* - Technify Label: EFEX Productions - EFX024 • Format: File MP3 320 kbps • Country: US • Genre: Electronic • Style: House, Electro, Tech House Download Zya* & Element* - Technify Track 26 - Hans Söllner - Bloß A Gschicht chemical element is Hands Of Fate - Various - Big Mix 4 species of atom having the same number of protons in their atomic nuclei that is, the same atomic numberor Z. One hundred eighteen elements have been identified: the first 94 occur naturally on Earthand the remaining 24 are synthetic elements. There are 80 elements that have at least one stable isotope and 38 that have exclusively radionuclideswhich decay over time into other elements. Iron is the most abundant element by mass Zya* & Element* - Technify up Earth, while oxygen is the most common Кто Ты? - Catharsis - Крылья in the Earth's crust. Chemical elements constitute all of the ordinary matter of the universe. The remainder is dark matter ; the composition of this is unknown, but it is not composed of chemical elements. The next three elements lithiumberyllium and boron were formed mostly by cosmic ray spallationand are thus rarer than heavier elements. Formation of elements with from 6 to 26 protons occurs in main sequence stars via stellar nucleosynthesis. The high abundance of oxygen, siliconand iron on Zya* & Element* - Technify reflects their common production in such stars. Elements with greater than 26 protons are formed by Zya* & Element* - Technify nucleosynthesis in supernovaewhich, when they explode, blast these elements as supernova remnants far into space, where they may become incorporated into planets when they are formed. The term "element" is used for atoms with a given number of protons regardless of whether or not they are ionized or chemically bonded, e. A single element can form multiple substances differing in their structure; they are called allotropes of the element. When different elements are chemically combined, with the atoms held together by chemical bondsthey form chemical compounds. Only a minority of elements are found uncombined as relatively pure minerals. Among the more common of such native elements are coppersilvergoldcarbon as coal Zya* & Element* - Technifygraphiteor diamondsand sulfur. All but a few of the most inert elements, such as noble gases and noble metalsare usually found on Earth in chemically combined form, as chemical compounds. While about 32 of the chemical elements occur on Earth in native uncombined forms, most of these occur as mixtures. For example, atmospheric air is primarily a mixture of nitrogenoxygen, and argonand native solid elements occur Various - Beauty In Darkness Vol. 6 (DVD) alloyssuch as that of iron and nickel. The history of the discovery and use of the elements began with primitive human societies that Zya* & Element* - Technify native elements like carbon, sulfur, copper and gold though the status of these materials as elements was not known at the time. Later civilizations extracted elemental copper, tin, lead and iron from their ores by smeltingusing charcoal. Alchemists and chemists subsequently identified Zya* & Element* - Technify more; all of the naturally occurring elements were known by The properties of the chemical elements are summarized in the periodic tablewhich organizes the elements by increasing atomic number into rows " periods " in which the columns " groups " share recurring "periodic" physical and chemical properties. Save for unstable radioactive elements with short half-livesall of the elements are available industriallyZya* & Element* - Technify of them in low degrees of impurities. The lightest chemical elements are hydrogen and heliumboth created by Big Bang nucleosynthesis during the first 20 minutes of the universe [5] in a ratio of around by mass or by number of atoms[6] [7] along with tiny traces of the next two elements, lithium and beryllium. Almost all other elements found in nature were made by various natural methods of nucleosynthesis. New atoms are also naturally produced on Earth as radiogenic daughter isotopes of ongoing radioactive decay processes such as alpha decaybeta decayspontaneous fissioncluster decayand other rarer modes of decay. Of the 94 naturally occurring elements, those with atomic Going On Dead - The 86ed - America Today 1 through 82 each have at least one stable isotope except for technetiumelement 43 and promethiumelement 61, which have no stable isotopes. Isotopes considered stable are those Zya* & Element* - Technify which no radioactive decay has yet been observed. Elements with atomic numbers 83 through 94 are unstable to the O Fim. - Mário Albanese - Jequibau that radioactive decay of all isotopes can be detected. Some of these elements, notably bismuth atomic number 83thorium atomic number 90and uranium atomic number Zya* & Element* - Technify have one or more isotopes with half-lives long enough to survive as remnants of the explosive stellar nucleosynthesis that produced the heavy metals before the formation of our Solar System. At over 1. As ofthere are known elements in this context, "known" means observed well enough, even from just a few decay products, to have been differentiated from other elements. Six of these occur in extreme trace quantities: technetiumatomic number 43; promethiumnumber 61; astatinenumber 85; franciumnumber 87; neptuniumnumber 93; and plutoniumnumber These 94 elements have been detected in the universe at large, in the spectra of stars and also supernovae, where short-lived radioactive elements are newly being made. The first 94 elements have been detected directly on Earth as primordial nuclides present from the formation of the solar system, or as naturally occurring fission or transmutation products of uranium and thorium. The remaining 24 heavier elements, not found today either on Earth or in astronomical spectra, have been produced artificially: these are all radioactive, with very short half-lives; if any atoms of these elements were present at the formation of Earth, they are extremely likely, to Watching The River Flow - Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead - Bridgets Album (Eugene 1987 Part One) point of certainty, to have already decayed, and if present in novae have been in quantities too small to have been noted. Technetium was the first purportedly non-naturally occurring element synthesized, inalthough trace amounts of technetium have since been found in nature and also the element may have been discovered naturally in List of the elements are available by name, atomic number, density, melting point, boiling point and by symbol Zya* & Element* - Technify , as well as ionization energies of the elements. The nuclides of stable and radioactive elements are also available as a list of nuclidessorted by length of half-life Zya* & Element* - Technify those that are unstable. One of the most convenient, and certainly the most traditional presentation of the elements, is in the form of the periodic tablewhich groups together elements with similar chemical properties and usually also similar electronic structures. The atomic number of an element is equal to the number of protons in each atom, and defines the element. The number of protons in the atomic nucleus also determines its electric chargewhich in turn determines the number of electrons of the atom in its non-ionized state. The number of neutrons in a nucleus usually has very little effect on an element's chemical properties except in the case of hydrogen and deuterium. Thus, all carbon isotopes have nearly identical chemical properties because they all have six protons and six electrons, even though carbon atoms may, for example, have 6 or 8 neutrons. That is why the atomic number, rather than mass number or atomic weightis considered the identifying characteristic of a chemical element. Isotopes are Zya* & Element* - Technify of the same element that is, with the Juan Torres - Organo Melódico - Vol. 2 number of protons in their atomic nucleusbut having different numbers of neutrons. Thus, for example, there are three main isotopes of carbon. All carbon atoms have 6 protons in the nucleus, but they can have either 6, 7, or 8 neutrons. Since the mass numbers of these are 12, 13 and 14 respectively, the three isotopes of carbon are known as carboncarbonand carbonoften abbreviated to 12 C, 13 C, and 14 C. Carbon in everyday life and in chemistry is a mixture of 12 C about Most 66 of 94 naturally occurring elements have more than one stable isotope. Except for the isotopes of hydrogen which differ greatly from each other in relative mass—enough to cause chemical effectsthe isotopes of a given element are chemically nearly indistinguishable. All of the elements have some isotopes that are radioactive radioisotopesalthough not all of these radioisotopes occur naturally. The radioisotopes typically decay into other elements upon radiating an alpha or beta Good Good Feeling (House Mix) - Various - Too House To Handle. If an element has isotopes that are not radioactive, these are termed "stable" isotopes. All of the known stable isotopes occur naturally see primordial isotope. The many radioisotopes that are not found in nature have been characterized after being artificially made. Certain elements have no stable isotopes and are composed only of radioactive isotopes: specifically the elements without any stable isotopes are technetium atomic number 43promethium atomic number 61and all observed elements with atomic numbers greater than Of the 80 elements with at least one stable isotope, 26 have only one single stable isotope. The mean number of stable isotopes for the 80 stable elements is 3. The largest number of stable isotopes that occur for a single element is 10 for tin, element The mass number of an element, Ais the number of nucleons protons and neutrons in the atomic nucleus. Different isotopes of a given element are distinguished by their mass numbers, which are conventionally written as a superscript on the left hand side of the atomic symbol e. The mass number is always a whole number and has units of "nucleons". For example, magnesium 24 is the mass number is an atom with 24 nucleons 12 protons and 12 neutrons. Whereas the mass number simply counts the total number of neutrons and protons and is thus a natural or whole number, the atomic mass of a single atom is a real number giving the mass of a particular isotope or "nuclide" of the Willy - Various - Liedermacher In Deutschland - Für Wen Wir Singen Vol. 2, expressed in atomic mass units symbol: u. For example, the atomic mass of chlorine to five significant digits is The standard atomic weight commonly called "atomic weight" of an element is the average of the atomic masses of all the chemical element's isotopes as found in a Zya* & Element* - Technify environment, weighted by isotopic abundance, relative to the atomic mass unit. This number may be a fraction that is not close to a whole number. For example, the relative atomic mass of chlorine is Chemists and nuclear scientists have different definitions of a pure element. In chemistry, a pure element means a substance whose atoms all or in practice almost all have the same atomic numberor number of protons. Nuclear scientists, however, define a pure element as one that consists of only one stable isotope. For example, a Zya* & Element* - Technify wire is However, a pure gold ingot would be both chemically and isotopically pure, since ordinary gold consists only of one isotope, Au. Atoms of chemically pure elements may bond to each other chemically in more than one way, allowing the pure element to exist in multiple chemical structures spatial arrangements of atomsknown as allotropeswhich differ in their properties. For example, carbon can be found as diamondwhich has a tetrahedral structure around each carbon atom; graphitewhich has layers of carbon atoms with a hexagonal structure stacked on top of each other; graphenewhich is a single layer of graphite that is very strong; fullereneswhich have nearly spherical shapes; and carbon nanotubeswhich are tubes with a hexagonal structure even these may differ from each other in electrical properties. The ability of an element to exist in one of many structural forms is known as 'allotropy'. The standard statealso known as the reference state, of an element is defined as its thermodynamically most stable state at a pressure of 1 bar and a given temperature typically at In thermochemistryan element is defined to have an enthalpy of formation of zero in its standard state. Several terms are commonly used to characterize the general physical and chemical properties of the chemical elements. A first distinction is between metalswhich readily conduct electricitynonmetalswhich do not, and a small group, the metalloidshaving intermediate properties and often behaving as semiconductors. A more refined classification is often shown in colored presentations of the periodic table. This system restricts the terms "metal" and "nonmetal" to only certain of the more broadly defined metals and nonmetals, adding additional terms for certain sets of the more broadly viewed metals and nonmetals. The version of this classification used in the periodic tables presented here includes: actinidesalkali metalsalkaline earth metalshalogenslanthanidestransition metalspost-transition metalsmetalloidsreactive nonmetalsand noble gases. In this system, the alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, and transition metals, as well as the lanthanides and the actinides, are special groups of the metals viewed in a broader sense. Similarly, the reactive nonmetals and the noble gases are nonmetals viewed in the broader sense. In some presentations, the halogens are not distinguished, with astatine identified as a metalloid and the others identified as nonmetals. Another commonly used basic distinction among the elements is their state of matter phasewhether solidliquidor gasat a selected standard temperature and pressure STP. Most of the elements are solids at conventional temperatures and atmospheric pressure, while several are gases. Only bromine and mercury are liquids at 0 degrees Celsius 32 degrees Fahrenheit and normal atmospheric pressure; caesium and gallium are solids at that temperature, but melt at Melting and boiling pointstypically expressed in degrees Celsius at a pressure of one atmosphere, Zya* & Element* - Technify commonly used in characterizing the various elements. While known for most elements, either or both of these measurements is still undetermined for some of the radioactive elements available in only tiny quantities. The density at selected standard temperature and pressure STP is frequently used in characterizing the elements. Since several elements are gases at commonly encountered temperatures, their densities are usually stated for their gaseous forms; when liquefied or solidified, the gaseous elements have densities similar to those of the other elements. No Special Rider Blues - Little Brother Montgomery - Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order, Charro - Elvis Presley - Elvis In Hollywood, Mis Brazos Te Esperan - Flaco Jiménez* - Buena Suerte, Señorita, All The Things You Are - Charlie Parker - The Discovery Of Jazz, The Lady Wore Black - Queensrÿche - Evolution Concert - Forever Rock (DVD) 8 thoughts on “ Zya* & Element* - Technify 1. Careers at Element. As the fastest growing provider of testing, inspection and certification services within the global TIC sector, Element provides an outstanding opportunity for anyone interested in working in the areas of materials science, metallurgical science, polymeric science, mechanical engineering, applied chemistry, product testing, failure analysis, fire engineering, calibration. 2. Fun Facts about the name Zya. How Popular is the name Zya? Zya is the 14, th most popular name of all time. How many people with the first name Zya have been born in the United States? From to , the Social Security Administration has recorded babies born with the first name Zya . 4. Element Warren sled testing investment creates Detroit center of excellence for seating suppliers. Element has invested $5m in a unique electromagnetic sled, which has the highest level of accuracy, repeatability and efficiency when compared to any other sled system currently available on the market. 5. Glassdoor has 11 Element Technologies reviews submitted anonymously by Element Technologies employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if 3/5(11). 6. Hello everyone Zeth here I decided to make another personality quiz, this time choosing Magical Elements as the main topic, I decided to use some of the questions of my previous test in addition to new ones made for this one. Try to answer truthfully. I can't see your answers, only you can. So. 7. Everything Elementz. I am a professional League of Legends player. You will find game play, video blogs, and more on this meztishakarlandanayaforcehammer.infoinfo: K. 8. The latest Tweets from Elementz (@oElementz). Ex pro TSM, CLG, CRS. Creator and owner of meztishakarlandanayaforcehammer.infoinfo Follow me on meztishakarlandanayaforcehammer.infoinfo Business Followers: 56K. Leave a Reply
How can we prevent seniors from falling? November 20, 2019 November is Fall Prevention Month in Canada, and it’s important to be aware of ways to reduce fall risks, particularly among seniors. According to the Canadian Government, falls are the leading cause of injury-related hospitalizations in older adults across the country. For many older individuals, the fear of falling as they go about their daily business is ever-present -- they worry about a loss of independence, as well as physical injuries such as fractures and concussions. The fear of falling can also have a negative effect on mental health as it can cause people to isolate themselves both physically and socially, leading to depression and loss of mobility. For British Columbians over the age of 65, one in three will fall once a year, resulting in a higher risk of a hospital visit. What are the main risk factors for falling? There are many different risk factors among seniors, and often a combination of these contributes to seniors falling: • A sedentary lifestyle. • Illnesses such as heart disease, arthritis, and osteoporosis. • Lack of social connection, living alone, or having limited interactions with others. • Limited access to healthcare, suitable housing, and other social supports. • Taking multiple medications (more than three) may increase your risk of falling. • Lack of alertness from poor nutrition and dehydration. • Poor outdoor infrastructure, such as uneven paving, bad lighting, or a lack of a pathway. • Bad weather conditions. • Poor eyesight can reduce awareness of environmental risks, such as curbs and steps. Reducing the risk of a fall While falls are a real concern, there are many ways to reduce the risk: • Talk to your doctor. You and your doctor can discuss the specific risk factors that concern you, such as your home set-up, activity level, and medication routine. They may refer you to an occupational or physical therapist, who can help you create unique prevention strategies, based on your ability. • Increase muscle strength, mobility, and balance through physical activity is important. Activities such as walking, tai chi, and water workouts can improve coordination and mental wellbeing. Local recreation centres offer a number of exercise classes for seniors. • Get social. Meet friends and family, join a local community group, check out some interesting library classes, meet a friend for regular coffee dates. • Have your home assessed, so that you can you see where problem areas are, such as a lack of bedside lamp, or the need for an assistive hand rail on your stairs or bathtub. Are there loose floorboards, or obstacles obstructing your path to the kitchen? Tackling these issues will make you more secure, and feel more secure, in your home. Further information BC’s physicians care about your health, and are committed to the well-being of the province’s seniors. If you have any queries or suggestions for future posts, please email
Some of the most innovative ideas for the future are rooted in the past. Take the Mount Intergenerational Learning Center in Seattle. Within its walls, elderly people are teaching and spending time with preschool students. As you can see in the wonderful video below, something very special happens when the very old and the very young spend time together. (In fact, you might just need a tissue!) But if it also seems odd, that's because it's not something you typically see in Western societies. These two groups of people tend to be almost completely isolated from each other, except maybe during holidays. Of course, that wasn't always the case. When people lived in family groups — and in those places in the world where people still do — this was and is completely normal. And it makes sense, as both the very old and the very young seem to live at a slower, less focused, more in-the-moment state of being. Putting them together is the most natural thing in the world. Here's what the Mount Center says about its program: "Five days a week, the children and residents come together in a variety of planned activities such as music, dancing, art, lunch, storytelling or just visiting. These activities result in mutual benefits for both generations." In one of those moments of kismet, I happen to be reading Marge Piercy's "Woman on the Edge of Time," which is an influential feminist-utopian novel written in 1976. One of the characters from the year 2137 explains to a from-the-'70s visitor why the young children in their advanced society are being cared for by the very old: "We believe old people and children are kin. There's more space at both ends of life. That closeness to birth and death makes makes a common concern with big questions and basic patterns. We think old people, because of their distance from the problems of their own growing up, hold more patience and can be quieter to hear what children want." I think that quote exactly sums up why the clip above is so powerful. And soon the project will be a full-length documentary that you can help fund on Kickstarter. Behind the project is Seattle University adjunct professor Evan Briggs. She told ABC News, that when the children and the residents come together there's a "complete transformation in the presence of the children. Moments before the kids came in, sometimes the people seemed half alive, sometimes asleep. It was a depressing scene. As soon as the kids walked in for art or music or making sandwiches for the homeless or whatever the project that day was, the residents came alive." Like the quote from the book above, Briggs writes on her Kickstarter page that when she first saw what was happening at the Mount, she noticed: "...with neither past nor future in common, the relationships between the children and the residents exist entirely in the present. Despite the difference in their years, their entire sense of time seems more closely aligned." Hence the name, "Present Perfect," for her documentary. It seems like this is an idea that might spread, an idea whose time has come — again. Related on MNN: A daycare inside a nursing home? It's pure magic An intergenerational program in Seattle helps the elderly and the young find common ground.
RTL-SDR Tutorial: Measuring filter characteristics and antenna VSWR with an RTL-SDR and noise source By using an RTL-SDR dongle together with a low cost noise source it is possible to measure the response of an RF filter. Also, with an additional piece of hardware called a directional coupler the standing wave ratio (SWR) of antennas can also be measured. Measuring the response of a filter can be very useful for those designing their own, or for those who just want to check the performance and characteristics of a filter they have purchased. The SWR of an antenna determines where the antenna is resonant and is important for tuning it for the frequency you are interested in listening to. These tutorials are based heavily on information learned from Adam Alicajic's (9A4QV), videos which can be found at [1], [2], [3], [4]. Adam is the creator of the LNA4ALL and several other RTL-SDR compatible products. Recently Tim Havens also posted some experiments with characterizing home made filters on his blog. Characterizing Filters Using just a noise source and RTL-SDR dongle it is possible to determine the properties of an RF filter. In our experiments we used the following equipment: The BG7TBL noise source is a wideband noise source that can provide strong noise over the entire frequency range of the RTL-SDR. It requires power from a 12V source which can be obtained from a common plug in power supply. It also uses an SMA female connector, so you may need some adapters to connect it to your filter under test (adapters can be found cheaply on Ebay). Finally a quick warning: be careful when handling the circuit board after it has been powered for some time as some of the components can get very hot. Note that if the Ebay store runs out of these there is also a seller on Aliexpress with some available, just type "noise source" in the search bar. The BG7TBL Noise Source The BG7TBL Noise Source If you have a ham-it-up upconverter and are good at soldering small surface mount components you might instead consider purchasing the noise source kit add on. Here is a video showing how to build and test the ham-it-up noise source. The software we use is as follows: We will use rtl_power with the RTL-SDR Panorama GUI to record and graph a frequency sweep over the effective range of the filter. If you are experienced with command line use of rtl_power you may also use it without the GUI. To set up RTL-SDR Panorama place the rtlpan.exe file into the same folder as rtl_power, which can be obtained from the official RTL-SDR release, or from one of keenerds builds (GitHub for Linux). We recommend using keenerds builds as his modified drivers seem to retune much faster making scans of large bandwidths significantly faster. Characterizing Filters Tutorial To characterize a filter simply connect the noise source to the input of the filter and the RTL-SDR to the output. Then open RTL-SDR Panorama and set the frequency range to the expected range of the filter and set the resolution to 1M. Also set the gain to 0 and enable Auto dB. Next click start and after a few seconds a graph of your filter response should be generated. The image below shows the response of a cheap FM bandstop filter, such as the one available from MCM electronics plotted between 50 MHz and 150 MHz. Broadcast FM Bandstop Filter Response Broadcast FM Bandstop Filter Response The image below shows the response of a 1090 MHz bandpass filter plotted between 100 MHz and 1.7 GHz 1090 MHz Bandpass Filter 1090 MHz Bandpass Filter After viewing the response in RTL-SDR Panorama we recommend plotting the same graph against a baseline graph of just the noise source connected directly to the RTL-SDR. This can be done using Excel or any other similar plotting software. Each time RTL-SDR Panorama finishes a frequency sweep, the data is stored in a CSV file called scan.csv. It will be located in the same folder as rtlpan.exe. First do a baseline sweep with no filters connected and then stop RTL-SDR Panorama by pressing the stop button. Note that after you press the stop button the final sweep will still be running, so wait until it finishes first. Next rename scan.csv to baseline.csv. Now do a sweep with the filter connected - this will create a new scan.csv file. Next open baseline.csv in Excel. You should notice that the third column C contains the frequency values and the last column G contains the power data. Use the excel plotting tools to create a scatter plot in baseline.csv with frequency on the x-axis and power on the y-axis. Finally, open the scan.csv which contains data for the scan with the filter. Copy the last column containing the power values (column G), and paste it into baseline.csv next to the baseline power values. Add a plot of the filtered power values to the same plot as the baseline plot and compare. Next you can calculate the attenuation by simply subtracting the baseline column from the filter power column. Excel screenshot with baseline and filter power data Excel screenshot with baseline and filter power data The plotted graph below shows the difference between the baseline plot (no filter connected) and the FM bandstop filter plot. There is a clear dip in power in the FM band at 88 - 108 MHz. There is also another dip at around 1.4 GHz, and some slight loss over the rest of the band due to the filter or possibly due to the type of connectors used. FM bandstop filter response compared to the baseline response over 50 MHz to 1500 MHz This next plot shows the attenuation, which is simply the baseline plot subtracted from the FM bandstop filter plot. The attenuation shows how strongly a signal at a particular frequency will be reduced in strength. In the graph we can see that the FM band has an attenuation of around 10 - 15 dB. FM Bandstop Attenuation FM Bandstop Attenuation Below we also show the attenuation of the 1090 MHz ADS-B bandpass filter. ADS-B Bandpass Filter Attenuation ADS-B Bandpass Filter Attenuation Characterizing Coax Notch/Stub Filters Another class of filters that can be tested with a noise source and RTL-SDR are coax notch filters, aka coax stub filters. Coax stub filters are simply a length of coax, cut to 1/4 wavelength * velocity factor of the desired notch frequency. The required length can be calculated using a calculator, or by using the equation: stub_filter_coax_2 When cutting the coax we recommend cutting the coax a little longer and then using the noise source and RTL-SDR to fine tune the length. The velocity factor is a parameter that is unique to each brand and type of coax cable. If you are unsure what the velocity factor is, we recommend either using the calculator (it has pre-set velocity factor values for various coax types) or determining it through the instructions shown in next heading. To test these filters you will need a T-junction (3-way) coax splitter. In this experiment we used a 3-way splitter with SMA connectors and used RG174U cabling with unknown velocity factor to create the coax stub filter. Coax Notch Filter Test Setup Coax Stub/Notch Filter Test Setup The excel plot below shows the response of a coax notch filter tuned for a notch at 157 MHz, in order to attenuate strong pager signals. The plot shows that at 157 MHz there is a deep notch as expected. Note that there are also notches present at higher frequencies as well and that the notches can have quite wide bandwidths. This is expected and a potential flaw of coax stub filters. Coax Notch Filter Graph Coax Notch Filter Graph Notch Filter Attenuation Notch Filter Attenuation Determining the Velocity Factor of Coax Working backwards from the coax stub formula is it possible to determine the velocity factor of an unknown piece of coax. Simply create a coax stub filter of any known length with your suspect coax, then use the above method to measure where the main notch lies. Then use the equation: vel_factor_3 In the previous experiment our coax stub measured 30.8 cm and had a main notch at 157 MHz. So we have a velocity factor given by the following calculation. VF = 157 * 0.308 / 75= 0.645 This is quite close to the expected velocity factor value for most brands of RG174U which is 0.66. Measuring the VSWR of an Antenna As well as the equipment needed for characterizing filters, for determining VSWR you will also need a directional coupler such as the: MiniCircuits directional couplers can often be found used, but in good condition on eBay for about half price. You could also consider using an extremely cheap $2 TV antenna 'tap', see this post for more information. In our experiments we actually used a MiniCircuits ZFDC-15-5 coupler with SMA connectors, but they have currently all sold out on eBay. The ZFDC-20-5 should work just as well however. Try and find a directional coupler that works over the frequencies that you are interested in. A good video showing use of a directional coupler in a similar experiment and explaining a bit about how one works can be found here. Measuring the VSWR of an Antenna Tutorial To measure the VSWR of an antenna we will use the directional coupler in reverse. Here we connect the noise source to the output of the coupler, the antenna to the input of the coupler and the RTL-SDR dongle to the coupling (CPL) port of the coupler. This way power from the noise source should be reflected from the antenna into the RTL-SDR. SWR measurement set up. SWR measurement set up. Open the RTL-SDR Panorama GUI and enter the frequency range of which you'd like to check the VSWR of the antenna. Also, set the resolution to 1M and gain to 0. First do a sweep with the antenna disconnected from the coupler. After the sweep is done, stop RTL-SDR Panorama and rename the scan.csv file found in the same folder as rtlpan.exe to swr.csv. Note that after clicking on stop in RTL-SDR Panorama you will need to wait for the current sweep to stop before you can rename the csv file. Secondly do the same sweep but with the antenna connected. Now open the swr.csv file and the latest scan.csv files in Excel or any similar program and copy the power data (the last column) from scan.csv into an empty column in swr.csv. Now subtract the values in the first power column (power with antenna disconnected) from the values in the second power column (power with antenna connected) that you have just copied over. This will give you the return loss. If you get any negative values in the return loss column you may need to adjust the values so that the negative values are forced to be a small positive value like 0.0001. In Excel this can be done using the max function such as "=max(0.0001, J2)". The VSWR can then be calculated from the return loss (RL) with the following equation. RL_to_VSWR_eq Calculate the VSWR in another column. The image below shows what your completed Excel sheet might look like. SWR Excel Sheet SWR Excel Sheet Now plot the SWR using a scatter plot with frequency on the x-axis (horizontal) and SWR on the y-axis (vertical). Change the vertical axis to a logarithmic scale for a better view. Below we show the SWR plot of a monopole antenna that is 23 cm long placed on a 20 cm diameter cookie tin that is acting as a ground plane. A perfect ground plane antenna with a 23 cm long whip should be resonant at about 310 MHz. However, because the ground plane for this antenna is only 20 cm, the SWR minimum point is pushed up to around 355 MHz. At the minimum point the SWR is about 1.15. Using a larger cookie tin would cause the minimum SWR point to approach 310 MHz. SWR of a monopole antenna SWR of a monopole antenna Here we compare our results with a SWR simulation of our 23 cm monopole antenna and 20 cm ground plane made in 4NEC2. We can see that the real world SWR plot approximately matches the simulation. Unmodelled factors such as coax cable and connectors used can explain some of the discrepancies. Real SWR vs Simulated SWR Real SWR vs Simulated SWR Below we show the SWR plot of a tuned 1090 MHz antenna made for ADS-B reception. The SWR at 1090 MHz is about 1.5. 1090 MHz ADS-B Tuned Antenna SWR Plot 1090 MHz ADS-B Tuned Antenna SWR Plot Many people incorrectly believe that the SWR value does not matter for receive only antennas. This misconception probably comes from the fact that a poor SWR value on a transmitting antenna could destroy the transmitter, but a poor SWR value on a receiving antenna poses no such threat. However, while it won't destroy your radio, a poor SWR value will still significantly impact reception. By using the calculator available at http://www.csgnetwork.com/vswrlosscalc.html, it is possible to determine the amount of signal loss you can expect with a particular SWR value. At a SWR of 1.5 we can expect a very small loss of about 0.177 dB (4% of the received power), whilst an SWR value of 10 gives a 4.807 dB loss (67% of the received power). Below are some example excel and ods spreadsheets that we used. Measure_SWR (xls), Measure_SWR (ods) Measure_Filter_Attenuation (xls), Measure_Filter_Attenuation (ods) If you enjoyed this tutorial you may like our book available on Amazon. Available in eBook and physical formats. 1. Wheez New ham here. I’m pretty excited about this easier SWR antenna analyzer. I had a few questions though: 1. Using the directional coupler method, will I be transmitting RF into the “real world” on all frequencies that my attached experimental antenna can transmit? 2. Can I reduce the dB of the signal without attenuators by using lower voltage on the noise source? Thank you! • Vince Yes, both good observations. The antenna will be radiating where it isn’t reflecting. A) I measure .2A @ 12V after 15 minutes warm up. Output seems flat over first 500MHz and then begins to drop. P=I*E=~2.5W = 4dBW, a large amount of RF power… for a NFM channel. Ours is 10log(500MHz) down, 4dBW-10log(500e6)+30dB=53dBm. -73dBm is MILSpec Off, Part 15 is around 10dB higher. So we should be careful. Add 30dB attn and there’s no issue if the gain of the antenna is less than a few dB across the bandwidth. I have found there’s still plenty of headroom with 30dB or more ATTN on these. If you’re measuring a yagi or something you might want to increase that or find something safe to enclose in- aside the surroundings generally detune the antenna during test. B) Someone below in the comments reports better performance driving at a lower voltage. It would make sense that the power would be in lockstep with the voltage to a point. I don’t know, never had any issues driving at 12V, but I have one of those little fans on the board to fight the heat. 2. G1RNB Hi People, What I have found… Run the noise source at 5v. 12v is too high and a design flaw. The breakdown voltage of the zener is way too high and the final transistors are overdriven. @5V the device operates just as well without the heat, better for the front end of your receiver as well, no difference in the result. Use a 50 Ohm RF resistor – or high quality carbon – when terminating the REF port. This is a crucial part of the bridge or the results will always be meaningless. Pay attention to your calibration procedure. The output power of the noise source, across the segment of the spectrum you are interested in, is what you need to concentrate on. The noise source power output will gradually drop across DC-2GHz but will be almost flat across any particular individual band. I use Airspy & Spyverter with the Airspy spectrum analyser software. Chinese noise source and transverters-store RF bridge. I have had some good results from this inexpensive system and sometimes look at my expensive antenna analyzer and wonder… • Rick There is nothing there on that link. And of course i did google but could not find what i was looking for. So your below also does not make any sense to me. As i have no experience with this before, I need to know to which port to connect my source, my sdr and my antenna. And which port to terminate. In the picture form the blog there is the noise connected to out? That would be totally unlogically to me beacause in have no experience with this.. that is why i am asking questions, it is presented to be something for beginners to measure things without having to invest thousand dollars in expensive equipment. • Anonymous the 4th port is a reference(labeled REF)for what impedance you are tuning the antenna for. you would use a 50 or 75 ohm terminator. the one with 3 is just fixed at 50ohms. the newer one you can swap it out. you would match it with the impedance of your receiver. • jappl3 What you have is probably a 4-way non-terminated coupler, whereas the 3-way coupler in this tutorial is basically the same, but internally terminated with 50 Ohm load on 4th port. What you should do is to terminate the 4th port with 50 Ohm resistor according to the picture in upper reply. 3. Ted Law Rence I sure would like to try this. Buy, I cannot seem to find clear information on installation and set up for RTL-SDR Panorama for Windows 7, 64 bit. I installed the software, it runs, but it does not see the dongle, reports can’t find configuration file error when I try to run it.. Can someone help me? Using RTL-SDR (RTL2832U) . Thanks! • Anonymous do you have your rtl working in sdr# or another app. you have to install some special drivers first to use it as a SDR. get it working in sdr# then it should just work. 4. Peter In the section entitled, “Measuring the VSWR of an Antenna”, you disconnect the antenna to make your calibration measurement. Isn’t this going to cause reflections? Shouldn’t you terminate the IN port on the coupler instead of leaving it disconnected? Maybe there’s something I don’t understand about the coupler. 5. Arman How can you use a directional coupler here that couples RF in forward direction if your input is from the antenna and the source is connected to the output? Is it not better to use a bidirectional coupler that couples both forward and reflected RF? 6. Matt Zeits Why not use RPITX? I’m trying to think of things that I can use it for without ‘transmitting’ as I’m a General Class licensee and know the law. When I used to work at ITT we had everything running from radio to radio through attenuators to test transmit and receive from the old radios to the new ones. I wanted to look into filter analyzers and an LCR meter using the RPITX as a signal source and RTL-SDR as the analyzer/freq. counter. 7. GEE Being that this is used with a standard 24MHz – 1.7Ghz+/- dongle, is it at all possible to use this with a HF up converter for use of HF band testing? If so, would the noise source and software work due to the up conversion? Noise sources such as simple as this http://ham-radio.com/k6sti/nsrc.htm , http://www.mmccs.com/mmarc/n0ss/noise_source.pdf second stage (Q2) can probably be replaced with a MMIC, MAR-6 or equivalent or even the Ham It Up upconverter with the noise source components installed. 8. Matteo Regarding the coupler, i’ve found a very good spec. one, but it is bi-directional…..it is still ok, or it Must be a directional coupler? • joe yes a bydirectional couppler will work fine and in some applications are far superior. Remember to terminate the unused port with the desired resistor. Joe KA9UCN 9. Don DeGregori Sharing Knowledge ! This is the concept of Open Source. To learn, add, explain and help others. Thank You 10. Bob Thanks for a very interesting and informative article. It came at exactly the right time as I have been thinking about how to test my home-brew Butterworth filters I’m using to separate the 70cm and 2m antennas feeding my preamp for satellite reception. Thanks Bob 11. Kcutka Thanx, very nice tutorial. It’s possible to bring here (or dropbox etc.) spreadsheet template (xls, odt etc.) for all, here mentioned, calculations? • admin Sure! Updated with spreadsheet links at the end of the post now. 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Originally exhibited in a residential yard in Jamaica, Patterson’s memorial is on display at Seattle Art Museum through September 7. Annie Paul The Jamaican artist Ebony G. Patterson followed the events as they happened just a few miles away from her home. She tuned in to local radio, where women holed up in their besieged homes called in and wept, describing how their husbands, brothers, and sons were being dragged from their homes and beaten, disappeared, or killed in front of them. It was May 2010. Jamaican military and police forces, backed by the US government, entered an area of Kingston called Tivoli Gardens and slaughtered so many civilians that nobody has been able to figure out the exact number. Five years later, no one has been held accountable, no official list of who died has been released, and no official memorial has been constructed. For almost two years, Patterson worked on her own memorial to the events. It's made out of sparkling, candy-colored, hand-embellished bandannas hanging on laundry lines. They're attached by little pink clothespins, rows and rows of them, like segments of a quilt waiting to be assembled, each one a mandala of colors and patterns with the digital print of a black-and-white photograph of someone's face in the center. Only the eyes look out. The noses and mouths and chins are covered by bandannas the artist added. With each person so veiled, and so many people in all, the squares risk becoming a featureless mass. But those eyes. What you won't find out from the wall text at Seattle Art Museum is that these are not photographs of the people who died, because Patterson doesn't know the names of the people who died, or even the correct number of people who died—which is one reason the work is titled Of 72, but if you count the individual squares, you will find there are 73. In a sense, this is a Black Lives Matter piece. So much of the artist's work, she told me, has to do "with ideas about stereotyping" and looking "within a black context. What does it mean to be black and male—what is that stereotype? That stereotype is often associated with a criminal. So what I did was, I went to criminal databases and I just started collecting these images. These are public databases that anyone could have access to. And then I started obscuring these images, and a part of the reason I was obscuring them was because these people are invisible. No one knows who they are. No one knows what they look like in truth. No one knows anything about them." It is not a laundry line or a future quilt, or even a ritual that's ever taken place. This is a homemade tomb of unknowns, a makeshift grave site that not only doesn't name names, but that also doesn't spell out how many bodies piled up. It was first displayed in 2012, in an empty lot adjoining the suburban Jamaican backyard of writer Annie Paul. Now it's on exhibit at Seattle Art Museum, in a room painted purple. Patterson, the artist, is giving a talk at SAM on August 26. I've visited these 73 people four times, and I probably will visit them again. Some of them have become familiar. There's the man who raises his eyebrows wide, like he's so surprised that any of this is happening, like his unseen arms are raised up high and he is calling out, "Don't shoot!" He is easy to imagine as part of that terrible week in Tivoli Gardens in May 2010, when the Jamaican government declared a state of emergency and an American surveillance plane circled overhead as men with guns collected and killed other men, all in the name of extraditing a drug lord who wasn't even in that location at that time. Some of the unidentified bodies sat out there for days, rotting. They later were stuffed in heaps under mounds of ground not far from where they died. The last time I went to see Of 72, the art museum was officially closed, and my escort didn't know how to turn the lights on. So for the first few minutes before security arrived, we examined the art using only the flashlights on our phones, as if we were archaeologists in a cave. I started at the label on the wall written by the artist and intended as part of the work. It's a list of questions. "What happens when 73 die and no one knows who they are?" "What did they like to eat for breakfast, lunch, or dinner?" "What did their voices sound like?" "Where were they when they died? Who was with them? Were they alone?" In the darkness, I flitted with my phone from portrait to portrait. So many. They were all equally important and equally anonymous, all equally lost. What actually happened to each of them? What kind of portraiture is this—a portraiture in perpetual half-light? I interviewed Patterson to find out more. Let's start with the actual events. Were you in Jamaica when Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced he would comply with the American request to extradite Christopher Coke? Were you there when the government implemented its state of emergency and executed the raid? I was in Jamaica during the time that it all unfolded, from the very beginning of the incursion to the very end. Now there has been a commission of enquiry. I'm always in Jamaica... So I guess my interest in what happened during the incursion had a lot to do with me being a concerned citizen, and also, I guess, the other thing that had interested me is because at the time, so much of my work was on discussions around masculinity and popular culture. And we had this situation unfolding where clearly young men, or men, were being targeted in our community, and in our working-class community, and also... there's a side of the economic and gang-related politics that's quite synonymous with a lot of urban inner-city spaces here. We call them garrisons. [Tivoli Gardens] was a really important center where popular culture was concerned, because they had a street party called Passa Passa. Major entertainers would go and perform. People from Jamaica and people from other parts of the world would make a pilgrimage. New dance moves would be debuted at Passa Passa, then those would become part of the wider dancehall culture. A little economy developed around the dance. The dance went on from the late hours on Wednesday to the early hours past daybreak on Thursday, so a lot of the community would find ways of making revenue there, like selling produce or things that you would typically find at a street dance. It created economic opportunities. Is the dance still going on? How is Tivoli seen? No. So the dance—no one will go down [there] anymore. A garrison is essentially a community that has a political allegiance. This community was politically aligned, and there needed to be some kind of accountability on the part of the government in terms of turning over this person who was being requested by the US government. There were a lot of delays in the handing over, in the attempt to deal with extradition on the part of the party who was in power—because it was this person who was essentially running Tivoli. But what concerned me is certainly not about Coke, right? What concerned me was the handling of citizens during this incursion, and during the state of emergency when the country was under martial law. I mean, I remember listening to the radio and people from the community were calling in quite often. It was women who would call in to talk shows crying, that they were being attacked and brutalized by police officers or soldiers. They were complaining that their sons or their boyfriends or their husbands were drawn out of houses never to be seen again, and this was the general handling of citizens that worried me considerably. And the response from people in other communities outside Tivoli, from middle-class and upper-class communities, their response to people who come from spaces like Tivoli, working-class communities, is "You're criminals." If you come from a working-class community and you're male, and of course it's a predominantly black country, but so much of our socioeconomic politics is still connected to colorism. So being lighter in shade, it would be assumed you come from a better social and financial background. So the way that young black men from inner-city or working-class communities, the way that they are seen by the larger public is that they're always under suspicion. They're seen as criminals, and they are often subject to assault by police just walking down the road. It's the same thing that happens in the United States. What I find interesting is these police officers come from these very same circumstances. What does it mean to have this self-hate, hate for your own? To the point where you don't even see these people who come from the very same places as you. Support The Stranger Also, what we are most well-known for as a country is our culture, our music, and also through sport. The people who give us global identity are not upper-class suburban people, they are working-class people. What does it mean to undervalue the very people who give you such visibility, and on this scale? I remember there was one story picked up by an international paper—and at this time, the local paper wasn't carrying stories like this but it was appearing in the international papers—this woman talking about her two sons. They told her that her sons had to come out [of the house], and she pleaded with them, saying they were not involved in anything and saying they don't know Coke. She's pleading and they go down the street, she hears two gunshots, and they never return. How many people were killed? In the initial toll of how many people were killed, they said it was 10 Tivoli civilians and one soldier. Then, there were 73 civilians who were killed, 72 of those were men and only one was a woman. Based on those numbers, it was very clear who was targeted. Is there an official number of dead? In the New Yorker, Mattathias Schwartz wrote, "No fewer than 74 people were killed." Obviously that leaves room that there may have been more than 74. There was an interim report done by the public defender, which is what led to the enquiry. The public defender is an actual government office, an office within the government, so that person is not elected by the people but appointed by the ruling party at the time. So they actually set up an office in the community and took reports, and I think they were in the community for quite some time and then made a detailed interim report based on the conversations they had with witnesses. Some people to this day have yet to be found or to be located. There was also damage to personal property. I think something like 96 homes were totally destroyed. Based on the information they had collected, they believe that at least 150 people were killed. An independent news agency—it's probably the only investigative journalism or the best investigative journalism around the incidents—they're the only ones who have gone ahead and published, I think, 56 of the names of the people killed during the incursion and included photographs, ages of the people, names of the people, and children that they had. The government has not done that. It's the television show 18 Degrees North. They did the report on the fifth anniversary. They do a lot of regional coverage. Tell me about the one woman in the piece. When you look at the piece, even in your attempt to try to figure out who is the female, [you can't]. When people ask me who is the female, and I turn it back on them, they always choose a male—and that then again comes back to the way we read or understand gender. My work is interested in how people will use those very same elements to create a sense of invisibility. You're here, but you cannot be seen. And the bandannas? The bandanna has always been a motif associated with the bad-boy image—if we think about cowboy culture, or if we think about gang culture in the US, where there's a kind of color-coding that's used. But also, too, I remember I think it was the BBC who had done an interview with a number of men who had come in to defend Coke, the people who were, like, Coke's soldiers. They had done interviews with them, and all of them had obscured their faces with either a T-shirt or a bandanna, so that image has always remained with me as a powerful motif or insignia to use. Were people warned the raid was coming? There was a moment several hours before [the raid] when police and soldiers both had encouraged people from Tivoli to leave Tivoli, told them to go and take refuge elsewhere. That also makes it very clear how dangerous it was going to get and the kind of warfare that was going to happen. But then again, why should you have to leave your own home? I can't imagine the security forces going to an upscale community in Kingston to look for a don. And many of these dons, when [they] get to a certain stamp of financial power, they live outside of these communities, not in them. Their office may be there. That was the case with Coke. He lived in an uptown suburb. He was [in Tivoli] on the day of the incursion for a while, but it's believed he had exited the community before the security forces had come in. So the idea that you should leave your community is so absurd. There should have been a better way for the security forces to handle the situation without needing to get to this level of violence. Nothing of this scale has happened before, so I wanted to make a massive work in a way that somebody would have to encounter 73 bodies, each individual. And that's why they are individualized, so no one bandanna or object is the same. The text [in the form of the list of questions on the wall label] is also used to humanize these people who, in many ways, are still invisible five years later. I can't believe the victims are still unnamed. I guess at least 18 Degrees North has done some of the work. 18 Degrees North is a private entity, and I think it's not the job of a private entity to identify the citizens who have been killed by the state. It's the state's responsibility even just to name these people. Even just to call their names out. No accountability is going to happen. And so coming back to this idea about, if your absence is not held accountable for, whether you are missing or you are dead, how do 73 people not exist? That's really dangerous. A lot of our citizens are dismissing it because these are inner-city people. The enquiry is happening so that it could be said that it was done. And the public outrage that really should be coming up based on these discussions, it's totally absent. It's just them, and you know how all of them are. But these people are citizens, and if the state can treat citizens like this, it doesn't matter where you are from, you best believe that the same thing can meet you at your door. It's just frightening. It's just frightening. Where has this piece shown? Initially, I really wanted it to be shown at home first. We don't have very many galleries here—we really don't have any galleries here—but I was approached by a major person at the National Gallery of Jamaica to do the project, and this was probably around 2011, after the incident had happened. The problem, again, of course, with national agencies, is that they're all politically aligned. And so while people could see the benefit or the significance of the project, there were fears around the project because of political concerns they had. Just things that should not even be part of the dialogue in an art context, as far as I'm concerned. [The National Gallery did not respond to The Stranger's request for comment.] So I had a pop-up show—I did it in somebody's yard first, a writer. I did it, I guess, in what would be considered a suburban space. I thought that was a perfect way of raising the problem, the issue that these people are invisible. So that's the first and only place I've ever shown it at home. If the government puts out an official list of names of the civilians killed at Tivoli, how do you think will that change Of 72, if at all? Are the names something you would want to add to the project? I collected all the images that I have seen on 18 Degrees North, all the pictures they shared on television. I photographed and shared that information on social media. But I have been asked that: "Do you need to now make new images given that some identities have been revealed?" And my response is no. Of course it shifts the work. But the work raises a bigger question around the way that, generally, people from places like Tivoli are seen as valueless, not important. To obscure people simply on the premise of their socioeconomic location anchors into something even larger than just Tivoli. What do you think is the power in having the dead named by the state? I mean, I think when I made that work, I felt like it was an important moment that needed to be documented. The importance of the state, on the other hand, naming these names just has to do with the state's responsibility to the citizens. These people weren't killed by some random madmen. They were people hired by the state. And if the state is truly invested in finding out what has happened, what were the circumstances in which these individuals died, then it is important for you to acknowledge the presence that was once here, or to recognize the absence of those people. And the way you can do that is to name them. Because to only refer to them as the 73 or the 75 or whatever number they're using, to only reference them as that is to bundle them all up as a unit. It's not to recognize that this is John Brown, and he had two kids, and he had these people who loved him. To call someone's name is to call them into being. And also to signal to the larger public, too, that these people mattered. That they individually mattered. That they mattered. Whether they lived for two minutes or 20 years, every person has an impact on somebody. You talked about the way black men are stereotyped. There are similarities between the United States and Jamaica. What do you think the differences are? In America, there's a bubbling over. We have this sense of who these people are. The fact that a case goes all the way to trial and there have actually been incidences when people have been held accountable, they've been charged and prosecuted and served time in jail—I mean, here? It's, you know, um, there's some things that I am shocked by that are playing out in the US, but these discussions and the involvement that's happening around it—that is so much more active than what happens here. So many people are just so disconnected from it all. It's refreshing to me to see that there's still public outcry when injustices happen, and people are actively concerned or not concerned. But here, we're numb. We're numb and we don't care, and that, to me, is frightening. recommended The most complete account of the 2010 attack on Tivoli Gardens was written in 2011 by Mattathias Schwartz for the New Yorker, in a story called "A Massacre in Jamaica." I interviewed Schwartz as well. To read that interview, go here.
Chronic hyperglycemia due to either insulin deficiency (T1D) or insulin resistance (T2D) is associated with multiple end organ complications including neuropathy, retinopathy, macrovascular diseases (stroke, cardiac disease, and peripheral vascular disease) and fatty liver. Less often recognized is the long term effect of high glucose on the skeleton. In the five years since I wrote an editorial in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research detailing how little we understand about diabetic bone disease, new data has emerged from basic and translational studies concerning the pathophysiology of this disorder(1-4). In addition, recent imaging and clinical trials have provided novel insights into potential targets to modify or potentially prevent this manifestation. Indeed, there are now agents that can enhance insulin sensitivity but at the same time support skeletal maintenance (5). The public health implications of such bench to bedside discoveries are immense particularly in light of the ever-growing epidemic of obesity in our ever-aging population. Hence, a sweeter story may be in the making. What have we learned to change our perspective about the skeletal changes with diabetes? First, we have a much clearer picture of insulin’s actions on the skeletal remodeling unit. Work from the Karsenty and Clemens laboratories have shown that insulin binds to the insulin (not the IGF) receptor to down regulate Twist2, an inhibitor of Runx2, the essential osteoblast transcription factor. This action fits with recent data suggesting that in T1D Runx2 expression is markedly down regulated throughout osteoblast differentiation, which in turn leads to reduced bone formation. In addition to insulin’s actions on osteoblasts, insulin-receptor activation enhances bone remodeling thereby increasing bone resorption which in turn releases undercarboxylated osteocalcin from the skeletal matrix (6). This unique form of osteocalcin is an insulin sensitizer for adipocytes, possibly working through the enhancement of adiponectin production. Undercarboxylated osteocalcin can also stimulate insulin release from beta cells of the pancreas. Thus the skeleton plays an active role in glucose homeostasis and reinforces clinical studies that active exercise not only improves glucose transport in muscles, but may indeed, through loading, stimulate insulin sensitivity in osteoblasts and increase bone remodeling thereby further improving glucose handling. Second, we have a clearer understanding of the risks of osteoporosis related to both T1D and T2D. Recent observational studies suggest that insulin deficiency can enhance hip fracture risk by nearly five fold. Such patients usually have low bone mineral density and the additional complication of diabetic neuropathy which can lead to falls and subsequent fractures. A more confusing picture arises in T2D where obesity is a clinical feature and bone mineral density is often normal or high. Recent studies from Ann Schwartz and the UCSF Radiology group have shed some light on this apparent paradox. Although bone quantity may be normal in T2D, qualitative changes are quite remarkable and include increased cortical porosity and enhanced marrow adiposity (5). Both may have biomechanical implications, particularly the former, since porosity in the cortical skeleton leads to greater bone fragility during ex vivo testing. Also, it is apparent that progressive increases in marrow fat can lead to the elaboration of adipokines which suppress bone formation and uncouple bone remodeling within the marrow niche. Finally, obesity itself may be a major risk factor for fracture in some populations including older men. The reason for this is not entirely clear although increased visceral fat appears to be the major culprit, possibly through its elaboration of toxic cytokines that not only damage blood vessels but likely inhibit bone formation and increase bone resorption. Third, the pharmacology of newer anti-diabetic drugs is coming into greater focus. The clinical trials with the TZDs made us acutely aware of the adverse skeletal effects when PPARG is activated by agents such as rosi- and pio-glitazone. These agents work by uncoupling bone remodeling, particularly by enhancing bone resorption, leading not only to bone loss, but to a greater risk of limb fractures, particularly in those individuals with peripheral neuropathy. Newer drugs that have been approved for the treatment of T2D and enhance insulin secretion, such as the insulin secretagogues (e.g. GLP1 analogs, DPP4 inhibitors) may actually protect the skeleton by inhibiting bone resorption and/or stimulating bone formation. On the other hand, agents in clinical development that increase energy expenditure, reduce body fat mass and improve insulin sensitivity, such as FGF-21, may have an adverse effect on the skeleton including greater marrow adiposity and increased bone resorption(7). In summary, much has changed in the skeletal landscape of diabetes over the last half decade as both basic and clinical studies have demonstrated. Future directions include the development of more powerful insulin sensitizers that can enhance bone mass and protect individuals from the devastating effects of fracture. Improved imaging techniques may help us understand the role of the microvasculature in diabetic bone disease and the effects of chronic neuropathic disease on skeletal remodeling. More bench to bedside studies will likely provide the impetus to make diabetic bone disease a thing of the past. 1. Rosen CJ: Sugar and Bone: A Not so Sweet Story. J Bone Min Res 2008: 23; 1881-1883.Sealand R, Razavi C and Adler RA. Diabetes Mellitus and Osteoporosis. Curr Diab Rep 2013; March 8 E pub ahead of print 2. Leslie WD, Rubin MR, Scwartz AV, Kanis JA. T2D and bone. J Bone Min Res 2012; 27: 2231-7. 3. Petit MA, Paudel ML, Taylor BC, Hughes JM, Strotmeyer ES, Schwartz AV, Cauley JA, Zmuda JM, Hoffman AR, Ensrud KE; Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOs) Study Group. Bone mass and strength in older men with T2D: the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study Group. J Bone Min Res 2010 25:285-291. 4. Patsch JM, burghardt AJ, Yap SP, Baum T, Schwartz AV, Joseph GB, Link TM. Increased cortical porosity in T2D postmenopausal women with fragility fractures. J Bone Min Res 2013; 28: 213-24. 5. Fulzele K, Riddle RC, DiGirolamo DJ, Cao X, Wan C, Chen D, Faugere MC, Aja S, Hussain MA, Brüning JC, Clemens TL. Insulin receptor signaling in osteoblasts regulates postnatal bone acquisition and body composition. Cell 2010 142 309-319. 6. Wei W, Dutchak PA, Wang X, Ding X, Wang X, Bookout AL, Goetz R, Mohammadi M, Gerard RD, Dechow PC, Mangelsdorf DJ, Kliewer SA, Wan Y. FGF-21 promotes bone loss by potentiating the effects of PPARG. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 2012: 109:3143-3148.
nix Documentation Project · Home + man pages · Linux HOWTOs · FreeBSD Tips · niX Forums man pages->IRIX man pages -> resolver (4) resolver(4) resolver(4) NAME [Toc] [Back] resolver, resolv.conf - host-address resolver configuration file SYNOPSIS [Toc] [Back] DESCRIPTION [Toc] [Back] This file controls the behavior of then resolver(3N) routines in the C library. It is read by these routines the first time they are invoked by a process. with values that provide various types of resolver information. The separated by white space. This file is not necessary if there is a name server running on the local machine and the hostname contains the domain name. It is necessary, however, if the system administrator wants to override the default ordering of the host lookup services. resolver should query. Up to three of these lines can be specified; the resolver library queries them in the order servers until a maximum number of retries are made.) When specifying a nameserver entry for the local machine, use the address 0 instead of the localhost address of 127.1. domain Local domain name. Most queries for names within this domain entry is present, the domain is determined from the local be everything after the first `.'. Finally, if the hostname determined from the local domain name; by default, it begins with the local domain name, then successive parent domains that have at least two components in their names. This can be changed by listing the desired domain search path following the search keyword with spaces or tabs separating the names. Most resolver queries are attempted using each component of the search path in turn until a match is found. This process can be slow and generates a lot of network traffic if the servers for the listed domains are not local. Queries time out if no server Page 1 resolver(4) resolver(4) is available for one of the domains. The first item in the list becomes the default domain name; the remaining items are the other domains to search after the default one. instance of these keywords is present, only the first instance is used. List of preferred networks. The sortlist keyword is followed by a list of network addresses. On each lookup the address list is sorted according to the list of addresses. If multiple addresses match for a single subnet they are presented in the order returned from the server. The format of the items of the list is a dotted quad with an optional slash '/' and netmask. e.g. sortlist A list of resolver options. Currently the only supported option is ndots which specifies how many dots need to be in a name for the resolver to attempt to lookup the name as a fully qualified name if the name does not contain a trailing dot. It is followed by a colon ':' and a number. The default is ndots:1. NOTE [Toc] [Back] The hostresorder keyword is now ignored. Resolve order for gethostbyname and gethostbyaddr is now done in the nsswitch.conf file. In previous IRIX releases, the resolv.conf file was in the /usr/etc directory. In order for pre-IRIX5 binaries that use BIND to work correctly, a symbolic link from /etc/resolv.conf must be made to the old FILES [Toc] [Back] SEE ALSO [Toc] [Back] named(1M), gethostbyname(3N), resolver(3N), hostname(5). IRIX Admin: Networking and Mail [ Back ] Similar pages Name OS Title resolv.conf Tru64 Resolver configuration file resolver OpenBSD resolver configuration file resolv.conf OpenBSD resolver configuration file resolver Tru64 resolver configuration file resolv.conf FreeBSD resolver configuration file resolver FreeBSD resolver configuration file resolv.conf HP-UX resolver configuration file resolver Linux resolver configuration file host.conf Linux resolver configuration file resolver HP-UX resolver configuration file Copyright © 2004-2005 DeniX Solutions SRL newsletter delivery service
Postmature birth Jump to: navigation, search A postmature birth occurs when a human pregnancy lasts longer than three weeks past the expected delivery date. In such a birth the placenta can begin to fail[citation needed], causing declining delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the fetus. This can result in the death of the fetus if delivery is not induced. Postmature newborns are typically thin and underweight, with slender limbs, dry wrinkled skin and longer hair and nails.[1] The first few days after delivery are the most critical. Infants that live beyond that period have a high survival rate. 1. Clifford SH. Postmaturity with placental dysfunction. Clinical syndromes and pathologic findings. J Pediatr 1954;44:1-13
【2分飞艇_飞艇一分钟计划软件_2分飞艇一分钟计划软件】British pound rebounds after Brexit deal voted down • 时间: • 浏览:1 LONDON, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- The British pound stopped its decline and rebounded as an immediate response to the British parliament's overwhelming rejection of the Brexit deal on Tuesday evening. Members of Parliament (MPs) voted 432-202 against the Brexit deal reached between the British government and the European Union after a five-day debate, creating the loss that is said to be the biggest defeat for a British government since 1920s. The pound had been relatively calm until noon as British media widely expected the failure of the deal as a "done deal". However, the currency faced more downward pressure in the afternoon and dropped 1.24 percent against the U.S. dollar to trade at 1.27 by the time the key vote began. Within one hour after the defeat of the Brexit deal was announced, the pound gained its loss against the U.S. dollar and rose slightly later. It had been up 0.6 percent against the euro for a while. While many analysts agreed the rejection of the deal would mean more uncertainties to come before Brexit due on March 29, which will lead to volatility of the currency, some did foresee the rejection of the deal might become positive for the pound. "However, a rejection of the vote may also prove positive for the pound if investors believe it will lead to a delay to Brexit or potentially even resulting in the UK remaining within the EU - it all depends on the margin of loss with the vote," said Luke Trevail, currency analyst at TorFX, before the vote. British Prime Minister Theresa May has three sitting days to return to parliament with a "Plan B". Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn tabled a motion of no confidence in the government following the deal defeat. The motion will be debated in the Commons on Wednesday. To forecast the future trend of the currency, banking and financial services corporation ING predicted that a delayed Bexit or a second referendum could be sterling positive while a snap election or a no-deal Brexit would be bad options for the currency. Monex Europe, a UK-based foreign exchange firm, said the pound could rise in the coming weeks, despite continuing political uncertainty. Trevail believed things become a bit more muddled when the deal is rejected, as observers predict a range of different Brexit outcomes. "The most sterling-negative outcome is if the UK crashes out of the EU without a deal, with a no-deal Brexit being the default outcome if MPs cannot agree to an alternative plan."
Related photos of 3 Reference : V-P-CD-E-02645 Date : 23/08/2019 Caption : Kasaï Province, Mweka territories, city of Kakenge. Through the ICRC's financial assistance programme, a mother is able to prepare her children's start of school term. Photographer : LUMINGU, Carol Confidentiality level : public Publication restrictions : publication without restrictions Copyright : ICRC Description : This mother has also decided to grow some of the money she received from the ICRC through a small business. She sells food in front of her plot and generally raises 3,000 Congolese francs per day, or just under 2 US dollars. This money is used to organize the daily cooking. Before the crisis, she used to produce and sell traditional alcohol. Her husband was a palm nut cutter. As a result of the violence, their home was attacked and their belongings taken away: barrels, maize stocks, household goods, etc. They started selling dead wood to survive. "Sometimes we would let the children eat and we, as parents, would deprive ourselves of food" she says. ICRC website, article, 12.09.2019 "Land disputes sparked deadly clashes in 2018 between ethnic groups in Kakenge, which lies in the Kasaï region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Large numbers of people fled into the bush, leaving everything behind. When they returned, many had to rebuild their homes and their lives. Their needs varied widely, so the ICRC made cash payments to alsmost 10,000 families who were suffering the effects of the violence. This allowed them to decide for themselves how to deal with the crisis". Resolution : 5184x3456 Orientation : landscape Colour/B&W : colour
5 words that don’t mean what they used to mean Image TED McWhorter “Words over time have a way of just oozing around,” says linguist John McWhorter. Below, he traces the evolution of five words that have spent millennia drifting from one meaning into another: 1. Audition Shouldn’t audition mean in terms of what we otherwise expect of the aud– root? Audio comes to mind, as well as audiovisual, audiology, etc. Yet audition immediately brings to mind someone trying out for a part in a play or film. That’s only because of implication and drift. When it first appeared in English, borrowed from Latin, audition indeed meant “hearing.” When a doctor recommended a substance that “draweth all out which is in the Eares, and administreth good auditione,” he meant that having your ears clear of whatever the disgusting stuff was, your hearing got better, not that it got you a part in the latest production of Henry V. However, naturally, tryouts for such productions might naturally come to be called “hearings,” as they involved listening to someone recite. If one wanted to fancy up the word “hearing” a bit, a tendency hardly unlikely among writerly sorts, then the term would be audition. To people in the late 19th century who first started using audition in that way, the word would have meant what it sounded like; the component of hearing in the word would have been intuitively felt. In fact, the word was first used for musical tryouts, where sound was indeed all that mattered, as opposed to appearance and movement. However, after a while, audition came to be used solely in reference to tryouts for performances, while elsewhere, hearing became the word English speakers beyond medical practitioners used to refer to the perception of sound. Then implication settled in: if it’s an audition when someone gets up and sings, then it hardly seems unreasonable to call it an audition as well when the next person gets up and does an acrobatic trick. Today, one could audition to be a mime. To an Elizabethan, that usage would sound as strange as doing tai chi to get a part in La Bohème. 2. Commodity We are accustomed to hearing the term commodity used to refer to certain staple products whose quality is largely invariant no matter the producer, such as salt and crude oil. More precisely, commodities are associated with futures contracts offered to producers of them, which guarantee a uniform price regardless of fluctuations in the market — good for the seller when the market is down, and for the contract holder when the market is up. That is an almost viciously specific usage for a term that even people outside of finance are regularly confronted with. However, the temptation to blame financiers for wanting to keep their business obscure is unnecessary. Commodity was first a word about comfort, as in accommodation. A 1488 book printed by the pioneer printer of English William Caxton dismisses certain men who excessively “encline to the rest and commodity of the body.” Anyone would spontaneously extend that meaning to things that make one comfortable and are therefore, in themselves, commodities. Thus by 1615 there were usages such as describing the god Vulcan as “the first that found out the commodity of fire.” Fire would have been as novel and invaluable a comfort, i.e. a commodity, to earlier man as eye pillows and Jack Daniels are to us now. But from there, it’s a short step to thinking of a whole class of staple items as basic commodities of life, such that the word that began as describing the pleasure of spreading out on a sofa was now applied to soybeans heaped cold and dirty in a freight car in January. All that’s needed to get from there to now is the incorporation of products like that into a futures market, such that commodities are discussed less in themselves than as a shorthand for futures contracts based on them that yield an abstract form of recompense. From stretching out after a long day to a soybean to an intangible and vaguely seedy financial arrangement — step by step. 3. Fine Fine comes from French’s fin which means end. Even in French the word had morphed — one way of being at the end of something is to be at the top of the line, the ultimate; i.e. the best. Think of the quaintish expression even in English “the living end” to praise something. Hence fin meant both “end” as well as “of high quality,” and the latter meaning is what made it into English. “Men findis lompis on the sand Of ter, nan finer in that land,” says the historical chronicle Cursor Mundi around 1300 — “You find lumps on the sand of tar, none finer in that land.” Tar? I know; tastes vary, but we can accept that if one were into tar, certain lumps of it could qualify as fine indeed — as in solid, lovely, and exquisite (I’m trying!). In any case, we still use fine that way in a fine day or a fine rendition. However, notice that those usages are a touch quaint in feel, and meanwhile, the word has moved along elsewhere. Most immediately, most would associate fine with the meaning “delicate” — fine lace, fine distinctions. That is based on implication: one way for something to be of high quality is to be made with delicate precision. If things of that nature are referred to as fine with enough frequency, people will start to link the word not just to high quality, but to more specific things like delicate tracery, doily patterns, just the right violin, dainty walks, and so on. Meanwhile, those who would not think of the “delicate” meaning might mention the usage “I’m fine” in response to being asked how one is doing. Here, the meaning is neither “exquisite” as a lump of tar nor “delicate” like lace, but a wan assurance that one is unhurt (“Oh, I’m fine — it was just a scratch.”). Emotional and social expressions have a way of watering down with use. Goodbye started as “God Be With You,” darn started as eternal damnation, lol started as “laughing out loud.” I’m fine began as meaning one was terrific, with that earlier meaning of fine (i.e. in the sense that requires us today to say we are “great” or “fantastic”), but gradually whittled down with centuries of use into meaning “I’m not dead.” Thus the answer to “What does fine mean?” is richer than we might suppose, because words don’t sit still. The word we see at the end of a French film meaning end – “FIN” – in English has a different meaning before a noun (a fine day) than after it (My father is fine), and elsewhere refers to the texture of a hairnet. Then, let’s not even get into the fine that you can be given for parking in the wrong place, which is, indeed, another drifting from that same word that once just meant “end.” 4. Minority Minority in American English has taken on, via implications, a meaning quite far from what the word originally referred to. One may even never have occasion to consider that minority’s “real” meaning is supposed to be “the smaller portion.” What began as a technical and euphemistic reference to people of color was used in that way so often that today, in the minds of American English speakers minority refers specifically to people of the color in question — brown. That is, minorities are considered to be black and Latino people. Minority feels forced when applied to other groups, even when they too constitute numerical minorities of the population. The word has always felt somewhat awkward applied even to Asians, and when whites technically become a numerical minority in the United States, minority will not be transferred to them. Rather, to the extent that the term survives, it will likely continue to be applied to black and Latino people, especially in more casual conversations, even when Latinos outnumber whites. “We’re all minorities now!” some will point out — upon which most will guiltily feel that the word doesn’t feel right when applied to whites. That feeling will be justified, since in its demographic usage, minority ceased to be a numerical term sometime in the seventies, whatever the dictionary definition specifies. Word meanings drift as always, this time from referring to a proportion to referring to darkly-complected people. “He’s a minority” — imagine how queerly illogical that sentence would sound to someone transported to our times from 1600. “A minority of what?” 5. Merry Merry started out meaning “short,” believe it or not. But that which is short is often pleasant, since so many things go on too long. Note how pastime (as in passing the time), for example, connotes the joys of brevity contravened by Die Walküre and Apocalypse Now. After a while, a word that first meant “short” meant “short and sweet” and finally, just sweet. Meanwhile, earlier English did have the word short itself, but even it had once meant something different, “sliced off” — that which is cut off is often a short thing, hence … The joyous meaning of merry was a beautiful demonstration of the element of chance in how words’ meanings move along. The earliest rendition we can get a sense of for merry is that on the Ukrainian steppes several thousand years ago, in the ancestor to most of today’s European languages, it was mregh. In Greece, this word for short morphed not into merriment but into the word for upper arm, brakhion. The sounds in mregh and brakh match better than it looks on paper: for one thing, both m and b are produced by putting your lips together and so it’s easy for one to change into the other. As to meaning, it was a matter of implications, this time in one of the things the word was applied to rather than the word itself. The upper arm is shorter than the lower, and hence one might start referring to the upper arm as the “shorter,” and the rest was history. Calling your upper arm your “shorter” is not appreciably odder than calling cut-off pants shorts, after all. The process never stops. It seems that in Latin this brakh ended up, among other places, in a pastry; namely, one resembling folded arms, called a brachitella. Old High German picked that up as brezitella; by Middle High German people were saying brezel. Today, brezel is pretzel — from that same word that meant short and now connotes joyousness in English. In France, that “brach” root drifted into a word referring to shoulder straps, or by extension, a child’s little chemise undershirt. Women can wear chemises too, but garments, like words, have a way of changing over the centuries, and after a while the brassière had evolved into more specific anatomical dedication than a chemise’s. The modern word bra, then, is what happens when a word for “short” drifts step-by-step into new realms. Merry, pretzel and bra are, in a sense, all the same word – and yet contests could be held challenging people to even use all three in a sentence (or at least one that made any sense). John McWhorter is an associate professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, where he teaches linguistics, western civilization and music history. The article above is an edited excerpt from Words on the Move: Why English Won’t – and Can’t – Sit Still (Like, Literally) by John McWhorter (Henry Holt, 2016). (Read a longer excerpt on Ideas.ted.com.) Image credit: Ellen Porteus/TED. Below, watch a TED-Ed Lesson by McWhorter: 1. Great article. Good idea: “Calling your upper arm your “shorter” is not appreciably odder than calling cut-off pants shorts, after all.”. Anyway, thanks for posting my favorit. 2. Sondra Anderson Re: …i.e. in the sense that requires us today to say we are “great”… Are you implying that we are fat? Great meant large only a few decades ago. 3. Mirjam Kauer Doesn’t the word “audition” derive from the Latin word “audere” which means to dare, to risk or to venture something? 4. Interesting reading the origin of words and how their meanings and usage changes with time .I find a word mess as a dirty word like what a mess and going for dinner in a mess which is well,organised dining room …thanks 5. Alina Salvat Very interesting. A more recent (30+ years) word who’s meaning has a somewhat different meaning today is the word gay. Comments are closed.
Managing Stress In recent years, doctors and researchers have started to better understand how stress impacts the body. Ongoing stress can be bad for mental and physical health, resulting in conditions like anxiety, depression and heart problems. Even after retirement, seniors aren’t immune from the effects of stress. Life changes, and worrying about health and finances, can be major stressors for older adults. But there are many things seniors can do to manage stress, which will help improve their overall health and well-being as they age. Read on to learn how managing stress can help keep both body and mind healthy: Studies have shown that staying active is good for the body, the mind and your mood. Regular exercise, whether walking, yoga or swimming, can boost mood and minimize the long-term effects of stress on the body by releasing endorphins or ‘feel-good’ hormones. Exercise reduces fatigue, improves concentration, promotes cognitive function, and produces endorphins. The brain uses endorphins as a natural mood booster and painkiller. Staying active also improves self-esteem and can even lead to improved sleep, which in return can help reduce stress. Stay Social Feelings of loneliness and isolation can cause stress and other health problems for seniors. As we age, our social networks tend to shrink, especially when seniors are embarrassed about their conditions. Retirement, changes in mobility, and distance from friends and family can all lead to a smaller social circle. To counteract this, seniors need to make an effort to stay involved in the community. Regularly interacting and sharing memories with other people can help build social networks and boost cognitive function. Joining group activities can also make it easier to do things like exercise regularly, laugh, and try new hobbies, all of which relieve stress. Diet has a huge effect on stress and health. Too much sugar and not enough protein can easily leave one feeling hungry and anxious. A nutritious diet includes healthy fats, high-quality protein, and a variety of fruits and vegetables. Certain types of foods are beneficial for the brain and can help regulate mood and keep your brain function and memory sharp. Eating organic, high-quality protein, like fish, eggs, nuts, milk, and beans can help improve mood and boost brain activity. These foods contain nutrients and healthy fats that help the brain work properly by boosting the hormones that regulate mood, helping prevent stress, anxiety, and depression. Laughter is a fast way to feel better and has long-term benefits for reducing stress and improving overall health. Much like exercise, laughter releases endorphins which can help reduce pain and release hormones that help boost the immune system. The physical act of laughing improves blood circulation and helps your body relax. Finding ways to incorporate laughter into daily life of seniors is a great way to boost their health, whether it’s watching a favorite funny television show, joking with a friend, or reading comics in the newspaper. It’s true that stress and aging often go hand-in-hand. By focusing on a healthy lifestyle and engaging in activities like laughter and exercise, seniors can beat the negative effects of stress to live longer healthier lives. Contact Us to Find Out More
Adults and preschoolers seek visual information to support language comprehension in noisy environments AbstractLanguage comprehension in grounded, social contexts involves integrating information from both the visual and the linguistic signals. But how should listeners prioritize these different information sources? Here, we test the hypothesis that even young listeners flexibly adapt the dynamics of their gaze to seek higher value visual information when the auditory signal is less reliable. We measured the timing and accuracy of adults (n=31) and 3-5-year-old children's (n=39) eye movements during a real-time language comprehension task. Both age groups delayed the timing of gaze shifts away from a speaker's face when processing speech in a noisy environment. This delay resulted in listeners gathering more information from the visual signal, more accurate gaze shifts, and fewer random eye movements to the rest of the visual world. These results provide evidence that even young listeners adjust to the demands of different processing contexts by seeking out visual information that supports language comprehension. Return to previous page
About \| Kamus SABDA Mobile Table of Contents -- childs Link, Gadget and Share Copy the code below to your site: Add to your browser Noun, Verb (usu participle), Verb (transitive) Noun body has 11 senses Verb body has 1 sense bodyn. [OE. bodi, AS. bodig; akin to OHG. botah. Bodice.]. "Absent in body, but present in spirit." [1913 Webster] "For of the soul the body form doth take. For soul is form, and doth the body make. " [1913 Webster] "Who set the body and the limbs Of this great sport together? " [1913 Webster] "The van of the king's army was led by the general; . . . in the body was the king and the prince." [1913 Webster] "Rivers that run up into the body of Italy." [1913 Webster] "As to the persons who compose the body politic or associate themselves, they take collectively the name of “people”, or “nation”." [1913 Webster] "Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." [1913 Webster] "A dry, shrewd kind of a body." [1913 Webster] "A numerous body led unresistingly to the slaughter." [1913 Webster] • Any mass or portion of matter; any substance distinct from others; as, a metallic body; a moving body; an aëriform body. Huxley. [1913 Webster] "By collision of two bodies, grind The air attrite to fire. " [1913 Webster] • Amount; quantity; extent. [1913 Webster] " Colors bear a body when they are capable of being ground so fine, and of being mixed so entirely with oil, as to seem only a very thick oil of the same color." [1913 Webster] bodyv. t. "Imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown. " [1913 Webster] body, n. & v. --n. (pl. -ies) 1 the physical structure, including the bones, flesh, and organs, of a person or an animal, whether dead or alive. 2 the trunk apart from the head and the limbs. 3 a the main or central part of a thing (body of the car; body of the attack). b the bulk or majority; the aggregate (body of opinion). 4 a a group of persons regarded collectively, esp. as having a corporate function (governing body). b (usu. foll. by of) a collection (body of facts). 5 a quantity (body of water). 6 a piece of matter (heavenly body). 7 colloq. a person. 8 a full or substantial quality of flavour, tone, etc., e.g. in wine, musical sounds, etc. --v.tr. (-ies, -ied) (usu. foll. by forth) give body or substance to. body-blow a severe setback. body-building the practice of strengthening the body, esp. shaping and enlarging the muscles, by exercise. body-colour an opaque pigment. body language the process of communicating through conscious or unconscious gestures and poses. body-line bowling Cricket persistent fast bowling on the leg side threatening the batsman's body. body odour the smell of the human body, esp. when unpleasant. body politic the nation or State as a corporate body. body scanner a scanning X-ray machine for taking tomograms of the whole body. body shop a workshop where repairs to the bodywork of vehicles are carried out. body stocking a woman's undergarment, usually made of knitted nylon, which covers the torso. body warmer a sleeveless quilted or padded jacket worn as an outdoor garment. in a body all together. keep body and soul together keep alive, esp. barely. over my dead body colloq. entirely without my assent. -bodied adj. (in comb.) (able-bodied). OE bodig, of unkn. orig. Adamite, Bund, Festschrift, Rochdale cooperative, affiliation, age group, aggregate, alliance, amount, amplitude, an existence, ana, anatomy, anthology, aquarium, area, array, ascender, ashes, ashram, assemblage, assembly, association, axis, back, band, basis, bastard type, batch, battalion, beard, being, belly, best part, better part, bevel, bevy, bigness, black letter, bloc, block, bodily size, body-build, bones, branch, breadth, brigade, budget, build, bulk, bunch, bundle, burden, cabal, cadaver, cake, caliber, cap, capital, carcass, carrion, case, cast, caste, cat, chap, character, chrestomathy, church, clan, class, clay, clique, clod, clump, cluster, coalition, coarseness, cohort, collectanea, collection, college, colony, combination, combine, committee, common market, commonwealth, commune, communion, community, company, compilation, complement, concrete, concreteness, concretion, confederacy, confederation, conglomerate, conglomeration, congress, consistency, consumer cooperative, contingent, cooperative, cooperative society, core, corporealize, corporify, corps, corpse, corpulence, corpus, corpus delicti, coterie, council, counter, coverage, covey, creature, credit union, crew, critter, crowbait, crowd, crux, customer, customs union, data, dead body, dead man, dead person, decedent, denomination, density, depth, descender, detachment, detail, diameter, dimension, dimensions, distance through, division, dry bones, duck, durability, dust, earth, earthling, economic class, economic community, em, embalmed corpse, embody, en, endogamous group, entelechy, entity, essence, essentials, expanse, expansion, extended family, extension, extent, face, faction, family, fat-faced type, fatness, federation, feet, fellow, fellowship, figure, firmness, fleet, flesh, florilegium, font, food for worms, form, frame, fraternity, free trade area, fullness, fund, fundamental, fuselage, gang, gauge, generality, gens, girth, gist, gravamen, greatness, groove, groundling, group, grouping, groupment, guy, hand, head, heart, height, holdings, homo, hulk, hull, human, human being, in-group, incarnate, incorporate, individual, italic, joker, junta, kinship group, knot, largeness, late lamented, league, length, letter, library, life, ligature, living soul, logotype, lot, lower case, lump, machine, magnitude, main body, major part, majority, majuscule, man, mass, masses, material body, materiality, materialize, measure, measurement, meat, menagerie, minuscule, mob, moiety, monad, mortal, mortal remains, most, movement, mummification, mummy, museum, nick, node, nose, nuclear family, number, object, offshoot, one, order, organic remains, organism, organization, out-group, outfit, pack, palpability, parcel, partnership, party, peer group, person, persona, personage, personality, personify, persuasion, phalanx, phratria, phratry, phyle, physical body, physique, pi, pica, pith, platoon, plurality, point, political machine, ponderability, posse, print, proportion, proportions, purport, quantity, quantum, radius, range, raw data, reach, reembody, regiment, reincarnate, relics, religious order, reliquiae, remains, richness, ring, roman, salon, sans serif, scale, schism, school, scope, script, sect, sectarism, segment, sense, set, settlement, shank, shape, shoulder, single, size, skeleton, small cap, small capital, social class, society, solid, solid body, solidity, soma, somebody, someone, something, soul, soundness, spread, squad, stability, stable, stamp, staple, steadiness, stem, stiff, stock, stoutness, strength, string, sturdiness, subcaste, substance, substantiality, substantialize, substantialness, substantiate, substantify, sum, tangibility, team, tellurian, tenement of clay, terran, the dead, the deceased, the defunct, the departed, the loved one, the third dimension, thickness, thing, thrust, torso, total, totem, toughness, transmigrate, treasure, tribe, troop, troupe, trunk, type, type body, type class, type lice, typecase, typeface, typefounders, typefoundry, union, unit, upper case, upshot, variety, version, viscosity, volume, whole, width, wing, worldling, zoo N whole, totality, integrity, totalness, entirety, ensemble, collectiveness, unity, completeness, indivisibility, indiscerptibility, integration, embodiment, integer, all, the whole, total, aggregate, one and all, gross amount, sum, sum total, tout ensemble, length and breadth of, Alpha and Omega, be all and end all, complex, complexus, lock stock and barrel, bulk, mass, lump, tissue, staple, body, compages, trunk, torso, bole, hull, hulk, skeleton greater part, major part, best part, principal part, main part, essential part, lion's share, Benjamin's mess, the long and the short, nearly, all, almost all, whole, total, integral, entire, complete, one, individual, unbroken, intact, uncut, undivided, unsevered, unclipped, uncropped, unshorn, seamless, undiminished, undemolished, undissolved, undestroyed, unbruised, indivisible, indissoluble, indissolvable, indiscerptible, wholesale, sweeping, comprehensive, wholly, altogether, totally, entirely, all, all in all, as a whole, wholesale, in a body, collectively, all put together, in the aggregate, in the lump, in the mass, in the gross, in the main, in the long run, en masse, as a body, on the whole, bodily, en bloc, in extenso, throughout, every inch, substantially, tout bien ou rien. See related words and definitions of word "body" in Indonesian Also see definition of "body" in Bible Study Dictionaries
K.B. Ritchie S.A. Earle D.E. Guggenheim R.B. Halley K.T. Ciembronowicz A.C. Hine B.D. Jarrett S.D. Locker W.C. Jaap J.K. Culter 2006 Pulley Reef (24°50′N, 83°40′W) lies on a submerged late Pleistocene shoreline feature that formed during a sea-level stillstand from 13.8 to 14.5 ka (Jarrett et al. 2005). The reef is currently 60–75 m deep, exhibits 10–60% coral cover, and extends over approximately 160 km2 of the sea floor. Zooxanthellate corals are primarily Agaricia lamarcki, A. fragilis, Leptoseris cucullata, and less common Madracis formosa, M. pharensis, M. decactis, Montastraea cavernosa, Porites divaricata, Scolymia cubensis and Oculina tenella. Coralline algae are comparable in abundance to stony corals. Other macroalgae include Halimeda tuna, Dictyota divaricata, Lobophora variegata, Ventricatri ventricosa, Verdigelas pelas, and Kallymenia sp. Anadyomene menziesii is abundant. The reef provides a habitat for organisms typically observed at much shallower depths, and is the deepest known photosynthetic coral reef on the North America continental shelf (Fig. 1). application/pdf 10.1007/s00338-006-0097-6 en Springer Pulley reef: a deep photosynthetic coral reef on the West Florida Shelf, USA article
Separating the Facts and Fiction Behind Fentanyl Exposure DES MOINES, Iowa –For decades, fentanyl has been used in hospitals to treat extreme pain either following surgery or during cancer treatments. “It’s usually in a pill form, in some cases it might be a sucker, it might be a patch, but there’s really no concern in regards to contamination or overdose if used properly” said Kevin Gabbert, Opioids Initiatives Director for the Iowa Department of Public Health. But illicit versions of the drug shipped in from overseas aren’t used or stored with the same care, often times as a loose powder. While experts say simply having the powder touch your skin will not trigger an overdose, it does pose much more of a risk. “So basically, what has to happen is the fentanyl has to be disturbed in some way or you touch something that has fentanyl residue on it and it is absorbed through a mucus membrane. So, inhalation is the most common way that’s going to occur, but if an individual touches something and then touches their nose or touches their mouth that’s when the risk of overdose can occur” said Gabbert. The front-line effort in preventing overdose deaths for first responders being exposed comes down to training and the overdose reversal drug Narcan. “Our vice and narcotics section keep it handy because if they’re doing search warrants that’s not necessarily an environment where you could have immediate access to emergency medical services because of the dynamics and the dangers of those types of efforts by the police department” said Des Moines Police Spokesman Paul Parizek. Parizek says officers on other parts of the force would rely on paramedics for Narcan. Finding a way to store the drug in a temperature-controlled environment to preserve its 18 month shelf life has been a problem, and the cost to outfit the department would be a little over $12,000. Teamster Political Coordinator Jim Romar says it’s a cost every city should provide for its department. “When it comes to opioids and an overdose on some of those items, literally minutes can count the difference between life and death. The number one job of government is to provide for the public safety and public safety’s number one job is to make sure we save lives” said the former police officer. Experts say fentanyl can be absorbed through the skin if it comes in a liquid form, but it’s rare to see that outside of a hospital where it is used in IV drips. Latest News More News
An Introduction to Composting (with Free Printables!) "Eugene tosses 40 million pounds of food into the local landfill each year. Half of this food waste comes from homes. Composting food waste allows us to use this material for something useful while also reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Beginning October 1, 2019, customers who have residential garbage service will have the option to put food waste in their yard debris bin instead of in the garbage. This citywide program comes after a successful three-year residential curbside food waste collection pilot program that included 1,500 households in four Eugene neighborhoods. The mixed food waste and yard debris will be turned into nutrient-rich compost by local processors." source If you’re local to Eugene and you’ve got a yard debris bin, it’s time to put that thing to good use! As of October 1, 2019, our yard debris bins can be used as compost bins for green materials. Not sure what counts as a “green material”, or even what the heck composting is? I'm no scientist, but I am a passionate composter with access to Google, so here's a breakdown: Before we get into the nitty gritty, I want to say that the destruction of the environment is not solely on consumers to repair. Corporations play a HUGE part, and without industrial change, consumers alone will not be able to fix this issue. However, we do have some say in our course of action, and our action has potential to inspire big change. My thing is: why not do what we can? And consumers aren't completely alone in our efforts to push change: the EPA's Food Loss and Waste Reduction Goal plans on reducing food waste by 50% over the next 10 years! So, why compost? Food waste is a major problem, and not just because it's wasted money and resources (although you're throwing away ~25% of your groceries a year—that's a lot of dollars!). Since the 70s, food waste has increased by 50% because of our newfound reliance on convenience, our steadily rising standards for beautiful produce, our steadily expanding refrigerators, and a lot of other avoidable reasons. Seriously, produce just keeps getting prettier and fridges just keep getting bigger. (Side note: If you're OK with ugly produce, give Imperfect Foods a try!) Another frustrating fact: ~20% of consumer food waste can be chalked up to the terms “use-by” or “best before”, which cause 90% of Americans to dispose of perfectly fine food. source We've picked up a lot of bad habits when it comes to nurturing ourselves (and our planet). Let's pick up a good one! Composting is nature's way of recycling organic material into a rich soil component, fondly referred to as "black gold" by gardeners. Compost does wonders for gardens, it's free soil, and it sure beats a landfill. What does wasted food do to our environment? When food waste decomposes in a landfill without oxygen, methane is born. Methane is ~20 times more harmful than carbon dioxide, rapidly contributing to the destruction of our ozone layer. Wasted organic material also creates a large amount of groundwater pollution when rain falls on these landfills, which allows for toxic chemicals, such as ammonia, to develop. These chemicals can end up in our drinking water as well as our lakes and rivers, killing the living organisms that inhabit those environments. source What goes inside a compost bin? Composting requires three basic ingredients inside your bin: greens, browns, and water. The brown materials provide carbon for your compost, the green materials provide nitrogen, and the water provides moisture to help break down the organic matter. source Greens: This includes materials such as grass clippings, vegetable waste, fruit scraps, and coffee grounds. The nitrogen in green materials provides protein. Science says the ideal ratio of carbon to nitrogen is 25 to 1, but your pile should consist of roughly equal parts brown to green materials since green materials are so concentrated. A good rule of thumb is that each time you add a batch of nitrogen-rich ingredients, add roughly 4 times that amount in carbon-rich ingredients (in volume, not weight). Too much nitrogen causes odor, which can attract some nasty critters. Browns: This includes materials such as paper, dead leaves, branches, and twigs. The carbon in brown materials provides energy for the microbes. Adding more brown materials, such as shredded paper or dead leaves, is the perfect solution to a smelly compost, which will keep pests away. Your compost heap requires a lot of brown materials to heat up the compost, but not too much. Too much carbon will cause the pile to break down too slowly. Water: Water provides moisture to help break down the organic matter, as well as regulates the pile's temperature. Like brown and green materials, too much or too little water can hurt your compost, causing it to decompose too quickly or not quickly enough. The holes in your compost bin should allow the water to drain. Standing water is not good for your compost. On Eugene's Curbside Food Waste Collection Program Due to contamination concerns, Eugene's Curbside Food Waste Collection Program will not be incorporating non-organic brown materials into their program. Food and plants only. Apparently consumers aren't great at determining what is and isn't compostable, especially when it comes to paper products like plates, cups, forks, etc. However, you can still include yard debris, like dead leaves and twigs, to give your bin a carbon boost. The awesome thing about this program is that the city is encouraging all food scraps, making our jobs as consumers a piece of cake (which we can later compost!). And you don't even have to stir it! All the work is done for you, at no change to your normal yard debris collection day. At-home composting tends to involve stricter rules, like limiting meat and dairy products to keep pests and odors away, and weekly stirring for aeration. It also comes with the burden of witnessing the decomposition process, which sometimes maybe involves hundreds of maggots that you wish you had never seen (even though they're actually pretty helpful in the compost heap!). Curbside composting reaps all of the benefits with hardly any of the effort. And your garbage can won't be full of expired food! AND you get to buy a cute kitchen compost pail for your new adventure! It's a win-win-win. For an easy reminder on what nitrogen-rich scraps you can dump into your yard debris bin, print out this infographic and keep it next to your kitchen compost pail! Click on the image to open the printable PDF file: And if you're a backyard composter like me, here's a printable for us: My husband and I have been composting for just over a year. The process is FASCINATING. There's something magical about turning a bouquet of anniversary flowers into hearty soil for our garden. At first Kyndl was pretty sure I was just keeping a bin of rotting trash in our yard, not totally sure when it was going to turn into something useful, and definitely not sure it was worth the strange bugs and the mouse he found inside it that one time (yikes, keep the lid on tight!!). But, right on schedule, this spring the soggy scrap paper and decaying banana peels turned into rich, dark, odorless soil. We’re still learning, and our heap is definitely not perfect (hence the scarring maggot situation), but I’ve challenged myself to understand my role as a consumer, and composting was a relatively easy place to start significantly reducing my food waste. Plus, I don't have to buy compost for my garden anymore! The stats on recycling are pretty grim. Roughly 9% of plastic is actually being recycled, while the majority of it is sitting in landfills, expected to take ~400 years to break down. source This is why environmental activists have shifted the focus from promoting the “recycle” to the “reduce, reuse” parts of the famous slogan. We're blowing through resources, and with Amazon 2-day shipping and all that has come with the explosion of e-commerce, our instant gratification society can’t keep up with the amount of waste we’re producing. Finding ways to limit our plastic use, reduce our food waste, and source reusable solutions to single-use plastics is the most effective course of action we can take now. As a small business owner, I receive several shipments a week, which is what inspired me to start composting. I’ve learned how to properly dispose of the packaging tape and sticker labels on the cardboard boxes I receive, and I shred the boxes for my compost and for additional packing (as opposed to using packing peanuts). I've also committed to 100% recyclable packaging, with the hopes of becoming a certified green business within the next year. If you want to learn more about what you can do as a consumer, here's a helpful article on all the moving parts to consider when recycling. And if you're interested in starting a backyard compost of your own, I encourage you to give it a try! We followed Young House Love's DIY Compost Bin blog post. So cheap, so easy. We'll be adding a second bin this fall to let our summer heap finish decomposing while adding new waste to the second bin. Composting is work, but it's not hard work. And I think you'll be surprised to see just how much food waste you accumulate in a week! And now, just for fun, here are some cute kitchen compost pails for your counter! Click on the picture to shop the one you want, and maybe consider No Rush Shipping or setting up your weekly Amazon delivery day? It's a start! (You can also keep your food scraps in a brown paper bag in the freezer, and once it's full you can toss the whole thing into your heap. My freezer is always full of pasta bakes and vegetable broths and Trader Joe's and popsicles, so we don't have the room for that. Our pail is on our kitchen counter, and as long as we're diligent about emptying it every few days and cleaning it regularly, we don't have any problems with fruit flies or mold.) Brabantia Sort & Go Waste Bin, 6L/1.6 Gal. , 6 L, Mint Gardenatomy 1-Gal Copper Pail with 1 Year of Charcoal Filters and Compost Pail Bags Silky Road 5-Liter Embossed Retro Blue Powder-Coated Carbon Steel Now Designs Vintage Compost Bin, Ivory Zero Waste Together 2-Gal Mountable Kitchen Compost Bin Joseph Joseph 1 Gal Compost Pail, Stone Old Dutch 1280AC Hammered Antique Copper 4 Qt. Compost Bin Oggi Countertop Bamboo Fibre Compost Pail Norpro Ceramic Floral Compost Keeper, 3-Quart Bamboozle Food Compost Bin, Natural If you download a printable or get one of these compost pails, show me! #composting #compost #compostingprintable #freeprintable #printables #howtocompost #backyardcomposting #eugeneoregon #curbsidecomposting #lovefoodnotwaste #andreawoodleedesign #ecoliving #illustrator #oregonartist #eugenegraphicdesigner A S F E A T U R E D O N • Instagram • Pinterest • Facebook
In MS, Genome Map Shows Many Immune Cells Are to Blame October 21, 2019 A new study of multiple sclerosis (MS) is upending notions about how the autoimmune disease gets started. The study of over 100,00 people produced a genomic map of the disease, which revealed that MS begins with dysfunction in many different types of immune cells throughout the bloodstream and brain—not only in lymphocytes, a type of immune cell, as had been thought. The array of dysfunctional cells, in combination, triggers a cascade of events that can lead to brain inflammation and, eventually, nerve cell death. The study, led by researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons on behalf of the International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium (IMSGC), was published Sept 28. in Science. “This broader perspective on the widespread dysfunction of the immune system will help scientists identify the best targets and drugs for preventing individuals at risk of MS from developing the disease. In particular, the role of microglia, the brain’s resident immune cell, focuses our attention on this unique aspect of the immune system,” says study leader Philip L. De Jager, MD, PhD, director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. In MS, the immune system attacks myelin, a fatty substance that protects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, which causes symptoms such as vision loss, numbness and tingling, muscle weakness, fatigue, and balance problems. A secondary neurodegenerative process causes accelerated brain atrophy in some patients. The disease affects nearly 1 million adults in the United States and is up to three times more common in women. Before genetic studies, researchers were uncertain whether MS begins when immune cells in the bloodstream become activated, enter the central nervous system, and launch an attack on myelin that leads to inflammation or with changes in nerve and myelin cells themselves that then trigger inflammation and an influx of immune cells into the brain. Study Details By analyzing the genomes of 115,803 individuals, including 47,429 MS patients and 68,374 healthy individuals, the researchers first identified 233 genetic variants that contribute to the onset of MS. Then they analyzed the downstream effects of these variants to determine the sequence of molecular events in each immune cell type that eventually perturb the function of these immune cells and make them attack the brain and spinal cord. What’s New The new study, the most comprehensive of its kind, shows that MS is triggered predominantly by dysregulated immune cells, both inside and outside the brain, that then cause damage to neurons, astrocytes, and other brain cells. There was little or no evidence that neurons themselves are involved in triggering the disease. “It’s now clear that MS is not caused by a single type of immune cell, namely lymphocytes, but rather by a broad dysfunction of the immune system,” says De Jager. “Lymphocytes are clearly important, but we now have good evidence that most immune cell types, such as natural killer cells, monocytes, and dendritic cells, that move into the brain from the bloodstream, are also involved,” De Jager says. “We also found that the resident immune cells of the brain—the microglia—are involved. It’s a dysregulation of the entire immune system.” What This Means Current MS treatments aim to stop brain inflammation after it has already started. “With this new understanding of MS, we have a better idea of what cells and molecules to target early in the disease, before the immune cells attack the brain,” says De Jager, “and that could lead to preventive treatments. “It will also help us identify healthy individuals who are at high risk of developing MS: They are the most likely to experience a strong, dysregulated inflammatory response against the brain. They would benefit the most from preventive or early treatments with new medications that modulate the immune system in a specific fashion to minimize side effects. Right now, we don’t have a good way to identify these individuals. We basically wait for them to have symptoms and then start therapy.” Next Steps “The genes we found in this study account for about half of what makes MS heritable. It’s a lot, but there are probably several hundred more variants to discover by enlarging the sample size of the study,” says De Jager. “This is not the end of MS genetics, but it is a major milestone and will be a reference for years to come that will inform the work of many investigators in the field of MS and beyond.”
The Paleo Diet might be bad for your heart, research finds 10 months ago The Paleo Diet might be bad for your heart, research finds There are an increasing number of fad diets in existence - but not all of them are going to aid your health New research suggests the Paleo Diet could prove to be bad for your heart. Also referred to as the Caveman Diet, Paleo bases its food plan on what Paleolithic-era (cavemen) humans ate. It includes most kinds of meat, vegetables and nuts, but limits fruit, grains, wheat, legumes, dairy, salt, refined sugar and processed oils. With fad diets such as Paleo, Keto or Atkins, these only 'work' for weight loss by taking you into a calorie deficit. As for the claims they make around general health, there is a lot left to be desired. In the case of the Paleo Diet, there could be risks for your heart. Edith Cowan University compared 44 people on the Paleo Diet with 47 following a traditional Australian diet. Scientists were looking for levels of TMAO, a compound produced in the gut. This compound is associated with an increased risk of heart disease. Published in the European Journal of Nutrition, this study measured the levels of TMAO in participants' blood. People on the Paleo Diet had twice the level of TMAO in their blood, when compared to those following the standard diet. The impact of Paleo on your gut Dr. Angela Genoni was the lead researcher behind the study. She is keen to stress the risks of this diet, especially given its increasing popularity. Why does Paleo get it wrong? In those going full Paleo, Dr. Genoni said a lack of whole grains in the diet could explain why levels of TMAO were so high. Scientists also found a higher level of the bacteria that produces TMAO in the Paleo Diet group. "The Paleo diet excludes all grains and we know that whole grains are a fantastic source of resistant starch and many other fermentable fibres that are vital to the health of your gut microbiome," Dr Genoni said. Read more from JOE
Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) illustration What is an EGD? Upper endoscopy, also known as EGD, is a procedure in which a thin scope with a light and camera at its tip is used to look inside the upper digestive tract — the esophagus, stomach, and first part of the small intestine, called the duodenum. The esophagus is a muscular tube connecting the throat with the stomach. Lined with moist pink tissue called mucosa, it measures about 8 inches long. The esophagus runs behind the windpipe and heart, and in front of the spine. The main function of the esophagus is to propel food and liquid down into the stomach for digestion. There are many diseases that can affect the esophagus, including heartburn (GERD), eosinophilic esophagitis, Barrett’s esophagus, hiatal hernia, esophageal spasm, infectious esophagitis, and cancer. The stomach is also examined during an EGD. It’s primary job is break down food, using its natural acidic environment to aid in extracting all the nutrients that we eat. Diseases that can affect the stomach include H.pylori gastritis, pernicious anemia, gastroparesis, peptic ulcer disease, and other atypical diseases. Lastly, the duodenum, which is the final part of the digestive tract screened during an EGD, is the first portion of the small intestine. The duodenum is about 10 in. (25 cm) long and curved, almost forming a circle. It is largely responsible for the breakdown of food, using digestive enzymes, bile, and pancreatic juice. Celiac disease and other infectious diseases can affect the duodenum. Ready to take the next step? Contact our office today to schedule an appointment! Why might I need an EGD? If you are experiencing symptoms such as trouble swallowing, continuous vomiting, upper belly or chest pain, or coughing blood, do not hesitate to call us West Loop Chicago Office Phone Number 312-929-3140 and make an appointment for a consultation. We are dedicated to serving our patients by providing information needed to help you make informed decisions about your health. An EGD can identify disorders you may be unaware of having. What should I expect during my EGD? We are committed to keeping you comfortable and relaxed, and our highly trained team is prepared to administer IV conscious sedation to our patients. You will be asleep during you EGD, so you will feel and remember nothing. Most often, this procedure takes 20 minutes, followed by a 30-minute recovery. We will provide you with instructions on how to prepare for your EGD, and you can also read about them here. Want to Learn more about EGD? Contact our office today to schedule an appointment! Lotsu Digestive Health and Nutrition Center ™ 5 out of 5 stars based on 1 EGD reviews. Our Latest Patient Testimonial Overall a great experience. - Adam Z 5 out of 5 stars on
Do You Sweat Excessively While You Sleep? Everybody sweats. It is a natural response to heat, and it helps you maintain a normal body temperature in sweltering conditions. Excessive sweat is another story, however, especially when the air is cool and there is no other apparent reason. If that's the case, your night sweats may be linked to a more serious health condition. Clinically known as hyperhidrosis, heavy sweating can be a symptom of a medical condition or it can be a medical condition in and of itself. When there is no other cause, hyperhidrosis is thought to have a genetic basis, because it appears to run in families. In this case, excessive sweating usually only occurs in a certain area of the body, such as the head or face, armpits or the bottom of the feet. Primary hyperhidrosis rarely affects the whole body and rarely occurs at night. Hyperhidrosis that is secondary to another medical condition however, is another story. It often occurs at night and may not be limited to a specific body part. Some of the medical conditions that may cause secondary hyperhidrosis include diabetes, hyperthyroidism, cancer, anxiety disorders and heart or lung disease. If you are a woman, night sweats may signal the onset of menopause or they may occur after you are already in menopause. Excessive sweating can also be a side effect of many different types of medication but, in most cases, this occurs only in a small number of people. If you sweat excessively and do not know why, make an appointment with your doctor for an assessment. In addition to performing a general physical exam, your doctor will consider the areas on your body where you sweat, how long you've had the problem, your family medical history, and your description of the problem. Once the doctor determines whether you have primary or secondary hyperhidrosis, a treatment plan can be developed. If night sweats indicate an underlying medical condition, treatment will be directed at the condition itself and may or may not help with nighttime sweating. Small lifestyle changes can help diminish your discomfort, regardless of the underlying cause. Practical solutions include covering pillows and/or sheets with towels, sleeping with a fan on in the room, and generally avoiding caffeine, alcohol and spicy foods. International Hyperhidrosis Society: About Hyperhidrosis. Web. 23 Mar 2011. New York University Langone Medical Center: Hyperhidrosis. 2010. Web. 23 Mar 2011.
1988 / 7月文‧莊伯和提供圖‧莊伯和提供 Lu Tung-pin Chung Po-ho /photos courtesy of Chung Po-ho /tr. by Peter Eberly Lu Yen (courtesy name Tung-pin) of the T'ang Dynasty (618-907) is perhaps the best known of China's Eight Immortals, or hsien-jen, and is honored by Confucianists, Taoists, and Buddhists alike. The common people worship him as a god and have raised many temples in his honor, one example being Taipei's popular Chih-nan Kung, or Hsien Kung Miao. He is also the patron deity of various occupations, including barbers, fortune-tellers, ink makers, and even beggars. A figure of such widespread renown has inevitably been the subject of many anecdotes and legends. Related here is the story of how he was tested ten times by Chung-li Ch'uan of Chunghsan Mountain before becoming an immortal. In the first test, Lu returned home to find that his family had all taken sick and died. Untouched by grief or remorse, he simply prepared an elaborate funeral for them, and soon they all returned to life. In the second test, he was selling things in the marketplace, but the customers would pay him only half the price. Instead of quarreling about it, he let them take the goods and go. In the third test, he went outside on New Year's Day and met a beggar seeking alms. Lu gave him what money he had but the beggar was insatiable in his demands and cursed him abusively. Lu just laughed it off. In the fourth test, Lu was herding sheep in the mountains when a hungry tiger attacked the flock. He single-handedly guarded the sheep from the tiger and led them down the mountain, and the tiger turned around and disappeared. In the fifth test, he was studying in a straw hut in the mountains when he saw a 17- or 18-year-old girl of breath-taking beauty standing before him. She said that she had lost her way in the dark and asked to rest with him for a while. She tried every way she could to allure and entice him, but Lu remained unmoved and after three days she finally left. In the sixth test, Lu returned home from the outskirts of town and found that all his property had been stolen by bandits. Without a trace of resentment, he took to laboring in the fields to supply his wants. There he dug up ten catties of gold, but he quickly buried them again without taking any. In the seventh test, he found that a bronze vessel he had bought was really made of gold. He returned it at once to the seller. In the eighth test, a crazy Taoist was peddling medicine, proclaiming that anyone who took it would die at once yet attain the Way in his next life. When Lu bought some, the Taoist said, "You'd better make funeral arrangements," but Lu took it without any harm. In the ninth test, Lu and a group of people were crossing a river during the spring floods. When they came to the middle the wind and waves suddenly surged up. The rest of the passengers were terrified but Lu sat calmly and still. In the tenth and last test, Lu was sitting alone in a room when a swarm of monstrous ghosts and demons rushed in as if to kill him, but he was absolutely unperturbed. Then a band of yakshas came in with a chained and bloody corpse who howled, "You killed me in your previous life, and now it's time to pay me back." "A life for a life," Lu replied, "fair enough." He stood up, picked up a knife, and was about to kill himself when a shout rang out overhead and the ghosts and demons disappeared. A man floated down laughing and clapping his hands. It was Chung-li Ch'uan. Tests are a common enough experience in everyday life, whether in school or on the job, but in this story they serve as a measure of spiritual enlightenment. Drinking an elixir, eating a magical fruit and acquiring a celestial book are well-known ways of achieving immortality, but the ten tests of Lu Tung-pin provide us with even more food for reflection on the weaknesses of human nature and the quest for spiritual attainment.
Create a free web page @ aris cool Did you create this page? html . Created: 2 Sep 19 . Hits: 82 Useful Advice For Organic Gardening Mix the grounds of coffee in soil that has a lot of alkaline. Using coffee grounds is a less expensive way to make your soil more acidic than trying to replace your topsoil. Balanced soil will produce more flavorful, crisp vegetables and greens. Create venta de semillas de pasto de corte of space. If semillas de plantas aromaticas en colombia have a small garden, use color to create an illusion of more space. A background of blues, grays, pinks and mauves will create a misty effect, giving you the feeling of depth. If venta de semillas de pasto de corte use a bright color in the foreground such as red, this will emphasize the effect, as it draws the eye forward. venta de semillas de verduras y hortalizas to the time of year that your plants bloom before you start pruning them. If you prune your flowering shrubs and trees while they have buds on them, that plant won't flower that year. The best time to prune is just after the last season's blooms have faded. Recycled newspaper can be used in the garden. Newspapers are an eco-friendly addition to your garden that can keep weeds at bay and help your soil retain important moisture. Simply wet some newspaper, and place it around the bases of your garden plants. Sprinkle with soil to ensure the paper does not blow away. It will smother any weed seedlings trying to emerge and help the soil hold onto its moisture. Grow evergreen plants. If you grow too many evergreen plants, your garden runs the risk of looking very gloomy, but a few well-placed evergreens can give a year-round framework. Choose evergreen plants with variegated or lighter green foliage, rather than sticking to darker colors. They can be used as a backdrop for spring and summer plants, and be the main attraction in the fall and winter. Blend flowering fruit shrubs into your regular landscape. Don't have a separate area to turn into a garden? Elderberries, blueberries and currants have pretty flowers in springtime and look great in the fall as well. The side benefit of these landscape-enhancing plants is all the fruit they produce for you to enjoy. So, as you can see, organic gardening is more than just professional organic gardening. precio de semilla de girasol para siembra can be a relaxing hobby or activity if you want it to be. You should feel a bit better and ready to start growing a better organic garden using your newly-found knowledge of this type of gardening.
What causes cell phone batteries to explode? From: News publisher: Billy Time: 2019-09-26 Summary: What causes cell phone batteries to explode? What causes cell phone batteries to explode? Normally, people don't associate an exploding cell phone with a battery.But in fact, the real source of the explosion is the battery.Experts believe that the root cause of the battery explosion is the use of counterfeit products.According to experts, most of the batteries used in mobile phones are lithium batteries, and there are three reasons for the battery explosion: (1) the battery itself.Due to the internal defects of the battery, the battery itself explodes without charging or discharging. (2) the battery has been overcharged for a long time.Lithium battery in special temperature, humidity and poor contact conditions or environment may produce a large amount of current instantaneous discharge, causing spontaneous combustion or explosion; (3) short circuit.This is less likely.In addition, a mobile phone placed next to a hot or flammable object can also cause an explosion. (4) excessive charging leads to explosion Once the two poles come into contact, electrical energy no longer flows to the electrodes on either side, but directly to the electrolyte between them. So to ensure the safety of mobile phones to do: 1, choose a good quality of the original battery 2, choose a good quality charger 3, pay attention to the battery temperature 4, find abnormal stop charging Previous：Why do phone batteries bulge？ Next：How To Properly Charge Your Phone battery
Can allergy shots provide the relief you need this allergy season? Allergy shots contain a small dose of the allergen that normally causes someone's immune system to react. The decreased dose is designed to train the body to stop recognizing the allergen as a threat. Allergic rhinitis, also known as hay fever, affected more than 24 million Americans in 2018, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Allergic reactions can cause mild to severe symptoms, depending on the season and the source. If you’re tired of the runny nose, itchy eyes, or more severe complications like allergic asthma, you might consider allergy shots to eliminate the symptoms. How allergy shots work Allergy shots operate under the same principle as vaccines for other diseases. Each allergy shot has a small dose of the allergen that normally causes your immune system to react. The decreased dose is designed to train your body to stop recognizing the allergen as a threat. This treatment method is not meant to be a cure for your allergies. It also is far from an instant solution. Doctors administer allergy shots in two phases. The build-up phase lasts for several months, and patients will receive the shots weekly as the dose is gradually increased. The goal is to reach the maintenance phase, during which the dosage will remain consistent, and the shots will happen monthly. The maintenance phase can take up to three to five years. Both adults and children can benefit from allergy shots. Sticking with the treatment for a longer time may help increase the effectiveness of the allergy shots. Altering the allergen dosage may also lead to different results. In some cases, allergy shots will decrease symptoms and prevent new allergies. Some people need to continue receiving allergy shots throughout their lives to keep their symptoms at bay. Allergy shots are not an effective form of treatment for people with food allergies. Risk factors and reasons not to get allergy shots You may experience allergy symptoms after receiving a shot, and although rare, these allergic reactions can be serious. Patients briefly stay at the doctor’s office after the appointment to make sure this doesn’t happen. The area where the shot was given may swell or become red. Allergy shots may not be the right treatment for people who have heart or lung disease. Consult your doctor if you have these conditions or are taking other medications that might interfere with the allergy shots.
Fernand Braudel Ceramic Plate 14th century AD It is a blue and white ceramic plate with a circular face, an open rim around the edge and a ring at the base. The face of the plate is ornamented with a flower bouquet tied with a ribbon with several bends. The body and the rim are ornamented with stylized floral and geometrical forms. The decorations are executed with blue color on a white bed under a transparent glaze. This color scheme clearly indicates a Chinese influence, as does the motif of a tied flower bouquet with the curves of the ribbon following a Chinese style. The love for this kind of blue and white ceramic was not limited to the Islamic world. It transited to Europe, and it was the inspiration for the European traditional porcelain as well. The fashion of blue and white ceramics spread in Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Portugal, whereby every country had its own characteristics. The reason that Chinese porcelain was such a desired product for the rest of the world is not known yet. This plate was found during the excavations of the Danish mission in the Hama citadel in 1957, and it is thought to be of Damascene industry, inspired by the Chinese fashion. see also
promotion image of download ymail app what is the condensed structural formula for hexanoic acid ? and also the condensed structural formula for 1-bromo-2-iodoethane = ) thank you 3 Answers • DrBob1 Lv 7 8 years ago Favorite Answer BrCH2CH2I has no cis / trans isomers. • Commenter avatarLogin to reply the answers • 4 years ago Hexanoic Acid Structure • Commenter avatarLogin to reply the answers • Anonymous 8 years ago Just draw them out and count each element up. It's that easy. I'm assuming you can't draw them, however, because you don't know nomenclature? If you use/know proper IUPAC, you can draw the stick formula of any compound, simply by it's organic name. Let's look at hexanoic acid. The ending, oic acid, means it's a carboxylic acid, R-COOH. Hexa- means R, the alkyl group (carbon chain) has 6 carbons, since hexa=6. Therefore, when you put them together you get: Which becomes C6H12O2 1-bromo-2-iodoethane is just halogens connected to ethane, a 2 carbon alkane. ANE means alkane, the substance is saturated (meaning all single bonds). ETH = 2 carbon chain iodo= iodine bromo = bromine 1-bromo means Carbon#1 is bonded to it, while 2-iodo means iodine is bonded to C#2. Therefore your compound looks like this: It's a trans molecule because of steric hindrence. The 2 halogens are large enough elements that they would bump into each other if on the same side of the molecule, so they have to be one on top, one on the bottom (trans). This molecule becomes C2H4BrI. alkyl group (R) # prefixes meth(yl) = 1C...hex = 6C eth(yl) = 2C......hept = 7C prop = 3C.........oct = 8C but = 4C...........non = 9C pent = 5C.........dec(a) = 10C There are a few prefixes beyond 10, but they are rarely used, so you don't have to worry about them. Endings for different organic chemicals and the organic [Functional Structure] Alkane ANE [R] Alkene ENE double bonds present Alkyne YNE triple bonds present Alkyl Halides are R groups with halogens (like 1-bromo-2-iodoethane) [RX] Alcohol OL ending, hydroxyl group (-OH) present [2 OH groups=DIOL, 3 OH groups = TRIOL] [ROH] Aromatic (benzene ring) = [Ar] Ether X Y ether (most ethers you name the 2 groups connected to the oxygen atom and add the word "ether", like methyl ethyl ether = CH2-O-CH2CH3) [ROR] Epoxide a 3C ether ring, which is 2C combined with O in a cyclic ring. "Epoxy" is the PREFIX. Ketone 2 alkyl groups connected by a carbonyl (C=O). Ending = -ONE [RCOR] Aldehyde molecule with carbonyl+H on the end of it; ending is -AL, sometimes they simply use the word "aldehyde" [RCOH] Carboxylic Acid alkyl group with COOH on 1 end; ending = -OIC ACID [RCOOH] Ester alkyl group attached to a carboxylic acid, Without the H (COO-), where another alkyl group attaches to it. Ending is -ATE [RCOOR] Amides combine a carbonyl (C=O) with NH2, they end in AMIDE. [RCONH2] Amines are alkyl groups combined with NH2, and end in AMINE. [RNH2] Nitriles are alkyl groups combined with cyano groups (C(triple bond)N); they end in NITRILE. [RCN] This is probably more info than you need right now, but trust me, if you're taking orgo2, you're going to need it eventually! :) Hope this helps! If you can master IUPAC nomenclature, you can name and draw ANY molecule. • Commenter avatarLogin to reply the answers Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.
Safer and More Effective Towing Methods For both recreational and business purposes, many Americans are using pickup trucks to tow items behind them on the roads. This often includes RVs (excluding self-driven motor homes), as well as moving trailers or even trailers or livestock such as horses. In other cases, someone is hauling a trailer filled with work or hobby items from one location to another when such loads are too large or heavy to place directly in the vehicle. Drivers of these pickup trucks will need to remember some basic towing safety facts and how to use brake controllers to keep their payload safe during transit. Electric trailer brake controls ensure that a heavy RV’s brakes and those of the towing truck are safely working in tandem to prevent an accident, and some basic towing safety facts may be kept in mind for a safer towing job. How can this be done? Basic Towing Safety Facts Pickups trucks often have the power and the trailer hitches alike necessary to haul trailers and other items behind them, but if done wrong, a towing job may involve property damage or something getting flipped over. Even traffic accidents become likely if a trailer is going out of control. Instead, someone operating the pickup truck may use some towing safety facts to keep everything in fine working order. For one thing, towing safety facts show that around 12-15% of the trailer’s total weight should be resting on the vehicle’s tow hitch, and weight distribution is important here. If too much of a trailer’s weight is near the back, this allows the trailer to dangerously sway back and forth during travel, and that could mean trouble. If the pickup truck driver notes distinct trailer sway, they can follow some simple steps to get everything back under control. For one thing, the pickup truck driver should ease off the gas pedal and allow the truck to coast to gradually reach a lower speed. Hitting the brakes, however, could cause everything to get out of control, so the brakes should be avoided. Instead, the truck driver should allow the truck to reach a speed at least 10 MPH slower than the speed when the sway started happening. This may solve the swaying problem. If it does not, the driver may slowly coast to a stop, then redistribute the weight on the trailer so that more weight is closer to the truck rather than at the trailer’s other end. Trailer and RV Brakes Meanwhile, a pickup truck driver will also want the right electronic brakes installed on their trailer/RV and connected to their truck. Otherwise, the trailer would keep moving when the truck braked, and momentum would cause it to slam right into the truck. That would be unacceptable, so instead, a trailer or RV will be outfitted with its own brakes that are electrically connected to the truck’s own brake system, and work in tandem. Hitching an RV to a truck involves not only the physical connection, but also plugging in the brake controls and also plugging in the trailer’s brake lights. The RV will block other cars’ view of the truck’s own brake lights, so the RV will have lights to display in their stead. Manual surge brakes are sometimes used, but in many cases, electronic brakes are used. They may be the timing or intertia-based models. Timing brakes are generally cheaper and simpler to use, and they gradually apply the RV’s brakes based on smooth, regular timing that is programmed into the system. This system is activated when the truck’s own brakes are used. This system is not as precise as inertia brakes, but for lighter RV or trailer loads and low-speed travel, this may be sufficient. Otherwise, inertia brakes are the best choice. The inertia electrical brake model, meanwhile, will sense the truck’s own inertia and brake use and control the RV’s brakes to work in sync. This is useful for heavy loads traveling at high speeds, when even small imperfections in performance may lead to disaster. This allows the trailer or RV to brake exactly the same way the truck is, and they can even compensate for inclined planes. This may be done if the truck is going up or down a hill, and the brakes will adjust accordingly. Leave a Reply
Comstock Images/Comstock/Getty Images How Can Cultural Diversity Have a Positive Influence on a Professional in the Workplace? Growth Trends for Related Jobs With the ever-changing demographics of the country, increased cultural diversity in the workplace can have a substantial effect on the workplace and on the individual professionals within it. Individuals can learn new ways of thinking, understand different points of view and create innovative solutions that may not have otherwise come to fruition. The same can be said of both managers and employees. New Languages In the American workforce, the dominant language spoken is generally English. However, shifting demographics have encouraged the need for cultural diversity in the workplace, increasing the value of speaking more than one language. Working with other professionals from different cultural backgrounds can provide motivation for both managers and employees to embrace learning new languages such as Spanish or Mandarin in order to better communicate with both co-workers, direct reports and clients. Increased Problem Solving According to the Stanford Graduate School of Business, workplaces that boast a more culturally diverse environment are better at innovating and brainstorming new ideas. In fact, when an organization or department becomes so homogeneous that there is little to no diversity, the more likely employees are to only see one perspective or method of solving a problem. With increased diversity comes different life and career experiences that can provide the necessary insight to improving processes, products and services. Better Conflict Resolution Many workplaces experience conflict, but a more culturally diverse workplace may actually be better equipped to handle inter-office spats. When team members seemingly come from similar backgrounds, there can be an unintentional expectation that everyone will always get along or think the same. This can cause quite a jolt to team harmony when disagreements on how to approach an issue or problem arise. However, in groups with a stronger mix of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, there can be a heightened awareness of the possibility of disagreements. An employee or manager in the more diverse team will be more apt to recognize potential conflicts and more quickly identify solutions that will benefit the team and its members. Talented Colleagues When professionals are immersed in a culturally diverse work team, they are more likely to be surrounded by peers of equal or great caliber, which improves the team's success rate. When teams are more homogeneous, the talent pool shrinks, meaning that employees and managers who may have heightened abilities are forced to work with individuals who may not be on their professional level. This can slow down team performance and decrease individual employee engagement. With a wider net cast, employers have a larger number of talented professionals to help grow their teams, which not only benefits the organization, but its individual team members as well. About the Author Photo Credits • Comstock Images/Comstock/Getty Images
Name Smilla – origin and meaning Smilla is a female name. Origin of Smilla Smilla is an invented name by the Danish author Peter Høeg for his novel “Smilla’s Sense of Snow” (1992). Meaning of Smilla Smilla means “smile” (from Danish “smil”), but as well “humming (of an insect)” (from Greenlandic “Millaaraq”). Pronunciation of Smilla Smilla in the categories Names Girl's name Girl names with S Names with S Parents who like Smilla also like Frida Mila Tilda Ella Lotta Greta Matilda Madita Milla Emma Emilia Liv Leni Ava Charlotte Juna Anouk Ida Carlotta Alma Smilla is beautiful, and we know a lot of other names like this... babyname app androidbabyname app iPhone
Python is an efficient object-oriented programming language, that is used to create CGI scripts and web apps. It offers very clear syntax and it works with third-party modules - sets of variables and subroutines, that can be called in a script, saving you time any time you're writing an application, because you are able to call a module instead of writing the program code for the tasks that your module does. A few examples of the applications which you're able to generate using Python are database management interfaces, web browser games, web-based education instruments, content management systems, scientific data processing software tools, and so on. You will be able to install Python script programs in your sites even if you have applied another web programming language to build them, which will enable you to include a number of options. Python in Website Hosting Since all of our servers have a Python Apache module installed, you'll be able to use any type of script or software created in this language with all of the Linux website hosting services that we supply and it'll run flawlessly. If you'd like to add extra features to your websites, you can use ready-made Python modules that you find on third-party sites, you can write your own code if you have the programming skills or you can mix both so as to get the best of the language. You can also combine Python with various other web development languages and have a custom-made solution for your site which will both satisfy your requirements about what the website should do, and improve the general satisfaction of the visitors in terms of what they receive.
Software Engineering Degrees Most people are familiar with older, more traditional engineering fields such as mechanical, civil, or electrical. Software Engineering is a relatively new discipline, but in today’s increasingly interconnected world, it is becoming more and more important. Software Engineering differs from Computer Science or Web Design in that you are formulating how the overall software system functions, and how it works within its intended hardware environment. Software Engineers are responsible for every phase of a development project, not just for writing the computer code. Upon the initiation of a project, they make sure requirements are documented and validated. This assures the entire project is working toward the correct goal. They then move on to system design, often overseeing the creation of software prototypes to present to clients for additional validation. Once the design is solid, Software Engineers manage the overall development effort to make sure the pieces are coming together as planned. Finally, they create and oversee test cases which assure system functionality is complete and traceable to the requirements generated at the time of project initiation. Software Engineering is the discipline that makes sure computer systems are developed methodically and result in building the right product with quality built in from the beginning. Software Engineering Schools Software Engineering degrees are available at the undergraduate, master’s, and doctorate (PhD) levels. As you move up in a Software Engineering career, increasing your education level will allow you to tackle ever more complex systems. At the pinnacle of Software Engineering are people that design the systems behind well-known technological marvels from the Space Shuttle to Google’s databases. Most colleges require similar courses as prerequisites for their Software Engineering programs. You’ll normally be expected to study mathematics up through Calculus, basic computer programming, and cross-discipline engineering basics. You’ll also take courses in computer algorithms and system documentation methods prior to moving on to the core Software Engineering program. Once your undergraduate prerequisites are met, you start taking classes in Software Engineering. This is where you gain cutting-edge expertise in skills like requirements identification, system design, software integration and software testing methodologies. During this coursework, you’ll learn how modern software systems are designed and implemented. There are an incredibly complex number of variables when engineering software components, and a Software Engineering degree provides the educational foundation you need to be productive in the field. There are numerous avenues for studying Software Engineering. Virtually every major university offers this as an undergraduate major, and many larger colleges offer Master’s and PhD programs as well. You can also get a Software Engineering degree through many of the top online colleges. Since a lot of the software work being done is on the Internet and mobile devices, studying Software Engineering online can be a flexible and effective method for pursuing your education. An undergraduate Software Engineering degree is normally a 4-year program. There are some colleges where this can be accelerated, and others that demand enough coursework to take up a fifth year. A Master’s in Software Engineering will usually take 2 years to complete if you’re able to go full time, and your doctorate degree will take as long as 3 years to finish due to the writing and research involved at that level. Career Advancement The job market for Software Engineers is incredibly broad. There are software components involved in virtually every modern development you can think of. Computers control everything from aircraft to medical imaging devices, and these systems are conceived and executed by Software Engineers. Since it’s such a big part of our daily lives, most people think immediately of software running on the Internet when they envision a career in this arena. While there are a plethora of rewarding jobs developing software for use on the Internet, it’s a good thing to know that there are also rewarding jobs in areas like computer simulations, artificial intelligence, real-time systems, aerospace, and embedded systems. According to an October 18th, 2012 report on, Software Engineers at top companies average $92,648 annually. Google topped the compensation charts, paying their Software Engineers an average of $128,336. The US Government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reports earnings on multiple software development jobs, none specifically labeled as Software Engineers. However, the average annual earnings reported for several different Software Engineering-related career fields corroborate the salary figures reported by GlassDoor. Professional Associations There are numerous professional associations where Software Engineers can network and share information. One of the largest and oldest is the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The ACM boasts membership of more than 100,000 professionals as of 2011. Another major association is the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). While IEEE’s title might not sound like it would be fruitful for Software Engineers, the IEEE Computer Society has teamed with the ACM on numerous projects to enhance the professionalism of the Software Engineering field. Like any degree in engineering, a Software Engineering degree is a demanding course of study. It requires an aptitude for math and science and favors those who love to think logically and methodically. The rewards for pursuing this degree are numerous and tangible: great salary, a growing job market, and a career working with like-minded professionals building the future. Check out the many programs available and see if one is right for you. Explore Engineering Degree ProgramsSearch Programs
in , In 1676 A Possessed Nun Wrote A Message From The Devil. Now The Chilling Letter Has Been Translated Isabella Tomasi Isabella Tomasi was born in 1645. She was just 15-years-old when she joined a Benedictine convent in Palma di Montechario, Sicily. It was then that she was baptized and renamed Maria Crocifissa Della Concezione. The Benedictine order often teaches things like work, peace, and prayer. As devoted as Sister Maria was, she was not at peace. She told the others that the Devil possessed her. Inner Conflict Sister Maria was sure that the Devil existed because she was often tormented. When she went to the convent alter, she would shriek and lose consciousness. She was convinced that Satan was trying to turn her toward evil. Everyone believed that she was racked with inner conflict. Taking Over In 1676, Sister Maria claimed that the Devil took over her body. While claiming to be possessed, she wrote a letter that she says was the Devil’s writings. The note didn’t use a language that was familiar to anyone. She didn’t even use a recognizable alphabet. Instead, she used mysterious glyphs that appeared to be just a jumble of archaic letters and occult symbols. Nobody knew what to think. Not the First Time According to reports, this wasn’t the first time that Satan had called at the convent. In 1632, before Sister Maria claimed to have been possessed, a devastating plague was killing many people. A group of 17 nuns sealed themselves off in the Ursuline convent in London, France. They realized that they needed to remain healthy to save those who survived when the plague ran its course. While they were sealed away, they began to act irrationally. Many of the nuns started having visions. Next, they were beginning doing bizarre things. They were shouting at nothing, and some were barking like dogs. Their behavior drew attention to the convent, and people were seeing what they were doing. The controversy started swirling in London, and the chaplain at the convent believed that Satan possessed them. The church authorities decided to launch an investigation. The Findings The investigation concluded that a local holy man, Father Urbain Grandier, was the person responsible for what was happening in the convent. He was believed to have been a dangerous sorcerer who signed a contract with Lucifer, who cast dark spells and conjured the wicked spirits that possessed the nuns. There was a trial in 1634, and the cleric was found guilty. The Punishment When Grandier was found guilty, he was sentenced. The church authorities said, “W have ordered, Urbain Grandier duly tried and convicted the crimes of magic, maleficia, and of causing demoniacal possession of several Ursuline nuns. He is to be taken to the public square and fastened to a stake on a scaffold, and then burned alive. His ashes are to be scattered in the wind.” It was reported that Grandier did nothing to stop the reports of possession. Sister Maria’s Letter When the nuns saw the letter written by Sister Maria, they took her claims seriously. They took the letter and put it on public display. For centuries, code-breakers were trying to crack the code that was said to be the language of Satan. In wasn’t until 2017 that someone broke it. In 1676 a possessed nun wrote a message from the Devil. Now the chilling letter has been translated. LUDUM Science Center A team of computer scientists at the LUDUM Science Center in Catania broke the code in 2017. The team went to some pretty dark places to try to decode the note. To decode the note, they used a highly controlled decryption program. It is used by governments, and it isn’t widely available. The team had to get it from the dark web. The scientists believed that Sister Maria had created the code using a blend of existing alphabets. Thanks to her years of religious service, she was skilled in ancient and modern languages. 15 Lines The team managed to crack 15 lines of the code. Most of it was muddled and incoherent. What they could make sense of would have gotten Sister Maria into serious trouble. They believed that she was either a secret rebel, a hoaxer, or that her mind had split from reality. The Letter In the parts that they could decipher, Sister Maria claimed that God is an invention of man and that God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are all dead weights. God thinks that he can free mortals, but the system works for no one. She also referenced a mythological river that lies at the edge of the underworld. Nobody knows precisely what caused Sister Maria to pen the note. Everyone had their own theory, but in the end, the team of scientists didn’t believe that Satan actually wrote it. Experts Studying King Tutankhuman’s Dagger Claimed It Has Extraterrestrial Origins These Famous Faces Dominated ’80s Fitness – And This Is How They Look Today
Machine Learning Christmas Lost in branches? A 3 minute read written by Erlend Faxvaag Previous postNext post First of all, this is not a Git article. This article will give a short introduction to a set of trees almost as powerful as Christmas trees: decision trees. In this article we will briefly go through what a decision tree is, and reasons for why you should be using these trees. In short, decision trees are models used in the field of machine learning to predict the value of a target variable based on multiple input variables. Some machine learning techniques are hard to learn and near impossible to fully understand - decision trees on the other hand can be really simple. We will start off with a super short description of the structure of a decision tree model. The first gray circle at the top is called the root node, this is where we start. The rest of the gray circles are just called nodes - except the ones at the bottom, without any preceding nodes, these are called leafs. Take a look: Decision trees can, as already pointed out, be simple and straightforward. Let's make the simplest possible tree, and let's use it for predicting if guests at a restaurant are vegetarian or not. Try it out: This machine learning technique is pretty intuitive to work with, you start at the top (root node) and work your way down answering questions. The nodes asks the questions, and in the end the leafs gives us the prediction. Let’s add a question: In the examples above the trees are only made up of one or two questions, and to be fair, there are many different types of decision trees and some of them can be complex and less intuitive to work with. That said, regular decision trees do not need to be a lot more complicated than this. At first one could think trees are too simple to handle complex problems, yet, with more nodes this technique can be surprisingly powerful. However, trees are not always convenient. With lots of data and features, trees can be huge. They are also prone to overfitting. They get too familiar with training data, and when a real data sample is pushed through the tree, the slightest difference can send you down the wrong track and into a wrong classification. Let’s say you ask the question above at a seafood restaurant. The guests might not be vegetarian, but asking if they ate beef here will get us nowhere. This is where bagging and boosting comes in. These techniques fall in the category: ensemble learning/models. An illustration of bagging and boosting is found below. These are techniques that utilize many weak models to create a stronger one. In other words: ensemble methods combine several decision trees to produce a better prediction than a single tree. Two well known tree based methods that use bagging and boosting respectively are Random Forest and XGBoost. But how can many trees be better than a single tree? Lets focus on bagging. Bagging is simply making a lot of similar models and use all the predictions from these models to give a more accurate result. As we mentioned in the section above, single regular decision trees are prone to overfitting. To fight this we use some simple techniques like: preventing the tree from growing too large, only split on a small random set of features, or train on only portion of the training data. When doing this the trees are less likely to memorize the training data. However, when making hundreds of random trees like this we are more likely to catch edge cases. We ask all our random trees what they think this specific restaurant guest ate, and the class with the most votes wins! All these random trees are called, you guessed it, Random Forest. Many machine learning techniques are like a black box. For example, in neural networks, we have no idea what conclusions the neural network drew. That's not the case with trees. We can easily visualize the decision, that's just the nature of the trees. By starting at the top and answering questions on our way down, we can see and understand each small decision made up by the tree. It's difficult to get lost, just follow the branch out of the tree. I would say it's easier to get lost in Git branches than in a decision tree. Read the next post

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