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The National Institutes of Health established The Human Microbiome Project in 2008 with the goal of facilitating the comprehensive characterization of the human microbiome and elucidating its role in both health and disease. Thus far, over 1300 organism reference genomes have been sequenced from 5 major body sites of 300 healthy adults. As in other “omics” fields, microbiome projects offer the tantalizing promise of enormous data sets that may be mined to discover novel associations (not necessarily cause and effect) with human disease that might not otherwise have been identified. However, there are also substantial challenges that will be faced in translating these potential discoveries into therapeutics. These challenges include the successful design of treatments that can provide stable microbial colonization for specific geographic locations within the human body despite local fluctuations in diet and other environmental factors.
Thus far, there is no definitive evidence that the microbiome from the gut or any other place in the human body plays a critical role in retinal pathology. However, there have been links found between differences in gut flora and autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, which also have retinal manifestations. It is also clear that dietary considerations may play a role in age-related macular degeneration, so there is rationale to support a possible connection between the gut flora and this common retinal pathology. A mouse study published earlier this year identified a functional interaction between changes in diet, gut microbiota, and the development of features consistent with age-related macular degeneration such as photoreceptor loss, retinal pigment epithelial hypopigmentation, and accumulation of lipofuscin.
Even with these early findings, I don’t see any imminent reasons to dust off gastrointestinal exam skills in the service of my retina patients. I do, however, suspect that the microbiome field will yield a great deal of data in the years to come. The resulting challenges will be to first validate initial proposed associations between microbial differences and ocular pathology and then, once validated, to create safe and effective therapies from these discoveries. Despite the long road ahead, however, I have a gut feeling that this emerging field will provide useful insights to help us optimize outcomes for our patients in the field of retina.
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Also Resistor-Transistor Logic, an older generation logic family.
RTL is a family of private TV stations in Germany (though there are also RTLs in Luxemburg (RTL does stand for something like Radio and Television Luxemburg) and the Netherlands, but I do not know much about them).
In Germany there are three RTLs:
RTL - the main station, is one of the most popular tv stations in Germany, has new films, talkshows and sport
RTL II = started as a station to send all the old RTL material, now it is well known for children programmes, big brother, soft-sex films and reports
Super RTL - is now what RTL II has been in the beginning, old cartoons, old films, old series and really bad music shows.
In digital design, RTL means Register Transfer Level. RTL is the lowest design level, where you design the actual registers (flip-flops) and the data flows between them.
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See Also:
1. Abu Zafar Sirajuddin Muhammad Bahadur Shah Zafar (Urdu: ابو ظفر سِراجُ الْدین محمد بُہادر شاہ ظفر), also known as Bahadur Shah or Bahadur Shah II (Urdu: بہادر شاہ دوم) (October 1775 – 7 November 1862) was the last of the Mughal emperors in India, as well as the last ruler of the Timurid Dynasty.
2. The Mughal Empire (Persian: شاهان مغول Shāhān-e Moġul; Urdu: مغلیہ سلطنت; self-designation: گوركانى Gūrkānī ),[2][3] or Mogul (also Moghul) Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent.[4] The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids.
3. The Timurids (Persian: تیموریان), self-designated Gurkānī [2][3][4] (Persian: گوركانى), were a Persianate,[5][6] Central Asian Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turco-Mongol lineage[6][7][8][9] whose Timurid Empire included the whole of Iran, modern Afghanistan, and modern Uzbekistan, as well as large parts of contemporary Pakistan, North India, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the Caucasus. It was founded by the militant conqueror Timur (Tamerlane) in the 14th century. The Timurids lost control of most of Persia to the Safavid dynasty in 1501, but members of the dynasty continued to rule parts of Central Asia, sometimes known as the Timurid Emirates. In the 16th century, the Timurid prince Babur, ruler of Ferghana, invaded North India and founded the Mughal Empire.
4. Timur (Persian: تیمور Timūr, Chagatai: Temüriron“, Turkish: Demiriron“; 8 April 1336 – 18 February 1405), historically known as Tamerlane[1] in (from Persian: تيمور لنگ, Timūr-e Lang, “Timur the Lame”), was a 14th-century conqueror of West, South and Central Asia, and the founder of the Timurid dynasty (1370–1405) in Central Asia, and great-great-grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived as the Mughal Empire in India until 1857
5. The Delhi Sultanate is a term used to cover five short-lived, Delhi based kingdoms or sultanates, of Turkic origin in medieval India. The sultanates ruled from Delhi between 1206 and 1526, when the last was replaced by the Mughal dynasty. The five dynasties were the Mamluk dynasty (1206–90); the Khilji dynasty (1290–1320); the Tughlaq dynasty (1320–1414); the Sayyid dynasty (1414–51); and the Lodi dynasty (1451–1526).
6. Urdu (Urdu: اردو, IPA: [ˈʊrd̪u] ( listen); English: /ˈʊərduː/) is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an official language of five states. Based on the Khariboli dialect of Delhi, Urdu is derived from Sanskrit and developed under the influence of Persian, Arabic, and Turkic over the course of almost 900 years.[4] It began to take shape in what is now Uttar Pradesh, India during the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1527), and continued to develop under the Mughal Empire (1526–1858). Urdu is mutually intelligible with Standard Hindi (or Hindi-Urdu) spoken in India. Both languages share the same Indic base and are so similar in phonology and grammar that they appear to be one language.[5] The combined population of Hindi and Urdu speakers is the fourth largest in the world.[6]
7. Islam in Burma
The first Muslims arrived in Arakan coast and upward hinterland to Maungdaw when Muhammad al-Hanafiyya, a son of Caliph Ali arrived in Arakan in 680 CE by the Bay of Bengal sea route as he and the companions left Kufa in a chaotic political environment. The tomb of Muhammad al-Hanafiyya (Muhammad Hanifa) and his wife Khaya Pari still exists in a hilltop of Maungdaw.[4] Then Muslims arrived in Burma’s Ayeyarwady River delta, on the Tanintharyi coast and in Rakhine in the 9th century, prior to the establishment of the first Burmese empire in 1055 AD by King Anawrahta of Bagan.[5][6][7][8][9][10] These early Muslim settlements and the propagation of Islam were documented by Arab, Persian, European and Chinese travelers of the 9th century.[5][11] Burmese Muslims are the descendants of Muslim peoples who settled and intermarried with the local Burmese ethnic groups.[12][13] Muslims arrived in Burma as traders or settlers,[14] military personnel,[15] and prisoners of war,[15] refugees,[5] and as victims of slavery.[16] However, many early Muslims also held positions of status as royal advisers, royal administrators, port authorities, mayors, and traditional medicine men.[17]
Persian Muslims arrived in northern Burma on the border with the Chinese region of Yunnan as recorded in the Chronicles of China in 860 AD.[5][18] Burmese Muslims were sometimes called Pathi,[19] a name believed to be derived from Persian. Many settlements in the southern region near present day Thailand were noted for the Muslim populations, in which Muslims often outnumbered the local Buddhists. In one record, Pathein was said to be populated with Pathis,[19] and was ruled by three Indian Muslim Kings in the 13th century.[20][21][22] Arab merchants also arrived in Martaban, Margue, and there were Arab settlements in the present Meik archipelago’s mid-western quarters.[23]
During the reign of the Bagan King, Narathihapate (1255–1286), in the first Sino-Burman war, Kublai Khan‘s Muslim Tatars invaded the Pagan Kingdom and occupied the area up to Nga Saung Chan. In 1283, Colonel Nasruddin’s Turks occupied the area up to Bamaw (Kaungsin).[24] Turk people (Tarek) were called Mongol, Manchuria, Mahamaden or Panthays.[25]
A Mosque in Mandalay
The first Muslims had landed in Myanmar (Burma’s) Ayeyarwady River delta, Tanintharyi coast and Rakhine as seamen in 9th century, prior to the establishment of the first Myanmar (Burmese) empire in 1055 AD by King Anawrahta of Bagan or Pagan.[26][27][28][29] The dawn of the Muslim settlements and the propagation of Islam was widely documented by the Arab, Persian, European and Chinese travelers of 9th century.[30][31] The current population of Myanmar Muslims are the descendants of Arabs, Persians, Turks, Moors, Indian-Muslims, sheikhs, Pakistanis, Pathans, Bengalis, Chinese Muslims and Malays who settled and intermarried with local Burmese and many ethnic Myanmar groups such as, Rakhine, Shan, Karen, Mon etc.[32][33]
Muslim diaspora
The population of the Muslims increased during the British rule of Burma because of new waves of Indian Muslim Immigration.[34] This sharply declined in the years following 1941 as a result of the Indo-Burman Immigration agreement,[35] and was officially stopped following Burma’s (Myanmar) independence on 4 January 1948.
Muslims arrived in Burma as travelers, adventurers, pioneers, sailors, traders,[36] Military Personals (voluntary and mercenary),[37] and a number of them as prisoners of wars.[38] Some were reported to have taken refuge from wars, Monsoon storms and weather, shipwreck [39] and for a number of other circumstances. Some are victims of forced slavery [40] but many of them are professionals and skilled personals such as advisors to the kings and at various ranks of administration whilst others are port-authorities and mayors and traditional medicine men.[41]
Pathi and Panthays
Persian Muslims traveled over land, in search of China, and arrived northern Burma at Yunnan (China) border. Their colonies were recorded in Chronicles of China in 860 AD.[42][43] Myanmar Muslims were sometimes called Pathi, and Chinese Muslims are called Panthay.[44] It is widely believed that those names derived from Parsi (Persian). Bago Pegu), Dala, Thanlyin (Syriam), Taninthayi (Tenasserim), Mottama (Martaban), Myeik (Mergui) and Pathein (Bassein) were full of Burmese Muslim settlers and they outnumbered the local Burmese by many times. In one record, Pathein was said to be populated with Pathis. Perhaps Pathein comes from Pathi.[45] And coincidentally, Pathein is still famous for Pathein halawa, a traditional Myanmar Muslim food inherited from northern Indian Muslims. In Kawzar 583 (13th Century), Bassein or Pathein was known as Pathi town under the three Indian Muslim Kings.[46][47][48] Arab merchants arrived Martaban, Margue. Arab settlement in the present Meik’s mid-western quarters.[49]
During Bagan King, Narathihapate, 1255–1286, in the first Sino Burman war, Kublaikhan’s Muslim Tatars attacked and occupied up to Nga Saung Chan. Mongols under Kublai Khan invaded the Pagan Kingdom. During this first Sino Burman war in 1283, Colonel Nasruddin’s Turks occupied up to Bamaw. (Kaungsin)[24] (Tarek) Turk were called, Mongol, Manchuria, Mahamaden or Panthays.[50] The Chinese General Mah Tu Tu managed the building of a mosque donated by the Yunnanese Muslim king, Sultan Sulaiman, in nineteen century in central Mandalay. The mosque is still maintained in a very good condition. Most of the Myanmar Chinese Muslims are staying around the mosque and it is well known as Panthay Mosque. That area is called Panthay Dan (Panthay Quarters).
8. History of Islam in China …The History of Islam in China began when four Sahabas– Sa’ad ibn abi Waqqas (b.594-d.674 AD), Wahb Abu Kabcha, Jafar ibn Abu Talib and Jahsh (a father-in-law of Prophet Muhammad)preached in 616/17 and onwards in China after coming from Chittagong-Kamrup-Manipur route after sailing from Abyssinia in 615/16. Sa’ad ibn abi Waqqas later, after conquest of Persia in 636, went with Sa’id ibn Zaid (b.594- d.673 AD), Qais ibn Sa’d (d.682 AD) and Hassan ibn Thabit to China in 637 taking the complete volume of the Quran. Sa’ad ibn abi Waqqas again headed for China for the third time in 650-51 after Caliph Uthman asked him to lead an embassy to China, which the Chinese emperor received warmly.
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This sort of poem is called an apostrophe. William Blake's "The Tyger" and Walt Whitman's "To a Locomotive in Winter" are examples, as is John Keats's "Bright star, would I were stedfast," which is also a one-sentence poem.
If you like, you could follow Blake's example by composing your poem entirely of questions. Keep your poem between six and sixteen lines long.
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Groupe de Recherche en Ecologie Arctique GREA
Francheville, France
Groupe de Recherche en Ecologie Arctique GREA
Francheville, France
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Gilg O.,University of Burgundy | Gilg O.,University of Helsinki | Kovacs K.M.,Norwegian Polar Institute | Aars J.,Norwegian Polar Institute | And 11 more authors.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences | Year: 2012
Gilg O.,University of Helsinki | Gilg O.,University of Burgundy | Strom H.,Norwegian Polar Institute | Aebischer A.,Norwegian University of Science and Technology | And 6 more authors.
Journal of Avian Biology | Year: 2010
The post-breeding movements of three northeast Atlantic populations (north Greenland, Svalbard and Franz Josef Land) of the ivory gull Pagophila eburnea, a threatened high-Arctic sea-ice specialist, were studied between July and December 2007 using 31 satellite transmitters. After leaving their breeding grounds, all birds first dispersed eastward in August-September, to an area extending from the Fram Strait to the northwestern Laptev Sea (off Severnaya Zemlya). Most returned along the same flyway in October-November, hence describing a loop migration before moving south, off east Greenland. Wintering grounds were reached in December, in southeast Greenland and along the Labrador Sea ice-edge, where Canadian birds also overwinter. One to two birds from each population however continued eastwards towards a third wintering area in the Bering Strait region, hence demonstrating a bi-directional migration pattern for the populations and elucidating the origin of the birds found in the north Pacific during winter time. Overall, all birds breeding in the northeast Atlantic region used the same flyways, had similar rates of travel, and showed a peak in migratory activity in November. Though the total length of the main flyway, to the Labrador Sea, is only and at most 7500 km on a straight line, the mean total distance travelled by Greenland birds between July and December was 50 000 km when estimated from hourly rates of travel. Our study presents the first comprehensive and complete picture for the post-breeding movements of the different ivory gull populations breeding in the northeast Atlantic. © 2010 The Authors.
Yannic G.,CNRS Alpine Ecology Laboratory | Broquet T.,Connectivity | Broquet T.,Paris-Sorbonne University | Strom H.,Norwegian Polar Institute | And 10 more authors.
Journal of Ornithology | Year: 2016
Sex identification of birds is relevant to studies of evolutionary biology and ecology and is often a central issue for the management and conservation of populations. The Ivory Gull Pagophila eburnea (Phipps, 1774) is a rare high-Arctic species whose main habitat is sea ice throughout the year. This species is currently listed Near Threatened by the IUCN, because populations have drastically declined in part of the species distribution in the recent past. Here we tested molecular sexing methods with different types of samples. Molecular sexing appeared to be very efficient with DNA extracted from muscle, blood, and buccal swabs, both for adults and young chicks. We also performed morphological analyses to characterize sexual size dimorphism in Ivory Gulls sampled in three distinct regions: Greenland, Svalbard, and Russia. Males were larger than females for all morphometric measurements, with little overlap between sexes. Discriminant analysis based on six morphometric variables correctly classified ~95 % of the individuals, even when using two variables only, i.e., gonys height and skull length. Therefore, both molecular and biometric methods are useful for sexing Ivory Gulls. Interestingly, our results indicate a male-biased sex ratio across all Ivory Gull populations studied, including two samples of offspring (67.8 % males). © 2016, Dt. Ornithologen-Gesellschaft e.V.
Yannic G.,Laval University | Yannic G.,University of Moncton | Yannic G.,CNRS Alpine Ecology Laboratory | Yearsley J.M.,University College Dublin | And 12 more authors.
Polar Biology | Year: 2015
Species may cope with rapid habitat changes by distribution shifts or adaptation to new conditions. A common feature of these responses is that they depend on how the process of dispersal connects populations, both demographically and genetically. We analyzed the genetic structure of a near-threatened high-Arctic seabird, the ivory gull (Pagophila eburnea) in order to infer the connectivity among gull colonies. We analyzed 343 individuals sampled from 16 localities across the circumpolar breeding range of ivory gulls, from northern Russia to the Canadian Arctic. To explore the roles of natal and breeding dispersal, we developed a population genetic model to relate dispersal behavior to the observed genetic structure of worldwide ivory gull populations. Our key finding is the striking genetic homogeneity of ivory gulls across their entire distribution range. The lack of population genetic structure found among colonies, in tandem with independent evidence of movement among colonies, suggests that ongoing effective dispersal is occurring across the Arctic Region. Our results contradict the dispersal patterns generally observed in seabirds where species movement capabilities are often not indicative of dispersal patterns. Model predictions show how natal and breeding dispersal may combine to shape the genetic homogeneity among ivory gull colonies separated by up to 2800 km. Although field data will be key to determine the role of dispersal for the demography of local colonies and refine the respective impacts of natal versus breeding dispersal, conservation planning needs to consider ivory gulls as a genetically homogeneous, Arctic-wide metapopulation effectively connected through dispersal. © 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
PubMed | University of Aarhus, University of Bremen, Norwegian Polar Institute, CNRS Biogeosciences Laboratory and 5 more.
Type: Journal Article | Journal: Biology letters | Year: 2016
The ongoing decline of sea ice threatens many Arctic taxa, including the ivory gull. Understanding how ice-edges and ice concentrations influence the distribution of the endangered ivory gulls is a prerequisite to the implementation of adequate conservation strategies. From 2007 to 2013, we used satellite transmitters to monitor the movements of 104 ivory gulls originating from Canada, Greenland, Svalbard-Norway and Russia. Although half of the positions were within 41 km of the ice-edge (75% within 100 km), approximately 80% were on relatively highly concentrated sea ice. Ivory gulls used more concentrated sea ice in summer, when close to their high-Arctic breeding ground, than in winter. The best model to explain the distance of the birds from the ice-edge included the ice concentration within approximately 10 km, the month and the distance to the colony. Given the strong links between ivory gull, ice-edge and ice concentration, its conservation status is unlikely to improve in the current context of sea-ice decline which, in turn, will allow anthropogenic activities to develop in regions that are particularly important for the species.
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Nicholas Lipari
UL Lafayette student Nicholas Lipari is using 3-D technology to make big data useful.
He’s working on a project for the national Center for Visual and Decision Informatics, a collaborative effort of UL Lafayette, Drexel University, the National Science Foundation and industry.
Lipari, who’s pursuing a doctorate in computer science, is using data collected when Hurricane Isaac made landfall in Louisiana in August 2012. Sensors, installed on levees in and around New Orleans, recorded water levels as the storm moved inland.
His goal is to create a way to monitor real-time data, so the user can make decisions based on that information.
“We’ve become accustomed to using a computer keyboard or mouse in relation to a 2-D display. But we haven’t worked out the conventions of the 3-D environment. It’s sort of like the difference between driving a car and flying a helicopter, and obviously, it takes a lot of training to be able to fly a helicopter. We’re working to create an intuitive way to manipulate information in a 3-D world,” Lipari said.
He is writing software to enable people to use hand-held devices, such as smart phones or computer tablets, to interact with a 3-D display.
“We also want to take advantage of affordable, widely available components, such as 3-D televisions,” he added.
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Philosophy Lexicon of Arguments
Screenshot Tabelle Begriffe
Author Item Summary Meta data
Books on Amazon
V 274
Perception/view/match/Lewis: does not mean that in your mind or the soul the same is going on as is goning on before the eyes - rather it is about a informational content. - Visual experience: is best characterized by the typical causal role - the content is the content of belief, which tends to be caused by it. - Problem: the same visual experience can produce very different beliefs - but not the entire content can be characterized by belief. - Rabbit-Duck-Head: the belief can be characterized by the disjunction rabbit or duck, but then it results in the belief that there are ink and paper.
D. Lewis
Die Identität von Körper und Geist Frankfurt 1989
D. Lewis
Konventionen Berlin 1975
D. Lewis
Philosophical Papers Bd I New York Oxford 1983
D. Lewis
Philosophical Papers Bd II New York Oxford 1986
LwCl I
Cl. I. Lewis
Send Link
> Counter arguments against Lewis
Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2017-11-18
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Studium anglistiky na KAA UPOL
Miller, Henry. "A Saturday Afternoon".
This is an individual chapter from Miller's novel Black Spring.
Motto: "This is better than reading Vergil."
Paris. Saturday afternoon. The first person narrator has a sense of being home and is enjoying himself. What is better than reading Vergil? A Saturday afternoon like this. The narrator walks through the streets, has a beer. He thinks of his friends who are trying to begin a book or continue their book but are unable to write anything. Then he thinks of Whitman whom he likes because he is always like a Saturday afternoon.
He enjoys life and hates being each second closer to dying. He does not hear the second which has just ticked off but clings to one which has not yet announced itself. He does not follow the signs but goes to places which have no signs. He drives a bicycle and crosses the bridges over Seine. He stops in a urinal, a woman looks at him from the window and smiles. He recalls the urinals he has taken before and thinks of them as of the most luxurious memories, the most pleasant moments. The best place for urinal is an underground in winter, but he prefers sunlight and people around.
An untranslated French paragraph from Larousse on Robinson Crusoe is inserted in the text. The narrator observes that Robison is content with relative happiness, which is very un-Anglo-Saxon. In the civilized world there is not even relative happiness. He gives an irreverent picture of Vergil as he sees him and calls him bad names. Always when he thinks of Vergil, the phrase "What time is it" comes into his mind.
He returns to the subject of urinals and toilets and asserts that these are a good place for reading a book. He recommends various kinds of toilets for various books. He also recommends taking a friend with you to the reading session. He closes his observations on the subject by revealing that "there are certain passages in Ulysses which can be read only in the toilet".
He changes subject and gives an unpleasant picture of the present corrupt America. He urges: "Unscrew the doors from their jambs!" He praises King James Bible for its depicting the cruel reality. He returns to the urinals and recommends some of them in Paris, especially the one beside the Palace. Though now a tomb, the Palace evokes in the narrator images of the Pope and of beautiful frescoes which he ordered to be painted on the walls.
He concludes with the statement: "Words are dead."
The narrator is enjoying himself. He rejects conventional ways of enjoying one's life. He indulges in his ritual urinating, enjoying onlookers. Perhaps this is his way how to let everyone know how perfectly happy he is. (He refuses the only "relative happiness" of Robinson Crusoe).
The narrator is fond of literature, but laughs at those who struggle with writer's blocks. He is obviously unconcerned with what he is writing himself. He simply writes down his thoughts in such order as they occur. He manifests complete lack of reverence to those who are generally considered grand masters of literature (e.g. Vergil).
• Author
Miller, Henry. (1891 - 1980).
• Full Title
"Saturday Afternoon".
• First Published
Paris: Obelisk Press, 1936.
• Form
Novel chapter.
Works Cited
Miller, Henry. "A Saturday Afternoon". Black Spring. (1936). NY: Grove, 1981.
© 2008-2015 Všechna práva vyhrazena.
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How to find the length of a segment on the coordinate axis ?
You will need:
• line
• ability to carry out elementary arithmetic
# 1
segment - the locus of points lying on the same line and prisoners within its ends.End of the segment are the points.The segment is a closed set, therefore, it is possible to determine its size.Measure the size of the segment is its length.Calculate the length of the segment can be accurately and about.For a rough calculation it is necessary to use the means at hand.How to find the length of the segment using a ruler?It is enough to make the start line to the top of the segment and look at a segment of the figure ends.This will be its length.But keep in mind a few nuances.The length of the interval can not be precisely calculated..The scale and units can not match
# 2
But how to find the length of the segment with the highest or absolute certainty?For each dimension of the space has its own formula.Consider a simple, one-dimensional case.Cartesian system of one-dimensional case is an ordinary coordinate line.In real
life, we are faced with hundreds of examples of the different coordinate lines.This line and the construction of the roulette, and the tailor's tape, and even track where each kilometer is marked by the number.There is nothing easier than to measure the length of the one-dimensional space.Particularly easy, if the beginning of the segment coincides with the reference (zero) coordinate axis.In this case, its length will match the coordinates of its end module.For example: if the segment emerges from the ground, and it has an end coordinate 5, the length of the segment will be equal to five.
# 3
also no problem easier than how to compare two segments emanating from the ground.More will be the length of whose coordinates module will be great.For example: from the ground on the coordinate plane in different directions out two lengths.The coordinate of the segment, leaving the left is equal to -7, and coming to the right - 4. The module is the first segment 7 with a "+", and the second module - 4 with the same sign.Hence the first segment is longer than the second.If the segment does not start at zero, then you should use a universal formula for calculating the length of the one-dimensional space.It goes as follows: "In order to find the length of the segment in one-dimensional space is necessary because of the coordinate value of the right to deduct the value of the end of the coordinates of the left end."
# 4
task is similar to how to find the coordinates of the midpoint, but in this case, the coordinates are subtracted rather than added and divided by two.Consider an example.Let the segment has a beginning at 2 and ends at 11. Find the length of the segment.To subtract this value from the left-right coordinates: 11-2 = 9. A. 9. It should be noted that it is possible on the contrary, to subtract from the right end coordinate of the left, but then have to take the result in its absolute value (modulus).2-11 = -9.The module is -9 9. The result did not change.This technique can help solve specific tasks.You should also consider the examples of two-dimensional space.
# 5
For the two-dimensional space, there are special formulas that are a generalization of the one-dimensional case.Now consider a specific example for explaining the path of formula solutions.To address it is necessary to know the name of the segment connecting the two points of the circle.This segment is called a chord.Dan A chord with ends (1; 1) and B (4, 5).Find the length of segment AB.The length of the segment AB is equal to the square root of the arithmetic sum of the squares of the differences between corresponding coordinates of the points.This form is derived from the Pythagorean theorem.Now, in order.To find the difference between the respective coordinates must be the x-coordinate of a point deducted in the x-coordinate of point A. We get 4-1 = 3. We carry out the same operation for the y-coordinate.We get 5-1 = 4. Now each obtained difference squaring: 3 * 3 = 9.4 * 4 = 16.The results add up: 9 + 16 = 25.Next, take the square root.The root of 25 = 5. Answer: The length AB = 5.
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Home » Modern Physics » Does a photon have a de Broglie wavelength?
Does a photon have a de Broglie wavelength?
Yes a photon has de Broglie wavelength.In 1924,Louis de Broglie proposed that a particle must also act like wave,in silmilar way,wave behave like particles.
In de Broglie hypothesis an electromagnetic wave is the de-Broglie wave for a photon moving with speed c.According to de-Broglie ,the wavelength of the photon is given by the relation:
λ = h/p
Where P is the momentum of the photon.
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Virtual monkeys have nearly written the Works of Shakespeare
6 October, 2011
The Infinite Monkey Theorem basically says that if you give a monkey a typewriter and allow it to randomly hit the keyboard for an infinite amount of time they will almost surely create a meaningful text such as the Works of Shakespeare.
An American computer programmer, Jesse Anderson, setup millions of virtual monkeys randomly selecting characters, nine at a time. Each 9 character string was then compared with the Works of Shakespeare for something that was meaningful.
The programs were initially running on Amazon’s cloud computers via a home PC. The process was started on 16th August and according to a news report by the BBC on 26th September, the project is 99.990% complete.
Mind you, it could be said that the process is cheating. If you had real monkeys actually typing 9 letters at a time, they would not be able to compare what they had produced with Shakespeare’s writings.
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5.2Inserting Images in Your Documents:
One of the most compelling features of HTML and XHTML is their ability to include images with your document text, either as an intrinsic components of the document (online images), as separate documents specially selected for download via hyperlinks, or as a background for your document. and it have to types of formats GIF & JPEG .
5.2.1 Image Formats:
The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) was first developed for image transfer among users of the CompuServe online service. Its encoding is cross-platform.The second main feature is that GIF uses special compression technology that can significantly reduce the size of the image file for faster transfer over a network.Also, GIF images can be easily animated.
The Joint Photographic Experts Group ( JPEG) is a standards body that developed what is now known as the JPEG image-encoding format. Like GIFs, JPEG images are platform-independent and specially compressed for high-speed transfer via digital communication technologies. Unlike GIF, JPEG supports tens of thousands of colors for more detailed, photorealistic digital images. And JPEG uses special algorithms that yield much higher data-compression ratios.
5.2.2 Speeding Image Downloads:
Keep it simple
A full-screen, 24-bit color graphic, even when reduced in size by digital compression with one of the standard formats, such as GIF or JPEG, is still going to be a network-bandwidth hog.
Reuse images
This is particularly true for icons and GIF animations. Most browsers cache incoming document components in local storage for the very purpose of quick, network-connectionless retrieval of data.
Divide up large documents
This is a general rule that includes images. Many small document segments, organized through hyperlinks (of course!) and effective tables of contents, tend to be better accepted by users than a few large documents.
Isolate necessarily large graphics
Provide a special link to large images, perhaps one that includes a thumbnail of the graphic, thereby letting readers decide if and when they want to spend the time downloading the full image.
Specify image dimensions
Finally, another way to improve performance is by including the image's rectangular height and width information in its tag.
5.2.3 the<img>Tag:
lets you reference and insert a graphic image into the current text flow of your document.
Inserts an image into a document
align, alt, border, class, controls (), dir, dynsrc (), height, hspace, id, ismap, lang, longdesc, loop (), lowsrc (), name (), onAbort, onClick, onDblClick, onError, onKeyDown, onKeyPress, onKeyUp, onLoad, onMouseDown, onMouseMove, onMouseOut, onMouseOver, onMouseUp, src, start (), style, title, usemap, vspace, width
End tag
None in HTML; </img> or <img ... /> in XHTML
Used in
text the src attribute
The src attribute for the <img> tag is required.Its value is the image file's URL.Example The alt and longdesc attributes
The alt attribute specifies alternative text the browser may show if image display is not possible or is disabled by the user. It's an option, but one we highly recommend you exercise for most images in your document.
The value for the alt attribute is a text string of up to 1,024 characters, including spaces and punctuation. The string must be enclosed in quotation marks.
The longdesc attribute is similar to the alt attribute but allows for longer descriptions. The value of longdesc is the URL of a document containing a description of the image. If you have a description longer than 1,024 characters, use the longdesc attribute to link to it.Example The align attribute
The standards don't define a default alignment for images with respect to other text and images in the same line of text: you can't always predict how the text and images will look.Example Wrapping text around images
The left and right image-alignment values tell the browser to place an image against the left or right margin, respectively, of the current text flow.The net result is that the document content following the image gets wrapped around the image. Example
You can place images against both margins simultaneously,and the text will run down the middle of the page between them:Example
The following source fragment achieves that staggered image effect:Example Centering an image
You can horizontally center an inline image in the browser window, but only if it's isolated from surrounding content, such as by paragraph, division, or line-break tags. Then, either use the <center> tag or use the align=center attribute or center-justified style in the paragraph or division tag to center the image.Example
Use the paragraph tag with its align=center attribute if you want some extra space above and below the centered image:Example The border attribute
Browsers normally render images that also are hyperlinks (i.e., images included in an tag) with a 2-pixel-wide colored border, indicating to the reader that the image can be selected to visit the associated document. Use the border attribute and a pixel-width thickness value to remove (border=0) or widen that image border.Example The height and width attributes
A more efficient way for authors to specify an image's dimensions is with the height and width <img> attributes. That way, the browser can reserve space before actually downloading an image, speeding document rendering and eliminating the content shifting. Both attributes require an integer value that indicates the image size in pixels; the order in which they appear in the <img> tag is not important. Resizing and flood-filling images
Another trick with height and width provides an easy way to flood-fill areas of your page and can also improve document performance. Suppose you want to insert a colored bar across your document.[6] Rather than creating an image to fill the full dimensions, create one that is just 1 pixel high and wide and set it to the desired color. Then use the height and width attributes to scale it to the larger size:
<img src="pics/one-pixel.gif" width=640 height=20>
also,we can use:
<img src="pics/one-pixel.gif" width="100%" height=20> Problems with height and width
Although the height and width attributes for the <img> tag can improve performance and let you perform neat tricks, there is a knotty down side to using them. The browser sets aside the specified rectangle of space to the prescribed dimensions in the display window, even if the user has turned off automatic download of images. The hspace and vspace attributes
The hspace and vspace attributes can give your images breathing room. With hspace, you specify the number of pixels of extra space to leave between the image and text on the left and right sides of the image; the vspace value is the number of pixels on the top and bottom:Example The ismap and usemap attributes
The ismap and usemap attributes for the <img> tag tell the browser that the image is a special mouse-selectable visual map of one or more hyperlinks.
The browser automatically sends the x,y position of the mouse (relative to the upper-left corner of the image) to the server when the user clicks somewhere on the ismap image. Special server software (the /cgi-bin/images/map2 program, in this example) may then use those coordinates to determine a response.
The usemap attribute provides a client-side image-map mechanism that effectively eliminates server-side processing of the mouse coordinates and its incumbent network delays and problems. Using special <map> and <area> tags, HTML authors provide a map of coordinates for the hyperlink-sensitive regions in the usemap image, along with related hyperlink URLs. The value of the usemap attribute is a URL that points to that special <map> section.Example
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Open Water Swim topics
Left/Right Sided Breathing
While bi-lateral breathing is highly encouraged there are times when breathing to a single side is either beneficial or the only option.
Bad weather could generate waves from a certain side....and you don't want to be taking a breath when a wave is smacking you in the face.
Since we swim in the early morning the sun may be right above the horizon and you don't want to be staring into the sun with each breath.
A fellow swimmer may also be generating some chop and breathing to the opposite side will give you fresh air.
These are three of the most popular reasons to breath on one side versus the other. Like everything else swimming is all about technique. When we breath on one side we loose our balance in the water. A conscious effort must be made to keep the balance, remain symmetrical, with each stroke.
If you consistently breath on one side you need to practice breathing on the opposite side, and bi-laterally, so you have options while in the water.
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Map courtesy of travel.state.gov
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa situated within the Africa Great Lakes region. Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, is in northeastern Tanzania. Serengeti game park (and other reserves) are among the continent's foremost tourist destinations. With a highly diverse population of around 45 million, there are over 100 different languages spoken in Tanzania, making it the most linguistically diverse in East Africa; English and Swahili are the two most commonly spoken languages and are also the nation's two official languages.
Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania. It is composed of the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, 15 to 30 miles off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba. The city of Stone Town has been named a UNESCO World Heritage site.
News & Culture
• The East African - An insightful source of regional news, politics, business, finance, science and technology
• The Trans-African - A publication initiative of Invisible Borders Trans-African Organization featuring guest articles
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Context Source
1 minute to read Download PDF Edit
The context source is one of the data sources of a data view. Data views with this data source get their object from the context, which can be one of two things:
• A surrounding data container such as a data view or list view — in this case, the entity (path) property should be an entity path following the associations from the entity of the container
• The object that is passed to the page when opening it (for example, another page passing the selection of a grid or a microflow passing an object from the show page action)
Entity (Path)
The entity (path) property specifies the entity that will be shown in the data view. For a top-level data view it is simply an entity. In this case, the opener of the page supplies the object that will be shown. A nested data view has an entity path that follows associations from the enclosing data container.
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Darius III
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Darius III of Persia)
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Darius III
King of Persia
King of Babylon
Pharaoh of Egypt
Darius III of Persia.jpg
Detail of Darius III from the Alexander Mosaic
King of Persia
Reign 336–330 BC
Predecessor Artaxerxes IV Arses
Successor Artaxerxes V Bessus
Pharaoh of Egypt
Reign 336–332 BC
Predecessor Artaxerxes IV
Successor Alexander the Great
Born c. 380 BC
Died July 330 BC (aged 49 or 50)
Burial Persepolis
Spouse Stateira I
Issue Stateira II
House Achaemenid Dynasty
Father Arsames of Ostanes
Mother Sisygambis
Religion Zoroastrianism
His empire was unstable, with large portions governed by jealous and unreliable satraps and inhabited by disaffected and rebellious subjects.
In 334 BC, Alexander the Great began his invasion of the Persian Empire and subsequently defeated the Persians in a number of battles before looting and destroying the capital Persepolis, by fire, in 330 BC. With the Persian Empire now effectively under Alexander's control, Alexander then decided to pursue Darius, before Alexander reached him, however, Darius was killed by the satrap Bessus, who was also his cousin.
Early reign[edit]
Hiero Ca1.svg
r w M8
Hiero Ca2.svg
nomen or birth name
in hieroglyphs
Artashata was the son of Arsames, son of Ostanes, and Sisygambis, daughter of Artaxerxes II Mnemon. He had distinguished himself in a combat of champions in a war against the Cadusii[3] and was serving at the time as a royal courier.[4] However, prior to being appointed as a royal courier, he had served as a satrap of Armenia,[5][6] he may have been promoted from his satrapy to the postal service after the ascension of Arses, for he is referred to as one of the king's "friends" at court after that occasion.[6]
In 336 BC, he took the throne at the age of 43 after the death of Artaxerxes III and Arses. According to a Greek source, Diodorus of Sicily, Artashata was installed by the vizier Bagoas, after the latter had poisoned the king Artaxerxes III and subsequently his sons, including Arses, who had succeeded him on the throne. However, a cuneiform tablet (now in the British Museum) suggests that Artaxerxes died from natural causes.[7] Artashata took the regnal name Darius III,[1] and quickly demonstrated his independence from his possible assassin benefactor. Bagoas then tried to poison Darius as well, when he learned that even Darius couldn't be controlled, but Darius was warned and forced Bagoas to drink the poison himself,[8] the new king found himself in control of an unstable empire, large portions of which were governed by jealous and unreliable satraps and inhabited by disaffected and rebellious subjects, such as Khabash in Egypt. Compared to his ancestors and his fellow heirs who had since perished, Darius had a distinct lack of experience ruling an empire, and a lack of any previous ambition to do so. Darius was a ruler of entirely average stamp, without the striking talents and qualities which the administration of a vast empire required during that period of crisis.[9]
Conflict with the Greeks[edit]
Philip's campaign[edit]
Alexander's campaign[edit]
Circumstances were more in Darius’s favor at the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC. He had a good number of troops who had been organized on the battlefield properly, he had the support of the armies of several of his satraps, and the ground on the battlefield was almost perfectly even, so as not to impede movement of his scythed chariots, despite all these beneficial factors, he still fled the battle before any victor had been decided and deserted his experienced commanders as well as one of the largest armies ever assembled.[14] Another source accounts that when Darius perceived the fierce attack of Alexander, as at Issus he turned his chariot around, and was the first to flee,[15] once again abandoning all of his soldiers and his property to be taken by Alexander. Many Persian soldiers lost their lives that day, so many in fact that after the battle the casualties of the enemy ensured that Darius would never again raise an imperial army.[16] Darius then fled to Ecbatana and attempted to raise a third army, while Alexander took possession of Babylon, Susa, and the Persian capital at Persepolis. Darius reportedly offered all of his empire west of the Euphrates River to Alexander in exchange for peace several times, each time denied by Alexander against the advice of his senior commanders.[17] Alexander could have declared victory after the capture of Persepolis, but he instead decided to pursue Darius.
The Battle of Gaugamela, in which Alexander the Great defeated Darius III of Persia in 331 BC, took place approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) west of Erbil, Iraq. After the battle, Darius managed to flee to the city. However, somewhat inaccurately, the confrontation is sometimes known as the "Battle of Arbela."
Flight, imprisonment and death[edit]
Murder of Darius and Alexander at the side of the dying king depicted in a 15th-century manuscript
When at Ecbatana, Darius learned of Alexander's approaching army, he decided to retreat to Bactria where he could better use his cavalry and mercenary forces on the more even ground of the plains of Asia, he led his army through the Caspian Gates, the main road through the mountains that would work to slow a following army.[18] Persian forces became increasingly demoralized with the constant threat of a surprise attack from Alexander, leading to many desertions and eventually a coup led by Bessus, a satrap, and Nabarzanes, who managed all audiences with the King and was in charge of the palace guard,[19] the two men suggested to Darius that the army regroup under Bessus and that power would be transferred back to the King once Alexander was defeated. Darius obviously did not accept this plan and his conspirators became more anxious to remove him for his successive failures against Alexander and his forces. Patron, a Greek mercenary, encouraged Darius to accept a bodyguard of Greek mercenaries rather than his usual Persian guard to protect him from Bessus and Nabarzanes, but the King could not accept for political reasons and grew accustomed to his fate.[20] Bessus and Nabarzanes eventually bound Darius and threw him in an ox-cart while they ordered the Persian forces to continue on. According to Curtius' History of Alexander, at this point Alexander and a small, mobile force arrived and threw the Persians into a panic, leading Bessus and two other conspirators, Satibarzanes and Barsaentes, to wound the king with their javelins and leave him to die.[21]
A Macedonian soldier found Darius either dead or dying in the wagon shortly thereafter—a disappointment to Alexander, who wanted to capture Darius alive. Alexander saw Darius’s dead body in the wagon, and took the signet ring off the dead king’s finger. Afterwards he sent Darius’s body back to Persepolis, gave him a magnificent funeral and ordered that he be buried, like all his royal predecessors, in the royal tombs.[22] Darius’s tomb has not yet been discovered.[23] Alexander eventually married Darius' daughter Stateira at Susa in 324 BC.
With the old king defeated and given a proper burial, Alexander's rulership of Persia became official, this led to Darius being regarded by some historians as cowardly and inefficient,[24] as under his rulership, the entirety of the Persian Empire fell to a foreign invader. After killing Darius, Bessus took the regal name Artaxerxes V and began calling himself the King of Asia,[16] he was subsequently captured by Alexander, tortured, and executed. Another of Darius' generals ingratiated himself to Alexander by giving the conqueror Darius' favored companion, Bagoas.[25]
Popular culture[edit]
3. ^ Justin 10.3; cf. Diod. 17.6.1–2
4. ^ Plutarch, Life of Alexander 18.7–8, First Oration on the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander, 326.D.
5. ^ Kia, Mehrdad (2016). The Persian Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 160. ISBN 978-1610693912.
6. ^ a b "Darius v. Darius III". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. VI, Fasc. 1. 1994. pp. 51–54.
8. ^ Diodorus 17.5.6.
11. ^ Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander.
12. ^ John Prevas, Envy of the Gods: Alexander's Ill-fated Journey across Asia (Da Capo Press, 2004), 47.
13. ^ Prevas 47.
14. ^ Prevas 48
15. ^ Ulrich Wilcken, Alexander the Great.
16. ^ a b c N.G.L. Hammond, The Genius of Alexander the Great.
17. ^ Prevas 52
18. ^ Prevas 55
19. ^ Prevas 60
20. ^ Prevas 64–65
21. ^ Prevas 69
22. ^ Prevas 71
24. ^ W.W. Tarn, Alexander the Great.
• Prevas, John. Envy of the Gods: Alexander the Great's Ill-fated Journey across Asia. Da Capo Press, 2004.
External links[edit]
Darius III
Born: ca. 380 BC Died: 330 BC
Preceded by
Artaxerxes IV Arses
King of Kings of Persia
336–330 BC
Succeeded by
Artaxerxes V Bessus
Pharaoh of Egypt
336–330 BC
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Health Science 2211-Lecture 1
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The flashcards below were created by user CanuckGirl on FreezingBlue Flashcards.
1. How much blood does your heart pump in a day? in a year?
• day: 14 000 liters/day
• year: more than 10 million liters/year
2. Where is the heart located? (2)
• in the mediastinum
• behind sternum, in front of vertebral column, between lungs
3. which direction does the heart point and what does it sit on?
• heart points to the left
• lying/sits on diaphragm
4. what are the coverings/sac of the heart called?
5. what is the function of the fibrous pericardium? (2)
• protects and anchors the heart
• prevents overstretching
6. what are the two types of pericardium?
• fibrous pericardium
• serous pericardium
7. What are the two layers in the serous pericardium?
• parietal layer of serous pericardium: fused with fibrous pericardium
• visceral layer of serous pericardium: also called epicardium and it's in direct contact with the heart
8. what is the serous (pericardial) fluid?
fluid found between parietal and visceral pericardia
9. what are the 3 layers of the heart wall?
• epicardium
• myocardium
• endocardium
10. Describe the epicardium.
thin outer layer of heart wall
11. describe the myocardium.
95% of heart wall that is made of cardiac muscle
12. describe the endocardium. what is it's function?
• lines the inner chambers of the heart
• minimizes surface friction as blood passes through the heart
13. what are the 4 chambers in the heart called?
• atria: upper two chambers
• ventricles: lower two chambers
14. what is the auricle and what's it's function?
• pouch-like structure on the anterior surface of atrium
• helps atria hold a greater volume of blood
15. what is the function of the atria?
receives blood returning to the heart and push it into the ventricles
16. what is the function of the ventricles?
receive blood from the atria and pump it into systematic and pulmonary circuit
17. what are the two ventricles divided by?
divided by the interventricular septum
18. The right side of the heart pumps blood into the _____________ circuit.
19. The left side of the heart pumps blood into the _____________ circuit.
20. What is the function of the right atrium? (2)
• receives deoxygenated blood from the superior and inferior vena cava
• sends blood to right ventricle
21. what is the function of the right ventricle? (2)
• receives blood from the right atrium
• sends blood to pulmonary circulation (lungs) via the pulmonary trunk
22. What is the function of the left atrium? (2)
• receives oxygenated blood from the pulmonary circulation (lungs)
• sends blood to left ventricle
23. what is the function of the left ventricle? (2)
• receives blood from the left atrium
• sends blood to systematic circulation (rest of body) via the aorta
24. what happens in the pulmonary circuit?
deoxygenated blood is converted to oxygenated blood by the lungs
25. what are the 3 structures in the pulmonary circuit?
• pulmonary arteries
• capillaries in lungs
• pulmonary veins
26. compare the myocardial thickness of the atria and ventricles, which is thicker?
27. compare the myocardial thickness of the right and left ventricles, which is thicker? why?
left ventricle because it pumps blood to the systematic circuit (rest of the body) and therefore need more muscle
28. What is the function of the atrioventricular valve (AV)? (2)
• separates atria from the ventricles
• prevents backflow of blood from the ventricles into the atria
29. what are the 2 types of atrioventricular valves and where are they located?
• Tricuspid valve: right AV
• Bicuspid valve: left AV
30. what are the functions of the semilunar valves? (2)
• allow blood to be pumped into the arteries
• prevent back flow of blood from the arteries into the ventricles
31. what are the two types of semilunar valves (SL)?
• aortic semilunar valves
• pulmonary semilunar valves
32. how does the heart valves open?
due to the pressure exerted by the blood
33. how does the heart valves close?
when papillary muscles contract
34. where is the papillary muscles located?
in ventricle attached to valve cusps by chordae tendineae
35. what is the function of the chordae tendineae?
prevent valve cusps from opening into the atrium
36. where does the sound of the heartbeat come from?
comes primarily from the turbulence in blood flow caused by the closure of the valves
37. how does the first heart sound (lubb;S1) occur?
blood turbulence associated with the closing of the AV valves soon after ventricular systole begins
38. how does the second heart sound (dupp; S2) occur?
blood turbulence associated with the closing of the SL valves close to the beginning of the ventricular diastole
39. Describe the sulci and its function?
grooves on the outside of the heart that separate the chambers
40. What does sulci contain and why?
contain fat and blood vessels that supply blood to the heart muscle
41. what is the coronary circulation?
is the circulation of blood in the blood vessels of the cardiac muscle (myocardium)
42. what is the function of the coronary arteries?
• supply heart cells with fresh nutrients and oxygen
• branch of aorta
43. what is the function of the coronary veins?
• collect waste and deoxygenated blood from cardiac muscle
• drains into a large vein called the coronary sinus
44. coronary sinus empties into ___________.
right atrium
45. what is myocardial ischemia? what are the signs?
• results from reduced blood flow to myocardium which leads to decreased oxygen
• signs= angina pectoris (severe chest pain, chin, neck, and left arm)
46. what is a myocardial infraction? (2)
• aka heart attack, results from complete blockage of a coronary artery
• tissue dies and is replaced by scar tissue ; heart loses some of its strength
Card Set Information
Health Science 2211-Lecture 1
2014-01-14 07:00:33
Circulatory system heart
Circulatory system: the heart
Show Answers:
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Leek. Porrum. Allium porrum.
Botanical name:
Leek. Porrum. Porreau, Fr. Lauch, G.—The bulb of Allium Porrum Don. (Fam. Liliaceae.) The leek, which is the national emblem of the Welsh, is a biennial bulbous plant, growing wild in Switzerland, and cultivated in the gardens of Europe and this country for culinary purposes. All parts of it have an offensive, pungent odor and an acrid taste, dependent on an essential oil, of which allyl sulphide, (C3H5)2S, is the main ingredient. The bulb, which ia the medicinal portion, consists of concentric layers, like the onion, which it resembles in medicinal properties, though somewhat milder. It is generally stimulant, with a direction to the kidneys. Dose, of expressed juice, a fluidrachm (3.75 mils).
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Real life examples of simultaneity
1. Oct 26, 2011 #1
Can you give me some "real life" examples of simultaneity?
For instance I know the one about the train and the lighting strikes but I was under the impression that this only holds up if the train is moving close to the speed of light.
2. jcsd
3. Oct 26, 2011 #2
A muon in a particle accelerator and an inertial observer would disagree on the timing of events, such as it's half life.
Predicting mercury's orbit is more accurately calculated with GR I think,
GPS is an example of both types, and shows that even tiny variations can have "real life" effects (sufficient accuracy).
Last edited: Oct 26, 2011
4. Oct 26, 2011 #3
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Homework Helper
In special relativity, if two events are simultaneous according to one frame, then the difference in the time at which they happened according to some other frame is:
[tex] \frac{\beta}{\sqrt{1- \beta^2}} \Delta x [/tex]
Where [itex]\Delta x[/itex] is the distance between the two events according to the first frame and [itex]\beta[/itex] is the relative speed of the two reference frames (as a fraction of the speed of light) (and assuming the relative movement of the two frames happens in the same dimension as the distance between the two events - i.e. the x direction).
So this means that for the principle of relativity of simultaneity to become apparent, we need both a spatial separation of the two events and we must be considering two reference frames with relative speed which is a significant fraction of the speed of light.
5. Oct 26, 2011 #4
So I take it that simultaneity is not really observed on day to day life?
Could this be an example? If I was on a large field inside a house and my friend was on the same field but standing 100 miles away he would should disagree about the time I turned a light on in my house.
I should see the light turn on in my house slightly before he sees it. Considering he is only 100 miles away it seems that this wouldn't make much of a difference I suppose.
But let's say this was a really big field and he was standing 186,000 miles away. Would that mean he sees the light turn on 1 second after I do?
6. Oct 26, 2011 #5
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Staff Emeritus
Science Advisor
Be careful of your words! "Simultaneity" is witnessed all the time. "Dependence of simultaneity on frame speed" could only be witnessed by two observers moving at near light speed relative to one another.
7. Oct 26, 2011 #6
I think all that is required for the principle of relativity of simultaneity to become apparent is two observers that measure time, measure it differently. The rest is implicit no?
8. Oct 26, 2011 #7
Is this example correct though?
Person A and B are on an extremely large imaginary field. Person A is inside a house with a light switch and Person B is on the other side of the field 186,000 miles away.
When Person A turns on the light switch he should see it right away but Person B should see it one second later.
I'm not really sure if I understand this stuff correctly.
9. Oct 26, 2011 #8
Thats not an example of the principle of relativity of simultaneity or what ever it`s called.
Time dilation / length contraction cause issues with what observers agree happened simultaneously.
The relative speeds / gravitational potential don`t have to be significant fractions of c to become apparent, your measurements have to be more accurate.
However I do think it is kinda related to distance, because c is invariant.
Last edited: Oct 26, 2011
10. Oct 26, 2011 #9
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Gold Member
11. Oct 26, 2011 #10
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The example is not correct. According to both person A and person B, the light is switched on at the same time, since the people have no relative motion.
You only need to worry about the relativity of simultaneity when objects are moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light. Two good examples are particles and satellites.
So you are right in thinking relativity of simultaneity doesn't matter in 'every day life'. If we consider only the reference frames of people, then simultaneity is approximately absolute, because all people have very small relative speeds (as a fraction of c). So if two events on earth are simultaneous according to me, then they are approximately simultaneous according to everyone else on earth.
Nitsuj is right that simultaneity is always relative, its just that we don't notice it in every day life because the effects are tiny compared to the precision our measuring equipment.
Edit: of course, robphy's link seems to show some measuring equipment that is precise enough. So it takes very precise equipment to show that absolute relativity is only an approximation.
Last edited: Oct 26, 2011
12. Oct 26, 2011 #11
But I thought that if someone is 186,000 miles away they would see the Light come to them one second later because light travels at 186,000 miles/second. I don't think this would really depend on motion.
13. Oct 26, 2011 #12
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Homework Helper
Relativity of simultaneity refers to 2 events. What are the events in your example? I'm guessing one event is the first person seeing the light at the house and the other event is the other person seeing the light? These two events happen in different places and at different times.
So the example isn't really an example of relativity of simultaneity.
14. Oct 26, 2011 #13
What if person A and person B were talking on the phone?
Would they still agree?
15. Oct 26, 2011 #14
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Homework Helper
It looks like you're trying to make sense of 'relativity of simultaneity' by making a line of reasoning using the fact that light propagates at c according to all observers.
It is possible to make a line of reasoning this way. One way to do it is by the mind-experiment of the train and the lightning strikes (as you already mentioned).
But the example you're developing doesn't make a similar line of reasoning. In your example, the reason the people experience the flashes of light at different times is simply because they are in different places.
On another note - my equation in post #3 is written in natural units.
16. Oct 26, 2011 #15
I guess I am not clearly understanding the theory. I am fairly new to all of this.
I just thought people can't agree on when an event happened (the light bulb turning on) is because they are separated by a distance.
Are you sure it's only dependent on motion?
17. Oct 26, 2011 #16
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An event is different to two events.
18. Oct 26, 2011 #17
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People can't agree on when an event happened because they have relative speed.
19. Oct 26, 2011 #18
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Homework Helper
And this is not an example of relativity of simultaneity because we are only talking about one event.
20. Oct 26, 2011 #19
So would it become two events if they both shined a light?
Now if we add an observer at in the middle of them, he could see them both shine a light at the same time but the person at A would say he shined his light before the person at B.
21. Oct 26, 2011 #20
And person B would also say he shined his light before the person at A but the person in at M would say he saw them at the same time.
Similar Discussions: Real life examples of simultaneity
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Useful Tobacco Terminology E to F
The third instalment of Tobacco Specialists A to Z of tobacco lexicology. This time around, we will be looking at the tobacco terms from E to F.
Electronic Cigarette
One of the new entries in this dictionary, electronic cigarettes are alternative to traditional tobacco cigarettes wherein the user inhales a vaporised liquid, commonly contain nicotine.
The process of wetting down the tobacco with a mixture made up of water and tobacco residue.
Encallado is the process of growing tobacco for cigar where the workers erect their tents around the perimeter of the growing field to stop the crops from being exposed to the wind.
English Market Selection
A selection of cigars available that traditionally have a light to medium brown body.
Entubado Bunching
The discipline of skilfully rolling each filler leaf into a small scroll. The individually rolled leaves will then be placed together to form a bunch, creating a tighter packed and more balanced cigar, producing an excellent draw.
This is the traditional Spanish term for the aging cabinet where cigars are stored and married post rolling.
Estate Vintage
The estate vintage is the tobacco picked from a specific farm from a specific year’s crop.
Estrujado Bunching
Also known as lazy entubado, Estrujado is a simpler discipline that requires the roller to scroll filler leaves and place them within full tobacco leaves and then wrapped by a binding leaf.
Evaporation Humidification
Typically this humidification process increases the rate of humidity to levels between 70% and 73%. Sometimes this process includes the use of a fan to control the evaporation rate.
The Cuban name for a cigar factory.
This is the vigorous process that produces the main body of flavour and aroma and distinction in cigars. Ammonia is expelled from the leaf alongside other unpalatable organic components when the moisture, heat, oxygen and pressures reach optimum synergy. Tobacco can be ruined if over fermented.
This term refers to any cigar that is not perfectly cylindrical in shape.
Fire Curing
A process that uses small fires to flavour tobacco. The fires are usually held in small spaces to maximise contact.
A small piece of the wrapping leaf that is trimmed to close the head of the cigar to safeguard against spillage.
Flake Cut
Tobacco that has been pressed into blocks and then sliced into thin, flat and broad flakes.
Flat Top
A simple cigar box that is designed to hold just one row of cigars.
Flue Curing
The process of curing when the tobacco is exposed to high levels of heat in an enclosed space. This process fixes the sugar content of the leaves.
The Spanish term that describes the cigar’s strength, vigour, robustness and nicotine level.
The Spanish term given to the quality control committee that is responsible for smoking and testing cigars.
Tobacco Specialists - You won't find cheaper
Tobacco Specialists - You won't find cheaper
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Characteristics of Excellent Teachers of Nursing
1. From the Carnegie Foundation's Study of Nursing Education:
Excellent teachers:
• have a clear vision of what kind of nurse they would like to graduate
• place their students in a collaborative nursing role
• ask students to answer questions about what is at stake for the patient, what the patient is experiencing, and what the next step is for the patient
• highlight what is salient about a case or a situation and what is an appropriate response
• seamlessly integrate the three apprenticeships to teach how to be a nurse in terms of ethical comportment, knowledge of the humanities, sciences, and social sciences, and practice skills
• engage in dialogue with students to explore the student's thinking
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the learning never stops!
2 Dollar Technique
Seventy-Five Cent Method
You can hold a pen against the glareshield and sight along the tip to the top of the weather. If the weather moves up the pen you will be in it; if the weather moves down the pen you will be above it.
Method Advantages: You've always got a pen, or something like a pen, handy.
Method Disadvantages: You have to hold the pen and your head steady for a long time, at least a minute. If you move your head the fixed point changes and your results could be wrong.
Two Dollar Method
You can built a sighting edge with two one-dollar bills so that the reference point never changes.
Method Advantages: You can set up with dollar bills to indicate where the top of the weather is and come back to it minutes later for a look at how it is progressing. You don't need to hold anything steady and if you get distracted, you can come back to it.
Method Disadvantages: As a pilot, you may not have two one-dollar bills in your possession. The method does work with Euros, however.
Take two one-dollar bills and fold each in half, lengthwise, and then again so as to form the letter W as viewed edge on.
Place one of the W's on the glareshield parallel to the wings and the other W aligned with your eyes so as to look right down the top of the bill.
Adjust the angle of the siting W so it aligns with the top of the weather. You adjust its elevation angle by moving the other W fore and aft.
A few minutes later, see if the top of the weather is above the W, if so you will be in the weather. If the top of the weather has gone lower, you will clear the weather.
Twenty-Eight Million Dollar Method
For this method to work you will need a HUD. Once you get the HUD, look at the flight path vector. Where it points is where you are going.
Revision: 20120101
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How To Cure Hiccups
What are hiccups?
Hiccups are involuntary spasms of the diaphragm and vocal cords. The diaphragm is a large, flat muscle that runs transversely through your body, separating the chest and abdominal cavities. During a hiccup, this muscle contracts quickly and involuntarily and is followed by a quick squeezing shut of the vocal cords.
Hiccups can be embarrassing, especially when on public transportation, in rooms with loud acoustics, or during job interviews.
How To Cure Hiccups
Bottoms up!
How do I get rid of hiccups?
Like all muscle spasms, the goal is to break the cycle of contractions. Get a big glass of water- at least 8 oz. is preferable. Hold the glass up to your lips and take a gentle breath in through your nose. Now drink as much of that glass of water as fast as you can. Gulp it down. If you can’t hold your breath that long, keep the water on your lips and take a small breath in-and-out through your nose. Then keep drinking.
I have never known it to fail!
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Can you become a cyborg in 10 years?
The idea of directly combining the living and electronic brain is not the first decade that has stirred the minds of scientists around the world. Modern neyroimplants make it possible to realize it, but are they as perfect as it seems at first glance?
Just as the ancient Greeks dreamed that someday a person would fly like a bird, modern scientists and dreamers dream of the advent of the era when the combination of the human mind and the machine will allow us to defeat our most important enemy – death. But can the living mind directly connect to artificial intelligence with the help of the technological interface “brain-computer interface” (BCI) to overcome the limitations of biological nature?
Over the past 50 years, researchers from university laboratories and companies around the world have made impressive progress in the synthesis of human and computer consciousness. Recently, entrepreneurs like Elon Mask or Brian Johnson are increasingly announcing new start-ups that are striving to empower people through “smart” computer systems.
But what are the technologies of combining the living and electronic brain in our day? And what are the consequences of connecting the consciousness to the digital interface?
Bionic implants: how electronics complements a person
Eb Fetz, researcher at the Center for Sensory Neural Engineering (CSNE), is one of the first “pioneers” of connecting a computer to the brain. In 1969, before the era of personal computers, he experimentally proved that it is possible to strengthen the brain signals of monkeys to control the needle that moved along the dial.
Much of the work on modern BCI is aimed at improving the quality of life of people suffering from serious motor system disorders or even paralyzed ones. We have already witnessed similar technologies: for example, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh used brain signals to control a robotic arm. And scientists from Stanford were able to connect the brain to the tablet, which allowed paralyzed patients to use gadgets using a wireless network.
Similarly, some virtual signals can be sent to the brain to simulate sensation. Such manipulations are usually carried out with the help of weak current pulses. But what about the basic feelings of a person – sight and hearing? Already, there are prototypes of bionic eyes for people with severe visual impairment. These are already commercial products, and not just laboratory samples, although in the modern market, their choice is not so great. But implants for the restoration of the auditory function in contrast to the most successful and the most widespread in the world bionics – now they are used by about 300 000 people.
The bi-directional brain-computer interface (BBCI) can not only read signals from the brain, but also send information back to the brain through stimulation. The most complex varieties of such systems are, of course, those that interact with the nervous system. Now scientists are studying BBCI as a radically new rehabilitation tool for the treatment of strokes and spinal cord injuries. Studies have shown that BBCI can be used to strengthen links between two brain regions or between the brain and the spinal cord and redirect information around the area of damage in order to resuscitate a paralyzed limb.
It would seem that we can conclude that in 10-15 years, the neurointerfaces directly connected with the brain will be an integral part of every person’s life. Or is it not?
Time has not come yet
Not all BCIs are invasive. There are also those that do not require surgical intervention. As a rule, the principle of their work is based on the removal of indicators of brain activity through the cranium (the very amusing caps with electrodes and wires). With their help you can, for example, move the cursor on the screen, manage a wheelchair, robotic manipulator, drone and even humanoid robots.
The bi-directional brain-computer interface (BBCI) can read signals from the brain and send information back to the brain through stimulation.
It sounds cool, but let’s take a closer look at the existing prototypes. From the first glance it is clear that all these miracles of engineering thought work much more slowly and less accurately than the “natural” parts of the human body. The bionic eye has a very low resolution; The auditory implant still manages to cope with speech, but does not allow listening to music or simply complex sound compositions. In order for the technology to work reliably, it will have to be involuntarily implanted surgically – this is a prospect for which not everyone can decide.
It is also worth noting that all demonstrations of modern bionics are conducted in the laboratory after a long and methodical calibration of the equipment for each specific situation. At present, experiments prove that such technologies can be implemented in practice – but they are still very, very far from being practical and convenient for their daily use.
Adapting to Neurointerfaces
Despite all the problems listed above, in the future the situation can radically change. For example, no one requires BCI to be perfect: our brains have unique adaptive abilities. Just as we learn to drive a car or use a smartphone, we can accustom the body to new types of sensory information, even if it is not transmitted invasively, but, for example, with the help of magnetic impulses.
Ultimately, judging by everything, it is the bi-directional BCI of the future that will become the way that will ensure the full interaction of the living and mechanical brain. For example, an injectable “neural lace” may prove to be a promising way to gradually allow neurons to grow with implanted electrodes, rather than abandon them. Flexible nanowire probes, neural bridges and vitreous carbon interfaces can also allow biological and technological computers to successfully coexist in our bodies.
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Encyclopedia > Well-order
Article Content
A well-order (or well-ordering) on a set S is a total order on S with the property that every non-empty subset of S has a least element in this ordering. The set S together with the well-order is then called a well-ordered set.
For example, the standard ordering of the natural numbers is a well-ordering, but neither the standard ordering of the integers nor the standard ordering of the positive real numbers is a well-ordering.
In a well-ordered set, there cannot exist any infinitely long descending chains. Using the axiom of choice, one can show that this property is in fact equivalent to the well-order property; it is also clearly equivalent to the Kuratowski-Zorn lemma.
In a well-ordered set, every element, unless it is the overall largest, has a unique successor: the smallest element that is larger than it. However, not every element need to have a predecessor. As an example, consider two copies of the natural numbers, ordered in such a way that every element of the second copy is bigger than every element of the first copy. Within each copy, the normal order is used. This is a well-ordered set and is usually denoted by ω + ω. Note that while every element has a successor (there is no largest element), two elements lack a predecessor: the zero from copy number one (the overall smallest element) and the zero from copy number two.
If a set is well-ordered, the proof technique of transfinite induction can be used to prove that a given statement is true for all elements of the set.
The well-ordering principle, which is equivalent to the axiom of choice, states that every set can be well-ordered.
See also Ordinal number, Well-founded set
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... in logical and moral philosophy (1857-1862 and 1864-1869) to the university of London, and in moral science in the Indian Civil Service examinations. In 1860 he was ...
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john hawks weblog
paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution
Photo Credit: Hand remains of Homo naledi. John Hawks CC-BY 2.0
How long ago did Neandertals and Denisovans part ways?
We have learned an immense amount about Neandertal population history from their genomes. But many old questions and some new ones remain unanswered.
Among the most basic: How long ago did Neandertal populations become separate from other populations, including Denisovans and ancestral Africans?
Reconstruction of the Neandertal skeleton, from the Neandertal Museum
In early August, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a paper by Alan Rogers, Ryan Bohlender and Chad Huff that gave a startling new perspective on the origin of Neandertal and Denisovan populations: “Early history of Neanderthals and Denisovans”. At the time, I wrote a perspective piece on the research article, focusing on the implications for rapid dispersal of the ancestral Neandertal-Denisovan population: “Neanderthals and Denisovans as biological invaders.” According to Rogers, Bohlender, and Huff, the Neandertal-Denisovan colonization of Eurasia was a fast expansion and dispersal of a small founder population. It appears to have been an early Middle Pleistocene version of the later colonization of Eurasia by modern humans.
Describing this parallel was easy, but coming to a full understanding of the implications is not. If a model like Rogers, Bohlender, and Huff’s is close to reality, then we will need to radically change some of the ways we look at the fossil and archaeological records.
I’ll describe some of the ways I think this will shake out in several posts over the next few weeks. First, I want to look carefully at the strength of the evidence presented by Rogers and colleagues.
Nothing about interpreting ancient DNA is easy, and I don’t think our current “standard” approaches are adequate to capture the complexity of human prehistory. Most of these interpretations are attempts to fit a model to some statistical summary of the data. By showing that some combinations of parameters fit the data much better than others, it is sometimes possible to reject hypotheses about past populations.
But models are inevitably oversimplifications, and sometimes adding more complexity can resurrect hypotheses that seem inconsistent with simpler models. I’ll go through the model used by Rogers and colleagues, and then point out some of the things that it has omitted.
How it was done
Rogers, Bohlender, and Huff examined the pattern of shared derived mutations in four genomes: an African modern human, a Eurasian modern human, the high-coverage Altai Neandertal genome, and the Denisovan genome. These genomes share different mutations with each other: some are shared between the Neandertal and the Eurasian modern humans, some are shared between the Neandertal and Denisovan, some are shared by three different genomes, and so on.
Here are the data from Rogers and colleagues:
Rogers site frequency results
Site frequency pattern from figure 2a of Rogers and colleagues (2017a). I've added labels indicating which pairs and trios of genomes are which. African and Eurasian modern human genomes share the most derived alleles with each other, Neandertals and Denisovans share many fewer, while all modern and archaic pairs and trios share relatively few derived alleles. However, the modern Eurasian and Neandertal genomes share slightly more than the other combinations of modern and archaic.
In around a third of cases, the two modern humans share the derived mutation. These shared mutations reflect the common shared heritage of these people from Africa, prior to 100,000 years ago.
The Neandertals and Denisovans share fewer mutations with the modern humans; each combination of modern and archaic genomes account for around three or four percent of all the shared mutations. Mostly, the mutations shared by Neandertals or Denisovans and modern humans come from the common origin of all these populations in Africa long before 500,000 years ago. The Neandertal and Eurasian genomes share a small proportion more with each other than the Neandertals and Africans do, and this small proportion reflects the introgression of Neandertal genes into modern human populations.
Shared mutations between the Neandertal and Denisovan genomes account for around 20 percent of the total number of shared mutations from any of the samples. That 20 percent comes from the shared common ancestral population that gave rise to these two archaic populations. Rogers, Bohlender, and Huff wanted to find out how large this ancestral population may have been, and how long it existed before it separated into Neandertal and Denisovan branches.
One innovation of this approach is that it uses more information from the data than the usual method, the “D-statistic” or “ABBA-BABA” method of examining mixture from ancient genomes. With the usual method, researchers are looking at models with mixture and introgression of populations that historically were separated by isolation and genetic drift. By fitting these models, they are trying to estimate the proportion of admixture or introgression, and also measuring the original level of difference between the populations.
Applying more information from the same samples allows Rogers, Bohlender, and Huff to potentially look at richer historical population models. They chose to consider the question of how the Neandertal and Denisovan populations initially became different from each other. For this purpose, they formed a population model that encompasses the separation of a Neandertal-Denisovan ancestral population from the ancestral population of African modern humans, the than the simple mixture and introgression models
Population model from Rogers et al. 2017
Figure 1 from Rogers et al., (2017). Original caption: "Fig. 1. (A) Population tree representing an African population, X; a Eurasian population, Y; Neanderthals, N; and Denisovans, D. The model involves admixture, mN; time parameters, Ti; and population sizes, Ni. (B) Population tree with embedded gene tree. A mutation on the solid red branch would generate site pattern yn (shown in red at the base of the tree). One on the solid blue branch would generate ynd. Mutations on the dashed black branches would be ignored. “0” and “1” represent the ancestral and derived alleles."
Although they can look at more complex models than some other approaches, there is still a limit to what can be discovered from four genomes. When the model involves many more parameters, many different combinations of those parameters may be found to fit the data.
Rogers, Bohlender, and Huff looked at each possible pattern of shared mutations among the four genomes, and this includes ten possible combinations. Each of them accounts for a fraction of the total number of shared mutations, giving ten values for the model to fit. The model shown above includes nine parameters—the effective sizes of four of the ancestral populations, the proportion and timing of introgression from Neandertal into Eurasian populations, and the times of separation of three of the populations. Trying to include more parameters would result in many different parameter combinations being equally good fits to the model—the problem of overfitting.
So this model does not include every aspect of population history that might have been important to the ancestors of the four genomes. It doesn’t include any introgression from ancestral African modern humans into the Neandertals, for example – such as the mixture that must have given rise to the similarity between modern and Neandertal mtDNA. It also doesn’t include introgression into Denisovans from Neandertals or from a “hyperarchaic” ghost population, both of which have been inferred from other kinds of comparisons. These patterns of mixture might throw off the model.
Each of these phenomena might affect the proportion of shared mutations found in both the Neandertal and Denisovan genomes, and that’s potentially important considering that the time of separation of Neandertals and Denisovans is such an important new conclusion.
The results of Rogers and colleagues’ analysis
What is so interesting about Rogers, Bohlender, and Huff’s conclusions is that they find the separation time between Neandertals and Denisovans to be very close after the separation of the Neandertal-Denisovan ancestral population from ancestral Africans:
Rogers and colleagues Neandertal-Denisovan timeline figure
Model for relationships of ancestral Neandertals, Denisovans, and ancestral African modern humans, according to Rogers and colleagues (2017). This model focuses on timeline and does not portray differences in effective population size.
This figure doesn’t encompass every detail of the model investigated by Rogers, Bohlender, and Huff. Probably most important, I have not depicted the estimates of ancestral effective population sizes for each of these populations. And I haven’t included the proportion of admixture that they estimate between Neandertal and ancestral Eurasian populations. In this figure, I’ve only focused on the timeline.
Rogers, Bohlender, and Huff place the common ancestry of the Neandertal-Denisovan branch and the African ancestors of modern humans at 744,000 years ago. They acknowledge that this estimate depends on assumptions about the mutation rate, and those assumptions leave a lot of possibility for error—for example, they show that a faster mutation rate as preferred by some geneticists (5 × 10−10 per year) gives rise to a more recent estimate of only 616,000 years. That faster mutation rate is probably not correct, but whatever the mutation rate, it’s not appropriate to talk about 3 significant digits with estimates that have so many uncertain inputs. I prefer to say that the date is around 700,000 years.
The most striking aspect of the population model described by Rogers, Bohlender, and Huff is that Neandertals and Denisovans divided into separate populations quite rapidly after their common origin. This conclusion contrasts with earlier thinking, which suggested a slow divergence of Neandertals and Denisovans from each other after their common origin. Rogers and colleagues also find that the effective population size of this ancestral Neandertal-Denisovan population was very small. They propose one explanation is a population bottleneck and founder effect in the origin of these populations.
Another finding, which I have not depicted in the figure above, is that the Neandertal population had a quite large effective population size, maybe as large as 15,000 to 30,000 effective individuals. This also contrasts with previous estimates of Neandertal effective size.
I don’t consider this contrast to be very surprising because this new method is measuring something different from the earlier ones. Both this and earlier estimates are measures of the strength of genetic drift within Neandertals, but previous estimates from Neandertal genomes are measures of inbreeding within the ancestors of that genome, which is strongly affected by local population histories if the Neandertal population was subdivided. If introgression into Eurasians came from a different subpopulation of Neandertals than the Altai genome, Rogers and colleagues’ estimate of effective size will refer to the overall metapopulation of Neandertals, not the local history of the Altai genome, and will therefore be much larger. Neither of these estimates says much about the actual number of Neandertals that walked the earth, the census population size of Neandertals.
A critique based on singletons
How strong is any of this?
Today, PNAS issued a one-page comment by Fabrizio Mafessonia and Kay Prüfer on this work, together with a one-page reply by Rogers, Bohlender, and Huff. Mafessonia and Prüfer suggest that Rogers and colleagues overlooked one category of genetic variation in their analyses, which would affect the results.
As described above, Rogers, Bohlender, and Huff studied the patterns of variations that are shared among genomes, Neandertal, Denisovan, and modern. Mafessonia and Prüfer suggest it is necessary also to look at the genetic variations that are unique within one of the genomes and therefore are not shared among them. They provide a brief analysis that suggests looking at these “singleton” variations changes the results, making the data more consistent with a fairly long time of shared ancestry by Neandertals and Denisovans, and a smaller effective size for Neandertals than Rogers and colleagues had found.
In their reply Rogers, Bohlender, and Huff provide a new analysis that includes the singleton variants, from the exact same genomes used by Mafessonia and Prüfer. They show it is correct that using all the singletons makes a lot of difference to the outcome—although even in this case their results still suggest a much more ancient separation of Denisovans and Neandertals than has previously been found by other researchers.
But the singleton data generate some estimates that cannot be reconciled with the fossil samples. For example, the Denisovan genome includes many more singletons than the Neandertal genome. Looking at these singletons, it would appear that the Denisovan genome must come from an individual that lived much later in time than the Altai Neandertal—maybe within the last 4000 years. This is way off compared to the geological history of the site, which shows the Denisovan genome to be much older. There must be some other source of singletons in this genome other than the mutational history proposed in the population model.
One possible explanation is a factor that the model does not include: the introgression into the Denisovan genome by a “hyperarchaic” ghost population. Some portions of the Denisovan genome accumulated many more mutations than expected because they actually come from a population that diverged from ancestral Africans much earlier in time.
In their reply, Rogers, Bohlender, and Huff conclude that including the singletons is a bad idea because of such possible biases that are not included in the model.
However, this explanation points back to a problem with every method of examining these ancient genomes. A model that includes all the possible interactions between every population has more parameters than can be fitted to the data. Looking at singletons in these four genomes provides four more data points, and may open a view into models that have four more parameters. But to do substantially better, we will need many additional ancient high-coverage genomes, and we will need to look more closely at genetic variation among more modern human populations.
With all this considered, there are good reasons to hesitate before accepting the exact values proposed by Rogers and colleagues. The model is leaving out important aspects of population history.
The fossil record speaks
Still, there is another source of evidence about Neandertal origins, and it also suggests a much earlier timeline than previously thought.
Recent genetic and geochronological findings from the Sima de los Huesos sample show that early Neandertals were not what we once assumed. Meyer and colleagues (2016) showed that Sima de los Huesos nuclear genetic samples are unambiguously close to Neandertals, and not closely connected with Denisovans. This shows that the Neandertal and Denisovan populations must already have separated substantially earlier than the deposition of the Sima de los Huesos hominin remains.
The geochronology of Sima de los Huesos provides evidence that the fossils were deposited around 430,000 years ago (Arsuaga et al. 2014; Arnold et al. 2014). Meyer and colleagues (2016) looked at the chronology from the point of view of genetic data and came to a somewhat weaker conclusion:
Although it is difficult to determine the age of Middle Pleistocene sites with certainty, geological dating methods, as well as the length of the branches in trees relating the mtDNAs from femur XIII and an SH cave bear to other mtDNAs, suggest an age of around 400,000 years for the SH fossils. This age is compatible with the population split time of 381,000–473,000 years ago estimated for Neanderthals and Denisovans on the basis of their nuclear genome sequences and using the human mutation rate of 0.5 × 10−9 per base pair per year. This mutation rate also suggests that the population split between archaic and modern humans occurred between 550,000 and 765,000 years ago.
That is, the mtDNA timeline gives approximately the same result as the geochronology, placing the fossils’ age around 400,000 years, and Meyer and colleagues suggest this does not contradict the notion that Neandertals and Denisovans parted ways only between 381,000 and 473,000 years ago.
I disagree. The population split must in fact be substantially earlier than the fossils’ age to give rise to the pattern of shared alleles between the Sima de los Huesos sequences and the later Neandertals.
One way of looking at how early the Neandertal population arose would be to examine the number of derived alleles shared by the Sima de los Huesos genetic data and the other Neandertals, in comparison to modern humans and the Denisovan genome. This is not straightforward, though, because if the Neandertals or the Neandertal-Denisovan ancestral populations did experience bottlenecks and founder effects, the Neandertals will share a higher fraction of derived alleles as a result of suppressed incomplete lineage sorting, in addition to new mutations early in their evolutionary history. The Sima de los Huesos specimens show around 40 percent derived allele sharing with later Neandertals, in comparison to 70 percent or more derived allele sharing of later Neandertal specimens with each other. By contrast, the Sima de los Huesos specimens share only around 7-9 percent derived alleles with Denisovans—way less than they share with Neandertals, and reflecting a substantial shared history of drift between the Sima de los Huesos and later Neandertal samples. All this shared drift happened earlier than 400,000 years ago, but it’s not clear how much of that shared drift is sheer time, and how much may have occurred quickly during bottlenecks.
Genetic structure within the ancient Neandertals makes a difference. The later Neandertal population had strong regional differences separating the Altai and other genetic samples. The Denisovan population also seems to have had strong regional structure, reflected in the differences between the present-day introgressed sequences and the Denisovan genome we have from the fossil record. Did the earlier Neandertal population also have strong regional structure? If so, the Sima de los Huesos population itself may have been quite distinct from other contemporary Neandertals, and the shared ancestry of these regional populations might have preceded the Sima de los Huesos deposition by a hundred thousand years or more. If all the shared derived alleles of Sima de los Huesos and later Neandertals date to earlier than 500,000 years ago, their common evolution must have started even earlier.
Another element of the quote from Meyer and colleagues is their use of the higher 5 × 10−10 per year mutation rate, compared to 3.8 × 10−10 used by Rogers, Bohlender, and Huff. A 25 percent higher mutation rate obviously leads to a 25 percent lower estimate of genetic divergence.
All of this suggests that the separation time of Neandertals and Denisovans was indeed quite a bit older than most sources have suggested up to now. I do not believe that the estimate of separation time proposed by Mafessonia and Prüfer (2017), only around 460,000 years ago, can possibly be true. If Sima de los Huesos actually dates to around 430,000 years ago, as in the present geological chronology, the previous genetic estimates are simply too young.
The value for Neandertal-Denisovan separation time reported by Rogers, Bohlender, and Huff is one possibility, placing this divergence almost as old as the initial separation of the Neandertal-Denisovan ancestral population from ancestral Africans. That means Neandertals have existed as a population for more than 700,000 years. Or, as Rogers, Bohlender, and Huff find in their singleton analysis, the Neandertal-Denisovan separation time might be as recent as 630,000 years ago.
More recent than this seems doubtful in light of the shared genetic history of Sima de los Huesos and later Neandertals. But where to draw a line indicating a minimum possible date for the Neandertal-Denisovan separation is not clear.
What is clear is that the origin of Neandertal and Denisovan populations is much older than previously assumed. And that timeline makes a hash out of many long-standing ideas about the fossil and archaeological records. I’ll be writing about some of these ideas over the next few weeks, with some ideas about where the science must go next.
Arnold, L. J., Demuro, M., Parés, J. M., Arsuaga, J. L., Aranburu, A., de Castro, J. M. B., & Carbonell, E. (2014). Luminescence dating and palaeomagnetic age constraint on hominins from Sima de los Huesos, Atapuerca, Spain. Journal of human evolution, 67, 85-107.
Arsuaga, J. L., Martínez, I., Arnold, L. J., Aranburu, A., Gracia-Téllez, A., Sharp, W. D., ... & Poza-Rey, E. (2014). Neandertal roots: Cranial and chronological evidence from Sima de los Huesos. Science, 344(6190), 1358-1363.
Hawks, J. (2017). Neanderthals and Denisovans as biological invaders. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201713163. doi:10.1073/pnas.1713163114
Meyer, M., Arsuaga, J. L., de Filippo, C., Nagel, S., Aximu-Petri, A., Nickel, B., ... & Viola, B. (2016). Nuclear DNA sequences from the Middle Pleistocene Sima de los Huesos hominins. Nature, 531(7595), 504-507.
Rogers, A. R., Bohlender, R. J., & Huff, C. D. (2017). Early history of Neanderthals and Denisovans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(37), 9859-9863. doi:10.1073/pnas.1706426114
This is a nice piece in ChronicleVitae by Terry McGlynn: “Why Blogging Is Still Good for Your Career”.
Regardless, in every field, scholars run academic blogs that reflect the professional discourse, and sometimes those blogs will drive the broader conversation. Even if you don’t read academic blogs, they may be driving the conversation in your discipline. It typically takes several months for traditional peer-reviewed journals to publish research and then publish rebuttals and responses. In blogs, the same kind of academic conversation can take place over the course of days, or even hours.
I find that the blogging environment has changed enormously since Facebook became ubiquitous. People are discussing blogs and blog posts in their own networks with other professionals. Those conversations often happen in places separate from the blog posts themselves, and not followed by the blog author.
I think that’s generally healthy, because it enables people to talk (really, write) through issues with people they know and trust.
But these decentralized conversations within the discipline have a big downside. What seems like “common knowledge” actually may only be shared among a small group of people, and they reinforce each other’s voices like an echo chamber.
I’ve spent less time blogging during the last couple of years, because my fieldwork and research commitments have taken a lot of my energy. But I can say that blog posts—whether here or at Medium—are having a greater readership and impact than ever before.
Dinosaur phylogeny woes
This is a nice write-up by Laura Geggel of a current exchange of comments in Nature about dinosaur phylogeny: “Dino Family Tree Overturned? Not Quite, But Changes May Lie Ahead”.
The upshot is that last spring, Matthew Baron and colleagues (2017) claimed that the traditional groupings of dinosaurs were all wrong. For more than a hundred years, paleontologists have grouped theropods together with sauropods, as “saurischians”, based on pelvic morphology. Baron et al. suggested that the theropods are instead relatives of the ornithischians—including duckbills and ceratopsians.
These branches are within the deepest part of the dinosaur phylogeny, and many of the fossil groups in the dataset lived much later and have many derived traits that would have been absent in their common ancestors. This makes it harder test their relationships than one might expect. The problem is analogous to determining relationships among the very deepest nodes of the mammal phylogeny—for example, do we group together primates, bats, and rodents into a higher level taxon, and are insectivores really a single group? Paleontologists have radically revised some ideas about early mammal diversification in the wake of genetic comparisons of living species, because these relationships just are not well reflected by morphological traits. For dinosaurs, there are no genetic comparisons, and we shouldn’t be very surprised that morphology might not be a straightforward indication of the deepest relationships.
But the new exchange of comments, initiated by Max Langer and colleagues, shows that the dinosaur phylogeny is not going to be overturned easily. In their assessment, Baron and coworkers scored some characters incorrectly. They suggest that the correct data still support the traditional hypothesis that connects the theropods and sauropods.
I don’t have any deep insight about dinosaur phylogeny. But I am interested in the case because it reflects a singular problem with phylogenetic analyses that we are also seeing expressed in the study of hominin relationships.
Many empirical sciences are going through a “replication crisis”, as statisticians are showing that studies are systematically underpowered and results driven by false positives and p-hacking. We can’t precisely compare phylogenetic methods to the kind of statistical analyses underlie many hypothesis tests in other branches of science.
But something very similar is true in phylogenetics. Scientists working on fossil relationships are working with sparse data matrices, many key taxa are very poorly represented, with samples that often include only a single individual, and many interesting questions involve deep nodes. The advent of genetics in the phylogenetics of mammals, birds, and many other groups has shown just how badly morphological data represent deep relationships.
The adoption of Bayesian methods has helped a bit, in that the Bayes factor provides at least a way of saying that the data don’t clearly distinguish hypotheses from each other. I think that today many scientists working on hominin relationships have a fairly healthy attitude, that we just do not know how some key species should be arranged in a phylogeny.
Certainly we face that problem with species like Homo naledi and Australopithecus sediba. These species are exceptionally well represented across the skeleton by fossils, but their placement cannot be determined with any confidence except in very broad terms.
For dinosaurs, I expect that this phylogenetic problem will continue for quite a while, as the current exchange shows that the phylogenetic methods are very sensitive to small changes in the datasets.
Baron, M. G., Norman, D. B., & Barrett, P. M. (2017). A new hypothesis of dinosaur relationships and early dinosaur evolution. Nature, 543(7646), 501-506.
Langer, M. C., et al. (2017). Untangling the dinosaur family tree. Nature 551, E1–E3.
The ad that started the Human Genome Project
Via Jay Shendure, who shared this ad on Twitter this weekend:
Original advertisement that brought in the donors for Human Genome Project (Buffalo News, 3/23/1997), h/t Pieter de Jong, who placed the ad
Buffalo News ad for Human Genome Project
People who worked with HGP data in the early days will remember how the entire genome appeared to be designed by committee. Genetic samples from around thirty people were ultimately included, so different parts actually reflected the genetic heritage of entirely different individuals.
These were chosen to be “representative” of the genetics of the U.S., meaning that some parts of the draft genome were African in ancestry, most were European, and a few were Asian. But the identities of the individuals were anonymous, and the first draft of the genome was being completed at a time when the diversity of most parts of the genome was unknown (by definition, since they hadn’t ever been sequenced in anybody!).
Given the incredible expense of the project, I think this was an appropriate (if unavoidable) decision, but it did make some kinds of population genetic analysis very difficult to carry out. In genetics, how variation was first identified–the “ascertainment” of a variant–exerts a statistical bias on results. To understand the significance of variations, first it is necessary to know the direction of this bias. Many of us did a lot of complicated modeling to try to work around this aspect of the Human Genome Project draft.
The decision had a legacy that lived on for the first few generations of microarrays, because the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that these microarrays tested were found in human samples that were initially very small, many of them HGP samples. When applying a microarray to individuals from a population, it is very important to know whether the SNPs were ascertained within the same population or a different population–a microarray will always miss rare variation in a sample, but it will miss much more common variation in a sample from a different population than the ascertainment sample.
Over time, microarray SNPs began to be ascertained on broader samples of populations, and resequencing–especially the 1000 Genomes Project–began to address the problems of representation that were insoluble in the HGP. But it’s interesting to see this historical ad that put into motion a long-lasting statistical problem.
Link: The discovery story of the LB1 skeleton
Paige Madison pointed me today to her post from 2015 recounting the discovery of the LB1 skeleton, from Liang Bua, Flores: “The Moment the Hobbit was Discovered”. Better known as the type specimen of the species, Homo floresiensis, the first description of the fossil was published on this day in 2004.
LB1 skeleton cast
Cast of LB1 skeleton, at Belgian Academy of Sciences. Photo: Ghedoghedo (CC-BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
Recent, unconsolidated sediments like those in the Liang Bua cave are among the most challenging situations to excavate skeletal remains, and the story of this discovery emphasizes those challenges. Madison also discusses the way that chance was involved in the discovery. All in all, fascinating context.
Link: How scientific societies are moving to combat sexual harassment
Cris Russell has a very strong piece in Scientific American covering the ways that some scientific societies are responding to combat sexual harassment and assault in scientific fields: “Confronting Sexual Harassment in Science”.
She focuses on quotes from Marcia McNutt, former editor of Science, now president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and recent statements from the American Geophysical Union.
I was really happy to read in Russell’s article that my own university, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has a leadership role in the AGU effort to update teaching of research ethics. In my experience during the last several years, UW-Madison has been uniform in its message, from the Chancellor’s office through all levels of administration, that sexual harassment is unacceptable. The workplace training (required of all employees) on sexual harassment and assault is in my view very effective, and this year it is being supplemented by workshops to address implicit bias. In other words, I think my institution is very serious in its response to these issues.
But many of the problems in science are trans-institutional. Sexual harassment and assault often happen in settings removed from formal workplaces like universities and research institutes. Fieldwork is a special problem in anthropology and archaeology, with many practitioners adopting an attitude that “what happens in the field, stays in the field”. Professional conferences have also been locations where harassment and assault occur outside the bounds of their institutions. Professional associations can make a difference, by reinforcing professional standards of conduct among researchers outside of their own institutions.
Sexual misconduct graphic from Science story
Figure from Science magazine story on sexual misconduct in anthropology, illustrating some results of the Survey on Academic Fieldwork Experiences (2014).
The American Association of Physical Anthropologists responded strongly to this issue starting in 2015 and 2016, and I’m proud of the association for its strong stance. That response came in the wake of reported cases of sexual harassment at the professional conference of the AAPA. Another professional meeting, that of the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution, was the occasion of an alleged case of sexual assault in 2014.
Sexual harassment, assault, and other abuses during anthropological and archaeological fieldwork have driven talented people out of anthropology and archaeology for years. I have heard first-hand accounts of some of these abuses from colleagues, and I believe their personal stories. I have heard many more rumors of abuses second-hand or third-hand from many people—often with corroborating details that suggest that they are true. I have also seen directly the effects of misogyny and implicit bias by scientific referees, both as a coauthor of papers and as an academic editor.
I’m pleased that NSF is spending money to help develop better training in professional ethics and to study the effects of that training. It is important to the future of science that students and postdoctoral trainees be given the tools to defend themselves from professional misconduct of all kinds. It would be helpful for professional associations to develop ombudperson positions to help trainees find solutions when they are subjected to harassment and assault.
But I would further encourage NSF to investigate how it has awarded funds to abusers in the past.
We know from the 2014 SAFE study that harassment and assault have been very common in recent and existing field programs in archaeology and anthropology. Millions of dollars of funding have gone to researchers who maintain field projects that are widely rumored to be sites where abuses have happened for years. Researchers have used this support to intimidate and silence the targets of their abuse, and have evaded scrutiny from institutions because of the federal dollars they bring in (“Why do universities cover up high-profile harassment? Look for the money”). Meanwhile, the institutions who received 50% or more overhead on these NSF grants did not maintain minimal levels of professional standards by the site directors.
I hope that more of these stories will be made public so that the broader community of scientists can acknowledge this history and commit to stop covering up the unethical and immoral behavior by supposed leaders in the field.
Why is open science important in archaeology?
Are you curious about open science, but don’t really know what it means? The September issue of The SAA Archaeological Record includes an article that reviews “open science” approaches in archaeology: “Open Science in Archaeology”.
Marwick et al 2017 article header
This article was the brainchild of Ben Marwick, who has helped to organize the new Open Science Interest Group within the Society for American Archaeology. I’m proud to be able to support and participate in this group, and to have joined with 48 other professionals in this paper. I work at all levels within my scientific research to advance the principles that the article describes.
The paper begins with a short discussion of what “open science” actually means.
Often described as “open science,” these new norms include data stewardship instead of data ownership, transparency in the analysis process instead of secrecy, and public involvement instead of exclusion.
I approve strongly of this definition. Open science is nothing radically new, it reflects a recognition that responsible scientific approaches lie at one end of an axis, where the opposite end is really an antiscientific attitude of exclusion.
The new paper refers to open access (in publication), open data, and open methods. All these tend to increase transparency and replicability in the production of knowledge.
I would add a couple of aspects that the article doesn’t discuss in detail.
Archaeological sites are not merely data sources, they are physical places. Allowing colleagues and the public to see the sites and inspect work at sites is part of providing confidence and transparency in archaeologists as stewards of heritage. That access can be provided today with technology, as many projects (including our Rising Star project) are doing. Or access to sites can be provided in cooperation with national heritage authorities through responsible tourism and site visits.
Scientific projects are complex social undertakings that involve power and funding, and open collaboration may be just as important as open methods and open data in providing transparency of scientific processes.
Some people have the misconception that open approaches are less rigorous compared to approaches that involve long gestation of ideas in relative secrecy. Unfortunately, this misconception is still actively promoted by a few irresponsible scientists. Spreading such a misconception is much like the strategy of “fear, uncertainty, and doubt” that was once deployed by software companies in their battle for market share against open source software projects.
In my experience, open approaches are more rigorous than secretive ones. Open approaches rely strongly upon establishing transparent methods that emphasize replicability. When researchers follow through on a commitment to provide the data that underlie their analyses, they provide the means for independent researchers to check their results and conclusions. It’s a basic principle of scientific credibility: Conclusions that cannot be checked should not be believed.
The new paper is available and is a great resource. I know that academic articles about how to do academic work are not always exciting, but these articles are necessary to build the scholarly background for changing practices, especially in building support for responsible practices among institutions and grant agencies. I applaud the Society for American Archaeology for supporting this initiative.
There is no such thing as inertia—some people and institutions actively maintain processes that exclude colleagues and the public. Let’s subject those practices to examination and let institutions justify them if they are necessary. Meanwhile we must make the real costs of closed systems explicit, not hide them.
More: I’ve long been an advocate for open data practices, which I describe in my white paper, “Public interests in data from federally funded research”
Nature Genetics wants more context for citations, but doesn't notice that bad context comes from word limits
Nature Genetics has a remarkable editorial in the current issue that makes a point of criticizing citation practices by authors in “articles we have recently published”: “Neutral citation is poor scholarship”.
Neutral citation, for example, “this field exists (refs. 1–20),” may on the face of it seem to be a fair practice, giving evenhanded and minimal citation credit to a range of preexisting works as background to the current report. But it can also be malpractice, artificially inflating the metrics of irrelevant or trivially related works by including them in lists of relevant publications....
Those are tough words. The editors’ recommendation is to add more background that gives necessary context for cited works:
Best citation practice is to summarize the claim made in the cited work without distorting whether it was of cause, correlation or conjecture, much as you would for your own findings (Nat. Genet. 47, 305, 2015). The relevant reasons for citing pertinent publications should also be introduced early in the article rather than discussed as late afterthoughts. This best practice will often entail making statements that are strongly supported by prior publications in the background introducing your findings. We believe this is key to writing research papers with impact that can benefit from peer review, as it encourages explanation of the knowledge gap that motivates the research as well as clear explanation of the conceptual advances made by the main findings of the new research.
I’m strongly in favor of this approach. But take a look at the Instructions to Authors that lists the requirements for papers submitted to Nature Genetics:
The text is limited to 1500 words, excluding the introductory paragraph, online Methods, references and figure legends.
An Article is a substantial novel research study, with a complex story often involving several techniques or approaches. The main text (excluding abstract, online Methods, references and figure legends) is 2,000-4,000 words.
In a letter with only 30 references, giving appropriate context for each reference would take up 500 words – a third of the paper. For an article of 2000 words with 100 references, it would likewise take up 2/3 to half of the paper.
I agree that adding better context for citations would make better scientific papers. Adding more citations would in many cases improve papers. This is especially true in areas of science that lie on the boundaries of disciplines, where many readers will need more context to understand where citations fit together. But word limits and limits on citation number prevent authors from adding such context!
If Nature Genetics wants well-written and well-referenced papers, it is going to have to change its editorial practices to enable authors to spend the necessary words.
I especially like citation formats that enable authors to add context in the reference section—listing a short synopsis or reason why each citation is valuable. Books have that kind of facility in endnotes, so it’s a fairly widespread practice in scholarship. More scientific journals should enable greater context in references.
Reviewing the September excavation in the Rising Star cave system
In September, the team was underground in the Rising Star cave system, working at new excavations in the Lesedi Chamber and Dinaledi Chamber. I posted updates on the excavation goals and the progress at the end of the month on Medium, and I thought it would be helpful to provide links to those articles here.
A look at some photos of the live National Geographic Classroom events in the Rising Star cave system
In the first week, I reviewed the hypotheses that we set out to test: “Renewed excavations in the Rising Star cave”. Key among them is the formation of the fossil assemblage within the Dinaledi Chamber.
Many people have been curious whether some other entrance to this chamber may have existed in the past. So far, geological work in the chamber has found no other passage that might have allowed hominins or their bodies to get in. There’s a lot of evidence that the chamber must have been very inaccessible when the remains of H. naledi arrived — especially the clear difference in sediment composition between Dinaledi and other nearby chambers, and the lack of evidence for any other medium or large animal remains. It appears that the hominin remains must have entered the chamber in the same way we do today, down this Chute.
But nearly all of the hominin remains so far come from a tiny area of excavation, only 0.8 square meters, at the far end of the chamber more than 10 meters from the Chute.
Later, near the end of the excavation work, I reviewed some of the discoveries the team made: “What we’ve learned from the Rising Star cave system this month”. Perhaps the most interesting is a feature just beneath the base of the Chute:
This mass of bone has emerged just at the base of the Chute, the narrow entry channel into which the team enters the chamber. After weeks of careful excavation, the team can now see part of an articulated hand, ribs and a possible shoulder, even some teeth in what appears to be proper anatomical order.
This may be the partial skeleton of a single hominin individual. We do not know how much additional bone may yet remain just beneath the surface.
It will be some time before we know fully the results of the September excavation. We will need to consolidate the feature at the base of the Chute and extract it to the laboratory for further preparation. We will also need to get chemical and biological results back from samples taken inside both chambers. We have a lot of work ahead of us, and we’ll update as we can.
New project to scan vertebrate diversity across thousands of samples
Science reports on a new initiative to provide 3D scan data on thousands of vertebrates: New 3D scanning campaign will reveal 20,000 animals in stunning detail.
The project, “oVert”, will deposit scans of museum specimens onto the MorphoSource site, so that people can download and use them. This is a tremendous win for open access science, and for the value of the MorphoSource repository.
Can you imagine the projects that will be fueled by this dataset? Amazing. It will become an essential morphological research tool–probably setting a new standard. And it will enable massive educational projects.
This is such an effective expenditure of money, and I wish that other NSF-funded projects would follow this model!
Arguing about species: Is it evidence, or ego?
For some people who follow human evolution news, recognizing “species” is really just about whether you’re a lumper or a splitter. Many people assume that the names of species are about ego, not evidence.
But nature presents us with real challenges, which still cause different scientists to approach the past with different assumptions. Let me give some examples.
Just today, I got notification of a new paper by Walter Neves and colleagues, in which they suggest that Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi are actually South African representatives of Homo habilis. Some people might scoff at this—after all, the Dinaledi fossils are only 236,000–335,000 years old, while the latest-known H. habilis is around 1.6 million. But a young date for some fossils doesn’t bar them from from membership in a species with much older fossil representatives. Identity is tested with morphological evidence, not geological age.
Now, I disagree with the idea that H. naledi is the same species as H. habilis—Neves and colleagues have come to this taxonomic conclusion by neglecting all the morphological evidence showing H. naledi is different from H. habilis. But it’s not so easy to reject the idea that these species might be close relatives. As we pointed out earlier this year, H. naledi might even conceivably be a descendant of H. habilis or Au. sediba. On the other hand, Mana Dembo and colleagues showed last year that H. naledi seems to be closer to modern and archaic H. sapiens than to H. erectus (and much closer than H. habilis). These are stark differences of interpretation, from similar parts of the skeleton.
[see my article: “The plot to kill Homo habilis”]
At the other extreme, this week Jeffrey Schwartz is set to present results of his own examination of the Dinaledi Chamber sample. According to his abstract, all the teeth belong to one species, but some of the skulls represent another—two species in this assemblage, not just one. I haven’t seen the details of this analysis, but I’m pretty sure I disagree with this one, too.
I admit that it would be fatuous to say that ego plays no role in paleoanthropology. Scientists express provocative opinions that will draw attention from the press.
Still, the trouble with taxonomy isn’t just about new fossil discoveries like H. naledi or Au. sediba. We have seen similarly broad and vociferous diversity of opinions in the last few years about H. erectus, Au. deyiremeda, Au. anamensis, H. floresiensis, Denisovans, Neanderthals, H. heidelbergensis, Kenyanthropus platyops, and others. These are species new and old, and the same issues keep arising again and again.
Many people would say that taxonomic debates just reflect basic philosophy about variation—again, lumping versus splitting. But that’s really only one of the dimensions:
1. How much variation should a species include? Broadly, all of us recognize that some species are polytypic (as humans are today), but small and fragmentary samples make it very hard to distinguish polytypy from distinct species. There are living polytypic species that include very extensive variation, and living sister species that barely differ from each other, making model selection difficult.
2. What kind of data provide evidence of similarity or difference? Some researchers rely mainly on phenetic similarity measures, using geometric morphometrics, principal components or canonical variates approaches. Others examine discrete (or threshold) traits, counting shared derived traits as evidence of similarity and ignoring shared primitive traits. This group was once dominated by cladists, but in recent years Bayesian approaches have become more and more common.
3. What temporal or geological information is sufficient to justify pooling fossil specimens into a single sample? Some scientists are willing to assume that fossils from the same 500,000-year period belong to a single population, even if they preserve different parts of the skeleton or minimally overlap. Others draw trees that separate every specimen into its own “operational taxonomic unit”. The concept of a paleodeme is based on lumping specimens by date and geography, an approach that has come more and more into question as the fossil record increases.
Anthropologists may get a bad rap from other biologists for arguing about taxonomy so much, but in reality many areas of taxonomy are undergoing seismic shifts following more widespread application of genetics and phylogeographic analyses.
For example, bovid systematists have been arguing for the last few years about whether to double the number of species they recognize—a debate about living species with abundant morphological samples and genetic data. Meanwhile, living and fossil elephants are on the verge of a complete revision of relationships, based on ancient DNA and the appreciation of deep diversity between forest and savanna African populations. Similar examples are unfolding across mammalian systematics.
Neandertal and Denisovan DNA has shown us that hominins also exchanged genes by introgression, occasionally but recurrently despite hundreds of thousands of years on their own trajectories. Genetic evidence of African “ghost lineages” means other long-lasting Pleistocene populations once existed.
H. naledi might potentially be one such lineage. I have no idea what the closest relative of H. naledi will prove to be. Whether it reproduced with human populations or not, it shows that many cherished human features may not have been uniquely derived evolutionary developments.
I can’t help but feel that we are standing at a special moment in the history of paleoanthropology. New data give us the opportunity to make progress on old areas of disagreement about species and phylogeny. We have to start by taking what we now know about the later Pleistocene, and seriously appling these lessons to earlier periods of human evolution. Our assumptions about the past really are changing.
Whatever we choose to call species won’t change their nature. But our assumptions determine the way we frame our future studies, including our attempts to find more fossil evidence. That makes it important to communicate clearly about what these ancient species mean, both with each other and with the public.
Is there a trade-off between publication impact and open approaches?
Two Dutch biomedical researchers discuss how they are trying to move their institution away from mere quantity of research and citations, and toward real clinical impact: “Do our measures of academic success hurt science?”. They begin their essay with a scenario that reminds me of human evolution research:
A Ph.D. student wants to submit his research to a journal that requires sharing the raw data for each paper with readers. His supervisors, however, hope to extract more articles from the dataset before making it public. The researcher is forced to postpone the publication of his findings, withholding potentially valuable knowledge from peers and clinicians and keeping useful data from other researchers.
I agree with much of what they say in this essay. But I think their opening scenario doesn’t really express a trade-off they are trying to illustrate between an artificial measure of “impact” and real impact.
What we keep finding in human evolution research is that sharing the data leads to higher impact. Papers are published faster, they are cited more widely, and they lead to career advancement for the authors.
It is true that some scientists try to keep datasets private so that other researchers cannot replicate their work. But that is counterproductive to their own research, not only to the field. Researchers who are publishing slowly, not distributing data in a way that can be inspected and used, are not achieving publications, citations, or “impact” even in the artificial, publication-oriented sense.
Using open approaches is not just the way to advance science and its impact on the public, it is also the way to advance careers. There is no trade-off here, not that I’ve experienced at least.
Genomes of straight-tusked elephants
Earlier this month in eLife, Matthias Meyer and colleagues published a cool paper: “Palaeogenomes of Eurasian straight-tusked elephants challenge the current view of elephant evolution”.
The straight-tusked elephants lived in Europe and western Eurasia as far east as India during the Pleistocene. Most people are familiar with other extinct elephant relatives, such as mammoths or mastodons. The straight-tusked elephants were not mammoths, and they are assumed to be much more like living elephants because they seem to have entered more northerly parts of Europe mainly during interglacial times. Paleontologists have noted that the straight-tusked elephants share some morphological features with Asian elephants, as mammoths do also. For some paleontologists, these similarities are so compelling that they have classified Palaeoloxodon as part of the Asian elephant genus, Elephas.
Ancient DNA evidence is breaking open the study of how the extinct relatives of living elephants moved, interacted, and evolved. First mitochondrial, and more recently nuclear gene sequences have revealed different populations that lasted more than a million years, yet hybridized and mixed where they met.
During the last ten years, it has become clear that populations of elephants in the central African forest have a long history as an evolving lineage distinct from savanna elephants across most of Africa. Forest and savanna elephants have increasingly been recognized as two species, Loxodonta cyclotis in the forest, and L. africana across the rest of Africa. No fossils have been attributed to L. cyclotis, and the L. africana fossil record is quite sparse up until 20,000 years ago.
Before that time, Africa itself was rich in elephants attributed to Palaeoloxodon, especially P. recki, which many sources identify as Elephas recki. P. recki has been identified from fossils as early as 4 million years ago, and as late as 300,000 years ago. Other African species of Palaeoloxodon (again, often classified as Elephas) have been interpreted as part of a single P. recki lineage, including the earlier P. ekorensis and the later P. iolensis. P. iolensis survived until around 30,000 years ago. With so many species identified as Elephas or closely related to Elephas, and with mammoths sharing so many features with living Asian elephants, the basic idea has been the Asian elephant branch of the elephant phylogeny was once global, with mammoths spread across the northern tier of Eurasia and across the Americas, extinct P. antiquus in western Eurasia, extinct P. namascus further east in Asia, and extinct P. recki in Africa. Paleontologists have speculated that P. namascus may itself be the immediate ancestor of living Asian elephants, Elephas maximus. Living African elephants, Loxodonta, were the odd elephants out.
Meyer and colleagues obtained mitochondrial genomes from four individuals of P. antiquus, three of them from Neumark-Nord, Germany, and one from Weimar-Ehringsdorf, Germany. They find that the Neumark-Nord elephants probably date to the last interglacial, around 120,000 years ago, while the Weimar-Ehringsdorf elephant dates to the previous interglacial, around 230,000 years ago. This is a pretty small section of the overall geographic range covered by P. antiquus:
Palaeoloxodon sites across western Eurasia, from Meyer et al. 2017
Figure 1 from Meyer et al. 2017, original caption: "Palaeoloxodon antiquus, geographic range based on fossil finds (after Pushkina, 2007). White dots indicate the locations of Weimar-Ehringsdorf and Neumark-Nord."
What they found was that P. antiquus mitochondrial genomes are not related to Elephas at all; they’re related to forest elephants:
Surprisingly, P. antiquus did not cluster with E. maximus, as hypothesized from morphological analyses. Instead, it fell within the mito-genetic diversity of extant L. cyclotis, with very high statistical support (Figure 2). The four straight-tusked elephants did not cluster together within this mitochondrial clade, but formed two separate lineages that share a common ancestor with an extant L. cyclotis lineage 0.7–1.6 Ma (NN) and 1.5–3.0 Ma (WE) ago, respectively.
That’s not a small difference. Living Asian and African elephants came from a common ancestral population more than 6 million years ago, during the Late Miocene. They are about as different from each other genetically as humans and chimpanzees. The fossil story was just wrong–and it’s as big a difference as misidentifying a Neanderthal as a fossil chimpanzee.
Elephant phylogeny from Meyer et al. 2017
Elephant mtDNA and nuclear DNA phylogeny from Meyer et al. 2017. The Neumark-Nord (NN) and Weimar-Ehringsdorf (WE) straight-tusked elephants are indicated. The mtDNA tree has a time scale (bottom) but the nuclear DNA tree has no time scale associated with it.
All four of the P. antiquus mitochondrial lineages are on the same branch as living forest elephants, and in fact some forest elephants have mtDNA genomes that are closer to P. antiquus than to some other forest elephants. In other words, the mitochondrial genomes of P. antiquus fall within the variation of L. cyclotis. Within this variation, the mitochondrial lineage of the earlier Weimar-Ehringsdorf elephant is part of a different clade than the three Neumark-Nord elephants, so the P. antiquus mitochondrial genomes are not a monophyletic group.
Now, we might well expect the story with the nuclear genome would be different for elephants. We know that the story for Neandertals is different considering the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes: the Sima de los Huesos nuclear genome groups clearly with later Neandertals even though the mtDNA of later Neandertals is more similar to that of living humans.
There is another reason why elephant nuclear and mtDNA genomes might be discordant. In humans, mtDNA is markedly less diverse than most parts of the nuclear genome, and mtDNA types occur across wide geographic areas. Elephants are the opposite. Their mitochondrial DNA exhibits substantially greater variation among populations than the average for the nuclear genome, because female elephants very rarely transfer between groups. Most gene flow in elephants is male-mediated, and male elephants sometimes disperse over very long distances. These contrasting patterns of nuclear and mitochondrial diversity in elephants are consistent enough to provide a way to “triangulate” the region that ivory samples originated (Ishida et al. 2013).
Meyer and colleagues cannot assess yet whether the Weimar-Ehringsdorf elephant would yield a divergent nuclear genome, because they didn’t get nuclear evidence from it. But two of the Neumark-Nord P. antiquus specimens yielded nuclear genome data and they are a close sister group compared to all the forest elephants. That is, the African forest elephants were much broader in their mtDNA phylogeny, and tighter together in their nuclear genome, just as one would expect from the mass of evidence about them.
Palaeoloxodon antiquus tooth, by Khruner (Wikimedia)
P. antiquus tooth. Photo credit: Khruner, CC-BY.
So, that’s an interesting data point about elephant evolution. A widespread extinct species of elephant, which on morphological grounds was interpreted as an Asian elephant relative, is actually related to forest elephants within Africa. Forest elephants today are a relative island species in central Africa, surrounded by savanna elephants. So from today’s standpoint, forest elephants look like a geographic and phylogenetic relict of a much more diverse lineage that once existed.
We already know that today’s situation did not exist earlier in the Pleistocene. In the past, many parts of Africa were inhabited not by today’s savanna elephants but instead by other extinct species, for much of the Early and Middle Pleistocene, P. recki. Savanna elephants are found in the fossil record as early as 500,000 years ago, but they are a relatively rare component of the elephant diversity in comparison to the extinct Palaeoloxodon species.
Of course, without ancient DNA evidence, it’s not certain that these other extinct Palaeoloxodon species are closely related to the forest elephants and P. antiquus.
Furthermore, the nuclear genome evidence presented by Meyer and colleagues does not establish whether the P. antiquus population may have exchanged genes with Asian elephants, thereby accounting for some of its anatomical resemblance to them. Hybridization has already been found to be widespread among the varieties of mammoths, and it continues to occur between savanna and forest elephants despite what appears to be a multi-million year separation. We might expect the same of other extinct elephant species.
When Eleftheria Palkopoulou presented on some of these data at a conference in 2016, she did talk about hybridization. Ewen Callaway reported on that conference presentation at the time: “Elephant history rewritten by ancient genomes”.
Palkopoulou and her colleagues also revealed the genomes of other animals, including four woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) and, for the first time, the whole-genome sequences of a Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) from North America and two North American mastodons (Mammut americanum). The researchers found evidence that many of the different elephant and mammoth species had interbred. Straight-tusked elephants mated with both Asian elephants and woolly mammoths. And African savannah and forest elephants, who are known to interbreed today — hybrids of the two species live in some parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere — also seem to have interbred in the distant past. Palkopoulou hopes to work out when these interbreeding episodes happened.
None of these scientific results concerning interbreeding and hybridization are in the new paper by Meyer and colleagues. So I expect we will see much more from these new genome sequences.
W. W. Howells, in the conclusion of the 1980 review, Homo erectus–Who, When and Where: A Survey”:
So we might be wise to be continually careful in writing about Homo erectus, making clear whether one is referring to a population or taxon with a workable definition (such as might embrace all the Chou-k'ou-tien and Javanese fossils), or to a grade taken broadly, or to a time zone (Campbell, 1972). The history of argument about the "Neanderthal phase" should show what the problems may be. As to subspecies of H. erectus, there [sic] are of course legitimate and what we should look for; we should expect their development and their survival over considerable periods. There is no reason to suppose that H. erectus as a species did not include all hominids for a long interval. But the bestowing of names, like having a child, carries responsibilities. To be too liberal with subspecific names, even awarding them to single specimens (e.g., H. e. leakeyi), rather than to recognizable populations, is both to injure their use and to confuse the search for real lineages.
I’m quoting Howells not to endorse this view but because he expresses clearly one opinion about the goals of naming species and subspecies.
A quote from late in the article:
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Saturday, January 17, 2009
Heard about the controversy surrounding modern society's current practice of tuning all instruments to A-440?
After reading a number of experts and their back and forth arguments on the matter, and after some experiments of my own, I've come to the conclusion that the movement to revert back to A-432 is a sound one.
A number of fringe groups also champion the growing A-432 movement for various reasons - some New Agers think it enhances "superconsciousness", and some right-wing conspiracy theorists believe the push for A-440 has to do with a century-old mind control plot.
Me, I think it just plain sounds better.
According to an article in the New York Times:
A little-known New Jersey opera company is playing an active role in an international debate to lower the reference pitch by which orchestras tune their instruments. The issue is that the reference pitch, the tone A, has gradually risen over the last 200 years and the consequences may be severe for performers and instruments.
The A used by most symphony and opera orchestras today for uniform tuning ranges between 440 hertz, or cycles per second, to 444 hertz. By comparison, in 1740, Handel favored an A pitched at 422 hertz. Mozart, in 1780, tuned to an A at 421.6 hertz. The French standardized their A at 435 hertz in 1858. A little more than 20 years later, Verdi succeeded in getting a bill passed by the Italian Parliament to tune at A 432 hertz.
In 1938, an international standard for A was set at 440 hertz, but the pitch continued to rise. The New York Philharmonic, under Zubin Mehta, tunes to an A at 442 hertz, as does the Chicago under Georg Solti and the Boston Symphony under Seiji Ozawa. In Berlin, orchestras tune to an A around 448 hertz. In Moscow, the symphony's pitch is even higher, near 450 hertz.
''This is a scientific as well as an artistic issue,'' [Jeanne Percesepe] said. ''Verdi worked with scientists and, based on certain harmonic principles, decided on what the scientific tuning should be. At the higher pitch, you tend to have more strident tones. Body and resonance is lost in the middle and chest registers. Music performed at the lower pitch heightens the poetry and drama. Verdi, Beethoven and Bellini understood that the voice had fundamental characteristics that should not be tampered with.''
If it was good enough for Verdi, it's good enough for me. I'm looking into the JSH Combo performing in the original pre-modern-era tuning of A-432 for shows and recordings in 2009. Let us know what you think of this experiment!
1 comment:
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Moral Relativism
(redirected from Moral relativists)
Moral Relativism
The philosophized notion that right and wrong are not absolute values, but are personalized according to the individual and his or her circumstances or cultural orientation. It can be used positively to effect change in the law (e.g., promoting tolerance for other customs or lifestyles) or negatively as a means to attempt justification for wrongdoing or lawbreaking. The opposite of moral relativism is moral absolutism, which espouses a fundamental, Natural Law of constant values and rules, and which judges all persons equally, irrespective of individual circumstances or cultural differences.
Within the U.S. justice system, constant values or rules (represented by constitutional, statutory, or case law) are intended to be structurally tempered to accommodate moral relativity. For example, Oliver Wendell Holmes, who served on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1902 to 1932, is credited with being the first Supreme Court justice to state that the U.S. Constitution was an organic document—a living constitution subject to changing interpretation. Many times since, Supreme Court justices, in their opinions, have referred to the notion of "evolving" law when modifying, refining, or, in rare circumstances, overruling earlier precedent. Likewise, statutory laws are enacted or repealed by Congress or state legislators in an effort to best reflect the principles and mores of their constituency.
Notwithstanding this flexible approach to law, moral relativism often plays a significant role in the shaping of law and the punishment of criminals. In 2002, U.S. News & World Report cited a Zogby International poll of 401 randomly selected college seniors, which was commissioned by the National Association of Scholars. According to the results, 73 percent of the students interviewed indicated that they were taught by professors that uniform standards of right and wrong do not exist, but were instead dependent upon individual values and cultural diversity. Such attitudes and perceptions affect not only the thinking of subsequent generations of politicians and lawmakers, but also the courtroom adjudication of existing laws.
In many jury trials, defense attorneys attempt to persuade jurors that the law should be applied differently to a particular defendant. Examples of persuasive arguments may include such operative language as requesting that jurors be "more fair" or "more just" to a particular defendant, or that in order for "justice to be served," jurors must excuse the defendant's conduct as justifiable under the circumstances.
Further readings
Cauthen, Kenneth. 2001. The Ethics of Belief: A Bio-Historical Approach. Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing.
Jury Nullification; Moral Law.
References in periodicals archive ?
Yet despite the fact that moral relativists never cease trying to convince us that Christianity does not make for a peaceful or stable society, the history of the past two centuries has shown that secular substitutes for Christian ethics--the ethics that Sanger, Mead and Murray-O'Hair so vehemently and so virulently opposed--produce destruction, disease and death.
In the current state of British politics, when the official Conservative Party is now almost wholly in the hands of multiculturalists, moral relativists, globalists, and political correctness, there may soon be room for a new formation that rejects these ideas on respectable, civilized grounds.
Moral relativists hold that no universal standard exists by which to access an ethical proposition's truth; moral subjectivism is thus the opposite of moral absolutism.
Talbott is careful to note that moral realism does not imply moral imperialism: Moral realists can admit that their moral judgments are fallible, and they can build a case against paternalism more effectively than moral relativists.
Lord Hoffman speaks for the multicultural moral relativists who control public discourse, but who nowhere connect with public opinion.
If the definition is fluid (as moral relativists of the scientific community would have it), will you always make the cut?
In the past, whenever conservatives would tell me that liberals are moral relativists and don't believe in evil, I would smile and reply that my religious liberal mother absolutely believes in evil--and she thinks it's in the person of Dick Cheney.
is that today's teachers are trained to believe that historical knowledge is unimportant; that America is not a force for good in the world, but is instead an oppressive society; and that the most important task for teachers is not to impart knowledge to their pupils but to turn them into activists and moral relativists.
Moral reformers, Schwartz contends, and more distressingly the virtues they preached, have been unfairly vilified by later generations of structural reformers, radical social critics, moral relativists, and social historians.
Never is Professor Hendershott less antipodean than in her concluding chapter, where she expresses her hope that the 11 September terrorist outrages may have shocked a few moral relativists into sanity.
78) moral skeptics and moral relativists "have the same moral emotions as everyone else and differ only in not thinking that moral disagreements can be bridged by moral reasoning.
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Wiki political aspects islam
wiki political aspects islam
4 Modern to Contemporary Islamic Political Thought: 1500 CE to Present and readings into both the Wikipedia and the Wikiversity at Islamic Political Thought. . Aspects of islamic political thought: Al-farabi and ibn xaldun.
In contrast, in Iranian Azerbaijan Islamic theocratic institutions dominate nearly all aspects of society, with most political power in the hands of the Supreme.
compiled form Wikipedia entries and published by Dr Googelberg Political aspects of Islam are derived from the Qur'an, the Sunna (the sayings and living..
Wiki political aspects islam - - tour
To eliminate jahiliyya, Qutb argued Sharia , or Islamic law, must be established. Some states including Egypt , Turkey , Indonesia, and Pakistan have significant non-Muslim minorities which are treated with varying degrees of persecution, though the rise of fundamentalism in these countries has led to an increase in outbreaks of violence. Others accept the Russian pledge as sincere, and believe that Islamist movements of all stripes will eventually come to accommodation with domestic secular forces, and Islam as a global anti-corruption, anti-colonialism, and anti-racism movement, less focused on Zionism and Palestine.
wiki political aspects islam
The man who denies God is called Kafir concealer because he conceals by his disbelief what is inherent in his nature and embalmed in his own soul. He wrote in reply to me that it was necessary in the early days of Islam. Muslims also adhere to a number would improve online dating websites dietary and behavioral rules, including prohibitions on eating pork and consuming alcoholand maintaining certain standards of cleanliness. Since the revolution in Iranthe largest Shia country, Twelver Shia political thought has been dominated by that of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeinithe founder and leader of the revolution. In the struggle for the creation of a separate Muslim state in South Asia Maudidi and his party first opposed the establishment of the state of Pakistan but later supported the idea. Their loss was sorely felt and it heightened the fear that a similar fate was in store for Europe. Were the wiki political aspects islam of welcome blog to lie only within the framework of secondary divine decrees, wiki political aspects islam, the designation of the divine government and absolute deputed guardianship wilayat-i mutlaqa-yi mufawwada to the Prophet of Islam peace be upon him and his progeny would have been in practice entirely without meaning and content. This is a common problem in many other religions which preach peace and harmony, yet frequently have violent histories and theology. Muslim democrats, including Ahmad Moussalli professor of political science at the American University of Beirutargue that concepts in the Quran point towards some form of democracy, or at least away from despotism. Many Muslims such as Liberal Muslims are theistic evolutionists and support the idea that Muslim religious teachings are compatible with evolution. Islam and other religions. After Sudanese intelligence services were implicated in an assassination attempt on the President of Egypt, UN economic sanctions were imposed on Sudan, a poor country, and Turabi fell from favor. The Taliban also banned other activities — music, TV, videos, photographs, pigeons, kite-flying, beard-trimming. A Qadi Islamic judge was also not allowed to discriminate on the grounds of religionracecolourkinship or prejudice.
Wiki political aspects islam -- expedition fast
However, the Islamic text is somewhat vaguer than Genesis, leaving some room for interpretation, and it is not impossible to find Muslims who accept evolution as fact, though it might be impossible to find Qur'an to support evolution of man from "non man" organisms. Muslims believe its verses were transmitted through the angel Gabriel to Muhammad , Allah's final prophet. The vast majority of devout Muslims hold images of the prophet Muhammad to be particularly blasphemous , though there is no evidence in Hadiths that claim so. Khomeini divided the Islamic commandments or Ahkam into three branches: This list includes all commandments which relate to public affairs, such as constitutions, social security , insurance , bank , labour law , taxation, elections, congress , etc. Qaradawi is a prominent, yet controversial Sunni preacher and theologian who continues to serve as the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. Algar, Hamid translator and editor. He asked them for whom they would cast their vote.
wiki political aspects islam
Wiki political aspects islam -- going
Gerges, The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global Bronxville, N. Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani said that to ignore such a situation is haraam , and those who cannot revolt inside the caliphate should launch a struggle from outside. You're Reading a Free Preview. Christian Whiton, an official in the George W. Anti-American demonstrations followed in the Philippines , Turkey , Bangladesh , India , the UAE , Pakistan , and Kuwait. Amongst the various reasons for the global strength of Islamism are:. Gerges to be "the founding father and leading theoretician" of modern jihadists, such as Osama bin Laden.
wiki political aspects islam
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Autism and similar neuro-developmental conditions vary widely in severity from person to person, making it challenging to diagnose and devise a course of treatment. Researchers at the University of Rochester recently completed a study that could provide an early diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
The rapid eye movements we make when we shift our attention from one object to another are known as saccades. According to the study’s authors, these movements are “essential to navigating, understanding, and interacting with the world around us. In healthy individuals, these saccades are rapid, precise, and accurate, redirecting the line of sight from one point of interest to another.”
The area of the brain that controls saccades is the cerebellum. It has been traditionally understood to play a role in motor control and more recently recognized as essential to emotion and comprehension through its connections to the rest of the brain. According to the article, there is growing evidence that the makeup of the cerebellum is altered in people with ASD.
I think this discovery could potentially be very helpful. One of the current difficulties in medicine is being able to diagnose autism and other spectrum conditions early enough. With any autism spectrum disorder, the sooner we have the diagnosis, the better the chances are for improvement. I have treated children with autism who have actually lost their autism diagnosis altogether because we have been able to start treatment early enough, generally before the age of four. Click here or on the photo to read the article.
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IRON CLAD CONTRACT – This came about from the ironclad ships of the Civil War. It meant something so strong it could not be broken.
COBWEB – The Old English word for “spider” was “cob”.
SLEEP TIGHT– Early beds were made with a wooden frame. Ropes were tied across the frame in a crisscross pattern. A straw mattress was then put on top of the ropes. Over time the ropes stretched, causing the bed to sag. The owner would then tighten the ropes to get a better night’s sleep.
SHOWBOAT – These were floating theaters built on a barge that was pushed by a steamboat. These played small town along the Mississippi River . Unlike the boat shown in the movie “Showboat” these did not have an engine. They were gaudy and attention grabbing which is why we say someone who is being the life of the party is “showboating”.
CURFEW – The word “curfew” comes from the French phrase “couvre-feu”, which means “cover the fire”. It was used to describe the time of blowing out all lamps and candles. It was later adopted into Middle English as “curfeu” which later became the modern “curfew”. In the early American colonies homes had no real fireplaces so a fire was built in the center of the room. In order to make sure a fire did not get out of control during the night it was required that, by an agreed upon time, all fires would be covered with a clay pot called-a “curfew”.
There, don’t you feel smarter now?
Leave a Reply
Amazing Things You Didn’t Know about Animals (3 submissions)
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Network Virtualization 101
Network Virtualization 101 – Virtualization or VMware In order to understand network virtualization, it is important to understand what virtualization is. Virtualization, on the most basic level, is referred to as the process in which you enable a single hardware device, such as a desktop, to act as if it is several devices. This is done with virtualization software, such as VMware.
Atestate Informatica
In a workplace, the IT staff would install the virtualization software on a desktop and then load multiple operating systems on that same machine. Virtualization can, for example, enable a Mac computer to operate with an operating system like Windows as well as its own Apple-issued software.
Virtualizing a network
Now take the same concept to a network level and you simply have one network acting as several networks. If you already have a network set up, you will have many of the parts needed to create a virtual network such as network media, firewalls, storage hardware, hand-held devices and laptops, switches, and adapters. All you will need is the right virtualization software to install and you can set up a virtual network. For a great source on the right software to use, visit
Why virtualize your network?
There are several reasons why you might want to consider virtual networks for your business. First of all, virtualization can save you money because it requires less hardware than a traditional network does. Second, a virtual network makes it possible for people to connect even when in completely different parts of the country. For example, the sales department of an office in another country can work with the sales people in your corporate office through the same network. This means that everyone can access the same features as if they were in the same building, making work more productive and effective.
Third, a virtual network is considered more secure since it is run from one machine rather than multiple hardware devices, as a traditional network is. Fourth, with a virtual network you can monitor the traffic coming into your system more than you can on a regular network.
External or Internal virtual network?
There are two types of virtual networks—external and internal.
• External virtual network – typically used by large corporations and data centers to combine several local networks into a virtual network that is easier to manage.
• Internal virtual network – this network does not use an internet adapter. Connects virtual machines on a virtual server.
The future of virtualization
While virtualization has been available for quite some time, the technology is still in a developmental stage and tech companies are already working on new ways to apply it.
Hand-held devices
One new focus for virtualization is smart phones and tablets. Steve Herrod, chief technology officer at VMware, recently
told Wired Magazine’seditor that the company is working on a tool that will let large corporations install a virtual machine on a mobile device. The machine would enable the employee to work on the company’s mobile network and give companies the power to control what happens on that network.
Virtual data centers
Also on the development list for VMware is a virtual data center and this is a concept that is being explored by other virtualization companies as well.
Advanced virtual networks
Another company in Maryland, IP Technology Labs, recently announced that they have launched a new feature to their virtualization service that enables companies to set up a secure virtual network on any internet connection and in any location around the world.
Author Bio
David Malmborg works with Dell. When he isn’t working, he enjoys hiking, spending time with family and researching new technology. He is currently learning more about HPC and the intersect with the cloud. He recommends
following this linkfor more information.
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Drow Art Studio
creative tips to apply to your essay
Practical Advice On How To Write A 5000-Word Essay
If you are developing a 5000 word essay, you will want to make sure to follow this practical advice. It will help you write a successful paper effectively. It will help you develop a cohesive and informative essay.
1. Decide on a topic
2. Decide the topic that you will write your paper on. You will want to make sure that the topic that you choose is one that is narrow enough to write a short essay on and one that you find interesting. It is important to make sure that you are choosing a topic that is interesting because it will be easier to read an interesting paper.
3. Create a focus
4. Create a focus for your paper. Create your thesis statement, which will become your focus and the main statement that the paper is aiming to prove. It should be something that you have at least three reasons to back it up with.
5. Develop an outline
6. Next, you will make a plan as to what you will discuss in your paper. The outline is the blueprint that lists all of the ideas that you want to include in your paper in a logical order. You should use complete sentences with transitions. The transitions will link the ideas together and let your reader know that you are moving to a new topic. It is a very helpful way to create a flow in your information.
7. Draw up a draft
8. Now turn that outline into your draft. Flesh out your ideas to draw up your first draft. It is your first attempt at writing your paper. You will not want to worry too much about punctuation, grammar, and spelling. Just get your ideas on the paper at this stage in the process.
9. Edit your draft
10. Edit your draft next. Find any errors that you may not have handled in your drafting stage. Correct the errors and read it through several times to make sure that it makes sense.
11. Get expert help if you get stuck
12. If you get stuck, be sure to seek professional help. It is the best way to make sure that everything gets done correctly. They can help you with any step of the writing process and help you create a solid paper to hand in. you will find that they offer many services that you can benefit from.
© DrowArtStudio.com. | Academic writing prompts
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Do We Really Need 2.5 Parking Spaces for Every Car?
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Four states around the Great Lakes have an average of 2.5 parking-lot spaces per car, and that doesn’t even include parking structures or spots on the street, a new study finds. Purdue University researchers who surveyed Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin found that parking lots take up an incredible 5 percent of urban land in those states.
To people who regularly waste entire weekend mornings looking for parking (like many of us in the Bay Area do), this doesn’t sound so bad. But parking lots take a toll on the environment: By contributing to the urban heat island effect, parking lots can make cities hotter. They can conduct toxic runoff into streams and lakes, leading to poor water quality. They can also raise the temperature of waterways, which is bad news for plants and animals whose survival depends on cool enough water.
Discovery News interviewed UCLA parking expert Donald Shoup about how to solve this problem:
“Parking is so heavily regulated in terms of minimum spaces,” said Shoup. Typically city or county regulations require a certain minimum number of spaces per square feet of floor space of business. The type of business matters too.
Restaurants, for instance, require more space than an accountant’s office. But it’s a minimum, not a maximum number of spaces, and there is a tendency for businesses to lean towards more spaces, since no one wants to lose a customer because of lack of parking.
As a result, cities have no way of knowing how many parking spaces there are, Shoup said.
Several things can be done, however, to keep parking lots from taking over, he said. One is to set maximums for parking spaces. Another is to allow businesses and residential areas to share parking areas, so that a bank, for instance, uses the parking during the day and a bar uses it at night.
Street parking obviously makes use of already-existing paved areas, but there’s not enough of it in most cities, and endless driving around searching for a spot wastes gas and creates carbon emissions. One solution: this phone app, which shows you the nearest available parking spaces. Any other parking-lot proliferation solutions you can think of, readers?
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Describe the relationship between the criminal justice system and society? How do past, present, and future trends impact the development of community relations for criminal justice organizations? What recommendations would you make to enhance the interface between the society and the criminal justice system?
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Tzu Chi Compassion Relief Foundation
Doctrines The Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Association is a Buddhist organization in modern Taiwan. As such, it holds no doctrinal position over against Chinese Buddhism as a whole. The Association places a special emphasis on charitable giving (one of the traditional Six Perfections of Mahayana Buddhism) as the key to the religious life, and promotes the Confucian conception of individual morality as the foundation of a good society. It has also made some modifications in religious practice in an effort to meet the needs of Buddhist laypeople in contemporary society. In particular, in addition to the Five Lay Precepts (not to kill, steal, engage in sexual immorality, lie, or use intoxicants), which have been part of Buddhist practice since the time of the Buddha, the Association enjoins an additional five precepts: not to smoke, not to chew betel nut, not to gamble, to be filial sons and good husbands and fathers, and to buckle their safety belts when driving a car or wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle. (Jones 1996:390-396)
History In 1966, a young nun named Zhengyan (Cheng-yen) founded the Association following a remarkable series of experiences. She had already lived for several years as a self-ordained nun practising austerities in the mountains of southeastern Taiwan, and had displayed paranormal phenomena prior to seeking formal ordination as a disciple of the eminent monk Yinshun. Immediately prior to founding the Association, she had witnessed the death of a poor woman from a miscarriage in a local clinic when the doctor turned her away for failing to pay the deposit. Shortly thereafter, some Catholic nuns visited her and criticized Buddhism for its lack of social concern.
As a result, she called together a group of laywomen and asked them to put aside a small amount of money each day to provide medical care to the poor. At the same time, she strove for a self-sufficient lifestyle by selling handicrafts so that she would not have to divert any money from donations to her own upkeep. The idea of her organization spread quickly. In its first year, it had thirty members and collected the equivalent of US$720. By 1994, it had 3.5 million members worldwide and collected approximately US$61 million. It has also constructed a modern hospital, a nursing school, and a medical college in the poverty-stricken eastern seaboard of Taiwan, and has plans for a complete university.
Symbols The founder, Ven. Zhengyan, serves as the primary symbol for the Association. Photographs of her adorn every building and every publication, and she inspires believers with her life-story in which, despite poverty, poor health, and being a female in a male-dominated society, she has accomplished great things. Secondarily, the Association takes its white-marble hospital building and the small and simple temple in which Zhengyan resides as symbols of his mission. The women also dress in a blue uniform modelled on traditional Chinese feminine garb.
Adherents As of 1994, the Association had 3.5 million members in Taiwan, Canada, the United States, Malaysia, Singapore, England, and Japan. (Jones 1996:382)
Main Centre
Still Thoughts Vihara, Te-hsing Road 143-100, Hualien City, Taiwan, Republic of China.
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Hedgehogs as Pets
All three species prefer a warm climate (above 72°F/22°C) and do not hibernate. They eat an insectivore diet. Commonly, this is replaced with cat food and ferret food and is supplemented by insects and other small animals. Dog and cat food is bad for hedgehogs and often causes liver damage among other things.
Today, many pet stores sell hedgehog mixes that are specifically formulated for hedgehogs. Crickets, mealworms, and pinkies (baby mice) are also favored treats. It is illegal to own a hedgehog as a pet in some U.S. states and some Canadian municipalities, and breeding licenses are required. No such restrictions exist in most European countries.
The purchase of domesticated hedgehogs has seen a considerable increase in the last few years due to their apparently innocent and playful looks. Hedgehogs are difficult to maintain as pets due to their low resistance to climate and temperature changes, and their inability to adapt to enclosed
Hedgehogs are a powerful form of pest control. A single hedgehog can keep an average garden free of pests by eating up to 200 grams of insects each night. Therefore, it is common throughout United Kingdom to see people attempting to lure hedgehogs into their gardens with treats and hedgehog-sized holes in their fences.
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One problem with using hedgehogs for garden pest control is the use of chemical insecticide. While the hedgehog is immune to most poisons, it is not immune to them when ingesting insects full of the poison. This causes many hedgehog deaths where pet hedgehogs eat contaminated bugs within the house.
Hedgehog diseases
There are many diseases common to hedgehogs, mostly fatal. These include cancer, fatty liver disease, cardiovascular disease, and wobbly hedgehog syndrome.
Fatty liver disease is believed by many to be caused by bad diet. Hedgehogs will eagerly eat foods that are high in fat and sugar. Having a metabolism designed for low-fat, protein-rich insects, this leads to common problems of obesity. Fatty liver disease is one sign, heart disease is another.
Wobbly hedgehog syndrome is very similar to multiple sclerosis in humans. The hedgehog slowly loses muscle control. Initially, it wobbles when attempting to stand still. Given time, the hedgehog loses all muscle control, including control of the lungs and heart. Vitamin E has been shown to delay the deterioration, but it is very temporary as a higher and higher dose is required.
Human influence
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedgehogs
Rainbow Wildlife Rescue, Texas
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Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
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Caption: Hurricane Katrina over the Louisiana coast on 29 August 2005, GOES12 satellite image. Katrina first made landfall near Miami, Florida on August 24 as a category 1 hurricane. It then moved south into the Gulf of Mexico where it intensified to a category 5 storm. It made landfall in Louisiana on 29 August, as a category 4 storm with sustained winds of 240 Kilometres per hour. Katrina caused immense damage and flooding and has killed over 1,800 people. Early estimates put the cost of the hurricane at $81 billion, making it the most expensive ever. Hurricanes are enormous rotating storm systems that form over tropical seas. They can be hundreds of kilometres wide.
Keywords: 21st century, 29 august 2005, 29/08/2005, american, climate, cloud, clouds, coast, costliest, earth observation, extreme, eye, from space, goes12 satellite, gulf of mexico, hurricane, hurricane katrina, land fall, louisiana, meteorological, meteorology, most expensive, natural disaster, satellite image, severe, severe storm, spiral, spiralling, storm, stormy, strong, system, united states, us, usa, weather, wind
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When you create a virtual machine, a certain amount of storage space on a datastore is provisioned to virtual disk files.
By default, ESXi offers a traditional storage provisioning method for virtual machines. With this method, you first estimate how much storage the virtual machine might need for its entire life cycle. You then provision a fixed amount of storage space to the VM virtual disk in advance, for example, 40 GB. The entire provisioned space is committed to the virtual disk. A virtual disk that immediately occupies the entire provisioned space is a thick disk.
ESXi supports thin provisioning for virtual disks. With the disk-level thin provisioning feature, you can create virtual disks in a thin format. For a thin virtual disk, ESXi provisions the entire space required for the disk’s current and future activities, for example 40 GB. However, the thin disk uses only as much storage space as the disk needs for its initial operations. In this example, the thin-provisioned disk occupies only 20 GB of storage. If the disk requires more space, it can expand into its entire 40 GB of provisioned space.
The graphic shows two virtual machines, one using a thick disk another a virtual disk in the thin format.
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Experts: Teen's 'Discovery' of Maya City is a Very Western Mistake
Why modern astronomical maps may not lead us to ancient sites.
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A Canadian teenager used the position of a constellation to identify the location of a possible Maya city where an anomaly, shown above in a satellite image, was observed. Further study on the ground is required to determine the nature of this feature.
Updated: May 18, 2016 (see below)
For gee-whiz value, the announcement has been hard to beat: A Canadian teenager discovers a lost Maya city without even stepping foot in the Central American jungle.
Unfortunately, this "discovery" appears to be the well-intentioned, albeit faulty, result of modern Western education colliding with an ancient civilization that saw the world in a very different way.
Anthony Aveni archaeoastronomer
According to the original news report, 15-year-old William Gadoury correlated more than 20 Maya constellations against a map of known Maya cities. The cities lined up perfectly with the star map, with the exception of a "missing" settlement in a constellation that includes the sites of Calakmul and El Mirador.
Gadoury pinpointed the location of the potential site in Campeche, Mexico by using its corresponding star. An analysis of satellite imagery from the location, performed by Armand LaRocque, an honorary research associate at the University of New Brunswick, allegedly revealed a pyramid and dozens of buildings.
While LaRocque identified anomalies in the satellite imagery, he says he did not conclusively interpret them as man-made features and adds that additional study is required.
The "discovery" of the site, which Gadoury has named K’aak Chi, or "Mouth of Fire," has been subsequently dismissed by several scholars.
Gadoury has not responded to interview requests.
View Images
William Gadoury, 15, reviews satellite imagery provided by the Canadian Space Agency with agency project manager Daniel De Lisle.
Imposing Western Maps on Maya Landscapes
To Anthony Aveni, an astronomer and anthropologist who is widely considered the "father of archaeoastronomy," trying to impose a one-to-one correspondence between a modern star map and a large number of ancient man-made features—whether it's Maya cities or the Nazca Lines— is simply an act of creative imagination.
"The idea of a map as we know it, as a scaled representation of geographic reality, is a modern Western concept," says Aveni, who adds that the cosmos is "certainly involved" in patterning how we build things on earth, but not to the degree of precision claimed by Gadoury.
In addition, while we know that the Maya recognized 13 zodiacal constellations, there are several different theories on what they represent and even how they're arranged, he adds.
"It's an interesting Western fantasy… we tend to look at these modern star maps and see things in the way we might see patterns in clouds," says Aveni, who cautions that he can't "close the door" on Gadoury's hypothesis until he sees the complete data.
The archaeoastronomist praises the teenager's imagination and initiative. "I think he's a very bright young man and an independent thinker. I hope he gets a college scholarship for his work."
Analyzing the Imagery
National Geographic Society grantee Francisco Estrada-Belli, who specializes in Maya archaeology and remote sensing, notes that while satellite imagery can show anomalies in the plant canopy, only a remote-sensing tool like LiDAR can "see" through the vegetation to give researchers a better idea of what's on the ground.
I am a firm believer that there are hundreds of Maya sites still to be discovered, and they're all over the place.
Francisco Estrada-Belli archaeologist
"If [Gadoury] can have access to LiDAR images, he can pretty much rule out certain areas, as well as confirm the location of even small Maya sites," Estrada observes.
Estrada adds that it's also completely possible that Gadoury may have located a Maya settlement by sheer coincidence.
"I am a firm believer that there are hundreds of Maya sites still to be discovered, and they're all over the place," he says. "The chances of putting your finger on one point on the map of the region [and finding a Maya settlement] are very good."
A Science-Fair Project Turned Media Sensation
Gadoury initially presented his findings at a scientific conference in 2014, after taking first prize at a local science fair for the project, titled "Born of Heaven." His presentation caught the attention of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), which provided him with satellite imagery.
"We realized that this kid needed a bit of support, so CSA provided some satellite imagery for him. The work is entirely his," says CSA project manager Daniel De Lisle.
"He's only 15, but he's got a bright future ahead of him," says De Lisle. "One day I may work for him."
Estrada also praises Gadoury's efforts. "He has to be applauded for coming up with the theory and applying it using these cutting-edge technologies that, as of now, are the most promising for mapping these sites in remote areas."
"I want to offer him an invitation to come to the jungle with me, and we can go find Maya sites together."
We'll let you know if the teenager takes the archaeologist up on his offer.
This article has been updated to clarify LaRocque's role in the satellite imagery analysis. In addition, the initial image provided by the CSA that was published in the article does not represent an anomaly that may be associated with a potential Maya settlement, according to LaRocque, who provided the replacement image.
Follow Kristin Romey on Twitter.
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What is a SCIF or Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility?
Simply stated, a SCIF is a U.S. Government accredited facility where Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) can be stored, discussed or electronically processed. Primarily Government and government-related contractors that require high security have the need for SCIFs. The areas of concern and special attention typically include physical security and hardening, acoustics controls, visual controls, access control, electronic and TEMPEST security.
The minimum requirements for SCIFs are defined in Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) 705/ IC Technical Specification. The directive describes many specialized construction requirements with the intention to ensure that high security features are built into the facility beyond those achieved by typical commercial construction. For example, all perimeter surfaces (walls, ceilings and floor) are to be constructed so that they will reveal evidence of unauthorized entry or tampering. Depending on each project’s individual performance requirements, additional materials may be required for construction, such as radiant barrier foil, physical perimeter hardening by use of expanded metal with heavier gauge metal studs, as well as additional protective acoustical features to prevent eavesdropping and collection of audio intelligence emanating from the SCIF. There are various methods of achieving the proper protective measures required for a fully accredited facility and these various methods can have a substantial cost impact on the project. Since the selection of which methods are to be used is determined by each project’s unique characteristics such as “Open” or “Closed” storage, Security in Depth (SID), Inspectable Space, as well as the surrounding conditions, it is most beneficial in terms of both time and money to properly design the facility prior to construction.
scif-03 A few of the many specialized requirements are;
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Wednesday, November 26, 2008
A free market is a market where prices of goods and services are arranged completely by the mutual non-coerced consent of sellers and buyers, determined generally by the supply and demand law with no government interference in the regulation of costs, supply and demand. The opposite of a free market is a controlled market, where government sets or regulates prices directly or through regulating supply and/or demand.[1] Although a free market necessitates that government does not regulate supply, demand, and prices, it also requires the traders themselves do not coerce or mislead each other, so that all trades are morally voluntary.[2] This is not to be confused with a perfect market where individuals have perfect information and there is perfect competition.
Voluntary exchange
The key idea of a free market is voluntary exchange. If an exchange takes place under coercion or fraud, then that exchange is not considered a free market exchange. For example, if someone threatens someone with a gun to purchase what he is selling or exaggerates the item's quality, then that is a not a free market. If the government legally prevents a merchant from selling his goods at any prices he wishes and that buyers agree upon, that is not a free market. Or, if the government decrees what quantity of a commodity one must manufacture, it is not a free market. Thus, the operation of supply and demand is not sufficient for a free market if decisions on supply and demand are made under the threat of coercion. If an individual is lied to in order to persuade him to purchase something, such as when a product or service is misrepresented, this is not considered morally voluntary either. Thus, a free market is one without "force or fraud."
In the realm of advertising and product regulation, fraud may also be considered the attempt to manipulate the inherent attributional errors stemming from human design.
Supply and demand
Supply and demand are always equal as they are the two sides of the same set of transactions, and discussions of "imbalances" are a muddled and indirect way of referring to price. However, in a unmeasurable qualitative sense, demand for an item (such as goods or services) refers to the market pressure from people trying to buy it. They will "bid" money for the item, while sellers offer the item for money. When the bid matches the offer, a transaction can easily occur (even automatically, as in a typical stock market). In reality, most shops and markets do not resemble the stock market (eg the job market), and there are significant costs and barriers to "shopping around" (comparison shopping).
When demand exceeds supply, suppliers can raise the price. Consumers who can afford the higher prices may still buy, but others may forgo the purchase altogether, buy a similar item, or shop elsewhere. (i.e., the consumer might say: "A two-dollar hot dog? I'd rather buy a hamburger at McDonald's!"). As the price rises, suppliers may also choose to increase production. Or more suppliers may enter the business. For example, the gourmet coffee business, pioneered by Starbucks, revealed a demand for three-dollar cups of coffee. Other stores began offering such coffee to satisfy the demand.
Increased demand (meaning volume) can indirectly result in lower prices, particularly with computers and other electronic devices. Mass production techniques have been steadily reducing prices 20 to 30% per year since the 1960s. The functions of a multi-million dollar mainframe computer in the 1960s could be performed by a $500 dollar computer in the 2000s. The camcorder has been said to place "a television studio in your hand".
Economic equilibrium
The law of supply and demand predominates in the ideal free market, influencing prices toward an equilibrium that balances the demands for the products against the supplies. At these equilibrium prices, the market distributes the products to the purchasers according to each purchaser's preference (or utility) for each product and within the relative limits of each buyer's purchasing power.
This equilibrating behavior of free markets makes certain assumptions about their agents, for instance that they act independently. Some models in econophysics have shown that when agents are allowed to interact locally in a free market (ie. their decisions depend not only on utility and purchasing power, but also on their peers' decisions), prices can become unstable and diverge from the equilibrium, often in an abrupt manner.The behavior of the free market is thus said to be non-linear (a pair of agents bargaining for a purchase will agree on a different price than 100 identical pairs of agents doing the identical purchase). Speculation bubbles and the type of herd behavior often observed in stock markets are quoted as real life examples of non-equilibrium price trends. Free-market advocates, especially Austrian school followers, often dismiss this endogenous theory, and blame external influences, such as weather, commodity prices, technological developments, and government meddling on non-equilibrium prices.
Distribution of wealth
On the purely theoretical level proponents of a free market do not care about the distribution of wealth resulting from the system, however, on a practical political level the issue is important. The distribution of purchasing power in an economy depends to a large extent on the nature of government intervention, social class, labor and financial markets, but also on other, lesser factors such as family relationships, inheritance, gifts and so on. Many theories describing the operation of a free market focus primarily on the markets for consumer products, and their description of the labor market or financial markets tends to be more complicated and controversial. The free market can be seen as facilitating a form of decision-making through what is known as dollar voting, where a purchase of a product is tantamount to casting a vote for a producer to continue producing that product.
The effect of economic freedom on society's and individuals' wealth remains a subject of controversy. Kenneth Arrow and Gerard Debreu have shown that under certain idealized conditions, a system of free trade leads to Pareto efficiency, but the traditional Arrow-Debreu paradigm within economics is now being challenged by the new Greenwald-Stiglitz paradigm (1986) [3]. Many advocates of free markets, most notably Milton Friedman, have also argued that there is a direct relationship between economic growth and economic freedom, though this assertion is much harder to prove both theoretically and empirically, as the continuous debates among scholars on methodological issues in empirical studies of the connection between economic freedom (EF) and economic growth clearly indicate: [8] [9] [10]. "there were a few attempts to study relationship between growth and economic freedom prior to the very recent availability of the Fraser data. These were useful but had to use incomplete and subjective variables" [11].An Empirical Study Joshua Epstein and Robert Axtell have attempted to predict the properties of free markets in an agent-based computer simulation called sugarscape. They came to the conclusion that, again under idealized conditions, free markets lead to a Pareto distribution of wealth.
On the other hand more recent research, specially the one led by Joseph Stiglitz seems to contradict Friedman's conclusions. According to Boettke:
Laissez-faire economics
The necessary components for the functioning of an idealized free market include the complete absence of artificial price pressures from taxes, subsidies, tariffs, or government regulation (other than protection from coercion and theft), and no government-granted monopolies (usually classified as coercive monopoly by free market advocates) like the United States Post Office, Amtrak, arguably patents, police, fire fighter, US Armed Forces, etc.
In an absolutely free-market economy, all capital, goods, services, and money flow transfers are unregulated by the government except to stop collusion that may take place among market participants. As this protection must be funded, such a government taxes only to the extent necessary to perform this function, if at all. This state of affairs is also known as laissez-faire. Internationally, free markets are advocated by proponents of economic liberalism; in Europe this is usually simply called liberalism. In the United States, support for free market is associated most with libertarianism. Since the 1970s, promotion of a global free-market economy, deregulation and privatization, is often described as neoliberalism. The term free market economy is sometimes used to describe some economies that exist today (such as Hong Kong), but pro-market groups would only accept that description if the government practices laissez-faire policies, rather than state intervention in the economy. An economy that contains significant economic interventionism by government, while still retaining some characteristics found in a free market is often called a mixed economy.
Low barriers to entry
A free market does not require the existence of competition, however it does require that there are no barriers to new market entrants. Hence, in the lack of coercive barriers it is generally understood that competition flourishes in a free market environment. It often suggests the presence of the profit motive, although neither a profit motive or profit itself are necessary for a free market. All modern free markets are understood to include entrepreneurs, both individuals and businesses. Typically, a modern free market economy would include other features, such as a stock exchange and a financial services sector, but they do not define it.
Legal tender and taxes
In a truly free market economy, money would not be monopolized by legal tender laws or by a central money maker authority which coerces society to use its own money as the unique medium of exchange in trades, in order to receive taxes from the transactions or to be able to issue loans. Minarchists (advocates of minimal government) contend that the so called "coercion" of taxes is essential for the market's survival, and a market free from taxes may lead to no market at all. By definition, there is no market without private property, and private property can only exist while there is an entity that defines and defends it. Traditionally, the State defends private property and defines it by issuing ownership titles, and also nominates the central authority to print or mint currency. "Free market anarchists" disagree with the above assessment -- they maintain that private property and free markets can be protected by voluntarily-funded services under the concept of individualist anarchism and anarcho-capitalism . A free market could be defined alternatively as a tax-free market, independent of any central authority, which uses as medium of exchange such as money, even in the absence of the State. It is disputed, however, whether this hypothetical stateless market could function freely, without coercion and violence.
Ethical justification
The ethical justification of free markets takes two forms. One appeals to the intrinsic moral superiority of autonomy and freedom (in the market), see deontology. The other is a form of consequentialism—a belief that decentralised planning by a multitude of individuals making free economic decisions produces better results in regard to a more organized, efficient, and productive economy, than does a centrally-planned economy where a central agency decides what is produced, and allocates goods by non-price mechanisms. An older version of this argument is the metaphor of the Invisible Hand, familiar from the work of Adam Smith.
Modern theories of self-organization say the internal organization of a system can increase automatically without being guided or managed by an outside source. When applied to the market, as an ethical justification, these theories appeal to its intrinsic value as a self-organising entity. Other philosophies such as some forms of Individualist anarchism and Mutualism (economic theory) anarchism believe that a truly "free market" would result in prices paid for goods and services to align with the labor embodied in those things.
In practice
While the free-market is an idealized abstraction, it is useful in understanding real markets whether artificially created and regulated by governments or non-governmental agencies, or phenomena such as the black market and the underground economy, which can be remarkably robust in persisting despite attempts to suppress these markets; in fact, many proponents of the free market point to sectors such as the drug trade to prove the phenomenon is both spontaneous and can function without government intervention though some would still prefer the contracts be brought under court protection.
Index of economic freedom
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, tried to identify the key factors which allow to measure the degree of freedom of economy of a particular country. In 1986 they introduced Index of Economic Freedom, which is based on some fifty variables. This and other similar indices do not define a free market, but measure the degree to which a modern economy is free, meaning in most cases free of state intervention. The variables are divided into the following major groups:
• Trade policy,
• Fiscal burden of government,
• Government intervention in the economy,
• Monetary policy,
• Capital flows and foreign investment,
• Banking and finance,
• Wages and prices,
• Property rights,
• Regulation, and
• Informal market activity.
Each group is assigned a numerical value between 1 and 5; IEF is the arithmetical mean of the values, rounded to the hundredth. Initially, countries which were traditionally considered capitalistic received high ratings, but the method improved over time. Some economists, like Milton Friedman and other free market fundamentalists have argued that there is a direct relationship between economic growth and economic freedom, but this assertion has not been proven yet, both theoretically and empirically. Continuous debates among scholars on methodological issues in empirical studies of the connection between economic freedom (EF) and economic growth still try to find out what is the relationship, if any. [8] [9] [10]. [11].
:"In recent years a significant amount of work has been devoted to the investigation of a possible connection between the political system and economic growth. For a variety of reasons there is no consensus about that relationship, especially not about the direction of causality, if any." (AYAL & KARRAS, 1998, p.2) [11]
History and ideology
Some theorists assert that a free market is a natural form of social organization, and that a free market will arise in any society where it is not obstructed (ie Ludwig von Mises, Hayek). The consensus among economic historians is that the free market economy is a specific historic phenomenon, and that it emerged in late medieval and early-modern Europe. Other economic historians see elements of the free market in the economic systems of Classical Antiquity, and in some non-western societies.By the 19th century the market certainly had organized political support, in the form of laissez-faire liberalism. However, it is not clear if the support preceded the emergence of the market or followed it. Some historians see it as the result of the success of early liberal ideology, combined with the specific interests of the entrepreneur.
In Marxist theory, the ideology simply expresses the underlying long-term transition from feudalism to capitalism. Note that the views on this issue - emergence or implementation - do not necessarily correspond to pro-market and anti-market positions. Libertarians would dispute that the market was enforced through government policy, since they believe it is a spontaneous order and Marxists agree with them because they as well believe it is evolutionary, although with a different end.
Support for the free market as an ordering principle of society is above all associated with liberalism, especially during the 19th century. (In Europe, the term 'liberalism' retains its connotation as the ideology of the free market, but in American usage it came to be associated with government intervention, and acquired a pejorative meaning for supporters of the free market.) Later ideological developments, such as minarchism, libertarianism and objectivism also support the free market, and insist on its pure form. Although the Western world shares a generally similar form of economy, usage in the United States is to refer to this as capitalism, while in Europe 'free market' is the preferred neutral term. Modern liberalism (American usage), and in Europe social democracy, seek only to mitigate what they see as the problems of an unrestrained free market, and accept its existence as such.
To most libertarians, there is simply no free market yet, given the degree of state intervention in even the most 'capitalist' of countries. From their perspective, those who say they favor a "free market" are speaking in a relative, rather than an absolute, sense—meaning (in libertarian terms) they wish that coercion be kept to the minimum that is necessary to maximize economic freedom (such necessary coercion would be taxation, for example) and to maximize market efficiency by lowering trade barriers, making the tax system neutral in its influence on important decisions such as how to raise capital, e.g., eliminating the double tax on dividends so that equity financing is not at a disadvantage vis-a-vis debt financing. However, there are some such as anarcho-capitalists who would not even allow for taxation and governments, instead preferring protectors of economic freedom in the form of private contractors.
Whether the marketplace should be or is free is disputed; many assert that government intervention is necessary to remedy market failure that is held to be an inevitable result of absolute adherence to free market principles. These failures range from military services to roads, and some would argue, to health care. This is the central argument of those who argue for a mixed market, free at the base, but with government oversight to control social problems.
Critics of laissez-faire variously see the "free market" as an impractical ideal or as a rhetorical device that puts the concepts of freedom and anti-protectionism at the service of vested wealthy interests, allowing them to attack labor laws and other protections of the working classes.
Because no national economy in existence fully manifests the ideal of a free market as theorized by economists, some critics of the concept consider it to be a fantasy - outside of the bounds of reality in a complex system with opposing interests and different distributions of wealth.
Martin J. Whitman
Not all advocates of capitalism consider free markets to be practical. For example, Martin J. Whitman has written, in a discussion of Keynes, Friedman and Hayek, that these "…great economists…missed a lot of details that are part and parcel of every value investor's daily life." While calling Hayek "100% right" in his critique of the pure command economy, he writes "However, in no way does it follow, as many Hayek disciples seem to believe, that government is per se bad and unproductive while the private sector is, per se good and productive. In well-run industrial economies, there is a marriage between government and the private sector, each benefiting from the other." As illustrations of this, he points at "Japan after World War II, Singapore and the other Asian Tigers, Sweden and China. The notable exception is Hong Kong which found prosperity on an extremely austere free market concept.
He argues, in particular, for the value of government-provided credit and of carefully crafted tax laws.[18] Further, Whitman argues (explicitly against Hayek) that "a free market situation is probably also doomed to failure if there exist control persons who are not subject to external disciplines imposed by various forces over and above competition." The lack of these disciplines, says Whitman, lead to "1. Very exorbitant levels of executive compensation… 2. Poorly financed businesses with strong prospects for money defaults on credit instruments… 3. Speculative bubbles… 4. Tendency for industry competition to evolve into monopolies and oligopolies… 5. Corruption." For all of these he provides recent examples from the U.S. economy, which he considers to be in some respects under-regulated,[19] although in other respects over-regulated (he is generally opposed to Sarbanes-Oxley).[20]
He believes that an apparently "free" relationship—that between a corporation and its investors and creditors—is actually a blend of "voluntary exchanges" and "coercion". For example, there are "voluntary activities, where each individual makes his or her own decision whether to buy, sell, or hold" but there are also what he defines as "[c]oercive activities, where each individual security holder is forced to go along…provided that a requisite majority of other security holders so vote…" His examples of the latter include proxy voting, most merger and acquisition transactions, certain cash tender offers, and reorganization or liquidation in bankruptcy.[21] Whitman also states that "Corporate America would not work at all unless many activities continued to be coercive."[22]
"I am one with Professor Friedman that, other things being equal, it is far preferable to conduct economic activities through voluntary exchange relying on free markets rather than through coercion. But Corporate America would not work at all unless many activities continued to be coercive."[23]
Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky has argued that the asymmetric application of free market principles creates a "privatized tyranny": "The talk about labor mobility doesn't mean the right of people to move anywhere they want, as has been required by free market theory ever since Adam Smith, but rather the right to fire employees at will. And, under the current investor-based version of globalization, capital and corporations must be free to move, but not people, because their rights are secondary, incidental." Further, he emphasizes that it can matter what entities have rights in the market—"Do they inhere in persons of flesh and blood, or only in small sectors of wealth and privilege? Or even in abstract constructions like corporations, or capital, or states?"—and remarks that of what he sees as the three tyrannical systems of the 20th century, Bolshevism, and fascism have "collapsed", but "private corporatism… is alive and flourishing… [a] system of state corporate mercantilism disguised with various mantras like globalization and free trade."[24]
Chomsky argues that the wealthy use free-market rhetoric to justify imposing greater economic risk upon the lower classes, while being insulated from the rigours of the market by the political and economic advantages that such wealth affords.[25] He remarked, "the free market is socialism for the rich—[free] markets for the poor and state protection for the rich."[26]
Catholic Church
As explained in Rerum Novarum[27] and The Catechism of the Catholic Church,[28] the Catholic Church upholds the right to private property, requires the employer to pay a decent wage to support the worker, requires the worker to work faithfully and respect the property of his employer, and does not permit "the market" to be used as an excuse to violate moral principles.
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What are the Differences between Mortar, Concrete, and Cement?
what are the differences between mortar concrete cement all nu constructionAs a homeowner on a budget, you like to be involved directly in your home repairs and renovations. You want to know what’s going on so you can sleep soundly knowing you got a good deal. If you plan on getting stonework or masonry done in the near future it’s important to know the differences between mortar, concrete, and cement.
Mortar is more of a binding agent than a building block. The white material you sometimes see between bricks and other blocks in stone structures? That’s mortar. You can think of it as a very strong glue made of a mix of cement, sand, and water.
One major downside of mortar is that it weakens with age and needs to be repaired fairly often (every 25 to 50 years). Mortar is very sensitive to temperature and weather so while it’s useful in small parts to bind things together it’s rarely used as the main material in a construction project. You would end up with a pretty weak and unsafe structure.
Concrete is similar to mortar as it is also made from a mix of cement, sand, and water. The difference is that it contains less water and rocks are mixed in as well. Mixing the rocks in makes it significantly more durable than mortar and also extremely fire resistant to boot. It’s produced with less water than mortar which means it’s not as sticky, so it’s less useful as a binding agent.
You see concrete used most often to support large structures. Beams, walls and other elements of the foundation are generally made of concrete reinforced with steel rebar to give it an even longer life. Using it as a binding material isn’t recommended but as a supporting element in large construction projects it’s strength is nearly unmatched.
Cement is another binding material. As you saw above it is used to produce both mortar and concrete. In that way, it is a very fundamental element of construction. Cement can be made from a variety of inorganic material including limestone, shells, and clay. The manufacturing process of cement is extremely precise and a lot of chemical testing is done to ensure it complies with industry standards.
You wouldn’t generally use cement by itself for any kind of construction. It’s most common uses are to create other materials for use in construction. Trying to use it for anything else would most likely be a mistake and a costly one at that.
To sum things up:
• Mortar is like a glue that holds construction blocks together. Don’t use it as a primary building material
• Concrete is much more durable thanks to the addition of stone chips or rocks. You can use it as support i.e. walls, beams and foundation.
• Cement is used to produce both mortar and concrete. You don’t generally see it used as a building material by itself.
Knowing the right material to use for your home improvement projects before you begin saves you both time and money. For a free cost estimate on your masonry project, contact All-Nu Construction.
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Sunday, September 12, 2010
Urban Farming: On-line Solutions
1. Tetris Garden
NEED: A novice needs to know how to plant certain plants, and where to plant certain plants in relationship to others.
This feature will take in what the user is planting, and the size/proportion of their plot. It will be able to show the user where to plant the tomato plant in relationship to the ocra plant and so on. It will more specifically show the user the best way to plant the garden geographically. They will be able to see this garden unfold on their ipad, and they will be able to drag icons of plants too see if they can't figure it out first. The system will be able to tell them why a plant can't be planted next to another, and will automatically fix it for them.
2. Ripeness Meter
NEED: Our users need to know whether or not the produce they good is ripe enough to eat.
The user will be able to take a photo with their iphone, or upload an image on-line. They will be able to automatically see info overlaid on the image, that will reveal how ripe the produce is. It will also be able to tell them if it is good to eat. They will be able to take take a picture with their iphone, and the information will overlay on top of the image. They will also be able to weigh their produce with this feature, by laying a tomato on the iphone it will take in ounces.
3. Caring Schedule
NEED: The user needs to know when to water the plant, and when to feed it to keep it healthy/alive.
This will be an on-line schedule that will remind the user daily of when to water their plant, feed their plant, etc. It will provide the user with knowledge on how to successfully grow the plant day by day. The iphone will give them daily updates, and alarms that might say "water the tomato plant once in the morning and afternoon. Be sure to sure to use at least 2 cups of water each time."
4. Volunteer Schedule
NEED: Our users need one master schedule in order to communicate in terms of who will work when, and who can work.
A large on-line database will keep track of volunteers schedules. They will all theoretically have bios, and they will be able to see which farms are needed help on specific days. This way they can volunteer wherever, whenever. This feature will be on the iphone, and on-line. The volunteers can check in on their iphone, and it will automatically tell the online hub that they showed up.
5. Rewards
NEEDS: The proud urban farmer needs some feedback and reckognition on how great they are.
By uploading photographs, via iphone or camera, the members of the site will receive recognition for their gardening strengths. Rewards will probably consist of being on the initial page of the site for a month. It could be for best looking tomato, or largest eggplant, etc...
6. Location Finder of plot
NEED: A user that is new to the area might need to find a spot within the large urban farm to plant their tomatoes.
Our users will be able to locate new and old plots for their produce. They can find plots that are near or far, and plots that specialize in certain produces. This will benefit those that are new to the city, but haven't been able to plant their own produce yet. For example...Hey! we're looking for a new volunteer who would like to plant some cabbage on the east side of the north land plot. They can use this feature online, so they can utilize some large mapping features.
7. Land meter
NEED: The user is planting an eggplant and needs to know whether or not the soil in a specific plot has successfully grown eggplant in the past.
Each plot, registered on the site, will be rated by our users. They will be able to tell you that the plot is really good tomato's, but they may not have had much luck growing eggplant. The iphone will be primarily used in this since it is a good "on the go" device.
8. Equipment Rental
NEED: they need to borrow a shovel to plant some radishes.
For Budget purposes we will have an equipment rental feature. Instead of buying a new rake, our user will be able to rent, or even borrow, a rake for a week for another volunteer. This will also help them to socialize with other urban farmers within the area. Online, they will be able to see what is available.
9. Live Feed
NEED: Our users need visual evidence that the garden exists, and they trust that seeing the real thing.
We will also do live footage of a different urban farm each week. Our users can watch other farms from the comfort of their own home. Or, they can go to that garden when they see others planting/needing help. They can watch on any platform, iphone, ipad, or online.
10. Design a Garden
NEED: Our users need social connections, and shared knowledge between gardeners.
Our users will be able to plot their own dream garden. Others can help out, so it would be a cooperative brainstorm online. The community could type in what all they would like to plant in a certain area one day in the future. It will help them plan out new urban farms.
11. What's growing in the garden?
Each plant gets logged in the digital garden. Everyone knows what's growing so people don't plant multiples of things. Confusion is avoided with this handy dandy check list.
12. Seed Bank
The online database for the phone and the website is your one stop shop for all your seeds, including heirloom. See who's offering what, where and how much. Database includes everything in North America and Canada.
13. Seasonal Recipes
If you're growing, you're sure to be cooking. This database of nifty recipes is even tied to the What's Growing in the Garden list so it'll notify you when you should be cooking squash soup or pea fritters!
14. Sign up Schedule
As a user, you'll be able to put in your availability and the database will store the information and let you know when you're needed.
15. Disease Meter
Don't know what's gotten to your plant? Take a photo of what's happening and get instant feedback from your gardening buddies.
16. Gardener Profiles
Looking for a team member with some specific abilities? Profiles on the site will be stored in a keyword database making searching for someone much much easier.
17. Plant profiles database
This will be also available on the iPhone app. Your guide to what's what in the world of gardening will help you understand what plants when, how long you've got to go until you can pick and when and how much you should be watering.
18. Plot meter
With your iPhone you can measure the length of the garden width ways and length ways and plan your rows accordingly.
19. Activity Calendar
Of course with every garden there has to be community meals, community work days and days when you have a special teacher in town teaching on up to the minute gardening methods. Check this schedule weekly, daily or get push notifications.
20. Who's at the garden
When you're there you can check one box and it'll notify your community. A great idea for security purposes and to let your friends know you might like some company!
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Good Women do not inherit Land
325 | 18
Category :
Author : Nitya Rao
Pages : 376
Edition : 2012
‘Good women should not claim a share in the inheritance, even if they have no brothers. …’ Notions such as this have, in their own way and over time, given the women in the Santal Parganas the resolve to wrest what is rightfully theirs. This is a powerful book in the way in which it unfolds the lives and anxieties of Santal women in the two villages of Dumka district, Jharkhand. From the very beginning, adivasi women come alive through separate life histories.
The author traces the relationship between Santals and their land from historic times to the modern era when they have access to both the modern legal system and their own customary laws. She also examines the role of external agencies in this struggle— government administrative bodies, non-governmental organizations and political leaders. As modern influences crowd out traditional mores the author asserts that development is not always a benign process of social advancement but a highly political struggle for re-negotiating power relations between men and women, and among social groups. Based on rich ethnographic material, this sensitive book lays bare the reality of being an adivasi and an adivasi woman, in all its nuances, in the modern globalized world.
50 in stock
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Gardening Tips & Flowers : How to Grow Blanket Flower (Gaillardia Grandiflora)
Posted on
Hi this is Yolanda Vanveen and in this segmentwe're going to learn all about gaillardia grandiflora also known as the blanket flower.
So gaillardia or blanket flower is found from southern America all the way down throughMexico into South America.
So they love hot full sun and dry hot summers.
They like hotfull sun and really dry summers.
They want to drink some water but they want to reallydry out in between.
They look just like little sunflowers but they come in gorgeous colors,reds and yellows and bright pinks and purples and they're named blanket flower because whenthe Europeans came to America, they found them everywhere and the Native Americans hadblankets that had all the different colors in them.
So the fields of the gaillardia remindedthem of the Indian blankets so they called them the blanket flower.
So gaillardia getsto be about three feet tall and you can actually dead head them and cut the blooms off as theyfade and they'll produce more blooms over the summer and they'll bloom into the falltill the first frost.
And they're an annual so you have to start them by seed every springand that way you can enjoy them every summer and you'll enjoy those gaillardias, they'rea great, great flower.
Source: Youtube
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Tuesday, 7 October 2014
Education, education
Two articles, both stating the fairly obvious, but in a way, don't they cancel out?
From King's College:
Eva Krapohl, joint first author of the study, from the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry (SGDP) Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s, says:
"Previous work has already established that educational achievement is heritable. In this study, we wanted to find out why that is. What our study shows is that the heritability of educational achievement is much more than just intelligence – it is the combination of many traits which are all heritable to different extents.
The researchers found that the heritability of GCSE scores was 62%. Individual traits were between 35% and 58% heritable, with intelligence being the most highly heritable. Together, the nine domains accounted for 75% of the heritability of GCSE scores.
From the BBC:
Pupils in poorer areas were likely to have fewer high-performing schools in travelling distance.
And within local areas, when individual sought-after schools used distance as a tie-breaker, it meant that wealthier families could afford to buy houses to get nearer to the front of the queue.
"Poor parents have fewer high performing schools available to them. This will remain true as long as proximity, and hence the size of your mortgage, determines access to such schools," said Anna Vignoles, professor of education at Cambridge University.
The good school = high house prices dilemma is easily solved. Stop taxing output and employment and tax land values instead. So the people in the catchment areas are at least indirectly paying for the education of people in cheaper areas.
But having solved that dilemma, we are left with the general conclusion that as intelligence etc. is hereditary and clever/confident people tend to earn more money, the better off people will always be the ones who can afford to buy/pay the LVT on homes near the best schools.
So best to start again from the beginning and try and make all schools into 'good' schools. There's no argument against that. Pissing about with lotteries for school places is a hiding to nothing.
A K Haart said...
"make all schools into 'good' schools."
Vouchers must be worth a try.
paulc156 said...
Making 'all schools good schools' is a no brainer. Something we should all agree upon in any case regardless of what percentage of intelligence is heritable.
That said, these studies come thick and fast and editorial bias often offers either misleading or partial interpretations of evidence. As yet no single gene or group of genes has been identified as being responsible for any such heritability, though that is not a reason to doubt it as an explanation it should suggest some caution in the interpretation of results.
Studies on identical twins [of which there have been many] have shown that when we view intelligence more broadly [ie;not just as IQ tests or GCSE's] there appears to be a whole range of activities identifiable as 'markers of intelligence' which either favour cultural or heritable origins as best fit explanations.
There is a recent meta study by Kees-Jan Kan into a whole raft of identical twins studies involving thousands of twins in 13 different countries which Scientific American encapsulated with a tentative takeaway conclusion thus:
"What these findings do suggest is that there is a much greater role of culture, education, and experience in the development of intelligence than mainstream theories of intelligence have assumed." The conclusion goes on to state what may seem obvious, that even where heritability is high, it is routinely reinforced by cultural factors.
mombers said...
I find the idea of making all schools 'good schools' troublesome. How do you make a school 'good' if most of the kids don't speak English as a first language? If most of them have single mums? You can throw as much money at the problem as you like but absent any middle class peers, how can the able students emerge from these black holes? How do you achieve assimilation of immigrants?
I think the lottery is a viable option. LVT is of course a good way to ensure that a good state education's value isn't syphoned off by landowners. Abolition of taxes on earned income could lift many out of crappy lives. But how do you counter the segregation that school selection creates? I would say that it actually strengthens homeownerism as the landed are insulated from the troubles of the landless. No one from Leafy Suburb College has to leave because they are priced out of the area.
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The Cassini spacecraft dove between Saturn and its rings: Here are the photos to prove it
Saturn's atmosphere as seen by Cassini.
Saturn's atmosphere as seen by Cassini.
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ssci
Cassini shot the gap and lived to tell the tale.
The Saturn-exploring spacecraft managed to successfully fly through the 1,500 mile gap between Saturn and its rings and survive seemingly unscathed.
New photos beamed home after it completed that daredevil maneuver show the planet's atmosphere from a closer distance than ever before. At its nearest point, Cassini flew about 1,900 miles above Saturn's clouds, which are mainly comprised of hydrogen and helium.
While the unprocessed images still look pretty rough, they show details of Saturn's atmosphere that aren't usually on display.
"No spacecraft has ever been this close to Saturn before. We could only rely on predictions, based on our experience with Saturn's other rings, of what we thought this gap between the rings and Saturn would be like," Cassini project manager Earl Maize said in a statement
NASA was confident that Cassini would move into its new orbit without much of a problem, but it was still a risky maneuver.
No spacecraft has ever explored this part of Saturn before, and Cassini was moving at about 77,000 miles per hour as it shot between the large planet and its rings. If even a relatively small particle had dinged the craft during its dive, it could have destroyed the spacecraft.
Cassini — which has been studying Saturn and its dozens of moons on humanity's behalf for 13 years — is nearing the end of its mission. But it's not quite finished with its daredevil-like feats.
The spacecraft is expected to dive through the gap between Saturn and its rings a total of 22 times, with the next drop happening on May 2.
The mission will come to an end on September 15 when Cassini makes a planned plunge into Saturn's atmosphere, burning up in the process.
WATCH: Watch clouds move above Saturn's largest moon in new NASA video
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RAIN WATER VS OCEAN WATER RAIN WATER is naturally acid due to the solubility of CO 2 in water. (also O 2 + N 2 ) CO 2(g) + H 2 O (l) H 2 CO 3(ag) Carbonic.
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Presentation on theme: "RAIN WATER VS OCEAN WATER RAIN WATER is naturally acid due to the solubility of CO 2 in water. (also O 2 + N 2 ) CO 2(g) + H 2 O (l) H 2 CO 3(ag) Carbonic."— Presentation transcript:
1 RAIN WATER VS OCEAN WATER RAIN WATER is naturally acid due to the solubility of CO 2 in water. (also O 2 + N 2 ) CO 2(g) + H 2 O (l) H 2 CO 3(ag) Carbonic Acid PH ~ 5.6 (normal range = 5 to 7 pH) The natural acidity of rain water promotes the erosion of land, the formation of underground caves, and maintenance of the nitrogen cycle.
2 Rain Water vs. Ocean Water OCEAN WATER also contains carbonic acid but instead of reverting back into CO 2 & H 2 O, it is neutralized by dissolved alkaline substances into CaCO 3. pH ~8.2 The products of neutralization end up on the ocean floor as insoluble solids. H 2 CO 3 + CaCO 3 Ca (HCO 3 ) 2 The ocean acts as a sink and does not allow CO2 to be released back into the atmosphere.
3 ACID RAIN Natural rain contains some dissolved CO 2 gas from the atmosphere, making rain slightly acidic ~ 5.6 pH. Acid rain refers to rain that has a pH lower than natural rain. pH 5.6 In the US, Acid rain has a pH 4 due to dissolved SO X and NO X gases. Different regions of the U.S. experience different acid rain.
4 Where is it a problem? Acid rain is a problem in eastern America because many of the water and soil systems in this region lack natural alkalinity - such as a lime base - and therefore cannot neutralize acid naturally.
6 What exactly is acid rain? "Acid rain" is a broad term used to describe several ways that acids fall out of the atmosphere. A more precise term is acid deposition, which has two parts: wet and dry.
7 Wet deposition Wet deposition refers to acidic rain, fog, and snow. As this acidic water flows over and through the ground, it affects a variety of plants and animals. The strength of the effects depend on many factors, including how acidic the water is, the chemistry and buffering capacity of the soils involved, and the types of fish, trees, and other living things that rely on the water.
8 Dry Deposition Dry deposition refers to acidic gases and particles. About half of the acidity in the atmosphere falls back to earth through dry deposition. The wind blows these acidic particles and gases onto buildings, cars, homes, and trees. Dry deposited gases and particles can also be washed from trees and other surfaces by rainstorms. When that happens, the runoff water adds those acids to the acid rain, making the combination more acidic than the falling rain alone.
9 How does Acid Rain happen? Acid rain occurs when these gases react in the atmosphere with water, oxygen, and other chemicals to form various acidic compounds. Sunlight increases the rate of most of these reactions. The result is a mild solution of sulfuric acid and nitric acid.
11 ACID RAIN pH < 5 - created by airborne pollutants (SO x, NO x, particulates, etc.) absorbed by atmospheric moisture. 2SO 2(g) + O 2(g) 2SO 3(g) SO 3(g) + H 2 O (l) H 2 SO 4(ag) - sulfuric acid is much stronger than carbonic acid - sulfuric acid eventually corrodes metals, paints and other exposed substances
12 SO x AS AIR POLLUTANT S + O 2 SO 2 or 2H 2 S + 3O 2 2SO 2 + 2H 2 O SO 2 + 1/2O 2 SO 3 SO3 + H 2 O H 2 SO 4 (acid rain) Produces Aerosols which are suspensions of tiny droplets of liquid in a gas. A suspension of solid in a liquid is called a colloid. General Information about H 2 SO 4 : - dissociates into H +, HSO 4 - & SO 4 2- a strong acid and a weak acid -
13 SO X Toxicity SO 2 toxic to plants 0.3 ppm for 8 hr causes severe damage to plants (choking effect) 1 hr - 5ppm - severe construction of brochial tubes H 2 SO 4 - acid is dangerous buildings, art, and statues CaCO 3 (marble) + H 2 SO 4 CaSO 4 + CO 2 + H 2 O, Fe + H 2 SO 4 FeSO 4 + H 2 CaCO 3 - limestone SiO 2 + Al 2 O 3 = clay: cement CaSO 4 · 2 H 2 O H 2 SO 4 - dangerous to plants, animals, oceans, forests and crops Acid rain changes the pH of lakes. This acid has a strong affinity for H 2 O that is, it removes H 2 O from organic materials or dehydrates.
14 NATURAL SOURCES: - geothermal emission - biological processes (marine & anaerobic bacteria) - volcano eruptions HUMAN SOURCES: - combustion of fossil fuels (autos, electricity, power plants, space heating, industry) - non combustion sources: *metal ore smelting plants H g S + O 2 H g + SO 2 (C u S, A g2 S, Z n S, P b S) *industrial plants (81,000 tons per day of SO 2 ) *wine industry (compounds used to kill fungi in barrels) *preservatives in fruit juices *bleaching agents *paper production *coal industry 4FeS 2(s) + 110 2 2Fe 2 O 3(s) + 8SO 2 SO x
15 H 2 SO 4 AS A WATER POLLUTANT Acid Mine drain: Pyrite (FeS 2 ) occurs along with coal, after mining operations, pyrite is exposed to moist O 2 (weather) 4 FeS 2 + 2 H 2 O + 15 O 2 Fe 2 (SO 4 ) 3 + 2H 2 SO 4 Unless controlled, acid drainage from coal mines can pollute streams, killing fish and other wildlife. In North East US 62% is H 2 SO 4 32% HNO 3 6% HCl
17 NATURAL SOURCES: - ~80% air is composed of N 2 so actions like lightning storms produce No x - bacterial action HUMAN SOURCES: - incomplete combustion of air - production of plastics, nylon, fertilizers and explosives. NO x
18 NO x AS AIR POLLUTANT Heat + N 2 + O 2 2 NO (radical) NO + 1/2 O 2 NO 2 3NO 2 + H 2 O 2 HNO 3 + NO Acid rain NO 2 is a brown toxic gas, affects respiratory system, chokes & damages lung tissue. Nitric Acid is a problem due to the abundance of N 2 in air. It readily reacts with metals to produce NO 2 which continues the cycle. Fe + 6HNO 3 Fe (NO 3 ) 3 + 3NO 2 + 3H 2 0 3NO 2 + H 2 O 2HNO 3 + NO cyclic
19 Table 6.1 Estimated Global Emissions of Sulfur and Nitrogen Oxides (in millions of metric tons per year) SourceSO 2 *No x ** Natural: Oceans 22 1 Soil and plants 2 43 Volcanoes 19 Lightning __ 15 Subtotals 43 59 Anthropogenic: Fossil Fuels combustion142 55 Industry (mainly ore smelting) 13 Biomass burning 5 30 Subtotals160 85 TOTALS203 144 Sources: *Data from Spiro, et al. “Global inventory of sulfur emissions with 1º X 1º resolution” in Journal of Geophysical Research, 97, No. D5, 6023, 1992. **United States Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality Criteria for Oxides of Nitrogen, EPA/600/8-91/04aA.
20 What are acid rain effects? damage to forests and soils, fish and other living things, materials, and human health reduces how far and how clearly we can see through the air Acid rain does not only effect organisms on land, but also effect organisms in aquatic biomes. Most lakes and streams have a pH level between six and eight. Some lakes are naturally acidic even without the effects of acid rain.
21 Effects on human causes toxic metals to break loose from their natural chemical compounds toxic metals that might be absorbed by the drinking water, crops, or animals that human need
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GEOL 240 The Dinosaurs: Sauropods
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Presentation on theme: "GEOL 240 The Dinosaurs: Sauropods"— Presentation transcript:
1 GEOL 240 The Dinosaurs: Sauropods
2 Sauropodomorphs
3 Ornithischia ("bird-hipped")
Saurischia ("lizard-hipped" or "reptile-hipped") Ornithischia ("bird-hipped")
4 Sauropodomorphs Name means "sauropod form"; Sauropoda means "lizard feet", even though their feet do not look much like lizard feet! · Characterized by: Enlarged nares An elongated neck Leaf-shaped teeth · Herbivores · “Primitive” forms are facultative bipeds; later forms were so large they were obligate quadrupeds · Were the largest herbivores ever to live on land; by the end of the Upper Triassic fossil forms had surpassed all previous land living animals in size, and kept on going…
5 Sauropodomorphs Unique Characteristics
heads that were very small compared to body spatulate teeth at least 10 elongated vertebrae in the neck short feet very large claws on the I digit of the forefoot
6 Sauropodomorphs
7 Composed of two groups: Sauropods & Prosauropods
8 Probably not the sharpest knives in the drawer
9 Prosauropods one of the first classes of plant-eating dinosaurs
Range from Upper Triassic to Lower Jurassic Evolutionary speculation on whether they form a paraphyletic grade leading to the Sauropoda; form their own monophyletic group Prosauropoda; or a combination of both. Generally thought of as closest relatives but not direct ancestors of sauropods Why the question? There is nothing “primitive” about them to suggest they were an ancestral grade.
10 Prosauropods Unique characteristics
First fossils small size (1.5-2 m long), but eventually reaching 10 m or more First fossil forms appear to have been obligate bipeds, (how could we tell that?) but as size increases they appear to become facultative bipeds A big thumb claw and grasping hands Some prosauropods may have had a beak, although this is uncertain
11 Prosauropods Unique characteristics cont.
Simple leaf-shaped teeth with no occlusion Only two or three sacrals: lower than almost all other dinosaur groups (9-11 in Edmontosarurus and Triceratops resp.) Prosauropods were the most common herbivorous dinosaurs from the Upper Triassic to the Lower Jurassic; no prosauropod fossils above the Middle Jurassic – i.e. none on the Ranch
12 Prosauropods Prosauropods were the first large-bodied dinosaur fossil group. Their long necks would allow them to browse higher in trees than any contemporaneous herbivores. Also, larger size would give them bigger guts to digest more plants and defense against predators.
13 Prosauropods fairly large (about 6-8 m long)
Plateosaurus, based on Galton (1990). fairly large (about 6-8 m long) Long neck, long tail, saurischian pelvis
14 Prosauropods
15 Prosauropods Jaw joint below the tooth row
16 Prosauropods Claw from digit I
17 Prosauropods have a body plan like a biped, but the trackways suggest that they usually walked quadrupedally forelimbs were at least two-thirds the length of the hind limbs digit I of the hand was much larger than the others and bore a large claw could conceivably have reared up on hind limbs to reach vegetation higher in trees
18 Prosauropods Herbivores long necks to extend vertical feeding range
had cheeks - allows food to be retained while chewed (How could you know that?) jaw hinge below tooth line tooth rows almost parallel spatulate teeth - resemble teeth of modern Iguana - a plant eating lizard discovery of gastroliths - gastric stones for grinding
19 Mussaurus “mouse-lizard” ~20 cm long probably a baby
suggests Prosauropods laid eggs
20 Sauropods Include the largest land animals of all time
The oldest known sauropod is from the end of the Late Triassic, but sauropods do not become common until the Middle Jurassic.
21 Sauropods Important Features
Extremely large size: all sauropods were at least elephant-sized as adults, and many much, much larger Obligate quadrupedality Reduced skull size Nares placed at least as high dorsally as the orbits Tooth-to-tooth occlusion for precise bites Extra cervical vertebrae Four or more sacrals Reduced number of phalanges on manus Long necks and tails
22 Sauropods
23 Sauropods Lateral temporal opening partially below orbit
24 Sauropods
25 Sauropods
26 Diplodocidae skulls were long and slender with elongate muzzles
the jaws bore peg-like teeth confined to the front of the mouth nostrils were on top of the skull in front and above the orbits Diplodocus Apatosaurus Dicraeosaurus
27 Diplodocus Bodies were long and relatively lightly built (including the longest, but not heaviest) necks were extremely long with an increased number of vertebrae fewer vertebrae in the back
28 Diplodocoids: Pencil-shaped teeth only at very end of snout
Nares are placed together above the orbits Tails ended in very narrow and long caudals Forelimbs much shorter than hindlimbs
30 Apatosaurus Apatosaurus
31 Apatosaurus His two skulls
32 Apatosaurus
33 Camarasauridae Short heavy skull with a blunt snout
large, spoon-shaped (spatulate) teeth along the entire length of the mouth large nostrils located on the sides of the skull just in front of the eyes solidly built body, neither overly long nor overly heavy only 12 neck vertebrae
34 Camarasauridae Camarasaurid limbs were stout with humerus to femur ratios of around 0.7 or more - relatively longer than in Diplodocids The wrist and ankle each had two bones
35 Brachiosaurids Probably the heaviest land animals to ever live
Skull and teeth resemble those of Camarasaurus forelimb was long with humerus to femur ratios of greater than 1.0 Shoulders were higher than hips
36 Brachiosaurids
37 Brachiosaurids 13 neck vertebrae - very elongated
dorsal vertebrate 50 vertebrate in tail - individually short so the tail is not that long
38 Cetiosaurids relatively small sauropods - 12 meters long
skull similar to camarasaurids with longer muzzle numerous, slender teeth - small spoon-shaped crowns 12 cervical vertebrae 13 dorsal vertebrae humerus-to-femur ratio about 0.66
40 Titanosauridae large number of vertebrae in sacrum (6)
one titanosaurid had body armor
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Straddle in a sentence
Definition of Straddle
to be on both sides of something; to sit or stand with one leg on either side of something
Use Straddle in a sentence
The photo shows Sally dressed in black jeans , straddling a horse.
The arch straddles the two borders of the United States and Canada, and is meant to represent the longest undefended boundary in the world.
My research topic straddles psychology and sociology.
The kid is not tall enough to straddle that bicycle seat.
My father was an immigrant straddling two cultures, Bosnian and Greek.
She had been famous for her straddle split jump, touching her toes with her fingers.
John has successfully straddled different cultures throughout his career.
The fence is easy to straddle and the attendant greasy and bored.
His farm literally straddled the border being partly in Hereford and partly in Brecon.
Most great straddle jumpers have a run at angles of about 30 to 40 degrees.
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Sunday, January 3, 2016
1st 5 Pages January Workshop - Goren
Name: Jessica L. Goren
Genre: Middle Grade; fantasy
Title: Pollin Pals: The Power of Flowers
It started just like any other day. The night creatures tucked themselves away in cozy dens and warm nests. The birds stretched their wings and sang their songs. The daytime animals shook off their dreams as they came out of their snug burrows. The bees buzzed, the ants marched and the butterflies flitted. As the dew-covered flowers opened their petals to welcome the sun, every drop of dew was full of rainbows from the first rays of sunlight. All was as it should be on a beautiful summer’s day. Or so everyone thought.
Just like the day before the animals played, the ants dug tunnels and the sun climbed higher and higher in the clear blue sky. But just as the sun reached its highest point in the sky a sharp cold wind blew in dark clouds. The clouds flew across the sky until they hid the sun from the world below. Harsh crashes of thunder cracked overhead, lightning sizzled across the sky and the rain poured down. The branches of the trees bent under heavy pools of rain collecting on their leaves. Water ran down the hills into the streams, streams turned into rivers and rivers overflowed into ponds. Water flooded all the low lying places. The flowers turned into tiny teacups as their petals filled with rain. And then, just before the sun was supposed to be marching off to bed, she burst through the clouds splashing purples and pinks and blues across the sky, chasing away the clouds before she fell below the horizon making room for the moon to rise.
Up came the moon, full and bright, bathing the world in a soft silvery light. And then something happened that made this day NOT like every other day. When the moonlight hit the rainwater in the tiny teacups of flowers, the water began to bubble. Not a big rolling boil, but just tiny little blips of bubbles here and there. Then the bubbles floated out of the teacups. Above each flower a bundle of bubbles swirled around collecting the moon’s light. It was weird that these bubbles were hanging above each flower, as if they belonged there. These bubbles didn’t belong there. But there they were. Who can say why? Maybe it was because it was the longest day of the year. Maybe it was because the flowers filled with rainwater couldn’t close for sleep like every other night. Maybe it was because the world was coated with the soft silvery light of the full moon. Maybe it was all of those things. Maybe it was none of them. But for whatever reason, there the bubbles were swirling above each flower, exactly where they didn’t belong. Then the bubbles did the oddest thing of all, even odder than just being there. Each group of swirling bubbles disappeared with a distinct pop and in their place was a tiny creature, with the body of a human, the wings of a dragon fly and the beauty of the flower from which they came. Each of the creatures gave a great big yawn and sank down into the flower from which they came, wrapped themselves with the petals and fell instantly to sleep.
When the sun came back the next day, her warm golden rays woke the creatures sleeping in the flowers. The creatures looked around, a bit confused. They looked at each other with their gossamer wings sparkling in the sunlight. One of the creatures looked down at herself. She saw that her body was long and lean. Her arms, legs and body were a deep shade of purple. She reached behind her head and pulled her long thick hair over one shoulder and saw it was a bright yellow. Then she looked left and right and saw the other creatures were similar to her but as different from as each other as one flower is from another. She was surprised to see the others. She was not sure what to do. She coughed a little and thought maybe I should say something. So she said, Hello” in her most grown up voice pretending to be much braver than she felt, “my name is Erisa”. She wasn’t sure how she knew her name
but it felt right.
The creature to Erisa’s right clasped her hands in front of herself, said, “My name is Sammy”. She quickly glanced down, her short black hair falling in front of her heart shaped face, hiding her large green eyes. Sammy was a tiny little thing. Her waist was narrow and she had long slender arms and legs. They were so thin they looked like little more than the stamen of the flower she came from. Her legs were deep green and her top half was a delicate pink that shone like the inside of a pearly shell.
Before Erisa could look at the creature on her left he blurted out, “Pieter, that’s my name, if you want to know.” Compared with Sammy, Pieter was huge. His thick legs and arms were the woody brown of a maple tree’s bark. His chest and back were a bright red. Across his nose was a sprinkle of freckles and on top of his head was a shock of bright orange hair that almost glowed.
The last creature was iridescent blue everywhere. He seemed to sparkle wherever the sunlight hit him. Finally he said, “My name’s Zeki. Does anyone know where we are?”
The others shook their heads. “I was just floating in a flower full of water, waiting to blow away in the wind, when I woke up here,” Erisa said. “Me too,” squeaked Sammy.
“Well what should we do?” Zeki asked.
They were quiet for a little while. Then Erisa perked up. “I think we should go explore.”
“Yeah, maybe we will find someone who knows what’s going on.” Zeki said. And with that, he started walking away.
“Wait! Where are you going?” Sammy squealed “Shouldn’t we stick together?”
Zeki laughed. “That’s just silly. We’ll cover more ground if we each go alone. We’ll meet here when the sun is at its highest point and report what we’ve found.”
No one else seemed sure if this was the right thing to do but slowly each one wandered off in a different direction
Erisa was annoyed. Here she was, brand new in the world and already alone. How did she know what she was looking for or even where to look? She didn’t know anything about this place. “What am I going to do now, and just who does he think he is taking over like that?” Erisa shouted as she kicked at an innocent stone that went arcing above the field.
“Taking charge and telling us what to do,” Erisa pouted.
“Good heavens child, what are you talking about?”
Erisa looked up with a start. Was the tree talking to her? “Who said that?” she demanded. She was very proud that her voice only quivered a little bit. It was then that she noticed two large golden eyes staring at her through the leaves of the tree.
Erisa flew up to the odd looking creature with huge eyes and soft gray feathers and said, “I’m Erisa a.”
“You may call me Owl.”
“Oh right, I knew that. Not to call you Owl, but that you are an owl. But wait, how did I know that?
1. Jessica, welcome to the workshop!
You have such a gift for beautiful language. Your well-chosen words have such a soft, pretty lilt to them. Your opening line of "at the beginning" intrigued me. It's almost Biblical, in a way.
The opening paragraph was pretty, and it ended with a good teaser line. By paragraph 2, I was expecting more, though. Language--you've nailed it. Let's see if we can get to the main story quicker. The first paragraph should lead to something more happening in the 2nd paragraph. Then that should lead to something more happening in the 3rd. Each of your paragraphs is beautiful, but we really don't get to the story until Erisa shows up. We need more action up front--not guns blazing, but something happening, someone to care for. Erisa needs to arrive on scene earlier.
My other concern is that we go from no character to care about to four, all in a short burst. My advice would be to spread out the introduction of each character in order to give the reader the opportunity to care about each one.
I also wonder about the "we woke up here, and now let's go explore" story line. Let's get into something meatier. I'm not sure where your story goes, so I can't really offer specific advice, but I can suggest that wherever it is that Erisa encounters trouble, get to that quicker.
A picky thing to mention is that both Erisa and Sammy have dialog in the same paragraph. Just remember that when each character speaks, there should be a new paragraph, even if it's just the one line.
My advice is to look through your pages to find when Erisa first encounters change, or danger, or something unique besides just appearing, and begin your story there--or just before that.
Looking forward to your revision! Good luck.
1. Thanks this is very helpful feedback. I spend too much time imaging everything I forget to move on with the story. Your comments on each paragraph leading to the next really reminded me of this.
2. Hi Jessica!
The description of the flowers and the surrounding animals is beautiful. However, I agree with Julie. There is a lot of description to get to before we get to any characters. Then we suddenly have four of them, and no reason to really care about any of them. Though I will say that Zeki immediately rubbed me the wrong way as soon as he started speaking.
I found the part where you called the tiny bubbles weird to be a little redundant. Given that the first two paragraphs described the normal world, we can already tell that the bubbles are strange and out of the norm. I think that even starting at the bubbles would have been more intriguing. Maybe a shorter description of the normal world (without telling the reader that it is indeed normal), then jumping into that disruption and bringing Erisa onstage.
1. Thanks this is very helpful, I want Zeki to be annoying but not unlike able. This was a good eye opener about softening my language and character development.
3. I agree that your language is beautiful. I love the way it reads like a myth. It's always fun to read about how things began. It's a wonderful way to get the reader to understand the world you're plopping them into.
That being said, readers also want to connect with the characters they're reading about. I agree with what Adana and Julie said. It takes a while for us to get to Erisa. I have the feeling I'm going to like her, but this excerpt doesn't get me there--yet. I agree with Adana though, in that Zeki rubbed me the wrong way immediately. I'd like to see Erisa evoke that much of a response with her dialogue.
The tiny bubbles paragraph was a bid wordy for me. There are bits that are redundant or unnecessary that I think could be cut. I also like Adana's advice about starting with the bubbles. While the language in the opening paragraphs is lovely, the bubbles are where the story truly begins. I think you could weave the normal in to counter the abnormality of the bubbles. It would get us to the action quicker.
I look forward to seeing your revisions!
1. Hi Gabby, thanks for the input. I have a lot to think about in terms of character development which will get me off the world development and into the actin faster,
4. Just wanted to echo the comments about your beautiful prose style. The imagery is so evocative — I could really see the landscape in my mind’s eye, and loved the sounds too. Definitely got the sense of an entirely new world that you’re creating.
I also like the idea of starting with the bubbles. I know it might not work chronologically, but I wondered if you could introduce Erisa waking up before getting into the bubbles. Like she wakes up first, and then we get her perspective as she watches what’s going on with the bubbles going around her?
I was intrigued by the contrast between Erisa seeming to preternaturally “know” things (her name, what an owl is), vs. her feeling like she’s alone (“didn’t know anything about this place.”) I wondered if we could get some of that perspective as she’s waking up, observing the bubbles popping around her. I think you could build up this paradox/tension a bit — her frustration with simultaneously being aware and in the dark. I wondered what the equivalent feeling would be for us in the non-fantasy world (what emotions you could evoke in the reader that would feel similar).
Is the relationship between Erisa and Zeki going to be a main conflict in the story? Him always taking over? Elisa is the one that suggested that they first explore. If she thought he was wrong to decide they should all go off by themselves, couldn’t she have just partnered with Sammy and Pieter and let Zeki go off on his own? We learn that she’s upset, but I was curious as to why — whether she thought he was wrong, or he just rubbed her the wrong way due to his tone, or he took over her idea, etc.
Looking forward to your revisions!
1. Thanks, this is really useful to help me think about time line and how to over things along to the characters and action faster,
I am curious if y had other thoughts on how Erisa knows somethings but not others. Kind of like amnesia, you know how to do everything but your memory for experiences is gone. I like that but I'm not sure if it comes off as contrived or hard to swallow.
5. Hi Jessica,
I totally agree with the others’ comments. You write so beautifully, your story starts like a mythical fairy-tale, reminded me of Andersen’s Little Mermaid.
I like the first paragraph very much; it gently places the reader into your fairy-tale world and creates the mood. But the second paragraph is unnecessary, slows down the story before it’s even begun. I think you should use the line “Or so everyone thought” as a trampoline into the real story. I don’t have much experience with MG, but I can imagine such young audiences will have even less patience than grown-ups to get in the thick of things.
The consecutive introduction of the four characters didn’t bother me. What did was that just after we’ve met them they split up. I was somehow expecting the beginning of a joint adventure.
I don’t think I could add anything more than what was already commented above. Seeing how masterfully you work with words, I’m looking forward to reading your revision!
1. Thanks Lily it is very helpful to be reminded of the age of the audience and moving the story along at a pace appealing to them. I think i need to leave myself a note that I see when I am writing to remind me of this.
6. Hey there, Jessica!
I am such a sucker for lyrical writing, and you wrote some beautiful words and images here! I really enjoyed the fairy tale quality of this, and how you started the book like a very traditional fairy tale, setting up the idyllic, hidden, non-human world where fairy-like things can happen. Things happening where I can’t see has always piqued my imagination!
That said, I wonder about the beginning, especially in consideration of your audience. I consider Middle Grade to be basically 9-12 years and kids that age, while still loving the imaginative, also like to imagine that they’re already grown up. So even while they’re loving fairies and talking owls, they’re also smart-mouthed and in middle school (I can say this with sympathy, having raised a brood of them). So anything remotely “young” (like Erisa trying to speak in a “grown-up voice”) is going to be a red flag. Their attention span is also quite short. (Like, three sentences, and then more action, please. Ha!) They need to be sucked in immediately, and kept going with short, snappy, action-packed sentences. Which, believe it or not, can absolutely be done lyrically and in a beautiful, fairy tale-like way! However, if you’re thinking slightly younger than Middle Grade, or even on the very young end of that range, you might have to consider toning down your reading level to match that audience. I’m going to give comments based on the idea that this is for a 9-12 year old.
So I wonder if you could set up this beginning scene by shortening and tightening the description (i.e. the simpler sentences I mentioned above), and by giving that description from someone else’s perspective, like maybe the owl’s? (Ignore this if you hate the idea!) That would give you an opportunity to describe the scene from an unusual perspective, introduce that character sooner, and give us a character’s personality sooner. I would keep reading a story told by an owl! Especially one with a quirky personality. It also might give you a chance for more dialogue and action sooner (what does the owl do during the storm?), which also helps speed up a middle-grader’s reading.
I also wonder if you could bring in more about the significance of the storm. That hints that Erisa and the others were maybe NOT supposed to happen. That something dark or magical has happened, or gone wrong. This is a great opportunity for tension that might be worth exploring!
As far as other thoughts, I had a concern (and I think you got some comment on this already) about what Erisa and the other characters know and don’t know about themselves when they do wake up. How is their setting different from what they thought was going to happen to them? What did they think they were going to become? They don’t seem that surprised to have arms and legs, though maybe surprised by the colors of them. They seem to know what a forest is, though maybe not this one. Waking up with no idea who or where you are (or maybe what you are) is a frightful, traumatic experience, so I think a bit more explanation is due here, so we can understand their reactions to waking up and to each other. It also might be good to give a bit more sensory description that explains their size. They’re tiny if they’re sleeping in flowers. How do they get down from the flowers? Do they slide, do they fly? And if they’re that small, the objects on the forest floor would be huge obstacles. When it says Erisa kicks an innocent stone, that sounds like she's a full-size human, when actually, a pebble would be like a boulder to her. Getting some of these details in will really solidify the story, I think.
Have you read The Tales of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo? That’s a young MG that is very much a fairy tale. Might be an interesting comparison for you!
Thank you so much for letting me read your work, Jessica. And as always, please ask questions as needed. Can’t wait to read your revision!
7. Hello Jessica,
Thank you for sharing your work with us today!
I found your setting enchanting, and the language easy to follow, but overall I am still looking for the story here. If you were to give me a concise, one sentence summary of your story, what would it be? That central concept should in some way be represented in these opening pages. Now, that may well be the case. But if so, the reader can't quite pick up on it yet.
As you revise, I urge you to consider these questions:
1. Who is the main character? How can we meet them more quickly, and experience this setting through their eyes?
2. What problem is the main character facing? Why is this a problem? How has their "normal" changed at the opening of the story?
You obviously have talent with words, now let's rearrange things a bit to get the story front and center, so that we can hook your readers and keep them reading!
My best,
Melanie Conklin
First Five Mentor
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Election Section
Jumping Spiders Display Elaborate Courtship Dances By JOE EATONSpecial to the Planet
Tuesday June 14, 2005
What caught my eye was the color contrast: something bright red crawling along the green garden hose. It was a creature I had never seen before, a thumbnail-sized spider with a black cephalothorax and a red abdomen, a huge pair of forward-facing eyes, an d a glint of green about its mouthparts. Distracted from watering, I followed it around the lawn as it maneuvered through the grass blades, following one to near its tip where it suddenly pounced on something small, brown, and shiny.
My find was a jumpin g spider, most likely Phidippus johnsoni, sometimes called the red-backed spider (no relation to the notorious Australian species, an antipodean relative of our black widow). From its coloration, it must have been a male; females have black markings on th e red abdomen. And I learned that it and its relatives in the family Salticidae are no ordinary spiders, if there is such a thing. Phidippus and other jumping spiders have remarkable visual skills and perform elaborate courtship dances; and some of them d o things that you would never expect from a mere arachnid.
P. johnsoni seems to be common throughout the West; most of the research on it was done here in Berkeley in the ‘70s by arachnologist Robert R. Jackson. Jackson, now in New Zealand, must be a tru ly dedicated scientist. He speculated in one article that johnsoni’s bright color might signal its unpalatability to would-be predators, like the orange of the monarch butterfly. His conclusion: “There is no evidence that their coloration is aposematic, a lthough information concerning this is limited. They do not taste bitter or noxious to humans (personal observation).”
Since jumping spiders have color vision, the red abdomen probably plays a role in courtship. Male salticids dance for their mates. P. johnsoni’s choreography consists of the linear dance (walking toward the female, then backing away), the zigzag dance (walking side to side while facing her), and gesturing (moving his forelegs forward and up, then down and sideways). In the 19th century, a Wisconsin couple named Peckham studied a whole range of jumping spiders and described fancier footwork, although a later author’s comparison to the hula, the tango, and the highland fling may have been a stretch. For dancing spider videos, check out htt p://tolweb.org/accessory/Jumping_Spider_Image_Gallery?acc_id=59. Males of some species also produce a buzzing or purring sound by twitching their abdomens while dancing.
Female jumping spiders are tough audiences. The Peckhams introduced two successive m ales to a female Phidippus morsitans, who killed and ate them after “they had only offered her the merest civilities.” But males don’t depend solely on their dancing. When courting a female in her nest, they perform a tactile routine, tweaking her web wit h forelegs and mouthparts. If a male gets a positive response, he enters the nest for mating. When the female is not yet sexually mature (I’m not sure how he can tell, but apparently he can), he builds an annex to her nest and moves in until the time is r ipe.
Both sexes stalk their prey like eight-legged cats. Unlike some spiders, whose vision is rudimentary, jumpers are sight-hunters. Salticids, typically for spiders, have eight eyes. The six along the side of the carapace, the secondary eyes, are simpl e light-and-motion detectors. But the huge, forward-facing principal eyes are something else again. They’re not compound eyes like those of insects: they’re like a built-in pair of binoculars. Each eye is a long tube with a large corneal lens up front and a second lens in the rear. The front lens has a long focal length and the rear lens magnifies the image from the front lens. Four layers of receptors in the retina allow for color discrimination. In the rearmost layer, a small region called the fovea res olves fine visual details.
All this appears to be standard jumping spider equipment, good enough for spiders like Phidippus to recognize prey and mates from a considerable distance, for a spider. After his early work on P. johnsoni, Jackson moved on to a new subject, a genus of Old World jumping spiders called Portia. Jackson says Portia’s visual spatial acuity is much better than any insect’s, comparable to that of some mammals. Portia is a spider-hunting spider, and its vision is acute enough to differentiate between a spider and an insect, and between different species of spider; it can also tell whether another spider is holding an egg case.
And act accordingly. The truly outstanding thing about Portia is the versatility of its hunting tactics. If a potential victim is encumbered with an egg case, it makes a frontal assault; otherwise, it sneaks up from behind. It will approach its prey by circuitous routes, using detours which remove the victim from its line of sight. And it employs what can only be called trial-and-error tactics to hunt spiders ensconced in their own webs. Like a courting male Phidippus, Portia tweaks and tugs the strands of its intended victim’s web. It may in fact be mimicking a male’s signals, with specific messages for differ ent species of prey. Depending on the response, it varies the pattern of tweaks until the victim, expecting to find a suitor at the door, ventures out within pouncing distance. And Portia even uses background noise, like leaves rustling in the wind, to ma sk its movements on the victim’s web.
All this from a spider? Salticids have comparatively large brains, for spiders. But they’re still operating on a handful of neurons, and their eyes have only 10,000 to 100,000 receptors, compared with over 100 millio n in the human eye. Small doesn’t equate to simple, though. Robert Jackson and his collaborator Stim Wilcox aren’t afraid to use loaded words like “problem solving” and “cognition.” Thinking spiders? There’s clearly a lot more going on down among the grass blades than we would ever suspect.
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Skates and Rays
Skates, stingrays, and other rays are common in nearly all Mid Atlantic estuaries.
Stingrays and other rays include: Atlantic stingray, southern stingray, bluntnose stingray, cownose ray, bullnose ray, butterfly rays, and Atlantic manta ray.
Skate species include: barndoor, thorny, smooth, little, and clearnose.
Skates and rays are often caught most often by accident by bottom fishing anglers. Most species readily bite on squid, crab, shrimp, clam, and other common baits. A few species are considered edible.
Several species of skates and rays are taken by bowfishing and other alternative fishing methods.
Some rays can pose threats to fishermen. A number of stingrays and other rays are armed with spines, which can inflict serious wounds. Some species use their long, whiplike tails as weapons, even when removed from the water.
Even small skates deserve respect, as some species are equipped with thorn-like armor.
Related Information
Saltwater Fish Species
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Going Swimmingly: Why Children Should Learn How To Swim
In a recent survey, the American Red Cross revealed that nearly half of Americans are unable to swim. Although astounding, this whopping number could be reduced over the coming years as vigilant parents teach children basic water safety skills at increasingly younger ages. Due to the importance of learning how to swim, many parents are turning to private swimming lessons for kids in order to prevent an avoidable tragedy. There are a variety of reasons that every child should learn how to swim, including health and safety.
Every year, there are heart-wrenching stories in the news about children losing their lives because they had not learned the proper skills for water safety. In fact, drowning is the second-leading accidental cause of death among children under the age of 14. It is a parent’s ultimate responsibility to keep their kids safe and prepare them for any situation, and this responsibility is the most important reason that kids should receive swimming lessons.
Rather than living in fear of the water and reacting with panic if something goes wrong, a child who has been taught basic water safety skills will know how to behave and what to do in an emergency. It has been said that swimming is the only sport that can save a child’s life, and it could save the lives of others as well.
Not only is it a vital survival skill, learning how to swim could also potentially allow a child to help someone in need who is unable to swim themselves. As witnessed during the 2017 floods in locations such as Houston and Puerto Rico, possessing these basic skills can literally mean the difference between life and death.
Another major benefit gained from learning how to swim is related to health. According to the American Heart Association, the number of children classified as overweight or obese has more than tripled over the past 40 years and that percentage is likely to continue to rise due to several factors, primarily a sedentary lifestyle. This is an alarming statistic for any parent to read and should be cause to take some action. Too many youngsters eschew going outside to play in favor of sitting inside playing video games and interacting via smartphone.
What better way to get a child to participate in physical activity than to take him and/or her to the local pool for swimming lessons with their friends? Swimming provides a full-body workout from head to toe, elevating the heart rate without the impact stress of land-based exercise techniques. All of the body’s major muscle groups are involved in swimming as muscles are toned and strength is built, laying a solid foundation for a healthy adult lifestyle when they get older.
Best of all, swimming is fun! Nothing beats a beautiful, sunny day outside at the pool, whether private or public. Many hours can be spent swimming laps or participating in marine sports such as water volleyball or water polo.
Learning how to swim is an essential part of growing up and leads to a feeling of independence for a young child, allowing them to be more confident and enjoy a greater social life since they will be able to handle themselves in any water-related situation that may arise. A child learning how to swim also offers a wonderful opportunity to create lasting memories with the family that will be cherished and remembered forever.
Trips to the beach and the water park, boating adventures, and simply visiting relatives with pools all become less stressful when a child knows basic water safety skills. In addition, parents are given peace of mind and can rest easy knowing that their children possess the necessary skills to survive when they aren’t around. Swimming lessons for children are truly a lifelong gift.
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Prawning Guide
With the price of prawns spiralling in most local fish shops, both seafood connoisseurs and smart anglers welcome the opportunity to capture their own supply of really fresh prawns. In fact, so popular is this activity that during the summer months when a prawning ‘run’ is on, it’s not unusual to see estuary flats crowded at night with eager prawn hunters, out to trap a good haul of these crustaceans with a strong light and a net.
Prawns are without a doubt the most popular and widely used bait and as a table delicacy, their sweet, tangy flesh makes a delicious meal for all the family.
Prawn or Shrimp?
The commercial prawns of Australian waters correspond to the shrimp of the United States while in Britain they have both prawns and shrimps in their waters. There is no zoological definition which differentiates between a prawn or a shrimp, consequently both names are commonly interchanged and equally valid. Structurally the distinction between the two is insignificant; prawns have two long pairs of branched antennae, shrimps have one long pair and one short pair. Also, shrimp do not have the pointed beak protruding from their shell which is typical of prawns.
The dictionary suggests that the word shrimp was derived from the old English ‘scrimman’ which meant to shrink, with the implication that a shrimp is a small crustacean. but this is dubious since some shrimps of the genus Macrobrachium are very large.
Able to Swim, Walk, Burrow
The body of a prawn is rather cylindrical. The limbs which extend from a seven-segmented abdomen are adapted for swimming, walking and burrowing. Unlike crabs and lobsters which crawl, prawns can swim as well as walk. its first five pairs of legs are walking legs or pereopods. Claws or chelae on the first three pairs allow the prawn to swim above the bottom it can also burrow, using its limbs to clear away the material on the ocean bottom. Burrowing prawns can breathe by means of oxygenated water which passes over the gills from a funnel formed by some of its head appendages.
The last segment of the prawn’s abdomen is the telson which. with the hind pair of appendages. forms a tail fan. The prawn has stalked eyes, a sharp beak and two pairs of branched antennae with at least one branch reaching back towards the tail fan.
If approached by a predator. the prawn is alerted by the antennae and is able to retreat with a backward flick of its tail. The front of the body, including the head and vital organs, is covered by a shell or carapace. A prawn’s body length ranges from 1 to 30 cm and females are usually much heavier than males. Prawns are separated into two main groups: penaeid and carid. The penaeids disperse their eggs into the sea while the carids carry their eggs under their tail like crabs and crayfish. All the major Australian commercial species and most of the world’s prawn trade rely on the penaeid prawns.
Prawn Life Cycle
Most of Australia’s commercial prawn species are captured at sea as adults. juveniles grow in the estuaries before migrating back to the open sea to breed and complete the life cycle. Some prawns are confined to one aquatic environment. The greasyback spends its whole life in the estuaries whereas the tiger prawn never leaves the ocean. Most prawns, however are long distance travellers, spending part of their life in estuaries and part in the ocean.
Research with tagged prawns has shown that school prawns can move up to 120 km and king prawns up to 930 km from their home estuary in their spawning run to the ocean.
In order to mate, the mature female needs to be in a newly—moulted or soft-shelled stage and the male in a hard-shelled stage. The female sheds the fertilised eggs into the sea and these soon hatch into tiny larvae.
The larvae moult frequently over the next two to three weeks while drifting about with the ocean currents until they resemble tiny prawns. One of the factors regulating the frequency of moults is temperature: high temperatures encourage moulting and low temperatures inhibit it.
Prawns Move into Estuaries
In the post—larval stage, most species of prawn enter estuaries, lakes and bays and adopt a b0tt0m—living lifestyle. After a winter in the estuaries. the juvenile prawns grow rapidly and then on a dark summer night assemble to begin their run to the open sea.
A prawn’s life is short; on an average, it lasts one year although king prawns may live up to two or three years. They do not seem to spawn again after the first year. Prawns are omnivores. They sometimes feed on small fish but mostly algae and dead or decaying matter which they pass to their shredding mouthparts by means of their maxillipeds or jaw feet which are located behind the mouth.
Their migration to the sea or ‘prawn run’ usually takes place at night during the warm summer months but it can vary considerably. depending on the rainfall and moon cycle. The prawns make their strongest run during the dark period of the lunar months.
This is the peak time when amateur and commercial prawn fishermen take the best catches as the prawn’s crowd into estuary channels that lead out of lakes and rivers to the sea. Heavy rainfall seems to enhance the migration at any time.
Prawn Species
The eastern king prawn is one of the biggest and best-known species in Australia. It grows to 30 cm and is found along the east coast from Bundaberg in Queensland to Lakes Entrance in Victoria. The colour of this prawn varies depending on the type of sea bottom it inhabits and other factors.
Generally, it is a light brown to reddish brown with bright yellow tips on the swimming and walking legs and a bright blue edge on the tail fan. Juvenile prawns of this species taken in estuaries. usually over eelgrass areas, are dark green in colour while adults from ocean waters are a bright red.
This is the prawn that is taken in great numbers from coastal lakes, especially by holidaymakers at locations such as the popular Tuggerah Lakes on the New South Wales central coast. Sydney’s harbour prawns are mainly juveniles of the eastern king prawn and commercial catches are taken from Sydney Harbour and Botany Bay. in Brisbane. catches of these prawns from Moreton Bay are sold as bay kings.
The western king prawn is identified by its distinctive blue colouration around the walking legs. It is fished commercially in the gulf waters of South Australia and is abundant in Shark Bay and Exmouth Gulf in Western Australia. It is also trawled in voluminous commercial quantities in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Queensland, and grows to 28 cm.
The brown tiger prawn is the world’s largest prawn and is so called because of the brown transverse bands or stripes across the abdomen and carapace. it grows to more than 30 cm. Although an inhabitant of more northern waters, stragglers are occasionally taken in estuaries along the east coast as far south as Sydney Harbour.
Tiger prawns are in big demand by overseas markets where they fetch top dollar and for this reason, they are now infrequently found on local market floors.
The banana or white prawn is found in the tropical waters of Western Australia and Queensland and more particularly in the Gulf of Carpentaria where sensationally rich grounds were found in 1967. This prawn is named after the colours of its tail: yellow. green and brown which make it look like a hand of bananas.
It has a cream to yellow body which is sometimes speckled and its average length is around 25 cm. Catches are usually taken at the end of the wet season from March through to June when dense schools are located from the air by spotter aircraft and detected as “mud boils’. A day’s catch will sometimes yield as much as 20.000 kg.
Bait or School Prawn
Common in the estuaries of southern Queensland and New South Wales. school prawns are abundant and relatively cheap. which has made them the mainstay of the prawning industry in New South Wales and the most common prawn used as bait in New South Wales and Victoria.
Sometimes called the white river prawn. the school prawn ranges from Bundaberg. Queensland down the coast to Eden in New South Wales. It has a pale. translucent body with a green tinge and grows to I5 cm.
The famous greasyback or greentail prawn. the smallest of the Australian prawn species. is abundant in the lakes of central New South Wales and southern Queensland where it is a first class bait for both amateur and commercial fishermen.
The greasyback is one of the few prawns and certainly the only one in Australia that does not go to sea to spawn. Its body is transparent grey. its tail fan green and it has a rough shell covered with a mat of fine hairs. It grows to about 12 cm. a convenient size for bait. although the greasyback is also good eating.
Best Time to Prawn
There are three factors to be considered for successful prawning: time. tide and the moon. The recognised prawning season extends from October through to April. However, it is during the summer months from December to February that the really large catches are made and if weather conditions are good. the period of prawn runs may be extended.
During these productive months. around the period of the ‘dark’. the prawns move into schools and begin to move out through the lakes and river mouths to spawn or migrate on the run-out tide. It is at this time that the biggest hauls are made by amateur fishermen. The ‘dark’ period is the phase of the moon after the full moon when the moon is waning. giving darker nights and bigger tide ranges as the moon gets less until there is a ‘new moon’. Two nights either side of the ‘new moon’ can be very productive although serious prawners start operations four to five nights after the full moon and in some isolated areas. good catches are taken over the full moon period.
A prawner can calculate the period of the ‘dark’ by adding nine days to the date of the previous full moon. The tide must be on the ebb or run-out and if there are two run-outs. one when it’s dark and the other in the early morning, the prawns could make part of their run on the first ebb and then hold back for the second ebb before making their final dash to the sea in this instance, it’s a good idea to forget the first part of the run and concentrate on the second. Ebb tides are not the only ones during which prawns can be netted but they are the most productive.
Prawns tend to dive when the water’s surface becomes choppy, especially if the wind is blowing against the tide. However, if the wind is blowing with the tide and other conditions are suitable, prawns tend to make a run and the chances of making a big catch are good.
Techniques and Equipment
A flashlight, a bucket, and a scoop net are all the equipment an amateur need to go prawning. But making big hauls of these tasty crustaceans involves a little more knowledge on actual prawning techniques. This article deals with just that.
The traditional hand-held prawn scoop net is simply designed. inexpensive and made to stand up to at least one season of prawning. It consists of a thick wire frame and a hardwood handle, however, this design of scoop net suffers from being heavy and creating unnecessary water drag, so often the prawner needs to take a rest after a couple of hour’s work.
The newer scoop net with an aluminium frame makes prawning easier and more enjoyable, Its total length is usually about 1.5 metres, although extension handles can be purchased in lengths of around 1.2 metres. If a longer handle is necessary, as it is when prawning from a pier or jetty, these extensions can be attached to the net head and any length scoop net can be made. Even with extension handles, these light aluminium nets can be used for hours without fatigue.
A Drag Net Means Bigger Catches
The most productive method of prawning. particularly when larger size prawns are running. is to drag net around the sandflats. This is best carried out by two people using a net no longer than 6 metres, which is the maximum permitted length under state regulations.
The drag net has two ropes at each end and is fitted with leads to keep one section close to the bottom and corks to keep the other a float. A pocket is part of the design and most nets are hung so that the pocket balloons out, encouraging prawns to move along it and become trapped.
An improved drag net has also been designed by professional fishermen for amateur use. It hangs well and the weights on the bottom and corks on the top allow the inbuilt pocket to function perfectly. The pocket has been extended to 4.7 metres and has a very wide mouth. Made of polyethylene. this net will stand up to a great deal of work and requires a minimum of maintenance. Experts believe that this net design increases the average catch by 200 per cent.
Choosing a Light
Lights are another essential for the amateur prawner. Operating from a boat, prawners usually fit their lights with a shade and attach them to a bracket in the boat. Those once year enthusiasts who go prawning on holidays usually opt for a hand-held, household flashlight and while not really effective, they will allow the amateur to take a small supply of prawns and have a lot of fun after dark.
A vast improvement is the hurricane-type kerosene pressure lamp which is lightweight. economical to run and functions in wind and rain. Topped up with kerosene, it gives excellent service during a whole night’s prawning. A good tip is to strain all the kero through a fine gauge sieve. This may take a little time but it’s worthwhile as it ensures that there are no impurities in the kerosene which might interfere with the lamp’s performance.
Port-a-gas lamps are popular with many prawners and certainly give off a nice bright light. On the debit side. the gas bottles are susceptible to corrosion; the entire units are rather heavy. and they give no indication when the gas supply is getting low.
Battery lights operating off a 12-volt car, or more compact motorcycle battery are a new inclusion in prawning equipment. Batteries are carried in a haversack or small shoulder bag and can be used with up to two hand-held spotlights, although the power source needs to be recharged after every outing. The relatively new, fully submersible battery-powered prawning lamps give off an extremely bright light, and reduce all levels of water glare. Many avid prawners believe these new lights are definitely the way to go.
Techniques that Work
To use a scoop net effectively, a prawner must be prepared to wade into the shallows until he finds a channel or tidal run in which the prawns are travelling. Positioned across the flow of the water, it’s then a matter of waiting for the moving prawns to come down.
Under these conditions. a long stake may be driven into the sandflats to support the light. A pair of chest waders is also a good idea in preventing infection from ‘Pelican itch’, Fortescue’s, and other nocturnal nasties. Of course, they also keep the prawner warm in the dark hours. Good stout sandshoes on the feet are a necessity when wading in the dark.
Under certain conditions, prawns won’t run on the surface and so have to be netted from the bottom by ‘kicking’ them into the net with the feet. Using this technique, the prawner works a zig-zag pattern around the edges of the weed beds, holding the light fairly high at all times so that the prawns’ eyes which show up as small red or orange dots, can be easily identified in the light. When a good patch is located, the prawner works his way around the edges, trying not to spook the other prawns, or stir up the bottom sediment in the process.
Scoop netting requires more talent than drag netting as every batch of prawns behaves differently. Usually, prawns will shoot backwards in an attempt to escape so this should be kept in mind when trying to net them.
For those anglers who can’t be bothered with a scoop or drag net, a supply of live prawns for bait can be quite during the daylight hours by dragging a long pronged garden rake through the sand. When disturbed by the rake. the prawns will try to escape and can often be picked up when they try to bury back into the sand again.
Prawning from a Boat
lt is usually best to moor across the chosen estuary making sure that both ropes are set out straight This allows prawners to scoop freely from both the bow and the stern. Serious prawners often anchor their boats in daylight well before the run begins.
The best position is usually close to the shoreline and over weed beds which prawns use for cover. In all cases, a position must be selected where the tides move briskly so that the prawns don’t back away but come quickly to the prawner. ln slow tides, they see the light and are able to skirt the boat or quickly dodge the prawners scoop net.
Prawning from a boat under power is suitable when prawns are not on the run. The boat is steered very slowly into the oncoming tide and nets with long, aluminium handles are used, one on each side of the boat. Prawns are taken as they rush headlong into the nets, but generally, only small hauls are caught this way.
Pressure lamps are not very satisfactory under these conditions: hand-held spotlights connected to a battery are better. They should be positioned just ahead of the net’s opening.
Caring for the Catch
If possible. prawns should be cooked immediately after they are caught. However, if cooking has to be postponed until the next day, it’s possible to keep the catch alive and in fairly good condition.
First, the prawn container should be drained and the catch tipped onto a table covered with a piece of newspaper. if by chance the catch contains a Fortescue, a yellowish fish blotched with brown, or a jelly blubber, both should be removed as they kill prawns.
Fortescues should be carefully removed with a thick rag or pair of pliers as they can inflict a very painful sting through the sharp spines on their fins. Illy blubbers left in the catch and included in the cooking process give prawns an unpleasant taste.
The prawns should be spread out as much as possible. covered with sheets of newspaper or an old cotton sheet and left until ready to cook. If there is space, it’s best to place them, evenly distributed in the lower portion of a refrigerator; it’s mostly heat which kills the catch.
Freshly-caught prawns should not be put in a bucket filled with sea water and left overnight. This would result in the death of all prawns. Neither should they be left overnight in the prawn container because only the ones on top would be alive in the morning.
Cooking and Storing Prawns
After removing all foreign matter from the prawn catch, it should be tipped into a large container of tap water and left for twenty minutes. This causes the prawns to bring up their stomach contents and is called ‘dunking’ or ‘drowning’ the catch. After draining, the dunked prawns should be placed in a large container of boiling water. The water will go off the boil and when it comes on again, the prawns should be boiled for five minutes.
To test if they’re cooked, pick out one prawn from under those that have come to the surface, place it under cold running water and hold it up to the light. If there is a gap between flesh and shell, the prawn is cooked. The remainder should be placed under cold water, drained thoroughly and placed in plastic bags to be frozen if you’ve caught more than you can eat in the next few days.
Each time a supply of prawns is required. the frozen stocks should be taken from the freezer, placed in a solution of one cup of salt to five cups of water plus a tablespoon of sugar and left until they have completely thawed. When removed they should be drained thoroughly. These prawns will then be as fresh and crisp as the day they were caught and cooked.
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Prunes are produced by drying plums. They have a concentrated sweet flavor and a dense sticky consistency. Prunes are often sold pitted and have a long shelf life. Prunes are very fibrous and can help maintain digestive regularity.
Other names: Dried Plum
Translations: Apgriezt, Mulkis, Prună uscată, Orezati, Mận khô, Snoeien, छाँटना, Ameixa, Чернослив, Κλαδεύω, تقليم, 말린 자두, Prořezávat, Memangkas, Pungusan, 修剪, Podar, Prerezávať, Prugna secca, לגזום, Орезати, プルーン, Pruneau, Pflaume, Beskær, Sviske, Podar, Чорнослив, Karsia, Синя слива
Physical Description
Flat, round and wrinkly. Typically dark, though color varies based on variety of plum and method of drying.
Colors: Purple, maroon, red, black
Tasting Notes
Flavors: Sweet, Sour
Mouthfeel: Sweet, Chewey
Food complements: Chicken, Pork, Cinnamon, Cardamom, Ginger
Wine complements: Port, Muscat, Marsala, Desert wines
Beverage complements: Sherry, Green tea
Substitutes: Other dried fruit, Fresh plums
Selecting and Buying
Buying: You can buy Prunes at your nearest grocery store or supermarkets. Prunes are also available at your local spice house.
Preparation and Use
Conserving and Storing
Prune juice is made by softening prunes through steaming and then putting them through a pulper to create a watery puree. Prunes and their "juice" contain the natural laxative dihydrophenylisatin (related to isatin). Faster results are obtained by heating the prune juice. Prunes also contain dietary fiber (about 6%, or 0.06 g per gram of prune). Prunes and prune juice are thus common home remedies for constipation. Prunes also have a high antioxidant content. In China, the popular summer drink suanmeitang, made with sour prunes (umeboshi), is sometimes thought to have positive effects on acidity in the body.
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Related to paraesthesia: ataxia, hyperaesthesia
Variant of paresthesia.
(ˌpærɛsˈθiːzɪə) or
(Pathology) pathol an abnormal or inappropriate sensation in an organ, part, or area of the skin, as of burning, prickling, tingling, etc
paraesthetic, paresthetic adj
paresthesia, paraesthesia
any abnormal physical sensation, as itching, a tickling feeling, etc. — paresthetic, paraesthetic, adj.
See also: Body, Human, Perception
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.paraesthesia - abnormal skin sensations (as tingling or tickling or itching or burning) usually associated with peripheral nerve damage
References in periodicals archive ?
USPI/SmPC version - includes "Very Common" and "Common" AEs from SmPC: Most common adverse reactions include: nasopharyngitis, headache, arthralgia, nausea, pyrexia, upper respiratory tract infection, Gastroenteritis, Pharyngitis, nasal congestion, fatigue, cough, bronchitis, influenza, back pain, rash, pruritus, sinusitis, paraesthesia, hypertension, anal abscess, anal fissure, dyspepsia, constipation, abdominal distension, flatulence, haemorrhoids, eczema, erythema, night sweats, acne, muscle spasms, muscular weakness, oropharyngeal pain, and pain in extremities.
PINS AND NEEDLES THAT uncomfortable tingling sensation - technically known as paraesthesia - is caused by a lack of blood supply to, and pressure on, the nerves.
Other common adverse reactions (>1% - <10%) are depression, confusional state, insomnia, balance disorder, coordination abnormal, memory impairment, cognitive disorder, somnolence, tremor, nystagmus, hypoesthesia, dysarthria, disturbance in attention, paraesthesia, vision blurred, vertigo, tinnitus, vomiting, constipation, flatulence, dyspepsia, dry mouth, diarrhoea, pruritus, rash, muscle spasms, gait disturbance, asthenia, fatigue, irritability, feeling drunk, injection site pain or discomfort (local adverse events associated with intravenous administration), irritation (local adverse events associated with intravenous administration), fall, and skin laceration, contusion.
Common early symptoms include visual disturbances, facial pain or trigeminal neuralgia, and paraesthesia or numbness of feet, legs, hands and arms.
Eight cases presented asymptomatically at the time of diagnosis, 4 had hypertension, and 1 other in addition to this case presented with dyspnea accompanied with chest pain, paraesthesia, and palpitations.
Peripheral neuropathy is the most common side-effect with numbness and paraesthesia of the fingers and toes.
These include the presence of any one or more of the following 6 'Ps': pain, paraesthesia (or anaesthesia), paresis (or paralysis), pallor, pulselessness, and poikilothermia ('perishing with the cold').
A right-handed 37-year-old man presented with paraesthesia and altered sensation on the volar aspect of his left ring and little fingers.
Mild symptoms include; intermittent paraesthesia (numbness and pins and needles), often felt only scarcely at night.
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Home » Frequently asked Questions on Health » How are birthmarks treated in children?
How are birthmarks treated in children?
Q: My daughter has a chocolate colour birthmark on her left cheek in contrast to her very fair skin which is oval shaped and 1 x 0.5cm. She is usually seen rubing her mark in mirror, trying to remove it (when nobody is around). At age of 4 she is conscious and remains furious. What shall I do?
A:Please consult a dermatologist to find out exactly, what it is. Then, if found to be a birthmark, plastic surgery is the option. Nowadays lasers are also being used but they are effective only in a particular type of birth marks.
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Cause of WWI By: Victoria Boiston, Tavon Williams, Trinity Thompson, and Alyssa Nutter
Alliances- Victoria
Competition and Nationalism- Alyssa
Franz Ferdinand’s Assassination and the Conflict Between Austria and Serbia- Victoria
Militarism is the glorification of the military. Powers across Europe were rapidly expanding their armies, which built a sense of distrust among the nations. This became known as "the arms race," during this time, Britain built up a navy that was twice as strong as France and Germany's combined. In response to Germany, Russia and France developed systems with millions of reservists. Germany attempted to expand its navy to compete, mobilization systems were developed to call men to war quickly. In a militaristic country, people think that the military is superior to the civilians and that it should be respected and glorified. They believed that military power was essential for a nation's strength and they should keep it strong and use it aggressively to promote its own interests. This contributed to WWI by giving the military more control over the policies of a country which makes that country think that military powers was what made them superior.
How Russia, France, and Great Britain Enter the War- Tavon
The Schlieffen Plan
The Schlieffen Plan was the German army’s plan for war against France and Russia . It was created by the German Chief of Staff Alfred von Schlieffen in 1903 the request of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Reaction to War
Before the war even happened, plenty of people were troubled by domestic problems. For example, Russia fought with problems caused by the Revolution of 1905. Britain struggled with labor unrest as well as the issue of home rule in Ireland. Although, with the outbreak of the war, it brought a moment of relief from these interior divisions.
A renewed perception of patriotism united countries. Governments on both sides stressed that their countries were fighting for justice and for a better world. Every young man rushed to enlist, aiming to become a war hero for their country while cheered on by women and their elders. Although, British diplomat Edward Grey was more pessimistic towards this outcome. As he saw the armies begin to move, he predicted, “The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”
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Causes of Excessive Bleeding
Approximately 30% of all hysterectomies performed in the United States are to treat heavy menstrual bleeding. Conservative therapy, which is now the trend, also helps to control costs and allow women to keep their uterus intact. For many women, heavy menstrual bleeding is very subjective. By definition menorrhagia is menstruation at regular cyclical intervals but with increased flow and length of the menstrual cycle. It is one of the most common complaints in gynecology. By clinical definition, menorrhagia means total blood loss greater than 80 ml per cycle or menstruation that lasts longer than 7 days. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 18 million women in the 30-55-year-old age group complain that their menstrual bleeding is excessive. Of this group, only 10% experienced blood loss which is great enough to cause anemia or is clinically defined as menorrhagia.
A typical menstrual cycle is 21-35 days in length with bleeding lasting an average of 7 days. Total flow usually ranges between 25-80 ml.
Metrorrhagia is defined as bleeding at irregular intervals. Menometrorrhagia is frequent and increased flow. Polymenorrhea is usually defined as bleeding frequently and usually less than 21 days. Dysfunctional uterine bleeding means abnormal bleeding without any systemic abnormality or obvious structural cause.
Understanding the menstrual cycle is important in recognizing the causes of menorrhagia.
When the hypothalamus releases gonadotropin releasing hormone, the pituitary gland produces follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone. FSH and LH stimulate the ovaries to produce estrogen and progesterone.
The follicular phase of the menstrual cycle is when estrogen production results in an increase in endometrial thickness. This is also called the proliferative phase.
The secretory phase or luteal phase is when progesterone stimulation results in endometrial maturation.
There are many causes of menorrhagia and they can be divided into different groups: anatomic, endocrinologic, organic and iatrogenic. If an investigation does not come up with the cause of menorrhagia, a woman is diagnosed as having dysfunctional uterine bleeding or DUB.
Most of the time DUB can be secondary to anovulation. As a result of anovulation, the corpus luteum does not form and consequently there is no progesterone production. Since the estrogen is not blocked, the endometrium thickens. The endometrial lining will outgrow its blood supply and start to degenerate. The final result is a disorganized breakdown of the endometrial lining.
If there is more than 80 mL of blood lost on a regular basis, then women are at risk for iron deficiency anemia. This can usually be treated with oral ferrous sulfate to replace low iron reserves. If severe enough, symptoms such as shortness of breath, fatigue and palpitations (irregular heart beat) can occur. If the anemia is severe, it may require transfusion and/or intravenous estrogen therapy.
Miscarriage is the most common cause of irregular bleeding in women of childbearing age. Anovulatory bleeding commonly occurs in younger obese women.
Sexually transmitted disease or even simple vaginitis can cause intermenstrual bleeding.
Polycystic ovarian syndrome presents in obese women in an anovulatory state.
Benign tumours such as fibroids and polyps near the endometrial lining can cause painful heavy bleeding. An IUD may be the source of the problem.
Postmenopausal women with any sign of bleeding should be investigated for uterine cancer.
Certain medications such as progestin therapy can cause a withdrawal bleed after they are stopped.
Wonen on anticoagulants should be warned of possible excessive bleeding.
Thyroid abnormalies such as hypothyroidism may result in cold intolerance, dry skin, weight gain, hair loss in addition to increased blood loss. Hyperthryroidism may also cause increased blood flow.
Excessive bleeding can be related to abnormal blood clotting and be found in patient’s with von Willebrand disease or thrombocytopenia.
Organic illnesses such as kidney failure, resistance to hormones and abnormalities in the hypothalamic/pituitary axis can also result in irregular menses.
Whatever the cause is, consult your physician. After a thorough history and phyical exam, they can order the appropriate blood tests and a pelvic ultrasound to check your uterus and ovaries so that the more common causes of heavy menstrual bleeding can be excluded.
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This Is The Most Important Thing You Can Do To Optimize Your Workout
Most people working on personal fitness goals know diet is an important partner to exercise, but did you know that sleep also plays a critical role? If you're working hard at the gym but skimping on shuteye, you're likely shorting yourself on potential results. From your metabolism to food cravings, depriving your body of sleep can impede progress and blunt your fitness program.
Read on to see the ways sleep supports exercise, and how to get the most out of rest to achieve your fitness goals.
1. Sleep gives you energy.
In one study from Northwestern University, researchers explored the relationship between sleep and exercise, finding that the longer it takes to fall asleep and the shorter total sleep duration affects the next day's exercise performance. Another study of Stanford University basketball players found that increasing sleep improved players' speed, accuracy and perceived feelings of well-being.
These results make perfect sense: if you're tired and fatigued, you'll likely have less energy and motivation to push through a workout.
2. Sleep affects metabolic hormones.
The body's complex network of hormones takes many cues from different biological systems, with sleep playing a significant role. Erratic schedules and sleep deprivation can have negative metabolic effects, inversely affecting how sleep influences bodily functions and maintaining a healthy weight.
Not getting enough rest reduces insulin sensitivity, increases risk of weight gain and diabetes. Growth hormone levels drop, making your body less efficient at muscle repair and strengthening. The body's hunger hormones levels change, making you more ravenous. Cortisol levels also rise, affecting blood sugar, bone and muscle, healing, metabolism and more.
3. Sleep helps your muscles.
One of the key roles of rest is to restore tissues at the cellular level and heal damage. Growth hormone release peaks during sleep, as does muscle and tissue repair. A study by New Zealand researchers also found impairments to muscle recovery and glycogen repletion in athletes after sleep deprivation, contributing to reduced performance and energy.
Processes that take place during rest are very important for building muscle and recovery after intense workouts. Cutting slumber could set back your gains from today and affect your performance tomorrow.
4. Sleep makes it easier to eat healthy.
A rested brain is more capable of consciously avoiding diet-busting foods as tired brains are more likely to prefer foods high in carbohydrates, salt and sugar (aka junk foods) over healthy options due to impaired decision-making. A Mayo Clinic study also found that sleep deprived people ate many more calories than when well-rested.
Also, the more you sleep, the less time you have to consume extra late-night calories, keeping your fitness plan on track.
5. Sleep and fitness work hand-in-hand.
The relationship between sleep and fitness is not just a one-way street. Studies have shown that getting consistent exercise over time actually helps improve sleep efficiency and sleep duration for young and old people alike.
Hand in hand, these two facets of a healthy lifestyle work together to support mental and physical health. Sleep provides the energy, motivation and recovery needed for fitness routines, while exercise supports restorative slow-wave sleep and reduces insomnia symptoms.
So, how do you boost your sleep habits to maximize results?
• Set a bedtime and wake time you can stick to every day within one hour, even on weekends.
• Relocate your TV, computer, tablet and smartphone outside of the bedroom. Keep your room dark. Try calming music, nature/tonal sounds, audiobooks or meditation if you need help drifting off.
• Keep your bedroom cool and comfortable. Temperatures in the 60s are considered ideal for sleep. Make sure linens are breathable and your mattress is supportive and comfortable.
• Watch your evening caffeine intake. Workout boosters and supplements can be sneaky stimulant sources as well, so read labels.
Whether you're training for a 5k or trying to shed a few pounds, look at sleep as another component to your fitness program. Healthy sleep also offers benefits extending well beyond the gym, like improved immunity, a healthy brain and reduced risk of diabetes, heart disease and more. With so much to offer, there's no excuse not to get to bed!
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Philosophy Lexicon of Arguments
Screenshot Tabelle Begriffe
Author Item Summary Meta data
Books on Amazon
AVR 114 I
Grice/Schiffer: (= intention-based approach) is obliged to deny logical function of importance - instead: dependence on a (causal) fact (which is non-semantically specified).
Schiffer I 13
Grice/Schiffer: Problem: the meaning must not determine the content. - Because semantic vocabulary must be avoided - therefore VsRelation Theory. - The belief objects would have to be language independent.
I 241
Intention-based approach/Grice/Schiffer: works without Relation Theory and without compositional semantics. - extrinsic explanation is about non-semantically describable facts of use - SchifferVsGrice: has not enough to say about the semantic properties of linguistic units.
I 242
Grice/Schiffer: (Meaning, 1957): attempts to define semantic concepts of public language in terms of propositional attitudes (belief, wishing, wanting). With that nothing is assumed about the meaning itself.
I 242
Definition speaker-meaning/Grice: (1957) (1) Is non-circular definable as a kind of behavior with the intention to trigger a belief or an action in someone else - Definition expression meaning/Grice: (1957) (2) that means the semantic features of expressions of natural language. - Is non-circular definable as certain types of correlations between characters and types of exercise of speaker-meaning. - Statement/extended: every act, that means something. - Schiffer: thus questions of meaning are reduced to questions about propositional attitudes.
I 243
A character string has to have a particular feature, so that the intention is detected.
I 245
Grice/Schiffer: Problem: Falsifying evidence is not a (to) mean-problem. common knowledge is necessary, but always to refute by counter-examples - Solution: to define common knowledge by counterfactual conditions - Problem: not even two people have common knowledge.
SchifferVsGrice: no one has set up a lot of reasonable conditions for speaker-meaning. - Problem: a person, can satisfy the conditions of (S) when he merely says that A intended to cause it, that A believes that p ((S) = lies) - SchifferVsGrice: hyper-intellectual, presupposes too much intentions and expectations, that will never be divided - the normal speaker knows too little to understand the expression-meaning by Grice.
I 247
E.g. I hope you believe me, but not on the basis of my intention - ((s) but because of the content, or the truth) - a necessary condition to tell something is not a necessary condition to mean it as well.
Schi I
St. Schiffer
Remnants of Meaning Cambridge 1987
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> Counter arguments against Schiffer
> Counter arguments in relation to Grice
Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2017-11-18
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Native American Public Telecommunications
The Cahokia Mounds (5/3/00)
Date of this Version
May 2000
The Cahokia Mounds, some of the largest earthen structures in the world, were built by ancient sophisticated Native cultures more than 1,000 years ago. Used for ceremonies and burials, the Cahokia Mounds are now being run down by all-terrain vehicles. Why is recreation valued more than Native heritage? And what is being done to stop the destruction of these sacred sites?
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Ankle Problems
In human anatomy, the ankle joint is formed where the foot and the leg meet. The ankle, also known as the talocrural joint, is a synovial glinding, ginglymal joint that connects the distal ends of the tibia and fibula in the lower limb with the proximal end of the talus bone in the foot. The articulation between the tibia and the talus bears more weight than between the smaller fibula and the talus.
The term ankle used to describe structures in the region of the ankle joint proper.Anterior Ankle Ligaments
For more information, click on the following link;
-Acute Ankle Sprain
-Ankle Fusion
-Ankle Replacement
-Avascular (Aseptic) Necrosis of Talus
-Chronic Ankle Sprain (Ankle Instability)
-Peroneal Tendon Injury
-Osteochondritis Dissecans
High Ankle Sprain
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Go Slices
A Go Slice contains three elements: data, length, and capacity.
s := make([]int, 0, 10)
The variable s is a slice of ints with a length of 0 and a capacity of 10. The built-in len() and cap() functions allow you to get the length and capacity of a slice:
len(s) == 0
cap(s) == 10
To increase the length of a slice, simply re-slice:
s = s[0:5]
// len(s) == 5
// cap(s) == 10
To decrease the length, you can take a sub-slice:
s = s[0:1]
// len(s) == 1
There are some shorter ways to invoke make():
a := make([]int, 10)
// len(a) == cap(a) == 10
b := make([]int)
// len(b) == cap(b) == 0
That’s all well and good, but what if you need to increase the length of a slice beyond its capacity? To do that, you need to allocate a new slice and copy the contents of the old slice to the new one. (The function “copy” is another built-in.)
t := make([]int, len(s), 20)
copy(t, s)
The Effective Go document takes this example a bit further, implementing an Append function that appends one slice to another, resizing it if necessary.
Slices are backed by arrays; when you make() a slice of a specific capacity, an array of that capacity is allocated in the background. The slice effectively becomes a “smart pointer” to that array. If you pass that slice (or a subslice of that slice) to another function, it is passed as a pointer to that same array. This makes sub-slices very cheap to create – it’s the allocation of the backing array that is expensive.
The Go standard library includes a number of container packagesvector for instance – that eliminate the need to manually manage slices. Use slices for speed, and more elaborate container classes for convenience. (Saying that, I still use slices for most things.)
You may be wondering why you need to go to all this trouble. After all, a lot of languages provide dynamically resized arrays as primitives. The reason for this is tied to Go’s philosophy. The language designers don’t presume to know what the appropriate allocation policy is for your program; instead they give you the tools you need to build your own data structures.
28440 views and 4 responses
• Aug 20 2010, 3:16 PM
Yves Junqueira responded:
Coming from Python, I'm still very annoyed with Go slices, arrays and vectors.
- arrays are too limited.
- slices are too annoying to work with. Simple operations like adding an item takes two lines of code (need grow length first), even after assuming you won't go over the slice's cap.
- vectors are not idiomatic and using them requires a lot of typing. Also, creating vectors of anything other than Int and String is very annoying.
I wanted an idiomatic way to do this:
// Append item to the end of slice.
// caller is responsible for checking if slice cap is big enough.
func Append(slice []interface{}, item interface{}) (newSlice []interface{}) {
l := len(slice)
newSlice = slice[0:l+1]
newSlice[l+1] = item
return newSlice
Not that this example would work. I couldn't find a way to satisfy []interface{} for the first argument. But I hope you get the idea.
So in summary I like the "cap" of slices, which is a plus compared to Python's list. But I don't like that you still have to manually manage the array within it.
• Aug 20 2010, 3:30 PM
Yves Junqueira responded:
Also, the re-slicing is very verbose. Worst-case real example:
DhtStats.engines = DhtStats.engines[0:len(DhtStats.engines)+1]
DhtStats.engines[len(DhtStats.engines)] = v
Of course I could create an alias for the slice (e = DhtStats.engines), but then I'll need 3 lines instead :-).
• Aug 20 2010, 5:33 PM
Andrew Gerrand responded:
This is the price you pay for control over allocation. It's substantially easier than doing it in C, but you get close to the same level of control. I agree that things can get a little cumbersome on occasion, but I've not found it particularly annoying.
In your second example, I would just define a method "AddEngine" on whatever type DhtStats is. It's more lines of code, but allows you to encapsulate that bit of syntactical complexity. It's a compromise, though.
• Jun 20 2012, 12:14 AM
Bob Holness responded:
You can append to a slice now using the 'append' built-in:
slice = append(slice, newItem)
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John Quincy Adams on the Matter of the Mission of the Continental U.S. Republic
and Relations to Russia
by Renee Sigerson
April 2014
John Quincy Adams.
Writing from St. Petersburg in 1811, U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) underscored the importance of the establishment of a U.S. Continental Republic, to be conceived as a new concept of nation building, conceived on a higher level than war-dominated and Empire-controlled Europe; a Republic freed from the repeated despotic game of hurling populations one against the other to benefit the power of Empire. Adams wrote in letters to the U.S., as Russia, where he was based, braced for what was recognized as an inevitable invasion by Napoleon:
"If that Party (i.e., the Federalists) are not effectually put down.... the Union is gone. Instead of a nation, coextensive with the North American continen t, destined by God and nature to be the most populous and most powerful people ever combined under one social compact, we shall have an endless multitude of little insignificant clans and tribes at eternal war with one another for a rock, or a fish pond, the sport and fable of European masters and oppressors."
In another communication, he wrote: "The whole continent of North America appears to be destined by Divine Providence to be peopled by one nation, speaking one language, professing one general system of religious and political principles, and accustomed to one general tenor of social usages and customs." Note his use of the term "system of ... principles," typical of Adams' entire process of thinking. His emphasis on American unity was in no manner whatsoever prejudicial towards other nations or language cultures: this is the man who defended Ibero-America from imperial invasion; was fluent in French since childhood; taught himself classical German to the point of translating classical works; lived in Russia as not only Ambassador but friend to leading scientific circles; and defended Africans in U.S. courts from the global slave system. He was guided in his concepts of government by the reference of a divine, providential purpose to all of mankind's existence, as beautifully described in Lyndon LaRouche’s latest paper, “The prospect for a U.S. Future: Build the Real American Party.” Thus, he conceived of an American culture of a higher principle than the Imperial culture which controlled Europe.
Adams' work to negotiate the northwestern border of a continental United States with the Russian government began as soon as he arrived in 1809. His main interlocutor in this effort was the sternly anti-British, pro-development Counselor Rumiantsov (sometimes spelled Romanzoff), who, according to Adams, told him soon after his arrival: Russia's "attachment to the United States is obstinate, more obstinate than you are aware of."
On the eve of Napoleon's invasion, Rumiantsov arranged an offer to the U.S. for Russia to act as mediator between the U.S. and Britain to avoid what became the War of 1812. Russia wanted to be able to keep relations intact with the U.S. even though Napoleon's attack forced them into an alliance with Britain. If the U.S. and Britain entered into war, Russia would have to downgrade its relations with the U.S. President Madison's bungling contributed to this offer never being taken up, and when the War of 1812 began, Rumiantsov was increasingly pushed aside as top advisor to the Czar, with the pro-British Nesselrode taking his place.
The pro-American Rumiantsov turned to other pursuits to defend his view of a Russian/U.S. alliance around economic progress. He financed out of his own resources a new naval exploration off the coast of Alaska. Meanwhile his good friend Adams soon left Russia to negotiate the Treaty of Ghent ending the War of 1812, and becoming briefly, Ambassador to Britain, en route to becoming Secretary of State. Their collaboration later resulted in President's Adams' 1824 Treaty (despite British Prime Ministers Castlereagh's efforts to convince the U.S. that post-Napoleonic Russia was an Imperial enemy of the Americas) with Russia, establishing the first internationally recognized boundary on the West Coast northern border of the United States.
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Tagged: Deoxyribonucleotides
trial 4 0
Hydroxyurea in the treatment of Leukemia
Case details A physician evaluates a 32-year-old patient for fatigue. The patient is found to have an elevated white blood cell count and an enlarged spleen. A referral to an oncologist results in a diagnosis of chronic myelogenous leukemia. Treatment with hydroxyurea, a ribonucleotide reductase inhibitor is begun. The normal functioning of this enzyme is to do which of the following? A. Converts xanthine to uric acid B. Converts ribonucleotides to deoxyribonucleotides C. Degrades guanine to xanthine D. Degrades AMP to IMP E. Converts PRPP to phosphoribosylamine The correct answer is- B- Converts ribonucleotides to deoxyribonucleotides. Either hydroxyurea or...
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Why Acupuncture Works
acupuncture Why Acupuncture WorksAcupuncture uses language like qi, yin, and meridians. These terminologies date back to over 3,000 years ago from a time in which disecting humans to learn knowledge of how the human bodies did not exist. In other words from a Medical standpoint, from a time of ignorance. Yet the practice is still used today and is even being embraced by many different traditional medicine practioners, especially for pain management. So why then does it work?
There are several different reasons why it may work. To start let’s look at the nerves and then go down the list from there.We will use Acupuncture for pain management in the following examples.
The Gate Control Theory is a theory developed in the 1960′s. Essentially the foundation behind the theory is that pain is sent from tiny bundles of nerves through larger bundles of nerves to the brain where the signal is interpreted as pain. When a small bundle of nerves experiences slight cold or warmth for instance there is an inhibitor in place blocking the signal of pain from entering the large bundles of nerves therefore no pain is detected. When pain comes in however the small nerve bundles overwhelm the large bundles ability to inhibit the pain sensation and we perceive pain. The theory behind acupuncture is to stimulate the large bundles of nerves that would normally transmit the pain signal, to send out the inhibitors so that we do not experience the pain. To put it in layman’s terms, when we bump our elbow, our reaction is to rub the spot we hit, by stimulating nerves that surround our source of pain, the pain dissipates faster.
Another theory is the release of endorphins. Our body releases these when we eat chocolate, or eat food when we are very hungry, during sex, and on long distance runs to mention a few. These levels can be tracked in our blood in a laboratory setting. Shortly after acupuncture treatment there is a noticeable increase in endorphins detected in patients that just had acupuncture practiced on them.
In the 1950′s a theory called nerve reflex was studied. The theory proposes that the epidermis is connected to the bodies internal organs via the viscero-cutaneous reflex. The thought is that by stimulating this reflex with needles you can change the flow of blood to and surrounding the stomach which is the primary cause of nausea and vomiting in patients dealing with chemotherapy.
Of course the word “placebo” has to be mentioned in this article. The Placebo affect however is something that is demonstrable, as the blood flow can be seen changing in the cortices of the brain with a patient that was given a placebo. So the fact remains that there is medical evidence that the placebo effect works well on some patients and not as well on others. So if a patient happens to be in the category of patients that respond well to placebo this may to an extent account for at least some of the success in acupuncture.
Our final theory is that the simple act of human touch can be therapeutic in and of itself. Similar to the same way that a crying baby can be soothed by the nurturing touch of her mother, acupuncture employs the touch of an individual delivering touch to our bodies with the sole intent to heal us. Our Western society is so disassociated from healing touch, so that when brought into the right context this can have a major benefit to our needs. The can be seen in studies where toothpicks are used instead of needles, and no puncturing of the skin takes place. The test subjects showed positive results without the use of needles. The commonality is the practice of acupuncture itself. The ritualistic nature and the constancy of human touch.
The truth is we don’t know why acupuncture works but we do know that is does work. So why argue with something that works? If all the science in the world can’t tell you otherwise, maybe you should look into it yourself.
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V-help: Do away with the plastic bag
( 1 Vote )
Do away with the plastic bag
A boon that’s turned into a bane is the ubiquitous plastic shopping bag. Its ease of availability, usefulness and inexpensiveness, strength, property of being water proof and hygienic has led to its abuse and overuse. They are everywhere and its presence has turned into a menace for our ecosystem causing pollution, killing marine life and using up precious resources. The environmental harm caused by these plastic bags is irreversible and will effect generations to come.
Due to its light weight, they litter easily and are hard to contain and dirty the landscape. They get entangled in trees, branches and fences and are an eyesore. From here it finds its way to the waterways, parks, beaches and ocean. Floating bags are mistaken for food by marine animals like jellyfish and ingested. Every year thousands of whales, penguins, turtles and dolphins lose their lives due to ingesting these bags. These bags still remain intact after the death and decay of the animals and remain to cause further harm to life and earth. Even land animals that are scavenging for food, fall victim to it by chocking or starving to death on these bags. This damages our fragile ecosystem.
These bags are non biodegradable and it’s said that they take many hundred years to decompose, giving out toxic by products. Burning these bags gives out toxic fumes that pollute the air and water. Most bags end up in landfills and prevent ground water from seeping properly and can harm plant life and vegetation. They block drainage and harm the sewage system. Choked drains cause floods and also form areas for breeding of disease producing organisms.
These bags also use up a natural resource that’s non renewable-petroleum which could be used as fuel. Their use in large numbers is steadily eating into the resource and also causing damage due to extraction of petroleum. They are hazardous to produce and dispose off too.
There is very little market for recycled plastic. Very few plastic bags are recycled.
The statistics on the use of these bags are mind boggling. It’s estimated that more than a million bags are consumed and discarded every minute! Plastic bags as litter are now commonplace even in remote places like Antarctica. Most nations now recognize the problem caused by these seemingly harmless convenience and are taking steps to control and lessen its use if not completely eradicate it. Countries like Ireland have imposed a tax on it which has lessened its use, cut back on litter and saved millions of litres of oil. Other countries like Bangladesh have totally banned its use where the clogging of its drainage system by these bags had caused severe floods in a large part of the country repeatedly.
Solution to this enormous and pressing environmental problem can be multi pronged. Educating people on its harm and preventing its superfluous use can go a long way in taking care of its ill effects. Finding alternative materials like cloth, paper etc which are biodegradable would lessen the evil. Overuse of paper too can lead to loss of another resource, the tree and its wood. Work is on to find other suitable safer materials for similar use. Carrying your own shopping bag while making purchases is good way to help out. Businesses too could save on costs by helping to reduce their use.
Instead of waiting for directives from regulations, we can help curb this environmental hazard by being aware and taking baby steps to limit the use of these bags. This could go a long way in leaving the world a better place for future generations to come. Lets gift our children a world free from this man made hazard which is threatening the basis of life on earth.
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Also found in: Thesaurus, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
Related to Abukir: Trafalgar
A·bu Qir
also A·bu·kir (ä′bo͞o-kîr′, ăb′o͞o-)
A village of northern Egypt in the Nile River delta on the Bay of Abu Qir. Adm. Horatio Nelson's victory over a French fleet off Abu Qir in 1798 restored British prestige in the Mediterranean and ended French hopes of establishing a stronghold in the Middle East.
(ˌɑ buˈkɪər, ˌæb u-)
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.Abukir - a bay on the Mediterranean Sea in northern EgyptAbukir - a bay on the Mediterranean Sea in northern Egypt
Mediterranean, Mediterranean Sea - the largest inland sea; between Europe and Africa and Asia
References in periodicals archive ?
In the British effort to drive the French out of Egypt, where Napoleon had left his army to fend for itself after Nelson had destroyed the French fleet in Abukir Bay, General Moore was sent to coordinate with the Ottoman army in Jaffa; his equanimity was deemed to have a calming effect on the volatile Orientals.
There are almost twenty such occasional compositions in Vanhal's output, including for example musical illustrations of Die Schlacht bei Wurzburg (1796), Die grosse Seeschlacht bei Abukir (1800), Le Combat navale de Trafalgar et la mort de Nelson (1806) or Die Feyer der Ruckkehr unseres allgeliebten Monarchen Franz I.
The French navy was destroyed by Nelson at Abukir only 10 days after the Battle of the Pyramids, effectively trapping Napoleon in Egypt, and depriving him of any aid from home.
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CS302 Digital Logic & Design GDB Solution Fall 2013
“An electric power supply company is going to make a power line network to monitor the power supply and line losses. For monitoring system to be deployed with this network, which integrated technology will be a better choice, as CMOS and TTL are widely used in different scenarios? Support you views with reasons. You may also point out a technology (if any) other than CMOS and TTL but with reasons.”
Solution: Characteristics of CMOS logic:
1. Dissipates low power: The power dissipation is dependent on the power supply voltage, frequency, output load, and input rise time. At 1 MHz and 50 pF load, the power dissipation is typically 10 nW per gate.
2. Short propagation delays: Depending on the power supply, the propagation delays are usually around 25 nS to 50 nS.
3. Rise and fall times are controlled: The rise and falls are usually ramps instead of step functions, and they are 20 – 40% longer than the propagation delays.
4. Noise immunity approaches 50% or 45% of the full logic swing.
5. Levels of the logic signal will be essentially equal to the power supplied since the input impedance is so high.
Characteristics of TTL logic:
1. Power dissipation is usually 10 mW per gate.
2. Propagation delays are 10 nS when driving a 15 pF/400 ohm load.
3. Voltage levels range from 0 to Vcc where Vcc is typically 4.75V – 5.25V. Voltage range 0V – 0.8V creates logic level 0. Voltage range 2V – Vcc creates logic level 1.
CMOS compared to TTL:
1. CMOS components are typically more expensive than TTL equivalents. However, CMOS technology is usually less expensive on a system level due to CMOS chips being smaller and requiring less regulation.
2. CMOS circuits do not draw as much power as TTL circuits while at rest. However, CMOS power consumption increases faster with higher clock speeds than TTL does. Lower current draw requires less power supply distribution, therefore causing a simpler and cheaper design.
3. Due to longer rise and fall times, the transmission of digital signals becomes simpler and less expensive with CMOS chips.
4. CMOS components are more susceptible to damage from electrostatic discharge than TTL components.
A new single power supply 10bit video Bi-CMOS sample-and-hold IC is described. High speed, low power and high-accuracy sample-and-hold operation has been achieved using the complementary connected buffer type sample switch. The equivalent PNP transistor is formed by the combination of NPN and PMOS transistors. The sample-and-hold IC has been implemented in 1.2um Bi-CMOS technology. The acquisition time and the switching settling time are 20ns and 15ns, respectively. It works with +5V single power supply and the power dissipation is 150mW.
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Augusta D and Alzheimer's Disease
The Lancet Volume 349, Number 9064
Konrad Maurer, Stephan Volk, Hector Gerbaldo
* Alzheimer and Auguste D
* Auguste D and her file
* The eponym Alzheimer
* Auguste D's dementia
* References
Lancet 1997; 349: 1546-49
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy I (Prof K Maurer MD, H Gerbaldo MD) and II (S Volk MD); Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Heinrich-Hoffmann Strabe, 60528 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Correspondence to: Prof Konrad Maurer
On Nov 4, 1906, Alois Alzheimer gave a remarkable lecture,1 in which he described for the first time a form of dementia that subsequently, at the suggestion of Emil Kraepelin, became known as Alzheimer's disease. In his lecture, at the 37th Conference of South-West German Psychiatrists in Tubingen, Alzheimer described a patient called Auguste D, a 51-year-old woman from Frankfurt who had shown progressive cognitive impairment, focal symptoms, hallucinations, delusions, and psychosocial incompetence. At necropsy, there were plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and arteriosclerotic changes. The eponym Alzheimer, originally used to refer to presenile dementia, came into later use for the largest cause of primary dementia--senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT). Here, we describe the discovery and contents of the file of Auguste D, which had not been seen since 1909.
Alzheimer and Auguste D
Alzheimer was born on June 14, 1864, in Marktbreit, Germany, a small village near Wurzburg. He studied medicine at the universities of Berlin, Tubingen, and Wurzberg, where he wrote his doctoral thesis Uber die Ohrenschmalzdrusen (on ceruminal glands) in 1887, producing his first histological plates. In December, 1888, he began his medical career as a resident at the Hospital for the Mentally Ill and Epileptics, Frankfurt am Main, and subsequently was promoted to senior physician.
Alzheimer's research interests were wide ranging and included not only dementia of degenerative and vascular (arteriosclerotic) origin but also psychoses, forensic psychiatry, epilepsy, and birth control. His interest in the neuropathology of dementing disorders was shared by his colleague Franz Nissl, who came to Frankfurt in March, 1889. It was Nissl who provided Alzheimer with new histopathological techniques for studying nervous disorders.
On Nov 25, 1901, Auguste D was admitted to the Frankfurt hospital, where she was examined by Alzheimer. She had a striking cluster of symptoms that included reduced comprehension and memory, as well as aphasia, disorientation, unpredictable behaviour, paranoia, auditory hallucinations, and pronounced psychosocial impairment.
In 1903, Alzheimer left Frankfurt, and, after a short stay in Heidelberg, moved to the Royal Psychiatric Clinic, Munich, whose director was Kraepelin. There, Alzheimer continued to follow Auguste D's case until her death in Frankfurt on April 8, 1906, after which he went on to study the neuropathological features of her illness.
Auguste D and her file
On Dec 19, 1995, the 80th anniversary of Alzheimer's death was commemorated at his birthplace in Marktbreit with the inauguration of his house as a museum and conference centre. Eli Lilly purchased the house, which has been renovated under the direction of Ulrike Maurer. Previously, we had conducted an intensive search for the file of Auguste D, which had been lost since its description by Perusini in 1909. We had been looking for it for many years; only 2 days after the 80th anniversary we found it in the archives of our own department in Frankfurt.
Admitted Nov 25, 1901, died April 8, 1906.36 x 23.5 cm.
After 90 years, the blue-coloured cardboard file was still in good condition ; it contained a total of 32 sheets with the patient's admission report, an attestation, and three versions of the case history--one in Latin script and two in the now outdated German "Sutterlin" script. The first Latin script, already published by Perusini and subsequently translated, begins with questions about her husband, followed by clinical findings, the details of the course of her disease, and a report on her death, including a histopathological diagnosis. The part written in Latin is followed by a nearly identical copy in Sutterlin. A small sheet of paper with the handwriting of Auguste D dated by Alzheimer shows "amnestic writing disorder" so named by Alzheimer himself Alzheimer's handwritten notes, also in Sutterlin, document in detail his patient's symptoms during the first 4 days of her stay in hospital. In between Alzheimer's notes are additional samples of Auguste D's attempts to write her name. The file also contains four photographs of her (the most impressive is shown in and a report about the course of the disease, which consisted of concise notes starting on June 29, 1905, and ending on the day of her death on April 8, 1906. Several attestations and an application form for hospitalisation of a mentally ill person together with a one-page case report from the Royal Psychiatric Department, Munich, conclude the file.
Dated by Alzheimer (26. XI. Frau Auguste D Frankfurt/Main).
Alzheimer's notes in the file begin on Nov 26, 1901. He asked simple questions and wrote down Auguste D's answers systematically. He resumed questioning on Nov 28, 29, and 30 on four handwritten pages.
The file begins as follows (our italics denote Auguste D's answers, and each translated passage is followed by figures of the original pages in the file):
Nov 26, 1901
In between she always speaks about twins. When she is asked to write, she holds the book in such a way that one has the impression that she has a loss in the right visual field. Asked to write Auguste D, she tries to write Mrs and forgets the rest. It is necessary to repeat every word. Amnestic writing disorder. In the evening her spontaneous speech is full of paraphrasic derailments and perseverations.
Extracts from Nov 29, 1901
. . . What year is it? Eighteen hundred. Are you ill? Second month. What are the names of the patients? She answers quickly and correctly. What month is it now? The 11th. What is the name of the 11th month? The last one, if not the last one. Which one? I don't know. What colour is snow? White. Soot? Black. The sky? Blue. Meadows? Green. How many fingers do you have? 5. Eyes? 2. Legs? 2.
. . . If you buy 6 eggs, at 7 dimes each, how much is it? Differently. On what street do you live? I can tell you, I must wait a bit. What did I ask you? Well, this is Frankfurt am Main. On what street do you live? Waldemarstreet, not, no... . When did you marry? I don't know at present. The woman lives on the same floor. Which woman? The woman where we are living. The patient calls Mrs G, Mrs G, here a step deeper, she lives . . . I show her a key, a pencil and a book and she names them correctly. What did I show you? I don't know, I don't know. It's difficult isn't it? So anxious, so anxious. I show her 3 fingers; how many fingers? 3. Are you still anxious Yes. How many fingers did I show you? Well this is Frankfurt am Main.
The patient is asked to recognise objects by touch, with her eyes closed. A toothbrush, sponge, bread, breadroll, spoon, brush, glass, knife, fork, plate, purse, Mark, cigar, key. She recognises them quickly and correctly. By touch she calls a brass cup a milk jug, a tea-spoon, but when she opens her eyes she immediately says a cup.
Writing, she does it as already described. When she has to write Mrs Auguste D, she writes Mrs and we must repeat the other words because she forgets them. The patient is not able to progress in writing and repeats, I have lost myself.
Reading, she passes from one line to the next and repeats the same line three times. But, she correctly reads the letters. She seems not to understand what she reads. She stresses the words in an unusual way. Suddenly she says twins. I know Mr Twin. She repeats the word twin during the whole interview.
The reactions of the pupils to light and accommodation are instantaneous. Tongue has normal mobility, dry, yellow-red-brown. No disturbance in speech articulation. She frequently interrupts herself in the articulation of words during the interview (as if she did not know whether she had said something correctly or not). She has dentures. No facial nerve differences. Muscular strength: at the left side considerably reduced compared with the right side. Patellar reflex normal. Radial reflex is slightly (but not relevantly) rigid. Cardiac ictus is not felt. Cardiac obtusity not enlarged. The second pulmonary and aortic tones are not accentuated.
During physical examination she cooperates and is not anxious. She suddenly says Just now a child called, is he there? She hears him calling..., she knows Mrs Twin. When she was brought from the isolation room to the bed she became agitated, screamed, was non-cooperative; showed great fear and repeated I will not be cut. I do not cut myself.
Alzheimer's report in Sutterlin ends on Nov 30, 1901. The two other versions, in Sutterlin and Latin, continue to document the course of Auguste's disease. In the Latin version, an entry from Nov 7, 1905, states: "Tendency to develop a decubitus since the beginning of 1906. Ulcerations at the sacral and left trochanteric area with a size of about 5 cm. Very weak, high fever up to 40.C within the last days. Pneumonia in both inferior lobes".
The day of Auguste's death on April 8, 1906, was not mentioned by Alzheimer but by his other two (unnamed) colleagues, who wrote the following report (in Latin) about the decay and the neuropathological diagnosis:
April 8, 1906
During the morning exitus letalis; cause of death: septicaemia due to decubitus; anatomical diagnosis: moderate hydrocephalus (external internal); cerebral atrophy; arteriosclerosis of the small cerebral vessels; pneumonia of both inferior lobes; nephritis.
The eponym Alzheimer
After Auguste D's death, Alzheimer asked for her records and brain to be sent to Munich, to where he had moved in 1903. Within 6 months he presented his findings to the Tubingen meeting, the abstracts of which were published in the same year.1 Alzheimer's was the 11th contribution. However, only the title of his presentation was announced with a statement in parentheses that the lecture "was not appropriate for a short publication".
Herr Alzheimer (Munchen): Uber einen eigenartigen schweren Erkrankungsproze der Hirnrinde (zu kurzem Referat nicht geeignet).
It was not until the following year, in 1907, that Alzheimer published his lecture under the title "A characteristic serious disease of the cerebral cortex". He described "the case of a patient who was kept under close observation during institutionalisation at the Frankfurt Hospital and whose central nervous system had been given to me by director Sioli for further examination". Alzheimer described, without identifying her, a "51-year-old woman" who showed "as one of her first disease symptoms a strong feeling of jealously towards her husband. Very soon she showed rapidly increasing memory impairments; she was disoriented carrying objects to and fro in her flat and hid them. Sometimes she felt that someone wanted to kill her and began to scream loudly... After 4 years of sickness she died".
Alzheimer also described the histopathological findings of this disease. He reported peculiar changes in the neurofibrils: "In the centre of an otherwise almost normal cell there stands out one or several fibrils due to their characteristic thickness and peculiar impregnability". He went on to describe the typical plaques, later named after him: "Numerous small miliary foci are found in the superior layers. They are determined by the storage of a peculiar material in the cortex". Alzheimer continues: "all in all we have to face a peculiar disease process. Such peculiar disease processes have been verified recently in considerable numbers".
We learn more about this patient in an article by Perusini, "On histological and clinical findings of some psychiatric diseases of older people", published in 1909. On Alzheimer's suggestion, Perusini "examined four cases characterised by clinical and especially histopathological signs". In this article, Auguste D was reinvestigated with respect to her symptoms and histopathology as case No 1. For the first time the initials of her surname, complete given name, and profession of her husband were mentioned ("D Auguste, wife of an office clerk, aged 51 years"). Perusini thanked Sioli from Frankfurt am Main for the use of the case history and the brain for microscopic research. Thus, Perusini's case No 1 is identical with the case described by Alzheimer in his 1907 paper, a fact that was not completely clear until now.
Perusini referred to the Latin version of Auguste D's case history; he presented detailed histopathological findings together with six illustrations showing amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. In summary, he stated: "The pathological process recalls main features of senile dementia; however, the alterations in the cases described are more far reaching, although some of them represent presenile diseases".
Besides the two important publications of Alzheimer in 1907 and Perusini in 1909 on Auguste D, Kraepelin must have known of other reports: Bonfiglio reported in 1908 on a similar patient, aged 60, who had similar symptoms and histopathology; in 1907, Fischer had published a detailed description of histopathological changes in dementia; and then there was Alzheimer's 1911 report (which appeared 1 year after the eponym had been introduced by Kraepelin) in which he described his second case of dementia (Johann F). In the discussion were drawings of typical changes in the neurofibrils, which were from his first case (Auguste D).
Neurofibrillary tangles from Auguste D, by Alzheimer
In the 8th edition (1910) of Handbook of Psychiatry, Kraepelin stated that "a particular group of cases with extremely serious cell alterations was described by Alzheimer". The necropsy findings showed changes that "represent the most serious forms of senile dementia. The plaques were excessively numerous and almost one-third of the cortical cells had died off. In their places were peculiar, deeply stained bundles of neurofibrils". He mentioned "Alzheimer's disease" for the first time, stating, "The clinical interpretation of this Alzheimer's Disease is still unclear. Although the anatomical findings suggest that we are dealing with a particularly serious form of senile dementia, the fact is that this disease sometimes starts as early as in the late forties". Located in the third layer of the frontal cortex.
Kraepelin introduced the eponym Alzheimer's disease, but why did he use Alzheimer's name, and not Perusini's, Bonfiglio's, or Fischer's? Since Alzheimer described the two cases, and since Perusini republished the Auguste D case (with photographs and drawings of the histo-pathological findings), we are convinced that the eponym was based on Alzheimer's 1907 report of Auguste D's case. Moreover, she only showed neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles typical of the disease.
Several hypotheses to account for the haste with which Kraepelin created the new eponym have been put forward. Beach says that Kraepelin did so for scientific reasons, because he believed that Alzheimer had discovered a new disease. Another reason might have been the existing rivalry between his department and that of Pick in Prague (where Fischer also worked) and the desire for prestige for his Munich laboratory. Also plausible is Kraepelin's wish to show the superiority of his school over psychoanalytical theories and to show (vis-a-vis Freud) that some mental disorders were organically based. The most likely explanation, however, is the close collaboration between Kraepelin and Alzheimer, and Kraepelin's awareness of Alzheimer's clinical and scientific work on presenile cases.
Auguste D's dementia
There are doubts about the diagnosis of Auguste D's illness, and other diagnoses have been put forward, especially arteriosclerosis of the brain.
Both descriptions of Auguste D's dementia by Alzheimer and Perusini confirm that Auguste D had a degenerative and not a vascular form of dementia. Alzheimer mentioned the miliary foci (later called senile plaques), which represented the sites of deposition of a peculiar substance in the cerebral cortex. This substance has since turned out to be B-amyloid protein. Alzheimer showed clumps and condensations of intracellular fibrils and called them "neurofibrillary degeneration".
At Alzheimer's suggestion, Perusini restudied the brain of Auguste D and found "that the large cerebral vessels, the arterial circle of Willis and the Sylvian arteries showed no significant signs of arteriosclerosis"; only "some regressive alterations of the arterial wall" were noted. Perusini confirmed the presence in Auguste D of neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles.
In summary, the clinical and histopathological findings of Auguste D accord with the ICD-10, DSM-III-R, and CERAD12 definitions of Alzheimer's disease. There can be little further doubt in view of Alzheimer's observations published in 1911, in which he refers to the presence of neurofibrillary tangles in the second and third layers of the cortex in a brain slice of his first case (ie, Auguste D)
Alzheimer anticipated the debate about which type of dementia Auguste D may have had by his remark in 1907:6 "a histopathological analysis at a later point will show the peculiarity of this case". Our next goal is to find the brain sections of Auguste D so that we can corroborate Alzheimer's original findings.
We thank Heiko Braak for critical reading of the histopathological part of the manuscript and for his suggestions; and Doris Plocher for her help in deciphering Alzheimer's handwriting.
1 Alzheimer A. Uber einen eigenartigen schweren Erkrankungsprozeb der Hirnrinde. Neurologisches Centralblatt 1906; 23: 1129-36.
2 Kraepelin E. Psychiatrie: Ein Lehrbuch fur Studierende und Arzte. Leipzig: Barth, 1910: 593-632.
3 Perusini G. Uber klinisch und histologisch eigenartige psychische Erkrankungen des spateren Lebensalters. In: Nissl F, Alzheimer A, eds. Histologische und Histopathologische Arbeiten. Jena: Verlag G Fischer, 1909: 297-351.
4 O'Brien C. Auguste D and Alzheimer's disease. Science 1996; 273: 28.
5 Bick K, Amaducci L, Pepeu G, eds. The early story of Alzheimer's disease. Padova: Liviana Press, 1987: 82-85.
6 Alzheimer A. Uber eine eigenartige Erkrankung der Hirnrinde. Allgemeine Zeitschrift fur Psychiatrie und Psychisch-Gerichtliche Medizin 1907; 64: 146-48.
7 Bonfiglio F. Di speciali reperti in un caso di probabile sifilide cerebrale. Riv Sper Fremiatria 1908; 34: 196-206.
8 Fischer O. Miliare Nekrosen mit drusigen Wucherungen der Neurofibrillen, eine regelmabige Veranderung der Hirnrinde bei seniler Demenz. Monatsschr Psychiatr Neurol 1907; 22: 361-72.
9 Alzheimer A. Uber eigenartige Krankheitsfalle des spateren Alters. Zeitschrift fur die Gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie 1911; 4: 356-85.
10 Berrios GE. Alzheimer's disease: a conceptual history. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 1987; 5: 355-65.
11 Beach TG. The history of Alzheimer's disease: three debates. J Hist Med Allied Sci 1987; 42: 327-49.
12 Mirra SS, Heyman A, McKeel D, et al. The Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD). II: standardization of the neuropathologic assessment of Alzheimer's disease. Neurology 1991; 41: 475-76
Copyright 1997, The Lancet Ltd.
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BioWatch system comes under scrutiny
Officials with the U.S. National Academies of Science say a system of air samplers set up in major cities to detect biological agents may be facing some challenges.
Authorities set up the air sampling system, known as BioWatch, in 2003, reports. The system is comprised of air monitoring devices in over 30 U.S. cities, including New York and Washington, D.C. Samples of air are collected and tested in local laboratories every 24 hours for traces of a list of potential bioterror agents.
A committee convened by the NAS tasked with reviewing the system has concluded that tests should be done to establish the effectiveness of BioWatch, and that better coordination is needed to make the system more useful.
The NAS committee found that the system was not well integrated into the U.S. public health system, reports. Committee members argued they system relies on local health departments and healthcare systems to analyze and respond to any detected threats.
“The BioWatch system needs to establish a more effective relationship with public health systems where it is deployed,” an unnamed committee member told
Committee members also cite the cost of BioWatch as an issue. As it stands now, the local authorities managing BioWatch devices are not given any extra financial support. The committee says that the costs of analyzing and responding to threats are an extra burden to public health authorities, which should be compensated for BioWatch-related work and staff training, reports.
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In the United States, Macular Degeneration affects over ten million people. It is an incurable disease of the eye and is also the leading cause of blindness in people over the age of 55.
Macular Degeneration is the result of deterioration of the central portion of the retina. In our eye, the very back layer records the images that we see then sends them through the optic nerve of the eye into our brain. The macula, which is the retina's central portion, is what focuses the central vision in the eye that controls our ability to read, recognize colors, drive a car, and see small details in objects.
As we age, our chances increase dramatically for getting Macular Degeneration. Research on this disease is limited due to the lack of funds. Therefore, the exact factors that cause Macular Degeneration are not known since there is no conclusive evidence.
There are several forms of Macular Degeneration. These include:
• Age-related Macular Degeneration (most common) - There are two forms of this; wet and dry. The wet form is when new blood vessels form under the retina and leak causing visual distortion and scar tissue. The dry form progresses slower than the wet and has less severe vision loss. The macula deteriorates over time as part of the aging process.
• Cystoid Macular Degeneration - This form results in a loss of vision due to cysts on or near the macula.
• Diabetic Macular Degeneration - This form is the result of the macula deteriorating due to diabetes.
• Senile Disciform Degeneration - This is a form of the wet Age-related Macular Degeneration where the blood vessels hemorrhage severely.
If a family member suffers from Age-related Macular Degeneration, chances are, through heredity, you may end up with it, also. Women, Caucasians, and Asians are the most susceptible to developing this disease.
It is believed that the Age-related form may be caused by arteriosclerosis in the blood vessels that supply blood to the retina. The common theory here is that what is bad for the heart is bad for your eyes. Items such as smoking, and a diet that includes a large amount of saturated fat are said to be two of the worst things contributing to Macular Degeneration. It is also believed that a diet rich in vitamin A and drinking moderate amounts of red wine decreases your risk for Macular Degeneration.
The primary symptom in this disease is when we notice a change in our central vision. You may notice a blank or dark spot or blurred vision when looking straight ahead, even though your peripheral vision will not be affected. Things may appear smaller than before, you may notice a change in your perception of color, and you may become sensitive to bright light. This may happen suddenly or could progressively become more apparent. If you notice a sudden onset of distortion in your vision, you should immediately see an ophthalmologist.
The ophthalmologist will examine your eyes after dilation of the pupils. They look at the retina, examining it for the presence of small yellow bumps called drusen (Small bright structures seen in the retina and in the optic disc) and also look to see if the macula is thinner than normal. They may also conduct a visual field test in which they ask if you see blank spots in your central vision while looking at a white screen. You may also be subjected to a fluorescein angiography, which is where fluorescent dye is injected into your vein, then the ophthalmologist will photograph the back of your eye. This helps them determine if the blood vessels in the back of your eye are leaking slightly or severely hemorrhaging.
Most patients suspected of having Age-related Macular Degeneration will undergo a visual test called the Amsler Grid. This is a grid on a sheet of paper where the patient is asked to look at a dot located in the center of the page and they are instructed to contact the ophthalmologist if the graph lines are perceived as being wavy, bent, broken, or missing altogether.
The early detection of this disease is extremely important for two reasons. The first reason is the loss of vision cannot be reversed, and the second is there are treatments that may slow or even halt the progression of the wet form of this disease. In selected cases of wet Macular Degeneration, laser photocoagulation is effective for sealing leaking or bleeding vessels. Unfortunately, laser photocoagulation usually does not restore lost vision, but it may prevent further loss. Yet another form of treatment is radiation therapy using either x-rays or a proton beam. In the blood vessels that are growing, this form of treatment uses a low dose of radiation since these vessels are extremely sensitive to treatment. The nerve cells surrounding the retina are not sensitive to the treatment since they are not growing, and thus, are not harmed. There is no known treatment for the dry form. However, there are cell transplantation studies being conducted.
The dry form of this disease will eventually stabilize even though the loss of vision will not be regained. The wet form may stabilize or even improve without any treatment. However, this is only temporary.
Although patients suffering with this disease often become legally blind, they rarely have a total loss of vision. They will retain their peripheral vision and can usually compensate for the loss of their central vision through training designed to help them use their peripheral vision. There are special aids such as magnifiers that allow the patient to read and telescopic aids allowing them to see further away. Through using these aids with their peripheral vision, most people with this disease can remain independent.
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Section A: Child Development
Key words
Who agrees/disagrees?
Comfort, NOT cupboard love=food.
ST & LT consequences of privatisation.
A Mother figure made of wire mesh that had a feeding mechanism was introduced to the babies along with a Mother figure made of soft material with blankets. Observations showed the monkeys favoured the ‘cloth’ mother despite the fact it does not feed them.
1) Scientific animal study can lead to a cause and effect relationship.
2) Monkeys have similar social behaviour to humans.
1) Unethical to privatise an animal.
+Supports Bowlby’s= lack of maternal bond causes delinquency.
-Food is function of attachment which disagrees with behaviourists who believe food is a reinforcer of emotion.
Romanian Orphans:
1) Effects of Institutionalisation= Lower cognitive ability with poor level of reading and social skills lacking.
2) Age related benefits of adoption= Reversible damage
1) 111 Romanian orphans= ½ intellectual deficits and most underweight. 4 years later no sig difference in both intellect and Wight. 52 British-adopted children. Arrive in Britain before 6 months showed sig improvement with substitute care.
2) Isle of Wight study= 6% of 10-11 year olds showed emotional problems and show stressors to be overcrowding, marital discord, death of a close relative of illness of one/both parents.
1) Separation alone is not sufficient to cause negative outcomes.
2) Large scale used.
3) Supported by single case animal experiments.
1) Overoptimistic= To be adopted within six months is unlikely and any longer without private care shows longer lasting consequences.
Disagrees with Bowlby saying:
1) That effects of privatisation can be overcome.
2) Maternal deprivation on its own is not enough to cause delinquency as it can be due to the reason of parental absence.
3) Bowlby muddled deprivation and privatisation.
Function of attachment (internal working model) = A child’s early attachments work as a framework for all future relationships.
LT Consequences of deprivation:
1) Delinquency and psychopathy= permanent lack of feelings.
2) Monotropy= An innate need to attach to one figure (first 2 years).
3) Irreversibility= Lt damage to the child cannot be un-done.
44 juvenile thieves at the clinic with 44 non criminals. Interviewed about early life:
1) 39% of delinquents had up to 6 month’s separation in first 5 years while only 5% in others.
2) 14 affectionless psychopaths, 12 of which separated from mum in first 2 years.
3) 5 children suffered with mild depression, some were severe cases.
Case study with detailed analysis.
1) Nostalgia based interviews can cause inaccuracies.
2) Cause is not shown.
3) Un-scientific methods of assessment.
4) No proof damage is irreversible.
1) Harlow monkey delinquency.
1) Delinquency is caused by circumstance and is not irreversible (Rutter).
2) Schaffer not monotropy and not just maternal but 75% paternal.
3) Children adopted after 7 years can show attachment (Hodges & Tizard).
Stages of attachment:
1) Asocial 0-6 weeks, shows people=objects in affection level.
2) Diffuse 6 weeks-6 months, no obvious preferred attachment.
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Greek Wisdom
The Greek poet Aeschylus wrote a trilogy usually referred to as The “Oresteia.” It centers around the revenge death by Orestes of his mother who had killed his father Agamemnon after his return from Troy. Orestes is hounded by the Eumenides (the Furies) who represent the ancient concept of justice as “an eye for an eye.” In the third play, “The Eumenides,” Orestes flees to Athens where he seeks the protection of the goddess Athene. His advocate is Apollo who, at the urging of his Father Zeus, had urged Orestes to kill his mother, and her lover as well, because she had taken the life of a Greek hero.
Athene suggests to the Eumenides that rather than hound Orestes to madness or death he should be tried by a jury of twelve Athenian citizens. She will play the role of Judge and in case of a tie vote she will cast the deciding vote. After the two sides have presented their view of the matricide (during which Apollo presents the curious argument that the father is the true parent of the child; the mother merely carries the seed) the jury votes and their decision results in a tie which Athene breaks in Orestes’ favor. The message is clear: the new laws of Athens have replaced the barbaric laws of justice, represented by the Eumenides, and Athens herself now stands before the world as representative of civilization itself, defender of true justice. As Athene says in her summing-up:
“. . .In this place shall the awe of the citizens and their inborn dread restrain injustice, both by day and night alike, so long as the citizens themselves do not pervert the laws by means of evil influxes; for by polluting clear water with mud you will never find good drinking.
“Neither Anarchy nor tyranny shall the citizen defend and respect, if they follow my council; and they shall not cast out altogether from the city what is to be feared.
“For who among the mortals that fears nothing is just?
“Such is the object of awe that you must justly dread, and so you shall have a bulwark of the land and a protector of the city such as none of human kind possess…”
The Athenians are urged to take pride in their city which stands now as a beacon of justice in a barbarian world where once the Eumenides had reined supreme — higher even than the gods themselves. The Eumenides themselves are argued into submission after taking exception to the decision of the jury and Athene herself by the promise of becoming themselves helpful guardians of the city with a place of honor. They are appeased and they say near the end of the play:
“This is my prayer: Civil War fattening on men’s ruin shall not thunder in our city. Let not the dry dust that drinks the black blood of citizens through passion for revenge and bloodshed for bloodshed be given our state to prey upon.
“Let them render grace for grace. Let love be their common will. . .”
Two things strike the reader at once: love is to replace hate and the laws replace brutal justice, laws that properly speaking demand our respect and even our fear. They define the state and they create a civilized world apart from the world of those who cry for blood.
I have thought recently how different Athene’s world is from ours of late. We have selected as president of this country a man who is well known to bend and at times to break the laws, believing himself to be above the laws and incapable of error. A man who faces a trial for serial rape of a thirteen-year-old girl. His loud and obnoxious followers wave their weapons of death high and shout hateful epithets; they thirst for “black blood of citizens through passion for revenge.”
We express our surprise, for some reason, as the man now proceeds to select like-minded men and women to surround himself with as president during the coming years, small-minded men and women who, like him, live in a small world filled with hatred and suspicion — even paranoia. Hatred seems to have displaced love as the central emotion in this new world which appears to be splitting into two halves; fear is directed toward the unpredictable behavior of this man and his cohorts rather than to the laws and the Constitution of the land that has heretofore defined this civilization as in many ways superior to those that surround it. Gone is even the faintest echo,”let them render grace for grace. Let love be their common will.” How many of those who voted this man in are now beginning to have second-thoughts?
Ours is indeed a Brave New World. The Eumenides would be delighted.
7 thoughts on “Greek Wisdom
1. I have this sense that Trump’s career is one of using lawyers and the law as a weapon. 4,000 lawsuits is a great many and people would tend to get screwed as he could afford better lawyers.
2. I think those of us who voted against him had some clue what would come should he be elected. But of course we a re-slapped repeatedly with the reality of it whenever we check the news.
3. I do not gno what better a Country, a People, deserves than to have at their Head the very Principle to which they have sworn Allegiance. As somebody said: “One cannot have two Masters; for they shall cling to the one and hate the other.” How the mighty are fallen, fallen, fallen.
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Shipping_containers_at_ClydeIt’s hard to imagine a world without container ships. These ships make it possible for us to request and send products all over the world. How do you think that Chinese- made pair of jeans go to you? Container ships are a feat of engineering and the backbone to our modern economy. The container aboard these ships are able to seamlessly be transported to the ship by semi-trucks, loaded on the ship, and taken off to be transported by truck to their destination. There is no need to unload the contents as in the old days.
Before containerization was invented, items were transported in packages and placed aboard ships. It was a painstaking, time consuming process. Containers can hold up to 64,000 lbs of cargo each. Thanks to the invention of containers, the shipping time for cargo was reduced by 84% and costs went down 35%. By 2001, almost 90% of dry cargo was shipped in a container.
Shipping containers are built to hold heavy material, withstand the salty ocean air, and last a long time. They are usually made of steel, but can also be made of aluminum, fiberglass, or even wood. The invention of the container was not met with open arms. Many trade unions for dock workers balked at the idea. They believed this invention would cause massive job losses. Many companies involved in ports and railways were worried about the huge costs involved in developing infrastructure to handle these new containers.
Containers can now be loaded and unloaded from a ship in a few hours. The sturdy containers also allow for less breakage while the ship is underway. There is also less theft. Container ships now make up about 14% of the world’s fleet based on tonnage. Despite improvements in efficiency, about 2,000-10,000 containers are lost at sea each year. This costs companies about $370 million dollars. This is due to storms, or even ships sinking. Shipping by container is still the best way to go for many companies around the world. You can thank this containerization innovation next time you purchase an item made overseas.
UnknownThis statue is a symbol of America and is known throughout the world. Many visitors come to New York just to view her in person. She was a gift from the people of France in 1886. During immigration, the statue became an icon of freedom for those arriving from other countries. Here are some facts you may not know about Lady Liberty.
• 1984-1986: The statue was closed for restoration. The torch and much of the internal structure were replaced.
• After 9/11, it was closed for safety reasons and was reopened in 2009 for limited visitors.
• Liberty Island fully opened July 4, 2013
• Nobody has been able to access the balcony on the torch since 1916
• The French paid for the statue but the US paid for the pedestal on which it stands
• There are differing opinions in how much copper was needed for the statue. Some say 200,000 lbs while another says 128,000 lbs.
• The cost of the donated copper was $16,000 at that time (Around $354,000 in 2014).
• American fundraising for the statue included a young Theodore Roosevelt
• Designer of the Eiffel tower, Gustave Eiffel, also helped on the Statue of Liberty
• To protect the copper skin on the statue, Gustave Eiffel insulated it with asbestos
• Many Americans at the time preferred realistic artwork rather than allegorical like the Statue of Liberty
• The proposed height of the pedestal was 114 feet, it was reduced to 89 feet
• Some people donated as little as 5 cents towards the pedestal
• The tradition of the ticker-tape parade started during the parade for the Statue of Liberty when traders at the NYSE threw ticker tape from the windows
• A fireworks display was planned for the Statue of Liberty’s arrival, but it was postponed due to bad weather
• Replacement copper for some repairs came from a rooftop at Bell Labs
Even if you haven’t had the chance to visit Paris, you already know about the Eiffel Tower. It is one of the world’s most iconic structures aside from the Statue of Liberty and a few others. Named after its creator Gustave Eiffel, the tower was built to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. The image below comes from the Eiffel Tower’s website and gives key figures regarding the structure.
• The tower was only intended to last 20 years but was saved due to the scientific experiments it was used for
• The tower served as a military radio post in 1903
• The first public radio programme was broadcast in 1925 from the tower
• Almost 250 million people have visited since it opened in 1889
• 120 antennas are atop the structure
• The country with the greatest percent of visitors (besides France) is Italy followed by Spain and the US
• The Eiffel Tower was the tallest structure for 40 years until the Chrysler Building was completed
• Every 7 years, 50 tons of paint are added to the tower to protect it from rust
• The temperature can alter the height of the tower by up to 6 inches
• The French nickname is La dame de fer meaning the iron lady
• The tower weighs over 10,000 tons and is made of iron
UnknownNumismatists (coin collectors) likely have a few half dollars stashed away in their collection. Since 2002, the half dollar has only been minted for collection purposes. This was due to a large inventory and lack of demand. These coins are no accepted in vending machines, slot machines, or other coin operated machines. Once supply levels of the coin drop, more will be minted. If you were lucky enough to find one in circulation you probably held onto it. Many magicians prefer the half dollar due to the coins weight and size.
During their prime, half dollars were used quite often. Many casinos accepted them, especially for games requiring a 50 cent ante like blackjack. The rise of silver in the 1960s caused a problem for the US Mint. The price of silver would have exceeded the value of the coins (dimes and quarters). In 1965, the composition of the coin changed to copper and cupro-nickel. The Kennedy half dollar, though, still contained silver. The percentage of silver in this 50 cent piece dropped from 90% to 40%.
Rise of the Quarter
As silver continued to rise, many people hoarded half dollars containing 90% silver. A roll of these coins would net around 7 ounces of silver. Eventually there were so few in circulation that businesses became used to it. The quarter soon became the highest value coin. Soon enough, banks and cash drawers stopped stocking the half dollar. Coin operated machines like payphones and vending machines did not make slots big enough to accept half dollars.
Half Dollars Today
Today the half dollar is virtually out of circulation. You would be hard pressed to find a place that accepted them or that issued them. It is mainly for the collector that the coin has been minted. If you have an interest in coins, the U.S. mint allows you to purchase modern day half dollars.
imagesSteel and iron are important materials in our modern society. Some people may actually interchange the two, but steel and iron are very different. Iron is an element, while steel is an alloy made up of both iron and carbon. An alloy is just a mixture of two or more elements, generally two or more metallic, or one metallic and one nonmetallic. Other elements can be added to steel to create products with different characteristics. Stainless steel is comprised of steel and chromium; this product doesn’t rust and is very durable. Other elements that can be added to steel are silicon and manganese. By adding these other elements, one can control the strength, ductility, and hardness of steel.
Steel is the main product used in construction, as it is much stronger than iron and has better compression and tension characteristics. Iron that contains more than 2% carbon is called pig iron. But iron that contains less than 2% carbon is steel. Pure iron is very soft and susceptible to rust when in contact with moist air, making it unsuitable to be used in construction or in making utensils, cookware, or many other products. Steel, in comparison, can be up to 1000 times harder than pure iron, hence its widespread use in manufacturing many products we use today.
Although steel is much stronger than iron, it is still very malleable and thus able to be manipulated to create certain shapes. Because of it’s properties, it is the most common alloy used today. It is used for manufacturing weapons, vehicles, tools, buildings, and more. One famous building, the Eiffel Tower, was constructed from puddle iron, which is an iron alloy with very low carbon levels. If it was built today though, it would likely be made of steel.
An important form of iron is that found in our bodies. It is used to carry oxygen to the body in the form of hemoglobin. Many foods we eat are rich in iron such as red meat, tofu, beans, and fish. People who are iron deficient can take iron pills, to ensure that they don’t suffer from fatigue and weakness which is common in those with low iron levels. Vegetarians are among those most at risk for iron deficiency.
As you can see, there are many differences between iron and steel. Steel is comprised of iron and carbon, it is malleable, and has a greater strength than pure iron. Iron was very common before steel production became cheap. Today steel is used in manufacturing many products and for constructing bridges, railroads, buildings, and more. So next time someone confuses steel and iron, you can explain just how different they are.
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The Krebs Cycle of Creativity, by designer, architect, and MIT Media Lab faculty member Neri Oxman PhD ’10, was featured in the Journal of Design and Science (JoDS) in January 2016. The illustration refers to the Krebs cycle, the sequence of reactions by which organisms generate energy; and to previous matrices put forth by designers John Maeda ’89, SM ’89, a former Media Lab professor, and the late Rich Gold—both of which located Art, Science, Design, and Engineering in quadrants with distinct boundaries and specialized missions.
In a JoDS essay accompanying this illustration, Oxman names her own goal: “to establish a tentative, yet holistic, cartography of the interrelation between these domains, where one realm can incite (r)evolution inside another; and where a single individual or project can reside in multiple dominions.” Oxman suggests multiple ways to view the graphic: as a clock, a microscope, a compass, a gyroscope. However the space is navigated, she imagines an output of creative energy—not unlike the output of chemical energy in living cells—resulting from the fluid movement from one realm to another.
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Pest Identifier
Not all bugs are created equal. Some pests can be much more challenging than others to control, making proper identification vitally important to your success. Where pests hide, what they eat, and other survival characteristics can be unique from species to species. Understanding these will help you target and control the pest most effectively. Use our “Pest Identifier” to discover your pest species and win the battle for your home and landscape!
Adult Fly
FLIES - General Information
Class: Insecta, Order: Diptera Flies are insects that have one set of wings in the adult stage. They grow through the process of complete metamorphosis with life stage of egg, larva, pupa and adult. The larval stages are commonly called "maggots". Flies are worldwide in distribution and there are estimated to be over 240,000 different species. Only about half this number have been identified and described. The order Diptera includes insects such as house flies, mosquitoes, gnats, midges, bottle and blow flies. Flies, especially mosquitoes are vectors for some diseases in humans such as dengue, malaria, yellow fever, encephalitis and other infectious diseases. Others are known to spread food-borne illnesses such as salmonella.
Adult Female Mosquito Feeding
MOSQUITOES - General Information
Class: Insecta, Order: Diptera. Mosquitoes are flies. They develop through complete metamorphosis with life stages of egg, larva, pupa and adult. The larval and pupal stages are found in water but breath air so they are different from other insects that use water during their development that have "gills" much like fish. Both males and females live on plant nectars and juices. However, females must have a blood meal in order to produce viable eggs. The male mosquito does not feed on blood. Females locate animals on which to feed - which includes humans - by detecting the carbon dioxide exhaled during breathing as well as body secretions and odors. Some people are more attractive to mosquitoes than others. Mosquitoes are important vectors of diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, dengue, West Nile virus and encephalitis. Eliminating or treating the bodies of water that mosquitoes use for breeding is the best approach to controlling these insect pests.
Black Widow Spider Female
SPIDERS - General Information
Spiders - Class: Arachnida, Order: Arananea Spiders are arthropods that have two body regions, the cephalothorax and abdomen, and have eight legs. There are apporximately 40,000 know species of spiders worldwide. Most all spiders are beneficial due to the fact that their major food item are insects, so they help keep insect populations in check. However, a vast majority of people are uncomfortable with spiders being around them. Only a few spiders are important from a human suffering standpoint such as the black widow and brown recluse spider. Pest management of spiders concentrates on the elimination or reduction of the conditions that cause spiders to be present. Turning off exterior lights on buildings that remain on at night will have a huge impact on the number of spiders found in and around a structure. These lights attract large numbers of insects which the spiders are attracted to for food. Reducing the numbers of insects in a building will also reduce the number of spiders inside.
Garter Snake
WILDLIFE & BIRDS - General Information
Raccoons, opossums, skunks, squirrels, coyotes, snakes, pigeons, starlings, beavers, armadillos are all examples of wildlife that may become a problem for humans. Whether they are using our buildings as a source for food, water, or shelter, destroying lawns and shrubs, or attacking our pets, these animals can quickly become an issue that needs swift and immediate attention. The fact that most of the wildlife that come in contact with humans can cause injury or illness (e.g. rabies, histoplasmosis, and salmonella), qualified people should handle these animals. Peachtree Pest Control has an entire division dedicated to controlling wildlife problems.
Indian Meal Moth Adult
PANTRY PESTS - General Information
Beetle Larvae "Grub"
LAWN & GARDEN PESTS - General Information
Lawn and garden pests around the home can cause severe damage or total loss of plants that we depend on for food or for beautifying our property. Beetle grubs, chinch bugs, spittlebugs, and mole crickets are pests of lawns and recreational turf areas such as athletic fields and golf courses. Insects such as Japanese and potato beetles, and tomato hornworms attack our crops, damaging them so they cannot be used as food. Aphids, mealybugs, scale insects and Oleander caterpillars attack our ornamental plants making them less pleasing to the eye. These pests can do a great deal of damage in a very short period of time.
Termite Swarmers aka Alates aka Primary Reproductives
TERMITES - General Information
Class: Insecta, Order: Isoptera Termites are important structural pests due to the fact that they use the wood that we use to build structures and furniture with, as a food source. In the United States alone, it is estimated that termites are responsible for over 3 billion dollars worth of damage to structures every year. Termites are grouped into subterranean and non-subterranean termites. Subterranean termites live in the ground and the others may not. The non-subterranean groups are divided into drywood and dampwood termites. These termites are found in areas where there are tropical type climates such as Florida, California and Hawaii as well as along the coast of all the states that border the Gulf of Mexico. The subtereranean termites are found in most every state except Alaska, with the Southeast US having the heaviest concentration of any other region of the United States. Controlling termites requires an understanding of termite biology and behavior as well as an understanding of basic contruction techniques. Professional Pest Management companies are equipped to control termites found in structures with a variety of techniques and equipment.
Subterranean Termites - Family: Reticulitermes, Coptotermes, Rhinotermitidae As the name implies, these termites are found in the soil, from where they invade any structure not adequately protected from attack. In the early parts of the year, when the temperature begins to approach 70 degrees or higher and after rain, swarming activity consisting of hundreds or thousands of winged kings and queens may be notice inside structures. This is usually the first signs of termites being in the structure and possibly causing damage which may be hidden from view inside walls. The damage caused to wooden components is done by the workers of the colony which are white or cream-colored and possess no wings.
Drywood Termites – Family Kalotermitidae Drywood termites, unlike subterranean moisture compared to subterranean, these termites can be found in the upper portions of homes such as the attics, eaves and soffit areas. Most colonies have only a few hundred or close to a thousand individuals, so the damage they do is not as great as subterranean termites. However, if they go unnoticed for years, they can do substantial damage in the areas they are infesting. They produce distinctive fecal pellets which are kicked out of the galleries that they tunnel in the wood. These pellets are some of the first signs of infestation that are noticed.
Acrobat Ant Adult
ANTS - General Information
Class: Insecta, Order: Hymenoptera - Ants are one of the most common and one of the most difficult pest to control. They can be a nuisance pest with just a few scouts in your house looking for food, or the dreaded and dangerous Fire Ant and Harvester Ant. Medically and economically speaking, they may affect people by stinging and biting; by invading and contaminating food; by nesting in lawns, golf courses and premises causing damage; by stealing seeds from seed beds or by feeding on germinating seeds; by defoliating or gnawing into plants and plant products, fostering other injurious insects like plant lice, mealy bugs and plant diseases and fungus; by gnawing holes in fabrics, and by removing rubber insulation from telephone wires or other equipment; by killing young poultry, birds, livestock or game; and Carpenter Ants can seriously damage wooden structures. Now of course only a few of the ant species are actually anything more than just a nuisance pest. Some of these ant pests are the Argentine Ant, Fire Ant, Pharaoh Ant, Harvester Ant, Carpenter Ant, and the Odorous House Ant.
Australian Cockroach Adult
ROACHES - General Information
Class: Insecta, Order: Dictyoptera - Some of their more common names are kitchen bugs, kitchen roaches, sewer bugs, water bugs, house bugs, and palmetto bugs. They form the oldest group of insects and have been around for over 300 million years. Roaches can be found both indoors and out. They are some of the most important pests infesting homes, restaurants, bakeries, hotels, and any place they can find food, water, and shelter. The most common structure infesting cockroach is the German cockroach, but the American, Oriental, Smokybrown and Brown-banded cockroaches can also be found inside structures under the right conditions. Roaches reproduce by Gradual metamorphosis, with the life stages of egg, nymph and adult. The nymphs look very similiar to the adults except they are smaller, do not possess wings and are not sexually mature. They feed on the same food items as the adults. Roaches can reproduce quickly, allowing large numbers of roaches to be found in the same area. This is especially true of German cockroaches.
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Geometry Lesson: Classifying Polygons
How many ways can we classify polygons?
A polygon is a closed geometric figure whose sides are simple line segments. Each corner of a polygon where two sides intersect is called a vertex of the polygon.
For example, a triangle is a polygon with 3 sides. There are also three vertices, one at each point. This is the simplest polygon, because you can't construct one with just 1 or 2 sides (try it!).
Classification of Polygons
A polygon may be identified by the number of sides.
A polygon of 8 sides is called an octagon.
A polygon of 10 sides is called a decagon.
A polygon of 12 sides is called a dodecagon.
NOTE: There are many more polygons, but the ones listed here are some of the most popular and most often taught in geometry classes. Polygons with more than 12 sides are usually referred to as n-gons. As in, a polygon with 56 sides is a 56-gon.
Other terms
A regular polygon is BOTH equiangular and equilateral. A square is a regular polygon because all sides have the same length and all angles measure the same: 90 degrees.
Classification of Triangles
Triangles may be classified by
(A) their sides, or
(B) their angles
A scalene triangle has 3 different length sides.
An equilateral triangle has 3 equal sides.
A right triangle will always have one 90-degree angle.
Median and Altitude (Height)
Lesson provided by Mr. Feliz
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What Is Lead Poisoning?
Boy playing with car
Lead is a highly toxic substance that can produce adverse effects on nearly all organ systems in the body. There are many ways in which humans are exposed to lead: through deteriorating paint, household dust, bare soil, drinking water, air, food, hair dyes and other cosmetics (NSC 2009). Lead-based paint, which was banned from residential use in 1978, is the main source of lead poisoning in Iowa.
Both children and adults can become lead poisoned but childhood lead poisoning is more common. Childhood lead poisoning has significant effects on the health of children and on community health. It is especially harmful to the developing brains and nervous systems of children under the age of six years.
Who is at Risk?
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates approximately 24 million housing units have deteriorated leaded paint and elevated levels of lead-contaminated house dust. Over 4 million of these dwellings are home to one or more young children (CDC 2012).
Most of Iowa's pre-1950 homes contain lead-based paint. Young children who live in pre-1950 homes become lead poisoned when they put paint chips or exterior soil in their mouths or when they get house dust and soil on their hands and put their hands in their mouths. In addition, adults who remodel or repaint these homes may be lead-poisoned if they disturb the lead-based paint.
Did You Know?
At blood lead levels as low as 10 micrograms per deciliter (µg/dL), children's intelligence, hearing, and growth are affected. Statewide, the prevalence of lead poisoning (children with confirmed elevated blood lead levels above 10 µg/dL) among children under the age of six years is between 1 and 2 percent.
Prevention Tips
Lead poisoning is entirely preventable. According to the CDC, the following tips can help prevent exposure to lead:
• Create barriers between living/play areas and lead sources.
• Regularly wash children’s hands and toys.
Visit the CDC’s website for further instructions on preventing exposure to lead.
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5 Tutorials that teach Lower Respiratory Tract: Structure and Function Overview
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Lower Respiratory Tract: Structure and Function Overview
Lower Respiratory Tract: Structure and Function Overview
Author: Aaron Mullally
This lesson will give an overview of the major structures and functions associated with the Lower respiratory tract.
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Terms to Know
Microscopic air sacs located in the peripheral parts of the lungs that consist of simple squamous epithelial tissue. Alveoli and pulmonary capillaries create the respiratory membrane where gas exchange occurs between atmospheric air and blood.
The branching tubes of the bronchial tree that distribute air throughout the lungs, all bronchial tubes (except the bronchioles) are constantly held open by cartilage to maintain an open airway.
Small tubes of the bronchial tree that connect the bronchi to the alveolar air sacs; bronchioles lack cartilage but contain walls of smooth muscle that is used to rapidly adjust airflow into and out of the lungs.
The prime mover/agonist muscle of breathing found covering the entire lower circumference of the rib cage.
Organs found in the lower respiratory tract that contains the bronchial tree and alveolar air sacs; the lungs are where gas exchange occurs. The lungs are located in the thoracic cavity/chest of the body.
Respiratory System
The organ system of gas exchange in the body; gas exchange in the respiratory system occurs between atmospheric air we breathe in and blood in the pulmonary capillaries. The organs of the respiratory system are: nose, pharynx, larynx, trachea, bronchiole tree, bronchioles, alveoli, lungs.
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Talking about fractions, decimals, and numbers
When students first learn about fractions, we want them to learn that they are just numbers; new numbers, but numbers nonetheless, that fit into the same system as the whole numbers they are familiar with. The number line can help with this, with whole numbers and fractions sitting together, and located in essentially the same way; choose a unit (1, 1/3, 1/10) and then count off a number of those units. It also helps students understand that equivalent fractions are just different ways of writing the same number. When (finite) decimals come along, they get added to the list of representations.
The Common Core emphasizes this unity by treating decimals as just a different way of writing fractions, e.g. in 4.NF.C: “Understand decimal notation for fractions, and compare decimal fractions.” In this view, 0.3 is not a new sort of number, just a different way of writing the number 3/10.
This leads to some difficulties in the use of language, because at some points in the curriculum you do want to distinguish between decimals and fractions, for example when you ask a student to write 4/5 as a decimal or to write 0.125 as a fraction. (“You told me it’s already a fraction!” the smart student might reply.)
The IM curriculum writing team was talking about these difficulties the other day and Cathy Kessel had a useful comment:
There’s a developmental issue. When fractions are introduced, the distinction between number represented and representation is blurred, and similarly for decimals (finite, then repeating). But, when the two types of representations are seen as representing the same thing, then the thing and its representations start to separate more.
Because we want students to develop a conception of the number behind the representation, we start out saying decimals are also fractions. Later we build a negative addition to the number line and add the opposites of fractions. Once we have a robust conception of the number line, inhabited by rational numbers, we want to talk about different ways of expressing those numbers: fractions, decimals, infinite decimals, expressions involving square root symbols and exponents. So we start to distinguish between fractions and decimals, not as numbers, but as forms for expressing numbers. We initially suppress their role as forms in order to gain a robust conception of number; once they are firmly attached to that conception we can distinguish between them.
They only way to do this without giving multiple meanings to the same words would be to invent new words and be consistent in their use. This harks back to the distinction between “numeral” and “number” in the New Math, which didn’t take hold.
3 thoughts on “Talking about fractions, decimals, and numbers
1. Recently I posed the following problems to my daughter:
1/8 = 0.1 + ?
1/7 = 0.14 + ?
1/3 = 0.3 + ?
At her stage of learning, these problems are thought-provoking; they are not mechanical exercises. The problems led to some good conversations. In particular, on the topic of your post today, it was clear from talking to my daughter that she has a sturdy conception of an “amount,” independent of the form in which that amount is expressed. (Her conception of ‘amount’ seems to be something like what Pat Thompson calls magnitude.)
The presence of addition/subtraction in the above problems also reminds me of something that I once read in a paper by (I think) Guershon Harel. The idea as I recall was along the following lines. One way in which new kinds of numbers get integrated into a student’s evolving conception of number is when the student calculates with the new kinds of numbers. In the case of fractions, for example, calculating with fractions tends to ‘make fractions numbers’ simply because, to some extent, ‘numbers’ just means ‘the things one does mathematics with.’ (This was the idea behind the task “Are Fractions Numbers?”
• Hi Jason,
In our high school program, we have a motto “different forms for different purposes.” This certainly applies to algebraic expressions, but it also applies to rational numbers. Decimal notation is useful when you are concerned with \emph{value}—it helps you compare the size of a number or to determine how close two numbers are on a number line. Fractions are less good for this. But fraction representation is very useful when you care about the \emph{form} of a number, for example, when you want to investigate patterns in certain calculations. In a way, the distinction is between the analytic and algebraic faces of rational numbers. The representations come together, of course—the key to the length of the period for the decimal expansion of a rational number lies in its representation as a fraction.
Al (I have no idea why this lists me as “Budapest Education”)
• Oh, I’ve been wondering who Budapest Education was, thanks for identifying yourself, Al! I will see if I can fix this.
Comments are closed.
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Atomic-cascade experiments
In our discussion of the Bell inequality, we saw that an ideal test of locality would require that we study a two-body decay of some composite system like, for example, a diatomic molecule. The experiments most widely claimed as evidence for Bell-inequality violation use, instead of a diatomic molecule, an atom which has been excited in such a way that it emits two simultaneous light signals of different colours. This overall process is known as an atomic cascade. It is not a two-body decay. At best it can be considered a three-body decay - that is the excited atom decays into a less excited atom plus two "photons" - but this is not at all convincing, since, as I have indicated elsewhere, photons are not proper bodies!
The following two references cover all experiments of this type up to 1985. There have been none since.
1. J. F. Clauser and A. Shimony, Reports on Progress in Physics, 41, 1881 (1978)
2. A. J. Duncan and H. Kleinpoppen, in Quantum Mechanics versus Local Realism (F. Selleri, ed.) (Plenum, New York, 1988)
Since 1985 the fashion has shifted to "photon pairs" produced in Parametric Down Conversion (PDC), which we shall discuss separately.
There are many well known "loopholes" in all of these experiments. The most important one was identified as long ago as 1970, and is called the Enhancement Loophole. It arises because less than one per cent of the atomic-cascade or PDC pairs emitted are actually detected, so certain highly model-dependent assumptions have to be made about the statistical sampling. All the QM experts know about this loophole, but they are remarkably coy about informing the general public. Two key references are
1. P. M. Pearle, Phys. Rev. D 2, 1418 (1970)
2. J. F. Clauser and M. A. Horne, Phys. Rev. D, 10, 526 (1974)
My collaborators and I have shown that the enhancement loophole is really much more than a loophole! The zeropoint electromagnetic field can systematically enhance a weak atomic light signal to give, in a natural and entirely local manner, the observed violation of a homogeneous Bell inequality. Only inhomogeneous Bell inequalities may be used as a test of local realism, and nobody has ever reported a violation of these. Here are some references to our work
1. T. W. Marshall, E. Santos and F. Selleri, Local realism has not been refuted by atomic-cascade experiments, Phys. Lett. A, 98, 5-9 (1983)
2. T. W. Marshall and E. Santos, Stochastic optics - a reaffirmation of the wave nature of light, Foundations of Physics, 18, 185-201 (1988).
3. T. W. Marshall and E. Santos, Stochastic optics: a local realist analysis of optical tests of the Bell inequalities, Phys. Rev. A, 39, 6271-83 (1989).
4. T. W. Marshall and E. Santos, The myth of the photon, in The Present Status of the Quantum Theory of Light ed. S.Jeffers et al (Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1997) pages 67-77
The latter article is suitable for the nontechnical reader and is available by email
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Scientists have found a way to improve brain function
A team of researchers from the University of Aalto in Finland and Helsinki University for the first time improved brain function by transcranial magnetic stimulation.
In the course of the experiment, scientists influenced metacognitive processes by exciting neurons through short magnetic pulses, which allowed people to more effectively cope with a number of tasks for tactile memorization.
Metacognitive processes or meta-knowledge is the ability of people to monitor and control their own cognitive processes: various types of memory, attention, emotions, decision-making.
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Friday, September 16, 2011
Democracy That Delivers!
“Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people.” These words of Abraham Lincoln are resonant even today in the Immortal Halls of History. These words were not merely a consolation to the miserable conditions of slaves at the time but an undying hope that every man on this planet irrespective of country, caste or creed has the freedom and the right to choose his or her leader.
Democracy was successful in a country like the United states because of the belief that, ‘No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.’ Although Lincoln spoke these words in the 20th century, the working of this type of government was nascent in 508 BC in the Greek city- state of Athena which radically transformed from an oligarchy to a well established Direct Democracy. Etymologically the word ‘Democracy’ comes from the Greek ‘demos’ meaning people and ‘kratos’ meaning power. Most democracies today however are representative democracies.
From the tiny Greek city states to the French Revolution of 1789, World Politics was undergoing a continuous change. The French Revolution gave to the world the principles of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. It is from these principles that the mushrooms of Democracy sprung up on other parts of the globe. The Rule of law became the hallmark of this new political set- up.
The crowning features of a democratic form of government includes Popular Sovereignty, Universal Suffrage, Freedom of Speech, Debate and Enquiry, Equality of the Law for all people, Economic redistribution of wealth to ensure Economic democracy and providing a transparent form of Mass Media and its accountability to the people.
Having said this, it becomes necessary to answer some vital questions on the functioning of this government like, “Can a democratic form of Government really successfully thrive on all these principles? Can a democracy deliver all its promises?”
As a citizen of India, the largest existing democracy in the world, I believe that a democracy can withhold and thrive far more efficiently than any other type of government. It must be noted however that a Democracy is not impervious. It faces challenges that are more intense and complex to solve. It is wrong on our part to write of an ‘Ideal democracy’ in theory while it is just another Utopia in reality. It includes the careful amalgamation of various levels of thoughts. This means that it is essential to have a careful scrutiny of the issues at hand to seek a solution in common agreement among the representative leaders. On the flip side however, it could also lead to a conflict of thoughts could result in the rise of situations so adverse, that they become a threat to the nation’s internal security. A glaring example of this kind of crisis is seen in the Naxal hit areas of India. The Naxals maintain their ground of maintaining an autonomous rule with socialism as the principle which is unacceptable in a democracy. Their demands have not only led to unnecessary chaos, but also loss of lives that can never be reverted. But this does not mean democracy has failed completely.
Jawaharlal Nehru, the former Prime Minister of India and a Diplomat of international repute once stated, ‘….a vote itself does not represent very much to a person who is down and out, to a person, let us say, who is starving or hungry.’ This is the reality of the scenario not only in India but with every democratic system in the world. India is the second most populated country on this planet and is on its way to being number one within the next fifty years. However the factors that can cause colossal damage to the overall growth of the country apart from over- population include illiteracy and energy crisis.
A reason why Parliamentary democracies are unable to meet all the needs is because in nearly every nation, a wide majority of the public is dissatisfied with how responsive their government is to the ‘will of the people.’ But, it must not be forgotten that in the case of a theocratic, autocratic or socialist government the will of the people has little value. The people are imposed with rigid beliefs and values and are compelled to accept it without resistance. Failure to do so could lead to harsh measures including imprisonment. Skeptics like the Nigerian Scholar Claude Ake believe that a democratic form of government is not favorable in the contemporary world because according it is a lenient form of administration which has been rendered meaningless.
It thus becomes necessary for me to justify the reasons as to why Democracy must be encouraged on a wider scale. This means that the broader issues of national and international interest must be discussed fully well.
A major facet that requires to be discussed is how the Art of Diplomacy is handled in a democracy. The question that arises is, ‘When developing a foreign policy, how much should government leaders pay attention to public opinion outside the country?’ According to a poll conducted by the World Public Opinion it is stated that on a scale of 1 – 10 the average was said to be 5 which means that most of the countries which participated in this discussion believe that a foreign policy must be developed with moderate influence from the Global arena.
The second important factor is that Democracy allows its citizens the freedom of speech, thought and expression which makes it a more people- friendly government. It is beyond reasonable doubt that citizens around the world consider opting for a democratic government because of the freedom that cannot be expected from an autocracy or a theocracy where the real essence of liberty can almost never be felt. When we talk of a Free State it is necessary to understand the meaning, context and usage of the word ‘Free’. In a democracy the citizens of a country have the right to choose responsibly the individuals of solid repute and determination to run the nation’s administration fairly without any bias or selfish gains. These leaders further enhance the opportunities for their electors to gain social, economic and political gains on a global level trough their own insight and skills. Sadly, today this scenario is one of disillusionment. The reforms, zeal and the willingness to work for the people are now slowly dying down. The situation has worsened as Corruption, Scams and Scandals are on the rise and the general public has been led- on by the media to believe that the Government is in fact unable to meet with all their requirements. Despite all this it must be noted that, ‘The underlying principle of any form of government is ultimately to meet with the requirements of the common man along with maintaining and stabilizing the political and economic relations on the International front all at the same time.’
A cause for concern in a democracy is that the people are under the sad misconception that a democracy is far slower in Economic growth. Although this is true in countries that have mass unskilled labor which leads to high rates of unemployment, there is always greater hope for democracy to meet the challenge and maintain stability. In a democracy, we have the freedom to make proper use of the resources along with having a proper platform to hone one’s skills. The idea that ‘equality of opportunity’ can be maintained through political democracy alone has long been challenged by socialists and others, who insist that economic democracy through economic equality and public ownership of the major means of production is the only foundation upon which a true political democracy can be erected. All these debates and discussions are futile when compared with the Global Economic Recession that hit in the year 2008- 2009. The international markets came crashing down and was a result of people in power not using their abilities and skill to avert a crisis of this sort. Even amidst the Global Economic downturn countries like India continued to grow in terms of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Despite the increase in the number of countries holding multiparty elections, however, the United Nations issued a study in 2002 that stated that in more than half the world's nations the rights and freedoms of citizens are limited. For a democratic set up to be successful, we must remember that each right and each duty bestowed on each citizen gives us a certain amount of Power. This power can be utilized to create an effective change in the development in terms of financial and social well being of the country.
The next challenge that a democracy faces is the obliteration of poverty. Unemployment is a constant reminder to the government that with all unrelenting and untiring efforts nations around the world are still trudging in unstability. To begin with, the two major reasons that have led to a vast amount of populace to writhe in the clutches of poverty are lack of education and over- population. A milieu needs to be created in such a way that one can shoot two birds with one stone. Awareness needs to be created among the people, especially in Youth and the economically backward population in the continents of Asia and Africa where the relation between the wanton growth in the population and the curtailment in the economic growth of the country as a whole has not yet been fully understood.
An ideal democracy would inculcate Education as a fundamental pillar. This would include the need for Mandatory primary and basic education for all. This would create a feeling of equality among the people. Using education as a tool the government could carry out awareness drives regarding Family Planning. This increase in knowledge could pave a way for higher economic growth and political maturity in the common man. Communication and technology would increase manifold. This would further enable individuals to progress faster, culminating in the success of the Democracy at a much faster rate than any other type of government. Common man will be able to voice out his opinion on giving him a chance to share the same platform as the Representative he has chosen as leaders. This would also give a chance for a type of Mixed Democracy where the Government will come in direct contact with the people. Social Networking like sites Facebook and Twitter have almost solved this issue. Leaders of National and international repute like the President of the United States Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, the Govenor of Alaska, David and Edward Miliband brothers and prominent leaders in the British Parliament and International diplomats like the former Under- secretary General of the United Nations and current Member of the Indian Parliament Dr. Shashi Tharoor have made it a rather indirect form of a direct democracy where people can actually interact with them and ask questions which would otherwise be quite difficult to. What is even better is that it is not restricted to one’s own countrymen. Thanks to the internet Instant Global Communication is actually possible now!
As we seek resolutions to these rather important issues which can be effectively channelized in a way that could make it convenient to, there are some more seeking immediate resolve. These issues have affected citizens around the world too an extent that has led to loss of life and resources. Terrorism is a threat that has not only impaired political stability but has endangered the security of the citizens as well. The question thus arises, Can democracy stop terrorism? 9/11, 26/7, 26/11 are incidents that the world is less likely to forget for decades to come. George Bush’s ‘generational challenge’ of democratizing the Middle East is a dream still to be realized. He believed that the establishment of democratic set-up in the Arab countries would lead to a change in the fundamental beliefs of these countries and could lead to a reduction in Extremist activities on their part. But then again there is no guarantee for this to happen. It could be effectively argued that with the advent of democracy a sense of excess freedom from a state of such restricted liberty could lead to these Governments to be less co- operative with countries in the West.
Energy Crisis is also one of the major factors that could hamper democratic growth. For a sustainable society it is essential that the government clearly demarcates which fields must be democratized and which must be privatized and others that are to be handed over to the public sector. In many parts of the United States on the request of the citizens the government is working with the people to reduce green house emissions. For this purpose they are recovering a significant amount of electricity from Renewable energy. The cost of producing electricity from turbines or even solar energized installations could save the exhaustion of fossilized fuels. It is believed that a decentralized energy system is more efficient than plantations system. Slowly but steadily even countries like India and China are employing the same systems.
Having discussed the predicaments suffered by a democracy and the measures employed to curtail them it now becomes necessary to convey the positive aspects of this government. One of the major assets of a Democracy is its ‘Unity in Diversity.’ India could be used as an apt example to portray Multi- Culturalism. The Indian society is a composite and homogenous whole of people from different castes, creed and race. The country has been a constant source of awe and wonder to other countries of the world. The population in India has thrived successfully despite having 28 languages and nearly 3000 dialects apart from the number of religions and beliefs. The concept of Cultural Unity in India can be highlighted by the difference not only in the languages, but also unity among people from various faiths who come together to celebrate the Joy of Living.
Another benefit of democracy is the Rule of Law. The Rule of Law states that no one is immune to the law. In a democracy, it would also represent equality before the law. This further ensures that by no means are we to believe that we are superior or inferior to any other citizen and that Justice will serve its purpose. To one extent we could say that the slavery and revival of the freedom of the Black- Americans was because of the stronghold of the Rule of Law. The Rule of Law and democracy are said to be two important pre- requisites for development. It would be right to assert at this time that the Human Rights of the citizens of a country are safe- guarded. The establishment of Law and Order in a country is vital to its internal security. The existence of a comprehensive set of laws enables us to understand exactly how the judicial assemblage functions. For a clear and concise set- up we must have well established law enforcement agencies with hardworking and well trained officers. In 1948 the United Nations passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide established international principles of the rule of law. The principles of both declarations have played a vital role in the establishment of an adequate judicial system.
It must be absolutely clear for any analyst to understand that there is no one type of Government that is perfect in all senses; but given the circumstances that we face today, Democracy is the safest and the most appropriate form of government that can effectively reduce the discord between the common man and the Government. Democracy is not just a form of government it must become a way of life for every citizen. For a democracy to deliver its promises, it is necessary to create a sense of awareness among the citizens. This would encourage them to actively contribute towards the well- being of their nation through a simple act of Voting. It is disheartening to see that a majority of the educated people do not bother or rather do not want to vote. We need to develop at grass- root levels the need and the importance of our Vote.
A Democratic government with all its challenges stands strong because of the support system that it has in the form of the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary. The Legislature allows the Democracy to lay down the rules and define the limits of the citizens by means of Rules Regulations and Bills. The Executive in a Democracy is responsible for the responsible working of the government. It maintains a check on the government and thus strives to maintain the transparency in the working of a government. The passing of important bills like the Budget are not passed unless it has a significant support of the Elected Representatives in the Government. As discussed earlier, the Judiciary fortifies the both the Legislative and the Executive. Together they form the backbone of any Democracy.
Democracy without people is like a soul without a body and People without Democracy is like a body without soul. In order that a Democracy should execute its tasks, it is mandatory for every citizen to take up individual responsibility on checking the working of the government. Today, politics has been highly restricted to the limits of the criticism and cynicism of the media of picayunish issues of the political arena and the judgments that the misinformed common man makes on the basis of this information.
In the end, the Government and individual are inter- related and the success or failure of a Democracy will depend on the joint efforts of both participants.
History of the World
An Introduction to the Constitution of India – Dr D. D Basu
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How Much Vocabulary Do I Need?
How Much Vocabulary Do I Need?
There are several ways to try and answer this question, but most studies seem to indicate that if you know between 2,000 and 3,000 word in a given language you can function in most any environment. Some of the better studies conducted by teachers of ESL (English as a Second Language) show that foreign students who acquire a vocabulary of the 2,500 most commonly used words in English can handle any university-level academic text. The percentage of technical terms they encounter is less than 1% of the total vocabulary, and even their native English-speaking classmates will probably need to look up many of those words. Once your vocabulary reaches a certain size, you can pick up words by context, or if someone tells you the definition, you'll know enough to understand it. The goal is to acquire a big enough vocabulary that it can build itself.
Learning Languages Frequently Asked Questions
How do individual learning styles affect how one learns a foreign language.
How do I create an optimal environment for learning languages?
What should I look for if I want to learn a foreign language on my own?
Which is a more effective way to learn a language, traditional classes or self-study?
How do I use a pocket foreign language dictionary?
Do Children Learn Languages Faster Than Adults
Do people have a natural ability for learning languages?
How can I help my kids learn a foreign language?
What are "Immersion" language programs and how effective are they?
How can I teach my kids foreign languages at home more effectively?
How can I get my child more engaged in studying a foreign language.
Why do most people fail at learning a new language?
How long will it take before I can speak a new language?
Will learning a foreign language help my kids do better in school?
Will studying a foreign language help my child get better SAT scores?
Can learning a language improve my social life?
Can learning a foreign language help me better express myself in my own language?
How much foreign language study do I need to benefit from it?
Can learning a foreign language help me find a better job?
What are the key factors that determine success in learning a foreign language?
How should I set my goals for learning a language?
How can setting goals help me succeed in learning a language?
How can I build a support network to help my language learning?
What can I read to help improve my foreign vocabulary?
Should I buy ready-made flash cards or make my own?
How do I use flash cards effectively?
Should I buy a large foreign dictionary or a smaller pocket dictionary?
Should I get a phrase book?
Which vocabulary words should I try to learn first?
How Much Vocabulary Do I Need?
Will knowing a language similar to the one I'm studying be any help?
What are some tricks I can use to help me memorize new vocabulary?
How do people learn new words?
Can foreign films help me in my language study?
Should I join a foreign conversation group?
Can listening to foreign music help my language study?
Can I start a foreign language conversation group?
What is the advantage of corresponding with a foreign pen pal?
Can I practice my language on the Internet?
Are ethnic restaurants a useful supplement to my language study?
How can I find foreign magazines about my personal interests?
What advantages are there to subscribing to a foreign newspaper or magazine?
What do foreign language search engines offer?
Can I use a vacation abroad to learn a new language?
Can I do a "study abroad" program?
How do I learn about mannerisms and gestures that are part of a foreign culture?
Can I invent a language?
What do I need this new language for?
How do I remember new words?
How can I practice my new language?
How do I build my vocabulary?
What is an easy way to build my vocabulary?
What do I read?
What if I make a mistake?
How do I know my spelling is correct?
Is every excercise fit for me?
Guru Spotlight
Tammi Reynolds
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Maharam m'Rotenburg - 19th Iyar
Today is the Yarzheit of one of the most influential Ashkenazi poskim. R' Meir m'Rotenburg, the Maharam, was the teacher of both the Rosh and the Mordechai, who themselves are pretty much the basis of Ashkenazi Halacha. He is also famous for spending the last years of his life being held ransom and eventually dying in captivity. Even though money was raised to ransom him he refused to allow the people to give the money, because he was afraid that kidnapping Jews would become a regular occurrence if the authorities realised that it was lucrative. (Is there a message for today's leaders in that then?).
Here is the wikipedia entry on the Maharam
Maharam of Rothenburg was born in Worms, and studied in Germany at Wurtzburg and at Mainz in the Yeshivoth of the leading Talmudists of those days. He later moved to France, studying under the great Rabbi Yechiel ben Joseph of Paris, who had defended the Talmud in the reign of Louis IX. Rabbi Meir was an eyewitness to the subsequent public burning of twenty-four carloads of Talmudic manuscripts (Friday, June 17, 1244), and he bewailed this tragedy in his celebrated "Kina" Shaali serufah (???? ?????) which is still recited on Tisha B'Av.
The following year Rabbi Meir returned to Germany, where he became the rabbi of several large communities successively. He taught in several German communities, but is primarily associated with Rothenburg ob der Tauber, where he opened his own school, maintained at his own cost. Among his disciples were many scholars who later became leading Talmudists and poskim, notably Asher ben Jehiel ("ROSH") and Rabbi Mordecai ben Hillel Ashkenazi ("The Mordechai"). Rabbi Meir, became universally acknowldged as the leading Ashkenazi authority on Talmud and Jewish law, and many communities in France, Italy and Germany frequently turned to him for instruction and guidance in all religious matters and on various points of law.
In 1286, King Rudolf I instituted a new persecution of the Jews, declaring them servi camerae ("serfs of the treasury"), which had the effect to negating their political freedoms. Along with many others, Meir left Germany with family and followers, but was captured in Lombardy and imprisoned in a fortress in Alsace. Tradition has it that a large ransom of 23,000 marks (approximately 15,144,900 U.S dollars today) was raised for him (by the ROSH), but Rabbi Meir refused it, for fear of encouraging the imprisonment of other rabbis. He died in prison after seven years. 14 years after his death a ransom was paid for his body by Alexander ben Shlomo (Susskind) Wimpen, who was subsequently laid to rest beside the Maharam.
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What is call and put
Put-call parity refers to an investing theorem in option pricing to identify a fair price for a put option or a call option.
Deviations from Put-Call Parity and Stock Return
This would magnify any losses or gains (and losses are not limited to the value of the portfolio), which is why options are said to be risky.A call option is one which allows the buyer of the option to buy an agreed quantity of stock at predetermined price to the seller of call option, while put option is.
Before explaining what a put and call option agreement is, we.
Difference between put option and call option - Answers.com
The put option is the right to SELL the underlying stock or index at the strike price.Even though the option value will increase as the stock price decreases, it is not necessarily profitable to buy puts even though you believe that the stock price will decrease, unless the extent of decrease is large enough to compensate for the theta that you are paying.
Options trade on the Chicago Board of Options Exchange and the.Investors who buy call options believe the price of the. (marginal) investment.The main five segment of our Indian Stock Market are Equity, Nifty Future, Nifty.Call option as leverage. And the situation with a put option, a call option gave you the right to buy the stock at a specified price.Hello Friends, I would like to know about the concept of Call and Put in stock market.A put option is a security that you buy when you think the price of a stock or index is going to go down.Algebra Geometry Number Theory Calculus Discrete Mathematics Basic Mathematics Logic Classical Mechanics Electricity and Magnetism Computer Science Quantitative Finance Fixed Income Derivatives Mathematics Prerequisites Computer Science Concepts Logical Reasoning Careers in Finance.
The major differences between call and put option are indicated below in the following points: The right in the hands of.Definition of Call and Put Options: Call and put options are derivative investments (their price movements are based on the price movements of another.If the PUT function returns a value to a variable that has not yet been assigned a length, by default the variable length is determined by the width of the format.In this instance you still own the stock and have taken a similar loss on owning the stock, but that loss on the stock is offset 1:1 for the profit you made on the put option.Many people in this instance would just sell the stock, let it drop, and then buy the stock back at a lower price.If the underlying fails to rise above the strike price before expiration, then the call expires worthless as it would be cheaper to buy the underlying directly from the market.
Practice math and science questions on the Brilliant Android app.Since put options are the right to sell, owning a put option allows you to lock in a minimum price for selling a stock.Trading Tip: Look at the graph at the lower right and note the shape of the payoff curve for owning a put option.Example of Call option 2. As t increases the value of the option (call or put.This is explored further in Option Value, which explains the intrinsic and extrinsic value of an option.If you just buy a put, that is a totally different transaction as far as the IRS is concerned so you would just have to deal with the tax consequences of that put option trade.If the underlying falls to fall below the strike price before expiration, then the put expires worthless as it would be more profitable to sell the underlying directly in the market.
Practice math and science questions on the Brilliant iOS app.Put and Call options definition, Read Call and Put options difference, All info about call and put options, call option and put option explained at ForexSQ.You would buy the nearest expiration month because that would be the cheapest, and you would buy the nearest strike price under the current market price because that is where you tend to get the greatest percentage return.Options can be traded for listed companies under futures and options.Furthermore, in the stock market, option volatility often decreases as the stock price increases, as it reflects investor confidence in the company.There are explained in detail in the corresponding pages about the Greeks.Options can also be used to hedge against an existing position in the underlying.If you are just getting started trading options, then stay away from the weeklies as they are very volatile.
Hence, buying upside calls when the stock goes up, could still lose you money on vega and theta.Home Education Center Put Options Explained. Put. an investor who sells a call or put contract that is not already owned, via an opening sale transaction.
Put option - Wikinvest
That is why it is called an option--it is a choice and not an obligation.We next derive a put-call parity equation for an asset value model developed by Merton.
An option gives the buyer of the option the right to buy a stock from (a call option) or to.
What is Put-call Parity? definition and meaning
What's the difference between a POST and a PUT HTTP
Put/Call Options - Texas A&M University
Option Types - Call Options and Put Options
Sign up to read all wikis and quizzes in math, science, and engineering topics.
Learn about Call or Put Options - Fidelity
Call and Put are different options used during transactions in the stock exchange.
The problem with this strategy is that you would have a huge capital gain on the sale of the stock and you would have to pay taxes on that gain.There are 3 different examples in which most people would buy puts.Call and Put Payoff Diagrams - Module 1: Understanding Financial Contracts - Understanding Financial Contracts Payoff diagrams are a way of depicting what.Definition of put-call parity: The relationship between the price of a call and the price of a put for an option with the same characteristics (strike.Definition of CALL ON A PUT: A COMPOUND OPTION that grants the buyer the right to purchase an underlying PUT OPTION from the seller of the compound.A call option gives the buyer the right to buy the asset at a certain price, hence he would benefit as the price of the underlying goes up.
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Tactic in a sentence
Definition of Tactic
a method to achieve
Use Tactic in a sentence
The coach will need to change his team’s tactics if they hope to win the next game.
The Romans’ superiority of discipline and tactics assured them victory over their enemy.
The student was using delaying tactics to avoid having to give his class presentation.
They moved the troops back in a sudden change of tactics.
The aide suggested a change in tactics to him.
The trial lawyers couldn’t get past the Mafia leader’s stonewalling tactics.
Guerrilla tactics generally involve flexible attack operations and various terrorist methods.
Wolves use quite sophisticated tactics in hunting down large animals, such as moose or caribou.
Their sales tactics are quite aggressive, and can really turn people off.
The public has reacted quite negatively to the childish tactics of the Opposition.
During the war in Bosnia, Muslim women were being raped as a deliberate tactic to humiliate and traumatize them.
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10 Facts You Never Knew About Chocolate
Chocolate has been recognized as a favorite treat to people all over the world. But just how much do you know about this bean and how it made its way to be your delicious dessert? Learn all about the key moments in the history of the cocoa beans and you will come to appreciate your next chocolate bar even more!
10 Facts Chocolate Article Image
1. Chocolate Is A Vegetable (kind of)
Chocolate is made from cocoa beans that naturally grow on trees in hot places like Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Indonesia, and Nigeria. One can say that the most essential part of this choco-treat is truly a bean, which is kind of a vegetable. So if veggies are supposed to be good for you, then chocolate is the ultimate cure for all diseases. Ok, maybe not, but the cocoa bean has many good properties, it helps blood circulation and can help relieve asthma symptoms.
2. Cocoa Beans Date Back To 1250 BCE
Inhabitants of Mexico and South America are believed to have grown cocoa beans as far back as 1250 BCE.
3. Hot Chocolate Is The First Treat Made Of Cocoa Beans
The first product made of the cocoa beans was hot chocolate, as it only required them to melt to a liquid state. The first hot chocolate dates back to ancient Mexican and Aztec cultures when it had a primarily ceremonial use and a rather bitter taste due to its purity.
4. White Chocolate Isn’t Really Chocolate
White chocolate does not contain cocoa beans or liquors, which is why it isn’t classified as standard chocolate. Still, it does make use of cocoa butter, which is how it managed to cling onto its chocolate title.
5. Cocoa Beans Were Once Used As A Currency
The ancient Aztecs appreciated their cocoa beans so much that they used them as a currency. To put this into perspective, imagine hitting the jackpot on the most popular American lottery, the Powerball. After a few winner-less draws, you could be in for the sweetest treat of your lifetime!
6. Cacao Is The Same As Cocoa
In case your spell-check has malfunctioned, rest assured that the words cocoa and cacao refer to the same beans and can be used interchangeably.
7. French Leaders Loved Chocolate
Napoleon enjoyed the taste of chocolate in its solid state, and it to be served along with wine at all times. Marie Antoinette is another French leader known for her sweet tooth, but she preferred it in a liquid state, as hot chocolate.
8. Making Chocolate Is No Treat
Chocolate does not grow on trees – only cocoa beans do. The process of turning these ‘veggies’ into your favorite sweets is hard work – you will need about 400 beans in order to make a single bar of good quality chocolate.
9. “Eating Chocolate” Was Produced In Britain
The British confectioners, Fry and Sons, were first to create chocolate in its solid form back in 1847. The ‘eating chocolate’, as they called it, was made of sugar, cocoa butter, and liquor.
10. The Melting Point For Chocolate Is Around 93° F
This is only slightly lower than the average human body temperature, making chocolate unique for its ability to melt in your mouth.
If you are interested in even more candy-related stories and information from us here at Bit Rebels then we have a lot to choose from.
10 Facts Chocolate Header Image
×Makeup By Kili
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What does diabetes have to do with my eyes?
By http://www.fromereye.com/author/
November 6, 2017
Diabetes can harm your vision, or even cause blindness. With diabetes, your body does not use sugar the right way. This can affect the blood vessels (arteries and veins) in your eyes and other parts of your body.
What is diabetic retinopathy?
Diabetic retinopathy is the eye disease people with diabetes get most often. It is a major but preventable cause of blindness. The retina at the back of the eye sends the pictures of what we see to the brain. Diabetic retinopathy harms the blood vessels in the retina, this causes blurry vision.
The longer you have diabetes, the more likely you are to get diabetic retinopathy.
How do I know if I have diabetic eye disease?
You might not know. There are often no signs when you first have the disease. In the early stages when treatment is most effective, your vision will not change much, and you won’t feel any pain.
However, severe vision loss can usually be prevented if treated early and appropriately. The best time to treat diabetic eye disease is before you have any symptoms.
If you have diabetes, have your eyes examined by an ophthalmologist (a medical eye doctor) annually.
An Eye Exam Can Save Your Sight
For more information, and to make an appointment with one of our physicians, call:
Bronx 3130 Grand Concourse (718) 741-3200
Queens 109-33 71st Road Forest Hills (718) 261-3366
Manhattan 550 Park Avenue (212) 832-9228
Harlem 1966 Third Ave at 108 St. (212) 534-1020
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How laws signed by King Henry III of England at Marlborough Castle will meet their end
Written by Tony Millett.
Effigy of King Henry IIIEffigy of King Henry IIIIf you are an avid and discerning collector of government policy consultations here's a very rare one indeed - it includes references to Henry III of England, Marlborough Castle and some very, very old laws.
The Law Commission is consulting on a new round of statute repeals - tidying up the heap of laws that build up over the centuries and have, for one reason or another, become redundant. This Repeal Bill will include two of the four remaining parts of the United Kingdom's oldest piece of statute law - it's called the Statute of Marlborough.
The Statute of Marlborough was a set of laws signed by King Henry III of England in 1267 while Parliament was meeting at Marlborough Castle. In general they were in support of order and of the established powers. Four 'chapters' (as they were called) of the Statute are still legally valid.
The Law Commission's list of laws ripe for repeal includes a bunch of Finance Acts that are well past their sell by date and a 1964 Act to clear slums and promote house building. A more recent victim for repeal is the 1997 Act authorising referendums for setting up the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly - as the referendums are now history, the Act is redundant and will be consigned to the footnotes.
The list also includes several laws from the Second World War that aimed to maximise agricultural output and so defeat the U-boats. The Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act of 1943 "now contains no remaining substantive provisions. Its repeal is proposed on the grounds that it is obsolete." What a sad way to slide into history.
From the same period, the Treason Act of 1945 will go completely. It was a 'purely procedural' Act. But it certainly claims a footnote in history: had it not been passed the prosecution of William Joyce (aka Lord Haw Haw), who broadcast Nazi propaganda to Britain from Germany, might have failed.
One legal authority has said that if the statutory requirement for corroboration had not been repealed by the 1945 Act, William Joyce could not have been convicted on the basis of the evidence offered at his trial.
Marlborough Castle - how it could have lookedMarlborough Castle - how it could have lookedThe Statute of Marlborough has in one instance divided the Commission's legal experts.
Three of its extant laws (1,4 and 15) are often called the 'Distress Act'. These govern the recovery of rent or other money owed (in Medieval and legal parlance 'distresses') making it illegal to do so except through the courts.
Chapter 15 lays down where 'distresses' are forbidden to be taken - including the 'King's Highway' and the 'Common Street'. In plain language this chapter stops actions to remedy a breach of one person against another being taken in the street etc. Maybe these chapters were the foundation stone of the solicitors' professional monopoly in dealing with such disputes.
Chapter 23 (sometimes called the 'Waste Act 1267') prohibited tenants 'making waste' (or perhaps as we would say today 'laying waste') to land they hold in tenancy - or 'alienating' or selling it.
The Law Commission wants to repeal Chapters 4 and 15 as a law of 2007 abolished 'distress' replacing it with a statutory procedure for debt recovery. So 4 and 15 "no longer serve any useful function."
But Chapter 1 will stay on the statute books as it goes further than the 2007 Act "by making it an offence to take revenge or distress without the authority of the courts, rather than simply acting as an enforcement agent without due authority." The drafters of the 2007 Act did not get everything right.
Chapter 23 will remain on the statute books because "Opinions differ as to whether or not it serves any useful function today, and as a result it is not suitable for inclusion in a Statute Law (Repeals) Bill."
Those chapters of the Marlborough Statute which have already been repealed included legislation on subjects with Norman legal titles that would delight a crossword setter: including redisseisin, beaupleader, essoins, guardians in socage, replevin - and, in plainer English, resisting the King's officers.
And when someone tells the Law Commission's consultation that Magna Carta (signed in 1215) was an even older piece of Statute Law, they will quickly reply that Magna Carta was only copied into the statute rolls to become law in 1297.
The consultation runs until 27 February 2015.
For a history of Marlborough Castle written by David du Croz for Marlborough News Online - see the Visiting Marlborough section.
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Report: Industry decides food ingredient safety
Thousands of ingredients that go into food have been classified as safe by private industry alone, without any government oversight, according to a new report published Wednesday.
Since the early 1960's, private companies and industry trade associations have determined at least 3,000 ingredients are safe, with no federal scrutiny, the study found. The ingredients include everything from artificially synthesized chemicals used in chewing gum to grape seed extract used in cheese and instant coffee.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association says the industry only classifies ingredients as safe after a battery of rigorous biological tests, but agrees that more transparency in the vetting process would help build consumer confidence.
"The system is less transparent than it should be so we're looking to open that dialogue," said Leon Bruner, the association's chief science officer, who agreed the study's estimates were reasonable. "We are completely comfortable with increasingly the transparency or the visibility of ingredients that go through the process."
The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act makes manufacturers responsible for ensuring food ingredients are safe. Companies can classify an ingredient as "generally recognized as safe" for use in a specific product but aren't required to tell the Food and Drug Administration about what they find.
Officials have said in the past that if a company markets a food or beverage the agency believes is unsafe, the government can always issue warning letters or seize the product.
FDA Deputy Commissioner Michael Taylor said Wednesday the study raised important issues concerning public access to information about ingredient safety.
Copyright © 2017, The San Diego Union-Tribune
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Ten Days in Hell: The 1936 Moose River Mine Disaster
Armed with an acetylene lamp and a few flashlights, three men descended into the dank depths of the Moose River Mine April 12, 1936. Their mission seemed innocuous enough - to examine the mine for a pending sale. As they worked their way into the bowels of the mine, the men could not know it waited to take them hostage - for ten bone-chilling days. Nor could they know that when they finally re-emerged, only two of them will see the beautiful Nova Scotia sky.
First mined for its yellow bounty in 1881, Halifax County's Moose River area churned out 26,000 troy ounces before it shut down in the early 1900s. For decades, shovels, picks and trolleys rusted in solitude. Shafts filled with water, beams rotted, walls caved in, and roofs crumbled.
Then spectators reappeared. The Moose River Gold Syndicate seized the claim to Moose River goldmine's five main 185-foot deep shafts. Pumping money in and water out, the Syndicate hoped for full production in August 1936. In the meantime, the Syndicate chipped away at the gold held by the natural rock pillars which supported the shafts. Without replacing the natural supports or the beams that time and moisture had reduced to wooden bogs, the tunnels became increasingly unsafe. The Syndicate decided to rid itself of its gilt albatross.
So on Easter Sunday, April 12, 1936, three men descended into the mine to assess its readiness for a potential sale. Owners Herman Magill, a 30-year-old lawyer, and David E. Robertson, 52-year old chief of staff at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, were accompanied by the mine's 42-year old timekeeper Charles Scadding.
Schlepping through dank passages, the men viewed with growing horror the structure's deplorable condition. The creaking, screeching timbers and constant rain patter did not bode well. Suddenly Scadding remarked upon an unusual amount of noise; the men fled back to the skip. The underground mine cart would return them to the surface, but it held only two riders at a time. Magill and Robertson tumbled into the cart. With Scadding clinging desperately to the side, they signalled the alarm bell.
At the surface, hands hauled to. The skip was quickly hoisted to the 141-foot level, but it would go no farther. Rocks crashed down; rotted timbers split and splintered. A huge depression appeared at the surface - an ominous sign to those at the surface. The mine had collapsed.
The cable supporting the skip immediately snapped. Not that it mattered because the rubble trapped the cable, holding the skip in place. Miraculously, a single collapsed timber supported 100 feet of fallen rock, sealing the men into a tiny chamber. Slipping and sliding over piles of debris, the three fled to the relative safety of a nearby cross-cut tunnel. The little tunnel would become their home for the longest ten days of their lives.
Smashing an abandoned dynamite crate into kindling, the men ignited a small fire upon a flat rock. The fire would be constantly threatened by a steady downpour of water. Dampened spirits and the rising water were mixing a deadly cocktail. Drenched by endless drizzle, the three desperate men huddled inside Mother Nature's scarred womb. As flickering firelight played across their haggard faces, they wondered, "Would those above give up on them?" The waiting had begun.
Everyone knew rescue efforts would be difficult, if not futile. The only entrance to the tunnel was now sealed shut. What kept the survivors in would keep would-be rescuers out.
For six days, the captives were unable to signal their survival. Their silence contrasted dramatically with the cacophony above. Word of the cave-in had spread rapidly. Rescuers from nearby Springhill, Caribou and Montague mines responded to the call for "single men with guts." Confusion reigned when rescuers learned no blueprints existed for the underground shafts.
While the survivors shivered in silent despair, the rest of the world tuned in to a play-by-play of the confused rescue efforts. Planeloads of media had arrived at Moose River and among them were reporters from Canada's latest media craze - the radio. Newspaper "Extras" no longer satisfied hungry newshounds. CBC neophyte J. Frank Willis would broadcast 99 consecutive messages from the site, making media history for the most consecutive live broadcasts from one location. His reports were picked up by BBC for the benefit of their European listeners. For days, however, the reports spoke only of rescue efforts, not of survivors.
Hope floundered when the borehole reached the 141-foot level. No signal came from below; clearly, the men must be dead. Rescuers were ordered to give up their efforts.
Nevertheless, derby-hatted Billy Bell, a diamond drill operator with the Nova Scotia government, refused to surrender. The character who simultaneously chewed tobacco and smoked cigarettes disobeyed orders and forged ahead. He sent a steam whistle down the hole, praying the survivors would hear it. Bell's efforts paid off. At thirty minutes past midnight April 19, the entombed Scadding hammered a jubilant response on the pipe.
Rescuers quickly fed a garden hose through the pipeline, a simple tube which would represent the lifeline of the trapped men. For five days, down the tub went candles, matches, chocolate, brandy and hot soup. MT&T sent down a miniature telephone, designed especially for the survivors. The prisoners now had food, communication and perhaps most important, a reason to believe they might survive.
Inclement weather and rock falls held back rescuers. The unstable Reynolds Shaft had no solid roof. Water licked the rescuers' boots. Time was running out.
Enter C. D. Sampson, mine engineer, who understood only too well the special conditions of the Reynolds Shaft. Like Moose River, his own Drummond Mine "undercoal operation" had no solid roof. And so at midnight April 22, the new crew set to work soon. Grudging admiration displaced grumbled jealousy as the crew advanced more than seven feet on their first shift. Within 15 hours, the Drummond men had claimed an incredible thirty-three and a half feet. Their predecessors had inched forward a mere foot in the same amount of time.
As old rail ties became roof supports, Sampson crawled into an opening to call out a hopeful "hallo!" Sampson heard nothing but those at the surface did. The trapped men had heard Sampson's "hallo." They had made contact. But the ordeal, it seemed, was not ended.
That night, the roof again collapsed. Their 34-hour shift had exhausted the Drummond crew, whose efforts now slowed. With the roof resecured, the Drummond men stepped aside. The Acadia men would make the final rescue.
As the Acadians worked their way down, Frank Willis reported, ". . . can hear the men working, breaking through the rocks to get to the men." Then just after midnight April 23, came Willis' jubilant conclusion, "They have been saved. They are out of the mine. That is all. This is the Canadian Radio Commission."
Exhausted, shaken, and dirty but clearly alive, Robertson and Scadding looked at the sky for the first time in ten days. Sadly, Magill had succumbed to the mine's dampness, dying of pneumonia only three days earlier.
Seven decades later, a park, a stone cairn and a small mining museum mark the site of that long ago ordeal to which more than 100 million listeners tuned in so long ago. In terms of human lives lost, the Moose River cave-in had been a relative non-event. But in terms of historical influence, Willis' hourly updates "jump started" the Canadian radio industry. And his reporting style turned the Moose River disaster into the biggest radio story of the first half of the twentieth century.
Did You Know
You can listen to excerpts from Willis' original radio broadcast at www.broadcasting-history.ca/news/unique/ramfiles/moose/moose.ram
The first scheduled radio program in the world - a Dorothy Lutton concert - was broadcast on May 20, 1920.
In 1923, the Canadian National Railway's radio stations were considered the greatest radio services in the country.
The first hockey program was broadcast February 8, 1923.
In 1997, CBC Radio was the world's first public broadcaster to offer programs live on the Internet (webcasting).
Created by: Shirley Collingridge, Wordsmith
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What is Cancer
Advanced Cancer
About Advanced Cancer
There are many types of cancer and each type develops differently. Some grow slowly, some advance rapidly, and others are unpredictable in their behaviour. Some types respond well to treatment, while other types are more difficult to treat successfully. Advanced cancer is a term commonly used to describe primary cancer that is unlikely to be cured or secondary (metastatic) cancer that is unlikely to be cured.
Primary cancer refers to the first mass of cancer cells (tumour) that have divided and multiplied uncontrolled in an organ or tissue. The tumour is limited to its original site, such as the bowel. This is known as a cancer in-situ, carcinoma in-situ or localised cancer.
Secondary cancer is when malignant tumour cells from the primary cancer site grow and form another malignant tumour at a new site, by moving through the blood or lymphatic system. The abnormal cells divide and multiply and form other masses of abnormal cells (metastases). This is also called metastatic cancer. Secondary cancer can occur if primary cancer is not treated or cannot be treated. Sometimes cancer moves before tests and scans find it.
Advanced cancer usually cannot be cured. However, it can often be treated to slow the growth and ongoing spread of the cancer, sometimes for months or years. Treatment can also help reduce symptoms, such as pain.
Secondary cancer (metastasis) keeps the name of the original, primary cancer. For example, bowel cancer that has spread to the liver is still called metastatic bowel cancer, even though the person may be experiencing symptoms caused by cancer in the liver.
Partners, family members and friends can be good sources of support. For ideas on how to cope with your feelings and communicate with those close to you, see the emotional impact section.
You may experience various symptoms due to the cancer or treatment, such as nausea, fatigue or breathlessness. These may impact on what you can comfortably do for now and your sense of independence. See the managing symptoms section for more information.
If you have questions about dying, see Facing End of Life: A guide for people dying with cancer, their family and friends.
Reviewed By:
Dr Kathy Pope, Radiation Oncologist, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, VIC; Jessica Abbott, Cancer Care Dietitian, Alexandra Hospital, QLD; Frances Bellemore, Clinical Care Nurse, St Vincent’s Hospital, NSW; Gabrielle Gawne-Kelnar, Telephone Support Group Facilitator, Cancer Council NSW; Helpline and Cancer Counselling Service staff, Cancer Council QLD; Di Richardson, Consumer; Dr Mary Brooksbank, Philip Plummer and Claire Maskell Gibson on behalf of Palliative Care Australia.
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Date of Award
Document Type
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Atmospheric Sciences (PhD)
College, School or Department Name
Department of Physics
Claudio Mazzoleni
Atmospheric particles are ubiquitous in Earth’s atmosphere and impact the environment and the climate while affecting human health and Earth’s radiation balance, and degrading visibility. Atmospheric particles directly affect our planet’s radiation budget by scattering and absorbing solar radiation, and indirectly by interacting with clouds. Single particle morphology (shape, size and internal structure) and mixing state (coating by organic and inorganic material) can significantly influence the particle optical properties as well as various microphysical processes, involving cloud-particle interactions and including heterogeneous ice nucleation and water uptake. Conversely, aerosol cloud processing can affect the morphology and mixing of the particles. For example, fresh soot has typically an open fractal-like structure, but aging and cloud processing can restructure soot into more compacted shapes, with different optical and ice nucleation properties.
During my graduate research, I used an array of electron microscopy and image analysis tools to study morphology and mixing state of a large number of individual particles collected during several field and laboratory studies. To this end, I investigated various types of particles such as tar balls (spherical carbonaceous particles emitted during biomass burning) and dust particles, but with a special emphasis on soot particles. In addition, I used the Stony Brook ice nucleation cell facility to investigate heterogeneous ice nucleation and water uptake by long-range transported particles collected at the Pico Mountain Observatory, in the Archipelago of the Azores. Finally, I used ice nucleation data from the SAAS (Soot Aerosol Aging Study) chamber study at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to understand the effects that ice nucleation and supercooled water processing has on the morphology of residual soot particles. Some highlights of our findings and implications are discussed next.
We found that the morphology of fresh soot emitted by vehicles depends on the driving conditions (i.e.; the vehicle specific power). Soot emitted by biomass burning is often heavily coated by other materials while processing of soot in urban environment exhibits complex mixing. We also found that long-range transported soot over the ocean after atmospheric processing is very compacted. In addition, our results suggest that freezing process can facilitate restructuring of soot and results into collapsed soot. Furthermore, numerical simulations showed strong influence on optical properties when fresh open fractal-like soot evolved to collapsed soot. Further investigation of longrange transported aged particles exhibits that they are efficient in water uptake and can induce ice nucleation in colder temperature
Our results have implications for assessing the impact of the morphology and mixing state of soot particles on human health, environment and climate. Our findings can provide guidance to numerical models such as particle-resolved mixing state models to account for, and better understand, vehicular emissions and soot evolution since its emission to atmospheric processing in urban environment and finally in remote regions after long-range transport. Morphology and mixing state information can be used to model observational-constrained optical properties. The details of morphology and mixing state of soot particles are crucial to assess the accuracy of climate models in describing the contribution of soot radiative forcing and their direct and indirect climate effects. Finally, our observations of ice nucleation ability by aged particles show that nucleated particles are internally mixed and coated with several materials.
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Camping Hygiene
Updated on February 4, 2010
When camping, please remember several aspects of campsite hygiene. These are important in order to keep all campers (now and after you've gone back home) healthy and safe.
Food Preparation And Cleanup
When you are preparing food, you should take care to use clean utensils and dishes. You need to use clean water for cooking and for doing dishes after. While it may be tempting to not wash dishes thoroughly, you will want to be sure all the germs and dirt are gone so the dishes are ready for their next use.
How can you wash dishes? Should you take them to a nearby stream and wash them there? No! Please don't! The soaps or detergents you would use to wash off the dishes shouldn't be let into the stream, and the food particles shouldn't either. Try washing in a plastic tub with water you've heated over the campfire or camp stove at your campsite.
Lincoln Farm Park Toilet Block
Lincoln Farm Park Toilet Block
If you're camping at an established campsite in the uk, there will probably be camp toilets set up. They may be port-a-potties or outhouse type. Hopefully they'll have a biodegradable system set up so that they can be creating compost or fertiliser as they are used, like the toilets below the rim of the Grand Canyon, at those rest stops and rest houses.
If you are truly in the wild with no set up toilets, be careful where you dispose of your waste. You can take along a small shovel to bury your waste, and a plastic bag to collect any toilet paper or anything else you need to throw away later. Toilet paper takes a while to decompose, so you shouldn't just bury it. It will attract animals by the scent, for one thing.
Cleaning The Body
If you're only camping a day or so, you will probably get along alright without a shower. You can have a shower before you go camping, and another when you get home. In between, just enjoy the dirt.
Your hands are another story. You can use soap and water to clean them as needed. If soap and water aren't convenient, use a hand sanitizer to eliminate germs easily.
Cleaning The Campsite
Once your camping trip is finished, you will need to practice good campsite hygiene by cleaning up your campsite. Remember the scout motto of "Leave No Trace"‚ and make your campsite look as if you were never there. Take all your trash away with you, and make sure any fire you had burning is totally out before you leave it alone.
Enjoy your camping experience, and practice good campsite hygiene!
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Day 5: Mostly A Day for Research (but a little bit of lab grading)
August 30, 2015
I don’t have classes on Friday this semester. I spent most of the day doing research (learning how to do exploratory factor analysis on some survey data).
Teaching-wise, I started grading lab books. Here is a photo of one students’ lab book fro the buggy lab to offer a feel for the kind of work they are expected to turn in. Keep in mind, these are lab books (not lab reports).
Lab Book
There are also 4-6 summarizing at the end. This lab had following questions:
1. How can you decide by looking at your position vs. time graph whether or not the buggy moved at (roughly) a constant speed or not?
2. What value for the buggy’s speed did you get using your “quick and easy” method? How did this compare to the slope of the mathematical rule you determined?
3. Write down the mathematical rule you determined for the buggy’s motion.
1. What would be different if the buggy had moved faster?
2. What would be different if the buggy had started at a different location?
3. What would be different if the buggy had moved in the opposite direction?
4. What did you learn today that might help you address the challenge lab?
Most groups were able to make good connections between slope and speed, intercept and initial position, and the sign of the slope with direction. Based on the lab books, one group, however, did struggle to make those connections.
Today, I have spent some of the day prepping for our next meeting. Students will have read over the weekend two sections from the text that will build on the buggy lab: a section on position vs time graphs and a section on uniform motion. We will also return to class next week with some clicker questions to review these ideas.
Then students will revisit motion detectors to make graphs. [Last time we just used them to make motion diagrams.] This lab exploration starts off just qualitative, with students making predictions and observations as well as doing some graph matching; but it transitions to quantitative stuff with students re-applying what they learned about linear fits (in Logger Pro) last week to extract velocity information. The last task of the lab exploration has them re-measure the speed of their buggy using this new technique.
Then we will have our first day of collaborative problem-solving.
The plan for problem-solving is
1. Staged Problem-solving: We are following Knight’s break-down for problem-solving into “Prepare, Solve, Assess”. So students will be given a problem, and groups will first be asked just to prepare on whiteboard. Preparing at this point involves making pictures, collecting important information, and doing preliminary calculations. A little bit of discussion to highlight different aspects of students’ work. Before beginning the problem, we will ask students to make guesstimate for, “Best Guess, Definitely too Long”. Then they will solve the problem. Discussion similar as needed. Then they will be asked to assess in variety of ways, including checking against their guesstimate, making sure they have actually answered the question, checking units.
2. Un-staged Problem-solving: Students have to do each of the steps, prepare, solve, assess, but we won’t pause to discus between each.
Both problems are two-body uniform motion that don’t involve simultaneous system of equation. For example, one has two cars traveling the same trip, one traveling faster but leaving leaving at an early time. Question is who will finish first and how long will they have to wait for the other to arrive? Students will be required as part of “solve” to make a position vs time graph. Groups who finish solving early will be asked to solve for other aspects, including when and where did they pass each other.
If we have time, I want students to use their skills to solve a real buggy collision problem. Since in the lab exploration, they already got the speed of their buggy again, this may be doable time-wise. I’d like to do this so they can use their skill to actually predict something, but it also rehearses something like our “Challenge Lab”.
3 Comments leave one →
1. September 10, 2015 6:53 pm
I’m curious about the BFL for the lab book you showed. I would be tempted to ensure the line goes through the y-intercept at 200 cm because (I assume) we know with very high certainty that at t=0s x=200 cm. But does the line represent our uncertainty and variability in measurements or the uncertainty and variability in the model? If the answer is the latter, then I see why the line doesn’t have to go through x=200cm. And obviously if the data was analyzed using linear regression, the line wouldn’t go through x=200cm
• September 10, 2015 9:06 pm
It’s logger pro. With students we talked about why their intercepts were always less than the actual starting place. We realized this means that they are probably always hitting the stopwatch AFTER the buggy reaches the location. Does that make sense?
• September 11, 2015 10:10 pm
That’s interesting, I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks.
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